Minorities in Myanmar borderlands face fresh fear since coup

AP NEWS By VICTORIA MILKO

4/5/2021

 In this March 30, 2021, file photo, Karenni villagers from Myanmar arrive on a boat with an injured person as they evacuate to Ban Mae Sam Laep Health Center in Mae Hong Son province, northern Thailand. Far away in Myanmar’s borderlands, millions of others who hail from Myanmar’s minority ethnic groups are facing increasing uncertainty and waning security as longstanding conflicts between the military and minority guerrilla armies flare anew. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Before each rainy season Lu Lu Aung and other farmers living in a camp for internally displaced people in Myanmar’s far northern Kachin state would return to the village they fled and plant crops that would help keep them fed for the coming year.

But this year in the wake of February’s military coup, with the rains not far off, the farmers rarely step out of their makeshift homes and don’t dare leave their camp. They say it is simply too dangerous to risk running into soldiers from Myanmar’s army or their aligned militias.

“We can’t go anywhere and can’t do anything since the coup,” Lu Lu Aung said. “Every night, we hear the sounds of jet fighters flying so close above our camp.”

The military’s lethal crackdown on protesters in large central cities such as Yangon and Mandalay has received much of the attention since the coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. But far away in Myanmar’s borderlands, Lu Lu Aung and millions of others who hail from Myanmar’s minority ethnic groups are facing increasing uncertainty and waning security as longstanding conflicts between the military and minority guerrilla armies flare anew.

It’s a situation that was thrust to the forefront over the past week as the military launched deadly airstrikes against ethnic Karen guerrillas in their homeland on the eastern border, displacing thousands and sending civilians fleeing into neighboring Thailand.

FILE - In this March 30, 2021, file photo, a health worker attends to an injured Karen villager from Myanmar as she and others arrive at Ban Mae Sam Laep Health Center in Mae Hong Son province, Thailand. Far away in Myanmar’s borderlands, millions of others who hail from Myanmar’s minority ethnic groups are facing increasing uncertainty and waning security as longstanding conflicts between the military and minority guerrilla armies flare anew. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

Several of the rebel armies have threatened to join forces if the killing of civilians doesn’t stop, while a group made up of members of the deposed government has floated the idea of creating a new army that includes rebel groups. The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, meanwhile, has warned the country faces the possibility of civil war.

Ethnic minorities make up about 40% of Myanmar’s 52 million people, but the central government and the military leadership have long been dominated by the country’s Burman ethnic majority. Since independence from Britain in 1948, more than a dozen ethnic groups have been seeking greater autonomy, with some maintaining their own independent armies.

That has put them at odds with Myanmar’s ultranationalist generals, who have long seen any ceding of territory — especially those in border areas that are often rich in natural resources — as tantamount to treason and have ruthlessly fought against the rebel armies with only occasional periods of ceasefire.

The violence has led to accusations of abuses against all sides, such as arbitrary taxes on civilians and forced recruitment, and according to the United Nations has displaced some 239,000 people since 2011 alone. That doesn’t include the more than 800,000 minority Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape a military campaign the U.N. has called ethnic cleansing.

Since February anti-coup protests have taken place in every border state, and security forces have responded much as they have elsewhere with tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. But residents and observers say the post-coup situation in geographically isolated borderlands has been made worse by increased skirmishes between the military and armed ethnic organizations jockeying for power and territory.

FILE - In this Tuesday March 30, 2021, file photo, an injured Karen villager from Myanmar rests at Ban Mae Sam Laep Health Center in Mae Hong Son province, northern Thailand, after they crossed Salawin river on a boat. Far away in Myanmar’s borderlands, millions of others who hail from Myanmar’s minority ethnic groups are facing increasing uncertainty and waning security as longstanding conflicts between the military and minority guerrilla armies flare anew. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

Lu Lu Aung, who hails from the Kachin ethnic group, said she participated in protests, but stopped as it was now too dangerous. She said Myanmar security forces and aligned militias recently occupied their old village where they planted crops and no one left the camp because they feared they would be forced into work for the army.

“Our students can no longer continue the schooling and for the adults it’s so much difficult to find a job and make money,” she said.

Humanitarian aid for civilians in the borderlands — already strained by the pandemic as well as the inherent difficulty outside groups face operating in many areas — has been hard it since the coup as well.

Communications have been crippled, banks have closed and security has become increasingly uncertain, said the director of a Myanmar-based organization supporting displaced persons who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“There is no more humanitarian help and support,” she said.

In eastern Karen State, where the airstrikes have displaced thousands, there are concerns that the arrival of rainy season could exacerbate a humanitarian situation already made difficult by reports that Thailand has sent back many of the civilians who fled. Thailand has said those who went back to Myanmar did so voluntarily.

Yet there are parts of the country’s borderlands that have hardly been impacted by the coup.

In Wa State, a region bordering China and Thailand that has its own government, army and ceasefire agreements with the Myanmar military, videos being shared online show life going on as usual, including the rollout of a coronavirus vaccination campaign.

Near Bangladesh in coastal Rakhine State, where the Rohingya were driven from and where violent clashes with the Arakan Army group have been ongoing for years, the junta last month removed the group from its list of terrorist groups, raising hopes a lowering of hostilities. The Arakan Army, unlike a number of other armed groups, had not criticized the coup.

FILE - In this May 6, 2018, file photo, internally displaced ethnic Kachins rest at their hut in compound of Trinity Baptist Church refugee camp in Myitkyina, Kachin State, northern Myanmar. Far away in Myanmar’s borderlands, millions of others who hail from Myanmar’s minority ethnic groups are facing increasing uncertainty and waning security as longstanding conflicts between the military and minority guerrilla armies flare anew. (AP Photo)

The group, however, since released a statement that declared its right to defend its territory and civilians against military attacks, leading some to fear a fresh escalation in fighting.

Other armed groups have issued similar statements. Some such as the Karen National Union have provided protection for civilians marching in anti-coup protests.

Such actions have contributed to the calls for a “federal army” bringing together armed ethnic groups from across the country. But analysts says such a vision would be hard to achieve due to logistical challenges and political disagreements among the groups.

“These groups are not in a position where they can provide the support against the Myanmar military needed in urban centers with large populations, or really too far outside their own regions,” said Ronan Lee, a visiting scholar at Queen Mary University of London’s International State Crime Initiative.

Despite the uncertainty of what’s to come, some minority activists say they have been heartened since the coup by the increased focus on the role ethnic groups can take in Myanmar’s future. They also say there appears to be greater understanding — at least among anti-coup protesters — of the struggle minorities have faced for so long.

“If there’s any silver lining in all of this, that’s it,” said one activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears for their safety.

Myanmar protesters defy military as internet curbs test resolve

(Reuters) - Demonstrators in Myanmar held protests demanding the restoration of Aung San Suu Kyi government on Monday and called for more coordinated nationwide dissent, defying the military’s moves to suppress attempts to rally opposition to its two-month rule.

FILE PHOTO: Villagers attend a protest against the military coup, in Launglon township, Myanmar April 4, 2021 in this picture obtained from social media. Dawei Watch/via REUTERS

Six people were killed at the weekend, according to activists, as police and soldiers used force to break up demonstrations that some protesters are calling a “spring revolution”.

The campaign against the ousting of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi has included street marches, a civil disobedience campaign of strikes and quirky acts of rebellion organised on social media, which the junta has sought to control by shutting down wireless broadband and mobile data services.

Demonstrators with placards of Suu Kyi and signs asking for international intervention marched through the streets of the second-biggest city Mandalay, according to images on social media.

Protesters urged coordinated applause nationwide later Monday to recognise ethnic minority armies that have sided with the anti-coup movement, and youth demonstrators who battled security forces in the streets each day and tried to shield or rescue wounded protesters


“Lets clap for five minutes on April 5, 5 p.m. to honour Ethnic Armed Organisations and Gen Z defence youths from Myanmar including Yangon who are fighting in the revolution fight on behalf of us,” Ei Thinzar Maung, a protest leader, posted on Facebook.

Opponents of military rule inscribed messages of protest on Easter eggs on Sunday, like “we must win” and “get out MAH” - referring to junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.

At least 557 people have been killed since he led a coup on Feb. 1, just hours before a new parliament convened, to prevent Suu Kyi’s party from starting a second term in office.

It followed months of complaints by the military of fraud in an election in which Suu Kyi’s party won 83% of the vote, trouncing a party that was created by Min Aung Hlaing’s predecessor.

ASEAN leaders to meet over Myanmar, chair Brunei says

The coup and crackdown on demonstrations has caused an international outcry, prompting western sanctions on the military and its lucrative businesses.

‘UTMOST RESTRAINT’

In a speech to soldiers carried in state media on Sunday, Min Aung Hlaing said security forces were “exercising utmost restraint” against armed rioters who were causing violence and anarchy.

External pressure is growing on the military to stop the killings, with some countries calling for it to cede power and free all detainees, and others urging dialogue and new elections soon.

Some 2,658 have been detained under the junta, the Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said on Monday.

The junta at the weekend announced arrest warrants for more than 60 celebrities, social media influencers, models and musicians on charges of incitement.

It also received flak and had comedy memes shared widely on Monday after a leaked clip from a CNN interview with a junta’s spokesman in which CNN asked what Suu Kyi’s father and hero of Myanmar’s independence, General Aung San, would think if he could see the state the country now.

“He would say ‘my daughter, you are such a fool’,” spokesman Zaw Min Tun responded in the clip, which has yet to be aired by the broadcaster and was filmed by an unknown person.

The military, which ruled with an iron first for half a century until 2011, has seen hostilities with armed ethnic minorities reignite on at least two fronts, raising fears of growing conflict and chaos in the country.

The Karen National Union, which signed a ceasefire in 2012, has seen the first military air strikes on its forces in more than 20 years, sending thousands of refugees into Thailand. Fighting has also raged between the army and ethnic Kachin insurgents in the north.

Fitch Solutions on Monday said the situation in Myanmar had “exceeded the point of uncertainty” and a conservative forecast for its economy would be a 20% contraction in the fiscal year that started in October, instead of the 2% seen before the coup.

It said the use of air strikes “marks a new frontier in the extent to which the military is willing to mobilise its arsenal to quell any dissent.”


Reporting by Reuters Staff; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Michael Perry

Understanding hidden diversity on coral reefs key to conservation


Researcher Norbert Englebert is pictured collecting samples from a Pachyseris speciosa colony as part of research that found that understanding the "hidden diversity" of coral is essential to its conservation. Photo by Pim Bongaerts/California Academy of Science

April 2 (UPI) -- Genomic surveys suggest many coral reefs host hidden diversity. Corals that appear identical are actually genetically distinct.

In a new paper, published Friday in the journal Current Biology, scientists detailed important ecological and physiological differences between coral species that look alike

The study's authors said they hope their work will help conservationists develop and carry out more effective restoration and protection plans.

"We know we are greatly underestimating the true number of coral species because of this hidden diversity," lead author Pim Bongaerts, researcher at the California Academy of Sciences, said in a news release.

RELATED Scientists combine, organize 40 years worth of data on coral spawning

"We provide one of the first clear examples of how coral species that look identical can be very different in terms of their ecology and physiology, from when they reproduce to what depths they prefer. This means that our current framework for classifying reef-building corals based primarily on morphology is limiting our ability to understand and protect them," Bongaerts said.

For the study, scientists collected DNA samples from more than 1,400 individual corals throughout the tropical seas of the Indo-Pacific.

Genomic sequencing showed that one of the region's most widespread corals, called serpent coral, Pachyseris speciosa, is actually four distinct species. Even under a microscope, the species looked identical.

RELATED New technique could help scientists identify heat-stressed corals

To identify potential ecological differences between the species, scientists put on their dive gear and returned to the source.

Researchers observed reefs at a range of depths, from shallow reefs to mesophotic reefs, those found from 100 to 490 feet below the ocean's surface.

Though divers found all four species at the full range of depths, their observations showed each species is most abundant at particular depths.

RELATED World's coral reefs could be lost by century's end, U.N. report says

The four species also featured unique physiological traits, including different concentrations of protein, that help them to thrive at different depths.

"Knowing what corals thrive where and at which depths is crucial for reef conservation," said co-author Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, professor at the University of Queensland in Australia.

"Most marine protected areas only protect shallow reefs, which means that hidden species at mesophotic depths are being overlooked by current conservation strategies. We need to give this gap in protection some further thought," said Hoegh-Guldberg.

Using data from the genomic sequencing efforts, the research team designed a rapid DNA test that can be used in the field and help scientists quickly identify coral species that look alike.

Scientists hope future studies will highlight the ways different serpent corals respond to environmental changes, including increases in CO2 and rising ocean temperatures.

"At a moment when reefs around the world are experiencing rapid degradation, it is critical to start capturing this hidden diversity -- not only of species, but of how they live and function -- to improve our understanding and ability to protect these fragile ecosystems," said Bongaerts.


upi.com/7086222

Most of Earth's carbon came from the interstellar medium


Researchers say most of the carbon on Earth comes from the interstellar medium, upending previous theories that its source was nebular gas. Photo courtesy of NASA

April 2 (UPI) -- We really are made of stardust. New research suggests the majority of Earth's carbon came from the interstellar medium, the diffuse supply of gas and dust found between a galaxy's stars.

According to a new study, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, carbon from the interstellar medium became incorporated into the solar system's protoplanetary disk just a million years after the sun was born.

Previously, scientists hypothesized most of Earth's organic molecules were sourced from nebular gas. As gas from the stellar nebula cooled, researchers surmised, carbon and other molecules precipitated out of the cloud and became incorporated into rocky planets.

The problem with this theory is that once carbon vaporizes, it's unable to condense back into a solid.

RELATED Mars rover mission could drive research for decades to come

"The condensation model has been widely used for decades," lead study author Jie Li, planetary scientist at the University of Michigan, said in a news release.

"It assumes that during the formation of the sun, all of the planet's elements got vaporized, and as the disk cooled, some of these gases condensed and supplied chemical ingredients to solid bodies. But that doesn't work for carbon," said Li.

Most of the carbon pulled from the interstellar medium came in the form of organic molecules. However, vaporized carbon yields more volatile varieties, which can only condense back into solids at very low temperatures.

RELATED Astronomers track down 'lost' worlds spotted but unconfirmed by TESS survey

To avoid this pitfall, scientists considered the possibility that Earth's carbon was never vaporized at all -- that it was acquired directly from the interstellar medium.

Researchers began by using seismic waves to study the contents of Earth's core and gather data they helped them estimate the maximum amount of carbon the planet might contain.

"We asked a different question: We asked how much carbon could you stuff in the Earth's core and still be consistent with all the constraints," said co-author Edwin Bergin, professor of astronomy at Michigan.

RELATED Airborne dust makes faraway planets more habitable

"There's uncertainty here. Let's embrace the uncertainty to ask what are the true upper bounds for how much carbon is very deep in the Earth, and that will tell us the true landscape we're within," Bergin said.

To support life, a planet must have just the right amount of carbon. If a newborn planet acquires too much carbon, it's likely to overheat, yielding a hothouse planet like Venus. If an infant planet doesn't get enough carbon, it's likely to host more Mars-like conditions, frigid and dry.

In a related study, published earlier this year in the journal PNAS, scientists analyzed iron meteorites to better understand how much carbon might have survived the planet formation process.

Their findings showed early planetesimals likely lost most of their carbon as a planet's building blocks melted, formed cores and expelled gas.

"Most models have the carbon and other life-essential materials such as water and nitrogen going from the nebula into primitive rocky bodies, and these are then delivered to growing planets such as Earth or Mars," said co-author Marc Hirschmann.

"But this skips a key step, in which the planetesimals lose much of their carbon before they accrete to the planets," said Hirschmann, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Minnesota.

Together, the Science Advances and PNAS papers suggest both carbon acquisition and carbon loss play important roles in setting the stage for life on rocky planets.

"Answering whether or not Earth-like planets exist elsewhere can only be achieved by working at the intersection of disciplines like astronomy and geochemistry," said co-author Fred Ciesla, professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago.

"While approaches and the specific questions that researchers work to answer differ across the fields, building a coherent story requires identifying topics of mutual interest and finding ways to bridge the intellectual gaps between them. Doing so is challenging, but the effort is both stimulating and rewarding," Ciesla s

Demonstrators rally in Britain against 

anti-protest bill



Protesters rally in 'Kill the Bill' protest Saturday in London. Photo by Neil Hall/EPA-EFE

April 3 (UPI) -- Demonstrators rallied Saturday across Britain against a crackdown on protests in a new crime bill.

The Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021, which passed its second reading last month, allows police to tighten restrictions on "static protests" by imposing start and finish times, and maximum noise levels, a policy paper shows.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick urged the move in response to the civil disobedience in Extinction Rebellion protests against climate change in April 2019, which limited movement, including disrupting roads and public transport, and led to mass arrests.

Dick added that the existing public order legislation passed in 1986 was outdated and needed to be revamped to help police "deal with protests where people are not primarily violent or seriously disorderly but, as in this instance, had an avowed intent to bring policing to its knees and the city to a halt."

Critics say it's a move towards authoritarianism by cracking down on protest, The Guardian reported.

Protesters rallied against the bill under the slogan "Kill the bill" in central London and 24 other towns and cities across Britain, according to The Guardian.

"The right to protest is precious," former Labor leader and British lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn said in a video posted to Twitter ahead of Saturday's protest. "Protest movements make history, from the eight-hour working day, to the vote for women, to the right for equal pay, the rights we take for granted had to be won through protest. We took them; they weren't handed to us by the rich and powerful."

One demonstration was held in Leicester where a Facebook event page was set up to invite people to meet at the Clock Tower at 1 p.m., Leicestershire Live reported.

"The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021, is an overt attack on the fundamental rights of all members of the British democracy, within it are laws stripping away your right to have a voice and to be an active participant in the way this country is governed," the Leicester Kill the Bill Page on Facebook stated.

The Guardian previously reported that protesters accused police officers of injuring people with their shields at Kill the Bill protests in Bristol last month.

Epidemiologist warns U.S. in 'category five hurricane status' in COVID-19 pandemic


Volunteers take dinner orders to customers in their cars amid the COVID-19 pandemic on Good Friday, at St. Mary Magdalen School in Brentwood, Missouri. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

April 4 (UPI) -- Infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm said Sunday that the United States is in "category five hurricane status" with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, citing the threat of variants of the virus.

Osterholm, told NBC News' Meet the Press that the United States is approaching another surge of COVID-19 cases, citing a pattern where cases rise rapidly in the Upper Midwest and Northeast then subside and surge in the Southern Sunbelt states, before subsiding and then reemerging in the Northeast and Midwest.

"At this time, we really are in a category five hurricane status with regard to the rest of the world," Osterholm said. "At this point, we will see in the next two weeks the highest number of cases reported globally since the end of the pandemic. In terms of the United States, we're just at the beginning of this surge. We haven't even really begun to see it yet."

He cited Michigan reporting 8,413 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the highest daily count since 9,350 on Dec. 7, as a "wakeup call."

"We're now seeing increasing numbers of severe illnesses: ICU, hospitalization in individuals who are between 30 and 50 years of age who have not been vaccinated," he said.

The United States reported 62,154 new cases and 676 deaths from Saturday, and a total of 30,695,502 infections and 554,945 fatalities since the start of the pandemic, leading the world in both totals, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University.

Further, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that as of April 1 there are 12,505 cases of COVID-19 caused by the B.1.1.7 variant first discovered in Britain in 51 states and territories, 323 cases of the B.1.351 variant first reported in South Africa in 31 jurisdictions, while 224 cases of the Brazilian P.1 variant have been found in 22 states and territories.

Osterholm also warned that the B.117 variant has shown to cause more infections in children and said that other mutations such as the so-called "Eek" variant that has emerged in Japan could continue to emerge unless global vaccine distribution improves.

"Right now, if you look at the vaccine distribution around the world, 10 countries have received about 80% of the vaccine. Thirty countries have not seen even a drop of it," he said. "If we continue to see this virus spread throughout the low and middle-income countries unfettered, they're going to spit out variants over the course of the next years that, in each and every instance, could challenge our vaccines."

The United States has administered 165,053,746 vaccine doses with 32% of the total population having received at least one dose and 18.5% fully vaccinated as of Sunday, according to the CDC.

California leads the nation with 3,580,351 COVID-19 cases, reporting 2,400 new infections on Sunday, and 58,513 deaths including 109 new fatalities. The state has administered 19,717,651 vaccine doses and 7,260,337 people have been fully vaccinated.

Second-place Texas reported 1,465 new cases and 21 fatalities to bring its total infections to 2,403,393 and its death toll to 47,746. Texas has administered 12,276,067 COVID-19 vaccine doses with 4,561,335 people fully vaccinated.

Florida ranks third in the nation with 2,081,826 total cases and 33,674 resident deaths after reporting 4,794 new cases and 22 resident fatalities on Sunday. A total of 9,546,777 vaccine doses have been administered in the state and 3,597,072 people have been fully vaccinated.

New York reported 7,467 new cases Sunday for a total of 1,890,420 infections -- fourth-most in the nation -- while adding 59 deaths to bring its toll to 50,551. New York has administered 10,362,737 vaccine doses and 4,071,799 people have been fully vaccinated.

Illinois has the nation's fifth-highest case total at 1,256,634 infections along with 21,373 deaths since the start of the pandemic including 2,449 new cases and 14 deaths reported Sunday. The state has administered 6,290,822 vaccine doses and 2,368,041 people have ben fully vaccinated.


upi.com/7086550

 Why Alberta family fundraising to build ceremonial lodge in honour of girl who loved her Indigenous culture

Duration: 02:24 

Arizona Cardinal-Burns' family is raising money to honour the girl who died from a brain tumour, by finishing a ceremonial lodge in which to hold Indigenous ceremonies she loved participating in. Sarah Komadina reports.

Arizona's memory lends boost to cultural

 healing centre

The spirit of young Arizona Burns is helping to put

 together the rest of the construction of the Indigenous Turtle Lodge on the Alexander First Nation.

Mar 22, 2021

 By: Scott Hayes


The Indigenous Turtle Lodge Society is building this healing centre on the Alexander First Nation, now with the support of the family of Arizona Cardinal-Burns, a nine-year-old girl who recently lost her battle with brain cancer.

It was tragic to see Arizona Burns be sick and die so young, but so much good has been gained, her mother Sharice Cardinal says.

“Her sickness has healed a lot of people. It brought a lot of people together. It brought a lot of my family members back together. It brought my community together. It brought the Morinville community together. How one little girl brought so many people together ...”

The nine-year-old girl passed away in February from a form of aggressive brain cancer. She was only diagnosed in the fall of 2020 but her tumour was determined to be a grade 4 terminal glioblastoma. Arizona was already too immunocompromised to participate in Halloween activities with other kids, so the community rallied in October to bring a parade past her house. That gave her joy.

Community and culture were so important to Arizona, making her short years as full as possible. That’s why there’s still one big thing that her mother hopes will come out of her legacy: the completion of the Indigenous Turtle Lodge.

“She and the other kids would always ask, ‘When is this going to be done? When are we going to be able to use it?’” Cardinal said. “I raised my children really close to our Indigenous culture. It helped me break the cycle of intergenerational trauma in my life and for my children.”

The building under construction on Alexander First Nation still has most of the way to go toward a goal of $30,000 to fund the rest of the project. According to the Arizona Strong fundraiser page on GoFundMe, Arizona's great-grandfathers came together three decades ago to build a “ceremonial and spiritual foundation with a vision to reach their children, grandchildren and future generations.”

Cardinal said that Arizona loved ceremony and being with her siblings and cousins and other kids, often acting like a “Mother Hen” to them, making sure that they were healthy and happy.

“Just being with kids, she was so happy,” she said.

The lodge, once completed, will be a “community driven, traditional education and healthcare centre designed to raise Indigenous children and youth through oral history, land-based protocols and spiritual law,” according to its Facebook page.

It must be and will be completed, Cardinal continued, though it has already taken three long years to get to this point. Without any government or industry support whatsoever, volunteers have built the foundation and structure up, and a roof and siding have recently been added. Everything has been done through community donations.

“We’re still doing it. Arizona has passed on but I know that she’s going to help us from where she is to make this happen for other kids, to have a safe place for other kids to come and learn about themselves. Our Indigenous culture teaches you how to love yourself and how to treat other people and how to fix things within yourself that you struggle with,” she offered, noting how being with one’s community is a way of healing the spirit and strengthening the culture.

“That's the whole idea of the Indigenous Turtle Lodge. We don't have really any place to go to gather. We gather in the mountains, or we gather random places, but we don't have any place to offer programming to children and youths. That's what we're trying to create for our community. My kids are part of our community, and I want to see my kids have something like that in their future, too. It's a bridge for them to cross away from drugs and alcohol or those lifestyles that are unhealthy for people.”

Once finished, the Indigenous Turtle Lodge will be not just for the Nêhîyawak people on Alexander First Nation but for all the people who come from across Canada and anywhere else to receive programming and learn about ceremony so they can come closer to their culture, their communities, and the Great Spirit. So many people are so strong already, Cardinal said. She’s very proud of them and happy to know that Arizona’s legacy will help make the lodge a reality to bring strength to others.

“There's so much influence out there to keep your mind strong. That's how I know this will be really successful and help a lot of people in a good way.”

Ethiopia's PM says military fighting 'difficult and tiresome' guerilla war

ETHIOPIA SHOULD BE A CONFEDERATION OF REGIONS  

NOT A NATION STATE

Jason Burke

THE GUARDIAN

4/4/2021

Ethiopian military forces are now fighting a “difficult and tiresome” guerrilla war in the northern Tigray region, prime minister Abiy Ahmed has admitted.

© Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters Abiy Ahmed addressing lawmakers in Addis Ababa in November, when the military operations against the TPLF were launched.

His comments mark a sharp break with previous insistence that military operations launched in November had been a rapid and decisive success.

“The junta which we had eliminated within three weeks has now turned itself into a guerrilla force, mingled with farmers and started moving from place to place,” Abiy, referring to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), said on Saturday.

“Now, we are not able to eliminate it within three months,” he added.

“Eliminating an enemy which is visible and eliminating an enemy which is in hiding and operates by assimilating itself with others is not one and the same. It is very difficult and tiresome.”

Federal troops moved into Tigray in November with the aim to “restore the rule of law” by ousting the TPLF, the political party then in power in the province, following surprise attacks on federal army bases.

The offensive was declared successful after the TPLF leadership evacuated its stronghold of Mekelle, the provincial capital, and an interim administration loyal to Addis Ababa was installed.

However it has become clear that, after initial setbacks and heavy losses, the TPLF had rallied by late January and was waging an intensifying insurgency against federal forces.

A series of fierce clashes took place in mid-February around Samre, a small town 40km south-west of Mekelle, as thousands of Ethiopian troops supported by artillery, tanks and airstrikes battled forces loyal to the TPLF who were dug in there. In recent days, there has been renewed fighting in the area, sources in Tigray told the Guardian.

There has also been fighting in the north-east of the region, on the road leading to Eritrea, and along the main road joining Mekelle with towns further west. Much of the rural areas remain beyond the authority of central government, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said last week there were “clashes and ambushes reported in most parts of the region.”

A wave of atrocities including massacres of hundreds committed by Ethiopian troops and their Eritrean allies have fuelled recruitment to the TPLF’s forces.

Last week the Guardian reported that almost 2,000 people killed in more than 150 massacres by soldiers, paramilitaries and insurgents in Tigray have been identified by name by researchers studying the conflict. The oldest victims were in their 90s and the youngest were infants

Access restrictions for humanitarian workers, researchers and journalists have made it difficult to determine the conflict’s death toll so far but the total number of victims is likely to run into the tens of thousands, and will probably never be known.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) warned last week that the war risks dragging on for months and even years.

Despite the deployment of Eritrean troops and militia from Ethiopia’s Amhara region, which borders Tigray to the south, most TPLF leaders remain on the run and ICG noted that none were reported captured or killed in February or March.

Pro-TPLF fighters have regrouped under the Tigray Defence Forces, an armed movement “led by the removed Tigrayan leaders and commanded by former high-ranking” military officers, ICG said.

Ethiopia’s military is also fighting a rebel group in the country’s Oromia region which the government has blamed for multiple massacres of civilians, including one last week that left dozens dead.

“Currently, the national defence forces and the federal forces are in a major fight on eight fronts in the north and the west against enemies which are anti-farmers, anti-civilians and causing strife among Ethiopians,” Abiy said.

In Tigray, Abiy’s government has previously downplayed the TPLF’s ability to wage an effective insurgency.

The 44-year-old prime minister, who won the Nobel Peace prize in 2019 for ending a conflict with Eritrea, told parliamentarians last month that pro-TPLF fighters were like “flour dispersed by the wind”.

On Saturday Abiy said federal forces had “conducted wide operations in the last three days” causing “heavy damage to the enemies of the people”, vowing such efforts “will be strengthened and continued”.

Abiy is facing mounting pressure to ensure the withdrawal of Eritrean soldiers from Tigray, and Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said on Saturday night these troops had “started to evacuate”.

There are widespread fears among observers that protracted conflict in Tigray could seriously destabilise Ethiopia, previously a linchpin of stability and western security strategy in one of Africa’s most volatile regions.

FASCISM IS ANTI-COMMUNISM
How a Chicago teacher sparked a 'memory war,' forcing Lithuania to confront its Nazi past

Gil Skorwid and Patrick Smith 

4/4/2021


VILNIUS, Lithuania — As her mother lay dying, Silvia Foti made a promise. She vowed to continue her plans to write a book about her mother's father, Foti's grandfather, a Lithuanian hero known as "General Storm."

© Provided by NBC News

He was among the young soldiers who fought the Soviet Union in its brief but brutal first occupation of Lithuania in 1940, and he was later shot in a KGB prison. He, like many of his comrades, is considered a national hero.

But Foti, a high school English teacher from Chicago, said that after years of researching the man, whose name was Jonas Noreika, she discovered that her grandfather collaborated with the Nazis by facilitating the extermination of thousands of Lithuanian Jews.

"He agreed with the Nazis on the elimination of the Jews," she said.

© Jose M. Osorio Image: Silvia Foti holds a photograph of her Lithuanian grandfather, Jonas Noreik (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune via Getty Images)

Foti's revelations ignited a firestorm in Lithuania when they emerged two years ago. Laid out in painstaking detail in a book published last month, they have contributed to an increasingly toxic public debate over Noreika's legacy and what role Lithuanians played alongside Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.

An estimated 95 percent of Lithuania's Jews, more than 200,000 people, were massacred as the Third Reich took hold — one of the highest proportions of any country affected by the Holocaust.

Yet the dominant narrative in Lithuania has long been one of resistance to both the Soviets and the Nazis, a hallmark of national identity that state officials have worked to reinforce. In January, a lawmaker and longstanding defender of Noreika's legacy sparked outrage by suggesting that local Jewish leaders may even have borne some responsibility for the Holocaust.

And on Thursday, the Lithuanian Parliament voted to dismiss the head of the country's genocide research center amid growing controversy surrounding the center's work.

It's a bitter dispute that, more than 75 years after the end of World War II, highlights the degree to which Lithuania is still struggling to come to terms with its own history.

Foti maintained that the official story has been a "cover-up."

Contested history

Numerous streets in Lithuania are named after Noreika. So is a school in his hometown. A memorial plaque commemorating his life and work is on display in Vilnius, the capital, on the building where he worked.

Many Lithuanians are familiar with what Foti called the "fairy-tale" story: Noreika fought fleeing Soviet forces during the so-called June uprising in 1941 and was an organizer in the Lithuanian Activist Front, an underground militia group. He later fought against the Nazis before he was sent to a concentration camp. After he was released at the end of the war, he worked as a legal expert at the Academy of Science and tried to unite scattered groups of fighters to resist the Soviets before he was shot dead in a KGB prison in 1947, age 36.

Foti's family read aloud his last letter from prison, a treasured heirloom, every Christmas Eve.

The first Soviet occupation lasted little more than a year, but it looms large in Lithuania's history — thousands of people were killed or sent to gulags. The same power would rule the Baltics with an iron fist from 1945 until 1991, killing thousands more and cementing the reputation of already idolized freedom fighters who opposed the Soviets in 1941.

© Jose M. Osorio Image: Silvia Foti holds a photograph of her grandfather Jonas Noreika (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune via Getty Images)

The period of Nazi rule over Lithuania, from 1941 until the end of the war in 1945, also casts a long shadow. Jews had lived in what is now Lithuania since the 14th century, helping to make it a thriving, diverse commercial and religious center, alive with Jewish culture.

But during the war, Lithuania's Jewish population was all but wiped out. Records indicate that Lithuanian leaders were at least somewhat involved in the massacre.

For example, a report dated Oct. 15, 1941, from the local division of the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazi paramilitary death squads, says that on June 25 and 26, local Lithuanian fighters "eliminated more than 1,500 Jews, set fire to several synagogues or destroyed them by other means, and burned down an area consisting of about 60 houses inhabited by Jews."

The next night, "2,300 Jews were eliminated in the same way," the report states.

But the degree to which Lithuanians were complicit in atrocities has been fiercely contested. Noreika's defenders say it was in the Nazis' interests to exaggerate Lithuanian involvement. Many also argue that Noreika's reputation was tarnished later on by KGB propaganda.

The state-run Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania, which is viewed as the official guardian of the country's collective memory, has been one of Noreika's primary defenders. In 2015, it issued a report that found that Noreika had no involvement in the mass murder of Jews. And in 2019, citing newly available documents, the center said Noreika was responsible for saving Jews through a rescue network.

Professor Adas Jakubauskas, who spoke in an interview before Parliament dismissed him as leader of the center on Thursday, said the center has "reliable data" showing that "Noreika actively organized anti-Nazi resistance and the rescue of Jews."

He said the anti-Nazi activity was why Noreika was sent to the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland, where he spent two years until it was liberated.

"At the time, neither the Lithuanian administration nor Noreika could take any decisions pertaining to German or Jewish questions," he said.

© Michael Nicholson Image: Vilnius, Lithuania (Michael Nicholson / Corbis via Getty Images)

Jakubauskas became embroiled in controversy after 17 historians who work with the center wrote to the speaker of the Parliament, known as the Seimas, complaining that the institution's leadership was making irresponsible statements and instigating the so-called memory wars, and that its political control was "destroying the quality of research."

One of the historians, Mingailė Jurkutė, who separately criticized the center's "ideologized narrative" in an online article, was fired by the center.

Questions about Noreika's legacy, in particular, have multiplied in recent years. In 2018, Grant Gochin, an American Jew of Lithuanian descent, sued the Genocide and Resistance Research Center, claiming that his ancestors were among the Jews who were killed during Noreika's governorship of Šiauliai County. The court in Vilnius ruled that there was no evidence to suggest that Noreika was involved in the killing of Jews.

Tensions have continued to run high, however. In 2019, the plaque in Vilnius commemorating Noreika was smashed with a hammer. The plaque was reinstated, but it was then taken down again weeks later by the mayor of Vilnius, who was sympathetic to claims that the state had whitewashed the darker side of Noreika's story.

In response, a nationalist group installed yet another, bigger plaque in its place, with supporters singing patriotic songs.

Now, Foti's book has added a new wrinkle to the debate.

'Nobody talked about it'

It is safe to say that Foti's book is not what her mother, or many other Lithuanians, would have expected.

"The Nazi's Granddaughter" details how Foti traveled to Lithuania and searched through piles of documents to discover evidence that she said proves Noreika ordered the killing of thousands of Jews while he was governor of Šiauliai County during the German occupation.

Nationalists like Noreika greeted the Germans as liberators in 1941 and hoped they would assist in forming a free Lithuanian state, as Germany had done in 1918.

But Foti said Noreika was not simply a bystander to the Holocaust; he was a Nazi collaborator who was sympathetic to their cause. She pointed to a nationalist pamphlet Noreika wrote in 1933, when he was 22, "Hold Your Head High, Lithuanian!!!" which called for an economic boycott of Jews in the coastal city of Klaipėda.

"In the land of Klaipėda, the Lithuanians are being overthrown by the Germans, and in Greater Lithuania, the Jews are buying up all the farms on auction," he wrote. "Once and for all: We won't buy any products from Jews!"

Foti said her grandfather "must have approved the killing of 2,000 Jews in Plungė in July 1941 as the leader of the uprising in the Northwestern portion of the country."

The episode is contested not just by Noreika defenders, but also by leading Lithuanian historians, who say Foti's account of what happened in Plungė is based on unreliable sources.

Foti has assembled additional evidence, however. In her book, she quotes a huge report by Karl Jäger, a Nazi commander who led many of the mass killings during the Holocaust in Lithuania, which meticulously lists more than 130,000 Jewish deaths and where they occurred.

© Universal History Archive Image: Lithuanian Jews and a German Wehrmacht Soldier during the Holocaust (Universal History Archive / via Getty Images)

The report says Jäger's unit, SD Einsatzkommando 3, took over control of the area on Aug. 9, 1941 — by which point 4,000 people had already been killed. They were "Jews liquidated by pogroms and executions (including partisans)," the report said. "Partisans" refers to local nationalist fighters.

Foti argues that, as a leader of Lithuania's partisans at the time, her grandfather undoubtedly played a key role in carrying out the atrocities.

Her research also shows that later, as governor of Šiauliai County, Noreika signed about 100 documents related to the Holocaust — among them orders that led to the establishment of a Jewish ghetto and the expropriation of Jewish property.

Noreika's defenders argue that he may have sent Jews to ghettos but did not know what the result would be. But Foti said it is time for Lithuania to fully recognize its contribution to genocide. She is among those calling for Noreika's posthumous military honors to be revoked and for any schools bearing his name to be renamed.

"I didn't even know about the Holocaust in Lithuania growing up here in Chicago. Nobody talked about it," she said.

"It's going to take a lot of education. Lithuania will have to follow in the footsteps of Germany," she said, referring to Germany's own historical reckoning.

'A bloody, bloody past'

Today, Lithuania's Jewish community is small, numbering just over 3,000 people, according to the 2011 census. Given the limited visibility, it's not surprising that Lithuanians would be shocked to learn about their country's involvement in the Holocaust, said Faina Kukliansky, head of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, which is affiliated with the World Jewish Congress.

"How should local people learn about what happened in Lithuania during World War II?" she asked. "The memory of the Holocaust is kept by this small surviving Jewish community, as there is still a lack of large-scale government initiatives to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust — we have neither a national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust nor a monument to the rescuers."

She noted that there is no museum dedicated to the history of Jews in Lithuania and that the artifacts that do pertain to Jewish history are scattered among various museums and other institutions.

Kukliansky serves on a working group at the Justice Ministry that is evaluating a law banning the denial of mass crimes. Section 170 of Lithuania's penal code says anyone who "publicly condones the crimes of genocide or other crimes against humanity," including the actions of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, could face a substantial fine or a two-year jail sentence if convicted.

The law exists, but it doesn't work well, Kukliansky said, because people still don't fully understand what happened. In some countries, denial of what really happened is becoming the "dominant position," she said.

And while the law makes it illegal to condone "the aggression perpetrated by the USSR or Nazi Germany against the Republic of Lithuania," it makes no mention of crimes alleged to have been carried out by Lithuanians against Jews and other minorities.

That ambivalent position was reinforced on Jan. 27, Holocaust Memorial Day, when a right-wing lawmaker, Valdas Rakutis, declared in a statement published on the public broadcaster's website that there was "no shortage of Holocaust perpetrators among the Jews themselves."

The remarks were condemned at home and abroad. The U.S. ambassador to Lithuania, Robert Gilchrist, said it was shocking that a lawmaker "should espouse distortions regarding Holocaust collaborators in Lithuania and shamefully seek to accuse Jews of being the perpetrators."

Rakutis, a history professor and former adviser to the country's armed forces who was elected to Parliament last year, resigned as chairman of the parliamentary commission on the state's historical memory and apologized to "all the people who felt offended."

But Rakutis is also affiliated with the Genocide and Resistance Research Center, and his views are closer to the mainstream than many in Lithuania might like to admit.

In the wake of his comments, however, the calls for Lithuania to take a fresh look at its history have continued to grow.

"It's a bloody, bloody past. I know Lithuanians suffered. I get it. I totally do," Foti said. "I wasn't investigating this, and if it wasn't my grandfather, I wouldn't have looked into it."

Gil Skorwid reported from Vilnius; Patrick Smith reported from London.

The death of the American mall was a warning sign that our dystopian future was closer than we all thought

ktaylor@businessinsider.com (Kate Taylor,Avery Hartmans,Allana Akhtar) 

4/4/2021

© Provided by Business Insider A Sears has been turned into a COVID-19 vaccination center, aiming to vaccinate around 700 people a day. Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Americans getting vaccinated in bankrupt, empty malls paint a grim picture for life after COVID-19.

Retail vacancy rates are at a 7-year high after decades of closures due to the rise of e-commerce.

Brands are bailing out failing US policies, from healthcare to infrastructure - and it's only going to get worse.

As vaccines roll out across American, thousands of people aren't getting vaccinated at CVS pharmacies or local health clinics. Instead, they're heading to abandoned Kmarts, Sears, and Toys R Us stores to get their shots.

For American companies that have seen store counts collapse in recent years, the symbolism of having abandoned stores turned into mass vaccination clinics highlights how quickly the world was changing before the pandemic, and how COVID-19 accelerated a shift to an unfamiliar and sometimes dystopian future.

The end of the COVID-19 pandemic might be in sight as vaccine shots ramp up, but crumbling malls, the country's haphazard approach to healthcare, and brands looking to capitalize on the "new normal" suggest our new dystopian reality is here to stay.

© Kena Betancur / AFP The Townsquare Mall in Rockaway, New Jersey turned a former Sears into a vaccine "mega" site. Kena Betancur / AFP

American malls are dying a slow and painful death

The last decade has seen American cultural touchstones disintegrate as part of the retail apocalypse.

Companies like Sears and JCPenney spent over 100 years building their brands into household names - but it took only 10 years for an apocalypse to sweep through the retail industry, leaving vacant stores and dead malls in its wake.

The demise, like so much in the last decade, can be linked to the financial crisis: After the housing bubble burst in the late aughts, many retailers were never quite able to get back on their feet. Hundreds of thousands of employees were out of work, and private equity stepped in, burdening mall brands with massive amounts of debt.

Read more: Taco Bell is adding 1,000 drive-thru 'bellhops' as chain tweaks traditional and Cantina stores for a post pandemic world

The American mall began to face "a death spiral," John M. Clapp, a professor at the University of Connecticut's Center for Real Estate, told Insider in 2017.

"Once a department store goes vacant that tends to be contagious because all those middle-mall stores - the nail salons and the jewelry stores - they are all depending on the traffic coming from the bigger retail stores," he said.

A report from Coresight Research cited by CNBC last August estimated that out of roughly 1,000 American malls, a quarter will close down in the next three to five years.

And, of course, it's impossible to ignore the Amazon effect: The Seattle bookseller sparked an e-commerce boom, leading to a race to the top for Amazon and its main competition, Walmart, and opening the direct-to-consumer floodgates. Companies like Glossier, Allbirds, and Casper led the way, eschewing a traditional retail experience in favor of online-only shopping. (Of course, all of those brands eventually opened retail experiences of their own.)

In what is perhaps the cruelest twist of irony, Amazon reportedly held talks with Simon Property Group, the biggest mall-owner in the US, to discuss converting empty retail space into fulfillment centers that pack and ship Amazon orders.

The pandemic has only made matters worse. Retail vacancy rates are nearing a seven-year high, after major chains announced closures of more than 12,000 stores in 2020. Moody's Analytics projects that roughly 135 million square feet of vacant space may become available in regional malls nationwide within the next five years. These vacancies have left malls abandoned, and they readily turned into vaccination sites.

Many laid off retail workers have either pivoted to discount chains that pay employees significantly less, or Amazon itself. And though Amazon pays workers $15 an hour, warehouse jobs are more physically demanding and delivery drivers said they've dehydrated themselves to get through a shift without bathroom breaks.

In lieu of an adequate government safety net to ensure Americans get fair pay and health care even as businesses shutter, brands are - unfortunately - left to pick up the pieces

.

© Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images People wait in line in a Disneyland parking lot to receive COVID-19 vaccines. Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images

Things are only going to get weirder

The complete disruption of the pandemic puts Americans in a position where the "new normal" is a flexible term. As seen by the transformation of malls into vaccination sites, something that would seem straight out of "28 Days Later" in 2019 can be completely acceptable in 2021.

The factors that allowed for this cobbled together solution - a broken retail system saving a healthcare system stretched to the breaking point - are not going away.

The inclination to turn to companies to fix broken infrastructure can run the gambit from creative at best to disturbing at worst. For example:
Domino's announced a campaign to fill potholes in 2018, allowing customers to nominate their towns for repairs.

Light-beer legend Natural Light has spent millions of dollars paying off fans' student loans.

Companies like Gap, Target, and Warby Parker helped staff the nation's polls on Election Day by corralling hundreds of thousands of employees to serve as poll workers
A Chick-fil-A manager in South Carolina had to step in to direct his town's drive-thru COVID-19 vaccine site after it was hamstrung by computer issues.

And as state governments work to vaccinate their citizens as quickly and efficiently as possible, they've turned to other capitalist symbols of the before-times to help carry out their plans.

Beginning in January, lines snaked around the parking lot at Disneyland, but not to visit Thunder Mountain or the Haunted Mansion - the theme park, shuttered since March 2020, became a "super" vaccination site where hundreds of thousands of doses have been administered.

Read more: We just got the best look yet at the consumer genetics market ahead of 23andMe's public debut. Here are the 5 biggest obstacles the $3.6 billion company will have to overcome.

Major league sports stadiums, many of which sat empty and dark for most of last year, have also become mass vaccination sites. Where fans would have once lined up to get let into a football or baseball game, they're now lining up to get a COVID shot.

Brands have been bailing out the US health system throughout the pandemic. Coors beer breweries transformed into hand sanitizer manufacturers. Volkswagen made hospital equipment after the country's gown and mask shortage got so bad nurses resorted to wearing trash bags.

This kind of corporate contingency plan shows no sign of stopping after the pandemic subsides - in fact, it may even be coming for schools next. A mall in Vermont became a safe-haven for a high school after the school, just before it was set to reopen for in-person learning, was found to have elevated levels of toxic chemicals known to cause cancer.

© Downtown Burlington High School.

There may, however, be a more nefarious side to some companies lending a hand, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. CVS and Walgreens - which have collectively given nearly 20 million shots so far - are reportedly looking to cash in on data collected from people they administer vaccines to. And drug companies that made the COVID-19 vaccines won't give up their patents to help vaccinate the rest of the world.

These self-serving tactics should be taken as a warning sign as the US increasingly relies on brands to build a post-pandemic future. In some cases, companies have unique insight into problems - such as a Chick-fil-A manager helping with a vaccine drive-thru. But, relying too fully on corporations whose ultimate focus is their bottom line is not just dystopian, it's dangerous.

The pandemic has shown just how quickly things can change. As the country rebuilds, it needs to be on solid ground, instead of relying on the magnanimity of brands.
Read the original article on Business Insider