The remnants from an out-of-control Chinese rocket have safely reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, according to Chinese state media. The bulk of the rocket was destroyed once it reentered Earth’s atmosphere. Space experts were unsure about where or when the debris would land and what would happen upon landing. There was speculation that the debris could land on the ground, potentially harming humans and the environment. Aerospace Corp. and Space-Track.org followed the rocket’s descent. Debris from the rocket landed in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives after reentering the atmosphere at approximately 2:30 a.m., Universal Time, Chinese state media reported. Space-Track.org had estimated Saturday evening that the rocket would reenter the atmosphere over the North Atlantic at 2:04 a.m. Universal Time, give or take one hour. Aerospace Corp, put it at 3:02, give or take two hours. The Aerospace Corp. is a nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center committed to space enterprise, according to its website. Space-Track.org says it provides critical space situational awareness data for a worldwide space community. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday that the rocket is unlikely to cause damage. Wang told reporters in Beijing that the rocket will mostly burn up on reentry and “the probability of this process causing harm on the ground is extremely low.” He said China was closely following the rocket’s path toward Earth and will release any information about it in a “timely manner.” The Long March 5B rocket was launched April 29 from Hainan Island. It was carrying a module for a planned Chinese space station. After the unmanned Tianhe module separated from the rocket, the nearly 21,000-kilogram rocket should have followed a planned reentry trajectory into the ocean. Because that did not happen as planned, the rocket had an uncontrolled reentry, and no one knew precisely where the debris would land. “U.S. Space Command is aware of and tracking the location of the Chinese Long March 5B in space, but its exact entry point into the Earth’s atmosphere cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its reentry,” Lieutenant Colonel Angela Webb, of U.S. Space Command Public Affairs, told CBS News. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that “this rocket debris” is “almost the body of the rocket, as I understand it, almost intact, coming down, and we think Space Command believes, somewhere around the 8th of May.”In May 2020, debris from another Long March 5B rocket fell on parts of Ivory Coast, causing damage to some buildings. Harvard-based astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Reuters that the debris could fall as far north as New York or as far south as Wellington, New Zealand. Speaking with reporters Thursday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the United States had no plans to try to shoot down the rocket. “We have the capability to do a lot of things, but we don’t have a plan to shoot it down as we speak,” Austin said. “We’re hopeful that it will land in a place where it won’t harm anyone. Hopefully in the ocean, or someplace like that,” he added. The launch of the Tianhe module is the first of 11 planned missions to build the Chinese space station.
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Month: May 2021
Uyghur Editors’ Family Members Charge Chinese Documentary Misrepresents Them
Family members of former Uyghur textbook editors accused of incorporating ethnically charged and separatist views into classroom literature say a recent documentary on the topic produced and broadcast by a pro-Beijing media company grossly misrepresents them.Last month, the state-run China Global Television Network aired a 10-minute documentary, Challenges of Fighting Terrorism in Xinjiang: The Textbooks, accusing former Uyghur publishing officials and senior editors such as Yalqun Rozi, editor of the Xinjiang Education Press, of incorporating extremist “separatist thoughts” into children’s educational materials as early as 2003.“I learned those textbooks as a kid,” said Kamalturk Yalqun, the son of the now-imprisoned Yalqun, who described last month’s broadcast as more evidence of Beijing’s efforts to mask its brutal campaign against the mostly Muslim Uyghurs as a response to a burgeoning domestic terror threat.“Reading them was purely a happy literary adventure for me and there was nothing to incite hatred or radicalism,” said Yalqun, who came to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies in 2014.He has not heard from his father since his October 2016 arrest by Xinjiang authorities. “I almost failed to recognize when I first saw his photo displayed in the film,” Yalqun told VOA. “Clearly, there had been physical torture.”This graphic from China Global Television Network’s ‘Challenges of Fighting Terrorism in Xinjiang: The Textbooks’ shows editors the documentary accuses of spreading extremist ideas. ‘Toxic’ textbooksIn the 10-minute film, which aired April 2, CGTN claims that Sattar Sawut, the former director general of Xinjiang Education Department, had formed a “criminal gang” of six Uyghurs — his deputy, Alimjan Memtimin, two former Uyghur heads of Xinjiang Education Press, Abdurazaq Sayim and Tahir Nasir, and two senior editors, Yalqun Rozi and Wahitjan Osman — to spread extremist ideas to 2.3 million Uyghur students who studied “the problematic” textbooks. According to Chinese media, the six Uyghur officials in 2017 were charged with attempting “to split the country”; Sawut was reportedly given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve, while three other officials received life sentences, and the two editors received 15 years each.Abduweli Ayup, a Norway-based Uyghur linguist and rights activist, said the textbooks were originally developed under Beijing’s campaign of “suzhi jiaoyu” or “education of personal quality.”“Some senior Chinese officials who worked on reviewing the textbooks were never mentioned in the documentary while their six Uyghur counterparts were singled out as separatist criminals is evidence that this is a sham trial,” Ayup told VOA.Seven copies of 22 purportedly “toxic” Uyghur textbooks obtained by VOA list names of both Uyghur and Chinese officials responsible for vetting the contents.The textbooks introduce China as “the motherland” of all “56 ethnic groups,” including both Uyghurs and Chinese. They also highlight essays of leading modern Chinese writers such as Lu Xun and include hagiographies of prominent Chinese figures.A sixth-grade literature textbook featured Uyghur translations of two Chinese stories, “Remembering my father, Li Dazhao,” and “Overnight Work,” about early Chinese communist leaders Li Dazhao and Zhou Enlai.Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson, said last month CGTN documentaries showed that Beijing’s campaign in Xinjiang is “counter-terrorism and de-radicalization.”To the families of the former Uyghur officials, though, China’s accusations are inconsistent, given that those same officials were awarded for the same work.Aykanat Wahitjan, the daughter of Wahitjan Osman, a former senior editor accused in the film, said state media in the past broadcast her father’s award ceremony for his “extraordinary literary work.”“In 2012, China awarded my father with its 10th Junma Award, a national literary award for his outstanding literary work,” Aykanat, an economics student in Istanbul, told VOA. Now, she said, “years later, the same [government] broadcasts that my father committed a crime because his literary work ‘provoked ethnic hatred.’”Purporting to offer evidence that the textbooks promote “ethnic hatred against Chinese soldiers and separatism,” Beijing’s documentary highlights the legendary story of seven Uyghur girls who resisted Manchu soldiers during the Qing empire conquest of the region in the 18th century. The documentary also features a picture of a 20th century Uyghur leader, Ehmetjan Qasimi, who had the star-and-crescent emblem of East Turkestan Republic on his left jacket chest and reports it as a symbol of separatism. “The actual text [taken from the textbook] in the video itself clearly says ‘Manchus.’ This shows that this is a story from the Qing empire, before Han [Chinese] soldiers were present in Xinjiang,” said James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown University, adding that the voice-over about the seven Uyghur girls is thus a clear lie, as shown by the documentary footage itself.According to Millward, outlawing the textbooks is a part of China’s recent effort to alter the historical narrative of key events and actions by Uyghur leaders.“Most English-speaking viewers will not see why the picture of Ehmetjan Qasimi and his medal is offensive or dangerous — because it isn’t, it is simply an historical image,” said Millward.Qasimi led the East Turkestan Republic and controlled what is now northern Xinjiang in the 1940s. He entered a treaty with China’s then-ruling Kuomintang to co-govern Xinjiang after the 1945 Sino-Russian Friendship Treaty. When Qasimi mysteriously died in a plane crash in 1949, the founder of People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong, praised him as “worthy of the eternal memory of all Chinese people.”Milward charged that Qasimi had been mentioned in official Chinese history books for nearly 70 years, which became forbidden only under President Xi Jinping.China’s crackdown against Uyghurs has been raised to higher level since August 2016 when Xi appointed Chen Quanguo, a former Tibet party chief, to be Chinese Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Chen’s administration has since been accused of holding over a million Uyghurs in internment camps.Omar Kanat, the executive director of Uyghur Human Rights Project, called the film “the latest proof” of a systematic campaign to eliminate Uyghur culture and history.“The idea that these children’s’ textbooks that were overseen and approved by the Ministry of Education for over a decade are somehow ‘violent’ is self-evidently absurd,” Kanat told VOA, adding that it “resembles some of the darkest chapters of the CCP’s history of wild accusations targeting intellectual freedom,” referring to the Chinese Communist Party by its initials.
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Sicilian Judge Killed by Mafia Takes Step to Sainthood
An Italian judge murdered by the mafia in Sicily takes a step towards sainthood Sunday, almost three decades after being declared a martyr by pope John Paul II.The beatification of Rosario Livatino will take place in the cathedral in Agrigento, the Sicilian town near where he was gunned down aged 38 on September 21, 1990.In a preface to a new book about the judge, Pope Francis hailed him as a “righteous man who knew he did not deserve that unjust death”.An undated photo obtained from Italian news agency Ansa shows Italian judge Rosario Livatino.Livatino, who prayed in church every day before going to court, had been involved in a mass trial against mafioso and was about to launch a new case when he died.He was found in a ditch by the roadside a few miles from his home. He had refused armed protection.Many of his notes were later found to be marked STD, for “sub tutela Dei”, a Latin invocation meaning “under the protection of God” which judges of the Middle Ages used before taking official decisions.The notes also showed he asked God’s forgiveness for the risks his work exposed his parents to, once he learned that the bosses of the Cosa Nostra had him in their sights.When John Paul II visited Livatino’s parents in 1993, he said the judge was “a martyr for justice and indirectly for the faith”.Under Church law, if martyrdom is established, then beatification — the penultimate accolade before canonization — moves ahead quickly without the proof of miracles required of other candidates for sainthood.The two mafia members who killed Livatino, identified by a man who drove past at the moment of the crime, were given life sentences.’Blasphemous’Livatino was one of the first investigating magistrates in Italy who moved to seize assets belonging to the mafia, according to Luigi Ciotti, a priest known for his own fight against organized crime.”He understood that would lead to a weakening of the clans, their loss of control and also of social control,” Ciotti wrote in another biography of the murdered judge.Today, a cooperative of young people bears Livatino’s name and cultivates land confiscated from the Sicilian mafia.Less than two years after Livatino’s death, anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were also murdered by the mob. Since he was elected pope in 2013, Francis has spoken out repeatedly against organized crime groups. In an open-air mass in Sicily in September 2018, during a trip to honor a priest killed by the mafia 25 years earlier, the Argentine pontiff condemned those who belong to the mafia as “blasphemous”.”You can’t believe in God and belong to the mafia,” he said.His impassioned plea echoed the words of John Paul II who, during his May 1993 trip to the island, had also called on mobsters to abandon crime, and urged Sicilians to revolt against the mafia.
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Ethiopian Orthodox Church Patriarch Blasts Tigray ‘Genocide’
The head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in his first public comments on the war in the country’s Tigray region is sharply criticizing Ethiopia’s actions, saying he believes it is genocide: “They want to destroy the people of Tigray.” In a video shot last month on a mobile phone and carried out of Ethiopia, the elderly Patriarch Abune Mathias addresses the church’s scores of millions of followers and the international community, saying his previous attempts to speak out were blocked. He is ethnic Tigrayan. The video comes as the conflict in Tigray marks six months. Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting between Ethiopian and allied forces and Tigray ones, the result of a political struggle that turned deadly in November. Dozens of witnesses have told the AP that civilians are targeted. “I am not clear why they want to declare genocide on the people of Tigray,” Abune Mathias says, speaking in Amharic and listing alleged atrocities including the destruction of churches, massacres, forced starvation and looting. “It is not the fault of the Tigray people. The whole world should know it.” He calls for strength, adding that “this bad season might pass away.” And he urges the world to act. The comments are a striking denunciation from someone so senior inside Ethiopia, where state media reflect the government’s narrative and both independent journalists and Tigrayans have been intimidated and harassed. The video also comes as Ethiopia, facing multiple crises of sometimes deadly ethnic tensions, faces a national election on June 5. Dennis Wadley, who runs the U.S.-based Bridges of Hope organization and has been a friend of the church leader for several years, told the AP he shot the video in an impulsive moment while visiting him last month in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. “I just pulled out my iPhone and said if you want to get the word out, let’s do it,” Wadley said on Friday after arriving in the U.S. “He just poured out his heart. … It is so sad. I actually hugged him; I never did that before.” A church official reached on Friday confirmed the video and the interest of Abune Mathias in making it public. The church patriarch serves alongside a recently returned exile, Abune Merkorios. “I have said a lot of things, but no one allows the message to be shared. Rather, it is being stifled and censored,” Abune Mathias says in the video. “Many barbarisms have been conducted” these days all over Ethiopia, he says, but “what is happening in Tigray is of the highest brutality and cruelty.” God will judge everything, he adds. Ethiopia’s government says it is “deeply dismayed” by the deaths of civilians, blames the former Tigray leaders and claims normality is returning in the region of some 6 million people. It has denied widespread profiling and targeting of Tigrayans. But witnesses have told the AP about seeing bodies strewn on the ground on communities, Tigrayans rounded up and expelled and women raped by Ethiopian and allied forces including those from neighboring Eritrea. Others have described family members and colleagues including priests being swept up and detained, often without charge.Ethiopia Detains Tigrayans Amid WarDetentions are apparent attempt to purge state institutions of Tigrayans who once dominated themChurches have been the scenes of massacres — one deacon in Axum has told the AP he believes some 800 people were killed in a November weekend at the church and around the city — and of mass graves. “People were dropped over the ground like leaves,” the patriarch says of Axum, Ethiopia’s holiest city. Abune Mathias, born in 1942, has been outspoken in the past. In 1980, he became the first leader of the church to denounce the rule of Ethiopia’s communist regime “and was forced to live abroad for more than thirty years,” according to the United Nations refugee agency.
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Obama Dog Bo, Once a White House Celebrity, Dies of Cancer
Former President Barack Obama’s dog Bo died Saturday after a battle with cancer, the Obamas said on social media.News of Bo’s passing was shared by Obama and his wife, Michelle, on Instagram, where both expressed sorrow at the passing of a dog the former president described as a “true friend and loyal companion.””He tolerated all the fuss that came with being in the White House, had a big bark but no bite, loved to jump in the pool in the summer, was unflappable with children, lived for scraps around the dinner table, and had great hair,” Barack Obama wrote.Bo, a Portuguese water dog, was a gift to the Obamas from the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a key supporter of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign who became close to the family. Bo helped Obama keep a promise to daughters Malia and Sasha that they could get a dog after the election.A companion dog, Sunny, joined the family in August 2013.Both were constant presences around the White House and popular among visitors there, often joining the Obamas for public events. The dogs entertained crowds at the annual Easter Egg Roll, and Bo occasionally joined Michelle Obama to welcome tourists. The dogs also cheered wounded service members, as well as hospitalized children the first lady would visit each year just before Christmas.FILE – Then-first lady Michelle Obama and Bo, the Obamas’ dog, are surrounded by children in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Dec. 2, 2015. Bo died May 8, 2021, after a battle with cancer, the Obamas said.In a post featuring a slideshow of images of Bo — including one of him sitting behind the president’s Resolute Desk in the Oval Office — Michelle Obama recounted his years bringing some levity to the White House.”He was there when Barack and I needed a break, sauntering into one of our offices like he owned the place, a ball clamped firmly in his teeth. He was there when we flew on Air Force One, when tens of thousands flocked to the South Lawn for the Easter Egg Roll, and when the Pope came to visit,” she wrote.Michelle Obama wrote that she was grateful for the time the family got to spend with him because of the pandemic, and said that over the past year, “no one was happier than Bo.””All his people were under one roof again,” she wrote.
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Myanmar Classifies Resistance Government as ‘Terrorist Organization’
The ruling junta in Myanmar announced Saturday that the resistance government, made up of deposed deputies who went underground, was now on the list of “terrorist organizations.”Some of these deputies, including many members of the National League for Democracy (LND) of Aung San Suu Kyi, ousted from power by the coup of February 1, formed a “government of national unity” (GUN) to resist the junta.On Wednesday, this underground resistance government announced the establishment of its own defense force intended to fight against the regime of the generals and to protect civilians against the repression orchestrated by the military.On Saturday evening, state television announced that this “people’s defense force” as well as a group called the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Representative Committee (CRPH), the Burmese term for parliament, were now on the list of “terrorist organizations.””We ask the people not to … support terrorist actions, nor to provide aid to the terrorist activities of the GUN and the CRPH, which threaten the security of the people,” state television said.Previously, the junta had declared GUN and the CRPH “illegal associations” and said that entering into contact with these organizations amounted to high treason.But this new classification as a “terrorist organization” means that anyone who communicates with its members, including journalists, could be prosecuted under anti-terrorism laws.The Arakan Army, an insurgent group that clashed with the Myanmar military in Rakhine state, was classified as a terrorist organization in 2020. A journalist who interviewed an official of this organization was arrested.Although he was released soon afterward, the use of anti-terrorism legislation to prosecute journalists raised fears of yet another turn of the screw on the press.Dozens of journalists were arrested after the coup, media were shut down and television channels were stripped of their licenses, resulting in a veritable news blackout for Burma, which is another term for Myanmar.The GUN hopes to eventually form a “federal unity army” that would bring together dissidents and ethnic rebel factions opposed to the junta.From cities to the most remote rural areas, Myanmar has been in turmoil since the putsch.In the face of protests, the repression has been bloody. Nearly 800 civilians have been killed by security forces since the February 1 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).
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South Africa’s Royal Scandal: New Zulu King’s Claim Disputed
A new Zulu king was named in South Africa amid scenes of chaos after members of the royal family questioned Prince Misuzulu Zulu’s claim to the title following his father’s death, and bodyguards suddenly whisked him away from the public announcement at a palace.The controversy over the next king, a largely ceremonial role but one with great significance for South Africa and its 12 million Zulu people, arose after the death in March of King Goodwill Zwelithini, who had reigned since 1968. Zwelithini apparently named one of his six wives, Queen Mantfombi Shiyiwe Dlamini Zulu, as the “regent of the Zulu kingdom” in his will, but she died after holding the title for only a month, throwing the royal succession into turmoil.The commotion broke out Friday night at the reading of Queen Mantfombi’s will and hours after a memorial service for her. The queen’s will named Prince Misuzulu, 46, her eldest son with King Zwelithini, as the heir and next king.But another prince objected and interrupted the announcement at the KwaKhangelamankengane Royal Palace in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. Two princesses also have questioned whether the late king’s will gave Queen Mantfombi the right to nominate a successor upon her death.King Zwelithini reportedly had 28 children with his different wives, and Queen Mantfombi was not his first wife. A dispute over succession had been brewing since the late king’s death, fascinating many South Africans with their very own royal scandal.Vast assetsSignificant to the dispute is the fate of the king’s assets and the vast amounts of land traditionally owned by the Zulu people and now held in a trust. Estimates say the trust controls nearly 30% of the land in KwaZulu-Natal province, or around 28,000 square kilometers (10,810 square miles). The king is the sole trustee.Earlier on Friday, Prince Misuzulu, who wore a traditional leopard-skin headband reserved for royalty and chiefs, called for unity among the Zulu royals at his mother’s memorial service.”We have no doubt we will unite as a family,” he said in a message read out by his younger sister, Princess Ntandoyesizwe Zulu. “Let us emulate the king by being peaceful.”The Zulu king has no political or even constitutional position, but his traditional authority is recognized in KwaZulu-Natal, where he is said to “reign but not rule.” More than that, the king holds an important role in bridging the gap between traditional customs and modern democracy in South Africa, where Zulus are the largest ethnic group among the country’s 60 million people.Forbes put King Zwelithini’s net worth at nearly $20 million, while the Zulu royal household is given an annual budget of around $5 million by the South African government.King Zwelithini, who had diabetes, reportedly died from a COVID-19-related illness at age 72.
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Scottish Nationalists Vow Independence Vote After Election Win
Pro-independence parties won a majority in Scotland’s parliament on Saturday, paving the way to a high-stakes political, legal and constitutional battle with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the future of the United Kingdom.Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the result meant she would push ahead with plans for a second independence referendum once the COVID-19 pandemic was over, adding that it would be absurd and outrageous if Johnson were to try to ignore the democratic will of the people.”There is simply no democratic justification whatsoever for Boris Johnson, or indeed for anyone else, seeking to block the right of the people of Scotland to choose our own future,” Sturgeon said.”It is the will of the country,” she added after her Scottish National Party (SNP) was returned for a fourth consecutive term in office.The British government argues Johnson must give approval for any referendum and he has repeatedly made clear he would refuse. He has said it would be irresponsible to hold one now, pointing out that Scots had backed staying in the United Kingdom in a “once in a generation” poll in 2014.The election outcome is likely to be a bitter clash between the Scottish government in Edinburgh and Johnson’s United Kingdom-wide administration in London, with Scotland’s 314-year union with England and Wales at stake.The nationalists argue that they have democratic authority on their side; the British government says the law is on its side. It is likely the final decision on a referendum will be settled in the courts.’Irresponsible and reckless'”I think a referendum in the current context is irresponsible and reckless,” Johnson told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.Alister Jack, the U.K. government’s Scotland minister, said dealing with the coronavirus crisis and the vaccine rollout should be the priority.”We must not allow ourselves to be distracted — COVID recovery must be the sole priority of Scotland’s two governments,” he said.FILE – The Scotland-England border is shown at Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Scotland, May 4, 2021.The SNP had been hopeful of winning an outright majority, which would have strengthened its call for a secession vote, but it looked set to fall one seat short of the 65 required in the 129-seat Scottish parliament, partly because of an electoral system that helps smaller parties.Pro-union supporters argue that the SNP’s failure to get a majority has made it easier for Johnson to rebut its argument that it has a mandate for a referendum.However, the Scottish Greens, who have promised to support a referendum, picked up eight seats, meaning overall there will be a comfortable pro-independence majority in the Scottish assembly.Divided about plebisciteScottish politics has been diverging from other parts of the United Kingdom for some time, but Scots remain divided over holding another independence plebiscite.However, Britain’s exit from the European Union, opposed by a majority of Scots; a perception that Sturgeon’s government has handled the COVID-19 crisis well; and antipathy to Johnson’s Conservative government in London have all bolstered support for the independence movement.Scots voted 55%-45% in 2014 to remain part of the United Kingdom, and polls suggest a second referendum would be too close to call.Sturgeon said her first task was dealing with the pandemic and the SNP has indicated that a referendum is unlikely until 2023. But she said any legal challenge by Johnson’s government to a vote would show a total disregard for Scottish democracy.”The absurdity and outrageous nature of a Westminster government potentially going to court to overturn Scottish democracy, I can’t think of a more colorful argument for Scottish independence than that myself,” she said.
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Two Avalanches in French Alps Kill Seven
Seven people died Saturday in two avalanches in the French Alps, according to authorities who had warned Friday of the instability of the snowpack because of warmer temperatures.The first fatal slide was triggered late in the morning in the town of Valloire in the sector of the Col du Galibier at 2,642 meters above sea level. Four people, aged 42 to 76 and from the surroundings of Grenoble, were killed.Two groups of hikers, composed of three and two people, were swept away and only one of them survived, found in good health by the emergency services.Six soldiers from the High Mountain Gendarmerie Platoon (PGHM), two helicopters and two avalanche dogs had been hired to search for the victims.The second avalanche occurred around 2 p.m. in the Mont Pourri sector, which rises to 3,779 meters in the Vanoise massif, on the other side of the department. Three people died, according to the prefecture.The authorities had warned Friday that the risk of avalanches was “particularly high” this weekend, as temperatures have softened after heavy snowfall on the mountains in recent days.”With weather like today’s, it’s tempting to go out in the mountains, but it’s also extremely tricky,” Valloire Mayor Jean-Pierre Rougeaux told AFP by phone.Five people had already died Monday in two avalanches in Isère and in the Hautes-Alpes.Since the start of the 2020-21 season, before the avalanches on Saturday, 28 people had already died in similar conditions, according to the National Association for the Study of Snow and Avalanches (Anena), which publishes each year of accident statistics.
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Archaeologists Discover Remains of 9 Neanderthals Near Rome
Italian archaeologists have uncovered the fossilized remains of nine Neanderthals in a cave near Rome, shedding new light on how the Italian peninsula was populated and under what environmental conditions.The Italian Culture Ministry announced the discovery Saturday, saying it had confirmed that the Guattari Cave in San Felice Circeo was “one of the most significant places in the world for the history of Neanderthals.” A Neanderthal skull was discovered in the cave in 1939.The fossilized bones include skulls, skull fragments, two teeth and other bone fragments. The oldest remains date from between 100,000 and 90,000 years ago, while the other eight Neanderthals are believed to date from 50,000 to 68,000 years ago, the Culture Ministry said in a statement.The excavations, begun in 2019, involved a part of the cave that hadn’t yet been explored, including a lake first noted by the anthropologist Alberto Carlo Blanc, who is credited with the 1939 Neanderthal skull discovery.Culture Minister Dario Franceschini called the finding “an extraordinary discovery that will be the talk of the world.”Anthropologist Mauro Rubini said the large number of remains suggested a significant population of Neanderthals, “the first human society of which we can speak.”Archaeologists said the cave had perfectly preserved the environment of 50,000 years ago. They noted that fossilized animal remains found in the cave — elephant, rhinoceros and giant deer, among others — shed light on the flora and fauna of the area and its climactic history.
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Chad’s Military Council Seeks Central African States Support
Envoys from Chad’s ruling military council are seeking support from its central African neighbors in fighting rebels who they say endanger a smooth return to civilian rule. Chad’s delegation told Cameroon’s president that without peace, a transition to civilian rule will be impossible, but Chad’s opposition says the military rulers should immediately step down if they genuinely want peace to be restored.
Abdelkerim Idriss Deby, deputy director of cabinet of the Republic of Chad, held discussions for close to two hours with Cameroon President Paul Biya Friday. Abdelkerim is a son of Chad’s late president, Idriss Deby.
Abdelkerim said Cameroon is one of the five central African states Chad’s military council asked him to visit and give an account of the situation since Deby died April 20, 2021.
Abdelkerim said Chad has been witnessing a series of protests and deadly rebel attacks that are threatening its unity since Deby died. He said Chad’s military council has sent him to all member states of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community to explain plans the military leaders have for a smooth transition to civilian rule. He said Chad needs the assistance of its neighbors for peace to return.
When asked, Abdelkerim declined to comment on the type of assistance his country needs. He said, however, security will be threatened in the region and that threat will spill over to all central African states, should the situation in Chad remain fragile.
A rebel force known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) has been involved in bloody battles with Chadian troops on the central African state’s northern borders with Libya, Niger and Sudan. Chad said several hundred troops, rebels and civilians have been killed within a month.
Chad under Deby was a key ally of France in the fight against jihadist groups across West Africa, including Boko Haram. These terror groups and other jihadist militants have over the years destabilized parts of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger.
Joseph Vincent Ntuda Ebode, a lecturer in international security and defense at the University of Yaoundé-Soa, said Chad’s envoys are visiting central African nations to lobby for the kind of support the former president of Chad had from his neighbors all through his 30 years rule.
He said Chad’s late president Deby and Cameroon President Paul Biya signed an agreement to assist each other in maintaining security in both countries and in providing support against attacks. He said Chad’s military council wants to maintain the agreement signed between Cameroon and Chad. He said the terms of the agreement between the countries are clear: An attack on Chad is synonymous with an attack on Cameroon and vice versa.
Marsa Success, a Chadian opposition leader of the Transformers Movement, said although there are serious threats to stability, civilians do not want Chad’s constitution violated. He said the military council is not showing signs of wanting to hand over power to a civilian rule.
Marsa said the charter presented to Chadians by the military council states that the military rulers can renew their mandate of 18 months if insecurity persists. He said a national dialogue should be convened and a civilian designated to lead the transitional period while the military carries out its duty of maintaining peace.
Marsa said any civilian chosen to lead the transition should not be a candidate at the presidential election. He said Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Congo-Brazzaville, should help bring peace by advising Chad’s military to hand power to civilians.
Currently, Chad’s transitional military council is headed by Idriss Deby’s 37-year-old son, Mahamat Idriss Deby. Mahamat was named interim head of state by the council after his father who spent more than three decades in power, and was one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, was killed fighting rebels at the age of 68.
Mahamat promised to hold elections within 18 months, but the opposition and rebels dismissed the takeover as a coup and said the military must relinquish power to a civilian-led government.
Thousands were the streets to protest military rule. The demonstrators said they do not support what they called a “Deby monarchy.”
The rebel group FACT has vowed to depose the transitional military council should it fail to hand over power to civilian rule.
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UN Reports Acute Food Insecurity in Southern Madagascar
The United Nations says thousands of people in Madagascar are suffering from famine, while more than 1 million others are facing acute hunger and are forced to resort to extreme measures to keep from starving.More than 1.1 million people in southern Madagascar are unable to feed themselves because the country is suffering from its most acute drought in four decades. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns the humanitarian crisis gripping the country is deteriorating rapidly.OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke says conditions in the Amboasary Atsimo district are particularly serious. About 75% of the population is facing severe hunger, and thousands, he says, are catastrophically food insecure.“We have during this crisis for the first time identified 14,000 people who are in famine condition … Now, children are, of course, especially vulnerable. There is extreme malnutrition, and as we have heard from others, there is no doubt that the level that this has reached now is costing lives among children and others,” Laerke said.Aid agencies say the number of children admitted for treatment for life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in the first quarter of this year was four times the five-year average. That condition causes wasting, stunting, and can lead to problems of physical and cognitive development.Laerke said the United Nations is in desperate need of money to stave off a looming catastrophe. He said the U.N. is renewing an appeal for $76 million, which was launched in January.He said only 22% of the funds have been received, an amount that falls far short of what is needed to provide life-saving support for more than 1 million people.“The amount of money that [the U.N.] is asking — $76 million — is not a lot of money. It frankly is not in the bigger picture. And now, there is really an opportunity for donors to step up with a modest amount of money and save lives from one day to the other,” he said.Laerke warned, however, time is running out fast for people in Madagascar, especially for children. He said there is no time to waste. International donors must give money to support this life-saving effort — and they must give now.
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Washington Post Says Trump Administration Secretly Obtained Reporters’ Records
The Trump Justice Department secretly seized the phone records of three Washington Post reporters who covered the federal investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the newspaper said Friday. The disclosure sets up a new clash between the federal government and news organizations and advocates for press freedom, who regard the seizures of reporters’ records as incursions into constitutionally protected newsgathering activity. Similar actions have occurred only rarely over the past decade, including a seizure of phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors over a 2012 story that revealed a foiled bomb plot. In a statement published by the newspaper, Cameron Barr, the Post’s acting executive editor, said: “We are deeply troubled by this use of government power to seek access to the communications of journalists. The Department of Justice should immediately make clear its reasons for this intrusion into the activities of reporters doing their jobs, an activity protected under the First Amendment.” The action is presumably aimed at identifying the reporters’ sources in national security stories published in the early months of Trump’s administration, as federal investigators scrutinized whether his 2016 campaign had coordinated with the Kremlin to sway the election. The records’ seizure was approved by Justice Department leadership last year. The reporters — Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Adam Entous, who has since left the Post — were notified in letters dated May 3 that the Justice Department had obtained records for their home, work or cellphone numbers. The records sought cover the period of April 15, 2017, to July 31, 2017, according to the newspaper. Justice Department guidelines for media leak investigations mandate that such actions are to be taken only when other avenues for obtaining the information have been exhausted, and that the affected reporters are to be notified unless it’s determined that it would impede the investigation or interfere with national security. “While rare, the Department follows the established procedures within its media guidelines policy when seeking legal process to obtain telephone toll records and non-content email records from media members as part of a criminal investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information,” department spokesman Marc Raimondi said in a statement. “The targets of these investigations are not the news media recipients but rather those with access to the national defense information who provided it to the media and thus failed to protect it as lawfully required,” he added. Bruce Brown, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said it “raises serious First Amendment concerns” for the government to obtain records of journalists’ communications. “It is imperative that the new Justice Department leadership explain exactly when prosecutors seized these records, why it is only now notifying the Post, and on what basis the Justice Department decided to forgo the presumption of advance notification under its own guidelines when the investigation apparently involves reporting over three years in the past,” Brown said in a statement. The government also said it had received a court order to get email records from the reporters that would have shown who they had emailed and when, but that it did not obtain those records, the newspaper said. The Post said the Justice Department did not specify the purpose of the subpoena or identify any articles at issue. But the time period covered by the subpoena includes the publication of a story that suggested that intelligence intercepts indicated that Jeff Sessions, at the time Trump’s attorney general, had discussed campaign issues with Russia’s then-ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. The Justice Department under former Attorney General Eric Holder in 2015 announced revised guidelines for obtaining records from the news media during criminal leak investigations, removing language that news organizations said was ambiguous and requiring additional levels of review before a journalist could be subpoenaed. The updated policy was a response to outrage among news organizations over Obama administration tactics seen as overly aggressive and hostile toward newsgathering. Sessions, Holder’s successor, announced in 2017 a renewed crackdown on leaks of national security information to the media.
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EU Agrees Potential 1.8 Billion-Dose Purchase of Pfizer Vaccine
The European Union cemented its support for Pfizer-BioNTech and its novel COVID-19 vaccine technology Saturday by agreeing to a massive contract extension for a potential 1.8 billion doses through 2023.EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted that her office “has just approved a contract for a guaranteed 900 million doses” with the same amount of doses as a future option.The new contract, which has the unanimous backing of the EU member states, will entail not only the production of the vaccines, but also making sure that all the essential components should be sourced from the EU.The European Commission currently has a portfolio of 2.6 billion doses from half a dozen companies. “Other contracts and other vaccine technologies will follow,” von der Leyen said in a Twitter message.Pfizer-BioNTech had an initial contract of 600 million doses with the EU.Saturday’s announcement also underscores the confidence the EU has shown in the technology used for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is different from that behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.The active ingredient in the Pfizer-BioNTech shot is messenger RNA, or mRNA, which contains the instructions for human cells to construct a harmless piece of the coronavirus called the spike protein. The human immune system recognizes the spike protein as foreign, allowing it to mount a response against the virus upon infection.The announcement of the huge contract extension comes as the European Union is looking for ways to meet the challenges of necessary booster shots, possible new variants and a drive to vaccinate children and teenagers.America’s Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech have already said that they would provide the EU with an extra 50 million doses in the 2nd quarter of this year, making up for faltering deliveries of AstraZeneca.In contrast to the oft-criticized Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca, von der Leyen has said that Pfizer-BioNTech is a reliable partner that delivers on its commitments.Two weeks ago, the EU launched legal proceedings against AstraZeneca for failing to respect the terms of its contract with the 27-nation bloc.The AstraZeneca vaccine had been central to Europe’s immunization campaign, and a linchpin in the global strategy to get vaccines to poorer countries. But the slow pace of deliveries has frustrated the Europeans and they have held the company responsible for partly delaying their vaccine rollout.So far, von der Leyen said, the EU has made some 200 million doses available to its 450 million citizens while almost as many have been exported from the bloc.
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In the French Language, Steps Forward and Back for Women
The fight to make the French language kinder to women took steps forward, and back, this week.
Warning that the well-being of France and its future are at stake, the government banned the use in schools of a method increasingly used by some French speakers to make the language more inclusive by feminizing some words.
Specifically, the education minister’s decree targets what is arguably the most contested and politicized letter in the French language — “e.” Simply put, “e” is the language’s feminine letter, used in feminine nouns and their adjectives and, sometimes, when conjugating verbs.
But proponents of women’s rights are also increasingly adding “e” to words that normally wouldn’t have included that letter, in a conscious — and divisive — effort to make women more visible.
Take the generic French word for leaders — “dirigeants” — for example. For some, that masculine spelling suggests that they are generally men and makes women leaders invisible, because it lacks a feminine “e” toward the end. For proponents of inclusive writing, a more gender-equal spelling is “dirigeant·es,” inserting the extra “e,” preceded by a middle dot, to make clear that leaders can be of both sexes.
Likewise, they might write “les élu·es” — instead of the generic masculine “élus” — for the holders of elected office, again to highlight that women are elected, too. Or they might use “les idiot·es,” instead of the usual generic masculine “les idiots,” to acknowledge that stupidity isn’t the exclusive preserve of men.
Proponents and opponents sometimes split down political lines. France’s conservative Republicans party uses “ élus”; the left-wing France Unbowed tends toward ”élu · es.”
“It’s a fight to make women visible in the language,” said Laurence Rossignol, a Socialist senator who uses the feminizing extra “·e.”
Speaking in a telephone interview, she said its opponents “are the same activists who were against marriage for people of the same sex, medically assisted reproduction, and longer abortion windows. … It’s the new banner under which reactionaries are gathering.”
But for the government of centrist President Emmanuel Macron, the use of ”·e” threatens the very fabric of France. Speaking in a Senate debate on the issue on Thursday, a deputy education minister said inclusive writing “is a danger for our country” and will “sound the death knell for the use of French in the world.”
By challenging traditional norms of French usage, inclusive writing makes the language harder to learn, penalizing pupils with learning difficulties, the minister, Nathalie Elimas, argued.
“It dislocates words, breaks them into two,” she said. “With the spread of inclusive writing, the English language — already quasi-hegemonic across the world — would certainly and perhaps forever defeat the French language.”
Arguments over gender-inclusive language are raging elsewhere in Europe, too.
A fault-line among German speakers has been how to make nouns reflect both genders. The German word for athletes, for example, could be written as “Sportlerinnen” to show that it includes both men and women, as opposed to the more usual, generic masculine “Sportler.” For critics, the addition of the feminine “innen” at the end — sometimes with the help of an asterisk, capital letter or underscore — is plain ugly.
Italy has seen sporadic debate over neutralizing gendered titles for public officials, or making them feminine when they normally would remain masculine, such as “ministra” instead of “ministro” for women Cabinet members. Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi prefers to be called “sindaca” rather than “sindaco.”
Inclusive language has also been a long battle for feminists and, more recently, of LGTBQ+ groups in Spain, although there is no consensus on how to make progress. Politics also play into the issue there. Members of the far-right Vox party have insisted on sticking with the traditional “presidente” when referring to Spain’s four deputy prime ministers, all of them women, rather than opting for the more progressive “presidenta,” even though the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language has accepted usage of that feminine noun.
The French Education Ministry circular that banished the “·e” formula from schools did, however, accept other more inclusive changes in language that highlight women.
They include systematically feminizing job titles for women — like “présidente,” instead of “président,” or ambassadrice” rather than “ambassadeur” for women ambassadors. It also encouraged the simultaneous use of both masculine and feminine forms to emphasize that roles are filled by both sexes. So a job posting in a school, for example, should say that it will go to “le candidat ou la candidate” — man or woman — who is best qualified to fill it.
Raphael Haddad, the author of a French-language guide on inclusive writing, said that section of the ministry circular represented progress for the cause of women in French.
“It’s a huge step forward, disguised as a ban,” he said. “What’s happening to the France language is the same thing that happened in the United States, with ‘chairman’ replaced by ‘chairperson,’ (and) ‘’fireman’ by ‘firefighter.’”
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Washington Post Says US Secretly Obtained Reporters’ Records
The Trump Justice Department secretly seized the phone records of three Washington Post reporters who covered the federal investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the newspaper said Friday. The disclosure sets up a new clash between the federal government and news organizations and advocates for press freedom, who regard the seizures of reporters’ records as incursions into constitutionally protected newsgathering activity. Similar actions have occurred only rarely over the past decade, including a seizure of phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors over a 2012 story that revealed a foiled bomb plot. In a statement published by the newspaper, Cameron Barr, the Post’s acting executive editor, said: “We are deeply troubled by this use of government power to seek access to the communications of journalists. The Department of Justice should immediately make clear its reasons for this intrusion into the activities of reporters doing their jobs, an activity protected under the First Amendment.” The action is presumably aimed at identifying the reporters’ sources in national security stories published in the early months of Trump’s administration, as federal investigators scrutinized whether his 2016 campaign had coordinated with the Kremlin to sway the election. The records’ seizure was approved by Justice Department leadership last year. The reporters — Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Adam Entous, who has since left the Post — were notified in letters dated May 3 that the Justice Department had obtained records for their home, work or cellphone numbers. The records sought cover the period of April 15, 2017, to July 31, 2017, according to the newspaper. Justice Department guidelines for media leak investigations mandate that such actions are to be taken only when other avenues for obtaining the information have been exhausted, and that the affected reporters are to be notified unless it’s determined that it would impede the investigation or interfere with national security. “While rare, the Department follows the established procedures within its media guidelines policy when seeking legal process to obtain telephone toll records and non-content email records from media members as part of a criminal investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information,” department spokesman Marc Raimondi said in a statement. “The targets of these investigations are not the news media recipients but rather those with access to the national defense information who provided it to the media and thus failed to protect it as lawfully required,” he added. Bruce Brown, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said it “raises serious First Amendment concerns” for the government to obtain records of journalists’ communications. “It is imperative that the new Justice Department leadership explain exactly when prosecutors seized these records, why it is only now notifying the Post, and on what basis the Justice Department decided to forgo the presumption of advance notification under its own guidelines when the investigation apparently involves reporting over three years in the past,” Brown said in a statement. The government also said it had received a court order to get email records from the reporters that would have shown who they had emailed and when, but that it did not obtain those records, the newspaper said. The Post said the Justice Department did not specify the purpose of the subpoena or identify any articles at issue. But the time period covered by the subpoena includes the publication of a story that suggested that intelligence intercepts indicated that Jeff Sessions, at the time Trump’s attorney general, had discussed campaign issues with Russia’s then-ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. The Justice Department under former Attorney General Eric Holder in 2015 announced revised guidelines for obtaining records from the news media during criminal leak investigations, removing language that news organizations said was ambiguous and requiring additional levels of review before a journalist could be subpoenaed. The updated policy was a response to outrage among news organizations over Obama administration tactics seen as overly aggressive and hostile toward newsgathering. Sessions, Holder’s successor, announced in 2017 a renewed crackdown on leaks of national security information to the media.
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Tesla Faces Backlash in China from Viral Video
In 2018, Elon Musk signed an agreement with the Shanghai Municipal Government to open a plant to make Tesla vehicles, making it the first non-Chinese auto company with a solely owned subsidiary in China since the 1990s. Now the company is facing a backlash over its electric car business there. And, experts say, by making use of anti-American public sentiment, the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is making a move against Tesla that is well-known to foreign companies with technologies it covets: To stay in China’s lucrative market, a company must share its tech with Beijing. “There is little doubt in my mind that the CCP is squeezing the American company through a controlled burst of anti-American xenophobia because of Tesla’s phenomenal success in China, its advanced technology, and its close involvement in U.S. space programs,” said Miles Yu, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who specializes in U.S. and Chinese military and diplomatic history, and U.S. policy toward China. On May 2, Musk’s SpaceX ended its first commercial crew, long-duration endeavor with NASA, FILE – A customer looks at automobiles in a Tesla car showroom in Beijing, June 11, 2020.Tesla sold more than 137,000 Model 3s in 2020, making it the best-selling electric car in China, according to the China Passenger Vehicle Association. According to the SEC filing, Tesla’s 2020 revenue from China increased 124% year-over-year on sales of $6.6 billion. Then China pulled a U-turn.Earlier this year, China’s military banned Teslas from military barracks and family quarters, citing security concerns over the onboard cameras, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the ban on March 19. There are eight cameras in a Model 3 — three in front, two on each side and one at the rear — which are used for the autopilot, the security system and the dashcam, according to Car and Driver. The cameras can obtain data, including when, how and where the vehicles are being used as well as the contact lists of mobile phones synced to them. Beijing was concerned that some data could be sent back to the U.S., according to the Journal. On March 20, Musk assured members of the government-backed China Development Forum in Beijing that the cars were not spying and that the data collected from cars in China was kept in China.VOA contacted Tesla in the U.S. and in China, where VOA contacted Tesla media offices and the sales center in Shanghai to request an interview on possible pressure from Chinese authorities and concerns about technology transfers. The company did not respond.Viral video Then, on April 19, at the Auto Shanghai 2021 trade show, a Tesla owner climbed onto the roof of a Model 3 and shouted “Tesla brakes fail,” giving voice to a problem that customers claimed they had found in some of its China-made cars. A female Tesla owner climbed on top of a car’s roof at the Tesla booth to protest her car’s brake malfunction at the Shanghai auto show Monday. The booth beefed up its security after the incident. pic.twitter.com/ct7RmF1agM— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) April 19, 2021Video of the woman, identified only as Zhang, went viral. Tesla responded within hours on Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese platform, saying, “We won’t respond to unreasonable requests from customers.” The remark drew enough online criticism that China’s state media, controlled by the CCP, jumped in and accused Tesla of being “arrogant.” Later on April 19, Tesla posted, ”We apologize and self-reflect (on our behavior).” But netizens were shifting their criticism of Tesla into overdrive as Zhang’s remarks had hit home with many Chinese Tesla owners, and within days her post had more than 220 million views on Weibo. By comparison, Tesla sold just under 635,000 vehicles in China in 2019 and 2020, according to Nikkei Asia, which used China Passenger Car Association figures. On April 20, the company posted on its Weibo feed, saying, “Tesla complies with and obeys the decisions of relevant government departments, respects consumers, abides by laws and regulations, and actively cooperates with all investigations by relevant government departments. … We will do our best to meet the demands of car owners and strive to satisfy them.” On April 22, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Global Times, an official Chinese state outlet, posted on his Weibo account, “I believe that Tesla feels the hardness of China’s market rules, as well as its strength and dignity, and they will understand that only practical adjustments can restore public trust.” On April 23, Xinhua, a Chinese state-run media outlet, published an article criticizing Tesla’s apology as “insincere” and calling for Tesla to respect Chinese consumers.Private companies in China Tu Le, an analyst at Sino Auto Insights, a research organization, told Reuters, “Social media has always been dissatisfied with the quality and service issues of Tesla in China. Until Tuesday, these issues were basically ignored by the local Tesla team.”Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, believes the change of Tesla’s attitude is common for private companies operating in China. If a company wants to succeed in China, they must make statements in line with the CCP that can be “problematic,” he said.Facing the online outcry from the Chinese public and the ensuing coverage from official state media put Tesla bumper-to-bumper with the CCP. According to Cooper, who spoke with VOA by phone, it’s a concern “from the American side — does Elon Musk have to say certain things about China or about the Communist Party so that he can continue to operate (a) business in China?” Cooper continued, “If you are operating in China, then the Communist Party has some ability to regulate your business operations. Obviously, some of that is legal and not problematic. Other parts that involved political influence that I think are problematic. … So I think there are broader … questions about the kinds of activities businesses are required to engage in, and the kinds of political statements they have to make or support, if they are going to operate in the Chinese market in a significant way.” Yu, of the Hudson Institute, told VOA Mandarin that what has happened to Tesla is a common “bait and switch” strategy China uses on foreign investments with critical technologies and proprietary innovations. Yu said China lures a foreign enterprise “into China with initial preferential tax and regulatory treatments. Once you are hooked in China, and have gained initial success, the CCP would not hesitate to use your investments in China as a leverage to force you to comply with a whole list of demands, outright or subtle, including sharing proprietary technologies and knowledge, prohibiting transfer of funds out of China, curtailing your market share inside China and possibly divulging critical national security secrets in your company’s other operations with the U.S. government such as the SpaceX project.”
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US Pipeline Company Halts Operations After Cybersecurity Attack
Colonial Pipeline, the largest U.S. refined products pipeline operator, has halted all operations after it fell victim to a cybersecurity attack on Friday, the company said.The company learned of the attack on Friday and took systems offline to contain the threat, it said in a statement. That action has temporarily halted operations and affected some of its IT systems, it said.The company has engaged a third-party cybersecurity firm to launch an investigation, and Colonial has contacted law enforcement and other federal agencies, it said.Reuters reported earlier Friday that Colonial had shut its main gasoline and distillate lines.Colonial connects Gulf Coast refineries with markets across the southern and eastern United States through about 5,500 miles (8,850 km) of its pipeline system, delivering gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined products.”At this time, our primary focus is the safe and efficient restoration of our service and our efforts to return to normal operation,” the company said.
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EU Calls on US, Others to Export Their COVID-19 Vaccines
The European Commission called on the United States and other major COVID-19 vaccine producers Friday to export what they make, as the European Union does, rather than talk about waiving intellectual property (IP) rights to the shots.Commission head Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference on the sidelines of a summit of EU leaders that discussions about the waiver would not produce a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine in the short and medium term.”We should be open to lead this discussion. But when we lead this discussion, there needs to be a 360-degree view on it because we need vaccines now for the whole world,” she said.”The European Union is the only continental or democratic region of this world that is exporting at large scale,” von der Leyen said.She said about 50% of European-produced coronavirus vaccine is exported to almost 90 countries, including those in the World Health Organization-backed COVAX program, whose aim is to supply vaccines to mainly poor countries.”And we invite all those who engage in the debate of a waiver for IP rights also to join us to commit to be willing to export a large share of what is being produced in that region,” she said.Only higher production, removing export barriers and the sharing of already-ordered vaccines could immediately help fight the pandemic quickly, she said.”So what is necessary in the short term and the medium term: First of all, vaccine sharing. Secondly, export of vaccines that are being produced. And the third is investment in the increasing of the capacity to manufacture vaccines,” she said.Von der Leyen said the European Union had started its vaccine sharing mechanism, citing delivery of 615,000 doses to the Western Balkans as an example.
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US Joins ‘Christchurch Call’ Against Online Extremism
The United States will join an international bid to stamp out violent extremism online, the White House said Friday, about two years after the Trump administration declined to do so.Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, said Washington “will join the Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online, a global pledge by member governments and technology partners to work together to address terrorist and violent extremist content online.”The initiative is named after the New Zealand city where a far-right gunman massacred 51 people at two mosques in 2019 while broadcasting his rampage live on Facebook.”Countering the use of the internet by terrorists and violent extremists to radicalize and recruit is a significant priority for the United States,” Psaki said. “Joining the coalition of governments and companies that have endorsed the Christchurch Call to Action reinforces the need for collective action.”In 2019 the United States cited protecting free speech when it declined to join the call, led by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron, though Washington stressed that it did back the initiative’s aims.Psaki said free speech remains a concern.”The United States applauds language in the Christchurch Call emphasizing the importance of respecting human rights and the rule of law, including the protection of freedom of expression,” her statement said.”In joining the Christchurch Call, the United States will not take steps that would violate the freedoms of speech and association protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, nor violate reasonable expectations of privacy.”She said the U.S. would participate in a virtual summit on May 14.
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Biden: Low Jobs Number Shows ‘We Have a Long Way to Go’
The Biden administration moved quickly on Friday to allay concerns that a surprisingly weak jobs report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package that became law in March, is failing in its goal of revitalizing the economy. Economists and policymakers in the U.S. were stunned Friday morning when the BLS reported that the U.S. economy, thought to be expanding at a rapid pace, added only 266,000 jobs in April. That was far short of the 1 million that many experts had been projecting and, combined with a downward revision of the jobs estimates from February and March, sparked concerns that the U.S. economy’s recovery from the pandemic-induced recession might be slowing down. During a White House briefing, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the purpose of the rescue plan had been “to provide enough relief for Americans to make it to the other side of the pandemic, with the foundations of their lives intact,” and advocated for the administration’s additional spending packages. She struck an optimistic note, saying, “I believe we will reach full employment next year. But today’s numbers also show that we’re not yet finished.” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a press briefing at the White House, May 7, 2021.The unemployment rate rose slightly, from 6% to 6.1%, reflecting the 9.8 million Americans currently seeking employment who are unable to find it. Both numbers are far lower than they were during the worst of the recession, but remain well above the 3.5% unemployment rate and the 5.7 million unemployed recorded in February 2020, the month before COVID-19 began surging through the country. The report showed stark disparities across different sectors of the economy, with the leisure and hospitality industries adding 331,000 jobs, largely because of the reopening of restaurants as virus infection rates decline and vaccination rates rise. However, other key industries, such as manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, retail and health care, all showed declines. The construction industry showed no net change in employment. Biden reacts President Joe Biden addressed the report at a White House press conference early Friday afternoon. “You might think that we should be disappointed,” he said. “But when we passed the American Rescue Plan, I want to remind everybody, it was designed to help us over the course of a year. Not 60 days. A year. We never thought that after the first 50 or 60 days everything would be fine. Today there’s more evidence, our economy is moving in the right direction.” U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the April jobs report from the East Room of the White House in Washington, May 7, 2021.He said, “Some critics said that we didn’t need the American Rescue Plan. That this economy would just heal itself. Today’s report just underscores, in my view, how vital the actions we’re taking are. Checks to people who are hurting, support for small businesses, for child care and school reopening, support to help families put food on the table. Our efforts are starting to work, but the climb is steep, and we still have a long way to go.” Experts caution against overreaction Many experts admitted surprise at the new numbers but cautioned against overly gloomy assessments. “I think we don’t really have a playbook to pull out of the bookshelf, when it comes to reopening an economy, just like we didn’t seem to have one for shutting it down,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst for Bankrate.com. “I don’t think that this undermines the thesis of an ongoing recovery.” However, Hamrick added, the lower-than-expected new jobs number combined with the net downward revision of the February and March reports does create some reason for concern, because revisions tend to reflect “the overall trajectory of the economy.” “If indeed we’re entering into a period of slower recovery, we’re going to have to watch that,” he said. “Obviously, we don’t want to give anything up with respect to further downward revision to April, given the fact that obviously it was a huge shortfall in the headline number. It absolutely means that it’s something to watch, and it makes what was a disappointing report even more so.” American Jobs Plan The report comes as Biden is pushing the American Jobs Plan, a massive $2.3 trillion proposal to rebuild infrastructure, create new jobs in the growing renewable energy sector and improve public housing stock. In his remarks Friday, Biden said that the Friday jobs report shows the need to pass his proposal. “We can’t let up. This jobs report makes that clear. We’ve got too much work to do, and the American Rescue Plan is just that, a rescue plan, just to get us back to where we were. But that’s not nearly enough. We have to build back better. That’s why we need the American Jobs Plan I proposed, to put us in a position where we can build back better to reclaim our position as the leading and most innovative nation in the world.” This disappointing report also gave new ammunition to supporters of more expansive government spending. Democratic Representative Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, said it remains “clear that Americans are still struggling and in need of sustained support.” “The moment to make big, bold investments in an economy that will finally prioritize workers and their needs has met us,” Neal said, “and the Ways and Means Committee stands ready to join the Biden administration in delivering for the American people.” Unemployment benefits Elise Gould, senior economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute in Washington, wrote in a blog post that “as of the latest data, employment is still down 8.2 million jobs from its pre-pandemic level in February 2020. But, if we include the likelihood that thousands of jobs would have been added each month over the last year without the pandemic recession, the jobs shortfall is more likely in the range of 9.0 and 11.0 million. Now is not the time to turn off vital relief — including expanded unemployment benefits — to workers and their families.” However, that is precisely what some opponents of expanded relief to the unemployed are advocating. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, like many in the business community, insists that higher-than-usual unemployment benefits are discouraging Americans from seeking jobs. “The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market,” said the chamber’s executive vice president and chief policy officer, Neil Bradley, in a statement. “We need a comprehensive approach to dealing with our workforce issues and the very real threat unfilled positions pose to our economic recovery from the pandemic. One step policymakers should take now is ending the $300 weekly supplemental unemployment benefit. Based on the chamber’s analysis, the $300 benefit results in approximately one in four recipients taking home more in unemployment than they earned working.” Other developed countries While the United States continues to face considerable unemployment, the country is doing better, as a whole, than most other developed nations. Data released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development last month showed that the U.S. unemployment rate was slightly lower than the OECD average in the early months of this year, at 6.2% compared with the groupwide 6.7%. The U.S. is even further ahead of the Eurozone in terms of recovering jobs lost to the pandemic. Countries that are part of the shared currency regime posted average unemployment rates of 8.3% in March. However, U.S. performance has trailed a number of large economies in the Asia-Pacific region on the same measure. At the end of February, when the U.S. unemployment rate stood at 6.2%, Australia’s rate was 5.8%, South Korea’s was 4.0%, and Japan’s just 2.9%.
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Justice Department Rule Would Aim to Crack Down on ‘Ghost Guns’
The Justice Department on Friday released a proposed rule that would broaden the definition of a firearm, requiring some gun-making kits to include a serial number, as the Biden administration moves to combat so-called ghost guns.The proposal came several weeks after President Joe Biden promised a crackdown on ghost guns — homemade firearms that lack the serial numbers used to trace guns and that are often purchased without a background check.For years, federal and local law enforcement officials have been sounding the alarm about what they say is a loophole in federal firearms law that allows people who are generally prohibited from owning guns to obtain them by making the weapons themselves.Ghost guns have increasingly been turning up at crime scenes and are being purchased from gang members and other criminals by undercover federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents.The Justice Department estimates that law enforcement officers seized more than 23,000 weapons without serial numbers from 2016 to 2020, and that the weapons were identified in connection with 325 homicides or attempted homicides.It’s legal to build a gun in a home or a workshop, and advances in 3-D printing and milling have made it easier to do so. Ready-made kits can be purchased for a few hundred dollars online without the kind of background check required for traditional gun purchases.But under the proposed rule, retailers would be required to run background checks before selling some of those kits that contain the parts necessary for someone to readily make a gun at home.Factors to considerThe rule sets forth several factors to determine whether an unfinished component called a receiver could be easily convertible into a finished firearm, a senior Justice Department official said. If they meet those criteria, manufacturers would also be required to include a serial number, the official said. The rule also would require serial numbers to be added to homemade, un-serialized weapons that are traded in or turned into a federal firearms dealer.The official could not discuss the matter ahead of a public announcement and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. Once the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register, the public will have 90 days to submit comments.The critical component in building an untraceable gun is what is known as the lower receiver, a part typically made of metal or polymer. An unfinished receiver — sometimes referred to as an “80% receiver” — can be legally bought online with no serial numbers or other markings on it, no license required.Converting the piece of metal into a firearm is relatively simple and takes only a few hours. A drill press or a metal cutting machine known as a Computer Numeric Control is used to create a few holes in the receiver and well out a cavity. The receiver is then combined with a few other parts to create a fully functioning semiautomatic rifle or handgun.”Criminals and others barred from owning a gun should not be able to exploit a loophole to evade background checks and to escape detection by law enforcement,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “This proposed rule would help keep guns out of the wrong hands and make it easier for law enforcement to trace guns used to commit violent crimes, while protecting the rights of law-abiding Americans.”
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Uganda’s Sexual Offenses Measure Faces Public Resistance
Ugandan lawmakers this week passed a bill on sexual offenses that would increase punishments for offenders and would strengthen protection for victims. But critics note the measure also would enshrine the criminalization of same-sex relations, sex work and those living with HIV.Monica Amoding, the legislator who pushed for the Sexual Offenses Act, said that for 10 years there has been a high incidence of sexual offenses, with sexual violence topping the list of crimes that needed to be battled.However, not everyone supported the bill.Under terms of the act, consensual same-sex relationships would remain a crime in Uganda and could lead to 10 years in prison.Not surprisedAmoding said it wasn’t surprising that parliament came up with the penalty, mainly because parliament is a mirror of its society.“With this provision, at least the punishment has been reduced to 10 years, which was life imprisonment earlier on,” she said. “So it means that some things are changing. The mindset of people is changing. Parliament is changing. Maybe in due course, society will appreciate this as well.”In a statement Thursday, Mausi Segun, the Human Rights Watch Africa director, urged Uganda to focus on ending endemic sexual violence rather than seeing this as an opportunity to embed what he called abusive provisions that criminalize the sex lives of consenting adults.FILE – People parade in celebration of the annulment of an anti-homosexuality law by Uganda’s constitutional court in Entebbe, Uganda, Aug. 9, 2014. LGBTQ people continued, however, to face major discrimination in the country.Frank Mugisha, the executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, described the act as alarming.”It shows how conservative Uganda is,” he said. “Because there have been several recommendations to parliament. First of all, not to criminalize people because of their sexual orientation or because of who they choose to love. So this expanded criminalization, in a way. It shows you how our parliament is obsessed with homosexuality.”The act defines a sexual harassment suspect as a person who makes direct or indirect advances or requests, whether verbal or written; displays sexually suggestive pictures or gestures; or makes sexually oriented comments, jokes or offensive flirtations. The crime would be punishable by seven years in prison or a fine of $1,700 or both.’It won’t work’ for menOn the streets of Kampala, Ben Kawaida said that as a man, he must use certain words and gestures to interest a woman.“I won’t accept it,” he said of the bill. “It won’t work for us young men. Because as men we must entice women. Through actions, through messages and many other things. Yeah, so how do I go about it? Does that mean enticement should stop?”The act, among other things, also would require mandatory HIV testing of defendants and would treat HIV status as an aggravating factor when a person is accused of specific sexual offenses.Proponents of the bill said they were torn on how to balance justice between offenders and victims in cases where HIV-positive people intentionally infect others.The act requires President Yoweri Museveni’s signature for it to become law.
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Malawi President Stands Firm on Refugees Relocation
Refugees and their advocates in Malawi have expressed alarm at President Lazarus Chakwera’s defense of a plan to force about 2,000 people back into a refugee camp. A court injunction has prevented their immediate relocation, but authorities have appealed the order.Speaking with CNN on Thursday, Chakwera said the government was enforcing the law by moving to relocate refugees staying outside their designated camp.Malawi’s encampment policy prohibits refugees from staying outside their camp. It also requires the refugees to work within the camp premises.Under the relocation order issued in early April, the government said by staying outside the camp, the refugees threatened national security.A refugee receiving maize at Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi. (Lameck Masina/VOA)Chrispine Sibade, a human rights lawyer based in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. said forcing refugees into camps was a violation of their rights.Sibande said the Malawi Constitution gives everyone certain economic rights, regardless of their place of origin.“Therefore, we expect the government to protect the rights of refugees and also consider international practice whereby any decision pertaining to their fundamental rights will be protected and promoted,” Sibande said.However, Malawi’s government said it was not backing down in its move to relocate the refugees. Minister of Homeland Security Richard Chimwendo Banda told VOA on Friday that the government was working to vacate the injunction the refugees obtained last month against relocation.The spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malawi, Rumbani Msiska, said in an email response Friday that the move to relocate the refugees was concerning.He said that while Malawi’s government might have legal justifications for the relocation, returning them to the camp would create serious problems at the country’s only refugee camp, such as school overcrowding, and a scramble for water and even health facilities.Dzaleka refugee camp in central Malawi is a home to over 48,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from various countries, including Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Ethiopia.One of the group leaders at the camp, who asked not to be named, said returnees were facing a lack of accommodation.He said, “Some are living in the tents while others are sleeping on the ground. And the problem is that we don’t know the progress of a judicial review case.”UNHCR’s Msiska said the returnees were being provided with temporary shelters while efforts were underway to identify empty plots for the refugees to construct their own shelters.
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