Asian American Christian leaders said Thursday their congregations are saddened and outraged after a white gunman allegedly killed eight people — most of them women of Asian descent — at three Atlanta-area massage parlors. And they’re calling for action beyond prayers.Asian Americans were already rattled by a wave of racist attacks amid the spread of the coronavirus pandemic across the United States. While the motive behind Tuesday’s rampage remains under investigation, some see it as a wake-up call to stand up against a rise in violence against the community.The lead pastor at Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, located a few miles from two of the spas that were targeted, said he will ask congregants during his Sunday sermon to “not just pray, not just worry,” because “it’s time for us to act.”“I’m going to urge people with love and peace that we need to step up and address this issue, so that … our next generation should not be involved in tragic … violence,” the Rev. Byeong Han said. “That’s what Christians need to do.”’I was in shock’South Korea’s Foreign Ministry says diplomats in Atlanta have confirmed with police that four of the dead were women of Korean descent and are working to determine their nationality.Jane Yoon, a congregant at Korean Central Presbyterian and a 17-year-old high school junior in nearby Marietta, said she increasingly worries for her family, which is of Korean descent, and was shocked by the killings.“I was definitely very outraged,” she said. “I was in shock at first of the news and just also how close it is to my community.”It also hit home on a very personal level: Last week, she said, she was in a car accident, and another driver punched her in the face and body before she was able to call 911.Yoon said the woman, who was arrested, did not make any racist comments during the assault, but she couldn’t help but think about rising attacks against Asian Americans.Following that incident, she has been getting spiritual guidance and counseling from the congregation.In the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, the Rev. Jong Kim of Grace Korean Presbyterian Church said he found a glimmer of hope in the wake of the killings after a woman reached out to donate $100 to his church “to express her feelings of sorrow to the Asian community.”Kim spoke to several other Korean pastors in the area Thursday, and they now plan to join the group Asian Americans Advancing Justice, through which they hope to have discussions about issues of race and ethnicity and provide funeral service assistance for the victims’ families.’There were a lot of tears’The Atlanta chapter of Asian Americans Advancing Justice has said that while details of the shooting are still emerging, “the broader context cannot be ignored.” The attacks, it said, “happened under the trauma of increasing violence against Asian Americans nationwide, fueled by white supremacy and systemic racism.”Ripples from the killings have been felt well beyond Atlanta.In Chicago, Garden City Covenant Church invited Asian Americans “in need of a community who understands your pain” to join an online meeting in which they could “share, listen, lament and pray” together.“There were a lot of tears, and there were a lot of questions, and for many I think there is a sense also of helplessness,” said Gabriel J. Catanus, the lead pastor, who is Filipino American. The church’s diverse congregation includes about 60 percent Filipino Americans, he said, along with worshippers from Latino and other communities.“It’s an important biblical practice, and Christian practice, to come before God honestly and to pour one’s own heart out before God,” he said. “God can handle even the rage and the devastation that comes out of us at times.”Catanus said he was glad to see that people are now “more awakened” to the experiences of Asian Americans. But he said much works remains to be done in faith communities and called on religious leaders to denounce anti-Asian racism from their pulpits.“In the Christian community and in our Christian institutions, specifically, we need to confess that we have in many ways failed to lead and to teach our people,” he said.“Our discipleship has failed in many ways to address these very powerful forces that have led to violence and death.”Kevin Park, an associate pastor at Korean Central Presbyterian Church, said not only Asian Americans but the whole country needs to speak out against the violence, racism and “more subtle marginalization” that have been suffered for generations.“There’s opportunities among faith communities that we need to stand up together and reach out to communities that are hurting, not only Asian American communities but other communities of color,” he said.“And I think there needs to be kind of this movement toward solidarity. … We’re all in this together.”
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Month: March 2021
Biden, Harris to Georgia as Asian American Hate Crimes, Vaccines Take Center Stage
U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are traveling to the southern U.S. state of Georgia on Friday, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the massage parlor shootings near Atlanta on Tuesday.The U.S. leaders will meet with Asian American leaders to discuss the shootings and the targeting of people of Asian descent in the U.S. in apparent hate crimes.Georgia officials, however, have not yet labeled the massage parlor shootings as hate crimes because the suspect said the shooting spree was a result of his sexual issues.The president and the vice president will also meet with officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention while in Georgia to get an update on the U.S. handling the COVID-19 pandemic.They were originally also planning to participate in a “Help Is Here” rally to promote the trillion-dollar COVID relief package.The rally has been postponed in the wake of the shootings that killed eight people, six of Asian descent. Biden is, however, slated to meet with former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams whose organizing is widely viewed as being responsible for the Democratic presidential win in Georgia in November, the first Democratic presidential victory in the southern state since 1992.Meanwhile, U.S. and Mexican officials deny Washington is attaching any strings to a likely shipment of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses to America’s southern neighbor at a time of heightened migration passing through Mexico en route to the United States.“[P]reventing the spread of a global pandemic is part of one of our diplomatic objectives. Another one of our diplomatic objectives is working to address the challenges at the border. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that those conversations are both ongoing and happening,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied when asked about a link between lending vaccine supplies and commitments from Mexico to tighten the flow of migrants heading north.“These are two separate issues, as we look for a more humane migratory system and enhanced cooperation against COVID-19, for the benefit of our two countries and the region,” said a statement from Roberto Velasco, director general for the North America region at Mexico’s foreign ministry.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 19 MB720p | 37 MB1080p | 74 MBOriginal | 224 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioPsaki confirmed Thursday that there are discussions to send 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada.“We are assessing how we can lend doses,” the press secretary said. “That is our aim. It’s not fully finalized yet.”Mexican officials say an agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico is to be announced Friday.Tens of millions of doses of the Astra Zeneca-University of Oxford vaccine are in U.S. manufacturing sites. That company’s vaccine has been authorized in numerous countries, but not yet in the United States.The AstraZeneca vaccine has received some negative publicity and there is speculation some Americans will hesitate to take that vaccine after it receives expected approval in the United States.Several countries in Europe this week suspended use of the AstraZeneca doses after reports that a few people who received it later developed blot clots and severe bleeding.Europe’s drug regulator Thursday declared the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, adding that a review of the 17 million people who received it found they were actually less likely to develop dangerous clots than others who hadn’t received the vaccine.“It makes sense for the United States to loan its surplus of millions of doses to neighbors where it can be put to good use right away,” said Joshua Busby, assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Texas-Austin.The pending deals with Canada and Mexico, Busby told VOA, do not go far enough because “more countries in the Americas and beyond will need vaccines. But I’m confident that the Biden team is aware of this.”Busby, author of the book Moral Movements and Foreign Policy, said he expects in the coming months the Biden administration will make a major effort to increase global vaccine access “because the longer the epidemic persists globally, the greater the risk of variants that could emerge for which the current vaccines are ineffective.”Asked on Thursday about requests from other countries to make U.S. coronavirus vaccine stock available to them, Psaki replied: “Certainly we’ll have those conversations, and we are open to receiving those requests and obviously making considerations.””Various countries including China have been engaged in so called vaccine diplomacy,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Japanese reporters on Wednesday. “We shouldn’t tie the distribution or access to vaccines to politics or to geopolitics.”Concerns have been raised that the United States and the rest of the West are losing a public relations battle with China and Russia which, at minimum, are using such vaccine distribution to improve their influence and image in developing countries.“Even as nations understandably prioritize their own citizens for vaccines, including their own most vulnerable, we cannot forget that those with the means should also help other countries in need,” said Curtis Chin, former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank.Vaccine diplomacy competition between nations to help other countries can be a good thing, but “where it falls apart is when that competition overrides necessary cooperation and coordination,” Chin told VOA.
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European Medicines Agency Again Approves AstraZeneca Vaccine
The European Medicines Agency has approved the continued use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the battle to contain the pandemic. The European regulator’s seal of approval comes after several European countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, stopped using the vaccine following reports that the shots caused blood clots in some vaccine recipients.The agency said in a statement Thursday “the benefits of the vaccine in combating the still widespread threat of COVID-19 (which itself results in clotting problems and may be fatal) continue to outweigh the risk of side effects.”The agency added, “A causal link with the vaccine is not proven but is possible and deserves further analysis.”Meanwhile, the White House announced Thursday that it is sending millions of stockpiled doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and Canada.The vaccine has not yet been approved for use by U.S. regulators, but it has been approved for use by Mexico and Canada.The announcement comes as the Biden administration wants Mexico’s help in stemming the tide of migrants who are attempting to come into the U.S.Mexico is slated to receive 2.5 million vaccines from the U.S., with Canada receiving 1.5 million.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the vaccines would be loans to the two U.S. neighbors, with the U.S. eventually being reimbursed with vaccines from the bordering countries.Beginning Friday, several French regions, including Paris, will be under new lockdown orders to contain increasing coronavirus cases.France had 40,000 new cases Wednesday.Prime Minister Jean Castex said Thursday the outbreak in France is “worsening,” adding, “Our responsibility now is that it not get out of control.”On Friday, India’s Union Health Ministry reported an increase in coronavirus infections for a ninth day in a row, with 40,000 new cases in the previous 24-hour period. India has 11.5 million COVID-19 cases.Only two countries have more infections than India — the U.S., with 29.6 million cases, and Brazil, with 11.7 million, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.Johns Hopkins reports there are 121.7 million global coronavirus infections.
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Myanmar Medical Workers Say Sunday Violence Was ‘Like a War’
Myanmar’s most violent day was “like a war,” according to frontline medical workers, as the military crackdown continued since the coup on Feb. 1.Thousands of anti-coup protesters have been in the streets voicing their opposition to military control, while sector professionals are refusing to work under the junta government, officially the State Administrative Council. More than 2,000 demonstrators have been detained and hundreds have been killed, according to the An anti-coup protester throws a Molotov cocktail towards police as they move towards the protest area in Yangon, Myanmar, March 17, 2021.And the surgeon admits she’s concerned the military might target her hospital next. “I’m very worried. If they occupy, if they control my hospital, we cannot conduct an operation like this,” she said.An emergency doctor at a Yangon hospital said real bullets were largely the cause for so many injured and killed protesters Sunday.“On that day, I received at least 55 gunshot wound victims. Out of those 55, they used the real bullets for 50 patients,” the doctor said.The doctor told VOA he witnessed the “8888 uprisings” in 1988, where thousands were killed. The doctor was also working during the Saffron Revolution in 2007. But from his experiences, the current military is targeting protesters to kill them.“In the other uprisings, they shot at them not aiming at the head, neck or chest. Someone who was unlucky might have died on the spot or at the hospital. They were hit in the hands or the thigh, some maybe lethal, some maybe not lethal,” he said.“But now, their attack is like a military battle. They probably use the sniper. Headshots are many. This is different. I found many dead patients, dead at the scene; they had just one shot,” the doctor said.“They aim to kill, not to threaten,” he underscored.The doctor said the military is even targeting medical employees in ambulances, who are attempting to retrieve injured patients from danger zones.An anti-coup protester uses a fire extinguisher to provide cover for others as security forces approach their encampment in Yangon, Myanmar, March 17, 2021.“This time, 2021 is very much more difficult than 2007 because the military is trying to shoot even through the ambulances. It’s very ugly. Shoot the ambulances or arrest the ambulance crew, or they do not allow the medical crew through to the scene,” he added.Zeya Thu, a Myanmar political commentator, acknowledged the current uprising has reached the Myanmar people on a much larger scale than previously.“People from all sorts of life are taking part in the 2021 movement against the coup, and the movement is a lot bigger than the one in 2007,” he told VOA.The current crackdown by the military already has seen more deaths than the Saffron Revolution, Myanmar’s previous uprising in 2007, where thousands protested in the streets about fuel prices.According to various reports, the death toll in 2007 ranged from at least 13 to upwards of 100, although VOA has obtained additional details from a leaked police report stating there were more than 20,000 arrests and 34 people killed during the 2007 unrest.Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, gained independence from Britain in 1948, but most of its modern history has been governed under military rule.The NLD party led by Aung San Suu Kyi won the country’s first open democratic election in 2015. But in last November’s general elections, the military contested poll results, claiming widespread electoral fraud, without evidence. On Feb. 1, the Myanmar military, also known as Tatmadaw, removed the NLD government. Leader Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were detained and have since been additionally charged.Armored vehicles and live ammunition have been deployed by the military to suppress protests, while martial law has been imposed across the country. The junta has implemented daily internet shutdowns for the sake of the country’s stability, it said.
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Tanzania President John Magufuli Dead at 61
Tanzanian President John Magufuli has died at the age of 61, ending days of speculation and official denials about his whereabouts and health. Magufuli was known for massive infrastructure projects, intolerance of critics and a free press, and his denial of the coronavirus pandemic. Charles Kombe in Dar es Salaam has this report on his legacy.
Camera: Rajabu Hassan Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov
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Cost of Higher Ed ‘Bankrupting Students’
Cost of college tuition in the United States remains at an all-time high – even higher for international students. US politicians who are examining the future of higher education after COVID-19 say tackling the cost is essential to students and universities. Jesusemen Oni has more.
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Top US, Chinese Diplomats Clash Publicly at First Talks of Biden Presidency
The United States and China leveled sharp rebukes Thursday of each other’s policies in the first high-level, in-person talks of the Biden administration, with deeply strained relations of the two global rivals on rare public display during the meeting’s opening session in Alaska.The United States, which quickly accused China of grandstanding and violating the meeting’s protocol, had been looking for a change in behavior from China, which had earlier this year expressed hope for a reset to sour relations.On the eve of the talks, Beijing had presaged what would be a contentious meeting, with its ambassador to Washington saying the United States was full of illusions if it thinks China will compromise.Sparring in a highly unusual extended back-and-forth in front of cameras, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan opened their meeting with China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and State Councilor Wang Yi in Anchorage, fresh off Blinken’s visits to allies Japan and South Korea.White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, right, speaks as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, looks on at the opening session of U.S.-China talks at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska, March 18, 2021.”We will … discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyberattacks on the United States, economic coercion of our allies,” Blinken said in blunt public remarks at the top of the first meeting.”Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability,” he said.Yang responded with a 15-minute speech in Chinese while the U.S. side awaited translation, lashing out about what he said was the United States’ struggling democracy and its poor treatment of minorities, and criticizing its foreign and trade policies.”The United States uses its military force and financial hegemony to carry out long-arm jurisdiction and suppress other countries,” Yang said.”It abuses so-called notions of national security to obstruct normal trade exchanges and incite some countries to attack China,” he added.”Let me say here that in front of the Chinese side, the United States does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength,” Yang said. ” … The U.S. side was not even qualified to say such things even 20 years or 30 years back, because this is not the way to deal with the Chinese people.”ProtocolApparently taken aback by Yang’s remarks, Blinken held journalists in the room so he could respond.Sullivan said the United States did not seek conflict with China but would stand up for its principles and friends. He touted this year’s Mars rover landing success and said the United States’ promise was in its ability constantly reinvent itself.Yang Jiechi, center, director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, second left, speak with U.S. counterparts at the opening session of U.S.-China talks in Anchorage, Alaska, March 18, 2021.What is typically a few minutes of opening remarks open to reporters for such high-level meetings lasted for more than an hour, and the two delegations tussled about when journalists would be ushered out of the room.Following the exchange, a senior U.S. administration official said China had immediately violated agreed-to protocol, which was two minutes of opening remarks by each of the principals.”The Chinese delegation … seems to have arrived intent on grandstanding, focused on public theatrics and dramatics over substance,” the official told reporters in Alaska.The United States would continue with its meeting as planned, the official said, adding that “exaggerated diplomatic presentations often are aimed at a domestic audience.”Before taking office, U.S. President Joe Biden had been attacked by Republicans who feared his administration would take too soft an approach with China. But in recent weeks, top Republicans have given the president a gentle nod for revitalizing relations with U.S. allies in order to confront China, a shift from former President Donald Trump’s go-it-alone “America First” strategy.While much of Biden’s China policy is still being formulated, including how to handle the tariffs on Chinese goods implemented under Trump, his administration has so far placed a stronger emphasis on democratic values and allegations of human rights abuses by China.’Pretty tough’ conversationsThe U.S. administration has said Blinken’s Asia tour before the meeting with Chinese officials, as well as U.S. outreach to Europe, India and other partners, shows how the United States has strengthened its hand to confront China since Biden took office in January.But the two sides appear primed to agree on very little at the talks, which were expected to run into the evening in Anchorage and continue Friday.Even the status of the meeting has become a sticking point, with China insisting it is a “strategic dialogue,” recalling bilateral mechanisms of years past. The U.S. side has explicitly rejected that, calling it a one-off session.On the eve of the talks, the United States issued a flurry of actions directed at China, including a move to begin revoking Chinese telecom licenses, subpoenas to multiple Chinese information technology companies over national security concerns, and updated sanctions on China over a rollback of democracy in Hong Kong.”We’re expecting much of these conversations will be pretty, pretty tough,” a senior U.S. administration official told reporters in Alaska before the meeting began.Yang questioned Blinken on whether the sanctions were announced ahead of the meeting on purpose.”Well, I think we thought too well of the United States. We thought that the U.S. side would follow the necessary diplomatic protocols,” he said.FILE – A protester holds a sign calling for China to release Canadian detainees Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig outside a court hearing for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, March 6, 2019.China, however, indicated this week that it was set to begin trials of two Canadians detained in December 2018 on spying charges soon after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of telecom equipment company Huawei Technologies, on a U.S. warrant.Meng awaits the results of a case that could see her extradited to the United States, but China’s foreign ministry rejected assertions that the timing of the trials was linked to the Anchorage talks.Washington has said it is willing to work with China when it is in the interests of the United States and has cited the fight against climate change and the coronavirus pandemic as examples. On Thursday, Blinken said Washington hoped to see China use its influence with North Korea to persuade it to give up its nuclear weapons.Uyghurs’ demandThe largest group representing exiled Uyghurs has written to Blinken urging him to demand that Beijing close its internment camps in the Xinjiang region, where U.N. experts say that more than 1 million members of the ethnic group and other Muslim minorities have been held.Blinken had pledged to raise the issue, his State Department having upheld a Trump administration determination that Beijing was perpetrating genocide in Xinjiang, something China vehemently denies.Yang said China firmly opposed U.S. interference in its internal affairs. The United States should handle its own affairs and China its own, he said.
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Magufuli, Tanzania’s ‘Bulldozer,’ Remembered
Tanzanian President John Magufuli, who died Wednesday at age 61, was straightforward and unpredictable but also a skillful politician. He branded himself as a man of action, a departure from the more modest, stately styles of his predecessors.Vice President Samia Hassan announced his death to the nation, saying Magufuli had succumbed to heart disease at Mzena Hospital in Dar es Salaam.Born in 1959 to a peasant farmer, Magufuli entered politics in 1995, when he was elected to parliament. As public works minister, a post he served in from 2000 to 2005 and 2010 to 2015, he was nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for his stewardship of programs to build roads, railways and other infrastructure. He came to the presidency in 2015 on a platform of fighting corruption.His handling of the coronavirus pandemic over the past year was widely criticized. He urged Tanzanians to put their faith in home remedies and dismissed vaccines and lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the virus as a Western conspiracy.At a funeral earlier this year, Magufuli asked religious leaders to insist on prayers and said God had never left his nation.Magufuli’s death came after a long absence from the public, which had sparked rumors that he contracted COVID-19.Reactions varyReaction to his passing was mixed. Many, like Rajabu Mdundu, said the country had lost a man of the people.He said Magufuli was a man of action and a leader who put the interests of every Tanzanian citizen first. He added that the president had always urged people to work hard. Although Magufuli has left us, Mdundu said, his slogan, “Strictly business,” will last.Some political analysts, like Onesmo Kyauke, agreed that Magufuli had left his country more prosperous.He said Magufuli had left a country in which corruption has decreased and implemented discipline in the government that was not there before. Magufuli left Tanzania with many projects, such as airports and electricity infrastructure, that will boost the country’s economy, he said.But Magufuli was also criticized for actions that many saw as threatening freedom of expression. Ado Shaibu, secretary-general of the opposition Alliance for Change and Transparency party, said some opposition priorities received no attention under Magufuli’s leadership, and he urged the president’s successor, Hassan, to accent economic and political issues and human rights.Hassan, as the East African nation’s first female president, will lead the country for the remainder of Magufuli’s term, until 2025.
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Students Who Got Partial Loan Relief to See Full Discharge
Students who were defrauded by their colleges and received only partial relief from their federal loans could now see them fully canceled, the Biden administration announced Thursday, reversing a Trump administration policy.The change could lead to $1 billion in loans being canceled for 72,000 borrowers, all of whom attended for-profit schools, the Education Department said.”Borrowers deserve a simplified and fair path to relief when they have been harmed by their institution’s misconduct,” said Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “A close review of these claims and the associated evidence showed these borrowers have been harmed, and we will grant them a fresh start from their debt.”FILE – Miguel Cardona, then President Joe Biden’s pick to become education secretary, testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee during his confirmation hearing in Washington, Feb. 3, 2021.The department said it was rescinding the formula that the Trump administration used to determine partial relief and putting in place “a streamlined path to receiving full loan discharges.”The decision applies to students who already had their claims approved and received only partial relief, the department said.A senior department official told reporters that the agency was continuing to review both the backlog of claims yet to be decided and those that have been denied.’A first step’The department described Thursday’s action as “a first step” and said it would be looking at rewriting the regulations down the road.In addition to having their loans fully canceled, students will be reimbursed for any payments made on the loans and have their eligibility for federal student aid reinstated. The department said it also would ask credit bureaus to remove any negative ratings tied to the loans.”Abandoning partial relief is a strong start for a narrow subset of borrowers, but what we need from the Education Department is an overhaul of the current borrower defense process,” said Toby Merrill, director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending, which represents former students at for-profit colleges.”The previous administration turned borrower defense into a total sham that was rigged to deny claims without any true consideration,” Merrill said. “The Biden-Harris administration must now address these failings or else perpetuate a system that is stacked against the very students they are supposed to protect.”Career Education Colleges and Universities, an industry lobbying group, said it had no comment on the Biden administration’s actions.FILE – Then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room, March 27, 2020, in Washington.Moves by DeVosThe Borrower Defense to Repayment program allows students to have their federal loans canceled if they were defrauded by their colleges. The Obama administration had expanded the program aimed at helping students who attended for-profit colleges. But President Donald Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, pulled it back, saying it had become too easy for students to have their loans erased. She revised the program to make it harder for the students to get relief, including providing only partial cancellation of the loans.Congress voted to overturn DeVos’s changes last March, but Trump vetoed that measure.Nearly two dozen state attorneys general sued the Trump administration over its implementation of the repayment program, which allows borrowers to have their loans canceled if their colleges made false claims to get them to enroll. One of the plaintiffs in that suit was California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who was confirmed Thursday as President Joe Biden’s health secretary.The lawsuit, filed last July, argued that DeVos had changed the policy without justification, failed to provide a meaningful process for students to get their loans forgiven and created “arbitrary impediments” for them, including forcing them to prove that their schools knowingly misled them.U.S. Representative Bobby Scott, chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor, said DeVos had used a “nonsensical formula” to compute relief and that Thursday’s action would be “life-changing for tens of thousands of people across the country.”
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Biden to Send Senator to Ethiopia to Convey Humanitarian Concerns
U.S. President Joe Biden is sending Senator Chris Coons to Ethiopia to meet with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and convey Biden’s “grave concerns” about the humanitarian crisis in the Tigray region, where thousands have died amid fighting.Washington also said it would provide nearly $52 million more in aid to address the humanitarian crisis in the region but called for hostilities to end and human rights abusers to be held accountable.Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean forces, an end to the Ethiopian government’s deployment of regional forces in Tigray and increased humanitarian access.”The humanitarian situation will continue to worsen without a political solution,” Blinken said in a statement.Fighting between government troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes in the mountainous region of about 5 million.FILE – Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington.The United Nations has raised concerns about atrocities being committed in Tigray, while Blinken has described acts carried out in the region as ethnic cleansing. Ethiopia has rejected Blinken’s allegation.”[The accusation] is a completely unfounded and spurious verdict against the Ethiopian government,” Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said on March 13, reacting to the allegation of ethnic cleansing.”Nothing during or after the end of the main law enforcement operation in Tigray can be identified or defined by any standards as a targeted, intentional ethnic cleansing against anyone in the region,” it said. “The Ethiopian government vehemently opposes such accusations.”Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in a statement that Coons – a longtime Biden ally who represents the president’s home state of Delaware – would also consult with the African Union.”Senator Coons will convey President Biden’s grave concerns about the humanitarian crisis and human rights abuses in the Tigray region and the risk of broader instability in the Horn of Africa,” Sullivan said. The senator serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on Africa and global health policy.FILE – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed responds to questions from members of parliament at the prime minister’s office in Addis Ababa, Nov. 30, 2020.Officials in the prime minister’s office and at the foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Coons said he looked forward to engaging with Abiy and conveying Biden’s concern.”The United States is gravely concerned by the deteriorating situation in the Tigray, which threatens the peace and stability of the Horn of Africa region,” Coons said in a statement.Ethiopia’s federal army ousted the TPLF from the Tigray capital, Mekelle, in November, after what it said was a surprise assault on its forces in the region bordering Eritrea.The government has said most fighting has ceased but acknowledged there are still isolated incidents of shooting. Ethiopia and Eritrea have denied the involvement of Eritrean troops in the fighting, although dozens of witnesses, diplomats and an Ethiopian general have reported their presence.
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Some Exiled Rohingya See ‘Rare Opportunity’ in Myanmar Coup
U.N. and Western criticism of Myanmar’s military junta over last month’s coup has given hope to some ethnic Rohingya activists living in exile, who have long pushed other nations to help stop persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar.“We have to become more diplomatic in this situation when the opportunity really presented itself for us to actually do some outreach and extend our compassion to our fellow citizens,” said Yasmin Ullah, a Rohingya activist in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.Born in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State, Ullah and her family fled in 1995 to Thailand, where she remained a stateless refugee until her settlement in Canada in 2011. She told VOA that her community now has its “best chance to be able to make amends” through extending solidarity to the anti-junta demonstrations and pushing for a federal democratic system in Myanmar.“It is a very rare opportunity for us to do this. And I think if we blow this, we might not get another one,” she added.FILE – Burned Rohingya houses are seen in Ka Nyin Tan village of Maungdaw, northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, Sept. 6, 2017.’More vulnerable’Members of the Rohingya, who blame the military for the 2017 deadly crackdown against them, have warned a more powerful military could further endanger minority groups in Myanmar, also known as Burma.“This [Myanmar’s coup] does not create hope for a better future for Burma,” said Nasir Zakaria, the president of Rohingya Cultural Center of Chicago. “It makes the Rohingya more vulnerable in Burma.”In 2017, Myanmar’s army reportedly led a campaign of killings, rape and beatings against the Muslim minority that drove out over a half million of them to Bangladesh. The U.N. has called it a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”Despite living in poor conditions in Bangladesh, many Rohingya refugees refuse to return to Myanmar, saying stranded relatives in Rakhine State are living in constant fear.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Rohingya refugees walk at the Balukhali refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Feb.2, 2021.Ro Nay San Lwin, the co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition, shared similar skepticism of the military’s alleged attempts to turn a new page.“The military chief said in 2018 that this crisis is unfinished business from World War II, so we are really worried,” Lwin told VOA via phone from Frankfurt, Germany.Confined to villagesThe remaining Rohingya stranded in Rakhine, Lwin said, are confined in their villages that have turned into “concentration camps” because of military curfews. He said the community had been unable to voice its support for anti-coup demonstrations because of fears of military violence.“What we are worried about is that the military now is busy [with its] crackdown against protests across the country. When the situation is stable, it might launch another round of violence against the Rohingya and wipe out the remaining population,” Lwin said.This week, the U.N. humanitarian agency said at least 149 protesters had been killed in the crackdown. On Wednesday, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said it had “grave concern” that the military was torturing political activists, students and youths.Some experts say developments in Myanmar have created an atmosphere in which minority groups such as the Rohingya can find a common ground with the protesting Burmese.Ronan Lee, the author of Myanmar’s Rohingya Genocide and a scholar with the International State Crime Initiative, said more people in Myanmar were starting to draw a comparison between the military’s violence against the protesters and the Rohingya. He said many protesters have now begun to question the inconsistency of their silence when the military brutalized Rohingya civilians.FILE – Anti-coup protesters take cover at a barricade as they clash with security forces on Bayint Naung Bridge in Mayangone, Yangon, Myanmar, March 16, 2021.“Better this realization comes late than never at all, and some protesters in Yangon have even carried signs with slogans to indicate their regret over the Rohingya’s mistreatment,” Lee said. He added that the Rohingya leadership should work with Myanmar’s youth, who are increasingly rejecting racism in politics.Rare opportunity seen“Defeating Myanmar’s coup would provide an opportunity for the country to at last change its constitution in order to kick the military from politics permanently. This is a once-in-a-generation chance to reimagine Myanmar’s future,” Lee said.Some experts, however, warn that a broad involvement in the anti-military protests will further expose the Rohingya to Buddhist extremists in the military.”It will be prudent to take a balanced approach under the current circumstances, because our community of the remaining 600,000 people in Rakhine State is highly vulnerable,” said Wakar Uddin, a professor at Pennsylvania State University.“The risk is too high and the price will be enormous if the military is antagonized by any small misstep by the people who they hate most,” he said, arguing for sustained international pressure to resolve the Rohingya issue, regardless of which group rules Myanmar.
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Samia Hassan Poised to Become Tanzania’s First Woman President
Following Wednesday’s death of Tanzanian President John Magufuli, attention is shifting to his successor.The next in line, according to Tanzania’s Constitution, is the vice president. That would make Samia Suluhu Hassan the first female leader of the East African nation since its independence from Britain in late 1961.There was no indication as of Thursday that Hassan has been sworn in as president.“It is too early to talk about that … after the loss of our great leader,” Wilson Masilingi, Tanzania’s ambassador to the United States, told VOA in a brief phone call Thursday. “… We are grieving now. … We can’t even talk about succession.”Mixed Emotions Over Death of Controversial Tanzanian LeaderIt’s complicated, critics and luminaries say, mourning the death of Tanzanian President MagufuliAsked who was leading the country, he said, “The vice president is in an acting capacity, according to our Constitution. … It is a constitutionally governed country.”The ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), has announced a special meeting of its central committee set for Saturday, according to the Reuters news service.Hassan, 61, has served as vice president since Magufuli’s election in 2015. He won a second five-year term in last October’s election that his political rivals and the United States criticized for irregularities.Hassan, a CCM member, would be expected to complete Magufuli’s second term. She announced his death Wednesday, attributing it to heart problems. The president, outspoken in dismissing any threat of the coronavirus, had been out of public view since February 27.She’s “the most underrated politician in Tanzania,” National Assembly member January Makamba said of Hassan, according to the BBC. “I have observed at close quarters her work ethic, decision-making and temperament. She is a very capable leader.”Makamba is also a member of the ruling party. Commonly referred to as Samia, Hassan was born in Zanzibar, the semi-autonomous region, on January 27, 1960. She began her political career in 2000 with election to the Zanzibar House of Representative. She was immediately appointed minister of trade and tourism by then-President Amani Karume, becoming the only woman in a senior ministerial position in the Cabinet.In 2010, Hassan won a seat in Tanzania’s national parliament. Her journey in national politics began in 2014, when she was selected by then-President Jakaya Kikwete as the country’s minister for union affairs.That same year, Hassan was elected vice chairperson of the constitutional assembly, playing a key role in drafting the country’s new constitution; however, it failed to pass in the assembly.Hassan studied both at home and abroad, earning her first degree at Mzumbe University in Tanzania and later higher learning at the University of Manchester in Britain, earning a degree in economics and later an online degree from Southern New Hampshire University in the United States. That university’s registrar’s office did not respond to a phone call Thursday for information on the degree.Hassan is married to Hafidh Ameir, a retired agricultural officer. Their daughter, Wanu Hafidh Ameir, serves in the Zanzibar House of Representatives, as Hassan did. The couple also have three sons.Carol Guensburg of VOA’s Africa Division contributed to this report.
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Mixed Emotions Over Death of Controversial Tanzanian Leader
A great son of Africa. An independent leader who refused to bow to foreign powers. An anti-corruption crusader. A COVID-19 denier. A budding authoritarian.Across the African continent and the world, reactions are streaming in — both loving and searing — over the death of Tanzanian President John Magufuli.South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers his eulogy during the memorial service for Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini in Nongoma, South Africa, March 18, 2021.South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa was one of the first to express his “deep sadness” in a short statement Thursday morning after receiving the news that Magufuli had died.“South Africa is united in grief with the government and people of Tanzania,” Ramaphosa said.Magufuli was only 61 and died under mysterious circumstances. Officially, according to Tanzanian government sources, the Tanzanian president died of heart disease. He had not appeared in public for more than two weeks, and opposition politicians claimed he had contracted COVID-19.Magufuli stood alone among African leaders in denying the existence of the virus in his country. Last June, he declared his coastal nation free of the virus — a claim that many African health experts questioned.As one of the continent’s most respected leaders, Ramaphosa set the tone for much of the comment from the continent in the wake of Magufuli’s death. Leaders and luminaries from Nigeria, Uganda, Somalia, Zimbabwe and former African power Britain were quick to issue statements mourning his death.Ghana-based Sarfo Abebrese, founding president of the Coalition of Supporters Unions of Africa, which promotes African cooperation, said Magufuli’s reach extended across the continent.“It is not just the citizens of Tanzania that he ruled over,” he said. “We all received the news with a lot of sadness, especially because we all knew him as a great son of the continent of Africa. And you know, he is one of the few leaders that believed in his continent’s abilities, despised and acted against corruption, and chose to be a true African statesman.”Activist Daniel Mwambonu, who heads the Global Pan Africanism Network, described Magufuli’s death as a “terrible blow.”“He has demonstrated the selfless leadership and people-driven leadership that continues to inspire the young generation,” Mwambonu said. “And utilizing the natural resources that Tanzania has, he has been able to develop Tanzania from a Third World country into a middle-class economy within just a short period of time. He has built the railways, utilizing Tanzanians’ taxpayer money, without begging for foreign aid. And these are the kind of leaders who we need in Africa.”But Magufuli was not without his critics. Also on Thursday, opposition leaders and analysts from the continent and beyond criticized him for his increasingly tight grip on civil liberties and the media in Tanzania, and on his denial of the pandemic.Nic Cheeseman, professor of democracy at the University of Birmingham in Britain, said Magufuli’s legacy is complicated.”On the one hand, there will be those who cite him as a transformational leader who reduced corruption and strengthened the Tanzanian state and government,” he said. “On the other hand, there are going to be people who point to his legacy on COVID-19 and suggest that ordinary Tanzanians died when they didn’t have to as a result of his neglect.“One of the key issues I think that’s going to come up will be whether or not in the wake of his passing, Tanzania will move back onto a kind of democratizing pathway after what’s often perceived to be a significant authoritarian turn under his leadership.”On that, Cheeseman is not holding his breath. He believes Tanzania will more likely see “more continuity than change.”FILE – The State Department Building is pictured in Washington, Jan. 26, 2017.Perhaps the most telling reaction from outside of East Africa came from the U.S. State Department, which released a brief statement, saying little about Magufuli.“We extend our condolences to Tanzanians mourning the passing of President John Pombe Magufuli. … The United States remains committed to continuing to support Tanzanians as they advocate for respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and work to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that Tanzania can move forward on a democratic and prosperous path,” the statement said.Those condolences were a contrast to the U.S.’s empathetic message last week marking the death of South African ceremonial leader King Goodwill Zwelithini, in which the State Department said “we mourn the loss of King Zwelithini, and our thoughts remain with the royal family and all who mourn him.”The U.S. is the largest bilateral donor to Tanzania.
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US, Regional Powers Call on Taliban to Forego Spring Offensive at Moscow Conference
The United States, Russia, China, and Pakistan have called on all parties in Afghanistan to reduce violence and the Taliban to forego their Spring offensive, the yearly renewal in attacks after a winter lull, in order to facilitate peace negotiations.
The demand was part of a joint statement after a conference on Afghanistan hosted by Russia in Moscow Thursday.
The one-day gathering was part of an intense diplomatic push to jumpstart a stalled peace process amid a looming deadline for withdrawal of foreign forces from the country. Some fear Afghanistan will descend into chaos if international forces depart without a negotiated political settlement in place.
Negotiations between a sanctioned Afghan government team and the Taliban started in Doha in September 2020 but have so far not yielded results.
An Afghan delegation led by the chair of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) Abdullah Abdullah, and a Taliban delegation led by the group’s political deputy Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, were also present.
The statement called on both sides to conclude their peace negotiations and supported the formation of “an independent, sovereign, unified, peaceful, democratic, and self-sufficient Afghanistan,” free of terrorism and drugs. It also called for the protection of the rights of women, children, minorities, and others.
“[W]e do not support the restoration of the Islamic Emirate,” the statement said, using the Taliban’s name for their own government.
“It is only through diplomatic peace negotiations and compromise that peace can be achieved,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in his opening remarks. “And the agreements that are to be reached have to include the interests of all parties.”
Russia’s top diplomat also said his country was ready to facilitate but Afghans had to take the lead.
“Outside parties like Russia should create the conditions for forces inside Afghanistan to negotiate and move forward,” Lavrov said.
The newly elected administration of President Joe Biden had been pushing to involve regional powers and other countries to try and bring the warring Afghan sides to negotiate. As part of its efforts, the U.S. has also floated the idea, supported by Russia, of a transitional government that includes the Taliban.Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, and chair of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah leave the site of an Afghan peace conference in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2021.That idea is strongly opposed by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani who said elections are the only way to choose a government.
The push comes as the U.S. is reviewing an agreement the administration of former President Donald Trump made with the Taliban—a deal Biden called “not a very solidly negotiated deal,” in a recent interview with U.S. broadcast network ABC.
Under the deal, the U.S. is supposed to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan by May 1. However, an increase in violence, lack of progress in peace negotiations between Taliban and Afghan government, and a wave of targeted assassinations of human rights activists, journalists, and government officials have forced the U.S. to reevaluate its decision.
The Taliban, who have not directly attacked the U.S. or NATO forces since the February 2020 agreement, have warned that failure to stick to the withdrawal deadline would lead to a bloody response.
Some regional experts have suggested the U.S. negotiate a one-time extension in the deadline with the Taliban to salvage the deal.
Under this diplomatic push, two more international conferences are expected as early as next month, one hosted by the United Nations and the other by Turkey.
Moscow was also the venue for a February 2019 dialogue between senior Afghan opposition politicians and former top government officials, including former president Hamid Karzai, and the Taliban. That conference, which Ghani’s government criticized as “little more than a political drama,” paved the way for formal negotiations to start between Taliban and an Afghan government sanctioned delegation.
The idea for Thursday’s conference was first floated by Russian envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov in an interview with the country’s state-run Sputnik news agency last month.Russia’s special representative on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov, right, and U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad attend a news briefing following an Afghan peace conference in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2021.Kabulov said the U.S. supported the idea of gathering a small group of countries with the most influence on the Afghan peace process. The format, called an “expanded troika,” included Russia, the U.S., China, Pakistan, and Iran—although Iran was hesitant to sit at the table with the U.S.
Kabulov said he hopes Iran will change its mind once tensions with the U.S. decrease.
In a Sunday meeting with Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s special envoy on Afghanistan, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif “stressed the need to promote regional cooperation to help establish peace in Afghanistan and preserve achievements gained by Afghan people,” according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed a new personal envoy on Afghanistan and the region Wednesday.
Announcing the appointment, the U.N. said Jean Arnault of France was tasked with helping find a political solution to the Afghan conflict.
“The responsibilities of the Personal Envoy include to liaise, on behalf of the Secretary-General, with regional countries with the aim of supporting the negotiations between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban and implementation of any agreements which are reached,” U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said.
The appointment comes at a time when the U.S. is expected to ask the U.N to invite the foreign ministers of the U.S., Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, and India for a conference on Afghanistan.
“It is my belief that these countries share an abiding common interest in a stable Afghanistan and must work together if we are to succeed,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said to President Ghani in a letter leaked to the media earlier this month.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a weekly press briefing on March 8 that his country had “not yet received any invitation for any session on Afghan Peace Talks at the United Nations,” adding that “Iran will review the invitation whenever it receives any.” His remarks were printed in Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency.
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Japan Lifting Tokyo COVID-19 State of Emergency, Effective Monday
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga Thursday announced that Tokyo’s month-long COVID-19 state of emergency will be lifted Monday, citing reduced overall infection numbers since January, and hospital occupancy.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference, Suga said the number of infections in Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures has dropped by more than 80 percent since early January. He said Tokyo’s new daily cases once numbered 2,520, but the number stood as 323 as of Thursday.
He said, “We set around 500 daily cases as a threshold for lifting the state of emergency and Tokyo has kept infection cases lower than that for 40 consecutive days.”
The state of emergency basically affected bars and restaurants, forcing them to close by 8 p.m. local time. Other businesses were asked to take preventive measures, including having employees work remotely. Similar emergency measures were lifted in six of Japan’s urban areas late last month.
Some officials have expressed concern that lifting the state of emergency will encourage the public to be less vigilant, resulting in a new spike in cases. Suga acknowledged that daily numbers had plateaued or crept up in some areas in recent days. He encouraged people to remain vigilant about new variant strains of the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 disease.
Health Minister Norihisa Tamura told The Japan Times following a meeting of the government COVID-19 advisory panel the government “must make sure the message to the public is not that our lives are back to normal just because the state of emergency is lifted.”
Tokyo and the three surrounding prefectures – Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama, will ask restaurants to close by 9 p.m., at least until the end of March, to reduce the chance of a resurgence in infections.
Japan currently has seen more than 450,000 confirmed cases and 8,700 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the global outbreak.
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Putin on Biden’s ‘Killer’ Remark: ‘Takes One to Know One’
Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday responded to comments made by U.S. President Joe Biden in which he described the Russian leader as a killer, saying, “It takes one to know one.”Biden made the comment during an interview with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, released Wednesday. Stephanopoulos asked the president if he thought Putin was a killer, to which Biden responded, “Uh-huh. I do”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 8 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 15 MB720p | 29 MB1080p | 60 MBOriginal | 199 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioSpeaking remotely with reporters from Moscow, Putin asserted that the adage “it takes one to know one” is more than just a childish retort.“It has deep psychological meaning,” the Russian leader said.Putin said that when people judge other people, they are projecting their own traits on them. “We always see ourselves. We are always projecting what is of importance for us, what is our essence on other people.”The Russian president also said that if he saw Biden, he would wish him good health, “without irony.” Both leaders in their respective interviews said they could continue working together within areas of mutual interest. But other actions taken by Russia in the wake of Biden’s interview indicate that might become difficult. Shortly before Putin spoke Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters via telephone Biden’s comments were “very bad,” and that clearly the U.S. president “does not want to mend relations with our country.”Peskov also said this is the point from which they will proceed in the future.Moscow on Thursday recalled its ambassador to the U.S. in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, to Russia for “consultations” to “analyze Russia-U.S. bilateral relations.”
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Why Georgia Attack Spurs Fears in Asian Americans
The shootings at three Georgia massage parlors and spas that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent, come on the heels of a recent wave of attacks against Asian Americans since the coronavirus entered the United States.
As details emerge, many members of the Asian American community see the Georgia killings as a haunting reminder of harassment and assaults that have been occurring from coast to coast.What happened in Atlanta?
Five people were shot Tuesday at a massage parlor about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Atlanta, four of whom died. Police found three women shot to death at Gold Spa in Atlanta, and another woman dead at Aromatherapy Spa across the street.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that its diplomats have confirmed that four of the victims who died were women of Korean descent.
A 21-year-old white man, Robert Aaron Long, suspected in the shooting, has been taken into custody and charged with murder.Is there a motive?
As many raised concerns the shootings are the latest in a string of hate crimes against Asian Americans, police suggested the suspect may have had other motives.
Long told police the attack was not racially motivated. He claimed to have a “sex addiction,” and authorities said he apparently lashed out at what he saw as sources of temptation.
But those statements spurred outrage and widespread skepticism given the locations and that most of the victims were women of Asian descent. How have some Asian Americans responded?
Asian American lawmakers have expressed heartbreak on social media and emphasized the need to support Asian American communities during this moment. The official Twitter account of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus wrote that its members are “horrified by the news … at a time when we’re already seeing a spike in anti-Asian violence.”
Many lawmakers acknowledged a heightened sense of fear among Asian Americans as a result of the increasing number of hate incidents.
Rep. Judy Chu of California reminded people of the effect of anti-Asian rhetoric.
“As we wait for more details to emerge, I ask everyone to remember that hurtful words and rhetoric have real life consequences,” she wrote on Twitter. “Please stand up, condemn this violence, and help us #StopAsianHate.”How prevalent have assaults against Asian Americans been?
Recent attacks, including the killing of an 84-year-old San Francisco man in February, have raised concerns about worsening hostilities toward Asian Americans. Nearly 3,800 incidents have been reported to Stop AAPI Hate, a California-based reporting center for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and its partner advocacy groups, since March 2020. Nationally, women reported more than double the number of hate incidents compared with men.
Police in several major cities saw a sharp uptick in Asian-targeted hate crimes between 2019 and 2020, according to data collected by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. New York City went from three incidents to 27, Los Angeles from seven to 15, and Denver had three incidents in 2020 — the first reported there in six years.How far back does Anti-Asian racism go in the United States?
Racism against Asian Americans has long been an ugly thread of U.S. history and was enshrined into law in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was designed to prevent Chinese American laborers from entering the U.S. as a result of widespread xenophobia.
Asian Americans have also long been used as medical scapegoats in the U.S. and falsely blamed for public health problems, including a smallpox outbreak in San Francisco in the 1870s. This racist association between Asian Americans and illness and uncleanliness has also affected views of Asian food and contributes to the “perpetual foreigner” trope that suggests Asian people are fundamentally outsiders.
This fueled suspicions of Japanese Americans during World War II, when many were sent to detention camps solely due to their ethnicity, as well as Islamophobia and prejudice toward Muslim and South Asian Americans following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In 1982, 100 years after the Chinese Exclusion Act, a 27-year-old Chinese American, Vincent Chin, died after being attacked in Detroit because of his race. At the time, a growing Japanese auto industry was leading to major job losses in the city’s auto sector. His killers, two autoworkers, mistook him for Japanese, using racial slurs as they beat him outside a club where he was celebrating his bachelor party. His death led to protests from Asian Americans nationwide.What are politicians doing about the recent uptick?
President Joe Biden signed an executive order in January condemning anti-Asian xenophobia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The directive acknowledges the role rhetoric from politicians, including the use of derogatory names for the coronavirus, has played in the rise of anti-Asian sentiment and hate incidents targeting Asian Americans. Former President Donald Trump, for example, has repeatedly used racial terms to describe the virus, including during a Tuesday night interview with Fox News.
The rash of attacks in the past two months has renewed attention from politicians, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed legislation allocating $1.4 million to Stop AAPI Hate and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center for community resources and tracking of anti-Asian hate incidents.
Initiatives such as increased police presence, volunteer patrols and special crime hot lines have also been suggested by local officials and citizens, with big-name brands like the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and Apple, based in the Bay Area, promising to donate to the cause.
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Kenya Aims to Transition School Kitchens to Clean Fuel
Almost all school kitchens in Kenya use high-emission, wood-burning fuel to cook food for students. But a government campaign ahead of this year’s Earth Day (April 22) aims to transition the kitchens to cleaner fuels by the end of this year. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi.Camera: Amos Wangwa
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UN Agencies Call for Action Against Ageism
Leading United Nations agencies are calling for urgent action to combat ageism, which they say harms the well-being of older people and national economies. The World Health Organization, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs and U.N. Population Fund have released the first global report on ageism.A survey of more than 83,000 people in 57 countries finds 1 in every 2 people holds moderately or highly ageist attitudes. Those beliefs are based on stereotypical ideas about older people drummed into them at an early age.Alana Officer is the World Health Organization’s unit head for demographic change and healthy aging. She says biases start early in life and are reinforced over time. She says ageism is pervasive — in health care systems, in workplaces and in the media.Why Aging of America Poses Huge Risk to US Economy
Americans are getting older and family size is shrinking, which means the nation will have fewer working-age adults going forward."I think it is a cause for concern if we are calibrating our expectations of having a strongly growing population," says David Kelly, chief global strategist for JP Morgan Asset Management. "If you're investing in things like the housing industry or the auto industry and you need an ever-growing population, then you have to adjust to a world in which the U.S. population is…
She says ageism leads to poorer physical and mental health and to a reduced quality of life for older people. Ageism, she says, determines who receives medical procedures and treatment and who does not. She says age discrimination denies older people jobs and job training.“Half of the world’s population are ageist against older people, which rates much higher in low- and lower middle-income countries …The report indicates that you are likely to be ageist against older people if you are younger, you are male, you are fearful of dying or you are less educated,” Officer said.The report finds women are more likely to be targets of ageism than men. It says younger people also suffer from ageism across many areas, such as employment, health, housing and politics.Vania de la Fuente-Nunez is technical officer in the WHO’s Demographic Change and Healthy Ageing Department. She says the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how prevalent ageism is against both the young and the old.“Older people have been systematically and homogenously framed as vulnerable and dependent and younger people have been stereotyped as invincible and selfish, which of course fails to recognize the great diversity that we see in both younger people and in older people,” Fuente-Nunez said.She says the stereotypical portrayal in the media is both inaccurate and harmful.The report finds the economic cost of ageism is huge. A 2020 study in the United States shows ageism led to excess annual costs of $63 billion for a broad range of health conditions.Another study in Australia suggests the national economy would be boosted by $37 billion annually if 5% more people aged 55 or older were employed.
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US Unemployment Benefit Claims Increased Last Week
U.S. unemployment compensation claims increased again last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, as the world’s biggest economy continues to struggle to fully recover from the damage wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic.
The government said 770,000 workers filed for benefits last week, up 45,000 from the revised figure of the previous week.
Employers in many states are still facing directives to curtail their operations, even as some state governors are revoking orders for people to wear face masks and allowing businesses to fully reopen. Danny Delatorre, 57, and his wife Norma Delatorre, 56, eat lunch at La Noche Buena restaurant after receiving their second coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine shots, in Los Angeles, March 11, 2021.However, the employment picture in the U.S. could improve as money from President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package begins to filter through the economy, legislation Democrats in Congress pushed through over uniform Republican opposition. The measure could help boost hiring and consumer spending. About 2.4 million Americans are now being vaccinated against the virus each day, with Biden promising that any adult who wants a vaccination will be able to get one by the end of May.Doctor John Thayer holds up a sign to signal his station needs more vaccine doses in a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination site at Lumen Field Event Center in Seattle, Washington, March 13, 2021.More than 113 million Americans have received at least one shot of one of the three available vaccines, and as that number grows, more people are regaining a sense of normalcy in their lives.
Even so, employers in many states are still confronted with orders from state and municipal officials to restrict business hours or limit the number of customers they can serve at any one time to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
For a year now, the number of jobless benefit claims has remained above 700,000 a week, and above 800,000 and 900,00 in some weeks in early 2021. By comparison, in 2019, before the pandemic swept through the United States, unemployment compensation claims averaged 218,000 a week. The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it expects the U.S. economy to grow at its fastest pace in four decades this year, with the unemployment rate falling from February’s 6.2% figure to 4.5%. FILE – The Federal Reserve building is viewed in Washington, May 22, 2020.The projection was the central bank’s most favorable since the pandemic swept into the United States a year ago. It is expecting the U.S. economy to grow by 6.5% this year compared to its previous projection of 4.2%, with the growth rate slowing to 3.9% in 2022 and 3.5% in 2023. Even with the rosier picture, Fed chair Jerome Powell cautioned that the U.S. economy will not instantly return to pre-pandemic levels. “It’s just a lot of people who need to get back to work, and it’s not going to happen overnight,” Powell said. “The faster, the better.” All the weekly jobless claims figures in the last several months have been well below the 6.9 million record number of claims filed a year ago in late March as the pandemic took hold in the U.S. Still, all the weekly jobless benefit claim figures in the last year have been above the highest pre-pandemic level in records going back to the 1960s.
Under the $1.9 trillion relief deal, the federal government will continue making $300-a-week extra payments to the jobless into September, on top of less generous state benefits, a provision that will help millions of unemployed until their old jobs are restored, or they find new work.
In the U.S., only slightly more than half of the 22 million jobs lost in the pandemic have been recovered. But the U.S. economy added 379,000 new jobs in February, the most in four months, the government says.
FILE – A sign announcing hiring is displayed in the parking lot of a Home Depot, Feb. 22, 2021, in Cockeysville, Md.U.S. employers have called back millions of workers who were laid off during business shutdowns in 2020. But some hard-hit businesses have been slow to ramp up operations again or have closed permanently, leaving workers idled or searching for new employment.
The coronavirus relief measure, however, almost certainly will give a new boost to the economy, easing the path for many employers to keep workers on their payrolls as coronavirus restrictions are gradually eased.
The U.S. has now recorded 538,000 coronavirus deaths and 29.6 million infections, both figures higher than that being reported in any other country, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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US, South Korea Reaffirm Stance on North Korea
Top U.S. and South Korean foreign policy and defense officials have concluded talks in Seoul largely focused on security threats posed by North Korea.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin met jointly with South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Chung Eui-yong and Minister of National Defense Suh Wook on Thursday.“We are committed to the denuclearization of North Korea, reducing the threat that DPRK poses to the United States and our allies, and improving the lives of all Koreans, including the people of North Korea, who continue to suffer, widespread and systematic abuses there,” Blinken said during a press event, using the abbreviation for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.South Korea hosts roughly 28,000 American soldiers, and during a ceremony this week, the two countries signed an agreement over the cost of stationing these forces, which had been a source of friction between Seoul and Washington during the final years of the Trump administration.Secretary Austin, a retired U.S. Army general, said the alliance remains “ironclad.”“The United States remains fully committed to the defense of the Republic of (South) Korea, using the full range of U.S. capabilities including our extended deterrent,” Austin said.The American officials are representing the Biden administration during its first Cabinet-level overseas trip, which included meetings in Tokyo earlier this week. But the stop in South Korea comes after four years of an often-frayed relations between Washington and Seoul that the new U.S. president appears eager to repair, analysts say.Hee-jin Koo, a research fellow with the Korean Peninsula Future Forum in Seoul, said the trip to the region by Blinken and Austin is a “turning point” for the United States and its allies.The secretaries’ visits could improve ties between Seoul and Tokyo but also mend fences between the White House and South Korea’s president, Moon Jae – which Koo says was sometimes “left out” of the Trump administration’s North Korean engagement.“So it is a reconnection between the U.S. administration and the Moon administration,” Koo told VOA.But even under new U.S. leadership, there are still differing views on how best to re-engage Pyongyang that the allies will need to resolve, Koo added.“South Korea is rather torn currently, it is trying to do a balancing act between trying to restore frayed inter-Korean relations as well as enhancing its U.S.-South Korea alliance,” she said.Washington says it has tried to open-up dialogue with North Korea, reaching out to its Mission to the United Nations in New York as well as through other back channels and has received no response.But, in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s official Korea Central News Agency on Thursday, First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said that despite those attempts, her government intends to “disregard” Washington’s overtures.“No DPRK-U.S. contact and dialogue of any kind can be possible unless the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy towards the DPRK,” Choe wrote. “In order for a dialogue to be made, an atmosphere for both parties to exchange words on an equal basis must be created.”Choe also criticized joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises that began earlier this month as well as remarks that Secretary Blinken made while in Tokyo, where he said that Washington is considering new “pressure measures” against Pyongyang.Koo, the analyst, said Pyongyang might be signaling that it wants higher-level contact, like it received during the Trump administration.“What it wants is to have a status quo, also an easing of the current sanctions. Which has actually pinched North Korea’s economy especially amid the pandemic,” she said.The Biden administration is expected to soon unveil its official policy toward North Korea.Blinken said the strategy will include input from both South Korea and Japan. But he said China also has a shared interest in seeing North Korea end its nuclear weapons program.“China has a critical role to play in working to convince North Korea to pursue denuclearization,” Blinken said. “Virtually all of North Korea’s economic relationships, it’s trade, are with or goes through China, so it has tremendous influence.”From Seoul, the secretary of state will travel to Anchorage, Alaska, where later Thursday he will meet with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. It will be the first bilateral meeting between Chinese and American officials since June.
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Job Losses Loom in Kenya’s Tea Industry as Workers Compete with Machines
A group of women pick tea leaves at a plantation in Kenya’s tea belt in the Rift Valley, where harvesting has traditionally been done by hand.
This labor-intensive practice is said to ensure the region produces the high-quality tea that is among the country’s top foreign exchange earners.But now, Kenya’s tea-farming industry, the world’s third-largest after China and India, is facing job losses after a court ruled in January against a labor union’s attempt to ban tea leaf harvesting machines. Workers fear the machines will take their jobs, while tea farm owners say mechanization will make the industry more productive.
Zipporah Onserio, 46, lost her job picking tea leaves because of the harvesting machines.
She says since the big factories brought in the equipment, most of the fields they used to work in have been turned over to machines and tractors. Now people who pick tea by hand are jobless, she said.
Onserio was one of hundreds of employees who lost their jobs at a tea plantation in Kericho, 270 kilometers west of Nairobi.
Kenya Tea Workers Union representative Jared Momanyi says job losses are likely to increase.
“Before the introduction of the machines, in Bomet alone we used to have … over 50,000 employees! As we are talking now, I can tell you the number is around 5,000 to 7,000,” Momanyi said.
Multinational companies in the tea belt have argued in court that the harvesting machines will help cut production costs by more than half, making their product more competitive in the world market.
However, trade unionists say mechanization has a high human cost, with some 10,000 people already laid off even before the court verdict in favor of the tea companies.
For a region that depends on the income from tea workers, community leaders such as Jones Mutai say the impact of greater job losses will be dire.
He says insecurity will become a major problem. The unemployed youths will take out their frustrations on the wealthy, says Mutai, and the wealthy will bear the burden of the entire community.
Despite the possible job losses, the Kenya Tea Growers Association’s CEO Apollo Kiarie says embracing mechanization is the only way to keep the sector alive.
“One machine, its cost of production is about 40% less than if you were to use hand machine in an acre of land. So, you look at it and you see, you [are] able to balance your cost of production, you are able to remain in business, you are able to assure business continuity for the remaining workers who you have in your employment,” Kiarie said.
The association adds that machines will never fully replace the need for human labor in the tea estates.
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EU Investigators to Release Findings on AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine
The European Union’s medications watchdog is due to release initial results Thursday of its investigation into whether there is a connection between the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and cases of recipients developing blood clots.The European Medicines Agency has been examining 30 reported blood coagulation disorders among the 5 million people in the EU who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Among the considerations is whether that rate is more common than the incidence found in the general population.The World Health Organization said Wednesday it is conducting its own assessment of the latest available safety data for the vaccine, but that at this time the agency considers the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks.“In extensive vaccination campaigns, it is routine for countries to signal potential adverse events following immunization,” the WHO said in a statement. “This does not necessarily mean that the events are linked to vaccination itself, but it is good practice to investigate them.”India said Wednesday it would continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine.Concerns about the vaccine prompted a number of EU countries to suspend its use, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed confidence in AstraZeneca on Wednesday, but continued criticism of the company’s pace of vaccine deliveries.“AstraZeneca has unfortunately under-produced and under-delivered, and this painfully, of course, reduced the speed of the vaccination campaign,” she told reporters.Von der Leyen said the EU is targeting vaccinating 70% of all adults by September.
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US, SKorea Reaffirm Stance on NKorea
Top U.S. and South Korean foreign policy and defense officials have concluded talks in Seoul largely focused on security threats posed by North Korea.U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin met jointly with South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Chung Eui-yong and Minister of National Defense Suh Wook on Thursday.“We are committed to the denuclearization of North Korea, reducing the threat that DPRK poses to the United States and our allies, and improving the lives of all Koreans, including the people of North Korea, who continue to suffer, widespread and systematic abuses there,” Blinken said during a press event, using the abbreviation for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.South Korea hosts roughly 28,000 American soldiers, and during a ceremony this week, the two countries signed an agreement over the cost of stationing these forces, which had been a source of friction between Seoul and Washington during the final years of the Trump administration.Secretary Austin, a retired U.S. Army general, said the alliance remains “ironclad.”“The United States remains fully committed to the defense of the Republic of (South) Korea, using the full range of U.S. capabilities including our extended deterrent,” Austin said.The American officials are representing the Biden administration during its first Cabinet-level overseas trip, which included meetings in Tokyo earlier this week. But the stop in South Korea comes after four years of an often-frayed relations between Washington and Seoul that the new U.S. president appears eager to repair, analysts say.Hee-jin Koo, a research fellow with the Korean Peninsula Future Forum in Seoul, said the trip to the region by Blinken and Austin is a “turning point” for the United States and its allies.The secretaries’ visits could improve ties between Seoul and Tokyo but also mend fences between the White House and South Korea’s president, Moon Jae – which Koo says was sometimes “left out” of the Trump administration’s North Korean engagement.“So it is a reconnection between the U.S. administration and the Moon administration,” Koo told VOA.But even under new U.S. leadership, there are still differing views on how best to re-engage Pyongyang that the allies will need to resolve, Koo added.“South Korea is rather torn currently, it is trying to do a balancing act between trying to restore frayed inter-Korean relations as well as enhancing its U.S.-South Korea alliance,” she said.Washington says it has tried to open-up dialogue with North Korea, reaching out to its Mission to the United Nations in New York as well as through other back channels and has received no response.But, in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s official Korea Central News Agency on Thursday, First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said that despite those attempts, her government intends to “disregard” Washington’s overtures.“No DPRK-U.S. contact and dialogue of any kind can be possible unless the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy towards the DPRK,” Choe wrote. “In order for a dialogue to be made, an atmosphere for both parties to exchange words on an equal basis must be created.”Choe also criticized joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises that began earlier this month as well as remarks that Secretary Blinken made while in Tokyo, where he said that Washington is considering new “pressure measures” against Pyongyang.Koo, the analyst, said Pyongyang might be signaling that it wants higher-level contact, like it received during the Trump administration.“What it wants is to have a status quo, also an easing of the current sanctions. Which has actually pinched North Korea’s economy especially amid the pandemic,” she said.The Biden administration is expected to soon unveil its official policy toward North Korea.Blinken said the strategy will include input from both South Korea and Japan. But he said China also has a shared interest in seeing North Korea end its nuclear weapons program.“China has a critical role to play in working to convince North Korea to pursue denuclearization,” Blinken said. “Virtually all of North Korea’s economic relationships, it’s trade, are with or goes through China, so it has tremendous influence.”From Seoul, the secretary of state will travel to Anchorage, Alaska, where later Thursday he will meet with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. It will be the first bilateral meeting between Chinese and American officials since June.
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