Myanmar’s shadow government declared a “defensive war” on Tuesday that is being viewed by analysts as a call to arms against the junta controlling the country.The National Unity Government (NUG) was founded as a shadow government in the wake of February’s military coup by Myanmar’s national armed forces. The NUG is the main opposition group, consisting of ousted elected politicians and legislators that claim to be the country’s legitimate government.After NUG Acting President Duwa Lashi La called in a video for a nationwide uprising, there have reports that government has increased its military security presence in the capital, Yangon.Myanmar has been in crisis since the military takeover that prompted widespread opposition. The junta ousted the National League for Democracy party, the democratically elected government, and detained its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.Nationwide protests ensued, with hundreds of thousands resisting military rule and going on strike, spearheaded by the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Clashes followed, with the military harshly cracking down on demonstrators and over 1,000 killed according to the monitoring group the Association Assistance for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The military says the number is much lower.But as clashes have continued, rural areas of Myanmar, including ethnic minority regions, have been most affected. Government troops and ethnic armed organizations have engaged in sustained fighting, with reports of regular airstrikes and tens of thousands of displaced villagers.A People’s Defense Force (PDF), made up of militia groups and anti-coup demonstrators, has also been created in the wake of the crackdown and is in alignment with the NUG.Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst, said previous claims of “D-Day” from other members of the NUG were deemed as hints of imminent attacks on junta forces, but yesterday’s announcement of a “defensive war” was more like a calling of arms.“After the declaration of war, as some PDF members are already trained in ethnic areas, there is pressure for the NUG from the people to do something distinctive,” he told VOA.The analyst added he expects more attacks and fighting in coming months.A leader of a guerrilla force that says it has about 100 soldiers within Myanmar’s ethnic controlled areas told VOA through a translator that he believes it’s the beginning of a large-scale civil war.Loi Samsit, which isn’t his real name, used to work as a humanitarian worker. Now he’s a rebel soldier who claims he is in alliance with the PDF.“That means war is about to come… We, the soldiers from the people, are former professionals, working with pens, now holding guns,” he said.Tun-Aung Shwe, the NUG’s representative to the Commonwealth of Australia, reiterated the necessity for those opposing the coup to resist the junta.“The announcement means that the NUG takes its national responsibility to protect its own people who are suffering a lot under the brutal repression of the military junta when the international community is watching and sharing their grave concerns on the situation,” he told VOA by email.But the NUG representative played down the possibility of a full-blown civil war.“I am expecting to see a well-coordinated, well-organized people revolution to the military junta and targeted attacks to the military and its pillars, including military communication and supply lines and security posts and also to see defections among the military personnel,” Shwe said.“I don’t think there will be a full-blown civil war because of the significant difference in terms of resources between the military junta and civilian government,” he added.Hudson Logan, a youth leader in the Area 21 Revolution group, a network tasked with assisting local PDF armies with new recruits and training, stressed that the “defensive war” has many components.“It will look like nationwide resistant movement in all possible forms. Armed resistance is part of the nationwide uprising, which may also include mass protests, mass disobedience and [without] collaboration to [the] military administration,” he told VOA in a message.Southeast Asian and western countries have called for peace and to refrain from violence.The U.S. State Department has updated its travel alerts for citizens within Myanmar amid the NUG’s declaration. Challenge expected at U.N. assemblyZaw Min Tun, the Myanmar military spokesman, refuted reports about revolt attempts, saying the announcement was for attention amid the upcoming credentials challenge at the United Nations next week, Reuters reported.At the 76th General Assembly session on September 14, Myanmar will be a hot topic, as the credentials committee, made up of nine countries, must recommend an entity to take the country’s U.N. seat. The choice comes down to either the military junta or representatives of the former government.UN to Discuss Myanmar Representation at General Assembly The Credentials Committee must decide whether the ousted government or the junta that seized power will take the UN seat After ASEAN, a 10-member union consisting of countries in the region, called an emergency meeting in April, a five-point consensus was developed in a bid to solve the Myanmar crisis. But a special envoy has yet to visit.Analyst Aung Thu Nyein thinks the diplomatic front is key for the NUG because of insecurities between ethnic and anti-coup opposition groups, and that the war announcement is being used partly as a show of force.“In my opinion, the NUG’s strength is at the diplomatic front and not with the military. They have been talking to the ethnic armed groups, but it seems not ready to form a unified alliance. It is untimely, as the ASEAN special envoy called a few days ago to cease hostilities from both sides. Definitely, it is the response to the special envoy before his visit to Myanmar,” he added.Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, gained independence in 1948 from Britain, but most of its modern history has been governed under military rule.In Myanmar’s November general elections, the military claimed unsubstantiated electoral fraud. On February 1, the Myanmar military, also known as Tatmadaw, removed the democratically elected government. National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were detained and have since been charged.
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Category: East
East news. East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise. The practice of praying towards the East is older than Christianity, but has been adopted by this religion as the Orient was thought of as containing mankind’s original home
South Korea Fights ‘Fake News,’ But Critics Claim It’s Gagging the Press
South Korean legislation intended to combat what authorities view as “fake news” could undermine press freedom in one of Asia’s strongest democracies, analysts say. The proposed revision to the Press Arbitration Act, backed by South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party, would significantly expand the ability of courts to punish accredited reporters and media outlets deemed to have intentionally published false information. If passed, the legislation would amount to a rare example of a liberal democracy responding to the growing challenge of disinformation by targeting traditional media, such as newspapers and television broadcasters. “At a time when authoritarian governments are increasingly adopting so-called ‘fake news’ laws to stifle criticism, it is disappointing to see a democratic country like South Korea follow this negative trend,” said Scott Griffen, deputy director of the International Press Institute, a Vienna-based free speech monitoring group. UN concerned
Under the proposal, claimants would be able to sue for up to five times the estimated damage caused by a deliberate dissemination of false news. That appears to be “utterly disproportionate,” according to Irene Khan, the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression. In a letter to South Korea’s government, Khan offered a detailed and forceful critique of the proposed legislation, saying it would provide “excessive discretion to the authorities that may lead to arbitrary implementation.” The bill’s “very vague language,” she added, “may limit a wide range of expression that is essential to a democratic society, including news reporting, criticism of the government, political leaders and other public figures, and the expression of unpopular and minority opinions.” Restoring public trust? Supporters say the new rules will help improve the South Korean public’s low confidence in domestic media.According to the latest annual study by the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford, just 32% of South Koreans trust the media. That is among the lowest of the 46 countries surveyed. Even so, several opinion polls show only a narrow majority of South Koreans appearing to support the legislation. “The revision of the [Press] Arbitration Act is the first step toward the media restoring its public credibility,” said Representative Kim Seung-won, a member of South Korea’s Democratic Party. In an interview with VOA, Kim also said the bill will provide more redress for those hurt by inaccurate reports.
“There are more than 4,000 instances each year in which fake news is judged to have caused damage,” he said. “So, it is necessary to relieve those damages, correct misinformation, compel follow-up reports, and strengthen the media’s editorial process.” Messy media environment South Korea boasts a free but often divisive and boisterous press. Many of the country’s biggest newspapers have links to chaebols — powerful, family-run conglomerates — and traditionally take a conservative stance on political and economic issues. Other smaller papers are explicitly liberal. FILE – This photo illustration taken in Seoul on Nov. 9, 2020 shows the frontpages of South Korea’s newspapers carrying stories and pictures of US President-elect Joe Biden.As in other countries, social media has fractured the South Korean media landscape and deepened political divisions. Polarization intensified after the 2017 impeachment of conservative President Park Geun-hye – the daughter of South Korea’s former military strongman, Park Chung-hee. She was subsequently sentenced to prison on corruption charges. After the Park scandal, many older conservatives, who respected the country’s former military rulers, became disillusioned with traditional media. They instead migrated to YouTube, which offered alternative information sources.FILE – South Korean ousted leader Park Geun-hye arrives at a court in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 25, 2017.Some of those far-right YouTube channels peddle far-fetched and unproven assertions, including claims that last year’s legislative election was rigged by shadowy communist forces.During the pandemic, many conservative leaders have used YouTube to call for mass anti-government protests that violate South Korea’s strict COVID-19 social distancing guidelines. Other social media have problems, too, including cyberbullying and vicious personal attacks that came to the fore in 2019 after two female Korean pop stars took their own lives. However, the law under discussion wouldn’t apply to private individuals on social media, only to officially accredited outlets and reporters. Elevating clickbait
Many journalists complain the bill does not address another major issue: South Korea’s massively influential online portals, such as Naver and Daum, which curate and host news stories from various outlets on their own websites. FILE – The Naver homepage is seen on a screen in Singapore, Oct. 28, 2015.FILE – A commuter checks his phone as he sits in a train station of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway in Seoul, on August 24, 2021.South Korean journalists oppose A wide range of South Korean newspapers, reporters, and journalism associations have criticized the proposal. Many say the new rules would discourage reporting that exposes powerful people and organizations. “If this act passes, the natural outcome will be more self-censorship by journalists,” said Lee Jin-dong, who heads his own investigative news outlet, Newsverse. “And their companies may pressure them to avoid lawsuits.” A young broadcast reporter at one of South Korea’s top television news stations said he understands more media regulation is needed, but believes it should be done in a way that doesn’t threaten the idea of journalism itself. “If this bill passes, I feel I will be unable to raise questions about presidential candidates or possible government ministers or conglomerates,” said the reporter, who also requested anonymity. Backlash forces delay Even some ruling party politicians have spoken against the bill. “There are some problematic provisions within this law,” Lee Sang-min, a Democratic Party lawmaker, told VOA. “The intention is good, but we have to find a better balance between freedom of speech and legal regulation.” FILE – South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in (center L) delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the 21st National Assembly term in Seoul on July 16, 2020.The backlash by South Korean civic groups may be having an effect. Though the legislation was expected to pass late last month, the Democratic Party agreed to delay it while an eight-member “discussion body” discusses possible changes. In the end, the party can do whatever it wants, due to its parliamentary supermajority. Many journalists are watching closely. “The press has a lot of problems, it’s true,” said a reporter who covers legal issues. The reporter, like others contacted by VOA, spoke only on condition of anonymity, added, “But the solution is not the current media arbitration law. This will only worsen social conflict.”
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New Zealand to Overhaul Terror Laws After Auckland Supermarket Stabbings
New Zealand is reviewing its terror laws after a knife-wielding Sri Lankan man attacked shoppers at an Auckland supermarket before being shot dead by the police. Authorities said he was inspired by the Islamic State group. The proposed New Zealand’s Counter Terror Legislation Bill would criminalize the planning of a terror attack.It would close what critics have said is a loophole that has allowed suspected extremists to continue posing a threat. The attacker was under police surveillance but was recently released with a year-long probation. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Saturday that there is a plan to pass the new law by the end of this month.Andrew Little, the minister responsible for the intelligence agencies, said in a statement to Parliament Tuesday that New Zealand must learn from the September 3rd Auckland supermarket attack and remain vigilant to keep the community safe.“New Zealand was not immune to the threat of terrorist violence in March 2019,” he said, “and we are not immune now, and we will not be in the future.”Andrew Geddis, a law professor at Otago University, says defining what constitutes the planning of a terrorist attack could be problematic.“There may be other individuals out there like this guy that the legislation, this new provision, can be used to try to stop,” Geddis said. “The problem, of course, is that planning or preparing to do something can be quite a slippery concept, and so the worry is how far will this new offence stretch into people thinking about, talking about, writing about things that they may never actually do in practice.”The Auckland supermarket attacker was identified as 32-year-old Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, according to court documents.For more than four years, New Zealand had tried to deport and strip him of his refugee status, granted in 2013 following his arrival to the country 10 years ago. Prime Minister Ardern said the process had been “frustrating.” The attacker was a Tamil Muslim from Sri Lanka who arrived in New Zealand on a student visa and sought asylum.In 2016, he was warned about posting violent pro-Islamic State group content online. He was later charged with various offences and spent three years in prison awaiting trial and was convicted but released on a supervision order in July.Samsudeen’s family in Sri Lanka said he had “mental health problems,” suffers from “political torture at home” and that they were “heartbroken by this terrible event.”The knife attack occurred despite the fact he was under constant surveillance since his release. Authorities said the rampage lasted less than a minute before he was shot dead by the police. Seven people were wounded and hospitalized, some in critical condition.In March 2019, a self-confessed white supremacist murdered 51 worshippers at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch.
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China Chases ‘Rejuvenation’ With Control of Tycoons, Society
An avalanche of changes launched by China’s ruling Communist Party has jolted everyone from tech billionaires to school kids. Behind them: President Xi Jinping’s vision of making a more powerful, prosperous country by reviving revolutionary ideals, with more economic equality and tighter party control over society and entrepreneurs. Since taking power in 2012, Xi has called for the party to return to its “original mission” as China’s economic, social and cultural leader and carry out the “rejuvenation of the great Chinese nation.” The party has spent the decade since then silencing dissent and tightening political control. Now, after 40 years of growth that transformed China into the world’s factory but left a gulf between a wealthy elite and the poor majority, the party is promising to spread prosperity more evenly and is pressing private companies to pay for social welfare and back Beijing’s ambition to become a global technology competitor. To support its plans, Xi’s government is trying to create what it deems a more wholesome society by reducing children’s access to online games and banning “sissy men” who are deemed insufficiently masculine from TV.China Bans Men It Sees as Not Masculine Enough From TVPresident Xi Jinping has called for a ‘national rejuvenation,’ with tighter Communist Party control of business, education, culture and religionChinese leaders want to “direct the constructive energies of all people in one laser-focused direction selected by the party,” Andrew Nathan, a Chinese politics specialist at Columbia University, said in an email. Beijing has launched anti-monopoly and data security crackdowns to tighten its control over internet giants, including e-commerce platform Alibaba Group and games and social media operator Tencent Holdings Ltd., that looked too big and potentially independent. In response, their billionaire founders have scrambled to show loyalty by promising to share their wealth under Xi’s vaguely defined “common prosperity” initiative to narrow the income gap in a country with more billionaires than the United States. Xi has yet to give details, but in a society where every political term is scrutinized for significance, the name revives a 1950s propaganda slogan under Mao Zedong, the founder of the communist government. Xi is reviving the “utopian ideal” of early communist leaders, said Willy Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “But of course, huge question marks have arisen, because this will hurt the most creative and lucrative parts of the economy.” Alibaba, Tencent and others have pledged tens of billions of dollars for job creation and social welfare initiatives. They say they will invest in developing processor chips and other technologies cited by Beijing as priorities. The party’s anti-monopoly enforcement and crackdown on how companies handle information about customers are similar to Western regulation. But the abrupt, heavy-handed way changes have been imposed is prompting warnings that Beijing is threatening innovation and economic growth, which already is declining. Jittery foreign investors have knocked more than $300 billion off Tencent’s stock market value and billions more off other companies. “I expect that over the next year or two we are likely to see a very rocky relationship develop between the political elite and the business elite,” Michael Pettis, a finance professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Business, said in a report. Chinese officials say the public, consumers and entrepreneurs will benefit from higher incomes and more regulatory oversight of corporate giants. Parents welcome curbs announced last month that limit children under 18 to three hours of online games a week and only on weekends and Friday night. “I feel this is a good rule,” said Li Zhanguo, the father of an 8-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl in the central city of Zhengzhou. “Games still have some addictive mechanisms. We can’t count on children’s self-control.” The crackdowns reflect party efforts to control a rapidly evolving society of 1.4 billion people. Some 1 million members of mostly Muslim ethnic groups have been forced into detention camps in the northwest. Officials deny accusations of abuses including forced abortions and say the camps are for job training and to combat extremism. A surveillance initiative dubbed Social Credit aims to track every person and company in China and punish violations ranging from dealing with business partners that violate environmental rules to littering. “Our responsibility is to unite and lead the entire party and people of all ethnic groups, take the baton of history and to work hard to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Xi said when he and the six other members of the new party Standing Committee appeared in public for the first time in November 2012. The party Central Committee shifted its economic emphasis “from efficiency to fairness” in late 2020, a researcher at a Beijing think tank wrote in August in Caixin, China’s most prominent business magazine. The party moved from “early prosperity for some to ‘common prosperity’” and “from capital to labor,” wrote Luo Zhiheng of Yuekai Securities Research Institute. He said leaders are emphasizing science, technology and manufacturing over finance and real estate. Prominent economists have tried to reassure entrepreneurs. “It is impossible to achieve common prosperity through ‘robbing the rich and helping the poor,’” the dean of the school of economics at Shanghai’s Fudan University, Zhang Jun, told the news outlet The Paper on Aug. 4. The 1979 launch of market-style economic reform under then-leader Deng Xiaoping prompted predictions abroad that China would evolve into a more open, possibly even democratic society. The Communist Party allowed freer movement and encourages internet use for business and education. But leaders reject changes to a one-party dictatorship that copied its political structure from the Soviet Union and watch entrepreneurs closely. Beijing controls all media and tries to limit what China’s public sees online. As the previous decade’s economic boom fades, “Xi sees himself as the only person capable of recreating the momentum,” said June Teufel Dreyer, a Chinese politics specialist at the University of Miami. Party members who worry reforms might weaken political control appear to have decided China’s rise is permanent and liberalization is no longer needed, said Edward Friedman, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin. That means “anti-totalitarian elements of the reform agenda could be rolled back,” Friedman said in an email. “That is what Xi is doing, as manifest in his attack on purportedly gay and girlie culture as a supposed threat to a so-called virile militarism.” An Aug. 29 commentary by an obscure writer, Li Guangman, described “common prosperity” as a “profound revolution.” Writing on the WeChat message service, Li said financial markets would “no longer be a paradise for capitalists to get rich overnight” and said the party’s next targets might include high housing and health care costs. The commentary was reposted on prominent state media websites including the ruling party newspaper People’s Daily. That prompted questions about whether Beijing might veer into an ideological campaign with echoes of the violent 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when some 5 million people were killed. Hu Xijin, the editor of the Global Times, a newspaper published by People’s Daily that is known for its nationalist tone, responded by criticizing Li’s commentary. Hu warned in a blog post against a return to radicalism. “The Cultural Revolution was a period of chaos, purposely unleashed by Mao because he felt comfortable in chaos,” Nathan said. “This is almost the exact opposite,” he said. “It is an effort to create tightly structured orderliness.”
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Hong Kong Police Arrest Organizers of Annual Tiananmen Square Vigils
Four members of a Hong Kong group that organizes the annual observances of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown were arrested Wednesday after refusing to cooperate with a police investigation into its activities. Chow Hang Tung, a barrister and vice president of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, was detained at her office in the city’s central business district. Chow was scheduled to represent Gwyneth Ho, an opposition politician, in a bail hearing Wednesday. Ho has been charged with conspiracy to commit subversion. The Alliance identified the other detained members as Simon Leung, Sean Tang and Chan To-wai. Police last month ordered the group to turn over all information about its finances, membership and activities by September 7, accusing it of colluding with foreign agents. However, the Alliance formally informed police on Tuesday, the day of the deadline, that it had no intention of cooperating because police had not provided any evidence behind the allegation. Authorities released a statement late Tuesday warning that anyone who refuses to comply would face up to six months in jail and more than $12,000 in fines. The Hong Kong Alliance has been hosting an annual candlelight vigil in the city’s Victoria Park in remembrance of the deadly June 4, 1989 crackdown of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square by Chinese soldiers. For the past two years, authorities have banned the vigils citing pandemic restrictions. Hong Kong’s national security law, approved by Beijing in response to the massive and often violent anti-government protests in 2019, punishes anyone believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces with sentences up to life in prison if convicted. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters and Agence France Presse.
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Media Blocked From Rohingya Refugee Camp
Security forces have blocked reporters from covering a vaccination drive for internally displaced people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, local journalists say.A spokesperson for Myanmar’s military government, Major General Zaw Min Tun, said in late August that members of the Rohingya minority would be given COVID-19 vaccines.But at least two news crews who attempted to visit a camp for internally displaced persons, or IDPs, to cover the vaccination rollout say police told them they could not enter.“Police officers said that journalists are not allowed to enter,” said Tun Tha, the editor of Western News, a Rakhine state news outlet. “If we want to enter the camp, we must seek permission from authorities.” Tun Tha told VOA Burmese that while media have been free to cover other camps without seeking permission, that was not the case at camps housing Muslims.In this June 26, 2014 photo, a girl, self-identified as Rohingya, stands close to her family’s tent house at Dar Paing camp for refugees, suburbs of Sittwe, Western Rakhine state, Myanmar.“We are free to cover Rakhine IDP camp news, whereas we need permission to cover Muslim IDP camps. It seems authorities handle approaches to the Muslim community with discrimination. We take it as disruption of media access in this regard,” Tun Tha said.A Muslim minority in a predominantly Buddhist country, the Rohingya were targeted in 2017 with a campaign that the U.N. described as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” For years before, the Rohingya have been denied citizenship and other basic rights.State officials in Myanmar estimate more than 200,000 Muslim refugees are in Rakhine State.Hla Thein, a military spokesperson for Rakhine State, did not respond to a request for comment from VOA Burmese.A sweeping outbreak of the coronavirus is taxing Myanmar’s public health system that already was strained by the political upheaval after the army seized power in February from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.FILE – Newly built repatriation camps prepared for Rohingya refugees expected to return from Bangladesh are surrounded by barbed-wire, Jan. 24, 2018, in Taungpyo township, border town of northern Rakhine State, Myanmar.Khin Tharapi Oo, senior reporter with Development Media Group (DMG), told VOA Burmese that her team also was denied access to the Thet Kae-Pyin IDP camp located on the outskirts of Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State.“Camp security did not allow us to enter the camp and asked us to get [a] permit, then stopped us from taking video as well. Security even yelled at us to get out,” said Khin Tharapi Oo. “We called state authorities to [seek] permission with no avail. Other news agency reporters faced the same problem, [security would] not even let us take video or photos.”Khin Tharapi Oo said that media had been allowed to visit other Rakhine camps without any restrictions.“This is the first time Muslim refugees get vaccinated, we should be allowed to cover it. Authorities should not restrict us to cover this significant news. They do not have sound reason to restrict us,” she said. Maung Lay, who manages the camp, told VOA Burmese that at least 150 refugees who are over the age of 45 were vaccinated on August 28 and 29, and second doses are scheduled for September 26. He said the camp houses about 3,000 refugees.The media restrictions come amid a general tightening of free speech in Myanmar after the military coup.FILE – Police arrest a Myanmar Now journalist in Yangon, February 27, 2021, as protesters were taking part in a demonstration against the military coup.On September 1, police in Yangon arrested a female journalist who had been in hiding for four months. Ma Thuzar, who contributed to Myanmar Pressphoto Agency and the Friday Times News Journal, was held incommunicado for five days before authorities confirmed her arrest.The reason for her arrest and current location have not been made available, says media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).Ma Thuzar is one of dozens of journalists currently detained in Myanmar by the military.“The way she [Thuzar] has been treated reflects the illegal, brutal and inhuman treatment to which the military junta has subjected all journalists in Myanmar for the past seven months,” RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk head Daniel Bastard said in a statement.Also detained is American journalist Danny Fenster, who has spent more than 100 days in prison since his arrest at Yangon airport in May.At a virtual hearing Monday, a court in Yangon again remanded Fenster, who is managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, in custody for a further two weeks.Elizabeth Hughes contributed to this report. This story originated in VOA’s Burmese service.
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Indonesia Reports Lowest COVID Rate Since Pandemic Began
Indonesian authorities say the nation’s daily coronavirus positivity rate has dropped below 5% for the first time since the pandemic began, a strong indication the nation’s second wave of COVID-19 infections could be easing.
Indonesia’s positivity rate – the proportion of people testing positive – peaked at 33.4% in July when new cases spiked dramatically, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, making the country Asia’s COVID-19 epicenter.
But the country’s independent COVID-19 data initiative, known as KawalCOVID-19, reported Tuesday the infection rate fell to 4.57%, the lowest since March 2020, when Indonesia’s first cases were reported. The WHO has said that a positivity rate above 5% indicates COVID-19 is out of control.
KawalCOVID-19 co-founder Elina Ciptadi told the Reuters news agency the trend is encouraging, although she cautioned that official data does not cover all cases and deaths.
The initiative reports that since the COVID-19 peak in July, when Indonesia implemented tighter restrictions on public gatherings, the average positivity rate has fallen steadily, from 23.8% in the first week of August, to 11.3% in the final week of that month, to 6.2% on average so far in September.
The Indonesian government lifted coronavirus restrictions that were eased further Monday, with most areas on Java Island downgraded, allowing conditional operation of malls, factories, and restaurants. Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged Indonesians not to be complacent, though, warning that “COVID is always lurking. When our guards are down, [cases] can increase again.”Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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New Zealand to Lift Many COVID-19 Restrictions
New Zealand is easing the coronavirus lockdown for nearly the entire country first imposed last month after the Pacific nation reported its first confirmed COVID-19 case in six months.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that the nationwide alert level will be lowered to Level 2, allowing schools, businesses and offices to reopen. The new orders will not apply to Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city and the epicenter of the current outbreak that began when a 58-year-old man tested positive for the delta variant of COVID-19 in mid-August. The nation has posted 821 confirmed COVID-19 cases during the current outbreak, including 20 new cases on Monday. Auckland will remain under strict stay-at-home orders until September 14, keeping all schools, offices and businesses shut down with only essential services remaining operational.Prime Minister Ardern has embraced a strategy of totally eliminating COVID-19, saying it was necessary to “go hard” with the strict lockdown in order to prevent a widespread outbreak. New Zealand imposed a strict lockdown in the early days of the pandemic that has led to just 3,814 confirmed infections and just 27 deaths among its five million citizens. FILE – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern receives the first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the Manurewa Vaccination center in Auckland, New Zealand, June 18, 2021. (Alex Burton/NZ Herald via AP)Only 25 to 30 percent of all New Zealanders have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Officials say the government is nearing a final agreement to secure more doses of the two-shot Pfizer vaccine within days. Hong KongHong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced Tuesday that beginning September 15, travelers from mainland China and the nearby enclave of Macao will be allowed to enter the semi-autonomous city without a mandatory quarantine. Lam told reporters that it will allow a total of 2,000 travelers from both places on a daily basis, but they will be required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to arrival. FILE – A visitor sets up his camera in the Victoria Peak area to photograph Hong Kong’s skyline, Sept. 1, 2019.Lam also said Hong Kong residents will be allowed to return to the city from the mainland without undergoing quarantine, so long as they did not travel to any high-risk areas. The new changes are part of the government’s new “Come2HK” program aimed at reviving the city’s tourism industry, which sustained major losses during the first year of the pandemic as Hong Kong pursued a “zero-Covid” elimination strategy. But the city will continue to impose travel restrictions on travelers from foreign countries, prompting growing frustration among Hong Kong’s business community. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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Myanmar Resistance Movement Calls for Nationwide Uprising
The main underground group coordinating resistance to Myanmar’s military government called for a nationwide uprising on Tuesday.The National Unity Government views itself as a shadow government composed of elected legislators who were barred from taking their seats when the military seized power in February.The group’s acting president Duwa Lashi La called for revolt “in every village, town and city in the entire country at the same time” and declared what he called a “state of emergency.” A video of his speech was posted on Facebook.The country has been wracked by unrest since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, with a low-level insurrection in many urban areas. There has been more serious combat in rural areas, especially in border regions where ethnic minority militias have been engaging in serious clashes with the government’s troops.The shadow government’s prime minister, Mahn Winn Khaing Thann, said in a separate statement posted online that the move was taken due to “changing circumstances” that required the complete abolition of the ruling military government. He did not elaborate.There were no immediate signs of heightened resistance activity, although some student groups and ethnic armed organizations expressed solidarity.The National Unity Government is popular inside Myanmar, but its actual power and influence is hard to measure. It has frequently issued sweeping proclamations and policy statements declaring the military government and its actions invalid and illegal, but they’ve had little real-world effect. It controls no territory, does not directly control any armed force and has won no diplomatic recognition from foreign countries. Members of its shadow Cabinet are in hiding inside Myanmar and in exile.Duwa Lashi La called on the ethnic militias, some of whom have declared themselves in alliance with the resistance, to “immediately attack” government forces and “fully control your lands.” The ethnic armed forces, which have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government, operate independently of the National Unity Government.Duwa Lashi La called for a “people’s revolution” and asked for all soldiers and police to join the “people’s defense forces.” He also warned civil servants against going to their offices.He advised people to heed their personal safety and not travel unnecessarily, as well as to stock up on food and medicine, guidance it has offered on at least one past occasion when it warned of trouble ahead. He said people should help the defense forces where they can, including with information about government military forces.The resistance movement against the military takeover had established “people’s defense forces” in many areas, but they mostly operate locally and when active, carry out small-scale hit-and-run guerrilla operations.
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North Korea Promotes General to Ruling Party’s Presidium, State Media Says
North Korea has elevated a general long seen as a rising star in the country’s powerful military and a major player in its missile program to a position in the presidium of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) politburo, state media reported Tuesday. Pak Jong Chon will also serve as secretary of the WPK Central Committee, KCNA news agency said. His election to the presidium, one of the most powerful decision-making bodies in North Korea, came after he appeared to face reprimand or demotion in July after leader Kim Jong Un accused officials of causing a “great crisis” with unspecified coronavirus lapses. North Korea has not reported any confirmed cases of the virus and never elaborated on what the crises or the lapses were. FILE – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at the office of the Party Central Committee in Pyongyang in this picture taken September 2, 2021 and released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. (Photo by STR/KCNA via KNS/AFP)In recent years Pak was promoted to a full four-star Army general, led the military as chief of the general staff of the army, and made prominent appearances alongside Kim, including on a famous horse ride up North Korea’s sacred Mount Paektu. Analysts attributed his rise in part to his role in North Korea’s short-range missile development, which surged ahead after Kim suspended long-range ballistic missile tests in 2018 amid talks with the United States. Pak appears to have replaced Ri Pyong-chol, another powerful general who played a major role in North Korea’s ballistic missile program, on the presidium, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. Analysts said the reshuffling in July was the most significant personnel change among the core elite in years, and was seen as a likely warning to them that Kim would hold them accountable and maintain checks on their power. Rim Kwang-il, who served as head of North Korea’s military intelligence agency, was named as chief of the general staff of the army, while army general Jang Jong-nam was elected as the Minister of Social Security, KCNA said Tuesday.
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UN to Discuss Myanmar Representation at General Assembly
Myanmar is awaiting a U.N. General Assembly decision that could play a role in who leads the country in the future. Myanmar is still grappling with the aftermath of a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government February 1. At the 76th General Assembly session next week, Myanmar will be a hot topic, as the Credentials Committee, made up of nine countries, must recommend an entity to take the country’s U.N. seat. The choice comes down to either the military junta or representatives of the former government. The military claims it ousted the ruling National League for Democracy because the party had ignored allegations that the general elections in November 2020 were riddled with fraud. The NLD had won the poll in a landslide, drubbing the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party in a contest deemed mostly free and fair by local and international election observers. FILE – Soldiers stand next to military vehicles in Yangon, Myanmar, February 15, 2021.NLD’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint have been detained since the coup and face several charges. Meanwhile, a group called the National Unity Government (NUG), founded in the wake of the coup, claims to be Myanmar’s legitimate government. It is made up of ousted politicians, leaders and pro-democracy activists, and the military deems it illegal. In a crackdown on anti-coup protesters led by the civil disobedience movement (CDM), more than 1,000 people have been killed and thousands more detained, FILE – A man sits in front of shutters decorated with graffiti in support of the civil disobedience movement (CDM) and the three-finger salute made by protesters demonstrating against the military coup in Yangon, April 7, 2021.While signs of a possible civil war continue to increase, some prominent women activists are calling for international pressure on the junta. Daw Ma Khin Lay, a former political activist and aid to Suu Kyi in the 1990s, left Myanmar following the coup. Khin Lay is the director of FILE – Protesters hold a banner in support of the National Unity Government (NUG) as they take part in a demonstration against the military coup, in Yangon, July 7, 2021.Khin Lay added that although there are hopes for the NUG to be recognized, it is essential that the U.N. recognize Moe Tun. “Credentials are very new for us. We have to learn,” Khin Lay said. “According to ASEAN, there will be three possible options. (We believe) the most possible … is to recognize Moe Tun,” she added. ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Thinzar Shunlei Yi is another prominent activist fighting for change in Myanmar. She is wanted by the military but managed to speak to VOA by phone in August. The activist maintains that the coup is still regarded as a failure, as the CDM continues to stifle the junta’s operations. “Even after the killings, people still go on the streets and keep protesting, so the grounds are different,” she said. “We still have many protests in different places, in different forms. On the street, digital platforms — so I feel the resistance is still going strong even after all these intimidations. … People still risk their life. That’s the mindset of CDM people.” And the activist stressed there should be no confusion about whom the U.N. should recognize. “For the recognition of NUG, I don’t think it is a dilemma. These are not two political parties. This is clearly a military junta abusing power to grab power and take control of the civilian government. The U.N. community doesn’t need to have that dilemma,” she said.
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Vietnamese Man Jailed for 5 Years for Spreading Coronavirus
Vietnam jailed a man on Monday for five years for breaking strict COVID-19 quarantine rules and spreading the virus to others, state media reported.Le Van Tri, 28, was convicted of “spreading dangerous infectious diseases” at a one-day trial at the People’s Court of the southern province of Ca Mau, the state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.Vietnam has been one of the world’s coronavirus success stories, thanks to targeted mass testing, aggressive contact tracing, tight border restrictions and strict quarantine. But new clusters of infections since late April have tarnished that record.”Tung traveled back to Ca Mau from Ho Chi Minh City … and breached the 21-day quarantine regulations,” the news agency said.”Tung infected eight people, one of whom died due to the virus after one month of treatment,” it added.Reuters did not immediately reach the Ca Mau court for comment.Ca Mau, Vietnam’s southernmost province, has reported only 191 cases and two deaths since the pandemic began, much lower than the nearly 260,000 cases and 10,685 deaths in the country’s coronavirus epicenter, Ho Chi Minh City.Vietnam is battling a worsening COVID-19 outbreak that has infected more than 536,000 people and killed 13,385, the vast majority in the past few months.The country has sentenced two other people to 18-month and two-year suspended jail terms on the same charges.
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Overcrowded Aboriginal Housing Highlighted as Australia Races to Help COVID-19-Hit Outback Town
A fleet of camper vans is now providing emergency quarantine facilities in a remote outback town in Australia where over 10% of the mostly indigenous population is infected with the coronavirus. A lack of accommodation for COVID-19 patients and their close contacts in Wilcannia, 1,000 kilometers northwest of Sydney, has highlighted a chronic housing problem in many First Nation communities. Wilcannia has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 transmission in the Australian state of New South Wales. More than 13% of the town of 800 people have contracted the contagious disease. About 60% of the population is indigenous. Thirty camper vans will provide temporary accommodation for the close contacts of infected patients. Officials had raised concerns about aboriginal residents’ ability to safely isolate themselves in overcrowded homes from family members who had tested positive for COVID-19. Providing adequate and affordable housing is part of the government’s long-term strategy to improve indigenous health and wellbeing. But Dr Jason Agostino, a senior medical adviser to the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that much more needs to be done. “What is happening in Wilcannia and in western New South Wales is because of a lack of investment in appropriate housing for aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people over decades. You know, we saw the swine ‘flu pandemic particularly impact aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people back in 2009, and it is poor housing that is at the heart of rheumatic heart disease across Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people have some of the highest rates of rheumatic heart disease in the world, and it is completely unacceptable when at the heart of that is this poor housing,” Agostino said.Charities have said the delta variant of COVID-19 has caused a ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Wilcannia’s aboriginal community. Members already suffer from many chronic illnesses, including diabetes and heart disease. Australian indigenous leaders have insisted the government’s regional response to the pandemic has been “ill-prepared and slow.” The military has been sent to the region to help, along with fire service volunteers and Australia’s Royal Flying Doctor Service. Also, the first shipments of 4 million Pfizer vaccine doses arrived in Sydney Sunday from Britain under a drug exchange deal to boost Australia’s inoculation drive. About 38% of eligible Australians are fully vaccinated. More than half of the population remains in lockdown, including residents in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, as delta variant cases continue to increase. Authorities say restrictions will begin to be relaxed gradually when more than 70% of Australians were fully inoculated. Authorities have recorded about 62,000 coronavirus cases and more than 1,000 fatalities in Australia since the pandemic began.
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Australia Urged to Protect Women and Children from Lockdown Domestic Violence
Campaigners have said a national women’s safety summit starting in Australia Monday should urgently look at ways to reduce family violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial security, policing, sexual violence and challenges facing diverse members of the Australian community are key topics at Australia’s National Summit on Women’s Safety 2021. It’s run by the federal government, which said the conference would help form “the next National Plan to end violence against women and their children.” The Minister for Women, Marise Payne, said previously that “everyone has a basic right to safety, equality and respect in our society.” But campaigners have urged the government to do more to curb domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. A report published in June by Queensland University of Technology’s Centre for Justice found that domestic abuse surged during lockdowns. One of its authors is Professor Kerry Carrington. “We discovered that there was not only an increase in the severity of domestic violence as well as its prevalence, but we also discovered, much to our surprise and shock, that perpetrators have been using COVID lockdowns to actually extend their coercive control over their partners. So, clearly the context of COVID; the financial, the psychological, the mental pressures of COVID, being locked down in the home with children has really exacerbated the prevalence of domestic violence,” Carrington said.The university report made several key recommendations, including that governments should be better prepared for increases in family violence during and after significant events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof. Carrington hopes the women’s safety summit can deliver concrete results. “Everybody is wanting a better national plan. Everybody is wanting one that takes violence against women seriously that sees it as a number one government priority, that invests in prevention, invests in new services,” Carrington said.In June, figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the number of domestic violence-related sexual assaults recorded by the police increased by 13% in 2020. The charity, Mission Australia, said family violence is “disturbingly common.” It said that in 2019 about one in four women, or more than two million Australians, “experienced violence by an intimate partner.”
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Marchers Walk 7,000 Steps for Canadian Pair Detained by China
Hundreds of supporters of two Canadian men being held on what Ottawa says are specious charges marched 7,000 steps through the Canadian capital on Sunday to mark the pair’s 1,000th day of “unjust” detention in China. Similar events in support of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were held elsewhere in Canada and across the world in cities including Brussels, New York, Washington, Seoul and Singapore. “These are unjust detentions,” Kovrig’s wife Vina Nadjibulla told AFP. “These marches are about solidarity with our Michaels, they’re about honoring their strength and resilience and also calling for action to finally break the stalemate, to bring them home and do everything possible to end this injustice,” Nadjibulla said at the start of the rally. The two men were arrested in December 2018 and accused of espionage in what Ottawa has said was retaliation for its detention on a US warrant of a prominent Chinese national, Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. A decision is expected in coming months on whether to send Meng to the United States to face fraud charges related to alleged violations of Iran sanctions by the Chinese tech giant. Spavor, a businessman, and former diplomat Kovrig went on trial in March. Spavor was handed an 11-year jail sentence just as final arguments in Meng’s extradition trial got underway last month. No decision has been announced in Kovrig’s case. The seemingly tit-for-tat arrests plunged Ottawa-Beijing relations into a deep freeze, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling the charges against the Michaels “trumped up.” On Sunday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned what he called “arbitrary detentions” by China. “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Canada and the international community in calling for the PRC to release, immediately and unconditionally, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig,” Blinken said in a statement, referring to the People’s Republic of China. ‘A difficult milestone’ The Ottawa rally was attended by Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau and several opposition MPs, as well as the US ambassador to Ottawa. “This is a difficult milestone,” Nadjibulla, holding back tears, told the crowd. “It’s been 1,000 days — the heartbreak, the pain, the injustice is real. The heaviness, I feel it, we all feel it.” She said her husband had described his ordeal in letters from prison, adding, “One of the things that he does in his windowless, small cell every day is to pace 7,000 steps.” “He walks in circles, 7,000 steps, often holding a book, reading, reciting songs, prayers — five kilometers of courage and contemplation. And today, he will not be alone in that walk. We will accompany him, all of us,” she said. “He knows that this event is happening,” she added. “He knows that we’re with him. That gives him strength.” Michael Spavor’s brother Paul told reporters his brother “spends a lot of his time reading, meditating, doing yoga.” “One thousand days is a long time,” he said. “Today is just another day, but it’s another day that goes by without our Michaels being back with us.”
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Paralympic Closing Marks End of Tokyo’s 8-Year Olympic Saga
The final act of the delayed Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics came Sunday, almost eight years to the day after the Japanese capital was awarded the Games.The Paralympics ended a 13-day run in a colorful, circus-like ceremony at the National Stadium overseen by Crown Prince Akishino, the brother of Emperor Naruhito. The Olympics closed almost a month ago.These were unprecedented Olympics and Paralympics, postponed for a year and marked by footnotes and asterisks. No fans were allowed during the Olympics, except for a few thousand at outlying venues away from Tokyo. A few thousand school children were allowed into some Paralympic venues.”There were many times when we thought these games could not happen,” Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee, said on Sunday. “There were many sleepless nights.”The closing ceremony was entitled “Harmonious Cacophony” and involved both able-bodied actors and others with disabilities. The theme was described by organizers as a “world inspired by the Paralympics, one where differences shine.”Like the Olympics, the Paralympics went ahead as Tokyo was under a state of emergency due to the pandemic. Like the Olympics, testing athletes frequently and isolating them in a bubble kept the virus largely at bay, though cases surged among a Japanese population that is now almost 50% fully vaccinated.”I believe that we have reached the end of games without any major problems,” said Seiko Hashimoto, the president of the Tokyo organizing committee.But there was fallout, however. Lots of it.Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Friday — two days before the closing — that he would not continue in office. Suga hoped to get a reelection bump from the Olympics. He got the opposite as his approval rating plummeted after a slow vaccine rollout in Japan, and a contentious decision to stage the Games during the pandemic.Suga succeeded Shinzo Abe, who resigned a year ago for health reasons. It was Abe who celebrated in the front row of a Buenos Aires hotel ballroom on Sept. 7, 2013, when then-IOC President Jacques Rogge announced Tokyo as the 2020 host — ahead of Istanbul and Madrid.In a sad coincidence, Rogge died a week ago at 79 after being in poor health.”Now that Prime Minister Suga is forced out, taking the blame for his failure to combat the coronavirus, it would be impossible to claim that the Olympics and Paralympics were successful, a unifying moments for Japan,” Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University, wrote in an email to The Associated Press.The Paralympics may leave a more tangible legacy in Japan than the Olympics, raising public awareness about people with disabilities and the provision of accessible public space.The Paralympics involved a record number of athletes — 4,405 — and a record number of countries won medals. They also saw two athletes from Afghanistan compete, both of whom arrived several days late after fleeing Kabul.”The Tokyo Games were a model of efficiency and friendliness,” Olympic historian David Wallechinsky said in an email to The Associated Press. “If it hadn’t been for the COVID-related difficulties, these would be right at or near the top of the best-organized of the 19 Olympics — Summer and Winter — I have attended.”The costs also set records.A study by the University of Oxford found these to be the most expensive Games on record. Japan officially spent $15.4 billion to organize the Olympics and Paralympics, double the original estimate. Several government audits suggested the real costs are twice that. All but $6.7 billion is public money.The pandemic probably cost organizers almost $800 million in lost ticket sales, a budget shortfall that will have to be made up by more government funds. In addition, local sponsors contributed more than $3 billion to the operating budget, but got little return with few fans.Toyota, a major Olympics sponsor, pulled its Games-related television advertising in Japan because of public opposition to the Games.Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the organizing committee and a former deputy governor of the Bank of Japan, framed the costs as an investment. He acknowledged that it’s difficult to sort out what are — and what are not — Olympic costs.”It has to be scrutinized further to segregate which part is investment and which part is expenditure,” Muto said in an interview last week. “It’s difficult to define the difference.”Tokyo was also haunted by a vote-buying scandal during the bid process that forced the resignation 2 1/2 years ago of Japanese Olympic Committee president Tsunekazu Takeda. He was also an International Olympic Committee member.Next up are the Beijing Winter Olympics, opening in five month. They have been billed as the “Genocide Games” by rights groups that want the Games pulled from China because of the reported internment of at least 1 million Uyghurs and other largely Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang in northwestern China.The US Department of State and several other governments have called the human rights violations in Xinjiang a genocide, and one major IOC sponsor — Intel — has said it agrees with the characterization.”The COVID-related restrictions that were imposed in Tokyo are like a dream come true for the Chinese dictatorship,” Wallechinsky said. “No foreign spectators, fewer foreign media; just what the Communist Party leadership would want. Will athletes protest, and if they do, what will the Chinese do? Deport them? Arrest them? We don’t know.”The IOC, which pushed for Tokyo to go ahead and generated about $3 billion-$4 billion in television income, has already lined up the next three Summer Olympics; Paris in 2024, Los Angeles in 2028, and Brisbane, Australia, in 2032.The Winter Olympics after Beijing are in Milan-Cortina in Italy in 2026.”I believe the IOC has to be greatly relieved that the next Games will be in France, Italy and the United States,” Wallechinsky said. “Both Paris and Los Angeles are cities with venues and infrastructure that are already well in place.”Hashimoto, the head of the organizing committee, indicated Sunday that Sapporo would bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics. It was the host city in 1972.”For 2030, Sapporo will definitely become a candidate,” Hashimoto said. “I would hope this would become a reality.”
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3 New Coronavirus Deaths in Australia
Australia recorded three new COVID-19 deaths in its most populous state of New South Wales and nearly 1,500 new cases of the coronavirus disease Sunday.Speaking to reporters in Sydney, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the peak of the most recent outbreak was expected “in the next couple of weeks.”Regarding the vaccination efforts, Berejiklian said 40% of the adult population in her state had received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.The Australian state of Victoria recorded at least 180 new locally contracted cases of the coronavirus Sunday.Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said the majority of people hospitalized with COVID-19 were not vaccinated. Andrews urged people to take the vaccine.New Zealand officials on Saturday reported the country’s first COVID-related fatality in more than 200 days. Doctors said the nonagenarian had several underlying health problems in addition to COVID-19.In Japan, the Nikkei newspaper reported Sunday that the government plans to issue COVID-19 vaccination certificates online.The report said the certificates for people vaccinated from around mid-December are intended for overseas travel rather than domestic use.In Brazil, federal health regulator Anvisa has placed a 90-day suspension on the use of more than 12 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine because they were made in a plant that had not been authorized by it.Several cities in Brazil have begun providing vaccine booster shots, even though most citizens have yet to receive their second shots. The booster shots were prompted by concerns older Brazilians have about the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine, The Associated Press reported.France, Israel, China and Chile are among those countries giving boosters to some of their older citizens, and a U.S. plan to start delivering booster shots for most Americans by Sept. 20 is facing complications that could delay third doses for those who received the Moderna vaccine, Biden administration officials said on Friday.Japan and South Korea are planning booster shots in the fourth quarter of this year. Malaysia is also considering boosters, but Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said those who have yet to receive their first shot are being prioritized.Thailand began giving booster shots this week, but only for health and frontline workers.Russia, Hungary and Serbia also are giving boosters, although there has been a lack of demand in those countries for the initial shots amid abundant supplies.According to The Associated Press, France’s worst coronavirus outbreak is unfolding 12 time zones away from Paris, devastating Tahiti and other idyllic islands of French Polynesia.Regional health officials say the South Pacific archipelagos lack enough oxygen, ICU beds and morgue space, and that the vaccination rate is just half the national average.With more than 2,800 COVID cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the region now holds France’s record for the highest infection rate. The majority of the region’s 463 documented COVID-19 deaths have taken place in the past 30 days.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Sunday that it had recorded nearly 220.3 million global COVID-19 infections and 4.56 million deaths. The center said more than 5.4 billion vaccines have been administered.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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Thai PM Survives No-Confidence Vote
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha survives a no-confidence vote Saturday in parliament over his handling of the coronavirus, prompting members of the pro-democracy movement to vow to raise the stakes by using protests to voice their discontent.
Camera: Black Squirrel Productions
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With China More Assertive, Taiwan Mulls Bigger Defense Budget
Taiwan’s Cabinet is proposing to increase the military budget next year to develop and buy modern hardware as Chinese ships and aircraft continue to encroach on the island’s waters and airspace, keeping alive fears of a strike.Taiwan legislators have begun evaluating the Cabinet’s request to spend $17.07 billion next year for equipment such as fighter planes, guided missiles and drones. Of that total, $1.45 billion is for special purposes including fighter jets and $2.13 billion is for unspecified expenses.The ruling party-dominated parliament, or Legislative Yuan, is expected to review and approve the budget by year’s end.Military budget hikes are nothing new for Taiwan; this one would be a 5.6% increase over the 2021 allocation and come to the usual 2.3% of gross domestic product. The new budget is in response to a surge in Chinese activity in or near the Taiwanese air defense identification zone since mid-2020.Chinese military planes passed through a corner of Taiwan’s zone Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the week beginning Aug. 29, for example, the National Defense Ministry said through a social media channel. Four flew on Friday and in the past as many as 28 planes have traveled the same path in a single day.China and Taiwan have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Party retreated to the island after losing the mainland to Mao Zedong’s communists. China still claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has not renounced the use of force to capture it.About 80% of Taiwanese have told government opinion surveys since 2019 they oppose unifying with China and today’s Taiwan president, Tsai Ing-wen, takes a guarded view of any engagement with Beijing.“The positive aspect is that there’s an increase in [the] budget of spending in defense,” said Sean Su, an independent political analyst in Taiwan.“On the downside,” he said, “the question of whether it’s enough or not is one which no one can truly answer unless there’s an actual war.”If Taiwan’s parliament, accepts the budget as submitted on Tuesday, the air force will spend some of the money through 2025 on four U.S.-designed Sea Guardian drones that can increase its day-night surveillance capability, and to equip its existing F-16s with precision missiles, Taiwan’s government-funded Central News Agency said.The new hardware would fit into Taiwan’s development of asymmetric warfare, Su said. The term means fending off a more powerful enemy through unconventional tactics or weapons. China has the world’s third-strongest armed forces, according to the database GlobalFirePower.com. The database ranks Taiwan No. 22.Some Chinese planes fly over Taiwan’s zone in a formation that would enable an attack from the front, rear and both sides. Its movements are raising fears among Taiwanese of an eventual strike.Increased China Warplane Activity Unnerves TaiwanThe Ministry of National Defense in Taipei says a total 27 Chinese aircraft crossed into Taiwanese airspace Friday and SaturdayLast September, China held a live-fire naval exercise in the strait that divides its mainland from Taiwan and its first aircraft carrier has passed through the same waterway.Taiwan will need more U.S.-made F-16s, particularly advanced Viper models, and smart bombs, said Chen Yi-fan, assistant professor of diplomacy and international relations at Tamkang University in Taiwan. It must follow up the acquisitions with recruitment and training, he added.“Without sufficient manpower and qualified training, these advanced weapons cannot operate by themselves,” Chen said.Taiwan-based defense contractors are also developing new lines of military planes and a submarine.Taiwan’s proposed defense budget is “vital to safeguarding national security,” the Central News Agency said, quoting National Defense Ministry spokesperson Shih Shun-wen. China’s ability to “paralyze Taiwan’s air defense, sea control, and counter-warfare systems poses a huge threat to the country’s military,” the news agency added, citing the ministry.The ministry may privately worry that China is preparing to strike, said Alexander Huang, chairman of a military strategy research foundation in Taipei.“We don’t know whether the increased budget is for inventory or is based on an assessment that the possible conflict is not too far away,” Huang said.
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Extremist Was Released From New Zealand Jail Despite Fears
New Zealand authorities imprisoned a man inspired by the Islamic State group for three years after catching him with a hunting knife and extremist videos — but at a certain point, despite grave fears he would attack others, they say they could do nothing more to keep him behind bars.So for 53 days from July, police tracked the man’s every move, an operation that involved some 30 officers working around the clock. Their fears were borne out Friday when the man walked into an Auckland supermarket, grabbed a kitchen knife from a store shelf and stabbed six people, critically injuring three. A seventh person was also slightly injured by the knife in the melee.Undercover officers monitoring the man from just outside the supermarket sprang into action when they saw shoppers running and heard shouting, police said, and shot him dead within a couple of minutes of him beginning his attack.But the attack has highlighted deficiencies in New Zealand’s anti-terror laws, which experts say are too focused on punishing actions and inadequate for dealing with plots before they are carried out. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said lawmakers were close to filling some of those legislative holes when the attack occurred. She vowed law changes by the end of the month.Authorities have not yet released the man’s name. They say he was a Sri Lankan national who arrived in New Zealand 10 years ago, at the age of 22, on a student visa. He was first noticed by police in 2016 when he started posting support for terror attacks and violent extremism on Facebook.Police twice confronted him but he kept on posting. In 2017, they arrested him at Auckland Airport. He was headed for Syria, authorities say, presumably to join the Islamic State insurgency. Police searches found he had a hunting knife and some banned propaganda material, and he was later released on bail. In 2018, he bought another knife, and police found two Islamic State videos.The man spent the next three years in jail after pleading guilty to various crimes and for breaching bail. On new charges in May, a jury found the man guilty on two counts of possessing objectionable videos, both of which showed Islamic State group imagery, including the group’s flag and a man in a black balaclava holding a semiautomatic weapon.However, the videos didn’t show violent murders like some Islamic State videos and weren’t classified as the worst kind of illicit material. High Court Judge Sally Fitzgerald described the contents as religious hymns sung in Arabic. She said the videos described obtaining martyrdom on the battlefield by being killed for God’s cause.A court report warned the man had the motivation and means to commit violent acts in the community and posed a high risk. It described him as harboring extreme attitudes, living an isolated lifestyle, and having a sense of entitlement.But the judge decided to release the man, sentencing him to a year’s supervision at an Auckland mosque, where a leader had confirmed his willingness to help and support the man on his release.The judge said she rejected arguments the man had simply stumbled on the videos and was trying to improve his Arabic. She said an aggravating factor was that he was on bail for earlier, similar offenses and had tried to delete his internet browser history.Fitzgerald noted the extreme concerns of police, saying she didn’t know if they were right, but “I sincerely hope they are not.”The judge also banned the man from owning any devices that could access the internet, unless approved in writing by a probation officer, and ordered that he provide access to any social media accounts he held.“I am of the view that the risk of you reoffending in a similar way to the charges upon which you were convicted remains high,” the judge concluded. “Your rehabilitation is accordingly key.”Two months later, the man took a train from the Auckland mosque where he was living to the Countdown supermarket in the suburb of Glen Eden, tailed at a distance by police. Then he unleashed an attack that shocked a nation.
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Thai PM Prayuth Wins Confidence Vote Amid Criticism on Virus
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha won votes of confidence in Parliament on Saturday, helping to steady his government after it had come under intense criticism for bungling its response to the coronavirus pandemic.Prayuth still faces pressure from street protests that have been demanding he step down. Pro-democracy activists opposing his policies have been seeking his resignation since last year and stepped up their efforts in recent weeks.Major, though not huge, rallies were held this past week in defiance of limits on public gatherings as a virus-fighting measure, and another was scheduled for later Saturday, with organizers vowing to continue until he gets out of office.Arriving at Parliament ahead of the voting on the censure motions against him and five members of his Cabinet, Prayuth had declared to reporters: “I am confident every day.” Asked if there will be a Cabinet reshuffle soon, he said, “It’s not time yet.”Prayuth prevailed by a comfortable margin in the House of Representatives, with support from 264 lawmakers showing only a few defections from the 271 members of his ruling coalition, despite intense rumors of a plot among them to force him out.There were 208 votes in support of the motion, 34 short of the 242 simple majority of the 482 total members the opposition needed to succeed.During four previous days of debate, little attention had been given to the details of the opposition’s harsh accusations that Prayuth’s administration had botched the coronavirus response, countenanced corruption and mismanaged the economy.Thai media were instead abuzz with rumors that the secretary-general of the ruling, military-backed Palang Pracharath party, which put together the coalition government that named Prayuth prime minister two years ago, was leading the effort to unseat him and pull the main opposition Pheu Thai party into the coalition.There was no public confirmation of the rumors, which by Thursday included an accusation that Prayuth’s side met lawmakers to pay them large sums to ensure their support, an accusation he flatly denied. “Everyone came to greet me. As I hardly met them, they just came to give me the support. I would not do such a nonsense thing (paying money),” he said.Prayuth and his government survived two other no-confidence debates since the 2019 general election. But he was seen as vulnerable now due to his government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, particularly its failure to secure timely and adequate supplies of COVID-19 vaccines.He faced no such challenges when he was junta chief and prime minister with unrestrained powers in a military regime installed after he staged a coup as army commander in 2014, toppling an elected government.The other Cabinet members targeted with no-confidence motions also easily survived Saturday’s votes. They were Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob from the Bhumjai Thai Party, Labor Minister Suchat Chomklin and Digital Economy Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn from Palang Pracharath, and Agriculture Minister Chalermchai Sri-on from the Democrat Party.
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How Taliban’s Win Might Influence Radical Muslims in Southeast Asia
The Taliban victory in Afghanistan could inspire radical Muslim groups in Southeast Asia to take up arms once more against their own governments, analysts say, and officials are on alert for potential violence.Scholars say Muslim rebel fronts, such as the Philippine-based Abu Sayyaf, a violent rebel organization known for kidnapping tourists, and the Indonesian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, a suspected plotter of the deadly Bali bombings of 2002, will feel empowered by the August 15 ascent of the Taliban to carry out localized attacks such as bombings.”Taliban or no Taliban, we have always considered local extremism as a big concern,” Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told the Philippine News Agency on August 27. He noted agreements with Indonesia and Malaysia to share information and protect their sea borders.Media outlets quote Indonesian officials as saying they, too, are on guard, and a counterterrorism police detachment is monitoring social media for any clues. Indonesia and Malaysia are predominantly Muslim countries. Many in the southern part of the Philippines are Muslim as well.FILE – Police escort a suspected militant at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia, March 18, 2021. Suspected militants arrested in raids at that time were believed to be connected to Jemaah Islamiyah extremists.Al-Qaida’s backingExtremist groups advocate Muslim independent states in Southeast Asia, a region of 660 million people that includes several key U.S. allies. Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, among others, have been backed by al-Qaida, a terrorist organization that the Taliban once allowed to shelter in Afghanistan, according to Southeast Asia scholars.“In terms of kinship and solidarity for these groups, there is a degree of support,” said Enrico Cau, Southeast Asia specialist with the Taiwan Strategy Research Association, referring to the Taliban.“Although the Taliban doesn’t have a direct influence in the region, of course they exert a certain amount of indirect influence, which can be capitalized by the groups that are actually present in the region like al-Qaida or Abu Sayyaf,” Cau told VOA. Al-Qaida has helped rebels before in Indonesia and the Philippines.FILE – Muslims pray spaced apart to help curb the spread of coronavirus outbreak during an Eid al-Fitr prayer marking the end of Ramadan at Al Akbar mosque in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, May 13, 2021.Mainstream Muslims in Malaysia worry about how the Taliban will treat Afghan women, said Ibrahim Suffian, program director with the polling group Merdeka Center in Kuala Lumpur. Women throughout Muslim Southeast Asia are able to work and attend school.Monitoring developmentsRadical Muslims in Malaysia have “applauded” the Taliban’s victory, though, and the government of the largely Muslim country will pay close attention to any cross-border influence of Afghanistan’s new leadership, Suffian said.“I’m sure they’re monitoring what’s happening,” he said. “I think there is a long-term concern that this will inspire more radicalized conservative types … to study religion in Pakistan and parts of India, so I think that has a long-term effect on the Muslim community here.”Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines still have more control over local extremists than did the Afghan government that was deposed last month, Cau said. The Philippines would even allow entry to Afghans fleeing from fear of persecution, a presidential office spokesman in Manila said.About 20 Muslim rebel groups still operate in the southern Philippines, a region known for five decades of periodic violence and 120,000 deaths, though the formation of a Muslim autonomous region in 2018 has eased some of that tension.
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Ho Chi Minh City Could Lift Lockdown, End ‘Zero COVID-19’ Policy
Vietnam’s coronavirus epicenter Ho Chi Minh City, which has kept residents confined at home under lockdown, is considering reopening economic activity from September 15, shifting from a “zero COVID-19” strategy to a policy of living with the virus. The city of 9 million people is targeting a phased reopening and the full vaccination of its citizens by the end of this year, according to the draft seen by Reuters, which has yet to be endorsed. Ho Chi Minh City last month deployed troops to enforce its lockdown and prohibited residents from leaving their homes to slow a spiraling rate of deaths. Just 3% of Vietnam’s 98 million population has been fully vaccinated. Vietnam’s biggest city, a business hub flanked by industrialized provinces, aims to “promote economic recovery … and move towards living with COVID-19,” the draft proposal said. FILE – A medical specialist wearing protective suits takes a swab sample to test for COVID-19 from a woman at a military base in southern Mekong delta Dong Thap province, Vietnam, August 8, 2020.The reopening would be gradual, and low-interest loans and tax cuts would be offered to affected firms, it said. Ho Chi Minh City alone has recorded 241,110 coronavirus infections and 9,974 deaths, representing half of the country’s cases and 80% of its fatalities. The vast majority of those have come in recent months, ending hopes that Vietnam could continue to achieve success it showed in 2020, when aggressive contact tracing and quaratining led to one of the world’s best COVID-19 containment records. The ministry of health on Friday reported 14,922 coronavirus infections, a record daily increase, raising its caseload to 501,649 with 12,476 deaths. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Wednesday warned Vietnam could be facing a lengthy coronavirus battle and cannot rely on lockdown and quarantines indefinitely. During a visit to a smartphone factory of Samsung Electronics in the northern province of Thai Nguyen on Friday, Chinh urged the company to help Vietnam procure vaccines from South Korea and to maintain its long-term investment in Vietnam. FILE – Medical workers in protective suits stand outside a quarantined building amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Hanoi, Vietnam, January 29, 2021.Foreign firms operating in the country, including Samsung “can put their trust in Vietnam’s efforts in tackling the pandemic,” Chinh said. The health ministry on Friday called on recovered COVID-19 patients to help the city battle the epidemic. In capital Hanoi, where dozens of new cases per day have been recorded in recent weeks, authorities will extend strict lockdown in most parts of the city beyond September 6 and will conduct 1 million tests from now through the end of Sunday.
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New Zealand Terror Attack Condemned As ‘Hateful,’ Senseless
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says a terrorist attack at a shopping mall in Auckland was inspired by the Islamic State group. The attacker – a Sri Lankan national who was wielding a knife – has been shot dead by the police. Six people have reportedly been injured.
Ardern said the attacker had been under surveillance before he began his rampage at a supermarket in Auckland, the country’s biggest city.
Ardern said he was shot dead by the police within 60 seconds of the attack starting.
“What happened today was despicable. It was hateful, it was wrong. it was accrued out by an individual, not a faith, not a culture, not an ethnicity. But an individual person who was gripped by ideology that is not supported here.”
Senior law enforcement officials have said that police officers intervened as quickly as they could after the man reportedly took a large knife from a display cabinet in the store. Videos posted online have shown panicked shoppers running out of the supermarket before the sound of gunfire was heard.
The man arrived in New Zealand a decade ago, was identified as a national security threat in 2016 and was under constant monitoring. Although he had reportedly been arrested on suspicion of plotting a terror attack in 2020, and later cleared by a judge, Ardern said there was no legal reason to keep him in custody. She would not give details because disclosure of information has been restricted by the courts.
Kate Hannah, an extremism research fellow at Auckland University, told Radio New Zealand the man was most probably radicalized online.
“This person most likely has been in that kind of echo chamber for a period of time. He first came to government attention in 2016 and so obviously, potentially, since then has been exposed to this kind of material that has caused him to go down this path,” Hannah said.
Analysts have warned that the attack will be a painful reminder for New Zealanders of the deadly mosque attacks in Christchurch in March 2019 when a gunman – a self-confessed white supremacist – murdered 51 worshippers.
It was the South Pacific nation’s worst terror attack
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