“Federal judges must be fair-minded and ethical, highly qualified, and committed to civil and human rights. The Senate’s confirmation of Joshua Divine to the federal bench in Missouri betrays these standards and instead installs into a lifetime judgeship an individual who does not possess the requisite experience to be a federal judge and who has time and time again demonstrated significant hostility to our civil and human rights. His limited legal career — which includes a record of intense opposition to reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, student loan borrowers, and more — is disqualifying. Our courts, our communities, and our democracy deserve better. Senators must ensure that judicial nominees are fair-minded, actually qualified for the job, and faithful to the rule of law and Constitution rather than to an anti-civil rights agenda.”

Read The Leadership Conference’s letter in opposition to Joshua Divine’s confirmation here.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Transgender health care bans legislate Christian Nationalist view of gender

“The Supreme Court’s ultra-conservative justices are allowing Christian Nationalists and their allies to legislate a narrow, religious view of gender that will harm countless children and families. Not only has the court failed to protect America’s children, but this decision will encourage Christian Nationalists to further restrict any and all health care that doesn’t align with their narrow religious beliefs. LGBTQ+ people, women, religious minorities, the nonreligious and other traditionally marginalized communities are particularly at risk.

“Christian Nationalists have achieved yet another milestone in their decades-long effort to drag our country back in time. We need a national recommitment to church-state separation, which ensures freedom without favor and equality without exception. At Americans United, we will continue to fight for the right of all Americans to live as themselves and believe as they choose, as long as they do not harm others. That includes our gender-nonconforming and transgender family members, coworkers, friends, and neighbors.”

AU joined amicus brief opposing transgender health care ban

Americans United joined Kentucky parents of transgender children and civil rights groups in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the case involving the Tennessee ban, explaining that transgender health care bans intentionally discriminate against transgender youth by denying them medications that are prescribed for other youth. These laws do not ban these medications for all minors, but only when they are prescribed for transgender minors. As a result of this discriminatory treatment, transgender youth are unable to obtain the only effective treatment for the severe distress caused by gender dysphoria.

AU’s brief was among more than 30 friend-of-the-court briefs in which bioethicists, medical providers, medical historians, family law professors, and additional families in states where care has been banned had urged the Supreme Court to rule against bans on essential medical care for transgender adolescents so that families can make the health care decisions that are best for their children.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

UltraViolet, along with over 300 national organizations including the ACLU, the National Women’s Law Center, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Women’s March, and Reproductive Freedom for All, publicly opposed HR 9495 when it was introduced in 2024 and again in 2025.

In reaction to the announcement, Nicole Regalado, Vice President of Campaigns at UltraViolet, a leading national gender justice organization which has been fighting to preserve the work of gender justice, issued the following statement:

“HR 9495 threatens to create a chilling effect on advocacy groups nationwide, arming the Trump administration with a tool to go after its political opponents. The bill would give the Trump administration the power to suppress free speech, silence dissent, and target a range of nonprofits, from civil rights groups to humanitarian aid foundations for any justification—with virtually no recourse or due process.

“Without the freedom to voice dissent and organize, the administration’s attacks on women will only get worse. Already, the Trump administration has gutted critical women’s health research, undermined federal protections that ensure women can access capital and credit, while continuing to criminalize pregnancy and reproductive healthcare. Make no mistake: this is about silencing our voices and the voices of advocacy groups fighting these attacks.

“Not one Democrat should vote for this immoral reconciliation package. Voting yes on this bill would give a fascist administration more power to hurt women, gender expansive people, LGBTQ+ people—all of our communities.”

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

“This bill would be devastating for American wildlife and the habitats they depend on,” said Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders. “It puts a bullseye on already imperiled polar bears, whales and hundreds of other species that depend on the integrity of federal lands and waters for their survival. Congress shouldn't be handing over these vital and cherished wildlife habitats on public lands to oil and other extractive companies for bigger profits.”

Among other harmful provisions, the proposed text will:

• Circumvent the National Environmental Policy Act by allowing pay-to-play permitting, expediting environmental reviews and barring administrative or judicial review for projects by companies that pay an additional fee.
• Require no fewer than four mandated lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge in not less than 10 years.
• Amend the purpose of the National Petroleum Reserve Production Act to mandate an oil and gas leasing program in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska.
• Increase timber production by requiring annual issuance of 20-year contracts in each region for the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
• Require quarterly lease sales of onshore oil and gas in any state with available land, including Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Alaska.
• Require no fewer than 30 offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico in a 15-year period.
• Require no fewer than six lease sales in Cook Inlet, Alaska over a 10-year period.
• Allow the Secretary of the Interior to waive any requirement under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that the Secretary determines would delay issuance of a lease under a lease sale.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

On March 24, deadly Israeli strikes hit the car of Qatari-based Al Jazeera Mubasher’s Shabat near northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia, and the home in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis of Mansour, who worked for the pro-Islamic Jihad, Beirut-based Palestine Today TV.

“CPJ is appalled that we are once again seeing Palestinians weeping over the bodies of dead journalists in Gaza,” said CPJ’s Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “This nightmare in Gaza has to end. The international community must act fast to ensure that journalists are kept safe and hold Israel to account for the deaths of Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour. Journalists are civilians and it is illegal to attack them in a war zone.”

On March 18, Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza, ending a ceasefire that began on January 19.

On October 23, the IDF accused Shabat and five other Palestinian journalists working with Al Jazeera in Gaza of being members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. CPJ has called on Israel to stop making unsubstantiated allegations to justify its killing and mistreatment of members of the press.

Shabat told CPJ in October that he was not a member of Hamas. “We convey the truth on Al Jazeera Mubasher, and we move within the areas classified by Israel as safe,” Shabat said. “We are citizens, and we convey their voices. Our only crime is that we convey the image and the truth.”

More than 170 journalists and media workers have been killed since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that the Nansha Qundao are China’s inherent territory, referring to the group of islands and reefs known internationally as the Spratlys.

Hanoi has been reclaiming several features within the Spratlys, and is building a 3000-meter (10,000-foot) airstrip on one of them, Barque Canada Reef.

Guo said that the Barque Canada Reef, or Bai Jiao in Chinese, “is a part of the Nansha Qundao and China always opposes relevant countries conducting construction activities on illegally-occupied islands and reefs.”

The reef is actually a rock under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, and Vietnam first took possession of it in 1987. It has undergone development at a fast pace since 2021 and the total landfill area more than doubled in one year to nearly 250 hectares (620 acres), as of October 2024.

The Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, or AMTI, said that between November 2023 and June 2024, Hanoi created a record 280 hectares (690 acres) of new land across 10 of 27 features it occupies in the Spratly archipelago.

Beijing until now has stayed quiet as China was the first country in the region that built up artificial islands in the South China Sea and militarized them.

By 2021, when Vietnam began its island building program, China had already completed the construction of its “Big Three” artificial islands in the South China Sea – Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs – and equipped them with runways and military facilities.

Hanoi’s overall dredging and landfill in the South China Sea is roughly half of China’s, according to AMTI.

Vietnam’s ‘Look West’ policy

The Vietnamese government has said little about its work at the features apart from it is intended to protect them and provide typhoon shelter to fishermen.

Vietnam has not responded to the Chinese spokesperson’s rebuke but a Vietnamese analyst said that China’s first known public and official protest may stem from Beijing’s disapproval of the Vietnamese leadership’s ‘look West’ policies.

Hanoi and Washington in 2023 established a comprehensive strategic partnership, on par with Beijing’s partnership with Hanoi.

The new general secretary of the ruling Vietnamese communist party, To Lam, has repeatedly expressed his willingness to develop a strong relationship and cooperation with the United States, said Hoang Viet, a South China Sea analyst.

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Lam has recently also made an unprecedented visit to a war cemetery, where thousands of soldiers who lost their lives fighting invading Chinese troops between 1979-1989 were buried.

“The Chinese must not be pleased with such a visit by Vietnam’s party chief,” said Viet, adding that the protest over Vietnam’s island building revealed that the China-Vietnam relationship, “although it appears close and strong on the outside, has deep cracks inside.”

Another Vietnamese analyst told RFA that in his opinion, “Vietnam is aware of the risks brought by its activities in the South China Sea in relation to China.”

“I hope that the leaders in Hanoi will be wise enough not to be caught up in the middle of the U.S.-China strategic competition,” said Dinh Kim Phuc.

“But they should be firm and decisive when it comes to Vietnam’s sovereignty in the South China Sea,” he added.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

The White House barred an AP reporter from covering two official events at the White House following AP’s issuing of widely used style guidelines saying that Trump’s order changing the name to Gulf of America only carried authority in the U.S. and that as a global news agency it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its 400-year-old name “while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.” 

Although there was nothing inaccurate or illegal in AP’s actions, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt – in explaining the decision to ban AP – said on Wednesday that the executive was tackling “lies.”

“Retaliating against AP – one of the world’s leading providers of fact-based news – for its content undermines the U.S. president’s stated commitment to free speech and prevents its audience in the U.S. and abroad from getting the news,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “These actions follow a pattern of smearing and penalizing the press from the current administration and are unacceptable.”

Other specific areas of concern include: 

Retaliatory lawsuits: Despite his inauguration-day executive order stating his commitment to the First Amendment and freedom of speech, Trump has been involved in at least 29 defamation and media-related lawsuits since announcing his presidential candidacy in 2015, according to Axios. These types of lawsuits often involve lengthy and expensive litigation that can cripple an organization’s budget. CPJ’s research shows that these types of lawsuits from public figures can embolden local authorities to follow suit, and lead to self-censorship by news outlets. 

Punitive action by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC): CPJ is also concerned about the potential misuse of the Federal Communications Commission’s powers to grant and rescind licenses for local broadcasting. In the past several weeks, the FCC has opened investigations into stations including NPR and PBS. The regulatory body is also investigating the northern California radio station KCBS for informing listeners about where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would be conducting raids. These types of punitive actions undermine news organizations’ ability to do their work effectively. 

Suspension of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding: The freezing of USAID money – the legality of which is currently being challenged in the courts – is likely to have significant repercussions for a free press globally. CPJ is concerned about the sudden withdrawal of funding for a wide range of independent news organizations worldwide who cannot operate without external funding because of restrictions they face from non-democratic actors.

Targeted attacks against journalists and news organizations: CPJ is concerned about personal attacks on journalists directed by senior leaders of the current administration, including the president, against individual journalists and warns that this is likely to increase the likelihood of both online and physical attacks against members of the press. It is also worrying to see senior administration figures use derogatory language against Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/ Radio Free Liberty and others, which provide a critical defense against propaganda disseminated by non-democratic governments worldwide. As the U.S. seeks to pursue Trump’s stated goal of “hope, prosperity, safety, and peace,” the administration would be well served to accept, foster, and protect a pluralistic and free press as guaranteed under the First Amendment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

The U.S. State Department approved the potential sale, worth an estimated US$385m, of spare parts and support for F-16 jets and radars to Taiwan, hours before Lai began his trip to three Pacific nations, with stops in Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam.

“China urges the U.S. to immediately stop arming Taiwan and stop conniving at and supporting the ‘Taiwan independence forces’,” said China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on Sunday.

“It damages China-U.S. relations, endangers peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait … China will closely follow the developments and take resolute and strong measures to defend our nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that should be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. The democratic island has been self-governing since it effectively separated from mainland China in 1949 after the Chinese civil war.

Despite their lack of formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. has long been a key supplier of arms to Taiwan and is bound by U.S. legislation, the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, to provide the island with arms for its defense.

In a separate statement, the ministry said it “strongly condemned” the U.S. for “arranging” Lai’s stopover.

Lai arrived on Saturday in Hawaii to begin a two-day transit in the U.S. as part of a trip to the South Pacific, his first since assuming office.

“China firmly opposes any form of official contact between the United States and Taiwan, as well as any attempts by the leader of the Taiwanese authorities to visit the United States in any name or for any reason,” the Chinese ministry said, adding that it had “lodged serious protests with the U.S.”.

In response, Taiwan’s foreign ministry stressed that Lai’s transit was “legitimate” and “normal”.

“President Lai’s visits to diplomatic allies in the Pacific to strengthen diplomatic ties and his customary transit through the United States are all legitimate activities of the rights of a sovereign state,” the ministry said in a statement.

“If China reacts in any extreme way to a normal visit by the President it will be an inappropriate act by China that undermines regional peace and stability, and will be condemned by the international community.”

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Lai was given “red carpet treatment” on the tarmac when he arrived at Honolulu’s international airport, according to his office, which said it was the first time a Taiwanese president had been given such a welcome.

He was met by Hawaii Governor Josh Green as well as Ingrid Larson, managing director in Washington of the American Institute in Taiwan.

Lai visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbour and said the U.S. and Taiwan should “fight together to prevent war”.

“Peace is priceless, and war has no winners,” he said.

Lai also said he was “grateful” to the U.S. for its assistance in helping to ensure the success of the tour.

Lai is on a weeklong trip to visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau, which are among the 12 countries that recognize Taiwan’s claim to statehood.

Edited by RFA Staff.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Taejun Kang for RFA.

Zelensky told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that “Russia has no legitimate reason – none at all – for making Iran and North Korea de facto accomplices in its criminal war.”

Both North Korea and Iran have been widely accused by Western intelligence of providing weapons to Russia, with Iran recently said to have sent short-range missiles. Pyongyang has denied the accusation. 

In response to Zelensky’s remarks, Kim Yo Jong said she was issuing a “stern warning” against his “reckless political provocation.”

“The absurdity of accusing our country of being an ‘accomplice’ to the war in Ukraine, where the evil Zelensky gang is slaughtering innocent Russians, using junk weapons supplied by the U.S. and the West, is a reckless political provocation that cannot be justified by anything,” Kim Yo Jong said, cited by state-run Korean Central New Agency on Sunday.  

“The world is beginning to grow bored with Zelensky's penny-pinching tricks. I don't know how much more can be done with pity and sympathy, but for the sake of the world's peace and stability, it would be better for him to step down in time before it's too late,” she added. 

Kim Yo Jong also said that the U.S. and the West, which provided weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, should be given the status of special accomplices.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it has been deepening its relationship with North Korea. In exchange for weapons, analysts and Western officials suspect North Korea is receiving Russian technological aid for its space program.

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U.S. military aid to Ukraine

Separately, Kim Yo Jong described U.S. military aid worth nearly US$8 billion to Ukraine as an “incredible mistake,” and said the U.S. was playing with fire against nuclear superpower Russia.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced military assistance for Ukraine on Thursday, including the first shipment of a precision-guided glide bomb called the Joint Standoff Weapon. 

The aid will provide Ukraine with additional air defense, unmanned aerial systems and air-to-ground munitions, as well as strengthening its defense industrial base and supporting its maintenance and sustainment requirements, Biden said.

He added that the U.S. Defense Department would also refurbish and provide Ukraine with an additional Patriot air defense battery and more Patriot missiles.

“I strongly condemn the U.S. deliberate escalation of the situation in Ukraine by providing Ukraine with astronomical amounts of arms and equipment to prolong and escalate the conflict and plunge the entire European region into nuclear war,” Kim Yo Jong said. 

“Supporting Ukraine in any further adventurous military action is a dangerous gamble and an irresponsible move that will leave countless lives in limbo, with little hope of avoiding catastrophe,” she added. 

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Taejun Kang for RFA.

Democracy Now! is joined by the nephew of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has endorsed Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Fred Trump III’s new memoir, All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way, shares fresh insights into the Trump family and acts as a platform to advocate for individuals with developmental disabilities. Fred Trump’s own son William has a rare genetic disorder that causes severe developmental and intellectual disabilities. He says Donald Trump once told him to abandon William, saying, “He doesn’t recognize you. Let him die, and move down to Florida.” After a meeting in the Oval Office about dedicating more resources to people with disabilities, Fred Trump says his uncle said, “Those people, the costs. They should just die.”

“How could one human being say that about any other human being, least of all your grandnephew?” says Fred Trump, who calls on the next president to support disabled Americans. “The Harris campaign and her positions are ones that I believe. Now, that being said, I have yet to hear anything regarding disability actions … and I will put their feet to the fire on this.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“Even before the start of the Israel-Gaza war, CPJ had documented Israel’s pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists without producing credible evidence to substantiate their claims,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna. “Smear campaigns endanger journalists and erode public trust in the media. Israel must end this practice and allow independent international investigations into the journalists’ killings.”

Since the war began on October 7, 2023, Israel has used questionable and sometimes contradictory evidence to label at least three journalists killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as members or suspected members of militant organizations. Before the war, CPJ’s 2023 “Deadly Pattern” report also detailed examples of five unsubstantiated claims of terrorism or militant activity against journalists killed by Israeli forces between 2004 and 2018. 

Those labeled by Israel include:

• Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Al Ghoul, killed along with freelance camera operator Rami Al Refee near Gaza City by an Israeli drone strike on July 31, 2024. The IDF alleges that Al Ghoul was an engineer in the Hamas Gaza Brigade and a member of Hamas’s Nukhba special forces who had taken part in the deadly Hamas October 7 raid that started the Israel-Gaza war. The Israel Defense Forces published a document—which they said was a record of Hamas’ military activity from 2021 discovered on a Hamas computer—as proof of their accusations.  

Al Jazeera has refuted all accusations against Al Ghoul. The outlet questioned the authenticity of the IDF-produced document, which contained contradictory information showing that  Al Ghoul, born in 1997, received a Hamas military ranking in 2007—when he would have been 10 years old. The document also indicated that Al Ghoul joined Hamas’ military wing in 2014, at the age of 17.

Al Jazeera also pointed out that the IDF released Al Ghoul after detaining him during the army’s March 18, 2024, raid on Al-Shifa hospital, which Al Jazeera said disproved the IDF’s “false claim of his affiliation with any organization.” The IDF did not respond to a Washington Post question about why it cleared Al Ghoul for release at that time. 

The IDF statement did not address the killing of Al Refee, and its North America Desk has not responded to CPJ’s request for comment on Al Refee and why they released Al Ghoul after the Al-Shifa raid. 

On August 6, U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan denounced Israel’s “deliberate targeting” of the two journalists and urged the International Criminal Court to move swiftly to prosecute the killings of journalists in Gaza as a war crime. “The Israeli military seems to be making accusations without any substantive evidence as a licence to kill journalists, which is in total contravention of international humanitarian law,” said Khan.

• Al Jazeera journalist Hamza Al Dahdouh and freelancer Mustafa Thuraya, killed in an Israeli strike on January 7, 2024. Israel alleged that they were terrorists operating a drone “posing a threat” to IDF soldiers. A Washington Post analysis of their drone footage from that day found “no indications that either man was operating as anything other than a journalist that day.” The available footage shows that the journalists did not film any IDF troops, aircraft, or military equipment, nor were there any indications of IDF troops in the vicinity of the area they filmed. 

The Washington Post investigation also noted that both journalists passed through Israeli checkpoints on their way to the south early in the war and that Dahdouh had been approved to leave Gaza—“a rare privilege unlikely to have been granted to a known militant.”

• Yaser Murtaja, a photojournalist for Gaza-based media production company Ain Media killed by Israeli fire in 2018, was labeled by then-Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman as “a member of the military arm of Hamas who holds a rank parallel to that of captain, who was active in Hamas for many years”—a claim repeated on Twitter, now called X, by two spokespeople for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, Liberman never provided evidence, and The Washington Post reported that Murtaja had been vetted by the U.S. government to receive a U.S. Agency for International Development grant to support Ain Media.

• Hussam Salama and Mahmoud al-Kumi, camera operators for Al-Aqsa TV killed in 2012, were said by Israel to be “Hamas operatives.” A Human Rights Watch investigation found no proof that the two were militants, noting that Hamas did not publish their names in its list of fighters killed. After CPJ called for evidence to justify the attack, the spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., responded two months later with a letter accusing Al-Aqsa TV of “glorifying death and advocating violence and murder.”

• Hamid Shihab, a driver for the Gaza-based press agency Media 24, was transporting weapons in a car marked “TV” when he was killed in an IDF airstrike in 2014. The IDF provided no evidence that Shihab was a member of Hamas, saying that “in light of the military use made of the vehicle for the purposes of transporting weaponry, the marking of the vehicle did not alter the lawfulness of the strike.” 

• Mohamed Abu Halima, a student journalist for a radio station at Nablus’ An-Najah National University, was fatally shot by Israeli forces in 2004. Israel said he had opened fire on Israeli forces, but Abu Halima’s producer said that he was on the phone with the journalist moments before he was shot, and Abu Halima had been simply describing the scene around him. 

In the current war, CPJ has documented the killings of 113 journalists and media workers as of August 14, 2024. A total of 111—109 Palestinians and two Lebanese journalists—have been killed by Israeli forces, while two Israeli journalists were killed by Hamas in their October 7 raid into Israel.

CPJ calls for independent access to Gaza, investigations, an end to smears

CPJ has repeatedly called on Israel to end its ban on international journalists traveling independently into Gaza—an obstruction that hinders reporting on the war and investigations into the killing of Palestinian journalists.

CPJ now also calls on Israel to:

• Immediately stop its long-standing practice of labeling journalists as terrorists or engaging in militant activity, without providing sufficient and reliable evidence to support these claims, as a means of justifying its targeted killing and wider mistreatment of journalists and media workers. 

• Retract claims if it cannot substantiate accusations that journalists were involved in terrorist/militant activities.

CPJ also calls on the international community to condemn Israel’s smear campaign against journalists and to ensure that allegations of war crimes or international human rights abuses committed against journalists are investigated in accordance with internationally accepted practices, such as the Minnesota Protocol. The protocol establishes that under international law, the duty to investigate a potentially unlawful death entails an obligation that the investigation be prompt; effective and thorough; independent and impartial; and transparent. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The South has conducted live-fire artillery drills near the land and sea borders in recent weeks after its suspension last month of an inter-Korean military tension reduction agreement. The 2018 pact included setting up a land buffer zone, where artillery drills and regiment-level field maneuvers were suspended, and maritime buffer zones, where artillery firing and naval drills were banned.

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“Clear to everyone is the riskiness of the above-said reckless live ammunition firing drills of the ROK army coming nearer to the border of the DPRK,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The ROK, or the Republic of Korea, is South Korea’s official name, while the DPRK refers to that of North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Calling South Korea’s live-fire drills “suicidal hysteria,” Kim warned of the possibility of military action against any act that North Korea regards as provocative.

“In case it is judged according to our criteria that they violated the sovereignty of the DPRK and committed an act tantamount to a declaration of war, our armed forces will immediately carry out its mission and duty assigned by the DPRK Constitution.”

Kim added that the South has been destabilizing regional security, saying that President Yoon Suk Yeol was attempting an “emergency escape” from  a domestic political crisis by raising tensions on the peninsula with provocative acts in border areas.

In response, South Korea’s defense ministry spokesman said the drills were “a normal activity” within South Korea’s jurisdiction, adding that they would be carried out according to plan.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Taejun Kang for RFA.

In an address to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, Adm. Dong said that people in the Asia-Pacific are “independent and self-reliant,” and were “against any attempt to turn our countries into vassal states or draw us into bloc confrontations.”

“Our people have firmly rejected infiltration, sabotage and coercion by outside forces,” the minister said, adding that regional countries “despise those who attempt to bolster themselves by taking orders from hegemonic powers.”

Dong also said China had exercised great restraint in the face of what he called “infringements and provocations” but warned “there is a limit to our restraint.”

Beijing has repeatedly accused Washington of assisting Taipei and Manila to stand up to its assertive actions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

The Pentagon last month deployed an intermediate range missile system in the Philippines during the annual Balikatan military drills, which Beijing condemned as bringing "huge risks of war into the region."

The U.S. House of Representatives has recently passed an $8-billion package to help Taiwan boost its defense capabilities against China.

Dong said  that “some external interfering forces keep hollowing out the One China principle with the salami slicing strategy.”

“They have cooked up Taiwan-related legislations and continued to sell arms to Taiwan and have illegal official contacts with it.”

The minister, who took office five months ago after his predecessor was removed over suspected corruption, went on a lengthy tirade against Taiwanese leaders who he called “Taiwan independence separatists.”

China considers the democratic island one of its provinces and Dong said that China “will take resolute actions to curb Taiwan independence and make sure such a plot never succeeds.”

He accused Taiwan’s leaders of “betrayal of the Chinese nation and their ancestors,” and said they would be "nailed to the pillar of shame in history." 

“The Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests,” the minister said. “Anyone who supports Taiwan independence will only end in self-destruction.”

Defense analyst Malcolm Davis from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, or ASPI, said that Dong “made clear a willingness for China to use force to prevent independence and respond to any external forces involved in supporting Taiwan.”

“It was a fairly predictable speech and very much the 'party line' with little in the way of new comments. In effect this was a propaganda speech and not an accurate statement of Chinese policy,” Davis said.

‘Wolf warriors’

But Dong’s tone did seem more combative than that of his predecessor, Li Shangfu, he added.

“On the South China Sea, he issued a warning that China won't rule out the use of force specifically in relation to the Philippines and the support of the United States,” the Canberra-based analyst said, “That suggests to me that China does intend to escalate the crisis, and has singled out the Philippines as their focus with the goal being to coerce Manila to capitulate to Chinese interests.”

Unlike Li and his predecessors, Dong is not a member of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese communist party – the highest national defense organization.

“That may be the reason behind Dong’s tough statements to show his clout and get a promotion,” said an Asian analyst who didn’t want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

A Chinese academic praised Dong’s speech and said his attendance at the conference helped bring “China’s real voice” to the world.

“The Shangri-La Dialogue as a major security forum bears a great relevance to China,” said Gao Zhikai, vice president of the Center for China and Globalization and chair professor at China’s Soochow University. “It is important that China’s voice, which is increasingly in sharp contrast to that of the U.S., be heard.”

Several other Chinese delegates also promoted Beijing’s views at the forum, in a forthright manner known as “wolf warrior” diplomacy.

The term, adopted from the title of a Chinese movie, describes an assertive, even aggressive, approach to international relations.

Maj. Gen. Xu Hui, president of the International College of Defense Studies at China’s National Defense University, confronted Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. after the latter’s keynote speech on Friday, saying that Manila was risking ruining the “long-earned, long-lasting peace” within ASEAN by responding to Chinese vessels’ activities in the disputed South China Sea.

On Saturday, another Chinese delegate, Senior Col. Cao Yanzhong, a researcher at China’s Institute of War Studies, questioned U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin about the U.S. alliance system in the region which Beijing compares to “an Asian version of NATO.”

During a session on ‘Maritime Law Enforcement and Confidence Building’ on Saturday, another Chinese delegate, Senior Col. Ge Hanwen, associate professor at the College of International Studies at China’s National University of Defense Technology, blamed the Philippines for “dramatically” raising tensions in the region and Japan for using water cannons first in a confrontation at sea.

Austin and Dong met for about an hour at the conference on Friday for talks aimed at improving their communications, a U.S. official said.

New regional order

A Western observer at the forum, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Radio Free Asia that the Chinese delegates are “on a mission to spread Beijing’s messages and their statements are pre-scripted and pre-approved by the [communist] party.”

Beijing-based Gao denied that. 

“It is only normal that people from all walks of life, including military officers, talk about the topics of their interest,” Gao said.

“China attends a lot of international forums because we believe in having our voice heard by as many people as possible.”

Dong acknowledged that different countries had different security interests and goals but he implied that China had a leadership role, said the ASPI’s Davis.

“He kept pushing the implication that China speaks for the region in terms of shaping the future of Asia-Pacific security order,” Davis said. 

“China is clearly setting the basis for trying to assert its dominance over ASEAN, and if it can get [the] Philippines to submit to Chinese power through military coercion, then Beijing will expect other ASEAN states to also accept China's interests,” said the Australian analyst.

“By default, China would then dominate the region.”

Over the past decade, the Chinese military has become more powerful, with its rapid growth bringing a new confidence, especially in relation with the United States.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a recent report that China is the world’s largest shipbuilder with a capacity some 230 times larger than the U.S.

“One of China’s large shipyards, such as Jiangnan Shipyard, has more capacity than all U.S. shipyards combined,” the center said in its report.

“China is way ahead of the U.S. in many aspects and the Chinese economy is soon to be larger, too,” Gao, who served as a translator for Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping during the 1980s, told RFA.

“The Americans are worried about a rising China, that Beijing will impose its ideological and political system on the U.S.,” he said, while adding that in his opinion, that fear was unfounded.

“No one can really decouple from China and the best Washington can do is to deal with China on an equal footing.” 

Lyle Goldstein from the U.S. think tank Defense Priorities said that Beijing was “not reckless or aggressive,” and despite the threats, it had not used force since the 1980s.

Despite a downward spiral in U.S.-China relations, Goldstein suggested that the two countries and their militaries, “should meet halfway and resolve disputes through diplomatic compromise.”

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

The so-called Battle of the Paracels took place on Jan. 19, 1974, between the Chinese and South Vietnamese naval forces, as the latter tried to regain control of the islands, a cluster of islets east of Vietnam and south of China.

The Republic of Vietnam, or South Vietnam at the time – separately from the communist North – claimed sovereignty over the Paracel islands as part of French Indochina but only had a small presence there.

Towards the end of the Vietnam War, China had already occupied part of the Paracels including the biggest feature – Woody Island – when the Saigon government sent soldiers on four warships in order to repel Chinese forces. 

The clash ended with the South Vietnamese navy’s defeat; 75 Vietnamese soldiers lost their lives and China has fully occupied the archipelago ever since.

In a rare strongly-worded statement over the weekend, a Vietnamese spokeswoman said, “Every act of threatening or using force in international relations, especially the use of force to resolve territorial disputes between states, is in complete contravention of the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, and in serious violation of international law.”

Pham Thu Hang was responding to a reporter’s query on Vietnam's position concerning what Vietnam’s state news agency calls “China's invasion of the Hoang Sa Islands in 1974,” using the Vietnamese name for the islands.

“Such an act neither establishes any territorial title of sovereignty, nor changes the truth that sovereignty over the Hoang Sa Islands belongs to Vietnam,” Hang said.

“As it has been clearly affirmed many times, Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa Islands has been established since at least the 17th century in accordance with international law, and exercised in a peaceful, continuous, and public manner by successive Vietnamese states,” the spokeswoman said.

The archipelago is now occupied and controlled by China, with Woody Island extensively developed.

China has carried out land reclamations and substantial upgrades of its military infrastructure there, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

‘Not much change’

Right after the Battle of the Paracels, North Vietnam did not react, according to the U.S. government archive.

At a Special Actions Group Meeting on Indochina in Washington, chaired by the then-Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger on Jan. 25, 1974, the then-Director of the CIA William Colby told the participants that Hanoi ignored it, “said it’s below the 17th Parallel and thus doesn’t affect them.”

“In general, they didn’t take a position, didn’t come out on either side,” Colby said.

For a long time, the government in North Vietnam stayed silent as the confrontation was considered to be between China and the “puppet Saigon regime,” but after the end of the Vietnam War, Hanoi slowly moved towards recognizing the deaths of South Vietnamese soldiers and denouncing China’s occupation.

Yet the current Vietnamese government has always been careful not to be seen as overly critical of Beijing, its traditional ally and one of the main comprehensive strategic partners. Neither does it want to discuss the legacy of the Republic of Vietnam.

However, Hanoi knows it needs to deal with the public’s anti-China sentiment, seen rising at every commemoration of past confrontations with China, according to Song Phan, a Vietnamese researcher on South China Sea.

“They have to make strong statements to reduce the public pressure and it may offend the ‘big neighbor’ a little,” he said.

“But I don’t think they can do anything in practice. They still listen fully to Beijing therefore there’s not much change in the [bilateral] relationship,” the researcher added.

It was agreed at the Washington meeting on Jan. 25, 1974, that “the CIA would prepare a paper on the current status of the Paracel and Spratly Islands and an assessment of Chinese intention in the area,” according to the meeting’s minutes. 

U.S. involvement seemed to stop there but the successive Vietnamese government have continued to dispute China’s claims over the Paracels.

Edited by Mike Firn and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Vadym Filashkin said five children were among those killed in the missile strike on Pokrovsk, a city in Ukrainian-held territory about 80 kilometers northwest of Donetsk city, which lies in the Russian held center of the region.

"The Russians hit the region with S-300 missiles, killing 11 people and wounding another eight," Filashkin said on Telegram. The main strike hit Pokrovsk and nearby villages, he said, adding that the attack showed Russian forces were "trying to inflict as much grief as possible on our land."

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy responded in his nightly video address, saying Russia must be made to feel the consequences of every such attack.

"The Russian strike targeted ordinary residential buildings and private houses," Zelenskiy said. "Russia must feel -- always feel -- that no such strike will go without consequences for the terrorist state."

Reports of the deaths in Pokrovsk came after the Ukrainian Air Force said it had destroyed a Russian command center at the Saky air base on the occupied Crimean Peninsula in an overnight attack.

“All targets have been shot down,” Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram, adding that Russia lost “another command post in Crimea.”

Ukraine on January 5 said it carried out separate strikes on a Russian military command post and a military unit in Crimea, inflicting "serious damage" to Russia's defense system.

Natalya Humenyuk, the spokeswoman for the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine, said that "really powerful combat" operations took place earlier this week, hitting Russia's military operations in Crimea especially hard.

"Not only one command post was affected," she said in a rare detailing of Ukrainian operations.

Russia on January 6 claimed that its forces shot down four Ukrainian missiles in Crimea overnight.

The reports cannot be independently verified.

Since Moscow's brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine’s forces have conducted frequent strikes on Russian military targets in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

The Saky airfield made headlines in September 2023 when Ukraine said its military hit the facility, causing “serious damage" to equipment at the site. Crimea’s Moscow-installed officials denied the claim.

The air base had also come under a Ukrainian strike in August the previous year, with Kyiv claiming that the attack destroyed at least nine military aircraft, including Su-30SM fighters and Su-24M bombers.

Both the Ukraine and Russia have escalated attacks in recent days, as the military conflict drags on into nearly two years.

In Moscow, a top Russian official was quoted as saying that Russia plans to produce 32,500 drones each year by 2030, allocating $7.66 billion for the project.

"This is almost three times higher than current production volumes,” First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency on January 6.

Drones have been widely used both by Moscow and Kyiv since the war began. Russia mostly relies on the cheaply produced, Iranian-made Shahed drones in its aerial assaults on Ukrainian infrastructure far beyond the front lines in the east and south of the country.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has intensively used the first-person-view (FVP) drones -- small drones originally meant for personal civilian use but modified for the battlefield.

Kyiv said last month that it planned to produce more than 11,000 medium- and long-range attack drones, as well as 1 million FPV drones in 2024.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, and Reuters

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Israel is deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food and fuel in Gaza, prompting Human Rights Watch to accuse the occupation of utilizing starvation as a weapon of war. Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine director, Omar Shakir, says 97% of the groundwater in Gaza is unfit for human consumption after the destruction of pipelines and treatment sources, the rejection of humanitarian aid and the collapse of the medical system under incessant bombing, leading to mass dehydration and contagious disease. Shakir calls on the international community to condemn Israel’s actions and to increase pressure on U.S. support in particular. “The United States and Israel are isolated in the international community,” Shakir says. “The use of double standards in Israel and Palestine harms civilians all over the world.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Hear from Craig Mokhiber, a longtime international human rights lawyer, who previously served as director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on why he left his post while decrying U.N. inaction over what he calls a “text-book case of genocide” unfolding in Gaza. Mokhiber’s letter of resignation went viral last month. He spoke to Democracy Now! shortly after.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

A former top United Nations official in New York joins us for an in-depth interview about why he has resigned after publicly accusing the U.N. of failing to address what he calls a “text book case of genocide” unfolding in Gaza. Craig Mokhiber is a longtime international human rights lawyer who served as director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. His resignation letter (embedded below) has gone viral. In one of his first interviews since leaving his post, Mokhiber tells Democracy Now! the U.N. follows a “different set of rules” when addressing Israel’s violations of international law, refusing to utilize its enforcement mechanisms and thus “effectively” acting as “a smokescreen behind which we have seen further and worsening dispossession of Palestinians.” He says it is an “open secret inside the halls of the United Nations that the so-called two-state solution is effectively impossible,” and calls for international actors to push for a “new paradigm” in the region based on “equality for all.” We also discuss the inaction of the International Criminal Court, global suppression of pro-Palestinian advocacy, bad-faith accusations of antisemitism and more.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Analysts said Beijing was raising the stakes to goad Manila in their bilateral dispute over the Spratly Islands by bringing in one of its naval ships during the encounter near Thitu island in the South China Sea.

“These dangerous offensive maneuvers by China’s [People’s Liberation Army Navy] not only risk collision but also directly endanger the lives of maritime personnel from both sides,” Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr, chief of the Philippine armed forces, said in a statement on Sunday. 

“The [Armed Forces of the Philippines] remains committed to ensuring the safety of its personnel during missions and asserts that it will continue to adhere to the rules-based international order.”

The standoff occurred on Friday near Manila-occupied Thitu, an island in the Spratlys, said Lt. Col. Enrico Gil Ileto, public affairs chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), adding that the Chinese ship came as close as 80 yards (73.1 meters) to the Filipino ship.

The standoff was believed to be the first one between a Chinese and a Philippine navy ship in recent years. In recent months, there have been many more tense encounters between coast guard ships of the two claimant countries. 

The Philippine ship was en route to Commodore Reef, located within Manila’s exclusive economic zone, as part of a resupply mission when the standoff took place, according to the Philippine military.

The Chinese warship appeared to be a Type 056 corvette of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, designed mainly for patrol and escort missions.

“Zhongye Dao is China’s territory. The Philippines has illegally occupied Zhongye Dao, which seriously violates China’s sovereignty. The Chinese warship’s navigation and patrol in waters of Zhongye Dao is lawful and legitimate,” Mao Ning, a spokeswoman at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said during a regular press conference on Monday, referring to Thitu by its Chinese name.

xxx

Apart from China and the Philippines, other countries with overlapping claims in the South China Sea are Vietnam, Brunei, and Malaysia. Taiwan is also a claimant.

In 2016, a U.N. arbitration court ruled in favor of the Philippines, saying that China’s historical claims to the sea region as delineated then in Chinese maps by a nine-dash line (now a 10-dash line) were invalid. But Beijing rejected the ruling and has since insisted that it has jurisdiction over all areas within that boundary.

Manila had brought Beijing to the court in 2012 after accusing its naval ships of blocking the Philippines’ access to Scarborough Shoal, which has remained under China’s administrative control ever since.

Thitu Island, near which the alleged “shadowing” took place, has been under the Philippines’ occupation since the 1970s, but China, Vietnam, and Taiwan have also placed their claims over the 37-acre island. 

Upping ‘the ante’

The deployment of a military ship means Beijing is raising the stakes in the territorial dispute, Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, told BenarNews.

“In the current context of rising tensions over the past several months, putting the navy on the front together with the coast guard and maritime militia would represent Beijing trying to up the ante,” he said.

The heightened tension also comes at a time when Manila continues to broaden and deepen its security ties with the U.S. and other Western allies.

“Beijing sees such developments as critical for its narrowly driven regional ambitions,” Don Mclain Gill, a Manila-based geopolitical analyst who teaches at De La Salle University, told BenarNews. “The ramping up of Chinese provocations is a sign of this anxiety in Beijing.”

Last week, China conducted a multiple-day naval exercise in the South China Sea as the Philippines held major drills with the United States and other allied nations.

“China is now trying to navigate how far it can go to provoke the Philippines and alter the security dynamics of the region without triggering a shooting war,” Gill added.

BenarNews is an RFA affiliated online news organization.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Camille Elemia for BenarNews.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro says the U.S.-backed coup in Chile 50 years ago, when General Augusto Pinochet deposed socialist President Salvador Allende, left a lasting scar across Latin America. Many progressives took up arms against corrupt governments, often led by “Nazis,” Petro says, fueling decades of conflict that is only now beginning to fade. “Today, having closed out that cycle of weapons and violence, we need to rethink democracy,” Petro told Democracy Now! in an exclusive interview this week at Colombia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. He also discussed how the U.S. war on drugs exacerbated violence in countries including Colombia throughout the Cold War and beyond.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The following is a statement from Transgender Law Center’s Executive Director Shelby Chestnut:

The reckless ruling today in 303 Creative reminds us of the importance of building and leaning on community in moments of immense difficulty - today we are in solidarity with our family, chosen family, friends, co-workers, and the vast majority of people in this country who believe all of us deserve dignity and respect. No exceptions.

The history of this country, specifically the moments that have inspired movements and ignited hope, remind us that when businesses feel like they can deny goods and services based on the color of our skin, who we love, where we were born, there have always been people who fought back. No matter our race, genders, who we love, the money in our pocket, we are better together, and we are better when all of us live in a world that is created around our highest values, not fear or hatred.

This decision will have immediate consequences, especially given the actions divisive politicians have taken across the country to control us and put us in boxes by denying us access to medical care, abortions, and access to a robust public education system that teaches the full history of this country.

It is not surprising that as some politicians try to further separate us from the lessons of the past by attempting to control what we learn in school, SCOTUS attempts to erase race conscious admissions to higher education. They are trying to erase the history of shared struggle that has pushed lawmakers and the courts to inscribe in law our values of dignity and respect for all. We will not forget how we have fought together in the past and won and are in solidarity with students, both in K-12 and higher education, because we all belong. Our responsibility is to ensure the laws in this country catch up to what we know is true: the future belongs to us.

Our history demands that we remember that divisions upheld in the highest courts will be challenged in the streets, during elections, in schools, everywhere people are able to gather and talk about what and who represents them and what and who does not.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

The statement compared Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to the mass killings and atrocities in Myanmar that followed the junta’s seizure of power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat.

“Russia blatantly supporting and advocating for the terrorist regime is prolonging the sufferings of the people of Myanmar,” the June 10 statement from the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) said. “The support and advocacy for the terrorist regime by Russia is not to solve Myanmar’s political issues but only to further Russia’s geopolitical interest.”

The NUCC includes representatives of the National Unity Government, or NUG, civil society groups, ethnic armed organizations and civil disobedience groups. The NUG is the parallel civilian government of Myanmar made up of opponents to the junta.

Since the coup, junta chief Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has visited Russia three times, purchasing modern Russian-made jet fighters, helicopters and military equipment. The two countries have also signed an agreement to build a small-scale nuclear reactor in Myanmar. 

In February, Min Aung Hlaing wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he appreciates Russia’s support for Myanmar. The message was sent to commemorate the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In a message sent in response, Putin said he believes the relationship between Russia and Myanmar’s junta will help the security and stability of the Asia-Pacific region.

NUCC’s statement called for the immediate end of Russia’s support for the reactor project, saying it would create political instability for Myanmar and the region.

“The diplomatic and military support provided by Russia is the basis for the terrorist Min Aung Hlaing group to totally disregard the agreements developed within the ASEAN, and also creates difficulties for other nations to work on solving Myanmar’s political issues,” the statement said.

Russia cooperation likely to continue

Radio Free Asia called junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for his comment on the NUCC's statement, but his phone rang unanswered. 

Simply condemning Russia, which apparently doesn’t even care about international sanctions, won’t work, said Aung Thu Nyein, a Thailand-based researcher of Myanmar issues.

Russia’s veto power at the U.N. Security Council, its military assistance and the recent visit to Myanmar of the Russian parliament’s deputy chairman show that cooperation with the junta will continue – with or without criticism, he said.

But NUCC’s statement needed to be made, and similar objections should also be made against China, political analyst Than Soe Naing said.

“NUCC needs to reveal and condemn Russia’s blatant support and assistance to the Myanmar military junta,” he said. “That is what it is supposed to do.”

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

A West Papuan leader, defending himself against treason charges, has denounced “systemic racism” by Indonesian authorities in the Melanesian region in a court hearing.

Viktor Yeimo, the international spokesperson of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), presented his defence statement — pledoi — in a hearing at the Jayapura Class 1A District Court in Papua Province last Thursday.

He claimed that the treason charge against him was discriminatory and had political undertones.

• READ MORE: Other Viktor Yeimo reports

Yeimo also argued that the trial conducted at the Jayapura District Court had failed to provide evidence of any wrongdoing or violation of the law — let alone treason — on his part.

The accusation of treason against Yeimo was linked to his alleged involvement in the anti-racism protests in Jayapura City on August 19 and 29, 2019.

These protests were made to condemn derogatory remarks made towards Papuan students at the Kamasan III Student Dormitory in Surabaya on August 16, 2019.

On August 12, 2021, the Jayapura District Court registered the alleged treason case under the case number 376/Pid.Sus/2021/PN Jap. The trial was presided over by chief judge Mathius and member judges Andi Asmuruf and Linn Carol Hamadi.

Witnesses ‘proved innocence’
When reading his defence statement, Yeimo said that all witnesses presented by the prosecutor had actually proven the fact that he did not plan or coordinate the demonstrations against Papuan racism that took place in Jayapura City.

Video of Viktor Yeimo’s defence presentation.  Video: Jubi TV

“At the August 19, 2019 action, I participated as a participant in the action against racism, and took part in securing the peaceful action at the request of students until it was over,” Yeimo said.

During the hearing, Yeimo argued that the witnesses produced by the prosecutor had actually corroborated his innocence. Their testimony had shown that he did not organise the protests in question.

Yeimo maintained that he had simply participated in the protests as a supporter of the cause and had helped ensure their peaceful conduct.

“During the protest on August 19, 2019, I merely acted as a participant and helped maintain a peaceful demonstration until it ended,” Yeimo said in his defence.

Yeimo highlighted the testimony of Feri Kombo, the former head of the Cenderawasih University Student executive board in 2019, who affirmed that Yeimo was not involved in the planning or coordination of the anti-racism protests.

Kombo was summoned as a witness on February 7, 2023, and testified that Yeimo had only given a speech at the event when requested by the protesters, and that the speech was intended to maintain order among them.

Delivered speeches
“I delivered speeches expressing my disappointment with the acts of racism in Surabaya. This aspiration is protected by the country’s laws as a constitutional right,” Yeimo said.

“As stated by the state administration expert witness and the philosophy expert witness, this right has a scientific basis.”

In addition, Yeimo stressed that he had never been involved in participating, let alone planning, in the protest that occurred on August 29, 2019, which was confirmed by all the witnesses presented in the trial.

Yeimo admitted that he had taken photos and videos in front of the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP) office and the Governor’s Office, but did not join the protest.

Yeimo clarified that he captured photos and videos to share with journalists and the public outside of Papua since the internet network was cut off by the central government at the time.

He added that President Joko Widodo had been found guilty of unlawful acts by a judge in the State Administrative Court in relation to the internet blackout.

Response to racism
Yeimo said that the anti-racism demonstration was a spontaneous action taken by both Papuan and non-Papuan people in response to the racial insults that had been directed at Papuan students in Surabaya.

“The 2019 anti-racism protest that spread throughout Papua was a spontaneous response by Papuans and non-Papuan sympathizers from various backgrounds including private sector workers, students, farmers, military and police, and others.

“Everyone was reacting to the racist remarks in Surabaya. The demonstration in Jayapura was organised by students and the Cipayung group, and there was no planning, conspiracy, or treason as alleged.

“My speech was to represent the Papuan people who felt outraged by the racist insults. I deny all accusations that link me to my organizational background and other activities that have no direct connection to the facts of the anti-racism protest,” Yeimo said.

Yeimo stated that during the protest on August 19, 2019, he spoke about the issue of racism and discrimination in Indonesia. He emphasised that these problems were not merely personal issues but rather systematic problems that were perpetuated for the benefit of the ruling economic powers.

“It is evident that racist views have led to Papuans being treated differently in all aspects of their lives. The negative stigma attached to Papuans is what led the mass organisation and state apparatus to attack the Papuan Student Dormitory in Surabaya.”

In his statement, Yeimo’s arguments revolved around the issue of racial discrimination that Papuans have faced and how it is seen as a normal occurrence that the State tolerates.

Papuans standing up to injustices
He highlighted that when Papuans stood up against these injustices, they were met with accusations of provocation and charged with treason.

“This trial case proves it. Racism really exists in all these accusations and charges. Could the State explain why the Papuan race is a minority, with only 2.9 million people remaining, while in Papua New Guinea there are already 17 million Papuans?” Yeimo asked.

In his pledoi, Yeimo not only defended himself against the treason allegations but also criticised Indonesia’s lack of development in Papua.

He raised questions about why the poverty rate in Papua remained the highest among all provinces in Indonesia and why the Human Development Index in the region had consistently been the lowest.

Yeimo pointed out the contrasting approaches taken by the Indonesian government in resolving the conflict in Aceh and in Papua.

Differences with Aceh
While the Aceh conflict was resolved through peace talks, Papua’s aspirations for independence have been met with violence and imprisonment.

Yeimo questioned why the government treats the two regions so differently.

Yeimo said that although Indonesia had enacted several laws to address issues of discrimination, freedom of expression, and special autonomy for Papua, these laws do not seem to be enforced in Papua, and their implementation did not benefit the indigenous Papuans.

“Isn’t that a structured crime against us Papuans? Can the government answer these questions? Or do the answers have to come from the muzzle of a gun?” asked Yeimo.

“Why is the government avoiding solutions recommended by state institutions such as the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, the National Research and Innovation Agency, and others who present the studies on Papua problems?”

Linguist witness competence in Yeimo’s trial questioned
During the hearing, Viktor Yeimo’s legal team, represented by the Papua Law Enforcement and Human Rights Coalition, presented a defence read by advocate Emanuel Gobay.

Gobay argued that the prosecutor’s conclusion that Yeimo had committed treason relied solely on the testimony of a linguist witness who lacked the necessary expertise to prove the elements of the crime of treason as outlined in Article 106 jo Article 55 paragraph (1) to 1 of the Criminal Code, which Yeimo had been charged with.

“As a matter of fact, during the trial, the prosecutor never presented a criminal expert witness. Instead, the prosecutor relied on a linguist and then concluded that Viktor Yeimo was guilty of treason,” said Gobay.

According to Gobay, Yeimo’s legal team had presented multiple expert witnesses who explained the components of the treason offence, which included the elements of intent, territorial separation, and participation.

“All elements mentioned in Article 106 are not proven based on the testimony of both the prosecutor’s witnesses and the expert witnesses we presented,” Gobay said.

Gobay expressed the hope that the judges would review all the facts presented in Yeimo’s trial.

He asked the judges to re-examine the data provided by legal philosophy expert Tristam Pascal Moeliono, human rights expert Herlambang P Wiratraman, conflict resolution expert in Papua Cahyo Pamungkas, and criminal law expert Amira Paripurna.

Ultimately, Gobay made a plea to the judges to exonerate Viktor Yeimo, stating there was no proof of the alleged offences.

He requested restoration of Yeimo’s reputation and the State to bear the trial costs.

Republished from Jubi with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

"We, again, urge all states to adopt alternatives to immigration detention," said the U.N. human rights office.

The 68 men who were being held at the migration facility were mainly from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, and El Salvador originally, and Reuters reported Wednesday that many migrants had been "rounded up off the streets of Ciudad Juarez on Monday" and taken to the center, which is run by Mexico's National Migration Institute (NMI).

A woman named Viangly Infante told the outlet that her husband was among those detained and that the couple had traveled from their home country of Venezuela last fall with their three children, crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in December into Eagle Pass, Texas.

They were then sent back to Mexico by U.S. immigration authorities and bused to Ciudad Juarez.

"We cannot ignore that many of these migrants continue to wait in border cities like Ciudad Juarez without documentation so they can enter the United States to seek protection—a situation created by successive U.S. administrations' undue restrictions on asylum access," said Rachel Schmidtke, senior advocate for Latin America at Refugees International. "The U.S. and Mexican governments must work together to ensure that migrants receive access to asylum and to fair and efficient processing at the border and are given humanitarian support when forced to wait in Mexico."

The U.N. Refugee Agency in January warned the Biden administration that its expansion of former President Donald Trump's Title 42 policy—under which the White House is expelling up to 30,000 migrants per month unless they arrive in the U.S. via a humanitarian parole program—is "not in line with refugee law standards" by which the U.S. is obligated to abide.

Like the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the NMI in Mexico has long been denounced by migrant rights advocates over its treatment of people in its detention facilities, including overcrowding and lack of medical care. Protests broke out last year in detention centers in Tijuana and the southern city of Tapachula, near the border of Guatemala.

The fire that broke out early Tuesday was reportedly started by migrants who were protesting their confinement in a cell intended for a maximum of 50 people in which 68 people were being detained, and the guards' refusal to provide them with drinking water.

Outrage over the fire, in which at least 29 people have been hospitalized in addition to those who were killed, was compounded Wednesday after newly released surveillance footage footage showed guards quickly walking away from the cell where the men were protesting, while smoke filled the room.

The men were trapped behind padlocked doors as they yelled for help, NBC News reported.

"How could they not get them out?" Katiuska Márquez, a Venezuelan woman who was looking for her half-brother, asked the Associated Press.

The deaths of more than three dozen people in the fire "lay bare a truly inhumane system of immigration enforcement," said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International. "How is it possible that the Mexican authorities left human beings locked up with no way to escape the fire? These facilities are not 'shelters,' but detention centers, and people are not 'housed' there, but deprived of their freedom."

Amnesty called on Mexican officials to adhere to a recent ruling by the country's Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN), which said on March 15 that people should not be held in migrant detention facilities for more than 36 hours.

"Amnesty International urges the Mexican state to comply with the ruling of the SCJN and to establish protocols to act in fires, as well as evacuation routes in such situations," said the group. "It also calls on the state to investigate the human rights violations, especially the allegations that the migrants were left locked up while the fire occurred, as well as to recognize that the migrants were in its custody and, therefore, it was its obligation both to prevent the fire and to act diligently during the fire to avoid fatal consequences."

The court ruling made clear, said Edith Olivares Ferreto, executive director of Amnesty International Mexico, that the country must "put an end to the practices that have caused untold damage, including torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, to thousands of migrants who have passed through these centers."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 23: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew prepares to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on March 23, 2023 in Washington, DC. The hearing was a rare opportunity for lawmakers to question the leader of the short-form social media video app about the company’s relationship with its Chinese owner, ByteDance, and how they handle users’ sensitive personal data. Some local, state and federal government agencies have been banning use of TikTok by employees, citing concerns about national security (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The US’ TikTok hearing is politically manipulated to cover its real purpose of robbing the profitable firm from China, which reflects the US’ mounting hegemony and bullying against firms with Chinese background, experts said on Friday, noting the US witch-hunting against TikTok portends US’ technological innovation is going downhill and the political farce against a tiny app has seriously shattered the US values of fair competition and its credibility.

The US House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on Thursday (US time) titled, “TikTok: How Congress can safeguard American data privacy and protect children from online harms.”

While US lawmakers acted like they are pursuing a solution on how to ensure data security, the hearing turned out to be a political show that was designed to smear an international firm that has Chinese background and cover up its real purpose of stealing the firm from its Chinese parent, experts said.

Whether it ends up “killing” TikTok or forcibly taking the child out of its parent ByteDance’s arms, it is one of the ugliest scenes of the 21st century in high-tech competition, they said. “Your platform should be banned,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers said as she started the hearing, claiming that the app has ties with Chinese government.

During the roughly five-hour  hearing, CEO Shou Zi Chew’s attempts to illustrate TikTok’s business operations were frequently interrupted. His requests to elaborate on concerns of members of US Congress were also blocked.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning denounced the US’ move on Friday, saying the US is adopting the presumption of guilt and engaging in an unreasonable crackdown against TikTok without any proof.

“We noted that some US lawmaker has said that to seek a TikTok ban is a ‘xenophobic witch hunt’,” she said, urging the US to respect the market economy and fair competition rules, stop the unreasonable crackdown on foreign firms and provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for other countries’ firms in the US.

The Chinese government places high importance on protecting data privacy and security according to laws. China has never and will never ask firms or individuals to violate local laws to collect or provide data and information stored within other countries’ borders, Mao stressed.

The latest hearing followed reports that the Biden administration has threatened to ban TikTok if its China-based parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest its stakes in the popular video app.

It is another dark scene in Washington’s struggle for US supremacy, the US’ barbaric act only underscores that US values of fair competition, freedom of speech and inclusiveness are gradually disappearing and instead xenophobia is rising, experts said, noting that the US government lacks confidence in competing with China.

Even more ironic is that rather than finding a solution to problems brought about by the negative impact of US social problems on children such as suicide, self-harm and drug abuse, US lawmakers are instead faulting the company, Li Yong, deputy chairman of the Expert Committee of the China Association of International Trade, told the Global Times on Friday.

“The hearing was hegemonic and bullying against a private firm,” Li said, noting that it’s common for American politicians to put unwarranted labels on entities with Chinese background by fabricating excuses.

“While the US has always paraded itself as a rules-based market economy, they don’t really have any objective rules. All the rules are selected and serve American political elites’ interests and US hegemony,” Li said.

The US’ forced sale of TikTok is shameless robbery of a profitable firm from China, he said, noting that the US is increasingly politicizing an innovative app that has enriched the digital life of American people and benefited a lot of micro businesses in the US.

“TikTok itself is not available in the Chinese mainland, we’re headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we have 7,000 employees in the US today,” Chew said in his opening remarks.

Dismissing Chew’s testimony, US officials have stepped up their fight against TikTok. Speaking at a separate House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday TikTok should be “ended one way or another,” adding that he did not know if it would be sufficient for TikTok to be divested from its Chinese parent company, CNN reported.

The high-profile hearing also attracted wide attention from netizens who called US Congress members arrogant, ridiculous and ignorant.

“Not a single one of them has made an argument that makes a lick of sense,” an American net user posted on Twitter. “By his logic every other social media app should be banned,” posted another netizen.

The topic “TikTok CEO attending US hearing” became trending on China’s Twitter-like social media Sina Weibo, generating nearly 5 million views.

“I feel sorry for what Chew endured at the hearing. American politicians weren’t so arrogant and aggressive at Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook hearing. It seems all the lawmakers are bullying Chew,” a Chinese netizen posted on Sina Weibo.

While Chew was grilled in Washington, Apple CEO Tim Cook was met with cheers and applause at an Apple store in Beijing on Friday, prompting Chinese netizens to compare the “so-called free market” in the US and “real free market” in China.

The Biden administration’s so-called “national security” narrative has also caused widespread speculation among TikTok users, scholars and researchers.

A TikTok sale would be “completely irrelevant to any of the alleged ‘national security’ threats” and go against “every free market principle and norm” of the state department’s internet freedom principles, the Guardian reported, citing Karim Farhat, a researcher with the Internet Governance Project at Georgia Tech.

NBC News reported on Thursday that a 19-year-old Harvard freshman named Aidan Kohn-Murphy, who used TikTok to rally support for Biden in 2020, is now trying to use the app to stop Biden from killing the platform.

“If they went ahead with banning TikTok, it would feel like a slap in the face to a lot of young Americans,” he said. “Democrats don’t understand the political consequences this would have.”

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Sinister move doomed

By forcing the sale of TikTok, the Biden administration is aiming to repeat its takeover of French power company Alstom and its torment on Japanese chip firm Toshiba, but the US’ sinister move is doomed to meet challenges, given similar roadblocks faced by Trump three years ago, experts said.

“The Biden administration will find it hard to completely ban TikTok, as the app has a large user base of more than 150 million in the US,” Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times.

It’s an even more complicated issue for the US to take over TikTok, as a possible deal should also be in compliance with Chinese laws, he said. Experts said the Chinese government may step in to block the sale of TikTok.

“The Chinese side is firmly opposed to the forced sale or divestiture of TikTok,” Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson Shu Jueting said on Thursday.

Exports of Chinese technology must be subject to administrative licensing procedures in accordance with Chinese laws, and the Chinese government is legally bound to make a decision, she reiterated.

In August 2020, China’s Ministry of Commerce revised its restrictions on technology exports, including personalized content recommendations based on data analysis and a number of other technologies such as AI algorithms, which is widely considered as China’s countermeasures against US’ forced sale of TikTok then.

Back in 2020, then president Donald Trump and his administration sought to remove TikTok from app stores and force ByteDance to sell off its US assets. US courts blocked the order, concluding that banning the app would likely restrict the “personal communications” and sharing of “informational materials” by TikTok users.

In addition, the Washington Post reportedly worked with a privacy researcher to look under the hood at TikTok in 2020, concluding that the app does not appear to collect any more data than typical mainstream social network platforms in the US.

“From the US’ groundless crackdown on Huawei to targeting TikTok citing the so-called ‘national security,’ American politicians have not had a comprehensive ‘blueprint’ for their moves, it’s all politically motivated,” Xiang said, referring to reports saying Biden is seeking a second presidential term.

On Thursday, the US put an additional 14 Chinese companies to a red flag list, forcing US exporters to conduct greater due diligence before shipping goods to them, mainly technology and solar firms.

Xiang said the US’ unabated crackdowns on international firms including those from China violate international rules, disrupt global industrial and supply chains and harm both sides’ interests and the global economy as a whole.

Ghost of McCarthyism haunts TikTok Hearing. Cartoon: Carlos Latuff

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Ma Jingjing.

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 23: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew prepares to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on March 23, 2023 in Washington, DC. The hearing was a rare opportunity for lawmakers to question the leader of the short-form social media video app about the company’s relationship with its Chinese owner, ByteDance, and how they handle users’ sensitive personal data. Some local, state and federal government agencies have been banning use of TikTok by employees, citing concerns about national security (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The US’ TikTok hearing is politically manipulated to cover its real purpose of robbing the profitable firm from China, which reflects the US’ mounting hegemony and bullying against firms with Chinese background, experts said on Friday, noting the US witch-hunting against TikTok portends US’ technological innovation is going downhill and the political farce against a tiny app has seriously shattered the US values of fair competition and its credibility.

The US House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on Thursday (US time) titled, “TikTok: How Congress can safeguard American data privacy and protect children from online harms.”

While US lawmakers acted like they are pursuing a solution on how to ensure data security, the hearing turned out to be a political show that was designed to smear an international firm that has Chinese background and cover up its real purpose of stealing the firm from its Chinese parent, experts said.

Whether it ends up “killing” TikTok or forcibly taking the child out of its parent ByteDance’s arms, it is one of the ugliest scenes of the 21st century in high-tech competition, they said. “Your platform should be banned,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers said as she started the hearing, claiming that the app has ties with Chinese government.

During the roughly five-hour  hearing, CEO Shou Zi Chew’s attempts to illustrate TikTok’s business operations were frequently interrupted. His requests to elaborate on concerns of members of US Congress were also blocked.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning denounced the US’ move on Friday, saying the US is adopting the presumption of guilt and engaging in an unreasonable crackdown against TikTok without any proof.

“We noted that some US lawmaker has said that to seek a TikTok ban is a ‘xenophobic witch hunt’,” she said, urging the US to respect the market economy and fair competition rules, stop the unreasonable crackdown on foreign firms and provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for other countries’ firms in the US.

The Chinese government places high importance on protecting data privacy and security according to laws. China has never and will never ask firms or individuals to violate local laws to collect or provide data and information stored within other countries’ borders, Mao stressed.

The latest hearing followed reports that the Biden administration has threatened to ban TikTok if its China-based parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest its stakes in the popular video app.

It is another dark scene in Washington’s struggle for US supremacy, the US’ barbaric act only underscores that US values of fair competition, freedom of speech and inclusiveness are gradually disappearing and instead xenophobia is rising, experts said, noting that the US government lacks confidence in competing with China.

Even more ironic is that rather than finding a solution to problems brought about by the negative impact of US social problems on children such as suicide, self-harm and drug abuse, US lawmakers are instead faulting the company, Li Yong, deputy chairman of the Expert Committee of the China Association of International Trade, told the Global Times on Friday.

“The hearing was hegemonic and bullying against a private firm,” Li said, noting that it’s common for American politicians to put unwarranted labels on entities with Chinese background by fabricating excuses.

“While the US has always paraded itself as a rules-based market economy, they don’t really have any objective rules. All the rules are selected and serve American political elites’ interests and US hegemony,” Li said.

The US’ forced sale of TikTok is shameless robbery of a profitable firm from China, he said, noting that the US is increasingly politicizing an innovative app that has enriched the digital life of American people and benefited a lot of micro businesses in the US.

“TikTok itself is not available in the Chinese mainland, we’re headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we have 7,000 employees in the US today,” Chew said in his opening remarks.

Dismissing Chew’s testimony, US officials have stepped up their fight against TikTok. Speaking at a separate House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday TikTok should be “ended one way or another,” adding that he did not know if it would be sufficient for TikTok to be divested from its Chinese parent company, CNN reported.

The high-profile hearing also attracted wide attention from netizens who called US Congress members arrogant, ridiculous and ignorant.

“Not a single one of them has made an argument that makes a lick of sense,” an American net user posted on Twitter. “By his logic every other social media app should be banned,” posted another netizen.

The topic “TikTok CEO attending US hearing” became trending on China’s Twitter-like social media Sina Weibo, generating nearly 5 million views.

“I feel sorry for what Chew endured at the hearing. American politicians weren’t so arrogant and aggressive at Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook hearing. It seems all the lawmakers are bullying Chew,” a Chinese netizen posted on Sina Weibo.

While Chew was grilled in Washington, Apple CEO Tim Cook was met with cheers and applause at an Apple store in Beijing on Friday, prompting Chinese netizens to compare the “so-called free market” in the US and “real free market” in China.

The Biden administration’s so-called “national security” narrative has also caused widespread speculation among TikTok users, scholars and researchers.

A TikTok sale would be “completely irrelevant to any of the alleged ‘national security’ threats” and go against “every free market principle and norm” of the state department’s internet freedom principles, the Guardian reported, citing Karim Farhat, a researcher with the Internet Governance Project at Georgia Tech.

NBC News reported on Thursday that a 19-year-old Harvard freshman named Aidan Kohn-Murphy, who used TikTok to rally support for Biden in 2020, is now trying to use the app to stop Biden from killing the platform.

“If they went ahead with banning TikTok, it would feel like a slap in the face to a lot of young Americans,” he said. “Democrats don’t understand the political consequences this would have.”

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Sinister move doomed

By forcing the sale of TikTok, the Biden administration is aiming to repeat its takeover of French power company Alstom and its torment on Japanese chip firm Toshiba, but the US’ sinister move is doomed to meet challenges, given similar roadblocks faced by Trump three years ago, experts said.

“The Biden administration will find it hard to completely ban TikTok, as the app has a large user base of more than 150 million in the US,” Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times.

It’s an even more complicated issue for the US to take over TikTok, as a possible deal should also be in compliance with Chinese laws, he said. Experts said the Chinese government may step in to block the sale of TikTok.

“The Chinese side is firmly opposed to the forced sale or divestiture of TikTok,” Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson Shu Jueting said on Thursday.

Exports of Chinese technology must be subject to administrative licensing procedures in accordance with Chinese laws, and the Chinese government is legally bound to make a decision, she reiterated.

In August 2020, China’s Ministry of Commerce revised its restrictions on technology exports, including personalized content recommendations based on data analysis and a number of other technologies such as AI algorithms, which is widely considered as China’s countermeasures against US’ forced sale of TikTok then.

Back in 2020, then president Donald Trump and his administration sought to remove TikTok from app stores and force ByteDance to sell off its US assets. US courts blocked the order, concluding that banning the app would likely restrict the “personal communications” and sharing of “informational materials” by TikTok users.

In addition, the Washington Post reportedly worked with a privacy researcher to look under the hood at TikTok in 2020, concluding that the app does not appear to collect any more data than typical mainstream social network platforms in the US.

“From the US’ groundless crackdown on Huawei to targeting TikTok citing the so-called ‘national security,’ American politicians have not had a comprehensive ‘blueprint’ for their moves, it’s all politically motivated,” Xiang said, referring to reports saying Biden is seeking a second presidential term.

On Thursday, the US put an additional 14 Chinese companies to a red flag list, forcing US exporters to conduct greater due diligence before shipping goods to them, mainly technology and solar firms.

Xiang said the US’ unabated crackdowns on international firms including those from China violate international rules, disrupt global industrial and supply chains and harm both sides’ interests and the global economy as a whole.

Ghost of McCarthyism haunts TikTok Hearing. Cartoon: Carlos Latuff

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Ma Jingjing.

Former prisoner of conscience Trinh Ba Khiem, who is also a land rights activist, said authorities at Detention Center No. 6 in Nghe An province pressured his son, Trinh Ba Tu, to work after he had been shackled for 10 days following a 22-day hunger strike. 

“The detention center forced Tu to perform labor,” in October and November, said Khiem, who visited him on Monday, after prison officials lifted a previous ban on family visits to Tu. 

RFA could not reach prison officials for comment. 

Tu was arrested along with his brother, Trinh Ba Phuong, and their mother, Can Thi Theu, in mid-2020 on charges of “conducting propaganda against the state” for speaking out strongly on social networks about the Dong Tam land rights dispute.

The dispute centered on construction of a military airport opposed by villagers south of Hanoi.

The ensuing January 2020 clash left a popular local leader and three policemen dead. Twenty-nine villagers were arrested, and many were given stiff sentences.

In early May 2021, Tu and his mother were sentenced to eight years in prison and three years’ probation each. Phuong was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

After Tu held a Sept. 6-28 hunger strike to protest harsh conditions in prison, guards shackled his feet and beat him. He lost about 10 kilograms, or 22 pounds, and his health now is improving, Khiem said.

At the end of September, Tu’s family filed a petition with the Ministry of Public Security to investigate the matter. The ministry told the family to send the petition to the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province. 

On Thursday, Do Thi Thu, Tu’s sister-in-law, met with Le Quoc Bao, deputy director of Division No. 8 at the provincial People’s Procuracy, who went to the prison to investigate the family’s complaint about Tu’s shackling and beating. 

Family suspects cover-up

Tu’s hunger strike came after he filed a petition with detention center officials on Sept. 4, condemning their decision not to suspend the jail terms of fellow prisoner of conscience, Do Cong Duong, and allow him to go home for treatment after he had taken ill. 

Duong, a citizen journalist, died in early August because prison officials did not allow him to receive timely medical treatment. Sources told RFA that Duong was healthy before being transferred to the detention facility.

Tu told Bao that on Sept. 6, Col. Tran Anh Que and Lt. Col. Truong Cong Hien from the prison met with him to discuss his petition. Two inmates convicted of drug trafficking also attended, at the request of the prison officials. Hien threw a cigarette lighter at him but missed, Tu later told his father. 

When Tu decided to leave because he thought the situation could become dangerous, one of the other inmates grabbed his neck and held him, while Hien hit him on the head and called for a baton, saying “I’ll be responsible if [he is] dead.” 

Because those involved in the incident later told Bao that they had not assaulted Tu, Bao said he could not confirm the beating in the absence of any evidence.   

Prison officials also told Bao that the shackling and a ban on family visits in October were disciplinary acts in response to what they said was Tu’s false denunciation of the facility regarding Duong’s case, Thu said. 

Prisoners normally have the right to one-hour monthly visits from their relatives, to make a 10-minute phone call every month and to receive provisions from their families. 

“I think Nghe An People’s Procuracy has covered up for Detention Center No. 6,” Tu’s sister-in-law told RFA by text message. “If an independent human rights organization or newspaper had conducted the investigation, Tu’s beating would have been revealed, or if Tu had been allowed to use a cell phone to record or film, the truth would have been exposed.” 

In late September, New York-based Human Rights Watch called for a proper investigation into Tu’s beating and shackling.

“That kind of treatment is outrageous and unacceptable, and the perpetrators should be held accountable for maltreating prisoners,” Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director, said at the time.

HRW also called on the United Nations and foreign diplomats to appeal to the Vietnamese government to give them access to Tu at the detention center. 

Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Joshua Lipes.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

Global concerns about the possibility of a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia power station in southeastern Ukraine continued on Monday, with officials from Kyiv calling for the creation of a demilitarized zone around the site and the head of the United Nations condemning the latest shelling there.

"Any attack [on] a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said at a press conference in Japan.

The Zaporizhzhia complex, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and among the 10 largest in the world, was hit by shelling over the weekend, eliciting grave warnings about ongoing threats to public health and the environment "in Ukraine and beyond" from International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi, who said there is substantial risk for a calamity worse than Chernobyl.

Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame for recent strikes on the site, which is located in a region that Russia took over in March and that Ukraine is trying to recover. According to Ukrainian officials, Russian soldiers damaged three radiation sensors and hurt two workers amid renewed shelling at the plant on Friday and Saturday. Russian authorities, by contrast, alleged that "Ukrainian nationalists" damaged two high-voltage power lines, necessitating a reduction in output to "prevent disruption."

Guterres on Monday stressed that international nuclear inspectors need immediate access to the facility, which is still being operated by Ukrainian technicians.

"We fully support the IAEA in all their efforts in relation to create the conditions of stabilization of the plant," said the U.N. chief.

Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, Ukraine's ambassador to the IAEA, demanded a U.N.-led international mission to Zaporizhzhia by the end of the month and accused Russia of targeting the site in an attempt to cause blackouts along Ukraine's electricity grid in the south.

"We will use all possible channels of diplomacy to bring the IAEA and U.N. closer to conducting this mission," Tsymbaliuk told reporters in Vienna, home to the world's nuclear watchdog organization. "We really need it urgently, as soon as possible."

Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom, Ukraine's state-owned nuclear power enterprise, made the case for demilitarizing Zaporizhzhia and the surrounding area and called for the deployment of a peacekeeping team to the site.

"The decision that we demand from the world community and all our partners... is to withdraw the invaders from the territory of the station and create a demilitarized zone on the territory of the station," Kotin said on television.

"The presence of peacekeepers in this zone and the transfer of control of it to them, and then also control of the station to the Ukrainian side would resolve this problem," he said.

If missiles were to break two or more containers holding highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel, Kotin emphasized, "it is impossible to assess the scale of this catastrophe."

Guterres' Monday remarks came just two days after he warned that "humanity is playing with a loaded gun" during the Hiroshima peace memorial ceremony, which marked the 77th anniversary of the United States' atomic bombing of Japan—the first and only wartime use of nuclear weapons.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Kenny Stancil.

A survivor of the August 9, 1945 bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki by the United States conveyed the inhumanity of atomic weapons on Monday ahead of an international meeting that seeks to eliminate the world's growing nuclear arsenal.

"We have continued to appeal to the world for the abolition of nuclear weapons and for a world without war."

"The atomic bomb is a weapon of inhumanity and of absolute evil, with which human beings cannot exist and which does not allow us to even live or die as human beings," said Sueichi Kido, 82, after describing what happened when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on his city just three days after it had already annihilated Hiroshima.

The U.S. remains the only country to have deployed a nuclear weapon against a civilian population during wartime.

Survivors' pain and post-traumatic stress is "not something that fades away, but something which continues through their lives," Kido, secretary-general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations, said through an interpreter at the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons.

The one-day conference, hosted by the Austrian government, precedes a three-day summit in Vienna—the first Meeting of States Parties to the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) since the United Nations pact came into force last January.

The world's nine nuclear-armed states, including the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members—Russia, the United States, China, France, and the United Kingdom—as well as Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea, have refused to support the TPNW and won't take part in this week's historic gathering.

Despite being the only nation to experience the catastrophic destruction wrought by a nuclear attack, Japan has also not signed the treaty. Furthermore, Kyodo News reported Monday that Tokyo officials have decided not to participate in this week's summit, even as observers.

While the Japanese government will not be there, a large number of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors are expected to attend.

Suzuka Nakamura, a 22-year-old university student whose grandmother was exposed to radioactive waste from the bomb in Nagasaki, also spoke at Monday's conference as part of Japan's delegation.

It is "up to us," she said, "to remember the horror of the atomic bombings and to prevent repetition of the same mistakes in the future."

Referring to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Nakamura noted that "now people of Ukraine and the world are horrified by Russian President [Vladimir] Putin's threat to use nuclear weapons in the current war."

Kido, for his part, said that "we have continued to appeal to the world for the abolition of nuclear weapons and for a world without war."

"The treaty embodies this very aspiration," he continued, adding that he hopes the upcoming meeting of signatories to the TPNW—which seeks to outlaw the development, possession, testing, and use of nuclear weapons—is successful.

Sofia Wolman, campaign manager of the Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative, explained in a recent statement that "countries that join the TPNW are legally obligated to provide victim assistance to affected communities."

"For the U.S., ratification would mean finally acknowledging the people exposed to the first nuclear weapon ever used, and their descendants," said Wolman, alluding to the thousands of victims of the Trinity Test conducted in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.

Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, described how that explosion "produced more heat than the sun, and caused radioactive ash to fall for days—covering and contaminating crops, homes, bodies, and water supplies."

"We were innocent children, women, and men who were left to deal with the horrid consequences of being overexposed to radioactive fallout," said Cordova. "Our families suffer from cancer, radiation-related illnesses, and early death."

"The people of New Mexico have been waiting over 77 years," Cordova continued. "We have never been acknowledged although we were the original downwinders, the first people to be exposed to a nuclear bomb and nuclear fallout anyplace in the world."

"We have been casualties of the U.S. government's quest for nuclear superiority," she added. "There is so much more to the history than what the U.S. government has been willing to share, and we were the human sacrifice."

Mary Dickson, another American downwinder who is attending this week's events in Vienna, described herself in a recent Common Dreams essay as "a casualty of the Cold War, a survivor of nuclear weapons testing."

"Growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah during the Cold War I was repeatedly exposed to dangerous levels of radioactive fallout from hundreds of detonations at the Nevada Test Site just 65 miles west of Las Vegas," she wrote. "A government that knowingly harms its own citizens must be held accountable. Our lives are worth more than civilization-ending weapons. It's a simple matter of priorities and justice."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Kenny Stancil.

The post CODEPINK Denounces Deportation of Electoral Observer in Colombia appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by CounterPunch News Service.

A coalition of two dozen organizations on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to overhaul U.S. policies regarding economic sanctions and blockades so that they no longer amount to "unjust collective punishment of civilian populations around the globe."

"These policies ultimately worsen global public health and put at risk countless millions across the world, depriving them from their right to health, lifesaving medical care and equitable access to Covid-19 treatments and vaccines."

The demand, according to a letter to Biden—led by groups including Afghans for a Better Tomorrow, the National Iranian American Council, and Women Cross DMZ—is particularly urgent in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which is compounding the civilian impact of the U.S. sanctions regime and which the U.S. president pledged to address on a global scale.

The letter calls "the swift and severe sanctions" imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine a recent example of the U.S. using the economic measure as "a tool of first resort for U.S. foreign policy." The consequences of such policies have hit close to home, the letter adds, noting, "We have watched helplessly while our families and loved ones struggle under the weight of economic pressure in our countries of heritage."

In Cuba, for example, "U.S. sanctions have impoverished the population, leading Cubans to suffer from scarcity of food, essential medicines, and needed medical equipment," the letter declares, while Gazans suffer from a U.S.-backed Israeli blockade that's keeping "key essential drugs and medical disposables at 'zero stock' levels" and has blocked entry of devices needed for coronavirus treatment.

Other countries singled out in the letter include Afghanistan, North Korea, Yemen, and Iran, the latter a country where "U.S. sanctions have devastated the economy and the livelihoods of millions of people, while slowing the response to Covid-19 in one of the world's early epicenters for the virus."

And in Venezuela, broad U.S. sanctions "contributed to a 72% collapse in per capita income, heightening food insecurity and worsening the health and economic crisis facing the civilian population," according to the letter.

"Whether countrywide sanctions or blockade," states the letter, "U.S. policies have hurt civilian populations in targeted countries in what amounts to unjust collective punishment. Despite the crucial goal of the Biden administration to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic on a global scale, these policies ultimately worsen global public health and put at risk countless millions across the world, depriving them from their right to health, lifesaving medical care and equitable access to Covid-19 treatments and vaccines."

Despite a review of sanctions that began last year, the letter accuses the U.S. government of failing "to significantly alter course" and says it is instead furthering "policies that fuel humanitarian and public health disasters."

To change course, the letter states, the administration must "ensure that sanctions are targeted, proportional, connected to discrete policy goals, and reversible."

"Only by grappling with the full impact of sanctions can the U.S. ensure that sanctions don't exacerbate the plight of ordinary citizens and serve, rather than undermine, U.S. interests," the letter concludes.

Arash Azizzada, co-founder of Afghans for a Better Tomorrow, issued a statement referencing the disastrous impact on civilians from the U.S. seizure of billions in funds from Afghanistan's central bank reserve—funds the letter frames as "critical to a functioning economy and needed to support urgent relief that can forestall widespread famine across the country."

"It's beyond time that America is held accountable for its policy of economic strangulation around the world, one that is slowly erasing thousands of promising Afghan lives by the day," he said.

"While our community ensures delivery of critical aid to countless Afghans who are starving," said Azizzada, "America's sanctions and theft of Afghan reserves is ensuring misery and pain that will be felt for generations to come unless it changes drastic course today."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Andrea Germanos.

"If the HKJA thinks that it can continue to destroy Hong Kong with the support of foreign forces, then it's on a fool's errand," the paper said.

The association has previously been a vocal critic of police restrictions on journalists, particularly during the 2019 protest movement, which culminated in the police force refusing to tolerate the presence of anyone it decided was a "fake journalist."

Leung said city officials have demanded the HKJA "provide relevant information on activities not conforming to its articles of association," but the organization hadn't immediately complied, suggesting it had "ghosts" it was avoiding.

Dwindling freedom

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Cheryl Tung, Raymond Chung and Hoi Man Wu.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she is saddened and angered by protesters’ actions today, and that the New Zealand Parliament’s grounds have been “desecrated”.

Ardern addressed media after an afternoon that saw fires lit, explosions and objects thrown at police as an anti-covid public health protest sparked violent scenes.

There have been multiple arrests, vehicles have been towed away and some police and protesters have suffered injuries.

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Some set fire to protesters’ tents arousing concern that gas canisters would explode, and some large blasts were heard.

Police were able to take back most of the ground the protesters had been occupying for the past three weeks.

Ardern said she was angry and deeply saddened to see Parliament desecrated in the way seen today, including the children’s playground being set alight.

She said it demonstrated why the government refused to engage with the group.

‘An illegal occupation’
“It was an illegal occupation, they engaged in hostile, violent and aggressive behaviour throughout the occupation, and today that has culminated in the desecration of this Parliament’s grounds,” she said.

“I am absolutely committed we will restore those grounds and we will not be defined by one act by a small group of people.”

Asked about those who had been throwing projectiles at police, including LPG bottles thrown on flames and cobblestones hurled at officers, she said there were “words I cannot use in this environment for what I saw today”.

She said while the events today did not surprise her — considering the anger protesters had already expressed in the past few days — Ardern said it did sadden her.

PM Jacinda Ardern’s media briefing outside Parliament

Video: RNZ News

She said anyone still throwing projectiles should “put down their weapons long enough for police to arrest them”.

Ardern said there was a place for peaceful protest in this country, but “this is not the way that we engage and protest”.

She said peaceful protest was the way to send a message, this by comparison is “a way to end up before the courts”.

Asked if protesters would be able to return overnight or tomorrow, Ardern said police would be present at Parliament.

She said the police commissioner wished to make the point that there would be a substantial police presence in Wellington, and locals should be assured that while this had been a distressing period, police would continue to make their presence felt and keep them safe.

Ardern said she knew that in planning for today’s operation, police had expected there would be “hostility, resistance and violence”.

“They planned for that because that is what they and Wellingtonians have experienced for several weeks now.”

She said while they planned for it, it was another thing entirely to witness it.

Thanks to frontline police, emergency services
“To our frontline police and emergency and fire services, you have our deep admiration and our thanks. You have been calm but resolute in trying to bring this occupation to a conclusion,” she said.

“It has come at great risk to your personal safety. Thank you for putting others before yourselves.”

She said she had spoken to the police commissioner and there have been various injuries sustained by officers, but she would leave it to him to go into more detail.

Ardern said the fires created in the front of Parliament, including at the war memorial were causing more distress than what the police would have done today.

She said she believed the force that was used was used to keep others safe.

She said police have been mindful of the presence of children throughout the occupation, and there were other agencies present should there be a situation where children were left unsupervised or uncared for, such as if parents were arrested.

Infected 20,000 in one day
Ardern said it was almost impossible to comprehend that people would stand opposed to efforts to slow down the spread of a disease, when it has infected 20,000 and put more than 400 in hospital in just one day.

She said while many had seen disinformation and dismissed it as conspiracy theory, a small portion had believed it and acted on it in a violent way.

“This cannot stand.”

Ardern said this afternoon’s events were an attack on frontline police, an attack on Parliament, and an attack on New Zealanders’ values, and it was wrong.

“Our country will not be defined by the dismantling of an occupation. In fact when we look back on this period in our history, I hope we remember one thing,” she said.

“Thousands more lives were saved in the past two years by your actions as New Zealanders than were on that front lawn of Parliament today.

“The sacrifices we were all willing to make to look after one another, that is what will define us, no protest, no fire, no placards will ever change that. Today the police will restore order and tomorrow your government will work hard to get us safely back to the normality everyone deserves.”

About 270 protesters
Ardern said there was nothing to suggest that security settings as a country needed to change in response to the protest. She said it was estimated there were about 270 protesters who were causing the acts of violence and destruction seen today.

“That demonstrates it only takes a relatively small group of people who are committed to destruction to cause it, should they so choose. But it also demonstrates it was not a large group who were engaging in those acts either.

“We are not going to dismiss some of the underlying causes of what we have seen, but nor will we excuse it.”

She said work would be done to address how misinformation and disinformation led to what was seen today, but the government “will be at pains to ensure that it never becomes an excuse for the violent acts that it resulted in”.

“It’s a dangerous place when citizens are led into spaces where they believe so deeply in conspiracy theory that they react with such violence.”

Ardern acknowledged there have been for a long time a group of New Zealanders who have been living on the margins and have subscribed to other conspiracy theories, and “this happens to be the current rallying cry”.

Ardern said finding a solution to disinformation and misinformation was not about taking away people’s ability to have differing opinions or debate, to take different positions.

“People should of course always have that freedom of thought and view and perspective and in New Zealand we’ve celebrated that, but when the debate you’re having is no longer based on fact, where does that take you? That is the challenge we have.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday criticized New York City police officers for boasting about arresting a dozen people over stolen necessities, including diapers, baby formula, and medicine.

"This is not public safety. This is cruelty on display."

In a Wednesday tweet that has since been deleted, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) wrote: "After receiving numerous larceny complaints in the Bronx, officers from the NYPD 44th Precinct recently arrested 12 individuals following an enforcement initiative targeting shoplifters. The arrests made led to the closure of 23 warrants and the recovery of $1,800 worth of merchandise."

The message was accompanied by an image of confiscated products, including baby formula, diapers, wipes, lotion, shampoo, soap, detergent, and over-the-counter medications.

"When I talk about violent conditions, this is what I mean," Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Thursday on social media. "But hey, it's much easier to frame people who steal baby formula and medicine as monsters to be jailed than acknowledge our politics and economic priorities create conditions where people steal baby formula to survive."

The progressive champion connected the dots between the expiration of key pandemic relief programs and surging poverty—blasting right-wing lawmakers who helped undermine many people's ability to afford basic necessities for refusing to take responsibility for their role in pushing some caretakers to steal to keep children fed, bathed, and clothed.

"[The] Child Tax Credit expired [on] December 31 and it was many people's lifeline to feed and clothe their kids," said Ocasio-Cortez. "Politicians let it expire overnight with a shrug, but now want to feed into the sensationalism around crime acting like shoplifting has nothing to do with their actions. Wild."

As Common Dreams reported earlier Friday, child poverty spiked by 41% in the U.S. in January—the first month since July 2021 that eligible families didn't receive the expanded CTC. Since all 50 Senate Republicans and corporate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) allowed the popular $300 monthly benefit to lapse, at least 3.7 million children have been plunged into poverty.

Ocasio-Cortez was far from alone in rebuking the NYPD's recent photo-op.

"This is not public safety," said Eliza Orlins, a former candidate for Manhattan district attorney. "This is cruelty on display."

According to Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, a reporter at The Appeal, two of the people arrested for stealing basic necessities live in homeless shelters, one of whom is a 64-year-old woman.

Alec Karakatsanis, founder and executive director of the Civil Rights Corps, contrasted the image of the NYPD bragging about seizing stolen diapers with an image of "Alabama cops celebrating a fun quilt they made from the signs of unhoused people begging for money," and said they "reflect the budget priorities of the U.S. police bureaucracy."

In his first executive budget proposal, unveiled Wednesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, called for reducing the city's workforce by 10,000 and slashing spending at most agencies by 3%, with no changes in NYPD funding.

In an interview with The New Yorker earlier this week, Ocasio-Cortez said that "because we run away from substantive discussions about [the relationship between inequality, budgetary priorities, and crime], we don't want to say some of the things that are obvious, like, Gee, the Child Tax Credit just ran out, on December 31, and now people are stealing baby formula."

"We don't want to have that discussion," she continued. "We want to say these people are criminals or we want to talk about 'people who are violent,' instead of 'environments of violence,' and what we're doing to either contribute to that or dismantle that."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Kenny Stancil.