Hungary has announced plans to open a branch of a Chinese University in Budapest. Critics fear the development — the first of its kind in Europe — will be used by Beijing to spread Chinese Communist Party propaganda and could pose a threat to national security.   The so-called “Student City” will be built on the site of a former wholesale market outside the nation’s capital, with its centerpiece a branch of the prestigious Shanghai-based Fudan University.   Hungary said it will raise the standard of higher education, offer courses to 6,000 students from Hungary, China and further afield, while bringing Chinese investment and research to the country.   FILE – A view of the site where the construction of a top Chinese university, the Fudan’s campus, is planned, in the 9th district of Budapest, Hungary, Apr. 23, 2021.For China, it’s a significant milestone, said Professor Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London. “Until relatively recently, China was importing foreign universities onto Chinese soil, having branches in China. Now, they are exporting a Chinese university branch on European soil, a member of the European Union. This is, I think, tremendously important from their perspective in how it shows that China has risen,” Tsang told VOA.   Two years ago, Hungary’s famous Central European University, which is backed by Hungarian-born, U.S.-based financier George Soros, was effectively forced out of the country through changes to education law and has since relocated to Vienna.FILE – A man sits front of the building of the Central European University, a school founded by U.S. financier George Soros, in Budapest, Hungary, Apr. 9, 2018.Hungary’s government accuses Soros of political interference in the country, which he denies.   Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, a member of the opposition Dialogue for Hungary Party, said Hungarians are being betrayed.   “Let’s put the two [universities] next to each other,” he said. “There was something which has offered an open education, did not cost a penny for Hungarian taxpayers, was a well-established university in Hungary and was exiled. And now, the government brings in another one which represents the ideology of the [Chinese] Communist Party and costs the Hungarian taxpayers billions,” he told The Associated Press.   Leaked government documents published by the Hungarian investigative journalism organization Direkt36 estimate the cost at $1.8 billion, which is more than Hungary spent on its entire higher education system in 2019. The documents suggest most of the funding will come from a Chinese bank loan, and construction will be carried out using mostly Chinese materials and labor.   Fudan ranks among the top 100 universities in the world. Its expansion into Europe is part of Beijing’s efforts to control the narrative on China, Tsang said.   “When we are dealing with the humanities and social sciences side of the curriculum, it is clear that the Communist Party will keep control of it. It was only in the last two years that Fudan University changed clearly its instructions on its relationship with the [Chinese] party state, now clearly declaring that its first mission is not to uphold academic integrity but to follow the leadership of the party,” Tsang said.   Hungary’s government has pursued a strategy it calls “Eastern Opening,” seeking increased cooperation and trade with countries such as China and Russia. It has taken a $2 billion loan from China’s Exim Bank to build a railway line between Budapest and Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, as part of China’s global Belt and Road initiative.   Hungary is also the only country in the European Union to have approved the Chinese-made “Sinopharm” COVID-19 vaccine.   Karacsony is among many who fear the Fudan University development could pose a threat to national security through Chinese espionage.   “While the Hungarian government visibly enjoys the benefits of European Union membership — since, for example, it will receive an astronomical amount of EU support in the coming months — it is meanwhile a kind of advanced bastion of eastern great powers,” he said. In an email to VOA, a Hungarian government spokesperson said, “According to the prestigious QS World University Ranking, Fudan is the 34th best university in the world. … The Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary and the Chinese Ministry of Education concluded an interministerial agreement finalized in February this year to support Fudan University in establishing a world-class, research-oriented, multidisciplinary university in Budapest. “From George Soros to President Obama, a lot of people have given lectures at Fudan University, and it is one of the best universities in the world that will not be engaged in ideological education but will provide economic courses,” the spokesperson said.   The EU has yet to officially respond to the university plans. Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas criticized Hungary Monday for what he called an “absolutely incomprehensible” decision to block an EU statement criticizing Beijing for the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.   “I think everybody can work out for themselves what the reasons are, because there are good relations between China and Hungary,” Maas told reporters, following a meeting of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council. In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Budapest expressed concerns over the plans to open a branch of Fudan University in Hungary, “given Beijing’s proven track record of using academic institutions to advance a malign influence agenda and stifle intellectual freedom.”  The Fudan University branch is expected to be completed by 2024. 
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Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr in a subdued mood for a second year Thursday as the COVID-19 pandemic again forced mosque closings and family separations on the holiday marking the end of Islam’s holiest month of Ramadan.Worshippers wearing masks joined communal prayers in the streets of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. The world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation allowed mosque prayers in low-risk areas, but mosques in areas where there was more risk of the virus spreading closed their doors, including Jakarta’s Istiqlal Grand Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia.Indonesians and Malaysians were banned for a second year from traveling to visit relatives in the traditional Eid homecoming.”I understand that we all miss our relatives at times like this, especially in the momentum of Eid,” Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in televised remarks. “But let’s prioritize safety together by not going back to our hometowns.”Despite the similar ban a year ago, the number of daily cases in Indonesia had picked up by 37% three weeks after the holiday. Similar patterns followed other holidays in the country that has counted 1.7 million infections and more than 47,600 fatalities from COVID-19.The Jakarta governor also ordered malls, restaurants and leisure destinations usually packed during the holiday period to shut.With no congregational prayers at mosques, no family reunions, no relatives bearing gifts and cookies for children, “Eid is not a grand event anymore,” Jakarta resident Maysa Andriana said. “The pandemic has changed everything… this is too sad!” she said.While police set up highway checkpoints and domestic flights and other modes of transportation were suspended, anxiety lingers that people will defy the prohibition. Television reports showed city dwellers hiding on disguised trucks or fishing boats and officers at roadblocks being overwhelmed by desperate motorists.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.”We followed the government decision that banned us visiting my parents for Eid last year, it’s enough! Nothing can stop me now,” said factory worker Askari Anam, who used alleys and shortcuts to avoid being stopped from visiting his hometown.”Of course I’m worried,” he said when asked about possibly contracting the virus. “But I leave it to God.”Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin expressed concern of a virus spike and feared people would travel despite the ban.In the southern Philippines, coronavirus outbreaks and new fighting between government forces and Muslim insurgents in one province prevented people from holding large public prayers. Instead, most hunkered down in their homes, while in Maguindanao province, many families displaced by recent fighting marked the holiday in evacuation camps.In Malaysia, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin unexpectedly announced another nationwide lockdown from Wednesday until June 7 to curb a spike in cases. Inter-state travel and all social activities are banned, which means that like in Indonesia, Muslims cannot visit each other or family graves.Muhyiddin acknowledged that many are angry with the lockdown but defended the need for drastic measures, saying hospitals have almost reached their capacity.Malaysia reported 4,765 cases on Wednesday, pushing its tally to 453,222, nearly fourfold from the start of the year. Deaths also rose to 1,761.”Is this government tyrannical? But I am not a tyrant,” Muhyiddin said, “Imagine if you have guests over, then the virus will spread. … If the guest visits 10 homes, then 10 families will be infected with COVID-19 and in the end as soon as (Eid) ends, the number of positive cases in the country could jump to tens of thousands daily.”
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The United States has sanctioned a Chinese Communist Party official for involvement “in gross violations of human rights, namely the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners for their spiritual beliefs.”The sanctions against Yu Hui, former office director of the Central Leading Group on Preventing and Dealing with Heretical Religions, of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, were announced as Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled the State Department’s 2020 annual report on International Religious Freedom.
 
“Yu Hui and his family are now ineligible for entry into the United States,” Blinken said at a Wednesday press conference.
 
The top U.S. diplomat added that China “broadly criminalizes religious expression, and continues to commit crimes against humanity and genocide against Muslim Uyghurs and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups.”A senior U.S. official said the designation against a Chinese official for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners is unprecedented.  
 
“Today’s designation is the first time that we have named a specific official for abuses against Falun Gong practitioners,” Daniel Nadel, director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, told VOA Wednesday. 
 
“The (Beijing) government shows blatant disregard for religious freedom, and exercises extreme hostility toward adherents of all faiths, including Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists, Protestants, Catholics and Falun Gong practitioners. It’s an issue that we are deeply concerned about,” Nadel said, citing religious freedom as a universal value.  
 
The report said China continues to deny religious freedom, particularly to Falun Gong members.It also said that according to a report on the Falun Gong by the China-based Church of Almighty God (CAG) — a group whose millions of followers believe Jesus Christ has been reincarnated as a woman from central China, and has long been banned by Beijing — “authorities arrested more than 7,000 of its members and subjected them to physical abuse, including beatings, sleep deprivation and being forced into stress positions.””CAG reported some individuals died in custody or as a result of police harassment,” said the State Department report.It added that the Chinese Communist Party continues to “harass adherents of both registered and unregistered religious groups for activities related to their religious beliefs and practices.”The report also criticizes Myanmar for its treatment of the ethnic Rohingya minority.“Rohingya remaining in Burma continued to face an environment of severe repression and restrictions on freedom of movement and access to education, health care, and livelihoods based on their ethnicity, religion and citizenship status, according to the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations,” the report said.Russia was also cited for persecution of its citizens based on religion.“Religious groups and nongovernmental organizations reported authorities continued to investigate, detain, imprison, torture and and/or physically abuse persons, or seize their property because of their religious faith, including members of groups the government classified as extremist and banned, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tablighi Jamaat, and followers of Muslim theologian Said Nursi,” the report said.Turkey, ostensibly a secular state, was also mentioned for its treatment of religious minorities.“The government continued to restrict efforts of minority religious groups to train their clergy, and the Greek Orthodox Halki seminary remained closed,” the report said. “Religious minorities again reported difficulties opening or operating houses of worship; resolving land and property disputes and legal challenges of churches whose lands the government previously expropriated; holding governing board elections for their religious foundations; and obtaining exemptions from mandatory religion classes in schools.” 
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday said it supported Japanese measures to counter COVID-19 and was confident the Tokyo Olympics would be a “historic” event, despite wide public opposition. With less than three months to go before the games begin on July 23, Japan is battling a surge in coronavirus infections. A majority of its population wants the Olympics canceled or postponed for a second time, according to several polls, with about 70% of the 10,500 athletes — about 7,800 — already qualified for the games. “We are now very much in an implementation phase with 78 days to go and fully concentrated on delivering the games,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told an online news conference. “When the games happen and the Japanese people are proud hosts of an event that will be an historic moment, I think I am very confident we will see public opinion hugely in favor of the games.” FILE – People protest the Tokyo 2020 Olympics amid the coronavirus outbreak, around Olympic Stadium (National Stadium) as an Olympic test event for athletics is held inside the venue in Tokyo, Japan, May 9, 2021, in this photo taken by Kyodo.His online news conference, however, ended with a protester, who had signed up as a journalist to ask a question, unfurling a banner reading “No to Olympics” and shouting profanities and “No Olympics anywhere” before being cut off. Japan has extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and three other areas until the end of May as the number of cases rises daily, forcing IOC President Thomas Bach to postpone a visit to Japan in May. An opinion survey conducted from May 7-9 by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily showed 59% of respondents wanted the games canceled as opposed to 39% who said they should be held. “Postponement” was not offered as an option. Another poll conducted at the weekend by TBS News found 65% wanted the games canceled or postponed again. More than 300,000 people have signed a petition to cancel the games since it was launched about five days ago. “In terms of Japan and Tokyo we understand the caution,” Adams said. “We are fully in solidarity with them. People are very cautious. We have to fully trust Japanese authorities.” “There will be ups and downs (in public opinion).We have to take account of public opinion on a longer term. As things stand now we are moving full ahead. We continue to plan for full games. That’s the way it has to be for us.” 
 
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An Indigenous New Zealand lawmaker was thrown out of Parliament’s debating chamber Wednesday for performing a Maori haka in protest at what he said were racist arguments.
Rawiri Waititi’s stance came after ongoing debate among lawmakers about the government’s plans to set up a new Maori Health Authority as part of sweeping changes to the health care system.
Some conservative lawmakers have said the plan is separatist. Waititi, the co-leader of the Maori Party, said those arguments amounted to racist rhetoric.
Waititi told lawmakers in the chamber that he was forced to listen to a “constant barrage of insults” directed toward Indigenous people.
If that kind of attitude was acceptable, he said, “then I find this House in disrepute.”
Speaker Trevor Mallard then told Waititi to sit down but instead he performed the haka, a traditional dance or challenge accompanied by a chant.
“Order. The member will now leave the chamber,” Mallard told Waititi, which he did along with his party’s other co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
It’s not the first time Waititi has clashed with Mallard. In February, he won a battle against wearing a tie in Parliament, ending a longstanding dress requirement for men that he described as a “colonial noose.”
Mallard also threw out Waititi from the debating chamber during that dispute after Waititi showed up wearing a traditional pendant around his neck called a hei tiki.
But Mallard backed down the next day, saying neckties would no longer be compulsory, after a committee of lawmakers came out in favor of ending the requirement.
But Waititi’s latest stance isn’t supported by all Maori lawmakers.
After Waititi left, Labour Party Deputy Leader Kelvin Davis pointed out the relatively small support base for the Maori Party.
“Don’t ever think that a party that gets 1.2% of the vote actually represent the views of Maoridom,” Davis told lawmakers.
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China’s ruling Communist Party has opened a new front in its long, ambitious war to shape global public opinion: Western social media.Liu Xiaoming, who recently stepped down as China’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, is one of the party’s most successful foot soldiers on this evolving online battlefield. He joined Twitter in October 2019, as scores of Chinese diplomats surged onto Twitter and Facebook, which are both banned in China.Since then, Liu has deftly elevated his public profile, gaining a following of more than 119,000 as he transformed himself into an exemplar of China’s new sharp-edged “wolf warrior” diplomacy, a term borrowed from the title of a top-grossing Chinese action movie.”As I see it, there are so-called ‘wolf warriors’ because there are ‘wolfs’ in the world and you need warriors to fight them,” Liu, who is now China’s Special Representative on Korean Peninsula Affairs, tweeted in February.China’s ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming takes questions from members of the media at the Chinese Embassy in London on Feb. 6, 2020.His stream of posts — principled and gutsy ripostes to Western anti-Chinese bias to his fans, aggressive bombast to his detractors — were retweeted more than 43,000 times from Jun. through Feb. alone.But much of the popular support Liu and many of his colleagues seem to enjoy on Twitter has, in fact, been manufactured.A seven-month investigation by the Associated Press and the Oxford Internet Institute, a department at Oxford University, found that China’s rise on Twitter has been powered by an army of fake accounts that have retweeted Chinese diplomats and state media tens of thousands of times, covertly amplifying propaganda that can reach hundreds of millions of people — often without disclosing the fact that the content is government-sponsored.More than half the retweets Liu got from June through January came from accounts that Twitter has suspended for violating the platform’s rules, which prohibit manipulation. Overall, more than one in ten of the retweets 189 Chinese diplomats got in that time frame came from accounts that Twitter had suspended by Mar. 1.But Twitter’s suspensions did not stop the pro-China amplification machine. An additional cluster of fake accounts, many of them impersonating U.K. citizens, continued to push Chinese government content, racking up over 16,000 retweets and replies before Twitter permanently suspended them for platform manipulation late last month and early this month, in response to the AP and Oxford Internet Institute’s investigation.This fiction of popularity can boost the status of China’s messengers, creating a mirage of broad support. It can also distort platform algorithms, which are designed to boost the distribution of popular posts, potentially exposing more genuine users to Chinese government propaganda. While individual fake accounts may not seem impactful on their own, over time and at scale, such networks can distort the information environment, deepening the reach and authenticity of China’s messaging.”You have a seismic, slow but large continental shift in narratives,” said Timothy Graham, a senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology who studies social networks. “Steer it just a little bit over time, it can have massive impact.”Twitter, and others, have identified inauthentic pro-China networks before. But the AP and Oxford Internet Institute investigation shows for the first time that large-scale inauthentic amplification has broadly driven engagement across official government and state media accounts, adding to evidence that Beijing’s appetite for guiding public opinion — covertly, if necessary — extends beyond its borders and beyond core strategic interests, like Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang.Twitter’s takedowns often came only after weeks or months of activity. All told, AP and the Oxford Internet Institute identified 26,879 accounts that managed to retweet Chinese diplomats or state media nearly 200,000 times before getting suspended. They accounted for a significant share — sometimes more than half — of the total retweets many diplomatic accounts got on Twitter.It was not possible to determine whether the accounts were sponsored by the Chinese government.Twitter told AP that many of the accounts had been sanctioned for manipulation, but declined to offer details on what other platform violations may have been at play. Twitter said it was investigating whether the activity was a state-affiliated information operation.”We will continue to investigate and action accounts that violate our platform manipulation policy, including accounts associated with these networks,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. “If we have clear evidence of state-affiliated information operations, our first priority is to enforce our rules and remove accounts engaging in this behavior. When our investigations are complete, we disclose all accounts and content in our public archive.”China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it does not employ trickery on social media. “There is no so-called misleading propaganda, nor exporting a model of online public opinion guidance,” the ministry said in a statement to AP. “We hope that the relevant parties will abandon their discriminatory attitude, take off their tinted glasses, and take a peaceful, objective and rational approach in the spirit of openness and inclusiveness.”
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Three reporters working for a now-banned news broadcaster in Myanmar have been arrested in Thailand on charges of illegally entering the country.
 
The three journalists work for the Democratic Voice of Burma, an online and broadcast news outlet that was recently shut down by the ruling military junta.   
 
DVB Executive Editor Aye Chan Naing said in a statement the trio was arrested Sunday in the northern city of Chiang Mai, along with two activists.  He urged the Thai government not to deport the five people back to Myanmar, saying their lives “will be in serious danger if they were to return.”
 
Aye Chan also appealed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
 
DVB is one of several independent news organizations whose operating licenses was revoked since the military ousted the civilian government on February 1 and detained its civilian leadership, including de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.  Dozens of reporters have also been arrested.  
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Alec Goldman, an American educator who has made a life in Bangkok, wants to get vaccinated.Right about now would be a good time as COVID-19 cases in Thailand have been spiking since early April, fueled by the highly transmissible variant B.1.1.7, first detected here just before the four-day Thai New Year holiday that began April 12. Goldman worries about the health risks posed by long international flights. He said a trip would strain his finances. Alec Goldman is an American educator and a cofounder of a personalized learning startup based in Bangkok, ThailandTo get a shot in the United States, Goldman, who runs a personalized learning startup in Bangkok, would have to spend at least 20 hours at airports and on airplanes. Depending on vaccine availability, it might take another week to a month to get fully vaccinated.Then the 51-year-old New York native would need permission from Thai authorities to return to Thailand, where, after landing, he would be required to pay to stay at a private hotel for the mandatory 14-day quarantine, even with a vaccination certificate.Although all Americans 16 and older in the U.S. are eligible to receive the vaccine, and about 44% of adults 18 and above in the U.S. are now Paul Risley, chair of Democrats Abroad Thailand, talks to VOA about the group’s appeal to the U.S. government to provide U.S. FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines for U.S. citizen overseas. (VOA)The call by American expatriates is becoming more urgent as more contagious and virulent variants of the coronavirus emerge. ”Americans who live abroad need to be vaccinated for the same reasons that Americans who live in the United States need to be vaccinated,” Risley told VOA Thai. “Because it’s the only way to stop COVID-19.” Expatriate Republicans echo the Democrats’ concern. ”In this particular case, all of us are on board,” Tony Rodriguez, vice president of Republicans Overseas Asia, told VOA. “Obviously, there’s plenty of vaccines in America. Just get them on a plane and fly them over.”  The two groups, along with the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 12074, and American Women’s Club, on May 6 signed a joint letter asking Washington to get vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — namely Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines — into the arms of overseas Americans as soon as possible. In the letter, they asked “that our government now continue to fulfill the pledge made by President (Joe) Biden to make coronavirus vaccines available to all Americans.”Le’Ana Freeman from Washington registers before casting vote on the Super Tuesday for U.S. Democrats Abroad multi-location global primary, at Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand in Bangkok, March 3, 2020.Expatriates propose pilotAddressing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the groups also proposed that Thailand, with its robust health infrastructure, “could serve an ideal testbed for a pilot project for the U.S. Government to deliver approved and effective vaccines to the tens of thousands of private U.S. citizens living here, and then ultimately replicate that effort for the large number of other Americans living overseas.” ”Would the logistics of such a project be challenging?” the letter asks. “Perhaps, but Americans excel at dealing with precisely these sorts of challenges, especially via the public and private sector partnerships which could undoubtedly be brought to bear.”The Thailand campaign is gaining support from Medical personnel administers the COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine to a man at the Holy Redeemer Catholic church compound in Bangkok on May 9, 2021.Thailand’s vaccine supplyOnly AstraZeneca and China-made Sinovac vaccines are currently available in Thailand. Since February, the country has administered 1.8 million doses to its nearly 70 million people. About 513,000 Thais — or 0.73% — have been fully vaccinated as of May 6, according to Thailand’s Department of Disease Control. Since the onset of the pandemic, the country has reported 85,005 cases and a death toll of 421 as of Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.  The U.N. estimates the population of Thailand is 69,929,000. After sending mixed messages about the vaccine eligibility of expats, Thailand’s Public Health Ministry said on May 6 that everyone residing in the country is eligible to get a vaccine, including about 3 million foreign residents in the country. While that is a relief for some, Americans interviewed by VOA said they prefer the three vaccines approved by the U.S. FDA. ”My husband is diabetic and I’m immunocompromised. For us, which vaccine we get is extremely important,” Goldman said.  ”We want something that will have a good chance not only of working against the U.K. variant but against the Indian variant that’s emerging right now that seems really serious.” New studies published by the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet  showed that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has a real-world effectiveness against COVID-19 variants B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, first identified in the U.K. and South Africa. Moderna also said its early trial results show that its booster shot generated increased immunity against variants first found in Brazil and South Africa.  Many Thais have expressed their wariness about the efficacy of the country’s two available vaccines, saying they prefer those approved by the U.S. authorities. Some have traveled to cities in the U.S. for a free jab, and Thai travel agencies are even starting to sell COVID-19 “vaccine tours.” U.S. private citizens on their own The U.S. State Department delivered COVID-19 vaccines to all its eligible workforce stationed overseas in late April and expects its entire workforce to have been fully vaccinated by mid-May, according to Reuters. The program has not been extended to U.S. private citizens abroad.  Nikki Fox, spokesperson of the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, said in an email to VOA that the State Department does not provide direct medical care to private citizens abroad. The State Department’s current guidelines recommend that Americans overseas check whether they are eligible for a vaccine with local authorities. Some U.S. expats, however, remember when U.S. government personnel inoculated American expats.When Gary Suwannarat first moved to Thailand in the 1980s, she and her family were vaccinated against hepatitis B, a major public health concern in Asia at the time, on the grounds of the U.S. Consulate in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. Last month, the 73-year-old vice chair of the Democrats Abroad Thailand wrote to President Joe Biden, urging him to restore the program to make vaccines available for Americans abroad.  ”I think it would be really important for the U.S. government to go back and look at, OK, how did we do it then, let’s do it now,” said Suwannarat.Washington has been under pressure to share excess doses with other parts of the world. The Biden administration committed to sending 60 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to hard-hit countries beginning this month. ”I’m not quite sure how it would work for Thailand if there were lines of Americans waiting outside the embassy for vaccination,” Rodriguez said. “Still, I do think it’s an important service that the embassy should be able to provide to Americans.”Cindy S. Spang contributed to this report. 
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Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi will appear in court on May 24, her lawyer said. She has not been seen in public since February 1, when she was detained and placed under house arrest by the country’s military, which seized power. Since the coup, she has been charged with six alleged crimes, including flouting COVID-19 restrictions during last year’s election. Most seriously, she is charged with violating the country’s Official Secrets Act. A conviction could carry a sentence of up to 14 years, according to Reuters. The current regime also accuses her of corruption but has not brought an official charge. Suu Kyi has reportedly attended some previous hearings via videoconference and complained that the proceedings were moving too slowly. “She will appear in person in court on May 24,” lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told Agence France-Presse. The military junta has defended the arrest of Suu Kyi, saying her party committed electoral fraud during the November elections. The party won in a landslide. Since the coup, Myanmar has been rocked by protests, many of them violent. At least 780 people have been reported killed in the unrest. 
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China on Monday named five foreign-born players for critical World Cup qualifiers starting later this month as the world’s most populous country steps up its controversial naturalization policy.China, who have big ambitions but are perennial underachievers ranked 77th in the world, began drafting in players born overseas in 2019 in a quick fix to reach the Qatar 2022 World Cup.Coach Li Tie has picked a 26-man squad that includes a trio of offensive players originally from Brazil — Elkeson, Fernando Henrique and Alan Carvalho.Also included is their Guangzhou FC teammate Tyias Browning, the former Everton central defender who was born in Liverpool and played for England youth teams.The fifth naturalized player is Nico Yennaris, the former Arsenal midfielder and another to have played for England youth teams before switching to China.In their previous World Cup qualifier, a 2-1 defeat to Syria under former coach Marcello Lippi in November 2019, only Elkeson and Yennaris featured.Some Chinese media, pundits and former internationals have questioned the move to bring in foreign players.China’s hopes of reaching the World Cup are in the balance but Li is boosted by the return of star forward Wu Lei, after he failed to make recent training squads because he was with his Spanish club Espanyol.Under former Everton player Li — who took over when Lippi quit following the Syria defeat — China are second in Asian qualifying Group A, eight points behind leaders Syria.Only the team that finishes top is guaranteed to reach the next stage of qualifying.The rest of the matches in Group A are set to take place in China from May 30 until June 15, with the hosts facing Guam, Maldives, Philippines and Syria.
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A Myanmar poet whose work promoted resistance against the military junta has died, his family said Sunday. Khet Thi and his wife, Chaw Su, were both taken in for questioning on Saturday in the town of Shwebo in the Sagaing region, family members said. Chaw Su was released but Khet Thi was not.   “They called me in the morning and told me to meet him at the hospital in Monywa,” Chaw Su told BBC Burmese language news. “I thought it was just for a broken arm or something. … But when I arrived here, he was at the morgue and his internal organs were taken out.” Family members told reporters that his body was missing some organs and showed signs of torture when they went to identify him at the morgue. The army released the body to the family, Reuters reported.  Khet Thi, who penned the line, “They shoot in the head, but they don’t know the revolution is in the heart,” was in his 40s, according to his Facebook page. The military junta, which seized power in a coup in February, has not publicly commented on the poet’s detention or death. Calls to a spokesman for the junta seeking comment were not answered, Reuters reported.  Khet Thi is at least the third poet to die since the coup, according to Reuters. Khet Thi had been friends with K Za Win, 39, a poet who was shot during a protest in March.A woman lights a candle while others flash the three-fingered sign of resistance during a candlelight vigil to remember those who died in the military junta’s violent response to anti-coup demonstrations in Yangon, Myanmar, April 16, 2021.With the coup approaching its 100th day, protests have continued, aided by strikes by students and civil servants throughout the country. The military, known as the Tatmadaw, has killed 780 demonstrators since February, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a non-profit human rights group based in Thailand. The Tatmadaw has justified the coup by claiming, without evidence, that the 2020 general elections that delivered the ruling National League for Democracy a second term were riddled with fraud. It has promised to hold new elections sometime after a one-year state of emergency, though many expect it to delay and to disqualify the widely popular NLD from running candidates.   Many top NLD leaders, including Nobel laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi, have remained in custody since their arrests on the morning of the coup, while others are in hiding.  Fighting between the Tatmadaw and some ethnic armed groups has also increased. Cultural figures, such as Khet Thi, and celebrities have been vocal supporters of the protests.  An engineer until 2012, Khet Thi quit his job to focus on poetry and sell cakes and ice cream, Reuters reported. He expressed his frustration recently, saying he didn’t want to be a “hero,” a “martyr,” “a weakling” or a “fool.”  
 
“My people are being shot and I can only throw back poems,” he wrote. “But when you are sure your voice is not enough, then you need to choose a gun carefully. I will shoot.” Esha Sarai contributed to this report.
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The remnants from an out-of-control Chinese rocket have safely reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, according to Chinese state media. The bulk of the rocket was destroyed once it reentered Earth’s atmosphere. Space experts were unsure about where or when the debris would land and what would happen upon landing. There was speculation that the debris could land on the ground, potentially harming humans and the environment. Aerospace Corp. and Space-Track.org followed the rocket’s descent. Debris from the rocket landed in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives after reentering the atmosphere at approximately 2:30 a.m., Universal Time, Chinese state media reported.  Space-Track.org had estimated Saturday evening that the rocket would reenter the atmosphere over the North Atlantic at 2:04 a.m. Universal Time, give or take one hour. Aerospace Corp, put it at 3:02, give or take two hours. The Aerospace Corp. is a nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center committed to space enterprise, according to its website. Space-Track.org says it provides critical space situational awareness data for a worldwide space community.  Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday that the rocket is unlikely to cause damage. Wang told reporters in Beijing that the rocket will mostly burn up on reentry and “the probability of this process causing harm on the ground is extremely low.” He said China was closely following the rocket’s path toward Earth and will release any information about it in a “timely manner.” The Long March 5B rocket was launched April 29 from Hainan Island. It was carrying a module for a planned Chinese space station. After the unmanned Tianhe module separated from the rocket, the nearly 21,000-kilogram rocket should have followed a planned reentry trajectory into the ocean. Because that did not happen as planned, the rocket had an uncontrolled reentry, and no one knew precisely where the debris would land. “U.S. Space Command is aware of and tracking the location of the Chinese Long March 5B in space, but its exact entry point into the Earth’s atmosphere cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its reentry,” Lieutenant Colonel Angela Webb, of U.S. Space Command Public Affairs, told CBS News.  Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that “this rocket debris” is “almost the body of the rocket, as I understand it, almost intact, coming down, and we think Space Command believes, somewhere around the 8th of May.”In May 2020, debris from another Long March 5B rocket fell on parts of Ivory Coast, causing damage to some buildings. Harvard-based astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Reuters that the debris could fall as far north as New York or as far south as Wellington, New Zealand. Speaking with reporters Thursday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the United States had no plans to try to shoot down the rocket.  “We have the capability to do a lot of things, but we don’t have a plan to shoot it down as we speak,” Austin said. “We’re hopeful that it will land in a place where it won’t harm anyone. Hopefully in the ocean, or someplace like that,” he added. The launch of the Tianhe module is the first of 11 planned missions to build the Chinese space station. 
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