Greek search crews have found the body of a British scientist who went missing while on holiday on the Aegean island of Ikaria in a ravine near where she had been staying, authorities said Wednesday.
 
Police said the body of Cyprus-based astrophysicist Natalie Christopher, 34, was found in a 20-meter (65-foot) deep ravine. Christopher had been reported missing on Monday by her Cypriot partner with whom she was vacationing after she went for a morning run.
 
The cause of death was not immediately clear and authorities planned an autopsy.
 
Police, firefighters, volunteers and the coast guard had been scouring the area where Christopher had been staying during her vacation, which has paths along ravines and steep seaside cliffs. A specialized police unit with geolocation equipment was sent to the island to help in the search.
 
Cypriot authorities said they were in close contact with Greek search crews and the woman’s family.
 
“I express the sincere condolences of the Cypriot state and of myself to the family and friends of Natalie Christopher,” Cypriot Justice and Public Order Minister George Savvides said after being informed that the body had been identified.

…

They are seen as the shock troops of a burgeoning direct-action environmental movement. Earlier this year, members of Extinction Rebellion brought the center of London and some other major British towns to a standstill by barricading bridges, standing on top of trains, and blocking major thoroughfares and crossroads. 

Extinction Rebellion (XR), a campaign of civil disobedience born in Britain and aiming to address a worldwide climate crisis, has been endorsed by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, the teenage poster child of environmentalism. XR has pledged to cause more disruption, arguing that governments are not doing enough to stop the “climate emergency.” 

The group, which is spawning similar campaigns in the United States and Australia, says climate activists have no choice but to take matters into their own hands. It demands that governments prevent further biodiversity loss and commit to producing net-zero greenhouse gases by 2025. Otherwise, XR says, there will be a mass extinction of life forms on the planet within the lifetimes of the demonstrators themselves.

The group’s next target is next month’s star-studded London Fashion Week. Activists have promised to shut down the five-day runway event in a bid to raise awareness of the environmental damage caused by the fashion industry.

“We need to change our culture around consumption,” said climate activist Bel Jacobs. “People have no idea how environmentally destructive fashion is.”

Greenhouse gas emissions from making textiles was estimated at 1.2 billion tons of CO2-equivalent in 2015, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a British environmental charity.

‘Cultish nature’

XR’s actions have been applauded by many environmentalists, who say the only way to make governments, people and corporations sit up and take climate action is to shock them into it. But the radical philosophy underpinning the group, which includes wanting to set up citizens’ assemblies that could overrule parliament, is drawing increasing criticism from foes, who compare the group to a millenarian sect. 

“The cultish nature of XR’s activities is a little spooky,” said Austin Williams, director of the Future Cities Project, a group that focuses on urban planning and futurist technological solutions.

Sympathizers acknowledge that XR hasn’t helped itself with some of the remarks made by its leaders. Co-founder Gail Bradbrook said her realization that humanity was on the brink of extinction came from taking huge doses of psychedelic drugs, which “rewired” her brain and gave her the “codes of social change.”

Roger Hallam, another co-founder, has said, “We are going to force the governments to act. And if they don’t, we will bring them down and create a democracy fit for purpose. And yes, some may die in the process.”

Hallam is not a scientist but has a track record as a political activist, and holds a Ph.D. on “digitally enhanced political resistance and empowerment strategies.”

BirthStrikers

Several leading XR adherents have announced they’ve decided not to procreate in response to the coming “climate breakdown and civilization collapse,” arguing the world is too horrible a place to bring children into it. 

The BirthStrikers, as they are nicknamed, received some endorsement earlier this year from U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said the climate emergency “does lead young people to have a legitimate question — ‘Is it OK still to have children?'”

XR critics have compared the BirthStrikers to the Cathars, a medieval religious sect that encouraged celibacy and discouraged marriage on the grounds that every person born was just another poor soul trapped by the devil in a body.

Defections

XR has also seen defections. Sherrie Yeomans, coordinator of XR blockades in the English city of Bristol, left the group, saying, “I can no longer surround myself with the toxic, manipulative Extinction Rebellion cult.”

Johan Norberg, a Swedish author, historian and XR critic, worries that the group is fueling anxiety while not being practical about the possible solutions to global warming. 

“I guess it depends on your definition of cult,” he said. “But I think it is a growing, but very radical, sentiment that I fear plays a part in giving people anxiety about their life choices, and also leads us to thinking about these things in the wrong way,” he told VOA. 

On the BirthStrikers he said: “The bizarre thing is that they just think of another human being as a burden, a mouth to feed. But they also come along with a brain to think, and hands to work. I don’t know what scientific insight and which technology will save us from not just global warming but also the many other problems that will affect us — the next pandemic, natural disaster and so on — but I know that the chance that we’ll find it is greater if we have more people alive, who live longer lives than ever, get a longer education than ever, and are more free to make use of the accumulated knowledge and technology of mankind to take on those problems.”

Norberg points to a future of “electric cars and, soon, planes,” and biofuels made from algae and extraction of CO2 from the atmosphere. He worries about the economic consequences if the abrupt zero-growth goals of XR were adopted. 

“It would result in a reversal of the amazing economic development that has resulted in the fastest reduction of poverty in history. A lack of growth and international trade would result in human tragedies on a massive scale,” he said.

XR response

XR’s co-founders say Norberg’s formula won’t halt climate change and stop extinction. They defended themselves against critics’ cult charges, arguing recently in an article in a British newspaper, “We’ve made many mistakes, but now is the time for collective action, not recriminations.”  

“Extinction Rebellion is humbly following in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King,” Hallam said. “After covering basic material needs, human beings are not made happier through consuming more stuff.”

Bradbrook told reporters in London, “We oppose a system that generates huge wealth through astonishing innovation but is fatally unable to distribute fairly and provide universal access to its spoils. … We need a ‘revolution’ in consciousness to overturn the system.” 

…

Американська компанія Frontera Resources оскаржить в Окружному адміністративному суді Києва результати конкурсу на право видобувати нафту та газ з найбільшого українського родовища на шельфі Чорного моря «Дельфін». У відповідному позові компанія вимагає визнати конкурс недійсним, повідомили у пресслужбі Frontera Resources.

У компанії вважають, що комісія «перевищила свої повноваження та ухвалювала рішення, які протирічать урядовим актам та порушують процедуру проведення конкурсу».

Потенційні інвестори мали 60 днів на подачу заявок. Умовами до інвестора були – півтора мільярда гривень інвестицій на розвідку, щонайменше п’ять свердловин за перші п’ять років, а державна частка прибуткової продукції має становити не менше 11%.

Відповідно до закону комісія зобов’язана була визначити переможця та надати пропозицію до Кабінету міністрів протягом місяця – тобто до 12 липня 2019 року включно. У свою чергу, уряд має тоді укласти угоду протягом двох місяців.

Утім, переможця конкурсу на «Дельфін» назвали лише 26 липня. Ним стала компанія Trident Black Sea колишнього депутата Державної думи Росії Іллі Пономарьова.

Trident Black Sea на 90% належить Trident Acquisitions Corp, а ще на 10% – ірландській San Leon Energy PLC. Раніше «Дзеркало тижня» повідомляло, що ключовим акціонером Trident Acquisitions Corp. є Ілля Пономарьов – екс-депутат Держдуми, який емігрував з Росії в Україну. Ще 10% акцій належить співвласникові мережі супермаркетів «АТБ» Геннадію Буткевичу.

У коментарі Радіо Свобода сам Пономарьов заявив, що в разі перемоги компанія Trident Black Sea планує інвестувати 1 мільярд доларів у розробку ділянки шельфу та зазначив, що має громадянство України, а від російського відмовився. Також він повідомив, що компанія Trident Black Sea може отриматидержавний захист США у разі агресії росіян.

Про конкурс на «Дельфін» та компанію Frontera Resources як його потенційного фаворита «Схеми» розповідали на початку червня.

Журналісти з’ясували, що саме ця компанія й ініціювала проведення конкурсу. Крім того, вони виявили, що Frontera Resources має сумнівні проекти у Молдові та Грузії, а її фінансовий звіт за частину 2017 та 2018 років свідчить про те, що компанія є збитковою. Інвестиційний банкір Ерік Найман називає збитковість компанію «хронічною».

Крім двох вищезгаданих компаній, заявки на участь у державному конкурсі подавали ще дві: азербайджанська компанія Caspian Drilling Company LTD та «Укрнафтобуріння», бенефіціаром якої є український олігарх Ігор Коломойський.

11 червня голова Адміністрації президента України Володимира Зеленського Андрій Богдан закликав Кабінет міністрів продовжити конкурс на право розподілу нафти та газу на рекордній за площею ділянці «Дельфін» на Чорноморському шельфі. Він зазначив у своєму офіційному листі, що «штучне зменшення термінів виглядає невипадковим» і «як навмисно створений бар’єр з метою швидкого розіграшу у виборчий період стратегічно важливої нафтогазової ділянки між «своїми» та фірмами, що переслідують виключно спекулятивні завдання». Однак до його звернення міністр енергетики та голова конкурсної комісії Ігор Насалик не дослухався.
…

Національна валюта другий день поспіль частково відіграє падіння щодо американського долара, яке спостерігалося впродовж сесій міжбанківського валютного ринку 1, 2 і 5 серпня. Це зафіксував Національний банк України, який опівдні 7 серпня встановив довідкове значення курсу 25 гривень 44 копійки за долар. Це на 19 копійок менше, ніж офіційний курс на 7 серпня.

«На торгах по долару пропозиція перевищує попит, що призводить до просідання курсу. НБУ вже виходив на ринок з купівлею валюти в резерви. Придбав 20 мільйонів доларів по 25,43 гривні, чим втримав котирування від подальшого просідання», – відзначають фахівці сайту «Мінфін», які відстежують події на міжбанківському валютному ринку.

Зранку торги на міжбанку відкрилися на рівні 25 гривень 46–51 копійка за долар, але станом на 12:00 котирування склали 25 гривень 42,5–46 копійки за долар.

На 1 серпня НБУ встановив найвищий за останні три з половиною роки курс гривні до долара – 25,02 за одиницю американської валюти.
…

Котирування нафти на світових ринках оновили піврічні мінімуми. Станом на 9:15 за Києвом ціна нафти марки Brent становить 58 доларів 91 цент за барель.

Востаннє на такому рівні «чорне золото» перебувало на початку року, до кінця квітня ціни сягали 75 доларів, а від початку літа перебували в коридорі від 60 до 67 з половиною доларів за барель.

Нинішнє зниження котирувань фахівці пов’язують із черговим етапом торговельної війни між США та Китаєм, яка, вважають експерти, може спричинити уповільнення темпів розвитку світової економіки та послаблення попиту на сировину.

На американських біржах 5 серпня відбулося найбільше в 2019 році падіння курсів акцій (близько 3%), 6 червня на торгах відбулося часткове відновлення котирувань (на понад 1%).

Це сталося на тлі падіння китайської національної валюти, юаня, до рівня понад 7 юанів за 1 долар. Це найбільше здешевлення юаня в межах одного торговельного дня за 10 років, президент США Дональд Трамп одразу ж звинуватив Китай в «маніпуляції валютою». Міністр фінансів США Стівен Мнучін заявив 5 серпня, що Вашингтон співпрацюватиме з Міжнародним валютним фондом для усунення недобросовісної конкуренції з боку Пекіна.
…

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday proposed a “red flag” law that would take guns away from people who may harm themselves or others, responding to pressure for him to “do something” after a mass shooting in Dayton that killed nine people.

The Republican governor said he would ask the General Assembly to pass a law that would allow judges to temporarily confiscate guns from individuals believed by police or their relatives to be a danger, and to provide them with mental health treatment.

“We have an obligation to each other,” DeWine said at a news briefing. “If someone is showing signs of trouble or problems, we must help and we must not turn away.”

DeWine spoke three days after a gunman wearing body armor and a mask opened fire early Sunday in a crowded Dayton, Ohio, neighborhood known for its nightlife. It was the second deadly U.S. mass shooting in less than a day.

The governor, who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association when he was elected last year, was heckled Sunday night as he spoke at a vigil for the victims of the rampage.

Protesters repeatedly chanted “Do something!” — a reference to perceived state and federal inaction to curb U.S. gun violence.

“Some chanted ‘Do something!’ and they’re absolutely right,” DeWine said Tuesday. “We must do something, and that is exactly what we’re going to do.”

Other ‘red flag’ laws 

Gun control is one of the most divisive issues in American politics. Supporters of tighter restrictions say they are necessary to staunch a U.S. epidemic of gun violence, while opponents believe more controls would violate gun ownership rights under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.

DeWine, who took office in January, previously expressed support for “red flag” laws after a deadly Passover shooting at a California synagogue in April.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have “red flag” laws on the books, according to Giffords, a gun-control advocacy group. Most of the jurisdictions are under Democratic control.

DeWine’s proposal could meet resistance in the Republican-controlled Ohio Senate and House of Representatives.

In an address to the nation Monday, President Donald Trump also backed laws to allow guns to be taken away from dangerous individuals. He also proposed tighter monitoring of the internet, mental health reform and wider use of the death penalty in response to the two mass shootings over the weekend that left 32 people dead in Texas and Ohio.

The president and first lady Melania Trump will visit Dayton on Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday.

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, a Democrat, said she would welcome the president but plans to tell Trump “how unhelpful he’s been on this,” referring to Trump’s remarks on Monday about ways to curb gun violence.

“Yesterday, his comments weren’t really helpful around the issue of guns,” Whaley told reporters.

Motive unclear

Police named the Ohio gunman as Connor Betts, a 24-year-old white male from Bellbrook, Ohio, and said he was armed with an assault-style rifle fitted with an extended drum magazine that could hold 100 rounds.

The killings in Dayton began around 1 a.m. Sunday in the city’s Oregon District and ended rapidly when nearby police moved in and shot Betts dead. At least 14 people were wounded by gunfire, while others were injured as they fled. Six of the nine people killed were black.

The gunman shot at least 41 bullets in the seconds before he was killed, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl told reporters Monday. Police officers ended the rampage in about 30 seconds, Biehl said Sunday.

Investigators were still trying to determine a motive, Biehl said. FBI agents were helping police.

The shooting in Dayton, a riverfront city of about 140,000 people in southwestern Ohio, took place just 13 hours after a mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, where 22 people were killed. The 21-year-old suspect in that shooting was arrested.

Sunday’s massacre occurred a week after a teenager killed three people with an assault rifle at a food festival in Northern California before taking his own life.

…

Iran asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday to push back against the United States after it imposed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, describing the move as a “dangerous precedent.”

In a letter to Guterres, Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi accused the United States of a “brazen violation of the fundamental principles of international law” and urged the international community to condemn the U.S. behavior.

“Coercing nations into complying with the United States’ illegal demands threatens multilateralism, as the foundation of international relations, and sets a dangerous precedent, paving the way for those who aspire to rather divide, not unite, nations,” he wrote.

Ravanchi asked Guterres to “play your active role in preserving the integrity of the United Nations in line with your responsibility to counter the current dangerous trend.” However, it is not clear what Guterres could do in response to the Iranians.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric declined to comment on the letter. When asked about the U.S. sanctioning of Zarif, Guterres told reporters on Thursday: “When I ask for maximum restraint, I ask for maximum restraint at all levels.”

The U.S. sanctions imposed on Zarif last week would block any property or interests he has in the United States, but the foreign minister said he had none.

“The illegal imposition of sanctions on the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran also violates the principle of sovereign equality of States,” Ravanchi said.

Increasing tensions

Longtime U.S.-Iran strains have worsened since U.S. President Donald Trump last year quit a 2015 international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. Zarif was a critical figure in the nuclear deal.

The United States also imposed unusually tight travel restrictions on Zarif when he visited New York last month to speak at a U.N. meeting. He was only able to travel between the United Nations, the Iranian U.N. mission, the Iranian U.N. ambassador’s residence and John F. Kennedy airport.

The sanctions on Zarif were imposed two weeks after he visited New York. Zarif posted on Twitter on Monday that he believed the United States was not interested in talks with Tehran and instead wanted Iran’s submission.

…

The last time Samuel Botros stepped into the Lebanese monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya was in 1978. He was 24, newly married, and the country was in the grip of an all-out war. Like many of his generation, he left. It took him 41 years to return. 

The 1975-90 civil war may be over in Lebanon, but conflicts in nearby countries like Iraq and Syria have devastated entire communities where Christians once lived alongside Muslims. That has triggered an exodus among people of both faiths, especially among minority sects — like Botros’ Syriac Orthodox community whose roots are in early Christianity.

The monastery, which is nestled in a remote valley in the northern Lebanese mountains and dates from the fourth century, is a meeting place for Christians who have fled conflict.

“It is the war that did this to us. It is the wars that continue to leave behind destruction and force people to leave,” said Botros, visiting the monastery as part of a gathering of his community’s scout group — their first in the region since the 1950s.

The scout group’s roughly 150 members include people living in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and further afield. Lebanon was the only country where they could all meet easily and safely, Botros said.

In Iraq, years of conflict, most recently with Islamic State, erased much of the Christian heritage in ancient cities like Mosul and Sinjar in the north. In Syria’s civil war, some of the oldest churches in Aleppo, Homs and other cities were damaged.

Botros, now 65, is about to retire in Sweden where he made his home years ago. He is father and grandfather to children who know Lebanon only through photos.

“I would like them to visit so that when I pass, there is something to pull them back,” he said.

Ancient sanctuary

On Sundays and public holidays, the monastery’s small church, with the bell tower and facade, etched into the cliffs is full of people huddled in the pews or standing at the back of the vaulted interior. 

Its patron is Saint Anthony, a monk who is believed to have lived in rural Egypt in the fourth or fifth century.

“This place has always been a shrine … we don’t even know when it started. Even when there was no development … people still came,” said Father Fadi Imad, the priest who gives sermons.

Qozhaya lies within a valley known as the Valley of Saints, or Qannoubine in ancient Syriac, part of a wider valley network called Qadisha that has a long history as a refuge for monks. At one time, Qadisha was home to hundreds of hermitages, churches, caves and monasteries. The monastery of Saint Anthony is the last surviving one.

It was an early home for Lebanon’s Christian Maronites, the first followers of the Roman Catholic church in the East. 

The Maronites and sometimes the Druze, a Muslim sect, sought the sanctuary of the mountains away from the political and religious dynasties of the times with whom they did not always agree, Father Imad said.

“The inhabitants of this mountain … and they were not only Christians, came here because they were persecuted and weak,” he said.

“Qozhaya holds in its heart 1,600 years of history and it doesn’t belong to anyone, church or faith, … it belongs to the homeland,” he said.

‘I will never forget’

The monastery is surrounded by forests of pine and cedar and orchards that can only be reached via a narrow, winding road.

Its grounds include a cave where visitors light candles, a museum housing the Middle East’s oldest printing press in ancient Syriac and halls for resident priests.

Visitors nowadays include foreign and Arab tourists and local residents including Muslims who sometimes come to ask for a blessing.

Father Imad said the monastery was the safest it had been in its history despite being surrounded by countries at war or suffering its aftermath.

“No one is telling us that they are coming to kill us anymore … at least in Lebanon,” he said.

Before he left, Botros and his fellows stood for a final photo outside the building with the valley behind. With their flags and scarves around their necks, they smiled and cheered as the bells rang.

“What I have seen today I will never forget for as long as I live,” Botros said. “No matter how long it takes, the son always returns to the mother.”

…

У липні міжнародні резерви України зросли на 1,2 мільярда доларів, повідомив Національний банк. Станом на 1 серпня вони становили 21,84 мільярда доларів. Це максимум з липня 2013 року.

«У липні вони зросли на 5,8% завдяки чистій купівлі Національним банком валюти на міжбанківському ринку», – заявили в НБУ.

Серед чинників, які впливали на динаміку резервів упродовж місяця, НБУ назвав «сприятливу ситуацію на валютному ринку», «операції уряду з управління державним боргом» та «переоцінку фінансових інструментів».

За підсумками 2018 року міжнародні резерви України зросли до п’ятирічного максимуму і станом на 1 січня 2019 року сягнули 20,8 мільярда. Перед цим такий рівень резервів був зафіксований у жовтні 2013 року.
…

Опалювальний сезон в Одесі під загрозою зриву, повідомила пресслужба «Нафтогазу».

«Загальна заборгованість АТ «Одеська ТЕЦ» та КП «Теплопостачання міста Одеси» сягнула майже 1,7 млрд гривень. Зокрема, заборгованість «Одеської ТЕЦ» перед НАК «Нафтогаз України» складає 840,9 гривень, наданий в компанію графік погашення заборгованості ТЕЦ виконує лише на 74%», – заявили в «Нафтогазі».

Згідно з повідомленням, щоб мати можливість надалі купувати газ у «Нафтогазу», «Одеська ТЕЦ» має сплатити не менше, ніж 161 млн гривень. Комунальне підприємство «Теплопостачання міста Одеси», зі свого боку, заборгувало «Нафтогазу» 836 млн гривень. Компанія має сплатити щонайменше 222,4 млн гривень.

Станом на початок серпня, обсяг газу в українських підземних сховищах перевищує 16 млрд кубометрів. Обсяг видобутку газу в Україні державними й приватними компаніями у 2018 досяг 21 мільярда кубометрів. Водночас обсяг його споживання більший – 32,3 мільярда.
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Національна валюта частково відіграла падіння щодо американського долара, яке спостерігалося впродовж трьох сесій міжбанківського валютного ринку поспіль. Це зафіксував Національний банк України, який опівдні 6 серпня встановив довідкове значення курсу 25 гривень 63 копійки за долар. Це на 11 копійок менше, ніж офіційний курс на 6 серпня.

«На торгах по долару спостерігається перевищення пропозиції над попитом за рахунок нерезидентських продажів під аукціон ОВДП. Це поки притискає котирування долара», – відзначають фахівці сайту «Мінфін», які відстежують події на міжбанківському валютному ринку.

Зранку торги на міжбанку відкрилися на рівні 25 гривень 67–71 копійка за долар, але станом на 12:00 котирування склали 25 гривень 59–62 копійки за долар.

На 1 серпня НБУ встановив найвищий за останні три з половиною роки курс гривні до долара – 25,02 за одиницю американської валюти.
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Vicheika Kann and Reaksmey Hul in Phnom Penh, and Chenda Hong in Washington contributed to this report.

In his most recent photos, Nuon Chea looks like somebody’s grandfather, wearing big dark glasses that suggest a sensitivity to light possibly tied to other medical problems.

Not that long ago, he’d gone from tottering as he walked to using a wheelchair. There were whispers of liver problems and kidney troubles and whatever else happens as a human body passes through its ninth decade.

That longevity eluded some 1.7 million Cambodians who died between 1975 to 1979, as the Khmer Rouge tried, and failed, to turn Cambodia into a self-sufficient agrarian utopia. Nuon Chea, known as Brother No. 2, is widely believed to have been the mastermind behind the development of a Maoist society without money, religion or intellectuals envisioned by the regime’s founder, Pol Pot, who died in 1998. 

Nuon Chea was appealing his Nov. 16, 2018, conviction for genocide when he died on Sunday in Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh. He had been in care since July 2. At age 93, he was serving a life sentence for a 2014 conviction for crimes against humanity. 

“He died easier than the people he killed,” said Sun Sitha, 58, a resident of Siem Reap who lost her father and three siblings to the Khmer Rouge. “He separated people from their families, and hurt them. He deserved to die.”

Silent as to actions

If Nuon Chea was the mastermind behind Cambodia’s genocide, the details died with him. He never spoke in court of how the Khmer Rouge executed their plan to achieve a new regime. He never admitted guilt. He maintained that the Khmer Rouge were nationalists, fighting Viet Nam, and the United States, which engaged “secret” bombings of Cambodia as it tracked the communist Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is a former Khmer Rouge fighter who has been in power since 1985. Hun Sen, the increasingly authoritarian leader of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, has spoken out against reopening investigations into that era.

Liv Sovanna, one of Noun Chea’s lawyers, said at a Sunday press conference in Phnom Penh after Nuon Chea’s death that his client was innocent because “when the defendant dies, the lawsuit is dissolved.” Thus, the verdict issued by the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts in Cambodia (ECCC), the tribunal that tried Nuon Chea and other Khmer Rouge leaders, “has no effect any longer because, based on the presumption of innocence, Nuon Chea is innocent.”

The controversial ECCC convicted Khmer Rouge torture center chief, Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Comrade Duch in 2010 and found guilty Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan in 2014. In 2018, just as with Nuon Chea, they were sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity and genocide. Two other top suspects — Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith — died before their cases could be concluded.

Cambodia is a young country. Only about 10% of the population are, like Sun Sitha, in their 50s or older. Half its 16.5 million people are under the age of 22. If their parents survived the Khmer Rouge, they rarely speak of their experiences because many Cambodians believe that would transmit the suffering to their children. 

That means most Cambodians have no direct experience of the Khmer Rouge, who were known to execute teachers, doctors, ethnic Vietnamese, with pickaxes rather than spend money on bullets.

Knows history

Yuth Kunthea, a 25-year-old resident of Siem Reap, does know about Noun Chea and the Khmer Rouge.

“I’m not sorry that he died because he caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people, he hurt people, and separated them from their family members,” she said, adding she learned about the regime in school. “We lost a lot of good Khmer people.”

The Khmer Rouge buried the bodies in mass graves, dubbed “killing fields,” like the one near Trung Bat, in northern Cambodia, where the Khmer Rouge maintained a prison and a crematorium.

Many of the remains were ground down to make fertilizer in an effort to meet quotas for the rice crop. Others, like those found by soil excavators in 2012, were buried intact with arms bound behind them or weighed down by rocks, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-CAM). 

“No one can forget him,” said Lat Lon, a 73-year-old monk from Teputhyvong Temple, the site of a mass grave, in Siem Reap province. “We have no peace of mind. They tortured people, so he deserved to die. People should have peace of mind.”

According to Buddhist beliefs, even though Noun Chea and other Khmer Rouge leaders are dead, the souls of their victims and those who survived still do not have a peaceful mind. 

“How can they have peace of mind?” Lat Lon asked. “According to the Dharma, dead people still miss their family members.”

‘He died with sin’

Youk Chhang, the DC-CAM executive director in Phnom Penh and a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, told VOA Khmer by phone that Nuon Chea cannot escape his deeds in death despite the law’s presumption of innocence.

“He was born like all of us but he committed sins and he died with sin,” he said. 

Nuon Chea died without the dignity that comes with age, said Youk Chhang, and his death is drawing mixed reactions. 

“Some I asked immediately [after Nuon Chea died] said they are not happy because when he was alive, he was defiant about what he had done,” Youk Chhang said. “He did not … give a value of the history to the next generation.” Even after the verdict, “he was still defiant for what he did and he was responsible.”

Documentary filmmaker Thet Sambath interviewed Nuon Chea extensively in the late 1990s, and then co-produced the 2009 award-winning documentary “Enemies of the People,” about the Khmer Rouge leadership. Just after Nuon Chea’s death, Thet Sambath, who lives in Massachusetts, told VOA Khmer by phone that he was grateful to Nuon Chea for “giving me historical documents and secret stories about the Khmer Rouge,” he said. “It’s very lucky for Cambodian people” to have this information, he added.

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На американських біржах 5 серпня відбулося найбільше в 2019 році падіння курсів акцій. Індекс S&P500, до якого входять 500 найбільших американських компаній, впав на 3 відсотки, індекс Dow Jones – на 2,9 відсотка, Nasdaq – на 3,5 відсотка.

Це сталося на тлі продовження торговельної війни Китаю та США і падіння китайської національної валюти, юаня, до рівня понад 7 юанів за 1 долар. Це найбільше здешевлення юаня в межах одного торговельного дня за 10 років, резидент США Дональд Трамп одразу ж звинуватив Китай в «маніпуляції валютою». Міністр фінансів США Стівен Мнучін заявив 5 серпня, що Вашингтон співпрацюватиме з Міжнародним валютним фондом для усунення недобросовісної конкуренції з боку Пекіна.

5 серпня стало відомо також, що Китай призупинив закупівлі сільськогосподарської продукції США. До цих кроків Пекін вдався на тлі заяв Трампа з погрозами запровадити додаткові мита на китайський імпорт в США на суму близько 300 мільярдів доларів.

Зниження фондових індексів спричинило і падіння цин на сировину. Зокрема, нафта марки Brent уночі 6 серпня падала нижче 60 доларів за барель, що є одним із найнижчих показників упродовж 2019 року.
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China says it will take “countermeasures” if the United States deploys ground-based intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region.  

Fu Cong, the director of the Foreign Ministry’s arms control division, told reporters Tuesday that Beijing “will not stand idly by” if Washington follows through on a pledge made last weekend by new Defense Secretary Mark Esper to deploy the missiles in the region “sooner rather than later,” preferably within months. 

He urged China’s neighbors, specifically Japan, South Korea and Australia, to “exercise prudence” by refusing to deploy the U.S. missiles, adding that it would serve those countries national security interests.  

Fu did not specify what countermeasures China would take, but said “everything is on the table.” 

Secretary Esper’s stated goal to deploy ground-based missiles in the region came after the Trump administration formally pulled the U.S. out of the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty last week. The pact, reached with the former Soviet Union, bans ground-based nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles with a range between 500-5,000 kilometers. Washington said it withdrew from the INF because of continued violations by Moscow.  

Fu said China had no interest in taking part in trilateral talks with the United States and Russia due to the “huge gap” in the size of China’s nuclear arsenal compared to the other two nations.  

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