China names Mars rover for traditional fire god

BEIJING — China’s first Mars rover will be named Zhurong after a traditional fire god, the government announced Saturday.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

The rover is aboard the Tianwen-1 probe that arrived in Mars orbit on Feb. 24 and is due to land in May to look for evidence of life.

It is part of Chinese space plans that include launching a crewed orbital station and landing a human on the moon. China in 2019 became the first country to land a space probe on the little-explored far side of the moon and in December returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s.

The rover’s title fits with the Chinese name for Mars — “Huo Xing,” or fire star, the China National Space Administration said.

The name “signifies igniting the flame of China’s planetary exploration,” a deputy CNSA administrator, Wu Yanhua, was cited by the official Xinhua News Agency as saying.

The top candidate for the landing site is Utopia Planitia, a rock-strewn plain where the U.S. lander Viking 2 touched down in 1976.

CNSA says Tianwen-1's goals including analyzing and mapping the Martian surface and geology, looking for water ice and studying the climate and surface environment.

China would become the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a robot rover on Mars.

The Associated Press

Razzie Awards 2021: Rudy Giuliani and the MyPillow Guy among the 'winners' for worst in cinema

By Claire Colbert, CNN 


After a year that didn't go as planned for anyone, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell, aka the "MyPillow Guy," are among the winners -- if you can call them that -- of the 41st Golden Raspberry Awards, which are handed out to the worst in cinema every year.

© CQ Roll Call/Bloomberg/Getty Images Rudy Giuliani, left, and Mike Lindell.

The nine categories are voted on by 1,097 Razzie members in 50 states and about 25 countries.

The award for Worst Picture went to Lindell's documentary "Absolute Proof," which claims that a Chinese cyberattack flipped the 2020 election -- despite there being no evidence to back up the claim. Lindell, a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, also got a Worst Actor Razzie for the film.

Giuliani's awkward appearance in "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" left many wondering if he was in on the joke after he was caught on camera with his hand down his pants during a spoof interview -- he said he was tucking in his shirt. The former Trump lawyer won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor. Giuliani and his pants zipper were also recognized as the Worst Screen Combo.

The film "Music," featuring Kate Hudson and Maddie Ziegler, and directed by musician Sia, took the most Razzies this year with three.


Worst Picture

"Absolute Proof"


Worst Actor

Mike Lindell, "Absolute Proof"


Worst Actress

Kate Hudson, "Music"


Worst Supporting Actress

Maddie Ziegler, "Music"


Worst Supporting Actor

Rudy Giuliani, "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm"


Worst Screen Combo

Rudy Giuliani and His Pants Zipper, "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm"


Worst Director

Sia, "Music"


Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel

"Dolittle"


Worst Screenplay

"365"


A "Middle Finger Salute" to 2020

The Board of Governors couldn't let 2020 off easy, so in addition to the annual categories, they decided to award a special Governors' Award to 2020 for being "The Worst Calendar Year Ever!" to acknowledge that "way more than just movies stank last year."

Restrictions work, says man who brought Massachusetts gun deaths to record low
Sarah Betancourt in Boston 

THE GUARDIAN 4/24/2021

In 2020, even as many Americans remained cloistered in their homes under the pandemic, 19,380 died from gunshots – more than in any other year.

© Photograph: Steven Senne/AP John Rosenthal, founder of Stop Handgun Violence, during a panel discussion in Boston in 201

This year is no different. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 158 mass shootings with four or more people shot, more than one a day.

No one knows the numbers better than John Rosenthal, a co-founder of Stop Handgun Violence, a Boston-based non-profit. He has discussed the issue with presidents, governors, a supreme court justice and even the former head of Smith & Wesson. Largely thanks to his efforts, the state has the lowest US gun death rate.

It all started in 1994, when Rosenthal owned a parking garage next to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Negotiating a price for a billboard on top of the garage, he realized the value of the spot, over the Massachusetts Turnpike and 250,000 drivers a day.

“I thought, ‘Well, what message could I put on here that could help change bad public policy?’”

A friend told him 15 kids under 19 died every day from guns. The figure went on the billboard. The numbers changed as the board gained attention. Bill Clinton would reroute his motorcade to pass it. The president met Rosenthal through former governor Bill Weld.

Over 27 years, Stop Handgun Violence has led the way on passing four state gun violence prevention bills – three under Republican governors.

“We’ve had a 40% reduction in the rate of gun deaths in Massachusetts, and a reduction of suicides,” Rosenthal says.

1969

About two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides. In Massachusetts, requirements for licensing, registration and background checks have created waiting periods that make it harder to purchase a gun, creating time to think.

“You can’t buy a gun impulsively in Massachusetts, legally,” Rosenthal says.

The landmark Massachusetts Gun Control Act of 1998, signed by a Republican governor, Paul Cellucci, required renewable licensing and registration for all gun owners, adopted the standards of the 1994 federal assault weapons ban (which was sponsored by Joe Biden, then a senator), implemented the first consumer protection standards for firearms and required dealers to be licensed.

Another Republican, Mitt Romney, signed a second major gun law in 2004, making permanent the federal assault weapons ban and outlawing 19 specific firearms.

A Democrat, Deval Patrick, oversaw a 2014 law that requires a wide range of data be submitted to National Instant Background Check System, including domestic violence convictions, mental health and substance abuse records. Massachusetts also got a web portal for instant background checks on all private sales and expanded police discretion for issuing licenses for rifles and long guns. The law required every gun recovered in a crime be traced and logged in a central database.


That officer died in Boulder. He was outgunned. He had to reload. That’s when you die

In 2017 and 2018 another Republican, Charlie Baker, signed the first US ban of bump stocks – devices which make guns semi-automatic – and the Extreme Risk Protection law, which empowers family members and law enforcement to have firearms removed when they believe an individual could use them for harm.

Nonetheless, Rosenthal says, Massachusetts makes “more firearms at Smith & Wesson and Springfield Armory and other smaller companies than any other state. We are selling weapons of mass destruction, mostly AR-15s, which can’t be sold in-state because of our assault weapon ban but [are] wreaking havoc across the country.”

In the late 90s, Rosenthal contacted Ed Shultz, then Smith & Wesson’s chief executive, hoping he could create childproof guns similar to models the company had made more than 90 years before.

“I told him, ‘You put safety features on your guns, but 17% of police officers are killed in the line of duty or killed with their own weapon because the bad guy grabs the gun. Why don’t you make a childproof or personalized gun now?”

According to Rosenthal, Shultz said, “We would like to do it. But the minute we do it, we’ll be sued for not doing it yesterday. You get me tort reform, I’ll get you personalized gun technology.”

Together, they pursued handgun locks and technology that would only allow the owner of a gun to fire it. The National Rifle Association boycotted the company. Leadership changed. Smith & Wesson began making AR-15s.

© Provided by The Guardian In a picture from 2002, Rosenthal listens to then Boston police commissioner Paul Evans. Photograph: Angela Rowlings/AP

“Their AR-15 was later used in Aurora, in Las Vegas and countless other [mass shootings],” Rosenthal says. Smith & Wesson now makes the most popular rifle in the country.
‘No regulations’

The pivotal point came in 2008, with District of Columbia v Heller, a landmark case before the supreme court.

In a 5-4 ruling authored by Antonin Scalia, the court found a Washington DC handgun ban unconstitutional, holding that the second amendment to the US constitution protects the right to keep weapons for self-defense – unconnected to the formation of a militia.

Rosenthal counters that every decision before Heller said the second amendment gave the right to bear arms to the militia, now the national guard.

“Not an individual right. Heller changed that but only in so much that you could have had the same guns you had in 1776. Not current AR-15 assault weapons. None of that is protected and Scalia said as much. He said you could put reasonable restriction on guns.”

The NRA, Rosenthal says, decided to spin Scalia’s words, to say individual gun ownership was completely protected.

Rosenthal says he met Richard Heller, the plaintiff in the case, at a debate in 2013, after the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut in which 20 young children and six adults were killed. They talked, he says, about how some children could only be identified by their clothing, because they had been shot more than 10 times. Rosenthal says Heller said: ‘If I hadn’t done the work for the NRA and brought this case, maybe those children [would still] be alive.’”

The same year, the NRA lobbied against an assault weapons ban which was defeated in the Senate, several Democrats voting against it. Rosenthal says the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren called him in tears, saying she and others had “failed” the families of Sandy Hook.

1968

“The toy gun industry can be sued if they don’t put a red dot at the barrel of a toy,” Rosenthal says. “Teddy bear companies can be sued if stuffing is flammable. But the real firearm that results in 40,000 deaths a year, 150,000 injuries a year, eight children killed every day? No regulations.”

Biden recently signed a series of executive actions, after shootings in Boulder, Colorado, where 10 people were killed, and Atlanta, where eight died. Earlier this month, eight more died in Indianapolis. Rosenthal says mass shootings won’t stop without real national action.

“Congress allows 30-to-100 round magazines before having to reload without any background check in 32 states,” he says. “That’s the reason why that officer died in Boulder. He was outgunned. He had to reload. That’s when you die.”

The House has passed two gun-control bills. The bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 would require universal background checks on all commercial sales and legislation to close a loophole which allows sales if a background check isn’t completed in three days.

Rosenthal wants more. This week, he introduced new state legislation – to ban the manufacturing of assault weapons in Massachusetts.

1968

Opinion: What we can learn from Canada on gun control

Opinion by Jooyoung Lee 

In the last month, we have witnessed a barrage of mass shootings across the United States. In each of three shootings -- in Indianapolis, Boulder, and Atlanta -- we learned that the suspects bought guns legally. Even worse, we learned after each of the three shootings that family members and friends had been concerned about these young men.

© Andrew Harnik/AP FILE - In this March 24, 2018, file photo, Isabel White of Parkland, Fla., holds a sign that reads "Americans for Gun Safety Now!" during the "March for Our Lives" rally in support of gun control in Washington, that was spearheaded by teens from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Fla. President Biden faces an uphill battle as he tries to push for more state laws that would allow authorities to temporarily disarm people who are considered a danger to themselves or others. State lawmakers, governors of both parties and former President Donald Trump embraced the so-called red flag laws after the 2018 mass shooting in Florida. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

You can't read these news stories and believe that US gun laws are working. There are plenty of ways to circumvent background checks through private sellers and other loopholes. When they are actually required, the criteria used to identify high-risk people prove inadequate to keeping guns out of their hands. A recent FBI study shows that 75% of mass shooters between 2000 and 2013 either bought their guns legally or already possessed them.

Buying a gun from a licensed dealer in America is too easy. Prospective gun owners fill out the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Form 4473, which asks whether they have been convicted of a felony, involuntarily hospitalized by court order, or dishonorably discharged from the military, among other questions about their personal history. Dealers then share this information with the National Instant Criminal Background Check system, and a decision is typically relayed within minutes. These checks are not exhaustive enough and the suspects in the recent shootings in Indiana, Boulder and Atlanta sailed through this system, even though they had documented personal struggles, mental health histories or family members and friends who flagged them as unwell

.

© Geoff Vendeville Jooyoung Lee

As an American living and working in Canada, I've had a chance to see a better system at work. Gun control laws aren't perfect in Canada, and there are ongoing problems with gun violence north of the border, but the system up here is better at keeping guns out of the hands of people looking to use them for violence. This is evident in Canada's firearm-homicide rates, which are a fraction of what they are in the US. In 2019, Canada's firearm-homicide rate was less than a sixth of what it was in the US.

Canada's federal licensing system is a big reason for this disparity. Buying a gun in Canada is like getting a driver's license. You have to apply for a Possession and Acquisition License (PAL) -- a process that involves a variety of background checks with a minimum 28-day waiting period for new applicants who do not have a valid firearms license. You have to take a safety training course. You have to provide personal references who can vouch for your character. You have to renew the license every five years or else you can be charged with unauthorized possession under the Firearms Act and Criminal Code.

Not only does this process help identify high-risk people at the time of purchase, it also provides a way for law enforcement to keep tabs on gun owners, whose lives continue evolving after they buy a gun. The Canadian system acknowledges that a person might experience trauma, suffer from acute mental illness and go through other life changes that would put them at risk of using a gun to commit violence against others or themselves. The US system is a one-time snapshot of a person's life before they buy a gun. Licensing and renewal in Canada provide an evolving picture of a person's changing risk profile over time.

Currently, 14 states in addition to DC have some form of licensing law; of those, 10 states have licensing in the form of "permit-to-purchase" requirements, which typically require prospective gun owners to apply directly to a state or local law enforcement agency to obtain a purchase permit first. Research by Kara Rudolph, Elizabeth Stuart, Jon Vernick and Daniel Webster shows that Connecticut's 1995 "permit-to-purchase" handgun law was associated with an estimated 40% decrease in firearm-related homicides in the first decade it was in effect. Similarly, removing licensing requirements is associated with increases in suicides with firearms. A study by Cassandra Crifasi, John Speed Myers, Jon Vernick and Daniel Webster found that firearm suicides went up 16% after the removal of "permit-to-purchase" handgun laws in Missouri.

Talks about implementing a federal licensing system gained some traction a couple years ago when New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker introduced the Federal Firearm Licensing Bill, which would have expanded the criteria used to screen prospective gun buyers. Under this plan, attorneys general would have more information about prospective gun owners and could deny licenses to people who violate stalking restraining orders, as well as gun traffickers and people with histories of making threats of violence. Even though the National Rifle Association might try to tell you differently, these are not controversial early steps in a massive gun grab. These are modest expansions of a failing background check system. Unfortunately, this bill died in the Senate.

In the wake of so many mass shootings, it's easy to feel like there is no way out of this tragic mess. But there is a way forward. It begins with admitting that the current instant background check system isn't working. It then requires a system that takes into account how people's lives change over time and how their risks of committing violence ebb and flow with these changes. A federal licensing system is a modest start.

New sustainable advances help reimagine fish farming

Fish farms haven't always had the best reputation, but that seems to be changing fast. Many scientists and chefs believe fish farms may be the future of food due to a combination of factors, including overfishing in our oceans and a global population that keeps rising.

© Credit: CBSNews cbsn-fusion-aquaculture-research-park-redefining-what-it-means-to-be-a-fish-farm-thumbnail-700307-640x360.jpg

Dr. Kevan Main leads Mote Aquaculture Research Park in Sarasota, Florida. The park is 20 miles away from the ocean but has seawater running through it constantly. The water is recycled and reused 24 hours a day.

The fish are quarantined when they first arrive. "That is when we first bring them in from the wild. We have to keep them by themselves and have to check them and make sure they're healthy and put them through some treatment," Main told CBS News' Jeff Glor.

At the farm, Main is raising Red Drum, Snook and Almaco Jack. Almaco Jack are also known as Longfin Yellowtail, have very sharp teeth and are also very adaptable. Main originally found the fish about 100 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. They've been raised to be perfect, healthy large breeders.

"We got males and females in here, and at least three to four times a week, they will reproduce in this tank," she said.

Fertilized eggs rise to the surface, and are sent out via tubes, to a collecting tank before being sent to a hatchery, then eventually to be cooked and served on a plate.

Farming fish isn't new—52% of fish consumed around the world come from onshore or off-shore fish farms.

Many people commonly think of farm-raised Salmon, but the industry has been hampered by a history of bad practices, including overuse of antibiotics, overcrowded facilities releasing waste into the environment, and lax regulation.

"Fish farms have faced opposition. Why do you believe those protests are misguided?" Glor asked.

"Because they're based on technology that has been going through a change, moving from learning how to do it to learning how to do it better," Main said.

Which is what Main is working on at the farm. She said depending on the size of the fish, the water in tanks could be used, filtered, and reused again in as little as an hour.

After it leaves the pools, it's sent to an outside filtration system which eliminates any toxic nitrogen put out by the fish but keeps the nutrients.

From there, the water travels into a plant house, where it's used to grow a second crop like Purslane. That process also serves to clean the water before it's returned to the fish.

It seems development of these new technologies couldn't come at a more crucial time.

"It's critical that we provide protein to feed the world. And there is no more sustainable protein that's produced than through fish farming," Main said.

Scientists like Main are getting support from rising chefs around the country, including Steve Phelps, who has become an outspoken proponent for healthy, farm-raised fish.

"To watch how an operation works where I can have my protein and have a salad on the same plate, right now it's fascinating," Phelps said.

Over the last 60 years, global demand for fish meat has more than doubled, while global supply has dropped. According to Main and Phelps, it doesn't have to be that way, and consumers don't just need to buy wild.

"No. The numbers are staggering in how much we're overfishing and what's great for a restaurant, and a chef like me is we've got consistency in product like this. They're fed the same thing, they're in the same environment, they're harvested at the same size, so when I go to create a menu, I can always guarantee that I'll have a 2-pound fish on it or whatever's necessary," Phelps said.

For Phelps and Main, the key to ensuring a future for farm-raised fish is getting the right information out there about the process, where the food comes from, and what it will take to make sure it lasts.

"One thing I've learned is that we've got to communicate more with the public. When people come here, and they see how it's actually operating, they're comfortable with it. It's a fresh product. It's local. It's going right here to your restaurants. And the chefs know the product. The grocery stores know it. It's really the wave of the future," Main said.

Main believes that wild fish won't be going away and that many wild fish are caught sustainably, especially if caught in U.S. waters.

Currently, a majority of the farmed-raised fish we eat in the U.S. is imported. Main hopes that fish farms like hers can be a model for expanding the domestic fish farm industry, making it local and sustainable.

Ahead of Geneva talks, Cypriots march for peace

THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT OF MIKE PEARSON 1965 SENT THE FIRST UN PEACEKEEPERS TO CYPRUS IT WAS CANADA'S FIRST AND LONGEST MISSION 

PEARSON WAS AWARDED THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR THE INVENTION OF PEACEKEEPING


NICOSIA (Reuters) - Thousands of Cypriots from both sides of a dividing line splitting their island marched for peace on Saturday, ahead of informal talks in Geneva next week on the future of negotiations.

© Reuters/YIANNIS KOURTOGLOU Greek Cypriots march peacefully during a reunification rally along the medieval walls circling the divided capital Nicosia

With some holding olive branches, people walked in the bright spring sunshine around the medieval walls circling the capital, Nicosia.

The routes stopped at semi-circles on either side, at barbed wire thrown up decades ago when conflict split Cyprus's Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.

© Reuters/YIANNIS KOURTOGLOU Greek Cypriots march peacefully during a reunification rally along the medieval walls circling the divided capital Nicosia

"Cyprus belongs to its people," demonstrators chanted, holding placards in Greek and Turkish.

Activists also called for the opening of checkpoints between the two sides, which have effectively been sealed for little over a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic in a disruption to the lives of thousands used to more regular interaction between the two communities after restrictions were eased in 2003.

© Reuters/YIANNIS KOURTOGLOU Greek Cypriots march peacefully during a reunification rally along the medieval walls circling the divided capital Nicosia

"The world is going though extraordinary times and sometimes people have been using this excuse to justify the closure of crossings, and on such a small island with no land borders with anywhere else," said Kemal Baykalli, a member of the grassroots platform Unite Cyprus Now, one of many organisations that participated in Saturday's event.

"What could have been done is open the crossing points for the benefit and welfare of all Cypriots and jointly coordinate the situation, but they didn't do this," he told Reuters.

The United Nations has called for informal talks of parties in the Cyprus dispute in Geneva on April 27-29, in an attempt to look for a way forward in resuming peace talks that collapsed in mid-2017.

Prospects for progress appear slim, with each side sticking to their respective positions. Greek Cypriots say Cyprus should be reunited under a federal umbrella, citing relevant United Nations resolutions. The newly-elected Turkish Cypriot leader has called for a two-state resolution

.

© Reuters/YIANNIS KOURTOGLOU Greek Cypriots march peacefully during a reunification rally along the medieval walls circling the divided capital Nicosia

Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup, though the seeds of separation were sown earlier, when a power-sharing administration crumbled in violence in 1963, just three years after independence from Britain.

© Reuters/YIANNIS KOURTOGLOU Greek Cypriots march peacefully during a reunification rally in Nicosia

Discussions in Geneva will also be attended by representatives of Greece, Turkey and Britain, guarantor powers of Cyprus under a convoluted system that granted the island independence.

The Turkish Cypriot activists who demonstrated on Saturday were in favour of a federation.

"We need to fix it," said Baykalli. "We can have a common future and the only way to do this is through a federal arrangement. Its very clear that a two-state solution is not possible."

(Reporting by Michele Kambas; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Japan asks Myanmar junta to release arrested journalist

TOKYO — Japan's government said Monday it is asking Myanmar to release a Japanese journalist who was arrested by security forces in its largest city of Yangon the previous day.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters that his government is asking Myanmar authorities to explain the arrest and release him as soon as possible.

He did not identify the detainee, but Japanese media said he is Yuki Kitazumi, a former Nikkei business newspaper reporter currently based in Yangon as a freelance journalist.

Myanmar state television stations Myawaddy TV and MRTV on Monday night confirmed that the arrested journalist is Kitazumi, and said he had been arrested on a charge of violating Section 505(A) of the Penal Code. The section prohibits comments that “cause fear,” spread “false news, (or) agitates directly or indirectly a criminal offence against a Government employee."

Dozens of other journalists are being held on the same charge, which is punishable by up to three years in prison.

“We will continue asking the Myanmar side for his early release, while doing our utmost for the protection of Japanese citizens in that country,” Kato said.

Japan's Foreign Ministry later said the journalist was arrested at his home on Sunday night and is being detained at Yangon's Insein Prison, where political prisoners are frequently held. It said Japanese Embassy officials have not been given access to him.

Kitazumi has posted reports and views about developments in Myanmar on Facebook. Hours before his arrest, he posted a video showing Myanmar citizens gathering at a Tokyo temple to pay tribute to people killed in the Myanmar military junta's crackdown on protests against its Feb. 1 seizure of power from an elected government.

Kitazumi was detained briefly by police in late February while covering pro-democracy protests in Myanmar.

Japan has stepped up its criticism of the military government's deadly crackdown on opposition but has taken a milder approach than the United States and some other countries that imposed sanctions against members of the junta.

On Saturday, the junta released more than 23,000 prisoners to mark the traditional new year's holiday. At least three had been political prisoners, but it wasn't immediately clear if any activists detained during the post-coup crackdown were freed.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors casualties and arrests, government forces have killed at least 737 protesters and bystanders since the takeover. The group says 3,229 people, including ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, are in detention.

Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press

OVER CUPS OF TEA BOWLS OF NOODLES

ASEAN leaders demand Myanmar coup leaders end killings

A ROGUES GALLERY OF AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES

Aside from Myanmar, the regional bloc is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Southeast Asian leaders demanded an immediate end to killings and the release of political detainees in Myanmar in an emergency summit with its top general and coup leader Saturday in the Indonesian capital, Indonesia's president said.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also told Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing during the two-hour talks in Jakarta that a dialogue between contending parties in Myanmar should immediately start, with the help of ASEAN envoys, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said.


“The situation in Myanmar is unacceptable and should not continue. Violence must be stopped, democracy, stability and peace in Myanmar must be returned immediately,” Widodo said during the meeting. “The interests of the people of Myanmar must always be the priority.”

Daily shootings by police and soldiers since the Feb. 1 coup have killed more than 700 mostly peaceful protesters and bystanders, according to several independent tallies.

The messages conveyed to Min Aung Hlaing were unusually blunt and could be seen as a breach of the conservative 10-nation bloc’s bedrock principle forbidding member states from interfering in each other’s domestic affairs. But Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said that policy should not lead to inaction if a domestic situation “jeopardizes the peace, security, and stability of ASEAN and the wider region” and there is international clamour for resolute action.

“There is a tremendous expectation on the part of the international community on how ASEAN is addressing the Myanmar issue. The pressure is increasing,” Muhyiddin said, and added that the current ASEAN chairman, Brunei Prime Minister Hassanal Bolkiah, and the regional bloc’s secretary general should be allowed access to Myanmar to meet contending parties, encourage dialogue and come up with “an honest and unbiased observation.”

Such a political dialogue “can only take place with the prompt and unconditional release of political detainees," the Malaysian premier said.

A formal statement issued by ASEAN through Brunei after the summit outlined the demands made by the heads of state in more subtle terms. It asked for the “immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar” and urged all parties to “exercise utmost restraint,” but omitted the demand voiced by Widodo and other leaders for the immediate release of political detainees. It said ASEAN would provide humanitarian aid to Myanmar.

It was not immediately clear if and how Min Aung Hlaing responded to the blunt messages.

It was the first time he travelled out of Myanmar since the coup, which was followed by the arrests of Aung San Suu Kyi and many other political leaders.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi expressed hopes on the eve of the summit that “we can reach an agreement on the next steps that can help the people of Myanmar get out of this delicate situation.”

ASEAN’s diversity, including the divergent ties of many of its members to either China or the United States, along with a bedrock policy of non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs and deciding by consensus, has hobbled the bloc’s ability to rapidly deal with crises.

Amid Western pressure, however, the regional group has struggled to take a more forceful position on issues but has kept to its non-confrontational approach.

Critics have said ASEAN’s decision to meet the coup leader was unacceptable and amounted to legitimizing the overthrow and the deadly crackdown that followed. ASEAN states agreed to meet Min Aung Hlaing but did not treat or address him as Myanmar’s head of state in the summit, a Southeast Asian diplomat told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for lack of authority to discuss the issue publicly.

The London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International urged Indonesia and other ASEAN states ahead of the summit to investigate Min Aung Hlaing over “credible allegations of responsibility for crimes against humanity in Myanmar.” As a state party to a U.N. convention against torture, Indonesia has a legal obligation to prosecute or extradite a suspected perpetrator on its territory, it said.

Indonesian police dispersed dozens of protesters opposing the coup and the junta leader’s visit. More than 4,300 police fanned out across the Indonesian capital to secure the meetings, held under strict safeguards amid the pandemic.

The leaders of Thailand and the Philippines skipped the summit to deal with coronavirus outbreaks back home. Laos also cancelled at the last minute. The face-to-face summit is the first by ASEAN leaders in more than a year.

Aside from Myanmar, the regional bloc is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

___

Associated Press journalists Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Kiko Rosario and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Niniek Karmini, The Associated Press

COLD WAR 2.0 RED SCARE TOO

Over 500 U.S. Scientists Under Investigation for Being Compromised by China


More than 500 U.S. scientists are under investigation for being compromised by China and other foreign countries, according to a recent hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

© Go Nakamura/Getty A Chinese national flag waves at the Chinese consulate after the United States ordered China to close its doors on July 22, 2020 in Houston, Texas. According to the State Department, the U.S. government ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate "in order to protect American intellectual property and Americans' private information." 

The hearing was focused on protecting the U.S.'s biomedical research from foreign entities such as China. While delivering opening remarks, Senator Patty Murray, chair of the committee, spoke about a recent report from the National Institutes of Health and conflicts of interests among 507 NIH grant recipients.

"It's important that researchers with foreign affiliations and potential conflicts of interest—for example, participation in foreign talent programs or commitments to file patents in, or move laboratories to, foreign nations—fully disclose those issues when applying for federal grants," Murray said.

"The latest report from the National Institutes of Health on undisclosed conflicts of interest found cause for concern with only 507 grant recipients—compared to over 30,000 total grantees in 2020," she added.

Murray also said that the NIH "has made progress in implementing policies and procedures to raise awareness of, prevent and address undue foreign influence among the biomedical research community." But she noted that "investigations from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General, the department's Office of National Security and the Government Accountability Office make clear there is more NIH can be doing here."

Michael Lauer, deputy director for extramural research at the NIH, told the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that as of April 2021 the agency has contacted over 90 institutions "regarding concerns involving over 200 scientists."

"The individuals violating laws and policies represent a small proportion of scientists working in and with U.S. institutions. We must ensure that our responses to this issue do not create a hostile environment for colleagues who are deeply dedicated to advancing human health through scientific inquiry," Lauer said. "We cannot afford to reject brilliant minds working honestly and collaboratively to provide hope and healing to millions around the world."

Senator Richard Burr, a ranking member of the committee, said during his opening statement that "the government of the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party are the most sophisticated perpetrators, but other foreign actors are also engaged in efforts to subvert our biomedical research."

He added, "Our adversaries are engaging in a systematic effort to infiltrate the academic research community and siphon away the results of United States spending on biomedical research."

Burr went on to explain that there is an effort by Chinese individuals, "backed by their government," to work in the U.S. "with the full intent to bring back to China's government everything they can learn, store or steal."

During the hearing, Gary Cantrell, the Health and Human Services Department's deputy inspector general for investigations, presented an example of how individuals have applied for and received NIH grants but have used them for China's benefit.

According to Cantrell, an investigation that led to a criminal plea included a researcher who "admitted he lied on applications in order to use approximately $4.1 million in NIH grants to enhance China's expertise in the areas of rheumatology and immunology."

In recent years, U.S. scientific competition with China has increased, and in July 2020 President Donald Trump's administration announced the closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston. The Trump administration accused diplomats at the consulate of operating as spies for the Chinese government in order to steal scientific research from the U.S.

Earlier this week, the Department of Justice announced that a mathematics professor and researcher at Southern Illinois University–Carbondale was charged with two counts of wire fraud and one count of making a false statement after he "fraudulently obtained $151,099 in federal grant money from the National Science Foundation (NSF) by concealing support he was receiving from the Chinese government and a Chinese university."

According to the Department of Justice , the researcher was identified as 59-year-old Mingqing Xiao. In a statement, the DOJ's assistant attorney general for national security, John Demers, said, "Again, an American professor stands accused of enabling the Chinese government's efforts to corruptly benefit from U.S. research funding by lying about his obligations to, and support from, an arm of the Chinese government and a Chinese public university."

Newsweek reached out to the NIH for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

YOU WILL FIND LOTS OF CHINESE SCIENTISTS WORKING IN US UNIVERSITIES OR COLLABORATING WITH THEM AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THE SCIENCE REPORTS I POST

UPDATED

Biden makes history by declaring killings of Armenians a 'genocide'

President Joe Biden formally recognized the Ottoman Empire's killing and deportation of Armenians over a century ago as a genocide, breaking from his predecessors and risking inflaming tensions with Turkey.

Biden is expected to become 1st US president to officially recognize Armenian genocide


Biden had pledged as a presidential candidate to recognize the Armenians' treatment, which took place in modern-day Turkey, as genocide. Armenian-Americans have long called on U.S. presidents to do so, but Turkey, a key NATO ally, has warned the U.S. against it, long maintaining that the violence was part of bloody clashes during World War I.

The Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "we reject and denounce in the strongest terms" Biden's designation, adding it "will open a deep wound that undermines our mutual trust and friendship."

© Turkish Presidency via AP, FILE In this March 24, 2021, file photo, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he delivers a speech during his ruling party's congress inside a packed sports hall in Ankara, Turkey.

Ties between the two allies have been increasingly strained in recent years, although Biden finally spoke to Erdogan Friday -- their first call during Biden's tenure -- and conveyed "his interest in a constructive bilateral relationship with expanded areas of cooperation and effective management of disagreements."

Biden used the word "genocide" in a statement to mark "Armenian Remembrance Day" on Saturday -- 106 years after the events that the Armenian diaspora considers the start of the genocide. Previous presidents had avoided using the label even as they made the traditional, annual proclamation honoring the anniversary.

"Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring," Biden said in the statement. "The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today," he added.

The statement was expected, especially after then-candidate Biden marked last year's remembrance day by saying, "Silence is complicity."

© Universal Images Group via Getty Images An encampment of Armenian refugees on the deck of a French cruiser that rescued them, 1915.

"If we do not fully acknowledge, commemorate, and teach our children about genocide, the words 'never again' lose their meaning," he wrote, pledging to back a congressional resolution that recognized the Ottoman Empire's actions as genocide. Resolutions to recognize the genocide passed the House and Senate in 2019, but former President Donald Trump, like his predecessors, never joined them.

On Wednesday, over 100 bipartisan members of Congress sent a letter to Biden calling on him to use his proclamation to officially label what happened a "genocide."

The Ottoman Turks deported around 2 million Armenians starting in 1915. Around 1.5 million Armenians are estimated to have been killed.

The Turkish government agrees that fighting during the war killed many, but it has long denied that the treatment of the Christian Armenians by the Muslim Ottomans amounted to genocide and says that the death toll was lower.

Over two-dozen countries have recognized the atrocities as genocide, according to the Armenian National Institute, a Washington-based group that advocates for the genocide designation.

Biden's statement carries no legal implication, and even if the State Department were to follow up with a formal declaration, there are no automatic sanctions or other penalties that kick in. On its final day with former President Donald Trump in office, the Trump administration declared the Chinese government's treatment of Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities as genocide, without implementing sanctions.

© Karen Minasyan/AFP via Getty Images, FILE People visit the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenian, on Oct. 30, 2019.

But the comments will rattle U.S.-Turkish relations, already on ice over a litany of disagreements, and could damage relations between Biden and Erdogan, who had a warm relationship with Trump. Trump often touted his "friendship" with the strongman president and repeatedly pulled punches against his government until his hand was forced by political pressure, including from congressional Republicans.

His administration sanctioned Turkish government officials and its defense procurement agency in December for the purchase of a Russian missile system -- years after those sanctions were obligated and only after Congress voted to push him a week prior. After seeming to give Erdogan a green light, he also sanctioned senior Turkish officials for their incursion into northern Syria against Kurdish forces that fought alongside U.S. troops against ISIS.

© Karen Minasyan/AFP via Getty ImagesMORE: Biden's foreign policy moves raise bipartisan eyebrows: The Note

For its part, Turkey's government has long urged the U.S. to hand over Fetullah Gulen, a cleric who has lawful permanent residency in Pennsylvania and whom Erdogan has accused of fomenting a 2016 coup d'état against him. Turkey also views those Syrian Kurdish forces as an existential threat because of their ties to Turkish Kurds that Turkey and the U.S. have designated a terrorist group -- condemning U.S. support as a betrayal.

Little of that tension was expected to improve under Biden, who spoke to Erdogan Friday after what some analysts considered a cold shoulder. The two leaders agreed to meet on the sidelines of a NATO summit in June "to discuss the full range of bilateral and regional issues," the White House said, although it's unclear whether they discussed Biden's genocide comment in advance.

Armenians commemorate WWI-era massacres the US is set to designate as genocide

AFP 4/24/2021

Thousands of Armenians flocked Saturday to a memorial of the World War I-era mass killings of their kin by Ottoman Turks, the bloodletting which US President Joe Biden is reportedly set to recognise as genocide.

© Karen MINASYAN Armenians joined a torchlight procession to mark the 106th anniversary of the mass killings

© Karen MINASYAN Armenians call the massacres Meds Yeghern -- the Great Crime

Biden's landmark move risks further inflaming Washington's tensions with NATO ally Turkey.

Armenians have long sought to have the killings of up to 1.5 million of their kin during the Ottoman Empire's collapse internationally recognised as genocide.

The claim is supported by many other countries, but fiercely rejected by Turkey.

Yerevan has also demanded financial compensation from Ankara and the restoration of property rights for the descendants of those killed in the 1915-1918 massacres.

Turkey denies the killings' genocidal nature, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

Biden, who during his decades as a senator forged close relations with the Armenian-American and Greek-American communities, promised during his presidential campaign to recognize the Armenian genocide.

© Karen MINASYAN Armenians set fire to a Turkish flag in Yerevan

- 'Great Crime' -

So far, at least 29 countries -- including Russia and France -- have recognised the atrocities as genocide.

On the "anniversary of the Armenian genocide, my whole thoughts are with Armenia ravaged by history... We will never forget," French President Emmanuel Macron wrote to his Armenian counterpart Armen Sarkisian on Thursday.

© STAFF Map of the Ottoman Empire detailing the deportation and mass killings of Armenians in 1915-1917

On Saturday, the procession marking the massacres' 106th anniversary stretched from central Yerevan to a hilltop Tsitsernakaberd memorial where the head of Armenia's Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin, celebrated a requiem mass.

Armenians commemorate the massacres of their people on April 24 -- the day in 1915 when thousands of Armenian intellectuals suspected of harboring nationalist sentiment and being hostile to Ottoman rule were rounded up.

Anger against Turkey simmered among Armenians as crowds of people carrying candles and flowers joined the annual procession to remember the victims of the massacres, which Armenians call Meds Yeghern -- the Great Crime.

Armenia is traumatised by last year's defeat in a war with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, in which Ankara backed its ally Baku.

- 'Old wound bleeds' -

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the war -- that erupted in September and ended six weeks later with a Russian brokered ceasefire -- "the Azeri-Turkish aggression which sought to annihilate the Armenian trace" in Karabakh.

"Turkey's expansionist foreign policy, and the territorial aspirations towards Armenia are the evidence of the revival of their genocidal ideology," he said in a statement.

"Armenophobia is in the essence of Pan-Turkism, and today we can see its most disgusting manifestations in Azerbaijan as fostered by the authorities of that country."

Arms supplies from Turkey helped the Azerbaijan army win a decisive victory in the war.

Under a truce agreement -- which was seen in Armenia as a national humiliation -- Yerevan ceded to Baku swathes of territory it had controlled for decades.

"The old wound opened up and bleeds," 72-year-old Sonik Petrosyan told AFP, speaking of the war that has claimed the lives of some 6,000 people.

"Armenians must stand united so that our country re-emerges strong from these hardships," the pensioner said as she laid flowers at the eternal flame at the centre of the monument commemorating the mass killings.

On Friday evening, about 10,000 people staged an annual torch-lit march in central Yerevan to mark the anniversary, with activists of the nationalist Dashnaktsutyun party -– who led the procession -- burning Turkish and Azerbaijani flags.

mkh-im/tgb

Armenia: What to know about the mass killings a century ago
By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN 

4/24/2021

The massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War I -- and the question of whether it should be called a genocide -- remains highly contentious a century after the event.

© Karen Minasyan/AFP/Getty Images People visit the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on October 30, 2019. - Armenians on October 30, 2019 rejoiced over the historic vote in the US House of Representatives that recognised as "genocide" mass killings of ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire a century ago. (Photo by KAREN MINASYAN / AFP) (Photo by KAREN MINASYAN/AFP via Getty Images)

The issue is an emotional one, both for Armenians, many of whose forebears were killed, and for Turks, the heirs to the Ottomans. For both groups, the question touches as much on national identity as on historical facts.

Some Armenians feel their nationhood cannot be fully recognized unless the truth of what happened to their people, beginning in April 1915, is acknowledged. Some Turks still view the Armenians as having been a threat to the Ottoman Empire in a time of war, and say many people of various ethnicities -- including Turks -- were killed in the chaos of conflict.

© BORIS HORVAT/AFP/Getty Images People march with Armenian flags as they commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces on April 24, 2018, in Marseille, France.

In addition, some Turkish leaders fear that acknowledgment of a genocide could lead to demands for huge reparations.

The declaration by US President Joe Biden on Saturday that it was a "genocide" risks a potential fracture with Turkey -- but will fulfill a campaign pledge of his and signal a commitment to human rights.

© DENIS SINYAKOV/AFP/Getty Images Armenians living in Moscow view photographs of Armenian victims of mass killings by Ottoman Turks during a memorial on 23 April, 2005, at the building site of a new Armenian Cathedral in Moscow.

April 24, known as Red Sunday, is commemorated as Genocide Remembrance Day by Armenians around the world.


What was the backdrop to the mass killings?

The Ottoman Turks, having recently entered World War I on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were worried that Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire would offer wartime assistance to Russia. Russia had long coveted control of Constantinople (now Istanbul), which controlled access to the Black Sea -- and therefore access to Russia's only year-round seaports.

Many historians agree that about 2 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire at the time the killings began. However, victims of the mass killings also included some of the 1.8 million Armenians living in the Caucasus under Russian rule, some of whom were massacred by Ottoman forces in 1918 as they marched through East Armenia and Azerbaijan.

© ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/AFP/Getty Images Armenian clergy and activists react after German lawmakers vote to recognise the Armenian genocide after a debate in the Bundestag in Berlin on June 2, 2016.

By 1914, Ottoman authorities were already portraying Armenians as a threat to the empire's security.


Then, on the night of April 23-24, 1915, the authorities in Constantinople, the empire's capital, rounded up about 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders. Many of them ended up deported or assassinated.


How many Armenians were killed?

This is a major point of contention. Estimates range from 300,000 to 2 million deaths between 1914 and 1923, with not all of the victims in the Ottoman Empire. But most estimates -- including one of 800,000 between 1915 and 1918, made by Ottoman authorities themselves -- fall between 600,000 and 1.5 million.

The government in Turkey puts the number of dead Armenians at 300,000.

Whether due to killings or forced deportation, the number of Armenians living in Turkey fell from 2 million in 1914 to under 400,000 by 1922.

While the death toll is in dispute, there are a number of photographs from the era documenting mass killings. Some show Ottoman soldiers posing with severed heads, others with them standing amid skulls in the dirt.

Victims are reported to have died in mass burnings and by drowning, torture, gas, poison, disease and starvation. Children were reported to have been loaded into boats, taken out to sea and thrown overboard. Rape, too, was frequently reported.

In addition, according to the website of the Armenian National Institute, "The great bulk of the Armenian population was forcibly removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger."


Was genocide a crime at the time?

Although the mass killings of Armenians are said by some scholars and others to have been the first genocide of the 20th century, "genocide" was not even a word at the time, much less a legally defined crime.

The term was invented in 1944 by a Polish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin to describe the Nazis' systematic attempt to eradicate Jews from Europe. He formed the word by combining the Greek word for race with the Latin word for killing.

Genocide became a crime in 1948, when the United Nations approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The definition included acts meant "to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."


Who regards the mass killings as genocide?

Armenia, the Vatican, the European Parliament, France, Germany, Russia, Canada, Argentina and the United States are among dozens of states and other bodies formally to have recognized what happened as genocide. Britain is among those that have not.

The government of Turkey often registers complaints when foreign governments describe the event using the word "genocide." They maintain that it was wartime and there were losses on both sides.

Ankara also insists there was no systematic attempt to destroy a people.


What is the US position?

Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump both avoided using the word genocide in order not to anger Ankara.

But Biden has apparently determined that relations with Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan -- which have deteriorated over the past several years anyway -- should not prevent the use of a term that would validate the plight of Armenians more than a century ago and signal a commitment to human rights today.

Biden told Erdoğan on Friday that he planned to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as a genocide, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

Readouts from the White House and Turkish presidency did not mention the issue. The call was Biden's first with his Turkish counterpart since taking office in January.

In 2019, both the US House of Representatives and the Senate passed a resolution formally recognizing the mass killings as genocide. Prior to the resolution's passage in the Senate, the Trump administration had asked Republican senators to block the move several times on the grounds that it could undercut negotiations with Turkey.