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SOUTH KOREA TAKES THE LEAD

China and Seoul vow to cooperate on Korean Peninsula denuclearization

Foreign ministers agree to first high-level security talks in 6 years

OVER THE PENNISULA'S DESTINY

South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, left, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meet in the southern Chinese city of Xiamen on April 3.   © AP

TSUKASA HADANO and YOSUKE ONCHI, Nikkei staff writer

April 4, 2021 01:30 JSTBEIJING/SEOUL -- China and South Korea will strengthen cooperation to achieve denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, the two countries' foreign ministers agreed on Saturday, with plans for senior-level security talks in the first half of the year.

The two countries share the goal of the denuclearization of the peninsula, both governments said in releases, and the two sides aim for the first talks between their foreign affairs and defense vice ministers. The agreement came during newly appointed South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong's visit to Xiamen, China, to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

"China will work with South Korea to promote a political solution to the Korean Peninsula issue through dialogue," Wang said.

Talks between high-ranking foreign affairs and defense officials of the two nations would be the first since January 2015, which were at the director level. The upcoming meeting would be at the vice ministerial level, rather than "two-plus-two" ministerial talks.

The plan to hold the security talks comes as the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has been bolstering diplomatic ties in the region in a bid to pressure China.

Beijing has sought to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington, while South Korea balances efforts to improve ties with an increasingly influential China against the resulting national security concerns.

Holding security talks at the vice minister level may have represented a compromise between these interests with South Korea caught between its longtime ally Washington and its largest trading partner, China. Already tense relations between the U.S. and China appeared to increase last month after a rare exchange of blunt words in public during a meeting in the U.S. state of Alaska.

South Korea says once the coronavirus pandemic stabilizes, it will prepare to invite Chinese President Xi Jinping to Seoul. Talks between the countries' foreign vice ministers are also planned around the first half of this year.

The trip by Chung marked the first visit by a South Korean foreign minister to China since November 2017. The foreign ministers of the two countries most recently met in South Korea last November.

After the Alaska meeting last month, Xi reached out to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, telling him Beijing would work to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

This is the first time Chung has visited a foreign country since he took the position, emphasizing the priority of China for the Moon Jae-in administration. "South Korea is approaching China as China's relationship with Japan turns rocky. It's an opportunity to attract [South Korea]," a Chinese state media official said.

Chung participated in a two-plus-two meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken who visited Japan and South Korea last month. Chung also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in South Korea.

China, ROK foreign ministers meet in Xiamen
Updated 03-Apr-2021
By Su Yuting CGTN




A visit to China by the Republic of Korea's (ROK) top diplomat Chung Eui-yong has come just weeks after a tour of Asia by the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Bliken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Seoul has sought to find balance in its alliance with Washington and its economic reliance on China, with the foreign minister saying after Blinken's visit that the ROK valued its relations with both powers and did not want to pick a side.

Joint cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic will be one of the most important issue to be discussed at the China-ROK meeting. In a phone conversation with ROK President Moon Jae-in in January this year, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a cooperation mechanism of "fast lanes" to facilitate pandemic prevention and control and economic development of the two countries.

Safeguarding multilateralism and free trade will also be a topic high on the agenda, as the two sides are accelerating the completion of the second-phase of negotiations on the free trade agreement to put into effect the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership at an early date and speed up the construction of the China-Japan-ROK free trade area. Denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is another issue on the table.

Previously as a top security adviser to President Moon Jae-in, Chung played a key role in Moon's engagement policy with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that led to the historic summit between former U.S. President Donald Trump and the DPRK leader Kim Jong Un in 2018. Chung also served as Moon's special envoy in liaising with China and the DPRK. Both sides are willing to play constructive roles in promoting the resumption of peace talks on the Korean Peninsula.

And the timing of the visit is of great significance as China and the ROK will hold a "Cultural Exchange Year" in 2021 and 2022, and next year marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Saturday's meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries in the southeast China city of Xiamen is expected to serve as an opportunity to explore ways to develop bilateral ties and exchange in-depth views on regional and international issues.

South Korea to invite Chinese President Xi when COVID-19 stabilises: Yonhap

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's foreign minister said on Saturday the government will prepare for a visit to South Korea by Chinese President Xi Jinping, local news outlet Yonhap reported.

© Reuters/CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS Closing session

 of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference 

(CPPCC) in Beijing

"As soon as the novel coronavirus stabilises, we have decided to prepare for President Xi's visit to (South) Korea as early as possible," Chung Eui-yong told reporters after a meeting with State Councillor Wang Yi, the Chinese government's top diplomat, Yonhap reported.

Japan, U.S., S. Korea Reaffirm Concerted Approach to North

   Washington, April 2 (Jiji Press)--Senior security officials of Japan, the United States and South Korea reaffirmed on Friday the three nations' commitment to concerted efforts to resolve the issues of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
   White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Japan's National Security Secretariat Secretary-General Shigeru Kitamura and South Korea's National Security Office Director Suh Hoon "shared their concerns about North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and reaffirmed their commitment to address and resolve these issues through concerted trilateral cooperation toward denuclearization," according to a joint statement released after their meeting held at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
   It was the first meeting of high-ranking officials of the three countries since U.S. President Joe Biden took office in January.
   The three officials consulted on the United States' review of its North Korea policy, which is in the final stages. Details of the review and the timing of its announcement have yet to be disclosed.
   They also discussed "issues of common concern" including security in the Indo-Pacific region, having in mind China's emergence as a global power.

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IN NO SMALL PART THANKS TO THE BIGGIE CARD DIPLOMACY OF THE TWO STAR CROSSED LOVERS TRUMP HEART KIM

LBTGQ+ refugee in Quebec facing deportation says he will be killed if sent back to Jordan

Elizabeth Zogalis

4/4/2021

© THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Graham Hughes An RCMP officer takes a man into custody after he crossed illegally into Canada from the U.S. on Roxham road in Hemmingford, Que., Sunday, March 5, 2017.

Thirty-three-year-old Samer came to Canada in the spring of 2019 through the irregular border crossing at Roxham Road.

He had been living in the United States for 13 years where he had a work visa and owned an electronics store. He also came out to his family in Jordan as bisexual when he was in his 20s.

In May 2019, his electronics store in Cleveland, Ohio, was robbed and vandalized with racist graffiti, leaving him feeling unsafe and unwelcome in the U.S.

Read more: Why some in LGBTQ community choose not to be referred by acronym

Without putting much thought into it or seeking legal advice, Samer fled for the border to claim refugee status in Canada, where he thought he would live a better, safer life.

But it wasn't the fairy tale ending he was hoping for.

Samer was denied status almost immediately because he has a criminal record in the U.S after a car accident that killed his best friend when he was 18-years-old.

Samer was then detained here in Canada and faced what he says were inhumane conditions from the Canada Border Service Agency. He was also denied re-entry into the United States.

Now, facing deportation on Monday, Samer says if he is deported back to Jordan his family will kill him for being bisexual.

"My family had threatened me multiple times verbally by phones and also letters-wise, socially-wise, social media-wise," said Samer during a Saturday afternoon virtual press conference organized by AGIR, an LBTGQ+ migrant support group. "They want to kill me because of my sexual orientation and faith change."

Samer's lawyer, Stewart Istvanffy, says the CBSA abused his client's rights since the beginning.

"I don't believe that there were any serious legal justifications for his original detention," said Istvanffy. "Each one of his detentions has been extremely questionable."

Read more: Ottawa to pay over $400K to Roxham Road residents over irregular border crossings

Samer has been kept in detention four times since arriving in Quebec because the CBSA deemed him as a flight risk.

During his detention, Samer says he was abused and taunted with homophobic slurs and he was allegedly sexually assaulted. He was also asked to wear an ankle bracelet that eventually caused severe infections on both ankles.

AGIR, along with Samer's lawyer, is now pleading for the federal government to step in. They are asking for both Public Security Minister Bill Blair and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino to grant Samer a temporary visa while his case is fully reviewed.

"All we can do with AGIR's help is appeal to these people that what they're doing to Samer does not represent fundamental Canadian values," said Istvanffy. "This would be a violation of everything that makes this country great."

In an email, a spokesperson for Minister Blair told Global News they are unable to comment on individual cases.

Samer is expected to hear a decision on Monday.

Video: RCMP confirm ‘temporary satellite detachment’ at busy illegal border crossing

RIP

April the Giraffe, YouTube sensation, dies at age 20


April the Giraffe, a live stream sensation, died Friday at age 20. Photo courtesy of Animal Adventure Park/Facebook

April 3 (UPI) -- April the Giraffe, a YouTube sensation whose live-streamed births attracted millions of viewers, has died at age 20, a zoo in New York announced.

The veterinary team at Animal Adventure Park said in a Facebook post they made "every possible effort to keep her comfortable and prolong her life," but her arthritis had worsened to the point that "euthanasia was the humane" action.

She died Friday.

At age 20, "April was in her golden years," and had surpassed the average life expectancy of 10 years to 15 years in the wild, the statement from the Harpursville, N.Y., facility, which was April's home for nearly six years, said.

April's fame helped bring awareness to the conservation of giraffes, whose population has declined by 40% over the past 30 years, according to Animal Adventure Park's website. It also states that the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List has a declared the giraffe "vulnerable to extinction."

"We grieve with her many fans, near and far, as we say goodbye to the giraffe that can be credited with making a foothold for giraffe and giraffe conservation awareness in the 21st century," the Animal Adventure Park's Facebook post read. "While her hoofprints in her yard will erode in time, the imprint she has made on the hearts of people around the world will never fade."

April gave birth to five calves, and rose to fame when she birthed her fourth calf, Tajiri, on April 15, 2017, in a YouTube live stream as some 1.2 million people watched. In March 2019, she gave birth to her fifth calf, and her second since arriving at Animal Adventure Park, Azizi, as up to 300,000 viewers watched the livestream. Azizi, who was moved to East Texas Zoo and Gator Park, died from a twisted gut around his cranial mesenteric artery in October, the zoo in Texas said in a Facebook post.

Baby giraffes are usually born around 6 feet tall and weighing around 125 pounds to 150 pounds, according to Save Giraffes Now.

Tajiri, now 3 years old, remains at the Animal Adventure Park, the park's website shows

April the giraffe, who went viral with 2017 birth, dies at 20

Phil Helsel

4/3/2021

April the giraffe, who gave birth in 2017 in an event watched by people all over the world, has died, the New York zoo where she lived said Friday.

© Provided by NBC News

The giraffe, who was 20, was euthanized because of worsening arthritis that increasingly impacted her quality of life, Animal Adventure Park said in a statement. The veterinary team said it did its best to make April comfortable, but her condition got so bad the team could no longer do so.

"We grieve with her many fans, near and far, as we say goodbye to the giraffe that can be credited with making a foothold for giraffe and giraffe conservation awareness in the 21st century," the zoo in Harpursville said.

More than a million people watched on a livestream when April gave birth to a calf — a male named Tajiri but called Taj — in 2017. His arrival followed weeks of waiting; the zoo even launched a text-alert service to keep fans up to date.

In all, more than 232 million views were logged on YouTube during the weeks before and during the birth.

At one point on the day of Taj's birth, more than 1.2 million people were watching simultaneously, YouTube has said. At the time, it was in the top five most-watched live events ever on the video platform, it said.

April the giraffe and baby Tajiri celebrate calf's first birthday

The giraffe's veterinary team said that euthanizing April was the only humane course of action.

Last summer the park staff noticed the 15-foot-tall animal was acting differently and she was found to have osteoarthritis, the team said. April was shifting her weight from leg to leg and laying on the ground more often. The vets started treatment and management, but the most recent exam showed advanced osteoarthritis and that the irreversible condition was accelerating at a rapid rate, the zoo said.

"The severity of her condition has been outpacing our ability to control April's comfort," the veterinary team said.

Giraffes typically live 20 to 25 years in captivity, about a decade longer than in the wild, and April was 20, it said.

"While we knew this day would eventually come, our hearts are hurting," Jordan Patch, owner of Animal Adventure Park, said.

April gave birth to another male calf, Aziz, in 2019. Azizi was moved to a Texas zoo, and in 2020, he died of a condition that involved a twisted gut. The zoo said the condition was entirely unexpected and unpreventable.

U.S. companies face boycott threats, mounting pressure to take sides in America’s voting rights battle

Emma Newburger 

CNBC

4/4/2021


U.S. corporations face growing pressure to oppose GOP election laws in Georgia and other states that critics say harm the voting rights of Black Americans.

The opposition intensified on Friday when Major League Baseball announced it would no longer hold the 2021 All-Star Game in Atlanta this summer.

Civil rights groups and activists are targeting some of Georgia's biggest firms, including Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, which did not publicly oppose the GOP election law prior to passage.

American Airlines and Dell have spoken out against a proposed election law in Texas.

© Provided by CNBC Protesters gather outside of the Georgia State Capitol to protest HB 531, which would place tougher restrictions on voting in Georgia, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. March 4, 2021.

U.S. corporations face growing pressure and threats of boycotts to publicly oppose Republican-backed election legislation in Georgia and other states that critics say harm the voting rights of Black Americans.

The opposition intensified on Friday when Major League Baseball announced it would no longer hold the 2021 All-Star Game in Atlanta this summer, with commissioner Robert Manfred saying the league "fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box."

GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp last week signed an election overhaul bill into law that adds new identification requirements for absentee voting while giving the state legislature increased oversight on how elections are run.

The legislation prohibits third-party groups from giving food or water to voters who are waiting in line and places strict guidelines on the availability and location of ballot drop boxes. It also mandates two Saturdays of early voting leading up to general elections. Only one day was previously required.

Civil rights groups and activists have pressured some of Georgia's biggest corporations, including Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, to oppose the law. Coke and Delta did not vocally oppose the legislation prior to its passage, but their CEOs have since condemned the law.

Following the bill's passage, pressure on companies started to increase after Merck CEO Ken Frazier and other Black executives organized a public campaign to urge firms to call out the legislation. Many companies had taken broad stances in support of voting rights but sought to avoid taking specific positions on the Georgia law.

It's unclear whether a business community backlash will change the outcome in Georgia, where the law has been passed. Civil rights groups have challenged it in court and President Joe Biden said the U.S. Justice Department would examine the law, which he called an "atrocity."

Coke CEO James Quincey told CNBC on Wednesday the company had "always opposed this legislation" and called it "wrong."

"Now that it's passed, we're coming out more publicly," Quincey said.

Coca-Cola CEO calls Georgia voting law 'unacceptable' and a 'step backwards

Delta CEO Ed Bastian initially said the legislation had "improved considerably" and offered broad support for voting rights. He reversed course Wednesday in a memo to employee, saying the "final bill is unacceptable and does not match Delta's values." Delta is Georgia's largest employer.

Bastian also ripped Republican lawmakers' motivation for the law, suggesting the "entire rationale for this bill was based on a lie: that there was widespread voter fraud in Georgia in the 2020 elections."

In November, Biden became the first Democrat since 1992 to win Georgia. Voters also elected two Democrats to the Senate, Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, in runoff elections in January. Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have falsely claimed there was rampant voter fraud in Georgia's elections last year.

AT&T is based in Texas but gave money to Kemp's campaign and cosponsors of the legislation. The company's CEO John Stankey told CNBC in a statement:

"We understand that election laws are complicated, not our company's expertise and ultimately the responsibility of elected officials. But, as a company, we have a responsibility to engage. For this reason, we are working together with other businesses through groups like the Business Roundtable to support efforts to enhance every person's ability to vote."

Georgia Gov. Kemp responds to backlash against its new voting restrictions

In an interview Wednesday on CNBC's "Closing Bell," Kemp dismissed the corporate backlash over the state's election legislation and said he's "glad to deal with it." He added, "I would encourage these CEOs to look at other states that they're doing business in and compare what the real facts are to Georgia."

Voting rights activist and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams this week urged critics not to boycott Georgia's major companies yet over their failure to oppose the election law. Instead, Abrams said companies should have a chance to publicly oppose the law and support federal election legislation before getting met with a boycott.

"The companies that stood silently by or gave mealy-mouthed responses during the debate were wrong," Abrams told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "What people want to know now is where they stand on this fundamental issue of voting rights."

Some faith leaders in Georgia have called for an April 7 boycott of Coke, Delta and Home Depot, according to the AJC. However, the religious leaders have suggested the boycott could be avoided if the companies take further stands, like calling on lawmakers in other states to pull legislative proposals that they say would restrict voting access.
Texas election bills face scrutiny

While Georgia's law has been signed, election bills in a number of other states are beginning to face scrutiny, particularly in Texas. When pressuring companies to speak up, Merck's Frazier contended Georgia is "the leading edge of a movement all around this country to restrict voting access."

There have been 361 bills in 47 states that include provisions that would restrict voting access, as of March 24, according to an analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice.

The proposals in statehouses across the U.S. come as Democrats in Washington seek to advance legislation called the For the People Act. Proponents say it would make it easier to register and vote, while also preventing gerrymandering and reforming campaign finance rules. Some Republicans who oppose the legislation say it would result in federal overreach into state elections.


'The right to vote is fundamental:' Black business leaders urge corporate response to voting laws

Last month, the U.S. House passed their version of the For the People Act without a single Republican vote in favor. Its future in the Senate is uncertain since it needs at least 10 GOP votes to overcome a filibuster and move to a final vote.

Powerhouse corporations in Texas are also taking aim at bills that voting rights advocates argue would make voting in Texas more difficult.

Senate Bill 7 was approved by the upper house of the state legislature Thursday. In the Texas House of Representatives, another bill known as House Bill 6 has been under consideration.

American Airlines, which is based in Fort Worth, Texas, opposed Senate Bill 7 in a statement on Thursday. "To make American's stance clear: We are strongly opposed to this bill and others like it," the airline said.

Dell CEO Michael Dell — whose tech firm is based near Austin, the state capital — wrote in a tweet that the company did not support House Bill 6.

"Free, fair, equitable access to voting is the foundation of American democracy. Those rights — especially for women, communities of color — have been hard-earned," Dell wrote. "Governments should ensure citizens have their voices heard. HB6 does the opposite, and we are opposed to it."

Banning natural gas in homes will increase the consumption of natural gas

Ognjen Miljanić, opinion contributor 

THE HILL

4/3/2021`


Since 2019, several dozen U.S. cities - beginning with Berkeley, Calif., and expanding to other liberal strongholds - have prohibited natural gas hookups in new residential (and some commercial) construction. Instead, these cities are mandating the use of electricity for heating

.

© Getty Images 

Banning natural gas in homes will increase the consumption of natural gas

This shift is part of a larger push to phase out fossil fuels in the residential energy consumption sector. Since 2000, the residential energy consumption sector has also seen the smallest drop in its carbon emissions, especially compared to the sharp lowering of emissions in the electricity generation sector.


While proposing the elimination of natural gas may seem environmentally sound, it will likely lead to an increase in carbon emissions in most jurisdictions and - counterintuitively - it will increase in natural gas consumption.

Heating homes with natural gas is straightforward and efficient. The gas is piped into the house and then burned in a furnace with efficiency exceeding 90 percent in modern models. This means that 90 percent of the energy contained in the natural gas ends as useful heat for the home's residents. However, that use - as all fossil fuels - produces carbon dioxide emissions.

An electric heater can be just as efficient and produces no emissions. But what about the electricity used to run it? When natural gas is being burned in a power plant, only about 45 percent of the energy contained in it will be converted into electricity. As that electricity is transported and distributed, additional 6 to 10 percent is lost; and the amount of electrical energy delivered to a house is typically just one-third of the energy contained in the natural gas fuel. Consequently, the overall efficiency of a gas heater is almost three times as high than that of its all-electric counterpart.

Of course, electricity can be produced from sources other than natural gas, including emission-free wind, solar, hydro or nuclear power. But the U.S. is not doing that at scale today. As the price of natural gas plummeted during the fracking revolution, it became a dominant player in U.S. electricity production. According to the New York Times, it provides 38 percent of all electricity in the U.S., 39 percent in California, 53 percent in Texas and almost 90 percent in Delaware. In fact, the overall lowering of carbon dioxide emissions in the electricity generation sector has less to do with renewables and more with the switch from coal to natural gas: per unit of energy, natural gas emits just half the carbon dioxide from coal. The reason why residential carbon emissions have not dropped much is twofold. First, the sizes and amenities of the newly built houses are continuously increasing. Second, while natural gas could displace coal in electricity generation, it could not in residential heating - since it was already established in that sector decades ago.

With the current state of electricity generation, increasing electricity consumption means increasing natural gas consumption, which is ill-advised when using electricity for heating. Making electricity is hard and using it for heating is a waste akin to carving a beautiful wooden sculpture and then burning it to boil water for soup.

A broader lesson behind these policies is that politicization of energy leads to bad decisions - both on the political left and right. Energy issues are always complex and the two-party U.S. political landscape tends to treat most choices as binary. They are not - and nowhere is that clearer than in the case of natural gas. It is a carbon-emitting fossil fuel, on one hand. On the other hand, it is cheap, much cleaner than coal and produced domestically. It has evolved into the transitional fuel of our time, allowing the U.S. to quickly ditch coal while giving renewables time to expand to the scale needed to power the entire electricity-hungry country. Once those renewables have reached that scale, banning natural gas in residential construction starts making environmental sense. Until then, these proposals are ultimately increasing our carbon footprint.

Ognjen Miljanić is a professor of chemistry at the University of Houston, where he teaches about energy and sustainability.

Training opens ‘a window of hope’ for Albanian rug-weavers

By LLAZAR SEMINI

4/4/2021

1 of 6

Hate Ora, 64, or 'Aunt Hate' as everyone knows her, weaving a carpet in Kukes town, northeastern Albania, Friday, March 12, 2021. Albania once had 13 former state-run factories that produced carpets, rugs, fez hats, felt folk costumes and other handicrafts. Kukes, a town northeast of the capital, Tirana, alone employed more than 1,200 women as weavers. When the country's communist era ended in 1990, the local factory closed. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)

KUKES, Albania (AP) — Hate Ora has been weaving carpets and rugs for more than half a century, since learning the craft as a child by sneaking into her aunt’s workshop.

Ora, 64, is now teaching the methods she picked up and perfected to her daughter, nieces and other younger women to ensure there is another generation of artisans to continue the tradition.

Albania once had 13 former state-run factories that produced carpets, rugs, fez hats, folk costumes and other handicrafts. Kukes, a town northeast of the capital, Tirana, alone employed more than 1,200 women as weavers. When the country’s communist era ended in 1990, the local factory closed.

Ora built herself three looms and bought a big supply of wool fibers and other needed tools in the chaotic aftermath. Today, she is one of only a few Albanians still doing weaving work, which doesn’t bring in much money. Kukes, a town of about 60,000 residents, is one of the poorest in Albania, which itself is one of the poorest countries in Europe.

Many of the town’s young people, especially the young men, have emigrated to Western Europe in search of jobs. Women often remain unemployed at home, waiting for remittances from their husbands, brothers and other male relatives.

“Resuming this tradition would be an added value, increasing employment and having a direct social and economic impact on the people’s lives” along with preserving a piece of Albanian culture, Deputy Mayor Majlinda Onuzi said.

A non-governmental organization, Social Development Investment, has received money from German and Swiss development agencies to train 125 women in wool production and weaving. Founder Elias Mazloum said the purpose is to “open a window of hope for unemployed people” in the Kukes area and to keep the tradition of handmade carpet-making alive.

As part of the program, Ora is both teaching young people how to weave wool from the area’s Ruda sheep into carpets and other items using Persian knots, the local method preferred over Turkish-style knots. She herself is learning how to clean, wash, comb and color the wool with vegetable and other natural dyes.

Ora said other efforts to revive the carpet industry have failed in Kukes “because to be successful they have to employ all the qualified women and find the market for our products.”

“Unless the whole carpet-weaving industry resumes, me, or any other like me, can hardly attract individually Tirana’s attention, where all business and the market is located,” she said

Mereme Pepa, 68, spinning the wool in Nange village, northeastern Albania, Friday, March 12, 2021. Albania once had 13 former state-run factories that produced carpets, rugs, fez hats, felt folk costumes and other handicrafts. Kukes, a town northeast of the capital, Tirana, alone employed more than 1,200 women as weavers. When the country's communist era ended in 1990, the local factory closed

Mazloum said the new program trains participants to produce product for which there already is a buyer. At least half of the women in the program have started wool-working at home, he said.

“It’s a very difficult job, but it is not priced with the real value. It’s underpriced, if you take into consideration the time and how difficult this job is,” Mazloum said.

Blerina Kolgjini, an associate professor of textiles and fashion at Albania’s Tirana University, points out the artistry in the rugs and other products displayed at a gallery in Kukes: the quality of the Ruda sheep wool found only in that area, Kosovo and Croatia, the density of the knots, the thread thickness and the attention to detail “not much different from worldwide painters’ work.”

Hate Ora or 'Aunt Hate', 64, as everyone knows her, holds a carpet in Kukes town, northeastern Albania, Friday, March 12, 2021. Albania once had 13 former state-run factories that produced carpets, rugs, fez hats, felt folk costumes and other handicrafts. Kukes, a town northeast of the capital, Tirana, alone employed more than 1,200 women as weavers. When the country's communist era ended in 1990, the local factory closed. (AP Photo/Hektor PustinPustina)

Kolgjini says carpets and other wool products were Albania’s second-most exported goods before communism ended. The items produced there were of such high quality that an Italian company would buy and resell them in Europe for 10 times the price while saying they were made in Iran, a country prized for its carpetmaking, she said.

“Shepherds produce the wool, and craftswomen weave its threads. What Albania is now missing is the in-between step of yarn processing, the spinning mill,” she said.

A study by Mazloum’s NGO found that 85% of the country’s sheared wool is thrown away, creating a potential annual loss of 20 million euros ($24 million). In the village of Nange, not far from Kukes, 68-year old Mereme Pepa is the only one still spinning the wool she uses to crochet sweaters, blouses and socks.

Her grandson, Ernest, and a few of his high school classmates, are taking part in the Social Development Investment training program. At first, they attended for fun, but some of the girls enjoyed it enough to want to learn the craft, “not wanting it to be lost and let foreigners do what we can do ourselves,” said the teenager.

 

Blerina Koljini, an associate professor of textile and fashion, shows a carpet in Kukes town, northeastern Albania, Friday, March 12, 2021. Albania once had 13 former state-run factories that produced carpets, rugs, fez hats, felt folk costumes and other handicrafts. Kukes, a town northeast of the capital, Tirana, alone employed more than 1,200 women as weavers. When the country's communist era ended in 1990, the local factory closed. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)

Ora excitedly described how she learned to weave by “stealing” her aunt’s methods and how she helped support her parents during the communist era by making carpets and then her own family of five during the still-difficult post-communist years.

Even before the training program started, she taught her daughter to make carpets, too. Ora’s daughter-in-law, a nurse, helps out part-time as her main assistant. A 23-year-old niece who is studying industrial chemistry also assists and sometimes brings friends and women she knows from school who are eager to learn from Aunt Hate, the name (pronounced HAY-tee) that everyone in the town calls Ora.

It takes the experienced weaver three months to complete a rug with an image of Mother Teresa or an elaborate arrangement of Albanian symbols.

“Why doesn’t a businessman or the government turns the eyes on us,” she pleads. ”We do artwork, don’t we?”

___

This story corrects name to Mother Teresa, not Theresa.

Netanyahu's favours were 'currency', prosecutor says as corruption trial starts

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli prosecutors accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of treating favours as “currency” on Monday at the opening of a corruption trial which, along with an inconclusive election, has clouded his prospects of remaining in office.

Netanyahu, who denies all wrongdoing in the three cases against him, came to Jerusalem District Court in a dark suit and black protective mask, conferring quietly with lawyers as his supporters and critics held raucous demonstrations outside.

He left before the first witness was called to testify.

Meanwhile, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin began consulting with party heads on who might form the next coalition government - a toss-up after an inconclusive March 23 ballot gave neither the rightist Netanyahu nor his rivals a clear mandate

“The relationship between Netanyahu and the defendants became currency, something that could be traded,” prosecutor Liat Ben-Ari said in presenting so-called Case 4000, concerning the premier’s alleged relationship with the owners of a news website.

“This currency could distort a public servant’s judgment.”

Netanyahu, who is charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in the first such trial of a sitting Israeli prime minister, has described himself as the victim of a politically motivated witch-hunt.

THE ANARCHY OF THE CAPITALIST MARKET

U.S. puts J&J in charge of plant that botched COVID vaccine, removes AstraZeneca


By Shubham Kalia 

4/4/2021

(Reuters) - The United States has put Johnson and Johnson in charge of a plant that ruined 15 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and has stopped British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc from using the facility, a senior health official said on Saturday


J&J said it was “assuming full responsibility” of the Emergent BioSolutions facility in Baltimore, reiterating that it will deliver 100 million doses to the government by the end of May.

In a separate statement late Sunday, Emergent said it expects to align with the U.S. government and AstraZeneca to ramp down manufacturing for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine at its Baltimore plant.

The Department of Health and Human Services has also increased Emergent’s order by $23 million for expansion of production specific to J&J’s vaccine doses, Emergent added.

“The $23 million will be used for the purchase of biologics manufacturing equipment specific to Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for the potential expansion of manufacturing of that bulk drug substance into a third suite of Emergent’s Baltimore Bayview facility,” the company said.

The Department of Health and Human Services facilitated the move, the health official said in an email, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

AstraZeneca, whose vaccine has not been approved in the United States, said it will work with President Joe Biden’s administration to find an alternative site to produce its vaccine.

White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The development, first reported by the New York Times, further hampers AstraZeneca’s efforts in the United States. The government has criticized the drugmaker for using outdated data in the results of its vaccine trial. It later revised its study.

Workers at the Emergent BioSolutions plant several weeks ago conflated ingredients for the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines, the Times said earlier in the week. J&J said at the time the ruined batch had not advanced to the fill-and-finish stage.

The government’s move to have the facility make only the J&J single-dose vaccine is meant to avoid future mix-ups, the Times said, citing two senior federal health officials.

The top U.S. infectious disease doctor told Reuters on Thursday the country may not need AstraZeneca’s vaccine even if it wins approval.

The United States has loan deals to send Mexico and Canada roughly 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, made at its U.S. facility.

Half of Republicans believe false accounts of deadly U.S. Capitol riot: Reuters/Ipsos poll

By James Oliphant, Chris Kahn

4/4/2021

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have listened.

Three months after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to overturn his November election loss, about half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists “trying to make Trump look bad,” a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found.

Six in 10 Republicans also believe the false claim put out by Trump that November’s presidential election “was stolen” from him due to widespread voter fraud, and the same proportion of Republicans think he should run again in 2024, the March 30-31 poll showed.

Since the Capitol attack, Trump, many of his allies within the Republican Party and right-wing media personalities have publicly painted a picture of the day’s events jarringly at odds with reality.

Hundreds of Trump’s supporters, mobilized by the former president’s false claims of a stolen election, climbed walls of the Capitol building and smashed windows to gain entry while lawmakers were inside voting to certify President Joe Biden’s election victory. The rioters - many of them sporting Trump campaign gear and waving flags - also included known white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys.

In a recent interview with Fox News, Trump said the rioters posed “zero threat.” Other prominent Republicans, such as Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, have publicly doubted whether Trump supporters were behind the riot.

Last month, 12 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against a resolution honoring Capitol Police officers who defended the grounds during the rampage, with one lawmaker saying that he objected using the word “insurrection” to describe the incident.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll shows a large number of rank-and-file Republicans have embraced the myth. While 59% of all Americans say Trump bears some responsibility for the attack, only three in 10 Republicans agree. Eight in 10 Democrats and six in 10 independents reject the false claims that the Capitol siege was “mostly peaceful” or it was staged by left-wing protestors.

“Republicans have their own version of reality,” said John Geer, an expert on public opinion at Vanderbilt University. “It is a huge problem. Democracy requires accountability and accountability requires evidence.”

The refusal of Trump and prominent Republicans to repudiate the events of Jan. 6 increases the likelihood of a similar incident happening again, said Susan Corke, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

“That is the biggest danger – normalizing this behavior,” Corke said. “I do think we are going to see more violence.”

In a fresh reminder of the security threats the U.S. Capitol faces since Jan. 6, a motorist rammed a car into U.S. Capitol police on Friday and brandished a knife, killing one officer and injuring another and forcing the Capitol complex to lock down. Officers shot and killed the suspect.

Allie Carroll, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said its members condemned the Capitol attack and referred to a Jan. 13 statement from Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “Violence has no place in our politics ... Those who partook in the assault on our nation’s Capitol and those who continue to threaten violence should be found, held accountable, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” McDaniel said.

A representative for Trump did not respond to requests for comment.

‘DANGEROUS SPIN ON REALITY’

The disinformation campaign aimed at downplaying the insurrection and Trump’s role in it reflects a growing consensus within the Republican Party that its fortunes remain tethered to Trump and his devoted base, political observers say.

According to the new Reuters/Ipsos poll, Trump remains the most popular figure within the party, with eight in 10 Republicans continuing to hold a favorable impression of him.

“Congressional Republicans have assessed they need to max out the Trump vote to win,” said Tim Miller, a former spokesman for Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush. “That that is the path back to the majority.”

Republicans in Congress show few signs of breaking with Trump. Right after the deadly Capitol siege, 147 Republican lawmakers voted against certifying Biden’s election win. The Democratic-led House of Representatives impeached Trump for “inciting an insurrection”, making him the only U.S. president to be impeached twice, but most Senate Republicans acquitted him of the charge in a trial.

Last week, Republican congressman Jim Banks of Indiana said the party must cater to the working-class voters that comprise Trump’s political base ahead of next year’s critical midterm elections that will dictate control of Congress.

“Members who want to swap out working-class voters because they resent President Trump’s impact... are wrong,” Banks wrote in a memo to Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, contents of which he posted on Twitter.

Banks was one of the 147 lawmakers who voted to block certification of Biden’s win, and he later voted against impeaching Trump. Banks did not respond to requests for comment.

Some mainstream Republicans contend that after Republicans lost both the White House and control of both chambers of Congress on Trump’s watch, the party must move on from the former president in order to attract suburban, moderate and independent voters.

In the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, only about three in 10 independents said they have a favorable view of Trump, among the lowest level recorded since his presidency. Most Americans -- about 60% -- also believe Biden won the November election fair and square, and said Trump should not run again.

Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of Trump’s top Republican critics in Congress, has criticized the push to rewrite the history of the Capitol attack.

The disinformation effort is “such a dangerous, disgusting spin on reality,” Kinzinger wrote in a fundraising appeal to supporters last month, “and what’s even worse is that it goes unchallenged by so many in the Republican Party.”

The window for the Republican Party to distance itself from Trump seems to have passed, Miller said.

“There was a chance after January 6 for Republican leaders to really put their foot down and say, ‘We can’t be the insurrectionist party,’” he said. “Now that opportunity is totally gone.”

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,005 adults between March 30-31. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 4 percentage points.


Editing by Soyoung Kim and Alistair Bell

With stories and puppets, environmentalist battles to save Indonesia's mangroves


By Tommy Ardiansyah, Stanley Widianto


INDRAMAYU, Indonesia (Reuters) - Caked in mud up to their knees, a small group of Indonesian youngsters plant mangrove saplings along a stretch of exposed coastline next to the Java Sea under the watchful eye of local environmentalist Samsudin.

A former school teacher, Samsudin has now dedicated his life to conservation and uses puppetry and storytelling to spread his message to the young about the importance of protecting mangroves in an area suffering massive coastal erosion.

“To keep tides from hitting us, we plant mangroves, forests for animals and oxygen for us to live. I weave everything into my stories,” said Samsudin, 50, as he mused how some people in the area saw mangroves as a “nuisance” and would pull them out.

Indonesia is home to over a fifth of the world’s mangrove forests, which naturally help keep out high tidal waters. But for years, coastal communities have chopped down trees to clear the way for fish and shrimp farms, and for rice paddies.

Samsudin teaches local children aged 11 to 15 three times a week about how to look after the environment, sometimes illustrating it with puppets of monkeys and orangutans.

Samsudin, who uses one name, reckons he has helped plant 700 hectares in the area.

While his efforts are locally focused, the issue has reached national attention and Indonesia recently embarked on one of the world’s biggest campaigns to restore mangroves, targeting 150,000 hectares (370,660 acres) annually across nine provinces up to 2024.

Indonesia, an archipelago of thousands of islands, has about 3.3 million hectares of mangrove, with more than 600,000 hectares in critical condition, Hartono, the chief of the mangrove restoration body, told Reuters.

Data from Indonesia’s forestry ministry from 2017 estimates more than 1.8 million hectares of mangroves are damaged

Hartono, who goes by one name like many Indonesians, said the main causes of the degradation in Indonesia were illegal logging and land conversion.

Cukup Rudiyanto, another activist in Indramayu who plants mangroves, also blames a lack of sedimentation in this coastal area east of the capital Jakarta for harming mangroves.

For Samsudin, teaching about the issue is a labour of love, even though he admits some in his own family question why he devotes so much time to it.

But for 12-year-old Muhammad Jefri, one of Samsudin’s students, the lessons resonate.

“I want to protect the environment, because it’s important for people,” he said.


Additional reporting by Willy Kurniawan and Johan Purnomo; Editing by Ed Davies and Himani Sarkar