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At least 113 workers at a jade mine in northern Myanmar were killed Thursday in a landslide.The disaster was announced on the Facebook page of Myanmar’s fire service. The miners were collecting the precious stones in Hpakant township in Kachin state when they were smothered by “a wave of mud” following heavy rains.Fatal landslides and other accidents are a common occurrence in the area in recent years.  Many of the victims are from impoverished ethnic communities who scour the jade mines searching for any of the precious stones missed by large mining firms. 
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A British judge on Thursday refused to give Venezuela control of over $1 billion in gold sitting in a Bank of England vault, ruling that it is unlawful to give it to the President Nicolás Maduro since Britain does not recognize him as the president.
Maduro has demanded the gold to help his cash-starved nation fight the coronavirus pandemic.
But the central bank for the United Kingdom, whose government recognizes Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as his country’s legitimate leader, had refused to hand it over to Maduro’s socialist administration.
Guaidó has sought to preserve the gold stash at the Bank of England to keep it out of the hands of the Maduro government.
Banco Central de Venezuela sought to release the gold, which it wants to sell for food and medical equipment that is desperately needed to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
A lawyer representing Maduro’s side promised to appeal.
Sarosh Zaiwalla said in a statement that the judgment “entirely ignores the reality of the situation on the ground” in Venezuela.
“Mr Maduro’s government is in complete control of Venezuela and its administrative institutions, and only it can ensure the distribution of the humanitarian relief and medical supplies needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic,” he said. “This outcome will now delay matters further, to the detriment of the Venezuelan people whose lives are at risk.” 
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Authorities in Brazil say nine people were killed and more than 1,000 others were forced to leave their homes after a cyclone raced across southern Brazil, off the coast of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.Meteorologists said Tuesday’s “extratropical bomb cyclone,” originated in the South Atlantic Ocean.The storm packing nearly 110-kph winds damaged homes across dozens of towns in Santa Catarina.Structures in Florianopolis, the capital of Santa Catarina, suffered the greatest damage.The storm prompted officials in Rio Grande Mdo Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana to issue flood warnings.      
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Mexican officials are trying to identify the gunmen who attacked a drug rehabilitation center in central Mexico on Wednesday, killing at least 24 people and wounding seven others in the town of Irapuato.Pedro Cortes, secretary of public security in Irapuato, told the French News Agency (AFP), the suspects forced the victims to the ground and opened fire before fleeing in a red vehicle.Cortes said the victims were in an unregistered annex of the rehabilitation center, where street level drug dealers are known to seek shelter from drug gangs.In response to the attack, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his government would not allow the country “to fall into anarchy and disorder.”The attack occurred northwest of Mexico City, in Guanajuato state, where the Jalisco cartel has been part of a violent turf battle. But it is unclear if Wednesday’s attack is linked to an organized crime group.The La Jornada newspaper said there have been four attacks since December on annexes in Irapuato, where people were abducted, some killed, and a building was set on fire. 
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Novartis AG agreed to pay more than $729 million to settle U.S. government charges it paid illegal kickbacks to doctors and patients to boost drug sales, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.The Swiss drugmaker will pay $678 million to resolve claims it organized tens of thousands of sham educational events at which it lavished doctors with exorbitant speaker fees, expensive dinners and alcohol to induce them to prescribe its cardiovascular and diabetes drugs more often.It will also pay $51.25 million to resolve charges it funneled money through three charitable foundations to cover co-payments of Medicare patients so they would purchase its drugs.Both settlements resolved civil charges that Novartis violated the federal False Claims Act.Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss in Manhattan called the incentives for doctors “nothing more than bribes,” and said federal health care programs paid hundreds of millions of dollars in reimbursements for prescriptions tainted by kickbacks.”Giving these cash payments and other lavish goodies interferes with the duty of doctors to choose the best treatment for their patients and increases drug costs for everyone,” Strauss said in a statement.The Justice Department said the speaker programs and other promotional events occurred from 2002 to 2011, while the co-payments were made from 2010 to 2014.In connection with the settlements, Novartis agreed to curtail its speaker programs and enter a five-year corporate integrity agreement.It also accepted responsibility for many allegations underlying the larger settlement, for which it set aside funds in July 2019.”We are a different company today — with new leadership, a stronger culture and a more comprehensive commitment to ethics,” Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan said in a statement.The $678 million payout includes $591.4 million in damages to the U.S. government, a $38.4 million forfeiture for violating an anti-kickback statute and $48.2 million to U.S. states.  
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Defying state power, a group of 14 pro-Iran militiamen clothed in khaki military fatigues trampled over doctored portraits of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.The images, which have been widely circulated on Iraqi media since Monday, showed over a dozen young men holding small Iraqi flags in one hand and burning Kadhimi’s crossed-out posters, along with Israeli and U.S. flags, in the other.The men were members of Kataib Hezbollah (KH), who were released Monday shortly after their arrest in a rare anti-terrorism raid ordered by Kadhimi last week. A judge with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) released all 14 men, citing a “lack of evidence” for any wrongdoing.KH militia members released today after being detained in a CTS raid on Thurs, burn #US & Israeli flags while stepping on photos of @MAKadhimi. The Iraqi judiary found ‘insufficient evidence’ ag them over allegations of firing rockets at military & diplomatic targets in #IRAQpic.twitter.com/ij91dAR7ud
— Arwa Ibrahim (@arwaib) June 29, 2020KH is an Iran proxy militia designated as a terrorist group by the United States for its involvement in deadly attacks on U.S. military bases and diplomatic facilities in Iraq.The swift release of the militants, experts say, highlights major challenges facing Iraq’s elected leaders as they attempt to restore one of the key functions of a modern nation-state: the right to enjoy, what scholars call, “the monopoly over the use of violence,” in a country where irregular militia groups continue to carry out violent attacks.“It’s the government’s responsibility to impose the authority of the state,” Ahmad Mulla Talal, Kadhimi’s official spokesman, said Tuesday, responding to reporters’ questions on the raid.Show of forceShortly after the arrest last Thursday, the Iraqi government said in a statement it had acted on “credible intelligence” to prevent an imminent attack on the Green Zone, a large fortified area in the Iraqi capital where the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions are located.On Friday, more than a dozen heavily armed vehicles, which KH described as “loyalists,” reportedly showed up outside Kadhimi’s residence inside the Green Zone, ordering him to release the detained militiamen.In a statement published Monday, KH spokesman Abu Ali al-Askari described his group’s brazen show of force as an attempt “to prevent the situation from spinning out of control.”Iraq later appeared to have softened its stance and released the KH detainees into PMF custody for an internal disciplinary trial, rather than handing them over to an independent Iraqi criminal court. KH is a part of PMF.Askari called Kadhimi a “monster” who was working for the Americans. He also reiterated KH’s long-standing accusation that Kadhimi had collaborated with the United States to assassinate Iran’s powerful military leader Qassem Soleimani, along with KH’s founder, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in a January drone strike. Kadhimi has denied the allegations.’Overrun by militias’Though the PMF is officially part of Iraq’s security apparatus, it behaves independently and does not always obey orders from the prime minister as the commander-in-chief, say experts.“Armed militias don’t just exist in Iraq, but they are intertwined with the state and exercise political power in the name of the state, muddying the boundaries between state and militia,” said Ramzy Mardini, an Iraq analyst at the University of Chicago.Michael Knights, an Iraq expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, warned that the ability of a KH-run military unit to penetrate the Green Zone presented a serious obstacle to Kadhimi’s ability to govern.“Any government’s first duty is to protect its own capacity to make independent decisions,” Knights wrote. “But the Kadhimi government is struggling to find safe locations in which it can work without fear of being overrun by militias.”In the follow-up interview with VOA, Knights described Kadhimi’s decision to go after KH in the Iraqi capital as “brave and may have prevented one or more attacks.”US commitmentMardini said a reason for Kadhimi’s inability to confront Iran-backed militia groups with vigor is the perception that he cannot rely on long-term U.S. support.“The problem the U.S. has is that it wants Iraqi prime ministers to confront powerful elites they are politically dependent on without much ability to offer assurances,” he said, adding that “its footprint is decreasing, and therefore it becomes more difficult for its commitments to be believed.”Earlier this month, Iraq and the U.S. held a “strategic dialogue” to redefine the future of their partnership beyond the fight against Islamic State.In a joint statement published following the talks, Washington committed to reducing its military presence in the country and broadening its political, economic and cultural engagements with Baghdad. On the other hand, Iraq agreed to protect the remaining U.S. diplomats and military personnel.The raid against KH, according to some observers, was the first practical step by Kadhimi to signal to the U.S. that his government is focused on meeting its obligation to protect U.S. assets in Iraq.ReconciliationAt the same time, Kadhimi’s government is engaged in “political reconciliation” in Iraq, allowing exiled Iraqi Sunni leaders such as Rafi al-Issawi to return home.Issawi, a former minister of finance, fled the country after former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki charged him with corruption. He has returned, and his arrest warrant is expected to be dropped, according to Iraqi officials.Maliki also went after former Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who escaped to northern Iraqi Kurdistan and later to Turkey to avoid arrest for murder charges.It is not yet clear if Hashimi intends to return to Iraq.“Al-Kadhimi is the last hope for the political processes,” Abdul-Khalq al-Azawi, a Sunni lawmaker, told reporters Monday.Some others are less hopeful. Mohammed A. Salih, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania who covered the aftermath of the Iraq war as a journalist, says the fact that Kadhimi has been elected by Parliament, where Iran has many allies, makes him “too weak to be able to take on the militias.”“If he continues to push against the Shia militias, he will witness serious backlash from Shia militias and political blocs alike,” Salih said.
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Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Wednesday issued his first pardon for members of the protest movement that toppled veteran leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika last year, the presidency said.Elected last December, Tebboune has already urged protesters to opt for dialog and promised appeasement measures to ensure stability in the OPEC member and gas-exporting country.He has also drafted amendments to the constitution to boost freedoms and give Parliament a greater role. A referendum on the amendments is due to be held this year.The pardon, which marks the 58th anniversary of Algerian independence, included six activists serving sentences for charges including undermining national unity. Several other members of the protest movement, known as Hirak, have been in detention.The protests broke out in February 2019 to demand political reforms and reject Bouteflika’s plan to seek a fifth term after 20 years in power.The authorities banned the protests in mid-March this year as part of measures to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.
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Spurred by broad public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, thousands of Black activists from across the U.S. will hold a virtual convention in August to produce a new political agenda that seeks to build on the success of the protests that followed George Floyd’s death.The 2020 Black National Convention will take place August 28 via a live broadcast. It will feature conversations, performances and other events designed to develop a set of demands ahead of the November general election, according to a Wednesday announcement shared first with The Associated Press.The convention is being organized by the Electoral Justice Project of the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 150 organizations. In 2016, the coalition released its “Vision for Black Lives” platform, which called for public divestment from mass incarceration and for adoption of policies that can improve conditions in Black America.Demands for progress”What this convention will do is create a Black liberation agenda that is not a duplication of the Vision for Black Lives, but really is rooted as a set of demands for progress,” said Jessica Byrd, who leads the Electoral Justice Project.At the end of the convention, participants will ratify a revised platform that will serve as a set of demands for the first 100 days of a new presidential administration, Byrd said. Participants also will have access to model state and local legislation.”What we have the opportunity to do now, as this 50-state rebellion has provided the conditions for change, is to say, ‘You need to take action right this minute,’ ” Byrd said. “We’re going to set the benchmarks for what we believe progress is and make those known locally and federally.”FILE – Antonio Mingo, right, holds his fists in the air as demonstrators protest on a section of 16th Street renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza, in Washington, June 24, 2020. The Black National Convention will be held Aug. 28, 2020.The convention was originally planned to happen in person, in Detroit, the nation’s Blackest major city. But as the coronavirus pandemic exploded in March, organizers quickly shifted to a virtual event, Byrd said. The first-ever Black Lives Matter convention was held in Cleveland in 2015.Recent AP analysis of COVID-19 data shows Black people have made up a third of reported virus deaths.Initial work to shape the new platform will take place August 6-7, during a smaller People’s Convention that will virtually convene hundreds of delegates from Black-led advocacy groups. The process will be similar to one that produced the first platform, which included early iterations of the demand to defund police that now drives many demonstrations.Other platform demands, such as ending cash bail, reducing pretrial detention and scrapping discriminatory risk-assessment tools used in criminal courts, have become official policy in a handful of local criminal justice systems around the U.S.Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, which organizes in 15 states, said the 2020 Black National Convention will deepen the solutions to systemic racism and create more alignment within the movement.Hope for more clarity, energy”We’re in this stage now where we’re getting more specific about how all of this is connected to our local organizing,” Albright said. “The hope is that when people leave the convention, they leave with greater clarity, more resources, connectivity and energy.”The coalition behind the convention includes Color of Change, BYP100, Dream Defenders and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, which has 16 official chapters nationwide.Convention organizers said this year’s event will pay tribute to the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, which concluded with the introduction of a national Black agenda. The Gary gathering included prominent Black leaders such as the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the Reverend Al Sharpton, Representative Shirley Chisolm, who ran for president, as well as Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale, Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz.FILE – The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., left, and Malcolm X.That convention came after several tumultuous years that included the assassinations of Malcolm X and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and outbreaks of civil unrest, all of which were seen as blows to the civil rights movement.The upcoming convention builds on more than a century of Black political organizing.In 1905, civil rights activist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois formed the Niagara Movement after a national conference of Black leaders near Buffalo, New York. In a written address to the country, Du Bois and others decried the rise of institutionalized racial inequality in voting, criminal justice systems and public education.In the 1950s, William Patterson, founder of the now-defunct Civil Rights Congress, led the effort to charge the U.S. with genocide of African Americans using legal standards set by the United Nations. The resulting petition, “We Charge Genocide,” is an oft-cited document in conversations about fatal shootings of Black people by police in the U.S.And in 1998, organizers of the Black Radical Congress in Chicago met to strategize ways to beat back attacks on affirmative action policies that helped to diversify higher education and other facets of American life.As in any large political gathering, consensus is not guaranteed. The National Black Political Convention caused divisions between participating organizations over the Black agenda’s position on busing to integrate public schools and statements on global affairs that some viewed as anti-Israel. Ultimately, the agenda prompted a leader of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, to sever ties with the convention.Friction with Jewish groupsSomewhat similarly, the Vision for Black Lives platform and its characterization of Israel as an “apartheid state” committing mass murder against Palestinian people drew allegations of anti-Semitism from a handful of Jewish groups, which had otherwise been supportive the Black Lives Matter movement.The Black Lives Matter movement’s coalition has more than doubled in size in the years since the first platform, largely because of organizers’ laser focus on issues central to Black freedom, Byrd said.”That actually is the Black self-determination that our politics require,” Byrd said, “that we don’t just respond to the Democratic Party. That we don’t just respond to the Republican Party. We don’t just say, ‘Black lives matter,’ and beg people to care. We build an alternative container for all of us to connect, outside of the white gaze, to say this is what we want for our communities.”The August convention will happen on the same day as a commemorative, in-person march on Washington that is being organized by Sharpton, who announced the march during a memorial service for Floyd, a Black man who died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer held a knee to his neck.The Black National Convention will broadcast after the march, Byrd said.August “is going to be a huge month of Black engagement,” she said.
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