Performing as a police officer pressed his knee on his neck, replicating the last moments of George Floyd’s life, multi-platinum rapper DaBaby rapped a verse from the Black Lives Matter remix of his hit song “Rockstar” at the BET Awards. Sunday’s show, a virtual event because of the coronavirus pandemic, featured a number of highly produced, well-crafted and pre-taped performances. DaBaby’s clip, featuring Roddy Ricch, also featured images from protests, a reflection of the current world in the wake of Floyd’s death and the death of others, including Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. The BET Awards, celebrating its 20th anniversary, kicked off Sunday with a performance featuring Black artists rapping and singing anthems about the Black experience and fighting for equal rights. The 12-year-old sensation Keedron Bryant, who turned heads on social media with his passionate performance about being a young Black man in today’s world, started the show with an a cappella performance of his poignant song “I Just Wanna Live,” which earned him a record deal. That was followed by an all-star performance of Public Enemy’s 1989 anthem “Fight the Power,” featuring Nas, Black Thought, Rapsody and YG adding new lyrics to the song, even namedropping Taylor and others. Chuck D kicked off the performance, replacing the year 1989 with 2020. “Fight the Power” topped the Billboard rap charts more three decades ago and was featured in Spike Lee’s epic “Do the Right Thing.” Flavor Flav, Questlove and Black Thought and Chuck D’s artist Jahi were also part of the performance. Sunday’s show also celebrates BET’s 40th year as a network. The three-hour show, airing on CBS for the first time, is being hosted by comedian, actress and TV personality Amanda Seales, who starred in several skits, including one about women who identify as “Karen,” a common stereotype and term for racist and privileged white women. Other artists were political during their performances, including Ricch, who wore a Black Lives Matter shirt while he rapped, Alicia Keys, Anderson Paak and Jay Rock, as well as brothers SiR and D Smoke, who performed with their mother Jackie Gouché. Lil Wayne paid tribute to NBA icon Kobe Bryant, who died in January, with a performance of his 2009 song “Kobe Bryant,” weaving in new lyrics. Wayne Brady, in a glittery suit, rolled around on top of a piano as he sang a medley of Little Richard hits. Nipsey Hussle, who was named best male hip-hop artist and earned the humanitarian award at last year’s BET Awards, won video of the year for “Higher,” a clip he filmed with DJ Khaled and John Legend shortly before he died.Guests wear T-shirts in tribute to Nipsey Hussle, whose given name was Ermias Asghedom, at the late rapper’s Celebration of Life memorial service, April 11, 2019, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.“This is for Nipsey Hussle and hip-hop,” Khaled said in a taped video. “Nipsey Hussle, thank you for working with me on this ‘Higher’ record. I appreciate you. Nipsey’s family, we love you.” The BET Awards, one of the first awards shows to air virtually, featured performances that were sharp with artsy stage production, giving extra life to the songs being performed. It was a welcomed break from the “living room” and homebound performances hundreds of artists have shared on social media since the pandemic hit in March. Megan Thee Stallion went to the desert with background dancers as she twerked and rapped her No. 1 hit “Savage.” She won best female hip-hop artist, beating out Cardi B and Nicki Minaj. “Oh my God, I probably recorded this video like 10 times. It feels so crazy doing this from my house,” she said. “I used to watch the BET Awards all the time thinking, ‘One day that’s going to be me going up there accepting my award’ — and now it is.” Later in the show Beyoncé will earn the humanitarian award, to be presented by Michelle Obama. The show is an annual celebration of Black entertainment and culture, and this year’s ceremony is the first major awards show since the May 25 death of Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, which sparked global protests aimed at reforming police actions and removing statues and symbols considered racist from public places. 
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Iran would become the “arms dealer of choice” for terrorists if a U.N. weapons embargo is allowed to expire, a senior U.S. official says.Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, spoke to the Associated Press during a visit to the United Arab Emirates.The U.N. imposed its current arms embargo on Iran in 2010, and it is set to expire in October.  FILE – ​U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook speaks at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies forum in Washington, Dec. 10, 2019. (VOA Persian) ​Hook said the world should ignore Iranian threats of retaliation if the embargo is extended.“If we play by Iran’s rules, Iran wins,” he told the AP. “It is a mafia tactic where people are intimidated into accepting a certain kind of behavior for fear of something far worse.”The U.N. arms embargo has stopped Iran from openly buying fighter jets, tanks, warships and other weaponry. But it has not stopped Iran from sneaking weapons into such war zones as Yemen, where Iran backs the Houthi rebels.Iran has denied supplying arms to the rebels. But Hook says if the embargo expires, it may not have to use alleged smuggling as a tactic anymore.  “If we let it expire, you can be certain that what Iran has been doing in the dark, it will do in broad daylight and then some,” he told the AP.The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency predicted last year that Iran would try to buy Russian fighter jets, tanks and anti-aircraft missile systems if it were allowed to.  But U.S. economic sanctions on Iranian oil sales have nearly wrecked the Iranian economy.When a reporter asked Hook how Iran could pay for such expensive equipment, he said it is “a good thing for the region” that Iranian revenues are way down, adding that it also complicates Iranian efforts to back such allies as Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.  “We have put this regime through our strategy on the horns of a dilemma,” Hook said. “They have to choose between guns in Damascus or butter in Tehran.”
 
Iran did not immediately commented on Hook’s remarks. But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday called 2020 Iran’s “most difficult year” because of U.S. economic sanctions and the coronavirus outbreak. 
 
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Poland’s presidential election appears headed for a runoff after no candidate appears to have won a majority of votes needed for an outright victory.Exit polls Sunday gave right-wing President Andrzej Duda 42% of the ballots cast and centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski 30% of the votes. Television personality Szymon Holownia had 13%.  Election observers say they do not expect the final results later this week to change, meaning the top two candidates will face off in a second round July 12.Duda’s nationalist Law and Justice Party is hoping to be able to extend its majority in parliament and implement conservative social, judicial and immigration policies that many other in the European Union have criticized as anti-democratic.They include Duda’s pledge to ban gay rights classes in schools. He has called homosexuality worse than communism.  Trzaskowski, of the Civic Platform party, campaigned on promises to preserve the ruling party’s popular welfare programs but said he would block any legislation he says would be unconstitutional. He also says he would restore good relations with the European Union.  The coronavirus outbreak forced a nearly two-month delay in the election.Observers say the postponement hurt Duda who had looked as if he would cruise to a first-round victory. But his popularity in the polls slipped after the Civic Platform party replaced a much less popular candidate with Trzaskowski and other candidates were allowed to get out and campaign more when COVID-19 restrictions were eased.
 
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A powerful Islamist militant group in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib has launched a military campaign against rival jihadist groups, local news reports and rights groups said Sunday.
 
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant force in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, on Sunday began targeting villages in the western part of Idlib where jihadists have significant presence, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
 
The Syrian Observatory, which monitors war developments in the country, said HTS fighters raided the village of Arab Saeed in Idlib, arresting several jihadist militants, including a leader with the Hurras al-Din group.
 
Hurras al-Din is one of several jihadist factions that have been operating in northwestern Syria. The group is al-Qaida’s main affiliate in the war-torn country.
 
Before formally severing ties with the global jihadist group in 2016, HTS was regarded as the Syrian branch of al-Qaida. At the time, it was known as the al-Nusra Front.
 
The crackdown comes nearly two weeks after several jihadist groups, including Hurras al-Din, announced the formation of a joint operations room to coordinate efforts in the fight against Syrian government troops and allied forces.   
 
A local administration in Idlib backed by the HTS issued a statement Sunday, saying no armed groups are allowed to operate in the city of Idlib, except for those affiliated with the HTS.
 Neutralizing extremists
 
The Syrian Observatory said the fighting Sunday between HTS and Hurras al-Din forced the latter to agree to a cease-fire that required the jihadist group to evacuate its headquarters and withdraw from certain parts of Idlib.   
 
Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory, charges that the ongoing crackdown by HTS against other extremist groups in the restive province has been approved by the Turkish military. FILE – Rebels from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group are seen near buses, outside the villages of al-Foua and Kefraya, Idlib province, Syria, July 18, 2018.“As part of this campaign, the Turkish government is trying to neutralize groups that are more radical than HTS,” he told VOA. “In one way or another, the HTS coordinates its efforts with the Turkish forces.”
 
Turkey rejects allegations that HTS is coordinating its recent efforts with Turkey-backed rebels.
 
Turkey, however, maintains a significant military presence in Idlib and other parts of northwestern Syria, while supporting Syrian rebel groups present there.
 
In March, Turkey and Russia brokered a cease-fire deal in Idlib aimed at bringing an end to a Syrian government offensive that had begun last year to recapture Idlib.
 
The two countries reached the agreement after several previous unsuccessful deals over Idlib, which is currently home to more than 2 million people.
 
According to all those agreements, Turkey was required to remove all extremist groups from the province, including those allied with the al-Qaida.
 
In 2018, Turkey officially designated the HTS as a terrorist organization. The designation came a few days before one of the agreements between Turkey and Russia over Idlib. According to that agreement too, the HTS was among the radical groups to be removed from Idlib by Turkey.
 M4 significance
 
The current truce between Russian-backed Syrian troops and Turkish-backed rebels in Idlib remains largely holding as Russia and Turkey have been conducting joint patrols in the Syrian province.
 
Jihadist groups active in Idlib have consistently rejected cease-fires in the province, including the joint Russian-Turkish patrols on parts of the strategic M4 Highway that connects the two Syrian provinces of Aleppo and Latakia and goes through Idlib.
 
Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory said Turkey has been trying to remove all obstacles that stand in the way of fully implementing its agreement with Russia, and therefore it has decided to unofficially support HTS efforts to weaken the jihadists in Idlib.FILE – Syrian demonstrators rally in the town of Binnish in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, May 1, 2020, to condemn a reported attack by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group on a protest the previous day.Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a Syria researcher at Swansea University in the U.K., says he doesn’t believe the HTS crackdown came because of Turkish orders.
 
However, he told VOA, “the end result is that this [campaign] allows the Turkey-Russia patrols to proceed and is an end to the limited leeway HTS previously granted its jihadist rivals.”
 
The Islamist group seeks to subdue those jihadist rivals who attempt to challenge its monopoly on power in Idlib, al-Tamimi said.
 
“What HTS once saw as a nuisance it could keep under control now became more of a threat in its eyes requiring to be properly subdued, though not necessarily eliminated,” he added.
 
And while the HTS may use rhetoric against the Russian-Turkish agreement over Idlib, in practice it abides by it, al-Tamimi said.
 Political benefit
 
Some experts believe the HTS campaign to target extremists is a bid by the militant group to be included in any political settlement over Idlib and Syria as a whole.   
 
“HTS has been trying to signal – to Turkey, most immediately, but by implication to the wider international community – for some time that it can be an acceptable long-term actor in Syria, and attacking an avowed al-Qaida group like Hurras al-Din is certainly a way to do that,” Kyle Orton, a Syria researcher based in London, told VOA.
 
The timing of this campaign, however, seems to be sending mixed signals.
 
“HTS could have wiped out Hurras al-Din at any time and chose only to move when there was political benefit, or HTS is not in fact capable of eliminating Hurras al-Din, so even on cold realist terms HTS is useless in handling the issue that most external actors care about, namely transnational terrorists,” Orton concluded.
 
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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday mostly blamed young people ignoring precautions to prevent the spread of coronavirus for the sharp increase in recent days of the number of confirmed cases in the country. Pence, in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” show, said it is “inarguable” that increased testing in the U.S., with 500,000 per a day, has led to confirmation of more people with coronavirus infections. But he said “younger Americans have been congregating in ways that may have disregarded the guidance that we gave on the federal level for all the phases of reopening businesses.” Lines of cars wait at a coronavirus testing site outside of Hard Rock Stadium, in Miami Gardens, Fla., June 26, 2020.The number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. has risen sharply in recent days, particularly in a trio of states across southern tier of the U.S. in Florida, Texas and Arizona that are separated by hundreds of kilometers. In total, the U.S. reported more than 40,000 new cases Friday, a single-day record for reports of the pandemic in the U.S. over the last six months.  Pence has cancelled political trips this coming week to both Florida and Arizona out of caution because of the increased number of cases in the two states.  Pence said the U.S. is better equipped medically to handle the hospitalization of more coronavirus patients than it was early in the year.  But he said President Donald Trump and he support measures taken by governors in Florida and Texas to again close bars to prevent people from gathering there shoulder to shoulder while ignoring frequent admonitions from health experts to wear masks and to socially distance from each other by at least two meters. “It’s clear testing isn’t the only reason that we’re seeing more cases, but it’s a significant reason,” while adding, “It’s clear across the Sunbelt that there’s something happening, particularly among younger Americans.” Pence said. But he said the Trump administration does not think it is necessary to impose national mandatory directives to wear a face mask. Trump has rarely worn a mask, saying he does think it is for him.  Vice President Mike Pence, second from left, walks off of the stage following the conclusion of a briefing with the Coronavirus Task Force at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, June 26, 2020.Pence has more frequently put on a mask, again on Sunday as he attended a church service in Dallas, Texas. He rejected the suggestion that Trump could help slow the spread of coronavirus by setting an example nationally by wearing a mask. “We believe people should wear masks wherever social distancing is not possible, wherever it’s indicated by either state or local authorities,” Pence said. But he added, “We believe that every state has a unique situation. One of the elements of the genius of America is the principle of federalism, of state and local control…we want to defer to governors, defer to local officials. And people should listen to them.” In all, the U.S. has now recorded more than  2.5 million coronavirus cases and more than 125,000 deaths, both far and away the biggest national figures across the world. Health officials are predicting that tens of thousands more Americans will die in the coming months. 
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President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted approvingly of a video showing one of his supporters chanting “white power,” a racist slogan associated with white supremacists. He later deleted the tweet and the White House said the president had not heard “the one statement” on the video. The video appeared to have been taken at The Villages, a Florida retirement community, and showed dueling demonstrations between Trump supporters and opponents.  “Thank you to the great people of The Villages,” Trump tweeted. Moments into the video clip he shared, a man driving a golf cart displaying pro-Trump signs and flags shouts ‘white power.” The video also shows anti-Trump protesters shouting “Nazi,” “racist,” and profanities at the Trump backers. “There’s no question” that Trump should not have retweeted the video and “he should just take it down,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told CNN’s “State of the Union.” Scott is the only Black Republican in the Senate. Shortly afterward, Trump deleted the tweet that shared the video. White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement that “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”  The president’s decision to highlight a video featuring a racist slogan comes amid a national reckoning over race following the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans. Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man, died after a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes.  Protests against police brutality and bias in law enforcement have occurred across the country following Floyd’s death and there has also been a push to remove Confederate monuments, an effort Trump has opposed.  Trump’s tenure in office has appeared to have emboldened white supremacist and nationalist groups, some of whom have embraced his presidency. In 2017, Trump responded to clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white nationalists and counter-protesters by saying there were “very fine people on both sides.” 
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The coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe looks to have done little, at least in Laos, to slow China’s grand plans for a high-speed rail line linking its landlocked interior to the bustling ports of Singapore through mainland Southeast Asia.Work crews started laying track along the first 414-kilometer leg of the line through the country in March, five years after breaking ground. With most of the many dozen tunnels and bridges it will need to cut through Laos’ mountainous north now bored and built, state media this month reported that the $6 billion project was 90% done. Service is set to start by 2022.Analysts say the full line remains a vital part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. Starting in Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province, it will help the remote region tap into some of Southeast Asia’s largest economies, while boosting China’s political sway over them in the process.”The rail from Kunming to Singapore is a high priority for China. It will allow poor regions of western China, which are now landlocked, increased access to wealthier parts of Southeast Asia. It will boost trade and tourism,” said Murray Hiebert, a senior associate of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.”It would boost China’s political sway, but to a limited extent. Southeast Asian countries remain anxious about China’s goals,” added Hiebert, author of the forthcoming book Under Beijing’s Shadow: Southeast Asia’s China Challenge. He noted the competing claims some of them have with Beijing in the South China Sea and the Chinese dams they blame for choking off the Mekong River and exacerbating droughts in recent years.A bird’s-eye view of the planned route would show it winding through Laos, Thailand and Malaysia before reaching Singapore, hitting the countries’ capitals of Vientiane, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur along the way.Big push for regional influence”It will provide a big push for China to expand its economic influence [and] to eventually dominate mainland Southeast Asia; I think that’s going to be a long-term objective,” said Prapat Thapchatree, who heads the Center for ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Studies at Thailand’s Thammasat University.Laos has embraced the project warmly, hoping it will transform one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries from landlocked to “land-linked” and draw new business from a line that promises to send more trade and tourists each way. It will turn what is a three-day slog from Boten on Laos’ border with China to the capital of Vientiane, on its border with Thailand, into a three-hour jaunt.However, the potential rewards come with some risk.A 2018 report by the U.S.-based Center for Global Development lists Laos among the countries hosting BRI projects that face the highest debt risk. A more recent report on BRI debts by Australia’s Lowy Institute said Laos owed more of its foreign debt to China, some 45%, than any of the other nine countries selected for its study. Much of it is going to pay for the railway. The government has borrowed about $1.5 billion from the state-owned Export-Import Bank of China to help pay for its 30% stake in the project, according to the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.Critics of China’s “debt diplomacy” say Beijing is pulling those financial strings to have Laos do its bidding within ASEAN. As a member of the 10-nation bloc, Laos stands accused of helping spoil efforts to mount a united front against Beijing’s sweeping South China Sea claims.”At a regional level, China has used Laos as a wedge against other countries in ASEAN,” said Elliot Brennan, a Southeast Asia analyst and research fellow at Sweden’s Institute for Security and Development Policy.The leg of the new rail line running through Laos will be of little use to China if it can’t extend the route south, keen as it is to connect with Southeast Asia’s larger economies.Thailand’s cautious approachHowever, Prapat said Thailand and Malaysia are more reluctant to be drawn much further into China’s orbit and, unlike Laos, have the clout to be coy and dictate terms.”Thailand is very cautious, very concerned about what’s happening in Laos and in Cambodia, when these two countries are too dependent on China,” he said, likening them to de facto provinces of their giant neighbor.Thailand and Malaysia are proving more practical about the project as well. “Even after the military coup in 2014 when the regime in Bangkok was shunned by many Western governments and China was one of its only friends, the generals played very hard to get because the high-speed train China was proposing was very expensive and not a priority for the Thai leadership,” said Hiebert.Thailand has moved cautiously in reaching a deal with China to build the route from Laos to Bangkok over cost concerns, and put off plans to sign the contract in December. Malaysia even froze work on its leg of the line from Thailand to Kuala Lumpur for nearly a year and agreed to start up again in April 2019 only after convincing China to slash the original $20 billion price tag by about a third.Analysts say China’s dreams of a high-speed rail line running the length of mainland Southeast Asia will be a harder sell still after the heavy hit the region’s economies have taken from the pandemic.Until the line does finally pull into Singapore, Prapat said, “it’s going to be a long way to go.” 
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Thousands of villagers have fled their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state after a local administrator warned dozens of village leaders that the army planned “clearance operations” against insurgents, a lawmaker and a humanitarian group said.But a government spokesman said late on Saturday an evacuation order issued by border-affairs officials had been revoked. Border affairs acknowledged issuing the order through the local administrator but said it affected fewer villages.The warning to the village leaders came in a letter written on Wednesday, which was seen by Reuters and verified by a state government minister, Colonel Min Than.The letter, signed by the administrator of Rathedaung township, Aung Myint Thein, told village leaders he had been informed the operations were planned in the township’s Kyauktan village and nearby areas suspected of harboring insurgents.The letter does not specify where the order came from, but Min Than, Rakhine state’s border affairs and security minister, told Reuters it was an instruction from his border affairs ministry, one of three Myanmar government ministries controlled by the army.“Clearance operation will be done by forces in those villages,” the letter from the administrator said. “While this is being done, if the fighting occurs with AA terrorists, don’t stay at the villages but move out temporarily,” it said, referring to the Arakan Army, the name of the Rakhine state insurgents.The administrator could not be reached for comment.Targeting ‘terrorists’Min Than said the “clearance operation” described in the letter referred to military operations targeting “terrorists.”He said the administrator had misinterpreted the order from his ministry and that the operations would only take place in a few villages, not the dozens mentioned, but confirmed other details.The operations could last up to a week, Min Than said by phone, adding that “those who remain will be those who are loyal to the AA.”On Saturday, government spokesman Zaw Htay said in a statement on Facebook the government had instructed the military not to use the term “clearance operations”. He also said the letter ordering people to flee had been revoked.He did not answer phone calls from Reuters seeking further comment. Reuters did not see the revocation instructions.This year the Myanmar army has been fighting the AA, a group from the largely Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group that is seeking greater autonomy for the western region, also known as Arakan.Dozens have died and tens of thousands been displaced in the conflict. Save the Children says 18 children were killed and 71 injured or maimed between January and March, citing local monitoring groups. The army says it does not target civilians.Refugees reported mass killings, arson in 2017″Clearance operations” is the term the Myanmar authorities used in 2017 to describe operations against insurgents from Rakhine’s Muslim-minority Rohingya people. During those operations, hundreds of thousands of people fled from their homes. Refugees said the army carried out mass killings and arson, accusations the army has denied.Rohingyas fled to neighboring Bangladesh during that military crackdown, which the government said was a response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents.The United Nations said in a statement on Sunday it was concerned by intense fighting in Kyauktan, including reports people were trapped and houses damaged. It called on all parties to “respect international humanitarian law, fulfill their responsibilities and take urgent measures to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure.”On Saturday, the British, Australian, U.S. and Canadian embassies in Myanmar said they were “deeply concerned by the reports of the Myanmar Military’s clearance operations  along the Kyauktan village tract” and “the worsening humanitarian andsecurity situation across the region.”“We are aware of the historic impacts of such operations disproportionately affecting civilians,” the statement said. It called on “all armed actors to exercise restraint while in areas inhabited by local communities, some of whom may not, by no fault of their own, be able to seek refuge elsewhere.”In anticipation of the new operation, Min Than said 80 people had fled Kyauktan to elsewhere in Rathedaung township and that the army had prepared shelter and food.Zaw Zaw Htun, the secretary of the Rakhine Ethnic Congress, a humanitarian group, said at least 1,700 had fled to the neighboring Ponnagyun township.Another 1,400 are sheltering in a nearby village and are in dire need of food and other supplies, said regional parliamentarian Oo Than Naing from Rathedaung township.A military spokesman did not answer phone calls seeking comment about the operations. Reuters could not independently verify how many people had fled their homes.The U.K.-based rights group Burma Human Rights Network said residents of 39 villages had begun to flee since the order was issued in Kyauktan on Wednesday, citing local sources.The Kyauktan area is home to tens of thousands of people, from both Rohingya and Rakhine communities, according to the Rakhine Ethnic Congress.Journalists are barred from most of Rakhine state, and the government has imposed an internet shutdown on most of the region, making information difficult to verify.  
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China’s lawmakers have reviewed a draft of the national security bill for Hong Kong during a special meeting held by the National People’s Congress (NPC), state media Xinhua reported on Sunday.In the meeting, Shen Chunyao, director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC’s standing committee, presented a review of the bill, Xinhua said. 
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