Bishops call out Zimbabwe crisis Virus hits Italy's efforts on plastic

An armed prison guard stands by the truck carrying Zimbabwean journalist Hopwell Chin'ono upon his arrival at the magistrates court, in Harare, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020. Lawyers for a jailed Zimbabwean journalist have asked a court to force prison authorities to stop the “blatant and malicious stripping away” of his rights, including lack of access to appropriate food and warm clothing. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
An armed prison guard stands by the truck carrying Zimbabwean journalist Hopwell Chin'ono upon his arrival at the magistrates court, in Harare, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020. Lawyers for a jailed Zimbabwean journalist have asked a court to force prison authorities to stop the “blatant and malicious stripping away” of his rights, including lack of access to appropriate food and warm clothing. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Bishops call out

Zimbabwe crisis

The Associated Press

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe is embroiled in an economic and political crisis marked by human-rights abuses, said the country's Roman Catholic bishops, who were then criticized by the government as "evil" and trying to promote genocide.

In a pastoral letter read out at all Catholic churches Sunday, the bishops said Zimbabwe is in "a multi-layered crisis of the convergence of economic collapse, deepening poverty, food insecurity, corruption and human rights abuses."

Scores of government critics and ordinary people have been arrested in recent weeks, others allegedly abducted and tortured and many are in hiding after an anti-government protest thwarted by security agents in July.

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"Fear runs down the spines of many of our people today," said the bishops' statement. "The crackdown on dissent is unprecedented. ... Our government automatically labels anyone thinking differently as an enemy of the country: that is an abuse."

President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government quickly responded with information minister Monica Mutsvangwa accusing the bishops of being "evil."

"With nefarious cynicism to history, Archbishop Robert Christopher Ndlovu is inching to lead the Zimbabwe Catholic congregation into the darkest dungeons of Rwanda-type genocide," Mutsvangwa said in the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper.

The "errant" and "reckless" archbishop "and his flock of misled Catholic bishops" were promoting a civil war, she said, calling Ndlovu "the chief priest of the agenda of regime change that is the hallmark of the post-imperial major Western powers for the last two decades."

Critics accuse Mnangagwa of being more repressive than his predecessor, the late Robert Mugabe, despite promising democracy when he took power in 2017 following a military coup. The economy is in a downward spiral, with inflation above 837%, the second-highest worldwide after Venezuela.

Virus hits Italy's

efforts on plastic

The Associated Press

ROME -- Italy produced 10% less garbage during its coronavirus lockdown, but environmentalists warn that increased reliance on disposable masks and packaging is imperiling efforts to curb single-use plastics that end up in oceans and seas.

Italian researchers estimate that during the peak months of Italy's lockdown in March and April, urban waste production fell by 500,000 tons. That decrease is enabling dumps in Italy -- where trash collection in major cities has often become a hot-button political issue -- to absorb the 300,000 tons of extra waste from protective masks and gloves estimated to be used this year, according to the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research.

"Substantially, the figures will balance each other by the end of this year," Valeria Frittelloni, the institute's head of waste management and circular economy, told The Associated Press.

But the pandemic dealt a blow to efforts to move away from single-use plastics in many places where they were just beginning to become mainstream. U.N., Greenpeace, Italy's Marevivo environmental organization and other such groups are warning that continued reliance on single-use plastics will pose longer-term risks to the environment.

After years of reducing reliance on products such as plastic bags and cutlery, in line with European Union directives, Italy saw a huge spike in plastic use during the coronavirus emergency.

Keiron Roberts, an environmental research fellow at the University of Portsmouth in England, said other countries saw similar demand for plastics and cardboard as a result of the so-called Amazon effect -- referring to a surge in reliance on the internet retailer as people holed up to abide by stay-at-home orders. But he concurred that within Europe, Italy was in a particularly vulnerable spot.

"There's no area of the Mediterranean now where plastic hasn't impacted," he added.

Zimbabwe journalist Hopewell Chin'ono appears at the magistrates courts while handcuffed in Harare, Wednesday, July, 22, 2020. Chin'ono known for exposing alleged government corruption is now accused of plotting against the government. Hopwell Chin'ono appeared alongside Jacob Ngarivhume, an opposition politician who is accused of conspiring with to mobilize anti government protests planned for July 31.(AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
Zimbabwe journalist Hopewell Chin'ono appears at the magistrates courts while handcuffed in Harare, Wednesday, July, 22, 2020. Chin'ono known for exposing alleged government corruption is now accused of plotting against the government. Hopwell Chin'ono appeared alongside Jacob Ngarivhume, an opposition politician who is accused of conspiring with to mobilize anti government protests planned for July 31.(AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
Zimbabwe journalist Hopewell Chin'ono appears at the magistrates courts while handcuffed in Harare, Wednesday, July, 22, 2020. Chin'ono known for exposing alleged government corruption is now accused of plotting against the government. Hopwell Chin'ono appeared alongside Jacob Ngarivhume, an opposition politician who is accused of conspiring with to mobilize anti government protests planned for July 31. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
Zimbabwe journalist Hopewell Chin'ono appears at the magistrates courts while handcuffed in Harare, Wednesday, July, 22, 2020. Chin'ono known for exposing alleged government corruption is now accused of plotting against the government. Hopwell Chin'ono appeared alongside Jacob Ngarivhume, an opposition politician who is accused of conspiring with to mobilize anti government protests planned for July 31. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

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