Forced labor is so pervasive in China’s far west region of Xinjiang — and government control over information is so absolute — that it is nearly impossible to establish if forced labor is being used in supply chains there. But here’s what is known:Esquel Group gins and spins cotton in Xinjiang.In July 2020, the US government placed trade restrictions on one of its Xinjiang subsidiaries, Changji Esquel Textile Co., citing concerns over forced labor.In January 2021, US regulators banned all Xinjiang cotton from entering the US, again citing forced labor.Since the cotton ban, a different Esquel subsidiary located in Guangdong…
Author: National Tone
Turkey’s two main presidential candidates made their final appearances in public during the last hours of campaigning on the eve of presidential and parliamentary elections that could significantly shape the NATO member’s future. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held his last election rallies in Istanbul on Saturday, before a so-called propaganda ban went into effect, accusing the opposition of working with US President Joe Biden to topple him while making a final appeal in the run-up to the biggest challenge to his 20-year rule. Polls show Erdogan trailing behind the main opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu. If neither of the candidates wins more…
This weekend, Russia’s military held live-fire tank exercises with 1,500 soldiers in those areas and others nearby. The Russian Federal Security Service, the FSB, intercepted a Ukrainian navy vessel in the Sea of Azov that it claimed was carrying out a “provocation.” And Putin, the Kremlin, and the country’s state-run media pumped out more bellicose rhetoric.White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters this week that Putin hasn’t made a decision as to whether he will launch another large-scale invasion of Ukraine. But US intelligence and military analysts warn that he has plenty of Russian forces in place if…
Paul Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, was accused of ordering his followers to starve their children and themselves to death.The number of victims of a starvation cult in Kenya’s Shakahola forest has risen to 201 after 22 more bodies were recovered, according to a regional governmental official. “Our forensic team was able to exhume 22 bodies today, but we have not reported any rescue,” Rhodah Onyancha, a regional commissioner, told journalists on Saturday. Throughout this week authorities have been digging up shallow graves scattered through the forest looking for remains and scouring the area for any survivors…
Josmith used to dread nightfall inside his ICE detention cell because it meant he’d be struggling to breathe for hours.The 25-year-old Haitian asylum-seeker was diagnosed with asthma in 2015 and was able to control it with medication — but after entering ICE’s Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, New Mexico, Josmith’s condition worsened as he struggled to breathe throughout the day, and it was always harder when he tried to sleep. Fear of catching COVID in the detention center’s tight quarters didn’t help.Josmith said he felt like he was “suffocating” and that he “could die here.”ICE detainees like Josmith, who…
Ukraine forces are advancing along parts of the front line against Russian troops near the war-torn eastern town of Bakhmut. “Our soldiers are moving forward in some areas of the front, and the enemy is losing equipment and manpower,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, said on social media on Saturday. “The defensive operation in the Bakhmut direction continues.” Russia acknowledged on Friday its forces had fallen back north of Ukraine’s ruined eastern city in a retreat the head of Russia’s Wagner private army called a “rout” not a “regrouping”. In its latest bulletin, Russia’s defence ministry said…
ROME — Sixth-seeded Andrey Rublev beat Alex Molcan 6-3, 6-4 in the only match completed so far on a rainy Saturday at the Italian Open. The start of play was delayed for nearly two hours and there was also a brief interruption due to rain during the first set of the Rublev-Molcan match. Then there was a downpour during the final points, as Rublev hurried to close it out before a tarp was pulled out over the red clay court. “I can rest now and I can rest tomorrow. I don’t need to stress waiting,” said Rublev, who won the…
Going back to the pop culture references, many on Twitter are making memes that show Zelensky photoshopped as various Marvel characters, including Captain America. Some people have decided he resembles actor Jeremy Renner, who plays Hawkeye in the Marvel films, and have “cast” the actor in the role of Zelensky in…I guess…a war film? “Fans cast Jeremy Renner as Zelensky in fantasy Ukraine invasion film: Too soon?” a New York Post headline read. “Fans…. of what……..,” one person responded.Sellers on Etsy are even getting in on the action. On the platform, you can buy mugs with Zelensky’s face on them…
Attention once again turned to the US-Mexico border this week as a pandemic-era policy in the United States that allowed authorities to rapidly expel most asylum seekers under the pretext of public health expired. Large numbers of migrants and refugees rushed to the border in hopes of seeking protection in the US in advance of the expiration of Title 42 late on Thursday, as new restrictions on asylum also came into effect. At the same time, President Joe Biden’s administration had dispatched additional troops and other resources as authorities braced for an influx of arrivals. Here are some of the…
When the Russian military invaded Ukraine in a blitzkrieg of heavy weaponry, pro-Ukraine hacktivists looking to take down www.mil.ru met with something unexpected: a 418 error in which a server declares it cannot complete your request because it is a teapot.The teapot error is a decades-old April Fools’ joke occasionally repurposed to tell would-be hackers that their efforts have been foreseen and blocked. “It’s almost like giving a middle finger,” Amit Serper, the director of security research at Akamai, told BuzzFeed News. Akamai, like its competitor Cloudflare, runs much of the plumbing that supports the internet.A few days later, the…