Holocaust survivors on Monday marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Nazi Germany exterminated over 1 million Jews and other minority groups between 1940 and 1945. The commemoration comes as the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles worldwide and far-right forces gain strength across Europe and the United States. For more, we speak with Israeli American historian Raz Segal, who says the academic field of Holocaust studies has a blind spot when it comes to Israel and its actions in Palestine, from the 1948 Nakba to the genocidal assault on Gaza. “Since October 2023, so many Holocaust scholars have gone out of their way to protect Israel,” says Segal. “It’s very grotesque.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
An explosion occurred on a busy market area in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang on Sunday, just three days after a visit by President Xi Jinping, according to videos and images posted on social media.
Footageof the sceneposted on X by users showed people milling about outside when the blast happens. Afterwards, smoke fills the air and injured people are seen on the ground while bystanders cry out in panic.
The posts said the blast happened at around noon Sunday outside the entrance to the Dalefu food market, near central Shenyang.
Radio Free Asia could not independently verify the videos posted on social media, but multiple videos appeared to be same incident from different angles.
Video footage captures the moment an explosion occurred at Dadong Food Market, a shopping center in Shenyang, northeastern China. Authorities are investigating
Chinese state media had very limited coverage. One outlet, Red Star News, reported that the explosion was still under investigation but gave no numbers of casualties, although from the videos it appeared people had been injured.
On Monday, a query for news of the explosion on the Chinese search engine Baidu yielded no results — typical of sensitive online information that has been censored by Chinese authorities.
The explosion occurred just days ahead of the Jan. 28-Feb. 4 Chinese Lunar New Year — an official holiday marked by family reunions and public celebrations.
Victims of an explosion on the street in front of the Dalefu Food Market in Shenyang, China, Jan. 28, 2025. Photo from video.(RFA)
Xi’s earlier visit
The Dalefu food market was the setting for a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping three days earlier on Jan. 23, according to official Chinese media.
Reports said Xi “braved severe cold” to inspect the market and better understand the situation facing the public in the lead-up to the holiday season.
A man ducks during an explosion on the street in front of the Dalefu Food Market in Shenyang, China, Jan. 28, 2025. Photo from video.(RFA)
China’s government has unleashed a raft of stimulus measures in a bid to boost the country’s sluggish economy. But sources say people are reluctant to spend amid a real estate slump and concerns over job security.
In a video accompanying the reports on Xi’s visit, the Chinese president is shown being greeted by scores of smiling workers and shoppers inside the marketplace.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Shen Ke.
An explosion occurred on a busy market area in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang on Sunday, just three days after a visit by President Xi Jinping, according to videos and images posted on social media.
Footageof the sceneposted on X by users showed people milling about outside when the blast happens. Afterwards, smoke fills the air and injured people are seen on the ground while bystanders cry out in panic.
The posts said the blast happened at around noon Sunday outside the entrance to the Dalefu food market, near central Shenyang.
Radio Free Asia could not independently verify the videos posted on social media, but multiple videos appeared to be same incident from different angles.
Video footage captures the moment an explosion occurred at Dadong Food Market, a shopping center in Shenyang, northeastern China. Authorities are investigating
Chinese state media had very limited coverage. One outlet, Red Star News, reported that the explosion was still under investigation but gave no numbers of casualties, although from the videos it appeared people had been injured.
On Monday, a query for news of the explosion on the Chinese search engine Baidu yielded no results — typical of sensitive online information that has been censored by Chinese authorities.
The explosion occurred just days ahead of the Jan. 28-Feb. 4 Chinese Lunar New Year — an official holiday marked by family reunions and public celebrations.
Victims of an explosion on the street in front of the Dalefu Food Market in Shenyang, China, Jan. 28, 2025. Photo from video.(RFA)
Xi’s earlier visit
The Dalefu food market was the setting for a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping three days earlier on Jan. 23, according to official Chinese media.
Reports said Xi “braved severe cold” to inspect the market and better understand the situation facing the public in the lead-up to the holiday season.
A man ducks during an explosion on the street in front of the Dalefu Food Market in Shenyang, China, Jan. 28, 2025. Photo from video.(RFA)
China’s government has unleashed a raft of stimulus measures in a bid to boost the country’s sluggish economy. But sources say people are reluctant to spend amid a real estate slump and concerns over job security.
In a video accompanying the reports on Xi’s visit, the Chinese president is shown being greeted by scores of smiling workers and shoppers inside the marketplace.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Shen Ke.
MANILA – Philippine authorities suspended a scientific survey in the disputed South China Sea after its fisheries vessels faced “harassment” from China’s coast guard and navy.
Vessels from the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) were going to Sandy Cay for a marine scientific survey and sand sampling on Friday, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said in a statement on Saturday.
“During the mission, the BFAR vessels encountered aggressive maneuvers from three Chinese Coast Guard vessels 4106, 5103 and 4202,” PCG said, calling the incident a “blatant disregard” of the 1972 Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs).
Sandy Cay is a group of cays – or low reefs – two nautical miles (3.7 km) from Philippines-occupied Thitu island, known as Pag-asa island in the Philippines.
Four smaller boats deployed by the China Coast Guard (CCG) also harassed the Philippine bureau’s two inflatable boats, the Philippine Coast Guard said.
“Compounding the situation, a People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) helicopter, identified by tail number 24, hovered at an unsafe altitude above the BFAR RHIBs, creating hazardous conditions due to the propeller wash,” the Philippine Coast Guard said.
In a statement, the China Coast Guard said it expelled the Philippine vessels for unlawfully intruding into its waters.
China has “indisputable sovereignty” over the disputed waters and that it will continue to protect its maritime rights and interests, China Coast Guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said on Saturday.
Philippine authorities suspended the operation following the incident, the Philippine Coast Guard said.
The Philippine foreign affairs department is expected to file another diplomatic protest against China over the encounter, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega said.
Edited by BenarNews Staff.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by BenarNews staff.
Once a full-time musician who toured throughout Myanmar, indie-pop star Linnith now finds himself in vastly different circumstances –- just like so many other celebrities who fled the country after the 2021 military coup d’etat.
From his new home in Maryland in the United States, Linnith told Radio Free Asia about working as an Uber driver and trying to experiment with new music, but also generally “feeling lost.”
“In my country, I don’t have to work like this – 50 hours a week, or something like that,” he said last week.
After the coup, Linnith and many other artists took to the streets in protest. They also wrote music and posted on social media against the military dictatorship.
Subsequent crackdowns by the junta left hundreds dead and thousands in police custody as censorship and threats of violence forced many artists into hiding.
(Rebel Pepper illustration/RFA)
But the aftermath of the coup has also brought underground and ethnic artists into the spotlight, as widely popular anti-coup music proliferates both online and off and artists navigate a new music industry with unique challenges.
“Everything is different now, it’s not only the production, literally everything,” Linnith said, adding that he’s had to transition from making music in a major studio with a team and professional equipment to working independently.
“After the coup, I can make music in my bedroom with my laptop with one cheap mic. I don’t even have a soundproof room, you know? That’s it.”
Others are embracing the new underground nature of the music industry, where online platforms have given rise to popularity of new artists.
“My priority is politics, so I write down all these things that I think about politics that I think about in my rap,” said an underground rapper asking to be identified as T.G. “I talk about the military coup and how we should unite and fight them back to get democracy for our generation.”
New challenges
But addressing politics can be a matter of life and death.
At least three hip-hop artists have been arrested for their role in anti-junta movements, two later dying at the hands of the junta. Yangon-based 39-year-old Byu Har was arrested in 2023 for criticizing the military’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy on social media, and later sentenced to 20 years in prison.
But others have met worse fates. Rapper and member of parliament for the ousted National League for Democracy party Phyo Zayar Thaw was executed in 2022. Similarly, San Linn San, a 29-year-old former rapper and singer, died after being denied medical treatment for a head injury sustained in prison linked to alleged torture, according to a family member.
Many others have been injured protesting the dictatorship.
Like many fleeing the country to avoid political persecution and to find work, much of the music industry has also shifted outside of Myanmar.
A former Yangon-based rapper who asked to be identified as her stage name, Youth Thu, for security reasons moved to Thailand when she saw her main job in e-commerce being affected by the coup and economic downturn.
“When I came here, I was trying to stay with my friends because I have no deposit money to get a room because I need to get a job first,” said a singer asking to be identified as her stage name, Youth Thu, for security reasons.
Now working at a bar in Bangkok, she’s starting to incorporate her experiences into music that will resonate with others in the Myanmar diaspora.
“I never expected these things. I never expected to be broke as [expletive deleted]. I never expected to live in that kind of hostel,” she said.
“Especially migrants from Myanmar who are struggling here, I’m representing that group so my songs will be coming out saying all my experiences.”
For those left inside the country, economic factors are also taking a toll on music production, Linnith said.
“Because of inflation, the exchange rates are horrible… All the gear, the prices are going so high, like two or three times what it was,” Linnith said. “So most people can’t upgrade their gear or if something is wrong, they can’t buy a new thing.”
Starting again
The challenges have also ushered in new music and different tastes from audiences, as well as a boom in the underground industry and in rap and grime, a type of electronic dance, artists told RFA.
T.G. said he’s seen a new appreciation for ethnic music coming from the country’s border regions, where languages other than Burmese dominate the music scene and everyday life. He’s also seen a revival of revolutionary music popularized in 1988, when student protests across Myanmar ended in a violent military coup that has drawn comparisons to the junta’s 2021 seizure of power.
“After the [2021] coup, a lot of people from the mainland, a lot of people are going to the ethnic places like Shan, Kachin, Karen and then, Karenni,” he said. “They started to realize there are a lot of people willing to have democracy, so they started to realize that ethnic people are also important for the country.”
Artists are also dealing with new feelings on a personal level. Depressed, anxious and struggling to cope with changing realities, Linnith and others have found new feelings to draw from.
“The lyrics are literally ‘I give everything, I don’t believe in anything. I’m lost.’ That’s the kind of feeling I’ve got at the moment…I wrote it in my head while I was driving, again and again and again,” he said.
“This is perfect timing, a perfect song for me…. Not just a perfect song, but the best song. It came from real feelings, real pain.”
Youth Thu says while her music isn’t inherently political, she is also writing about her new life in ways she hopes will resonate with her audience.
“I got to meet with other girls who are coming to Thailand to survive too. We have different goals, but still we are sharing lunch, sharing rooms, sharing the hostel – and they have no voice,” she said.
“I have a voice – voice means the songs. I can write a song, I can say I’m not afraid in the songs and include all these things.”
Edited by Matt Reed.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Kiana Duncan for RFA.
Once a full-time musician who toured throughout Myanmar, indie-pop star Linnith now finds himself in vastly different circumstances –- just like so many other celebrities who fled the country after the 2021 military coup d’etat.
From his new home in Maryland in the United States, Linnith told Radio Free Asia about working as an Uber driver and trying to experiment with new music, but also generally “feeling lost.”
“In my country, I don’t have to work like this – 50 hours a week, or something like that,” he said last week.
After the coup, Linnith and many other artists took to the streets in protest. They also wrote music and posted on social media against the military dictatorship.
Subsequent crackdowns by the junta left hundreds dead and thousands in police custody as censorship and threats of violence forced many artists into hiding.
(Rebel Pepper illustration/RFA)
But the aftermath of the coup has also brought underground and ethnic artists into the spotlight, as widely popular anti-coup music proliferates both online and off and artists navigate a new music industry with unique challenges.
“Everything is different now, it’s not only the production, literally everything,” Linnith said, adding that he’s had to transition from making music in a major studio with a team and professional equipment to working independently.
“After the coup, I can make music in my bedroom with my laptop with one cheap mic. I don’t even have a soundproof room, you know? That’s it.”
Others are embracing the new underground nature of the music industry, where online platforms have given rise to popularity of new artists.
“My priority is politics, so I write down all these things that I think about politics that I think about in my rap,” said an underground rapper asking to be identified as T.G. “I talk about the military coup and how we should unite and fight them back to get democracy for our generation.”
New challenges
But addressing politics can be a matter of life and death.
At least three hip-hop artists have been arrested for their role in anti-junta movements, two later dying at the hands of the junta. Yangon-based 39-year-old Byu Har was arrested in 2023 for criticizing the military’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy on social media, and later sentenced to 20 years in prison.
But others have met worse fates. Rapper and member of parliament for the ousted National League for Democracy party Phyo Zayar Thaw was executed in 2022. Similarly, San Linn San, a 29-year-old former rapper and singer, died after being denied medical treatment for a head injury sustained in prison linked to alleged torture, according to a family member.
Many others have been injured protesting the dictatorship.
Like many fleeing the country to avoid political persecution and to find work, much of the music industry has also shifted outside of Myanmar.
A former Yangon-based rapper who asked to be identified as her stage name, Youth Thu, for security reasons moved to Thailand when she saw her main job in e-commerce being affected by the coup and economic downturn.
“When I came here, I was trying to stay with my friends because I have no deposit money to get a room because I need to get a job first,” said a singer asking to be identified as her stage name, Youth Thu, for security reasons.
Now working at a bar in Bangkok, she’s starting to incorporate her experiences into music that will resonate with others in the Myanmar diaspora.
“I never expected these things. I never expected to be broke as [expletive deleted]. I never expected to live in that kind of hostel,” she said.
“Especially migrants from Myanmar who are struggling here, I’m representing that group so my songs will be coming out saying all my experiences.”
For those left inside the country, economic factors are also taking a toll on music production, Linnith said.
“Because of inflation, the exchange rates are horrible… All the gear, the prices are going so high, like two or three times what it was,” Linnith said. “So most people can’t upgrade their gear or if something is wrong, they can’t buy a new thing.”
Starting again
The challenges have also ushered in new music and different tastes from audiences, as well as a boom in the underground industry and in rap and grime, a type of electronic dance, artists told RFA.
T.G. said he’s seen a new appreciation for ethnic music coming from the country’s border regions, where languages other than Burmese dominate the music scene and everyday life. He’s also seen a revival of revolutionary music popularized in 1988, when student protests across Myanmar ended in a violent military coup that has drawn comparisons to the junta’s 2021 seizure of power.
“After the [2021] coup, a lot of people from the mainland, a lot of people are going to the ethnic places like Shan, Kachin, Karen and then, Karenni,” he said. “They started to realize there are a lot of people willing to have democracy, so they started to realize that ethnic people are also important for the country.”
Artists are also dealing with new feelings on a personal level. Depressed, anxious and struggling to cope with changing realities, Linnith and others have found new feelings to draw from.
“The lyrics are literally ‘I give everything, I don’t believe in anything. I’m lost.’ That’s the kind of feeling I’ve got at the moment…I wrote it in my head while I was driving, again and again and again,” he said.
“This is perfect timing, a perfect song for me…. Not just a perfect song, but the best song. It came from real feelings, real pain.”
Youth Thu says while her music isn’t inherently political, she is also writing about her new life in ways she hopes will resonate with her audience.
“I got to meet with other girls who are coming to Thailand to survive too. We have different goals, but still we are sharing lunch, sharing rooms, sharing the hostel – and they have no voice,” she said.
“I have a voice – voice means the songs. I can write a song, I can say I’m not afraid in the songs and include all these things.”
Edited by Matt Reed.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Kiana Duncan for RFA.
A Cambodian migrant worker in South Korea said on Friday that his passport was recently revoked after he used Facebook to criticize the Cambodian government.
Buth Vichai told Radio Free Asia that he learned of the passport cancellation from a Phnom Penh government official. His current passport will expire in July, he said.
“I am happy to be an illegal immigrant in another country, and I will not bow my head to respect or apologize to this scoundrel regime,” he said.
It was unclear which of Buth Vichai’s online comments led to the cancellation. RFA couldn’t immediately reach Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry, government spokesman Pen Bona and deputy Interior Ministry spokesman Touch Sokha for comment on Friday.
Buth Vichai said the move was an attempt to intimidate him and other Cambodian activists who live outside the country.
In August, overseas Cambodians living in South Korea, Japan, France, Canada and Australia held protests against Cambodia’s economic cooperation agreement with Vietnam and Laos. The demonstrations angered Senate President Hun Sen and led to a widespread crackdown.
Article 33 of the Cambodian Constitution states that Cambodian citizens cannot be deprived of their citizenship or deported to any foreign country except by mutual agreement.
Cambodian workers participate in an online interview in a shipping container that is used as their home in Pocheon, South Korea on Feb. 8, 2021.(Ahn Young-joon/AP)
Governments in countries that follow the rule of law can be expected to respect and protect the rights of individuals, said Soeng Senkaruna of the Cambodian Democracy Organization in Australia.
“Indeed, governments in liberal countries are very careful in all their actions regarding any issue,” he said. “If it is just criticism of the government. I understand that liberal countries, especially South Korea, do not arrest them just for passport issues.”
Last year, Cambodian officials canceled the passport of Nuon Toeun, a Cambodian domestic worker in Malaysia who posted critical comments about Hun Sen on Facebook. She was soon deported to Cambodia and charged with incitement.
Draft law on Khmer Rouge comments
Meanwhile, Cambodia’s Cabinet has approved a draft law that would allow for the prosecution of individuals who minimize or deny the existence of crimes committed during the period when the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia.
The crime would carry a punishment of between one and five years in prison and would allow for fines from 10 million riel (US$2,480) to 50 million riel (US$12,420).
The Khmer Rouge regime was responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million people from starvation, overwork or mass executions between 1975 and 1979.
“The law aims to record the history so that people will remember the painful history that happened in Cambodia,” the Council of Ministers said in a statement on Friday.
People leave Phnom Penh after Khmer Rouge forces seized the Cambodian capital April 17, 1975.(Agence Khmere de Presse/AFP)
The draft law now goes to the National Assembly for review and approval.
It was unclear what prompted the measure, which was initiated by Hun Sen in May 2024.
Some of the comments read: “Vietnam sacrificed its blood for peace in Cambodia,” and “Don’t forget tens of thousands of Vietnamese volunteers who were killed in Cambodia.”
Hun Sen was a Khmer Rouge commander who fled to Vietnam in 1977 amid internal purges. He later rose to power in a government installed by Vietnam after its forces invaded in late 1978 and quickly ousted the Khmer Rouge regime.
Vietnamese forces remained in Cambodia for the next decade battling Khmer Rouge guerrillas based in sanctuaries on the Thai border.
Hun Sen said in May that he suspected the reason for the critical comments was probably the Funan Techo canal project, which was proposed and approved when he was prime minister.
The project has raised concerns in Vietnam as its Mekong River delta, home to 17.4 million people, is downstream and could be severely affected.
Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.
Five years ago, authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and surrounding areas in Hubei province imposed a travel ban on some 18 million people, just days after admitting that the newly emerging coronavirus was transmissible between people.
Five years on from COVID-19—from Wuhan’s lockdown to global pandemic, from zero-COVID to coexistence—the world has changed. As survivors, what have we learned?
The lockdown prompted a mass rush to leave the city that likely helped spread COVID-19 around the country and beyond.
It also plunged China into three grueling years of citywide lockdowns, mass quarantine camps and compulsory daily COVID tests, with residents locked in, walled off and even welded into their own apartments, unable to earn a living or seek urgent medical care.
China is still struggling to recover today, despite the ending of restrictions in 2022 following nationwide protests, political commentators and a city resident told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews.
The most worrying thing about the Wuhan lockdown was that the authorities took that model and imposed it on cities across the country over the three years that followed, according to independent political commentator Qin Peng.
“The first thing [the authorities learned] was how to control public speech, how to arrest citizen journalists, how to block the internet, how to leak information and create public opinion through paid-for international experts and media,” Qin said. “The second thing was how to tame the public and bring everyone into line with the use of official narratives.”
“The third was how to turn an incident for which they were clearly responsible into a problem caused by somebody else … by blaming the United States, or nature,” Qin said.
Rows of beds lie waiting to be filled at a makeshift hospital set up in the Wuhan Sports Center stadium, Wuhan, China, Feb. 12, 2020.(AP)
The World Health Organization last month called on China to fully release crucial data surrounding the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan in 2020, although the call was dismissed by Beijing.
Massive controls ‘still possible’
U.S.-based former Peking University professor Xia Yeliang said the government learned that it was still possible to impose massive and far-reaching controls on the population.
“They weren’t sure it would work after so many years of economic reform and opening up, although such strict controls had been possible during the time of [late supreme leader] Mao Zedong,” Xia said. “They thought people wouldn’t accept it.”
“But after the Wuhan lockdown, the authorities discovered that it was still possible.”
Wuhan was Ground Zero in the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first city in the world to undergo a total lockdown in early 2020.
Authorities claimed that only 2,531 people died in the initial wave of infections, but estimates at the time based on the number of cremations carried out by the city’s seven crematoria suggested that tens of thousands died.
Apart from the spread of the virus, the most immediate impact for many was the clampdown on freedom of speech.
Whistleblowing doctors like Li Wenliang and Ai Fen were threatened and silenced after they tried to warn people about the new viral “pneumonia” that bore all of the hallmarks of a SARS-like virus.
During the 76 days of the Wuhan lockdown, the authorities deleted 229 articles and posts by citizen journalists who rushed to the city to document the pandemic from the front line, according to the documentary film “Wuhan Lockdown,” which remains banned in China.
Police also pursued and detained several prominent live bloggers in the city, including Li Zehua, Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Zhang Zhan, all of whom were to serve lengthy terms behind bars for their attempts to report on the emerging pandemic.
Outside the city, censors were busy deleting articles and comments on the pandemic and the authorities’ response.
Wuhan residents also lost the right to freedom of movement, to earn a living and to seek medical care, and were effectively prisoners in their own homes, according to reports at the time.
Paying the price
There was a heavy price to pay, both psychologically and economically, however.
“Since the Wuhan lockdown, I’ve lost interest in so many things that I used to love,” Wuhan resident Guo Siyu told RFA Mandarin. “My health, my parents and my kids are my top priority now.”
“I barely have any thoughts of material success … and even my spiritual life has faded into the background: I just want to stay alive and be safe,” she said.
Xia said the initial attempt to control the citywide spread of COVID-19 was understandable.
“When you have the large-scale spread of an infectious disease, with an unknown source and outcome, it is not entirely wrong to choose to control the movements of the population,” Xia said. “But what really needs reflecting on is what they did afterwards.”
For example, Chinese President Xi Jinping never visited Wuhan in person, Xia said.
“He claimed to be overseeing operations in person, but he wasn’t there in person,” Xia said, adding that the emergency relief services had also failed to deliver reliable supplies of food, transportation and medical attention to everyone to needed them.
“Maybe they were taken by surprise initially, but what about a few months later?” he said. “It was a dereliction of government duty that they were still unable to achieve this several months down the line.”
Medical staff transport COVID-19 patients at the Huoshenshan makeshift hospital in Wuhan, China, Feb. 4, 2020.(Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua News Agency/AP)
Xia said the Chinese government seems incapable of reflecting on its errors and learning from them, and controls on public speech mean that nobody is allowed to do that for them.
“I think this is a government that doesn’t reflect, and a society that cannot reflect,” he said. “And a government that can’t reflect can’t run the country effectively.”
CCP’s damaged standing
Qin said the government’s insistence on the zero-COVID policy, using lockdowns and tracking people’s movements and infection status via the Health Code app, had ultimately damaged the economy and the Chinese Communist Party’s standing in the eyes of its own people.
“People used to have this irrational belief in the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to govern,” Qin said. “But from the extreme prevention and control measures right through to the way they relaxed restrictions with no preparation, we can see how inflexible their policies are.”
“And they failed to deliver the economic recovery that everyone predicted after the restrictions were dropped,” he said. “This has had a profound impact on all aspects of China’s political and economic development, and damaged the authority of the national government and Xi Jinping personally.”
“That’s why they dare not talk anymore about their victory over the pandemic,” Qin said.
Guo, who once made a living coaching Chinese students to apply to study overseas, said neither she nor her city has ever really recovered.
“Relations between China and other countries have broken down, and I have no income,” she said.
“It’s been five years, and yet the pandemic has never ended,” Guo said. “The impact of that lockdown on us, the native people of Wuhan, has never gone away.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Zhu Liye for RFA Mandarin.
Brussels, January 24, 2025–European Union officials and foreign ministers must seize the opportunity provided by the Gaza ceasefire at January 27’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting to ensure that a free press can prevail, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.
CPJ urges the EU to call for independent investigations into the deliberate targeting of journalists during the 15-month war in Gaza, for international journalists to be granted independent access to the territory, and for Israel to reform laws that restrict press freedom.
“The EU cannot continue to turn a blind eye to strong evidence of crimes of international law and the decimation of a generation of Palestinian journalists,” said Tom Gibson, CPJ’s EU representative. “If accountability, justice, and access demands cannot be met, EU leaders must call for a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.”
The agreement sets out the EU’s legal and institutional framework for political dialogue and economic cooperation with Israel, including respect for human rights as an essential element.
The Israel-Gaza war has taken an unprecedented toll on journalists since October 7, 2023, with at least 167 journalists and media workers killed, overwhelmingly in Gaza. It has been the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
According to CPJ’s investigations, at least 11 journalists and two media workers were directly targeted by Israeli forces; the deliberate targeting of civilians is a war crime under international law.
CPJ has documented multiple other abuses in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon, that require investigation, including assaults, threats, and allegations of torture during the war. Israel was the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s latest annual prison census, with 43 Palestinian journalists in Israeli custody on December 1, 2024.
At least 10 journalists are being held indefinitely without charge in the West Bank. The EU should join the repeated calls by U.N. special mandate holders for Israel to end this practice, which the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has repeatedly found unlawful.
Throughout the war, Israel has obstructed and punished media coverage and banned international reporters from Gaza, except for on rare trips with the military. Israel must revoke its censorship laws, including one used to ban Al Jazeera and retaliatory directives against domestic media. Israeli, Egyptian, and Palestinian authorities must immediately allow unconditional access for all journalists to enter and operate in Gaza.
The European Union must be true to its values and support these demands.
Upon returning to the presidency, Donald Trump has granted presidential pardons to over 1,500 of his supporters involved in the violent January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, including members of far-right, anti-government militias like our guest’s father. Guy Wesley Reffitt helped lead the crowd that stormed the Capitol, just weeks after his then-18-year-old son Jackson attempted to warn the FBI about his plans. Jackson Reffitt now believes that Trump’s pardons will embolden far-right extremists to commit further political violence, including potential backlash against those close to them. “To completely validate actions like that is going to be explosive,” says Jackson Reffitt, who is now estranged from his family and fears for his own safety.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Washington, D.C., January 22, 2025—Prominent Sudanese journalist Yahya Hamad Fadlallah has died in a hospital, one month after Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) arrested him and his son at their home in the capital Khartoum on December 11, according to newsreports.
Fadlallah was tortured by the army, falsely accused of collaborating with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and denied medical treatment for his diabetes, the Darfur Bar Association said, citing unnamed sources close to Fadlallah. The local trade union Sudanese Journalists Syndicate (SJS) made the same allegations. CPJ was unable to independently verify the allegations.
Fadlallah died on January 13 in Al Nou Hospital in Omdurman, in Khartoum State, where he was taken after being released from detention on January 10 due to poor health, according to the SJS and a journalist familiar with the case who spoke with CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
“We are deeply shocked by the death of Sudanese journalist Yahya Hamad Fadlallah after his recent arrest by the Sudanese Armed Forces and concerned about the allegations of mistreatment and denial of medical care,” said CPJ Interim MENA Program Coordinator Yeganeh Rezaian. “Sudanese authorities must immediately conduct a transparent investigation into Fadlallah’s death and hold those responsible accountable. Sudanese journalists must be protected, particularly during times of war when access to independent news reports is critical.”
Fadlallah, 65, was a well-known freelance columnist and novelist who also worked with the local television channel Blue Nile TV and the governmental General Authority for Radio and Television.
Numerous journalists have been arrested and killed in Sudan as they have struggled to continue reporting after war broke out between the SAF and the RSF in April 2023, sparking a famine and forcing millions to flee their homes.
CPJ’s email to the SAF requesting comment on Fadlallah’s arrest and death did not receive any replies.
The Trump administration has begun its crackdown on immigrant communities in the United States, with the Department of Homeland Security announcing Tuesday it will allow federal agents to conduct raids at schools, houses of worship and hospitals, ending a yearslong policy that banned Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from arresting people at these sensitive locations. This comes a day after President Trump signed a series of executive orders that included declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border, launching mass raids and deportations, restricting federal funds from sanctuary cities, and claiming to end birthright citizenship, which is protected by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. For more on the fight for immigrant rights, we speak with immigrant rights activists Ravi Ragbir and Amy Gottlieb and lawyer Alina Das. Ragbir received a last-minute pardon from outgoing President Joe Biden that removed the threat of deportation that he has faced for about two decades. “I feel so light and so free,” Ragbir says, vowing to continue his advocacy for other people facing arrest and deportation.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
A 57-second clip of Indian-origin Canadian MP Chandra Arya speaking in Kannada in the Canadian Parliament has gone viral on social media. Recently, news broke that Arya is entering the race for the Prime Minister’s office following the resignation of former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. Journalists and social media users have shared the viral video claiming it shows Arya delivering the speech as he files his nomination.
TV9 Network executive editor Nabila Jamal shared the above-mentioned viral video on X on January 17 and claimed in the caption that Chandra spoke in kannada as he filed his nomination. The tweet has received over 1 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 200 times. (Archive)
Makes us so proud
Indian-origin MP Chandra Arya from Karnataka joins the race to be Canada’s next Prime Minister after Justin Trudeau’s resignation!
Speaks in kannada as he files his nomination
“Matter of immense pride for me, a man from Karnataka’s Tumakuru district, Sira… pic.twitter.com/HXvIiCKqwF
India Today editor and anchor Akshita Nandagopal also shared the same clip the same day claiming that Chandra Arya delivered a speech in Kannada after filing his nomination. (Archive)
‘Proud to be here as a Kannadiga’- Canadian MP Chandra Arya officially enters race to become Canada’s next Prime Minister and speaks in Kannada after filing his nomination he hails from Tumkur in Karnataka pic.twitter.com/wUu4MmdG0O
Several other journalists such as ANI editor Smita Prakash, CNN News18 senior editor Pallavi Ghosh, and other pages and social media users also shared the same video claiming that the video showed the Canadian MP’s speech after he filed his nomination for the prime ministerial elections.
After breaking down the viral clip into several key frames, we ran a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to a news report by The Times Of India from May 20, 2022, which carried a screengrab from the viral video.
The report was titled, “Canadian MP Chandra Arya’s Speech in Kannada in Parliament Earns Praise.” The report also included a translated transcript of Arya’s speech, where he said, “Respected Speaker, I’m happy for having got an opportunity to speak in Kannada in Canada’s Parliament. It is a proud moment for 5 crore Kannadigas that a man born in Sira Taluk’s Dwaralu village in Tumkur (Tumakuru) District from an Indian state of Karnataka, has been elected as Member of Parliament in Canada has spoken in Kannada…”
This shows that the speech is nearly three-year old and was delivered by Chandra Arya after he was elected as a member of parliament.
We also came across a tweet posted by Canadian MP Chandra Arya himself, featuring the same clip that has now gone viral. The tweet was made on May 20, 2022, and in the caption, Chandra Arya mentioned: “I spoke in my mother tongue (first language) Kannada in Canadian parliament. This beautiful language has long history and is spoken by about 50 million people. This is the first time Kannada is spoken in any parliament in the world outside of India.”
I spoke in my mother tongue (first language) Kannada in Canadian parliament.
This beautiful language has long history and is spoken by about 50 million people.
This is the first time Kannada is spoken in any parliament in the world outside of India. pic.twitter.com/AUanNlkETT
Therefore, it is clear that Indian journalists shared an old video of Canadian MP Chandra Arya delivering a speech in Kannada at the Canadian parliament. He did not deliver this speech while filing his nomination for the PM race.
Indigenous political prisoner Leonard Peltier is coming home after nearly half a century behind bars. Just minutes before leaving office, former President Joe Biden granted Peltier clemency and ordered his release from prison to serve the remainder of his life sentence in home confinement. In a statement, Peltier said, “It’s finally over — I’m going home. I want to show the world I’m a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me.” Biden’s historic decision came after mounting calls by tribal leaders and supporters, and a community-led campaign that fought for Peltier’s freedom for decades. We speak with the NDN Collective’s Nick Tilsen, who just visited Leonard Peltier in prison after news of his sentence commutation, about fighting for Peltier’s freedom, his health and Trump’s executive orders attacking environmental rights and Indigenous sovereignty. “Indigenous people, we’re going to be on the frontlines fighting this administration.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Two credentialed journalists were removed from Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s final news briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 16, 2025, after they interrupted his remarks with questions and comments concerning the Biden administration’s role in the Israel-Gaza war.
In a PBS News livestream of the briefing, Blinken is heard starting his remarks by thanking the press corps for the work that they’ve done and their professionalism.
“I have even greater respect, even greater appreciation for you asking the tough questions, for you holding us to account,” he said. “Being on the receiving end, sometimes that’s not always the most comfortable thing, not always the most enjoyable thing, but it is the most necessary thing in our democracy.”
As Blinken finished those comments, Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal can be heard calling out about the number of journalists in Gaza who were “on the receiving end of your bombs.” Blumenthal continued making statements and asking questions about the administration’s actions around the war, and Blinken responded only by saying that he would address questions after he had completed his remarks.
MUST SEE: Journalist @MaxBlumenthal confronts Antony Blinken about Israel's genocide
“300 reporters in Gaza were on the receiving end of your bombs…”
“Why did you keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May?…”
Blumenthal was ultimately directed out of the briefing room by a department employee. In a post on the social platform X, he wrote in part that he is “grateful to have finally gotten a conversation going on how America’s outgoing top diplomat repeatedly proclaimed his ethnoreligious and familial loyalty to a foreign apartheid state.”
Approximately five minutes after Blumenthal was escorted out, independent journalist Sam Husseini also interrupted Blinken. “Will you recognize the Geneva Conventions apply to the Palestinians?” Husseini asked.
Blinken again responded that he would answer questions soon, and continued with the briefing.
After another five minutes passed, Husseini interrupted with another question, after which he could be heard having a back-and-forth with a department official and saying that he wanted Blinken to answer some questions. He added, “I’m a journalist. I’m not a potted plant.”
Husseini also stated that State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told him that his questions would not be answered and so he was justified in interrupting the briefing.
In footage captured by Drop Site News reporter Ryan Grim, multiple security officers then approached Husseini, pulling him out of his chair and ultimately lifting him off the ground.
“I was sitting here quietly and now I’m being manhandled by two or three people,” Husseini said. “You pontificate about a free press?”
Blinken again responded that he would answer questions after his remarks and asked that Husseini “respect the process.”
As he was carried out of the room, Husseini called out, “Everybody from Amnesty International to the ICJ (International Court of Justice) is saying that Israel’s doing genocide and extermination, and you’re telling me to ‘respect the process’? Criminal! Why aren’t you in The Hague?”
NEW: We reconstructed @samhusseini's viral confrontation with Antony Blinken by combining footage from multiple sources, including @amrhsayed & @ryangrim. A must-see.
This was the culmination of months of State Dept stonewalling.
Blinken began taking questions a few minutes after Husseini was removed from the briefing room, answering questions that were overwhelmingly about the administration’s handling of the Israel-Gaza war and ceasefire negotiations for approximately 45 minutes.
Husseini was ultimately handcuffed but later released without charges.
In a post on social media, Husseini wrote, “As I said, Miller told me they will not take my questions. I went to other staffers and journalists to complain. No one offered any remedy. I am not a stenographer. I am not a potted plant. I am not going to be complicit in my own silencing and the silencing of so many who depend on people like me.”
Lao authorities have temporarily shut down a Vietnamese-owned iron ore mining operation in the northeastern part of the country after a washing reservoir overflowed and its wastewater polluted two local rivers, officials and area residents said.
Authorities have ordered the operation run by Tienhao Kaobang Co. to remain closed until the washing reservoir has been repaired, said people who live in Viengxay district of Houaphanh province and who have complained about pollution in the Nam Xang and Nam Poon rivers.
“The company is not allowed to operate until the reservoir repair is completed,” said a resident who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution.
The wastewater released discolored and muddied the water in the rivers and killed fish, he said.
Affected villagers said they are concerned that the contaminated water will affect their rice production and livestock that drink from the two rivers.
The mining industry has been a key driver of economic growth in the small, landlocked Southeast Asian nation for years, but it has had negative environmental impacts.
If tailings — leftover material from the processing of iron ore that can contain potentially toxic elements — are not properly managed and contained in washing reservoirs, they can pollute water sources, affect soil quality, harm aquatic life, and potentially pose health risks to humans.
Complaints
Villagers from seven communities downstream from the mine and their respective chiefs complained to district officials after the incident occurred on Jan. 12, the head of one village told Radio Free Asia.
On Monday, Outhone Bounvilay, head of the Natural Resources and Environment Office of Viangxay district, told Lao National Radio that the discoloration was caused by an overflow of wastewater from the iron ore washing reservoir in Fongxang village.
He also said Lao officials have an agreement with the company to temporarily stop its operations until the problem is resolved.
When RFA called the Natural Resources and Environment Office to ask about compensation for villagers whose water resources are now polluted, a staffer said investigators were collecting water samples to analyze.
Another villager said she saw a post saying that the company would compensate residents, but it gave no further details.
In a December 2024 incident, wastewater leaked from the same mining operations into the Nam Xang River, prompting authorities to urge the company to adopt stricter measures to prevent other incidents, the news outlet said.
Translated by Khamsao Civilize for RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Joshua Lipes.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
New York, January 17, 2025–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Georgian authorities to release reporter Guram Murvanidze and to investigate whether Mzia Amaghlobeli is facing retaliatory charges because of her journalism.
Amaghlobeli, founder and director of independent news outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti, and Murvanidze, also from Batumelebi, were arrested in the western city of Batumi on January 11 during protests calling for a re-run of Georgia’s disputed October 2024 election.
On January 14, Batumi City Court sentenced Murvanidze, who was filming the protests, to eight days’ detention on charges of minor hooliganism and disobeying police orders. The court also ordered Amaghlobeli to be held in pretrial detention on charges of attacking a police officer.
Amaghlobeli was not covering the protests when she was arrested, but her lawyer and local human rights activists believe that her detention and the charge against her–punishable by a mandatory prison term of between four and seven years–are a punitive response to her outlets’ regular reporting on alleged abuses by national and local authorities, includingthe police.
“The lengthy prison term facing Mzia Amaghlobeli appears disproportionate and raises legitimate concerns that her prosecution is being used to silence the media outlets she runs,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Georgian authorities should release Amaghlobeli and Batumelebi video reporter Guram Murvanidze, and ensure an impartial investigation of the circumstances of Amaghlobeli’s detention.”
Georgia’s Public Defender’s Office criticized the court for failing to justify its decision to detain Amaghlobeli pending trial and her lawyer, Juba Katamadze, told CPJ that the journalist’s slapping of Batumi police chief Irakli Dgebuadze did not warrant the serious “attack” charge. The local office of anticorruption NGO Transparency International expressed a similar view.
Batumelebi journalist Irma Dimitradze told CPJ that Dgebuadze was “certainly” aware of Amaghlobeli’s identity prior to their confrontation. Murvanidze told his lawyer that Dgebuadze told police to take his phone after he identified himself as a Batumelebi journalist.
CPJ emailed the Prosecutors’ Office of Georgia and messaged the spokesperson for Adjara Regional Police Department for comment on the two cases but did not receive any replies.
Washington, D.C., January 16, 2025 — The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns Egypt’s January 16 arrests of Nada Mougheeth, wife of imprisoned cartoonist Ashraf Omar, and journalist Ahmed Serag, who was detained after interviewing Mougheeth about Omar’s ongoing detention and alleged human rights violations surrounding his arrest.
Mougheeth and Serag appeared before Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) on Thursday. While Mougheeth was released on a 5,000 Egyptian pound bail pending investigation after being accused of joining a terrorist organization and spreading false news, the SSSP has yet to make a decision regarding Serag, according to independent media outlets Mada Masr and Al-Manassa.
“The arrest of Mougheeth and Serag marks a dangerous escalation by Egyptian authorities to silence anyone daring to expose their repression,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator. “Targeting the relatives of detained journalists and retaliating against those who report abuses follows a troubling pattern. These oppressive tactics must end immediately, and Serag, Mougheeth, and Ashraf Omar must be released without delay.”
Mougheeth, an Egyptian professor and translator, has been an outspoken advocate for her husband’s release, relentlessly calling for justice amid his ongoing detention. In her interview with Serag, a reporter with Cairo-based independent outlet ZatMasr, she revealed that the security forces who detained Omar seized 350,000 Egyptian pounds, yet only reported a fraction of that amount in the official interrogation records.
Nada and Serag’s arrest followed a statement by Egypt’s Ministry of Interior, which denied claims made by a woman alleging that her husband was detained, and money and personal items were seized from his home without being documented in the arrest report. The ministry announced that legal action was being taken against those spreading these false allegations.
Egyptian authorities have previously targeted the wives of detained journalists for speaking out. In April 2024, journalist Yasser Abu Al-Ela’s wife, Naglaa Fathi, and her sister were forcibly disappeared for 13 days after filing multiple complaints about Abu Al-Ela’s disappearance. Both women were later charged with joining a terrorist organization and spreading false information on Facebook.
Omar, A cartoonist for Al-Manassa was arrested on July 22, 2024, and charged with joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and misusing social media. The SSSP also interrogated him about cartoons criticizing Egypt’s economic crisis and electricity shortages.
In 2024, Egypt ranked as the world’s sixth-worst country for press freedom, with 17 journalists imprisoned. Seven of these journalists were detained in 2024, as the country’s economic crisis triggered a new wave of arrests.
CPJ’s email to the Egyptian Ministry of Interior requesting comment on Serag and Mougheeth ’s arrests did not receive an immediate response.
Māori politicians across the political spectrum in Aotearoa New Zealand have called for immediate aid to enter Gaza following a temporary ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.
The ceasefire, agreed yesterday, comes into effect on Sunday, January 19.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters said New Zealand welcomed the deal and called for humanitarian aid for the strip.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer … “This ceasefire must be accompanied by a global effort to rebuild Gaza.” Image: Te Pāti Māori
“There now needs to be a massive, rapid, unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.“
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer echoed similar sentiments on behalf of her party, saying, “the destruction of vital infrastructure — homes, schools, hospitals — has decimated communities”.
“This ceasefire must be accompanied by a global effort to rebuild Gaza,” she said.
Teanau Tuiono, Green Party spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, specifically called on Aotearoa to increase its aid to Palestine.
‘Brutal, illegal Israeli occupation’
“[We must] support the reconstruction of Gaza as determined by Palestinians. We owe it to Palestinians who for many years have lived under brutal and illegal occupation by Israeli forces, and are now entrenched in a humanitarian crisis of horrific proportions,” he said.
“The genocide in Gaza, and the complicity of many governments in Israel’s campaign of merciless violence against the Palestinian people on their own land, has exposed serious flaws in the international community’s ability to uphold international law.
“This means our country and others have work to do to rebuild trust in the international system that is meant to uphold human rights and prioritise peace,” said the Green MP.
With tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in the 15 month war, negotiators reached a ceasefire deal yesterday in Gaza for six-weeks, after Hamas agreed to release hostages from the 7 October 2023 attacks in exchange for Palestinian prisoners — many held without charge — held in Israel.
“The terms of the deal must now be implemented fully. Protection of civilians and the release of hostages must be at the forefront of effort.
“To achieve a durable and lasting peace, we call on the parties to take meaningful steps towards a two-state solution. Political will is the key to ensuring history does not repeat itself,” Peters said in a statement.
Tuiono called it a victory for Palestinians and those within the solidarity movement.
“However, it must be followed by efforts to establish justice and self-determination for Palestinians, and bring an end to Israeli apartheid and the illegal occupation of Palestine.
“We must divest public funds from illegal settlements, recognise the State of Palestine, and join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, just as we joined Ukraine’s case against Russia.”
Ngawera-Packer added that the ceasefire deal did not equal a free Palestine anytime soon.
“We must not forget the larger reality of the ongoing conflict, which is rooted in decades of displacement, violence, and oppression.
“Although the annihilation may be over for now, the apartheid continues. We will continue to call out our government who have done nothing to end the violence, and to end the apartheid.
“We must also be vigilant over these next three days to ensure that Israel will not exploit this window to create more carnage,” Ngarewa-Packer said.
Pro-junta militia leaders in Myanmar and operators of online scam centers have agreed to stop human trafficking after the rescue of a Chinese actor this month raised international alarm about their operations and looks set to damage Thailand’s tourist industry.
The ethnic Karen militia force based on Myanmar’s border with Thailand is suspected of enabling extensive internet fraud, human trafficking, forced labor and other crimes, and is being enriched by a business network that extends across Asia, a rights group said in a report last year.
But the case of Chinese TV actor Wang Xing, rescued this month from the notorious KK Park scam facility in eastern Myanmar’s Myawaddy, has brought the issue to public attention across Asia like never before.
The result has been pressure from both the Thai government and the Myanmar military, leading to a meeting on Wednesday between the militias and their business partners in which they agreed to stop human trafficking, said a businessman close to the ethnic Karen militia.
“The current issue of the Chinese actor has brought pressure from Thailand and the junta council in Naypyidaw. That’s why the meeting was held to enforce rules,” the businessman, who declined to be identified as talking to the media, told Radio Free Asia.
Leaders of Myawaddy-based Border Guard Force, or BGF, and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, or DKBA, which control the border zone under the auspices of the Myanmar military, agreed on a set of five rules with the business leaders, many of them ethnic Chinese, the businessman said.
The list includes no use of force, threats or torture, no child labor, no income from human trafficking and no scam operations, according to a copy of the rules that the businessman cited. Anyone found breaking the rules will lose their business and be expelled from the area.
RFA tried to contact senior members of the ethnic Karen forces, Maj. Naing Maung Zaw of the BGF and Lt. Gen Saw Shwe Wa of the DKBA, but neither of them answered their telephones.
Leaders of Border Guard Force and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army meet online gambling business owners in Myanmar’s Myawaddy town on Jan. 15, 2025.(AEC News)
The Karen militia force in power in the eastern region emerged from a split in the 1990s in Myanmar’s oldest ethnic minority guerrilla force, the largely Christian-led Karen National Union, when Buddhist fighters broke away, formed the DKBA and sided with the military.
The military let the DKBA rule in areas under its control in Kayin state, set up a Border Guard Force to help the army, and to profit from cross-border trade, and later from online gambling and scam operations.
The scam centers in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have ensnared thousands of human trafficking victims from all over Asia, and as far away as Africa.
Many victims say they were lured by false job offers, then forced to scam people by convincing them over the phone or online to put money into bogus investments.
University of Texas researchers estimated in a report in March last year that scammers had tricked investors out of more than US$75 billion since January 2020.
People forced to work at the scam centers are often tortured if they refuse to comply, victims and rights groups say.
The rules announced by the militias and scam operators come after a string of high-profile kidnappings, including that of Chinese actor Wang.
Hong Kong authorities have sent a task force to Thailand in a bid to rescue an estimated 12 victims in Myanmar and have imposed a yellow travel advisory for Thailand and Myanmar, warning of “signs of threat,” but without mentioning the scam parks.
The Bangkok Post reported on Wednesday that Thai hotels and airlines have been getting a flood of cancellations from Chinese tour groups for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday.
Authorities in the region have accused Chinese gangsters of organizing the centers but Chinese nationals in Thailand said Chinese state-owned companies were behind operations in Myanmar, and behind them is the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department.
“Wherever you have these scam parks, you will find Chinese companies plying the biggest trade,” a realtor who only gave the surname Pan for fear of reprisals recently told RFA Mandarin. “The Myawaddy park was built by Chinese state-owned companies.”
Pan said the parks were the criminal face of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s United Front outreach and influence operations.
“All of the big bosses are back in China,” he said.
The Justice for Myanmar human rights group has accused governments and businesses across the region of enabling the cyber scam operations by failing to take action against the profitable flows they generate.
Edited by RFA Staff.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese.
Washington, D.C., January 15, 2025 — Yemen’s Houthi forces must release journalist Mohamed Al-Miyahi and the group’s non-state judicial system must drop its case against him, said the Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday.
After more than three months of arbitrary detention, including one month of enforced disappearance, Al-Miyahi appeared before the Houthi’s Specialized Criminal Prosecution in Sana’a on January 13, where he was accused of “publishing articles against the state and its political regime.” His case was referred to the Houthi’s Press and Publications Prosecution and Court.
“Mohamed Al-Miyahi’s appearance before the Houthi’s non-state judicial system is yet another attempt by Houthi forces to legitimize his detention and their broader attacks on press freedom,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “Al-Miyahi must be released and his abductors must be held to account.”
Al-Miyahi was arrested in September 2024 by security forces affiliated with the Houthi group and was not heard from for over a month. His arrest came amid a new wave of detentions by the Houthis in September targeting aid workers and critics of Houthi rule in Yemen.
Al-Miyahi is a well-known Yemeni journalist who has written for several media outlets, including the website of Yemeni TV channel Belqees. His last article for Belqees, published before his arrest, criticized the Houthi group’s governance in Yemen.
In a separate case, Yemeni journalist Ahmed Maher, who was arrested in August 2022 and sentenced to four years in prison in May 2024, was acquitted by the Aden-based Specialized Criminal Court of Appeal on December 25, 2024. Despite the acquittal, the Specialized Criminal Prosecution has refused to release him without a “commercial guarantee” from a guarantor—a condition his family is unable to fulfill. Under Yemeni law, a guarantor ensures a detainee’s court appearance and legal compliance through financial or personal commitment, with a commercial guarantor doing so via a legally registered business.
Both the Houthis and the Southern Transitional Council, the de facto authority in southern Yemen, have arbitrarily detained and subjected Yemeni journalists to enforced disappearance over the years.
CPJ emailed Houthi spokesperson Mohammad Abdulsalam for comment, but did not receive a reply.
It has been five years since the Vietnamese government sent about 3,000 riot police into Dong Tam commune, where they shot dead Le Dinh Kinh and beat around 30 other villagers in a long-running dispute over a plot of land 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Hanoi where the military wanted to build an airstrip.
His widow, Du Thi Thanh, witnessed the Jan. 9, 2020, shooting. Police arrested and beat her that day and she said they still harass her as she fights for justice.
“They criticize my family, considering me a reactionary person,” she told Radio Free Asia. “Wherever I go, they still make things difficult for me.”
The family home still bears evidence of the attack, bullet holes caused by police gunfire. No men live there because Thanh’s sons and grandsons were imprisoned and the house has fallen into a state of disrepair.
“We leave everything as it is and cover up the leaks,” Du Thi Thanh said. “How can we fix it now? The house is so dilapidated.”
Police said three officers were killed during the Dong Tam raid. They say the men fell into a well next to the family home and were burned to death by a gang led by Kinh and Thanh’s sons, Le Dinh Cong and Le Dinh Chuc.
The two men were sentenced to death for murder and are being held in a police detention center in Hanoi.
Thanh said her sons have serious physical problems because of police beatings and harsh conditions.
“Chuc is paralyzed on one side of his body, and Cong says he can only lie on his stomach, never on his back, because he was beaten so much and has scabies. Every time I see him, he is covered in blood from head to toe,” she said.
Thanh said police asked her to write that she wanted to “visit a murderer” before issuing a visitor’s permit, but she refused.
“I said no one in my family has killed anyone, if you give me the permit then give it, if you don’t then forget it,” she said.
Four other people were convicted of murder with sentences ranging from 12 to 16 years over the incident. Cong’s son, Le Dinh Doanh, was jailed for life for his part in the killings. Nine others were convicted of “resisting a person on official duty” with sentences ranging from three to six years in prison. Eight were released early for “hard work” and “compliance with prison regulations.”
Missing red book
After police killed Kinh, they confiscated many documents from his home, including the red book certifying ownership of the land his house is built on.
Thanh asked the people’s committee of the commune to help get it back. The police contacted her, saying they would return the red book but later refused.
RFA Vietnamese called the People’s Committee of My Duc district to ask whether they could issue a new red book but no one answered. The phone number listed for the district police did not connect.
Lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, who represented the family before being forced into exile in Germany, said Thanh wants to tell the truth, that the police took the red book from her house, but authorities want her to say it was lost, so they can save face.
Police also refused to issue a death certificate for Kinh. Lawyer Dai said in order for the People’s Committee to issue one, the police must confirm the cause of death. They have refused because they still disagree with the family over where Kinh was shot.
Without a death certificate the family have been unable to inherit Kinh’s money and possessions. Kinh’s wife has also been denied a monthly pension of 70% of his monthly salary as a commune official.
Losing face
Dang Dinh Manh, one of many lawyers who defended the 29 people in the Dong Tam case, told RFA the 2020 attack was an act of retaliation for the police losing face three years earlier, when villagers captured 38 riot police officers accusing them of illegally arresting people.
“From a normal land dispute in Dong Tam, the regime turned it into a bloody crackdown that led to the deaths of four people and the death sentence of two people, including an elderly man over 80 years old who was shot in the chest at close range by Lt. Col. Dang Viet Quang, deputy head of the Investigation Police Agency of Hanoi City Police,” he told RFA, speaking from the United States where he fled, fearing arrest.
“The 2020 Dong Tam attack will forever be a story of the crimes committed by the communist regime against its people,” he added, saying responsibility for the attack should be borne by the late Nguyen Phu Trong, then communist party general secretary, and the current general secretary To Lam who was public security minister at the time.
“For the people of Dong Tam and for this nation, the debt of justice stained with the blood of innocent people is still there. The two unjust death sentences still exist. The Dong Tam case has never ended so it can’t be closed .”
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
(Rebel Pepper illustration/RFA)
he hails from Tumkur in Karnataka 
