The Wall St.Journal 28Feb2020

A16| Friday, February 28, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

WORLD NEWS

ering abstinence.

Many Brazilians welcome the

idea. “I love Damares because

she is improving people’s mor-

als in Brazil,” said Josemary

Barbosa, 56, a police station

clerk and mother of two boys.

“We see 12-year-old girls having

babies they won’t be able to

raise.”

A victim herself of rape by a

pastor as a young girl, Ms. Alves

said she has also made it her

mission to crack down on

crimes against women and chil-

dren, from domestic violence to

pedophilia.

“Since I was raped, man con-

quered the moon, invented the

internet and found the cure to

many diseases, but couldn’t stop

the raping of children,” said Ms.

Alves. “We can’t put up with

this anymore.”

Her popularity owes itself, in

part, to the growth of evangeli-

cal Christianity, particularly in

the slums and poorer northern

region. Accounting for about a

third of the population, evangel-

icals are set to outnumber Cath-

olics in Brazil as early as 2032,

according to demographic ex-

perts.

But Ms. Alves’s message has

also struck a chord with many

other Brazilians, who polls show

were becoming more conserva-

tive before Mr. Bolsonaro, him-

self a devout Christian, took of-

fice in January 2019.

PollsterIbopefound 54% of

Brazilians exhibited a high level

of conservatism in 2016, com-

U.K., EU

Gear Up

For Tough

Post-Exit

Bargaining

WORLD WATCH

WEST AFRICA

Troops Planned

For Sahel Region

African leaders have decided

to deploy 3,000 troops to West

Africa’s troubled Sahel region as

extremist attacks surge, an Afri-

can Union official said.

The force would be a signifi-

cant new player in the region

south of the Sahara where fight-

ers linked to al Qaeda and Is-

lamic State killed thousands of

people last year.

The decision comes as the

U.S. is considering shrinking its

military presence in Africa.

Smail Chergui, the African

Union commissioner for peace

and security, relayed the troop

decision taken at a recent AU

summit to visiting European

Union officials on Thursday.

The force would join France’s

largest overseas military opera-

tion, the 5,100-strong Barkhane,

and the 15,000-strong United

Nations peacekeeping force in

Mali, one of the countries hit

hardest by the attacks along

with Burkina Faso and Niger.

—Associated Press

GREECE

Protests Continue

On Eastern Islands

Demonstrators protested for

a fourth consecutive day on the

eastern Greek islands of Lesbos

and Chios against government

plans to build new migrant de-

tention centers.

The protests come amid

growing anger and occasional vi-

olence on islands that are the

main entry point for tens of

thousands of people seeking

better lives in Europe.

Shops and services were shut

on Lesbos as workers extended

an initial 24-hour strike into a

second day as part of the pro-

tests.

The mayors of Lesbos, Chios

and the nearby island of Samos

met with Prime Minister Kyria-

kos Mitsotakis Thursday eve-

ning, and agreed on “the need to

immediately ease overcrowding

on the islands,” the prime minis-

ter’s office said.

—Associated Press

UNITED KINGDOM

Court Stalls Plan

For Airport Expansion

Heathrow Airport’s plans to in-

crease the capacity of Europe’s

biggest travel hub by more than

50% were stalled when a British

court said the government failed

to consider its commitment to

combat climate change when it

approved the project.

The ruling throws in doubt the

future of the 14 billion-pound ($

billion) plan to build a third run-

way at Heathrow, the west Lon-

don airport that already handles

more than 1,300 flights a day.

While Heathrow officials said

they planned to appeal, Prime

Minister Boris Johnson’s govern-

ment indicated it wouldn’t chal-

lenge the ruling by the Court of

Appeal.

At stake is a project that busi-

ness groups and Heathrow offi-

cials argue is crucial for the econ-

omy as the U.K. looks to increase

links with countries from China to

the U.S. after leaving the Euro-

pean Union. Heathrow has already

reached the capacity of its current

facilities, and a third runway is

needed to serve the growing de-

mands of travelers and interna-

tional trade, they say.

Environmental campaigners

challenged the project because of

concerns that a third runway

would encourage increased air

travel and the carbon emissions

blamed for global warming.

—Associated Press

headlines for accusing schools

of encouraging homosexuality

by teaching children about sex-

ual diversity. On the front line of

Mr. Bolsonaro’s culture wars,

she has focused much of her ef-

forts on children and teenage

pregnancy, which is falling but

still high.

Brazil has 68 pregnancies per

1,000 teenagers aged 15-19,

above the Latin American aver-

age of 66, and 50% higher than

the global average of 46.

It’s an issue that overwhelm-

ingly affects poorer communi-

ties. About a third of teenage

pregnancies are deliberate, with

some young girls even getting

pregnant by local gang leaders

as a form of life insurance in the

most dangerous slums, the min-

istry says.

“Who doesn’t want to protect

children?” said Ms. Alves, who

heads the Ministry of Women,

Family and Human Rights.

“Even those lefties who hate

me, when I start talking about

this, their guard goes down.”

Pregnancy among girls aged

14 or under is even more worry-

ing, Ms. Alves said. While the

number of mothers aged 15 to

19 declined 40% between 2000

and 2018, pregnancy among this

younger group fell by only 27%.

About 164,000 girls in that

lower age bracket get pregnant

every year.

She still supports the admin-

istration’s efforts to teach chil-

dren about contraception, and

the Health Ministry plans to

hand out 570 million condoms

this year. But Ms. Alves said she

wants teens to also start consid-

pared with 49% in 2010. It cal-

culates the index by asking re-

spondents a mix of questions on

topics such as abortion, as well

as issues related to the treat-

ment of criminals.

Following Brazil’s right-wing

military dictatorship from 1964

to 1985, “conservative” had been

seen as a dirty word in the

country, absent from the names

of all of Brazil’s 33 political par-

ties. That is changing, political

scientists say, partly because

many voters are too young to

remember the regime. It’s also

because of recent corruption

scandals that have shaken Bra-

zilians’ faith in the opposition

leftist Workers’ Party.

But Ms. Alves’s comments, as

well as those of Mr. Bolsonaro,

deeply offend swaths of the

population, among them many

gay Brazilians. Speaking to mis-

sionaries and pastors in 2018,

the minister drew ridicule for

saying the Disney character Elsa

from the movie “Frozen” must

be a lesbian because she ends

up alone in an ice castle. She ac-

cused the director of encourag-

ing young girls to follow suit.

Samuel Neto, a 28-year-old

psychologist and fellow evangel-

ical Christian in São Paulo, sees

Ms. Alves as a threat.

“She represents a section of

the evangelical Church that’s

extremist, conservative and

heterosexual,” said Mr. Neto,

who plans to marry his boy-

friend under a 2013 gay-mar-

riage law. “She is in a position

of power and can roll back

rights we obtained after much

struggle.”

BRASÍLIA—During Brazil’s

glitzy and hedonistic carnival

this week, some revelers

dressed up as a controversial

government minister, a female

preacher who is the new face of

the growing influence of evan-

gelical Christianity in the coun-

try.

Damares Alves is ridiculed by

liberals for promoting teen sex-

ual abstinence and criticized for

calling for a full ban on abor-

tion. But she has grown widely

popular among poorer voters

and her rising clout is the latest

sign of Brazil’s cultural shift to-

ward the right amid its weari-

ness with corruption scandals

that have plagued the country’s

leftist administrations.

“My agenda isn’t religious.

It’s the agenda of the Brazilian

people,” said Ms. Alves in a re-

cent interview..

Ms. Alves, 55 years old and

head of the ministry that han-

dles women’s and family issues,

has a 43% approval rate, making

her President Jair Bolsonaro’s

second-most popular minister in

a recent survey by pollster

Datafolha, after corruption-

fighting Justice Minister Sergio

Moro.

Political analysts say her

popularity, which is higher

among poorer voters who have

traditionally backed the left, is

helping prop up Mr. Bolsonaro’s

own approval ratings, which

rose to 48% in a January poll

from 41% in August.

Ms. Alves has also made

BYPAULOTREVISANI

ANDSAMANTHAPEARSON

Social Conservatism Gains Ground in Brazil

Damares Alves, head of the ministry that handles women’s and

family issues, is pressing a social conservative agenda that has

made her popular with a growing number of Brazilians.

SERGIO LIMA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

REYHANLI, Turkey—At

least 29 Turkish soldiers were

killed in northwestern Syria

on Thursday, officials said,

plunging Turkey deeper into

the war there, as a Russian-

backed Syrian military offen-

sive sought to reclaim the last

rebel stronghold.

The soldiers were killed by

Syrian regime forces, accord-

ing to the governor of Tur-

key’s Hatay province, which

borders Syria. Turkish offi-

cials said another 36 were

wounded.

As the news spread, crowds

of Turkish civilians gathered

in concern at a government

hospital in the town of Rey-

hanli, on the Syrian border,

where wounded Turkish

troops were said to have been

treated. Dozens of police and

an armored vehicle were de-

ployed to seal off the build-

ing.

The deaths, which raised

Turkey’s troop losses to at

least 49 this month, add to

the dilemma facing President

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who

said last week it was only a

matter of time before he

launched a military operation

in Syria’s Idlib province to re-

pel Syrian government troops.

Late Thursday, Mr. Erdogan

chaired a meeting of top secu-

rity officials to discuss the

situation in Idlib, Syria’s last

rebel-held enclave.

“The illegitimate regime

that turned its guns toward

our soldiers will be retaliated

against,” Fahrettin Altun, Mr.

Erdogan’s head of communi-

cations, said in a statement

after the meeting.

The assault on Idlib, in-

cluding shelling and relentless

airstrikes, has forced nearly a

million people to flee since

December, creating the worst

single displacement of people

in nine years of crisis in Syria.

Turkey deployed troops in

Idlib in late 2018 after reach-

ing a cease-fire agreement

with Russia, part of a fragile

partnership between the

countries, both of which have

deepened their involvement in

the Syrian conflict in recent

years.

The truce collapsed three

months ago, when the army of

Syrian President Bashar al-

Assad, backed by Russian jet

fighters, resumed an offensive

and reclaimed control of stra-

tegic towns and roads in Idlib.

At the beginning of Febru-

ary, Mr. Erdogan responded

by dispatching an estimated

10,000 soldiers to the prov-

ince in a bid to halt the re-

gime’s territorial gains.

Any further Turkish mili-

tary response could risk a

confrontation with Russia,

which has waged a military

campaign since 2015 that has

tilted the conflict in favor of

the Syrian government.

The offensive has included

frequent attacks on hospitals,

schools, and other civilian

targets, forcing huge numbers

of Syrians to flee toward the

Turkish border. They are

barred from entering, trap-

ping them in a war zone.

“Whether it’s health, edu-

cation, food, he always targets

the infrastructure first, then

he can move forward in the

area,” said Ahmad Rami Mok-

adam, a relief worker with the

Syrian American Medical As-

sociation, a group providing

aid to people inside Idlib, re-

ferring to Mr. Assad’s forces.

BYJAREDMALSIN

Turkish Losses Mount in Syria

Smoke billows over the town of Saraqib in northwestern Syria’s Idlib province on Thursday, following a bombardment of rebel positions by Syrian government forces.

AREF TAMMAWI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

LONDON—The U.K. and the

European Union set the stage

for months of tense and highly

pressured negotiations, laying

out clashing approaches to

their post-Brexit relationship.

Britain and the EU will on

Monday start negotiations to

determine how they will trade

and cooperate in the future.

Britain has ramped up pressure

in the talks—which will cover

topics ranging from tariffs on

goods, to fisheries, data sharing

and security cooperation—by

saying it wants the new rela-

tionship to be in place by Jan. 1

next year.

Presenting their negotiating

mandates this week, both sides

took a tough line. The EU says

Britain must not retreat from

the bloc’s basic regulatory stan-

dards if it wants tariff- and

quota-free access for its prod-

ucts to the trade bloc. Prime

Minister Boris Johnson says he

wants Britain to set its own

rules and is prepared to suck

up the economic hit of tariffs.

Heightening the stakes on

Thursday, Mr. Johnson’s gov-

ernment said it wanted to see a

broad outline for the deal by

June and would walk away

from talks if no progress was

made by then.

“Whatever happens the gov-

ernment will not negotiate any

arrangement in which the U.K.

does not have control of its

own laws and political life,” the

government said in its negotiat-

ing mandate.

Analysts say that compro-

mise is possible, but the talks

will likely be marked by brink-

manship and could end up with

no deal at all.

If a deal can’t be reached,

the U.K. and EU will trade on

so-called World Trade Organi-

zation terms, under which both

sides would impose tariffs on a

range of products.

ByMax Colchester,

Jason Douglas

andLaurence Norman

NEW DELHI—Indian author-

ities tried to calm tensions in

the nation’s capital and began

investigating four days of riot-

ing and clashes between Hindus

and Muslims that left at least

38 dead and more than 300 in-

jured in the worst violence the

capital has seen in decades.

The violence, which started

with dueling protests Sunday

over a new citizenship law that

critics say discriminates

against Muslims, stretched

across several days when Presi-

dent Trump was visiting the

country. It gave way to accusa-

tions and finger-pointing

Thursday.

Police said they were inves-

tigating dozens of complaints,

including the case of a young

Hindu security assistant at the

Home Ministry’s intelligence

bureau who was killed and

whose body was mutilated and

left in a ditch. The man’s family

blamed the death on support-

ers of a Muslim politician from

a party that is a rival to the

Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Ja-

nata Party of Prime Minister

Narendra Modi.

More than 100 arrests have

been made in the rioting, a

Delhi police spokesman said.

The violence began after a

local BJP politician with a his-

tory of sectarian provocations

organized a demonstration in

support of the citizenship law.

Other groups critical of the law

had been peacefully protesting

against it in the area almost

since its passage in December.

On Thursday, the Indian Na-

tional Congress party leader-

ship accused the BJP-led cen-

tral government of having been

“mute spectators” to the riots.

Information Minister

Prakash Javadekar said investi-

gations into complaints have

been “fast-tracked.”

BYVIBHUTIAGARWAL

ANDBILLSPINDLE

India Starts

Investigation

Of Deadly

Delhi Riots