Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CP Foods) has adopted probiotic in shrimp culture to promote sustainable production and to ensure safe and antibiotic-free products and transferred knowledge to farmers for stable and reliable shrimp production.
CP Foods has striven to antibiotic-free shrimp production with eco-friendly production and reduce environmental impact through the use of antibiotic. The use of probiotic help improving the productivity, while decrease the risk of disease outbreaks, and environmental footprint and, ultimately, raise the standard of Thai shrimp products, making the product competitive in global market.
CP Foods’ Executive Vice President, Pairoj Apiruknusit, said that the company commits to create food security, therefore it has placed importance on aquaculture that is sustainable as well as giving better and safer output. In order to do that, CP Foods has focused on shrimp health through the use of probiotics in aquaculture. He added that the “good microorganism” plays a significant role in keeping the shrimp healthy and, for decades, CP Foods does not need to use antibiotics at all.
Mr. Pairoj explained that probiotics are microorganisms that provide beneficial effects to shrimps’ digestion system, making them healthy, strong, disease-resistant. The second approach is the use of microorganisms in shrimp ponds improve water quality and prevent pathogenic bacteria from growing into outbreak. This method is also sustainable as the farmers does not need to replace the water often.
“Probiotic shrimp farming will help the shrimp to be healthy, fast growing, and, therefore, the produce is of good quality and safety. At the same time, it is more sustainable raising, using less water while giving better productivity,” said Mr. Pairoj said.
In addition to probiotic farming, CP Foods also worked together with multiple public-private partners to develop “3 Cleans” techniques, which means “Clean Shrimp, Clean Water and Clean Pond”, The principles concern the cleanliness of water in the ponds, disease-free baby shrimps, and the cleanliness of the pond floors. The “3 Clean” principles help boost shrimp growth rate and help sustainably prevent shrimp diseases and reduce related damages.
Commitment Represents Company’s Latest Action on Climate Stewardship
Marriott International, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAR) (“Marriott”) today announced it has submitted its letter to the Science Based Targets initiative, committing to:
Set science-based emissions reduction targets across all scopes, in line with 1.5°C emissions scenarios; and
Set a long-term science-based target to reach net-zero value chain greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by no later than 2050, in line with the criteria and recommendations of the Science Based Targets initiative.
As part of its commitment to net-zero emissions, with support from a number of organizations including Global Citizen, Marriott is proud to announce its official sign-on to the Race to Zero via the most ambitious standard, Business Ambition for 1.5, and looks forward to celebrating this milestone on September 25 at Global Citizen Live. Race to Zero is a global campaign rallying companies, cities, regions, and financial and educational institutions, to reach net-zero value chain greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2050. Participants are committed to the same overarching goal: reducing emissions across all scopes swiftly and fairly in line with the Paris Agreement, with transparent action plans and robust near-term targets.
“We are driven to make a positive and sustainable impact wherever we do business, and this rigorous climate commitment to reach net-zero emissions is a needed step for us to do our part to help the communities and environments where we live, work and visit remain resilient and vibrant,” said Anthony Capuano, Chief Executive Officer, Marriott International. “Even as we navigate one of the industry’s most difficult periods, we know this ambition will be a challenge. We are proud to join companies and institutions around the world striving to tackle climate change and build a healthier, more sustainable world.”
Marriott International’s portfolio of hotels has been working to reduce its carbon footprint as part of its existing 2025 sustainability goals and this latest commitment to climate action is the next step in the company’s sustainability journey. Achieving these new targets will require partnering with Marriott’s dedicated associates across disciplines along with the company’s valued hotel owners and franchisees. Over time, initiatives may include increased use of renewable energy, building electrification to maximize renewable electricity, continued modifications to design standards so buildings are more efficient, and the installation of automation systems and energy efficiency upgrades (for example, smart thermostats). In addition to the company’s goal to provide further visibility to the carbon footprint and environmental impact of their travel with Marriott, guests and customers will see enhanced focus on existing sustainability efforts such as solid waste and food waste reduction and natural capital restoration, with the opportunity to participate in activities such as reforestation as well as coral and mangrove plantings.
In support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this announcement aligns with the company’s sustainability and social impact platform, Serve 360: Doing Good in Every Direction, which guides Marriott’s commitment to help take on the world’s most pressing social, environmental, and economic issues, delivering value for associates, customers, owners, the environment, and communities around the world. It also builds on Marriott’s long-standing history of embedding sustainability throughout its business strategy, operations and value chain. Starting with the company’s core value to Serve Our World, and its first-generation environmental impact reduction goals, to its latest series of waste reduction initiatives, Marriott is promoting the sustainable development of the communities in which it operates, as well as the resiliency and longevity of the business.
Marriott’s sustainability strategy is driven by a wide range of initiatives to reduce environmental impacts through the construction and operation of sustainable hotels and responsible sourcing while protecting and restoring the ecosystems on which life depends. Recent initiatives include:
The reduction of single-use plastics including replacing tiny, single-use toiletry bottles of shampoo, conditioner and bath gel in guestroom showers with larger pump-topped bottles. When fully implemented across the globe in 2022, the company’s expanded toiletry program is expected to prevent about 500 million tiny bottles annually from going to landfills.
The roll-out of an internal food waste prevention and reduction educational campaign, designed to support Marriott’s goal to reduce food waste by 50%.
The launch of a publicly available responsible sourcing guide, to help Marriott’s supplier community join its sustainability journey on the path to responsibly sourcing 95% of the company’s top ten priority categories.
The development of a certifications database to help properties operate more responsibly and work towards the goal of 100% of the portfolio receiving a third-party sustainability certification.
Planting more than 415,000 trees over the last several years, including through the company’s work as a founding member of the Evergreen Alliance, a select group of Arbor Day Foundation partners and collaborators committed to advancing trees and forests as natural solutions for corporate sustainability and citizenship goals.
Innovative ecosystem restoration and carbon sequestration projects, such as working with The Ocean Foundation to remove and repurpose sargassum seaweed, which has had devastating impacts on the environment.
More details about Marriott International’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts and Serve 360 can be found at Marriott.com/Serve360.
BANGKOK — The government’s pandemic response center on Friday decided to delay the reopening of some provinces to international tourists by a month, from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1.
Five areas were initially earmarked for the reopening — Bangkok, Chon Buri, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, and Phetchaburi. The government had hoped the initiative would draw tourists back to Thailand and revitalize the country’s decimated tourism industry.
But those hopes were dashed by today’s decision from the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration. It was the third time the reopening of Pattaya, Chiang Mai, and Hua Hin has been pushed back, with vaccine shortages being the reason given each time.
A number of tourism operators have expressed frustration at the delay. The executive chairman of Thai Air Asia’s largest shareholder, Asia Aviation, said the perceived flip-flopping is causing damages to the country’s reputation.
“Airlines had started to invest in service maintenance and recruit staff to prepare for a new flow of tourists,” Tassapon Bijleveld was quoted as saying by media reports. “It costs a lot for any business to restart, particularly during a liquidity crisis when every baht counts.”
Thanet Supornsahasrungsi from the Chon Buri Tourism Council also told reporters that tourism operators in Pattaya have made all the preparations for an October re-opening, in line with government’s previous announcements.
Thanet said the only thing the private sector couldn’t do on its own was providing residents with vaccines. He faulted the government for delays and supply shortage in the vaccine rollout program.
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration today also extended the state of emergency for two more months. The decree was supposed to expire by the end of September, and there were news reports that the government may not renew it.
Officials said the Emergency Decree allows the government to convene committees, execute policies, and enact regulations to help combat the coronavirus pandemic in a timely manner.
This undated photo made available by the National Park Service in September 2021 shows fossilized human fossilized footprints at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. According to a report published in the journal Science on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, the impressions indicate that early humans were walking across North America around 23,000 years ago, much earlier than scientists previously thought. Photo: NPS via AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fossilized footprints discovered in New Mexico indicate that early humans were walking across North America around 23,000 years ago, researchers reported Thursday.
The first footprints were found in a dry lake bed in White Sands National Park in 2009. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey recently analyzed seeds stuck in the footprints to determine their approximate age, ranging from around 22,800 and 21,130 years ago.
The findings may shed light on a mystery that has long intrigued scientists: When did people first arrive in the Americas, after dispersing from Africa and Asia?
Most scientists believe ancient migration came by way of a now-submerged land bridge that connected Asia to Alaska. Based on various evidence — including stone tools, fossil bones and genetic analysis — other researchers have offered a range of possible dates for human arrival in the Americas, from 13,000 to 26,000 years ago or more.
The current study provides a more solid baseline for when humans definitely were in North America, although they could have arrived even earlier, the authors say. Fossil footprints are more indisputable and direct evidence than “cultural artifacts, modified bones, or other more conventional fossils,” they wrote in the journal Science, which published the study Thursday.
“What we present here is evidence of a firm time and location,” they said.
Based on the size of the footprints, researchers believe that at least some were made by children and teenagers who lived during the last ice age.
David Bustos, the park’s resource program manager, spotted the first footprints in ancient wetlands in 2009. He and others found more in the park over the years.
“We knew they were old, but we had no way to date the prints before we discovered some with (seeds) on top,” he said Thursday.
Made of fine silt and clay, the footprints are fragile, so the researchers had to work quickly to gather samples, Bustos said.
“The only way we can save them is to record them — to take a lot of photos and make 3D models,” he said.
Earlier excavations in White Sands National Park have uncovered fossilized tracks left by a saber-toothed cat, dire wolf, Columbian mammoth and other ice age animals.
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Story: Christina Larson. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
A participant poses with a rainbow flag during a gay pride parade in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, July 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Anna Szilagyi)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The right-wing populist government in Hungary is attracting conservative thinkers from the United States who admire its approaches to migration, LGBT issues and national sovereignty — all matters that have put the country at odds with its European partners, who see not a conservative haven but a worrying erosion of democratic institutions on multiple fronts.
Hungary’s top diplomat has a few things to say about that.
In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s meeting of world leaders, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said his country would not cede ground on policies that have caused the European Union to impose financial penalties and start legal proceedings against it over violations of the bloc’s values.
“We do not compromise on these issues because we are a sovereign country, a sovereign nation. And no one, not even the European Commission, should blackmail us regarding these policies,” Szijjarto said.
Topping the list of contentious government policies: a controversial Hungarian law that the EU says violates the fundamental rights of LGBT people. That led the EU’s executive commission to delay billions in economic recovery funds earmarked for Hungary — a move Szijjarto called “a purely political decision” and “blackmail.” The law, he says, is meant to protect children from pedophiles and ”homosexual propaganda.”
“We will not make make compromises about the future of our children,” Szijjarto told the AP.
The law, passed in June, makes it illegal to promote or portray sex reassignment or homosexuality to minors under 18 in media content. It also contains provisions that provide harsher penalties for pedophilia. Critics say it conflates pedophilia with homosexuality and stigmatizes sexual minorities.
The measures were rejected emphatically by most European leaders. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte suggested Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, should pull his country out of the EU if he is unwilling to abide by its collective principles.
The conflict is only the latest in a protracted fight with the bloc over what it sees as a sustained assault on democratic standards in Hungary — alleged corruption, a consolidation of the media and increasing political control over state institutions and the judiciary.
Last year, the EU adopted a regulation that links the payment of funds to its member states’ compliance with rule-of-law standards — a measure fiercely opposed by Hungary’s government, which argued it was a means to punish countries that break with the liberal consensus of Western Europe’s countries.
The EU’s concerns over Hungary straying from democratic values have gone unheard by several prominent American conservatives who have recently visited the country and extolled Orban’s hardline policies on immigration and flouting of the EU’s rules. On Thursday, Hungary hosted former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at a conference in Budapest dedicated to family values and demography, both issues that form a central pillar of Hungary’s conservative policy.
“One approach (to population decline) says that we should foster migratory flows toward Europe. This is an approach which we don’t like,” Szijjarto said.
In addition to firm opposition to immigration, Hungary’s government emphasizes traditional family values and resistance to the widening acceptance of sexual minorities in Western countries. It also portrays itself as a beacon of “Christian democracy,” and a bulwark against migration from Muslim-majority countries — positions on which it finds common cause with the former vice president.
“We know that Vice President Pence is very committed to this issue … with a strong Christian background, so that is the reason we invited him,” Szijjarto said.
Despite Hungary’s position on immigration, it did evacuate more than 400 Afghan citizens who had assisted Hungarian forces in Afghanistan after that country’s government fell to the militant Taliban last month. But Szijjarto said his country was “not going to take any more Afghans,” and that no refugees would be allowed to cross Hungary’s southern border into the EU.
“We will not allow anybody to come illegally to Europe,” he told the AP.
Pence’s visit to Hungary was only the latest in a series of anti-immigration right-wing Americans visiting Hungary, which its government increasingly portrays as a bastion of conservative values.
Tucker Carlson, the most popular host on the right-wing Fox News Channel, spent a week broadcasting from Budapest in August. While there, he heaped praise on Orban’s approach to immigration, family values and national sovereignty. Carlson also made a visit by helicopter to tour a fortified fence along the country’s southern border.
On Wednesday, the Hungarian state news agency reported that Budapest would host next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC, an annual gathering of primarily U.S. conservative activists and politicians.
Hungary’s government, Szijjarto said, is “happy when American commentators come to Hungary. We are happy because when they come, they will see the reality.”
“United States press or media outlets usually characterize us as a dictatorship, as a place where it’s bad to stay, and they write all kinds of fake news about Hungary,” he said. “But when these commentators come over, they can be confronted with the reality.”
But while some of Hungary’s admirers see it as a beacon, the EU’s financial pressure — designed to change Budapest’s behavior — represents increasing pushback from the other side of the political spectrum.
Last week, Hungary sold several billion dollars in foreign currency bonds in an effort to cover the costs of planned development projects even if EU recovery funds are not released. This, along with economic growth, means Hungary’s budget is “in pretty good shape,” Szijjarto said, allowing for flexibility with the country’s central budget without the need for EU funds.
“Hungarian people should not be afraid of any kind of loss suffered because of this political decision by the European Commission,” Szijjarto said.
With national elections next spring expected to be the biggest challenge to Orban’s power since he was elected in 2010, Hungary’s government is ramping up on divisive issues like migration, LGBT rights and the COVID-19 pandemic that can mobilize its conservative voting base.
On Thursday night, in his speech before world leaders at the United Nations, Szijjarto drew parallels between migration and the pandemic, saying the two together formed a “vicious circle” in which the health and economic impacts of the virus’s spread would lead more people to “hit the road.”
“The more people that are involved in the migratory flows, the more accelerated the virus will spread,” he told the U.N. assembly. “So nowadays, migration does not only constitute the already well-known cultural, civilizational or security-related risks, but very serious health care risks as well.”
Hungary’s law affecting LGBT people will be accompanied by a national referendum ahead of elections on the availability of gender-change procedures to children and on sexual education in schools. Szijjarto said the referendum will provide “strong argumentation in the debates” with the EU over the law, and a mandate from voters for the government to hold strong on its policies.
“The best munition a government can have during such a debate,” the minister said, “is the clear expression of the will of the people.”
Public Health minister Anutin Charnvirakul inspects a COVID-19 vaccination site in Bangkok on May 24, 2021.
BANGKOK — Health minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the government’s plan to fully vaccinate all target population groups will definitely be achieved by the end of this year.
Anutin also said the government will now turn its priority to providing booster shots, even as a majority of the Thai population has yet to receive their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. To close up that gap, Thailand is now resorting to “borrowing” vaccines from other countries, such as Singapore and Bhutan.
The first booster shots for the general public will be given out on Sept. 24, starting with those who received 2 Sinovac shots earlier this year, Anutin said. Their third shots will be provided by AstraZeneca.
The government will also buy an additional 100 million vaccine doses, which will serve as boosters for all target groups in the first six months of 2022. Anutin says that from next year, there will be a more diverse choice of vaccines and the price is also expected to come down.
Although Thailand is still reporting a high number of daily new infections — more than 10,000 cases were confirmed on Wednesday and 114 deaths reported — Anutin said he’s confident that the larger vaccination coverage by the year’s end will make the pandemic much more manageable.
Nevertheless, the health ministry will continue to buy medication and equipment required for COVID-19 treatment, in order to tend to the current number of coronavirus patients, he said.
As of Wednesday, 24 percent of the Thai population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while little more than 44 percent has received at least one dose.
Vaccine Borrowing
The government on Thursday said Singapore will send 122,400 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Thailand on Saturday, as part of a deal that will see Thailand return the favour when vaccines are more available.
The news was announced by Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat.
A similar deal was previously reached with Bhutan, who will “lend” Thailand 150,000 of its AstraZeneca doses.
Along with the shipment of AstraZeneca shots, Singapore is also sending 200,000 antigen test kits and 500,000 nasopharyngeal swabs to Thailand. The kits are expected to arrive at Suvarnabhumi airport on the same day as the vaccines.
US actor Johny Deep after a photocall at the 69th San Sebastian Film Festival, in San Sebastian, northern Spain, Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (AP) — Taking center stage in a prestigious Spanish film festival to receive a top career award, actor Johnny Depp presented himself as a victim of the “cancel culture” that, he said, has spread across the cinema industry.
Depp was addressing questions on Wednesday by reporters at the San Sebastian International Film Festival about the loss of Hollywood’s favor for new roles ever since his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, went public with allegations of domestic violence against him.
A British judge last year found the allegations to be “substantially correct.”
“It’s a very complex situation, this cancel-culture, or this instant rush to judgment based on essentially what amounts to polluted air,” the 58-year-old actor responded.
“It’s got so far out of hand that I can assure you, no one is safe. Not one of you, so long as someone is willing to say one thing.”
Female filmmakers and other groups had criticized the organizer’s decision to distinguish Depp with the Donostia Award, the festival’s highest honor, saying it tarnished the event’s image and delivered the wrong message to victims of gender violence.
Last year, Depp lost a libel case against a British newspaper that accused him of domestic violence, with the judge on the case ruling the allegations were “substantially correct.” In March, a British court refused Depp permission to appeal the ruling that he assaulted his former wife, Amber Heard, saying his attempt to overturn the decision had “no real prospect of success.”
Depp is also suing Heard for $50 million in Virginia over a Washington Post op-ed essay that she wrote about domestic violence. The trial in that case was recently delayed until April 2022.
Spain’s Association of Female Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media, which has close links to the festival, said that awards should not be granted based only on professional or artistic achievements.
“What is the message that remains when men denounced for sexist violence are applauded, photographed on red carpets, surrounded by unconditional fans?” the association, known as CIMA, wrote in a Twitter thread in which it acknowledged the “complexity” of the issue.
The actor, who played the famous Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean” and leading roles in “Edward Scissorhands” and “Sleepy Hollow,” spoke to reporters hours before the award’s gala. The controversy emerged despite the festival’s request for media questions to be constrained to Depp’s career. A press conference moderator blocked a question from a reporter about the CIMA’s criticism.
“It takes one sentence, then there’s no more ground, the carpet has been pulled,” Depp said without mentioning Heard or the libel cases.
“It’s not just me that it’s happened to. It’s happened to a lot of people: women, men, children have suffered from various types of unpleasantries that sadly at a certain point they begin to think it’s normal, that it’s them. It’s not,” he said.
The actor also talked about how the coronavirus pandemic has brought more people to watch movies on screens at homes rather than going to cinemas, which closed during lockdowns.
“The majority of the world went, ’You know, this ain’t bad. We can sit and watch this thing at home. We can cook some popcorn, as opposed to the idea of a guy who makes $700 a week and wants to take his wife and kids out to dinner and a movie on the weekend, which is a $200 deal. I think the Hollywood movie machine has a few design flaws they are just realizing.”
“I’m glad I saw it coming, personally,” he added.
Asked about his views of the industry’s health, particularly in the U.S., Depp said that “Hollywood is certainly not what it was.”
“The grudge matches, the pandemonium and chaos of cinematic release to streaming… It is a case of, ‘No matter what, I’m going to get mine.’” the actor said. “That’s where these people are coming from. They realize they are just as disposable as I am. Some even more.”
The San Sebastian International Film Festival, held in northern Spain, takes place Sept. 17-25 this year. Depp was scheduled to receive the award late on Wednesday in what is the actor’s third appearance at the event.
French actress Marion Cotillard also received a Donostia Award last Friday, on the festival’s opening day.
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Story: Jorge Garma. Aritz Parra in Madrid contributed to this report.
A mother comforts her child receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / AP
BANGKOK (AP) — Health officials in the Thai capital made headway Tuesday in their effort to vaccinate children against the coronavirus, giving shots of the Pfizer vaccine to students aged 12 to 18 with underlying diseases.
Vaccinations for that age bracket were first offered last month through hospitals, but now are arranged by schools. A separate campaign by a medical research institute on Monday began inoculating children aged 10 to 18 with China’s Sinopharm vaccine.
On Tuesday, 1,500 students received shots of the Pfizer vaccine, 800 for the first time and 700 as a follow-up to their first shot in August.
Bangkok officials have asked the Health Ministry to provide more Pfizer vaccine to inoculate all children aged 12 to 18 in the capital city, said city Gov. Aswin Kwanmuang.
A mother tries to comfort her son refusing to get the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / AP
Many schools have been closed for onsite learning since last December, and Aswin said he does not want to allow them to reopen until 70% of a total of more than 1 million students are vaccinated. He hopes to reach that goal in November if adequate vaccine supplies are available.
The Health Ministry plans to give Pfizer shots to students aged 12 to 18 nationwide from Oct. 4, starting with the 29 provinces most badly affected by the coronavirus, including Bangkok.
Health workers administer doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / AP
Bangkok has been the worst hit province since another wave of the pandemic began in April this year. Nearly one-quarter of Thailand’s more than 1.4 million COVID-19 cases confirmed since the pandemic began last year were found in Bangkok.
According to the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, 97.5% of Bangkok’s 7.69 million people have received at least the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 41.6% are fully vaccinated.
The Health Ministry on Tuesday announced 10,919 new COVID-19 cases and 143 deaths, bringing the totals since last year to 1.5 million cases and 15,612 deaths.
Story: Tassanee Vejpongsa
A mother tries to comfort her child before receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / APStudents wait to be sure of no side effects after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / AP
In this Jan 27, 2021, file photo, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi watches the vaccination of health workers at hospital in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Photo: Aung Shine Oo / AP
BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Myanmar ruled Tuesday that prosecutors presented enough evidence against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and two of her political allies for their trial to continue on charges of incitement.
Suu Kyi and her elected government were ousted by the military in February. A special court in the capital, Naypyitaw, is hearing various charges filed against her and several colleagues by the military, including incitement — spreading false or inflammatory information that could disturb public order.
Her co-defendants in the incitement charge are former Vice President Win Myint and the former mayor of Naypyitaw, Myo Aung. The charge is punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment.
Under the law, a judge can order an end to a trial after the prosecution has presented its case if it does not have merit. If the judge finds the prosecution case credible, the trial continues into a second phase in which the defense presents its case and a verdict is rendered.
Defense lawyers Kyi Win and Min Min Soe said the court ruled Tuesday that the trial would continue, formally indicting the defendants.
Kyi Win said the defendants were told to enter a plea, and all three pleaded not guilty. The defense lawyers asked that two prosecution witnesses be recalled for cross-examination before the defense presents its witnesses.
Suu Kyi is also being tried on two counts of breaking COVID-19 pandemic restrictions during the 2020 election campaign, illegally importing walkie-talkies that were for her bodyguards’ use, and unlicensed use of the radios.
Suu Kyi’s supporters and independent analysts say the charges are politically motivated and are an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the military’s seizure of power.
The army takeover was met with massive popular resistance, which is continuing despite harsh measures by security forces.
The same court on Tuesday heard from a prosecution witness on the charges that Suu Kyi and Win Myint violated coronavirus restrictions.
Suu Kyi also faces additional charges that have yet to be tried: accepting bribes, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison, and violating the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum term of 14 years.
In this Thursday, March 5, 2020, file photo, Real estate heir Robert Durst sits during his murder trial at the Airport Branch Courthouse in Los Angeles. Photo: Robyn Beck / AFP via AP, Pool, File
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Robert Durst’s long, bizarre and deadly run from the law ended when a Los Angeles County jury convicted him in the murder of his best friend more than 20 years ago.
The 78-year-old New York real estate heir, who was long suspected but never charged in the disappearance of his wife in New York in 1982 and acquitted of murder in the 2001 killing of a neighbor in Texas, was found guilty Friday of the first-degree murder of Susan Berman.
“Bob Durst has been around a lot of years, and he’s been able to commit a lot of horrific crimes,” Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said outside the Inglewood Courthouse. “Considering what he’s done, he got a lot more of a life than he was entitled to.”
Durst, who is sick and frail and sat throughout the trial in a wheelchair, was not present when the verdict was read. He was in isolation at a jail because he was exposed to someone with coronavirus, an odd twist on the jury’s final day.
The global pandemic significantly altered the course of the trial, suspending it in March 2020 after only two days of testimony. After a 14-month break, possibly the longest in the U.S. legal system, the case resumed in May for four more months of testimony.
Durst faces a mandatory term of life in prison without parole when sentenced Oct. 18.
The jury found Durst ambushed Berman and killed her because she was a witness to a crime, which prosecutors said was the suspected killing of Kathie Durst, who has never been found. Berman was shot at point-blank range in the back of the head in her Los Angeles home in December 2000.
Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster, was Durst’s longtime confidante who, at the time of her death, was prepared to tell police she provided a phony alibi for him after his wife vanished.
Prosecutors painted a portrait of a rich narcissist who didn’t think the laws applied to him and ruthlessly disposed of people who stood in his way. They interlaced evidence of Berman’s killing, Kathie Durst’s disappearance and the 2001 killing of Morris Black, a tenant in a Texas flophouse where Robert Durst holed up while on the run from New York authorities.
“He killed his wife and then he had to keep killing to cover it up,” Lewin said.
Lewin, who met with jurors after the verdict, said they believed prosecutors proved Durst killed Kathie Durst and murdered Berman and Black.
The defense said they believed there was “substantial reasonable doubt” and were disappointed in the verdict, attorney David Chesnoff said. He said Durst would pursue all avenues of appeal.
In many ways, Durst had only himself to blame for an investigation that took on new life after he rejected the advice of lawyers and everyone he knew to participate in an incriminating documentary about his apparent bad luck of having people close to him go missing or get knocked off.
Durst was arrested in 2015 while hiding out in a New Orleans hotel on the eve of the airing of the final episode of “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” in which he was confronted with incriminating evidence and made what prosecutors said was a confession.
Durst could be heard muttering to himself on a live microphone in a bathroom: “There it is. You’re caught.”
Lewin credited filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling with getting the case rolling.
“Without them having conducted the interviews we wouldn’t be where we are,” Lewin said. “That was the starting point, no question.”
The verdict gives “some justice” to the family of Kathie Durst, Jarecki said in a statement, “as Kathie’s murder will now likely also be prosecuted.”
Durst’s decision to testify in his own defense — hoping for a repeat of his acquittal in the Texas killing — backfired as he was forced to admit lying under oath, made damning admissions and had his credibility destroyed when questioned for nine days by Lewin.
“There has never been a defendant that I’m aware of that has perjured himself so may times about so many different things in such a short period of time,” Lewin said. “It was absolutely shocking.”
The story of Durst, the estranged scion of a New York real estate developer, has been fodder for New York tabloids since his wife vanished. He provided plot twists so numerous that Hollywood couldn’t resist making a feature film about his life that eventually led to the documentary and discovery of new evidence in Berman’s slaying.
Durst ran from the law multiple times, disguised as a mute woman in Texas and staying under an alias at a New Orleans hotel with a shoulders-to-head latex mask for a presumed getaway. He jumped bail in Texas and was arrested after shoplifting a chicken sandwich in Pennsylvania, despite having $37,000 in cash — along with two handguns — in his rental car.
He later quipped he was “the worst fugitive the world has ever met.”
Durst escaped close scrutiny from investigators when his wife disappeared. But his troubles resurfaced in late 2000 when New York authorities reopened the case and his lawyer told him to be prepared to be charged in the case.
He fled a life of luxury to Galveston, Texas, where he rented a cheap apartment as “Dorothy Ciner,” a woman he pretended couldn’t speak. He eventually dropped the disguise after mishaps that included igniting his wig at a bar while lighting a cigarette.
Just before Christmas, he traveled to LA to visit Berman for a “staycation” with plans to see some of the tourist sites, Durst testified. He found Berman dead on a bedroom floor when he arrived.
Berman, a writer who had been friends with Durst since they were students at the University of California, Los Angeles, had serious financial problems at the time. Durst had given her $50,000, and prosecutors suggested she was trying to leverage more money from him by telling him she was going to speak with the cops.
Nine months after her death, Durst killed Black. Durst said he came home to find Black, a friend, in his apartment holding Durst’s .22-caliber pistol.
Deputy District Attorney Habib A. Balian holds a rubber latex mask, worn by Robert Durst when police arrested him, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021 in Inglewood, Calif. estate heir’s murder trial. Photo: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool
Durst was acquitted after testifying the 71-year-old was killed in a struggle for the gun. Durst then chopped up Black’s body and tossed it out to sea. He was convicted of destroying evidence for discarding the body parts.
After the trial and the ghastly evidence of the dismemberment, Durst said he became a pariah. Despite an estimated $100 million fortune, he was turned away by multiple condominium associations and said the Los Angeles County Museum of Art wouldn’t take his money unless he donated anonymously.
Durst thought a 2010 feature film Jarecki made based on his life, “All Good Things,” starring Ryan Gosling as him and Kirsten Dunst as Kathie, had been largely accurate and painted a sympathetic portrait, despite implicating him in three killings. He only objected that he was depicted killing his dog — something he would never do.
He reached out to the filmmaker and agreed to sit for lengthy interviews for a documentary. He encouraged his friends to do the same and gave the filmmakers access to boxes of his records.
He came to deeply regret his decision after “The Jinx” aired on HBO in 2015, calling it a “very, very, very big mistake.”
The documentary filmmakers discovered a crucial piece of evidence that connected him to an anonymous note sent to police directing them to Berman’s lifeless body.
Durst, who was so confident he couldn’t be connected to the note, told filmmakers “only the killer could have written” the note.
When filmmakers confronted him with a letter he sent Berman a year earlier — with identical handwriting and Beverly Hills misspelled as “Beverley” on both — he couldn’t tell them apart.
The gotcha moment provided the climax of the movie as Durst stepped off camera and muttered to himself on a live microphone in the bathroom: “Killed them all, of course.”
During 14 days of testimony that was so punishing Judge Mark Windham called it “devastating,” Durst denied killing his wife and Berman, though he said he would lie if he did.
He was forced to admit for the first time that he had written the note and had been in LA around the time of Berman’s death.
Lewin said jurors told him they didn’t believe Durst’s explanations for the note or the apparent confession during an unguarded moment.
Durst claimed the hot mic didn’t catch his full thought, which he said was: “They’ll all think I killed them all, of course.”
That’s exactly what the jury concluded, Lewin said.
