Anti-coup protesters on Thursday took to the streets of Myanmar for a sixth consecutive day, after US President Joe Biden announced sanctions against the Southeast Asian nation’s generals and demanded they relinquish power.

There has been an outpouring of anger and defiance since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi last week and detained her along with other senior figures of her National League for Democracy party.

Security forces have used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets against the protesters, with isolated reports of live rounds also being fired. Police also ramped up their harassment of the NLD with a raid on its headquarters.

But demonstrators again marched peacefully on Thursday in Naypyidaw—the capital and military stronghold—as well as Yangon, the largest city and commercial hub.

“Don’t go to the office,” chanted a group of protesters outside Myanmar’s central bank in Yangon, part of a civil disobedience effort urging civil servants and people in other industries to boycott work and put pressure on the junta.

“We aren’t doing this for a week or a month—we are determined to do this until the end when (Suu Kyi) and President U Win Myint are released,” one bank employee who had joined the protest told AFP.

There were also fresh rallies in the cities of Dawei and Mandalay, with protesters carrying signs that said “Restore our Democracy!” and “We condemn the military coup”.

US sanctions

Western nations have repeatedly denounced the coup, with the United States leading calls for the generals to relinquish power.

In the most significant concrete action to pressure the junta, Biden announced Wednesday that his administration was cutting of the generals’ access to $1 billion in funds in the United States.

“I again call on the Burmese military to immediately release democratic political leaders and activists,” Biden said, as he flagged further sanctions.

“The military must relinquish power.”   

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has also warned the bloc could impose fresh sanctions on Myanmar’s military.

“This seems like a well calibrated set of measures… Also a strong signal that President Biden himself announced them,” Myanmar-based political analyst Richard Horsey tweeted, describing the sanctions as a “clear message” to the military.

Crackdown deepens

There were more reports of arrests on Thursday, including the deputy speaker of the parliament’s lower house and a key aide to Suu Kyi, taking the number of coup-linked detentions to more than 200, according to monitor Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The military justified last week’s power grab by claiming widespread voter fraud in the November polls, which saw a landslide for Suu Kyi’s party.

It quickly moved to stack courts and political offices with loyalists as it ended a decade of civilian rule.

Fears are growing over how long the junta will tolerate the masses of people taking to the streets.

Live rounds were fired at a rally in Naypyidaw this week, critically wounding two people—including a woman who was shot in the head.

Images depicting the woman have been shared widely online alongside expressions of grief and fury.

“They can shoot a young woman but they can’t steal the hope and resolve of a determined people,” UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews tweeted Wednesday.

The military’s clampdown on information using internet blackouts—with tech companies ordered to cut communications intermittently—has drawn widespread condemnation.

Concern was also building Thursday that the junta was planning to impose a much harsher and sustained internet crackdown.

Tech-focused Myanmar civil society organisation MIDO tweeted that a draft cyber security bill had been sent to telecom companies, which would allow the military to order blackouts and website bans.

It would also require social media platforms to hand over users’ metadata.

Source: AFP

The helicopter crash that killed NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter and six other passengers was probably caused by the pilot becoming disoriented after flying into clouds, investigators said Tuesday.

Ara Zobayan, the pilot of the chartered Island Express helicopter, probably suffered “spatial disorientation,” the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

Also likely contributing to the January 26, 2020 crash in Calabasas, California was “self-induced pressure” on the pilot to complete the flight for his celebrity client, the NTSB said.

The NTSB also cited “inadequate review and oversight” of safety management processes by Island Express as a probable cause of the crash but did not find that the helicopter had experienced any mechanical problems.

Bryant, 41, was traveling with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and six other passengers when the Sikorsky S-76 helicopter slammed into a fog-shrouded hillside west of Los Angeles. There were no survivors.

The NTSB said weather conditions were marginal on the morning of the flight but acceptable for flying under visual flight rules, where a pilot stays out of the clouds and maintains eye contact with the ground.

Shortly before the crash, the pilot said he was climbing to 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) to get above the clouds but the helicopter was actually in a steep left turn and descending rapidly, NTSB investigators said.

While the pilot perceived that the helicopter was climbing it was actually descending, they added.

“We are talking about spatial disorientation where literally the pilot may not know which way is up or down, whether he or she is leaning left or right,” NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said.

In its findings, the NTSB said “the probable cause of this accident was the pilot’s decision to continue flight under visual flight rules into instrument meteorological conditions which resulted in the pilot’s spatial disorientation and loss of control.”

Island Express was not certified to fly passengers in instrument conditions and the pilot violated the rules by trying to fly through the clouds, it said.

“He would have been illegal by going into the clouds,” Sumwalt said.

‘Likely self-induced pressure’

The NTSB also said in its findings that “contributing to the accident was the pilot’s likely self-induced pressure.”

“Self-induced pressure is a real thing,” Sumwalt said.

“Pilots are ‘can-do’ oriented. The pilot is paid to fly. “He wants to get the job done.”

Zobayan was ferrying Bryant that day from Orange County to Camarillo for a basketball game to be played by a team featuring the former NBA star’s daughter. Bryant was the youth team’s coach.

Two of Gianna Bryant’s 13-year-old teammates were among those who died in the crash along with an assistant coach on the Mamba Sports Academy team.

The NTSB chairman said the accident was avoidable.

“It could have been landed safely all the way up to the point where he went into the clouds,” Sumwalt said. “There were opportunities along the way to have reversed course and prevent this crash by simply landing.”

The NTSB said there had been “inadequate review and oversight” of Island Express’s safety management processes but it was not considered an unsafe operator overall.

“We did not find significant glaring issues with the organization,” Sumwalt said.

“They had cancelled a number of flights due to weather and that’s what we want companies to do.”

And while the 50-year-old Zobayan was considered an experienced pilot with more than 8,500 hours of flight time he “did make mistakes,” Sumwalt said.

“It was an issue of judgement and decision-making that led to this tragic situation,” he said.

Bryant was one of the greatest basketball players ever, an iconic figure who became a face of his sport during a glittering two-decade career with the Los Angeles Lakers.

He was a five-time NBA champion in a career that began in 1996 straight out of high school and lasted until his retirement in 2016.

He also was a two-time Olympic gold medalist, helping spark the US squad of NBA stars to titles in 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London.

Source: AFP

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared in court to formally respond to corruption charges against him, as his trial resumes weeks before legislative elections in the occupied territories.

He arrived at the Jerusalem al-Quds district court for a hearing on Monday morning under heavy security and after several delays due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Dozens of protesters demanding his resignation gathered near the court house, following weekly demonstrations held in recent months.

Netanyahu, who is the first Israeli prime minister to be indicted while in office, will likely be required to verbally confirm the defense filed by his lawyers.

In 2019, he was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust stemming from three long-running cases.

Case 1,000 involves allegations that Netanyahu received luxury gifts from international billionaires in exchange for favors. In Case 2,000, he is accused of conspiring with the owner of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper to undermine a critical daily. And Case 4,000 involves allegations that Netanyahu offered incentives to the Israeli telecom provider Bezeq in return for positive stories in the Walla news website.

It is the second time that Netanyahu attends a hearing of his trial in person.

The first hearing took place last May, where the premier alleged that the charges against him were “fabricated.”

He repeated that claim on Sunday, calling on his supporters not to come to the court to show solidarity with him due to surging coronavirus infections.

“I know you want to give me strength in light of the fabricated and false cases against me,” Netanyahu said. “But we are at a time when a [mutated strain] is spreading around the world and in Israel too, so for the sake of your own health I ask you: Don’t come tomorrow.”

Israeli parliament (Knesset) speaker and Netanyahu loyalist Yariv Levin had insisted that the court must postpone the trial, claiming it was unfair for the prosecution to present its case during the election campaign.

Proceeding now “will be lending a hand to blatant meddling in the elections,” he told Israel Hayom newspaper.

Israel will hold its fourth parliamentary elections in two years on March 23 amid public anger over Netanyahu’s graft charges and handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Source: Presstv

Thousands of anti-coup protesters in Myanmar poured back onto the streets Sunday, as an internet blackout failed to stifle growing outrage at the military’s ouster of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The fresh rally followed the largest protests to date on Saturday, when tens of thousands came out in cities across the country to condemn the coup that brought a 10-year experiment with democracy to a crashing halt.

Thousands of chanting protesters marched in Yangon, backed by a din of car horns. They held up banners that said “Justice for Myanmar” and “We do not want military dictatorship”. Some waved the signature red flags of Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy (NLD) party.

“I completely despise the military coup and I am not afraid of a crackdown,” said Kyi Phyu Kyaw, a 20-year-old university student.

“I will join every day until Amay Suu (Mother Suu) is freed.”

Many demonstrators flashed the three-finger salute inspired by the “Hunger Games” films, which was used as a symbol of resistance by pro-democracy protesters in Thailand last year.

The protesters planned to hold a rally at Yangon City Hall, but access to the area was blocked by police and barricades. Demonstrators were forced to split into different groups as they tried to find a way around the checkpoints.

“We have decided. We will fight until the end,” said Ye Kyaw, an 18-year-old economics student.

“The next generation can have democracy if we end this military dictatorship.”

The surge in popular dissent over the weekend overrode a nationwide blockade of the internet, similar in magnitude to an earlier shutdown that coincided with the arrest of Suu Kyi and other senior leaders on Monday.

Online calls to protest the army takeover have prompted bold displays of defiance, including the nightly deafening clamour of people around the country banging pots and pans — a practice traditionally associated with driving out evil spirits.

Yangon residents repeated the pot-banging at 8 am on Sunday.

“#Myanmar’s military and police must ensure the right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and demonstrators are not subjected to reprisals,” the United Nations Human Rights office tweeted after Saturday’s protests.

Civil disobedience

As protests gathered steam this week, the junta ordered telecom networks to freeze access to Facebook, an extremely popular service in the country and arguably its main mode of communication.

The platform had hosted a rapidly growing “Civil Disobedience Movement” forum that had inspired civil servants, healthcare professionals, and teachers to show their dissent by boycotting their jobs.

On Sunday, a live Facebook video feed showed the Yangon protesters as they marched through the streets, as well as police in riot personnel standing by in some locations.

It was not immediately clear how the broadcast was bypassing the government block.

The military had widened its efforts to quell organised dissent on Friday when it demanded new blocks on other social media services including Twitter.

“The generals are now attempting to paralyse the citizen movement of resistance — and keep the outside world in the dark — by cutting virtually all internet access,” said Tom Andrews, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar.

In addition to Suu Kyi and some of her top aides, dozens have been detained so far.

The precise number of arrests is not yet known, but monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said Saturday that more than 150 people are still in custody.

International condemnation

Rumours that Suu Kyi had been released triggered brief but raucous street celebrations among her supporters on Saturday, before they were denied by her lawyer who said she remained in detention.

An immensely popular figure despite a tarnished reputation in the West, Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since the coup, but a party spokesman said Friday she was “in good health”.

Two days after the coup, criminal charges were filed against her related to the illegal import of a set of walkie-talkies.

The military had hinted at its coup intentions days in advance, insisting that the NLD’s landslide victory in the November elections was the result of voter fraud.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party, a military proxy, was trounced in the election.

Following the takeover, the junta proclaimed a one-year state of emergency after which it promised to hold fresh elections, without offering any precise timeframe.

The coup has been widely condemned by the international community, with US President Joe Biden leading calls for the generals to relinquish power and release those arrested in the post-coup crackdown.

(AFP)

The International Criminal Court ruled on Friday that it has jurisdiction over war crimes or atrocities committed in the Palestinian Territories, paving the way for a criminal investigation, despite Israeli objections.

Judges said their decision was based on jurisdictional rules in its founding documents and does not imply any attempt to determine statehood or legal borders.

Israel, which is not a member of the court, has rejected its jurisdiction.

The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said in 2019 that there was a “reasonable basis” to open a war crimes probe into Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip as well as Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank. But she asked the court to determine whether she has territorial jurisdiction before proceeding with the case.

She named both the Israeli Defence Forces and armed Palestinian groups such as Hamas as possible perpetrators.

In a majority ruling published Friday night, the judges said yes.

“The Court’s territorial jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine … extends to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” they said.

The Palestinians, who joined the court in 2015, have long pushed for the case and asked the court to look into Israeli actions during its 2014 war against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, as well as Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem.

Palestinians welcome decision, Israel slams ‘political tribunal’

Responding to the ruling, the Palestinian foreign ministry said it was ready to cooperate with the ICC’s prosecutor in the event an investigation was launched.

Nabil Shaath, a senior aide to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed the decision and said it proved the Palestinians were right to go to the ICC. “This is good news, and the next step is to launch an official investigation into Israel’s crimes against our people,” he said

Hussein al-Sheikh, civil affairs minister of the Palestinian Authority, said on Twitter: “The International Criminal Court’s decision to consider Palestine as a member state according to the Treaty of Rome, and that it has jurisdiction to consider issues related to the Palestinian territories and complaints raised by the (PA), is a victory for rights, justice, freedom and moral values in the world.”

Israel, however, dismissed the ruling as a “political tribunal”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the decision “proves once again the court is a political body and not a legal institution.”

He added that Israel would “protect all of our citizens and soldiers” from prosecution.

International human rights groups immediately welcomed the decision, with the New York-based Human Rights Watch calling it “pivotal”.

The ruling “finally offers victims of serious crimes some real hope for justice after a half-century of impunity,” said Balkees Jarrah, senior counsel on international justice at Human Rights Watch

“It’s high time that Israeli and Palestinian perpetrators of the gravest abuses—whether war crimes committed during hostilities or the expansion of unlawful settlements—face justice,” she said.

The US, however, voiced “serious concerns” over the ruling.

“We have serious concerns about the ICC’s attempts to exercise jurisdiction over Israeli personnel. We have always taken the position that the court’s jurisdiction should be reserved for countries that consent to it or are referred by the UN Security Council,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

The international community widely considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law but has done little to pressure Israel to freeze or reverse their growth.

The ICC is meant to serve as a court of last resort when countries’ own judicial systems are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute war crimes.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and REUTERS)

Billionaires including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Tesla founder Elon Musk have seen their wealth soar during the Covid-19 pandemic while the world’s poor face years of hardship, charity Oxfam said on Monday as it demanded steps to tackle inequality.

Nations have a “shrinking window of opportunity” to build a fair, green recovery, according to “The Inequality Virus” report, published as global leaders tune in for the World Economic Forum’s virtual “Davos Dialogue” meeting.

“We stand to witness the greatest rise in inequality since records began,” Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, said in a statement as the charity called for higher wealth taxes and stronger protections for workers.

“Rigged economies are funnelling wealth to a rich elite who are riding out the pandemic in luxury, while those on the frontline of the pandemic — shop assistants, healthcare workers, and market vendors — are struggling to pay the bills.”

Covid-19 has unleashed an economic storm that hit the poor and vulnerable hardest, with women and marginalised workers facing the worst of job losses and the World Bank warning more than 100 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty.

It could take more than a decade to reduce the number of people living in poverty back to pre-crisis levels, Oxfam said.

Meanwhile, the collective wealth of the world’s billionaires rose $3.9 trillion between March and December 2020 to reach $11.95 trillion, the report calculated.

The 10 richest men — a list led by Bezos and Musk which also includes LVMH luxury group’s CEO Bernard Arnault, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg — saw their net worth increase by $540 billion in the same period, Oxfam said.

That sum would be enough to prevent anyone from falling into poverty as a result of the pandemic and pay for a vaccine for everyone on earth, researchers calculated.

The pandemic marks a “pivotal” point which has exposed economic disparities and built support for “transformative” policies, Oxfam said, calling for higher taxes on wealth and corporations alongside stronger protections for workers.

A temporary tax on excess profits made by the 32 global corporations that have profited the most during the pandemic could have raised $104 billion in 2020, Oxfam said.

International cooperation would be key to implementing many changes, said Jayati Ghosh, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who was among the economists polled by Oxfam for the report.

The administration of new U.S. President Joe Biden will spur “more willingness” for joint action on issues including a crackdown on tax havens and a bailout for developing nations, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

“There are some very, very big hurdles, but there are many things that can be done very quickly,” she added.

Source: REUTERS

At least five people, including a pregnant woman, have been shot to death at a home in the US city of Indianapolis, Indiana, in an incident the mayor denounced as “a mass murder.”

A male juvenile was also in critical condition after the shooting, which marks Indianapolis’ “largest mass casualty shooting in more than a decade,” according to the police.

Indianapolis police chief, Randal Taylor, said, “What we saw this morning was a different kind of evil.”

“There are no right words to say at this time. I myself am heartbroken for the lives that have been taken too soon, for the young life that’s forever been changed and for the young life that never got a chance to start, for the neighborhood left to pick up the pieces in the wake of unprecedented violence and for all of the family and friends that have been rocked by grief,” the police chief said.

The victims were Kezzie Childs, 42; Raymond Childs Jr., 42; Elijah Childs, 18; Rita Childs, 13; Kiara Hawkins, 19, and her baby.

Mayor Joe Hogsett said Sunday, “This morning the city of Indianapolis was targeted with an act of depravity that has become all too common across the country and will never cease to shock the conscience.”

Hogsett said the shooting had brought “terror to our community.”

It was not immediately clear why the victims were targeted.

Police said no suspect had been identified, but that they believed more than one shooter could have been involved.

The killings came just days after the mayor and police officials discussed plans to reduce violent crimes in Indianapolis, where local news media reported that there were a record of 245 homicides in 2020 — a 40 percent increase from 2019.

Mass shootings occur across the United States with increasing frequency.

Amnesty International has warned that the gun violence situation in the US has grown into a full blown “human rights crisis” and the administration of former President Donald Trump was doing little to solve it.

The issue of gun violence became all the more polarizing under Trump, a Republican, whose presidential campaign had been funded partially by the National Rifle Association (NRA), an influential gun lobby in the US.

Source: Presstv

As Joe Biden entered the White House as the the 46th President of the United States, he started his term by signing 17 executive orders, mainly undoing Donald Trump’s legacy. These concerned immigration, the Paris Climate Deal, the WHO, and mandating mask-wearing in places under federal authority.

Joe Biden called on Americans to overcome divisions as he was sworn into office on Wednesday as the 46th President of the United States. Biden inherits a confluence of crises and his inauguration comes at a time of national tumult and uncertainty, two weeks after rioters opposing his election stormed the US Capitol.

At 78, Biden becomes the oldest president in US history while Harris becomes the first female vice president, the first Black woman and the first Asian-American to hold the office.

More than 25,000 National Guard troops from across the country have been deployed to the US capital, supporting federal and district agencies, for the inauguration.

The FBI has assisted the Defence Department in vetting National Guard troops deployed in Washington DC amid fears of an insider attack following the January 6 storming of the US Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump.

Trump was not present for the swearing-in. However, former US presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton attended with their wives, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to some restrictions. However, a number of leading performing artists, including Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Tom Hanks took the stage during the ceremony.

Source: FRANCE 24

President-elect Joe Biden made a sober entrance to the nation’s capital Tuesday, ready to assume power as America reels from the coronavirus pandemic, soaring unemployment and grave concerns about more violence as he prepares to take the oath of office.

Biden, an avid fan of Amtrak, had planned to take a train into Washington ahead of Wednesday’s Inauguration Day, but scratched that plan in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

He instead flew into a military airbase just outside the capital on Tuesday afternoon and then motorcaded into fortress D.C. — a city that’s been flooded by some 25,000 National Guard troops guarding a Capitol, White House and National Mall that are wrapped in a maze of barricades and tall fencing.

Shortly before Biden departed for Washington, the U.S. reached another grim milestone in the pandemic, surpassing 400,000 deaths from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“These are dark times,” Biden told dozens of supporters in an emotional sendoff in Delaware before departing for Washington. “But there’s always light.”

Biden, who ran for the presidency as a cool head who could get things done, plans to issue a series of executive orders on Day One — including reversing President Donald Trump’s effort to leave the Paris climate accord, canceling his travel ban on visitors from several predominantly Muslim countries, and extending pandemic-era limits on evictions and student loan payments.

Trump won’t attend Biden’s inauguration, the first outgoing president to skip the ceremony since Andrew Johnson more than a century and a half ago. The White House released a farewell video from Trump just as Biden landed at Joint Base Andrews. Trump, who has repeatedly and falsely claimed widespread fraud led to his election loss, extended “best wishes” to the incoming administration in his nearly 20-minute address but did not utter Biden’s name.

Trump also spent some of his last time in the White House huddled with advisers weighing final-hour pardons and grants of clemency.

Trump plans to depart from Washington Wednesday morning in a grand airbase ceremony that he helped plan himself.

Source: France 24