World

President Joe Biden will on Tuesday sign into law a bill granting federal protections to same-sex marriage — gathering thousands of guests at the White House to celebrate the legislative milestone.

It comes 12 years after Biden — then Barack Obama’s vice president — took a public stand in favor of same-sex unions, well before they became legal in the entire United States through a 2015 US Supreme Court decision.

After the Supreme Court — now significantly more conservative — overturned longstanding abortion rights last June, lawmakers from the left and right came together to prevent any subsequent move to curb same-sex marriage rights, feared by some.

The legislation’s final adoption by Congress last week marked a rare show of bipartisanship in deeply divided Washington.

In celebration, Biden will be gathering a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the White House grounds, along with advocates and plaintiffs in marriage equality cases across the country, his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.

Jean-Pierre, who herself made history as the first openly gay White House press secretary, also touted “musical guests and performances to celebrate this historic bill.”

The legislation, she said, “will give peace of mind to millions of LGBTQI+ and interracial couples who will finally be guaranteed the rights and protections to which they and their children are entitled.”

– Growing support –

Hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples have married since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision legalizing the unions throughout the United States.

Public acceptance has grown dramatically in recent decades, with polls now showing a strong majority of Americans supporting same-sex marriage.

But some conservatives and the religious right remain opposed.

The new legislation, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, does not require states to legalize same-sex marriage but does require them to recognize a marriage so long as it was valid in the state where it was performed.

It repeals previous legislation defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and also protects interracial couples by requiring states to recognize legal marriages without regard to “sex, race, ethnicity or national origin.”

In the House of Representatives, 39 Republicans joined a united Democratic majority in supporting the bill, while 169 Republicans voted against. It was previously adopted in the evenly-split Senate by 61 votes to 36.

– ‘Who do you love?’ –

Jean-Pierre said Biden would stress Tuesday that “there is much more work to be done to protect LGBTQI+ individuals across the country.”

Biden’s spokeswoman recalled that the 80-year-old Democrat was among the first American political leaders to publicly support same-sex unions at the highest levels of government.

Back in 2012, Biden caused a stir by candidly declaring his support for same-sex unions — when Obama’s White House was still looking for the best way to make the president’s position official as he sought reelection to a second term.

“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying woman and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same, exact rights,” Biden said in a televised interview at the time.

“Who do you love? Who do you love and will you be loyal to the person you love?” Biden said. “That’s what people are finding out what all marriages at their root are about.”

Following his election in 2020, Biden tapped Pete Buttigieg to become his transport secretary — the first openly gay person to be confirmed by the Senate to a cabinet post.

And beyond the issue of marriage, the Biden administration has taken a strong stance in support of LGBTQ rights — notably towards the transgender community whose push for greater rights has become a political flashpoint in the country.

The administration has introduced gender-neutral passports — allowing people who identify neither as male nor female to select the gender “X” — and it lifted a ban on transgender people serving in the armed forces, introduced under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump.

President Volodymyr Zelensky urged G7 nations on Monday to provide extra gas and weapons to help Ukraine survive a brutal winter that threatens to bring further suffering to millions in the war-torn country.

With snow on the ground and Ukraine’s energy grid battered by Russian strikes, many are facing freezing temperatures without power or heating.

During a video conference with the G7 club of wealthy nations on Monday, Zelensky said Ukraine needs “about two billion cubic metres” of additional gas to get through the winter.

He also urged the G7 to send more arms to Ukraine, including “modern tanks” as well as “rocket artillery and more long-range missiles”.

Western-supplied weapons have helped turn the tide in the war, and a senior US military official said Monday that Russia is likely turning to older, less reliable artillery and rocket ammunition as its newer stocks run low.

But Zelensky said “Russia still has the advantage in artillery and missiles.”

“This is a fact,” he told the G7. “These capabilities of the occupying army are the ones to fuel the Kremlin’s arrogance”.

– ‘We will survive’ –

Meanwhile, in the strategic Ukrainian port of Ochakiv, officials are hoping the Black Sea naval base can serve to consolidate Kyiv’s gains in the southern Kherson region.

After failing to seize the port, Russian troops have been pummelling Ochakiv from the nearby Kinburn peninsula. 

In the fog at the local market, 62-year-old Oleg Klyutshko said: “I am not afraid of winter… but I would like the strikes to stop. We will survive anything else.”

Kyiv says 40 percent of Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure has been damaged, with wave after wave of targeted Russian attacks.

The Ukrainian energy ministry said in a statement that Russian missiles had hit all of the country’s thermal power plants, while 44 overhead high-voltage power lines had also been affected.

Power company YASNO said supply limitations in Kyiv were “significant” with some 40 percent of supplies diverted to critical infrastructure.

Oil and gas company DTEK said its specialists were “constantly looking for equipment to restore the energy infrastructure destroyed by Russia” and had agreed on contracts with European suppliers ABB and Siemens.

According to a readout issued by his office, Zelensky told the G7 “the terror against our power plants forced us to use more gas than expected”. 

“This is why we need additional support over this particular winter,” he said.

The G7 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany — which currently holds the club’s presidency — Italy, Japan and the United States.

G7 leaders agreed on key elements of a platform to coordinate financial support for Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, before a summit in Paris on post-war reconstruction.

Zelensky also proposed a special summit, which he called the Global Peace Formula Summit, “to determine how and when we can implement the points of the Ukrainian Peace Formula,” which would secure Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity.

He invited the G7 industrialised nations “as well as other conscientious countries” to “show your leadership”.

The Ukrainian leader also urged Russia “to take a concrete and meaningful step towards a diplomatic settlement”. 

Zelensky called on “the occupier” Moscow to leave Ukrainian territory by Christmas.

“The one who brought the war upon us has to take it away.”

– ‘Rethink’ nuclear security –

An international conference hosted by France will kick off in Paris on Tuesday. 

The gathering of politicians, blue-chip companies and aid agencies will focus on how Ukraine’s Western allies can provide immediate support to keep its civil infrastructure afloat amid incessant bombing by Russia. 

Speaking to AFP ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Ukraine’s energy minister German Galushchenko said in an interview that the war with Russia “completely changes our understanding of nuclear security”.

He pointed to Russia’s seizure of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest atomic facility — which has raised alarm among Western allies as shelling has continued in the area throughout the nearly 10-month conflict. 

“This situation absolutely pushes us to rethink what we should do from the point of view of (nuclear) safety,” Galushchenko told AFP. “That’s a question, too, to all the countries of the world.”

Google has a “moral obligation” to stop a democracy protest song appearing in search results, Hong Kong’s leader said Tuesday, as row over China’s national anthem widened to include the tech giant.

Hong Kong officials have been infuriated by a series of mistakes at international sporting events in recent weeks when a protest song has been played instead of China’s national anthem for the city’s athletes.

Their ire has increasingly focused on Google after it emerged that the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” routinely appears at the top of the page when people search for Hong Kong’s anthem.

City leader John Lee told reporters on Tuesday that Google should ensure China’s national anthem — which the city’s athletes compete under — comes at the top of the search page. 

“If any company is in anyway responsible, it has that moral obligation,” he said. 

“There are ways to do it,” Lee added.

Lee’s comments came a day after Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tang said Google had refused to change the search results, something he said was an issue of “great regret”. 

According to Tang, a former police chief, Google said its search engine results were governed by an algorithm, not human input.

Both Tang and Lee have countered that Google has been willing to amend search results to abide by local laws, including privacy laws in the European Union.

Lee said his administration would reach out again to Google to pursue the matter.

Google has not yet responded to requests for comment.

China’s national anthem is “March of the Volunteers”, a rousing song born out of the Communist Party’s struggle to liberate the country from Japanese occupation.

“Glory to Hong Kong” was penned during huge protests that swept Hong Kong in 2019 and became hugely popular within the city.

It is now all but illegal to sing the song or play its melody under a sweeping national security law that was imposed to crush those protests.

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro said Monday his country would fully reopen its land border with Colombia on January 1, completing a negotiating process that began in September with the two South American neighbors reestablishing diplomatic ties.

“I can announce that we will be completely opening the entire western border of Venezuela with Colombia for the passage of vehicles,” the socialist president said in a statement broadcast on the state media.

“We are preparing everything to comply with what we announced, to fulfill the pledges made with (Colombian) President Gustavo Petro to open it on January 1,” Maduro said.

The border was partially closed seven years ago and completely blocked three years ago, when Maduro broke off diplomatic ties after the previous Colombian government questioned his re-election, the legitimacy of which many countries, including the United States, have also doubted.

As soon as he came to power, Petro, Colombia’s first-ever left-wing president, sought to reestablish ties and pushed for a reopening of the border. 

The Simon Bolivar Bridge, which connects Colombia’s Cucuta with the Venezuelan city of San Antonio del Tachira, is currently open for cargo vehicles between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm and for pedestrians between 5:00 am and 6:00 pm. 

It is expected that next Thursday a test plan will be launched on the “Tienditas” bridge, a land route that has not been inaugurated since its construction in 2017.

Five more protesters died in Peru on Monday as violent demonstrations over the ousting of the former president showed no sign of calming, despite his successor’s efforts to quell the unrest.

Seven people, including three teenagers, have now died in escalating protests since the leftist Pedro Castillo was accused of an attempted coup, impeached and arrested last week.

New President Dina Boluarte tried to ease tensions on Sunday, announcing she would seek to hold elections two years early and declaring a state of emergency in flashpoint areas.

But that had little effect as protesters continued to demand her resignation, blocking roads in several cities around the country with logs, rocks and burning tires.

Some 2,000 protesters smashed runway lighting, burned security booths and forced the closure of the airport in Peru’s second-largest city Arequipa for several hours on Monday before police dispersed them with tear gas.

The clashes left one dead, while another four people died as riot police quashed protests in Boluarte’s southeastern home region of Apurimac — where two other protesters died in clashes with security forces during an attempt to storm an airport there on Sunday.

“We have seven people reported dead” since Sunday, a source from the public defender’s office told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Also Monday in Apurimac, demonstrators torched the public prosecutor’s office and a police station. In Arequipa, protesters also occupied one of the largest factories in the country, owned by the dairy company Gloria.

In a statement, UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado warned that “the situation may escalate further” and urged “all involved to exercise restraint.”

Hurtado also called on authorities to “allow people to exercise their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of opinion and expression.”

– ‘Political prisoner’-

Castillo has been in detention since last Wednesday, and is facing charges of rebellion and conspiracy after he dissolved Congress and vowed to rule by decree.

The former president met with his lawyers in Lima ahead of a hearing Tuesday in which he will seek his immediate release.

“The president’s position is that he is a political prisoner,” said lawyer Ronald Atencio.

Around 100 supporters were camping out front of the prison where Castillo is being held, demanding he be released and returned to office.

“We have been sleeping here for four nights and we will continue until we get the president back to the (presidential) palace,” protester Ana Karina Ramos told AFP, with tears in her eyes.

Meanwhile, the leftist governments of Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia released a joint statement in support of Castillo, saying he had been “the victim of antidemocratic harassment” since his election.

Castillo’s 17-month rule was overshadowed by six investigations against him and his family, mass protests demanding his removal, and a power struggle with the opposition-controlled Congress.

Boluarte, a former prosecutor who had served as Castillo’s vice president, was quickly sworn in to replace him following his impeachment and arrest.

On Sunday, she tried to appease citizens in a televised address saying she would seek “to reach an agreement” with Congress to bring forward elections from July 2026 to April 2024.

The country’s right-leaning Congress convened an emergency session on Sunday afternoon to discuss the crisis, but it had to be suspended after fighting broke out.

On Monday, the government fired the 26 regional prefects who had been appointed by Castillo, accusing them of “inciting protests.”

– ‘Indefinite strike’ –

With his background as a rural teacher and union leader, and with little contact among the nation’s elites, Castillo has always drawn his strongest support from Andean regions, while struggling to find backing in coastal Lima.

Rural unions and organizations representing Indigenous peoples have called for an “indefinite strike” beginning Tuesday in support of Castillo, himself the son of a peasant family.

They demanded the suspension of Congress, early elections and a new constitution, as well as Castillo’s immediate release, according to a statement from the Agrarian and Rural Front of Peru, which groups about a dozen organizations.

Peru is no stranger to political instability and is now on its sixth president since 2016.