Uganda’s free speech advocates are calling for the release of a comedy group arrested last week on accusations of promoting sectarianism. Members of the group known as Bizonto were arrested after performing a skit that criticized government leaders.Artists on social media are using the hashtag “Free my talent” as they call on the government to free the four-person group called Bizonto.The comedians, still in police custody since their arrest Friday, have yet to be charged, but police say they are investigating the issue as a case of sectarianism.In their skit, the comedians make fun of long-time President Yoweri Museveni and other leaders.“Tell the children that Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is their president. And they should pray for him. He came to power, in 1986. He’s ruled the country for 35 years, and he still rules. So, they should pray for him, because he is the leader. Tell the children that General Elly Tumwine, is the head of security. It’s a very important position. Because of that, they should pray for him…”Nicholas Opio, director of Chapter Four, a human rights non-government organization, said freedom of expression exists to protect speech that makes people uncomfortable.He said to this effect, Ugandans should ridicule their leaders and in so doing discuss serious issues of governance that affect the country.“Artistic expressions are made to lampoon leaders as a way of expressing one’s view. And I think it’s protected speech. Instead of arresting them, I think we must ask the question of whether they raise a serious issue through their skits. And we must have an honest discussion about equity, about the sharing of the national cake in this country,” said Opio.The group was arrested at a local radio station. Ofwono Opondo, a government spokesperson, blames the media, questioning why a news organization would start sectarian tendencies as the country moves into an election cycle.“The government is not going to sit by and watch people attempting to break the unity we have fought so hard to build – the social community harmony we have fought so hard to build over the last 34 years,” said Opondo.The government early this year set up new proposals that seek to vet new songs, videos and film scripts prior to their release. The proposals also demand that musicians, producers, promoters, filmmakers and all other artists register with the government and obtain a license that can be revoked for a range of violations.Artists are taking to social media to urge people to speak up. They include singer Robert Kyagulanyi, who is popularly known as Bobi Wine. He is running for president as the candidate from the National Unity Platform.“I am reminding all of us to rise up now and assert our voices and defend what is rightfully ours. Because freedom of expression is a right. And remember that no creative, no artist is safe. We are all under attack,” said Kyagulanyi.Police say they have in their possession dozens of videos that show the detained artists promoting sectarianism.
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Month: July 2020
Thailand Anti-Government Protests Mount as Youth Demand Change
As Thailand’s economy struggles to recover from the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, renewed anti-government demonstrations have sprung up across the country. Activists are demanding amendments to the constitution, the dissolution of parliament and a stop to the harassment of rights activists. The rallies were temporarily halted earlier this year when the COVID outbreak curbed large gatherings. Steve Sandford has more from Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Videographer: Steve Sandford
Video editor: Jason Godman
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Erdogan Seeks to Tame Social Media, Again
Turkey is poised to introduce drastic measures to control social media platforms. The proposed legislation is drawing growing international criticism with social media remaining one of the few venues for dissent. FILE – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech at the Bestepe National Congress and Culture Center in Ankara, July 21, 2020.Infuriated by tweets mocking his son in law and daughter, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared this month, the “immoral [social media] platforms” would be “completely banned or controlled.” Under new legislation set to pass before Eid holidays later this week, the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Tik Tok will be compelled to open offices in Turkey by requiring them to assign representatives who would be subject to Turkish laws, including tax regulations. “It builds upon and expands upon the current regime of controls,” said Professor Yaman Akdeniz, co-founder of the Freedom of Expression Society, an advocacy group in Istanbul. Until now, the social media giants have resisted Ankara’s demands to open offices in Turkey. But in an innovative approach, proposed legislation uses the threat of ending net neutrality to force compliance. New attempt to control Social media platforms that fail to comply face cuts of up to 95% of their Internet bandwidth, making them unusable. “This is well thought out legislation on the government’s part,” said Akdeniz. Previous attempts by Erdogan to tame social media have failed. Despite over 400,000 web pages banned and thousands of people prosecuted for social media postings, the Internet remains a powerful venue for dissent and independent news.Internet tools like Virtual Private Networks, VPN, and proxies are widely used in Turkey to circumvent website bans. A three-year ban on Wikipedia was so widely flouted the government capitulated and lifted the restrictions. But controlling bandwidth could be more effective than blocking websites. “This will be a very serious restriction which may not be easy to bypass with alternative ways,” said Akdeniz. “Turkey’s attempt to restrict access to social media platforms should not be underestimated.” Turkish authorities usually temporarily cut bandwidth to curtail social media use, in the aftermath of major terror attacks. In what appears to be a new coordinated approach, the government’s Internet regulators have been stepping up their efforts to curtail the use of VPN and proxies. “A considerable number of VPN services are already blocked from Turkey, and more will be blocked,” said Akdeniz. Devlet Bahceli, leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, MHP, the parliamentary coalition partner of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, AKP, called for efforts to be stepped up to end the use of VPN and proxies. Using tax laws The president’s director of communications, Fahrettin Altun, says the new legislation is about holding the social media giants financially accountable, accusing them of “uncontrollably making profits in our country and continue their operations immune to any tax obligations.” The European Union is also calling on social media companies to be more financially accountable. In a statement released this month, the EU commission unveiled plans “that extends EU tax transparency rules to digital platforms.” But there is growing international concern over Ankara’s plans. “If passed the new law will enable the government to control social media, to get content removed at will, and to arbitrarily target individual users,” said Tom Porteous, deputy program director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch. “Social media is a lifeline for many people who use it to access news, so this law signals a new dark era of online censorship.” Until now, social media platforms have walked a tightrope by complying with some — but not all — Turkish regulatory authority demands to remove sites and ban users. But under the proposed reforms, failure to comply would result in substantial fines that they would be obliged to pay if they open an office in Turkey. “If the social media platforms decide to establish offices in Turkey,” said Akdeniz, “then they will be compelled to remove the content as well as close down accounts subject to blocking and removal decisions involving defamation as well as other so-called personal rights violations.” Twitter, Facebook, or Tik Tok have so far commented on the proposed legislation, but analysts believe the companies have plenty of reason to oppose it. Lucrative market Turkey’s young net-savvy population is seen as a lucrative market for the social media giants. FILE – People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of coronavirus, walk a in popular shopping street, in Ankara, Turkey, June 27, 2020.The growing popularity of social media as an alternative to mainstream media, most of which is under government control, is seen as Erdogan’s primary motivation behind the pending legislation. “Even members of the AKP and MHP constituencies consider social media as their primary source of information,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. “One of the main reasons Erdogan could make so many mistakes and still stay in power is because he controls the flow of information reaching his entire voting segment, now he realizes those days have gone. People have moved to an alternative medium which he has no control,” added Yesilada. With the Turkish economy hit by the COVID 19 pandemic, recent opinion polls suggest Erdogan’s AKP’s popularity is at historic lows, even though it remains the most popular party with Turkey’s fractured opposition. The proposed law opens the door to revamping Erdogan’s and his party’s image. “News websites, as well as social media platforms, will be compelled to remove content from their servers and news archives,” said Akdeniz. “The idea behind this is to cleanse AKP’s and the government’s past injustices, corruption, and irregularity allegations.” Yesilada warns that even if the latest reforms succeed, the Turkish leader could yet pay a high price. “We have ample survey evidence that the young generation are hooked to social media, and they already have a poor view of Mr. Erdogan and his politics. Controlling social media will completely turn them off the AKP and Mr. Erdogan.”
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Head of China CDC Injected With Experimental Vaccine
The head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention says he has been injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to persuade the public to follow suit when one is approved.
“I’m going to reveal something undercover: I am injected with one of the vaccines,” Gao Fu said in a webinar Sunday hosted by Alibaba Health, an arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant, and Cell Press, an American publisher of scientific journals. “I hope it will work.”
The Associated Press reported earlier this month that a state-owned Chinese company injected employees with experimental shots in March, even before the government-approved testing in people — a move that raised ethical concerns among some experts.
Gao did not say when or how he took the vaccine candidate, leaving it unclear whether he was injected as part of a government-approved human trial. He did not respond to requests for comment.
The claim underscores the enormous stakes as China competes with U.S. and British companies to be the first with a vaccine to help end the pandemic — a feat that would be both a scientific and political triumph.
China has positioned itself to be a strong contender. Eight of the nearly two dozen potential vaccines in various stages of human testing worldwide are from China, the most of any country.
Gao declined to say which of the vaccines he was injected with, saying he didn’t want to be seen as “doing some kind of propaganda” for a particular company.
Last month, Gao was a coauthor on a paper introducing one candidate, an “inactivated” vaccine made by growing the whole virus in a lab and then killing it. That candidate is being developed by an affiliate of state-owned SinoPharm.
The company previously said in an online post that 30 employees, including top executives, helped “pre-test” its vaccine in March, before it was approved for its initial human study.
Scientists vehemently debate such self-experimentation, because what happens to one or a few people outside a well-designed study is not usable evidence of safety or effectiveness.
Chinese state media have also reported that employees of state-owned companies going abroad are being offered injections of the vaccine.
Gao said he took the injection to instill public confidence in vaccines, especially amid a tide of rising mistrust that has fueled conspiracy theories and attacks on scientists.
“Everybody has suspicions about the new coronavirus vaccine,” Gao said. “As a scientist, you’ve got to be brave. … If even we didn’t do it, how can we persuade the whole world — all the people, the public — to be vaccinated?”
Andrew Rennekamp, an editor at Cell and one of the moderators of Gao’s webinar, said, “This is a brave thing to do, and it shows his faith in what he believes is the safety of the vaccine and his commitment to the science and to public health.”
Even as China is among the leaders in the global race for a vaccine, it is also striving to overcome years of drug scandals — the latest coming in 2018 when authorities recalled a rabies vaccine and later announced that batches of children’s DPT vaccines, for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus, were ineffective.
Gao himself had also been under heavy scrutiny for the China CDC’s initial handling of the coronavirus outbreak, both at home and abroad. He largely vanished from public view for months, resurfacing again in an interview with state media in late April.
Recently, Gao has been involved in research on the coronavirus.
As vaccine research continues, China’s CDC is now looking into potential immunization programs, trying to figure out whether to prioritize children, the elderly or healthcare workers, he said.
Gao’s revelations come at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions fueled by the outbreak. Beijing’s delays in warning the public and releasing data at the beginning of the outbreak contributed significantly to the coronavirus’s spread, while President Donald Trump and other American politicians have made unsubstantiated claims that the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where it was first detected.
Tensions have flared to the point where it’s now disrupting research, leading to frustration among scientists who work with Chinese collaborators. The Trump administration has moved to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, and has cut funding to research initiatives studying coronaviruses in China.
Gao said repeatedly in his lecture that he wanted more cooperation between the U.S. and China, pleading for unity even as relations between Beijing and Washington plummet to new lows.
“We don’t want to have China and the U.S. separated scientifically,” Gao said. “We’ve got to work together.”
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Cameroon Dispatches Healthcare Workers to Find, Treat Hepatitis Patients
Healthcare workers in Cameroon are marking World Hepatitis Day (July 28), to raise awareness of the virus, which causes inflammation of the liver and kills about 300 people per day in Sub-Saharan Africa. While global coverage of a birth dose vaccine for Hepatitis B is 43%, according to the World Health Organization, only 6% receive it in the WHO’s African Region, which does not include Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia, or Sudan. In Cameroon, health officials have begun dispatching healthcare workers to find hep B patients who are avoiding treatment and getting the vaccine for their newborns.Farmer Valerie Mbappe, 52, said she was diagnosed with hepatitis in April.But she was reluctant to go to a doctor because her uncle told her she should be treated by a traditional healer.After going to the healer, Mbappe’s abdominal pain, fatigue and fever have gotten worse.She said now that she knows that she can be treated at the hospital, her advice is that people should not be reluctant to visit health facilities for their hepatitis screening. She said she was told by the nurse that she should stop drinking and smoking heavily because it may lead to complications during her treatment.Mbappe was brought to the General Hospital in Yaoundé by members of SOS Hepatitis, a charity group that helps patients seek treatment.Spokesman for the group Samuel Yamissi said the efforts are part of this year’s World Hepatitis Day activities, marked annually on July 28.He said their main target is the majority of patients who refuse to go to hospitals and prefer traditional treatments.Everyone who tests positive for hepatitis can get help from his group and the government, said Yamissi. He said those who test negative will be given their first dose of the hepatitis vaccine. People who take the first dose of the vaccine should come for the second dose after three months and the last dose after six months, said Yamissi, to be free of the disease.In 2019 Cameroon reported 12,000 new cases of hepatitis B, up from 9,600 in 2018.But Cameroon’s Ministry of Health says 13 percent of people are living with hepatitis B in the country of 25 million.Despite the high rate of infection, the ministry says less than 1,500 Cameroonians are receiving treatment.The Ministry of Health’s Dr. Simon Eyong treats hepatitis B patients.He said to encourage patients to go to hospitals, the government reduced the cost of treatment from $250 per month to less than $50.”Since it is a slow killer disease, which symptoms only appear when it has already reached its climax, get tested, get vaccinated. Keep away from unprescribed medications like anti-inflammatories like Paracetamol,” said Eyong.Cameroon’s 360 government hospitals this year for the first-time dispatched health workers to track patients and ensure they get their treatments and vaccines.The health ministry’s Dr. Abdoulaye Sajo said the government also targets birth dose hepatitis vaccines for newborns.He spoke via telephone from the northern town of Garoua.Sajo said the government has given firm instructions that all newly born babies, all mothers, and all pregnant women should be screened and vaccinated against hepatitis B. He said the government has also given instructions that everyone tested positive should be treated immediately. The only challenge they have, said Sajo, is meeting the so many mothers who never visit hospitals and prefer to deliver at home.Only 35 percent of Cameroon’s 25 million people visit hospitals.Others rely on traditional healers and only go to hospitals when their health becomes critical.
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Trump Again Pushes Unproven Drug as COVID-19 Treatment
A week after appearing to project a more serious tone about the coronavirus, President Donald Trump is back to pushing unproven claims that an anti-malaria drug is an effective treatment and challenging the credibility of the nation’s leading infectious disease expert.Dr. Anthony Fauci pushed back Tuesday, saying he will keep doing his job. Numerous studies, meanwhile, have shown that the drug, hydroxychloroquine, is not an effective treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently withdrew an order that allowed the drug’s use as an emergency treatment for COVID-19. Yet overnight, after returning from a trip to North Carolina where he promoted efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Trump retweeted a series of tweets advocating for hydroxychloroquine. The president also shared a post from the Twitter account for a podcast hosted by Steve Bannon, a former top White House adviser to Trump, accusing Fauci of misleading the public over hydroxychloroquine. Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, pushed back Tuesday during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.””I go along with the FDA,” said Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “The overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease.”It’s not the first time Fauci has come under attack from Trump and those close to him. The president’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, who has clashed with Fauci over hydroxychloroquine, recently penned a scathing attack on the doctor that was published by USA Today. The newspaper later said the opinion piece did not meet its standards.In recent nationally televised interviews, Trump himself has described Fauci as “a bit of an alarmist” and accused him of making “mistakes” in his coronavirus guidance to the American people. Asked if he can continue to do his job when Trump continues to publicly question his credibility, Fauci said Tuesday he’ll press ahead “no matter what” because of the stakes involved. “I don’t tweet. I don’t even read them, so I don’t really want to go there,” Fauci said. “I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because I think it’s very important. We’re in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic, a pandemic. This is what I do. This is what I’ve been trained for my entire professional life and I’ll continue to do it.”Asked about claims he’s been misleading the public, Fauci said: “I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.”
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Barr Defends Tough US Response to Protests
U.S. Attorney General William Barr is set to tell Congress Tuesday that ongoing protests in the northwestern city of Portland, Oregon, and elsewhere have turned into riots divorced from legitimate calls for reform of police treatment of minorities in the United States.Barr, in his opening statement released ahead of his appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, says the late May death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was a “horrible” event that sparked a necessary examination of the relationship between law enforcement and African Americans in the United States.WATCH Hearing LIVE But Barr says the ongoing protests in Portland and elsewhere have become disconnected from Floyd’s death.“Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyd’s death or any legitimate call for reform,” Barr says.He reiterates President Donald Trump’s criticism of local leaders, many of whom have offered their own rejections of the federal government’s responses and called for Congress to block deployments of hundreds of federal agents in their cities.“As elected officials of the federal government, every member of this committee – regardless of your political views or your feelings about the Trump administration – should condemn violence against federal officers and destruction of federal property,” Barr says. “So should state and local leaders who have a responsibility to keep their communities safe. To tacitly condone destruction and anarchy is to abandon the basic rule-of-law principles that should unite us even in a politically divisive time.”Demonstrators push on a fence as tear gas is deployed during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse Saturday, July 25, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)Portland protests
There have been clashes between protesters and federal forces in Portland, with the situation there escalating in the days following accusations the federal officers were hauling people away from the demonstration area without probable cause. Federal officials have defended the deployments as necessary to defend federal property, such as the courthouse in the city.Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler shared a letter Monday from a group of U.S. mayors asking Congress to act to restrain the use of federal forces, saying that “the actions taken in recent weeks have no place in this nation.” “We demand that federal troops be removed from our cities and encourage Congress’ continued vigilance and action to pass legislation in both chambers to end this dangerous overreach,” Wheeler tweeted. “This Administration has shown no hesitation or remorse in playing the most toxic and damaging form of politics with the lives and livelihoods of the American people. We say no more. We say unequivocally Black Lives Matter.”A. U.S. Park Police officer stands as police close the area around Lafayette Park near the White House after protesters tried to topple a statue of Andrew Jackson in the park in Washington, on Monday, June 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)Lafayette square incident
Lawmakers could also ask Barr about another instance of clashes between federal officers and protesters that took place June 1 in Lafayette Square, just across from the White House. The officers drove the protesters from the park with smoke bombs and pepper balls, shortly before Trump, accompanied by Barr and others, walked to a nearby church to pose in front of cameras as he held aloft a Bible.That incident is the subject of another hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill in front of the House Natural Resources Committee. Adam DeMarco, a major in the District of Columbia National Guard, says in his prepared opening remarks to the committee that what he witnessed at the site was “deeply disturbing” to both himself and fellow National Guard members. “Having served in a combat zone, and understanding how to assess threat environments, at no time did I feel threatened by the protestors or assess them to be violent,” DeMarco says. “In addition, considering the principles of proportionality of force and the fundamental strategy of graduated responses specific to civil disturbance operations, it was my observation that the use of force against demonstrators in the clearing operation was an unnecessary escalation of the use of force.”DeMarco further says those protesting were fellow Americans peacefully expressing their rights, and that they were subject to “an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force.”Park police perspective
Acting U.S. Park Police Chief Gregory Monahan is set to give a different perspective of the events, saying in his prepared testimony that during demonstrations at the park from May 29 to June 1, protesters threw “bricks, rocks, caustic liquids, water bottles, lit flares, fireworks” and pieces of wood at law enforcement officers.“The unprecedented and sustained nature of the violence and destruction associated with some of the activities in Lafayette Park and surrounding park areas immediate and adjacent to the White House required de-escalation,” Monahan says. “On the whole, the United States Park Police acted with tremendous restraint in the face of severe violence from a large group of bad actors who caused 50 of my officers to seek medical attention. Our actions as an agency on June 1 centered around public safety and the safety of my officers.”
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South Korea Allowed to Develop Own Rocket Fuel
South Korea said Tuesday it has reached an agreement with the United States that will allow it to use solid rocket fuel for space vehicles, a change that will enable the country to launch its first military surveillance satellites and develop the technology to build more powerful missiles. The agreement lifts guidelines Seoul first signed onto with Washington in 1979. The U.S. had imposed restrictions out of concern solid fuel could lead to bigger rockets and a regional arms race. The guidelines were last revised in 2017 to scrap a payload cap of 500 kilograms for South Korea’s ballistic missiles with ranges of 800 kilometers.But at a Seoul news conference, South Korean Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Hyun-chong announced the U.S. and South Korea agreed to lift those restriction. Kim said, effective immediately, all South Korean companies, research institutes and nationals will be free to research, develop, produce and own not only liquid fuel but also solid fuel and various types of hybrid space rockets, without any restrictions.Solid fuel is less expensive, offers greater mobility for missiles and rockets and reduces launch preparation time. Kim said the revised agreement still bars South Korea from having a missile with a range of more than 800 kilometers but added Seoul could discuss altering that restriction with Washington if that’s needed for South Korean national security. Kim said South Korea could use solid fuel-based rockets to launch military reconnaissance satellites. South Korea currently has no spy satellites. South Korea’s missile capability is inferior to that of rival North Korea. In 2017, North Korea carried out three intercontinental ballistic missile tests as part of its stated efforts to build a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
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US-China Spats Rattle World, Prompting Calls for Unity
Antagonisms between the United States and China are rattling governments around the world, prompting a German official to warn of “Cold War 2.0” and Kenya’s president to appeal for unity to fight the coronavirus pandemic.Global trade already was depressed by the 2-year-old tariff war between the world’s two biggest economies. That rancor has spread to include Hong Kong, Chinese Muslims, spying accusations and control of the South China Sea.Caught in the middle, other governments are trying to defend their own interests.Germany:Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government wants to preserve trade and cooperation on global warming but says a security law tightening Beijing’s control over Hong Kong is a “difficult issue.”The Hong Kong security law’s potential disruption of the autonomy Beijing promised to the former British colony is no reason to stop talking but is “a worrying development,” Merkel said.FILE – France’s President Emmanuel Macron takes pictures from a document held by German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the first face-to-face EU summit since the coronavirus outbreak, in Brussels, Belgium, July 20, 2020.Europe’s biggest economy has yet to take a final position on Chinese tech giant Huawei despite U.S. pressure to exclude its equipment from next-generation telecom networks as a possible security risk.”China is an important partner for us but also a competitor,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement after a video conference Friday with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.Peter Beyer, the government’s coordinator for trans-Atlantic cooperation, expressed alarm in an interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland newspaper group.”We are experiencing the beginning of a Cold War 2.0,” Beyer said. He criticized both sides but said, “the U.S. is our most important partner outside the EU, and that is how it will stay.”France:President Emmanuel Macron calls President Donald Trump “my friend” but is trying to avoid riling Beijing.France has not echoed Trump’s criticism of Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus, but legislators applauded Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian last week when he condemned abuses of minority Uighurs in China’s northwest. Le Drian mentioned “mass arrests, disappearances, forced labor, forced sterilizations, the destruction of Uighur cultural heritage.” He said France has asked that the camps be closed.”All these practices are unacceptable,” the minister said. “We condemn them.”Trump’s ambivalence toward U.S. allies and flouting of diplomatic norms has alarmed France.”Sino-American tensions don’t benefit France,” said Valerie Niquet of the Foundation for Strategic Research, a think tank. “We share the same interests as the United States towards China, we adopt more or less the same positions, so it doesn’t bring us any positive element.”Europe:Europe’s “strategic relations” with China will be an issue for the European Union while Germany holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation bloc, Merkel said this month.EU foreign ministers have not managed to agree on a common position on China.Regarding Hong Kong, options include closer scrutiny of exports of sensitive technology to the territory and changing visa policies for its residents. But there is no talk of economic sanctions or targeting Chinese officials with penalties.”The message is that the recent actions change the rules,” said the top EU foreign policy official, Josep Borrell. “This will require a revision of our approach and will clearly have an impact on our relations.” South Korea:South Korea is squeezed between its main military ally and its biggest trading partner.In 2016, Beijing destroyed supermarket operator Lotte’s business in China after the conglomerate sold a plot of land in South Korea to the government for an anti-missile system over Chinese objections.Washington is unhappy with South Korea’s desire to ease sanctions on North Korea to encourage disarmament and uneasy about its use of Huawei technology.Trump complains about the cost of stationing 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea to protect against North Korean threats. A cost-sharing agreement expired in 2019 without a replacement.The U.S.-Chinese row “has thrown a question to South Korea” about which side to choose, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo said in an editorial Monday.”Sooner or later we will be forced to provide an answer, no matter how hard we tried to avoid it,” the newspaper said.India:Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to embrace both Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump, but the pandemic and a border clash that killed at least 20 Indian soldiers have fueled anti-Chinese sentiment.Protesters have called for boycotts of Chinese goods and burned Chinese flags. They applauded the government’s ban on the popular Chinese video-sharing app TikTok and some other Chinese apps.Washington wants stronger ties with India and supported its controversial move a year ago to split its only Muslim-majority state, restive Jammu and Kashmir, into two federally controlled territories. This month, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the United States would stand up to China on the Indian border dispute. “For India it is opportune that the U.S. is applying more pressure on China, and if it can get it to behave, that would be welcomed by the entire neighborhood,” said Jayadev Ranade, president of the Center for China Analysis think tank in New Delhi.Africa: China-U.S. tensions are taking a toll: The African Development Bank said last year trade disruption due to the tariff war could lead to a 2.5% drop in economic output for some African countries.Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said political disputes should be set aside to better fight the coronavirus.”Let’s not be sucked back into isolationism or unilateralism. We need each other today more than ever,” Kenyatta said an Atlantic Council event last month. “We’re not going to fight coronavirus if one country fails and another succeeds.” Southeast Asia: The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations has avoided taking steps that would alienate Washington or Beijing, both important trading partners. “The great powers, as they escalate their rivalry, will woo us into their side,” said Harry Roque, a spokesman for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. “We will advance our national interest.”The region’s most sensitive conflict — over control of the South China Sea — escalated when the Trump administration publicly rejected most of Beijing’s claims to one of the world’s busiest waterways. “We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a July 13 statement. The Philippines and Vietnam, among the most vocal critics of Chinese assertiveness, could benefit from that stance but will move cautiously, said Greg Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “They aren’t going to stick their necks in a noose until they see real follow-through from Washington,” Poling said.
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Stakes High as Depp’s Libel Case Against UK Tabloid Closes
Johnny Depp’s libel case against a British tabloid that accused him of abusing ex-wife Amber Heard was wrapping up Tuesday after three weeks of court hearings that dissected a toxic celebrity love affair.
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the newspaper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, at the High Court in London over an April 2018 article that called him a “wife-beater.”
In closing arguments, Depp’s lawyer, David Sherborne, said the actor strongly denied “this reputation-destroying, career-ending allegation.”
Once Sherborne is finished, judge Andrew Nicol will retire to sift claim and counterclaim as he considers his verdict. He is expected to hand down his ruling in several weeks.What Is The Judge Deciding?
Neither Depp nor Heard is on trial, though it has been easy to forget that during a case that raked over messy details of the couple’s volatile relationship.
Depp is the claimant in the civil case, NGN and Wootton are the defendants and Heard is their main witness. To defeat Depp’s libel claim, the newspaper must persuade the judge that, on the balance of probabilities, its story was accurate.
NGN’s lawyer, Sasha Wass, said in her summing-up that there was no doubt Depp “regularly and systematically abused his wife” and so the “wife-beater” label was justified.
But Sherborne said The Sun’s article — which urged J.K. Rowling to have Depp fired from the movie version of her book “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them” — gave the false impression Depp had been “tried, convicted and sentenced” for domestic violence.
“Acting as both judge and jury, the defendants plainly and squarely state that Mr. Depp is guilty (of a) series of serious and violent criminal offenses,” he said.What Is In Dispute?
The two sides agree that the relationship between Depp and Heard, which began after they met on the set of 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary,” soured long before they divorced in 2017. Texts, emails and recordings attest to the increasingly bitter relations between Depp, now 57, and the 34-year-old model and actress.
But they disagree completely over who started and escalated their fights.
Depp denies Heard’s claim of 14 separate incidents in which he allegedly hit, slapped and shoved her, pulled her hair and threw bottles at her “like grenades.” The judge was shown photos of Heard with black eyes, red marks on her face and an injured scalp — alleged evidence of Depp’s violence.
Depp said the photos were part of a “dossier” of fake evidence and claimed that Heard hit him, even severing the tip of his finger with a thrown vodka bottle. Under cross-examination Depp admitted headbutting Heard during a tussle, but said it was by accident as he tried to stop her punching him.
Heard acknowledged having a short temper and said she punched Depp once in March 2015. But she said it was to prevent him hitting her sister.What Have We Learned?
The trial has provided an up-close and often unflattering look at Hollywood stardom, revealing details of Depp’s life of wealth, luxury, emotional turmoil and substance abuse.
Mark Stephens, a media lawyer at law firm Howard Kennedy, said the sensational case “has all of the hallmarks of the Roman arena.”
“People will remember this case not for the results, but for the evidence — the rather nasty, gory evidence — that was involved,” he said.
The settings for the disintegrating relationship were as glamorous as the allegations were sordid. The alleged assaults took place on Depp’s private island in the Bahamas, a Los Angeles penthouse, a luxury train and a private jet.
Depp said in the witness box that he had made $650 million since he joined the lucrative “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise — and ended up $100 million in debt after his financial advisers neglected to pay his taxes for 17 years. Friends described Depp as a generous big spender, and he said he’d spent $5 million sending the ashes of his literary hero, drug-fueled journalist Hunter S. Thompson, into space.
Whichever spouse was to blame, the relationship left a trail of destruction. Damage to a rented house in Australia where the couple had an altercation was estimated at more than $100,000. The couple’s downtown L.A. penthouse was trashed during another argument.
The low point of the relationship, according to Depp, came when excrement was found in a bed at the penthouse. Heard blamed one of the couple’s two Yorkshire terriers, but Depp suspected Heard or one of her friends was to blame.Who Are The Winners And Losers?
British libel law is widely considered to favor claimants over defendants, but Depp could end up a loser even if he wins.
Depp said he sued The Sun because his career had been harmed by Heard’s allegations. But the case has amplified the claims for millions of people around the world, whatever the judge ends up deciding.
“It almost beggars belief that anyone rational has taken this case to court,” Stephens said. “Now, I know that many people say it’s all about vindication. It’s all about proving he’s not a wife beater. But the stakes are very, very high for everybody. And at some level, mud sticks.”
Heard also has had her character questioned and has been accused of fabricating evidence. She was accused by a #MeToo activist, Katherine Kendall, of appropriating a violent rape that happened to Kendall for her own ends.
The most likely winners are Wass and Sherborne, tough lawyers who both made strong cases for their clients. Sherborne also has a starring role in another big celebrity trial — he’s representing the Duchess of Sussex in her lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday newspaper over publication of a private letter she sent to her father Thomas Markle.Will The Verdict Be The End Of The Story?
Not likely. Depp is suing Heard for $50 million in Virginia over a Washington Post story about domestic violence. The trial is due to be held next year.
Stephens said that if Depp “loses in London, he’s almost certain to lose that American case. So this is in some ways a dress rehearsal for the second case.”
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Обиженный карлик пукин чешет репу: Сплошная загадка
Обиженный карлик пукин чешет репу: Сплошная загадка
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Державна зрада зеленого карлика. Захистимо армію України!
Державна зрада зеленого карлика. Захистимо армію України!
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Божья кара: два пукинских «панциря» уничтожены в Эфиопии, а БРДМ-2 исследует дно
Божья кара: два пукинских «панциря» уничтожены в Эфиопии, а БРДМ-2 исследует дно
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Проснуться в другой стране. Почему не разгоняют людей в Хабаровске, в отличии от москвы
Проснуться в другой стране. Почему не разгоняют людей в Хабаровске, в отличии от москвы.
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Ни капли воды бункерной карликовой крысе пукину
Ни капли воды бункерной карликовой крысе пукину
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Clashes Between Federal Officers, Protesters Set for Examination at Congressional Hearings
U.S. Attorney General William Barr is set to testify Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee where lawmakers are expected to ask him about a range of topics involving the Trump administration, including the deployment of federal officers in response to protests in the northwestern city of Portland, Oregon. Text of Barr’s opening statement released ahead of the hearing says the late May death of George Floyd in police custody was a “horrible” event that sparked a necessary examination of the relationship between law enforcement and African Americans in the United States. But Barr says the ongoing protests in Portland and elsewhere have become disconnected from Floyd’s death. “Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyd’s death or any legitimate call for reform,” Barr says. He reiterates Trump administration criticisms of local leaders, many of whom have offered their own rejections of the federal government’s responses and called for Congress to block deployments of federal forces in their cities.A bloodied demonstrator is arrested by federal police during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, July 27, 2020, in Portland, Ore.“As elected officials of the federal government, every Member of this Committee – regardless of your political views or your feelings about the Trump Administration – should condemn violence against federal officers and destruction of federal property,” Barr says. “So should state and local leaders who have a responsibility to keep their communities safe. To tacitly condone destruction and anarchy is to abandon the basic rule-of-law principles that should unite us even in a politically divisive time.” There have been clashes between protesters and federal forces in Portland, with the situation there escalating in the days following accusations the federal officers were hauling people away from the demonstration area without probable cause. Federal officials have defended the deployments as necessary to defend federal property such as the courthouse in the city. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said Monday in sharing a letter from a group of mayors asking Congress to act to restrain the use of federal forces that “the actions taken in recent weeks have no place in this nation.” “We demand that federal troops be removed from our cities and encourage Congress’ continued vigilance and action to pass legislation in both chambers to end this dangerous overreach,” Wheeler tweeted. “This Administration has shown no hesitation or remorse in playing the most toxic and damaging form of politics with the lives and livelihoods of the American people. We say no more. We say unequivocally Black Lives Matter.” Lawmakers could also ask Barr about another instance of clashes between federal officers and protesters that took place June 1 in Lafayette Square, just across from the White House. The officers drove the protesters from the park with smoke bombs and pepper balls, shortly before Trump, accompanied by Barr and others, walked to a nearby church to pose in front of cameras. That incident is the subject of another hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill in front of the House Natural Resources Committee. Adam DeMarco, a major in the District of Columbia National Guard, says in his prepared opening remarks to the committee that what he witnessed at the site was “deeply disturbing” to both himself and fellow National Guard members. “Having served in a combat zone, and understanding how to assess threat environments, at no time did I feel threatened by the protestors or assess them to be violent,” DeMarco says. “In addition, considering the principles of proportionality of force and the fundamental strategy of graduated responses specific to civil disturbance operations, it was my observation that the use of force against demonstrators in the clearing operation was an unnecessary escalation of the use of force.” DeMarco further says those protesting were fellow Americans peacefully expressing their rights, and that they were subject to “an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force.” Acting U.S. Park Police Chief Gregory Monahan is set to give a different perspective of the events, saying in his prepared testimony that during demonstrations at the park from May 29 to June 1, protesters threw “bricks, rocks, caustic liquids, water bottles, lit flares, fireworks” and pieces of wood at law enforcement officers. “The unprecedented and sustained nature of the violence and destruction associated with some of the activities in Lafayette Park and surrounding park areas immediate and adjacent to the White House required de-escalation,” Monahan says. “On the whole, the United States Park Police acted with tremendous restraint in the face of severe violence from a large group of bad actors who caused 50 of my officers to seek medical attention. Our actions as an agency on June 1 centered around public safety and the safety of my officers.”
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Zimbabwe’s Ruling Party Threatens to Expel US Ambassador, Calling Him a ‘Thug’
The ruling Zanu-PF party in Zimbabwe is threatening to expel the United States ambassador to that nation, Brian Nichols, accusing him of being a “thug” who undermines the country’s laws. The party’s acting spokesperson, Patrick Chinamasa told reporters in Harare, if Nichols continues engaging in acts such as supporting disturbances, coordinating violence and training insurgency the party’s leadership will not hesitate to give him his marching orders.Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Agriculture Minister Joseph Made (right). (Photo/Irwin Chifera)Chinamasa’s comments suggest the US supports Friday’s planned protest by opposition groups, calling for more economic parity, less government corruption and the resignation of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The ZANU-PF party’s verbal attack on the US ambassador follows the government’s accusation the US is helping to finance disturbances in the country three days before the planned anti-government protest. The opposition spokesman, the leader of Transformation Zimbabwe, Jacob Ngarivhume said, the demonstration is going to mark a turning point for Zimbabwe. President Mnangagwa has not withheld his intolerance for criticism and the government has already promised to shut down protests.
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White House Rose Garden Getting Face-Lift
One of the most famous gardens in America is getting a face-lift. Melania Trump on Monday announced details of a plan already under way to spruce up the White House Rose Garden, an iconic outdoor space famous for its proximity to the Oval Office. The current garden design has been around since the Kennedy years, but the first lady says a “comprehensive renovation” is needed after decades of use for weddings, state dinners and countless presidential news conferences, statements and Thanksgiving turkey pardons. She used the Rose Garden to announce her “Be Best” youth program in May 2018. Mrs. Trump said the redesign will increase the garden’s “beauty and functionality” and blend the past with the present in “complete harmony.” FILE – First lady Melania Trump speaks during an Indian Health Service Task Force briefing at the White House in Washington, July 23, 2020.”Protecting the historic integrity of the White House landscape is a considerable responsibility, and we will fulfill our duty as custodians of the public trust,” she wrote in the opening of a detailed report on the project, which is expected to be completed in about three weeks. Early signs of the work ahead were visible Monday. Tarps, drapes and other padding had been hung to protect the West Wing colonnade, including in front of the Oval Office. The most visually striking change to the garden will be the addition of a limestone walking path bordering the central lawn, according to Perry Guillot, the landscape architect working on the project. Less noticeable changes include improved drainage and infrastructure, and making the garden more accessible for people with disabilities. Audiovisual, broadcasting and other technical fixes are part of the plan, too. President Donald Trump has been using the Rose Garden more lately for open-air statements and news conferences in the age of coronavirus, a trend he’s likely to continue until the virus is brought under control and as the November presidential election nears. Mrs. Trump said the plan will return the Rose Garden to its original 1962 footprint. President John F. KennedyPresident John F. Kennedy was so inspired by the gardens he saw during a 1961 state visit to France, and other stops in Europe, that he enlisted his friend Rachel Lambert Mellon to design the outdoor space by the Oval Office. Inspiration came to Mellon as she walked along New York’s Fifth Avenue on a cold October afternoon in 1961, she wrote for the White House Historical Association. First ladies are largely in charge of ensuring upkeep of the White House and its grounds, and they often endeavor to leave something behind for future presidential families to enjoy. Michelle Obama planted a produce garden on the South Lawn that Mrs. Trump has continued. Mrs. Trump has overseen several renovation projects, including refurbishment of Red Room wall coverings, Blue Room furniture and the White House bowling alley.She faced sharp criticism for announcing, around the time of the virus outbreak earlier this year, that construction had begun on a privately funded tennis pavilion on the south grounds. She pushed back in a tweet that encouraged those “who choose to be negative & question my work” to “contribute something good & productive in their own communities.” The Rose Garden renovation plan, which is also to be paid for with private donations, has been approved by the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, which offers advice on preservation projects. The White House did not provide a cost estimate.
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To Halt Mali Unrest, ECOWAS Calls for 31 MPs to Resign
The leaders of West Africa’s ECOWAS bloc concluded a summit on Mali by calling for the immediate resignations of 31 parliamentarians whose contested elections in March triggered the country’s political crisis. The 15 heads of state, meeting online Monday, did not request the resignation of embattled Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Instead, in a statement read by Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou, the group’s chair, they demanded an array of reforms aimed at restoring peace in the country. The recommendations issued by ECOWAS give both sides ample room to claim victory and save face. First, the resignations would include that of the speaker. The statement suggested parliament should be able to function with its remaining 116 members. Second, the leaders ordered “a rapid and total overhaul” of the constitutional court, as well as establishment of a power-sharing agreement under “a government of national unity” with Keita at the helm but with the opposition and civil society included. FILE – Protesters gather on a barricade put up in front of the Salam mosque of Badalabougou, where the influent Imam Mahmoud Dicko led a prayer dedicated to the victims of clashes in Bamako on July 12, 2020.In addition, ECOWAS called for a formal investigation into the deaths of protesters in Bamako, Mali’s capital, since the uprisings started some three months ago. The government says 11 people have died in clashes with security forces since July 10. Opposition groups put the number of fatalities at 20 or more. ECOWAS set a deadline of Aug. 7 for its plan to be implemented, under penalty of sanctions. “We have agreed to solemnly call all Malians, in their diversity, to start to protect their country from serious peril,” the statement said. “We have in particular committed to avoid violence and favor dialogue.” Imam Mahmoud Dicko, who calls himself the protesters’ moral leader, said Keita should stay in power but must improve governance, fight corruption and stop inter-ethnic killings. Last Thursday, the presidents of Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal went to Bamako to meet with Keita to try to forge a plan. After hours of closed-door discussions, they decided to hold the virtual summit. ECOWAS Delegation Fails to End Mali’s Political Crisis Five West African heads of state fail to broker a deal among stakeholders “Our wish is to see these different proposals meet the approval of the various stakeholders of the situation in Mali,” the statement explained. Critics of ECOWAS contend its members protect one another and so won’t demand the resignation of IBK, as Keita is colloquially known. Now 75, he was first elected in 2013 and won a second term in 2018. His opponents – gathered in the June 5 Movement-Rally of Patriotic Forces (M5-RFP) coalition of political figures, religious leaders and civil society groups – have been calling for his resignation, claiming that he has become unfit to lead the West African nation that is battling insecurity, corruption and poverty. “The president is strongly contested because he has let his people down,” said Niankoro Yeah Samaké, a former presidential candidate who is part of the coalition. Therefore, he added, “he should step down.” Samaké made those comments in an interview Sunday with VOA. This report originated with VOA Bambara, part of the agency’s French to Africa service.
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North Korea’s Kim Says No More War Thanks to Nuclear Weapons
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said there will be no more war as the country’s nuclear weapons guarantee its safety and future despite unabated outside pressure and military threats, state media said Tuesday. Kim made the remarks as he celebrated the 67th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, which fell on July 27, with a reception for veterans, the official KCNA news agency said. The country developed nuclear weapons to win “absolute strength” to stave off another armed conflict, Kim said in a speech carried by KCNA, emphasizing the defensive nature of the programs. “Now we are capable of defending ourselves in the face of any form of high intensity pressure and military threats from imperialist and hostile forces,” he said. “Thanks to our reliable and effective self-defensive nuclear deterrent, there will no longer be war, and our country’s safety and future will be firmly guaranteed forever.” The speech came amid stalled talks aimed at dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs in exchange for sanctions relief from Washington. Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump met for the first time in 2018 in Singapore, raising hopes for a negotiated end to North Korea’s nuclear threats. But their second summit, in 2019 in Vietnam, and subsequent working-level meetings fell apart.
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Hawaii Dodges Hurricane Douglas
Much of Hawaii was spared when Hurricane Douglas passed just north of Oahu, Maui and the island of Hawaii, also known as the Big Island, early Monday. The Category 1 storm was on what forecasters had called a “dangerously close” path, but the islands managed to “dodge the bullet” as one police chief put it, when the storm veered slightly away from its forecast path. No severe damage has been reported from Douglas’ heavy rain and fierce winds. But the threat to Hawaii is not totally over. Hurricane warnings are out for some parts of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument – a World Heritage site described as “cluster of small, low lying islands and atolls” – northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands. Tropical storm warnings and watches have been issued for other parts of Papahānaumokuākea, which is the largest contiguous fully protected conservation area in the U.S., and one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world, encompassing 1,508,870 square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean. As of Monday afternoon, Hawaiian time, Douglas was still a dangerous storm with top sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour but is forecast to weaken Tuesday into Wednesday.
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Indonesia Steps Up in COVID-19 Vaccine Race
Indonesia is set to move into the front ranks of countries pursuing a vaccine against the coronavirus next week with the launch of phase 3 clinical trials in Bandung, West Java. About 2,400 samples of an experimental vaccine have been shipped from China to Bandung for the trial, which will begin August 3. The vaccine, developed by the Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, is one of only five out of 166 candidates to have reached such an advanced stage of testing. An American entrant in the race for a vaccine, developed by Moderna, entered phase 3 trials in the United States on Monday. Phase 3 testing involves giving a vaccine to thousands of volunteers to see how many become infected, compared with others who are given a placebo. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi announced the Bandung plan in a virtual press conference last week, saying the project is directed in Indonesia by the state-owned pharmaceutical holding company Bio Farma. The firm’s CEO, Honesti Basyir, said the clinical trial is scheduled to run for six months and will be completed by January 2021. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi announced via virtual news conference, July 23, 2020, that Indonesia is set to begin phase 3 clinical trials of coronavirus vaccines from Bio Farma and Sinovac Biotech. (Courtesy Indonesian Foreign Minister)She said Bio Farma expects to distribute 40 million doses of the vaccine per year as soon as the government authorizes its widespread usage and plans to expand distribution to 250 million doses per year. Bio Farma chose Sinovac Biotech as a partner because the manufacturing method used by the Chinese company matches the competencies of Bio Farma, which has already developed similar vaccines, such as one for the respiratory disease pertussis, or whooping cough. Retno said the partnership with Sinovac Biotech is one of multiple initiatives that Indonesia is taking to find an effective vaccine. She said Indonesia is working closely with Genexine, a South Korean biopharmaceutical firm, to develop a DNA-based vaccine. The foreign minister said Indonesia’s ambassador in South Korea, Umar Hadi, has facilitated the cooperation between Indonesia’s Kalbe Farma and Genexine. “Genexine has held its first phase clinical trial in South Korea and it will last until this August. The second phase will be held in Indonesia on September or October,” Retno said.Daniel Tumpal Simanjuntak, director for Africa in the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, said details of trials of vaccines from South Korea are still under discussion. (Courtesy Indonesian Foreign Minister)Daniel Tumpal Simanjuntak, the Indonesian foreign ministry’s director for Africa, said details of that trial are still under discussion. “We still don’t have any information on how many vaccine samples will be sent to undergo the second phase of clinical trials in Indonesia, as well as other arrangements,” Tumpal said. Indonesia is coordinating its vaccine efforts with the Oslo, Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI), which is funded by philanthropies, civil society organizations and several national governments. CEPI was founded in 2017 to accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases and ensure equitable access for all. Bio Farma is already on CEPI’s list of producers that will potentially produce a COVID-19 vaccine. Retno said Indonesia will work to make sure that any vaccine that is proved safe and effective will become widely available. “At every international meeting, Indonesia continued to reiterate the need to maintain equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 vaccine,” she said. “When a vaccine has been developed or the drugs currently undergoing clinical trials have been acquired, the next question is whether all countries have access to the vaccines and medicine at affordable rates.” Retno emphasized that Indonesia has been discussing the effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine with 11 countries, 12 international organizations and 97 NGOs. As of Monday, Indonesia had more than 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and had suffered more than 4,800 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracking site in the United States.
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More US Agents May Go to Portland; Mayors Want Limits
The mayors of six U.S. cities appealed Monday to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized federal agents to cities that don’t want them, even as the Trump administration is considering sending more of them to Portland, Oregon.”This administration’s egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen,” the mayors of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque and Washington D.C. wrote to leaders of the U.S. House and Senate.Early Monday, U.S. agents repeatedly fired what appeared to be tear gas, flash bangs and pepper balls at protesters outside the federal courthouse in downtown in Portland. Some protesters had climbed over the fence surrounding the courthouse, while others shot fireworks, banged on the fence and projected lights on the building.President Donald Trump said Monday on Twitter that the federal properties in Portland “wouldn’t last a day” without the presence of the federal agents.Homeland Security is considering sending about 50 additional Customs and Border Protection agents to Portland, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The plan has not been finalized and it’s not clear if the officers would be replacing officers on the ground.A bloodied demonstrator is arrested by federal police during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, July 27, 2020, in Portland, Ore.The Trump administration says the forces are needed in Portland to protect the courthouse and other federal buildings. But the mayors said the officers have patrolled areas distant from the federal properties and arrested citizens without cause.The mayors said they support legislative efforts to require notice and consultation with and consent from local authorities before deployments; require visible identification at all times on federal agents and vehicles unless on an undercover mission authorized by the local U.S. Attorney; and impose limitations on federal agents’ crowd control activities to protecting federal property.Some protesters have accused Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler of hypocrisy because he has allowed Portland police to use tear gas and other riot-control weapons on protesters, including peaceful ones.Demonstrations in support of racial justice and police reform in other cities around the U.S. were hit with violence over the weekend Protesters set fire to an Oakland, California, courthouse; vehicles were set ablaze in Richmond, Virginia; an armed protester was shot and killed in Austin, Texas; and two people were shot and wounded in Aurora, Colorado, after a car drove through a protest.Sunday evening, Portland police responded to a shooting at a park close to the site of the overnight protests. Two people were detained and later released, police said Monday morning. The person who was shot went to the hospital in a private vehicle and was treated for a non-life-threatening wound.Also late Sunday, police said someone pointed out a bag in the same park, where officers found loaded rifle magazines and Molotov cocktails. The shooting was not related to the items, police said. It was not clear whether the shooting or the material found in the bag were connected to the protests.The city has had nightly protests for two months since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. Trump said he sent federal agents to Portland to halt the unrest, but state and local officials said they are making the situation worse.
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South Sudan Misses Deadline to Form New Parliament
Parties to South Sudan’s revitalized peace deal missed a regional deadline Sunday to dissolve and reconstitute parliament. A July 14 communiqué by East African bloc IGAD (Inter-Governmental Authority on Development), which mediated South Sudan’s peace agreement, called on President Salva Kiir to dissolve the current National Legislative Assembly by July 26. A partial unity government was formed five months ago, but parliament has yet to be reconstituted and Kiir appointed state governors just a few weeks ago. FILE – South Sudan Minister for Information and Broadcast Michael Makuei speaks at a news conference, January 5, 2014.Information Minister Michael Makuei told VOA’s South Sudan In Focus that the parties are still working on “the process” of reconstituting parliament. There is no good reason for the delay, according to Boboya James, a policy analyst and researcher with the Institute of Social Policy and Research in Juba. “The more you delay, the more you make the people of South Sudan suffer. It is important for the formation to happen so that the structures of government under the peace agreement are able to function,” James told South Sudan in Focus. The parties are well aware of the IGAD deadline but waited for the new governors to assume their posts before appointing new party representatives in the National Legislative Assembly, according to Josephine Lagu, chairperson of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance. “Most parties were waiting for the appointment of the state governors, and obviously you know discussions about allocation of positions at the state levels, so that parties are clear who are some of the candidates now that will be eligible to join the transitional national legislative assembly,” Lagu told VOA. The parties are still negotiating how to allocate ministerial portfolios at the state level, Lagu said. FIILE – South Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar addresses a news conference, as the first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been confirmed in the country, in Juba, South Sudan, April 5, 2020.Repeated calls to First Vice President Riek Machar spokesperson James Gatdet and the SPLM-IO’s Peter Manoah for comment were unsuccessful as neither SPLM-IO official answered their phone. The peace deal requires that the current 400-member parliament be dissolved and reconstituted to include the full 550 members of the unity government, including nearly 40% representation from parties other than Kiir’s ruling SPLM party. The deal allocates 332 parliamentary slots to the ruling SPLM, 128 to Machar’s SPLM-IO, 50 to the South Sudan Opposition Alliance, 30 to the umbrella opposition group referred to as “Other Political Parties,” and 10 members to the Former Detainees. In the interest of transparency, the parties should explain to the South Sudanese people why the new parliament has not been formed, James said. “It is also important for the government to come out to Upper Nile [state] and tell them why certain things are not happening. You know we were very happy when Salva Kiir came out and said ‘no, the reason as to why I am unable to appoint the governor of Upper Nile is because of a, b, c, d.’ That provided relief to the public because you know there was a lot of speculation and speculation creates a lot of anxiety within the public arena, so it is important for that to happen,” James told VOA.
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