An important Hong Kong public news broadcaster is at risk of becoming a government mouthpiece as Beijing tightens its grip, according to an insider who described rising editorial pressure and orders to pull out of journalism contests.Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is feeling the changes under a newly appointed manager and the city’s new national security law, elevating concerns that the broadcaster will end up more closely aligned with the Communist Party-controlled Hong Kong government.Last month, the regional Hong Kong government appointed Patrick Li Pak-Chuen, a career bureaucrat with no media experience, as RTHK’s new director of broadcasting. Since then, local media have reported how several shows considered biased by the new RTHK management were suspended by Li, also editor-in-chief.VOA interviewed a senior RTHK employee familiar with internal discussions at the broadcaster, who asked for anonymity to avoid retaliation and speak candidly. Overall, the source said, RTHK journalists are feeling uncertain about the new management direction and are under pressure to conform.In response to VOA’s request for comment from the director of broadcasting, RTHK’s head of corporate communications and standards said the broadcaster is “editorially independent as stipulated in the charter of RTHK” that it “will continue to abide by.”’Repressive’ atmosphereBut the RTHK source described the atmosphere as “tense” and “repressive” with a “top-down approach.” Producers must now have current affairs shows preapproved, and directors are asking for more pro-government voices in segments. Even when “impartiality” is demonstrated, the employee said, show ideas are rejected with little explanation.“They won’t tell you the line until they suddenly say you crossed the line, but they didn’t give the details of how the line is crossed — like certain people you can’t interview, that’s all in the dark,” the source said. “Secretive.”VOA has found it increasingly difficult to contact sources within the broadcaster, with many declining interviews for fear of reprisal.The fear is that RTHK will end up closer to China’s state-controlled media. “It’s looming over us,” the source said. “There have been some opportunist people who have already offered to produce something that isn’t too far away from propaganda.”RTHK is Hong Kong’s sole public broadcaster. It launched its first radio program in 1928 under the British Hong Kong Government but later became an independent department. By the 1990s, RTHK was producing web, television and radio content and is bound by its Ng Chi-sam, right, and Tsang Chi-ho, hosts of RTHK’s satirical comedy show “Headliner,” perform the show, in Hong Kong, China, June 5, 2020.Censorship movesPolitics intruded on RTHK beginning in 2019 as anti-Beijing protests raged. Since then, several shows have been suspended because of perceived government criticism. They include a satirical show, “Headliner,” accused of bias against the Hong Kong police.An interview with Nathan Law, a prominent, now-exiled activist, was removed from the RTHK website after reports that Law was wanted for violating national security.Review teams have been set up within the broadcaster to vet future content, and China’s national anthem is now played daily on RTHK radio channels, an effort seen as promoting “patriotism” among Hong Kongers. The broadcaster also followed China’s decision to drop BBC World Service radio broadcasts after criticism by the Chinese government.Bao Choy Yuk-Ling, a freelance producer with RTHK, leaves West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts after being found guilty of making false statements to obtain data for a documentary, in Hong Kong, China April 22, 2021.And on Thursday, a Hong Kong court found Bao Choy, a freelance producer of the now-award-winning Yuen Long documentary, guilty of illegally obtaining data for the episode. Bao was fined HKD $6,000 (U.S. $773). The documentary highlighted the delayed response by Hong Kong police to the mob attack, in which dozens were injured.RTHK Arrest in Hong Kong Is Further Blow to Press FreedomArrests, chilled climate since National Security Law came into effect may leave Hong Kong media deciding between self-censorship or revealing the truthThe government has recently called for Hong Kong “patriots” as it pushes to quell unrest in the city. In February, all civil servants, including hundreds of RTHK employees, were asked to sign an allegiance to the government. The fear is that this will allow government critics to be targeted under the new national security law.Nicholas Cull, a professor of public diplomacy at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California, told VOA that the “complete integration of media is the long-term goal of Beijing.”It’s part of a worsening environment globally for media, he said, as broadcasters in Poland, Slovenia and Hungary have been targeted. “In many places, there is an assumption of state control over the public broadcaster,” Cull said.’Especially dangerous’ for journalistsThe national security law was described by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders as “especially dangerous” for journalists. It ranked Hong Kong 80th out of 180 countries, where 1 is the most free, in its press freedom index released Tuesday.The RTHK source who spoke with VOA described a deteriorating situation, with low communication, few meetings, and less transparency and input from senior staff, as “political correctness” becomes the sole consideration for the new director.“Propaganda is propaganda and reporting is reporting,” the source said. “But then I’d say the boundaries would be blurrier and blurrier, and to the end of that road it could end up being CCTV [China Central Television Network].”
…
Month: April 2021
Biden Touts Economic Benefits of Combatting Climate Change
U.S. President Joe Biden joined business and union leaders Friday in touting the economic benefits of addressing global warming when he delivered remarks from the White House on the last day of a two-day virtual climate change summit.“When we invest in climate resilience and infrastructure, we create opportunities for everyone,” Biden said. Biden’s remarks at a session on the “economic opportunities of climate action” came one day after he announced a new goal of cutting U.S. greenhouse gas pollution by 50-52% by 2030.Biden’s commitment is the most ambitious U.S. climate goal ever, nearly doubling the cuts the Obama administration pledged to meet in the Paris climate accord.The White House arranged for billionaires, CEOs and union executives to help promote Biden’s plan to reduce the U.S. economy’s reliance on fossil fuels by investing trillions of dollars in clean-energy technology, research and infrastructure while simultaneously saving the planet.Billionaire and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared “We can’t beat climate change without a historic amount of new investment,” adding “We have to do more, faster to cut emissions.” Biden climate change envoy John Kerry emphasized Biden’s call for modernizing U.S. infrastructure to operate more cleanly, maintaining it would provide long-term benefits for the U.S. economy. “No one is being asked for a sacrifice,” Kerry said. “This is an opportunity.”John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, looks up at a video screen while participating in a virtual Climate Summit with world leaders in the East Room at the White House in Washington, April 22, 2021.Leaders from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Spain, Nigeria and Vietnam are also participating in Friday’s session, along with representatives from the U.S. transportation, energy and commerce departments.The U.S. target is relative to 2005 levels and the White House says efforts to reach it, include moving toward carbon pollution-free electricity, boosting fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, supporting carbon capture at industrial facilities and reducing the use of methane. U.S. allies have also vowed to cut emissions, aiming to convince other countries to follow suit ahead of the November U.N. climate change summit in Glasgow, where governments will determine the extent of each country’s reductions in fossil fuel emissions. Japan announced new plans to cut emissions by 46%, while South Korea said it would halt the investment of public funding of new coal-fired power plants. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would increase its cuts in fossil fuel pollution by about 10% to at least 40%.President Joe Biden speaks to the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, from the East Room of the White House, April 23, 2021, in Washington.The two-day summit is part of Biden’s efforts to restore U.S. leadership on the issue after his predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew the United States from the legally binding Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2017. Biden reversed the decision shortly after taking office. There is skepticism about the commitment announced Thursday by Biden and there is certain to be a partisan political battle over his pledge to reduce fossil fuel use in every sector of the U.S. economy. “Toothless requests of our foreign adversaries and maximum pain for American citizens,” reacted the top Republican party leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, calling Biden’s climate plan full of “misplaced priorities.” World leaders agreed to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius in the 2015 U.N. Paris climate agreement and to aim for 1.5 degrees Celsius. Averaged over the entire globe, temperatures have increased more than 1.1 degree Celsius since 1980. Scientists link the increase to more severe heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms and other impacts. And they note that the rate of temperature rise has accelerated since the 1980s.
…
Southeast Asian Summit to Address Myanmar’s Post-coup Crisis
When the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations holds a special summit Saturday to discuss Myanmar, the regional body will be under as much scrutiny as the general who led the February coup ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Opponents of the junta are furious that ASEAN is welcoming its chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, to its meeting in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, arguing that because he seized power by force, he is not Myanmar’s legitimate leader. Also weighing heavily against him is the lethal violence perpetrated by the security forces he commands, responsible for killing hundreds of largely peaceful protesters and bystanders.
“Min Aung Hlaing, who faces international sanctions for his role in military atrocities and the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, should not be welcomed at an intergovernmental gathering to address a crisis he created,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
“ASEAN members should instead take this opportunity to impose targeted, economic sanctions on junta leaders and on businesses that fund the junta, and press the junta to release political detainees, end abuses, and restore the country’s democratically elected government.”
The junta’s foes have promoted the idea that the opposition’s parallel National Unity Government, recently established by the elected lawmakers the army barred from being seated, should represent Myanmar, or at least have some role in the Jakarta meeting. It has not been invited.
“It’s unacceptable that they invite this murderer-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, who has just killed more than 730 people in Myanmar, and I think it is very unfortunate that they, again and again, talk to the military generals and not to the civilian government of Myanmar, which is the NUG,” says the parallel government’s Minister of International Cooperation, Dr. Sasa, who uses one name.
Evan Laksmana, a researcher for Indonesia’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank with close government ties, told The Associated Press there is a very practical reason for engaging Min Aung Hlaing face to face.
ASEAN recognizes “the reality is that one party is doing the violence, which is the military, and therefore that’s why the military is being called to the meeting. So, this is not in any way conferring legitimacy to the military regime,” he said.
By talking to the general, ASEAN hopes to initiate a longer-term framework process, starting with ending the violence, that will “hopefully help facilitate dialogue among all the stakeholders in Myanmar, not just [with] the military regime.”
Skeptics feel ASEAN faces more basic problems in seeking to resolve Myanmar’s crisis. They point to the divergent interests of the group’s members, its longstanding conventions of seeking consensus and avoiding interference in each other’s affairs, and the historic obstinacy of Myanmar’s generals.
One faction in the group, comprising Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, believes the instability engendered by the coup threatens the entire region as well as ASEAN’s credibility as a group powerful enough to act independently of big power influence.
They also point out that the ASEAN Charter — adopted in 2007, 40 years after the group’s founding — includes democracy, human rights, good governance and rule of law as guiding principles.
“Now is a grave time for ASEAN’s much-touted centrality, the idea that ASEAN is a central regional platform for regional dialogue, for promoting peace and stability in the region,” said Prof. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. He said that conception of ASEAN is now facing “its most severe, grave challenge” in 53 years of existence.
Member countries with more authoritarian regimes — Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam — see little benefit in paying more than lip service to such principles and have treated Myanmar’s crisis as its own internal matter.
The Jakarta meeting is a hybrid one, with onsite attendance encouraged but virtual participation by video an option because of the coronavirus pandemic. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte both announced they will stay home and send their foreign ministers in their stead, but they are dealing with serious COVID-19 outbreaks, obscuring any political message in their decisions.
“It is more difficult to communicate on a personal level between the leaders without the leaders being present fully, particularly with regards to the prime minister of Thailand, whom we believe to have the best relationship with the current senior general from Myanmar,” observed Indonesia’s Laksmana.
He believes ASEAN has a unique opportunity to engage productively with Myanmar’s ruling junta “because right now there is no other option on the table.”
“We haven’t seen any progress from the U.N. Security Council, for example. There is no collective effort by other countries. This is it. This is the first potential breakthrough for the current crisis,” he told The Associated Press.
U.N. specialized agencies and experts have been active in criticizing the coup and the junta’s crackdown. U.N. Special Envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener will not take part in ASEAN’s deliberations, but intends to take part in sideline consultations. The junta has rejected her repeated requests to visit Myanmar.
The Security Council could effectively coordinate actions such as arms embargoes to pressure the junta, but Russia and China, major weapons suppliers to the junta, would veto such moves.
Western nations have already enacted targeted sanctions against members of the junta and businesses giving them financial support, but Myanmar’s past military governments have successfully stood up to such pressures, and would be expected to do so again, especially with support from Beijing.
ASEAN prefers quiet diplomacy to intimidation, seeking incremental gains. Even getting the two Myanmar sides to talk to each other could take some time, acknowledges Laksmana.
“I think the gravity of the situation on the ground is as such now that there is no space or even willingness for dialogue until we end the violence,” he said.
“So, I think the first steps would be to what extent can ASEAN facilitate the observance of a humanitarian pause first and then the delivery of the humanitarian aid,” he said. Only after that might a forum be possible where all the stakeholders could talk.
A Southeast Asian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said another opening move is under consideration. This would involve having ASEAN’s current chairman, Brunei’s Prime Minister Hassanal Bolkiah, travel to Myanmar for meetings with the military leadership and Suu Kyi’s camp to encourage dialogue. He would go there with the ASEAN Secretary General Lim Jock Hoi — also from Brunei — if the junta gives them the nod.
ASEAN-style diplomacy with Myanmar has borne fruit in the past. The military regime in charge in 2008 was incapable of mounting sufficient rescue and recovery efforts in the wake of devastating Cyclone Nargis but refused to open up the country to an international aid effort. ASEAN took the initiative in offering to open a channel for foreign assistance, and the much-needed aid started flowing.
…
French Police Administrator Killed in Knife attack
Police officials in Rambouillet, France, say a man attacked and killed a police administrator Friday with a knife outside a police station in the southwest suburb of Paris.
The officials say at least one police officer at the scene opened fire on the assailant – identified as a 36-year-old Tunisian national living in France – and fatally shot him. The French news agency reports the man had no criminal record and was unknown to police.
Authorities say the victim was a 49-year-old female police administrator, who was returning to work after her lunch break, when she was attacked and stabbed in the throat. Witnesses say the attacker shouted “Allah Akbar” – “God is great” – as he stabbed her.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex, along with other officials, was at the scene of the crime in Rambouillet, an upscale suburb about 60 kilometers southwest of Paris in France’s Yvelines department ((region)). Castex, and France’s antiterror prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard, who also was at the scene, said the incident would be investigated as a terrorist attack.
On his Twitter account, French President Emmanuel Macron said the nation is at the side of the slain police administrator, her family, colleagues and the police. “In the fight against Islamist terrorism, we will not give up.”
The attack comes six months after another knife attack in the region when an Islamist teenager beheaded a schoolteacher in Conflans, another town outside Paris.
France has suffered a wave of attacks by Islamist militants or Islamist-inspired individuals in recent years that have killed about 250 people.
…
AU Urges Somali Leaders to Resume Poll Talks, Condemns Presidential Term Extension
Opposition leaders in Somalia welcomed a rare move by the African Union to condemn a term extension by Somali lawmakers for themselves and the president.The AU Peace and Security Committee expressed “deep concern” over the vote by Somalia’s lower house of parliament this month to extend the mandate of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo.The organization said the move, which effectively postponed the country’s already-delayed elections, also undermines the unity and stability of the Horn of Africa state.Lawmakers extended Farmajo’s mandate for another two years after months of failed talks on holding parliamentary and presidential elections. Political leaders were unable to agree on the electoral process, despite heavy pressure from the AU, the United States, and European Union.Somalia’s Farmajo Signs Controversial Measure Extending Mandate by 2 YearsOpposition says measure is null and voidOn Friday, the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) welcomed a renewed initiative by the African Union to facilitate talks on holding elections. But the FGS also blamed Kenya and Djibouti for engaging in what Information Minister Osman Dubbe described as a sinister campaign to derail the political process in Somalia through their influence in the commission.Dubbe said the Somali government will not accept interference by the African Union into its domestic affairs, and added intervention in internal affairs violates the founding principles of the continental body which Somalia was among the pioneers.Djibouti Government Minister for Economy and Finance Ilyas Mousa Dawaleh denied Somalia’s accusations, saying it undermines core values of peace and stability.However, Somali opposition Senator Ilyas Ali said he appreciated the AU’s intervention.”I applaud the condemnation made by the African Peace and Security Council over the lower house decision to extend its term and the term of the president, appreciate the African Union Peace and Security Committee seeing it the same way as we see,” he said. “I would like also to emphasis of course our desire to continue collaborating with African brothers for a better Somalia.”The African Union is expected to send a special envoy to oversee the efforts to resolve the stalemate over the polls.Somalia President Calls for African Union Mediation The leader seeks help in mediating dispute concerning county’s electionsPolitical analyst Mohamed Muse Aden predicts the AU intervention will bring the sides to end their differences.”The African Union involvement is very much significant, because of the trust deficit between the government and its rivals,” he said. “Therefore, breaching that gap African solutions for African problem is badly needed here. This will pave way for broad-based dialogue and eventually lead to broker a deal ending the political quagmire and electoral deadlock.”The international partners in Somalia, led by the U.S., also welcomed African Union mediation and urged Somalia’s leaders to agree to a way forward to resolve the electoral crisis urgently.
…
Biden Lauds Senate Passage of Anti-Asian Hate Crime Bill
U.S. President Joe Biden lauded the U.S. Senate Friday for overwhelmingly passing new legislation aimed at bolstering efforts to combat rising anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic.The bill would establish a new Justice Department position to expedite the review of COVID-19-related hate crimes and provide support for local law enforcement agencies to respond to anti-Asian hate violence. It also includes an amendment that would improve hate crime data collection and establish hate crime telephone hotlines.The amendment was initially introduced as the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, named after two high-profile victims of hate crimes in recent years, Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer.”This critical legislation will bring our nation one step closer to achieving justice and equality for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities,” Biden said in a White House statement in which he also praised the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus for its efforts.”And, I was happy to see the Senate add the bipartisan Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act as an amendment, which will further our national efforts to stand strongly against acts of hate and violence,” the president said.The vote was 94-1. Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri was the only senator to vote against the bill. Two Democratic senators and three Republicans did not vote.Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Anti-Asian Hate Crime BillVote was 94-1; Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri was only lawmaker to vote against billThe bill now heads to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass with wide bipartisan support. President Joe Biden has expressed enthusiasm for the legislation and is expected to sign it into law when it reaches his desk.Democratic Senator Mazie K. Hirono of Hawaii, the bill’s sponsor and one of two Asian Americans in the Senate, praised the bipartisan vote, saying it sends “a powerful message of solidarity to our AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community.””Now, I urge the House to swiftly pass this legislation so President Biden can sign it into law,” Hirono wrote on Twitter.The legislation comes amid a sharp increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and discrimination, fueled by what civil rights advocates describe as the baseless scapegoating of Asians for the virus that originated in China.”For more than a year, far too many Asian Americans have woken up each morning increasingly fearful for their safety and the safety of their loved ones,” Biden said. “They have been scapegoated, harassed, and assaulted; some have even been killed.””Too often throughout our history, acts of hate and violence directed at Asian Americans have been met with silence,” Biden added. “Our nation must stand together to speak out against hate and declare unequivocally: These acts are wrong. They are un-American. And they must stop.” Anti-Asian Hate Crime Crosses Racial and Ethnic Lines In New York, only two of the 20 people arrested last year in connection with anti-Asian attacks were white Anti-Asian hate crimes surged by 150% in major American cities last year, according to police data compiled by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University. Meanwhile, Stop AAPI Hate, an advocacy coalition created to track anti-Asian hate during the pandemic, says it has received more than 3,800 reports of anti-Asian incidents.Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, one of the co-founders of Stop AAPI Hate, said the bill “sends a strong message that hate against AAPIs is a serious issue and clearly better data is needed.””Given that a majority of incidents we receive are not hate crimes, we are calling for more investments in community-based organizations that are best equipped to meet the needs of victims and survivors of violence and intervention and prevention-based efforts in local communities,” Choi wrote in an email to VOA. “We can’t legislate our way out of this problem.”Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, said the legislation will help strengthen efforts to combat hate crimes by ensuring better data collection.”Communities across the country have been experiencing a surge in hate crimes in recent years — including an increase in Anti-Asian hate crimes in the wake of bigotry surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, yet official hate crime data remains significantly underreported,” Berry said in a statement. “This legislation will help provide an accurate picture of what communities across the country are experiencing.”The Biden administration has prioritized fighting anti-Asian hate. In January, Biden issued an executive action condemning anti-Asian violence and directing the Justice Department to help combat hate crimes directed at the Asian American community. Last week, the White House announced the appointment of Erika L. Moritsugu as liaison to the Asian American community.
…
CDC Independent Immunization Panel Meets on Johnson & Johnson Vaccine
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Immunization Committee is meeting Friday to consider lifting a pause on use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
The pause was widely implemented last week following the discovery of six U.S. cases of a rare and severe type of blood clots in people who had received the shot.
On April 13, the CDC, in a joint statement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, recommended a pause on use of the vaccine, “out of an abundance of caution” and to give experts an opportunity to examine the blood clot cases and see if any additional cases were found.
CDC officials have said since that “a handful” of other cases were being investigated, but offered no details, except to say they were encouraged there was a relatively small number of them.
The six cases of blood clots previously identified – out of seven million doses of the vaccine delivered – occurred in women between the ages of 18 and 48. They developed symptoms, most often headaches, six to 13 days after vaccination. One vaccine recipient, a Virginia woman, died in March.
The Washington Post reports authorities are leaning toward lifting the pause. Earlier this week, Europe’s drug watchdog group, the European Medicines Agency, said that while it found a possible link between the vaccine and the rare blood clots, the vaccine’s benefits outweigh its risks.
It said it would recommend its use with an additional warning included in the information about the vaccine.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting Friday follows an emergency meeting held last week, the day after the announcement of the pause. At that time, members of the panel said they had too little time to make a recommendation.
Advisors to the committee tell ABC News it is expected to make a final recommendation on the vaccine later Friday.
…
IOM Says Up to 130 Dead as Boat Overturns in Mediterranean
As many as 130 people died this week in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The NGO said calls for rescue from those on board the rubber dinghy went unheeded. “For two days, the NGO Alarm Phone, which is responsible for sending distress calls to the relevant maritime rescue centers in the Mediterranean region, had been calling on states to uphold their responsibility towards these people and send rescue vessels,” said IOM spokeswoman Safa Msehli. “Unfortunately, that has not happened.”Msehli said the independent rescue group SOS-Mediterranee sent a vessel, the Ocean Viking, in search of the boat. Unfortunately, when it arrived on the scene Thursday evening, the crew was confronted with the distressing sight of dozens of bodies floating around the capsized dinghy. She said this tragedy comes two days after another boat carrying around 103 migrants was intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard, who found a mother and her child dead on that boat. The survivors were returned to Libya and are being detained in a government facility.”There are further reports of a third boat carrying up to 40 people,” Msehli said. “We have no news on this boat. It has been out there at sea for three days and, again, we fear that the worst can happen given the status and the state of these boats and given the length and duration that people are spending in what remains the most dangerous sea crossing in the world.”International law obliges states to rescue people at sea. However, as attitudes harden in Europe against asylum seekers and migrants, most of whom come from Africa and the Middle East, more countries are violating the law. Countries like Italy and Malta have barred migrant vessels from disembarking in their ports and European countries have imposed fines on private vessels such as the Ocean Viking and imposed rules making it difficult for them to rescue migrants at sea.The IOM says the latest deaths bring the total number of people who have lost their lives in the central Mediterranean this year to 650. That is more than a four-fold increase in the number of recorded deaths over the same period last year.However, Msehli notes the IOM’s ability to monitor deaths in the central Mediterranean has been drastically reduced because of the absence of state search and rescue vessels. So, she says the actual number of deaths is likely to be much higher.
…
Burkina Faso Tested Malaria Vaccine Shows 77% Efficacy
In an exclusive interview with VOA, the director of Oxford University’s Jenner Institute says their new malaria vaccine, tested in Burkina Faso, has shown a preliminary efficacy rate of 77%, which could help prevent over 400,000 deaths a year, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Henry Wilkins looks at the burden of malaria on families in the region and the potential impact of the new vaccine in this report from Kaya, Burkina Faso.
…
Russian Opposition Leader Navalny to End Hunger Strike
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny announced Friday he is ending his hunger strike after he was examined by a panel of civilian doctors.
Navalny made the announcement from his Instagram account. He began the hunger strike March 31 to protest what he said was a lack of medical care for severe back and leg pain.
In his post, Navalny said he had been seen twice by a panel of civilian doctors, who are doing tests and analysis and will give him “results and conclusions.”
He wrote, “I am not withdrawing my request to allow the necessary doctor to see me – I am losing feeling in areas of my arms and legs, and I want to understand what it is and how to treat it, but considering the progress and all the circumstances, I am beginning to come out of the hunger strike.”
He said it would take 24 hours for him to fully come out of the hunger strike, and he thanked the “good people of Russia” for their support.
Thursday, more than 1,900 Navalny supporters were detained during protests in cities across the country. From his Instagram account, he said he felt “pride and hope” after learning about the protests.
Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany. The Kremlin denies any role in the poisoning.
He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in February on an embezzlement charge and was being held at the Pokrov correctional colony, which he described as “a real concentration camp.”
The United States and other countries have sanctioned Kremlin officials over the poisoning, and many are calling for Navalny’s release.
…
Remembering Walter Mondale’s ‘Good Fight’
Walter Mondale, who died Monday in his home state of Minnesota at 93, was always generous with his time, careful in his thought, occasionally humorous in his storytelling style, and sincere in his belief in fighting the “good fight.” During one of several exclusive VOA interviews he politely agreed to, Mondale fondly looked back on a long career in politics in which he characterized himself as “an old liberal.” “I did what I wanted to do,” the man nicknamed “Fritz” explained to me in 2016. “I did it the way I wanted to do it. I don’t feel any regrets about pulling any punches.”FILE – President Jimmy Carter embraces Vice President Walter Mondale on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Jan. 7, 1978.Before Mondale committed to joining Carter, he wanted assurances his role would be different from vice presidents before him, something he learned watching his mentor Humphrey serve in a marginalized capacity.”The idea was to bring the vice president into the White House,” Mondale explained. “As we worked it out, as an adviser and troubleshooter for the president, as a spokesman for the president on (Capitol) Hill and around the country, and at diplomatic missions, and a friend and private counselor as needed.”Carter and Mondale defeated Republican President Gerald Ford and Senator Bob Dole, his running mate, in the 1976 election. Mondale assumed the vice presidency in 1977 and had a key role working with Carter to normalize relations with China, return the Panama Canal to Panama, negotiate arms treaties with the Soviet Union, and secure the Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel, among other accomplishments.He was also alongside Carter during the low points, including an economic downturn and the Iran hostage crisis. The loss of American lives in a failed military operation to rescue the hostages was something that troubled Mondale more than 30 years later.”We lost eight lives,” he told me before a long pause. “It was the saddest … I still have a hard time talking about it.”Despite the failed military operation, the U.S. hostages in Iran eventually safely returned home, and Mondale expressed confidence he and Carter overall made the right decisions.”We didn’t have a war. We told the truth. Obeyed the law. We set a decent standard of personal behavior. We put the nation on the side of human rights. We tried to use the force of the nation to bring about peace to resolve differences.”Despite serving one term ending in 1981, Mondale transformed the vice presidency, setting a precedent for every future officeholder.”When President Obama asked me to consider being his vice president, Fritz was my first call and trusted guide,” President Joe Biden noted in his official remarks upon Mondale’s death. “He not only took my call, he wrote me a memo. It was Walter Mondale who defined the vice presidency as a full partnership and helped provide a model for my service.”FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale and his running mate, Geraldine Ferraro, wave as they leave an afternoon rally in Portland, Ore., Sept. 5, 1984.Mondale also provided a model for Biden’s own run for the presidency when in 1984, he asked New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro to be his vice president, the first woman to join a presidential ticket. Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, made history in 2020 as the first woman, first African American and first South Asian vice president.After serving as President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Japan in the 1990s and an unsuccessful run to return to the U.S. Senate in 2002, Mondale settled into a role as an elder statesman of the Democratic Party. He closely watched national and local elections and supported Somali refugee Ilhan Omar’s candidacy for the Minnesota legislature, and eventually the U.S. Congress.He also entered the post-presidential record books alongside Carter.”Carter and I have survived beyond office longer than any former presidential-vice presidential team in American history,” Mondale told the assembled crowd at the rededication of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in 2009. “Not only that … we passed up our competitors Adams and Jefferson two years ago. And I’m not being critical of them. They were good, too!”Mondale documented his life and career in the 2010 memoir “The Good Fight.” In our exclusive, one-on-one interviews during the last decade of his life, Mondale shared his hopes for how history will record his legacy.”What is the good fight you want them to remember you for?” I pointedly asked him near the end of our interview in 2014.”I’ve tried to be an apostle for social justice and decency,” he responded. “I’ve tried to be one of those leaders in our nation’s history that’s tried to tilt the scales towards fairness and openness. That’s what my life’s been about. I want people to feel wanted. I want them to feel that they are needed, and I want them to feel that in America, to be treated fairly.”Mondale’s “good fight” for civil rights and justice continues in Minnesota beyond his death, which came a day before Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on three counts in the death of George Floyd.
…
Russian Troops Start Pulling Back From Ukrainian Border
Russian troops began pulling back to their permanent bases Friday after a massive buildup that has caused Ukrainian and Western concerns.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared Thursday that the sweeping maneuvers in Crimea and wide swaths of western Russia were completed, and he ordered the military to bring the troops that took part in them back to their permanent bases by May 1.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the announcement.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday its forces that took part in the massive drills in Crimea were moving to board trains, transport aircraft and landing vessels en route to their permanent bases.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would await intelligence confirmation of the pullback.
“We want to see that Russian deeds match Russian words,” Kuleba said Friday during a visit to Romania. “What was said was not enough, we want to see that this will be implemented and all these forces will be removed from our border.”
He added that if the pullback is confirmed, “this would mean a real easing of tension.” He thanked NATO and the EU countries for offering “very firm and immediate support to Ukraine”.
While ordering the pullback of military personnel, Shoigu ordered their heavy weapons kept in western Russia for a massive exercise called Zapad (West) 2021 later this year. The weapons were to be stored at the Pogonovo firing range in the southwestern Voronezh region, 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Russia’s border with Ukraine.
The U.S. and NATO have said the troop buildup was the largest since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and threw its support behind separatists in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas. More than 14,000 people have been killed in seven years of fighting between Ukrainian troops and the Russia-backed separatists.
The concentration of Russian troops amid increasing violations of a cease-fire in the conflict in eastern Ukraine raised concerns in the West, which urged the Kremlin to pull its forces back.
Moscow rejected the Ukrainian and Western concerns, arguing it is free to deploy its forces anywhere on Russian territory. But the Kremlin also sternly warned Ukrainian authorities against trying to use force to retake control of the rebel east, saying it could intervene to protect civilians there.
Asked if the Kremlin thinks that the Russian troop pullback could help ease tensions with the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the issues were not connected.
“It’s not an issue for Russia-U.S. relations,” Peskov said in a call with reporters. “We have said that any movement of Russian troops on Russian territory doesn’t pose any threat and doesn’t represent an escalation. Russia does what it thinks is necessary for its military organization and training of troops.”
…
Climate Summit Day 2 – Invest for Big Payoff WATCH LIVE
The White House brought out the billionaires, the CEOs and the union executives Friday to help sell President Joe Biden’s climate-friendly transformation of the U.S. economy at his virtual summit of world leaders.
The closing day of the two-day summit on climate change showcased Bill Gates and Mike Bloomberg, steelworker and electrical union leaders and executives for solar and other renewable energy.
“We can’t beat climate change without a historic amount of new investment,” said Bloomberg, who’s donated millions to promote replacing dirty-burning coal-fired power plants with increasingly cheaper renewable energy.
“We have to do more, faster to cut emissions,” Bloomberg said in his push for big investment.John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, looks up at a video screen while participating in a virtual Climate Summit with world leaders in the East Room at the White House in Washington, April 22, 2021.Biden envoy John Kerry stressed the political selling point that the president’s call for retrofitting creaky U.S. infrastructure to run more cleanly would put the U.S. on a better economic footing long-term.
“No one is being asked for a sacrifice,” Kerry said. “This is an opportunity.”
It’s all in service of an argument U.S. officials say will make or break Biden’s climate agenda: Pouring trillions of dollars into clean-energy technology, research and infrastructure will speed a competitive U.S. economy into the future and create jobs, while saving the planet.
“Climate change is more than a threat,” Biden declared on Thursday’s opening day of his climate summit. “It also presents one of the largest job creation opportunities in history.”
The new urgency comes as scientists say that climate change caused by coal plants, car engines and other fossil fuel use is worsening droughts, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and other disasters and that humans are running out of time to stave off catastrophic extremes of global warming.
The event has featured the world’s major powers — and major polluters — pledging to cooperate on cutting petroleum and coal emissions that are rapidly warming the planet.
But Republicans are sticking to the arguments that former President Donald Trump made in pulling the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris climate accord. They point to China as the world’s worst climate polluter — the U.S. is No. 2 — and say any transition to clean energy hurts American oil, natural gas and coal workers.FILE – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky walks from the Senate floor to his office on Capitol Hill, in Washington.It means “putting good-paying American jobs into the shredder,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Thursday in a speech in which he dismissed the administration’s plans as costly and ineffective.
“This is quite the one-two punch,” McConnell said. “Toothless requests of our foreign adversaries … and maximum pain for American citizens.”
In an announcement timed to his summit, Biden pledged the U.S. will cut fossil fuel emissions as much as 52% by 2030.
Allies joined the U.S. in announcing new moves to cut emissions, striving to build momentum going into November’s U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, where governments will say how far each is willing to go to cut the amount of fossil fuel fumes it pumps out.
Japan announced its own new 46% emissions reduction target, and South Korea said it would stop public financing of new coal-fired power plants, potentially an important step toward persuading China and other coal-reliant nations to curb the building and funding of new ones as well. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his nation would boost its fossil fuel pollution cuts from 30% to at least 40%.U.S. President Joe Biden is seen on a screen as European Council President Charles Michel attends a virtual Global Climate Summit via video link from the European Council building in Brussels, April 22, 2021.Biden was scheduled to address the summit Friday at a session on the “economic opportunities of climate action.” Leaders from Israel, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Nigeria, Spain and Vietnam also were scheduled to participate Friday, along with Biden’s transportation, energy and commerce secretaries and others.
Travel precautions under the coronavirus pandemic compelled the summit to play out on livestream, limiting opportunities for spontaneous interaction and negotiation. Its opening hours were sometimes marked by electronic echoes, random beeps and off-screen voices.
But the summit opening Thursday also marshaled an impressive display of the world’s most powerful leaders speaking on the single topic of climate change.A giant screen shows news footage of Chinese President Xi Jinping attending a video summit on climate change from Beijing, China.China’s Xi Jinping spoke first among the other global figures. He made no reference to disputes over territorial claims, trade and other matters that had made it uncertain until Wednesday that he would even take part in the U.S. summit.
“To protect the environment is to protect productivity, and to boost the environment is to boost productivity. It’s as simple as that,” Xi said.
The Biden administration’s pledge would require by far the most ambitious U.S. climate effort ever, nearly doubling the reductions that the Obama administration had committed to in the Paris climate accord.
…
Amnesty International Calls on Indonesia to Prosecute or Extradite Myanmar’s Junta Leader
As members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are set to discuss Myanmar’s governance crisis at a summit in Jakarta on Saturday, Amnesty International is calling on the 10-member regional bloc to prioritize protecting human rights and preventing the situation from deteriorating into a human rights and humanitarian crisis.Amnesty is also urging Indonesia, as the host nation, and other ASEAN member states to investigate Myanmar’s coup leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who is expected to attend the summit “on credible allegations of responsibility for crimes against humanity in Myanmar,” the right group said in a statement Friday.“As a state party to the UN Convention Against Torture, Indonesia has a legal obligation to prosecute or extradite a suspected perpetrator on its territory,” the statement said.“The Myanmar crisis triggered by the military presents ASEAN with the biggest test in its history. The bloc’s usual commitment to non-interference is a non-starter: this is not an internal matter for Myanmar but a major human rights and humanitarian crisis which is impacting the entire region and beyond,” Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Research Emerlynne Gil said.“The Indonesian authorities and other ASEAN member states cannot ignore the fact Min Aung Hlaing is suspected of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole,” Gil said.The military in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, overthrew the country’s elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in early February, triggering a popular revolt followed by a violent crackdown on protesters and civilians who want a return to democracy.At least 738 people have been killed by junta security forces since the crackdown began, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.Most ASEAN member states say they plan to send representatives other than heads of states to the meeting in Jakarta.Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and top diplomat Don Pramudwinai will attend the summit instead of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. The latter told local reporters that “some other countries will also send their foreign ministers.”
…
Déby’s Death Raises Security Concerns in West Africa
The death of Chad’s President Idriss Deby this week has raised concerns about stability in the country and throughout West Africa. While critics point out Deby’s authoritarian, 31-year rule, security experts say he was an essential ally in the fight against terrorism and are worried about what comes next.Déby presided over one of the largest and most well-resourced militaries in West Africa. His forces provided crucial support to international security efforts in the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel, where Islamist militant groups have wreaked havoc in recent years.That’s likely why Western powers such as France and the U.S. turned a blind eye to the ever-mounting accusations of human rights abuses and to his habit of suppressing political opposition.“In terms of the struggle against jihadism, his death is a distinct setback,” said John Campbell, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria and a senior fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based think tank. “The Chadian army was probably the most efficient fighting force in West Africa, again, with the exception of the French. And the question will be whether the regime continues the effort or not.”Déby was killed by a Libyan-based rebel group while visiting troops on the front lines Monday. The event took place shortly after he was declared the winner of the April 11 elections, which were boycotted by opposition groups over accusations of political sidelining. The win would have marked the start of Déby’s sixth term.A transitional military council appointed Déby’s son, General Mahamat Idriss Déby, as interim leader until democratic elections can be held in 18 months.“There is uncertainty about the immediate future of Chad,” said Paul-Simon Handy, a senior regional advisor with the Institute of Security Studies in Dakar. “There’s uncertainty about the stability of the current interim arrangement by the military council. There’s uncertainty about unity within the ranks of the army. Islamist insurgents can actually use these opportunities to further destabilize Chad.”This could have ripple effects across West Africa.If Déby’s son does not earn the loyalty of Chad’s armed forces, the region could lose a key player in the fight against Islamic extremists.“There’s the possibility that command and control over the armed forces may falter,” said Daniel Eizenga, a research fellow with the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a U.S. Defense Department research institution. “The fact that the military council has tried to take up control suggests that there’s a great deal of instability that may, in fact, lead to having a harder time contributing troops to those kinds of regional efforts in the Sahel or Lake Chad Basin.”Violent events linked to jihadist groups in the Sahel have increased sevenfold since 2017, according to the center, while the Lake Chad Basin saw a 60% increase in 2020 over the year prior.
…
Ethnic Armed Organizations Building Unity With Myanmar Anti-coup Activists
In a sleepy Karen village on the Myanmar-Thai border in Kayin state, a day after the March 27 Myanmar government air strikes, rebel soldiers stood guard as two dusty trucks stopped near a Karen National Defense Organization camp at the edge of the hamlet.Eight young men jumped off the tailgate of the truck beds with knapsacks and assembled near a bamboo hut.The group had come from Yangon to seek military training. They were obviously not soldiers.Their presence was the result of a growing new alliance between the most recent victims of Myanmar army attacks, prodemocracy forces, and non-Burman ethnic groups, such as the Karens, that have been involved in decades of conflict with Myanmar’s military.One of the young men explained why the group had come.“When we protest on the streets, the Burmese army and police shoot at us and crack down on our demonstration but we’re not afraid because we’ve been afraid of them for many years and this time we have to fight against their power,” the dark-haired man, wearing a surgical mask, said.“We can’t stay in our own home because the Burmese soldiers followed and tried to arrest us so in the nighttime, so we have to move from place to place,” he added, using a reference to Myanmar’s former name, Burma.As Myanmar’s civilian death toll rises in government-controlled areas, wide support for armed resistance and a federal army, comprised of Myanmar’s armed ethnic groups, is rising across the country.On March 19, Colonel Naw Bu, spokesperson for another ethnic organization, the Kachin Independence Organization, said the KIO supports the establishment of a federal army.”Now, many people want to join the federal army and the KIA [Kachin Independence Army] because the Burmese army are terrorizing the civilians in the government-controlled areas,” La Ring, a former Kachin Independence Army soldier, who now provides humanitarian training with the Free Burma Rangers, a Thai-based humanitarian organization, said.At the Karen National Defense Organization headquarters in eastern Myanmar, Major General Nerdah Bo Mya and his troops welcomed the new batch of recruits.Since then, hundreds more activists have reportedly sought protection and training in the country’s border regions.“We are more than happy to protect them, to help them and to give them what they need, like, for example, basic training so that they can protect themselves,” Nerdah Bo Mya said.“I am not very surprised what they are doing to the people right now because they have done it to the ethnic groups for so many decades. And so, for me it’s not a surprise to see them killing people brutally on the streets in the city,” he added in response to a question about the Myanmar military’s brutal crackdown.Although the Karen National Union was among the armed ethnic organizations that signed the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the government in 2015, the Karens’ conflict with the government had persisted before February’s coup.Now, it seems, the majority ethnic Burmans — based in central Myanmar — are fully aware of the military’s history of brutality, if they weren’t already.“It’s been a long time coming but finally all the peoples of Myanmar truly realize the Tatmadaw is the nemesis of the nation’s progress, and the real enemy of social and economic in the country,” Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson said, using a term for the country’s military.Anti-coup protesters release balloons with posters reading ‘We Support NUG,’ which stands for ‘National Unity Government’ during the welcoming NUG balloons campaign on April 17, 2021, in Yangon, Myanmar.“This new national alliance is a testament to just how thoroughly the Tatmadaw has violated human rights and run roughshod over democratic principles with their bloody coup d’etat,” he said.Analysts say that plans to unite ethnic groups with the majority ethnic Burman people will take time, but that the signs of cohesion are slowly forming, including formation of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw by elected legislators kept from their seats.“After broad consultations with and support from numerous ethnic political parties, ethnic armed resistance organizations, and mass protest movements, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) formed a new National Unity Government in accordance with the will and demand of the people,” said Linn Thant, a CRPH team consultant, now living in Czech Republic.The National Unity Government was announced April 16, and includes a range of ethnic representation, the former political prisoner, who was jailed for nearly two decades by junta forces before his 2008 release, said.“You can see that government’s body, vice president is Kachin man who represents all Kachin groups including KIA. Prime minister is a Karen man. The Kachin, the Mon, the Karen, the Kayah, the Chin, the Ta’ang are in the cabinet of the NUG. And the cabinet body of NUG will be reshaped and extended in a few weeks,” Linn Thant added.Military support on the ground, from the ethnic groups, remains a challenge because of vast areas of land in some regions, separating armed groups and protesters.“The reality is there is a significant distance between the armed battles in the ethnic borderlands, and the faceoffs between CDM protesters and security forces in the cities,” Robertson said, referring to Myanmar’s opposition Civil Disobedience Movement.“Mobilizing disparate groups and sustaining that push against a centralized, heavily armed military has always been the core challenge for those who want to change the situation on the ground in Myanmar,” he added.Anti-coup protesters hold leaf branches and signs to welcome the NUG, or National Unity Government, as they march April 17, 2021, in Yangon, Myanmar.The conditions that the ethnic civilian population has faced against the army have been longstanding for many villagers along the Myanmar-Thai border.Naw Bee Paw, a 65-year-old Karen villager, said she has witnessed the turmoil since her early teens.At 15, her father was arrested in the Ayeyarwady region on the Andaman Sea during a military crackdown. When he was released after four months, the family fled the region, settling in Kayin state.Fifty years later, she said she fears that the current conflict will escalate, displacing her family once again.“The Burmese army attacked the Karen area with air strikes so I’m very afraid,” she said.“I have heard that villagers can’t flee to the Thai side because Thai soldiers had blocked them, so I’m scared because we are the too elderly and live alone in this house,” she said.Thousands of Karen villagers, including inhabitants from Ee Thu Hat displaced persons camp, fled across the border following last month’s Myanmar army air strike but most of them were sent back by Thai soldiers, according to witnesses on the ground.The Myanmar military has intensified attacks on the ethnic minorities in Kayin state as well as the ongoing conflicts in neighboring Shan and Kachin states, as rebel forces have responded with counterattacks.Critics say instilling fear in the ethnic minorities has been practiced since the military coup in 1962, although documentation of the methodology was limited due to the country’s isolation.Now, tech savvy anti-coup protesters, along with the civilian population, can record many of the atrocities being committed by government security forces with mobile phones.
…
Algerian Professor Gets 3-Year Jail Term for Offending Islam
An Algerian court on Thursday convicted a high-profile university professor specializing in Islam of offending the Muslim religion and sentenced him to three years in prison.Said Djabelkhir was not immediately jailed and said he would appeal, according to a group of lawyers defending dozens of detained members of Algeria’s pro-democracy movement.”I am a professor and not an imam,” using “reason and critical thought,” he was quoted in the press as saying as he left the courtroom.Another university professor, joined by a group of lawyers, had filed suit against Djabelkhir for Facebook posts they deemed offensive to Islam.Before his conviction, Djabelkhir told the French daily Le Figaro that it is “the first time in the history of Algeria that a university professor is (being tried) for giving his opinion in his own domain of specialization.”Djabelkhir said he makes the distinction between history and myth in religious writing, but his detractors contend that “everything in the Quran is history, with a capital H.”The Algiers office of Amnesty International spoke of a “scandalous” ruling.”To punish someone for his analysis of religious doctrine is a flagrant violation of freedom of expression and religious liberty,” even if the comments are offensive to others, Amnesty said.The conviction appeared to be a message that defending Islam is also a judicial matter in Algeria.Some politicians, university teachers and journalists had expressed solidarity with the professor ahead of his trial, denouncing a “return of the Inquisition.”Djabelkhir, widely followed on social media, is known for putting into question some dogmas of Islam. He also opposes the head covering warn by many Muslims, saying that it is not a religious obligation and “nowhere affirmed (as such) in the Quran or the Sunna” — references to the Muslim holy book and tradition and practices of the prophet of Islam.
…
Japan, Thailand, Vietnam Vie with China for Influence in Impoverished, Landlocked Laos
Laos is getting a new round of aid and investment offers this year as foreign governments hope to dilute China’s increasing influence over the poor, landlocked country, observers in the region say.Japan, Thailand and Vietnam have moved this year to offer new help or reaffirm the benefits of previous aid to Laos. Their assistance would arrive as a 400-kilometer, $5.9 billion China-invested railway is set for completion this year – the pinnacle of Chinese largesse for Laos.Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga spoke this month with Lao counterpart Phankham Viphavanh to affirm plans for advancing a strategic partnership, Japanese media outlets say. Japan has offered about $1.8 million to open COVID-19 vaccine storage facilities and pledged support for upgrading international airports, the reports say.In Thailand, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha has spoken by phone to the new Lao leader, who took office in March, the official Lao News Agency reported this month. On those calls, Phankham thanked Thailand for providing scholarships in education, agriculture and health. Thailand has aided Laos further in fighting COVID-19, the news agency reported.Vietnamese officials have launched a 2021-2030 cooperation strategy and a five-year cooperation agreement, the Communist Party of Vietnam’s news website, Nhan Dan, said. Leaders from both sides are due to decide later what the two deals will cover. Vietnam gave COVID-19 aid and 1,000 scholarships to Laos last year as well.Chinese official flows of money into Laos have reached $11 billion per year, according to the Aiddata.org website operated by U.S. university William & Mary. Financing and investment would push the figure higher.Other top donors are Japan and Thailand, with Vietnam emerging as a new one. Japan gave $63.8 billion in 2016, including grants, loans and technical aid, according to Japan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.Official development aid from all countries sometimes reaches 15% of Lao GDP. The economy has grown at an annual average of 5.8% during the past five years because of the “support of development partners and friendly countries,” the national news agency said. The support matters because about a quarter of the 7 million Laotians live in poverty.Mekong RiverMuch of Asia hopes to lessen China’s influence so the superpower does not wield too much clout over the Mekong River, which flows from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, or over the region’s overland transport links, analysts say. Chinese dams control flows in the upper Mekong. The U.S. government raised its aid offer to Laos and its neighbors last year.“Laos is kind of effectively being carved up in different directions but increasingly dominated by China,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. “What we’re seeing is [that] the major powers’ rivalry is dominating the region. Laos is just one pawn in this mix.”Japan wants more “connectivity” in continental Southeast Asia, said Jeffrey Kingston, a history instructor at the Japan campus of Temple University. Chinese control of water flows into the Mekong further worries Japanese officials, he said.“I just think that Japan is signaling that, [in] places that it looks like have been conceded to China’s influence, it is going to contest,” he said. “It is going to take an assertive posture toward these countries.”Japan relies on Thailand for automotive production, while Japanese manufacturers are increasingly active in Vietnam – the result of investments made there since the 1980s. Land shipments can lower the cost of sending goods to more remote seaports.Japan, alongside the United States. is pushing back against China, Thitinan said. Washington’s FILE – A local villager steers a boat where the future site of the Luang Prabang dam will be on the Mekong River, outskirt of Luang Prabang province, Laos, Feb. 5, 2020.Japan spars separately with China over sovereignty in waters near its outlying islands, and leftover World War II issues.Thailand typically finances Lao dams for hydropower and maintains close cultural ties with the bordering country, Thitinan said. Vietnam resents Beijing over its expansion in the disputed South China Sea and previous land border disputes, including a war in the 1970s.“There’s that little battle for influence between Vietnam and China and Vietnam has been slowly losing influence to China,” said Jack Nguyen, a partner at the business advisory firm Mazars in Ho Chi Minh City.China does not disclose aid and investment totals for Laos, but analysts say it depends more on China than on any other country. Now Laos, with a gross domestic product of less than $19 billion and an economy ravaged by COVID-19, is struggling to pay for the railway line.Laos owed $250 million on railway last year, the International Monetary Fund has said.
…
Ghost Kitchens – What The Pandemic Has Given The Food Industry
Since coronavirus pandemic began many Americans have gotten more used to make their own meals at home. But that doesn’t mean people do not want a great restaurant meal from time to time. Karina Bafradzhian reports.
Camera: Andrey Degtyarev and Artyom Kokhan
…
Malnutrition Rising in Mozambique Amid Extremist Insurgency
Mozambique’s humanitarian crisis from the extremist insurgency in the country’s north is rapidly spiraling, with more than 950,000 people in urgent need of food aid, the U.N. World Food Program said Thursday.An estimated 50,000 people fled their homes amid the rebels’ five-day siege of Palma earlier this month, swelling the numbers of displaced and hungry.”People have scattered in many different directions since the recent attacks in Palma. Survivors are traumatized. They’ve had to flee, leaving behind all their belongings, and families have been separated,” said Antonella Daprile, WFP’s country director in Mozambique, who visited Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado province, where many of the displaced have sought safety.”We met a young mother who fled the violence with her two daughters. They walked for three days without food or water and have no idea whether the rest of their family survived,” Daprile said.Many have fled to Pemba on boats, making a treacherous trip in stormy seas, and thousands are still trapped in Palma and the nearby settlement of Quitunda. WFP said it is delivering food to those areas as well as to coastal islands.”This is the rainy season, the cyclone season, and northern Mozambique is in the eye of the storm,” said Shelley Thakral, WFP’s regional spokesperson for southern Africa. “I saw families huddled under flimsy tarpaulins for shelter.”Many of the displaced in Mozambique have been taken in by other families, who are already poor. The host families are also experiencing hunger, aid workers said.Children are worst affected by the rising rates of malnutrition. Almost 21% of displaced children under 5, and 18% of children of host families, are underweight, according to a recent survey by UNICEF and WFP. The rates of chronic malnutrition, which has lifelong consequences, are at an alarming 50% of displaced children and 41% of children from host communities, according to the survey.WFP’s emergency food distributions provide rations to feed a family for two weeks with supplies of high-energy biscuits, rice, pulses, vegetable oil, water, and canned foods such as sardines and beans.In response to the growing crisis, WFP is scaling up its response, with plans to assist 750,000 internally displaced people and vulnerable members of the local community across the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Niassa and Zambezia.”This is an operation that requires funding to sustain food assistance and flights to deliver supplies to the hardest-hit, the hardest-access areas,” said Thakral. “We need $82 million until the end of the year to support the vulnerable.”
…
SpaceX Aiming for Friday Morning Launch to ISS
SpaceX is set to launch its third crew to the International Space Station early Friday, reusing a rocket and crew capsule in a human mission for the first time.The Crew-2 mission blasts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:49 a.m. Eastern Time (0949 GMT), after being delayed a day by adverse weather along the flight path.”It seems the weather is cooperating, so looks like we will try to launch tomorrow !!!” tweeted French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who will become the first European to fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon.”Our friends on the @Space_Station are expecting us to show up and we don’t want to be late. They even installed my bedroom recently and literally made my bed. Such nice hosts!”The extra “bed” is necessary to accommodate an unusually large number of people aboard the ISS: 11 in total, as the Crew-2 team overlaps for a few days with Crew-1 astronauts, in addition to three Russian cosmonauts.Pesquet will be accompanied by Americans Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur and Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide.Crew-1 is set to splash down off the Florida cost on April 28.It is the third time SpaceX will send humans to the ISS as part of its multibillion-dollar contract with NASA under the Commercial Crew Program.The first mission, a test flight called Demo-2, took place last year and ended nine years of American reliance on Russian rockets for rides to the ISS following the end of the space shuttle program.”In terms of getting the operations ready, it’s always easier the third time you do it,” Daniel Forrestel, a NASA launch integration manager, told AFP.”I would never ever want to describe spaceflight as ‘routine,’ but ‘more familiar’ is a good way to put it,” he added.The Crew-2 mission will reuse the capsule from Demo-2 and the Falcon 9 booster previously deployed for the uncrewed Demo-1 mission, a key cost-saving goal of NASA’s partnerships with private industry.Major step for EuropeAhead of the launch, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark told AFP the mission was also a major step forward for Europe, which has dubbed it “Alpha” after its own naming convention.”On the one hand, it means a lot of course to have an astronaut going to the International Space Station — but at the same time it’s also the next mission in a long line of missions.”Germany’s Matthias Maurer will be the next European on a SpaceX mission this fall, followed by Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti next spring.ESA will also be a key partner to the United States in the Artemis program to return to the Moon, providing the power and propulsion component for the Orion spacecraft, and critical elements of a planned lunar orbital station called Gateway.Mogensen predicted that in the hours leading up to the launch, Pesquet, who is a close friend of his, would be feeling a “sense of relief” to finally start the mission after years of planning.”You’re very focused on what’s going to happen, on your tasks at hand,” he said.”Thomas and his crewmates have spent hours in a simulator training for this, they’ve gone through the launch procedures, they’ve gone through the docking procedures … there’s not a whole lot of time for nervousness.”The Crew-2 team has around 100 experiments in the diary during their six-month mission.These include research into what are known as “tissue chips” — small models of human organs that are made up of different types of cells and used to study things like aging in the immune system, kidney function and muscle loss.Another important element of the mission is upgrading the station’s solar power system by installing new compact panels that roll open like a huge yoga mat.After launch, the Falcon 9 rocket will return to Earth for an upright vertical landing on a drone ship, and the Crew Dragon capsule is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 5:10 a.m. (0910 GMT) Saturday, with hatch opening two hours later.Pesquet and Hoshide have said they plan to liven things up by sharing their national cuisine with crewmates.The Frenchman’s last meal prior to launch: roast chicken and mashed potatoes, a cheese and baguette platter, and ice cream for dessert.
…
Amnesty International: Virus-Hit Indonesia Ordering Executions Over Video Apps
Indonesia has sentenced scores of prisoners to death over Zoom and other video apps during the pandemic in what critics say is an “inhumane” insult to those facing the firing squad.The Southeast Asian nation turned to virtual court hearings as COVID-19 restrictions shut down most in-person trials, including murder and drug trafficking cases, which can carry the death penalty.Since early last year, almost 100 inmates have been condemned to die in Indonesia by judges they could only see on a television monitor, according to Amnesty International.The Muslim-majority nation has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and both Indonesian and foreign traffickers have been executed, including the masterminds of Australia’s Bali Nine heroin gang.This month, 13 members of a trafficking ring, including three Iranians and a Pakistani, learned via video that they would be shot for smuggling 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of methamphetamine into Indonesia.And on Wednesday a Jakarta court sentenced six Islamist militants to death using a video app over their role in a 2018 prison riot that left five members of Indonesia’s counter-terror squad dead.”Virtual hearings degrade the rights of defendants facing death sentences — it’s about someone’s life and death,” said Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid.”The death penalty has always been a cruel punishment. But this online trend adds to the injustice and inhumanity,” he added.Indonesia has pressed on with the virtual hearings even as the number of executions and death sentences dropped globally last year, with COVID-19 disrupting many criminal proceedings, Amnesty said in its annual capital punishment report this week. Virtual hearings leave defendants unable to fully participate in cases that are sometimes interrupted in countries with poor internet connections, including Indonesia, critics say.”Virtual platforms … can expose the defendant to significant violations of their fair trial rights and impinge on the quality of the defense,” NGO Harm Reduction International said in a recent report on the death penalty for drug offenses.Lawyers have complained about being unable to consult with clients due to virus restrictions.And families of the accused have sometimes been barred from accessing hearings that would normally be open to the public.“These virtual hearings present a clear disadvantage for defendants,” said Indonesian lawyer Dedi Setiadi.Setiadi, who defended several men sentenced to die in the methamphetamine case this month, said he would appeal their case on the grounds that virtual hearings were unfair.Relatives of the defendants were not given full access, the lawyer said.Death penalty cases are often reduced to long jail terms in Indonesia and an in-person trial might have brought about a less severe verdict, according to Setiadi, who described his clients as low-level players in the smuggling ring.”The verdict could have been different if the judges had talked directly with the defendants and seen their expressions,” he said. “A Zoom hearing is less personal.”Indonesia’s supreme court, which ordered online hearings during the pandemic, did not reply to requests for comment.But the country’s judicial commission told AFP that it has asked the top court to consider returning to in-person trials for serious offenses, including capital cases.Indonesia appears to be an outlier in holding virtual trials for death penalty cases, although reliable data can be hard to come by in some nations that impose executions.Neighboring Singapore, which executes convicted murderers and drug traffickers, has sentenced at least one person to hang via video since the global health crisis began.There are nearly 500 people, including scores of foreigners, awaiting execution in Indonesia, where condemned prisoners are marched to a jungle clearing, tied to a stake and shot.Indonesia has not carried out executions for several years. But its courts have continued to sentence defendants to death on the back of strong public backing for the ultimate punishment – support that may have been bolstered by the pandemic.”Advocates think that these criminals are continuing to commit crimes even during a time of crisis when everyone is suffering,” Amnesty’s Hamid said. “So they must be given the heaviest sentence possible.”
…
Pakistan Parliament to Resume Debate on French Envoy’s Expulsion
Pakistan’s parliament will resume debating the fate of the French ambassador Friday after the government appeared, for now, to put a lid on bloody anti-France protests that rocked the country for a week.A resolution calls for debate on whether to expel the French envoy, for the national assembly to condemn Western blasphemy, for Muslim nations to unite on the issue, and for authorities to provide space in cities for future protests.The resolution — put forward privately by a member of the ruling party — will likely be replaced by a more strongly worded one from the opposition, but will nevertheless be non-binding.Still, it appears to have taken the steam out of an anti-France campaign waged for months by the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) since President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of a satirical magazine to republish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed – an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.Supporters of the upstart radical party protested violently across the country last week when its leader was arrested after calling for a march on the capital to demand the French envoy’s expulsion.As the protests grew, the French embassy recommended all its citizens leave the country — a call that appeared to go largely unheeded.Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed — who negotiated an end to the protests with TLP leaders — said five police officers and eight protesters were killed.Protesters also held hostage 11 police officers and two special rangers for hours, before releasing them bruised and bloodied.Despite the TLP being banned last week under anti-terror laws — and its leader’s continued detention — party elders on Tuesday called off further action.”We have not given anything away,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told a news conference Wednesday.”They have realized the state is serious,” added Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari.Prime Minister Imran Khan has in the past been accused of appeasing the TLP, fearful of antagonizing Pakistan’s conservatives.On Monday he had pleaded with the group to end its violent campaign to oust the French ambassador, saying the unrest was harming the nation.”It doesn’t make any difference to France,” he said in a national address broadcast on television.”If we keep protesting our whole lives we would only be damaging our own country and it will not impact (the West).”Few issues are as galvanizing in Pakistan as blasphemy, and even the slightest suggestion of an insult to Islam can supercharge protests, incite lynchings, and unite the country’s warring political parties.
…
Sen. Tim Scott to Deliver Republicans’ Rebuttal to Biden Address
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina will deliver the Republicans’ rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress next week.Scott, who is the only Black Republican in the Senate, will serve as the face of the party after Biden addresses the nation Wednesday. Considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate, Scott is a leading Republican voice on race and criminal justice reform and is popular with the pro-Donald Trump and moderate wings of the party.The selection underscores the party’s efforts to unite and expand its appeal after a bruising 2020 cycle that saw them lose the White House and both chambers of Congress.”Senator Tim Scott is not just one of the strongest leaders in our Senate Republican Conference, he is one of the most inspiring and unifying leaders in our nation,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement announcing the selection. “As Senator Scott likes to say, he is living his mother’s American dream, and he has dedicated his career to creating more opportunity for our fellow citizens who need it most.”Biden is set to address lawmakers just before he marks his 100th day in office. The speech — much like a State of the Union address, which presidents don’t deliver until their second year in office — will give Biden the opportunity to update the American public on his progress and make the case for the $2.3 trillion infrastructure package he unveiled earlier this month.In a statement, Scott said he was honored by the selection and looked forward to having “an honest conversation with the American people.””We face serious challenges on multiple fronts, but I am as confident as I have ever been in the promise and potential of America,” he said.Scott, a senator since 2013 and a former congressman whose grandfather picked cotton as a child, was initially reluctant to focus on race in his political career. But he has increasingly talked about his experiences living as a Black man in America amid a national reckoning over racial injustice and police tactics.In an interview with The Associated Press last year, he talked in emotional terms about how often he had been pulled over by law enforcement, including for failing to signal early enough for a lane change — or, as he called it, stopped for “driving while Black.””I’m thinking to myself how blessed and lucky I am to have 18 different encounters and to have walked away from each encounter,” he said.
…