THAILAND PROTESTS UPDATES

Pro-democracy activists submit letter to German envoy as Parliament debates protests

Oct 27. 2020

Pro-democracy demonstrators read their statement outside the German embassy on Monday. Photo by: Korbphuk Phromrekha 

By The Nation

Pro-democracy demonstrators submitted a letter to the German embassy in Bangkok on Monday asking its government to investigate whether HM the King is ruling from German soil.


Student-led activists gather in front of the embassy in Bangkok after receiving support from large numbers of office workers, school and university students and seniors during their march from Sam Yan intersection.

Meanwhile, Democrat Party leader and deputy PM Jurin Laksanavisit told an extraordinary session of Parliament that a national reconciliation committee should be set up to solve the political crisis.

Pro-democracy demonstrators gathered at Sam Yan intersection from 3.30pm on Monday for a march down Rama IV Road to the German Embassy on Sathorn Road, where they arrived at 7pm. The student-led Free Youth protest group claimed that about 100,000 activists joined the rally. 





Student-led activists gather in front of the embassy in Bangkok after receiving support from large numbers of office workers, school and university students and seniors during their march from Sam Yan intersection.

Three rally leaders were invited inside the embassy to submit the letter to German Ambassador Georg Schmidt. 

Outside, rally representatives stood up before the large crowd to read the statement in Thai, English and German.

The statement recounted the authorities’ violent crackdown on October 16, when water cannon was used on peaceful protesters, as well as the arrest and detention of dozens of protest leaders.

They asked the German government to investigate whether HM the King is using Germany as a base to conduct Thai politics.

Such actions could potentially be a violation of German law or territorial sovereignty, they said. 

“The request is aimed at reinstating HM the King to Thailand so the Palace is placed under the Constitution and Thailand can return to being a genuine constitutional monarchy,” the statement said.

Demonstrators also raised a large banner in front of the embassy that read “Reform the Monarchy”, before ending their rally at about 9pm.

Meanwhile German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said his government is continuing to look into the behaviour of HM the King, who tends to spend long stretches of time in Bavaria, Reuters reported on Monday.

“We are monitoring this long-term,” Reuters quoted Maas as saying. “It will have immediate consequences if there are things that we assess to be illegal.”

A two-day extraordinary session of Thai Parliament kicked off on Monday morning, with Paiboon Nititawan, an MP for the ruling Palang Pracharath Party, accusing protesters of trying to overthrow the monarchy.

Jurin Laksanavisit, leader of the ruling coalition’s Democrat Party, proposed that a national reconciliation committee be set up to find solutions to the political unrest.

Opposition leader and Pheu Thai Party chief Sompong Amornvivat called for PM Prayut Chan-o-cha to resign and release the protest leaders. Dozens of pro-democracy leaders have been arrested and temporarily released in the last two weeks, but eight remain in custody after being denied bail.

Phicharn Chaowapatanawong, MP for the opposition Move Forward Party, urged Parliament to open the door for a rewrite of the Constitution, including provisions related to the monarchy’s role.

THAI PROTEST LEADER 

Pai Dao Din reveals what he said to German ambassador
Politics Oct 27. 2020

From left : Protest leaders Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, Passarawalee Thanakijwibulpol and Warin Patrick McBlain pose for a photo in front of the German Embassy in Bangkok during the pro-democracy rally on Monday. Photo Credit: Pai Jatupat FB. 

By The Nation

Jatupat “Pai Dao Din” Boonpattararaksa has revealed details of what was said when three protest leaders met with German Ambassador Georg Schmidt on Monday.

Pai, Passarawalee Thanakijwibulpol and Warin Patrick McBlain handed over letters to the ambassador asking Germany to investigate whether HM the King was conducting Thai affairs from German soil. Warin handed over a letter from Khana Ratsadon International, the overseas branch of the student-led pro-democracy movement.

Pai recounted the conversation with the ambassador on Monday evening after he and his two friends entered the embassy at around 7.40pm following a protest march from Sam Yan.

“What I said was that there will be no peace without justice, no justice without telling the truth, and no one can tell the truth without freedom of expression,” Pai posted on Facebook.

He said he went on to explain that when HM King X ascended the throne, the lese majeste law was enforced against people who had shared a BBC Thai news biography of the King – an act for which Pai himself was jailed. Then, the Computer Crimes Act was imposed to suppress freedom of expression. This year, Wanchalearm Satsaksit was forcibly disappeared, he noted, referring to the kidnapping of a Thai political dissident living in exile in Phnom Penh.

He said he told the ambassador that since October 13, the government had cracked down on protesters by arresting 80 people, including youths and one individual with a mental disorder. 

“Now eight of our friends remain in the custody. We are being arrested because we want to reform the monarchy institution into a genuine constitutional monarchy,” said Pai, recounting the conversation with Schmidt.

He said he pointed out that Thailand’s state of emergency and special emergency decree violated basic rights – rights which are guaranteed by the German constitution. 

Pai said the ambassador pledged to forward the letters to the German government or Parliament for further action. The ambassador also said that “talking is a good starting point”, Pai said.

Protest leader Jutatip summoned over role in Oct 16 rally

Oct 27. 2020

Jutatip Sirikhan

By THE NATION

Pro-democracy activist Jutatip Sirikhan announced on Facebook on Tuesday that she has received a summons from Pathumwan Police Station for participating in the October 16 rally.

The summons was dated October 20.

Jutatip, a former president of the Student Union of Thailand and a core leader of the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration, said it is intolerable that she is being charged for violating the emergency decree, when in reality she was at the protest exercising her right to demand better laws.

She also accused the government of trying to block people from fighting for their motherland. “I reproach all intimidation and violence. This battle must end in our generation,” she said.

The government has been widely slammed for using violence to disperse peaceful pro-democracy protesters from Pathumwan intersection on October 16.

Parliament clashes over opposition call for Prayut to quit

Oct 27. 2020


By The Nation

There were clashes in Parliament on Tuesday after the opposition Move Forward Party called on the prime minister to quit to help resolve the political crisis.

The government Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) immediately objected, saying that the resignation of the PM would inevitably trigger yellow-shirt protests, which would worsen the crisis.


Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn

On day two of the extraordinary session, opposition MP Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn of the Move Forward Party said General Prayut Chan-o-cha had lost all legitimacy and must resign to free the country from rule by the junta National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).

He accused the government of adding heat to the crisis by seeking to force its viewpoint on citizens.


“We cannot get rid of people with different opinions. The government’s stance is crucial because the parliamentary mechanism must be used to resolve problems and create a safe space to talk with each other and reduce stress. But the government did the opposite. You did not listen to the voice of the people, and the PM thinks he has done nothing wrong”, said Wiroj.

He warned the government of the consequences of using sensitive issues to provoke violence, citing the 1976 Thammasat University massacre and 2010 crackdown on red shirts.

He added that institutional reforms should be discussed rationally in a safe space and an atmosphere of trust.

“I call for the prime minister to resign and the coalition government to withdraw, so we can elect a new PM without the shadow of NCPO to drive amendment of the Constitution. Mr Prime Minister, please make this sacrifice so that people can begin to move their future forward.”

Senator Thawil Pliensri accused Wiroj of spreading falsehoods by comparing the 1976 massacre and 2010 crackdown to the current crisis, where no violence had been used against protesters.


Chaiyawut Thanakamanusorn

Palang Pracharath MP Chaiyawut Thanakamanusorn added that protesters had dragged the monarchy into the debate and said they would not argue with the dog (government) but with the dog’s owner.

“The original Khana Ratsadon [revolutionary People’s Party] benefited the country in 1932, but how will its namesake in 2020 change the government,” he asked, referring to the student-led protest movement.

He said the movement operated by misrepresenting facts on social media, and questioned whether it was funded from abroad. In the past, certain groups had exploited popular protests to win political power, he said, adding that the goal this time was more than simply ousting the PM.

Chaiyawut then gave his thoughts on five options to resolve the crisis – resignation of the PM, dissolution of Parliament, a military coup, a national referendum on the protesters’ demands, and the government continuing as normal.

“The votes of 376 lawmakers are needed for the PM option. How can we create a new government without the Senate’s votes? We may follow the [protesters’] demand, but yellow shirts (royalists) will not be happy about it. If the current government stays, protesters will also come out. I don’t think the PM quitting or parliament disbanding are solutions; they would just buy more time,” said Chaiyawut.

ANA plans to transfer employees to Toyota Motor
International Oct 26. 2020

By The Japan News

ANA Holdings will ask several companies, including Toyota Motor Corp., to accept the secondment of employees, it has been learned.

The contents of a business restructuring plan, set to be announced Tuesday by ANA Holdings Inc., the holding company of All Nippon Airways Co. (ANA), have been revealed. By fiscal 2022, it plans to reduce the number of its employees by about 3,500.

The company faces an urgent need to cut personnel costs, which account for 30% of its fixed costs. At the same time, it must also secure employees in anticipation of the end of the novel coronavirus pandemic. ANA Holdings is believed to have concluded that Toyota Motor is able to accept secondment because of its financial scale and its capacity to take in employees.

For the 2020 fiscal year ending in March 2021, ANA Holdings is expected to post a record net loss of about ¥500 billion, as opposed to a net profit of ¥27.6 billion in the previous fiscal year. The company will carry out structural reforms to prepare for a prolonged slump in aviation demand.

In fiscal 2021, the company expects to cut costs by ¥80 billion through measures such as reducing the number of employees and selling aircraft.

The reduction of about 3,500 jobs will be realized through natural retirement, support for job changes and a freeze on hiring. According to the securities report of ANA Holdings, the entire group employed 46,000 people as of the end of March.


The company also plans to sell about 30 aircraft, mainly large models. As many as 59 large aircraft, such as the Boeing 777, have low fuel efficiency and are expensive to maintain.

ANA Holdings also plans to speed up the creation of other revenue sources. It plans to expand its so-called platform business to provide financial services by using customer data collected through its travel and financial operations.




Regarding international flights, which have seen a sharp drop in passengers, the company plans to prioritize resuming flights to and from Haneda Airport, due to high profit margins and high demand for international flights there.


Some flights from Narita Airport to Europe and Asia will be suspended for the time being.

Domestic flights will be concentrated at Haneda and Itami airports. ANA Holdings will also use Peach Aviation Ltd., a low-cost carrier under its wing, to promote joint operations with ANA.

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Wildfire smoke in US exposes millions to hazardous pollution
By MATTHEW BROWN and CAMILLE FASSETTOctober 15, 2020


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FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2020, file photo, taken at 11:18 a.m., is a dark orange sky above Crissy Field and the city caused by heavy smoke from wildfires in San Francisco. Wildfires that scorched huge swaths of the West Coast churned out massive plumes of choking smoke that blanketed millions of people with hazardous pollution that spiked emergency room visits and that experts say could continue generating health problems for years. An Associated Press analysis of air quality data shows 5.2 million people in five states were hit with hazardous levels of pollution for at least a day. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File


SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — Wildfires churning out dense plumes of smoke as they scorch huge swaths of the U.S. West Coast have exposed millions of people to hazardous pollution levels, causing emergency room visits to spike and potentially thousands of deaths among the elderly and infirm, according to an Associated Press analysis of pollution data and interviews with physicians, health authorities and researchers.

Smoke at concentrations that topped the government’s charts for health risks and lasted at least a day enshrouded counties inhabited by more than 8 million people across five states in recent weeks, AP’s analysis shows

Major cities in Oregon, which has been especially hard hit, last month suffered the highest pollution levels they’ve ever recorded when powerful winds supercharged fires that had been burning in remote areas and sent them hurtling to the edge of densely populated Portland.

Medical complications began arising while communities were still enveloped in smoke, including hundreds of additional emergency room visits daily in Oregon, according to state health officials.

“It’s been brutal for me,” said Barb Trout, a 64-year-old retiree living south of Portland in the Willamette Valley. She was twice taken to the emergency room by ambulance following severe asthmatic reactions, something that had never happened to her before.

Trout had sheltered inside as soon as smoke rolled into the valley just after Labor Day but within days had an asthma attack that left her gasping for air and landed her in the ER. Two weeks later, when smoke from fires in California drifted into the valley, she had an even more violent reaction that Trout described as a near-death experience.

“It hit me quick and hard __ more so than the first one. I wasn’t hardly even breathing,” she recalled. After getting stabilized with drugs, Trout was sent home but the specter of a third attack now haunts her. She and her husband installed an alarm system so she can press a panic button when in distress to call for help.

“It’s put a whole new level on my life,″ she said. “I’m trying not to live in fear, but I’ve got to be really really cautious.”

In nearby Salem, Trout’s pulmonologist Martin Johnson said people with existing respiratory issues started showing up at his hospital or calling his office almost immediately after the smoke arrived, many struggling to breathe. Salem is in Marion county, which experienced eight days of pollution at hazardous levels during a short period, some of the worst conditions seen the West over the past two decades, according to AP’s analysis.

Most of Johnson’s patients are expected to recover but he said some could have permanent loss of lung function. Then there are the “hidden” victims who Johnson suspects died from heart attacks or other problems triggered by the poor air quality but whose cause of death will be chalked up to something else.

“Many won’t show up at the hospital or they’ll die at home or they’ll show up at hospice for other reasons, such as pneumonia or other complications,” Johnson said.

Based on prior studies of pollution-related deaths and the number of people exposed to recent fires, researchers at Stanford University estimated that as many as 3,000 people over 65 in California alone died prematurely after being exposed to smoke during a six-week period beginning Aug. 1. Hundreds more deaths could have occurred in Washington over several weeks of poor air caused by the fires, according to University of Washington researchers.

The findings for both states have not been published in peer-reviewed journals. No such estimate was available for Oregon.

A California heat wave on Thursday prompted warnings of extreme fire danger and some precautionary powerline shutdowns.

Wildfires are a regular occurrence in Western states but they’ve grown more intense and dangerous as a changing climate dries out forests thick with trees and underbrush from decades of fire suppression. What makes the smoke from these fires dangerous are particles too small for the naked eye to see that can be breathed in and cause respiratory problems.

On any given day, western fires can produce 10 times more particles than are produced by all other pollution sources including vehicle emissions and industrial facilities, said Shawn Urbanski, a U.S. Forest Service smoke scientist.

Fires across the West emitted more than a million tons of the particles in 2012, 2015 and 2017, and almost as much in 2018 — the year a blaze in Paradise, California killed 85 people and burned 14,000 houses, generating a thick plume that blanketed portions of Northern California for weeks. Figures for 2017 and 2018 are preliminary.

A confluence of meteorological events made the smoke especially bad this year: first, fierce winds up and down the coast whipped fires into a fury, followed in Oregon by a weather inversion that trapped smoke close to the ground and made it inescapable for days. Hundreds of miles to the south in San Francisco, smoke turned day into night, casting an eerie orange pall over a city where even before the pandemic facemasks had become common at times to protect against smoke.
Full Coverage: Wildfires

AP’s analysis of smoke exposure was based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data compiled from hundreds of air quality monitoring stations. Census data was used to determine the numbers of people living in affected areas of Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho and Montana.

At least 38 million people live in counties subjected to pollution considered unhealthy for the general population for five days, according to AP’s analysis. That included more than 25 million people in California, 7.2 million in Washington, 3.5 million in Oregon, 1 million in Idaho and 299,000 people in Montana.

The state totals for the number of people exposed to unhealthy air on a given day were derived from counties where at least one monitoring site registered unhealthy air.

Scientists studying long-term health problems have found correlations between smoke exposure and decreased lung function, weakened immune systems and higher rates of flu. That includes studies from northwestern Montana communities blanketed with smoke for weeks in 2017.

“Particulate matter enters your lungs, it gets way down deep, it irrigates the lining and it possibly enters your bloodstream,” said University of Montana professor Erin Landguth. “We’re seeing the effects.”

The coronavirus raises a compounding set of worries: An emerging body of research connects increased air pollution with greater rates of infection and severity of symptoms, said Gabriela Goldfarb, manager of environmental health for the Oregon Health Authority.

Climate experts say residents of the West Coast and Northern Rockies should brace for more frequent major smoke events, as warming temperatures and drought fuel bigger, more intense fires.

Their message is that climate change isn’t going to bring worse conditions: they are already here. The scale of this year’s fires is pushing the envelope” of wildfire severity modeled out to 2050, said Harvard university climate researcher Loretta Mickley

“The bad years will increase. The smoke will increase,” said Jeffrey Pierce an atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University. “It’s not unreasonable that we could be getting a 2020-type year every other year.”

CHARTS https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-wildfires-health-oregon-fires-138efdcef21f15751fe1809a7853903b___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

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On Twitter follow Matthew Brown: @MatthewBrownAP and Camille Fassett: @camfassett.

Forecasters: Drought more likely than blizzards this winter
By SETH BORENSTEIN October 15, 2020

FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020 file photo, dry desert soil cracks due to the lack of monsoon rainfall in Maricopa, Ariz. In a report released on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters see a dry winter for all of the south from coast-to-coast and say that could worsen an already bad drought. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Don’t expect much of a winter wallop this year, except for the pain of worsening drought, U.S. government forecasters said Thursday.

Two-thirds of the United States should get a warmer than normal winter, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted. Only Washington, northern Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas and northwestern Minnesota, will get a colder than normal winter, forecasters said.

The forecast for winter rain and snow splits the nation in three stripes. NOAA sees the entire south from southern California to North Carolina getting a dry winter. Forecasters see wetter weather for the northernmost states: Oregon and Washington to Michigan and dipping down to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and other parts of the Ohio Valley. The rest of the nation will likely be closer to normal, NOAA said.

For the already dry Southwest and areas across the South, this could be a “big punch,” said NOAA drought expert David Miskus. About 45% of the nation is in drought, the highest level in more than seven years.

Mike Halpert, deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said he doesn’t see much relief for central and southern California, where wildfires have been raging.

What’s driving the mostly warmer and drier winter forecast is La Nina, the cooling of parts of the central Pacific that alter weather patterns worldwide, Halpert said.

For the East, big snowstorms or blizzards aren’t usually associated with La Nina. That’s more likely with its warming ocean counterpart, El Nino, he said. But he added that extreme events are not something meteorologists can see in seasonal forecasts.

Halpert also said he doesn’t expect the dreaded polar vortex to be much of a factor this year, except maybe in the Northern Plains and Great Lakes.

The vortex is the gigantic circular upper-air pattern that pens the cold close to the North Pole. When it weakens, the cold wanders away from the pole and brings bone-chilling weather to northern and eastern parts of the U.S.

While Halpert doesn’t see that happening much this winter, an expert in the polar vortex does.

Judah Cohen, a winter weather specialist for the private firm Atmospheric Environmental Research, sees a harsher winter for the Northeast than NOAA does. He bases much of his forecasting on what’s been happening in the Arctic and Siberian snow cover in October. His research shows that the more snow on the ground in Siberia in October, the harsher the winter in the eastern United States as the polar vortex weakens and wanders south.

Snow cover in Siberia was low in early October, but it is catching up fast and looks to be heavier than normal by the end of the month, he said.

The government predictions are about increased or decreased odds in what the entire three months of weather look like, not an individual day or storm, so don’t plan any event on a seasonal outlook, cautioned Greg Postel, a storm specialist at The Weather Channel. But he said La Nina is the strongest indicator among several for what drives winter weather. La Nina does bring a milder than average winter to the southeast, but it also makes the central U.S. “susceptible to Arctic blasts,” he said.

La Nina also dominates the forecast by AccuWeather. That private company is forecasting mainly dry in the South, wet and snowy in the Pacific Northwest, bouts of snow and rain from Minneapolis through the Great Lakes region, big swings in the heartland and mild weather in the mid-Atlantic. The company predicts a few heavy snow events in the Midwest and Great Lakes, but less than average snow for the Northeast.

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears .

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Black contractor braves threats in removing Richmond statues

By SARAH RANKIN October 25, 2020

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FILE - This Wednesday July 1, 2020, file photo shows workers preparing to remove the statue of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson from its pedestal on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va. Devon Henry, whose company handled the summer removals of Richmond's Confederate monuments, spoke with The Associated Press about navigating safety concerns for himself and his crew and previously unreported complexities of the project. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)


RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Devon Henry paced in nervous anticipation, because this was a project like nothing he’d ever done. He wore the usual hard hat — and a bulletproof vest.

An accomplished Black businessman, Henry took on a job the city says others were unwilling to do: lead contractor for the now-completed removal of 14 pieces of Confederate statuary that dotted Virginia’s capital city. There was angry opposition, and fear for the safety of all involved.

But when a crane finally plucked the equestrian statue of Gen. Stonewall Jackson off the enormous pedestal where it had towered over this former capital of the Confederacy for more than a century, church bells chimed, thunder clapped and the crowd erupted in cheers.

Henry’s brother grabbed him, and they jumped up and down. He saw others crying in the pouring rain.

“You did it, man,” said Rodney Henry.

Success came at some cost. Devon Henry faced death threats, questions about the prices he charged, allegations of cronyism over past political donations to the city’s mayor and an inquiry by a special prosecutor. But he has no regrets.

“I feel a great deal of conviction in what we did and how it was done,” Henry, 43, told The Associated Press in the only interview he has given.

As recently as a few years ago, the removal of Richmond’s collection of Confederate monuments seemed nearly impossible, even as other tributes to rebel leaders around the U.S. started falling.

It was a particularly charged issue in a historic city with a central role in the Civil War. And the statues, especially along historic Monument Avenue, were breathtaking in size and valued for their artistic quality, drawing visitors like Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower.

The tide turned after the death of George Floyd in police custody, which ignited a wave of Confederate monument removals. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and the city council committed to removing the statues, something the Democrat-led General Assembly had authorized earlier in the year.

Stoney, who is Black and has also faced backlash to his role in the monument removals, including racist and threatening voicemails, said in a debate in early October that “what we did was legal, it was appropriate, and it was right.”

Henry “put his life on the line, put his family’s lives on the line, he put his business on the line. And we removed those monuments,” the mayor said.

The man who oversaw the statue removals is a Virginia native with an easy laugh and warm smile, the son of a single mother who had him at 16 and worked her way up from a crew member at McDonald’s to the operator of five stores. He, his college sweetheart and their two kids live in suburban Richmond.

Records show his Newport News-based Team Henry Enterprises has won more than $100 million in federal contracts in the past decade. The company has handled projects ranging from invasive species removal to crane services for the U.S. Army to general construction. Team Henry was the general contractor on the recently completed Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia.

He serves on several boards, including those of a bank and a health system foundation, and is a member of the Board of Visitors at his alma mater, Norfolk State University, where he endowed a scholarship.

Henry said the city’s Department of Public Works asked him in mid-June if he would be interested in the statue project. A contractor who turned the city down gave them his name, he said.

Henry huddled with his family to make sure everyone was on board. His son and daughter “started Googling” and “there was most definitely a level of concern” when they read about what happened in Charlottesville (where plans to remove a Robert E. Lee statue sparked a deadly white supremacist rally in 2017) and New Orleans (where a contractor’s car was firebombed).

Ultimately, they all agreed to take the job. This was an opportunity to be a part of history.

For safety, he said, he sought to conceal his company’s identity, creating a shell entity, NAH LLC, through which the $1.8 million contract was funneled.

Stoney’s administration initially declined to say who was behind the company, but the arrangement eventually came to light through public records requests and reporting by local news outlets. One blog ran a story headlined, “The Gory Details of Levar Stoney’s Statue Contract.” It was also reported that Henry had donated a total of $4,000 to Stoney and his political action committee.

Since his name and company became public, Henry said he’s received death threats. He’s added extra cameras to both his home and office security systems, he’s gotten a concealed carry permit, taken defensive shooting classes and now carries a weapon wherever he goes.

He said he’s also faced business repercussions. Some subcontractors have declined to work with him, he said, or doubled their prices.

An ongoing inquiry by a special prosecutor into the contract was initiated after Kim Gray, a city councilwoman who formerly opposed removing the monuments and is one of Stoney’s opponents in the November election, raised concerns about the deal.

Some of the mayor’s critics have questioned whether the price tag for the project, which included the removal of both large figures and smaller plaques, was reasonable. The statues are gone, but their enormous pedestals remain in place.

Some U.S. cities have paid more, like New Orleans, where it cost more than $2.1 million to remove four monuments. Others, like Baltimore, have paid far less. That city paid under $20,000 for four statues, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Andrew Baxter, a nationally known conservator of outdoor sculpture who has worked on projects at the White House and the National Gallery of Art and has conducted extensive restoration work in the past on several of Richmond’s largest Confederate monuments, was critical of the mayor’s handling of the situation. Stoney acted without the city council’s formal sign-off and before completing procedural steps in the new law.

Still, Baxter said the amount the city paid seemed reasonable.

Henry said the safety considerations of the job were a consideration in setting the price.

“It’s not a situation where you’re just putting in a crane on the street and you’re putting an air conditioner on top of a unit,” he said.

There was trouble finding subcontractors. Even a company he worked with on the UVA memorial gave him a resounding “hell no” when asked to participate, Henry said. A representative of another company suggested he should go take down a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. Truckers involved didn’t want their vehicle logos showing. Workers ended up traveling in from Wisconsin and Connecticut.

Henry negotiated the security plans, eventually working with the city sheriff’s department because he said the police department was not willing to participate. (A police department spokesman declined to comment.) He also hired private security.

In the end, the project went on without incident.

In an interview a block away from the pedestal that once held Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s statue, Henry mused about his participation in two very different projects reflecting this moment in the story of race and America.

He helped build the UVA memorial, two nested granite rings, one with a timeline of the history of slavery at the school — a tribute to the enslaved people who built and maintained one of the country’s most prestigious public universities but had long gone unrecognized.

And he helped remove the Richmond statues, which he called tools of oppression against Black Americans.

“To be a Black man in the middle to do it, it felt pretty good,” he said.

Foreign students show less zeal for US since Trump took over

By SOPHIA TAREEN October 25, 2020


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In this photo taken on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020, Dodeye Ewa, 16 year old study at the family library in Calabar, Nigeria. The third child is bothered by President Donald Trump's rhetoric and his policies toward international students, most recently one announced Friday that limits their stays in the U.S. to two or four years with uncertainty about whether their visas will be extended. (AP Photo/Daniel H Williams )

CHICAGO (AP) — On a recruiting trip to India’s tech hub of Bangalore, Alan Cramb, the president of a reputable Chicago university, answered questions not just about dorms or tuition but also American work visas.

The session with parents fell in the chaotic first months of Donald Trump’s presidency. After an inaugural address proclaiming “America first,” two travel bans, a suspended refugee program and hints at restricting skilled worker visas widely used by Indians, parents doubted their children’s futures in the U.S.

“Nothing is happening here that isn’t being watched or interpreted around the world,” said Cramb, who leads the Illinois Institute of Technology, where international scholars have been half the student body.

America was considered the premier destination for international students, with the promise of top-notch universities and unrivaled job opportunities. Yet, 2016 marked the start of a steep decline of new enrollees, something expected to continue with fresh rules limiting student visas, competition from other countries and a haphazard coronavirus response. The effect on the workforce will be considerable, experts predict, no matter the outcome of November’s election.

Trump has arguably changed the immigration system more than any U.S. president, thrilling supporters with a nationalist message and infuriating critics who call the approach to his signature issue insular, xenophobic and even racist. Before the election, The Associated Press is examining some of his immigration policies, including restrictions on international students.

For colleges that fear dwindling tuition and companies that worry about losing talent, the broader impact is harder to quantify: America seemingly losing its luster on a global stage.

“It’s not as attractive as it once was,” said Dodeye Ewa, who’s finishing high school in Calabar, Nigeria.

Unlike two older siblings who left for U.S. schools, the aspiring pediatrician is focused on Canada. In America, she fears bullying for being an international student and a Black woman.

Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller predicted that after a COVID-19 vaccine, an improving economy would draw talent.

“Our superior economic position is going to mean that the world’s most talented doctors, scientists, technicians, engineers, etc., will all be thinking of the United States as their first country of destination,” Miller told the AP.

Roughly 5.3 million students study outside their home countries, a number that’s more than doubled since 2001. But the U.S. share dropped from 28% in 2001 to 21% last year, according to the Association of International Educators, or NAFSA.

New international students in America have declined for three straight years: a 3% drop in the 2016 school year — the first in about a decade — followed by 7% and 1% dips, according to the Institute of International Education, which releases an annual November report. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s fall snapshot shows a 13.7% drop in undergraduate international students.

The government cites high college costs, but students and school leaders tell another story.

At IIT, a Chicago university known for engineering, computer science and architecture, there was a 25% decline in international students from fall 2016 to fall 2018.

Cramb has noticed a change in tone on campus. More international students want to return home.

The pandemic has only exacerbated things, including a short-lived Trump administration rule requiring international students to leave if their schools held online-only classes. Students panicked, universities protested and lawsuits followed.

The Department of Homeland Security then unveiled draft rules last month imposing fixed student visa terms. Instead of being valid while students are enrolled, visas could be limited to four years, with students from countries including Iran and Syria eligible for two years.

Federal officials say it’s a way to fight fraud and overstaying visas. But colleges call it another barrier.

“Right out of the gate, you had the first travel ban, and that really crystalized for students and scholars what was perceived as rhetoric really would translate into actual policy and create a tremendous amount of uncertainty,” said Rachel Banks, a director at NAFSA. “If I choose to study in the U.S. will I be able to finish?”

There haven’t been many reassurances.

The Trump administration has floated curtailing Optional Practical Training, a popular program allowing international students to work. Roughly 223,000 participated in 2018-19, according to the Institute of International Education.

This month, the administration announced plans to limit H1-B skilled-worker visas, often a path for foreign students. It was pitched as a way to address pandemic-related job losses, following a June order temporarily suspending H1-Bs. It’s prompted a lawsuit.

Democrat Joe Biden has promised to reverse some Trump immigration orders. He’s pitched more skilled-worker visas and giving foreign graduates of U.S. doctoral programs a pathway to citizenship.

Dodeye Ewa’s brother Wofai Ewa, an IIT senior studying mechanical engineering, wants to stay in America but worries about his options. He understands his sister’s doubts.

Trump’s disparaging words on immigrants have irked him, including the tone surrounding a January rule to curb family-based immigration from Nigeria and other countries.

“He made remarks about Nigerian immigrants getting jobs, and that put a weird tension around people who wanted to come here,” he said. “That put us in a bad light.”

Nearly 60% of U.S. colleges reported the social and political environment contributed to the decline of new international students, according a 2019 Institute of International Education survey.

Most colleges in the survey said the difficulty in obtaining U.S. visas was also to blame. Student visas issued under Trump shrunk 42%, from nearly 700,000 in 2015 to under 400,000 last year, according to the State Department.

There are signs of waning interest in America in India, which with China, provides the most international students globally.

In 2018, about 90% of Indians studying abroad chose the U.S., with fewer than 5% in Canada. For the 2021 school year, roughly 77% plan to study in America, and nearly 14% chose Canada. That’s according to a survey by Yocket, a Mumbai-based startup helping roughly 400,000 Indian students plan study abroad.

Yocket co-founder Sumeet Jain said there’s still wide belief America is unmatched for science, technology, engineering and math fields, but students have a backup these days.

Several several nations have made it easier for international students.

Canada allows foreign scholars to count part of their schooling toward a residency requirement for citizenship. The United Kingdom allows them to stay for two years after graduation while seeking work. Over the summer, Australia announced a pathway to citizenship for Hong Kong students.

“They are trying to message certainty and flexibility to their international students, and unfortunately, we are messaging uncertainty and rigidity,” said Sarah Spreitzer, a director at the American Council on Education.

There are major consequences.

International students contributed roughly $41 billion to the American economy in 2018 school year. NAFSA estimated that since 2016, the decline of new international students cost the U.S. nearly $12 billion and at least 65,000 jobs.

In response, college leaders formed the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration in 2017.

Cramb, the group’s co-chairman, is a Scottish migrant who earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. He became IIT president in 2015.

“The greatest thing to happen to me was coming here,” he said. “What we are doing is taking away a richness to the education experience for everyone.”

___

Associated Press reporter Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.

Election could stoke US marijuana market, sway Congress
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD October 25, 2020


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- In this Oct. 16, 2015 file photo, Jonathan Hunt, vice president of Monarch America, Inc., shows a marijuana plant while giving a tour of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe's marijuana growing facility, in Flandreau, S.D. Voters in four states could embrace broad legal marijuana sales on Election Day, setting the stage for a watershed year for the industry that could snowball into neighboring states as well as reshape policy on Capitol Hill. The Nov. 3, 2020, contests will take place in markedly different regions of the country, New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana and approval of the proposals would highlight how public acceptance of cannabis is cutting across geography, demographics and the nation's deep political divide. (Joe Ahlquist/The Argus Leader via AP, File)

Voters in four states from different regions of the country could embrace broad legal marijuana sales on Election Day, and a sweep would highlight how public acceptance of cannabis is cutting across geography, demographics and the nation’s deep political divide.

The Nov. 3 contests in New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana will shape policies in those states while the battle for control of Congress and the White House could determine whether marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.

Already, most Americans live in states where marijuana is legal in some form and 11 now have fully legalized the drug for adults — Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont. It’s also legal in Washington, D.C.

In conservative Mississippi, voters will consider competing ballot proposals that would legalize medicinal marijuana, which is allowed in 33 states.

Nick Kovacevich, CEO of KushCo Holdings, which supplies packaging, vape hardware and solvents for the industry, called the election “monumental” for the future of marijuana.

New Jersey, in particular, could prove a linchpin in the populous Northeast, leading New York and Pennsylvania toward broad legalization, he said.

“It’s laying out a domino effect ... that’s going to unlock the largest area of population behind the West Coast,” Kovacevich said.

The cannabis initiatives will draw voters to the polls who could influence other races, including the tight U.S. Senate battle in Arizona.

In Colorado, one supporter of legal cannabis could lose his seat. Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, who is struggling in an increasingly Democratic state where some in the industry have lost faith in his ability to get things done in Washington.

Despite the spread of legalization in states and a largely hands-off approach under President Donald Trump, the Republican-controlled Senate has blocked cannabis reform, so under federal law marijuana remains illegal and in the same class as heroin or LSD. That has discouraged major banks from doing business with marijuana businesses, which also were left out in the coronavirus relief packages.

“Change doesn’t come from Washington, but to Washington,” said Steve Hawkins, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “States are sending a clear message to the federal government that their constituencies want to see cannabis legalization.”

The presidential election could also influence federal marijuana policy, though the issue has been largely forgotten in a campaign dominated by the pandemic, health care and the nation’s wounded economy.

Trump’s position remains somewhat opaque. He has said he is inclined to support bipartisan efforts to ease the U.S. ban on marijuana but hasn’t established a clear position on broader legalization. He’s appointed attorneys general who loath marijuana, but his administration has not launched crackdowns against businesses in states where pot is legal.

Joe Biden has said he would decriminalize — but not legalize — the use of marijuana, while expunging all prior cannabis use convictions and ending jail time for drug use alone. But legalization advocates recall with disgust that he was a leading Senate supporter of a 1994 crime bill that sent droves of minor drug offenders to prison.

Even if there are lingering doubts about Biden, the Democratic Party is clearly more welcoming to cannabis reform, especially its progressive wing. Vice presidential nominee and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California has said making pot legal at the federal level is the “smart thing to do.”

Familiar arguments are playing out across the states.

Opponents fear children will be lured into use, roads will become drag strips for stoned drivers and widespread consumption will spike health care costs.

Those backing legalization point out the market is already here, though in many cases still thriving underground, and argue that products should be tested for safety. Legal sales would mean tax money for education and other services, and social-justice issues are also in play, after decades of enforcement during the war on drugs.

An added push this year could come from the virus-damaged economy — states are strapped for cash and legalized cannabis holds out the promise of a tax windfall. One Arizona estimate predicts $255 million a year would eventually flow for state and local governments, in Montana, $50 million.

Despite the pandemic and challenges including heavy taxes and regulation, marijuana sales are climbing. Arcview Market Research/BDSA expects U.S. sales to climb to $16.3 billion this year, up from $12.4 billion in 2019.

In New Jersey, voters are considering a constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana use for people 21 and over. It’s attracted broad support in voter surveys. If approved, it’s unclear when shops would open. The amendment also subjects cannabis to the state’s sales tax, and lets towns and cities add local taxes.

The Arizona measure known as Proposition 207 would let people 21 and older possess up to an ounce or a smaller quantity of concentrates, allow for sales at licensed retailers and for people to grow their own plants. Retail sales could start in May. State voters narrowly rejected a previous legalization effort in 2016.

If Montana voters approve, sales would start in 2022. Montana passed a medicinal marijuana law in 2004 and updated it in 2016. The proposed law would allow only owners of current medical marijuana businesses to apply for licenses to grow and sell marijuana for the broader marketplace for the first year.

Perhaps no other state epitomizes changing views more than solidly conservative South Dakota, which has some of the country’s strictest drug laws.

The sparsely populated state could become the first to approve medicinal and adult-use marijuana at the same time. However, legalizing broad pot sales would be a jump for a state where lawmakers recently battled for nearly a year to legalize industrial hemp, a non-intoxicating cannabis plant.

Meanwhile, a confusing situation has unfolded in Mississippi, after more than 100,000 registered voters petitioned to put Initiative 65 on the ballot. It would allow patients to use medical marijuana to treat debilitating conditions, as certified by physicians. But legislators put an alternative on the ballot, which sponsors of the original proposal consider an attempt to scuttle their effort.

Hawkins is among those already looking toward 2021, when a new round of states could move toward legalization, including New York and New Mexico.

“There is clearly a tide,” Hawkins said. “We are moving toward a critical mass of states that ... will bring about the end of federal prohibition on cannabis.”

___

Associated Press writers Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Bob Christie in Phoenix; Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; and Nick Riccardi in Denver contributed.

For transgender activists, election stokes hopes and fears

By DAVID CRARYOctober 25, 2020

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FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020 file photo, transgender activist Sarah McBride, who hopes to win a seat in the Delaware Senate, campaigns at the Claymont Boys & Girls Club in Claymont, Del. McBride, who has long-standing ties to Delaware’s best-known political family, says, “I am very aware of the stark contrast between the president we could have (Biden) and the president we now have. ... There has never been a moment in the fight for trans equality with such potential and at the same time such risk.” (AP Photo/Jason Minto)

Among transgender-rights activists, there’s a powerful mix of hope and fear heading toward the Nov. 3 election. They’re yearning for President Donald Trump’s defeat but dreading the possibility that his administration might win four more years and continue targeting them with hostile policies.

“The stakes are extremely high,” said Shannon Minter, a transgender attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “It seems clear that President Trump intends to use the full power of the presidency and the executive branch to inflict maximum damage on the transgender community.”

Among the administration’s moves that have been decried by activists:

— A near-total ban on military service by transgender people.

— Support from administration attorneys for efforts to prevent transgender girls from competing in Idaho K-12 girls’ sports and university women sports and from doing so in Connecticut high school girls’ sports.

— A move to end health-care protections for trans people provided by Affordable Care Act.

— Moves to eliminate anti-discrimination protections for trans people in homeless shelters and for trans students in schools.

Adding to activists’ anxiety is the continuing violence directed at transgender people.

There have been at least 33 violent deaths of transgender or gender nonconforming people this year in the U.S., according to the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ-rights organization. That’s the highest yearly total since the group began tracking transgender killings in 2013.

On Oct. 16, former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic rival in the presidential election, issued what the Human Rights Campaign described as his strongest statement of the campaign supporting trans issues. He decried the anti-trans violence and asserted that Trump and Vice President Mike Pence “have fueled the flames of transphobia.”

The White House press office in an email exchange declined to comment on Biden’s statement.

“Every day it feels like there are new horrors to confront about the future, and the types of attacks we will encounter,” said Chase Strangio, who leads transgender-justice initiatives for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT and HIV Project.

Even as he worries about what might lie ahead under a second term for Trump, Strangio is encouraged by the 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in June affirming that gays, lesbians and transgender people are protected from discrimination in employment under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Strangio played a lead role on the legal team for one of the plaintiffs in that case -- Aimee Stephens, who was fired from her job at a Detroit-area funeral home after her employer learned she was transgender. The Supreme Court ruled a month after Stephens’ death that her firing in 2013 violated the civil rights law.

Overall, Strangio is concerned that Trump’s appointments of more than 200 federal judges – and the likely addition of conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court -- is creating a federal judiciary that may not defend transgender rights.

“If Trump loses, I’m hopeful we’ll see federal agencies reversing the many anti-trans policies that the Trump administration has adopted,” Strangio said. “However, we can expect that any trans-inclusive agency policies will be challenged in court and we will have to defend them before increasingly hostile judges.”

The run-up to the election has been a mix of excitement and apprehension for trans activist Sarah McBride, who has been a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Campaign for several years and is now running for a seat in the Delaware Senate.

She easily won the Democratic primary in her Wilmington-area district and is a favorite to become the first trans member of any state Senate in the nation.

McBride has long-standing ties to Delaware’s best-known political family. She worked on the late Beau Biden’s campaigns for state attorney general, and Beau’s father, Joe Biden, wrote the foreword to her memoir.

“I am very aware of the stark contrast between the president we could have (Biden) and the president we now have,” McBride said. “There has never been a moment in the fight for trans equality with such potential and at the same time such risk.”

Kris Hayashi, executive director of the California-based Transgender Law Center, suggested there would be challenges for trans-rights activists at the state level even if a Biden victory leads to more trans-friendly federal policies.

“We are likely to see legislatures continue to enact — and even escalate — a Trump administration playbook at the state level, with increased trans athletics ban bills, medical ban bills, and bad bills around public accommodations access,” Hayashi said via email.

One was signed into law in Idaho in March -- prohibiting transgender students who identify as female from playing on female teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging the law in April, and a federal judge blocked the law’s implementation while the case proceeds.

In issuing an injunction, U.S. District Judge David Nye wrote that the law’s ban on transgender athletes “stands in stark contrast to the policies of elite athletic bodies that regulate sports both nationally and globally.”

Shannon Minter, the National Center for Lesbian Rights attorney, noted that Nye was appointed by Trump and praised the judge’s “incredibly positive, thoughtful decision.”

“That was a powerful reminder to me that even conservative judges, and by extension, people generally, value fairness and inclusion,” Minter said.

The Trump administration weighed in to support the Idaho law, saying in a court filing by the Justice Department that it did not violate the U.S. Constitution. The administration filed a similar document in March in another federal lawsuit in Connecticut.

A conservative group, the American Principles Project, has been striving for months to draw attention to the issue of transgender sports participation, hoping to build support for bans on trans girls and trans women competing in female sports.

The group’s executive director, Terry Schilling, was a guest on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show in August, and both said that the Trump campaign should highlight the question of transgender sports participation. But the topic did not catch on as a major election campaign issue.

A bill proposing the kind of ban envisioned by Schilling was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in January and a similar bill was introduced in the Senate in September.

But neither has advanced to the committee hearings needed for the bills to reach the chamber floors for a vote.

Cathay Pacific: with deadline looming, Hong Kong flight attendants threaten collective action over new contracts that will slash pay


Union says it has full support of membership and will ‘act fast’ if necessary after general meeting where some broke down in tears

Pilots for the city’s flag carrier, meanwhile, push for a meeting with the labour commissioner over take-it-or-leave-it deals offered without consultation


Phila Siu
Published: 9:36pm, 26 Oct, 2020

Cathay Pacific flight attendants arrive for a meeting to determine their next steps as an unpopular contract offer looms. Photo: Winson Wong


Cathay Pacific’s flight attendants union has threatened to mobilise its members for collective action if the airline refuses to postpone next week’s deadline for accepting a new contract that will slash wages by up to 40 per cent.

The threat came as the union representing the airline’s pilots, who are also facing a substantial pay cut, requested a Tuesday meeting with the labour commissioner to discuss the preservation of their “statutory rights”.

Both groups have been told they face termination if they do not accept the new contracts.

After surviving mass lay-offs, Cathay staff face dilemma over new contracts
22 Oct 2020



Representing most of the airline’s 8,000 flight attendants, the Cathay Pacific Flight Attendants Union held an emergency general meeting on Monday. Some 360 members took part, while another 140 were forced to wait outside due to the size of the venue at a Tung Chung hotel.

After the four-hour meeting, the union said its members had pledged their full support for any potential collective action.

People pose for photographs near Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: Robert Ng

“Our members have floated different suggestions for actions. There are still a lot of things we need to consider. At the moment, I cannot explain in detail,” said union vice chairwoman Amber Suen. “But as to when we will take the actions … the deadline is coming, so we will act fast.”

Last week, Cathay announced Hong Kong’s biggest mass lay-offs in three decades, axing 5,300 jobs in the city and closing its Cathay Dragon brand in a desperate restructuring attempt to survive the coronavirus pandemic. The sackings encompassed 4,000 cabin crew, 600 pilots and 700 ground staff and office workers.

The airline then asked the remaining 8,000 flight attendants to sign new contracts the union said would cut their wages by 20 to 40 per cent. Cathay set November 4 as the deadline, but sought to encourage earlier sign-ups by offering a one-off payment to those accepting the offer by Wednesday.

The pay cut has sparked frustration among cabin crew staff, many of whom were already bringing home less pay due to the drastic reduction in the number of flights.

Flight attendants who joined the airline before 1996 and were on contracts offering a more generous retirement payment have also been asked to accept a new formula to calculate that sum. Under the new formula, some senior flight attendants interviewed said they would be taking home about HK$200,000 (US$26,000) less at the end of their tenure.

Pilots union tells Hong Kong-based members not to sign new pay-slashing contracts
23 Oct 2020


Suen said some members became so emotional at the meeting they broke down in tears. Others who had already signed the contracts said they regretted doing so.

The union’s chairwoman, Zuki Wong Sze-man, said the airline had spent months working on its restructuring and thus it was unreasonable to give staff just 14 days to study the new contracts.

The union, which is also demanding the contracts be made short term rather than permanent, will sit down again with Cathay management on Tuesday, after a meeting last week failed to narrow the dispute between the two sides.

A flight attendant who has worked at Hong Kong’s de facto flag carrier for 26 years said she intended to sign because she did not want to lose her job.



“I have no choice. I just have to sign it,” she said, adding it would be difficult for the union to bargain for better terms given the company’s financial struggles during the pandemic.


Another flight attendant who had been with the airline for more than a decade said she was disappointed by the new contract, but also intended to sign it.



“The new contract is so disrespectful,” she said. “It’s not like I have done anything wrong at work to deserve this.”

Cathay likely to retain axed subsidiary’s routes, but push for transparency ongoing
23 Oct 2020



One veteran flight attendant expressed anger over an internal email in which management indicated staff who had already signed the new deals would be enough to keep the airline operational until next year, suggesting they were not sincere in wanting the rest to stay.



She also noted that flight attendants who joined the airline before 1996 would normally get more than HK$1 million on retirement. The formula for calculating that payout under the new deal, however, would reduce that amount by about HK$200,000.


Meanwhile, Tad Hazelton, chairman of Cathay’s pilot union, on Monday sent a letter to Commissioner of Labour Carlson Chan Ka-shun requesting an urgent meeting for the next day.



He cited a recent Labour Department statement on the Cathay saga, which said the airline should consult and secure consent from its employees prior to changing the terms of their employment contracts.

Travel agents fear cash squeeze as Cathay targets tickets sales in money-saving move
26 Oct 2020



“No such consultation has occurred between the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association (HKAOA) and the management of Cathay Pacific,” Hazelton said.


The meeting with Chan or senior representatives of his department would be to discuss preserving “the statutory rights and upholding the moral obligations of Cathay Pacific to its pilots”, he said.


The AOA represents about 2,200 Cathay pilots. The pilots also have until Wednesday next week to sign new contracts they said would cut their wages by 40 to 60 per cent.


In a statement, Cathay said it was aware of the views expressed by staff at Monday’s union meeting and that management would be conducting further dialogue with cabin crew representatives.


“We encourage our crew to consider the reality of the global economic environment – particularly in our aviation industry – and we want each and every one of them to join us and be part of Cathay Pacific’s future,” the airline said.




This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Union wants contract deadline extended

‘Where’s our democracy?’: Thai protesters march on German embassy, urge Berlin to pressure king

Pro-democracy demonstrators are demanding the European country investigate King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s actions while away from the kingdom

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha acknowledged some of the protesters’ concerns in parliament, but warned that the country needed to control illegal rallies

SCMP Reporters
Published: 10:47pm, 26 Oct, 2020

Pro-democracy demonstrators march to the German Embassy in central Bangkok on Monday as lawmakers debated in a special session in parliament. Photo: AP

Thailand’s pro-democracy protesters massed outside the German embassy in Bangkok on Monday night as their movement sought a wider international spotlight, pulling the monarchy deeper into the heart of their demands for reform.

Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn spends much of his time in Germany, angering many
Thais who receive snippets of his high living through the European country’s tabloid press.

Thai protesters rally at German embassy, calling for Berlin to investigate Thai king

Now, the protesters are demanding accountability of the king, with about 10,000 of them marching to the embassy to deliver a petition calling for Berlin to investigate whether the Thai king has been orchestrating domestic politics from his overseas retreat.

The embassy was ringed by police buses and a deep line of riot police – a sign of the rising tensions on the streets of the politically combustible Thai capital

“I want Germany to see what is happening in our country while the king lives over there,” said Palm, a 24-year-old protester who was waving a German flag and asked to be identified by her first name. “Why are we so poor when he is so rich? Why do we have no democracy while he lives over there in a democratic country?”

In their petition, one of the main protest groups, Khana Ratsadon or “The People”, urged Germany to investigate the king’s actions while away from Thailand in order to “bring Thailand back to the path of the truthful constitutional monarchy”.

Thailand’s monarchy, super rich and the apogee of a power pyramid supported by the army and tycoons, is cloaked from criticism or accountability by a royal defamation law – one the protesters are openly flouting.

Germany has also become increasingly uneasy over the king’s stay in its country, with the German foreign minister on Monday again questioning the potential illegality of
Vajiralongkorn ruling Thailand from European soil.

“We have not only been looking into that in recent weeks, but on a regular basis,” Heiko Maas said. “If there are things we consider to be illegal, that will have immediate consequences.”

Thailand protests: How it all started

The king must sign off on Thai laws and is seen as the ultimate political authority in Thailand and the pillar holding up Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s unpopular government, despite being cast as above politics.

“The Germans must pressure the king … then he might kick out Prayuth,” said Praew, 42, who also gave just one name on concerns for her safety.

Protesters say the palace must be constrained within the constitution as laid down by the 1932 Thai revolution, which ended the system of absolute monarchy.

Why are there protests in Thailand and what will happen next?
21 Oct 2020


But their calls for reform of the monarchy have opened old divides within the country – with royalists, including the army-aligned establishment and an older generation of conservatives, outraged by the calls for changes to the way Thailand’s highest institution operates.

Faced with an unprecedented challenge to his authority, the king has made equally unseen public-relations moves of his own to rally his supporters. In a rare walkabout among yellow-shirted loyalists on Friday night outside the Grand Palace, the king was directed by Queen Suthida to a man who had held a royal portrait aloft in the middle of a recent pro-democracy rally.

In candid cellphone video, the king was heard saying to the prostrated man: “Very brave, good job, thank you.” It was a an apparent chance encounter pinged across
social media in what many saw as a rallying cry for royalists.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha during a special parliament session to discuss Thailand’s current political situation. Photo: Reuters

But for the protesters, it meant another chance to to mock and subvert the language of Thai leaders, and on Monday night they chanted “Very good, very brave, thank you” as they arrived at the embassy.

So far there has been little firm international reaction to Thailand’s youth-led protests, with the US and European Union – the usual first responders to human rights issues – staying quiet, while China has stuck to its policy of refusing to enter into the domestic politics of other countries.

“We are monitoring this long term,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Monday of Vajiralongkorn’s presence in his country. “It will have immediate consequences if there are things that we assess to be illegal.”

Thailand protests snowball as royalists blame foreigners
26 Oct 2020


Protesters say they are drawing their strength in part from the Milk Tea Alliance – a social media movement linking Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thai pro-democracy protesters against their government opponents.

Small but colourful protests in Japan and Korea in support of the Thai protesters have also signalled a widening of interest in the outcome of the pro-democracy demonstrations.

And the Thai movement has caused another ripple in Laos, a secretive communist nation where fear of the government hushes any challenge. There, the hashtag “if Laos’ politics was good” has bounced around social media in an unprecedented questioning of the government.

Thousands defy gathering ban to attend pro-democracy protest in Thailand

Also on Monday, the opposition bloc in parliament called on Prayuth to resign in a heated special session to discuss the snowballing pro-democracy protests, said Sompong Amornvivat, leader of the opposition Pheu Thai party, the largest single party in parliament.

“You should resign … and all will end well,” he said during the parliamentary session.

Opening the session, Prayuth acknowledged some of the demonstrators’ concerns but warned that the country needed to “control illegal protests”.

Thai protests: is Milk Tea Alliance stirring global support?
25 Oct 2020


Thailand has sunk into political crisis after months of protests across the country, with tens of thousands now regularly massing in Bangkok calling for the government of Prayuth, the former head of the army, to resign, the drawing up of a new constitution and the release of dissidents.

Seasoned political players see the parliamentary session as a sign the street movement is starting to gain traction in the political arena, where Prayuth and his allies have staunchly refused to respond.

“It‘s highly likely that the two-day extraordinary session will turn up the heat of the already sizzling political atmosphere,” Chaturon Chaisang, a veteran politician from the pro-democracy bloc and former activist, posted on his Facebook page

.

Pro-democracy demonstrators shine their mobile phone lights as they march to the German embassy in central Bangkok on Monday. Photo: AP

Others said the session, which runs through Wednesday, is little more than a game of political dress-up.

With a debate-only format, the session is “all style over substance”, Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang, a law professor at Chulalongkorn University told This Week in Asia. “It doesn‘t move any needles and the protesters definitely won’t fall for it. We will see more escalation on the streets.”

Thai king’s praise for defiant loyalist amid protests draws controversy
24 Oct 2020



He added: “One would think that some kind of a compromise on constitutional change would quell some tensions, but it‘s very clear that the government plans to drag its feet as long as possible.”

The protesters on Monday also submitted a letter to a German embassy official.

Nititorn Lumlua, a lawyer who helped organise the gathering at the embassy, said the protesters hoped German authorities would get accurate information about the political situation in Thailand.

The German government has already warned the Thai king not to rule his country remotely from its soil.

The king, who ascended to the Thai throne in 2016, has been back home since early October and plans to stay until next month.


This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Germany pressured to question king’s status