Myanmar: Military issues warning as protests continue
Global News Podcast- 1,732 views
- 8 Feb 2021
State TV tells protestors that action will be taken if they threaten 'rule of law'. Tens of thousands of people have demonstrated for third day following military coup. Also, rescuers search for 200 people who are missing after flood in northern India, and US Senate prepares for second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Jackie Leonard. And at 14 hours GMT on Monday, the 8th of February, these are our main stories in Myanmar, a third day of mass protests against last week's coup, but the military authorities have warned they won't tolerate lawlessness. We'll hear from India on the rescue effort after devastating flooding in Uttarakhand and in Jerusalem. Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared in court, the first serving Israeli prime minister to go on trial.
Also in this podcast, the Netherlands has suspended overseas adoptions will be finding out why.
And 14 year old that's already so way beyond my comprehension of ability. My 11 year old, I don't know. It's getting a little tricky and it's getting pretty fast.
My six year old, I can do kindergarten rock star Dave Grohl on the trials and tribulations of homeschooling during the pandemic. We begin in Myanmar for the third day, running tens of thousands of people across the country took to the streets on Monday to protest against last week's military coup in the main city of Yangon. Many demonstrators were grouped by profession, including lawyers, teachers and civil servants at the start of what they hope will be a general strike.
The protesters are calling for the release of the elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and for democracy to be restored.
This teacher in Yangon said the protest was part of a civil disobedience movement in response to the military coup.
La la la la la la la la. I totally cannot accept the coup. You don't want dictators? We march with this slogan No dictatorship. We serve our responsibility fully. We've all checked the election result and know the outcome. There were no mistakes.
In the capital, Naypyidaw, police used water cannon on protesters, but so far there's been no intervention by the military. However, state TV has warned protesters that action will be taken if they threaten public safety or the rule of law.
We are in a democracy. Look, whenever there have been violations of the law by disturbing, threatening others by force and groups using the excuse of democracy and human rights without discipline, democracy can be destroyed. Action must be taken according to the law, with effective tasks against offenses which disturb, prevent and destroy state stability, public safety and the rule of law.
Our South East Asia correspondent is Jonathan had we've had three days of protests now.
They've seemed to have got bigger. They can organize themselves locally. It's why you're seeing professionals getting together and they're quite distinctive in their uniforms. I mean, we saw a mobilization of lawyers in Mandalay this morning, and it's in many, many places as well. This is a nationwide phenomenon because if you look back at the election results, the support for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party is very strong in most of the country, not all of it, but most of it.
And I think there is a general feeling of outrage. So people are joining in knowing this is now happening. It's going to become a daily event, but we don't see any central leadership and it's not quite clear what it'll evolve into now when at the last bout of serious, antimilitary unrest in the days of military rule. Thirteen years ago, that protest movement was led by monks who are very, very high status in Myanmar, and it became very coordinated around them.
That one was put down with a great deal of force by the military. And that has to be the fear here. We have now had a warning, the first statement from the new military authorities on television warning they will take action against what they call wrongdoers and really, quite bizarrely, claiming that the protesters themselves are undoing Myanmar's democracy.
And at this point, do we know what's going on with Aung San Suu Kyi and the other NLD leaders? No, not at all.
I mean, some of the NLD MPs have tried to organize themselves into a kind of alternative parliament. They're hoping this maintains a kind of alternative, legitimate administration. But that's sort of more token and symbolic right now. There's no nothing heard from Aung San Suu Kyi. And the NLD leadership itself is either in detention or keeping very quiet. It that makes it quite interesting. This has been organized outside the structure of the NLD, which is normally a very powerful organization in this country, and we're not sure what stage the NLD might get involved.
The military has a tough decision to make. Now, if it brings the NLD in, it could negotiate a way out of this, possibly, although Aung San Suu Kyi will be furious about the coup. Or alternatively, if this carries on, its only choice will be to use brute force that will be devastating for the country. But it's done it before. And the military believes it's right in carrying out this coup. That's what's on the cards.
That was Jonathan had our South East Asia correspondent, Kim Landers. As we record this podcast, emergency workers are trying to rescue as many as 200 people following a devastating flood in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand. At this point, we know that 18 bodies have been recovered and more than 30 people are thought to be trapped inside a mud filled tunnel. The flooding happened after a Himalayan glacier collapsed into a river, sending an avalanche of water and rocks down a gorge, sweeping away two dams.
Davina Gupta is covering the story from our daily bureau and told us about the search and rescue operation.
It's been a day full of hope, Jacqui, but there hasn't been much resolved, unfortunately, because after 11:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, when the glacier part fell down and there was a flash flood in the Himalayan Valley, the rescue operation started to look for over 200 people were missing. And today, we haven't seen much hope from the rescue operations right now, concentrated in an area called the Borbon, which is where a hydropower project was being built for the nearby villages.
And that's where the rescue operation teams believe. All 30 workers have been trapped in a big tunnel, they've been drilling for about nearly 24 hours now. They also have sniffer dogs to see if they can actually recognize a spot where they could drill. And the rescue people yesterday, around 18 people were pulled out of the tunnel by that method. But today there hasn't been much headway made in these operations. Also, I must add here that there are 13 villages surrounding this area and there was only one bridge that was connecting them because it's a mountainous region.
And when the flash flood destroyed that bridge, those who live in those villages have been stranded there. So the Air Force choppers have been deployed. They've been dropping food packets there. But landing there is quite difficult. So the extent of true damage right now in those villages cannot be a sergeant. A political representatives, including the chief minister of the state, has been going and touring that area to see how and what more can be done to help the teams.
That that was Davina Gupta in India.
To Israel now, where the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has appeared in court in Jerusalem to deny corruption allegations against him outside the building. Protesters gathered calling for Mr. Netanyahu to step down.
We are actually advocating the. No, we think that Benjamin Netanyahu should stand by like any other citizen in the state of Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu is the first serving Israeli prime minister to go on trial, and his court appearance comes six weeks before parliamentary elections. Our correspondent Yolande now is in Jerusalem.
He was in the courtroom for only about 20 minutes when he entered his plea of not guilty. The panel of three judges that are sitting in the case against him. And as he was leaving, he would have seen these people who are all calling for him to resign, saying that a prime minister should not remain in office while he is on a criminal trial. Ahead of time, Mr. Netanyahu put out a video message to his own supporters, asking them to stay at home because of coronavirus fears and saying to them, anyway, everyone can see what he calls the witch hunt against me is crumbling.
Now, Mr. Netanyahu is accused of accepting lavish gifts from wealthy friends, things like popping champagne and cigars, also seeking favorable regulations for media tycoons in exchange for more positive news coverage about him. And this is all happening at a very sensitive time for Israel. Of course, there is the coronavirus pandemic. It's just a day since the country eased its restrictions in its third lockdown. Also, the country is heading to its fourth general election in just two years in only six weeks time.
That was Ireland. Now our correspondent in Jerusalem, the price of crude oil has reached its highest level in more than a year as investors are becoming more optimistic about the recovery of the global economy after the pandemic. Andrew Walker reports.
Oil prices are now back to pre coronaviruses levels. It's been a year of extraordinary gyrations in the market. Some prices in the United States briefly went below zero. Early in the pandemic, producers had to pay traders to take their oil. The recovery in the market reflects supply cuts from the oil producers group OPEC and expectations that vaccination programs will support a rebound in demand for transport fuels. The economic consequences of the health crisis were especially severe for the oil industry because it led to a collapse in travel.
Andrew Walker. The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump officially begins on Tuesday with the charge of inciting insurrection. Democrats accuse the former president of instigating the 6th of January riot at the U.S. Capitol, which left five people dead. Mr. Trump has said he won't testify at the trial in the U.S. Senate, and his lawyers described the proceedings as unconstitutional. So what could happen and how do we get here?
Paul Adams reports. Hear ye.
Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. All persons. And so here we go again.
For the second time in a year, while the House of Representatives is exhibiting to the Senate of the United States States an article of impeachment against Donald John Trump two weeks ago, the charges were laid out by the former president's Democratic accusers.
Congressman Jamie Raskin said Donald Trump's high crimes and misdemeanors began right after November's election. President Trump repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were the product of widespread fraud.
You can't ever accept when they steal and rig and rob. This is an embarrassment to our country. How is a rigged election? That effort, shrill and relentless, went on until January the 6th when Congress gathered in Washington to certify the results.
Shortly before the joint session commenced, President Trump addressed a crowd at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C..
We will not take it anymore, and that's what this is all about.
He also willfully made statements that in context encouraged and forcibly resulted in lawless action at the Capitol, such as if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.
Within minutes of those words, some of the president's supporters were storming into the Capitol building, but the charges against Mr. Trump don't stop there. He's also accused of trying to subvert and obstruct confirmation of the election results, famously in a phone call to officials in Georgia on January the 2nd.
Fellas, I need 11000 votes. Give me a break. But did Donald Trump actually incite violence? America's First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, sets a very high bar.
You cannot be punished for speech even if you're advocating lawlessness or the overthrow of the government or violence.
Katie Fowler is a lawyer at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
Unless in a very narrow category, you show that that speech is intended to incite imminent lawlessness or violence and is likely to incite lawlessness or violence, and it has to be imminent.
So is that what Donald Trump was doing on January the 6th? Republicans like Kentucky Senator Rand Paul are scathing.
This sham of an impeachment will ostensibly ask whether the president incited the reprehensible behavior and violence of January 6th when he said, I know everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard peacefully and patriotically.
Hardly words of violence square that with the views of his Kentucky colleague Mitch McConnell, the most powerful Republican in Congress.
The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.
For a while, it seemed Mr. McConnell might actually support impeachment. But when Rand Paul forced a vote on the constitutionality of the trial, arguing that since Mr. Trump was now a private citizen, it shouldn't be happening at all, McConnell and the overwhelming majority of Republicans joined him. Senator Paul said the trial was now dead on arrival.
Paul Adams with that report.
Still to come in this edition of our podcast, it uses blog sites or text messages to get people to install an application which looks normal but is in fact, malicious.
Iran's government is accused of using sophisticated cyber surveillance against dissidents across the world.
An inquiry into adoption procedures in the Netherlands has found that they are structurally abusive and should be overhauled. The investigation, which covered a period of 30 years, highlighted cases of corruption and of poorer women being coerced into giving up their children. Today, the government has decided to suspend all adoptions from abroad with immediate effect, wittier assiduity. Burmah, who is looking for her birth parents in Indonesia, gave her reaction to the decision.
I actually applaud the decision of the government to cancel temporarily intercountry adoption, since I do think the system needs to be revised drastically. Present day. The Dutch intercountry adoption is still based on the money incentive process and this multiphase trafficking.
Our correspondent Anna Holligan is in The Hague and told us more about the government's decision.
It's a direct response to the publication of this highly critical report that looked into the Dutch adoption system and found the extensive wrongdoing so birth mothers coerced or pay to hand their babies over abusing and exploiting people in vulnerable positions, living in poverty.
They found forgery, corruption, as you mentioned, it didn't just happen in one country or during one year. This was across continents and decades. So the investigating committee looked at children from countries Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka between 1967 and 1998. And that's quite a long time ago.
So are they still concerned that this is still happening? Yes, the system is still susceptible to fraud and abuse is still to this day, the investigation has found. So what makes this perhaps even more astonishing is the role of the government or lack of it. So the government was found to be too passive, fails to intervene when things went wrong. The justice minister, Sandecker, said the Dutch government had shown shortcomings by looking away from abuses in cross-border adoptions and for not taking action.
How many families in the Netherlands are adopting from overseas? What sort of numbers are we looking at and what's going to happen to cases which were already in the works? People were expecting to receive children soon.
Oh, that's a really important question. So since 1956, when adoption was legalised, 60000 children have been adopted in the Netherlands, about two thirds. So the majority of those children come from abroad. There are about 700 children from other countries adopted into the Netherlands every year.
As far as what happens to the procedures that are ongoing at the moment, they will be allowed to continue. But there will be extra checks built into the process. It could be this is really decisive, unprecedented action, and it could be that foreign adoptions suspended for now are banned altogether. But that will be something that will be decided by the next government, which will be voted in in March.
That was Anna Holligan, our correspondent in The Hague. Iran is being accused of running cyber surveillance operations against 100 dissidents, the cyber security company checkpoint. So as the campaigns are targeting people inside Iran and elsewhere, including the United States and Britain. Our security correspondent Gordon Corera told us more.
This is allegedly an ongoing surveillance operation in cyberspace, quite sophisticated campaign. They've been accused of doing such activities before. But two groups in particular here are said to be using pretty advanced techniques to try and get into the mobile phones and computers of dissidents, opposition figures around the world, and gather data from them.
At least one of them has a really appealing name, doesn't it, is domestic kitten. What sorts of techniques are they using?
Yes, I think what's interesting is this group and these cyber groups get nicknames and this one is called Domestic Kitten. It does look like it's particularly advanced and it's had 600 successful infections of its targets. One of the ways which is very interesting is it uses blog sites or text messages to get people to install an application which looks normal but is in fact malicious. And that app for that application could be, for instance, a news news outlet, a game, or even in one case, there's an app relating to a restaurant in Tehran.
So people might be thinking they're downloading this for a restaurant to look at the menus, but in fact, it contains malicious software, which, when installed on a device, allows all the calls coming into that phone, for instance, to be recorded for the location, to be tracked for text messages and call logs, for media files all to be extracted and then taken back to whoever's running this operation. So it's pretty advanced. The research from Checkpoint think more advanced than those they've seen in the past from these groups, but also a sign of an ongoing campaign by Iran, something which other countries do as well, looking particularly for dissidents and opposition figures.
And do the people who have been targeted now know that they've been targeted? And have they been able to take any measures? To protect themselves, in many cases, they were unlikely to have known and they may not find out until this news breaks. Now, the researchers from Checkpoint say they've alerted law enforcement and others about this activity. But the truth is often this is taking place on a very stealthy level. However, often dissidents, opposition figures know these days that they are likely to be targeted.
People are becoming more aware of these dangers and there's more groups looking for this kind of activity and spotting it. So there's a real cat and mouse game going on when it comes to developing new techniques than being exposed close down and then groups finding new ways of trying to do this.
Gordon Corera, our security correspondent here in the U.K., the government is trying to allay concerns about the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine following preliminary research suggesting it's less effective against the South African variant of covid than against other forms of the virus. A small trial published at the weekend found that it offers minimal protection against mild to moderate disease. But ministers here say they are confident that the job remains effective in preventing severe illness, hospital admissions and deaths. Medical editor is focused on the current Pfizer and Oxford AstraZeneca.
Vaccines work well against the dominant strain here in the UK, but there is concern about how much the South Africa variant may be spreading in the community. Over 100 cases have been identified and other new variants are inevitable as the virus mutates. But the vaccines minister, Nadine Zahawi, said the public could take confidence from the current vaccine rollout and the protection it would provide all of us against this terrible disease. New vaccine technology means it is quick and simple to tweak covid Jab's clinical trials would be required, but only with a few hundred volunteers before new versions could be rolled out.
Scientists in Oxford are working on several updated vaccines, including ones against the South Africa and Brazil. Variants coronavirus mutates more slowly than flu, so it's too early to tell how often people would need a booster jab.
Fergus Walsh, our medical editor. The Tokuyama Sanctuary in Sierra Leone, is the country's only shelter for orphaned chimpanzees. It houses around 90 young Western chimps, a critically endangered subspecies. But for more than a decade, the youngsters have been falling ill and dying mysteriously. So in 2016, the sanctuary asked for help from Dr Tony, goldbug, an epidemiologist and veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin. It took him and his team five years of detective work to solve the mystery of why the chimps were dying.
And he's been telling Claire MacDonell how they did it.
We found a new species in the bacterial genus Samana, which is not a very well known genus at all. It's related to bacteria that are commonly known, things like the Australia Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism and Clostridium techni, which causes tetanus, which many people will be familiar with. But this bacterium is a related genus to that one, and very little is known about it. It was first discovered in the eighteen hundreds, but since then it's made a sporadic appearance in the medical literature and hasn't really clearly been associated with disease.
So when you found it, when you discovered what it was, is that what you kind of went back in the history books and said, aha, it's very similar to this? It is this. In fact, that's exactly what happened.
So we were looking at these sick chimps that had been dying for over a decade in Sierra Leone. We really didn't know at all what was causing this mystery disease. And we looked for things that were present in sick chimps, but not in healthy chimps. And the only thing that jumped out at us was this new bacterium. And that was a mystery unto itself, because when we looked at the literature on this bacterium, or at least the genus of bacterium, it wasn't supposed to cause very much serious illness.
As we looked more and more into our particular bacterium, we realized that it was not the unknown species of bacteria in this genus. In other words, we found a different species.
And so now that you found out what it is, have you discovered a way to treat it in chimps? We hope so.
One thing about the bacterium is that it seems to like acid environments, such as in the stomach. So a simple treatment we're going to try is antacids.
I know you had an awful lot of interest from other physicians who've been getting in touch because there is an interest and concern that this is a bacterium that may infect humans, too. So seeing how it works in chimps could also translate to how it works in humans. Is that the case?
Very much so, yes. I think. Everyone these days is gunshy about the concept of zoonotic disease, about diseases that can be shared between animals and people. I actually don't think this particular bacterium is going to be the next pandemic. But I do think it's another illustration of this concept that my colleagues and I in veterinary medicine sometimes refer to as one health, the idea that there isn't animal health or human health, but there's only one health and that we learn from each other.
People like myself for veterinarians uncover things about animal disease that inform human disease. And my colleagues in human medicine discover things about human disease, that inform animal disease. So perhaps this is a case where the chimpanzees of Sierra Leone unwittingly have revealed the secret to a mystery that has a great deal to say about human illness over the past hundred or two hundred years since this bacterial genus has been known.
Dr Tony Goldberg from the University of Wisconsin speaking to Claire McDonnel. Finally, it's been a long time coming. But now, after covid delay of almost a year, the Foo Fighters have just released their 10th album Medicine at midnight, the Foo Fighters on one of the biggest bands on the planet. They've won 12 Grammys headlined at Glastonbury and last month played at President Joe Biden's inauguration. But for their lead singer Dave Grohl, there's at least one world still to be conquered, as he's been telling our entertainment correspondent Colin Patterson.
It's a relief that people finally get to hear these songs that we recorded a year ago. We were making this really upbeat, sort of danceable record because it's going to be the biggest party of our lives. And then everything.
I just stopped. Foo Fighters did, however, manage to play one high profile event. The president, Joe Biden, invited them to perform at his inauguration. I. I'm on New Day rising. It was an honor to be included in that I mean, I voted for the guy. They asked if we played at times like this, which is a song that seemed to definitely apply to what's going on right now. We couldn't be there, so we pre-recorded it in Central.
So when I saw it on television, I was actually in Hawaii on the couch in a tiny t shirt, drinking a beer. It was a little surreal, but it was an honor nonetheless.
It's times like these you learn to live. Again, like many people, Dave Grohl has mainly spent the last year at home with his wife and three school aged daughters. The important question, how is home schooling going, my kids know who I am. So they're not necessarily going to come to me for anything academic. The 14 year old that's already so way beyond my comprehension of ability. I can't I can't do it. She knows that my 11 year old I don't know.
It's getting a little tricky and it's going to be tricky for my six year old. I can do kindergarten.
And it turns out there's one skill he's still hoping to learn.
I've always wanted to be a tap dancer. The thing I love about tap dancing the most is that, like, you could walk the world without anyone ever knowing that you can tap dance until someone brings up tap dancing and you're like, oh, really? Watch this.
This could be the thing that finally breaks up Foo Fighters when you announce you want the tap dancing solo in the stage show.
We've all been to Glastonbury. We've all been dreading how many people have tap dance on the stage. I want to know if I'm to be the first. I'd be happy to do it. I know. Don't say that, because now people expect me to do it. Oh, yes, we do, Dave. That was singer songwriter rock God and wannabe tap dancer Dave Grohl talking to Colin Patterson. It was also a surprisingly nifty move.
And that's it from us for now. But there will be an updated version of the Global News podcast later. If you would like to comment on this edition or the topics we've covered in it, do please send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBK Dot Dot UK. This podcast was mixed by the lovely Jack Grais. Mark, the producer was Rajasthani. Our editor is Karen Martin. And I'm Jackie Leinert. And you all listeners are also lovely.
Until next time.
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