Day: September 14, 2023

A majority of the Brazilian Supreme Court voted on Thursday to convict the first person to stand trial for the storming of government buildings in the capital Brasilia on Jan. 8.

Six of the 11 justices voted to convict Aecio Lucio Costa Pereira, a former employee of water utility Sabesp, who was arrested in the Senate building during the invasion, for crimes that include an attempted coup d’etat, armed criminal association and damage to historic buildings.

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(BANGKOK) — The younger son of ousted Myanmar leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi says he has always avoided talking to the media, but this time is different. He’s increasingly worried about his imprisoned 78-year-old mother’s health and about Myanmar’s violent political crisis, which he calls desperate.

“I’d just really like to have some form of contact with her so that I know that she’s OK, because at the moment she has no access to her legal counsel,” Kim Aris said Wednesday in a video interview with The Associated Press from his home in London.

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“She has no access to her personal doctors. She’s not allowed any visitors, as far as I’m aware. She’s not even allowed to mingle with the other prisoners, which means she’s basically under a form of solitary confinement.”

Suu Kyi was arrested in 2021 when the army seized power from her democratically elected government. She has since been prosecuted and convicted on more than a dozen charges for offenses her supporters say were concocted to keep her out of politics. She is serving a prison term of 27 years.

The military takeover triggered massive public resistance that was brutally suppressed, triggering a bloody civil war that has killed thousands of people.

Aris, 46, said he has tried to keep out of the spotlight for decades, seeking to avoid any political activism and “just trying to keep my head down and get on with my family life.”

“I’ve always tried to avoid speaking to the media and (have been) avoiding social media all my life. But the situation in Burma at the moment is absolutely desperate,” he said, referring to Myanmar by its former name. “The fact that I’ve not been allowed to communicate with my mother at all for over two and a half years now” is another reason he is speaking out, he said.

“So now I’m doing all I can to try and help the situation and bring awareness of this situation to the wider world,” he said. He is getting active on social media and said he plans a campaign to “bring awareness and funding for humanitarian purposes.”

Aris said he has heard that his mother has been extremely ill and has been suffering from gum problems and was unable to eat. “She was suffering from bouts of dizziness and vomiting and couldn’t walk at one stage.”

Aris said his information comes from independent Myanmar media and social media. Britain’s Foreign Office and the International Red Cross have tried and failed to learn more on his behalf, he said. He has tried reaching out to Myanmar’s military government, including its embassy in London, “but I don’t get any response from them. They wouldn’t even answer the door to me.”

It’s not the first time Suu Kyi has faced confinement. She spent nearly 15 years under house arrest under a previous military government starting in 1989, a year after co-founding her National League for Democracy party. But almost all of that time was at her family home in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, and she was not completely isolated.

“At that time, it was in her own home and she was allowed visitors. At times, I was allowed to spend time with her under house arrest. And we were allowed to send her care packages and letters and have communication with her. For the last two and a half years, we have had none of those basic human rights.”

“I realize that there’s so many natural disasters and humanitarian crisis all over the world now, and it’s hard for everybody to be exposed to that every day. We all need to try and do our bit to try and help everywhere that we can. And Burma is one country where we can change things very easily,” Aris said.

“If only 2% of what has been given to the Ukrainian forces had been given to the resistance forces in Burma, the situation would be very different now,” he said. “So I hope that people around the world can rally and try and help the people in Burma so that we can end this needless bloodshed.”

For the first time in a decade, the streets of downtown Seoul will host a procession of tanks, fighter jets, and other advanced military assets, the South Korean Ministry of Defence announced on Wednesday.

The last time the country staged a military parade was in 2013. Its next will take place on Sept. 26 to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the country’s armed forces. But it’s more than just a commemoration. The display of might coincides with escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

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North Korea regularly holds military parades. Its most recent, and third of the year so far, was held last week and was attended by the country’s leader Kim Jong Un as well as delegations from Russia and China. As Pyongyang seeks to bolster its partnerships with Moscow and Beijing, it has also ramped up its aggressive rhetoric and weapons testing. Earlier this week, while Kim met with Putin in Russia over a suspected arms deal, North Korea launched its 20th missile test of the year.

Read More: North Korea Keeps Launching Missile Tests. How Worried Should We Be?

South Korea used to hold a military parade every five years for Armed Forces Day, but in 2018, amid efforts to de-escalate tensions with its northern neighbor, former President Moon Jae-in swapped the usual march of tanks and munitions with a more celebratory ceremony headlined by popstar Psy.

But Moon’s successor Yoon Suk-yeol, elected in 2022, has brought back a hardline approach. The theme of this year’s parade, according to the official announcement, is “strong military, strong security, and peace through strength.”

While plenty of Korean weaponry will be on display, Gordon Kang, a senior analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, tells TIME that a more notable feature this year will be the increased optics around South Korea’s alliance with the U.S., which has recently been strengthened. For the first time, hundreds of American troops and several American aircraft are set to take part in the event, including through parachute drops “to demonstrate combined operational capabilities,” state-funded Yonhap News Agency reported.

The revival of military showmanship is not an unexpected move, Uk Yang, a research fellow at the Asan Policy Institute in Seoul, tells TIME, for a conservative like Yoon. The parade will be as much a message to the domestic population as it will be to international observers. “He puts a lot of trust in the military,” Yang says of Yoon, and “wants to show the Korean people that tax monies were sent to the military.”

For Yoon’s government, the parade offers a welcome distraction for South Koreans facing a worsening economic outlook and recently preoccupied by Chinese-inflated concerns over the safety of seafood, a staple of Korean cuisine. Yoon’s public approval rating has also dipped lately, with survey respondents identifying defense and diplomacy as the factors most affecting their assessment of the leader.

Read More: How Seafood Became the Latest Flashpoint in Korean Politics

“The government wants to underscore its commitment to, essentially, safeguarding South Korea’s sovereignty,” says Kang. “It wants to signal its willingness and capability to deter in the face of evolving security challenges, North Korea or otherwise.”

Search and rescue teams worked Thursday in eastern Libya, where devastating floods left thousands of people dead and thousands more missing.

The exact toll remained unclear following the flooding that hit Sunday.

The Associated Press quoted eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, as saying 3,000 bodies have been buried with 2,000 more still being processed.

Abdel-Raham al-Ghaithi, the mayor of the city of Derna, told al-Arabia television that the death toll could reach 20,000.

Derna was the hardest-hit area, with torrential rain and dam failures wrecking buildings, burying areas in mud and washing people out to sea.

World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told reporters Thursday in Geneva that “most of the human casualties” could have been avoided if Libya had a functional weather service.

“If they would have been a normally operating meteorological service, they could have issued warnings,” he said.

The international aid effort has included teams from Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The International Organization for Migration said Wednesday the flooding displaced at least 30,000 people in Derna as well as thousands more in other areas.

Atiyah Alhasadi, a 30-year-old teacher from Derna, told VOA’s Heather Murdock he was in his home in the center of the city when he heard what sounded like “20 million drums exploding,” and water crashed in, rising 50 meters above the houses.

Alhasadi said he and his family went to the roof of the building because the lower floors were flooded immediately and watched the water rise to the fourth or fifth floors of some buildings. He said his two aunts on the first floor died in the initial rush of water but his family was able to escape to a relative’s home on higher ground.

Now, he said, he is with five or six families in one small house, searching for a vehicle to get to Benghazi or another town.

“We can’t find gasoline, fuel or water,” he said.

Alhasadi said people also need mattresses and medicine but there is no available humanitarian aid to be found. He noted people are sleeping on the streets without even tents and the only hospital is barely functioning. It was just a makeshift hospital, while the actual one was under construction.

Some information in this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 

Wall Street futures rose on Thursday over expectations the Federal Reserve could pause interest rate hikes in September, while investors awaited Arm Holdings’ stock market debut after its IPO turned out to be the biggest since 2021.

Shares of Arm Holdings (ARM.O) will make their widely anticipated debut on the Nasdaq after the chip designer notched a $54.5 billion valuation in its offering, priced at $51 per share, on Wednesday.

Chipmakers including Nvidia (NVDA.O), Micron Technology (MU.O) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) added between 0.7% and 1.2% before the bell.

Both the Nasdaq (.IXIC) and the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained on Wednesday following data that showed the annual rise in core consumer prices, excluding volatile items like food and energy, was the smallest in nearly two years.

Rising oil prices, however, could keep inflation at elevated levels, analysts said. Higher gasoline prices pushed the headline inflation to a 14-month high, while stickiness in growth of prices of services kept alive the prospects of a November hike.

“The Fed may latch on to energy prices as a reason to strike a relatively hawkish tone at next week’s FOMC meeting as it looks to ensure financial conditions remain relatively tight to continue making progress on core inflation,” said Emin Hajiyev, senior economist at Insight Investment.

“We are at or very close to the top of the hiking cycle but see one additional rate hike into year-end as a possibility.”

Traders see a 97% chance of the Fed holding rates in September and a near 60% likelihood of a November pause, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Citigroup also expects the Fed to hike interest rates by 25-basis points in November, compared with its previous forecast of a September hike.

All eyes will be on producer prices data and retail sales for August and weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET for further clues on the trajectory for U.S. interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week.

Major growth stocks, including Apple (AAPL.O), Google (GOOGL.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Amazon.com (AMZN.O) edged up between 0.4% and 0.7%, with the two-year U.S. Treasury yield , which best reflects short-term interest rate expectations, trading below the 5% mark.

Meanwhile, investors largely expect another European Central Bank rate hike later in the day, which will take interest rates to a record high, amid sticky inflation and a deteriorating economy.

At 7:02 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 109 points, or 0.32%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 19.5 points, or 0.43%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 71.5 points, or 0.46%.

Among individual stock moves, Vital Energy (VTLE.N) dropped 8.5% premarket after it signed deals valued at about $1.17 billion to expand its acreage in the Permian Basin.

HP (HPQ.N) fell 1.5% after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) sold about 5.5 million shares of the company.

Visa (V.N) slipped 2.0% after the payment processing giant said it was engaging with Class B shareholders on a proposal to convert their shares to Class C or Class A.

Beijing on Thursday blasted the launch of a probe by the European Commission into China’s electric vehicle (EV) subsidies as protectionist and warned it would damage economic relations, a concern shared by Germany’s car industry.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the investigation on Wednesday, accusing China of flooding global markets with electric cars that had artificially low prices because of huge state subsidies.

The probe, which could result in punitive tariffs, has prompted analyst warnings of retaliatory action from Beijing and complaints from Chinese industry executives who say the sector’s competitive advantage was not due to subsidies.

The investigation “is a naked protectionist act that will seriously disrupt and distort the global automotive industry and supply chain, including the EU, and will have a negative impact on China-EU economic and trade relations,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

“China will pay close attention to the EU’s protectionist tendencies and follow-up actions, and firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” it added.

Eurasian Group analysts warned that should Brussels ultimately levy duties against subsidized Chinese EVs, Beijing would likely impose countermeasures to hurt European industries.

The EU’s imposition of tariffs will depend on the degree of unity within the European Union. A decade ago Germany, wary of retaliation, opposed tariffs on Chinese solar panel imports, paving the way for a compromise with Beijing.

By contrast, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Wednesday he welcomed the EU’s action.

Germany’s car industry, conscious that a trade war could hit its business in China, was more circumspect.

Mercedes Benz (MBGn.DE) said protectionist measures were counterproductive and Bosch, the world’s largest automotive supplier, said a race for punitive tariffs and trade barriers would only have losers.

“Chinese distortions of competition are a particular problem that Europe should tackle, but if possible not with excessive subsidies or new punitive tariffs at the end of a lengthy process,” said Volker Treier, head of trade at the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK)

Some analysts said the probe should not pose a big risk for Chinese EV makers because they could turn to other growing markets like Southeast Asia.

The manufacturers have been accelerating export efforts as slowing consumer demand in China exacerbates production overcapacity.

Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese EV makers pared initial losses, with market leader BYD closing down 1.2%. Smaller rivals Geely Auto (0175.HK) and Nio (9866.HK) fell 0.5% and 0.9%, respectively. Xpeng (9868.HK) reversed losses to rise 0.4%.

Shanghai-listed shares of state-owned car giant SAIC (600104.SS), whose MG brand is the best-selling China-made brand in Europe, closed down 0.3%.

Nio and Geely declined to comment on the EU probe, while BYD, Xpeng and SAIC did not respond to requests for comment.

Shares in European carmakers were also among the biggest fallers on the euro zone stock index (.STOXXE50). BMW (BMWG.DE), Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), Mercedes (MBGn.DE) and Stellantis (STLAM.MI) were down by between 0.7% and 1.6% at 1100 GMT.

The anti-subsidy probe, initiated unusually by the European Commission and not from any industry complaint, comes amid broader diplomatic strains between the EU and China.

Relations have become tense due to Beijing’s ties with Moscow after Russian forces swept into Ukraine, and the EU’s push to rely less on the world’s second-largest economy, which is also its No.1 trading partner.

The EV probe will set the tone for bilateral talks ahead of the annual China-EU Summit, due to take place before year-end, with EU demands for broader access to the Chinese market and a rebalancing of trade. EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis will travel to China later this month.

Cui Dongshu, the secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association, urged the EU on his personal WeChat account on Thursday to take an objective view of the industry’s development and not “arbitrarily use” economic or trade tools.

The price of China-made cars exported to Europe is generally almost double the price they sell for in China, he added.

Underscoring challenges facing established European automakers, Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) is looking at cutting staff at its all-electric plant in eastern Germany due to lower than expected EV demand, the dpa news agency reported on Wednesday.

EU officials believe Chinese EVs are undercutting the prices of local models by about 20% in the European market, piling pressure on European automakers to produce lower-cost EVs.

The European Commission said China’s share of EVs sold in Europe had risen to 8% and could reach 15% in 2025.

In 2022, 35% of all exported electric cars originated from China, according to U.S. think-tank the Center for Strategic and Internal Studies (CSIS), with most destined for Europe.

The single largest exporter from China is U.S. giant Tesla (TSLA.O), CSIS data showed. It accounted for 40.25% of EV exports from China between January and April 2023.

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