This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.
- Speaking before the United Nations Security Council, the World Health Organization said Israel has agreed to limited pauses in its military attacks in Gaza to allow polio vaccinations for 640,000 children, following the first confirmed case of polio in Palestine in 25 years.
- Army spokesperson said Arlington National Cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” in altercation with Trump’s staff.
- Both presidential nominees were on the campaign trail today, with Vice President Kamala Harris wrapping up a bus tour of Georgia and former President Donald Trump addressing crowds in battleground states in the Midwest.
- A new report from New York state shows hate crimes surged nearly 13% compared to the previous year, with nearly half of the incidents targeting Jewish people, Black people, and gay men.
- California Senator Alex Padilla and immigrant rights advocates vowed to fight after a Texas court blocked a Biden Administration program for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens.
- Gun control advocates and Democrats gathered at the state Capitol to call for the swift passage of legislation they say will save lives and make it harder to obtain firearms on the black market.
The post WHO says Israel agrees to limited pauses in Gaza attacks for polio vaccinations after first confirmed case in Palestine in 25 years – August 29, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.
This content originally appeared on KPFA – The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Ethnic minority insurgents in western Myanmar killed more than 100 junta troops and captured dozens in a three-day battle that has brought them close to victory in the region on the Bangladesh border, the force said.
The Arakan Army, or AA, has been fighting to take control of Rakhine state from the junta that seized power in a coup three and a half years ago. But fears have been mounting for the fate of the state’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority caught up in the fighting.
The AA, which draws its support from the state’s ethnic Rakhine Buddhist majority, has been making significant gains against junta forces since abandoning a ceasefire late last year.
The latest battle took place in Maungdaw, on the border with Bangladesh, with the AA saying they were close to capturing all of the military’s positions in the town where more than 100 junta soldiers were killed from Saturday to Monday.
“Only a few junta defense positions remain,” the group said in a statement. “These junta areas will soon be under the complete control of the AA.”
“Dozens of military junta soldiers and junta-armed Muslim militias were captured during the fighting,” it said.
The AA gave no details about casualties on its side.
RFA contacted Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson, Hla Thein, and the AA’s spokesperson, Khaing Thu Kha, for information about the fighting but neither returned calls by the time of publication.
Residents told Radio Free Asia that as of Monday, the junta’s last stronghold in the township was Border Guard Post No. 5.
The junta’s defeat in Maungdaw would be a significant blow for the military which is facing setbacks at the hands of other, allied insurgent factions in several other parts of the country.
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‘Serious rights violations’
Aid organizations have warned of dire conditions in Maungdaw with the fighting and junta blockades making the delivery of help impossible.
Since fighting surged in early August, about 23,000 civilians have fled from the town and surrounding villages, according to residents’ estimates, seeking safety deeper in Rakhine state, or over a border river in Bangladesh.
But as many as 200 Rohingya civilians hoping to flee to Bangladesh have been killed this month, most of them in attacks that survivors have blamed on the AA.
Rohingya Muslims have been denied citizenship and faced persecution in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar for years. Some 750,000 of them fled to Bangladesh in 2017 after the Myanmar military launched a crackdown on Muslim rebels.
This year, they have become caught up in the fighting between the AA and the junta, particularly after the junta began recruiting Rohingya to its ranks.
The AA has denied attacking Rohingya civilians but international rights group and U.N. officials have expressed growing alarm in recent days.
The International Crisis Group said on Tuesday there was evidence to justify those fears.
“There is significant evidence to back claims by Rohingya and human rights investigators that the Arakan Army is responsible for serious rights violations, including extrajudicial killings and indiscriminate attacks on civilians,” the think tank said in a report.
The group Fortify Rights called for the International Criminal Court to investigate the AA’s “indiscriminate and disproportionate” attacks on Rohingya fleeing Maungdaw, in particular on Aug. 5-6 when witnesses said scores of people were killed in bombings as they waited to cross the Naf River to Bangladesh.
“Arakan Army commanders found responsible for these attacks on civilians should be held criminally accountable,” the group’s chief, Matthew Smith, said in a statement.
Khin Maung, the director of the Rohingya Youth Association in Bangladesh’s Thinkhali Refugee Camp, said Rohingya facing severe hardships and being murdered by both sides.
“The Rohingya are the fodder between the two warring sides,” he said.
“I’m calling on the international community to provide enough aid for everyone in need.”
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Updated Aug. 26, 2024, 06:45 a.m. ET.
Vietnam has announced a shakeup of ministers as To Lam shores up power and continues his predecessor’s anti-corruption campaign, following his elevation to general secretary of the Communist Party this month.
National Assembly members replaced two deputy prime ministers and appointed another – the country’s fifth – at an extraordinary meeting in Hanoi attended by Lam and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Nguyen Hoa Binh, 66, Finance Minister Ho Duc Phoc, 60, and Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, 61, became deputy prime ministers.
The shakeup comes after Le Minh Khai was removed from his position as deputy prime minister by the Politburo on Aug. 3 to take responsibility for a land-use scandal in Lam Dong province.
The Politburo also announced this month it was moving Tran Luu Quang from a deputy prime ministerial role to head up the Central Economic Commission.
Parliament also appointed new justice and environment ministers in Monday’s one-day session.
‘Blazing furnace’ continues
National Assembly Secretary General Bui Van Cuong said parliament would elect a new state president during its October session, Vietnamese media reported. Lam has held the post for three months.
Lam, a former public security minister was elected general secretary – the country’s most powerful position – on Aug. 3, following the death two weeks earlier of his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong.
Trong had championed an anti-corruption drive known as the “blazing furnace” to tackle graft among party officials and business leaders.
The campaign claimed the jobs of several senior government members, including Vo Van Thuong, who was forced to step down as president in March after just one year in office.
Lam, 67, took over the presidency on May 22 and had already assumed the general secretary’s role on an interim basis the day before Nguyen Phu Trong’s death.
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Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales Canberra, said it would be unusual for Lam to remain both party secretary general and president.
“Since reunification of Vietnam and the adoption of the 1992 constitution, Vietnam’s party leaders have consistently rejected the idea of merging the office of party general secretary and state president,” said Thayer.
He said if Lam was able to concentrate on a single role it would give him more time to oversee the selection of the next generation of leaders at the party congress scheduled for early 2026 and continue Trong’s “blazing furnace” campaign.
“No doubt To Lam will be vigorous in opposing any potential candidate involved in corruption or who fails to meet party ethical standards,” he added.
“But the process of vetting must be viewed as fair and balanced across the entire Vietnam Communist Party and not a particular faction or region.”
Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
Updated to note election for state president will take place in October.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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As “uncommitted” delegates continue their sit-in just outside the Democratic National Convention in protest of the party’s refusal to meet demands to platform a Palestinian American speaker on the main stage, we hear from two uncommitted delegates who have made a concerted effort to bring Israel’s war on Gaza to the forefront and to push the Harris campaign on its policy in the Middle East. Asma Mohammed, a campaign manager for Vote Uncommitted Minnesota and a delegate from Minnesota, says there is widespread disappointment and betrayal among delegates who feel their voices in support of Palestinian rights are being ignored. “This level of silencing, this level of exclusion [does] not belong in our Democratic Party,” adds Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement and an uncommitted delegate from Michigan.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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As “uncommitted” delegates continue their sit-in just outside the Democratic National Convention in protest of the party’s refusal to meet demands to platform a Palestinian American speaker on the main stage, we hear from two uncommitted delegates who have made a concerted effort to bring Israel’s war on Gaza to the forefront and to push the Harris campaign on its policy in the Middle East. Asma Mohammed, a campaign manager for Vote Uncommitted Minnesota and a delegate from Minnesota, says there is widespread disappointment and betrayal among delegates who feel their voices in support of Palestinian rights are being ignored. “This level of silencing, this level of exclusion [does] not belong in our Democratic Party,” adds Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement and an uncommitted delegate from Michigan.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Delegates from the Uncommitted National Movement and their allies launched a sit-in protest Wednesday night outside the convention hall in Chicago after the DNC refused to honor their request to let a Palestinian American speak onstage, despite allowing family members of an Israeli American hostage to address the convention. We hear voices from the sit-in with uncommitted delegates and their allies. “Today I watched my party say, 'Our tent can fit anti-choice Republicans,' but it can’t fit an elected official like me?” said Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, referring to convention addresses given by anti-Trump Republicans. Romman was among the list of speakers offered by the uncommitted movement that the DNC refused to allow on onstage. “We can’t take no for an answer here,” Minneapolis City Councilmember Jeremiah Ellison, an uncommitted delegate from Minnesota, tells Democracy Now!.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by ProPublica.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Kinshasa, August 22, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to ensure the safety and freedom of two journalists — Radio Tokomi Wapi reporter Martin Kasongo and Top Lomami radio reporter Michaël Tenende — after local officials in the south-central Lomami province threatened them in separate incidents.
“Local authorities in the DRC’s Lomami province should cease efforts to intimidate journalists Martin Kasongo and Michaël Tenende and allow them to freely report on issues of public interest,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “Officials’ focus should be on protecting the press, not on censorship efforts when their governance is scrutinized.”
On August 17, the mayor of the city of Kabinda, Marie-Anne Tshiabu, called Kasongo and said she would have him arrested or “use another way,” demanded that he give her the content of his show for review before it was broadcast, and threatened to close the privately owned radio station, Kasongo told CPJ. Tshiabu’s threats came in response to a broadcast that day during which Kasongo had accused the mayor of illegally collecting taxes from motorcycle taxis and mistreating central market vendors, the journalist said.
Separately, on August 18, Ananias Mukanz, a territorial inspector in the province, along with four unidentified people, forcibly entered the studio of the privately owned Top Lomami station as Tenende was on air criticizing the disappearance of a vehicle chartered by the president’s office to transport local civil servants, Tenende told CPJ.
Before halting the broadcast, Tenende informed the audience of the attack, and several listeners arrived at the station and intervened to prevent his arrest. Mukanz and the other intruders nevertheless seized two recording devices, a phone, and a computer from the studio.
CPJ’s calls to Mukanz, Tshiabu, and Lomami Governor Iron-Van Kalombo Musoko did not receive a response.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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New York, August 21, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Belarusian journalist Ksenia Lutskina, who has served nearly half of an eight-year sentence, following a presidential pardon.
Lutskina was among 30 political prisoners who were involved in “protest activities” and suffered from serious health issues and chronic conditions in jail who were pardoned by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on August 16. Lutskina’s father told CPJ that the journalist has been suffering from headaches caused by a growing brain tumor.
“We are relieved that journalist Ksenia Lutskina is free and can get the medical treatment she needs, but she shouldn’t have spent a second in jail,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Unless Lukashenko is too afraid of truthful reporting, he must now free all journalists languishing behind bars for doing nothing but their job.”
Lutskina said petitioning for a presidential pardon was “the most difficult thing I have written in my life.” She added, “I will finally be able to hug my son.”
Belarusian authorities first detained Lutskina in December 2020 and accused her of the “destabilization of the political, social, economic and informational situation in the country” by trying to start a new public television channel during the mass protests over the August 2020 contested presidential elections, according to the Belarusian prosecutor general’s office.
Belarus is the world’s third-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 28 journalists, including Lutskina, behind bars on December 1, 2023, when CPJ conducted its most recent prison census.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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A week into the alleged rape and murder of a doctor (a postgraduate trainee at the pulmonary medicine department) at Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, several theories have surfaced in public discourse about the circumstances in which she was killed. The body of the young doctor was found in the seminar room on the third floor of the emergency building of the hospital on the morning of August 9. Before the investigation was handed over to the CBI on August 13, Sanjay Roy (31), a civic volunteer, was arrested by Kolkata Police as the prime suspect in the alleged crime.
On the intervening night of August 14 and 15, even as large crowds gathered at various prime locations in Kolkata to protest against the horrific crime and seek justice, miscreants barged into the R G Kar hospital premises after midnight, damaged property and pelted stones at the police personnel. At least 30 people have been arrested in this case at the time of this article being written.
Soon after, the claim that the seminar room had been vandalized to destroy crucial evidence in the case started doing the rounds on social media. This correspondent received a screenshot of a WhatsApp group chat among doctors at 1.48 am on August 15 when the vandalism was still on. One person in the chat says, “The seminar room is probably burnt”. Another participant confirms this saying, “Yes. Completely”. The screenshot later went viral.
At 2.02 am — this was the time police had the situation under some control — senior journalist Barkha Dutt tweeted, “The emergency room at #RGKarCollege where the rape and murder took place has been destroyed by a violent mob.”
What is happening at this hour in #Kolkata is absolutely Insane. The emergency room at #RGKarCollege where the rape and murder took place has been destroyed by a violent mob. Multiple doctors I’ve spoken to say “the police did nothing to help us” . Breaking @themojostory pic.twitter.com/ToLfvBS94c
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) August 14, 2024
On August 17, Republic World published a report titled, “Did Rioters Vandalise RG Kar Seminar Room On Purpose to Destroy Evidence? New Video Surfaces”.
As seen above, the blurb below the headline says, “A shocking video has surfaced which hints at the fact that the seminar room was vandalised by the mob on purpose, to destroy evidence.”
The claim went viral on social media as well. Here are a few Facebook posts claiming the same:
Click to view slideshow.Several X (Twitter) users, too, made the same claim while tweeting images of the midnight violence.
Click to view slideshow.Fact Check
To begin with, we noticed that the official X handle of Kolkata Police had quote-tweeted journalist Barkha Dutt and wrote that the crime scene “is Seminar Room which is intact and has not been touched.”
Crime of Scene is Seminar Room which is intact and has not been touched. Don’t spread fake news. We will take legal action. https://t.co/A7PDWYAO4E
— Kolkata Police (@KolkataPolice) August 15, 2024
To this, the journalist replied saying that her tweet was factually correct and she did not claim that the seminar room had been destroyed.
Next, we checked footage from the reportage by various news outlets from the R G Kar Hospital after the vandalism. Independent journalist Tamal Saha of NTT went to the spot and livestreamed a report which starts at a time when police can be seen trying to bring the situation under control.
Around the 42-minute mark in the livestream (Saha mentions that the time is 2.30 am), the journalist enters the hospital building and checks out the gates through which one can go upstairs. He also speaks to the private security guards. Around the 58-minute mark onward, he takes the stairs to the upper floors. The live report shows a wooden door of a store room on the second floor broken and partially separated from its frames. However, the doors of the third (this is the floor where the seminar room is located) and the fourth floors are intact. This is clearly seen in the video and asserted by the journalist who physically checks them. A private security guard who accompanies him confirms that the miscreants could not reach the upper floors and those were locked.
ABP Ananda, too, telecast footage of the attack, where some of the perpetrators are heard saying, ‘Let’s go to the seminar hall.” The bulletin, however, points out that the miscreants could go only as far as the second floor which is one floor below the place of occurrence of the crime, the chest department seminar hall. Journalist Sandip Sarkar’s reporting on ABP Ananda corroborates the reporting by Tamal Saha. The ABP Ananda footage shows the second floor wooden door broken.
The kicker in Bengali on the above screenshot from the ABP Ananda footage says: “Seminar Hall on third floor, miscreants went up to second floor”.
Alt News is in possession of a photo taken at 11.52 pm on August 16, 2024. This image shows the seminar room locked, sealed and intact from outside. Five policemen can be seen guarding it. We accessed the photo through police sources and we are not permitted to publish it.
Alt News also spoke to a faculty member from the same department at R G Kar Hospital. They confirmed to us that the vandalism on the intervening night of August 14-15 did not cause any damage to the chest department seminar hall (that crime scene).
To sum up, the viral claim that the seminar hall of the chest department of R G Kar hospital in Kolkata, where the body of the slain doctor was found, was destroyed/burnt down in the vandalism on the intervening night of August 14 and 15 is false.
The post Seminar room at R G Kar Hospital – the crime scene – was not impacted by the midnight violence after Kolkata rape & murder appeared first on Alt News.
This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Indradeep Bhattacharyya.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by The Intercept.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Kampala, August 16, 2024— The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Burundian online journalist Florianne Irangabiye, who has served two years of a 10-year prison sentence, following a presidential pardon.
“Floriane Irangabiye’s imprisonment was deeply unjust, and it is a great relief that she has finally been freed after two years behind bars,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo, in Nairobi. “Authorities in Burundi must now ensure that no other journalist faces imprisonment for their work and that the media can work freely, without state interference or harassment.”
Irangabiye was arrested on August 30, 2022. In January 2023 she was convicted of undermining the integrity of Burundi’s national territory, charges that stemmed from her commentary criticizing the government on Radio Igicaniro, a Rwanda-based online outlet that she co-founded. On August 14, 2024, Burundi’s President Évariste Ndayishimiye signed a decree pardoning her. A person familiar with her case, speaking on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns, told CPJ she was released from prison on Friday evening.
CPJ has documented that journalists in Burundi work amid government regulatory and national security pressures, facing arrests, physical attacks, and intimidation for their work.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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China opened fire across the border into Myanmar apparently as a warning to Myanmar military aircraft that attacked an ethnic minority insurgent base, an insurgent force spokesman and residents told Radio Free Asia.
Myanmar junta forces attacked the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, at Lai Zar, close to Myanmar’s northern border with China on Thursday after Kachin fighters captured two junta force positions in Hpakant township earlier in the day.
Chinese forces on their side of the border then opend fire across the border, said Col. Naw Bu, a KIA Information Officer.
“We assume the Chinese fired shots because of their security concerns,” Naw Bu said.
“I don’t know what they fired but the sound was quite loud. There were explosions in the sky. They fired more than 10 times from the Chinese side. They weren’t firing flares.”
Naw Bu did not say whether the earlier junta airstrikes on the KIA headquarters caused any casualties or damage.
The Chinese embassy in Myanmar did not respond to a request from Radio Free Asia for comment on the incident. The junta’s spokesman for Kachin state, Moe Min Thein, did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.
The KIA, one of Myanmar’s most powerful insurgent groups, has made significant gains against junta forces this year, as have allied rebel groups in other parts of Myanmar.
The KIA and its allies have captured more than 200 junta camps in Kachin state since the beginning of the year, Naw Bu said.
China has been alarmed by the fighting on its border, in Myanmar’s Kachin state and Shan state in northeast Myanmar, and the threat the turmoil poses to its economic interests in Myanmar, which include energy pipelines, ports and natural resources.
China maintains close relations with the junta but also has links with ethnic minority forces, especially those that operate along its border.
China has repeatedly called for Myanmar’s rivals to settle their differences through dialogue and even managed to broker two short-lived ceasefires in Shan state this year.
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A Lai Zar resident who did not want to be identified for safety reasons said Chinese planes had also been in the sky on Thursday, after the junta planes bombed the Kachin rebel base.
“I don’t know which side of the border the bombs fell. It was a bit far from Lai Zar,” the resident said of the junta attack that triggered the Chinese response.
“There were also Chinese planes and the Chinese side fired more than 10 warning shots,” the resident said.
Earlier on Thursday, the KIA seized control of La Mawng Kone, a strategic hill held by junta troops, along with a military camp in Taw Hmaw village, both in Hpakant, Naw Bu said.
Hpakant is famous for its jade mines, and since the beginning of the year Kachin fighters have been closing in on the town and the junta forces stationed there.
The Chinese fire into Myanmar came a day after its foreign minister, Wang Yi, was in Myanmar for talks with junta leaders.
Wang raised China’s concerns with junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing at a meeting in the capital Naypyidaw, according to China’s foreign ministry.
“Wang Yi expressed his hope that Myanmar will earnestly safeguard the safety of Chinese personnel and projects in Myanmar, maintain peace and stability along the China-Myanmar border, step up joint efforts to crack down on cross-border crimes and create a safe environment for bilateral exchanges and cooperation,” the ministry said.
Analysts say China is also keen to limit the influence of Western countries and India in Myanmar and is becoming increasingly frustrated with Min Aung Hlaing and the junta’s failure to end the conflict. It is pressing for an “all-inclusive” election as a way to resolve the crisis, they say.
Wang also had talks this week with a former Myanmar military leader, Than Shwe, who called on China to help Myanmar restore stability, the Chinese ministry said.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Thailand’s legislature plans to meet Friday to elect a new prime minister after the Constitutional Court removed Srettha Thavisin from office on Wednesday, ruling that he committed an ethical violation by knowingly appointing a cabinet member with a criminal record.
In a 5-4 verdict that dissolved Srettha’s government, which was in power for 11 months, the court said he was responsible for vetting his cabinet nominations. It ruled he was aware of the past conviction of ally Pichit Chuenban, a former lawyer who had been detained for six months in 2008 for contempt of court.
For the time being, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai is expected to serve as acting prime minister. If Phumtham is unavailable, the role would fall to second Deputy Prime Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit.
“The facts show that the respondent [Srettha] knew or should have known about various circumstances of the second respondent [Pichit] throughout, but still proposed to appoint the second respondent as minister in the Prime Minister’s Office,” the court ruled.
“This demonstrates that the respondent lacks obvious honesty and integrity,” the verdict said, noting he did not comply with ethical standards.
The current cabinet is expected to continue in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed – Parliament is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Friday to elect a prime minister.
Srettha, a member of the Pheu Thai Party and Thailand’s first civilian prime minister after almost a decade of military rule, did not attend the court session on Wednesday but responded to the verdict during a news conference at Government House in Bangkok.
“I accept the ruling and confirm that throughout my time in this position, I worked with integrity,” he said. “I’m not looking at whether I’ll be disqualified or not, but I’m sad that I’ll be removed as a prime minister without ethics. I’m confident that I am an ethical person.”
In happier times, Srettha Thavisin (center) greets supporters at Pheu Thai Party headquarters after MPs elected him as prime minister, Aug. 22, 2023. [Manan Vatsyayana/AFP] Pichit, Srettha’s problematic appointee, had resigned on May 21 to avoid impacting the administration’s work, despite maintaining that he was fully qualified to serve.
“To allow the country to move forward and not affect the prime minister’s administration of state affairs, which needs to proceed with continuity, I am not clinging to the position,” Pichit said in his resignation letter.
Srettha’s successor must come from a list of candidates put forward ahead of the 2023 general election by parties that won at least 25 parliamentary seats.
This narrows the field to potential candidates from several parties. These include Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Chaikasem Nitisiri from Pheu Thai; Anutin Charnvirakul from the Bhumjaithai Party; Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan from the Palang Pracharath Party; former Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha; and Pirapan Salirathavibhaga from the United Thai Nation Party, and Jurin Laksanawisit from the Democrat Party.
Paetongtarn is the daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was forced from office by a military coup in 2006 and spent years in self-exile before returning to Thailand last year. Following his return, Thaksin spent six months in a prison hospital on corruption charges.
Prayuth, a former army chief who took power after leading a 2014 military coup that overthrew then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister, had announced he was leaving politics after losing power in the 2023 election. Despite that announcement, Prayuth is a candidate because his party named him ahead of the vote.
‘Snack bag case’
Srettha, a former real estate tycoon, was elected prime minister in August 2023 after the Pheu Thai Party formed a coalition government despite finishing second in the election. The Move Forward Party, which won the most seats, was unable to form a government because of opposition from military-appointed senators over its stance on reforming lèse-majesté, the strict law against royal defamation.
The case against Pichit, known as the “snack bag case,” dates to 2008, when, while serving as a lawyer for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife in a land purchase matter, he was accused of attempting to bribe court officials with 2 million baht (U.S. $57,156).
He allegedly placed the money in a paper grocery bag, pretending it was a snack for a court officer. This led to Pichit being found in contempt of court and serving a six-month prison sentence.
In mid-May, 40 senators petitioned the Constitutional Court to rule on termination because of Pichit’s appointment. On May 23, the Constitutional Court agreed to consider the petition.
“We must thank the Constitutional Court for ruling that Srettha is removed from the position of prime minister due to dishonesty and severe ethical misconduct in nominating Pichit, who had issues, despite knowing about his qualification problems from the start,” petitioner Somchai Sawaengkarn, a former senator, told reporters after learning of the verdict.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates, criticized the ruling.
“Thailand’s dark era of destroying democracy through unaccountable rulings of the conservative, elite controlled Constitutional Court continues with the dismissal of PM Srettha Thavisin. The absurdity is palpable! Watch foreign investors head for exits,” he posted.
Party disbanded
In the 2023 election, the Move Forward Party won 153 seats – the most of any party – and nominated Pita Limjaroenrat as prime minister.
His nomination failed when he could not secure backing from the former Senate, whose 250 members were allowed to vote along with the 500 members of the lower house. The senators claimed they would not support his party’s proposal to amend Article 112, also known as lèse-majesté.
Paetongtarn Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, offers a traditional greeting after her address at Pheu Thai Party headquarters in Bangkok, Oct. 27, 2023. [Sakchai Lalit/AP] Because of the controversy over Article 112, Pheu Thai, which had formed a post-electoral alliance with Move Forward, broke off ties with it and then formed a coalition that successfully nominated Srettha to serve as prime minister.
The Constitutional Court ruled against Srettha six days after it had ordered the Move Forward Party dissolved and banned Pita and 10 other leaders from politics for a decade because of their campaign to undo the royal defamation law. Two days later, remaining members reconstituted as the People’s Party.
After Wednesday’s ruling, the new party held a news conference to express concern and disagreement with it.
“While the People’s Party affirms that political office holders should have ethics and integrity, ethics is a matter that different people interpret differently,” Parit Wacharasindhu, a party-list MP of the People’s Party, told reporters.
The ruling against Srettha is the fourth such action by the court in 16 years, according to media reports.
Samak Sundaravej, who took office after Thaksin, was forced from office in 2008 because the court ruled he had hosted four cooking shows after taking office. Later that year, the court forced out Somchai Wongsawat after finding him guilty of electoral fraud.
In 2014, the court found Yingluck guilty of abuse of power and forced her out at the same time as the Prayuth-led coup.
Potential power shuffle
Assistant Professor Olarn Thinbangtieo, a lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science and Law at Burapha University, pointed out that the ruling would shake the stability of the old power group, adding the new prime minister might not come from Pheu Thai’s list.
Then-Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha speaks to journalists after a cabinet meeting at Government House in Bangkok, May 16, 2023. [Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP] “In principle, Pheu Thai would nominate Paetongtarn as PM. However, what needs to be watched is how well Pheu Thai can maintain political stability with its current coalition partners,” Olarn told BenarNews. “They will need to consolidate power to keep the majority vote in hand. There’s a chance that the next PM might not come from Pheu Thai if the Shinawatra family assesses that Paetongtarn is not ready.
“If the coalition parties become difficult, Pheu Thai might reverse course and join hands with the People’s Party, which would also give them a majority. But in the long run, this decision will shake the unity of the old power group because they are now facing a tough battle with the People’s Party, which has widespread support.”
Jon Preechawong in Bangkok contributed to this report.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Nontarat Phaicharoen for BenarNews.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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For the last two years, Cecilia Ortiz has worked as a passenger service agent at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. She typically has to walk 10 to 15 miles a day, up and down ramps, pushing heavy wheelchairs and carrying passengers’ luggage. This summer, temperatures have reached over 110 degrees Fahrenheit on the airport’s jet bridges, and yet she says she’s been denied breaks and water by her supervisors.
“I have heart failure myself, and it is especially dangerous for me to work in extreme temperatures,” said Ortiz in a press briefing. “I shouldn’t have to work in these conditions. Nobody should.” Accessible drinking water, a cool place to rest, breaks as needed, and training to understand the signs of heat exhaustion, are what Ortiz sees as a “very simple” way to make her workplace more safe during searing temperatures.
Airport workers like Ortiz are being joined by laborers in fast-food, retail, and the farm sector this week to demand on-the-job heat protections from employers and the federal government. From Atlanta to Los Angeles, a string of rallies, town halls, and delegations are taking place in 13 cities as laborers and coalitions escalate their demands to elected officials.
On Tuesday, service workers rallied at major airports in Charlotte and Phoenix. They called for immediate action from employers to ensure their safety in the workplace, including adequate breaks and access to drinking water during periods of extreme heat.
In Phoenix, where earlier this year local officials enacted a heat ordinance mandating many of these protections, workers and legislators sounded the alarm that the ordinance has led to inadequate improvements, and questioned how the protections are being enforced. “Why is it after passing an ordinance we’re still asking for the basics? Water. Breaks. These are humans rights,” said City of Phoenix Councilwoman Betty Guardado at the rally. Later this week, laborers across the country will be taking a coordinated water break to signify the need for access to drinking water at work.
As human-caused climate change continues to make the planet hotter, extreme heat in the workplace is increasingly becoming a lethal threat. Organizers say “Heat Week” is also spurred by the recent sudden deaths of Wednesday “Wendy” Johnson, a postal worker in North Carolina, and Ronald Silver II, a sanitation worker in Maryland. Both Johnson and Silver are believed to have died, in part, because of on-the-job heat exposure, which kills dozens of workers every year.
Service Employees International Union president April Verrett, whose organization is one of the groups helming Heat Week, said that these deaths could have been prevented by safer working conditions, before calling on the Biden-Harris administration to strengthen, finalize and implement a federal heat rule. “Dying on the job is just simply out of the question, and it should never be a part of anyone’s routine. Yet employers are failing to act, and in doing so, they are failing to protect workers’ lives and their health,” said Verrett.
“Heat is a silent killer. It is the biggest weather-related killer in our community,” said Representative Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas, in the briefing. “I was born and raised in Texas. We know it’s hot, but it’s never been this hot, this early, for this long. So, as the climate crisis worsens, we need to come together and take federal action at the national level, guaranteeing everybody the right to these rest and water breaks.”
At a rally on Tuesday, August 13, outside of Charlotte Douglas International Airport, service workers call on lawmakers to hold corporations accountable for putting their health and lives at risk.
Service Employees International UnionIn July, the U.S. Occupational and Health Safety Administration proposed a federal rule that would mandate employers provide indoor and outdoor workers with cool rest areas, drinking water, and breaks once temperatures approach 80 degrees Fahrenheit. But that rule hasn’t yet been finalized, and it still faces a likely lengthy review, additional revisions, potential legal challenges, and an upcoming presidential election that could derail the political will to get it done. Casar said elected officials on every level need to do more to ramp up the urgent push for heat protections.
This is particularly important given that some policymakers are pursuing legislation that goes in the other direction, noted Casar — referring to a law signed last summer by Governor Greg Abbott that barred Texas cities from enacting local worker heat protections. A similar law went into effect in Florida this year. The proposed OSHA rule, he stressed, if finalized, would “override laws like Governor Abbott’s that get rid of heat protections.”
“We could have these heat protections codified in federal law this month, if the Republican Speaker of the House would put this up for a vote … but we can’t hold our breath,” said Casar. (In fact, House Republicans have put forward spending bills that would hamper OSHA’s ability to enforce existing rules.)
The offices of Governor Abbott, and Congressman Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, did not respond to requests for comment.
Last week, Representative Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, blasted the Biden administration for not doing enough to address the impacts of extreme heat. Beyond advocating for an OSHA standard, Gallego has also put forward legislation that would add extreme heat to FEMA’s list of major disasters, The Hill reported. “Once again, the Administration is all talk, no action when it comes to extreme heat in Arizona,” Gallego said in a statement following a speech made by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who deigned extreme heat in Phoenix a “public health crisis.”
Read Next “When hurricanes or tornadoes hit, federal officials offer resources, but with heat they just offer advice,” said Gallego. Others, like Senator Alex Padilla — a Democrat from California — have also pressed the administration to implement the proposed OSHA rule. “With climate change shattering heat records every summer, holding employers accountable to provide commonsense heat-stress protections has only become more critical,” Padilla told Grist. California is one of six states that have enacted heat protection rules for outdoor workers.
In June, Shae Parker was working at a convenience store in Columbia, South Carolina, when she suffered from extreme heat exhaustion because of brutal temperatures and a lack of access to free water. “I had to leave work on a gurney. I was vomiting. I was profusely sweating, light-headed, nauseous. It was unbearable,” said Parker. “We only get one body … we want to go home to our families at the end of the day.”
Lourdes Cardenas, a farmworker in Fresno, California, has also grappled with the consequences of sweltering heat. This summer, she has endured multiple 110 degrees Fahrenheit days in the fields; which, compounding with a lack of water, shade, and not enough breaks, led her to experience dizziness and dehydration on numerous occasions. Despite raising the alarm to her supervisors, water still isn’t easily accessible, and she and her coworkers work nowhere near shaded areas. “The heat has been really difficult, and every year it gets worse,” said Cardenas in Spanish.
“We ought to be able to have the right to have water, the right to have shade, the right to have rest from the heat. But that’s not the case,” she said. “I know that one job is not worth my life.”
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Workers across the US rally after string of heat-related deaths on Aug 14, 2024.
This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Ayurella Horn-Muller.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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We go to Dhaka for an update as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is sworn in to lead Bangladesh’s caretaker government just days after the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who resigned and fled the country amid a wave of student-led protests over inequality and corruption. Yunus is known as the “banker to the poor” and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work developing microloans that helped lift millions out of poverty. Yunus thanked Bangladeshi youth for giving the country a “rebirth” and vowed to work for the public good.
“This is uncharted territory,” says Shahidul Alam, an acclaimed Bangladeshi photojournalist, author and social activist, who has spent decades documenting human rights abuses and political and social movements in the country. Alam was jailed in 2018 for his criticism of the government and spent 107 behind bars, during which time he says he was tortured by the authorities. “This repression has taken such a toll on so many people for so long, the nation is just hugely relieved.”
We also speak with Nusrat Chowdhury, an associate professor of anthropology at Amherst College and author of Paradoxes of the Popular: Crowd Politics in Bangladesh. She says it’s very significant that student leaders are being brought into the new government and says Yunus is a rare public figure in Bangladesh who exists “beyond party politics” and has the chance to unify the country.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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When protesters ransacked Sheikh Hasina’s official residence and set fire to a museum honoring her assassinated father – Bangladesh’s founding leader – they symbolically bid good riddance to the rule of its longest-serving prime minister, whose rise to power was inextricably tied to him.
Hasina, 76, one of two women to have served as Bangladesh’s prime minister, resigned and fled the country on Monday. In a stunning turn of events, the army chief announced that she had stepped down, as student-led protesters converged on the capital Dhaka again to demand her government’s ouster after 15 years of consecutive rule, which saw it drift toward authoritarianism.
Hasina, whose supporters had dubbed her “the mother of humanity,” quit office amid a shaky economy and only seven months after her government was elected to a fourth consecutive term in power and fifth overall.
However, there were widespread allegations that the polls were skewed in favor of her ruling Awami League party. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by her bitter enemy Khaleda Zia, had boycotted the Jan. 7 general election after Hasina refused to make way for a caretaker government to oversee the electoral process.
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Since taking office in 2009, Hasina had led the South Asian nation of 170 million people on a track of mostly robust economic growth. But in recent years, she drew international scrutiny for an increasingly iron-fisted style and a record overshadowed by allegations of enforced disappearances and arrests of journalists and critics.
“If I’ve made any mistakes along the way, my request to you will be to look at the matter with the eyes of forgiveness,” Hasina told the nation in a televised address back in January as she sought re-election. “If I can form the government again, I will get a chance to correct the mistakes.”
Protesters try to demolish a large statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina and the nation’s founding leader, after she resigned as prime minister, in Dhaka, Aug. 5, 2024. (Rajib Dhar/AP) 
Hasina’s life as a politician was born in the wake of bullets fired by assassins.
She formally took over the Awami League six years after her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, her mother and other family members were gunned down during a coup in 1975.
By a stroke of luck, she escaped being killed alongside them. She and her sister were traveling abroad during the assassination of Rahman, who had led the Bangladeshi independence movement in the 1971 war against Pakistan.
“I stepped into politics to fulfill my father’s dream,” Hasina told the nation during her electoral speech in January.
Hasina saw it as her mission to carry on with the legacy of her late father, who was widely revered as a national hero in Bangladesh’s struggle for independence. In 2021-22, her government spent many millions of U.S. dollars to commemorate his memory and mark the 50th year of nationhood.
Bengali nationalist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman walks towards a battery of microphones to address an estimated 1 million people at a rally at the Race Course Ground in Dhaka, Jan. 11, 1972. Mujibur, the first leader of independent Bangladesh and the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was assassinated in a military coup in August 1975. (Michel Laurent/AP)
As the milestone anniversary approached, it became increasingly dangerous to speak freely about Bangladesh’s founding father, because his daughter’s government had instituted strict laws against defaming him in an effort to control the historical narrative, analysts said.
But Rahman, who was also known as Sheikh Mujib, slid into his own brand of autocratic rule after becoming the leader of the young nation. A year before he was assassinated, Rahman banned all political parties and the majority of the press, and formed a Chinese Communist Party-style one-party system called Bakshal.
The widespread anti-Hasina protests that began last month and culminated in her ouster on Aug. 5 stemmed from anger vented by students over quotas for government jobs that heavily favored children and grandchildren of veterans who had fought on Mujibur’s side in the 1971 war against Pakistan.
The deadly protests persisted although the nation’s supreme court moved to slash the quotas and make applications for most government jobs merit-based in the country where there is a high jobless rate among young people.
Start of political career
In 1981, Hasina returned to Bangladesh from exile abroad shortly after being elected president of the Awami League. At the time, the country was ruled by President Ziaur Rahman, a military general who a few years earlier had founded the BNP.
Ziaur Rahman was killed in a coup days after Hasina returned, allowing another army general, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, to grab power.
Hasina collaborated with the BNP’s Khaleda Zia – Ziaur Rahman’s widow – to oust Ershad in a civilian mass movement.
In 1996, when the BNP held an election defying Hasina’s demand that a neutral caretaker government oversee the polls, she led opposition parties to boycott the election.
The BNP returned to power virtually unopposed – similar to her latest victory on Jan. 7 – but the Awami League’s constant street agitations forced Zia’s government to resign and call for fresh elections under a newly constituted caretaker system.
In that election, Hasina became prime minister for the first time.
Her party became known for aggressive and relentless political tactics, even when it was relegated to the opposition again in 2001. Frequent nationwide strikes and road blockades called by the Awami League kept the BNP government on the back foot.
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Hasina’s political life was also marked by direct threats of violence against her.
According to the Awami League’s tally, she survived as many as 19 assassination attempts, the most recent of which occurred in 2004. In that incident, she narrowly escaped a grenade attack that killed more than a dozen people.
When elections approached in 2006, Hasina’s party again boycotted the polls, claiming that the BNP manipulated the caretaker system. Bloody street battles that ensued enabled the military to intervene in 2007, and she took a victory parade. But the new military-backed government placed both Hasina and Zia in jail on corruption charges.
Both were released a year later to contest the election in 2008, which Hasina won in a landslide.
![Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at the opening session of the national parliament, in Dhaka, July 14, 1996. [Pavel Rahman, AP]](https://www.rfa.org/english/news/bangladesh-transition-hassina-08062024120117.html/bd-hasina-4.jpg/@@images/9a992872-568a-426e-a1e4-12f5db26c07b.jpeg "BD-Hasina-4.jpg")
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at the opening session of the national parliament, in Dhaka, July 14, 1996. [Pavel Rahman, AP]
In more recent years, Hasina was widely credited for tackling the problem of Muslim extremism in Bangladesh, especially after groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda carried out killings of secular writers and bloggers in the country. However, the country’s deadliest-ever terrorist attack, an overnight siege of a café by pro-IS militants that left at least 20 dead, occurred under her watch.
Meanwhile, allegations about security forces carrying out extrajudicial killings kept surfacing. An ostensive anti-drug drive in 2018, an election year, left more than 400 people dead, according to local and international human rights groups.
It was in 2018 that the government relaunched an internet law and made it harsher. The Digital Security Act would go on to target journalists and social media speech disproportionately, stifle a climate for unfettered expression and lead to arrests of critics of her government.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By BenarNews Staff.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
![Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at the opening session of the national parliament, in Dhaka, July 14, 1996. [Pavel Rahman, AP]](https://www.rfa.org/english/news/bangladesh-transition-hassina-08062024120117.html/bd-hasina-4.jpg "BD-Hasina-4.jpg")