China’s premier warns against ‘chaos and conflicts’ in Asia

 China’s No 2 official says Beijing can be ‘anchor for world peace’ amid tensions with the United States.

Taipei, Taiwan – Asia must avoid “chaos and conflicts” or the region’s future will be lost, Chinese Premier Li Qiang has said.

Speaking to an international audience of political and business leaders on Thursday, Li said China can be an “anchor for world peace” and stability, and will continue undertaking reforms and opening up.

“In this uncertain world, the certainty China offers is an anchor for world peace and development,” Li told the annual Boao Forum for Asia on China’s Hainan Island. “This is the case in the past and will remain so in the future.”

Dozens of business leaders, including Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, HSBC Chief Executive Noel Quinn, and Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman, are attending the forum, which comes as China faces heated competition with the United States as well as the task of reviving the world’s second-largest economy after nearly three years of isolation under a tough “zero-COVID” policy.

Political leaders attending the event include Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who is due to become president of the European Union in July, and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva also spoke on Thursday morning about the need for cooperation and solidarity to overcome problems like trade fragmentation and find solutions to “reinvigorate international trade in an equitable way and diversify supply chains”.

Despite weak economic data in the first two months of 2023, Li said China is on the path to recovery after the end of “zero COVID,” which was abruptly scrapped in December following rare mass protests.

China will continue to “seek progress while maintaining stability, consolidate and expand the momentum of economic recovery and promote the continuous overall improvement of China’s economic performance,” Li said.

China’s economy grew by just 3 percent in 2022, the weakest performance in decades except for 2020, when COVID-19 upended business, travel and trade.

Li, a close confidant of Chinese President Xi Jinping who was named the No 2 official earlier this month, said China would remain committed to “reform and opening up” regardless of the “evolving” global situation.

He also said China opposed “trade protectionism” and “decoupling” – thinly veiled references to the US’s efforts to restrict China’s development in key areas such as technology through the use of sanctions and other measures.

Despite Li’s attempts to assure investors, China’s economy faces a raft of challenges, including slowing global growth, a low birth rate, a real estate crisis, and growing pushback from the US and its allies.

Those obstacles will make it a challenge to restore foreign investor confidence in China, said Nick Marro, lead analyst for global trade at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

“It’s clear that the top leadership really wants to convince the world that China is back, and that China is open. Li Qiang faces an uphill battle with that messaging, however, given weak recent economic indicators, declining foreign investor optimism, concerns around China’s future domestic policy direction and growing geopolitical concerns regarding China’s relationship with Russia, or its designs over Taiwan,” Marro told Al Jazeera. “The rhetoric doesn’t match the reality, at least not yet – and that’s going to keep many people anxious.”

“The focus on stability is reassuring, after several years of disruption, but I think a lot of investors are looking for more than that,” Marro added. “They’re looking for growth and opportunity, not more of the same cautious status quo.”

Chinese industrial profits fell by 22.9 percent year on year for January and February, according to government data, while the profits for foreign firms fell by 35.7 percent.

Profits for private firms and state-owned enterprises fell by 19.9 percent and 17.5 percent, respectively, over the same period.

Investment houses say China is constrained domestically by a weak property sector and exports, while consumption is recovering slower than hoped for after years of pandemic-related uncertainty.

“We don’t have good data to show for a country that has opened up so massively and this is a worry I’m sure for China,” Alicia García-Herrero, the chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, told Al Jazeera.

“I think the situation is unfortunately much worse than it was thought to be. The stock markets obviously show that the big recovery in December and early January is over,” García-Herrero said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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Chile Detects First Case Of Bird Flu In A Human

 Chile detected the first case of bird flue in a human, the country’s health ministry reported on Wednesday.

The case was detected in a 53-year-old man who presented severe influenza symptoms, according to a statement issued by the ministry, but they noted the patient was in stable condition.

The government is also investigating the source of contagion as well as others who were in contact with the patient.
Chile has reported cases of the H5N1 bird flu since late last year in wild animals.
Recent cases in industrial farms caused the government to halt poultry exports. Industrial cases have also been detected in Argentina, but Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of poultry, remains free of the contagion.

Chilean health authorities noted the virus can be transmitted from birds or marine mammals to humans, but there is no known human-to-human transmission.
Earlier this year, Ecuador confirmed its first case of human transmission of bid flu in a 9-year-old girl. Global health officials have said risk of transmission between humans is low, but vaccine makers have been preparing bird flu shots for humans “just in case.”

Source: Reuters

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Married Couple Discover They Are Cousins After 17 Years And Three Kids Together

 A married couple who share three children have revealed how they discovered they are cousins after taking a family tree DNA test.

Celina and Joseph Quinones, had been together for 17 years and have been married for more than ten years when Celina decided to dig into her family tree.

While digging, she discovered that Joseph was her cousin. Posting on TikTok under the handle @realestatemommas, she broke the news of how the couple found out they were more than just man and wife.
She wrote: “Married my husband in 2006. Not thinking anything of it we had three kids. Come to find out we were related and cousins.”

Celina then urged other couples to check their  heritage.
The clip quickly went viral and has now had over four million views, with many people posting negative comments about their continued union, saying they should separate.

She described the moment she first discovered her husband was actually also her cousin as “devastating,” but says their love is stronger than ever and that she’s ignored negative comments suggesting they divorce.
She wrote: “This was three kids in that I found out we were related. I did my DNA test I think in 2016 and yeah it was devastating because I was like ‘babe we’re related are we even supposed to be together? This is weird’. It really freaked me out.

“I wouldn’t change it for the world… Husband and wife for life! There is a reason why good couples look alike. I am just over here raising awareness.”
She explained how they’ve moved on from the discovery, writing: “My kids and my husband are my everything and we looked past it. All our kids have 10 fingers and 10 toes. It’s a good ice breaker lol.”

Source: Peacefmonline

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Harris In Africa: Zambia Warns Against Anti-Gay Protest

 Zambia’s government has warned the opposition against holding anti-gay rights protests during US Vice-President Kamala Harris’s visit to the country.

Opposition Patriotic Front (PF) party plans to hold protests ahead of the democracy summit being hosted in the capital, Lusaka.

Ms Harris will arrive in the southern African country on Friday and is scheduled to make an address at the summit – which is jointly being hosted by Zambia, the US, Costa Rica, the Netherlands and South Korea.
Some 50 opposition MPs have claimed, without evidence, that the event is part of an agenda to impose gay rights on Zambians.

Amnesty International Zambia has called on the government to take a strong stand in support of LGBTQ rights and to ensure that protests do not disrupt the summit.
Security Minister Jack Mwiimbu said the authorities will not allow lawlessness during the summit.
President Hakainde Hichilema has called for calm and dialogue in response to the threats of protests.
“We understand the concerns of the PF and other stakeholders and are committed to engaging in constructive dialogue to address these issues,” President Hichilema said.

Earlier this month Mr Hichilema pledged to uphold Zambia’s laws that criminalise homosexuality.
He said it was a falsehood to say his government supported gay rights.
Ms Harris is due to visit Tanzania on Wednesday before heading to Zambia on Friday.

Source: BBC

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Zimbabweans outraged by Al Jazeera exposé on gold smuggling elite

 An Al Jazeera investigation exposed several individuals linked to the government who are involved in gold smuggling.

Harare, Zimbabwe – Revelations of gold smuggling by individuals affiliated with Zimbabwean government officials and the ruling party in an Al Jazeera documentary have triggered outrage in the country.

The four-part documentary titled The Gold Mafia was filmed by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit), based on dozens of undercover operations spanning three continents and thousands of documents.

It exposed how huge amounts of gold are clandestinely smuggled every month from Zimbabwe, Africa’s sixth-largest gold producer, to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, aiding money laundering through an intricate web of shell companies, fake invoices and paid-off officials.

Uebert Angel, presidential envoy and ambassador-at-large to Europe and the Americas since March 2021, was secretly filmed bragging that he could move $1.2bn easily, due to his diplomatic immunity.

Other individuals filmed or named in the documentary as being part of smuggling rings include Zimbabwe Miners Federation President Henrietta Rushwaya – believed to be the niece of President Emmerson Mnangagwa – and Kamlesh Pattni, a businessman previously involved in a gold smuggling scandal in Kenya.

Pattni, who “knighted” Robert Mugabe as King of Kings in March 2012, handing over a black gown and gold crown to the late leader, still has strong connections to the ruling party.

In October 2020, Rushwaya was arrested at the Harare airport for attempting to smuggle gold to Dubai. Her case is still in court but the National Prosecuting Authority has said there is not enough evidence for a conviction.

In Zimbabwe, the film’s revelations have caused an uproar.

Illicit trade in gold has long been estimated to cost Zimbabwe an estimated $100m every month, according to official estimates.

The country is reeling from years of economic mismanagement that have resulted in high inflation and unemployment. According to figures from the World Bank, half of the country’s estimated 16 million people live in extreme poverty  – on $30 or less monthly.

There have been widespread allegations of endemic corruption impacting the economy and government critics say the documentary has once again exposed the level of graft in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabweans have called for swift justice against the individuals implicated in the film.

Angirayi Moyowatidhi, a 45-year-old street vendor in Harare expressed outrage at what he said was organised looting of the country’s resources.

“When we were growing up, we were told of how the colonial regime of Cecil John Rhodes to Ian Smith looted our country’s resources and externalised them to the United Kingdom. Now, we are witnessing the same processm save for the fact that this is being done by our elected Black leaders,” Moyowatidhi told Al Jazeera.

“The people who are involved in gold smuggling and breaking the country’s laws to profit from gold must be arrested no matter their stations and positions in life,” Gift Gadza, a 29-year self-employed youth in Harare, told Al Jazeera.

“Ordinary people like me are suffering while other people are living pretty from gold looting. I think we need to unite as people and protest against the looting of resources in the country,” Gadza said.

Chris Mutsvangwa, spokesman for the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), blamed the West for attempting to foment public anger through the documentary.

“The country’s detractors, who coalesced around George Soros and his Open Society Institute of Southern Africa are clearly miffed and terribly disappointed that Zimbabwe has reverted to and resurrected gold as the reference anchor of the US Dollar,” said Mutsvangwa in a statement.

“Countries under sanctions have to find ways of circumventing the sanctions,” government spokesman Nick Mangwana said in a tweet, drawing widespread criticism from users. “This may mean having to procure supplies through third parties or sell in grey market.”

Anger online led to the scandal becoming a trending Twitter story in the country since Friday.

“The #Aljazeeradocumentary exposes the extent of the rot at the top, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Nelson Chamisa, leader of the main opposition, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) tweeted. “This clearly shows how corrupt, rotten & broken leadership has destroyed a jewel and great country. Zimbabwe is not poor, it’s just poorly governed!”

Trevor Ncube, a longtime critic of the Zimbabwean government and former publisher of South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, said Mnangagwa should have addressed the allegations already.

Other Twitter users have gone on to demand Mnangagwa’s resignation.

“Emmerson Mnangagwa is the criminal surrounding Zimbabwe. We call on all patriotic Zimbabweans to join us in our call for the President to step down. This is not about Ubert but his employer the number 1. To the Police, Soldiers this message is for you too,” Team Pachedu tweeted.

Some of those fingered in the documentary have denied the charges.

“The reality is that the Ambassador has never traded in gold or moved cash for anyone,” a statement from Angel said, challenging anyone with evidence to the contrary to come forward. “It is clear from the documentary that Ambassador Angel and his team were never shown trading gold.

“These utterances [in the documentary] were made with the aim of getting the true picture of these fake investors and it became clear that the intelligence operatives were 100% correct,” it added.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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Republican Senator Rand Paul blocks bid to ban TikTok in US

 A small but growing number of Democrats and Republicans raise concerns, citing free speech, to object to legislation targeting TikTok.

TikTok says it has spent more than $1.5bn on rigorous data security efforts and rejects spying allegations. Last week, its chief executive officer, Shou Zi Chew, appeared before Congress and faced tough questions about national security concerns over the app.

At the hearing, Chew attempted to dispel concerns over TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government and its alleged inability to stem “harmful” content. He also sought to portray the app as “a place where people can be creative and curious” and said the company was taking actions that go beyond industry standards in terms of data protection and transparency.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, said last week he expects the house will take up a bill to address TikTok but the timing is unclear. It is also not clear what a final bill to address TikTok might look like.

A small but growing number of Democrats and Republicans have raised concerns, citing free speech and other issues, and have objected to legislation targeting TikTok as overly broad.

“If Republicans want to continuously lose elections for a generation they should pass this bill to ban TikTok,” Paul said during his Senate speech. “Do we really want to emulate Chinese speech bans?” he added. “We’re going to be just like China and ban speech we’re afraid of?”

On Friday, Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a TikTok video had also opposed a ban, as do free-speech groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

Calling such a move “unprecedented”, Ocasio-Cortez said Congress has not gotten classified TikTok briefings. “It just doesn’t feel right to me,” she said.

Earlier this month, the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, demanded TikTok’s Chinese owners divest their stakes or face a US ban. In 2020, attempts by then-Republican President Donald Trump to ban TikTok were blocked by US courts.

Many Democrats argue Congress should pass comprehensive privacy legislation covering all social media sites, not just TikTok.

Senators Mark Warner, a Democrat, and Republican John Thune have proposed the RESTRICT Act, which now has 22 Senate cosponsors, to give the Commerce Department the power to impose restrictions up to and including banning TikTok and other technologies that pose national security risks. It would apply to foreign technologies from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

Paul said the bill “would basically be a limitless authority for the president to ban speech”.

A growing number of conservatives oppose the measure. Former Republican Representative Justin Amash said the “RESTRICT Act isn’t about banning TikTok; it’s about controlling you. It gives broad powers to the executive branch, with few checks, and will be abused in every way you can imagine.”

A string of governments and institutions in recent weeks have taken action to limit TikTok’s use. Among them are the White House, the UK parliament, the Dutch and Belgian administrations, the New Zealand parliament, and the governments of Canada, India, Pakistan, Taiwan and Jordan.

At the same time, US lawmakers are weighing the renewal of powers that force US tech giants such as Google, Meta and Apple to facilitate unlimited spying on non-US citizens abroad.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which the US Congress must vote to reauthorise by December to prevent it from lapsing under a sunset clause, allows US intelligence agencies to carry out warrantless spying on foreigners’ email, phone and other online communications.

While US citizens have some protections against warrantless searches under the Constitution, the government has maintained that these rights do not extend to foreigners overseas, giving its agencies practically free rein to snoop on their communications. Information may also be turned over to US allies like the United Kingdom and Australia.

“It is a case of ‘rules for thee but not for me,’” Asher Wolf, a tech researcher and privacy advocate based in Melbourne, Australia, told Al Jazeera.

“So the noise the Americans are making about TikTok must be seen less as a sincere desire to protect citizens from surveillance and influence operations, and more as an attempt to ring-fence and consolidate national control over social media,” Wolf said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Reject $139m US Budget Support If It Is Tied To Ghana Accepting LGBT+ – Catholic Bishops To Govt

 The Catholic Bishops Conference has urged the government to reject the $139 million budget support the United States government has promised Ghana if it is tied to the country accepting LGBTQ activities.

Speaking in an interview with Catholic Trends, the President of the Catholic Bishop Conference, Most Rev. Matthew Gyamfi, said that accepting aid from the US government with any LGBTQ conditions would amount to the government selling the country’s birth right.

He added that the government must tell the people of Ghana what the conditions for the $139 million are before accepting it.

“This is a very serious issue. It is at the gate of who we are as Ghanaians and nobody should toy with it with money. And if that should be the case (the aid is tied to Ghana accepting LGBT), let the government reject the money and tell the people, this is what they are saying. Should I take it? So that you do this or not and let the people decide.

“This is not the first time. We have seen the European Union, the United States and these rich countries sometimes push down our throats with certain reforms and certain things and they say if only you do these things, we would give you the money.

“I know the government has done that over and over and over, and many Ghanaians know it. It is not only I who is saying it. So when it comes to something that makes a people, a people. That is their culture and tradition, then if you sell your birth right, culture and tradition, if you sell who you are for money when you get the money who are you again?” Most Rev. Gyamfi said.

The office of the United States Vice President indicated that the US government will support Ghana with $139 million for the 2024 fiscal year.

According to Aljazeera, the $139 million is an addition to the $100 million security support, Vice President Kamala Harris announced for five West African countries including Ghana.

Source: ghanaweb.com

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Russia’s war in Ukraine exacts heavy toll on women, says UNFPA

 As war rages, health services for women are perilous and they are particularly vulnerable to trafficking, domestic abuse, and gender-based and sexual violence.

As Russia’s bloody war in Ukraine continues to devastate lives across the country, women in particular are suffering detrimental effects to their mental, physical and sexual and reproductive health.

Millions of women remain displaced, making them extremely vulnerable to trafficking as well as gender-based and sexual violence.

The International Rescue Committee warned last month that abuse against women was rising.

Some expectant mothers give birth without medical assistance in basements and bomb shelters while hospitals are attacked, and basic services have been disrupted to such an extent that the reproductive health of many is in jeopardy.

We spoke to the Ukraine representative for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Jaime Nadal, about the continuing risk the conflict poses for women.

In 2022, almost 180,000 women gave birth in Ukraine, many suffering a risk to their lives because of difficulties accessing appropriate healthcare.

Hospitals and civilian infrastructure have been targeted with shelling. A pregnant woman [should] not be wandering around in the middle of shelling to access facilities.

The supply chain for items needed for C-sections and the management of birth and pregnancy complications is also impacted. In the most extreme cases, healthcare professionals have been forced to live in the hospitals they work in, adding significant stress.

We are seeing an increasing number of preterm babies and miscarriages, as well as conditions like eclampsia and hypertension. The nutrition of women is also being compromised by months of displacement and physical exhaustion.

A woman stands next to her six-day-old baby Sofia, inside Pokrovsk maternity hospital in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine 

 The most critical moment in a pregnancy is the delivery and the next 72 hours that follow. Any woman who is unable to follow up with a professional during that time could suffer life-threatening complications.

In the first week of the full-scale war, 84 women gave birth in the Kyiv metro. When women give birth while sheltering from missile attacks underground in metro stations or in basements, they can develop life-threatening conditions such as sepsis that pose a great risk to them and their baby.

Any attack on civilian infrastructure, including a hospital, is a human rights violation and should never happen. These attacks undermine civilian access to life-saving services.

Many women are hesitant to go to hospitals and in the middle of shelling, it can be extremely risky to attempt to. At the beginning of the war in Chernihiv, to the north of Kyiv, a number of women went to hospitals to give birth and found they couldn’t go home again as Russia had occupied their villages.

One woman went to a hospital with her husband to give birth, leaving her other children with their grandparents. Russia occupied her home and she was unable to see or speak to her children for a month. You can imagine the level of anxiety and stress that causes.

There has been a rise in sexual and gender-based violence in Ukraine since the start of the war, as well as an increase in domestic violence.

The invasion displaced millions of people, many of them women and children. When you have so many people at that level of vulnerability, the risk of gender-based violence, sexual violence, trafficking and exploitation is high.

Our priority was to quickly re-establish services such as shelters and mobile clinics, and to make sure women know they can access psychosocial support and hygiene kits to preserve their dignity.

We first started seeing cases of sexual violence after the liberation of Bucha and Irpin. None of the survivors had reported the cases to law enforcement, and most wanted help to test for STIs [sexually transmitted infections] or pregnancy.

A woman cries as she evacuates her house with the help of volunteers from the non-profit organisation Road to Relief in Minkivka, Ukraine

This is a very complex issue surrounded in stigma. Sometimes women don’t even identify themselves as having been assaulted. Some women have been forced into sex acts to cross a checkpoint, for example.

It takes a lot of work from psychologists to get them to open up and identify as survivors, and the trauma will take a long time to heal.

Before the war, we developed an initiative that provides space for men in the Ukrainian military to engage meaningfully with their children and wives. The first hubs were in the east from 2014. We provide men with psychosocial support that steers them away from toxic masculinity. This helps them process trauma, which can manifest in violence, abuse or alcohol misuse.

It’s hard to rely on numbers, as they don’t give an accurate reflection of the problem. Many survivors are reluctant to disclose what happened due to trauma, stigma and self-blame.

Out of the cases recorded by OHCHR, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, two-thirds are women and one-third are men, many of them former prisoners of war. The number of cases reported is probably the tip of the iceberg.

In our Dnipro centre, staff told me that for every 100 women they have seen, maybe 10 have suffered gender-based violence and one sexual violence. Sometimes people try to pretend it didn’t happen or try to live with it and don’t seek help.

We need to ensure that survivors know they are not alone, the situation matters and that the UN and the Ukrainian government are working to provide them with the best care possible. Our mobile teams have provided general support to over 17,000 women so far, and our relief centres almost 10,000. The more services we put in place the more survivors will seek help.

We’re very worried about the protracted nature of this crisis now. There has been a huge movement of women from the east and south to central and western Ukraine and abroad.

The harsh conditions of displacement increase the complexity of women’s needs.

The lack of available work and income poses a huge challenge to the wellbeing of women and their families, as well as the difficulty in accessing healthcare in some places. What we’re seeing is that the situation is worse in 2023 and we are constantly trying to keep up with new developments.

We have repeatedly requested access to occupied territories, but have not been granted it. In the east of the country, we’re very concerned about the situation of older women. Some don’t want to leave their homes behind and are living close to the front line of the conflict with serious health conditions, such as uterine prolapse.

There are some mobile clinics run by the government that we support that go to communities to help, especially for those with mobility issues or disability, and for areas where there is no public transport.

War comes with suffering, pain, stress and anxiety. The extension of this war is prolonging the distress of millions of women.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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