*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Relatives of the Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp, mourn as the funeral prayers are held for the bodies at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Dair Al-Balah in Gaza’s central strip, on December 12, 2024. (Omar Ashtawy/APAimages)
Israel’s Genocide Day 433: U.S. national security advisor heads to Cairo, Doha for ceasefire talks
Casualties
· 44,835 + killed* and at least 106,356 wounded in the Gaza Strip, 59% of whom are women, children, and elderly.
· 811+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This includes at least 146 children.**
· 3,962 Lebanese killed and more than 16,520 wounded by Israeli forces since October 8, 2023***
· Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,189.
· Israel recognizes the death of 890 Israeli soldiers, policemen and intelligence officers and the injury of at least 5,065 others since October 7.****
* Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on December 12, 2024. Rights groups and public health experts estimate the death toll to be much higher.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. This is the latest figure according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health as of December 12, 2024.
*** This figure was released by the Lebanese Health Ministry, updated on December 9, 2024. The counting is based on the Lebanese official date for the beginning of “the Israeli aggression on Lebanon,” when Israel began airstrikes on Lebanese territory after the beginning of Hezbollah’s “support front” for Gaza.
**** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported on August 4, 2024, that some 10,000 Israeli soldiers and officers have been either killed or wounded since October 7. The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 that the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 who have been permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7 and as of June 18.
Source: mondoweiss.net
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
It’s Movement Time
It’s movement time.
As the Trump presidency take shape, there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. Disbelief meshes with despair, and some are quite frankly desolate.
Dry your tears, blow your noses, and join movements of resistance to this madness. Blacks in America have never known a time when resistance wasn’t necessary, including life under a Black president.
For centuries for generations, people have had to struggle for freedom, for respect, for justice. Why should this time be any different?
The ancestors, like the revered Frederick Douglass, lambasted Abraham Lincoln as a fool or coward who wouldn’t fight the civil war with thousands of willing Black troops. Said Douglass, “if there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Said Douglass, “Power concedes nothing without demand.”
So let us struggle. Let us build movements that lift our hearts. Let us remake our history with the brick and mortar of struggle.
—Prison Radio, November 21, 2016
https://www.prisonradio.org/commentary/it-is-movement-time/
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
We need a united, independent, democratically organized mass movement for peace, justice and equality in solidarity with similar movements worldwide if we are to survive the death agony of capitalism and its inevitable descent into fascism and barbarism before it destroys the world altogether!
—Bonnie Weinstein
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
On this Wrongful Conviction Day, Leonard Peltier, the longest-serving Indigenous political prisoner, is incarcerated in lockdown-modified operations conditions at USP Coleman I, operated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
Yet, in this moment of silence, Leonard speaks.
To honor his birthday and all those who are unjustly convicted and incarcerated, the Leonard Peltier Official Ad Hoc Committee has released a video of Leonard Peltier that is going viral. Narrated by renowned scholar Ward Churchill and set to a video created by award-winning filmmaker Suzie Baer, the film most importantly centers Leonard’s personal reflection on his 80th year.
Jenipher Jones, Mr. Peltier's lead counsel, commented, "This powerfully moving film captures the essence of who I know Leonard to be. I am grateful to Professor Churchill and Suzie Baer for their work and longstanding advocacy of Leonard. As the recent execution of Marcellus Williams-Imam Khaliifah Williams shows us, we as a society bear a responsibility to uplift the cases of all those who are wrongfully convicted and also hold the government accountable to do that for which it professes to exist. We must challenge our impulses of blind blood-thirst for guilt and the use of our legal systems to carry out this malignant pathology. There is absolutely no lawful justification for Leonard's incarceration."
“Leonard Peltier is Native elder whose wrongful incarceration is shameful. His continued imprisonment exemplifies the historical cruelty of the US Government toward Native people. The US BOP's treatment of Leonard Peltier is unlawful, and he deserves his freedom.” —Suzie Baer
Leonard's Statement: Peltier 80th Statement.pdf:
https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21ABHSRNdyB8SKn0I&id=DFF2DD874157D44A%21118178&cid=DFF2DD874157D44A&parId=root&parQt=sharedby&o=OneUp
To view the film, please visit:
https://tinyurl.com/Peltier80thPresentation
We hope to have additional updates on Leonard soon. In the meantime, please engage our calls to action or donate to his defense efforts.
Miigwech.
Donate/ActNow:
Write to:
Leonard Peltier 89637-132
USP Coleman 1
P.O. Box 1033
Coleman, FL 33521
Note: Letters, address and return address must be in writing—no stickers—and on plain white paper.
Sign our petition urging President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier:
https://www.freeleonardpeltier.com/petition
Email: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
Address: 116 W. Osborne Ave. Tampa, Florida 33603
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Beneath The Mountain: An Anti-Prison Reader (City Lights, 2024) is a collection of revolutionary essays, written by those who have been detained inside prison walls. Composed by the most structurally dispossessed people on earth, the prisoner class, these words illuminate the steps towards freedom.
Beneath the Mountain documents the struggle — beginning with slavery, genocide, and colonization up to our present day — and imagines a collective, anti-carceral future. These essays were handwritten first on scraps of paper, magazine covers, envelopes, toilet paper, or pages of bibles, scratched down with contraband pencils or the stubby cartridge of a ball-point pen; kites, careworn, copied and shared across tiers and now preserved in this collection for this and future generations. If they were dropped in the prison-controlled mail they were cloaked in prayers, navigating censorship and dustbins. They were very often smuggled out. These words mark resistance, fierce clarity, and speak to the hope of building the world we all deserve to live in.
"Beneath the Mountain reminds us that ancestors and rebels have resisted conquest and enslavement, building marronage against colonialism and genocide."
—Joy James, author of New Bones Abolition: Captive Maternal Agency
Who stands beneath the mountain but prisoners of war? Mumia Abu-Jamal and Jennifer Black have assembled a book of fire, each voice a flame in captivity...Whether writing from a place of fugivity, the prison camp, the city jail, the modern gulag or death row, these are our revolutionary thinkers, our critics and dreamers, our people. The people who move mountains. —Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
Filled with insight and energy, this extraordinary book gifts us the opportunity to encounter people’s understanding of the fight for freedom from the inside out. —Ruth Wilson Gilmore, author of Golden Gulag and Abolition Geography
These are the words each writer dreamed as they sought freedom and they need to be studied by people inside and read in every control unit/hole in every prison in America. We can send this book for you to anyone who you know who is currently living, struggling, and fighting
Who better to tell these stories than those who have lived them? Don’t be surprised with what you find within these pages: hope, solidarity, full faith towards the future, and most importantly, love.
Excerpt from the book:
"Revolutionary love speaks to the ways we protect, respect, and empower each other while standing up to state terror. Its presence is affirmed through these texts as a necessary component to help chase away fear and to encourage the solidarity and unity essential for organizing in dangerous times and places. Its absence portends tragedy. Revolutionary love does not stop the state from wanting to kill us, nor is it effective without strategy and tactics, but it is the might that fuels us to stand shoulder to shoulder with others regardless. Perhaps it can move mountains." —Jennifer Black & Mumia Abu-Jamal from the introduction to Beneath The Mountain: An Anti Prison Reader
Get the book at:
https://www.prisonradiostore.com/shop-2/beneath-the-mountain-an-anti-prison-reader-edited-by-mumia-abu-jamal-jennifer-black-city-lights-2024
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky
In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries.
Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin:
“To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?”
Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine.
A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism.
To sign the online petition at freeboris.info
—Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024
https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine.
Petition in Support of Boris Kagarlitsky
We, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison.
Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles.
The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested.
On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release.
The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison.
The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences.
There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering.
Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course.
We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally.
We also call on the authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest.
Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitsky
https://freeboris.info
The petition is also available on Change.org
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*Major Announcement*
Claudia De la Cruz wins
Peace and Freedom Party primary in California!
We have an exciting announcement. The votes are still being counted in California, but the Claudia-Karina “Vote Socialist” campaign has achieved a clear and irreversible lead in the Peace and Freedom Party primary. Based on the current count, Claudia has 46% of the vote compared to 40% for Cornel West. A significant majority of PFP’s newly elected Central Committee, which will formally choose the nominee at its August convention, have also pledged their support to the Claudia-Karina campaign.
We are excited to campaign in California now and expect Claudia De la Cruz to be the candidate on the ballot of the Peace and Freedom Party in November.
We achieved another big accomplishment this week - we’re officially on the ballot in Hawai’i! This comes after also petitioning to successfully gain ballot access in Utah. We are already petitioning in many other states. Each of these achievements is powered by the tremendous effort of our volunteers and grassroots organizers across the country. When we’re organized, people power can move mountains!
We need your help to keep the momentum going. Building a campaign like this takes time, energy, and money. We know that our class enemies — the billionaires, bankers, and CEO’s — put huge sums toward loyal politicians and other henchmen who defend their interests. They will use all the money and power at their disposal to stop movements like ours. As an independent, socialist party, our campaign is relying on contributions from the working class and people like you.
We call on each and every one of our supporters to set up a monthly or one-time donation to support this campaign to help it keep growing and reaching more people. A new socialist movement, independent of the Democrats and Republicans, is being built but it will only happen when we all pitch in.
The Claudia-Karina campaign calls to end all U.S. aid to Israel. End this government’s endless wars. We want jobs for all, with union representation and wages that let us live with dignity. Housing, healthcare, and education for all - without the lifelong debt. End the ruthless attacks on women, Black people, immigrants, and LGBTQ people. These are just some of the demands that are resonating across the country. Help us take the next step:
Volunteer: https://votesocialist2024.com/volunteer
Donate: https://votesocialist2024.com/donate
See you in the streets,
Claudia & Karina
Don't Forget! Join our telegram channel for regular updates: https://t.me/+KtYBAKgX51JhNjMx
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical Defense Fund, Official 2024
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Updates From Kevin Cooper
A Never-ending Constitutional Violation
A summary of the current status of Kevin Cooper’s case by the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee
On October 26, 2023, the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP wrote a rebuttal in response to the Special Counsel's January 13, 2023 report upholding the conviction of their client Kevin Cooper. A focus of the rebuttal was that all law enforcement files were not turned over to the Special Counsel during their investigation, despite a request for them to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office.
On October 29, 2023, Law Professors Lara Bazelon and Charlie Nelson Keever, who run the six member panel that reviews wrongful convictions for the San Francisco County District Attorney's office, published an OpEd in the San Francisco Chronicle calling the "Innocence Investigation” done by the Special Counsel in the Cooper case a “Sham Investigation” largely because Cooper has unsuccessfully fought for years to obtain the police and prosecutor files in his case. This is a Brady claim, named for the U.S. Supreme court’s 1963 case establishing the Constitutional rule that defendants are entitled to any information in police and prosecutor's possession that could weaken the state's case or point to innocence. Brady violations are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. The Special Counsel's report faults Cooper for not offering up evidence of his own despite the fact that the best evidence to prove or disprove Brady violations or other misconduct claims are in those files that the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office will not turn over to the Special Counsel or to Cooper's attorneys.
On December 14, 2023, the president of the American Bar Association (ABA), Mary Smith, sent Governor Gavin Newsom a three page letter on behalf of the ABA stating in part that Mr.Cooper's counsel objected to the state's failure to provide Special Counsel all documents in their possession relating to Mr.Cooper's conviction, and that concerns about missing information are not new. For nearly 40 years Mr.Cooper's attorneys have sought this same information from the state.
On December 19, 2023, Bob Egelko, a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about the ABA letter to the Governor that the prosecutors apparently withheld evidence from the Governor's legal team in the Cooper case.
These are just a few recent examples concerning the ongoing failure of the San Bernardino County District Attorney to turn over to Cooper's attorney's the files that have been requested, even though under the law and especially the U.S. Constitution, the District Attorney of San Bernardino county is required to turn over to the defendant any and all material and or exculpatory evidence that they have in their files. Apparently, they must have something in their files because they refuse to turn them over to anyone.
The last time Cooper's attorney's received files from the state, in 2004, it wasn't from the D.A. but a Deputy Attorney General named Holly Wilkens in Judge Huff's courtroom. Cooper's attorneys discovered a never before revealed police report showing that a shirt was discovered that had blood on it and was connected to the murders for which Cooper was convicted, and that the shirt had disappeared. It had never been tested for blood. It was never turned over to Cooper's trial attorney, and no one knows where it is or what happened to it. Cooper's attorneys located the woman who found that shirt on the side of the road and reported it to the Sheriff's Department. She was called to Judge Huff's court to testify about finding and reporting that shirt to law enforcement. That shirt was the second shirt found that had blood on it that was not the victims’ blood. This was in 2004, 19 years after Cooper's conviction.
It appears that this ongoing constitutional violation that everyone—from the Special Counsel to the Governor's legal team to the Governor himself—seems to know about, but won't do anything about, is acceptable in order to uphold Cooper's conviction.
But this type of thing is supposed to be unacceptable in the United States of America where the Constitution is supposed to stand for something other than a piece of paper with writing on it. How can a Governor, his legal team, people who support and believe in him ignore a United States citizen’s Constitutional Rights being violated for 40 years in order to uphold a conviction?
This silence is betrayal of the Constitution. This permission and complicity by the Governor and his team is against everything that he and they claim to stand for as progressive politicians. They have accepted the Special Counsel's report even though the Special Counsel did not receive the files from the district attorney that may not only prove that Cooper is innocent, but that he was indeed framed by the Sheriff’s Department; and that evidence was purposely destroyed and tampered with, that certain witnesses were tampered with, or ignored if they had information that would have helped Cooper at trial, that evidence that the missing shirt was withheld from Cooper's trial attorney, and so much more.
Is the Governor going to get away with turning a blind eye to this injustice under his watch?
Are progressive people going to stay silent and turn their eyes blind in order to hopefully get him to end the death penalty for some while using Cooper as a sacrificial lamb?
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
1) South Korea’s President Is Impeached After Martial Law Crisis
Some members of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s own party helped remove him from office. But the political uncertainty is far from over.
By Choe Sang-Hun, Jin Yu Young and Victoria Kim, Reporting from Seoul, Dec. 14, 2024
Eleven days ago, President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea made a bold power grab, putting the country under military rule for the first time in 45 years, citing frustration at the opposition for obstructing his agenda in Parliament.
His martial law decree lasted only hours, and now he finds himself locked out of power: impeached and suspended by the National Assembly after a vote on Saturday in which a dozen members of his own party turned against him.
Lawmakers sought to draw a line under Mr. Yoon’s tenure after his declaration threw the country’s democracy into chaos and drew public outrage across the country.
Street protests turned to celebrations outside the Assembly when news broke that the impeachment bill had passed. Mr. Yoon’s popularity has plummeted during his two and a half years in office, a term marked by deepening political polarization, scandals involving his wife and a near-constant clash between his government and the opposition-dominated Parliament.
But the political turmoil and uncertainty unleashed by his short-lived declaration of martial law is far from over. Speaking soon after the vote, Mr. Yoon vowed to fight in court to regain his power, even as the police and prosecutors closed in on him with a possible criminal charge of insurrection.
The fate of Mr. Yoon, a deeply unpopular leader, now rests in the hands of the country’s Constitutional Court, which will decide — within the next six months — whether to reinstate or formally remove him. If he is formally removed, South Korea is then supposed to elect a new leader within two months.
During his suspension from office, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the No. 2 official in the government hierarchy, has stepped in as interim leader. Because Mr. Han is not an elected official, he will lead South Korea with no real political heft at a time when the country faces challenges at home and abroad, such as North Korea’s growing nuclear threat and the return of Donald J. Trump to the White House.
“My heart is very heavy,” said Mr. Han, a career bureaucrat. “In this heavy time, I will focus all my strength and effort to stably run the affairs of the state.”
For now, Mr. Yoon’s impeachment was a huge relief for crowds of protesters who have been gathering near the Assembly in recent days to call for his ouster. Hours before the Assembly was set to vote, thousands of people began converging on Parliament, carrying signs that said, “Impeach Yoon Suk Yeol, the Ringleader of Insurrection!”
After the vote, as the news reached them that Mr. Yoon was impeached in a vote with 204 in favor and 85 against, they jumped up and down and hugged one another.
“This is the happiest moment in my life,” said Kim Myoung-sook, 60. “Martial law is a declaration of war on the people, and I was so depressed over the past week.”
Opposition groups were triumphant but cautious. Park Chan-dae, the floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, called the impeachment “a victory for the South Korean people and democracy.”
However, the mission to oust Mr. Yoon is not over, said Lee Jae-myung, the main opposition leader. “We’ve just overcome a small mountain,” he told a rally of supporters outside the Assembly. “There is a larger, steeper mountain ahead.”
Mr. Yoon signaled he had no intention of going quietly. In a recorded speech released shortly after his impeachment, he addressed the nation and listed what he considers his accomplishments as president, including his efforts to align the country more closely with the United States and Japan in military ties. Now his efforts were paused, he said.
“But I will never give up,” he said, repeating his intention to fight it in the Constitutional Court.
The Assembly had impeached only two South Korean presidents before. In 2017, the Constitutional Court decided unanimously to subsequently remove Park Geun-hye from office. But in 2004, the court overruled the Assembly and overturned the impeachment of then-President Roh Moo-hyun.
The impeachment of Mr. Yoon was the most dramatic twist in his turbulent term that began in 2022, when he narrowly won an election on a conservative, business-friendly platform. His tenure has been marked by near-constant protests and political deadlock.
Much of his political trouble involved his wife, Kim Keon Hee, who has been accused by his critics and the local news media of accepting improper gifts, including a Dior handbag, and illegally meddling in government affairs, such as personnel decisions.
In the impeachment bill, opposition lawmakers argued that Mr. Yoon had perpetrated an insurrection when he declared martial law on the night of Dec. 3 and sent military troops into the Assembly. They said that was an attempt to stop Parliament from voting down his martial law decree, as it was allowed to do under the Constitution.
His attempt to rule by martial law lasted only six hours, as angry citizens and parliamentary aides slowed down the advance of troops, buying time for lawmakers to gather and vote. But the episode reminded South Koreans of how close their country had come to the brink of martial law, recalling its painful history of military dictatorship decades ago.
In the past week, public pressure had been mounting on the governing party. Mr. Yoon’s popularity rating plunged to 11 percent, a record low, according to a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday.
Opposition lawmakers needed eight supporting votes from Mr. Yoon’s party to impeach him. When they called an impeachment vote last weekend, Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party boycotted it, saying that he should be given a chance to resign rather than be impeached. Only three of its 108 lawmakers participated.
On Saturday, the party said that it officially opposed impeachment, but its lawmakers were allowed to cast their secret ballots. The result indicated that 12 lawmakers from Mr. Yoon’s party had joined the opposition to impeach him and another 11 abstained or cast invalid votes, sealing his fate.
“The impeachment proceedings highlight how checks and balances are essential in stopping abuses of power and supporting the rule of law,” said Simon Henderson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.
Mr. Yoon has maintained that his martial law was part of the presidential power granted by the Constitution. But he faces the possibility of becoming the first president to be arrested before his term ends. Prosecutors have barred him from leaving the country and have arrested his former defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, and two former police chiefs on charges of helping carry out insurrection.
Under South Korean law, insurrection is a crime punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment for anyone found by the court to be a ringleader.
But Mr. Yoon’s impeachment “is not the end of South Korea’s political turmoil,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul “It is not even the beginning of the end.”
The impeachment concluded only “an executive-legislative standoff over an attempt at martial law,” he said. “Next is Yoon’s defense in front of the Constitutional Court and likely prosecution for insurrection.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
2) The Message: Impeach South Korea’s President. The Tune: ‘Feliz Navidad.’
Baek Jae Gil, whose viral anthem calls for the ouster of President Yoon Suk Yeol, has a long history with the country’s pro-democracy movement.
By John Yoon, Reporting from Seoul, Dec. 13, 2024
While calling for President Yoon Suk Yeol’s removal, tens of thousands of South Korean protesters have danced to traditional percussion, sung a pop genre called trot and blasted “Whiplash,” a hit by the girl group Aespa.
They’ve also left rallies with the melody of “Feliz Navidad” stuck in their heads. The adaptation’s repeated opening verse: “Impeachment is the answer.”
The day after Mr. Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law last week, the protest anthem’s creator, Baek Jae Gil, performed it for thousands outside the National Assembly in Seoul. A recording has received nine million views on X, and the song has spread on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. On the Chinese app WeChat, it has been translated into Chinese, he said.
“If Yoon Suk Yeol gets lost, it’s a Merry Christmas,” the crowd sang along to the tune of the 1970 Christmas classic.
Mr. Baek, 52, a professional musician known as Baekja, has been protesting for decades. He has seen demonstrations become more peaceful and the mood lighten since his first rally in 1989. That was during a brutally suppressed teachers movement that led to the formation of a national union.
“It was scary,” he said of those days in an interview last Saturday during protests at the National Assembly. “It was the time of tear gas and violent repression.”
Growing up as the youngest of six children in South Korea’s southwest, Mr. Baek said, he often heard stories from his older brothers about how soldiers suppressed pro-democracy protests in the nearby city of Gwangju in 1980, the last time South Korea was under martial law.
“My brother was almost killed,” he said, adjusting his thick-rimmed glasses.
In middle school, he moved to Seoul at his brothers’ recommendation to find better opportunities. In high school, he wrote poetry, some of it political. He kept writing poems as he studied business at university, and a friend from high school turned them into songs.
He took the stage as a singer for the first time in 1990, the year he started college, at a pro-democracy protest on campus.
Mr. Baek also learned to play the guitar. In 1991, he performed it in the alleyways of Seoul among crowds of students and workers whose demonstrations were set off by the killing of a student activist. About a dozen protesters died setting themselves on fire.
“I sang in the midst of tear gas every week,” he said.
In the past two decades, the police tactics to suppress demonstrations have become less violent. He said that protest culture changed significantly during candlelight vigils in 2002 in response to the deaths of two schoolgirls fatally struck by a U.S. Army vehicle. A U.S. military court acquitted two soldiers in the crash, sparking anger, but the protests remained largely peaceful.
Mr. Baek also saw the mood at demonstrations become brighter after the protests against President Park Geun-hye, some of the largest the country has seen, led to her impeachment in 2016. People were jubilant, he said: A peaceful protest had toppled the country’s leader.
“Protests in South Korea went from being dark and depressing to being fun and exciting,” Mr. Baek said. “There was a sense of pride in democracy.”
Those demonstrations provided the inspiration for his “Feliz Navidad” adaptation. A protester performed a version of the song, originally written by the Puerto Rican singer José Feliciano, titled “Geun-hye Is Not the One.”
(Mr. Feliciano did not comment directly on the latest adaptation. Susan Feliciano, his wife, said in a statement that the lyrics have been repurposed often and that it was gratifying to see the melody endure.)
Mr. Baek wrote his version in 2022, after Mr. Yoon had become president. Protests calling for his removal grew after a crowd crush in Seoul around Halloween killed more than 150 people. Mr. Baek wanted to come up with a song fit for the run-up to Christmas.
“The response has been great,” he said. “It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s a Christmas carol.”
Mr. Baek has run into trouble with other satirical songs. A government-run broadcaster accused him of copyright infringement earlier this year after he used portion of its footage in a YouTube video satirizing the material. At the broadcaster’s request, YouTube deleted his video, and the police launched an investigation. Mr. Baek said he was fighting the case, calling it a targeted infringement on his free speech rights.
Last week, the day after hundreds of soldiers stormed the National Assembly, he sang his anthem and several other songs there to an energized audience that was younger than those he had seen at previous rallies.
“Let’s make Yoon Suk Yeol’s arrest our Christmas gift this year!” he shouted before performing for a crowd of protesters.
Mr. Baek, who sang it again on a stage at last Saturday’s protests, said that he liked to lift people’s mood.
“The wind is biting, isn’t it?” he told thousands of protesters as wind swept his brown-highlighted perm. “If you’re cold, get up and dance!”
The crowd rose and cheered.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
3) Syria Shudders as Assad’s Prison Atrocities Come Into the Light
At the country’s most notorious prison, Syrians confront their worst fears: that they will never know what happened to the loved ones who disappeared.
By Christina Goldbaum, Photographs by Daniel Berehulak, Reporting from Damascus, Syria, and its outskirts, Dec. 14, 2024
Searching for family members at the morgue.
People came by the thousands the day after the rebels arrived in Damascus, racing down the once desolate stretch of road, up a jagged footpath cut into the limestone hillside and through the towering metal gates of Syria’s most notorious prison. They flooded the halls lined with cells, searching for loved ones who had disappeared into the black hole of torture prisons under Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Some tore through the offices of the prison, Sednaya, looking for maps of the building and prisoner logs. One woman shoved a photograph of her missing son toward others walking by, hoping someone had found him. “Do you recognize him?” she pleaded. “Please, please, did you see him?”
In the entrance hall of one section, dozens of men with sledgehammers and pickaxes tore up the floors, convinced there were secret cells with more prisoners deep underground. Crowds swelled around them as people clambered to see what they found, pausing only when Israeli airstrikes landed close enough to shake the prison’s walls.
“Move back, move back!” one man, Ahmad Hajani, 23, yelled. “Let them work!”
Since a rebel coalition overthrew the Assad government last week, unchaining a country ruled by the iron fist of the Assad family for more than 60 years, thousands of Syrians in Damascus, the capital, have taken to the streets to revel in the city’s newfound freedom.
But amid the celebrations, the country has also found itself in the opening chapter of a nationwide reckoning over the horrors that Syrians endured under Mr. al-Assad’s government as they come face to face with the network of prisons, police stations and torture chambers at the center of his family’s brutal rule.
In that time, hundreds of thousands of Syrians were swallowed up by the Assad security forces’ vast apparatus. Over the past 13 years, after the failed rebel uprising and subsequent civil war, Mr. al-Assad wielded the long arms of that system as never before to stamp out every last inkling of dissent.
Protesters, activists, journalists, doctors, aid workers and students were snatched from their shops, plucked from university classrooms and yanked from their cars at checkpoints by the secret police — never to be heard from again.
Many ended up in Sednaya, the notorious prison on the outskirts of Damascus that was often the last place detainees were dumped after months of interrogation in other detention centers. The sprawling prison with three wings became a haunting symbol of Mr. al-Assad’s ruthlessness and the center of some of the worst atrocities committed during his rule.
Tens of thousands of people were crammed into the overcrowded cells, tortured, beaten and deprived of food and water. More than 30,000 detainees were killed, many executed in mass hangings, according to rights groups. Amnesty International called Sednaya a “human slaughterhouse.”
Their relatives lived in an agonizing limbo for years, unsure if their loved ones were alive. They went to local security officials every few months to beg for information and paid thousands of dollars in bribes to government officials to track down their relatives’ whereabouts. If security officers told them their disappeared relative was dead, many refused to believe them.
“They were liars,” one woman, Aziza Mohammed Deek, said of those in Mr. al-Assad’s government. “They were all liars.”
For the relatives, absent proof that their children, siblings or spouses had been killed, they clung to the hope that somewhere, somehow, they had survived. And so, after rebels swept into Damascus last week, throngs of people rushed to prisons and detention facilities across the country.
A few had the tearful reunions they long dreamed of. Many more are still searching, walking across the feces-smeared floors of prison cells, where recently released detainees say they begged for death.
As the week dragged on, thousands have been forced to confront a prospect they had long pushed out of mind: Their loved ones may never return home — at least not alive.
“I’m missing 40 people from my family,” said Bassam Bitaf, 38, standing outside Sednaya. “I have to know where they are, where have they disappeared to? What happened to them? Why can’t we find them?”
The Prison
Sednaya was by most accounts the most fearsome torture prison of the Assad regime. So frightening were the reports of detainees’ being beaten, starved, bloodied and broken that few in Damascus even dared utter its name during Mr. al-Assad’s rule.
The building itself sits atop a hill on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by rows upon rows of iron fences and concrete walls topped with razor wire. On Monday morning, the brush outside the prison was smoldering — the rebels had set fire to the fields a day earlier, hoping the heat would detonate the land mines scattered across the hillside.
Nonetheless, later that afternoon, the earsplitting clap of a land mine exploding drew a throng of people to the top of an escarpment looking for what had happened. Hours later, crowds rushed to the escarpment again to catch a glimpse of the clouds of smoke from Israeli airstrikes pummeling a hilltop in the distance — which Israel says is part of its effort to destroy weapons and military facilities to keep them out of the hands of Islamist extremists.
Most prisoners in Sednaya were freed early last Sunday as rebels swept into the capital and the officers at the prison fled. But rumors persisted of a secret underground section, known as the “Red Wing,” where yet more prisoners might still be alive.
“They say it’s three stories underground,” said Ghassan al-Debs, 63, walking alongside the crowd. “What if they run out of air? How would they survive?”
This was his second pilgrimage to the prison in two days in search of his son Maher al-Debs, who was arrested at age 16 in 2014 after visiting an uncle in Sahnaya, a town on the southern edge of Damascus.
The police had stopped Maher at a checkpoint as he returned to the city and accused him of visiting opposition forces farther south in Dara’a, a town near the Syria-Jordan border, his father said. A police officer then called his father and demanded $1,000 in exchange for his son’s release. Mr. al-Debs did not have the money, and he has not heard from his son since.
“I never lost hope,” he explained, pausing briefly to catch his breath and leaning his hand against a parked car to steady himself. “I always had hope, because my son is innocent. The charges against him are not real.”
Like thousands around him, Mr. al-Debs had abandoned his car two miles from the prison’s entrance and arrived on foot. He wove around the cars stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic — passing a man praying in the back of his pickup truck, the road too crowded to lay down his prayer mat, and around a group of women sobbing into their palms and crying out for God.
Rebels in mismatched uniforms were scattered throughout the crowd. Some were trying to direct the traffic. Others were making their way to the prison, too, looking for lost loved ones of their own.
At the prison, people wandered around the labyrinth of passageways and hammered randomly at the ground, hoping to hear an echo that might signal a hidden room.
“There are people here,” one woman, Layal Rayess, shouted, pointing at a concrete wall of what appeared to be an electricity room. “I can hear them.”
Ms. Rayess’s son had been snatched off a bus in Damascus 13 years ago, when he was 18. A month later, she learned from an intelligence officer that he was being questioned in a detention facility in the city. She never heard any other news of him.
“They promised he would be released,” she said, wiping tears from her cheek with the palm of her hand. One man with a shovel began pounding its spade into the wall, sending bits of concrete flying into the air.
Ms. Rayess reassured herself with the only bit of hope she had left. Hopefully, she said, her son would be found in the Red Wing.
After a few minutes, the man stopped digging and shook his head. There was nothing there.
The Morgue
By Tuesday morning, the rebels had uncovered 38 bodies at Sednaya, perhaps the first corpses of prisoners to make it out of the prison. Rights groups believe the thousands of others who died there were buried in mass graves or disposed of in a crematorium built at the complex, in what American officials described as an effort to cover up the regime’s atrocities.
Rebels took the corpses to the morgue at Al-Moujtahed Hospital, in the center of the city. The bodies looked starved or mutilated beyond recognition, with missing eyes and sunken cheeks. Some bore thick, red scars around their necks that looked like rope burns, forensic examiners said. Others were covered in round, indented scars, most likely from hot irons.
One had no face to recognize; only a blackened skull remained.
Inside an examination room of the morgue, the examiners inspected the bodies, looking for any identifying marks — tattoos, crooked teeth. They took photographs of their faces from several angles. Some of the presumed prisoners appeared to have died only days before. Others had been dead for weeks, their skin turned a green hue, corpses filling the room with the stench of decomposing flesh. As news of the bodies spread, hundreds of people who had torn through Sednaya the day before rushed to the morgue.
“Just let us take a look!” cried a group of women as they tried to force their way into the examination room.
Dr. Yasser al-Qassem directed the women to a Telegram channel where the hospital was uploading pictures of the corpses.
“The pictures, please, look at the pictures,” he yelled before slamming the door shut. He let out a heavy sigh. “There are too many people,” he said.
As some relatives of the disappeared swiped through their phones looking at the photographs, Roqaya al-Neshi, 65, debated whether to join the crowd pushing its way into the morgue. She did not recognize her son Abdul Salam in any of the pictures, but was not entirely convinced that he was not among them.
The last time Ms. al-Neshi saw her son was in 2019, a year after he was arrested at age 20 from his dorm at Homs University. She had tracked him down in Sednaya and paid a prison officer a $9,000 bribe to visit him. When the guards dragged a young man toward her — feet shackled, hands tied, skin hanging off his bones — she burst into tears.
“I told them, ‘This is not my son,’” she said. “But he told me: ‘I’m your son, Mom. It’s me.”
A month later, the same officer told her Mr. Salam had died, but she refused to believe him. “I told them: ‘I saw him with my own eyes. How are you telling me he’s not alive now?’” she recalled, her cheeks wet with tears.
As she looked on, the mob outside the morgue wore down the hospital staff guarding the door of its cool-storage room. “Go ahead,” one of the doctors yelled. “Whoever wants to come in and check go ahead.” The flood of people crammed into the room, tossing open body bags and yanking morgue refrigerator doors open. Some stumbled out stunned. Others sobbed.
“Oh God, oh God!” one woman cried.
The Reckoning
At the end of Syria’s first week free from the Assad government, the frenzied search for hidden prison cells at Sednaya had dissipated. Instead, people shuffled through prison records scattered across the basement floor, scouring the yellowed pages for the names of loved ones.
A few still hoped they would find some clue that could lead them to their missing relatives, alive. “Maybe they took the prisoners to Iran to use them as bargaining chips with the rebels,” Jamil Ali Al-Abbaa said, rifling through the muddied pages on Thursday evening.
“Or to the Russian military bases,” suggested another, Ahmad al-Aboud, standing nearby.
But most found themselves confronted with a reality they did not want to imagine: The loved ones lost under Mr. al-Assad’s rule were gone forever. The questions that haunted them for decades may never be answered.
“All we wanted was our children. Dead or alive,” said Alya Saloum, 50, whose son disappeared 11 years ago.
“I have no hope left,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. “It’s gone. It’s all gone.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
4) Palestinian Authority Deploys Security Forces Against Militants in West Bank
The authority, which has struggled to crack down on powerful armed groups in the territory, is under pressure from the United States to escalate law-and-order operations.
By Aaron Boxerman and Fatima AbdulKarim, Aaron Boxerman reported from Jerusalem, and Fatima AbdulKarim from Ramallah, West Bank, Dec. 14, 2024
Palestinian security forces taking position during clashes with militants in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Saturday. Credit...Raneen Sawafta/Reuters
The Palestinian Authority announced an unusually public crackdown on militants in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday, sending armored vehicles through a city’s streets and engaging in gun battles with armed groups.
Palestinian security forces began deploying in the city, Jenin, to “put an end to sedition and chaos,” said Brig. Gen. Anwar Rajab, a spokesman for the authority’s security services. The authority administers some West Bank areas under Israeli occupation.
The forces killed a local militant leader in a neighborhood founded by Palestinian refugees, according to General Rajab and residents.
“This situation cannot be allowed to continue. It is unfortunate that we now need to deploy security forces to impose order,” said Mohammad Mustafa, the Palestinian prime minister. “But we will not watch our country destroyed and be silent.”
Violence in the West Bank has sharply escalated since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. The growing power of militants in West Bank cities like Jenin and Tulkarm has prompted a deadly cycle of Israeli raids and drone strikes, which have devastated Palestinian neighborhoods.
In an attempt to break the cycle of violence, U.S. officials recently urged the Palestinian Authority to escalate its own law-and-order operations in the West Bank, according to two Western diplomats and a Palestinian security official familiar with the matter. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
U.S. officials also asked Israel to rein in its raids against the militants in Jenin to give Palestinian law enforcement time to work, they said. The official Palestinian security forces are funded and trained in part by the United States.
The Biden administration and many of its allies hope the fragile Palestinian government will rule postwar Gaza, although Israel has rejected the idea.
While the authority has international backing, its control at home is widely unpopular and increasingly fragile. Many Palestinians see the body, which was established after Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the 1990s, as ineffectual and corrupt.
Palestinian militants now hold sway in parts of the northern West Bank where the authority’s control has eroded. Some are affiliated with well-established armed groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, while many others have joined new bands of local fighters who oppose both Israel and the authority.
Israeli officials sometimes point to militancy in the West Bank as evidence that the authority is incapable of running Gaza after the war. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 after a short and brutal civil war with the authority’s leaders.
Facing an incoming Trump administration and an emboldened Israeli right-wing government, Mahmoud Abbas, the authority’s president, was likely worried about being sidelined, said Tahani Mustafa, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group.
“Mahmoud Abbas is trying to show that he has everything under control, that they can crack down on resistance,” Ms. Mustafa said.
Israeli troops have seized Palestinian neighborhoods for days at a time, searching for suspected militants as bulldozers chew through roads looking for explosives. The Israeli military says its soldiers were compelled to conduct the deadly raids in order to quell the militants.
The cost for Palestinians has been high. At least 800 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry. The Israeli military says many were militants, but at least some were women, children and other civilians.
More than 35 Israelis, both civilians and combatants, have been killed in attacks by Palestinians or in combat so far this year, according to Israeli government figures.
Saturday’s raid focused on the Jenin refugee camp, a built-up neighborhood founded decades ago by Palestinian refugees displaced by the wars surrounding the establishment of Israel in 1948.
General Rajab said that Palestinian forces were continuing to make arrests and neutralize explosive devices in an attempt to “regain control of the Jenin camp from lawbreakers who ruin the lives of the citizenry.” He said it was not clear how long the operation would last.
Yazid Jaayseh, a local militant leader, was killed in the raid, he said. Hamas mourned Mr. Jaayseh, although it did not claim him as a member. Hamas said the authority’s crackdown was “absolutely identical to Israel’s aggression and criminality.”
Omar Obeid, 62, a resident of Jenin’s refugee camp, said he was huddled at home with family members. Gunfire between Palestinian security forces and the militants began around 5 a.m. and had yet to let up, he said on Saturday afternoon.
“None of this fighting should ever have happened,” Mr. Obeid lamented. “Violence isn’t going to get us anywhere. We need a bigger solution.”
Palestinian forces had already begun to deploy more aggressively in Jenin over the past week, before the operation was announced on Saturday. The heightened operations and clashes with militants have put civilians in the crossfire as well.
On Friday, the authority took responsibility for the killing of Rabhi Shalabi, 19, in Jenin two days after footage circulating on social media showed him being gunned down. Palestinian officials had initially blamed “lawbreakers” for Mr. Shalabi’s death.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
