2020 Archives - Iran News Daily

US Human Rights ‘Deteriorated’ in 2020

mahla — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 07:40:08 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – The report lists 15 human rights areas of concern in the US, including unlawful killings of civilians, LGBTQ rights and the right to peaceful assembly.

“Our history is built on our Bill of Rights and the First Amendment … that guarantees the right to peaceful assembly, free speech and free expression”, Joanne Lin, Amnesty’s national advocacy director, told Al-Jazeera.

“But as we have seen in our own country, those rights can be placed in great peril and are often under tremendous assault, especially during times of crisis,” Lin added.

The report says the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused lockdowns – resulting in widespread job loss – and an “[i]nadequate and uneven government responses” that had a “disproportionate and discriminatory impact on many people based on their race, socioeconomic situations and other characteristics”.

The pandemic also hit those incarcerated in the US, who are disproportionately people of colour, “due to insanitary conditions in prisons and detention where they were unable to adequately physically distance and had inadequate access to hygienic supplies”.

Numerous prisons and jails across the US experienced serious outbreaks.

Some lessened their populations to create space for incarcerated people through early release programmes at the beginning of the pandemic, such as the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County, California. These appeared to result in lower COVID-19 cases.

Still, systemic issues continued, and many jails and prisons slowed their inmate release programmes, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

As recently as January, a city jail in St Louis, Missouri housed a COVID-positive pretrial detainee for 14 days before authorities were informed, according to documents obtained by Al-Jazeera.

The report focuses on 2020, the last year of Trump’s term of office. The report says the “Trump administration’s broadly dismal human rights record, both at home and abroad, deteriorated further during 2020”.

Amnesty notes that at least 1,000 people were killed by police firearms and that publicly available data suggests the killings disproportionately affect Black people.

Further, law enforcement committed “widespread and egregious human rights violations against people protesting about the unlawful killings of Black people and calling for police reform” during the summer uprisings.

Amnesty “documented 125 separate incidents of unlawful police violence against protesters in 40 states and Washington, DC, between May 26 and June 5 alone”, the report adds.

Members of the LGBTQ community also faced continued difficulties in the US, according to data released that year.

“Hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity remained high in 2019 for a fifth consecutive year. Trans women of colour were especially targeted for violent hate crimes and killings”, the report says, citing the released data.

The challenges were made worse by the Trump administration’s use of “courts to continue to dismantle protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in education, the military, employment and other areas of federal government”, the report claims.

The administration of President Joe Biden has taken steps to dismantle these moves.

Biden reversed a Trump order barring most trans people from serving in the military on January 25.

The Pentagon announced last week that it will set new rules regarding trans servicemembers, ending the Trump-era restrictions.

Biden won November polls on a centrist platform, promising to undo most of Trump’s policies, including those seen as threats to the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants.

Trump instituted a hard-line migration policy that faced near-constant criticism from rights groups and his political adversaries. The practice of detaining migrant children in “cages” drew particular ire.

Biden has faced criticism for what some view as a similar practice along the US-Mexico border. Facilities for unaccompanied migrant children that were criticised by Democrats under Trump are now reopening amid a surge in migration, as the Biden administration begins processing their claims for asylum.

“One of the hallmarks is how the government treats migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and people in search of humanitarian protection,” Lin stated.

While the US has “started to process the claims of unaccompanied children seeking protection at the border, the Biden administration still is made very clear that the border is closed to adults who are in search of asylum and humanitarian protection. And that is terribly problematic”, she continued.

Lin noted that keeping the border closed “violates US obligations under the Refugee Convention” and its “commitment to providing due process and a fair day in court”, which are guaranteed by the US Constitution.

“So, the current administration has sought to undo some of the damage from the prior administration, but there’s still so much more that they need to do”, Lin concluded.

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Tajikistan Presidential Election Begins

reporter 1222 — Sun, 11 Oct 2020 09:21:30 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Tajikistan presidential election begun on Sunday, with five candidates, including incumbent President Emomali Rahmon, running for the post.

According to the central commission for elections and referendums, there are 68 electoral districts across Tajikistan, with 3,375 polling stations within the country and 39 set up abroad.

A total of 4.9 million voters have been registered. Polling stations in Tajikistan open from 6:00 to 20:00 local time (0100 to 1500 GMT) on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all sanitary and epidemiological standards will be observed, and voters have to wear masks, check temperature and keep social distancing at polling stations.

In addition to Rahmon, four other candidates are Miroj Abdulloev from the Communist Party of Tajikistan, Rustam Latisana from the Agrarian Party, Abduhalim Gafforov from the Socialist Party, and Rustam Rahmatzoda from the Economic Reforms Party.

According to the Tajik laws, the election will be declared valid if more than 50 percent registered voters cast their ballots. The winner should garner more than half of the vote.

The Tajikistan presidential election process is monitored by 145 international observers from international organizations including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Commonwealth of Independent States. In addition, 267 representatives of local and foreign media cover the election process, the central commission said.

Preliminary results will be announced within 24 hours after the voting is over, and the final results will be announced no later than two weeks after the end of the election.

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Maestro Tjeknavorian Wins Special Books for Peace Award 2020

reporter 1222 — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 06:16:10 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian-Armenian composer and conductor Loris Tjeknavorian has been announced the winner of the Special Books for Peace Award 2020.

The 2020 Commission Books for Peace selected Tjeknavorian as the winner with a majority of the votes, IRNA reported.

The Iranian maestro will receive the prize in a ceremony on September 12.

Tjeknavorian had been nominated as Iran’s candidate for the award by Iran’s International Art for Peace Festival (IRAN A.F.P.F). IRAN A.F.P.F was announced to be among the winners of the Special Books for Peace Award 2019 for its efforts to promote the culture of peace ahead of its seventh edition (held on September 21, 2019).

Tjeknavorian was awarded an ‘Art for Peace’ insignia by IRAN A.F.P.F in 2019.

The Iranian-Armenian maestro has an international reputation. In 2004, he held two concerts in France to collect aid for people in the earthquake-stricken city of Bam in central Iran. In recent years, he has also staged concerts in Iran and the US in support of Iranian children suffering from cancer.

The Commission Books for Peace assigned the responsibility of selecting Iran’s candidate for its Special Books for Peace Award 2020 to IRAN A.F.P.F.

Headquartered in the Italian capital of Rome, the Commission Books for Peace is a partner of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It comprises a number of non-governmental organizations which cooperate with UNESCO. Since 2017, it has begun offering an annual prize titled ‘Special Books for Peace Award’ in memory of the Mexican journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas (1967-2017) who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Mexico. He used to fight drug smuggling.

The Special Books for Peace Award is presented to those individuals and groups that help promote the culture of peace and carry out humanitarian activities.

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$1 trillion of New Corporate Debt Recorded in 2020

reporter 1222 — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 05:48:37 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Companies around the world will take on as much as $1 trillion of new debt in 2020, as they try to shore up their finances against the coronavirus, a new study of 900 top firms has estimated.

The unprecedented increase will see total global corporate debt jump by 12 percent to around $9.3 trillion, adding to years of accumulation that has left the world’s most indebted firms owing as much as many medium-sized countries, Reuters reported.

Last year also saw a sharp eight percent rise, driven by mergers and acquisitions, and by firms borrowing to fund share buybacks and dividends. But this year’s jump will be for an entirely different reason —preservation as the virus saps profits.

“COVID has changed everything,” said Seth Meyer, a portfolio manager at Janus Henderson, the firm that compiled the analysis for a new corporate debt index. “Now it is about conserving capital and building a fortified balance sheet”.

Companies tapped bond markets for $384 billion between January and May, and Meyer estimates that recent weeks have set a new record for debt issuance from riskier “high yield” firms with lower credit ratings.

Lending markets had slammed shut for all but the most trusted firms in March, but have been opened up wide again by emergency corporate debt buying programs from central banks like the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan.

Companies included in the new debt index already owe almost 40 percent more than they did in 2014, and growth in debt has comfortably outstripped growth in profits.

Pre-tax profits for the same group of 900 companies have risen a collective 9.1 percent to $2.3 trillion. Gearing, a measure of debt relative to shareholder finance, hit a record 59 percent in 2019, while the proportion of profit devoted to servicing interest payments also rose to a new high.

US companies owe almost half of the world’s corporate debt at $3.9 trillion and have seen the fastest increase in the last five years of any major economy with the exception of Switzerland where there has been a wave of major M&A deals.

Germany comes in at number two at $762 billion. It also has three of the world’s most indebted firms including the most indebted, Volkswagen, which with $192 billion of debt is not far behind countries like South Africa or Hungary, though it is inflated by its car finance arm.

In contrast, a quarter of the companies in the new index have no debt at all, and some have vast cash reserves. The biggest of these stands at $104 billion and belongs to Google’s owner Alphabet.

Meyer said credit markets still had some way to go to get back to pre-COVID conditions and the ongoing threat of the virus, especially the recent surge in US cases, remained investors’ central concern.

“It is all a recipe for a more challenging outlook than we thought two months ago,” he said.

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China decides not to set GDP target for 2020 due to pandemic

reporter 1222 — Sat, 23 May 2020 04:33:51 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – China made a rare decision not to set a target for its GDP for 2020 due to uncertainties about the impact of the coronavirus.

“I would like to point out that we have not set a specific target for economic growth this year,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in an English-language text of the work report delivered on Friday, cnbc.com reported.

“This is because our country will face some factors that are difficult to predict in its development due to the great uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the world economic and trade environment,” Li said.

The remarks are part of China’s annual parliamentary meeting, which was delayed by about two months this year due to the coronavirus outbreak that began in China last year and has since spread globally.

As a result, some analysts expected ahead of the report that Li might share a GDP target for a timeframe other than 2020 itself. Last year, GDP expanded by 6.1%, just making the official target range of 6% to 6.5%.

“The fact that they dropped the GDP growth target is a good thing if it means that they really intend to let sustainable demand – consumption, exports, and private sector investment – drive growth,” Michael Pettis, professor of finance at Peking University, said Friday in an email.

“If they have only dropped it temporarily while they try to figure the full impact of the pandemic, and later select an implicit target that relies heavily on non-productive spending on infrastructure and real estate, then this really doesn’t change anything,” Pettis said.

China’s economy contracted by 6.8% in the first quarter, while unemployment has stayed near historic highs. Although data have shown some recovery in April, officials have publicly aired concerns about a drag on growth from the coronavirus’ spread overseas.

Economists have cut their growth forecasts for the official GDP – a figure that many economists often doubt. In late March, Beijing-based China International Capital Corporation (CICC) notably lowered its real GDP growth estimate to 2.6%, down from 6.1% previously.

Employment remains a top priority

While China did not set a GDP target for the year, authorities still laid out some specific numbers for items such as employment and inflation.

Li stressed that ensuring people have jobs will remain a priority, as it was last year. Beijing will target an unemployment rate of 6%, as measured by the official urban survey, Li said.

That’s up from last year’s goal of 5.5%. The number of new jobs promised, “over nine million,” was fewer than the 11 million targeted last year.

The consumer price index target was set at around 3.5%.

COVID-19 emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and has killed more than 4,600 people in the country. The outbreak has since become a global pandemic, infecting more than five million people and killing more than 330,000 people worldwide.

The world’s second-largest economy has been the first to impose – and emerge from – government lockdowns on businesses and social gatherings. The outbreak stalled domestically by early March, and by the end of April, most businesses that survived the lockdown had resumed work, although not necessarily at the same level of operations prior to the pandemic.

China to issue more debt

During Friday’s opening ceremony of the NPC, Li laid out a plan for a moderate increase in government support for the economy.

He also said the fiscal deficit will increase from last year by one trillion yuan ($142.86 billion), for a deficit-to-GDP ratio of more than 3.6%.

“On top of this, one trillion yuan of government bonds for COVID-19 control will also be issued,” Li said, calling them “extraordinary measures for an unusual time.”

Special local government bonds for project development will also increase by 1.6 trillion yuan over last year, for a total issuance of 3.75 trillion yuan, Li said.

China will step up the construction of new types of infrastructure that will help expand the reach of 5G and electric car charging facilities, Li said. The country will also boost efforts for water conservancy, and increase national railway development capital by 100 billion yuan

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2020 IFCPF Cup Postponed

reporter 1222 — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 11:31:08 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – The 2020 International Federation of Cerebral Palsy Football (IFCPF) Nations Cup has been postponed due to coronavirus concerns.

The competition was originally scheduled to take place in Olbia, Italy but new dates for the event are October 15-25, 2020, with the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) and location remain unchanged.

Iran was preparing for the competition as the Asia-Oceania member.

The virus, known as COVID-19, originated in Wuhan, China, late last year and quickly spread across the globe.

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Tokyo 2020 Games motto: ‘United by Emotion’

reporter 1222 — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 07:01:32 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games organizers on Monday rolled out the motto for this year’s Olympics, “United by Emotion”, which they said reflected the “universal values” and “unifying power of sport.”

“Crowds of spectators who do not know each other prior to the Games will come together and learn that there is more that unites them than divides them,” Tokyo 2020 said as it unveiled the motto, AFP reported.

The official 2020 Olympic motto is “Citius, Altius, Fortius” or “Faster, Higher, Stronger”, but each host city chooses its own motto to accompany that edition of the Games.

London’s motto in 2012 was “Inspire a Generation”, whereas Athens in 2004 went for “Welcome Home” – a nod to the birthplace of the Games in Olympia.

Less well-received was Sochi, which plumped for “Hot. Cool. Yours”, sparking derision in some quarters.

Tokyo said the motto would be beamed onto the Skytree tower in the Japanese capital to raise awareness as it will be seen for miles around.

The opening ceremony will be on July 24 and organizers have stressed there is no discussion about changing this date despite the coronavirus crisis hitting global transport.

Tokyo 2020 rollouts have not always been smooth. In September 2015, the Games logo was ditched after accusations of plagiarism.

Designer Olivier Debie said the design was stolen from his logo for a Belgian theater and threatened court action before officials withdrew the emblem, saying it “no longer has public support.”

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Hong Kong Protestors on New Year Eve Pledge to ‘Keep Fighting’

reporter 1222 — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 09:40:57 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Anti-government protesters began marching in Hong Kong on New Year, demanding concessions from the city’s embattled government as the civil unrest that convulsed the Chinese-ruled city for over half a year spills into 2020.

Gathering on a grass lawn in Victoria Park under grey skies, Hong Kong citizens young and old, many dressed in black and some masked carried signs such as “Freedom is not free” before the beginning of New Year.

“It’s hard to utter ‘Happy New Year’ because Hong Kong people are not happy,” said a man named Tung, who was walking with his two-year-old son, mother, and niece.

“Unless the five demands are achieved, and police are held accountable for their brutality, then we can’t have a real happy new year,” he added, referring to the push for concessions from the government including full democracy, an amnesty for the over 6,500 people arrested so far, and a powerful, independent investigation into police actions.

The pro-democracy march is being organized by the Civil Human Rights Front, a group that arranged a number of marches last year that drew millions.

Along the route, a number of newly elected pro-democracy district politicians mingled with the crowds on their first day in office, some help collect donations to assist the movement.

“The government has already started the oppression before the New Year began … Whoever is being oppressed, we will stand with them,” said Jimmy Sham, one of the leaders of the Civil Human Rights Front.

Thousands of Hong Kong revelers had earlier welcomed in New Year, 2020, on neon-lit promenades along the iconic skyline of Victoria Harbor, chanting the movement’s signature eight-word Chinese protest couplet — “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our Time.” — For the final eight seconds before clocks struck midnight.

A sea of protesters then surged down Nathan Road, a major boulevard, blocking all lanes in a spontaneous march breaking out within minutes of the new decade. Some held signs reading “Let’s keep fighting together in 2020.”

Overnight, police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons during some brief standoffs.

China’s President Xi Jinping said in a New Year’s speech that Beijing will “resolutely safeguard the prosperity and stability” of Hong Kong under the so-called “one country, two systems” framework.

Many people in Hong Kong are angered by Beijing’s tight grip on the city which was promised a high degree of autonomy under this framework when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Beijing denies interference and blames the West for fomenting the unrest.

A group of 40 parliamentarians and dignitaries from 18 countries had written an open letter to Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on New Year Eve, urging her to “seek genuine ways forward out of this crisis by addressing the grievances of Hong Kong people.”

The protest movement is supported by 59% of the city’s residents polled in a survey conducted for Reuters by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute.

Demonstrations have grown increasingly violent in recent months, at times paralyzing the Asian financial center.

Protesters have thrown petrol bombs and rocks, with police responding with tear gas, water cannon, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and occasional live rounds. There have been several injuries.

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Chinese President Xi calls for Hong Kong stability in New Year

reporter 1222 — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 06:38:21 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Chinese President Xi Jinping called for Hong Kong to return to stability following months of pro-democracy protests.

In a New Year’s address Tuesday evening, Chinese President, Xi said a peaceful, harmonious environment was key to the Asian financial hub’s prosperity, AP reported.

“Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability is the wish of Hong Kong compatriots and the expectation for the people of the motherland,” Xi said in the televised address.

The protests broke out in June over proposed legislation that could have extradited suspects in Hong Kong to face trials in mainland China.

The bill has been withdrawn, but the movement has snowballed into wider calls to protect the city’s freedoms.

Though the legislation was withdrawn, the protests have snowballed into wider calls to protect the city’s freedoms.

The often violent disturbances have sent Hong Kong’s economy into recession and tarnished the city’s reputation as one of the world’s safest.

The former British colony was handed over to Chinese rule in 1997 with a promise it could retain its own capitalist economy, legal system and civil liberties, although many see those as eroding as Beijing tightens its grip.

Xi also reiterated China’s rigid opposition to independence for Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing regards as its own territory.

In his speech, Xi dwelt heavily on economic topics, saying that China’s gross domestic product in 2019 was on track to near 100 trillion yuan ($14.37 trillion), while per capita GDP was likely to reach $10,000.

The coming year will be decisive in China’s battle to alleviate poverty for rural residents, Xi said. In 2019, around 10 million people were lifted out of poverty, he said.

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Pope on Christmas: Don’t let church failings take God’s love away

reporter 1222 — Wed, 25 Dec 2019 09:37:35 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Pope Francis on Christmas eve has urged the world’s Catholics not to let the Church’s failings lead them away from “God’s love,” as the Catholic Church is plagued by sexual abuse and financial irregularities across the world.

Addressing thousands of people during Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, the Pope said, “God continues to love us all, even the worst of us.”

“You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things, but the Lord continues to love you. How often do we think that God is good if we are good and punishes us if we are bad! Yet, that is not how he is,” said the Argentine pontiff, Catholics Pope on Christmas eve.

“God does not love you because you think and act the right way. He loves you, plain and simple. His love is unconditional; it does not depend on you,” he added.

The Catholic Church has faced a series of child sexual abuse accusations across the world in the past few decades.

Without directly mentioning the crisis, Francis said that “whatever goes wrong in our lives, whatever doesn’t work in the Church, whatever problems there are in the world, will no longer serve as an excuse.”

In a most recent case, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, Cardinal George Pell was convicted of abusing two choir boys in Melbourne in 1996.

Francis himself has previously faced accusations of not responding effectively to the Church’s sex-abuse crisis. Last year, he was accused of wrongdoing by rehabilitating a top official who had abused his authority.

In an attempt to confront the abuses, the Pope last Tuesday abolished the rule of “pontifical secrecy” in sex abuse investigations.

The rule allowed some Church officials to hide behind it instead of cooperating with authorities over child abuse accusations.

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