There’s been undeniable progress in the relationship between the Tulsa police and the city’s Black community in the past 100 years. Then again, it’s hard to imagine it could have gotten worse.Complaints about police bias and a lack of enough minority officers remain. But the police chief is now a Black man from north Tulsa, the area that includes what once was America’s wealthiest Black business district.In 1921, decades before the Civil Rights Movement, even the thought of a Black police chief would have been inconceivable. That year, Greenwood, the Black Tulsa neighborhood that includes the area known as Black Wall Street, was burned to the ground with assistance from the virtually all-white Tulsa Police Department. FILE – In this photo provided by McFarlin Library at the University of Tulsa, two armed men walk away from burning buildings as others walk in the opposite direction during the Tulsa Race Massacre, June 1, 1921, in Tulsa, Okla.Sparked by accusations that a 19-year-old Black man had assaulted a 17-year-old white girl in an elevator, the Tulsa Race Massacre of May 31-June 1, 1921, left as many as 300 Black people dead and thousands of Black residents displaced. Thirty-five square blocks were torched and damages spiraled into the millions.Tulsa’s police department deputized white mobs and provided them with arms.Numerous reports describe white men with badges setting fires and shooting Black people as part of the Greenwood invasion. According to an Associated Press article from the time, Black people who were driven from their homes by the hundreds shouted, “Don’t shoot!” as they rushed through the flames.New awarenessAfter the massacre went largely ignored for decades, awareness has increased in recent years. Police Chief Chuck Jordan stood in Greenwood in 2013 and apologized for the department’s role.”I can’t apologize for the actions, inaction or derelictions of those individual officers and their chief,” Jordan said. “But as your chief today, I can apologize for our police department. I am sorry and distressed that the Tulsa Police Department did not protect its citizens during the tragic days in 1921.”The appointment of Wendell Franklin to succeed Jordan last year is seen by some as a measure of progress. But Black Tulsans say that’s not enough.”I think it’s something that the community needs to see,” said Ina Sharon Mitchell, 70, who was raised in north Tulsa. “But how far does that change really go when the doors are closed?”In a 2018 Gallup-Tulsa Citivoice Index poll designed to measure quality of life issues, only 18% of Black residents said they trusted police a lot, compared with 49% of white residents, and 46% of Black Tulsans said they trusted the police “not at all” or “not much,” compared with 16% of whites.According to Tulsa Equality Indicators, produced in partnership between the city and the Community Service Council, Black juveniles were more than three times more likely to be arrested in 2020 than white youths. Black adults were more than 2.54 times more likely to be arrested than white adults and 2.65 times more likely to experience use of force.FILE – Tiffany Crutcher wipes tears away during an interview in Tulsa, Okla., April 12, 2021. In 2016, Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby shot and killed Crutcher’s twin brother, Terence Crutcher. Shelby, who is white, was acquitted of manslaughter.Crutcher shootingIn 2016, then-Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby shot and killed Terence Crutcher, an unarmed Black man. Shelby, a white woman, was acquitted of manslaughter. She was reassigned in the department before resigning. For Black Tulsans who grew up learning what happened in Greenwood, Crutcher’s killing brought old pain back to the surface.”I believe that my brother’s killing really unearthed a century of racial tension here in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” said Terence Crutcher’s twin sister, Tiffany Crutcher.Crutcher said the relationship between Tulsa’s police and the community was still strained.”Here in Tulsa, explicitly and specifically, there’s not a really good relationship between law enforcement and the Black community, Black and brown communities,” she said. “The relationship isn’t good at all. There’s no trust there.”Crutcher started the Terence Crutcher Foundation with a goal to bridge the fear and mistrust between Black communities and law enforcement. She is frustrated with the lack of progress in Tulsa and is especially disappointed in Franklin.”This is someone who doesn’t believe — someone who looks like me — that the Tulsa Police Department has a problem with racially biased policing,” she said. “He says the problem doesn’t exist. So for me, I don’t care what color you are, but if you have a track record in building relationships with the community and doing what’s fair in community policing, then I can deal with you. Putting someone in that position that looks like us is just a shallow act of putting lipstick on a pig.”Franklin did not respond to several interview requests.Viola Fletcher, right, the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, receives a rose from Noah Lambert, left, as she arrives for a luncheon honoring survivors, May 29, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla.Lack of transparency, accountability seenGreg Robinson, 31, founding organizer of Demanding a JUSTulsa and director of Family and Community Ownership at Met Cares Foundation, said there’s a lack of transparency from the Tulsa Police Department.”I think the main problem is there is not a system of citizen oversight or accountability,” he said. “I think that’s really where we’re falling down. It’s not that all police are bad, because they’re not. But everybody in our community isn’t a criminal, either. And sometimes, it feels like we get policed like that.”Mitchell said back in the 1950s and 1960s, there were more Black officers, and that fostered the feeling of a partnership. It’s different now — in 2019, according to the department’s annual report, 8.4% of employees were Black, compared with 15.1% of the city’s overall population.”When I was a child and raised up, most of the police officers looked like me,” she said. “They lived in the community, so the relationship of the Police Department and the community was one-on-one. They knew the children. They knew the schools they went to. Now, you don’t have that.”Robinson, who also is a board member for the Terence Crutcher Foundation, remains hopeful that change can occur. He believes it ideally would start with outreach from the police and local oversight and inclusion from the Black community. The fact that Franklin is from the neighborhood helps Robinson remain optimistic.”I hope that through his tenure he can really begin to inject, gauge the community around the changes that we have been advocating for,” Robinson said. “So far, it hasn’t happened, but certainly, he is somebody who grew up out north. He should understand it. And I would hope that he would be courageous enough to really include us and involve us.”Crutcher has taken her fight beyond Oklahoma. She said some of her recommendations are included in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that is under consideration in Congress. She said she was in Washington this spring with the family of Floyd, who was killed by police last year in Minneapolis, and relatives of Botham Jean and Eric Garner, who also died at the hands of police, pushing for the bill.She said her brother told her in their last conversation that he was going to make her proud, and that “God is going to get the glory out of my life.””I believe that the work that I’ve done — this righteous fight, the fact that we’re at the precipice of some type of change — is living proof of Terence’s last statement to me,” she said. “But we have so much work to do.”
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Month: May 2021
Vietnam Finds New Virus Variant
Vietnam has discovered a new coronavirus variant that’s a hybrid of strains first found in India and the U.K., the Vietnamese health minister said Saturday.Nguyen Thanh Long said scientists examined the genetic makeup of the virus that had infected some recent patients and found the new version of the virus. He said lab tests suggested it might spread more easily than other versions of the virus.Viruses often develop small genetic changes as they reproduce, and new variants of the coronavirus have been seen almost since it was first detected in China in late 2019. The World Health Organization has listed four global “variants of concern” – the two first found in the U.K. and India, plus ones identified in South Africa and Brazil.Long said the new variant could be responsible for a recent surge in Vietnam. Infection has spread to 30 of the country’s 63 municipalities and provinces.Vietnam was initially a standout success in battling the virus. In early May, it had recorded just more than 3,100 confirmed cases and 35 deaths since the start of the pandemic.FILE – A health worker injects a doctor with a dose of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 8, 2021.But in the last few weeks, Vietnam has confirmed more than 3,500 new cases and 12 deaths, increasing the country’s total death toll to 47.Most of the new transmissions were found in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang, two provinces dense with industrial zones where hundreds of thousands of people work for major companies, including Samsung, Canon and Luxshare, a partner in assembling Apple products. Despite strict health regulations, a company in Bac Giang discovered that one-fifth of its 4,800 workers had tested positive for the virus.In Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s largest metropolis and home to 9 million, at least 85 people have tested positive as part of a cluster at a Protestant church, the Health Ministry said. Worshippers sang and chanted while sitting close together without wearing proper masks or taking other precautions.Vietnam has since ordered a nationwide ban on all religious events. In major cities, authorities have banned large gatherings and have closed public parks and nonessential businesses, including in-person restaurants, bars, clubs and spas.Vietnam so far has vaccinated 1 million people with AstraZeneca shots. Last week, it sealed a deal with Pfizer for 30 million doses, which are scheduled to be delivered in the third and fourth quarters of this year. It is also in talks with Moderna that would give it enough shots to fully vaccinate 80% of its 96 million people.
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Hundreds of Political Prisoners Held in Notorious Yangon Jail, Those Released Say
Myanmar’s military coup that took place nearly four months ago has sparked outrage nationwide, with thousands of pro-democracy protesters taking to the streets and going on strike in resistance.But in retaliation, armed forces have violently cracked down on demonstrators, leaving hundreds dead and thousands detained.Insein Prison is one of Myanmar’s most notorious jails,, with a history of inhumane conditions and treatment. Since the coup, hundreds of political prisoners are being held there, with some tortured during interrogation at the hands of authorities, according to released prisoners.Japanese journalist Yuki Kitazumi recently spent over a month at Insein after being arrested by the junta, who first claimed he violated immigration law and then accused him of an illegal video purchase.He spent his time in an isolated cell at Insein, in what he described as a “VIP building,” among a handful of political prisoners. More than 100 other prisoners, however, were crammed into a single room where it was difficult to move.Knife or gun?“Most of the political prisoners were tortured in the military compound, [the] military institute,” where fellow inmates suffered abuse while blindfolded throughout intake interrogations, said Kitazumi. “They did not do that inside Insein Prison.“One man was asked to choose: knife or a gun?” Kitazumi said. “He chooses a gun. And then the interrogator points to his head very close and makes the interrogation.”Released unharmed and flown back to Tokyo earlier this month, Kitazumi, who credits nationality for his freedom, also said prisoners were forced to eat from the concrete floor with hands cuffed behind their backs.Yuki Kitazumi, a Japanese freelance journalist detained in Myanmar in mid-April and accused of spreading fake news criticizing the military coup, gestures to speak to reporters as he arrives at Narita International Airport, Japan, May 14, 2021.”Sometimes [they were] hit by a stick when they denied a question,” he said. “They continued for a very long time — for two days or three days.”Thousands in custodyAccording to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), at least 4,000 pro-democracy activists remain detained following the coup.Ko Bo Kyi, an AAPP founder, told VOA that at least 400 political prisoners were being held at Insein, which he described as overcrowded, holding at least 10,000 inmates. But Kyaw Htun Oo, deputy director of Myanmar’s Prison Department, denied allegations of overcrowding, citing the prison’s COVID-19-free status as evidence.VOA was not able to independently verify whether the prison community was free of COVID-19 cases.When VOA asked how many prisoners were being held, the security director said he didn’t have permission to answer, but that the prison has a 7,000-inmate capacity, and that all prisoners are treated the same and no abuse takes place.But abuses can occur, “maybe in the interrogation center,” Htun Oo voluntarily allowed.Interrogation-stage abuseA Myanmar lawyer who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation told VOA abuse appears to occur immediately following the arrests, most of which are carried out under section 505(a) of the penal code, which prohibits disruption of government operations or making statements that could arouse fear.”When they do interrogation, we heard they do torture,” he told VOA, explaining that things typically improve for inmates once they are moved to the prison itself.”It is fine in the prisons,” he said. “I know it because my son is also detained now.”Zay Yar Lwin, center left, and Paing Pyo Min, center right in white, members of a theatrical troupe sentenced to prison in 2019 for gibes about the military, are pictured after their release from Insein Prison in Yangon, Myanmar, April 17, 2021.Zay Yar Lwin, an activist and former president of the Yangon University of Economics student union, was incarcerated at Insein in 2019 and released in April. He said the prison infrastructure has improved but that prisoner treatment depends on the day-to-day mood of prison officers.While in jail, he told VOA, he met Australian Sean Turnell, a former economic policy adviser to Myanmar’s ousted democratic government and the first foreign national to be arrested amid the coup.Turnell, who remains behind bars, faced a grueling intake procedure.“During the interrogation, he stayed in the room covered with aluminum. They showed Sean a big light for 24 hours, and asked him questions for two weeks,” said Yar Lwin, referring to an interrogation technique in which harsh lights are aimed directly into the detainee’s eyes.But Yar Lwin said the Australian has since been allowed to watch television news and read books sent from his family.US journalistIn recent days, authorities detained American journalist Danny Fenster, who had been working for Frontier Myanmar magazine. The U.S State Department has demanded his release.Formerly known as Burma, Myanmar gained independence in 1948 from Britain, but was mostly under military rule until 2011, when the military junta was dissolved, making way for a military-sanctioned transitional government that ushered in numerous popular democratic reforms.The military contested the results of last November’s general elections, making unsubstantiated claims of fraud. On February 1, the Myanmar military removed the National League for Democracy government, detaining leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.The British built Insein Prison in 1887 and it has been the subject of controversy since the military seized power following a popular uprising in 1988. There were reports at the time that prisoners faced unsanitary conditions and torture, sometimes prompting hunger strikes. Suu Kyi was held there three times.
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France Reports Drop in COVID Hospitalizations
France reported Saturday that the number of people in intensive care units with COVID-19 had fallen by 76 to 3,028, while the overall number of people in hospital with the disease had fallen by 425 to 16,847.Both numbers have been on a downward trend in recent weeks.While reporting 10,675 new cases, the health ministry also announced 68 new coronavirus deaths in hospitals and said there had been 487,309 COVID-19 vaccine injections over the past 24 hours.
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Medics March to WHO Headquarters in Climate Campaign
Medics concerned about the effects on public health of environmental degradation marched Saturday on the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, demanding health authorities make climate change and biodiversity loss their top priorities.White-clad activists from the group Doctors for Extinction Rebellion marched from Geneva’s Place des Nations to WHO headquarters where they were met by Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus, and Maria Neira, director of environment, climate change and health.”The pandemic will end, but there is no vaccine for climate change,” Tedros said as he welcomed the activists outside the building. “We have to act now, in solidarity, to prevent and prepare before it is too late.”
Professor Valerie D’Acremont, an infectious disease specialist and co-founder of Doctors For Extinction Rebellion, called on the WHO “to be the driving force and guarantor of public policies that respect the health of all and preserve life.”
The activists handed Tedros a letter and a large hourglass, the symbol of Extinction Rebellion which wants to prompt a wider revolt to avert the worst scenarios of devastation outlined by scientists studying climate change.
Tedros later retweeted a message from the WHO stating both bodies were “standing in solidarity & urging global action” to end the climate crisis and protect health everywhere. “These are inextricably intertwined.”
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Talks Between Russian, Belarusian Leaders Continue Into Second Day: TASS
Talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in the southern Russian town of Sochi continued into a second day on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Lukashenko flew into Russia on Friday for talks with Putin amid an uproar in Europe over the grounding of a passenger plane in Minsk and the arrest of a dissident blogger.
“Discussion between the two presidents continue today,” Peskov was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.
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Young Adolescents in Europe to Get Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine
Britain has confirmed yet another spike in new COVID-19 infections, with close to 4,200 cases identified across the country Friday, the highest daily number in two months. Seventy five percent of the new cases in Britain are believed to be infections with the so-called Indian variant, first detected in India, which is more transmissible than the previously dominant variant.Also Friday, Britain approved a single-shot COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson. It is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine approved in the country, after inoculations made by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Moderna.The European Commission has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in children as young as 12, widening the pool of those eligible to be inoculated, following similar approvals in the United States and Canada.Pfizer-BioNTech Pledges 2 Billion Doses to Poor Nations US, German partners to deliver half this year and half next year The commission made the announcement Friday after the European Union’s medical regulator, the European Medicines Agency, Friday recommended the use of the vaccine in children ages 12 to 15, saying that data show it is safe and effective.”Extending the protection of a safe and effective vaccine in this younger population is an important step forward in the fight against this pandemic,” said Marco Cavaleri, the EMA’s head of health threats and vaccines strategy.It is now up to EU states to decide whether and when to offer the vaccine to young adolescents.Germany and Italy have already said they are preparing to extend their vaccination campaign to youths ages 12-15.French President Emmanuel Macron pledged Friday to help provide South Africa and other African countries with vaccine doses. During a visit to Pretoria, Macron said France would donate more than 30 million doses this year to the United Nations-backed COVAX global vaccine initiative.According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, South Africa has so far vaccinated roughly 700,000 people out of its population of 40 million.In Australia, Melbourne went back under lockdown on Friday, as health authorities said a cluster of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases had increased to 39.In other developments Friday, India reported 186,364 new coronavirus infections during the previous 24 hours, its lowest daily rise since April 14. Deaths rose from the previous day to 3,660.In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said children at summer camp who are not vaccinated do not have to wear masks outside unless they are in crowds or in sustained close contact with others. The new guidance comes as millions of children are set to resume summer camp this summer after the closure of many camps last year due to the virus.Americans are celebrating the start of the Memorial Day weekend by hitting the roads and skies as they seek to cast off more than a year of pandemic restrictions and try to resume a sense of normalcy.U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urged Americans to be patient this weekend at busy airports.”People will see lines because there’s going to be a tremendous amount of people traveling this weekend,” he told ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday.
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Second Volcano Erupts Near DR Congo’s Goma City: Govt
A second volcano erupted Saturday near the eastern DR Congo city of Goma, a week after Mount Nyiragongo roared back into life, causing devastation and sparking an exodus.”Today the Murara volcano near an uninhabited area of Virunga erupted,” government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said, referring to a wildlife reserve that is home to a quarter of the world’s population of critically endangered mountain gorillas.The eastern DR Congo city of Goma was eerily deserted after nearly 400,000 of its inhabitants fled following warnings that nearby Mount Nyiragongo volcano may erupt again.Goma, DRCThe wider Goma area has a population of around two million.The authorities arranged transport towards Sake, but the roads became choked with cars, trucks, buses and people seeking safety on foot.Many spent the night in the open or slept in schools or churches.Evacuee Eugene Kubugoo said the water was giving children diarrhea, adding: “We don’t have anything to eat or any place to sleep.”Tens of thousands had fled Goma last Saturday night but many returned when the eruption ended the following day.’Limnic’ riskFriday’s report, issued after experts carried out a risk assessment at the volcano’s summit, said “seismicity and ground deformation continues to indicate the presence of magma under the Goma area, with an extension under Lake Kivu.”People should remain vigilant and listen to news bulletins, as the situation “may change quickly”, it warned.People carry their belongings as they evacuate from recurrent earth tremors as aftershocks after homes were covered with lava deposited by the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo near Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo May 25, 2021.Volcanologists say the worst-case scenario is of an eruption under the lake.This could release hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) that are currently dissolved in the water’s depths.The gas would rise to the surface of the lake, forming an invisible cloud that would linger at ground level and displace oxygen, asphyxiating life.In 1986, one of these so-called limnic eruptions killed more than 1,700 people and thousands of cattle at Lake Nyos in western Cameroon.Empty cityOn Friday, almost all the shops and banks in central Goma were closed, and just a handful of people and some motorcycle taxis were on the usually bustling streets.In the poorer districts in the north of the city, a handful of stores were open and there were more people, including children who gamboled near a water truck.”I will stay in the city. I know that I’m in imminent danger, but I don’t have a choice,” said Aline Uramahoro, who has a beer store.”I will leave when the volcano starts spitting.”Nearly 3,500 meters high, Nyiragongo straddles the East African Rift tectonic divide.Its last major eruption, in 2002, claimed around 100 lives and the deadliest eruption on record killed more than 600 people in 1977.Herman Paluku, who gave his age as 94, said he had seen them all — and insisted he wouldn’t budge this time.”There is a small hill near here which means that the lava does not reach us. And that’s what protects us a bit,” he said in Swahili, his hands sweeping the air.”I can never leave here, in this situation. I can’t.”
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Iranian Tanker Seized by Indonesia Is Released After 4 Months
An Iranian-flagged tanker seized by Indonesia in January over the suspected illegal transfer of oil has been released, an Indonesian official and Iranian state media said on Saturday.Wisnu Pramandita, a spokesman for the Indonesian coastguard, said the Iranian-flagged tanker, the MT Horse, was released on Friday after a court decision earlier in the week.The court ruled the vessel could leave Indonesia, while the captain would be subject to a two-year probation without any fine, the spokesman said.Iran’s state broadcaster said the vessel had resumed its mission before returning home.Jakarta has said it seized the MT Horse over the suspected illegal transfer of oil in Indonesian waters, while Iran’s foreign ministry said the seizure was over “a technical issue and it happens in shipping field”.”The MT Horse, belonging to the National Iranian Tanker Company that had been detained in Indonesian waters since January 24, was released on Friday,” said state broadcaster Sedava Sima. “This vessel has now resumed its mission before returning to the country’s waters.”SHANA, the Iranian oil ministry news agency, quoted the tanker company as saying, “The MT crew, with their sacrifice and firm determination to pursue their mission, safeguarded Iran’s national interest in maintaining the export of its oil and petroleum products.”Tehran, under harsh U.S. sanctions that mainly target its oil exports, has been accused of concealing the destination of its oil sales by disabling tracking systems on its tankers.Last year, it used the MT Horse to deliver 2.1 million barrels of condensate to fellow U.S.-sanctioned Venezuela.
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Family Hopes for Return of US Journalist Detained in Myanmar
The mother of a journalist detained in Myanmar says she and the family “just want him here” in Michigan.“It was a total visceral reaction, gut, visceral, numbing, nauseating, tearful, helpless feeling,” Rose Fenster said, describing how she felt when learning about the detention of her son Danny Fenster.The 37-year-old managing editor of Frontier Myanmar was detained at Yangon International Airport on Monday as he was preparing to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, en route to the Detroit area to see his family.“It’s important we get this resolved as quickly as possible. We’re on Day 5, so time is crucial. We want him out of there,” Bryan Fenster, Danny’s older brother, said during an interview Friday at their parents’ home in Huntington Woods, Michigan.Earlier in the day, the U.S. State Department said it was deeply concerned about the detention of Danny Fenster and another American citizen who also has been working as a journalist in Myanmar. The State Department is pressing that country’s military government for their immediate release.It said in a statement that it will keep seeking the release of Fenster and Nathan Maung “until they are allowed to return home safely to their families.”Frontier Myanmar is a news and business magazine that is published in English and Burmese and also online.Human rights organizations and groups promoting freedom of expression have been calling for the release of both men, as well as all other journalists being held by Myanmar’s military government.Michigan Rep. Andy Levin said he has been in close contact with the State Department and the Fenster family, whom he represents in Congress.“This is about freeing an American citizen who has been unjustly detained,” Levin said. “And we’re all rowing in the same direction here.”Bryan Fenster said his brother has been taken to Insein Prison in Yangon, which over decades has housed thousands of political prisoners, including many from the current movement protesting military rule.Anti-coup protesters flash the three-finger salute during a demonstration against the military takeover, in Yangon, Myanmar, May 24, 2021.“We’ve been hearing terrible things about the conditions there,” Bryan Fenster said.Maung and Myanmar national Hanthar Nyein, co-founders of the Myanmar news website Kamayut Media, were arrested on March 9, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, citing accounts in Myanmar media. The group said it had reports that Maung, the website’s editor-in-chief, and Hanthar, a news producer, had been physically mistreated by guards in their first few weeks at Insein Prison.The State Department statement said consular officers from the U.S. Embassy in Yangon had paid a virtual visit to Maung on Monday but so far have not been granted access to Fenster. It said it urged the authorities “to grant consular access, as required by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, without delay, and to ensure proper treatment of both Nathan and Daniel while they remain detained.”Two other foreign journalists have been arrested by the military junta that took power in February after ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Freelancers Robert Bociaga of Poland and Yuki Kitazumi of Japan have since been deported.“The ongoing persecution, intimidation, harassment and violence faced by journalists in Myanmar constitutes a clear attempt by the military authorities to suppress peaceful dissent and obscure violations committed by security forces in the wake of the 1 February coup,” the human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement.“The nationwide crackdown has resulted in widespread denial of the rights to freedom of expression and access to information.”It said that according to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 88 journalists have been arrested since the army’s takeover, with more than half still in detention, and 33 in hiding.According to the Assistance Association, which has kept a detailed tally of arrests and deaths since the military takeover, more than 4,300 people are in detention, including 104 who have already been sentenced.Reporters Without Borders and PEN International are among other groups calling for the release of the journalists.“As a mom, I just want him here,” Rose Fenster said. “And just, I love him, love him, love him.”
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Nearly 400,000 Flee DR Congo City Over Fears Volcano Could Erupt Again
The eastern DR Congo city of Goma was eerily deserted after nearly 400,000 of its inhabitants fled following warnings that nearby Mount Nyiragongo volcano may erupt again.The authorities geared up for a major humanitarian effort, centered on Sake, around 25 kilometers west of the city, where tens of thousands of people are gathered.Located on the shore of Lake Kivu in the shadow of Africa’s most active volcano, the city has lived in fear since Nyiragongo roared back into life last weekend.The strato-volcano spewed rivers of lava that claimed nearly three dozen lives and destroyed the homes of some 20,000 people before the eruption stopped.Scientists have since recorded hundreds of aftershocks.They warn of a potentially catastrophic scenario — a “limnic eruption” that could smother the area with suffocating carbon dioxide.A report on an emergency meeting early Friday said 80,000 households — around 400,000 inhabitants — had emptied on Thursday following a “preventative” evacuation order.Most people have headed for Sake or the Rwandan border in the northeast, while others have fled by boat across Lake Kivu.Late Friday, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said those fleeing needed “urgent, global support.”Aid efforts are being organized to provide drinking water, food and other supplies, and workers are helping to reunite children who became separated from their families.Nearly 10,000 people are taking refuge in Bukavu on the southern bank of Lake Kivu, according to Governor Theo Ngwabidje, many of them in host families.Quieter nightSeveral days of aftershocks, some of them equivalent to small earthquakes, yielded to a quieter night Thursday, and tremors eased both in numbers and intensity, an AFP journalist said.But late Friday afternoon black smoke could be seen rising from the crater on the horizon, causing worry.General Constant Ndima, the military governor of North Kivu province, ordered the evacuation of districts that potentially applies to nearly 400,000 out of Goma’s 600,000 residents, according to an estimate by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.The wider Goma area has a population of around 2 million.The authorities arranged transport towards Sake, but the roads became choked with cars, trucks, buses and people seeking safety on foot.Many spent the night in the open or slept in schools or churches.Evacuee Eugene Kubugoo said the water was giving children diarrhea, adding: “We don’t have anything to eat or any place to sleep.”Tens of thousands had fled Goma last Saturday night but many returned when the eruption ended the following day.’Limnic’ riskFriday’s report, issued after experts carried out a risk assessment at the volcano’s summit, said “seismicity and ground deformation continues to indicate the presence of magma under the Goma area, with an extension under Lake Kivu.”People should remain vigilant and listen to news bulletins, as the situation “may change quickly,” it warned.Volcanologists say the worst-case scenario is of an eruption under the lake.This could release hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) that are currently dissolved in the water’s depths.The gas would rise to the surface of the lake, forming an invisible cloud that would linger at ground level and displace oxygen, asphyxiating life.In 1986, one of these so-called limnic eruptions killed more than 1,700 people and thousands of cattle at Lake Nyos in western Cameroon.Empty cityOn Friday, almost all the shops and banks in central Goma were closed, and just a handful of people and some motorcycle taxis were on the usually bustling streets.In the poorer districts in the north of the city, a handful of stores were open and there were more people, including children who gamboled near a water truck.”I will stay in the city. I know that I’m in imminent danger, but I don’t have a choice,” said Aline Uramahoro, who has a beer store.”I will leave when the volcano starts spitting.”Nearly 3,500 meters high, Nyiragongo straddles the East African Rift tectonic divide.Its last major eruption, in 2002, claimed around 100 lives and the deadliest eruption on record killed more than 600 people in 1977.Herman Paluku, who gave his age as 94, said he had seen them all — and insisted he wouldn’t budge this time.”There is a small hill near here which means that the lava does not reach us. And that’s what protects us a bit,” he said in Swahili, his hands sweeping the air.”I can never leave here, in this situation. I can’t.”
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US Targets Belarus with Sanctions Amid Western Outcry Over Plane
The United States on Friday announced punitive measures against Belarus targeting the regime of strongman President Alexander Lukashenko, who met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin amid a global outcry over the forced diversion of a European plane.White House press secretary Jen Psaki called for “a credible international investigation into the events of May 23,” which she called “a direct affront to international norms.”Belarus scrambled a military jet to divert a Ryanair plane and arrested 26-year-old opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich who was onboard, triggering a global outcry.The White House announced it was working with the European Union on a list of targeted sanctions against key members of Lukashenko’s regime.Meanwhile, economic sanctions against nine Belarusian state-owned enterprises, reimposed by Washington in April following a crackdown on pro-democracy protests, will come into effect on June 3.Further U.S. moves on Belarus could target “those that support corruption, the abuse of human rights, and attacks on democracy,” Psaki said.The White House also issued a “Do Not Travel” warning for Belarus to U.S. citizens, and warned American passenger planes to “exercise extreme caution” if considering flying over Belarusian airspace.The European Union has also urged EU-based carriers to avoid Belarusian airspace.However, President Vladimir Putin celebrated Russia’s close ties with Belarus on Friday as he hosted Lukashenko in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.With observers closely watching the talks to see how far the Kremlin would go to support the regime, the Russian leader said he was “very glad” to see Lukashenko and agreed with him the Western reaction was an “outburst of emotion.”‘Rock the boat’Lukashenko complained the West was seeking to stir unrest in Belarus.”An attempt is underway to rock the boat to reach the level of last August,” he said, referring to anti-regime protests following a disputed election.”It’s clear what these Western friends want from us.”The Belarus strongman, who arrived with a briefcase, said he wanted to show Putin “some documents” related to the Ryanair incident and thanked him for his support in the latest standoff with the West.The talks lasted for more than five hours but their results were not announced.Over the past years Lukashenko has had a volatile relationship with Moscow, playing it off against the West and ruling out outright unification with Russia.But after the Ryanair plane incident his options appear to be limited.Putin and the Belarus leader have met regularly since August, when historic protests broke out against Lukashenko’s nearly three-decade rule.The 66-year-old waged a ruthless crackdown on his opponents and has leaned increasingly on the Russian president amid condemnation from the West.Several people died during the unrest in Belarus, thousands were detained, and hundreds reported torture in prison.Sunday’s plane diversion was a dramatic escalation, with EU leaders accusing Minsk of essentially hijacking a European flight to arrest Protasevich.Technical reasonsThe overflight ban has led to several cancellations of air journeys between Russia and Europe, after Russian authorities rejected planes that would have skipped Belarusian airspace.Russia insists the cancellations are purely “technical,” but they have raised concerns that Moscow could be systematically refusing to let European airlines land if they avoid Belarus.The Kremlin criticized the flight ban as politically motivated and dangerous, with foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova calling it “completely irresponsible.”EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc was monitoring whether this was a broader policy from Russia, but Moscow insisted the disruptions were in no way political.Belarus authorities claimed to have received a bomb threat against the Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius carrying the dissident.Minsk said it demanded the flight land in the Belarus capital based on the message it said was sent from a ProtonMail address by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.Protasevich, who helped organize the demonstrations against Lukashenko’s rule last year, was arrested along with Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega, 23, after the plane landed in the city.’Braver’Borrell has said proposals are “on the table” to target key sectors of the Belarusian economy including its oil products and potash sectors.Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya on Friday urged the EU to be “braver” and impose more sanctions against the Minsk regime.After meeting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague, Tikhanovskaya said measures being discussed by EU countries did not go far enough.EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Friday warned Lukashenko that “it is time to change course.””No amount of repression, brutality or coercion will bring any legitimacy to your authoritarian regime,” she said.The European Commission president also wrote to the opposition offering a 3-billion-euro package to support “a democratic Belarus” if Lukashenko steps down.
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Sheriff: Rail Yard Gunman Stockpiled Weapons, Thousands of Rounds of Ammo
The gunman who killed nine of his coworkers at a California rail yard had stockpiled weapons and 25,000 rounds of ammunition at his house before setting it on fire to coincide with the bloodshed at the workplace he seethed about for years, authorities said Friday.Investigators found 12 guns, multiple cans of gasoline and suspected Molotov cocktails at Samuel James Cassidy’s house in San Jose, the Santa Clara County sheriff’s office said in a news release.He also rigged an unusual time-delay method to ensure the house caught fire while he was out, putting “ammunition in a cooking pot on a stove” in his home, Deputy Russell Davis told The Associated Press. The liquid in the pot — investigators don’t yet know what was inside — reached a boiling point, igniting an accelerant and potentially the gunpowder in the bullets nearby.The cache at the home the 57-year-old torched was on top of the three 9 mm handguns he brought Wednesday to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in San Jose, authorities said. He also had 32 high-capacity magazines and fired 39 shots.The handguns found at the site were legally registered to Cassidy, Davis said, without elaborating on how he obtained them. Davis did not specify what type of guns officers found at his home, nor if they were legally owned.Authorities described a home filled with clutter, with items piled up to the point where it appeared Cassidy might be a hoarder, and weapons stored near the home’s doorways and in other spots.This undated photo provided by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office shows Samuel Cassidy, 57, the suspect in the May 26, 2021, shooting at a San Jose, California, rail station.Sgt. Joe Piazza told reporters the variety of spots where Cassidy stashed the guns might be so he could “access them in a time of emergency,” such as if law enforcement came to his house.Cassidy killed himself as sheriff’s deputies rushed into the rail yard complex in the heart of Silicon Valley, where he fatally shot nine men ranging in age from 29 to 63. He had worked there for more than 20 years.What prompted the bloodshed remains under investigation, officials said.While witnesses and Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith have said Cassidy appeared to target certain people, the sheriff’s office said Friday that “it is clear that this was a planned event and the suspect was prepared to use his firearms to take as many lives as he possibly could.”Casssidy’s elderly father, James, told the Mercury News in San Jose that his son was bipolar. He said that was no excuse for the shooting and apologized to the victims’ families.”I don’t think anything I could say could ease their grief. I’m really, really very sorry about that.”Neighbors and former lovers described him as moody, unfriendly and prone to angry outbursts at times. But they expressed shock he would kill.Cassidy’s ex-wife, Cecilia Nelms, said he had talked about killing people at work more than a decade ago, describing him as resentful and angry over what he perceived as unfair assignments.U.S. customs officers even caught him in 2016 with books about terrorism and fear as well as a memo book filled with notes about how much he hated the Valley Transportation Authority. But he was let go, and a resulting Department of Homeland Security memo on the encounter was not shared with local authorities.It’s not clear why customs officers detained Cassidy on his return from the Philippines.The contents of the memo, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, were described to The Associated Press by a Biden administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.This undated photo provided by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office shows approximately 22,000 rounds of ammunitions found at the residence of Samuel Cassidy.The memo notes that Cassidy was asked whether he had issues with people at work, and he said no. It refers to a “minor criminal history,” citing a 1983 arrest in San Jose and charges of “misdemeanor obstruction/resisting a peace officer.”San Jose police said they sought an FBI history on Cassidy and found no record of federal arrests or convictions.Mayor Sam Liccardo, a former prosecutor, said that while he has not seen the Homeland Security memo, it’s not a crime to hate your job.”The question is, how specific was that information?” he said. “Particularly, were there statements made suggesting a desire to commit violence against individuals?”The president of the union that represents transit workers at the rail yard sought Friday to refute a report that Cassidy was scheduled to attend a workplace disciplinary hearing with a union representative Wednesday over racist comments.John Courtney, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, said in a statement that he was at the facility “simply to check on working conditions and the continual safety of the dedicated men and women who work there.”The attack comes amid an uptick in mass shootings following coronavirus shutdowns in much of the country last year. Since 2006, there have been at least 14 workplace massacres in the United States that killed at least four people and stemmed from employment grievances, according to a database on mass killings maintained by the AP, USA Today and Northeastern University.Patrick Gorman, special agent in charge of the San Francisco field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said he was not aware of any information about Cassidy, such as tips from the public, being shared with his division before the shooting. He said the entire San Jose field office responded to the crime scenes, along with other regional special agents.Kirk Bertolet, 64, was just starting his shift when shots rang out, and he saw some of his coworkers take their last breaths.Bertolet, a signal maintenance worker who worked in a separate unit from Cassidy, said he is convinced Cassidy targeted his victims because he didn’t hurt some people he encountered.”He was (angry) at certain people. He was angry, and he took his vengeance out on very specific people. He shot people. He let others live,” he said.Video footage showed Cassidy calmly walking from one building to another with a duffel bag filled with guns and ammunition to complete the slaughter, authorities said.Bertolet said Cassidy worked regularly with the victims, but he always seemed to be an outsider.”He was never in the group. He was never accepted by anybody there. He was always that guy that was never partaking in anything that the people were doing,” Bertolet said.
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‘In the Heights’ Celebrates Diversity in America
In the Heights, a film about the dreams and struggles of the Latino community in a New York neighborhood, is Lin Manuel Miranda’s love letter to the place where he grew up. It also represents Miranda’s high-stakes bet that people will flock to the theater after months of COVID restrictions. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more from the cast and the filmmaker.
Camera: Penelope Poulou Producer: Penelope Poulou
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Mali’s Top Court Declares Coup Leader Goita Interim President
Mali’s constitutional court on Friday declared Assimi Goita, the colonel who led a military coup this week while serving as vice president, to be the new interim president.The ruling raises the stakes as West African leaders prepare to meet on Sunday to respond to the takeover, which has jeopardized a transition back to democracy and could undermine a regional fight against Islamist militants.Goita became interim vice president after leading the coup last August that overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. He ordered the arrests on Monday of President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane.Both resigned on Wednesday while still in detention. They were later released.The court said in its ruling that Goita should fill the vacancy left by Ndaw’s resignation “to lead the transition process to its conclusion” and carry the title of “president of the transition, head of state.”The ruling set Mali on a collision course with the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has insisted that the transition, which is due to end with elections in February, remain civilian-led.After agreeing in October to lift sanctions imposed after the coup against Keita, ECOWAS said in a declaration that the vice president of the transition “cannot under any circumstances replace the president.”ECOWAS heads of state are due to meet in Ghana on Sunday.They and Western powers including France and the United States fear the political crisis could exacerbate instability in northern and central Mali, a home base for regional affiliates of al Qaeda and Islamic State.Goita, a 38-year-old special forces commander, was one of several colonels who led the coup against Keita. He ousted Ndaw after the interim president named a new Cabinet that stripped two of the other coup leaders of their ministerial posts.Late on Friday, Goita said on national television that he would name a new prime minister from among the members of the M5-RFP coalition, which led protests against Keita last year and fell out with Ndaw and Ouane during the transition.Jeamille Bitar, a member of the coalition, said its pick for the post would be Choguel Maiga, a former government minister.
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EU Authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for Young Adolescents
The European Commission has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in children as young as 12, widening the pool of those eligible to be inoculated, following similar approvals in the United States and Canada.The commission made the announcement Friday after the European Union’s medical regulator, the European Medicines Agency, recommended Friday the use of the vaccine in children ages 12-15, saying that data show it is safe and effective.”Extending the protection of a safe and effective vaccine in this younger population is an important step forward in the fight against this pandemic,” said Marco Cavaleri, the EMA’s head of health threats and vaccines strategy.It is now up to individual EU states to decide whether and when to offer the vaccine to young adolescents.Germany and Italy have already said they are preparing to extend their vaccination campaign to youths ages 12-15.Also Friday, Britain approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson. It is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine approved in the country, after inoculations made by Pfizer and BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Moderna.French President Emmanuel Macron pledged Friday to help provide South Africa and other African countries with vaccine doses. During a visit to Pretoria, Macron said France would donate more than 30 million doses this year to the U.N.-backed COVAX global vaccine initiative.According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, South Africa has so far vaccinated roughly 700,000 people out of its population of 40 million.In Australia, Melbourne went back under lockdown on Friday, as health authorities said a cluster of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases had increased to 39.Health officials have ordered residents to stay home for seven days to prevent the infection from spreading and allow time to investigate how the virus was transmitted from a man being quarantined at a hotel.The outbreak has been traced to an overseas traveler who was found to be infected with an Indian variant of the coronavirus.The acting premier of Australia’s southern state of Victoria, James Merlino, told reporters in Melbourne that the new outbreak is the result of “a highly infectious strain of the virus, a variant of concern, which is running faster than we have ever recorded.”Stores are closed during a lockdown to stop the spread of the new coronavirus in downtown Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, May 28, 2021.During the lockdown, residents will be allowed to leave their homes only for essential work, school, shopping, caregiving, exercise and medical reasons, including receiving their scheduled coronavirus vaccinations.The new lockdown is the fourth one imposed on Victoria state since the start of the pandemic. The most severe period occurred in mid-2020 and lasted more than three months as Victoria was in the grip of a wave of COVID-19 infections that killed more than 800 people.Merlino had already imposed a new set of restrictions for Australia’s second most populous state, including limiting the size of public gatherings and making mask wearing mandatory in restaurants, hotels and other indoor venues until June 4.In other developments Friday, India reported 186,364 new coronavirus infections during the previous 24 hours, its lowest daily rise since April 14. Deaths rose from the previous day to 3,660.In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said children at summer camp who are not vaccinated do not have to wear masks outside unless they are in crowds or in sustained close contact with others. The new guidance comes as millions of children are set to resume summer camp this summer after the closure of many camps last year due to the virus.Americans are celebrating the start of the Memorial Day weekend by hitting the roads and skies as they seek to cast off more than a year of pandemic restrictions and try to resume a sense of normalcy.U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urged Americans to be patient this weekend at busy airports.”People will see lines because there’s going to be a tremendous amount of people traveling this weekend,” he told ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday.More than 1.8 million people went through U.S. airports on Thursday, and that number is expected to rise over the weekend.Also in the United States, Facebook said it will no longer remove statements that COVID-19 was created by humans or manufactured “in light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts.”A man in a protective suit stands next to the burning pyre of a person who died of COVID-19, at a crematorium in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, May 28, 2021.Since the beginning of the pandemic outbreak, Facebook has changed its policy several times on what is and is not allowed on the topic. Another claim banned from discussion on the platform is the notion that vaccines are toxic or not effective.The American Civil Liberties Union requested Thursday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “provide immediate vaccine access to the more than 22,100 people in ICE custody.””Over the course of the pandemic, ICE detention facilities have been some of the worst hotspots for the spread of COVID-19, with positivity rates five times greater than prisons and 20 times greater than the general U.S. population,” said the ACLU’s Eunice Cho.
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Warsaw University Aims to Shape Future Conservative Lawyers
An increasingly influential Polish Catholic legal institute on Friday inaugurated a university in Warsaw that aims to educate a new generation of conservative lawyers in central Europe who it hopes will also shape wider European culture.The institute, Ordo Iuris, works to promote conservative causes, including restrictions on abortion and opposition to same-sex legal unions as it seeks to support traditional family structures. It successfully lobbied for the recent restriction of abortion rights in Poland and is spearheading efforts aimed at persuading countries not to ratify the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty against domestic violence, due to objections over how the treaty depicts gender relations in the family.Jerzy Kwasniewski, a Warsaw lawyer who heads Ordo Iuris, said that the university, Collegium Intermarium, is meant to be a space of free academic inquiry at a time of perceived censorship in traditional academic settings that he argued overwhelmingly targets and silences conservative thinkers.Kwasniewski also described the college as a counterweight to existing institutions, including the Central European University, which was founded by the liberal Hungarian American investor George Soros and which recently relocated from Budapest to Vienna under pressure from Hungary’s nationalist conservative government.”We all hope that Collegium Intermarium will bring change to the academic sphere of central Europe,” he said.A larger ambitionIntermarium (Latin for “between the seas”) is a historical term that refers to a swath of central Europe between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas. It’s a region of ex-communist countries that are largely more conservative than those in Western Europe, and it’s where nationalist parties have seen their support grow in recent years.The name points to a larger ambition, with Kwasniewski saying he also hopes the institution will allow conservatives from central Europe to one day shape the more secular culture dominant in the European Union.”We don’t follow the French way of a division between church and state. We rather follow the more American way of an alliance of the spiritual with the republic,” Kwasniewski told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the university’s inauguration conference. “We are not able to follow the motto of the European Union, ‘United in diversity,’ without acknowledging the diversity of different cultural spheres of Europe.”The Polish culture and education ministers praised the university as a place that will nurture Europe’s traditional Christian and classical traditions, while a letter was read out from Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, underscoring the conservative government’s support for the new institution. Representatives of the Hungarian government also voiced their support.The former Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, spoke about his support for strengthening nation states in the face of an EU which he accused of eroding freedoms. He also denounced the cultural changes in the West since the liberal revolution of the 1960s, saying that since then, “generations were born who do not understand the meaning of our civilizational, cultural and ethical heritage and are deprived of a moral compass guiding their behavior.”Viewed with suspicionOrdo Iuris is viewed with suspicion by LGBT and women’s rights groups, which accuse the Catholic group of being part of an international network seeking to erode the rights they have gained in recent decades.Ordo Iuris successfully backed a successful effort to restrict abortion rights in Poland. It provided legal arguments to the constitutional court, which ruled last year that abortions in cases of fetal abnormalities are not constitutional. The result is that Polish women are now required to carry very sick or even unviable fetuses to term — a ruling that in practice drives more women to have abortions abroad. The ruling sparked weeks of mass protests in the country, which already had one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws.The institute has worked across the region, for instance assisting a Romanian group that successfully lobbied to block the legalization of same-sex unions.Neil Datta, the head of the Brussels-based European Parliamentary Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights who has extensively researched Ordo Iuris, says he believes the university will become a center for training “a new cadre of elites that basically can transform and whitewash far-right thinking so it appears professional and acceptable in a certain political discourse.”He said the plan reminds him of what happened in the United States, where the Christian right years ago began funding universities that over time produced new elites with influence at think tanks and in politics.”This is a first step in the same thing,” Datta said.Ordo Iuris members say the group is unfairly portrayed by activists and the media.Kwasniewski told the AP that the group is not against women, arguing that the institute includes many women and that its anti-abortion position is a human rights position.”Abortion is not about women’s rights. Abortion is also performed on girls in the prenatal stage of development. It’s just about the violation of the right to life,” he said.The university will offer accredited degrees at the master’s level in law, with the curriculum to include related subjects such as philosophy. It plans to offer a doctorate program in four to five years. It will be privately funded at first but plans to seek public funding in the future, Kwasniewski said.
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Boat Accident on Nigerian River Kills 60, More Feared Dead
Nigerian authorities confirmed that at least 60 people have died in a boat accident on the Niger River and that 83 missing passengers are also feared dead.The boat with more than 160 passengers, including many children and women, sank after hitting an object and breaking up Wednesday while traveling along Nigeria’s largest river in Kebbi state, in the northwestern part of the country.Emergency workers continued recovery efforts Friday. Bodies were carried from the team’s boat near the riverbank to a waiting ambulance.Workers recovered 55 bodies on Thursday to bring the death toll to 60 so far, according to Sani Dododo, chairman of the Kebbi State Emergency Management Agency.”We hope to recover more bodies Friday,” he said, adding that he fears the 83 passengers still missing might not be found alive.Twenty-two passengers were rescued shortly after the accident, but no other person has been rescued alive since then.Among the dead was a baby not yet a year old.Recovery efforts are slow because the river is high and moving swiftly, making conditions dangerous for the divers and workers in boats, Dododo said.It was unclear what caused the boat to break up as it was traveling from Nigeria’s Niger state to the town of Wara in Kebbi state.Boat accidents are common in Nigeria, especially on the Niger River, with causes including overloading, the bad state of many boats, and underwater debris that the vessels often hit.
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Biden Budget Substantially Boosts Foreign Aid, Diplomacy, but Raises Defense by 1.7%
U.S. President Joe Biden sent his first formal budget request to Congress on Friday afternoon, detailing a proposal to spend nearly $6 trillion in 2022 that includes significant increases in funding for foreign aid, diplomacy and climate change while providing a modest increase in Defense Department spending.The U.S. will still have the largest military budget in the world under the proposed $715 billion Pentagon request for 2022, but the relatively small 1.7% increase drew immediate opposition from Republican defense hawks in Congress, who called the proposal “wholly inadequate.”In a meeting with reporters Friday afternoon, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks said Pentagon leadership was confident that the budget request “positions the Department of Defense to meet the array of security challenges that we face today and in the future.”The massive budget document was accompanied by a message from Biden saying the proposal was consistent with a promise he made to a joint session of Congress in April that “America is on the move again, and that our democracy is proving it can deliver for our people and is poised to win the competition for the 21st century.”Throughout the more than 1,700 pages of charts, tables and text, the fiscal 2022 budget request reflects Biden’s inclination to work with allies and presents a sharp contrast with the administration of the previous president, Republican Donald Trump, who favored a go-it-alone approach in international relations.“From the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change, from the growing ambitions of China to the many global threats to democracy, successfully addressing global challenges will require working alongside and in partnership with other nations,” the document says.“After years of neglect, the budget makes critical investments in diplomacy and development that would restore the health and morale of the nation’s foreign policy institutions, as well as America’s relationships with key partners and allies,” it says. “Diplomacy would once again be a centerpiece of American foreign policy, and America would once again be a leader on the world stage.”Domestic focusWhile the international elements of the budget proposal are substantial, there is no mistaking the fact that the bulk of the new Democratic administration’s focus in the budget is domestic.FILE – Kim Lewis, an associate dean at Howard University in Washington, autographs an American Jobs Plan sign after participating with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a discussion at the university, May 3, 2021.Biden’s plan contains funding for his two main domestic policy efforts: the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan and the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan.The spending proposals are consistently referred to as investments in the country’s future — language that tacitly acknowledges the near-term costs, which will drive spending as a percentage of gross domestic product to historically high levels and add more than $1.3 trillion to the national debt every year for a decade.In a briefing for reporters Friday morning, Shalanda Young, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration does not look at the rising national debt with the same level of alarm as so-called fiscal hawks who want to see an end to deficit spending.“For the near term and the medium term, we believe the most important test of our fiscal health is real interest payments on the debt,” she said. “That’s what tells us whether debt is burdening our economy and crowding out other investments.”Young added, “This budget takes advantage of the fiscal space created by historically low interest rates to make urgently needed investments that will contribute to growth and shared prosperity.”Swift reactionsIn Washington, reaction to the president’s budget request broke along predictable party lines. John Yarmuth, the Kentucky Democrat who chairs the House Budget Committee, called it “transformative” and said it “will ensure we emerge from these past 14 months of crisis stronger and better prepared for the future than ever before.”FILE – House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., speaks with reporters before the House votes to pass a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 26, 2021.He added, “Investing in the American people has always been a good bet, but with interest rates low and the need high, it’s a sure thing. As past crises have shown, doing too little will cost us far more in the end.”Mara Rudman, executive vice president of the liberal Center for American Progress, said in a statement: “President Biden’s budget tackles the country’s most urgent challenges. Along with the priorities outlined in the American Jobs Plan, and the American Families Plan, the policies released today will help the country recover from the pandemic and build a clean energy future, while also investing in workers and families who will create long-lasting, inclusive economic growth.”Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell led a Republican response that thoroughly condemned the plan.FILE – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 13, 2021.“President Biden’s proposal would drown American families in debt, deficits and inflation,” McConnell said in a statement. “Even after the massive tax hikes Democrats want to force on the American people, they’d still have the government running trillion-plus-dollar deficits every year. Democrats want to borrow and spend on a scale that America has not seen since we had to fight and win World War II. Our debt burden would break all records, eclipsing even the 1940s.”Right-wing activist groups were similarly upset. Adam Brandon, the president of FreedomWorks, released a statement that said the budget puts the country on a “fast track to fiscal disaster.”“The term ‘fiscally irresponsible’ doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Brandon said. “ ‘Intentional malice’ is more appropriate. President Biden is sacrificing our nation’s future for his own political expediency, enabled by profligate spenders from all around.”International aidAfter several years in which the Trump administration sought to cut spending on diplomacy and international aid, the Biden administration is planning to reinvest in both. The budget for diplomatic engagement and foreign assistance is set to increase to $63.8 billion under Biden’s plan, an increase of $6.1 billion over last year. That includes $58.5 billion for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, an increase of $5.4 billion over last year.The budget request for the foreign assistance funding would increase by $4.4 billion to $43.7 billion. The bulk of that increase would go to bilateral economic assistance, on which the administration proposes to spend $28.1 billion in fiscal 2022.Also increasing would be funding to multilateral aid programs, such as the Global Health Program managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, rising sharply by $1.45 billion to $3.5 billion, and contributions to multilateral development banks such as the International Development Association and the African Development Fund, up $1.4 billion to $3.1 billion.Funding for international security assistance, including narcotics control, military training and peacekeeping operations, would jump $265 million to $9.2 billion in 2022.FILE – The blades of wind turbines catch the breeze at the Saddleback Ridge wind farm in Carthage, Maine, March 19, 2019.Climate changeIn addition to the climate change-related elements of the president’s infrastructure plan, which includes multiple green energy initiatives, the budget would increase the U.S. commitment to the global fight against a warming planet.The administration is proposing $36 billion more in investment in climate resilience and clean energy, backing up the president’s pledge to put the country on a path to net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.It also includes a $1.2 billion contribution to the international Green Climate Fund and $485 million for other multilateral climate change reduction programs. That comes on top of $700 million of the State Department and USAID budget directed toward international climate assistance.Military spendingThe federal budget is made up of two broad components: discretionary spending, which Congress must approve each budget cycle, and mandatory spending, which is required under existing law. The former includes funding for the executive branch agencies and programs; the latter is made up of spending on programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.This year’s budget was the first in a decade in which the administration was not constrained by rules that required that discretionary defense spending and nondefense discretionary spending to rise at roughly the same rate. For that reason, Biden was able to propose a budget that increased nondefense discretionary spending by 16%, but raised defense spending only by 1.7%.The U.S. will still have military spending at a level greater than the next 10 largest militaries combined under the proposed $715 billion Pentagon budget for fiscal 2022, but the relatively small increase drew sharp criticism from congressional conservatives.In a joint statement, Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Republican Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, called the proposal “wholly inadequate.”“A budget like this sends China and our other potential adversaries a bad signal — that we’re not willing to do what it takes to defend ourselves and our allies and partners,” they said in a joint statement.FILE – Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, May 6, 2021.Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday in an appearance before the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense that “this budget provides us the ability to create the right mix of capabilities to defend this nation and to deter any aggressors.“It adequately allows us to begin to prepare for the next fight,” he added. “It in fact does provide us the ability to go after the capabilities that we need.””It strikes an appropriate balance between preserving present readiness and future modernization,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark A. Milley said at the same hearing. “It is biased towards [the] future operating environment and the readiness it’s going to take in the future for this fundamental change in the character of war that we are currently undergoing.”VOA’s Carla Babb contributed to this report.
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Nuclear Flash Cards: US Secrets Exposed on Learning Apps
U.S. troops charged with guarding nuclear weapons in Europe used popular education websites to create flash cards, exposing their exact locations and top-secret security protocols, according to the investigative site Bellingcat on Friday. To familiarize themselves with things like which shelters in various locations had “hot” vaults with live nuclear bombs, with security patrol schedules, and with identification badge details, the soldiers created digital flash card sets on apps like Chegg Prep, Quizlet and Cram. “By simply searching online for terms publicly known to be associated with nuclear weapons, Bellingcat was able to discover cards used by military personnel serving at all six European military bases reported to store nuclear devices,” wrote Foeke Postma, author of the Bellingcat article. They found one set of 70 flashcards on Chegg, titled “Study!”, which noted the exact shelters containing nuclear weapons at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands. “How many WS3 vaults are there on Volkel ab,” said the question side of one virtual flash card, referring to the military term for weapons storage and security systems. “Eleven (11)” it read on the answer side. Another card from the same set indicated that five of the eleven vaults were “hot” with nuclear bombs while the other 6 were “cold,” and specified which vaults. A set of 80 cards on the Cram flashcard site detailed hot and cold vaults at Aviano Air Base in Italy, and revealed how a soldier should respond in activating them based on the different level of alarms they receive. Other cards exposed secrets at bases in Turkey, Belgium and Germany. Some detailed the location of security cameras; others gave the secret “duress words” that a soldier, perhaps seized by attackers, would say over a phone to indicate he had been taken prisoner. The flashcards Bellingcat discovered were publicly available as far back as 2013, and some were being used as recently as April 2021. Bellingcat said those it had viewed appeared to have been removed after it contacted NATO and the U.S. military for comment before it published its article.
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Mali Strongman Goita Reaches Out Amid International Pressure
Malian Colonel Assimi Goita on Friday said a new prime minister will be appointed within days, in his first remarks since seizing power this week. The army officer made the announcement during a meeting with political and civil-society figures in Bamako, according to an AFP journalist, as international pressure rises on the country’s ruling military administration. Soldiers detained President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane on Monday, before releasing them Thursday after they resigned. But the twin arrests triggered a diplomatic uproar — and marked the second apparent coup within a year in the unstable country. FILE – Transition Mali President Bah Ndaw is seen during his inauguration ceremony in Bamako, Sept. 25, 2020.Ndaw and Ouane had led a transitional government tasked with steering the return to civilian rule after a coup last August that toppled Mali’s elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Keita was forced out by young army officers, led by Goita, following mass protests over perceived corruption and his failure to quell a bloody jihadist insurgency. “In the coming days, the prime minister who will be appointed will carry out a broad consultation between the different factions,” Goita said. He asked those attending the meeting to support his preference of a prime minister from the opposition M5 movement, a once-powerful group that the military sidelined after the August coup. “Either we accept joining hands to save our country, or we wage clandestine wars, and we will all fail,” Goita said. Crisis summit The transition government — installed under the threat of regional sanctions — has the declared aim of restoring full civilian rule within 18 months. But its appointments were heavily influenced by the military. Goita, who headed the post-coup junta, was named vice president, and other key posts were given to army officers. The colonel’s office says he is leading the country again after the president and prime minister stepped down. On Friday, Goita explained that the army had little choice but to intervene. “We had to choose between disorder and cohesion within the defense and security forces and we chose cohesion,” he said. FILE – Malian police gather outside the Bourse du Travail where striking workers gathered to protest the arrest of President Bah N’Daw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane by military personnel in Bamako, Mali, May 25, 2021.Ndaw and Ouane’s detention came hours after a government reshuffle that would have replaced the defense and security ministers, both of whom were army officers who had taken part in the August putsch. Political turmoil in Mali has worried the country’s neighbors, which have led efforts to defuse the crisis. Diplomats told AFP Friday that the Economic Community of West African States would discuss the situation in Ghana’s capital Accra on Sunday. The 15-nation bloc has also warned of reimposing sanctions on the country, as has the United States and former colonial master France. There are nonetheless fears that sanctions would further destabilize the poverty-stricken nation of 19 million people, which has been battling a brutal jihadist insurgency since 2012. Russia’s foreign ministry, for its part, on Friday hailed the release of Ndaw and Ouane but pressed Mali to eventually hold “democratic elections.” ‘Come together’ Goita wants to name an M5 member as prime minister, in a move some say could relieve pressure on the military. M5 spearheaded protests against Keita in 2020 but was excluded from key posts in the army-dominated post-coup administration. A rapprochement with the group might serve to soften domestic and foreign criticism of the military. The International Crisis Group has said that an M5 prime minister could allay international concerns. Leader of the M5 movement Choguel Maiga, center, speaks to the press in Bamako, Mail, May 28 2021.The M5 itself appears willing to work with the army. The group’s spokesman, Jeamille Bittar, told a news conference Friday that M5 would put forward one of its cadres, Choguel Maiga, as prime minister. “We must all come together around the new government,” he said. In Bamako, there has been almost no opposition to the military’s latest power play. Most have wearily accepted its role in politics. Some have even welcomed it. Several hundred people rallied in support of the army in a central square of the city on Friday, with many toting portraits of Goita.
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Biden Optimistic About US Progress in COVID Fight
President Joe Biden started the Memorial Day weekend by visiting a rock climbing gym in northern Virginia as the state lifted all COVID-19 distancing and capacity restrictions at private businesses and much of the nation pushes toward a greater sense of normalcy.Biden sought to use the stop on Friday at Sportrock Climbing Centers — an 18,000 square foot space of climbing and bouldering walls, a gym, and yoga studios — to celebrate progress made as the country looks to turn the corner on the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 593,000 Americans and 3.5 million people worldwide.
The president also used the moment to thank Americans who have already received vaccinations —about 51% of Americans are now fully vaccinated — and again urged Americans who haven’t to get their shot.
“All over the country we’ve gone from pain and stagnation of a long dark winter to an economy on the move,” Biden said. He added, “Americans of every party, race, creed have come together and rolled up their sleeves – literally – and done their part.”Tune in as I deliver remarks with Governor Northam on Virginia’s progress in the fight against COVID-19. https://t.co/4E9HseCWPr— President Biden (@POTUS) May 28, 2021This year the long holiday weekend that marks the unofficial start to the summer comes at moment when the federal government and state governments are relaxing masking and social distancing rules now that a majority of Americans are now vaccinated and more Americans are looking to return to their pre-pandemic routines.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam lifted coronavirus-related restrictions on capacity and social distancing in the state on Friday. He had already lifted Virginia’s indoor mask mandate for fully vaccinated people on May 15 for most indoor settings, although businesses can still require masks if they want to.
On Friday, Virginia’s positivity rate — the percentage of people testing positive for the virus in the last seven days — stood at 2.6%. About 54% of the state’s population has received at least one dose of vaccination, and nearly 44% is fully vaccinated, according to Virginia Department of Health data.
Northam, who is a pediatric neurologist by occupation, said that there is “finally a very bright light at the end of this long tunnel” due to Biden following scientists advice on his approach to the pandemic.
“As a doctor I know it also makes a big difference when leadership respects science and follows its lead,” Northam said.
Biden appeared enthralled by the Sportrock climbers, who seemed unfazed as the president watched them climb. Asked by a reporter if he’d like to give it a go, Biden responded that he would “like to” but suggested he start with one of the easier walls.
“I’m not gonna try the angle wall, I’d try that wall,” Biden said with a grin, pointing to a flatter climbing wall.
The visit came as Biden is pressing Republican lawmakers to back a massive infrastructure bill to rebuild roadways and bridges, replace millions of lead waterpipes and more — something that the White House is pitching as a salve for an economy as the U.S. turns the corner on the worst public health crisis in more than a century.
He sought to contrast the progress being made on vaccinating Americans with GOP resistance he’s facing in Congress.
“The American people are more ready to come together, I believe, than the Congress and the elected people,” Biden said.
Biden was scheduled to travel later on Friday to Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Va., to thank U.S. troops for their service before heading to his home in Wilmington, Del., where he is expected to spend most of the holiday weekend.
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Intercommunal Clashes in South Sudan Kill 18
At least 18 people were killed and dozens more were injured this week in two days of intercommunal clashes in South Sudan’s Warrap state, according to local authorities.Gogrial East County Commissioner Ayom Bul said armed men from Unity state crossed into Warrap state on Wednesday intending to steal cattle. When they couldn’t find any, he said, they went on the attack.“The armed men came to my county with the intent to raid cattle and because the cattle keepers moved away their cattle days back to another area, these armed men couldn’t find any cattle, but ended up attacking the villages and Mangol market, killing children, women and other local youth,” Bul told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.In response, young men from Warrap state mobilized and the two sides clashed in the small town of Mangol, said Bul. He said Warrap youth “repulsed” the attackers, but not before they burned down two villages and the Mangol market.He said 15 people were killed in the clashes, including five children and three women.The fighting on Wednesday and Thursday marked the fourth time armed men from Unity state attacked the area in recent weeks, said Bul. He said more than 30 people were killed in Mangol Apuk last month by the same armed youths. Bul called on authorities from both states to act.Disarmament campaign soughtUnity state information minister Gabriel Makuei confirmed that armed young men from his state had clashed with Gogrial East County citizens in Warrap state.“This conflict between armed youths from Warrap and Unity states has been continuing for the last two months,” he said. Makuei said three people were killed and eight others seriously injured in clashes on the Unity state side of the border.Makuei called on authorities to carry out a nationwide disarmament campaign so that all citizens could live in peace, and he urged communities in Warrap and Unity states in particular to embrace peaceful coexistence.Warrap state information minister Ring Deng Ading condemned the attack.“I also appeal to the communities of Warrap state to stay calm and give a chance for the government to look into the matter,” Ading told South Sudan in Focus.Edmondi Yakani, a Juba-based civil society activist and executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress organization, condemned the killing of “innocent women and children in Warrap state by the armed men” and called on state and national leaders to “immediately come up with the mechanism to end this persistent violence in the country.”Yakani urged President Salva Kiir to declare intercommunal conflict a national crisis because the government is unable to control it. He said the future of the country remains dark if leaders continue to ignore violence in Unity, Warrap, Lakes, and Jonglei states along with the Greater Pibor Administrative Area.The only way to end the violence is a demonstration of political will among South Sudanese leaders to reconcile, disarm and build consensus among communities, according to Yakani.The revitalized peace agreement for South Sudan mandates that the leaders conduct nationwide disarmament and initiate peace-building activities to restore social cohesion among the communities of South Sudan.
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Russia Refuses to Allow 2 EU Airline Flights to Land
Russia refused to allow two EU-based airlines to land flights in the country to avoid Belarusian airspace days after Belarus scrambled a fighter jet and used a false bomb alert to divert an Irish passenger jet to Minsk and arrest a dissident Belarusian journalist. Russia’s decision, an apparent show of support for Belarus, forced the cancellation of an Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna and an Air France flight from Paris, the airlines said. European Union foreign policy head Josep Borrell said before an EU defense ministers meeting Friday in Lisbon that the EU had yet to determine if the refusals were isolated incidents or if Russia was systematically refusing to allow European airlines to land if they avoided Belarus. “We don’t know if it is case-by-case, specific cases, or is a general norm from the Russian authorities in order to make the European planes overfly Belarus,” Borrell said. Russia’s federal aviation agency has told airlines that route changes from Europe to Russia were due to political disputes involving Belarus and that they may cause longer clearance times. The Kremlin described Friday’s issues as “technical.”
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