https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/13/americas/bolivia-political-unrest-intl-hnk/index.html
2019-11-13 08:10:00Z
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CNN's Natalie Gallon, Tatiana Arias and Julia Jones contributed to this report
Venice was hit by the highest tide in more than 50 years late on Tuesday, with tourists wading through flooded streets to seek shelter as a fierce wind whipped up waves in St Mark's Square.
The exceptionally intense "acqua alta," or high waters, peaked at 1.87 metres (six feet) as the flood alarm sounded across Italy's iconic city of canals, the tide monitoring centre said.
"We're currently facing an exceptionally high tide. Everyone has been mobilised to cope with the emergency," Venice's mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted.
Only once since records began in 1923 has the water crept even higher, reaching 1.94m (6.3 feet) in 1966.
As emergency services took to the canals to survey the damage, Italian media reported that a 78-year old man had been electrocuted as the waters poured into his home.
The coast guard laid on extra boats to serve as water ambulances.
Tables and chairs set out for aperitifs bobbed along alleyways in the dark, as locals and tourists alike waded through the streets, the water slopping over the top of even the highest boots.
Water taxis attempting to drop people off at the glamorous and historic hotels along the Grand Canal discovered the gangways had been washed away and had to help passengers clamber through windows.
"It will be a long night," Brugnaro tweeted, saying that as the water level began to drop again "the fears of a few hours ago are now being replaced by an assessment of the damage done".
He said he would declare a state of disaster for the city.
A seagull in a flooded St Mark's Square, in Venice on Tuesday. The high tide or 'acqua alta' peaked at 187cm (6.1 inches). [Luca Bruno/AP Photo]
The exceptional flood, which he blamed on climate change, was "a wound that will leave a permanent mark".
At the sumptuous Gritti Palace, which has played host to royals and celebrities over the decades, including Ernest Hemingway, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the decadent bar was largely under water.
Rich tapestries were piled onto tables, while the waters lapped around velvet sofas and leather-bound books.
👉 Stiamo affrondando una marea più che eccezionale.
— Luigi Brugnaro (@LuigiBrugnaro) November 12, 2019
⚠ Tutti mobilitati per gestire l'emergenza: #PoliziaLocale, @infprefve, #ProtezioneCivile del @comunevenezia, @vvfveneto e tutte le forze dell'ordine, insieme per #Venezia pic.twitter.com/3HdZt2WwfN
Since 2003, an enormous project to build 78 floating gates to protect Venice's lagoon during high tides has been under development, but it has been plagued by cost overruns, scandals and delays.
St Mark's Square is particularly affected by the high tides, as it is located in one of the lowest parts of the city.
The vestibule of the basilica was inundated with water, and authorities planned to watch the building overnight.
Pierpaolo Campostrini, a member of St Mark's council, said the scale of the flooding on Tuesday had only been seen five times in the long history of the basilica, where construction began in 828 and which was rebuilt after a fire in 1063.
Most worryingly, Campostrini said, three of those five episodes occurred in the last 20 years, most recently in 2018.
The cultural ministry said it would help fund improvements to the basilica's flood defences.
CNN's Gianluca Mezzofiore, Laura Perez Maestro and Livia Borghese contributed to this report.
(Reuters) - Quotes from people in Hong Kong’s central and financial districts and East Kowloon on Wednesday after days of protests and violence that have caused widespread disruption in many parts of the territory.
Anti-government protesters gather at the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus in Hong Kong, China, November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
They declined to give their full names owing to the sensitivity of talking about the protests.
WAI-CHUNG, 57, CONSTRUCTION WORKER:
“The government is a big machine and needs time. We know that parts of the machine are not working, but you need to allow it time to fix itself. People already told the government the machine is not working.”
He had a meeting scheduled in the financial district, but it was canceled owing to the disruption to the transport system.
“What they call the five demands are not achievable. There’s no room for bargaining,” he said, mentioning that he attended protests in June but no longer supports the protesters.
“For some people trying to make a change, they’ve stepped up their actions. It’s not acceptable to most people. They have freedoms to express their views but if they take the actions, they should take responsibility for the damages and consequences.”
“I’m not saying all the violence is right, but the values they are striving for are always right,” said Liu, who wore a turquoise face mask, referring to the protesters.
“Because the roots have not yet been solved, the government has not replied to the demands, people have escalated the violence to get the government’s attention,” said Liu, who has attended lunch-time rallies over the past two days.
“The biggest problem is setting up the independent investigation to investigate police violence. As long as the government doesn’t reply to the demands, the violence will go on and keep escalating.”
He sees two ways forward:
“The government will use extreme situations to stop the violence, like not letting people go out at night. But I think that will be slim because it’s too extreme and will be condemned by western countries. Hong Kong is still an international city.... Or the government will surrender”
“I have been crying watching the footage at the universities.”
“We are hopeless and helpless in Hong Kong now. The British did not give us democracy, but we did have our freedoms. We need help from the rest of the world.”
“Hong Kong belongs to China, these people don’t need to be scared. Did you see what happened at the university last night, I have a lot of friends who are leaving Hong Kong to move back to Shenzhen, the mainland, to get away from everything crazy that is happening here,” said Panda, who is from mainland Chinese and has lived in Hong Kong for seven years.
“It hurts, really hurts. It’s not just hurting Hong Kong’s economy, but also tearing every Hong Konger’s heart apart. This is going to leave us a lifelong scar and time won’t take that away.”
“It is very painful to watch my city turn into this. Look at everyone around, how angry they are. There are many children inside the station, do you see anybody shouting at them? They are shouting at MTR (staff). Everyone is very tense, nobody is rational anymore. But when you see traffic police shooting at students how can you be reasonable? I want the world to know that Carrie Lam has destroyed this city and Hong Kong police are acting like Chinese police,” said Alexandra, dressed in a long, wavy black skirt and a white shirt and wearing a surgical mask.
“I grew up here. I’ve been working for almost 20 years for the same company. I never missed a day of work. This is the second time this week. I have two children, they can’t go to school. I always worry about (the children) being arrested. I don’t participate in the protests, I am too old for that. But you see on TV, police beating up children, Hong Kong’s children. Is that reasonable? What is wrong with what they are demanding? We all want to return to normal, but how can the government do that if they don’t listen to what Hong Kongers have been asking for. It’s been five months already and they still don’t care.”
“My destination is Mong Kok. Even if I get there, it’s the tear gas capital of the world. Will I be able to get back? My husband is always working from home when this happens, but I’m a receptionist. I can’t be a receptionist from home, can I?”
“There’s three of us taking turns, but the other two live close by. I’m worried about my job. They know it’s not my fault but at the end of the day my colleagues can’t cover for me forever. Do I blame anyone? I blame the MTR. The government is trying to turn Hong Kongers against the students and all the protesters. But if they just listened to the protesters none of this would happen.”
Reporting by Sarah Wu, Scott Murdoch and Marius Zaharia; Compiled by Neil Fullick:
U.S. military officials watched live drone feeds last month that appeared to show Turkish-backed Arab gunmen targeting civilians during their assault on Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria, attacks the Americans reported to their commanders as possible war crimes, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the incidents.
U.S. surveillance videos of two incidents were included in an internal report compiled by State Department officials laying out concerns regarding four credible cases of alleged war crimes by Turkish-backed forces, according to the U.S. officials.
The existence of the military surveillance videos, which hasn’t been previously disclosed, provided what some of the U.S. officials saw as firsthand evidence of apparent war crimes by forces backed by Turkey, a NATO ally. Others said the videos were inconclusive.
The footage now has become a focal point of a broader debate within the Trump administration over how to address mounting concerns by U.S. officials that the Turkish-backed fighters could commit more war crimes if the U.S. doesn’t do more to stop them.
The possible war crimes and other issues related to Turkey’s incursion are expected to arise during a White House visit this Wednesday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mr. Erdogan has vowed to investigate reports of war crimes, but some U.S. officials say they doubt Turkey will take the issue seriously.
“Those who commit such atrocities are no different than the members of Islamic State,” Mr. Erdogan told reporters at a briefing in Istanbul on Oct. 18 when asked about alleged war crimes in Syria, adding the army is “going to take care of that.”
Asked about the status of Turkey’s investigation into alleged war crimes, one Turkish official said he wasn’t aware that any formal probe had been launched.
Turkish officials said several U.S. officials have voiced concerns about alleged war crimes. But the U.S. officials never passed along drone surveillance footage or mentioned its existence, the Turkish officials said.
Robert O’Brien, President Trump’s national-security adviser, said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the administration had outstanding concerns that Turkey needs to take seriously.
“The U.S. won’t stand for it, and we’ve made that position very clear to the Turks,” he said.
Some in the U.S. military who saw the American drone footage said the video, combined with initial, internal military reports, raised strong concerns about apparent war crimes, according to several U.S. military officials.
U.S. military officials reported the alleged war crimes up the chain of command, as they are required to do by Pentagon regulations, officials said. The reports were met with skepticism.
“They were flagged by operators for the chain of command of a possible war crime that were not determined to be definitive proof of war crimes and appeared inconclusive upon further review,” said one U.S. military official.
Another U.S. official said the Trump administration was aware of one “clear-cut case of prisoners with tied hands being shot” by Turkish-backed forces and a dozen other allegations reported by Kurdish-forces and local aid workers that are still being investigated by human-rights groups.
The Turkish assault in northeastern Syria began on Oct. 9, three days after Mr. Trump announced the withdrawal of American troops from the area. U.S. concerns about the actions of Turkish-backed fighters began almost immediately, officials said.
A series of videos posted on social media raised suspicion among human-rights groups and others that Syrian gunmen backed by Turkey killed a Kurdish politician, Hevrin Khalaf, on Oct. 12 as she rode in an armored vehicle on the main east-west highway in northeastern Syria. Human-rights groups and the United Nations raised alarms about two other videos posted on social media the same day that appeared to show Turkish-backed forces executing two prisoners along the same road.
The following day, the U.S. military sent a drone over the highway to monitor Turkish-backed forces as well as the safety of U.S. forces, who were quickly leaving after Mr. Trump’s announcement, U.S. military officials said. The drone’s cameras captured footage of what the U.S. officials said appeared to be Turkish-backed fighters shooting a civilian in a van.
One 19-second video from the drone footage is titled “Alleged TSO Civ Cas Shooting,” using military abbreviations for the terms “civilian casualties” and “Turkish-supported opposition.”
The video shows an SUV driving down the highway and pulling over near a van parked along the road, said military officials who have seen the video and described the footage. It also shows one person get out of the SUV and into the van. Some U.S. military officials said the drone footage showed Turkish-backed forces killing a Kurdish civilian. Others who saw the videos weren’t so sure, the officials said.
American military officials again watched live drone footage of Turkish-backed forces the next day as they appeared to swarm two trucks by the side of the highway, the officials said.
A crowd surrounded someone lying on the ground behind one of the trucks, the officials said. The person on the ground appeared to be a victim, officials said, but exhibited signs of life by moving. Then, he was placed into the back of the other truck. A 30-second video of the incident was also titled “Alleged TSO Civ Cas Shooting.”
In this incident, some military officials said they believe the man was clearly shot while on the ground and tossed into a truck. Others said it remains unclear exactly what the video captured.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper has raised the issues with his Turkish counterpart, and U.S. officials said they believe the Turks should hold anyone accountable for any battlefield wrongdoing.
“We expect them to investigate it, we expect them to hold these people to account and we will continue to push that with them,” said Jonathan Hoffman, the chief Pentagon spokesman.
Other top U.S. officials, including James Jeffrey, the Trump administration’s special envoy on the fight against Islamic State, have raised concerns publicly and privately with Turkey about alleged war crimes.
“We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” Mr. Jeffrey told U.S. lawmakers last month.
Some among U.S. military and diplomatic personnel want the administration do more to pressure Turkey to restrain the fighters it backs.
“One day when the diplomatic history is written, people will wonder what happened here and why officials didn’t do more to stop it,” William Roebuck, the State Department’s top diplomat in Syria wrote in an internal memo critical of administration policy that has been reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “The U.S. government should be much more forceful in calling Turkey out for its behavior… The TSO gangs must be withdrawn.”
—David Gauthier-Villars in Istanbul contributed to this article.
Write to Dion Nissenbaum at dion.nissenbaum@wsj.com and Gordon Lubold at Gordon.Lubold@wsj.com
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LA PAZ, Bolivia — Evo Morales, the former president of Bolivia who resigned under pressure from street protests and the military, flew to Mexico on Tuesday, but not before recording an audio message promising Bolivians, “I will return soon with force.”
Mr. Morales, who stepped down on Sunday, left his country deeply polarized and leaderless, and his resignation, along with those of other top officials, touched off a new surge of violence as his supporters took to the streets in protest.
Opposition leaders hope to assemble a quorum of the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday to choose an interim president, but it is unclear whether Mr. Morales’s political party, which holds majorities in both chambers, will allow that to happen. Mr. Morales, who was granted refuge by Mexico “for humanitarian reasons,” has described his ouster as an illegitimate coup.
Mr. Morales left office after weeks of growing unrest over a disputed presidential election and after the military indicated it would support the people in the streets calling for him to step down.
Hundreds of his supporters took to the streets of central La Paz late on Monday, some of them armed with sticks and chanting “here we go, civil war.” Officials said demonstrators had attacked police officers, and some frightened residents barricaded doorways to homes and stores with old furniture.
The military and the police took up positions throughout La Paz and several other cities Monday night to stop vandalism.
In his audio message, which was released by the Mexican news media and broadcast in Bolivia, Mr. Morales called on the military to “stop the massacre.” Photographed draped in a Mexican flag aboard a Mexican Air Force plane, Mr. Morales also told his supporters: “We’ll work together for Bolivia.”
Early Monday, Mr. Morales urged resistance to attempts to form a temporary government, but by later in the day he had softened his tone, urging Bolivians to resolve their differences with dialogue, not force.
Mr. Morales was not able to fly directly to Mexico, after Peru prohibited his plane from flying over its airspace. Instead, the aircraft refueled in Paraguay before taking off for Mexico early Tuesday.
Jeanine Añez Chavez, the Senate’s second vice president, an opposition politician who is the highest remaining elected official in the line of succession, has said she is ready to assume power as interim president.
A flash mob of more than 1,000 protesters descended on central Hong Kong on Tuesday in a scene authorities said was bringing the Chinese-ruled city to the brink of "total collapse."
Clashes in the central business district and elsewhere in the former British colony came a day after a police officer drew his gun during a struggle with protesters, shooting one in the abdomen. In another neighborhood, a 57-year-old man was set on fire after an apparent argument.
“Our society has been pushed to the brink of a total breakdown,” police spokesman Kong Wing-cheung said at a media briefing in regards to the last two days of violence.
Kong said masked “rioters” had committed “insane” acts that have caused Hong Kong's rule of law to be "pushed to the brink of total collapse." Police said that violent protesters have thrown trash, bicycles and other debris onto metro tracks and overhead power lines, snarling the transit system.
Commuter train passengers had to be escorted along the tracks, and subways were shut down because of disruptions.
A few thousand protesters took over several blocks of the central business district at lunchtime. The demonstrators chanted "Five demands, not one less" holding up one hand with five outstretched fingers. Their demands include democratic changes and investigation of police treatment of protesters.
A high school student surnamed Luk told the South China Morning Post she couldn't find a tram back to school due to the disruptions and decided to join in the citywide strike. Another 64-year-old woman surnamed Choy said she was afraid to go outside to get groceries in her wheelchair due to bricks strewn across the road.
“Why they did it, I don’t know. The government does not give in, the young people do not give in, it’s best they stop this,” she told the South China Morning Post.
Following a standoff outside Chinese University, scores of officers charged onto the campus after firing tear gas, arresting student protesters who tried to block their way with makeshift barricades, including a burning car.
Police fired tear gas as protesters threw petrol bombs and bricks at them, according to Reuters.
HONG KONG POLICE APPARENTLY SHOOT PROTESTER IN VIDEO POSTED TO FACEBOOK
Recent weeks in Hong Kong have been marked by escalating vandalism against shops linked to mainland China and train stations, and assaults by both protesters and pro-Beijing supporters.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, speaking to news media after a weekly meeting with advisers, called the blocking of the morning commute "a very selfish act."
"People from different sectors in society are holding fast to their positions and refusing to concede to violence or other radical actions," she said. "I hereby express my gratitude to those who are still going to work and school today."
Police said Tuesday the protester who was shot remains hospitalized in serious condition, while the man who was burned was in critical condition, according to the Hospital Authority.
Video of another incident showed a policeman on a motorcycle riding through a group of protesters in an apparent attempt to disperse them. Police said those events are being investigated but defend the officers' actions as necessary for their own safety.
Lam, who has refused to accept the protesters' demands, pledged Monday to stop the violent protests in comments suggesting harsher legal and police measures could be on the horizon.
"I do not want to go into details, but I just want to make it very clear that we will spare no effort in finding ways and means that could end the violence in Hong Kong as soon as possible," she said.
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In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang lambasted the U.S. and Britain over statements of concern over the spike in violence. China accuses the U.S. and other foreign powers of fomenting and encouraging the protests.
"The United States and Britain pretend to be fair on this incident, but it only reveals how they confuse right and wrong and how hypocritical they are. And their verbal justice once again exposes their double standards and ulterior motives," Geng said at a daily briefing.
In Washington, the U.S. government said it is watching the situation with "grave concern."
"We condemn violence on all sides, extend our sympathies to victims of violence regardless of their political inclinations, and call for all parties — police and protesters — to exercise restraint," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.