Australian police said Friday they foiled a plan to bring nearly three tons of cocaine into the country, the largest drug interdiction in the nation’s history. At a news conference, New South Wales State Police Commander Stuart Smith told reporters that officers had arrested three men for their roles in a conspiracy to bring drugs into the country. He said the amount was equal to the cocaine consumed in New South Wales in an entire year. Smith said authorities were first tipped off to the criminal enterprise early in 2020, when detectives noticed a man gambling a large sum of money in a casino. That led to an investigation, which eventually revealed a large international syndicate operating on four continents. Smith said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, acting on information from the New South Wales Police, intercepted 870 kilograms of cocaine as it was being transported off the coast of Colombia in October of last year. In April of this year, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a boat off the coast of Ecuador carrying another 900 kilograms of cocaine. The police commander said the operation culminated Thursday with the arrest of the three suspects in New Castle, New South Wales, who have been charged with conspiracy to supply prohibited drugs.
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Month: June 2021
Threat of Third COVID Wave in Africa ‘Real and Rising’, WHO Warns
“The threat of a third wave” of COVID-19 in Africa is “real and rising,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization regional director for Africa, told a virtual news conference Thursday. “While many countries outside Africa have now vaccinated their high-priority groups and are able to even consider vaccinating their children, African countries are unable to even follow up with second doses for high-risk groups,” Moeti said. She urged “countries that have reached a significant vaccination coverage to release doses and keep the most vulnerable Africans out of critical care.”The New York Times reported that migrants in Italy are not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, even though the government has said that everyone has a right to the vaccine, regardless of their legal status. The Times account said a social security number is required to book an appointment for the shot, but only three of Italy’s 20 regions recognize the temporary numbers “given to hundreds of thousands of migrants.” Dr. Marco Mazzetti, the president of the Italian Society of Migration Medicine, told the newspaper that many of the migrants are domestic workers.“If we don’t control the virus circulation among these people who come inside our homes to help us, we don’t control the virus circulation in the country,” Mazzetti said. India’s health ministry says it has ordered 300 million doses of an unapproved vaccine at a cost of over $200 million to be produced by Hyderabad-based Biological-E. The vaccine is currently in Phase 3 of the clinical trials. India’s Supreme Court has criticized the country’s vaccine program, which has left much of the country’s massive population unvaccinated. On Friday, India’s health ministry said that it had recorded 132,364 new coronavirus cases in the previous 24-hour period and 2,713 deaths. India has reported 28.5 million COVID-19 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Only the U.S. has more infections, at more than 33 million.Authorities in Britain have approved the Pfizer vaccine for 12-15-year-olds. Regulators said the trial involving 2,000 children produced a good response.COVAX financial boostIn other pandemic news, the WHO program to secure and distribute billions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to the world’s poorest countries has received a major financial boost. The COVAX initiative received nearly $2.4 billion in pledges Wednesday during a virtual summit hosted by Japan, which made the largest pledge, $800 million. The program also received significant financial pledges from Canada, France, Spain and Sweden. COVAX has raised $9.6 billion since its creation. Several nations also pledged to donate millions of doses from their domestic stockpiles to COVAX, with Japan again leading the way with a promise to donate 30 million doses. COVAX is an alliance that includes the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, an organization founded by Bill and Melinda Gates to vaccinate children in the world’s poorest countries. The program has so far distributed 77 million vaccine doses to 127 countries, far below its initial pledge of up to 2 billion doses this year. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris reminded the summit that the Biden administration has pledged a total of $4 billion to COVAX for 2021-2022, but she made no new pledges of additional financial or vaccine donations. President Joe Biden has pledged to donate 80 million doses from the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine stockpile.
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Biden’s Pledge on Media Freedom May Be Easier Said Than Done
One of the Biden Justice Department’s first big moves has been to alert reporters at three major news organizations that their phone records were seized as part of leak investigations under the Trump administration, with President Joe Biden saying he would abandon the practice of spying on journalists.
But while Biden’s stated commitment that his Justice Department won’t seize reporters’ phone records has won support from press freedom groups, it remains unclear if that promise can be kept, especially because Democratic and Republican administrations alike have relied on the tactic in an effort to track down leaks of classified information. His comment last month about what law enforcement should or should not do was all the more striking given Biden’s pledge to uphold the tradition of an independent Justice Department.
“In this case, it seems bad policy to institute an absolute ban on logical investigative actions geared to finding out who violated the law, particularly in instances where the journalists themselves whose records may be at issue are not the subject or target of criminal investigation,” said David Laufman, a former Justice Department official who led the section that oversaw investigations into leaks.
The Justice Department in recent weeks disclosed that federal investigators had secretly obtained call records of journalists at The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN in an effort to identify sources who had provided national security information published in the early months of the Trump administration.
Past administrations also have struggled to balance the media’s First Amendment newsgathering rights against government interests in safeguarding national security secrets. Inside the Justice Department, officials have on several occasions over the years revised internal guidelines to afford media organizations better protection without ever removing from their arsenal the prerogative to subpoena reporters’ records.
Biden appears to be looking to change that.
He told a reporter last month that seizing journalists’ records was “simply, simply wrong” and that the practice would be halted under his watch. After the most recent revelation — that the Justice Department in the Trump administration had secretly seized the phone records of four New York Times reporters — White House press secretary Jen Psaki reaffirmed the commitment to freedom of the press.
But she also said discussions with the Justice Department were still underway and that no new policy was ready to be announced.
Michael Weinstein, a former Justice Department prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer in New Jersey, said he understood Biden’s comments as making clear his disdain for the practice without necessarily precluding the possibility that it could ever be used under any circumstances.
“I don’t see that he’s directing any specific case or that he’s directing that an investigation take one path or another,” Weinstein said. “He’s simply putting forth priorities and procedures, which then the Justice Department has to modify its protocols as a result.
“I don’t think he’s saying you can never do it,” he added. “I think he’s saying the standards have to be higher.”
The Justice Department says it has now concluded notifying the media organizations whose phone records were accessed. The latest revelation came Wednesday when The Times said it had learned that investigators last year secretly obtained records for four reporters during a nearly four-month period in 2017.
The gap in time likely reflects that the Justice Department regards the seizure of phone records as a last resort when other avenues in a leak investigation have been exhausted. The department said the reporters are neither subjects nor targets of the investigation but did not reveal which leak was under investigation.
The four reporters shared a byline on an April 2017 story that detailed the FBI’s decision-making in the final stages of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The story included classified information about a document obtained by Russian hackers that helped persuade then-FBI Director James Comey that he, not Attorney General Loretta Lynch, should be the one to announce the investigation had concluded without criminal charges. His unusual July 2016 news conference, held at the FBI and without Lynch or other leaders, marked an extraordinary departure from protocol.
The Trump administration announced a crackdown on leaks in 2017 as part of an aggressive stance. In addition to the phone records seizures disclosed over the past month regarding the reporters, the department won guilty pleas from a former government contractor who mailed a classified report to a news organization and a former Senate committee aide who admitted lying to the FBI about his contacts with a reporter.
Psaki said Thursday that Trump administration officials had “abused their power” and that Biden was looking to turn the page. But the same intrusive tactics of the last four years were also employed during the Obama administration, which secretly seized phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors during a leak investigation in 2013 and also labeled a Fox News reporter a co-conspirator in a separate leak probe.
Amid blowback, former Attorney General Eric Holder announced guidelines for leak investigations that among other things required sign-off by the highest levels of the department for subpoenas of journalists’ records.
But the department’s ability to obtain those records under certain circumstances remained intact.
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Attacks in Eastern DR Congo Kill Dozens, Force 1,000s to Flee
The U.N. refugee agency says at least 57 civilians were killed, including seven children, and nearly 6,000 forced to flee, when their displacement sites came under attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern Ituri province on May 31.The armed rebel group Allied Democratic Forces reportedly staged multiple, simultaneous attacks on displacement sites and villages near the towns of Boga and Tchabi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Witnesses say the armed men shot and attacked people with machetes, killing and wounding scores of people. They say at least 25 people were abducted and more than 70 shelters and stores set on fire. U.N. refugee spokesman Babar Balloch called the latest series of atrocities committed by the ADF outrageous and heartbreaking. “In Boga town alone, 31 women, children and men were killed,” Balloch said. “Bereaved family members told UNHCR partners that many of their relatives were burnt alive in their houses.” More than 5 million people have been uprooted by insecurity and violence in the DRC — 1.7 million in Ituri province alone. Balloch said security in the region must be scaled up to protect the lives of civilians, many of whom have been attacked and forced to flee multiple times. “We have seen in the past where there is security present that the number of attacks go down,” Balloch said. “But understanding how these displacement sites are, which are scattered all around the Ituri province, many of them are spontaneous. So, people go through horrendous atrocities at the hands of the armed group.” The U.N. spokesman said thousands of people fled the attacks with virtually nothing but the clothes on their backs. Many are sleeping out in the open in the bush, and are in desperate need of assistance. Unfortunately, insecurity is hampering humanitarian work, he said. The office of one of the UNHCR’s partner agencies recently was looted, depriving thousands of crucial aid. Moreover, security concerns have forced health centers in Bunia, the capital of Ituri, to evacuate their staff and temporarily suspend activities.
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Hong Kong Police Thwart Tiananmen Square Vigil as Activist Arrested
For the second year in a row, authorities have banned the annual Tiananmen Square vigil in Hong Kong that usually attracts thousands of people in memory of the Chinese government’s crackdown in Beijing in 1989. Thirty-two years ago, thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets in Beijing demonstrating against the Chinese government and demanding economic and political reforms. After several weeks, China’s People’s Liberation Army occupied the area with tanks and opened fire against the student-led demonstrators, killing an unknown numbers of demonstrators. Thousands of mourners in Hong Kong have attended the annual remembrance vigil for decades, but authorities banned it for the first time last year, citing the global pandemic. The event is illegal in mainland China. People hold up their phones with the light on in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong, June 4, 2021, after police closed the venue where Hong Kong people gather annually to mourn the victims of China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.Up to 7,000 police officers were reportedly deployed Friday to handle potential gatherings, with 3,000 alone stationed at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, the usual location for the memorial. Authorities again pointed to COVID-19 and the current four-person cap on gatherings as this year’s reason the vigil could not go ahead. Police also warned that any protesters who defied the ban, chanted slogans or wore black — a color affiliated with anti-government protesters in 2019 — would be arrested. Swedish journalist Johan Nylander told VOA that although the park was nearly empty, the atmosphere was “hostile” Friday, saying the police warned him he would be arrested. Hong Kong police prevent protesters from gathering to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing, Victoria Park, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, June 4, 2021. (Photo courtesy of Johan Nylander)”Every street corner you had big groups of police. And also in the park, police everywhere. Five percent of the park was still open but was heavily guarded by police. “I was taking pictures, not in the off-limit area, and the police stormed up to me and said, no, you’re not allowed to take photographs. I had been there three to four minutes and it almost happened immediately. “He was clearly threatening to arrest me if I didn’t leave,” Nylander added. Earlier in the day, Hong Kong police arrested pro-democracy human rights activist Chow Hang Tung for allegedly promoting unauthorized assembly. This video frame grab taken from AFPTV footage shows Chow Hang Tung, leader of the Hong Kong Alliance, being led away by plainclothes police officers after being detained in Hong Kong on June 4, 2021.Chow, a lawyer who had represented at least one defendant during the bail hearing for the 47 activists charged under the national security law earlier this year, is also the vice chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance, which organizes the annual vigil. Her arrest is believed to stem from a social media post that discussed the Hong Kong Alliance’s failed appeal for the vigil to go ahead, according to local reports. Her colleague, Lee Cheuk Yan, the Hong Kong Alliance chairman, is in jail following illegal assembly offenses dating back to 2019. Prior to his imprisonment, Lee was pessimistic on the possibility of large rallies being legally approved on sensitive dates in Hong Kong, including the Tiananmen Square vigil. “It can be very difficult, it’s not the Tiananmen Square vigil, it’s everything that has attraction for the masses,” the activist told VOA earlier this year. Police detain people near Victoria Park in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong, June 4, 2021.Lee, who was born in mainland China, was one of the protesters who survived the events in Beijing. He was interrogated by Chinese authorities for his role in Beijing at the time but was released and escaped back into Hong Kong. Despite the gathering ban firmly in force, Hong Kong residents have found other ways to remember the date. Social media posts showed how individuals had attended the park the day before, on June 3, to show their respects. At Hong Kong University, a ceremony took place around Pillar of Shame of Hong Kong — a concrete sculpture depicting 50 twisted bodies as a representation of those who died during the Tiananmen Square protests. Others have told VOA they plan to attend Remembrance Mass, an event to commemorate the crackdown in churches across the city. University students observe a minute of silence in front of the Pillar of Shame statue at the University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, China, June 4, 2021.Emily Lau, a former Democratic Party chairperson, is one prominent political figure who planned to attend mass in the evening. She told VOA, “The annual candlelight vigil at Victoria Park shows many people will not forget the atrocities 32 years ago. “The banning of the Victoria Park gathering last year and this year shows the Chinese government, and the Hong Kong government, don’t want the people to remember. The Hong Kong people want the authorities to investigate what happened in 1989 and punish those responsible for the massacre,” she added. Wong Yat Chin, organizer of Hong Kong’s Student Politicism, a political group aiming to promote values of democracy, was to screen a documentary with an open forum about the crackdown, and about more recent events in Hong Kong. “As we have officially descended into the age of one country, one system, any slight act of dissent has been sanctioned by the regime, which has caused the complete loss of fundamental freedom and rights, blatant violations of our human rights,” he said. Livestreams from local Hong Kong media showed Wong Yat Chin was later handcuffed and detained by police officers during his presentation. Authorities then raised a warning flag to alert gathering crowds to disperse or risk arrest. Police officers disperse people mourning at Victoria Park on the 32nd anniversary of the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, in Hong Kong, China, June 4, 2021.Last year’s vigil was canceled for the first time, but thousands of people turned up anyway, lighting candles and holding up lights from their phones. The night ended without incident in the immediate area. Twenty-four activists were charged in August for participating in or organizing the illegal rally. Joshua Wong was one of four activists jailed in May and given a 10-month sentence, but was already serving time for other offenses. The remaining 20 people are awaiting sentencing. Under the “one country, two systems” agreement signed by Britain and China in 1997, after the city was transferred back to Chinese rule, Beijing promised that Hong Kong would retain a “high degree of autonomy” until 2047. After 2019’s pro-democracy protests, Beijing implemented a national security law for Hong Kong that prohibits secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, and its details can be widely interpreted.
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Latest NASA Supply Ship to Space Includes Newly-Hatched Squid
The U.S. space agency NASA said cargo on the latest supply ship headed for the International Space Station (ISS) includes newly hatched squid to be used in experiments examining the effects of space flight on microorganisms.NASA said the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft that blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Thursday – along with the squid, is carrying more than 3,300 kilograms of science experiments, new solar arrays, and other cargo.The hatchlings are bobtail squid and they are part of a project called Understanding of Microgravity on Animal-Microbe Interactions (UMAMI), which examines the effects of spaceflight on the molecular and chemical interactions between beneficial microbes and their animal hosts. Gravity’s role in shaping those interactions is not well understood and microgravity provides the opportunity to improve that understanding. At a NASA news briefing earlier this week, University of Florida microbiologist Jamie Foster told reporters all people and animals have beneficial microbes that help our bodies perform basic functions, like in the digestive or immune systems, and are essential to human health. She said astronauts working in space frequently find their immune systems can become compromised or dysregulated – a potentially dangerous situation when you can’t go to a doctor immediately or you can’t get help. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 8 MB480p | 11 MB540p | 14 MB720p | 30 MB1080p | 55 MBOriginal | 415 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioSpace NewsFoster says squid have similar immune systems to humans, but they are simpler organisms and therefore, are easier to study. She said the study could provide valuable insight into how extended spaceflight impacts astronauts’ bodies, and how to address it.The Dragon supply ship is expected to rendezvous with the ISS early Saturday, eastern U.S. time.
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US Government Finds No Evidence Aerial Sightings Were Alien Spacecraft – NYT
U.S. intelligence officials found no evidence that unidentified aerial phenomena observed by Navy aviators in recent years were alien spacecraft, but the sightings remain unexplained in a highly anticipated government report, The New York Times said Thursday.
The report also found the vast majority of incidents documented over the past two decades did not originate from any American military or other advanced U.S. government technology, the Times said, citing senior administration officials briefed on the report headed to Congress this month.
Many of the 120-plus sightings reviewed in the classified intelligence study from a Pentagon task force were reported by U.S. Navy personnel, while some involved foreign militaries, according to the Times.
The newspaper said U.S. intelligence officials believe experimental technology of a rival power could account for at least some of the aerial phenomena in question.
One unnamed senior U.S. official briefed on the report told the Times there was concern among American intelligence and military officials that China or Russia could be experimenting with hypersonic technology.
An unclassified version of the report expected to be submitted to Congress by June 25 will present few other conclusions, the newspaper said.
Public fascination with unidentified flying objects has been stoked in recent weeks by the forthcoming report, with UFO enthusiasts anticipating revelations about unexplained sightings many believe the government has sought to discredit or cover up for decades.
But senior U.S. officials cited in the Times article said the report’s ambiguity meant the government was unable to definitively rule out theories that the unidentified phenomena might have been extraterrestrial in nature.
The government’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force was created following a spate of observations by military pilots of unknown aerial objects exhibiting exotic speeds and maneuverability that seemingly defied the limits of known technology and laws of physics.
Led by the Navy, the task force was established last year to “improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAP incursions into our training ranges and designated airspace,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough told Reuters.
She said such incidents are of concern because of safety and national security implications.
Responding to Reuters’ questions about the task force report, Gough said in an email earlier Thursday: “We do not publicly discuss the details of the UAP observations, the task force or examinations.”
The term “unidentified flying objects,” or UFOs, long associated with the idea of alien spacecraft, has been largely supplanted in official government parlance by UAP, short for unidentified aerial phenomena, since December 2017.
It was then that the Pentagon first went on record, in a New York Times article, acknowledging documented UAP encounters by its warplanes and ships and efforts to catalog them, marking a turnaround from decades of publicly treating the subject as taboo.
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Eyes on China as British Aircraft Carrier Group Heads to South Sea for Military Drill
A British-led aircraft carrier group voyage that will take the HMS Queen Elizabeth to the disputed South China Sea would push Beijing further into an angry defensive position, analysts believe.The 65,000-ton aircraft carrier with more than 30 aircraft plans to visit the Asian waterway for military drills with the U.S. Navy and Japanese Maritime Self Defense Forces, British media outlets say. The ships set sail in May for a world journey of seven months, the Royal Navy said on its website without specifying when it would reach the South China Sea. A Dutch frigate and an American destroyer have joined the group.China will see the voyage as a sign that Western allies are marshaling forces against it, experts say. Chinese officials claim 90% of the sea as China’s, citing historic usage records. Militarily weaker Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or parts of the same sea, overlapping Chinese claimed waters.As China builds up islands in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer, resource-rich sea for military installations and expands its navy, Western countries have been sending ships over the past half year as a warning against that expansion and a gesture of support for the smaller claimants.French, British Ships to Sail Disputed Asian Sea, Rile China
British and French warships will sail to the disputed South China Sea in a display of naval strength that may satisfy domestic audiences but ruffle the waterway’s major stakeholder, China, and lead to more militarization, analysts say.Vessels from the two European naval powers, which have no South China Sea claims of their own, will use the event to justify military spending at home, experts say.
“I think the Chinese will be upset,” said Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo. Chinese officials will say the voyage reflects a “Cold War mentality” and a “containment mentality” aimed at China, he said.“It will reaffirm their view that the United States is now clearly intent on stopping China’s rise and preventing China’s development, but the reality is the U.K. has limited resources it can lend to the region and it’s more symbolic than a tangible increase,” he said.US Adding Air Power to Naval Operations in Disputed South China Sea Beijing is watching as Washington reportedly sends B-52s, reconnaissance aircraft and at least one Marine Corps plane to a sea China claims as its own China regularly protests U.S. Navy voyages into the sea, 10 of which took place last year following another 10 in 2019. China sometimes follows up with military drills. The U.K. and the United States are close allies.The Beijing government cannot “forget” that Britain once colonized parts of China, including Hong Kong, said Chen Yi-fan, assistant diplomacy and international relations professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan.China’s reaction to the voyage will hinge on time the U.K. spends in the sea, said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank in Taiwan.“It really depends on the U.K.’s efforts, whether it can actually present itself in the region on a regular basis,” Yang said.Welcomed in Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asian maritime claimants will welcome the British voyage, though careful to spin their support in a way to avoid upsetting China, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. Much of Southeast Asia counts China as a top trading partner. Malaysia and Singapore, as former British colonies, though, have particularly strong ties to the U.K., Oh said.“I think we have the same attitude as the British, namely we don’t want to unduly upset China because, whether we like it or not, China is our largest trading partner,” said Oh, who is Malaysian. “But at the same time, it is important to also show to Chinese that we are not retreating from our claims of sovereignty.” Power projectionBritish officials for their part hope to “project strong relations” around maritime Asia following their break from the European Union, Nagy said. He tips the country to work more closely in the future with Japan and the United States on Indo-Pacific issues where they disagree with China.The HMS Queen Elizabeth group will visit 40 nations, including Japan, over its course of 48,152 kilometers, according to a Royal Navy statement on May 22.U.K. Carrier Strike Group Commander, Commodore Steve Moorhouse, called the voyage the “most important peacetime deployment in a generation,” according to the navy’s statement.
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From Beatles to Elton John: Oldest DJ’s Storied Career
Ray Cordeiro considers himself the luckiest radio DJ in the world.
In a storied career spanning over 70 years in Hong Kong, Cordeiro has interviewed superstars including the Beatles and Elton John, and even received an MBE — an order of the British empire for outstanding achievement or service to the community — from Queen Elizabeth.
Cordeiro, who holds the Guinness world record for the world’s longest-working DJ, retired last month at the age of 96.
“I’ve been talking all my life about music and all, and I’d never thought that I would retire. I never thought that I was getting older,” he said.
Cordeiro was born in 1924 in Hong Kong and is of Portuguese descent. His musical tastes as a child were influenced by his brother who was 10 years older and collected records from groups like the Mills Brothers and the Andrews Sisters.
Back then records were breakable, Cordeiro said.
“When he’s not home and I played his records, I had to be very, very careful, because if I broke it he would get awfully angry,” Cordeiro said. “I grew up with his music.”
In his youth, Cordeiro worked as a warden at a local prison and a clerk at an HSBC bank. His love for music eventually led him to pursue a career in radio, where he joined public broadcaster Radio Hong Kong, now known as Radio Television Hong Kong.
It was during a three-month study course in London with the BBC in 1964 that Cordeiro landed the interview that kickstarted his career — with the Beatles, the biggest band in the world at the time.
He had some free time after the end of the course before he had to return to Hong Kong and didn’t want to “sit around for two weeks doing nothing.”
“So, I said, why don’t I grab the chance of finding some peeps, some pop groups or singers that I can interview and bring back (tapes) to Hong Kong,” he said.
During those two weeks, Cordeiro traveled to venues where groups were performing and interviewed them afterward.
The Beatles had become wildly popular and Cordeiro wanted to interview them the most. Armed with a notebook and a pen, he went to the offices of the band’s record label, EMI, to ask for an interview with the group.
By a stroke of luck, he was told to return the next day for an interview, with EMI loaning him a tape recorder for it. He bought a magazine with a picture of the Beatles on the cover and took it with him to the interview and got all the members to autograph it.
“Altogether I have some 26 signatures of all the Beatles, and it’s probably worth a fortune,” he said.
The interview was short because he didn’t have a lot of tape in the tape recorder, but Cordeiro managed to spend time with each member of the Beatles. He said John Lennon recounted the Beatles’ early days in Hamburg, Germany, where they lived in relative poverty and played in clubs.
He later interviewed the Beatles again when they visited Hong Kong. The interviews shot him to fame, and he quickly became Hong Kong’s top DJ, armed with interviews he had conducted in London with the popular music groups at the time.
“I had a career before that, because I was interviewing local pop stars, but when you compare them to the Beatles it is something quite different,” he said.
As the city’s most recognizable DJ, he also got to know other stars such as Elton John and Tony Bennett.
Known for his deep, calm voice, flat cap and easy listening repertoire, Cordeiro garnered a loyal following of listeners who would tune in to his weekday radio show “All the Way with Ray,” which ran from 1970 until last month.
“I fulfilled my work as a DJ, did what I had to do and the audience followed me, grew up with me, and they’re all over the world now,” he said. “They’re all over and they still listened to me on the internet.”
Asked if he were to do it all over again if he would pick being a DJ as a career, Cordeiro doesn’t hesitate.
“I don’t think I have to actually think about it, the answer is yes,” he said.
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G-7 Tax Deal ‘In Sight’: France, Germany, Italy, Spain
A G-7 deal on a minimum corporate tax rate is “within sight,” finance ministers from France, Germany, Italy and Spain said Friday before a meeting of the world’s richest nations.”We have a chance to get multinational businesses to pay their fair share,” France’s Bruno Le Maire, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Italy’s Daniele Franco and Spain’s Nadia Calvino said in The Guardian newspaper.British finance minister Rishi Sunak starts a two-day meeting on Friday with counterparts from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, before a leader summit next week including U.S. President Joe Biden.The spotlight is on ambitious plans for a minimum level of corporate tax, as global powers seek to make multinationals pay their way.”For more than four years, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have been working together to create an international tax system fit for the 21st century,” the four ministers wrote in a joint opinion piece.”It is a saga of many twists and turns. Now it’s time to come to an agreement.”Biden is calling a unified minimum corporate tax rate of 15% in negotiations with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and G-20.”The new US proposal on minimal taxation is an important step in the direction of the proposal initially floated by our countries and taken over by the OECD,” the four ministers added.”The commitment to a minimum effective tax rate of at least 15% is a promising start.”
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WHO: Threat of Third COVID Wave in Africa ‘Real and Rising’
“The threat of a third wave” of COVID-19 in Africa is “real and rising,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization regional director for Africa, told a virtual news conference Thursday. “While many countries outside Africa have now vaccinated their high-priority groups and are able to even consider vaccinating their children, African countries are unable to even follow up with second doses for high-risk groups,” Moeti said. She urged “countries that have reached a significant vaccination coverage to release doses and keep the most vulnerable Africans out of critical care.”The New York Times reported that migrants in Italy are not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, even though the government has said that everyone has a right to the vaccine, regardless of their legal status. The Times account said a social security number is required to book an appointment for the shot, but only three of Italy’s 20 regions recognize the temporary numbers “given to hundreds of thousands of migrants.” Dr. Marco Mazzetti, the president of the Italian Society of Migration Medicine, told the newspaper that many of the migrants are domestic workers.“If we don’t control the virus circulation among these people who come inside our homes to help us, we don’t control the virus circulation in the country,” Mazzetti said. India’s health ministry says it has ordered 300 million doses of an unapproved vaccine at a cost of over $200 million to be produced by Hyderabad-based Biological-E. The vaccine is currently in Phase 3 of the clinical trials. India’s Supreme Court has criticized the country’s vaccine program, which has left much of the country’s massive population unvaccinated. On Friday, India’s health ministry said that it had recorded 132,364 new coronavirus cases in the previous 24-hour period and 2,713 deaths. India has reported 28.5 million COVID-19 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Only the U.S. has more infections, at more than 33 million.Authorities in Britain have approved the Pfizer vaccine for 12-15-year-olds. Regulators said the trial involving 2,000 children produced a good response.COVAX financial boostIn other pandemic news, the WHO program to secure and distribute billions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to the world’s poorest countries has received a major financial boost. The COVAX initiative received nearly $2.4 billion in pledges Wednesday during a virtual summit hosted by Japan, which made the largest pledge, $800 million. The program also received significant financial pledges from Canada, France, Spain and Sweden. COVAX has raised $9.6 billion since its creation. Several nations also pledged to donate millions of doses from their domestic stockpiles to COVAX, with Japan again leading the way with a promise to donate 30 million doses. COVAX is an alliance that includes the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, an organization founded by Bill and Melinda Gates to vaccinate children in the world’s poorest countries. The program has so far distributed 77 million vaccine doses to 127 countries, far below its initial pledge of up to 2 billion doses this year. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris reminded the summit that the Biden administration has pledged a total of $4 billion to COVAX for 2021-2022, but she made no new pledges of additional financial or vaccine donations. President Joe Biden has pledged to donate 80 million doses from the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine stockpile.
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US Marshals: 1 Man Shot Dead During Arrest Attempt in Minneapolis
A man was killed Thursday when authorities who were part of a task force that included U.S. Marshals opened fire in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood, the U.S. Marshals said. Officials say the man had a handgun.The shooting happened shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday. The U.S. Marshals said preliminary information indicates task force members were attempting to arrest a man wanted on a state warrant for being a felon in possession of a firearm.The man, who was in a parked car, didn’t comply with law enforcement and “produced a handgun resulting in task force members firing upon the subject,” the U.S. Marshals said in a statement. Task force members attempted life-saving measures, but he died at the scene, they said.It was not clear how many law enforcement officers fired their weapons. A spokesperson with the U.S. Marshals said the U.S. Marshals leads the task force, which is comprised of several agencies. Other agencies with personnel on the scene at the time of the shooting include sheriff’s offices from Hennepin, Anoka and Ramsey counties, the Minnesota Department of Corrections and the Department of Homeland Security.The U.S. Marshals said a female who was in the vehicle was treated for minor injuries due to glass debris.Few other details were provided. The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms both tweeted that they were responding to help investigate. The Marshals said the state BCA is leading the investigation.The Minneapolis Police Department said it was not involved in the incident.A small crowd had gathered in the area in a city that has been on edge since the deaths of George Floyd, a Black man who died last year after he was pinned to the ground by Minneapolis officers, and Daunte Wright, a Black motorist who was fatally shot in April by an officer in the nearby suburb of Brooklyn Park.Former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death, and three other officers await trial on aiding and abetting charges. Former Brooklyn Park Officer Kim Potter is charged with manslaughter in Wright’s death.While some members of the crowd shouted expletives at the police on Thursday, overall the crowd remained peaceful.According to the Star Tribune newspaper, an aerial view of the top level of the parking ramp where Thursday’s shooting reportedly occurred showed a silver sport utility vehicle with a shattered back window. It was surrounded by many other vehicles near a white pop-up tent. Several officers were nearby and in a glass-enclosed stairwell.
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Japan Donates More Than 1 Million AstraZeneca Jabs to Taiwan
Japan delivered to Taiwan 1.24 million doses of AstraZeneca PLC’s coronavirus vaccine on Friday for free, in a gesture that will more than double the number of shots the island has received to date.Taiwan is battling a spike in domestic infections and has vaccinated only about 3% of its population. Japan has agreed to procure more than 300 million doses of coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer Inc, Moderna Inc and AstraZeneca, more than enough to cover its entire population.”At the time of the great east Japan earthquake 10 years ago, people in Taiwan sent us a lot of donations promptly. I believe that is etched vividly in the minds of Japanese people,” Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said, announcing the vaccine donation.”Such an important partnership and friendship with Taiwan is reflected in this offer.”The vaccines landed at Taipei’s main international airport early afternoon. Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said he was “extremely thankful” the shots had arrived at a tense moment in the island’s fight against the pandemic, as he reported another 472 new infections.”I believe it will be very helpful in overall pandemic prevention,” he added.The donation is a triumph for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who has faced public anger about the slow arrival of vaccines and small protests by the main opposition party, the Kuomintang, outside her offices.The donation “reflects the results of close exchanges between the Tsai Ing-wen government and the Japanese government over the past five years,” Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party said.Though Taiwan’s share has not been announced, the island will also get shots under a White House plan for the United States to share 25 million surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses with the world.Taiwan has received only about 860,000 doses so far, mainly AstraZeneca shots, but also a smaller number from Moderna. It has ordered more than 20 million doses from AstraZeneca and Moderna and is also developing its own vaccines.In an emailed statement to Reuters, Johnson & Johnson said that it had been in “confidential discussions” with Taiwan about providing its COVID-19 vaccine to the island since last year but gave no details.The J&J vaccine requires a single dose, rather than the two-shot regimen of most other COVID-19 vaccines.Like many governments, Taiwan’s vaccine plans have been stymied by global shortages.China, which claims the island as its own territory, has offered vaccines, but Taiwan has repeatedly expressed concern about their safety, and accused China of trying to block Taiwan’s vaccine purchases internationally. Beijing denies this.Japan approved AstraZeneca’s vaccine last month and has contracted to buy 120 million doses. But there are no immediate plans to use the shots, amid lingering concerns raised internationally over blood clots.
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Some Namibian Tribal Chiefs Accept $1.3 Billion German Compensation Offer
A group of traditional chiefs in Namibia said Thursday they have accepted an offer of compensation by Germany and a recognition that the colonial-era massacre of tens of thousands of their people in the early 20th century was genocide.Germany pledged last week to give 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) over a 30-year period for projects to help communities of people descended from those killed between 1904 and 1908, when Germany ruled the southern African country. Germany asked the victims for forgiveness, in a statement by Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.The chiefs accepted the offer but said it could still be improved through further negotiations.”We resolved to accept this offer because what is paramount to us is not the amount of money we are getting from the German government but the restoration of our dignity,” said Gerson Katjirua, head of the Ovaherero/OvaMbanderu and Nama Council, which consists of 21 tribal chiefs. “This process was and will never be about making money from the German government.”Other traditional chiefs have rejected the offer, and say they want around 487 billion euros ($590 billion) paid over 40 years, and pension funds for affected communities.Historians say German Gen. Lothar von Trotha, who was sent to what was then German South West Africa to put down an uprising by the Herero people, instructed his troops to wipe out the entire tribe. They say that the majority of the Herero, about 65,000, were killed, as were at least 10,000 Nama people.
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Timeline: China’s Tiananmen Square Demonstrations and Crackdown
Friday marks the anniversary of China’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in and around central Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, when Chinese troops opened fire on their own people.The event remains a taboo topic of discussion in mainland China and will not be officially commemorated by the ruling Communist Party or government.Here are some landmark dates leading up to the demonstrations and the crackdown that followed:1988: China slides into economic chaos with panic buying triggered by rising inflation that neared 30%.April 15, 1989: A leading reformer and former Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang, dies. His death acts as a catalyst for unhappiness with the slow pace of reform, as well as corruption and income inequality.April 17: Protests begin at Tiananmen Square, with students calling for democracy and reform. Crowds of up to 100,000 gather, despite official warnings.April 22: Some 50,000 students gather outside the Great Hall of the People as Hu’s memorial service is held. Three students attempt to deliver a petition to the government, outlining their demands, but are ignored. Rioting and looting take place in Xian and Changsha.April 24: Beijing students begin classroom strike.April 27: Around 50,000 students defy authorities and march to Tiananmen. Supporting crowds number up to 1 million.May 2: In Shanghai, 10,000 protesters march on city government headquarters.May 4: Further mass protests coinciding with the anniversary of the May 4 Movement of 1919, which was another student and intellectual-led movement for reform. Protests coincide with meeting of Asian Development Bank in Great Hall of the People. Students march in Shanghai and nine other cities.May 13: Hundreds of students begin a hunger strike on Tiananmen Square.FILE – Students shout after breaking through a police blockade during a pro-democracy march to Tiananmen Square, Beijing, May 4, 1989.May 15-18: To China’s embarrassment, protests prevent traditional welcome ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People for the state visit of reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Students welcome Gorbachev as “The Ambassador of Democracy.”May 19: Party chief Zhao Ziyang visits students on Tiananmen Square, accompanied by the hardline then-premier Li Peng and future premier Wen Jiabao. Zhao pleads with the student protesters to leave but is ignored. It is the last time Zhao is seen in public. He is later purged.May 20: Li declares martial law in parts of Beijing. Reviled by many to this day as the “Butcher of Beijing,” Li remained premier until 1998.May 23: Some 100,000 people march in Beijing demanding Li’s removal.May 30: Students unveil the 10-meter-high “Goddess of Democracy,” modeled on the Statue of Liberty, in Tiananmen Square.FILE – Hundreds of thousands of people, seeking political and economic reforms, crowded Beijing’s central Tiananmen Square on May 17, 1989, in the biggest popular upheaval in China since the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.May 31: Government-sponsored counter-demonstration calls students “traitorous bandits.”June 3: Citizens repel a charge towards Tiananmen by thousands of soldiers. Tear gas and bullets used in running clashes a few hundred meters from the square. Authorities warn protesters that troops and police have “right to use all methods.”June 4: In the early hours of the morning tanks and armored personnel carriers begin their attack on the square itself, clearing it by dawn. About four hours later, troops fire on unarmed civilians regrouping at the edge of the square.June 5: An unidentified Chinese man stands in front of a tank convoy leaving Tiananmen Square. The image spreads around the world as a symbol of defiance against the crackdown.June 6: Chinese State Council spokesperson Yuan Mu says on television that the known death toll was about 300, most of them soldiers, with only 23 students confirmed killed. China has never provided a full death toll, but rights groups and witnesses say the figure could run into the thousands.June 9: Paramount leader Deng Xiaoping praises military officers, and blames the protests on counter-revolutionaries seeking to overthrow the party.Sources: Reuters, Chinese state media
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Pence: I’ll Likely Never See Eye to Eye with Trump on Jan. 6
Former Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that he wasn’t sure that he and former President Donald Trump would ever see “eye to eye” over what happened on Jan. 6 but that he would “always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years.”Pence, speaking at a Republican dinner in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, gave his most extensive comments to date on the events of Jan. 6, when angry Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” after the vice president said he did not have the power to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.“As I said that day, Jan. 6 was a dark day in history of the United States Capitol. But thanks to the swift action of the Capitol Police and federal law enforcement, violence was quelled. The Capitol was secured,” Pence said.“And that same day, we reconvened the Congress and did our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States,” Pence continued. “You know, President Trump and I have spoken many times since we left office. And I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye on that day.”It was a rare departure for Pence, who spent four years standing loyally beside his boss amid controversy, investigation and impeachment. It comes as Pence considers his own potential 2024 White House run and as Republicans, some of whom were angry at Trump in the days after the Jan. 6 insurrection, have largely coalesced back around the former president.Pence praised Trump several times during his nearly 35-minute speech at the Hillsborough County Republican Committee’s annual Lincoln-Reagan Awards Dinner in Manchester. He tried to turn the events of Jan. 6 back around on Democrats, saying they wanted to keep the insurrection in the news to divert attention from Biden’s liberal agenda.“I will not allow Democrats or their allies in the media to use one tragic day to discredit the aspirations of millions of Americans. Or allow Democrats or their allies in the media to distract our attention from a new administration intent on dividing our country to advance their radical agenda,” Pence said. “My fellow Republicans, for our country, for our future, for our children and our grandchildren, we must move forward, united.”He accused Biden of campaigning as a moderate but becoming the most liberal president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. He said the administration forced through Congress “a COVID bill to fund massive expansion of the welfare state” and was pushing a “so-called infrastructure bill” that was really a “thinly disguised climate change bill” funded with cuts in the military and historic tax increases.FILE – President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence stand on stage during the first day of the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte, NC, Aug. 24, 2020.“I just say enough is enough,” he said, adding that “we’re going to stand strong for freedom.”Pence also hit upon several favorite themes of conservative Republicans, emphasizing the need for states to shore up voter integrity around the country. He praised law enforcement as heroes, saying: “Black lives are not endangered by police. Black lives are saved by police every day.”He also pushed back against “critical race theory,” which seeks to reframe the narrative of American history.Its proponents argue that federal law has preserved the unequal treatment of people on the basis of race and that the country was founded on the theft of land and labor. But Republicans have said concepts suggesting that people are inherently racist or that America was founded on racial oppression are divisive and have no place in the classroom.“America is not a racist country,” he said, prompting one of several standing ovations and cheers during his speech.“It is past time for America to discard the left-wing myth of systemic racism,” Pence said. “I commend state legislators and governors across the country for banning critical race theory from our schools.”His choice of states, including an April appearance in South Carolina, is aimed at increasing his visibility as he considers whether to run for the White House in 2024.Trump is increasingly acting and talking like he plans to make a run as he sets out on a more public phase of his post-presidency, beginning with a speech on Saturday in North Carolina.Since leaving office in January, Pence has been doing work with the Heritage Foundation and Young America’s Foundation. His team said he plans more trips, including stops in Texas, California and Michigan.Along with his visits to South Carolina and New Hampshire, Pence has been hitting the fundraising circuit. He is set to speak next week at another fundraiser hosted by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, will travel to North Carolina for a Heritage Foundation donor event, and will then head to California, where he will take part in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute’s speakers’ series, a Republican National Committee donor retreat and a Young America’s Foundation event, according to aides.Among other prominent Republicans, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said in April that she would stand down if Trump decided to run in 2024. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has undertaken an aggressive schedule, visiting states that will play a pivotal role in the 2024 primaries and signing a contract with Fox News Channel.
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US Says Stands with ‘Brave’ Chinese Activists on Tiananmen Anniversary
The United States said Thursday it stands “with the people of China” in their fight for human rights on the eve of the anniversary of Beijing’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown, amid heightened tensions between the two economic giants.Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his country will “honor the sacrifices of those killed 32 years ago, and the brave activists who carry on their efforts today in the face of ongoing government repression.””The United States will continue to stand with the people of China as they demand that their government respect universal human rights,” Blinken said, while also calling for “transparency” over Tiananmen Square.This, he said, included “a full accounting of all those killed, detained, or missing.”While discussion of the tanks and troops that quelled peaceful democracy protesters in Beijing on June 4, 1989, are all but forbidden in mainland China, huge candlelight vigils have been held the last three decades in the semi-autonomous Hong Kong.The city’s traditional day of pro-democracy people power, however, has been squashed this year, with thousands of police slated to enforce a ban on protests, and officials warning that a sweeping new national security law could be wielded against those disobeying.Last year’s vigil was also banned on the grounds of the coronavirus, but tens of thousands defied the ban and rallied anyway.”The Tiananmen demonstrations are echoed in the struggle for democracy and freedom in Hong Kong, where a planned vigil to commemorate the massacre in Tiananmen Square was banned by local authorities,” Blinken said.The statement came hours after U.S. President Joe Biden expanded a blacklist of Chinese firms that are off-limits to American investors over their links to Beijing’s “military-industrial complex.”Washington is reviewing its diplomatic position with China on issues spanning trade, technological supremacy and rights, while it steps up efforts to hook Western democracies into a united diplomatic front against perceived Chinese aggression.
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Hong Kong Police to Try to Stifle Any Commemoration of Tiananmen Crackdown
Thousands of Hong Kong police are expected to surround a central park and patrol the city’s streets on Friday to prevent people from gathering to commemorate the 1989 crackdown by Chinese troops in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.Critics say the heightened vigilance from authorities is a marked departure from Hong Kong’s cherished freedoms of speech and assembly, bringing the global financial hub closer in line with mainland China’s strict controls on society.The former British colony, promised a high degree of autonomy from Beijing upon its return to Chinese rule in 1997, has traditionally held the world’s largest vigil for the Tiananmen victims.Police have banned the vigil for a second year in a row, citing the coronavirus. It did not say whether commemorating Tiananmen would breach a sweeping national security law China imposed in 2020 to set its most restive city onto an authoritarian path.City leader Carrie Lam has not commented on commemorations, saying only that citizens must respect the law, as well as the Communist Party, which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary. June 4 commemorations are banned in mainland China.Last year, thousands in Hong Kong defied the ban, gathering in the downtown Victoria Park and lining up on sidewalks with lit candles across the city, in what was largely a solemn event, barring a brief scuffle with police in one district.Many plan to light candles again in their neighborhood, if safe to do so. Some churches will be open for prayers.Wong, a 60-year-old retiree who has been to more than 20 such vigils, said he will light a candle in a place other than Victoria Park.”The ban does not put out the candlelight in my heart,” said Wong, who only gave his last name due to the sensitivity.Prominent activist Joshua Wong was given a 10-month prison sentence last month after pleading guilty to participating in last year’s vigil, while three others got four- to six-month-sentences. Twenty more are due in court on June 11 on similar charges.Risking prisonPublic broadcaster RTHK, citing unnamed sources, reported police will have 7,000 officers on the streets on Friday, conducting stop-and-search operations throughout the day.Authorities have warned that taking part in unauthorized assemblies poses the risk of up to five years in prison, while “advertising or publicizing” illegal rallies may be punished by up to 12 months.The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the organizer of the annual vigil, has said it would drop calls for people to show up at Victoria Park and not run an online commemoration as in 2020.Its chairman Lee Cheuk-yan is in jail over an illegal assembly.On Wednesday, Hong Kong’s June 4th Museum said it would temporarily close after officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said it did not have a public entertainment venue license.”For the past 32 years, during the existence of Hong Kong Alliance, we did nothing illegal to harm the country and Hong Kong,” Mak Hoi-wah, a founding member of the Alliance who has been helping run the museum recently in Lee’s absence, told Reuters this week.The gambling hub of Macau has also banned June 4 activities.In democratically ruled Taiwan, a memorial pavilion will be set up in Taipei’s Liberty Square, where people can lay down flowers while following social distancing rules. An LED installation of 64 lights will also be set up in the square.Taiwan called on China on Thursday to return power to the people rather than avoid facing up to the crackdown.China has never provided a full account of the 1989 violence. The death toll given by officials days later was about 300, most of them soldiers, but rights groups and witnesses say thousands of people may have perished.
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France Halts Joint Military Operations with Mali Over Coup
France said Thursday it would suspend joint military operations with Malian forces after the West African country’s second coup in nine months, adding to international pressure for the military junta to return civilians to positions of power.The decision comes after Mali’s military strongman Assimi Goita, who led last year’s coup, ousted the country’s civilian transitional president and prime minister last week.The move sparked diplomatic uproar, prompting the United States to suspend security assistance for Malian security forces and for the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to suspend Mali.France’s armed forces said Thursday that “requirements and red lines have been set by ECOWAS and the African Union to clarify the framework for the political transition in Mali.””While awaiting these guarantees, France has decided to suspend, as a temporary measure, joint military operations with Malian forces and national advisory missions for their benefit,” the ministry said in a statement seen by AFP.”These decisions will be re-evaluated in the coming days in the light of answers provided by the Malian authorities.”Earlier Thursday, the International Organization of La Francophonie, a cooperative body that represents mainly French-speaking states around the world, became the latest organization to suspend Mali.5,100 French troopsBoth Mali and France play key roles in the fight against a bloody insurgency plaguing the Sahel region.France has about 5,100 troops in the Sahel under its Barkhane operation, which spans five countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.The Barkhane force, which was launched after France intervened to fend off an insurgent advance in Mali in 2013, will continue to operate but on its own for the moment, the ministry said.However the French-led Takuba force, launched in March 2020 to enable European special forces to train Mali’s army to fight insurgents, will be suspended.A diplomatic source said last week there was a risk that the new coup could dissuade European countries from joining the force.A military official in Mali said on condition of anonymity that Malian authorities had been informed of France’s suspension.French President Emmanuel Macron at the weekend warned that France would pull its troops out of Mali if it lurches toward radical Islamism following the coup.”Radical Islamism in Mali with our soldiers there? Never,” he told the weekly newspaper The Journal du Dimanche.Drawdown already plannedEven before the latest coup, France had been considering disengaging its troops from the costly and dangerous Sahel mission in the run-up to next year’s presidential election.Macron said in February there would be no troop reduction in the immediate future, but left the door open for reducing the size of France’s force, with plans to be approved this month.”Beyond taking a principled position, one wonders whether this decision is not a way for France to let disengaging with Barkhane enter the narrative,” said Elie Tenenbaum, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations.”In other words,” he said, “is (Mali’s) not respecting the democratic process not a pretext to reduce an arrangement whose days were counted anyways?”Goita had served as vice president since leading a coup last August that removed democratically elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, following mass protests over perceived corruption and the insurgency.After pressure from the 15-nation ECOWAS, the roles of transitional president and prime minister were given to civilians ahead of elections scheduled for February.However on May 24, Goita orchestrated the ouster of President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane, raising doubts about his commitment to holding the elections.Goita will be officially inaugurated as Mali’s transitional president on Monday, when a new prime minister is also expected to be nominated.
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Celebrity Attorney F. Lee Bailey Dies at 87
F. Lee Bailey, the celebrity attorney who defended O.J. Simpson, Patricia Hearst and the alleged Boston Strangler, but whose legal career halted when he was disbarred in two states, has died, a former colleague said Thursday. He was 87.The death was confirmed Thursday by Peter Horstmann, who worked with Bailey as an associate in the same law office for seven years.In a legal career that lasted more than four decades, Bailey was seen as arrogant, egocentric and contemptuous of authority. But he was also acknowledged as bold, brilliant, meticulous and tireless in the defense of his clients.”The legal profession is a business with a tremendous collection of egos,” Bailey said an in interview with U.S. News and World Report in September 1981. “Few people who are not strong egotistically gravitate to it.”Some of Bailey’s other high-profile clients included Dr. Samuel Sheppard — accused of killing his wife — and Captain Ernest Medina, charged in connection with the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.Simpson caseBailey, an avid pilot, best-selling author and television show host, was a member of the legal “dream team” that defended Simpson, the former star NFL running back and actor acquitted on charges that he killed his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, in 1995.Bailey was the most valuable member of the team, Simpson said in a 1996 story in The Boston Globe Magazine.”He was able to simplify everything and identify what the most vital parts of the case were,” Simpson said. “Lee laid down what the case’s strategy was, what was going to be important and what was not. I thought he had an amazing grasp of what was going to be the most important parts of the case, and that turned out to be true.”FILE – O.J. Simpson reacts as he is found not guilty in the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in Los Angeles. Defense attorneys F. Lee Bailey, left, and Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. stand with him.One of the most memorable moments of the trial came when Bailey aggressively cross-examined Los Angeles police Detective Mark Fuhrman in an attempt to portray him as a racist whose goal was to frame Simpson. It was classic Bailey.Fuhrman denied using racial epithets, but the defense later turned up recordings of Fuhrman making racist slurs.Bailey earned acquittals for many of his clients, but he also lost cases, most notably Hearst’s.’Ineffective counsel’Hearst, a publishing heiress, was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist group on February 4, 1974, and participated in armed robberies with the group. At trial, Bailey claimed she was coerced into participating because she feared for her life. She still was convicted.Hearst called Bailey an “ineffective counsel.” Hearst accused him of sacrificing her defense in an effort to get a book deal about the case.She was released in January 1979 after President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence.FILE – F. Lee Bailey, defense lawyer for Capt. Ernest L. Medina, puffs out his cheeks as he talks with reporters at end of court session at Fort McPherson, Ga., Sept. 15, 1971.Bailey made his name as the attorney for Sheppard, an Ohio osteopath convicted in 1954 of murdering his wife.Sheppard spent more than a decade behind bars before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a landmark 1966 decision that “massive, pervasive, prejudicial publicity” had violated his rights. Bailey helped win an acquittal at a second trial.Bailey also defended Albert DeSalvo, the man who claimed responsibility for the Boston Strangler killings between 1962 and 1964. DeSalvo confessed to the slayings, but was never tried or convicted, and later recanted. Despite doubts thrown on DeSalvo’s claim, Bailey always maintained that DeSalvo was the strangler.Throughout his career, Bailey antagonized authorities with his sometimes abrasive style and his quest for publicity. He was censured by a Massachusetts judge in 1970 for “his philosophy of extreme egocentricity,” and was disbarred for a year in New Jersey in 1971 for talking publicly about a case.Bailey was disbarred in Florida in 2001 and the next year in Massachusetts for the way he handled millions of dollars in stock owned by a convicted drug smuggler in 1994. He spent almost six weeks in federal prison charged with contempt of court in 1996 after refusing to turn over the stock. The experience left him embittered. He eventually won the right to practice law in Maine in 2013.Student, then a MarineFrancis Lee Bailey was born in the Boston suburb of Waltham, the son of a newspaper advertising man and a schoolteacher.He enrolled at Harvard University in 1950 but left at the end of his sophomore year to train to become a Marine pilot. He retained a lifelong love of flying and even owned his own aviation company.While in the military, Bailey volunteered for the legal staff at the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in North Carolina, and soon found himself the legal officer for more than 2,000 men.Bailey earned a law degree from Boston University in 1960, where he had a 90.5 average, but he graduated without honors because he refused to join the Law Review. He said the university waived the requirement for an undergraduate degree because of his military legal experience.Bailey was married four times and divorced three. His fourth wife, Patricia, died in 1999. He had three children.
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United Airlines to Buy 15 Supersonic Aircraft from Denver-based Startup
U.S.-based air carrier United Airlines announced Thursday that it had reached an agreement with a Denver-based startup company for 15 supersonic aircraft the company said would fly 1.7 times the speed of sound using sustainable fuel and be 100% carbon neutral.In a press release, the airline said its deal with aerospace company Boom Supersonic has an option to buy 35 more planes once the company develops its first aircraft. The airline said this was the world’s first purchase agreement for net-zero carbon supersonic aircraft. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.On its website, Boom Supersonic said its Overture aircraft would be capable of flying 1.7 times the speed of sound — about 2,092 kilometers per hour — more than twice the speed of conventional airliners. The company said the plane would carry a maximum of 88 passengers, cruise at an altitude of about 18,288 meters and fly on 100% sustainable, carbon-neutral fuel. It hopes to deliver the planes to United by 2029.The Overture is still in development. On its website, Boom Supersonic said it hoped to build and test fly the first plane by next year.Should the plane get off the ground as planned, it will be the first supersonic airliner to fly since the Concorde was retired in 2003. The luxury plane was introduced in 1976 and flew passengers across the Atlantic via Air France and British Airways.But because of expense, noise and environmental issues, the planes never really caught on. In 2000, an Air France Concorde crashed into a hotel shortly after takeoff from Paris, killing everyone on board and four people on the ground.
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As Algeria Prepares for Legislative Elections, Authorities Crack Down on Dissent
Protests banned and political activists and journalists detained. Lawyers and judges reprimanded or otherwise targeted, ostensibly for their ties to a grassroots protest movement demanding profound political change. As Algeria readies for legislative elections this month, the government is tightening its grip, rights groups and others say, with a raft of detentions and even prison sentences against its rainbow of critics. In the capital, Algiers, and other cities, authorities have effectively banned weekly demonstrations organized by the two-year-old Hirak protest movement, largely by placing administrative hurdles. If today the government crackdown gives its leaders a tenuous upper hand, it risks backfiring in the longer term, experts warn, further dampening an anticipated low voter turnout in the June 12 parliamentary vote, deepening the country’s social and economic crisis and fueling new support for the Hirak movement. FILE – Algerians carry placards during an anti-government demonstration in the capital Algiers, April 2, 2021. The placard reads in French: “The Hirak belongs to the people.””There’s a fundamental contradiction,” said Brahim Oumansour, North Africa specialist at the Paris-based French Institute of International Relations think tank. “Authorities are searching for political legitimacy through the elections, but paradoxically this repressive policy contributes to perpetuating the crisis.” Rights concerns Rights groups say Algerian authorities have arrested thousands of peaceful demonstrators since February, when members of the Hirak movement returned to the streets after months of coronavirus-imposed restrictions. Reports say many protesters were released, but others were held for questioning or faced legal action. Ahead of the legislative polls, “the efforts have intensified, including against peaceful protests and protesters,” according to a joint press statement Tuesday by several prominent rights groups, including the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organization Against Torture, in Geneva. The United Nations’ human rights office has also raised concerns, saying reported attacks on peaceful assembly and free expression were reminiscent of the state’s previous heavy-handed responses. FILE – A video grab from Algeria 3 public channel shows Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune giving a televised speech in Algiers, Feb. 18, 2021.Algiers is pushing back. In an interview published Wednesday by France’s Le Point magazine, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune suggested the Hirak movement had lost its legitimacy, and that voters were keenly interested in the upcoming vote — despite a chunk of the opposition boycotting it — “especially the young.” “There’s a minority who refuse the election,” he told Le Point, adding, “I think all Algerians should express themselves, but I refuse the diktat of a minority.” An old story In many ways, it seems Algeria is reliving an old narrative, analysts say, despite hopes for change in 2019. As ailing longtime leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika sought a fifth term in office, millions took to the street in protest, giving birth to the Hirak movement. Bouteflika was ousted, as the street movement profoundly unsettled but did not destroy a power system in place since Algeria’s 1962 independence. The country’s powerful military subsequently jailed and sidelined many in Bouteflika’s government, including his brother. Tebboune, 75, was elected to office in December 2019, but with official voter turnout at just 40%. He promised change, despite being a fixture of the regime, serving as minister of housing and prime minister under Bouteflika. FILE – Algerian anti-government protesters take the streets as the Hirak pro-democracy movement keeps up its weekly demonstrations despite a ban on gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic, in Algiers, March 26, 2021.Eighteen months later, some analysts say there has been little beyond rhetoric and cosmetic tinkering. Ordinary Algerians are underwhelmed and disenfranchised. A referendum on the country’s new constitution last November drew another record low turnout. For Algeria’s opposition, “the main problem is that the system is the same,” said analyst Michael Ayari at the International Crisis Group. “It’s not because there has been a constitutional change, or reassuring declarations, or democratic language in the Constitution promising more liberties, at least on paper, that the system has changed.” Adding to the government’s worries are a deepening economic crisis, aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic and shrinking oil revenues. Also, there are broader regional instabilities, with massive Algeria bordering the restive Sahel, Western Sahara and Libya. “After more than 18 months of Tebboune’s presidency, the results are very mediocre in terms of political, social and economic reforms,” said analyst Oumansour. Now, he added, “the government faces pressures from the army to organize elections, regardless of the price, to give the appearance of relative stability, to put an end to Hirak and the demonstrations.” A second wind? For its part, the Hirak has seen its numbers dwindle from the millions of 2019 to tens of thousands today, with street protests vanishing completely last year, once the coronavirus pandemic struck. Many supporters have taken to the internet instead. But the movement remains unstructured and leaderless. FILE – Demonstrators march with banners and flags during a protest demanding political change, in Algiers, Algeria, April 9, 2021.In recent weeks, they have been increasingly targeted in police crackdowns. Journalists, opposition leaders and civil society members have also been detained and sometimes imprisoned, rights groups say. Among them, journalist Kenza Khatto of Radio M, a media outlet considered close to the Hirak movement, who was given a suspended sentence after covering the protests. On Sunday, a prominent judge, Saadedine Merzoug, was ousted from the country’s magistrate’s body, Agence France-Presse reported, ostensibly for his pro-Hirak rulings. Meanwhile, Algeria’s military released a documentary last month suggesting a mix of interests — from independence fighters from its northeastern Kabylia region, to French public television and Morocco — were plotting against the state. “It’s always the same discourse,” said analyst Ayari, summing up the government’s reaction. “That they’re a power surrounded by agents hostile to the revolution, and foreign agents who want to destroy Algeria.” Meanwhile, Hirak leaders are calling on voters to boycott the legislative vote, in their demand for a broad political overhaul. Some expect a record number of independent candidates to run, although it’s unclear how independent they will be. A number of leftist opposition parties say they will boycott the vote. “The specter of abstention really worries the political leaders,” said expert Oumansour. “It helps explain the crackdown. Another major abstention vote in these legislatives will be seen as a failure of the regime’s road map — and it risks breathing new life into the protest movement.”
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Recognized in 2020, Somalia’s Cycling Federation Faces Challenges
Bicycling enthusiasts around the globe are celebrating World Bicycle Day Thursday, including in Somalia, a Horn of Africa nation still struggling for stability after years of conflict. Somalia’s cycling federation was just recognized last year and with poor roads and equipment, it’s an uphill battle to prepare for upcoming international competition.The Somali cycling federation has just 20 professional bicycles accepted in the International Cyclist’s Union (UCI), the world governing body for sports cycling based in Switzerland that oversees competition.Poor equipment and closed roads due to security threats from the armed militant group Al-Shabab, mainly in the capital, Mogadishu, are a couple of challenges facing young cyclists training for international competition.The secretary-general of the Somali cycling federation, Saed Ahmed Abukar, said despite the challenges, they are committed to building the sport at a grassroots level.He said most roads used by cyclist for training in Mogadishu are either dilapidated or closed for security purposes, and therefore it has become a great challenge to achieve a smooth training schedule.He added they also lack enough equipment, such as helmets, to protect the riders from injuries during accidents, and instead cyclist use football gear as an option.In April 2018, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 3 International World Bicycle Day.One of the up-and-coming Somali cyclists, Hassan Bare Ugas, emerged in the second position during Somalia’s cross-country cycling championships held last year.Bare, who practices in the gym most of his time to avoid poor lanes, said he dreams of flying the flag of his country in upcoming regional and international cycling competition.He said he is practicing very hard in the gym and sometimes on city streets, wishing to represent his nation in upcoming international competition, such as the African championships and the Olympic Games.According to the United Nations, apart from its sporting activities, the use of bicycles makes education, health care and other social services more accessible to the most vulnerable populations in Africa and contribute to cleaner air and less congestion on roads.
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White House Urges US Companies to Protect Against Ransomware
The White House on Thursday urged American businesses to take new precautions to combat disruptive ransomware attacks that have increasingly hobbled companies throughout Western economies.Jen Psaki, President Joe Biden’s press secretary, urged private industry to harden access to their computer systems, saying the government “can’t do it alone.”Anne Neuberger, a White House cybersecurity official, said in a statement that the “most important takeaway” from the recent attacks, including those affecting a key gasoline pipeline and a meat production company in the U.S., is that “companies that view ransomware as a threat to their core business operations rather than a simple risk of data theft will react and recover more effectively.”“Many ransomware criminals are aggressive and sophisticated and will find the equivalent of unlocked doors,” Neuberger said. “The threats are serious, and they are increasing.”She urged businesses to “back up your data, system images, and configurations, regularly test them, and keep the backups offline.”Neuberger said companies should “ensure that backups are regularly tested and that they are not connected to the business network, as many ransomware variants try to find and encrypt or delete accessible backups.”The deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging tech also said U.S. businesses should “test your incident response plan” because “there’s nothing that shows the gaps in plans more than testing them.”Neuberger said companies should use third parties to test their own security work, segment corporate business functions from manufacturing and production operations and regularly test contingency plans “so that safety critical functions can be maintained during a cyber incident.”
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