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With 66.8% of the yes votes in a referendum, Cuba adopted the so-called “Family Code”, a package of measures that same-sex marriages and civil partnerships, adoption by same-sex couples and surrogacy.

The 100 page code also addresses gender-based violence and promotes the equal distribution of domestic rights and responsibilities between men and women. “This code makes everyone equal,” said José Antonio Fernández, a 73-year-old Havana resident who voted in favor of the measure.

The results were confirmed this Monday by the National Electoral Council (CEN) following the historic vote on Sunday 25th September. According to official information from the President of CEN, Alida Balseiro, 33.13% of those entitled to vote opposed the amendment to the Family Code, while 25.01% abstained.

Preliminary results covering Cuba and abroad
Base part: 8 447 467
They exercised the right to vote: 6,251,786
Percentage of votes: 74.01%
Valid tickets: 5 892 705
Yes votes: 3,936,790 (66.87%)
No votes: 1,950,090 (33.13%) pic.twitter.com/ZlTjGX3Jux

— Elections in Cuba (@Elecciones_Cuba) September 26, 2022

The measure required more than 50% of the votes cast to become law. The stake is around 74%. Unlike other regulations such as the penal code, this is the only project that has been subject to a referendum among the 70 laws updated with the new constitution.

“Love is already law”

After hearing the results this Monday, President Miguel Díaz-Canel expressed his “joy” via his Twitter account warned it will be a “challenging” week due to the foreseeable arrival of Hurricane Ian.

Under the premise of “love is law,” the government has in recent weeks flooded TV and radio with ads celebrating diversity and inclusion to promote the code. The President sponsored a comprehensive legislative package that he assured would eliminate prejudice and taboos ingrained in Cuban society.

However, some conservatives, including the Catholic Church and evangelicals, see it differently. They strongly oppose issues such as marriage equality and lament that state control of the media has stifled opposing viewpoints.

“Some aspects of this family code have divided public opinion, including families‘ emphasized voter Lisandra Samon in the country’s capital. government opponents and supporters They almost turned the vote into a consultation to express themselves for or against the Cuban socialist system.

However, most of the previous electoral initiatives on the island have been overwhelmingly adopted A severe economic crisis, which has led to long lines for food, medicine and fuel, had raised the possibility of an anti-government protest vote.

The entry into force of the approved measures would place Cuba at the forefront of progressive social policies adopted in Latin America in recent years.

Source: France 24

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The biggest protests since 2009 erupted in Iran. What could this mean for the country’s future?

Dr Homayoun Alizadeh (*1952 in Zurich) is of Iranian descent and was a senior official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Africa, Asia and Geneva from 1995 to 2014.

On September 16, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested in Iran by “moral guards” for not following the Islamic dress code and later died from a beating to the head, sparking international outrage and nationwide protests. The women’s revolt against four decades of oppression and discrimination in the Iranian theocracy has lasted more than a week. “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi – Woman, Life, Freedom” is the main slogan of the biggest national demonstrations since the 2009 presidential election, when more than a million people took to the streets to protest against electoral fraud.

Women burn scarves on their heads, cut their hair – and people from other regions declare their solidarity with the people of Kurdistan, where Mahsa Amini came from. New feature. It is also significant that this time the men are taking to the streets along with the women.

The number of people arriving at the borders from Russia has increased significantly since Putin announced a military mobilization

Handout / Satellite Image ©2022 Maxar Applications / AFP
Satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies show rows of cars fleeing the country

Since the President of Russia, Wladimir Putinannounced a military mobilization to send reinforcements UkraineHundreds of Russians began to flee the country to avoid war. Border regions, which they do not need a visa to enter, were the main choice. Georgia and Kazakhstan, two countries bordering Russia, confirmed a significant increase in arrivals of Russians this Tuesday, the 27th. “The number has increased to almost 10,000 a day. There were 11,200 on Sunday and just under 10,000 on Monday, up from 5,000 to 6,000 before Putin’s September 21 announcement,” Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri said. On the Georgian border, authorities in Russia’s North Ossetia region admitted that the situation at the Verkhni Lars checkpoint was “tense”. In Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, authorities said 98,000 Russian nationals had arrived in the country since September 21 but did not release comparable data with the previous week. Kazakh President Kasim Jomart Tokayev said Tuesday the country will protect Russians fleeing to its territory to avoid conscription.

“In the last few days, many people have come to our country from Russia. Most had to leave because of a dead end,” Tokayev said, according to Russian news agencies. “We have to take care of them, guarantee their safety,” added this Moscow ally, who distanced himself from the Kremlin after Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. To stem the flight and bring reservists under control, local authorities announced the establishment of a military mobilization post at the border to recruit reservists attempting to leave the country. On Monday, the Kremlin said it had not yet made a decision about closing the borders. “At the moment, no decision has been made in this regard,” said spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Speculations about the exit ban, especially after Sergei Tsekov, a top lawmaker, said that “everyone of draft age should be banned from traveling abroad in the current situation,” fueled further uproar and fueled a desire to leave Russia. Satellite images from Maxar Technologies show the long lines of cars that have formed along Russia’s borders with Georgia and Mongolia.

*With information from AFP

While not a priority for Quebecers right now, François Legault conceded on Tuesday that a sovereign Quebec would be “viable”.

• Also read: SURVEY | Quebec 2022: a real struggle for official opposition

“Yes, that would be possible. It would obviously be a big financial challenge given the level of compensation we are currently receiving, but I think Quebec would be viable,” he agreed, going through Gaspésie.

The outgoing prime minister takes the wealth of Quebecers as proof. “If we compare ourselves to the average of countries in the world, there is a relatively high level of wealth, although unfortunately we still have a wealth gap with Ontario that we are in the process of ‘closing’. he insisted.

Listen to the Lisée – Mulcair match live with Martineau every day above QUB radio:

During the first debate, PQ member Paul St-Pierre Plamondon accused the CAQ leader of being the most federalist of the leaders currently running for Quebec premiership.

François Legault does not understand the goal of the leader of the Parti Québécois. “I have a hard time understanding what he means.”

The leader of the Parti Québécois laughed a lot when he heard this statement from François Legault.

“One day François Legault said we need Canada, we need Canada’s money… And the next day… [il dit autre chose]», stressed Paul St-Pierre-Plamondon. “Obviously Quebec is viable.”

The PQ leader says his party did the calculations proving that viability in its first-year budget, which was due to be presented during this election campaign.

Ultimately, however, this document is not made public as a result of the vote.

The Chair argues that the inflation crisis has messed up the PQ’s calculations over the past nine months.

“The numbers aren’t enough anymore,” he agreed. “But FYI we calculated $5.1 billion just because two governments are doing the same thing at the same time.”

– with the collaboration of Nicolas Lachance, Parliamentary Office

The phones were obtained “shortly after” the office of Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari (pictured), a Trump-appointed official, informed the Secret Service that there would be a criminal investigation into the deleted text messages dated Jan. 5 and 6 of the agency, according to NBC News

The Secret Service confiscated the phones of two dozen agents involved in responding to last year’s attack on the US Capitol, a new report claimed Tuesday.

They were turned over to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office, people familiar with the matter told NBC News.

Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, a Trump-appointed staffer, informed the Secret Service in July that he was launching a criminal investigation into missing text messages from January 5 and 6 last year.

Messages that may have been of interest to several investigations into the Jan. 6 riots — including the high-profile House Select Committee investigation — had been deleted after Cuffari’s office requested it, according to a letter he sent to relevant officials House and Senate committees sent.

Days later, on July 19, Cuffari’s deputy asked the agency to halt “further investigative activities to collect and secure the evidence” in the texts.

The 24 phones were reportedly handed over to the watchdog’s office “shortly after”.

A Secret Service spokesman referred to the inspector general’s office for questions about the items, including the phones.

“The work investigating the travesty of the January 6 insurgency is extremely important to us and is consistent with the intelligence agency’s mission, which is to protect our nation’s top leaders,” the spokesman told .

“We have and will continue to cooperate fully with any oversight effort and we have provided everything that has been requested as part of these investigations.”

A spokesman for the Office of the Inspector General of DHS told : “In order to protect the integrity of our work, maintain our independence, and in accordance with federal guidelines, the DHS OIG does not confirm or comment on the existence of criminal investigations.”

The intelligence agency’s texts are being sought in connection with investigations into how the January 6 attack on the US Capitol unfolded

According to Tuesday’s NBC report, some agents were unhappy that their leaders acted unilaterally to confiscate the phones.

The Secret Service had publicly dismissed the inspector general’s suggestion that text messages were intentionally deleted after his office requested them.

The agency claimed that the deletion of messages was due to a regularly scheduled update that wiped almost all of the phones’ existing data. She claimed that the change was already underway when the lyrics were requested.

Cuffari himself was accused of improperly interfering in the investigation.

CNN previously reported that it knew the Secret Service deleted the messages in May 2021 and told DHS it stopped checking for them as of July of that year.

Earlier this year, top lawmakers from the January 6 Committee and the House Oversight Committee wrote a letter accusing Cuffari of obstructing their investigations – which they called “unacceptable”.

“If you continue to refuse to comply with our demands, we have no choice but to consider alternative measures to ensure your compliance,” Democrats Bennie Thompson and Carolyn Maloney wrote in August.

Interest in Secret Service text messages stems largely from the bombshell testimony made by former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson during one of the committee’s last summer hearings on Jan. 6.

Public scrutiny tightened after former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson claimed she was told Trump pounced on his Secret Service security detail on Jan. 6 last year when they refused to release him with his supporters drive to the US Capitol

Hutchinson testified that she was told the ex-president threw himself on the steering wheel of his escort vehicle and then on an agent’s neck when they refused to take him and his supporters to the US Capitol.

She was reportedly told that Trump raged about his intelligence security: “I’m the friggin’ President. Now take me up to the Capitol.’

Trump has denied the allegations.

The January 6 committee is holding another hearing on September 28, likely its last.

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice chair, said over the weekend that lawmakers had received about 800,000 pages worth of communications from the Secret Service.

However, the text messages we are looking for from January 5th and January 6th have largely disappeared.

“The lyrics themselves are gone in a lot of cases, or other forms of communication, like team messages and emails, and other forms of communication that we probably got about 800,000 pages,” Cheney said at the Texas Tribune Festival.

The 15-year-old died of his injuries in a hospital in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh after the suspect fled the area.

Police in India are searching for a teacher accused of beating a Dalit student to death over a spelling mistake, officials said amid violent protests sparked by the incident.

Nikhil Dohre was beaten with a pole and kicked until he fell unconscious by his high school teacher earlier this month after he misspelled the word “social” in an exam, according to a police complaint from his father.

The 15-year-old died of his injuries at a hospital in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Monday, after the suspect fled the area.

“He is on the run but we will arrest him soon,” police officer Mahendra Pratap Singh told AFP.

Formerly known as the “untouchables,” the Dalit community is at the bottom of India’s caste system and has faced prejudice and discrimination for centuries.

Al Jazeera’s Pavni Mittal, reporting from New Delhi, said violent protests had broken out in Auraiya district, the site of the attack, calling for the teacher’s arrest before the boy’s body was cremated.

“The family says the boy was hit by his teacher a few weeks ago because of a spelling mistake. Now the family has called this a caste-based hate crime,” she said.

Hundreds of people took to the streets on Monday and set fire to a police vehicle. About a dozen protesters were arrested, police officer Singh said.

“We used force to quell the mob and the situation soon came under control,” Police Superintendent Charu Nigam told reporters.

Mittal said there is growing anger against casteism and caste-based violence in India, where untouchability “is forbidden but remains widespread”.

“According to the government, hate crimes take place in five castes every hour on average in the country,” she said.

Riya Singh, co-founder of the organization Dalit Women Fight, told Al Jazeera the incident was “a reflection of the deep-rooted caste hatred that members of the upper or dominant caste hold towards Dalits”.

“The hatred is still so strong that it even extends to young children and ends up killing them,” she said.

Singh said the country should accept that caste bias exists and that people use crime and violence to justify their caste bias. “Only with this confirmation can we move forward.” She said.

Tens of thousands of Russians are currently fleeing their country to avoid the partial mobilization in Ukraine that Vladimir Putin wanted. “Being a conscientious objector is not in itself a reason for political asylum,” says Patrick Martin-Genier, an expert on European affairs, expressing surprise that these Russians “who want to flee have not received anything in this special operation since February 24 have to repeat”. The teacher at Sciences Po Paris and Inalco believes that “this poses a real political and ethical problem”.

>> Follow the latest information on the war in Ukraine in our live

franceinfo: Are there many Russians fleeing their country?

Patrick Martin-Genier: At the moment this only affects a few thousand people. However, this poses a significant political, legal and logistical problem, especially since Europe is not on the same wavelength. We know that Germany, for example, has again decided to do everything possible to grant asylum. At the same time, some countries like Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which are countries that are very closely and completely dependent on these migration flows, oppose it. They believe that these young people who want to leave must first fight against Putin’s regime instead of fleeing. It is exactly the same position as Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President.

There are also countries that fear that Russian spies will be smuggled in. Is it possible ?

It is extremely delicate. In fact, we cannot rule out that there are supporters, spies of Vladimir Putin in the flow of migrants. Therefore, when examining an asylum application, you have to look at it on a case-by-case basis. That’s what Germany said. Indeed, it cannot be ruled out that certain people close to Putin will infiltrate the West, the media and politics. Extreme caution should be exercised in examining these asylum applications on a case-by-case basis.

Although this will be a political issue, because the countries of the European Union are once again not on the same wavelength, they should quickly think about common criteria for examining these asylum applications. There is the Geneva Refugee Convention, but being a conscientious objector is not in itself a ground for political asylum. If all conscientious objectors asked for political asylum, they would not be fulfilling their mission. These are people who want to flee today because they will be affected by conscription, partial mobilization, while nobody has found anything wrong with this special action since February 24th. So this raises a real political and ethical problem.

Wouldn’t it still be a message to the Russians that Europe is taking them into account, thereby undermining Vladimir Putin’s speech?

Yes of course. But Vladimir Putin has absolutely nothing to do with what Europe thinks. Not for a few thousand people who will flee is likely to destabilize his regime. However, we know that there are already 10,000 recruits going to the front lines in Ukraine. I think it has absolutely nothing to do with Europe. With heavy censorship, the heavy screed in the media, the Russian people will once again be completely oblivious to the reactions of the West.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish pilgrims pray at the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov during the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, in Uman, Ukraine September 25, 2022. STRINGER/Portal

REPORT – As a security measure, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel are trying to prevent Israeli candidates from going on this Orthodox Jewish pilgrimage.

Correspondent in Jerusalem

Sitting on a corner of the sidewalk on a quiet street in Mea Shearim, the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem, Ran David takes a long drag on his electronic cigarette. With his cell phone and keys screwed to his ear, he organizes the last details of his big trip. As every year, this orthodox Jew is preparing for the pilgrimage to Uman in Ukraine for the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Notwithstanding the war, he has a firm intention of honoring the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, the founder of the current of Hasidic Judaism to which he belongs, and then welcoming with prayer, joy and dances the arrival of the New Year that begins in 5783 of the Hebrew calendar.

In a few hours, a bus takes Ran David to Mitzpe Ramon Airport in the Negev. From there, he assures us, he will fly to Chisinau in Moldova, where another bus will take him 270 kilometers to the north to Uman in Cherkasy Oblast in central Ukraine. “The 30…

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