CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M; POACHING

20 rhino horns worth S$1.2m seized at Changi Airport

Multiple rhinoceros horns seized yesterday. Photo: NParks

By Coconuts Singapore

Oct 6, 2022 | 

Illegal trade of endangered animal parts in Singapore is sadly still apparent in its latest seizure yesterday.

The National Parks Board last night said airport security seized 20 pieces of horns worth about S$1.2 million passing through Changi Airport to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic from South Africa. The 34kg rhino haul is the largest to date in Singapore.

Trading of rhino horns is illegal as the animal is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The board said they are identifying the species of the rhinoceros and the haul would be destroyed so that they won’t be reintroduced and traded in the market.

Rhino horns are known to be used in Traditional Chinese Medicine mainly to treat heatiness and detox.

Minister for National Development Desmond Lee added last night that the owner has been arrested and investigations are currently ongoing.

Singapore has “zero-tolerance” over the illegal trade of endangered wildlife species, he said.

“… illegal poaching has adversely affected rhinoceros populations. This sad haul is testament to this,” he wrote.

Both the board and Lee urged citizens to not get involved in purchasing or using any illegally traded wildlife parts.



After this story was published, the South African man responsible for bringing the horns in from Johannesburg, South Africa was charged.

Gumede Sthembiso Joel, 32, did not have any valid permits to do so.

If found guilty under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act, he could be fined up to S$500,000 and jailed for up to two years.

Joel will be back in court on Oct. 27.

South African man accused of bringing 34kg of rhino horns into S'pore without valid permit

The horns from Johannesburg, South Africa, were on their way to Vientiane, Laos. PHOTO: NPARKS

Nadine Chua
PUBLISHED
4 HOURS AGO

SINGAPORE - A South African man who allegedly brought more than 34kg of rhinoceros horns worth $1.2 million into Singapore without a valid export permit was charged in court on Thursday.

This is the largest seizure of rhinoceros horns in Singapore.

Gumede Sthembiso Joel, 32, and the 34.25kg of African rhinoceros horns were intercepted at Changi Airport on Tuesday at around noon.

The horns from Johannesburg, South Africa, were on their way to Vientiane, Laos.

Joel did not have a valid Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) permit or any written permission issued by the authorities in South Africa.

A Cites permit is needed to get approval from the National Parks Board (NParks) for the import, export and re-export of protected specimens. This permit is required for both commercial consignments and personal effects.

Joel was in transit in Singapore when 20 pieces of the horns were detected by officers from airport security and the NParks' K9 unit. He was arrested immediately.

NParks said genetic testing is being carried out at its Centre for Wildlife Forensics to identify which species of rhinoceros the horns came from.

"The horns will subsequently be destroyed to prevent them from re-entering the market, disrupting the global supply chain of illegally traded rhinoceros horns," said NParks.

Under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act, an individual in possession of a Cites-scheduled species travelling through Singapore without a valid Cites permit can be fined $50,000 a species, capped at $500,000, or jailed for up to two years, or both.

The same penalties apply to the possession or transshipment of Cites-scheduled species, including their parts and derivatives.

Joel will be back in court on Oct 27.

The 34.25kg of African rhinoceros horns were intercepted at Changi Airport on Oct 4, 2022 at around noon. PHOTOS: SGPC.GOV.SG

The batch of rhinoceros horns intercepted on Tuesday is the latest in a string of record seizures of illegal wildlife parts in Singapore in recent years.

In 2019, $52 million worth of pangolin scales were found in a container that was being shipped from Nigeria to Vietnam. They were declared as frozen beef.

NParks and Singapore Customs officers found 230 bags containing 12.9 tonnes of the scales, which likely came from 17,000 pangolins.

Less than a week later, another 12.7 tonnes of pangolin scales were uncovered at Pasir Panjang Scanning Station in a joint operation by NParks, Singapore Customs and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority.

Later that year, a total of 8.8 tonnes of elephant ivory was seized from a shipment from the Democratic Republic of Congo passing through Singapore en route to Vietnam.

The ivory, estimated to have come from about 300 African elephants, was worth around $17.6 million. Another 11.9 tonnes of pangolin scales were confiscated in the same operation.



NParks said Singapore adopts a zero-tolerance stance on the illegal trade of endangered wildlife species as well as their parts and derivatives.

It added that Singapore collaborates closely with its international partners to maintain vigilance in regulating and enforcing against illegal wildlife trade.

The agency said people in the community can play a key role by not contributing to the demand for illegal wildlife trade. They should avoid buying products which contain animal parts of endangered species.

The public can contact NParks at cites@nparks.gov.sg to report illegal wildlife trade.

U$A
Smith: ‘Cover-up’ of abuse in women’s sports spans years

J.J. Bullock
Wed, October 5, 2022 

(NewsNation) — ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith joined NewsNation’s “CUOMO” on Tuesday to discuss the sports world’s hottest topics: New York Yankees’ slugger Aaron Judge’s record-breaking 62nd home run, Tua Tagovailoa’s controversial head injury and a report of systemic abuse in women’s sports.

Smith said Judge’s American League record 62nd home run should come with no asterisk and said the Dolphins’ handling of Tua Tagovailoa’s head injury means “someone should be fired.”

Smith said when he heard about a new report that detailed systemic verbal and sexual abuse within the National Women’s Soccer League, it “did not surprise me at all … because we have been hearing about these stories for far too long.

“The cover-up doesn’t span a few weeks or a few months, it spans years,” Smith told NewsNation host Chris Cuomo.

 “Think about what happened at Michigan State. Think about what happened in various other places where you saw young females being mistreated, young females being groped, being touched, being sexually assaulted. We find out more and more and more about this.”

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is examined during the first half of the team’s NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, in Cincinnati.

 (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

Smith called the Miami Dolphins’ handling of Tua Tagovailoa’s head injury “egregious” and called for someone to be fired in wake of the controversy.

“And this is the problem I think the Miami Dolphins have, you have a coach in Mike McDaniel who is a first-year coach, he’s doing a hell of a job, we don’t want to accuse anybody of doing anything wrong intentionally,” Smith said. “But the doubling down, the ‘we handled everything properly, we did nothing wrong. I completely co-sign with what procedural issues we followed.’ No. Can’t do that based on what we’ve seen here.”

Moments before Smith joined Cuomo, Judge hit his 62nd home run of the season, passing Yankees legend Roger Maris for the most home runs hit in a season in American League history. Yet, many believe Judge should be considered the all-time leader in both leagues, given every National League player to hit more than 61 home runs in a season did so while using performance-enhancing drugs.

New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge follows through on a grounder that led to a force out at second as Texas Rangers catcher Jonah Heim and umpire Gabe Morales look on in the ninth inning of the first baseball game of a doubleheader in Arlington, Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Kyle Higashioka was out at second on the play for the third out. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Smith said it is clear Judge’s record requires no asterisk like those of National League sluggers Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, but added it feels hypocritical for the media pundits and league officials to criticize the records set by those who were using performance-enhancing drugs.

“Even though I’ve always been a critic of those who say that asterisk needs to be attached to these other guys, not to say that it didn’t, but you’re the network, you were collecting the money. You’re the league, you were collecting the money,” Smith said. “Then after you collect the money and the hype and all the hoopla that went along with it, then you want us to forget about the Barry Bonds, the Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s. I don’t like that. If you wanted to accept it and take the money, then take everything that goes with it. Put them in a Hall of Fame, just put an asterisk next to the name and call it a day.”

Paris Club Seeks China Collaboration in Sri Lanka Debt Talks

Alonso Soto
Thu, October 6, 2022 



(Bloomberg) -- Paris Club creditors reached out to China and India to coordinate Sri Lanka’s debt-restructuring talks, according to a person familiar with the matter, in an attempt to bring major global creditors together to rework the obligations of emerging economies.

The club, an informal group of mostly rich, western bilateral creditors, is awaiting a response from both countries after it sent an official request in late August to work together, said an official who declined to be identified because talks are continuing.

Coordinating on Sri Lanka may result in the formation of an official creditors committee or simply holding regular meetings to share information on debt treatment, the official said.

Sri Lanka’s presidency said it’s unaware of the efforts by the club. An Asian diplomat in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, confirmed that the Paris Club had been in contact with the country’s non-Paris Club creditors. Chinese and Indian government officials weren’t available for comment on Wednesday due to public holidays.

The formation of an official creditors committee in which China and India agreed to work together with the Paris Club would help Sri Lanka secure a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund. The Washington-based lender announced a staff-level deal with the government last month, and needs assurances from creditors that they’re willing to negotiate a restructuring before its board can give final approval and start disbursing the much-needed funding.

Sri Lanka defaulted for the first time in May and aims to finalize debt-restructuring talks with international creditors by the second quarter of 2023. The government has said it will ensure transparency and equal treatment among creditors.

The Group of 20 leading economies has so far failed to reach a consensus to include middle-income countries, such as Sri Lanka, in its so-called Common Framework, a plan to reorganize loans owed by the world’s poorest nations that has been plagued by delays since its inception in 2020. Bringing major creditors China and India to the table would mark a new chapter in global efforts to jointly rework the debt of nations facing soaring financing costs that could trigger a slew of defaults.

Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe said in Parliament on Thursday the country has initiated debt restructuring talks with Beijing and will hold further discussions after the Chinese Communist Party’s congress, scheduled for later this month. Sri Lanka is also in discussions with India, the president said, adding that his government will hold negotiations with bond holders following official creditor talks.

Sri Lanka’s 7.55% 2030 dollar bond was indicated edging 0.1 cents higher to 24.7 cents on the dollar, still close to a record low set in July. The Sri Lankan rupee gained 0.2% to 364.5 per dollar.

China’s Support

Convincing China, the world’s largest official bilateral creditor, to work with the Paris Club would be especially important for developing countries, which have taken tens of billions of dollars of loans from Beijing over the past two decades to build everything from roads and bridges to soccer stadiums and presidential villas.

Sri Lanka has about $50 billion in foreign currency debt, of which about $10 billion is mainly split between China, Japan and India, according to government data as of December. Japan is part of the Paris Club.

Last month, the Paris Club reiterated its willingness to coordinate with non-Paris Club official bilateral creditors “to provide the necessary financing assurances in a timely manner.”

As a middle-income country, Sri Lanka wasn’t included among nations that could suspend bilateral debt payments that the G-20 agreed to in 2020 to provide relief during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Common Framework is an extension of that initiative and is being used by Zambia, Chad and Ethiopia as a mechanism to restructure their loans.

Zambia Model

In Zambia’s case, it took about seven months from a staff-level agreement until official bilateral creditors formally communicated their willingness to rework the southern African nation’s debts.

The framework may provide a model for Sri Lanka in its debt overhaul by bringing bilateral creditors around the same negotiating table. That would prevent suspicions often prevalent in sovereign-debt restructurings that one creditor is getting a better deal than others.

“When you moved from a negotiating framework that involved simply Paris Club and commercial creditor representative committees and you added the non-Paris Club bilaterals -- China -- it became three-dimensional chess,” Lee Buchheit, a veteran of two dozen debt restructurings who’s been consulted by the Sri Lankan government, said in a Sept. 14 webinar. “I can’t see any policy reason why a middle-income country could not attempt on an ad-hoc basis to replicate the common framework approach to negotiation.”

GUNRUNNING IN THE PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY
She’s a Doctor. He Was a Limo Driver. They Pitched a $30 Million Arms Deal.

New brokers are cashing in as the Biden administration quietly encourages private weapons sales to Ukraine. Oversight is scant in these shadows.

A Ukrainian soldier with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher outside of Kharkiv in the early days of the war. Ukraine has turned to private arms deals to meet its needs.

Credit...Maksim Levin/Reuters

By Justin Scheck
Oct. 6, 2022, 

EUREKA, Mo. — After falling out with his partner at a limousine company in the St. Louis suburbs, Martin Zlatev recently sought a lucrative new business opportunity: selling $30 million worth of rockets, grenade launchers and ammunition to the Ukrainian military.

Mr. Zlatev and his new business partner, a local osteopath, took their first crack at international arms dealing. Contract documents and other records obtained by The New York Times show that the deal relied on layers of middlemen and transit across seven countries. And it exists in a legal gray area, designed to skirt the arms-export rules of other countries.

“Time is of the essence,” the pair recently wrote to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. They outlined a plan to sell American, Bulgarian and Bosnian arms to Ukraine.

Since the Russian invasion in February, the Biden administration has quietly fast-tracked hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of private arms sales to Ukraine, slashing a weekslong approval process to a matter of hours. In just the first four months of the year — the latest data available — the State Department authorized more than $300 million in private deals to Ukraine, government documents show. The department authorized less than $15 million worth of such sales to Ukraine during all of the 2021 fiscal year.

That has helped open another stream of weapons to the Ukrainian battlefront, but it has also enticed new players like Mr. Zlatev and his partner, Heather Gjorgjievski, into a shadowy market. Weapons sold through private brokers are far more likely to end up on the black market and resurface in the hands of American adversaries, according to government advisers and academics who study the trade. Recent experience in Afghanistan and Syria shows that, without strict tracing policies, weapons can end up with terrorist groups or hostile military forces.

These private arms sales are a pittance compared to the more than $17.5 billion worth of machine guns, anti-tank missiles and other security aid the White House has sent to Ukraine. But those deals have stringent tracking requirements to help ensure the weapons go to their intended recipients. Private sales come with less oversight. The sellers, the buyers and the weapons are all kept out of the public eye.

“It’s the Wild West,” said Olga Torres, a lawyer who represents arms exporters and serves on the federal Defense Trade Advisory Group. “We are seeing a lot of people who were previously not involved in arms sales getting involved now because they see the opportunity.”

Ukrainian soldiers manning a checkpoint with a donated American .50-caliber machine gun near a village in the eastern region of Donetsk.

Credit...Ivor Prickett for The New York Times


In recent months, Ms. Torres said, she has consulted with a Texas nonprofit that tried to send weapons to Ukraine without realizing it needed U.S. permission, and a broker who wanted to sell Indian weapons to Ukraine but illegally claim they were American. (She said she did not ultimately represent the broker.)

Just as it has cut the approval time for deals to under a day, the State Department has also accelerated the registration process for new arms dealers.

The State of the WarRussia’s Retreat: After significant gains in eastern cities like Lyman, Ukraine is pushing farther into Russian-held territory in the south, expanding its campaign as Moscow struggles to mount a response and hold the line. The Ukrainian victories came as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia illegally annexed four regions where fighting is raging.
Dugina Assassination: U.S. intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorized the car bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist. American officials said they were not aware of the plan ahead of time and that they had admonished Ukraine over it.
Oil Supply Cuts: Saudi Arabia and Russia, acting as leaders of the OPEC Plus energy cartel, agreed to a large production cut in a bid to raise prices, countering efforts by the United States and Europe to constrain the oil revenue Moscow is using to pay for its war in Ukraine.
Putin’s Nuclear Threats: For the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, top Russian leaders are making explicit nuclear threats and officials in Washington are gaming out scenarios should Mr. Putin decide to use a tactical nuclear weapon.

“Generally, this is a process that takes 60 days,” Mr. Zlatev wrote in a letter to the Ukrainian defense ministry. “We were approved in seven days.”

At home on a suburban cul-de-sac on a recent Tuesday, Mr. Zlatev, 45, came to the door and denied any knowledge of an arms deal. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said when shown copies of contracts for rockets, grenade launchers and bullets drafted by his company and the Ukraine Ministry of Defense.

Leaving her medical office later that day, Dr. Gjorgjievski, 46, acknowledged knowing about the deal but would not discuss it.

Richard El-Rassy, a lawyer for Mr. Zlatev’s company, later sent an email explaining that the company aimed “to facilitate potential defense trade transactions with allied foreign nations.” He said the State Department had approved the company’s request to move ahead with a deal.

With a typical arms broker commission, the pair would stand to make more than $2 million.

Records show the deal was in its final stages, with both sides having reviewed and revised the contract.

But after The Times asked both Mr. El-Rassy and the Ukrainian government why the deal relied on falsified documents to evade foreign export laws, the lawyer sent a new statement saying the deal was off. Both Bosnia and Bulgaria, two key weapons sources in the deal, have publicly said they do not allow arms exports to Ukraine.

The Biden administration encourages private sector deals for several reasons. It saves the Pentagon from further depleting its own armory after months of sending arms to Ukraine. And private sellers can provide weapons that the government cannot — like the Soviet-style weapons already used by Ukrainian soldiers.

President Biden signing a bill in May that accelerated military aid for Ukraine. The administration has approved hundreds of millions of dollars in private arms sales to the country.

Credit...Cheriss May for The New York Times

Not all private sales carry the same risk. Foreign governments, for example, frequently buy weapons from major American defense contractors. Deals like the one Mr. Zlatev proposed are different. Rather than selling directly, they involve brokering arms sales from other countries, with numerous middlemen in between.

Records show that Mr. Zlatev and Dr. Gjorgjievski planned to supply Ukraine with bullets produced in the United States and weaponry from Bulgaria and Bosnia.

Each of the deal’s many intermediaries is a potential point for weapons to be diverted, experts say. That’s especially true when dealing with countries like Ukraine and Bulgaria with well-documented corruption and free-flowing black-market arms.

“All the risks — diversion, escalation, corruption — are all magnified by the fact that we don’t have visibility into these private-sector deals,” said Elias Yousif, a researcher with the Stimson Center, a Washington research group that studies the arms trade. “You encourage this entire economy that exists in this gray space across borders and with people of questionable motives.”

While lawyers say they have seen an influx of new brokers, a State Department spokesman said that the department had not compiled data for 2022 to say for sure. Regardless, the spokesman said that brokered arms deals like the ones Mr. Zlatev proposed represent a small fraction of the American-authorized arms trade.

The State Department has a tracking program that examines a portion of the deals, looking for risks of arms being diverted, among other concerns. Of the 19,125 export requests that the department authorized in fiscal year 2021, the tracking program checked 281.

Mr. Zlatev, who is originally from Bulgaria, got into the arms business last December during a perilous moment both at home and abroad. Russian troops were massing near the Ukrainian border. The pandemic destroyed business travel to St. Louis, crushing the limo industry, and Mr. Zlatev had a falling out with his business partner.

He based his business, BMI US LLC, in Eureka, a small city on the far outskirts of St. Louis. The company shares an address with a firearms training facility, next to a Mexican restaurant. A trainer there said Mr. Zlatev rents space because federal regulations require some arms dealers to have a physical address.

Ukrainian soldiers servicing a captured Russian armored personnel carrier in the Donetsk region. Many new arms dealers started in the trade just as Ukraine was desperate to buy any weapons it could find.

Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Later corporate filings show Dr. Gjorgjievski as a partner. They got BMI letterhead with cross hairs over the “I.”

The timing was perfect. Ukrainian authorities were soon scouring the world for weapons, looking to quickly spend whatever was necessary to bolster the front lines. For instance, a state-owned Ukrainian company began contacting American arms brokers, looking to buy tanks, mortars and Soviet-style MiG-29 fighter jets, according to letters obtained by The Times.

The American side of the BMI deal was relatively straightforward, documents show. Once the Ukrainian government deposited about $25 million in the company’s Bank of America account, BMI would pay a middleman for 2.2 million rounds of surplus U.S. military ammunition and fly it to Poland. From there, drivers would truck the bullets to Ukraine.

Separately, BMI would buy 540 anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 22 mortars from a Bosnian producer. These weapons would travel by truck convoy through Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia and Poland to the Ukrainian border, according to the deal documents.

Mr. Zlatev also planned to ship 900 air-to-ground rockets from Bulgaria, through Poland, to Ukraine.

The Bosnian and Bulgarian deals, worth about $5 million, were complicated by the weapons export bans in both countries.

Records show that BMI planned to get around that by providing documents to the Bosnian and Bulgarian governments falsely claiming that the arms would end up in Poland, rather than Ukraine, according to a plan Mr. Zlatev sent to Oleksandr Liiev, a former Crimean tourism official who now procures weapons for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

Ukrainian servicemen studying a Soviet-designed RPG-7 grenade launcher during a training session on the outskirts of Kharkiv in April.

Credit...Andrew Marienko/Associated Press

The legality of using falsified records is murky, say lawyers and academics who work in the field. BMI’s documents say it was honest with the State Department about the weapons’ real destination. But the use of subterfuge abroad would make an already murky trade even more opaque, and risk upsetting allied foreign governments.

“Anytime there’s fake end-user certificates, that should be a red flag to the State Department,” said Jodi Vittori, a Georgetown University professor who studies the arms trade.

A State Department spokesman declined to comment on whether such practices would violate U.S. laws. A spokesman for the Ukrainian defense ministry would not discuss the BMI deal.

Whether the deal goes forward or not, the BMI documents show that the Ukraine war presents an opportunity to charge big prices. The bullets that Mr. Zlatev planned to sell were 50 percent more expensive than those publicly listed by other vendors. His grenade launchers were selling for more than twice what is listed on a price list for United Nations peacekeeping forces. Experts say these increases typically help pay the middlemen — at the expense of a nation in the middle of a war.

The bullets, rockets, mortars and grenade launchers that Mr. Zlatev planned to ship were unlikely to meaningfully tilt the war in Ukraine’s favor, said Mr. Yousif, the researcher. But the process of establishing middlemen, trade routes and agents with falsified documents could have a lasting impact.

Once the war is over, he said, Ukraine could turn into a hub for black-market weapons dealing: “The illicit market will emanate from this country for the next 30 years, as it did just after the Cold War.”

Justin Scheck is a reporter for The Times working on international investigations. @ScheckNYTimes

NGOs speak out against Vietnam’s hopes of election to the UN Human Rights Council

Groups say the country would be a negative influence on the United Nations body.

By RFA Vietnamese
2022.10.06

A meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in New York on Sept 9, 2019.AFP

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has added its voice to a series of objections by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to Vietnam's hopes of joining the UN Human Rights Council, saying the government would have “a problematic, highly negative influence.”

The comments from Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW's Asia-Pacific division came after Monday’s release of a report calling on the United Nations not to elect Vietnam and four other authoritarian countries to the Council.

UN Watch, Human Rights Foundation and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights held a news conference near the UN headquarters in New York to publicize their report: “Who Guards the Guardians?"

“Vietnam commits serious human rights violations, including: unlawful or arbitrary killings; torture; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest; political prisoners; politically motivated reprisals against individuals in another country; lack of independence of the judiciary; unlawful interference with privacy; serious restrictions on free expression, including arbitrary arrest of government critics, censorship, and criminal libel laws; substantial interference with freedom of association; restrictions on freedom of movement; lack of free and fair elections; government corruption; trafficking in persons; and child labor,” the report said.

HRW’s Robertson told RFA Vietnam takes every opportunity to show its contempt for human rights law and would most likely use a seat to undermine the Council’s work.

“As a Council member, Vietnam would likely join the group of nay-sayers like China, Syria, Eritrea, North Korea, Venezuela and others who constantly oppose HRC resolutions on particular countries and seek to sabotage the Council's work,” he said.

A human rights activist in Hanoi, speaking on condition of anonymity, said joining the Human Rights Council would not push Vietnam to improve its record.

“If Vietnam is elected to the UN Human Rights Council next time, it will not have any impact on the human rights situation in the country, unlike the previous year. There had been some moves to open the door to civil society before,” the activist said.

Robertson said every aspect of Vietnam's human rights record shows that this is "a government that will have big problems if it is elected to the Council." He said the country’s “horrible” human rights record speaks for itself.

“In the course of the last several years, Hanoi's leaders have pushed forward efforts that have effectively imprisoned most of the human rights defenders and political dissidents in the country. Vietnam is also pushing legal action to restrict on-line expression in ways that will effectively criminalize and force take-downs of any online content that criticizes the government. Use of the death penalty is rampant, prison conditions are brutal, and deaths in police custody occur with impunity on a regular basis. To speak bluntly, in every aspect of Vietnam's rights record, it screams that this is a government that will be highly problematic if it is elected to the Council.”

The report released by the three NGO’s on Monday said Vietnam’s track record on the Council shows that it is unfit to rejoin the body.

“Vietnam served on the Human Rights Council from 2014 to 2016. In that capacity, it opposed resolutions speaking out for human rights victims in Belarus and Iran and failed to support resolutions on behalf of human rights victims in Burundi and Syria. It also supported counterproductive resolutions that undermined individual human rights or addressed issues beyond the competency of the Council.”

United Nations Watch is a human rights organization based in Switzerland, the Human Rights Foundation is based in the U.S. and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights has its headquarters in Canada. Their report follows a series of protests against Vietnam's candidacy for the UN body.

In April, a coalition of eight organizations from inside and outside Vietnam – including the Vietnam Human Rights Network, Defend the Defenders, and the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam – sent an open letter to the UN calling on the organization not to accept Vietnam as a member for the next term, saying that the current Vietnamese state is "unworthy" due to its poor human rights record, especially after supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In September, 52 Goldman Environmental Prize laureates sent a letter to the UN Human Rights Council, urging the organization to reject Vietnam as a member of the Council for the next term.

Amnesty International has also joined the chorus of disapproval, telling RFA a recent crackdown on activists shows Vietnam’s true colors when it comes to respecting freedom of speech.

"Since Vietnam announced its candidacy for the Human Rights Council, dozens of journalists and activists have been detained, arrested, or sentenced for crimes that amount to nothing more than the peaceful exercise of their human rights,” a spokesperson said.

“Vietnam should prioritize dropping charges against these individuals and freeing them immediately… Authorities should also show that they are willing to uphold international human rights standards. But nothing could be further from the reality on the ground, where the government continues to pass laws that restrict freedom of expression and association while promoting a climate of fear among people who dare to speak out."

The UN General Assembly holds elections for 14 new Council members next Tuesday.

US to expand memorial site for Native Americans massacred in 1864

'We will never forget the hundreds of lives that were brutally taken here,' says Interior Secretary Deb Haaland

Servet Günerigök |06.10.2022


WASHINGTON

The US will expand the size of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Colorado, which commemorates the Native American victims of an 1864 attack by US soldiers, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said Wednesday.

Haaland, the first Indigenous Cabinet member in US history, and National Park Service Director Chuck Sams attended an event at the site, where the soldiers attacked a sleeping encampment of approximately 750 Native Americans, killing more than 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho, most of them women, children and the elderly.

Among the participants were leaders from the Northern Arapaho Tribe, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, and Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper.

"The events that took place here forever changed the course of the Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, and Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes," said Haaland in her remarks. "We will never forget the hundreds of lives that were brutally taken here – men, women and children murdered in an unprovoked attack".

"Stories like the Sand Creek Massacre are not easy to tell, but it is my duty – our duty – to ensure that they are told. This story is part of America’s story," she added.

The site will acquire an additional 3,478 acres, which was made possible through funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

Janet Frederick, superintendent of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, said the newly acquired property will help protect the historic site and sacred tribal lands.

“These new parcels include lands listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their significance to the devastating events of November 29, 1864," said Frederick.

The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was established in 2007 in southeastern Colorado near the Town of Eads.

US to widen site where around 230 Native Americans were massacred

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in western Colorado state will acquire an additional 3,478 acres and is known for the mass killings of Native people by American soldiers in 1864.

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was established in 2007

 in southeastern Colorado near the Town of Eads. (AP Archive)

The US will expand the size of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Colorado, which commemorates the Native American victims of an 1864 attack by US soldiers, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has said.

Haaland, the first Indigenous Cabinet member in US history, and National Park Service Director Chuck Sams attended an event at the site on Wednesday, where the soldiers attacked a sleeping encampment of approximately 750 Native Americans, killing more than 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho, most of them women, children and the elderly.

Among the participants were leaders from the Northern Arapaho Tribe, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, and Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper.

"The events that took place here forever changed the course of the Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, and Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes," said Haaland in her remarks on Wednesday.

"We will never forget the hundreds of lives that were brutally taken here — men, women and children murdered in an unprovoked attack".

"Stories like the Sand Creek Massacre are not easy to tell, but it is my duty – our duty – to ensure that they are told. This story is part of America's story," she added.

READ MORE: US changes names of places with derogatory term for Native women

Largest intact shortgrass area

The site will acquire an additional 3,478 acres, which was made possible through funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

Janet Frederick, superintendent of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, said the newly acquired property will help protect the historic site and sacred tribal lands.

“These new parcels include lands listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their significance to the devastating events of November 29, 1864," said Frederick.

The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was established in 2007 in southeastern Colorado near the Town of Eads.

The new expansion also will preserve what Haaland called one of the largest intact shortgrass prairie ecosystems within the National Park system.

In recent years, Colorado officials have attempted redress.

State and US officials are preparing to rename Mount Evans, a prominent Rocky Mountains peak named after Territorial Governor John Evans, who resigned after the Sand Creek massacre.

Snubbing Joe Biden, Saudi Arabia is aiding Putin with oil output cut. Here's how

Joe Biden has got the opposite of what he was hoping for: a major oil production cut of 2 million barrels a day from OPEC+, where Saudi Arabia is the prime mover.

World News
Published on Oct 06, 2022 

When Joe Biden swallowed his pride and flew to Saudi Arabia in July to fist bump with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he expressed optimism that Riyadh would take steps to boost oil supplies “in the coming weeks.”

Instead, less than three months later, the US president has got the opposite of what he was hoping for: a major oil production cut of 2 million barrels a day from OPEC+, where Saudi Arabia is the prime mover.

For US officials, who spent the past few days in a frantic lobbying effort to persuade Riyadh and other members of the oil producers’ group to change course, the implication is clear: in the increasingly hostile energy war between Russia and the West, Saudi Arabia is willing to help Vladimir Putin and snub Joe Biden.

“It’s clear that OPEC+ is aligning with Russia with today’s announcement,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters

While Saudi officials said the cut is motivated by the concern over the global economy, the effect has been to trigger a rally in oil prices of more than 10% from last week’s lows. Against a backdrop of low inventories, some analysts warned the move could push prices higher still. Damien Courvalin at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the cuts could add $25 a barrel to Brent prices in 2023 should OPEC+ maintain them for the full year.

There’s “potential for price spikes even higher should inventories fully deplete,” Courvalin said.

For Biden, the decision to cut production is a blow. It is a personal rebuff to a president who had vowed during his election campaign to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah,” only to seek to patch up relations this year in the hope of securing higher oil supplies. It also hinders his attempts to bring down prices and squeeze Russia’s revenues -- by lobbying for a price cap on Russian oil and releasing stocks from the US strategic petroleum reserve.

“This cut was driven by geopolitics, not just market fundamentals,” said Ben Cahill, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “OPEC+ is pushing back against efforts by oil importers to shape the market, including the price cap on Russian oil, US SPR releases, and coordinated action among buyers. It’s a risky move.”

The US was blindsided by the decision to pursue such a large cut, and as the producer group’s plans became clear in the past few days a succession of US officials including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called counterparts in Gulf OPEC members to try to persuade them to change course. She had calls with several regional ministers but got no firm commitments from them, according to people familiar with the matter.

On Wednesday, the White House said that Biden was “disappointed by the shortsighted decision by OPEC+ to cut production quotas” and threatened to consider further action to “reduce OPEC’s control over energy prices.”

Some US politicians were more forthright. Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator for Connecticut and a member of the foreign relations committee, tweeted: “I thought the whole point of selling arms to the Gulf States despite their human rights abuses, nonsensical Yemen War, working against US interests in Libya, Sudan etc., was that when an international crisis came, the Gulf could choose America over Russia/China.”

The production cut will be smaller in reality than on paper, at around 1 million barrels a day, because many OPEC+ countries are already pumping below their quotas -- a fact that will give US officials some comfort -- but the decision’s political impact is likely to reach beyond its effect on the market.

For MBS, as Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is universally known, the decision marks a return to the oil-fueled confidence that characterized the period before the murder of critic and columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

His economy is on track to be one of the fastest growing in the G20, he just helped broker a Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap, and he was last week named prime minister, expanding his powers on paper and potentially granting him immunity from lawsuits accusing him of ordering Kashoggi’s killing.

Saudi officials said the OPEC+ decision underscores the kingdom’s evolving foreign partnerships, driven in part by perceived slights from Washington. While some senior US officials have sought to repair the relationship, that hasn’t been enough to outweigh the fissures created partly by the president himself, the Saudis said.

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, refused to discuss the politics of the decision to cut production, saying only: “This is way above our pay grade.”

Asked to justify the decision to cut production in a market where prices remain relatively high, despite dropping from more than $130 in March, he pointed to the fact that natural gas and coal prices had risen by much more than oil.

For some, the analogy is ominous: the surge in gas and coal prices is the result of what the West sees as Russia’s use of gas a political weapon by curtailing supplies to Europe.

“After gas markets, now oil markets are getting weaponized,” said veteran OPEC-watcher Roger Diwan.

Haiti's PM Henry calls for foreign help amid gang blockade

Haitians protest over rising fuel prices during a nationwide strike, in Port-au-Prince

Haiti's PM Henry calls for foreign help amid gang blockade
Ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles

Wed, October 5, 2022 at 8:56 p.m.·1 min read


PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry on Wednesday called on the international community to help the Caribbean nation, as a gang blockade of a key fuel terminal has created widespread shortages of goods including drinking water.

Gangs have since last month been blocking the entrance to the Varreux fuel terminal, creating dire shortages of diesel and gasoline and crippling day-to-day activities in Haiti.

Authorities over the weekend confirmed an outbreak of cholera, which is typically propagated by contaminated water.

"I am asking the entire international community, all countries that are friends of Haiti, to stand with us and help us fight this humanitarian crisis," Henry said in a televised address.

"We want potable water and medicine to reach sick people when cholera starts to return, for factories that produce potable water to start working again. We need doctors and nurses ... to reach the hospitals."

He did not elaborate on what specific type of assistance he was seeking.

The fuel blockade began shortly after his Sept. 11 announcement that the government would cut fuel subsidies, triggering anger among Haitians already struggling with sky-rocketing prices.

Henry on Wednesday said the subsidies were an unsustainable expense for the Haitian state.

"When we ... subsidize a single product for the benefit of a group of people, there is no longer any way to help mothers and fathers send their children to school," he said. "There is no money left for subsidies to lower food prices."

(Reporting by Harold Isaac and Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Op-Ed: The very first stars, and maybe the Uncertainty Principle finds a use for itself


By Paul Wallis
Published October 6, 2022

The James Webb Telescope peers into one of the earliest phases of the Universe. — © AFP

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is doing a lot of very interesting work, but this case is very special work. This is looking way back to the very start of a functional universe as we know it. These are the very early days of star formation, and even, interestingly, quasars and a couple of ancient black holes.

There are also remnants of ancient stars near a black hole. (Link is to Anton Petrov’s excellent YouTube channel. He’s a very good, clear, narrator, and this story isn’t simple.) The star remnants look like the end of the standard universal star life cycles, at the spin-dry stage. There also begins a story which might possibly even justify the existence of the science of physics.

Commentary on the JWST is a bit like race calling. This is an interesting tale, this here universe critter. The universe was a very different place in the beginning. There were barely enough non-H and He elements available to provide even the pretense of a Table of Elements. (This is true to the classic model of what it’s supposed to look like, but don’t despair. JWST has found a lot of fascinating stuff.

Multiple generations of supernovae have since added the current contents of the Table, but the holistic view of the early universe is, well, primitive. So when you see a big quasar or two rattling around, it’s big news. It’s also not necessarily “audited physics” news. Where does this sort of stellar goop get enough energy for quasars?

A quasar is now a super-energy entity and quite common. Then, it wasn’t. Ancient quasars are only now becoming visible, and there obviously aren’t many of them so far. These items of ancient interest are monsters. They’re big, and powerful. That’s a bit weird in this sort of micro, all-over-the-place version of the current universe-ish environment.

Remember this is an extremely new, high-energy, environment. The rulebook was being written for cosmic physics. This original rulebook doesn’t seem to be too pedantic.

The plot, like some theories and some heads, thickens at this point.

Seems the first stars in the universe included a few monsters. One of those monsters was a very large supergiant. It was a supergiant with a twist, though. It blew up in what’s called a pair-instability supernova. It’s one of the very first of its kind.

It may also be a clue to the sheer range and scope of types of matter in the current universe. Maybe even dark matter, which must have some point of origin, surely?

These supernovae have been known for a while. This time, however, the observations included the key trick of direct-pair supernovae – Incredibly high pressures. Gamma ray type pressures, inside the star.

What’s so special about these pressures is that they turn photons into positrons and electrons. This is a classic Uncertainty Principle one-or-the-other outcome.

Why not all electrons or all positrons? Same pressure on the same things produces opposite properties? Why?

To digress for a moment:

There’s a cat laughing its head off.

They ask it what was so funny.

It replies, “They think there’s somebody called Schrödinger”.

Which is what this situation is about. I’ve been marvelling at the Uncertainty Principle for many years The ability of people to start a process to prove beyond doubt they have no idea what happens next fascinates me.

That other well-established axiom of science, “Look long enough and you may find something that proves you right” is another favorite of mine. Can’t imagine why.

Meanwhile, you’ve just been given a map of how to produce positrons and electrons. Have fun.

ALMOST 3D
See The Best Webb Telescope Images So Far Now With New ‘X-Ray Vision’ Layers

Jamie Carter
Senior Contributor
I inspire people to go stargazing, watch the Moon, enjoy the night skyFollow
Oct 5, 2022,08:00pm EDT


Stephan's Quintet as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with an added X-ray layer by ... [+]X-RAY: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR (SPITZER): NASA/JPL-CALTECH; IR (WEBB): NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI)

Our great telescopes are designed to complement each other, as shown last week when both Webb and Hubble captured the aftermath of NASA’s DART mission to change the orbit of an asteroid.

Further proof of that comes this week with the public release of four new composite images that combine data from both the James Webb Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra Telescope.

While the former works in infrared light, the latter detects x-rays. Both are invisible to the human eye, so these images use filters that assign colors to different wavelengths of light to bring them back into human vision.



Images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with an added X-ray layer by NASA’s Chandra X-ray ... [+]X-RAY: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR (SPITZER): NASA/JPL-CALTECH; IR (WEBB): NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI)

The four images are from the first batch or two released after Webb’s “first light” earlier this year. They include its ground-breaking observations of a cluster of galaxies (SMACS J0723), a galaxy group (Stefan’s Quintet), a star-forming nebula (Carina), and a galaxy (the Cartwheel).

In recent weeks Chandra has been pointed at the same objects to collect data in the X-ray wavelengths of light, which capture higher-energy processes than the infrared view from Webb.

1. Stephan’s Quintet

You’ve probably seen this image (main article image, top) before, but not like this. Look in the centre and you will see a new layer of light blue captured by the Chandra telescope. This data reveals a shockwave of superheated gas caused by one of the galaxies passing through the others at two million miles per hour.


The Cartwheel galaxy from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with an added X-ray layer by NASA’s ... [+]X-RAY: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR (SPITZER): NASA/JPL-CALTECH; IR (WEBB):

2. The Cartwheel galaxy

Chandra's contribution to this new composite image (above) of the Cartwheel galaxy can be seen in the all-new blue and purple colours, which reveal the presence of superheated gas, individual exploding stars, neutron stars and black holes that can be seen pulling material from other stars.

The Carina Nebula from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with an added X-ray layer by NASA’s ... [+]X-RAY: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR (SPITZER): NASA/JPL-CALTECH; IR (WEBB): NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI)

3. Cosmic Cliffs of the Carina Nebula

Perhaps the most iconic of all the images the Webb telescope has taken so far, this new composite image of the Carina nebula (above), includes a new layer of pink data from Chandra. There are around a dozen pink areas in this new image which pinpoint the location of very young stars. That's because newborn stars are much brighter in x-ray wavelengths of light than old stars.

It’s a great example of how different wavelengths of light can help reveal different processes going on in regions of space previously imaged multiple times by other telescopes.

SMACS J0723 galaxy cluster from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with an added X-ray layer by ... [+]X-RAY: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR (SPITZER): NASA/JPL-CALTECH; IR (WEBB): NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI)

4. SMACS J0723 galaxy cluster

This image (above) is perhaps the most important in astronomy for some years given that it has helped astronomers find some of the oldest stars and galaxies ever seen. This new composite from Chandra and Webb reveals the former’s blue layer of hot gas in the centre of this galaxy cluster.

As astronomers point the Webb telescope at more and more objects expect a lot more collaborations with both Chandra and the Hubble space telescope.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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