A flagship Chinese research organization recently said U.S. military forces had an unusually intense presence in the South China Sea last year as Washington sought to check Beijing’s maritime expansion.
“The intensity, in terms of the scale, number and duration of the U.S. military activities in the region in 2020 was rarely seen in recent years,” the March 12 report, An Incomplete Report on US Military Operations in the South China Sea in 2020, said.
“To begin with, military forces deployed to the South China Sea were of large scale and long duration,” according to the report, issued by the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii confirms 10 warship passages into the sea last year following 10 in 2019. Just five were logged in each of the two years before 2019. In July, the U.S. Air Force also acknowledged sending a B-52 Stratofortress bomber to join two aircraft carriers in a South China Sea exercise. Command spokespersons would not answer a request for comment on whether 2020 was an unusual year overall.
Analysts say U.S. forces effectively slowed China’s militarization of the sea as well as any ambitions to expand or capture islets. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam vie with Beijing’s claims to the 3.5 million-square-kilometer waterway. China has the strongest armed forces among regional powers, prompting other claimants to look toward the United States for support.
“The reality is of course [China] would like to carve out a sort of sphere of influence and a sort of a buffer zone and the U.S. is of course trying to break through both of these,” said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs specializing in Southeast Asia.
Beijing cites historical usage records to back its claims to about 90% of the sea, which is prized for fisheries and undersea fossil fuel reserves. China has alarmed the other Asian claimants by developing contested islets for military infrastructure and sending its ships into their exclusive economic zones.
Washington does not have a claim to the sea but keeps an eye on China as a rival superpower and potential threat to U.S. allies such as Taiwan and the Philippines. Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration ramped up Navy ship passages, called freedom of navigation operations, to show the South China Sea is open internationally, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has said.
U.S. military activity is not new but might have reached a new high last year because Trump was “gung-ho against China,” Oh said. The Trump administration sparred with Beijing over trade and technology sharing, as well as China’s geopolitical reach. Current U.S. President Joe Biden has followed Trump’s South China Sea strategy since taking office in January.Why Biden Sends Warships to the South China Sea, Just as Trump Did The US government has carried out one “Freedom of Navigation Operation” in the contested Asian waterway since February and sent two more close to it Southeast Asian claimants to the sea, all militarily weaker than China, welcome the U.S. maritime presence but worry that too much of it will prompt China to sustain its own, said Shariman Lockman, senior foreign policy and security studies analyst with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia.
“It is both a deterrent as well as a way for China to say, ‘look we are there because of the Americans,’” Lockman said.
Last April, a U.S. warship joined one from Australia to flex “muscle in sensitive waters near China’s survey ship in the South China Sea to show that they had Malaysia’s back and provoke a China-Malaysia ‘standoff,’” the March 12 report says.
China will keep building up its position at sea but will not be able to stop the U.S. activity, analysts say.
“In Beijing, they know very well that the U.S. and its allies have the naval supremacy Indo Pacific-wise and also in the South China Sea, and they know very well that an incident would have very serious consequences,” said Fabrizio Bozzato, senior research fellow at the Tokyo-based Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Policy Research Institute.
China will still deter the Southeast Asian states from exploring for gas or oil, keep the sea open for Chinese fishing fleets and consider landfilling more semi-submerged reefs, Oh forecast.
“In summation, China will complain vocally, continue with its military buildup, deploy new and more modern forces there, but they will not be able to do much to oppose the freedom of navigation operations by the U.S., its allies and other U.S.-aligned powers,” Bozzato said.
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Month: April 2021
Cairo Stages Majestic Parade as Egyptian Mummies Move to New Museum
A grand parade will convey 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies in specially designed capsules across the capital Cairo on Saturday to a new museum home where they can be displayed in greater splendor.The convoy will transport 18 kings and four queens, mostly from the New Kingdom, from the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, about 5 kilometers to the southeast.Authorities are shutting down roads along the Nile for the elaborate ceremony, designed to drum up interest in Egypt’s rich collections of antiquities when tourism has almost entirely stalled because of COVID-19 related restrictions.Each mummy will be placed in a special capsule filled with nitrogen to ensure protection, and the capsules will be carried on carts designed to cradle them and provide stability, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass said.“We chose the Civilization Museum because we want, for the first time, to display the mummies in a civilized manner, an educated manner, and not for amusement as they were in the Egyptian Museum,” he said.Archaeologists discovered the mummies in two batches at the complex of mortuary temples of Deir Al Bahari in Luxor and at the nearby Valley of the Kings from 1871.The oldest is that of Seqenenre Tao, the last king of the 17th Dynasty, who reigned in the 16th century BC and is thought to have met a violent death.The parade will also include the mummies of Ramses II, Seti I, and Ahmose-Nefertari.Fustat was the site of Egypt’s capital under the Umayyad dynasty after the Arab conquest.“By doing it like this, with great pomp and circumstance, the mummies are getting their due,” said Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at the American University in Cairo.“These are the kings of Egypt; these are the pharaohs. And so, it is a way of showing respect.”
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Al-Shabab Attacks Military Bases in Southern Somalia
The militant group Al-Shabab has launched attacks on Somali military forces in Lower Shabelle region, Somali regional officials said.The attacks in the early hours of Saturday, around 4 a.m. local time, targeted military bases in the towns of Barire and Awdhegle in southern Somalia. The forward operating bases are manned by the Somali military to protect several bridges along the Shabelle river that authorities say are key to keeping vehicles carrying explosives from entering Mogadishu. Attacks started off with suicide car bombs on both bases, followed by infantry attack, regional officials said.Speaking to VOA’s Somali Service, Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur Siidi, the governor of Lower Shabelle region, confirmed the attacks. Siidi said the militants fired mortars on the nearby villages of Sabiid and Anole. More mortar attacks were reported in the vicinity of Jannaale town. In recent years, the Somali National Army, in joint operations with forces of the regional peacekeeping mission, the African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM has recaptured these villages that were previously under the control of Al-Shabaab militants.The Saturday mortar attacks may have been an effort to disrupt possible reinforcements for government forces, Somali officials said.Government forces appear to have repulsed attack on Awdhegle and defended a key bridge used by civilians and the military, but there was heavy fighting in Barire town, the officials added.The Al-Shabab militant group claimed to have “overrun” the Barire military base. A regional official, who did not want to be named because he was not allowed to speak to the media, said Barire bore the brunt of the attack. Two officials said the militants entered Barire military base without providing further details. The militants have now been pushed out of Barire, an official said.Awdhegle and Barire are located 75 kilometers and 60 kilometers southwest of Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu, respectively.State controlled national television has reported that government forces have “foiled” Al-Shabab attacks on Awdhegle and Barire. Heavy losses have been inflicted on the militants, according to broadcasts on state TV.Somali Army chief Brigadier General Odawaa Yusuf Rageh said “Somali Army killed dozens of terrorist militants including leaders after Shabab attacked SNA [Somali National Army] bases in Awdhegle and Barire in Lower Shabelle region,” on a Twitter post through the state-owned media, Somali National Television.Somali Army killed dozens of terrorist militants including leaders after Shabab attacked SNA bases in Awdhigle and Bariire in Lower Shabelle region,Somalia’s Army chief GE.Odawa Yusuf told to State Media pic.twitter.com/ML2FIH1rpI— SNTV News (@sntvnews1) April 3, 2021Barire was recaptured from Al-Shabab in May 2019, while government forces retook Awdhegle three months later. The capture and holding of the towns was hailed as a test for Somali National Army efforts to “seize and hold” areas recovered from the militants. SNA is being rebuilt to have the capacity to overtake security responsibilities from the 22,000 AMISOM peacekeeping forces who have been in the country since March 2007.In a separate but related incident, a suicide car bomb struck a military convoy travelling on the outskirts of Mogadishu on Saturday morning local time. The convoy was attacked in the vicinity of Lafole, about 20 kilometers from Mogadishu. The convoy was heading towards Awdhegle and Barire to reinforce government forces, officials told VOA’s Somali Service.Government forces also seized a vehicle carrying weapon for the militants in Lafole area, an official said.Casualties from these attacks are not yet known.
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5 Die in Myanmar Protests as Junta Cracks Down on Online Critics
Myanmar security forces opened fire on pro-democracy protests on Saturday killing five people, a protester and media said, as the military reinforced its bid to end dissent with arrest warrants for online critics and internet blocks.Despite the killing of more than 550 people by the security forces since the Feb. 1 coup, protesters are coming out every day, often in smaller groups in smaller towns, to voice opposition to the reimposition of military rule.Security forces in the central town of Monywa fired on a crowd killing three people, the Myanmar Now news service said, while one man was shot and killed in another central town, Bago, and one in Thaton to the south, the Bago Weekly Journal online news portal reported.“They started firing non-stop with both stun grenade and live rounds,” the protester in Monywa, who asked not to be named, told Reuters via a messaging app. “People backed off and quickly put up … barriers, but a bullet hit a person in front of me in the head. He died on the spot.”Police and a spokesperson for the junta did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group said earlier on Saturday the security forces had killed 550 people, 46 of them children, since the military overthrew an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.The demonstrations that drew tens of thousands of people in the early days of defiance in big cities have largely stopped with opponents of the coup adopting “guerrilla rallies” — small, quick shows of defiance before security forces can respond.People also gather at night for candlelit vigils.The authorities are waging a campaign to control information. They had shut down mobile data and on Friday ordered internet providers to cut wireless broadband, depriving most customers of access, though some messages and pictures were still being posted and shared on social media.Authorities issued warrants for 18 celebrities, including social media influencers and two journalists, under a law against material intended to cause a member of the armed forces to mutiny or disregard their duty, state media reported late on Friday.All of them are known to oppose military rule. The charge can carry a prison term of three years.Actress Paing Phyoe Thu said she would not be cowed.“Whether a warrant has been issued or not, as long as I’m alive I’ll oppose the military dictatorship who are bullying and killing people. The revolution must prevail,” she said on Facebook.Paing Phyoe Thu regularly attended rallies in the main city of Yangon in the weeks after the coup. Her whereabouts were not immediately known.Anti-coup protesters march in Sagiang City, Sagaing region, Myanmar, April 3, 2021. (Credit: Citizen journalist via VOA Burmese Service)Silencing the voices?State broadcaster MRTV announced the warrants for the 18 with screenshots and links to their Facebook profiles.While the military has banned platforms like Facebook, it has continued to use social media to track critics and promote its message.MRTV maintains a YouTube channel and shares links to its broadcasts on Twitter, both of which are officially banned.The United States condemned the internet shutdown.“We hope this won’t silence the voices of the people,” State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter told a briefing.The coup has rekindled old wars with autonomy-seeking ethnic minority forces in the north and the east.Myanmar’s oldest insurgent group, the Karen National Union (KNU), has seen the first military airstrikes on its forces in more than 20 years, after it announced its support for the pro-democracy movement.The KNU said more than 12,000 villagers had fled their homes because of the air strikes. It called for an international embargo on arms sales to the military.“Their inhuman actions against unarmed civilians have caused the death of many people including children and students,” the group said in a statement.Media has reported that about 20 people were killed in air strikes in KNU territory in recent days, including nearly a dozen at a gold mine run by the group.The KNU signed a cease-fire with the government in 2012 to end their 60-year insurgency.Fighting has also flared in the north between the army and ethnic Kachin insurgents. The turmoil has sent several thousand refugees fleeing into Thailand and India.
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Nigerian Fighter Jet Missing; Boko Haram Claims Attack
Nigerian authorities said an air force fighter jet lost contact days ago in Borno state while on a mission to support ground troops.The jihadist group Boko Haram released a video Friday saying it shot down the jet, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity.Boko Haram released a video that showed what appeared to be a plane as it exploded midair. The video also showed the remains of a man who was described as the pilot of the plane by a Boko Haram fighter who spoke in the local Hausa language.The Nigerian Air Force inscription on the plane matches the registration number of the Alpha-Jet which the Air Force said went missing during combat Wednesday.Air Force Spokesman Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet said in a statement that the Alpha-Jet lost contact with radar in Borno State “while on interdiction mission in support of ground troops.”The Air Force said Friday the plane which had two crew members might have crashed, adding that search and rescue efforts are ongoing.”At this point, the NAF is not ruling out anything regarding the incident. It however remains hopeful that the crew would soon be found and rescued,” it said in a statement.Boko Haram has killed tens of thousands of people in its more than 10-year insurgency, which has also spread to neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.The Nigerian-based jihadist group in 2014 also said it shot down a Nigerian air force jet.
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EU-China Relations Enter Downward Spiral
Once-warm relations between the European Union and China have taken a sharp turn for the worse, punctuated by a series of tit-for-tat sanctions imposed by Beijing and Brussels.Only three months after China and the EU struck a landmark economic treaty, the 27 foreign affairs ministers of the EU announced sanctions last week against officials involved in China’s mistreatment of its ethnic Uyghur minority in its northwest Xinjiang region.Hours later, Beijing retaliated with its own sanctions on 10 EU individuals and four entities, including five members of the European Parliament, or MEPs.While U.S.-China relations have declined in recent years, the European countries have enjoyed a much softer ride. After years of negotiations, Beijing and Brussels finally struck a deal aimed at liberalizing trade between them in the last days of December.The breakthrough was made possible by last-minute concessions from Chinese President Xi Jinping and pushes from German officials. The deal, which remains subject to approval by the European Parliament, would ensure that European investors have better access to the fast-growing Chinese market and can compete on a more level playing field in that country.Until recently, this trend seemed to continue. According to data released by Eurostat on March 18, EU exports to China totaled 16.1 billion euros ($19 billion) in January, an increase of 6.6% year-on-year.The momentum is reversed now, however, with the tit-for-tat sanctions and a boycott of European brands being encouraged by Beijing.”It is the EU’s first sanctions against China on human rights issues since the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989,” said Grzegorz Stec, an expert at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Germany, one of the four entities sanctioned by China.Stec told VOA that the EU has imposed sanctions on China for other reasons, including a move against two Chinese people for cyberattacks last year. But this time, he said, “the EU made it clear that it was due to the human rights issue. China clearly regards this issue as China’s internal affair, and China’s countermeasures are unprecedented.”MEPs outragedAmong the individuals being sanctioned by China are five MEPs.Raphael Glucksmann, a French MEP and longtime French human rights advocate, said he sees the Chinese action, which includes a ban on visits to the country, as a recognition of his advocacy for Uyghur rights. After his election in 2019, Glucksmann was widely quoted as saying his goal was to become “the voice of the voiceless people.””Fortunately, we have worked hard to raise the public’s attention to this issue, which is why they (China) are angry with me,” Glucksmann told VOA.He pointed out that in addition to individuals, China sanctioned the Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights. “It is a sanction on the democratic institution of the Parliament.”Shortly after Glucksmann was put on the blacklist by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, he became the target of attacks on Chinese social media. In a show of solidarity with the legislator, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian met Glucksmann last week and tweeted: “On the documented human rights abuses in Xinjiang, France’s position is firm.”Another sanctioned parliamentarian, Ilhan Kyuchyuk of Bulgaria, told VOA in an email that the EU sanctions on China are based on solid legal evidence.”Our relation with China is very important. It is a strategic relationship because we both are key actors in global scene. However, we cannot remain silent when it is obvious what is happening to the Uyghurs and other minorities.”Kyuchyuk said the EU “will continue to express concerns about freedom of expression and association, including the situation of persons belonging to minorities.”Michael Gahler, the foreign policy coordinator and spokesperson of the European People’s Party, the largest political party in the European Parliament, told VOA that he suspected he had been included in the sanctions because of his role as chair of the chamber’s Taiwan friendship group. The German politician said future dialogue between the EU and China will be “more difficult and burdensome.”Gahler pointed out that the Mercartor Institute, one of the most respected European research institutes, is also on the sanctions list. He said in an email that this should be taken into consideration by all the universities and think tanks that are co-financed by the Chinese state through Confucius Institutes or Chinese companies.”Academic freedom is for all or none,” he said. “Those who engage in appeasement are also responsible.”Slovakian MEP Miriam Lexmann said she believes that “credible reports show that the (Chinese Communist Party’s) actions fulfill all criteria of a genocide under the 1949 Genocide Convention.”Lexmann, also on the Chinese sanctions list, accused China of engaging “in threats and countersanctions against those, especially democratically elected parliamentarians, who seek to raise awareness to these terrible human rights abuses.”If China continues with this kind of response, it will make clear that it is not interested in being a partner but a systematic rival that undermines fundamental values and principles which are a ‘condicio sine qua non’ for any cooperation,” Lexmann said in an email.Deal jeopardized?It took seven years and 35 rounds of talks to negotiate the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment. Now, just months later, its ratification by the European Parliament is in doubt because of the tit-for-tat sanctions.The agreement was scheduled to be reviewed and implemented this year, but three of the main political parties in the Parliament have said that as long as the sanctions remain in place, the Parliament will refuse to even open the debate for ratification.”The lifting of sanctions against MEPs is a precondition for us to enter into talks with the Chinese government on the investment deal,” said Kathleen van Brempt, an MEP from the left-leaning Socialist and Democrats group.Glucksmann, one of EU’s most effective activists on the Uyghur issue, said he believes it is time for China to pay a price.”What we should do is to announce clearly that we won’t be voting on the China-Europe investment agreement as long as the sanctions are going on,” Glucksmann said in a telephone interview.Stec, founder of the Brussels-based nonprofit platform “EU-China Hub,” said Beijing may not believe that the diplomatic turmoil will wipe out the achievements of the agreement.Eyck Freymann, a China expert at Oxford University, said last week was more of a political turning point than an economic one. “China and Europe remain deeply integrated in trade, and this relationship will not unravel overnight — if it ever does,” he told VOA.The author of the book One Belt One Road: Chinese Power Meets the World, Freymann pointed out that there are still powerful interest groups in Europe that want to maintain a good relationship with China.However, he said, “As long as human rights is on the top of the agenda, the China-Europe economic relationship cannot deepen or broaden.”
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US Becomes 1st Nation to Vaccinate 100 Million Against COVID-19
The Biden administration, which had set a goal of 100 million shots in President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office, hit another milestone Friday. The U.S. became the first nation to vaccinate 100 million people.However, cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, remain on the rise in some regions of the United States.”I plead with you, don’t give back the progress we’ve all fought so hard to achieve,” Biden said Friday. “We need every American to buckle down and keep their guard up in this homestretch.”Earlier this week, Biden also said with the increased push to roll out the vaccine “at least 90% of all adults in this country will be eligible to be vaccinated by April the 19th, just three weeks from now, because we have the vaccines. For the vast, vast majority of adults, you won’t have to wait until May 1.”However, during a White House health briefing earlier this week, both Biden and the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, voiced dire warnings that too many Americans were easing COVID-19 protocols.Biden said if that continued, the U.S. could see a “fourth surge” of COVID-19. Walensky said she had a feeling of “impending doom” at the rising cases of COVID-19.Worldwide, there have been 130 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 2.8 million deaths. The U.S. leads all nations with 30.6 million cases of the virus, and 554,069 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center on Friday.Compared with the U.S., European nations are struggling to get vaccination programs up to speed.The World Health Organization said only 10% of Europe’s total population has received one vaccine dose, and just 4% have received two doses.One reason for the lag among European nations is their reliance on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. There have been reports of blood clotting in some people given the shot. The Netherlands on Friday followed Germany, which halted use of the vaccine for people younger than 60.Incidents of people developing blood clots are rare. The European Medicines Agency has said the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe.”We must err on the side of caution, which is why it is wise to press the pause button now as a precaution,” Dutch Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said, according to Reuters.France announced on Thursday plans for a third national lockdown to counter rising COVID-19 cases.Also Friday, the CDC updated guidance to say that fully vaccinated people can travel without observing quarantines, although they should still wear masks, practice social distancing and wash their hands frequently.It also issued guidance to the cruise ship industry, saying COVID-19 vaccinations were necessary before they could resume passenger voyages.”COVID-19 vaccination efforts will be critical in the safe resumption of passenger operations,” the CDC said.The CDC said it would issue additional guidance before it would allow cruises to resume, according to Reuters.The Cruise Lines International Association, which represents Carnival Corp., Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Cruises and others had pushed the CDC to issue new guidance. In a March 24 statement, the industry said the “lack of any action by the CDC has effectively banned all sailings in the largest cruise market in the world.” It did not immediately comment on Friday, according to Reuters.
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LinkedIn Gives Staff Week Off for Well-being
Professional social network LinkedIn is giving nearly all of its 15,900 full-time workers next week off as it seeks to avoid burnout and allow its employees to recharge, the company told AFP Friday.The Microsoft-owned firm said that the “RestUp!” week starting Monday is meant to give employees time for their own well-being.”There is something magical about the entire company taking a break at the same time,” LinkedIn said in reply to an AFP inquiry. “And the best part? Not coming back to an avalanche of unanswered internal emails.”During the week, LinkedIn will provide employees who may feel isolated the option of taking part in daily activities such as volunteering for worthy causes through “random acts of kindness,” according to the company.”A core team of employees will continue to work for the week, but they will be able to schedule time off later,” LinkedIn said.Major technology companies were among the first in the U.S. to adopt working from home last year to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, and most have yet to fully reopen their offices. Twitter has extended remote working indefinitely.LinkedIn does not expect employees to begin returning to its offices until September, and it plans to make it standard practice to let them work from home as much as half of the time.Microsoft in mid-2016 bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in cash, stepping into the world of social networking and adding a new tool for its efforts to boost services for business.
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South Sudan Secures $174 Million IMF Loan
The International Monetary Fund has agreed to give the South Sudan government an economic stabilization loan of $174.2 million.The loan will be used to address two significant problems, according to South Sudan Central Bank Governor Tier Tong Ngor.“We have agreed with IMF that half of this amount will be used for budget support to pay salary arrears and the other part will remain with the central bank for a balance-of-payment support to stabilize the exchange rate and also to stabilize the market,” said Ngor.The government has not paid civil servant salaries for five months. Ngor said the central bank looks forward to getting its books in order by the end of the next fiscal year.He said South Sudan would pay back the loan on a “long-term” basis without interest. When asked when the government must begin paying down the IMF loan, Ngor did not answer. He blamed falling international oil prices, the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and last year’s floods for South Sudan’s ailing economy.Ngor said the Central Bank also was undertaking other initiatives to restore South Sudan’s economic stability.“We have stopped deficit financing and we also introduced the auction of foreign exchange to foreign exchange bureaus, so we have been auctioning about $2 million every week since December last year, and it is continuing. This action has helped stabilize the exchange rate, and it also has helped the relative stability of prices,” said Ngor.$3 million will be auctioned every two weeks to commercial banks, in addition to $2 million being auctioned to foreign exchange bureaus every two weeks, he said.Ngor also noted the bank was trying to unify the official exchange rate with the market rate.The moves will not resolve South Sudan’s economic woes, but they are a step in the right direction, said Augustino Ting Mayai, a policy analyst with the Juba-based Sudd Institute.“It is more of a supporting instrument for stabilization of the economy, but you will need more resources to be able to stimulate the economy. So, the loan is not a solution, but it provides breathing space for the government to be able to use oil money for other priorities,” Mayai told South Sudan in Focus.South Sudan functions with two different exchange rates: the official rate and the market rate, or the black market.More than a year ago, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, South Sudan’s exchange market rate was 280 South Sudanese pounds for a dollar. Today, $1 exchanges for 620 South Sudanese pounds on the black market. The official exchange rate is $1 for 183 South Sudanese pounds.
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US, Japan and South Korea Agree to Keep Up Pressure on North Korea
The United States, South Korea and Japan agreed in high-level security talks Friday to work together to keep up pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.In a joint statement after a day of talks, U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and his Japanese counterpart, Shigeru Kitamura, and South Korea’s national security adviser, Suh Hoon, reaffirmed their commitment to address the issue “through concerted trilateral cooperation towards denuclearization.”The three countries also agreed on the need for full implementation by the international community of U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea, “preventing proliferation, and cooperating to strengthen deterrence and maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” the statement said.The national security advisers also discussed the value of working together to address other challenges, such as COVID-19, climate change and promoting an immediate return to democracy in Myanmar, the statement said.The talks held at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, were the most senior-level meeting among the three allies since Biden took power Jan. 20, and it came against a backdrop of rising tensions after North Korean missile launches last week.Biden, whose administration is finalizing a review of North Korea policy, said last week the United States remained open to diplomacy with North Korea despite its ballistic missile tests, but warned there would be responses if North Korea escalates matters.The White House has shared little about its policy review and whether it will offer concessions to get Pyongyang to the negotiating table to discuss giving up its nuclear weapons.However, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday that denuclearization would remain at the center of policy and any approach to Pyongyang will have to be done in “lockstep” with close allies, including Japan and South Korea.Biden’s Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, held three meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but achieved no breakthrough other than a pause in nuclear and intercontinental ballistic tests. Biden, a Democrat, has sought to engage North Korea in dialogue but has been rebuffed so far.Pyongyang, which has long sought a lifting of international sanctions over its weapons programs, said last week the Biden administration had taken a wrong first step and revealed “deep-seated hostility” by criticizing what it called self-defensive missile tests.A U.S. official briefing before the talks said the North Korea review was in its final stages and “we’re prepared now to have some final consultations with Japan and South Korea as we go forward.”Joseph Yun, who was the U.S. special envoy for North Korea under both former President Barack Obama and Trump and is now at the United States Institute of Peace, said the policy options were obvious: “You want denuclearization, and you want to use your sanctions to get to denuclearization.””But how to make the first step, so that at least North Korea is persuaded not to do anything provocative. That’s the challenge.” he said.Some proponents of dialogue are concerned that the Biden administration has not highlighted a broad agreement between Trump and Kim at their first meeting in Singapore in 2018 and warn this could make it difficult to build trust.Asked whether that agreement still stood, the official said: “I understand the significance of the Singapore agreement,” but did not make clear to what extent the issue would be part of the Annapolis talks.The three officials were also expected to discuss a global shortage of semi-conductor chips that has forced U.S. automakers and other manufacturers to cut production.
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NYC Police Official: Mental Illness a Factor in Recent Anti-Asian Attacks
The new head of a New York City Police Department task force on Asian hate crimes said Friday that a history mental illness is a common factor among the suspects arrested in recent high-profile attacks on Asians in the city.NYPD Inspector Tommy Ng was assigned to lead the task force this week following an attack on 65-year-old Asian woman Monday. The attack was caught on security camera video — which went viral on social media — showing the suspect throwing the woman to the ground and stomping on her.In an attack the week before, also captured on video, a young Asian man was beaten and choked to unconsciousness on a New York subway.In an interview with The Associated Press, Ng said the Asian American community has had a tendency to not report these kinds of crimes. He said he believed that raising awareness of the assaults would help bring people forward.He also said the language barrier is always a problem in reporting crimes, and that is why his team has multilingual detectives.The New York attacks are part of a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes across the United States, which have drawn widespread attention and condemnation from celebrities to U.S. President Joe Biden. The surge in violence has been linked to misplaced blame on Asians for the COVID-19 pandemic.The NYPD said it had increased patrols in Asian neighborhoods, including using undercover officers to prevent and disrupt attacks.But Asian American Federation Deputy Director Joo Han told The Associated Press many people in Asian communities do not trust law enforcement.She is spearheading an effort to train a team of volunteer “safety ambassadors” to de-escalate racially charged incidents while they are happening.New York City has seen 35 hate crimes with Asian victims so far this year, compared with 11 such attacks by the same time last year, according to wire news reports.
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MLB Moving All-Star Game in Response to Voting Restrictions
Major League Baseball announced Friday it was moving this summer’s All-Star Game from Atlanta’s Truist Park, a response to Georgia enacting a new law last month restricting voting rights.MLB had awarded the game to Atlanta in May 2019 and the game was scheduled for July 13 as part of baseball’s midsummer break that includes the Futures Game on July 11 and Home Run Derby the following night.FILE – Cardboard cutouts of fans in the otherwise empty seats at Truist Park face the field during the sixth inning of a game between Atlanta and visiting Tampa Bay, July 30, 2020.Commissioner Rob Manfred made the decision to move the All-Star events and the amateur draft, which had been scheduled to be held in Atlanta for the first time. A new ballpark for this year’s events wasn’t immediately revealed.MLB’s announcement came eight days after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a sweeping Republican-sponsored overhaul of state elections that includes new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run.Manfred made the decision after discussions with the Major League Baseball Players Association, individual players and the Players Alliance, an organization of Black players formed after the death of George Floyd last year.”I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB draft,” Manfred said in a statement. “Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.””Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support,” Manfred said.Other sports have moved high-profile events because of social issues.In the early 1990s, the NFL shifted the Super Bowl out of Arizona after the state failed to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day an official holiday.The NBA moved the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte, North Carolina, when the league took issue with a state law that cut anti-discrimination protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.The NCAA for years didn’t hold championships in states where the Confederate battle flag was officially recognized.This year’s All-Star Game will include honoring Hank Aaron, the the team’s Hall of Famer and former career home run champion who died on Jan. 22 at age 86.”We will continue with our plans to celebrate the memory of Hank Aaron during this season’s All-Star festivities,” Manfred said. “In addition, MLB’s planned investments to support local communities in Atlanta as part of our All-Star legacy projects will move forward. We are finalizing a new host city and details about these events will be announced shortly.”MLB canceled last year’s All-Star Game, which had been scheduled for Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, due to the late and shortened season caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. The 2022 game will be played at Dodger Stadium.MLB has awarded the 2026 All-Star Game to Philadelphia as part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.The 1972 All-Star Game was played at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, and the 2000 All-Star Game was at Atlanta’s Turner Field.
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Four UN Peacekeepers Killed in Mali Attack, UN Says
Islamic extremists have killed four U.N. peacekeepers in Mali, the U.N. mission in Mali said Friday. The incident occurred at the peacekeepers’ camp in Aguelhok, in the northern part of the country. The camp is home to mostly Chadian peacekeepers. Helicopters were dispatched to the camp to evacuate the wounded, the U.N. said, adding that several of the “heavily armed” attackers were killed. The extremist movement in northern Mali began in 2012 when rebels seized control of several northern cities. In 2013, they were forced from power in a French-led operation. The rebels have since regrouped in the desert and have launched frequent attacks on the Malian army and its allies. Late last month, officials in Mali accused the French military of killing several civilians in an airstrike in the western Gao region. The French military said the strike killed insurgents. Earlier this week, a U.N. report found that in January the French military had killed 19 civilians in an airstrike. France said those killed also were insurgents.
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Kenya’s Tourism Sector Takes Another COVID Lockdown Hit
Kenya’s tourism sector is taking another hit after a fresh lockdown announced last week for Nairobi and four surrounding counties because of a record surge in coronavirus infections. Victoria Amunga in Nairobi looks at Kenya’s important tourism industry and how tour companies are struggling to survive.Camera: Robert Lutta.
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Japan Scientist Given Nobel for ‘Revolutionary’ LED Lamp Dies
Japanese Nobel laureate Isamu Akasaki, who won the physics prize for pioneering energy-efficient LED lighting — a weapon against global warming and poverty — has died aged 92, his university said Friday.
Akasaki won the 2014 prize with two other scientists, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura. Together they developed the blue light-emitting diode, described as a “revolutionary” invention by the Nobel jury.
He died of pneumonia on Thursday morning at a hospital in the city of Nagoya, according to a statement on the website of Meijo University, where Akasaki had been a professor.
LED lamps last for tens of thousands of hours and use just a fraction of energy compared with the incandescent lightbulb pioneered by Thomas Edison in the 19th century.
Red and green diodes had been around for a long time, but devising a blue LED was the holy grail, as all three colors need to be mixed to recreate the white light of the Sun.
The trio made their breakthrough in the 1990s, after three long decades of dogged work, when they managed to coax bright blue beams from semiconductors.
“Their inventions were revolutionary. Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th century. The 21st century will be lit by LED lamps,” the Nobel jury said in 2014.
As well as providing the missing piece of the puzzle for bright white lamps, their breakthrough also helped develop the color LED screens used in smartphones and a plethora of modern tech.
After winning the prize, Akasaki had advice for young researchers: “Don’t be fooled by fashionable subjects. Do whatever you like if it’s really what you want to do.”
“At first, it was said that this could not be invented during the 20th century. A lot of people left (the research project), but I never considered doing so,” he said.
Born in 1929 in Kagoshima in southern Japan, Akasaki graduated from the prestigious Kyoto University in 1952.
After working for several years as a researcher at Kobe Kogyo Corporation — now Fujitsu — he began his academic career at Nagoya University in 1959.
In an interview published by Meijo University in 2010, he described the trio’s struggle to earn recognition for their work.
“When we announced in 1981 results which were important at that time at an international conference, there was no reaction. I felt alone in the wilderness,” he said.
“But I was determined not to quit this research, even if I was alone.”
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After Week of Record Warmth, Europe Temperatures to Nosedive
After a week or more of temperatures from Britain to eastern Europe running as much as 20 degrees above average, forecasters are saying the region will be plunged into record cold next week with a likelihood of snow in some areas. Meteorologists say a strong high pressure system remained over much of Europe the last half of March, trapping heat below it. Monthly high temperature records have fallen in at least three countries. Germany and the Netherlands Wednesday set all-time March records, reporting highs of 27.2 degrees Celsius and 26.1 degrees Celsius, respectively. In Britain Tuesday, Kew Gardens, about 15 kilometers west of London on the River Thames, hit 24.5 degrees Celsius, the highest March temperature in Britain since 1968. French meteorologists also recorded warmth Tuesday as the nation’s average temperature was higher than on any other March day in recorded history. More than 220 weather stations, or roughly 37% of France’s network, observed new maximum March temperatures. Climate scientists say these are the latest in a series of heat records that are disproportionately outpacing the occurrence of cold extremes, largely the product of a changing climate and a planet whose temperatures are skewed hot. The warm weather also made COVID-19 restrictions all the more difficult to enforce in many areas, said officials. But forecasters say that will come to a dramatic end in the next three to five days, as models show a wave in the jet stream forcing out the high pressure and allowing much colder Arctic air into the region, swinging temperatures from record highs to record lows for this time of year. Forecasters say the frigid air is likely to drop temperatures below 0 Celsius in some areas with snow likely in Scotland and higher elevations of Italy and eastern Europe.
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A Knee on a Neck Can Kill, Homicide Lieutenant Says at Floyd Murder Trial
A Minneapolis homicide investigator said police officer Derek Chauvin used “totally unnecessary” deadly force when kneeling on George Floyd’s neck during an arrest last May in testimony at Chauvin’s murder trial on Friday.
Chauvin, who is white, was fired by the city’s police department the day after he was captured on video on top of a dying Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in handcuffs, in a scene that sparked protests against police brutality around the world.
“Totally unnecessary,” Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman told the jury when prosecutors asked him what he thought of Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes. “If your knee is on a person’s neck, that can kill them.”
Chauvin, 45, has pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter charges. Prosecutors from the Minnesota attorney general’s office called Zimmerman to testify in part to undermine a central dispute in the case: Chauvin’s assertion that he correctly followed his police training.FILE – Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin sits in front of a picture of George Floyd displayed during Chauvin’s trial for second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd in Minneapolis.Here are some of the most important moments from the fifth day of witness testimony:
Zimmerman, who joined the Minneapolis Police Department in 1985 and is now its most senior officer, was at home on May 25, 2020, when he was called to the intersection outside Cup Foods, where Floyd was suspected of passing a fake $20 bill earlier in the evening.
He arrived just before 10 p.m., about half an hour after Floyd had been declared dead at a downtown hospital, and said he helped ensure that evidence was properly secured, and any witnesses were found.
Zimmerman said officers were responsible for the care of anyone they arrested and are trained to give first aid to an injured or distressed detainee even if they know an ambulance is coming.
“His safety is your responsibility, his well being is your responsibility,” he told the jury.
He described how officers are trained only to respond to any threat with a proportionate amount of force.
“Once a person is cuffed, the threat level goes down all the way,” Zimmerman told the jury after prosecutors called him to testify. “They’re cuffed. How can they really hurt you, you know?”
And he warned of the dangers of leaving a person in a prone position.
“Once you’ve secured or handcuffed a person you need to get them out of the prone position as soon as possible because it restricts their breathing,” he said.
He offered harsh testimony against the way his former colleague and other officers at the scene restrained Floyd.
“Pulling him down to the ground face down and putting your knee on the neck for that amount of time is just uncalled for,” Zimmerman said. “I saw no reason why the officers felt they were in danger, if that’s what they felt, and that’s what they would have to feel in order to use that kind of force.”
In cross-examination, Zimmerman agreed when Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lead lawyer, pointed out that the lieutenant does not train officers in how to use restraints and that as an investigator he has to use force less often than a patrolling officer.
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Car Rams US Capitol Barricade; One Officer and Driver Dead
Two U.S Capitol Police officers were injured Friday when a driver slammed a car into a barricade outside the U.S. Capitol. One of the officers later died at a hospital.
According to the U.S. Capitol Police, the suspect exited a car with a weapon but was taken into custody. Local law enforcement told the Associated Press, the suspect was in critical condition and later died at the hospital. Both of the Capitol Police officers received emergency medical attention.
The incident happened at a vehicle checkpoint on Constitution Avenue, on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol Complex. The FBI’s Washington Field Office is responding to the incident and providing support at the U.S. Capitol, according to a statement.
The U.S. Capitol has been surrounded by a security fencing perimeter since the January 6 riot of pro-Trump supporters who attempted to prevent the counting of electoral college votes for President Joe Biden. The outer ring of fencing was taken down just this week, although an inner ring of fencing remains around the U.S. Capitol building. U.S. Capitol Police officers stand near a car that crashed into a barricade on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 2, 2021.There are just less than 2,200 U.S. National Guard troops providing additional security at the U.S. Capitol Complex since that riot, which left one U.S. Capitol Police officer dead and many others injured.
The Congress is in recess and most lawmakers are away.
In a tweet Friday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Praying for the United States Capitol Police officers who were attacked at the Capitol. We are still learning what’s taken place. Grateful to all the USCP and first responders who are on the scene.” VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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Biden Affirms US ‘Unwavering Support’ for Ukraine in Call
President Joe Biden Friday expressed strong U.S. support Friday for Ukraine in a call with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the White House said.
“President Biden affirmed the United States’ unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression in the Donbass [sic] and Crimea,” the statement said.
NATO said Thursday it was concerned about a Russian military buildup near Ukraine’s borders, as NATO ambassadors met to discuss the recent spike in violence in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, drawing Western condemnation and tit-for-tat sanctions.
Biden emphasized his administration’s commitment to a strategic partnership with Ukraine and support for Zelenskiy’s anti-corruption plans and reform agenda.
“The leaders agreed these reforms are central to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” the statement said. Zelenskiy said on Twitter he was glad to speak with Biden and appreciates U.S. support on different levels.
“We stand shoulder to shoulder when it comes to preservation of our democracies. My commitment to transform [Ukraine], improve transparency & achieve peace is strong. The American partnership is crucial for Ukrainians,” Zelenskiy said.Glad to talk to @POTUS. 🇺🇦 appreciates 🇺🇸 support on different levels. We stand shoulder to shoulder when it comes to preservation of our democracies. My commitment to transform 🇺🇦, improve transparency & achieve peace is strong. The American partnership is crucial for Ukrainians— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 2, 2021In November, Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump, who was impeached in 2019 over what White House aides described as an effort to withhold nearly $400 million in security aid and a coveted White House visit unless Ukrainian officials announced investigations Trump sought into Biden.
That exchange was at the center of a charge by the Democratic-led House of Representatives that Trump abused his power for political benefit. The U.S. Senate, then controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, acquitted him of the charge and another of obstructing justice. Trump denied any wrongdoing.
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Kenya’s Plan to Close Two Camps Worries Refugees
The Kenya Interior Ministry’s announcement last week of its intention to close two major camps has increased uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of refugees, leaving many of them distraught.”I am not ready to be repatriated to Somalia,” fretted Muslima Abdullahi, an 80-year-old woman living in Hagadera, part of the Dadaab refugee complex in northeastern Kenya. “I have nine orphaned children here,” she added. Years ago, terrified by insecurity, she left her homeland and she’s wary of returning now. “My house has been taken. I have no property or livestock. I don’t have a job ahead of me. I am not ready for the process” of repatriation. Ready or not, Kenya’s government says she and other refugees will have no choice but to leave the country. On March 24, Interior Minister Fred Matiangi announced Kenya had given the U.N. Refugee Agency 14 days to present a plan to close Dadaab and Kakuma camps.Kakuma and Dadaab camps, KenyaAbdullahi Osman Haji was among the first refugees to arrive at Dadaab nearly 30 years ago, driven from Somalia by civil war. He married in the camp and has been raising 12 children there. He longs for Somalia but considers that unrealistic, given its fragile government and the ongoing threat of al-Shabab terrorist attacks. “Closing the camps will have [an] adverse impact on us,” Haji said of refugees. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) shares that concern. It issued a statement last week saying the decision would affect “the protection of refugees in Kenya, including in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.” The UNHCR said it was ready to support Kenya’s government in strengthening ongoing efforts “to find solutions that are orderly, sustainable and respect refugee rights.” Kenya’s announcement came without explanation about why it seeks the camps’ closures now. VOA made repeated but unsuccessful attempts to get a comment from Kenyan officials. FILE – Somali refugee families wait to be flown to Kismayo in Somalia under a voluntary repatriation program, at the airstrip of Dadaab refugee camp, in northern Kenya, Dec. 19, 2017.UNHCR refugee programs in Kenya and elsewhere are feeling the strain of insufficient funding, Glenn Jusnes, a spokesperson for UNHCR Kenya, told VOA in an email response. “The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already dire humanitarian needs globally – particularly in the low and middle-income countries that are currently hosting more than 85% of the world’s refugees,” he wrote. The related economic slowdown has hurt. In the 2020 calendar year, UNHCR Kenya received $94 million – some $70 million less than it had sought, Jusnes said. For 2021, it had received approximately $33 million as of March 9, leaving a funding gap of more than $116 million.Globally, the UNHCR’s 2020 budget was over $9.1 billion but it received some $5.2 billion, leaving a 43% funding gap, Jusnes said. He noted that underfunding cuts into the UNHCR’s protection, assistance and resilience activities. In Kenya, infrastructure and road improvement projects in the Kakuma refugee camp and the nearby Kalobeyei settlement were suspended in early 2020. “Poor road conditions … have complicated access and assistance to refugees,” and “significant amounts” of money have gone to vehicle repairs instead of to direct aid to refugees and host communities, Jusnes said. Little choice While Kenya wants to close the camps, residents of Dadaab and Kakuma say they have no safe alternatives. Shamsa Mohamed Aden was among the refugees who voluntarily returned in 2017 to Kismayo, his southeastern Somali hometown. But he and his household, including four children, “couldn’t get the essentials of life, such as education and clean water.” They recently returned to Hagadera, a camp in the Dadaab refugee complex, and Aden is reluctant to go back. He said of himself, “All Shamsa can do is to wait for UNHCR’s help again.” This report originated in VOA’s Somali Service. Harun Maruf reported from Washington; and stringers Abdiaziz Barrow and Khadar Hared contributed from Mogadishu and Nairobi, respectively. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali contributed reporting from Dadaab refugee camp.
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Myanmar Junta Orders Shutdown of Internet, Providers Say
Myanmar’s military junta ordered an internet shutdown in the country Friday that was met by defiance among anti-government protesters. Undaunted by the shutdown and the government’s deadly crackdowns on demonstrators that have killed hundreds since the February 1 coup, protesters continued to march, observe strikes and use communications technology that operates without network connections. Local wireless broadband internet services said they were ordered to shut down until further notice by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The government previously shut down mobile phone cellular networks and most of the military-controlled media outlets in the Southeast Asian country. People take part in a demonstration against the military coup in Win Yay township, in eastern Myanmar’s Karen state, in this handout photo from the Karen Information Center taken on April 1, 2021, and released to AFP on April 2, 2021.Protesters have used the internet and cellphones to publicize violent acts that security forces have perpetrated against peaceful protesters and to organize against military rule. The government did not announce the internet shutdown or explain its order to providers. On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council repeated its call for the immediate release of all detainees in Myanmar, including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, and an end to violence. In a statement late Thursday, the council expressed its deep concern for the “rapidly deteriorating situation” in Myanmar and strongly condemned the use of lethal force by security forces and police against peaceful pro-democracy protesters and the deaths of hundreds of civilians, including women and children. The council also called on the military “to exercise utmost restraint” and on all sides “to refrain from violence.” The Security Council also reiterated the need for full respect for human rights and the pursuit of “dialogue and reconciliation in accordance with the will and interests of the people of Myanmar.” Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, was charged Thursday with breaking a secrets law that dates to the country’s colonial days, her lawyer said. It is the most serious of the charges leveled against her by the military since the February 1 coup. Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, among other members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, have been detained since the coup. She has been accused of breaking COVID-19 protocols and having in her possession six handheld radios. Her lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, told Reuters Thursday that Suu Kyi, three of her cabinet ministers and Sean Turnell, an Australian economic adviser, were charged a week ago under the secrets law. If convicted, they face up to 14 years in prison. Suu Kyi appeared via video for the Thursday hearing and appeared to be in good health, said Min Min Soe, another of her lawyers. A spokesman for the junta did not answer telephone calls from Reuters seeking comment. Anti-coup protesters were back on the streets Thursday, some symbolically burned copies of the country’s constitution as a group of deposed lawmakers announced a new civilian government to run counter to the ruling military junta. Reuters, citing media reports, said two more protesters were killed. A supporter of the Karen National Union (KNU) holds a sign supporting the Committee for Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), in this handout photo from the KNU Doo Pla Ya District taken and released to AFP on April 2, 2021.The rebel government, dubbed the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, is made up of members of deposed NLD government who were elected in November but not allowed to take their seats after the military detained Suu Kyi and replaced the civilian government. The CRPH also announced a new federal constitution to replace the one drafted by the military in 2008, which brought democracy to Myanmar after five decades while still maintaining the army’s power and influence in any civilian government. The CRPH-drafted constitution was written to meet the longstanding demands of Myanmar’s regional ethnic groups, who have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy. The junta’s violent crackdown against pro-democracy opponents across Myanmar has expanded in recent days against ethnic rebels, who are siding with the protesters. The military launched airstrikes against ethnic Karen rebels in eastern Myanmar in response to rebel attacks on military and police stations. The airstrikes prompted thousands of people to flee through the jungle and over the border into neighboring Thailand. A Karen migrant living in Thailand holds her one-month-old baby in Mae Sam Laep town on the Thai side of the Salween river in Mae Hong Son province on April 2, 2021, across from where Myanmar refugees earlier attempted to cross the Thai border.The junta, which had been turning off internet service at night, told internet service providers to shut down wireless broadband service until further notice, according to Ooredoo, one of several providers to report the move Thursday. This internet shutdown was condemned by several dozen U.N. member countries via a statement written by Lithuania, France and Greece. The countries condemned “the use of internet shutdowns to restrict access to information and the apparent specific targeting of local and international journalists,” said the statement of the three European countries, co-presidents to the U.N. Group of Friends to Protect Journalists. The worsening situation prompted Christine Schraner Burgener, the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, to warn the Security Council Wednesday that “a bloodbath is imminent” and of an increasing “possibility of civil war” in the country if civilian rule is not restored. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a nongovernmental organization, estimates that 536 people have been killed by the junta since the peaceful protests began, including more than 100 protesters — many of them women and children — last Saturday during the annual Armed Forces Day celebration. More than 2,700 have been arrested, charged or sentenced. The U.S. State Department has ordered all nonessential personnel and their family members to leave Myanmar as the military’s bloody crackdown against anti-coup demonstrations continues.
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Police in Brussels Clash With April Fools Partiers
Workers in Brussels were cleaning up the city’s Bois de la Cambre park early Friday after an April Fools’ Day prank brought thousands of young people there Thursday amid a COVID-19 lockdown, leading to clashes with police.A social media posting last month advertising “La Boum” (The Party) for Thursday, April 1, promising a concert was apparently intended as an April Fools’ Day joke. But police said they became concerned when nearly 20,000 people indicated plans to attend.Brussels police Wednesday issued warnings that the advertised “party” was a hoax and in violation of COVID-19 regulations. But officials say about 2,000 people showed up anyway, many of them frustrated by restrictions and drawn out by warm weather.Clashes began later Thursday when police attempted to disperse the crowd, which threw bottles and other projectiles. The police, some on horseback and others in riot gear, responded with water cannons and tear gas.Reports say at least four people were arrested and both police and party goers were injured, some seriously enough to seek treatment at local hospitals. Brussels police and prosecutors say they are investigating who was behind the social media prank.Some of the young people in the park told reporters they came not because of the promised concert or to provoke the police, but because they were bored, sick of the restrictions and wanted to get out. Belgium’s current pandemic restrictions prohibit gatherings of more than four people.
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As Anti-Asian Incidents Increase in US, Those Targeted Still Reluctant to Report Them
Asians are a diverse group in the U.S. but they all seem to respond in a similar fashion to possible hate crimes directed against them. Activists spoke with VOA’s Virginia Gunawan for this report.
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US Job Growth Accelerates in March; Unemployment Rate Falls to 6.0%
U.S. employers hired more workers than expected in March, spurred by increased vaccinations and more pandemic relief money from the government, cementing expectations that an economic boom was underway.
Nonfarm payrolls surged by 916,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday. That was be the biggest gain since last August. Data for February was revised higher to show 468,000 jobs created instead of the previously reported 379,000.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls increasing by 647,000 jobs in March. The unemployment rate fell to 6.0% last month from 6.2% in February. The unemployment rate has been understated by people misclassifying themselves as being “employed but absent from work.”
The closely watched employment report marked a painful anniversary for the labor market. The March 2020 employment report was the first to reflect the mandatory closures of non-essential businesses such as restaurants, bars and gyms to slow the onset of the just-emerging COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly 1.7 million jobs were lost that month, and another 20.7 million would vanish in April. Economists estimate it could take at least two years to recoup the more than 22 million jobs lost during the pandemic.
As of Tuesday morning, the United States had administered 147.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country and distributed 189.5 million doses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The White House’s massive $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package approved in March is sending additional $1,400 checks to qualified households and fresh funding for businesses.
Economists expect job growth will average at least 700,000 per month in the second and third quarters. That, combined with the fiscal stimulus and about $19 trillion in excess savings accumulated by households during the pandemic, is expected to unleash a powerful wave of pent-up demand.
First-quarter gross domestic product estimates are as high as a 10.0% annualized rate. The economy grew at a 4.3% pace in the fourth quarter. Growth this year could top 7%, which would be the fastest since 1984. The economy contracted 3.5% in 2020, the worst performance in 74 years.
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