Laos and a majority Chinese-owned company have signed a 25-year concession agreement that allows the company to build and manage its power grid, including electricity exports to neighboring countries, a government official in the country told RFA.The company, Électricité du Laos Transmission Company Ltd. was launched Sept. 1 when Électricité du Laos and China Southern Power Grid Company signed a shareholding agreement, which gave China Southern a majority of shares.RFA reported at that time that the government said the new corporate entity was necessary due to the domestic firm’s massive debt, but critics said it ceded too much control of Laos’ power grid to a foreign government.With dozens of hydropower dams either built or under construction on the Mekong River and its tributaries, Laos has gone all in on its controversial economic strategy to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia” in hopes of selling electricity to neighboring countries. But with EDLT controlling everything it adds to the grid, some are worried China will be able to profit off of Laos’ gamble.“EDLT will invest U.S. $2 billion to build, manage and control the Lao power grid for a 25-year concession period. After 25 years, the business will be transferred to the Lao government,” an official of the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines told RFA’s Lao Service on March 12.The official said that EDLT would take control of only the high-voltage power line network, in the range higher than 230 kilovolts, while Électricité du Laos retains control of powerlines under 230 kilovolts.“Given the current economic downturn and the enormous debt, the Lao government does not have the ability to manage and operate a network of powerlines, so they decided to allow the Chinese, who have the finances, technological aptitude and manpower to take over,” said the official.The concession deal is not seen as a win-win by all within the ministry, however.An energy expert from the ministry, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told RFA that it put Laos at a disadvantage.“The deal is bad … Normally in a cooperative agreement, the foreign company transfers technology or knowledge to the host. But not the Chinese,” said the expert.“When they installed a powerline system in the Lao National Convention Center in Vientiane, they did not provide us with any instructions. When the electrical system breaks down … or when we want to make improvements to the building, we have to call in Chinese technicians.Lao residents are also dismayed at what Chinese control of the power grid could mean.“Before, I thought that since we were building many dams, electricity prices would go down. That will not happen because the Chinese company is taking over power distribution in our country,” a resident of the southern province of Savannakhet told RFA.A resident of Vientiane asked why Laos cannot manage its own network.“Why do we need China to do that? If the government doesn’t have money, they can borrow money to buy the power lines and install them. They have money to build dams, so why not to install power lines?” the Vientiane resident said.
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Month: March 2021
US-Russia Tension Rising as Biden Calls Putin ‘Killer’
Tensions are rising between the United States and Russia following sharp statements from President Joe Biden on Vladimir Putin over the Russian president’s attempt to undermine the 2020 U.S. election. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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Texas Man Arrested Near US Vice President’s Residence on Weapons Charge, Secret Service Says
A San Antonio man was arrested near the official residence of Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington on Wednesday and was charged with weapons-related offenses, the U.S. Secret Service said.The Secret Service, responsible for the security of the president and vice president, said the suspect, Paul Murray, 31, was detained by its uniformed officers on the street near a government complex that houses the vice president’s residence and the U.S. Naval Observatory.Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department said its officers then arrested and charged Murray.The department said the arrest was sparked by an “intelligence bulletin that originated from Texas.” The department did not elaborate on the bulletin’s contents.A reporter at Fox News’ Washington affiliate tweeted a Texas law enforcement bulletin that said Murray had been experiencing “paranoid delusions” that the military or government wanted to kill him, and that he sent his mother a text message saying he was in Washington and was going to “take care of his problem.”D.C. police said Murray was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon, carrying a rifle or shotgun outside of a business, possession of unregistered ammunition and possession of a large-capacity ammunition-feeding device.Police said a rifle and ammunition were recovered from Murray’s vehicle.
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UN Rights Chief Agrees to Ethiopia Request for Joint Tigray Inquiry
United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has agreed to an Ethiopian request for a joint investigation in the country’s northern Tigray region, where Bachelet says possible war crimes may have been committed. Fighting between government troops and the region’s former ruling party, 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. The United Nations has raised concerns about atrocities being committed in Tigray, while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has described acts carried out in the region as ethnic cleansing. Ethiopia has rejected Blinken’s allegation.FILE – Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington.Bachelet “responded positively” to a request from the state-run Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for joint investigations in Tigray, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Jonathan Fowler said on Wednesday. “The U.N. Human Rights Office and the EHRC are now developing an investigation plan, which includes resources needed and practical modalities, in order to launch the missions as soon as possible,” Fowler said. Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said on Saturday it was ready to work with international human rights experts to conduct investigations on allegations of abuses. Amnesty International last month accused Eritrean forces of killing hundreds of civilians over 24 hours in Axum city last year. Eritrea denied that, but the EHRC also described such killings in a rare acknowledgment from the Ethiopian side that Eritrean troops have participated in the conflict. The United Nations and the United States have demanded that Eritrean troops leave Tigray. Both the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments have denied Eritrean troops are in Tigray, despite dozens of eyewitness accounts and admissions that Eritreans are there from Tigray’s federally appointed regional administration.
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Man Charged With 8 Counts of Murder in US State of Georgia
The man charged with killing eight people in a series of shootings at massage parlors in the southeastern U.S. state of Georgia is expected to be arraigned Thursday.Prosecutors Wednesday charged Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Georgia, with eight counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault. He was arrested after the Atlanta-area shootings late Tuesday and is being held in the Cherokee Country Adult Detention Center.Police said Wednesday they did not yet have a motive for the shootings in which six of those killed were women of Asian descent. A white man and a white woman were the other two victims. A ninth person remained hospitalized with injuries, police said.When he was arrested, Long told police the attacks were not racially motivated. He had issues with “sex addiction,” authorities said.The crime created a wave of fear in the Asian American community, which was already reeling from attacks that have occurred since the start of the coronavirus pandemic a year ago. The virus originated in China.Capt. Tarik Sheppard, left, commander of the New York Police Department Community Affairs Rapid Response Unit, speaks to a resident while on a community outreach patrol in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York, March 17, 2021.The shootings appear to be at the “intersection of gender-based violence, misogyny and xenophobia,” state Rep. Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the Georgia House, said.Nguyen has been a frequent advocate for women and communities of color in the state, The Associated Press reported.“He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places. And it’s a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate,” Cherokee County sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker told reporters.Officials said they didn’t know if Long had actually frequented the parlors where the shootings occurred and said he may have been on his way to Florida to commit more shootings.A law enforcement officer told the cable news network CNN that Long’s family had recently kicked him out of the house because of his sexual addiction. He reportedly spent hours watching pornography.Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said it was too early to classify the shootings as hate crimes.President Joe Biden said he was withholding judgment about the motivations behind the shootings until there is more information.A police officer watches as a body is taken from the Gold Spa massage parlor after a shooting, March 16, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia.”I am making no connection at this moment of the motivation of the killer. I am waiting for an answer from — as the investigation proceeds — from the FBI and from the Justice Department,” he said before hosting a bilateral meeting with the prime minister of Ireland. ”I’ll have more to say when the investigation is completed.”Authorities have identified four victims as Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; Xiaojie Yan, 49, of Kennesaw; and Xiaojie Yan, 44, whose address is unknown.Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth, was injured.The other victims’ names have not been released.Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in a statement, “A crime against any community is a crime against us all.”I commend law enforcement for their quick work in arresting a suspect in the tragic shootings,” she said. “I have remained in close contact with the White House and APD as they work with federal, state and local partners to investigate the suspect, who is responsible for this senseless violence in our city.”Gov. Brian Kemp tweeted, “These horrific crimes have no place in Georgia.” Kemp also said he and the state’s first lady “are heartbroken and disgusted by the heinous shootings that took place last night.” He said they will continue to pray for the families and loved ones of the victims.Vice President Kamala Harris said the shootings speak “to a larger issue, which is the issue of violence in our country and what we must do to never tolerate it and to always speak out against it.”Former U.S. President Barack Obama used the event to call for “common-sense gun safety laws.”The first attack took place at a massage parlor in the town of Acworth, about 50 kilometers north of Atlanta. Authorities there said a shooter killed two Asian women, a white woman and a white man, and wounded another man.About an hour later, police in Atlanta found three Asian women dead from apparent gunshot wounds at a beauty spa. They then found another Asian woman dead of a gunshot at a spa a short distance away.Police said surveillance video showed the suspect’s vehicle at all three locations, and that they were very confident the same shooter was responsible for all the attacks.After a highway pursuit, police stopped a vehicle about 240 kilometers south of Atlanta and arrested Long.The shootings come amid a rising number of attacks against people of Asian descent in the United States.“I want to start by saying something directly to the families of the shooting victims in Atlanta last night,” first lady Jill Biden said Wednesday. “My heart is with you. And I hope that all Americans will join me in praying for everyone touched by this senseless tragedy.”The attack was the sixth mass killing this year in the United States, and the deadliest since the August 2019 Dayton, Ohio, shooting that left nine people dead, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
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Tokyo Olympics’ Creative Director Resigns Over Derogatory Remark
Tokyo Olympics creative head Hiroshi Sasaki said he had resigned after making a derogatory comment about a popular female Japanese entertainer, in the latest controversy over insensitive remarks toward women to hit games organizers.Sasaki, who was the head creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies at this year’s games, said he had told a planning group through a group chat that Naomi Watanabe could play a role as an “Olympig.””There was a very inappropriate expression in my ideas and remarks,” Sasaki said in a statement issued through games organizers early Thursday. “I sincerely apologize to her and people who have felt discomfort with such contents.”Sasaki said he had told Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto late Wednesday evening that he was stepping down.Hashimoto and Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto plan to address the matter at a news conference on Thursday, organizers said.Sasaki’s resignation came swiftly after weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported his remarks on Wednesday.Last month, Yoshiro Mori stepped down from his role as president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee after causing a furor with sexist remarks when he said women talk too much.Mori, 83, a former prime minister, was replaced by athlete-turned-politician Hashimoto, who has pledged to make gender equality a top priority at the games.Sasaki was named head of the creative team in December as Olympic organizers looked to revamp plans for simplified ceremonies after the Tokyo Games were pushed back a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.The Olympics are scheduled for July 23-August 8; the Paralympics are set for August 24-September 5.
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North Korea Says US Attempt to Initiate Contact is ‘Cheap Trick’
A top North Korean diplomat acknowledged Thursday that the United States had recently tried to initiate contact but blasted the attempts as a “cheap trick” that would never be answered until Washington dropped hostile policies.The statement by Choe Son Hui, first vice minister of foreign affairs for North Korea, is the first formal rejection of tentative approaches by the new U.S. administration under President Joe Biden, who took office in January.It came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting South Korea alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a first overseas trip by top-level members of Biden’s administration.The attempts at contact were made by sending e-mails and telephone messages via various routes, including by a third country, Choe said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.She called the attempts at contact a “cheap trick” for gaining time and building up public opinion.”What has been heard from the U.S. since the emergence of the new regime is only lunatic theory of ‘threat from North Korea’ and groundless rhetoric about ‘complete denuclearization,’ Choe said.The White House said earlier this month it had reached out to North Korea, but received no response, and did not elaborate.Speaking in Seoul on Wednesday, Blinken accused North Korea of committing “systemic and widespread abuses” against its own people and said the United States and its allies were committed to the denuclearization of North Korea.Blinken and Austin are due to continue meetings with South Korean leaders on Thursday, before flying to Alaska for the administration’s first talks with Chinese officials, where the North Korea standoff is expected to be discussed.Talks aimed at reducing tensions with North Korea and persuading it to give up its arsenal of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles have been stalled since 2019, after a series of historic summits between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.Choe criticized the United States for continuing military drills, and for maintaining sanctions aimed at pressuring Pyongyang.No dialogue would be possible until the United States rolled back its hostile policy toward North Korea and both parties were able to exchange words on an equal basis, she said.
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Russia Recalls Ambassador Following Biden Comments
Officials in Washington are reacting calmy to Moscow summoning home its ambassador to the United States for consultations about the deteriorated bilateral relationship.
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, in explaining Anatoly Antonov’s temporary return home, stated: “The most important thing for us is to identify ways of rectifying Russia-U.S. relations, which have been going through hard times as Washington has, as a matter of fact, brought them to a blind alley. We are interested in preventing an irreversible deterioration in relations, if the Americans become aware of the risks associated with this.”
The announcement from Moscow came shortly after a taped ABC television interview aired Wednesday morning in which U.S. President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin “will pay a price” for his malevolent actions.
Biden also recounted in the interview that he had told Putin, “I don’t think you have a soul.” He said Russian leader replied, “We understand each other.”
Asked by the ABC interviewer if he believes Putin is a killer, Biden replied, “I do.”FILE – U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, March 11, 2021.According to a RAND Corporation adjunct senior fellow, William Courtney, “It is rare for a U.S. president to refer to the leader of a major adversarial power as a killer.”
Courtney, who was a negotiator in U.S. defense talks with the Soviet Union, told VOA that “sometimes ambassadors are withdrawn after insults.”
“And, of course, the Biden administration is talking about more sanctions with regard to the SolarWinds cyberattack. So, both of those could be factors” in the move by Moscow, he said.
At Wednesday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to specify whether the president believes the Russian president, literally or metaphorically, is a killer.
“He’s not going to hold back in his direction communications [with Russia]. He’s not going to hold back publicly,” Psaki said.
When asked about Moscow recalling its ambassador, the press secretary said Biden’s administration “is going to take a different approach in our relationship to Russia than the prior administration. …We are going to be straightforward and we are going to be direct in areas where we have concerns.”FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with government members via a video conference call at Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Feb. 10, 2021.State Department Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters “even as we work to work with Russia to advance U.S. interests, we’ll be able to hold Russia accountable for any of their malign actions.”
The Biden administration has expressed interest in working with Moscow on areas of mutual concern, such as a new nuclear arms pact and mitigating the effects of climate change.
Biden earlier ordered the release of a declassified version of an intelligence assessment that “Russian state media, trolls, and online proxies, including those directed by Russian intelligence, published disparaging content about President Biden, his family, and the Democratic Party, and heavily amplified related content circulating in U.S. media, including stories centered on his son.”
Russia, as well as Iran, according to the report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, engaged in broader efforts to undermine U.S. public confidence in the election.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday the U.S. intelligence report was “wrong and has absolutely no foundation and evidence.”
The U.S. government on Wednesday also announced additional sanctions on Russia for using chemical weapons against dissidents.
The Commerce Department said it is blocking export of items controlled for national security reasons that are destined for Russia. It is also suspending licenses that granted specific exceptions for exports to Russia, targeting replacement parts and equipment, technology and software and “additional permissive re-exports.”Putin enjoyed a more amicable relationship during the past four years with Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump. During his presidency, Trump frequently praised Putin and rejected intelligence community conclusions that Moscow meddled in the 2016 presidential election in which the property investor with no political experience defeated former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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Biden Wants to Restore Senate’s Talking Filibuster
President Joe Biden says he wants the U.S. Senate, where he served for 36 years, to make it harder but not impossible to block legislation through a tactic unique to the chamber known as the filibuster.A week ago, Biden won the first major legislative victory of his presidency, passage of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief deal, under legislative rules that allowed that particular bill to be approved on a simple majority vote — solely with the votes of Biden’s Democratic colleagues over uniform Republican opposition.While a simple majority always suffices in the House of Representatives, most bills can pass the 100-member Senate only with a 60-vote supermajority. The Senate’s current political split of 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats requires Biden to win support from 10 Republicans to pass major legislation going forward.With the filibuster in place allowing Republicans to block Senate votes, Biden would have difficulty passing much of his agenda, such as national standards for voting rights, a $15-an-hour national minimum wage and tougher anti-pollution rules.Both sides have used tacticAs a result, many Senate Democrats are calling for elimination of the filibuster, the legislative tactic that lawmakers of both parties have used when in the minority to prevent the chamber from proceeding to a final vote on legislative proposals.Biden has long said he is opposed to getting rid of the filibuster, a distinctive difference between the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.But on Tuesday, Biden said in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopolous that he realizes he faces a quandary in preserving the use of the filibuster in the Senate or advancing his legislative agenda.President Joe Biden sits next to a bowl of shamrocks as he has a virtual meeting with Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin on St. Patrick’s Day, in the Oval Office of the White House, March 17, 2021, in Washington.The solution, according to Biden, is to force opponents of a bill to speak for hours or even days on the Senate floor. Currently, a senator need only object to proceeding to a vote to trigger the 60-vote threshold, a tactic that was once rare but has become the norm in recent years.“Here’s the choice,” Biden said. “I don’t think you have to eliminate the filibuster. You have to do what it used to be when I first got to the Senate back in the old days when … you had to stand up and command the floor, and you had to keep talking along. You couldn’t call for, you know — no one could say, you know, ‘Quorum call.’ Once you stopped talking, you lost that and someone could move in and say, ‘I move the question of … .’ So, you’ve got to work for the filibuster.”Stephanopoulos asked, “So you’re for that reform? You’re for bringing back the talking filibuster?”“I am,” Biden replied.Not working wellThe president said that as it stands now, “democracy’s having a hard time functioning” with the frequent declarations of a filibuster, minus the talkathons of yesteryear.Whether the Senate adopts any reforms is an open question. At least two of the 50 Democratic senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — say they are opposed to abandoning the filibuster, although Manchin says he is open to reforms that would make it more difficult to employ the tactic to block legislation.FILE – In this image from video, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks on the Senate floor, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 13, 2021.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell warned Democrats in an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday against elimination of the filibuster to approve a liberal agenda of laws and promised that if they did, Republicans would retaliate with passage of their favored measures when they again are in control.As it stands now, Democrats, voting as a unified bloc along with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, can pass some measures on a 51-50 vote. Doing away with the filibuster — and the 60-vote supermajority required on many measures — would clear the path for Democrats to take total control of legislation they uniformly favor.McConnell said Democrats should think twice before proceeding on that path.’Scorched-earth Senate’“Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin to imagine what a completely scorched-earth Senate would look like” without the filibuster, McConnell said. “None of us have served one minute in the Senate that was completely drained of comity and consent.”McConnell quoted “one of my colleagues” from a 2017 speech as saying, “The legislative filibuster is the most important distinction between the Senate and the House. Without the 60-vote threshold for legislation, the Senate becomes a majoritarian institution, just like the House, much more subject to the winds of short-term electoral change. No senator would like to see that happen.”He identified the speaker as Senator Chuck Schumer, now the Democratic majority leader, who is under pressure from some of his colleagues for filibuster reform to advance Biden’s agenda.
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Tanzania’s President John Magufuli Dies at 61
Tanzania’s President John Magufuli, one of Africa’s most prominent coronavirus sceptics, has died aged 61, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Wednesday after a more than two-week absence from public life that led to speculation about his health.
She said he died from the heart disease that had plagued him for a decade. She said burial arrangements were under way and announced 14 days of mourning and the flying of flags at half-staff. State television broadcast mournful and religious songs.
Magufuli had not been seen in public since Feb. 27, sparking rumors that he had contracted COVID-19. Officials denied on March 12 that he had fallen ill. He was Tanzania’s first president to die while in office.
“Dear Tanzanians, it is sad to announce that today 17 March 2021 around 6 p.m. we lost our brave leader, President John Magufuli who died from heart disease at Mzena hospital in Dar es Salaam where he was getting treatment,” the vice president said on state broadcaster TBC.
Rumors denouncedPrime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Friday that he had spoken to Magufuli, and blamed the narrative of the president’s ailment on some “hateful” Tanzanians living abroad.
Tundu Lissu, Magufuli’s main rival in the October election when the president won a second five-year term, had suggested Tanzania’s leader had been flown to Kenya for treatment for COVID-19 and then moved to India in a coma.
After the death was announced, opposition leader Zitto Kabwe said he had spoken to Vice President Hassan to offer condolences for Magufuli’s death. “The nation will remember him for his contribution to the development of our country,” Kabwe said in a statement published on Twitter.
According to Tanzania’s Constitution, Vice President Hassan, 61, should assume the presidency for the remainder of the five-year term that Magufuli began serving last year after winning a second term. She would be the East African nation’s first female president.
Born in the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, Hassan studied economics in Britain, worked for the U.N.’s World Food Programme and then held various government posts prior to becoming Tanzania’s first female vice president in 2015.
Hassan said Magufuli was admitted on March 6 to Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute for heart problems and discharged the next day. A week later he felt bad and was rushed to Mzena hospital where he was getting treatment under supervision of doctors from the cardiac institute.
‘The Bulldozer’
Nicknamed “The Bulldozer” because of his reputation for pushing through policies despite opposition, Magufuli frustrated the World Health Organization (WHO) during the pandemic by playing down the threat from COVID-19, saying god and remedies such as steam inhalation would protect Tanzanians.
The former chemistry teacher had mocked coronavirus tests, denounced vaccines as part of a Western conspiracy to take Africa’s wealth, and opposed mask-wearing and social distancing.
Tanzania stopped reporting coronavirus data in May last year when it had reported 509 cases and 21 deaths, according to the WHO, which has urged the government to be more transparent.
He was re-elected for a second term in 2020, winning 84% of the vote in an election the opposition said was marred by irregularities and whose results it rejected.
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UK Aims to Counter China ‘Threat’ in Major Defense Review
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to counter what he called the “systemic challenge” posed by China as he set out the government’s 10-year defense strategy Tuesday.Some ruling Conservative Party lawmakers, however, have accused Johnson of “going soft” on Beijing.Britain is seeking to carve out a new role on the world stage outside the European Union. The government’s “Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy” says Russia remains the most acute threat facing the country but warns that China poses a “systemic challenge to our security, prosperity and values.”Uyghurs, Hong Kongers“The U.K. … has led the international community in expressing our deep concern over China’s mass detention of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province, and in giving nearly 3 million of Hong Kong’s people a route to British citizenship,” Johnson told lawmakers.“There is no question that China will pose a great challenge for an open society such as ours, but we will also work with China where that is consistent with our values and interests, including in building a stronger and positive economic relationship and in addressing climate change,” he said.He added that changing defense priorities would enable the country to fulfil his post-Brexit pledge of a “global Britain.”FILE – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a news conference on Downing Street in London, Dec. 24, 2020.“Britain will remain unswervingly committed to NATO and preserving peace and security in Europe. From this secure basis, we will seek out friends and partners wherever they can be found, building a coalition for openness and innovation, and engaging more deeply in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.“I have invited the leaders of Australia, South Korea and India to attend the G-7 summit in Carbis Bay in June, and I am delighted to announce that I will visit India next month to strengthen our friendship with the world’s biggest democracy. Our approach will place diplomacy first. The U.K. has applied to become a dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and we will seek to join the trans-Pacific free trade agreement,” Johnson said.Carrier’s voyageTo demonstrate that engagement, Britain’s new aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, will make its maiden voyage to the Indo-Pacific later this year.However, several ruling Conservative Party lawmakers accused Johnson of “going soft” on China for seeking deeper trade links.Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chairman of Parliament’s Defense Select Committee, wrote on Twitter that China was “still not seen as a geo-strategic threat but a competitive trading partner.”FILE – Britain’s opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer speaks in the House of Commons in London, Dec. 2, 2020.Opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer also criticized the government’s approach.“We welcome the deepening of engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, but that comes on the back of an inconsistent policy towards China for a decade. Conservative governments have spent 10 years turning a blind eye to human rights abuses while inviting China to help build our infrastructure,” Starmer told MPs.Johnson said those seeking a “new Cold War” with Beijing were mistaken.Britain’s Ministry of Defense is set to detail later this month how the new strategy outlined in the “Integrated Review” would be implemented. Countering China’s assertiveness will require a broad response, said analyst Veerle Nouwens of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.“This won’t just be about sending ships to the region or planes to the region. It will really be about equally investing in new technologies, be that quantum, A.I., cyber, space, you name it. So, it really is a broader challenge than just the immediate visible military things that we know of when we speak about China’s rise and assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific itself,” Nouwens told VOA.Focusing on strengths“It would be very difficult to compete with China match for match, point for point, but I think that’s the situation that most countries are heading to,” Nouwens said. “We do have limited resources, and so, it is really about finding those angles that the U.K. already has real strength in and working with partners and allies or others to try and shore up capability, shore up knowledge, and come out with products and technologies that allies can share alike.”Johnson added that the United States would remain Britain’s closest ally.“In all our endeavours, the United States will be our greatest ally and a uniquely close partner in defense, intelligence and security,” he told lawmakers. “Britain’s commitment to the security of our European home will remain unconditional and immovable.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is pictured upon his arrival at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, March 17, 2021.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are visiting Japan and South Korea this week, with China at the top of the agenda. Speaking Wednesday in Seoul, Blinken underlined the threat posed by Beijing.“China is using coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undercut democracy in Taiwan, abuse the human rights situation in Tibet and assert maritime claims in the South China Sea that violate international law,” Blinken said at a news conference.China accused the U.S. of disrupting regional peace and stability. Beijing has yet to respond to Britain’s plans for greater engagement in the Indo-Pacific.Meanwhile, Britain also announced it would raise the cap on its nuclear arsenal to 260 warheads from 180. Critics said that would breach Britain’s commitment under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The government said the figure was a cap, not a target.Johnson confirmed a $33 billion multiyear boost to military spending. He said Britain’s total defense budget stood at 2.2% of GDP, above the NATO spending commitment of 2%. Part of the new investment will fund a new counterterrorism operations center and a new National Cyber Force.
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Britain Aims to Counter ‘Strategic Threat’ From China
Britain pledged to counter what it called the strategic threat posed by China as it set out its new t10-year defense strategy this week. Britain is seeking to carve out a new role on the world stage outside the European Union, according to the policy review, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Producer: Jason Godman. Camera: Henry Ridgwell.
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Animals Rescued From Former Burkina Faso President’s Private Zoo
When Burkina Faso’s former president, Blaise Compaore, fled a 2014 uprising to Ivory Coast, he left behind a private zoo of exotic animals. The animals were starving to death until a nonprofit stepped in to rescue them and this year reopened the zoo to the public. Henry Wilkins reports from Ziniaré, Burkina Faso.Camera: Henry Wilkins .
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Sexual Addiction May Have Motivated Atlanta Spa Shooter, Investigators Say
The suspect in a series of shootings Tuesday that left eight people dead, six of them Asian women, at Atlanta area Asian spas indicated to authorities he had issues with “sex addiction,” according to investigators. They also say 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long told them he wanted to eliminate the temptation.“He made indicators that he has some issues, potentially sexual addiction, and may have frequented some of these places in the past,” said Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds. Officials also say Long may have been on his way to Florida to commit more shootings.Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock in Cherokee County is seen in a jail booking photograph after he was taken into custody by the Crisp County Sheriff’s Office in Cordele, Georgia, March 16, 2021.The other two people who died in Tuesday’s shootings were white. A ninth person was hospitalized in stable condition.Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said it was too early to classify the shootings as hate crimes.Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in a statement, “A crime against any community is a crime against us all.””I commend law enforcement for their quick work in arresting a suspect in the tragic shootings,” she said. “I have remained in close contact with the White House and APD as they work with federal, state and local partners to investigate the suspect, who is responsible for this senseless violence in our city.”Gov. Brian Kemp tweeted, “These horrific crimes have no place in Georgia.” Kemp also said he and the state’s first lady “are heartbroken and disgusted by the heinous shootings that took place last night.” He said they will continue to pray for the families and loved ones of the victims.In a statement Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden would be briefed over the phone by Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray “on the horrific shootings last night in Atlanta.”In a televised speech last week, President Biden denounced violence targeting Asian Americans. In January, he signed measures to address incidents that have involved Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.Vice President Kamala Harris said the shootings speak “to a larger issue, which is the issue of violence in our country and what we must do to never tolerate it and to always speak out against it.” Harris is of South Asian descent.Former U.S. president Barack Obama Wednesday tweeted, “Yesterday’s shootings are another tragic reminder that we have far more work to do to put in place commonsense gun safety laws and root out the pervasive patterns of hatred and violence in our society.” He also said, “Although the shooter’s motive is not yet clear, the identity of the victims underscores an alarming rise in anti-Asian violence that must end.”Authorities investigate a fatal shooting at a massage parlor, late March 16, 2021, in Acworth, Georgia.The first attack took place at a massage parlor in the town of Acworth, about 50 kilometers north of Atlanta. Authorities there said a shooter killed two Asian women, a white woman and a white man, and wounded another man. About an hour later, police in Atlanta found three Asian women dead from apparent gunshot wounds at a beauty spa. They then found another Asian woman dead of a gunshot at a spa a short distance away. Police said surveillance video showed the suspect’s vehicle at all three locations, and that they were very confident the same shooter was responsible for all the attacks. After a highway pursuit, police stopped a vehicle about 240 kilometers south of Atlanta and arrested Long. The shootings come amid a rising number of attacks against people of Asian descent in the United States. The group Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta said in a statement that while the details of the shootings are still emerging, “the broader context cannot be ignored. The shootings happened under the trauma of increasing violence against Asian Americans nationwide, fueled by white supremacy and systemic racism.”The group also said that the previous Trump administration’s “relentless scapegoating of Asians for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has increased the incidences of hate and violence against Asian Americans around the country.” Former President Donald Trump frequently referred to the coronavirus as “the China virus.” He also blamed the Chinese government for the global spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus which was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
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Senate Unanimously Confirms Katherine Tai as Top US Trade Negotiator
Veteran government trader lawyer Katherine Tai was unanimously confirmed by the Senate Wednesday, becoming the first woman of color to serve as the U.S. Trade Representative.
As chief Democratic trade lawyer for the House Ways and Means Committee since 2014, Tai played a key role negotiating tenets of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) between the Trump Administration and the Democratic-led House.
A Yale- and Harvard-educated daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Tai joined the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in 2007, where she rose to become chief counsel for China enforcement in 2011.
Her 98-0 confirmation as the top U.S. trade negotiator under the Biden administration, which reflects support from pro-labor Democrats, traditional free-trade Republicans and China hawks from both parties, will put her to work enforcing trade deals, confronting China’s trade practices and patching up ties with U.S. allies.
She is expected to start work immediately monitoring China’s compliance with rules of a “Phase 1” trade agreement with the United States, festering disputes with European countries over aircraft subsidies and digital-services taxes, and enforcing USMCA’s new labor rights provisions.
Tai, 47, will be the first woman of color and Asian American to hold the Cabinet-level position.
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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FCC Begins Effort to Revoke 2 Chinese Telecoms’ US Operating Authority
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said Wednesday it has begun the process of revoking the authority to provide domestic interstate and international telecommunications services within the United States from China Unicom Americas, Pacific Networks and its wholly owned subsidiary ComNet.
In April, the FCC issued show-cause orders warning it might shut down the U.S. operations of three state-controlled Chinese telecommunications companies — the two cited Wednesday and China Telecom Corp. Ltd. China Unicom Americas has a two-decade old authorization to provide U.S. international telecommunications services.
The FCC opened a similar proceeding in December to begin the process of revoking the authorization of China Telecom, the largest Chinese telecommunications company, which has had authorization to provide U.S. telecommunications services for nearly 20 years.
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks noted that many Chinese telecom carriers “also own data centers operating within the United states.” He said the FCC currently lacks authority to “address this potential national security threat.”
In May 2019, the FCC voted unanimously to deny another state-owned Chinese telecommunications company, China Mobile Ltd., the right to provide services in the United States, citing risks that the Chinese government could use the approval to conduct espionage against the U.S. government.
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Council of Buddhist Monks in Myanmar Calls for End to Violence
A high-ranking council of Buddhist monks in Myanmar says it is suspending all activities amid the military junta’s escalating and deadly crackdown on anti-coup demonstrators. The 47-member State Saṅgha Maha Nayaka Committee, or Ma Ha Na, issued a statement Wednesday calling for an end to the violence, according to the news outlet Myanmar Now. The government-appointed body also called for the immediate end to arrests of unarmed civilians. The unrest that has plagued Myanmar since the military’s overthrow of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi entered its 44th day Wednesday. Security forces gather behind a burning barricade during a crackdown on protests against the military coup in Yangon on March 17, 2021. (Photo by STR / AFP)Plumes of smoke rose over an industrial area of the main city of Yangon, which has become a key battlefield in the nationwide protests against the February 1 military coup. Much of the city was placed under martial law after deadly rioting over the weekend. The advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which has been tracking the violence, says more than 200 protesters have been killed in the unrest. The group says the death toll from rioting Sunday had reached 74, making it the bloodiest day of demonstrations against the junta. Pope pleads for peace Pope Francis also called for an end to the bloodshed in Myanmar Wednesday, after the end of his weekly general audience at the Vatican. Children hold signs during an anti-coup procession from Nyinmaw to Tizit, Myanmar, March 17, 2021 in this still image obtained from social media video. (Dawei Watch via Reuters)The junta has blocked mobile internet service throughout Myanmar in an apparent bid to suppress news of the turmoil.
Military officials have claimed widespread fraud in last November’s general election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won in a landslide, as justification for the takeover. The fraud allegations have been denied by Myanmar’s electoral commission.
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UN Appeals for $1.2 Billion to Aid South Sudanese Refugees
The United Nations’ refugee agency and partners are appealing for $1.2 billion to provide life-saving assistance for more than two million refugees from South Sudan. The majority of the refugees are children, living in dire conditions in five neighboring countries.The hopes that accompanied South Sudan’s independence a decade ago have long since disappeared, pushed aside by a displacement crisis. Since civil war erupted in December 2013, nearly two million people have been displaced inside the country. Another 2.2 million have sought refuge in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda.U.N. refugee agency spokesman Babar Baloch says the South Sudan refugees are among the youngest in the world. He says more than two-thirds of them are children.”We are talking about at least…1.4 million South Sudanese refugees being children today under the age of 18,” said Baloch. “They include some 66,000 children who have been separated from their parents.” UN Appeals for $1.7 Billion to Feed Millions in South SudanThe UN released its South Sudan humanitarian response plan for 2021 Tuesday, with an urgent appeal for $1.7 billion dollars to combat growing food insecurity and other threatsThe South Sudanese refugee crisis is the largest on the African continent. Baloch says most of the South Sudanese refugees are living in remote, under-developed areas in their host countries. He says they are in great need of humanitarian and protection assistance.”The COVID-19 pandemic combined with climate change-related challenges including severe flooding, droughts and desert locusts have compounded an already dire situation,” said Baloch. “Funding is urgently needed to provide life-sustaining assistance, including shelter, access to safe drinking water, education and health services.”Baloch notes food rations have had to be cut for hundreds of thousands of refugees because of lack of money. He says the pandemic is taking a heavy toll on socio-economic conditions for both refugees and host communities.He warns conditions will continue to deteriorate for this vulnerable population without generous international support.
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Pope Francis Urges Peace in Myanmar, Says He Too ‘Kneeling in the Streets’
Pope Francis Wednesday appealed for peace in Myanmar, where clashes between police and coup protesters have left around 200 people dead.
At the end of his weekly audience at the Vatican, the pope said with great sorrow, he felt the urgent need to mention the situation in Myanmar, where, he added, “Many people, especially the young, are losing their lives to offer hope to their country.”
Daily nationwide protests have continued in Myanmar since the February 1 military coup pushed out the government of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
In his comments, Francis said, “Even I kneel on the streets of Myanmar and say, ‘stop the violence.’ Even I open my arms and say, ‘Let dialogue prevail.'”
The pope referenced a dramatic scene captured in pictures and video last week when a Catholic nun, Sister Ann Roza Nu Tawng, during a rally in the streets of the city of Myitkyina, dropped to her knees in front of armed police in riot gear and pleaded with them not to shoot the protesters. At least two of the officers dropped to their knees with her.
The nun later described to reporters how she told the police the demonstrators were merely shouting slogans and urged them not to beat or arrest them. The nun said when they told her they must stop the protesters, she told them they must go through her.
Despite her efforts, the police fired tear gas into the crowd and gunshots could be heard a short time later.
In his concluding comments Wednesday, the pope urged “that a path of sincere dialogue may be found” to end the clashes. “Let us remember that violence is always self-destructive. Nothing is gained through it, but much is lost, sometimes everything,” he said. The pope visited Myanmar in 2017.
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Kremlin Denies Meddling in 2020 US elections
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday a U.S. intelligence report indicating Russia meddled in 2020 U.S. elections was “wrong and has absolutely no foundation and evidence.”Peskov was reacting to a report released Tuesday by the Office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) saying Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations aimed at denigrating U.S. President Joe Biden, boosting former President Donald Trump, undermining confidence in the election and exacerbating social divisions in the United States.The report said they did not see – as in 2016 – a persistent effort on the part of Russia to gain access to U.S. election infrastructure.In a telephone briefing with reporters, Peskov said Russia did not interfere with U.S. elections in 2016 or 2020 as mentioned in the report. “Russia has nothing to do with any campaigns against any candidates,” the Russian presidential spokesman said. He added he expects the U.S. government to use the report to impose additional sanctions against Russia, which he said, “harms painful Russian-American relations.” The DNI report also found that Iran carried out a “multi-pronged covert influence campaign” designed undercut former president Trump’s chances in last year’s election, though without boosting his rival. The report says Iran also attempted to undercut public confidence in the U.S. election process. The assessment also concludes that, despite repeated warnings by several top U.S. officials, China ultimately decided to sit the election out and “did not deploy interference efforts.”The report goes on to say that Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Venezuela and Cuba all made efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. election, but were on a smaller scale.
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A 51st US State? Advocates See Possibility for Washington DC
Though Washington is the seat of U.S. political power, its residents have no voting rights in Congress nor rights of full home rule because of its unique status as the federal capital. But advocates for making Washington, D.C. a state say they see more potential than ever, as VOA’s Carol Guensburg reports. Camera: Betty Ayoub
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Japanese Court Says Official Ban on Same-Sex Marriage Unconstitutional
A Japanese district court ruled Wednesday that a ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
The historic ruling by the Sapporo District Court was in response to a lawsuit filed by six plaintiffs, including two male couples and one female couple, who demanded more than $9,100 each (1 million yen), in damages from the Japanese government. The court said the prohibition violates Article 14 of the Japanese constitution, which declares all people are equal under the law, but it rejected the plaintiff’s demand for damages.
The lawsuit is one of five that have been filed in various Japanese courts seeking to overturn the ban.
Japan is the lone holdout in the world’s top seven economies, known as the Group of Seven, that refuses to recognize same-sex marriage. The government says the constitution defines marriage as one based on “the mutual consent of both sexes,” meaning one solely between a man and a woman. The ban prevents same-sex couples from sharing in the same benefits granted to opposite-sex couples, such as inheriting their partner’s houses and other assets, or maintaining parental control over their children.
Several municipalities have issued “partnership certificates” that give same-sex couples some of the same rights as heterosexual couples.
Homosexuality itself has been legal in Japan since 1880. Taiwan is the only place in Asia that has legalized same-sex marriage.
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Why Myanmar’s Junta Might Give Brief Reprieve to Embattled Muslim Minority
Myanmar’s military government, seen as the chief force behind previous long-term violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority, is leaving the population alone for now as it battles protesters. But analysts say the junta is expected to resume the old crackdown over time. The junta seized power in a February coup from a civilian government and has been focused on quelling protesters, rather than the Rohingya minority that lives in a western region of Myanmar and continues to push for civil rights. At least 11 protesters were killed on Monday and 57 over the weekend in the bloodiest period since the military coup last month, the United Nations says on its website. “The Tatmadaw is not going to change its policy toward the Rohingyas,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, political science professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. “Tatmadaw” refers to the armed forces in the Myanmar language. “Right now, it’s just preoccupied,” he said. “I think it has been consumed by other crises and it’s actually facing a nationwide revolt against the coup, so I think the Rohingya issue now is on the back burner.” The protests could turn into a “prolonged crisis”, he added. Myanmar officials had targeted the Rohingyas in a “systematic” way, the U.N. International Court of Justice said last year. It said “genocidal acts” including mass murder, rape and setting fires were intended to wipe out the group and cited a hardening crackdown since August 2017. Civilian governments ran Myanmar from 2011 through this past January, but the military still held sway in national affairs. The Rohingya issue tainted the international reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi, a one-time opposition figure and the de facto head of state from 2016 through February. She was detained after the coup.Rohingya refugees walk with their belongings to board a naval vessel to be relocated to to the island of Bhasan Char, in Chattogram, Bangladesh, Jan. 30, 2021.An estimated 400,000 to 600,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar today. Conflicts with the government have left them without access to healthcare, education and a viable market for commercial trade places, said Tun Khin, president of the advocacy group Burmese Rohingya Organization UK. Roughly one million Rohingyas who have fled to camps in Bangladesh live there now in poverty. Myanmar, also known as Burma, has a long history of strife with the Muslim Rohingya dating back to the alliance between the Rohingya and Myanmar’s former colonizer, Britain, who fought together against a local Buddhist group. After Myanmar became independent in 1948, the government of the largely Buddhist country denied the Rohingya people citizenship. The Military led Myanmar from 1962 to 2011. Junta lobbyist Ari Ben-Menashe said Myanmar’s generals want to repatriate Rohingyas who have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, Reuters reported on March 7. The military government showed a further relaxing toward old rivals on March 11 by removing a rebel group, the Arakan Army, from a formal list of terrorist organizations. The group had quit its attacks to seek peace, the state-run Mirror Daily said as cited in foreign media outlets. “Most people outside (the country) don’t realize how serious it is — they’re all fixated on this Rohingya issue,” Priscilla Clapp, former permanent charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar, told VOA in June. Fighting with the Arakan Army in Rakhine state had added a threat to the Rohingya’s troubles. The state is a major base for Rohingya who remain in the country. Today’s government envisions building “nationwide eternal peace”, the Mirror Daily report said. In January last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Myanmar to “take all measures within its power” to prevent any acts of genocide against the Rohingya people.UN Court Orders Myanmar to Take Steps to Protect Rohingya Muslims International Court of Justice rules on lawsuit by African nation Gambia, which accused Myanmar of violating 1948 Genocide ConventionBut Tun Khin said he’s “worried” that the military government will eventually try to eliminate all Rohingyas in the country. He estimates 82% of the population has already fled Myanmar. “I don’t trust this military, because this is the military that architected the genocide of Rohingyas for so long,” he said.
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Suspect Arrested in Shooting Deaths of 8 People in Atlanta Area
Authorities in the U.S. state of Georgia arrested a man late Tuesday after a series of shootings that left eight people dead, six of them Asian women. The first attack took place at a massage parlor in the town of Acworth, about 50 kilometers north of Atlanta. Authorities there said a shooter killed two Asian women, a white woman and a white man, and also wounded another man. About an hour later, police in Atlanta found three Asian women dead from apparent gunshot wounds at a beauty spa. They then found another Asian woman dead of a gunshot at a spa a short distance away. Police said surveillance video showed the suspect’s vehicle at all three locations, and that they were very confident the same shooter was responsible for the attacks. After a highway pursuit, police later stopped a vehicle about 240 kilometers south of Atlanta and arrested 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long. The shootings come amid other attacks against people of Asian descent in the United States. The group Stop AAPI Hate called the shootings “an unspeakable tragedy” for the Asian American community. “There has been a documented pattern of recent attacks against our community, as we have received nearly 3,800 reports of hate incidents across the country since March 2020,” the group said in a statement. “Not enough has been done to protect Asian Americans from heightened levels of hate, discrimination and violence.” Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, a member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, tweeted, “My heart breaks to see this tragic news.” “AAPI Americans are once again being targeted, harassed, attacked, and killed in Georgia and communities across America,” she wrote. “We must do everything we can to end this violence while organizing together against hate, gun violence, and bigotry.”
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