International

Corgi killing by health workers sparks outrage in China

AFP

Video of Chinese health workers killing a pet dog with a crowbar after its owners were sent into Covid quarantine has sparked outrage, with social media users voicing concern about the extremes local authorities will go to enforce Beijing’s zero-case strategy.

The owners had been ordered to isolate themselves in a hotel after a Covid case was discovered in their apartment compound in Shangrao, Jiangxi province — a typically uncompromising response by authorities desperate to eliminate outbreaks.

The next day, health officials in hazmat suits entered their apartment, and security footage showed one of them hitting the woman’s pet corgi in the head with a crowbar.

“Even if they thought the doggy was a threat or it was carrying the virus, they should at least have given it a test first,” the corgi’s owner, who identified herself only as Ms Fu, told a Shanghai TV station.

20250301_vacunacion_vph-728x90

20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90

20231124_etesal_728x90_1

20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90

domfuturo_netview-728x90

20240604_dom_728x90

CEL

The video of the killing, shared last week, prompted a wave of anger against the way authorities have treated animals while enforcing Covid prevention rules.

“If a government that claims to serve the people enforces the law so brutally, can the government still be believed?” one user asked on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.

The local government said in a statement Saturday that it had apologised to the woman for the workers’ “harm-free disposal of the pet dog without adequate prior communication” with the pet owner — referring to getting rid of biohazardous waste through methods including cremation and burial.

Officials had said they would enter the woman’s home to disinfect it and had promised not to hurt the dog, according to screenshots of a now-deleted Weibo post shared by an acquaintance of the owner.

The Shangrao workers have been “reprimanded and educated”, and removed from their posts, the local government said.

20250301_vacunacion_vph-728x90

20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90

20231124_etesal_728x90_1

20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90

domfuturo_netview-728x90

20240604_dom_728x90

CEL

– No mercy shown to pets –

State-run broadcaster CCTV weighed in on Monday, urging people “not to treat others’ pets as livestock” and calling for more humane and flexible treatment of pets during mandatory quarantines.

China has squashed domestic Covid-19 cases down to a trickle through aggressive lockdowns and mass testing, with local governments often showing no mercy to pets left behind by quarantined owners.

Three cats belonging to a Covid-19 patient in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province were euthanised after testing positive for the virus in September, local media reported.

Dog ownership was denounced as bourgeois by Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong, but the country’s population of pampered companion animals has ballooned in recent years.

Authorities in some major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have been forced to make special concessions for pet owners during Covid-19 lockdowns.

20250301_vacunacion_vph-728x90

20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90

20231124_etesal_728x90_1

20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90

domfuturo_netview-728x90

20240604_dom_728x90

CEL

International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”