Myanmar: Junta Troops Raze Entire Village In Sagaing Region

Kone Ywar village was nearly burned to the ground by Myanmar junta forces during a night raid Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Yinmarbin township, Sagaing region.

 Photo Credit: Citizen journalist, via RFA

March 2, 2023
By RFA


The junta troops entered the central Myanmar village of Kone Ywar on Tuesday evening and set it alight. When the flames had finally died down by Wednesday morning, they methodically set fire to whatever was left standing.

The destruction in Kone Ywar – a settlement populated by more than 1,400 people in Sagaing region’s embattled Yinmarbin township – is becoming all too commonplace in Myanmar, where more than two years after a coup, the military has embarked on a scorched earth campaign to root out the country’s armed resistance.

But while civilians are regularly caught up in the conflict, despite claims by the junta that it does not target noncombatants, it is rare for the military to wipe out nearly an entire village.

By the time the smoke had cleared on Wednesday and the junta unit had moved on, all but 30 of Kone Ywar’s more than 700 homes had been razed, three civilians had been killed, and thousands of Yinmarbin’s residents had fled the township in fear for their lives.

“[The soldiers] burned down almost the entire village … They were burning the whole night yesterday and they even torched the houses left standing this morning,” a resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing reprisal, told RFA Burmese.

“Only about 30 houses were left, although we don’t know exactly how many were destroyed.”

The raid followed a clash near the entrance to Kone Ywar between the military and members of the local anti-junta People’s Defense Force paramilitary group that led to military casualties, he said, suggesting that the arson had been an act of revenge.

Other residents told RFA that the soldiers had killed three men in their 30s, two of whom lived in Kone Ywar. The identity of the third man was not immediately clear.

Soon after departing Kone Ywar, the troops again clashed with PDF forces in nearby Yae Aungt village, with military helicopters joining the battle, they said.

Around 10,000 residents from the two villages, as well as from others in the vicinity – including Sar Taw Pyin, Zee Taw, Let Hloke, Ohn Taw, Lar Boet and Yin Paung Taing – had fled their homes for safety and remained displaced, residents added.

Yinmarbin is one of the townships in Sagaing region declared under martial law by the junta last month.

Wetlet township raid

The destruction in Kone Ywar came on the same day that junta troops raided two villages in Sagaing’s Wetlet township, setting fire to homes and killing at least two elderly residents, sources said.

A resident of Wetlet, who declined to be named citing security concerns, told RFA that a column of around 80 soldiers torched 59 houses in Moke Soe Chon Bu Tar and another two homes in nearby Bo Te on Tuesday.

Tin Hla, a woman in her 70s, perished in the fires in Bo Te, the resident said.

“They left her there when they were burning the houses and since she was too old to run, she died in the fire,” he said.

Junta troops leaving Moke Soe Chon Bu Tar at around 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday shot and killed Myint Than, 60, as he rode his motorbike outside the village, the resident said.

More than 1,000 residents of the two villages – each with more than 100 homes – were forced to flee to safety during the raid, sources told RFA.

Attempts by RFA to contact Aye Hlaing, the junta’s social affairs minister for Sagaing region, by phone went unanswered Wednesday. However, junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun has previously said that arson is a tactic used by the PDF and that the military “never causes harm to civilians.”

Last month, a military column burned down more than 100 houses in Wetlet township’s Ta Kaung Min village in a Feb. 3 raid, during which a civilian was killed by a rocket propelled grenade fired by junta soldiers, residents said.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of Feb. 2, some 650,000 residents of Sagaing region had fled their homes due to armed conflict in the aftermath of the Feb. 1, 2021, coup.

Data for Myanmar, an independent research organization, says that at least 43,292 houses have been destroyed by arson in Sagaing in the two years since the takeover.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

RFA
Radio Free Asia’s mission is to provide accurate and timely news and information to Asian countries whose governments prohibit access to a free press. Content used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

California bill would help protect nannies, house cleaners

By Sophie Austin | AP
March 1, 2023 

 Domestic workers in California don’t have the same safety protections required by law for many employees in case they get injured or sick on the job. But state lawmakers are trying to change that in their latest attempt to expand these workers’ rights in a bill being introduced by Sen. Durazo. 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California households that employ cleaners or nannies could soon be required to comply with safety standards similar to other workplaces under a bill proposed in the state Legislature.

Domestic workers in California don’t have the same safety protections required by law for many employees in case they get injured or sick on the job. A bill by Democratic state Sen. María Elena Durazo would give those hired by private employers to do domestic work protections under the California Occupational Safety and Health Act. The legislation would not apply to domestic work paid for by the government.

On Wednesday, domestic workers came from across California to voice their support for the legislation at the state Capitol, where some held up a sign in Spanish that read, “Everyone Deserves a Safe Workplace.”

Durazo, who represents central Los Angeles, noted the symbolism of the gathering taking place on the first day of Women’s History Month. She said she hopes lawmakers take action to protect a sector of the workforce made up largely of women of color.

“Women’s work needs to be treated just as important as any other work,” she said.

Nearly 92% of domestic workers in the United States are women, and more than half are Black, Hispanic or Asian American, the Economic Policy Institute estimated in 2020.

“Domestic work is important work, and these workers deserve all of the rights and protections afforded to workers in other industries,” said Anna Pisarello, a teacher who employs a nanny to take care of her two children.

In recent years, supporters of these types of protections have made strides to increase safety for domestic workers, a group hit hard during the pandemic, who are particularly susceptible to getting hurt or sick from work.

In New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law in 2021 protecting these workers under a state human rights law. But in Virginia, lawmakers tried and failed to pass a bill that same year that would have included these workers in an employee protection law.

In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar bill in 2020, citing the burden on private employers to comply with state worker safety law regulations. In 2021, he signed a bill that created an advisory committee that submitted a list of recommendations to the Legislature in January, which included a financial assistance program to help employers with the cost of making sure their home is safe to work in.

If the bill introduced last month becomes law, the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health would have to come up with standards by July 1, 2024 to help employers comply with requirements. Employers would then have to comply with regulations by Jan. 1, 2025. The legislation would also create a program to give grants to employers who can use the money to make sure their home is safe for workers.

Martha Herrera, who cleans houses and takes care of children in San Francisco, said she used to look after a girl with autism between the time she was 4 to 8 years old. That included giving her baths and carrying her to the bathroom, she said. One day, the girl almost fell in the shower, and Herrera moved to catch her. As a result, Herrera started to feel a pain in her waist.

After Herrera’s employers paid her for her work and gave her $300 for medicine, she was unable to work for three months because of the pain, she said.

“This experience motivated me to continue to fight for the rights of domestic workers,” said Herrera, who is also a member of the domestic worker policy advisory committee.

Mariko Yoshihara, a lawyer and policy director with the California Employment Lawyers Association, said domestic workers should have been given these protections a long time ago.

“The fact that there is one categorical exclusion in our health and safety laws specifically for domestic workers is just unjust,” she said.

___

Sophie Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @sophieadanna

China warns ‘hedonistic’ bankers to toe the Communist Party line

Mr He Lifeng is being considered for the role of party secretary at the People’s Bank of China. PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIJING – Bankers in China are being told to rectify their mindsets, clean up their “hedonistic” lifestyles and stop copying Western ways.

The directives, part of a 3,500-word commentary last week from the country’s top anti-graft watchdog, is just the latest sign that President Xi Jinping’s campaign to tighten the Communist Party’s grip on the financial system has a long way to go.

As the National People’s Congress kicks off this weekend, Mr Xi is poised to further entrench control by reviving a powerful committee to coordinate economic and financial policy and installing close allies to oversee it all.

That comes on the heels of the sudden disappearance of one of China’s top investment bankers and follows the downfall of dozens of officials over the past 18 months in the most sweeping corruption crackdown on financial sector ever.

In its warning last week, China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said bankers should abandon pretensions of being the “financial elite”.

“All of these development speak to one thing: the Communist Party will govern everything, including economic and financial work,” said Mr Shen Meng, a director of Beijing-based investment bank Chanson & Co. “Policy makers are placing the finance industry at the heart of the economy as a lubricant for its smooth development, and if the economy goes sour, the sector is mainly to blame.”

This is a critical moment for Mr Xi as he seeks to reign in risks in the $60 trillion financial sector (S$80.7 trillion) – imposing stricter controls on capital outflow, controlling debt levels and ruling out risky practices – while he tries to restore growth and manage the economic fallout of spiralling ties with the US.

Aiming criticism at the industry may well provide Mr Xi with convenient cover if that doesn’t go smoothly.

The National People’s Congress – where top leaders will assess the government’s past performance and outline policies for the year ahead – offers Mr Xi his first opportunity to shake up state institutions since he secured a precedent-breaking third term at the party’s twice-a-decade congress.

China’s top leaders have typically used the first parliament meeting after a congress to reorganise critical government organs. In 2018, Mr Xi carried out the most extensive overhaul in decades in a revamp that solidified his control over key functions.

‘Broker Butcher’

Authorities are considering reviving the long-disbanded Central Financial Work Commission to allow the ruling Communist Party to assert more control, according to people familiar with the matter.

The commission is set to be headed by Mr Ding Xuexiang, Xi’s chief of staff, one of the people said. Mr He Lifeng, who is expected to become China’s new vice premier, is also being considered for the role of party secretary at the People’s Bank of China, according to the Wall Street Journal.

As part of changing of the guard, the nation’s securities regulator is poised to get a new chairman nicknamed “the broker butcher,” people familiar with the matter said earlier. Mr Wu Qing, a vice mayor of Shanghai, earned his reputation cracking down on wayward traders while at the regulator in the mid-2000s, shuttering 31 firms.

At the same time, the financial industry has been rocked by the disappearance of Mr Bao Fan – who oversaw some of the nation’s biggest tech deals over the past decade.

Mr Bao is cooperating in an unspecified probe by Chinese authorities according to China Renaissance Holdings Ltd., the investment bank he heads up. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the banker had been detained as part of a corruption probe.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC
China Renaissance bank says missing chairman Bao Fan is assisting Chinese investigators

Famed Chinese dealmaker goes missing in latest executive disappearance

Then this week, after an investigation that started last year, China’s top prosecutor charged Mr Tian Huiyu, the former president of China Merchants Bank Co, over allegedly taking “huge” bribes, the abuse of power and insider trading.

That turmoil is giving global investors another reason to be cautious about the longer-term prospects for China’s markets.

The rip-roaring rally on China’s reopening has stalled with key benchmarks in Hong Kong falling as much as 15 per cent since in January. China’s technology stocks have lost up to a combined $263 billion in market value in the same time.

One recent encouraging development – a landmark deal by the US and China to end an impasse over access to audit papers of Chinese firms listed in New York – is also being questioned as authorities in Beijing have put pressure on its state-owned corporate giants to end ties with the Big Four global accounting firms.

“Investors are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Ms Diana Choyleva, chief economist at Enodo Economics, a London-based research firm focused on China.

“Liquidity developments favor Chinese equities, but Xi Jinping remains wedded to an economic model which means the Party has ultimate control over every aspect of the economy,” and China remains at risk of falling foul of US sanctions against Russia, she said.

Keeping a tight lid on capital outflows also remains a priority for authorities trying to prevent China’s wealth leaving the country as they get the economy back on its feet.

Beijing has accelerated its crackdown on Macau’s high-rolling gamblers on concerns about the city’s role in funneling money abroad, with the enclave passing a new law that gives the government greater oversight over casinos and authorities jailing flamboyant former industry tycoon Alvin Chau earlier this year.

That effort is shining a spotlight on China’s brokerage industry too. China Securities Regulatory Commission has repeatedly vowed this year to tighten supervision of illegal cross-border brokerage services since it asked two such firms to rectify their business activities.

On top of that, officials have put pressure on foreign and domestic banks to rein in pay in the sector as part of Mr Xi’s “common prosperity” push.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC
China anti-graft body vows crackdown on finance sector corruption

China’s top tech banker is missing? Here’s what that means

Financial Opening

The tightening comes even as authorities have pledged to continue opening up to foreign banks. Wall Street giants such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley, fund managers and insurers are expanding after being allowed to take full control over ventures in China.

The nation has opened its doors in part to attract fresh capital and to instill more discipline in its financial market.

Clean up efforts will proceed as China develops its pension fund system and seeks to draw more liquidity into its markets, according to Mr William Ma, Grow Investment Group’s chief investment officer.

“From a global investors perspective, per our communication with Chinese regulators, there are continued efforts in the financial market opening up,” and more policy announcements are expected after political meetings in March, he said.

One key figure, Mr Guo Shuqing, the party chief of People’s Bank of China and head of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, is expected to retire after spearheading a crackdown on leverage in the real estate sector, reining in the shadow banking sector and peer-to-peer lending.

He will leave a big hole to fill as Mr Xi places his associates in key roles, concentrating economic policy decision-making in fewer hands.

“I can’t imagine anyone else has the inclination, reputation, or understanding of the system to replicate what he’s done,” Mr Dinny McMahon, director of markets research at Trivium, said of Mr Guo.

Recent new measures governing bank disclosures of non-performing loans and capital risk may suggest Mr Guo may be trying to ensure his replacement continues to improve risk management, he said.

But it’s a delicate balance for Mr Xi – reducing risks without spooking markets in order to buffer an economy that may yet be subject to more pain as the US and its allies increasingly embrace strategic competition with China.

“Policy makers are attaching great importance to safeguarding the red line and preventing systemic financial risks,” said Mr Shen at Chanson. “It’s particularly crucial at a time when the domestic economy is still suffering and China faces mounting pressure on geopolitical front.”

Thai opposition party names property tycoon as adviser amid rumours of PM candidacy

MARCH 01, 2023

The Pheu Thai party announced Srettha Thavisin, chief executive of Sansiri, has been brought in as a senior adviser.
Screengrab/Instagram/prestigeth

BANGKOK - Thailand’s biggest opposition party on Wednesday (March 1) named a well-known local property tycoon as its new adviser ahead of an upcoming election, adding fuel to speculation he was being lined up as another prime ministerial candidate.

The Pheu Thai Party, which together with its previous incarnations has won every Thai election since 2001, announced Srettha Thavisin, chief executive of Sansiri, has been brought in as a senior adviser.

“It’s time to do more political work, but let’s take the future step by step,” Srettha, 60, said when asked by reporters about him being a possible candidate for premier, following months of rumours.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 36, the Pheu Thai Party's most visible candidate for prime minister, speaks during the general election campaign in Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand, Feb 17, 2023.
PHOTO: Reuters

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 36, whose father and aunt led governments overthrown in military coups in 2006 and 2014, has topped opinion polls since 2022 and was confirmed at the weekend as one of Pheu Thai’s prime ministerial candidates.

Under election rules, a party can name up to three candidates for premier.

Pheu Thai has said it would name three.

Srettha said he would be stepping up his presence on the campaign trail for the election, which is due in May.

Read AlsoThailand election likely on May 7, PM Prayut says


“Paetongtarn has done well. But being seven months pregnant, there are limits,” Srettha said.

They will face off against prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, a general who led the coup against the last Pheu Thai government in 2014.

Underlining the bitter rivalry between Thailand’s warring political camps, Prayut on Wednesday dismissed questions about Srettha’s prospects and asked reporters what was special about him being a real estate mogul.

“The nation is not a business,” he said, before walking to a waiting car. “Remember my words, the country’s economy is not a family business. Do you understand?”

Source: Reuters

Thaksin's daughter banking on nostalgia to win Thailand election

FEBRUARY 19, 2023

AMNAT CHAROEN – Touting her billionaire family's legacy of populism and massive election victories, Thailand's Paetongtarn Shinawatra is emerging as the candidate to beat in upcoming polls, betting that nostalgia can win millions of working class votes.

Paetongtarn, 36, is campaigning hard in the vote-rich rural strongholds of the Shinawatra family's Pheu Thai political juggernaut, hoping to reignite the kind of fervour that swept father Thaksin and aunt Yingluck to power in unprecedented landslides.

Political neophyte Paetongtarn is promising Pheu Thai will complete unfinished business from three stints in office since 2001, all of which were cut short by court rulings and military coups that it says were orchestrated by Thailand's conservative establishment.

"We managed to fix everything in the first year but then four years later we were ousted by a coup, so there are things that we have not achieved," Paetongtarn told Reuters in her first formal interview with foreign media ahead of the election, expected in May.

"So we go on each stage to tell people how our policies can change their lives. And only through stable politics can people's lives change in a sustainable manner," she said, while campaigning in the northeast.

Thaksin and Yingluck were toppled by the army in 2006 and 2014 respectively, despite overseeing big economic growth. Both live in self-imposed exile to avoid prison convictions that their allies say were designed to prevent their political comebacks.

Old playbook

The baton has passed to Paetongtarn, Thaksin's youngest daughter, who is using the same playbook in offering minimum wage hikes, utilities subsidies and long-promised high-speed rail systems and infrastructure to manage floods and droughts.

Pheu Thai's slogan is Think Big, Act Smart, taking aim at incremental reforms by the military-backed governments of prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha since he seized power in 2014.

"The picture has to be big, and we must be able to address longstanding problems that festered. These must be completely dealt with," said Paetongtarn.

Though yet to be named as Pheu Thai's prime ministerial candidate, Paetongtarn is far ahead in opinion polls for premier, with twice the support of Prayuth.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra greeting supporters during the general election campaign in Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand, on Feb 17.
PHOTO: Reuters

Pheu Thai is expected to win most votes, but could struggle to lead a government given the military's influence over an appointed Senate, which, together with the elected lower house, chooses the prime minister.

Paetongtarn said she consults regularly and remains close with her father, who lives mainly in Dubai. His chief worry, she said, was her campaigning while nearly seven months pregnant.

"But I'm OK," she said. "This is my second pregnancy. I am aware of myself. I won't go too hard."

Despite their electoral popularity, the Shinawatras are loathed in Thailand as much as they are loved.

They have long been accused by opponents of cronyism to enrich business friends and of buying off the poor with wasteful populist policies. The Shinawatras deny the charges.

Supporters holding up posters of Paetongtarn Shinawatra during the general election campaign in Amnat Charoen province, Thailand, on Feb 18.
PHOTO: Reuters

Thailand's election is shaping up to be another grudge match between warring elites in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy.

Paetongtarn said she remains concerned about the impact of the country's intractable power struggle involving her family, including coups, which she said makes Thailand "go backwards".

"It also makes the world see our country in a different light. They don't want to trade with us. It reduces the opportunities for everyone," she said.

"Our country has been frozen for so long. So a coup should not take place again. The country must progress and people deserve to have better livelihoods."

Development banks must embrace nuclear energy


Håvard Halland

March 02, 2023 

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) have historically been reluctant to invest in nuclear energy, and the World Bank has not financed a nuclear power plant since 1959. In the absence of MDB funds, the majority of international financing for such projects has come from state banks in Russia and China, establishing Russian and Chinese companies as the primary suppliers of nuclear technology to low- and middle-income countries.

While this approach has allowed MDBs to avoid controversy, they must acknowledge that the world has changed. The urgent need to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, together with Russia’s war in Ukraine and subsequent surge in oil and gas prices, has increased global demand for nuclear power. With the 2011 Fukushima disaster fading in the rearview mirror, even Japan is planning to restart its reactors. France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have all announced plans to build new nuclear power plants, Sweden is considering it, and the European Union now allows nuclear energy to be labeled as a green investment. In the United States, the federal government is expected to pump about $40 billion into the sector over the coming decade, and private investment in nuclear energy is surging.

This change in sentiment coincides with rapid technological advances. The development of smaller and safer reactors has made nuclear power cheaper, faster to deploy, and easier to maintain. Whereas the construction of traditional nuclear power plants has historically been a major national undertaking, with costs frequently running into the dozens of billions of dollars, so-called small modular reactors allow for a more tailored approach and more manageable financing packages.

This is particularly important for developing countries, which must figure out how to expand their power supply while curtailing greenhouse-gas emissions as they become increasingly industrialized and urbanized. The International Energy Agency estimates that demand for energy in Africa will jump by one-third by the end of the decade, owing to population and income growth, as well as improved access.

While increased MDB support for renewable energy has helped put developing economies on the path toward carbon neutrality, most countries still rely on coal-fired power plants and natural gas for baseload electricity production. To complete the shift away from fossil fuels, governments must complement wind and solar energy with low-carbon sources that are not dependent on weather conditions.

But without nuclear power (or hydroelectricity, but not all countries have that option), governments will find it difficult to replace their fossil-fuel baseload. While it may be possible to achieve this by combining renewable energy with utility-scale battery storage, the costs are prohibitive, and modern batteries come with their own sustainability issues. Geothermal energy could also play this role, but currently it is limited to areas where geothermal heat is available close to the Earth’s surface. New technologies could expand access to geothermal power, but they are costly.

By abandoning their reticence about nuclear power, MDBs could help scale up low-carbon energy supply while enhancing global security. Western countries’ withdrawal from nuclear energy over the past few decades has enabled Russia to establish itself as the leading international provider of reactors, services, and financing for nuclear-power projects. At a time of heightened geopolitical tensions, it is in the interest of MDBs’ democratic shareholding governments to establish an alternative for emerging countries interested in nuclear power but hesitant to make their energy security dependent on Russia. Simultaneously, MDBs would promote better safety and sustainability standards.

Given that international development agencies tend to follow MDBs’ lead, and that private financing of energy infrastructure projects in developing countries often depends on multilateral lenders’ risk-mitigation policies, MDBs should reverse their position on nuclear power. Otherwise, Russia and China will remain the world’s primary suppliers of such projects.

To be sure, MDBs must carefully assess proposed nuclear energy projects to ensure that they meet appropriate technological and sustainability standards. While some under-resourced countries with weak institutions might not be ready to pursue nuclear power, MDBs are uniquely positioned to support emerging economies seeking alternatives to Russian and Chinese technologies and financing.

The climate crisis, too, has created unprecedented momentum for reform. The US, Germany, a G20 expert panel, and Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley have all called for strengthening MDBs’ capacity to support developing countries in mitigating and adapting to climate change and in mobilizing private financing for this purpose. Meanwhile, the World Bank recently published an “evolution roadmap” that aims to increase its capacity to respond to climate change.

Reforming MDBs’ financing structures and energy policies is crucial to supporting developing countries in mitigating the worst effects of climate change. Moreover, Russia’s war against Ukraine has revealed the critical role of the multilateral financial system as a bulwark against tyranny. Since the start of the war, the World Bank has disbursed $16 billion in financial support to Ukraine, with other multilateral finance institutions providing comparable amounts. By explicitly permitting MDBs to finance nuclear power, their shareholding governments could weaken Russia’s still-considerable influence in emerging countries.

The momentum generated by nuclear energy’s renaissance, the geostrategic imperative to reduce Russia’s role as the dominant international provider of nuclear energy infrastructure, and the looming climate crisis, has presented MDBs with a unique opportunity to update their nuclear energy policy. To fight climate change and achieve a safer, more sustainable future, they must seize it.

The opinions and arguments expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the OECD or its member countries.

Co-author: Jessica Lovering is Executive Director of the Good Energy Collective

Copyright: Project Syndicate

-- Contact us at english@hkej.com

Man arrested in Peru for carrying ancient mummy in his cooler bag

‘She's like my spiritual bride,’ says 26-year-old Julio Cesar Bermejo, admitting to having the mummy for almost 30 years

Yavuz Aydın |02.03.2023

Credit: https://www.gob.pe/

ANKARA

Police in Peru have arrested a delivery man in the southern city of Puno after discovering a 600 to 800-year-old mummy in his cooler bag.

According to local media, police found the mummy while patrolling a park where 26-year-old Julio Cesar Bermejo was drinking with two other men.

The mummy was found "in a fetal position" inside a red refrigerated courier bag carried by Bermejo, said Marco Antonio Ortega, a spokesperson for the Puno region’s National Police.

Speaking to local media, Bermejo described the mummy, whom he called "Juanita," as his "spiritual girlfriend," adding it was brought home by his father and has been in his family’s possession for almost 30 years.

"At home, she is in my room. She sleeps with me. I take care of her," he said.

Police said Bermejo remains in custody.

The mummy, classified as a national cultural asset, has been taken under the custody of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.

The ministry said the mummy, once believed to be a ‘she,’ was identified as an adult male over 45 years old and 1.51 meters (about 5 feet) tall.

Peru is home to hundreds of archaeological sites belonging to various civilizations that developed before and after the Inca Empire.

In 2021, archaeologists found another mummy, estimated to be 800 to 1,200 years old, in a region near the country's capital, Lima.

*Writing by Anna Cecilia Canatan

 

Before Norfolk Southern Poisoned Ohio, It Poisoned The Statehouse – OpEd

 March 2, 2023  Eurasia Review  0 Comments

By Jim Hightower

“The Wreck of the Old 97” is a classic bluegrass song recounting a spectacular train crash in 1903, caused by the company’s demand that the engineer speed down a dangerous track to deliver cargo on time.

Fully 120 years later we have the “Wreck of the Norfolk Southern” — a devastating crash caused by the company’s demand that it be allowed to run an ill-equipped, understaffed, largely unregulated, 1.7 mile train carrying flammable, cancer-causing toxins through communities, putting profit over people and public safety.

This rolling bomb of a train was hardly unique, for the handful of multibillion-dollar railroad giants that control the industry also control lawmakers and regulators who are supposed to protect the public from profiteers.

A measure of their arrogance came just two years ago, when an Ohio legislative committee dared to consider a modest proposal for just a bit more rail safety. Norfolk Southern executives squawked like Chicken Little, asserting a plutocratic doctrine of corporate supremacy on such decisions. They even imperiously proclaimed that state lawmakers have no right to interfere in safety matters.

Ohio’s Chamber of Commerce dutifully echoed Norfolk’s concern for profit over people, testifying that “Ohio’s business climate would be negatively impacted” by the bill. Never mind that Ohio’s public safety climate can literally be “negatively impacted” by train wrecks!

Plunging deeper down the autocratic rabbit hole, the Chamber insisted that corporate control over workers is sacrosanct. It postulated that a crew-safety provision in the Ohio bill was illegal because it “would interfere with the employment relationship between employers and their employees.”

Yes, that’s a corporate claim that executives have an inalienable right to endanger workers.

Sure enough, bowing to the corporate powers, Ohio lawmakers rejected the 2021 safety bill. And that is why, 120 years after the wreck of the old 97, train catastrophes keep happening.

OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.

A Norfolk Southern train. Photo Credit: Michael Hoskins, Wikipedia Commons

 

East Palestine, Ohio And The Oligarchy – OpEd

 March 2, 2023  

By Margaret Kimberley

A freight train derailment brought environmental catastrophe to a small Ohio town. While the circumstances are somewhat unique, events followed a predictable pattern in a country run by and for the ruling class.

The U.S. is an oligarchy. Stating this fact explains events that may seem mysterious if this simple truth is not spelled out. The ruling class are fully in control and ensure that their needs are met. They disregard the public good and any claims of democracy are easily exposed as a cruel hoax. Americans have no representation in congress or the white house and the corporate media are also part of the oligarchic class. They expose nothing that their partners in crime want to hide. Governmental action and inaction if the wake of a freight train derailment exemplify all of these dynamics.

On February 3, 2023 a 150-car Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio near the Pennsylvania border. Twenty of those cars were carrying chemicals such as vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol, isobutylene, and ethylhexyl acrylate. One doesn’t need to be a scientist to figure out that none of these should be in the air or water.

Despite photographic and video evidence of an environmental catastrophe, the accident initially received little media attention. Nothing is covered unless the Biden administration wants it to be and East Palestine didn’t make the cut when there was war propaganda about Ukraine to stir up. In addition, Biden had already made clear that the railroads are in the class of corporate untouchables who are to be placated. They are among those who were promised that “nothing would fundamentally change” and he kept his promise to them by giving the derailment little attention. However he did give these corporations all the attention they demanded. 

When railroad unions rejected a contract that didn’t include paid sick leave provisions the Biden administration forbade them to strike. There was a phony show among “progressives” about having made a good deal but they were lying. Barack Obama excluded the railroads from a requirement that federal contractors provide paid sick leave. Biden could have issued an executive order changing that policy. But he had no intention of doing anything that might upset the oligarchs, and the Democratic Party succeeded in presenting a false narrative.

Pete Buttigieg is Secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOT), and is responsible for overseeing railroad safety. But he has made it clear that he follows his boss’s dictate to change nothing that would upset their oligarchic bosses.

As DOT Secretary, Buttigieg has the ability to regulate corporations such as airlines in regard to their public service. When a series of Southwest airlines snafus left thousands of passengers stranded during the holiday season, Buttigieg made a great show of saying his hands were tied. Of course he is the one person who can direct the airlines or levy large fines. Buttigieg was a no-show when the people needed him to act.

It took Buttigieg three weeks to show up in East Palestine and he only did so after Donald Trump visited. The town residents may have been better off without him. When he arrived he whined about railroad companies, “fighting us every time we try to do a regulation.” It is hard to believe that Buttigieg makes any effort to fight back when corporate chieftains tell him what to do.

The duopoly worked together to cover up their mess. Ohio’s republican governor Mike DeWine and Biden’s EPA Administrator Michael Regan took a page out of Barack Obama’s Flint, Michigan book by dramatically drinking East Palestine water . Fortunately the U.S. still has plenty of lawyers, and one of many lawsuits filed in recent days specifically names the stunt as having made a “mockery of Ohio citizens.”

The back and forth over freight train regulations isn’t complicated. Trump undid regulations that Obama enacted but Biden didn’t undo what Trump had done. But even worse, regulations currently on the books allowed Norfolk Souther to get away with not labeling the train as carrying hazardous materials because it also carried wheat and vegetables. All over the country trains go through residential areas carrying hazardous materials but the law doesn’t require anyone to be informed of the dangers. And yes, the oligarchs like it that way.

The Biden administration is siding with Norfolk Southern in a case before the Supreme Court . A worker claims to have developed cancer as a result of exposure to carcinogens without having had the proper protective equipment. Norfolk Southern wants to restrict plaintiffs from choosing the venue in which they file suits, a practice known as forum shopping. Corporations are the biggest proponents of forum shopping, for themselves, but want to restrict where they can be sued. The Biden administration filed a brief in favor of Norfolk Southern. It doesn’t matter if the presidents are democrats or republicans, at the end of the day they end up doing what the oligarchs want.

Next year in 2024 the people will be subjected to the quadrennial political hoax, i.e., a presidential election. Let’s tell the truth before the theater begins anew. The power doesn’t rest with the presidency. It rests with the people who do the presidential hiring, and they don’t care about railroad workers or any other workers or people who have hazardous chemicals traveling through their communities. Should an accident happen, their hirelings will just drink water for the camera.

Scene of train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Photo Credit: Tasnim News Agency

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. Her work can also be found at patreon.com/margaretkimberley and on Twitter @freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com."

Union rep: Employees reporting illness after working on cleanup for East Palestine derailment

BY STEPHEN NEUKAM 

THE HILL

03/01/23

Workers that aided in the cleanup of the train derailment in Ohio have experienced lingering migraines and nausea, according to a union representative for workers that build and maintain railways for Norfolk Southern.

Jonathan Long, a union representative for the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said in a Wednesday letter to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) that around 40 workers were ordered by Norfolk Southern, which owns the train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, last month, to clean up the wreckage.

Long said he had received reports that the workers were not given proper personal protection equipment to help clean up the wreckage, not being offered respirators, eye protection and protective clothing.

He also said many employees “reported that they continue to experience migraines and nausea, days after the derailment, and they all suspect that they were willingly exposed to these chemicals at the direction of [Norfolk Southern].”

Norfolk Southern in a statement challenged the claim that proper personal protective equipment was not used at the scene.

“In East Palestine, Norfolk Southern was on-scene immediately after the derailment and coordinated our response with hazardous material professionals who were on site continuously to ensure the work area was safe to enter and the required PPE was utilized, all in addition to air monitoring that was established within an hour,” the company said in a statement to The Hill.These four House Republicans broke with the GOP to oppose inflation estimates billPence disagrees with Haley’s call for competency tests: ‘The American people can sort that out’

The derailment of the train in East Palestine, which was carrying hazardous materials, has raised concerns about potential environmental and health hazards. Area residents were briefly ordered to evacuate after the crash before being cleared to return to their homes days later. Some have since reported experiencing unusual symptoms such as rashes and burning sensations when they breathe.

The incident has also sparked a political hailstorm both in the state and nationally. The Biden administration, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in particular, has faced tough scrutiny for its reaction to the derailment.

Norfolk Southern has also been met with criticism, including for dropping out of a town hall event in the village in mid-February, citing concerns for employee safety.

US Product safety commission requests information on gas stoves, taking possible step toward regulation

BY RACHEL FRAZIN - 

THE HILL

03/01/23 


The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission on Wednesday said it is asking the public for information on any hazards associated with gas stoves and possible solutions, marking what could be a step toward regulating the appliances.

The commission approved a formal request for Information on the topic, Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. said in a statement on Wednesday.

The request asks for research that links gas stoves to health issues including childhood asthma and seeks possible solutions, as well as the costs and feasibility of those options.

Requests for information are a common step taken by the federal government ahead of taking regulatory action as part of an effort to gauge what the impacts of possible regulations could be. But such a request doesn’t necessarily guarantee further action.

The request comes after Trumka, a Biden appointee, had floated further regulations or even a possible ban on gas stoves. The latter sparked a firestorm in Washington with many Republicans opposing the idea of a ban.

After the backlash, Commission chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric, also appointed by Biden, said that he was not looking to ban gas stoves and that the commission didn’t have any proceedings to do so. Greta Thunberg removed from site of Norwegian wind farm protestHouse Foreign Affairs sets first hearing to review Afghanistan withdrawal

However, this does not take other regulations off the table. Advocates have pointed to technology aimed at limiting releases of pollution or warning labels informing people of the stoves’ health impacts as other measures that could be taken.

Trumka has, in the past, pointed to pollution coming from the stoves as a reason to regulate. Recent studies have found that gas stoves can emit substances that are harmful to human health.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is made up of three Biden appointees and one Trump appointee.

FINALLY THE DOG BARKS

Israeli minister's call to 'erase' Palestinian village an incitement to violence, US says
By Rami Ayyub
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich arrive to attend a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, February 23, 2023. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool/File Photo


WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's call for a Palestinian village to be "erased" amounted to incitement to violence and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must publicly disavow it, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.

An ultranationalist in Netanyahu's right-wing coalition, Smotrich made the comments at a conference on Wednesday amid a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks and Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Asked about a weekend settler rampage through the Palestinian village of Huwara, which an Israeli general on Tuesday described as a "pogrom," Smotrich said: "I think that Huwara needs to be erased".

Smotrich added: "I think that the state of Israel needs to do it, but God forbid not individual people."

State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that Smotrich's comments "were irresponsible. They were repugnant. They were disgusting."

Price continued: "And just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence."

Israel's police have arrested 10 people for suspected involvement in the Huwara attack in which one Palestinian was killed. The rampage followed a Palestinian gun attack that killed two Israelis.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces killed one Palestinian and arrested six others suspected of involvement in the fatal shooting of an Israeli American in the West Bank on Monday.

After making the Huwara comments, Smotrich issued a statement saying the media had misinterpreted them, without retracting his call for the village to be erased.

"I spoke about how Huwara is a hostile village that has become a terrorist outpost" where attacks against Jews are launched daily, Smotrich said, adding it was forbidden to take the law into one's own hands.

"I support a disproportionate response by the (Israeli military) and the security forces to every act of terrorism," including the "deportation of the families of the terrorists," Smotrich added.

Netanyahu under pressure from United States, Israeli protests grow

Israeli police also arrested 10 people suspected of involvement in the settler rampage through Huwara on Sunday, launched after two Israeli brothers were shot by a suspected Palestinian gunman as they sat in their car.

Reuters
Washington,

Mar 2, 2023 

Members of the Israeli troops walk as they clash with Palestinians during a raid in Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank (Photo: Reuters)

In Short

US demands he repudiate call to erase Palestinian village
Israeli general calls settler violence 'a pogrom'
Police confront Israeli protesters in 'day of disruption'

By Reuters:

Israel's closest ally the United States on Wednesday demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repudiate a call by his hardline Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for a Palestinian village to be erased.

Further, pressuring the Israeli leader were images unseen for years in Tel Aviv where police fired stun guns and scuffled with Israeli protesters on a main road during a national "day of disruption" over government plans to overhaul the judiciary.

The head of a pro-settler party in Netanyahu's nationalist-religious coalition, Smotrich made the comments at a conference on Wednesday amid a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks and Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Asked about a weekend settler rampage through the Palestinian village of Huwara, which an Israeli general on Tuesday described as a "pogrom," Smotrich said: "I think that Huwara needs to be erased".

Smotrich added: "I think that the state of Israel needs to do it, but God forbid not individual people."

ALSO READ | Israel: Palestinian gunman's home sealed after Jerusalem unrest kills 7

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price called the comments "irresponsible," "repugnant" and "disgusting," telling reporters: "We call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials to publicly and clearly reject and disavow these comments."

Palestinian leaders welcomed the State Department reaction.

The unusually forthright reaction from Washington underlined the increasing international alarm at the escalating violence in the West Bank, where three Israelis and a Palestinian were killed in two days of bloodshed earlier in the week.

Violence persisted on Wednesday. Israeli forces killed one Palestinian and arrested six in the West Bank.

ALSO READ | Israel hits Gaza with airstrikes after rockets intercepted, kills 10 Palestinians in West Bank violence

ARRESTS IN SETTLER RAMPAGE

Israeli police also arrested 10 people suspected of involvement in the settler rampage through Huwara on Sunday, launched after two Israeli brothers were shot by a suspected Palestinian gunman as they sat in their car.

One Palestinian was killed and scores were hurt as dozens of houses and cars were torched in what one Israeli commander described as a "pogrom". A day later, an Israeli American was shot dead in his car on a highway in the Jordan Valley.

As the man, Elan Ganeles, was being laid to rest, Israeli forces surrounded a house in the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp adjacent to the city of Jericho, and arrested six Palestinian men suspected of involvement in his killing, and killed another man during the operation.

Amid international alarm and calls for restraint, the Huwara rampage was condemned by Israeli politicians, including Netanyahu, who said people should not take the law into their own hands.

Smotrich's comments underlined the gulf between international calls for de-escalation and the instincts of major sections of Netanyahu's right-wing government who have called for tougher action against Palestinians.

After making the Huwara comments, Smotrich issued a statement saying the media had misinterpreted them, without retracting his call for the village to be erased.

"I spoke about how Huwara is a hostile village that has become a terrorist outpost" where attacks against Jews are launched daily, Smotrich said, adding it was forbidden to take the law into one's own hands.

"I support a disproportionate response by the (Israeli military) and the security forces to every act of terrorism," including the "deportation of the families of the terrorists," Smotrich added.

ALSO READ | Netanyahu-led Israel govt unveils plan to curtail judicial powers, weaken top court

POGROM

With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Jewish Passover festival weeks away, foreign mediators have sought to tamp down tensions that have surged after a spate of deadly Palestinian street attacks and lethal Israeli military raids.

Earlier on Wednesday Major General Yehuda Fuchs, who commands the Israeli military in the area, said his forces had prepared for attempted settler retribution but had been surprised by the intensity of the violence, which he said was perpetrated by dozens of people.

"The incident in Huwara was a pogrom carried out by outlaws," he told N12 News late on Tuesday.

"Collective punishment doesn't help to combat terrorism, on the contrary, it might even cause terrorism," he added.

A pogrom is a mob attack, often approved by authorities, against a religious, racial or national minority. The term is usually applied to attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Netanyahu formed a government two months ago, promising his coalition partners to limit the Supreme Court's ability to strike down legislation or rule against the executive and to entrench Israeli control of the West Bank where Palestinians hope to establish an independent state.

ALSO READ | Israeli-American motorist killed in West Bank after settlers rampage against Palestinians

The protests have been going on for weeks. The overhaul has yet to become law, but it has already affected the shekel currency. Businesses and economists say the planned reforms could harm Israel as an investment destination.

US slams Israeli minister’s ‘disgusting’ comments about Palestinian village

“Just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence,” a State Department official said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hold a news conference at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, January 25, 2023. (Reuters)

Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English
 02 March ,2023:

The US on Wednesday lambasted Israel’s finance minister for “repugnant, irresponsible, and disgusting” comments after he called for wiping out the Palestinian village of Huwara.

During a press briefing, State Department Spokesman Ned Price said the remarks by Bezalel Smotrich amounted to an “incitement to violence.”

Smotrich said the village of Huwara needed to be wiped out. “I think the state of Israel should do it,” he said in televised remarks.

Price called on PM Benjamin Netanyahu and other government members to publicly condemn the comments. “Just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence,” he added.

Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have been at odds with the Biden administration over their far-right policies, including a pledge to expand illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

Washington has publicly and privately urged the Netanyahu government, considered one of the most extreme in the country’s history, against moving ahead with this move.

Israel has also witnessed nationwide protests against plans by Netanyahu to proceed with moves that would be seen as weakening the Supreme Court and granting politicians more power over the judiciary.

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