Spain’s National Police announced Friday that they had seized, a 9-meter-long, 3-meter-wide homemade submarine designed to smuggle 2 metric tons of illicit cargo.At a news conference in the southeastern city of San Roque, Spanish National Police chief Rafael Perez told reporters the craft was discovered last month in a warehouse in Málaga, on southern Spain’s Costa del Sol, where it was built.He said the discovery came as part of a larger international drug operation involving five other countries and the European Union crime agency Europol.The submarine is made of fiberglass and plywood panels attached to a structural frame, with three portholes on one side, and is painted light blue. It was designed to be powered by two 200-horsepower engines operated from the inside.Perez compared the submarine to an iceberg, with most of the craft underwater, and only a small portion visible from the surface. He said the ship had never been used, but that officials believed it was designed to sail to a mother ship, unload cargo, likely narcotics, and return to port.He said he believed the vessel was intended to smuggle mostly cocaine, since hashish and marijuana are usually smuggled in trucks.Similar drug-smuggling vessels have in the past been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean, especially off Central and South America, but the police said they had never seen a craft like it before in Spain.The wider police operation in which the submarine was found netted hundreds of kilos of cocaine, hashish and marijuana in various places in Spain and resulted in 52 arrests.The national police said law enforcement from Colombia, the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and Portugal also were involved in the operation.
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Month: March 2021
The Quad Counters China’s Vaccine Diplomacy
The U.S., Japan, Australia and India, the grouping also known as the Quad, announced Friday financing agreements to support ramping up production in India of up to a billion doses of coronavirus vaccine, to be used in Southeast Asian countries. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.Produced by: Henry Hernandez
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UN Says Ebola in Guinea May be Linked to a Survivor of 2014 Outbreak
A top official at the World Health Organization said that a genetic analysis of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Guinea suggests it may have been sparked by a survivor of the devastating West Africa epidemic that ended five years ago.At a press briefing in Geneva, WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan described the results of the genetic sequencing of the virus in Guinea as “quite remarkable.”Scientists in Africa and Germany posted their results on a virology website on Friday, concluding that the current Ebola virus sickening people in Guinea is extremely similar to the virus that sparked the widespread West Africa outbreak that began in 2014.”More studies are going to be needed,” Ryan said. But he added that based on the available genetic sequencing data, the current outbreak was unlikely to be linked to an animal, which is how nearly all previous Ebola epidemics have begun. “[This] is much more likely to be linked to a persistence [of virus] or latency of infection in a human.” Ryan said that would probably be the longest period that a virus has ever persisted between outbreaks. Scientists have previously documented Ebola survivors who inadvertently infected others long after they had recovered, but such rare cases have not prompted outbreaks. In 2018, doctors published a study about a Liberian woman who probably caught Ebola in 2014 but then infected three relatives about a year later. Health officials have also warned that men can sometimes infect others via sexual activity long after they seem to have recovered — the virus can persist in semen for more than a year. The rare possibility of Ebola spreading long after infection highlights the importance of monitoring survivors, and Ryan cautioned against their stigmatization. He said that the vast majority of people who are sickened by Ebola clear the virus from their system and recover within six months. Ryan said a tiny proportion of people end up carrying the virus but are not infectious to others “except in very particular circumstances.”He said there are 18 cases of Ebola in Guinea to date and that WHO has sent more than 30,000 vaccine doses to the country. The Ebola outbreak that swept across West Africa from 2014 to 2016 ultimately killed more than 11,000 people.
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Leaked Documents Suggest Fraying of China-Myanmar Ties
Leaked documents obtained by VOA reveal China asked Myanmar’s military government late last month to tighten pipeline security during ongoing anti-coup protests, suggesting growing tension in what seemed to be a cozy relationship between the neighboring nations.Beijing asked for increased security around the pipeline and help with encouraging more positive news media coverage of China during a February 23 meeting with Burmese officials. Shortly afterward, Myanmar’s generals hired a lobbyist to publicly distance their unpopular regime from China.“China seeking assurances from a brutal and hated regime is the worst one could do at a time like this,” Khin Zaw Win, founder of the Yangon think tank Tampadipa Institute, told VOA on Thursday. “The real problem is the coup, which the people see as a return to military dictatorship.”The protests were triggered by the February 1 coup after the military claimed voter fraud in the November 8 general elections. More than 80% of voters backed the pro-democracy party of Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung Sun Suu Kyi. Myanmar’s electoral commission Myanmar nun Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng kneels in front of police to ask security forces to refrain from violence against children and residents amid anti-coup protests in Myitkyina, Myanmar, March 8, 2021, in this still image taken from video.Noting “the distinction is significant,” Yun said that “Chinese frustration with the domestic violence and instability in Myanmar is growing quickly — they are in every way bad for Chinese interests in the country and its international reputation. But it does not suggest that China will abandon its non-interference principle, agree to U.N. sanctions and international intervention just yet.”China’s relationship with the Myanmar military reflects a “coziness” only in comparison to Western countries’ relationship with the military, said Yun.“Inside Myanmar, you could say China has had a cozier relationship with the NLD,” she told VOA. “It was the quasi-democratic Thein Sein government that suspended Chinese projects and agitated anti-China sentiment, and it was the NLD government that helped China to repair its reputation and regain its influence in Myanmar.”The leaked documents from a February 23 meeting show the extent of China’s influence over its neighbor.According to the meeting minutes obtained by VOA’s Burmese Service, Bai Tian, the director-general of the department of external security affairs under China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asked Myanmar’s military regime to assure the security of the FILE – Protesters hold signs of detained Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on Feb. 26, 2021.In an interview with Reuters on March 6, Ben-Menashe said Suu Kyi had grown too close to China for the generals’ liking. ”There’s a real push to move towards the West and the United States as opposed to trying to get closer to the Chinese. They don’t want to be a Chinese puppet,” said Ben-Menashe. “They want to get out of politics completely … but it’s a process.”The Stimson Center’s Yun said, “This is the same argument it played back in 2011 — that Myanmar does not want to be in China’s pocket. But given the severity of the coup and violence, I doubt the argument will gain much traction.”Khin Zaw Win, of the Tampadipa Institute, warned the international community not to trust the lobbyist’s clients.The generals are not holding out “an olive branch at all,” he said. Ben-Menashe’s comments are “a ruse to avert more pressure from the West.”Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, a global affairs think tank, told VOA in a phone interview that it’s basically impossible for the junta to improve relations with the U.S. and the West.“Even if it’s true that they want to improve the relations, they completely undermined the relations by launching the coup, repressing the journalists, occupying the hospitals and killing the innocent people,” he said.Since the coup, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on Burmese military. The latest came Wednesday when the U.S. Treasury Department added Aung Pyae Sone and Khin Thiri Thet Mon, two adult children of Myanmar military chief Min Aung Hlaing, who led the coup and installed himself as head of the ruling State Administration Council. The U.S. action added six companies the two own or control to its sanctions list, according to the department’s website.”Today, the United States is taking further actions to respond to the violence enabled by Burma’s military leaders, to promote accountability for those responsible for the coup, and to target those who benefit financially from their connections to the military regime,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. ” The leaders of the coup, and their adult family members, should not be able to continue to derive benefits from the regime as it resorts to violence and tightens its stranglehold on democracy.”Last month, on February 11, the U.S. Treasury said it had sanctioned 10 individuals and three organizations “who played a leading role in the overthrow of Burma’s democratically elected government.”US Sanctions Myanmar Military Leaders Involved in CoupTreasury says sanctions not directed at citizens On February 22, it imposed sanctions on two more Myanmar military officials.US Sanctions Myanmar Military Officials Latest economic action in response to coup includes call to reinstate elected government
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Rubio Is First US Republican Senator to Support Union Push at Amazon
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on Friday became the first high-profile Republican lawmaker to support a growing push to unionize Amazon.com, Inc., workers in Alabama, after several Democratic lawmakers visited the company’s facility last week.In an opinion piece in USA Today, Rubio wrote that Amazon has “waged a war against working-class values” and is “looking to crush the union vote” in Bessemer, Alabama.”Here’s my standard: When the conflict is between working Americans and a company whose leadership has decided to wage culture war against working-class values, the choice is easy, I support the workers. And that’s why I stand with those at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse today.”Rubio’s backing is noteworthy as Republicans traditionally favor businesses and investors looking to squelch unionizing efforts.Amazon workers at the Alabama facility began voting by mail in February on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) and become the first group of U.S. Amazon employees to unionize. The union’s President Stuart Appelbaum welcomed the support from Rubio and said this fight “should not be a partisan issue.”President Joe Biden also recently expressed support for the Amazon warehouse employees and defended workers’ rights to form unions.Last week, Democratic U.S. Representatives Andy Levin, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Terri Sewell and Nikema Williams visited the facility and met workers and organizers.An Amazon spokesperson said, “when Senator Rubio says Amazon is ‘waging war on working class values,’ does he mean our $15 starting wage, comprehensive benefits, or the paid parental leave we provide for hourly workers?”Rubio’s column did not address Amazon’s wages or benefits. It said Amazon “uses anticompetitive strategies to crush small businesses, bans conservative books and blocks traditional charities from participating in its AmazonSmile program.”Amazon offers $15 an hour minimum wage to its workers and has continued to advocate for the federal minimum wage to be raised to that level.Rubio has clashed with Amazon before, as part of a group of conservative lawmakers who wrote to the online retailer in February after it stopped selling a book that Amazon said framed transgender and other sexual identities as mental illnesses.The pressure on Amazon has also continued to mount from other areas in Washington. On Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders invited Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, to appear before his Senate Budget panel for a hearing on income and wealth inequality.
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Armenia’s President Said to Be Back at Work After Report of COVID-19 Complications
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian returned to work after undergoing a medical exam, his press office said Friday, following reports that was admitted to a hospital because of COVID-19 complications.Sarkissian was diagnosed with coronavirus in January and was briefly hospitalized in London.Russian news agencies cited local media reports Friday, saying Sarkissian was undergoing treatment for heart problems as well as COVID-19. However, the president’s press office said Sarkissian underwent an examination at Astghik Medical Center, then went back to his usual work. It was reported on Jan. 5 that Sarkissian showed symptoms of coronavirus when he underwent leg surgery. The reported symptoms included high fever and double pneumonia.
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Olympic Host Japan Will Not Take Part in China Vaccine Offer
Japan will not take part in China’s offer — accepted by the International Olympic Committee — to provide vaccines for “participants” in the postponed Tokyo Games and next year’s Beijing Winter Games.Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa said Friday that Japan had not been consulted by the IOC about the Chinese vaccines, and that Japanese athletes would not take them. She said the vaccines have not been approved for use in Japan.”We have been taking comprehensive anti-infectious disease measures for the Tokyo Games in order to allow participation without vaccinations,” Marukawa said. “There is no change to our principle of not making vaccinations a prerequisite.”Announced by IOC President Thomas Bach on Thursday, the surprise deal comes as China faces mounting international pressure over the internment of at least 1 million Muslim Uyghurs, which has been labeled a “genocide” by several governments and human rights bodies.The IOC has indicated it is a sports body and will not meddle in domestic issues in China.The IOC initially said it would not require athletes to get vaccines, but only encourage it. The deal with China puts more emphasis on getting vaccines to young, healthy athletes and others.The IOC has said it will pay for the vaccines but gave no indication of the cost or quantity.Marukawa pointed out that the Olympics are being held as if vaccines are not available, relying on testing, masks, social distancing and keeping athletes in a “bubble.”Distribution of China’s vaccine will be through international agencies or existing vaccine agreements countries have with China, Bach said.The IOC clarified on Friday that athletes in countries which have not authorized Chinese vaccines for use could not benefit from the program.”This offer will really only apply to (national Olympic committees) in territories where the Chinese vaccination has been approved by their national health authorities,” said James MacLeod, the IOC official who works with those Olympic bodies.China, where the COVID-19 outbreak emerged in late 2019, has actively engaged in vaccine diplomacy, using doses developed by Sinovac and Sinopharm. Trials have produced generally lower levels of efficacy than vaccines produced outside China.Bach said Thursday “that a significant number of Olympic teams have already been vaccinated.” He did not name the countries.”The IOC will make every effort to have as many participants in the Olympics and Paralympic Games arriving already vaccinated in Japan this summer,” Bach said.Tokyo organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto, in a news conference on Friday, said people coming to Japan with vaccinations might help reassure a skeptical public.About 80% of Japanese in recent polls say the Olympics should be postponed or canceled, and almost as many do not want fans from abroad.Hashimoto said again that the decision on fans from overseas will be made before the torch relay begins on March 25. Numerous reports in Japan say the decision has already been made to ban foreign visitors.She also said a decision on venue capacity will be made in April.”The sooner the better,” she said. “At an earlier stage it is better to present the direction. We’ve been receiving requests to make the decision sooner.
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US Accuses Houthis of Prioritizing Yemen Offensive Over Cease-fire
The leadership of Yemen’s Houthi rebels is apparently prioritizing a military offensive over its plan for a nationwide cease-fire, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle Eastern country said Friday. “We now have a sound plan for a nationwide cease-fire with elements that would immediately address Yemen’s dire humanitarian situation directly,” U.S. envoy Tim Lenderking told the American research organization, the Atlantic Council, virtually Friday. “That plan has been before the Houthi leadership for a number of days,” Lenderking added. Lenderking’s remarks came after a visit to the region to revive efforts to end the six-year civil war. “I will return immediately when the Houthis are prepared to talk,” Lenderking said. FILE – Armed Houthi followers ride on the back of a truck after a funeral of Houthi fighters killed in recent clashes with government forces in Yemen’s oil-rich province of Marib, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 20, 2021.A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in the war in 2015 after a Houthi group aligned with Iran ousted the Yemeni government from the capital of Sanaa. The Houthis contend they are battling a corrupt system and have recently concentrated efforts to gain control of the gas-rich area of Marib, the government’s last stronghold in northern Yemen. Lenderking also said the U.S. would restore funding for humanitarian aid in northern Yemen and would collaborate with Yemen and Saudi Arabia to deliver fuel to those most in need. The war has put millions of Yemeni civilians at risk, according to the United Nations, which has described it as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. About 80% of the country’s population needs humanitarian assistance and some 400,000 children under 5 are severely malnourished, according to the U.N. Yemen relies heavily on food imports that have been disrupted by “all the warring parties,” the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Sarah Charles told the Atlantic Council. She added the “most egregious” disruptions have been committed by the Houthis in northern Yemen. The country’s humanitarian crisis has been exacerbated by economic and currency collapses and the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.
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Tanzania PM Denies Reports President John Magufuli is Ill
Tanzania’s prime minister, Kassim Majaliwa, on Friday refuted rumors circulating for almost a week now that President John Magufuli is ill, saying he is “healthy and continuing with his duties as usual.”Majaliwa, who spoke during the Islamic Friday prayer in southern Tanzania, urged Tanzanians to ignore reports that their leader was ill.The prime minister did not elaborate on the president’s whereabouts or explain why he has not been seen in public for nearly two weeks, amid rumors that he has contracted COVID-19 and was outside the country for treatment. Majaliwa said he had spoken with Magufuli by phone and assured Tanzanians that he is well.The prime minister’s remarks were the first official statement by the Tanzanian government about Magufuli’s absence from public view amid widespread rumors that he is ill. The 61-year-old leader last appeared publicly on February 27 during an official function at the statehouse in Dar es Salaam, the country’s business capital.Various international media outlets have reported on Magufuli’s public absence and his reported transfer to a hospital outside the country. Neither his spokesman, Gerson Msigwa, nor government spokesman Hassan Abbas has responded to media inquiries.Tanzania’s government has not publicly reported cases of COVID-19 infection since May 2020, when it recorded 509 infections and 21 deaths among the East African country of 60 million people. Magufuli has promoted prayer and steam inhalation as an antidote to the coronavirus, and he has disparaged new vaccines as “dangerous.” “If the white man was able to come up with vaccinations, then vaccinations for AIDS would have been brought, tuberculosis would be a thing of the past, vaccines for malaria and cancer would have been found,” he said in January.This report originated in VOA’s Swahili Service
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South Africa’s Beloved Zulu Monarch Dies
King Goodwill Zwelithini, monarch of South Africa’s large amaZulu ethnic group, has died, ending his five-decade reign through the darkest years of the racist apartheid system, the democratization of the 1990s, and the ups and downs of modern South Africa. The royal house confirmed his death early Friday, saying he had been hospitalized with blood sugar problems several weeks earlier. He was 72. Zwelithini was more than a figurehead, though he held no formal power. He made history as the longest-serving head of the Zulu Kingdom, which is estimated to number between 10 and 12 million, most of them in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. FILE – British Queen Elizabeth II looks up to Zulu King Zwelithini as he presents her a replica of a cup given to King Cetshwayo by Queen Victoria in 1882, here at a ceremonious luncheon in Durban, March 25, 1995.In a statement, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, “His Majesty will be remembered as a much-loved, visionary monarch who made an important contribution to cultural identity, national unity and economic development in KwaZulu-Natal and through this, to the development of our country as a whole.” Pitika Ntuli is a member of the larger amaZulu community, and is also an artist, poet and historian. He says the king touched the lives of many South Africans — not just his own ethnic group. “His presence loomed large over the nation. He was very, very vocal about the issues that he really believed in, that affected his people, affected the province and also affected the country,” he told VOA. “And he was generally a very open, welcoming, supportive person. That’s why when you would go over to his royal kraal, the people who visit him would be coming from the Indian continent, from all walks of life. Even within South Africa itself, he had a very good and powerful following.” And, Ntuli added, he also had a wonderful sense of humor — a side of the king not many people got to see. Modern rulerZwelithini is the most recent in a long line of Zulu leaders, who pride themselves on their skill as warriors. Perhaps the most famous of them was King Shaka, who ruled in the early 1800s and is famed for his military prowess. He is often credited with inventing the strategies that, after his death, enabled the Zulu fighters to hold their own against invading British soldiers. FILE – Former South African president Nelson Mandela, center, and Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, left, wear traditional Zulu and Xhosa clothes during the wedding of the king’s daughter, Princess Nandi, Dec. 7, 2002.Zwelithini was a more modern ruler. Although he donned the customary garb, danced the elaborate dances and sang the deeply moving songs of his people, he notably toned down some of the rhetoric. In his later years, he focused not on the vitality of the Zulu people, but on their humanity. Last year, he spoke about what Ramaphosa has described as South Africa’s “second pandemic” — the nation’s astoundingly high rate of violence against girls and women. “The killing of my daughters,” he said to a crowd that had gathered for the annual reed dance, “has made me ashamed to be king of the Zulus. I ask myself, ’how can I be leader of such a cruel nation?’ AmaZulu, what happened to the humanity you are known for?” ControversiesThe king’s reign was not entirely smooth. He occasionally spoke against the ruling African National Congress, and in earlier years raised eyebrows for his positive comments about the apartheid regime. He also came under criticism for his government-funded lifestyle of elaborate palaces, luxury cars and expensive parties and vacations in a nation beset by inequality and high unemployment. The government budgeted nearly $5 million for him this year. Ntuli defended the king, saying he also used his largesse to benefit his people — for example, giving nine farms to the Ntuli people. And, to critics who complained about the king’s comfortable life, he countered: Isn’t Queen Elizabeth comfortable? Why shouldn’t an African king be, as well? “It’s not as if he was taking these things and just simply enjoying it himself, without having to share what it is, in terms of the duties that he had to perform for the people all around him,” Ntuli said. Future of throneZwelithini’s line will continue. He is survived by six wives. Local media estimates that he has between 28 and 32 children. FILE – The Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini celebrates his 51st birthday with his grandchildren at the Lindizulu palace in Nongoma (Kwazulu-Natal province) some 300 km from Durban, July 24, 1999.It’s not clear which one of them will inherit the throne, as the king’s successor is customarily only chosen after his death. Custom dictates that the king’s “great wife” — in this case, his third wife, Queen MaNtofombi Dlamini — gets preference. Her eldest son, Prince Misuzulu Zulu, is the eldest surviving son of the king and a strong candidate to succeed him. But all that can wait. Today, many South Africans — not just the Zulu people, but also the Xhosa, the Bapedi, the Tswana, the Ndebele, the Basotho, the Venda, the Tsonga, the Swazi, the San, the Cape Colored, the South Asians, the Afrikaaners, the English and the many others who make the Rainbow Nation such a vibrant, colorful place — are saying, “Hamba Kahle.” That means, in isiXhosa, “go well.”
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China’s Ant Group CEO Simon Hu Resigns
China’s Ant Group Chief Executive Officer Simon Hu has stepped down from his role and will be replaced by Executive Chairman Eric Jing, the financial technology giant said Friday.”The Ant Group Board of Directors has accepted Mr. Simon Hu’s resignation request, due to personal reasons,” Ant said in a statement.Hu’s exit from the company comes as Ant is working on plans to shift to a financial holding company structure following intense regulatory pressure to subject them to rules and capital requirements similar to those for banks.That pressure thwarted Ant’s $37 billion IPO last year and has seen it formulate plans to shift to a financial holding company structure.
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Germany in Third COVID-19 Wave
German health officials Friday warned the country is facing a third wave of coronavirus infections, and the so-called British variant of the virus may be responsible.At a news briefing in Berlin, Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases President Lothar Wieler told reporters the COVID-B117 variant, originally identified in Britain, is spreading very rapidly in the country, and could be driving the latest surge, with new cases Friday the highest Germany has seen in a month.Wieler said vaccinations would help bring the virus under control but people should continue practicing social distancing and other measures. He said, “the virus won’t disappear again, but if we have a base immunity level in the population, we can control the virus.”At the same news conference, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said the country should prepare for “several very challenging weeks” ahead.Spahn expressed regret that some neighboring countries have paused their use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine following reports of blood clots in some recipients, despite the lack of evidence the shot was responsible.Spahn said that while Germany takes reports of possible side effects from vaccines “very, very seriously,” both the European Medicines Agency ((EMA)) and Germany’s own vaccine oversight body have said they have no evidence of an increase in dangerous blood clots in connection with the vaccine.Denmark announced Thursday it was temporarily suspending use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of blood clots in some people. Austria did the same earlier in the week. After investigating the Austrian cases, the EMA issued a statement Wednesday saying it found no indication the vaccine caused the condition.The agency said “the vaccine’s benefits continue to outweigh its risks and the vaccine can continue to be administered” while a closer evaluation of the blood clot cases continues.
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UN Official Calls for Coordinated International Action to Oust Myanmar Coup Leaders
A United Nations investigator is accusing Myanmar’s military junta of likely crimes against humanity and is urging international coordinated action to isolate and get rid of the regime. The report is under review by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Special raporteur Thomas Andrews says that since Myanmar’s military seized power from the elected government February 1, security forces have murdered at least 70 people and arbitrarily arrested more than 2,000.He says there is video evidence of security forces viciously beating protestors, destroying property, looting shops, and firing indiscriminately into people’s homes. He says the junta has been systematically destroying legal protections and crushing freedom of expression and assembly. Andrews notes the current leadership of what he calls a murderous, illegal regime is facing charges of genocide before the International Court of Justice. The military is accused of human rights abuses committed in Rakhine state against the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority.“It should come as little surprise that there is growing evidence that this same Myanmar military, led by the same senior leadership, is now engaging in crimes against humanity, including the acts of murder, enforced disappearance, persecution, torture, and imprisonment in violation of fundamental rules of international law,” Andrews says. Shields with attached pictures of Myanmar’s military junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing are seen during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, March 1, 2021.Andrews says there is growing evidence that these acts of cruelty are part of a coordinated, systematic campaign rather than a series of isolated events. He is calling on other countries to take strong, coordinated action to stop these atrocities.“Stop the flow of revenue into the illegal junta’s coffers. This can happen now,” Andrews says. “Multilateral sanctions should be imposed on both senior junta leaders and their major sources of revenue, including military-owned and -controlled enterprises and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.” He notes Myanmar’s natural gas projects will generate an estimated $1 billion in revenue this year. Without sanctions, he warns, the military junta will be able to use these funds to support its criminal enterprise and attack innocent people.Permanent secretary of Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chan Aye, says the Tatmadaw, as the military is also called, did not want to stall the nascent democratic transition in the country. However, he says, it had no choice, given, what he described as last November’s fraudulent general election. The fraud allegations have been denied by Myanmar’s electoral commission.He says the authorities have been exercising utmost restraint in dealing with violent protests. He says his government is committed to restore and maintain the democratic transition in accordance with the existing State Constitution.
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White House Calls for Independent Probe of Abuses in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region
The White House is calling for a full, independent investigation into human rights abuses in the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports on the ongoing violence in Tigray that has left 3 million people in need of food assistance.
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Malawi Parliament Rejects Debate On Liberalizing Abortion Law
Malawi’s National Assembly has rejected a motion to debate liberalizing the country’s strict law against abortion, which is only allowed if the mother’s life is at risk. Despite thousands of Malawian women dying each year from unsafe abortions, lawmakers on Thursday unanimously rejected a motion to debate the long-delayed Termination of Pregnancy Bill. The bill, pushed by activists since 2015, aimed to expand legal abortion from cases where the mother’s life is at risk to include rape, incest, fetal deformity, and threats to health. The debate on Thursday, though, never even started. “What they have done is to deny even discussing it,” said Richard Chimwendo Banda, Minister of Homeland Security and a member of prliament. “Which means you can’t force the members. They don’t want it. Actually, there was no single ‘yes.’ Out of all members in parliament, all of them refused.”A group of about 50 female activists demonstrated outside Malawi’s parliament Thursday in support of the bill before the debate was rejected. Gender activist Titani Magalasi was among them. She says they’re not giving up. “Just because it was not tabled this week, it doesn’t mean actually, it doesn’t mean that it has been defeated,” Magalasi said. “Because it never actually came onto the table meaning that we still we can even push for next week as private members’ bills are always tabled on Thursdays. So next week Thursday, be assured to see us back there in our numbers fighting for the same bill to be tabled.”However, Banda said that, judging from Thursday’s reaction, he doubts lawmakers will debate the bill during the current sitting of parliament, which ends March 26. The current 160-year-old law criminalizes abortion, unless the mother’s life is in danger, with offenders facing up to 14 years in jail. Critics say the law leads to more than 140,000 backstreet abortions annually that cause 12,000 deaths, according to a joint study by Malawi’s College of Medicine and the U.S.-based Guttmacher Institute. Countless other Malawian women are left permanently scarred. Jessie Ching’oma is a board member of the Gender Coordination Network, which has been pushing for changing the law.“It’s unfortunate that we are continuing delaying the process,” Ching’oma said. “If status quo continues, it means women and girls will continue having unsafe abortion[s], which is a violation of their rights.”The bill was to be debated last year but was dropped because of widespread opposition from conservative and religious groups, who consider all abortions to be murder.
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How the Philippines Finally Got its COVID-19 Caseload Under Control
The Philippines has gotten a measure of control over its once-runaway COVID-19 outbreak through strict lockdowns and a year of school closures, coupled with widespread use of face protectors, experts and citizens on the ground say.The Southeast Asian country known for its migratory population — Filipinos work throughout the developed world — has reported fewer than 2,000 new cases per day most of the time since October, down from as much as 6,275 cases previously. Daily counts fell below 1,000 at the start of January.Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, only Indonesia struggled last year with the same level of daily COVID-19 caseload surges. Most countries around Northeast Asia, including the coronavirus’s apparent source, China, recovered early last year, despite isolated flare-ups.Border closures that remain in effect and enforced stay-home orders in the nation of 109 million’s larger cities get the most credit for bringing cases down, residents and a United Nations official say.Meanwhile, medical personnel are better equipped now to do tests for the virus and trace the contacts of the sick than they were a year ago, according to Aaron Rabena, research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation in the Philippines’ Quezon City.Adding support, ordinary Filipinos have accepted the use of face masks and face shields in public.Public school classes have not met in person for a year, said Behzad Noubary, Philippine deputy UNICEF representative.“These are the aspects that have contributed to [caseload declines] — the international closure, which has lasted a long time, and a really, really prolonged lockdown,” Noubary told VOA in a call on Thursday.“Schools have been closed a year now, no in-person classes since then, and most of the country has been in quite strict lockdown,” he said.In June, when caseloads were higher, stay-home orders had begun easing before hospitals could get their equipment ready and coordinate with each other to handle the coronavirus, said Maria Ela Atienza, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman.People still went outside without masks then, sometimes to find work in an increasingly desperate economy, as well as to join friends and relatives in tight spaces where the virus could quickly spread.Local authorities, however, now sometimes enforce stay-home orders so strictly they even force residents to turn back if they go out too far from their doorways, domestic media and people on the ground say.Meanwhile, metro Manila reportedly plans new curfews from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Monday because of a recent spike in cases.Ordinary people are doing their share now in controlling cases, Rabena said.“It’s because the people have exercised more caution,” Rabena said. “Here, when you go out, you wear a mask and a face shield. Everybody is still careful. Compared to last year of course, this year is much better.”Marivic Arcega, operator of an animal feed distributor in the Manila suburb of Cavite, has gone all-out to keep herself and her surroundings safe.She employs only a “skeletal” staff plus a driver who does delivery, Arcega said. A son takes college courses online and another lives in central Manila but seldom comes home. When he does visit, Arcega said, he rides in a friend’s car rather than taking public transit. Her husband never goes out. Customers are told to keep a distance.“Us here at the store, no facemask, no entry, and then my cashier is enclosed in a booth, and we’re all wearing face shields,” said Arcega, 52. “I stay inside my office and don’t interact with the customers anymore. If they speak to me, [it is] from the door of my office. They don’t really come in.”The millions of vaccine doses that the Philippines has secured so far are boosting morale, Rabena said. The government aims to loosen neighborhood quarantine rules as more people become immunized, he believes.Officials hope to pull the Philippines out of a sharp recession caused by store closures and people being stuck at home rather than able to work outside. The country’s economy contracted 9.5% last year after sharp annual upturns in the previous half-decade.If family incomes shrink 30%, per a worst-case estimate, up to 45% of Philippine children would live in poverty, up from 24% now, Noubary said. The Philippines, he said, already has paid a “significant price” in terms of child poverty.UNICEF has supplied personal protective equipment and cleaning solutions to poor families and helped provide vaccines that are on the ground today. It is now nudging the government to reopen schools little by little in parts of the archipelago with low COVID-19 caseloads as online learning has caused 2.7 million children to drop out of the school system, Noubary said.
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Obstacles Persist for Reuniting Families Separated at US-Mexico Border
Searches begin with a name and municipality. Sometimes only a name. They look through public records, birth certificate information, and often must ask community leaders for help.They are known as “defenders” — lawyers in Central America working for U.S.-based nonprofit Justice in Motion, traveling far and wide to find and reunite parents whose children were taken from them at the U.S.-Mexico border.Their journeys take them to villages near streams, valleys, and forests. They often brave storms and damaged roads.“Many times, we obtain more information from records of the people here in Guatemala through birth certificates and we can see where the parents are from,” attorney Aroldo Palacios told VOA. “In other cases, we have to go to the community leaders and try to ask if they know a certain person.”Palacios reflects on the stories he heard from migrant parents deported under former President Donald Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy for illegal border crossings. The 2018 program led to the separation of more than 5,000 migrant children from their parents. While nearly all parents were sent back to their home countries, their kids remained in U.S. custody.“As lawyers, they teach us to be strong, not to have too many feelings involved,” Palacios said. “But there were situations that were quite tragic.”While most migrant children separated in 2018 are once again with their parents or other close family members, the Biden administration has pledged to reunite the remainder, who number roughly 500.“We’re going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families, their mothers and fathers at the border,” President Joe Biden said last month.Biden created a task force to speed efforts to reunite families. First lady Jill Biden reportedly has taken a personal interest in the effort.But finding parents from throughout Central America and matching them with children still in the United States is no easy task. Legal avenues for parents deported without their children are limited. Under U.S. law, anyone deported is barred from reentry for a period of five years.Obtaining waivers to the five-year rule for deported migrant parents is one of several projects overseen by Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. Gelernt, who fought the “zero tolerance” policy since its inception, has a to-do list for the Biden administration.“The first is to help us find the remaining 500 families and that means giving us whatever contact information they have,” he told VOA. “The second is … to allow parents to return to the United States to reunify with their children. Some of those children are very young and have been away from their parents for years now.”“The third,” Gelernt added, “is once they are in the United States and reunified, we want any deportation proceedings the Trump administration started to be terminated, and to provide a pathway for these families who suffered so much to have permanent legal status.”A parent’s nightmareLike thousands of migrants, Luis left Guatemala with his teenage son in May 2018 to escape local gangs, trekking more than 2,000 kilometers to the U.S.-Mexico border.“I encountered border patrol officers who took me and my son,” Luis told VOA. “They told me my child had to be separated from me because I was going to criminal detention.”Luis is not his real name and VOA agreed to protect his identity. He described arriving at the border as a “happy” moment. Luis said he tried to present himself at the port of entry in El Paso, Texas, and ask for asylum. He said officers told him asylum was not available anymore.Luis and his teenage son then tried to cross the border between ports of entry. They were intercepted by U.S. Border Patrol. Luis was prosecuted for illegal entry while his son joined thousands of other migrant children — some just toddlers — kept in separate holding facilities.“My son went to one side and I went to the other. It was a very difficult moment. Not just for me but for everyone going through that,” he said. “It was torture what they did to us.”Luis was deported to Guatemala after almost three months of detention. His son stayed in U.S. custody until a relative living in the U.S. became his temporary guardian.Family separation made headlines in 2018, especially after video emerged from a detention facility of scores of sobbing children packed together and wailing for their parents.In May, 2018, then-President Donald Trump said, “I don’t want children taken away from their parents.” However, he added, “when you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away.”A January 2021 report by the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General concluded: “Then Attorney General [Jeff] Sessions was aware that full implementation of the zero tolerance policy would result … in children being separated from families.”The report added, “[T]he Department’s single-minded focus on increasing prosecutions came at the expense of careful and appropriate consideration of the impact that prosecution of family unit adults and family separations would have on children traveling with them and the government’s ability to later reunite the children with their parents.”Executive powerWhile nonprofits fighting to bring deported parents back to the United States, those who can’t return must decide between leaving their kids in the U.S. or agreeing to the transfer of their children back to the countries they fled from.The managing attorney for one nonprofit, Al Otro Lado’s Carol Anne Donohoe, is urging swift action in Washington.“The president can allow them [deported parents] to come [to the United States] under humanitarian parole. And our Congress can pass legislation that will allow them to have green cards,” she said.For parents who are still separated from their children, Donohoe recommends granting them Temporary Protected Status.“There are things that just the executive branch can do to give them relief from deportation to not have them have to be in court hearings,” she said.On March 1, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the administration is exploring lawful pathways.“If, in fact, they seek to reunite here in the United States, we will explore lawful pathways for them to remain in the United States,” Mayorkas said.Deported parents of 105 separated children were located in Central America in February. The search continues for the parents of some 500 others.As harrowing as Luis’ experience was, he turned out to be one of the lucky parents. With the help of Al Otro Lado, he returned to the U.S. border in 2019 and was allowed entry into the United States. Luis and his son, who is now approaching adulthood, were reunited and both are currently in the U.S. Midwest while an asylum claim is pursued.“It doesn’t matter his size or age, he’s my son,” Luis said before reflecting on their shared ordeal. “That moment stays in your head forever.”
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Biden Marks a Year of COVID-19
In his first prime-time address Thursday night, President Joe Biden marked one year since widespread pandemic shutdowns began across the United States and asked Americans to help with the challenges ahead. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.
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Biden Directs States to Make Vaccine Available to All Adults by May 1
U.S. President Joe Biden is directing the 50 states, as well as territories and tribal governments, to make all adults eligible for the coronavirus vaccine by the start of May, he told the country Thursday evening.“That’s much earlier than expected,” the president said in his first prime-time television address. “That doesn’t mean everyone’s going to have that shot immediately. But it means you’re able to get in line beginning May 1.”By the end of May, the country expects to have enough vaccine supply available for all adults, a senior administration official told reporters before the president’s speech.Holiday gatheringsMarking one year since COVID-19 began to sweep the United States, Biden said his goal was to have limited gatherings on Independence Day this year.“By July the Fourth, there’s a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day,” he said.“That doesn’t mean large events, with lots of people together. But it does mean small groups will be able to get together after this long, hard year that will make this Independence Day something truly special, where we not only mark our independence as a nation, but where we begin to mark our independence from this virus.”Before the president’s address, on his 50th day in office, his administration announced the deployment of 4,000 more active-duty troops to support vaccination efforts, bringing the total number deployed to more than 6,000.Dentists, paramedics, physician assistants and veterinarians, as well as medical and health care students, will also be authorized as vaccinators, according to officials.Much of commerce in America ceased in March 2020 as the coronavirus enveloped state after state in a country unprepared for its biggest health crisis since the 1918 flu pandemic.A year ago, the virus “was met with silence and spread unchecked — denial for days, weeks and months. That led to more deaths, more infections, more stress and more loneliness,” Biden said, criticizing the initial response of the administration of his predecessor, Donald Trump, which later ramped up research and production of the vaccines now being administered.President Joe Biden speaks about the COVID-19 pandemic during a prime-time address from the East Room of the White House, March 11, 2021.“While it was different for everyone, we all lost something,” Biden said of the past year of suffering.Even as thousands of schools remain shut to classroom instruction and millions of workers are still unemployed, there are signs of a slow return to normal. Some state governors are easing restrictions, allowing businesses to expand operations, despite warnings from federal health officials that reopening too soon could cause COVID-19 cases to spike.But the president cautioned, “If we don’t stay vigilant and the conditions change, then we may have to reinstate restrictions to get back on track.”In reaction to the address, one Republican lawmaker said Biden’s message of caution was wrongheaded as was his lack of appreciation for the previous administration’s efforts to develop vaccines.“His message tonight was one of threats of more lockdowns, not of unity, which is not the direction this country needs and wants to go,” said U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, a Republican.Hagerty, who Trump appointed as U.S. ambassador to Japan, also said on Twitter that Biden “showed no grace or appreciation for the leadership (of Trump) that led to Operation Warp Speed and the development of a safe and effective vaccine.”Tonight, Vice President Kamala Harris attends a virtual meeting where she spoke about the signing of the American Rescue Plan, March 11, 2021, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House Complex in Washington.Citing public opinion polls, Harris said at a White House event Thursday, “The vast majority of Americans, regardless of who they voted for in the last election, support the American Rescue Plan.”At the event, Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, thanked the vice president for many provisions in the legislation, “most especially for the money to reopen schools.”The executive director of the grassroots group MomsRising, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, told Harris, “We are doing a happy dance.”Harris quipped in reply, “Thanks to all the moms who are not just rising but have risen.”Hitting the roadBiden and Harris will travel next week to tell the American people how they “can benefit from the components of the package moving forward,” Psaki told reporters Thursday. “They’re eager to get out there on the road.”The president has visits scheduled to the states of Pennsylvania and Georgia.Nearly 530,000 Americans have been killed by the virus and 29.2 million have been infected, more than in any other country in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.FILE – Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks at the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Jan. 21, 2021.”There is light at the end of the tunnel,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, told NBC News’ “Today” show on Thursday. “By the time we get into the mid- to late summer, early fall, we’re going to start seeing a big, big difference.”As of Wednesday, about 96 million vaccine shots had been administered in the U.S., government data showed, with about 10% of the U.S. adult population having received both shots of the two-shot regimen required with the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccinations. A single-shot dose produced by drugmaker Johnson & Johnson has become available more recently.Presidents’ pitchExcept for Trump and former first lady Melania Trump, all the living former U.S. presidents and their spouses are appearing in a new public service announcement encouraging Americans to get vaccinated.That campaign is meant to overcome hesitancy among many in the country to get vaccinated, especially in minority communities.“The polarized environment has generated a lack of faith in science and in public health guidelines that is truly harmful, not just for this coronavirus pandemic,” said Katherine Baicker, dean of the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.“Going forward I hope that we can get back to a place where people can receive public health messages without worrying about the underlying motivations or without finding them to be political rather than scientific,” Baicker, a health economist, told VOA.To overcome vaccine hesitancy among those who did not vote for Biden, “he’ll need support from prominent Republican leaders,” according to Seth Masket, a University of Denver political science professor. “People like Trump, (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell and others don’t need to praise Biden specifically, but if they echo his enthusiasm for vaccinations, they could reduce some of the partisanship that’s characterized the issue so far.”U.S. President Joe Biden departs down the Cross Hall of the White House after delivering his first prime-time address as president, March 11, 2021.Biden appealed Thursday for “every American to do their part. That’s not hyperbole, I need you. I need you to get vaccinated when it’s your turn.”The president predicted that “if we all do our part, this country will be vaccinated soon, our economy will be on the mend, our kids will be back in school and we’ll have proven once again that this country can do anything.”VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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White House Calls for Independent Probe of Abuses in Ethiopia’s Tigray
The White House is calling for a full, independent investigation into human rights abuses in the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports on the ongoing violence in Tigray that has left 3 million people in need of food assistance.
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Shock, Uncertainty Grip Ivory Coast After PM’s Death
Ivory Coast faced shock and uncertainty Thursday following the death of Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko, the West African nation’s second premier to die in office in less than eight months.A close ally of President Alassane Ouattara, Bakayoko, who died of cancer a few days after his 56th birthday, was appointed prime minister in July 2020 after the death of his predecessor, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Ouattara’s handpicked successor.Although Ouattara named his chief of staff, Patrick Achi, as interim prime minister on Monday while Bakayoko was in hospital, Bakayoko’s passing leaves a vacuum for Ouattara to fill as he continues his search for a potential successor.”It will be difficult to replace him because of his standing, his way of doing things,” Abdijan resident Maturin Bamouni said. “Even when they are not from his political side, he still managed to sort things out.”A central figure in Ivorian politics over the past two decades as the country was plunged into a prolonged conflict and a partition, Bakayoko, a jovial character with roots in media and show business, emerged as a conciliatory figure, able to talk to all sides of the conflict.Adept at listening, gaining trust“Bakayoko meant everything for Ivorians, a minister who listened to the whole population, even the opposition,” Abdijan resident Kevin Bigore told Reuters.His capacity to gain the trust of all sides — including former rebel soldiers who staged a series of mutinies in 2017, threatening a fragile peace in the world’s top cocoa-producing nation — factored into his appointment as defense minister in 2017, and he kept the portfolio when he became prime minister.He ended the mutinies and carried out reforms that helped keep soldiers away from the political scene during the October 2020 presidential election, said Abidjan-based historian and military analyst Arthur Banga.“He succeeded in building trust between the soldiers, the chain of command and the regime, which contributed a lot to the stability observed from 2017 until now,” Banga said.Guillaume Soro, a former rebel leader who later led a government with Bakayoko as a minister before falling out with the current government, said he had lost a friend and a brother.“The circumstances of life have unfortunately led us to take different political paths, opposed and sometimes conflicting, but we have known, above all, to keep and preserve our brotherhood and our mutual affection,” Soro said.
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Thousands of Rohingya Refugees in Northwest India Live in Fear of Deportation
Thousands of Rohingya refugees live in temporary camps in India’s northwestern Jammu and Kashmir region, where they fear deportation back to Myanmar. VOA Urdu Service’s Zubair Dar visited a camp of people in Bathindi Narval who said they fled abuses and do not want to go back. Roshan Noorzai narrates the story.
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S&P 500, Dow Set Record Highs After Upbeat Jobless Claims Data
The S&P 500 and the Dow reached all-time highs Thursday as worries about rising inflation subsided, while a bigger-than-expected fall in weekly jobless claims and the signing of a massive stimulus bill reinforced expectations of a strong recovery. Mega-cap stocks Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.com led the rally, recouping losses from a recent pullback and helping the benchmark S&P 500 surpass its February 16 peak of 3,950.43. The blue-chip Dow set a record for the fourth straight session, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is now less than 5% below its February 12 peak after slumping more than 10% to confirm a correction at the beginning of this week. President Joe Biden signed his $1.9 trillion stimulus bill into law Thursday, commemorating the one-year anniversary of a U.S. lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic with a measure designed to bring relief to Americans and boost the economy. President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, looks up after signing the American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus relief package, in the Oval Office of the White House, March 11, 2021.The relief package, on top of the ongoing recovery fueled by the coronavirus vaccination rollout and fading fears of inflation, were driving the market, said Jason Pride, chief investment officer for private wealth at Glenmede in Philadelphia. While tech led Thursday’s advance, there was still a rotation into value stocks, which have outperformed high-priced growth stocks since November. Unofficially, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 188.57 points, or 0.58%, to 32,485.59; the S&P 500 gained 40.46 points, or 1.04%, to 3,939.27; and the Nasdaq Composite added 329.84 points, or 2.52%, to 13,398.67. Fewer than expected Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week as vaccinations allow more segments of the economy to reopen. People share drinks and eat crawfish inside of Bar 5015 as the state of Texas lifts its mask mandate and allows businesses to reopen at full capacity during the coronavirus pandemic in Houston, Texas, March 10, 2021.”The drop in jobless claims is another win for the week, and a solid sign that we’re making some strides toward pre-pandemic life,” said Mike Loewengart, managing director of investment strategy at E*Trade Financial. The latest U.S. Treasury auction — $24 billion of 30-year bonds — did not reignite inflation concerns, unlike a weak seven-year note auction last month that helped send yields higher, spooking markets. “That story line has dissipated a little bit,” said Pride, pointing to tame consumer prices data for February. The S&P 500’s industrials and communication services sectors reached all-time highs. Wall Street’s fear gauge hit a two-week low at 21.45 points, a sign of easing fears over inflation. Coupang, backed by SoftBank Group Corp., was valued at about $109 billion in its market debut on Thursday after South Korea’s largest e-commerce company raised around $4.6 billion in the biggest U.S. initial public offering this year. SoftBank racked up a roughly $33 billion paper gain after Coupang’s stock soared 81% to open at $63.50. A so-called “meme” stock, AMC Entertainment Holdings, gained as the cinema chain said the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and the release of major movies would boost sales this year.
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Uber, Lyft Team Up on Database to Expose Abusive Drivers
Uber and Lyft have teamed up to create a database of drivers ousted from their ride-hailing services for complaints about sexual assault and other crimes that have raised passenger-safety concerns for years.The clearinghouse unveiled Thursday will initially list drivers expelled by the ride-hailing rivals in the U.S. But it will also be open to other companies that deploy workers to perform services such as delivering groceries or takeout orders from restaurants.The new safeguard, dubbed the “sharing safety program,” will be overseen by HireRight, a specialist in background checks. The use of a third party is aimed at addressing potential legal concerns about companies, including competitors such as Uber and Lyft, having access to information to each other’s personnel matters.“Lyft and Uber are competitors in a whole lot of ways, but on this issue of safety, we completely agree that folks should be safe no matter what platform they choose,” Tony West, Uber’s chief legal officer, told The Associated Press. He spoke in an interview that also included Jennifer Brandenburger, Lyft’s head of policy development.The safety program follows through on a promise that Uber made 15 months ago when it revealed that more than 3,000 sexual assaults had been reported on its service in the U.S. during 2018.Since that revelation, San Francisco-based Uber and Lyft have been working to navigate through antitrust and privacy concerns to create a way to flag drivers who have engaged in violent or other abhorrent behavior that culminated in their being booted off their services.Sharing the information about reported sexual assaults is considered especially important because victims of such crimes frequently do not file formal complaints with police. That gap has opened a crack for potentially dangerous drivers to slip through routine background checks drawing upon legal records, Brandenburger said.To protect privacy, no passenger information will be shared in the database and the incidents that resulted in a driver’s dismissal will be listed in six broad categories: attempted non-consensual sexual penetration; non-consensual touching of a sexual body part; non-consensual kissing of a sexual body part; non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part; non-consensual sexual penetration; and fatal physical assaults.Only “fraction of a fraction” of drivers have engaged in behavior that fall into those categories, West said. Any company with access to the clearinghouse of information could still decide to allow a driver on its service after its own investigation, West said.Michael Wolfe, an Uber driver who also leads a Washington state group representing about 2,000 other drivers, praised both ride-hailing services for trying to weed out the abuses in the industry.“The few bad apples give all us drivers a bad name,” said Wolfe, executive director for Drive Forward.The added layer of protection was hailed by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, a victims rights group that has criticized the ride-hailing services for not doing more rigorous screening of their drivers.“Sexual violence thrives in secrecy,” said Scott Berkowitz, the network’s president. “Thanks to this initiative, perpetrators will no longer be able to hide or escape accountability by simply switching ride-sharing platforms.”It could also help appease U.S. lawmakers, who have criticized Uber and Lyft for inadequate safety protections for their riders.Lyft has not delivered on its promise to release a report about past problems on its service because the company is waiting for Uber to resolve a privacy dispute with California regulators, according to Brandenburger.After Uber detailed past abuses on its service in its December 2019 report, California’s Public Utilities Commission sought the victims’ names and contact numbers. After Uber rebuffed the request to protect the victims’ privacy, the agency slapped the company with a $59 million fine. The dispute is now in the appeals process.The safety feature is rolling out at a time when both ride-hailing services are still trying to rebound from the pandemic-driven lockdowns that have prevented people from traveling and curtailed demand for rides, especially from strangers.
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