City Pop: the soundtrack to Japan's boom years goes viral

Posted : 2022-02-22 

In this picture taken on Feb. 6, disk jockey (DJ) Kei Notoya, who has collected around City Pop 3,000 records, looks through various Japanese records from the 1970s and 1980s in Tokyo. AFP-Yonhap

Tel Liyanto wasn't alive during Japan's 1980s boom, but she loves the "timeless" City Pop hits of the era, now going viral thanks to a new generation of young, international fans.

The glamorous soundtrack that accompanied the country's economic miracle is exploding in popularity decades after its upbeat synths, influenced by soft rock, boogie and soul, first hit the airwaves.

The retro genre is so hot that Canadian star The Weeknd sampled the 1983 track "Midnight Pretenders" on his latest release, and record companies are racing to reissue long-forgotten City Pop vinyl.

"It's like disco: a nostalgic sound, but also modern," said Liyanto, a 27-year-old from Indonesia who works for a creative agency, as she danced to City Pop in a Tokyo bar.

"I listen to it when I'm dancing, I listen to it when I'm chilling," she told AFP.

From its origins in niche online music circles, the revival was amplified by YouTube's algorithm, which detects when a song is being liked and shared and recommends it worldwide.

The most popular tracks, like Mariya Takeuchi's "Plastic Love", have tens of millions of views on YouTube.

The song's funk bass line and flamboyant brass have the optimistic vibe of "Club Tropicana" by Wham! ― but the soaring Japanese vocals tell another story.

"Since the day I was heartbroken, I've been living life with day and night reversed," Takeuchi sings in the track that commenters call a "hidden gem."

"Why am I suddenly listening to Japanese 80s pop? And why is it so good?" wrote one.



In this picture taken on Feb. 2, disk jockey (DJ) Kei Notoya, who has collected around City Pop 3,000 records, poses for a photo following an interview with AFP at a studio in his house in the Koganei area of Tokyo. AFP-Yonhap

Fresh, but familiar

Kei Notoya, a 33-year-old DJ, was hooked by City Pop the first time he heard it at a university party.

He has since collected around 3,000 records, some of which sell out in seconds from his online shop Tokyo Condition.

"Japanese music back then copied a lot of American rock, soul, RB," he told AFP. "It sounds fresh, but at the same time, familiar."

"People who weren't born can feel the energy, the atmosphere of the 80s and 70s by listening to these songs."

The buzz has prompted Japanese record companies to upload more of their back catalogue onto streaming services.

But the huge number of "slept-on" songs ― ignored for many years, but recently unearthed by music lovers ― keeps interest in the genre alive, Notoya said.

He boasts of "new finds every week" in second-hand record shops, and released the compilation "Tokyo Glow" in December.

The Weeknd's sample of Tomoko Aran's hit on his new track "Out of Time" is "the most mainstream example of any Japanese older music being introduced to a wider audience", said Patrick St Michel, a Japan-based music writer.

"Midnight Pretenders" was reissued on vinyl last year along with other City Pop favorites including "Plastic Love", which has also been refreshed with a modern-day music video by record label Warner Japan.



This picture taken on Feb. 2 shows some of the 3,000 City Pop records collected by disk jockey (DJ) Kei Notoya at a studio in his house in the Koganei area of Tokyo. AFP-Yonhap

'Not pure hedonism'

Gary Ieong, the co-owner of White Noise Records in Hong Kong, said that while fans prefer hunting for original City Pop presses, the "Plastic Love" reissue has been "really popular" in his shop.

Young people who listen to the song on YouTube want to buy the reissue "as a souvenir, or for the artwork", he told AFP.

The music is also popular on TikTok, where fans match their favorite tracks to anime-style sunset illustrations or dance along in 80s clothes.

But beyond cheesy fun, new listeners are also drawn to City Pop by the "element of melancholy lurking within," said St Michel.

"That's something that creeps through all the City Pop songs and gains them virality. There's something sad about it too ― it's not pure hedonism."

Nothing lasts forever though, and early trendsetters who started getting into City Pop online in the 2010s are already moving on, St Michel said.

They have "already kind of said clearly, 'it's already over for us, we're moving on to the 90s'."

"It's like a race to find what internet crowds will be into. But they're the ones to decide," he added.

"That's the beauty of it." (AFP)

Chilean film 'Bestia' depicts torture with animation




Director Hugo with the tiny set for his Oscar-nominated short film 'Beast' 

(AFP/MARTIN BERNETTI)

Miguel SANCHEZ
Mon, February 21, 2022,

Nominated for this year's Oscars, Chilean short film "Bestia" (Beast) uses animation, an art form more often associated with children's movies, to deal with a macabre topic: the sexual torture of women.

The 15-minute film about the life of Ingrid Olderock -- a particularly cruel agent of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet -- took 20 people three years to make.

It tells a story of the inner struggles of Olderock, the daughter of German Nazi sympathizers, who made it her life's work to psychologically break women prisoners, including using dogs to sexually assault them.

Olderock (1944-2001) worked at a detention center that specialized in the sexual torture of leftist Pinochet opponents.

"Bestia" employs the "stop motion" technique of photographing objects -- in this case dolls -- which are physically manipulated between frames. Those frames are then strung together in a series to create the impression of independent movement.

"Bestia" director Hugo Covarrubias, 44, talked to AFP about how he chose the topic -- and the medium -- to tell the story of one of the most sinister chapters of the Chilean dictatorship.

Q: Why Olderock?

A: She embodies the evil that reigned in Chile during the dictatorship... As a woman, she trained women to torture women.

A person so dedicated to breaking souls obviously has to have had her own broken at some point.

Olderock had many mental problems. She was a very paranoid woman, with a lot of trauma.

It (the film) is a psychological fiction, where we get inside her mind and try to show how all this mental trouble ends up representing an entire country. The trauma of a country (is seen) through the evil this woman represents.

Q: What is the role of her dog in the film?

A: One of the aspects we wanted to touch on was the intimate relationship with her dog.

She had three dogs, but we "fictionalized" that part and wanted to show the most important dog, which was Volodya, and little by little the film reveals what she does with the dog.

In reality, what she was doing was training dogs to commit torture, mainly to rape women.

Q: Why use stop-motion?

A: I’ve been working on this technique since 2005. It is basically what I know how to do. We like it because there is a plastic component, manual and analog, that allows us to create worlds that would be very difficult to create digitally.

We use miniature sets made of cardboard, and characters about 25 centimeters (10 inches) tall made with articulated steel, fabric and polyurethane.

Q: Why do you think the film has found acclaim abroad?

A: "Beast" stands out for the theme, the aesthetics, for the way in which this political topic is handled.

Also the genre: a psychological and political thriller that ended up being a short film that was quite different from the rest, which does not have a happy ending...

It is quite raw and powerful.

From time to time, people want this kind of power in a movie...

It causes different kinds of sensations, emotion and repulsion, it is a very strange experience. I think that the... sensations people experience with this short film -- I think it is what has made us get where we are.

Q: What does the Oscar nomination mean for you?

A: It gives more credibility to your film and obviously opens career doors for the film director and the team.

But the most important thing is the topic and the people who suffered this type of harassment.

---

Chile has three Oscars to date: Claudio Miranda won best photography for "Life of Pi" (2013), "Bear Story" (2014) won best animated short film, and "A Fantastic Woman" (2017) best foreign-language film.

"Bestia" has won prizes at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the Guadalajara International Film Festival.

msa/pb/ltl/mlr/bbk

Behind Cape Town's heavenly beaches, the hell of dog fighting






Mon, February 21, 2022

Ocean View is a contender for one of the world's most ironic place names.

Stuck between mountains and exquisite white-sand beaches, this distant suburb of Cape Town has, in fact, no sea vista.

It was created in 1968 by South Africa's apartheid regime as a "township" for so-called coloured people, who themselves had been forced out of areas that looked out on the Atlantic.

Houses made of stone and brick lie among vacant, grassless lots, signalling a middle-class life by South African standards -- one without extreme wealth or poverty, but still touched by the country's rampant problems of unemployment, substance abuse and crime.

Breeding or owning a fierce dog is part of the local culture -- to protect one's home from burglars, for instance.

But some turn to dog fighting, a brutal and illegal activity, for fun and money, pitting pitbulls and other hounds bred and trained to kill against each other.

"These fights can get the owner between 5,000 and 20,000 rand ($330-1,300 / 300- 1,200 euros) if his dog wins," said one dog owner, who said he had given up the business.

Combat takes place in a ring, which is set up either in an apartment or "in the bush", out in the countryside, where the noise of barking or distressed dogs cannot be heard by passers-by.

Owners set the date for the fight around eight months in advance, giving them enough time to raise and maltreat a dog so that it is ready to fight with mindless ferocity.

Combat continues until one dog dies. "It can last between 40 minutes to three hours," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Police try to crack down on the illegal activity, often using informers to bust a network, said an insider.

But dogs are not just bred for fighting.

Having a fierce dog provides social status as a sign of virility, and also provides protection.

"Nobody will jump over my fence because my dog is a bad one," said one owner proudly.

str-ger/ri/imm/oho

Breeding ban for bulldogs and cavaliers in Norway


King Charles spaniels as well as English bulldogs face a breeding ban in Norway (AFP/Petter Berntsen)

Pierre-Henry DESHAYES
Mon, February 21, 2022, 10:29 PM·3 min read

Cavalier King Charles Spaniels are known for their tiny heads, English bulldogs for their smushed wrinkled muzzles -- traits their owners love.

But in an unprecedented move, Norway has banned the breeding of these dogs because being cute is causing them suffering.

In a recent ruling, the Oslo district court banned the breeding of the two purebreds on the grounds that it inflicts harm on them, in violation of Norwegian animal protection laws.

Hailed by animal rights activists and criticised by breeders, the verdict comes amid a growing debate: is the quest for cute pets going to extremes at the expense of the animals' well-being?

"A lot of our breeds are highly inbred and have a massive burden of disease," Ashild Roaldset, the head of the Norwegian Animal Welfare Society, told AFP.

Her organisation brought the legal case against dogbreeding companies and individuals.

"We need to change the way we breed dogs," she said. "The way we breed dogs was maybe acceptable 50 years ago but is not acceptable anymore."

Inbreeding has caused the two breeds to develop a "disease guarantee", a long list of hereditary illnesses that affect most individuals, if not all.

Fierce-looking but gentle -- and since World War II a symbol of British tenacity -- the English bulldog has developed respiratory difficulties due to its flattened muzzle, as well as dermatological, reproductive and orthopaedic problems.

More than half of all bulldogs born in Norway over the past 10 years had to be delivered by Caesarian section.

"The race's genetic inability to give birth naturally is reason alone for bulldogs not to be used for breeding," the district court judges wrote in their ruling.

As for cavaliers -- which have won the hearts of many over the years, from Queen Victoria to Ronald Reagan and Sylvester Stallone -- they often suffer headaches because their skull is too small. They also have heart and eye problems.

Roaldset said these diseases cannot be bred away with other purebreds from abroad due to an overall lack of genetic diversity.

The two breeds will eventually be led to extinction, she said.

"And it's going to be painful for them because they're just going to get more and more diseases," she said.

- 'Puppy factories' -

The January 31 court ruling has been appealed and has therefore not come into force yet.

But it delivered a shock to professional breeders.

"In the judgement it was said that the dogs are born with headaches, I cannot understand that," says Lise Gran-Henriksen, who has been a breeder for 25 years, as she watches five of her Cavalier King Charles Spaniels frolic on the ice outside her Oslo home.

"If so, they would not be so happy. They are happy dogs that run around and look very healthy, and that's what I think they are," she insists.

Professional breeders readily admit that the two breeds do pose "challenges", but say these can be overcome by selective breeding of individuals that meet certain requirements.

In addition, they note that the court ruling does not ban the ownership, sale or import of bulldogs or cavaliers -- only their breeding.

Walking her English bulldog Oscar in an Oslo park, Anne Grethe Holen fears a rise in "undocumented dogs" from "puppy factories" abroad.

"Demand will not decline. And the dogs that are sold will be more sick," she says.

"They won't be subjected to any veterinary requirements and you won't know anything about their pedigree," she adds.

Meanwhile, the Animal Welfare Society says the future of the two breeds lies in crossbreeding them with other types of dogs to get rid of their genetic flaws.

"If the cavalier gets a slightly larger skull to fit their brain, it's still... going to be the cutest dog in the world," says Roaldset.

"And if the bulldog gets a little bit less wrinkly, a little bit longer snout and a better skeleton, it's not going to be a horrible dog.

"It's going to look a little bit different, but you can still call it a bulldog."

phy/po/bsp

Working-class hero? Ex-factory boy aims for South Korean presidency


South Korean presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung is hoping his working-class credentials will convince voters he is the best man to fix inequality 

(AFP/Jung Yeon-je)


Kang Jin-kyu
Mon, February 2022

Cultural hits from Netflix show "Squid Game" to Oscar-winner "Parasite" have raised South Korean inequality to global prominence, and one presidential hopeful claims his working-class credentials make him the best man to fix a broken system.

Former child factory worker Lee Jae-myung, a school dropout maimed in an industrial accident as a teen, is the ruling Democratic Party's maverick candidate in the March 9 election.

A rarity for politicians in status-obsessed South Korea, Lee is playing up his rags-to-riches tale in a bid to convince voters he can solve their economic woes.

Sky-high real estate prices, stagnant growth and stubborn youth unemployment are among voters' top concerns in an election where polling is neck-and-neck and the campaign has been dominated by mud-slinging.

From universal basic income to government-funded hair-loss treatment, former mayor and provincial governor Lee is proposing a slew of unorthodox policies that his campaign says are a reflection of his impoverished childhood.

"You can worry about people outside shivering in the cold while you sit in your warm living room," Lee told AFP in an exclusive interview in his campaign van.

"But you can never really understand their pain."

The opposition decries his proposals as populist, saying Lee is trying to "buy votes with free money" and will "burden the next generation with debt".

And a series of scandals have marred Lee's run for top office: his wife was accused of misappropriating public funds; he is being scrutinised over a suspect land development deal, and he is dogged by rumours of mafia ties.

He started his campaign by being forced to apologise for a profanity-laden family phone call, and was the subject of a controversial book describing his efforts to section his brother in a mental hospital.

- No bow tie -

Last year, his campaign published two photographs: one showing a floppy-haired young Lee in an ill-fitting suit, the other of teenage Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate for the People Power Party, in a bow tie.

It was an effort to hammer home the contrast between Yoon, raised in an affluent family, and Lee, who dropped out of school at 11 then put himself through night school.

Lee's story appears to resonate with supporters. At a recent rally in the central city of Cheongju, many waved placards saying: "Only those who know the pain of hunger understand the tears of the ordinary people."

But it is unclear whether it will be enough to propel him to victory in a tight race, with most recent polls falling within the margin for error. One survey released Tuesday showed Yoon in the lead by 2.5 percent.

Political analyst Park Sang-byoung said how the candidates perform in two upcoming televised debates, and whether they can broaden their message to attract swing voters, would be decisive.

In the 1970s, Lee was working in a glove factory as South Korea underwent a rapid economic rise, largely driven by manufacturing.

Labour rights activist Chun Soon-ok, whose brother self-immolated to protest brutal working conditions in South Korean factories back then, said it was a terrible time for manual labourers.

"Managers at the time didn't treat us as human beings," she said.

Lee told AFP: "It was a repressive era and managers dressed in military uniform would beat up junior workers. I figured I could only save myself from a beating if I became a manager, a position that required a high school degree."

After his arm got stuck in a press aged 13, he was left permanently disabled and became "suicidal", but night school and a law school scholarship gave him a way out.

He became a human rights lawyer, before entering politics in 2010.

It is "unheard of" for a former child labourer to become an elected politician, said Lee Sang-don, a former MP who taught Lee law at university in the early 1980s.

Although other politicians such as former president Roh Moo-hyun have grown up poor, South Korea's legislature is dominated by the wealthy and well-connected, with most parliamentarians classed as millionaires according to their declared assets.

- Universal basic income -

Lee's political rise has coincided with growing domestic concern over inequality, and his move in 2019 as governor of Gyeonggi province to give cash handouts to young adults captured the zeitgeist.

He also rolled out free school uniforms and free maternity care, and in early 2020 offered his constituents the country's first pandemic relief funds.

If he wins next month, he has pledged to expand his universal basic income scheme nationwide, saying he'll give 1 million won ($835) each year to every adult.

"I had to work in a factory because I couldn't pay for school," he told AFP, explaining his rationale.

"My parents were cleaners. I escaped poverty, but many around me are still stuck... I want to change the system."

kjk/ceb/leg/dhc

Indian 16-year-old stuns chess world champion Carlsen


Indian chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in 2016 became the youngest international master in history at age 10

 (AFP/ARUN SANKAR) (ARUN SANKAR)

Tue, February 22, 2022

Indian teenage chess grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa won praise Tuesday for a stunning victory over world number one Magnus Carlsen in an online championship.

Praggnanandhaa, 16, who in 2016 became the youngest international master in history at age 10, beat Carlsen late on Monday at the Airthings Masters rapid chess tournament.

"It's about time to go to bed as I don't think I will have dinner at 2.30 in the morning," a visibly calm Praggnanandhaa said after the 39-move victory playing black.

Others have beaten Carlsen -- including Indians Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna -- but Praggnanandhaa is the youngest since the Norwegian became world champion in 2013.

Anand, a five-time world champion and acclaimed as the greatest chess player India has produced, tweeted: "Always proud of our talents! Very good day for @rpragchess."

Indian cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar also joined in the praise for Chennai-born Praggnanandhaa, widely regarded as a future world title challenger.

"What a wonderful feeling it must be for Pragg. All of 16, and to have beaten the experienced & decorated Magnus Carlsen, and that too while playing black, is magical!," Tendulkar wrote on Twitter.

"Best wishes on a long & successful chess career ahead. You've made India proud!"

Carlsen, 31, appeared to blunder in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event for a total prize pool of over $1.5 million.

On Monday, Carlsen had said he was still feeling the after-effects of a recent coronavirus infection.

"It was better today, but the first couple of days, I was feeling like I am okay but I don't have any energy and it was kind of hard to focus," Carlsen said.

Carlsen won his fifth straight world chess title in December, overcoming Ian Nepomniachtchi in a contest that saw the Russian lose his nerve after losing an epic eight-hour game, the longest ever played at a world championships.

The teenager's victory follows an underwhelming performance in the tournament so far where his previous victory came in the eighth round over grandmaster Levon Aronian.

"His results in the past six months has swung between extremes," Praggnanandhaa's coach RB Ramesh was quoted as saying on ESPN.

"The fluctuation can be worrying and needs to be stabilised. This win against Magnus is important. Beating one of the strongest players in chess history is a huge moment for him."

fk/stu/dh

Indian grandmaster, 16, beats world chess champion Magnus Carlsen

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who in 2016 became the youngest international master in history at 10, beats Carlsen in online championship.

Published On 22 Feb 202222 Feb 2022

India’s teenage chess grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa has won praise for a stunning victory over world number one Magnus Carlsen in an online championship.

Praggnanandhaa, 16, who in 2016 became the youngest international master in history at age 10, beat Carlsen late on Monday at the Airthings Masters rapid chess tournament.end of list

“It’s about time to go to bed as I don’t think I will have dinner at 2.30 in the morning,” a visibly calm Praggnanandhaa said after the 39-move victory playing black.

Others have beaten Carlsen – including Indians Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna – but Praggnanandhaa is the youngest since the Norwegian became world champion in 2013.

Anand, a five-time world champion and acclaimed as the greatest chess player India has produced, tweeted: “Always proud of our talents! Very good day for @rpragchess.”

Indian cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar also joined in the praise for Chennai-born Praggnanandhaa, widely regarded as a future world title challenger.

“What a wonderful feeling it must be for Pragg. All of 16, and to have beaten the experienced & decorated Magnus Carlsen, and that too while playing black, is magical!,” Tendulkar wrote on Twitter.

“Best wishes on a long & successful chess career ahead. You’ve made India proud!”

Carlsen, 31, appeared to blunder in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event for a total prize pool of more than $1.5m.

On Monday, Carlsen had said he was still feeling the after-effects of a recent coronavirus infection.

“It was better today, but the first couple of days, I was feeling like I am okay but I don’t have any energy and it was kind of hard to focus,” Carlsen said.

Carlsen won his fifth straight world chess title in December, overcoming Ian Nepomniachtchi in a contest that saw the Russian lose his nerve after losing an epic eight-hour game, the longest ever played at a world championship.

The teenager’s victory follows an underwhelming performance in the tournament so far where his previous victory came in the eighth round over grandmaster Levon Aronian.

“His results in the past six months has swung between extremes,” Praggnanandhaa’s coach RB Ramesh was quoted as saying on ESPN.

“The fluctuation can be worrying and needs to be stabilised. This win against Magnus is important. Beating one of the strongest players in chess history is a huge moment for him.”

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

UN experts slam online attacks on Indian journalist


Mon, 21 February 2022

UN rights experts have called for an end to 'misogynistic and sectarian' online attacks against Indian journalist Rana Ayyub, seen here in 2016 

(AFP/CHANDAN KHANNA) (CHANDAN KHANNA)

UN rights experts have called for an end to "misogynistic and sectarian" online attacks against a Muslim Indian woman journalist, asking the authorities to investigate the harassment.

Rana Ayyub, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hindu nationalist ideology of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been the target of a relentless campaign of online abuse -- including death and rape threats.

She is the "victim of intensifying attacks and threats online by far-right Hindu nationalist groups", the independent rapporteurs, who do not speak for the United Nations but are mandated to report to it, said in a statement Monday.

They said these attacks were in response to Ayyub's reporting on issues affecting India's minority Muslims, her criticism of the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and her commentary on the recent hijab ban at schools and colleges in the southern state of Karnataka.

The rapporteurs added that the Indian government had failed to condemn or investigate the attacks.

She "has been subjected to legal harassment by the Indian authorities in relation to her reporting", they said, including the freezing of her bank account and other assets.

Ayyub, 37, began as an investigative journalist and wrote a book accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being complicit in deadly sectarian violence in Gujarat in 2002, when he was state premier.

Investigators cleared Modi of involvement.

She has since become a commentator for The Washington Post and other media.

This week, the Post put out a full-page advert saying Ayyub faces threats almost daily and that the free press is "under attack" in India.

The Indian mission at the UN in Geneva tweeted in response to the rapporteurs' statement that allegations of "so-called judicial harassment are baseless & unwarranted", and that advancing "a misleading narrative only tarnishes" the UN's reputation.

Other journalists have also complained of increased harassment under Modi, whose government has been accused of trying to silence critical reporting.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders places India at a lowly 142 in its World Press Freedom Index, saying that under Modi, "pressure has increased on the media to toe the Hindu nationalist government's line".

"The coordinated hate campaigns waged on social networks against journalists who dare to speak or write about subjects that annoy Hindutva (hardline Hindu ideology) followers are terrifying and include calls for the journalists concerned to be murdered," according to RSF.

"The campaigns are particularly violent when the targets are women."

ash-stu/qan

Prominent anti-China activist arrested in Mongolia

Tue, 22 February 2022

Mongolian campaigner Munkhbayar Chuluundorj (pictured in 2015) was arrested Friday on suspicion of 'receiving instructions and funds from a foreign intelligence group', the country's spy agency said (AFP/Johannes EISELE) (Johannes EISELE)

A prominent anti-China activist has been arrested in Mongolia, part of what campaigners have said is a wider effort to "clean up" Beijing's critics in the country.

Landlocked Mongolia is dependent on mineral exports to its giant neighbours, Russia and China, but there have also been protests in the capital Ulaanbaatar over Beijing's language policy in Inner Mongolia.

Critics of the policy in the Chinese border region -- home to an estimated 4.5 million ethnic Mongolians -- say it mirrors moves in other areas such as Xinjiang and Tibet to assimilate local minorities into the dominant Han culture and eradicate minority languages.

Munkhbayar Chuluundorj was arrested Friday in Ulaanbaatar on suspicion of "receiving instructions and funds from a foreign intelligence group", the country's spy agency said.

The General Intelligence Agency (GIA) said he had "engaged in illegal cooperation activities" but gave no more details.

Campaigners said they suspected Munkhbayar's comments on China had brought him under official scrutiny.

In Facebook posts, he recently called for the Mongolian prime minister to resign over his close relationship with Beijing, saying "our nation's independence will be lost and all citizens of Mongolia will become slaves of China".

Footage of the arrest published by Mongolian outlet Eguur News showed a man being led away by armed police down a shop-lined road.

Visits from relatives are being denied and a closed-door trial is being held, the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre, an overseas NGO that advocates for ethnic Mongols, quoted his brother Munkh-erdene as saying.

The NGO said Munkhbayar is "one of the most vocal critics of the Mongolian government's cosy relationship with China".

Munkhbayar has "defended Inner Mongolian human rights, culture, history and land rights", according to Baljinima Bai, a language rights advocate originally from Inner Mongolia.

"Mongolia has started to 'clean up' these people... who oppose China," he told AFP.

Bai said he had also been summoned for questioning by the GIA in relation to Munkhbayar's case.

Inner Mongolian activists in Mongolia say they have faced threats and intimidation from authorities after a widespread protest movement against Chinese-language curriculum reforms across the border was met with a harsh police crackdown.

Activists also say China has pressured Mongolia to deport Inner Mongolian political refugees back to the country.

lxc-str/rox/leg/axn

 

GERMANY

Climate change activists block Hamburg port bridge

"Uprising of the Last Generation" is protesting Germany's high level of food waste, among other issues. The group said they have taken to more drastic measures after years of marching the streets and signing petitions. 

Activisits targeted the harbor because a huge amount of Germany's food imports pass through it

A group of young activists blocked a busy road in Hamburg on Monday, as rush-hour traffic was underway, to raise awareness about environmental issues.

The organization, known as "Uprising of the Last Generation," is comprised of climate change and environmental activists who have chosen to highlight the need for change through hunger strikes and road blockades. 

In Hamburg, protesters glued their hands onto the pavement to block the Köhlbrand bridge, while others barricaded the onramp as well as the nearby Kattwyck bridge.

What's behind the demonstrations?  

On Sunday, Uprising warned they planned to carry out disruptive protests, targeting airports and ports if the government does not commit to more legal measures aimed at preventing food waste. 

The activists are urging the German government to do more to reduce food waste

Germany throws away more food per capita than any other EU nation.

"We wish such a step were not necessary," Carla Hinrichs, a group spokesperson, told an online press conference, adding that if the government did not give a specific date to introduce a "food rescue law" in the Bundestag, the group would be forced to "stand up for everyone's survival" through what it described as civil resistance.

Demonstrators have said they also plan to target airports, not only in Hamburg but in Berlin and Munich as well.

Another group spokesperson, Aimee van Baalen, told Deutschlandfunk radio that they had decided to move to more drastic measures after years of "signing petitions and marching on the streets" had done little to bring about the changes necessary "to save humanity from environmental collapse."

jcg, es/wd (dpa, EPD)

EU sanctions target major Myanmar energy company

Brussels has imposed sanctions on 22 Myanmar officials and a state- owned oil and gas company that has been a major source of funding for the ruling junta.

Chaos and violence has gripped Myanmar since the military seized power in a coup in February 2021

The European Union has expanded its sanctions on Myanmar's military junta to include several key officials and four entities tied to the regime, as the bloc continues its response to last year's coup. 

It also targeted the lucrative, state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).

MOGE is seen as a major source of revenue for the junta. 

The military junta's brutal crackdown on resistance to its rule has drawn global condemnation. However, previous rounds of US and European sanctions against the junta have excluded oil and gas. 

"The European Union is deeply concerned by the continuing escalation of violence in Myanmar and the evolution towards a protracted conflict with regional implications," a statement read. 

"Since the military coup, the situation has continuously and gravely deteriorated."

The EU in its statement repeated called for "an immediate cessation of all hostilities, and an end to the disproportionate use of force and the state of emergency."

Asset freezes and travel bans were imposed on Monday on 22 people, including the ministers for investment, industry and information, officials at the election commission and senior military officials. 

Oil and gas company now on list of sanctions

Human rights groups in Myanmar and around the world had argued that slapping MOGE with sanctions would slash a crucial source of the military's funds.

According to government forecasts, revenues from natural gas account for nearly 50% of the Myanmar's foreign currency inflows. 

MOGE is also expected to earn $1.5 billion from offshore and pipeline projects in 2021-2022, the forecast said.

The sanctions on MOGE come a month after energy giants Total Energies and Chevron said they were exiting Myanmar over human rights abuse. 

MOGE was a venture partner in offshore gas projects, including the Yadana gas field.

There are now 65 officials and 10 companies on the EU list of sanctions.

Myanmar's military grabbed power from the democratically elected government in February 2021.

Armed resistance has followed the military takeover after widespread nonviolent protests were put down.

Over 1,500 people are reported to have been tortured or killed in the violence.

dvv/wmr (AFP, AP)