Police in Nairobi on Friday reportedly used water cannons, tear gas and live ammunition on demonstrators after they took to the streets to protest the demolition of houses and shops earlier this week that left thousands homeless.The protests erupted in the Korogocho slum and quickly spread to the ring road that connects it with the rest of the Nigerian capital. Demonstrators set fire to tires and built barricades in the streets, prompting the police response.City officials Monday began bulldozing homes and shops in the Kariobangi neighborhood that the city says was illegally built on government land. The demolition reportedly left as many 7,000 people homeless.Rights activists have criticized the government for the timing of the forced evictions, and they have criticized Kenyan police for allegedly using excessive force while enforcing government measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.The Kenyan government has ordered a nationwide curfew running from 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Month: May 2020
Coronavirus Poses Threat to Somalia’s Planned Parliamentary Elections
The International Crisis Group said the coronavirus poses the threat of a political crisis to Somalia as the country heads toward its scheduled November election.The Brussels-based think tank calls on political leaders to discuss the electoral process to avoid violence. Somalia has recorded more than 900 COVID-19 cases so far. The Somali government is attempting to fight the coronavirus pandemic while preparing for the elections due to take place in six months. In this file photo taken on March 19, 2020, students walk in a Mogadishu neighborhood wearing face masks as protective measure against the COVID-10 coronavirus.Senator Ilyas Ali Hassan, a member of the opposition, says the health crisis is no excuse for the government not to hold the election on time. “The issue of coronavirus can be a small factor when it comes to election preparation” Hassan said. “The government has not prepared the ground well. The election venue is not ready. That does not mean the election won’t take place, it will take place, and it’s a must. But my worry is that the election not to take place how it was planned, on the one-man-one-vote process.” Dahir Amin Jesow is a member of the interior committee in the Somali parliament. He said the government will hold the election on time. “It’s possible to do election on time if we not affected so much by the coronavirus and doesn’t take a long time to get the situation under control,” Jesow said. “Gathering of people is discouraged this time due to the virus, but if it’s controlled, then the election can be held.” The November elections are for members of parliament. The elected legislators will then choose the president in February 2021. A worker marks a social distancing sign as a preventive measure against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the market centre in Hamarweyne district in Mogadishu, Somalia, April 16, 2020.Somalia has never held a one person-one vote election. Opposition leaders said doing it in Somalia will be difficult due to security reasons and the troubled relationship between the central government and some of the regions.
Omar Mahmood is a senior analyst on Somalia at the International Crisis Group. He believes Somali leaders can reach agreement on how to hold the election. “One way or another, there needs to be some sort of consensus process that happens internally in the country,” Mahmood said. “If all the parties agree that yes, this is unprecedented time and we do need more time to run the elections, its not necessarily an issue. But the issue is getting everyone on the same page and get everyone to agree, especially given that the process was already complicated, but corona adds a very much complicated layer to it.” In an encouraging sign, Somali government forces have regained ground from militant group al-Shabab in recent months, and the government has normalized relations with some regions, although not with Puntland and Jubaland.
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British PM Delays Lifting Coronavirus Restrictions
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will keep Britain under a coronavirus lockdown until at least next month — to the frustration of some in his Cabinet, who behind the scenes are arguing that Downing Street now needs to prioritize the economy, which is heading for its worst recession in 300 years.Cabinet ministers and some senior Conservatives have urged Johnson at least to release a timetable on easing the lockdown, with specific dates for different stages for lifting restrictions. Former Finance Minister Sajid Javid, a onetime rival for the leadership of the ruling Conservatives, said Friday that Downing Street must turn its attention to the economy now that the peak of coronavirus cases is thought to have been reached.“We’ve got to find a way forward,” he told broadcaster Sky News. Javid said it was right to have “put public health first,” but now Johnson needed to pivot to focus on economic recovery. “We’re going to have to coexist with this virus for, I think, many months, if not potentially years. But we’ve got to find a way forward and that does mean you are relaxing, as much as you can,” he said.Javid is the most prominent Conservative so far to call publicly for the economy to be restarted swiftly, but two of Johnson’s most senior Cabinet members, Michael Gove and Javid’s replacement as finance minister, Rishi Sunak, also have been making the case in Cabinet meetings for an unlocking of Britain, say Conservative sources.A view of a COVID-19 testing station manned by British military personnel inside London’s Hyde Park, May 8, 2020.For most of the week, Britain’s pro-Conservative newspapers have assumed Johnson would announce in the next few days the lifting of many restrictions. They have been highlighting the damage the lockdown is doing to the economy. On Thursday, the Bank of England warned that Britain is heading for its worst recession since 1706, when the country’s then-agriculture-based economy contracted by 15 percent because of poor weather and a disastrous harvest.Incremental changesJohnson is scheduled Sunday to outline the incremental changes to the coronavirus restrictions he is prepared to order before the end of May. He will outline a longer-term overall exit strategy, too, but has told his Cabinet he will proceed with “maximum caution,” with only modest changes before June at the earliest.His caution contrasts with the policies of some of Britain’s European neighbors, which, while approaching exits from their lockdowns cautiously, are easing their restrictions more quickly.German Chancellor Angela Merkel — under pressure from the country’s regional authorities — announced Thursday that the goal of slowing the spread of coronavirus had been achieved, so all shops can be reopened as lockdown restrictions are eased. Germany’s Bundesliga football league has been given the green light to resume, and schools will gradually start reopening for the summer term.Germany’s 16 federal states will oversee the timing of the easing in their jurisdictions and are empowered to operate an “emergency brake” if there are any new surges in infections.A woman wearing a protective shield looks at her phone as the lockdown because of the coronavirus outbreak continues, in London, May 8, 2020.Johnson’s caution comes after he was warned that viral outbreaks in Britain’s nursing homes and hospitals make significant easing before June risky. Johnson expressed “bitter regret” midweek in the House of Commons at the epidemic wave that has struck the country’s nursing homes. Some nursing home managers blame the government, saying a decision to speed up hospital discharges of the elderly triggered the outbreaks.8,000 deaths a weekThe Office for National Statistics has reported that the average number of deaths in care homes is approaching 8,000 a week. Martin Green, of the industry association Care England, told reporters that it had been “foolhardy” to discharge patients in a rush to nursing homes in a bid to free up hospital beds for an influx of coronavirus patients. “It was a major mistake. We should have moved nobody unless we were absolutely sure they were COVID-19 negative,” he said.Some Conservatives say privately that Johnson’s own struggle with the coronavirus may be another factor in his determination to move more cautiously than they would prefer. Johnson was discharged from the hospital on April 11, a week after being admitted with a severe case of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.Government officials initially said he was moved from self-isolation in a Downing Street apartment to a nearby London hospital as a “precautionary move,” but it later transpired that doctors quickly feared for his life and transferred him into an intensive care unit a day after his arrival.This past week, Johnson told The Sun newspaper that at one point it was “50-50” whether he would be put on a ventilator. Johnson described how he was given “liters and liters of oxygen” to keep him alive, and he credited his recovery to “wonderful, wonderful nursing.”He said contingency plans had been readied in the event he didn’t survive. “It was a tough old moment; I won’t deny it,” he told the paper.On Sunday ,Johnson will offer the public some relief from the strict lockdown by announcing people can take unlimited outdoor exercise. Churches and other places of worship are also likely to be allowed to open for private prayer, and garden centers are likely to be given approval to reopen. But households are unlikely to be allowed to mix, because officials fear that could lead to a spike in transmissions.Britain became the first country in Europe to pass 30,000 coronavirus deaths. Communities Minister Robert Jenrick said these were “heartbreaking losses.”
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Georgia Promises Thorough Probe in Killing of Ahmaud Arbery
More than two months after a black man was shot to death while jogging on a Sunday afternoon, Georgia investigators conceded that the facts show enough evidence to jail a white father and son on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault.
The investigation appeared stalled by local authorities until this week, when a video of the shooting was leaked and shared widely on social media, prompting outrage around the nation.
“All that matters is what the facts tell us,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Vic Reynolds said Friday, noting that his agency brought charges a day after it was brought into the case.
The investigation continues now that Gregory and Travis McMichael have been booked into the Glynn County Jail in the Feb. 23 shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. Reynolds said “every stone will be uncovered.”
But in response to a question about any racial intent, Reynolds said “there is no hate crime in Georgia. There isn’t. It is one of four or five states that doesn’t have one.”
That dismays many civil rights activists, who have called for a federal investigation. A group of professional athletes joined that call on Friday in a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr and FBI director Christopher Wray.
The McMichaels told police they pursued Arbery, with another person recording them on video, after spotting him running in their neighborhood. The father and son said they thought he matched the appearance of a burglary suspect who had been recorded on a surveillance camera some time before.
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, has said she thinks her son, a former high school football player, was just jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood before he was killed on a Sunday afternoon.
Arbery would have been 26 years old Friday, and a crowd of several hundred people, most wearing masks, sang “Happy Birthday” in his honor outside the Glynn County Courthouse. Many expressed frustrations at the long wait before any arrests were made, and fears that the justice system will fail them.
“The work is just beginning,” John Perry, president of the Brunswick NAACP chapter, told the crowd. “We can’t stop now. We can’t lose focus and we’ve got to make sure the prosecution gets done.”
Anthony Johnson, 40, said Arbery was his neighbor for about a decade. He said he wants to see the McMichaels get the same treatment in the legal system as black defendants.
“Just arresting them, that ain’t doing nothing,” Johnson said. “We want them convicted. We want them sent to prison for life.”
The McMichaels’ first court appearance was set for Friday afternoon via video from jail, Glynn County Sheriff Neal Jump said.
Reynolds said he didn’t know whether the McMichaels had an attorney who could comment.
The felony murder charges against Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, mean that a victim was killed during the commission of an underlying felony, in this case aggravated assault. The charge doesn’t require intent to kill.
A murder conviction in Georgia is automatically punishable by life in prison, either with or without the possibility of parole. A prosecutor can also seek the death penalty in a murder case if certain aggravating circumstances exist.
A GBI news release said the McMichaels “confronted Arbery with two firearms. During the encounter, Travis McMichael shot and killed Arbery.”
Some of the encounter was apparently recorded in two 911 calls, with a dispatcher trying to understand what the problem was.
“There’s a black male running down the street,” the caller says.
“I just need to know what he was doing wrong,” the dispatcher responds, in part.
In a second call six minutes later, someone can be heard yelling “Stop. … Dammit. Stop.” Then, after a pause, “Travis!”
Gregory McMichael retired last year as an investigator for Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson; the connection caused Johnson to recuse herself. Waycross D.A. George E. Barnhill then got the case before recusing himself under pressure from Arbery’s family because his son works in Johnson’s office.
Durden had said he wanted a grand jury to decide whether charges are warranted, but Georgia courts are still largely closed because of the coronavirus. Durden said Friday that he won’t bow to public pressure from one side or another.
The leaked video shows a black man running at a jogging pace. The truck is stopped in the road ahead of him, with one of the white men standing in the pickup’s bed and the other beside the open driver’s side door.
The runner attempts to pass the pickup on the passenger side, moving just beyond the truck, briefly outside the camera’s view. A gunshot sounds, and the video shows the runner grappling with a man over what appears to be a shotgun or rifle. A second shot can be heard, and the runner can be seen punching the man. A third shot is fired at point-blank range. The runner staggers a few feet and falls face down.
“They did not arrest the killers of Ahmaud Arbery because they saw the video,” Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the slain man’s father, Marcus Arbery, told The Associated Press on Friday. “They arrested the killers of Ahmaud Arbery because we saw the video, the public saw the video and it went viral. It was shocking. People were astonished.”
Brunswick defense attorney Alan Tucker identified himself Thursday as the person who shared the video with the radio station. He did not say how he obtained it. In a statement, Tucker said he wasn’t representing anyone involved. He said he shared the video “because my community was being ripped apart by erroneous accusations and assumptions.”
The outcry over the killing reached the White House, where President Donald Trump offered condolences to Arbery’s family.
“I saw the tape and it’s very, very disturbing,” Trump said Friday on Fox News Channel.
“It’s a heartbreak. … very rough, rough stuff,” Trump added. “Justice getting done is what solves that problem. It’s in the hands of the governor and I’m sure he’ll do the right thing.”
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called Arbery’s death a “murder.” During an online roundtable Thursday, Biden said the video shows Arbery “lynched before our very eyes.”
“I watched the video depicting Mr. Arbery’s last moments alive,” Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said. “I can tell you it’s absolutely horrific, and Georgians deserve answers.”
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Poll: Most in US Back Curbing In-Person Communal Worship Amid Virus
While the White House looks ahead to reopening houses of worship, most Americans think in-person religious services should be barred or allowed only with limits during the coronavirus pandemic — and only about a third say that prohibiting in-person services violates religious freedom, a new poll finds.
The survey by the Center for Public Affairs Research suggests that, even as President Donald Trump projects eagerness to reopen, many religious Americans are fine with waiting longer to return to their churches, synagogues and mosques.
Among that group is 54-year-old Andre Harris of Chicago, a onetime Sunday school teacher who has shifted his routine from physical worship to the conference calls his church is holding during the pandemic.
Harris, a Methodist, said that until “either there’s a vaccine, or if we know that things have calmed down, I am not comfortable going back to the actual building.”
Just 9% of Americans think in-person religious services should be permitted without restrictions, while 42% think they should be allowed with restrictions and 48% think they should not be allowed at all, the poll shows. Even among Americans who identify with a religion, 45% say in-person services shouldn’t be allowed at all.
White evangelical Protestants, however, are particularly likely to think that in-person services should be allowed in some form, with just 35% saying they should be completely prohibited. Close to half – 46% — also say they think prohibiting those services violates religious freedom.
That constituency’s support for some form of in-person worship underscores the political importance of Trump’s public calls to restore religious gatherings as a symbol of national recovery from the virus, as energizing evangelical voters remains a key element of the president’s reelection strategy. Trump won praise from some evangelical leaders for citing the aspirational ideal of “packed churches” on Easter during the first weeks of the pandemic, though his goal didn’t materialize on Christianity’s holiest day.
Trump has since consulted with religious leaders on a phased-in return to in-person worship.
“It’s wonderful to watch people over a laptop, but it’s not like being at a church,” Trump said during a Fox News town hall on Sunday. “And we have to get our people back to churches, and we’re going to start doing it soon.”
Vice President Mike Pence is set to meet with faith leaders Friday in Iowa to talk about their reopening of worship. Iowa is one of several states, including Tennessee and Montana, where restrictions on in-person services are starting to ease as stay-home orders imposed to stop the virus run their course.
That’s in line with the preference of Patrick Gideons, 63, of Alvin, Texas, who said worshipers “should be able to do what they want.”
“If they want to be able to hold church the way they normally do, they should be able to do that,” said Gideons, a self-described born-again Baptist.
As houses of worship wrestle with when to reopen, draft guidance by a team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that offered recommendations for faith gatherings has been shelved by the Trump administration. While those guidelines aimed to help religious organizations use best practices to protect people from the virus, leaders in various denominations have already initiated their own internal discussions.
“Churches are very aware of the implications of people gathering in their buildings,” Kenneth Carter, president of the United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops, said in a recent interview about the draft CDC guidance.
Compared with in-person religious services, Americans are more likely to favor allowing drive-through services, although most still say there should be limits. Overall, 25% think that those services should be allowed without any limits, and 62% say they should be allowed with limits.
The Justice Department last month sided with a Mississippi church in its legal challenge to local limits on drive-in worship. Still, the poll found 56% of Americans say prohibiting drive-in services does not violate religious freedom.
White evangelical Protestants were more likely than those of other faiths to favor allowing drive-through services without restriction, at 40%. In total, those who identify with a religious faith are more likely than those who do not to favor no restriction on drive-through religious services, 28% to 15%.
As many houses of worship have paused in-person services during the virus, a sizable share of religious Americans have used technology to connect with their faith. One-fifth of religious Americans said they watched live streaming religious services online at least weekly in 2019 — but since the outbreak began, that has risen to 33%.
About a third of evangelical Protestants streamed services at least weekly in 2019, but about half do now. Among Catholics, the share streaming services weekly has increased from 11% to 22%.
For members of the Southern Baptist Convention, when and how to resume in-person worship “would be a congregation-by-congregation decision,” Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said in a recent interview about the draft CDC guidance.
Moore predicted that some virtual worship would continue even as different areas transition back to in-person gatherings. Part of his work in offering resources to inform decisions, Moore said, involves “preparing churches for the fact that reopening probably won’t be one Sunday when everything goes back to the status quo.”
“Instead, there’s going to be probably a lengthy period of time where multiple things are happening at once,” Moore said.
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‘Don’t Forget Chen Qiushi,’ Friend of Chinese Journalist Says
A friend of Chen Qiushi, who reported on Hong Kong democracy protests and COVID-19 before going missing February 6, has urged the world to not forget the citizen journalist’s plight.Chen had been reporting on the epidemic from Wuhan, and uploading videos to YouTube and Twitter, which are banned in China.The friend told VOA no one knows where Chen is. On Twitter, Chen’s friend tweeted that the journalist and lawyer was likely being held under “residential surveillance.””Chen Qiushi has been out of contact for 86 days after covering coronavirus in Wuhan. Please save him!” the friend posted on Chen’s Twitter account on May 3, World Press Freedom Day. May 3 is World Press Freedom Day. Citizen journalist Chen Qiushi has been silenced and disappeared. Where is he now?Chen Qiushi has been out of contact for 86 days after covering coronavirus in Wuhan. Please save him!!!@POTUS@Mike_Pence@SecPompeo@marcorubio#FindQiushipic.twitter.com/zmHriqP1hp— 陈秋实（陳秋實） (@chenqiushi404) May 3, 2020The post included a picture of Chen and a “prayer for citizen journalists” in Chinese that read, “Knowing empowers us, knowing helps us decide, knowing keeps us free.”At least six citizen journalists and activists have been detained, gone missing or been held in “enforced quarantine” in recent months.In an interview with VOA, Cedric Alviani, East Asia bureau director for Reporters Without Borders, urged citizen journalists to not give up their efforts to reveal information China is trying to hide.”After the pandemic, no one in the world can say that the problem of censorship in China only concerns Chinese citizens,” Alviani said.China ranks 177 out of 180 countries in the media watchdog’s 2020 Press Freedom Index, where 1 is the most free.Chen previously told VOA that his social media account was set up “outside the firewall” and trusted friends would manage it if anything happened to him.The journalist’s friend, who spoke with VOA and who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation, said the theme of this year’s World Press Freedom Day — “Journalism Without Fear or Favor” — described Chen perfectly.Chen Qiushi: Lawyer, activist, journalistChen, a 34-year-old lawyer, activist and popular citizen journalist from China, became widely known globally for providing firsthand coverage of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in 2019.He posted videos on his then Weibo account about the protests, and he criticized the government for characterizing protesters as rioters. His Weibo account had 740,000 followers before authorities deleted it.The journalist told VOA in November 2019 that the account and his WeChat were deleted when he returned from Hong Kong. A month earlier, another of his social media accounts was deleted after the journalist returned from covering flood damage in Jiangxi province, Chen said.When COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan, Chen caught a train into the city on January 24, before a strict lockdown was enforced.For the next two weeks he posted videos online of his visits to overrun hospitals, funeral homes, and the deserted Huanan Seafood Market where China said early cases of the virus were traced.”I’m a citizen reporter, this is my responsibility,” he said in his first video from Wuhan, “What kind of reporter are you if you don’t rush over to Ground Zero?”While in Wuhan, Chen mentioned multiple times between January 21 and January 30 that the Chinese state police were on him and that he had received warnings. “I’m ready to be taken away at any time,” he said in one video.On February 6, after visiting a newly built hospital, Chen lost contact with the outside world. Crackdown on citizen journalistsOther citizen journalists and bloggers also have been detained or gone offline — a sign that many observers believe means they were arrested or under an “enforced disappearance.” Authorities on February 1 arrested Wuhan resident Fang Bin, who had documented the epidemic. His whereabouts remain unknown.Another citizen journalist, Li Zehua appeared in a video April 22, two months after he livestreamed security officials coming into the Wuhan apartment where he was staying.In a video posted to YouTube, Li said he had been in “quarantine” because he visited sensitive areas, the BBC reported. On April 19, three activists lost contact with their families: Chen Mei, Cai Wei and his girlfriend, named in reports as Tang, volunteer with the Terminus 2049 website. The website has been backing articles related to the COVID-19 outbreak online that were deleted by authorities.Authorities sent letters to the families of two of them saying they had been detained on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” the rights group Committee to Protect Journalists said. On April 24, authorities in the central Chinese province of Hubei sentenced prominent blogger Liu Yanli to four years in prison for insulting the country’s leader Xi Jinping and Mao Zedong. Liu was arrested in 2016 and released on bail. Police took her back into custody for breaking her bail restrictions by communicating with “the outside world.” When asked about Chen Qiushi, China’s ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai repeatedly said he has not heard of this person, according to reports.China’s embassy in Washington did not respond to VOA’s emailed request for comment. Safety in truth”As a citizen reporter, Chen Qiushi did nothing wrong, he just recorded what he saw and heard. We should continue to pay attention to his case and call for his freedom,” Chen’s friend, who has been handling his Twitter account, told VOA.The friend recalled one of the journalist’s Weibo posts in which Chen said people had warned him to be careful.”If everyone dares to tell the truth, I WILL be safe,” Chen said in the post. ”It is precisely because Chinese people care so much about their own safety that China has become what it is like today, and things have become more and more dangerous for me.”Chen’s friend said he was impressed by this post, because “it’s all too real.”In an interview with VOA in November, Chen had said he did not care if he was being monitored. If state security officials watched his videos, Chen said, they would find out he “loves his country more than they do.”In the interview, Chen said he once was asked how much he would sacrifice for his country. His answer: “My life.”This story originated in VOA’s Mandarin Service.
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Media Advocates Urge West to Resist China’s Censorship After EU Letter Controversy
Press freedom advocates say China’s censorship of a letter co-authored by 27 European Union ambassadors that contained a reference to the origins of the coronavirus is another example of how the lack of press freedom in the country has caused problems for the world.
A sentence in the EU letter, which referred to China as the point of origin of the outbreak, was deleted when it was published in the Wednesday edition of the English language newspaper China Daily to mark the 45th anniversary of the grouping’s diplomatic ties with China.
The full version, which appeared on the websites of EU embassies to China, said “the outbreak of the coronavirus in China, and its subsequent spread to the rest of the world over the past three months, has meant that our pre-existing plans have been side-tracked.”
But the edited version published in state media omitted the words, “in China, and its subsequent spread to the rest of the world over the past three months.”
China’s censorship
The European Union Thursday expressed regret but seemed to accept the edit.
“China has state-controlled media. There is censorship, that’s a fact,” EU foreign affairs spokesperson Virginie Battu-Henriksson said in Brussels. But she said agreeing to the letter’s censored publication meant the bloc could engage the Chinese on other key EU issues, including climate change, human rights and the pandemic response.
Cédric Alviani, head of Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) East Asia bureau, said the incident showed that China repeatedly takes advantage of the media systems in western democracies to control narratives in its favor, while using its state media to mislead the world.
“We call on the democracies to resist and never ever to compare the Chinese propaganda media with independent media that respect journalism ethics,” Alviani told VOA.
Alviani was referring to comparisons made by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific affairs.
No comparisons
The bureau Thursday tweeted that “last night, @washingtonpost [The Washington Post] carried Amb Cui’s [Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai] Op-Ed because that’s what freedom of the press looks like. Also last night, [U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser] Matt Pottinger’s speech on Weibo [China’s equivalent to Twitter] disappeared within 5 minutes because that’s what censorship looks like.”
In his Washington Post op-ed, Cui called for an end to the “blame game” over the pandemic, saying allegations blaming China for the outbreak’s spread risked “decoupling” the world’s two largest economies.
He said, “it’s time to focus on the disease and rebuild trust between our two countries… and restart the global economy.”
In his Monday speech, Pottinger praised whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang and several citizen journalists, calling them the true torch carriers of the spirit of the May 4 Movement, which ushered in a modern China a century ago.
Alviani said Chinese media, which works as the party state’s mouthpiece and never hesitates to exercise censorship, are no comparison to free and independent press in the West.
He also cautioned readers against Cui’s opinions in The Washington Post, which he believed are in no way fair, reliable and fact-based. Instead, he described the opinion as propaganda from a regime that constantly violates the press freedom.A copy of an English-language China Daily newspaper is seen in an illustration photo from the paper’s Facebook page.China’s double standards
Michael Chugani, a columnist in Hong Kong, said the EU letter, Pottinger’s speech and Cui’s opinion in The Washington Post are some of the many examples of Chinese media’s double standard.
Chugani, in his Thursday column in the Economic Journal, argued that “China is the global king in abusing free market rules” because it has, time and again, weaponized its economy to achieve political aims.
For example, China banned Norwegian salmon for years when Norway awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to human rights activist Liu Xiaobo in 2010, he said.
That abuse “also applies to China’s press freedom,” he told VOA in a written reply.
The Chinese government has increasingly applied ruthless persecution of independent journalists.
Longest jail term
One recent example is Chen Jieren, a former state media journalist-turned anti-corruption blogger who was sentenced to 15 years in prison last Thursday – the longest sentence ever handed down to a journalist under the administration of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Reporters Without Borders has called for Chen’s release, denouncing his sentence as “a throwback to the practice of the Maoist and is clearly designed to set an example and ensure that no Chinese journalist dares to question the regime again.”
Chen, who was convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” extortion and blackmail, “illegal business activity,” and “bribes,” was given a fine of $990,000 after a court in Hunan province concluded that he had taken more than that amount in bribes.
The court said Chen has “used the information network to publish false and negative information… attack and vilify the party and the government.”
Chinese Human Rights Defenders also urged Chen’s release, saying in a statement that his “punishment sends a chilling signal” to his peers.
Journalist or ‘fraud’?
But Li Datong, a former colleague of Chen’s at China Youth Daily, called the anti-corruption blogger a fraud.
“He’s not a legitimate journalist. He’s basically a hooligan. It’s inappropriate to portray him as the embodiment of justice because much of what he had done was profit driven. He has a questionable integrity,” Li said.
Li, however, agreed that there’s little room for Chinese independent journalists to freely report as the authorities have tightened controls on the press and speech freedom.
Admitting that it’s hard to judge if accusations against Chen are legitimate, RSF’s Alviani remained convinced that his sentence is too harsh.
“What is sure is that Chen Jieren had denounced the corruption of some members of the [Communist] party. And for that, he shouldn’t be punished with such a harsh sentence,” he said.
“I want to add that, in China, a prison sentence of such a length equals to a death sentence because of the very poor quality of the Chinese prisons,” he added.
Chen was arrested after he disclosed alleged corruption by local party officials in Hunan in mid-2018.
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Cash Transfer Program Aims to Combat Child Labor in Ghana
Experts warn there could be an increase in child labor in cocoa-growing African nations as incomes and enforcement suffer due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ghana and Ivory Coast produce about 60 percent of the world’s cocoa, but both have long-standing issues with child labor in cocoa farms. Last month, Fairtrade Africa told Reuters News Agency it had received reports of possible child labor use in Ivory Coast, leading to warnings there might be a spike in cases in both Ivory Coast and neighboring Ghana.Prince Gyamfi, Ghana’s deputy country director for The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), which is focused on child protection in cocoa-farming communities, says poverty is a major driver for child labor in cocoa farms.If the pandemic continues, he said, there will be increased economic pressures on farming families, and ongoing school closures in Ghana mean children are more likely to accompany their parents to their farms and be exposed to hazardous activities.FILE – Farmers break cocoa pods in Ghana’s eastern cocoa town of Akim Akooko, Sept. 6, 2012.He said ICI found that when farmers’ incomes are negativity impacted, child labor tends to increase. A study in Ivory Coast found a 10 percent fall in income due to a drop in cocoa prices led to a five percentage point increase in child labor. ICI also found increases in child labor when children are on term breaks from school.Estimates for 2013-’14 indicate that 1.2 million child laborers were working in cocoa production in Ivory Coast, and 900,000 in Ghana.The ICI is researching the impact of cash transfer programs on child labor — where giving money to vulnerable families could be a solution. The study’s findings are being used to inform the design of a cash transfer program for vulnerable cocoa-growing households in Ghana.”We think that cash transfer programs, if designed well, could lead to a decrease in child labor by helping parents pay for school costs or education costs, allowing children to go to school, reducing pressure on the household incomes, therefore, reducing the need for child labor to help out on the family farm,” Gyamfi said.Fiifi Boafo, a spokesperson for the Ghana Cocoa Board, Ghana’s cocoa industry regulator, said Ghana’s government had employed an additional 1,300 extension officers in the last six months whose duties included educating cocoa farmers on ethical farming guidelines, such as not using children. However, he characterized the report from Fairtrade Africa as speculation that had only mentioned Ivory Coast.”We do not anticipate that this period where children are not going to school, they are automatically be going into cocoa farms,” Boafo said. “I think the basis for the reason they are not supposed to go to the farms has been established, and it will be respected, and for our part, we shall continue to engage farmers to make sure that their children stay away from the farms.”Daniel Sarpong, dean of the School of Agriculture at the University of Ghana, said Ghana is taking issues of child labor in cocoa farms seriously. He pointed to work done to mechanize the sector, where farmers were encouraged and assisted to use modern farming practices.”The idea here is to be able to phase out those labor-intensive activities that are in cocoa where they are tedious and that cocoa farmers would need children to help in those activities, so yes it is a big problem, but I think that governments are trying to find solutions to some of these things,” he said.Sarpong agreed that cash transfers could help combat child labor in Ghana.So far, Ghana has seen more than 3,000 cases of COVID-19, and Ivory Coast more than 1,500.
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Traditional Cameroon Rulers Refuse to Return to Crisis Zone
Cameroon’s government this week called on hundreds of traditional rulers who have fled separatist conflict areas to return, assuring them that the palaces, markets, schools and roads destroyed by separatists would be reconstructed. But the traditional rulers have refused, saying they are still threatened by fighting between government troops and anglophone rebels.Deben Tchoffo, governor of Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest region, said by messaging application from the regional capital Bamenda that the government will ensure the rulers’ protection from separatist fighters from the moment they return. “They should not be afraid. Instead of running, they should come back to face the realities,” Tchoffo said. “The population are there, eagerly waiting, longing to see them. Some of them have gone [been out of their palaces] for many years. They are awaited on the spot. We are there, and we are there to secure them. Whatever will happen, we are there to stand by them, to support them and accompany them.”FILE – Cameroon Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute speaks during a meeting on the country’s reconstruction, in Yaounde, Dec. 5, 2019. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)This week, Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute said the government had raised $14 million of the $150 million it needs for the reconstruction of 350 schools, 115 hospitals, 40 bridges, 400 wells and water taps, 600 kilometers of rural roads, 45 markets and 17,000 private homes he said were destroyed by separatists fighting to create an English-speaking state in the majority French-speaking country. Ngute called on traditional rulers who had fled for safety to French-speaking towns to return to their villages.Fon Lekunze, traditional ruler of the Mundani tribe of the English-speaking southwestern Lebialem district, who has been in Yaoundé for two years, said by telephone that peace has yet to return to the English-speaking regions. He said several of his peers were attacked when they returned home in July to preach peace, and are still threatened by fighters via social media and by telephone.”We have implored traditional diplomacy to sensitize populations to shun away from violence and embrace development, and we have used the dialoguing method by pleading with our children [rebels], and we are very hopeful that calm is going to return as soon as possible,” he said.It is only when that calm returns that they will be assured that their lives will be spared by separatist fighters, he added.Accusations against chiefsTraditional rulers started fleeing English-speaking regions when they were accused by separatists of supporting the military and disclosing their hideouts to troops. At least nine were killed and dozens abducted and freed only after ransom was paid. Two dozen palaces were partially or totally torched. Some chiefs were accused by the military and arrested for supporting the separatists.Jonathan Baye, a historian at the University of Yaoundé, said the chiefs need to assure their populations, separatist fighters, and the military of their neutrality before they can be safe in their villages.”The chiefs should give confidence about their neutrality because it is usually on those things that they are attacked or they are accused,” Baye said. “They should begin by making their people to know that they [the people] can count on them [the chiefs]. They should begin by creating this confidence.”‘Bumpy road’ aheadJean Luc Stalon, Cameroon representative of the United Nations Development Program, who was invited to the ceremony to launch reconstruction of the English-speaking regions, said the initiative is a good one, but that it will be difficult to carry out with bloody clashes still rampant between the military and rebels.”We know it is going to be a bumpy road rebuilding social cohesion, rebuilding the local economy that has been damaged by the crisis, to facilitate access of the population to basic services, education, health, water and so forth,” Stalon said. “It is not going to be easy to implement this program in those two regions.”Separatists on social media have insisted that the reconstruction will not take place unless the central government in Yaoundé withdraws its troops from the English-speaking regions and organizes what they describe as sincere dialogue.The separatists have been fighting since 2017 to create an independent, English-speaking state in Cameroon’s western regions. The conflict has cost Cameroon more than 3,000 lives and displaced more than half a million people to French-speaking regions or neighboring Nigeria, according to the U.N.
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Greek Police Tackle Corona Parties as Government Eases Lockdown
Greece’s government is gradually easing lockdown restrictions, and after 42 days of strict stay-at-home rules, young Greeks are spilling onto the streets. Authorities are striking back, imposing stiff fines and new lockdowns in an effort to prevent a possible resurgence of the coronavirus.In the Athens suburb of Agia Parasksevi earlier this week, more than 400 young Greeks defied social-distancing rules by buying take-away drinks from local pubs and turning the district’s main square into a massive, open-air block party.Police intervened, firing tear gas to disperse the crowds and imposing a new curfew.But most young Greeks, in Agia Paraskevi and beyond, are undeterred.Thousands of people have spilled out on the streets for take-away parties in the capital and in other cities across the country. Fines of up to 5,000 euros have been slapped on bar owners fanning the craze.Nothing seems to be working, though. Even older crowds are joining in, inundating parks and piazzas for late-night strolls and meetings despite COVID controls forbidding social gatherings.Nikos Hardalias, the head of Greece’s homeland security force, is concerned.In a stern public appeal late Thursday, he urged Greeks to heed social distancing rules and to avoid behaving in ways that could enflame the spread of the COVID virus.The staggering death tolls of neighboring Italy, he warned, should not be ignored.Early and rigorous Greek controls have helped keep most of this country of 11 million free of the virus. Just over 2,000 cases have been reported, with fewer than 150 deaths.However, the government’s handling of the crisis after the easing of controls has been the source of fierce political debate.Alexis Haritsis of the left-wing opposition Syriza party accused the government of using excessive force to keep Greeks in check. Spontaneous acts of celebration or gatherings, he said, cannot be confronted with tear gas and the police.With the summer setting in and the weekend approaching, authorities fear take-away parties may spread even further, and police say they are considering deploying special negotiators to help disperse defiant crowds.
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For US Unemployed Workers, Living with Uncertainty, Anxiety is Hardest Part
Eliot Byron, an out-of-work stagehand in New York City, is preparing for a long period of austerity. For how long, he does not know. And the not knowing is the hardest part.Byron is among the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs in the past seven weeks since strict social distancing measures were enacted. Byron collects unemployment benefits, as well as supplemental benefits from the federal government. He has negotiated payment delays on his mortgage and car. A treat with his son and wife is pizza takeout. “There are days of complete boredom and days of serious concern about what the future holds,” he said. “Should I be applying for other jobs somewhere? My entire adult life, the only thing I’ve ever done is put on live concerts. I don’t know what else I’m qualified for or where else I would fit in.”A man wears a mask during the coronavirus outbreak while walking under a Now Hiring sign at a CVS Pharmacy in San Francisco, May 7, 2020.Staggering jobless rate
On Friday, the Labor Department reported a U.S. unemployment rate of 14.7% That compares with an unemployment rate of 3.5% in early March, which was the lowest jobless rate in half a century. The economic damage has hit some professions harder than others. Industries that directly serve people, such as the restaurant, travel, hospitality, retail and entertainment sectors, have been the hardest hit. More recently, office workers are feeling the pain with the layoffs of engineers at Uber and advertising account executives at Omnicom, the advertising giant, and others.Behind each number is a person, like Byron, weighing decisions about expenses and income and trying to strategize without panicking about the long term. What will happen if the situation stretches beyond the summer when his unemployment is set to run out? Should he dip into retirement? Take out a home equity loan? “The uncertainty is what’s really the most difficult part about this,” Byron said. “If I could plan for some target date, that would be very much a different situation.” For some, an upside
For Allison, a hospitality professional who was laid off by her technology employer in March, the sudden job loss has had a few upsides. She is using the time to take online courses and read. Unemployment benefits, plus the additional federal aid, is enough to sustain her life in Oakland, California.“Summertime is the time to get laid off,” she said. She asked that her full name not be used because she signed an agreement with her former employer not to discuss personnel matters. She said it is hard to know if or when to start looking for work.“My biggest fear is spending time looking for a job, get the job and then have the offer rescinded,” she said. “I think that’s a waste of time.” Katie Farhat, who lost her job in March as a fundraiser for a nongovernmental organization, is looking at her period of unemployment and uncertainty as an opportunity. She is planning to move to Los Angeles, something she’s thought about doing for a while.“My means of living can be very minimal,” she said. “I don’t have a lot of responsibilities like a lot of other people. So, I’m not too worried about myself. I’m more worried about my health and being able to make sure that I’m not making anybody else sick.” In limbo
Back in Manhattan, Byron spends his time taking walks, playing with his son and keeping in touch with other stagehands, many of whom are out of work. When will events be scheduled again? When will people want to gather again? “We’re all kind of in limbo,” he said. “If they are going to tell me that my industry isn’t able to work, hopefully there is some sort of extension to the relief.”
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Europe Holds Low-Key VE Day Commemorations Due to Virus
Europe was marking the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany to Allied forces following six years of war in a low-key fashion Friday due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions across the continent.
The big celebrations that had been planned have been either cancelled or scaled back dramatically and people across Europe have been asked to mark the moment in private.
There will be no mass gatherings, no hugging or kissing, but that day of liberation is being remembered from Belfast to Berlin. For the few World War II veterans still left, many living in nursing homes under virus lockdowns, it’s a particularly difficult time.BritainUp and down the U.K., people have been getting into the spirit of VE Day, which for this year alone has been designated as a public holiday.
Many are dressing up in 1940s attire, while bunting has been displayed outside homes, including at 10 Downing Street in London that houses the prime minister’s office. People are also being encouraged to go out onto their doorsteps to sing Dame Vera Lynn’s iconic wartime anthem, “We’ll Meet Again” — which has added resonance now as families and friends are separated by coronavirus lockdowns.
People gathered in a socially distanced way on the hills of south London to marvel at the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows. The nine planes flew in formation above the River Thames and let loose their red, white and blue smoke to mark the colors of the Union flag.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who lit a candle Thursday evening by the grave of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey in remembrance of those who gave their lives, wrote to the country’s veterans, describing them as “the greatest generation of Britons who ever lived.”
Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, led the country in a two-minute silence at the war memorial on the grounds of Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Charles laid a wreath of poppies on behalf of the nation. At the U.K.’s main memorial on Whitehall in central London, traffic ground to a halt as people observed the silence.
The tributes will continue through the day. The victory speech of Britain’s wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, will be broadcast on BBC Television.
Queen Elizabeth II will speak to the nation at 9 p.m., the exact time that her father, King George VI, addressed Britons 75 years ago.FranceFrench President Emmanuel Macron led a small ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe monument to mark the anniversary. He lay a wreath and relit the flame of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, atop a deserted Champs-Elysees, Paris’ grandest avenue.
Macron was accompanied by former presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, each carefully observing social distancing. Macron cleaned his hands with hand gel after signing the official register.
Four singers of the French Army Chorus sang the national anthem, “La Marseillaise.”
Macron also laid a wreath at the statue of one of his predecessors, Charles de Gaulle, the general revered for leading the French Resistance from London after France had fallen in 1940. France was liberated in 1944.GermanyGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top officials laid wreaths at the memorial to victims of war and violence in Berlin, standing in silence as a trumpet played. The low-key ceremony on an empty Unter den Linden boulevard replaced a bigger event that President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had once planned to lead outside the Reichstag parliament building.
“The corona pandemic is forcing us to commemorate alone – apart from those who are important to us and to whom we are grateful,” Steinmeier said. He recalled that, on May 8, 1945, “the Germans were really alone,” militarily defeated, economically devastated and “morally ruined.”
“We had made an enemy of the whole world,” he said in a nationally televised address. Seventy-five years later, he said, “we are not alone.”
Steinmeier underlined Germans’ responsibility to “think, feel and act as Europeans” in this time of crisis and to confront far-right attacks wherever they emerge.
“If we don’t keep Europe together, in and after this pandemic, we will prove not to be worthy of May 8,” he said.
Germans have come to see the Nazis’ defeat as a liberation.
“We Germans can say today that the day of liberation is a day of gratitude,” Steinmeier said. “Today, we must liberate ourselves – from the temptation of a new nationalism; from fascination with the authoritarian; from distrust, isolation and enmity between nations; from hatred and agitation, from xenophobia and contempt for democracy.”
Merkel spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone Friday to mark the anniversary, and the two agreed the war is a reminder of the need for “close cooperation between states and people to preserve and encourage peace and understanding.” Poland
In Poland, VE Day elicits mixed emotions as the defeat of Nazi Germany did not lead to the immediate freedoms that other European nations enjoyed. After the war, Poland was subjugated by the Soviet Union, and remained part of the communist bloc until 1989.
At a wreath-laying commemoration at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw, President Andrzej Duda described VE Day as a “bittersweet anniversary” for a country that endured one of the most brutal Nazi occupations. Six million of Poland’s 35 million people were killed, half of whom were Jewish.
Duda lamented the fact that thousands of Polish troops who had fought alongside Allied forces during the war were later “betrayed” by the Allies and were not allowed to march in the 1946 Victory Parade in London for fear of straining British relations with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939, when Adolf Hitler’s Nazi forces invaded Poland.
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US Jobless Rate Spikes to 14.7%, Highest Since Great Depression
The U.S Labor Department said Friday the coronavirus-caused unemployment rate surged to 14.7% in April, a depth of turmoil in the world’s biggest economy not seen since the Great Depression in the 1930s. The jobless rate in March was 4.4%.As the rate suggests, about one of every six workers in the U.S. labor force of 164.6 million people is currently unemployed, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing factories with thousands of workers to shut their operations, small mom-and-pop-owned shops (small, independent businesses) to close their doors and white-collar offices to lay off workers.A total of 33.5 million workers have filed for unemployment compensation since mid-March, with a declining number each week over the seven-week period. The workers looking for jobless benefits are usually paid not quite half of their regular wages. But with the virus tightening its grip on the American economy, the federal government is currently paying unemployed workers an additional $600 a week for the next four months.Now, President Donald Trump is pushing to reopen the economy, even as he acknowledged this week that more people will die as more individuals leave their homes and return to work.At least 43 of the 50 U.S. governors have started to slowly reopen their economies even as the coronavirus death toll continues to mount to more than 75,600, a substantially bigger total than in any other country. Some statistical analyses say the U.S. death toll could reach 134,000 by August.FILE – A pedestrian walks by The Framing Gallery, closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, May 7, 2020.Some governors in recent days have said that hair and nail salons can resume business with stylists wearing face masks. Small shops and restaurants in some communities have reopened. Swarms of people have ventured to Atlantic and Pacific beaches in the last couple of weeks, many of them ignoring orders to wear face masks or maintain two-meter distancing from other people. Some factories could reopen later in May, although it is not at all clear how manufacturers plan to continue safe distancing when sometimes workers stand close to each other on assembly lines.But a Washington Post-Ipsos poll showed that a majority of laid-off or furloughed workers — 77 percent — expect to be rehired by their previous employer as local officials ease stay-at-home orders. Nearly six in 10 agreed with the sentiment that they are “very likely” to get their old job back, according to the poll.The United States said its economy dipped 4.8% in the January-to-March quarter. The coronavirus did not substantially strike the U.S. until mid-March. Economists are predicting a much bigger drop in the April-to-June quarter, 20% or more, but a substantial rebound in the third quarter. Some health experts have warned, however, that the coronavirus advance in the U.S. has proven more stubborn than first envisioned. They say the issue easily could curtail back-to-work efforts for months with no definitive end to the crisis until and unless a coronavirus vaccine is discovered, and millions of Americans are inoculated.
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Rival Lawmakers Scuffle in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council
A fight broke out in Hong Kong’s legislature Friday as pro-democracy and pro-China lawmakers sparred over selecting the chairperson of a key committee.
The rival legislators, wearing masks because of coronavirus guidelines, shouted and pushed one another as pro-Beijing lawmaker Starry Lee attempted to chair the meeting from behind a cordon of about two dozen guards in grey suits. Democrats said the move violated procedure and sought to eject her from the House Committee chair where she was seated.
“I have the right to start this meeting,” Lee, of the pro-establishment Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, said.
Democrats responded by shouting “Starry Lee, step down!” and holding signs in Mandarin and Latin reading, “Beyond one’s powers.”
Images showed security guards carrying several democrats out of the chamber and one person being taken out on a stretcher. Beijing has accused the pro-democracy lawmakers of “malicious” filibustering to prevent final voting on several bills, paralyzing the legislature.
Democrats maintained the committee needed to elect a chairperson first, before considering any legislation, including one bill that would criminalize abuse of China’s national anthem.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to China in 1997 with a guarantee of extended freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland. Beijing rejects criticism that it is seeking to reverse those freedoms.
Resentment against the government remains widespread in Hong Kong and last June it erupted into weekly demonstrations to protest an extradition bill that would have allowed detainees in Hong Kong to be transferred to mainland China.
Although the bill was later withdrawn, the demonstrations continued for months before a lull starting in January as the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.
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Marine Life Declines for Another Year in Contested, Overfished South China Sea
Marine life in the politically disputed South China Sea took another hit over the past year, researchers said, due to overfishing and lack of international efforts to protect species.Vessels from multiple Asian countries are going farther out into the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea and casting deeper because coastal waters yield increasingly little, scholars and published research indicate. Giant clam harvesting, added to use of cyanide and dynamite bombing for fish, damaged coral reefs last year, the analysts said.Marine life in the sea that stretches from Taiwan southwest to Singapore comes into focus every May, when China declares a moratorium on fishing above the 12th parallel, which encompasses waters most frequented by China but bisecting both Vietnam and the Philippines. The bans that began in 1995 will last this year from May 1 to August 16.“We’re all in this pretty rapid decline when it comes to biodiversity in the South China Sea and we certainly don’t see any evidence that anybody is doing anything about it,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative under the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.Fishing in the sea expanded rapidly in the 1980s and early 1990s, to about 10 million tons per year but then started stagnating, researchers Cui Liang of China’s Xiamen University and Daniel Pauly from the University of British Columbia said in a 2017 paper.Since then, the study said, boats have fished deeper and caught smaller fish. Still, the South China Sea accounted for 12 percent of the global fish catch just five years ago, according to CSIS. Analysts could not estimate the total 2019 catch volume because of lack of national-level data.“The coastal areas are already overfished, so that means that fishing fleets from China, Taiwan, Korea, even Japan would actually be swarming now into the center of the South China Sea area, which means there is that concern about overfishing, and then, not to speak of that island-building processes that China conducted,” said Herman Kraft, a political science professor at University of the Philippines Diliman.Among the problems is continued use by Asian fishing crews of dynamite and cyanide bombing, the conservation group Global Underwater Explorers said on its website. The practice, which wrecks coral reefs and fish spawning zones, is “widespread throughout Asia and the South China Sea, from Indonesia to southern China,” the website said.CSIS pointed to “large-scale” clam harvesting and dredging for island construction. China has wrecked 40,000 acres of coral reef to build islets for human use, Poling said. Giant clam harvesting last year by Chinese boats hurt coral around Scarborough Shoal west of Luzon Island in the Philippines, media outlets in Manila said.Military groups in the sea’s Spratly Islands have shot turtles and seabirds, raided nests and fished with explosives, the World Wildlife Fund said on its website. One turtle species, the hawksbill, is endangered.Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or part of the sea that is also valuable because of its energy reserves and marine shipping lanes. An estimated 37 million people depend on fishing there for a living, while state-to-state conservation talks are rare.The declining fishery stocks push each country’s fleet to look harder for what’s left, Poling said. About 4 million Chinese fishing crew members are expected to obey China’s moratorium, but crews from other countries, which contest sovereignty over that tract of sea, are unlikely to change course because they do not recognize the Chinese claim.Most conservation efforts to date come from individual countries.About five years ago, academics in the Philippines suggested creating a protected area in the Spratlys, and the idea gained a following in government agencies, although not at the presidential level, Kraft said. Vietnam had proposed nearly 20 years ago that a separate160-square-kilometer tract of the archipelago become a protected area. Both countries control some of the Spratly islets.Coral in 3,500 square kilometers of open sea around the Taiwan-controlled Pratas islets showed improvement last year because the Taiwanese coast guard has stepped up patrols to keep foreign-registered fishing vessels away, said Chuang Cheng-hsien, a conservation section chief under the Marine National Park Headquarters. China also claims the three Pratas atolls.Eight or nine years ago, he said, foreign vessels would fish near the protected atolls.“They get pushed out now, so there’s a big difference in numbers between now and the past,” he said. “In that area there’s virtually no destruction by mechanized fishing boats.”
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Earthquake Shatters Iran’s Social Distancing Measures
An early morning earthquake in Iran has dealt a blow to the country’s struggle to combat the coronavirus. Thousands of people took to the streets of Tehran, the capital, early Friday without observing the social distancing measures designed to prevent the spread of the disease. At least two people are reported to have died in the temblor, which Reuters reported had a magnitude of 5.1.Australia announced a three-step plan Friday for its gradual re-opening after closing down to stop the spread of the virus.As individual U.S. states continue to struggle to obtain COVID-19 tests for their residents, the White House has announced that President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will now be tested every day after the president’s valet tested positive for the virus. Before the valet fell ill, the two U.S. leaders were tested once a week.The U.S. was bracing Friday for the release of the government’s official unemployment figures. Economists speculate the figure could be as high as 16 percent, following the job losses millions have faced following the outbreak of the coronavirus.Up to 44 million people in Africa could come down with the coronavirus and 190,000 will die if the virus is not contained, the World Health Organization said.A new WHO report looked at 47 countries on the African continent. It said while the rates of transmission in Africa would be slower than in other parts of the world during the pandemic’s first year, COVID-19 in Africa could “smolder” for a long time in what the report called hot spots.Nurse Liliana Palacios removes her mask and PPE after tending to a patient with COVID-19 in the acute care COVID unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Wash., on May 7, 2020.“COVID-19 could become a fixture in our lives for the next several years unless a proactive approach is taken by many governments in the region,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Africa regional director. “We need to test, trace, isolate and treat.”If little or nothing is done, Moeti said, the medical capacity across Africa would be “overwhelmed” and added that curbing a largescale outbreak is far costlier than the ongoing preventive measures governments are undertaking to contain the spread of the virus.United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the U.N. is boosting its appeal for aid to help some of the world’s poorest countries fight the coronavirus by billions of dollars, saying Thursday that $6.7 billion is needed.The World Bank on Thursday approved $506 million in emergency loans to Ecuador, which is grappling with one of Latin America’s worst outbreaks. The approval comes just days after the International Monetary Fund gave its backing to $643 million in aid to Ecuador.The head of the U.S. National Institutes of Health told a Senate committee Thursday that the agency has teamed up with private industry to create and distribute technology that he said can test millions of people a week by the end of the summer, before the flu season starts.“I must tell you, senators, that this is a stretch goal that goes well beyond what most experts think will be possible,” Francis Collins said. “I have encountered some stunned expressions when describing these goals and this timetable to knowledgeable individuals. The scientific and logistical challenges are truly daunting.”But Collins told the lawmakers that he is optimistic because of what he calls “the track record of American ingenuity.”Some health experts say if the coronavirus outbreak has not waned by the start of the usual flu season, or if there is a second wave of COVID-19, it would prove to be a tremendous challenge for the health system.Those experts also say the U.S. may need to carry out a million tests a day to successfully isolate the virus.A man wearing a face mask to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus cycles in Yokohama, near Tokyo, May 8, 2020.In California, where the first part of a four-phase plan to reopen the state’s economy begins Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the community spread of the virus in California began in a nail salon.“I’m very worried about that,” Newsom said Thursday without giving details on exactly where the salon is.Officials suspect it is in Solano County, between San Francisco and Sacramento.Community spread is when someone catches the coronavirus without having known contact with another victim.Health experts say places such as nail salons and gyms, where people come in close contact with one another, are considered to be high-risk businesses, although some have started to reopen in other states. Newsom has not said when they can reopen in California.Frontier Airlines will be the first major U.S. air carrier to take the temperature of all passengers and crew who board its planes. Starting June 1, anyone with a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius or higher will not be allowed to fly but could be rebooked on a later flight after a rest period.Several other airlines have already mandated face coverings for passengers and crew.An editorial in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine said a new study shows no evidence the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is an effective coronavirus treatment.“It is disappointing that several months into the pandemic, we do not yet have results from any strict tests of the drug,” doctors wrote.President Donald Trump has pushed the drug as a COVID-19 treatment. But the Food and Drug Administration said it potentially has some serious side effects that could be fatal.Also Thursday, South African Breweries, one of the world’s largest, said it may have to spill out 400 million bottles of beer because the country has banned the sale of alcohol as part of its COVID-19 fight.South Africa temporarily stopped the sale and transport of alcohol in March, saying the medical community has its hands full with coronavirus and cannot deal with alcohol-related illness and accidents at this time.South African Breweries said if it cannot get government permission to move the beer from its brewery to special storage facilities, it will have to destroy 130 million liters of suds, costing $8 million and maybe putting as many as 2,000 people out of work.
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In US, East Coast to Freeze as West Coast Blisters
An unwelcome blast of winter in the United States may help make stay-at-home orders easier to follow when a looping jet stream sends below-freezing temperatures to parts of the East Coast. On the West Coast, near-record highs may make indoor air conditioning more appealing than the outdoors.Starting Friday, part of the Eastern U.S. will be bracing for freezing weather and possibly some snow after a relatively warm winter.According to meteorologist Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel, there will be record-breaking low temperatures over the Great Lakes this weekend. In addition, the Northeast could experience a bomb cyclone, a rapidly intensifying, low-temperature storm, as it moves over the Gulf of Maine.From the Ohio Valley to the Northeast and on up to Maine, snow and high winds are predicted beginning Friday and are expected to strengthen Saturday. Power outages caused by tree damage are also expected.Out West, a heat wave that brought some record-setting temperatures throughout late April has worsened. The National Weather Service has posted heat warnings for parts of California and some southwestern states.The high of 30 set a record Wednesday at the Los Angeles International Airport.Temperatures peaked Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles at 33 after late April brought back-to-back 34-degree days. These temperatures mark the second-hottest temperatures of the, year with the highest temperature on record for the month being 39 degrees, set in 1896.In addition, Las Vegas saw 32-plus-degree highs nearly every day in May, significantly higher than the city’s average 19- to 29-degree temperatures.In California, high temperatures mixed with a drought and forceful offshore winds are raising concerns about potential wildfires.”While it’s early in the season, there will be an elevated fire risk into Saturday as the offshore winds bring humidity levels down,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Brian Thompson said recently.Santa Barbara, north of Los Angeles, is already combating an 80-hectare brush fire. The fire is being fed by winds the National Weather Service reported reached 108 kph.Back on the East Coast, there are three wildfires blazing in the Florida Panhandle, causing more than 1,000 people to evacuate.With high winds, low humidity and no rain in the forecast, “the threat is far from over,” Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said Thursday.The Five Mile Swamp Fire started Monday after a private contractor’s prescribed burn got out of control, Fried said. According to the Tampa Bay Times, National Weather Service meteorologist Jack Cullen said the dryness helped fuel the fire, but the wind is the real culprit.
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Croatia Defense Minister Resigns Over Military Plane Crash
Croatia’s defense minister has resigned after an air force training plane crashed shortly after takeoff from a military airbase in the southwest of the country.Both crew members were killed in Thursday’s crash. A similar accident three months ago, when a helicopter crashed, also killed two pilots.Damir Krsticevic announced his resignation, saying “we have to be transparent” and take responsibility for the crashes.”This is a big loss for the Croatian army,” Krsticevic said. “I am today stepping down from the role of vice president of the government and minister of defense of the Croatian Republic. Thank you.”The Croatian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Zlin single-engine aircraft crashed at around 4 p.m. local time during a routine training flight near the central Adriatic town of Zadar.The ministry did not give any explanation for the possible cause of the accident.Images for the from the scene of the crash showed a small plane’s wreckage in flames, near what seemed to be a private house.
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Hundreds Protest in Belgrade Against President’s Grip on Power
In Serbia, hundreds of people took to the streets of the capital, Belgrade, late Thursday to demonstrate against the country’s president, Aleksandar Vucic.Protesters from the “Citizens’ Resistance” movement accuse Vucic of curbing democratic freedoms.”We are here because we are angry at our government, because of everything they did to us during the past two months, and even more time,” said protester Biljana Stojkovic. “This is the clear repression, and we think that this is a dictatorship we are living in nowadays. So, this is not just because of COVID-19, this is because of everything else that is going on in this country.”The protest in front of the presidency building was organized just one day after the authorities lifted restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19.Once during the protest, participants led by some opposition leaders attempted to storm the building’s entrance. Security guards did not intervene.Critics have accused Vucic of using the state of emergency imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic to tighten his grip on power ahead of the general elections, which are to be held next month. Vucic has denied the accusations.Some opposition parties have announced a boycott of June’s election, questioning its freedom and fairness.The opposition also accuses Vucic of controlling the mainstream media, of not allowing it to give space to critical voices.
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Lesotho Prime Minister Agrees to Process for Resignation
The timetable for Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s departure from office is in the hands of the government and his political party, despite his intentions to retire by the end of July.Under a Lesotho law, if a vote of no confidence against 80-year-old Thabane passes, he would essentially have no choice but to leave office.Thabane says his age and energy level were factors in deferring to the law to decide the process for him stepping down as leader of the small South African country.Thabane’s remaining time in office may also depend on whether he is prosecuted for his alleged involvement in the murder of his estranged wife in 2017.The prime minister and his former wife, Lipolelo Thabane, were in the midst of a divorce when she was shot dead in front of her house in the capital, Maseru.Thabane’s current wife, Maesaiah Thabane, whom he married a few months after Lipolelo’s death, is charged with her murder.Thabane’s request for immunity from prosecution after leaving office was rejected last week by the governing party.
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3.2 Million More US Workers File for Jobless Benefits
The pace of claims for unemployment compensation slowed marginally in the U.S. last week, but another 3.2 million still filed for the benefits as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the world’s largest economy.In all, 33.5 million U.S. workers have now filed for jobless compensation since the pandemic shut huge sectors of American commerce starting in mid-March, according to the Labor Department, including factories, shops, restaurants, white-collar offices and sports leagues.The total amounts to about one of every five U.S. workers.The workers filing for the benefits normally are paid slightly less than half their normal salaries. But these payments are currently being augmented during the pandemic with $600-a-week supplements from the federal government for the next four months.The peak of the unemployment benefit claims may have come in late March with 6.9 million workers filing for the jobless compensation.A woman sitting on a stoop reading a book in the sun is seen reflected by a closed clothing store’s window on West Broadway on May 7, 2020, in the SoHo neighborhood of the Manhattan borough in New York.The weekly pace of claims has diminished each week since then, but the millions of claims have still been unparalleled over decades of U.S. economic history, reaching back to the Great Depression in the 1930s. The number of claims has far exceeded those made during the Great Recession in 2008.The government on Friday is reporting the April unemployment rate, with the White House predicting it could reach 20 percent, a number never seen in the 72 years the records have been compiled. One report on Wednesday said that U.S. employers slashed 20.2 million jobs in late March and early April.Still, U.S. commerce is slowly edging back to life even as the U.S. coronavirus death toll has topped 73,000, the biggest national total across the world, and the number of confirmed coronavirus cases totals more than 1.2 million.Governors in at least 43 of the 50 U.S. states have moved toward reopening of parts of their economies, in some cases telling restaurant owners they can reopen if they maintain safe two-meter distancing between customers or let shop keepers reopen if they limit the number of customers at any one time.Some factories could reopen later in May, although it is not clear how workers will be able to maintain safe distancing to limit their chances of catching the virus.The government reported last week that the national economy declined 4.8 percent in the first quarter this year, with the prospect of a much bigger decline in the April-to-June quarter, more than at any point since World War II.Credit Suisse is predicting a 33.5 percent decline, with investment banker Goldman Sachs slightly higher at 34 percent with a 15 percent unemployment rate.However, Goldman is predicting a robust 19 percent gain in the third quarter from July through September as the U.S. moves toward a possible recovery from the pandemic.Some companies laid off workers quickly in mid-March as the spread of the coronavirus became apparent. But other companies vowed to keep paying their workers, at least for a while, even as many of them had little work to do as their potential customers stayed home to protect themselves and their families.Some companies eventually laid off those workers as well, as the depth of the country’s economic turmoil took hold.
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Trump Prays for COVID-19 Victims, Blocks CDC’s Religious Guidelines
U.S. President Donald Trump prayed for the lives lost to COVID-19 at the White House National Day of Prayer Service on Thursday. But as the country’s houses of worship begin to reopen, the administration is under fire for blocking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s draft guidelines for religious communities. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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UN Appeals for $6.7 Billion to Help World’s Poorest Survive COVID-19
The United Nations is boosting its global appeal, asking for close to $7 billion to avoid a devastating fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.N.’s emergency relief chief tells VOA the updated plan to fight the coronavirus would target nine more countries: Benin, Djibouti, Liberia, Mozambique, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Togo and Zimbabwe. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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Madagascar’s COVID-19 ‘Cure’ Raises Pride, Health Concerns and Political Risks
When Madagascar’s president touted an herbal potion that he said could cure COVID-19, he touched off a swell of pride in a product steeped in African traditional medicine – and a wave of concern that it hadn’t been sufficiently tested.“This herbal tea gives results in seven days,” President Andry Rajoelina said at an April 20 news conference, claiming it had cured two people. The event took place at the country’s Malagasy Institute of Applied Research, which developed the tonic branded as Covid-Organics, or CVO.In recent weeks, CVO – made with Artemisia annua, a plant whose artemisinin extract is used in antimalarial drugs – has been dispensed to Madagascar high school students and by soldiers going door to door, according to news reports.Elsewhere in Africa, the Republic of Congo received a donation of the herbal remedy on Tuesday. Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Liberia have imported CVO or said they plan to do so. Tanzanian President John Magufuli said last weekend that he would order a planeload.‘Made-in-Africa’ prideMagufuli’s news generated many positive social media comments that invoked “a sort of patriotism,” Neville Meena, secretary of the Tanzania Editors Forum, said on VOA’s “Daybreak Africa” radio program.“Now when the Madagascars claim that they have the medicine for coronavirus,” he said, “now, the debate is: ‘Why should [we] not just support this innovation from our own continent?’ ”Dr. Erick Gbodossou, president of Senegal-based Prometra International, an organization committed to preserving African traditional medicine and science, praised Madagascar’s Rajoelina for having “the courage to test artemisia” and for trying to help his people via Covid-Organics.“This courage is to be saluted,” he told VOA’s French to Africa service via Skype, “because we Africans must try to make humanity understand that Africa is not just dances and songs, that Africa can bring real, effective, serious solutions to the various health concerns of humanity.”Earlier this week, the World Health Organization issued a statement voicing respect for traditional medicines while insisting on rigorous testing.“Africans deserve to use medicines tested to the same standards as people in the rest of the world,” it said.The African Union said in a news release that it was “in discussion” with Madagascar diplomats “to obtain technical data regarding the safety and efficiency of a herbal remedy.” It said its Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would review the data.The herbal drink CVO was tested on fewer than 20 people for just three weeks before its release, a top aide to the president of Malagasy told the BBC.Political gain or liability?Madagascar’s Rajoelina is not alone among political leaders endorsing products or protocols of uncertain value in the COVID-19 response.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promoted the anti-influenza drug Avignan, saying his country would “expand to the greatest possible extent its administration to patients wishing to take it,” The Japan Times reported in late April. The news organization said a Chinese study found the drug to be effective, especially among patients with mild symptoms, so Beijing is including it in treatment guidelines. But the drug – also known as favipiravir – may cause birth defects.U.S. President Donald Trump has encouraged using chloroquine to treat COVID-19. He also suggested at a briefing – in jest, he later said – that injecting disinfectant might help patients. Medical experts and the makers of cleaning products quickly responded with warnings.Political leaders take risks when backing a product or protocol that hasn’t been fully vetted, said Bronwyn Bruton, an expert on governance in Africa.“The president of Madagascar might benefit from looking at the situation that we recently had in the United States, where there was a lot of enthusiasm in the White House for a drug that had historically been used to treat malaria” and that had “some promising indications” for treating COVID-19, said Bruton, director of studies for the Atlantic Council’s Africa Program.If chloroquine had proved effective against COVID-19, the White House “would have looked very prescient,” she said. “The problem is it didn’t turn out that way.”The National Institutes of Health website notes “insufficient clinical data to recommend either for or against using chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine” in treating COVID-19.If the Madagascar potion proves ineffective or even harmful, Bruton said, Rajoelina “will be less credible … particularly if a large number of people have failed to social distance and the disease has spread more rapidly in Madagascar than it would have otherwise because of his conduct.”Madagascar had 193 confirmed COVID-19 cases but no deaths as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.Prometra’s Gbodossou remains convinced that a COVID-19 medicine lies within reach in Africa – and within the bounds of traditional medicine.“We haven’t had yet, in many African countries, the courage to say the North does not have the solution,” he said. “If our politicians, the political leaders, do not yet understand it, it will be a pity.”Mohamadou Houmfa of VOA’s French to Africa service reported from Dakar, Senegal. Carol Guensburg, along with VOA English to Africa’s James Butty and Jason Patinkin, reported from Washington.
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