A volunteer group is searching for the remains of people killed in the conflict with Russia in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The group Platsdarm says it has recovered around 2,000 bodies since 2014. Yaroslava Movchan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Dmytro Hlushko
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Month: September 2024
Finland zoo returns giant pandas to China over cost
HELSINKI — Finland will return two giant pandas to China in November, more than eight years ahead of time, as the zoo where they live can no longer afford their upkeep, the chair of the zoo’s board told Reuters on Tuesday.
The pandas, named Lumi and Pyry, were brought to Finland in January 2018, months after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Nordic country and signed a joint agreement on protecting the animals.
Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has sent pandas to foreign zoos to strengthen trading ties, cement foreign relations and boost its international image.
The Finnish agreement was for a stay of 15 years, but instead the pandas will soon go into a month-long quarantine before they are shipped back to China, according to Ahtari Zoo, the pandas’ current home.
The zoo, a private company, had invested over 8 million euros ($8.92 million) in the facility where the animals live and faced annual costs of 1.5 million euros for their upkeep, including a preservation fee paid to China, Ahtari Chair Risto Sivonen said.
The zoo had hoped the pandas would attract visitors to the central Finland location but last year said it had instead accumulated mounting debts as the pandemic curbed travel, and that it was discussing a return.
Rising inflation had added to the costs, the zoo said, and Finland’s government in 2023 rejected pleas for state funding.
In all, negotiations to return the animals had lasted three years, Sivonen said.
“Now we reached a point where the Chinese said it could be done,” Sivonen said.
The return of the pandas was a business decision made by the zoo which did not involve Finland’s government and should not impact relations between the two countries, a spokesperson for Finland’s foreign ministry said.
Despite efforts by China to aid the zoo, the two countries in the end jointly concluded after friendly consultations to return the pandas, the Chinese embassy in Helsinki said in a statement to Reuters.
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Secret Service failures before Trump rally shooting were ‘preventable,’ Senate panel finds
Washington — Multiple Secret Service failures ahead of the July rally for former President Donald Trump where a gunman opened fire were “foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day,” according to a bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday.
Similar to the agency’s own internal investigation and an ongoing bipartisan House probe, the interim report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found multiple failures on almost every level ahead of the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting, including in planning, communications, security and allocation of resources.
“The consequences of those failures were dire,” said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland panel.
Investigators found that there was no clear chain of command among the Secret Service and other security agencies and no plan for coverage of the building where the shooter climbed up to fire the shots. Officials were operating on multiple, separate radio channels, leading to missed communications, and an inexperienced drone operator was stuck on a help line after his equipment wasn’t working correctly.
Communications among security officials were a “multi-step game of telephone,” Peters said.
The report found the Secret Service was notified about an individual on the roof of the building approximately two minutes before shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire, firing eight rounds in Trump’s direction less than 150 yards from where the former president was speaking. Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was struck in the ear by a bullet or a bullet fragment in the assassination attempt, one rallygoer was killed and two others were injured before the gunman was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Approximately 22 seconds before Crooks fired, the report found, a local officer sent a radio alert that there was an armed individual on the building. But that information was not relayed to key Secret Service personnel who were interviewed by Senate investigators.
The panel also interviewed a Secret Service counter-sniper who reported seeing officers with their guns drawn running toward the building where the shooter was perched, but the person said they did not think to notify anyone to get Trump off the stage.
The Senate report comes just days after the Secret Service released a five-page document summarizing the key conclusions of a yet-to-be finalized Secret Service report on what went wrong, and ahead of a Thursday hearing that will be held by a bipartisan House task force investigating the shooting. The House panel is also investigating a second assassination attempt on Trump earlier this month when Secret Service agents arrested a man with a rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump’s Florida club.
Each investigation has found new details that reflect a massive breakdown in the former president’s security, and lawmakers say there is much more they want to find out as they try to prevent it from happening again.
“This was the result of multiple human failures of the Secret Service,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the top Republican on the panel.
The senators recommended that the Secret Service better define roles and responsibilities before any protective event, including by designating a single individual in charge of approving all the security plans. Investigators found that many of the people in charge denied that they had responsibility for planning or security failures, and deflected blame.
Advance agents interviewed by the committee said “that planning and security decisions were made jointly, with no specific individual responsible for approval,” the report said.
Communication with local authorities was also poor. Local law enforcement had raised concern two days earlier about security coverage of the building where the shooter perched, telling Secret Service agents during a walk through that they did not have the manpower to lock it down. Secret Service agents then gave investigators conflicting accounts about who was responsible for that security coverage, the report said.
The internal review released last week by the Secret Service also detailed multiple communications breakdowns, including an absence of clear guidance to local law enforcement and the failure to fix line-of-sight vulnerabilities at the rally grounds that left Trump open to sniper fire and “complacency” among some agents.
“This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service. It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” said Ronald Rowe Jr., the agency’s acting director, after the report was released.
In addition to better defining responsibility for events, the senators recommended that the agency completely overhaul its communications operations at protective events and improve intelligence sharing. They also recommended that Congress evaluate whether more resources are needed.
Democrats and Republicans have disagreed on whether to give the Secret Service more money in the wake of its failures. A spending bill on track to pass before the end of the month includes an additional $231 million for the agency, but many Republicans have said that an internal overhaul is needed first.
“This is a management problem plain and simple,” said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Homeland panel’s investigations subcommittee.
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Environmentalists value peat, smear Finland’s parliament in red paint
Helsinki — Environmental activists sprayed red paint on Finland’s parliament building on Wednesday to protest against the peat industry, sparking strong criticism from politicians.
Activists from Extinction Rebellion Finland and Swedish organization Aterstall Vatmarker (Restore Wetlands) smeared several granite columns at the building’s main entrance in red paint resembling blood.
They told AFP they were protesting against the Finnish state-owned company Neova mining peat in Swedish wetlands.
Peat extracted from wetlands is often used as an energy source or for farming purposes, emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide.
In their natural state, peatlands store large amounts of carbon dioxide.
“We have painted the columns with this easily washable paint to show that Finland is actively involved in accelerating the climate crisis,” said Valpuri Nykanen, an activist from Extinction Rebellion Finland standing outside the building.
“Finland is mining peat in Sweden, while we know that we must phase out oil, gas and all fossil fuels and peat is very fossil,” added Lior Tell-Stefansson from Aterstall Vatmarker.
Police arrived at the scene after 8:00 am (0500 GMT) and removed 10 protesters sitting on the stairs with signs in their hands.
The incident was investigated as aggravated damage to property, the police said in a statement.
Several Finnish politicians immediately condemned the act.
Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat quoted Prime Minister Petteri Orpo as saying it was “completely incomprehensible and unacceptable vandalism.”
“Finland is a free democracy. We have the right to demonstrate and influence things, but we have civilized ways of doing it,” Orpo said.
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Thai exports rise in Aug, ministry says will meet 2024 forecast
BANGKOK — Thailand’s exports rose for a second straight month in August, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday as it maintained its forecast of 1% to 2% growth this year despite the baht strengthening to 30-month highs against the U.S. dollar.
With demand picking up in key markets, further export growth was expected this year and it could even come in above forecast, although the baht’s rise would impact Q4 shipments, said Poonpong Naiyanapakorn, head of the ministry’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office.
Exports, a key driver of Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, rose 7% in August from a year earlier, and followed July’s 15.2% rise, which was the fastest growth in 28 months. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected a rise of 5.8%
Imports rose 8.9% in August from a year earlier, compared with a forecast rise of 7.30% in the poll.
That led to a trade surplus of $0.26 billion in August, compared with a forecast deficit of $0.07 billion.
In the first 8 months of 2024, exports rose 4.2% from a year earlier, while imports rose 5.2%, with the cumulative trade deficit at $6.35 billion.
The baht has risen 4.6% since the beginning of the year, with large gains seen in the past month, to be the region’s second-strongest performing currency after Malaysia’s ringgit.
“The stronger baht is impacting liquidity and profits, especially for agricultural goods,” said Chaichan Chareonsuk, chairman of the Thai National Shippers’ Council.
“Some business could take a loss when negotiating new orders or not get orders,” he said.
The Finance Ministry and central bank are due to meet next week to discuss currency appreciation and inflation target.
The Bank of Thailand said it was closely monitoring the currency and was ready to reduce volatility.
For August, shipments to the United States rose 3% from a year earlier, while exports to China was up 6.7% but those to Japan were down 11.3%.
Last month, rice exports rose 39.5% from a year earlier to 885,387 metric tons, and were up 46.6% in value terms to $562 million.
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Some analysts say China’s plan to boost housing market is ‘too little, too late’
Taipei, Taiwan — China’s central bank has released a series of economic stimulus plans, including cuts to mortgage interest rates and the required cash reserve ratio — the latter of which will allow commercial banks to inject $140 billion into the market — among other monetary policies aimed at reviving the housing market and stimulating economic growth.
Many Chinese internet users applauded this initiative, but few expressed immediate willingness to buy a house. Analysts said the policies are “too late and too few,” since housing prices in China have fallen by half in some areas, leaving people wary of purchasing homes that could further decline in value.
The heads of China’s three major financial institutions — including Pan Gongsheng, the governor of the People’s Bank of China; Li Yunze, the director of the National Financial Regulatory Administration; and Wu Qing, the chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission — on Tuesday unveiled the country’s most powerful economic rescue effort since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pan said that soon, commercial banks will be advised to reduce the interest rate of existing mortgages by about 0.5 percentage points on average, and the minimum down payment ratio for second homes will be reduced from the current 25% to the same 15% as the first home. He said this policy is expected to benefit 50 million households and 150 million people by reducing the nation’s total interest bill by about 150 billion yuan, or $21.3 billion, annually.
Pan said that depending on market conditions, the central bank may consider cutting the required cash reserve on commercial banks by another 0.25 to 0.5 percentage points before the year’s end.
Most Chinese internet users lauded the mortgage rate cuts. But no one answered affirmatively when a user under the name “Mushroom’s Second Sister” in Zhejiang asked on Weibo, “Will everyone be more willing to buy a house?”
A Weibo user from Guangdong under the name “Chun Sheng Qi” said flatly, “No.”
Another Weibo user in Zhejiang under the name “Little Lazy Pig Little Lin Lin” said, “Is there a possibility they cut the interest rate to entice you to buy homes, and then they will increase the interest rate after a few years? They have the final say on the interest rate increase and reduction anyway.”
A real estate analyst in Taipei told VOA on the condition of anonymity due to the issue’s sensitivity that the new policy may not help restore confidence for Chinese home-buyers, who will be less inclined to spend lifetime savings on properties amid China’s sluggish economy, which has been hard-hit in recent years by the pandemic, the U.S.-China trade war and the global economic recession.
She said that while governments around the world have been easing monetary policies to stimulate post-pandemic economic recovery in the past two years, the Chinese government has not taken action, allowing the economy to deteriorate. It is “too late” to introduce the stimulus package, she said.
She added that China’s policymakers are still holding onto an old development model and counting on the property market to drive the economy. But China’s housing market is taking a hit from the country’s declining birthrate. Young people who will inherit a house from elders will not invest in the housing market. Those whose families own no properties may not be able to afford one because of their financial obligations to support elders or children.
Francis Lun, CEO of Geo Securities in Hong Kong, said the policies are “too late and too few” but are better than nothing.
He said that the People’s Bank of China should have launched them a year ago, and the scale of 1 trillion yuan is not enough because developer Evergrande alone has $300 billion in debt. Other Chinese real estate companies also sit on billions in debt, so Lun expects China’s central bank to ease the monetary policy again in coming months.
Lun told VOA by phone that to advance structural reform, China should also “replace land sales with property tax revenue as local governments’ source of incomes… Or property prices won’t be stabilized, which will only worsen the local economy.”
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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ADB maintains growth forecast for Asia, more stimulus expected in China
MANILA, Philippines — Developing Asia is on track to grow 5% this year, supported by strong consumption and high demand for tech exports, the Asian Development Bank forecast on Wednesday, and said China was expected to roll out more economic support measures.
In an update to its Asian Development Outlook report, the ADB left most growth projections for economies in the region unchanged from its July report, maintaining its growth outlook for developing Asia at 5.0% this year and 4.9% next year.
It revised down its inflation forecasts for developing Asia, which groups 46 countries in the Asia-Pacific, to 2.8% for this year and 2.9% for next year from previous forecasts of 2.9% and 3.0%, respectively.
The Manila-based lender highlighted some downside risks to its outlook, including rising protectionism, escalating geopolitical tensions, adverse weather conditions, and a deterioration in China’s property market.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, is battling deflationary pressures, and struggling to lift growth despite a series of policy measures aimed at spurring domestic spending.
On Tuesday, China’s central bank announced broad monetary stimulus and property market support measures as authorities look to restore confidence in the economy.
“Whether that will work remains to be seen because a lot of the structural problems in the property sector remain persistent,” ADB Chief Economist Albert Park said at a briefing.
“It may take more effort and work by their government” to alleviate concerns of consumers and investors, Park said, adding “more proactive government policy would be helpful.”
Park also said the ADB was not so concerned about deflation in China as it sees prices recovering.
Last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve kicked off its own easing cycle with a hefty half-percentage-point rate cut.
“With the Fed’s 50 basis point rate cut, central banks have more space to ease, and we expect more of them to do so,” Park said.
The ADB kept its 2024 growth forecast for China at 4.8%, below the government’s official target of about 5%. Growth for 2025 is still forecast at 4.5%.
“The PRC (People’s Republic of China) growth forecast is retained despite the prolonged downturn in the property sector, on the assumption that further fiscal and monetary easing will help sustain the economy,” Park said.
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US Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove condemns inaction on Sudan conflict
WASHINGTON — Fifty Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to President Joe Biden in late August requesting more humanitarian assistance for Sudan and calling on the U.S. to do more to help end the conflict. Leading the effort is U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California, who told VOA in a recent interview that she is concerned that international partners aren’t doing enough to support humanitarian aid delivery to families affected by the conflict.
“Famine has erupted. Deaths are happening every day, and the warring parties are working together, in my opinion, to prevent the delivery of humanitarian aid,” she told VOA. “It is unconscionable. And it is inhumane.”
Without more aggressive leadership by the U.S., she said, the conflict risks international neglect amid the war Ukraine and an expanding conflict in the Middle East.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
VOA: Your colleagues have joined you to raise awareness about Sudan. A lot of Sudanese who spoke to us say the world has forgotten them. How do you feel about their sentiments?
U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove: I am disheartened to hear that, but I understand why they would say it, and that is exactly why I wrote this letter and encouraged my colleagues to sign on. Fifty Democratic members of Congress signed with me, to ask this administration to do more. We want them to raise awareness of this war. Get [U.S.] Secretary [of State Anthony] Blinken out in front. We want to rally our international partners to also take this more seriously and pledge more dollars to help with the support around humanitarian aid delivery. Because if we are not taking the lead on this, then it will signal to the rest of the world that this is not important and of course it is.
VOA: What about international attention? Are you getting that?
Kamlager-Dove: No, we’re not getting [international attention.] I have my own suspicions that people just don’t care, or don’t respect the continent of Africa. I think that is wildly ignorant. And we know with forces like China and Russia working to compete against us [the U.S.], and to dismantle democracies, we know that there are other agents and actors playing in this war as well. That is why it is incumbent upon us to take the lead and call for more aid and call for more discussions.
VOA: What about America’s foreign policy and its resources? Where does it go? I mean, I know that the war in Ukraine and Gaza is shifting attention.
Kamlager-Dove: Thankfully, we have an administration that is trying to engage. They finally got a special envoy, [Former U.S. Representative Tom Perriello], to Sudan. You know, a year too late, but he needs to be supported with more resources and more staff. It is very important that Secretary Blinken shows his face more on the continent and reminds folks that this administration cares.
VOA: The U.N. made an appeal for humanitarian assistance. They were projecting $2.7 billion and only 37% of that was received. What should be done to get pledges from donor countries?
Kamlager-Dove: Well, I do think we have to make a concerted effort to ask the international community to pledge more. It is important to give more, but if those resources are thwarted because you have bad actors keeping humanitarian aid from the people and the civilians that need it the most, then it doesn’t matter.
VOA: The U.S. government slapped sanctions on both sides in Sudan — the Rapid Support Forces [RSF] and some leaders of the Sudan Armed Forces [SAF]. And it appears like these sanctions are not biting hard because the two belligerent forces have decided not to sign any cease-fire. Are there other instruments of diplomacy in the toolbox that is yet to be used to bring pressure on these two groups?
Kamlager-Dove: Well, it is certainly unfortunate that neither party wants to show up to the negotiating table. It’s very hard to come to a resolution when you don’t even sit at the table. The other thing that is unfortunate is even if you have sanctions, you know, if you’re still able to buy guns and get the weapons into the country, then obviously you need different kinds of teeth and authority. I think we should be looking at the folks who are supplying the arms to the forces, because that is as important as sanctioning both SAF and RSF. If you don’t stop the flow of arms, what are you really doing?
VOA: When Perriello testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he mentioned that those aiding the war in Sudan must be held accountable, or the U.S.’s efforts will be in vain. How do you respond to that?
Kamlager-Dove: I wholeheartedly agree. We have an obligation to focus on what is happening in the Sudan. But I want to say I’m grateful that he was actually able to show up. You know, we have not had a full committee hearing in the Foreign Affairs Committee on Africa since the beginning of this term.
VOA: The last time we heard about funding [for Sudan] was 2017. And just a month ago, nongovernmental organizations, international aid agencies are saying Darfur is on the verge of famine, there’s famine already there. … If you are given an opportunity to speak directly to the people who are making decisions on where aid money should go, what would you tell them?
Kamlager-Dove: I would say the world is watching and the world is waiting. And every moment that you do not sit at the table and find a way, using any quiver that you have in your toolbox every day you wait is a day that someone dies in the Sudan. And this is not something that I am willing to keep in my heart. And this is not something that the United States should let happen. So, get off your tuchus (rear end) and find a way to bring about a cease-fire, and to make sure that humanitarian aid is able to get to the Sudan.
This Q&A originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service.
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Climate change doubles chance of floods like those in Central Europe, report says
WARSAW, Poland — Climate change has made downpours like the one that caused devastating floods in central Europe this month twice as likely to occur, a report said on Wednesday, as its scientific authors urged policymakers to act to stop global warming.
The worst flooding to hit central Europe in at least two decades has left 24 people dead, with towns strewn with mud and debris, buildings damaged, bridges collapsed and authorities left with a bill for repairs that runs into billions of dollars.
The report from World Weather Attribution, an international group of scientists that studies the effects of climate change on extreme weather events, found that the four days of rainfall brought by Storm Boris were the heaviest ever recorded in central Europe.
It said that climate change had made such downpours at least twice as likely and 7% heavier.
“Yet again, these floods highlight the devastating results of fossil fuel-driven warming,” Joyce Kimutai, a researcher at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute and co-author of the study, said in a statement.
“Until oil, gas and coal are replaced with renewable energy, storms like Boris will unleash even heavier rainfall, driving economy-crippling floods.”
The report said that while the combination of weather patterns that caused the storm – including cold air moving over the Alps and very warm air over the Mediterranean and the Black Seas – was unusual, climate change made such storms more intense and more likely.
According to the report, such a storm is expected to occur on average about once every 100 to 300 years in today’s climate with 1.3 degrees Celsius of warming from pre-industrial levels.
However, it said that such storms will result in at least 5% more rain and occur about 50% more frequently than now if warming from pre-industrial levels reaches 2 C, which is expected to happen in the 2050s.
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Trump pledges sweeping tariffs, says they will keep jobs in US
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Donald Trump on Tuesday pledged to stop U.S. businesses from shipping jobs overseas and to take other countries’ jobs and factories by relying heavily on sweeping tariffs to boost auto manufacturing — despite warnings that domestic consumers would pay more and a lack of specifics about how his plans would work.
“I want German car companies to become American car companies. I want them to build their plants here,” Trump declared during a speech in Savannah, Georgia.
Trump added that, if elected, he’d put a 100% tariff on every car imported from Mexico and that the only way to avoid those charges would be for an automaker to build the cars in the U.S.
His ideas, if enacted, could cause a huge upheaval in the American auto industry. Many automakers now build smaller, lower-priced vehicles in Mexico — facilitated by a trade agreement Trump negotiated while president — or in other countries because their profit margins are slim. The lower labor costs help the companies make money on those vehicles.
German and other foreign automakers already have extensive manufacturing operations in the U.S., and many now build more vehicles here than they send. BMW, for instance, has an 8 million-square-foot campus in South Carolina that employs 11,000 people building more than 1,500 SUVs per day for the U.S. and 120 export markets. Mercedes and Volkswagen also have large factories here.
If German automakers were to increase production here, they likely would have to take it from factories in Germany, which then would run below their capacity and be less efficient, said Sam Abuelsamid, principal research analyst for Guidehouse Insights.
“It makes no sense,” he said.
Trump proposes ‘new American industrialism’ — without specifics
Trump has proposed using tariffs on imports and other measures to boost American industry — even as economists have cautioned that U.S. consumers would bear the costs of tariffs and other Trump proposals like staging the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
The former president laid out a broad array of economic proposals during a speech in the key swing state of Georgia, promising to create a special ambassador to help lure foreign manufacturers to the U.S. and further entice them by offering access to federal land.
Additionally, he called for lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, but only for companies that produce in the U.S. Harris, the Democratic nominee, wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. It had been 35% when Trump became president in 2017, and he later signed legislation lowering it.
“We’re putting America first,” Trump said. “This new American industrialism will create millions and millions of jobs.”
Trump also suggested wiping away some environmental regulations to boost energy production, saying America has “got the oil, it’s got the gas. We have everything. The only thing we don’t have is smart people leading our country.”
Tuesday’s series of economic proposals raised a lot of questions, but the former president hasn’t given specific answers on his ideas, which could substantially affect their impact and how much they cost. He has not specified, for example, whether his U.S.-focused corporate tax cuts would apply to companies that assemble their products domestically out of imports.
Trump also suggested he would use a newly created envoy, and his own personal efforts, to recruit foreign companies. But he had a spotty record in the White House of attracting foreign investment. In one infamous case, Trump promised a $10 billion investment by Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn in Wisconsin, creating potentially 13,000 new jobs, that the company never delivered.
His calls to offer federal land, meanwhile, might clash with Bureau of Land Management restrictions on foreign entities looking to lease lands. It also wasn’t clear whether companies from China would be excluded, given Trump’s longtime accusations that China is hurting American business.
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China pressures Myanmar ethnic groups to cut ties from forces perceived as close to US
Washington — China, which has long influenced Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups, is pressuring the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA — part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance that includes the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army (AA) — to avoid aligning with other opposition forces that China perceives as Western-backed, experts say.
The MNDAA, also known as the Kokang ethnic armed group, whose members are Mandarin-speaking Han Chinese native to Kokang, reposted a statement on social media confirming their alliance with China.
“Our political red line is not to form alliances or work together with those who are against China,” read the statement, which was briefly posted Sept. 4 and reposted on Sept. 19.
Analysts say that Beijing’s pressure on ethnic armed groups, especially the MNDAA, reflects its strategic interests in maintaining control over Myanmar’s political landscape. Strategically located along Myanmar’s northeastern border with China, the MNDAA is being pushed to sever ties with opposition forces that Beijing views as having U.S. support.
China used its economic and political leverage when it reportedly cut off trade and supplies to Laukkai, the capital of the Kokang region, to create distance between the MNDAA and the National Unity Government (NUG) — the pro-democracy shadow government leading the fight against the ruling junta.
“The MNDAA’s statement is a follow-up to China’s warning that the ‘three bottom lines’ must not be crossed,” said Than Soe Naing, a veteran political analyst based in Myanmar.
The “three bottom lines,” articulated by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in August, call for Myanmar to avoid civil strife, remain part of ASEAN, and prevent external interference.
According to a political analyst based in Yangon who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, there is a perception in China that the National Unity Government and certain resistance forces, as well as some ethnic armed organizations, are close to the United States and are receiving U.S. support.
“This policy reflects China’s emphasis on preventing external forces from interfering in Burma’s affairs, which Beijing views as critical to its regional strategy,” said political analyst Than Soe Naing, using an alternative name for Myanmar.
So far, Beijing has not commented on the MNDAA’s statement, despite the group’s request for China’s help to resolve the conflict and its willingness to cease fighting and cooperate with Beijing to negotiate a solution to Myanmar’s crisis. Myanmar also has not commented on the MNDAA’s statement.
Meanwhile, Myanmar’s military continues airstrikes in northern Shan State. According to a Sept. 24 MNDAA social media post,a recent strike killed one civilian and injured 16 in Lashio, former headquarters of the junta’s Northeastern Command.
Beijing’s interests in Myanmar
Frequent visits by Chinese officials to Myanmar have reinforced perceptions that Beijing is siding with Myanmar’s military because it perceives the opposition groups to be in alignment with the United States, observers say.
“China sees the NUG and the People’s Defense Forces as Western-backed entities, and for China, that is a red line,” said Thomas Kean, senior consultant for Myanmar at the International Crisis Group.
According to Hla Kyaw Zaw, a China-based expert on China-Myanmar relations, Myanmar offers China a valuable connection to the Indian Ocean, providing an essential trade route that would allow Beijing to compete more effectively in the region with the United States.
“If Myanmar is stable, China’s southwestern land-locked provinces will have a safe and secure outlet to the sea,” Hla Kyaw Zaw explained. “Beijing wants these initiatives to move forward quickly.”
China is the largest investor in Myanmar, and the internal conflict is “not conducive to foreign investment and trade,” according to a Stimson Center report.
That said, Kean told VOA that despite MNDAA’s public stance on China, the group may still maintain limited cooperation with resistance forces to secure its territorial interests.
Nan Lwin, head of the Myanmar China studies program at the Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar, said, “If China is to be credible for the Myanmar peace process, it will need to have a multi-country approach.”
Balancing act for opposition
Earlier this year, the National Unity Government, or NUG, issued its first formal policy statement on Beijing, pledging to safeguard Chinese investments and enterprise as resistance forces continue to gain ground in areas near the Chinese border.
However, the Yangon-based analyst who spoke on the condition of anonymity said this policy is insufficient to win over China, which seeks complete control in the region and wants to prevent any outside influence, particularly from the United States, near its strategic access point to the Indian Ocean.
“The more the conflict escalates on its border, the greater the risk of disagreements between China and the U.S. on Myanmar,” Kean said.
your ad hereAcademic freedom declines under Hong Kong’s national security regime, report finds
Taipei, Taiwan — A report released on Wednesday finds that Hong Kong’s national security law, enacted in July 2020, has eroded academic freedom in the former British colony.
The report, co-authored by Human Rights Watch, and the Washington-based advocacy organization Hong Kong Democracy Council, said university authorities have imposed greater control and limitations on student activities and that students and faculty members are increasingly exercising self-censorship to avoid getting into trouble.
“Students, academics, and administrators, especially those from Hong Kong studying contemporary socio-political issues, feel as if they are living under a microscope,” the report says.
Some analysts say the opaque definition of what constitutes a violation of the security law has created a chilling effect among students and faculty members at Hong Kong universities.
“When the red line isn’t clear, there will be a pervasive sense of fear, and students and faculty members will try to make adjustments to ensure they don’t get into trouble,” Maya Wang, the associate China director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA by phone.
The report said Hong Kong’s eight public universities have been managed by people who hold views favored by Beijing following the imposition of the law in 2020. Since then, university officials have increased crackdowns on student unions and banned symbols or events viewed as promoting pro-democracy values.
“University officials have punished students for holding peaceful protests and gatherings, and have broadly censored student publications, communications, and events,” the report reads.
Wang at Human Rights Watch said since many college students and academics were involved in 2019 protests over an extradition bill, one of the Chinese government’s priorities following the implementation of the law is to “impose ideological control” over universities.
“The decline of academic freedom in Hong Kong’s universities is part of Beijing’s attempt to impose ideological control over the entire city,” she told VOA.
Exercising self-censorship
Most of the 33 students and academics interviewed for the report said self-censorship is a common practice at universities in Hong Kong, especially on socio-political topics related to China and Hong Kong.
“They do this when expressing themselves in classrooms, when writing and researching academic articles, and when inviting speakers for academic conferences,” the report says, adding that academics teaching Hong Kong and China current affairs feel “especially vulnerable.”
In some cases, university officials have asked academics in the social science field to stop offering courses on topics that Beijing considers sensitive. Others face censorship imposed by university administrators or academic publishers.
Some academics said the prevalence of self-censorship at universities in Hong Kong will reduce international understanding of the dynamics in China.
“Hong Kong was always an important space that gives the international community some insight into what’s happening in Hong Kong and the broader China, but that space is now rapidly disappearing,” Lokman Tsui, a research fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab and a former journalism professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told VOA by phone.
The law’s negative impact on academic freedom in Hong Kong seems to differ between academics in different fields. “Some said [the NSL] affected everything they do; others said it has very little impact,” the report says.
Since university management is stacked with supporters of the Chinese government’s position, the report says university administrators have worked with Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to harass, intimidate or even remove academics voicing different opinions.
“The government does that by defaming and intimidating those academics perceived to hold liberal or pro-democracy views in the state-owned media and denying or not issuing visas to foreign academics expressing such opinions,” the report says, adding that universities would then fire, let go or deny tenure to these academics.
Human Rights Watch and Hong Kong Democracy Council said the Chinese government’s efforts to “cleanse” universities in Hong Kong have led to a “harmonization” of opinion in academia in Hong Kong. They also help amplify Chinese and Hong Kong authorities’ claim that pro-democracy voices are now “in the minority.”
“The Chinese government’s overall intention has been to ‘cleanse’ the universities [and] the result is a sanitized version of higher education compliant with the Party’s views, which so far continues to deliver a high-caliber education,” the report says.
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Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee holds secretary of state in contempt
A U.S. House of Representatives panel held Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt Tuesday for failing to answer lawmakers’ questions about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. VOA’s congressional correspondent, Katherine Gypson, has more from Washington, with Amadullah Archiwal contributing.
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Biden spotlights Mideast, Ukraine, offers hope in UN address
Joe Biden used his final presidential address before the U.N. General Assembly to urge unity in the face of challenges that include conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from New York.
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At UN, Africa renews calls for Security Council seats
Abuja, Nigeria — Nigeria has joined the growing calls by Africans leaders for permanent representation on the United Nations Security Council.
On the sidelines of the 79th U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Nigerian Defense Minister Mohammed Badaru said such a change would promote fairness and inclusivity.
“We have been in 41 different United Nations’ missions to provide security across the world,” Badaru said. “Based on that background and the effort of Africa, we also call on the United Nations to reform the Security Council so that Africa can have a permanent seat. It is time. We deserve it for justice and for equity.”
Other African nations also are clamoring for change.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday said, “Placing the fate of the world’s security in the hands of a select few when it is the vast majority who bear the brunt of these threats is unjust, unfair and unsustainable.”
Similarly, Kenyan President William Ruto criticized the multilateral system, saying, “It has proven inadequate.”
Many African countries were still under colonial rule at the time the Security Council was established. In 2005, the African Union adopted the so-called Ezulwini Consensus in Ethiopia for Africa to have at least two permanent and five nonpermanent seats at the U.N. council.
To date, though, the U.N. General Assembly elects five new members from different geographical zones for two-year terms on the council. Africa has three rotational seats on the 15-member council.
The founder of Security Watch Africa Initiative, Patrick Agbambu, said Africa needs to be united to make a good representation.
“The biggest threat to Africa getting that seat is Africa itself,” Agbambu said. “Africa does not have a united front; they do not have a common voice to be able to push two countries or one country forward. You can’t go for such with a divided house.
“As it stands, the various blocs in the African Union seem very divided, with each having a very strong opposition to the other. So, the world is just watching Africa,” he said.
Last week, the United States, one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, said it is open to having two African seats on the council but without the veto power of the original permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S.
Security analyst Senator Iroegbu said African representation on the Security Council is the right call but warned that it wouldn’t solve all problems.
“Nigeria stands in the right mix because it’s one of the most important countries in Africa and it’s the most populous nation in Africa, with huge economic potential,” he said. “But just being a member of [the] U.N. Security Council doesn’t guarantee stability at home if all the factors causing insecurity are not well addressed.”
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Delegates from African countries meet to discuss trade in live elephants
Gaborone, Botswana — Botswana is hosting delegates from 33 African elephant range states for talks on the trade in live elephants. They are also seeking a common position as Africa battles increasing elephant populations in some areas, while the numbers decline elsewhere on the continent.
Botswana’s environment and tourism minister, Nnaniki Makwinja, said Africa must speak with one voice despite the peculiar challenges each region faces.
“We are cognizant that the challenges that we face are diverse and there is no silver bullet to address these challenges,” Makwinja said Monday during the opening of the four-day meeting. “We call upon these countries to engage with us before they adopt measures that may undermine our efforts to conserve our wildlife heritage and sustainable development goals.”
In 2022, delegates from Africa attended talks in Panama on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. They were divided over elephant management.
Southern African nations want CITES to relax measures on elephant trade, but some parts of the continent, particularly the eastern and western areas, want stricter controls.
Dan Challender, a conservation scientist on the wildlife trade based at the University of Oxford, said this week’s meeting in Botswana might not address all concerns given the uneven distribution of the animals across the continent.
“The meeting provides an opportunity for African countries to come together and discuss trade in African elephants. I would expect them to find common ground on some issues but not all, recognizing the different status of the species and policy environments across the continent,” Challender said.
The meeting is open to governments, but non-profit conservation organizations are not invited.
Local conservationist Isaac Theophilus of the Botswana Wildlife Producers Association said delegates from countries that oppose trade in elephants should get a chance to see the impact of human-wildlife conflict.
“We have two opposing blocks that will be seated around the same table to look at issues relating to elephant management,” Theophilus said. “My hope and wish is that those states attending would have an opportunity to interact with people in the (wildlife) area and get firsthand information relating to problems associated with living with an increasing elephant population.”
Veterinarian and wildlife management expert Dr. Eric Verreynne said trade in live elephants poses logistical challenges.
“Transporting elephants from one country to another brings with it some challenges. Most of these challenges relate to logistics,” Verreynne said. “They are bulk animals; it’s very, very expensive to transport. When you talk about females and calves, you have to take your family groups in one. The capacity to transport large numbers of elephants is limited.”
Africa’s elephant population is estimated at 415,000, with more than half of the number living in southern Africa.
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US Justice Department sues Visa, saying it monopolizes debit card markets
NEW YORK — The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa on Tuesday, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars.
The complaint says Visa penalizes merchants and banks who don’t use Visa’s own payment processing technology to process debit transactions, even though alternatives exist. Visa earns an incremental fee from every transaction processed on its network.
According to the DOJ’s complaint, 60% of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa’s debit network, allowing it to charge over $7 billion in fees each year for processing those transactions.
“We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement. “Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing — but the price of nearly everything.”
The Biden administration has aggressively gone after U.S. companies that it says act like middlemen, such as Ticketmaster parent Live Nation and the real estate software company RealPage, accusing them of burdening Americans with nonsensical fees and anticompetitive behavior. The administration has also brought charges of monopolistic behavior against technology giants such as Apple and Google.
According to the DOJ complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Visa leverages the vast number of transactions on its network to impose volume commitments on merchants and their banks, as well as on financial institutions that issue debit cards. That makes it difficult for merchants to use alternatives, such as lower-cost or smaller payment processors, instead of Visa’s payment processing technology, without incurring what DOJ described as “disloyalty penalties” from Visa.
The DOJ said Visa also stifled competition by paying to enter into partnership agreements with potential competitors.
In 2020, the DOJ sued to block the company’s $5.3 billion purchase of financial technology startup Plaid, calling it a monopolistic takeover of a potential competitor to Visa’s ubiquitous payments network. That acquisition was later called off.
Visa previously disclosed the Justice Department was investigating the company in 2021, saying in a regulatory filing it was cooperating with a DOJ investigation into its debit practices.
Since the pandemic, more consumers globally have been shopping online for goods and services, which has translated into more revenue for Visa in the form of fees. Even traditionally cash-heavy businesses such as bars, barbers and coffee shops have started accepting credit or debit cards as a form of payment, often via smartphones.
Visa processed $3.325 trillion in transactions on its network during the quarter ended June 30, up 7.4% from a year earlier. U.S. payments grew by 5.1%, which is faster than U.S. economic growth.
Visa, based in San Francisco, did not immediately have a comment.
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Critics say Russia is militarizing classrooms
A new school year begins in Russia, the third that is starting with Moscow’s war in Ukraine as a backdrop. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina on what critics say are Russia’s moves to militarize education by introducing new subjects that explain and justify its full-scale assault on Ukraine.
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Swiss police detain several people in connection with ‘suicide capsule’
GENEVA — Police in northern Switzerland said Tuesday that several people have been detained and a criminal case opened in connection with the suspected death of a person in a “suicide capsule.”
The “Sarco” capsule is presumably designed to allow a person sitting in a reclining seat inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person is then supposed to fall asleep and die by suffocation in a few minutes.
Exit International, an assisted suicide group based in the Netherlands, said it is behind the 3D-printed device that cost over $1 million to develop.
Swiss law allows assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no “external assistance” and those who help the person die do not do so for “any self-serving motive,” according to a government website.
A law firm informed prosecutors in Schaffhausen canton that an assisted suicide involving the Sarco had taken place Monday near a forest cabin in Merishausen, regional police said in a statement. They said that “several people” were taken into custody and that prosecutors opened an investigation on suspicion of incitement and accessory to suicide.
Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reported Tuesday that police had detained one of its photographers who wanted to take pictures of the use of the Sarco. It said Schaffhausen police had indicated the photographer was being held at a police station but declined to give a further explanation.
The newspaper declined to comment further when contacted by the Associated Press.
In an email, the Dutch Foreign Ministry told the AP that it was in contact with the newspaper and Swiss officials.
“As always, we cannot interfere in the legal process of another country. At the same time, the Netherlands stands firmly for press freedom. It is very important that journalists worldwide can do their work freely,” it said.
Exit International, the group behind the Sarco, said in a statement a 64-year-old woman from the U.S. Midwest — it did not specify further — who had suffered from “severe immune compromise” had died Monday afternoon near the German border using the Sarco device.
It said Florian Willet, co-president of The Last Resort, a Swiss affiliate of Exit International, was the only person present and described her death as “peaceful, fast and dignified.”
Dr. Philip Nitschke, an Australian-born trained doctor behind Exit International, has previously told the AP that his organization received advice from lawyers in Switzerland that the use of the Sarco would be legal in the country.
In the Exit International statement on Tuesday, Nitschke said he was “pleased that the Sarco had performed exactly as it had been designed … to provide an elective, non-drug, peaceful death at the time of the person’s choosing.”
The claims of Nitschke and Exit International could not be independently verified.
On Monday, Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider was asked in Swiss parliament about the legal conditions for the use of the Sarco capsule. She suggested its use would not be legal.
“On one hand, it does not fulfill the demands of the product safety law, and as such, must not be brought into circulation,” she said. “On the other hand, the corresponding use of nitrogen is not compatible with the article on purpose in the chemicals law.”
In July, Swiss newspaper Blick reported that Peter Sticher, a state prosecutor in Schaffhausen, wrote to Exit International’s lawyers saying any operator of the suicide capsule could face criminal proceedings if it was used there — and any conviction could bring up to five years in prison.
Prosecutors in other Swiss regions have also indicated that the use of the suicide capsule could lead to prosecution.
Over the summer, a 54-year-old U.S. woman with multiple health ailments had planned to be the first person to use the device, but those plans were abandoned.
Switzerland is among the only countries in the world where foreigners can travel to legally end their lives and has organizations that are dedicated to helping people kill themselves. But unlike others, including the Netherlands, Switzerland does not allow euthanasia, which involves health care practitioners killing patients with a lethal injection at their request and in specific circumstances.
Some lawmakers in Switzerland have argued that the law is unclear and have sought to close what they call legal loopholes.
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