UN accuses Australia of obstructing prison inspections

New South Wales refuses inspectors entry into any facilities in state while Queensland has blocked access to mental health wards

Nuri Aydın |24.10.2022


ANKARA

The UN has accused Australia of a “clear breach” of its obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) regarding detention facilities.

In a statement released Sunday evening, the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) announced that it had suspended a tour of prisons in New South Wales and Queensland states following repeated access and information gathering issues, The Guardian newspaper reported.

“The SPT delegation has been prevented from visiting several places where people are detained, experienced difficulties in carrying out a full visit at other locations, and was not given all the relevant information and documentation it had requested,” the statement read.

The SPT members decided they had “no other option but to suspend” their 12-day visit, which was due to run until Oct. 27.

The New South Wales government has refused inspectors entry into any facilities in the state and Queensland has blocked access to mental health wards.

Human rights activists have urged the two states to allow inspectors full access to prisons.

Earlier, Tim O'Connor, the director of Amnesty International Australia, argued that denying UN inspectors access to the facilities jeopardizes Australia's ability to meet its obligations under OPCAT.

He said people in detention centers yet again are being used as “pawns by governments who continue to play politics with their lives.”

PHILIPPINES IS PROGRESSIVE VS U$A

Transwoman not allowed in Zara’s women’s fitting room receives apology from brand

Screenshots: Louis Marasigan (TikTok)

By Coconuts Manila

Oct 24, 2022 

Global fashion brand Zara reached out and apologized to a Filipino trans woman, whose TikTok video went viral after she recounted her experience of being barred from trying on clothes at the women’s fitting room in its branch at Bonifacio Global City.

In the original video, Marasigan showed the pile of clothes she was paying for at the counter, sharing that she had been unable to try them on because a Zara BGC employee had prohibited her to fit them in the women’s dressing room, pointing her to the men’s fitting room, citing that the staff had been receiving “a lot of complaints.”

Another video shows the woman in tears outside the store, recounting how she had dealt with the female staff who even called her “sir” and said that they might receive complaints, despite the fact that no one else was present in the fitting rooms.



Louis Marasigan, who is also a municipal councilor in San Juan, Batangas, revealed that the brand had reached out “from a global perspective” two days after posting the original video, with screenshots of calls coming from a number in Shanghai, China.

Marasigan said that she had a long conversation with a brand representative, who invited the content creator to visit Zara’s BGC store again, witness the staff’s gender sensitivity training firsthand and offer points for further improvement.

“First of all, they said sorry to me. And with that sorry came an offer. They offered me to visit Zara BGC again, but I said I would think about it first,” she said in Filipino.

“But after a while, I accepted the offer. They wanted to show me how their staff will be trained in gender sensitivity. They will show me how they can provide better customer service to people like me in the rainbow community. And they want me to be there so I can give my own input on how Zara can improve its customer service,” she added.

In response to earlier reactions by haters for Marasigan to “simply follow the rules” the store had set, she said that she clarified with the company if Zara Philippines follows a different policy on gender inclusivity from its global parent company, Inditex, which has an anti-discrimination policy. The brand rep said that Zara Philippines was subjected to comply with the global brand’s policies on inclusivity and equality, and they would make sure this was reiterated across its branches nationwide.

Marasigan received an outpouring of support from fellow content creators.

“SUPER DUPER PROUD OF YOU! MABUHAY KA, MY LOVE,” Miss Trans Global 2020 Mela Habijan commented.

“I am so sorry you had to go through what you did, but you handled it with grace and are making great things happen!! Amazing job!! ❤️,” voice talent Inka Magnaye wrote.


Subscribe to the WTF is Up in Southeast Asia + Hong Kong podcast to get our take on the top trending news and pop culture from the region every Thursday!

Disney marks Filipino-American month with illustrated chicken adobo recipe

Disney / Bianca Austria

By Coconuts Manila

Oct 24, 2022 

October is Filipino-American Heritage Month in the United States, and to mark the occasion, Disney released an adorable illustrated recipe of one of the most recognizable Filipino dishes, chicken adobo.

“Mickey and friends are here to share a special chicken adobo recipe. Chicken adobo is a popular Filipino dish and each family has their own way of making it,” Disney wrote on its social media pages, featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy, with Mickey holding a bowl of adobo while Goofy carried some white rice.

The artwork featured a simple five-step recipe, with ingredients such as chicken, bay leaves, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic cloves, as well as some water, sugar, and black peppercorns.

The illustration was done by a young Filipino illustrator, Bianca Austria, who graduated summa cum laude in Fine Arts from California State University.

“This has been in the works for a few weeks now and I’m so excited to finally share with you all! For Filipino American History Month, I had the honor of working with @disney to bring to life an illustrated chicken adobo recipe! It is now live on their feed but obviously had to post on my page for you all!!! Thank you to the team at Choreus and Disney for having me on board, although this project was short and sweet, it’s definitely one for the books,” the artist wrote.

 MARCOS PHILIPPINES

Appointment of police general as health undersecretary sparks online furor

An image of former PNP Chief Guillermo Eleazar joining a border checkpoint manned by the Philippine National Police at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

By Coconuts Manila

Oct 24, 2022 |

Netizens are fuming over the news that a retired police general and former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief has been appointed as an undersecretary to the Department of Health (DOH).

The DOH confirmed on Sunday that Mr. Camilo Cascolan, who served as officer-in-charge of the PNP, was appointed to the post.

“Yes, we confirm the receipt of the appointment papers of Mr. Camilo Cascolan, Atty. Charade Mercado-Grande and several directors,” it said in a statement.

Cascolan was appointed by then-President Rodrigo Duterte to head the PNP in September 2020, but stepped down two months later in November after reaching retirement age.

Cascolan thanked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr for his appointment.

“I’m not a doctor but one doesn’t need to be a doctor to be assigned in DOH. Administration and management will always be a part of every department in government and I believe I will be of big help in this area. What’s important is the government’s program is implemented with the directive of the OIC Sec. DOH,” he said.

Still, his message hardly quelled the ire of Filipinos online, who opposed the appointment of a non-health professional to a top post in the health department. Since Marcos Jr took office in June this year, the president has not appointed a secretary to lead the Department of Health amid the ongoing pandemic.

Medical anthropologist Gideon Lasco said he denounced the appointment of Cascolan to the health bureau.

“Public health is literally a matter of life & death, especially amid COVID, and there are many qualified people, MDs & non-MDs alike, who can take leadership roles in DOH. I denounce the appointment of a police general with zero public health experience as health undersecretary,” he wrote, adding that his appointment was an insult to the “good people in DOH who deserve qualified leadership.”

“Looking [at] his Educational Background he has [not taken] any Medical course. Can please someone explain this to us? Our health system will be pitiful if a police officer will become USec,” another netizen lamented.

Forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun, meanwhile, re-shared a comic strip by Tarantadong Kalbo that illustrated military officers’ inability to combat the virus amid the height of the pandemic in 2020, who were tasked to lead the country’s COVID-19 response then.

Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vegeire continues to lead the DOH as officer-in-charge.

Tensions as Iran students protest ahead of Mahsa Amini ceremony
By AFP
25 October 2022

Protesters march in solidarity with protesters in Iran on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on October 22, 2022. – Iran has been rocked by protests since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini’s death on September 16, three days after she was arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP)

Students protested at universities across Iran on Tuesday, despite a bloody crackdown and as tensions mounted on the eve of planned ceremonies marking 40 days since Mahsa Amini’s death.

“A student may die, but they will not accept humiliation,” students at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, chanted in an online video verified by AFP.

Young women and schoolgirls have been at the forefront of protests sparked by Amini’s death last month, after her arrest for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, died on September 16, three days after being taken into custody by the notorious morality police while visiting Tehran with her younger brother.

Activists said the security services had warned Amini’s family against holding a ceremony and asking people to attend her grave on Wednesday in Kurdistan province, otherwise “they should worry for their son’s life”.

Wednesday is 40 days since Amini’s death and the end of the traditional mourning period in Iran.

Online videos showed students protesting Tuesday at Beheshti University and the Khaje Nasir Toosi University of Technology, both in Tehran, as well as Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, in Khuzestan province.

– ‘Attacked, strip-searched, beaten’ –

The fresh demonstrations came a day after security forces were accused by activists of beating schoolgirls at Shahid Sadr girls vocational school in Tehran on Monday.

“Students of the Sadr high school in Tehran have been attacked, strip-searched, and beaten up,” said the 1500tasvir social media channel.

At least one student, 16 year-old Sana Soleimani, had been hospitalised, said 1500tasvir, which chronicles rights violations by the Iranian security forces.

“Parents later protested in front of the school. Security forces attacked the neighbourhood and shot at people’s houses,” it added.

Iran’s education ministry said a dispute occurred between schoolgirls and their parents and school staff, after the principal demanded that they comply with rules over the use of mobile phones.

“The death of a student in this confrontation is strongly denied,” a ministry spokesman said, quoted by Iran’s ISNA news agency.

Families could be seen clamouring for information outside the school in the Tehran neighbourhood of Salsabil, in an online video verified by AFP.

Such reports have fuelled further anger among the Iranian public over the crackdown that rights groups say has claimed the lives of at least 122 people, including around two dozen children.

Later on Monday night protesters took to the streets in Salsabil, shouting anti-government slogans and burning dumpster bins, in other footage that AFP was unable to immediately verify.

– Top official heckled –

Despite what rights group Amnesty International has called an “unrelenting brutal crackdown”, young women and men were again seen protesting in online videos on Tuesday.

“Death to the dictator” and “Death to the Revolutionary Guards”, women chanted as they rode escalators in Tehran metro stations, in videos widely shared on Twitter.

Students heckled the spokesman for ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi as he addressed Tehran’s Khaje Nasir University, in a video published by the reformist paper Hammihan.

“Spokesman, get lost!” and “We don’t want a corrupt system, we don’t want a murderer”, they shouted at the spokesman, Ali Bahadori Jahromi.

Teachers observed a strike around the country on Sunday and Monday over the crackdown, and another strike was said to be under way in Amini’s home province of Kurdistan on Tuesday.

Amnesty International says the crackdown has cost the lives of at least 23 children, while Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights said Thursday that at least 27 children have been killed.

Children and teachers are among the thousands arrested in the crackdown, IHR added.

In addition the security forces have mounted a campaign of mass arrests of protesters and their supporters, including academics, journalists and even pop stars.

The judiciary said on Monday that more than 300 people had been indicted over the Amini protests and that four are charged with an offence that can carry the death penalty.

Norway gas workers spot drones
Experts: Russia likely spying, possibly for future sabotage
by MARK LEWIS The Associated Press | October 24, 2022

The Sleipner A gas platform, Norway, Oct. 1, 2022 as a Coast Guard ship patrols around the platform. Norwegian oil and gas workers normally don’t see anything more threatening than North Sea waves crashing against the steel legs of their offshore platforms. But lately they have noticed a more troubling sight: unidentified drones buzzing in the skies overhead. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix via AP, File)

STAVANGER, Norway -- With Norway replacing Russia as Europe's main source of natural gas, military experts suspect unidentified drones spotted by Norwegian oil and gas workers are Moscow's doings. They list espionage, sabotage and intimidation as possible motives for the drone flights.

The Norwegian government has sent warships, coastguard vessels and fighter jets to patrol around the offshore facilities. Norway's national guard stationed soldiers around onshore refineries that also were buzzed by drones.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store has invited the navies of NATO allies Britain, France and Germany to help address what could be more than a Norwegian problem.

Precious little of the offshore oil that provides vast income for Norway is used by the country's 5.4 million inhabitants. Instead, it powers much of Europe. Natural gas is another commodity of continental significance.

"The value of Norwegian gas to Europe has never been higher," Stale Ulriksen, a researcher at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy, said. "As a strategic target for sabotage, Norwegian gas pipelines are probably the highest value target in Europe."

Closures of airports, and evacuations of an oil refinery and a gas terminal earlier this month due to drone sightings, caused huge disruptions. But with winter approaching in Europe, there is worry the drones may portend a bigger threat to the 5,600 miles of gas pipelines that spider from Norway's sea platforms to terminals in Britain and mainland Europe.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine in late February, European Union countries have scrambled to replace their Russian gas imports with shipments from Norway. The suspected sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea last month happened a day before Norway opened a new Baltic pipeline to Poland.

Amund Revheim, who heads the North Sea and environment group for Norway's South West Police force, said his team interviewed more than 70 offshore workers who have spotted drones near their facilities.

"The working thesis is that they are controlled from vessels or submarines nearby," Revheim said.




Winged drones have a longer range, but investigators considered credible a sighting of a helicopter-style bladed odel near the Sleipner platform, located in a North Sea gas field 150 miles from the coast.

Norwegian police have worked closely with military investigators who are analyzing marine traffic. Some platform operators have reported seeing Russian-flagged research vessels in close vicinity. Revheim said no pattern has been established from legal marine traffic and he is concerned about causing unnecessary, disruptive worry for workers.

But Ulriksen, of the naval academy, said the distinction between Russian civilian and military ships is narrow and the reported research vessels could fairly be described as "spy ships."

The arrest of at least seven Russian nationals caught either carrying or illegally flying drones over Norwegian territory has raised tensions. On Wednesday, the same day a drone sighting grounded planes in Bergen, Norway's second-biggest city, the Norwegian Police Security Service took over the case from local officers.

"We have taken over the investigation because it is our job to investigate espionage and enforce sanction rules against Russia," Martin Bernsen, an official with the service known by the Norwegian acronym PST, said. He said the "sabotage or possible mapping" of energy infrastructure was an ongoing concern.

Store, the prime minister, warned that Norway would take action against foreign intelligence agencies. "It is not acceptable for foreign intelligence to fly drones over Norwegian airports. Russians are not allowed to fly drones in Norway," he said.

Russia's Embassy in Oslo hit back Thursday, claiming that Norway was experiencing a form of "psychosis" causing "paranoia."

Fears over Russian threat to Norway’s energy infrastructure

October 24, 2022

STAVANGER, NORWAY (AP) – Norwegian oil and gas workers normally don’t see anything more threatening than North Sea waves crashing against the steel legs of their offshore platforms. But lately they have noticed a more troubling sight: unidentified drones buzzing in the skies overhead.

With Norway replacing Russia as Europe’s main source of natural gas, military experts suspect the unmanned aircraft are Moscow’s doings. They list espionage, sabotage and intimidation as possible motives for the drone flights.

The Norwegian government has sent warships, coastguard vessels and fighter jets to patrol around the offshore facilities. Norway’s national guard stationed soldiers around onshore refineries that also were buzzed by drones.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has invited the navies of NATO allies Britain, France and Germany to help address what could be more than a Norwegian problem.

Precious little of the offshore oil that provides vast income for Norway is used by the country’s 5.4 million inhabitants. Instead, it powers much of Europe. Natural gas is another commodity of continental significance.

“The value of Norwegian gas to Europe has never been higher,” researcher at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy Ståle Ulriksen said. “As a strategic target for sabotage, Norwegian gas pipelines are probably the highest value target in Europe.”

Closures of airports, and evacuations of an oil refinery and a gas terminal last week due to drone sightings caused huge disruptions. But with winter approaching in Europe, there is worry the drones may portend a bigger threat to the 9,000 kilometres of gas pipelines that spider from Norway’s sea platforms to terminals in Britain and mainland Europe.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine in late February, European Union countries have scrambled to replace their Russian gas imports with shipments from Norway. The suspected sabotage of the Nordstream I and II pipelines in the Baltic Sea last month happened a day before Norway opened a new Baltic pipeline to Poland.

Amund Revheim, who heads the North Sea and environment group for Norway’s South West Police force, said his team interviewed more than 70 offshore workers who have spotted drones near their facilities.

“The working thesis is that they are controlled from vessels or submarines nearby,” Revheim said.

Winged drones have a longer range, but investigators considered credible a sighting of a helicopter-style bladed model near the Sleipner platform, located in a North Sea gas field 250 kilometres from the coast.

Norwegian police have worked closely with military investigators who are analysing marine traffic. Some platform operators have reported seeing Russian-flagged research vessels in close vicinity.

Revheim said no pattern has been established from legal marine traffic and he is concerned about causing unnecessary, disruptive worry for workers.

But Ulriksen, of the naval academy, said the distinction between Russian civilian and military ships is narrow and the reported research vessels could fairly be described as “spy ships”.

The arrest of at least seven Russian nationals caught either carrying or illegally flying drones over Norwegian territory has raised tensions. On Wednesday, the same day a drone sighting grounded planes in Bergen, Norway’s second-biggest city, the Norwegian Police Security Service took over the case from local officers. “We have taken over the investigation because it is our job to investigate espionage and enforce sanction rules against Russia,” Martin Bernsen, an official with the service known by the Norwegian acronym PST said.

He said the “sabotage or possible mapping” of energy infrastructure was an ongoing concern.

Støre, the prime minister, warned that Norway would take action against foreign intelligence agencies.

“It is not acceptable for foreign intelligence to fly drones over Norwegian airports. Russians are not allowed to fly drones in Norway,” he said.

Russia’s Embassy in Oslo hit back on Thursday, claiming that Norway was experiencing a form of “psychosis” causing “paranoia”.

Naval academy researcher thinks that is probably part of the plan.

“Several of the drones have been flown with their lights on,” he said. “They are supposed to be observed. I think it is an attempt to intimidate Norway and the West.”

Recordings show some 'mute' animals communicate vocally: study

Issued on: 25/10/2022 

As well as 50 species of turtle, the study published in the journal Nature Communications also included recordings from three 'very strange animals' considered mute - Gabriel Jorgewich Coehn/AFP

Paris (AFP) – More than 50 animal species previously thought to be mute actually communicate vocally, according to a study published on Tuesday which suggested the trait may have evolved in a common ancestor over 400 million years ago.

The lead author of the study, evolutionary biologist Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen, told AFP he first had the idea of recording apparently mute species while researching turtles in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

"When I went back home, I decided to start recording my own pets," Jorgewich-Cohen said. That included Homer, a turtle he has had since childhood.

To his great excitement, he discovered that Homer and his other pet turtles were making vocal sounds.

So he started recording other turtle species, sometimes using a hydrophone, a microphone for recording underwater.

"Every single species I recorded was producing sounds," said Jorgewich-Cohen, a researcher at Zurich University in Switzerland.

"Then we started questioning how many more animals that are normally considered mute produce sounds."

As well as 50 species of turtle, the study published in the journal Nature Communications also included recordings from three "very strange animals" considered mute, he said.

They include a type of lungfish, which has gills as well as lungs that allow it to survive on land, and a species of caecilian -- a group of amphibians resembling a cross between a snake and a worm.

The research team also recorded a rare type of reptile only found in New Zealand called a tuatara, the only surviving member of an order called Rhynchocephalia which once spanned the globe.

All the animals made vocal sounds such as clicks and chirps or tonal noises, even if they were not very loud or only made them a few times a day.
Common vocal ancestor

The research team combined their findings with data on the evolutionary history of acoustic communication for 1,800 other species.

They then used an analysis called "ancestral state reconstruction", which calculates the probability of a shared link back through time.

It had previously been thought that tetrapods -- four-limbed animals -- and lungfishes had evolved vocal communication separately.

"But now we show the opposite," Jorgewich-Cohen said. "They come from the same place".

"What we found is that the common ancestor of this group was already producing sounds, and communicating using those sounds intentionally," Jorgewich-Cohen.

The common ancestor lived at least 407 million years ago during the Palaeozoic era, the study said.

John Wiens -- an evolutionary biology professor at Arizona University in the United States who was not involved in the research -- said the suggestion that "acoustic communication arose in the common ancestor of lungfish and tetrapods is interesting and surprising".

Wiens, who published a 2020 paper called "the origins of acoustic communication in vertebrates", welcomed the new data for the additional species.

But he suggested the study might not "necessarily distinguish between animals making sounds and actual acoustic communication".

Jorgewich-Cohen said the researchers had indeed set out to identify sounds animals made specifically for communicating, by comparing video and audio recordings to find matches for particular behaviour.

They also recorded the animals in different groups "so we could tell if there are sounds that are only produced in specific situations", he said.

He acknowledged that some species were hard to study as they do not vocalise frequently and "tend to be shy", adding that further research was needed.

© 2022 AFP

The Eclipse of the Soul and the Rise of the Ecological Crisis

Samuel Bendeck Sotillos

Spirituality Studies

22 Pages

More Info:  Vol. 8, No. 2 (Fall 2022)

Publication Name:  Spirituality Studies

For many of our contemporaries, there is no more pressing issue than the acute ecological challenges facing the planet. Environmental degradation has reached a tipping point, but how have we fallen into such a predicament? At a deeper level, this critical situation can be seen as a mirror that reflects the spiritual crisis gripping the soul of humanity today. This commenced with the secularizing impetus of the Enlightenment project, which has led to a diminished understanding of the human psyche and the cosmos itself. The anomaly of modern Western psychology is that it stems from the same desacralized and reductionistic outlook. By contrast, a deep-seated connection between sentient beings, the environment, and the Spirit has been recognized in all other times and places, throughout humanity’s traditional civilizations. By a resurrection of a “science of the soul” via a rehabilitated sacred cosmology, the spiritual roots of the ecological crisis can be restored and seen in a proper light. This essay examines the metaphysical dimension of the environmental crisis. The framework employed for this study is the “transpersonal” perspective of the perennial psychology—an application of the insights found in the world’s great wisdom traditions. The objective of the study is to propose a more holistic approach to understanding the essential relationship between our humanity and the natural environment—in all of its boundless and complex variety—seen as a manifestation of divine reality.

https://www.academia.edu/80049253/The_Eclipse_of_the_Soul_and_the_Rise_of_the_Ecological_Crisis?

KACHIN CHRISTIAN MINORITY

Myanmar airstrike kills 60 people at concert, says Kachin separatist group

Reported attack by military comes days before Asean meeting to discuss widening violence in country



Myanmar: aftermath of fatal airstrike on music concert – video

Oliver Holmes and agencies

Mon 24 Oct 2022 

Myanmar’s military has killed 60 people, including musicians, in a devastating airstrike that targeted a concert held by a rebel faction of the country’s minority Kachin ethnic group, according to organisers and a rescue worker.

The reported attack came three days before south-east Asian foreign ministers were due to attend a special meeting in Indonesia to discuss the widening violence in the country.

The number of casualties at the celebration in the northern state of Kachin appeared to be the highest in a single air attack by the military since it seized power in a coup in February last year, overthrowing the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

It was not possible to independently confirm details of the incident, although media sympathetic to the Kachin people posted videos that showed what was said to be the attack’s aftermath, showing splintered and flattened wooden structures. Footage showed damaged motorcycles, plastic chairs and other debris scattered on the ground.

There was no immediate comment from the military or government media.

For decades, Myanmar’s minorities have sought autonomy through uprisings, but anti-government resistance has increased markedly nationwide with the formation of an armed pro-democracy movement opposed to last year’s military takeover.

Swathes of the country have been engulfed by fighting. Nearly 2,300 civilians have been killed in the crackdown on dissent and 15,000 people have been arrested, according to a local monitoring group.

Sunday’s celebration of the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) was held at a base also used for military training by its armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). It is located near Aung Bar Lay village in Hpakant township, a remote mountainous area 600 miles (965km) north of Yangon.

A spokesperson for the Kachin Artists’ Association told the Associated Press that, according to its members who performed at the celebrations, military aircraft dropped bombs at about 8pm. Between 300 and 500 people were in attendance and a Kachin singer and keyboard player were among the dead, said the spokesperson, who asked not to be identified because of fears of reprisals by the authorities.

Those killed also included KIA troops, cooks, jade mining business owners and other civilians, the spokesperson said, adding that at least 10 Kachin military and business VIPs were among the dead.

The Kachin News Group, a media outlet sympathetic to the KIO, reported the same number of casualties and said government security forces blocked the wounded from being treated at hospitals in nearby towns.

The UN office in Myanmar said it was “deeply concerned and saddened by reports of airstrikes” while Amnesty International warned that the strike showed a pattern of escalating repression by the government.

“The military has shown ruthless disregard for civilian lives in its escalating campaign against opponents. It is difficult to believe the military did not know of a significant civilian presence at the site of this attack,” said Hana Young, Amnesty’s deputy regional director.

“We fear this attack is part of a pattern of unlawful aerial attacks by the military which have killed and injured civilians in areas controlled by armed groups,” Young added. “The military must immediately grant access to medics and humanitarian assistance to those affected by these airstrikes and other civilians in need.”

Amnesty has accused the junta of committing widespread atrocities since the 2021 coup, including unlawfully killing, arbitrarily detaining, torturing and forcibly displacing civilians. “It has been able to carry out these crimes in the face of an ineffective international response to a human rights crisis that is only worsening,” Young said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers meeting this week is seeking to resolve the crisis, but the bloc has failed to make meaningful progress so far. Last month, an airstrike in the Sagaing region in the country’s north-west killed at least 11 schoolchildren and two others, according to the United Nations.

The office of UN secretary general, António Guterres, strongly condemned the attack and offered his condolences to the victims’ families.

Such attacks on schools in contravention of international humanitarian law constitute “grave violations against children in times of armed conflict strongly condemned by the security council”, said Guterres’ spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, calling for the perpetrators to be held accountable.

Video footage obtained from a local community group showed a classroom with blood on the floor, damage to the roof and a mother crying over her son’s body.

The junta claimed the deadly attack was targeting rebels hiding in the area, which has experienced some of the fiercest fighting and clashes between anti-coup fighters and the military.

The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Ethnic group says Myanmar air attack kills 80 at celebration

By GRANT PECK - Associated Press
Oct 24, 2022 


BANGKOK (AP) — Air strikes by Myanmar’s military killed as many as 80 people, including singers and musicians, attending an anniversary celebration of the Kachin ethnic minority’s main political organization, members of the group and a rescue worker said Monday.

The reported attack comes three days before Southeast Asian foreign ministers are to hold a special meeting in Indonesia to discuss widening violence in Myanmar.

The number of casualties at Sunday night’s celebration, held by the Kachin Independence Organization in the northern state of Kachin, appeared to be the most in a single air attack since the military seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Initial reports put the death toll at around 60, but later tallies raised it to about 80.

It was impossible to independently confirm details of the incident, though media sympathetic to the Kachin posted videos showing what was said to be the attack's aftermath, with splintered and flattened wooden structures.

The military government's information office confirmed in a statement late Monday that there was an attack on what it described as the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army's 9th Brigade, calling it a “necessary operation” in response to “terrorist” acts carried out by the Kachin group.

It called reports of a high death toll “rumors,” and denied the military had bombed a concert and that singers and audience members were among the dead.

The United Nations' office in Myanmar said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned and saddened” by reports of the air strikes.

“What would appear to be excessive and disproportionate use of force by security forces against unarmed civilians is unacceptable and those responsible must be held to account,” it said.

Envoys representing Western embassies in Myanmar, including the United States, issued a joint statement saying the attack underscores the military regime’s "disregard for its obligation to protect civilians and respect the principles and rules of international humanitarian law.”

Myanmar has been wracked for decades by rebellions by ethnic minorities seeking autonomy, but anti-government resistance increased markedly nationwide with the formation of an armed pro-democracy movement opposing last year’s military takeover.

The Kachin are one of the stronger ethnic rebel groups and are capable of manufacturing some of their own armaments. They also have a loose alliance with the armed militias of the pro-democracy forces that were formed in 2021 in central Myanmar to fight army rule.

Sunday’s celebration of the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the Kachin Independence Organization, which included a concert, was held at a base also used for military training by the Kachin Independence Army, the KIO’s armed wing. It is located near Aung Bar Lay village in Hpakant township, a remote mountainous area 950 kilometers (600 miles) north of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon.

Hpakant is the center of the world’s biggest and most lucrative jade mining industry, from which both the government and the rebels derive revenue.

As many as 80 people were killed and about 100 were injured in Sunday’s attack on the first day of a three-day celebration of the KIO's founding, a spokesperson for the Kachin Artists Association told The Associated Press by phone. He said he first heard there had been 60 deaths, but was later told by sources close to Kachin Independence Army officials that about 80 people had died.

He said military aircraft dropped four bombs on the celebration at about 8 p.m., according to members of his group who were there. Between 300 and 500 people were in attendance and a Kachin singer and keyboard player were among the dead, said the spokesperson, who asked not to be identified because he feared punishment by the authorities.

Those killed also included Kachin officers and soldiers, musicians, jade mining business owners and other civilians, he said. They also included at least 10 Kachin military and business VIPs sitting in front of the stage, and cooks working backstage, he added.

The Kachin News Group, a media outlet sympathetic to the KIO, reported that an initial search found 58 bodies and that government security forces had blocked the wounded from being treated at hospitals in nearby towns. It reported later that more than 20 more bodies had been recovered, bringing the death toll to about 80.

Col. Naw Bu, a spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Army, said by phone that KIA soldiers, musicians, businesspeople and villagers were among the dead, but he could not confirm a casualty number due to communications problems. He said the deaths were a loss for all Kachin people, and its group would fly the Kachin flag at half-staff.

An emergency services rescue worker who was in Hpakant and also asked for anonymity said he saw three military aircraft making bombing runs over the celebration ground, just a few kilometers (miles) away. He said he was barred by the KIO from entering the area but heard that more than 60 people were killed, including a KIA brigade commander.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a non-governmental organization that tracks killings and arrests, said Friday that 2,377 civilians have died in crackdowns by the security forces since the army took power. Its figure, however, does not always include people killed in military actions in the countryside.

“We fear this attack is part of a pattern of unlawful aerial attacks by the military which has killed and injured civilians in areas controlled by armed groups,” Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, Hana Young, said in a statement.

“The military has shown ruthless disregard for civilian lives in its escalating campaign against opponents. It is difficult to believe the military did not know of a significant civilian presence at the site of this attack. The military must immediately grant access to medics and humanitarian assistance to those affected by these air strikes and other civilians in need," Young said.

Cambodia, the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations, said Sunday that the group’s foreign ministers will hold a special meeting in Indonesia this week to consider the peace process for Myanmar. Myanmar’s generals have all but shunned the group’s previous efforts.

“As officials and leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations prepare to host high-level meetings in the coming weeks, this attack highlights the need to overhaul the approach to the crisis in Myanmar," Amnesty International said. "ASEAN has to step up and formulate a more robust course of action so that military leaders end this escalating repression.”

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. 

Scores killed in Myanmar military air strikes on ethnic rebel group

NEWS WIRES - Yesterday

Myanmar military air strikes on a concert held by a major ethnic rebel group killed around 50 people and wounded 70, the rebels said on Monday.


Scores killed in Myanmar military air strikes on ethnic rebel group© AFP - STR

"Around 8:40 pm (2:40pm GMT) Sunday, two Myanmar military jets attacked" a ceremony the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) was holding, Colonel Naw Bu told AFP.

"Around 50 people were killed including KIA members and civilians," he said, adding that around 70 were wounded.

Local media reported that up to 60 soldiers and civilians had been killed.

Images shared by local media purported to show the aftermath, with debris littering the ground.

The United Nation's office in Myanmar said it was "deeply concerned and saddened by reports of airstrikes that took place in Hpakant, Kachin State".

"Initial reports suggest that over 100 civilians may have been affected by the bombing," it said in a statement.

"Numerous fatalities have also been reported," it added.

A junta spokesman did not respond to request for comment.

The US Embassy in Yangon said it was "following reports of a military airstrike targeting a Kachin gathering resulting in the deaths of a large number of civilians".

The KIA has clashed regularly with the military for decades, with heavy fighting erupting in the wake of last year's coup.

>> See more: Inside Myanmar's enduring resistance movement

Escalating violence

Myanmar has been in turmoil since a military coup last year, with swaths of the country engulfed by fighting.

Reports of the strikes come days before Southeast Asian foreign ministers will hold emergency talks to discuss strife-torn Myanmar ahead of November's Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders' summit.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has spearheaded so far fruitless efforts to resolve the crisis, and the bloc is frustrated by escalating human rights atrocities.

In September, at least 11 schoolchildren died in a military air strike and firing on a Myanmar village in northern Sagaing region.

The junta said it had sent troops in helicopters to Let Yet Kone after receiving a tip-off that fighters from the KIA and a local anti-coup militia were moving weapons in the area.

A number of Myanmar's myriad ethnic rebel groups have come out in support of the anti-coup movement, offering shelter and even training to activists.

Last May, the KIA said it downed a military helicopter gunship during fierce clashes near the town of Momauk in the country's far north.

More than 2,300 people have been killed in the military's crackdown on dissent since the coup and over 15,000 arrested, according to a local monitoring group.

The junta blames anti-coup fighters for the deaths of almost 3,900 civilians.

(AFP)

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Adidas Ends Partnership With Kanye West at a Considerable Cost

The German sportswear giant is the latest company to cut ties with the rapper and designer after his recent antisemitic outbursts and other provocations. Ending the long-running partnership is expected to put a big dent in profit at Adidas.

Kanye West, now known as Ye, in Hollywood in 2016 at an event promoting his partnership with Adidas.

Credit...Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images North America

By Vanessa Friedman, Michael J. de la Merced and Melissa Eddy
Oct. 25, 2022Updated 11:22 a.m. ET

Adidas said on Tuesday that it was cutting ties with Kanye West, ending what may have been the most significant corporate fashion partnership of the rapper and designer’s career after he made a series of antisemitic remarks and embraced a slogan associated with white supremacists that earned him widespread condemnation.

The company, which had faced increasing calls in recent days to terminate its relationship with Ye, as Mr. West is now known, said the move would cost it 250 million euros ($246 million) this year.

The end of their nearly decade-long partnership — which was seen as enormously lucrative for both Ye and Adidas — raised questions of what would come next for Ye, who has been one of the most influential pop stars of recent decades but has become increasingly polarizing and unreliable in recent years. CAA, Ye’s former talent agency, no longer represents him and Def Jam, his longtime record company, said that his contract had expired last year.

“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” the company said in a statement. “Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”

The company, based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, said it would terminate the partnership immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop payments to Ye and his companies.

Over the past month, Mr. West tested the boundaries of acceptable behavior even for a noted provocateur like himself. At his YZYSZN9 Paris Fashion Week show, he wore a shirt with the slogan “White Lives Matter,” which the Anti-Defamation League has identified as hate speech and has been adopted by the white supremacist movement. He made antisemitic remarks on social media and in interviews shortly after, including a post on Twitter that said he would go “death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE.”

Blowback quickly followed.

Instagram and Twitter suspended Ye’s accounts. Ari Emanuel of Endeavor, the parent company of the talent agency WME, called on entertainment companies to stop working with Ye. Balenciaga, the fashion house that had partnered with Ye in his Yeezy Gap project (which came to an end in September) and opened its runway show in Paris this month with a modeling stint by Ye, deleted him from its pictures and videos of the show. Similar images disappeared from Vogue Runway, the platform of record for fashion shows, and the magazine stated it “had no intention” of working with Ye in the future. Vogue magazine said it would no longer work with Ye, who had appeared on its cover with his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, and often attended the Met Gala.

More on Kanye West 

 

Kanye West, the rapper and fashion designer who now goes by Ye, has been at the center of several controversies because of his divisive commentary and antisemitic screeds.Runway Scandal: Ye wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt during a Paris fashion show. The use of the phrase, which the Anti-Defamation League has attributed to white supremacists, was widely condemned.

 

Corporate Partners: A series of antisemitic outbursts by the artist have raised questions about how much offensive behavior companies are willing to tolerate from a proven moneymaker.

 

Parler Deal: Parler, the social media service known for its right-wing audience, said that Ye would purchase its site, days after Instagram and Twitter restricted the rapper’s accounts.

 

Running Out of Platforms: The act of grabbing public attention has been a centerpiece of Ye’s art for two decades. Our pop music critic wonders if audiences will still tune in if his only outlets are on the fringes.

On Monday, the studio MRC said it was shelving a documentary on him.

Though Adidas was among the first of Yeezy’s corporate partners to announce publicly — on Oct. 6 — that it had placed the relationship under “review,” the fact that the company did not move faster to officially sever the ties began to take a toll. The Anti-Defamation League shot back, “What more do you need to review?”

Like many of Ye’s other fashion connections, Adidas seemed to be dragging its feet, perhaps hoping for a public apology that could turn things around. Unlike Ye’s other fashion relationships, which were largely unofficial and based on mutually advantageous appearances, untangling the deal between Yeezy and Adidas would have major contractual and long-term implications; the two brands were intertwined not just publicly, but financially and logistically as well.

The league stepped up its pressure on Adidas this week, after members of a hate group hung a banner reading “Kanye is right about the Jews” over a Los Angeles freeway.

In Germany, the Central Council of Jews called on the Bavarian-based sportswear giant to cut its ties to Ye. “The historical responsibility of Adidas lays not only in the German roots of the company, but also in its entanglement with the Nazi regime,” Josef Schuster, the head of the council, said. “I simply expect such a company to take a strict position regarding antisemitism.”

The founder of Adidas, Adi Dassler, belonged to the Nazi Party, and his factory was forced to produce munitions in the final years of the war. It was only thanks to the sworn statement of a Jewish friend that he was allowed to found the present-day company after World War II ended. Antisemitic statements made online can lead to prosecution in Germany and companies with ties to the Nazi era are expected to act to prevent the return of such sentiment.

As pressure on the company mounted in the United States in recent days, its leadership remained largely silent, frustrating even its own executives. “Coming off of the Adidas global week of inclusion, I am feeling anything but included,” Sarah Camhi, a director for trade marketing at Adidas in the United States, wrote in a post on LinkedIn on Monday.

She pointed out that while Adidas had severed ties with athletes who failed drug tests, or were “difficult to work with,” it was “unwilling to denounce hate speech, the perpetuation of dangerous stereotypes and blatant racism by one of our top brand partners,” she wrote.

“As a member of the Jewish community, I can no longer stay silent on behalf of the brand that employs me,” Ms. Camhi wrote. “Not saying anything, is saying everything.”

Shares of Adidas traded down more than 7 percent — their lowest point since 2016 — after the announcement on Tuesday. The company’s stock has fallen over 20 percent in the past month, as Ye embarked on his latest bout of outrageous behavior.

Adidas, which began collaborating with Ye after he left Nike, has long weathered public barbs from the rapper. Its partnership with Yeezy, Ye’s company, which encompasses sneakers and clothing, is estimated to be worth billions, making it among the largest sources of Ye’s wealth.

For Adidas, working with Ye gave the company a boost of creative cool and credibility that helped attract high-fashion collaborators like Gucci and Balenciaga.

The company said it expected the move to have a “short-term negative impact of up to €250 million” on its profit this year. Adidas makes the uniforms for the German, Spanish and Argentine soccer teams that will be playing in this year’s World Cup championship to be held this year in November and December.

Ted Deutch, the chief executive of the American Jewish Committee, said he welcomed “this decisive if belated action by Adidas.”

“He believed that as long as the money kept rolling in he could speak with impunity,” Mr. Deutch said of Ye. “Other companies that profit from associating with West must also disabuse him of that notion.”

The end of Ye’s partnership with Adidas also comes as his most recent musical ventures have fallen short of previous efforts. His last album, for instance, did not come out on streaming services, but a proprietary $200 speaker device. Longtime fans have criticized his increasing dalliances with right-wing figures, including more frequent associations with Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson and an agreement to buy the right-leaning social network Parler.

Ye has stated that he plans to open his own retail stores, as part of his rejection of the corporate world and creation of what he has reportedly called the “Yecosystem.”

But the future of the Yeezy brand is unclear. Ye still owns the Yeezy trademark. However, Adidas said in its statement that it was the “sole owner” of all design rights to existing products that came out of the partnership, as well as previous and new colorways arising from the collaboration.

What the sneakerheads who made the last release of Adidas Yeezy shoes, on Oct. 17, a sell-out product, will do next is now the question.

Kanye West’s Unraveling Partnerships

Kanye West’s Offensive Behavior Makes Corporate Partners Squirm

Oct. 24, 2022

Ye Is Running Out of Platforms

Oct. 19, 2022

Can Balenciaga Break With Kanye?

Oct. 14, 2022

Vanessa Friedman was named the fashion director and chief fashion critic in March 2014. In this role she leads global fashion coverage for both The New York Times and International New York Times. @VVFriedman


Michael de la Merced joined The Times as a reporter in 2006, covering Wall Street and finance. Among his main coverage areas are mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies and the private equity industry. @m_delamerced • Facebook


Melissa Eddy is a correspondent based in Berlin who covers German politics, social issues and culture. She came to Germany as a Fulbright scholar in 1996, and previously worked for The Associated Press in Frankfurt, Vienna and the Balkans. @meddynyt • Facebook

Adidas under pressure over Kanye West after anti-Jewish outbursts

Kanye West is becoming increasingly isolated by the brands and businesses that have made him wealthy, but Adidas has so far refused to sever ties


Issued on: 25/10/2022 -

Los Angeles (AFP) – Sportswear giant Adidas was under growing pressure Monday to sever ties with Kanye West after a series of anti-Semitic outbursts by the controversial rapper.

Human rights campaigners called out the German firm for its continued silence over comments by West -- known formally as Ye -- that have made him more and more isolated from the businesses and brands that have made him fabulously wealthy.

"Thousands of signatures, and still no word, @adidas ? Your silence is a danger to Jews," tweeted Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.

"We can't let Ye's #antisemitism become normalized - we all need to demand Adidas #RunAwayFromHate by condemning his racist rhetoric & re-evaluating their partnership."

The company said this month it was reviewing its relationship with West after he appeared at a fashion show in Paris wearing a shirt with the slogan "White Lives Matter."

The phrase is a dog whistle to right-wing groups in the United States and a reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Days later he was locked out of Twitter and Instagram for threatening to "Go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE."

Over the weekend a banner was hoisted over a busy Los Angeles freeway that read "Kanye is right about the Jews" and "Honk if you know."

Several activists were photographed making "Heil Hitler" salutes.

On Monday, one of Hollywood's biggest talent agencies, CAA, said it was dropping West.

Film and TV producer MRC said it was shelving an already-finished documentary about West.

"We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform," the company said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Other leading figures in entertainment, including Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel called on all companies to cut ties with West.

"Those who continue to do business with West are giving his misguided hate an audience," Emanuel wrote in the Financial Times. "There should be no tolerance anywhere for West’s anti-Semitism."

Last week Paris-based fashion house Balenciaga ended ties with West, saying it "no longer (has) any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist."

West's ex-wife Kim Kardashian appeared to be joining the pile-on, though her tweet did not mention the father of her children by name.

"Hate speech is never OK or excusable," she wrote on Twitter and Instagram on Monday.

"I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end."
Illness

Adidas did not immediately reply Monday to queries from AFP.

The company, whose founders had ties to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, announced several weeks ago that it was reviewing its relationship with West after he reportedly became disgruntled with how the brand was marketing his products.

"After repeated efforts to privately resolve the situation, we have taken the decision to place the partnership under review," Adidas said in a statement in early October.

West had accused Adidas of arranging marketing events and bringing back older styles without his approval.

He also said the brand had hired staff to work under him and organized a "Yeezy Day" without his involvement.

The artist was associated with Nike for years but broke away in 2013, lending his name to Adidas as they launched their first Yeezy shoe together in 2015 -- a partnership that went on to make him a billionaire.

Along with Beyonce, Stella McCartney and Pharrell Williams, West's has been one of the top names used by Adidas to boost sales, especially online.

Announcing the review, Adidas did not mention recent tensions, but said its partnership with the rapper had been "one of the most successful collaborations in our industry's history" and was "rooted in mutual respect and shared values."

West, who half-heartedly ran for president of the United States in 2020, has spoken openly about his struggles with mental illness, but his erratic behavior has continued to raise concerns.

© 2022 AFP