PARIS (AFP) – Western powers have seized the yachts of Russian oligarchs and booted Russian banks out of the international system in response to the Ukraine invasion, but sanctions that limit access to the Internet are proving highly divisive.
Ukraine has called loudly for a widespread boycott and Kyiv has even pushed for Russia to be cut off from the world wide web.
International sanctions have seen companies including big tech firms halt operations in Russia, and EU bans on Russian state media outlets have prompted the Kremlin to ban platforms including Facebook and Instagram.
Critics said all of this could well marginalise opponents of the Kremlin, boost the dominance of state media and even lead Russia to try to develop a sealed-off, local version of the Internet.
“It’s just severing the few remaining ties to the free flow of information and ideas,” said Peter Micek of Access Now, an NGO that campaigns for digital rights.
A Kremlin crackdown on journalists has already drastically reduced independent sources of information, forcing many media outlets to close or scale back their operations.
Most international social networks are now available only through virtual private networks (VPNs), with figures for VPN downloads suggesting plenty of Russians are following this path.
But with web access being squeezed from the inside and the outside, many experts are now calling for the West to take a different approach.
“Sanctions should be focussed and precise,” some 40 researchers, activists and politicians wrote in an open letter last week.
“They should minimise the chance of unintended consequences or collateral damage.
“Disproportionate or over-broad sanctions risk fundamentally alienating populations.”
The letter called for military and propaganda outlets to be targetted.
Other experts point out that punishing Russia by closing off the Internet is both technically and politically tricky.
BERLIN (AP) – Every other hour, another packed train from Poland arrives at Berlin’s main train station filled with hundreds of Ukrainian refugees, mostly mothers and their children looking for a safe place away from the brutal war in their home country.
As they spilled out of the trains loudspeakers blared in Ukrainian and English: “Dear refugees from Ukraine, welcome to Germany, please follow the instructions of the volunteers in the yellow and orange vests.”
Spread across the platforms, a small army of volunteers in bright-coloured vests appeared – yellow for those who speak German, English and other languages, orange for Ukrainian and Russian speakers – ready to manoeuvre the exhausted masses through the maze of Berlin’s sleek and shiny glass-and-steel railway station into the building’s basement.
The operation runs so smoothly that the seemingly endless stream of refugees goes largely unnoticed to the city’s tens of thousands of regular commuters making their way through the station’s five levels.
Most don’t even know of the sprawling refugee town that has sprung up in the station basement.
Vadim, a 17-year-old teenager who came on his own from Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, travelled for three days and nights before arriving in Berlin on Tuesday afternoon. “No sleep,” is all he said, a tired, petrified look in his eyes.
ABOVE & BELOW: Refugees from the Ukraine are guided by volunteers as they arrive at the main train station in Berlin, Germany. PHOTOS: AP
Ukrainian refugees queue for food in the welcome area
When asked where his parents were, the teen, who gave only his first name, simply shrugged his shoulders, grabbed a dirty backpack and slowly walked away.
Like Vadim, most refugees were too exhausted and traumatised to say much. Their frightened looks seemed to reflect the horrors of war.
They sat huddled on long rows of wooden benches and tables, tightly holding onto plastic bags, school backpacks or duffel bags containing the few belongings they packed before fleeing the wailing sirens, detonating missiles and hastily arranged funerals back home.
More than three million refugees have left Ukraine since Russia attacked the country three weeks ago.
Most have fled to neighbouring countries such as Poland, Moldova and Romania.
But as the war continues and civilians are increasingly in the crosshairs of the Russian military, many are making their way further west.
Some 160,000 Ukrainian refugees have been officially registered in Germany, but their real numbers are thought to be much higher as Ukrainians can enter Germany without visas and there are no thorough controls along the Polish-German border.
Berlin has become the number one gateway for tens of thousands of refugees, with around 7,500 arriving at the train station every day. Because city officials were initially slow to react to the massive influx, thousands of volunteers have stepped up to help cater to the refugees’ every needs.
They take the new arrivals from station platforms to a waiting area in the basement next to a McDonald’s.
There, an entire refugee town opens up: Volunteers hand out food and hot drinks, stands offer free shampoo, diapers, tampons, sanitary napkins and other hygiene supplies. A nursing tent is set up for moms wanting to breastfeed their babies.
There is a safe zone for children with toys and boxes full of second-hand clothes, as well as volunteers offering pet food for the many dogs and cats the refugees bring with them.
There’s also a stand operated by German railway company Deutsche Bahn handing out free train tickets for those who want to continue their travels to another destination. More than 100,000 tickets have been issued so far.
There are volunteers handing out cell phone chargers, power banks and German SIM cards so the refugees can keep up their lifelines to the husbands, fathers and sons who stayed back home to defend their country against the Russian invasion.
“When the first thousands of refugees arrived here, it quickly became clear that up on the platforms, where the trains arrive from Poland, there was not enough space. That’s why our station management very quickly decided to free up a protected area in the basement,” Deutsche Bahn spokeswoman Anja Broeker told The Associated Press.
“There, together with the many volunteers who also very quickly organised themselves … we have been creating an aid structure that’s getting better with each passing day.”
The operation runs efficiently: Volunteers know their place and task; they are friendly and patient, but the atmosphere is eerily quiet and subdued.
There’s no loud laughter or chatter, no shouting, not even babies crying, only the hum of the escalators and the shrieking sound of braking trains entering the station.
About a third of those who arrive plan to stay, but most have no family or friends to welcome and shelter them, no place to sleep.
So the volunteers bring them to a big white tent outside the back entrance of the station, next to the Spree River and within sight of the Chancellery.
Here, a constant flotilla of buses stands ready to take the refugees to Terminal 5 of Berlin’s new BER airport, the city’s former Tegel airport or a convention centre on its outskirts.
In recent days, those places were turned into huge makeshift shelters filled with rows of hundreds of cots.
Earlier, volunteers had lined up inside the station holding up signs saying how many refugees they could house at their private homes.
Recently, however, reports of men pretending to offer shelter and then sexually harassing and exploiting women have led authorities to warn refugees not to accept private accommodation offers.
On Wednesday, authorities in the western city of Duesseldorf confirmed that a young Ukrainian woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by two men earlier this month.
The many volunteers who spearheaded the initial help have mixed feelings about the city taking control now and some feel sidelined by the authorities.
Maya Grossman, 28, a baker from San Francisco who moved to Berlin three years ago and Alyse Conn-Powers, 30, from Bloomington, Indiana, have come to the train station every other day to drop off supplies they bought with donations raised back home in the United States.
While they first brought leftover food from Grossman’s bakery, the city now no longer wants private food donations or hygiene supplies, so instead the two friends have brought colouring books, pencils, sharpeners and soap bubbles for the children.
“We’re just going to keep working for as long as we can with the money that we have and keep doing as much good as we possibly can,” Grossman said.
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and whatever is happening here is going to be happening for a long time and people are going to need a lot of things.”
Islam urges Muslims to emulate Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by being generous, living modestly, and cultivating a sense of gratitude (qana’ah) for all the blessings from Allah the Almighty.
Imams in yesterday’s sermon called on Muslims to practice qana’ah in their daily lives.
Characteristics of qana’ah are exemplified by always showing gratitude to Allah the Almighty, being generous and committing to righteous causes and living moderately.
Additionally, one must constantly seek ways to overcome difficulties through effort and faith rather than being hopeless and giving up.
“There are many benefits of qana’ah, such as deepening our faith, obtaining serenity in this world and in the hereafter, protecting us from committing sinful acts, avoiding jealousy, envy and greed, feeling a sense of ease, and acquiring spiritual wealth,” Imams said.
Imams urged Muslims to reflect on themselves and feel grateful to instil qana’ah characteristics.
“Let us pray for Allah the Almighty to guide us in this world and in the days of hereafter, as well as to protect us and shower us with happiness,” they said.
PARIS (AP) – Because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe is going to have to wait at least several more years and may need NASA’s help before its first planned Mars rover can drill into the planet’s dusty surface, seeking signs of whether it ever hosted life.
The European Space Agency said on Thursday that it will no longer attempt to send the ExoMars rover aloft this year on a Russian rocket and may now have to strip out the mission’s many Russian components.
A launch with Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, is now “practically impossible but also politically impossible”, the agency’s director Josef Aschbacher said. “This year, the launch is gone.”
In an interview with the Associated Press, Aschbacher said the space agency will now sift “bit by bit and component by component” through the mission, to determine how much time is needed “to really do it without the Russians”. Alternatives might be sourced from Europe and with the help of NASA, he said.
Because of the Russian invasion, “we need to untangle all this cooperation which we had, and this is a very complex process, a painful one I can also tell you, but also a very complex one, and we have to do it”, he said.
He described the breakdown of co-operation as “a wake up call” for Europe to further develop its own space technologies.
PARIS (AFP) – Troubled holders Chelsea were drawn against 13-time winners Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League yesterday, while Manchester City will take on Atletico Madrid.
Liverpool were drawn to play Benfica as all three remaining English clubs were kept apart and Bayern Munich were paired with Spanish side Villarreal.
Chelsea are hoping to defend their title in Europe despite turmoil at the Stamford Bridge club, who were put up for sale after the British government placed Russian owner Roman Abramovich under sanctions in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Thomas Tuchel’s team were drawn to play Real at home in the first leg on April 5 or 6, before the return at the Santiago Bernabeu a week later.
However, pending confirmation from UEFA, the matches may be switched to avoid them and City playing in Madrid in the same midweek.
“We know what is coming but it will be an exciting and tough challenge,” said Tuchel.
It was reported this week that Chelsea may have to play their next Champions League home ties behind closed doors due to European Union sanctions on Abramovich that prevent them from selling tickets.
AP – The two features by the South Korean-born filmmaker and video essayist Kogonada – his auspicious debut Columbus and the new After Yang – are distinct for their richness in rare qualities. A meditative quiet presides. The pace is unhurried. The compositions are pristine.
Columbus was set in the Indiana city – an improbable haven of modernist architecture – and centred on the wandering conversations of an out-of-towner (John Cho) and a young tour guide (Haley Lu Richardson). The clean lines and formal beauty around them seemed to foster serenity and rumination.
In After Yang, which debut in theatres and on Showtime, is likewise wistful and sleekly ordered but is set in a seemingly more distant world. Adapted from short story by Alexander Weinstein, After Yang takes place in a future with eerily human-like androids called “technosapiens”. Jake (Colin Farrell), Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith) and their daughter Mikea (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), have one, Yang (Justin H Min) who makes a seamless member of their family – an older brother to Mikea and a kind of surrogate parent and homeschooling teacher to assist the busy Jake (a tea shop owner) and Kyra (a corporate executive).
If this is science fiction, it is only just so. Kogonada’s interests are quotidian and his movie, far from offering grand dystopic vistas, is hermetically sealed in dim, stylish interiors. Our glimpses of Yang are largely in flashback; at the start of the film, he has malfunctioned. The technician who examines him (Ritchie Coster), having opened up Yang’s core, lends the verdict that he’s a goner, beyond reboot. The whole thing is a little illicit; Yang was bought used and refurbished, and such prying into his hardware, like an iPhone, isn’t permitted by the company that made him.
Yang’s passing, though, unlocks new questions for Kyra and, in particular Jake. Yang’s memories are recovered, offering a highly unusual window into the inner lives of the technosapiens. How did life look through Yang’s eyes? Could he have been a more alarming presence – a domestic spy – than the docile robot he appeared?
ABOVE & BELOW: Justin H Min and Haley Lu Richardson in a scene from ‘After Yang’; and Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja and Min. PHOTOS: AP
Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Tjandrawidjaja and Min in a scene
No, After Yang is not here to ponder the more frightful sides of technology but use them to reflect back on humanity. Yang’s memories are a revelatory discovery for everyone, including a museum that wants to exhibit them. But Jake is more interested in investigating Yang’s existence, which was poised just on the outside of human life but deeply enamoured by it.
“Are you happy?” he’s asked in one memory. Yang replies: “I don’t know if that’s the question for me.” Wearing virtual reality-like goggles, Jake navigates through fragments of Yang’s memories spread out like a digital cosmos. Jake gathers a new perspective on himself and humanity.
The air in After Yang is laudably contemplative but stale. It’s a movie you want to cheer because of its sincerity and thoughtfulness. A meticulously photographed sci-fi about family, identity and memory starring Colin Farrell? Yes, please!
But After Yang, noble yet inert, struggles to come alive. It’s less the deliberate pacing than the film’s hushed tones, whispered dialogue and mannered movements that give Kogonada’s calm chamber piece the airlessness of a very well-styled terrarium. Still, I didn’t find myself forgetting the movie’s melancholy mood. Farrell, who’s starring simultaneously, unrecognisably as the Penguin in The Batman, is here far more unadorned. This is Farrell at his most soulful, and he gives After Yang a sweetness that leaves a lasting impression. After Yang may not reach the heights it’s seeking, but it’s easy to respect it for trying to tackle profound questions and reach a register of high-minded reflection.
BERNAMA – A businessman was sentenced to four years in jail and fined MYR10,000 by the Sessions Court yesterday after he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence which caused the death of a policeman who was manning a roadblock.
Sessions Court judge Sayani Mohd Nor imposed the jail sentence on K Kalaichelvan and fined him MYR10,000 in default five months’ jail for driving under the influence of alcohol and causing the death of Corporal Safwan Mohamad Ismail, 31, at the Movement Control Order (MCO) roadblock on the Kajang-Seremban Highway at 2.10am on May 3, 2020.
Kalaichelvan was also given six months’ jail for failing to comply with any reasonable signal of a police officer requiring a person or vehicle to stop before reaching any barrier.
The 45-year-old father of two was also given a month’s jail for the third charge of driving without a licence.
For the fourth charge of defying the MCO under Section 3(1) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Measures within the Infected Local Areas) Regulations 2020, Kalaichelvan was sentenced to a month’s jail.
Kalaichelvan had pleaded not guilty to the charges when he was charged on May 13, 2020, but changed his plea yesterday. All the offences were committed at the same place and time.
Judge Sayani ordered Kalaichelvan to serve the sentences concurrently, which means he would have to serve only four years in jail.
She also disqualified Kalaichelvan from holding or applying for a driving licence for five years.
In mitigation, lawyer K Veeranesh Babu, who represented Kalaichelvan, said his client has repented and asked for a minimum jail sentence and for the sentences to run concurrently.
Deputy public prosecutor Mohammad Al-Saifi Hashim, who is also Selangor state prosecution director, asked the court to impose a deterrent jail sentence on Kalaichelvan.
He said Safwan was a frontliner who was on duty during the COVID-19 pandemic and that the incident had happened during MCO time.
NEW DELHI (AP) – The state-run Indian Oil Corp bought three million barrels of crude oil from Russia earlier this week to secure its energy needs, resisting Western pressure to avoid such purchases, an Indian government official said yesterday.
The official said India has not imposed sanctions against buying oil and will be looking to purchase more from Russia despite calls not to from the United States (US) and other countries.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
The US, Britain and other western countries are urging India to avoid buying Russian oil and gas. Indian media reports said Russia was offering a discount on oil purchases of 20 per cent below global benchmark prices.
Such prices have surged in recent weeks, posing a huge burden for countries like India, which imports 85 per cent of the oil it consumes. Its demand is projected to jump 8.2 per cent this year to 5.15 million barrels per day as the economy recovers from the devastation caused by the pandemic.
White House press secretary Jennifer Psaki said earlier this week that Indian purchases of Russian oil wouldn’t violate US sanctions, but urged India to “think about where you want to stand when history books are written.”
A man fills his car at a gasoline station in Gauhati, India. PHOTO: AP
VIETNAM NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK – Nearly 1,400 Vietnamese people have been safely evacuated to Vietnam from conflict-hit Ukraine on fight repatriation flights so far, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced at a press briefing on Thursday.
Responding to reporters’ queries on some alleged issues with regards to citizen protection efforts in Ukraine, ministry spokesperson Lê Thi Thu Hang stressed the safeguarding of security, and safety of lives and properties of Vietnamese citizens in Ukraine, is the highest priority of the Vietnamese Communist Party, State, and Government.
As soon as tense developments surrounding the situation in Ukraine appeared, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chính on February 26 issued Official Letter 201, touching on the protection of Vietnamese citizens and legal entities and a number of issues of concern.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Bùi Thanh Son has held a series of phone calls with his counterparts in Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and handed over letters to the Polish foreign minister.
Meetings have also been held with relevant countries’ ambassadors in Vietnam to request support and obtain commitments guaranteeing maximum security and safety for Vietnamese citizens and their families.
These efforts have created the conditions for Vietnamese citizens and their families to evacuate, as well as the facilitation of repatriation flights.
Spokesperson Hang affirmed that in the context of the rapidly evolving and complicated situation in Ukraine and surrounding countries, Vietnamese ministries and representative agencies in the region have made great efforts to urgently arrange repatriation flights to bring Vietnamese people and their families back home, as well as provide support to resolve problems, ensuring transparency with the priority on the elderly, children, pregnant women and persons with disabilities.
A woman welcomes her son from Ukraine. His flight was the third repatriation flight bringing Vietnamese citizens who fled to Romania from Ukraine. PHOTO: VNA/VNS
SAN CRISTOBAL, VENEZUELA (AFP) – Henry Alviarez said he began small-scale coal mining in Venezuela’s western Tachira state out of “necessity” due to the country’s ongoing economic crisis which has deepened during the coronavirus pandemic.
He leaves home early in the morning on motorbike for the 45-minute journey to the Los Parra mine in Lobatera, near the border with Colombia.
The Andean town has 50 small-scale mines run by 22 cooperatives, each made up of eight to 10 workers who earn no more than USD120 a month.
From Lobatera, the mined coal is moved via clandestine routes over the border to Colombia or the neighbouring Merida state to be used primarily for generating electricity.
The lack of oxygen deep inside the mines and little emergency equipment, makes for precarious and “exhausting” work conditions, said Alviarez.
“There are many blacksmiths and mechanics here but we cannot work in those” professions, he added, citing the unprecedented economic crisis that has plunged Venezuela into an eight-year recession and four years of hyperinflation.
ABOVE & BELOW: A miner works to extract coal from the Los Parras mine in Lobatera, Tachira state, Venezuela; and a miner shows coal after it was extracted. PHOTOS: AFP
Bare-chested, pickaxe in hand, and helmet with a torch on his head, Alviarez quickly becomes covered in a mixture of sweat and black streaks. He tries in vain to wipe off the coal marks with a green cloth.
All three of his children have left the country, one each to Chile, Colombia and Ecuador.
“Thank goodness they’ve left,” he said, adding that their only options in Lobatera would have been to join him in the mines.
“Who would want to work here?”
Around 500 families rely on the Lobatera mines, which are located in a mountainous area only accessible by dirt roads.
Temperatures in the area can soar, with the mining pit often the only shelter from the sun.
“It’s a pretty risky job because we have to use a lot of wood” to hold up the tunnels “and pray to God”, said Jose Alberto Trejo, 38, who used to work in construction before subsequently finding employment in Colombian mines due to the lack of job opportunities.
On average, each miner in Los Parra can extract one tonne a day, although there is no reliable data on the total production from the 50 mines in Lobatera.
“The price of coal is low and has fallen over the years, which makes it tougher to work these days,” said Pablo Jose Vivas, 61.
The miners take their hauls to the mine director who sells it on for USD50 a tonne.
The profits are shared out between the members of the cooperative.
Vivas, who has worked in mining for more than 20 years, picks up a piece of mined rock and holds it between his blackened fingers.
The rock shines in the torchlight that gives it a purple hue, like a precious stone.
The miners work in teams. One smashes the rocks with a pickaxe, another fills the wheelbarrow and a third carts it out of the mine.
Outside, several small piles of coal await the arrival of a truck.
Tachira governor Freddy Bernal, a loyalist of President Nicolas Maduro, is hoping to encourage foreign investment in Lobatera from Venezuela’s allies Russia, China or even India.
“That would generate many jobs and a significant economic impact,” he said, adding that it would ensure families who have subsisted on mining for more than 40 years would not be left destitute.
But the miners are far from convinced.
“That would end the basic job because they would arrive with new technologies that we don’t know how to use,” said Vivas.
