Plan made to refloat ship blocking Suez Canal using tide

By SAMY MAGDY

today

PHOTOS 1 of 13
This satellite image from Maxar Technologies shows the cargo ship MV Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt, Friday, March 26, 2021. A maritime traffic jam grew to more than 200 vessels Friday outside the Suez Canal and some vessels began changing course as dredgers worked frantically to free a giant container ship that is stuck sideways in the waterway and disrupting global shipping. (©Maxar Technologies via AP)

SUEZ, Egypt (AP) — The company that owns the giant container ship stuck sideways across the Suez Canal said an attempt will be made to refloat the vessel by taking advantage of tidal movements later Saturday.

The Ever Given, owned by Japanese firm Shoei Kisen KK, got wedged Tuesday in a single-lane stretch of the canal, about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.

At a news conference Friday night at company headquarters in Imabari, western Japan, Shoei Kisen President Yukito Higaki said 10 tugboats were deployed and workers were dredging the banks and sea floor near the vessel’s bow to try to get it afloat again as the high tide starts to go out.

“We apologize for blocking the traffic and causing the tremendous trouble and worry to many people, including the involved parties,” he said.

Shoei Kisen said in a statement Saturday that the company has considered removing its containers to get the weight off the vessel, but it is a very difficult operation, physically speaking. The company said it may still consider that option if the ongoing refloating efforts fail.

A team from Boskalis, a Dutch firm specializing in salvaging, was working with the canal authority using tugboats and a specialized suction dredger at the port side of the cargo ship’s bow. Egyptian authorities have prohibited media access to the site.

“It’s a complex technical operation” that will require several attempts to free the vessel, Lt. Gen. Osama Rabei, head of the Suez Canal Authority, said in a statement.

Attempts earlier Friday to free it failed, said Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the technical manager of the Ever Given.

The Suez Canal Authority has said it welcomed international assistance. The White House said it has offered to help Egypt reopen the canal. “We have equipment and capacity that most countries don’t have and we’re seeing what we can do and what help we can be,” U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters.

An initial investigation showed the vessel ran aground due to strong winds and ruled out mechanical or engine failure, the company said. GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, had previously said the ship had experienced a power blackout, but it did not elaborate.

Bernhard Schulte said two canal pilots had been aboard when the ship got stuck. Such an arrangement is customary, but the ship’s captain retains ultimate authority over the vessel, according to experts.

A maritime traffic jam grew to more than 200 vessels Friday outside the Suez Canal and some vessels began changing course. More than 100 ships were still en route to the waterway, according to the data firm Refinitiv.

Apparently anticipating long delays, the owners of the stuck vessel diverted a sister ship, the Ever Greet, to head around Africa instead, according to satellite data.

Others also are being diverted. The liquid natural gas carrier Pan Americas changed course in the mid-Atlantic, now aiming south to go around the southern tip of Africa, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com.

About 10% of world trade flows through the canal, which is particularly crucial for transporting oil. The closure also could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East.

Oil markets are absorbing the disruption for now, analyst Toril Bosoni said.

“Oil inventories have been coming down but they are still relatively ample,” she told The Associated Press, adding that she believes the impact might be more pronounced in the tanker sector than in the oil industry.

“We are not losing any oil supply but it will tie up tankers for longer if they have to go around” the tip of Africa, she said, which is roughly an additional two-week trip.

At the White House, press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. does see “some potential impacts on energy markets from the role of the Suez Canal as a key bidirectional transit route for oil. ... We’re going to continue to monitor market conditions and we’ll respond appropriately if necessary, but it is something we’re watching closely.”

International companies are preparing for the effect that the canal’s blockage will have on supply chains that rely on precise deliveries of goods. Singapore’s Minister of Transport Ong Ye Kung said the country’s port should expect disruptions.

“Should that happen, some draw down on inventories will become necessary,” he said on Facebook.

The backlog of vessels could stress European ports and the international supply of containers, already strained by the coronavirus pandemic, according to IHS Markit, a business research group. It said 49 container ships were scheduled to pass through the canal in the week since the Ever Given became lodged.

The delay could also result in huge insurance claims by companies, according to Marcus Baker, global head of Marine & Cargo at the insurance broker Marsh, with a ship like the Ever Given usually covered at between $100 million to $200 million.

Capt. Nick Sloane, a maritime salvage expert who led the high-profile effort to salvage the cruise ship Costa Concordia in 2012 told The Associated Press that freeing the cargo ship could take up to a week in the best-case scenario and warned of possible structural problems on the vessel as it remains wedged. That’s if dredging works. If it doesn’t, he estimated that an operation that involved removing the ship’s cargo could take weeks, as it would require 300 barges to carry the ships some 20,000 containers.

Satellite and photos distributed by the canal authority show Ever Given’s bow touching the eastern wall, while its stern appeared lodged against the western wall.

The Ever Given was involved in an accident in northern Germany in 2019, when it ran into a small ferry moored on the Elbe River in Hamburg. No passengers were on the ferry at the time and there were no injuries, but it was seriously damaged.

Hamburg prosecutors opened an investigation of the Ever Given’s captain and pilot on suspicion of endangering shipping traffic, but shelved it in 2020 for lack of evidence, spokeswoman Liddy Oechtering told The Associated Press.

Oechtering also could not say what the investigation had determined the cause of the crash was, but officials at the time suggested that strong winds may have blown the slow moving cargo ship into the ferry.

—-

Associated Press writers David Rising in Berlin, Pan Pylas in London, Nancy Benac in Washington, Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed.

___

The pronoun used for Toril Bosoni has been corrected.

Suez Canal remains blocked amid efforts to free stuck vessel
By SAMY MAGDY

25 minutes ago

This satellite image provided by The European Space Agency on Friday, March 26, 2021, shows on the left, routine maritime traffic in the Suez Canal with vessels on March 21, 2021 and on the right, maritime traffic backed up on the canal on March 25. A maritime traffic jam grew to more than 200 vessels outside the Suez Canal and others began changing course as dredgers worked frantically to free a giant container ship that has been stuck sideways in the waterway and disrupted global shipping. (ESA via AP)


SUEZ, Egypt (AP) — A giant container ship remained stuck sideways in Egypt’s Suez Canal for a fifth day Saturday, as authorities prepared to make new attempts to free the vessel and reopen a crucial east-west waterway for global shipping.

The Ever Given, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday in the narrow canal that runs between Africa and the Sinai Peninsula.

The massive vessel got stuck in a single-lane stretch of the canal, about six kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the technical manager of the Ever Given, said an attempt Friday to free it failed. Plans were in the works to pump water from interior spaces of the vessel, and two more tugs should arrive by Sunday to join others already trying to move the massive ship, it said.

An official at the Suez Canal Authority said they were planning to make at least two attempts Saturday to free the vessel when the high tide goes down. He said the timing depends on the tide.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists.

At least 10 tugboats were deployed to assist in refloating the vessel, according to Japanese firm Shoei Kisen KK, which owns the container ship.

Shoei Kisen President Yukito Higaki told a news conference at company headquarters in Imabari in western Japan that 10 tugboats were deployed and workers were dredging the banks and sea floor near the vessel’s bow to try to get it afloat again as the high tide starts to go out.

Shoei Kisen said in a statement Saturday the company was considering removing containers to lighten the vessel if refloating efforts fail, but that would be a difficult operation.

The White House said it has offered to help Egypt reopen the canal. “We have equipment and capacity that most countries don’t have and we’re seeing what we can do and what help we can be,” President Joe Biden told reporters Friday.

A maritime traffic jam grew to around 280 vessels Saturday outside the Suez Canal, according to canal service provider Leth Agencies.

Some vessels began changing course and dozens of ships were still en route to the waterway, according to the data firm Refinitiv.

A prolonged closure of the crucial waterway would cause delays in the global shipment chain. About 10% of world trade flows through the canal, which is particularly crucial for transporting oil. The closure could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East.

Apparently anticipating long delays, the owners of the stuck vessel diverted a sister ship, the Ever Greet, on a course around Africa instead, according to satellite data.

Others also are being diverted. The liquid natural gas carrier Pan Americas changed course in the mid-Atlantic, now aiming south to go around the southern tip of Africa, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com

BURMA
Protests in Myanmar as junta chief marks Armed Forces Day


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Military personnel participate in a parade on Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Saturday, March 27, 2021. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s junta, on Saturday used the occasion of the country’s Armed Forces Day to try to justify the overthrow of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, as protesters marked the holiday by calling for even bigger demonstrations. (AP Photo)

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — The head of Myanmar’s junta on Saturday used the occasion of the country’s Armed Forces Day to try to justify the overthrow of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, as protesters marked the holiday by calling for even bigger demonstrations.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing did not directly refer to the nationwide protests that show no signs of stopping. In a nationally televised speech before thousands of soldiers at a massive parade ground at the capital Naypyitaw, he referred only to “terrorism which can be harmful to state tranquility and social security,” and called it unacceptable.

People in cities and towns around Myanmar marked the public holiday by again demonstrating against the Feb. 1 coup. In several locations, security forces sought to disperse them forcefully, as has become standard practice, Reports on social media, not immediately verified, said several demonstrators were shot dead Saturday morning.

The toll of protesters confirmed killed in Myanmar since last month’s takeover has reached 328, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a group that documents deaths and arrests.

It has cautioned that its tally includes only verified cases, with the actual number of casualties “likely much higher.” It said eight people were killed Friday.

The protesters refer to the holiday by its original name, Resistance Day, which marks the beginning of a revolt against Japanese occupation in World War 2. This year’s event was seen as a flashpoint, with protesters threatening to double down on their public opposition to the coup with more and bigger demonstrations.

State television MRTV on Friday night showed an announcement urging young people — who have been at the forefront of the protests and prominent among the casualties — to learn a lesson from those killed already about the danger of being shot in the head or back.

The warning was taken as an explicit threat because a great number of the fatalities among the protesters have come from being shot in the head, suggesting they have been targeted for death. The announcement suggested that some young people were taking part in protesting as if it was a game, and urged their parents and friends to talk them out of participating.

In recent days the junta has portrayed the demonstrators as the ones perpetrating violence for their sporadic use of petrol bombs. In contrast, security forces have used live ammunition daily for weeks against overwhelmingly unarmed and peaceful crowds.

In his lengthy speech, Min Aung Hlaing accused Suu Kyi’s elected government of failing to investigate irregularities in the last polls, and repeated that his government would hold “a free and fair election” and hand over power afterward. He gave no details.

The military has claimed there were irregularities in the voting rolls for last November’s election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won in a landslide.

The junta detained Suu Kyi on the day it took power, and continues to hold her on minor criminal charges while investigating allegations of corruption against her that her supporters dismiss as politically motivated.

BURMA
Myanmar protest deaths reach 320 as US, UK, impose sanctions

3/26/2021

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An anti-coup student protester is welcomed home with flowers by the residents of her neighborhood after being released from jail, Friday, March 26, 2021, in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo)

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — The toll of protesters confirmed killed in Myanmar since last month’s military takeover has reached 320, a group that verifies details of deaths and arrests announced Friday.

Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said its tally includes only documented cases, with the actual number of casualties “likely much higher.” It said 11 people were killed Thursday, when it also managed to verify 23 deaths that occurred previously.

Myanmar news agencies, including the Democratic Voice of Burma and Mizzima, reported that three more people had been shot dead by security forces in the city of Myeik in southern Myanmar. Video posted on Mizzima TV’s YouTube channel showed protesters risking getting hit by gunfire to carry the bloody body of one young man who the report said had later died.

Social media posts, many including photos of bodies, indicated that as many as seven people may have been killed in various cities by nightfall on Friday. Those reports could not immediately be confirmed.

The Assistance Association described a typical deadly confrontation Thursday in Taunggyi, in Shan state in eastern Myanmar, when “the junta used live ammunition, trying to create a combat zone of residential areas, resulting in four civilians shot and killed, one dead body was dragged away, some other civilians were injured.

“Moreover, junta forces raided houses and violently arrested youths and civilians, thereafter destroying motorcycles, cars and barricades. They stormed streets unprovoked, shouted obscenities and vandalized property.”

State television MRTV on Friday night showed an announcement urging young people — who have been at the forefront of the protests and prominent among the casualties — to learn a lesson from those killed already about the danger of being shot in the head or back.

The warning was taken as an explicit threat because a great number of the fatalities among the protesters have come from being shot in the head, suggesting they have been targeted for death. The announcement suggested that some young people were taking part in protesting as if it was a game, and urged their parents and friends to talk them out of participating.

The association said as of Thursday, 2,981 people had been arrested, charged or sentenced in the crackdown since the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Most, including Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, remain detained.

MRTV reported that 322 detainees were released Friday from Insein Prison, describing them as being accused of breaking a public order law by having “demonstrated violently.” On Wednesday, more than 600 others were freed from the same prison, also without being formally charged by a court.

The army’s seizure of power halted the Southeast Asian nation’s move toward democracy that began when Suu Kyi’s party took office in 2016 for its first term, after more than five decades of military rule.

At about 4 a.m. Friday, unidentified people tossed firebombs at the headquarters of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party in Yangon, but nearby residents managed to put out the fire before it could cause any major damage.

The movement against the junta and its takeover received a major boost Thursday when the United States and Britain announced tough sanctions against two military-owned conglomerates with vast holdings in many sectors.

The U.S. Treasury Department said its action against Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited and Myanmar Economic Corporation Limited targets the army’s control of large parts of the country’s economy, “which is a vital financial lifeline for the military junta.”

The sanctions against the two companies and their holdings block access to any property they control in the United States and effectively bars any U.S. person or company from conducting any sort of business with them, including supplying them with funds or providing goods or services.

Myanmar’s homegrown Civil Disobedience Movement against military rule is targeting the economy in order to make it difficult for the junta to govern. It has advocated work stoppages by state enterprise workers, bank closures and disinvestment by foreign companies.

Myanmar’s economy is already battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which surged there in the second half of last year.

The World Bank, in a Asia-wide review released Friday, forecast that Myanmar’s economy will contract by 10% in 2021 after growing a meager 1.7% in 2020 and 6.8% in 2019.

The Civil Disobedience Movement, or CDM, which was founded largely by medical workers, has drawn plaudits for its strategy, including a nomination for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize by six social science professors at the University of Oslo in Norway.

“Our nomination is a recognition of this anti-coup resistance that is working for peace and democracy through non-violent means,” said their nomination letter.

Speaking for the six, Professor Kristian Stokke told The Associated Press their hope is that “the Peace Prize nomination will generate further international recognition and support for the movement and its peaceful aims and means.”

A leading member of the CDM, who asked not to be identified out of fear for his safety, said the nomination “reiterates the need for the junta ... to refrain from any type of violence and peacefully and immediately transfer the power to the democratically elected leaders of the nation.”

Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize for 1991 for leading a nonviolent struggle against a previous military dictatorship.

Yanghee Lee, the former independent U.N. expert for human rights in Myanmar, applauded the nomination of the CDM with a tweet that read: “Absolutely fantastic. Absolutely appropriate. Absolutely worthy.”

BURMA

Wanted Myanmar Activist Says People 'Expecting' Nationwide Civil War

By Tommy Walker
March 26, 2021 06:19 PM


This handout photo taken and released by Dawei Watch on March 26, 2021, shows people trying to help a fellow protester shot by security forces during a demonstration against the military coup, in Myeik, Myanmar.

TAIPEI - The military coup in Myanmar is nearly two months old, but the armed forces, also known as the Tatmadaw, are continuing their violent pushback against anti-coup demonstrators.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma, thousands have been detained and hundreds killed.

The junta government, officially the State Administrative Council, has also imposed widespread internet shutdowns that have hampered protesters' online communications, a key method for organizing demonstrations.

Several pro-democracy activists speaking out against the coup have been forced into hiding to avoid harsh repercussions.

Moe Thway, one of the activists who protested against a controversial copper mine project, gives thumbs-up sign from police truck as he leaves a township court with other activists on Nov 22, 2013, in Yangon Myanmar.

Moe Thway is a veteran activist and co-founder of Generation Wave, a pro-democracy movement that was created following the 2007 Saffron Revolution, the last time major demonstrations were held against military rule in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.

The 40-year-old is no stranger to Myanmar authorities. He told VOA he’d faced more than 20 criminal cases for his activism in the past and had served two stints in jail.

“The first one was in 2012 for nine days," he said. "In 2013 I was sentenced after facing one of them trials, I was sentenced for one month.”

He is now one of the hundreds of activists wanted by Myanmar authorities following a crackdown on the latest demonstrations.

“I’m on the warrant list issued by the military council," he said. "They accuse me [of] building the network to run the Civil Disobedient Movement together with the other students and youth. They accuse me as kind of vocal person for all civil society.”

Those who have joined the Civil Disobedient Movement (CDM) are usually Myanmar professionals, such as health workers and lawyers, who have refused to work under military rule. The movement has recently been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, according to reports.

But in comparison to what Thway faces today, his previous stints in jail may seem relatively short. He told VOA he was wanted for violating section 505(B) of Myanmar's penal code, which can carry a prison sentence for inciting public unrest.

“Up to seven years in jail, maybe more than that," he said. "The charge isn’t really important because if they arrest, if they caught anyone, they can add any charge ... high treason or whatever.”

But Thway admitted that the prospect of facing jail again was different this time because of the military’s brutal crackdown.

“We’ve heard a lot of news they’ve tortured the [detainees], activists and people these days," he said. "Some are tortured and interrogated because they want information from them, and to [link them to pro-democracy groups].

"And some are tortured for no reason," said Thway. “People were killed after [being] captured.”

Despite the risks, Thway said he's determined to evade capture and continue resisting the coup, echoing concerns of fellow prominent activists such as Maung Saungkha and Thinzar Shunlei Li, who've both said the movement would suffer if they were captured.

“The reason why we are hiding is to continue the movement,” said Thway.

Demonstrators display flags during a protest in Launglone,

 Dawei district, Myanmar on March 26, 2021. (Dawei Watch/Reuters)

After gaining independence from Britain in 1948, Myanmar has spent most of its modern history under military rule.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy had led the country since its first open democratic election in 2015, but Myanmar's military contested last November's election results, claiming widespread electoral fraud, largely without evidence.

On February 1, they removed the NLD government, detaining Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.

The military has since deployed armored vehicles and fired live ammunition to suppress protests, while martial law has been imposed in townships across the country.

In response to the coup, ousted NLD lawmakers formed the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), which refuses to recognize the new regime.

Thway is hopeful a three-pronged, anti-coup resistance — sustained protests backed by the CDM and the CRPH movements — can prevail.

“We are hoping and expecting there might be another form of government," he said. "Also, the CRPH and the acting government are already discussing the new federal constitution. That is very important.”

The Myanmar Now news service recently reported that a proposed draft constitution that would collate all opposition parties into a formal coalition is nearing completion.

“We need unity among the different ethnicities in the country," Thway told VOA. "At the same time, the political leaders are saying if we have a legitimate government, we need a legitimate army, officials to protect the people.”

Spanning seven decades, conflict in Myanmar has already been the world’s longest ongoing civil war, with a series of insurgencies largely arising from ethnic-based hostilities.

And Thway admits two governments battling for power would lead to a nationwide conflict but believes people are prepared for the worst.

“This could be a very intensified second wave and a bigger civil war than before. In this case, most of the people are expecting that," he said.

“Many parts of the country will be in chaos. I don’t think we can win the coup and have normal activities," he added. "There could be an economic crisis, [or] other crises like food and humanitarian crises.

“The revolution is already for 70 days," he said. "[Ethnic groups] know how to survive. We have to learn from that.”

BURMA

Police in Myeik shoot protesters from stolen ambulances during killing spree

The ambulances belong to the local fire department and police detained four firefighters who were attempting to rescue injured people

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 26, 2021

Soldiers detain two protesters with rope in Myeik on March 26 (Supplied)

Police stole two ambulances during a killing spree in Myeik on Friday and drove through the southeastern coastal town shooting people, witnesses told Myanmar Now.

“There were two in the front and two armed policemen in uniform,” said one witness. “They were just shooting people in the street.” At least four people died and another 10 were injured in the attack, while at least 35 were detained.

Solidiers_in_ambulances.Jpeg


The attack began after anti-coup protesters gathered in the town. The four who died were 32-year-old Khin Khin Soe, 19-year-old Min Myat Paing, and Myo Aung and Than Chaung, who were in their 30s.

Khin Khin Soe, a resident of Aung Mingalar ward, was shot in the chest while Min Myat Paing, who lived in the town’s Sanchaung ward, was shot in the back. Than Chaung, who is also known as Arkar Oo, was shot in the head.

Residents recovered the bodies of Min Myat Paing and Khin Khin Soe but the other two bodies were taken by soldiers.

The police stole the ambulances from firefighters who were driving them to rescue injured people. They arrested four of the firefighters, a local resident who is close to the fire department told Myanmar Now.

“The firemen took the ambulances to go and carry injured protestors. The soldiers and police then arrested the firemen and used their ambulances,” the resident said.

The chief of a platoon in the Myeik fire department was among those who were arrested, he said, adding that he himself was now on the run in fear of arrest.

Soldiers_in_ambulances-2.Jpeg


Soldiers also rode around the city on motorbikes shooting people, a protester said.

A photo that circulated on social media showed soldiers walking behind two young protesters who had their hands bound behind their backs. One of the soldiers held a length of rope that was lashed to the detainees, in what appeared to be an attempt to degrade and humiliate them.

Video footage showed police kicking people and beating them with batons as they were loaded into a prison truck. Another video showed soldiers throwing what appeared to be a dead body into the back of a military truck.

BURMA

Myanmar Junta Threatens to Shoot Protesters as Security Forces Kill Six

The death toll  reaches 328, with more than 3,000 arrested since Feb. 1 coup.

This photo taken and received from an anonymous source via Facebook on March 25, 2021 shows security forces holding weapons on a street in Taunggyi in Myanmar's Shan state, during a crackdown on protests against the military coup.

 AFP

Myanmar’s military junta broadcast a threat Friday that anti-regime protesters would be “shot in the head,” as security forces killed six demonstrators in a southern coastal city, pushing the death toll since the Feb. 1 to more than 320, witnesses told RFA.

The junta’s warning, broadcast on state-run MRTV News prior to its 8 p.m. news program, said the protesters should learn that they “can be in danger of getting shot in the head and back,” and urged the people not to fall into a “colonialist propaganda trap.”

The warning came just hours before Saturday, Armed Forces Day, on which the junta is planning a show of force, including a military parade, and activists are calling for more protests across the nation of 54 million people.

Earlier in the day, police opened fire on a crowd of protesters in the southern coastal city of Myeik, killing six.

Among the dead were 19-year-old Min Myat Paing, an unidentified 32-year-old Muslim woman and mother of three, and four others who have yet to be identified.

Min Myat Paing was shot in the head and died immediately according to his brother’s Facebook page.

Pictures and posts on Facebook showed police and soldiers shooting from the inside of an ambulance. A Myanmar Now report, quoting the man who donated the ambulance, said security forces took it away after dragging four firemen out of the vehicle.

In Khin Oo township in the northern Sagaing region, two men who were shot on Thursday passed away in the hospital.

“The two dead are Toe Zaw Aung of Kanthit village and Zaw Win Maung of MyaKanthar ward, both 19 years old. We are now at Shwebo Civil Hospital to retrieve Toe Zaw Aung’s body and will hold a funeral service this afternoon,” a source close to the two men, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, told RFA’s Myanmar Service Friday.

“There is no one to claim Zaw Win Maung’s body yet because his wife is in hiding because she was also part of the protests. I have contacted the Free Funeral Service on his behalf. During the fighting yesterday 21 people were arrested,” said the source.

Demonstrators sitting on motorcycles display flags during a protest in Launglone, Dawei district, Myanmar March 26, 2021. Credit: Reuters

Protests in many parts of the country on Thursday continued into the evening, with security forces killing and wounding several protesters as clashes continued into the night.

In Sagaing’s Tamu township, bordering India, police and soldiers killed at least two and wounded seven Thursday, eyewitnesses told RFA.

The two men had sustained injuries while protesting and were in the process of being rushed to Kalemyo General Hospital, when police stopped the car they were riding in. They died shortly after.

Local residents told RFA that four others were in critical condition after they were shot in the head and chest. Several others were undergoing treatment at a makeshift first aid camp.

Sources said the shooting in Tamu started when local residents surrounded policemen and soldiers as they approached two jewelry shops in the town.

About a dozen Myanmar nationals from Tamu crossed the border into India Thursday and three in the group were admitted to the hospital with serious bullet wounds, the Associated Press reported. The hospitalized were allowed to stay in India on humanitarian grounds, while the others were repatriated.

Yangon raid

Meanwhile in the commercial center Yangon, police and soldiers raided residential quarters in South Dagon township at about 10 p.m. Thursday, killing a man on the spot, witnesses told RFA through a messenger app. They said 10 other people were injured in gunfire and 15 youths were also beaten up and taken from their homes.

Police and soldiers arrived in North Dagon on about 15 trucks and began firing automatic weapons indiscriminately, shooting people with rubber bullets, teargas and slingshots.

“There was a lot of shooting and many were wounded. Three people are now in critical condition,” an eyewitness told RFA.

“There is now a large police and soldier presence in wards 70, 71, and 72. They forced people nearby to remove the makeshift barriers in the streets,” the eyewitness said.

Elsewhere in the city, at about 4 a.m., a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy, the party ousted by the Feb. 1 military takeover. The incident was caught on nearby security cameras and posted to Facebook.

Local residents told RFA they had to break down the entrance gate to put out the fire themselves after the local fire department failed to respond despite several calls. Not much damage was reported, with the exception of only the front entrance.

Anti-coup protesters gesture during a march in Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, March 26, 2021. Credit: AP

In the nearby Bago region’s Pyu township, a 20-year-old man died after police fired at crowds descending on the police station to demand the release of several protesters that had been arrested. The fate of another man who was shot is not yet known. 

In Monywa, the largest city in Sagaing, security forces broke into houses and arrested 20 people, residents told RFA.

Authorities “kicked down doors and arrested about 15 men,” a woman who insisted on remaining anonymous told RFA.

“They were searching for one man by name at one house, and they ended up taking away a woman and her six-year-old son because they couldn’t find her husband. They also arrested maybe six or seven men sitting at the Shwe Ohnthee Teashop, as well as the owner and an employee of the shop,” she said.

According to a tally verified by RFA, more than 270 civilians were killed by the junta’s security forces since Feb. 1.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an NGO based in Thailand, reported that at least 328 people have been killed in the crackdown as of Friday, and more than 3,000 arrested, charged, or sentenced.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Greta Thunberg Trolls Climate Deniers Over 'Shrinking Penises'

Dominic Smithers
Published 26 March 2021

Greta Thunberg has taken a cheeky swipe at climate change deniers following reports that pollution is causing penises to shrink.

Earlier this month, a prominent scientist spoke out about her new book that discusses a link between industrial chemicals in everyday products to smaller penises, lower sperm counts and erectile dysfunction.

Well, after reading the article, the 18-year-old decided to share the news with her followers, joking that the study will probably get more men interested in the cause to stop climate change.

Sharing a link to an article about it, she said: "See you all at the next climate strike:)."

And it seems to have gone down well with her followers.

Commenting on her tweet, one user said: "Hahaaa! Now men will take the climate change seriously!"

A second chimed in: "Say goodbye to the climate movement being dominated by women."

While another joked: "Everybody gangsta until Greta talks about shrinking penises."

For those of you who haven't seen the piece of research, Dr Shanna Swan is a renowned environmental and reproductive epidemiologist, and co-authored a 2017 study that investigated the dramatic fall in sperm count among men in Western countries.

Dr Swan says it is largely down to phthalates, which are types of chemicals found in plastic manufacturing parts and affect how the hormone endocrine is produced.

She and others believe that these disrupters, which can be passed on through breast milk, can potentially affect babies when they are in the wombs, leading to all manner of issues, such as lower IQs, premature birth, lower testosterone levels, and smaller penises.

She writes: "Babies are now entering the world already contaminated with chemicals because of the substances they absorb in the womb."

Research has shown pollution could lead to smaller penis size (stock image). Credit: PA

Speaking to The Intercept, Dr Swan said her research had found that baby boys who had been exposed to four different phthalates during their first trimester had a shorter anogenital distance (AGD), which is the distance between the midpoint of the anus and the penis.

She explained: "Nobody is going to like that term, so you could use taint or gooch instead. But basically it's the distance between the anus and the beginning of the genitals.

"And scientists have recognized its importance for a long time.

"Our work has shown that chemicals, including the diethylhexyl phthalate, shorten the AGD in males."

And this isn't the only time the subject of shrinking willies and pollutions has been raised either.

Back in 2018, a study from scientists in Italy found that men could end up with penises half an inch smaller if their parents were exposed to high levels of a chemical that was found in non-stick frying pans.

Reactions as Greta Thunberg shows killer sense of humour about ‘shrinking penis’ pollution concern

“Best sniper on the net”

 by Joe Mellor
March 26, 2021


Environmental scientist Dr Shanna Swan book claims that humanity is facing an “existential crisis” in fertility rates as a result of phthalates, a chemical used when manufacturing plastics that impacts the hormone-producing endocrine system.

As a result of this pollution, a growing number of babies are being born with small penises, Dr Swan writes.

Her book, titled Count Down, examines “how our modern world is threatening sperm counts, altering male and female reproductive development, and imperilling the future of the human race”.

Thunberg

In steps Greta Thunberg with this zinger, proving again she has a wicked sense of humour.

Greta, 18, wrote on Twitter: “See you all at the next climate strike,” followed by a smiley face.

Her tweet, posted on Thursday evening, garnered more than 270,000 like, as fans hailed her for being the “best sniper on the net”.

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Should Solar Geoengineering Be a Tool to Slow Global Warming, or is Manipulating the Atmosphere Too Dangerous?

A new National Academies report is focusing attention on the controversial possibility of cooling the climate by reflecting sunlight away from Earth.

By Bob Berwyn
March 26, 2021

GREAT YARMOUTH, ENGLAND - JULY 19: The sun starts to rise behind Britain's largest offshore wind farm off the Great Yarmouth coastline on July 19, 2006 in Norfolk, England. The 30 turbines cost GBP75million and can generate enough power for 41,000 homes are seen by supporters as a clean and green way to generate electricity and a way of cutting down on harmful green house gas emmissions. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

The risks of the climate crisis are so urgent that the United States, in cooperation with other countries and under strict rules, should study the possibility of temporarily cooling the planet through solar geoengineering, a report released Thursday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine says.

The report focuses on adding reflective particles to the upper atmosphere to bounce the sun’s heat back to space, brightening low-altitude clouds over the ocean to make them more reflective or thinning wispy cirrus clouds so that they trap less heat on the surface of the planet.

Supporting research into those possibilities shouldn’t be equated with actually implementing them, the NAS committee members involved with the report emphasized, adding that such studies should not detract from the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions. And scientists “need to be open to terminating” geoengineering research if findings indicate that such manipulations of the atmosphere would carry undue risk of dangerous consequences, they said.

“It’s kind of surreal to even be talking about this,” said Ambuj Sagar, who studies science and technology policy at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and was part of the committee that compiled the report. “You can’t be doing climate policy without thinking about geoengineering, and the more you get into it, the more complex it is. It raises all kinds of issues with international politics and governance.”

But if greenhouse gas emissions don’t start dropping fast, people in 10 or 20 years will need sound science to decide if they want to pull the solar engineering emergency brake,” said Peter Irvine, who studies solar geoengineering at University College London and was not involved in the new report.

The Academies’ report recommends a research budget of $100 million to $200 million for the next five years, as a “minor part of the overall U.S. research portfolio related to climate change.” For now, it says, research should not be focused on a path toward deployment, but on understanding how solar geoengineering fits with all the options for responding to climate change.

Solar geoengineering only makes sense in tandem with cutting emissions, because solar geoengineering doesn’t actually address the buildup of greenhouse gases that warms the climate. It only masks some of the symptoms for as long as the measures are active. Temperatures would rebound dangerously fast when atmospheric manipulation ends. A 2015 report from the Academies concluded that geoengineering is no substitute for emissions reductions, and that none of the proposed interventions are ready for deployment.

“Even the question of whether to do research is complex,” Sagar said. “Who has the right to decide how to move on this?”

Since any implementation of solar geoengineering could have unintended consequences, it’s critical that everyone who could be affected has a seat at the table where its use is discussed, he said.

Doing research on solar radiation management isn’t advocating for it, said Helene Muri, who studies geoengineering with the Industrial Ecology Programme at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Oslo.

“A lot of people who are doing the research aren’t endorsing it,” she said. A recent study she worked on, published March 11 in Earth System Dynamics, showed that solar radiation management could have potentially unexpected effects on the way soils and plants process carbon dioxide, partly because plants and microbes respond differently to direct and filtered light.

Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said that, when it comes to solar geoengineering, researchers need to engage with the public “to ask not just can we, but should we,” in a way similar to the ongoing discussions in fields such as artificial intelligence or gene editing. Basic questions about governance, like who is involved in making decisions, are just as important as scientific and technical information when it comes to deciding if, when, where and for how long geoengineering might ultimately be used “to mask global warming,” she said.

The report suggests that the U.S. Global Change Research Program should guide the effort. Its focus should be the context and goals of the research, including strategies for decision-making and engaging all countries on the issue; impacts and technical dimensions, such as how the reflective particles act in the atmosphere and affect ecological systems; and social aspects, including public perceptions and engagement, along with justice, ethics and equity considerations.
Last Chance, or Icarus Moment?

The topic of geoengineering has surfaced with increasing frequency in recent years. A few months ago, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said their latest budget included $4 million to study what they called a “Plan B” for climate change. In 2013, NBC and others reported that U.S. intelligence agencies helped fund a previous National Academy of Sciences study assessing geoengineering risks.

Most recently, an experiment called SCoPEx, led by the Keutsch Group at Harvard and planned for June in the sky above Sweden, has been portrayed both as a crucial step toward better understanding solar geoengineering, or as a dangerous slip down a slope leading to a potential Icarus moment for humanity, with the illusion of control over nature ending in a fiery crash.

The first step of SCoPEx is to launch a balloon to test instruments that could be used to measure how reflective particles work in a small area and affect the adjacent atmosphere.

Even that small step is worrisome, said Linda Schneider, of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, a nonprofit group with ties to the German Green Party.

“What civil society currently is worried about is that the new NAS report will be used to legitimize Harvard’s SCoPEx project,” she said. “It’s notable how the first thing they highlight is the need for a massive expansion of research. We maintain that it is an untestable technology and the real impacts and consequences would only be felt once the technology would actually be deployed, and then there is no going back.”

Last week, the Saami Council, representing Indigenous communities in Sweden, Finland, Russia and Norway, wrote a letter to the SCoPEx advisory committee demanding cancellation of the balloon experiment because there was a lack of transparency, inclusivity and engagement in the planning process.

Approving research incrementally could create unjustified legitimacy for geoengineering and make the technology seem palatable, Schneider cautioned, enabling a slide from “small, seemingly benign equipment testing to larger-scale experimentation with particle release.”

“We think that solar radiation management comes with so many known and unknown existential risks for communities and ecosystems that it is too dangerous to ever be developed, and should instead be banned outright,” she said.

Tinkering with the reflectivity of the atmosphere is a “bad idea whose time has come,” Oxford physics Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert wrote for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists back in 2017, commenting on ideas like brightening clouds to save the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The new report from the Academies could be used as a “crutch for polluters” to further delay climate action, said Penn State climate researcher Michael Mann.

A broad global coalition of civic groups called for a geoengineering ban in 2019 during a meeting of the United Nations Environmental Programme, when an early Swiss proposal to consider global governance of such interventions was rejected based in part on objections from the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Globally, environmental groups track climate hacking efforts via the geoengineering monitor, which provides valuable information on relatively unknown geoengineering ideas like covering big tracts of land in Africa with plastic to reflect heat, and oundation-funded solar geoengineering research in Africa.
Could Small Experiments Bring a Cascade of Climate Interventions?

Some of the skepticism is warranted, said Harvard climate economist Gernot Wagner, the founding co-director of Harvard’s solar geoengineering research program, which launched the SCoPEx project.

Wagner, who left the geoengineering program in 2019, said that, as a social scientist, he understands that the complexity of geoengineering can “lead to hesitation, which is understandable and laudable.” The focus on research and the regulation of the research, rather than deployment, is “where the conversation should be,” he said, adding that, “if anything, there should be a firm moratorium” on deployment.

The level of funding proposed in the National Academies report is about equal to the total current global spending on geoengineering research, and not much compared to overall spending on climate science, on which the United States Global Change Research Program spends about $3 billion annually, he said.

“It concludes, in very reasonable language, that careful outdoor small-scale experiments are OK. A lot of learning can happen from those experiments. The SCoPEx seems to meet these criteria,” he said, explaining that the project’s advisory committee is still deliberating on whether to give it the final go-ahead.

Small geoengineering research projects and experiments should also be considered in the context of related research, including efforts to understand how emissions from volcanoes, wildfires and diesel-burning ships affect the climate, he said. A second stage of the SCoPEx experiment would involve fewer particles than those emitted by a plane’s jet engines during one minute of commercial flight, he said.

Irvine, the University College London researcher, said the new report echoes similar recommendations made by the United Kingdom’s Royal Academy in 2009.

“It’s deliberately not about how do we go about building the equipment,” he said, but focused on “foundational science, including the social and ethical dimensions, as well as promoting an international governance structure.”

Focusing on internationally regulated and government-financed research could dispel the “James Bond-villainesque” perception of geoengineering, especially since most of the current funding comes from billionaire philanthropists, he added.

Emissions are rising at a rate that would push the global average temperature up by between 4.5 degrees and 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit, which will result in serious impacts to people and ecosystems.

“The possibility of minimizing some of those harms (with solar geoengineering) might seem new, radical and tempting, but should not distract from the urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

One of the fears of not researching and establishing governance for geoengineering is that “growing and powerful nations like Indonesia or India, nations that are at the sharper end of climate change,” might resort to geoengineering unilaterally, potentially provoking regional impacts or even conflict, he added.

Irvine said that, based on the science of the past decade, he thinks it’s likely that solar geoengineering, especially at the stratospheric level, could substantially reduce some climate risks in some areas, while potentially increasing them elsewhere in unexpected ways. That could lead down a path requiring constant human attempts to manipulate the climate system.

“Is this a world we want, where we have to alter the Earth’s energy budget for decades?” he asked.

France Has ‘Overwhelming’ Responsibility for Rwanda Genocide, Report Says

The report, commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron, found that France’s colonial mind-set had blinded it to the atrocity. The authors, though, cleared France of complicity.

The Flame of Remembrance at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda.Credit...Yasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images


By Norimitsu Onishi
March 26, 2021


PARIS — Blinded by its fears of losing influence in Africa and by a colonial view of the continent’s people, France remained close to the “racist, corrupt and violent regime’’ responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and bears “serious and overwhelming” responsibilities, according to a report released Friday.

But the report — commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron in 2019 and put together by 15 historians with unprecedented access to French government archives — cleared France of complicity in the genocide that led to the deaths of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and contributed to decades of conflicts and instability in Central Africa.

“Is France an accomplice to the genocide of the Tutsi? If by this we mean a willingness to join a genocidal operation, nothing in the archives that were examined demonstrates this,’’ said the report, which was presented to Mr. Macron on Friday afternoon.

But the commission said that France had long been involved with Rwanda’s Hutu-led government even as that government prepared the genocide of the Tutsis, regarding the country’s leadership as a crucial ally in a French sphere of influence in the region.

For decades, France’s actions during the genocide have been the source of intense debate in Africa and in Europe, with critics accusing France of not having done enough to prevent the killings or of having actively supported the Hutu-led government behind the genocide. The unresolved history has long poisoned relations between France and the government of President Paul Kagame, the Tutsi leader who has controlled Rwanda for nearly a quarter century.

Mr. Macron, who has spoken of his desire to reset France’s relations with a continent where it was a colonial power, is believed to have commissioned the report to try to improve relations with Rwanda.

Though the 992-page report presents fresh information from the French government archives, it is unlikely to resolve the debate over France’s role during the genocide, said Filip Reyntjens, a Belgian expert on the genocide.

“This will not be good enough for one side, and it won’t be good enough for the other side,’’ Mr. Reyntjens said. “So my guess is that this will not settle the issue.’’

According to the report, François Mitterrand, the French president at the time, maintained a “strong, personal and direct relationship’’ with Juvenal Habyarimana, the longtime Hutu president of Rwanda, despite his “racist, corrupt and violent regime.’’

Mr. Mitterrand and members of his inner circle believed that Mr. Habyarimana and the Hutus were key allies in a French-speaking bloc that also included Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known then as Zaire.

The French saw Mr. Kagame and other Tutsi leaders — who had spent years in exile in neighboring Anglophone Uganda — as allies in an American push into the region.

“The principal interest of this country for France is that it be francophone,’’ a high-ranking military official wrote in 1990, according to the report, which concluded: “France’s interpretation of the Rwandan situation can be viewed through the prism of defending la Francophonie.’’

French leaders at the time viewed the Hutus and Tutsis through a colonial lens, ascribing to each group stereotypical physical traits and behavior, compounding their misinterpretation of the events that led to the genocide, according to the report.

In one of the report’s most damning conclusions, its authors wrote, “The failure of France in Rwanda, the causes of which are not all its own, can be likened in this respect to a final imperial defeat, all the more significant because it was neither expressed nor acknowledged.’’

Rwandan Genocide

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Norimitsu Onishi is a foreign correspondent on the International Desk, covering France out of the Paris bureau. He previously served as bureau chief for The Times in Johannesburg, Jakarta, Tokyo and Abidjan, Ivory Coast.