Podcasts about Lao

  A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight on APEX Express Host Miko Lee speaks with spouses of detained refugees. We hear about the similarities and challenges of Hmong and Nepali speaking Bhutanese refugees. We also speak with Asian Law Caucus' Aisa Villarosa about the ongoing campaigns for freedom that ALC has been leading along with a host of other community based organizations. Join us: November 3, 4pm Pacific time, 7pm Eastern Time, Join us for “We Belong Here, Bhutanese & Hmong Americans in the Struggle Against Statelessness” a live virtual event featuring my three guests tonight, along with performances and conversations. bit.ly/WBH-2025   TAKE ACTION Rising Voices campaign for Lue Yang Mohan Karki's GoFundMe   And please help support these organizations working to support detained and deported folx: Asian Law Caucus Asian Refugees United Ba Lo Project in Vietnam Collective Freedom in Vietnam & Laos Asian Prisoner Support Committee & New Light Wellness in Cambodia November 1–2, people nationwide are joining the Disappeared In America Weekend of Action to stand up for immigrant families and defend due process. Actions include protests at Home Depots, candlelight Freedom Vigils, and Day of the Dead events honoring lives lost to detention.     We Belong! Transcript Miko Lee: Welcome to Apex Express.This is your host, Miko Lee. Today we're talking about detentions and potential deportations and the atrocities that the Trump administration is creating in our communities.We originally recorded this episode a month ago, and today is October 29th. 2025 and I have with me Aisa Villarosa a lawyer with Asian Law Caucus, giving us an update in the cases that we're talking about. Welcome Aisa Apex Express. Aisa Villarosa: Thanks so much, Miko. Miko Lee: Tonight we're gonna be talking with two spouses of detained folks. One is a Nepali speaking Bhutanese community member, and the other is Hmong community member. In the time since we recorded this, there has been a big update with Lue Young's case, and I wonder if you could provide us with that update. Aisa Villarosa: Miko since we last spoke, due to some really hard fought campaigning, both behind the scenes and drawing upon allies across Michigan and really across the country. Lue Yang, received a successful pardon from Governor Gretchen Whitmer. We actually received word shortly before Lue Yang was set to be placed on a very large deportation flight. Once we got word of the pardon, it was off to the races for the legal team to quickly draft some emergency motions for Lue Yang and to realize the power of the pardon before the deportation. Miko Lee: Can we back up for a moment and give for an audience a sense of what that means? Lue Young was incarcerated at a detention facility, which Trump has called the FedEx of detention facilities in, Louisana, and explain to us what happened to him and the other members that were suddenly pulled together onto an airplane. Aisa Villarosa: When these removal flights happen, there's so much confusion, there's so much fear that families undergo, and often it's due to the perseverance of the families that we honestly even know where folks are. Shortly before what we call final staging happens, someone is moved from, in Lue's case, a facility in Michigan to a facility like Alexandria in Louisiana where the planes do take off  from. Families typically look up their loved one on something called the “ice detainee locator.” What's challenging is when final staging starts. Often that person completely disappears from the detainee locator or information gets a bit scrambled. Because ICE has a bit of a sealed box as far as even telling families where, their loved one is. Families are either left to guess or rely on each other. So for Lue Yang and the pardon what is critical for folks to know is that as powerful, as rare as a pardon is, I can't stress how extraordinary this is in these very difficult times. A pardon does not instantly, allow someone to say, walk out of an ice facility. There's, numerous legal filings that need to happen. That is why , the team was so up against the clock. Miko Lee: So let's break this down a little bit around a pardon. What does a pardon mean in our current system? Because as a lay person, you think, oh, they're pardoned. That means they're free and they can go home and be with their family. Tell us a little bit about what a pardon means in our legal system right now. Aisa Villarosa: A pardon is different from a criminal expungement, which folks might be familiar with. In Lue's case, for example, when Lue was younger, he successfully expunged this record, in criminal court. The challenge is that immigration court, is basically the entity that issues something called a “final order of removal.” This document, is basically what powers deportation for folks. An expungement does not get at the final removal order. However, a pardon has that more direct link. The pardon has the weight of what we call “vacating a conviction.” To explain more legalese and hopefully folks can stay with me. A final order of removal is an immigration court order document where , it gives ice the power to do all these deportations We're seeing for the refugee community that Lue Yang belongs to. Often these are quite old orders, and so sometimes a loved one might be detained and they might not even realize that they have a criminal conviction or a final order of removal. Miko Lee: Thank you so much for breaking that down. So we described how he was pulled off the plane that was going for his deportation. Tell us where Lue is at right now. What is happening with his case? Aisa Villarosa: The call to action very much remains what it has been, which is we're calling to bring Lue home. At the moment, Lue is in a facility in Louisiana. Our hope is that Lue can return to Michigan. There is also a call to release Lue on a supervised release. The other component of the legal journey for Lue is something called a motion to reopen. Basically this is how the full weight of the pardon is realized. The motion to reopen calls on the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen Lue's case, because years ago he got that final removal order, so when someone gets that order, typically their immigration case is closed. This petition says, Hey, he got a pardon. Please reopen Lue's case because the underlying conviction that led to the final removal order. Has been pardoned, right? We are hoping that this motion to reopen will be heard in front of the Board of Immigration Appeals, that we can get a great result and that as the campaign calls for that, Lue can come home. Miko Lee: I know lawyers like you are doing incredible work around the scenes. You did not sleep for two days, filing paperwork to be able to make sure that Lue was pulled off that plane. But what can regular people, what can our audience do to get involved right now? Aisa Villarosa: There's myriad actions along this really terrible deportation pipeline. We're seeing that folks who might not have, any deep knowledge of the immigration system can still be so impactful. We have partners in LA in the faith community and they've started working with community organizations to do things like accompaniment, which is, joining community members like Lue, who often have these ice check-ins. As folks have seen on the news, these check-ins can be really risky because that is where ice arrests can happen. If someone misses their ice check-in, typically that means that a warrant is issued, that immigration forces can come after you. In these cases, community members, particularly folks who are US citizens, accompaniment can be a great way to dig in to show up for our immigrant and refugee siblings. Miko Lee: Thank you so much for breaking down how folks can get involved. It's so important right now in a time where we feel so utterly helpless to be able to make change. Now we're gonna go back to listen to our interview that is with the two spouses, Tika, Basnet, and Ann Vue, and also our current guest, Aisa Villarosa Tika and Ann they're part of a horrible club, which is both of their spouses are currently in detention from our immigration system. I just wanna start on a real personal note in a way that I often do with my guests. Anne, I just would love to hear from you, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? Ann Vue: Thank you again, Miko and Isa, for having me on. We are Hmong. We helped Americans during the Vietnam War. In Laos, a lot of our pilots needed a communication. Because we're indigenous and we are in the mountains they were able to speak with us and use us. Our Hmong, helped a lot of the pilots rescued a lot, like thousands and thousands of Americans, so that they can make it back home. That is our contribution to the American people. When we were brought to America, was to resettle because of humanitarian purpose. Our legacy of helping Americans with the war. that is who we are and what we bring to America. That's who I am. I'm actually the first generation Hmong American. I was born right here in the capital of Lansing, Michigan. Miko Lee: Thanks so much ann. Tika, can you share who are your people and what legacy you carry with you? Tika Basnet: Hi, my name is Tika Basnet. I am Bhutanese Nepali community. My parents and all the Bhutanese, they ran away from Bhutan in 1990 due to the ethnic cleansing. They came to Nepal, seeking for asylum, and that is where we born. I was born in Nepal, in refugee camp. Even though I was born in Nepal, Nepal never gave us identity. They never give us citizenship. We were known as Bhutanese Nepali, but as known as Stateless. My husband also born in Nepal in a refugee camp. Miko Lee: Thank you. Aisa, I'm gonna ask the same question for you Aisa, that works at Asian Law Caucus. Who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? Aisa Villarosa: So much love to you, Miko and to you Ann and Tika for being here today. I just am, I'm so honored. My name is Aisa and I carry the love and, Maki Baka spirit of Filipino Americans both in my family across the diaspora. A little bit about the Filipino American story. We came to the United States as part of the colonial machine. The first Filipinos were brought as part of the Spanish Gallian trade. We made California home, parts of Lueisiana home, and it's quite a contrast to a lot of the sort of model minority seduction that many of my people, and myself as a younger person tended to fall into that if we kept our heads down, if we were quiet, we would be left alone. I'm struck because at this moment of just unprecedented government attacks, so many of our communities have this story where someone somewhere said to us, yeah, just keep your head down and it'll be fine. We're seeing the exact opposite, that this is the time to really use our voices, both individually and as one. I'm also an artist and try to infuse that into my work in fighting government systems. Miko Lee: Thank you Aisa. I will say I'm Miko. I am fifth generation Chinese American. I grew up knowing that my family was full of fighters that built the railroads, worked in the gold mines in laundromats and restaurants, and my parents walked with Dr. King and Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and I was raised in a family of social justice activists. I feel like our legacy is to continue that work and to fight for the rights of our peoples. I'm so honored to have both of all three of you powerful women join me today. As I was saying in the beginning, Tika and Anne are sadly a part of this club nobody wants to be a part of with the sudden, unexpected, harmful detentions of both of your husbands. I wonder if you can each just share the story about what happened and how you first found out about your husband being detained. Let's start with you Tika. Tika Basnet: My husband got his removal in 2014 when he was just 17 years old, high school student going from school to home. He's a teenager and with his friend, they were playing around and they wanna go home really fast. They just cross from private property. That is where someone saw and call 9 1 1. We came from the culture that we love to go people home , walking around, playing around. My husband came here in 2011. The incident happened on 2013. He just, came here without knowing culture, without knowing languages, So he has no idea. So when somebody called 9 1 1, he could not explain what happened. First of all, English is his second language, he was barely here without knowing rules and regulation, without knowing culture. The police took him to jail, gave a lot of charges. My husband doesn't know what are those charges? At that time, nobody explained, this is the three charges you got, and this could lead to deportation. He feel guilty without knowing those charges. He trusts [00:14:00] Nepali translate guy, and he told my husband, if you don't say I'm guilty, you will end up in prison for 20 to 25 years, but if you say I'm guilty, you'll go home. My husband said, guilty. At that time, neither criminal lawyer told my husband, if you say I'm guilty, you'll end up getting deport. Deport to the country that you are you never born. Deport To the country, you doesn't even speak their language. The lawyer did not explain my husband you will not gonna get your green card. You cannot apply your citizenship in your life. If those things the lawyer told my husband at that time, he will never gonna say, I am guilty to the crime that he did not even commit. When they tried to deport my husband back then, Bhutan say, he's not my citizenship, he's not from my country, We don't know this guy. He's not belongs to here. When US Embassy reach out to, Nepal, do you know this guy? They told, ICE no, we don't know this guy, like he's not belongs here. The ICE officer, told my husband, we can let you go, you need to come here, like order of supervision every three months, every six months, whenever we call you. It been 11 years. My husband is following rules and regulation. He never did any violation after that. He got married, he has a life, he pay taxes. He was taking care of his family and in 11 years he was doing everything. In 2025 for the first time they target Bhutanese Nepali community. I knew that this is the last time I'm gonna see my husband. I broke down. When they detained my husband in April 8, I was eight months pregnant. We dream a lot of things we are gonna take care of our daughter. We are gonna buy home, we are gonna work, we are gonna give her the life that we, I'm sorry. Miko Lee: Totally. Okay. Tika Basnet: I never thought like Bhutanese community can, like deport. Like my parent already go through this trauma, when Bhutan throw them away due to ethnic cleansing and same thing happening to us. It is unbelievable. I cannot believe that, we're going through this again and I don't know when this gonna be stopped. I don't know whether like my husband gonna come home. It is been five month and I really want my husband back. My daughter is, three month old. She need her dad in life 'cause I cannot provide everything by myself. My husband is the main provider for her aging parent. 'cause even now they cannot pay bills. I'm fighting for my husband case and I want my husband back. He deserve second chance because if you see his record is clean, like for one incident that happened like 12 years ago, that cannot define my husband. I cannot believe that my husband is able to get deport to the country that doesn't even accept. I don't know whether he gonna get killed. Whether he gonna disappear, I don't know what will happen to him. I don't know if it is last time I'm gonna see him. Miko Lee: Tika, thank you so much for sharing your story. Just to recap really briefly, your husband, Mohan Karki when he was a teenager, newly arrived in the country, was leaving high school, walked with his friends through a backyard and was racially profiled. The neighbor called police because he was trespassing on property. He was born at a refugee camp. Is that right? Tika Basnet: Yes. Miko Lee: There was not property that was like person's property on that refugee camp. So that whole concept of walking across somebody's land was something he was not aware of. He had an interpreter that did not give correct information. And so he signed something, including a deportation order, that he wasn't even aware of until recently when he was put into detention. Is that right? Tika Basnet: Yes. Yes. Miko Lee: Right now he's in detention. You live in Ohio, but he's in detention in Michigan, right? Tika Basnet: Yes. Miko Lee: Okay, Tika, let's talk about Mohans case and what's happening. He's held in detention right now in a detention facility in Michigan. What is going on with his case? Tika Basnet: His criminal attorney file, a Motion to Redeem asking BIA to send that, case back to Georgia. His case, that happened in 2013. Our attorney just submit documentation where he's asking to release my husband because it'd been five month. He's not risk to the community. He's not risk to the flight 'cause he doesn't have no one in Bhutan. He doesn't have no one in Nepal. All family is in here. His community love him ,he has family that loves him. We also get lot of documentations as a proof telling ICE that my husband is not risk to the community or to the flight. Miko Lee: Thank you. He has a a four month old baby that he has yet to meet. So that is a powerful reason to stay. As Tikas pointing out, the lawyer just submitted documentation along with 50 letters of support from the community from employers, from family members, all saying why he should stay in this country. Thank you so much for sharing. Anne, i'm wondering if you could share about what happened to your husband. He was also born in a refugee camp, right? Ann Vue: Lue was born in Nangkai, Thailand refugee camp in 1978. In1979 his parents and him and his older brother Granted urgent humanitarian reasons for or for public benefit. They made it to America right before Halloween. The early nineties, me even being the first generation American here, racism played a lot. We all went through that piece and our parents not speaking English at the same time, they were going to school themselves so that they can learn our English language, . They weren't able to teach us growing up. We had to fend for ourselves. I would say my husband he went out with some friends. He did not commit the crime. But of course now that is brought back to him, he understood about his particular case is second attempt, home invasion. Nobody was harmed. He was in the vehicle, in the backseat when he was caught. He didn't wanna partake, but he didn't wanna stop them either 'cause to him it was like, if I don't partake, then I have nothing to do with it. . Because if I do, then they might not be my friends anymore. It's just a part of growing up as a youth. Because he was there, and then would receive a court appointed attorney, and then provide it very similar to Tika's too. Had an interpreter, that was explaining to them, was provided bad legal advice. He had no knowledge about how this would impact his immigration status. It was advised by their attorney, take the plea it's easier, and you probably serve less than a year. You'll be out, you'll only be in the county jail anyways 'cause you didn't really commit the crime and technically it should have been a misdemeanor. But because you're an accomplice, that kind of falls under this category. So he took the plea, he served 10 months in a county jail. He actually was released for good behavior. He even finished his probation soon because he paid all of his stuff off. He even finished a youth advocate program for anybody that committed crimes between the age of 18 to 21. I just saw this form the other day and I was reading it and it talks about, the one thing about our parents, experiencing the war and coming to America, they don't talk about it. A lot of us are from communist countries. We are very afraid to voice our voices, because someone can take action. Our parents never talked about it. I read what he wrote to his, youth coordinator, he felt so bad about what he did. He created disappointment for his parents and he understands, there are sacrifices that got us here to America. He literally wrote all of this down, i'm going to be a better person. I'm going to make my parents proud now that I understand their sacrifices. They asked him, ” what was your upbringing like?” He wrote, “poor” and the coordinator wrote on the bottom of his comments said, “Lue is remorseful for what has happened and he wants to be a better person. I have no other questions. The training is complete.” He doesn't need any further, support and believes that he will move forward to be a better person. That's literally what they wrote on the document. Then fast forwarding to 1999 that's when, immigration showed up at his house. Him and I would meet in 2000, and then we'd be married in 2001. We'd celebrate. Almost 24 and a half years of marriage. We did appeal his case in the humanitarian piece of what this meant for Lue during the time where we all fled the country. Once the monks were declared enemy of the state by the LDR in Laos, we fled. It's well documented that there was a little bit over 400,000 of us there right after the genocide and the killings of the Hmong there was probably less than 45,000 of us left. Once we understood a lot of that, we wanted to do better. We wanted to really service our community. We appealed the case. The case was then denied in his appeal letters, general Vink Powell, which led the Hmongs during the war, even had a letter where he, also pled why Hmongs need to stay here in America. And why we need to bring the rest of our people to this country. The reality is our whole family, Lue's whole family was wiped out. We don't have anybody, Lue doesn't have anyone. That goes to Tika's thing too. There's nobody there. Going back to the case once it was denied in 2002. He then was forced to reach out to the embassy and was denied, entry into Thailand 'cause that's where he was born. We're stateless too, just like Tikas husband. We were denied by Thailand. We were denied by Laos stating that we are not a citizen of theirs. They do not allow or welcome any sort of entry. In 2006, they actually took his green card and then we again were denied. In 2008 we were denied a third time and that's when his immigration officer was like, just move on and start your life. Laos and Thailand, will never sign a repatriation act with America because of you guys, because of the Hmong people, what you guys have done to their country, making it the most bombed country during the war without even being a part of the war. They will never allow you guys back. So we were like, okay. So we moved forward. Then in 2014, this immigration officer, which we was doing yearly checkups at this time, was like, Hey go get your citizenship, get your green card. They're like you're doing so good. You probably could have a chance to get it. We moved forward to apply for citizenship and for the green card. We were denied in 2015 and we know how expensive this is. You pay $10,000 outright, you don't get that money back. You just have to go at it again. We decided that, we're gonna get his case expunged, and we got his case expunged in 2018. No questions asked. It was very straightforward. Once it was expunged, we continued with our [00:26:00] lives. Very involved in the community. We had six kids . This year we even called his immigration officer and he was like, “Hey, don't worry about it, Lue, we're moving you over to Grand Rapids and you should be fine. Just make sure that you stay outta trouble, continue to follow your stock.” I think what triggered it was when we applied for his work permit in April. He always meets his immigration officer at the end of the year, and we renewed his work permit is what triggered it. The money was cashed out, everything the checks went through while we were receiving that, he was gonna be here, everything was gonna be fine. Then July 15th he was detained at work, six 30 in the morning, the detained officer they told him they know who he is to the community, so they have to do it this way because they don't want any problems. They don't want media, they don't want reporters. He did ask them because he rode his motorcycle for some weird reason. He has not taken his bike out, his motorcycle out in the last three years. But for some reason that night he was like, I just wanna take my bike. So he took his bike that night and when ICE told him, do you have somebody come get your bike? You need to call somebody to come get your bike. He was like, nobody in my family rides motorcycles. I don't have anyone to come get my bike. I think there was some empathy and compassion for him. My husband was like, can I just take my bike back? I've got six kids. I've got my grandma at home and my parents are also at my house right now. I just wanna see them and wanna take my bike back. They asked him, “if we let you go, please don't run.” They followed my husband home and my husband literally called me at 6 37 in the morning and he was like, Hey, ICE is, here they got me. I'm like, “what? What's going on?” It was just so surreal. I was so shocked. It's a 30 minute drive. When he got there, they were already officers, packed tight in our driveway. We live in the country. There were like five or six cop cars there too. We had to walk about half a mile down to go see him. They wouldn't allow him to enter where our home was. The officer told, my husband, told him that they're so sorry. They have to do it this way. They know who he is. They don't want any problems, they don't want any reports in media out here. I will say my experience was a little bit different from others. They did take their mask off when they took him in, they were respectful. They even, talk to my two older boys like, Hey, you guys have money. I could put the money in your dad's account. We're, take him into Grand Rapids, we're gonna process him, and then we're gonna take him to the detention center, which is gonna be in Michigan. They were very open about these steps . My grandma has chronic pulmonary disease stage four. We couldn't haul her fast enough because we only saw him for like maybe a quick minute, and that was it. They did ask us to turn around because they had to take him back and they didn't want our little ones to see them cuffing him. Miko Lee: They actually said, Anne, we don't want any media to be watching this? Ann Vue: I don't want any problems. Miko Lee: Your husband is also quite well known in the Hmong community, right? So probably, they were worried about folks coming out and protesting. Is that, do you think that was the case? Ann Vue: That's what I'm assuming. I don't remember their exact words saying media, but do remember that they didn't want people around, they didn't want to create issues for the community. Because if he would've gotten the letter just like everybody did, which everybody then would receive the letter on Friday, and because my husband is a community leader, he is the Hmong Family Association's president, we restart receiving many, many calls where everybody just wanted to talk to Lue 'cause they needed to know what's going on, how to handle, what to do. At that moment I realized, oh my gosh, they detained my husband first. Then everybody else got a letter. Miko Lee: And the ICE officer that he had been checking in with routinely has he been in touch with him since he was detained? Ann Vue: He hasn't. Miko Lee: So they had different people come in even, 'cause he was the person that said everything's okay, keep going with your life. Ann Vue: Oh yeah. Miko Lee: And so no contact with him whatsoever since the detention? Ann Vue: No. Miko Lee: Okay. Thank you so much. I just wanna point out, for all of our listeners, how many similarities there are in these two cases. In both of these amazing women are here supporting their spouses. Both spouses born in refugee camps. Dealing with intergenerational trauma from families that had to escape ethnic cleansing or involved in a war, came into the United States under, legal properties through refugee resettlement acts, made mistakes as young people, partially due to culture and wanting to fit in. They served their time, they paid their dues. They were racially profiled. They suffered from incredible immigration policy failure with bad advice, with a system that's broken. Now both of them are detained. Not yet deported, but detained. Many of the community members have already been deported and they're facing statelessness. We're seeing this not just with Bhutanese and Hmong folks, but with Mien and Lao and Haitian and El Salvadorian. We could fill in the blank of how many other peoples in other communities are facing this. We also know that these private detention centers where people are being held, are making millions and millions of dollars, and it's connected into our corrupt political system that's in place right now. Aisa, I'm wondering if you could, talk about the case, but also about some of the deals that we think have had to be made with Laos and Bhutan in order for these deportations to even take place. So Aisa from Asian Law Caucus, I'm gonna pass it to you to go over some of the legal ramifications. Aisa Villarosa: Of course, Miko, and thank you for it for the context. There are so many parallels that we as advocates must uplift because this is not the time to be divided. This is the time to build solidarity that we've long known needs to happen. What Miko is referring to is largely something that we've observed around the travel  bans. Earlier this year, right around the time that the Trump administration took hold, there was a draft travel ban list that leaked across a number of media outlets, the Times, et cetera, and the same countries we're talking about today, Bhutan, Laos. These were historically not countries that were subject to sanctions, like the travel ban, and yet here they were. A lot of us were scratching our heads and asking, why is this happening? Our theory, and this is a theory that is now also manifesting in a number of FOIA requests or Freedom of Information Act requests that are submitted from Asian Law Caucus to departments like the State Department ice, the Department of Homeland Security. Asking the same question that Tika and Anne are asking, which is, how are these deportations even happening? They were not happening until this year. What very likely happened was a bit of a quid pro quo. So in removing Bhutan, removing Laos from this list where they could be sanctioned as a country, there was likely some backdoor deal that took place between the US State Department and Bhutanese officials and the US officials, where essentially there was some form of an agreement that there would be an acceptance or a supposed acceptance of a certain number of folks from these communities. That is why around March, for the Bhutanese refugee community, for example, we started seeing pickups very similar to Mohan's case, where, many people who had perhaps made some mistakes in their youth or had really old criminal convictions were swept off the streets and thrust into these really rapid deportation proceedings. I don't even know if proceedings is the right word, because there essentially was no proceeding. The Immigration Court is very much a cloaked process. The immigration judge is kind of judge and jury wrapped up together, which is very different than many of us might turn on the TV and see something like Law and order. An immigration court works a very different way where this piece of paper, this final removal order, basically gives ICE a lot of bandwidth to make these deportations happen. However, that doesn't mean we should just accept that this is happening. We know that just basic procedures of fairness are not being met. We know, too that in the case of, for example, the Bhutanese community ICE officers have come to the wrong house. And put a lot of people in fear. So racial profiling was happening even before this recent Supreme Court decision, which essentially now condones racial profiling, as criteria that the ICE can use. I also just wanted to talk about this trend too, we're seeing with so many cases. It happened to Lue, it happened to Mohan, where in someone's underlying criminal court case, maybe they were given a court appointed attorney. In many cases, they were not told of the immigration impacts of, say, taking a plea. There is a Supreme Court case called Padilla versus Kentucky and basically the law shifted such that in many cases there now is a duty for a court appointed public defender to actually talk to folks like Mohan and Lue about the immigration consequences of their plea. So when Tika mentioned that there's something called a post-conviction relief effort for Mohan. That's happening in Georgia. This is very much what that legal defense looks like, where, an expert attorney will look at that very old court record, see if those rights were violated, and also talk to Mohan and make sure did that violation happen and is that grounds for reopening an immigration case. For Lue, there is a really mighty pardoning campaign that's brewing in the state of Michigan. So in Michigan, governor Gretchen Whitmer does have the authority to in some cases expedite a pardon in process. Unfortunately in the immigration arena the expungement does not have that same weight as say a vacating, or a motion to vacate that criminal record. So it's super frustrating because, so much of this turns ethically, morally on- do we, as people believe in second chances, and I know most people do, and yet here we are really. Based on a technicality. I also just want to name too that Lue as a person is both a natural organizer and he is a spiritual guide of his community. So something that many folks don't know is because of so much of the trauma that Anne talked about, both from, supporting the Americans during the Secret War, many Hmong folks who came to the States, they actually in some cases died in their sleep because of this, almost unexplained weight of the trauma. It almost underscores the importance of Lue, not just to his family, but this family is a collective family. He's both a mentor for so many, he's a spiritual guide for so many. Him being away from his family, away from community, it's like a double, triple wound. for Mohan, I'd love to uplift this memory I have of a moment in June when Tika gave us a call, and at that point, Mohan had called Tika and said, they're taking me, I'm being deported. At that point, they were removing Mohan from the ICE facility in Butler, Ohio and transporting him to the Detroit airport or that deportation to Bhutan. Tika was forced to essentially delay her childbirth. It was very much in the range of when she was due to give birth to their daughter. But because the clock was ticking, Tika drove to Butler, literally begged for Mohans life as our organizing and advocacy and legal team was trying to get together this emergency stay of deportation. That fortunately came through at the 11th hour. But the fact that Mohan remains in this facility in St. Clair, Michigan, that he's never held his daughter is unacceptable, is ridicuLues. I think so much of these two cases almost, this invisible brotherhood of pain that I know Ann has talked to me about that. Because Lue right now has been in a couple facilities. He is organizing, he's doing his thing and actually supporting folks while also just trying to keep himself well, which is no easy feat to do in so many of these facilities. Especially because, in Alexandria, for example, which is a facility in Louisiana. We know that folks are sleeping on cement floors. We know that folks are not being fed, that there's a lot of human rights violations going on. Here is Lue still continuing to use his voice and try to advocate for the folks around him. Miko Lee: Aisa thank you so much for putting that into context, and we'll put links in the show notes for how folks can get involved in both of these cases. One is, Rising Voices call to action for Lue. We encourage folks to do that. In terms of Mohan, there's a GoFundMe to help support Tika and the immense lawyer fees, and also a letter writing campaign to the ICE director Kevin Roff, to try and release Mohan and Lue. These are really important things that are happening in our community, and thank you for being out there. Thank you for talking and sharing your stories. We really appreciate you. And also, just briefly, I'd love us for us to talk for a minute about how many folks in our Asian American communities, we don't wanna talk about mistakes that we have made in the past because we might consider that shameful. And therefore, in both of these communities, when we started organizing, it was really hard at first to find people to come forth and share their stories. So I wonder if both of you can give voice to a little about that, the power you found in yourself to be able to come forward and speak about this, even though some other folks in the community might not feel comfortable or strong enough to be able to talk. Tika, can you speak to that? Tika Basnet: What makes me really strong, and I wanna see that my husband case is because he was 17, people can make mistake and from those mistake, if people are learning. Americans should consider, 'cause my husband did make mistake and I wish that time he knew the rules and regulation. I wish somebody taught him that he's not supposed to go somebody else property, around in backyard. I wish he was been in the United States like more than , one and a half year. I wish, if he was like more than two years, three years. I think that time he, from high school, he could learn. He's not supposed to go there. He was just been in the United States like one and a half year just going to high school. Nobody taught him. His parent doesn't even speak English. Until now, they doesn't even speak, like nobody in our community knew rules and regulation. He doesn't have guide, mentor to taught him like, and even though he did make mistake and he's really sorry, and from those mistake learning a lot, and he never get into trouble, after 11 years, he was clean, he work, he pay taxes. That is the reason that I really wanna come forward. People can make mistake, but learning from those mistake that changed people life. The reason that I'm coming forward is because organization like Asian Law Caucus, ARU, and, Miko, a lot of people helped me. They taught me like people can make mistake and, we shouldn't be same. I really wanna give example to my daughter, that, you are fighting for justice and you shouldn't fear. What is right is right. What is wrong is wrong. But if somebody's make mistake and they are not, doing that mistake again, I think the people can get a second chance. My husband deserves second chance. He's 30 years old. He has a family, he has a wife, children and he deserved to be here. We came here legally, my husband came here. Legally, we, promise that we'll get home and this is our home. We wanna stay here and I really want my husband be home soon so he can play with her daughter to play with his daughter. Miko Lee: Thank you so much, Tika. Ann I wonder if you could talk to the strength that it takes for you to come forward and speak about your husband and your family. Ann Vue: I'm a community leader with my husband. There was a moment when he was first detained where I was in complete silence. I was so shocked. It took my attorney, Nancy, just talking to me about it. Of course, back to what Aisa said earlier in our communities, we're afraid. I was so scared. I didn't know what to do. It took me visiting my husband in Baldwin and letting him know that, hey, a bunch of community members are now reaching out. And that's that. At that moment, he was like, you have to say something. You have to say something you have to make noise because you have a, 50% chance, right? We have a 50 50 chance. 50%. They're gonna send me 50%. You're gonna feel bad if you don't say anything, right? 50 here, 50 there. It doesn't matter. But a hundred percent regret if you don't say something. I thought about it and he was like, well, go out there, be my voice. He's like, you've always been my voice. You got this right. I didn't say no to Nancy. 'cause she really wanted to talk to our rep Mai you know about this. Mai and I are pretty close too. , I just knew if I said anything, Mai's gonna be like mm-hmm. All the way. I just let Nancy help me, and my most vulnerable time. I'm glad that she did. I'm glad that we did get this out. It is the most important thing for us. what keeps me going is all of those that have been impacted by this, from people like Tika. I have many, I call 'em sisters. We're all in a lot of these group chats together. They've been also keeping me going. Our amazing team of attorneys and everybody just strategizing through this unprecedented time. It's really everyone's voices. I get to talk to Lue daily. It's definitely not cheap, but he gets to share each story of each person. I believe that everybody has a story and they might not be as lucky as maybe Tika or my husband, but at least now I have their story. I will be their voice. I will tell each person's story, each name, each alien number that I track down, my husband's even literally learned how to count in Spanish, just so he can give them like my phone number in Spanish in case they need to call an emergency. Oh, I'm be getting a lot of calls. that is what keeps me going because I think that Tika and I and many others are, hoping that there is going to be a better day, a brighter day. I hope that everyone can see that, our children are American, right? Our children, they deserve to have their fathers and their mothers. They deserve to grow with these parents. And with that being said, the most important thing to me is they're not just bystanders. They're literally the future of America. I don't want them growing up with trauma, with trying to ask me questions “well mom, if we're refugees and we helped, Americans as allies, and we come to this country, why is this payback like this?” There's a moral obligation that has to be there and they're gonna grow up and they're gonna be trauma by this. I've got children right now that's been talking about joining the National Guard. It speaks volume about what happens to my husband. He's championed the Hmong, Michigan Special Gorilla unit, the Hmong veterans here in the last two years, really  with helping them through resolutions, tributes, making sure that they have things, that they are out there, that people now know them, they are finally recognized. This puts my husband at great danger by sending him back, because now he's championed the veterans here. He celebrates our veterans here. So it's a moral obligation. I hope that, and this is to every child, I hope that every child, they deserve their father's presence. There are many people who don't even have their father's presence and they wish their fathers were around. Our fathers wanna be around. I hope that our daughter, I only have one daughter too, that someday they can, their fathers can be a part of their, the American culture. I hope that we get that opportunity and I hope that somebody stop being scared, but turn around and help us. Help us. We came here legally, minor stuff, long decade old. This detainment has been worse than when he did time back in 1997. I just hope that somebody hears our podcast, Miko. Thank you. Aisa and Tika. And they turn and they have some compassion and help us because this is the tone that we're setting for the future of our American children. Miko Lee: Thank you so much for sharing. Tika, you wanna add? Tika Basnet: Yes, I really wanna talk about what kind of husband Mohan is. Even though like he detained for five month I put lot of money in his account and there was one guy, his family cannot support him. For me, it is really hard. I'm not working. But even my husband called me you don't need to put like money in my account, but can you please can you please put money in his account? He did not eat food. His family did not have money. I can survive without eating food. I think his story is really touching me. My husband was crying listening to that guy story in detention center and then I did put like $50 in his account. My husband is giving person. He love to give even though, he struggle a lot, even though, he doesn't know what will happen when he get deport. But, him saying other guy story. Does make him cry. I think this is the reason that I really wanna come forward. My husband is giving person, he's lovely person, he's caring person. That is the reason I wanna come forward. I want people to hear our voice, rather than silent. Right now people know our story. But if I was silent then I don't know whether my husband was already disappear. I don't know whether he gonna die torture or maybe he will expel within 24 hours. I have no idea. My husband is number one support system for me, because of him I'm here sharing his story. For years I had wonderful time with him. We build our dream and until 2025, our dream is destroy. I'm trying to build again. I'm hoping, my husband is coming home soon and I'm hoping that this will be the last time that he will get detained. I hope that this will be the end. I don't want him to get detained or deported again. I'm really tired. I don't know what to do. I'm hopeless. I hope listening to my story and Ann's story that separating family is not good. It is affecting not only one person but his whole community, whole family. We deserve to get our husband back. It is not only about the wife that is fighting for husband, it is the children. They're so small, they born here and we cannot raise alone, we cannot work. We have things to pay. Paying bills and taking care of child alone is really difficult. It's been five month. I went through postpartum depression, I went through trauma and I don't wanna deal anymore. Like I don't have courage to do this anymore. We need our husband back. Miko Lee: Thank you. I think both of your husbands are also main caregivers for parents that are ailing in both cases. It's a really important that we are intergenerational communities and as you both said, it's not just about the children, but it's also about parents and brothers and sisters and community members as well. Thank you so much for lifting up your stories. I just wanna go back for one more thing. We talked briefly about the crazy expensive lawyer fees that have come up for families that they've been dealing with this, and then also Tika was just bringing up about detention and commissary fees. Can you talk a little bit about the prison industrial complex and the fees that are associated? As Anne was saying, just calling Lue every day the costs that are associated with those things. Many people that don't have a family member that's incarcerated don't know about that. Can you share a little bit about what that system is? Aisa Villarosa: Yeah, absolutely Miko. Just to underscore, a big theme from this conversation, is that the US made commitments and they have broken them, both with, as Anne talked about, the refugee experience is one that is made possible through US commitment of acknowledging what, people have survived, what they have given to the country. Folks are being removed to countries where not only do they have zero ties to, don't speak the language, but, especially in the case of the Bhutanese refugee community, as Tika mentioned, it is truly a double expulsion. So the fact that we have well-documented testimonials of folks deported from Bhutan after they're removed there into these life-threatening conditions . A community member passed away in large part because of the failure of the US to both care for them while in detention. So going back to that prison complex, but also just putting them in such a harrowing situation. In another instance, a community member was found after wandering for over a hundred miles on foot. So this is not, deportation and the story ends. This is deportation and, there is a family that is grieving and thinking through next steps, there is, this call to not have borders, break us the way that this country is trying to do. And to say a little bit about the fees, USCIS, there, there has not been a point yet in history where so many changes and charges hurting families have been ushered in, But for this year. To give a couple examples of that – asylum cases for one, these often take many years through this administration. Now, families have to pay a cost yearly for each year that your asylum application, languishes because we're also seeing that those same folks who are supposed to process these applications are either being laid off or they're being militarized. So something like USCIS where this was where one would go to apply for a passport. Now the same department is literally being handed guns and they're now taking folks during naturalization interviews. Other avenues to challenge your removal. Like I mentioned a motion to reopen. All these things used to be fairly affordable. Now they can cost many thousands of dollars on top of the attorney fees. So something that's been quite challenging for groups like Asian Law Caucus where we do have attorneys representing folks in removal proceedings, there's often this misperception that oh it's costing so much money. Attorneys are pocketing cash. Unfortunately there are some situations where attorneys have been known to take advantage of families in this desperate moment. But for many, many attorneys who are in this mix, they're experts at this work. They're trying to do the right thing. They're both overwhelmed and they're seeing these new charges, which make the battle really even more difficult. So to turn it back to the listeners, I would say that as powerless as this moment can make us feel everyone is bearing witness. Hopefully the listeners today can take in Anne's story, can take in Tika's story and whatever power one has in their corner of the world, this is the moment to use that. Whether it's your voice, whether it's learning more about a community, maybe you're learning about for the first time. This is really the moment to take action. Miko Lee: Thank you Aisa. I wanna thank you all for being here with me today, for sharing your personal stories, your personal pain, and for recognizing that this is happening. We deeply believe that we need to keep our families together. That is really important. It is written into the very basis of this American country about redemption and forgiveness. And this is what we're talking about for misunderstandings that happened when these folks were young men, that they have paid for their time, and yet they're being punished again, these promises that were broken by this American government, and we need to find ways to address that. I really wanna deeply thank each of you for continuing to be there for sharing your voice, for protecting one another, for being there and standing up for your family and for our community. Thank you for joining me today. Check out our Apex Express Show notes to find out about how you can get involved. Learn about the Rising Voices campaign for Lue Yang and Mohan Khaki's GoFundMe. On November 3rd, 4:00 PM Pacific Time, 7:00 PM Eastern Time. Join us for We Belong here, Bhutanese and Hmong Americans in the Struggle Against Statelessness, a live virtual event featuring my three guests tonight, along with performances and conversations. Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program, apex Express to find out more about our show. APEX Express is a collective of activists that includes Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Have a great night.     The post APEX Express – 10.30.25-We Belong! appeared first on KPFA.

Cho đến hiện tại Bình Nhưỡng vẫn tỏ ra kín tiếng trước nhiều lời mời từ tổng thống Mỹ Donald Trump gởi đến nhà lãnh đạo Kim Jong Un. Tuy nhiên, trong tháng 9/2025, Bắc Triều Tiên để ngỏ khả năng nối lại đàm phán với điều kiện Hoa Kỳ từ bỏ yêu cầu phá dỡ kho vũ khí hạt nhân của nước này. Theo giới quan sát, nguyên thủ Mỹ hiện đang đối mặt với một nhà lãnh đạo Bắc Triều Tiên ngày càng tự tin hơn, được tiếp thêm sức nhờ vào sự hậu thuẫn của Nga. Ngày 29/07/2025, Kim Yo Jong, em gái lãnh đạo Bắc Triều Tiên tuyên bố rằng sức mạnh hạt nhân của của CHDCND Triều Tiên là « không thể đảo ngược », vị thế quốc gia có trang bị vũ khí hạt nhân là « vĩnh viễn », và bất kỳ cuộc đối thoại nào trong tương lai sẽ phải bắt đầu bằng sự thừa nhận vị thế đó . Bà Kim Yo Jong còn nói thêm « năm 2025 không phải là năm 2018, cũng không phải 2019 », hàm ý nhắc đến các thượng đỉnh trước đây giữa Bắc Triều Tiên và Mỹ trong nhiệm kỳ đầu tiên của Donald Trump. Trong một lần xuất hiện hiếm hoi tại Đại hội đồng Liên Hiệp Quốc, ngày 29/09/2025, thứ trưởng Ngoại Giao Bắc Triều Tiên Kim Son Gyong đã tái khẳng định rằng nước ông sẽ không từ bỏ vũ khí hạt nhân bất chấp yêu cầu của quốc tế, xem đây là những yếu tố then chốt để duy trì « cân bằng thế mạnh » với Hàn Quốc. Theo nhiều nhà quan sát, những tuyên bố trên của Bắc Triều Tiên phản ảnh một bước tiến đáng kể trong lập trường ngoại giao của chế độ Kim Jong Un. Hơn năm năm sau thất bại thượng đỉnh Hà Nội 2019, Bình Nhưỡng đang đưa ra một tầm nhìn hoàn toàn khác cho tương lai. Để hiểu rõ hơn những thách thức mới của chương trình hạt nhân của Bắc Triều Tiên đối với an ninh bán đảo Triều Tiên và khu vực Đông Bắc Á cũng như là đối với thế răn đe của Hoa Kỳ trong khu vực, RFI Tiếng Việt có cuộc trao đổi với nhà nghiên cứu về Đông Bắc Á, Đông Nam Á Laurent Gédéon, Đại học Sư phạm Lyon.  ---------- ***** ---------- RFI Tiếng Việt : Trước hết, ông giải thích như thế nào về những tuyên bố gần đây của Bình Nhưỡng ? Laurent Gédéon : Theo tôi, có ba điểm chính có thể phân tích từ những tuyên bố trên của Kim Yo Jong : Thứ nhất, vũ khí hạt nhân, với tư cách là một yếu tố răn đe, hiện đã được đưa vào Hiến pháp của CHDCND Triều Tiên và không còn chỉ là đòn bẩy hay một biến số điều chỉnh trong các cuộc đàm phán tương lai. Thứ hai, việc nối lại đàm phán chắc chắn sẽ thất bại nếu Hoa Kỳ vẫn kiên trì yêu cầu phi hạt nhân hóa như là một điều kiện tiên quyết. Điểm thứ ba, đối thoại vẫn có thể thực hiện được, nhưng trên cơ sở thừa nhận « sự đã rồi » được thể hiện qua tình trạng hạt nhân của CHDCND Triều Tiên. Liệu ta có thể nói rằng với lời khẳng định trên, Bắc Triều Tiên đang vạch ra một đường lối đối ngoại mới với Hoa Kỳ ? Laurent Gédéon : Tuyên bố này của Bình Nhưỡng thực sự cho thấy rõ ba trục, có thể hiểu như là đường lối mới trong chính sách đối ngoại, nhất là với Hoa Kỳ. Trục thứ nhất là nhằm củng cố tính chính đáng trong nội bộ, cũng như với bên ngoài về chương trình hạt nhân của Bắc Triều Tiên. Bằng cách khẳng định quy chế hạt nhân là « không thể đảo ngược » và « vĩnh viễn », CHDCND Triều Tiên tìm cách hợp pháp hóa việc sở hữu vũ khí nguyên tử, không còn là một con bài mặc cả tạm thời, mà là một thành phần lâu dài trong lập trường chiến lược của đất nước.     Điều này giúp Bình Nhưỡng khẳng định trong đối nội rằng răn đe hạt nhân là một trụ cột không thể thay đổi của chủ quyền quốc gia, và trong đối ngoại – không chỉ đối với Mỹ và các đồng minh của Mỹ, mà cả với Trung Quốc và Nga – rằng kể từ giờ phải tính đến thực tế địa chiến lược này. Trục thứ hai, theo tôi, liên quan đến việc có một sự thay đổi cơ bản trong khuôn khổ đàm phán với Mỹ. Trong quá khứ, các cuộc đàm phán giữa Washington và Bình Nhưỡng được thực hiện trên cơ sở Mỹ muốn hạn chế và sau đó là chấm dứt chương trình vũ khí hạt nhân Bắc Triều Tiên. Khi đòi được công nhận vị thế hạt nhân trước, lập trường mới của Bình Nhưỡng rõ ràng đang làm thay đổi khuôn khổ đàm phán trước đây. Cuối cùng, khi nói rõ là « 2025 không phải là năm 2018 hay 2019 », CHDCND Triều Tiên bác bỏ ý tưởng trở lại với sự năng động của những  thượng đỉnh trước đây giữa Donald Trump và Kim Jong Un tại Singapore và Hà Nội. Theo Bình Nhưỡng, bối cảnh chiến lược và ngoại giao mới đòi hỏi phải « xuất phát lại từ đầu » với những luật chơi mới. Tuy nhiên, vài ngày sau khi nhậm chức vào tháng 01/ 2025, tổng thống Mỹ Donald Trump, trước giới báo chí, đã có vài bình luận ngắn gọn, ngầm thừa nhận Bắc Triều Tiên là một cường quốc hạt nhân. Vậy Bình Nhưỡng còn trông đợi điều gì từ Washington khi đòi được công nhận là một cường quốc hạt nhân « vĩnh viễn » ? Laurent Gédéon : Theo tôi, Bắc Triều Tiên có thể kỳ vọng các tiến triển trong một số lĩnh vực. Trước hết, một sự công nhận ngầm về vị thế hạt nhân của Bắc Triều Tiên ngụ ý chấm dứt câu chuyện « phi hạt nhân hóa toàn diện » và Washington chấp nhận vị thế của Bình Nhưỡng là một cường quốc hạt nhân hợp pháp. Bắc Triều Tiên không còn muốn bị đối xử như là một kẻ bị ruồng bỏ cần phải giải trừ vũ khí, mà là một cường quốc hạt nhân có chủ quyền được công nhận, một bên đối thoại chiến lược hợp pháp, tương tự như Ấn Độ, Pakistan hay Israel. Cả ba quốc gia hạt nhân này đều không ký kết TNP (Hiệp ước Không phổ biến Vũ khí Hạt nhân), nhưng trên thực tế được cộng đồng quốc tế chấp nhận. Hệ quả của sự công nhận này đối với Bình Nhưỡng có lẽ sẽ là khép lại vấn đề giải giới, nâng Bắc Triều Tiên lên hàng cường quốc không thể phủ nhận trong các cuộc đàm phán về an ninh khu vực và buộc Hoa Kỳ phải chấp nhận một mối quan hệ bình đẳng theo kiểu « cường quốc với cường quốc ». Bước tiến thứ hai đối với Bắc Triều Tiên, theo tôi, liên quan đến việc nước này muốn một cuộc đàm phán vô điều kiện tiên quyết với Hoa Kỳ, có thể đi vào đàm phán song phương trực tiếp và bình đẳng chiến lược với Washington. Trên thực tế, Bình Nhưỡng muốn có một tiến triển tương tự như Ấn Độ, quốc gia mà Hoa Kỳ đã dần chấp nhận vị thế hạt nhân và cuối cùng đã ký kết một thỏa thuận hợp tác hạt nhân dân sự năm 2008 mà vẫn không chính thức thừa nhận Ấn Độ là một cường quốc hạt nhân. Yếu tố thứ ba có thể khiến Bình Nhưỡng quan tâm đến là việc nới lỏng cấm vận, giảm nhẹ áp lực kinh tế đang đè nặng lên Bắc Triều Tiên. Điều này rõ ràng sẽ có những hệ quả tích cực cả về mặt đối nội, xét về cấp độ uy tín bên ngoài của nước này, lẫn các mối quan hệ của Bình Nhưỡng với quốc tế. Một lý do khác mà Bình Nhưỡng có thể coi là điều tích cực, đó là việc cắt giảm các cuộc tập trận quân sự Mỹ - Hàn, nhất là việc đình chỉ các cuộc tập trận thường kỳ hàng năm, cũng như áp lực quân sự đối với Bình Nhưỡng. Điểm cuối cùng là quá trình bình thường hóa dần dần để từ đó có thể đi đến một thỏa thuận hòa bình cho phép chế độ Bắc Triều Tiên củng cố quyền lực trong nước và xác định vị thế tích cực trong cộng đồng quốc tế. Chuyện gì sẽ xảy ra nếu nước Mỹ của Donald Trump chấp nhận chính thức công nhận vị thế cường quốc hạt nhân như Bắc Triều Tiên đòi hỏi ? Laurent Gédéon : Hệ quả của việc Hoa Kỳ công nhận chính thức vị thế hạt nhân của Bắc Triều Tiên là đáng kể. Đều này sẽ có những tác động đến toàn khu vực, bởi vì làm như vậy sẽ phá vỡ nền tảng chính sách nhất quán của Washington từ nhiều thập niên qua, từ chối cho Bình Nhưỡng tiếp cận bất kỳ vũ khí hạt nhân nào. Điều chắc chắn là Hàn Quốc sẽ không ngồi yên và điều này sẽ khơi lại cuộc tranh luận nội bộ về việc Seoul phát triển vũ khí hạt nhân, và có nhiều khả năng mối quan hệ giữa Seoul và Washington sẽ bị thay đổi, do sự mất lòng tin. Tương tự đối với Nhật Bản: Tokyo cũng sẽ xem tiến triển này là một thách thức đối với trật tự khu vực. Nhật Bản chắc chắn sẽ cố gắng tăng ngân sách quân sự và có thể, giống như Hàn Quốc, sẽ có một cuộc tranh luận trong nước về nhu cầu trang bị một năng lực hạt nhân độc lập cho quốc gia. Điều này có nguy cơ phá vỡ điều cấm kỵ hạt nhân mà Nhật Bản duy trì từ sau Đệ Nhị Thế Chiến. Sự công nhận đó có thể có những tác động đối với nhiều cường quốc hạt nhân khác, đặc biệt là Trung Quốc và Nga. Việc Washington lùi bước trong hồ sơ này, tất nhiên, có thể sẽ được Bắc Kinh cũng như là Matxcơva coi đó là một thắng lợi chiến lược trước Hoa Kỳ và là dấu hiệu cho thấy ảnh hưởng của Mỹ trong khu vực đang suy yếu. Điểm cuối cùng không kém phần quan trọng, sẽ có những hệ quả đáng kể đối với Hiệp ước Không Phổ biến Hạt nhân (TNP). Công nhận vị thế hạt nhân Bắc Triều Tiên sẽ mở cánh cửa cho nhiều yêu sách khác, chẳng hạn như từ Iran, cũng có thể đòi được công nhận tương tự, đồng thời có thể thúc đẩy những nước được gọi là các quốc gia ngưỡng hạt nhân, như Nhật Bản, Hàn Quốc, Ả Rập Xê Út, Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ, Brazil, dấn bước và trang bị vũ khí nguyên tử cho riêng mình. Nhìn chung, thế giới sẽ chuyển từ một trật tự hạt nhân do một vài cường quốc kiểm soát sang một hệ thống đa cực bất ổn nhiều hơn, thậm chí hỗn loạn, qua việc nhiều quốc gia sẽ tìm cách bù đắp thế yếu kém của mình bằng cách sở hữu vũ khí nguyên tử. Như vậy chúng ta sẽ có hiện tượng gọi là phổ biến hạt nhân theo chiều ngang, tức là có nhiều quốc gia hạt nhân mới, và một sự phổ biến theo chiều dọc, nghĩa là hiện đại hóa các kho vũ khí hạt nhân hiện có. Ông giải thích thế nào về thái độ tự tin này của Bình Nhưỡng ? Phải chăng đó là vì chế độ Kim Jong Un đã đạt được một số mục tiêu được đề ra trong kế hoạch 5 năm được thông báo hồi đầu năm 2021 để phát triển nhiều loại vũ khí hạt nhân tân tiến hơn ? Và nhất là nhờ vào sự hỗ trợ về công nghệ của Nga ? Laurent Gédéon : Nhiều khả năng là kế hoạch năm năm do Kim Jong Un khởi xướng đầu năm 2021 và sự hỗ trợ về mặt công nghệ của Nga đã đóng một vai trò quan trọng trong sự thay đổi lập trường của Bắc Triều Tiên đối với Mỹ. Tôi xin nhắc lại là kế hoạch năm năm 2021-2025 đã được công bố tại Đại hội Đảng Lao Động Triều Tiên lần thứ 8 vào tháng 01/2021. Trong kỳ họp này, một lộ trình đã được vạch ra với mục tiêu phát triển đồng thời các lực lượng hạt nhân « thế hệ mới » và tầu ngầm chiến lược, cùng nhiều loại vũ khí siêu thanh. Tất cả những điều này là một phần trong chính sách chung « phát triển song song » các lực lượng hạt nhân và quy ước. Sự hỗ trợ của Nga chắc chắn đóng một vai trò quan trọng trong quá trình này. Và giai đoạn 2021-2025 đã được đánh dấu bằng việc ký kết hiệp ước « đối tác chiến lược toàn diện » giữa Nga và Bắc Triều Tiên vào năm 2024. Do đó, rất có thể Nga đã chuyển giao cho Cộng hòa Dân chủ Nhân dân Triều Tiên không chỉ vũ khí thông thường mà cả các công nghệ nhạy cảm trong nhiều lĩnh vực như động cơ đẩy tầu ngầm hạt nhân, ra-đa, dẫn đường tên lửa hay như động cơ đẩy bằng nhiên liệu rắn cho tên lửa. Tuy nhiên, người ta không có bằng chứng chính thức xác định chính xác loại công nghệ được cung cấp và chúng đã có thể thay đổi đáng kể các năng lực của Bắc Triều Tiên như thế nào. Điều này hiện chỉ là những suy đoán. Dựa trên những gì chúng ta biết, có khả năng CHDCND Triều Tiên đã đạt được hoặc sắp đạt được một số mục tiêu chính của kế hoạch 2021-2025, đặc biệt là các mục tiêu thu nhỏ và đa dạng hóa các hệ thống phóng (tên lửa, tàu ngầm), và nói chung là tăng cường năng lực răn đe chiến lược. Trong bối cảnh này, thái độ tự tin hơn của Bình Nhưỡng là điều dễ hiểu bởi vì, với tiến bộ về mặt kỹ thuật trong năng lực hạt nhân, CHDCND Triều Tiên cảm thấy mình đang ở thế mạnh. Hơn nữa, quan hệ đối tác với Nga giúp cho nước này tăng cường quyền tự chủ chiến lược và một giải pháp dự phòng về ngoại giao và công nghệ trong trường hợp Washington và các đồng minh cố gắng gây áp lực mạnh lên Bình Nhưỡng. Cần lưu ý rằng năm 2025 đánh dấu sự kết thúc của kế hoạch 5 năm và việc chính quyền Bắc Triều Tiên khẳng định vị thế hạt nhân « không thể đảo ngược » có thể được hiểu là cách để xác nhận họ đã đạt được các mục tiêu của kế hoạch. Theo ông, Nga – Triều tăng cường hợp tác trên phương diện quốc phòng cũng như việc cải thiện đáng kể năng lực hạt nhân và quân sự của Bình Nhưỡng có sẽ đẩy Hàn Quốc, Hoa Kỳ cũng như Nhật Bản lao vào cuộc chạy đua vũ trang tốn kém, và có thể làm suy yếu liên minh Mỹ – Nhật – Hàn, đồng thời gây tổn hại cho uy tín của Mỹ trong khu vực ? Laurent Gédéon : Đúng vậy. Một vài yếu tố cho thấy là nguy cơ chạy đua vũ trang là có thực. Ví dụ, liên quan đến Hàn Quốc, nước này đã bắt tay vào quá trình tái vũ trang quy mô lớn, thể hiện qua việc phát triển tên lửa đạn đạo quy ước tầm cực xa, hiện đại hóa hệ thống phòng thủ tên lửa, đầu tư vào phòng thủ mạng và drone chiến đấu, cũng như tăng cường các cuộc tập trận chung với Hoa Kỳ. Về phần mình, Nhật Bản đã phá vỡ điều cấm kỵ trong hiến pháp và đã quyết định trong năm 2022-2023, phát triển năng lực tấn công phủ đầu, tăng gấp đôi ngân sách quốc phòng (lên mức 2% GDP ngay trong năm nay, thay vì từ đây đến năm 2027) và tăng cường hợp tác quân sự với Mỹ và Úc. Về phía Hoa Kỳ, họ đối diện với tình thế tiến thoái lưỡng nan về chiến lược và ngân sách. Bởi vì, trên thực tế, Mỹ đang tham dự vào nhiều mặt trận. Họ phải duy trì thế răn đe tại châu Âu trong bối cảnh chiến tranh tại Ukraina, kềm chế Trung Quốc ở Thái Bình Dương và giải quyết khủng hoảng hạt nhân Bắc Triều Tiên. Một số nhà phân tích tin rằng áp lực ba bên này có thể làm cạn kiệt các năng lực triển khai của Washington trong dài hạn, nhất là khi Lầu Năm Góc phải tài trợ cùng lúc cho việc hiện đại hóa các năng lực hạt nhân và hải quân Mỹ, tạo ra một gánh nặng ngân sách ước tính đến hơn 1.500 tỷ đô la trong vòng 30 năm. Chính vì thế, người ta thường xuyên đề cập đến nguy cơ Mỹ kiệt quệ chiến lược, một viễn cảnh thực sự gây lo lắng cho các đồng minh của Mỹ tại châu Á. Thêm vào đó, các lợi ích chiến lược của Washington, Tokyo và Seoul nhìn chung là hội tụ, nhưng lại hoàn toàn không thống nhất. Chẳng hạn, mục tiêu của Mỹ là ngăn chặn phổ biến hạt nhân và duy trì sự ổn định khu vực. Seoul thì muốn bảo vệ lãnh thổ và được độc lập chiến lược nhiều hơn. Về phần Tokyo, họ muốn tự phòng vệ trước Bình Nhưỡng và Bắc Kinh nhưng không muốn lệ thuộc quá mức vào Mỹ. Ba lợi ích nói trên có thể xung đột nhau vì nhiều nguyên nhân, chẳng hạn trong trường hợp Hoa Kỳ giảm các cam kết vì lý do ngân sách hay chính trị. Một lý do khác có thể liên quan đến sự trỗi dậy trở lại của những căng thẳng lịch sử giữa Nhật Bản và Hàn Quốc. Tương tự, việc Washington chọn ưu tiên đối thoại trực tiếp với Bình Nhưỡng, gây bất lợi cho Seoul, có thể dẫn đến nhiều hệ quả chính trị.  Trong tất cả các kịch bản này, có nguy cơ là sự gắn kết của tam giác Mỹ – Nhật – Hàn bị suy yếu, bởi vì các đồng minh châu Á của Washington rất có thể bắt đầu nghi ngờ độ tin cậy của Mỹ, đặt biệt là độ tin cậy của lá chắn hạt nhân Hoa Kỳ. Điều này, sau đó, có thể thúc đẩy Seoul và Tokyo, như chúng ta đã thấy, phát triển năng lực răn đe của riêng mình, mở đường cho việc phổ biến hạt nhân tại các nước đồng minh của Mỹ. Tóm lại, đúng vậy, trong dài hạn, Washington có nguy cơ chịu tổn thất do đánh mất uy tín, một tình huống chỉ có thể có lợi cho Nga và Trung Quốc và do vậy Bắc Kinh và Matxcơva sẽ tìm cách khai thác tốt nhất cho các lợi ích của họ. RFI Tiếng Việt xin trân trọng cảm ơn nhà nghiên cứu Laurent Gédéon, giảng viên trường đại học Sư phạm Lyon.

Theo cơ quan An Toàn Lao Động Úc, hơn 180 người lao động đã thiệt mạng do chấn thương nghiêm trọng khi làm việc tại Úc trong năm qua. Những ngành nào nằm trong nhóm nguy cơ cao nhất? Và phải làm gì nếu chẳng may xảy ra chấn thương tại nơi làm việc?

Quan hệ hữu nghị truyền thống giữa Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên được “tạo xung lực mới” thông qua chuyến công du Bình Nhưỡng của tổng bí thư Tô Lâm từ ngày 09-11/10/2025 nhưng tạm dừng ở cấp độ chính trị, trao đổi văn hóa và du lịch. Bình Nhưỡng đã phát triển mạnh chương trình tên lửa, kể cả hạt nhân và cho dù có muốn, Hà Nội cũng chỉ dừng ở “ý định thư hợp tác quốc phòng khi điều kiện cho phép”. Bắc Triên Tiên bị Liên Hiệp Quốc trừng phạt vì phát triển chương trình hạt nhân. Còn “Việt Nam không muốn vi phạm các lệnh trừng phạt quốc tế đối với Bắc Triều Tiên” theo nhận định của nhà nghiên cứu Vũ Khang, Khoa Khoa học Chính trị, Đại học Boston (Mỹ), vì Hà Nội đặt trọng tâm vào phát triển kinh tế trong những thập niên gần đây và không ngừng mở rộng mạng lưới đối tác với các nước phương Tây. Cùng với “ngoại giao cây tre”, Việt Nam thể hiện là “bạn” với tất cả các nước, là một quốc gia trung lập, không chọn phe. Và trong chính sách đối ngoại đa phương, Hà Nội coi Bình Nhưỡng là một đối tác quan trọng. Tuy nhiên, “việc này không đồng nghĩa là Việt Nam ủng hộ chương trình hạt nhân hay chính sách chống phương Tây của Bắc Triều Tiên”. Chuyến thăm Bình Nhưỡng của ông Tô Lâm diễn ra chỉ hai tháng sau chuyến công du Seoul còn cho thấy Hà Nội tiếp tục chính sách cân bằng quan hệ và đặt trọng tâm vào việc duy trì ổn định khu vực để phát triển kinh tế và hợp tác với cả hai miền Triều Tiên. Chuyến công du đầu tiên kể từ 18 năm qua mang lại những triển vọng như thế nào cho quan hệ Việt Nam - Bắc Triều Tiên ? Tiến sĩ Vũ Khang, học giả thỉnh giảng, tại Khoa Khoa học Chính trị, Đại học Boston, Mỹ, trả lời một số câu hỏi của RFI Tiếng Việt. RFI : Mối quan hệ giữa Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên trở thành đề tài được chú sau khi nhà lãnh đạo Kim Jong Un mời tổng bí thư đảng Cộng Sản Việt Nam Tô Lâm đến dự 80 thành lập đảng Lao Động Triều Triên và lễ duyệt binh ở Bình Nhưỡng. Năm 2025 cũng đánh dấu 75 năm hai nước thiết lập quan hệ ngoại giao. Tuy nhiên, mối quan hệ này không phải lúc nào cũng suôn sẻ ! Vũ Xuân Khang : Quan hệ Việt Nam-Bắc Triều Tiên thực ra từ sau chiến tranh Lạnh không có nhiều phát triển so với quan hệ Việt Nam-Hàn Quốc. Nói như vậy không có nghĩa là quan hệ Việt-Triều không quan trọng. Trong tình hình chính sách đối ngoại hiện nay của Việt Nam, Bắc Triều Tiên là một trong những đối tác truyền thống của Hà Nội, khi hai nước thiết lập quan hệ ngoại giao kể từ rất sớm, vào tháng 01/1950. Và Bắc Triều Tiên là nước thứ 3 đã thiết lập quan hệ ngoại giao với Việt Nam, chỉ sau Trung Quốc và Liên Xô. Trong chiến tranh chống Mỹ, Bắc Triều Tiên đã cam kết sẽ bảo vệ miền Bắc khỏi các cuộc tấn công của Mỹ và chính họ đã gửi phi công tham chiến, cũng như một lượng lớn khí tài và viện trợ kinh tế cho miền Bắc. Mặc dù quan hệ hai bên đã bị sứt mẻ trong chiến tranh Đông Dương lần 3 khi Bắc Triều Tiên ủng hộ Trung Quốc và Khmer Đỏ chống lại Việt Nam, hai bên đã không có bất kỳ cuộc trao đổi cấp cao nào. Và đó gần như là giai đoạn mà hai bên không muốn nhắc tới. Đọc thêmViệt Nam cố giữ trung lập giữa Hàn Quốc và Bắc Triều Tiên Kể từ năm 1988-1989 đến nay, sau khi Việt Nam rút quân khỏi Cam Bốt, thì hai nước mới bắt đầu có những trao đổi cấp cao trở lại. Tuy nhiên, việc Việt Nam bình thường hóa quan hệ ngoại giao với Hàn Quốc vào năm 1992 đã khiến cho quan hệ Việt Nam-Bắc Triều Tiên tạm thời trở nên đóng băng. Kể từ đầu những năm 2000 trở lại đây, Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên mới bắt đầu nối lại những đàm phán cấp cao do chính Bình Nhưỡng bày tỏ mong muốn là được thử nghiệm các mô hình mở cửa kinh tế như Việt Nam và Trung Quốc đã làm. Có thể thấy là quan hệ giữa Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên kể từ sau Chiến tranh Lạnh không có nhiều phát triển, nhất là quan hệ thương mại gần như nhỏ giọt, chỉ khoảng 20 triệu đô la/năm. Và về quan hệ quân sự, càng không có một chi tiết nào được công bố trên truyền thông. Những năm gần đây, Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên mong muốn tiếp tục nối lại quan hệ ngoại giao sau khi đại dịch Covid-19 làm ảnh hưởng tới trao đổi cấp cao giữa hai nước mà do chủ tịch Bắc Triều Tiên Kim Jong Un đã cố gắng nối lại trong chuyến thăm Hà Nội năm 2019. RFI : Tổng bí thư Tô Lâm là nhà lãnh đạo đảng thứ 3 đến thăm Bắc Triều Tiên trong 75 năm qua, lần gần đây nhất là chuyến thăm của tổng bí thư Nông Đức Mạnh năm 2007. Vậy chuyến công du này có ý nghĩa như thế nào ? Vũ Xuân Khang : Cần phải nói rõ là trong những năm gần đây, vì những lý do về kinh tế, về đại dịch nên Bắc Triều Tiên đã đóng cửa rất nhiều đại sứ quán và lãnh sự quán ở các nước đối tác truyền thống khác, như Uganda, Angola, Nepal, Senegal, Bangladesh, Hồng Kông, và Tây Ban Nha… nhưng họ vẫn duy trì hiện diện ở Việt Nam. Điều này cho thấy Bắc Triều Tiên vẫn nhìn nhận Việt Nam như là một đối tác rất quan trọng ở Đông Nam Á. Và trong những năm gần đây, cho dù hai nước không gặp nhau trực tiếp do đại dịch Covid-19, nhưng vẫn có những thư mừng hoặc những lời chúc mừng trong giai đoạn hai nước tổ chức Đại hội Đảng. Đặc biệt kể từ năm 2024, hai nước bắt đầu thực sự nối lại các cuộc gặp mặt cấp cao như chuyến thăm Việt Nam của ông Kim Song Nam, trưởng ban quốc tế trung ương của Đảng Lao động Triều Tiên, vào tháng 03/2024. Việt Nam cũng đã gửi thứ trưởng bộ Quốc Phòng và bộ Ngoại Giao đến thăm Bắc Triều Tiên vào tháng 9 và tháng 10/2024. Việc Bắc Triều Tiên hiện giờ mới mời được tổng bí thư Tô Lâm qua cũng là do đại dịch Covid-19 cũng như là hai bên vẫn chưa tìm được dịp đủ lớn, đủ trang trọng để mời tổng bí thư của Việt Nam qua. Dịp 80 năm thành lập đảng Lao Động Triều Tiên là một dịp rất hợp lý để Bắc Triều Tiên có thể nối lại các đàm phán cấp cao với Việt Nam ở cấp tổng bí thư. Đọc thêmViệt Nam giúp được gì Bắc Triều Tiên để gỡ thế cô lập ? RFI : Bắc Triều Tiên được cho là nhà cung cấp vũ khí, đạn dược cho Nga để duy trì cuộc chiến ở Ukraina. Bắc Triều Tiên cũng nổi tiếng về sản xuất tên lửa đạn đạo, hạt nhân, trong đó có một tên lửa đạn đạo tầm xa mới đã được giới thiệu trong lễ duyệt binh. Liệu mảng quân sự sẽ được đề cập trong quá trình thắt chặt quan hệ hữu nghị với Bình Nhưỡng không ? Hai bên dự kiến phát triển quá trình hợp tác này như thế nào ? Vũ Xuân Khang : Trong chuyến thăm lần này của tổng bí thư Tô Lâm, Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên đã ký kết Ý định thư giữa hai bộ Quốc Phòng về hợp tác trong lĩnh vực quốc phòng. Cần nói rõ đây chỉ là ý định thư, nghĩa là hai nước bày tỏ quan điểm và các nội dung hợp tác trong tương lai khi các điều kiện cho phép. Và ở đây, lại cần nhấn mạnh vào yếu tố "khi các điều kiện cho phép" bởi vì Việt Nam hiểu rằng Bắc Triều Tiên vẫn đang chịu cấm vận rất lớn từ phương Tây. Đặc biệt là chương trình vũ khí hạt nhân và tên lửa tầm xa, bất kỳ hoạt động hợp tác nào của Việt Nam với Bắc Triều Tiên trong lĩnh vực tên lửa tầm xa có thể vi phạm các lệnh trừng phạt của Liên Hiệp Quốc. Việc này có thể sẽ ảnh hưởng tới quan hệ của Việt Nam với các nước phương Tây khi mà các nước phương Tây cũng như Hàn Quốc luôn luôn đặt vấn đề rằng Việt Nam phải cố gắng duy trì và bảo đảm các lệnh trừng phạt của Liên Hiệp Quốc đối với Bắc Triều Tiên trong các cuộc gặp cấp cao. Nhưng phải nói rằng thực ra, Việt Nam lại rất hợp với vũ khí của Bắc Triều Tiên. Trong thời gian gần đây, Việt Nam mới thành lập Bộ Tư lệnh Pháo binh Tên lửa và Hà Nội mong muốn nâng cấp tầm bắn của các tên lửa Scud-B do Liên Xô sản xuất và Liên Xô đã trao cho Việt Nam rất nhiều tên lửa Scud vào giai đoạn 1980. Còn Việt Nam, kể từ sau Chiến tranh Lạnh, lại không có điều kiện để thực sự tìm được một nguồn cung dồi dào hoặc một lời khuyên để phát triển loại vũ khí này. Bắc Triều Tiên lại có một nền tảng quốc phòng rất mạnh, kể cả Liên Xô sụp đổ, họ cũng đã tự cải tiến tên lửa Scud, như chúng ta thấy là họ đã có một hệ thống tên lửa tầm xa rất phát triển, như mới đây nhất là trong lễ diễu binh có tên lửa Hỏa Tinh-20 có khả năng bắn đến Mỹ và sử dụng nhiên liệu rắn. Đọc thêmMô hình Việt Nam có thích hợp với Bắc Triều Tiên? Do đó, Việt Nam hoàn toàn có thể học hỏi kinh nghiệm từ chương trình vũ khí hoặc là về công nghiệp quốc phòng nói chung của Bắc Triều Tiên. Nhưng như tôi đã đề cập ở trên, Việt Nam vẫn phải chú ý rất kỹ đến lệnh trừng phạt của Liên Hiệp Quốc. Đây mới chỉ là một ý định thư chưa chưa phải là một thỏa thuận hợp tác quốc phòng rõ ràng giữa hai nước. RFI : Tổng bí thư Tô Lâm trước đó đã công du Seoul. Việt Nam được cho là mua pháo K9 Thunder của Hàn Quốc. Và bây giờ là chuyến công du Bình Nhưỡng. Những hoạt động này có ý nghĩa như thế nào ? Vũ Xuân Khang : Chuyến thăm đến Triều Tiên của tổng bí thư Tô Lâm gần như là ngay sau chuyến thăm Hàn Quốc hồi tháng 08, đây là một lời khẳng định rõ ràng về đường lối ngoại giao đa phương hóa, đa dạng hóa của Việt Nam trong tương lai cũng như hiện tại và Việt Nam sẵn sàng làm bạn với tất cả nước và mong làm cầu nối giữa các bên. Đặc biệt chuyến thăm Bắc Triều Tiên lần này còn có tiềm năng lớn với Việt Nam trong hoàn cảnh chủ tịch Bắc Triều Tiên Kim Jong Un và tổng thống Mỹ Donald Trump đều để ngỏ khả năng gặp mặt trong trường hợp hai bên đồng ý về một thỏa thuận hạt nhân. Đọc thêmVũ khí: Hàn Quốc giúp Việt Nam giảm phụ thuộc vào Nga Việt Nam với tư cách là đối tác tin cậy của cả hai nước và là chủ nhà của thượng đỉnh Mỹ-Triều năm 2019 sẽ mong muốn lại một lần nữa được thể hiện vai trò, cầu nối, trung gian hòa giải và đóng góp vào xây dựng hòa bình trên bán đảo Triều Tiên. Trong các tuyên bố với cả phía Bắc Triều Tiên và Hàn Quốc, Việt Nam đều nhấn mạnh rất rõ là mong muốn hai miền Triều Tiên tiếp tục đối thoại và hợp tác với nhau và Việt Nam cũng đề cập vai trò của mình trong việc ủng hộ bảo vệ an ninh khu vực. Đặc biệt, trong chuyến thăm Hàn Quốc của tổng bí thư Tô Lâm, Việt Nam cũng đề cập rất rõ là ủng hộ chính sách hòa giải liên Triều của tổng thống Hàn Quốc Lee Jae Myung. Điều này thể hiện Việt Nam mong muốn được tiếp tục làm cầu nối giữa hai miền. Việc Bắc Triều Tiên vẫn gửi lời mời tổng bí thư Tô Lâm sau khi Việt Nam ký kết mua pháo K9 Thunder của Hàn Quốc cho thấy Bình Nhưỡng coi trọng vai trò trung gian hòa giải, cũng như đường lối đối ngoại độc lập tự chủ của Việt Nam. RFI Tiếng Việt xin chân thành cảm ơn tiến sĩ Vũ Khang, học giả thỉnh giảng, tại Khoa Khoa học Chính trị, Đại học Boston, Hoa Kỳ.

Quan hệ hữu nghị truyền thống giữa Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên được “tạo xung lực mới” thông qua chuyến công du Bình Nhưỡng của tổng bí thư Tô Lâm từ ngày 09-11/10/2025 nhưng tạm dừng ở cấp độ chính trị, trao đổi văn hóa và du lịch. Bình Nhưỡng đã phát triển mạnh chương trình tên lửa, kể cả hạt nhân và cho dù có muốn, Hà Nội cũng chỉ dừng ở “ý định thư hợp tác quốc phòng khi điều kiện cho phép”. Bắc Triên Tiên bị Liên Hiệp Quốc trừng phạt vì phát triển chương trình hạt nhân. Còn “Việt Nam không muốn vi phạm các lệnh trừng phạt quốc tế đối với Bắc Triều Tiên” theo nhận định của nhà nghiên cứu Vũ Khang, Khoa Khoa học Chính trị, Đại học Boston (Mỹ), vì Hà Nội đặt trọng tâm vào phát triển kinh tế trong những thập niên gần đây và không ngừng mở rộng mạng lưới đối tác với các nước phương Tây. Cùng với “ngoại giao cây tre”, Việt Nam thể hiện là “bạn” với tất cả các nước, là một quốc gia trung lập, không chọn phe. Và trong chính sách đối ngoại đa phương, Hà Nội coi Bình Nhưỡng là một đối tác quan trọng. Tuy nhiên, “việc này không đồng nghĩa là Việt Nam ủng hộ chương trình hạt nhân hay chính sách chống phương Tây của Bắc Triều Tiên”. Chuyến thăm Bình Nhưỡng của ông Tô Lâm diễn ra chỉ hai tháng sau chuyến công du Seoul còn cho thấy Hà Nội tiếp tục chính sách cân bằng quan hệ và đặt trọng tâm vào việc duy trì ổn định khu vực để phát triển kinh tế và hợp tác với cả hai miền Triều Tiên. Chuyến công du đầu tiên kể từ 18 năm qua mang lại những triển vọng như thế nào cho quan hệ Việt Nam - Bắc Triều Tiên ? Tiến sĩ Vũ Khang, học giả thỉnh giảng, tại Khoa Khoa học Chính trị, Đại học Boston, Mỹ, trả lời một số câu hỏi của RFI Tiếng Việt. RFI : Mối quan hệ giữa Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên trở thành đề tài được chú sau khi nhà lãnh đạo Kim Jong Un mời tổng bí thư đảng Cộng Sản Việt Nam Tô Lâm đến dự 80 thành lập đảng Lao Động Triều Triên và lễ duyệt binh ở Bình Nhưỡng. Năm 2025 cũng đánh dấu 75 năm hai nước thiết lập quan hệ ngoại giao. Tuy nhiên, mối quan hệ này không phải lúc nào cũng suôn sẻ ! Vũ Xuân Khang : Quan hệ Việt Nam-Bắc Triều Tiên thực ra từ sau chiến tranh Lạnh không có nhiều phát triển so với quan hệ Việt Nam-Hàn Quốc. Nói như vậy không có nghĩa là quan hệ Việt-Triều không quan trọng. Trong tình hình chính sách đối ngoại hiện nay của Việt Nam, Bắc Triều Tiên là một trong những đối tác truyền thống của Hà Nội, khi hai nước thiết lập quan hệ ngoại giao kể từ rất sớm, vào tháng 01/1950. Và Bắc Triều Tiên là nước thứ 3 đã thiết lập quan hệ ngoại giao với Việt Nam, chỉ sau Trung Quốc và Liên Xô. Trong chiến tranh chống Mỹ, Bắc Triều Tiên đã cam kết sẽ bảo vệ miền Bắc khỏi các cuộc tấn công của Mỹ và chính họ đã gửi phi công tham chiến, cũng như một lượng lớn khí tài và viện trợ kinh tế cho miền Bắc. Mặc dù quan hệ hai bên đã bị sứt mẻ trong chiến tranh Đông Dương lần 3 khi Bắc Triều Tiên ủng hộ Trung Quốc và Khmer Đỏ chống lại Việt Nam, hai bên đã không có bất kỳ cuộc trao đổi cấp cao nào. Và đó gần như là giai đoạn mà hai bên không muốn nhắc tới. Đọc thêmViệt Nam cố giữ trung lập giữa Hàn Quốc và Bắc Triều Tiên Kể từ năm 1988-1989 đến nay, sau khi Việt Nam rút quân khỏi Cam Bốt, thì hai nước mới bắt đầu có những trao đổi cấp cao trở lại. Tuy nhiên, việc Việt Nam bình thường hóa quan hệ ngoại giao với Hàn Quốc vào năm 1992 đã khiến cho quan hệ Việt Nam-Bắc Triều Tiên tạm thời trở nên đóng băng. Kể từ đầu những năm 2000 trở lại đây, Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên mới bắt đầu nối lại những đàm phán cấp cao do chính Bình Nhưỡng bày tỏ mong muốn là được thử nghiệm các mô hình mở cửa kinh tế như Việt Nam và Trung Quốc đã làm. Có thể thấy là quan hệ giữa Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên kể từ sau Chiến tranh Lạnh không có nhiều phát triển, nhất là quan hệ thương mại gần như nhỏ giọt, chỉ khoảng 20 triệu đô la/năm. Và về quan hệ quân sự, càng không có một chi tiết nào được công bố trên truyền thông. Những năm gần đây, Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên mong muốn tiếp tục nối lại quan hệ ngoại giao sau khi đại dịch Covid-19 làm ảnh hưởng tới trao đổi cấp cao giữa hai nước mà do chủ tịch Bắc Triều Tiên Kim Jong Un đã cố gắng nối lại trong chuyến thăm Hà Nội năm 2019. RFI : Tổng bí thư Tô Lâm là nhà lãnh đạo đảng thứ 3 đến thăm Bắc Triều Tiên trong 75 năm qua, lần gần đây nhất là chuyến thăm của tổng bí thư Nông Đức Mạnh năm 2007. Vậy chuyến công du này có ý nghĩa như thế nào ? Vũ Xuân Khang : Cần phải nói rõ là trong những năm gần đây, vì những lý do về kinh tế, về đại dịch nên Bắc Triều Tiên đã đóng cửa rất nhiều đại sứ quán và lãnh sự quán ở các nước đối tác truyền thống khác, như Uganda, Angola, Nepal, Senegal, Bangladesh, Hồng Kông, và Tây Ban Nha… nhưng họ vẫn duy trì hiện diện ở Việt Nam. Điều này cho thấy Bắc Triều Tiên vẫn nhìn nhận Việt Nam như là một đối tác rất quan trọng ở Đông Nam Á. Và trong những năm gần đây, cho dù hai nước không gặp nhau trực tiếp do đại dịch Covid-19, nhưng vẫn có những thư mừng hoặc những lời chúc mừng trong giai đoạn hai nước tổ chức Đại hội Đảng. Đặc biệt kể từ năm 2024, hai nước bắt đầu thực sự nối lại các cuộc gặp mặt cấp cao như chuyến thăm Việt Nam của ông Kim Song Nam, trưởng ban quốc tế trung ương của Đảng Lao động Triều Tiên, vào tháng 03/2024. Việt Nam cũng đã gửi thứ trưởng bộ Quốc Phòng và bộ Ngoại Giao đến thăm Bắc Triều Tiên vào tháng 9 và tháng 10/2024. Việc Bắc Triều Tiên hiện giờ mới mời được tổng bí thư Tô Lâm qua cũng là do đại dịch Covid-19 cũng như là hai bên vẫn chưa tìm được dịp đủ lớn, đủ trang trọng để mời tổng bí thư của Việt Nam qua. Dịp 80 năm thành lập đảng Lao Động Triều Tiên là một dịp rất hợp lý để Bắc Triều Tiên có thể nối lại các đàm phán cấp cao với Việt Nam ở cấp tổng bí thư. Đọc thêmViệt Nam giúp được gì Bắc Triều Tiên để gỡ thế cô lập ? RFI : Bắc Triều Tiên được cho là nhà cung cấp vũ khí, đạn dược cho Nga để duy trì cuộc chiến ở Ukraina. Bắc Triều Tiên cũng nổi tiếng về sản xuất tên lửa đạn đạo, hạt nhân, trong đó có một tên lửa đạn đạo tầm xa mới đã được giới thiệu trong lễ duyệt binh. Liệu mảng quân sự sẽ được đề cập trong quá trình thắt chặt quan hệ hữu nghị với Bình Nhưỡng không ? Hai bên dự kiến phát triển quá trình hợp tác này như thế nào ? Vũ Xuân Khang : Trong chuyến thăm lần này của tổng bí thư Tô Lâm, Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên đã ký kết Ý định thư giữa hai bộ Quốc Phòng về hợp tác trong lĩnh vực quốc phòng. Cần nói rõ đây chỉ là ý định thư, nghĩa là hai nước bày tỏ quan điểm và các nội dung hợp tác trong tương lai khi các điều kiện cho phép. Và ở đây, lại cần nhấn mạnh vào yếu tố "khi các điều kiện cho phép" bởi vì Việt Nam hiểu rằng Bắc Triều Tiên vẫn đang chịu cấm vận rất lớn từ phương Tây. Đặc biệt là chương trình vũ khí hạt nhân và tên lửa tầm xa, bất kỳ hoạt động hợp tác nào của Việt Nam với Bắc Triều Tiên trong lĩnh vực tên lửa tầm xa có thể vi phạm các lệnh trừng phạt của Liên Hiệp Quốc. Việc này có thể sẽ ảnh hưởng tới quan hệ của Việt Nam với các nước phương Tây khi mà các nước phương Tây cũng như Hàn Quốc luôn luôn đặt vấn đề rằng Việt Nam phải cố gắng duy trì và bảo đảm các lệnh trừng phạt của Liên Hiệp Quốc đối với Bắc Triều Tiên trong các cuộc gặp cấp cao. Nhưng phải nói rằng thực ra, Việt Nam lại rất hợp với vũ khí của Bắc Triều Tiên. Trong thời gian gần đây, Việt Nam mới thành lập Bộ Tư lệnh Pháo binh Tên lửa và Hà Nội mong muốn nâng cấp tầm bắn của các tên lửa Scud-B do Liên Xô sản xuất và Liên Xô đã trao cho Việt Nam rất nhiều tên lửa Scud vào giai đoạn 1980. Còn Việt Nam, kể từ sau Chiến tranh Lạnh, lại không có điều kiện để thực sự tìm được một nguồn cung dồi dào hoặc một lời khuyên để phát triển loại vũ khí này. Bắc Triều Tiên lại có một nền tảng quốc phòng rất mạnh, kể cả Liên Xô sụp đổ, họ cũng đã tự cải tiến tên lửa Scud, như chúng ta thấy là họ đã có một hệ thống tên lửa tầm xa rất phát triển, như mới đây nhất là trong lễ diễu binh có tên lửa Hỏa Tinh-20 có khả năng bắn đến Mỹ và sử dụng nhiên liệu rắn. Đọc thêmMô hình Việt Nam có thích hợp với Bắc Triều Tiên? Do đó, Việt Nam hoàn toàn có thể học hỏi kinh nghiệm từ chương trình vũ khí hoặc là về công nghiệp quốc phòng nói chung của Bắc Triều Tiên. Nhưng như tôi đã đề cập ở trên, Việt Nam vẫn phải chú ý rất kỹ đến lệnh trừng phạt của Liên Hiệp Quốc. Đây mới chỉ là một ý định thư chưa chưa phải là một thỏa thuận hợp tác quốc phòng rõ ràng giữa hai nước. RFI : Tổng bí thư Tô Lâm trước đó đã công du Seoul. Việt Nam được cho là mua pháo K9 Thunder của Hàn Quốc. Và bây giờ là chuyến công du Bình Nhưỡng. Những hoạt động này có ý nghĩa như thế nào ? Vũ Xuân Khang : Chuyến thăm đến Triều Tiên của tổng bí thư Tô Lâm gần như là ngay sau chuyến thăm Hàn Quốc hồi tháng 08, đây là một lời khẳng định rõ ràng về đường lối ngoại giao đa phương hóa, đa dạng hóa của Việt Nam trong tương lai cũng như hiện tại và Việt Nam sẵn sàng làm bạn với tất cả nước và mong làm cầu nối giữa các bên. Đặc biệt chuyến thăm Bắc Triều Tiên lần này còn có tiềm năng lớn với Việt Nam trong hoàn cảnh chủ tịch Bắc Triều Tiên Kim Jong Un và tổng thống Mỹ Donald Trump đều để ngỏ khả năng gặp mặt trong trường hợp hai bên đồng ý về một thỏa thuận hạt nhân. Đọc thêmVũ khí: Hàn Quốc giúp Việt Nam giảm phụ thuộc vào Nga Việt Nam với tư cách là đối tác tin cậy của cả hai nước và là chủ nhà của thượng đỉnh Mỹ-Triều năm 2019 sẽ mong muốn lại một lần nữa được thể hiện vai trò, cầu nối, trung gian hòa giải và đóng góp vào xây dựng hòa bình trên bán đảo Triều Tiên. Trong các tuyên bố với cả phía Bắc Triều Tiên và Hàn Quốc, Việt Nam đều nhấn mạnh rất rõ là mong muốn hai miền Triều Tiên tiếp tục đối thoại và hợp tác với nhau và Việt Nam cũng đề cập vai trò của mình trong việc ủng hộ bảo vệ an ninh khu vực. Đặc biệt, trong chuyến thăm Hàn Quốc của tổng bí thư Tô Lâm, Việt Nam cũng đề cập rất rõ là ủng hộ chính sách hòa giải liên Triều của tổng thống Hàn Quốc Lee Jae Myung. Điều này thể hiện Việt Nam mong muốn được tiếp tục làm cầu nối giữa hai miền. Việc Bắc Triều Tiên vẫn gửi lời mời tổng bí thư Tô Lâm sau khi Việt Nam ký kết mua pháo K9 Thunder của Hàn Quốc cho thấy Bình Nhưỡng coi trọng vai trò trung gian hòa giải, cũng như đường lối đối ngoại độc lập tự chủ của Việt Nam. RFI Tiếng Việt xin chân thành cảm ơn tiến sĩ Vũ Khang, học giả thỉnh giảng, tại Khoa Khoa học Chính trị, Đại học Boston, Hoa Kỳ.

VOV1 - Chiều ngày 18/10 tại Hà Nội, diễn ra lễ kỷ niệm 95 năm Ngày truyền thống Văn phòng Trung ương Đảng và văn phòng cấp ủy, đón nhận Huân chương Lao động hạng Nhất và tuyên dương các điển hình tiên tiến giai đoạn 2020-2025.

Tuần qua, Đảng Lao động đã nhượng bộ một số điều kiện quan trọng trong đề xuất đánh thuế bổ sung với những người Úc có quỹ hưu bổng lớn, đồng thời công bố chính sách bù trừ thuế hưu bổng cho nhóm thu nhập thấp. Vậy những thay đổi này sẽ ảnh hưởng thế nào đến quỹ hưu bổng của bạn?

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. TAKE ACTION Rising Voices campaign for Lue Yang Mohan Karki's GoFundMe   And please help support these organizations working to support detained and deported folx: Asian Law Caucus Asian Refugees United Ba Lo Project in Vietnam Collective Freedom in Vietnam & Laos Asian Prisoner Support Committee & New Light Wellness in Cambodia November 1–2, people nationwide are joining the Disappeared In America Weekend of Action to stand up for immigrant families and defend due process. Actions include protests at Home Depots, candlelight Freedom Vigils, and Day of the Dead events honoring lives lost to detention.   The following day, November 3, 4pm Pacific time, 7pm Eastern Time, Join us for “We Belong Here, Bhutanese & Hmong Americans in the Struggle Against Statelessness” a live virtual event featuring my three guests tonight, along with performances and conversations. bit.ly/WBH-2025   We Belong Here! Show Transcript Miko Lee: Welcome to Apex Express. This is your host, Miko Lee. Today we're talking about detentions and potential deportations and the atrocities that the Trump administration is creating in our communities. And today I am so honored to have three guests with me, Tika Basnet, and Ann Vu, and Aisa Villarosa. Tika and Ann they're part of a horrible club, which is both of their spouses are currently in detention from our immigration system. But I just wanna start on a real personal note in a way that I often do with my guests. Anne, I'm gonna start with you. I just would love to hear from you, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? Ann Vue: Thank you again, Miko and Isa, you guys for having me on. So we are Hmong. And we helped Americans during the Vietnam War. And so, during the Vietnam War in Laos, a lot of our pilots needed a communication. And because we're indigenous and we are in the mountains, they were able to speak with us and use us. And so a lot of our Hmong, what they did or what they contributed helped a lot of the pilots rescued a lot, like thousands and thousands of Americans, really, so that that way they can make it back home, right? And so that is our contribution to the American people. And so when we were brought to America, was to resettle because of humanitarian purpose. Really because of our legacy of helping Americans with the war, right? So that is who we are and what we bring to America. And that's who I am. I'm, and I'm actually the first generation Hmong American too. So I was born right here in the capital of Lansing, Michigan. Miko Lee: Thanks so much ann. And Tika, can you share who are your people and what legacy you carry with you? Tika Basnet: Yes. Hi, my name is Tika Basnet. So I am Bhutanese Nepali community. My parents and all the Bhutanese, they ran away from Bhutan in 1990 due to the ethnic cleansing. And they came to Nepal, seeking for asylum, and that is where we born. I was born in Nepal, in refugee camp. Even though I was born in Nepal, Nepal never gave us identity. They never give us citizenship, so we were known as Bhutanese Nepali, but as known as Stateless. And yeah, my husband also born in Nepal in a refugee camp. Miko Lee: Thank you, Tika. And Aisa, I'm gonna ask the same question for you Aisa, my friend that works at Asian Law Caucus. Who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? Aisa Villarosa: So much love to you, Miko and to you Ann and Tika for being here today. I just am, I'm so honored.My name is Aisa and I carry the love and, Maki Baka spirit of Filipino Americans both in my family across the diaspora. A little bit about the Filipino American story. We came to the United States as part of the colonial machine. The first Filipinos were brought as part of the Spanish Gallian trade. We made California home, parts of Louisiana home, and it's quite a contrast to a lot of the sort of model minority seduction that many of my people, and myself as a younger person tended to fall into that if we kept our heads down, if we were quiet, we would be left alone. I'm struck because at this moment of just unprecedented government attacks, so many of our communities have this story where someone somewhere said to us, yeah, just keep your head down and it'll be fine. And we're seeing the exact opposite, that this is the time to really use our voices, both individually and as one. And I'm also an artist and try to infuse that into my work in fighting government systems. Miko Lee: Thank you Aisa. And in the interest of fairness, I will say I'm Miko. I am fifth generation Chinese American. I grew up knowing that my family was full of fighters that built the railroads, worked in the gold mines in laundromats and restaurants, and my parents walked with Dr. King and Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and I was raised in a family of social justice activists. So I feel like our legacy is to continue that work and to fight for the rights of our peoples. That being said, I'm so honored to have both of all three of you powerful women join me today. And as I was saying in the beginning, Tika and Anne are sadly a part of this club. Nobody wants to be a part of this club with the sudden, unexpected, harmful detentions of both of your husbands. I wonder if you can each just share the story about what happened and how you first found out about your husband being detained. And let's start with you Tika. Tika Basnet: So, my husband got his removal in 2014 when he was like minor. Just 17 years old, high school student going from school to home and, he's a teenager and with his friend, like they were playing around and they wanna go home really fast. So they just cross from private property. And I think that is where someone saw and call 911. So we came from the culture that we love to go people home , walking around, playing around. So my husband came here in 2011. The incident happened on 2013. So he was just, came here without knowing culture, without knowing languages, So he has no idea. So when somebody called 911, he could not explain what happened. First of all, English is his second language, he was barely here without knowing rules and regulation, without knowing culture. The police get them and then they took him to jail I think police gave a lot of charges. And even until now, my husband doesn't know what are those charges? At that time, nobody explained, this is the three charges you got, and this could lead to deportation. And he feel guilty without knowing those charges. And just because he trusts Nepali translate guy, and he told my husband, like, if you don't say I'm guilty, you will end up in prison for 20 to 25 years, but if you say I'm guilty, you'll go home. And my husband said, guilty. And at that time, neither criminal lawyer told my husband, like, if you say I'm guilty, you'll end up getting deport. Deport to the contrary that you are you never born. Deport To the contrary, you doesn't even speak their language. And even the lawyer did not explain my husband like, you will not gonna get your green card. You cannot apply your citizenship in your life. If all of, if those things like the lawyer told my husband at that time, he will never gonna say, I am guilty to the crime that he did not even commit. And so when they tried to deport my husband back then, Bhutan say, he's not my citizenship, he's not from my country, We don't know this guy. He's not belongs to here. And when US Embassy reach out to, Nepal, do you know this guy? They told, ICE no, we don't know this guy, like he's not belongs here. And then the ICE officer, they told my husband, like, we can let you go, you need to come here, like order of supervision every years, every three months, every six months, whenever we call you. And it been 11 years. My husband is following rules and regulation. After that incident, never police arrest him. He did not even get criminal record. He did not even get misdemeanor record. So basically he never did any violation after that. So he was following, he got married, he has a life, he pay taxes. He was taking care of his family and in 11 years he was doing everything. And in 2025 for the first time they target Bhutanese Nepali community. And at that time I knew that this is the last time I'm gonna see my husband. And that is a time I think I broke down. Like, when they detained my husband in April 8, I was eight months pregnant. And um, like we dream a lot of things like, you know, we are gonna take care of our daughter. We are gonna buy home, we are gonna work, we are gonna give her the life that we, I'm sorry. Miko Lee: Totally. Okay. Tika Basnet: So, yeah. Um, like I never thought like Bhutanese community can, like deport. Like my parent already , go through this trauma, you know, when Bhutan throw them away due to ethnic cleansing and same thing happening to us. It is unbelievable. I cannot believe that, we're going through this again and I don't know when this gonna be stopped. I don't know whether like my husband gonna come home. I dunno. Like I'm fighting and it is been five month and I really want my husband back. Like my daughter today is, she's three month old. She need her dad in life. 'cause I cannot provide everything by myself. My husband is the main provider for her aging parent. 'cause even now they cannot pay bills. Like they have really hard time paying bills. And this is the reason, like I'm fighting for my husband case and I want my husband back. And I think he deserve second chance because if you see his record is clean, like for one incident that happened like 12 years ago, that cannot define my husband. Like who he is right now, you know? So yeah, this is what happened. Like I cannot believe that my husband is able to get deport to the country that doesn't even accept. And I don't know whether he gonna get killed. I dunno what, whether he gonna disappear, I don't know what will happen to him. I don't know if it is last time I'm gonna see him. Miko Lee: Tika, thank you so much for sharing your story. And just to recap really briefly, your husband, Mohan Karki when he was a teenager, newly arrived in the country, was leaving high school, walked with his friends through a backyard and was suddenly racially profiled. And the neighbor called police because he was trespassing on property.He was born at a refugee camp. Is that right? Tika Basnet: Yes. Miko Lee: And so there was not property that was like person's property on that refugee camp. So that whole concept of walking across somebody's land was something he was not aware of. He had an interpreter that did not give correct or full information. And so he signed something, including a deportation order, that he wasn't actually, wasn't even aware of until recently when he was put into detention. Is that right? Tika Basnet: Yes. Yes. Miko Lee: And right now he's in detention. You're, you live in Ohio, but he's in detention in Michigan, right? Tika Basnet: Yes. Miko Lee: Okay, Tika, let's talk about Mohans case and what's happening. He's held in detention right now in a detention facility in Michigan. And what is going on with his case? Tika Basnet: Yeah, I don't wanna say a lot of things about his case, but our attorney, his criminal attorney does file, a Motion to Redeem asking BIA to send that, case back to Georgia and we recently hired, criminal attorney to fight for his case, that happened in 2013. And our attorney just submit documentation where he's asking to release my husband because it'd been five month. And he's not risk to the community. He's not risk to the flight. 'cause he doesn't have no one in Bhutan. He doesn't have no one in Nepal. He's all family is in here. So his community love him ,he has family that loves him. And, we also get lot of documentations as a proof telling ICE officer that my husband is not risk to the community or, to the flight. Miko Lee: Thank you. And he has a new baby, a four month old baby that he has yet to meet. So that is a powerful reason to stay. And as Tikas pointing out, the lawyer just submitted documentation along with 50 letters of support from the community , from employers, from family members, all saying why he should stay in this country. Thank you so much for sharing. And Anne, i'm wondering if you could share about what happened to your husband. He was also born in a refugee camp, right? Ann Vue: So, Lou was born in Nangkai, Thailand refugee camp. In 1978 and in 1979 his parents and him and his older brother received parole for legal entry. I think the exact word was, they were paroled pursuant under section 212D5 of the I and N Act, which means that they are granted urgent humanitarian reasons for or for public benefit. Right. Because my father-in-law had helped and during the war. And so he received his visa in September. I just lookeded back at all of his history there and then they made it to America right before Halloween 'cause my father-in-law was like, I always remembered it because in the country of Asia, they're scared of halloween, scary Halloween stuff. And so when they came, they were like, oh my gosh. There were, Jesus says, I remember there were just a lot of zombies, right? And we were so scared because we were like, and so I always remember that about, you know, I'll fast forward it to 1997, right when he just turned, I believe 18 and very similar to Tika, you know, her husband too. And a lot of times, in the early nineties, me even being the first generation American here, racism played a lot. And we all went through that piece and our parents not speaking English at the same time, they were going to school themselves so that they can learn our English language, right. And they weren't able to teach us growing up. So we had to kind of fend for ourselves. And I would say my husband he went out with some friends. He did not commit the crime. But of course now that is brought back to him, he understood about his particular case is second attempt, home invasion. Nobody was harmed. He was in the vehicle, in the backseat when he was caught. And he didn't wanna partake, but he didn't wanna stop them either, you know? 'cause to him it was like, if I don't partake, then I have nothing to do with it. Right. Because if I do, then they might not be my friends anymore. I mean, it's just a part of growing up as a youth. But because he was there, and then would receive a court appointed attorney, and then provide it very similar to Tika's too. Had an interpreter, that was explaining to them, was provided bad legal advice. He had nothing, no knowledge about how this would impact his immigration status. He would take a plea, and it was advised by their attorney, take the plea it's easier, you know, and you probably serve less than a year. You'll be out, you'll only be in the county jail anyways 'cause you didn't really commit the crime and technically it should have been a misdemeanor. But because you're an accomplice , that kind of falls under this category. So he took the plea, he served 10 months in a county jail. He actually was released for good behavior. He even finished his probation soon because he paid all of his stuff off. And he even finished a youth advocate program, a youth training program for anybody that committed crimes between the age of 18 to 21. I actually just saw this form the other day and I was reading it and it talks about, you know, the one thing about our parents, experiencing the war and coming to America, they don't talk about it. And a lot of us are from communist countries . We're, we are very afraid to voice our voices, because someone can take action. And our parents never talked about it. And I read what he wrote to his, youth coordinator, and he wrote, he felt so bad about what he did. He created disappointment for his parents and he understands now after his parents told him, there are sacrifices that got us here to America. And he literally wrote all of this down, he's going to be a better person, is what he wrote. I'm going to be a better person. I'm going to make my parents proud now that I understand their sacrifices. And, they asked him, well what was your upbringing like? And in one sentence, he wrote, poor, right? So he wrote, poor and the coordinator wrote on the bottom of his comments said, Lou is remorseful for what has happened or for what ha what has happened, and very remorseful and he wants to be a better person. I have no other questions. The training is complete. He doesn't need any further, support and believes that he will move forward to be a better person. That's what literally what they wrote on the document. Then fast forwarding to 1999 , after everything was done and he served, that's when, immigration showed up at his house. And from there moved forward to explain to him what had happened. And once that happened, of course him and I would meet in 2000, and then we'd be married in 2001. Right? So we'd celebrate. Almost 24 and a half years of marriage. Right? So we did appeal his case in the humanitarian piece of what this meant for Lou during the time where we all fled the country. Once we were, once the monks were declared enemy of the state by the LDR in Laos, we fled. And once we fled, it's well documented that there was a little bit over 400,000 of us there right after all the genocide and the killings of the Hmong there was probably less than 45,000 of us left, right? And so once we understood a lot of that, we wanted to do better. We wanted to really service our community, right? So. Fast forwarding it. We appealed the case. The case was then denied I believe in 2002. And even in his letters, in his appeal letters, general Vink Powell, which led the, Hmongs during, in the war, even had a letter in there where he, to also pled why Hmongs need to stay here in America, right. And why we need to bring the rest of our people to this country. The reality is our whole family, Lou's whole family was wiped out. We don't have anybody, Lou doesn't have anyone, right? And so you know, that goes to Tikas thing too. There's nobody there. And, going back to the case once it was denied in 2002, of course he then. Was forced to reach out to the embassy and reached out to the embassy and was denied, entry into Thailand 'cause that's where he was born. We're stateless too, just like Tikas husband. We were denied by Thailand. We were also denied by Laos stating that we are not a citizen of theirs. They do not allow or welcome any sort of entry. And then in 2006, that's when they actually took his green card was in 2006 and then we prompt again we were denied. And then in 2008 we were denied a third time and that's when his immigration officer was like, just move on and start your life. Laos and Thailand, will never sign a repatriation act with America because of you guys, because of the Hmong people, what you guys have done to their country, making it the most bombed country during the war without even being a part of the war. So therefore, they will never allow you guys or accept you guys back. And so we were like, okay. So we moved forward and then in 2014, this immigration officer, which we was doing yearly checkups at this time, was like, Hey go get your citizenship, get your green card. They're like you're doing so good. You know, you probably could have a chance to get it. That's when we moved forward to apply for citizenship and for all we did for the green card and then for citizenship. And of course we were denied in 2015 and we know how expensive this is. You pay $10,000 outright, you don't get that money back. You just have to go at it again, right? And so, uh, we decided that, you know what, we're gonna get his case expunged, and so. We got his case expunged in 2018, no questions asked. It was very straightforward. Once it was expunged, we continued, with our lives. Very involved in the community. And we had all of our children by that time already, so we had six kids already. So fast forwarding to that, and then leading up to his detainment, which this year we even called his immigration officer and he was like, Hey, don't worry about it, Lou, we're moving you over to Grand Rapids and you should be fine. Just make sure that you stay outta trouble, continue to follow your stock and I think what triggered it was when we applied for his work permit in April. Because he was supposed to, he always meets his immigration officer at the end of the year, and we renewed his work permit is what triggered it. And so of course, the money was cashed out, everything the checks went through while we were receiving that, he was gonna be here, everything was gonna be fine. And then leading up to July 15th where he was detained at work, early morning of six 30 in the morning, the detained officer they they told him that they know who he is to the community, so they have to do it this way because they don't want any problems. They don't want media, they don't want reporters. He did play with them. He did ask them because he rode his motorcycle for some weird reason. He has not taken his bike out, his motorcycle out in the last three years. But for some reason that night he was like, I just wanna take my bike. So he took his bike that night and when ICE told him, do you have somebody come get your bike? You need to call somebody to come get your bike. And he was like, nobody in my family rides motorcycles. Like we don't, I don't have anyone to come get my bike. And I think there was some empathy and compassion for him. He was like, okay, let me check on something. Because my husband was like, can I just take my bike back? I've got six kids. I've got my grandma at home and my parents are also at my house right now. I just wanna see them and I just wanna take my bike back. So they asked him, if we let you go, we asked will you like please don't run. Right? And so they followed my husband home and my husband literally called me at 6 37 in the morning and he was like, Hey, ICE is, here they got me. So I'm like, what? What's going on? So it was just so surreal. I was so shocked. And so it's about a 30 minute drive from his workplace back to our house. And um, when he got there, um, they, there were already officers, like there were, it was packed tight in our driveway. So our driveway's pretty far up because we live in the country. And so, there were like five or six cop cars there too. So we had to walk about half a mile down to go see him. They wouldn't allow him to enter where our home was. And the officer told, my husband, told him that they're so sorry. They have to do it this way. They know who he is. They don't want any problems, they don't want any reports in media out here. And I will say my experience was a little bit different from others. They did take their mask off when they took him in, they were respectful so that part is that much. They even, you know, talk to my two older boys like, “Hey, you guys have money. I could put the money in your dad's account.” We're, take him into Grand Rapids, we're gonna process him, and then we're gonna take him to the detention center, which is gonna be involved in Michigan. So they were very open about these steps, what they were doing with him, at least that much. But I will say that it was my grandma, of course she has chronic pulmonary disease stage four. So at that point we, we couldn't haul her fast enough because we only saw him for like maybe a quick minute, and that was it. And so they did ask us to turn around because they had to take him back and they didn't want my, our little ones to see them cuffing him. Miko Lee: They actually said, Anne, we don't want any media to be watching this? Ann Vue: I don't want any problems. Miko Lee: Mm. And and your husband is also quite well known in the Hmong community, right? Ann Vue: He is Miko Lee: and so probably, they were worried about folks coming out and protesting. Is that, do you think that was the case? Ann Vue: That's what I'm assuming, because I don't remember their exact words saying media, but I do remember they were saying that they didn't want people around, they didn't want to create issues for the community.I am assuming that correct, because if he would've gotten the letter just like everybody did, which everybody then would receive the letter on Friday, and because my husband is a community leader, he is the Hmong Family Association's president, we restart receiving. Many, many calls where everybody just wanted to talk to Lou 'cause they needed to know what's going on, how to handle, what to do. And so at that moment I realized, oh my gosh, they detained my husband first this way. And then everybody else got a letter. Miko Lee: And the ICE officer that he had been checking in with routinely has, have you all been in touch with that same ICE officer? Ann Vue: He has been, I think in the last seven or eight years.Yeah. It's been the same guy. Miko Lee: But has he been in touch with him since he was detained? Ann Vue: He hasn't. Miko Lee: Has not, no. So they had different people come in even, 'cause he was the person that said everything's okay, keep going with your life. Ann Vue: Oh yeah. Miko Lee: And so no contact with him whatsoever since the detention? Ann Vue: No. Miko Lee: Can you give a little bit of an update of Lou's case and what's going on with him right now? Ann Vue: I don't know as much. Maybe I may have to have Aisa respond to the legality piece around it. 'cause I know we're, they've been doing, working around the clock and working hard on strategy. Miko Lee: Okay. Thank you so much, Aisa. Before we move into that, I just wanna point out, for all of our listeners, how many similarities there are in these two cases. And in both of these, you know, these amazing women are here supporting their spouses, both, spouses born in refugee camps. Dealing with intergenerational trauma from families that had to escape ethnic cleansing or involved in a war, came into the United States under, legal properties through refugee resettlement acts, made mistakes as young people, partially due to culture and wanting to fit in. They served their time, they paid their dues. They were racially profiled to be able to actually be in those positions that they were in. They suffered from incredible immigration policy failure with bad advice, with a system that's broken. And now both of them are detained. Not yet deported, but detained. Many of the community members have already been deported and they're facing statelessness. And we're seeing this not just with Bhutanese and Hmong folks, but with Mien and Lao and Haitian and El Salvadorian. And we could fill in the blank of how many other peoples in other communities are facing this. So, we also know that these private detention centers where people are being held, are making millions and millions of dollars, and it's connected into our corrupt political system that's in place right now. We also know and Aisa, I'm wondering if you could, talk about the case, but also about some of the deals that we think have had to be made with Laos and Bhutan in order for these deportations to even take place. So Aisa from Asian Law Caucus, I'm gonna pass it to you to go over some of the legal ramifications. Aisa Villarosa: Of course, Miko, and thank you for it for the context. And there are so many parallels that we as advocates must uplift because this is not the time to be divided. This is really the time to build solidarity that we've long known needs to happen. And, and this is really the moment. What Miko is referring to is, uh, largely, um, something that we've observed around the travel bans. So. Earlier this year, right around the time that the Trump administration took hold, there was a draft travel ban list that leaked across a number of media outlets, the Times, et cetera, and the same countries we're talking about today, Bhutan, Laos. These were historically not countries that were subject to sanctions, like the travel ban, and yet here they were. And so a lot of us were scratching our heads and asking, you know, what, why is this happening? Our theory, and this is a theory that is now also manifesting in a number of FOIA requests or Freedom of Information Act requests that are submitted from Asian Law Caucus to departments like the State Department ice, the Department of Homeland Security. Asking the same question that Tika and Anne are asking, which is, how are these deportations even happening? Because they were not happening until this year. And what very likely happened was a bit of a quid pro quo. So in removing Bhutan, removing Laos from this list where they could be sanctioned as a country, there was likely some backdoor deal that took place between the US State Department and Bhutanese officials and the US officials, where essentially there was some form of an agreement that there would be an acceptance or a supposed acceptance of a certain number of folks from these communities. That is why around March, around April for the Bhutanese refugee community, for example, we started seeing pickups very similar to Mohans case, where, many people who had perhaps made some mistakes in their youth or had really old criminal convictions were swept off the streets and thrust into these really rapid deportation proceedings. I don't even know if proceedings is the right word, because there essentially was no proceeding. You know, the Immigration Court is very much a cloaked process. The immigration judge is kind of judge and jury wrapped up together, which is very different than many of us might turn on the TV and see something like Law and order. An immigration court works a very different way where this piece of paper, this final removal order, basically gives ICE a lot of bandwidth to make these deportations happen. However, that doesn't mean we should just accept that this is happening. We know that just basic procedures of fairness are not being met. We know, too that in the case of, for example, the Bhutanese community ICE officers have come to the wrong house. And put a lot of people in fear. So racial profiling was happening even before this recent Supreme Court decision, which essentially now condones racial profiling, right? As criteria that the ICE can use. I also just wanted to talk about this trend too, that we're seeing with so many cases. It happened to Lou, it happened to Mohan, where in someone's underlying criminal court case, maybe they were given a court appointed attorney. In many cases, they were not told of the immigration impacts of, say, taking a plea. There is a Supreme Court case called Padilla versus Kentucky and basically the law shifted such that in many cases there now is a duty for a court appointed public defender to actually talk to folks like Mohan and Lou about the immigration consequences of their plea. So when Tika mentioned that there's something called a post-conviction relief effort for Mohan. That's happening in Georgia. This is very much what that legal defense looks like, where, an expert attorney will look at that very old court record, see if those rights were violated, and also talk to Mohan and make sure did that violation happen and is that grounds for reopening an immigration case. For Lou, there is a really mighty pardoning campaign that's brewing in the state of Michigan. So in Michigan, governor Gretchen Whitmer does have the authority to in some cases expedite a pardon in process. We're hoping that this public swelling of support from Mohan will result in a pardon, because importantly, even if Mohans conviction was expunged, which can be very helpful in, for example, state court, arenas, things like, applying for certain jobs. Unfortunately, in the immigration arena the expungement does not have that same weight as say a vacating, or a motion to vacate that criminal record. So it's super frustrating because, so much of this turns ethically, morally on- do we, as people believe in second chances, and I know most people do, and [00:35:00] yet here we are really. Based on a technicality. I also just want to name too that Lou as a person is both a natural organizer and he is a spiritual guide of his community. So something that many folks don't know is because of so much of the trauma that Anne talked about, both from, supporting the Americans during the Secret War, many Hmong folks who came to the States, they actually in some cases died in their sleep because of this, almost unexplained weight of the trauma, right? And so it almost underscores. The importance of Lou, not just to his family, but this family is a collective family, right? He's both a mentor for so many, he's a spiritual guide for so many. And so you know, him being away from his family, away from community, it's like a double, triple wound. And then for Mohan, I'd love to uplift this memory I have of , a moment in June when Tika gave us a call, and at that point, Mohan had called Tika and said, they're taking me, I'm being deported. And at that point, they were removing Mohan from the ICE facility in Butler, Ohio and transporting him to. At first we had no idea. Then we learned it was, toward the Detroit airport or that deportation to Bhutan and Tika was forced to essentially delay her childbirth. It was very much in the range of when she was due to give birth to their daughter. But because the clock was ticking, Tika drove to Butler, literally begged for Mohan's life as our organizing and advocacy and legal team was trying to get together this emergency stay of deportation. That fortunately came through at the 11th hour. But the fact that Mohan remains in this facility in St. Clair, Michigan, that he's never held his daughter is unacceptable, is ridiculous. And I think so much of these two cases almost, this invisible brotherhood of pain that I know Ann has talked to me about that. Because Lou right now has been in a couple facilities. He is organizing, he's doing his thing and actually supporting folks while also just trying to keep himself well, which is no easy feat to do in so many of these facilities. Especially because, in Alexandria, for example, which is a facility in Louisiana. We know that folks are sleeping on cement floors. We know that folks are not being fed, that there's a lot of human rights violations going on. And here is Lou still continuing to use his voice and try to advocate for the folks around him. Miko Lee: Aisa thank you so much for putting that into context, and we'll put links in the show notes for how folks can get involved in both of these cases. One is, Rising Voices has a call to action to reach out to Governor Whitmer for that. Pardon in Campaign for Lou. So we encourage folks to do that. And in terms of Mohan, there's a GoFundMe to help support Tika and the immense lawyer fees, which we discussed that are needed. And also a letter writing campaign to the ICE director Kevin Roff, to try and release Mohan and also Lou. These are really important things that are happening in our community, and thank you for being out there. Thank you for talking and sharing your stories. We really appreciate you. And also, just briefly, I'd love us for us to talk for a minute about how many folks in our Asian American communities, we don't wanna talk about mistakes that we have made in the past because we might consider that shameful. And therefore, in both of these communities, when we started organizing, it was really hard at first to find people to come forth and share their stories. So I wonder if both of you can give voice to a little about that, the power you found in yourself to be able to come forward and speak about this, even though some other folks in the community might not feel comfortable or strong enough to be able to talk. Tika, can you speak to that? Tika Basnet: Yeah. So what makes me really strong, and I wanna see that my husband case is because he was 17, people can make mistake and from those mistake, if people are learning. Then I think Americans should consider, 'cause my husband did make mistake and I wish that time he knew the rules and regulation. I wish like somebody taught him that he's not supposed to go somebody else property, like around in backyard. And I wish he was been in the United States like more than one and a half year. I wish, if he was like more than two years, three years. And I think that time he, from high school, he could learn. You know, he's not supposed to go there. He was just been in the United States like one and a half year just going to high school. Nobody taught him. His parent doesn't even speak English. Until now, he doesn't even, they doesn't even speak, like nobody in our community knew rules and regulation. So no, basically that he doesn't have guide, like mentor to taught him like, and even though he did make mistake and he's really sorry, and from those mistake learning a lot, and he never get into trouble, like after 11 years, he was clean, he work, he pay taxes. And I think, that is the reason that I really wanna come forward. You know, people can make mistake, but learning from those mistake that changed people life. And, and I think, the reason that I'm coming forward is because organization like Asian Law Caucus, ARU, and, Miko, a lot of people helped me. You know, they taught me like people can make mistake and, I think we shouldn't be same. And I really wanna give example to my daughter, you know, that, you are fighting for justice and you shouldn't fear. I think, what is right is right. What is wrong is wrong. But if somebody's make mistake and they are not, doing that mistake again, I think the people can get a second chance. And I think my husband deserves second chance and he's 30 years old. He has a family, he has a wife, children and he deserved to be here. We came here legally, my husband came here. Legally, we, promise that we'll get home and this is our home. We wanna stay here and I really want my husband be home soon so he can play with her daughter to play with his daughter. Miko Lee: Thank you so much, Tika. Ann I wonder if you could talk to the strength that it takes for you to come forward and speak about your husband and your family. Ann Vue: I'm a community leader with my husband too, right? I would say that there was a moment when he was first detained where I was in complete silence. I was so shocked. It took my attorney, Nancy, just talking to me about it. Of course, back to what Aisa said earlier in our communities, we're afraid. I was so scared. I didn't know what to do. It took me visiting my husband in Baldwin and letting him know that, hey, a bunch of community members are now reaching out and I think it's hit our community. And that's that. At that moment, he was like, you have to say something. You have to say something you have to make noise because you have a, 50% chance, right? We have a 50 50 chance. 50%. They're gonna send me 50%. You're gonna feel bad if you don't say anything, right? 50 here, 50 there. It doesn't matter. But a hundred percent regret if you don't say something. I thought about it and he was like, well, go out there, be my voice. He's like, you've always been my voice. You got this right. And so when, I didn't say no to Nancy. 'cause she really wanted to talk to our rep Mai you know about this. And , Mai and I are pretty close too. And, I just knew if I said anything, Maya's gonna be like mm-hmm. All the way. Right? So I just let Nancy help me, and my most vulnerable time. And I'm glad that she did. And I'm glad that we did get this out. It is the most important thing for us, and I've been, I will say what keeps me going is all of those that have been impacted by this, from people like Tika. I have many, I call 'em sisters. We're all in a lot of these group chats together. They've been also keeping me going. Our amazing team of attorneys and everybody just strategizing through this unprecedented time. It's really everyone's voices. I get to talk to Lou daily. It's definitely not cheap, but he gets to share each story of each person. I believe that everybody has a story and they might not be as lucky as maybe Tika or my husband, but at least now I have their story. I will be their voice. I will tell each person's story, each name, each alien number that I track down, my husband's even literally learned how to count in Spanish, just so he can give them like my phone number in Spanish in case they need to call an emergency. Oh, I'm be getting a lot of calls. Right. I would say that that is what keeps me going because I think that Tika and I and many others are, hoping that there is going to be a better day, a brighter day. I hope that everyone can see that, our children are American, right? Our children, they deserve to have their fathers and their mothers. They deserve to grow with these parents. And with that being said, the most important thing to me is they're not just bystanders. They're literally the future of America. I don't want them growing up with trauma, with trying to ask me questions like, well mom, if we're refugees and we helped, Americans as allies, and we come to this country, why is this payback like this? There's a moral obligation that has to be there and they're gonna grow up and they're gonna be trauma by this. I've got children right now that's been talking about joining the National Guard. It speaks volume about what happens to my husband. He's championed the Hmong, Michigan Special Gorilla unit, the Hmong veterans here in the last two years, really with helping them through resolutions, tributes, making sure that they have things, that they are out there, that people now know them, they are finally recognized. This puts my husband at great danger by sending him back, because now he's championed the veterans here. He celebrates our veterans here. So it's a moral obligation. And I hope Tika, I hope that, and this is to every child, I hope that every child, they deserve their father's presence. There are many people who don't even have their father's presence and they wish their fathers were around. And our fathers wanna be around. And I hope that our daughter, I only have one daughter too, that someday they can, their fathers can be a part of their, the American culture. So I, I hope that. We get that opportunity and I hope that somebody stop being scared, but turn around and help us. Help us. We came here legally, minor stuff, long decade old. Even lose share with me. This detainment has been worse than when he was, when he did time back in 1997. And I just hope that somebody hears our podcast, Miko. Thank you. And, Aisa and Tika. And they turn and they have some compassion and help us because this is the tone that we're setting for the future of our American children. Miko Lee: Thank you so much for sharing. Tika, you wanna add? Tika Basnet: Yes, I really wanna talk about what kind of husband Mohan is. Even though like he detained for five month and I cannot. I put lot of money in his account and there was one guy, I think his family cannot support him. And for me, like it is really hard. I'm not working. But even my husband called me like, you don't need to put like money in my account, but can you please can you please put money in his account? He did not eat food. His family did not have money. I can survive without eating food. But, I think his story is really touching me. And that time, like my husband was crying listening to that guy story in detention center and then I did put like $50 in his account. And my husband is giving person like, he love to give even though, he struggle a lot, even though, he doesn't know what will happen when he get deport. But, him saying other guy story. Does make him cry. I think this is the reason that I really wanna come forward. My husband is giving person, he's lovely person, he's caring person. And that is the reason I wanna come forward. I want people to hear our voice, rather than silent. Because right now people know our story. But if I was silent back , then I don't know whether my husband was already disappear. I don't know whether he gonna die torture or maybe he will expel within 24 hours. I have no idea. So I think, my husband is number one support system for me, and I think because of him that I'm here sharing his story and yeah, like for years I had wonderful time with him. We build our dream and until 2025, our dream is destroy. I'm trying to build again. I'm hoping, like my husband is coming home soon and I'm hoping that this will be the last time that he will get detained. I hope that this will be the end. I don't want him to get detained or deported again. I'm really tired. I don't know what to do. I'm hopeless. I hope listening to my story and Anna's story that separating family is not good. Like it is affecting not only one person but his whole community, whole family. We deserve to get our husband back. Because it is not only about the wife that is fighting for husband, it is the children. , They're so small, they born here and we cannot raise alone, we cannot work. We have things to pay. And paying those bills and taking care of child alone is really difficult. It is giving depression like it's been five month, like I went through postpartum depression, I went through trauma and I don't wanna deal anymore. Like I don't have courage to do this anymore. We need our husband back. Miko Lee: Thank you. And I think both of your husbands are also main caregivers for parents that are ailing in both cases. It's a really important thing that we are intergenerational communities and as you both said, it's not just about the children, but it's also about parents and brothers and sisters and community members as well. Thank you so much for lifting up your stories. I just wanna go back for one more thing. We talked briefly about the crazy expensive lawyer fees that have come up for families that they've been dealing with this, and then also Tika was just bringing up about detention and commissary fees. Can you talk a little bit about the prison industrial complex and the fees that are associated? As Anne was saying, just calling Lou every day the costs that are associated with those things. Many people that don't have a family member that's incarcerated don't know about that. Can you share a little bit about what that system is? Aisa Villarosa: Yeah, absolutely Miko. And, just to underscore, a big theme from this conversation, it is that the US made commitments and they have broken them, both with, as Anne talked about, the refugee experience is one that is made possible through US commitment of acknowledging what, people have survived, what they have given to the country. And to look at this moment where folks are being removed to countries where not only do they have zero ties to, don't speak the language, but, especially in the case of the Bhutanese refugee community, as Tika mentioned, it is [00:52:00] truly a double expulsion. So the fact that we have well-documented testimonials of folks really deported from Bhutan after they're removed there into these life-threatening conditions that in some cases have actually resulted in a community member passing away. A community member passed away in large part because of the failure of the US to both care for them while in detention. So going back to that prison complex, but also just putting them in such a harrowing situation. In another instance, a community member was found after wandering for over a hundred miles on foot. So this is not, deportation and the story ends. This is deportation. And, there is a family that is grieving and thinking through next steps, there is, this call to not have borders, break us the way that this country is trying to do. And to say a little bit about the fees, USCIS, there, there has not been a point yet in history where so many changes and charges hurting families have been ushered in, But for this year, and so to give a couple examples of that – asylum cases for one, these often take many, many years through this administration. Now, families have to pay a cost yearly for each year that your asylum application, languishes because we're also seeing that those same folks who are supposed to process these applications are either being laid off or they're being militarized. So something like USCIS where this was where one would go to apply for a passport. Now the same department is literally being handed guns and they're now taking folks during naturalization interviews. Other avenues to challenge your removal. Like I mentioned a motion to reopen. All these things used to be fairly affordable. Now they can cost many thousands of dollars on top of the attorney fees. So something that's been quite challenging for groups like Asian Law Caucus where we do have attorneys representing folks in removal proceedings, there's often this misperception that oh it's costing so much money. Attorneys are pocketing cash. And unfortunately there are some situations where some attorneys have been known to take advantage of families in this desperate moment. But for many, many attorneys who are in this mix, they're experts at this work. They're trying to do the right thing. They're both overwhelmed and they're seeing these new charges, which make the battle really even more difficult. So to turn it back to the listeners, I would say that as powerless as this moment can make us feel everyone is bearing witness. Hopefully the listeners today can take in Anne's story, can take in Tikas story and whatever power one has in their corner of the world, this is the moment to use that. Whether it's your voice, whether it's learning more about a community, maybe you're learning about for the first time. This is really the moment to take action. Miko Lee: Thank you Aisa. I really wanna thank you all for being here with me today, for sharing your personal stories, your personal pain, and for recognizing that this is happening. We deeply believe that we need to keep our families together. That is really important. It is written into the very basis of this American country about redemption and forgiveness. And this is what we're talking about for incidents that happened, misunderstandings that happened when these folks were young men, that they have paid for their, they have paid for their time, and yet they're being punished again, these promises that were broken by this American government, and we need to find [00:56:00] ways to address that. I really wanna deeply thank each of you for continuing to be there for sharing your voice, for protecting one another, for being there and standing up for your family and for our community. Thank you for joining me today. Check out our Apex Express Show notes to find out about how you can get involved. Learn about the Rising Voices campaign for Lou Young and Mohan Khaki's GoFundMe and please help to support these organizations working every day to support detained and deported people. Asian Law Caucus, Asian Refugees, United Balo Project in Vietnam. Collective Freedom in Vietnam and Laos Asian Prisoner Support Committee and new light Wellness in Cambodia. November 1st and second people nationwide are joining the Disappeared in America Weekend of Action to Stand Up for Immigrant Families and Defend Due Process. Actions include protests at Home [00:57:00] Depots, candlelight, freedom Vigils, and Day of the Dead events, honoring lives lost to detention. The following day on November 3rd, 4:00 PM Pacific Time, 7:00 PM Eastern Time. Join us for We Belong here, Bhutanese and Hmong Americans in the Struggle Against Statelessness, a live virtual event featuring my three guests tonight, along with performances and conversations. Find out more in our show notes. Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program, apex Express to find out more about our show. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important. APEX Express is a collective of activists that includes Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Have a great night. The post APEX Express – 10.16.25 – We Belong Here appeared first on KPFA.

Quỹ An Sinh Xã Hội - Sécurité Sociale tròn 80 tuổi. Pháp tự hào có hệ thống an sinh xã hội công bằng nhất tại châu Âu và còn rộng hơn thế nữa. Là biểu tượng của công bằng xã hội, là thành tựu tiêu biểu nhất cho đồng thuận giữa các tầng lớp « chủ và thợ » trong giai đoạn tái thiết kinh tế hậu Thế Chiến Thứ Hai, quỹ Sécurité Sociale liên tục là một gánh nặng tài chính, thâm hụt ngân sách kinh niên. Đâu là những thách thức để có thể tồn tại và bảo vệ « ngọn hải đăng » về công bằng xã hội trên thế giới ?   « Đến tháng 7/1946 Quỹ An Sinh Xã Hội -Sécurité Sociale và Quỹ Trợ Cấp Gia Đình Caisse d'Allocation Familiale bắt đầu hoạt động. Ngay từ đầu 1946 những người đóng góp lập tức trông thấy hoàn cảnh của họ được cải thiện nhiều » : Bộ trưởng Lao Động Pháp Ambroise Croizart, một người cộng sản dưới chính phủ lâm thời của tướng Charles de Gaulle sau Thế Chiến Thứ Hai đã thông báo như trên vào tháng 10/1945. Cùng lúc Quỹ An Sinh Xã Hội Sécurité Sociale mà người Pháp là « la Sécu » đã bắt đầu « xử lý » hồ sơ đầu tiên, hỗ trợ bệnh nhân  « La Sécu » : kết quả từ một sự đồng lòng trong xã hội Trên đài phát thanh France Culture, Eric Chenut, giám đốc điều hành Quỹ Bảo Hiểm Bổ Sung Quốc Gia -Fédération Nationale de la Mutualité Française, nhắc lại điểm khởi đầu : « La Sécu » là một biểu tượng của những tiến bộ trong xã hội Pháp trong thời kỳ tái thiết sau chiến tranh, trong thời kỳ mà giới chủ và thợ và các đảng phái chính trị, bất luận tả hữu cùng đặt quyền lợi chung lên trên hết :   « Quỹ an sinh xã hội bắt đầu nảy sinh từ thời Đệ Nhị Thế Chiến, trước khi tàn chiến tranh. Đây là một sự đồng thuận chưa từng thấy giữa các thành phần trong xã hội. Khi đó trong xã hội, trong hàng ngũ kháng chiến, những người đi theo chủ nghĩa cộng sản, những người đi theo đảng xã hội và cả những người đi theo tướng de Gaulle, giữa giới chủ và thợ thuyền … Tất cả đều đồng lòng để hướng tới một mô hình xã hội công bằng hơn, ở đó mọi người cùng tránh được cảnh bần cùng, tránh được những chia rẽ trong xã hội. Tất cả các thành phần trong xã hội khi đó đều hướng tới ý tưởng đầy nhân tính, vì một xã hội hài hòa, nơi mà mỗi công dân có trách nhiệm che chở, bảo vệ những người chung quanh. Sự liên đới đó dẫn đến việc mọi người cùng phải đóng góp. Đóng góp cho một quỹ an sinh xã hội. Nỗ lực chung này được giới chủ, giới làm công chia sẻ. Mục đích là làm thế nào để tránh được những hậu quả tai hại của bệnh tật, tránh được rủi ro tai nạn lao động gây nên, giúp đỡ người nghỉ hưu, hỗ trợ những gia đình đông con ». Quỹ Sécurité Sociale chính thức ra đời từ hai sắc lệnh được ban hành vào các ngày 4 và 19 tháng 10 năm 1945. Vào thời điểm đó, vực dậy đất nước sau mười năm khủng hoảng kinh tế và chiến tranh. Các lực lượng chính trị chủ chốt (khi đó là đảng Cộng Sản, Xã Hội và phe của tướng de Gaulle cánh hữu) cùng hướng đến mục tiêu xây dựng một hệ thống bảo vệ xã hội phổ cập. Đây cũng là một sự tiếp nối trong truyền thống lâu đời hơn. Nhà sử học Léo Rosell đại học Paris Dauphine lưu ý : Từ cuộc Cách Mạng 1789 tại Pháp đã nảy sinh ý tưởng trợ cấp xã hội là một nghĩa vụ thiêng liêng của một quốc gia đối với từng cá nhân. Trong suốt thế kỷ XIX, ý tưởng về một hệ thống bảo vệ xã hội phổ cập dựa trên tinh thần đoàn kết quốc gia đã lớn mạnh dần và thêm vào đó là những hướng đi để bảo vệ tần lớp công nhân trên tinh thần liên đới. Eric Chenut, giám đốc quỹ an sinh xã hội bổ sung của Pháp nêu bật những thành tựu về mặt y tế, xã hội mà Quỹ Sécurité Nationale cùng FNMF đã mang lại :  « Nhờ có quỹ an sinh xã hội, cộng thêm với bảo hiểm bổ sung còn được gọi là Mutuelle giúp các phí tổn y tế giảm đi đáng kể. Về mặt ý tế, người Pháp được bảo vệ tốt nhất trong toàn khối châu Âu. Đây là một may mắn rất lớn. Nhờ thế mà tuổi thọ của dân Pháp tăng thêm được 40 %, tỷ lệ tử vong nơi trẻ em giảm đi 15 lần so với 80 năm về trước ». Sử gia chuyên nghiên cứu về xã hội Pháp Léo Rosell lưu ý : từ ngày hoạt động đến nay, câu hỏi chính luôn là các nguồn chi và thu của quỹ này. Năm 1946 ngân sách của « La Sécu » đã là đề tài dẫn tới những cuộc tranh cãi « nảy lửa » ở Quốc Hội. Năm 1967 tổng thống Georges Pompidou là người đầu tiên nói đến « Le Trou de la Sécu » thâm hụt sâu như một cái hố của Quỹ An Sinh Xã Hội. Năm 2024 quỹ này thu vào 628 tỷ euro (từ các khoản đóng góp xã hội của giới chủ, của những người làm công ăn lương, từ những người còn trong tuổi lao động và cả từ những người đã về hưu, cũng như từ nhiều loại thuế khác), nhưng lại chi ra 643 tỷ euro bảo đảm trợ cấp y tế cho 68 triệu dân Pháp. Thâm hụt ngân sách của quỹ này năm ngoái là hơn 15 tỷ euro, tăng lên gấp rưỡi so với hồi năm 2000. Mỗi lần kinh tế bị khủng hoảng hay có biến cố bất thường như hồi đại dịch Covid 2019 lập tức thâm hụt của quyx Sécurité Sociale lại bị đẩy lên cao. Năm 2020 khi mà toàn bộ nước Pháp bị « đóng cửa » để chống dịch, kinh tế bị đóng băng vì virút Corona SARS Cov2 ; không biết bao nhiêu người vào bệnh viện, bắt hàng ngàn người phải nghỉ việc và làm xét nghiệm miễn phí … thì thâm hụt ngân sách của Quỹ An Sinh Xã Hội năm 2020 đụng trần 40 tỷ euro ! Eric Chenut trên đài Pháp thanh France Culture giải thích vấn đề dân số của Pháp khiến hiện tượng « thâm hụt kinh niên » của quỹ này là một tiến trình « không thể đảo ngược » : « Ban đầu, toàn bộ quỹ an sinh xã hội đều dựa vào các khoản đóng góp của giới chủ và người làm công ăn lương. Thế nhưng rồi tình hình dân số ở Pháp đã thay đổi rất nhiều từ sau Đệ Nhị Thế Chiếu đến nay. Ở vào thập niên 1940-1950 thì 5 người đang làm việc đóng góp để cho lương hưu của 1 người, tỷ lệ này hiện tại là 1,6 và trong tương lai, đến cuối thập niên này sẽ là 1,2. Nói cách khác các khoản đóng góp của mỗi người còn đang đi làm cho quỹ hưu trí càng lúc càng nặng. Thêm vào đó, số người về hưu tại Pháp cũng đã tăng lên nhiều so với những thập niên trước đây. Thành thử không thể chỉ trông chờ vào đóng góp của giới chủ và người còn trong tuổi lao động. Từ những năm 1980 các chính phu liên tiếp tìm kiếm các nguồn tài trợ bổ sung để quỹ an sinh xã hội có thể tồn tại trong một môi trường mà cạnh tranh với các quốc gia khác trên thế giới càng lúc càng mạnh. Cụ thể là chính phủ huy động thuế CSG và một phần thuế trị giá gia tăng TVA cho quỹ an sinh xã hội. Hiện nay 1 phần  3 thu nhập của quỹ này do giới chủ và giới làm công ăn lương đóng góp, hơn 40 % các khoản chi tiêu của quỹ an sinh xã hội do thuế CSG và TVA đóng vào, cộng thêm với một số thuế đặc biệt đánh vào rượu hay thuốc là chẳng hạn (...) Aicũng biết nhu cầu của quỹ an sinh xã hội càng lúc càng lớn, do dân số đang già đi. Nhu cầu về ý tế càng lúc càng nặng. Thí dụ như một người ngoài 75 tuổi, sức khỏe suy yếu, nhu cầu về y tế cao gấp 3 lần so với 1 người còn trong độ tuổi 30. Cùng lúc, thì từ nay đến năm 2050, số người già trên 75 tuổi ở Pháp sẽ cao hơn gấp 3 lần so với hiện tại. Trong những điều kiện đó, ngân sách của quỹ an sinh xã hội không thể nào được cân bằng ». Dân số của Pháp đang trên đà lão hóa có nghĩa là số người trong tuổi lao động đóng góp cho quỹ càng lúc càng ít. Trái lại nhu cầu về y tế của xã hội thì lại không ngừng gia tăng. Người cao tuổi được chăm sóc tốt hơn, tăng thêm tuổi thọ. Theo các dự báo đến ngưỡng 2050 nước Pháp sẽ phải dành hẳn từ 3 đến 5 % GDP chỉ để tài trợ cho các khoản chi phí và bảo hiểm về y tế. Theo thẩm định của Liên đoàn quốc gia về an sinh xã hội FNMF, với hệ thống an sinh xã hội của Pháp hiện nay, để được xã hội gánh vác bớt một phần phí tổn y tế khi cần mua thuốc, đi khám bệnh hay nhập viện, để vẫn nhận được một phần lương cho dù có phải nghỉ ốm, để được hưởng trợ cấp gia đình tùy theo thu nhập và số đông con cái… mỗi ngày trung bình, một người Pháp phải chịu đóng vào quỹ chung cho xã hội 11 euro. Eric Chenut điều hành quỹ này đánh giá : đây là cái giá không quá đắt, mà lại cho phép tất cả cùng được giúp đỡ. Ông đánh giá cao sự liên đới này trong xã hội ở Pháp. Trong bối cảnh ngân sách Quỹ An Sinh Xã Hội bị thâm hụt một cách thường trực, giải pháp hiển nhiên nhất là « giảm chi » mà « tăng thu ». Một số tiếng nói cho rằng, ngừng trợ cấp cho những người có thu nhập cao -nhưng họ vẫn phải đóng góp cho xã hội, để chỉ tập trung vào những đối tượng cần được giúp đỡ, có thể là một giải quyết gánh nặng này. Nhưng Michael Zemmour, giáo sư kinh tế Đại học Paris Dauphine cho rằng đề xuất sau cùng này động chạm đến bản chất của mô hình xã hội Pháp, vốn dựa trên nguyên tắc « phổ quát » : « Các nghiên cứu cho thấy quỹ an sinh xã hội là một công cụ tuyệt vời tạo nên bình đẳng trong xã hội, để phân phối lại lợi tức cho người dân … Nguyên tắc cơ bản là đóng góp của mỗi người tùy thuộc vào khả năng, tùy thuộc vào mức thu nhập, vào thuế trị giá gia tăng hay thuế xã hội CSG. Đổi lại thì chúng ta được giúp đỡ về tài chính khi đau ốm. Sự giúp đỡ đó tùy thuộc vào nhu cầu về y tế, vào tình trạng sức khỏe của mỗi người. Nguyên tắc này dễ chấp nhận được bởi vì khi đóng góp cho quỹ an sinh xã hội, là đóng góp cho bản thân. Nhưng nếu may mắn, không phải sử dụng đến số tiền đó, thì những đóng góp này được dùng để tài trợ các phí tổn y tế cho những người không có điều kiện ». Một cơ đồ cho xã hội Thực tế không thể chối cãi là dân số Pháp đang già đi, nguồn lực lao động giảm sụt. hệ quả kèm theo là khả năng tạo ra thêm của cải cho đất nước bị tác động trong lúc nhu cầu về y tế không ngừng gia tăng. Đối với quỹ y tế không thể tránh khỏi tình trạng bội chi. Nhìn đến quỹ hưu bổng, áp lực với những người trong tuổi lao động ngày càng nặng. Cùng lúc, xã hội Pháp hiện tại không còn « đồng lòng » như 80 năm về trước. Eric Chenut điều hành quỹ xã hội FNMF đã nhấn mạnh rằng, sở dĩ mà người Pháp gắn bó với quỹ Sécurité Sociale trước hết đây là một di sản chung của xã hội Pháp. Đây không là di sản của cánh tả hay cánh hữu, của một tầng lớp trong xã hội mà Quỹ này được hình thành khi mà tất cả cùng theo đuổi mục đích : tạo điều kiện giảm thiểu những rủi ro về y tế, đề phòng tai nạn, hay bệnh tật cướp đi cơ hội của những con người sinh sống trên cùng một đất nước. Ý tưởng về một cơ đồ chung cho nước Pháp của những năm sau Thế Chiến Thứ Hai đó nay không còn nữa. Các đảng phái chính trị Pháp, và những hố sâu trong xã hội Pháp ngày nay làm phai mờ lợi ích chung của đất nước. Để tiếp tục tồn tại với hy vọng được mừng thọ 100 tuổi, Quỹ An Sinh Xã Hội Pháp đương nhiên phải thích nghi với môi trường cạnh tranh quốc tế càng lúc càng khốc liệt hơn. Từng là một ngọn hải đăng của thế giới về những tiến bộ xã hội, quỹ Sécurité Sociale của Pháp cũng vẫn bị những rào cản về tài chính trói buộc.

Nou capítol de Viatge Electrònic ja disponible!! Seguim repassant les millor novetats que l'electrònica ens ha donat aquesta setmana passada. Escoltareu temes ambient, chill, house, electro i breaks. Enllaç de les plataformes al link de la bio. Tracklist: 1- Ätzøk - C3ntr0 - L4 / Amarela (DSRPTVREC, 2025) 2- Matthew Herbert & Momoko - Mowing - Clay (Strut, 2025) 3- Aukio Sound feat. John Follas - Hode Medio - Hode Medio / Sakpata (Futura Resistenza, 2025) 4- Johan Blende - Off to Mallorca - Recess (Hell Yeah Recordings, 2025) 5- Gerd - Hypno-Disco - Gentle Intensity (Frame of Mind, 2025) 6- Trance Induction - Join The Circus of Dr. Lao 2 - Part of the Circus (Holic Trax, 2025) 7- Demuja - Needed You - Calypso (Muja Records, 2025) 8- Empire Des Sons - Moitié Panthère - Empire Des Sons (Glossy Mistakes, 2025) 9- Roberto Bosco - Celestial Lament - Timeless Shades (Kontakt Records, 2025) 10- Nei - The Lights - Luminal Shift (We're Going Deep, 2025) 11- Akasha System - Super Cell - Sun Archives (100% Silk, 2025) 12- Curtis Electronix - Space 500 - Machines Awake (Metroplex, 2025) 13- NZO - Slug in Juice - Come Alive (DDS, 2025)

- Tổng Bí thư Đảng Lao động Triều Tiên, Chủ tịch Quốc vụ nước Cộng hòa Dân chủ Nhân dân Triều Tiên Kim Jong Un chủ trì lễ đón cấp Nhà nước Tổng Bí thư Tô Lâm và đoàn đại biểu cấp cao Việt Nam- Thủ tướng Phạm Minh Chính chủ trì Hội nghị triển khai Chương trình mục tiêu quốc gia phòng, chống ma túy đến năm 2030- Việt Nam hoàn thành xuất sắc nhiệm kỳ thành viên hội đồng chấp hành UNESCO giai đoạn 2021-2025- Lũ trên sông Cầu, sông Thương có khả năng đạt đỉnh vào trưa nay Tình trạng ngập lụt tại các phường trung tâm tỉnh Thái Nguyên dự báo sẽ kéo dài trong nhiều ngày tới. Chính quyền địa phương đang huy động tối đa lực lượng và các nguồn lực để hỗ trợ người dân vùng lũ.- Tiến trình hòa bình ở Gaza có bước đột phá quan trọng khi các bên thông báo đã đạt được thỏa thuận ngừng bắn và phóng thích con tin.- Việc Trung Quốc siết chặt xuất khẩu đất hiếm và công nghệ liên quan có thể tác động đến chuỗi cung ứng toàn cầu.

Hiệp hội vận tải ô tô Việt Nam vừa kiến nghị Bộ Công an sửa đổi Luật Trật tự an toàn giao thông đường bộ, trong đó nâng độ tuổi lái xe tương đồng với độ tuổi lao động của Bộ Luật Lao động hiện hành (62 tuổi đối với nam và 57 tuổi đối với nữ). Cần quy định thế nào để vừa đảm bảo an toàn giao thông, vừa tháo gỡ khó khăn do thiếu lái xe của doanh nghiệp?

Chính phủ Lao động Allan đã khởi động Vic's Picks – một cuộc tìm kiếm trên toàn tiểu bang để chọn ra bánh pie, khoai tây chiên và bánh mì Việt (bánh mì) ngon nhất. Trong bốn tuần tới, người dân Victoria có thể bình chọn cho món ăn yêu thích của mình.

Những người ủng hộ khí hậu cho rằng mục tiêu giảm phát thải năm 2035 của chính phủ Lao động "thiếu sót nghiêm trọng" nhưng các bộ trưởng hiện nỗ lực giải thích mục tiêu này với công chúng trong khi Liên minh đang chịu áp lực phải vạch ra chính sách khí hậu của mình.

Là một trong những quốc gia phát thải khí nhà kính bình quân đầu người lớn nhất thế giới, Úc đã công bố mục tiêu giảm phát thải mới vào năm 2035. Chính phủ liên bang đã cam kết mục tiêu cắt giảm 62 đến 70% lượng khí thải vào năm 2035, dựa trên mức năm 2005. Một số người cho rằng mục tiêu này quá cao, số khác lại cho rằng quá thấp, còn đảng Lao động cho rằng mục tiêu này vừa tham vọng vừa khả thi.

VOV1 - Cấp bách hành động để chống ô nhiễm môi trường, trả lại bầu trời xanh. Đây là nội dung của Diễn đàn công nhân lao động vì môi trường 2025 với chủ đề “Quản lý rác thải sinh hoạt sau sáp nhập, gắn với thực thi Chỉ thị 20 của Thủ tướng Chính phủ” do báo Lao động tổ chức chiều nay 19/9 tại Hà Nội

Welcome to Season 5, Episode 37! Today we continue with the second part of The History of The Secret War in Laos. We highly recommend going back to listen to Part 1. That's where you'll hear about the Cold War motivations behind U.S. involvement in Laos, the rise of General Vang Pao and the Hmong Secret Army, and the massive bombing campaign that made Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. In this episode, we'll talk about the aftermath once the war ended… from re-education camps for the Lao and Hmong soldiers who fought on the side of the Americans, to the massive amount of UXO clean-up, to the refugee crisis. We also share some of the challenges with the current administrations policy of revoking temporary refugee status for many in the community. To learn more about some of the organizations helping with clean-up and education, checkout Legacies of War, Mines Advisory Group, or the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center. You can learn about all three and support them through donations. For our recurring segment, we talk about Netflix's most popular show ever… Kpop Demon Hunters. Kpop now goes beyond Korea, and with several prominent Korean American voice actors, this show definitely resonated with people who find relevance with the “third culture” experience. Whether you watch it for the story, action, music, or Kpop scenes, it's a show that is resonating with a lot of people! If you like what we do, please share, follow, and like us in your podcast directory of choice or on Instagram @AAHistory101. For previous episodes and resources, please visit our site at https://asianamericanhistory101.libsyn.com or our links at http://castpie.com/AAHistory101. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, email us at info@aahistory101.com. Segments 00:25 Intro and Catching Up 06:36 The History of The Secret War in Laos Part 2 15:14 What Are We Watching? Kpop Demon Hunters!!!

Chính phủ liên bang đã chính thức phê duyệt dự án khí đốt Woodside North West Shelf, kèm theo một loạt điều kiện. Quyết định phê duyệt này được đưa ra ngay trước khi chính phủ Lao động của ông Albanese công bố mục tiêu cắt giảm khí thải vào năm 2035, và sau khi Úc tái khẳng định cam kết chống biến đổi khí hậu với các lãnh đạo khu vực Thái Bình Dương.

VOV1 - Vào tối 18/9, chương trình nghệ thuật đặc biệt báo hiếu cha mẹ trong mùa Vu lan với chủ đề “Ơn nghĩa sinh thành 2025” sẽ trở lại với khán giả Thủ đô tại Cung Văn hóa Lao động Hữu Nghị Việt - Xô, Hà Nội.

Sự việc này diễn ra sau một tuần tranh cãi gay gắt trong nội bộ đảng, liên quan đến phát ngôn của Thượng nghị sĩ Price rằng Đảng Lao động đã cho phép mức nhập cư người Ấn Độ cao hơn để tăng số phiếu bầu, sau đó bà đã rút lại nhưng vẫn không xin lỗi.

VOV1 - Danh hiệu Anh hùng Lao động phong tặng cho Tập đoàn VNPT là sự ghi nhận đặc biệt của Đảng, Nhà nước đối với những nỗ lực mang lại kết quả thiết thực của VNPT trong suốt những năm qua.

Cộng đồng người Úc gốc Ấn Độ đã thúc giục Thượng nghị sĩ Đảng Tự do Jacinta Nampijinpa Price xin lỗi, sau khi bà này tuyên bố chính phủ ưu tiên người nhập cư Ấn Độ, vì nhiều người trong số họ bỏ phiếu cho Đảng Lao động. Mặc dù lãnh đạo Liên đảng đã tìm cách tránh xa những phát biểu này, các chuyên gia cho rằng Liên đảng có phần nào đó muốn hàn gắn với cộng đồng.

Chính phủ liên bang sẽ bổ sung 20,000 gói chăm sóc tại nhà cho người cao tuổi dễ bị tổn thương, sau khi buộc phải thỏa thuận với Liên đảng trong phép thử lớn đầu tiên của đảng Lao động tại Thượng viện kể từ khi tái đắc cử.

VOV1 - Ngày 26/8, Quốc hội Litva đã thông qua quyết định đề cử bà Inga Ruginiene, Bộ trưởng Lao động và An sinh xã hội, thành viên đảng Dân chủ Xã hội, làm Thủ tướng mới của nước này, đánh dấu một bước ngoặt quan trọng trong bối cảnh chính trị đầy biến động của quốc gia Baltic này.

VOV1 - Diễn đàn Lao động di cư ASEAN lần thứ 18, dự kiến tổ chức vào tháng 9 năm nay tại Malaysia, với chủ đề” Đẩy nhanh hành động hướng tới các Mục tiêu phát triển bền vững về di cư an toàn và việc làm bền vững cho lao động di dư ở ASEAN”

VOV1 - Tổng Bí thư Tô Lâm đã nhấn mạnh như vậy trong bài phát biểu tại lễ kỷ niệm 80 năm Ngày truyền thống ngành Văn hóa và đón nhận Huân chương Lao động hạng nhất được tổ chức sáng 23/8 tại Hà Nội.

Elfos, fadas e magia invadem certa noite de verão e Andreia D'Oliveira e Gabi Idealli vão conduzir você pelo labirinto de amor e ilusão criado por William "Bill" Shakespeare, em Sonho de uma noite de verão. Entre uma troca de poções e um amor atrapalhado, você vai conhecer o contexto histórico da peça, curiosidades sobre a peça e sua adaptação dirigida por Michael Hoffman. O que está esperando? Aperte o play e embarque nessa noite de magia! Comentado no episódio Livros em Cartaz 005 - Muito barulho por (quase) nada Livros em Cartaz 037 - Romeu e Julieta Livros em Cartaz 053 - Hamlet As 7 Faces do Dr. Lao (1964 ‧ Faroeste/Comédia ‧ 1h 43m) Muito Barulho por Nada (1993 ‧ Comédia/Romance ‧ 1h 51m) Sonho de uma noite de verão de Ana Maria Machado

Our next guest is the Chef and Founder of Về lại which is currently a Vietnamese and Lao pop-up filled with themes of nostalgia and homestyle cooking. Coming from hard-working blue collar immigrants, Alvis had a strong work ethic, and despite falling in love with food and cooking at an early age, he didn't immediately venture into the culinary arts. Microbiology, food science, and time spent at the soon to be closed Heritage Restaurant became formative stops along the way to forming Về lại. Please enjoy my conversation with Alvis Huynh.https://www.instagram.com/velai.chi/https://www.instagram.com/alvishuynh

-Tổng Liên đoàn Lao động Việt Nam vinh danh 28 doanh nghiệp tiêu biểu vì người lao động-Người dân tại hơn 3300 xã, phường và đặc khu hành chính trên toàn quốc đồng loạt đi bộ, hưởng ứng chương trình “Cùng Việt Nam tiến bước”-Bắt đầu cuộc gặp thượng đỉnh giữa Tổng thống Mỹ Donald Trump và Tổng thống Nga Putin tại Alaska-Phát triển công nghệ biến suy nghĩ thành lời nói - công nghệ mới mở ra hy vọng cho những người bị liệt nặng và mất khả năng giao tiếp bằng lời nói

VOV1 - Ngày hội Lao động sáng tạo 2025 do Tổng Liên đoàn Lao động Việt Nam tổ chức diễn ra chiều nay tại Cung Văn hóa Hữu nghị Việt - Xô.

VOV1 - Chủ tịch nước Cộng hòa Xã hội Chủ nghĩa Việt Nam vừa ký quyết định trao tặng Huân chương Lao động hạng Nhất cho Quỹ Thiện Tâm – Tập đoàn Vingroup.

Tân dân biểu của đảng Lao động Basem Abdo — người đầu tiên có nguồn gốc Palestine được bầu vào quốc hội Úc — cho biết ông sẽ đấu tranh cho quyền thành lập nhà nước Palestine.

Episode #370: "Why are [Asian women] not allowed to dream that we can open our own thing and lead our own work?" This question by human rights lawyer Emilie Palamy Pradichit slices through the silence, exposing the systemic barriers that have historically muted and marginalized Asian women in leadership. Pradichit's journey as a young Lao refugee navigating discrimination in a low-income Parisian suburb crowded with migrants cemented this perspective. In Paris, she witnessed firsthand the insidious nature of inequality. These early encounters ignited a vision within her to dismantle entrenched norms - by centering the voices of underrepresented communities. Her passion to challenge injustice took her through studying human rights law at Sorbonne University and roles at the United Nations and UPR-Asia. However, her experience revealed the limitations of top-down approaches in achieving genuine grassroots change. “I was learning a lot, but I was surrounded by people with privilege. I was sitting at headquarters, and I didn't know what it was like on the ground!” This realization sparked the creation of Manushya Foundation, envisioned as a distinctly feminist, intersectional, and decolonial human rights organization dedicated to amplifying the agency of marginalized communities in Asia. Pradichit's work challenges what she terms “white feminism” and the imposition of external agendas. Her approach in the Myanmar context prioritizes the voices of ethnic minority women. As she puts it, “How can you be a human rights activist and exclude Rohingya people?” Pradichit's sentiments reflect the important role of a decolonial lens in her work. “In the global majority work, it's very important for the people from lived experience to be the ones leading the human rights work.” She believes this isn't just a strategy; it's reclaiming the power of lived truth leading the way towards real justice.

Tổng thống Mỹ đã gợi ý rằng mức thuế cơ bản 10%, hiện đang áp dụng với hàng hóa của nhiều quốc gia bao gồm cả Úc, có thể tăng lên từ 15 đến 20%. Đảng Lao động cho rằng lời đe dọa áp thuế mới của ông Trump là "phi lý", trong khi phe Liên đảng chỉ trích đó là "chính sách tồi".

Proudly Asian European Special Series: Khoulap - host of German podcast Khouliconnects - was born and raised in Dortmund, Germany. Growing up, Khoulap had to navigate the intersection of her Lao heritage and European upbringing through moments that often raised questions about identity and belonging. She joins us to talk about growing up in Germany with Lao parents, Asian representation in Europe, and what it means to be both Asian and European.Check out the Proudly Asian Playlist: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1hmol1gJIFlnJVn6zyeJTm?si=1ZslW7Q8R3-kjNGpHgdTaA⁠----------------------------------------Stay Connected with Proudly Asian:Website - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠proudly-asian.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/proudly.asian⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@proudlyasianpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support us - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi.com/proudlyasian⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email us - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠proudlyasianpodcast@gmail.com⁠

VOV1 - Sau vụ giả bác sỹ “vẽ bệnh” để lừa đảo tại Phòng khám Đa khoa quốc tế Đà Nẵng đang làm dư luận bức xúc. Bác sĩ Mai Xuân Phương – nguyên Phó Vụ trưởng Vụ Truyền thông và Giáo dục, Bộ Y tế và nhà báo Lê Thanh Phong của báo Lao động sẽ cùng bàn luận vấn đề này.

Kết quả kiểm phiếu tại Tasmania cho thấy đảng Tự do đang nắm chắc quyền lực, trong khi số phiếu của đảng Lao động sụt giảm. Cựu dân biểu liên bang Bridget Archer cũng đã thành công trong việc chuyển sang hoạt động chính trị ở cấp tiểu bang.

- Dự Lễ kỷ niệm 65 năm Ngày thành lập ngành Kiểm sát nhân dân, đón nhận danh hiệu Anh hùng Lao động và Đại hội Thi đua yêu nước, Tổng Bí thư Tô Lâm nhấn mạnh, pháp luật không chỉ để trừng trị, mà còn giáo dục, cảm hóa và khai mở lối đi cho sự hướng thiện- Kiểm tra việc vận hành chính quyền địa phương 2 cấp tại An Giang và xã Đồng Tháp, Thủ tướng Phạm Minh Chính yêu cầu tuyệt đối không để việc sắp xếp bộ máy ảnh hưởng đến đời sống của nhân dân- Bộ Tài chính đề xuất 2 phương án thay biểu thuế thu nhập cá nhân- Dự báo, từ đêm nay đến sáng mai, bão số 3 sẽ gây mưa lớn ở khu vực Đông Bắc Bộ, vùng núi Thanh Hóa và Nghệ An. Các địa phương đang tích cực triển khai các phương án ứng phó- Thủ tướng Đức nhận định, Ukraine khó gia nhập Liên minh châu Âu trước năm 2034- Hàn Quốc công bố thông tin mới về kết quả điều tra vụ tai nạn máy bay của hãng Jeju Air hồi cuối năm ngoái khiến 179 người thiệt mạng

Here's the latest news from the world of Omniglot. New writing system: Khom Thai, a descendent of the Old Khmer script used mainly to write religious texts in Pali, Sanskrit, Khmer, Thai and Lao. From: Wikimedia Commons, from the wellcome collection New constructed script: Hunter × Hunter Alphabet (ハンター文字), an alternative script for Japanese created […]

VOV1 - Trường Quản trị và Kinh doanh (Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội) vinh dự được trao tặng Huân chương Lao động hạng Nhì dịp kỷ niệm 30 thành lập.

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight Producer Swati Rayasam showcases a community panel of how discriminatory exclusion policies during times of heightened fears of national security and safety have threatened our communities in the past, and how the activities of the current administration threaten our core constitutional rights, raising the specter of politicization and polarization of citizenship, immigration visas, naturalization rights, and the right to free speech.   Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison – “Wong Kim Ark is for All of Us” SHOW TRANSCRIPT Swati Rayasam: You are tuned in to APEX Express on KPFA. My name is Swati Rayasam and I'm back as your special producer for this episode. Tonight we have an incredible community panel titled Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison. This panel explores the history of how discriminatory exclusion policies during times of heightened fears of national security and [00:01:00] safety have threatened our communities in the past, and how the activities of the current administration threaten our core constitutional rights, raising the specter of politicization and polarization of citizenship, immigration visas, naturalization rights, and the right to free speech. I'll pass it on to UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Professor Mike Chang to kick us off. Mike and Harvey: We're starting on Berkeley time, right on time at three 10, and I want to introduce Harvey Dong. Harvey Dong: Okay. The sponsors for today's event include, AADS- Asian American and Diaspora studies program, uc, Berkeley, Asian American Research Center, the Center for Race and Gender Department of Ethnic Studies- all part of uc, Berkeley. Off campus, we have the following community groups. Chinese for Affirmative Action, Asian Law Caucus, [00:02:00] Asian Prisoners Support Committee, and East Wind Books. Okay, so that's, quite a few in terms of coalition people coming together. My name is Harvey Dong and I'm also a lecturer in the AADS program and part of the ethnic studies department. I can say that I exist here as the result of birthright citizenship won by Ancestor Wong Kim Ark in 1898. Otherwise, I would not be here. We want to welcome everyone here today, for this important panel discussion titled: Deport, Exclude, Revoke, Imprison – Immigration and citizenship rights during crisis. Yes, we are in a deep crisis today. The Chinese characters for crisis is way G in Mandarin or way gay in [00:03:00] Cantonese, which means danger and opportunity. We are in a moment of danger and at the same time in a moment of opportunity. Our communities are under attack from undocumented, documented, and those with citizenship. We see urgency in coming together. In 1898, the US Supreme Court case, US versus Wong Kim Ark held that under the 14th Amendment birthright, citizenship applies to all people born in the United States. Regardless of their race or their parents' national origin or immigration status. On May 15th this year, the Supreme Court will hear a President Donald Trump's request to implement an executive order that will end birthright citizenship already before May 15th, [00:04:00] deportations of US citizen children are taking place. Recently, three US citizen children, one 2-year-old with cancer have been deported with their undocumented parents. The numbers of US citizen children are much higher being deported because it's less covered in the press. Unconstitutional. Yes, definitely. And it's taking place now. Also today, more than 2.7 million southeast Asian Americans live in the US but at least 16,000 community members have received final orders of deportation, placing their lives and families in limbo. This presents a mental health challenge and extreme economic hardship for individuals and families who do not know whether their next day in the US will be their last. Wong Kim Ark's [00:05:00] struggle and the lessons of Wong Kim Ark, continue today. His resistance provides us with a grounding for our resistance. So they say deport, exclude, revoke, imprison. We say cease and desist. You can say that every day it just seems like the system's gone amuk. There's constant attacks on people of color, on immigrants and so forth. And our only solution, or the most important solution is to resist, legally resist, but also to protest, to demand cease and desist. Today brings together campus and community people. We want you all to be informed because if you're uninformed , you can't do anything. Okay? You have to know where things are at. It's nothing new. What they're trying to do, in 1882, [00:06:00] during times of economic crisis, they scapegoated Asian Americans. Today there's economic, political crisis. And the scapegoating continues. They're not doing anything new. You know, it's old stuff, but we have to realize that, and we have to look at the past in terms of what was done to fight it and also build new solidarities today. Wong Kim Ark did not take his situation sitting down. He went through, lots of obstacles. He spent three months in Angel Island he was arrested after he won his case because he was constantly being harassed wherever he went. His kids when they came over were also, spotted as being Wong Kim Ark's, children, and they too had to spend months at Angel Island. So Wong Kim Ark did not take his situation sitting down. We need to learn from him today. Our [00:07:00] next, special guest is Mr. Norman Wong, a good friend of mine. He was active here in the third world Liberation Front strike that led to ethnic studies. He did a lots of work for the development of Asian American studies and we've been out in touch for about, what, 40 years? So I'm really happy that he's able to come back to Berkeley and to talk about yourself, if you wish, maybe during the Q and a, but to talk about , the significance of your great-grandfather's case. Okay, so Norman Wong, let's give him a hand. Norman Wong: Hello, my name's Norman Wong. I'm the great grandson, Wong Kim Ark. Wong Kim Ark was [00:08:00] born in the USA, like my great-grandfather. I, too was born American in the same city, San Francisco, more than 75 years after him. We are both Americans, but unlike him, my citizenship has never been challenged. His willingness to stand up and fight made the difference for his struggles, my humble thanks. Wong Kim Ark however, was challenged more than once. In late 1889 as an American, he traveled to China in July, 1890. He returned to his birth city. He had his papers and had no problems with reentry. In 1895, after a similar trip, he was stopped from disembarking and was placed into custody for five months aboard ship in port. [00:09:00] Citizenship denied, the reason the Chinese exclusion Act 1882. He had to win this case in district court, provide $250 bail and then win again in the United States Supreme Court, March 28th, 1898. Only from these efforts, he was able to claim his citizenship granted by birthright from the 14th Amendment and gain his freedom. That would not be the last challenge to his being American. My mother suffered similar treatment. She like my great-grandfather, was born in America. In 1942, she was forced with her family and thousands of other Japanese Americans to relocation camps an experience unspoken by her family. [00:10:00] I first learned about Japanese American internment from history books. Executive order 9066 was the command. No due process, citizenship's rights stripped. She was not American enough. Now we have executive order 14160. It is an attack on birthright citizenship. We cannot let this happen. We must stand together. We are a nation of immigrants. What kind of nation are we to be with stateless children? Born to no country. To this, I say no. We as Americans need to embrace each other and [00:11:00] cherish each new life. Born in the USA. Thank you. Harvey Dong: Thank you, Norman. And Annie Lee, will moderate, the following panel, involving campus and community representatives who will be sharing their knowledge and experience. Annie Lee, Esquire is an attorney. She's also the, managing director of policy for Chinese Affirmative Action, and she's also, heavily involved in the birthright citizenship issue. Annie Lee: Thank you so much Harvey for that very warm welcome and thank you again to Norman for your remarks. I think it's incredible that you're speaking up at this moment, to preserve your ancestors' legacy because it impacts not just you and him, but all of us [00:12:00] here. So thank you. As Harvey said, my name is Annie Lee and I have this honor of working with this amazing panel of esteemed guest we have today. So I will ask each of them to introduce themselves. And I will start, because I would love to hear your name, pronouns. Title and organization as well as your personal or professional relationship with the US Immigration System. So my name's Annie. I use she her pronouns. I'm the managing Director of policy at Chinese for Affirmative Action, which is a non-profit based in San Francisco Chinatown. We provide direct services to the monolingual working class Chinese community, and also advocate for policies to benefit all Asian Americans. My relationship with the immigration system is I am the child of two Chinese immigrants who did not speak English. And so I just remember lots of time spent on the phone when I was a kid with INS, and then it became U-S-C-I-S just trying to ask them what happened to [00:13:00] a family member's application for naturalization, for visas so I was the interpreter for them growing up and even today. I will pass it to Letty. Leti Volpp: Hi everybody. Thank you so much, Annie. Thank you Harvey. Thank you, Norman. That was profoundly moving to hear your remarks and I love the way that you framed our conversation, Harvey. I'm Leti Volpp. I am the Robert d and Leslie k Raven, professor of Law and Access to Justice at the Berkeley Law, school. I'm also the director of the campus wide , center for Race and Gender, which is a legacy of the Third World Liberation Front, and the 1999, student movement, that led to the creation of the center. I work on immigration law and citizenship theory, and I am the daughter, second of four, children of my mother who was an immigrant from China, and my father who was an immigrant [00:14:00] from Germany. So I'll pass it. Thank you. Ke Lam: Thank you. Thank you all for being here. Thank you, Norman. So my name's Key. I go by he, him pronouns or Nghiep “Ke” Lam, is my full name. I work for an organization called Asian Prison Support Committee. It's been around for like over two decades now, and it started behind three guys advocating for ethics study, Asian and Pacific Islander history. And then it was starting in San Quent State Prison. All three of them pushed for ethics study, hard and the result is they all was put into solitary confinement. And many years later, after all three got out, was Eddie Zang, Mike Romero and Mike no. And when they got out, Eddie came back and we pushed for ethics study again, and we actually got it started in 2013. And it's been going on to today. Then the programs is called Roots, restoring our Original True Self. So reconnecting with who we are. And one of Eddie's main, mottos that really stuck with me. He said, we need to all connect to our chi, right? And I'm like, okay, I understand what chi is, and he said no. He [00:15:00] said, you need to connect to your culture, your history, which result to equal your identity, who you are as a person. So, the more we study about our history and our culture, like, birthright citizen, it empower us to know, who we are today. Right? And also part of that is to how do we take down the veil of shame in our community, the veil of trauma that's impacting our community as well. We don't talk about issue that impact us like immigration. So I'm a 1.5 generation. So I was born in Vietnam from Chinese family that migrant from China to Vietnam started business after the fall of Vietnam War. We all got kicked out but more than that, I am directly impacted because I am a stranded deportee, somebody that got their, legal status taken away because of criminal conviction. And as of any moment now, I could actually be taken away. So I live in that, right at that threshold of like uncertainty right now. And the people I work with, which are hundreds of people, are fixing that same uncertainty.[00:16:00] Annie Lee: Thank you, Ke. I'm gonna pass it to our panelists who are joining us virtually, including Bun. Can you start and then we'll pass it to Chris after. Bun: Hey everybody, thank you for having me. My name is Bun. I'm the co-director of Asian Prison Support Committee. I'm also, 1.5 generation former incarcerated and under, direct impact of immigration. Christopher Lapinig: Hi everyone. My name is Christopher Lapinig, my pronouns are he, him and Sha. I am a senior staff attorney on the Democracy and National Initiatives Team at Asian Law Caucus, which you may know is the country's first and oldest legal aid in civil rights organization, dedicated to serving, low income immigrant and underserved AAPI communities. In terms of my connection to the immigration system, I am, I also am a beneficiary of a birthright citizenship, and my parents are both immigrants from the Philippines. I was born in New York City. My [00:17:00] extended family spans both in the US and the Philippines. After graduating law school and clerking, my fellowship project was focused on providing litigation and immigration services to, survivors of labor trafficking in the Filipino community. While working at Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles, I also was engaged in, class action litigation, challenging the first Trump administration's practices, detaining immigrants in the Vietnamese and Cambodian communities. Annie Lee: Thank you, Chris. Thank you Bun. Let's start off by talking about birthright citizenship since it's a big topic these days. On the very, very first day of Trump's administration, he issued a flurry of executive orders, including one that would alter birthright citizenship. But I wanna take us back to the beginning because why do we have this right? It is a very broad right? If you were born in the United States, you are an American citizen. Where does that come from? So I wanna pose the first question to Letty to talk about the [00:18:00] origins of birthright citizenship., Leti Volpp: Very happy to. So what's being fought about is a particular clause in the Constitution and the 14th Amendment, which says, all persons born are naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. Okay, so that's the text. There's been a very long understanding of what this text means, which says that regardless of the immigration status of one's parents, all children born here are entitled to birthright citizenship with three narrow exceptions, which I will explain. So the Trump administration executive order, wants to exclude from birthright citizenship, the children of undocumented immigrants, and the children of people who are here on lawful temporary visas. So for example, somebody here on an [00:19:00] F1 student visa, somebody on a H one B worker visa, somebody here is a tourist, right? And basically they're saying we've been getting this clause wrong for over a hundred years. And I will explain to you why I think they're making this very dubious argument. Essentially when you think about where the 14th amendment came from, in the United States, in the Antebellum era, about 20% of people were enslaved and there were lots of debates about citizenship. Who should be a citizen? Who could be a citizen? And in 1857, the Supreme Court issued a decision in a case called Dread Scott, where they said that no person who was black, whether free or enslaved, could ever be a citizen. The Civil War gets fought, they end slavery. And then the question arose, well, what does this mean for citizenship? Who's a citizen of the United States? And in 1866, Congress [00:20:00] enacts a law called the Civil Rights Act, which basically gave rights to people that were previously denied and said that everybody born in the United States is a birthright citizen. This gets repeated in the 14th Amendment with the very important interpretation of this clause in Norman's great-grandfather's case, the case of Wong Kim Ark. So this came before the Supreme Court in 1898. If you think about the timing of this, the federal government had basically abandoned the reconstruction project, which was the project of trying to newly enfranchised, African Americans in the United States. The Supreme Court had just issued the decision, Plessy versus Ferguson, which basically legitimated the idea that, we can have separate, but equal, as a doctrine of rights. So it was a nation that was newly hostile to the goals of the Reconstruction Congress, and so they had this case come before them, whereas we heard [00:21:00] from Norman, we have his great-grandfather born in San Francisco, Chinatown, traveling back and forth to China. His parents having actually left the United States. And this was basically presented as a test case to the Supreme Court. Where the government tried to argue, similar to what the Trump administration is arguing today, that birthright citizenship, that clause does not guarantee universal birthright citizenship saying that children of immigrants are not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States because their parents are also not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. The Supreme Court took over a year to decide the case. They knew that it would be controversial, and the majority of the court said, this provision is clear. It uses universal language. It's intended to apply to children of all immigrants. One of the things that's interesting about [00:22:00] what the, well I'll let Chris actually talk about what the Trump administration, is trying to do, but let me just say that in the Wong Kim Ark decision, the Supreme Court makes very clear there only three narrow exceptions to who is covered by the 14th Amendment. They're children of diplomats. So for example, if the Ambassador of Germany is in the United States, and, she has a daughter, like her daughter should not become a birthright citizen, right? This is why there's diplomatic immunity. Why, for example, in New York City, there are millions of dollars apparently owed to the city, in parking tickets by ambassadors who don't bother to pay them because they're not actually subject to the jurisdiction in the United States. Okay? Second category, children of Native Americans who are seen as having a sovereign relationship of their own, where it's like a nation within a nation, kind of dynamic, a country within a country. And there were detailed conversations in the congressional debate about the [00:23:00] 14th Amendment, about both of these categories of people. The third category, were children born to a hostile invading army. Okay? So one argument you may have heard people talk about is oh, I think of undocumented immigrants as an invading army. Okay? If you look at the Wong Kim Ark decision, it is very clear that what was intended, by this category of people were a context where the hostile invading army is actually in control of that jurisdiction, right? So that the United States government is not actually governing that space so that the people living in it don't have to be obedient, to the United States. They're obedient to this foreign power. Okay? So the thread between all three of these exceptions is about are you having to be obedient to the laws of the United States? So for example, if you're an undocumented immigrant, you are subject to being criminally prosecuted if you commit a crime, right? Or [00:24:00] you are potentially subjected to deportation, right? You have to obey the law of the United States, right? You are still subject to the jurisdiction thereof. Okay? But the Trump administration, as we're about to hear, is making different arguments. Annie Lee: Thank you so much, Leti for that historical context, which I think is so important because, so many different communities of color have contributed to the rights that we have today. And so what Leti is saying here is that birthright citizenship is a direct result of black liberation and fighting for freedom in the Civil War and making sure that they were then recognized as full citizens. And then reinforced, expanded, by Wong Kim Ark. And now we are all beneficiaries and the vast majority of Americans get our citizenship through birth. Okay? That is true for white people, black people. If you're born here, you get your ci. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to go to court. You don't have to say anything. You are a US citizen. And now as Leti referenced, there's this fringe legal theory that, thankfully we've got lawyers like [00:25:00] Chris who are fighting this. So Chris, you're on the ALC team, one of many lawsuits against the Trump administration regarding this unlawful executive order. Can you tell us a little bit about the litigation and the arguments, but I actually really want you to focus on what are the harms of this executive order? Sometimes I think particularly if you are a citizen, and I am one, sometimes we take what we have for granted and you don't even realize what citizenship means or confers. So Chris, can you talk about the harms if this executive order were to go through? Christopher Lapinig: Yeah. As Professor Volpp sort of explained this executive order really is an assault on a fundamental constitutional right that has existed for more than a hundred years at this point, or, well, about 125 years. And if it is allowed to be implemented, the harms would really be devastating and far reach. So first, you know, children born in the us, the [00:26:00] parents without permanent status, as permissible said, would be rendered effectively stateless, in many cases. And these are of course, children, babies who have never known any other home, yet they would be denied the basic rights of citizen. And so the order targets a vast range of families, and not just undocument immigrants, but also those with work visas, student visas, humanitarian productions like TPS, asylum seekers, fleeing persecution, DACA recipients as well. And a lot of these communities have deep ties to Asian American community. To our history, and of course are, essential part, of our social fabric. In practical terms, children born without birthright citizenship would be denied access to healthcare through Medicaid, through denied access to snap nutritional assistance, even basic IDs like social security numbers, passports. And then as they grow older, they'd be barred from voting, serving on juries and even [00:27:00] working. And then later on in life, they might be, if they, are convicted of a crime and make them deportable, they could face deportation to countries that they never stepped, foot off basically. And so this basically is this executive order threatened at risk, creating exactly what the drafters of the 14th Amendment wanted to prevent the creation of a permanent underclass of people in the United States. It'll just get amplified over time. If you can imagine if there's one generation of people born without citizenship, there will be a second generation born and a third and fourth, and it'll just get amplified over time. And so it truly is just, hard to get your mind around exactly what the impact of this EO would be. Annie Lee: Thanks, Chris. And where are we in the litigation right now? Harvey referenced, a hearing at the Supreme Court on May 15th, but, tell us a little bit about the injunction and the arguments on the merits and when that can, when we can expect [00:28:00] that. Christopher Lapinig: Yeah, so there were a number of lawsuits filed immediately after, the administration issued its exec order on January 20th. Asian Law Caucus we filed with the ACLU Immigrant Rights Project. Literally we were the first lawsuit, literally hours after the executive order was issued. By early February, federal judges across the country had issued nationwide preliminary injunctions blocking implementation of the order. Our case is actually not a nationwide injunction. And so there're basically, I believe three cases that are going up to the Supreme Court. And, the Trump administration appealed to various circuit courts to try to undo these injunctions. But all circuit courts upheld the injunctive relief and and so now the Supreme Court is going to be hearing arguments on May 15th. And so it has not actually ruled on whether or not the executive order is constitutional, but it's going to. I mean, it remains to be seen exactly what they're going to decide but may [00:29:00] 15th is the next date is the big date on our calendar. Annie Lee: Yeah. So the Trump administration is arguing that these judges in a particular district, it's not fair if they get to say that the entire country, is barred from receiving this executive order. Is that procedurally correct. Judges, in order to consider whether to grants an injunction, they have a whole battery of factors that they look at, including one, which is like likelihood of winning on the merits. Because if something is unconstitutional, it's not really great to say, yeah, you can let this executive order go through. And then like later when the court cases finally worked their way, like a year later, pull back from that. And so that's, it's very frustrating to see this argument. And it's also unfair and would be very messy if the states that had republican Attorneys General who did not litigate, why would you allow the executive order to go forward in those red states and not in these blue state? It really, I would say federalism run terribly amuck. Swati Rayasam: [00:30:00] You are tuned in to APEX Express on 94.1 KPFA, 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley,. 88.1. KFCF in Fresno and online@kpfa.org. Annie Lee: But anyway, let's see back off from the actual case because I think what we're really talking about and what Chris has alluded to is, these cases about birthright citizenship, all the immigration policy is essentially determining who belongs here. Who belongs here. That's what immigration policy is at its heart. And we see that the right wing is weaponizing that question, who belongs here? And they are going after very vulnerable populations, undocumented people, people who are formerly incarcerated. So Bun if you can talk about how, is the formerly incarcerated community, like targeted immigrants, targeted for deportation? What is going on with this community that I feel like most people might not know about? Thank [00:31:00] you. Bun: Yes. For our folks that are incarcerated and former incarcerated, we are the easiest target for deportation because we are in custody and in California, CDCR colludes with ICE and on the day that we are to be paroled they're at the door, cuffing us up and taking us to detention. I'm glad to hear Harvey say, this is a time of fear for us and also opportunity. Right now, our whole community, the Southeast Asian community, mainly are very effective with immigration. In the past 25 years, mostly it was the Cambodian community that was being targeted and deported. At this moment, they are targeting, all of the Southeast Asian community, which historically was never deported because of the politics and agreements, of the Vietnamese community. And now the Laos community thats more concerning, that are being targeted for deportation. Trump have opened a new opportunity for us as a community to join [00:32:00] together and understand each other's story, and understand each other's fear. Understand where we're going about immigration. From birthright to crimmagration. A lot of times folks that are under crimmigration are often not spoken about because of our cultural shame, within our own family and also some of our community member felt safe because the political agreements. Now that everybody's in danger, we could stand together and understand each other's issue and support each other because now we could see that history has repeated itself. Again, we are the scapegoat. We are here together fighting the same issue in different circumstances, but the same issue. Annie Lee: But let me follow up. What are these, historical agreements that you're talking about that used to feel like used to at least shield the community that now aren't in place anymore? Bun: Yeah. After the Clinton administration, uh, passed the IRA [immigration reform act] a lot of Southeast Asian nations were asked to [00:33:00] take their nationals back. Even though we as 1.5 generation, which are the one that's mostly impacted by this, had never even stepped into the country. Most of us were born in a refugee camp or we're too young to even remember where they came from. Countries like Cambodian folded right away because they needed the financial aid and whatever, was offering them and immediately a three with a MOU that they will take their citizens since the early two thousands. Vietnam had a stronger agreement, which, they would agree to only take folks that immigrated here after 1995 and anybody before 1995, they would not take, and Laos have just said no until just a few months ago. Laos has said no from when the, uh, the act was passed in 1995, the IRRIRA. Mm-hmm. So the big change we have now is Vietnam had signed a new MOU saying that they will take folks after 1995 [00:34:00] in the first administration and more recently, something that we never thought, happened so fast, was Laos agreeing to take their citizen back. And then the bigger issue about our Laos community is, it's not just Laos folks. It's the Hmong folks, the Myan folks, folks, folks that are still in danger of being returned back 'cause in the Vietnam War, they colluded and supported the Americans in the Vietnam War and were exiled out and kicked out, and were hunted down because of that. So, at this moment, our folks are very in fear, especially our loud folks, not knowing what's gonna happen to 'em. Ke Lam: So for folks that don't know what IRR means it means, illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. It actually happened after the Oklahoma bombing, which was caused by a US citizen, a white US citizen. Yeah. But immigration law came out of it. That's what's crazy about it. Annie Lee: Can you tell us, how is APSC advocating to protect the community right now because you [00:35:00] are vulnerable? Ke Lam: So we had to censor a lot of our strategies. At first we used to use social media as a platform to show our work and then to support our community. But the government use that as a target to capture our people. So we stopped using social media. So we've been doing a lot of on the ground movement, such as trying to get local officials to do resolutions to push Governor Newsom to party more of our community members. The other thing is we hold pardon workshops, so try and get folks to get, either get a pardon or vacate their sentence. So commute their sentence to where it become misdemeanor is not deportable anymore. Support letters for our folks writing support letters to send to the governor and also to city official, to say, Hey, please help pardon our community. I think the other thing we are actually doing is solidarity work with other organizations, African American community as well as Latin communities because we've been siloed for so long and we've been banned against each other, where people kept saying like, they've taken all our job when I grew up. That's what they told us, right? [00:36:00] But we, reality that's not even true. It was just a wedge against our community. And then so it became the good versus bad narrative. So our advocacy is trying to change it it's called re-storying you know, so retelling our story from people that are impacted, not from people, not from the one percenters in our own community. Let's say like we're all good, do you, are there's parts of our community that like that's the bad people, right? But in reality, it affects us all. And so advocacy work is a lot of different, it comes in a lot of different shapes and forms, but definitely it comes from the community. Annie Lee: Thanks, Ke. You teed me up perfectly because there is such a good versus bad immigrant narrative that takes root and is really hard to fight against. And that's why this administration is targeting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated folks and another group that, are being targeted as people who are accused of crimes, including Venezuelan immigrants who are allegedly part of a gang. So, Leti how is the government deporting [00:37:00] people by simply accusing them of being a part of a gang? Like how is that even possible? Leti Volpp: Yeah, so one thing to think about is there is this thing called due process, right? It's guaranteed under the constitution to all persons. It's not just guaranteed to citizens. What does it mean? Procedural due process means there should be notice, there should be a hearing, there should be an impartial judge. You should have the opportunity to present evidence. You should have the opportunity to cross examinee. You should have the opportunity to provide witnesses. Right? And basically Trump and his advisors are in real time actively trying to completely eviscerate due process for everybody, right? So Trump recently said, I'm doing what I was elected to do, remove criminals from our country. But the courts don't seem to want me to do that. We cannot give everyone a trial because to do so would take without exaggeration, 200 years. And then Stephen Miller said the judicial process is for Americans. [00:38:00] Immediate deportation is for illegal aliens. Okay. Quote unquote. Right. So I think one thing to notice is, as we're hearing from all of our speakers are like the boxes, the categories into which people are put. And what's really disturbing is to witness how once somebody's put in the box of being quote unquote criminal gang banger terrorists, like the American public seems to be like, oh, okay you can do what you want to this person. There's a whole history of due process, which exists in the laws which was created. And all of these early cases actually involved Asian immigrants, right? And so first they were saying there's no due process. And then in a case called Yata versus Fisher, they said actually there is due process in deportation cases, there's regular immigration court proceedings, which accord with all of these measures of due process. There's also a procedure called expedited removal, [00:39:00] which Congress invented in the nineties where they wanted to come up with some kind of very quick way to summarily exclude people. It was motivated by a 60 Minutes episode where they showed people coming to Kennedy Airport, who didn't have any ID or visa or they had what seemed to be fake visas and they were let into the United States. And then they disappeared, right? According to the 60 Minutes episode. So basically Congress invented this procedure of, if you appear in the United States and you have no documents, or you have what an immigration inspector thinks are false documents, they can basically tell you, you can leave without this court hearing. And the only fail safe is what's called a credible fear screening. Where if you say, I want asylum, I fear persecution, I'm worried I might be tortured, then they're supposed to have the screening. And if you pass that screening, you get put in regular removal [00:40:00] proceedings. So before the Trump administration took office, these expedited removal proceedings were happening within a hundred miles of the border against people who could not show that they had been in the United States for more than two weeks. In one of his first executive orders. Trump extended this anywhere in the United States against people who cannot show they've been in the United States for more than two years. So people are recommending that people who potentially are in this situation to carry documentation, showing they've been physically in the United States for over two years. Trump is also using this Alien Enemies Act, which was basically a law Congress passed in 1798. It's only been used three times in US history it's a wartime law, right? So it was used in 1812, World War I, and World War II, and there's supposed to be a declared war between the United States and a foreign nation or government, or [00:41:00] there's an incursion threatened by a foreign nation or government, and the president makes public proclamation that all natives of this hostile nation, 14 and up shall be liable to be restrained and removed as alien enemies. Okay? So we're obviously not at war with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, right? They have not engaged in some kind of invasion or predatory incursion into the United States, but the Trump administration is claiming that they have and saying things like, oh, they're secretly a paramilitary wing of the Venezuelan government, even as the Venezuelan government is like cracking down on them. It's not a quasi sovereign, entity. There's no diplomatic relationships between Tren de Aragua and any other government. So these are legally and factually baseless arguments. Nonetheless, the administration has been basically taking people from Venezuela on the basis of tattoos. A tattoo of a crown of a [00:42:00] rose, right? Even when experts have said there's no relationship between what Tren de Aragua does and tattoos, right? And basically just kidnapping people and shipping them to the torture prison in El Salvador. As I'm sure you know of the case of Kimber Abrego Garcia, I'm sure we'll hear more about this from Christopher. There's a very small fraction of the persons that have been sent to this prison in El Salvador who actually have any criminal history. And I will say, even if they had a criminal history, nobody should be treated in this manner and sent to this prison, right? I mean, it's unbelievable that they've been sent to this prison allegedly indefinitely. They're paying $6 million a year to hold people there. And then the United States government is saying, oh, we don't have any power to facilitate or effectuate their return. And I think there's a struggle as to what to call this. It's not just deportation. This is like kidnapping. It's rendition. And there are people, there's like a particular person like who's completely [00:43:00] disappeared. Nobody knows if they're alive or dead. There are many people in that prison. People don't know if they're alive or dead. And I'm sure you've heard the stories of people who are gay asylum seekers, right? Who are now in this situation. There are also people that have been sent to Guantanamo, people were sent to Panama, right? And so I think there questions for us to think about like, what is this administration doing? How are they trying to do this in a spectacular fashion to instill fear? As we know as well, Trump had said oh, like I think it would be great when he met with Bukele if you build four more or five more facilities. I wanna house homegrown people in El Salvador, right? So this is all the more importance that we stick together, fight together, don't, as key was saying, don't let ourselves be split apart. Like we need a big mass coalition right? Of people working together on this. Annie Lee: So thank you leti and I think you're absolutely right. These Venezuelans were kidnapped [00:44:00] in the middle of the night. I mean, 2:00 AM 3:00 AM pulled out of bed, forced to sign documents they did not understand because these documents were only available in English and they speak Spanish, put on planes sent to El Salvador, a country they've never been to. The government didn't even have to prove anything. They did not have to prove anything, and they just snatch these people and now they're disappeared. We do have, for now the rule of law. And so Chris, there are judges saying that, Kimber Abrego Garcia has to be returned. And despite these court orders, the administration is not complying. So where does that leave us, Chris, in terms of rule of law and law in general? Christopher Lapinig: Yeah. So, I'm gonna make a little personal. So I graduated from Yale Law School in 2013, and you might know some of my classmates. One of my classmates is actually now the Vice President of the United States. Oh man. [00:45:00] Bless you. As well as the second lady, Usha Vance. And a classmate of mine, a good friend Sophia Nelson, who's a trans and queer, was recently on, I believe CNN answering a question about, I believe JD Vice President Vance, was asked about the administration's sort of refusal to comply with usual orders. Yeah. As we're talking about here and JD had said something like, well, courts, judges can't tell the president what he can't do, and sophia, to their credit, said, you know, I took constitutional law with JD, and, we definitely read Marbury Versus Madison together, and that is the semial sort of Supreme Court case that established that the US Supreme Court is the ultimate decider, arbiter, interpreter, of the US Constitution. And so is basically saying, I know JD knows better. He's lying essentially, in all of his [00:46:00] communications about, judicial orders and whether or not a presidential administration has to comply , with these orders. So, to get to your question though, it is of course unprecedented. Really. It is essentially, you know, it's not, if we not already reached. The point of a constitutional crisis. It is a constitutional crisis. I think it's become clear to many of us that, democracy in the US has operated in large part, and has relied on, on, on the good faith in norms, that people are operating good faith and that presidents will comply when, a federal judge issues an injunction or a decision. It kind of leaves us in an interesting, unprecedented situation. And it means that, lawyers, we will continue to litigate and, go to court, but we can't, lawyers will not save the country or, immigrants or communities. We need to think extensively and creatively. [00:47:00] About how to ensure, that the rule of law is preserved because, this administration is not, abiding by the longstanding norms of compliance and so we have to think about, protests, advocacy, legislatively. I don't have the answers necessarily, but we can't rely on the courts to fix these problems really. Annie Lee: Oof. That was very real, Chris. Thank you. But I will say that when there is resistance, and we've seen it from students who are speaking up and advocating for what they believe is right and just including Palestinian Liberation, that there is swift retaliation. And I think that's partly because they are scared of student speech and movement and organizing. But this is a question to all of you. So if not the courts and if the administration is being incredibly retaliatory, and discriminatory in terms of viewpoint discrimination, in people and what people are saying and they're scouring our social [00:48:00] media like, Ke warns, like what can everyday people do to fight back? That's for all of you. So I don't know who, which of you wants to take it first? Ke Lam: Oh man. I say look at history, right? Even while this new president, I wanna say like, this dude is a convicted felon, right? Don't be surprised at why we country is in the way it is, because this dude's a convicted felon, a bad business person, right? And only care about the billionaires, you know? So I'm not surprised how this country's ending up the way it is 'cause it is all about money. One way that we can stand up is definitely band together, marched on the streets. It's been effective. You look at the civil right movement, that's the greatest example. Now you don't have to look too far. We can actually, when we come together, they can't fight us all. Right? It is, and this, it's like you look at even nature in the cell. When things band together, the predators cannot attack everyone. Right? They probably could hit a few of us, but in the [00:49:00] long run, we could change the law. I think another thing is we, we, as the people can march to the courts and push the courts to do the job right, despite what's going on., We had judges that been arrested for doing the right thing, right? And so, no matter what, we have to stand strong just despite the pressure and just push back. Annie Lee: Thanks, Ke. Chris? Christopher Lapinig: What this administration is doing is you know, straight out of the fascist playbook. They're working to, as we all know, shock and awe everyone, and make Americans feel powerless. Make them feel like they have no control, make them feel overwhelmed. And so I think first and foremost, take care of yourself , in terms of your health, in terms of your physical health, your mental health. Do what you can to keep yourself safe and healthy and happy. And do the same for your community, for your loved ones, your friends and family. And then once you've done that do what you can in terms of your time, treasure, [00:50:00] talent to, to fight back. Everyone has different talents, different levels of time that they can afford. But recognize that this is a marathon and not necessarily a sprint because we need everyone, in this resistance that we can get. Annie Lee: Thank you, Chris. Leti Volpp: There was a New Yorker article called, I think it was How to Be a Dissident which said, before recently many Americans, when you ask them about dissidents, they would think of far off countries. But they interviewed a lot of people who'd been dissidents in authoritarian regimes. And there were two, two things in that article that I'm taking with me among others. One of them said that in surveying like how authoritarian regimes are broken apart, like only 3.5% of the population has to oppose what's going on. The other thing was that you should find yourself a political home where you can return to frequently. It's almost like a religious or [00:51:00] spiritual practice where you go and you get refreshed and you're with like-minded people. And so I see this event, for example as doing that, and that we all need to find and nurture and foster spaces like this. Thank you. Annie Lee: Bun, do you have any parting words? Bun: Yeah. Like Ke said, to fight back, getting together, understanding issues and really uplifting, supporting, urging our own communities, to speak Up. You know, there's folks that can't speak out right now because of fear and danger, but there are folks here that can speak out and coming here learning all our situation really give the knowledge and the power to speak out for folks that can't speak down [unclear] right now. So I appreciate y'all Annie Lee: love that bun. I was gonna say the same thing. I feel like there is a special obligation for those of us who are citizens, citizens cannot be deported. Okay? Citizens have special rights based [00:52:00] on that status. And so there's a special responsibility on those of us who can speak, and not be afraid of retaliation from this government. I would also urge you all even though it's bleak at the federal level, we have state governments, we have local governments. You have a university here who is very powerful. And you have seen, we've seen that the uni that the administration backs down, sometimes when Harvard hit back, they back down and that means that there is a way to push the administration, but it does require you all putting pressure on your schools, on your local leaders, on your state leaders to fight back. My boss actually, Vin taught me this. You know, you think that politicians, lead, politicians do not lead politicians follow. Politicians follow and you all lead when you go out further, you give them cover to do the right thing. And so the farther you push and the more you speak out against this administration, the more you give them courage to do the right thing. And so you absolutely have to do that. A pardon [00:53:00] is critical. It is critical for people who are formerly incarcerated to avoid the immigration system and deportation. And so do that. Talk to your family, talk to your friends. My parents, despite being immigrants, they're kinda old school. Okay guys, they're like, you know, birthright citizenship does seem kind of like a loophole. Why should people like get like citizenship? I'm like, mom, we, I am a birthright citizen. Like, um, And I think for Asian Americans in particular, there is such a rich history of Asian American civil rights activism that we don't talk about enough, and maybe you do at Berkeley with ethnic studies and professors like Mike Chang. But, this is totally an interracial solidarity movement. We helped bring about Wong Kim Ark and there are beneficiaries of every shade of person. There's Yik wo, and I think about this all the time, which is another part of the 14th Amendment equal protection. Which black Americans fought for that in San Francisco. [00:54:00] Chinatown made real what? What does equal protection of the laws even mean? And that case was Seminole. You've got Lao versus Nichols. Another case coming out of San Francisco. Chinatown about English learner rights, the greatest beneficiary of Lao v Nichols, our Spanish speakers, they're Spanish speaking children in schools who get access to their education regardless of the language they speak. And so there are so many moments in Asian American history that we should be talking about, that we should educate our parents and our families about, because this is our moment. Now, this is another one of those times I wanna pass it to Mike and Harvey for questions, and I'm so excited to hear about them. Mike and Harvey: Wow, thank you so much. That's a amazing, panel and thank you for facilitating annie's wanna give it of a great value in terms of that spiritual home aspect. Norm how does your great grandfather's , experience in resistance, provide help for us [00:55:00] today? Norman Wong: Well, I think he was willing to do it. It only took one, if no one did it, this, we wouldn't be having the discussion because most of us would've never been here. And we need to come together on our common interests and put aside our differences because we all have differences. And if we tried, to have it our way for everything, we'll have it no way for us. We really need to, to bond and bind together and become strong as a people. And I don't mean as a racial or a national group. Mm-hmm. I mean, we're Americans now. We're Americans here think of us as joining with all Americans to make this country the way it's supposed to be. The way [00:56:00] we grew up, the one that we remember, this is not the America I grew up believing in. I'm glad he stood up. I'm proud that he did that. He did that. Him doing that gave me something that I've never had before. A validation of my own life. And so yes, I'm proud of him. Wong Kim Ark is for all of us. It's not for me to own. Yeah. Wow. Really not. Thank you so much. Wong Kim Ark is for all of us. And, and , talking about the good , that we have here and, the optimism that Harvey spoke about, the opportunity, even in a moment of substantial danger. Thank you so much everybody. Mike and Harvey: This was amazing and really appreciate sharing this space with you and, building community and solidarity. Ke Lam: But is there any, can I leave with a chant before we close off? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. So this is a chant that we use on the ground all the time. You guys probably heard it. When I said when we fight, you guys said we [00:57:00] win when we fight. We win when we fight, we win. When we fight, we win up. Swati Rayasam: Thanks so much for tuning into APEX Express. Please check out our website at kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about the show tonight and to find out how you can take direct action. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important. APEX Express is produced by Miko Lee, along with Jalena Keene-Lee, Ayame Keene-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar, Anuj Vaida, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Ravi Grover, and me Swati Rayasam. Thank you so much to the team at KPFA for their support, and have a good [00:58:00] night.   The post APEX Express – 6.26.25-Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison – Wong Kim Ark is for All of Us appeared first on KPFA.

Luật phá thai ban đầu của Vương quốc Anh, được thông qua vào năm 1861 quy định rằng việc cố ý chấm dứt thai kỳ là một tội ác và những người thực hiện hành vi này, có thể bị giam giữ trong chế độ khổ sai suốt đời. Quốc hội hiện đã thông qua một sửa đổi, đối với luật đó để ngăn chặn phụ nữ bị truy tố, điều mà một nghị sĩ Đảng Lao động cho biết, đã xảy ra với hàng trăm người dễ bị tổn thương trong nhiều năm qua.

Quốc hội Tasmania được triệu tập hôm nay để thông qua dự luật về ngân sách, trước khi Thủ Hiến Jeremy Rockliff đến gặp Toàn Quyền Tiểu bang, để xin tổ chức một cuộc bầu cử sớm, với ngày 19 tháng 7 là ngày sớm nhất có thể tổ chức bầu cử. Tuần trước, Hạ viện đã thông qua nghị quyết bất tín nhiệm đối với ông Rockliff với 18 phiếu thuận và 17 phiếu chống, trong khi hai đảng Tự do và Lao động đổ lỗi cho nhau về bế tắc chính trị.

Những thay đổi của Đảng Lao động về cách đánh thuế lương hưu đã khiến một số cộng đồng náo động. Chính sách này không mới, vậy thì tại sao nó lại gây ầm ỉ, và những thay đổi này thực sự có ý nghĩa gì?

Thượng nghị sĩ Tây Úc Dorinda Cox đã tuyên bố rời Đảng Xanh để gia nhập Đảng Lao động. Bà cho biết mình đã mất niềm tin vào Đảng Xanh và sẽ theo Thủ tướng Anthony Albanese.

Một kho viện trợ của Liên Hiệp Quốc tại Gaza, đã bị những người Palestine đói khát cướp phá. Thủ tướng Israel cho biết Mohammad Sinwar, thủ lãnh Hamas ở Gaza, đã bị giết. Đảng viên Lao động Úc kêu gọi áp đặt lệnh trừng phạt đối với Israel.

Langenfeld Open is going down this Saturday, May 17th and the boys are diving deep into the layout of the event, some of our picks, and a whole lot more, including an interview with Wasserski Langenfelds very own Benni Suess! Join Guenther Oka and Daniel Johnson as we go over not only LAO, but do a preview of the PWT this year, watch the new edit “Elsewhere”, recap Maps of Florida, answer a bunch of your Patreon and Instagram questions, and get into much more in Episode 10 of Shop Talk by Grab Matters. Follow Guenther: https://www.instagram.com/guentheroka/Follow Daniel: https://www.instagram.com/djohnsonwake/Follow Benni: https://www.instagram.com/benjaminsuess/Follow Hunter: https://www.instagram.com/hunterthane/Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/GrabMattersPodcastThank you to this shows sponsors! Liquid Force: https://www.liquidforce.com/ Slingshot: https://slingshotsports.com/Chapters:00:00 - 00:45 Intro1:00 - 8:40 “Elsewhere” edit8:50 LAO Layout Preview17:00 LAO Picks23:15 LF'n Wheel of Questions/Milk Chug33:10 Clips36:40 Boat vs. cable choices..?41:20 Call with Benni Suess1:05:45 Slingshot Silhouette Challenge1:11:00 PWT Preview1:15:00 DJ on a TV show..?1:20:00 Rails back on tour?1:23:40 BROstock deets/Patreon Questions1:26:40 Best custom paint jobs in wake1:34:20 Maps of Florida1:42:30 Instagram questionsLinks:Bob Sichel Gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/bob-sichel-battle-fundLAO Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdVpP8u2O0oElsewhere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PApMelh4MEFLYP Fantasy League: https://play.flypfantasy.com/leagues/wakefantasybygrabmattersPilot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc73poWJRVQConsolidating with Bob Sichel: https://vimeo.com/139288756Lords of Swagtown: https://vimeo.com/122856730Swagtown 2: https://unleashedwakemag.com/swagtown-2/2016/11/19/BROstock: https://brostock.com/Shoot us a text!Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GrabMattersPodcastWebsite: https://www.grabmatters.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@grabmatters/videosInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/grabmatters/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@grabmatterspodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/grabmatters

Send us a textIt's fight night! There's a lot to cover in the final two episodes of Hulu's A Thousand Blows. The heist went off without a problem, but not all is as it seems with the bounty, Mary has a lot to answer for, Lao is on the run from the British and the Chinese, Hezekiah has grand ambitions of glory, and Sugar is getting jealous of everyone around him. Join us as we break it all down. Twitter: @concentratedpodInstagram: @concentratedpodFacebook: http://facebook.com/concentratedpodcastVoicemail: 301-531-4393Email: concentratedpodcast@gmail.comBuyMeACoffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/concentratedpodYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTqvXBYCkLcFnVyevMSaBQgConcentrated Merch: https://www.teepublic.com/user/concentratedFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/concentratedpodcast

In this solo episode, Brad Crowell shares his deep-rooted passion for Cambodia, how he and Lesley Logan built a retreat space in Siem Reap, and why they keep returning year after year. From the breathtaking temples of Angkor Wat to their partnership with a local NGO empowering young Cambodians, Brad reflects on creating a place for healing, learning, and connection. If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co.And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.In this episode you will learn about:Why Cambodia's history and magic make it a powerful place to host retreats.How Brad turned a childhood spark into a purpose-driven retreat experience.How Lesley and Brad built a retreat center that reflects their mission and values.How supporting local students through Spoons became part of their mission.What makes the guest experience at their Cambodia retreat truly one of a kind.Episode References/Links:Cambodia October Retreat 2025 - https://crowsnestretreats.comSpoons Cambodia - https://www.spoonscambodia.orgAngkor Wat (UNESCO) – https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/668 If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/ Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gLesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQProfitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/ Follow Us on Social Media:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gFacebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilatesLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Brad Crowell 0:00  Angkor Thom is really cool because this is a UNESCO heritage site now, and normally, if it's a UNESCO heritage site, they are required to, slowly, over time, rebuild the whatever the structure is to be as if it was the original structure, right? Angkor Thom is one of the few carveouts in the UNESCO portfolio, or, as it were, that they don't have to do that because the trees are 400 years old, 500 years old. They've grown on top of the temple there. And basically, if they were to take the trees off, the temple would fall apart.Lesley Logan 0:32  Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.Brad Crowell 1:11  All right. Welcome back Be It babes. This is Brad here. Solo episode today. Hope you like the sound of my voice, because I'm just going to be rambling a little bit about my favorite topic in the entire world, going to Cambodia to spend time with the people there and enjoy some food there and go see the majestic, wonderful temples of Angkor Wat. It is obviously something I'm incredibly passionate about. You've heard me talk about it many, many times in this pod, if you're a listener. If you are brand new, welcome, welcome. We love having you joining us here on the Be It Pod. Cambodia, everybody always asks, hey, why Cambodia? Why? Right? Well, that's definitely my fault. The reality is, my mom bought at a yard sale. She bought, like, 10 years of National Geographic magazines for, I don't know, well, I don't know, I have no idea, I was like 10 years old, or 12 years old or something. Anyway, I opened up the very first one I remember, because I'm sure I looked at a lot, but the one I remember more than any other was opening up this, like, entire spread of Angkor Wat, right? And I didn't even know how to pronounce it at the time. I was a really young kid. But what I can tell you is I was way into dinosaurs, The Jungle Book and Transformers as a child, and when I saw this 10-page spread, or the spread of Angkor Wat in Nat Geo, this was like the Jungle Book in real life to me, and I was so excited about this, the curiosity that it inspired in me literally stayed with me until Lesley asked me, like, I don't know, 20 plus years later, hey, where do we want to go for our honeymoon? And my response instantly was, we're going to Cambodia.Brad Crowell 3:05  You know, and she's like, um, really, we're going to Cambodia. Why would we do that? Can we also go to Thailand? Can we also go to Japan? And I was like, of course, let's do those other things, too. But we have to go to Cambodia. I have to see Angkor Wat. I have to see the temples and the jungle temples. And you know, since then, I've been inspired a number of other times. I'm sure you're all aware that Angelina Jolie's version of Tomb Raider was actually filmed at the temples. It was filmed at Ta Prohm temple. That's, like, a really cool temple. It's actually really close to Angkor Wat. It's like, I don't know, 10 minutes away or 15 minutes away from Angkor, and so we have had a chance to go see that one. We saw the Angkor. We saw a temple called Bayon Temple, which actually they considered the, you know, at the time, because what's so cool about the history of Cambodia was a massive empire, is called the Khmer empire, K-H-M-E-R, Khmer Empire, and it covered all of Vietnam up into Lao, Laos, you know, Lao over into Thailand. It's very influenced by India, very influenced by the Thai, and then obviously, what was considered Cambodia today. So it was this massive, massive place. And Angkor was in the middle, and there's a city there, and the city is like fortified, there's a moat around the whole thing. It's this huge city, and in the very center of that city is Bayon Temple. And so they actually consider Bayon temple the center of the universe. They consider the center tower all the way up at the top to be like this pinnacle place that had a spiritual meaning. And the amount of wonder that Angkor inspires in me keeps me going back. Brad Crowell 4:42  When Lesley and I first went in 2016, we realized when we got home we loved Thailand, we loved Japan, but there was something magical about Cambodia that made us go, how do we go back? How do we go back? And that was the beginning of trying to figure that out. We try to figure out, how do we go? What do we need to do to get back there? Initially, we were like, hey, let's ask all of our friends and they'll come with us. This is gonna be super cool. And they were like, yeah, we're interested. But it never came to fruition, right? It was like, oh, yeah, maybe, we're not sure. Couldn't get anybody to actually commit. Lesley went back to her clients and said, is this ever been on anybody's bucket list going to Angkor? We are thinking about hosting a retreat there. And literally, like a dozen of her clients were like, yes, we're in, absolutely, let's do it. And we figured out a window of time that would work for everyone, and we gave ourselves roughly a year to put it all together, because we didn't know anybody. We had one contact there, and that was our tour guide. And so he was super generous. He was just a really helpful connector. And he helped guide us through figuring out, like, who should we talk to for hosting the retreat? And, you know, just all the things, any kind of question. And it was just lovely to have him. So a big shout out to Stephane De Greef and a big thank you to him. Eventually, when he decided to leave Cambodia and move over to Panama and then wherever he's at now, he contacted me and said, hey, man, I'm leaving, but let me introduce you to everybody that I know. And he did. He opened his Rolodex and just introduced us to all these different people there. And it was incredible. Brad Crowell 6:16  So we had the chance to go back in 2017 for our very first trip with Lesley's clients, and we rented a yoga shala. And the shala was really, really awesome. The people were really lovely. And so we decided to rent it again, and we run another group, and we rented a third time, and the third time, the experience just didn't work. It wasn't what we wanted. And it was actually frustrating, because when Lesley and I turned to ourselves and we were like, hey, maybe we should go get a hotel from our own retreat, we were like, yeah, we can't do this anymore. We got to find a better solution. And that's when we decided to go get our own place, right? And so now we'd been there four times at this point, and we just had a bunch of people that we knew. We reached out to them and said, hey, we're looking for a spot. How do we do this? And they helped connect the dots and help us get going. And basically it turned into this hunt for the right spot, the right place for us to take over and turn into ours. And in 2018 that happened, and it was so exciting. I remember flying back, it was really quick too, like, we got this message from our real estate person. They were like, hey, I think I actually found the right spot. And they gave us all these reasons why, and they really understood our mission and our vision. They really understood what we were trying to do. And they said, we actually like the people that you would be working with to do this, because we're not Cambodian. We can't actually own the land. We're not allowed. We're not a citizen, so we have to have a relationship with people who do own the land there, and they're literally our land lord, and we pay them as if it's like a lease, but we own all the things on it. We own a business there. We have a team there, all that stuff. And so he said, I actually think these people are going to be amazing, and they encourage people coming to visit Cambodia, and they care about it, and they're passionate about it, and so they're right. It was amazing. We met them. They were incredibly gracious and lovely, and we've had, at this point, many, many, many years of building a relationship with them. They're just awesome people, and we absolutely lucked out in that regard. And what we did is we took over this property that has a 12 bedroom apartment complex on it, and allowed us to begin to have our own place to bring you know, people from all around the world to come visit and have a safe, secure, clean, fun place. It's also quiet. We're right off the beaten path. We're like 10 minutes walk from the chaos of Pub Street and wow, like all the loud, but we're far enough away that you don't hear it. We're close enough to walk, but far enough away that it doesn't actually impact you. So it's so awesome. From the place we're like, maybe, oh, I don't know, 15 minutes drive to the Temple of Angkor Wat, which is the largest religious structure in the world. It is still functioning today. They absolutely use it for religious ceremonies and stuff. There's a mix of Hinduism and Buddhism in the way that, it's primarily Buddhist today. You know, you can still find other religions there. There's some Christianity, there's some Muslim faiths there. Primarily it's Buddhist, but the history of the country is a mash up of Hinduism and Buddhism because of war, right? It would be like invaded and then, you know, taken over and taken back and back and forth and all this stuff. And so consequently, there's actually a lot of history that was destroyed by the invading army. They'd come in and break all the statues, and then, you know, the other they build theirs. And then these guys would come back, and it would go back and forth over the centuries that that kind of thing happened. And what's so amazing is all of that is still there. It is available to be seen. It is just the most mind-bending thing when you get there and you're like, this is a thousand years old. This statue that I'm looking at here, they carved this. How did they do this? How did they move the stone? How did they even get this here? Like, how did they think this stuff up? Is it is so mind-blowing to me, because it's exactly in line with the stars and meridian lines and longitude and latitude, the amount of science and thought and understanding of architecture and structural integrity and the building materials and the process of doing it, it is so incredibly thought through and advanced. And then the art itself, the carvings, the planning, how could they have thousands of meters of wall? And it's not a repeat carving anywhere in the entire thing. It's all unique. Every single person in that that's carved into the wall is like, different from the person next to it. You know, it's amazing. It's just incredible. And they spent, I don't know, I think it was a couple decades to build Angkor Wat, like 30 plus years or something. But every time I go, I see something new. Every single time I go, I see something new. Brad Crowell 10:43  And so when we go, what we love to do is take our guests through the temples in a way that you would not normally go if you were to just show up and hire a typical tour guide, tuk guide kind of a thing. You'll see the big three, you know, you'll go to the city of Angkor Thom. You'll actually go to Angkor Wat, of course, which is the temple itself. You'll go to Bayon Temple, usually, and maybe one other place. So whatever one they'll probably take you to the jungle temple Ta Prohm, like I was saying that Angelina Jolie filmed at because that's a really mysterious temple as well, with this epic trees that have grown over top of the temple. In fact, Angkor Thom is really cool because this is a UNESCO heritage site now. And normally, if it's a UNESCO heritage site, they are required to, slowly, over time, rebuild the whatever the structure is to be as if it was the original structure, right? Angkor Thom is one of the few carve-outs in the UNESCO portfolio, as it were, that they don't have to do that, because the trees are 400 years old, 500 years old, they've grown on top of the temple there. And basically, if they were to take the trees off, the temple would fall apart. And so they got this exception to keep the everything as it is right now. And that makes it even more cool. I mean, it's just, it's so amazing. So when everybody arrives on Sunday night, we we just hang out. We do like class, we get some food, we usually go get a massage, and then the next morning, we get up and we have class, and then we have the morning off, because after lunch, we all hop on our tour bus and we go see a series of temples. We go to the south gate at Angkor Thom, we go see a pagoda. A pagoda is like a place of worship for monks today, it's kind of like a church, but it's usually open air, open-walled, right? So it's just like a covered building, generally. Sometimes they're, they've got walls and everything, too. But these pagodas that are inside of Angkor Thom are open-aired. And so we go see this pagoda, and there's like monks actually practicing there. And it's really neat to see the community still lives there, and they still do life there, right? So, and then we go in to Bayon Temple, and we go, from there, we might be able to go up to see Angkor or the elephant terrace, which is this like place where the king today still will go up to Angkor and you know, he will have a big ceremony once a year there. The royal family goes there. And then from there, we'll go to the north gate, and we'll see the different gates that they have. And they're all unique. They're all, you know, the similar concept, but they're all unique. And of course, the vegetation, the trees are different, the views are different, all that. Then we'll go out the east gate, and we'll go over and see Ta Prohm, right? Along the way, we'll stop at another place, Chau Say Tevoda, which is a smaller temple that was like, considered a library. There were twin temples there. So there's one on one side of the road, one on the other, the one is in way better shape than the the other side. So we always go to the one that actually is, like in repair. You know, maybe we walk through the jungle a little bit there. And, you know, there's, like, usually there's monkeys, which are not your friend, but they're usually there, too. We get a chance to go through and peek into the past. That is just mind-blowing. And my favorite part of going to Cambodia, well, one of my favorite parts, to be honest, because I really can't pick, is being able to go explore these temples. And there's just something that is so otherworldly about it, because you don't see this in the United States, right? You don't find this stuff, probably not even up in Canada. You might see something comparable in Europe, but it's different, right? The massive cathedrals in Europe could be like, 1000 years old too, but it's not the same as it being like, overtaken by the jungle and then carved out after they re-, quote-unquote, rediscovered it in the, you know, 1860s basically, a French guy discovered it in the 1860s again and brought it back to light in western civilization. And then the French actually occupied Cambodia for like, 100 years. And it wasn't until 1960s that Cambodia became Cambodia. Before that, it was an occupied territory of from the French, and it got its independence in the 60s. Brad Crowell 14:45  The second thing that is just amazing is the food. In Cambodia, they don't cook with milk or dairy products. There's no cheese. It's not standard. They also are generally light on the sauces, right? It's not like Thai food. Where everything has its own sauce, and it's half sauce and half whatever the dish is. It's different than that. They make a lot of curries, like I mentioned, it is, you know, a lot of influence from India and Thailand. There are a lot of noodle dishes, but there's a lot of rice dishes, and it's generally really clean eating, right? So if it's a rice dish, it's rice with a small side salad and then a little bit of prepared meat. Their quote-unquote sauce might be like salt and pepper mix, right? It's not sloshed with all this stuff. And so it's really great food. And it just, it's clean, easy, it's always farm to table, because they don't really have the big processing system that we do in the United States. So everything just tastes so good. I love it. And what we do, we get to work with, this is super special, when we moved there, there was this organization, it's an NGO, or a non-government organization that was started by somebody in the United States. They went there and they had a passion for Cambodia, and they said, hey, we could help. We could affect change by creating, effectively, a vo-tech school, right? So what they did is they would raise money, and then they would go into the countryside, and they would sponsor these kids who were really poor, who could not afford to educate themselves. And they said, hey, if you want to, we will give you a full ride, a full scholarship to our school. You'll stay on campus. You'll learn how to work in the service industry. So we'll teach you how to be a chef. We'll teach you how to be a pastry chef. We'll teach you how to be a barista or a server or a bartender or a manager or whatever. And so it's all surrounding the service industry. And then after the end of the program, after these kids go through the program, which I don't remember how long, it could be a couple years, because they also have, like, regular classes, and there's a dormitory and all this stuff. When they graduate, they actually will help them get a job placement. So they might move down to the big city in Phnom Penh and they go to a fancy hotel there, or maybe they stay relatively local in Siem Reap or maybe they go abroad, I don't know, but the school helps them get placed for a job. And this organization is called Spoons. Well, it's called Spoons today. I can't remember what it was called prior, because unfortunately, during COVID, all the money dried up and all the support dried up, and it wasn't available for them. And unfortunately, the American support basically said, hey, we got to close the doors. We don't have any way to keep this going. And the locals, the team that they have built, the Cambodians, some of them were graduates themselves, then helping to run the school, said, hey, this is an amazing thing that's really helping people here. We want to keep this going. And so they went locally, and they found a couple of really generous donors to effectively step in on the financial side to help support the school. And they were able to keep the doors open. And Lesley and I were there in like 2020 and things were still operating like normal when we were there in March of 2020 but then we were gone for two years. We weren't back until 2022 so when we finally got back in 2022 we went over there and we were talking to them, and they said, somehow we made it through. It's been crazy, but we were able to keep the doors open. And this year, we are sponsoring 20 students. This is the first time that we've ever operated as a company, as an organization, without any outside support. It's all like done locally. It's now run by and owned by Cambodians. They call themselves the Khmer people, run by khmer, and they were really proud of that, because they were able to keep this institution that had been put into place operating. And then the next year they had like 50 students. And then this past year, we were there, you know, we were just there in February of 2025, now, and they have like 78 students. And we're so pleased to be able to work with them, because we have them deliver our meals during the week. And then on the final day of the trip, we actually all go over to the restaurant, to Spoons, and they serve us. The students are working at the restaurant. So, you know, there's the head chef is a graduate, or the manager is a graduate, and they're making sure the wheels stay on the bus, but the barista, the servers, the bussers, all the food prep, all that stuff, is done by the students themselves. And it gives us so much joy to be able to support that organization. And the food they make is amazing. It's so good. Brad Crowell 19:03  We want to invite you to come join us in Cambodia on a trip and experience these things for yourself and join us so that we can make sure that you really do have an incredible time. Come stay at our house. It's so cool. Go to crowsnestretreats.com. We're taking another group in October of 2025, we're taking another group in October of 2026. In '26 we're only taking one group, so make sure that you check it out. Reach out to us and ask any question. I'm happy to answer them all. I love talking about this. I would love to get on the phone with you. It'd be amazing. So thank you so much for listening to me share my enthusiasm about this unbelievable place on our planet. And we hope you come join us. Bye for now.Lesley Logan 19:41  That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 20:24  It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 20:29  It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 20:33  Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 20:40  Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 20:44  Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

GGACP salutes National Humor Month AND celebrates the birthday of voice actor Billy West (b. April 16) by revisiting this fan favorite interview with Billy and comedian -- and former "Howard Stern Show" colleague -- Jackie Martling. In this episode, the boys discuss the cinema of George Pal, the versatility of Paul Frees, the uniqueness of Peter Sellers and the enduring legend of Joe Franklin. Also, Jonathan Winters disses Don Adams, Jack Carter guests on “Ren & Stimpy,” Billy meets The Man from Uncle and Jackie weighs in on the Gilbert-Shecky Greene clash. PLUS: “Shock Theater”! “7 Faces of Dr. Lao”! The return of the Jackie puppet! Curly Howard takes a bullet! And George Jessel duets with…George Jessel? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices