Officials in Australia say a large housing development project could be blocked to protect endangered koala bears in one of the fastest-growing parts of Australia’s biggest city. The New South Wales government plans to create a sanctuary in Sydney to preserve the country’s last-remaining disease-free koalas. The animals are listed as vulnerable across New South Wales.Koalas could be extinct in New South Wales within 30 years. That grim warning came from a parliamentary committee in June.The state government said it is determined to save one of Australia’s most recognizable indigenous animals. It is creating a new reserve on Sydney’s suburban fringe to allow koalas to use protected woodland corridors to travel between habitats. One hundred thousand trees also will be planted.“We are here to announce the Georges River Koala National Park,” said Matt Kean, environment minister for New South Wales. “We will be securing 1,885 hectares of koala habitat to ensure that the koala survives in this fortress population forever.”A plan to build hundreds of homes in the area could be vetoed by the state government after scientists found that koalas wouldn’t be properly protected.Kean warned the construction company he may not approve the development plans.“I will not be signing off on the bio-diversity certificate unless your development meets all the recommendations of the chief scientist,” he said.The developer has said that protecting native wildlife was a key consideration, but it has yet to formally respond to the state government.Critics have said the koala sanctuary is not big enough. But Cate Faehrmann, a Greens parliamentarian, believes it is a good start.“It is a welcome first step,” Faehrmann said. “Thank you very much, New South Wales government, for recognizing that this koala colony out in Campbelltown — it is our only chlamydia-free population. It is so important. There is anywhere between 200 and 600 koalas out there that have to be protected. They have recognized this.”Koalas face many threats, including chlamydia – a bacterium that can cause pneumonia and infertility. Bushfires, habitat loss, attacks by dogs and road accidents are also significant threats. But in other parts of southern Australia, officials have said there are too many koalas, and that ‘overabundant’ populations have damaged valuable trees.Also, south of Sydney, a group of koalas rescued from last summer’s devastating bushfires has been released back into the wild. Three of the animals are named after the crew of a U.S. water-bombing aircraft that crashed in Australia in January.
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Month: August 2020
COVID-19 No Match for Southeast Asia’s Booming Drug Trade
A string of mammoth drug busts and low street prices for methamphetamine across Southeast Asia this year suggest COVID-19 has done little to stem the flood of illegal drugs washing over the region, even as the pandemic seals borders.If anything, the coronavirus has proven just how resilient the transnational cartels dominating the meth trade out of Myanmar truly are, experts say.”We think it’s business as usual in 2020, which is to say that supply is still surging just as it has been in the last few years,” Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asia and the Pacific chief for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told VOA.”If Myanmar, Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodia data is any indication — and we think it is — then at least within the Mekong the supply is as high or higher than last year in those countries,” he said by phone from Bangkok.The price is rightMethamphetamine prices across the region last year were already the lowest they had been in a decade, even as the purity of the drugs shot up.Data compiled by the UNODC during the pandemic show the price of a kilogram of crystal meth, or ice, in Myanmar and Vietnam on par with 2019. In Cambodia, the price of “yaba,” a popular mix of meth and caffeine, has actually fallen by roughly half, to less than $1 per pill. The UNODC says Thailand also reported a drop in both ice and yaba prices in late 2019 and early 2020 compared with the same period a year before.Long a hub of the heroin trade, the Golden Triangle — where the remote and lawless corners of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet — has in recent years seen transnational cartels turn it into one of the world’s premier meth laboratories, according to the UNODC. Protected by government-backed militias and ethnic rebel armies in Myanmar’s eastern Shan state, the U.N. agency says the cartels’ drugs pour across Southeast Asia and on to more lucrative markets as far off as Australia and Japan. The UNODC now puts the meth market in East and Southeast Asia at some $61.4 billion a year.Since the pandemic, drug seizures have kept pace with 2019 as well, or even picked up.In early July, Thai authorities said they intercepted 1.42 tons of crystal meth on its way to Malaysia. In May, authorities in Myanmar announced Asia’s largest drug bust in decades, netting 200 million meth pills and 500 kilograms of ice; they also seized 35.5 metric tons and 163,000 liters of precursor chemicals and arrested 33 suspects.On their own, more seizures can mean either a spike in production or better enforcement. The fact that prices have stayed low argues strongly in favor of the former, said Richard Horsey, a senior adviser to the International Crisis Group based in Myanmar.Given the stable prices for the drugs, “there’s every indication that big seizures reflect big production, and not that … somehow the police are winning this and seizing everything that’s being produced,” he said.”So, I think the transnational criminal organizations, the synthetic drug trade in Shan state, has shown itself to be extremely resilient to COVID,” he told VOA by phone from Yangon.Plan B, and C and DHorsey likened the cartels to the relatively few big business winners of the pandemic, such as online retail giant Amazon, using their scale, dexterity and deep pockets to adapt quickly to changing market conditions.”They have supply chains that are very sophisticated but also multiply redundant. And that means that border closures and so on, they can find ways around that. They’ve got a Plan B and a Plan C and a Plan D,” he said.”So, they have multiple different routes that they’re constantly testing with test shipments and constantly innovating and constantly keeping lots of options open so that if their main preferred channel fails, they’ve got lots of other options. And that works very well for COVID.”The cartels’ penchant for innovation looks to be paying off.Since the string of large busts earlier this year, Horsey said the cartels have started shifting more of their shipments out of Myanmar from northern Shan to the state’s east and south. He said there were also early signs that they have started shipping much more ice out of Myanmar through the country’s far western Rakhine state, taking advantage of its coastline to reach markets via the Bay of Bengal.The UNODC says seizures of precursor shipments to Myanmar over the past few years also show the cartels tweaking their meth recipes by replacing ephedrine and its sort with sodium or benzyl cyanide, yet more proof of their flexibility.Most of the chemicals come from neighboring China.On Myanmar’s side of the border, experts say a patchwork of militias and warlords in command of virtually autonomous fiefdoms helps make the frontier more sieve than wall.That, too, helps the cartels evade the worst of the border restrictions brought on by the pandemic, said Tom Kramer, a Myanmar-based researcher for the Transnational Institute who studies the nexus of the country’s drug trade and ethnic conflicts.”These illegal routes are still there, and what the government has been controlling of course is the formal trade routes,” he said.Considering the bulk of some of the shipments, he suspects many of them cross formal checkpoints as well but slip through thanks to rampant corruption.”There’s so much money involved, and people can always find different ways of course of getting stuff into the country. The borders are so porous it would be very hard to control them,” he said, even under lockdown.Market shareDouglas, of the UNODC, said the relative ease with which the cartels in Myanmar can continue to access precursors during the pandemic may even help them gain market share over competitors farther afield who source more of their chemicals by sea and air, where supply chains have frayed most.”They’re using the moment in front of them very effectively,” he said.”They never had a problem maintaining production. They had huge chemical stockpiles in place and continuing access to chemicals to ship in to production points in the Triangle, and they kept production at very high levels during the pandemic, and they’ve essentially just continued pumping that supply out.”
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Backed by Lockheed Martin, Taiwan Unveils Asia’s First Repair Hub for F-16 Fighter Jets
A maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) center for Taiwan’s fleet of F-16 fighter jets has officially opened on the island amid growing tensions between Taiwan and China.Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday inaugurated the facility, which is the first of its kind in the Indo-Pacific region. It is part of a strategic alliance between Taiwan aircraft manufacturer Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, AIDC, and U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin.Taiwan will boast the largest fleet of advanced F-16 fighter jets in Asia after its procurement of 66 F-16V additional jets from Lockheed Martin, slated for delivery by 2026 – a deal that will take the island’s fleet to more than 200 aircraft.
There was no immediate comment from the company.No groveling to ChinaInaugurating the F-16 MRO center, President Tsai said its establishment will help boost the island’s air force combat capabilities and beef up its defense autonomy while marking a milestone for developing indigenous defense industries to go global.“It takes strengthened defense capabilities, not groveling [to China], to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty and maintain regional peace and stability,” she said at the ceremony.“With the center in place, the time needed for jet maintenance will be greatly curtailed and mission-capable rates will be boosted significantly to ensure [Taiwan’s] air superiority at the front line,” she added.According to Tsai, AIDC will join with local vendors, to be certified by Lockheed Martin, to sustain the facility’s operation.That is estimated to create more than 600 jobs each year and herald an output value of $271 million over the next three decades, according to Tsai.Deepening military collaborationTwo analysts, who spoke with VOA said the facility, unveiled amid escalating cross-strait tensions, takes the U.S.-Taiwan military collaboration and mutual trust to another level even as China last month said it would sanction Lockheed Martin for involvement in arms sales to Taiwan.It is also expected to bring in economic benefits to the local aerospace industry, which has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic since early this year, they added.“On the political and diplomatic front, the facility, authorized by Lockheed Martin of the U.S., showcases the level of mutual trust between Washington and Taipei,” Su Tzu-yun, an analyst at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told VOA.Su said that in the next few years, the center will focus on servicing the island’s fleet of more than 200 F-16 jets, which he said is already a lucrative deal.Saving maintenance costsAccording to Su, an F-16 fighter jet averages a life cycle of 40 years and, during its years in service, an additional 30% cost will be incurred for maintenance and repair work.With a repair site at home, two-fifths of that cost can be saved in addition to time spent, he estimated.Looking ahead, Su said that domestic vendors, which are certified to work with the center, should aim higher to tap into the defense contractor’s global supply chain to help support its 3,400 F-16s in service worldwide.Or, he said, the center should next grow into a regional hub for Lockheed Martin to service all F-16 fleets in the Indo-Pacific region, which currently total 470 jets in service. He said the chance for pro-Beijing countries such as Pakistan or Thailand to fly their F-16 fleets to Taiwan for repair work will be slim.All those niches, however, will present a number of commercial opportunities for the domestic industry, Su added.Industrial upgradeTung Wan, professor of aerospace engineer at TamKang University, said he believes that with the help of Lockheed Martin, the island’s aerospace sector will be given an opportunity to upgrade itself.“If [the sector] can transcend itself from being engaged in [the center’s] maintenance work to [next] becoming a supplier of components [for the jets], its overall output value, competitiveness and integration with global practices will be greatly enhanced,” the professor told VOA.“This will be the kind of opportunity we welcome the most even if [a small percentage of the jet’s] components can be made [and supplied] by Taiwan,” he said, adding that a fighter jet has more than 100,000 types of components.The professor said that the domestic aerospace industry, which is already qualified to support the operation of commercial airplanes, had had some experience repairing military aircraft or developing an indigenous fighter jet of its own.The professor, who formerly chaired the city of Tainan-based Air Asia Co., noted that, during the Vietnam War, the U.S. often flew its fighter jets to Air Asia, the island’s first aircraft maintenance company, for MRO work.Hence, it will also be in the U.S. interest to outsource its maintenance work or parts of its jet supply chain to Taiwan, where labor and cost are lower, he said.Military officials and some politicians in Taiwan say they expect the latest development to further strengthen U.S. involvement in the island’s buildup of air defense in fending off any Chinese attack. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that belongs under its control.China has conducted numerous sea and air exercises near Taiwan in recent years and has been angered over U.S. naval exercises near the island and the Trump administration’s strong support for Taipei.Du Wenlong, a military commentator on China Central Television, or CCTV, told the Chinese state-run broadcaster on Friday that Taiwan is buying up the United States for its protection. He urged Taiwan not to “throw good money after bad,” calling Taiwan a “fool” in procuring weapons sales from the U.S. Li Li, an associate professor from China’s PLA National Defense University, also told CCTV that “the U.S. has taken an even more dangerous step toward bolstering the military development and buildup in Taiwan.” She was referring to both the creation of the F-16 MRO hub and the U.S. approval of the 66 advanced F-16V fighter jets to Taiwan.
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Hurricane Laura Victims Struggle to Find Housing During Global Pandemic
As first responders continue a second day of search, rescue and support efforts in southwest Louisiana, a clearer picture of the damage caused by Hurricane Laura is emerging.The state breathed a sigh of relief that the loss of life was not more severe — the death toll is now 11 — but the damage to population centers such as Lake Charles, a city with a population of 80,000, is devastating. Downtown buildings have been demolished, entire neighborhoods left in ruins and almost 900,000 homes and businesses are without power.Residents are trickling in to assess the loss of personal property, but it may be days, weeks or months until many Louisianians can return home for good.Finding temporary housing after a disaster is never easy, but some victims of the storm are saying the coronavirus pandemic has made the situation even more difficult.“My husband and I are both in our 60s,” said Mary Gutowski, a retiree who moved to Lake Charles from Austin, Texas, less than a month ago. “I’ve been in the hospital three times in the last year, and we’re both very worried about being out in crowds and getting the virus. But we couldn’t stay home with a Category 4 hurricane coming at us. What are we supposed to do?” she asked.Flooding surrounds damaged homes Aug. 28, 2020, in Cameron, La., after Hurricane Laura moved through the area Thursday.Gutowski and her husband packed a bag with a few days’ worth of clothes and their face masks and decided to drive north in hopes of sidestepping the worst of the storm. They were able to avoid the most damaging wind and flooding but evacuating their home during a global pandemic has also produced challenges they did not anticipate.Getting out“It’s been a lot of worrying and a lot of crying,” Gutowski told VOA as she fought to hold back tears.She said that when they left their home the day before the storm, they had no place to go. Gutowski and her husband began driving and immediately noticed many gas stations had been shuttered due to coronavirus, as well as a lot of rest stops where they could normally buy supplies or food.“We were lucky to have a full tank of gas before we left or we might not have made it very far,” she said.Typically, during natural disasters, cities set up emergency shelters. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, however, there are fears the virus would spread in such close quarters. Instead, state governments attempted to set aside thousands of hotel rooms across Texas and Louisiana for evacuees. Individuals, however, have reported having a difficult time finding available hotel rooms.“I needed to stay somewhat close for work,” said Ashley Watkins, whose job is related to natural disasters, “and I still ended up hundreds of miles away in Alabama at the nearest pet-friendly hotel.”Watkins said she sent her 6-year-old son to a slightly closer hotel in Texas with her parents and her other siblings.A damaged home is shown Aug. 28, 2020, in Hackberry, La., after Hurricane Laura move through the area Thursday.To make matters worse — in what’s become an all-too-common ritual for southwestern Louisianians over the last two days — she received photos from friends confirming she no longer had a home to go back to.“The house is destroyed down to the frame,” Watkins said. “Most of it ended up in some trees.”Staying safe“Costs are already adding up. I can’t keep paying for lodging like this,” Watkins said.Gutowski and her husband agreed. They said they were finally able to find a hotel attached to a casino in Shreveport, Louisiana, for a few nights.“If I didn’t have a discount from a player’s card, there’s no way I could have afforded this. I’m retired,” Gutowski said.When the Gutowskis arrived at their hotel, they said it was filled to capacity — something unheard of due to coronavirus protocols.Many evacuees said they were afraid to risk their health with so many people around, so they have holed up in their hotel rooms for three straight days.“The only room they could give us was up on the 21st floor and we can’t walk up and down those stairs,” Gutowski said. “You’re only supposed to have four people in the elevator at a time because of the virus, but people don’t follow the rules and they’re putting the rest of us at risk. So we just stay in our room. It’s suffocating.”Next stepsHowever, Gustowski said, her biggest worry is what they’ll do next.Their reservation ends Saturday, and as of Friday afternoon, they didn’t know where they would go. She said they cannot go back to Lake Charles. Fallen trees and other debris have made it impossible for friends to reach their neighborhood and check on the status of the Gutowski home. Every hotel she has called said they are full.Buildings and homes are flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura on Aug. 27, 2020, near Lake Charles, La.“I’ve spent hours trying to get in touch with anyone who can help,” she said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency “said they can’t do anything yet, and I couldn’t get through to the United Way or Red Cross,” she said, “So we’re on our own and we don’t know what to do.”Some affected Louisianians will find family nearby they can stay with until they can go home or rebuild.Watkins said she is hopeful this will be the case for her and her son. First, however, she said she plans to return to Lake Charles this weekend to see the damage to her home herself.Those who can’t afford a hotel and don’t have family to stay with will either remain in their homes — many damaged, and even more without electricity and water — or will head to large emergency shelters that some fear will become coronavirus breeding grounds.Officials hope large-scale screenings will ensure that isn’t the case.“For everything that’s happened to us over the last few days, I still know there are people much worse off than we are,” Gustowski said. “I can’t imagine having to do this with young children or having to try to wait it out in your home without electricity.”Friday evening, the Gustowkis got a little luckier. A hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi, called and said they had a room available for them for at least a couple of weeks.“So that’s where we’ll head tomorrow, then,” she said. “It’s not close and we’d rather not stay in a hotel during a pandemic, but at least we have a place to stay. Relieved is an understatement.”
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Young Activists Take Center Stage at March on Washington
When the son of famed civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. took to the stage in Washington on Friday – 57 years after his father’s famous “I Have a Dream” address – he stepped aside for yet another King.“I am so honored to be here,” Martin Luther King III said while standing at the Lincoln Memorial. “But before I say something, I want you to hear from the future of our nation.”Wearing a bright teal headband and a black-and-white dress, 12-year-old Yolanda Renee King adjusted the microphone lower and glanced sideways at her father, smiling nervously.The younger King launched into her second major address to thousands of marchers in the U.S. capital. Her first was two years ago, at a rally against gun violence, organized by high school survivors of a mass shooting that drew hundreds of thousands to Washington.“Two years ago, at the March for Our Lives, I said, ‘Spread the word! Have you heard all across the nation, we’re going to be a great generation!’” Yolanda recalled. She called on young activists to be “the generation that dismantles systemic racism once and for all, now and forever.”Friday’s protest follows months of national unrest in response to recent deaths of Black Americans that are being questioned as racist. George Floyd died while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May. More recently, Jacob Blake was shot by police August 23 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In between, have been months of domestic and international protests.Floyd cried out as a police officer knelt on his neck, “I can’t breathe,” echoing Eric Garner, who died in New York City in 2014, gasping the same words.Friday’s Get Your Knee Off Our Necks Commitment March on Washington was organized largely by the Rev. Al Sharpton and the civil rights organization he founded in 1991, the National Action Network.But the event was a passing of the baton for some youth activists.“We are the great dreams of our grandparents, great grandparents and all our ancestors,” Yolanda said. “We stand and march for love, and we will fulfill my grandfather’s dream.”Sakira Coleman, the 23-year old co-founder of the activist group Until Freedom, told the BBC that she would attend Friday’s march, 57 years after her grandmother participated in the original march on Washington.People walk on Pennsylvania Avenue during the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 2020, on the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech.“Being a part of something so historical in the present day, it does feel like those people who have been marching and fighting for so long are passing the mantle down to us,” Coleman said in a video published Thursday.Columbia University alum Nialah Edari, 25, is a co-founder of the activist group Freedom March NYC. At 15, she was already Midwest youth director for Sharpton’s National Action Network.“These movements have always been intergenerational,” Edari told the crowd Friday.“John Lewis was 23 years old when he marched,” she said, referencing the civil rights leader and congressman who died in July. Lewis was the youngest speaker at the 1963 march.Chelsea Miller, co-founder of Freedom March NYC with Edari, warned the crowd against underestimating youth activists.“We may be young, but we are a force,” said Miller, 23, also a Columbia graduate. “We may be young, but we stand on the shoulders of giants. We may be young, but we are organized, we are strategized, and we will show up in November to the polls, and we will let them know that we are not going anywhere.”March speakers young and old advocated for the passage of a voting rights act named after Lewis, alongside policing legislation named for Floyd. Speakers also called on attendees to vote in the November presidential election that pits President Donald Trump against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.Republican youth leaders criticized demonstrations Thursday evening in which protesters cornered Republican Senator Rand Paul.“They’re just peacefully protesting” screams the leftist media as a Senator is chased back to his hotel. pic.twitter.com/mwPEwXqDOF— Students For Trump (@TrumpStudents) August 28, 2020“These violent protestors [sic] you saw harassing @realDonaldTrump supporters leaving the White House last night didn’t want answers,” tweeted youth group Students for Trump on Friday. “They want compliance and obedience. We will never bend the knee to the mob.”These violent protestors you saw harassing @realDonaldTrump supporters leaving the White House last night didn’t want answers. They want compliance and obedience.We will never bend the knee to the mob.— Students For Trump (@TrumpStudents) August 28, 2020Thousands of people attended the peaceful march Friday, with many young activists among them.Mother Jones senior fellow Matt Cohen tweeted an image of demonstrator Hailee, 13, who carried a sign with an image of herself from seven years ago at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.“Ever since I was a little girl I’ve been marching, and it’s a shame to have to march for the same reasons again and again,” Hailee told Cohen.Hailee, 13, from Glen Burnie, Md. holds up a sign of herself as a little girl at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, seven years ago. “Ever since I was a little girl i’ve been marching and it’s a shame to have to march for the same reasons again and again,” she says. pic.twitter.com/Osn3bSisa8— Matt Cohen (@Matt_D_Cohen) August 28, 2020Until Freedom activist Coleman, like Hailee, appeared to anticipate a long-term movement.“We may not see justice and what that looks like in our generation, but we still fight regardless,” she said.
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Eastern Sudan Protest Turns Deadly
Supporters of new Kassala state Governor Saleh Ammar allegedly shot and killed four protesters and injured six others Thursday in eastern Sudan’s Kassala town, according to eyewitnesses. One of the six injured succumbed to his injuries at a nearby hospital Friday, witnesses said.The protesters say Ammar is unqualified for the job and are calling on Sudan’s leaders to replace him.Assistant lecturer at Kassala University Ibrahim Hassan told South Sudan in Focus that after Ammar’s supporters attacked his opponents, some people took advantage of the chaos by looting shops.“They broke into shops, burned down the market and they also looted property. They moved to a Republic Square in the town, and they departed to their homes. In the evening, a group of Beni Amir retaliated, and they randomly broke into shops in the market and in neighborhoods and looted a lot of property,” Hassan told VOA.Amar is a member of the Beni Amir community, one of several ethnic communities in Kassala.Heavy security was deployed to the eastern Al Gash side of the town, and no one was allowed to venture outside, according to Hassan.“Everybody is indoors or within their neighborhoods. Life is totally paralyzed here in Kassala; all other shops are closed. No one is allowed to cross Al Gash bridge to the west and everybody is living in fear,” Hassan said.Abdallah Obshar, one of the organizers of the opposition protest in Kassala town, said a group of armed supporters of Governor Ammar attacked peaceful demonstrators. The protesters believe Ammar should be replaced because he is not qualified to lead the state, Obshar said.“If we look at the qualification criteria on his appointment process, there were more than 10 candidates, some of them are Ph.D. holders and professors from universities. We are wondering how Ammar made it to this level,” Obshar told South Sudan in Focus.Kassala resident Jalal al Deen Rabeh, who said he neither supports nor opposes Ammar, said people should be focused on economic development rather than politics.“For nearly 40 years this state has not witnessed any development and we need someone who will come and initiate development projects. If it is Ammar or any other person, we just need a leader that would make change to happen,” Rabeh told South Sudan in Focus.Rabeh accused supporters of ousted longtime President Omar al-Bashir of causing Thursday’s violence.Sudan’s transitional government has called for calm in Kassala and instructed security organizations to restore peace in the area.Intercommunal fighting has continued for months in parts of eastern Sudan among the Beni Amir, Nuba, and Hadandawa communities.
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#MilkTeaAlliance Brews Pan-Asian Solidarity for Democratic Activists
A Twitter hashtag that surfaced in April as a clapback against Chinese nationalist attacks on a Thai celebrity for a perceived insult to Beijing is growing into a pan-Asian political movement.Named after drinks associated with places struggling against increasingly authoritarian impulses — Hong Kong’s milky black tea, Taiwan’s bubble tea and Thailand’s iced tea — the cyber-based Milk Tea Alliance, made up of like-minded netizens primarily from those regions, is beginning to gain traction in the real world.While the group has endorsed myriad online campaigns, from Mekong River damming to censorship and the erosion of civil rights in Hong Kong, some observers say recent street demonstrations of historic proportions in Thailand are proof that online activism can translate into real-world action.Pro-democracy leaders Tattep Ruangprapaikitseree and Panumas Singprom walk to meet with the media after being granted bail, outside the criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand, Aug. 26, 2020.“At its heart, it united online proponents of civil liberties and self-determination, so it only makes sense that the alliance’s fire would turn not just on China but on authoritarians at home in Thailand,” said Gregory B. Poling, senior fellow for Southeast Asia and director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.“As with most things that catch fire online, the #MilkTeaAlliance hashtag resonates because it is both clever and serves as a stand-in for the shared identity of a large community,” he told VOA. “It was a tongue-in-cheek way for online communities in Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong to hit back at heavy-handed attempts by Chinese diplomats and netizens to censor online speech.”Recent anti-government rallies in Bangkok saw demonstrators toting “#MilkTeaAlliance” signs alongside Thai national flags, the World Taiwanese Congress flags and Black Bauhinia flags used by pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong.Same ‘opposition’Milk Tea Alliance supporters from various countries showed support for dissolution of Thailand’s parliament, along with various constitutional amendments, by converging on the streets of Taiwan’s capital, Taipei.“[In] almost all the issues that we used the hashtag for, we have the same — not enemy, but opposition, which is China, and the dictatorship that is going on in Asia,” said Thachaporn Supparatanapinyo, a Taipei-based Thai national who studies in Taiwan.Supparatanapinyo, who spoke at the Taipei rally in solidarity with pro-democracy movements in Thailand and Hong Kong, is associated with the nonprofit Taiwan FILE – Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian takes a question at the daily media briefing in Beijing, April 8, 2020.According to Reuters, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian was dismissive of the group’s political significance.“People who are pro-Hong Kong independence or pro-Taiwan independence often collude online. This is nothing new,” he was quoted as telling Reuters. “Their conspiracy will never succeed.”Unlikely originsFounded on Twitter in April, the #MilkTeaAlliance hashtag was first used in response to Chinese microbloggers who trolled Thai celebrity Vachirawit “Bright” Chivaaree for retweeting a set of images that identified Hong Kong as a country. In response, netizens in Thailand, Hong Kong and other places began using the hashtag to show their regional breadth and numbers.Taiwan-based Singaporean activist Roy Ngerng said the group’s jovial take on serious topics and casual approach to creating online content resonates with young, savvy social media users across the region.Humor ‘very powerful’“Humor is a very powerful tool that has been used to delegitimize our authoritarian regimes,” Ngerng, a U.N.-recognized human rights defender, told VOA by email. “We are able to laugh off their threat, thereby weakening their perceived sense of strength for oppression.”What started as a lighthearted and quirky reference to a shared affection for tea has snowballed into a political force that can leverage specific issues.FILE – A Chinese boat with a team of geologists surveys the Mekong River, at the border between Laos and Thailand, April 23, 2017.One recent campaign: China’s upstream damming of the Mekong River. With water levels in the lower Mekong basin at record lows, the Mekong River Commission recently issued two reports indicating China’s damming of the Lancang tributary is exacerbating ecological imbalances, reducing household fishing hauls and imperiling a critical food source for tens of millions of people across Southeast Asia.James Buchanan, a City University of Hong Kong doctoral candidate, told VOA: “Issues like the dams on Mekong River show an uneasiness with China’s more expansive and assertive role in the region, where it is sometimes perceived as bullying its smaller neighbors. In fact, that’s increasingly becoming China’s image globally.”“The Mekong River is one of the most obvious issues on which China disregards the interests of its neighbors and uses disinformation and nontransparency to hide its actions,” said Poling of CSIS. “It is almost tailor-made to outrage those in Thailand, and their like-minded peers abroad, who identify with the #MilkTeaAlliance community.”In response to the severe consequences for China’s damming activities in the region, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted:The U.S. supports the Mekong River Commission’s call for transparency in dam operations on the Mekong River. The People’s Republic of China’s massive dams are manipulating flows in a non-transparent manner that harms Mekong countries. https://t.co/kFVs1r4soZ— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 14, 2020With Milk Tea Alliance help online, a petition to the White House calling for China to stop damming on the Mekong River collected almost 100,000 signatures.This story originated in VOA’s Mandarin service. Some information is from Reuters.
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Hospital: Russia’s Navalny Still in Coma But Improving
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is still in an induced coma from a suspected poisoning but his condition is stable and his symptoms are improving, the German doctors treating him said Friday. Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, fell ill on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on Aug 20 and was taken to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing. Last weekend, he was transferred to the Charité hospital in Berlin, where doctors found indications of “cholinesterase inhibitors” in his system. FILE – German army emergency personnel load into their ambulance the stretcher that was used to transport Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny on at Berlin’s Charite hospital, Aug. 22, 2020.Found in some drugs, pesticides and chemical nerve agents, cholinesterase inhibitors block the breakdown of a key chemical in the body, acetycholine, that transmits signals between nerve cells. Navalny, 44, is being treated with the antidote atropine. Charité said “there has been some improvement in the symptoms caused by the inhibition of cholinesterase activity.” “While his condition remains serious, there is no immediate danger to his life,” the hospital said. “However, due to the severity of the patient’s poisoning, it remains too early to gauge potential long-term effects.” FILE – Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, speaks with the media outside a hospital, where her husband is receiving medical treatment, in Omsk, Russia, Aug. 21, 2020.Navalny’s wife Yulia has been visiting him regularly at the hospital and Charité said physicians remain in close contact with her. Navalny’s allies insist he was deliberately poisoned and say the Kremlin was behind it, accusations that Russian officials rejected as “empty noise.” Western experts have cautioned that it is far too early to draw any conclusions about what may have caused Navalny’s condition, but note that Novichok, the Soviet-era nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain, was a cholinesterase inhibitor. The Russian doctors who treated Navalny in Siberia have repeatedly contested the German hospital’s conclusion, saying they had ruled out poisoning as a diagnosis and that their tests for cholinesterase inhibitors came back negative. Help from GermanyNavalny was brought to Germany for treatment after Chancellor Angela Merkel personally offered the possibility of him being treated in Berlin. “We have an obligation to do everything so that this can be cleared up,” Merkel told reporters at her annual summer news conference on Friday. “It was right and good that Germany said we were prepared … to take in Mr. Navalny. And now we will try to get this cleared up with the possibilities we have, which are indeed limited.” When there is more clarity about what happened, Germany will try to ensure a “European reaction” to the case, Merkel said. She cited the poisonings of Skripal and his daughter two years ago, which prompted many European countries to expel Russian diplomats and vice-versa. Calls to investigateFollowing a meeting in Berlin with his counterparts from 26 European Union countries, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said forcefully that Russia had an obligation to carry out a thorough investigation, something many countries have called for. FILE – Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny takes part in a rally, in Moscow, Feb. 29, 2020.”Russia must contribute more to clearing up the Navalny case, and the investigations that we expect must not remain a fig leaf,” Maas told reporters. “The background to this act must be investigated comprehensively and transparently, and those responsible — directly and indirectly —brought to account.” So far, Russian authorities appear reluctant to investigate the politician’s condition. Navalny’s team submitted a request last week to Russia’s Investigative Committee, demanding authorities launch a criminal probe on charges of an attempt on the life of a public figure and attempted murder, but said there was no reaction. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he saw no grounds for a criminal case until the cause of the politician’s condition was fully established. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s office said Thursday that a preliminary inquiry launched last week hasn’t found any indication of “deliberate criminal acts committed against” Navalny. Growing supportThe dissident’s supporters are not surprised at the Kremlin’s reaction. “They understand that any investigation will lead to the Kremlin,” Lyubov Sobol, a prominent opposition politician and one of Navalny’s closest allies, told The Associated Press on Friday. “They’re not launching a criminal probe … because they will have to answer at some point what the results of the investigation are.”FILE – Russian opposition activist Lyubov Sobol speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia, Aug. 15, 2019.Sobol says while Navalny’s condition hasn’t prompted big protests in Russia, it has stirred the outrage brewing there. “I saw a lot of comments from well-known public figures in Russia who have never spoken out for Alexei Navalny before, (but now) spoke their minds and said that this was outrageous, it shouldn’t be this way,” Sobol said. “It’s a turning point.” Even with their leader in the hospital, Navalny’s team continues its work on corruption investigations and regional election campaigns in Moscow and dozens of other regions. Navalny’s most recent project, Smart Voting, identifies candidates that are most likely to beat those from Putin’s United Russia party and his supporters actively campaign for them. According to Sobol, the team is used to working in his absence — frequently arrested, Navalny has spent more than a year in jail in recent years. “So we know how to work without direct orders from Navalny. We understand what we need to do,” Sobol said.
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More Than 20 States Sue Over Trump Changes to Key Environmental Law
More than 20 states sued the Trump administration on Friday over its plan to curtail environmental regulations in permitting infrastructure projects that can take years to complete and have long-lasting consequences on land and communities.Led by California and Washington, the lawsuit seeks to block changes the administration has proposed to how the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is implemented. It was filed in federal court in San Francisco against the White House Council on Environmental Quality and its chairman, Mary Neumayr.NEPA requires that prior to permitting a project, federal agencies assess its environmental effects, a process many industries have criticized as lengthy and onerous.FILE – President Donald Trump speaks on proposed changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, at the White House, Jan. 9, 2020, in Washington.U.S. President Donald Trump announced the finalized NEPA rule last month. It is intended to expedite permitting for projects like oil pipelines and road expansions, but critics say it would reduce public input, especially from low-income and minority communities.The lawsuit seeks to vacate the final rule on the basis that the administration failed to justify its revisions to the long-standing law.”NEPA may not be a household word around dinner tables across the United States, but it is foundational,” Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said during a virtual press conference with reporters. “To gut that law would truly have significant consequences.”Friday’s lawsuit marks the 100th time California has sued the Trump administration, Attorney General Xavier Becerra said during the press conference. About half of those lawsuits relate to environmental rollbacks.”I honestly don’t believe that what we are having to do is normal,” Becerra said.The White House was not immediately available for comment on the lawsuit.California and Washington were joined in the lawsuit by 19 other Democratic-led states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the city of New York, Harris County, Texas, and the environmental oversight agencies of Connecticut and New York.
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Chinese Dissident Featured at RNC Warns Against Communist Party Threat
One rainy night in 2012, he fled the ancient village of Linyi, in China’s Shandong province, where he was under house arrest. Eight years later, he stood on the podium of the Republican National Convention, telling the world that the Communist Party of China is an enemy of humanity.Chen Guangcheng, a prominent blind rights lawyer living in exile in the United States, was one of the featured speakers during this week’s RNC. Wearing his trademark sunglasses and reading Braille, he said, “Standing up to tyranny is not easy. I know.”Although the speech lasted less than three minutes, it was one of the biggest public platforms given to a dissident from China, which Chen used to warn the world about human rights abuses in China and the danger of those who prefer “appeasing” the Chinese Communist Party.Chen praised U.S. President Donald Trump’s leadership in the fight against the CCP and urged the rest of the world to join the fight.”The U.S. must use its values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law to gather a coalition of democracies to stop CCP’s aggression,” he said.’State terrorism’ fearedA day after he addressed the convention, Chen told VOA that he believed he was chosen to speak to warn about how he said the Communist Party threatens everyone’s freedom. He also said he thought he was selected because the Trump administration wanted to send the message that “the days of appeasing China are gone.”In an interview Friday with VOA, Chen accused China’s ruling Communist Party of hijacking the government and the people and using high-tech “state terrorism” to make people too afraid to speak. Overseas, Chen said, China practices infiltration and bribery to undermine the world’s liberal order and democratic values. He said the spread of the coronavirus pandemic is one example of how the “evil regime” of the CCP impacted the world.FILE – Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng gestures as he speaks to lawmakers and human rights supporters at the legislature in Taipei, Taiwan, June 25, 2013.”It’s going to be too late if we don’t wake up now,” Chen said. “If America’s appeasement policy to CCP comes back, not only China’s democracy but the world will be doomed.”U.S. foreign policy on China has evolved over the years as both Republican- and Democratic-led administrations have weighed economic engagement with China’s government against what many see as Beijing’s human rights abuses, censorship and lack of political freedoms.For many years, U.S. officials maintained that economic engagement with China would bring about political change. That has not happened. As China has grown richer, rights activists say, the government in recent years under Xi Jinping has curtailed already limited rights even further.Chen said that for him, this issue should transcend differences between the two main U.S. political parties.”If I had received an invitation from the Democratic Party, I would have given the same speech,” he said. ” I support whoever is anti-communist.”‘Universal values,’ not party politicsOnline, some have taken issue with Chen’s speaking at the Republican convention, because he was freed from detention in China during the Obama administration.Chen said that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s effort to facilitate his rescue had nothing to do with party politics, but was instead guided by “the foundation of the United States —universal values and the right to freedom and human rights.””It was the American people and American values who saved me, for this is the land of freedom and heroes,” Chen said.Because of the limited time at the RNC, Chen’s speech was shortened by the convention organizers. He posted a full version of his speech on the internet. In it, he discussed the disappearance of countless activists, Uighurs in concentration camps, and human rights abuses in Hong Kong. He also mentioned the Chinese Communist Party’s threat to Taiwan and the Chinese government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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WMO: Laura by Far the Strongest Hurricane of 2020 Atlantic Season
The former hurricane known as Laura has so far been the most intense and dangerous storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, according to the U.N.’s weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization.Laura is now just a tropical depression, spreading heavy rain and thunderstorms across the east-central United States, forecasters said. But as the storm crossed the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, it strengthened from a Category 1 hurricane to a Category 4 in less than 24 hours. Forecasters recorded wind speeds as high as 240 kph.As Laura came ashore early Thursday in southern Louisiana, the National Hurricane Service was predicting an “unsurvivable storm surge.” That didn’t materialize, but damaging winds and heavy rains did. The system destroyed property, downed trees and led to power outages throughout the state. The WMO said that since Laura began moving through the Caribbean last week, it had caused more than 20 deaths, most in Haiti.FILE – Benjamin Luna helps recover items from the children’s wing of the First Pentecostal Church that was destroyed by Hurricane Laura, Aug. 27, 2020, in Orange, Texas.Speaking from U.N. headquarters in Geneva, WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis said Laura had now generated more accumulated cyclone energy, or ACE, the metric used to measure storm intensity and duration, than the four other storms in August combined. Nullis said there was still a long way to go this year. The Atlantic hurricane season began in June and ends in November.Nullis said climatologists predict that strong storms – in the Category 4-to-Category 5 range of hurricane intensity – will become more common, primarily because of global warming.Citing laws of physics, Nullis said, “Storms feed on warm water; higher water temperatures mean higher sea levels, which in turn increase the risk of flooding during high tides, and so the circle goes on.”
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Malawi to Reopen Schools in Phases on September 7
Malawi has announced plans for a phased reopening of schools beginning on September 7, as the rate of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has dropped. But health officials warn the lower infection rates are not because the pandemic is waning, but because of a decrease in testing rates due to a shortage of testing kits. Malawi’s Education Minister Agnes Nyalonje told a press conference Thursday the reopening of schools aims to reduce the economic and social impact of coronavirus on the country.“COVID-19 has put education in Malawi and the world over in disarray as we all know,” Nyalonje said. “We have however realized that there is a need to continue educating and preparing our human resources, if the country is to develop.”She said the classes — resuming on September 7 — are only for those sitting for final examinations and fourth year college students, while classes for younger students will begin in October.A boy reads aloud during a visit by first lady Melania Trump to Chipala Primary School, in Lilongwe, Malawi, Oct. 4, 2018. Nyalonje said there are strict guidelines for reopening.“Some of the issues contained in the guidelines include the following; number one, disinfecting schools following Centre for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines, in close collaboration with district councils; number two, all schools are to ensure that hand washing facilities are available and that hand washing is enforced.”The Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 also said it has recommended the opening of schools because Malawi has confirmed few coronavirus cases in recent weeks. From a peak of 100 cases per day last month, Malawi has for the past three weeks, confirmed as few as five cases per day.George Jobe is the executive director for Malawi Health Equity Network.He told VOA that the drop in confirmed cases is not a true reflection of the situation on the ground.“The true picture on the ground considering that Malawi and as such not everyone is being tested,” Jobe said. “We acknowledge that Malawi is not doing mass testing.” Malawi’s government recently announced that it will only be testing those showing symptoms because of a shortage of COVID-19 test kits.Betty Wisiki Kalitera, a specialist in special and inclusive education, has criticized government plans to give final examinations in three weeks.She said this will disadvantage learners with disabilities who did not have access to lessons when schools closed. “The content that was shared was not in Braille format to learners who are blind to give them a chance like any other learner to study whilst at home,” Kalitera said. “ So mostly they were just sitting idle without doing anything. For learners who are deaf is the same thing never had anything.”Still, the Education Ministry says all teachers are required to start teaching from where they stopped when schools were closed on March 23.
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UK to Revise Laws to Allow Use of COVID Vaccines Before Licensing
The British government announced Friday plans to fast-track any viable COVID-19 vaccine, allowing the emergency use of the drug before it goes through the formal licensing process, if it meets certain safety and quality standards.In a statement the British government, said if a viable vaccine is discovered before the end of the year, the proposals will bolster existing powers that allow the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to consider approving its use, before a full product license is granted, provided it is proven to be safe and effective.The measures are necessary because during the transition period, a new potential COVID-19 vaccine must be granted a license after a review by the European Medicines Agency a process than can often take months.A handout image released by 10 Downing Street, shows Britain’s new Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England Jonathan Van-Tam speaking at a remote press conference, May 30, 2020.Britain’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said in the statement, “If we develop effective vaccines, it’s important we make them available to patients as quickly as possible but only once strict safety standards have been met.”The new guidelines also call for expanding the number of trained health care workers who can administer any potential COVID-19 vaccines as well as flu vaccines.The government said a three-week “consultation” is being launched immediately for health experts and key stakeholder groups to consider the new proposals. If approved they could be in place as early as October.Britain has had the worst COVID-19 death toll of any European country.
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Japan’s Abe Announces Resignation for Health Reasons
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced he is stepping down due to chronic health concerns. His departure ends a historic tenure in office, but the conservative leader’s resignation underscores his mixed accomplishments in regional relations. During a televised press conference Friday in Tokyo, Abe said that he can no longer carry out his duties while receiving medical care. Abe said he has experienced a relapse of ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease. The 65-year-old has held power for nearly eight years, making him Japan’s longest-lasting prime minister. Abe also served in the position starting in 2006 but resigned a year later due to the same illness. His current term was set to expire in 2021. Abe’s conservative politics made him a controversial figure in east Asia. Detractors in South Korea and China often accused him of historical revisionism for what were seen as attempts to obscure Japan’s early 20th century aggression. Some observers say that impression was exaggerated. “Abe’s enemies viewed him as the reincarnation of militarism,” Robert Dujarric, who directs the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus, wrote in an email to VOA. Dujarric noted that even some of Abe’s most right-wing supporters wrongly regarded him as “the man who would restore Japan’s rightful place in the world.”“The truth is that he’s been a very pragmatic conservative, only increased resources allocated to the armed forces very marginally, didn’t get into fights with China and continued to keep a fairly low profile in international security affairs,” Dujarric wrote.Dujarric has voiced doubt that Abe’s departure will provide Tokyo with an opportunity to improve relations with Seoul or Beijing. The outgoing prime minister had pledged to amend Japan’s pacifist constitution, which was largely drafted by occupying U.S. forces following Tokyo’s World War II defeat. That attempted reform, as well as his apparent support of political allies who make visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, a war memorial in Tokyo, gave many South Koreans a negative view of Abe, according to Kim Eun-bin, a journalist who covers Japan for Newspim.FILE – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, follows a Shinto priest to pay respect to the war dead at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan, Dec. 26, 2013.Visits to the shrine by prominent Japanese officials anger China and South Korea, which consider Yasukuni a symbol of Japan’s militarism and reminder of its wartime atrocities. The shrine honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including some convicted war criminals from World War II.“In Korea, he was seen as a very dangerous leader in that he is a grandson of Kishi Nobusuke (a suspected war criminal and later prime minister), pursued constitutional amendments and dreamed of turning Japan into a normal state, in regard to its self-defense forces,” she says. The entire Korean peninsula was under Tokyo’s rule from 1910 until 1945. Kim says that Abe had won some praise for his willingness to cooperate with Seoul to redress the so-called “comfort women,” who were drafted into Japanese military brothels throughout the Pacific region during the war. But a 2015 deal struck with former South Korean leader Park Geun-hye to provide financial support was later annulled by current South Korean President Moon Jae-in over allegations that the agreement was brokered without consulting the victims. Abe’s resignation comes as Japan and South Korea continue to wage a commerce dispute that was taken to the World Trade Organization in July. The case is widely seen as linked to a South Korean court’s 2018 ruling that former colonial forced laborers should be paid compensation by Japanese firms. During a speech to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan, President Moon said he is willing to hold talks with Tokyo to resolve the tensions. Despite lingering historic animosities with his country’s nearest neighbors, Abe saw diplomatic successes in his efforts to foster military ties with Australia, negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership and brokered a trade pact with the United States. The agreement was a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy pivot toward Asia.FILE – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, shakes hands with President Donald Trump before signing a trade agreement on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York City, Sept. 25, 2019. Some of the prime minister’s most skillful acts of statecraft occurred while holding talks with current U.S. President Donald Trump, whose positions on bilateral trade and security often seemed “erratic and incoherent,” says Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based international relations expert at Troy University. Trump has criticized Japan for what he says are unfair policies toward the U.S. “Abe bent over backward to build a personal relationship with Trump” knowing that through flattery, Tokyo could win more favorable agreements, Pinkston explains. But some other analysts say Abe might be most remembered for what he didn’t achieve. Leif-Eric Easley, an international studies lecturer at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said in an email to VOA that while the Japanese leader built a reputation as “Mr. Stability” for serving as long as he did, he also came up short on major initiatives. “He will be remembered for missions unaccomplished,” Easley wrote. “His Abenomics policies have not achieved promised growth and reform. And his dream of revising the constitution to free Japan’s military from post-war constraints remains unfulfilled.”The most glaring setback of Abe’s administration, Easley adds, might be the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to the coronavirus pandemic. Easley said the move deprived the prime minister of the chance to preside over the Games that should have “symbolically” marked Japan’s recovery from the pandemic as well as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.Juhyun Lee contributed to this report.
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Teen Charged in Kenosha Killings Stalls Return to Wisconsin
A judge agreed Friday to delay for a month a decision on whether a 17-year-old from Illinois should be returned to Wisconsin to face charges accusing him of fatally shooting two protesters and wounding a third during a night of unrest following last weekend’s police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha.
The judge in Waukegan, Illinois, postponed Kyle Rittenhouse’s extradition hearing to Sept. 25 during a brief video conference that was streamed online. Rittenhouse asked for the delay in order to have time to hire a private attorney. He faces five felony charges, including first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide, and a misdemeanor charge for possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor.
Rittenhouse did not appear during the livestreamed hearing. His current attorney, Lake County, Illinois, assistant public defender Jennifer Snyder, said Rittenhouse had spoken by phone with his mother since his arrest Wednesday.
Lee Filas, spokesman for the Lake County state’s attorney, said Rittenhouse plans to hire Los Angeles-based attorney John Pierce and that Rittenhouse’s presence at Friday’s hearing had been waived. Filas said the Sept. 25 hearing will look similar to Friday’s, in that Rittenhouse will have the opportunity to either waive his right to an extradition hearing or proceed with one.
Filas declined to comment on whether other charges were being considered for anyone who may have acted as an accomplice to Rittenhouse by driving him to the protest.
Rittenhouse, a white teen who was armed with a semi-automatic rifle as he walked Kenosha’s streets with other armed civilians during this week’s protests, would face a mandatory life sentence if convicted of first-degree intentional homicide. Under Wisconsin law, anyone 17 or older is treated as an adult in the criminal justice system.
He was taken into custody on Wednesday in Antioch, Illinois, the city about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Kenosha where he lives.
The shootings late Tuesday were largely caught on cellphone video and posted online. The shooting by police on Sunday of Blake, a 29-year-old Black father of six who was left paralyzed from the waist down, was also caught on cellphone video. That shooting made Kenosha the latest focal point in the fight against racial injustice that has gripped the country since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
Three nights later, Rittenhouse was armed and on the streets of Kenosha, saying that he was protecting businesses from protesters, according to widely circulating cellphone footage.
The criminal complaint said that Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha, following Rittenhouse into a used car lot, where he threw a plastic bag at the gunman and attempted to take the weapon from him. The medical examiner found that Rosenbaum was shot in the groin and back — which fractured his pelvis and perforated his right lung and liver — and his left hand. He also suffered a superficial wound to his left thigh and a graze wound to his forehead.
Rittenhouse then ran down the street and was chased by several people shouting that he just shot someone before he tripped and fell, according to the complaint and video footage. Anthony Huber, 26, of Silver Lake, was shot in the chest after apparently trying to wrest the gun from Rittenhouse, the complaint said.FILE – Protesters raise their fists during a demonstration against the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Aug. 26, 2020.Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, who appeared to be holding a gun, was then shot in the left arm after approaching Rittenhouse, the complaint said.
Another Rittenhouse attorney, Lin Wood, said Thursday that the teenager was acting in self-defense.
“From my standpoint, it’s important that the message be clear to other Americans who are attacked that there will be legal resources available in the event false charges are brought against them,” he said. “Americans should never be deterred from exercising their right of self-defense.”
Kenosha police faced questions about their interactions with the gunman on Tuesday night.
According to witness accounts and video footage, police apparently let the gunman walk past them and leave the scene with a rifle over his shoulder and his hands in the air, as members of the crowd yelled for him to be arrested because he had shot people.
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said the gunman likely slipped away because the scene was chaotic, with lots of radio traffic and people screaming, chanting and running — conditions he said can cause “tunnel vision” among law officers.
Video taken before the shooting shows police tossing bottled water from an armored vehicle and thanking civilians armed with long guns walking the streets. One of them appears to be Rittenhouse.
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes on Thursday decried how Rittenhouse, whom he described as a vigilante accountable to nobody, could walk away while police talked about finding a knife inside Blake’s vehicle after he was shot in the back.
He said the fact that Rittenhouse and others came to Kenosha to take matters into their own hands “was completely horrifying.”
The state Department of Justice on Friday released new information, including the names of two other officers on the scene when Blake was shot in the back seven times Sunday as he leaned into his SUV, in which three of his children were seated.
State authorities earlier identified the officer who shot Blake as Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department. The other two officers were Vincent Arenas, who has been with the department since February 2019 and previously served with the U.S. Capitol Police Department, and Brittany Meronek, who joined the Kenosha police force in January.
Authorities said the officers were responding to a call about a domestic dispute when they attempted to arrest Blake, though they didn’t explain why. Sheskey shot Blake while holding onto his shirt after he and Arenas unsuccessfully used Tasers on him twice, the department said in a Friday news release. State agents later recovered a knife from the floor on the driver’s side of the vehicle, the department said. State authorities did not say Blake threatened anyone with a knife.
Blake’s father told the Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday that he was upset to learn his son was handcuffed to the hospital bed.
“He can’t go anywhere. Why do you have him cuffed to the bed?” said his father, also named Jacob Blake.
Online court records indicate Kenosha County prosecutors charged Blake on July 6 with sexual assault, trespassing and disorderly conduct in connection with domestic abuse. An arrest warrant was issued the following day.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that all hospitalized patients in police custody are restrained unless undergoing medical procedures, and that it was working “to ensure a safe and humane environment for Mr. Blake.
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Russian Navy Conducts Major Maneuvers Near Alaska
The Russian navy conducted major war games near Alaska involving dozens of ships and aircraft, the military said Friday, the biggest such drills in the area since Soviet times.
Russia’s navy chief, Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov, said that more than 50 warships and about 40 aircraft were taking part in the exercise in the Bering Sea, which involved multiple practice missile launches.
“We are holding such massive drills there for the first time ever,” Yevmenov said in a statement released by the Russian Defense Ministry.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the exercises began or if they had finished.
Yevmenov emphasized that the war games are part of Russia’s efforts to boost its presence in the Arctic region and protect its resources.
“We are building up our forces to ensure the economic development of the region,” he said. “We are getting used to the Arctic spaces.”
The Russian military has rebuilt and expanded numerous facilities across the polar region in recent years, revamping runways and deploying additional air defense assets.
Russia has prioritized boosting its military presence in the Arctic region, which is believed to hold up to one-quarter of the Earth’s undiscovered oil and gas. Russian President Vladimir Putin has cited estimates that put the value of Arctic mineral riches at $30 trillion.
Russia’s Pacific Fleet, whose assets were taking part in the maneuvers, said the Omsk nuclear submarine and the Varyag missile cruiser launched cruise missiles at a practice target in the Bering Sea as part of the exercise.
The maneuvers also saw Onyx cruise missiles being fired at a practice target in the Gulf of Anadyr from the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula, it added.
As the exercise was ongoing, U.S. military spotted a Russian submarine surfacing near Alaska on Thursday. U.S. Northern Command spokesman Bill Lewis noted that the Russian military exercise is taking place in international waters, well outside U.S. territory.
Lewis said the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command were closely monitoring the submarine. He added that they haven’t received any requests for assistance from the Russian navy but stand ready to assist those in distress.
Russian state RIA Novosti news agency quoted Russia’s Pacific Fleet sources as saying that the surfacing of the Omsk nuclear submarine was routine.
It cited former Russian navy’s chief of staff, retired Adm. Viktor Kravchenko, as saying that by having the submarine surface in the area the navy may have wanted to send a deliberate signal.
“It’s a signal that we aren’t asleep and we are wherever we want,” RIA Novosti quoted Kravchenko as saying.
The presence of Russian military assets in the area caused a stir for U.S. commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea on Wednesday.
“We were notified by multiple fishing vessels that were operating out the Bering Sea that they had come across these vessels and were concerned,” U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Kip Wadlow said Thursday.
The Coast Guard contacted the Alaskan Command at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which confirmed the ships were there as part of a pre-planned Russian military exercise that was known to some U.S. military officials, he said.
The Russian military has expanded the number and the scope of its war games in recent years as Russia-West relations have sunk to their lowest level since the Cold War after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, and other crises.
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UN Rights Chief Condemns Death Threats Against Congo Nobel Laureate
A U.N. official is calling for swift action to find and prosecute those responsible for recent death threats against Congolese human rights defender and Nobel Laureate Denis Mukwege. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is urging authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo to provide 24-hour security for Mukwege, a gynecologist who survived an assassination attempt in October 2012 and is receiving death threats. FILE – U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends the 44th session of the Human Rights Council at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 30, 2020.Her spokesman, Rupert Colville, said it is difficult to say who is behind the recent threats, but he does not believe it is connected to Mukwege’s humanitarian work. “The recent alarming surge of threats against Dr. Mukwege, which have been conveyed via social media and in direct phone calls to him and his family, followed his condemnation of the continued killing of civilians in eastern DRC and his renewed calls for accountability for human rights violations and abuses,” Colville said. Colville added that, prior to the recent threats, Mukwege had condemned attacks from three ethnic groups in South Kivu province. Armed men from those groups, who consider themselves “indigenous” Congolese, violently attacked the Banyamulenge, a cattle-herding group of Rwandan origin often derided as “outsiders.” Mukwege has won many honors and international recognition for helping thousands of female victims of sexual and gender-based violence. He also is a strong opponent of the use of rape as a weapon of war, and advocates for increased protection of women. Colville said the high commissioner welcomes assurances of protection for Mukwege and his team by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi. At the same time, Colville added, the high commissioner is calling for an effective, prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into the threats against Mukwege’s life. “It is essential those responsible are brought to justice and that the truth is known, both as a means to protect Dr. Mukwege’s life, but also as a deterrent to others who attack, threaten or intimidate medical workers and human rights defenders who, like him, work for the benefit of the Congolese people, often in exceptionally difficult circumstances,” Colville said. More determined action must be taken to address the problem in the longer term, Bachelet said. She is urging the government to adopt a draft law that protects and regulates the activity of human rights defenders and is fully consistent with international standards.
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Detained Journalists in Belarus Face Charges for Covering Post-Election Protests
One of six RFE/RL journalists detained while covering post-election protests in Minsk on Aug. 27 is facing a charge of being a participant in an unauthorized mass demonstration.
He is among at least 35 journalists, and more than 260 people overall, who were detained during Aug. 27 protests in Minsk, according to a list compiled by the human rights center Vyasna.
The charge filed against Andrey Yaroshevich, a freelance camera operator working for Current Time, is an administrative offense that can result in a fine or a jail sentence. His case was being heard at a Minsk court on Aug. 28.
A total of six journalists working either for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service or Current Time — the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA — were detained while covering demonstrations in two different Minsk locations on Aug. 27.
The Belarus Service’s Aleh Hruzdzilovich, Andrey Rabchyk, and Ales Dashchynski were detained on Independence Square. Uladzimer Hrydzin, a correspondent for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, was detained during a demonstration on Freedom Square in Minsk.
All but Yaroshevich were later released.
In addition to Yaroshevich, three journalists who work for other media outlets also remained in the custody of Belarusian authorities on Aug. 28.
They also face charges of participating in an unauthorized mass rally — a violation of Article 23.34 of Belarus’s Administrative Offenses Code.Protesters rally against elections results they say were rigged, in Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 27, 2020.The detentions came after nearly three weeks of protests against the official results of the August 9 election — which gave President Alexander Lukashenko a landslide victory. Demonstrators and opposition leaders are contesting those results, charging that the vote was rigged in Lukashenko’s favor.
The demonstrations have been met with a brutal police crackdown, with widespread evidence of beatings and torture of detained protesters.
The leading opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, told the European Parliament this week that at least six people have been killed in the crackdown and dozens of protesters have gone missing after being detained by authorities.
But the roundup of journalists who are covering the crisis appears to signal a new strategy by Belarusian authorities.
Demonstrators on Aug. 27 first assembled in the capital’s Freedom Square to continue their calls for Lukashenko’s resignation and fresh elections. Vyasna says 17 journalists working for Belarusian and foreign media were detained there.
Another 18 journalists were detained after the demonstration moved to Independence Square, where police dispersed a crowd of about 1,000 and detained more than 260 people.
The Interior Ministry says detained journalists were put on a minibus and transported to a police station where officers checked whether they had valid accreditation to work legally in the country.
All but four were reportedly released the same evening.
Belarus has received international criticism for the way its Aug. 9 election was conducted, and for the harsh treatment of post-election demonstrators.
The official vote tally showed that Tsikhanouskaya finished a distant second to Lukashenko, but she says she is the rightful winner of the vote.
Belarusian prosecutors have jailed two leading members of Tsikhanouskaya’s recently formed Coordination Council.
Other leading opposition figures also have been summoned for questioning as part of what authorities in Minsk have called a “criminal investigation.”
The Coordination Council’s stated aim is to negotiate with Lukashenko’s government for new elections, the release of political prisoners, and a peaceful transition of power.
With reporting by Current Time and RFE/RL’s Belarus Service.
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Germany’s Merkel Expects More Difficult COVID-19 Fight
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday she expects managing the COVOD-19 pandemic will become more difficult as the year progresses. Speaking to reporters in Berlin at her annual summer news conference, Merkel said dealing with the coronavirus has dominated her work as chancellor and will continue to do so in the months ahead. She said coping with the pandemic is easier in the summer when people can be outdoors.German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds her annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 28, 2020.She anticipated it would be more difficult when people must be indoors.”I’m thinking of older people, those who need care and their relatives, families with children in cramped living conditions, students who have lost their part-time jobs, the unemployed — of whom there are now more and for whom it’s now harder,” Merkel said Friday, noting the plight of the unemployed and small-business owners must be addressed.The German leader also said there are many unknown aspects of the coronavirus, marking the coming months with uncertainty.”In such an unprecedented challenge we can only make decisions based on what we know today,” she said.Merkel called for continuing to build on what researchers already know, for example, taking measures such as increasing ventilation to keep fresh air circulating, as the cooler months approach.Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, wearing a face mask,walks after his press conference in Tokyo, Aug. 28, 2020.The chancellor also expressed regret about Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who announced his resignation Friday due to health concerns. She said she had not had a chance to speak with him personally but has always worked well with him. She said Germany-Japan relations have developed very well during his tenure.She wished him all the best from her heart and thanked him “for his good cooperation.”During the wide-ranging news conference, Merkel also commented on the unstable political situation in Belarus and the need for ongoing communication with Russia, as well as climate change action goals ahead of next year’s U.N.-sponsored climate conference in Glasgow.
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Protesters Try to Drown Out Trump Speech, Yell at Sen. Paul
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered around the White House for a “noise demonstration and dance party” in an attempt to drown out President Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.
And later, a crowd enveloped U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky as he left the convention, yelling for him to say the name of police shooting victim Breonna Taylor, who was killed in his state, but there was no indication the protesters were the same.
“I hope you hear us, Trump,” the leader of the popular local band TOB shouted near the site of Trump’s speech. The band blared Go-Go music, a distinctive D.C. variant on funk, as it moved in the direction of the White House, where Trump delivered his acceptance speech to a crowd of more 1,500 people on the South Lawn.
One protester held up a sign, “Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue” — the street where the White House is located.
There was no indication that Trump heard the protesters, but there were a few points when a mix of sirens, music and blowhorns could be heard in the background and spectators in the back turned to see where the sounds were coming from.
Acknowledging the coronavirus pandemic, the demonstrators wore masks but there was no social distancing.
“Make some noise if you want to drown out Trump,” protest organizer Justin Johnson said.
After the convention concluded, there were skirmishes as protesters yelled and threw water bottles at police at the historic St. John’s Church near Black Lives Matter Plaza. There were some arrests.
Video posted online showed dozens of people confronting Senator Paul and his wife, who were flanked by police officers, on a street after midnight. Protesters shouted “No Justice, No Peace” and “Say Her Name” before one appears to briefly clash with an officer, pushing him and his bike backward, sending the officer into Paul’s shoulder.
Paul later tweeted that he had been “attacked” by a “crazed mob” a block from the White House. The senator and his wife kept walking and did not appear to have been touched by any of the protesters or to have suffered any injuries.
Videos showed other attendees also being confronted by protesters after leaving Trump’s event.
There was a robust police presence, but the noise demonstration outside the White House was generally peaceful. There was a moment of levity at the end.
“You guys gotta get some rhythm,” a protester told Secret Service officers.
“Would you have rhythm if you were wearing 30 pounds of gear,” one responded.
The demonstration was significantly smaller than the protests that rocked the nation’s capital this past spring after George Floyd died at police hands in Minneapolis.
Floyd’s family and the families of other Black Americans who were victims of police violence were expected to participate Friday in a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington that is being led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III.
Before Trump spoke, there was a brief standoff between police and demonstrators, who shouted anti-police slogans. “Free the people, fight the power,” they chanted. Nearby protesters set up a small guillotine, with the District of Columbia flag as the blade.
Lafayette Park, a traditional site of demonstrations across from the White House, was sealed off and there were some street closures.
The groups ShutdownDC and Long-Live Go-Go had put out word in advance about the planned “noise demonstration and dance party” to coincide with Trump’s speech.
“We’ll be at the White House on Thursday to drown out (Trump’s) racist rhetoric with another vision for the future of our country,” the groups said in a statement.
A longtime D.C. signature sound, Go-Go music emerged last year as a battle anthem for activists fighting fast-moving gentrification in the nation’s capital. The music has been a regular presence in recent protests against racial injustice and rolling Go-Go trucks with live bands have appeared frequently at the epicenter of the protests, which was renamed by the city as Black Lives Matter Plaza.
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Trump Accepts GOP Nomination, Slams Biden on China, Economy
During his White House address Thursday accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, President Donald Trump said the November election “will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.” Trump, who faces a strong challenge from former Vice President Joe Biden, told a large crowd on the White House South Lawn “this is the most important election in the history of our country.” People watch video screens before President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.The 1,000-plus invited attendees, including many Republican members of Congress, were seated close to each other and most did not wear face masks, defying public health advice amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trump, who trails Biden in national polls and political battleground state surveys, devoted much of his speech to a blistering attack on his Democratic opponent, denouncing him at one point as a “Trojan horse” for far left radicals and anarchists who want to destroy the country.To rousing cheers from the audience, Trump said the former vice president “is not a savior of America’s soul. He is the destroyer of America’s jobs. And if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness.”“For 47 years, Joe Biden took the donations of blue-collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses,” Trump said. “And told them he felt their pain. And then he flew back to Washington and voted to ship our jobs to China and many other distant lands.”President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.Tough on ChinaThe president, in his 70-minute speech, emphasized what he called his tough approach toward China, in terms of the economy and blaming Beijing for allowing the coronavirus to escape its borders. In fact, Trump enjoyed good relations with China leader Xi Jinping early in his administration while the two leaders engaged in major trade talks, and later, after the coronavirus began to spread, Trump praised Xi for his handling of the crisis. Once the relationship soured and Trump began blaming China for U.S. public health and economic woes, the president stepped up his criticism of Biden as a dupe of China.“Joe Biden’s agenda is made in China. My agenda is made in the USA,” Trump said. If reelected, Trump promised, “We will go right after China. We will not rely on them one bit.” Just before the president’ speech, Biden’s campaign attacked Trump as “the weakest president that we’ve ever had when it comes to China.”“He has failed again and again to stand up for American interests to the Chinese government,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.The Democratic Party nominee’s campaign contended that “when coronavirus was emerging, Trump spread Xi’s lies. And his tariff war with China has devastated American farmers, businesses, consumers, and workers. He even begged President Xi to bail out his reelection campaign.”Wrong side of history In his speech, Trump said Biden “has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history.”The president also sought to draw a philosophical and moral contrast between the two parties. “In the left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just and exceptional nation on Earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sin.” Trump declared that “Joe Biden is weak. He takes his marching orders from liberal hypocrites.” Biden, at a virtual campaign event earlier Thursday, criticized the president as “totally irresponsible” for holding a purely political event on the White House lawn, “virtually throwing every major rule in the dust bin.” Ivanka Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)Mix of virtual, live eventsA fireworks display, which spelled out the name “Trump” and “2020” above the Washington Monument and the National Mall immediately followed the president’s speech. Aside from his speech live in front of the crowd at the White House, and one Wednesday night in Baltimore by Vice President Mike Pence, the Republicans’ four-day convention was mostly a virtual affair, similar to the Democratic conclave a week ago. By turning to virtual conventions, both parties were attempting to limit the spread of the coronavirus that has killed more than 180,000 people in the U.S. and infected 5.8 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. “We’ll produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner,” Trump predicted Thursday evening. The president’s key advisers believe he improved his political standing this week with speakers praising his 3½-year tenure in the White House and lambasting Biden, most of them standing on a stage at the empty Mellon Auditorium a short distance from the White House. Trump was introduced by one of his daughters, Ivanka, who is also a White House adviser. “Dad, people attack you for being unconventional, but I love you for being real,” she said. “And I respect you for being effective.” The National Guard protect the perimeter of government buildings in Kenosha, Wis. on Aug. 27, 2020.Racial unrest During the Republican convention, racial turmoil erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the police shooting Sunday of a Black man, Jacob Blake, touched off street protests against police. Buildings were also set afire in the Midwestern city of 100,000 residents. A 17-year-old youth from the neighboring state of Illinois has been arrested and charged in the killing of two protesters and the wounding of a third. Trump, in his acceptance speech did not mention the wounding of Blake, who is paralyzed from the waist down, his father said. He re-emphasized his law-and-order approach, condemning agitators, looters and anarchists in several Democrat-run cities. Trump and Pence, along with numerous convention speakers, portrayed their administration as a staunch supporter of law enforcement, standing against protests, some of which have turned violent, that have erupted since the May 25 death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From left, Tiffany Trump, President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and Barron Trump stand on stage on the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020.Fact checks & polls The president’s address kept fact-checkers busy.
Some of the president’s comments were false or misleading, according to PolitiFact, which is run by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school and research organization. Polls show Biden leading Trump by about 7 percentage points, according to an aggregation of surveys by the Real Clear Politics website. However, Biden’s edge is thinner in several key battleground states that could once again prove decisive in the election. Only two U.S. presidents have lost reelection contests after a single term in office in the past four decades: Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992.
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Teen Pregnancies, Early Marriage Spike in Malawi During COVID Lockdown
Malawi has one of the highest rates of early marriage and teenage pregnancy in the world, with about half of girls marrying before the age of 18, according to government records. Aid groups say the coronavirus pandemic’s closing of schools has only worsened the trend. Lameck Masina reports from Phalombe district in southern Malawi.
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Weakened but Still Dangerous, Laura to Pose Continued Threat
Remnants of Hurricane Laura unleashed heavy rain and twisters hundreds of miles inland from a path of death and mangled buildings along the Gulf Coast, and forecasters warned an eastern turn would again make the storm a looming threat, this time to the densely populated Eastern Seaboard.Trees were down and power was out as far north as Arkansas, where remnants of the storm that killed at least six people in the United States were centered. The once-fearsome Category 4 hurricane packing 240-kph winds weakened to a depression after dark.New tornado warnings were issued after nightfall in Mississippi and Arkansas, hours after one of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the United States barreled across Louisiana on Thursday.A reported tornado tore part of the roof from a church in rural northeastern Arkansas as the remnants of Hurricane Laura crossed the state. No injuries were reported as the system still packed a punch after smashing into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast near the line with Texas.A full assessment of the damage could take days. By then, the storm could re-energize and pose a threat to several Northeast states by Saturday, forecasters said.Despite demolished buildings, entire neighborhoods left in ruins and almost 900,000 homes and businesses without power along the coast, a sense of relief prevailed that Laura was not the annihilating menace forecasters had feared.Benjamin Luna helps recover items from the children’s wing of the First Pentecostal Church that was destroyed by Hurricane Laura, Aug. 27, 2020, in Orange, Texas.“It is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute, catastrophic damage that we thought was likely,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “But we have sustained a tremendous amount of damage.”He called Laura the most powerful hurricane to strike Louisiana, meaning it surpassed even Katrina, which was a Category 3 storm when it hit in 2005.The hurricane’s top wind speed of 241 kph put it among the strongest systems on record in the U.S. Not until 11 hours after landfall did Laura finally lose hurricane status as it plowed north and thrashed Arkansas, and even up until Thursday evening, it remained a tropical storm with winds of 65 kph.The storm crashed ashore in low-lying Louisiana and clobbered Lake Charles, an industrial and casino city of 80,000 people. On Broad Street, many buildings had partially collapsed. Windows were blown out, awnings ripped away and trees split in eerily misshapen ways. A floating casino came unmoored and hit a bridge, and small planes were thrown atop each other at the airport.In front of the courthouse was a Confederate statue that local officials had voted to keep in place just days earlier. Laura knocked it down.“It looks like 1,000 tornadoes went through here. It’s just destruction everywhere,” said Brett Geymann, who rode out the storm with three relatives in Moss Bluff, near Lake Charles. He described a roar like a jet engine as Laura passing over his house around 2 a.m.“There are houses that are totally gone,” he said.Buildings and homes are flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura Aug. 27, 2020, in Cameron, La.As the extent of the damage came into focus, a massive plume of smoke visible for miles began rising from a chemical plant. Police said the leak was at a facility run by Biolab, which manufactures chemicals used in household cleaners and chlorine powder for pools. Nearby residents were told to close their doors and windows, and the fire smoldered into the night.The fatalities included a 14-year-old girl and a 68-year-old man who died when trees fell on their homes in Louisiana, as well as a 24-year-old man who died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator inside his residence. Another man drowned in a boat that sank during the storm, authorities said.No deaths had been confirmed in Texas, which Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called “a miracle.” Chevellce Dunn considered herself among the fortunate after a night spent huddling on a sofa with her son, daughter and four nieces and nephews as winds rocked their home in Orange, Texas. Left without power in sweltering heat, she wondered when the electricity might come back.“It ain’t going to be easy. As long as my kids are fine, I’m fine,” Dunn said.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 6 MB480p | 8 MB540p | 11 MB720p | 24 MB1080p | 46 MBOriginal | 50 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioIt was unclear when the journey home would be complete for more than 580,000 coastal residents who evacuated under the shadow of a coronavirus pandemic. Although not everyone fled, officials credited those who did leave with minimizing the loss of life.A lower-than-expected storm surge also helped save lives. Edwards said ocean water rose as much as 4 meters rather than the 6 meters that was predicted.Finishing search and rescue efforts was a top priority, Edwards said, followed by efforts to find hotel or motel rooms for those unable to stay in their homes. Officials in Texas and Louisiana both sought to avoid traditional mass shelters for evacuees over fears of spreading COVID-19.Bucky Millet, 78, of Lake Arthur, Louisiana, considered evacuating but decided because of the coronavirus to ride out the storm with family. A small tornado blew the cover off the bed of his pickup. That made him think the roof of his house was next.“You’d hear a crack and a boom and everything shaking,” he said.Laura’s winds blew out every window of the living room in the Lake Charles house where Bethany Agosto survived the storm with her sister and two others. They huddled in a closet, where she said, “it was like a jigsaw puzzle…we were on top of each other, just holding each other and crying.”Laura was the seventh named storm to strike the U.S. this year, setting a new record for U.S. landfalls by the end of August. Laura hit the U.S. after killing nearly two dozen people on the island of Hispaniola, including 20 in Haiti and three in the Dominican Republic.President Donald Trump planned to visit the Gulf Coast this weekend to tour the damage.
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Japanese Prime Minister Announces Resignation for Health Reasons
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he plans to resign because of declining health.Speaking to reporters Friday in Tokyo, Abe said he has decided to step down from the post since he is suffering from a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis that ended his first term in office in 2007.Abe, whose term would have ended in September 2021, is expected to stay on until a new party leader, who will serve as prime minister, is elected and approved by the parliament.Speculation about Abe’s resignation emerged earlier this year after visits to a Tokyo hospital for health checkups. No details were made public at the time.The 65-year-old Abe had acknowledged suffering ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager, and said he was undergoing treatment for the condition.On Monday, Abe became Japan’s longest serving prime minister by breaking the record of his great-uncle, Eisaku Sato, who served 2,798 days from 1964-72.Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index closed down 1.5% on Friday after reports of Abe’s intentions.
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