An anti-quarantine protester seen hoisting an effigy of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) at the state Capitol in Frankfort last weekend has been dismissed from his job.Â
Frankfort’s Neil Huffman Auto Group on Tuesday tweeted that a company employee had been terminated following an internal investigation, noting, “There is no place for hate or intolerance at any of our dealerships.â€Â
By Wednesday, the Louisville Courier-Journal identified the employee as Terry Bush, president of the Kentucky Three Percenters group.Â
— Huffman Chevy Buick GMC of Frankfort (@NeilHuffmanGM1) May 26, 2020
Though Bush had no comment on the matter, his wife Patsy Kays Bush told the newspaper, “He was fired because this governor is more important than the regular joe out in this state trying to put food on their tables.â€
Patsy Kays Bush said the group was not involved in the creation of the effigy, though her husband helped hang it from a tree.Â
Sunday’s protest had been promoted as a “Patriot Day 2nd Amendment Rally,†drawing demonstrators angered by restrictions Beshear implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.Â
Photographer Gerry Seavo, who covered the protest, said the effigy was brought out by the event’s organizer, Ben Kennedy.Â
“It was eerie to me because as an African American, there’s these intergenerational trauma triggers,†he told HuffPost. “It’s a lynching. It’s a lynching. That popped into my mind and I thought, ‘What am I doing here?’â€
The act was lambasted by Beshear, who called it a “celebration of assassination on our capitol grounds.â€
Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle felt similarly.Â
“Doing this in front of our Capitol, just a short walk from where the Governor, First Lady, and their two young children live, is an act that reeks of hate and intimidation and does nothing but undermine our leading work to battle this deadly disease and restore our economy safely,†Kentucky state House Democrats said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the state’s Republican Party said in a statement that it “strongly condemns the violent imagery against the Governor.â€
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America hit a somber benchmark in the coronavirus pandemic, with the U.S. death toll reaching 100,000.
USA TODAY
CHICAGO – As Easter approached, the Rev. Marshall Hatch anticipated a joyful season of rebirth, celebration and reunion for his family. Instead, it was a time of death, confusion and isolation as four people in his world died in one week after contracting the coronavirus.
On April 1, Hatch lost his best friend of 45 years to COVID-19, as well as a beloved member of his congregation. Three days later, he lost his older sister in the early morning. That afternoon, a man who did construction work at the church died.
Over Easter weekend, Hatch buried his parishioner and his sister. That Sunday, he preached a virtual service at his Baptist church on the city’s West Side, with light from the towering stained glass windows falling on rows of empty pews.
A few days later, his wife was diagnosed with the coronavirus. She recovered but has remained in her bedroom, quarantining.
“It was crazy. The whole thing was crazy,” Hatch said. Even seven weeks later, “it’s still all one blur of a reality.”
With more than 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S., millions of friends and relatives are working through a sense of suspended grief. They can’t clasp their loved one’s hands by their bedside. They can’t hold one another at the cemetery. There’s no ceremonial closure, no supporting embrace.
Members of the Hatch family are finding their own ways, alone, to process the losses.
Oldest of eight siblings was a maternal figure
Marshall’s younger sister, Josephine, 55, sat with her son in her late sister’s apartmentseven weeks after her death.
Rhoda Jean Hatch, 73, had lived in a four-unit building occupied exclusively by family members – a dormitory of sorts where no one locks their doors. Her bedroom was sparse and neat. Family pictures sat on the mantle along with artifacts from Kenya. Rhoda liked to travel light.
“When we walked in the door, we both said it smells like Rhoda’s here. Her presence is still here,” Josephine said. She had just helped her 68-year-old sister, Jennie, back to her unit upstairs and stopped by Rhoda’s apartment for a moment of peace.
There once were eight Hatch siblings – seven sisters and one brother, though several died before the pandemic. The family grew up in public housing and lost their parents at an early age.Â
“I was only 2 years old when our mom died, so I don’t even really have memories of her. And my dad died when I was 16,” said Josephine, the youngest surviving sibling. “So Rhoda, being the oldest, that’s who she was for me, a maternal figure.”
Rhoda was a trailblazer. The first to move out of the home. The first to graduate from college. The first to go to Africa. A scholar. An anti-war activist. A lifelong public school teacher. An avid Scrabble player and the church organist.
“Losing Rhoda in 2020 is really unreal. I’ve been trying to wake up from this nightmare for two months,” said Jennie, a retired customer service professional. “My brother and I took her to the hospital on that Wednesday. In a matter of days she was gone.”
That’s when Rhoda fell sick, thinking it was another asthma attack.
The last time Marshall spoke to his sister, it was the evening before she was intubated – a decision he plays over and over in his mind. The last time he saw her alive, he and Rhoda’s son Joel donned gowns, gloves, face masks and shields and entered the hospital’s COVID floor.
“It was more like a space suit. Not very intimate,” Marshall said. “She was heavily sedated. There was no response. It was a ‘say goodbye’ moment.”Â
When the family learned she had died, “we were all standing in different corners of the room. We couldn’t console each other. Everyone just stood in their own grief,” Josephine said.
Marshall recalled Rhoda’s comforting touch when their sister Nancy died in 2009. As they stood at the casket, Rhoda looked up at Marshall with “that proud mother smile,” he said, and stroked his face from his forehead to his cheeks.Â
“She says, ‘Marshall, you look nice,'” he said, taking a deep breath and tearing up. “Boy, that was about as close to maternal as I’d been. … She was the matriarch.”
Rhoda’s funeral planning sparked disagreements among the family.Should it be online? Who could attend? “Finally, we just shut it down and ended up going with a visitation and burial,” Marshall said.
He performed a funeral for his parishioner and “church mother,” Daisy Gee, in the same chapel where his sister lay the next day for her visitation. On the day of her visitation, Marshall sat with his sister late that night for a final moment alone.
As five cars pulled up to the cemetery for Rhoda’s burial the next day, Marshall panicked and got back into his car, calling on the family to return to their vehicles until they could agree who was allowed to exit.
“All these tensions, people not knowing what to do and looking lost,” Marshall said. “I looked like I lost it, but I just needed people to get back in their cars because it was looking like it was going out of control.”
Josephine recalled standing at a distance from her family at the grave. “We haven’t even been able to hug each other,” she said.
The loss of Marshall’s best friend, Larry Harris, 62, compounded the family’s grief. Larry grew up in public housing across the street from the Hatches and went to high school and college with Marshall. He worked as a cop and security guard. He was Marshall’s best man twice, when he got married and when he renewed his vows.
“He would always come over to watch Bears or Bulls games. He was just a comedian of the family. He would effortlessly make us laugh,” said Marshall Hatch Jr., who sang at Larry’s 10-person funeral service.
Marshall Jr., the 32-year-old reverend’s son, runs a community program for at-risk young men on the West Side. For him, the quick succession of losses made it even more difficult to support his father – let alone grieve himself.
“I didn’t really have time to process my own emotions. I was trying to be supportive,” he said. “You understand within yourself that it will take a while until you realize who you’ve lost – the voids that are in you as a result of those two individuals being gone.”
When his mother tested positive days later, Marshall Jr. was terrified.
“She had very mild symptoms, fortunately. I don’t know what I would have done if she had shared the same fate as Rhoda and Larry,” he said. “It would have been too much. It would have been an avalanche.”
‘I don’t know if that’s grief’
Marshall Sr., who has taken three trips to the same cemetery in the past two months to bury coronavirus victims, said he hasn’t been able to fully grieve for the people he has lost. He’s not quite sure what that would look like.
“There are deep phases of reflection that I’ve been in, but I don’t know if that’s grief or if that’s processing,” he said.
He has found some solace in cooking, prayer and Aretha Franklin. He shares photos of his sister with his son and recounts Larry’s old jokes. He keeps their eulogies close.
Josephine is honoring Rhoda by continuing her work as a public school teacher. She’s reading “A Raisin in the Sun” aloud with her eighth-grade class over video, trying to envision Rhoda as she reads the lines of Lena “Mama” Younger, the mother and guiding light in the Chicago-based play.
As a child, Josephine saw Rhoda perform the role of Mama. “Reading along with the students, I almost became her in the characterization I saw when I was younger,” she said.
Marshall Hatch Jr. is honoring Rhoda’s legacy by diving into the family’s history.
“She was, to me, the holder of sacred stories for the family. She was really like our grail,” he said.
Marshall Jr. is building on Rhoda’s work of sankofa – a Ghanian principle of learning from the past – by becoming the family’s keeper of tales. How the siblings’ grandparents met below Chicago’s elevated train tracks. How their relatives moved to the city from Mississippi during the Great Migration, when millions of African Americans left the South in the mid-1900s.
Marshall Jr. recently stumbled across records that confirm an ancestor fought for the Union during the Civil War. He enlisted just after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Learning that spurred “a huge sense of pride. I don’t even think Aunt Rhoda knew that,” he said. “That new discovery has given us some type of strength in a strange way. We all knew that we had a liberation impulse in all of us.”
Rhoda always encouraged the family to visit their ancestors’ graves on Memorial Day. Her son, Wesley, fought in the Gulf War. He was stationed in Texas when he was killed in a random act of violence on Mother’s Day in 1992.Â
“This year, it’s really, really going to be hard because now she becomes part of the visitation,” said Josephine after returning from a trip to buy flowers, gardening tools and American flags. “That seems a little surreal even saying it out loud right now. Now she becomes part of this memorial tour.
“I’m bringing my children,” she said, “so that another generation will come this year to carry on the tradition of remembering.”
As they celebrate those who came before, the Hatches are also celebrating life. Marshall Jr.’s daughter, Sofia, turned 1 year old on Thursday. The aunts drove by the house and played music as Sofia danced outside. The parents had a mini photo shoot.
Marshall Jr. spoke to USA TODAY in his living room just after Sofia finished smashing her birthday cake. He held a small folder on his lap – a collection of documents that Rhoda’s sisters had found in her room.
“Aunt Jennie began to put together what she thought Aunt Rhoda wanted to give to me. She gave that folder to me today, on Sofia’s birthday,” Hatch said.
Inside the folder, Marshall Jr. found a hand-drawn family tree. On the final branch, in Rhoda’s handwriting, was one last name: Sofia.
“I know our story is not unique,” Josephine said. “I feel like we’re all part of this tragic story, and it’s important for us to draw strength from each other. Eventually, this will end. But it feels sometimes like you’re digging out of a tunnel.”
In spite of a pandemic and the countrywide lockdown, the Narendra Modi government’s popularity remains high as it completes one year of its second term in office. A recent survey shows that the government enjoys the support of 62 per cent of respondents, which is lower than year.
According to the survey, conducted by LocalCircles in first half of May among 65,000 citizens in 280 districts, 62 per cent of respondents felt the government either exceeded or met their expectations in the past year. While 26 per cent said it exceeded expectations, 36 per cent felt it managed to meet expectations.
The government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, got the highest approval rating, with 90 per cent of respondents saying they were satisfied with its efforts. While 59 per cent said the handling of the situation was very effective, 31 per cent felt it was somewhat effective, and 10 per cent felt it was ‘not effective’ or of ‘quite poor’.
The survey suggests that four factors have worked in the government’s favour. Its tough stance on terrorism, efforts to improve relations with other countries, smooth passage of legislative Bills in Parliament, and promptness in taking tough steps to control Covid-19. However, even though the government enjoyed popularity six years after it first came to power in 2014, data showed the approval rate had fallen compared to last year (at 75 per cent). In 2019, only 25 per cent felt unsatisfied by its overall performance, against 38 per cent now. Of the 15 parameters in the survey, the government’s rating improved in only one —its handling of Parliament and passage of key Bills — from 65 per cent in 2019 to 79 per cent in May 2020. The ratings fell significantly on key economic parameters, like addressing unemployment, ease of doing business, reduction in cost of living and start-up environment.
In the latest survey only 29 per cent said India had been able to address the unemployment situation, the number was 48 per cent a year ago. In 2020, only 43 per cent felt doing business was easier, compared to 63 per cent in 2019.
Last year 57 per cent of respondents felt cost of living had come down and prices of essential commodities had fallen, the figure was 36 per cent in the latest survey. Only 37 per cent now believe establishing, operating and growing a start-up has become easier, compared to 66 per cent in 2019.
Approval fell on other parameters, too, even though ratings remained well above 50 per cent. Nearly 73 per cent Indians believe the government has been efficient in handling terrorism and reduced in-land terrorist activities in the past year, compared to 85 per cent earlier.
In 2020, 69 per cent Indians are optimistic about their future and that of their families’, down from 82 per cent. And 56 per cent felt the government’s handling of issues related to communalism were satisfactory, compared to 69 per cent in 2019. Only on the parameter of reducing corruption (49 per cent), it failed to achieve the support of the majority.
India’s foreign affairs strategy and its status on the global arena played a crucial role in the citizens’ positive feedback. A whopping 79 per cent of respondents said India’s image and influence in the world had improved in the last year — nine percentage points lower than 2019.
ABC via REUTERSMasks and other plastic materials, are seen, after they were washed up because of damaged shipping containers on the Malabar beach, Sydney, Australia, May 27, 2020.
As the global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has risen above 350,000, it has been tempting to look for a silver lining in the environmental changes that the crisis has caused.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned this month of “aggressive†rats on the loose in some communities, searching for new sources of food because restaurants have largely shut down.
Even as the pandemic sparks hope of a green revolution, however, there are signs that the crisis could cause lasting harm to the environment.
Plastic is making a major comeback, thanks to increased demand for packaged food and disposable shopping bags, the installation of plexiglass dividers in shops and offices, and the widespread use of gloves and protective masks.
Noam Galai via Getty ImagesA person wears a protective face mask in New York during the coronavirus pandemic on May 21. The pandemic has allowed plastic bags and other items to make a comeback around the world.
In France, 40% of the use of plastic is devoted to packaging, HuffPost France reports. At the end of March, as the coronavirus crisis ramped up, Elipso, the professional federation of the plastic packaging sector, recorded a 30% increase in production, mainly in the food, hygiene and detergents sectors.
Part of the reason for the increase, according to Emmanuel Guichard, Elipso’s general manager, is that suppliers have largely had to shift away from selling to restaurants and toward serving home consumers.
Items that, prior to lockdown, were sold in bulk to restaurants and cafeterias are now sold in smaller containers in supermarkets, Guichard told HuffPost France. “That means more packaging.â€
The explosion of online ordering and in-store collection also explains why consumers, including those who were sensitive to the issue of packaging before the crisis, are less attentive.Â
According to a study carried out at the end of April by the Kantar Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers, 24% of French people did their food shopping via “click and collect†during confinement, in order to limit human contact.
In these cases, “your strawberries will necessarily be in plastic, in case they end up under your laundry,†Guichard said.
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez via Getty ImagesNew York’s ban on single-use plastic bags went into effect March 1, but enforcement is being delayed, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic has also caused cities and states in Europe and the U.S. to pause or roll back bans on single-use plastic bags, due to fears that reusable shopping bags could more easily spread the coronavirus.Â
“It is critical to protect the public health and safety and minimize the risk of COVID-19 exposure for workers engaged in essential activities, such as those handling reusable grocery bags,†said an order announcing California’s move.
Environmentalists have argued, however, that there is little evidence that reusable shopping bags carry a greater risk of spreading the coronavirus.
They say that the plastics industry is taking advantage of the crisis to promote their products and demonize reusables — despite studies that suggest that the coronavirus can live for days on plastic surfaces.
“We ask that the department speak out against bans on these products as a public safety risk and help stop the rush to ban these products by environmentalists and elected officials that puts consumers and workers at risk,†Plastics Industry Association CEO Tony Radoszewski wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in March.
This month, the CDC issued guidance for restaurants and bars that encouraged the use of disposable utensils and single-use condiment packets.
“The plastic industry has really treated the COVID-19 emergency as an opportunity and is preying on people’s fear to scare them into believing that single-use plastic is the best way to stay safe,†John Hocevar, director of Greenpeace’s oceans campaign, recently told Vox. “And so far, there isn’t any independent scientific research that supports that.â€
KONTROLAB via Getty ImagesA face mask in the street in Naples, Italy.
Another symbol of the pandemic has been the number of gloves and masks littering city streets.Â
In hospitals, used masks are considered hazardous waste and are sent for incineration. But there is no such system for the general public.
Used masks and gloves should be disposed of in the trash, but many cities have experienced a rise in personal protective equipment litter since the pandemic began.
This litter represents not just a threat to the health of the people who encounter it and clean it up, but also to the environment as a whole.
Medical-grade masks are commonly made from polypropylene, a very dense thermoplastic, which is non-biodegradable and non-recyclable.
“It is not the worst polymer, but it is generally estimated that solid polypropylene takes around 500 years to degrade,†Etienne Grau, a teacher-researcher at the University of Bordeaux, told HuffPost France.
In France, divers say that they have seen an uptick in “COVID pollution†in the sea and other waterways.
“First it was the gloves,†one diver said in a video that has gone viral online this month. “Then we started to find masks three or four days ago. … This is just the beginning of the COVID waste.â€
This week, Virginia Raggi, the mayor of Rome, announced a 500-euro fine for anyone who fails to properly dispose of masks and gloves.Â
“The use of masks and gloves is essential in this critical moment: However, they must not be thrown on the ground under any circumstances,†Raggi said, according to HuffPost Italy.
“Let me be clear: There must be zero tolerance against those who throw this kind of waste on the street.â€
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The launch of a SpaceX rocket ship with two NASA astronauts on a history-making flight into orbit has been called off with 16 minutes to go in the countdown because of the danger of lightning.
Liftoff is rescheduled for Saturday.
The spacecraft was set to blast off Wednesday afternoon for the International Space Station, ushering in a new era in commercial spaceflight and putting NASA back in the business of launching astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time in nearly a decade.
Ever since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, NASA has relied on Russian rockets to carry astronauts to and from the space station.
The Health Ministry announced that South Africa’s COVID-19 caseload increased by 1 673 over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 25 937. SA’s caseload was 24 264 on Tuesday 26 May 2020.
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize also confirmed that the latest death toll now stands at 552; which is an increase of 28. The total number of recoveries to date is 13 451.
COVID-19 update: South Africa, Wednesday 27 May 2020
As of yesterday, 128 cases in South Africa are treated as critical.
We wish to express our condolences to the loved ones of the deceased and thank the health care workers who treated these patients.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize
Breakdown of new confirmed COVID-19 cases
COVID-19 cases by province
The following confirmed COVID-19 cases per province is as follows:
Province
Total Cases
New Cases
Total Deaths
Total Recoveries
Gauteng
3 167
31
1 955
Western Cape
16 893
391
8 504
KwaZulu Natal
2 186
49
1 180
Free State
221
6
123
Eastern Cape
3 047
70
1 491
Limpopo
141
3
67
Mpumalanga
106
0
62
North West
128
1
39
Northern Cape
48
1
30
Tests and screening
As of today:
A total of 634 996 tests have been conducted, of which 29 005 were done in the last 24 hours.
The total number of tests conducted in the private sector stands at 309 990, of which 10 940 were done in the last 24 hours.
In addition, 325 006 tests were conducted in the public sector, with 18 065 being done within the last 24 hours.
Global COVID-19 statistics
As of today, confirmed global cases stand at 5 722 643 and 353 580 deaths. More than 2 457 960 people have recovered from the virus, which was declared as a worldwide pandemic in January 2020.
The USA currently has the most cases – 1 730 479 confirmed cases and 100 825 confirmed deaths; a total of 480 321 citizens have recovered. Out of the 1 149 333 active cases, 17 158 are critical.
Brazil is now the second most-affected country after overtaking Rusisa, with 394 507 confirmed cases and 24 953 deaths. While 158 593 patients have recovered, about 2 300 of the 211 321 active cases are critical.
There has been a surge of optimism lately about a possible thaw in relations between Turkey and Israel. Signs of a possible breakthrough came when Israel’s national carrier, El Al, resumed its cargo flights to Turkey, with the first plane landing in Istanbul on May 24 after a decade-long pause. The flights had stopped after Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists on board the Mavi Marmara flotilla carrying aid to Gaza in May 2010, sending relations between the former allies into a tailspin.
Yet even as El Al was loading medical supplies to combat COVID-19 for onward delivery to US doctors, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was blasting Israel’s plans to annex nearly half of the West Bank in an Eid al-Fitr address to American Muslims the same day.
Noting that “a new occupation and annexation project, which disregards Palestine’s sovereignty and international law,†had been set in motion by Israel, Erdogan vowed to “not allow the Palestinian lands to be offered to anyone else.â€
Moreover, Jerusalem is a “red line for all Muslims, worldwide,†he said, making it clear that Ankara’s overall stance toward the Jewish state remained unchanged.
Few will have likely been more dismayed than Israel’s charge d’affaires in Ankara, Roey Gilad. In a May 21 essay for the Turkish online publication Halimiz, Gilad had called for mutually reinstating ambassadors. There has been no ambassador in either capital since May 2018, when Turkey asked Israel’s ambassador, Eitan Na’eh, to “go on leave†because of carnage in Gaza and Washington’s decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Gilad said the sides did not have to “agree on everything†and do have mutal concerns. Most critically, Turkey is at odds in Syria with Israel’s biggest bugbear, Iran, and its Hezbollah proxies. So why not just push differences aside to focus on common interests and enemies, Gilad suggested.Â
The reality remains that neither side has any compelling reason to do so, particularly since the hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu remains at Israel’s helm.
As matters currently stand, Erdogan doesn’t believe that relations can normalize so long as Netanyahu is in charge and Netanyahu thinks the same of Erdogan. “It’s business as usual,†said a well-informed Israeli source speaking not for attribution. “Unlike [the period between] 1949 and 2010, Israel is not running after Turkey. Its interests are diversified and all the more so because Erdogan’s Turkey hardly followed those interests. Relations with Israel were thrown under the bus,†the source said. The source was alluding to the halcyon days of Turco-Israeli friendship in the 1990s when Turkey’s anti-Islamist generals had the final say and Israeli jets trained in Turkish skies.
Under Erdogan, Turkey hosts top-level Hamas operatives on its soil and continues to engage in “blatant†anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Under Netanyahu, Israel has all but abandoned a two-state solution to the Palestinian problem.
“Is there a political will in Israel to gamble [on better relations with Turkey ] again? What for? What will Israel and Turkey get that they already don’t have?†the source asked.
The idea that Erdogan would jettison his status as the champion of the Palestinian cause — a valued domestic propaganda tool — just as Israel mulls further annexation of Palestinian territory was fanciful to start with. The only obvious downside for Ankara not having an ambassador in Israel is that “this will require it to come up with a more creative or harsher than needed reaction to the annexation as it doesn’t have the more soft diplomatic option of withdrawing its ambassador,†wrote Gallia Lindenstrauss, a senior research fellow at the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies, in emailed comments to Al-Monitor.
Meanwhile, business between the two countries, mainly in Turkey’s favor, keeps growing anyway. The resumption of the El Al cargo service is a reflection of that trend. And despite friction over Hamas, intelligence cooperation between the sides is continuing, Israeli sources confirm.
Turkish spy chief Hakan Fidan and his Israeli counterpart Yossi Cohen have met at least twice within the last 10 months, most recently in January, according to two well-placed sources speaking on condition of strict anonymity. If true, that would not be unusual. Even Gulf nations that have no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state share intelligence with it against common foes.
One of the sources said the January meeting took place in Washington and an earlier meeting in Berlin. The same source said Syria, Libya and the eastern Mediterranean were the focus of the talks.Â
Turkey’s troubles in the eastern Mediterranean — where it is locking horns with Greece, Cyprus and Egypt over drilling rights — inspired some of the talk about detente with Israel. Israel’s absence from a statement signed two weeks ago by Greece, Cyprus and Egypt that condemned Turkey for its “illegal activities†of gas drilling and “expansionism†in the eastern Mediterranean was seen as a sign that relations are on the mend (Israel has signed a gas pipeline agreement with Greece and Cyprus). This in turn prompted claims that Turkey and Israel were in secret talks for a maritime delimitation deal. These were promptly debunked by the Israeli Embassy in Ankara.
Either way, “The decline in energy prices makes the future development and export of the natural gas from the area highly questionable,†said Lindenstrauss. “If this has not already changed the calculus of all the actors, then it will in the near future,†she said. The dramatic fall in global energy prices make it less likely that Turkey and Israel will revive negotiations for a gas pipeline to export Israeli gas to Europe.
As for Libya, “Israel already has enough problems — being sucked into other conflicts the actors have with Turkey is not that attractive,†Lindenstrauss added.
In Syria, however, Turkey and Israel’s interests align somewhat more. Israel has, since Iranian intervention in the Syrian conflict, been striking Iranian military assets across the country. Gilad said the confluence of interests was evident when Turkey struck Iran-backed forces in Idlib after losing around 50 of its own men in a Syrian regime attack. “The fact that Turkey is clashing with Iranian and Hezbollah-backed groups in and around Idlib and that it has influence over Hamas makes it a useful partner for Israel. Therefore, the idea that Israel may be seeking a new opening with Turkey as the Shia axis grows stronger cannot be entirely dismissed,†said Ceng Sagnic, a Washington-based analyst.
Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the Berlin-based SWP think tank, agrees that tensions between Ankara and Tehran in Syria are rising but that the potential for Turkish-Israeli cooperation there is exaggerated.
“It was clear since the beginning that Turkey’s desire to establish a zone of influence northern parts of Syria is in contradiction with Iran’s desire to bring all of Syrian territory under [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad’s control. It was this exact contradiction that resulted in a direct faceoff between Turkey and Iran-backed groups in Idlib,†Azizi told Al-Monitor in emailed comments.
Azizi continued, “However, I don’t think this is something that could help Israel and the United States achieve their goal of rooting out Iran’s influence in Syria. Iran has already established its positions in the south, and especially in the southeast in Deir ez-Zor and Turkey appears to have neither the potential nor the willingness to go that far against Iranian-backed groups.â€
About 100 houses in an abandoned village in war-ravaged western Myanmar’s Paletwa township, one of the epicenters of armed conflict between the government military and the rebel Arakan Army, have been burned to the ground in an apparent act of arson, ethnic Chin sources told RFA on Wednesday.
The houses in lower Meelatwa village were torched intentionally on Tuesday amid fighting that began nearly 17 months ago and has raged in Chin state’s Paletwa township and in adjacent northern Rakhine state, locals said.
Roughly 30 other houses are still standing in lower Meelatwa village, they estimated. Most of these houses have been deserted since February after artillery fire prompted fearful residents to abandon their homes and seek refuge in Paletwa town and as far away as Yangon.
The sources, however, were reluctant to assign blame for the village torching to Myanmar or Arakan soldiers, who seek greater autonomy for ethnic Rakhine people in Rakhine state, which abuts Paletwa township.
One local villager who requested anonymity of out of fear for his safety said some area residents tried to extinguish the flames, but they fled when unknown assailants fired guns at them.
“It must have been caused by arson [because] no one lives in the village,†the man told RFA, adding that his home was among those burned down.
“Yesterday, some people went there and had to flee when assailants fired guns at them,†he said. “Now, no one dares to go to the site.â€
Chin state lawmaker Salai Myo Htike said the cause of the fire in the village is unknown.
“It’s hard to say how many out of about 100 houses were burned down, but I can confirm the fire†he said. “We cannot tell if it was caused by armed groups or a forest fire.â€
Chin state government spokesman Soe Htet was not available for comment.
Nearly 700 people lived in Meelatwa village, located on the east bank of Kaladan River across from Paletwa town.
Salai Tay Ya, director of the Chin Human Rights Organization, said that burning the abandoned village was violation of human rights.
“This is a very horrible human rights violation, no matter who the arsonists are,†he told RFA. “The villagers had plans to resettle in their former homes. Now they have lost them all.â€
AA spokesman Khine Thukha blamed the arson on Myanmar troops who came down from nearby mountains, entered Meelatwa village, and burned the houses in the lower part of the community.
“Some villagers went there to put out the fires, but the government troops fired warning shots to scare them away,†he said. “The houses had been burned to the ground.â€
RFA could not reach Myanmar military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun for comment.
Letka village torching
The village burning follows the mid-may torching of at least 200 houses in abandoned Letka village in Rakhine’s Mrauk-U township.
Letka residents fled their community in April 2019following clashes between Myanmar and Arakan forces and sought shelter in displacement camps
Zaw Min Tun recently told the media that the AA was responsible for the arson during a battle, though no evidence has surfaced to back up the allegation.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has called for an investigation to determine who was responsible for the May 16 fire.
The Myanmar military widely used arson as an attack tactic during the 2017 crackdown on Rohingya communities in northern Rakhine state, burning down entire communities.
The violence left thousands of Rohingya dead and forced a mass exodus of about 740,000 others across the border and into Bangladesh.
Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
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