US labor board to hold hearing on whether to redo Amazon union election based on evidence submitted by union

awilliams@insider.com (Annabelle Williams,Tyler Sonnemaker,Reuters) 

4/28/2021

© Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted against forming a union, but the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, under which they would have unionized, challenged the results. 

Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

The National Labor Relations Board will hold a hearing on whether to redo the Amazon union vote in Bessemer, Alabama.

Amazon employees there voted against unionizing, but the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union challenged the results.

The NLRB said the union's evidence warranted a hearing to consider whether Amazon acted illegally and whether a new election should be held.

Amazon has denied any wrongdoing.

The National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday said evidence submitted by the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union concerning Amazon's conduct during a union vote in Bessemer, Alabama, justified holding a hearing to review the evidence and determine whether to redo the election.

"The evidence submitted by the union in support of its objections could be grounds for overturning the election if introduced at a hearing," the NLRB said.

The NLRB's ruling clears the way for a hearing, which it plans to hold on May 7, where it will review the RWDSU's evidence. If the NLRB finds Amazon illegally interfered in the election, it can void the results and re-run the election.

Amazon has denied any wrongdoing.

The RWDSU, the union which Amazon's employees voted on whether to join, failed to secure enough votes from Amazon warehouse workers to form a union in a highly publicized election earlier this month.

When the NLRB publicly announced the vote count on April 9, the tally was 1,798 votes against unionizing and 738 votes for the union, with 505 ballots challenged and 76 ballots voided - 70.9% of valid votes counted were against the union.

But the RWDSU subsequently filed 23 objections against Amazon and how it acted during the contentious March election, claiming Amazon's conduct prevented employees from having a "free and uncoerced exercise of choice" on which way to vote. The RWDSU alleged Amazon's agents unlawfully threatened employees with closure of the warehouse if they joined the union and that the company emailed a warning it would lay off 75% of the proposed bargaining unit because of the union.

An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the NLRB's statement.

At the May 7 hearing, the NLRB would have the option to overturn the election results if any evidence of illegal action is ruled credible.

(Reuters reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese)
Read the original article on Business Insider

UCP IS ANTI CONSUMPTION SITES

Advocates raise concern over closure of Edmonton supervised consumption site: ‘It’s puzzling’

Caley Ramsay GLOBAL NEWS 4/28/2021

The supervised consumption site at Boyle Street Community Services in downtown Edmonton is being permanently shut down.

© Global News The Boyle Street Community Services building in downtown Edmonton.

In October 2020, Boyle Street shifted its supervised consumption services to the Edmonton Convention Centre, where a temporary shelter space has been in operation. With the Tipinawâw shelter at the convention centre set to close on April 30, the province has made the decision not to reopen the services at Boyle Street.


"That is a concern. Whenever you're reducing that capacity, particularly in the middle of an overdose crisis that we're facing, of course that's something that we worry about," said Jordan Reiniger, executive director of Boyle Street Community Services.

Read more: COVID-19 pandemic having ‘stark effects’ on opioid-related deaths in Alberta

Prior to the fall of 2020, supervised consumption services were offered at three sites in central Edmonton.

Boyle Street operated services from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., the George Spady Centre operated overnight from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., and Boyle McCauley Health Centre operated daytime support services.

When Boyle Street shifted services to the convention centre in October, the George Spady Centre began operating 24 hours a day, which will continue with the closure of the Tipinawâw shelter.

While service capacity at the George Spady Centre has been increased, overall capacity will be reduced.

"Despite those attempts to increase capacity, they won't be immediate and they will not match the existing capacity," said Dr. Ginetta Salvalaggio, a family physician and associate professor at the University of Alberta. "Effectively we're going from 15 booths down to nine booths.

"We ought to be doubling based on the rise in overdose cases over the past year."

In a statement, the Alberta government said there has been no reduction in funding for supervised consumption services in the Edmonton zone.

Video: Families write honest obituaries to speak truth about drug overdoses

Reiniger said Boyle Street will work with the community to ensure they know where they can go to receive support.

"Our concern generally is the overdose crisis is getting worse," he explained. "This overdose crisis is raging right now and we need to have the responses to ensure we can address it effectively.

"The thing with supervised consumption sites is you want to make sure you have booths available. People, if they're coming to use the site, they're usually not able to wait around for too long."

In 2020, 1,144 people died of opioid overdoses in Alberta. That's compared to 623 in 2019, 805 in 2018, 705 in 2017 and 553 in 2016.

In the first two months of 2021, 228 people died of opioid overdoses in the province.

In Edmonton specifically, 398 people died of opioid overdoses last year. In the first two months of this year, there were 72 opioid-related deaths in the city.

Read more: ‘It’s saddening. It’s heartbreaking’: Albertans discuss overdose deaths in the time of COVID-19

Learning the Boyle Street services would no longer be offered is concerning for Angela Welz. She lost her daughter in 2016 to a fentanyl overdose.

"More lives will be lost from this decision," said Welz, who is also the Alberta regional director of Moms Stop the Harm.

"She was 18 years old, a young female. I don't know if she would have used the centre at Boyle Street but it would have been option for her to be able to go somewhere, use her drugs in a safe manner where someone was there to help her to make sure that she stayed alive."

Hakique Virani is an associate professor at the University of Alberta who specializes in public health and addiction medicine.

He said right now is not the time to be shutting down services.

"It's puzzling," Virani said. "We're seeing the overdose epidemic scale in the shadows of COVID in a way that's horrific.

"This is not a time to scale back life-saving interventions. It's a time to broaden them."

The Alberta government said the previous government made the decision to place three consumption sites in close proximity of each other.

Justin Marshall, press secretary to the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, said the province is in talks with Boyle Street about potentially operating overdose prevention services in an under-serviced area of Edmonton.

With files from Chris Chacon, Global News.

French ex-Generals war-mongering will help push mainstream politicians into Macron's arms

Opinion John Hulsman

Thursday 29 April 2021 

French President Emmanuel Macro (Photo by Kay Nietfeld - Pool / Getty Images)

Unlike most of the developed world, France moves through history not via the serenity of political evolution, but rather through the dramatic lurch of revolution, as the country continues to eye-catchingly over-correct its political failings.

The last time this happened was in the heady days of 1958, when an army revolt against the chaotic, parliamentary-dominated Fourth Republic (resulting in the military take-over of Corsica), paved the way for the ascension of the monarchical Charles de Gaulle as the savior of the country, and the founding of the strong, executive-driven Fifth Republic in the same year.

But the wily de Gaulle, convinced that to be saved France had to extricate itself from the morass of North African colonialism, failed to do the generals’ bidding and instead proclaimed Algeria’s independence. There followed a dangerous few years, as the generals plotted a coup in 1961 to retain France’s empire, and later, an army-inspired right-wing terrorist group, the OAS, set out to assassinate de Gaulle himself.

All of this real-world historical tumult provided the ideal backdrop for Frederick Forsyth’s great spy thriller, The Day of the Jackal, which takes the historical failed OAS Paris assassination plot as its starting point, before heading off into heart-thumping fiction of the first order. In Fred Zinnemann’s spine-tingling movie version of the novel, ‘The Jackal,’ perfectly played by James Fox–a suave contract killer hired by the OAS to finally finish of de Gaulle—comes within a whisker of his task. While the story is purely apocryphal, the notion that the future stability of France hung by a thread perfectly encapsulates the sense of those uncertain times.

That is why my first reaction on hearing of the extraordinary open-letter in Valeurs Actuelles, a contemporary right-wing news magazine, was simply, “The Jackal is back.” Twenty retired generals (amongst others) have created a political tsunami, calling for “a military takeover” if besieged President Emmanuel Macron fails to halt the “disintegration” of the country at the hands of Islamists. Their charges carry even more popular resonance following the recent stabbing and death of a 45-year-old woman in Rambouillet, a Parisian suburb, by a Tunisian-born Islamist.

The letter, written sixty years to the day on from the army’s 1961 coup attempt against de Gaulle, was immediately condemned by Macron—hoping to once again rally “The Republican Front” of all mainstream French political parties against the far-right. Its aims, if not the coup itself, were rhetorically welcomed by far right’s once and future presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen.

This is quite an about-face for Le Pen, who since at least 2011 has worked to detoxify the far-right brand, moving it away from its martial and extra-constitutional past in an effort to win over enough mainstream voters to vault her into the Elysee Palace. However, such a political U-turn amounts to her Rubicon; her old mainstream strategy abandoned, Le Pen has, a year out from the presidential election, tacked decisively back towards the far right.

Is there method to her madness? Le Pen is currently only eight points behind Macron in the polls for the second round of voting for the French presidency in the Spring of 2022. The far-right Presidential hopeful is counting on a few big things going her way to make this supreme gamble work. First, Macron’s government must continue to vaccinate people at a glacial pace, leading to further start-and-stop lockdowns, social confusion, and economic peril.

Second, the contrast between France’s haplessness and the opening of the booming Anglo-Saxon world must become clear over the next months, heightening Paris’s sense of humiliating malaise and decline.

Third, the government must be blamed for all this dysfunction, along with France’s social divisions, especially involving Radical Islam and France’s immigration policy.

Fourth, Le Pen must cultivate the Gilets Jaunes movement, which in 2018-2019 initiated a series of massive, nationwide protests, a provincial cri di coeur by the country’s have-nots as to elite indifference to their economic plight.

Then and only then, is a victorious political fusion of these disaffected, disparate right-wing forces possible.

But, as The Day of the Jackal makes clear, it is far more likely radical rightism will fail in France. Following the explosive army letter and Le Pen’s general support for its authors, a backlash is not only possible, it is likely. The Republican Front that Macron has up until now been unable to muster to dent Le Pen in the polls has a new resonance; there is an actual, tangible, threat to the Fifth Republic that makes such a mainstream alliance vital. Look for the backlash to come as the Jackal is bested again.

Dr John C. Hulsman is senior columnist at City A.M., a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and president of John C. Hulsman Enterprises. He can be reached for corporate speaking and private briefings at www.chartwellspeakers.com

EU accuses Russia, China of COVID vaccine disinformation

THE NEW RED SCARE IS THE NEW COLD WAR 2.0

A new EU report found that Beijing and Moscow are seeking to undermine trust in Western coronavirus vaccines — and intensely promoting their own.



The EU says Russia and China are using the bloc's rising cases to cast doubt on democratic institutions

China and Russia are engaging in campaigns to erode trust in the European Union's coronavirus strategy as well as gin up skepticism of Western-developed coronavirus vaccines, the EU's foreign service said in a report published Wednesday.

The report also raised concerns that the countries are using these efforts to particularly exert influence on the Western Balkans.
What did the EU say?

The findings stem from a report published by the EU External Action Service (EEAS) on disinformation concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the report, "state-sponsored disinformation" efforts have intensified since the beginning of 2021, as vaccine rollouts have started to pick up pace around the world.



Watch video 04:32 China vaccine diplomacy sparks concern

While China and Russia have increased efforts to promote their own state-produced vaccines, they've been using the promotions to "undermine trust" in Western vaccines and EU institutions.

To do this, both countries "are using state-controlled media, networks of proxy media outlets and social media, including official diplomatic social media accounts, to achieve these goals," the report said.

In Russia, state media outlets have been trying to "cast doubt" on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and accusing the body of delaying the approval of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.


China, meanwhile, has been propagating "misleading narratives" about the origins of the coronavirus as well as the safety of certain Western vaccines.

A Russian sovereign wealth fund responsible for marketing Sputnik V said the disinformation campaign is actually against Russia and its vaccine.

"We will continue to fight disinformation campaign against Sputnik V in the interests of protecting lives around the world and avoiding vaccine monopoly that some vaccine producers may strive for," it said on Twitter.
Sowing discontent

According to the report, Beijing and Moscow's "vaccine diplomacy" strategies have been particularly targeting the Western Balkans in an effort to exert influence.

The report voiced concerns that the rise in coronavirus cases in the bloc and sluggish vaccine rollouts are being spun by Russia and China as examples of a failure of democracy and open societies.

Although the EU has been criticized over its slower-than-expected vaccine rollout, the bloc says that a boost in deliveries means it's on track to vaccinate 70% of adults this summer.

Still, Hungary broke with the rest of the EU and has been administering vaccines from both Russia and China.

In March, the EMA launched a rolling review of Sputnik V. If given the green light, it would be the first non-Western produced coronavirus vaccine to be approved for use in the bloc.

rs/sms (AFP, dpa)

Legal Blow For Merkel's Climate Plan As German Greens Surge
By Kit HOLDEN on April 29 2021 7:47 PM

Germany's highest court ruled Thursday that the government's flagship climate protection plan was "insufficient", a major setback for Angela Merkel's right-left coalition in an election year when environmental issues are expected to take centre stage.

Partially upholding a series of claims by environmentalists and young people, Germany's Constitutional Court ruled that Berlin's current goal of reducing CO2 emissions to 55 percent of 1990 levels by 2030 was "incompatible with fundamental rights".

The current measures "violate the freedoms of the complainants, some of whom are still very young" because they "irreversibly offload major emission reduction burdens onto periods after 2030", the court ruled.

  

Besides an emissions target for 2030, Germany's new climate change law introduced by Merkel's government in 2019 includes a range of policies, including incentivising renewable energies, expanding electric car infrastructure and carbon trading

 AFP / Odd ANDERSEN

It argued that while the state had not violated its duty to protect citizens against climate change, the government had nonetheless not set out the timeline for further emissions reductions in enough detail.

Assessing that the risk of "serious burdens" being put on generations beyond 2030 as significant, the court called on Berlin to "at the very least determine the size of the annual emission amounts to be set for periods after 2030".

   

Yet activists have long argued that the law does not go far enough, prompting a series of legal claims against the government to toughen the measures AFP / THOMAS KIENZLE

Besides an emissions target for 2030, Germany's new climate change law introduced by Merkel's government in 2019 includes a range of policies, including incentivising renewable energies, expanding electric car infrastructure and carbon trading.

The law was passed in order to comply with the 2016 Paris Agreement, under which countries aim to keep the global temperature increase to under two degrees Celsius, and ideally closer to 1.5 degrees, by 2050.

Germany said last month it had met its annual climate goals set out by the law in 2020, in part due to a reduction of activity during the coronavirus pandemic.

Yet activists have long argued that the law does not go far enough, prompting a series of legal claims against the government to toughen the measures.

The decision heaps further pressure on the government at a time when the environmentalist Green Party has taken a surprise lead in the polls ahead of September's general elections POOL / Kay Nietfeld

Supported by Greenpeace and German Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer, the claimants included a group of nine young Germans whose families' agricultural or sustainable tourism businesses have been threatened by heatwaves and floods.

"We have won! Climate protection is not a nice-to-have, it's a fundamental right," tweeted Neubauer, 25, in reaction to the ruling.

The government also appeared to welcome the ruling, with conservative Economy and Energy Minister Peter Altmaier calling it an "epochal" decision for "climate protection and young peoples' rights", which would also give "planning security to business".

Environment Minister Svenja Schulze also said the decision was an "exclamation mark for climate protection".

Yet the decision in fact heaps further pressure on the government at a time when the environmentalist Green Party has taken a surprise lead in the polls ahead of September's general elections.

Several recent polls have shown the Greens as the most popular party, ahead of both Merkel's conservatives and their centre-left coalition partners SPD.

If the party can hold their lead, then their candidate Annalena Baerbock could become Germany's first ever Green chancellor in the autumn.

Armin Laschet, the candidate for Merkel's CDU party, has meanwhile been accused of neglecting environmental policies.

"It's not enough to see the environment as mere decoration, it is a central issue," said Laschet's Bavarian rival Markus Soeder amid a bitter battle for the conservative nomination earlier this month.

CLASSIC RAYMOND CHANDLER
Deadly California Fire Was Started To Cover Up A Murder: Police

By AFP News on April 29 2021 

A California fire that killed two people last year was intentionally set to cover up a murder, investigators revealed in a press briefing.

The Markley Fire was started in Northern California's Solano County on August 18, 2020 near where police found the burned body of 32-year-old missing person Priscilla Castro.

Authorities had previously said Castro was reported missing after she went on a date with Victor Serriteno two days before the fire. She was not seen again.

"Based on an extensive, eight-month investigation, we believe Serriteno deliberately set the Markley Fire in an attempt to conceal his crime," Tom Ferrara, the Solano County Sheriff, said in a briefing Wednesday.

The LNU Lightning Complex was one of the largest wildfires in California's history AFP / JOSH EDELSON

Serriteno, who was arrested in September and accused of killing Castro, now faces additional charges of arson and the murders of both men -- 82-year-old Douglas Mai and 64-year old Leon "James" Bone -- who died in their homes as a result of the fire.

The Markley Fire later merged with a series of other fires to form the LNU Lightning Complex, one of the largest wildfires in the state's history, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The other fires were believed to have been sparked after nearly 11,000 lightning strikes hit the northern part of the state as it endured a historic heatwave

Collectively, the fire complex scorched over 363,000 acres across California's famed wine country and burned down almost 1,500 structures after forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.

The massive inferno tore through the area north of San Francisco for two months and killed six people.

Sex Sells: China Farm Region Becomes 'Lingerie Capital'

"Youth attitudes are catching up and bringing sensuality into the home. (Lingerie) is becoming popular," said Li Yue, a local lingerie factory worker.

By Dan Martin on April 25 2021 

Americans like their lingerie to be risque, Europeans prefer it more classy, and Chinese remain a bit shy but are opening up. But the biggest order of all came from North Korea.

So goes the street-corner discussion in Guanyun, a sleepy coastal county that for generations followed the rhythms of wheat and rice cultivation, but today concerns itself with global preferences on sensual wear.

Guanyun county is China's self-proclaimed 'Lingerie Capital', where sewing machines hum in village-level micro-factories to meet demand at home and abroad AFP / Hector RETAMAL

The flat farming region between Beijing and Shanghai is China's self-proclaimed "Lingerie Capital", where sewing machines hum in village-level micro-factories to meet up to 70 percent of the fast-growing domestic demand.

Millions more items are exported annually in a textbook example of the ability of internet-enabled Chinese entrepreneurs to profit from even the most off-the-wall idea.

The man widely credited with lighting the spark is Lei Congrui, a lanky 30-year-old with a ponytail and cap who would look at home on a skateboard. It all happened almost by accident.

Lee Congrui employs more than 100 workers who produce lingerie that brings in more than $1.5 million in annual revenue AFP / Hector RETAMAL

As a teenager, Lei began making extra cash by hawking various consumer goods on China's rapidly growing e-commerce sites 15 years ago.

"Customers kept asking if we have any lingerie. I had never heard of it before, but I just said 'yes' and then looked up what it was," he said.

Lei "figured out a way" and now employs more than 100 workers who push lacy black and red panties and bustiers through stitching machines. His brands such as "Midnight Charm" pull in more than $1.5 million in annual revenue, he said.

Guanyun's government says there are now more than 500 factories employing tens of thousands and churning out more than $300 million worth of lingerie annually AFP / Hector RETAMAL

The success of early movers like Lei inspired an industrial revolution.

Guanyun's government says there are now more than 500 factories employing tens of thousands and churning out more than $300 million worth of lingerie annually.

Chang Kailin, who runs a factory and is Lei's uncle, says the lingerie industry has helped people in the area shake off poverty AFP / Hector RETAMAL

Loosening Chinese sexual attitudes made it all possible.

Communism left a prevailing legacy of modesty. Pornography is banned and authorities launch periodic crackdowns on anything deemed "vulgar".

Market consultancy iiMedia says Chinese online sales of sex-related products grew 50 percent in 2019 to $7 billion AFP / Hector RETAMAL

But prolonged exposure to more open foreign attitudes is liberating a younger generation, especially women.

Market consultancy iiMedia said Chinese online sales of sex-related products grew 50 percent in 2019 to $7 billion. It predicted a further 35 percent growth in 2020 despite pandemic disruptions.

"Youth attitudes are catching up and bringing sensuality into the home. (Lingerie) is becoming popular," said Li Yue, a local lingerie factory worker.

Lingerie has transformed Guanyun, with factories sprouting up next to wheat fields AFP / Hector RETAMAL

When Lei first started, most buyers were over 30 and many had lived abroad or had some other exposure to foreign ways.

But by around 2013, volumes soared as younger Chinese consumers began discovering their sensuality, Lei said. Most buyers are now between 22 and 25.

Initially, loose-fitting, not-too-revealing designs were favoured in China. Today, semi-transparent, "body-hugging" numbers dominate.

Lei Congrui (R) says his biggest single lingerie order, worth $1 million, came from a mysterious North Korean buyer in 2012. The customer abruptly backed out without explanation and the merchandise was sold elsewhere AFP / Hector RETAMAL

Guanyun's industrial reinvention didn't happen overnight. Early pioneers found it hard to hire squeamish local staff.

"When they first came in contact with these things, they didn't quite understand," said Chang Kailin, 58, who runs a factory and is Lei's uncle.

"But after the industry got bigger and stronger, people could make money and shake off poverty."

"Now everyone loves it."

Lei exports 90 percent of his output, mostly to the United States and Europe.

Significant volumes also go to South America, where sales indicate role-playing costumes rule the bedroom.

Middle Eastern buyers -- favouring longer, more modest items -- are also surprisingly active, as are Africans, who like a splash of colour. Southeast Asia is growing fast as well.

But Lei's biggest single order, worth $1 million, came from a mysterious North Korean buyer in 2012. The customer abruptly backed out without explanation and the merchandise was sold elsewhere.

Lingerie has transformed Guanyun, with factories sprouting up next to wheat fields, and newfound wealth displayed in new homes and cars.

Previously, many of the county's roughly one million inhabitants left for the hard life of a migrant worker in far-off factories. No more, said Li, the garment worker.

"Working away from home, you get homesick," said the mother of two.

"These companies allow us to come home to work. It's not easy out there."

Guanyun is feeding its golden goose.

It has broken ground on a $500 million, 1,700-acre (690-hectare) lingerie-themed industrial zone that will "integrate R&D and design, fabric accessories, e-commerce operations, warehousing and logistics".

Pandemic lockdowns last year hit output. It has since roared back, but demand remains tepid in overseas markets still struggling with the coronavirus while home-bound consumers are concentrating spending on basic household necessities, said Lei.

"After these problems are solved," he says with a smile, "they will be ready to play again."

lust-for-life.org/Lust-For-Life/_Textual/WilhelmReich_TheSexualRevolution-TowardsASelfRegulatingCharacterStructure_TheresePol-translator_1945_324pp/WilhelmReich_TheSexualRevolution-TowardsASelfRegulatingCharacterStructure_TheresePol-translator_1945_324pp.pdf

LONG LIVE THE BOURGEOIS DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION
China Warns US Against Imposing Democratic Ideals After Biden Speech
By AFP News on April 29 2021 

China warned the United States on Thursday against imposing its democratic ideals, while criticising trade sanctions and military moves in Beijing's backyard just hours after President Biden's speech on American geopolitical priorities.

The remarks came after Biden's first address to Congress, in which the US leader placed a renewed focus on diplomacy and said the country was in competition with China and others to win the 21st century.

Biden added that "autocrats think democracies can't compete", while noting the US welcomes competition and is not looking for conflict.

Asked about the speech, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said it was normal for the US and China to compete in some areas.

"But this kind of competition should be a track and field race, not a duel to the death," he told a regular press briefing on Thursday.

Wang also warned that "forcing other countries to accept one's democratic system... will only create divisions, intensify tension, and undermine stability."

China on Thursday warned the US against imposing its democratic ideals just hours after President Biden's speech on the US' geopolitical priorities POOL / JIM WATSON

In his speech, President Biden also said the US would stand up to unfair trade practices such as subsidies for state-owned enterprises and intellectual property theft.

COMMUNIST CAPITALI$M
But China lashed out a day later at the US for "violating the market principle of fair competition" and "politicising" issues such as the economy, trade and technology, in reference to the trade war between both countries in recent years.

YES VIRGINIA ALL CAPITALI$M IS STATE CAPITALI$M 

TO A VARYING DEGREE

"China is committed to developing a relationship with the US based on non-conflict and non-confrontation," Wang said.

While Biden said he told Chinese President Xi Jinping the US would maintain a strong military presence in the Indo-Pacific to prevent conflict -- just as it did with NATO in Europe -- China highlighted issues with US deployments in the region.

China's defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian added in a separate statement Thursday that, since the inauguration of the current US government, the frequency of US warships sent to China's maritime territory increased by 20 percent from last year.

The frequency of reconnaissance aircraft activity in the region also increased by 40 percent, Wu added, saying that China "resolutely opposes this".

"The US frequently sends warships and planes to carry out activities in maritime waters and airspace near China, advancing regional militarisation and threatening regional peace and stability," he said.

Afghanistan's Last Jew Eyes Exit Ahead Of Taliban Return

By Jay Deshmukh and Usman Sharifi on April 29 2021 

For decades, Zebulon Simentov refused to leave Afghanistan -- surviving a Soviet invasion, deadly civil war, brutal rule by the Taliban and the US-led occupation of his homeland.

But enough is enough for Afghanistan's last Jew, and the prospect of the Taliban's return has him preparing to say goodbye.

"Why should I stay? They call me an infidel," Simentov told AFP at Kabul's only synagogue, housed in an old building in the centre of the Afghan capital.

"I'm the last, the only Jew in Afghanistan... It could get worse for me here. I have decided to leave for Israel if the Taliban returns."

The prospect of the Taliban's return has Zebulon Simentov 

preparing to say goodbye to Afghanistan AFP / WAKIL KOHSAR

That appears likely given the deal struck by Washington to withdraw all US forces by later this year, and ongoing peace talks between the insurgents and the Afghan government.

Born in the 1950s in the western city of Herat, Simentov moved to Kabul during the Soviet invasion in the early 1980s for the capital's then relative stability.

Jews lived in Afghanistan for more than 2,500 years, with tens of thousands once residing in Herat, where four synagogues still stand -- testimony to the community's ancient presence.

But they have steadily left the country since the 19th century, with many now living in Israel.

Simentov is now certain he is the last Afghan Jew in the country 

 AFP / WAKIL KOHSAR

Over the decades, all Simentov's relatives left -- including his wife and two daughters.

He is now certain he is the last Afghan Jew in the country.

Dressed in a traditional Afghan tunic and trousers, a black Jewish kippah and tefillin on his forehead, Simentov fondly remembers the years before the Soviet war as the best time for Afghanistan.

"Followers of every religion and sect had full freedom at that time," said Simentov, who calls himself a proud Afghan.

Simentov continues to mark the Jewish new year Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holidays at the synagogue -- sometimes even accompanied by Muslim friends

AFP / WAKIL KOHSAR

But events since have made him bitter -- particularly the Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, when the Islamists tried to convert him.

"This disgraceful Taliban regime put me in prison four times," he said.

In one incident they ransacked the temple -- a large room painted in white with an altar at one end -- tore books in Hebrew text, broke Menorahs and took away the antique Torah, he said, still simmering with anger.

Simentov fears what lies ahead if he stays AFP / WAKIL KOHSAR

"The Taliban said this is the Islamic Emirate and Jews had no rights here," he said.

Still, he refused to leave.

"I have resisted. I have made the religion of Moses proud here," Simentov said, kissing the floor of the synagogue.

He continues to mark the Jewish new year Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holidays at the synagogue -- sometimes even accompanied by Muslim friends.

"If it weren't for me, the synagogue would have been sold 10, 20 times by now," he said, as he limped across to his living quarters next to the temple.

Simentov, who lives off handouts from friends and relatives, prepares his meals on a small gas stove placed on a red carpet in the room.

On a table in a corner are some books and old photographs of his daughters.

He says when the Taliban were ousted in 2001, he believed Afghanistan would prosper.

"I thought the Europeans and Americans would fix this country... but that didn't happen," he said.

Simentov's neighbours will be sorry to see him go.

"He is a good man," said Shakir Azizi, who owns a grocery store in front of the synagogue.

"He has been my customer for 20 years. If he leaves, we will miss him and his presence."

But Simentov fears what lies ahead if he stays.

"The Taliban are still the same as 21 years ago," he said.

"I have lost faith in Afghanistan... there is no more life here."

Colombians Protest Tax Reform Proposal Amid Pandemic

By Lina VANEGAS on April 29 2021 

Tens of thousands of people marched in Colombia Wednesday against a proposed tax reform they say will leave them poorer as the country battles its deadliest phase yet of the coronavirus pandemic.

President Ivan Duque's government wants to tax the incomes of those earning more than $656 a month, lowering the threshold to broaden the tax base.

It also wants to impose a tax on basic services in upper-middle class areas and on funerals.

The measures are meant to raise some $6.3 billion in ten years for the country which saw GDP drop 6.8 percent in 2020 -- its worst performance in half a century.

Protesters take to the streets of Bogota to denounce proposed tax reforms on April 28, 2021 AFP / JUAN BARRETO

Protesters took to the streets of several cities to denounce the reforms which they see as an unwarranted attack on the middle class in a time of dire economic straits.

"We do not accept the tax reform. We are thinking of our children, of ourselves... Either we die of the virus or we die of hunger," said protester Victor Cordoba, 33.

Some 47,500 police and security personnel were deployed countrywide.

In the southeastern city of Cali, indigenous protesters pulled down a statue of Spanish conquistador Sebastian de Belalcazar AFP / PAOLA MAFLA

Colombia, where almost one in five people are unemployed and the minimum wage is the equivalent of $248 per month, is battling a deadly new wave of Covid-19.

Its planned reform "will make millions more Colombians go hungry," said Francisco Maltese, president of the CUT workers' union.

In Bogota, thousands marched on the central square, which houses the presidency and congress, to the rhythm of drums.

Protesters clashed with police in Bogota AFP / Raul ARBOLEDA

Caravans of taxis, trucks and motorbikes slowed traffic on the capital's main roads, and there were reports of confrontations with police.

"We are tired of abuse the population must endure ... we are tired of our president not doing anything about it. We are more afraid of our government than of the virus," protester Added Felipe Zapata, 24, told AFP in Bogota.

In the southeastern city of Cali, indigenous protesters pulled down a statue of Spanish conquistador Sebastian de Belalcazar.

Cali mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina said one person died in an incident "related to the demonstration," and advanced to 1:00 pm the 6:00 pm curfew in place for epidemic control.

Thousands more people marched in Medellin, Barranquilla and other cities.

There had been calls for the demonstrations to be canceled given the pandemic risk, and a court on Tuesday ordered that the gatherings be postponed -- a ruling that went unheeded.

Colombia's rights ombudsman also decried the decision to hold mass protests "in this period of such high risk to health and life."

With 2.8 million Covid-19 cases, the country of 50 million inhabitants has the third-highest coronavirus infections in Latin America, behind Brazil and Argentina. It has registered some 72,200 deaths.

While Duque has sought to portray the tax reform as a tool to mitigate the economic crisis unleashed by the pandemic, the initiative faces many obstacles in a legislature where the ruling party has no outright majority.