Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other ruling party officials were detained Monday in a move that raised concerns of a possible coup.
The early-morning detentions came on the same day the new parliament was supposed to be inaugurated.
Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were taken early Monday, said the spokesman for the ruling party, the National League for Democracy.
“I want to tell our people not to respond rashly and I want them to act according to the law,” spokesman Myo Nyunt said Monday, adding that he expected to be detained as well.
“As far as we know, all the important people have been arrested by the Burmese military,” he said. “So, now we can say it is coup d’état. In Naypyidaw, Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint has been arrested, I heard. But we are not sure about members of Parliament in municipality compound, but we can assume that they have been arrested, too.”
In a statement, the White House said, “The United States is alarmed by reports that the Burmese military has taken steps to undermine the country’s democratic transition,” adding that the U.S. urges “the military and all other parties to adhere to democratic norms and the rule of law, and to release those detained today.”
“The United States opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impede Myanmar’s democratic transition and will take action against those responsible if these steps are not reversed,” the statement said. FILE – Myanmar State Counselor and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrives to vote early for the Nov. 8 general election, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Oct. 29, 2020. According to a party official, she and others have been detained in a morning raid.Phone and internet service in major cities in the country had been disrupted, according to multiple reports. MRTV, the state broadcaster, was off the air, reporting on Facebook that it was having technical issues.
Soldiers were in the streets of both the capital, Naypyidaw, and the largest city, Yangon, according to multiple reports.
The news of the arrests comes after months of tensions after the NLD’s landslide victory in November elections. Myanmar’s military claimed there had been voter fraud, an allegation rejected by the country’s election commission.
On Saturday, the Tatmadaw, the official name of Myanmar’s military, released a statement arguing that voter fraud had taken place and the international community “should not be endorsing the next steps of the political process on a ‘business as usual’ basis.
“The Tatmadaw is the one pressing for adherence to democratic norms,” the statement read. “It is not the outcome itself of the election that the Tatmadaw is objecting to. …Rather, the Tatmadaw finds the process of the 2020 election unacceptable, with over 10.5 million cases of potential fraud, such as nonexistent votes.”
In the past week, Myanmar’s military had dismissed rumors it would launch a coup after the military’s commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, told senior officers that the constitution, which outlaws a coup, could be revoked if the laws were not being properly enforced.
Over the past week, the military has deployed an unusually high number of tanks around the capital city, raising alarm among civilians and government officials. Supporters of Myanmar’s military take part in a protest against election results, in Yangon, Myanmar, Jan. 30, 2021.Myanmar’s newly elected Parliament was expected to convene for its first session in Naypyidaw on Monday (Feb. 1).
The arrest of leaders in Myanmar, also known as Burma, is just the latest events in a country that has struggled between civilian and military rule and raises concerns that the nation’s transition to a democracy has stalled.
A former British colony until 1948, Myanmar has been ruled by dictators backed by the military from 1962 to 2010.
An uprising in 1988 pushed for an election in 1990, which the National League for Democracy (NLD) party won in a landslide, but the elected members of Parliament were imprisoned, and the dictatorship continued.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947, emerged as a leader in the pro-democracy rallies and in the NLD. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest.
In 2010, Senior General Than Shwe announced the country would be handed over to the civilian leaders, who included retired generals. They freed political prisoners, including the lawmakers from the National League for Democracy, and Aung San Suu Kyi, who was elected in 2012 by-election and later became the state counsellor of Myanmar.
But Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, while popular among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority, has seen her international reputation decline over her government’s treatment of the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.
In 2017, an Army crackdown against the Rohingya, sparked by deadly attacks on police stations in Rakhine state, led hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The International Criminal Court is investigating the country for crimes against humanity.
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Month: January 2021
Britain Allowing Hong Kongers to Seek Residency Under New Policy
Millions of Hong Kong residents who seek to leave the territory amid a new national security law imposed by China are now able to apply to live and work in Britain.
Britain began taking applications Sunday from Hong Kong residents who wish to relocate and travel under what is known as a British National Overseas, or BNO, passport.
The policy gives Hong Kong residents the ability to move to Britain, with a pathway to citizenship after five years.British Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted:
“The Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa is now open for applications. BNO citizens have the choice to live, work and study in the U.K. – free to build new lives. This is a proud day in our strong historic relationship as we honour our promise to the people of Hong Kong.”The reaction in Beijing was swift. Only hours after London released the details of the application process on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters during a regular press conference in Beijing, “China will no longer recognize the BN(O) passport as a valid travel document or for identification, and we reserve the right to take further actions.”
The editorial of Chinese state-affiliated media Global Times criticized Britain’s decision, dismissing any significant effects an exodus in Hong Kong would create for China, while criticizing London as being a puppet for the United States amid an escalation in tensions between Washington and Beijing.After Hong Kong was transferred back to China from Britain in 1997, Beijing promised Hong Kong would retain a “high degree of autonomy” until 2047 under a “one country, two systems” agreement.
After anti-government protests in 2019, Beijing wanted to bring stability to the city and therefore implemented a national security law for Hong Kong that came into effect on June 30, 2020. It prohibits secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, and its details can be widely interpreted. Protests have stopped while activists and lawmakers have been arrested, jailed or fled into political exile.
Critics say the law violates China’s commitment to allow Hong Kong to keep its limited freedoms.
In response, the British government announced BNO holders would have their privileges expanded. The previous rules for the BNO only allowed holders to visit Britain for six months, with no right to work or settle there.A British National Overseas passport (BNO) and a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China passport are pictured in Hong Kong, Jan. 29, 2021.About 5.4 million residents are eligible for the offer, including dependents of BNOs and 18- to 23-year-olds with at least one BNO parent. The British government estimates at least 300,000 people are expected to take up the offer.A senior lawyer, based in Hong Kong for decades, believes the national security law is responsible for “mass emigration” happening in Hong Kong now.
The lawyer asked not to be named amid fears of breaching the security law.
“We’re not just talking about the expat communities who have decided to relocate, there is mass emigration by families who are going off to Canada, Australia, the U.K. These are not people on bail for any criminal offenses, these people don’t have any further confidence in Hong Kong, and they don’t want their kids brought up here,” the lawyer said.VOA spoke to several Hong Kong residents who are making the move via the BNO policy.
“I’m leaving Hong Kong because I see the government is intimidating us, “said Renee Yau, a marketing professional in her 40s.
“The arrest of the 50-plus individuals because of their participation in the primaries poll is horrible. It is almost like declaring any election result that is unfavorable to the authorities is suspicious of criminal behavior,” she said.
“Twenty years ago, when we talked about Hong Kong to foreigners, we could say we had freedom of expression and economic freedom. But in the past few months, our freedom and rights are being taken away every day. At least it is not illegal to say what we like and don’t like about the U.K.,” she said.
“I knew I’d take the offer ever since the U.K. first announced the route. Initially, I thought I’d move in the next one to three years, but now I think I’d move within three months,” Yau added.Vince Leung, a 37-year-old architect in Hong Kong, said he has been thinking about relocating since 2019, and the accumulation of changes in the city has made him decide to leave.
“The implication of the National Security Law, the postponed of the Legislative Council Elections, Beijing and Hong Kong government’s suppression of speech, publication and demonstration in 2020 … we are losing freedom in every aspect,” Leung told VOA.
Leung added he’s “not surprised” Beijing will not recognize the Sino-British Joint Declaration regarding Hong Kong’s status since the handover. According to Leung, Beijing does not consider the agreement to be valid. Olivis, a 35-year-old sales professional working in Hong Kong, is worried about how the security law can be used by the authorities to determine what is an offense.
“It made me worry that I will never know when I violate the law and being arrested. Even I put on a yellow mask, (or I’m) wearing a black shirt, I would be stared (at) by police,” she said.
The media sales executive admits she’ll never return to Hong Kong to live after taking the BNO offer.
“The city is dying. Political instability and great change. There’s no more democracy, justice and freedom of speech, but more ridiculous rules and policies,” she added.
As of 5 p.m. local time Sunday, those eligible for the BNO could begin to apply online and then arrange an appointment at a local visa application center. As of February 23, eligible BNO holders who hold a biometric passport will be able to complete their applications using an app.
For five years the visa stay will be $343 per person — or $247 for a 30-month stay — and there is an immigration health surcharge of up to $855 every year.
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Huge Explosion Rocks Hotel in Somalia Capital
A car bomb exploded near a popular hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, Sunday. The explosion was followed by a shootout between militants and police. Militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack. Witnesses say the massive blast occurred Sunday near Hotel Afrik, located in the vicinity of a busy security checkpoint en route to the Mogadishu airport. Police say al-Shabab members stormed the hotel and many of the people inside were rescued, including Somalia’s former state minister for defense, Yusuf Siad Indha-Adde. A VOA reporter, Abdikafi Yusuf Aden, was also inside the hotel at the time and survived. “There was confusion and thick smoke rose up after the blast occurred. People were jumping down over the wall as we ran for our lives,” Aden told VOA Somali. Aden said he saw at least three people injured where he was hiding, but was unable to confirm what happened outside or on the other side of the hotel. VOA reporters in Mogadishu said dozens of people were still trapped inside as night fell and security forces engaged attackers in an operation to end the siege.
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Meet Japan’s Kyuta Kumagai, a Big Boy With Big Dreams
At twice the size of other kids his age, a young champion sumo wrestler in Japan can shove around his older counterparts. Training with his dad, he already set his sights on one day dominating the national sport. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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Socks With Stories: How Young Cancer Patients Teamed Up to Lift Spirits
For Jake Teitelbaum, the plain beige socks he was given in the hospital summed up everything he hated about cancer treatment. When Teitelbaum completed treatment, he decided to change that. From Los Angeles, Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story from, narrated by Anna Rice.
Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetyan
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Biden Could Compromise on Virus Relief Aid, Economic Adviser Says
U.S. President Joe Biden is willing, within limits, to consider changes to his proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, a key economic adviser said Sunday, so that money is sent to Americans who need it the most. Brian Deese, the director of Biden’s National Economic Council, told CNN that the proposal is “calibrated to the economic crisis that we face,” but that the Democratic president will look at a new proposal by 10 Republican senators for a more limited aid deal. Deese said Biden is “uncompromising when it comes to the speed we need to act at to address this crisis,” including a reeling economy, a sluggish rollout of coronavirus vaccinations across the country and a steadily increasing U.S. coronavirus death toll. It now stands at more than 440,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University. Deese said the focus should be on “what do we need now to get this economy back on track.” FILE – U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about his administration’s plans to fight the coronavirus disease during a COVID-19 response event at the White House in Washington, Jan. 21, 2021.Biden has expressed his openness to compromise with opposition Republicans but also said that Democrats will push through their version of the relief package on a party line vote in Congress if they need to rather than engage in protracted negotiations. Amid the debate Sunday morning, Biden said on Twitter, “Millions of Americans, through no fault of their own, have lost the dignity and respect that comes with a job and a paycheck. My American Rescue Plan will extend unemployment insurance, ensuring folks can count on the checks continuing to be there in the middle of this crisis.” Biden wants to increase the national government’s unemployment assistance from $300 to $400 a week on top of less generous state assistance and extend the extra stipends from March to September. The Republican plan seeks to maintain the $300 level for an unspecified period. The Republican lawmakers, in a letter to Biden asking to meet with him to discuss their plan, placed no price tag on it. But Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana told the “Fox News Sunday” show it would cost about $600 billion, far short of what Biden is asking Congress to approve. Biden wants to send $1,400 checks to millions of Americans, all but the biggest wage earners, on top of $600 checks approved in a $900 billion relief package signed by former President Donald Trump in late December. The Republicans called for “more targeted assistance…for those families who need assistance the most, including their dependent children and adults.” The lawmakers said they supported Biden’s call for $160 billion for vaccine distribution and more testing and tracing for the virus. FILE – People wait in line to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Oklahoma City, Jan. 26, 2021.The Republicans said they support more aid for businesses and measures needed to reopen schools for in-person instruction. But they voiced no opinion on Biden’s call for increasing the federal minimum wage for low-income workers from $7.25 to $15 an hour, which most Republicans oppose, and many business owners say would force them to lay off workers rather than give them a bigger paycheck. Deese declined to say what overall amount Biden would be willing to agree to. But he said the president was willing to target the cash stipends so that money does not go to bigger wage earners, “We want to get cash into the pockets of people who need it the most,” Deese said. “The immediate focus,” he said, “is putting a floor under the economic crisis.” Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, one of the 10 Republicans calling for a compromise with Biden, said, “Let’s focus on those who are struggling.” He said it was “not in the interest of the Democratic Party to ram through” its version of the relief bill. “If you can’t find bipartisanship on COVID-19, I don’t know where you can,” Portman said. COVID-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus.
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Thousands Flee Hong Kong for UK, Fearing China Crackdown
Thousands of Hong Kongers have already made the sometimes painful decision to leave behind their hometown and move to Britain since Beijing imposed a strict national security law on the Chinese territory last summer. Their numbers are expected to swell to the hundreds of thousands. Some are leaving because they fear punishment for supporting the pro-democracy protests that swept the former British colony in 2019. Others say China’s encroachment on their way of life and civil liberties has become unbearable, and they want to seek a better future for their children abroad. Most say they don’t plan to ever go back. The moves are expected to accelerate now that 5 million Hong Kongers are eligible to apply for visas to Britain, allowing them to live, work and study there and eventually apply to become British citizens. Applications for the British National Overseas visa officially opened Sunday, though many have already arrived on British soil to get a head start. FILE – A British National Overseas passports (BNO) and a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China passport are pictured in Hong Kong, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021.Britain’s government said some 7,000 people with British National Overseas passports — a travel document that Hong Kongers could apply for before the city was handed over to Chinese control in 1997 — have arrived since July on the previously allowed six month visa. It estimates that over 300,000 people will take up the offer of extended residency rights in the next five years. “Before the announcement of the BN(O) visa in July, we didn’t have many enquiries about U.K. immigration, maybe less than 10 a month,” said Andrew Lo, founder of Anlex Immigration Consultants in Hong Kong. “Now we receive about 10 to 15 calls a day asking about it.” Mike, a photojournalist, said he plans to apply for the visa and move to Leeds with his wife and young daughter in April. His motivation to leave Hong Kong came after the city’s political situation deteriorated following the anti-government protests and he realized that the city’s police force was not politically neutral. The police have been criticized by pro-democracy supporters for brutality and the use of excessive violence. Mike said moving to Britain was important as he believed the education system in Hong Kong will be affected by the political situation and it will be better for his daughter to study in the U.K. Mike agreed to speak on the condition that he only be identified by his first name out of fear of official retaliation. Lo said that with the new visa, the barrier to entry to move to the U.K. becomes extremely low, with no language or education qualification requirements. British National Overseas passport holders need to prove that they have enough money to support themselves for six months and prove that they are clear of tuberculosis, according to the U.K. government. Currently, Lo assists three to four families a week in their move to the U.K. About 60% of those are families with young children, while the remaining are young couples or young professionals. Cindy, a Hong Kong businesswoman and the mother of two young children, arrived in London last week. In Hong Kong she had a comfortable lifestyle. She owned several properties with her husband and the business she ran was going well. But she made up her mind to leave it all behind as she felt that the city’s freedoms and liberties were eroding and she wanted to ensure a good future for her kids. Cindy, who spoke on the condition she only be identified by her first name out of concern of official retaliation, said it was important to move quickly as she feared Beijing would soon move to halt the exodus. FILE – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson takes questions in parliament in London, Britain, Jan. 20, 2021 in this still image taken from a video.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week the visa offer shows Britain is honoring its “profound ties of history” with Hong Kong, which was handed over to China on the understanding that it would retain its Western-style freedoms and much of its political autonomy not seen on mainland China. Beijing said Friday it will no longer recognize the British National Overseas passport as a travel document or form of identification, and criticized Britain’s citizenship offer as a move that “seriously infringed” on China’s sovereignty. It was unclear what effect the announcement would have because many Hong Kongers carry multiple passports. Beijing drastically hardened its stance on Hong Kong after the 2019 protests turned violent and plunged the city into a months-long crisis. Since the security law’s enactment, dozens of pro-democracy activists have been arrested, and the movement’s young leaders have either been jailed or fled abroad. Because the new law broadly defined acts of subversion, secession, foreign collusion and terrorism, many in Hong Kong fear that expressing any form of political opposition — even posting messages on social media — could land them in trouble. “This is a really unique emigration wave — some people haven’t had time to actually visit the country they’re relocating to. Many have no experience of living abroad,” said Miriam Lo, who runs Excelsior UK, a relocation agency. “And because of the pandemic, they couldn’t even come over to view a home before deciding to buy.”
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Huge Explosion Rocks Hotel in Somali Capital
A huge explosion has occurred near a popular hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Witnesses say the massive blast occurred Sunday near Hotel Afrik, located in the vicinity of a busy security checkpoint en route to the Mogadishu airport. Militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility. Polce say al-Shabab members stormed the hotel but that most of the people inside were rescued, including Somalia’s former state minister for defense, Yusuf Siad Indha-Adde. A VOA reporter, Abdikafi Yusuf Aden, was also inside the hotel at the time and survived.
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UK Set to Formally Apply for Trans-Pacific Trade Bloc Membership
Britain will next week formally apply to join a trans-Pacific trading bloc of 11 countries, with negotiations set to start later this year, the government has said.Since leaving the European Union, Britain has made clear its desire to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which removes most tariffs between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.”One year after our departure for the EU we are forging new partnerships that will bring enormous economic benefits for the people of Britain,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.Trade minister Liz Truss told Times Radio: “On Monday I am putting in the letter of intent” and that she expected formal negotiations will start in the spring.Reuters reported on Thursday that Britain will not publish an assessment of the economic benefits of CPTPP membership before requesting to join it – contrary to earlier promises.Previous government economic analyses of Brexit have pointed to small boosts to economic output from additional trade deals.The government said joining CPTPP would remove tariffs on food and drink and cars, while helping to boost the technology and services sectors.”Applying to be the first new country to join the CPTPP demonstrates our ambition to do business on the best terms with our friends and partners all over the world and be an enthusiastic champion of global free trade,” Johnson said.
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Bernie’s Mitten Maker Finds Manufacturer to Fill Order Deluge
A Vermont schoolteacher whose homemade mittens went viral after Senator Bernie Sanders wore them at President Joe Biden’s inauguration has found a manufacturer to fulfill the resulting thousands of orders for her cozy gloves. “I have amazing news! I’m partnering with Vermont Teddy Bear to make Bernie’s Mittens for EVERYONE!!” Jennifer Ellis tweeted Saturday, adding that some of the proceeds would benefit the Make a Wish Vermont charity.”I knew there had to be a way to get them to you — and I found it!!” the second-grade teacher said.The 42-year-old had sent Sanders a pair of her mittens, made from repurposed wool sweaters and lined with fleece made from recycled plastic bottles, after he lost to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, as a consolation gift.Last year, as Sanders was running again for president, Ellis learned that he was wearing the mittens — “people were calling them his oven mitts” — but had lent them to someone else.Ellis said she was so touched that she sent Sanders another 10 pairs.The senator’s homely brown and beige mittens featured prominently in a photo from the January 20 inauguration showing Sanders sitting alone in a folding chair, bundled up and seemingly unimpressed with the pomp and circumstance.The image by AFP photographer Brendan Smialowski became the first viral meme of the Biden era, with the apparently aloof Sanders superimposed on everything from “Star Wars” scenes to Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.””Many, many of you have reached out looking to buy a pair of these awesome mittens. Sadly, I don’t really make them anymore. But I want to make sure that you get a pair,” Ellis said in a video on the Vermont Teddy Bear Company website.”Everybody who wants these mittens will get them,” she said with the enthusiasm of, well, a second-grade teacher.Ellis told AFP three days after the inauguration that she had received around 13,000 emails from people who want to buy her mittens.”Not just one pair — people want lots of them,” she said.
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Wrangle Over Valuable Art Uncovered in Cypriot Ghost Town
The abstract figures of naked women gyrating to the rhythms of a five-piece band had shocked many people almost 60 years ago as they eyed the artwork for the first time on the walls of a popular restaurant-nightclub in Cyprus. The valuable and very rare concrete relief by Christoforos Savva, Cyprus’ most avant-garde artist of the 1960s, had lain hidden for decades in the underground recesses of the Perroquet nightclub in abandoned Varosha — an inaccessible ghost town that had been under Turkish military control since a 1974 war ethnically cleaved the island nation. But with Varosha’s controversial partial opening last November, the artwork has again come to light following a report by local newspaper Politis. Now, the man who says he commissioned the art from Savva is asking authorities for help to have it removed and transported to the country’s national gallery for all to see. Former Perroquet owner Avgerinos Nikitas, 93, a Greek Cypriot, has appealed to a committee composed of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots that’s tasked with protecting Cyprus’ cultural treasures on both sides of the divide to help remove the 13 sections. “In return, I pledge to cede these pieces to the National Collection as a small contribution to Christoforos Savva’s huge body of work,” Nikitas said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press, addressed to the committee as well as Cyprus’ education ministry. But the whole venture could be derailed as the Greek Cypriot family that owns the Esperia Tower hotel that hosted the Perroquet club insist that the artwork legally belongs to them. They say they won’t allow their “private property” to be removed and transferred and are warning of legal action. Speaking on behalf of his family, Panayiotis Constantinou told the AP that their lawyer has advised them that the hotel, the club and everything inside it belongs to the family, regardless of the Savva artwork’s cultural value. “We respect and value culture, but this is private property about which we haven’t been asked anything about removing it, and on top of that, someone else lays claim to it,” Constantinou said. Art historians credit Savva as one of the most influential artists of the time who brought the country’s inward-looking, traditionalist art world into modernity in the years immediately after Cyprus gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960. A painter and sculptor, Savva shifted away from the established, representational art styles by encompassing influences like cubism, which he picked up during his stays in London and Paris through the 1950s, into his voluminous artwork. He died in 1968. “Savva was an innovator who always sought to break new ground and challenge the conservative times in which he lived,” said Andre Zivanari, director of the Point Center for Contemporary Art. Savva’s work reflected the joie de vivre of Varosha, which at the time was Cyprus’ most progressive, popular tourist resort — a favorite with visitors from Europe and beyond, said Yiannis Toumazis, an art history professor and a Greek Cypriot member of the committee on culture. That all changed in the summer of 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Turkish armed forces took over an empty Varosha and kept it virtually sealed off until last November, when breakaway Turkish Cypriot authorities re-opened a stretch of beach to the public. The move caused much consternation among the suburb’s Greek Cypriot residents and protests from the island’s internationally recognized government amid concerns that the Turkish Cypriot north’s hardline leadership aimed to place the entire area under its control. Cyprus’ former first lady and cultural committee co-chair Androulla Vassiliou told the AP that the body would look at bringing the reliefs to the island’s southern part, once new Turkish Cypriot members are appointed. The previous Turkish Cypriot committee members collectively resigned last December for what they said was a divergence of views with the new Turkish Cypriot leadership over its aim to steer talks to resolve Cyprus’ division away from a federation-based arrangement. The reclamation of artwork that disappeared amid the confusion of war isn’t without precedent. Last February, the culture committee successfully engineered the return of 219 paintings — including some of the most significant works produced by Greek Cypriot artists — that were thought lost or stolen in the north. In return, Turkish Cypriots received rare archival footage from state broadcaster CyBC of Turkish Cypriot cultural and sporting events dating from 1955 to the early 1960s. The swap was hailed as a tangible way of bolstering trust among Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Toumazis said the return of Savva’s reliefs would be another trust-boosting milestone, but better still would be if people could return to their properties in Varosha. “It would be nice if people themselves returned to what they owned, rather than having any artwork being transferred to them,” he said.
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NATO Sources: Foreign Troops to Stay in Afghanistan Beyond May Deadline
International troops plan to stay in Afghanistan beyond the May deadline envisaged by the insurgent Taliban’s deal with the United States, four senior NATO officials said, a move that could escalate tensions with the Taliban demanding full withdrawal. “There will be no full withdrawal by allies by April-end,” one of the officials told Reuters. “Conditions have not been met,” he said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. “And with the new U.S. administration, there will be tweaks in the policy, the sense of hasty withdrawal which was prevalent will be addressed and we could see a much more calculated exit strategy.” The administration of then-President Donald Trump signed an agreement with the Taliban early last year calling for the withdrawal of all foreign troops by May in return for the insurgents fulfilling certain security guarantees. FILE – U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, left, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban group’s top political leader sign a peace agreement between Taliban and U.S. officials in Doha, Qatar, Feb. 29, 2020.Trump hailed the accord — which did not include the Afghan government — as the end of two decades of war. He reduced U.S. troops to 2,500 by this month, the fewest since 2001. Plans on what will happen after April are now being considered and likely to be a top issue at a key NATO meeting in February, the NATO sources said. The positions of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are becoming increasingly important after the alliance was sidelined by Trump, diplomats and experts say. Peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban began in September in Doha, but violence has remained high. “No NATO ally wants to stay in Afghanistan longer than necessary, but we have been clear that our presence remains conditions-based,” said NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu. “Allies continue to assess the overall situation and to consult on the way forward.” She said about 10,000 troops, including Americans, are in Afghanistan. Those levels are expected to stay roughly the same until after May, but the plan beyond that is not clear, the NATO source said. FILE – NATO soldiers inspect near the site of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 25, 2020.Kabul and some foreign governments and agencies say the Taliban has failed to meet conditions due to escalated violence and a failure to cut ties with militant groups such as Al Qaeda, which the Taliban denies. The administration of Joe Biden, who replaced Trump on Jan. 20, has launched a review of his predecessor’s peace agreement. A Pentagon spokesman said the Taliban have not met their commitments, but Washington remained committed to the process and had not decided on future troop levels. A State Department representative said Biden was committed to bringing a “responsible end to the ‘forever wars’… while also protecting Americans from terrorist and other threats.” Afghanistan’s presidential palace did not respond to a request for comment. Rising concern The Taliban have become increasingly concerned in recent weeks about the possibility that Washington might change aspects of the agreement and keep troops in the country beyond May, two Taliban sources told Reuters. “We conveyed our apprehensions, but they assured us of honoring and acting on the Doha accord. What’s going on, on the ground in Afghanistan, is showing something else. And that’s why we decided to send our delegations to take our allies into confidence,” said a Taliban leader in Doha. A Taliban delegation this week visited Iran and Russia, and the leader said they were contacting China. Although informal meetings have been taking place between negotiators in Doha, progress has stalled in recent weeks after an almost one-month break, according to negotiators and diplomats. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters the insurgents remained committed to the peace process. “No doubt that if the Doha deal is not implemented there will be consequences, and the blame will be upon that side which does not honor the deal,” he said. “Our expectations are also that NATO will think to end this war and avoid more excuses for prolonging the war in Afghanistan.” NATO and Washington will have a challenge getting the Taliban to agree to an extension beyond May. If the situation remains unclear, the Taliban may increase attacks, possibly once again on international forces, said Ashley Jackson, co-director of the Centre for the Study of Armed Groups at the British think tank ODI. The lack of a resolution “gives voice to spoilers inside the Taliban who never believed the U.S. would leave willingly, and who have pushed for a ratcheting up of attacks even after the U.S.-Taliban deal was agreed,” she said. A Feb. 17-18 meeting of NATO defense ministers will be a chance for a newly empowered NATO to determine how the process would be shaped, said one source, a senior European diplomat. “With the new administration coming in there will be a more cooperative result, NATO countries will have a say.”
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More than 500 Detained in Russian Protests Supporting Opposition Leader
Russian police detained at least 500 protesters Sunday, as supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny started to take to the streets for a second weekend.Defying arrests and criminal probes, the first protests took place in Siberia and Russia’s Far East, including the port city of Vladivostok.Navalny associates called again for nationwide demonstrations ahead of his trial, to start Tuesday.More than 250 of the arrests preceded an expected rally in Moscow, where demonstrations are usually the largest.Moscow police announced the closure of seven metro stations and have restricted the movement of pedestrians to downtown.Authorities have also ordered some restaurants and shops in the city center closed and above-ground transportation diverted.Navalny was arrested immediately upon his return to Russia in mid-January, ending a nearly five-month recovery in Germany from a poisoning attack he suffered while traveling in Siberia in August.The United States and the European Union have strongly condemned Navalny’s arrest and hundreds of arrests made last week and called for their immediate release.
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US Lawmakers Push Mental Health Days for Kids Amid Pandemic
When she was growing up, Sophie Corroon struggled to get through a ballet class or soccer tryout without having an anxiety attack.The idea of going to sleepovers or being home alone left her feeling panicked. Corroon’s anxiety grew even more during high school in Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah when the pressures of getting into college left her in tears at school or toiling for hours on assignments.Corroon, now 20, has struggled with her mental health since fourth grade, and she’s not alone. And now, the coronavirus pandemic has multiplied the pressures on kids — many have spent almost a year doing remote learning, isolated from their friends and classmates. The portion of children’s emergency-room visits related to mental health was 44% higher in 2020, compared with the year before.State lawmakers are increasingly seeking more support for kids. This year, legislation proposed in Utah and Arizona would add mental or behavioral health to the list of reasons students can be absent from class, similar to staying out with a physical illness. Similar laws have passed in the states of Oregon, Maine, Colorado and Virginia in the past two years.Offering mental health days can help children and parents communicate and prevent struggling students from falling behind in school or ending up in crisis, said Debbie Plotnick, vice president of the nonprofit advocacy group Mental Health America. Plotnick said mental health days can be even more effective when paired with mental health services in schools.“We know that this year has been extra hard, and we know that it’s hard for young people,” Plotnick said. “That’s why it’s so essential that students feel comfortable to come forward and say … ‘I need to take some actions to support my mental health.’”In Arizona, Democratic Sen. Sean Bowie has introduced a mental health day measure for the second time after legislation stalled in March as the pandemic took hold.Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has taken an interest in youth suicide and mental health, and Bowie said he’s confident it will be signed into law. The bill passed the state Senate unanimously Thursday.Getting a ‘day to catch their breath’Conservative Utah passed a law in 2018 letting kids take time off school for a mental illness. A new proposal from Republican Rep. Mike Winder would allow absences for students to deal with other kinds of mental pressures to further normalize treating a mental health concern like a physical one.“If a student has a panic attack today, because of some drama going on at home, that’s not mental illness necessarily,” Winder said. “But maybe they need that day to catch their breath and maintain their mental health.”Under the Utah bill, which passed out of committee Friday and will move to the House floor, mental health days would be treated like any other excused absence, Winder said. A parent would need to excuse their child, and students would still be expected to make up their schoolwork.In Arizona, specific mental health day policies would be up to each school district, Bowie said.Theresa Nguyen, a licensed clinical social worker, said she’s concerned about the potential long-term mental and academic effects that students may face from the pandemic. In addition to growing reports of anxiety and depression, Nguyen said, many students say they don’t feel like they’re absorbing class material virtually and they’re not getting enough support.“They feel like, ‘Nobody cares that I’m struggling, so I’m basically being communicated to that I need to just deal with it by myself,’” said Nguyen, Mental Health America’s chief program officer. “And for a lot of youth, that means increased self-harm and suicide.”Alarming rate of youth suicidesFor the last few years, Utah leaders have searched for ways to reduce an alarming rate of youth suicides. The pandemic has lent urgency, with many young people isolated from friends and school activities.Winder’s bill is modeled after a similar program in Oregon that his daughter, Jessica Lee, found through her work on a youth-focused committee with the Utah chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In Oregon, students are given five excused absences every three months, and those can be either physical sick days or mental health days.Lee, who is a senior at Southern Utah University studying clinical psychology, said she was inspired by youth activists who successfully championed the Oregon bill in 2019.Lee and Corroon both work with the committee to help teenagers navigate their mental health. Over the years, Corroon learned to manage her anxiety with medication and therapy and is now a sophomore at the University of Washington, where she plans to study public health.Part of her routine is taking a step back to prioritize her mental health — a chance she says other kids deserve, too.“I definitely needed those days to just stay home or seek out a resource rather than forcing myself to go to school and putting more stress on my mental health,” Corroon said.
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Britain Focused on Collaboration with EU after Vaccine Row, Minister Says
Britain’s focus is on “collaboration” with the European Union on vaccines, the country’s vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi told The Sunday Telegraph, after a showdown between the two sides over vaccine exports.Zahawi told the newspaper in an interview that Britain’s focus was on collaborating with the bloc and that the country had tried to help Brussels with its vaccine supply problems and would continue to do so. The EU had on Friday attempted to restrict some exports of COVID-19 vaccines by invoking an emergency Brexit clause before reversing part of its announcement within hours.
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Trump, Lead Impeachment Lawyers Part Ways Week Before Trial
Former President Donald Trump has parted ways with his lead impeachment lawyers little more than a week before his trial, two people familiar with the situation said Saturday.FILE – Attorney Deborah Barbier speaks to reporters outside the federal courthouse in Charleston, S.C., April 29, 2016.The change injected fresh uncertainty into the makeup and strategy of his defense team.Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, both South Carolina lawyers, left the defense team in what one person described as a “mutual decision” that reflected a difference of opinion on the direction of the case.The two people familiar with the legal team discussions insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations. One said new additions to the legal team were expected to be announced in a day or two.FILE – Attorney Butch Bowers speaks during a news conference at the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., Sept. 10, 2009.Bowers and Barbier did not immediately return messages seeking comment.Trump is scheduled to stand trial beginning the week of February 8 on a charge that he incited the riot inside the U.S. Capitol. Republicans and Trump aides have made clear that they intend to make a simple argument: The trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office.CNN was first to report the departure of the lawyers.
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WHO Team Visits Wuhan Hospital That Treated Early Cases
Scientists with the World Health Organization’s team investigating the source of the coronavirus that has infected more than 102 million people worldwide and killed more than 2.2 million have visited one of the hospitals in Wuhan, China, that treated some of the first patients.Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans said on Twitter that the stories she’d heard at Jinyintan hospital were “quite similar to what I have heard from our ICU doctors.”Just back from visit at Jinyintan hospital, that specialised in infectious diseases and was designated for treatment of the first cases in Wuhan. Stories quite similar to what I have heard from our ICU doctors.— Marion Koopmans (@MarionKoopmans) A woman wearing a face mask walks past a closed souvenir shop near Berlin’s famed tourist magnet Checkpoint Charlie, Jan. 29, 2021, during the coronavirus pandemic.Travelers from several European and African nations — Brazil, Britain, Eswatini, Ireland, Lesotho, Portugal and South Africa — will not be allowed into Germany. However, German residents traveling from those countries will be granted entry, even if they test positive for the coronavirus virus.Fourteen University of Michigan students were in quarantine after being diagnosed with the British variant of the virus. One of the students was reported to have traveled to Britain over the winter break.Health officials in South Carolina said they had detected two cases of the South African COVID-19 variant, the first cases in the United States.The U.S. remained the country with the most cases at more than 26 million, followed by India with 10.7 million and Brazil with 9.1 million, Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center said Saturday.The Pentagon on Saturday announced it would delay a plan to vaccinate the 40 prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying it needed to “review force protection protocols,” John Kirby, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said in a tweet. No Guantanamo detainees have been vaccinated. We’re pausing the plan to move forward, as we review force protection protocols. We remain committed to our obligations to keep our troops safe.— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) January 30, 2021The Pentagon has said it intends to vaccinate all the personnel who work at the detention center, or about 1,500 people. At that time, the vaccine will also be offered to the prisoners, none of whom has received a vaccination yet.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that as of Saturday morning, nearly 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been distributed in the U.S. and nearly 30 million had been administered.The CDC said 24 million people had received one or more doses, and 5.3 million people had received a first dose.The total included both the Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.
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Activists Rally Behind French-Vietnamese Woman’s Agent Orange Lawsuit
Activists gathered Saturday in Paris to support people exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, after a French court examined the case of a French-Vietnamese woman who sued 14 companies that produced and sold the powerful defoliant dioxin used by U.S. troops.Former journalist Tran To Nga, 78, described in a book how she was exposed to Agent Orange in 1966, when she was a member of the Vietnamese Communists, or Viet Cong, who fought against South Vietnam and the United States.”Because of that, I lost one child due to heart defects. I have two other daughters who were born with malformations. And my grandchildren, too,” she told The Associated Press.In 2014 in France, she sued firms that produced and sold Agent Orange, including U.S. multinational companies Dow Chemical and Monsanto, now owned by German giant Bayer.Tran is seeking damages for her multiple health problems, including cancer, and those of her children in legal proceedings that could be the first to provide compensation to a Vietnamese victim, according to an alliance of nongovernmental organizations backing her case.So far only military veterans from the U.S. and other countries involved in the war have won compensation. The justice system in France allows citizens to sue over events that took place abroad.Backed by the NGO alliance Collectif Vietnam Dioxine, which called for Saturday’s gathering at Trocadero Plaza, Tran’s legal action is aimed at gaining recognition for civilians harmed by Agent Orange and the damage the herbicide did to the environment.U.S. forces used Agent Orange to defoliate Vietnamese jungles and to destroy Viet Cong crops during the war.Between 1962 and 1971, the U.S. military sprayed roughly 11 million gallons of the chemical agent across large swaths of southern Vietnam. Dioxin stays in the soil and in the sediment at the bottom of lakes and rivers for generations. It can enter the food supply through the fat of fish and other animals.Vietnam says as many as 4 million of its citizens were exposed to the herbicide and as many as 3 million have suffered illnesses from it, including the children of people who were exposed during the war.”That’s where lies the crime, the tragedy, because with Agent Orange, it doesn’t stop. It is passed on from one generation to the next,” Tran said.The court in Evry, a southern suburb of Paris, heard Tran’s case Monday.Bayer argues any legal responsibility for Tran’s claims should belong to the United States, saying in a statement that the Agent Orange was made “under the sole management of the U.S. government for exclusively military purposes.”Tran’s lawyers argued that the U.S. government had not requisitioned the chemical but secured it from the companies through a bidding process.The court’s ruling is scheduled to be given May 10.
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Ethiopia Says Tigray Back to ‘Normalcy,’ but Witnesses See Disaster
Ethiopia’s government has privately told Biden administration staffers its embattled Tigray region has “returned to normalcy,” but new witness accounts describe terrified Tigray residents hiding in bullet-marked homes and a vast rural area where effects of the fighting and food shortages are yet unknown.The conflict that began in November between Ethiopian forces and those of the Tigray region that dominated the government for nearly three decades continues largely in shadow. Some communications links are severed, residents are scared to give details by phone and almost all journalists are blocked. Thousands of people are believed to have died.Ethiopia’s deputy prime minister, Demeke Mekonnen, and colleagues briefed a private gathering Friday hosted by the Atlantic Council think tank. They said nearly 1.5 million people in Tigray have been reached with humanitarian aid, and they expressed unease at “false and politically motivated allegations” of mistreatment of refugees from neighboring Eritrea, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported. It said Biden administration staffers attended the meeting.The refugees have been targeted by soldiers from Eritrea, who are fighting alongside Ethiopian troops against the Tigray forces. The Biden administration has pressed Eritrea to immediately withdraw them, citing credible accounts of looting, sexual assault and other abuses.Despite Ethiopia’s latest assertions, its recently appointed administrators in Tigray have estimated that more than 4.5 million people, or close to the region’s entire population, need emergency food aid and some people have begun dying of starvation. That’s according to leaked documents from a crisis meeting of government and aid workers in early January.A new account by a Doctors Without Borders emergency coordinator in Tigray, Albert Vinas, says “we are very concerned about what may be happening in rural areas,” with many places inaccessible because of fighting or difficulties in obtaining permission.Map locates key cities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Millions of Tigray residents, still largely cut off from the world, live in fear of Eritrean soldiers.”But we know, because community elders and traditional authorities have told us, that the situation in these places is very bad,” he said in the account posted online Friday.He described Tigray residents handing his colleagues pieces of paper with phone numbers and asking for help in reaching their families, whom they hadn’t heard from for weeks.”We saw a population locked in their homes and living in great fear,” he wrote after visiting the city of Adigrat and the towns of Axum and Adwa starting in late December.In Adigrat, one of Tigray’s largest cities, “the situation was very tense, and its hospital was in a terrible condition,” Vinas added, with “no food, no water and no money. Some patients who had been admitted with traumatic injuries were malnourished.” One woman had been in labor for a week.Beyond hospitals, up to 90% of health centers between the Tigray capital, Mekelle, and Axum to the north toward Eritrea were not functioning, he said.”There is a large population suffering, surely with fatal consequences. … There have been no vaccinations in almost three months, so we fear there will be epidemics soon,” Vinas added.In a separate account posted by the World Peace Foundation on Friday, former senior Ethiopian official Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe in a phone interview from rural Tigray told director Alex de Waal that “hunger among peasantry is crippling” in areas bordering Eritrea after Eritrean forces burned or looted crops just before the harvest.”Soon, we might see a massive humanitarian crisis,” Mulugeta said.Eritrean officials have not responded to questions nor confirmed their soldiers’ involvement, and Ethiopia has denied their presence despite witness accounts.The food situation in Tigray was “extremely bad” before the fighting began because of a locust outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oxfam country director in Ethiopia, Gezahegn Kebede Gebrehana, has told The Associated Press.”When the fighting took place, a lot of people fled into the bush. But when they came back, most found their houses destroyed or all belongings looted,” he said after an assessment in southern Tigray, by some accounts the most accessible part of the region. “Food is a very, very prominent necessity, from what we saw.”International pressure continues on Ethiopia to allow unrestricted humanitarian access to Tigray, now a complicated patchwork of local authorities, but Gezahegn warned against suspending aid to the government as the European Union recently did.”The donor community might think they will push the Ethiopian government, but the Ethiopian government will never surrender,” he said. He acknowledged the “good intentions” but said “it’s the people who suffer.”
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Time Running Out on Somalia’s Troubled Vote
As Somalia marks three decades since a dictator fell and chaos engulfed the country, the government is set to hold a troubled national election.Or is it?Two regional states refuse to take part, and time is running out before the February 8 date when mandates expire. A parliament resolution allows President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and lawmakers to remain in office, but going beyond February 8 brings “an unpredictable political situation in a country where we certainly don’t need any more of that,” U.N. Special Representative James Swan said this week.Amid the campaign billboards and speeches in the capital, Mogadishu, is a sense of frustration as people are urged to support candidates but again cannot directly take part.”Nobody has ever asked us what we want or whom we would choose as president,” said Asha Abdulle, who runs a small tea shop.”Every president wants to extend his tenure and at least add one more year, so why can’t they make it official and hold elections every five years instead of four?” wondered Abdirisaq Ali Mohamed as he watched TV at a hotel.The uncertainty is ripe for exploitation by the Somalia-based al-Shabab extremist group, which has threatened to attack the polls. Meanwhile, the country is adjusting to the withdrawal of 700 U.S. military personnel, completed in mid-January.A successful election means Somalia’s government can move on to address urgent issues like the COVID-19 pandemic, a locust outbreak and hundreds of thousands of people displaced by climate crises such as drought.FILE – People watch news about the coming election on a television in Mogadishu, Somalia, Jan. 28, 2021. As Somalia marks three decades since a dictator fell and chaos engulfed the country, the government is set to hold a troubled national election.Despite its insecurity, the Horn of Africa nation has had peaceful changes of leadership every four years since 2000, and it has the distinction of having Africa’s first democratically elected president to peacefully step down, Aden Abdulle Osman, in 1967.But the goal of a direct, one-person-one-vote election in Somalia remains elusive. It was meant to take place this time. Instead, the federal government and states agreed on another “indirect election,” with senators and members of parliament elected by community leaders — delegates of powerful clans — in each member state.Members of parliament and senators then elect Somalia’s president.Opposition leaders and civil society groups have objected, arguing it leaves them no say in the politics of their own country.FILE – Somalis walk past a billboard showing candidate Omar Abdulkadir Ahmedfiqi in Mogadishu, Jan. 29, 2021.Now the regional states of Jubbaland and Puntland have refused to take part, objecting to issues including how electoral management bodies should be appointed and delegates selected. That includes delegates from the breakaway region of Somaliland, which considers itself an independent country though it is not internationally recognized.Jubbaland and Puntland finally appointed electoral commissioners late this week, a sign of progress.”No partial elections or parallel processes,” the U.S. Embassy said as it encouraged political leaders to meet on remaining issues. On Saturday, Somalia said the president assured the international community he was willing to “fulfill free, fair and transparent elections.”The opposition alliance, which includes two former presidents and former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre, has urged the president to let all stakeholders play their rightful roles in the election.”You promised that once president you will be a good Somali elder. You were given to lead a united people in a peaceful way,” said one former president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. He himself benefited from an extra year in office when elections were not ready.FILE – A band plays at a demonstration supporting a resolution to allocate 13 seats to the Banadir region, which encompasses the capital, in effect expanding the Senate, in Mogadishu, Somalia, Jan. 29, 2021.He also warned that Jubbaland and Puntland could go the way of Somaliland, with Somalia’s unity at stake.”There’s no way that Somalia will go back to the 1990s,” Mohamud said of an era in which local warlords ran rampant in Mogadishu and an attempt by the U.S. military to intervene collapsed when the bodies of its soldiers were dragged through the streets.The objecting states have been given plenty of time to take part in the election, said Ibrahim Hassan Haji, an electoral commission member from Southwest state.”Otherwise, we will be forced to go ahead without them and select their quotas of [delegates] from here in Mogadishu,” he said.But the head of the local Hiraal Institute think tank, Hussein Sheikh Ali, said holding a partial election would not be tolerated in a country where clans are still “armed to the teeth.”Instead, “it is always the ‘sixth clan’ [the international community] that intervenes” in such crises and a road map is usually agreed upon, added political analyst Liban Abdullahi.The U.N. special representative, however, said any resolution must come from Somali leaders, whom he urged to “be imaginative.” He would not say how the international community might respond to a vote that goes ahead without all states involved.
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Russia Warns Navalny Supporters Not to Attend Sunday Protests
Russian police have issued a strong warning against participating in protests planned for Sunday to call for the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s most prominent foe.The warning came amid detentions of Navalny associates and opposition journalists and a police plan to restrict movement Sunday in the center of Moscow.Navalny was arrested January 17 after flying back to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning. His detention sparked nationwide protests one week ago in about 100 cities; nearly 4,000 people were reported arrested.The next demonstration in Moscow is planned for Lubyanka Square. The Federal Security Service, which Navalny claims arranged to have him poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent on behalf of the Kremlin, is headquartered in the square. The Russian government has denied a role in the 44-year-old’s poisoning.A Russian Rosguardia (National Guard) soldier stands at a central avenue in front of a restaurant promoter, a day before a planned protest in St. Petersburg, Russia, Jan. 30, 2021.The city police department said much of central Moscow from Red Square to Lubyanka would have pedestrian restrictions and that seven subway stations in the vicinity would be closed Sunday. Restaurants in the area also are to be closed, and the iconic GUM department store on Red Square said it would open only in the evening.Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk cited the coronavirus pandemic in a Saturday warning against protests. She said participants found in violation of epidemiological regulations could face criminal charges.The January 23 protests in support of Navalny were the largest and most widespread seen in Russia in many years, and authorities sought to prevent a repeat. Police conducted a series of raids this week at apartments and offices of Navalny’s family, associates and anti-corruption organization.Oleg Navalny, brother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was detained for allegedly breaching COVID-19 safety restrictions, stands inside a defendant dock as he attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia Jan. 29, 2021.His brother Oleg, top aide Lyubov Sobol and three other people were put under two-month house arrest Friday, as part of a criminal probe into alleged violations of coronavirus regulations during last weekend’s protests.Sergei Smirnov, editor of the Mediazona news site that was founded by members of the Pussy Riot punk collective, was detained by police Saturday as he was leaving his home. No charges against him were announced.Navalny fell into a coma August 20 while on a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow. He was transferred to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he had been exposed to the Novichok nerve agent.Russian authorities have refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence that he was poisoned.FILE – Opposition leader Alexei Navalny is escorted out of a police station on Jan. 18, 2021, in Khimki, outside Moscow, following a court ruling that ordered him jailed for 30 days.Navalny was arrested when he returned to Russia on the ground that his months recovering in Germany violated terms of a suspended sentence he received in a 2014 conviction for fraud and money laundering, a case that he says was politically motivated.Just after the arrest, Navalny’s team released a two-hour video on his YouTube channel about a lavish Black Sea residence purportedly built for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The property features amenities like an “aqua-discotheque,” a hookah lounge equipped for watching pole dancing and a casino. The video has been viewed more than 100 million times and inspired a stream of sarcastic jokes on the internet.Putin has said that neither he nor any of his close relatives owns the property, and the Kremlin has insisted it has no relation to the president even though it’s protected by the federal bodyguard agency FSO, which provides security for top government officials.Russian state television later aired a report from the compound that showed it under construction and included an interview with an engineer who claimed the building would be a luxury hotel.On Saturday, construction magnate Arkady Rotenberg, a close Putin associate and his occasional judo sparring partner, claimed he owned the property.
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Controversy Over GameStop’s Stock Market Saga Explained
In recent days, American financial markets have been gripped by the saga of a video game retailer’s soaring stock price.GameStop, which makes most of its money selling video games in stores across America, saw its stock price rise as much as 1,700% this week, backed by fans who believe it is unfairly undervalued by large investors who had bet billions that its stock would fall. As small investors championed their purchases of the retailer’s stock in viral posts online, the stock rapidly rose in price, forcing the large investors to spend billions of dollars to cover their losses.The drama around GameStop’s trading has drawn scrutiny from members of Congress, some of whom are calling for an investigation into the investors, companies and regulators involved.What happened to GameStop?GameStop is a retailer facing the same pressures as many others in the United States, where shopping trends and the pandemic have led more people to buy goods online instead of in stores. Wall Street investors started betting heavily against the company months ago, believing that its brick-and-mortar business model is doomed.FILE – Reddit mascots are displayed at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco.Not everyone agreed. Months ago, some members of a popular stock market discussion group on the Reddit website started encouraging others to invest in the company, saying that the big investors had gotten it wrong and that GameStop was significantly undervalued.Eventually, more investors bought in, and this week, as the conflict went viral on social media, additional investors bought into the company fueling its rapid rise in market value. The rising stock price was disastrous for the large investors that had bet against it.What is short selling?Short selling is a complicated, high-risk trading strategy.In short selling, an investor borrows stock from a lender and then sells it to a buyer at market value on the speculation the stock will decline in price. They then buy it back at the lower price, pocketing the difference before returning the stock to the lender. If that occurs, they make money.What is Congress saying?After the market tumult earlier this week caused by volatile trading around GameStop, AMC and other stocks, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, incoming chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said Thursday that he planned to hold a hearing on “the current state of the stock market.”“People on Wall Street only care about the rules when they’re the ones getting hurt. American workers have known for years the Wall Street system is broken — they’ve been paying the price,” Brown said in a FILE – This shows the logo for the Robinhood app on a smartphone in New York, Dec. 17, 2020.Several members of Congress also sought probes into the investment app Robinhood, which for a period severely limited trading after the initial volatile GameStop trading earlier this week.
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Fighting Climate Change in America Means Changes to America
Climate isn’t the only thing changing. What comes next in the nation’s struggle to combat global warming will probably transform how Americans drive, where they get their power and other bits of day-to-day life, both quietly and obviously, experts say. So far, the greening of America has been subtle, driven by market forces, technology and voluntary actions. The Biden administration is about to change that.In a flurry of executive actions in his first eight days in office, the president is trying to steer the U.S. economy from one that uses fossil fuels to one that no longer puts additional heat-trapping gases into the air by 2050.The United States is rejoining the international Paris climate accord and is also joining many other nations in setting an ambitious goal that once seemed unattainable: net-zero carbon emissions by midcentury. That means lots of changes designed to fight increasingly costly climate disasters such as wildfires, floods, droughts, storms and heat waves.Think of the journey to a carbon-less economy as a road trip from Washington to California that started about 15 years ago.”We’ve made it through Ohio and up to the Indiana border. But the road has been pretty smooth so far. It gets rougher ahead,” said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, climate and energy director at the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental research center in Oakland, California.”The Biden administration is both stepping on the gas and working to upgrade our vehicle,” Hausfather said.What isn’t visible, and what isThe results of some of Biden’s new efforts may still not be noticeable, such as your power eventually coming from ever-cheaper wind and solar energy instead of coal and natural gas that now provide 59% of American power. But when it comes to going from here to there, you’ll notice that.FILE – A Chevrolet Volt hybrid car is hooked up at a ChargePoint charging station at a parking garage in Los Angeles, Oct. 17, 2018.General Motors announced Thursday that as of 2035 it hopes to go all-electric for its light-duty vehicles, no longer selling gasoline-powered cars. Experts expect most new cars sold in 2030 to be electric. The Biden administration promised 550,000 charging stations to help with the transition to electric cars.”You will no longer be going to a gas station, but you will need to charge your vehicle whether at home or on the road,” said Kate Larsen, director of international climate policy research at the Rhodium Group, an independent research organization. “It may be a whole new way of thinking about transportation for the average person.”But it will still be your car, which is why most of the big climate action over the next 10 years won’t be too noticeable, said Princeton University ecologist Stephen Pacala.”The single biggest difference is that because wind and solar is distributed you will see a lot more of it on the landscape,” said Pacala, who leads a study on decarbonizing America by the National Academy of Sciences that will come out next week.FILE – President Joe Biden signs a series of executive orders on climate change, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Jan. 27, 2021.Less expensive, plus health benefitsOther recent detailed scientific studies show that because of dropping wind, solar and battery prices, Biden’s net-zero carbon goal can be accomplished far cheaper than had been predicted in the past and with health benefits “many, many times” outweighing the costs, said Pacala, who was part of one study at Princeton. Those studies agree on what needs to be done for decarbonization, and what Biden has come out with “is doing the things that everyone now is concluding that we should do,” Pacala said.These are the types of shifts that don’t cost much — about $1 day per person — and won’t require people to abandon their current cars and furnaces but replace them with cleaner electric vehicles and heat pumps when it comes time for a new one, said Margaret Torn, a senior scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, who co-authored a study published recently by Berkeley Lab, the University of San Francisco and the consulting firm Evolved Energy Research.Part of the problem, said study co-author Ryan Jones, co-founder of Evolved Energy Research, is that for years, people have wrongly portrayed the battle against climate change as a “personal morality problem” where individuals have to sacrifice by driving and flying less, turning down the heat and eating less meat.”Actually, climate change is an industry economy issue where most of the big solutions are happening under the hood or upstream of people’s homes,” Jones said. “It’s a big change in how we produce energy and consume energy. It’s not a change in people’s day-to-day lives, or it doesn’t need to be.”One Biden interim goal — “a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035″ — may not be doable that quickly, but can be done by 2050, said study co-author Jim Williams of the University of San Francisco.FILE – Todd Miller stands next to solar panels on the roof of his solar installation business in Ankeny, Iowa, April 15, 2019.Electric vehicles, conservation, wind energyBiden’s executive orders featured plans for an all-electric federal fleet of vehicles, conserving 30% of the country’s land and waters, doubling the nation’s offshore wind energy and funding to help communities become more resilient to climate disasters. Republicans and fossil fuel interests objected, calling the actions job-killers.”Using the incredible leverage of federal government purchases in green electricity, zero-emission cars and new infrastructure will rapidly increase demand for home-grown climate-friendly technologies,” said Rosina Bierbaum, a University of Michigan environmental policy professor.The next big thing for the administration is to come up with a Paris climate accord goal — called Nationally Determined Contribution — for how much the United States hopes to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. It has to be ambitious for the president to reach his ultimate goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but it also has to be doable.His administration promises to reveal the goal, required by the climate agreement but nonbinding, before its Earth Day climate summit, April 22.That new number “is actually the centrally important activity of the next year,” said University of Maryland environment professor Nate Hultman, who worked on the Obama administration’s Paris goal.Getting to net zero carbon emissions at midcentury means about a 43% cut from 2005 levels — the baseline the U.S. government uses — by 2030, said the Rhodium Group’s Larsen. The U.S. can realistically reach a 40% cut by 2030, which is about one-third reduction from what 2020 U.S. carbon emissions would have been without a pandemic, said Williams, the San Francisco professor.All this work on power and vehicles, that’s easy compared with decarbonizing agriculture with high methane emissions from livestock and high-heat industrial processes such as steelmaking, Breakthrough’s Hausfather said.”There’s no silver bullet for agriculture,” Hausfather said. “There’s no solar panels for cows, so to speak, apart from meat alternatives, but even there you have challenges around consumer acceptance.”
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Sources: Lithuanian President Nominates Belarus Opposition Leader for Nobel Prize
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has nominated Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya for the Nobel Peace Prize, two sources with knowledge of the matter said Saturday.Nauseda nominated the activist, who has been living in Lithuania since fleeing her homeland in the wake of a disputed August 9 presidential election, to show his support for the Belarusian democratic movement and its demand for free elections, one of the sources said.Months of mass protests erupted in Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory over Tsikhanouskaya in the poll. Thousands of protesters were rounded up and nearly all opposition political figures were driven into exile or jailed.A former teacher, Tsikhanouskaya ran for president after her husband, an opposition blogger with political ambitions, was detained ahead of the election. From her Vilnius office she has demanded that Lukashenko stand down, free jailed protesters and hold free elections.Last week she urged the European Union and the United States to be “braver and stronger” in their actions to help end Lukashenko’s rule.Nominations for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize are to close January 31 and the winner is scheduled to be announced in November. Thousands of people can make nominations for the award, including members of national parliaments, former laureates and leading academics.Last year’s winner was the U.N. World Food Program.
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