AMERIKA REMAINS A SLAVE STATE

Group of federal lawmakers working to remove slavery loophole in U.S. Constitution


Kirstin Garriss
Fri, June 17, 2022

Juneteenth is now a federal holiday marking the end of slavery, but a group of lawmakers says there’s a loophole that has allowed another form of slavery to evolve with forced involuntary labor inside the nation’s prison system.

The ACLU estimates that incarcerated workers produce at least two $2 billion in goods and $9 billion dollars worth of prison maintenance services a year, but those prisoners don’t earn much.

Daniel Rosen said he knows firsthand after serving 6 years in prison.

“You feel like property of the state. A lot prison uniforms say property of that state and it’s not about clothes you’re wearing it’s about the person,” said Rosen, a formerly incarcerated individual who now works for Worth Rises.

Rosen and Robert Willis, who spent 7 years in prison collectively, are part of a national push to improve workforce conditions for prisoners. These two formerly incarcerated men say they understand being held accountable for their crimes, but they say the process should be humane.

“Being dehumanized, not appreciated, and it actually affects you when you return back into society because you just spent the last number of years being you know in slave-like conditions,” said Robert Willis, formerly incarcerated individual and now Justice Advocacy Coordinator for Latino Justice.

A new ACLU report examining prison labor at the state and federal levels shows some states pay prisoners an average of 15 and 52 cents per hour but the state prison systems in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas don’t pay at all for a majority of its prison work

In a statement to the Washington News Bureau, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said humane treatment is a top priority and that “an inmate’s job assignment shall be made with consideration of the institution’s security and operational needs, and should be consistent with the safekeeping of the inmate and protection of the public.”

Georgia Congresswoman Nikema Williams is leading the effort to remove the slavery clause from the 13th amendment that still allows it as punishment for a crime.

“We’re building towards the future, we’re correcting those things from the past and this is one of those stains of our past that we absolutely need to address, she said.

Congresswoman Williams said she has more than 130 sponsors for the bill in the House which includes some Republican support.

“This an education piece, because I’ll be honest with you, before I came to Congress, I didn’t realize that this was a part of the Constitution,” said Williams. “I’m grateful to be having conversations with you so that we can make sure that people understand that this is still legal in our United States Constitution and that’s why we have to remove it…it’s about making sure that people are aware, and then taking the action to actually do something about it.”

Williams said she will need a two-thirds majority to pass because this is a Constitutional amendment. But Some Republicans aren’t supportive of the measure.

“Requiring convicted, able-bodied criminals, to perform meaningful work is in no way comparable to the atrocity of slave ownership,” said Congressman Ralph Norman (R – South Carolina) in a written statement. “This is another glaring example of how soft on crime the Democrat party has become. Prison is not a bed & breakfast, and it’s not asking too much for convicted criminals to work, especially since the rest of society is shouldered with the massive costs of their incarceration.”

But for Rosen and Willis, they say removing that clause sends a message to the prison system.

“That human rights matter because at the end of the day this is a human rights issue,” said Willis.

The ACLU is also pushing for incarcerated workers to get the same labor protections as other workers which would include earning minimum wage, setting health and safety standards and protection from discrimination.

LGBTQ/HUMAN RIGHTS 

VS RELIGIOUS RITES

Lithuanian bishops call for scrapping of same-sex partnership bill


 LGBTQ2 Pride parade in Vilnius


Sat, June 18, 2022
By Andrius Sytas

VILNIUS (Reuters) - Lithuanian bishops have called on politicians to vote down proposed same-sex partnership legislation, quoting words used by Pope Francis to argue that civil unions distort the concept of marriage and family.

Lithuania's parliament last month voted to accept for further debate a draft bill legalizing same-sex civil partnerships, after voting down a similar bill in May 2021.

In a pastoral letter to the faithful, the Lithuanian Bishops Conference -- a body which unites the country's bishops -- quoted a 2016 treatise by Pope Francis which states "de facto unions or unions of the same sex cannot simply be equated with marriage".

"The draft law on civil unions essentially proposes what Pope Francis urges us not to do - to equate de facto unions and same-sex unions with marriage. We cannot support this bill, which distorts and devalues the concepts of marriage and the family," the bishops wrote.

The bishops said civil partnership could be "a Trojan Horse" leading to civil marriage.

The letter did not touch on Pope Francis' 2020 declaration that gays should be protected by civil union laws.

An April 2021 an opinion poll found 70% of adult Lithuanians oppose same-sex partnerships.

Three quarters of Lithuania's 2.8 million population identify as Roman Catholics, and several parliamentarians called homosexuality a "sin" during the debate before the vote on taking the bill up for further readings.

In a nod to critics, the same-sex bill in the parliament no longer defines partnerships as an "emotional connection" or allows partners to assume a common surname.

"The law could better defend human dignity, but support was needed and this (wording) was the lowest threshold possible," said Gabrielius Landsbergis, head of the ruling Homeland Union party.

Lithuanian bishops have thrown their weight behind an alternative bill, also under consideration in the parliament, that would allow a group of people to declare a "close connection" and be given additional rights.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Christina Fincher)

Archaeologists Examining 'Extremely Rare' 1,300-Year-Old Ship They Need to Water Every 30 Minutes

Abigail Adams

Fri, June 17, 2023

An archaeologist from the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) sprays water during a hot day to maintain the moisture of an unearthed mysterious 1,300-year-old wreck during its presentation to the media in Villenave-d'Ornon near Bordeaux, southwestern France, on June 14, 2022.

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP via Getty

Archeologists in France have uncovered an "extremely rare" yet fragile shipwreck in France believed to be 1,300 years old.

The French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) revealed the 12-meter (40-foot) boat to the public Wednesday in Villenave-d'Ornon on the banks of the Garonne in southwest France, according to NBC News.

However, the wreck's beams of oak, chestnut and pine are delicate enough that air could destroy it, having not been in contact with oxygen or light since it sank, per the report.

Excavation leader Laurent Grimber told the outlet that workers "are watering" the partial remains of the wreck "every 30 minutes" as they aim to "limit the degradation of the wood."

Doing so, Grimber explained, is "especially" important at the moment as southwest France experiences a heatwave.

Two archaeologists from the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) look at a unearthed mysterious 1,300-year-old wreck before its presentation to the media in Villenave-d'Ornon near Bordeaux, southwestern France, on June 14, 2022.

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP via Getty

On its website, Inrap described the vessel as an "exceptional testimony to the naval architecture of the high Middle Ages," with radiocarbon dates between A.D. 680 and A.D. 720, per NBC News.

The excavation and dismantling portion of the shipwreck project is running on schedule and "should be finished by mid-September," Grimber told NBC News.

As it is cleared, the shipwreck will be "documented by photo surveys, 3D restitution, [and] topography," according to the institute. The pieces of wood will also be recorded "and numbered piece by piece" as the ship is taken apart.

An archaeologist from the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) removes a water pump keeping dry an unearthed mysterious 1,300-year-old wreck during its presentation to the media in Villenave-d'Ornon near Bordeaux, southwestern France, on June 14, 2022.

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP via Getty

Inrap called the wreck "an exceptional testimony to a little-known period of history, navigation and shipbuilding" and hopes to learn more about the ship's environment "and the reasons for its presence."

"This dismantling will allow a detailed analysis of the construction of the boat," the institute said on its website, calling the wreck "an essential operation to determine the naval architectural tradition to which it is attached."

Inrap said the shipwreck "is in a good state of preservation," with some items such as ropes "still present inside." Archeologists believe the ship "could carry bulk goods" due to "the presence of a floor" among the wreckage.

"Each piece of wood that is dismantled teaches us more about the shipbuilding techniques of the early Middle Ages," Grimber told NBC News.

Pleas for help as Myanmar awaits high-profile executions





Kyaw Min Yu, one of the leaders of the 88 Generation Students Group, talks to reporters during the group's press conference in Yangon

Sat, June 18, 2022

(Reuters) - The wife of pro-democracy figure Kyaw Min Yu, sentenced to be executed on the orders of Myanmar's ruling generals, says that if her husband dies he will take with him the beliefs he has carried throughout a life spent fighting dictatorship.

Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Jimmy, and former lawmaker and hip-hop artist Phyo Zeya Thaw are set to be the first people since 1988 to be executed judicially in Myanmar.

They were sentenced to death in January for treason and terrorism in a closed-doors trial, accused of helping militias to fight the army that seized power last year and unleashed a bloody crackdown on its opponents.

The military has not said when they would be hanged, but speculation is rife in Myanmar that the executions are imminent.

The planned executions have been strongly condemned abroad and two U.N. experts have called them a "vile attempt at instilling fear" among the people.

Kyaw Min Yu's wife, Nilar Thein, said her husband, a political prisoner for 18 years under Myanmar's last military dictatorship, was being made an example of for refusing to cooperate with his captors.

"He would never trade his political beliefs with anything. He will continue to stand by his beliefs," Nilar Thein, who is in hiding, told Reuters by phone.

"Ko Jimmy will continue to live in our hearts."

Kyaw Min Yu, 53, and Phyo Zeya Thaw, a 41-year-old ally of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, lost their appeal earlier this month.

It is not clear how they pleaded in their trial, nor the extent of their alleged involvement in the resistance movement, which is fighting what it calls a "people's defensive war" against the junta.

Asked if Kyaw Min Yu was involved, his wife said she would not acknowledge the military's portrayal of him, but said the whole country was involved in a revolt, against the generals' "terrorist acts".

'SYSTEMATIC ATTACK'

Several foreign governments, including the United States and France, and rights groups have fiercely criticised the planned executions.

"The world must not lose sight of the fact that these death sentences are being meted out in the context of the military murdering civilians nearly every day in its widespread and systematic attack on the people of Myanmar," said Tom Andrews, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, and Morris Tidball-Binz, U.N. Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial summary or arbitrary executions.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said it has documented 114 people sentenced to death in Myanmar since the February 2021 coup, in what it called secretive tribunals with "lightning convictions" aimed to chill dissent.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), appealed in a letter this month to junta leader Min Aung Hlaing not to carry out the executions, relaying deep concern among Myanmar's neighbours.

The junta has signalled it will not back down and has called Western criticism "reckless and interfering". 

On Thursday, its spokesperson said the sentence was appropriate.

"Required actions are needed to be done in the required moments," Zaw Min Tun told a news conference.

Phyo Zeya Thaw's wife said the two men were targeted because of their status among a youth movement that held months of anti-coup demonstrations last year. She said the decision to resume executions would be a test of international support for the opposition, and appealed for foreign intervention.

"The junta is trying to kill the revolution," Thazin Nyunt Aung told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location.

"We have been fighting this revolution with the mindset that we have nothing but ourselves. Now, we have started to question whether we have the world with us or not," she said.

(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Editing by Martin Petty and Frances Kerry)

Yellowstone flooding rebuild could take years, cost billions

LINDSAY WHITEHURST and BRIAN MELLEY
Sat, June 18, 2022,

Created in 1872 as the United States was recovering from the Civil War, Yellowstone was the first of the national parks that came to be referred to as America’s best idea. Now, the home to gushing geysers, thundering waterfalls and some of the country’s most plentiful and diverse wildlife is facing its biggest challenge in decades.

Floodwaters this week wiped out numerous bridges, washed out miles of roads and closed the park as it approached peak tourist season during its 150th anniversary celebration. Nearby communities were swamped and hundreds of homes flooded as the Yellowstone River and its tributaries raged.

The scope of the damage is still being tallied by Yellowstone officials, but based on other national park disasters, it could take years and cost upwards of $1 billion to rebuild in an environmentally sensitive landscape where construction season only runs from the spring thaw until the first snowfall.

Based on what park officials have revealed and Associated Press images and video taken from a helicopter, the greatest damage seemed to be to roads, particularly on the highway connecting the park's north entrance in Gardiner, Montana, to the park's offices in Mammoth Hot Springs. Large sections of the road were undercut and washed away as the Gardner River jumped its banks. Perhaps hundreds of footbridges on trails may have been damaged or destroyed.

“This is not going to be an easy rebuild,” Superintendent Cam Sholly said early in the week as he highlighted photos of massive gaps of roadway in the steep canyon. “I don’t think it’s going to be smart to invest potentially, you know, tens of millions of dollars, or however much it is, into repairing a road that may be subject to seeing a similar flooding event in the future."

Re-establishing a human imprint in a national park is always a delicate operation, especially as a changing climate makes natural disasters more likely. Increasingly intense wildfires are occurring, including one last year that destroyed bridges, cabins and other infrastructure in Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California.

Flooding has already done extensive damage in other parks and is a threat to virtually all the more-than 400 national parks, a report by The Rocky Mountain Climate Organization found in 2009.

Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state closed for six months after the worst flooding in its history in 2006. Damage to roads, trails, campgrounds and buildings was estimated at $36 million.

Yosemite Valley in California's Yosemite National Park has flooded several times, but suffered its worst damage 25 years ago when heavy downpours on top of a large snowpack — a scenario similar to the Yellowstone flood — submerged campgrounds, flooded hotel rooms, washed out bridges and sections of road, and knocked out power and sewer lines. The park was closed for more than two months.

Congress allocated $178 million in emergency funds – a massive sum for park infrastructure at the time – and additional funding eventually surpassed $250 million, according to a 2013 report.

But the rebuilding effort once estimated to last four to five years dragged out for 15, due in part to environmental lawsuits over a protected river corridor and a long bureaucratic planning and review process.

It's not clear if Yellowstone would face the same obstacles, though reconstructing the road that runs near Mammoth Hot Springs, where steaming water bubbles up over an otherworldly series of stone terraces, presents a challenge.

It’s created by a unique natural formation of underground tubes and vents that push the hot water to the surface, and would be just one of many natural wonders crews would have to be careful not to disturb, said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Along with the formation itself, there are also microbes and insects that thrive in the environment found almost nowhere else. And the park will need to avoid damaging any archaeological or cultural artifacts in the area with a rich Native American history.

“They’ll have to look at all the resources the park is designed to protect, and try to do this project as carefully as possible, but they’re also going to try to go fairly quickly,” Hartl said.

Having to reroute the roadway that hugged the Gardner River could be an opportunity to better protect the waterway and the fish and other species that thrive there from oil and other microscopic pollution that comes from passing vehicles, Hartl said.

“The river will be healthier for it,” he said.

The Yosemite flood was seen by the park as an opportunity to rethink its planning and not necessarily rebuild in the same places, said Frank Dean, president and chief executive of the Yosemite Conservancy and a former park ranger.

Some facilities were relocated outside the flood plain and some campgrounds that had been submerged in the flood were never restored. At Yosemite Lodge, cabins that had been slated for removal in the 1980s were swamped and had to be removed.

“The flood took them all out like a precision strike,” Dean said. “I’m not going to say it’s a good thing, but providence came in and made the decision for them.”

Yellowstone's recovery comes as a rapidly growing number of people line up to visit the country’s national parks, even as a backlog of deferred maintenance budget grows into tens of billions of dollars. The park was already due for funding from the Great American Outdoors Act, a 2020 law passed by Congress that authorizes nearly $3 billion for maintenance and other projects on public lands.

Now it will need another infusion of money for more pressing repairs that Emily Douce, director of operations and park funding at National Parks Conservation Association, estimated could hit at least $1 billion.

The southern half of the park is expected to reopen next week, allowing visitors to flock to Old Faithful, the rainbow colored Grand Prismatic Spring, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and its majestic waterfall.

But the flood-damaged northern end may not reopen this year, depriving visitors from seeing Tower Fall and Lamar Valley, one of the best places in the world to see wolves and grizzly bears. Some days during the high season, an animal sighting can lead to thousands of people parked on the side of the road hoping to catch a glimpse.

Whether some of these areas are reopened will depend on how quickly washed-out roads can be repaired, downed trees can be removed and mudslides cleared.

Maintaining the approximately 466 miles (750 kilometers) of roadway throughout the park is a major job. Much of the roadway originally was designed for stagecoaches, said Kristen Brengel, senior vice-president of public affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association.

“Part of the effort of the last couple of decades has been to stabilize the road to make it safe for heavier vehicles to travel on it,” she said.

Located at a high elevation where snow and cold weather is not uncommon eight months of the year and there are many tiny earthquakes, road surfaces don't last as long and road crews have a short window to complete projects. One recently completed road job created closures for about two years.

“I think it’ll probably be several years before the park is totally back to normal," Hartl said.

15,000 turnout expected at Asian American-led march on National Mall

“This is not just symbolic,” one organizer said.

 “We are actually trying to get folks to get plugged into the issues that they care about the most and by participating, show our political power.

People gather in view of the Washington monument.

Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images file


June 15, 2022,
By Tat Bellamy-Walker

Approximately 15,000 people are expected to gather at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., later this month for a first multicultural march led by the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

The Unity March will be held June 25 and include more than 50 Asian American nonprofit organizations and other diverse groups. Advocates are pushing for more civic participation within the AAPI community and across other racial groups, as well as an emphasis on racial and economic justice.

"The Unity March is a historic moment because it’s the first march on Washington led by Asian Americans," Kevin K. Hirano, a spokesperson for the march, wrote in an email. He said the goals were to unite community groups and to "demonstrate our collective strength as Asian Americans and allies to make change."

The march will include Asian American advocacy groups, including Asian Americans Advancing Justice — AAJC, Gold House, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) and Sikh American Legal Defense Fund (SALDEF). Organizations representing other historically marginalized communities, such as Voto Latino and the NAACP, will also take part.

The organizers also hope to use their platform to highlight other key issues impacting communities of color. This includes creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people, strengthening voting rights, and supporting state and local efforts for multicultural studies in K-12 and university systems.

“This is not just symbolic,” Tiffany Chang, a spokesperson for Unity March, previously told NBC Asian America. “We are actually trying to get folks to get plugged into the issues that they care about the most and by participating, show our political power.”

Exclusive: China firms in advanced talks with Qatar for gas field stakes, LNG offtake - sources

Fri, June 17, 2022,

By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - China's national oil majors are in advanced talks with Qatar to invest in the North Field East expansion of the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and buy the fuel under long-term contracts, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

It would be the first such partnership between the two nations, among the world's top LNG consumers and producers, as the Middle Eastern energy exporter shifts to expand its Asian client base at. Global energy corporations used to be the main investors in Qatar's gas industry.

The Qatari supply deal will help China create a buffer against spot price volatility and diversify its imports; relations with two major suppliers, the United States and Australia, are at a low point, and another, Russia, is in the midst of a war and faces widespread sanctions. Beijing views gas a strategic bridge fuel to replace coal on its path to carbon neutrality by 2060.

Qatar was China's largest LNG supplier after Australia in the first five months of 2022, data on Refinitiv Eikon showed.

GRAPHIC: China's share of LNG imports from Qatar jumped to 24.9% in Jan-May 2022 from 11.7% in Jan-May 2021 

https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/mypmnrgnbvr/ChinaLNGfromQatar.png

State-controlled CNPC and Sinopec are expected to invest a 5% stake each in two separate export trains, part of the nearly $30 billion North Field expansion project, the three sources with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters.

"The participation, even of a small stake, would give Chinese direct access to the highly globalized project and learn its management and operational expertise," said one of the sources, a senior Beijing-based industry official.

The North Field Expansion includes six LNG trains that will ramp up Qatar's liquefaction capacity from 77 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 126 mtpa by 2027, consolidating its status as the world's largest producer. Qatar treats each export train as one joint venture and CNPC and Sinopec will invest in one train each, the sources said.

Sinopec declined to comment. A CNPC representative said he had no information to share.

QatarEnergy did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

In addition, CNPC and Sinopec are negotiating with state-run QatarEnergy to buy up to 4 mtpa of LNG each for up to 27 years, said two of the sources, in what would be the single-largest purchase deals of the super-chilled fuel between the two nations.

China in 2021 imported nearly 9 million tonnes of LNG from Qatar, or 11% of the country's total LNG imports.

Discussions are focused on the pricing of long-term supply deals that will be linked to the global oil market, another of the three sources said.

QatarEnergy said on Sunday that TotalEnergies had become its first partner for the project, winning a 25% stake in one train. Asian buyers are expected to make up half the market for the project, and buyers in Europe the rest, QatarEnergy's chief executive said.

Exxon Mobil Corp, Shell, ConocoPhillips and Eni had also submitted bids for the project.

GRAPHIC: Key global LNG prices 

https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/znvnegzempl/KeyLNGPricesJune2022.png

"Chinese participation in the trains are more of a financial investor as the stake is very small. The key is the price negotiations for the long-term gas offtakes," the third source said.

This person added that Indian companies are also interested in discussing stakes with Qatar, but did not elaborate.

China, the world's top LNG buyer in 2021, imports 45% of its natural gas needs and sees Qatar as a reliable long-term supplier after a flurry of purchase agreements with the United States in late 2021.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu; additional reporting by Marwa Rashad and Ron Bousso in London and Andrew Mills in Doha; editing by)

IMPERIALIST NEO-COLONIALISM

China-US rivalry dampens belt and road investment in Latin America and the Caribbean, but strong demand remains

Sat, June 18, 2022

China's foreign direct investment into Latin American and the Caribbean tumbled last year, with the growing rivalry between Washington and Beijing "greatly affecting capital flows" from the world's No 2 economy.

Even so, analysts say the Belt and Road Initiative remains an effective tool for deeper Chinese engagement in the region at a time when the United States and others "don't offer feasible alternatives".

Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) accounted for 6.5 per cent of the region's total last year, falling from 10.44 per cent in 2020, according to the Latin America and the Caribbean Network on China (RED ALC-China), an institute at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Deepening confrontation between the US and China last year and the first quarter of this year was "greatly affecting capital flows", the institute said in a report released late May.

US tariffs on Chinese imports, as well as restrictions on its tech exports and financing for Chinese companies on the US stock market were all having an impact on investment, it said.

Still, China's ties with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) run deep, analysts say, and there is strong demand for infrastructure development.

"After the [belt and road] announcement in 2013, more than US$60 billion worth of China-Latin America infrastructure projects were reported between 2015-20," said Kanyi Lui, partner at Pinsent Masons based in Beijing.

"The increase in [belt and road] activity levels in LAC were noticeable as early as 2019."

China's globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative aims to boost Beijing's economic and political influence with a network of railways, highways and ports connecting Asia, Europe and Africa.

Beijing's overseas infrastructure investment usually comes with no political strings attached, which is "generally very well received by the global south", said Lui.

Chinese companies and lenders have been "active and competitive" in the LAC since the early 2000s across multiple sectors, including agricultural, energy, telecommunications, transport, manufacturing, services and hospitality.

Enrique Dussel Peters, professor at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico's Graduate School of Economics, said the region's demand for infrastructure was "huge", with spending worth around 5 per cent of regional gross domestic product (GDP).

The top three sectors for Chinese investment in LAC between 2000-21 were metals, minerals and mining, as well as transport and energy, according to the report from RED ALC-China.

China Petroleum & Chemical, China National Offshore Oil, State Grid, China Three Gorges and China Minmetals Group were the top five investors over the same period.

"There is no clear or official definition of what's a [belt and road] project and what is not. Taking a very loose definition, all Chinese infrastructure projects in the region could be considered," said Otaviano Canuto, senior fellow at the Morocco-based Policy Centre for the New South.

"[The Belt and Road Initiative] makes sense not only geostrategically for China, but economically as a way to channel excess domestic capacity, whether savings or industrial."

China's growing geostrategic footprint in the region is stoking concern in Washington.

The Summit of the Americas held earlier this month was aimed largely at countering Beijing's growing influence in the US' backyard. China has sharply increased investments and infrastructure projects, with China-Latin America trade exceeding US$400 billion in 2021, compared to US$295 billion for the US.

"The US is clearly concerned," said Canuto. "But concerns, attention and discourse don't always translate into actions and impact if they are not followed by resources and other opportunities for countries to benefit economically. Rhetoric is not enough and real results matter."

Take American vaccine donations to the region as an example, he said. Many countries have been left with the impression that China did more than the US because Chinese vaccines arrived faster and in greater quantities during the height of the pandemic, although at this point US donations have far exceeded Chinese ones, Canuto said.

Lui said sustainability, climate change, collaboration and development will all be important themes for the Belt and Road Initiative in Latin America and the Caribbean.

"I expect to see a widening of focus from infrastructure to other sectors, including productive assets and tertiary industries in countries which already have essential infrastructure for business in place," he said.

Recalling an old Swahili proverb, Canuto said the region could position itself to benefit from both US and Chinese investment.

"'When two elephants fight, the grass gets crushed! When two elephants make love, the grass gets crushed!'," he said. "So, the idea is to maximise the flows of resources, investments, and opportunities opened by the dispute rather than unilateral alignments."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Group blasts Chimp Haven fight deaths; wild chimps also kill


A baby chimp clings to its mother as she walks at Chimp Haven in Keithville, La., Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. An animal rights group has filed a federal complaint, Friday, June 17, 2022, against the national sanctuary for federally owned chimpanzees once used for experiments. A federal citation and Chimp Haven’s own reports about an escape and about deaths caused by fights among chimpanzees show the sanctuary’s care is poor, according to Stop Animal Exploitation Now. 

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) 

JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Sat, June 18, 2022, 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An animal rights group has filed a federal complaint against the national sanctuary for federally owned chimpanzees once used for experiments.

A federal citation and Chimp Haven’s own reports about an escape and about deaths caused by fights among chimpanzees show the sanctuary’s care is poor, according to Stop Animal Exploitation Now.

The sanctuary in north Louisiana said it acted immediately after a female was attacked in April by others to which it was being introduced. That animal was euthanized in May. Another female escaped twice on June 2.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture warning letter said animal-handling rules were violated in both incidents. It also noted that Chimp Haven was going over its protocols for introducing and separating animals, and that trees near the second female's main enclosure have been cut to prevent future escapes.

Chimp Haven has cared for more than 500 chimps since it opened in 2005. Of these, 190 have died, including five due to aggression by other chimpanzees, it said an emailed statement.

Chimpanzees also attack and sometimes kill each other in the wild, said Michael L. Wilson, a University of Minnesota evolution anthropologist who studies chimpanzee behavior and biology.

“Killings ... have been documented at most long-term study sites across Africa” and “can occur suddenly and unpredictably, without obvious provocation,” he wrote in an email.

He participated in a 2008 study that found that attacks by other chimpanzees were the second most common cause of death over 46 years at one wild colony, behind only illness. Of 130 deaths, 17 — or 20% of the 86 for which scientists knew the cause — were due to attacks by other chimpanzees.

At Chimp Haven, the figure is less than 3%.

The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service gave Chimp Haven the warning letter in June 2021 because of the death of a female attacked by other chimps and two escapes in one day by another female. The inspector noted that the sanctuary had acted to correct problems.

In December 2021, the sanctuary reported to federal officials that one male had bled to death and another had died after attacks by others. The same month, it reported that seven animals had escaped through an unsecured skylight.

“Animal sanctuaries should keep animals safe and uninjured, not allow traumatic injuries requiring euthanasia, or escapes of potentially dangerous animals,” said Michael A. Budkie, co-founder of the Ohio-based animal rights group.

An emailed response for the sanctuary said, “The care and well-being of chimpanzees is our top priority at Chimp Haven.” It said there has never been such large-scale work to move chimpanzees “from research settings to a life that closely resembles life in the wild.”

This has involved introducing hundreds of animals to each other, because “chimpanzees need dynamic social groups to thrive socially, physically, emotionally and psychologically.”

Very occasionally such introductions haven't worked out, the statement said.

Wilson, the University of Minnesota scientist, wrote in his email, “Managing chimpanzees in captivity poses tremendous challenges, because chimpanzees are strong, clever, impulsive, and capable of violent attacks."

Captive chimps "are likely best off in many ways if housed in social groups with multiple males and females, but such groups also pose many challenges for management, including the risks of aggression,” he wrote.

Officials: Militants target labor camp

in Pakistan, kill 3

Sat, June 18, 2022

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Militants attacked a road construction labor camp in southwestern Baluchistan province overnight killing three workers and wounding five others, officials said Saturday.

The assailants late Friday opened fire on the camp, burned vehicles and destroyed machinery in a mountainous part of the district of Harnai, said Farah Azeem Shah, spokesperson for the Baluchistan provincial government. She said the camp was part of a local company working on a road construction project.

Five workers were missing from the camp after the attack, said Rafiq Tareen, district deputy commissioner. He said security forces started a search operation but the terrain was difficult.

Later, he said two of the five workers were found nearby.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but separatist groups involved in a low-level insurgency in Baluchistan have staged similar attacks targeting non-local workers they accuse of taking jobs in the province. Separatist groups in the mineral and gas rich province like the Baluchistan Nationalist Army want independence from Islamabad.

Separately, a militant and a soldier were killed in a shootout in the northwestern North Waziristan district Saturday. A military statement said security forces recovered arms and ammunition at the spot where the militant was killed. It said an intense exchange of fire was triggered during a raid in Miran Shah, the district's main town. The area served as a sanctuary for militants for years until 2014, when the military carried out massive operations to clear the region of militants.

AS USUAL THERE ARE VARIENTS IN SPELLING

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