The worldwide death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic has surpassed 350,000. The milestone comes as South Korea announced Wednesday its highest number of new cases in 49 days. Authorities are focusing on testing workers from e-commerce giant Coupang after dozens of cases were linked to a company site outside of Seoul. South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said all but four of its 40 new cases were in the Seoul area. The country was an early hotspot for the coronavirus outbreak, but now barely ranks in the top-50 in terms of confirmed infections, according to statistics compiled by the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.“We will do our best to trace contacts and implement preventive measures, but there’s a limit to such efforts,” KCDC head Jeong Eun-kyeong said. “There’s a need to maximize social distancing in areas where the virus is circulating, to force people to avoid public facilities and other crowded spaces.” Brazil has emerged as a major source of concern, trailing only the United States in the number of infections. On Tuesday it reported the most single day deaths in the world, with 1,039, its fifth consecutive day atop the grim list. India posted its record high of 6,000 new cases reported Wednesday, pushing its total above 150,000. Mexico also reported troubling escalations in its coronavirus outbreak, with a new high of 501 deaths and 3,455 new confirmed cases.A child gets a meal from the mobile dining rooms program as people who have not been able to work because of the COVID-19 pandemic line up for a meal outside the Iztapalapa hospital in Mexico City, Wednesday, May 20, 2020.Like many governments around the world, Mexico is weighing continuing stay-at-home and social distancing orders against the desire to resume economic activity. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters his advisers were discussing possible reopening steps and could announce as early as this week plans to send kids back to school. He also said he plans to tour different states and hold talks with local officials on easing restrictions. In the neighboring United States, governors continue to pull back on their lockdown orders, including in Nevada, where Governor Steve Sisolak announced casinos in Las Vegas can reopen June 4 after the key industry was shut down for 10 weeks. “We welcome the visitors from across the country to come here, to have a good time, no different than they did previously, but we’re gonna be cautious,” Sisolak said. New Zealand reported a new milestone in its coronavirus recovery, saying Wednesday there were no more COVID-19 patients in the country’s hospitals. Health officials said there were only 21 active cases in New Zealand, which put in place a strict five-week lockdown before slowly easing the measures in late April. New Zealand and Australia are working on plans to amend their travel bans to allow people to move between the two countries, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a draft should be ready by early next month. And in Spain, a 10-day mourning period began Wednesday to honor the more than 27,000 people in the country who have died from COVID-19.
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Month: May 2020
Why Vietnam’s ‘Silicon Valley’ Won’t Be Like California’s
Vietnam’s financial hub is setting aside land to develop what locals call a new “Silicon Valley,” a reference to the area of California where a lot of new technology is developed, but with not-so-California characteristics, such as state planning and a lack of venture capital. The Home Affairs Department of Ho Chi Minh City filed a plan this month to the city’s Communist Party committee for merging three districts into a single zone for development as a tech center, domestic media outlet VnExpress International says. The plan followed a meeting May 8 between city officials and Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the news outlet says. City leaders had begun in 2017 planning a 22,000-hectare (54,300-acre) zone to monetize scientific and technical research, the news outlet says. More than 1 million people already live along the flat swathe of land along the Saigon River. The zone will appeal foremost to internet and software developers, including an estimated 40 financial technology firms, as well as their employees who hope to live near work, analysts on the ground say. The zone is taking shape as tech-educated Vietnamese in their 20s start companies. “Vietnamese are very entrepreneurial,” said Jack Nguyen, a partner at the business advisory firm Mazars in Ho Chi Minh City. “They see something work in other countries, or in the U.S., they’ll give it a shot here in Vietnam.” Vietnamese entrepreneurs, some educated overseas, are taking advantage of a largely “mobile” culture in the Southeast Asian country as well as low-paid local engineers to build up their bases in Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen added. Ho Chi Minh City’s tech zone includes a slice of its financial center, modern apartment tracts and a nearby polytechnic university. Those perks should make the zone more attractive for techies, said Phuong Hong, a native of the city who lives in the zone. “These three districts have the level of living, and transportation is also very, very convenient,” she said, referring to the three administrative tracts to be merged. Tech workers are likely to take advantage of that convenience, said Frederick Burke, Ho Chi Minh City-based partner with the law firm Baker McKenzie. “The fact that they give extra incentives to locate there creates an ecosystem where some employees live in the neighborhood,” Burke said. “Therefore, an engineer can jump from one job to another more easily.” Central government leaders have tried over the past decade to steer Vietnam’s export-led economy Electricity needs are rising as Vietnam’s economy grows, adding challenges for the state power utility, EVN, as it tries to balance free markets and central planning. (Ha Nguyen/VOA)National-level and city government planning will probably lead the tech zone’s formation – a key difference compared to the more organic development of Silicon Valley of California – analysts say. “What we’ll likely see as key differences between the two is the Ho Chi Minh City project will be a cluster that heavily recruits global and regional companies and (where) entrepreneurial behaviors are likely commissioned by the government, whereas Silicon Valley is more locally grown and has been driven by industry trends and technology innovations,” said Lam Nguyen, managing director with the tech market research firm IDC Indochina in Ho Chi Minh City. State planning to date has offered internet bandwidth. Growth of the zone will require local officials to build out infrastructure, the IDC managing director said. The zone will need tax incentives, better business licensing processes and ideal locations to draw newcomers, he added. Tech investors will favor Vietnam’s relatively lower costs, Lam Nguyen said. Vietnam’s tech zone will face a lack of venture capital, buyouts and failures followed by restarts, country observers say. A lot of startup founders have ideas but lack capital, Jack Nguyen said. They look overseas for funding, he said. The area south of San Francisco known as “Silicon Valley” first became a hub of technology development in the 1950s, when a dean of Stanford University’s engineering school encouraged faculty members to start their own companies. Silicon Valley output has been estimated at an unusually high $275 billion per year and it’s one of the most expensive parts of the United States.
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Hong Kong Police Blockade Legislature Ahead of National Anthem Vote
Hong Kong riot police established a blockade around the city’s legislative complex Wednesday as lawmakers prepared to debate a controversial bill that would make disrespecting China’s national anthem a crime. Police erected water-filled barriers around the complex to keep away protesters after a call went out the night before to surround the building to derail the proceedings. But thousands of protesters gathered in the city’s business district shouting pro-democracy slogans and insults at police, who fired pepper pellets at the demonstrators to disperse them. Hong Kong lawmakers are holding a second debate on a bill that calls for anyone who intentionally insults the anthem by booing or any other means, to face up to three years in prison and fines of more than $6,000. The bill was introduced last year in response to fans regularly booing “March of the Volunteers” during football (soccer) matches. The global financial hub was engulfed by massive and often violent anti-government protests during the last half of 2019, sparked initially by a controversial extradition bill that eventually evolved into a demand for greater democracy. Many Hong Kongers fear their autonomy is steadily being eroded by a central government on the mainland that is increasingly meddling in its affairs. The debate over the national anthem bill coincides with a proposed national security law unveiled last week in China’s national congress that would prevent and punish acts of “secession, subversion or terrorism activities” that threaten national security. The law would also allow Chinese national security organs to set up agencies in Hong Kong. The legislation has been condemned by business groups and Western nations as the death knell for Hong Kong’s status under the “one country, two systems” concept established after Britain handed over control of the financial hub to China in 1997, especially since the proposed law bypasses Hong Kong’s legislature.
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As South Koreans Reexamine a 1980 Massacre, Some Ask US to Do the Same
It was the most notorious moment in South Korea’s turbulent path to democracy: the May 1980 military crackdown on a student-led protest in the southwestern city of Gwangju. The Gwangju Uprising, as it would later become known, began as a demonstration against South Korea’s brutal military leaders, who had recently expanded martial law. Shortly after the protest began, elite paratroopers attacked the students with batons, rifles and bayonets. But as the crackdown escalated, so did the citizens’ resistance. Eventually Gwangju erupted into open rebellion, with residents raiding a local armory, seizing weapons and driving the military out of the city. A few days later, the military returned, crushing the civilian militia. The Gwangju violence marked a pivotal moment in South Korean history. Not only did it rekindle a nationwide pro-democracy movement, the violence also unleashed a wave of anger at the United States, which had long backed the country’s military rulers as a way to counter North Korea. Though May 18, the day the protest began, is now celebrated as an unofficial memorial day in South Korea, the incident is still a major source of polarization. Far-right conservatives continue to insist, without providing evidence, that North Korea was behind the protests, which they characterize as riots. But amid a leftward shift in South Korea’s political landscape, the country is making a fresh effort to find a common narrative about Gwangju. Uncovering hidden truths Newly empowered after a landslide legislative election win last month, the left-leaning government of President Moon Jae-in has prioritized the Gwangju issue, especially during this month’s 40th anniversary of the movement. Standing in front of the former provincial government building in downtown Gwangju where the 1980 civilian militia made its final stand, Moon earlier this month promised full support for a new, independent fact-finding committee to look into the crackdown. Many details about the incident remain unknown, including the death toll (the official count at the time was around 200, but independent groups say the actual number is much higher), as well as who ordered the use of helicopters that eyewitnesses say fired on civilians. Moon is also pushing to recognize the “May 18 Democratization Movement” in the preamble of South Korea’s constitution, formally enshrining it as part of South Korea’s long fight for democracy.The Gwangju plaza that saw bloody battles between protesters and military forces in May, 1980. In the background is the former provincial government building where the civilian militia made its last stand. May 20, 2020. (W. Gallo)Conservative apology Some conservatives are even changing their tone. Ahead of the 40th anniversary, South Korea’s main conservative party apologized for its past members who “defamed” and “insulted” the Gwangju movement. “In the future, the May Uprising will no longer become a political issue, and it should not be the subject of social conflict,” said the Women whose families were killed, wounded, or arrested during the Gwangju Uprising sing songs at the May Mothers House community center in Gwangju, South Korea. May 20, 2020. (W. Gallo)Military strongman Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to death in 1996, in part because of his role in the massacre, but was later pardoned. Now 89 years old and suffering from Alzheimer’s, Chun remains defiant and defends his actions. In 2018, South Korea’s defense ministry issued its first-ever apology for the massacre, following a five-month investigation. US apology? But many in Gwangju also want an apology from the United States, which at the time had operational control of all South Korean military units. Specifically, many Gwangju residents feel the U.S. could and should have done more to restrain their allies, especially after the South Korean military notified Washington it was moving an elite military unit away from U.S. control to deal with the unrest. U.S. military and diplomatic officials have long insisted they did not have enough influence to stop South Korea from deploying the troops. Once the troops were deployed, U.S. officials say they did not have adequate real-time info about the crackdown. “The U.S. government didn’t have a clear picture,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, then a 26-year-old junior foreign service officer at the U.S. embassy in Seoul. “And I don’t think (U.S. officials) had leverage sufficient to prevent the South Korean government from putting down an uprising they saw as an existential threat.” At the time, Fitzpatrick served as an assistant to U.S. Ambassador William Gleysteen. The title of Gleysteen’s 1999 memoir – Massive Entanglement, Marginal Influence – concisely summarizes the challenges the U.S. faced in simultaneously supporting South Korea’s authoritarian leaders while also pushing for democracy. “We were always encouraging reform, but there was a higher priority on deterring North Korea,” said Fitzpatrick, now retired after serving 26 years as a foreign service officer and later a U.S. nuclear policy expert. “Given the U.S. military presence and the overriding need to deter North Korea and to keep the South Korean military strong, human rights took a backseat.” Since 2004, U.S. ambassadors to South Korea have occasionally visited Gwangju, where they praise South Korea’s democracy movement. But notably, they do not issue formal apologies. “We have asked many times for the U.S. government to apologize … but they haven’t done that so far,” said Lee Jae-eui, who took part in the uprising and later co-authored an influential book on the uprising. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul did not release a statement on the 40th anniversary of Gwangju, and the State Department did not reply to VOA’s request for comment. But earlier this month, the State Department released a batch of newly declassified documents, many of which contain contemporary observations about Gwangju by Ambassador Gleysteen. Ben Engel, who researches U.S. policy in South Korea during the 1970s and 80s, said publicly available U.S. records don’t reveal a “smoking gun” that proves the U.S. knew and approved of what Chun was doing. But Gleysteen clearly thought the protests needed to be subdued, even if he had reservations about using the military or violence to suppress the protests, Engel said. “It’s almost like he doesn’t want to admit to himself that he knew what Chun was doing,” Engel said. “He knew it was wrong, but that it would achieve the result that his government wanted.” ‘Crucible’ for US policy Even four decades later, the incident stirs strong emotions among U.S. officials who were in Seoul during the time. Some still won’t talk about it on the record. Kathleen Stephens, U.S. ambassador from 2008 to 2011, says the period surrounding the Gwangju Uprising served as a “crucible” for U.S. policy toward the South. “Those who were in Seoul during that period carried that with them for a long time,” said Stephens, who also served from 1983 to 1989 at the U.S. embassy in Seoul as a political officer. “The experience led U.S. policymakers to take a somewhat different approach to South Korea” later in the 1980s, when the country moved decisively toward democracy, she said. South Korea’s democracy may still be relatively young, but it is one of Asia’s healthiest. And while anti-U.S. sentiment still exists, it is largely confined to the fringes of South Korean politics and society. But many Koreans, especially in Gwangju, feel that a full accounting of the past is still necessary. “Punishment is not the goal,” President Moon said on the Gwangju anniversary this month. “It is about documenting history accurately. If you have courage to confess the truth now, then the path of forgiveness and reconciliation will open.”
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Walt Disney World Presenting Plans for Reopening Parks
Walt Disney World is presenting its plans for reopening after being shuttered along with Florida’s other theme parks since mid-March because of the new coronavirus.Disney World and SeaWorld Orlando will present their proposals for phased reopenings before an Orange County task force on Wednesday, said Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings. If Demings signs off on them, the plans will be sent to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for approval.With 77,000 workers, Disney World is central Florida’s biggest employer.Last week, Disney World allowed third-party businesses at its Disney Springs dining and shopping complex to open with new restrictions.All workers and visitors older than 2 at Disney Springs must wear masks, temperatures are checked at entrances to keep out anyone with a temperature 100.4 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) or higher, and a limited number of people are admitted to allow social distancing at the high-end outdoor shopping area with restaurants, movie theaters, a bowling alley and a Cirque du Soleil theater.Crosstown rival, Universal Orlando, presented its reopening proposal last week to county officials, saying it was aiming to reopen June 5. Officials approved those plans and sent them to the governor. Universal also has opened up its dining and entertainment complex with restrictions similar to Disney Springs.Earlier this month, Shanghai Disneyland became the first of Disney’s theme park resorts to reopen, with severe limits on the number of visitors allowed in, mandatory masks and temperature checks.
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Hong Kong Legislature Surrounded by Riot Police Ahead of Expected Protests
Hundreds of riot police took up posts around Hong Kong’s legislature overnight, as protests were expected Wednesday over a bill criminalizing disrespect of China’s national anthem and against plans by Beijing to impose national security laws.The proposed new national security laws have triggered the first big street unrest in Hong Kong since last year, when violent protests posed Hong Kong’s biggest crisis since the return of Chinese rule in 1997 from Britain.Activists say the security laws could bring an end to the autonomy of China’s freest city, now guaranteed under a policy known as “one country, two systems.”Diplomats, trade bodies and investors have also raised alarm. Thousands of protesters clashed with police on Sunday in the first big demonstrations since last year.As he headed into the metro station next to the Legislative Council, known as Legco, 23-year-old Kevin said he was worried about what he called increasing Beijing assertiveness.A man walks past extra barricades that have been erected near the Legislative Council in Hong Kong on May 26, 2020.”The idea of one country, two systems is broken,” he said after a late dinner at McDonald’s. “China said it would stick to that agreement, but that’s not the case.”Authorities erected a wall made of two-meter-tall (6 feet), white and blue plastic barriers filled with water around Legco, extending across a nearby park up to the picturesque Victoria Harbour.Around midnight, riot police roamed the park, with squads stationed outside Legco and the neighboring Central Government Offices building. Several police vans were parked on nearby roads.U.S. responseIn Washington, President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States would announce before the end of the week a strong response to the planned security legislation for Hong Kong.When asked at a news briefing if the response would include sanctions, he said: “No, it’s something you’re going to be hearing about … before the end of the week, very powerfully I think.”Earlier, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told a briefing that Trump finds it “hard to see how Hong Kong can remain a financial hub if China takes over.”Trump’s economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said on Tuesday that China was making “a big mistake” with the planned security legislation and pledged the U.S. government would pay expenses of American firms that wanted to shift operations from Hong Kong or China.Controversial security lawThe anthem bill is set for a second reading on Wednesday and is expected to be turned into law next month. It requires China’s “March of the Volunteers” to be taught in schools and sung by organizations, and imposes jail terms or fines on those who disrespect it.Opponents say it represents another example of Beijing encroaching on Hong Kong, while supporters say the city has a duty to ensure national symbols are treated respectfully.Hong Kong and Beijing authorities have issued repeated statements insisting there is no risk to the city’s high degree of autonomy, urging patience until the laws are finalized.Hong Kong police issued a warning late Tuesday that they would not tolerate disruptions to public order, after activists circulated calls online for protests on Wednesday.The security legislation could pave the way for mainland security agencies to open up branches in the global financial hub. It targets secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference — terms that are increasingly used by authorities to describe last year’s pro-democracy protests.
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Trump Loyalist Sworn in as US Director of National Intelligence
More than nine months after U.S. President Donald Trump first floated his name, John Ratcliffe is taking charge of the country’s intelligence operations, promising to live up to the U.S. intelligence community mantra of speaking truth to power, despite his reputation as a Trump loyalist.The 54-year-old Ratcliffe was sworn in as director of national intelligence on Tuesday, less than a week after FILE – U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, poses for the media prior to his accreditation at the Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, May 8, 2018.During a White House briefing Tuesday, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany expressed hope Ratcliffe would follow in the path of Richard Grenell, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Germany, who had been serving as acting director for the past three months.“Rick Grenell has done an excellent job in that position,” McEnany said. “He’s done extraordinary work at ODNI. I expect John Ratcliffe will as he takes over,” she added.In his short time as the acting DNI, Grenell irritated some lawmakers by refusing to consult with them while pushing ahead with a series of reforms, including changes to how the intelligence community will brief on election interference and moves to streamline operations at the National Counterterrorism Center.JUST IN: Senate Intelligence Committee official tells Senate Intelligence Committee member Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. questions CIA Director John Brennan on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 9, 2016.“Ratcliffe has proven that his loyalty is to Donald Trump, not the truth,” Democratic senator and Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden tweeted last week, following Ratcliffe’s Senate confirmation.“This is yet another unqualified Trump nominee rubber-stamped by (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell, and a sad day for our democracy,” Wyden added.Concerns first surfaced last August when the president tweeted his intent to nominate Ratcliffe and caused the Texas lawmaker to withdraw his name from consideration.Concerns about inexperience, partisanshipSpecifically, lawmakers questioned whether Ratcliffe, a former U.S. attorney, had overstated his counterterrorism achievements, and noted that at the time, he had only served on the House Intelligence Committee for six months.Since then, Republican members of Congress warmed to Ratcliffe’s nomination, satisfied with his assurances that he would not use the U.S. intelligence community to further the president’s political goals..James R. Clapper, Jr., Director of National Intelligence, testifies on Capitol Hill, March 10 2011.James Clapper, who served as DNI under former President Barack Obama and who has been a frequent critic of the Trump administration, said one option would be for Ratcliffe to hold a series of town halls “so he can get to know the agencies, and they him.“The rank and file are going to watch closely to see what the new DNI does and says,” Clapper said. “I think they’ll want to give him a chance to live up to what he promised during his confirmation hearing.”
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Judge Strikes Down US Energy Leasing Rules in Bird Habitat
A U.S. judge has dealt another blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to increase domestic oil and gas output from public lands, saying officials failed to protect habitat for a declining bird species when it issued energy leases on hundreds of square miles. Judge Brian Morris said the Interior Department did not do enough to encourage development outside of areas with greater sage grouse, a ground-dwelling bird whose numbers have dropped dramatically in recent decades. The judge canceled energy leases on more than 470 square miles (1,200 square kilometers) of public land in the western states of Montana and Wyoming. That means officials will have to return millions of dollars in sales proceeds to companies that purchased the leases. The leases at issue already had been invalidated in previous cases that went through other federal courts. But the latest ruling, handed down Friday, appears to go further and strike at a key component of the administration’s broader energy policy. “The errors here occurred at the beginning of the oil and gas lease sale process, infecting everything that followed,” Morris wrote. Megan Crandall, a spokesperson for Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, said Tuesday that the agency stands behind the leasing guidelines it issued in 2018. “We assert that all of our lease sales are on sound legal footing and in full compliance” with federal environmental law, she said. FILE – Workers drill an oil well within sight of houses against a Rocky Mountain backdrop near Longmont, Colorado, October 14, 2014.Sage grouse range across about 270,000 square miles (700,000 square kilometers) in parts of 11 Western U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Their numbers have plummeted due to energy development, disease and other factors. The birds are known for an elaborate mating ritual in which males fan their tails and puff out yellow air sacs in their chests as they strut around breeding grounds known as leks. Under former President Barack Obama, the Interior Department delayed lease sales on millions of acres of public land largely because of worries that intensive development could harm sage grouse. In 2015, it adopted a set of wide-ranging plans meant to protect the best grouse habitat and keep the bird off the threatened and endangered species list. After President Donald Trump took office in 2017, the agency modified those plans to ease restrictions on development, which meant officials no longer had to prioritize development outside grouse habitat. The changes prompted a 2018 lawsuit from Montana Audubon, the National Wildlife Federation and other environmental groups. Mike Freeman, an attorney for the environmental groups, said the case has exposed a flaw in the Trump administration’s policies that could affect more than a million acres of leases in addition to those covered by the ruling, including in Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming and Montana. “We’re challenging the entire national policy,” Freeman said. “There were many other lease sales where it’s been applied, and those lease sales have the exact same legal flaws.” The states of Wyoming and Montana and the Western Energy Alliance, an energy industry group, had intervened in the case on the side of the Trump administration. Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma noted that some of the cancelled leases had been sold before the Trump administration’s policies went into full effect. She predicted the judge’s ruling would be overturned on appeal. “I like our chances of success,” Sgamma said. “The bottom line is a new administration has the ability to change policies as long as they do it properly, and the Trump administration has done it properly.”
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#Metoo, Phase 2: Documentary Explores Heavy Burden on Women of Color
It may have been plagued with controversy after Oprah Winfrey pulled out as executive producer, but “On the Record” has moved on. The the new #MeToo documentary about rape accusations against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons is a powerful look at one woman’s agonizing decision to go public, and an exploration of misogyny and sexual harassment in the music industry. Most importantly, though, it shines a light on the unique burden faced by women of color, who are often not believed or accused of being traitors to their own community if they come forward with accusations. The film premieres Wednesday on the new streaming service HBO Max. There’s an elegant, almost poetic silence to one of the most compelling scenes of “On the Record,” a powerful new documentary about sexual violence that knows just when to dial down to a hushed quiet.In the early morning darkness of Dec. 13, 2017, former music executive Drew Dixon walks to a coffee shop and buys the New York Times. On the front page is the story in which she and two others accuse the powerful hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, her former boss, of rape. Dixon examines the article, carefully folds the paper back up, puts on a wool cap as if for protection — and crumples into silent tears.They are tears of fear, surely, about the ramifications of going public — but also, clearly, relief. It feels as if the poison of a decades-old toxic secret is literally seeping out of her. “It saved my life,” she now says of that decision.”On the Record,” by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, provides a searingly intimate portrayal of the agonizing process of calculating whether to go public. Beyond that, it shines an overdue light on the music industry, where sexual harassment is “just baked into the culture,” in the words of Sil Lai Abrams, another Simmons accuser featured in the film.Most importantly, it puts a spotlight on women of color, and the unique and painful burden they often face in coming forward.The project also has been associated with controversy, of course, due to Oprah Winfrey’s well-documented withdrawal as executive producer just before the Sundance Film Festival, scuttling a distribution deal with Apple. Winfrey later acknowledged Simmons had called her and waged a pressure campaign, but said that wasn’t why she bailed.But the film has moved on. It opened at Sundance anyway to cheers and two emotional standing ovations, and was soon picked up by HBO Max, where it premieres Wednesday.For Dixon, vindication at Sundance was sweet.”Just standing there, on our own, and realizing that we were enough,” she said in an interview last week along with Abrams and accuser Sherri Hines, of the premiere. “That our courage was enough. That none of us waffled. None of us buckled. That we were strong enough to defend ourselves and each other.”Less than two years earlier, Dixon had been plagued by doubt. She’d expected that the film, which began shooting before she decided to go public, would be a general look at #MeToo and the music industry. But then the directors wanted to focus more on her journey.”The idea of being blackballed by the black community was really scary,” she says. “But I also felt this pressure, this responsibility to be brave, to highlight the experience of black women as survivors. The opportunity might never come again.”Dixon was in her 20s when she got her dream job at Simmons’ Def Jam Recordings. The daughter of two Washington, D.C. politicians — her mother, Sharon Pratt, was mayor — she attended Stanford University, then moved to New York to join the exciting world of hip-hop.As her star rose at Def Jam, she assumed that would immunize her from what she describes as Simmons’ constant harassment. He would come into her office, lock the door and expose himself. But he wasn’t violent. Until the night in 1995 when, she says, he lured her to his apartment with the excuse of a demo CD she needed to hear. He told her to get it from the bedroom, she says, and then came in wearing only a condom, and raped her.Simmons has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex.The film weaves together Dixon’s and multiple other accusations against Simmons with key voices of women of color like Tarana Burke, who founded the #MeToo movement, and law professor Kimberle Williams Crenshaw.”A lot of black women felt disconnected from #MeToo initially,” Burke says. “They felt, ‘that’s great that this sister is out there and we support her, but this movement is not for US.'”When black women do seek to come forward, they risk not only not being believed, but being called traitors to their community, both Burke and Dixon explain.”There’s this added layer in the black community that we have to contend with, like, ‘Oh you’re gonna put THIS before race?'” says Burke. “You let this thing happen to you, now we have to pay for it as a race? And we’re silenced even more.’Dick and Ziering, who’ve made several films about sexual assault, say they saw it as essential to go beyond the current #MeToo discussion and focus on the experience of black women.”Now you can come forward — but what about women of color? What do they face?” asks Ziering. “There are so many impediments.”For Dixon, coming forward was clearly worth it. It’s more complicated for Abrams. Even as the audience was applauding at Sundance, Abrams, who attempted suicide after her alleged rape by Simmons, was weeping next to her young adult son, worrying about him as he learned the full details for the first time, she says. Abrams also says that “as a result of coming forward, my career has stalled. Everything just dried up.”Dixon says it remains to be seen whether she will be punished within the music industry. She says she recently was up for a job, things were going well, and suddenly all went quiet. “They must have Googled me,” she says.But she feels, most importantly, like she rescued a part of herself: her creativity, her drive, her very sense of who she is.For more than 20 years, she says, “I had banished the young woman who came to New York City prepared to work really hard in a man’s game, to prove she could do it, but not expecting that she would be raped.””In order to banish the pain I banished part of her light,” she says. “When I said it out loud, those parts of me lit up again.”Her message to any other survivors out there — and she hopes they will come forward: “Facing it frees parts of yourself that you don’t even know you’ve missed.”
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HRW: 200 Homes Burned in Rakhine, Myanmar
Around 200 homes and other buildings were destroyed by fire in Myanmar’s conflict-torn Rakhine state, Human Rights Watch reported Tuesday. The rights group says satellite images recorded the destruction on May 16.Northern Rakhine state has been riddled by conflict between the Myanmar military, also referred to as the Tatmadaw, and the Arakan Army (AA), a militant group of Rakhine Buddhists seeking self-governance. No one has claimed responsibility for the May 16 destruction.The most recent account of mass burning in Rakhine was in August 2017, when the Myanmar military and militant civilians destroyed at least 392 Rohingya villages.The Rohingya Muslims, densely populated in Rakhine, are an ethnic minority in the Buddhist-majority country. Since 1982, the government has refused to recognize the Rohingya as its citizens, viewing them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.The 2017 violence involved massacres, extrajudicial killings, mass gang rapes and villages burned by the Tatmadaw — events a fact-finding mission established by the United Nations Human Rights Council described as rising to the level of “both war crimes and crimes against humanity” and in “genocidal intent.”The current conflict between the Tatmadaw and AA has pushed more Rohingya to flee, leading hundreds to the sea to find safety in neighboring countries.Citing concerns about COVID-19 earlier this year, Malaysia denied entry to nearly 400 Rohingya Muslim refugees, leaving them stranded at sea for two months until Bangladesh took them in. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 disease.
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FBI Joins Probe of Black Man Killed During Police Encounter in Minnesota
The FBI and other law enforcement authorities are investigating the case of an African American man who died after he was pinned to the ground while handcuffed and a white police officer kneeled on his neck as the victim pleaded he could not breath.
The death, which occurred in the Midwestern city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the latest of numerous instances of black men in America dying during or after encounters with white police.
A bystander shared the video of the incident online.
Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder said officers were called to investigate a report of a forgery at a business on Monday evening. Elder said the man “physically resisted” arrest and died at a local hospital.
A police department statement said the officers called for an ambulance after the victim “appeared to be suffering medical distress.”
The video shows that after several minutes of the victim pleading that he could not breathe, one of the officers is heard telling the man to “relax.” After several more minutes, the man becomes motionless while still under the officer’s restraint.
Mayor Jacob Frey took to Facebook to apologize to the black community, declaring that “Being Black in America should not be a death sentence.”
“For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a Black man’s neck,” added Frey. “Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you’re supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense.”
Monday’s death drew comparisons to Eric Garner, an unarmed black man in New York who died in 2014 after a white officer placed him in a chokehold while he begged for his life and said numerous times he could not breathe.
The Minneapolis man’s death also follows that of Ahmaud Arbery, who was fatally shot in the southeastern state of Georgia February 23 by Gregory McMichael, a white former Glynn County police officer, who later was an investigator with the local district attorney’s office, and his son. FILE – Demonstrators rally to protest the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, in Brunswick, Georgia, May 8, 2020.They were charged two months after Arbery’s murder, only after a video of it became public.
Police in Minneapolis have come under scrutiny in recent years for fatal encounters with citizens. A white police officer killed a 24-year-old black man with a gunshot to the head in 2015 after a confrontation with two officers who responded to a reported assault.
A county prosecutor did not prosecute the officers, maintaining the victim, Jamar Clark, was trying to get one of the officer’s gun when he was killed.
In what became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement, a white police officer shot an unarmed black man in the back as he was running away on foot after a traffic stop in 2015.
As officer Michael Slager appeared in a South Carolina court before receiving a 20-year sentence for killing Walter Scott, Scott’s mother turned to Slager and told him “I forgive you.” Slager responded to Scott’s mother, Judy, by mouthing the words “I’m sorry” as she sat nearby.
The U.S. has a long history of deadly violence by police against blacks and other minorities.
“About 1 in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by police,” according to a study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
The study found that “Black women and men and American Indian and Alaska Native women and men are significantly more likely than white women and men to be killed by police. Latino men also are more likely to be killed by police than are white men.”
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Britain Begins Trials for Drug Remdesivir on COVID-19 Patients
The British Health Ministry announced a new trial Tuesday of the anti-viral drug remdesivir as a treatment for patients with COVID-19.Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock holds the daily coronavirus disease news conference at 10 Downing Street in London, May 21, 2020.At his usual COVID briefing in London, Health Minister Matt Hancock called trials for the promising drug “probably the biggest step forward in the treatment of coronavirus since the crisis began.” He said treatment would be prioritized where it will provide the greatest benefit.Remdesivir, developed by the U.S. pharmaceutical company Gilead, was approved for treatment of U.S. COVID-19 patients earlier this month after trials by the U.S. National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases ((NIAID)) showed positive results. Japan fast-tracked approval for use of the drug on its COVID-19 patients a short time later.NIAID director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the drug proved effective in shortening recovery in COVID-19 patients, and while not a “cure-all” could be a helpful treatment.Hancock also announced that on Monday, 134 COVID-19 deaths were reported across Britain. And for the first time since March 18, no deaths from the coronavirus were recorded in Northern Ireland.
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AFRICOM: Russia Deploys Fighter Jets to Libya
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) says Russia recently deployed military fighter aircraft to Libya to support Russian state-sponsored, private military contractors, who are helping forces fighting the U.N.-supported Libyan government.The Russian fighter aircraft arrived at al-Jufra Airfield in Libya from an airbase in Russia after a stop in Syria where they were repainted to camouflage their Russian origin, AFRICOM said Tuesday. The fighter jets are expected to provide close air support for Russian military contractors with the Wagner Group, who have been supporting Libyan strongman Gen. Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) in their yearlong offensive against the country’s Government of National Accord (GNA).AFRICOM commander Gen. Stephen Townsend called out Russia in a press release Tuesday for expanding its military footprint in Africa by sending mercenary pilots to “bomb Libyans.” “For too long, Russia has denied the full extent of its involvement in the ongoing Libyan conflict. Well, there is no denying it now. We watched as Russia flew fourth generation jet fighters to Libya, every step of the way,” Townsend said.He added that neither the LNA nor private military companies could arm and operate this type of aircraft without the “support they are getting from Russia.”FILE – President Donald Trump meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office of the White House, Nov. 13, 2019, in Washington.In a phone call Saturday, President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shared their concerns about worsening foreign interference in Libya, according to the White House. Turkey has provided military support to the internationally recognized GNA and has warned that attacks by Haftar’s forces will have “grave consequences.”Critics of Russian involvement in Libya say Moscow’s support of Haftar has increased the regional instability that has helped fuel Europe’s migration crisis.U.S. Air Force Gen. Jeff Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa, warned Tuesday that Russia was setting up a means to create “real security concerns” for southern Europe in the near future.”If Russia seizes basing on Libya’s coast, the next logical step is they deploy permanent long-range anti-access area denial (A2AD) capabilities,” which are used to prevent adversaries from traveling across an area that the weapon protects, he said in a press release.
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Worker Shortage Concerns Loom in Immigrant-Heavy US Meatpacking Plants
SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA — When Martha Kebede’s adult sons immigrated from Ethiopia and reunited with her in South Dakota this year, they had few work opportunities. Lacking English skills, the brothers took jobs at Smithfield Foods’ Sioux Falls pork plant, grueling and increasingly risky work as the coronavirus sickened thousands of meatpacking workers nationwide. One day half the workers on a slicing line vanished; later the brothers tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.”It was very, very sad,” Kebede said. “The boys teared up seeing everyone.”The brothers — who declined to be identified for fear of workplace retaliation — are among roughly 175,000 immigrants in U.S. meatpacking jobs. The industry has historically relied on foreign-born workers — from people in the country illegally to refugees — for some of America’s most dangerous jobs. Now that reliance and uncertainty about a virus that’s killed at least 20 workers and temporarily shuttered several plants fuels concerns about possible labor shortages to meet demand for beef, pork and chicken. Companies struggling to hire before the pandemic are spending millions on fresh incentives. Their hiring capability hinges on unemployment, industry changes, employees’ feelings about safety, and President Donald Trump’s aggressive and erratic immigration policies.Trump has restricted nearly all immigration, but his administration recently granted seasonal workers 60-day extensions, affecting a smattering in meat and poultry.Roughly 350 foreign workers were certified for meat and poultry gigs in 2019, according to Daniel Costa at the Economic Policy Institute. Such H-2B visa holders, capped at 66,000 annually, are commonly used in landscaping and resorts. But there’s been willingness to expand. A plan to add 35,000 seasonal workers — which Trump supports in tight labor markets — was suspended in April for “present economic circumstances.” Immigrants make up nearly 40% of the industry’s roughly 470,000 workers, with higher concentrations in states like South Dakota, where they are 58% of workers, and Nebraska, where they’re 66%, according to the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute. Estimates on illegal immigrants vary from 14% to the majority at some plants.The industry argues it offers ample jobs with benefits and opportunities to advance for all workers. Paulina Francisco said her 21 years at Smithfield in Sioux City, Iowa, helped her buy a home, something she didn’t think possible when she immigrated from Guatemala. She’s now a citizen. Still, most jobs are rural, limiting workers’ access to lawyers, favorable union laws and other jobs. Hourly pay averages as low as $12.50 for backbreaking work, often conducted side-by-side. Workers in the country illegally fear deportation for speaking up. “Vulnerable populations work well for them,” Joshua Specht, a University of Notre Dame professor, said of the industry. Chicken plants extensively recruited immigrants in the 1990s as union organizing among majority African American workers increased. One Morton, Mississippi, plant advertised in Miami’s Cuban stores and newspapers, busing workers willing to accept lower wages, a tactic replicated across the South, according to University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill anthropologist Angela Stuesse. Initially, it was immigrants with work authorization, but they were replaced by Mexicans and Guatemalans here illegally. Argentinians, Uruguayans and Peruvians followed. By the 2000s, the labor pool was self-sustaining with word-of-mouth.”This is part of the way this industry works, is by having these different communities they can lean into to keep costs down and keep the lines running,” said Stuesse. One window into the industry’s response to sudden labor shortages is immigration raids. In 2006, agents swept Swift & Co. plants, netting 1,300 arrests, the largest single-worksite raid in U.S. history.Full production resumed within months. One Greeley, Colorado, plant offered more pay, hiring about 75 workers, mainly U.S. citizens and Somali refugees, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports restricting immigration. Today, meatpacking has the fifth-highest concentration of refugee workers, according to the nonprofit Fiscal Policy Institute. Sudanese refugee Salaheldin Ahmed, 44, heard about Smithfield’s jobs while in New Hampshire and moved to South Dakota six years ago. After escaping war, little fazes the forklift driver, not even a positive COVID-19 test. “They were killing in front of you,” Ahmed, who experienced mild symptoms, said of atrocities he once witnessed. “The coronavirus is nothing.”Some data suggests raids may temporarily decrease immigrant hiring. Noncitizens comprised 52% of meatpacking in 2006, dropping to 42% by 2008, according to Michael Clemens at the Center for Global Development. He cited an annual March employment survey. But that trend reversed during the Great Recession’s high unemployment. By 2011, noncitizens were roughly 56%.After raids last year on Mississippi poultry plants, some citizens were hired but many immigrants returned to work, according to activists and local leaders.”There is a need of workers and they don’t have any other possibilities,” said Rev. Roberto Mena, whose Forest congregation includes poultry workers. Koch Foods and Peco Foods, the largest companies targeted, didn’t return messages. Both have touted use of the federal E-Verify system to confirm worker eligibility. Some blame the business model. With rapid turnover, it’s not uncommon for plants to rehire an entire workforce annually, says worker advocate National Employment Law Project. “This is the industry’s own short-sightedness,” said Debbie Berkowitz, a director. “They want to look for workers they can exploit, rather than workers that would feel comfortable raising concerns.”After the outbreak closed several plants, they got Trump’s help; he issued an order classifying meat processing as critical.The North American Meat Institute estimates most plants are at 70% production. Many added plexiglass barriers and other protections. Little, the institute spokeswoman, noted that many meatpacking companies continued to pay employees even when plants shuttered and suggested more people might be drawn to meatpacking amid high unemployment.”There’s so many unknowns,” she said. “I don’t know what’s in store for us.”The pandemic has accelerated some workers’ decisions. Guadalupe Paez, 62, likely won’t return to his job cleaning cattle at JBS Packerland in Green Bay, Wisconsin, after being hospitalized for COVID-19. Weaker, he fears more illness, says his daughter Dora Flores. Paez immigrated from Mexico through a 1980s guest worker program and obtained a green card. “He only goes out for the doctor appointments,” she said. “He’s traumatized.”
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COVID-19 Impacting the Mental Wellbeing of Many People in South Africa
The coronavirus has hit South Africa harder than any other country on the continent. So far it has infected more than 22-thousand people and killed more than 400. But the disease is also impacting the mental wellbeing of many people coping with social isolation and the economic impact of the virus. Franco Puglisi reports for VOA News in Johannesburg, South Africa
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Baby Beluga Born in Georgia Aquarium
The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta announced Tuesday the birth of a baby beluga whale earlier this month and released video of the mother delivering her calf.
Staff at the aquarium say the calf was born Sunday, May 17 to a 20-year-old whale named Whisper.
Video released by the aquarium showed Whisper swimming as the baby whale was being born tale-first.
At birth, the calf weighed 174 pounds and measured 5 feet and 4 inches long.
In a statement, the aquarium staff say after the birth, the mother and calf were moved away from other whales where they could rest and bond, and staff are keeping close watch over the pair.
The aquarium says the typical gestation period for beluga whales is 15 to 16 months. Births most frequently occur in late spring or early summer.
The Georgia Aquarium remains closed to the public to minimize the spread of the coronavirus.
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Italy’s New COVID-19 App Tracks Contacts and Protects Privacy
Italy’s new contact tracing app for the coronavirus is about to be launched in a number of pilot regions. It will be available to everyone in the country on a voluntary basis and will guarantee the privacy of users, officials who commissioned its development say.
Italians will be able to download the contact tracing app on their mobile phones that will help combat the spread of the coronavirus, starting May 29. “Immuni” was developed at the request of Italy’s Ministry of Innovation Technology and Digital Transformation. Paolo de Rosa, its chief technology officer, says the app can speed up the process of finding people who have had contact with the coronavirus.
“The app is able to do that in a privacy-preserving way so it is not like the traditional approach where you need to identify people. In this case there is only an alerting of people that have been in contact with someone that result positive,” de Rosa said.
How contract tracing apps work
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Those alerted they have come close to someone that has tested positive for the coronavirus can quickly take action and contact health authorities or their personal physician.
De Rosa stressed that privacy is guaranteed as special measures have been taken and it would be extremely difficult to identify anyone using the app. The only data that a user must provide is the territorial province to which he or she belongs.
For the app to be fully effective, de Rosa said, there needs to be a significant amount of people using it, up to 60 percent, but that is only if one does not take into consideration other factors like social distancing. In any case, de Rosa is convinced that it will be a useful tool to have on one’s phone. “This is a very bleeding edge technology, very few countries in the world have used it,” he said.
Creating the app was no easy matter, de Rosa said, adding trade-offs had to be made between the requirements of health authorities and privacy. Knowledge was shared with many other countries as well, but no one really knew what the best app needed to look like. With such a highly infectious virus, the need for a tool that would help speed up contact tracing was considered essential to break the chain of the contagion.
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Merck Leaps Into COVID-19 Development Fray with Vaccine, Drug Deals
Merck & Co Inc, which has largely kept to the sidelines of the race for COVID-19 treatments, said it was buying Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience and would collaborate with research nonprofit IAVI to develop two separate vaccines.
It also announced a partnership with privately held Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to develop an experimental oral antiviral drug against COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
It did not disclose the terms of the acquisition of Themis, a privately held company.
Merck shares rose more than 3% in premarket trading.
Most big pharmaceutical companies have already placed their bets on COVID-19 treatments, but Merck has been waiting for opportunities with proven track records, Chief Executive Ken Frazier said.
“We wanted to be in a position where we could choose things that have the right kind of characteristics to make a contribution for a virus that’s likely to be with us for some time,” he told Reuters in an interview.
Both vaccines are designed to be delivered in a single dose.
The Themis vaccine, developed in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur in Paris, is based on a modified measles virus that delivers bits of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into the body to prevent COVID-19.
It was developed in part through funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
Merck said it moving quickly with this candidate and expects to start vaccinating volunteers “within weeks.”
The IAVI vaccine uses the same technology as Merck’s Ebola vaccine ERVEBO, recently approved by the European Commission and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
That candidate, which Merck is developing jointly with IAVI, is expected to start human trials some time this year, Frazier said.
The U.S. Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is backing the effort.
Both vaccines are made using technologies that have resulted in licensed products, unlike some frontrunners, such as the rapidly developed vaccine from Moderna Inc, which is expected to start large, late-stage clinical trials in July.
Last week, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Merck’s vaccine, and those from Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi, were a month or two behind Moderna’s, but may get added to large efficacy trials this summer as they wrap up early-stage studies.
“I think we’ll be in a position to participate,” Frazier said.
Merck intends to shoulder the cost of scaling up production of the vaccines before either has been proven to work, although it has not yet determined where they will be manufactured commercially, he said.
Doses of the Themis vaccine are already being made in France for clinical trials. Merck also plans to begin early production of the vaccine it is developing with IAVI at its plant in Pennsylvania.
Frazier said Merck had not signed any pacts with the U.S. government to deliver doses of either vaccine to Americans first, adding it was committed to making its vaccines accessible globally and affordably.
Ridgeback’s pill, EIDD-2801, is designed to block virus reproduction, and has shown promise in animal studies of multiple coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2. It has also been shown to be safe and well tolerated in early stage trials.
Frazier compared it to Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir, but it would be a pill, rather than an intravenous infusion. Efficacy trials will start later this year.
“If the drug works, we would be able to produce billions of doses,” Frazier added.
The United States has recorded more than 1.6 million new coronavirus infections and over 97,000 deaths, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday.
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Urban Refugees in East Africa Resort to Desperate Measures as COVID-19 Takes Hold
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR warns hundreds of thousands of urban refugees across the East, Horn and Great Lakes region of Africa are resorting to desperate measures to survive as the economic impact of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, takes hold.Government-imposed lockdowns and curfews aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus are restricting everyone’s freedom of movement and ability to earn a living. The U.N. refugee agency says urban refugees are most seriously affected by the measures and unable to meet their most basic needs.UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley says many urban refugees are at risk of exploitation and falling into debt. He warns many may be forced to take desperate measures to survive, such as engaging in transactional sex or child labor.“Urban refugees are facing job losses as businesses are forced to downsize or close due to COVID-19 restrictions. Many were daily wage workers or worked in the informal economy and were already living hand-to-mouth before the pandemic struck. Many urban refugees are also living in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions and are particularly vulnerable to the spread of the virus,” he said.Yaxley says thousands of refugees in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, are crammed into squalid districts with little access to clean water, making hand washing nearly impossible.He says governments across the East, Horn and Great Lakes region so far have included refugees in COVID-19 response plans. He told VOA refugees have the same access to testing and treatment as members of the local communities.“So, our call today is for governments to also ensure that refugees are included in social safety nets. So that they are able to access welfare support payments, so that they are able to get assistance with meeting their basic needs. So, they are able to pay rent, have shelters, so they are able to afford food,” he said.The UNHCR says food imports have become more challenging because of the pandemic, causing prices to rise. Additionally, it says swarms of locusts, especially in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, are ravaging crops and threatening to increase hunger and poverty.The agency is urging the international community to support its emergency response plan. It says $126 million is required to provide life-saving assistance before the rapidly deteriorating situation in the region reaches a breaking point.
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Rights group: Satellite Images Show Myanmar Village Burning
Satellite imagery that shows a village burning in a conflict zone in western Myanmar lends credence to reports that houses were set ablaze there by government soldiers, a major human rights group said Tuesday.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement that an investigation is necessary to determine who was responsible for setting at least 200 buildings on fire on May 16 in the village of Let Kar in Rakhine state’s Mrauk-U township.
The burning of villages was a tactic used on a large scale by the military in Rakhine in 2017, according to investigations carried out separately by the United Nations and human rights groups. The tactic was used at the time against villages housing civilians from the Muslim Rohingya minority community.
Since January last year, Rakhine has been the scene of an increasingly fierce armed conflict between the government and the Arakan Army, a guerrilla force of the Rakhine ethnic minority seeking greater autonomy for the state. The government recently officially declared the Arakan Army a terrorist organization.
Online media sympathetic to the Rakhine cause blame Myanmar’s military for setting the fires in Let Kar, while the military has blamed the guerrillas. Access to the area by qualified independent observers is discouraged. Human Rights Watch said most of the village’s residents abandoned the area over a year ago when fighting increased.
Human Rights Watch said that a satellite photo taken on the morning of May 16 shows no signs of damage in Let Kar, but that remote imaging by an environmental satellite detected extensive fires burning there in the afternoon. It estimated that at least 200 buildings were burned, and said the imagery was consistent with accounts provided by witnesses on the ground.
A villager contacted by phone told The Associated Press that soldiers opened fire with heavy weapons at the village’s entrance, and soon afterward fires broke out in the center and southern parts of the village as gunfire continued.
“They left Let Kar at around 4:30 pm. When they left, the whole village was burning. They were inside the village for more than two hours,” said the villager, a 39-year-old man who asked not to be named because he feared for his safety.
The military’s version of the incident, issued May 17, said its soldiers had entered the village on patrol and were attacked by the Arakan Army. Its statement blamed the guerrillas for setting the fires before retreating. The military also released photos of the burning village, including several evidently taken by a drone, that it said backed its version of events.
“The burning of Let Kar village has all the hallmarks of Myanmar military arson on Rohingya villages in recent years,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “A credible and impartial investigation is urgently needed to find out what happened, punish those responsible, and provide compensation to villagers harmed.”
The military claimed it was carrying out counterinsurgency operations against Rohingya insurgents in 2017, but critics charge they were employing a campaign of terror to drive the Rohingya out of the country. An estimated 740,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain in refugee camps.
Human Rights Watch also said the military raided Let Kar in April last year and detained 27 men for interrogation about alleged links to the Arakan Army. The military-owned Myawaddy newspaper reported that three of the detainees died in custody of “heart failure,” said the New York-based rights group.
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North and South Korea Violated Armistice During Gunfire Exchange at DMZ, UN Says
Both North and South Korea were at fault when they exchanged gunfire earlier this month across their heavily fortified shared border, according to a probe by the United Nations Command.A report issued Tuesday by the U.S.-led U.N. Command said the incident breached the armistice that ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean war.The report said North Korea breached the armistice on May 3 when it fired four small-arms rounds that struck a South Korean guard post. The report said South Korean troops violated the pact when they responded with two volleys of gunfire. But the U.N. Command was unable to determine if North Korea opened fire “intentionally or by mistake.” The report said North Korea was invited to take part in the investigation, but has not offered an official response.South Korea’s Defense Ministry issued a statement saying it regretted the findings by the U.N. Command without properly investigating the North’s actions. The ministry says its soldiers were following proper procedures spelled out in a response manual when they responded to the North’s gunfire.The U.N. Command oversees activity along the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, that serves as a buffer between North and South Korea. The two sides remain in a technical state of war as they have not reached a formal peace treaty.
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Madagascar Deploys Troops, Doctors to City After Spike in COVID-19 Cases
Madagascar is sending soldiers and doctors to the city of Toamasina in an effort to contain a spike in COVID-19 cases in the country’s second largest city. Madagascar has confirmed 122 new cases since last Thursday. The more than 100 soldiers sent to Toamasina are charged with keeping the peace and enforcing requirements for wearing masks and social distancing. A spokeswoman for the anti-COVID 19 operational command center said doctors will investigate whether recent deaths on the Indian Ocean Island are due to the coronavirus or another disease. The French News Agency (AFP) said some witness accounts revealed that bodies have turned up in the streets of Toamasina, with the cause of the deaths not known.AFP says Madagascar Communication Minister Lalatiana Rakotondrazafy denied bodies were in the streets anywhere in the country and that reinforcements were sent to Toamasina due to the spike in COVID-19 cases. Madagascar has confirmed 527 cases of coronavirus and two deaths.
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US Moves Up Brazilian Travel Ban by 2 Days
A new U.S. ban on travelers from Brazil goes into effect Tuesday, two days earlier than the White House initially announced, in an added effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Officials did not provide any specific reasons for moving up the ban from its planned Thursday start date. It applies to foreigners entering the United States who have been in Brazil at some point during the prior 14 days. Health officials say it may take two to 14 days before symptoms appear in someone who contracts COVID-19. Brazil has emerged as a new coronavirus hot spot, trailing only the United States in the number of confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The Brazilian health ministry said Monday that COVID-19 killed 807 people in the previous 24 hours. The one-day U.S. death toll was 620. The White House said the travel ban “will help ensure foreign nationals who have been in Brazil do not become a source of additional infections in our country.” U.S. President Donald Trump has similar travel bans in place on China, Iran, Britain, Ireland, and the 26 countries in Europe’s Schengen area. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, wearing a face mask amid the new coronavirus pandemic, stands amid supporters taking pictures with cell phones as he leaves his official residence of Alvorada palace in Brasilia, May 25, 2020.Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has for months played down the seriousness of the coronavirus, urging businesses to reopen and dismissing many social distancing recommendations. He has brushed off the virus as nothing more than “a little flu” and says a wrecked economy will kill more people than the illness. He has called Brazilians worried about the coronavirus neurotic. The head of the World Health Organization said Monday the agency is pausing the use of hydroxychloroquine in its trials to find effective treatments for the coronavirus while experts review its safety. A chemist displays hydroxychloroquine tablets in Mumbai, India, May 19, 2020.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cited a study published last week in the medical journal Lancet in which the authors reported an estimated higher mortality rate among coronavirus patients who received the drug. Tedros stressed the drug is “accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria.” WHO emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, said there have been no problems with the drug in WHO trials so far, but that the pause was being done out of an abundance of caution. Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine as an effective coronavirus treatment and claims he has been taking it even though he has not tested positive for the virus. People sit at Prospect Park on Memorial Day weekend during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brooklyn, New York, May 25, 2020.Saudi Arabia is set to relax some of its lockdown orders on Sunday, including lifting bans on domestic travel, holding prayers in mosques and dining in restaurants and cafes. A statement posted by the state news agency Tuesday said all restrictions will end June 21, except for the city of Mecca. Saudi Arabia has reported about 75,000 confirmed cases. Chile reported a record daily high of 4,895 new cases. Public Works Minister Alfredo Moreno announced on Twitter that he was among those who have tested positive, though he said he has so far had no symptoms. In Indonesia, soldiers and police are enforcing rules on wearing masks and social distancing. The country reported Tuesday its total number of confirmed cases had risen to 23,165 with 1,418 deaths. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to reopen outdoor markets on June 1, with all shops allowed to operate again June 15. He said it is important for the easing of restrictions to be carried out in a way “that does not risk a second wave of the virus.”
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After Record Drug Bust, Questions of Opioid Crisis Creeping into Asia
The evergreen hills of northeast Myanmar’s section of the Golden Triangle are sparse, making it easy to hide out in the open a set of machines that look like squat robots, but are in fact pressure reactors that cook drug chemicals. Authorities revealed last week they had seized the reactors, along with opioids, 193 million meth tablets and other narcotics in what the United Nations called one of the biggest drug busts in Asian history. A new type of drug for the region Burmese and foreigners were among the 33 people arrested in the raid, said to be unprecedented for not only the volume of drugs confiscated, but also the presence of fentanyl. This appears to be the first time officials in the region have seized fentanyl and related opioids, which are the substances linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the North American opioid crisis. The Golden Triangle of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos is historically known for rivaling Afghanistan for its heroin trade, but this month’s drug bust marks a potential shift toward synthetic opioids. Colonel Zaw Lin, law enforcement chief at Myanmar’s Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, said he was “pleased” at the success of the joint operation with the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. It gives the Southeast Asian government a legal victory at a time when it is otherwise weighed down by an onslaught of crises, including COVID-19, Rohingya Muslim refugees and journalists’ imprisonment. However there is more work to be done following the drug raid, according to the colonel. “We are well aware of the challenges we face,” Colonel Zaw Lin said. “Criminal groups, traffickers and corrupt accomplices must and will be brought to justice.” Rainbow of drugs Myanmar’s military and police worked with the U.N. office on the investigation, which they said was linked to organized crime and militias. On the fawn grasses of Shan State, law enforcement laid out a rainbow of their findings: crystal methamphetamine disguised in neon green tea bags, yellow sacks of meth pills, a field’s worth of blue plastic barrels of chemicals. Officials fear the findings, which include 3,700 liters of methyl fentanyl, suggest Asia could be on the cusp of its own synthetic opioid problem. “What has been unearthed through this operation is truly off the charts,” Jeremy Douglas, the regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific at the UNODC, said of the volume of narcotics. “We have been projecting this scenario for a few years, and we are now able to say it is happening,” he said. Authorities seized guns, as well as lab equipment and 39 kinds of chemicals they said had been routed through China, India, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. They also said that they seized heroin, opium and morphine, but that the farming of poppy flowers used to make those products has been on the decline for years, suggesting a shift to synthetic drugs instead. What began with a relatively small discovery of meth pills, the UNODC said in a press release, ultimately led to a series of raids from February to April, ending with tons of narcotics seized and dozens arrested. Colonel Zaw Lin said that he hopes neighboring nations would take equally aggressive action and that his message to traffickers is that “their days of operating in Myanmar are numbered.”
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