The American Museum of Natural History will remove a prominent statue of Theodore Roosevelt from its entrance after years of objections that it symbolizes colonial expansion and racial discrimination, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday.The bronze statue that has stood at the museum’s Central Park West entrance since 1940 depicts Roosevelt on horseback with a Native American man and an African man standing next to the horse.”The American Museum of Natural History has asked to remove the Theodore Roosevelt statue because it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior,” de Blasio said in a written statement. “The City supports the Museum’s request. It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue.”Taking to Twitter, President Donald Trump objected to the statue’s removal.”Ridiculous, don’t do it!” he tweeted.The museum’s president, Ellen Futter, told the New York Times that the museum’s “community has been profoundly moved by the ever-widening movement for racial justice that has emerged after the killing of George Floyd.””We have watched as the attention of the world and the country has increasingly turned to statues as powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism,” Futter told the Times.Officials said it hasn’t been determined when the Roosevelt statue will be removed and where it will go.”The composition of the Equestrian Statue does not reflect Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy,” Theodore Roosevelt IV, a great-grandson of the president, said in a statement to the Times. “It is time to move the statue and move forward.”Futter said the museum objects to the statue but not to Roosevelt, a pioneering conservationist whose father was a founding member of the institution and who served as New York’s governor before becoming the 26th president. She said the museum is naming its Hall of Biodiversity for Roosevelt “in recognition of his conservation legacy.”In 2017, protesters splashed red liquid on the statue’s base to represent blood and published a statement calling for its removal as an emblem of “patriarchy, white supremacy and settler-colonialism.”
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Month: June 2020
Afghan Security Forces Suffer Bloodiest Week in 19 Years
Afghanistan’s security forces have suffered their bloodiest week so far in the 19-year-old Afghan war. The Afghanistan’s National Security Council said 291 members of Afghan National and Defense Security Forces (ANDSF) were killed and 550 others wounded in multiple Taliban attacks last week. “Taliban carried out 422 attacks in 32 provinces, martyring 291 ANDSF members and wounding 550 others. Taliban’s commitment to reduce violence is meaningless, and their actions inconsistent with their rhetoric on peace,” tweeted Javid Faisal, a spokesman for the NSC. The NSC statement also said that at least 42 civilians, including women and children, were killed and 105 others were wounded in the violence Taliban committed across 18 provinces in the past week. The statement comes at a time when hopes are high for the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, a term used for negotiations between the Taliban and a representative group of other Afghans including the government, political factions, and civil society activists. FILE – Afghan National Army soldiers keep watch at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 29, 2020.“We haven’t seen the reduction in violence that we expect and that we think is necessary to really underpin the peace efforts, but we call on the Taliban to reduce violence. We call of course on Taliban to, in a constructive way, engage in intra-Afghan negotiations,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg last week, following a meeting with NATO defense ministers. On Sunday, the head of United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, met Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban political team in Doha. “The UN envoy for #Afghanistan highlighted the need for a just peace that was inclusive of all Afghans, including women, youth and minorities,” a Tweet from the official UNAMA account said. .FILE – Members of a Taliban negotiating team enter the venue hosting U.S.-Taliban talks in the Qatari capital Doha, Aug. 29, 2019.The international community’s efforts to resolve both issues seems to be bearing fruit. The first round of the negotiation is expected at the end of this month in Doha, although the coronavirus pandemic has created another logistical hurdle.
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Prosecutor Seeks 6 Years in Prison for Acclaimed Russian Director
Prosecutors have asked a Moscow court to sentence acclaimed theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov to six years in prison on embezzlement charges he denies.Prosecutor Mikhail Reznichenko said at the trial as it resumed June 22 that it had been proven Serebrennikov and other defendants in the case had embezzled almost 129 million rubles (more than $1.86 million).All of the accused have denied the accusation.Reznichenko asked the Meshchansky District Court to sentence three other defendants to prison terms of between four years and five years.The 50-year-old Serebrennikov and the three other persons are accused of embezzling state funds that were granted from 2011 to 2014 to Seventh Studio, a nonprofit organization established by Serebrennikov, for a project called Platforma.Serebrennikov has taken part in anti-government protests and voiced concern about the growing influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.His arrest in August 2017 drew international attention and prompted accusations that Russian authorities were targeting cultural figures who are at odds with President Vladimir Putin and his government.Serebrennikov and two co-defendants — producer Yury Itin and former Culture Ministry employee Sofia Apfelbaum — were released from house arrest in April last year, but ordered to remain in Moscow.The other defendant, Aleksei Malobrodsky, was also barred from leaving Moscow.
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ICC Prosecutors Cite Grave Errors in Gbagbo Acquittal at Start of Appeal
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) said “grave errors” were made in acquittal last year of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, as they began their bid to overturn the decision at an appeals hearing on Monday.The ICC, the world’s first permanent war crimes court, said in January last year that prosecutors had failed to prove any case against Gbagbo.Prosecutors at the Hague-based court in the Netherlands have appealed the decision mainly on procedural grounds, arguing that there were legal faults with the way the decision was announced and the way evidence was assessed.They have said they will seek a re-trial for Gbagbo on charges of crimes against humanity for his role in post-election violence in Ivory Coast in 2010-2011.Monday’s hearing was streamed online as the ICC is closed due to measures aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus.The 75-year-old former president, who is living in Belgium on conditional release after spending more than seven years in custody in The Hague, joined Monday’s hearing via video link.
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Australian State Reintroduces Restrictions as COVID-19 Cases Increase
Increasing numbers of cases of COVID-19 have forced the Australian state of Victoria to bring back tougher restrictions beginning Monday. New infections over the past two days have been at their highest for two months. A state of emergency has also been extended. Most of Victoria’s new coronavirus cases are linked to clusters, often within extended families. Other larger groups of infections have been detected at two hotels in the city of Melbourne. Community transmission of the virus, rather than those infections acquired overseas by citizens who then returned home, is of great concern to health officials. They are advising Australians to stay away from six COVID-19 hotspots in the Victorian state capital, while residents are being urged to remain at home. Authorities want to set up so-called ‘rings of containment’ around localized outbreaks. In neighboring New South Wales, officials are recommending citizens reconsider travel to Melbourne. Various lockdown measures have gradually been eased across Australia in recent weeks, but officials in Victoria are blaming complacency for a spike in cases. Limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings have now been reintroduced. Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews says the community still needs to be vigilant. “It is unacceptable that families anywhere in our state can just because they want this to be over pretend that it is. It is not over,” he said. “We have even had people who have tested positive and have been told to go home and isolate, and instead they have gone to work.” Police officers are to step up their enforcement of the restrictions on group gatherings, particularly in Melbourne. Checks will also increase on people who have been told to self-isolate because they had tested positive for the disease or were a close contact of someone who had. A positive test also prompted the cancellation of an Australian Rules Football match in Melbourne following the recent resumption of games. Australia has recorded just over 7,400 coronavirus cases. Most patients have recovered, but 102 people have died. The country’s international borders were closed to foreign nationals in March. Widespread testing and contact tracing have helped Australia mostly contain the virus, but strict lockdown measures have inflicted great damage to the economy.
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Analysts: India-China Clash Will Prompt New Delhi to Build Closer Ties with US
Spiraling tensions between India and China over rival claims to territory in the icy Himalayas could push New Delhi to embrace closer ties with the United States and countries like Japan and Australia as ties with Beijing come under severe strain. Whether the dramatic escalation that has led to a huge military deployment by the nuclear-armed Asian giants along their disputed border intensifies or is resolved diplomatically, it will lead to “strategic and economic choices by India that may explicitly have an anti-China orientation,” according to Harsh Pant, director of studies at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s response to the crisis will also influence the trajectory of New Delhi’s ties with its neighbors in South Asia, where Beijing has been challenging India’s predominant position, and determine whether the nationalist leader can fulfill his goal of raising India’s global profile. Tensions that had been building since early May over India’s accusations of Chinese incursions in its territory have increased dangerously since a brutal hand-to-hand combat in Eastern Ladakh in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed on June 15. Both countries have said they want to deescalate the crisis but have also hardened postures. People carry the coffin of Satnam Singh, an Indian soldier who was killed in a border clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh region, during his fuenral ceremony in Bhojraj village in Gurdaspur, Punjab India, June 18, 2020.China has laid claim to the site of the bloody clash, the Galwan Valley, which New Delhi says was never part of the disputed border. This is not the only flashpoint — Indian and Chinese troops are also confronting each other at two other Himalayan ridges along the 3,488-kilometer-long Line of Actual Control. New Delhi wants the status quo restored and has vowed to defend its border with military force if necessary. As the crisis plays out, calls to deepen engagement with the West to build leverage against China have grown. The Hindustan Times in an editorial said that New Delhi would have to reconsider its entire geopolitical posture, “double down on its partnership with the US” and be “a part of any club that seeks to contain Chinese powers.” FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wave to the crowd at Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020.In the past decade even as India moved steadily closer to Washington, there were always voices advocating caution. That is likely to change. “Many in New Delhi had been arguing to go ahead one step at a time. The whole idea was that we have managed China and the border issue relatively OK, so don’t annoy Beijing to the extent that it can create problems for you,” says Harsh Pant. “But now trouble has been created. So, in a sense this opens up the space for the Modi government to more robustly engage with like-minded countries where in the past it was hesitant.” Signs of that were already evident. This month, a major agreement signed by India and Australia will allow each country to use the other’s military bases. India, say analysts, is also likely to drop its hesitation about how closely to embrace the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, known as “Quad” — an informal strategic grouping of India, the U.S., Japan and Australia that was revived in 2017 amid fears of China’s growing heft and assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. “As a country we have avoided going one way or the other, but depending on who comes forward to help and what kind of help, that will determine where we move closer to,” says Jayadeva Ranade, a former senior security official who heads the Center for China Analysis and Strategy in New Delhi. FILE – China’s President Xi Jinping and Nepal’s President Bidhya Devi Bhandari arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport, as Xi wraps up his two-day visit to Nepal, in Kathmandu on Oct. 13, 2019. (Prakash Mathema/Pool via Reuters)The manner in which the crisis plays out in the coming weeks will also impact India’s ties with smaller countries in its neighborhood, like Nepal and Sri Lanka, that China, with its deep pockets, has wooed by building roads and ports. “The geopolitical competition in South Asia between India and China will sharpen,” says Happymon Jacob, a professor at the School of International Studies in New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. He points to Nepal’s recent approval of a map that shows territories traditionally claimed by India as belonging to Nepal, deepening strains that surfaced in recent years as the tiny Himalayan country, tucked between the Asian giants, moved closer to Beijing. India’s army chief, Manoj Navarane said the issue might have been raised at “someone else’s behest”, which has been interpreted as an allusion to China. “If we don’t respond to China effectively, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka may look at us differently, as a country that they need not bother about as long as they are friendly with Beijing,” Ranade warns. “They will reevaluate what kind of relationship they should have with us.” Indian army soldiers rest next to artillery guns at a makeshift transit camp before heading to Ladakh, near Baltal, southeast of Srinagar, June 16, 2020.However, countering China’s challenge on a military level in the high Himalayas may not be easy — although India has one of the world’s largest armies, Beijing is considered a superior military power. So, as it searches for ways to pressure China, India with its large market, is also considering economic options. India had long hoped that the robust economic engagement, which has seen bilateral trade grow to more than $90 billion, would act as a counterweight to their more contentious border dispute. Those hopes have now been shattered. New Delhi was already taking a more cautious approach to growing Chinese investments in India even before the clashes erupted — in April, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, India passed legislation requiring government approval for investments from Chinese companies. That trend could accelerate. “The sentiment is changing. For example, India decided to bring in Huawei for trials of 5G wireless network, now that might not happen,” says Pant. “All those issues will become much more black and white for India.” Analysts however warn that India’s economic options against China’s much larger economy are limited and could hurt New Delhi more than Beijing, especially when the Indian economy is in a downward spiral. But as it mulls military, economic and political options in the weeks and months ahead, New Delhi may have to abandon its decades-long policy of “strategic autonomy” as it prepares not just to defend its borders but also push back against what commentators call the idea of Chinese domination of Asia.
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Serbian Ruling Party Scores Landslide Victory in General Elections
Serbia’s Progressive Party and its coalition partners won over 60% of the vote in Sunday’s elections, boycotted by major opposition parties. President Aleksandar Vucic, the party leader, told jubilant supporters that he did not expect such a landslide victory. “I have long been in politics, but I have never experienced such a moment. Tonight we have gained the tremendous trust of the people, the biggest ever in Serbia, under conditions where not many believed in it. We got a warning from the people that we have to be even more responsible, more serious, more diligent and that we have to make best possible results for our people and our citizens,” Vucic said.In the new parliament, the Serbian Progressive Party will hold about 190 out of 250 total seats. “We have won everywhere, where we have been losing (before). We have won in every place abroad, where we have never been winning in the past,” Vucic said.Serbia became the first country in Europe Sunday to hold general elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. The elections, initially scheduled for April, were postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak. The turnout among the 6.6 million voters eligible to cast ballots for the 250 seats in parliament and for local governing bodies was lower than in previous elections. Several main opposition parties boycotted the vote, claiming a lack of free and fair conditions and accusing Vucic of dominating the election campaign through his control of the mainstream media. Vucic denied the accusations. However, some smaller groups decided to participate, saying the boycott would only help Vucic’s party.
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US Police Reform Bills Face Votes This Week in House, Senate
The Democrat-led U.S. House of Representatives and Republican-led Senate are set to take key votes this week on reforms to the nation’s police system, with the two chambers agreeing on several major proposals but still not entirely in agreement on what should change. The push for legislation came after the death in police custody of African American George Floyd, the impetus for nationwide and worldwide protests of racism and the use of force by law enforcement officers. A key divide between the Democratic and Republican proposals is on the issue of qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that makes it more difficult for people to file lawsuits against police officers when they feel their civil rights have been violated. Democrats want to end qualified immunity, but Republican leaders have opposed doing so and the White House has labeled the issue a “non-starter” for President Donald Trump.President Donald Trump holds up an executive order on police reform after signing it in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, June 16, 2020.“The Democrat House wants to pass a Bill this week that will destroy our police,” Trump tweeted late Sunday. “Republican Congressmen & Congresswomen will hopefully fight hard to defeat it. We must protect and cherish our police, they keep us safe!” Congresswoman Karen Bass responded with her own tweet saying: “Our bill sets national standards for policing, provides additional training, and creates a registry so that fired officers aren’t rehired. Many departments are in favor of the bill but you clearly don’t understand it – try reading it this evening or have somebody read it to you.” The House Judiciary Committee approved the measure last week, setting up the vote in the full House this week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he plans to bring the Senate bill up for a procedural vote this week as well. Both measures support increasing the use of police body cameras, making lynching a federal crime, boosting training for officers, and increasing the amount of data that departments collect. Senator Tim Scott, who is leading the Republican effort in the Senate, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” show that the two sides agree on 70% of what is needed. He highlighted one provision in the Republican measure, increasing penalties for police officers who file false reports, which is not part of the Democratic proposals. “The false police report has an enhanced penalty on top of the SBI, serious bodily injury, or death that leads to prosecution,” Scott said. “So, it’s really important for us to bring more emphasis on character-driven law enforcement. If we miss that, we miss the entire boat.”
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Greece Demands Return of Parthenon Marbles from Britain
Ratcheting up fresh pressure, Greece has blasted the British Museum for exhibiting the Parthenon marbles, calling the collection “stolen” treasures and demanding the masterpieces be returned to Athens. The call comes as Greece celebrates the 11th anniversary of the New Acropolis Museum, a four-story, state of the art edifice built to house the ancient treasures and weaken Britain’s claim that it is best able to look after the 2,500-year-old masterpieces.
“Since September 2003 when construction work for the Acropolis Museum began, Greece has systematically demanded the return of the sculptures on display in the British Museum because they are the product of theft,” the country’s culture minister Lina Mendoni said. “The current Greek government – like any Greek government – is not going to stop claiming the stolen sculptures which the British Museum, contrary to any moral principle, continues to hold illegally,” she told the Athens daily Ta Nea.
Depicting figures of ancient Greek mythology, the 75-meter frieze and its 17 statues were sawed off the Parthenon temple and shipped to London by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century, during his tenure as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
Bankrupted by the venture, the British aristocrat sold them to the British Museum in 1816, where they became a major attraction and began one of the world’s longest running cultural disputes.
Mendoni said “It is sad that one of the world’s largest and most important museums is still governed by outdated, colonialist views.” While successive governments in Britain have opposed calls for the return of the sculptures to Greece, pressure has mounted in recent years with a bandwagon of celebrities and politicians joining the repatriation campaign.
Greece’s center-right government is also stepping up efforts to win back the treasures as the country gears up for its bicentennial independence anniversary next year.A municipal worker wearing a protective suit sprays disinfectant outside Acropolis museum as the Parthenon temple is seen in the background in Athens on March 24, 2020.While 50 meters of the 115-block Parthenon frieze is displayed in Athens, eight other museums scattered across Europe house fragments of it, including the Louvre and the British Museum.
Last year, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis secured a key agreement from French President Macron to allow the Louvre to lend a small fragment of the Parthenon in light of those celebrations.
Macron has become the first Western leader to initiate a comprehensive review of colonial looting, repatriating significant collections to Africa – a move traditionally resisted by leading museums in the West, including the British Museum.
A similar loan request was made to the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson but it was quickly knocked down by the British Museum, saying any swap would require Athens to relinquish ownership claims to the prized treasures — a request Greece has emphatically refused.
“Without the supreme symbol of culture, the Parthenon, Western Civilization cannot exist, and this symbol deserves to be reunited with its expatriate sculptures,” Mendoni told a local broadcaster in May.
Government officials have refused to clarify whether Athens has followed up with any alternative proposal to the British Museum. Nor have they said whether Greece would resort to legal action against Britain in a bid to win back the marbles.
“In law, a thief is not allowed to keep his or her ill-gotten gains, no matter how long ago they were taken, or how much he or she may have improved them,” said Geoffrey Robertson, a leading human rights attorney whom the government in Athens recruited in 2014 to consider legal action.
“In the past, a lot of cultural property was wrongfully extracted from places that are now independent states. They want the loot sent back to where it was created and to the people for whom it has most meaning.”
In its pamphlets, the British Museum argues that its free-of-charge entrance attracts millions of visitors every year from around the work, making the ancient Greek masterpieces available to the public within the context of a wide swath of human civilization — a claim Greece insists is now defunct with its $200 million mammoth museum.
An austere building wedged within the chaotic sprawl of a crowded old neighborhood, the new Acropolis museum was initially scheduled to open in time for the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.
But legal fights over the expropriation of some 25 buildings, as well as archaeological findings unearthed at the site, derailed the project by more than 5 years.
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US, Russia to Start Nuclear Talks in Austria
Delegations from the United States and Russia are meeting in Vienna Monday and Tuesday to discuss their nuclear arsenals after more than a year’s pause. The delegations did not make any statements to reporters, when they arrived at the Niederoesterreich Palace in Vienna at 8:30 am local time. President Donald Trump has abandoned several U.S. treaties with Russia, including ones on overflights and on intermediate-range nuclear forces. Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Ambassador Marshall Billingslea is leading the U.S. delegation for the talks with their Russian counterparts led by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov. They are to discuss mutually agreed topics related to the future of arms control, the State Department said in a statement last week. Trump has said China should be involved in the talks on New START, arguing that up until now Beijing has done as it liked in developing its weapon systems. “The United States has extended an open invitation to the People’s Republic of China to join these discussions, and has made clear the need for all three countries to pursue arms control negotiations in good faith,” the State Department statement said. The Chinese government has refused the invitation with its Foreign Ministry saying earlier this month that “the time is not yet ripe for China to participate in nuclear disarmament negotiations.” Billingslea replied in a tweet: “China … should reconsider. Achieving Great Power status requires behaving with Great Power responsibility. No more Great Wall of Secrecy on its nuclear buildup. Seat waiting for China in Vienna.” The U.S.-Russia New START treaty agreed upon in 2010 limits each side to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads. It expires in February 2021. Arms experts say the time is too tight to renew a complex deal between the United States and Russia, let alone to negotiate and craft a new treaty involving China, with the U.S. presidential election is quickly approaching.
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China Sends Ship as Warning to Vietnam: No Court Case, No Oil Drilling
China sent a survey vessel through waters claimed by its maritime sovereignty rival Vietnam this month to warn Hanoi against starting new energy exploration projects and filing any motions in an international court, observers say. Tracking tools showed China’s 105-meter-long, 58-person survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 4 moving toward Vietnamese waters on June 14, Radio Free Asia reported. The vessel passed three days later within 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) of Vietnam’s coast – a country’s normal exclusive economic zone – the report said. That movement follows the passage of another Chinese vessel near Vietnam in April and a standoff at sea last year.Chinese Ship Returns Near Vietnam BorderShip could escalate tensions while both nations are dealing with COVID-19 The Chinese government, the most powerful entity in a six-way South China Sea sovereignty dispute that includes Vietnam, hopes its ships discourage Vietnamese leaders from filing for world court arbitration as the Philippines did in 2013, analysts believe. At the same time, China is warning Vietnam against any new undersea oil or gas exploration projects near a nine-dash line that Beijing uses to demarcate its maritime claims, analysts say. “What I would see as recent moves, including the most recent one, I think is meant to signal to Vietnam to think twice before resorting to all sorts of these means to undermine Chinese interests, and that includes striking up new deals with other energy partners and all that,” said Collin Koh, a maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. In November a deputy Vietnamese foreign minister cited arbitration and litigation as two possible measures against China. Three years after Manila sued, a Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled against the legal basis for China’s nine-dash line. China dismissed the ruling but used aid and investment on its own to strengthen relations with rival maritime claimants. Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also claim all or parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea. Vietnam and China clashed at sea in 1974, 1988 and 2014, setting Hanoi apart from other sea claimants that seldom spark conflict. The first two incidents were deadly. In 2014 Vietnam charged China with ramming a Vietnamese fishing boat. That incident along with upset over the placement of a Chinese oil rig sparked anti-Chinese rioting in Vietnam. China, backed by the world’s third strongest military, claims about 90% of the South China Sea, prized for fish, energy and shipping lanes. China cites historical records to support its drilling, surveillance and island construction within the nine-dash line. Vietnam and China are both looking for fossil fuel reserves under the seabed. China withdrew its vessels in October last year after four months of patrol near a gas-and-oil tract 352 kilometers southeast of Vietnam. Other oil explorers should take note of China’s survey vessel movement, suggested Euan Graham, senior fellow with the Singapore-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines actively seek undersea fuel, sometimes contracting projects to foreign drillers. “I think it’s a part of an underlying strategy, which is to intimidate and harass all Southeast Asian exploration activity within the nine-dash line and to a point where it becomes economically unviable for foreign companies and even local companies to exploit, aware that China is going to make life that difficult with them,” Graham said. China may hope to nudge other claimants toward joint energy exploration, he added. Drilling contractors expect Vietnam to provide security during any projects, Koh said. They could ask Vietnam for a higher contract fee if they fear harassment, said Nguyen Thanh Trung, director of the Center for International Studies director at University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam had no rigs at an exploration tract along the Chinese boat’s reported mid-June route, Nguyen added. The country hopes to stay low-key for now as the ruling Communist Party prepares for its 2021 national congress, he said. An upset at sea would derail the event agenda. “Vietnam is making a compromise that it doesn’t want to confront China for the time being,” Nguyen said. “In the next year, the Vietnamese Communist Party congress will be convened, so anything that’s happening in the South China Sea may have a big impact, so that’s the reason why the Vietnamese government wants to put out the tension in the South China Sea.”
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Heat Wave Shatters Record in Siberian Town
One of the coldest places on Earth on Saturday became one of the hottest places on Earth. A Russian heat wave sent the thermometer in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk soaring to 38 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Meteorologists say that would be the highest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle. Verkhoyansk is about 10 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. Temperatures in the town average 40 degrees below zero Celsius (-40 Fahrenheit) in winter, and it rarely gets warmer than 20 degrees (68 Fahrenheit) in summer. Experts blame the unusual heat wave on a massive high-pressure system that has been stalled over Siberia for almost two weeks, preventing cooler air from flowing south. All of Russia has experienced an uncharacteristically warm winter and spring this year with average temperatures breaking records in the first five months of the year set in 2016.
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North Korea Says Millions of Leaflets Readied Against South
North Korea said on Monday it has readied thousands of balloons and millions of leaflets in preparation for “retaliatory punishment” against South Korea.
The detail, in a state media report, came a day after the North said it was preparing to begin an anti-South leaflet campaign following a series of vitriolic condemnations of Seoul because of anti-North leaflets floated over the border.
Defectors in the South send such leaflets, which criticize the North’s leader Kim Jong Un over human rights abuses and his nuclear ambitions. The messages are usually attached to balloons or floated in bottles.
Analysts have said North Korea has been conducting a series of staged provocations aimed at forcing concessions from Seoul and Washington.
“The preparations for the largest-ever distribution of leaflets against the enemy are almost complete,” a report by the Korean Central News Agency said.
“Publishing and printing institutions at all levels in the capital city have turned out 12 million leaflets of all kinds reflective of the wrath and hatred of the people from all walks of life,” it said.
More than “3,000 balloons of various types capable of scattering leaflets deep inside south Korea, have been prepared,” along with other means of distribution, KCNA added.
Inter-Korean relations have been frozen for months, following the collapse of a summit in Hanoi between Kim and US President Donald Trump early last year.
That meeting foundered on what the North would be willing to give up in exchange for a loosening of sanctions.
The nuclear-armed and impoverished North is subject to multiple United Nations Security Council sanctions over its banned weapons programs.
The South’s President Moon Jae-in initially brokered a dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington, but the North now blames him for not persuading the United States to relax sanctions.
“South Korea has to face the music. Only when it experiences how painful and how irritating it is to dispose of leaflets and waste, it will shake off its bad habit,” KCNA said.
“The time for retaliatory punishment is drawing near.”
As part of what analysts saw as staged provocations, the North last Tuesday blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border, triggering broad international condemnation.
It has also threatened to bolster its military presence in and around the Demilitarized Zone.
The North’s actions appear to be carefully calibrated, with Pyongyang drawing out the process by issuing multiple incremental warnings from different official sources — leadership, government departments and the military — ahead of each step it takes.
The North’s two consecutive days of comment about its leaflet campaign came after Kim Yeon-chul, South Korea’s point man for relations with the North, resigned over the heightened tensions. He expressed hope that his departure “will be a chance to pause for a bit”.
Photos carried by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Saturday showed North Koreans preparing the leaflets.
Seoul’s unification ministry urged Pyongyang to withdraw the plan “immediately”, calling it “very regrettable”.
South Korea has also warned of a “thorough crackdown” against activists sending anti-North leaflets. It filed a police complaint against two defector groups over the messages that have offended Pyongyang.
The two Koreas remain technically at war after Korean War hostilities ended with an armistice in 1953 that was never replaced by a peace treaty.
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Trump Says He Held Off Xinjiang Sanctions Due to Trade Talks – Axios Interview
President Donald Trump held off on imposing tougher sanctions on Chinese officials blamed for a crackdown on China’s Uighur Muslim minority because of concern such measures would have interfered with trade negotiations with Beijing, he said in an interview published on Sunday.
“Well, we were in the middle of a major trade deal. And I made a great deal, $250 billion potentially worth of purchases,” Trump was quoted as telling Axios Friday when asked why he had not enacted Treasury sanctions against Communist Party officials linked to repression in the Xinjiang region.
The United Nations estimates that more than a million Muslims have been detained in camps there. The State Department has accused China of subjecting Muslims to torture and abuse.
China has denied mistreatment and says the camps provide vocational training and help fight extremism.
U.S. officials previously told Reuters that since late 2018 they had weighed sanctions against Chinese officials over Xinjiang but refrained because of trade and diplomatic considerations.
Under a Phase 1 trade deal negotiated in 2019 that took effect in February, China agreed to buy at least $200 billion in additional U.S. goods and services over two years.
Former national security adviser John Bolton alleges in a new book that Trump sought Chinese President Xi Jinping’s help to win reelection during a 2019 meeting by making agricultural purchases, and Trump also encouraged Xi to go ahead with building camps in Xinjiang. Trump has denied the accusations. The United States since last year has placed import restrictions on some Chinese companies and visa bans on unnamed Chinese officials linked to Xinjiang but has not imposed harsher Treasury sanctions.
Trump signed legislation last Wednesday calling for sanctions over Xinjiang, drawing threats of retaliation from China. He insisted, however, he had discretion to decide any application of the measures.
Elsewhere in the interview, Trump said he would consider meeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and also suggested he has had second thoughts about his decision to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate leader.
“I would maybe think about that. … Maduro would like to meet. And I’m never opposed to meetings,” Trump told online news site Axios on Friday, a move that would upend his “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at ousting the Socialist president. He added, however, “but at this moment, I’ve turned them down.”
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As Protests Continue, Coronavirus Cases Spike in Many US States
As protests against racial discrimination continue in many American cities, President Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, the desire to get back to a sense of normalcy across the country is tempered by a spike of COVID-19 cases in many U.S. states.
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Ruling Conservatives Set to Win Serbian Parliamentary Vote
Serbia’s ruling conservative party led by President Aleksandar Vucic is set for a landslide win in Sunday’s parliamentary election, results projected by Ipsos and CeSID pollsters showed.The projection shows the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) on track to win 62.5% of the votes, while the Socialist party, a junior coalition partner in the outgoing government, is seen coming in second with 10.7% of the votes.The center-right Serbian Patriotic Alliance led by former water polo player Aleksandar Sapic is seen in third place with 4% of the votes.A brass band orchestra at the SNS headquarters was playing traditional Serbian music before Vucic proclaimed victory.Dozens of smiling people crammed into a small room, hugged each other and few had their faces covered with masks, despite doctors warning to be cautious to avoid spreading the coronavirus.”Tonight people showed enormous trust in our team,” Vucic told journalists. “Serbian people have decided what kind of future they want.”Another Serbian pollster CRTA saw turnout at 48% compared to 56.7% in 2016. The State Election Commission is to announce preliminary results including turnout later in the evening.Turnout was hit by a boycott by some opposition parties, who say the vote will not be free or fair owing to Vucic’s grip on the media.Florian Bieber, a Balkan expert at Austria’s University of Graz, tweeted after seeing results: “It is a pyrrhic victory, without opposition in parliament the election is discredited and its rule less legitimate than ever before.”Voters largely back efforts by Vucic’s ruling coalition to push for Serbian membership of the European Union while maintaining strong ties with Russia and China.But the future government will face increasing EU and U.S. pressure to recognize the independence of Serbia’s former province of Kosovo, a move seen as key for regional stability.Serbia, which has a population of 7.2 million, has reported 12,894 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 261 deaths. It was among the first European countries to start opening its borders on May 22 and all lockdown curbs have since been lifted.Analysts and pollsters said that health concerns kept some voters at home, especially among higher-risk groups. About 1.2 million people on the electoral list have lived abroad for years and are unlikely to vote.”If we take into account number of votes (the SNS got) … we are heading to a North Korean or Chinese system,” said Slobodan Zecevic, a lecturer of international law with the Belgrade-based European University.
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Social Distancing Flexes Its Muscles
Precautions to avoid spread of the coronavirus remain in effect in parts of the world spiking with COVID cases. The United States by far has the most cases, and businesses must adapt to stay alive. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi shows us a gym that’s open for socially-distant exercise.
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Trump Campaign Brushes Off Low Turnout at President’s Rally
U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign on Sunday brushed off the underwhelming size of the crowd at his first political rally in three months, blaming “fake news media” reports of the threat of coronavirus infections and the possibility of protests for keeping people away.The 19,000-seat BOK Center arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma, appeared to be a bit more than half full Saturday night, even though the president’s campaign last week boasted that a million people had registered to attend. The Trump campaign said about 12,000 people passed through metal detectors at the entrances.An outdoor rally for an overflow crowd was called off because few were there, while the arena’s upper gallery was largely empty.For the cheering supporters who did show up, Trump gave them what they came to hear: nearly two hours of red-meat political taunts. He railed against his Democratic opponent in the November national election, former Vice President Joe Biden, attacked “radical left” protesters demonstrating in recent weeks against police abuses in the U.S., and blamed China for the spread of what he called the “kung flu,” his derisive term for the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 120,000 people in the U.S. and infected more than 2.2 million. Trump called his sign-waving supporters “warriors” and declared that “the silent majority is stronger than ever before.” He boasted about his conservative judicial appointees, low taxes, the booming stock market, the wall under construction on the southern border with Mexico to keep out undocumented immigrants and adding to the U.S. military budget.FILE – Brad Parscale, campaign manager for President Donald Trump, speaks to supporters during a panel discussion, in San Antonio, Texas Oct. 15, 2019.Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale on Sunday said the crowd size was kept down by several factors.“A week’s worth of the fake news media warning people away from the rally because of COVID and protesters, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire, had a real impact on people bringing their families and children to the rally,” he said.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued warnings that large gatherings such as Trump’s rally are possible breeding grounds for the spread of the coronavirus. The Trump campaign checked the temperatures of rally-goers and handed out face masks to everyone, although it did not require anyone to wear one.As news cameras scanned the crowd, only a small portion of those watching the rally appeared to be wearing a mask.Parscale said protesters “even blocked entrances to the rally at times,” although media reporters on the scene said they saw few protesters and that people who wanted to attend the rally appeared to walk in unimpeded.Demonstrators march near the BOK Center where President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 20, 2020.Parscale dismissed reports that TikTok and K-Pop fans had flummoxed the Trump campaign by registering for tickets to the rally, to make it appear there would be a huge crowd, with no intention of attending.The campaign manager said, “We constantly weed out bogus numbers, as we did with tens of thousands at the Tulsa rally, in calculating our possible attendee pool. These phony ticket requests never factor into our thinking.”He added, “For the media to now celebrate the fear that they helped create is disgusting, but typical. And it makes us wonder why we bother credentialing media for events when they don’t do their full jobs as professionals.”Trump campaign adviser Mercedes Schlapp told “Fox News Sunday” that despite the Tulsa crowd size, 5.3 million people watched on Trump campaign digital channels, giving the rally a much broader reach than might have appeared from the telecast of the event.Biden’s campaign scoffed at the size of the Tulsa crowd, saying, “Donald Trump has abdicated leadership and it is no surprise that his supporters have responded by abandoning him.”National polls show Biden pulling out to an average lead of 9.5 percentage points over Trump less than five months before the election, according to a compilation of polls by Real Clear Politics. Biden has shunned any political rallies, giving television interviews from his home in the eastern state of Delaware and making a few appearances in nearby Philadelphia for speeches before small gatherings. He has not held a news conference in nearly three months.
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Al-Shabab Attacks in Somalia Kill 7
At least seven people were killed in two separate attacks by the al-Shabab militant group in Somalia in the last 24 hours.The deadliest attack took place in the town of Wanlaweyn, 90 kilometers west of Mogadishu, when an improvised explosive device planted near the home of a military officer exploded on Saturday evening. Moments later a second explosion went off as people gathered at the scene of the first explosion.Five people were killed including the wife of the military officer who was not at home at the time.Deputy Governor of Lower Shabelle region Ahmed Yusuf confirmed the death of the officer’s wife to VOA Somali.“The wife of the officer has died, may Allah give him strength,” he said. “Her elder son is among the wounded.”Yusuf said several suspects were arrested and investigation is ongoing.Separately, a suicide car bomb exploded at a checkpoint outside a military base in the town of Ba’adweyne, 170 kilometers southeast of Galkayo town in central Somalia, early on Sunday morning. Residents told VOA Somali that two soldiers were killed, although military officials deny any of them were hurt.The commander of the 21st Division of the Somali National Army General Abdiaziz Abdullahi Hogollof told VOA Somali that the soldiers at the entrance of the base were ready and prevented the explosive-laden car from penetrating.Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for both attacks.Mukhtar Mohamed Atosh and Abdiwahid Moallim Ishaq contributed to this report.
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TikTok Users, K-Pop Fans Credited With Swaying Trump Rally Attendance
TikTok users and Korean pop music fans are being partly credited for inflating attendance expectations at a less-than-full arena at President Donald Trump’s first political rally in months, held in Tulsa on Saturday. Social media users on different platforms, including the popular video-sharing app TikTok, have claimed in posts and videos that they registered for free tickets to the rally as a prank, with no intention of going. President Donald Trump supporters listen to Trump speak during a campaign rally at the BOK Center, June 20, 2020, in Tulsa, Okla.Prior to the event, Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale said there had been more than one million ticket requests for the event. However, the 19,000-seat BOK Center arena had many empty seats and Trump and Vice President Mike Pence canceled speeches to an expected “overflow” crowd. The Trump campaign said that the entry was “first-come-first-served” and that no one was issued an actual ticket. “Leftists always fool themselves into thinking they’re being clever. Registering for a rally only means you’ve RSVPed with a cell phone number,” said Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh in a statement to Reuters. “But we thank them for their contact information.” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, responded to a tweet by Parscale blaming the media for discouraging attendees and cited bad behavior by demonstrators outside. “Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID,” she tweeted on Saturday. “KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too,” she added. “My 16 year old daughter and her friends in Park City Utah have hundreds of tickets. You have been rolled by America’s teens,” tweeted former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt. CNN reported on Tuesday that a TikTok video posted by Mary Jo Laupp, a user who uses the hashtag #TikTokGrandma, was helping lead the charge. The video now has more than 700,000 likes. Demonstrators marching near the BOK Center where President Trump was holding a campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., June 20, 2020.There were some shouting matches and scuffles outside the event between around 30 Black Lives Matter demonstrators and some Trump supporters waiting to enter. A Reuters reporter saw no sign any Trump supporters were prevented from entering the arena or overflow area. Trump had brushed aside criticism for his decision to hold the in Tulsa, the site of the country’s bloodiest outbreaks of racist violence against Black Americans some 100 years ago.
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1 Killed, 11 Wounded in Minneapolis Shooting
One man died and 11 people were wounded in a Minneapolis shooting, police said Sunday. Photographs and live video of the aftermath of the shooting posted on Facebook showed the victims on the ground with people attending to them. Buildings with shot out windows were also seen. The motive for the shootings is unknown and no one is in custody in connection with the incident. Earlier, the police tweeted: “10 people at area hospitals suffering from gunshot wounds. All are alive with various severity levels of injuries.” The public was warned to avoid the Uptown Minneapolis area. FILE – Thousands of protesters march from downtown to the site of the arrest of George Floyd, who died while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 5, 2020.Minneapolis has been in the news in recent days because it is the site where George Floyd, an African American man, died after a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck. Minneapolis erupted in demonstrations and rioting after Floyd’s death, sparking demonstrations against racism around the world.
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China Halts Some US Poultry Imports Amid Virus Fears
Beijing announced Sunday it was halting poultry imports from a plant in the United States where employees have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.The plant was located in Arizona and owned by American poultry company Tyson.There was no immediate comment from the company regarding China’s decision.Beijing is under a partial lockdown as a new wave of COVID-19 infections has been confirmed and has stepped up scrutiny of imported products.In November of 2019, China ended a five-year ban on U.S. poultry imports.
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Coronavirus Dampens Stonehenge Solstice Celebrations
The coronavirus pandemic has prevented druids, pagans and party-goers from watching the sun rise at Stonehenge to mark the summer solstice this year.The ancient stone circle in southwestern England usually draws thousands of people to mark the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. But Britain has banned mass gatherings as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.English Heritage, the body that oversees Stonehenge, livestreamed the sunrise instead. It said more than 3.6 million people watched as dawn broke at 4:52 a.m. Sunday (0352GMT, 11:52 p.m. EDT Saturday).Stonehenge, a World Heritage site, is believed to be 4,500 years old. It is known for its alignment with the movements of the sun.Some dedicated druids were determined to watch the sun rise in person, gathering in a field near Stonehenge despite the morning rain. Well-known druid King Arthur Pendragon said it had been “very wet,” but he was undaunted.“You can’t cancel the sunrise,” he told the BBC. “It’s going to happen, and we were there to celebrate it.”
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Russia’s Putin Says He May Seek Another Term If Constitutional Changes Passed
Vladimir Putin is considering running for a new term as Russia’s president if voters approve constitutional changes that would enable him to do so, Russian news agencies quoted him as saying in an interview on Sunday.Russia will hold a nationwide vote from June 25 to July 1 on proposed changes to the constitution, including an amendment that would allow Putin to seek two more six-year terms as president when his current mandate ends in 2024.Opponents say the reforms are designed to allow Putin to keep power until 2036 and amount to a constitutional coup. The Kremlin says they are needed to strengthen the role of parliament and improve social policy and public administration.”I do not rule out the possibility of running for office, if this (option) comes up in the constitution. We’ll see,” Putin was quoted as saying in an interview with state TV that was shown in Russia’s far east before airing in western Russia. “I have not decided anything for myself yet.”The changes that Russians will vote on, already approved by parliament and the Constitutional Court, would reset Putin’s presidential term tally to zero. He would not be able to seek a new term under current constitutional limits.The changes are widely expected to be approved in the vote.Putin, who has been in power for two decades and is now 67, suggested the hunt for a candidate to succeed him could become a distraction if he does not run again.”If this doesn’t happen, then in about two years – and I know this from personal experience – the normal rhythm of work of many parts of government will be replaced by a search for possible successors,” Interfax news agency cited him as saying.”We must be working, not looking for successors,” he said.
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