CHRISTCHURCH- New Zealand will tighten gun laws in the wake of its worst modern-day massacre, the government said Monday, as it emerged the white supremacist accused of carrying out the killings at two mosques will represent himself in court.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her coalition was unified on the need to reduce the availability of the kind of weapons used by Brenton Tarrant as he went room to room shooting Muslims gathered for Friday prayers.
"We have made a decision as a cabinet, we are unified," she said, flanked by her coalition partner and deputy prime minister, Winston Peters.
Peters, whose New Zealand First party has previously opposed changes, said he backed the prime minister fully.
"The reality is that after one pm on Friday our world changed forever, and so will our laws," he said.
Ardern, the youthful premier who has become the face of the nation's tragedy, said there would be an inquiry into the horrifying attack, as questions swirl over whether intelligence agencies should have spotted warning signs.
The role of social media has also come under the spotlight, after the gunman livestreamed his rampage on Facebook.
A teenager, whose name cannot be published, appeared in court Monday charged with distributing that footage.
Grief continued to wash across the nation Monday, with New Zealanders of all stripes gathering to express revulsion over the killings -- and unity in the face of racial hatred.
A Maori cleansing ceremony was performed at the Al Noor mosque -- the scene of the largest massacre -- bringing together indigenous Kiwis, Muslim leaders and local officials.
Later, dozens of students gathered there to pay their respects, laying flowers and lighting candles.
Many came together for a haka -- a traditional Maori ceremonial dance that has been performed by groups across New Zealand in the wake of killings.
And in Auckland, students at Orewa College gathered to form a heart and the message "Kia Kaha" -- "stay strong" in Maori.
"It brings to mind our own values and why we find this so abhorrent. Ideas held by the perpetrator have no place in our community and school," the college said.
'NOTHING EXTRAORDINARY'
The organizers of New Zealand’s largest gun show -- the Kumeu Militaria Show, near Auckland -- announced Monday they had canceled the event in the wake of the massacre and because of "elevated security risks"
Despite having tightened the rules in the 1990s after the last mass shooting, New Zealand has relatively permissive gun laws, with nearly all of those who apply granted gun licenses.
David Tipple, the managing director of Gun City, whose online store sold Tarrant four weapons, said he felt no responsibility for the killings.
"We detected nothing extraordinary about this license holder," he told reporters.
Tarrant, who appeared in court on Saturday charged with murder, on Monday sacked his state-appointed lawyer.
Richard Peters, who represented the alleged killer during the hearing, told AFP the 28-year-old "wants to be self-represented in this case."
"The way he presented was rational and someone who was not suffering any mental disability. He seemed to understand what was going on," Peters said.
Under New Zealand law, if Tarrant pleads not guilty his case would normally go to trial, raising the possibility that he could face survivors and victims' families in court.
Mustafa Farouk, president of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, told reporters he had faith in the system.
"As a community, we would like that person to go through the process, the due process, and to be given all his rights," he said.
"We believe in the justice system here and we know it will do what is right."
But, he cautioned, the attitudes that gave rise to the killing -- documented in a rambling, racist screed released online minutes before the attacks began -- must be tackled.
"This rise in hatred... by people who call themselves right-wing, whether smaller groups or through reckless politicians, should not be allowed to continue.
"What happened to our community here will happen to another community," he said.
GRAVES
Frustrated families of the 50 victims were still waiting Monday for the release of the bodies of their loved ones, as officials worked their way through a painstaking investigation.
Dozens of graves were being dug in readiness for that release, which Police Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha said he hoped would happen soon.
"The process has been highly emotional and stressful for all... as in accordance with Islamic faith the families have wanted the bodies to be returned as soon as possible," he said.
"We have burial expert teams in place ready to receive the bodies at a point in time."
The dead from Friday's attack span generations, aged between three and 77, according to a list circulated among relatives.
Some victims came from the neighborhood, others from as far afield as Egypt. At least two of the dead came from the same family -- a father and son.
Delhi said Sunday that five of its nationals were killed, while Pakistan said nine of its citizens were among the dead, including one man who died trying to rush Tarrant.
Authorities said 31 people remained in hospital, nine in critical condition.
The ripples from Friday's horror continued to spread across New Zealand, with the brief shuttering of an airport in Dunedin after a suspicious package sparked a security alert.
Reigning Super Rugby champions Canterbury Crusaders, who play in Christchurch, said Monday they would consider changing their name after criticism that it was historically insensitive.
Distinctive writing on the mosque attacker's weaponry included the names of figures from the Crusades, the religious wars waged by European Christians against Muslims for control of the Holy Land in the Middle Ages.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Former president George W. Bush issued a sharp if veiled denunciation of Trumpism on Thursday, warning that bigotry, white supremacy and falsehoods are coarsening the national tone and threatening American democracy.
"Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication," Bush said in a speech in New York.
He did not mention President Donald Trump by name, but Bush offered unmistakable criticism of the current administration and the controversial politics of millions of voters who swept Trump to victory last November.
"Bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed," Bush said.
Argument "turns too easily into animosity," he added. "Disagreement escalates into dehumanization."
Unlike his Democratic successor Barack Obama, the Republican Bush has said very little publicly about Trump or the state of US politics.
Thursday's speech -- at the Bush Institute's Spirit of Liberty event -- marked a departure from that silence, an expression of concern by a former leader in a unique moment in the nation's history.
"We've seen nationalism distorted into nativism and forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America," the 71-year-old Bush said.
"We've seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty. At times it can seem like the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together."
The 43rd president, observing America's "fading confidence" in free markets and international trade, lamented the "return of isolationist sentiments" in the country.
And while it is important not to ignore concerns of those whose jobs may have been lost to global economic forces, "we cannot wish globalization away," Bush said, while also stressing the importance of welcoming refugees and dissidents to US shores.
He also called for the nation to pass its civic ideals on to the next generation.
"Bullying and prejudice in our public life sets a national tone," Bush said. "The only way to pass along civic values is to first live up to them."
Bush's remarks came three days after a speech by another major Republican national figure, Senator John McCain, appeared to rebuke Trump's ideas and politics.
War hero McCain slammed what he described as "half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
BOSTON -- Thousands of people in Boston protested a "Free Speech" rally featuring right-wing speakers on Saturday, with hundreds of police mobilized to prevent a recurrence of violence that left a woman dead at a Virginia white-supremacist protest last week.
In historic Boston Common park alone, hundreds of protesters who believe the event could become a platform for racist propaganda dwarfed the few dozen rally participants.
The number of protesters was poised to swell exponentially as a march with thousands more people bore down on the park.
Some 500 police officers placed barricades to prevent vehicles from entering the park, the nation's oldest. To keep the two groups separate, they also built a cordon around the site of the rally.
Last weekend's clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one woman was killed in a car rampage after bloody street battles, ratcheted up racial tensions already inflamed by white supremacist groups marching more openly in rallies across the United States.
White nationalists had converged in the Southern university city to defend a statue of Robert E. Lee, who led the pro-slavery Confederacy's army during the Civil War, which ended in 1865.
A growing number of U.S. political leaders have called for the removal of statues honoring the Confederacy, with civil rights activists charging that they promote racism. Advocates of the statues contend they are a reminder of their heritage.
Duke University removed a statue of Lee from the entrance of a chapel on its Durham, North Carolina campus, officials said on Saturday.
Organizers of Saturday's rally in Boston have denounced the white supremacist message and violence of Charlottesville and said their event would be peaceful.
"The point of this is to have political speech from across the spectrum, conservative, libertarian, centrist," said Chris Hood, an 18-year-old Boston resident who stood among a crowd of a few dozen people who planned to join the Free Speech rally. "This is not about Nazis. If there were Nazis here, I'd be protesting against them."
Last weekend's violence sparked the biggest domestic crisis yet for U.S. President Donald Trump, who provoked ire across the political spectrum for not immediately condemning white nationalists and for praising "very fine people" on both sides of the fight.
Two male rally participants wearing Trump's red "Make America Great Again" campaign hats attempted to enter the protest pen that police had set up to keep the two sides separated. They were swarmed by black-clad protesters, some with their faces covered, as the crowd screamed "go home" and "no hate" at them.
Beyond the Boston rally and march, protests are also expected on Saturday in Texas, with the Houston chapter of Black Lives Matter holding a rally to remove a "Spirit of the Confederacy" monument from a park and civil rights activists in Dallas planning a rally against white supremacy.
Boston authorities had roadblocks in place to avert car attacks like the deadly one carried out in Charlottesville by a man said to have neo-Nazi sympathies against counter-protesters and a similar spate of attacks by Islamist extremists in Europe, most recently Barcelona.
PROTESTERS REJECT PLEA
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh had asked protesters to avoid Boston Common, saying their presence would draw more attention to the far-right activists. He joined the crowd of thousands assembling in Boston's historically black Roxbury neighborhood early on Saturday.
"These signs and the message so far this morning is all about love and peace," Walsh told reporters. "That's a good message."
Monica Cannon, an organizer of the "Fight White Supremacy" march, said it was a necessary move.
"Ignoring a problem has never solved it," Cannon said in a phone interview. "We cannot continue to ignore racism."
The Free Speech rally's scheduled speakers include Kyle Chapman, a California activist who was arrested at a Berkeley rally earlier this year that turned violent, and Joe Biggs, formerly of the right-wing conspiracy site Infowars.
Antonio Vargas, a 20-year-old student at Gordon College, joined the protest march.
"I believe in equality," Vargas said. "I believe race shouldn't define the pattern of your life or the result of your life.
"There also is a time to stand up and not be silent."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
A tweet by former US President Barack Obama soon after the outbreak of violence at a nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday garnered 2.8 million "likes" to become the most liked Twitter message ever by Tuesday, the social media network said.
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion...," Obama tweeted, quoting South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.
At the time this story was posted early Friday morning (Manila time), the number of "likes" reached 4.2 million.
He followed that record-breaking tweet with the following messages:
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Seattle Seahawks player Michael Bennett remained seated during the playing of the U.S. national anthem before a pre-season National Football League game to protest deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Virginia over the weekend, his team said.
With his gesture on Sunday, the 31-year-old defensive end became the latest NFL player to use the playing of the Star Spangled Banner anthem as a protest forum.
Last season, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick grabbed the media spotlight when he refused to stand for the anthem, saying he was protesting police brutality and social inequality. Kaepernick opted out of his contract in March and has not been signed by another team.
Bennett remained on the bench with a towel over his head before Sunday's game with the Los Angeles Chargers at Southern California's StubHub Stadium, the pre-season opener for both teams. He said he would keep up the protest all season.
"With everything that's been going on the last couple of months, and especially after the last couple of days seeing what's going on in Virginia, and earlier today in Seattle, I just wanted to be able to use my platform to be able to continuously speak on injustice," Bennett said in a story on the Seahawks' website.
In Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, a woman was killed and 19 hurt when a car plowed into counter-protesters near a white nationalist rally. James Fields, 20, who had Nazi sympathies as a teenager, according to acquaintances, has been charged with second-degree murder in the incident.
The violence sparked protests and vigils in cities across the United States on Sunday, including Seattle, where clashes occurred between supporters and opponents of President Donald Trump.
The president raised a furor when he initially failed to explicitly single out the white supremacists widely seen as sparking the melee, saying "many sides" were involved, although he was more explicit in his criticism in a statement on Monday.
Bennett said he was not anti-military or anti-American but opposed intolerance and injustice. He said he expected to face criticism over his decision, adding, "This is bigger than football."
A spokesman for the team did not respond to a request for comment.
On Saturday, Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch also sat during the national anthem before a game against the Arizona Cardinals. But Oakland's head coach, Jack del Rio, quoted Lynch at a postgame news conference as saying sitting out the anthem had no significance in his case and was simply something he had done for the past 11 years.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Frank McGurty and Tom Brown)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia - At least 3 people were killed on Saturday and 35 injured after protests turned violent in Charlottesville, Virginia, as white nationalists protesting plans to remove the statue of a Confederate general clashed with counter-demonstrators and a car plowed into a crowd, officials said.
A 32-year-old female was among those killed, said Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas, and injuries ranged from life-threatening to minor. The male driver of the vehicle that plowed into a crowd is in custody, Thomas said, and police were treating the incident as a criminal homicide investigation.
"I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here," Charlottesville Mayor Mike Singer said on his Twitter feed.
Video on social media and Reuters photographs showed a car slamming into a large group of what appeared to be counter-protesters, sending some flying into the air.
The car incident was being treated as a homicide, local TV broadcaster WVIR reported, citing a city attorney.
“We’re closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia," Trump told reporters at his New Jersey golf course.
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides."
A reporter shouted a question to Trump about whether he had spoken out strongly enough against white nationalists but the president made no comment.
The clashes highlight how the white supremacist movement has resurfaced under the "alt-right" banner after years in the shadows of mainstream American politics.
'DOMESTIC TERRORISM?'
Prominent Democrats, civil rights activists and even a few Republicans said it was inexcusable of the President not to denounce white supremacy.
Republican US Senator Cory Gardner wrote on Twitter: "Mr. President - we must call evil by its name," adding "These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism."
"What we’ve seen today in Charlottesville needs to be condemned and called what it is: hatred, evil, racism & homegrown extremism," former US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a tweet. Kerry served under Democratic President Barack Obama.
The Charlottesville confrontation was a stark reminder of the growing political polarization that has intensified since Trump's election last year.
"You will not erase us," chanted a crowd of white nationalists, while counter-protesters carried placards that read: "Nazi go home" and "Smash white supremacy."
A silver sedan driving at high speed plowed into the crowd before reversing along the same street. The incident took place about two blocks from the park that houses the statue of Robert E. Lee, who headed the Confederate army in the American Civil War.
Witnesses said it looked like the driver intended to mow down people. Police have not offered any details on the car incident.
“From what I saw, it looked extremely deliberate,” Will Mafei, 23, of Charlottesville said. He also witnessed the car hitting pedestrians as it went in reverse.
The University of Virginia Health Systems received 20 patients from the scene near the car strike. One of those people died and 19 were being treated, a spokeswoman said without offering details on the injuries.
The City of Charlottesville said 15 people were injured at the nearby site of the rally.
Earlier, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency in the city, home of the University of Virginia's flagship campus. The gathering was declared an "unlawful assembly," allowing police to disperse the protesters, and police cleared the park where the rally was to be held.
"I am praying that God help us all," Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy said in an interview with CNN. "We are better than this."
The violence broke out on Friday night, when hundreds of white marchers with blazing torches appeared at the campus of the University of Virginia in a display that critics said was reminiscent of a Ku Klux Klan rally
On Saturday morning, fighting broke out in the city's downtown when hundreds of people, some wearing white nationalist symbols and carrying Confederate battle flags, were confronted by a nearly equal number of counter-protesters.
David Duke, a former leader of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, was in Charlottesville for the rally, according to his Twitter account.
The rally was part of a persistent debate in the US South over the display of the Confederate battle flag and other symbols of the rebel side in the Civil War, which was fought over the issue of slavery.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
