Massive rioting in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region in northwest China, has left more than 156 dead and more than 1,000 injured. The whole thing is confusing and uses a lot of words I can’t pronounce, but it is generally kind of like Nepal without the adorable monks. Here are a few bullet points to guide you through it:
China is made up of a large number of disparate ethnic groups, the largest being the Han Chinese who control everything. Urumqi is populated by Uighurs, who are ethnically Turkish/Chinese.
The Chinese government has historically oppressed the Uighurs while extracting all the mineral wealth (oil) from their area they can. Uighurs feel they have not gotten their share of China’s rapid economic growth.
Some Uighurs feel that a lot of restrictions and recent public works projects are actually designed to drive them out of the region so it can be repopulated with Han Chinese. The Chinese government is afraid that expressions of Uighur pride and nationalism is the first step towards and open revolution and an attempt to create a breakaway nation.
For now rioting probably continues and there are disputes over whether most of the deaths have been caused by the rioters or by the police. The Internet has been cut for large areas of China and where it is still on sites like Facebook and Twitter are blocked. Read more about this issue here. If any of our many readers (Ok well, two) who are China experts want to correct me, I welcome their thoughts in the comments.
There were 7 new U.S. casualties in Afghanistan yesterday, reflecting the intensified fighting there. With more U.S. soldiers in the region and with those soldiers pushing out into areas that had been largely written off to Taliban or tribal control, this is probably only the start of increasing casualty numbers.
U.S. Marines in are in the middle of a major offensive in the Helmand River valley in southwestern Afghanistan. This area has been controlled by the Taliban and poppy harvests and opium smuggling there provides major financing for the insurgency. So far there has not been any major resistance as most Taliban fighters have chosen to slip away rather than face the U.S. head on. However, holding the area and getting the farmers to grow something other than poppies will be the real test. Reuters has a great Q&A for anyone who has basic questions.
Meanwhile, in low-profile celebrity deaths, actor Karl Malden also died this weekend at the age of 97. I have a soft sport for character actors and remember Malden from his amazing performance in On The Waterfront – a great film if you find yourself with extra time this weekend.
Today’s main story is that Alaska’s Republican Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty by a jury of violating federal ethics laws. He was convicted on seven felony counts he faced in connection with charges that he knowingly failed to list 250,000 in gifts and services on Senate disclosure forms. Stevens is up for reelection this year and Democrats are now seeing what was once a safe Republican seat as a likely pickup. Those hardest hit by the investigation might be bloggers, Stevens leaving the Senate and going to jail takes what little humor there was left out of the “series of tubes” meme.
Game 5 of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays is still going on — sorta. The game was suspended last night after 6 innings because of weather and will resume tonight at 8 pm (if the weather is still bad, tomorrow at 8 pm). The Rays had checked out of their hotel before the game in anticipation of flying home after — and they couldn’t get back in because the hotel was sold out. They had hoped to stay with area fans, but haven’t yet found enough to house all 9 players.
The US is considering talks with elements of the Taliban, the group that once ruled Afghanistan and has been resurgent in recent months. There is a hope that these talks could drive a wedge between the extremist elements of the Afghan insurgency and the more moderate groups.
Led Zepplin is reuniting and planning to go on tour again minus lead singer Robert Plant, who has decided he has quite enough money, thank you very much.
Sometimes the Morning News gets me a little down and I worry that I am bumming people out with tales of death and destruction. Because of that, I thought I would preface today’s news with this video because as Jeff put it, “as fucked up as the world may seem, you can still go to the DMZ and dance like a goofball.”
While insurgent activity in Iraq is declining, Afghanistan has seen a 40% increase in attacks over the last several months. Though the actual number of casualties is still relatively small, it is a tough problem for the US to address since there aren’t really any troops left. In related news, the Army has made the official flightpath out of Baghdad for returning soldiers include a brief 4-month layover in Kandahar.
The Zimbabwe runoff election is scheduled to be held this Friday. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (who won the initial election, but not by enough to prevent a runoff), has dropped out of the race and sought refuge in a foreign embassy at the request of his supporters. President Robert Mugabe has led a campaign or terror, including thousands of beatings and dozens of murders of opposition activists. Other South African leaders are trying to decide what they want to do in advance of the election, but no matter what they do it is likely at this point that Mugabe will win. All of this is set against the backdrop of a catastrophic economic situation. The inflation rate is in the millions (compared to the US inflation rate, which at around 3% is considered kind of high). A single U.S. dollar is now worth 14 billion Zimbabwean dollars on the black market.
The Wall Street Journal continues its attempt to remake itself as the kind of paper that breaks marquee stories. They are reporting that the Justice Department didn’t hire many low-level officials and interns because they had associations with Democratic or liberal groups. The report that unearthed this information was produced by the investigation into the firing of several U.S. attorneys for political reasons. I can actually see the rational for replacing high-level attorneys or staffers with people in the same party, but to deny a kid who applied for the “Justice Honors and Summer Law Intern” programs? That is just petty.
Tom Friedman continues to exist. I can’t tell if this column is insightful or racist.
The New York Times leads with a marquee (code for long) piece chronicling an American contractor who was hired by the Pentagon to providing supplies and ammunition to the Afghan military and police forces (that is, they were providing them until the army was notified of the story). Apparently, the company is run by a 22-year-old former masseur (go 2.0somethings!) out of an unmarked Miami Beach office. The company has a penchant for buying ammunition from former Soviet block countries and China that was made in the 50s and 60s. I highly recommend you check out the piece. Apparently, the tipoff for the Times was when several Humvees that were delivered didn’t pass inspecting and turned out to be made of chocolate.
If I had actually done the morning news yesterday instead of oversleeping, I would be able to say, “Like we talked about yesterday, Shiite militias in Basra and Baghdad continued to clash with Iraqi security forces.” I say this just so that you are aware this has been going on for a few days and don’t e-mail your friends with, “OMG DID YOU HEAR ABOUT IRAQ.” What, am I the only person who does stuff like that?
Senator McCain yesterday gave a speech outlining his foreign policy positions. He sought to contrast himself from President Bush while at the same time saying that we will be in Iraq forever. He also called for the creation of a “League of Democracies,” which is like a cool kids United Nations where smelly China and stupid North Korea don’t get to come and play.
At the same time Senator McCain was talking about his foreign policy, we were getting a taste of what President McCain’s foreign policy would probably look like. The U.S. has been scaling up the number of unilateral attacks it has been making inside of Pakistan targeting Al Queda fighters. Apparently, we are afraid that the new democratically elected new Prime Minister is going to scale back the military operations being conducted there and may ask the US to please stop bombing Pakistan. We can’t have that, so we are trying to get all the bombing we can in under the buzzer. Let Freedom Ring.
Another story of importance to Senator McCain is that apparently there are massive changes going on in the way we treat heart attacks. Many new reports and studies say that drugs, combined with diet and exercise, make angioplasty (blowing a small balloon to clear blocked arteries) unnecessary. This is compounded by new studies showing that angioplasty can be quite dangerous. This probably wasn’t worth including, but sometimes I include an entire news story just for the joke in the first sentence.
