Australia on Tuesday announced a Aus$500 million ($340 million) climate change package for Pacific island countries, which have been increasingly vocal in demanding their powerful neighbor curb its carbon emissions.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the funding, drawn from Australia’s existing international aid budget, would help Pacific island nations invest in renewable energy and climate change resilience.

The climate-sceptic leader made the announcement before traveling to the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Tuvalu, where island nations threatened by rising seas have vowed to put global warming at the top of the agenda.

Smaller members of the 18-nation grouping have been sharply critical of Australia’s climate policies ahead of this year’s summit amid a diplomatic push from Canberra to counter China’s growing power in the region.

High-level representatives from the likes of Tuvalu, Palau and Vanuatu have criticized Australia for not doing enough, with Fiji’s Frank Bainimarama saying Canberra’s reliance on coal poses an “existential threat” to low-lying islands.

There has also been disquiet in the Pacific that Australia recently approved the giant Adani coal mine in Queensland state.

Morrison has staunchly defended Australia’s climate record, insisting the country will meet its 2030 emissions reduction target set under the Paris Agreement. 

“The $500 million we’re investing for the Pacific’s renewable energy and its climate change and disaster resilience builds on the $300 million for 2016-2020,” he said in a statement.

“This highlights our commitment to not just meeting our emissions reduction obligations at home but supporting our neighbors and friends.”

Greenpeace said the package was nothing more than a diversion of funds from Australia’s Pacific aid program and “a slap in the face to regional leaders”.

“This $Aus500 million accounting trick will do nothing to address the cause of the climate crisis that threatens the viability of the entire Pacific,” Greenpeace’s Pacific head Joseph Moeono-Kolio said in a statement.

The tussle over climate action comes as Australia attempts to reassert its influence in the Pacific through its “step-up” strategy, which some regional leaders have warned is likely to fail without meaningful climate action.

The PIF summit officially opens late Tuesday and continues until Thursday.

…

Hong Kong’s airport reopened on Tuesday but its administrator warned that flight movements would still be affected, after China said protests that have swept the city over the past two months had begun to show the “sprouts of terrorism.”

Some flights resumed but many others were cancelled. Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific said it had cancelled more than 200 flights into and out of the airport on Tuesday, according to its website.

The airport, one of the world’s busiest, blamed demonstrators for halting flights on Monday. The exact trigger for the closure was not clear because protesters occupying the arrivals hall since Friday have been peaceful.

The airport was the latest focus of protests that began two months ago. The sometimes violent protests began as opposition to a now-suspended bill that would have allowed extradition to mainland China but have grown into wider calls for democracy.

The protests have plunged the Chinese-ruled territory into its most serious crisis in decades, presenting Chinese leader Xi Jinping with one of his biggest challenges since he came to power in 2012.

Analysts said the disruptions and protests in Hong Kong were unsettling Asian stock markets, and the Hang Seng index opened 1.1% lower on Tuesday.

Embattled Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday the “lawbreaking activities in the name of freedom” were damaging the rule of law and that it could take a long time for the city to recover from the protests.

The protesters have been switching tactics in recent weeks and more than a dozen sit-ins were planned at hospitals in the city, according to social media posts on Tuesday.

Most of the protesters had left the airport shortly after midnight, with about 50 still there on Tuesday morning.

“Hong Kong International Airport will implement flight rescheduling today with flight movements expected to be affected,” said a notice published on the Hong Kong International Airport’s official mobile app on Tuesday.

Cathay Pacific said it would only operate a limited number of flights for connecting passengers. Airport flight boards showed the likes of Emirates Airline and Virgin Australia had flights scheduled to depart on Tuesday.

Critical Juncture

China said on Monday protests in the Asian financial hub had reached a critical juncture.

“Protesters have been frequently using extremely dangerous tools to attack the police in recent days, constituting serious crimes with sprouts of terrorism emerging,” said Hong Kong and Macau Affairs office spokesman Yang Guang in Beijing.

Some Hong Kong legal experts say the official description of terrorism could lead to the use of anti-terror laws.

Protesters in turn say police have used excessive force, firing tear gas and bean bag pellets at close range, and are calling for an independent inquiry into the crisis.

Demonstrators say they are fighting the erosion of the “one country, two systems” arrangement enshrining some autonomy for Hong Kong when China took it back from Britain in 1997.

Hong Kong’s airport is the 8th busiest by passenger traffic, handling 73 million passengers a year.

Shares in Cathay, which fell to a 10-year-low on Monday, continued their slide on Tuesday and were down more than 4.5% in morning trading.

The company is caught in crosswinds between Beijing and pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong after the Chinese civil aviation regulator demanded it suspend personnel who engaged in or supported the protests from staffing flights into its airspace.

The closure of the Hong Kong airport added to that pressure.

A Reuters reporter saw more than 100 travelers lining up at Cathay’s ticketing counter early on Tuesday.

“The way to handle last night was chaotic,” said Kate Flannery from Australia, who was travelling to Paris. “The airport authority didn’t deal with the situation. I felt like I was walking around and nobody gave us information.”

A Cathay customer officer at the airport, who declined to provide his name, said nearly all the airline’s flights were full.

“It is possible that the airport authority will cancel more flights as they need to control the air traffic movements at the Hong Kong International Airport,” he said.

…

Arrests and deportations of foreign teachers in China have soared this year, lawyers, schools and teachers say, amid a broad crackdown defined by new police tactics and Beijing’s push for a “cleaner,” more patriotic education system.

Four law firms told Reuters that requests for representation involving foreign teachers had surged in the past six months by between four and tenfold, while teachers and schools confirmed arrests and temporary detentions for minor crimes had become commonplace.

Switzerland-based Education First (EF), which runs 300 schools across 50 Chinese cities, has seen a “significant” increase in detentions in China for alleged offenses including drugs, fighting and cybersecurity violations, according to a June 27 internal notice sent to employees and seen by Reuters.

It said EF staff had been “picked up by police at their home and work as well as in bars and nightclubs and have been questioned and brought in for drug testing”. The notice said the school had also received warnings from embassies about the rise in arrests.

A spokeswoman for EF declined to comment on the content of the notices but said the company “values our close collaboration with the Chinese authorities,” adding that it “regularly reminds staff of important regulatory and compliance policies.”

An international school in Beijing and a teaching agency in Shanghai separately confirmed arrests had risen sharply.

“There’s tremendous pressure for them to keep things clean. It’s all part of (President) Xi Jinping’s idea to make sure that China can show a good face for the rest of the world,” said Peter Pang, principal attorney at the IPO Pang Xingpu Law Firm in Shanghai, which represents foreign teachers in disputes.

China’s Public Security Bureau and Ministry of Education did not respond to requests for comment.

The detentions come amid growing tensions between China and western countries, including the United States and Australia.

China had roughly 400,000 foreign citizens working in its education industry in 2017, the last year for which official figures are available, working in schools, colleges and language institutes.

The industry has long been plagued by abuses on both sides, with many foreign teachers in China working without proper visas and some schools taking advantage of that vulnerability.

Lawyers said a rising backlash against foreign influence in China’s fiercely nationalistic education system means even qualified teachers are increasingly vulnerable to exploitation.

Love education, love the motherland

Many of the legal cases involving foreign teachers are linked to new and enhanced drug-testing measures, including testing methods that can track drug use over a longer time, such as surprise inspections at teacher’s homes and workplaces, lawyers said.

Three former teachers from two schools in Beijing and Shanghai who were detained for between 10 and 30 days before being deported this year say authorities drug-tested teachers multiple times within weeks of arrival and conducted extensive interrogations.

One of the three, a 25-year-old Florida man who was deported in May after a 10-day detention in a Beijing jail, said he and a colleague underwent a urine screening on their first day in China, which came back clean, but were detained after a surprise workplace test two weeks later showed traces of cannabis in his hair.

“I didn’t touch a single drug in China,” said the man, declining to share his full name because he is currently looking for a job in the United States.

Hair tests can detect cannabis for up to 90 days, meaning teachers that come from countries where the drug is legal, including parts of the United States, are especially vulnerable.

“The problem with hair testing is that it can detect cannabis from months prior,” said Dan Harris, Seattle-based managing partner of law firm Harris Bricken, whose firm saw a steep rise in case requests involving foreign teachers beginning earlier this year.

The behavior of foreign teachers in China was thrust into the spotlight last month when 19 foreign citizens, including seven who worked for EF, were arrested in the eastern city of Xuzhou on drug charges.

The case drew fierce criticism in state media, which echoed earlier calls by Beijing to push for the eradicating of foreign influences from the country’s schools.

Last September, China launched a wide-reaching campaign to remove foreign influences from education, including efforts to ban foreign history courses, outlaw self-taught material and revise textbooks to focus on core Communist Party ideology.

The ongoing effort, which includes follow-up checks and random inspections at schools, is designed to promote “patriotism” and “core socialist values”, reflecting a “love for the motherland”, China’s education ministry said at the time.

Risks outweigh rewards

Lawyers said rising anti-foreigner sentiment in Chinese education and a glut of teachers mean expats are also more likely to be exposed to non-criminal legal issues, including schools docking pay, refusing to provide documentation for visas and changing contracts without warning.

“When (schools) get a lot of applications they feel they are in a commanding position,” said Pang, whose firm has handled dozens of labor arbitrations between teachers and schools in recent months.

Emily, a 25-year old English teacher from the U.S. state of Utah, said a school in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu held her passport for 10 weeks in late 2018, refusing to hand it back until she threatened to call police.

“There was always an excuse, like registering my dorm with police or some administration to transfer my visa … at one point they just said they were keeping it safe,” she said, asking not to publish her full name or the name of the school because of an ongoing arbitration.

The Chengdu school did not respond to phone calls by Reuters. The HR employee who Emily said had held her passport confirmed she had worked at the school, but declined to comment on the case via a messaging app.

The school docked her 16,000 yuan ($2,269) monthly salary by 1,200 yuan for an unexpected “agency” fee, according to documents provided to her by the school before and after her arrival.

Lawyers say the practice is not unusual, and arbitration typically costs more than the withheld wages.

“What has changed is that many government officials think that kicking out Western influences like English teachers is doing the Party’s work, and the schools are taking advantage of it” said Harris, the Seattle lawyer, who now advises against foreigners teaching in China. “The risks of going to China to teach far outweigh the rewards.”

…

The lawyer of the man suspected of opening fire in a mosque in Norway says his client is not cooperating with investigators.

“He is exercising his right not to be interrogated,” the lawyer said Monday.  “He is not admitting any guilt.”

The suspected gunman, 21-year-old Philip Manshaus, appeared in court Monday to face charges of attempted murder and murder in connection with last Saturday’s attack outside of the capital, Oslo.   

His face and neck were covered with bruises and he had two black eyes.  

No one was killed at the mosque, but hours later police found the body of the gunman’s stepsister at another location.

In addition, the mosque shooting is being treated as an attempted terror attack.  Rune Skjold, Oslo deputy police inspector, said Sunday, police have discovered evidence of the gunman’s “right-wing extremist views” and alleged hostility against immigrants.

There were only three people at the al-Noor Islamic Center when Manshaus entered the place of worship Saturday.

He began shooting at two men, but another man, a 65-year-old retired Pakistani Air Force officer, was able to tackle the gunman.

Mohammad Rafiq, the retired military officer, told Reuters in a video interview, that when he tackled the gunman “the pistol and the gun fell away.”

Rafiq suffered minor injuries.  

Irfan Mushtaq, the head of the mosque, entered the scene shortly after the shooting.  He told AFP that he saw “one of our members is sitting on the perpetrator. . . “

Skjold said the people in the mosque showed “great courage.”  

“There is no doubt that the swift and firm response from the persons inside the mosque stopped the aggressor and prevented further consequences,” Skjold said.  “Trying to neutralize an armed person is always dangerous.”

Rafiq’s age had mistakenly been reported earlier as 75. 

…

A Belgian company has become the first to announce it is cutting ties with Myanmar’s military after a United Nations fact-finding mission called on businesses to sever all financial links to the country’s generals. 

Satellite communications firm Newtec said in a statement it would “follow the recommendations by the UN and stop commercial ties with Mytel,” a local mobile phone operator partially owned by the military. 

The call from a panel of three UN experts came a year after they first said Myanmar’s top generals should be prosecuted for genocide for their role in a 2017 crackdown believed to have killed thousands of Rohingya Muslims. 

“We will never knowingly sell to any organization or company linked to the Tatmadaw’s campaign of violence… and the atrocities committed against the Rohingya,” Newtec said, using the local name for Myanmar’s military.

A company that handles public relations for Mytel did not respond to a request for comment. 

Mixed Reactions

Christopher Sidoti, a human rights lawyer and member of the UN panel, praised Newtec for following the recommendations. 

“It’s a very welcome decision. We’re pleased to see such prompt action on their part and certainly hope that it’s the first among many,” he told VOA. 

But Mark Farmaner, a human rights campaigner who named Newtec on a “dirty list” of firms doing business with Myanmar’s military early this year, said Newtec should have acted sooner. 

“Newtec have known for nine months that they were working for the Burmese military, and didn’t care,” he told VOA, using an alternative word for Myanmar.   

“They are only ending their involvement now because of negative publicity after the fact-finding mission report, not because it is morally the right thing to do.”

Threat of Legal Action

In a letter sent last November, the company’s CEO, Thomas Van den Driessche, threatened to sue Farmaner’s pressure group, Burma Campaign UK, if it publicized Newtec’s relationship with the military. 

“If you would decide on including Newtec on your ‘Dirty List’, we reserve all rights and will hold you liable for any damages that Newtec might suffer from such actions,” he wrote.   

He also incorrectly stated that Mytel was “28% owned by the government” and “in no way involved” with the military. “Your allegations are therefore slanderous,” he added. 

In fact the 28% share is held by a military-owned company named Star High.

In response Farmaner wrote: “You seem a little uninformed about the situation in Burma and your own client in the country.”

He added: “You may think that as a large company you can bully a small campaign group with legal threats but we will not be intimidated.”

Newtec did not respond to a request for comment about its threat of legal action. 

Companies Reviewing Military Ties

Sidoti said Newtec’s decision was “one of several pieces of good news” the UN mission had received since publishing a report last week detailing the generals’ business interests and naming dozens of foreign companies with ties to the military.

“We’ve had a number of reports coming back to us of questions being asked in parliaments and companies that are reviewing their associations with some of the Myanmar military-aligned companies,” he added. 

Myanmar’s military has not responded to last week’s report but it has repeatedly denied the mission’s allegations and says its campaign against the Rohingya was a legitimate counter insurgency operation. 

The country’s foreign ministry said in a statement last week that it “categorically rejects the latest UN report and its conclusions.” It added that the fact-finding mission was established “based on unfounded allegations.” 

Officials at the ministry did not answer several calls seeking comment on Newtec’s decision to cut ties with Mytel. 

…

Enraged Hong Kong protesters blocked roads and defied police orders to disperse early Monday after riot officers fired tear gas and non-lethal ammunition at fleeing crowds.   

Dozens of injuries were reported in several districts that became smokey battlegrounds, where the repeated “pop, pop” of exploding ammunition and screams echoed into the night. A medical volunteer was hit by ammunition in one eye. Journalists reported being beaten on their heads and limbs. Once again, thugs lashed protesters on a street, a repeat of an incident weeks back in Yuen Long, in the territory’s northern region, when men in white t-shirts whipped rail customers with rattan sticks.  

The government counted 54 people injured, including two who were hospitalized in serious condition Monday and 28 who were listed as stable, according to the Hospital Authority. 

Authorities in Beijing Monday termed the protests ‘terrorism.’

Confrontation

Police said protesters defied an unprecedented ban on street marches, and then pelted officers with bricks and gasoline bombs.  Demonstrators and residents said police seemed to display a new brazenness and determination to clear the streets. Officers discharged tear gas inside an enclosed rail station, with one officer firing a few meters away from a mass of protesters racing down a steep subway escalator. 

In another district, police disguised in black clothes and face masks, in the style of the anti-government strikers, suddenly pinned down protesters and carried out arrests. That action, more than any other, convinced some protesters that their ranks have been infiltrated.   

Much of the violence was broadcast and streamed live by news companies.

Unprecedented Violence

The night “was the most chaotic, most police brutality that residents and protesters faced before,” said one protester who asked to be identified as Hei L for fear of being prosecuted. “It’s time for the protesters and citizens to become more vigilant.”

It is the tenth week of protests in this Chinese territory, which began as a quest to stop a bill that would have allowed Hong Kong to send criminal suspects elsewhere, including mainland China. The force police used to quell the crowds, and violence against government picketers carried out by gangs that resulted in few arrests, broadened the fight. Protesters now demand a democratic, accountable government where residents may vote for their next leader and control the police.   

In the weeks since the first mass marches in June, protesters have staged more fleet actions — such as blocking a major tunnel through Victoria Harbor — designed to tire police and avoid mass arrests that have bruised morale. Police seemed overwhelmed on Aug. 5, when a citywide labor and transit strike mushroomed into multiple blockages and confrontations throughout the city.   

Authorities canceled flights Monday at Hong Kong’s international airport after protesters staged a demonstration there.

On Friday, police turned down several requests for peaceful marches through several neighborhoods, citing the change of violence. It was a highly unusual step in a city  where the rights to gather and speak are enshrined in the constitution. Government opponents marched anyway. “We are angry the government did not listen to us,” said Joy Luk, a blind solicitor who walked, white stick in hand, toward the front line in Kowloon before she was convinced to turn back because of the tear gas. “We have the right to have peaceful assemblies.” 

Both Sides Defiant

The government issued a statement after midnight that condemned protesters. 

Police were ready on Sunday. Live video showed a special tactical unit hit people with batons who ran along a popular shopping area in Tsim Sha Tsui. On Hong Kong Island, another unit chased protesters into a subway station as gas fumes billowed. Live news reports also showed a group of men clad in white using poles and rods to thrash people in Tsuen Wan. The incident was an eery echo of one weeks back in Yuen Long, when about 100 men wearing white beat passersby and railway customers. Only about a dozen of them have been charged.  

“So many citizens feel disappointed in the police,” said Avery, a masked 20-year-old undergraduate who with a small bullhorn directed a crowd in Kowloon to retreat. He acknowledged that the protesters were helped when officers were aggressive — “we want to show the public how violent the police are,” and that protesters’ methods would never equal the power of the police. “There are so many people, see? They are not afraid.”

…

The United States and the Taliban have concluded the eighth round of talks aimed at reaching an agreement between the two adversaries to end the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan and jumpstart intra-Afghan peace negotiations.

The nine-day negotiations in the Gulf state of Qatar were wrapped up before dawn on Monday, announced a Taliban spokesman. The talks continued on a day when Muslims around the world began celebrating their three-day annual festival of sacrifice, known as Eid-al-Adha.

“Work was tedious and effective. Both sides agreed to consult their respective leaderships for next steps,” Zabihullah Mujahid said in a brief statement.

He did not explain further nor has there been any statement from the chief American negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, about the outcome of the negotiations with the insurgent group.

Taliban political spokesman, Suhail Shaheen had said before the start of the talks that a deal was expected to follow the eighth round of their year-long dialogue with Americans.

Khalilzad had tweeted during the just concluded talks that “we have made excellent progress,” raising exceptions a deal was imminent. His latest comments on the progress of the talks came on Sunday when he greeted Afghans on the Eid celebration in a series of tweets.

“I hope this is the last Eid where #Afghanistan is at war. I know Afghans yearn for peace. We stand with them and are working hard toward a lasting & honorable peace agreement and a sovereign Afghanistan which poses no threat to any other country,” Khalilzad said.

We’ve concluded this round of talks that started Aug 3 between the US and the Taliban. Over the last few days, the two sides focused on technical details. They were productive. I am on my way back to DC to consult on next steps.

— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) August 12, 2019

Washington has said it is seeking a peace deal before the Afghan presidential election scheduled for September 28.

The U.S.-Taliban agreement, if reached, would outline the insurgent guarantees that Afghan territory, particularly Taliban-controlled areas, will not be used for staging terrorist attacks against America or its allies in  exchange for a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign troops from the country.

The document, to be inked before international witnesses, would also require the Taliban to immediately start negotiations with stakeholders in Afghanistan, including envoys of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, to discuss a nationwide ceasefire and matters related to future governance in the crisis-hit country.

The U.S.-Taliban dialogue, however, has been under fire from the outset for excluding the Afghan government. The insurgent group refuses to recognise the Kabul administration as a legitimate entity, calling it a U.S. puppet.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday again took a swipe at the ongoing U.S.-led peace effort.  

“Our future cannot be decided outside, whether in the capital cities of our friends, nemeses or neighbors. The fate of Afghanistan will be decided here in this homeland. … We don’t want anyone to intervene in our affairs,” Ghani told an Eid-related gathering at the presidential place in Kabul.

Khalilzad in his tweets on Sunday apparently attempted to respond to Ghani’s criticism and the Taliban’s consistent stance of refusing to talk to the Afghan government.

“Many scholars believe that the deeper meaning of Eid al-Aadha is to sacrifice one’s ego. Leaders on all sides of the war in Afghanistan must take this to heart as we strive for peace.  My very best wishes,” tweeted the Afghan-born American diplomat.

Many scholars believe that the deeper meaning of Eid al-Hadha is to sacrifice one’s ego. Leaders on all sides of the war in Afghanistan must take this to heart as we strive for peace. My very best wishes.

— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) August 11, 2019

Ghani, who is seeking re-election, maintains the U.S.-Taliban peace talks should not come in the way of the September election, insisting an elected government is better placed to negotiate peace with the insurgents to end decades of hostilities in Afghanistan.

It is widely perceived that a deal with the Taliban may lead to the postponement of the presidential election to allow the process to be held under a transitional setup, inclusive of insurgents. Ghani and his advisors, however have rejected those assertions nor do Taliban envoys support it, causing confusion about the purpose of intra-Afghan talks as and when they start.

…

Amid China’s deepening crackdown on labor activists, Wei Zhili, the editor of an online labor rights advocacy platform called iLabour, was officially arrested on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” on Friday – almost five months after he was taken away from his home in China’s southern city of Guangzhou.

Police presented a statement allegedly made by Wei to dismiss the lawyer of his family’s choice – a decision his family said is “clearly against his will.”

“We are afraid that the police may have tortured him and threatened him so that he decided to unhire that lawyer,” one of Wei’s family members told VOA over the weekend anonymously.

Legal Presentation Denied?

Wei’s family said they feel “sad and hopeless,” fearing that Wei has been deprived of his basic rights to seek legal presentation or his next government-appointed lawyer will not look after his best interest. 

Wei’s wife Zheng Churan, a well-known feminist in China, is barred from talking to foreign media about her husband’s case. Three months ago, she began a running campaign with a goal to complete 10,000 kilometers and hopes that her loved one will be set free by the time she meets the goal. 

If convicted, Wei may face up to a 10-year jail term, according to the lawyer of his family’s choice, whose requests to meet with his client were rejected twice by local police. 

Two of Wei’s colleagues – Yang Zhengjun and Ke Chengbing, who were also seized by police from Shenzhen respectively in January and March – may face a similar fate, according to rights groups, which have been demanding the immediate release of the three journalists, dedicated to labor rights.   

The three, known as “iLabour Three,” had used the news outlet to publish information on the cases of migrant workers from Hunan province who had contracted pneumoconiosis – an occupational lung disease, while also counseling them about defending their labor rights and petitioning over their grievances.

Set iLabour Three Free

“These journalists were serving the public interest by exposing life-threatening labor violations, and therefore they should never have been arrested,” said Christophe Deloire, Secretary-General of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a press statement released last week.

He insisted that the Chinese Constitution “enshrines freedom of the press and safe working conditions.”

RSF estimated that “at least 114 journalists and bloggers are currently imprisoned in life-threatening condition in China.” 

In its 2019 World Press Freedom Index, the international group ranks China’s level of press freedom the 177th out of a total of 180 countries, which suggests China’s reporting environment only outperforms that in Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan.    

Sweeping Crackdown

Also, a group of online campaigners, which run a Facebook page titled Global Support for Disappeared Left Activists in China, noted that, since last July’s Jasic Incident, more than 130 labor rights activists have been detained or disappeared in China. Over 50 of them remain missing or in custody. 

The Jasic incident was a month-long labor rights conflict, in which, workers from Jasic Technologies Co in Shenzhen, dissatisfied with what they alleged were low pay and poor working conditions, staged protests and sought to form a labor union. 

Their calls drew support from students and professors at more than 20 universities. The Facebook group says more than 60 workers and supporters ended up being detained.

China’s state-controlled Xinhua news, in August, placed the blame on labor groups and foreign forces, saying a Shenzhen-based labor center that partners with Hong Kong-based Worker Empowerment, fanned the protests.  It failed to mention that the workers were protesting due to labor rights violations and state violence. 

Since then, the group observed that the authorities’ targets of arrests have ranged from worker organizers, leftist students, labor organizations staff and even social workers.  

Analysts noted that the detention of workers and supporters, plus the state media’s efforts to discredit them, showed the lengths Chinese authorities would go to, to crush worker disputes.

And China’s crackdown on labor activists has become so widespread that it’s hard to tell what activities are viewed by the authorities as crossing the red line, said Li Qiang, founder and executive director of China Labor Watch.

Riskier Labor Activism

In other words, anything that is beyond the Communist Party’s control will threaten the party’s rule and risk being suppressed, Li Qiang added.

“The Communist Party is concerned that, once highly-educated students or intellectuals with ideology join hands with the working class and get involved in the workers’ movement, the situation may get out of control and become detrimental [to its rule]. What worries the party the most is workers groups being organized,” said Li, who is currently based in New York.

Caught in the government’s crackdown, labor rights activists in China face an even more unclear and risker fate if they continue their activism, Li said. 

…

In 1988 – sensing a need –  religious leaders began delivering meals to people with HIV and AIDS who couldn’t leave their homes. From that simple idea, the non-profit Food and Friends has grown into a Washington, D.C., institution, bringing thousands of meals a day to the sick and those in need. VOA’s Unshin Lee reports.

…

The acting U.S. Homeland Security chief on Sunday defended raids last week on food processing plants in Mississippi searching for hundreds of undocumented migrants, but acknowledged “the timing was unfortunate,” just days after a gunman targeted and killed 22 Hispanics in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.

Kevin McAleenan told NBC’s Meet the Press that of the 680 migrants detained in the raids on operations at five companies, 200 had criminal records and will be subject to deportation to their native countries.

Television footage showed children weeping when they realized parents had been detained in the raids and would not be picking them up as their school day ended last Wednesday. But McAleenan said the raids were “done with sensitivity” and child care issues taken into consideration.

He said 32 of the migrants arrested were released within an hour of their detention and 270 within a day, often times because of child care concerns.

A policy at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, part of Homeland Security, calls for prosecution of companies that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants before arresting their migrant workers. But McAleenan deflected a question of why the workers, not the companies, were charged.

He said that “of course” the companies had committed a crime in hiring the workers.

“This case will be pursued,” he said.

Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris told NBC, “I don’t know why they did what they did. Employers have to be responsible.” She accused the administration of President Donald Trump of a “campaign of terror” against immigrants, “making people afraid to go to work, to go to school.”

McAleenan said the raids had been planned for a year and complement stricter immigration enforcement at the southern U.S. border with Mexico to thwart migrants, mostly Central Americans, from entering the U.S. to seek asylum.

“We have to have internal enforcement” against undocumented migrants who are working in the U.S. without official authorization, he said. But the raids, he said, could have been postponed after the massacre at a Walmart store in the U.S.-Mexican border city of El Paso, allegedly carried out by a white nationalist who police said targeted “Mexicans.”

Trump has made tough immigration enforcement a hallmark of his White House tenure as he heads to his 2020 re-election campaign. He has called the surge of migrants reaching the border “an invasion.”

On Friday, he said, “If people come into our country illegally, they’re going out.”  

…

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has protested Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest visit to Ukraine’s Crimea region, calling a it a “gross violation” of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“Attempts by the Russian side and the mass media to describe such ‘visits’ as ‘ordinary’ domestic trips by Russian officials are futile,” the ministry said in a statement on August 11, adding that Crimea was an “integral part” of Ukraine.

On August 10, Putin was shown on state television in a leather jacket at a biker show organized by the Night Wolves motorcycle club in Sevastopol, a city in the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow seized in 2014.

The Night Wolves club is known for its allegiance to the Kremlin.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 after Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was pushed from power by the pro-European Maidan protest movement the previous month.

Moscow has also fomented unrest and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, where more than 13,000 people have been killed in the ensuing conflict since April 2014.

Putin’s visit to Sevastopol took place as tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered in Moscow to demand fair municipal elections. More than 250 people were detained by police.

…

The apparent suicide while in federal custody of well-connected U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein is being investigated by the FBI and the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.

Epstein, who had friendships with U.S. President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, was facing the possibility of 45 years in prison if convicted on charges of orchestrating a sex trafficking ring and sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.

Media reports said Epstein had been placed on suicide watch after a suspected earlier attempt to kill himself, but was removed from the watch at the end of July.   The New York Times reported that Epstein was supposed to have been checked on every 30 minutes, but that procedure was not being followed the night before he was found dead.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement he was “appalled” by Epstein’s death while in federal custody. “Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered,” Barr said.

Epstein was being held without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.  

Epstein to plead guilty in 2008 to Florida state prostitution charges, for which he served a 13-month term and most days was freed to work at his office in south Florida. He also was required to register as a sex offender and pay restitution to the underage girls he abused.

President Trump’s former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who had been the federal prosecutor handling the Epstein case in Florida at the time of that plea deal, has resigned over his handling of the matter.

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