China on Thursday lashed out at the US at a high-level UN meeting over its criticism on the COVID-19 pandemic, with its envoy declaring, “Enough is enough.” Two days after US President Donald Trump used his annual address to the General Assembly to attack China’s record, US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft, also took an outraged tone — after which her Chinese counterpart showed palpable anger. “I must say, enough is enough. You have created enough troubles for the world already,” Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun (張軍) told a Security Council meeting on global governance attended through videoconference by several heads of state. “The US has nearly 7 million confirmed cases and over 200,000 deaths by now. With the most advanced medical technologies and system in the world, why has the US turned out to have the most confirmed cases and fatalities?” he asked in English. “If someone should be held accountable, it should be a few US politicians themselves,” he said. Using a phrase often told by US leaders to China, Zhang said: “The US should understand that a major power should behave like a major power.” The US “is completely isolated,” he said in remarks enthusiastically backed by his Russian counterpart. His remarks came after Craft opened with angry words that took diplomats off-guard. “You know, shame on each of you. I am astonished and I am disgusted by the content of today’s discussion,” Craft said. “I am actually really quite ashamed of this council — members of the council who took this opportunity to focus on political grudges rather than the critical issue at hand. My goodness,” she said. Diplomats said they were puzzled at the tone of Craft, who had left by the time the Chinese ambassador spoke. Craft was “very aggressive” after a session that had been “more or less full of
Farmers in India yesterday blocked roads and railway tracks in a protest against new legislation that they say could pave the way for the government to stop buying grain at guaranteed prices, leaving them at the mercy of private buyers. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has defended the bills — recently approved by parliament — as reform measures that will help rid India’s vast agriculture sector of antiquated laws and allow farmers to sell to institutional buyers and big retailers like Walmart. The government has also insisted that the new rules give the option to farmers to sell their produce to private buyers, but it would still purchase staples, such as rice and wheat, at guaranteed prices. However, such assurances have failed to mollify millions of farmers who make up an influential voting bloc in states such as Punjab and Haryana — India’s northern farm belt that borders the capital, New Delhi. As part of a nationwide shutdown, more farmers are likely to hit the streets in states such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, where opposition parties are likely to join them. Authorities yesterday had to cancel several train services on some routes, as farmers started blocking highways and railway tracks. Police in various states have beefed up security in the hope of heading off any violence, especially around New Delhi.
WHITE RIBBONS: With norm-defying actions, gestures and symbols, the ‘bad student’ movement is shaking up traditions in the country’s rigid education system
As university students stage weeks of high-profile campus protests for democracy, their younger brethren are advancing their own rebellion to Thailand’s establishment. “There is a viral saying that ‘our first dictatorship is school,’” 17-year-old Peka Loetparisanyu said. “They are trying to instill in us that we are only the little people in an authoritarian society. This means that a lot of our rights have been violated.” The movement sweeping through Thai high schools has been dubbed “bad student” by its leaders. Its namesake is a book written by university student activist Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal about his experiences in high school titled A Bad Student in an Excellent Education System. As well as supporting the broader aims of the anti-government protests, the high-school movement is targeted at gaining self-expression for students via the abolition of rules they deem as archiac. Traditionalism runs through Thailand’s education system. The national anthem is played at morning assemblies, uniform and deportment rules are strict, and students are expected to be unquestioning of authority. Critics say that the school system is aimed at compliance more than education. Global scores compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for 2018 show Thailand far behind top performer Singapore and also lagging neighboring Malaysia in reading, maths and science. Still, conservatives were furious last month when some students wore white ribbons and raised three-finger Hunger Games salutes during the morning anthem recital to support the pro-democracy movement. The salute has been a symbol of calls for democracy since Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha first took power in a 2014 coup. The white ribbons represent the purity of the students. Thai Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan earlier this year bowed to demands by students to relax the rules that prescribe specific hair length and styles for male and female students. Nataphol said that more discussion was needed on calls
SEEKING APPOINTMENT: A meeting with an opposition leader, who claims to have a legislative majority, would not take place for as long as the king recovers
Malaysian King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah would not be granting an audience to anyone for a week as he is under observation at a hospital, a palace official said yesterday, as Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim seeks a meeting with him to form a new government. Anwar on Wednesday said that he has secured a “strong, formidable” majority in the Malaysian parliament to oust Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. However, he has to convince the king that he has the numbers to form a government. The political turmoil comes just seven months after the power struggle that led to Muhyiddin took his post and could delay efforts to stabilize the economy reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Muhyiddin, who has a razor-thin majority in parliament, has dismissed Anwar’s claims of a majority and challenged him to prove it through the constitutional process. The Malaysian king plays a largely ceremonial role in Malaysia, but he could also appoint a prime minister who in his view is likely to command a majority in parliament. The king could also dissolve parliament and trigger general elections on the prime minister’s advice. “His Majesty has been advised by his doctors to remain at [hospital] for seven days for observation. So until then, he will not have any meetings,” Palace Comptroller Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin said. Anwar was scheduled to meet with the king on Tuesday, but the appointment had to be canceled as the king was unwell and had to be taken to hospital. No major political party has come out in Anwar’s support, but the leader of the United Malays National Organisation, the largest party in the ruling coalition, said that there had been defections to Anwar’s camp. In a campaign speech in Sabah state, Muhyiddin again questioned Anwar’s claim that he has a majority, national news agency Bernama reported. “He
For those in dismay at the prospect of wet, dark evenings and social isolation this fall, a luxury desert island resort in the Maldives is looking for a live-in bookseller to start working next month. The eco-resort of Soneva Fushi, on Kunfunadhoo Island in the Maldives, has played host to three “barefoot booksellers” since 2018: The most recent occupant, Chrissy Ryan, left in April as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world. TOURISM REOPENING With the Maldives now reopening to international tourists, Soneva Fushi is in need of a bookseller to run a small shop on the private island, with the working contract set to run from the end of next month until April next year. “The Maldives is pretty much COVID-free and the resort that we operate with has its own medical center, and strict and rigorous testing procedures, so it’s a very safe place to be,”said Philip Blackwell, the chief executive of Ultimate Library, which runs the bookshop and provides library collections for holiday destinations around the world. “They’re expecting people to come, and we are minded to take the punt to reopen our bookshop and see what passing trade comes our way,” he added. When the position of “barefoot bookseller” was previously advertised, Blackwell received thousands of applications from people desperate to escape the grind of daily life. “Last time, we had everybody from the White House press corps to film directors, lawyers, IT managers, beach poets, retired librarians,” said Blackwell, who is a member of the British family of booksellers that sold their chain in 2006. “What works best is somebody with bookselling experience. They’ve got to love people and selling books, and they’ve got to know about books,” Blackwell said. ADVENTURER NEEDED “They’ve also got to be adventurous because this is not for somebody to sit in a bookshop eight hours a
SEEKING ASYLUM: The Turkish coast guard said it has rescued more than 300 migrants ‘pushed back by Greek elements’ this month, which Greek officials have denied
Shortly after reaching the Greek island of Lesbos, a group of Afghan migrants say, their hopes for a new life in Europe were cut short when Greek authorities rounded them up, mistreated them, shoved them into life rafts and abandoned them at sea. Associated Press journalists on a Turkish government-organized coast guard ride-along were aboard the patrol boat that picked up the 37 migrants, including 18 children, from two orange life rafts in the Aegean Sea on Sept. 12. Two other media organizations on similar government-organized trips in the same week witnessed similar scenes. “They took our phones and said a bus will come and take you to the camp,” Omid Hussain Nabizada said in Turkish. “But they took us and put us on a ship. They left us on the water in a very bad way on these boats.” Turkey, which hosts about 4 million refugees, accuses Greece of large-scale pushbacks — summary deportations without access to asylum procedures, in breach of international law. It also accuses the EU of turning a blind eye to what it says is a blatant abuse of human rights. The Turkish coast guard said it rescued more than 300 migrants “pushed back by Greek elements to Turkish waters” this month alone. Citing what they say are credible reports, international rights groups have called repeatedly for investigations. Greece, which lies on the EU’s southeastern border and has borne the brunt of migration flows from Turkey, denies the allegations and in turn accuses Ankara of weaponizing migrants. In March, Turkey made good on threats to send migrants to Europe, declaring its borders with the EU open. In what appeared to be a government-organized campaign, thousands headed to the Greek border, leading to scenes of chaos and violence. Turkey’s border with EU member Bulgaria was largely unaffected. Greece shut its frontier and controversially suspended asylum applications for
GOING HOME: An analyst said that the move could be designed to keep Navalny from returning to Russia, which his spokeswoman said he was determined to do
Russian bailiffs put a freeze on opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s apartment and bank accounts days after his poisoning with a Novichok nerve agent, his spokeswoman said on Thursday. The bailiffs’ actions were the result of a court ruling in October last year that Navalny, his ally Lyubov Sobol and the Anti-Corruption Foundation he founded should jointly pay almost 88 million rubles (US$1.14 million) to Moskovsky Shkolnik, a catering company that makes school dinners. The company sued over a video investigation by Navalny’s team that alleged it made substandard food that made children ill. The politician and anti-corruption campaigner’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said in a video statement that on Aug. 27, “bailiffs announced a ban” on transactions involving his share in an apartment in a Moscow suburb. “At the same time, Alexei’s accounts were frozen,” Yarmysh said. The legal move against Navalny means his family’s apartment in a multistory block in southeastern Moscow cannot be sold, given as a present or used to take out a mortgage, she said, adding that he can still live there. The move could be part of a campaign by Russia to dissuade Navalny from returning, political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said. “Watch how they’ll throw everything at stopping Navalny’s return,” she said on social media. On Aug. 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top foe collapsed on a plane and was taken to hospital in Siberia for two days before being flown out to Berlin, where tests found he had been poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent. The German hospital announced that he had emerged from a coma on Sept. 7. His allies and top international officials have said that the onus is on Russia to prove that the poisoning was not state ordered and hold a proper investigation, while Russia argues it needs evidence from tests in Germany and other countries to do so. Doctors at
It was hidden away for centuries in the archives of a seminary in Spain, a rare edition of a William Shakespeare play experts believe might be the earliest copy of his work to reach the country. Published in 1634, The Two Noble Kinsmen is a tragicomedy about love, enmity and madness written by Shakespeare in collaboration with Jacobean playwright John Fletcher. “It’s likely the play reached Spain between 1635 and 1640,” said John Stone, a lecturer in English studies at Barcelona University who discovered it at the Royal Scots College, a seminary in the northwestern town of Salamanca founded after the Catholic Church was outlawed in Scotland. Collections of English works were rare in Spain and plays were exceptional in the 17th and 18th centuries, with all books subjected to inspection at the frontier by the Spanish Inquisition, particularly those from a heretical Protestant state like England. The tragicomedy was part of a single volume of eight English plays printed from 1630 to 1635, which were likely brought over by a traveler and managed to escape falling into the hands of the Inquisition. “I was going through the section on political economy and on the last shelf, I saw a book that was distinct in its binding from pretty well anything else,” Stone said. Having written his dissertation on Shakespeare in Spain, he realized its importance immediately. “I knew the moment I saw it that it was the oldest copy of Shakespeare in Spain,” the Canadian researcher said. “The question was whether it had been the first Shakespearean text to reach Spain,” he added. Until now, the earliest known work of Shakespeare in Spain was a compilation of plays found at the Jesuit English College in Valladolid that likely arrived in the late 1640s or early 1650s. It was sold in the 1920s to Henry Clay Folger, a wealthy American
Chinese authorities have demolished thousands of mosques in Xinjiang, an Australian think tank said yesterday, in the latest report of widespread human rights abuses in the restive region. Rights groups say that more than 1 million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking people have been incarcerated in camps across the northwestern territory, with residents pressured to give up traditional and religious activities. About 16,000 mosques had been destroyed or damaged, according to an Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) report based on satellite imagery documenting hundreds of sacred sites and statistical modelling. Most of the destruction had taken place in the past three years and an estimated 8,500 mosques had been completely destroyed, the report said, with more damage outside the urban centers of Urumqi and Kashgar. Many mosques that escaped demolition had their domes and minarets removed, according to the research, which estimated that fewer than 15,500 intact and damaged mosques were left standing around Xinjiang. If correct, it would be the lowest number of Muslim houses of worship in the region since the decade of national upheaval sparked by the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. By contrast, none of the Christian churches and Buddhist temples in Xinjiang that were studied by the think tank had been damaged or destroyed. ASPI also said that nearly a third of major Islamic sacred sites in Xinjiang — including shrines, cemeteries and pilgrimage routes — had been razed. An Agence France-Presse investigation last year found that dozens of cemeteries had been destroyed in the region, leaving human remains and bricks from broken tombs scattered across the land. China has said that residents of Xinjiang have religious freedom. Asked about the research, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the research institute had “no academic credibility” and was producing “anti-China reports and anti-China lies.” Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said that there were about
ORDERLY TRANSITION? At campaign rallies, the US president has alleged that Democrats could rig the election as voters use mail-in ballots amid the virus
Top US Republicans and Democrats on Thursday pushed back hard against US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that he might not accept defeat in the Nov. 3 presidential election, telling him that the US is not “North Korea.” A day after Trump refused to clearly guarantee a peaceful transfer of power, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell felt it necessary to assure US voters that the winner of the election would take office as planned in January next year. On Wednesday, Trump sparked outrage by hinting that he might not honor the results of the election or treat mail-in ballots as legitimate. Asked at a White House news conference whether he is committed to the peaceful handover of power if defeated, Trump said: “Well, we’re going to have to see what happens. You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.” Trump in a radio interview on Thursday repeated his claim that mailed ballots cannot be trusted. Pressed on his remarks, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters: “The president will accept the results of a free and fair election.” Trump’s remarks casting doubt on the transfer of power came as he significantly trails his Democratic rival, former US vice president Joe Biden, in most national polls. McConnell, who wields significant power as the top Republican in the US Congress, felt it necessary to issue a statement seen as a veiled warning to Trump. “The winner of the Nov. 3 election will be inaugurated on Jan. 20,” McConnell wrote on Twitter. “There will be an orderly transition just as there has been every four years since 1792,” he added. Other political leaders were brusquer. On the campaign trail, Trump has made unfounded allegations that the election could be rigged by Democrats taking advantage of a surge in voting by mail due to the COVID-19
MIDWEST HOTSPOT: Many cases in North and South Dakota have been linked to an annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, which attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors
The number of COVID-19 cases in the US topped 7 million on Thursday — more than 20 percent of the world’s total — as Midwest states reported spikes in transmission rates this month, a Reuters tally showed. The latest milestone comes just days after the nation surpassed 200,000 COVID-19 deaths, the world’s highest death toll from the virus. Each day, more than 700 people die in the US from COVID-19. California leads the country with more than 800,000 total cases, followed by Texas, Florida and New York. Except for Ohio, all of the Midwest states reported more cases in the past four weeks than in the previous four weeks. The increase was led by South Dakota and North Dakota. South Dakota had the biggest percentage increase at 166 percent with 8,129 new cases, while North Dakota’s new cases doubled to 8,752, up from 4,243 during the same period last month. Many cases in those two states have been linked to the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, that annually attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. Positive cases this month rose in half of the 50 US states, a Reuters analysis showed, with 10 states having reported this month a record one-day increase in cases. New cases last week rose after falling for eight consecutive weeks. Health experts believe this spike was due to reopening schools and universities, as well as parties over the Labor Day holiday. A study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Indiana University, the University of Washington and Davidson College said that the reopening of university campuses for in-person instruction last month could be associated with more than 3,000 additional cases of COVID-19 per day in the US in recent weeks. US confirmed cases are the highest in the world, followed by India with 5.7 million cases and Brazil with 4.6 million. The
More than 1,000 people defied a second night of curfew in Louisville, Kentucky, to protest over the lack of criminal charges in the police killing of Breonna Taylor, with some seeking refuge in a church. Two officers were shot during clashes in Louisville a day earlier, after authorities announced a grand jury had decided not to charge anyone in connection with the death of Taylor — a 26-year-old black woman shot dead in her apartment by police earlier this year. “Until we afford black people the basic rights promised by our founders — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — and end the rampage of the devil of racism, we will know no peace,” her family’s lawyer, Ben Crump, said in an opinion piece in the Washington Post. More than a thousand people on Thursday evening protested in the city center, much of which was closed to traffic, with several shops boarded up in anticipation of more violence. “No way we can be peaceful any longer,” said Michael Pyles, a 29-year-old black man who said that he has been protesting for 120 days and had a 9mm handgun on his hip. “We’re out here to protect our people and the people who support us,” he said. “We are under attack.” Grace Pennix, 19, who is also African American, said that she cannot help but place herself in Taylor’s shoes. “I often be passing by my front door and thinking, dang, the police could be coming at my door and shoot me and kill me just like they did with Breonna,” Pennix said. “It could be me, my friend, cousin, aunt, mom.” With a 9pm to 6:30am curfew in place through the weekend, about a hundred protesters in breach of the rule late on Thursday sought refuge at the First Unitarian Church. Heavily armed police surrounded the building and
Facebook Inc on Thursday said that it dismantled three networks of fake accounts that could be used by Russia’s intelligence services to leak hacked documents as part of efforts to disrupt the upcoming US presidential election. The company said that the accounts, which it suspended for using fake identities and other types of “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” were linked to Russian intelligence and people associated with a St Petersburg-based organization accused by US officials of working to sway the 2016 US presidential vote. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations of election meddling, saying that it does not interfere in the domestic politics of other countries. Facebook Cybersecurity Policy head Nathaniel Gleicher said that there was no immediate evidence that hacked documents were about to be leaked, but by suspending the accounts, Facebook hoped to prevent them from being used in any subsequent operation. “Our team watches for the threats and trends that we need to be ready for and one that we are very aware of ... is a hack-and-leak operation, particularly in the next six to eight weeks,” he said. “We want to make sure that the accounts are down to prevent their ability to pivot them to facilitate a hack-and-leak around the US election.” Facebook said that the networks were small with only a handful of accounts on its Web site and photo-sharing service Instagram, and a combined total of about 97,000 followers. Twitter said that it worked with Facebook to identify and remove 350 accounts that were operated by state-linked organizations in Russia. The companies said that one of the networks was identified following a tip from the FBI, which on Tuesday said that foreign actors and cybercriminals are likely to spread disinformation about the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election. Graham
As the streets of San Francisco emptied out in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city’s male birds began singing more softly and improving their vocal range, making them “sexier” to females, a study published on Thursday found. The paper adds to a growing body of research describing how animals — from whales and coyotes to the white-crowned sparrow studied here — have adapted their behaviors to COVID-19 shutdowns that have forced humans to retreat to their homes, a phenomenon dubbed the “anthropause.” “When the city was loud, they were singing really loudly,” said University of Tennessee behavioral ecologist Elizabeth Derryberry, who led the study published in Science. However, as city traffic ground to a halt following a statewide shelter-in-place order in the spring, noise levels fell by 50 percent, she said. The number of vehicles on the Golden Gate Bridge collapsed to 1954 levels, the researchers found. They compared birdsong data that they collected from previous years to recordings made at the same sites from April to May, and found that sparrows were now singing far more quietly and were capable of hitting much lower notes, which in turn expanded their range and enhanced their overall performance. Imagine going to a party at a friend’s house: at the start of the night, you speak at a normal volume, but as the place fills up, you need to raise your voice to be heard. “When you’re shouting at a cocktail party, your voice is not at its best,” Derryberry said, adding that it was similar for the studied birds. As noise pollution decreased, “their songs also sounded better — they sounded sexier,” she said. “They were better competitors and they sounded like better mates to females.” The authors said their study showed how quickly birds can adapt to changing environments, and suggests that finding solutions to curbing
NORTH KOREA Kim apologizes for killing Leader Kim Jong-un yesterday apologized for the killing of a South Korean official near the nations’ disputed sea boundary, saying that he is “very sorry” about the incident that he called unexpected and unfortunate, South Korean officials said. The extremely unusual move could de-escalate tensions between the countries as it is expected to ease anti-North Korean sentiment in South Korea over the man’s death as well as mounting criticism of South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “Comrade Kim Jong-un, the State Affairs Commission chairman, feels very sorry to give big disappointment to President Moon Jae-in and South Korean citizens, because an unexpected, unfortunate incident happened” at a time when South Korea is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, South Korean National Security Office Director Suh Hoon cited the North Korean message as saying. On Thursday, South Korea accused North Korea of fatally shooting one of its public servants who was likely trying to defect and burning his body after finding him on a floating object in North Korean waters on Tuesday. TURKEY Warrants issued for 82 Authorities yesterday issued arrest warrants for 82 people, including a mayor, over pro-Kurdish protests six years ago, officials and local media said. The warrants relate to October 2014 protests in Turkey sparked by the seizure by Islamic State jihadists of the mainly Kurdish Syrian town of Kobane. Police were on the hunt for the suspects in Ankara and six other provinces, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. The office did not specify what offences they are alleged to have committed, but said the crimes committed during the protests included murder, attempted murder, theft, damaging property, looting, burning the Turkish flag and injuring 326 security officials and 435 citizens. UNITED KINGDOM London officer killed A police officer was yesterday shot dead inside a London police
OFF BORDER ISLAND: The fisheries official disappeared from a patrol vessel wearing a life jacket and leaving behind his shoes, indicating an intentional move, Seoul said
North Korean soldiers shot dead a suspected South Korean defector at sea and burned his body as a COVID-19 precaution after he was interrogated in the water over several hours, Seoul military officials said yesterday. It is the first killing of a South Korean citizen by North Korean forces for a decade, and comes with Pyongyang at high alert over the COVID-19 pandemic and inter-Korean relations at a standstill. The fisheries official disappeared from a patrol vessel near the western border island of Yeonpyeong on Monday, the official said. More than 24 hours later, North Korean forces located him in their waters and questioned him from a patrol boat, the official said, with Yonhap news agency adding that his interrogator wore protective equipment. He was killed about six hours after being found, the official said. “He was shot dead in the water,” he said. “North Korean soldiers poured oil over his body and burnt it in the water.” “We assess it was carried out under the North’s anti-COVID-19 measure,” he added. Pyongyang has closed its borders and declared an emergency to try to protect itself against the virus which first emerged in neighboring China. The man was wearing a life jacket and his shoes had been found on board the South Korean boat, the official said — indicators pointing to the man entering the water voluntarily. “We have obtained intelligence that he had expressed his intention to defect while being questioned,” the official added, but declined to go into detail about the source of the information. The South Korean military is known to intercept radio communications by the North’s forces. The killing took place after an “order from superior authority,” Yonhap cited South Korean officials as saying. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense condemned the shooting as an “outrageous act.” “We sternly warn North Korea that all responsibilities for this incident lie
Nearly 40 Maori academics are calling for a national inquiry into racism at New Zealand universities, saying discrimination against Maori students and teachers is ingrained and endemic. Margaret Mutu is a Maori studies professor at Auckland University and said institutional racism against students and teachers, and in the curriculum and the way it is delivered, has beleaguered the sector for decades. “There has always been resistance to including anything Maori,” Mutu said. “Especially those aspects of Maori knowledge and scholarship that may challenge the applicability of Eurocentric knowledge and scholarship to Maori and our world views,” she added. Thirty-seven Maori academics from eight universities have now signed an open letter to New Zealand Minister of Education Chris Hipkins calling for a national inquiry into the problem. The letter alleges the crown has failed “to protect Maori staff and students in universities and, consequently, [has failed] to uphold the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi [the Treaty of Waitangi].” “We call for a nationwide review of the university tertiary sector for the purpose of committing to, and accelerating with urgency, a tertiary sector that honors te Tiriti o Waitangi. We call for this nation-wide review to commence now with urgency,” it said. Mutu said students and teachers alike have been left in tears by encounters with racism at tertiary institutions, and racism has taken many forms, including students criticizing Maori staff for teaching Maori content and demanding it be withdrawn, and the absence or minimalization of Maori content in courses relevant to Maori. “Racism against Maori is deeply ingrained in all New Zealand universities,” Mutu said. “Maori staff having to justify being Maori in a university to their European colleagues.” Maori make up 16.5 percent of New Zealand’s population, but account for more than 50 percent of its prisoners. They are also over-represented in poor health, welfare and educational outcomes.
Wildlife keeper Tran Van Truong gently takes a curled-up pangolin into his arms, comforting the shy creature rescued months earlier from traffickers in Vietnam. Life remains precarious for the world’s most trafficked mammal ,despite the country’s renewed vow to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade that many blame for the COVID-19 pandemic. Arrests, prosecutions and wildlife seizures are up in Vietnam, but conservationists say that corruption and patchy law enforcement mean that the scourge of trafficking continues. Truong works at a center in Vietnam’s Cuc Phuong National Park run by Save Vietnam’s Wildlife — a group that within the past six years has rescued about 2,000 of the so-called “scaly anteaters.” The 27-year-old remembers the day he discovered more than 100 pagolins tied up in sacks, cast on the ground by police outside the truck that had carried them. “Most of them died due to exhaustion,” he said, adding that the animals had no air or water. “They get stressed easily,” he said. Vietnam is a consumption and a transport hub for illegal wildlife in Asia. The pangolin’s scales are falsely thought to cure anything from impotence to menstrual cramps and even cancer in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine, and its flesh is also seen as a delicacy. Earlier this year, China removed pangolin parts from its official list of traditional medicines, and there are some encouraging signs in Vietnam, too. Wildlife trafficking seizures in the country have increased 44 percent over a two-year period, according to non-governmental organization Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV). In the first six months of this year, 97 percent led to arrests. Prosecutions are also significantly up. The shift came on the back of a revised law in 2018 that pushed up punishments, both fines and prison terms, and closed loopholes — an effective way to deter wildlife crime, ENV said. However, enforcement is
COORDINATED MOVE: The nations are growing more concerned over rights abuses and fear that security forces are increasing the pressure on detained dual nationals
France, Germany and the UK are summoning Iranian ambassadors in a coordinated diplomatic protest against Iran’s detention of dual nationals and its treatment of political prisoners. Iranian Ambassador to the UK Hamid Baeidinejad was on Tuesday summoned by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to meet with senior officials, and the Iranian ambassadors in Paris and Berlin are also being called in this week. A letter handed to Baeidinejad and seen by the Guardian says that Iran’s policy of arbitrary detention is undermining its global standing. It is the first coordinated move by the three countries — known collectively as the E3 — on Iranian human rights abuses and comes amid growing concern that Iranian security forces have decided to step up pressure on detained dual nationals, including by the laying of a second set of charges against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual national jailed in 2016. Officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps visited her parents’ home this week, where she is living under house arrest, in what her family saw as an attempt to intimidate her. Within Iran, there has been an outcry over the execution of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari, who was charged with killing a security guard during protests in 2018. His execution led to protests from members of the Iranian public, who warned that his death would not intimidate the regime’s critics. One of Iran’s most famous political prisoners, Nasrin Sotoudeh, has been on hunger strike for more than 40 days, and recently spent some time in hospital due to her weakening condition. She is a lawyer and has defended the right of women not to wear a hijab. France is seeking the release of Fariba Adelkah, a French-Iranian academic arrested in 2018. Adelkah has just been transferred from Evin Prison to the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence detention center. Baeidinejad is understood to have been given
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