South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Police stop Polish protest of abortion bans, police force
WARSAW, Poland — Police blocked protesters from marching in Poland’s capital as demonstrations took place across the country against an attempt to restrict abortion rights and recent police violence.
Police and protesters played a game of cat and mouse in Warsaw as officers set up cordons which the protesters sought to evade, pushing them to try to regroup elsewhere in the city center.
At one point, protest participants gathered on a major thoroughfare, causing traffic to back up. As drivers honked, the protesters shouted: “We are sorry for the inconvenience, we have a government to overthrow.”
Police issued warnings that the demonstration was illegal because it had not been registered ahead of time. It also violated a pandemic-related ban on large gatherings.
“We have a right to protest,” participants chanted.
Officers at one point used tear gas against an opposition lawmaker, Barbara Nowacka, who had been intervening “in defense of peacefully protesting women,” Borys Budka, the head of Poland’s centrist Civic Platform party, said.
Protesters in the capital began their demonstration by symbolically “renaming” a downtown square to Women’s Rights Roundabout. An activist climbed onto a ladder placed upon a van to hang a new street sign over the official one reading Roman Dmowski Roundabout.
Women’s rights activists want authorities to formally approve the name change. They say it would honor a movement for equality rather than Dmowski, a statesman who had a key role in helping Poland regain national independence in 1918, but whowas also an anti-Semite.
Protests in Krakow, Gdansk and other cities Saturday were organized to celebrate Polish women gaining the right to vote 102 years ago. The events were planned under the slogan, “In the name of mother, daughter, sister.”
Zappos founder dies:
Tony Hsieh, the retired CEO of Las Vegas-based online shoe retailer Zappos.com, who spent years working to transform the city’s downtown area, has died. Hewas 46.
Hsieh was with family when he died Friday, according to DTP Companies, which he founded. He died of injuries suffered in a Nov.
18 fire in New London, Connecticut, Downtown Partnership spokesperson Megan Fazio told Hearst Connecticut Media.
Hsieh recently retired from Zappos after 20 years leading the company. The online shoe retailer shared a tribute on social media late Friday.
“The world has lost a tremendous visionary and an incredible human being ,” the statement said. “His spirit will forever be a part of Zappos.”
Hsieh was a Harvard University graduate who joined the company — then called ShoeSite.com — in
1999. Zappos was sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion in
2009, but Hsieh had remained with the company until his retirement.
Ex-Trump aide sues: A former Trump campaign associate who was the target of a secret surveillance warrant during the FBI’s Russia investigation says in a federal lawsuit that hewas the victim of “unlawful spying.”
The suit from Carter Page alleges a series of omissions and errors made by FBI and Justice Department officials in applications they submitted in 2016 and 2017 to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to eavesdrop on Page on suspicion that he was an agent of Russia.
“Since not a single proven fact ever established complicity with Russia involving Dr. Page, there never was probable cause to seek or obtain the FISA Warrants targeting him on this basis,” the lawsuit says, using the acronym for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The complaint largely echoes findings from a Justice Department inspector general report that found significant problems with the four applications. Former FBI and Justice Department leaders who were involved in signing off on the secretive surveillance have since testified they wouldn’t have done so had they known of the extent of the issues, and the FBI has initiated more than 40 corrective steps aimed at improving the accuracy and thoroughness of applications to the court.
French protest law: Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across France on Saturday to protest a security bill that would restrict sharing images of police officers and strengthen government surveillance tools, the latest sign that anger over recent cases of police violence is galvanizing opposition.
Media organizations and human rights groups held rallies in dozens of cities including Paris, Bordeaux and Lyon. All raised alarm about the new bill, saying it could curb freedom of the press and limit police accountability.
Tensions in France have been rising over President Emmanuel Macron’s broader security policies, which opponents say increasingly restrict civil liberties. The frictions have grown in part in the wake of a string of Islamist terrorist attacks over the past few months.
Many of the demonstrators consider the new security bill a drift toward repression in government policy and further evidence of the government’s slide to the right.
India’s farmers rise up:
Thousands of farmers in and around the Indian capital on Saturday pressed on with their protest against agricultural legislation they said could devastate crop prices, while the government sought talks with their leaders.
Some protesters burned an effigy of Prime Minister Modi and shouted “Down with Modi” as they rallied on New Delhi’s border with Haryana state.
The protesting farmers were allowed to enter New Delhi late Friday after a day of clashes with police, who used tear gas, water cannons and baton charges to push them back.
Television images showed some of them moving into the capital while thousands still remained at the outskirts of the city. The Press Trust of India news agency said more protesters were heading forNewDelhi from northern Punjab state.
Egypt leader visits S. Sudan:
In the first visit by an Egyptian president to South Sudan, President AbdelFattah el-Sissi said he and President Salva Kiir discussed regional security and the usage of Nile waters, but he didn’t mention the country currently at the heart of either issue, Ethiopia.
The statement after Saturday’s meeting made no mention of the deadly conflict inside neighboring Ethiopia, which is also in a dispute with Egypt over a massive dam that Addis Ababa is nearing completion on the BlueNile.
El-Sissi in the statement said he and Kiir discussed maximizing the usage of Nile waters, which he said should be a source of hope and national development.