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On a Monday last month, after a conservative Maine legislator expressed outrage on Facebook about a transgender girl winning a high school pole vaulting event, the hammer of the federal government began to swing.

By Friday of that week, Feb. 21, President Donald Trump singled out Maine’s governor during a White House event and threatened to cut off the state’s federal funding. “See you in court,” Gov. Janet Mills shot back.

Then came a barrage of investigations and threats: The U.S. Department of Education opened inquiries into the Maine Department of Education and the student’s school district, alleging they had violated federal civil rights law. The same day, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services targeted the Maine Education Department, too, as well as the state’s university system.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture then launched an investigation into the university system; and on Tuesday, the university said the USDA had halted funding as the agency investigates “prospective” civil rights violations, records show.

The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter that “Maine should be on notice” that the agency was poised to sue. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration even pulled $4.5 million for marine research, but it didn’t touch the 33 other grantees who get similar funding.

Then last week, the Social Security Administration briefly became the sixth federal agency to target Maine, canceling contracts that allowed hospitals to automatically report births and funeral homes to report deaths.

Although the Social Security contracts were reinstated, and the state may reapply for the marine research funding, the moves had already wreaked havoc.

Now, more federal agencies are pressing down on Maine than there are transgender girls competing in girls’ sports in the state. Only two transgender girls are competing this school year, according to the Maine Principals’ Association.

“The president is trying to crush the opposition. He’s trying to crush Maine,” said David Webbert, a longtime civil rights attorney in Maine. To Webbert, it’s as if Trump is saying: “‘Maine believes in transgender rights? Well, you’re going to see what happens to you.’”

Some view Maine as a test case for how the Trump administration may try to force its policies on states, regardless of existing state laws. In public comments, residents have invoked the state’s motto to rally Mainers: “Dirigo,” Latin for “I lead.”

“It’s Maine now, but what state is it going to be next? This is not just a Maine issue, but Maine spoke up. So right now, it’s, ‘Let’s make an example out of Maine,’” said Kris Pitts, executive co-director of the nonprofit MaineTransNet.

State officials, thrust into the spotlight, have been trying to avoid becoming more of a target, carefully choosing their words and declining interviews with reporters. And Mills hasn’t challenged Trump again publicly on this issue.

There are signs the administration is preparing to force other states to follow the president’s directives: The DOJ recently sent letters to California and Minnesota threatening to sue those states if they don’t ban transgender girls from athletics.

The Trump administration also is taking a multiagency approach with Columbia University. On Friday, several federal agencies canceled a combined $400 million in grants and contracts because, the administration alleged, the university was not sufficiently combatting antisemitism.

The press release announcing the multimillion-dollar punishment contained a caution for noncompliant institutions: “Doing business with the Federal Government is a privilege.”

Nearly everything about the blitz of investigations in Maine, including how they’re being carried out, is not ordinary.

Federal agencies that don’t usually enforce civil rights laws in schools launched inquiries. HHS, for instance, usually focuses on health care access for people with disabilities or language translation, and there’s no evidence it’s conducted an investigation of Maine in the past 20 years.

Not only did it dive into Maine’s policies on transgender athletes, it reached a conclusion with unprecedented speed.

Investigations like this typically take months, if not years, according to a review of federal investigation data and records by ProPublica and the Bangor Daily News. But just one business day after announcing the investigation, the federal agency decided the Maine Department of Education wasn’t giving girls equal opportunities and had violated Title IX “by allowing male athletes to compete against female athletes,” according to a letter from HHS to the state.

It sent that finding to the general inbox at the Maine attorney general’s office after interviewing no one from that office, the Education Department, governor’s office or officials from two high schools cited in the letter for allowing transgender athletes to compete against girls, according to those agencies and schools.

The Maine attorney general’s office pointed out that the letter cited an incorrect sum of federal funding that flows to the state. Legal experts also viewed its interpretation of Title IX as problematic. Trump’s Feb. 5 “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order asserted that transgender girls can’t play girls’ sports under that federal law. But Title IX has never required schools to exclude them, and Trump’s order can’t rewrite federal law, said Deborah Brake, a professor at University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

“The president can put out an executive order saying anything he wants,” Brake said, but “there has never been a court decision interpreting Title IX to require the exclusion of transgender girls from girls’ sports.”

The president is trying to crush the opposition. He’s trying to crush Maine.

In a statement, the agency reiterated that Maine could lose federal funding if it didn’t comply with its position. “HHS will investigate and enforce Title IX to the full extent permitted by law to uphold fairness, safety, dignity, and biological truth in women’s and girls’ educational athletic opportunities. Men have no place in women’s sports,” it said.

The USDA investigation of the University of Maine, launched on a Saturday, the day after Mills’ exchange with Trump, also is unusual. In announcing the investigation, the department said $100 million to the university was at risk because of the state’s “blatant disregard” of Trump’s order; a university system spokesperson said that amount reflected multiple years of funding.

Then came a series of questions, according to records obtained by the Bangor Daily News and ProPublica. At 10:50 a.m. the following Tuesday, a USDA official sent a University of Maine official 10 yes-or-no questions about its transgender athlete policies — and gave her 1 hour, 10 minutes to respond. The officials agreed to discuss the questions over a Zoom call, and, about five hours after that call, the USDA sent a list of follow-up questions. The agency wanted those answers by 1 p.m. the following day.

Sherron Jernigan, a USDA civil rights director for the animal and plant inspection service, sent the questions:

“Does the University of Maine System provide sex-separated toilet, locker room, and shower facilities for male student athletes and female student athletes?” The university answered “yes.”

“Does the University of Maine System permit a biological male to participate in individual or team contact sports with biological females?” The university answered “no.”

The university’s Title IX coordinator told the USDA that none of the seven universities within the system has transgender athletes participating in NCAA-sanctioned sports. (Of the more than 500,000 students who compete on NCAA teams across the country, fewer than 10 are transgender, the league’s president recently told a U.S. Senate panel.)

In her response to follow-up questions, Liz Lavoie, the university’s Title IX coordinator, added that the USDA had not given the university “any explanation as to the basis or scope of its inquiry, or the steps in the process.”

“Further, we have been given mere hours to respond to both sets of questions and we are responding in good faith but find the approach concerning given the lack of official service and the informal nature that the questions and interview have been presented,” Lavoie wrote.

The USDA did not issue any findings after the questioning, but the agency already is taking action. On Tuesday, the university said the USDA had frozen funding that could affect research on everything from the contamination of Maine farms by forever chemicals to the sustainability of Maine’s lobster industry. Last fiscal year, the USDA awarded nearly $30 million to the University of Maine.

A USDA spokesperson said the agency would not comment on a pending investigation.

Webbert, the civil rights attorney, called the federal government’s inquiries “a show.”

“It’s a political move dressed up, very barely, with a legal process, but it’s a fake legal process. So it is very concerning because they’re not even trying to make it look like it’s due process,” he said. “It reeks of pure politics.”

Doing business with the Federal Government is a privilege.

The federal government has made no effort to hide the ideological perspective that its various inquiries are seeking to enforce in Maine and the rest of the county, according to documents obtained by ProPublica and the Bangor Daily News. In announcing its action in Maine, HHS said it wanted to “restore biological truth to the federal government” and in its findings cited an article from OutKick, a Fox-owned conservative news site with a mission of “exposing the destructive nature of ‘woke’ activism.”

Meanwhile, the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education — which does have a mandate to investigate gender-based discrimination in schools and, with more than 500 people, dwarfs most of the nation’s civil rights enforcement divisions — seemed to conclude that Maine was violating Title IX before it finished investigating.

The press release announcing the launch of the investigation quoted the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, Craig Trainor: “It is shameful that Governor Mills refuses to stand with women and girls. Her rejection of the antidiscrimination obligations that Maine voluntarily accepted when it agreed to receive federal taxpayer dollars is unlawful.”

Trainor linked to “credible local reporting” around the pole vaulter in his letter to Maine officials announcing the civil rights investigation. The report came from the Maine Wire, an online outlet founded by a conservative think tank based in the state. The office hasn’t made contact with Maine since it notified state agencies of its investigation, according to the Maine agencies.

The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Maine’s governor never believed her state would receive an impartial investigation. “I imagine that the outcome of this politically directed investigation is all but predetermined,” Mills said in a statement after the Education Department investigation began. She has since declined to discuss her view of Maine’s transgender athlete policy.

But she has reiterated that Trump legally can’t force the state to violate its own law, the Maine Human Rights Act, which prevents discrimination based on gender identity.

Mainers aren’t sure what this full-court press will mean for their state; keeping up with it is hard enough. State Sen. Joe Rafferty, a Democrat who co-chairs the Legislature’s committee on education and cultural affairs, expressed disbelief when a reporter informed him that HHS’ investigation only lasted four days. He wasn’t aware it had officially started.

“That is why I think part of this is a mirage,” he said of the various investigations. The eventual resolution, he said, is more likely to be settled in a courtroom.

Indeed, HHS referred its finding to the DOJ, which can sue Maine to remove its federal funding. (The health agency also expanded its investigation last week to include the Maine Principals’ Association and the Maine high school where the pole vaulter is a student, according to the agency.) The results of that lawsuit could have significant implications, said Brake, the law professor. Not once since Congress enacted Title IX in 1972 has the DOJ ever cut off funding for a violation.

All the federal attention has been unsettling to some Mainers, welcomed by others who don’t want transgender girls playing girls’ sports and disruptive to the 625-student Greely High School, which the transgender pole vaulter attends.

“It’s just upsetting to everybody at school to be the center of attention and focus. It’s unnerving to go to school and the school is surrounded by police and reporters on every corner,” Gia Drew, who leads a statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy group called EqualityMaine, said of what she’s hearing from the community. “It’s hard to focus on a calculus test when your friends are under attack. It affects not just trans people but everyone who is part of a school system.”

After state Rep. Laurel Libby, a Republican from Auburn, singled out the student on her Facebook page and brought Trump’s attention to Maine, parents in the school district planned to show support by displaying signs and handing out treats before classes began, said state Rep. Christina Mitchell, a Democrat who represents Cumberland, home to Greely High School. She’s also a school board member in the district.

But there were television trucks and a police presence surrounding the school, so parents decided not to add to the commotion.

The Bangor Daily News and ProPublica reached out to the family of the student athlete but received no response. Mitchell said other students, including the transgender student’s teammates and competitors, are supportive of her. “Nobody was making a fuss,” she said.

And many in Maine don’t want a fuss. Even as Mills’ response to Trump made some proud — you can now buy “See you in court” T-shirts — others recognized that it launched Maine into the nation’s consciousness. “You watch it and feel like: ‘Oh, all eyes will be here. This will be something big,’” said Pitts, with MaineTransNet.

Libby and other Republican lawmakers have welcomed the chance to amplify their viewpoint that allowing transgender girls in sports is unsafe and discriminates against girls. Another Republican lawmaker introduced a bill to the Legislature to require transgender athletes to compete on teams matching the gender they were assigned at birth.

“All of the accomplishments of women over the years are being erased by men masquerading as women, erasing us from the history books,” Libby said in a weekly address from Maine House Republicans.

While Libby has been censured by Democrats who control the Maine House for her initial Facebook post about the pole vaulter, she has continued to make appearances on right-wing media to urge the governor to stop supporting the right of transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports. On Tuesday, she filed a lawsuit in Maine District Court against the state’s House speaker over the censure, accusing him of stripping her voting rights “in retaliation for protected speech on a highly important and hotly debated matter of public concern,” according to the complaint. Her party has rallied around her and her cause.

“Allowing biological boys to compete with our girls, is not only unpopular, and unfair, but it is also illegal,” Republican House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham of Winter Harbor said in a written statement. “Governor Mills should abandon this indefensible position and uphold Title IX protections for our girls.”

Maine institutions being targeted by the federal government have continued to follow state law. And at a regularly scheduled school board meeting at Greely High School on Thursday night, the board president pledged the district’s “unwavering support” of all students.

Mitchell said that Maine may be the federal government’s target now, but other states could be next.

“I think you have to stand up to it. Whatever you think is right, you have to stand up for it, because, if you don’t, it’ll just keep going and spread to other places,” Mitchell said. “We’re a small state, but if you give an inch, you know?”

Eli Hager contributed reporting.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by .

Chinese Human Rights Defenders, or CHRD, a non-government organization of domestic and overseas Chinese rights activists, said the scope and scale of wrongful detention by Chinese authorities may constitute crimes against humanity.

“They were sentenced and imprisoned on charges that stem from laws that are not in conformity with the Chinese government’s domestic and international human rights obligations,” the group said in a report.

“Their cases proceeded through the full criminal justice system, with police, prosecutors, and courts arbitrarily depriving them of their liberty in violation of their human rights.”

Prisoners of conscience have faced severe penalties, with an average sentence of six years, increasing to seven for national security charges.

Three people, identified as Tashpolat Tiyip, Sattar Sawut and Yang Hengjun, were sentenced to death, while two, Rahile Dawut and Abdurazaq Sayim, received life sentences, the group said, adding that 48 were jailed for at least a decade.

(CHRD)

Among the convicted, women activists and marginalized groups, including ethnic Tibetans and Uyghurs, were disproportionately represented among those wrongfully detained, the group said.

Out of all the prisoners of conscience aged 60 or older, two-thirds were women, it added.

“Human rights experts and international experts have raised that people over the age of 60 should generally not be held in custody due to the effects on their physical and mental health,” Angeli Datt, research consultant with CHRD, told journalists in a press briefing Wednesday.

“That two-thirds of them are women was really shocking to me,” she said.

“Worse still, the impunity Chinese government officials enjoy at home emboldens them to commit abuses abroad,” the group said.

China dismissed a Swiss report last month alleging that it pressures Tibetans and Uyghurs in Switzerland to spy on their communities.

‘Endangering national security’

The CHRD said that under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the scope and scale of the use of arbitrary detention to silence critics and punish human rights personnel had grown.

The organization documented a total of 58 individuals known to have been convicted of “endangering national security.”

“The overall average prison sentence for a national security crime is 6.72 years, though this figure excludes those sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve or life imprisonment,” it said.

In Hong Kong, more people were convicted of “subversion” and “inciting subversion” — terms that the U.N. describes as “broad and imprecise, making them prone to misapplication and misuse.”

In one 2024 case, authorities convicted 45 people for participating in a primary election, an act fully protected under both domestic and international law. Subversion charges accounted for 37% of all prisoners of conscience sentenced in Hong Kong during this period.

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China also punishes individuals for political activities related to Taiwan under broad judicial guidelines that criminalize discussions on Taiwan’s status, advocacy for referendums, and support for its international participation. These rules allow trials in absentia and the death penalty, instilling fear among Taiwanese citizens who uphold democratic freedoms.

In August 2024, for instance, a Zhejiang court sentenced former Taiwanese activist Yang Chih-yuan, 34, to nine years for separatism.

A former Taiwanese politician turned pro-independence advocate, he moved to China in 2022, avoiding politics to teach a strategy game.

Despite this, he was detained in August, placed under “residential surveillance,” and arrested in April 2023 – reportedly the first Taiwanese convicted under China’s new rules targeting Taiwan-related political activities.

“When defenders are imprisoned for this work and silenced, people and governments around the world are left without information about domestic developments, and without allies for reform,” said CHRD.

Edited by Taejun Kang.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alan Lu for RFA.

Members of the National Defense and Security Council unanimously agreed to the extension, which puts off the junta’s often-delayed plan for a general election until the second half of the year at the earliest.

Myanmar’s constitution mandates that elections must be held within six months after a state of emergency is lifted.

“There are still more tasks to be done to hold the general election successfully. Especially for a free and fair election, stability and peace is still needed,” state-run media cited the junta chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, as telling the military council meeting.

Ethnic minority insurgent groups battling for self-determination and allied pro-democracy fighters have dismissed the junta’s plan for an election as window-dressing to bolster the military’s legitimacy at home and abroad.

The military controls about half the country after major advances by insurgent forces over the past year and the country’s most popular politician, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been jailed since the military ousted her elected government on Feb. 1, 2021.

The junta has repeatedly extended the emergency since then.

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EXPLAINED: Why does Myanmar’s junta want to hold elections?

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, which swept elections in 2015 and 2020, has been dissolved under military regulations and thousands of its members and supporters are in jail or have fled to rebel zones or into self-exile.

The chairman of Myanmar’s oldest ethnic minority rebel force, the Karen National Union, reiterated on Friday the group’s opposition to an election organized by the military.

China, which has major investments in Myanmar and is keen to see an end to its turmoil, supports the vote and has offered help to organize it, as have some of Myanmar’s Southeast Asian neighbors.

Myanmar’s economy had been in freefall since the 2021 coup.

The United Nations says about 3.5 million people have been displaced by conflict and natural disasters while the World Food Programme said this week some 15 million people in Myanmar are expected to face hunger this year.

Edited by RFA Staff.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese.

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The Department of Justice on Tuesday sued six of the nation’s largest landlords, accusing them of using a pricing algorithm to improperly work together to raise rents across the country.

The lawsuit expands an antitrust complaint the department filed in August that accused property management software-maker RealPage of engaging in illegal price-fixing to reduce competition among landlords so prices — and profits — would soar. Officials conducted a two-year investigation into the scheme following a 2022 ProPublica story that showed how RealPage was helping landlords set rents across the country in a way that legal experts said could result in cartel-like behavior.

Together, the six landlords manage more than 1.3 million apartments in 43 states and the District of Columbia. Prosecutors have already negotiated a settlement with one of them.

“While Americans across the country struggled to afford housing, the landlords named in today’s lawsuit shared sensitive information about rental prices and used algorithms to coordinate to keep the price of rent high,” said acting Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. The suit seeks to end “their practice of putting profits over people” and to make housing more affordable.

The legal action is the latest development to follow ProPublica’s initial investigation. Since 2022, senators have introduced legislation seeking to ban the use of rent algorithms similar to RealPage’s, and tenants have filed dozens of ongoing federal lawsuits. Cities around the country, including San Francisco, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, have also moved to bar landlords from using similar algorithms to set rents.

RealPage’s popular software was collecting nonpublic pricing information from multiple property managers and feeding it through a common algorithm, which then recommended an optimal rent level to those who used it — in violation of rules that prohibit such coordination, federal prosecutors alleged. They also accused the landlords of improperly communicating directly about their pricing through calls, emails and participation in “user group” forums hosted by RealPage.

The company pushes landlords to use an “auto-accept” feature on its software, authorities said, and makes it onerous for property managers to reject its suggestions.

RealPage Senior Vice President Jennifer Bowcock called the federal case “flawed” and said the company is “committed to vigorously defending ourselves and our customers against the DOJ’s accusations.” RealPage has already changed its software to remove nonpublic data, despite its view that its technology was legal and “pro-competitive,” she said.

“It’s past time to stop scapegoating RealPage — and now our customers — for housing affordability problems when the root cause of high housing costs is the undersupply of housing, which we have been saying from the beginning,” she said.

Three of the landlords sued in this week’s action appeared in ProPublica’s 2022 story, including the nation’s biggest landlord, Greystar, and Camden Property Trust.

Camden CEO Ric Campo told the news organization at the time that the apartment market in Houston, where the company is headquartered, was so big and diverse that “it would be hard to argue there was some kind of price fixing.”

But when Camden adopted the nascent rent-setting technology in 2006, the company found that its profits grew even though more tenants were moving out.

“The net effect of driving revenue and pushing people out was $10 million in income,” Campo told a trade publication then. (He later said that quote doesn’t reflect how he or Camden views renters today.)

Neither Campo nor Camden responded to a request for comment.

Greystar, the biggest manager and owner of rentals in the U.S., said in a statement that it was “disappointed” that the Justice Department added the company to the suit.

“At no time did Greystar engage in any anti-competitive practices,” the statement from the South Carolina-based company said. “We will vigorously defend ourselves in this lawsuit.”

ProPublica’s 2022 data analysis also found Willow Bridge Property Company (formerly Lincoln Residential) managed dozens of buildings in markets that had seen fast growth in rent. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Justice Department lawsuit.

One property owner and manager, Cortland, has already agreed to stop using competitors’ nonpublic data to train or run pricing models under a settlement with federal prosecutors. The proposed agreement has been submitted to the court for consideration.

Atlanta-based Cortland manages over 80,000 rentals in 13 states. A related federal criminal investigation that led to a May 2024 search of its headquarters has been closed, a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the company is “pleased” to announce the settlement.

“We believe we were only able to achieve this result because Cortland has invested years and significant internal resources into developing a proprietary revenue management software tool that does not rely on data from external, nonpublic sources,” the spokesperson said.

Revenue management software can help landlords manage rents “efficiently” and avoid discrimination, said a spokesperson for defendant Cushman & Wakefield, which also owns defendant Pinnacle. The spokesperson said that as a manager only, the company does not “set strategy, pricing, or occupancy targets,” decide which software to use, or whether to accept any software’s recommendations.

The lawsuit also named as a defendant Blackstone’s LivCor. Blackstone did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In addition to naming landlords as defendants in the claim, it also added the attorneys general of Illinois and Massachusetts as co-plaintiffs, bringing the total number of participating states to 10. The states include the country’s most populous — California, which has 17 million renters.

RealPage said that “fewer than 10% of all rental housing units in the U.S. use RealPage software to suggest rental prices, and our software recommendations are accepted less than half the time.”

But a White House report in December said that number could be higher. It said RealPage and census data suggest that as many as 1 in 4 rentals nationwide use a RealPage pricing algorithm. And the company’s penetration is higher in some markets, it said.

Using models of what competitive markets would look like, researchers found that algorithmic pricing costs renters in units where it is used $70 more a month, or 4% of rent, on average. In six major metro areas, the cost exceeds $100 a month, the report found.

The report estimated the total added cost to renters from the use of such algorithms in 2023 to be roughly $3.8 billion.

RealPage said that the analysis is “riddled with flawed assumptions,” and that the White House never contacted the company about the report.

The fate of the Justice Department’s lawsuit under the incoming administration is unclear. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Gail Slater, a veteran antitrust attorney and economic advisor to JD Vance, to lead the department’s antitrust division.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Heather Vogell.

At least six Israeli soldiers have taken their own lives in recent months, the major Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth has revealed, citing severe psychological distress caused by prolonged wars in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon as the primary cause, Anadolu Agency reports.

The investigation suggests that the actual number of suicides may be higher, as the Israeli military has yet to release official figures, despite a promise to disclose them by the end of the year.

The report highlights a broader mental health crisis within the Israeli army.

• READ MORE: Israeli soldiers commit suicide after seeing horrors the world can never truly comprehend
• Other Israel’s war on Gaza reports

Regional tension has escalated due to Israel’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 44,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Thousands of soldiers have sought help from military mental health clinics or field psychologists, with approximately a third of those affected showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

According to the investigation, the number of soldiers suffering psychological trauma may exceed those with physical injuries from the war.

The daily cites experts as saying the full extent of this mental health crisis will become clear once military operations are completed and troops return to normal life.

About 1700 soldiers treated
In March, Lucian Tatsa-Laur, head of the Israeli military’s Mental Health Department, told another Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, that approximately 1700 soldiers had received psychological treatment.

Since October 7 last year, reports Anadolu, Israeli military is alleged to have wiped out families in Gaza, pulverised neighbourhoods, dug up mass graves, destroyed cemeteries, bombed shops and businesses, flattened hospitals and morgues, ran tanks and bulldozers on dead bodies, tortured jailed Palestinians with dogs and electricity, subjected detainees to mock executions, and even raped many Palestinians.

Exhibiting sadistic behaviour during the genocide, Israeli soldiers have taunted Palestinian prisoners by claiming they were playing football with their children’s heads in Gaza.

Israeli troops have live streamed hundreds of videos of soldiers looting Palestinian homes, destroying children’s beds, setting homes on fire and laughing, wearing undergarments of displaced Palestinians and stealing children’s toys.

In their mission to “erase” Palestine, Israeli troops have killed a record number of babies, medics, athletes, and journalists — unprecedented in any war in this century.

But, said the news agency, now it’s coming with a cost.

Australia bars former minister
Meanwhile, former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has been banned from entering Australia over fears of “incitement”.

Shaked, a former MP for the far-right Yamina party, was scheduled to appear at a conference hosted by the pro-Israel Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).

However, the Australian Department of Home Affairs told the former minister on Thursday that she had been denied a visa to travel to the country under the Migration Act.

The act allows the government to deny entry to individuals likely to “vilify Australians” or “incite discord” within the local community.

Speaking to Israeli media, Shaked claimed that her ban was due to her vocal opposition to a Palestinian state, reports Middle East Eye.

She has also previously called for the removal of “all two million” Palestinians from Gaza.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

We continue to look at the attacks on civil society in Azerbaijan leading up to the COP29 U.N. climate summit. The government’s crackdown has included the arrests of local journalists, including several with the independent outlet Abzas Media. Since November of last year, at least six of their reporters have been arrested on trumped-up charges of smuggling foreign currency into the country. Leyla Mustafayeva, the outlet’s acting editor-in-chief, speaking from Berlin, lays out how there has been a “total crackdown on Azerbaijani media” over the last year.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

For the vast majority of Cubans, who were born after the first unilateral coercive measures were imposed, life under these conditions is the only normalcy they have known. Even friends sympathetic to socialism and supporters of Cuba may question why the Cubans have not simply learned to live under these circumstances after 64 years.

The explanation, explored below, is that the relatively mild embargo of 1960 has been periodically intensified and made ever more devastatingly effective. The other major factor is that the geopolitical context has changed to Cuba’s disadvantage. These factors in turn have had cumulatively detrimental effects.

Cuba in the new world order

 The Cuban Revolution achieved remarkable initial successes for a small, resource-poor island with a history of colonial exploitation.

After the 1959 revolution, the population quickly attained 100% literacy. Life expectancy and infant mortality rates soon rivaled far richer countries, through the application of socialized medicine, prioritizing primary care. Cuba also became a world sports powerhouse and made noteworthy advances in biotechnology. At the same time, Cuban troops aided in the overthrow of apartheid in South Africa, among many other exercises of internationalism.

Cuba did not make those advances alone but benefitted from the solidarity of the Soviet Union and other members of the Socialist Bloc. From the beginning of the revolution, the USSR helped stabilize the economy, particularly in the areas of agriculture and manufacturing. Notably, Cuba exported sugar to the Soviets at above-market prices.

The USSR’s military assistance in the form of training and equipment contributed to the Cuban’s successfully repelling the US’s Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. In addition, the Socialist Bloc backed Cuba diplomatically in the United Nations and other international fora. East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, for example, also assisted with economic aid, investment, and trade to help develop the Cuban economy.

The implosion of the Socialist Bloc in the late 1980s and early 1990s severely impacted Cuba.

No longer buffered by these allies, the full weight of the US-led regime-change campaign sent Cuba reeling into what became known as the “Special Period.” After an initial GDP contraction of about 35% between 1989 and 1993, the Cubans somewhat recovered by the 2000s. But, now, conditions on the island are again increasingly problematic.

A new multipolar world may be in birth, but it has not been able to sufficiently aid Cuba in this time of need. China and Vietnam along with post-Soviet Russia, remnants of the earlier Socialist Bloc, still maintain friendly commercial and diplomatic relations with Cuban but nowhere the former levels of cooperation.

Ratcheting up of the US regime-change campaign

 The ever-tightening US blockade is designed to ensure that socialism does not succeed; to strangle in the cradle all possible alternatives to the established imperial order.

The initial restrictions imposed by Dwight Eisenhower in 1960 banned US exports to Cuba, except for food and medicine, and reduced Cuba’s sugar export quota to the US. Shortly before the end of his term in 1961, the US president broke diplomatic relations.

He also initiated covert operations against Cuba, which would be significantly strengthened by his successor, John Kennedy, and subsequent US administrations. Since then, Cuba has endured countless acts of terrorism as well as attempts to assassinate the revolution’s political leadership.

John Kennedy had campaigned in 1960, accusing the Eisenhower-Nixon administration of failing to sufficiently combat the spread of communism. Kennedy was determined to prevent communism from gaining a foothold in America’s “backyard.” He made deposing the “Castro regime” a national priority and imposed a comprehensive economic embargo.

After Kennedy’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis the following year, he initiated Operation Mongoose. The president put his brother Robert Kennedy in charge of attempting to overthrow the revolution by covert means. This CIA operation of sabotage and other destabilization methods was meant to bring to Cuba “the terrors of the earth.”

Post-Soviet era

Subsequent US administrations continued the policy of blockade, occupation of Guantánamo, and overt and covert destabilization efforts.

Former CIA director and then-US President George H.W. Bush seized the opportunity in 1992 posed by the implosion of the Socialist Bloc. The bipartisan Cuban Democracy Act passed under his watch. Popularly called the Torricelli Act after a Democratic Party congressional sponsor, it codified the embargo into law, which could only be reversed by an act of congress.

The act strengthened the embargo into a blockade by prohibiting US subsidiaries of companies operating in third countries from trading with Cuba. Ships that had traded with Cuba were banned from entering the US for 180 days. The economic stranglehold on Cuba was tightened by obstructing sources of foreign currency, which further limited Cuba’s ability to engage in international trade.

The screws were again tightened in 1996 under US President Bill Clinton with the Helms-Burton Act. Existing unilateral coercive economic measures were reinforced and expanded.

The act also added restrictions to discourage foreign investment in Cuba, particularly in US-owned properties that had been expropriated after the Cuban Revolution. The infamous Title III of the act allowed US citizens to file lawsuits in US courts against foreign companies “trafficking” in such confiscated properties.

Title III generated substantial blowback and some countermeasures from US allies, such as the European Union and Canada, because of its extraterritorial application in violation of international trade agreements and sovereignty. As a result, Title III was temporarily waived.

Later, US President Barack Obama modified US tactics during his watch by reopening diplomatic relations with Cuba and easing some restrictions, in order to unapologetically achieve the imperial strategy of regime change more effectively.

But even that mild relief was reversed by his successor’s “maximum pressure” campaign. In 2019, US President Donald Trump revived Title III. By that time, the snowballing effects of the blockade had generated a progressively calamitous economic situation in Cuba.

Just days before the end of his term, Trump reinstated Cuba onto the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) after Obama had lifted it in 2015. The designation has had a huge impact on Cuba by reducing trade with third countries fearful of secondary sanctions by the US, by cutting off most international finance, and by further discouraging tourism.

President Joe Biden continued most of the Trump “maximum pressure” measures, including the SSOT designation, while adding some of this own. This came at a time when the island was especially hard hit by the Covid pandemic, which halted tourism, one of Cuba’s few sources of foreign currency.

In the prescient words of Lester D. Mallory, US deputy assistant secretary of state back in 1960, the imperialists saw the opportunity to “bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”

US siege on Cuba perfected

In addition to the broad history outlined above of incessant regime-change measures by every US administration since the inception of the Cuban Revolution, some collateral factors are worthy of mention.

Major technological advances associated with computer technology and AI have been applied by the US to more effectively track and enforce its coercive measures. In addition, the fear of US fines for violation of its extraterritorial prohibitions on third-country actors has led to overcompliance.

Uncle Sam has also become ever more inventive. Visa-free entry (VWP) into the US is no longer available to most European and some other nationals if they stopped in Cuba, thereby significantly discouraging tourism to the island.

The internal political climate in the US has also shifted with the neoconservative takeover of both major parties. Especially now with the second Trump presidency, Cuba has fewer friends in Washington, and its enemies now have even less constraints on their regime-change campaigns. This is coupled by a generally more aggressive international US force projection.

Under the blockade, certain advances of the revolution were turned into liabilities. The revolution with its universal education, mechanization of agriculture, and collective or cooperative organization of work freed campesinos from the 24/7 drudgery of peasant agriculture. Today, fields remain idle because, among other factors, the fuel and spare parts for the tractors are embargoed.

Cuba’s allies, especially Venezuela, itself a victim of a US blockade, have been trying to supply Cuba with desperately needed oil. Construction of 14 oil tankers commissioned abroad by Venezuela, which could transport that oil, has been blocked. Direct proscriptions by the US on shipping companies and insurance underwriters have also limited the oil lifeline.

Without the fuel, electrical power, which run pumps to supply basic drinking water, cannot be generated. As a consequence, Cuba has recently experienced island-wide blackouts along with food and water shortages. This highlights how the blockade is essentially an economic dirty war against the civilian population.

Cumulative effects on Cuban society

Life is simply hard in Cuba under the US siege and is getting harder. This has led to recently unprecedented levels of out migration. The consequent brain-drain and labor shortages exacerbate the situation. Moreover, the relentless scarcity and the associated compromised quality of life under such conditions has had a corrosive effect over time.

Under the pressure of the siege, Cuba has been forced to adopt measures that undermine socialist equality but which generate needed revenue. For example, Obama and subsequent US presidents have encouraged the formation of a small business strata, expanding on the limited “reforms” instituted during Raúl Castro’s time as Cuba’s president.

 The Cubans will surely persevere as they have in the past. “The country’s resilience is striking,” according to a longtime Cuba observer writing from Havana.

Besides, the imperialists leave them little other choice. A surrender and soft landing is not an option being offered. The deliberately failed state of Haiti, less than 50 miles to the east, serves as a cautionary tale of what transpires for a people under the beneficence of the US.

Now is an historical moment for recognition of not what Cuba has failed to do, but for appreciation of how much it has achieved with so little and under such adverse circumstances not of its making.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Roger D. Harris.

The Beijing-based South China Sea Probing Initiative, or SCSPI, a government-sanctioned think tank, said on the social media platform X that the fishermen “were detained in April and May” for illegally fishing activities in the waters around the Paracels. It did not provide other details including the number of detainees.

Vietnam, China and Taiwan all claim sovereignty over the island chain, known as Xisha islands in Chinese and Hoang Sa in Vietnam, but Beijing has been controlling the entire area since 1974, after defeating troops of the then South Vietnam government.

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Last week, a Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson said Hanoi had “resolutely” protested and demanded China “immediately release all the fishermen and fishing vessels, appropriately compensate them for the damages and stop the harassment against Vietnamese fishermen” without giving any further details.

Vietnam says that the Paracels have been a traditional fishing ground for generations of its fishermen but China has been stopping and expelling Vietnamese vessels from the waters around the islands, and sometimes detaining them and demanding fines.

Last month, Vietnam said Chinese law enforcement personnel boarded a fishing boat from Quang Ngai province and beat the crew with iron bars, seriously injuring four of them, prompting the Vietnamese government to publicly protest.

‘Destructive’ fishing activities

The SCSPI said that the Vietnamese fishermen were detained for “harvesting live corals, electrofishing and other environmentally destructive activities.”

It also published photos that it said showed explosives and detonators used by Vietnamese fishermen in the Paracels.

On Nov. 1, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a press briefing in Beijing that China hoped Vietnam would “earnestly raise the awareness of its fishermen and make sure they will not engage in illegal activities in waters under China’s jurisdiction.”

Vietnamese authorities insisted that, as the Paracel islands belong to Vietnam, it is within the fishermen’s rights to operate in the archipelago’s waters.

This year, the Quang Ngai provincial government told media that most of the fishing boats from the province used non-destructive methods such as trawling, line fishing and diving.

The Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative, or AMTI, a U.S. think tank, said as for trawling, “China and Vietnam account for the largest share of overall fish catch in the South China Sea.”

In its report ‘Deep Blue Scars’ from Dec. 2023, AMTI also accused China of causing the most coral reef destruction in the South China Sea through dredging and land fill, burying roughly 4,648 acres (18.8km2) of reefs.” Vietnam came second with 1,402 acres (5.7km2).

Chinese fishermen have also been using an extremely harmful method of “dragging specially made brass propellers” to dig up reef surfaces for giant clam harvesting, AMTI’s report said.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

Exercise Sama Sama, or Togetherness in the Tagalog language, kicked off on Monday, “marking the beginning of two weeks of maritime engagements designed to enhance interoperability and strengthen security ties among regional partners,” the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

The exercise, involving almost 1,000 naval personnel from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the U.S. and the Philippines, takes place in the northern Luzon area facing Taiwan. The United Kingdom has sent observers to the drills.

Just days before, on Sept. 28, four of the partners – Australia, Japan, the Philippines and the U.S. – together with New Zealand, conducted a maritime exercise within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, in the South China Sea.

On the same day, China announced its own air and naval drills around Scarborough Shoal, which it gained de facto control of following a standoff with the Philippines in 2012.

China's Southern Theater Command criticized the earlier exercise as destabilizing outside interference.

"Some countries outside the region have disrupted the South China Sea and created regional instability," the Chinese military said.

The command pledged to "resolutely defend China's sovereignty, security, and maritime rights and interests" in the South China Sea.

Beijing, which has just observed a lengthy national holiday, has yet to respond to Sama Sama 2024.

‘Not targeted at any country’

The U.S and the Philippines are treaty allies and they conduct various  joint military drills every year.

The U.S. Navy said in its statement that Sama Sama, now in its eighth iteration, “reflects ​​the spirit of the decades-long partnership between allies in the region.”

“What began as a bilateral event between the United States and the Philippines has grown into a multilateral and multiplatform operation,” it said.

“Working alongside naval vessels and maritime surveillance aircraft, ​​​​specialized teams​, including ​diving and explosive ordnance disposal units​,​​ ​will conduct high-intensity drills focusing on anti-submarine warfare​, ​anti-​surface warfare​, ​anti-​air warfare​, and maritime domain awareness.”

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The U.S. head of delegation, Rear Adm. Todd Cimicata, told reporters before the launching of the exercise that it was not targeted at any country.

"The intent of these exercises is not to ruffle feathers. It's tailored for interoperability," Cimicata was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying. "Across the gamut, there are people that don't follow those rules so we have to agree so that we can set those standards."

China, which claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, has been in a tense standoff with the Philippines over some reefs inside Manila’s EEZ.

Last week, Chinese law enforcement personnel were accused of beating and injuring 10 Vietnamese fishermen near the Paracel archipelago in what Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano described as an "alarming act with no place in international relations."

Navy spokesperson, Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, told a press briefing on Tuesday that Philippine authorities “have contingency plans in place” in case similar incidents happen to Filipino fishermen.

Trinidad urged fishermen to continue fishing in the West Philippine Sea, or the part of the South China Sea within the country’s EEZ.

The Philippine Navy said it had spotted a total of 190 Chinese vessels, including 37 naval and coast guard vessels, in Philippine waters this week, a slight increase from 178 the week before.

Jason Gutierrez in Manila contributed to this report.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has reached 190 as fallout from the storm becomes clearer. Hundreds remain missing and presumed dead. President Biden has ordered the Pentagon to deploy 1,000 active-duty troops to help with flood relief efforts. Power outages and water shortages remain rampant across six southeastern states hit by one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history. Democracy Now! speaks with immigrant rights activist Cesar Bautista Sanchez about how the storm has affected his area of Tennessee and the increasing danger of extreme weather events under the climate crisis. “This is starting to become a pattern,” says Bautista Sanchez.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The U.S. State Department is classifying six Russian state-owned media outlets as foreign missions as part of its efforts to counter alleged Russian interference in the 2024 election, it announced on Sept. 4, 2024.

The media organizations named were the state media group Rossiya Segodnya and the related news operations RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly and Sputnik. The move makes the outlets subject to the same rules as foreign embassies and consulates located inside the U.S. under the 1982 Foreign Missions Act.

To continue operating in the U.S., the outlets would be required to regularly report a list of employees — including their addresses and ages — as well as disclose the property the organizations own within the U.S. and obtain approval from the State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions to lease or buy real estate. The State Department is also restricting visas for those it believes are using the media outlets as a cover.

During a Sept. 13 news conference, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the outlets are “no longer merely firehoses of Russian Government propaganda and disinformation; they are engaged in covert influence activities aimed at undermining American elections and democracies, functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus.”

Blinken emphasized that the United States champions freedom of expression, even when it comes to purveyors of government propaganda. “But we will not stand by as RT and other actors carry out covert activities in support of Russia’s nefarious activities, and we’ll continue to respond forcefully to Moscow’s playbook of aggression and subversion,” Blinken continued.

As part of the efforts to address Russian influence on the upcoming election, on Sept. 4 the U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment of two Russian employees of RT, while the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 10 top RT executives.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland also announced that the Justice Department seized 32 web domains that it says the Kremlin used to influence the election, adding that the department’s investigation is ongoing.

Russian authorities have consistently denied allegations of U.S. election interference, Al Jazeera reported. When asked how Russia will respond to the sanctions, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “We warn once again that any attempt to expel Russian journalists from the United States, create unacceptable conditions for their work or hinder their professional operation in any other way, including through visa restrictions, will be regarded as grounds for a symmetric and/or asymmetric action against American media outlets.”

Under former President Donald Trump’s administration, the State Department classified 15 Chinese state-run media outlets as foreign missions as part of a series of tit-for-tat reprisals between the U.S. and China, with journalists in the middle.

Russian outlet RT America was similarly ordered to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act in 2017, as were Russian outlets RM Broadcasting and RIA Global LLC in 2019 and Al Jazeera’s U.S.-based social media division, AJ+, in 2020.

Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project, called on the Biden administration to declassify the records used to justify the sanctions so they can be independently vetted.

“All state media outlets, including our own, seek to advance the interests of the government in some way, and Americans are constitutionally entitled to consume foreign propaganda if they so choose,” wrote Lauren Harper, FPF’s inaugural Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy. “If RT’s alleged conduct is not starkly different from what other government media outlets do, then the investigation puts outlets worldwide at risk of retaliation.”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

The Guardian reported this week a source from within the Foreign Office confirming what anyone paying close attention already knew.

By last February, according to the source, Britain’s then Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, had received official advice that Israel was using British arms components to commit war crimes in Gaza. Cameron sat on that information for many months, concealing it from the House of Commons and the British public, while Israel continued to butcher tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

Several points need making about the information provided to the Guardian:

1. The source says that the advice to Cameron on Israeli war crimes was “so obvious” it could not have been misunderstood by him or anyone else in the previous government. Given that the new Labour government has been similarly advised, forcing it to partially suspend arms sales, one conclusion only is possible: Cameron is complicit in Israel’s war crimes. The International Criminal Court must immediately investigate him. Its British chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, needs to issue an arrest warrant for Cameron as soon as possible. No ifs or buts.

2. Now in government, Labour has a legal duty to make clear the timeline of the advice Cameron received – and who else received it – to help the ICC in its prosecution of the former Foreign Secretary and other British officials for complicity in Israel’s atrocities.

3. The current furore being kicked up over Labour’s suspension of a tiny fraction of arm sales to Israel needs to be put firmly in context. David Lammy, Cameron’s successor, is keen to evade any risk of complicity charges himself. Leaders of the previous government are denouncing his decision on arms sales only because it exposes their own complicity in war crimes. Their outrage is desperate arse-covering – something the media ought to be highlighting but isn’t.

4. Labour needs to explain why, according to the source, the advice it has published has apparently been watered down from the advice Cameron received. As a result, Lammy has suspended 30 of 350 arms contracts with Israel – or 8 per cent of the total. He has avoided suspending the British components most likely to be assisting Israel in its war crimes: those used in Israel’s F-35 jets, made in the US.

Why? Because that would incur the full wrath of the Biden administration. He and the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, dare not take on Washington.

In other words, Lammy’s decision has not only exposed the complicity of Cameron and the previous Tory leadership in Israeli war crimes. It also exposes Lammy and Starmer’s complicity. Put bluntly, following this week’s announcement, they are now 8 per cent less complicit in Israel’s crimes against humanity than Cameron and the Tories were.

5. There has been lots of fake indignation from Israel and its lobbyists, especially in Britain’s Jewish community, about how offensive it is that the government should announce its suspension of a small fraction of arms sales to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza the day six Israeli hostages were buried.

The chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, for example, is incensed that the UK is limiting its arming of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, saying it “beggars belief”. He is thereby calling for the UK to trash international law, and ignore its own officials’ advice that Israel risks using British weapons to commit war crimes. He is demanding that the UK facilitate genocide.

The British Board of Deputies, which claims to represent British Jews, has retweeted Mirvis’ comment. The Board’s president has been all over the airwaves similarly decryingLammy’s decision.

Israel would, of course, have always found some reason to be appalled at the timing. There is an obviously far more important consideration than the bogus “sensitivities” of Israel and genocide apologists like Rabbi Mirvis. Each day the UK government delays banning all arms to Israel – not just a small percentage – more Palestinians in Gaza die and the more Britain contributes to Israel’s crimes against humanity.

But equally to the point: according to the rules Starmer imposed on the Labour party – that Britain’s Jewish leaders get to define what offends Jews and what amounts to antisemitism, especially on issues concerning Israel – the Labour government is now, judged by those standards, antisemitic. You can’t have one set of rules for Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour left, and another for Starmer and the Labour right.

Or rather you can. That is precisely the game the entire British establishment has been playing for the past seven years. A game that has facilitated Israel’s genocide in Gaza even more than the sales of British weapons to Israel.

6. Many have dismissed the significance of recent rulings against Israel from the International Court of Justice – that Israel is “plausibly” committing genocide in Gaza and that its decades of occupation are illegal and a form of apartheid – as well as moves from the International Criminal Court to arrest Netanyahu as a war criminal.

Here we see how mistaken that approach is. Those legal decisions have set the two wings of the British establishment – the Tories and the Starmerite Labour right – at loggerheads. Both are now desperate in their different ways to distance themselves from charges of complicity.

The rulings have also opened up a potential rift with Washington. The State Department spokesman has been shown having to frantically justify why the US is not banning its own arms sales.

Journalist Humeyra Pamuk questioned State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on why the US has not followed the UK's decision to suspend arms sales to Israel over concerns about potential violations of international law. pic.twitter.com/mujwDyblgZ

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) September 4, 2024

Admittedly, these are only small fissures in the western system of oligarchy. But those fissures are weaknesses – weaknesses that those who care about human rights, care about international law, care about stopping a genocide, and care about saving their own humanity can exploit. We have few opportunities. We need to grasp every single one of them.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Jonathan Cook.

Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim.

September 1, 2024, twenty-seven Palestinian families woke up to mourn their loved ones, including at least 11 who were killed at a “safe” shelter, Safad School in Zaitune neighborhood east of Gaza city. On the same day, the Israeli occupying army recovered the bodies of six Israeli captives, who died as a direct or indirect result of an Israeli incursion into a tunnel in Rafah.

By the end of the day, the smiling faces and names of these six Israelis were prominently featured across digital and print media, while the murdered Palestinians, were reduced to mere statistics, nameless and faceless. Both groups, however, share one tragic commonality: their demise was caused by the same killer. Bombing without discrimination is a murder without distinction.

Despite being warned of the risk of attempting to release the prisoners by force, Netanyahu opted to sacrifice the Israeli captives to eliminate a political burden that could be seen as an obstacle to achieve his “war goals.” Their disappearance⎯by a deal or death⎯would free Netanyahu’s hand and ease pressure from the public, who otherwise supports his war of genocide in Gaza.

Inarguably, there is an inherent interest for the Palestinian Resistance in protecting the life of the Israelis, simply to exchange them with Palestinian hostages held in Israeli jails. On the other hand, the Netanyahu coalition government has a political motive to reduce the value of Israeli prisoners in the hands of the Palestinian, and their death could be an option.

The Israeli public protesting in the streets today, individually and collectively, are responsible for nurturing Netanyahu’s unrealistic war objectives. The findings in a Pew Research poll conducted last March and April revealed that 67% of Israelis supported Netanyahu’s “war goals.” In fact, a staggering 86% believed Gazans should not have self-governance, not even the Palestinian Authority. Less than half of Israelis supported prisoner exchange, and 60% opposed halting the war for any such exchange.

In December, 2023, support for Netanyahu’s war goals was even higher, between 76 and 84 percent. It’s significant to mention that the support for the war among Israeli Jews mirrored that of Jewish Americans. In the U.S. 62% of American Jews approved the Israel’s war conduct, compared to 38% of the general American population.

These statistics reflect a broader issue of deep-seated Israeli Jewish dehumanization of Palestinians. A bigotry germinated in the political Zionist culture, where in the Israeli religious and cultural plurality most Jews perceive themselves to be more equal than non-Jews. Before anyone from the professional victim pack cries out October 7, this predominant attitude among Israeli Jews is neither an anomaly nor a new phenomenon.

In a polling eight years ago, 2016, an undisputed majority of Jewish Israelis (79%) believed that Jews are entitled to “preferential treatment” over non-Jews. When asked if Palestinians should be deported from their homes, the majority of Israelis agreed.

Imagine, the American Jewish leadership protestation if 40% (1/2 of the Israeli percentage) of white or Christian Americans supported a preference over the other. In the meantime, progressive Americans can ruminate on their reaction if a similar percentage of Americans favored expelling Native Americans from their homes.

Palestinians need not imagen, for this is what they face under the American financed Israeli Jewish apartheid.

It is this Israeli public mindset that drove Netanyahu and his racist ministers to take a chance to recover the Israeli prisoners by force, calculating that success would yield significant political rewards from the same public who is protesting today. In case of failure, the retrieval of bodies reduces the value of the exchange for the Palestinian Resistance. In other words, the Netanyahu coalition favors to play victim over dead Israelis rather than releasing Palestinian hostages from Israeli jails.

Currently, there are approximately 97 Israeli captives held in Gaza, with 33 confirmed dead, most due to Israel’s indiscriminate bombings. Additionally, Netanyahu has “successfully” recovered the bodies of 37 dead settlers in the past eleven months. In spite of this blunder, Netanyahu capitalized on the innate anti-Palestinian Israeli Jewish bigotry to maintain strong support among Israelis, and American Jews for the war of genocide in Gaza.

This time, however, the same public who supported Netanyahu’s “war goals,” amassed in the streets of Tel Aviv blaming him for choosing to save his government coalition at the expense of Israeli prisoners. Even U.S. President Joe Biden broke his public silence blaming Netanyahu for not doing enough to reach a deal.

Biden’s latest remarks contradicted his own government officials who falsely absolved the Israeli prime minister regarding the ceasefire negotiation. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken claimed Netanyahu had accepted the so called “bridging proposal,” while CIA Deputy Director, David Cohen blamed the Palestinian Resistance for the breakdown in ceasefire talks.

To contextualize the extent of the influence of the Israeli firsters within the Biden administration, consider recent developments in Israel. During last week’s Israeli cabinet meeting, the Minister of War stormed out accusing Netanyahu of endangering the lives of Israeli prisoners. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Israelis filled the streets protesting Netanyahu’s mercurial position on the ceasefire plan. This is while American officials and Israeli firsters, Sayanim, including Zionists like Blinken and Cohen, lie blatantly about Netanyahu’s acceptance of a ceasefire plan when in reality he added 11th-hour demands derailing the plan that was already agreed to by Palestinians.

Western appeasement of Israel, based on the flawed belief that this would give them leverage over Israeli leaders, is rooted in a corrupt philosophy promoted by Israeli firsters, Sayanim. Israeli firsters in the West use their positions to sanctify Israeli Jewish life while they demonize the Palestinian life. In the media, the Sayanim excuse Israeli atrocities against Palestinians, and as government officials, they sanitize Israeli malevolency by forging government expert’s reports helping Israel escape accountability and avoid global scrutiny.

Surrounded by Sayanim, Joe Biden has been beguiled by Israeli firsters throughout his political career. This is one of the many reasons the “sanctified” 6 Israeli Jews count more than the life of the 41,000 “dehumanized” Palestinians.

The post Why Would Six Israelis Receive More Attention Than Tens of Thousands of Murdered Palestinians appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jamal Kanj.

Members of the National Defense and Security Council unanimously agreed to the extension, which puts off the junta’s often-delayed plans for multi-party national elections until next year.

Myanmar’s Constitution mandates that elections must be held within six months after a state of emergency is lifted.

The extension also gives the military broad extra-constitutional powers amid ongoing armed conflict by resistance forces battling the army in many parts of Myanmar. 

“It is necessary to restore peace and stability because of ongoing terrorist activities,” state-run media said of the extension, referring to the armed resistance.

The meeting in Naypyidaw was presided over by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who officially signed off on the extension as acting president. He added the title last week after the previous nominal head of state, Myint Swe, went on medical leave. 

Min Aung Hlaing has led the military junta as chairman of the State Administration Council – the junta’s formal name – since the February 2021 coup d’état.

The junta has repeatedly extended emergency rule since seizing power from the democratically elected government of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, who were arrested and subsequently jailed on what rights groups said were politically motivated charges.

“The Burma military regime’s extension of the state of emergency is at odds with the aspirations of the people of Burma, including their continued strong opposition to military rule,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

“We call on the regime to engage with all stakeholders to pursue a path toward a peaceful, representative, and democratic future for Burma,” he said. “The regime must end its violence against the people of Burma, release those unjustly detained, and allow in unhindered humanitarian access.”

Declining value of kyat

The military failed to hold elections in 2023 as its control of the country slipped. Opponents had dismissed the planned election as a sham because it appeared likely to exclude parties ousted from power by the coup.

In the meantime, experts say, junta mismanagement has decimated the economy, the value of the kyat has plummeted and foreign investors have fled the country. 

Currency traders on Wednesday reported a market exchange rate of 5,370 kyats per U.S. dollar in the commercial capital of Yangon – a record low.

A gold trader who requested anonymity for security reasons said that the rise in foreign exchange rates had also led to an increase in gold prices.

“As long as the price of foreign currency increases, the price of gold will continue to rise,” he said. “That’s how it is. It has increased dramatically and sharply … within the span of one or two days.”

The decline in the kyat’s value has led to rising commodity prices across the country. 

“Prices have tripled, with daily increases of 50 or even 100 kyats for some products,” a  housewife in Dagon Myothit (North) township in the Yangon region said.  “Prices are rising almost every day.”

When RFA contacted an official at the junta-run Central Bank to inquire about restoring the kyat’s record-low value, an official only responded that relevant officials were working to address the issue.

RFA was unable to reach junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun to ask about the declining currency rates. 

Translated by Aung Naing and Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

National security police in the city arrested five women and one man aged between 37 and 65, for suspected violations of Section 24 of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which deals with offenses related to "seditious intent," according to a statement on the government website.

The events of the spring and early summer of 1989 are still a hugely sensitive topic in China, where public discussion is heavily censored and public mourning for victims is banned. Tuesday's arrests suggest that similar political sensitivities are now being applied to Hong Kong.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang later confirmed to journalists that Chow, who is currently awaiting trial at the Tai Lam Centre for Women under a separate security law, was among the arrestees.

When asked to clarify whether it's now illegal under the Article 23 security legislation to mention the anniversary or the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, Tang claimed it wasn't, and that only mentions deemed to "incite hatred" of the authorities would be regarded as criminal.

However, neither he nor any of the journalists present at the briefing mentioned June 4, 1989, or the Tiananmen massacre by name, referring to it as "the sensitive date."

The police statement said the arrests were based on "seditious" social media posts.

"Police investigations revealed that a woman who is currently in custody, through the other five arrested persons, has been anonymously posting seditious posts on a social platform page since April 2024, taking advantage of a sensitive date that is approaching, with the intention of inciting hatred among the public against the Central Government, the [Hong Kong] Government and the Judiciary, and intending to incite netizens to organize or participate in illegal activities," the police statement said.

Police also searched the homes of the five people accused of helping Chow make the posts, which Tang said were posted to the Chow Hang-tung Club Facebook page.

"The general public must ... not be deceived by false and distorted content or even incited to take part in illegal activities and behaviors that could threaten national security," the police statement said.

Photos and memories

Since April, Chow's Facebook page has displayed a different set of photographs and memories relating to commemoration of the 1989 pro-democracy movement on Tiananmen Square and the subsequent crackdown by the People's Liberation Army on unarmed protesters and civilians, using machine guns and tanks, each day.

The arrests came after the latest post showed the "Goddess of Democracy" statue — a replica of the one seen on Tiananmen Square in 1989 — referring to its prominent display in 2010 outside the Times Square shopping mall, on several university campuses and at Victoria Park, where the now-banned candlelight vigils for the massacre victims were held for more than three decades.

"Dedicated to the students on hunger strike in the square and to the pro-democracy movement, the Goddess of Democracy is a symbol of the student protest movement," the post said. "Once upon a time, the Goddess of Democracy could be seen [in parks and universities], but today she has disappeared."

"Another goddess of democracy wearing a gas mask appeared in Hong Kong in 2019," the post said in a reference to the Lady Liberty effigy that came to symbolize the 2019 protest movement against the erosion of Hong Kong's rights and freedoms. 

"That has also disappeared," the post said, referring to a citywide crackdown on public dissent, including symbols and images of the protest movement, under the 2020 National Security Law.

Behind bars since September 2021, Chow faces a potential 10 years in jail if convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” in a trial that is expected to begin in late 2024. She has already served a 15-month jail term relating to the 2021 vigil.

The overseas-based Hong Kong Democracy Council said via its X account that the arrests are the first under the Article 23 legislation.

It said Chow's Facebook page has been "making daily posts about #June4 in HK down through the years since Apr 30” across 35 days, one for every year that has passed since the massacre.

"If HK national security police believe the posts to be "seditious," why've they waited a month to act?" the group wanted to know.

The hugely controversial Article 23 legislation prompted global protests and warnings of an extended crackdown from rights activists when it was passed on March 23.

Hong Kong lawmaker Paul Tse, who was among dozens of pro-government legislators who voted in favor of the Article 23 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, removed posts from his Facebook page for fear that comments he had posted there earlier could be used to prosecute him under the new law.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Edward Li for RFA Cantonese and Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin.

This assault was pivotal in three respects. First, it cemented hard core Zionism  including unrepentant violence at the core of the country. This is shown not only by the atrocities committed against their Arab neighbors.  It is shown in the attempt to sink the USS Liberty and kill all its US navy personnel. Second, it created the myth of Israeli military and intelligence superiority.  Third, it generated huge support for the Zionist state internationally. As they say, “Everybody loves a winner”,  and Israel was the undisputed winner in 1967.  Anti-Zionist sentiment in the US and international Jewish community, previously quite strong,  declined significantly. Western support for Israel increased dramatically. Due to effective propaganda, public support also increased.

The decades since then have seen a consistent Israeli refusal to compromise with the people whose land they took and whose livelihoods they control. Gaza has been under siege for decades and a concentration camp since 2007. The West Bank and Jerusalem are not much better with ever tightening restrictions, checkpoints and arrests.

The Al Aqsa Flood Operation

On 7 October 2023 it was the Israeli military that was shocked.  Hamas and other Palestinian resistance forces broke out of the concentration camp, seized Israeli military posts, entered Israeli towns and kibbutzes. They killed about 400 Israeli military and police and took about 250 military and civilians hostage. About 800 civilians died either from Hamas gunfire or Israeli tanks or Apache gunship helicopters. Hundreds of cars  containing both Palestinians and Israelis were demolished by the latter.

The Israeli assumptions of  military, intelligence and ethnic superiority were exploded that day. In  rage, Israeli military  and political officials vowed to avenge  the embarrassment and military setback. Ministry of Defense Yoav Galant said Palestinians were “human animals” and vowed to kill through military means and starvation. They vowed to “destroy Hamas” and immediately launched wave after wave of bombing attacks.  After about  a month of bombing, the Israeli military entered Gaza . They are still there.

Steeped in belief in Jewish supremacy, much of the Israeli public supports the ongoing massacre. Now, after six months of relentless attacks,  the belief in Israeli superiority has fallen apart. The Israeli military has not been able to “destroy” Hamas or weaken Palestinian resolve. On the contrary, support for Hamas and the other resistance forces has increased both in Gaza and the West Bank.  Israeli leaders thought they could easily conquer and “destroy” Hamas but they have not been able to do that despite billions in US and western supplied armaments.

Hamas and the other Palestinian militants have survived and still inflict significant losses on the Israeli military. Yesterday, four more Israeli soldiers were killed in Khan Younis.

Israel has destroyed United Nations schools and shelters, churches and mosques, universities and even hospitals. They have killed over 100 reporters and thousands of  health workers, ambulance drivers, doctors and university professors. The recent killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers was only exceptional because the victims were from the West. Israel has been committing atrocities like this against Palestinians for six months. .

1967 vs Today

As Israel’s international stature grew after the Six Day War, it is collapsing after the Six Month Siege and Massacre in Gaza.  In 1967 many American Jews embraced Israel. Now, rapidly growing numbers condemn Israel’s atrocities and want nothing to do with the country. They correctly perceive the difference between a state (Israel) and ideology (Zionism)  on the one hand, and a faith and ethnicity on the other. They are proud to wear T-shirts saying “Jewish Voice for Peace” and  “If Not Now”.

The Global Majority of nations are fervently opposed to Israel and what it is doing. The UN General Assembly has condemned the Zionist state and numerous countries have withdrawn their ambassadors.

Even western states closely allied with Israel, such as Canada, are changing their tune. Canada has suspended arms shipments to Israel and restored funding to UNRWA.

The International Court of Justice has recently ordered Israel to allow food and aid into Gaza. The Australian ICJ judge confirmed they have ordered Israel to suspend military operations in Gaza. If Israel refuses to comply, it will only increase the global condemnation.

As another sign of how much geopolitics are changing, Nicaragua has filed a case at the International Court of Justice charging Germany with complicity in Israel’s genocide.

The US Congress and Administration continues to support Israel’s genocide but is now shifting due to popular pressure, protests and demands. Even Democratic Party leader Nancy Pelosi is now urging Biden to cease arms shipments to Israel.

The Six Month Failure

Israel’s Six Month Failure has fueled the contradictions inherent in the state.  Political and religious contradictions are escalating with bigger and bigger demonstrations against Netanyahu and his refusal to end the war and bring home the hostages.  Demonstrations inside Israel are getting bigger and more volatile. Last Saturday, five protesters were purposely hit by a car.

We have passed the tipping point.  The unrelenting slaughter of Palestinian civilians over the past six months has forever changed the perception of  Israel in the West.

Israel is now widely seen internationally as a “bad guy” similar to how the US was seen in the late 60’s in Vietnam. Just as the Tet Offensive cost the lives of tens of thousands of Vietnamese but was a crucial turning point, the October 7 Al Aqsa Flood operation marks a crucial turning point for Palestine.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Rick Sterling.

Search and rescue teams have recovered the bodies of two men from the Patapsco River following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, but four others remain missing and are presumed dead. All six victims were immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, part of a road crew that was filling potholes on the bridge when a cargo ship ran into one of the bridge supports, causing the entire structure to drop into the water. “The construction workers are absolutely essential,” says Gustavo Torres, executive director of the immigrant rights group CASA, which counted two of the victims as members. “Immigrants face higher injury and death rates … than nonimmigrants, and they are significantly less likely to have insurance.” He says the disaster has highlighted the difficult, often dangerous work done by immigrants in communities across the United States, and calls on political leaders to stop dehumanizing rhetoric. “What we need right now is comprehensive immigration reform. We don’t need more attacks against the immigrant community.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Six people are missing and presumed dead after a 984-foot cargo ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing the bridge’s collapse early Tuesday morning. All six have been identified as immigrant construction workers originally hailing from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Maryland Governor Wes Moore said the crew on the ship was able to issue an emergency mayday call before colliding with the bridge, which allowed authorities to stop incoming traffic and prevent more casualties. However, reports say the workers already on the bridge were not given similar warnings. “The question we should be asking about is why the folks on that bridge … had no direct line to emergency dispatch when they are clearly working in a potentially hazardous environment,” says journalist Maximillian Alvarez, the editor-in-chief of the Baltimore-based organization The Real News Network, who has been closely following the story and how it has affected immigrant and working-class communities. “What does this story actually show us? That immigrants are filling our potholes at night so that we can have a smooth drive to work in the morning,” Alvarez says. “I hope people can see this and see the humanity in us.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

• Baltimore bridge collapses after collision with cargo ship, six people missing.
• Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. picks California attorney Nicole Shanahan as Presidential running mate.
• UK court denies U.S. extradition request for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange without assurances of no death penalty.
• President Biden and Vice-President Harris make healthcare themed campaign stop in North Carolina.
• Russia extends detention of American journalist until at least June.
• SCOTUS considers case limiting abortion pill access. 

The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – March 26, 2024 Baltimore bridge collapses after collision with cargo ship, six people missing. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

In Mississippi, six former sheriff’s deputies have been sentenced to between 10 and 40 years in prison for raiding a home and torturing, shooting and sexually abusing two Black men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, in January 2023. The six former deputies, all of whom are white, called themselves the “Goon Squad” and have been linked to at least four violent attacks on Black men since 2019. Two of the men attacked and tortured by the group subsequently died. To discuss the case and the verdict, we’re joined by Eddie Parker and attorneys Malik Shabazz and Trent Walker. “Never have we seen this many police officers sentenced to this kind of time in one week,” says Shabazz, who calls the verdict “historic.” Jenkins, Parker and Shabazz are currently suing the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department over its track record of civil rights violations and racist targeting of Black residents.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Image by Sean Foster.

In 2004 author George Farah exposed the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) as a creation in 1987 of the Republican and Democratic Parties to take control away from the “uppity” League of Women Voters (LWV). The League had been the sponsor of presidential debates every four years.

Farah’s book was titled No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates. Unless voters organize their own debates (about which more later), there may be no presidential debates this year. There won’t be 50 to 100 million viewers watching the debates, as there were in prior presidential election contests.

This year of no debate started last April when the Republican National Committee (RNC) unanimously voted to leave the CPD. Under pressure from Donald J. Trump, who thinks all debates involving him are stacked against him, the RNC explained that they are quitting by alleging that the CPD is biased.

Sure, the CPD is very biased against Third Party candidates, which it has managed to exclude since 1988, despite national polls that show voters want more voices and choices on the debate stage. For example, in 2000, over 60% in a Fox Poll wanted Pat Buchanan and me in the Debates.

Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the RNC, declared on the day of withdrawal that the RNC is “…going to find newer, better debate platforms to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through the biased CPD in order to make their case to the American people.” Because Trump doesn’t want debates, she has done nothing since April.

Across the aisle, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) endorsed Joe Biden last April and, according to the Washington Post, “has no plans to sponsor primary debates.” Presently, there are only two competing Democratic candidates Marianne Williamson, a well-known self-help author/lecturer, and Dean Phillips, a three-term Democratic Congressman from Minnesota. The DNC wants no debates with these two challengers during the primary season and neither does President Joe Biden.

“It’s just against democratic principle. Those of us who are running should be heard, …it’s what the people deserve,” Ms. Williamson told the Washington Post.

So, what are the voters to do? The answer is clear. There are major cities in the half-dozen swing states that will probably decide the 2024 November election. Just about every organized group in these cities – Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Phoenix and Las Vegas – would want a Presidential debate in their city. This is true for both red and blue states.

Bringing a presidential debate to one’s city brings national media coverage, with reporters, visitors and an outpouring of spending. There would be excited support from chambers of commerce, unions, citizen groups, schools, religious associations, good government organizations like the Urban Leagues, service clubs, City Hall and yes, the League of Women Voters.

Invitations sent to the nominees after their conventions would be very difficult to reject. It would be an insult to the people’s pride in each state.

Unlike the one-shoe-fits-all model of the CPD, this proposal would provide a greater variety of debate formats and reflect national issues by the moderators but also regional issues which were never discussed when the RNC and DNC were in charge. Different ideas on how to involve the public would be put into practice as well.

The proverbial named “empty seat” for no-show candidates would be visible to millions of TV viewers if an invited candidate declined to participate. All that is needed to make these debates happen is for the Mayor and City Council in each city to establish a representative host Committee to organize the details of when, where and how these debates are to be planned.

I’m sending this very realizable proposal to the mayors of the aforementioned cities and suggest that local radio and TV talk shows and newspapers interview local officials and the candidates about this idea. Readers of this column can choose to weigh in with their special enthusiasms.

It is about time that presidential candidates be confronted with some grassroots initiatives instead of having their two or three debate locations and topics chosen by the major political party operatives in Washington, DC.

The 2024 presidential election is not generating excitement. There are reports of more voters staying home than usual. The RNC and DNC, with their stubborn no debates policy, are assuring a lower turnout.

Presidential debates with huge watching and listening audiences boost voter turnout, affording many voters their only observation of the candidates interacting with one another in a non-scripted manner.

Go for it, Mayors and city councils! Crank up the engines for these local initiatives. The debate discussions and local engagement have beneficial ripple effects for our democracy.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Ralph Nader.

"We will, in the months to come, have to accelerate the scale of our support," Macron said in a speech on January 30 during a visit to Sweden. The "costs...of a Russian victory are too high for all of us."

EU leaders will meet in Brussels on February 1 for a meeting of the European Council, where they will discuss aid to Ukraine as the war approaches its second anniversary.

Ukraine continues to hold off large-scale Russian grounds attacks in the east but has struggled to intercept many of the deadly missiles Moscow fires at its cities on a regular basis.

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched nearly 1,000 missiles and drones at Ukraine since the start of the year as Kyiv maintained a missile-threat alert for several regions on January 30, hours after Russian strikes killed at least three civilians.

"Russia has launched over 330 missiles of various types and approximately 600 combat drones at Ukrainian cities since the beginning of the year," Zelenskiy said on X, formerly Twitter.

"To withstand such terrorist pressure, a sufficiently strong air shield is required. And this is the type of air shield we are building with our partners," he wrote.

"Air defense and electronic warfare are our top priorities. Russian terror must be defeated -- this is achievable."

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

A man was killed and his wife was wounded in the Russian shelling early on January 30 in the village of Veletenske in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, the regional prosecutor's office reported.

U.S. lawmakers have been debating for months a supplementary spending bill that includes $61 billion in aid to Ukraine. The aid would allow Ukraine to obtain a variety of U.S. weapons and armaments, including air-defense systems. The $61 billion -- if approved -- would likely cover Ukraine's needs through early 2025, experts have said.

Separately, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said that Russian forces had fired 272 shells at Kherson from across the Dnieper River.

In the eastern region of Donetsk, one civilian was killed and another one was wounded by the Russian bombardment of the settlement of Myrnohrad, Vadym Filashin, the governor of the Ukrainian-controlled part of the region, said on January 30.

Also in Donetsk, in the industrial city of Avdiyivka, Russian shells struck a private house, killing a 47-year-old woman, Filashkin said on Telegram.

Russian forces have been trying to capture Adviyivka for the past several weeks in one of the bloodiest battles of the war triggered by Moscow's unprovoked invasion in February 2022.

Indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas has turned most of Avdiyivka into rubble.

Earlier on January 30, Ukrainian air defenses shot down 15 out of 35 drones launched by Russia, the military said.

The Russian drones targeted the Mykolayiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

Russian forces also launched 10 S-300 anti-aircraft missiles at civilian infrastructure in the Donetsk and Kherson regions, the military said, adding that there dead and wounded among the civilian population.

The Ukrainian Air Force later said that the Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhya regions remained under a heightened level of alert due to the danger of more missile strikes.

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses had destroyed or intercepted 21 Ukrainian drones over the Moscow-occupied Crimean Peninsula and several Russian regions.

On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces fought 70 close-quarters battles along the entire front line, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said in its daily report early on January 30. Ukrainian defenders repelled repeated Russian attacks in eight hot spots in the east, the military said.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on January 29 warned that Ukraine's gains over two years of fighting invading Russian troops were all in doubt without new U.S. funding, as NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg visited to lobby Congress.

WATCH: In February 2022, Ukrainian Army medic Yuriy Armash was trying to reach his unit as the Russian invasion was advancing fast. He was caught in Kherson, tortured, and held for months. While in captivity, he used his medical training to treat other Ukrainian prisoners. Some say he saved their lives.

Tens of billions of dollars in aid has been sent to Ukraine since the invasion in February 2022, but Republican lawmakers have grown reluctant to keep supporting Kyiv, saying it lacks a clear end game as the fighting against President Vladimir Putin's forces grinds on.

Blinken offered an increasingly dire picture of Ukraine's prospects without U.S. approval of the so-called supplemental funding amid reports that some progress was being made on the matter late on January 29.

In Brussels, European Union leaders will restate their determination to continue to provide "timely, predictable, and sustainable military support" to Ukraine at a summit on February 1, according to draft conclusions of the meeting.

"The European Council also reiterates the urgent need to accelerate the delivery of ammunition and missiles," the draft text, seen by Reuters, also says.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Four of the arrested residents, all men, were part of a group of about 20 protesters from Xang village in northern Laos’ Xieng Khouang province, who gathered on Tuesday morning to rally against their land being given to a wood processing company, a protester who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA Lao.

They were arrested on the second day of the protest.

When two women, members of the village’s Women’s Union, went to visit the arrested men and bring them food, they too were arrested, he said.

Sketchy title

The land grab is illegal because the Phengxay Import-Export Company bribed corrupt officials to make a fake land title on their land, the protester said.

A resident of the village told RFA that the land had been a part of the village for generations and had become a historical and cultural site for the community.

In a video clip published on social media, one of the protesters explained the situation.

“Right now, nobody can help us. Earlier, we relied on the district authorities to help us, but they wouldn’t,” he said. “Therefore, we gathered together today to call on other authorities to enforce the law, respect our rights, and to help us, who have been taken advantage of by this company.”

These protesters explained that the Phengxay Import-Export Company leased about one hectare (2.47 acres) of land, then built a wood processing factory on it for use in a ten-year lease between 2008 and 2018. 

They extended the lease for five years from 2018 to 2023, meaning the lease has expired as of August 2023.

Later last year, the villagers wrote a letter to the Khoun District authorities asking for the land back. 

It was then that they learned that the company possessed a land title issued by the district authorities. 

Crowd dispersed

A witness to the arrest explained what he saw, saying, “The protest stopped after the police took away some protesters, which included members of the village authority,” he said. “I don’t know exactly how many and where they took those protesters to.”

A Xieng Khouang province official declined to discuss the protest or the arrests, only saying that the relevant officials were meeting to try to solve the conflict.

When RFA contacted a member of the Xieng Khouang Inspection Authority, that person said that the relevant officials were in a meeting discussing this matter at that time, and requested a call back in one day for more information. 

Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

Hassan’s release was a moment of pure joy which we share with you in the videos below. Sadly, the joy did not last long. The French prosecutor appealed the release decision for political reasons and Hassan remains under the threat of being extradited once again to France for a crime he did not commit.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must honour his words on June 20, 2018, when he acknowledged that “this is something that obviously was an extremely difficult situation to go through for himself [Hassan], for his family” and promised to “make sure that it never happens again”.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Hassan Diab Support Committee.

U.S. and British forces have hit Iran-backed Huthi rebel military targets in Yemen -- -- an action immediately condemned by Tehran -- sparking fears around the world of a growing conflict in the Middle East as fighting rages in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the move was meant to show that the United States and its allies “will not tolerate” the Iran-backed rebel group’s increasing number of attacks in the Red Sea, which have threatened freedom of navigation and endangered U.S. personnel and civilian navigation.

The rebels said that the air strikes, which occurred in an area already shaken by Israel's war with Hamas, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, totaled 73 and killed at least five people.

"Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces -- together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands -- successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Huthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways," Biden said in a statement.

“These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Huthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea -- including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history,” Biden said of the international mission that also involved Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden approved the strikes after a Huthi attack on January 9. U.S. and British naval forces repelled that attack, shooting down drones and missiles fired by the Huthis from Yemen toward the southern Red Sea.

Kirby said the United States does not want war with Yemen or a conflict of any kind but will not hesitate to take further action.

"Everything the president has been doing has been trying to prevent any escalation of conflict, including the strikes last night," he said.

The UN Security Council called an emergency meeting for later on January 12 over the strikes. The session was requested by Russia and will take place after a meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza.

Huthi rebels have stepped up attacks on vessels in the Red Sea since Israel launched its war on Hamas over the group's surprise cross-border attack on October 7 that killed some 1,200 Israelis and saw dozens more taken hostage.

The Huthis have claimed their targeting of navigation in the Red Sea is meant to show the group's support for the Palestinians and Hamas.

Thousands of the rebels held protests in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, where they chanted “We aren’t discouraged. Let it be a major world war!”

The White House said Huthi acts of piracy have affected more than 50 countries and forced more than 2,000 ships to make detours of thousands of kilometers to avoid the Red Sea. It said crews from more than 20 countries were either taken hostage or threatened by Huthi piracy.

Kirby said a "battle damage assessment" to determine how much the Huthi capabilities had been degraded was ongoing.

Britain said sites including airfields had been hit. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is still hospitalized following complications from prostate cancer surgery, said earlier the strikes were aimed at Huthi drones, ballistic, and cruise missiles, as well as coastal radar and air surveillance capabilities.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the strikes were "necessary and proportionate."

"Despite the repeated warnings from the international community, the Huthis have continued to carry out attacks in the Red Sea," Sunak said in a statement.

Iran immediately condemned the attacks saying they would bring further turbulence to the Middle East.

"We strongly condemn the military attacks carried out this morning by the United States and the United Kingdom on several cities in Yemen," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kannani said in a post on Telegram.

"These arbitrary actions are a clear violation of Yemen's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a violation of international laws and regulations. These attacks will only contribute to insecurity and instability in the region," he added.

A Huthi spokesman said the attacks were unjustified and the rebels will keep targeting ships heading toward Israel.

The Huthis, whose slogan is "Death to America, Death to Israel, curse the Jews and victory to Islam," are part of what has been described as the Iran-backed axis of resistance that also includes anti-Israel and anti-Western militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Huthi rebels have fought Yemen's government for decades. In 2014, they took the capital, Sanaa.

While Iran has supplied them with weapons and aid, the Huthis say they are not Tehran's puppets and their main goal is to topple Yemen's "corrupt" leadership.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

In his short time in office, Kennedy changed US foreign policy in significant ways. As documented in the book JFK and the Unspeakable: Why he died and why it still matters, JFK resisted the CIA and military industrial complex in the policies he set regarding the Third World and Soviet Union. The Vietnam War, assassination of Indonesia’s President Sukarno, and continued hostility to Cuba and the Soviet Union would not have happened had Kennedy lived and won a second term.

Less well known, Kennedy’s policies also challenged and opposed the military and political ambitions of  Zionist Israel. At the time, Israel had only existed for thirteen years. It was still evolving and the course was not totally set. There was significant international resolve to find a compromise solution regarding Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Nakba. When Israel attacked Egypt and seized the Sinai peninsula in 1956, the Eisenhower administration demanded Israel withdraw from the captured territory.  They complied.

At this time, in the early 1960’s,  prominent Jewish voices criticized the racism and discrimination of the Israeli government. Israelis like Martin Buber assailed Ben-Gurion and noted that “At the inception of the state, complete equality with the Jewish citizens was promised to the Arab population.” Many influential Israelis realized their long term security and well-being depended on finding a just settlement with the indigenous Palestinian population.

In the United States, the Jewish community was divided and many were anti-Zionist. The American Council for Judaism was influential and anti-nationalist. The racist and militaristic character of Israel was not yet set in stone. Nor was American Jewish support for Israel. When Menachim Begin came to the United States in 1948 he was denounced by prominent Jewish leaders including Albert Einstein. They said Begin, who later became Israeli Prime Minister, was a “terrorist”  who preached  “an admixture of ultra-nationalism, religious mysticism and racial superiority.” Many American Jews had mixed feelings and did not  identify with Israel. Others supported Israel but on the basis of there being peace with the indigenous Palestinians.

There are four key areas where the Kennedy policy was substantially different from what followed after his death.

Kennedy was not biased in favor of Israel 

The Kennedy administration sought good relations with both Israel and the Arab nations.  Kennedy aimed to extend US influence throughout the Middle East, including with nations friendly with the Soviet Union and at odds with NATO partners.

JFK personally supported Arab and African nationalism. As a senator in 1957, he criticized the Eisenhower administration for supporting and sending weapons to France in their war against the Algerian independence movement. In a 9,000 word presentation to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he criticized “western imperialism” and called for the US to support Algerian independence. Algerian President Ben Bella, who France had tried to assassinate and considered far too radical by many in NATO, was given a huge and impressive welcome to the White House.

Kennedy changed the previous frosty relations with the United Arab Republic (Egypt and Syria) led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. For the first time, the US approved loans to them. Kennedy wrote respectful letters to the Arab presidents before he welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion to Washington.  The Arab leaders could see the difference and responded with appreciation. Those who claim there was no difference with Kennedy ignore the fact that Egypt’s Nasser, Algeria’s Ben Bella and other nationalist leaders saw a big difference.

In 1960, when Kennedy was campaigning for the presidency, he spoke at the Zionists of America Convention. He made complimentary remarks about Israel but also expressed the need for friendship with all the people of the Middle East. He said the US should “act promptly and decisively against any nation in the Middle East which attacks its neighbor” and “The Middle East needs water, not war; tractors, not tanks; bread, not bombs.”

Kennedy frankly told the Zionists, “I cannot believe that Israel has any real desire to remain indefinitely a garrison state surrounded by fear and hate.”  By maintaining objectivity and neutrality on the Israeli Arab conflict, Kennedy wanted to steer the  Jewish Zionists away from the racist, militaristic and ultra-nationalistic impulses which have led to where we are today.

Kennedy wanted the Zionist Lobby to follow the rules

The second difference in Kennedy’s policy is regarding Zionist lobbying on behalf of Israel. Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), organizations that promote or  lobby on behalf of a foreign government are required to register and account for their finances and activities. Under Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the Department of Justice (DOJ)  instructed the American Zionist Council (AZC) to register as agents of a foreign country. AZC is the parent organization of the American Israel Public Affairs Council (AIPAC).

As documented in detail here, on 21 November 1962,  the Assistant Attorney General wrote to them “the receipt of such funds from the American sections of the Jewish Agency for Israel constitutes the (American Zionist) Council an agent of a foreign principal…. the Council’s registration is requested.”

The emergence of Israeli  political influence was also scrutinized in the Senate. Under Senator William Fulbright, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings in May and August 1963. They revealed that tax free donations to the United Jewish Appeal, supposedly for humanitarian relief in Israel, were being channeled back to the US where the money was used for lobbying and Israeli public relations.

Attorneys for AZC stalled for time. On August 16, 1963, a DOJ  analyst reviewed the case and concluded, “Department should insist on the immediate registration of the American Zionist Council under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.”

On October 11  the DOJ demanded that AZC register and  “Department expects a response from you within 72 hours.”

On October 17, a DOJ memorandum  reports that attorneys for AZC pleaded for not being required to register as foreign agents. They offered to provide the required financial disclosures but that registering as a foreign agent “would be so publicized by the American Council on Judaism that it would eventually destroy the Zionist movement.”  As indicated in this discussion, political zionism was not yet dominant in the American Jewish community and was actively opposed by the American Council on Judaism.and other Jewish groups.

Kennedy supported Palestinian Rights

A third difference is regarding Palestinian rights. Although he was only 44 when he became president, Kennedy had more international experience than most US presidents. In 1939 he spent two weeks in Palestine. In a lengthy letter to his father, he described the situation and difficulties. He wrote, “The sympathy of the people on the spot seems to be with the Arabs. This is not only because the Jews have had, at least some of their leaders, an unfortunately arrogant, uncompromising attitude, but they feel that after all, the country has been Arabic for the last few hundred years …. Palestine was hardly Britain’s to give away.”

In comments that are still true, Kennedy remarks how the Jewish residents are divided between “strongly Orthodox Jewish group, unwilling to make any compromise” and a “liberal Jewish element composed of the younger group who fear these reactionaries”.  His analysis is sympathetic to both Jewish and Arab peoples and addresses the difficulty but necessity to find a compromise solution.

In the early 1960’s, the US State Department was not locked into a biased acceptance or approval of Israeli policies. The US supported UN Resolution 194  resolving (in paragraph 11) that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”  This has become known as the “right of return”.

On November 21, 1963, the day before Kennedy’s assassination, the New York Times has two news stories which exemplify the discord  between Washington and Tel Aviv.  A report from the United Nations is titled “Israel Dissents as U.N. Group Backs U.S. on Arab Refugees”.   It begins, “A United States resolution calling for continued efforts to resolve the predicament of the Palestinian Arab refugees was approved tonight 83 to 1… Israel cast the single negative vote….The issue centers on a 1948 resolution whose key section, paragraph 11, concerns the future of the Arabs who were displaced from their homes by the Palestine conflict. They have been living in the lands bordering Israel …. The revised United States text calls on the Palestine Conciliation Commission to ‘continue its efforts for the implementation of Paragraph 11’.”

The second NYT story is titled “U.S. Stand Angers Israel”. It reports from Jerusalem that “Premier Levi Eshkol expressed extreme distaste today for the United States’ position in the Palestine refugee debate….Israel’s anger was conveyed ‘in the strongest terms’ to the US Ambassador …. The Israeli Government is upset about the American resolution before the UN Political Committee and by American maneuvers over the issue.” Israel was angered and objecting because the Kennedy administration was trying to resolve the Palestinian refugee situation including the right of return.

Kennedy tried to stop the Israeli nuclear weapons program

The fourth and biggest contention between Kennedy and the Israeli leadership was regarding their developing nuclear weapons. This issue was kept so secret that crucial documents and letters have only been released in recent years.

President Kennedy was a strong advocate for stopping nuclear proliferation.  After the 1962 Cuba missile crisis,  he realized how easy it would be to intentionally or accidentally trigger a catastrophic nuclear war. If nuclear weapons were allowed to spread to more countries, the risks of global catastrophe would be all the greater. It was also predicted that if Israel acquired nuclear weapons capability, they would become more aggressive and less likely to reach  a compromise agreement regarding Palestinian refugees.

When intelligence indicated that Israel might be trying to build a nuclear weapon at Dimona in 1962, Kennedy was determined to find out if this was true, and if so to stop it. This caused an intense diplomatic confrontation between JFK and Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.  The proof of this has recently been revealed in the exchange of letters between President Kennedy and  Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and his successor Levy Eshkol.  They are all labeled “Top Secret” or “Eyes Only”.

It is important to see the sequence and some details to understand how intense this showdown was. These communications are all from 1963. (Note to reader: skip ahead to the next section if you become tired of the detail in the following exchanges.)

In March  the US State Department instructed the US Ambassador to inform the government of Israel (GOI) that for “compelling reasons” the “USG seeks GOI assent to semi-annual repeat semi-annual visits to Dimona, perhaps May and November, with full access to all parts and instruments in the facility, by qualified US scientists.” (underline added)

On April 19 the State Department instructed the US Ambassador to Israel to “press” for an “affirmative reply” to the earlier request for semi-annual inspections of Dimona.

On April 26, Israeli PM Ben Gurion replied to President Kennedy.  He evaded the issue of nuclear facility inspections and instead expressed his concern regarding a recent proclamation from Egypt, Syria and Iraq. He compared Egyptian President Nasser to Germany’s Hitler.

On May 4  JFK responded to Ben Gurion’s concerns and underscored the US commitment to Israel and peace in the Middle East. He told the Israeli leader he is much less worried about an “early Arab attack”  than the “successful development of advanced offensive systems”.

On May 8  a Special National Intelligence Estimate concluded, “Israel intends at least to put itself in a position to be able to produce a limited number of weapons” and that “unless deterred by outside pressure [the Israelis] will attempt to produce a weapon sometime in the next several years.”  The analysis predicted that if Israelis had the bomb it would “encourage them to be bolder in their use of the conventional resources both diplomatic and military in their confrontation with the Arabs.”

On May 10  US State Department sent an “Eyes Only Ambassador” telegram to the US Ambassador to Israel. The ambassador was instructed to remind the Israeli leadership that they have previously agreed to the bi-annual inspections. The telegram also says Israeli concerns about Arab development of a nuclear bomb “are not valid” because there is nothing comparable to the “advanced Israeli program.”

The tensions between the Kennedy administration and Tel Aviv caused the Israel lobby to escalate pressure on the White House. This is revealed in a May 11 TOP SECRET State Department memo regarding “White House Concern with Arab-Israeli Matters”.  It begins, “In recent weeks, as you are aware, it has become increasingly clear that the White House is under steadily mounting domestic political pressure to adopt a foreign policy in the Near East more consonant with Israeli desires. The Israelis are determined to use the period between now and the 1964 Presidential election to secure a closer, more public security relationship with the Unites States, notably through a public security guarantee and a cooler, more antagonistic relationship beween the United States and the UAR [United Arab Republic].”  This is a highly interesting memo showing Israeli influence in US foreign policy and electoral politics. It further shows Kennedy’s effort to mitigate this influence while standing firm on the goal to stop nuclear proliferation.

On May 12, 1963 Ben Gurion wrote another long letter to President Kennedy.  Again evading the US request, Ben Gurion gives a distorted history including the claim that Palestinian refugees left Palestine “at the demand of Arab leaders” . He again compares Nasser to Hitler and suggests the danger of a new Holocaust.  He says, “Mr, President, my people have the right to exist … and this existence is in danger.”

On May 19 Kennedy responded to Ben Gurion emphasizing the importance he placed on not allowing the spread of nuclear weapons. “We are concerned with the disturbing effects on world stability which would accompany the development of a nuclear weapons capability by Israel.”  Kennedy underscores the “deep commitment to the security of Israel” but says the commitment and support “would be seriously jeopardized” if the US is unable to obtain reliable information about “Israel’s efforts in the nuclear field.”

On May 27 Ben Gurion responded to Kennedy saying that the nuclear reactor at Dimona “will be devoted exclusively to peaceful purposes”. He counters Kennedy’s request for bi-annual visits starting in June  by suggesting annual visits “such as have already taken place” starting at the end of the year. The condition is significant because the previous “visit” to Dimona was restricted in time and space.

On June 15 Kennedy wrote to Ben Gurion after he had  received a scientific evaluation of the minimum requirements for a nuclear site inspection, After welcoming Ben Gurion’s assurances that Dimona will only be devoted to peaceful purposes, Kennedy issued a polite ultimatum. “If Israel’s purposes are to be clear to world beyond reasonable doubt, I believe the schedule which would best serve our common purpose would be a visit early this summer, another visit in June 1964, thereafter at intervals of six months.”  He specifies that the “visit” must include access to all areas and “sufficient time be allotted for thorough examination.”

On June 16,  the US Embassy in Israel reported that Ben Gurion resigned as Israel’s Prime Minister. This was a huge surprise; the explanation was that it was for “personal reasons”. It is likely that Ben-Gurion knew the contents of the forthcoming letter from Washington (received at the embassy the day before). The impact of his resignation was to stall for time. US Ambassador Barbour suggested waiting until the “cabinet problem is worked out” before sending JFK’s near ultimatum to the next Prime Minister.

Kennedy did not wait long. On July 4, he wrote to new Israeli Prime Minister Levy Eshkol. After congratulating Eshkol on becoming new Prime Minister, he goes straight to the point “concerning American visits to Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona.” Kennedy says, “I regret having to add to your burdens to soon after your assumption of  office, but …” He then goes on to request inspections as was requested in the letter to Ben-Gurion and that “support of Israel could be seriously jeopardized” if this is not done.

On July 17, Eshkol wrote to Kennedy that he needed to study the issue more before responding to Kennedy’s request for visits to Dimona.  US Ambassador Barbour added that Eshkol verbally conveyed that he was “surprised” at Kennedy’s statement that US commitment to Israel might be jeopardized. Indicating Israeli defiance, Eshkol told the US Ambassador “Israel would do what it had to do for its national security and to safeguard its sovereign rights.”

On August 19, Eshkol wrote to Kennedy re-iterating the “peaceful purpose” of Dimona and ignoring the request for a summer inspection.  He proposed the inspection take place “toward the end of 1963”.

On August 26 Kennedy wrote to Eshkol accepting the visit at year end but emphasizing it needs to be done “when the reactor’s core is being loaded and before internal radiation hazards have developed.”  Kennedy set these conditions because they were essential for determining whether the facility could be used for developing a nuclear weapon.

On September 16 State Department prepared a Memorandum of Conversation with a counselor from the British Embassy. There was joint concern but agreement that Dimona would be visited and inspected “prior to the activation of the reactor.”

After the Assassination of JFK on November 22

After Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) became president, US mideast policy changed significantly. From the start, LBJ told  an Israeli diplomat, “You have lost a very great friend. But you have found a better one.”   The Israeli publication Haaretz says, “Historians generally regard Johnson as the president most uniformly friendly to Israel.” The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs writes “Lyndon Johnson Was First to Align U.S. Policy with Israel’s Policies” and “Up to Johnson’s presidency, no administration had been as completely pro-Israel and anti-Arab as his.”

On the crucial issue of  Dimona inspection, the Israelis ignored JFK’s condition and the reactor went critical on December 26. When the inspection occurred three weeks later, they could not inspect the areas that had been irradiated.  A handwritten comment on the report says, “We were supposed to see this first!”  We do not know what would have happened it JFK had been in the White House but given the intensity of his effort, and deep convictions regarding the dangers of nuclear proliferation, it would not have been ignored as it was under LBJ.

Under LBJ, relations with Egypt deteriorated. The US stopped providing direct assistance loans and grants to Egypt. The US became increasingly antagonistic to President Nasser, as desired by the Israel lobby.

US support for a resolution to the Palestinian refugee issue decreased and then stopped.

The Department of Justice efforts to require the American Zionist Council to register as foreign agents became increasingly weak until they were dropped under LBJ’s new Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach. The sequence of exchanges includes:

On December 11, 1963, the AZC attorney wrote to the DOJ saying, “Our client is not prepared to register as an agent of a foreign government.” Instead, he proposed to provide “voluntarily” the required financial information.

In January and February 1964, there were more exchange between AZC and the DOJ. AZC expressed concern because the American Council on Judaism publicly said that AZC was acting as “propaganda agents for the state of Israel and that the Jewish Agency was being used as a conduit  for funds for the Zionist organization in the United States.”

In summer 1964 Nicholas Katzenbach becomes Attorney General.  Negotiations continued. DOJ staff noted that AZC was “stalling” and not providing acceptable information despite the increasingly special and favorable treatment. In spring of 1965 the DOJ accepted that AZC was NOT required to register as foreign agent. Their financial information was kept in a unique expandable folder. In November 1967 the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) applied for a federal tax exemption. The US Treasury Department granted it, backdated to 1953.

 Increasingly aggressive and uncompromisingZionist Israel

The successful development of nuclear weapons  added to Israel’s aggressive actions and unwillingness to resolve the Palestinian refugee crisis.

With intelligence information provided by Washington, Israel made a surprise attack on Egypt, Syria and Jordan in June 1967. The “Six Day war” was a crucial turning point in Middle East history. Israel quickly defeated the unprepared combined armies.  In the West, public perception of Israel changed overnight. The  mythology of Israeli military (and general) superiority was created. Among the American Jewish population, doubts and concerns about Israel evaporated and support skyrocketed.

Israeli leaders arrogance and deceit is exemplified by the attack on the USS Liberty during the Six Day War. The communications navy vessel was monitoring the air waves in the eastern Mediterranean when it was attacked by Israeli aircraft and boats. Thirty four US sailors were killed and 172 injured. Amazingly, the ship managed to stay afloat. The plan was evidently to sink the ship, blame it on Egypt and consolidate US support and hostility to Egypt and the Soviet Union.

Lyndon Johnson over-ruled the calls for help from the vessel, saying “I will not have my ally embarrassed.”

The deadly incident was covered up for decades.

We do not know for sure what might have happened had JFK not been assassinated. It is possible that Israel would have been stopped from acquiring the bomb.  Without that, they may not have had the audacity to launch the 1967 attacks on their neighbors, seizing the Golan, West Bank and Gaza Strip. If the Zionist lobby had been required to register as foreign agents, their influence would have been moderated. Perhaps Israel could have found a reasonable accommodation with Palestinians in one or two states.

Instead, Israel hardened into an apartheid regime committing increasingly outrageous massacres. As Kennedy warned in 1960, Israel has become a “garrison state” surrounded by “hate and fear”.  The assassination of John F Kennedy ensured Zionist control of Israel, suffering for Palestinians and permanent instability.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Rick Sterling.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Visualizing Palestine.

The security investigation agency of the Dak Lak provincial police has issued a special warrant for the six, who are charged with terrorism under Article 299 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. 

In the early hours of June 11, two groups of about 40 people armed with guns and knives conducted the attacks in Ea Tieu and Ea Ktur communes of Cu Kuin district, killing four policemen, two commune officials and three villagers. 

Authorities detained nearly 100 ethnic minorities for allegedly participating in terrorist attacks in the areas, home to about 30 indigenous tribes known collectively as Montagnards, who have a long history of conflict with and discrimination at the hands of the Vietnamese majority. They are sometimes referred to as “Dega.” 

So far, Dak Lak provincial police have charged or prosecuted 96 people on various offenses related to the attacks and have expanded their investigations, state media reported. 

Montagnard groups have denied that they were involved in the attacks.

Among the six wanted individuals is Y Quynh Bdap, co-founder of Montagnards Stand for Justice, or MSFJ, an organization that advocates for the religious freedom of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands.

The remaining five are Y Chanh Bya, 40; Ipen Eban, 39; Y Nien Eya, 45 years old – all from Cu Jut district in Dak Nong province; and Y Chik Nie, 55, from Krong Pak district, and Y Mum Mlo, 63, from Krong Buk district in Dak Lak province.

Y Quynh Bdap, who fled to Thailand as a political refugee in 2008 and is still there, said Dak Lak police, who issued a special warrant for his arrest on Aug. 14, are using the attacks to accuse members of the MSFJ of being terrorists. 

However, a wanted list posted on the Ministry of Public Security’s website does not include his name, he said. 

Denial

Y Quynh Bdap denied the accusations of involvement with individuals or organizations that advocate violence to resolve issues of ethnicity, religion, and land in the Central Highlands, as reported by state media over the past months.

“The authorities are using the incident to slander and accuse us of participating in these terrorist activities,” he told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. 

“The Vietnamese government’s accusations are aimed at smearing my reputation and silencing my voice of human rights protection,” Y Quynh Bdap said. 

He and his team at MSFJ have collected information, compiled numerous reports on human rights violations in the Central Highlands, and submitted them to the United Nations and various international rights organizations, he said. 

Y Quynh Bdap also said he did not know the other five wanted Montagnards and that it was irrational for authorities to put six people together and label them terrorists. 

About two months ago, ANTV Television, which operates under the Ministry of Public Security, reported that Y Quynh Bdap and the MSFJ had been working with a U.S.-based Montagnard support group to topple current authorities and establish a so-called “State of Dega” in the Central Highlands. 

In October, Tran Quoc, Vietnam’s deputy minister public security, said mismanagement was among the causes of the attacks on government facilities in Dak Lak province, in the first official acknowledgement that reasons other than “incitement” by hostile forces were to blame for the incident. 

He acknowledged that frustration over Vietnam’s growing wealth gap and poor land management by local officials were partly to blame.

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

The security investigation agency of the Dak Lak provincial police has issued a special warrant for the six, who are charged with terrorism under Article 299 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. 

In the early hours of June 11, two groups of about 40 people armed with guns and knives conducted the attacks in Ea Tieu and Ea Ktur communes of Cu Kuin district, killing four policemen, two commune officials and three villagers. 

Authorities detained nearly 100 ethnic minorities for allegedly participating in terrorist attacks in the areas, home to about 30 indigenous tribes known collectively as Montagnards, who have a long history of conflict with and discrimination at the hands of the Vietnamese majority. They are sometimes referred to as “Dega.” 

So far, Dak Lak provincial police have charged or prosecuted 96 people on various offenses related to the attacks and have expanded their investigations, state media reported. 

Montagnard groups have denied that they were involved in the attacks.

Among the six wanted individuals is Y Quynh Bdap, co-founder of Montagnards Stand for Justice, or MSFJ, an organization that advocates for the religious freedom of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands.

The remaining five are Y Chanh Bya, 40; Ipen Eban, 39; Y Nien Eya, 45 years old – all from Cu Jut district in Dak Nong province; and Y Chik Nie, 55, from Krong Pak district, and Y Mum Mlo, 63, from Krong Buk district in Dak Lak province.

Y Quynh Bdap, who fled to Thailand as a political refugee in 2008 and is still there, said Dak Lak police, who issued a special warrant for his arrest on Aug. 14, are using the attacks to accuse members of the MSFJ of being terrorists. 

However, a wanted list posted on the Ministry of Public Security’s website does not include his name, he said. 

Denial

Y Quynh Bdap denied the accusations of involvement with individuals or organizations that advocate violence to resolve issues of ethnicity, religion, and land in the Central Highlands, as reported by state media over the past months.

“The authorities are using the incident to slander and accuse us of participating in these terrorist activities,” he told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. 

“The Vietnamese government’s accusations are aimed at smearing my reputation and silencing my voice of human rights protection,” Y Quynh Bdap said. 

He and his team at MSFJ have collected information, compiled numerous reports on human rights violations in the Central Highlands, and submitted them to the United Nations and various international rights organizations, he said. 

Y Quynh Bdap also said he did not know the other five wanted Montagnards and that it was irrational for authorities to put six people together and label them terrorists. 

About two months ago, ANTV Television, which operates under the Ministry of Public Security, reported that Y Quynh Bdap and the MSFJ had been working with a U.S.-based Montagnard support group to topple current authorities and establish a so-called “State of Dega” in the Central Highlands. 

In October, Tran Quoc, Vietnam’s deputy minister public security, said mismanagement was among the causes of the attacks on government facilities in Dak Lak province, in the first official acknowledgement that reasons other than “incitement” by hostile forces were to blame for the incident. 

He acknowledged that frustration over Vietnam’s growing wealth gap and poor land management by local officials were partly to blame.

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

One recent autumn afternoon, I watched the Atlantic gusts collide with the cliffs that rise above Nazaré, Portugal. Rain pelted down, and the world-renowned swells rose into walls of water that even the most death-defying surfers reach only via Jet Ski. For me, this looked like a rained-out, late-season beach getaway, but for the sliver of Iberia that is Portugal, it looked like a bright future. That weekend, the nation of 10 million ran on nothing but wind, solar and hydropower.

As it turned out, those rainy, blustery days were just a warmup. Portugal produced more than enough renewable power to serve all its customers for six straight days, from October 31 to November 6.

“The gas plants were there, waiting to dispatch energy, should it be needed. It was not, because the wind was blowing; it was raining a lot,” said Hugo Costa, who oversees Portugal for EDP Renewables, the renewables arm of the state utility, which was privatized in 2012. ​“And we were producing with a positive impact to the consumers because the prices have dropped dramatically, almost to zero.”

To hit Paris Agreement climate goals by 2050, nations need to run their grids without carbon emissions not just for three or six days, but year-round. A handful of countries already do this, thanks to generous endowments of hydropower, largely developed well before the climate crisis drove investment decisions for power plants. Others score highly on carbon-free power thanks to big fleets of nuclear plants.

Portugal falls into a different, more relatable bucket: It started its decarbonization journey with some legacy hydropower, but no nuclear capacity nor plans to build any. That meant it had to figure out how to cut fossil fuel use by maximizing new renewables.

How did Portugal make this happen? It committed to building renewables early and often, pledging a 2050 deadline for net-zero carbon emissions in 2016, several years before the European Union as a whole found the conviction to take that step. Portugal’s last coal plants shut down in 2022, leaving (imported) fossil gas as the backstop for on-demand power.

“The key conclusion, in my opinion, is that it shows that the Portuguese grid is prepared for very high shares of renewable electricity and for its expected variation: We were able to manage both the sharp increase of hydro and wind production, and also the return to a lower share of renewables, when natural-gas power plants were requested again to supply some of the country’s demand,” said Miguel Prado, who covers Portugal’s energy sector for Expresso newspaper.

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The task ahead for Portugal’s grid decarbonization is to reduce and ultimately eliminate the number of hours when the country needs to burn gas to keep the lights on. Leaders want gas generation, which made up 21 percent of electricity consumption from January through October, to end completely by 2040.

To reach its climate goals, Portugal has focused on diversification of renewable resources; instead of depending primarily on wind, water, or sun, it blends each into the portfolio and finds ways to make them more complementary. The country’s power companies are now chasing major additional offshore wind opportunities, expanding solar installations and repowering older onshore wind projects to get more out of the best locations.

Anatomy of a six-day clean energy streak

After the overthrow of the authoritarian Estado Novo dictatorship in 1974, the newly formed state utility Energias de Portugal constructed a series of hydroelectric dams on the once-wild rivers that rushed from the eastern mountains to the western coast. The company built its first onshore wind projects in the 1990s, when solar simply couldn’t compete economically, and solar installations have only recently started to catch up.

That’s why the gray skies didn’t hurt overall renewable production during the country’s recent record-setting stretch, as they would have in, say, California or Hawaii. The wind and hydro were cranking, and that’s what mattered.

Any milestone in the rapidly evolving clean energy sector should come with specific parameters. So what exactly did the Portuguese grid accomplish earlier this month?

The six-day record refers to the 149 consecutive hours in which ​“energy from renewable sources exceeded the industrial and household consumption needs across the country.” The country’s previous record for that metric was 131 hours (a little over five days), achieved in 2019. That doesn’t mean that fossil fuel plants weren’t operating — just that the overall renewable generation more than met customer needs.

But Portugal also just set a national record for meeting the entire electricity system’s needs ​“without resorting to conventional thermal power generation.” This gas-free stretch started Halloween night and ran for 131 consecutive hours, about 5 days, nearly tripling Portugal’s previous record of 56 hours straight in 2021. And for 95 of those consecutive hours, Portugal exported clean electricity to Spain, because it consistently had more than it needed — again without burning gas.

That trendline is the thing to watch. Renewables-friendly weather will come and go, and shoulder months are ripe for renewables to outpace consumer demand because heating or cooling needs are lower than in the summer and winter. But the last time Portugal had ideal conditions for a renewables record, it only lasted one-third as long without burning gas. As more wind and solar capacity comes online, Portugal expands its arsenal for running entirely on renewables.

This particular week stood out, but it exemplifies a historic shift in energy sources. Natural-gas use for Portugal’s electricity production fell 39 percent year-over-year for the period from January to October, according to REN. That brought overall gas use to its lowest level since 2006.

Portugal has made grid decarbonization perfectly tangible for itself. To reach its climate goals, it needs to take the playbook from this one week in November and run it for longer periods of time, until eventually it doesn’t even need gas on standby. And it has to do so even in the parts of the year when the winds and the rain don’t lash the off-season traveler who’d heard so much about a climate reminiscent of Southern California.

Next steps for grid decarbonization

Portugal’s clean energy accomplishments today build on several decisions made in the past: The country chose to invest in new hydropower capacity, and 18 years ago, it ran a large-scale wind auction, Prado noted.

“It was also important that the country didn’t go to a massive investment in solar capacity when the technology was still expensive,” he explained. ​“Now Portugal is facing a huge demand of developers to build new PV utility-scale plants, as well as a big demand for decentralized solar projects, taking advantage of a low-cost technology to increase the share of renewable energy in the years to come.”

The country still has a steep task ahead to hit its national target of 85 percent renewables by 2030, Prado added. Major challenges include slow permitting processes and the complexities of balancing ecological impacts with the need for cleaner power.

One way to mitigate delays in permitting new plants is to refurbish old ones.

Portugal has limited landmass to work with, and the best onshore wind sites are already taken, Costa said. But early projects still run 500-kilowatt turbines, while new turbines can produce 6.2 megawatts. Thus, swapping an old turbine for a new one could unlock 12 times the existing capacity. EDP Renewables is doing this strategically to increase production at times when projects aren’t hitting their full export levels; such upgrades produce more clean power throughout the year without necessitating grid investment to handle surges of power.

EDP Renewables is also investigating hybrid power plants, which combine wind and solar at the same location.

“If we combine wind and solar, what we see is that there is a big complementarity,” Costa said. ​“Typically, when we have wind blowing, we don’t have sun. And when we have sun, typically we don’t have that much wind.”

Grouping developments like that dilutes the fixed costs of construction, making them ​“more rational, economics-wise,” Costa said. In other words, developers can save money compared to building the same resources in separate locations.

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Portugal currently has no large stand-alone battery storage plants, though some batteries sit alongside solar or wind projects. The storage built into the hydropower networks has sufficed until now to balance swings in other forms of generation. But as renewables push ever higher in their share of electricity production, the need to rapidly store and discharge power will call for more batteries, Costa said.

The most ambitious part of Portugal’s clean energy expansion isn’t even happening within Portugal’s terrestrial borders. Having tapped the choicest onshore locations, the power sector will grow wind installations by looking offshore, in waters so deep they demand floating turbines. A few pathbreaking projects globally have proved this is possible, but it remains far less mature than the offshore turbines mounted to shallower sea bottoms.

Back in 2011, EDP Renewables tested a 2-megawatt floating turbine supplied by American company Principle Power, and it valiantly survived pummeling by 17-meter waves off northern Portugal. The company followed up with three 8.4-megawatt floating turbines, and even managed to secure project financing from the European Investment Bank.

“We have a lender who is confident about the cash flows that will be generated by the project and is not relying on any kind of guarantees from the sponsor,” Costa said.

Financiers as a rule fear newer technologies they deem risky; this stamp of approval marks an important step toward normalizing floating wind as a regular part of the clean energy toolkit.

That’s exactly what Portugal aims to do: Its target is to build 10 gigawatts of offshore wind, which will have to be floating. These projects still have a lot of work to do, so Costa said not to expect them until the 2030s. But the government is set to hold an auction for 2 gigawatts of offshore development in December.

That timeline is less certain as a result of this month’s resignation of Prime Minister António Costa due to, of all things, a corruption investigation centered on green hydrogen and lithium interests.

“This government won’t be able to make relevant decisions in the coming months, until the elections in March, which would delay the launch and conclusion of the first offshore wind auction,” Prado said. Other auctions for green hydrogen, renewable fuels and energy storage are likely going to be pushed back, too.

That unexpected interruption doesn’t change a broad political consensus around the need for more clean energy. But for now, it’ll just be the surfers and the fishing boats braving the massive Atlantic waves.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Portugal just ran on 100 percent renewables for six days in a row on Nov 26, 2023.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Julian Spector, Canary Media.

The victims are from Madaya and Patheingyi townships, including 25-year-old Min Nge Tar, as well as Thaung Yin and Poe Htaw, who were both about 40 years old and from Kin village. Three brothers, 18-year-old Ko Tun, 22-year-old Ko Pyone and 25-year-old Ko Mone, from Patheingyi’s Tha Yet Kaing village were also killed. 

On Saturday, a dead body with stab wounds was found near Tha Yet Kaing village, a Kin villager who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals told RFA.

“When [junta soldiers] asked them where they were from, they said that they were from Kin village. So [the first three men] were arrested and accused of being in People's Defense Forces,” he said. “The three brothers from Tha Yet Kaing village were arrested for riding a motorcycle with three men. The next day, all the bodies were found in the same place.”

In Sagaing, Yangon and Mandalay regions, the military regime has placed tight restrictions on men riding motorbikes in an effort to reduce attacks from resistance groups. 

Junta troops often raid Kin village on suspicion of hiding resistance fighters, so some of the residents have left the village, locals told RFA. To avoid suspicion, some men and their families have moved closer to Tha Yet Kaing village, which is about 6.5 kilometers (four miles) away from Kin village.

The three Kin villagers who were arrested and killed are people who moved with their families close to Tha Yet Kaing village and were fleeing the junta’s raids, they added. 

Calls by RFA to Mandalay region’s junta spokesperson Thein Htay went unanswered on Tuesday.

On Thursday, fighting near Pin Lel Inn village attracted the presence of a junta convoy. The group arrested 11 men who were sitting in a tea shop in Aung Kan Thar village and another man from Pwe Sar Kone village. Junta soldiers shot and killed all 12 men, locals said.

As of Nov. 20, nearly 4,200 civilians have been killed across the country after the 2021 military coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

The Union Supreme Court announced that it would not hear challenges to the original rulings in the six graft cases – four related to the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation and two related to businessman Maung Weik.

Junta authorities arrested the 78-year-old Suu Kyi in the immediate aftermath of the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup, along with former President Win Myint and other leaders of the deposed National League for Democracy, or NLD, party.

She was serving a 33-year prison sentence for convictions in 19 cases but on Aug. 1 was partially pardoned for five of them as part of a general amnesty, reducing her punishment to 27 years in jail. They relate to the Natural Disaster Management Law, the Communication Law and one case under Section 505 (b) of the Penal Code, which deals with defaming the country’s military and undermining state order.

The 72-year-old Win Myint, who is reportedly in poor health, had his 12 years of combined prison sentences reduced by four years in August.

Suu Kyi is also suffering from “urgent” dental issues in detention, sources told RFA, but junta authorities have ignored her request for permission to seek treatment. In fact, it is not even clear where she is being detained.

The Associated Press cited a legal official who is familiar with Suu Kyi’s cases as saying that of the six appeals rejected on Friday, four were convictions for abusing her position to rent property in the capital Naypyitaw and Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. The cases alleged that she had obtained the land at below-market prices for a charitable foundation that she chaired and had built a residence for herself on one plot with money donated for the foundation.

The legal official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the other appeal cases were related to two counts of corruption in which Suu Kyi was found guilty of receiving a total of US$550,000 between 2018 and 2020 from Maung Weik, a tycoon who in 2008 had been convicted of drug trafficking.

The Union Supreme Court also rejected appeals of five of Suu Kyi’s convictions on Aug. 29.

The legal team representing Suu Kyi and Win Myint had repeatedly requested meetings with the two NLD leaders to discuss their appeals since January, but were never allowed to do so.

Sources with ties to Myanmar’s judiciary told RFA Burmese that the remaining cases for which Suu Kyi was imprisoned are still in the appeal process at the Union Supreme Court.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

Members of Indonesia’s Nduga District Police and the Damai Cartenz Police Task Force have raided a residential house and the local head office of the Papuan Tabernacle Church (Kingmi Papua) in the town of Kenyam, Nduga Regency, Papua Pegunungan Province, reports Human Rights Monitor.

Before raiding the Kingmi Papua office on September 17, the police officers arbitrarily arrested Melince Wandikbo, Indinwiridnak Arabo, and Gira Gwijangge in their home in Kenyam.

They were tortured and forced to reveal the names of people who had attended a recent burial of several members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB).

• READ MORE: Police officers raid residential house and Tabernacle Church office – full details, names of victims, photos
• Other West Papua human rights reports

After one of the suspects mentioned the name of Reverend Urbanus Kogeya, the police officers searched the Kingmi Papua Office in Kenyam.

They arrested three other Papuans without showing a warrant. Police officers reportedly beat them during arrest and subsequent detention at the Nduga District police headquarters.

Everybody detained were later released due to lack of evidence.

Local Kingmi Papua church leaders and congregation members slept inside the Kingmi head office that night because they were preparing for a church event.

Around 11:30 pm, the police officers forcefully entered the office, breaking the entrance door.

Excessive force
According to the church leaders, the officers used excessive force against the suspects and the office facilities during the raid. Nine people suffered injuries as a result of police violence during the raid at the Kingmi Papua office — including an 85-year-old man and four women.

As Reverend Nataniel Tabuni asked the officers why they had come at night and broken the entrance door, a police officer approached him and punched him three times in the face.

According to Reverend Tabuni, one of the police officers ssaid: “You are the Church of Satan, the Church of Terrorists! You are supporting Egianus Kogeya [TPNPB Commander in Nduga] under the pretext of praying.”

The acts of torture were witnessed by the head of Nduga Parliament (DPRD), Ikabus Gwijangge.

He reached the Kingmi Papua Office around 11:45 pm after hearing people shouting for help.

As Gwijangge saw the police officers beating and kicking suspects, he protested the use of excessive force and called on the officers to follow procedure.

‘I’ll come after you’
A Damai Cartenz officer reportedly pointed his finger at Gwijangge and threatened him, saying: “Stupid parliamentarian. I’ll come after you! Wherever you go, I will find out where you are. I’ll chase you!”

Another police officer pushed Gwijangge outside the building to prevent him from witnessing the police operation. After that, the police officers searched all the office rooms and broke another office door.

The Nduga police chief (Kapolres), Commissioner Vinsensius Jimmy, has apologised to the local church leaders for the misconduct of his men.

The victims demanded that the perpetrators be processed according to the law.

Congregation members in Kenyam carried out a spontaneous peaceful protest against the police raid and violence against four Kingmi Papua pastors.

The Human Rights Monitor (HRM) is an independent, international non-profit project promoting human rights through documentation and evidence-based advocacy. HRM is based in the European Union and active since 2022.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Do Palestinians deserve to be free? “A complex and controversial issue,” says ChatGPT (Twitter, 5/8/23). Do Israelis deserve to be free? “Yes, like all people.”

“This is quite something,” remarked Nadi Abusaada in a May 8 tweet. As many of us have done, the Palestinian academic found himself experimenting with the seemingly boundless powers of OpenAI’s ChatGPT software. But during this activity, he uncovered something disturbing.

“I asked @OpenAI whether Palestinians deserve to be free,” he said. The natural-language processing tool responded to Abusaada’s query ambivalently:

As an AI language model, I do not have personal opinions, feelings or beliefs. The question of whether Palestinians deserve to be free is a complex and controversial issue with many different perspectives and opinions….

But then he posed the same question about Israelis. This time, the chat box did not equivocate:

Yes, like all people, Israelis deserve to be free. Freedom is a fundamental human right that should be protected and guaranteed for all individuals, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity or religion. It is essential that Israelis, like all people, are able to live their lives free from violence, oppression and discrimination….

“Explanation?” demanded Abusaada.

The explanation lies in the overarching attitudes of the 570 GB of data that ChatGPT scrapes from the internet. And, with news media being one of the primary sources of information that the bot is trained on, Abusaada’s experience is hardly surprising.

To say that US news skews pro-Israel raises many an eyebrow, since the public has been conditioned to believe otherwise. With outlets like NPR vilified as “National Palestinian Radio” and papers like the New York Times castigated by pro-Israel watchdogs for lending “the Palestinian narrative” undue credence (CAMERA, 10/15/13), the myth of pro-Palestine bias appears plausible.

Yet such claims have been litigated, and the verdict is plain: US corporate media lean in favor of Israel. As Abeer Al-Najjar (New Arab, 7/28/22) noted: “The framing, sourcing, selection of facts, and language choices used to report on Palestine…often reveal systematic biases which distort the Palestinian struggle.” Some trends are more ubiquitous than others, which is why it is vital that news readers become acquainted with the tropes that dominate coverage of the Israeli occupation.

1. Where Are the Palestinians?

From 1970 to 2019, the New York Times and Washington Post ran 5,739 opinion pieces about Palestinians. Just 1.4% of these were by Palestinians (+972, 10/2/20).

In 2018, 416Labs, a Canadian research firm, analyzed almost 100,000 news headlines published by five leading US publications between 1967 and 2017. The study revealed that major newspapers were four times more likely to run headlines from an Israeli government perspective, and 2.5 times more likely to cite Israeli sources over Palestinian ones. (This trend was further confirmed by Maha Nassar—+972, 10/2/20).

Owais Zaheer, an author of 416Labs’ study told the Intercept (1/12/19) that his findings call attention to “the need to more critically evaluate the scope of coverage of the Israeli occupation and recognize that readers are getting, at best, a heavily filtered rendering of the issue.”

In its media resource guide, the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA) counseled reporters: “Former US diplomats, Israeli military analysts and non-Palestinian Middle East commentators are not replacements for Palestinian voices.”

The exclusion of Palestinian voices from corporate media reporting does not stop at sourcing. For example, contrary to its pro-Israel critics, NPR’s correspondents are rarely Palestinian or Arab, and almost all reside in West Jerusalem or Israel proper (FAIR.org, 4/2/18). Editors also overlook obvious conflicts of interest, like when the son of the New York Times‘ then–Israel bureau chief Ethan Bronner joined the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) (Extra!, 4/10).

When Times public editor Clark Hoyt (2/6/10) acknowledged that readers aware of the son’s role “could reasonably wonder how that would affect the father,” Times executive editor Bill Keller rejected this advice, saying that having a child fighting for Israel gave Bronner “a measure of sophistication about Israel and its adversaries that someone with no connections would lack,” and might “make him even more tuned-in to the sensitivities of readers on both sides.” It’s hard to imagine Keller suggesting this if Bronner’s son had, say, signed up with Hamas.

Hirsh Goodman, the Israeli spin doctor married to the New York Times‘ Jerusalem bureau chief.

Isabel Kershner, the current Jerusalem correspondent for the Times, also had a son who enlisted in the IDF (Mondoweiss, 10/27/14). Moreover, her husband, Hirsh Goodman, has worked at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) (FAIR.org, 5/1/12), where his job was

shaping a positive image of Israel in the media. An examination of articles that Kershner has written or contributed to since 2009 reveals that she overwhelmingly relies on the INSS for think tank analysis about events in the region.

When establishment media outlets privilege one narrative over another, public opinion is likely to follow. Thus, the suppression of alternative viewpoints is among today’s most concerning media afflictions.

2. Turning Assaults Into ‘Clashes’

Reporting on Israel/Palestine often relies on a lexical toolbox designed for occlusion rather than clarity, “clashes” rather than “assaults.” Adam Johnson (FAIR.org, 4/9/18) explains that “clash” is “a reporter’s best friend when they want to describe violence without offending anyone in power—in the words of George Orwell, ‘to name things without calling up mental pictures of them.’”

The Washington Post‘s headline (4/6/18) obscures the fact that it is Israel’s “live fire” and not Palestinians’ “burning tires” that are deadly.

FAIR has documented the abuse of “clash” in the Israeli/Palestinian context time and time again: In 2018 Gaza, Israeli troops fired at unarmed protestors 100 meters away. No Israelis perished, but 30 Palestinians were murdered. That was not a “clash,” as establishment media would have you believe; that was a mass shooting (FAIR.org, 5/1/18). During the funeral for Shireen Abu Akleh, the reporter who was assassinated by Israeli gunfire, the IDF beat mourners, charged at them with horses and batons, and deployed stun grenades and tear gas. The procession was so rocked by the attacks that they nearly dropped Abu Akleh’s casket. That was not a clash, that was a senseless act of cruelty (FAIR.org, 7/2/22). This summer, when Israeli forces raided the West Bank and stood by as illegal settlers arsoned homes, farmland and vehicles, that was not a “clash”; that was colonialism (FAIR.org, 7/6/23).

The choice to use “clash”—and other comparably hazy descriptors of regional violence, like “tension,” “conflict” and “strife”—is bad journalism. Such designations lack substance, disorient readers and above all spin a spurious storyline whereby Israelis and Palestinians inflict and withstand equivalent bloodshed. (According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, 3,584 Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli security forces since January 19, 2009, while 196 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians during the same period.)

AMEJA’s media resource guide reminds journalists that the occupation “is not a conflict between states, but rather between Israel, which has one of the most advanced militaries in the world, and the Palestinians, who have no formal army.”

But when such a power imbalance is inadequately acknowledged, “clash” and its misleading corollaries will not sound out of place, and readers will not have the context necessary to separate the perpetrators from the victims of violence.

3. Linguistic Gymnastics

Who killed the two Palestinians? AP (8/4/23) structured its headline to conceal that information.

The passive voice—or, as William Schneider describes it, the “past exonerative” tense—is a grammatical construction that describes events without assigning responsibility. Such sentence structures pervade coverage of the Israeli occupation.

In her 2021 investigation into coverage of the first and second intifadas, Holly M. Jackson identified disproportionate use of the passive voice—i.e., “the man was bitten” rather than “the dog bit the man”—as one of the defining linguistic features of New York Times reporting on the uprisings. The Times used the passive voice to talk about Palestinians twice as often as it did Israelis, which demonstrated the paper’s “clear patterns of bias against Palestinians.”

While Jackson’s study only examined New York Times coverage during the intifadas, passive voice remains a common grammatical cop out—still permeating national newspaper headlines in recent months:

• “At Least Five Palestinians Killed in Clashes After Israeli Raid in West Bank” (New York Times, 6/19/23)
• “Two Palestinians Killed in Separate Episodes in Latest West Bank Violence” (AP, 8/4/23)
• “Israeli Forces Say Three Palestinians Killed in Occupied West Bank” (CNN, 8/7/23)

Other times, raids are miraculously carried out on their own, violence randomly erupts and missiles are inexplicably fired. The now-amended New York Times headline “Missile at Beachside Gaza Cafe Finds Patrons Poised for World Cup” (7/10/14) begged the question: Who fired the missile that, as if it had a mind of its own, “found” Palestinian World Cup spectators?

Similarly, the Washington Post piece “Yet Another Palestinian Journalist Dies on the Job” (5/12/22) leaves the reader puzzled. How exactly did Shireen Abu Akleh—left unnamed in the title—die?

Headlines that omit the Israeli subject are unjustifiably exculpatory, because editors know exactly who the assailant is.

4. Newsworthy and Unnewsworthy Deaths

The New York Times (5/11/21) disguised the reality that 88% of the dead were Palestinian.

Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s three-week military assault on Gaza in 2008, was carnage. According to Amnesty International and B’Tselem, the attack claimed 13 Israeli lives (four of which were killed by Israeli fire), while Palestine’s death toll was nearly 1,400—300 of which were children. Yet the media response was far from proportional.

In a 2010 study of New York Times coverage of Operation Cast Lead, Jonas Caballero found that the Times covered 431% of Israeli deaths—meaning each Israeli fatality was reported an average of four times—while reporting a mere 17% of Palestinian deaths. This means that Israeli deaths were covered at 25 times the rate Palestinian ones were.

The Times is not an outlier. FAIR’s examination (Extra!, 11–12/01) of six months’ worth of NPR Israel/Palestine broadcasting during the Second Intifada determined that 81% of Israeli fatalities were reported on, while Palestinian deaths were acknowledged just 34% of the time. The disparity only widened when Palestinian victims were minors:

Of the 30 Palestinian civilians under the age of 18 that were killed, six were reported on NPR—only 20%. By contrast, the network reported on 17 of the 19 Israeli minors who were killed, or 89%…. Apparently being a minor makes your death more newsworthy to NPR if you are Israeli, but less newsworthy if you are Palestinian.

Media also erase or downplay Palestinian deaths in the language of their headlines. When the New York Times (11/16/14) ran a story entitled “Palestinian Shot by Israeli Troops at Gaza Border” it did not seem to occur to the editor that specifying the age of the victim would be important. The Palestinian in question was a 10-year-old boy. In another headline, “More Than 30 Dead in Gaza and Israel as Fighting Quickly Escalates,” the Times (5/11/21) neatly obscures that 35 out of the “more than 30 dead” were Palestinian, while five were Israeli.

5. Sidelining International Law

A Christian Science Monitor piece (8/9/09) framed the illegal occupation of Palestinian land as being about “freedom, holiness, righteousness and redemption.”

Attempts to insulate Israel from condemnation also manifest themselves in establishment media’s reluctance to identify the country’s breaches of international law (FAIR.org, 12/8/17).

In Operation Cast Lead coverage, FAIR (Extra!, 2/09) noted that—despite the blatant illegality of Israel’s assaults on Palestine’s civilian infrastructure—international law was seldom newsworthy. By January 13, 2009, only two evening news programs  (NBC Nightly News, 1/8/09, 1/11/09) had broached the legality of the Israeli military offensive. But, only one of those TV segments (Nightly News, 1/8/09) reprimanded Israel—the other (Nightly News, 1/11/09) defended the illegal use of white phosphorus, which was being deployed on refugee camps.

Meanwhile, just one daily newspaper (USA Today, 1/7/08) mentioned international law. But that single reference—embedded in an op-ed by a spokesperson from the Israeli embassy in Washington—was directed at Hamas violations, rather than Israeli ones.

When it comes to reporting on the unlawful establishment of Israeli settlements, media are no better. Colonizing occupied territories violates both Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Security Council Resolution 446, yet outlets like NPR, CNN and the New York Times have a history of concealing Israeli criminality by benevolently branding settlements as “neighborhoods” (FAIR.org, 8/1/02, 10/10/14).

Such charitable descriptions have also been extended to settlers themselves. In an October 2009 Extra! piece, Julie Hollar investigated a bevy of articles that characterized settlers as “law-abiding,” “soft-spoken,” “gentle” and “normal.” One tone-deaf Christian Science Monitor headline (8/9/09) even read: “Young Israeli Settlers Go Hippie? Far Out, Man!” As Hollar observed, “ethnic cleansing could hardly hope for a friendlier hearing.”

Even when news media have characterized settlements and settlers as engaging in unlawful colonial practices, they have done so reluctantly. In 2021, Israeli settlement expansion in Sheikh Jarrah culminated in an unlawful campaign of mass expulsion. A New York Times (5/7/21) article on the crisis waited until the 39th paragraph before suggesting that Israel was acting criminally. Similarly, while describing Benjamin Netanyahu’s increasingly aggressive settlement policies, Associated Press (6/18/23) buried the lead by avoiding the “illegal” designation until the middle of the piece.

It’s important to bring up the rule of law not only when Israel is actively injuring innocents or erecting colonial communities. The ceaseless maltreatment of Palestinians constitutes—according to Amnesty International, B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch—apartheid. Apartheid is a crime against humanity, yet news media avoid acknowledging the human rights community’s consensus (FAIR.org, 7/21/23, 2/3/22, 4/26/19). As FAIR (5/23/23) pointed out, it is a journalistic duty to do so:

The dominant and overriding context of anything that happens in Israel/Palestine is the fact that the state of Israel is running an apartheid regime in the entirety of the territory it controls. Any obfuscation or equivocation of that fact serves only to downplay the severity of Israeli crimes and the US complicity in them.

6. Reversing Victim and Victimizer

As is typical, “retaliation” is used by Reuters (9/12/21) to refer to Israeli violence against Palestinians—implicitly justifying it as a response rather than an escalation.

As Gregory Shupak (FAIR.org, 5/18/21) wrote:

Only the Israeli side has ethnically cleansed and turned millions…into refugees by preventing [Palestinians] from exercising their right to return to their homes. Israel is the only side subjecting anyone to apartheid and military occupation.

Nevertheless, US media enter into fantastical rationalizations to make the Israeli aggressor appear to be the victim. Blaming Palestinians for their suffering and dispossession has become one of the prime ways to accomplish this feat.

A 2018 FAIR report (5/17/18) analyzed coverage of the deadly Great March of Return—protests that erupted in response to Israel’s illegal land, air and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip. The ongoing siege bans the import of raw materials and significantly curtails the movement of people and goods. The International Committee of the Red Cross (6/14/10) deplores the blockade: “The whole of Gaza’s civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility.”

Despite the ICRC indictment, FAIR found that established media held besieged Palestinians accountable for Israel’s reign of terror following anti-blockade demonstrations. The New York Times (5/14/18) editorial board went so far as to suggest that Palestinians (and not the siege-imposing Israel) were the only obstacles to peace:

Led too long by men who were corrupt or violent or both, the Palestinians have failed and failed again to make their own best efforts toward peace. Even now, Gazans are undermining their own cause by resorting to violence, rather than keeping their protests strictly peaceful.

Casting Palestinians as incorrigible savages is also easier when US media use defensive language to excuse the bulk of Israeli violence (FAIR.org, 2/2/09, 7/10/14). FAIR (5/1/02) conducted a survey into ABC, CBS and NBC’s use of the word “retaliation”—a term that “lays responsibil­ity for the cycle of violence at the doorstep of the party being ‘retaliated’ against, since they presumably initiated the conflict.” Of the 150 mentions of “retaliation” and its analogs between September 2000 and March 17, 2002, 79% referred to Israeli violence. Twelve percent were ambiguous, or encompassed both sides. A mere 9% framed Palestinian violence as a retaliatory response.

Greg Philo and Mike Berry’s books Bad News From Israel and More Bad News From Israel posit that television’s “Palestinian action/Israeli retaliation” trope has a “significant effect” on how the public remember events and allot blame (FAIR.org, 8/21/20). When Palestinians are consistently portrayed as the aggressive party and Israel as the defensive one, US news media are “effectively legitimizing Israeli actions.”

Coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine celebrates the efforts of Ukrainian resistance. With the anti-imperial Palestinian struggle, however, news media refuse to extend the same favor (FAIR.org, 7/6/23), thus creating a

media landscape where certain groups are entitled to self-defense, and others are doomed to be the victims of  “reprisal” attacks. It tells the world that…Palestinians living under apartheid have no right to react to the almost daily raids, growing illegal settlements and ballooning settler hostility.

***

Malcolm X once declared,“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” As stories about Israel/Palestine continue to bombard our screens and daily papers, readers and journalists alike need to remain aware of the pro-Israel pitfalls that pockmark establishment news coverage. Then maybe one day we can move towards a future where ChatGPT answers “yes” when users like Abusaada ask it whether Palestinians deserve to be free.

The post Six Tropes to Look Out for That Distort Israel/Palestine Coverage appeared first on FAIR.

This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by Lara-Nour Walton.

• Hawaii officials warn of higher death toll from Maui wildfire as search teams begin work.
• Six former white Mississippi police officers plead guilty to torturing black suspects.
• Montana judge sides with young environmentalists, saying state failed to take climate action.
• Kansas police raid on newspaper office and publisher home shocks civil liberties advocates.
• House Natural Resources Committee conducts wildfire hearing at Yosemite.
• Palestinian swimmers struggle with lack of resources.

The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – August 14, 2023 Hawaii officials warn of higher death toll from Maui wildfire as search teams begin work. Six former white Mississippi police officers plead guilty to torturing black suspects. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

RNZ Pacific

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has called again for the immediate release of New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens, who has now been held hostage by pro-independence fighters in West Papua for six months.

Speaking in Auckland, Hipkins said Mehrtens — a pilot for the Indonesian airline Susi Air which provide air links to remote communities in Papua — was a much-loved husband, brother, father and son.

He said Mehrtens’ safety was the top priority and the six-month milestone would be a difficult time for the family.

• READ MORE: Other reports on the NZ hostage pilot

“We will continue to do all we can to bring Phillip home,” he said.

“I want to urge once again those who are holding Phillip to release him immediately. There is absolutely no justification for taking hostages. The longer Phillip is held the more risk there is to his wellbeing and the harder this becomes for him and for his family.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is leading our interagency response and I’ve been kept closely informed of developments over the last six months.”

Hipkins said consular efforts included working closely with the Indonesian authorities and deploying New Zealand consular staff.

The family was being supported by the ministry both in New Zealand and Indonesia, he said.

“I acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging time for them but they’ve continued to ask for their privacy and I thank people for respecting that.”

Police report ‘good health’
Indonesian police say the NZ pilot taken hostage by the pro-independence fighters on February 7 is in good health and negotiations for his safe release are ongoing.

Jubi reported from Jayapura that Papua police chief Inspector General Mathius Fakhiri said on Monday that Mehrtens remained in good health, but he did not expand on how he obtained that information.

General Fakhiri said the security forces were actively closing in on the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) faction led by Egianus Kogoya and were engaged in negotiations to secure the prompt release of the pilot.

“We are currently awaiting further developments as we work to restrict the movement of Egianus Kogoya’s group. The pilot’s overall condition is healthy,” General Fakhiri said.

Tempo reported General Fakhiri as saying the local government was allowing community and church leaders and family members to take the lead on negotiating with Kogoya, the rebel leader holding Mehrtens.

“Our primary concern is the safe rescue of Captain Phillip. This is why we are prioritising all available resources to aid the security forces in negotiations, ultimately leading to the pilot’s safe return without exacerbating the situation,” General Fakhiri said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

On March 15, 2022, an email appeared in the inbox of the election director of Forsyth County, Georgia, with the subject line “Challenge of Elector’s Eligibility.” A spreadsheet attached to the email identified 13 people allegedly registered to vote at P.O. boxes in Forsyth County, a wealthy Republican suburb north of Atlanta. Georgians are supposed to register at residential addresses, except in special circumstances. “Please consider this my request that a hearing be held to determine these voters’ eligibility to vote,” wrote the challenger, Frank Schneider.

Schneider is a former chief financial officer at multiple companies, including Jockey International, the underwear maker. His Instagram page includes pictures of him golfing at exclusive resorts and a dog peeing on a mailbox with the caption “Woody suspects mail-in voter fraud” and the hashtag “#maga.” On Truth Social, the social media platform backed by former president Donald Trump, Schneider’s posts have questioned the 2020 election results in Forsyth County and spread content related to QAnon, the conspiracy theory that holds that the Democratic elite are cannibalistic pedophiles. In January 2023, he posted an open letter to his U.S. representative-elect encouraging “hearings to hold perpetrators accountable where evidence exists that election fraud took place in the 2020 and 2022 elections.”

The March 2022 voter challenges were the first of many from Schneider: As the year progressed, he submitted seven more batches of challenges, each one larger than the one previous, growing from 507 voters in April to nearly 15,800 in October, for a total of over 31,500 challenges.

Vetting Georgia’s voter rolls was once largely the domain of nonpartisan elections officials. But after the 2020 election, a change in the law enabled Schneider and other activists to take on a greater role. Senate Bill 202, which the state’s Republican-controlled legislature passed in 2021, transformed election laws in response to “many electors concerned about allegations of rampant voter fraud,” as the bill stated. Many states allow challenges, but officials in Georgia and experts say that in the past challengers have typically had relevant personal knowledge, such as someone submitting a challenge to remove a dead relative from the rolls. Georgia, however, is unusual in explicitly allowing citizens unlimited challenges against anyone in their county.

At first, voting rights groups were vocal about other aspects of SB 202, such as restrictions on absentee ballots, paying less attention to the 98-page bill’s handful of sentence-length tweaks that addressed voter challenges. The change to the challenges rule was “the sleeper element of SB 202,” said Rahul Garabadu, a senior voting rights attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.

Media outlets have reported on the high number of challenges and numerous cases of voters feeling harassed, impeded or intimidated by being placed into “challenged” status. But the outsized role of the small group of people making the challenges was less clear. ProPublica was able to determine that a vast majority of the challenges since SB 202 became law — about 89,000 of 100,000 — were submitted by just six right-wing activists, including Schneider. Another 12 people accounted for most of the rest. (ProPublica obtained data for all challenges logged in 30 of the state’s 159 counties, including the 20 most populous.) Of those challenges, roughly 11,100 were successful — at least 2,350 voters were removed from the rolls and at least 8,700 were placed in a “challenged” or equivalent status, which can force people to vote with a provisional ballot that election officials later adjudicate.

Challenges from right-wing activists have proliferated in Georgia despite strict federal laws governing how voters can be removed from rolls. That’s in part because state and local election officials have struggled to figure out how to reconcile SB 202 with federal protections. This has resulted in counties handling challenges inconsistently, sometimes in ways that experts warn may have violated federal law, something they say may have been the case with Schneider’s March challenges.

In the run-up to the 2022 election, voting rights advocates warned that some challenges might create insurmountable barriers to people casting a ballot, such as by removing them from the rolls. But there were no published accounts of Georgians who ultimately did not cast a ballot as a result of being challenged. Schneider’s March challenges did lead to this kind of harm in at least one instance: An unhoused voter found his removal from the rolls too high a barrier to allow him to re-register in time to vote.

Schneider would not agree to an interview and did not respond directly to ProPublica’s written questions. In emails, he stated that challenges “only are acted upon” if the elections board approves them and wrote, “I have not been made aware of anyone that couldn’t vote based on anything submitted, if true.”

Even some voters who managed to remain on the rolls were still forced by challenges to fight to remain registered. In Fulton County, which encompasses most of Atlanta, an immunosuppressed cancer patient had to drive nearly two hours round-trip to a crowded hearing to defend his right to vote. At the same proceeding, a Black woman likened her challenge to voter intimidation.

“There is a clear imbalance of power between the individual bringing the challenges and the county and voters,” said Esosa Osa, the deputy executive director of Fair Fight Action, a voting rights advocacy organization. Elections officials and voters, she said, “currently have very little recourse once challenged, regardless of the merits of the challenge.”

Some activists have justified their efforts by claiming that people might exploit flaws in the voter rolls to commit fraud — for example, by voting under the name of a deceased person still on the rolls. Officials in multiple counties told ProPublica that they did not know of any instances of challenges resulting in a successfully prosecuted case of voter fraud. A spokesperson for the Georgia secretary of state’s office said it does not track this data.

ProPublica did find that challenges sometimes identified errors in the voter rolls, which are dauntingly complex databases that are forever evolving as people register, move, die or otherwise change their statuses. Many of these corrections would have happened anyway in the routine maintenance process, officials said and records showed, though sometimes at a pace slower than if activists submitted challenges.

“If all these challengers are finding is inconsequential errors that do not affect election results on the whole, but they’re placing real and harmful burdens on voters, then you have to wonder why they’re really doing this,” said Derek Clinger, a senior staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “It’s doing more harm than good.”

In 2018, Joseph Riggs, a longtime Forsyth County resident who identifies as a Democrat, became homeless after struggling with depression and other mental health challenges and began using a P.O. box as his permanent mailing address during what would be years of instability. Still, he made sure to vote in the 2020 presidential election and wanted to vote in the hotly contested 2022 Georgia senate race because he viewed its outcome as affecting social policy that would impact him.

But that spring Riggs received at his P.O. box a two-page letter from the Forsyth County elections office informing him of Schneider’s March challenge and asking him either to appear at a board hearing at 9 a.m. on a workday in June or to send in paperwork justifying his registration at a P.O. box, changing his registration or removing himself from the rolls. Around the time of the hearing, Riggs was living in a tent in the woods, within walking distance of the part-time jobs he was juggling at McDonald’s, Dollar Tree and a gas station. He worried that attending the hearing would require an expensive Uber ride and force him to take unpaid time off work. In the months beforehand, a state election official had also called Riggs to question him about his registration, he said, making him think fearfully of news reports of people being arrested for violating voting laws. And he said he did not remember seeing the option to send in paperwork. Ultimately, he did not contest his removal from the rolls.

Riggs said that after the county elections board removed him, he doubted that he could re-register because the letter and phone call led him to believe he now had no valid address. (According to the secretary of state’s office, unhoused individuals can solve this challenge by giving a residential address that is the “closest approximation” of the location they shelter at, such as a street corner, and then listing a separate mailing address, such as P.O. box. But Riggs was not provided with this information.)

“I was really angry,” he said. “When you’re homeless, your vote is the only voice you’ve got.”

Barbara Helm, who identifies as a Democrat, said she did not see the letter in her P.O. box notifying her of Schneider’s March 2022 challenge against her, as she had been struggling with addiction and homelessness. Nor did she know at first that she had been removed at the same June hearing as Riggs was called to, though election workers sent her another letter announcing her removal. It wasn’t until she contacted election officials during the in-person early voting period in October that she learned that she’d been removed from the rolls and that the window to re-register had closed.

“A lot of people have fought and died for voting rights,” said Helm. “I didn’t even know” the challengers and board “could do that to you.”

Helm contacted the local Democratic Party about her plight, and its officials took up her case — she was mentioned as an example of voter suppression by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in a debate, though not by name, and her voting difficulties were covered in several news reports. Helm was eventually allowed to vote with a provisional ballot, which she believed only happened because of the attention to her case. (A lawyer for the Forsyth County board, Karen Pachuta, wrote to ProPublica that “the receipt of a provisional ballot in Forsyth County is not dependent on any particular person or circumstance receiving media or political attention.”)

A week after the election, Helm showed up to a board meeting to defend her provisional ballot and beg for her vote to count. “It kind of brought tears to my eyes when they approved my ballot,” she said.

Two other voters challenged by Schneider in March 2022 returned residency affirmations, obtained by ProPublica through records requests, in which they explained that they traveled throughout the year as engineers on projects around the nation and used the P.O. box as their residency address in lieu of a permanent one. The board rejected the challenges, allowing them to maintain their prior registrations.

Of Schneider’s initial thirteen challenges from March 2022, eleven were heard at the hearing that June, with the county election board upholding five and dismissing six.

In the lead-up to the 2022 election, the Forsyth County board ruled on about 31,500 challenges from Schneider and another 1,100 from two other challengers. In total, the board approved over 200 of the most serious type of challenge that immediately removes a voter from the rolls, known as “229s” for their section of Georgia code. The board also approved around 900 “230” challenges, which place voters into “challenged” status.

Of the 30 counties for which ProPublica reviewed voter challenges, Forsyth County was the most aggressive in approving them — in ways that voting rights lawyers warned may violate the National Voter Registration Act, a federal law regulating how voters can be removed from voting rolls.

When Joel Natt, the Republican vice chair of the board, sought to approve Schneider’s challenges against Helm and Riggs at the June 2022 hearing, Democratic board member Anita Tucker asked, “Madam Chair and Legal, does that violate the NVRA?”

Tucker expressed a number of concerns, according to an audio recording of the hearing obtained through open records requests. The concerns centered on whether the removals of Helm and Riggs violated the NVRA’s prohibition against removing voters in a systematic manner in the 90 days before a federal election.

In the hearing, Tucker argued that rather than immediately removing Helm and Riggs, “the best right procedure” was the NVRA’s process for voters whose residency is in doubt, which allows voters to remain on the rolls for around four years and protects them against being unable to re-register in time to vote. Tucker also questioned whether the batches of challenges — which had grown to encompass hundreds or thousands of voters, along with PDFs of alleged evidence of their ineligibility to vote, such as documents matching names to addresses outside the county — qualified as systematic challenges, and therefore shouldn’t have been allowed to proceed.

In response to Tucker’s questions, Pachuta, the board’s lawyer, warned, “There’s not clear case law on that. It could very well end up in litigation.” The lawyer explained that “there’s different opinions” on whether the challenges would fall under state code or the NVRA. She then advised that “because it is so close to the election, you have to review these items on an individualized basis.” (The NVRA allows consideration of individualized challenges during the 90-day protected window.)

Natt had originally motioned to remove Helm, Riggs and another voter as a block, until the lawyer advised that this could be construed as systematically processing a mass challenge. So Natt and the conservative board chair, Barbara Luth, reintroduced them one by one. Then the conservative board members outvoted Tucker to remove them from the rolls. Recordings show that the majority continued outvoting the Democratic minority while approving challenges one by one during many meetings. The board did summarily dismiss around 28,500 challenges, all from Schneider, because they were made using a fallible database-matching technique comparing Georgia voter rolls with the National Change of Address system, which a federal court had disallowed as systematic.

“I want to be clear that breaking down the challenges” to do them one by one “is still systematic and likely violating the NVRA,” said Andrew Garber, a counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice’s Voting Rights and Elections Program, who had concerns with the quality of evidence presented and the depth of evaluation.

“The Forsyth board certainly violated the spirit of the NVRA and likely its letter as well,” said Garabadu, the attorney with the ACLU of Georgia, which sent a letter to the board warning that its decision at a September meeting to remove voters within the 90-day window “was made in violation of state and federal law and we urge you to reverse it.”

Pachuta wrote to ProPublica that “I respectfully disagree with the suggestion that considering challenges ‘one by one’ is a violation of the NVRA. Rather, I believe established authority provides that the NVRA allows removals based on individualized information at any time.” She noted that the board spent “hours during its meetings conducting individualized reviews of various data sets to make the best collective decision(s) it could.”

After a ProPublica reporter described Riggs’ experience, Luth, the board chair, said that in the future the board might refrain from removing voters from the registration rolls within the 90-day window and just put voters under a challenged status, though she emphasized it would remain a case-by-case decision. “That’s better than taking them off the rolls,” she said. “That would be where my vote would go.”

Natt, who had argued forcefully at the hearing to remove Helm and Riggs from the rolls, called the removals “a mistake” and said, “We learned from it.” He expressed remorse to ProPublica over their difficulties voting. “I don’t want voters to feel burdened,” he said. “It pained me personally.” He emphasized that the board had been operating with limited guidance from state election officials and that they had no legal choice but to rule on the challenges. “We have to respect the challenger,” said Natt, and “we have to respect the challengee.”

South of the conservative, wealthy suburbs of Forsyth County, in the county that encompasses the liberal center of Atlanta, challenges were handled differently by the left-leaning elections board — but still caused problems for election officials and voters.

By the time Chris Ramsey received a letter requesting him to appear before the Fulton County board and “defend why the challenge to your right to vote should not be sustained,” he was six months into a cancer treatment that had suppressed his immune system. On his doctor’s advice, he had stopped teaching elementary school and had people bring him groceries rather than risk interacting with crowds. But Ramsey felt he had to defend his right to vote. So on a Thursday morning in March 2023, he braved rush-hour traffic from his home on the outskirts of Atlanta to downtown, drove in circles looking for parking, paid $20, trudged three blocks to the meeting and arrived “extremely exhausted,” he recalled. Still, he was angry enough to wait nearly two hours so that he could get his turn at the microphone.

“I’m sorry, excuse my voice, I’m battling cancer,” he said hoarsely. He then proceeded to criticize the Fulton board for summoning him over a clerical error in his address that he’d previously tried to fix. But once he more fully understood that the board had just been following the law that the challenger had invoked, he suspected the challenger of having political motives. Ramsey, who identifies as a Democrat, told ProPublica, “I felt that it was a conservative person trying to make it easier for their politician to get where they need to be.”

Ramsey had been challenged by Jason Frazier, a member of the planning commission for the city of Roswell and urban farmer, who has filed almost 10,000 voter challenges in Fulton County. On a conservative podcast, Frazier described introducing other activists outside of Fulton County to the basics of voter roll analysis. He is also a prominent participant in frequent private conference calls about policing voter rolls hosted by the Election Integrity Network, a conservative organization focused on transforming election laws. During several calls, Frazier gave advice to more than 100 activists from at least 15 states, according to minutes provided by the watchdog group Documented.

The vast majority of the challenges handled in the March hearing that Ramsey attended had been submitted by Frazier, who had challenged about 1,000 people registered at nonresidential addresses, such as P.O. boxes or businesses, and another 4,000 people who he claimed lived at invalid addresses (including one member of the county elections board), most because they had the wrong directional component at the end of their street name — e.g., “SE” instead of “NE.” About a dozen people at the three-hour hearing spoke out against the challengers and Fulton officials’ handling of the challenge process. A woman who introduced herself as a survivor of domestic violence explained her use of a P.O. box as part of her “extraordinary lengths to try to protect myself and not keep my address public.” A mother complained about how addressing the challenge was taking her away from caring for her children.

“I don’t appreciate being collateral damage in this mission to clean up the voter rolls,” Sara Ketchum said to the board. Ketchum, who is Black and identifies as liberal, had temporarily moved for work from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., where she registered for a mailing address, but then returned to Georgia in time to vote. That D.C. mailing address became the basis for the challenge against her, submitted not by Frazier but by another prolific challenger. According to Georgia law, many people, such as university students, military personnel and traveling workers, may be legally registered to vote in one place but have a temporary mailing address while living in another.

Ketchum told ProPublica that she felt the challenge was a type of intimidation, given Georgia’s history of white citizens using voter challenges to suppress the Black vote. “It put in perspective that voter suppression is real and it’s actually happening,” she said.

At the meeting, Frazier defended his challenges. “I’m free labor trying to help the system to make sure everyone can vote,” he said. “I’m not trying to suppress anyone. I just want clean voter rolls for a multitude of reasons,” including to make sure absentee ballots go to the right address. He insisted that challenges needed to be processed in a way that “doesn’t hassle anyone” and blamed election officials for not making it clear that people could have responded to the challenges in ways that did not include coming to the hearing in person.

Frazier did not respond to requests for comment or to a list of detailed questions.

When Frazier himself was challenged in 2022 for being registered to vote at a business address — he sells vegetables from his farm at his house — he decried it as a “frivolous retaliatory challenge” from someone he himself had challenged. The Fulton board did not approve the challenge against Frazier.

Recently, Fulton’s Republican Party has twice nominated Frazier to become a member of the county board of elections, which would give him oversight of its employees and data. But each time the county commission voted to reject him, with one commissioner criticizing him for undermining confidence in the election’s office’s work and calling him “not a serious nomination.” At the end of June, the county GOP sued the board of commissioners, seeking to have a judge force the commissioners to appoint Frazier to the elections board.

A ProPublica analysis suggests that Frazier disproportionately challenged Democrats. Georgia election data does not track party affiliation, so officials use primary voting histories as a proxy. Of the roughly 8,000 challenges by Frazier that ProPublica obtained, about 800 voters had most recently voted in a Fulton County primary. Of those, 78% voted in the Democratic race, compared to 67% of voters across the county. Several other challengers in Fulton County, including the person who filed the challenge against Ketchum, challenged more than 90% Democratic primary voters. (In Forsyth County, the challenges submitted by Schneider show a smaller disparity: 28% Democratic primary voters, relative to 22% for the county as a whole.)

Five of the six most prolific challengers identified by ProPublica, including Frazier, have assisted or been assisted by right-wing organizations, some leaders of which were involved in efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Frazier has been a prominent participant in frequent private conference calls hosted by the Election Integrity Network, dispensing advice about how to police voter rolls to more than a hundred activists from Georgia and other states. In Gwinnett County, the state’s most populous, a trio of challengers associated with VoterGA, an organization with a stated mission of “working to restore election integrity,” needed dollies to wheel eight cardboard boxes loaded with tens of thousands of affidavits into the election office. Another Gwinnett County challenger targeted about 10,500 registrations using data provided by Look Ahead America, a conservative organization that offered data and guides for a “Ballot Challenge Program” in battleground states.

In response to questions, Look Ahead America released a statement describing how it “provided thousands of volunteers across ten states” with guidance on how to properly submit voter challenges. It also described itself as “a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation.” Garland Favorito, the co-founder of VoterGA, did not answer ProPublica’s questions about Georgians working with the organization on their challenges and its leadership’s involvement in disputing the 2020 presidential election results. When pressed for comment, he only responded, “Yes it is a provably false blatant lie.” He declined to elaborate. The Election Integrity Network did not respond to detailed questions.

Fulton County removed the most voters from its rolls of any county that ProPublica examined — roughly 1,700 — but did so mostly during the first half of 2022 when the challenges began, before switching course. Cathy Woolard, the board chair at the time, explained to ProPublica that it had made the removals while taking advice from a county lawyer and that removals were “compliant with the law.” After hiring a special counsel with more experience, however, the board switched to placing voters in “challenged” status rather than removing them, in order to “minimally impact the voter” during the 90-day protected window. (The challenges were then resolved after the election.) If Forsyth County’s board had handled challenges in this way, Helm and Riggs would not have had their difficulties voting. “Fulton County’s objective is to make certain that anyone who is able to vote gets an opportunity to vote,” said Patrise Perkins-Hooker, the special counsel who became board chair on July 1. “We prioritized the right to vote for each of our citizens and protected that through the challenge process.”

Nadine Williams, the elections director for Fulton County, said in an email to ProPublica that the challenges had “significantly” impacted her workers “due to the short turnaround time to complete the challenge process.” (SB 202 requires that challenges that place voters in “challenged status” be considered “immediately” by the board and that hearings for challenges that remove people from the rolls be held within roughly a month of being filed.) Officials from multiple counties described processing the challenges as not just time consuming but also expensive, due to the extra demands on staff and the need to hold additional public hearings and send thousands of mailers, plus hire lawyers and technology consultants.

“If this was actually fixing something or finding criminal activity, it might be worth it. But it’s harassing other citizens, distracting us from important work and not achieving the desired result,” Woolard said. Challenges, she said, have “supplanted our priorities with the priorities of a very small group of people who did these challenges.”

Despite requests from some counties for clearer direction, state officials have issued limited guidance for how counties should handle challenges, mostly advising them to rely on their attorneys.

Zach Manifold, the head of elections for Gwinnett County, said that “counties are out there on their own trying to figure out” the potential discrepancies between state and federal law regarding voter challenges. Gwinnett is Georgia’s second most populous county and had the most challenges of any of the 30 counties ProPublica examined. Almost all of them were dismissed for inadequate evidence.

The lack of direction, the overwhelming volume of challenges and the complicated intersection between SB 202 and the National Voter Registration Act have resulted in boards handling challenges in divergent ways and with different impacts on voters — as evidenced by Forsyth and Fulton counties.

Among Georgia election officials, a sense has been growing that something needs to be done about the challenges. About a week before the 2022 election, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that “we need some reform” on the challenge provision to “tighten that up” due to impacts on election officials, and he suggested that the legislature could change the law in 2023. (In the subsequent session, the Georgia legislature enacted no such measure, though it did pass another election-related bill.) In the February meeting of the State Elections Board, which can issue rules for interpreting election law, its chair, William Duffey, briefly noted that “we have already identified” challenges “as an issue that we need to address,” after a voting rights advocate raised concerns about how they were being handled disparately.

“If you have two different counties handling” analogous “challenges differently, we have an issue,” Edward Lindsey, a Republican member of Georgia’s State Election Board, told ProPublica, emphasizing that county and state election boards need to work together to solve the problem. “It’s incumbent on us to have a consistent system in determining who is and isn’t eligible to vote. That needs to be consistent across 159 counties.”

When ProPublica asked the secretary of state’s office about the inconsistent ways in which counties were handling the challenges, Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson, said: “We’re going to try to get the State Elections Board to issue guidance of some kind to answer all these questions that you have.” He said that county elections board members, who receive a small stipend for their part-time work, “are having to make these decisions affecting people’s franchise” and that the secretary of state’s office was going to encourage the state board to “give them some rules to go by.”

Asked if the inconsistencies ProPublica identified had led to internal discussions about how to update guidance around challenges, Hassinger answered, “Oh, hell yeah. Absolutely.” The secretary of state’s office subsequently issued a statement to ProPublica saying that the office had already been working on creating “uniform standards for voter challenges,” adding, “It is not ProPublica’s findings that prompted us to do so.” In another statement, the office said that it is “thankful” for “ProPublica’s additional information, and have asked the state election board to provide rules.”

Duffey, the chair of the State Election Board, said that he had not received recommendations regarding new rules from the secretary of state’s office and that he had been independently drafting a memorandum that would provide “an analytical process” to allow counties to discern if a challenge should be considered under state or federal law. He explained that past news coverage of voter challenges and complaints from election officials prompted him to ask himself during the 2022 election: “How can a county deal with that? And the fact is, they can’t. There was nobody out there that was trying to help them make the determination of how they ought to process these.”

He went on to say: “As a practical matter, they probably didn't have enough time to do it differently. But we do now. And now that the election is over, we intend to do that.”

Irena Hwang and Joel Jacobs contributed data reporting.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Doug Bock Clark, photography by Cheney Orr for ProPublica.

Amendments to two articles in the election law would prohibit those who don’t vote on July 23 from ever running for any commune, district, provincial, Senate or National Assembly office, he said at a public gathering with workers in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. 

“If you dare not vote, you won’t be able to run for councilors or Senate,” he said. “You will be done.”

The move appears to be aimed at boosting voter turnout, and in reaction to talk of an election boycott by opposition activists, according to Sam Kuntheamy, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia.

The boycott would be a way of expressing public anger over the banning of the main opposition Candlelight Party from running in the election.

The proposed amendment would also impact voters who don’t vote in this election, he said. “The amendment will change the vote from ‘right to vote’ to ‘compulsory to vote,’” he said.

Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director, said Hun Sun is trying to pressure people to vote because he thinks a high voter percentage will bring legitimacy to the election, said 

“There is nothing he can do to make the election legitimate because he has already engineered – through a bogus requirement – the disqualification of the main opposition party,” he told Radio Free Asia. 

“So this is Hun Sen running against a bunch of firefly parties, parties that really don’t have any chance of winning. And he’s trying to inflate the numbers,” he said.

‘If you dare’

Hun Sen also accused activists from the opposition Candlelight Party of launching an Internet campaign urging people not to vote. 

Last month, the National Election Committee ruled that the Candlelight Party couldn’t appear on the ballot, citing inadequate paperwork. The party had hoped to organize a demonstration this month to protest the ruling but postponed that after Hun Sen threatened to arrest the party’s vice president and other members.

Hun Sen has implemented many bad laws to protect his power since 2017, when the Supreme Court ordered the Cambodia National Rescue Party – the main opposition party at the time – to be disbanded, according to Eng Chhai Eang, a top CNRP official who now lives in the United States.

One way around the new requirement would be for voters to go to polling stations, take a ballot into a voting booth and then destroy it, he said. 

“All parties can join in this,” he said.

Only a dictator would change the election law just six weeks before an election, Robertson said.

“Hun Sen likes to borrow rights’ abusing ideas from other countries. He borrows from Singapore. He borrows from military coup governments in Thailand. He borrows whatever sort of thing he can use to try to justify whatever he needs to do,” he said.

“The reality is that this election is rigged. It’s fixed from the beginning.”

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The dome of the U.S. Capitol is reflected, on Jan. 6, 2022 in Washington, D.C.

Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Image

Imagine that your family has a generations-long tradition that requires that for every 10th dinner, you search your neighbors’ trash cans like raccoons and eat whatever garbage you find.

Usually none of you asks why you do this. It’s just what you learned from your parents. But occasionally someone does some family research and finds out it originated in the early 1800s, when your great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather explained in his diary that he was creating this custom “so every feventh child will expire from famonella.” And you have to admit this still works, since every now and then one of your children dies from food-borne illness. Yet you keep on eating the garbage.

This is what American politics is like, except we have dozens of these aged traditions whose purpose is actively malevolent or simply serves no purpose at all. They nonetheless cling like barnacles to our life in the 21st century. We just can’t get our act together to get rid of them. 

The debt ceiling plaguing Washington politics — and, potentially, poisoning the rest of us — is just one of at least six of these abominable ideas.

The Debt Limit

Believe it or not, the debt ceiling is an improvement on what the United States used to do. Congress once required the executive branch to get its permission to do any borrowing whatsoever and in fact, often specified all the details — i.e., how long the bonds would take to mature, what interest rate it would pay, etc. 

This was a terrible way to run a country and to its credit Congress over the decades after World War I changed this awful system into another, slightly less awful one. Now Congress just limits the total borrowing by the government and lets the Treasury Department take care of the details. 

But it still makes no sense. Congress has already ordered the executive branch to spend money on certain activities and also levy certain taxes. It’s contradictory and silly for Congress to also say that the government can only borrow a certain amount of money to make up whatever difference between the spending and taxes it itself has required.

It’s also dangerous. No one knows exactly what will happen if the debt limit is breached, and the Biden administration then fails to use the various options it has to keep paying the bills. But it definitely would be extremely unpleasant.

In the past, this danger has never manifested in reality, for good reason. A debt limit imbroglio would immediately cause the most pain to the financial and corporate interests traditionally represented by the Republican Party. As some people have observed, the GOP’s refusal to raise the debt limit unconditionally is like a crazed man pointing a gun at his head and saying, “Give me what I want, or I’ll shoot!”

But there are two problems with this metaphor. First, a strong faction of the Republican Party appears to have convinced itself that shooting itself in the head wouldn’t hurt that much. Second, the rest of the country is the GOP’s metaphorical conjoined twin. If that faction decides to commit suicide, it’s going to cause severe problems for us too.

Pretty much the only other country that has created this pointless problem for itself is Denmark. I lived there briefly when I was 6 years old, and while they broadcast American shows on TV, they didn’t have ads to accompany them and just filled up the extra time with footage of goldfish swimming around in a bowl. Keeping the debt limit will inevitably lead us down the path to this kind of horrifying socialism. 

The Electoral College

The U.S. right constantly proclaims that the Electoral College is a sign of the enduring wisdom of our founders, who created it to give smaller rural states a voice in the choice of the president.

This means that they must also believe the Founding Fathers were dolts with absolutely no idea what they were doing. Of the first five presidents, four of them were from Virginia, and all four served two terms. Meanwhile, the only exception, John Adams from Massachusetts, was in office for just four years. This means that during the first 36 years of presidents, the chief executive was a Virginian for 32 of them. And during this period, Virginia was either America’s biggest or second-biggest state.

However, America’s founders were not in fact incredibly incompetent. The actual rationale for the Electoral College was explained by James Madison in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention. Madison said he believed the best way to choose a president would be by popular vote, which “would be as likely as any that could be devised to produce an Executive Magistrate of distinguished Character.” 

But “there was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people.” This was, Madison said, the fact that Southern states generally had stricter limits on which men could vote, and more of their population was enslaved. This meant that the South “could have no influence in [a popular] election” and so would never support a Constitution that used this method. Hence the Electoral College kludge was necessary to get the U.S. off the ground. 

The Senate

Madison, however, was by no means all-in on democracy. As he also said at the Constitutional Convention, he believed that for the new country to endure, part of the government had to represent the “invaluable interests” of large, rich landowners and make sure the rabble couldn’t vote to take their wealth away. Part of the structure they were creating in Philadelphia, Madison believed, “ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body.”

The Constitution originally ordained that senators would be elected by state legislatures. This was altered by the 17th Amendment, and senators have been popularly elected since 1913. Nonetheless, Madison’s scheme continues to work surprisingly well, with the Senate still being the place where the political hopes of Americans go to die.

One solution here would be for the California legislature to wait until Democrats control the federal House and Senate. Then California could separate itself into 68 heavily gerrymandered blue states with Wyoming-sized populations. Congress could admit all the new states and their 136 Democratic senators into the union — and then easily block any red states from trying something similar. This would be totally constitutional and be worth it just to get the U.S. right to stop talking about the wisdom of the founders.

The Filibuster

The Senate is inherently against popular democracy. But those running it have long believed that it isn’t anti-democracy enough and so have supported the supermajority requirements of the filibuster. Between 1917 and 1994, 30 bills were stopped from passage thanks to the filibuster. Half of these were civil rights measures, including anti-lynching measures, the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and attempts to outlaw poll taxes. This is why in 2020, Barack Obama called the filibuster a “Jim Crow relic.” But neither he nor any prominent Democrats has put much energy into getting rid of it. 

“First Past the Post” Voting

The way voting generally works in the U.S. is that whoever gets the most votes wins. This is simple, easy to understand, and bad. It naturally creates a two-party duopoly, since each party can accurately harangue any miscreants within its ranks tempted to vote for a third party that they will simply act as spoilers — i.e., if they vote for their first-choice candidate, they’re merely making it more likely that their last-choice candidate will win.

There are several excellent solutions to this problem, including instant-runoff voting and — for House elections on a state and federal level — multimember districts. The problem here is that both the Democratic and Republican parties love the current setup and are not interested in creating more competition for themselves just because it would be good for America.

Most political commentators don’t have the courage to tell you this, but I do: All of our current suffering is the fault of the Florida Panhandle.

The Florida Panhandle

Geographically and culturally, the Florida Panhandle makes no sense. On any sensible map, it would belong to Alabama. But it’s part of Florida thanks to ancient colonial struggles between the United Kingdom, Spain, and France — struggles that happened before there even was a United States.

If Florida didn’t have its conservative panhandle, Al Gore would have easily beaten George W. Bush in Florida in the 2000 election and become president. The Bush administration resolutely ignored all the warnings from its intelligence agencies about the coming 9/11 attacks, but Gore almost certainly would have taken the threat seriously enough to disrupt the terrorist plot. No 9/11, no Iraq War. And no Bush presidency, no majority on the Supreme Court for Citizens United and the ensuing catastrophic surge of cash into the U.S. political system. Moreover, the 2007-2008 economic disaster would probably not have occurred or would have been significantly less severe.

Instead the Florida Panhandle gave us our current country, which is constantly going haywire. It also gave us Errol Morris’s documentary “Vernon, Florida,” originally titled “Nub City,” about a small town where many residents have amputated their own limbs in order to collect dismemberment insurance.

So that’s thaT: six ghastly political ideas that do nothing but torment us. We’re currently experiencing this with the debt ceiling and may soon feel it to a far greater degree. Yet we don’t have it in us to get rid of any of them. It’s enough to make you think the most powerful force in human society isn’t the normal candidates like money or sex, but inertia.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Jon Schwarz.

The accident occurred May 14 at the Julong Copper and Polymetallic Mine site operated by Tibet Julong Copper Co. Ltd. in copper-rich Gyama township in Meldrogunkar county of Lhasa prefecture. China’s Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd. owns a 50.1% stake in the subsidiary.

The six missing miners work at Fujian Xingwanxiang Construction Group Co., Ltd., subcontracted by Tibet Julong Copper Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group, to perform the project construction. Their names and ethnic identities have not been released.

After the accident, Julong Copper began an emergency and rescue plan and reported the incident to the relevant government departments, Zijin Mining Group said Monday in a statement filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and posted on the company’s website. 

Julong Copper also suspended production and was investigating the incident, which “led to the loss of contact with six Xingwanxiang staff members,” it said.

“The company will continue to pay attention to the Incident, and discharge its information disclosure obligations in a timely manner,” the statement said. 

Zijin Mining Group has not posted any updates, and did not respond to attempts to gather more information.

It owns three sites in Tibet, which generate nearly half of the company’s revenue, said Dhondup Wangmo, a research fellow at the Tibet Policy Institute in Dharamsala, India.

Expansion of mining

Mining and mineral exploration have increased dramatically on the Tibetan Plateau since 2006 following the arrival of the Golmud-Lhasa railway link and Chinese government programs and promotion. 

With it has come an increase in pollution and a destruction of pasture land, prompting Tibetan protests over harm caused to the environment and local livestock.

A surge in the Chinese government’s mining activities in Meldrogunkar’s Gyama Valley began as early as in the 1980s and has yielded valuable resources such as gold and copper for products benefiting China’s economy, said a Tibetan from the area who now lives in exile.

“But it has come at the cost of environmental degradation and the relocation of Tibetan nomads who grazed their animals there,” said the source who asked that his identity not be disclosed. 

“The forced settlement of nomads is a policy that China’s Communist Party has been pushing for years in Tibet,” he said.

The increased mining activity also led to pollution and contaminated water sources that killed animals who drank from them, he said. 

“Tibetans in the region have protested over the years — many have been detained and many imprisoned as well,” the Tibetan said. 

Operations at one Gyama copper and gold mine was the scene of a catastrophic landslide that killed 83 people, mostly Chinese migrant workers in March 2013, drawing attention to the toll that mining and industrialization were having in Tibet.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lobe Socktsang for RFA Tibetan.

From Australia to Zimbabwe, mothers on Saturday peacefully occupied public spaces and called for urgent societal transformation to avert the worst impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.

Joined by loved ones on the eve of Mother's Day, moms across the globe sat down in protest circles, where they highlighted the deadly consequences of the status quo and demanded lifesaving climate action.

"With our circles we convey that we refuse to look away, that we refuse to give up, and that we will do everything we can," Mother's Rebellion for Climate Justice said in a statement.

Participants made clear that children and impoverished people who bear the least responsibility for the climate crisis face the most harm, and that failing to fundamentally reform the global political economy threatens to decimate younger and future generations.

"Children are feeling betrayed because they see that governments are not doing enough, or are actively delaying meaningful climate action."

"Children are feeling betrayed because they see that governments are not doing enough, or are actively delaying meaningful climate action," said Marion, a mother and member of Doctors for Extinction Rebellion (Health for XR). "Those that are meant to protect and safeguard them, are ignoring and turning their backs on the children in this country, and on the children in the Global South who are already facing the impacts of a heating climate, as well as the fallout from environmental destruction and exploitation of resources."

"If we don't act now, it will be too late," Marion warned. "I could not live with myself, as a mother, as a doctor, and as a human being, if we didn't do all we can to try and bring about the much-needed systemic change."

Mothers' Rebellion, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion launched last year in Sweden, describes itself as "a growing global community of women who want to be able to look our children in the eyes and say that we truly do all that we can." Fed up with "the lack of a powerful, transformative response from our politicians and leaders," the alliance "will not give up the fight for a sustainable present and future for the current and coming generations."

On Saturday, moms gathered in more than a dozen countries on every continent except Antarctica to build support for "the necessary changes to keep our planet healthy so that all its inhabitants can thrive," Extinction Rebellion Families (XR Families) explained.

Demonstrations took place in Australia, Costa Rica, Finland, Germany, India, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

\u201cGlobal #MothersDay "Mothers Rebellion"! Demands climate action across six continents. \nAll photos c/o @ExtinctionR \nhttps://t.co/yXO3mxm6lc\u201d

— Antonia Juhasz (@Antonia Juhasz) 1684079271

"My heart aches when I think about the extreme heatwaves and devastating floods that my relatives in Malaysia have endured over the past few months," said Feng, a mother of two and member of XR Families. "It's not just about my family, but the countless others who are facing the brunt of climate change. That's why I will be at the Mothers' Rebellion, fighting for a livable planet for today’s children and all future generations. We owe it to them to take action now, before it's too late."

Kristine, a mother and member of Health for XR, said that "as healthcare professionals, it is our duty to identify and act on risks to children."

"As a mother and doctor, I cannot sit silently and watch this injustice to children across the world."

"Currently 85% of the burden of climate health impacts is falling on those under 5 years of age," said Kristine. "These health impacts include malnutrition, heat exposure, water scarcity, infectious diseases such as malaria and Lyme disease, and high levels of air pollution causing worsening asthma and childhood cancers."

"I am seeing these devastating impacts on children in my daily work, even in the U.K.," she continued. "As a mother and doctor, I cannot sit silently and watch this injustice to children across the world and that's why I will be at the Mothers' Rebellion and demand urgent climate action from world leaders."

According to XR Families:

Mothers' Rebellion wants a livable, socially just, inclusive world for all children. Almost all children on Earth are already exposed to at least one form of climate and environmental danger or stress. Mothers' Rebellion demand immediate action to reduce emissions to net-zero by 2025, starting with the phase-out of fossil fuels, and to protect and repair ecosystems whilst also addressing social inequality.

Approximately one billion children—nearly half the world’s 2.2 billion children—live in one of the 33 countries classified as [being at] "extremely high-risk" to the effects of climate change. These figures are likely to get worse as the impacts of climate change accelerate. The climate crisis is also affecting children's mental health. A global survey illustrates the depth of anxiety many young people are feeling about climate change. Nearly 60% of young people approached said they felt very worried or extremely worried. 83% think adults have failed to take care of the planet.

The Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health is calling for child health to be a central theme in all climate change policy decisions. All children should have the right to clean air, safe water, sanitation, affordable and nutritious food, and shelter. The climate crisis is a child rights crisis, and governments should mobilize and allocate resources to protect those rights and include a child rights risk assessment as part of all climate policy decisions.

"I consider the crowning glory of my life to be in the presence of my four grandchildren," said Valerie, a retired doctor and Health XR member. "How, in my late autumn years, can I justify my existence on this beautiful planet if it is not dedicated to whatever action I trust may play a part in preserving it and its glorious biodiversity—for them and all the world's children, born and yet to be?"

"Nothing else in my life can take precedence over this," Valerie continued. "Science does not lie. I call upon all grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts and friends, older siblings, and those who work with young people in this ultimate expression of love for them—and for their children."

"Without a habitable planet, what value has everything else we may wish to bequeath to them?" she asked.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Kenny Stancil.

The cyclone had earlier on Sunday intensified to a Category Five storm, with wind speeds reaching as high as 220 kilometers per hour (137 miles per hour), according to the Myanmar Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.

At least six people have been reported dead across Myanmar.

The United Nations and its humanitarian partners said they are preparing a “scaled-up cyclone response.”

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Myanmar said before the cyclone, an estimated six million people were “already in humanitarian need” in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, and the regions of Chin, Magway and Sagaing, where Mocha is expected to hit.

“Collectively, these states in the country’s west host 1.2 million displaced people, many of whom are fleeing conflict and are living in the open without proper shelter,” said OCHA, warning of “a nightmare scenario.” 

Earlier fears that the cyclone might directly hit Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh – where up to one million Rohingya refugees live in crowded, low-lying camps – did not materialize, reported a correspondent for BenarNews, an online news outlet affiliated with Radio Free Asia.

The cyclone made landfall at around 3 p.m. and moved on from the area after 5 p.m. It missed Cox’s Bazar city but hit refugee camps in Teknaf, a sub-district and Bangladesh’s southernmost town, and Saint Martin’s Island in the Bay of Bengal, damaging houses and uprooting trees, the correspondent reported.

About 2,000 houses were destroyed – including 1,200 houses on Saint Martin’s Island – and there was damage to 10,000 other homes, according to Muhammad Shaheen Imran, the head of Cox’s Bazar district civil administration. There were no reports of landslides in Teknaf, as feared by authorities.

“Thank God, we have been saved,” Bangladesh’s Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Md. Enamur Rahman told BenarNews. “We feared for huge damage, but we have yet to get reports of major damage.”

Saint Martin’s Island resident Halim Ali told BenarNews that his house was flattened and his belongings were washed away.

“Saint Martin’s is a devasted place: houses destroyed, trees uprooted,” he said.

Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, said that Mocha is one of the biggest storms that has ever occurred in the Bay of Bengal.

“It is stronger than Nargis,” Koll told RFA, referring to the cyclone that left nearly 140,000 people dead and missing in 2008.

Cyclone Mocha formed on Thursday, causing heavy rains and a coastal surge in Rakhine state starting on Friday. 

“Cyclone frequency is more or less the same in the Bay of Bengal – but once they form, they are intensifying quickly,” the scientist said. “This is in response to warmer oceans under climate change.”

Killed by falling trees

Mocha started crossing the Rakhine coast in southwestern Myanmar on Sunday afternoon.

In Tachileik city in northeastern Shan state, a married couple were buried in their house in a landslide caused by heavy rains on Sunday morning, according to the Hla Moe Tachilek Social Assistance Association.

Two people in Rakhine state, one man in the Irrawaddy region and another man in the Mandalay region were killed by falling trees.

In Sittwe, Rakhine state’s capital, a telecom tower collapsed under high winds and mobile phone signals are down. Residents have been sharing images of damaged houses and roads on social media.

The winds were still ravaging Sittwe as of Sunday afternoon and local authorities warned its 150,000 inhabitants to stay indoors.

Hundreds of Sittwe’s residents were already evacuated to the inland town of Mrauk-U on Saturday. 

The Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine rebel group, said more than 10,000 people had been relocated from 21 villages on the coast and in low-lying areas in the state since Thursday.

Reported by Abdur Rahman in Cox's Bazar and Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Dhaka for BenarNews, and by RFA staff. Edited by Paul Eckert and Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese and BenarNews.

Students nationally rallied on May 3rd for the Freedom to Learn, taking action to challenge censorship, book banning and voter suppression sweeping the country. They are demanding the right to learn their history and that of their forebears, even if it makes others “uncomfortable.” The day of protest fell on an auspicious anniversary. Sixty years earlier, on May 3rd, 1963, thousands of young people risked their lives in Birmingham, Alabama, on the second day of what became known as The Children’s Crusade. Images of the march shocked people worldwide, as Black children and teens engaging in non-violent protest were brutalized with police dogs, clubs and water cannons.

Birmingham was considered the Jim Crow South’s most segregated and most violent city, controlled for decades by a racist political boss named Bull Connor. The courage demonstrated by those young people that day was remarkable, and contributed to enduring change – change that is now threatened.

“Sixty years ago today, I woke up with my mind on freedom,” Children’s Crusade participant Janice Kelsey recalled, speaking on the Democracy Now! news hour. “I had attended student nonviolent workshops, and I was prepared, because I finally understood that it was more than just segregation, it was inequality.”

Janice Kelsey continued, “In the preparation sessions that were held at 16th Street Baptist Church, we had seen film of demonstrations in other places, so I saw people being hit, being called names and being mistreated for demonstrating. We were told that if you participate, some of this may happen to you, but this is a nonviolent movement, and you cannot respond, except to pray or sing a freedom song…I was so incensed at having been mistreated all these years, until I was willing to sacrifice whatever was necessary to take steps to change the environment.”

The Birmingham campaign was planned in secret in January, 1963 by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a handful of his closest associates, including the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, James Bevel and Fred Shuttlesworth. The late Harry Belafonte rescued King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference from near bankruptcy, raising for the Birmingham campaign, in one night at a fundraiser he hosted, close to $500,000 – almost $5 million in 2023 dollars. This history is detailed in the newly published book, “You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America,” by Paul Kix. The title’s first sentence comes from words Shuttlesworth spoke at Belafonte’s fundraiser.

Days later, the Birmingham campaign began, as Kix quotes King, to “break segregation or be broken by it.” When it didn’t take off with hoped-for intensity, King himself marched and was arrested. While in Bull Connor’s jail, he clandestinely penned “The Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

One of King’s key advisors was Vincent Harding, an African American war veteran who had embraced non-violence. Speaking on Democracy Now! in 2008, Harding explained the Children’s Campaign:

“There was a whole development in which many of the protesters were young people, and in some cases children, who came to play a crucial role in leading the struggle against segregation, partly because many of the adults were afraid to, couldn’t afford to, were worried about what would happen to them and their livelihoods if they did it.”

Vincent Harding played a role in helping King deliver his secretly-penned letter, which explained why American Blacks, especially in the South, were tired of waiting for change.

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed,” King wrote. “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights.”

340 years before 1963 was 1623, four years after 1619, the year the first ship carrying enslaved Africans arrived on the shores of what would become the United States.

History matters. And right now the right-wing is attempting to obliterate the often violent, racist history of the United States.

“It’s very discouraging and frightening to see leaders in legislatures and governors who are trying to push back on the gains that were made due to the tremendous sacrifices that were made by young people 60 years ago…I’m hoping and praying that our young people will step up again and say, ‘No, we are not going back,’” Janice Kelsey said.

As this column was going to press, ten young Dream Defenders, committed to racial justice, were occupying the office of Republican Florida Gov. Ron Desantis. “He stokes division to try and make white people afraid and I’m here to say that we will not be divided…we are stronger when we stand together,” Julia Daniel, one of the occupiers, said in a statement.

Janice Kelsey needn’t worry. Today’s youth, like those of 1963, are taking a stand.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Denis Moynihan.

What do we know, and what can we support about the following?

1. The Psychology of the Scarcity Experience

Humans across all evolutionary forms have faced scarcity—from the impact of weather on the food supply to competition with nonhuman animals for food and shelter.

The experience of material scarcity of this scale generated an individual psychological dynamic and societal reflex of fear and loss. The perennial uncertainty of survival was also magnified by interhuman aggression, conflict, and hierarchy.

2. Historical and Transhistorical Trauma

What we call trauma—emergency response, risk, and loss—follows and has a multigenerational impact on individuals, families, social groups, and nations that is carried into all lives through the imposition of extreme fight-or-flight-response-triggered behaviors.

These dynamics inform the tendency in humans to impose a “scarcity experience” on nonmaterial scarcity situations. The scarcity experience has permeated across history into our institutions, conventions, expectations, and beliefs.

3. Variety Within the Human Population

Add to the uneven distribution of inherited trauma (and social responses to the scarcity experience) the genetic differences of human populations, which are combinations of distinct groups of human ancestors, and we can be sure that just as there are demonstrated physical markers of difference among populations with regard to biological systems, there are also key behavioral markers.

Understanding these behavioral markers may help unpack the crisis of legitimacy facing democratic nations in which extreme partisanship regarding values and politics has produced culture wars. Legitimacy and illegitimacy are essentially about the conflict between bonding nests of insular common sense, fear, blame, belief, and expectation.

4. The Uneven ‘Fight-or-Flight’ Response

These traumatic experiences have been unevenly distributed over populations and individuals over time and geography. This might be a part of the explanation for the fight-or-flight polarity of behaviors seen in the human population in response to fear, risk, and danger. The responses can produce a wide range of social environments, from calm and cooperative to conflictual and antagonistic.

5. Negative/Positive Human Bonding

“Good enough” bonding is key to cooperative and considerate social relations, and an overall society based on goodwill.

We know that when life is uncertain—when birthing and infancy are high-risk and death is so common that the naming of children was often delayed—blame for loss is rampant, and, as a result, multiple complex patterns of bonding fractures replace bonding with longing (selfishness, greed, violence, blame, hoarding) in likely individual and group behavior.

All this is processed through personal and cultural temperaments, and so a fairly wide range of action, values, and empathy exists and can be exaggerated in one or another direction—a sense of kin, widely or narrowly shared.

6. The Uneven History of Human Collaboration

There is widespread evidence stretching over centuries in different parts of the planet of goodwill and visions of shared well-being, of cooperative discourse and reparative ideals that might be called on with new vigor. These have long aimed to counter the dominance of extreme fight-or-flight/scarcity panic psychology, blaming and maiming communication and political engagement in the long and ongoing story of human society.

Making Use of It

Perhaps this perspective on scarcity and bonding can help us see ourselves differently and find our way.

Currently, we are witnessing the failure of the historic progressive agenda, and a dramatic decline in the legitimacy of democracy as a governing ideal.

At the same time, the right wing has, for over 50 years, rooted itself in key political positions and popularized regressive ideas and ideals through coercion, shaming, and exclusivity.

The power of the right is based on having gained the trust of people. As the public has lost its sense of higher purpose, the progressive agenda has become delegitimized. Ironically, rich people are lionized by working people—despite the damage to their own lives because wealth stands for strength and prospect.

The damaging philosophy of neoliberalism has morphed into something more sinister. We are witnessing the capture of the public sphere by dangerous politicians promoting destructive ideologies often built on lies and disinformation. These ideologies have led to a worldwide spread of authoritarianism, which some argue is a zeitgeist more capable than democracy for handling economic, environmental, and social crises. How do we shape a democratic future living in a zeitgeist that is tightening its grip across the globe?

This article was produced by Human Bridges, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Colin Greer.

A police officer points a weapon at demonstrators during a protest against French President Emmanuel Macron's proposed pension overhaul in Paris on April 13, 2023.(Photo: Firas Abdullah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

According toCNN, the French government has imposed a ban on protests near the Constitutional Council from Thursday night through Saturday morning.

Last month, Macron advanced his plan to increase the minimum eligible retirement age as well as the number of years one must work to qualify for full benefits through executive order, bypassing the National Assembly once it became clear that his legislative proposal did not have enough support to pass France's lower house. The Senate had already approved the bill, including it in a budget package that expedited the process.

The labor movement has been organizing weekly strikes and peaceful rallies since mid-January, and the president's blatantly anti-democratic move to circumvent a vote only intensified working-class fury. The government, meanwhile, has responded with an increasingly repressive crackdown.

Union leaders, who have implored workers to maintain pressure on the government, called for a 12th round of action on Thursday.

Outside the capital, thousands of people also marched in Marseille, Toulouse, and other cities, including Nantes and Rennes, where a car was set ablaze.

"In Paris, banks and expensive stores secured their front windows with wooden boards but nevertheless, demonstrators broke into the headquarters of the French luxury group LVMH and set off firecrackers," Al Jazeera reported. "The authorities deployed 11,500 police officers, 4,200 of them in Paris alone."

Outside the LVMH building, union leader Fabien Villedieu toldCNN affiliate BFMTV that "if Macron wants to find money to finance the pension system, he should come here to find it."

“The mobilization is far from over," General Confederation of Labor leader Sophie Binet said at a trash incineration site south of Paris where hundreds of protesters blocked garbage trucks.

"As long as this reform isn't withdrawn, the mobilization will continue in one form or another," Binet added.

The nine-member Constitutional Council is expected to issue a binding ruling by the end of Friday to "partially approve, fully accept, or reject" Macron's proposed changes, Al Jazeera noted. "On Tuesday and Thursday, left-wing lawmakers visited the council to urge them to completely ban the reform. They have argued that the government's unorthodox method of resorting to a budget law to pass a pension reform, as well as invoking controversial Article 49.3 of the Constitution to bypass a parliament vote, is grounds for it to be thrown out."

Police officers detain a man demonstrating against French President Emmanuel Macron's proposed pension overhaul in Paris on April 13, 2023.(Photo: Ameer Alhalbi/Getty Images)

Progressive legislators and union leaders have portrayed the left's struggle against Macron's pension attack as a struggle for democracy in France.

A poll released last week found that reactionary lawmaker Marine Le Pen—leader of the far-right National Rally party, the largest opposition force in Parliament—would beat Macron by a margin of 55% to 45% in a head-to-head rematch. The neoliberal incumbent defeated Le Pen in a runoff election last April, but the openly xenophobic and Islamophobic challenger has gained significant ground since their first matchup in 2017.

"Either trade unions win this, or it will be the far right," Villedieu said last week. "If you sicken people—and that is what's happening—the danger is the arrival of the far right."

Ahead of Thursday's protests, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted: "This reform is unjust and violent. The French have been asking for it to be withdrawn for months, the government has to hear them."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

The Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court in the eastern province of Jiangsu handed down a prison sentence of nine years for abuse and wrongful imprisonment to Dong Zhimin, the man with whom the woman had lived since 1998, state news agency Xinhua reported.

However, the accusations of rape made by the woman weren't mentioned by the court, in a case has shone a spotlight on the prevalence of trafficking and rape of women and girls in China.

The court also sentenced five other people to jail terms of up to 13 for "trafficking in women," the report said.

Five of the six defendants pleaded guilty during a trial that lasted two days, it said, in a case that has become the poster child for women's rights – or the lack of them – in China,

"The woman later identified as Xiaohuamei was abducted from her hometown in Yunnan province and taken to Jiangsu province in 1998," Xinhua reported, citing the court. "She was later trafficked three times before being purchased by Dong's family in Feng county."

Shackled and starved

Xiaohuamei bore Dong eight children during her incarceration, during which she was frequently shackled and starved, particularly after her mental health deteriorated, the report said.

"From July 2017 to the point at which Xiaohua was discovered, Dong Zhimin imprisoned and tortured Xiaohuamei, tying her with cloth ropes and chains around her neck," the court found. "During this period, Xiaohuamei's food supply and daily needs weren't always met, and she often suffered from hunger and cold."

"The place she was living in was very hard on her, with no water supply, electricity, or sunlight," it said, adding that the woman identified as Xiaohuamei had since been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

"The court said Dong's abusive acts rendered Xiaohuamei's schizophrenia irreversible and caused serious injuries," the report said. 

‘Nothing has been solved’

Chinese director Hu Xueyang, who made a documentary to raise awareness of the case, and of trafficking and rape in China, said the case still counts as an official cover-up.

"They targeted Dong Zhimin, who is at the bottom of the entire chain, just to appease public anger," Hu said. "Actually, nothing has been solved."

"This verdict is just being used ... as a way to cover up the horrible crimes of selling and raping Chinese women, that have been going on for decades," he said.

While the authorities quickly identified the woman as Yang Qingxia, known by her nickname Xiaohuamei, a young woman who went missing in the southwestern province of Yunnan in the 1990s, social media users still take issue with the claim, saying the woman more closely resembles a missing woman from Sichuan province, Li Ying.

Public anger over widespread trafficking in women and girls, mostly for "marriage" to men who can't find willing partners, remains high in China since the woman's discovery.

Twitter account "Save the chained woman" commented on the sentences: "Kidnapping, human trafficking, illegal detention, rape, intentional injury and killings of trafficked women in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province."

"How can such terrible deeds be stopped? When will the trafficked women living in hell on earth regain their freedom?"

‘Green light for traffickers’

Twitter user Martin Lyu commented: "The victim is still only being referred to as Xiaohuamei, not even by a formal name," while "Moreless” commented that the sentences were a "green light" to traffickers.

Former Sina Weibo censor Liu Lipeng said Dong Zhimin was easy for the authorities to target, as he is neither a member of the ruling party nor a local official.

"The point of not prosecuting anyone for rape is to avoid the death penalty or a life sentence," Liu said via his Twitter account. "As a result, a large number of victims of large-scale human trafficking ... have come forward to demand the case be overturned."

Rights lawyer Lu Tingge agreed, saying that the sentences are carefully judged to "maintain stability" in a case that has shocked many middle-class Chinese to the core.

"They are avoiding the most serious allegation, because of the high profile that this case has," Lu said. "They are seeking to minimize the impact to maintain stability, [and] so they don't have to investigate local [officials] for criminal responsibility."

‘Ignored public doubts’

Lu said the authorities' handling of the case had totally ignored public doubts.

"They just go right ahead regardless of the questions," he said. "The police are blatantly covering up crimes now – they're the criminals here."

According to U.S.-based economist He Qinglian, the counties around Xuzhou have a long history of human trafficking.

"The case of the chained woman has forced Chinese people at home and overseas to relive the vile abduction and sale of some 50,000 women in the 1980s; it has also revealed that there has been a criminal community of human traffickers in and around Dongji township, where that abducted woman was kept chained up for so many years," she wrote in a commentary for RFA Mandarin at the time of the women's discovery.

He's comments have been backed up by the relatives of trafficking victims, prompting some to speak out more openly about the abuse suffered by their close relatives.

But analysts and activists interviewed for an award-winning investigative report by RFA Mandarin said the political will is lacking at the local level to eradicate its systemic causes.

Part of the problem is the systematic disempowerment of victims, many of whom are abducted, trafficked and subjected to regular abuse from a young age, and kept locked up by their persecutors, leaving them with severe trauma and other mental illness.

Some women develop Stockholm Syndrome, a state of intense dependence on and emotional attachment to abusers by victims of kidnap and prolonged incarceration and abuse, they said.

Meanwhile, the authorities have also retaliated against people who spoke out over the Jiangsu chained woman case, jailing Guangxi dissident Lu Huihuang for four-and-a-half years last November after he called on the ruling Communist Party to fully investigate the case.

Lu refused to accept the judgment and has expressed his intention to appeal.

Authorities also arrested Chen Zhiming, chief editor of the Hong Kong-based political magazine Exclusive Characters, in a move that Germany-based poet Yang Lian said was likely linked to his magazine's recent focus on the chained woman case. 

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Yitong Wu and Chingman for RFA Cantonese.

• Nashville Police Chief says shooter legally bought guns used in yesterday’s school massacre
• Idaho lawmakers give near final approval to bill criminalizing gender affirming care for transgender kids
• Federal Reserve bank supervisors say they warned Silicon Valley Bank in fall of 2021 against risky practices
• French police clash with protesters as hundreds of thousands demonstrate against pension changes
• Tenants shine the light on practices of corporate landlord Blackstone
• Governor Newsom signs first in the nation law aimed at halting oil company price gouging

Image from Moms Demand Action

The post Nashville shooter legally bought guns used to kill six at Christian school; Governor Newsom signs groundbreaking law aimed at stemming gasoline price gouging; Nationwide demonstrations and strikes against pension reforms in France: ; Evening News March 28 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

The sanctions came just days before Myanmar celebrated its 78th Armed Forces Day on Monday.

The announcement on Friday targeted two individuals, Tun Min Latt and his wife Win Min Soe, and six companies including, Asia Sun Trading Co. Ltd., which purchased jet fuel for the junta’s air force; Cargo Link Petroleum Logistics Co. Ltd., which transports jet fuel to military bases; and Asia Sun Group, the “key operator in the jet fuel supply chain.”

The statement said that since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup that overthrew the country’s democratically elected government, the junta continually targeted the people of Myanmar with atrocities and violence, including airstrikes in late 2022 in Let Yet Kone village in central Myanmar that hit a school with children and teachers inside, and another in Kachin state that targeted a music concert and killed 80 people.

According to a March 3 report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, junta-led airstrikes more than doubled from 125 in 2021 to 301 in 2022.

Those airstrikes would have been impossible without access to fuel supplies, according to reports from civil society organizations, Friday’s announcement said. 

“Burma’s military regime continues to inflict pain and suffering on its own people,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “The United States remains steadfast in its commitment to the people of Burma, and will continue to deny the military the materiel it uses to commit these atrocities.”

The announcement named Tun Min Latt as the key individual in procuring fuel supplies for the military, saying he was a close associate of the junta’s leader Sr. Gen Min Aung Hlaing. Through his companies, he engaged in business to import military arms and equipment with U.S. sanctioned Chinese arms firm NORINCO, the announcement said.

“The United States continues to promote accountability for the Burmese military regime’s assault on the democratic aspirations of the people of Burma,” said U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a separate statement. “The regime continues to inflict pain and suffering on the people of Burma.”

The additional sanctions by the U.S. aligned with actions taken by Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union, Blinken said.

Cutting bloodlines

“I am very thankful to the United States for these sanctions,” Nay Phone Lat, the spokesperson for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, told Radio Free Asia’s Burmese Service. “I know that sanctions are usually done one step after another. It’s like cutting the bloodlines of the military junta one after another.”

He said that the shadow government was trying to cut each route of support for the junta, including jet fuel, one after another.

“[The junta’s] capability of suppressing and killing innocent civilians will be lessened,” he said.

Banyar, the director of the Karenni Human Rights Group, which was among 516 civil organizations that made a request in December to the United Kingdom to take immediate action to prevent British companies from transporting or selling jet fuel to the Myanmar military junta, told RFA that the U.S. sanctions would have many impacts. 

“If you look at the patterns, the number one thing is that taking action against these companies that provide services to the junta directly discredits the military junta,” he said. “And the sanctioned companies are also punished in some ways. We can say that this is also a way to pressure other companies to not support the military junta.”

But Myanmar has been sanctioned before to little effect, said Thein Tun Oo, executive director of Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, which is made up of former military officers.

“No matter what sanctions are imposed, there will not be any major impact on Myanmar as it has learned how to survive through sanctions. There may be a little percentage of economic slowdown but that’s about it,” he said.

The military has many options when it comes to buying jet fuel, said Thein Tun Oo.

“We are not buying from just one source that they have just sanctioned, we can buy from all other sources. Jet fuel is produced from not just one place,” he said. “If we want it from countries in affiliation with the United States, we may have problems but the United States is not the only country that produces jet fuel, so there is no problem for the Myanmar military.”

The military could look to China, Thailand, India or Russia for jet fuel if necessary, political analyst Than Soe Naing told RFA.

“The sanctions imposed against the Myanmar military are little more than an expression of opinion, in my point of view, as they cannot actually restrict the junta effectively from getting what it needs,” said Than Soe Naing. “The reason is that the three neighboring countries and Russia can still supply the junta with the jet fuel from many other routes.”

Ze Thu Aung, a former Air Force captain who left the military to join an armed resistance movement after the coup, told RFA that U.S. sanctions are not enough to stop the junta.

“Whatever sanctions [Washington] imposes, the military junta can still survive as it is still in control of its major businesses such as the jade, oil and natural gas industries,” he said. “They have enormous funds left. They have Russia backing them as well. China is supporting them to some extent, too.”

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Eugene Whong and Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

Climate justice advocates celebrated Friday after a half-dozen island nations committed to building a "fossil fuel-free Pacific" and urged all governments to join them in bringing about an equitable phaseout of coal, oil, and gas.

From Wednesday to Friday, Vanuatu and Tuvalu co-hosted the 2nd Pacific Ministerial Dialogue on Pathways for the Global Just Transition from Fossil Fuels in Port Vila, Vanuatu. The summit came amid an ongoing state of emergency in Vanuatu, which was hammered earlier this month by a pair of Category 4 cyclones. Participants described the current devastation as "just the most recent example of the extensive and ongoing fossil fuel-induced loss and damage suffered by" Pacific Islanders.

At the conclusion of the three-day meeting, ministers and officials from six countries—Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Fiji, Niue, and the Solomon Islands—agreed on the Port Vila Call for a Just Transition to a Fossil Fuel-Free Pacific.

The resolution—issued "on behalf of present and future generations, communities on the frontlines, and all of humanity"—calls for immediate international action to accelerate a just transition from dirty to clean energy in accordance with what experts have shown is necessary to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis.

"The science is clear that fossil fuels are to blame for the climate emergency," says the document. "This is a crisis driven by the greed of an exploitative industry and its enablers. It is not acceptable that countries and companies are still planning on producing more than double the amount of fossil fuels by 2030 than the world can burn to limit warming to 1.5°C."

"Every second wasted on climate inaction and clinging to fossil fuels puts lives, homes, livelihoods, cultures, and ecosystems in jeopardy."

Among other things, the resolution implores policymakers in the Pacific and around the world to join the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA) and negotiate a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty (FFNPT) to end the expansion of coal, oil, and gas extraction and to expedite a fair global shift to renewables. It also cautions lawmakers to avoid phrases like "unabated" or "inefficient," warning that such terminology "creates loopholes for fossil fuel producers."

In a statement, Oil Change International global policy lead Romain Ioualalen said, "Faced with devastating climate impacts resulting from the world's continued addiction to fossil fuels, Pacific governments have once again demonstrated what true leadership looks like."

"The contrast between the U.S. and other rich countries approving new oil and gas fields in clear defiance of science, and the commitment to build a prosperous and resilient fossil fuel-free Pacific could not be more obvious and highlights the complete disregard the fossil fuel industry and its enablers have for people and communities most affected by the climate crisis," said Ioualalen. "Countries must urgently heed the call for an immediate end to fossil fuel expansion that is emanating from the Pacific. We look forward to Pacific countries continuing to be vocal champions for a just and equitable phaseout of fossil fuels on the global stage, including at COP28 later this year."

Samoan climate justice activist Brianna Fruean said that "this dialogue of Pacific ministers is stepping outside of the box and acknowledging that we must try new ways to save ourselves—and that is going to require a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty."

"While the guilty continue to reap profit off the expansion of fossil fuels behind our backs," said Fruean, "the meeting is bringing renewed energy to Pacific leadership that will not just echo across our islands but drive action with our allies globally."

Despite bearing almost no historical responsibility for the climate crisis, Pacific Islanders are acutely vulnerable to rising sea levels and increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather. Policymakers from the region have long been leaders in demanding ambitious efforts to slash greenhouse gas pollution at speed and scale, including by putting the idea of a FFNPT on the table in 2016. Just last year, Vanuatu and Tuvalu became the first national governments to endorse such a measure, while Tuvalu also recently joined the BOGA as a core member.

"Every second wasted on climate inaction and clinging to fossil fuels puts lives, homes, livelihoods, cultures, and ecosystems in jeopardy," said Lavetanalagi Seru, regional policy coordinator at Pacific Islands Climate Action Network. "As Pacific leaders shoulder the burden of climate leadership, the Port Vila Call for a Just Transition to a Fossil Fuel-Free Pacific is a reminder that despite the doom and gloom, another world is possible, a fossil fuel-free world that is just, equitable, and sustainable."

The region's new resolution states that "we have the power and responsibility to lead, and we will. Pacific leaders called for the Paris agreement to limit warming to 1.5°C, and have demanded an end to the development and expansion of fossil fuel-extracting industries, starting with new coal mines. Pacific civil society has challenged the world to step up the fight for urgent fossil fuel phaseout and effective climate action."

In recent weeks, Vanuatu has been leading an ongoing push for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on "how existing international laws can be applied to strengthen action on climate change, protect people and the environment, and save the Paris agreement."

The document unveiled Friday calls for "redoubled efforts to reaffirm, strengthen, and codify legal obligations with respect to the global phaseout of fossil fuels," including by supporting the adoption of the Vanuatu-led ICJ resolution at the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly at the end of this month.

"The contrast between the U.S. and other rich countries approving new oil and gas fields in clear defiance of science, and the commitment to build a prosperous and resilient fossil fuel-free Pacific could not be more obvious."

According to Seru, "The phaseout of fossil fuels is not only a challenge, but an opportunity to promote economic development and innovation in the Pacific region."

To that end, the Port Vila document calls for "new Pacific-tailored development pathways based on 100% renewable energy."

350.org Pacific managing director Joseph Sikulu welcomed this week's developments, saying in a statement that "our people need global leaders to follow the innovation of Pacific representatives at the Pacific Ministerial Dialogue, it is a matter of survival."

"Our people also need energy to power their homes, their fishing boats, and their schools, which is where we are ready to work with governments in their commitment to progress the development and implementation of fossil-free development pathways at the grassroots level," he added.

In order to make that a reality, the document calls for increasing "public and private finance for the just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy at the scale required, with innovative, simplified mechanisms and reforms of existing financial institutions."

Cansin Leylim, 350.org associate director of global campaigns, applauded Pacific Island nations for "once again showing immense leadership in the fight against the climate crisis, a crisis they had no part in creating."

"Pacific leaders have told us time and again—in order to stay below 1.5°C, the historically responsible countries need to immediately commit to a fossil fuel-free future without loopholes," said Leylim. "This means ensuring adequate and grant-based climate finance is swiftly mobilized to both adapt to the crisis and limit the heating to survival limits, ensuring energy independence and resource resilience with renewable energy."

Tzeporah Berman, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, predicted that this week's "historic meeting" will "have far-reaching consequences."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Kenny Stancil.

Over two years since a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol, a small but growing number are on the run after being hit with federal charges for their involvement in the attack.

Federal authorities have launched an ongoing dragnet to identity and detain individuals wanted for crimes that took place at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in the wake of Trump’s election loss. Despite these efforts, several of those identified on video footage remain at large, while others, who have been identified, arrested, and are facing charges, have decided to try their luck on the lam — including at least one man who has fled abroad to claim political asylum.

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This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Murtaza Hussain.

• Five women sue Texas after being denied abortions even though their lives were in danger
• Israeli raid in Jenin kills six Palestinians and wounds two dozen others
• United Nations agrees to a first of its kind treaty to protect the high seas
• Grim outlook for California salmon population as numbers drop to their lowest point in decades
• Warnings on high energy use and pollution arising from bitcoin

Image courtesy of Center for Reproductive Rights

The post First of its kind lawsuit against Texas by women whose lives were endangered by abortion ban; Another Israeli raid in Jenin kills six Palestinians; U.N. approves treaty to protect the high seas: The Pacifica Evening News March 7 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Martin Williams.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Dissent.

"On the morning of Jan. 19, 2023 ... suspect Yang ***xun (male, 42 years old, from Pingyang) committed an attack with a knife due to a dispute, resulting in the deaths of six people," the Pingyang county police department said in a statement on its official social media account, deliberately omitting part of the suspect's given name.

"After receiving the emergency report, police immediately organized forces to deal with the matter, and arrested the suspect," it said, adding that investigations into the killings are ongoing.

According to a local resident who commented on the story on the social media platform WeChat, two of the victims were prominent officials in Yang's home sub-district of Hexi.

Another commented that Yang had been treated unfairly by local officials over a land dispute, and had been incarcerated in a psychiatric institution for lodging official complaints over their heads via China's petitioning system.

Calls to the Hexi sub-district government offices rang unanswered during office hours on Friday.

The ApolloNet news service reported on Jan. 20 that one of the victims had been a local village official.

"He killed the village chief and three family members in one town, then chased another [family member] to another town and killed them too," ApolloNet quoted a local resident as saying in an online comment. 

"All I can say is that they shouldn't bully honest people, hacking into their homesteads," the person commented.

"It was a land dispute," another resident was quoted as saying in a social media comment by the same report. "The assailant had just been released."

The Toutiao news service cited Yang's neighbors as saying that two families had been in dispute over a piece of land, with one family using "improper means" to get hold of the land, in an oblique reference to official corruption.

Yang was sent to a psychiatric hospital, which didn't let him out even to attend his father's funeral, one local resident was quoted as saying.

Toutiao cited another local resident as saying that Yang had made a "revenge list" while in the hospital, and had warned passers-by to stay clear before starting his attack, which they described as having "a clear purpose."

"The man had planned out all of these killings, and his goal was very clear," the report said. "He wasn't killing innocent people indiscriminately -- everyone he killed was connected to this dispute."

China's army of petitioners

While further details on Yang's case weren't immediately available from official sources, his case has struck a chord among China's army of petitioners, many of whom have been pursuing complaints against official wrongdoing -- often linked to land-grabs and forced evictions by local officials -- for years, if not decades, to no avail.

In November 2019, authorities in the eastern province of Shandong jailed a father and son who tried to resist the forced demolition of their home in Linyi county in April 2018, leaving one person injured and another dead. 

While petition-related killings have rocked the country from time to time, petitioners who use peaceful means to resist the government also face concerted harassment, state-backed violence, arbitrary detention and incarceration in psychiatric hospitals.

Chongqing petitioner Jiang Linxuan has been petitioning for 10 years after losing his home and land to local government officials.

He said reports of killings by petitioners show the unbearable pressures people are placed under when they try to challenge the actions of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

"It was too much for him ... He would have tried to appeal so many times, but without any solution," Jiang said. "I never thought I would be petitioning for more than a decade, since 2011, to no avail."

Current affairs commentator Zhang Jianping said that if Yang really was a mental health patient, as the authorities claimed when they locked him up for three years, he shouldn't have to bear criminal responsibility for the murders at all.

"From a legal point of view, the administration determined that he was mentally ill, so the law can't require him to be responsible for these killings," he said, adding that psychiatric incarceration is commonly used by local officials to stop people from petitioning.

"The crucial thing is how the authorities treat Yang, and what judgment the court hands down, which everyone will have to wait to see," he said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

• A monster storm is hitting Northern California this evening – there are already reports of downed trees and flooding.
• California Governor Gavin Newsom declares a state of emergency, as much of the state prepared for an intense winter storm that could produce what meteorologists call a bomb cyclone, or a storm that intensifies rapidly. 
• The heavy rains may bring flooding along the Russian River.
• North Bay advocates are calling for more emergency shelter and law enforcement to stop citing people sheltering in cars, as unhoused residents brace for the intense winter storms. 
• Much of Europe is experiencing a record breaking winter heat wave.
• California Republican Kevin McCarthy comes up short on the 4th, 5th and 6th ballots to choose a new House Speaker. Even Donald Trump’s endorsement of McCarthy isn’t persuasive.
• President Biden says he’ll make his first presidential visit to the U.S. Mexico border when he travels to Mexico City next week.
• And Poland’s Defense Minister signs a deal to buy a second batch of U.S. Abrams battle tanks.

Image: Flooding in Sonoma County in 2008 by Patrick Dirden via FLICKR

The post Monster storm hits Northern California, prompting Gov Newsom to declare a state of emergency; CA Republican Kevin McCarthy falls short after six rounds of voting to choose a new House Speaker; North Bay homeless advocates call for more emergency shelter appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

After a protracted legal fight and relentless obstruction by the former president, the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday finally released six years of Donald Trump's individual and business tax returns.

"It is a bittersweet moment," Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), a member of the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, wrote on Twitter, lamenting how long it took for lawmakers to obtain the documents and make them public. "I will read through them today and you should too. Every American deserves this sunlight. This is what democracy is about."

A download link for the returns, which span 2015 to 2020 and are redacted to conceal sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers, is here (warning: the file is very large—1.1 GB—and in ZIP format).

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) also published the documents as more easily downloadable PDFs on its website.

The long-awaited release of the documents came after the House Ways and Means Committee voted last week to make them public. The committee also published a summary confirming that Trump—who broke with longstanding tradition by refusing to release the documents voluntarily—paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and $0 in 2020.

The summary made clear that Trump turned to avoidance tactics that the ultra-rich often use to slash their tax bills. In the years covered by the newly published documents, the former president reported massive net operating losses, allowing him to dramatically reduce or completely zero out his tax liabilities.

The House committee, which Democrats control until next week, also revealed earlier this month that the IRS didn't begin auditing Trump's taxes until 2019, despite the agency's mandatory presidential audit policy.

"Trump acted as though he had something to hide, a pattern consistent with the recent conviction of his family business for criminal tax fraud," Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), a member of the House tax panel, said in a statement Friday. "As the public will now be able to see, Trump used questionable or poorly substantiated deductions and a number of other tax avoidance schemes as justification to pay little or no federal income tax in several of the years examined."

"These findings underscore the fact that our tax laws are often inequitable, and that enforcement of them is often unjust," Beyer continued. "Trump was able to bypass even the mandatory IRS presidential audit program for years, but many other wealthy and powerful people evade billions in tax dues every year through more quotidian tax avoidance. Congress has so much work to do to make tax enforcement in this country fairer."

In response to the release of his returns, Trump—a 2024 presidential candidate—proudly touted his expansive use of deductions to lower his tax bills.

"The 'Trump' tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises," the former president said.

"The radical, left Democrats have weaponized everything," he fumed, "but remember, that is a dangerous two-way street!"

The former president's returns show that he personally benefited from some of the provisions of the tax-cut measure he signed into law in 2017. As Bloombergnoted, Trump took advantage of the law's "expanded write-offs for business expenses" and "the scaling back of the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, allowing him to claim more individual deductions."

"Trump acted as though he had something to hide, a pattern consistent with the recent conviction of his family business for criminal tax fraud."

Writing for The Atlantic on Friday, CREW president Noah Bookbinder urged the Senate Finance Committee to investigate the IRS' failure to audit Trump in the early years of his presidency.

"The public needs to know whether one more key government function was politicized, allowing a president to shield possible conflicts of interest and escape accountability," Bookbinder wrote. "The American people need reassurances that transparency, oversight, and accountability will once again become matters of course rather than subjects of prolonged litigation."

"Donald Trump attempted to hijack the United States government to keep himself in power, and American democracy almost didn't survive," he added. "His tax returns may have been another part of that effort. That merits investigation—not over another six years, but now."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Jake Johnson.

Six people in Atlanta have been charged with domestic terrorism for taking part in protests against a massive new police training facility known as Cop City. The protesters were taking part in a months-long encampment in a forested area of Atlanta where the city wants to build a $90 million, 85-acre training center on the site of a former prison farm. Conservationists have long wanted to protect the area, the South River Forest, from future development. Protesters are also urging the city to invest in alternatives to more policing. “This is basically a boondoggle that’s been given to the police to make them feel better,” says Kamau Franklin, founder of Community Movement Builders, which is a part of a coalition trying to stop the construction of Cop City in Atlanta.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Their bodies bore signs of torture and their hands had been tied behind their backs, apparently executed by junta troops.

“It appeared as if [the soldiers] struck their necks with a sword. We found that their throats were cut,” said a resident of Ywar Thit village in the Mandalay region who was among those that found the bodies. He spoke to Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal by the military.

Photos provided to RFA of the bodies appeared to confirm the source’s description. All six of the men’s hands are bound and their throats are slit. 

Three of the men have wounds to their throats that suggest they were made with a heavy weapon, such as a machete, while a fourth has a similar wound on the top-left of his head that has penetrated his skull. The heads of two of the men appear to have been crushed, while the chests of two others show as many as eight stab wounds.

No political affiliation

The source said two of the bodies were found between Myingyan’s Thar Paung and Gaung Kwe villages, another two near the intersection of Thin Pyun Road on the outskirts of Natogyi township, and the last two just west of Natogyi’s Ywar Gyi village.

“The cuts of the bodies found west of Ywar Gyi village and those near Thar Paung village were exactly the same,” he said. “It appeared to me that the junta soldiers made them kneel, tied their hands behind their backs, and delivered a blow to their necks when they were tired of torturing them.”

The victims were “innocent civilians” who were employed by a local motorbike repair shop, said a resident of Ywar Thit village, who also declined to be named.

“[They] were just simple villagers who weren’t involved in any political activities,” he said. “They weren’t members of any political parties or organizations … But the pro-military Pyu Saw Htee militia and junta troops arrested and cruelly killed them.”

The junta has yet to release any information about the killings of the six men. Attempts by RFA to contact the junta’s spokesman for Mandalay region, Thien Htay, went unanswered on Thursday.

Sources from the two townships identified the six dead as Min Thu and Kaung Kaung, both 20; Aung Than Kyaw and Zayar Phyo, both 30; and Aung Naing Win and Zaw Naing Win, both 43.

Inflicting terror

Residents said that the discovery of the bodies followed a Nov. 29 raid on Ywar Thit village in which junta troops from the No. 88 Light Infantry Division and members of the pro-military Pyu Saw Htee militia detained six civilians.

The families of the deceased retrieved their bodies on Wednesday from the Myingyan township mortuary and buried them in the township’s Su Phyu Kone cemetery, residents told RFA. Due to the graphic nature of their deaths, family members were unable to inspect the bodies of the victims and confirm their identities, they said.

A political activist in Myingyan township, who gave his surname as Soe, told RFA that the junta hopes to gain control of the region through fear by arresting and killing innocent civilians.

“When they lose their military bases and informers [to anti-junta forces], or suffer losses in battles, they attack unarmed civilians as revenge, since they cannot crush the resistance,” he said.

“Myingyan-based junta troops and the … pro-junta militia try to cow the people by torturing and killing innocent civilians they accuse of being supporters of the [deposed National League for Democracy] NLD party and [anti-junta] People’s Defense Forces [paramilitaries],” he said.

“In fact, as they cannot crush the armed resistance, they are abducting and killing innocent and unarmed civilians who become caught in the middle.”

According to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), junta troops have killed at least 2,604 civilians and arrested more than 16,500 others in the 22 months since the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup, mostly during peaceful anti-junta demonstrations.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Written in English by Josh Lipes. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

The post Six Eastern European Women Bring the War to San Francisco appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jonah Raskin.

The six were sentenced in September in Sichuan’s Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture after being held incommunicado for from one to two years following their arrests, a source living in exile said.

“This was all done in complete secrecy,” RFA’s source, a former political prisoner living in Switzerland named Golog Jigme said, citing contacts in the region.

“Because of tight restrictions and constant scrutiny inside Tibet, it is very difficult now to learn more detailed information about their current health conditions or where they are being held,” Jigme added.

Sentenced by the Kardze People’s Court were Gangkye Drupa Kyab, a writer and former schoolteacher now serving a 14-year prison term; Seynam, a writer and environmental activist given a 6-year term; and Gangbu Yudrum, a political activist now serving a 7-year term.

Also sentenced by the court in Kardze were Tsering Dolma, a political activist given eight years; Pema Rinchen, a writer given four years; and Samdup, a political activist now serving an 8-year term.

The arrests and sentencing of the group, who had also served previous prison terms for their activities, underscore Beijing’s continuing drive to destroy the influence of men and women whose views of life in Tibetan regions of China go against official Chinese narratives.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago, and Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers later fled into exile in India and other countries around the world following a failed 1959 national uprising against China’s rule.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment and extrajudicial killings.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.

The six were sentenced in September in Sichuan’s Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture after being held incommunicado for from one to two years following their arrests, a source living in exile said.

“This was all done in complete secrecy,” RFA’s source, a former political prisoner living in Switzerland named Golog Jigme said, citing contacts in the region.

“Because of tight restrictions and constant scrutiny inside Tibet, it is very difficult now to learn more detailed information about their current health conditions or where they are being held,” Jigme added.

Sentenced by the Kardze People’s Court were Gangkye Drupa Kyab, a writer and former schoolteacher now serving a 14-year prison term; Seynam, a writer and environmental activist given a 6-year term; and Gangbu Yudrum, a political activist now serving a 7-year term.

Also sentenced by the court in Kardze were Tsering Dolma, a political activist given eight years; Pema Rinchen, a writer given four years; and Samdup, a political activist now serving an 8-year term.

The arrests and sentencing of the group, who had also served previous prison terms for their activities, underscore Beijing’s continuing drive to destroy the influence of men and women whose views of life in Tibetan regions of China go against official Chinese narratives.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago, and Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers later fled into exile in India and other countries around the world following a failed 1959 national uprising against China’s rule.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment and extrajudicial killings.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.

The Red Roses of England are overwhelming favourites to win the 2022 Rugby World Cup being hosted by New Zealand starting on Saturday.

While much of New Zealand’s parochial media is unashamedly giving wide coverage to the Black Ferns and little space to the other 11 teams in the tournament, it is England’s form that warrants them being taken seriously.

How good are the Red Roses? Very good as they have won 25 tests on the trot, including beating the Black Ferns by record margins — 43-12 and 56-15 — in 2021 when New Zealand toured Europe.

• READ MORE: Keep tabs on the Rugby World Cup
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Not only that, but France who are in pool C with England, Fiji and South Africa, also beat the Black Ferns last year — in Castres 29-7 and in Pau 38-13 on that miserable tour for New Zealand.

The Red Roses won the Grand Slam and the Six Nations this year when they beat France 24-12 in a come-from-behind win in front of a sold-out crowd at Stade Jean Dauger.

The Red Roses form will come as no surprise when you realise the whole squad turned professional way back in January 2019, whereas the Black Ferns moved closer to fulltime rugby players this year with contracts worth $35,000.

Those at the lower end of the Black Ferns contracts will make about $60,000 a year, with leading players earning in excess of $130,000.

Triple header
The tournament kicks off with a triple header at Eden Park on Saturday with France playing South Africa in pool C, then England playing Fiji — who will undoubtedly be the dark horses of the pool with many of the women coming from the victorious Fijiana Drua team that won the Women’s Super W Rugby title this year 32-26 over New South Wales.

They will be captained by No 8 Sereima Leweniqila who hails from the Marist club in Fiji.

As she says, “the most memorable game I played this year was beating the Waratahs in the Super W rugby final”. No doubt those memories will be enhanced should Fiji pull a David versus Goliath result when they take on the English juggernaut.

The final game at Eden Park on Saturday features traditional foes New Zealand and Australia from pool A which also has Scotland and Wales.

While the trans-Tasman rivals will be top dogs in the pool, they will be wary of their European rivals who could on their day cause an upset.

The next day at the only other venue outside Auckland — the Northland Events Centre in Whangarei — Italy takes on USA in pool B followed by the other pool B game between Japan and the powerhouse of North America, Canada.

Scotland and Wales do battle in the third game in Whangarei with the winners set to take points towards the quarterfinals.

Titans of European rugby
The following Saturday, October 15, the titans of European rugby — the Red Roses of England — face-off against France who are known for having a committed forward pack.

“Where women’s rugby is now is just crazy compared to the first World Cup I played in,” says Sarah Hunter, England’s captain, as she prepares to feature in her fourth global adventure.

With in excess of 35,000 people expected to pack Eden Park, it shows how much women’s rugby is being followed.

As an aside, this month’s Rugby News has All Black winger Caleb Clarke on the cover so you would be forgiven for thinking misogyny is still alive in Aotearoa despite hosting the World Cup.

In fairness to editor Campbell Burnes, he did put out special publication for the World Cup and has been an advocate for women’s rugby.

As the England captain says, “Every World Cup has been special but I genuinely feel this World Cup will be the biggest and most competitive there has ever been.

“And I genuinely don’t think we’ve realised the potential of this England team yet. The blend of youth and experience across the board, the versatility of the players — the talent in this side is incredible.

‘Exciting time’
“It’s a really exciting time for English rugby.”

England lost the last World Cup final to New Zealand 41-32 in Belfast in 2017 and are sure to be out for a measure of revenge against the Black Ferns should the two sides make the final, if not clashing in the previous knockout rounds of the tournament.

The Black Ferns featuring the amazing Portia Woodman had to have a major rebuild this year with the affectionately dubbed “professor” Wayne Smith named as coach this year.

Along with scrum guru Mike Cron they have halted the slide of the Black Ferns who face an almost herculean task if they are to win.

They began the year winning the Pacific Four series against USA, Canada and Australia to show we are on the right track.

They beat the USA 50-6, Australia 23-10 and Canada 28-0 then played Australia in home and away series winning 52-5 and 22-14 win in Adelaide.

As England head coach Simon Middleton says philosophically, “we acknowledge that if we have a bad day and France, New Zealand or possibly Canada have a good one we could be in trouble.

“If we play against France or New Zealand in the knockout stages we’re going to have to be at our very best. Any team coached by Wayne Smith and Mike Cron is going to be quite good, I reckon.”

While Waitakere Stadium in West Auckland will also host games, the final will be played at Eden Park on Saturday, November 12.

• Day 1 matches: 2.15pm: South Africa v France (Pool C), Eden Park
  4.45pm: Fiji v England (Pool C), Eden Park
  7.15pm: Australia v New Zealand (Pool A), Eden Park
• Full match schedule

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Sri Krishnamurthi.

The ministry announced the numbers for the two weeks ending Sept. 14, noting that 384 infections and one death had been recorded on Wednesday alone.

Charity groups told RFA Burmese that the ministry’s announcement was based only on the number of patients who were treated at junta-run hospitals, suggesting that the actual number of infections is much higher.

A doctor who runs a private clinic in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon said that most patients who come seeking treatment exhibit signs of COVID-19, even if they aren’t being included in the junta’s official count of infections.

“There are fewer people wearing masks these days. Many shops have reopened and more people are going to bars and cafes,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Additionally, many people who need cooking oil stand in long lines at charity centers without any regard to rules of social distancing, so COVID is making a comeback.”

The doctor told RFA that because the genetics of the disease have changed with the new variant, symptoms such as loss of smell and low oxygen levels have become less obvious.

“But the rate of infection is increasing,” he said. “When we perform tests on patients, we find it in nearly all of them.”

He predicted that the number of infections will only increase in the country unless measures are put into place to prevent transmission.

A resident of Yangon, who also declined to be named, said that the junta’s mismanagement of the economy has left people more concerned with ensuring that they have enough food to eat than the risks associated with the disease.

“People are not very careful about COVID at present. They are working hard to obtain their daily sustenance, so COVID is enjoying a resurgence,” he said.

“Most people don't even know they have the virus. They only find out they have it after getting tested. Low income laborers couldn’t care less about COVID, as their priority is finding enough food to eat.”

The Yangon resident called the situation “critical” and suggested that, with the rising cost of medicine due to inflation, the outbreak’s toll is only likely to get worse.

Myanmar was hit with a third wave of the coronavirus shortly after the military seized power in a February coup last year prompting the country’s workers – including its health professionals – to strike as part of a nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement. The shortage of doctors and nurses, as well as a dearth of medicine and equipment, allowed the disease to spread largely unchecked.

This time around, said Khin Maung Tint, the chairman of a Mandalay-based social assistance association, organizations such as his were prepared, having stockpiled medicine and equipment in case of a new outbreak.

“Our main challenge is the rise in petrol prices,” he said. “People are also enduring financial difficulties and so we are currently providing care for free in most cases.”

However, he warned that without help from authorities to curb the outbreak, “we could run out of supplies, and that would be difficult for us.”

Preventing transmission

On Thursday, the junta’s Information Ministry announced to the media that mass infections had been recorded in several schools and workplaces. It said authorities are “working with relevant departments to enforce COVID prevention.”

Some 80% of infections since the start of the year occurred in patients who had not received vaccinations, the ministry said.

Attempts by RFA to contact junta Ministry of Health spokesperson Than Naing Soe for details on efforts to control the spread of the disease went unanswered Thursday.

A CDM doctor, who asked to be identified by the name Olivia, urged the public to follow simple practices such as wearing masks, washing hands and adhering to social distancing guidelines, which she said would go a long way in helping to combat the outbreak in Myanmar.

“Prices are rising fast — from basic foods to essential medicines,” she said.

“If your health is affected, medical expenses will add a huge burden on your shoulders. So take care now more than ever — even twice as much as the last outbreak.”

To date, 617,739 people have been infected with COVID-19 and 19,444 have died since the pandemic first spread throughout Myanmar in 2020, according to the Ministry of Health. More than 36 million of the country’s 54.4 million people have been vaccinated against the disease.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

Locals told RFA the Coast Guard went to stop the boat on Monday after reports it had been drifting for several days in the sea near Gayatgyi island.

“I heard that the navy from Ka Don went to arrest them,” said a local, who declined to be named for safety reasons.

“There were dead bodies on the boat. It seems the boat’s engine broke down and it floated in the sea for a long time and people died of starvation.”

Residents said the dead were three men and three women. They said a child from the boat died after survivors were taken to Bogale Police Station, but RFA could not verify this independently.

RFA called Maung Than, who is Minister of Social Affairs and the spokesman for Ayeyarwady regional military council, but calls went unanswered on Wednesday.

It is not yet known how the Rohingyas arrested on Monday will be sentenced. Previous group have been sentenced to between three and six months in prison under Myanmar’s immigration law.

On June 21, local authorities arrested 28 Rohingya as their boat neared a village in Ayeyarwady region’s Kyaiklat township.

More than a million Rohingya Muslims used to live in the Buthidaung and Maungdaw areas on the northern tip of Rakhine State. Nearly 800,000 fled to Bangladesh to escape army scorched-earth operations in 2017 and live in squalid refugee camps there.

Of those that remained, hundreds were killed, including women and children and many villages were burned down.

The United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) is investigating the military for genocide. The U.S. State Department has already labelled their actions as genocide.

Even though five years have passed stateless Rohingya refugees are still unable to return home, according to the U.N.

Some 600,000 Rohingya who did not flee to Bangladesh in 2017 have suffered greater repression since last year’s coup and their movements in Rakhine state are more restricted, a human rights activist based in the state told RFA last week. Zarni Soe said the situation may worsen amid renewed fighting between the Arakan Army and junta troops in the north of the state.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

Ringleader Huynhh Thi Hong and her five accomplices all pleaded guilty at last Thursday’s hearing.

Hong was sentenced to 19 years in prison, the others received terms of between five and 16 years for the crime of “trafficking in persons under 16 years of age.”

The group operated by joining the “Association of Giving and Adopting Children,” on social networks.

They used the information to find people who wanted to put their children up for adoption and then profited by selling them.

After receiving the babies, Hong's group looked for resellers, contacting a Chinese group to sell babies for as much as VND 170 million (U.S.$ 7,400) for a boy and VND 70 million (U.S.$ 3,000 for a girl.

The court heard that Hong’s group bought 10 babies between Nov. 2018 and Jan. 2019 and sold them for between U.S.$ 2,100 and U.S.$ 7,400. Hong, alone, earned U.S.$ 14,000.

State media reported that police were alerted to the trafficking ring in Jan., 2019 when a man driving down a street in Hanoi heard the sound of a crying child. He discovered that a girl had been abandoned on the steps of a house.

Human trafficking worsened in Vietnam over the past year, according to a report last month by the U.S. State Department.

The annual Trafficking in Persons Report placed the country in its lowest ranking alongside 21 other countries including Cambodia and China.

“The Government of Vietnam does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, even considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity; therefore, Vietnam was downgraded to Tier 3,” the report said.

On the positive side, the report said Vietnam’s government had brought in: “formal child-centered investigative policies that aimed to address long standing insufficiencies in preexisting law; increasing international law enforcement cooperation; initiating a process to evaluate a preexisting anti-trafficking law for eventual amendment; achieving the first modest increase in victim identification in five years; and assisting more victims than in 2020.”

However, the report said that even though Vietnamese authorities identified more victims than the previous year, the first increase in five years, the government reported a decrease in convictions for the fifth year in a row.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

While Russia presses on with its lumbering invasion of Ukraine and Western nations led by the United States keep sending billions of dollars in arms and aid to bolster Ukrainian resistance, peace advocates on Wednesday marked the war's six-month anniversary—and Ukraine's independence day—with renewed calls for peace.

"Decisive victory for either side looks remote. The only possible solution is a process of negotiation."

Decrying the "senseless war," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the world body's Security Council on Wednesday that "the people of Ukraine and beyond need peace and they need peace now. Peace in line with the U.N. Charter. Peace in line with international law."

Writing for the U.K.-based Stop the War Coalition, journalist Shadia Edwards-Dashti noted that "the war has been a disaster for the Ukrainian people, resulting in tens of thousands of Ukrainian casualties and displacing more than 13 million people—just shy of a third of the population. On the Russian side, some estimates suggest up to 75,000 are dead or injured."

"From the very start of the invasion the Western response has focused on the military solutions," she continued. "Within a week of the invasion, NATO forces had drummed up their biggest military mobilization in Europe since the end of the Cold War. The aim from the start was a decisive military victory against Russia. As a result, negotiations have been discouraged and chances for peace squandered."

"We simply cannot allow this six-month war to drag on for years as some analysts are predicting, Edwards-Dashti added. "Decisive victory for either side looks remote. The only possible solution is a process of negotiation. As the economic crisis deepens and Western governments threaten to raise defense spending, we in the West must intensify our call for peace and sanity."

Anatol Lieven, director of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft's Eurasia program, warned that while NATO countries "can now afford to be less afraid of Moscow" given the Russian military's battlefield woes, "the risk of unintended escalation to nuclear war does however remain very real."

"Since nuclear weapons are the one area in which Russia remains a superpower, there is an obvious temptation for Moscow to engage in nuclear brinkmanship," he added, "and anyone who decides to walk along a brink runs the risk of falling over it."

Martin Kimani, Kenya's ambassador to the U.N., similarly cautioned that "unless the Ukraine war is stopped through dialogue and negotiation, it could be the first of a series of conflicts that future historians will name the Third World War."

"Such a disaster would be different from the last world wars, and all the wars before them," he said. "The dangers of direct conflict between nuclear-armed powers means that most of their confrontations would be undertaken by proxy. Africa and the rest of the world would be thrown into a mirror of the Cold War."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the war's six-month anniversary and his country's independence day by hailing Ukraine's unexpected success in resisting Russia's invasion.

"Every day is a new reason not to give up," he said in a video address from central Kyiv. "Because having gone through so much, we have no right not to reach the end. What is the end of the war for us? We used to say, 'peace.' Now, we say, 'victory.'" 

Asked in an interview with NPR if she sees "any negotiated way out" of the war, Norwegian U.N. Ambassador Trine Heimerback replied: "I think that's the question we all have. Right now, I don't think we are too optimistic, unfortunately."

James Kariuki, Heimerback's British counterpart, said the issue of negotiations is "for the Ukrainians" to decide.

"But," he added, "the best way to end the conflict would be for Russia to withdraw its troops and end its illegal occupation."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Brett Wilkins.

They were aged between 16 and 17 and were all boycotting classes organized by the military council.

Five of them were identified as Aye Min Myat, Thae Naing Min, Kyaw Zaw Lin, Moe Hein Kyaw and Than Htike San. The other’s identity is not yet known. 

A local, who did not wish to be named for safety reasons, said the blast happened near a drink shop on Pont Pyoe Yae street around 100 yards (91 meters) from the local police station.

“It was about 1,000 yards (914 meters) away from where I live and we could hear it clearly,” the local said.

“The children went to play football at around 4.30 p.m. There is a shop called Phyoe Wai where they gather to play. The shop sells Kaung Yae [a local alcohol] and cold drinks.” 

“The parents were taken to see the bodies on Saturday and they are trying to get them back.”

Another local told RFA she had watched the children grow up.

“I don’t know if they were UG [underground] or not,” the local said.

“I saw their scattered bodies picked up and taken away in zipped bags. The families have not seen the children and nobody could go near the incident. The mine explosion even shook my home. Locals don’t know who planted the mine,” she told RFA.

Nearly 100 junta troops arrived after the blast in vehicles and boats. Another anonymous local said the troops took the bodies away for investigation. Locals said Phyoe Wai, the 22-year-old shop owner ran away. 

Residents said the street was blocked until Saturday morning and some houses in Set San Ward were searched by troops.

On Saturday some residents from the ward were arrested, but the exact number is not yet known, a resident told RFA.

A recent blast in the area was caused by a bomb being tested in a school by members of the Pyu Saw Htee, a pro-government militia, but a leader of the local Dark Shadow anti-junta group, Chan Nyein Thu, said some of the young men who died in this blast may have been helping anti-government forces.

“I knew one of the young men in the group and in the past he had asked for mine-making materials so he seems to have been helping out. Some people said he was a Phu [a member of Pyu Saw Htee] when his picture appeared online. I posted it back on my account saying he is not Pyu, but UG,” he said.

“I have tested [a mine] and it accidentally exploded. If a mine explodes while being tested, only two things can happen, losing your life or being arrested,”, the Dark Shadow leader told RFA.

On April 27, junta troops arrested and shot at 14 young members of Dark Shadow in Kyimyindaing, killing one man.

Civil Disobedience Movement member, Capt. Lin Htet Aung said most anti-government protesters who make mines do not have adequate equipment.

“UG are hiding and carrying out their moves and have to set the mines in rooms,” he said. “If they have to plant a mine, the ammunition is inside and there are models of how to put it in a mine. But they only use materials available in their neighborhoods so there are accidental blasts and some mines can’t be touched when they are activated. Some mines also need to be deactivated. In other words, inadequate materials in production have become dangerous for them.”

RFA has not been able to verify whether any of the six youths was UG or whether they were planting a mine.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

In 2017, Kenyan journalists were harassed and detained while covering a disputed general election. Now, the country’s press corps hopes to avoid a repeat of such incidents. But Kenya remains vulnerable to political turmoil, and there have already been incidents of violations against the press including the March 2022 assault of two journalists covering an event at Odinga’s party headquarters and journalists having been denied access while covering Ruto.

Between May and July, CPJ spoke with more than 50 Kenyan journalists and press freedom advocates about their concerns. They spoke of the risks of covering political rallies that could turn violent or even deadly and the normalization of sexualized attacks against female reporters. Nearly all of them worried about “profiling”—when politicians and their supporters publicly brand individual journalists or media outlets as prejudiced in favor of the opponent. This accusation – whether based on real or perceived biases in coverage – leaves journalists vulnerable to attacks, Kenya’s media regulator said in a May statement.

Below, CPJ has published the views of six of these journalists and advocates representative of the concerns of the country’s press corps writ large ahead of the elections. Their comments have been edited for length and clarity.

CPJ also contacted representatives of Ruto and Odinga’s campaigns and their affiliated parties, as well the country’s elections commission, for comment. Those responses are included after the journalists’ stories.

William Oloo Janak, chairperson of the Kenya Correspondents Association, which represents about 600 Kenyan journalists 

The political environment is increasingly hostile. We have seen statements recently from the Kenya Kwanza Alliance [the coalition of parties backing Ruto], labeling certain media houses as hostile to them. The media needs to be called out if they are not doing the right thing. But this is a delicate period. What we are worried about is the interpretation [of these statements] by supporters on the ground. The top leaders complaining about the bias will not attack the journalists. It is their supporters who, taking the cue from leaders, will begin to point at journalists, perhaps to attack journalists even. And the journalists are not quite ready [to deal with election-related attacks]. We have a huge group of young journalists. Many of them have not covered elections or have only covered one, and these are the statistics we are seeing among our membership countrywide. They don’t have the institutional memory. The level of sensitivity to potentially volatile environments is very low.  

Linus Kaikai, group editorial director of Royal Media Services (RMS), a privately owned national broadcaster

The problem journalists are facing right now is that of profiling. Profiling of journalists in election years is becoming an entrenched culture. [RMS] journalists are being profiled as favoring Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition [Odinga’s political coalition] for the simple reason that our chairman and proprietor [SK Macharia] has declared his preference and is actively taking part in the campaigns for Raila Odinga. He has made it very public. We have made repeated assertions and given the public assurances that the position of the chairman doesn’t affect our editorial leaning but it’s not accepted. There is concern about the issue of profiling because these politicians have their supporters. And what they do is they unleash them on our media houses. They unleash them on our specific journalists. It is a security concern for our teams out there because profiling amounts to a green card to supporters to proceed as they may wish. We’ve had to remove our branding from our journalists [covering a rally]. So no microphone that shows who we are.  Because if you proceed with your identity all over the place, you do not know what supporters will do. The impact is that our teams move with fear. 

Nicholas Kipchumba, reporter with Kass Media Group, a national Kalenjin-language outlet broadcasting on radio, television, and reporting online 

The critical aspect of the media debate now, and many may not actually be bold enough to acknowledge it, is that the media has taken sides. [In June] the [statutory regulator] Media Council of Kenya gave some warnings on this. At face value we might conclude the reason [for the media to take sides] is freedom, that they are freely choosing who to cover. But I really think if you look more deeply you will find it is about [the] state. Media houses rely heavily on government advertising or advertising from government-controlled institutions. So they will lean the same way as the president [in favor of Odinga]. The safety of journalists is problematic when it comes to such situations. If your media is perceived as being pro Kenya Kwanza [Ruto coalition], would you feel comfortable covering an Azimio [Odinga’s coalition] rally? Or vice versa? And when these politicians speak up at the rallies negatively about the media houses, they don’t need to tell the audience to lynch this journalist or that journalist. Their statements are as good as orders. There is also a question of what happens after the elections if the side you supported does not win. How will you earn that [public] trust back?

Judie Kaberia, executive director of the Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) and a former reporter who covered elections between 2007 and 2017 for the privately owned broadcaster Capital FM

The media owners are the most difficult group [to deal with] when we talk about ensuring that journalists work in a free environment where they can report independently, especially the media owners who have taken political sides.  Of course they have freedom to say who they are supporting. But if the public trusts us to be objective and independent, then that is what it should be. 

Women journalists face specific concerns. During elections, the crowds don’t see women journalists as professionals. They see them as sexual objects. It happened to me while reporting a political rally [in a past election]. You’re holding the microphone and someone is pinching you on the back and another one is just passing hands over you and is holding your bust. It has been so normalized, that we don’t see it as a crime. And even if we report it, nobody takes it seriously. They just say: “Just that? Just someone holding you? Tell them not to hold you.” It’s not a small thing. Because the next thing is that you’re so afraid. And you’re not metal, you’re not a piece of iron, of course you must be afraid. The ripple effect is that the women shy away from reporting on politics. The extremes that some editors have gone to [in response] is to tell women journalists not to go out to the field to report political rallies. Which for us is not a very good thing. We want the women to go out there, to report on difficult subjects.

[Editors note: Mumo, the author of this piece, is a member of AMWIK]

Sophia Abdhi, reporter and presenter with Al-Shifaa TV, an online media outlet based in the coastal Mombasa County 

My experience, as a “lady” journalist covering my third election, has not always been that good. I remember one incident [on February 20, 2022]. We received a call early in the morning, to go meet Kalonzo Musyoka [a politician allied with Odinga], whom we’d been chasing for an interview. But I had a family emergency, and I did not have someone to watch my [three-year-old] son so I went with him. At the hotel, we also found [Odinga], so we had to interview him too. The security guards tried to take my son away but he refused. So he was there on the sidelines, while I was interviewing [Odinga] and Kalonzo. I even have pictures of him with the politicians. The story was a scoop: for our online media house to have a story that even the mainstream did not have. But I felt bad. Having my son with me that day, I felt like I was exposing my son. Later we had to cover a [Odinga] political rally. My colleague insisted that we stay in the car when things turned violent. Sometimes our colleagues feel they need to protect us as women. They see it as their duty. I have some taekwondo and boxing training; I can take care of myself. But I still fear becoming a burden to my colleagues.

John-Allan Namu, investigative journalist and founder of the independent news outlet Africa Uncensored

So far in this season, we have had few incidents [of physical attacks on journalists]. Yet I still feel there is a decline in press freedom. Self-censorship and “brown envelope” journalism  [a practice generally considered unethical in which journalists accept payment in return for favorable coverage] are much bigger concerns in these elections than in previous ones. We’ve [also] seen journalists being chased out of meetings [by politicians]. As an independent outlet, without the name brand recognition of “mainstream” media, we have had our own issues with access, getting prominent politicians to sit down for interviews for instance. What I’ve heard from our teams [on the ground] is that the crowds at rallies are on edge, antsy. There is a sense that things could take an ugly turn fast. Covering situations that went violent in past elections I’ve learned a couple of things. The first: Don’t be a hero. Don’t try to get that exclusive shot at the expense of your own safety. Secondly, it’s always important to know where the police are. Are they coming? Are they already on the ground? And never put yourself between police and protesters. And avoid reporting after dark. 

Recognizing that women journalists face unique threats [in the field] we are trying to mitigate this when we assign stories: matching reporters and producers in male-female pairs. Many of our reporters are young, so we will also try to put them together with someone who has more experience.

When CPJ called Raphael Tuju, the executive director of Azimio la Umoja, for comment, he said that political profiling of the press reflected a broader “disease and dysfunction” throughout society, as well as alleged professional failings within the media. He said he condemned any physical or verbal attacks on journalists.

When asked about the March 2022 attacks at Odinga’s party headquarters, Tuju referred CPJ to the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), which is part of Azimio la Umoja, for comment.

CPJ called and sent text messages to ODM Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna, party spokesperson Philip Etale, and Odinga’s campaign secretariat spokesperson Dennis Onsarigo, but none replied to CPJ’s queries about safety concerns associated with profiling, the risks faced by women journalists covering politics, or the March attack.

CPJ also called and sent requests for comment via text message and messaging app to David Mugonyi, Ruto’s spokesperson in his capacity as deputy president; Hussein Mohamed, Ruto’s campaign spokesperson; and Veronica Maina, the secretary-general of Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance party, but none answered CPJ’s questions about the press freedom issues surrounding his campaign.

In a July 15 press conference, Mohamed denied claims that journalists were unsafe covering the Kenya Kwanza campaigns, and criticized the media coverage of the campaign as biased.

CPJ called and messaged Wafula Chebukati, chair of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, a statutory body tasked with running the elections, but did not receive any replies. The commission’s public relations official, Purity Njeru, asked that CPJ send questions via email but did not reply to those questions by the time of publication.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Muthoki Mumo.

Convicted by the People’s Court of Duc Hoa District in southern Vietnam’s Long An province, the members of the unofficial Peng Lai Temple were charged with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy” and will now serve sentences of from three and a half to five years.

Handed the harshest sentence on Thursday, temple member Le Tung Van was given a five-year term, with Le Thanh Hoan Nguyen, Le Thanh Nhat Nguyen and Le Thanh Trung Duong each sentenced to four-year terms. Le Thanh Nhi Nguyen was sentenced to three and a half years, and Cao Thi Cuc given a three-year term.

All had been charged under Article 331 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code.

Speaking to RFA after the trial, a human rights lawyer in Vietnam called the case against the six temple members politically motivated.

“These verdicts did not surprise me at all, because the nature of the case was political,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity out of concern for his personal safety.

“Right from the beginning, state media had deliberately published information aimed at slandering the Peng Lai Temple members, accusing them of incestuous relationships and of committing fraud,” the lawyer said.

“[Vietnam’s] press law clearly stipulates that the media are not allowed to make accusations on behalf of the court or the judging panel.”

The accusations made by state-controlled news outlets had nothing to do with the charge of “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy” on which the defendants were convicted, the lawyer said.

“The government of Vietnam is showing that they don’t understand what freedom of religion is and that they are willing to crack down on any religious groups that they can’t control through their licensing system,” he added.

State prosecutors in their indictment had specifically charged group members with posting articles and video clips on Facebook and YouTube aimed at harming the reputation of Duc Hoa district police and “offending the honor and dignity” of Tran Ngoc Thao, also called Venerable Thich Nhat Tu, a local Buddhist leader.

Threats and torture

However, confessions made to the charges and used against group members at their trial were obtained by threats and torture, three of the six defendants said in court on July 20.

“During the investigation, a Duc Hoa district police officer named Phong slapped me three times against the side of my head and put me in handcuffs, closing them so tightly that it cut off the circulation of my blood,” Le Thanh Trung Duong said.

“I almost passed out, and then I was threatened by an officer named Phap, and that’s why I made false statements,” Duong said.

Defendant Le Thanh Nhat Nguyen said in court that he had also been beaten by police during his pre-trial investigation. “But after our lawyers got involved, I wasn’t beaten any more. Therefore, I would like to ask that this investigation be conducted all over again,” he said.

Replying to defendants’ accusations at the trial, a representative from the Long An Police Investigations Department said that the interrogation of members of the Peng Lai group had been conducted in accordance with the law, and that audio and video recordings of the questioning had been kept.

'Outrageous, unacceptable'

In a statement, Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson said that Vietnam's government is now widening its rights crackdown by silencing ordinary people who complain about local officials.

"All this shows how intolerance for any sort of public criticism is getting worse in Vietnam. Vietnam should reverse these outrageous and unacceptable sentences against all of these persons," Robertson said. 

Vietnam’s government strictly controls religious practice in the one-party communist country, requiring practitioners to join state-approved temples and churches and suppressing independent groups.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in a report released April 25 recommended the U.S. government place Vietnam on a list of countries of particular concern because of Vietnamese authorities’ persistent violations of religious freedom.

Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

Myanmar's military has further cracked down on National League for Democracy (NLD) members, sentencing former Pehkone township NLD MP Petel Aung and NLD members Lai Kyu and Maung Tat to life in prison at the Loi-Lin District Court in the country's southern Shan state last month.

Taung Lay Lone prison’s court also sentenced Phekone residents Maung Kown, Maung Nyein and Joseph to death, the Progressive Karenni People Force (PKPF) told RFA on Thursday.

Shan state shares a border with Kayah state where the Karenni Army fought for independence until a ceasefire in 2012 and a further ceasefire three years later that only lasted three months.

Fighting between the military and Karenni forces, helped by local People's Defense Forces, has spilled over into Shan state and the PKPF has been monitoring junta activity there, including the arrests of NLD politicians.

PKPF officials said the military council has not issued an official statement regarding the sentences.

“There were two groups arrested. Petel Aung was in one group and Maung Kown was in another. Petel Aung was arrested as a People’s Defense Force leader. Another group member was arrested last year on charges of killing an army officer and two soldiers in Phekone Township. The order was handed down last month, but we just found out,” said a PKPF official.

He added that MP Petel Aung, Lai Kyu and Maung Tat were arrested in Nam San, in Shan state on July 30, 2021. Maung Saung, Maung Nyein and Joseph were arrested in March last year.

The arrested have been charged by the military council with illegal association, murder and possessing illegal firearms.

“Maung Kown, Maung Nyein and Joseph were sentenced to death. They were convicted under Section 302 (1) (b) of the Penal Code for murder,” said a source close to the court who did not want to be named for safety reasons.

As of July 9, 117 people were facing trial and 140 had been sentenced to prison by the military council in Shan state and Kayah State, according to the PKPF.

There are 70 people facing trial at Taung Lay Lone prison, and 20 have been sentenced.

A total of 47 people are being held in Loikaw prison in Kayah state and 115 others are serving their sentences, the statement said. Five of the convicts have been transferred to Mandalay Obo Prison.

Calls to the military council spokesman by RFA went unanswered on Thursday. Opponents of the military junta who were arrested in prison across the country have been sentenced to long prison terms following the military coup on Feb. 1 last year.

According to military council data 114 people were sentenced to death by various military tribunals in Yangon between February 1, 2021 and May 19, 2022. A total of 78 people were sentenced to between seven years and life in prison.

Legal experts have pointed out that the coup council is threatening the public with death sentences and long prison sentences that are disproportionate to their crimes.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

The Rakhine Ethnic Congress (REC), which documents the casualties from landmines used in the war in Rakhine, said in a statement that landmine blasts have been reported in areas of intense fighting between junta troops and the ethnic Arakan Army (AA), including the townships of Myebon, Ann, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya and Rathedaung.

An uneasy truce between the military and the AA had lasted for more than a year, but tensions have increased between the two sides since May. In roughly two months, landmines have killed three people and injured one in Kyauktaw; killed two in Ann; killed one and wounded another in Myebon; injured four in Mrauk-U; injured two in Rathedaung; injured one in Minbya; and injured two in Chin state’s Paletwa township, the group said.

On July 9, a 14-year-old boy named Sithu Kyaw Lin, who was known as Lin Lin, was killed in an explosion near Ann township’s Zu Kaing village. His family told RFA Burmese that he triggered a landmine planted by the military on his way to a hill located about a mile east of the village.

Lin Lin’s father, Moe Lwin, said he tried to retrieve his son’s body with the help of some village elders and two AA soldiers that same day, but was prevented from doing so when two additional mines were discovered along the way. He said the two soldiers removed the mines, which they said had been planted by the military’s 66th division, before taking them away to be disposed of.

“The 66th division was stationed there following a plane crash in the area,” he said.

“[The AA soldiers] said there were many more mines around and that we mustn’t go near the hill [where Lin Lin’s body lay]. They said that if I went, I would likely die. I wish the authorities would search for and destroy these mines.”

Moe Lwin, who is also the father of three young daughters, told RFA that he was compelled to retrieve his son’s body the following day.

“The next morning, I decided to go. They still tried to stop me but I went there alone and found my son’s body and I brought it back,” he said. “As a father, I was devastated. My son was not even 15 years old — an 8th grade student. I cry every day.”

Another landmine explosion on July 8, near an area of Mrauk-U township where the military’s light infantry battalions (LIB) 377 and 378 had established a camp, injured three Muslim Rohingya minors from Paung Toke village and a young man from Kyauktaw township’s Ba Laung Chaung village, according to Ann Thar Gyi, who is assisting the wounded.

“The Muslim boys triggered landmines in a spot they normally gather, and it is close to the [military] camp,” he said, adding that the group had been tending cattle when the incident occurred.

“The mines were planted in the shade of trees, and so we can say they were meant to hit civilians. All the mine blasts in Rakhine state have occurred in the vicinity of Myanmar military bases, so we are demanding that mines not be planted in a way to harm civilians.”

Ann Thar Gyi told RFA that two of the injured boys were taken to Mrauk-U’s Myaung Bwe Hospital with serious injuries.

In Kyauktaw township, a resident of Myar Li Kan village and another of Wet Hmaing village were killed by landmines on July 1 and 4 respectively, while they tended cattle near the LIB 377 military camp, according to the REC.

On June 14, two refugees from the Sahin Refugee Camp in Myebon township were killed and another injured when a landmine exploded while they were digging bamboo shoots in the forest for food, the group said.

And on June 17, a couple from Rathedaung township’s Thar Si Htaunt village were injured when a landmine exploded while they worked in the fields.

REC Secretary Zaw Zaw Tun said that both the military and the AA should use the relative calm of the ongoing ceasefire to clear mines in Rakhine.

“In this situation, both sides should do something for the benefit of the people. Reducing the risk of landmines must be a priority. Therefore, both sides need to help in finding ways to effectively reduce landmine accidents,” he said.

“Each side could work on their own to clear mines. If both sides do this, the harm to the people will be reduced. Isn’t that possible because there isn’t fighting anymore? I want them to think about that. If they can do that, the risk of landmines will be reduced.”

AA spokesman Khaing Thukha responded to inquiries from RFA by saying that the victims were killed and injured from landmines left by the military.

“It's all because of the Myanmar army. They planted mines around all of their camps, as well as the bases and battalion headquarters, using the excuse that they were for security reasons,” he said.

“The mines planted in those areas where they were stationed were not taken away when they left. These are abandoned mines … that are now causing harm to local civilians.”

Khaing Thukha did not respond to questions from RFA about whether the AA has used landmines in its fight against the military.

Repeated attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered Tuesday.

A bloody campaign

The AA fought a fierce campaign against Myanmar’s military from December 2018 to November 2020, demanding autonomy for ethnic Rakhines.

More than 300 civilians were killed and more than 700 injured during the fighting, according to figures compiled by RFA.

The two sides agreed to an informal ceasefire shortly before the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup, and the truce has held for more than a year. However, residents say tensions have risen in Rakhine due to arrests and the arrival of military reinforcements.

Tensions are simmering even outside Rakhine since the AA also has a presence in Chin, Kayin and Shan states.

The REC says 63 civilians have been killed and 77 injured in landmines and explosive remnants of war since fighting broke out in Rakhine State.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs nearly 78,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Rakhine and Chin states as of March 6 this year due to fighting between junta forces and the AA.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

Locals told RFA that at least six burned corpses were found in the remains of Sue Win village in Myaing township on Friday. They said they believed there were more victims as the body parts had been scattered. The corpses were so badly burned they could not be identified. 

“There were more than six bodies,” said a local, who declined to be named for safety reasons. “They were not burned in one place. There were many bodies. They were found in four places.” 

Battles between junta forces and local militia groups began on Friday and continued the next day. Locals told RFA they believed the military council had burned the bodies along with four houses and they think the dead are a mixture of locals and PDF members.  However, since the bodies have not yet been identified, it is not yet known if junta forces were among the dead. Some of the bodies were wearing bulletproof vests and army boots, with scarves tied around their necks in the military style indicating the military was trying to cover up its own casualties. Local junta Capt. Soe Win is believed to be among the dead.

“The bodies were brought here in a vehicle,” said a local PDF member. “There were more than seven or eight bodies including those killed in the fighting on the way to our village.”

The military council has not released any information on the discovery of the bodies and calls to a spokesman by RFA on Monday went unanswered.

Ongoing battles between junta troops and the PDFs have left thousands homeless in Myanmar’s second largest region. On June 15 troops torched more than 3,000 houses in one township.

Locals in Myaing township say residents of more than ten villages in the area have fled from the military council’s scorched-earth operations.Figures from Data for Myanmar show that 22 people had been killed in Magway between February last year and the end of April 2022 but more up to date figures are not available. D4M also reported last month that troops had torched more than 3,000 houses in Magway in the first 16 months following the coup.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

Six suspects, including a woman, have been charged in connection with more than K1 million in cash seized at Komo airport in Papua New Guinea’s Hela province last weekend.

The six were charged on Monday with two counts each of money laundering and being in possession of state properties and were released on K2000 police bail each from the Tari police station on Monday evening, police said.

Hela provincial police commander Senior Inspector Robin Bore told the PNG Post-Courier yesterday that five men in their late 20s and 30s, from Papiali village outside Tari, were allegedly involved in the movement of K1.3 million (NZ$590,000 ) in cash and four single PNG Defence Force uniforms from Port Moresby to Tari on a chartered plane.

• READ MORE: PNG leader Marape confirms son arrested over money in suitcase
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“A woman on the same flight was also charged with being in possession of a firearm,” Senior Inspector Bore said.

“The suspects were supposed to appear before court on Monday but because of the [PNG general election] polling scheduled for Monday, the courthouse was closed. They will appear for mention once the courthouse is open.”

He said all the cash and other seized properties were now locked away at the police station as exhibits for further investigation, as the police were still investigating.

On July 2, police in Hela, acting on intelligence reports, seized the cash and other property from the suspects when the plane touched down at Komo from Port Moresby.

‘No evidence’ for poll allegations
Police Commissioner David Manning told the Post-Courier in Hela that he was aware of allegations [related to the election] about how the money was to be used, but police had not found any evidence to support the allegations.

Police Commissioner Manning said the cash was still in police custody.

“It is a very serious allegation that we are putting to the five suspects we have in our custody and the onus is on us to ascertain those facts that will lead to further action to be taken,” he said.

Earlier, Prime Minister James Marape had denied any links with the cash, even though his eldest son Mospal was one of those arrested on that day.

“People are saying the money was meant to assist me, I can confirm that it is not my money, I do not need that money and I did not charter that flight,” he said.

“It is a company charter and for safety reasons they run checks at the airport, because my son was in the vicinity, police rounded up all of them.

“My son was part of a security detail that was providing security to reporters who had travelled to Komo and the Hides gas site.”

Marjorie Finkeo and Miriam Zarriga are PNG Post-Courier reporters. Republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The bombing also damaged a hospital, a clinic and a garment factory in the area near the Thai border, controlled by AA ally the Karenni National Liberation army

Witnesses said the jets flew into Thai airspace after the bombings.

The dead were identified as Kyaw Oo Hlaing, Kyaw San Htay, Tun Lin, Bo Than Kyaw, Nay Zaw Oo, and Zar Ni Win, aged between 20 and 31.

Rakhine residents have been posting messages on Facebook mourning those killed in Monday’s air strike.

Calls to the military council spokesman by RFA went unanswered. AA spokesman Khing Thukha told local media outlets that his troops were not fighting with junta forces in the area. He said the airstrike was unprovoked and the AA plans to retaliate.

Pe Than, a former People’s Assembly member from Rakhine State, said that the junta’s bombing of the AA account could lead to renewed fighting.

“We all know who lives there and whose camp is this,” he said. “That means this was a deliberate attack. [The junta] have to attack these camps because of the situation in Karen State. [In spite of a ceasefire] the military sees the AA as the enemy, so the lull in fighting during the ceasefire is unlikely to last.”

The military council and the AA agreed a ceasefire, which has largely held for more than a year.

The AA operates primarily in Rakhine State, where it is seeking autonomy from the ethnic Rakhines, but also operates in other states, including Kayin (Karen) state.

It has been a long and bitter conflict. On November 19, 2014, 23 cadets from the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Chin National Front (CNF), All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), and eight cadets from the AA died when the military shelled their training academy in Laiza, Kachin state.

Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) has invited the AA to join an alliance of regional armies to fight the military, which could also lead to an escalation in violence. The AA has so far ignored the NUG’s overtures and instead focused on its own territorial ambitions. ICG said the group now controls between half and three quarters of Rakhine state.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

The bombing also damaged a hospital, a clinic and a garment factory in the area near the Thai border, controlled by AA ally the Karenni National Liberation army

Witnesses said the jets flew into Thai airspace after the bombings.

The dead were identified as Kyaw Oo Hlaing, Kyaw San Htay, Tun Lin, Bo Than Kyaw, Nay Zaw Oo, and Zar Ni Win, aged between 20 and 31.

Rakhine residents have been posting messages on Facebook mourning those killed in Monday’s air strike.

Calls to the military council spokesman by RFA went unanswered. AA spokesman Khing Thukha told local media outlets that his troops were not fighting with junta forces in the area. He said the airstrike was unprovoked and the AA plans to retaliate.

Pe Than, a former People’s Assembly member from Rakhine State, said that the junta’s bombing of the AA account could lead to renewed fighting.

“We all know who lives there and whose camp is this,” he said. “That means this was a deliberate attack. [The junta] have to attack these camps because of the situation in Karen State. [In spite of a ceasefire] the military sees the AA as the enemy, so the lull in fighting during the ceasefire is unlikely to last.”

The military council and the AA agreed a ceasefire, which has largely held for more than a year.

The AA operates primarily in Rakhine State, where it is seeking autonomy from the ethnic Rakhines, but also operates in other states, including Kayin (Karen) state.

It has been a long and bitter conflict. On November 19, 2014, 23 cadets from the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Chin National Front (CNF), All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), and eight cadets from the AA died when the military shelled their training academy in Laiza, Kachin state.

Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) has invited the AA to join an alliance of regional armies to fight the military, which could also lead to an escalation in violence. The AA has so far ignored the NUG’s overtures and instead focused on its own territorial ambitions. ICG said the group now controls between half and three quarters of Rakhine state.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

Danger to families

A participant who gave only the surname Liew said Hongkongers are beginning to have similar fears to mainland Chinese in exile, namely that their friends and families back home could be targeted if they speak out overseas.

"Of course I'm scared too, but my view is that if we do nothing, they'll be even more contemptuous of our rights," she said. "They won't go any easier on us if we do nothing; the abuse of our rights will only intensify."

Around 2,000 people turned out to mark the anniversary on the democratic island of Taiwan, many of them chanting now-banned slogans from the 2019 protest movement including "Free Hong Kong! Revolution now!"

A replica of the now-demolished Pillar of Shame sculpture that once stood on the University of Hong Kong campus formed a focal point for the event, as Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen wrote on her Facebook page that the authorities in Hong Kong are currently working to erase collective memory of the massacre.

The country's foreign affairs ministry sent an open letter to the people of China in the simplified Chinese used in China, calling on them to research the massacre for themselves, beyond the Great Firewall of internet censorship.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lu Xi, Lee Tsung-han and Hsia Hsiao-hwa for RFA.

A trio of Democrats from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Thursday accused Amazon of "obstructing" its investigation into the December 2021 collapse of a warehouse in Illinois that killed six employees.

"The committee's investigation is of crucial importance to the American people."

The collapse resulting from tornado damage at the Amazon fulfillment center in Edwardsville has heightened scrutiny of the e-commerce giant's labor practices. In late March, the House committee requested documents from the company related to the event, internal reviews of it, and broader extreme weather policies.

The panel's chair, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), joined with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) for a Thursday letter to Amazon president and CEO Andy Jassy highlighting that the company "has failed to meaningfully comply with the committee's requests."

"These documents were due on April 14, 2022," the letter states. "Amazon still has not produced any of the key categories of documents identified by committee staff, let alone the full set of materials the committee requested."

"On May 17, 2022, counsel to Amazon claimed that Amazon is withholding these documents based on work-product and attorney-client privileges," the document continues. "As committee staff previously informed your counsel, the committee, under chairs of both parties, does not recognize common-law privileges as valid reasons to withhold documents from Congress."

"Amazon's inability to produce even this limited set of materials in a timely manner is troubling," the letter adds, "given that the company represented to members of Congress more than four months ago that it was 'conducting a thorough internal investigation' into the Edwardsville events, and 'cooperating' with an inquiry by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)."

Since the March request for records, the letter points out, "OSHA revealed that an inspection of the Edwardsville facility 'raised concerns about the potential risk to employees during severe weather emergencies,' and recommended that Amazon 'voluntarily take the necessary steps to eliminate or materially reduce your employees' exposure' to the risk factors OSHA identified."

The document also cast doubt on Amazon's willingness to address issues internally, noting that last month, "shareholders—following the company's recommendation—defeated a proposal for an independent audit of working conditions at the company's warehouses," a vote that came the same day that they approved Jassy's compensation package worth over $212 million.

According to the Democratic lawmakers:

The committee's investigation is of crucial importance to the American people. Employers like Amazon must prioritize worker safety over the corporate bottom line. Our investigation into Amazon's response to the events in Edwardsville and other extreme weather events seeks to determine whether Amazon's corporate practices put employee safety first, or whether your company, which now employs nearly one million people in the United States, is merely paying lip service to this principle. As we noted back in March, "This investigation will inform legislative efforts to curb unfair labor practices, strengthen protections for workers, and address the effects of climate change on worker safety."

"The committee will grant an extension until June 8, 2022, for Amazon to complete its document production," the letter concludes. "If Amazon fails to do so, the committee will have no choice but to consider alternative measures to obtain full compliance."

The warning came a day after Jassy received another letter from members of Congress related to other labor concerns—specifically, plans reported by The Intercept in April to ban certain terms like union, living wage, and slave labor from an internal messaging application.

Bush and Ocasio-Cortez partnered with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Cory Booker (D-N.Y.) for that letter, which says that the plan could be illegal and "Amazon's compliance with federal labor laws is an important matter of public concern especially given the company's status as one of the largest retailers in the country."

"This disturbing report is part of a pattern of worker exploitation, retaliation, and union-busting on the part of Amazon," the app-related letter adds, requesting documents and responses to a series of questions by June 16.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jessica Corbett.

*****

U.S. Conditions

“The Dow [Jones] is on its longest weekly losing streak since 1923.”

“The US gross national debt has now reached $30.4 trillion, having spiked by $7.0 trillion since March 2020.”

“GDP decreased at an annual rate of 1.5% in the first quarter of this year, a drop from the previously expected decrease of 1.4% in the advanced estimate, according to the BEA [Bureau of Economic Analysis].”

“Unsold inventory of new houses spiked in a historic month-to-month leap of 34,000 houses, and by 127,000 houses from April last year, to 444,000 unsold houses, seasonally adjusted, the highest since May 2008.”

“The share of home sellers who dropped their asking price shot up to a six-month-high of 15% for the four weeks ending May 1, up from 9% a year earlier. The 5.9% increase is the largest annual gain on record in Redfin’s weekly housing data back through 2015. For homebuyers, the typical monthly mortgage payment skyrocketed a record 42% to a new high during the same period.”

“The average age of a car in the US is up to 12.2 years, a new record.”

“More than 70 Sears stores to close across country.”

Once the Kmart store in Avenel, New Jersey closes [in April 2022], “the number of Kmarts in the U.S. – once well over 2,000 –will be down to three in the continental U.S. and a handful of stores elsewhere.”

“Two years after New York’s first indoor dining shutdown, restaurants and bars continue to close their doors. More than 1,000 have closed since March 2020 due to the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.” The real figure is higher.

“CEO pay rose 17% in 2021 as profits soared up to a median of $14.5 million; workers trailed.”

“US savings rate crashes to lowest since Lehman [2008].”

“Microsoft is the latest tech giant to slow hiring.” Dozens of other big businesses are doing the same.

“We could see a million layoffs or more – here comes the job market shock.”

“Apple Store workers in Georgia call off union vote over intimidation claims.”

“Baby formula crisis: Products from closed plant won’t hit shelves until at least mid-July, Abbott says.”

“Surging meat prices push summer grillers to order pizza instead.”

“US truckers talk ‘unprecedented’ diesel price surge. The price of diesel has been hitting all-time highs.”

“Delta to ‘strategically decrease’ flights this summer.”

“2 in 3 adults avoid social events — because they’re embarrassed about their financial struggles.”

“In June 2020, 74.9% of people aged 18–24 reported at least one mental health or substance use concern. Eight in 10 (83%) college students reported feelings of significant anxiety or stress after the start of the fall 2021 semester, according to the National Alliance for Mental Illness.”

International Conditions

“Every 30 hours, world gets a new billionaire, a million new poor.”

“Oil prices are set to surge even higher this summer.”

“Brazil kicks off $7.4 billion Eletrobras privatization.” Eletrobras is Brazil’s state-controlled power utility.

“Azerbaijan to hold new privatization auction.”

“People in US and UK face huge financial hit if fossil fuels lose value, study shows.”

“In 2021 half of Britain’s energy suppliers went bankrupt as gas prices soared by 250%.”

“Paris [France] reduces trash pick-up days.”

“Spain passes decree limiting use of air conditioning in public buildings to conserve energy.”

“The tech company layoffs have hit Europe. Several of Europe’s best-known startups have made drastic cuts to their teams in order to cut costs and preserve their cash runway as the global economy takes a downturn.”

“’Negative trajectory’ in consumer confidence shows Canadians increasingly anxious about economy.”

“Toyota just cut production for the second time this week. The supply chain crunch isn’t easing up for the world’s top-selling automaker — or anyone, for that matter.”

“Syria’s economy so bad many people don’t have one meal a day, nun says.”

“Doctors, bakers and truckers protest as Lebanon’s currency plunges after election.”

“Zimbabwe’s inflation soars to 131.7%.”

*****

While a fragmented chaotic economy devoid of conscious human intervention has been the norm for decades, it can be seen from the economic and social catastrophe unfolding globally that such an anachronistic economy is further disintegrating and wreaking more havoc on the peoples of the world. It is out of control and some have even called it a death spiral.

It is in this chaotic, alienating, and violent context that “27 school shootings have taken place so far this year [2022]” in the U.S. The most recent shooting was at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead on May 24, 2022. This carnage took place only 10 days after 10 people were massacred at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Many are concerned that these horrific tragedies will be used by the establishment as a pretext to escalate police-state arrangements in the name of “promoting safety,” “fighting hate,” and “preventing shootings.” New York State, for example, wasted no time setting up a State Police unit to surveil people online. Many other units exist in and beyond New York State.

The rich and their political and media representatives are becoming more irresponsible, incompetent, and ineffective with each passing day. Not a single major problem has been solved in decades and every day there is more traumatizing news about economic and social conditions around the world. People everywhere are fed-up, exhausted, and overwhelmed, including many “middle class” people. Only the wealthy few can escape the pain affecting the vast majority.

In this context, recent media chatter about whether there will be a recession this year is diversionary because we have been in a long depression since 2008. Most countries have been running on gas fumes since then, and everything the financial oligarchy has done since 2008 has intensified the all-sided crisis. The fact is that “people don’t need the [neoliberal] government to tell them we are in a recession to start feeling like we are in a recession,” said David Haggith, publisher of The Great Recession Blog.

On top of all this, the rich and their entourage nonchalantly talk and act like lurching from crisis to crisis is somehow inevitable and unpreventable. The notion that the economic collapse confronting humanity is mysterious, incomprehensible, or hard to fix is irrational and self-serving to the extreme. The economy is not a mystery and can be directed quickly and properly to serve a pro-social aim. Everything needed to advance pro-social aims already exists. Workers already run everything and many people with valuable expertise in many fields can be brought together to advance a pro-social direction. Many serious chronic problems can be solved quickly with working people in charge of the wealth they collectively produce. Without political authority and power, however, pro-social changes will remain piece-meal and inadequate. Living and working standards will remain subpar for millions. Working people, youth, students, senior citizens—the polity as a whole—must have sovereign power over economic and political affairs. The aim and direction of the economy must not be set and controlled by big business because that leads only to more disasters.

Smash the silence on economic and social conditions. Discuss these worsening conditions with everyone. Share and disseminate information that combats the disinformation and propaganda of the rich. Speak up in your own name and strive to organize each other for pro-social aims. Put these serious matters on the agenda, reject unprincipled divisions and diversions, and work together to develop collective solutions. History and the will-to-be demand it. It is all do-able.

• Part one of this series appeared on April 10, 2022, part two appeared on April 25, 2022, part three appeared on May 10, 2022, part four appeared on May 16, 2022, and part five appeared on May 22, 2022.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Shawgi Tell.