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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40016939

With U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday calling for a three-month suspension of the federal gasoline tax to combat record prices, experts and motorists are saying they’re unimpressed, even as opposition from lawmakers within Biden’s own party suggests the tax hiatus may never go into effect.

American families paying much more for gasoline deserve some financial relief, Biden said as he pushed Congress to act while acknowledging that a suspension of the 18.4 cents per gallon tax was not enough.

Analyst Stephen Schork said the measure would have little effect.

The measure is “yet another gimmick being offered by a president who is clearly out of his depth when it comes to addressing the long-term structural imbalance between supply and demand in the energy markets,” said Schork, the principal and co-founder of the Schork Group.

The president also urged states to temporarily suspend state fuel taxes, which are often higher than federal rates.

Biden and his advisers face increasing pressure to act as record-high gas prices and overall inflation weigh on his opinion poll ratings and cast doubt on Democrats’ chances of retaining congressional power in the Nov.8 elections.

Virginia motorist Mike McGovern blamed Democrats for the spike in gas prices.

“It’s the policies that are in place right now from the liberal side,” said McGovern, who was interviewed by Reuters at an Alexandria gas station.

“We were pretty much energy independent before, and there’s been a huge trend line worth of data to show where we’ve gone from and where we’re now at. I think the policies definitely need to be adjusted and hopefully, this next election cycle will help trend in that direction,” he added.

The administration says the main causes of high prices are the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February and oil companies reaping sky-high profits as gasoline demand rises with the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic apparently over. Oil companies complain that Biden’s administration is unfairly vilifying the industry.

One Virginia motorist said the situation is complicated.

“I’m not necessarily blaming the Biden administration,” said the woman, who preferred not to share her name.

“I know there are external factors. I mean, where we’re importing our oil for the most part. So I guess reliance on that perhaps. But, yeah, I guess it’s a complex issue.”

A gas tax holiday is unlikely to lower overall inflation rates, some economists said and could threaten to undermine Biden’s clean-energy and infrastructure goals.

A suspension of the 18.4 cents per gallon federal gasoline tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax would require congressional action.

Lawmakers in both parties have expressed resistance to suspending the tax. Some Democrats, including House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi worry oil companies and retailers may pocket much of the savings.

Energy secretary Granholm told reporters on Wednesday that a “conversation is ongoing” with Capitol Hill.

Biden asked Congress to suspend the fuel tax through September to alleviate prices during the United States’ summer driving season. The move will cost the Highway Trust Fund roughly $10 billion in foregone revenue but could be made up from other areas of a budget as tax revenues grow and deficits shrink emerging from the pandemic.

The president also urged states to temporarily suspend state fuel taxes, which are often higher than federal rates.

Some states, such as New York and Connecticut, have already paused state fuel taxes, while others have floated ideas such as consumer rebates and direct relief.

“That’s a much bigger piece of the pie because the national average state tax on gasoline is $0.57 a gallon,” said Stephen Schork.

Longer-term policies are still needed, experts say.

“I think if it does pass, it will come and go and won’t really have much impact, except in terms of symbolically and in terms of headlines,” said Daniel Yergin, the vice-chairman of S&P Global.

Published : June 23, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40016934

Eight people who took care of soccer legend Diego Maradona will be tried in Argentina courts for homicide, according to a ruling released on Wednesday following an investigation into his November 2020 death due to cardiac arrest.

In the 236-page document seen by Reuters, the judge in charge of the case questioned “the behaviours – active or by omission – of each of the accused which led to and contributed to the realization of the harmful result.”

The ruling said that eight people including doctors, nurses and a psychologist who cared for Maradona at the time of his death are accused of “simple homicide,” a serious charge that means taking life with intent.

A medical board appointed to investigate Maradona’s death concluded in 2021 that the soccer star’s medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner.”

Maradona was considered one of the greatest soccer players in history, though the diminutive player nicknamed “Pelusa” for his long mane of hair and “D10S” as a play on the Spanish word for “God” using his jersey number, battled drug and alcohol abuse for years.

Mario Baudry, a lawyer for one of Maradona’s sons, told Reuters that the World Cup winner was “in a situation of helplessness” by the time of his death. Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at the age of 60.

Argentine prosecutors launched investigations shortly after Maradona’s death at a house near Buenos Aires, including ordering searches of properties of his personal doctor and probing others involved in his care.

Agustina Cosachov, psychiatrist of late Argentine soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona arrives to a prosecutor

The defendants named in the ruling were Maradona’s neurosurgeon and personal doctor, Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, psychologist Carlos Diaz, nurses Gisella Madrid and Ricardo Almiron, their boss Mariano Perroni, and doctors Pedro Di Spagna and Nancy Forlini.

The defendants have denied responsibility for Maradona’s death. The judge said that lawyers for some of them had requested the case be dismissed.

Vadim Mischanchuk, an attorney for Cosachov, said they would appeal the decision, adding the psychiatrist’s area of care had no relation to Maradona’s cause of death.

Reuters could not immediately reach the defendants or the other lawyers for comment.

The crime of “simple homicide” in Argentina usually leads to a sentence of 8 to 25 years in prison, according to the country’s penal code. There is no set date for the trial yet.

Published : June 23, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40016933

Myanmar’s military rulers have without explanation ordered all legal proceedings against deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to be moved from a courtroom to a prison, a source familiar with her cases said on Wednesday.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, who turned 77 on Sunday (June 19), has been charged with at least 20 criminal offences since she was toppled in a coup early last year, including multiple counts of corruption. Some media reported Suu Kyi had also been moved from house arrest into detention in Naypyidaw prison on Wednesday. Reuters could not independently verify these reports.

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has so far allowed Suu Kyi to remain in detention at an undisclosed location in the capital Naypyitaw, despite convictions for incitement and several minor offences. Suu Kyi denies all charges.

The source, who declined to be identified due to sensitivities over the trial, said hearings would be shifted to a new special court in Naypyitaw’s prison. The ruling military council could not immediately be reached for comment.

Suu Kyi’s marathon court proceedings take place behind closed doors with only limited information reported by state media. A gag order has been imposed on her lawyers, whose only access to her is on trial days.

It is not clear how much Suu Kyi knows of the crisis in her country, which has been in chaos since the coup, with the military struggling to consolidate power and facing increasing resistance from militia groups. Western countries have called the convictions a sham and demanded her release. The military says she is being given due process by an independent judiciary.

The Nobel laureate was arrested during the military’s coup early last year and has been found guilty of several comparatively minor offences so far, among a multitude of charges that carry a combined prison sentence of almost 190 years.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the February 1 coup against Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government led to widespread protests and raised international concern about the end of tentative political reforms following decades of military rule.

Published : June 23, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40016928

Lack of access and communication could pose the biggest challenge to relief operations after a deadly earthquake struck Afghanistan’s southeastern city of Khost on Wednesday . a UN official said.

“The roads are poor, even in the best of times. So, having a humanitarian operation put in place is going to be immediately challenged by the lack of easy access to the area, to the region, and I think that is going to be probably one of the big challenges,” Loretta Hieber Girardet, chief of risk knowledge, monitoring and capacity development at United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) told Reuters from Geneva.

The death toll from the earthquake on Wednesday hit 1,000, disaster management officials said, with more than 600 injured.

The death toll is likely to rise as some of the villages are in remote areas in the mountains and it will take some time to collect details said interior ministry official Salahuddin Ayubi said

Houses were reduced to rubble and bodies swathed in blankets lay on the ground, photographs on Afghan media showed.

Most of the confirmed deaths were in the eastern province of Paktika, where 255 people were killed and more than 200 injured, Ayubi added.

Wednesday’s quake was the deadliest in Afghanistan since 2002. It struck about 44 km from the southeastern city of Khost, near the border with Pakistan, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

Meanwhile, The Afghan Red Crescent sent out food and medical aid to earthquake victims in eastern Afghanistan .

In the province of Khost, 25 were dead and 90 had been taken to hospital.

Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the ruling Taliban, offered his condolences in a statement.

Mounting a rescue operation will prove a major test for the Taliban, who took over the country last August and have been cut off from much international assistance because of sanctions.

The disaster comes as Afghanistan grapples with a severe economic crisis since the Taliban took over as U.S.-led international forces withdrew following two decades of war.

In response to the Taliban takeover, many nations imposed sanctions on Afghanistan’s banking sector and cut billions of dollars worth of development aid.

Humanitarian aid has continued, however, with international agencies, such as the United Nations, operating.

The U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said Afghanistan had asked humanitarian agencies to help with rescue efforts, and teams were being sent to the quake-hit area.

A foreign ministry spokesman said the Taliban would welcome international help. Neighboring Pakistan said it was working to extend assistance.

The Prime Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhand, in an extraordinary cabinet meeting, dedicated 100 million afghanis to urgently addressing the families situation of Tuesday’s night earthquake victims in Paktika and Khost provinces.

Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhand, the Afghan Prime Minister during a meeting asserted his condolences to the victims of the earthquake and tasked the relevant administrations to instantly address the situation of the victims of the earthquake. statement by Arg said.

The Prime Minister tasked the relevant department to deliver food, clothing, and spices to the quake-hit areas in any possible transportation ways.

Based on his decree a commission of high-rank delegations will travel to the quake-hit areas, monitor the situation of the families of the victims, and start the process of distribution of aid shortly.

Meanwhile, early today, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Deputy Prime Minister of Economic and Chairman of the Disaster Management Committee, authorized the relevant departments to directly address the situation of the families of the victims of Tuesday night’s earthquake in Paktika and Khost provinces.

Afghanistan has declared that it will utilize all available resources to reach out to assist the families and those who were wounded in this natural incident.

Published : June 23, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40016904

At least 280 people have been killed and over 600 others injured in Tuesday night’s earthquake that affected the Naki, Zirok, Barmal, and Gayan districts of Paktika province, local officials said.

Officials say that helicopters and ambulances had reached affected areas to evacuate those injured in the disaster to hospitals.

Meanwhile, Shabir Ahmad Osmani, information and culture director of Khost province said that 25 people were killed and 95 others were injured in last night’s earthquake.

The quake destroyed several residential buildings in the two provinces and officials say that the death toll is expected to increase.

Published : June 22, 2022

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40016893

Indonesian immigration deported Japanese national Mitsuhiro Taniguchi on Wednesday who was accused of swindling more than US$ 7 million of government Covid-19 subsidy funds.

The 47-year-old man along with his family is suspected of fraud by submitting thousands of false applications for the government’s subsidy program and receiving more than 960 million Japanese yen, which later he used the money to start a fish farming business in Indonesia.

Taniguchi was wanted by Tokyo police after he fled the country in October 2020 and was arrested by the Indonesian authority earlier this month for violation of immigration law after the Japanese government revoked his passport.

The Japanese man appeared in front of the media during a brief news conference before being deported by Indonesian immigration.

Published : June 22, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40016891

Elvis-themed weddings will continue in Las Vegas after some chapels reached agreements with his estate. Several venues – some of which have offered the packages for decades – were left reeling last month after Authentic Brands Group sent them cease-and-desist letters ordering them to stop.

“We got a phone call. We thought it was a practical joke… It’s Vegas… Happens all the time. A week later, we got an email. Thought it was a joke. Didn’t think anything of it. And then two days later, we get the certified mail. And that’s when we were like, “Oh, boy, this is serious.”, explains Kayla Collins who owns popular Elvis wedding spot, Little Chapel of Hearts, with her Elvis-impersonator and wedding officiant husband, Chad.

“I was unable to sleep. This is everything. This is my job. This is our family business, our livelihood. So without Elvis, we don’t have a business” he adds.

The chapel took legal advice and showed the letter it received to the County Clerk before embarking on a publicity blitz with local media. It says ABG then reached out to apologize for causing alarm. Collins has since entered into a contractual agreement, which involves paying an annual “affordable” fee to be able to continue.

Authentic Brands Group tells Reuters in a statement:

“ABG is proud to be the guardian of the Elvis Presley legacy and is committed to protecting it for generations to come. We are sorry that recent communication with a small number of Las Vegas-based chapels caused confusion and concern. That was never our intention.  We are working with the chapels to ensure that the usage of Elvis’ name, image and likeness are in keeping with his legacy.

Elvis is embedded into the fabric of Las Vegas, and we embrace and celebrate Elvis fandom. From tribute artists and impersonators to chapels and fan clubs, each and every one of these groups help to keep Elvis relevant for new generations of fans.”

“It’s a love-hate kind of thing with it because I’m grateful that we’re still able to. But at the same time, it’s like, why do I have to pay to do what I do? Like, it’s dumb”, Collins tells Reuters.

It’s a huge relief for the many freelance Elvis impersonators who make their living travelling around dressed as The King, visiting local chapels to offer their services to the thousands of couples who visit Vegas each year to get hitched.

“I’m not qualified for anything else, you know what I’m saying… This is all I do. So I’d have been out of a job and on the unemployment line if they’d followed through. But thank God they didn’t, man. They came to their senses” says Jesse Garon, who’s been officiating weddings armed with a jumpsuit, Cadillac and quiff for 36 years.

Like so many professions, Elvis impersonators, including Garon, have been struggling over the last few years. “2020 – the year before COVID- I did 650 weddings and then the year of COVID, I did eight. So you wanna talk about hurt, man.. Things are just starting to pick up now. But now we’re facing the economy. It’s like one punch after another man, between Graceland doing their little thing. We didn’t need it. And then you got the economy that just tanked. God bless you if you own Bitcoin… And yeah, then COVID was before that. And then another COVID”, Garon tells Reuters as he applies makeup ahead of his first blessing of the day.

Las Vegas is known as the wedding capital of the world, seeing more than 150 marriages a day, according to figures provided by the city. It touts itself as having some of the most unique venues around which include drive-thru chapels in addition to those playing homage to Elvis.

The King’s links to Sin City are what attracts the fans say Nicolas Avila and Daniela Gonzalez who travelled from Santiago, Chile two years after their official wedding was dampened by the pandemic. They’ve decided to get theirs blessed with friends in Las Vegas:

“The King is the most famous singer in the world. Elvis IS Las Vegas” they told Reuters after their service.

It’s a sentiment echoed by a groom, Robert Taylor, who’s also at the chapel to get hitched:

“A lot of people want a cheesy experience and they think that a lot of times Elvis is a cheesy experience. But ever since he passed, Vegas has been doing Elvis weddings, you know? I think that’s why they are the wedding capital of the world.”

The question of whether any lawsuit would be successful is much tougher to answer, says lawyer Jonathan Fountain, who specializes in intellectual property cases:

“The performance of an Elvis wedding, with an impersonator dressed up like Elvis performing a wedding.. there’s probably a First Amendment fair use or parody defence to that. Also under the Nevada rights of publicity statute, it exempts impersonators from liability. So I believe that there’s a pretty strong defence to simply the performance of an Elvis wedding. But that’s different than, say, using the name ‘Elvis’ or ‘Elvis Presley’ on a website to advertise wedding services. There you’re talking about using a trademark and I think ABGs got stronger claims there”, he tells Reuters, adding:

“The wedding chapels could argue something called ‘lashes’. They could argue that there has been no enforcement over several years. And at the same time, we’ve been making big investments in our businesses. It would be unfair to stop us now. That would be their argument.”

Some are expressing scepticism about the timing of the ban: all happening just weeks before a new Elvis biopic, directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, hits movie theatres:

”I thought the whole timing of everything was because they wanted the publicity for the movie. And, you know, I called them out on it and they said, “No, that’s not it”. And I go, “Well, your timing is kind of suck-ish”, muses Collins who also reveals that she’s since been invited to the movie’s premiere in Las Vegas by ABG: “It’s kinda interesting because I was going to boycott the movie”, she laughs.

As for the impersonators, they’re just happy they can stay in the job they love:

“I could have been anything: a lawyer or aeroplane pilot, whatever. I chose Elvis. You deal with people on the happiest day of their lives. How could it go wrong? You know, they’ll never forget you”, adds Garon.

“It’s great. I got the best job in the world. I just don’t wanna lose it.“

Published : June 22, 2022

By : Reuters

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Russia’s threat to punish Lithuania over blocked rail shipments to Moscow’s enclave of Kaliningrad jangled nerves on Tuesday for residents living just across the border who put faith in Nato membership to thwart any potential military action.

Lithuania has shut the route for transport of steel and other ferrous metals, which it says it is required to do under EU sanctions that took effect on Saturday, raising the ire of Russian officials who threatened a “serious negative impact.”

Insurance worker Vitalijus Sidiskis, 59, said while he believed it was difficult to predict what Russia might do, he would remain calm because of Lithuania’s membership in the European Union and Nato.

Other residents in the border town of nearly 6,000 said the threats from Russia had overshadowed other problems, such as sky-high inflation that has hit the pocketbooks of many Lithuanians.

“We work nearby to the border and the shooting and the manoeuvres are a bit worrying,” Galina Mateikuniene, a 52-year-old seamstress said. “We are probably more afraid of war, of an invasion. The economy is the economy.”

Kaliningrad, formerly the port of Koenigsberg, capital of East Prussia, was captured from Nazi Germany by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union after World War Two. It is wedged between Nato members Poland and Lithuania.

Nearly a million Russians live in the Baltic port city connected to the rest of Russia by a rail link through EU- and Nato-member Lithuania.

Meanwhile, The European Union’s envoy to Moscow urged Russia to refrain from “escalatory steps and rhetoric” over what Moscow calls “anti-Russian restrictions” on goods transiting between Kaliningrad and the rest of Russia.

“I had the opportunity to make the EU position that there is no such thing as a banning of transit, there is no such thing as a blockade,” said Markus Ederer after leaving the Russian foreign ministry.

The ministry, which earlier on Tuesday summoned the bloc’s ambassador to Moscow, called for transit via the region to be restored “immediately” and vowed to retaliate if the situation did not improve.

EU member Lithuania has shut a rail corridor from Russia to its exclave to certain basic goods, including construction materials, metals and coal in response to new EU sanctions that came into force on Saturday.

Published : June 22, 2022

By : Reuters

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Dozens of people on Tuesday joined a festive funeral procession across the streets of Brussels to pay tribute to murdered Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba.

The cortege, which started in the Congolese embassy, was organized after Belgium had handed over a tooth to his family on Monday, the only known remains of the late political leader.

Lumumba became the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) first democratically elected prime minister after independence from Belgium in 1960 but alarmed the West with overtures to Moscow at the height of the Cold War.

His government lasted just three months before he was overthrown and assassinated by a firing squad. His supporters and some historians accuse the CIA of having ordered his killing. His body was never found.

To honour their first prime minister, the mourners carried pictures and a giant replica of the tooth, as they walked through the Belgian capital’s Matonge neighbourhood accompanied by musicians and dancers.

The area, named after a district in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is known all across the country for its hairdressers selling hair extensions, wigs and African cuisine.

Lumumba’s son Roland said that he was happy with the restitution.

“In order for a soul to rest in peace it needs to be buried, even if it’s just part of a person’s fingernail or hair so that the mourning can be completed”, he told Reuters.

A Belgian parliamentary investigation into his killing concluded in 2002 that Belgium was “morally responsible” for Lumumba’s death.

The tooth was reportedly taken from Lumumba’s body by a Belgian policeman, Gerard Soete, who claimed to have dissolved much of Lumumba’s body in acid and burned the rest.

Published : June 22, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40016849

Dmitry Muratov, the co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and the editor of one of Russia’s last major independent newspapers, auctioned off his Nobel medal on Monday for a record $103.5 million to aid children displaced by the war in Ukraine.

All proceeds from the auction, which coincided with World Refugee Day on Monday, will benefit UNICEF’s humanitarian response to Ukraine’s displaced children, Heritage Auctions, which conducted the sale in New York, said in a statement.

Muratov’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper, fiercely critical of President Vladimir Putin and his government, suspended operations in Russia in March after warnings from the state over its coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Pressure against liberal Russian media outlets has been continuous under Putin, Russia’s paramount leader since 1999, but it has mounted after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Muratov was attacked with red paint in April.

Russia’s mainstream media and state-controlled organizations follow closely the language used by the Kremlin to describe the conflict with Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special operation” to ensure Russian security and denazify its neighbour. Kyiv and its Western allies say it is an unprovoked war of aggression.

According to U.S. media reports, the auction of Muratov’s prize shattered the record for any Nobel medal that has been auctioned off, with reports saying that the previous highest sale fetched just under $5 million.

Muratov, who co-founded Novaya Gazeta in 1991, won 2021 the Nobel Peace Prize with Maria Ressa of the Philippines for what the Nobel Prize committee said was “their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”

Muratov, who pledged to donate about $500,000 of that prize money to charities, dedicated his Nobel to the six Novaya Gazeta journalists who have been murdered since 2000.

That list included the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of Russia’s war in Chechnya, who was killed in 2006 in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building.

Published : June 21, 2022

By : Reuters