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We speak with The Nation's Chris Lehmann about President-elect Donald Trump's escalating attacks on the press and how major media figures and institutions are “capitulating preemptively” to the pressure. ABC News recently settled a defamation suit brought by Trump by making a $15 million donation to his future presidential library, despite experts saying the case was easily winnable. Trump is also suing The Des Moines Register for publishing a poll before the election that showed him losing to Vice President Kamala Harris. “What’s happening is a very clear pattern in Trump’s public life,” says Lehmann. “This is a show of power.”
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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TAIPEI, Taiwan – An annual forum between the cities of Shanghai and Taipei that is meant to promote dialogue across the Taiwan Strait has opened about six months late after tensions including unprecedented Chinese sabre-rattling raised doubts that it could be organized this year.
The Shanghai-Taipei City Forum opened in the self-ruled island’s capital on Monday with a visit by Hua Yuan, the deputy mayor of China’s largest city, presided over by Taipei’s mayor, Chiang Wan-an.
Chiang, in his opening remarks, acknowledged the recent tensions between Beijing and the island it regards as its territory and has vowed to take over by force if necessary.
Just last week, China’s military deployed what one senior Taiwan official called a “staggering” array of ships and aircraft in the seas and skies around the island in a show of force that analysts said could be aimed at setting red lines for the incoming administration in the United States, Taiwan’s main ally.
“I always say that the more tense and difficult the moment, the more we need to communicate,” Chiang told the visiting Chinese delegates at the forum.
Chiang called for talks.
“More dialogue and less confrontation; more olive branches of peace and less sour grapes of conflict. More lights from fishing boats to adorn the sunset; less of the howls of ships and aircraft,” said Chiang.
Chiang, a member of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, which traditionally advocates for closer cross-strait ties while rejecting accusations it is pro-Beijing, is widely seen as a possible presidential candidate.
The forum is an annual platform for dialogue and cooperation between the two cities. Established in 2010, it serves as a semi-official channel for communication, focusing on practicalities such as economic collaboration, tourism, education, culture, and public services.
The city-to-city is seen as a useful avenue for people-to-people exchanges, especially when official cross-strait communications are limited.
Shanghai Vice Mayor Hua Yuan and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an pose for photo at a dinner before the annual city forum in Taipei, Taiwan, Dec. 16, 2024. (Ann Wang/Reuters)Entry bans
This year’s forum was initially planned for July or August but was postponed as the tensions raised doubts about the schedule, until an agenda was finally drawn up late in the year.
The event has not been without its casualties.
As tensions surged last week with the Chinese show of force, Taiwan banned entry to Shanghai Taiwan Affairs Office Director Jin Mei and nine Chinese media personnel.
Assistant Professor of Taiwan’s Shoochow University’s Department of Political Science Chen Fang-Yu told Radio Free Asia that the forum, in principle, should be a “positive event,” especially as it involves official exchanges from both sides.
“However, since 2016 China has unilaterally cut off all opportunities for official dialogue with Taiwan,” he said, adding that Taipei seemed “urged” to host the forum this year.
Chen noted that Taipei Mayor Chiang had vowed in his 2022 election campaign that the forum would only be hosted when the Chinese Communist Party stopped sending military aircraft and vessels to harass Taiwan.
“Clearly, this goal has not been met,” Chen said.
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At the forum, Shanghai Mayor Hua called for practical cooperation between the two sides and said that Shanghai tour group trips to Taiwan would resume, although China has yet to fully restore the levels of tourism to the island seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have always been one family. We often come and go, getting closer and closer to each other,” Hua told the forum.
However, Chen warned that the offer to resume tour groups from China could be seen as a Chinese tactic to promote its pro-unification agenda.
“It feels like they are treating the reopening as some kind of favor to Taiwan,” Chen said, referring to the resumption of group tours.
Edited by Taejun Kang.
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The fall of the Assad regime in Syria continues to reshape the country and the greater Middle East. In Damascus, leaders of the armed group HTS have retained most services of the civilian government but vowed to dissolve Assad’s security forces and shut down Assad’s notorious prisons. “People have this sense of regained freedom,” says Syrian architect and writer Marwa al-Sabouni in Homs. Still, she warns oppression in the country has left the populace weakened and vulnerable. “Syria is up for grabs now. … We are completely disarmed.” In northeast Syria, more than 100,000 people have been displaced due to fighting between Turkish-backed forces and U.S.-backed Kurdish forces. Israel continues to seize more land in the Golan Heights and has carried out over 480 airstrikes on Syria since Sunday. Swiss Syrian left-wing activist and scholar Joseph Daher explains how civil society is attempting to rebuild democracy through “struggle from below,” and how that could unleash popular support for Palestine. “Israel wanted a weak Assad and is not happy with the fall of this regime,” says Daher. “A democratization process in the Middle East is the biggest threat for Israel.”
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 Syrians celebrate the fall of the Assad regime after more than five decades of iron rule, many are grappling with the enormity of what has happened to their country, with nearly 14 years of war leaving much of the country in ruins, killing over 350,000 people and displacing 14 million more. Meanwhile, foreign powers, including Israel, Turkey and the United States, have carried out strikes across parts of the country, and Israel has invaded and occupied additional land in the Golan Heights. For more on the monumental changes underway, we speak with Syrian American political economist Omar Dahi, the director of the Security in Context research network, who has been involved in several peace-building initiatives since the start of the conflict in 2011. He says many Syrians have “mixed emotions” about this moment, celebrating the end of Assad while mourning the immense human cost of the war and confronting the difficult road ahead to rebuild the country. “Politics is finally possible,” Dahi says.
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Ethnic Kokang rebels in northern Myanmar have executed six people following a public trial in front of hundreds of people that was filmed and posted on social media, including murder, the group confirmed Friday.
The six were among 14 individuals tried on Thursday by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, which had been fighting the junta since a military coup in early 2021, until agreeing to a ceasefire earlier this week.
In the video, which appeared to be professionally produced — including a militaristic soundtrack and drone shots — the convicted individuals in blue jumpsuits are held by guards as authorities in uniforms read out their crimes in Mandarin Chinese, the Kokang’s main language.
As the crimes are read out, MNDAA soldiers draw red X’s over signs displaying their names and that they were convicted criminals.
One of the accused, a woman, was convicted of murdering her husband, sources close to the MNDAA said via their social media accounts.
The other male suspects were charged with the murder of a female driver, the killing of a friend, and plotting to kill the owners of a construction and natural gas company.
Eight other individuals, accused of other crimes, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years.
The event took place Thursday in northern Shan state’s Laukkai township.
On Friday, the MNDAA’s Kokang Information Network confirmed that the group had executed the six in a post to its social media page.
People sentenced by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army are put on stage in front of a crowd in Laukkai town, northern Shan State, Dec. 5, 2024. The video concludes with the six being paraded around the township in the back of pickup trucks as they are driven to what appears to be an execution site, before being led off by soldiers.
“After the public trial, police officers from the judicial branch escorted the criminals, who had been sentenced according to the law, through the streets for a public display,” the post said. “Then, the convicts were brought to the execution ground to be executed.”
It was not immediately clear how the six were executed.
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Attempts by RFA to contact MNDAA officials for comment on the sentences went unanswered Friday.
The MNDAA has executed individuals it convicted of crimes in staged trials before. In April, another similar video showed several convicted people being publicly condemned for crimes, including three to death.
On May 2, 2023, the MNDAA executed four individuals for their involvement in murders, robberies, and 25 kidnappings in northern Shan’s Lashio township.
People sentenced by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army are put on stage in front of a crowd in Laukkai town, northern Shan State, Dec. 5, 2024. ‘No way consistent’
Legal experts have expressed concerns over the MNDAA’s actions, noting that the practice of public executions, which occurred during Myanmar’s British colonial era, has long been abolished.
RFA spoke with a lawyer who noted that the Kokang, who speak Mandarin Chinese and share ethnic characteristics with their northern neighbors, “follow the Chinese legal system, as they are subordinate to China and must adhere to its directives.”
The lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous due to security concerns, said that denying the six an appeal of their conviction and publicly executing them, “is in no way consistent with or acceptable under Myanmar’s current legal system.”
“In Myanmar, there are only two ways the death penalty can be carried out: if a civilian court issues a death sentence, the execution takes place in prison, while if a military court issues a death sentence, it is carried out by prison authorities within the prison, or by relevant military commanders,” he said. “There is no provision in our laws that mandates public executions.”
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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France has been plunged into political chaos after lawmakers from across the political spectrum voted to oust Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a no-confidence vote Wednesday, a major blow to President Emmanuel Macron, who had hand-picked the conservative lawmaker to lead the National Assembly. Macron called a snap election earlier this year to counter the rise of the racist National Rally party of Marine Le Pen, but he then refused to work with the leftist New Popular Front that won the most seats, opting for an establishment pick instead. With the government’s collapse, Macron has vowed to name a new prime minister and stay on to finish his own term, which ends in 2027, despite his growing unpopularity. “We’re in this unprecedented situation of turmoil,” says journalist Cole Stangler in Marseilles. He says Macron’s decision to call early elections was “a self-inflicted wound” that ended up empowering the far right and making it virtually impossible for any faction to lead. “We have a mathematical problem. France needs to have a government, and you have three pretty evenly split blocs,” says Stangler.
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BANGKOK – Myanmar has released four Thai fishermen nearly a week after a Myanmar navy boat opened fire on them and detained them for what Myanmar said was an intrusion into its waters in the Andaman Sea.
One fisherman drowned after he jumped into the sea and two were injured when a Myanmar boat opened fire in waters near the neighbors’ border on Nov. 30.
“The Myanmar side has released all four Thai nationals who were then taken to the immigration checkpoint at Kawthoung-Ranong for processing,” Thai foreign ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura said late on Thursday.
Thailand and Myanmar have several areas of dispute on their long land border as well as on their maritime border in the Andaman Sea, off the southern tip of Myanmar and southwest Thailand, and disagreements occasionally flare up.
Thailand summoned the Myanmar ambassador on Monday to protest against what it said was an excessive use of force against the fishermen and to demand the release of the four Thais. Myanmar nationals working on the Thai boat were also detained but their fate was not known.
The detained fishermen were on one of three Thai boats that the Myanmar navy fired at in the early hours of Nov. 30. The other two boats escaped.
The skipper of one of the boats that escaped said the Myanmar navy had fired at them “indiscriminately.”
The four fishermen were released in the southern Myanmar town of Kawthoung and were due to cross over a border inlet there to Thailand’s Ranong, the Thai foreign ministry said.
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Earlier, officials at the Third Naval Command reported that their Myanmar counterparts said the Thai boats had intruded up to 9 kilometers (5.7 miles) into Myanmar waters. Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said the facts had to be determined.
An injured fisherman on a stretcher at Ranong in Thailand near the Myanmar border, taken on Nov. 30 and released on Dec. 2, 2024. A spokesman for the Myanmar military, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, defended the navy’s action saying Myanmar forces were wary of insurgent infiltration.
It was not immediately clear if Myanmar would also release the boat it seized, the Sor Charoenchai 8.
It was not the first incident in the contested area in recent years.
In 2020, Myanmar detained a Thai fishing boat carrying 20 Thai and Chinese tourists, saying it had entered Myanmar waters illegally. Myanmar held the tourists for a month before their release following negotiations.
Edited by Taejun Kang.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Nontarat Phaicharoen for BenarNews and Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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A claim has been circulated in Chinese-language social media that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office dropped the case against President-elect Donald Trump in which he was convicted of 34 felony counts involving falsifying business records, following his presidential election victory.
But the claim is false. Documents released by the court on Nov. 19 show that the prosecution intends to proceed with post-trial sentencing and denies Trump’s impending presidency is sufficient grounds to dismiss the case.
The claim was shared on X on Nov. 22, 2024.
“Donald Trump’s sentencing for 34 criminal charges in the state of New York abruptly adjourned by Judge Merchan without explanation. All charges have been dropped,” the claim reads.
Chinese influencers claim that 34 felony counts against Trump have been or soon will be dropped. Former President Trump secured a second, non-consecutive term by defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5.
In March 2023, a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The indictment accused Trump of orchestrating hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to suppress information about a sexual encounter that she says they had aiming to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump denies any sexual encounter with Daniels.
The payments were purportedly disguised in business records as legal expenses to conceal their true purpose.
The claim that the felony accounts against Trump were dropped following the election is incorrect.
Charge vs account
Chinese social media users appear to have confused the terms “charges” and “counts.”
A “charge” refers to a specific crime someone is accused of committing, while a “count” indicates the number of times the person is accused of committing that crime.
In Trump’s case, he was accused of one crime – falsifying business records – but was charged with committing it 34 separate times.
To be proceeded
The Manhattan district attorney offices’ charge against Trump has not been dropped.
Documents released by the court on November 19 show that the prosecution intends to proceed with post-trial sentencing and denies Trump’s impending presidency is sufficient grounds to dismiss the felony counts against him.
However, the prosecution noted that it will consider a stay of proceedings, which would pause sentencing until after Trump leaves office after his second term ends in four years.
It stated this would allow the court “to balance competing constitutional interests.”
Uncertainties
On Nov. 22, the presiding judge Juan Merchan postponed sentencing to receive more arguments from both sides.
Trump’s lawyers were ordered to file their arguments for dismissal by Dec. 2, while the prosecutors were given until Dec. 9 to submit their arguments for proceeding with the conviction.
Given the unique situation of a president-elect awaiting criminal sentencing, the exact outcome of the case is still unclear.
While the prosecution has signaled its plans to continue forward with sentencing at some point in the future, Trump’s lawyers are still attempting to have the case dismissed.
U.S. constitutional law expert Robert Mcwhirter said in an interview with the American broadcaster CBS that any sentencing against Trump would likely be enforced after leaving his second term in office.
However, Mcwhirter noted there is “a slim chance” that he could impose a short prison sentence on Trump before his inauguration in January 2025 or probationary measures during his time in office.
Other cases
In addition to the Manhattan court case, one other state-level criminal case in Georgia and two federal criminal cases have been brought against Trump.
Following Trump’s election victory, the Department of Justice dismissed the two federal cases against him on Nov. 25.
The case in Georgia is stalled in pretrial procedures and its progress is unclear.
A Supreme Court decision from July 2024 ruled that Trump was ineligible to be prosecuted for acts that fall under the president’s “core constitutional powers.”
The president’s “unofficial acts” share no such immunity.
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke and Taejun Kang.
Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.
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Nearly two months after Israel invaded Lebanon, a “fragile” ceasefire has been reached between Israel and Lebanon. Under the deal, Israel says it will withdraw troops from Lebanon’s south over a 60-day period, though Lebanese writer Lina Mounzer says “this is already being contradicted by the behavior and the directives of the Israeli army,” which continued to bomb Lebanese civilian areas through the waning hours of official hostilities. Thousands of displaced Lebanese are now returning to southern Lebanon, hoping that their homes are still standing. Many are mourning the nearly 3,800 Lebanese killed by U.S. weapons and Israeli warfare. While there is “relief” in the country, “people are finding it very difficult to celebrate,” says Mounzer. “The grieving process begins now.”
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New York, November 26, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for an immediate international investigation into a deadly Israeli strike in Lebanon that legal experts believe could be a war crime as it likely deliberately targeted civilians, killing three members of the media.
“Journalists are civilians and must never be targeted,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “Israel must be held accountable for its actions and the international community must act to ensure that journalist murders are not allowed to go unpunished.”
On November 25, investigations by Human Rights Watch and Britain’s The Guardian newspaper revealed that Israel’s October 25 airstrike in south Lebanon was carried out using an air-dropped bomb equipped with a U.S.-produced bomb guidance kit.
Two journalists and a media worker — Ghassan Najjar, Mohammed Reda, and Wissam Kassem — were killed and three more journalists were injured by the 3 a.m. strike on a compound in the southern town of Hasbaya where more than a dozen journalists had been staying for several weeks.
The investigations, which included site visits, interviews with survivors and legal experts, and analysis of munitions remnants, video, photo, and satellite images, found no evidence of military activity, forces, or infrastructure in the area. Human Rights Watch concluded that the Israeli military “knew or should have known that journalists were staying in the area and in the targeted building.”
The New York-based rights group further said that U.S. officials “may be complicit in war crimes” because of U.S. weapons transfers to Israel whose military has carried out “repeated, unlawful attacks on civilians.”
Last month, a CPJ report called for accountability for Israel’s killing of Lebanese journalist Issam Abdallah and wounding of six other journalists in an October 13, 2023, tank strike on a hillside in south Lebanon.
Prior to the Israel-Gaza war, in May 2023, CPJ’s “Deadly Pattern” report found that Israel had never held its military to account for 20 journalist killings over 22 years.
Immediately after the October 25 strike, Israel’s military said it had struck a “Hezbollah military structure” and that “terrorists were located inside the structure.” A few hours later, the army said the incident was “under review.”
CPJ did not immediately receive a response to its email to the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk asking whether they’d reviewed the circumstances of the strike, whether they knew there were journalists in the targeted location, and if they were targeted for being journalists.
At a November 25 press briefing, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said he was aware of the Human Rights Watch report and department officials “generally do take these reports very seriously,” but said he did not have any “further assessment, either to the type of weapon that was used or to the nature of the strike itself.”
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Read more on this topic in Burmese.
An ethnic minority insurgent force in Myanmar has said it is ready to talk to the junta, while acknowledging China’s efforts to end hostilities, in what an analyst said was the latest sign that Chinese pressure on Myanmar’s rivals to end their war was paying off.
China has extensive economic interests in its southern neighbour including energy pipelines and mining projects and is keen to see an end to the violent turmoil that has engulfed Myanmar since the military overthrew an elected government in early 2021.
China backs the military but also maintains contacts with rebel forces, particularly those based on its border. It has been calling on all sides to talk while pressuring the insurgents by closing the border and cutting off essential supplies such as fuel.
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, based in Shan state, announced in a statement on Monday that it was ready to engage in talks with the military.
The group was positive about China’s mediation and said it was committed to cooperate until favorable conditions were achieved. It highlighted its belief in a federal union that ensures the right to self-determination for all ethnic groups.
Radio Free Asia was awaiting further details from the TNLA’s spokesperson on the possibility of talks with the military.
One analyst said Chinese pressure was working.
“It appears that China is exerting pressure on both sides,” said Hla Kyaw Zaw, a China-based analyst on Myanmar affairs.
“The TNLA is also taking into account the impact of the conflict on civilians in its region.”
The TNLA is a member of the Three Brotherhood Alliance of rebel groups who went on the offensive on Oct. 27 last year, and made stunning gains, putting the military under the most pressure it has faced since shortly after independence from Britain in 1948.
Offers of talks
The junta chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has recently made several offers of talks to the insurgents, including once while in China this month, on his first visit there since the 2021 coup.
In his latest call for peace, in a message for National Day on Monday, Min Aung Hlaing said political issues had to be resolved through political means not through armed struggle, and if not, Myanmar risked disintegration and the loss of solidarity and sovereignty. The military has long seen itself as the only institution capable of holding the diverse country together.
While calling for talks, the junta has also been stepping up airstrikes on rebel zones, with a rising toll on civilians, U.N. rights officials say.
Insurgents groups, including the TNLA, have asked China not just to press them to make peace but to also tell the junta to stop its airstrikes on civilians. They say China has not responded.
The rebels dismissed Min Aung Hlaing’s first offer of talks as window-dressing for a foreign audience, made at China’s insistence.
Then in September, a Shan-state-based ally of the TNLA in the three-party alliance, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, said it would stop attacking big towns and cities and would no longer cooperate with the National Unity Government, or NUG, which was set up by pro-democracy politicians after the 2021 coup.
The MNDAA announcement came days after it said China had warned it to stop fighting and had closed off the border. China gave the TNLA the same warning in late August.
Analysts say China regards the NUG as under the influence of Western governments and wants it isolated.
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‘Stop the money’
For its part, the NUG, which commands the loyalty of militia forces set up by pro-democracy activists, has been skeptical of the junta’s calls for talks.
It said in its National Day comments that the population was united in the effort to overthrow the military dictatorship and begin a new chapter.
The NUG stresses the need for concerted international pressure on the junta, including cutting off supplies of jet fuel for the air force.
“If regional countries stop the flow of money to the military regime, it will suffer,” said NUG spokesman Kyaw Zaw. “Sanctions should target companies that supply jet fuel and shipping lines which transport jet fuel for the junta.”
Political analyst Than Soe Naing was also not optimistic about the prospects for talks given the bad blood between the two sides.
“Only when the people have some weapons and power in their hands can they begin to talk about peace,” he told RFA. “As long as the people are oppressed and killed, peace talks will be impossible.”
Myanmar affairs analyst Sai Kyi Zin Soe said there was nothing any other powers could do about China’s intervention in Myanmar and its support for the junta: “Neither the U.N. nor the United States has the capacity to stop it. ASEAN has also failed to implement effective measures.”
China’s intervention on behalf of a deeply unpopular junta looks bound to inflame public anger. A small bomb recently went off outside the Chinese consulate in Mandalay city.
“China is actively interfering in Myanmar’s internal affairs,” said a Myanmar citizen in the South Korean capital, among a couple of hundred people protesting outside the Chinese embassy.
“We, as members of the diaspora, are opposing China for recognizing the military council.”
Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.
Translated by Aung Naing, Kalyar Lwin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Read more on this topic in Lao
Updated on Nov. 22, 2024, 03:38 p.m.
A young Australian woman has died after drinking alcohol laced with methanol in Laos, her father said on Friday, the sixth victim of what should have been a fun night out in a tourist town on the Southeast Asian backpacker trail.
Shaun Bowles, said in a statement his “beautiful girl Holly is now at peace” after dying in a hospital in Bangkok, where she was taken last week after falling ill in neighboring Laos.
Her friend, Bianca Jones, died on Thursday in a hospital in the northeastern Thai town of Udon Thani, where she had been sent for treatment. They were both 19.
A British woman, two young Danish women and an American man have also died, and several more people are reported to be sick, after going out for drinks last week in the riverside town of Vang Vieng, which has for years been a laid-back stop for young Western travelers.
Media identified the British woman as Simone White, 28, a lawyer.
“We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Laos, and we are in contact with the local authorities,” Britain’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office said on Thursday.
It is believed White had been sent for treatment in the Lao capital, Vientiane, after falling ill last week. A member of staff at the Kasemrad International Hospital there told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday a British national was being treated in its intensive care unit. The hospital declined to comment on Friday.
The exterior of Bangkok Hospital, in Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 21, 2024. An official from the Lao Ministry of Public Security told RFA on Friday that at least seven foreign tourists have been sent from Vang Vieng to Kasemrad for treatment.
The Lao government has not confirmed the cause of the deaths but on Friday it cited Australian media as saying the victims had consumed drinks laced with methanol.
“The case is under extensive investigation now,” the ministry official said. “I think it will take sometimes to conclude the case, but I am not sure about the timeline.”
Thai authorities said an autopsy on Jones showed she died from brain swelling caused by methanol. The British, Australian and New Zealand embassies have issued updated travel advisories on the danger of methanol in Laos.
Methanol is a clear, tasteless liquid that can be used to boost the alcohol content of drinks, often with fatal consequences.
Some 1,200 people have fallen ill from drinking methanol-laced drinks in the past year, according to Doctors Without Borders, which said 394 people had died worldwide, many of them in Asia.
‘Severe condition’
Earlier on Friday, the Ministry of Public Security identified the two Danish women who died as Anne-Sofie Coyman, 20, and Freja Sorensen, 21, and the American man as James Hutson, 57. All three had been staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng, it said.
The ministry said no autopsies had been carried out so it couldn’t confirm the cause of death.
“On Nov. 12, Coyman and Sorensen went out drinking at bars in Vang Vieng before coming back at midnight,” the ministry said in a statement.
“At 6 p.m. on Nov. 13, a staff member at Nana Backpacker found them lying unconscious in their rooms so they carried them to Vang Vieng Hospital. They were in a coma and relied on a respirator due to their severe condition. They were transferred to the No. 103 Military Hospital at 8 p.m. but they died at 3:30 in the morning.
“The doctors concluded death was due to sudden heart failure.”
The ministry said hostel staff found Hutson on his bed just after 9 p.m. on Nov. 13 and took him to Vang Vieng Hospital but he was dead on arrival.
The U.S. State Department earlier confirmed the death of the U.S. citizen, while the Danish government confirmed two of its nationals had died in Laos.
‘Don’t accept free drinks’
Details of how the tourists came to drink tainted alcohol in Vang Vieng are sketchy and it is not clear if they were all drinking at the same bar. Residents told RFA no Lao people had fallen ill over the past week but cases of tainted alcohol were common in Vang Vieng.
A town police officer who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the case, said anyone found selling tainted drinks would face serious consequences.
“Methanol is basically prohibited to mix with alcohol for sales as it is listed as a life-harming chemical,” he told Radio Free Asia. “It is only allowed to be used for industrial purposes.”
A Lao tourism official told RFA that officers had checked all bars and entertainment venues in Vang Vieng but added he could not give details of their findings.
Bar staff and venue managers in the town said they only offered reputable brands of drinks, though one of them warned that customers should always be careful.
“The only thing that can prevent this kind of incident is to not accept any free drink offered by someone you don’t know in a bar,” said the man, who declined to be identified.
An official from the Vang Vieng tourism office told RFA that it is widely understood that the deaths could have “negative impacts” on Laos’ tourism industry.
Police in Vang Vieng have detained but not charged several people in connection with their investigation, the AP reported. Staff at Nana Backpacker told the agency the hostel’s owner and manager had been taken away for questioning.
Duong Duc Toan, the manager of Nana Backpacker Hostel sits in the hostel’s bar in Vang Vieng, Laos, Nov. 19, 2024. The British Foreign Office in its updated advisory said methanol was been used in the manufacture of counterfeit replicas of well-known alcohol brands or illegal local spirits, like vodka.
“You should take care if offered, particularly for free, or when buying spirit-based drinks. If labels, smell or taste seem wrong then do not drink,” it said
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This story has been updated to add comments from two Lao officials.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.This post was originally published on Radio Free.