Populism abroad

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We didn't really have Israel on the authoritarian watch, but changing laws to avoid personal prosecution, that's pretty alarming..

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to push through a new law that would allow parliament to protect his immunity from prosecution, as he faces possible indictment in three corruption cases, according to leaks to the Israeli media. The new far-reaching bill would allow the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and government ministers to essentially ignore any High Court of Justice ruling, Haaretz revealed, including the potential revocation of Mr Netanyahu’s immunity.

Netanyahu to push through new law protecting his immunity from prosecution, Israeli media reports | The Independent

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Germany’s rightwing populists are embracing climate change denial as the latest topic with which to boost their electoral support, teaming up with scientists who claim hysteria is driving the global warming debate and ridiculing the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as “mentally challenged” and a fraud.

Germany’s AfD turns on Greta Thunberg as it embraces climate denial | Environment | The Guardian

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From Vox:

Are human rights in danger in the Philippines?

• UN human rights experts are sounding the alarms on the disturbing number of killings by the Philippine government, and are urging the Human Rights Council to set up an independent investigation. [Rappler / Jee Y. Geronimo]
  
  
• President Rodrigo Duterte has not shied away from prosecuting people under his war on drugs. More than 5,000 suspected drug dealers have been killed by police under his tenure, per government officials. [Reuters]
  
  
• The country’s human rights commission thinks that number is actually closer to 27,000. The government has yet to respond to these claims. [NYT / Nick Cumming-Bruce]
  
  
• Duterte has also been accused of attacking voices critical of the government, including human right defenders, watchdog organizations, journalists, and lawyers. [Inquirer.net / Christia Marie Ramos]
  
  
• It doesn’t help that he recently withdrew the Philippines from the International Criminal Court — which many believe he did in order to evade scrutiny. [Philippine Star / Gaea Katreena Cabico]
  
  
• Despite the government’s track record on human rights, Duterte and his allies celebrated a sweeping victory in recent midterm elections. [CNN / Euan McKirdy]
  
  
• The UN human rights experts, however, could be signaling to Duterte that he will not be able to avoid international scrutiny, no matter how powerful he is back home. [Al Jazeera]
  

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MICHAEL FOX: Right. So, in September 28 of last year the Supreme Court ruled that Lula would be allowed to give this interview. Almost immediately thereafter, what we’ve seen from these telegram messages is that prosecutors in the Lava Jato task force kind of blew up, scheming for the next 24 hours about how they could possibly stop this. They called this mafioso, they called this ridiculous, insane. It was very clear about their political identification and what they were trying to do to in order to move to block this interview, for their fear that the Workers Party, this could kind of lift the Workers Party forward into the first round and into the second round elections to potentially win the election. In the end the interview itself was blocked by an appeal from Novo, one of the right-wing political parties. So they–and they were, again, they expressed that they were relieved in these, these telegram messages. So this is a very clear, one clear example, of a situation where these prosecutors were actively plotting to try and block as much as possible the Workers Party from potentially returning to power.

GREG WILPERT: So, the second issue that The Intercept articles highlight has to do with the evidence against Lula, and how the judge in Lula’s case, Sergio Moro, and the main prosecutor, Deltan Dallagnol, communicated with each other to make a case against Lula. Now, what did The Intercept find here? MICHAEL FOX: Right, so this is–this is potentially even more damning. It’s important to remember that the Brazilian justice system is very similar to the United States. A judge is supposed to be impartial. He accepts the information from the prosecution, and then from the defense, and makes his decision. But what’s clear from these telegram messages is that he was actually working hand in hand with the prosecutors in the case against Lula. What came out from here is he was, he was helping to collaborate. He was kind of making recommendations that Delton and his team should maybe reinvert the direction of the investigations that they were going onto. At one point in the messages he says, you know, nothing’s happened for a month. You guys need to get moving. You guys need to get out in the street and continue these investigations. And so he was actually collaborating with the prosecution. There’s even one point which he says “we.” You know, we need to work harder. I don’t remember the exact quote that he used. But using the ‘we’ means that he is actually in collaboration with the prosecution’s case.

Leaked Messages Confirm: Imprisonment of Brazil’s Lula da Silva was Politically Motivated | naked capitalism

A lot of communication between the judge (now Justice Minister under Bolsonaro) Moro worked with the prosecutors to get Lula convicted even when the lead prosecutor admitted that the case against Lula was weak.

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Trump's buddy, who he praised:

The president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte is carrying out a “large-scale murdering enterprise” and should be investigated by the UN for crimes against humanity, according to a new Amnesty report into his so-called war on drugs. It has been three years since Duterte pledged to wipe out drug abuse in the Philippines by giving police unprecedented powers and near total impunity to kill any suspected drug addicts or dealers. Amnesty’s new report detailed how the systematic killing of the urban poor has continued on such a scale it now amounts to crimes against humanity. The report told of nightly incidents where police would shoot defenceless suspects, or abduct them and take them to other locations where they would be shot. It found crime scenes were tampered with, evidence fabricated or planted and there was no accountability for the killing of suspects.

According to the report, local officials were put under huge pressure by police to come up with vast numbers of names to put on the “drugs watch list” without needing to provide any evidence they were using or selling drugs and without any legal process. Interviews by Amnesty told harrowing stories of figures such as Jovan Magtanong, a 30-year-old father of three, who was shot and killed by police when he was sleeping next to his children. Police had been looking for another man. Officers later claimed he had drugs and a gun on him, which witnesses refuted. “They killed him like an animal”, a family member told Amnesty.

Rodrigo Duterte's drug war is 'large-scale murdering enterprise' says Amnesty | World news | The Guardian

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The Philippines has banned two U.S. senators from visiting and has threatened to introduce stricter entry restrictions for all American citizens over proposed U.S. sanctions on the Philippines following the detention of a critic of the country’s government, Reuters reported. President Rodrigo Duterte said he will impose a requirement on U.S. citizens to obtain visas in the country if any Philippine official involved in the jailing of Senator Leila de Lima is denied entry to the United States. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) have sought the move. He ordered the country’s Bureau of Immigration to refuse entry to the Democratic lawmakers, CNN Philippines reported. 

"The Philippines is immediately ordering the Bureau of Immigration to deny US Senators Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy — the imperious, uninformed, and gullible American legislators who introduced the subject provisions into the 2020 budget — entry to the Philippines," presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters Friday, according to CNN. Duterte asked Panelo to implement the ban immediately.  Congress has approved a 2020 budget that contains a provision blocking those who were involved in de Lima’s incarceration from entering the U.S. She was charged with drug offenses in 2017 after leading an investigation into mass killings amid Duterte’s anti-drugs attacks.  

“We will not sit idly if they continue to interfere with our processes as a sovereign state,” Panelo also said, Reuters reported.  “The case of Senator de Lima is not one of persecution but of prosecution,” he continued. American citizens can currently enter the Philippines without a visa for up to 30 days, and the two countries have been longtime allies.  De Lima, who has won multiple human rights awards and formerly served as a justice minister in the country, expressed her gratitude to the U.S. Congress, Reuters reported.

Philippines president bans 2 US senators from entering country over support of top government critic | TheHill

• Trumped up charges to silence a critic..
  

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Activists and media organisations in the Philippines have denounced Rodrigo Duterte’s government after its lawyers moved to strip the nation’s biggest media group of its franchise in the most severe attack on press freedom in the country yet. Duterte has repeatedly pledged to stop the broadcast operations of ABS-CBN and expressed anger over its reporting during the 2016 presidential election campaign... 

The government used the same accusation about foreign ownership against Rappler, which in 2018 had its licence revoked in a decision that is under appeal. The website, along with its editor, Maria Ressa, faced a string of legal charges related to its critical reporting.

Philippines moves to strip biggest media group of its franchise | World news | The Guardian

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They broke the rules they set for everyone else. Then the prime minister lied and lied again to parliament. “Never before in history has a prime minister broken the law,” Chris Bryant, chair of both the standards and privileges committees, told me this afternoon. “These aren’t just rules; they broke the law.” Johnson’s chancellor, asked if he had attended two Downing Street Christmas parties, told the Commons: “No, Mr Speaker, I did not attend any parties.”

Breaking the law and lying about it or misleading the house would have seen any other prime minister and chancellor resign instantly. But nothing can make them go if they cling to their posts. Only their own MPs can oust them, with a flurry of those famous letters to the backbench 1922 committee chair. There should be queues forming outside Sir Graham Brady’s door right now, but don’t hold your breath. Instead, you hear calculating perplexity: without them, who would be our winning leader? But for the sake of their reputations, these MPs should only consider the probity of their party..

They broke the law and are disgraced. Whatever they do now, shame will cling to Johnson and Sunak | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian