US authorities have raised concerns that weave supplied from Chinese companies may actually have been made with forced labor from ethnic minorities locked away in internment camps. In North America, a hot new sparrow song is spreading like wildfire throughout the bird population. In Mongolia, authorities are moving swiftly to suppress a possible outbreak of the bubonic plague. Join Ben Bowlin for more Strange News Daily, and share your stories on Twitter: #strangedaily.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Strange News Daily. It's a production of I heart media.
In a world full of bizarre events, unsolved mysteries, and
a billion stories from all corners of the globe, some
(00:22):
news gets lost in the shuffle. This is your gateway
to the stories on the fringe of the mainstream map.
These are your dispatches in the dark. I'm Ben Bolan,
and this is the Strange News Daily, our first story today.
(00:44):
Earlier this week, federal authorities in New York seized the
shipment of weave, along with other beauty accessories that were
suspected to be made from human hair taken from people
locked inside a Chinese internment camp. Officials from the US
Customs and Border Protection said that thirteen tons that's eleven
(01:04):
point eight metric tons of hair product were in the shipment. Altogether,
this is worth about eight hundred thousand U S dollars.
Brenda Smith, the Executive Assistant Commissioner of the CPB S
Office of Trade, says, the production of these goods constitutes
a very serious human rights violation, and the detention order
(01:25):
is intended to send a clear and direct message to
all entities seeking to do business with the US that
elicit and inhumane practices will not be tolerated in US
supply chains. This is the second time this year that
the agency has slapped a detention order on shipments of
hair weave from China based on suspicions that the people
(01:47):
making them face human rights abuses. The orders are used
to hold shipping containers at US ports of entry until
the agency can investigate and verify any claims of wrongdoing.
Rushan Abbus is a weaker American activist. She says women
who use hair weeds should think about who might be
(02:08):
making them. We should also mention that Rushan Abbas's sister
is a medical doctor who went missing in China almost
two years ago and is currently believed to be locked
in one of these camps. Abbas says, this is so
heartbreaking for US. I want people to think about the
slavery people are experiencing today. My sister is sitting somewhere
(02:29):
being forced to make what hair pieces. This shipment, which
arrived this past Wednesday, was made by Lop County Mission
Hair Product Company Limited. In May, a similar detention was
placed on Haitian how Len Hair Accessories Company Limited, but
those weaves were synthetic, not human. Holland's products were imported
(02:50):
by O's Hair in Duluth, Georgia, and I and I Hair,
which is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. I and I's weaves
are sold under the Innocence and Two salons and to
individual customers around the country. Both of these exporters are
located in the Xinyang region, which is in the far
west of China. Over the past four years, the government
(03:13):
has detained and estimated one million or more people, all
of ethnic Turkic minority in this part of the country.
These ethnic minorities are held in what are described as
internment camps and prisons, where they are subjected to ideological
discipline a k a. Brainwashing. They're forced to denounce their
religion and they can't use their normal language. They're physically abused.
(03:38):
The government of China has long suspected minorities, particularly the
Weaker people, of harboring separatist tendencies because they have a
distinct culture, language, and religion. We should add that the
weaker are also mostly Muslim. Reports by international news organizations
have repeatedly found the people inside the internment camp. Some prisons,
(04:00):
which the activists called black factories, are making sportswear and
other apparel for popular US brands. The Chinese Ministry of Affairs,
by the way, says there is no forced labor, nor
is there any detention of ethnic minorities. In a statement,
the ministry said, we hope that certain people in the
United States can take off their tented glasses, correctly, understand
(04:23):
and objectively irrationally view normal economic and trade cooperation between
Chinese and American enterprises and Last December, authorities in sin
Yang said that the camps had closed all the detainees
had graduated. It's difficult to corroborate this claim because there
are still tight surveillance routines and many restrictions on reporting
(04:46):
in the region. Some Weakers and some members of Kazak
communities have told international media that their relatives have been released,
yet many others say their loved ones remain locked up,
or were sentenced to prison, or were transfer to forced
labor and other factories. While tariff sand embargoes over political
issues are, to be honest, pretty common, it is very
(05:09):
rare for the US government to block imports produced by
forced labor. Our second story today, some birds on the
North American continent are changing their tune. The white throated
(05:33):
Sparrow has a traditional song. It ends with a distinctive,
repeated triplet of notes. However, it turns out that by
the year two thousand, some birds in Western Canada were
whistling a different song. It was a variation ending with
a two note pattern. And now that new song has
become a runaway hit in the sparrow community, it's spread
(05:57):
across the continent. This is according to a report in
Current Biology that was published on July two. Why are
these findings interesting, Well, they contradict previous hypotheses that birdsong
dialects don't change much in local regions. The rapid spread
of this new song is kind of like someone moving
(06:19):
from the deep South in Mississippi all the way up
to Boston, and then all of a sudden, because of
that one person, everybody in Boston starts speaking with a
deep Mississippi accent. At least, those are the kind of
examples and a van behavioral ecologists named Ken Otter at
the University of Northern British Columbia likes to make. Otter
(06:43):
and his colleagues documented the adoption of the Western song
at a research station in eastern Canada in two thousand
and five. Just one male out of seventy six sparrow
survey saying the doublet ending song the two note ending,
But in just a few years later of one and
one male sparrows surveyed saying that new song, and in
(07:07):
nearly half of ninety two males that were recorded had
also adopted the variation. What's interesting here is that we
can actually see the transition from one song to the
next unfolding in real time. The researchers confirmed the spread
of the song, with the double noted ending across the
continent as far east as Quebec and Vermont, via recordings
(07:30):
that were made from numerous citizens and other scientists. Currently,
experts believe the eastern sparrows probably picked up the new
song at common wintering grounds, and by tracking birds from
central British Columbia with backpack like geo locators, the team
was able to find that birds migrated to the southern
US great planes. These overlap with known wintering grounds of
(07:53):
birds that feed east of the Rockies, and the researchers
have a pretty intry steeing. Been a speculation here to
explain this strange shift in song, there may be romance
in the air. In fact, female sparrows may have a
preference for novel songs. The scientists say that if this
(08:17):
is the cause of the shift, it will become a
focus for study in the future. Our third story today,
two siblings in Mongolia appear to have contracted bubonic plague
(08:39):
after eating the flesh of marmots. Authorities have carried out
urgent checks on one and forty six people with whom
these two brothers were in contact, but there are some
five hundred of other people that these contacts themselves have
been in touch with. Brubonic plague is a deadly serious disease.
(09:01):
It's a bacterial infection that can kill adults within twenty
four hours unless there's some sort of intervening treatment. Pansach BT,
who is twenty seven and his brother is seventeen, are
currently being treated in separate hospitals in the Coved province
in western Mongolia. The elder brother is said to be
(09:21):
in critical condition and the staff at the hospital is
taking major security precautions because everyone is, of course terrified
of this infection spreading. The Bubonic plague can often spread
via fleas that live on wild rodents such as rats
or of course, marmots. Mongolia's National Center for Zoonotic Diseases
(09:45):
confirmed that bubonic plague had been diagnosed for both of
the siblings, but this is unfortunately not a new occurrence.
Just last April, a couple died of bubonic plague and
Western Mongolia again after eating arm at meat marmots. For
anyone unfamiliar are rodents, they're technically the heaviest member of
(10:08):
the squirrel family. As the world continues to fight the
coronavirus pandemic, it's up to local and regional health authorities
to keep an eye out for other outbreaks that may
occur while the populations are in a vulnerable space and
while the typical health infrastructure is already overwhelmed by COVID nineteen.
(10:30):
Stay safe out there, folks. That's all for now. We've
been asking you to chime in with suggestions for stories
you think your fellow listeners might enjoy. To hit us
with your best or worst jokes, as well as your
personal experience with COVID nineteen, the ongoing protests, or anything
else that's happening in your neck of the global woods.
(10:51):
Let us know. Tag hashtag strange daily on Twitter, or
reach out to me directly. I'm at Ben Bullin HSW
on Twitter or at ben Bullin on Instagram him thanks
as always to our super producer Dylan Fagan, our research
associates m T. Garden, and most importantly, thanks to you.
I'm Ben Bully. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, stay strange.
Strange News Daily. It's a production of I heart media.
In a world full of bizarre events, unsolved mysteries, and
a billion stories from all corners of the globe, some
(00:22):
news gets lost in the shuffle. This is your gateway
to the stories on the fringe of the mainstream map.
These are your dispatches in the dark. I'm Ben Bolan,
and this is the Strange News Daily, our first story today.
(00:44):
Earlier this week, federal authorities in New York seized the
shipment of weave, along with other beauty accessories that were
suspected to be made from human hair taken from people
locked inside a Chinese internment camp. Officials from the US
Customs and Border Protection said that thirteen tons that's eleven
(01:04):
point eight metric tons of hair product were in the shipment. Altogether,
this is worth about eight hundred thousand U S dollars.
Brenda Smith, the Executive Assistant Commissioner of the CPB S
Office of Trade, says, the production of these goods constitutes
a very serious human rights violation, and the detention order
(01:25):
is intended to send a clear and direct message to
all entities seeking to do business with the US that
elicit and inhumane practices will not be tolerated in US
supply chains. This is the second time this year that
the agency has slapped a detention order on shipments of
hair weave from China based on suspicions that the people
(01:47):
making them face human rights abuses. The orders are used
to hold shipping containers at US ports of entry until
the agency can investigate and verify any claims of wrongdoing.
Rushan Abbus is a weaker American activist. She says women
who use hair weeds should think about who might be
(02:08):
making them. We should also mention that Rushan Abbas's sister
is a medical doctor who went missing in China almost
two years ago and is currently believed to be locked
in one of these camps. Abbas says, this is so
heartbreaking for US. I want people to think about the
slavery people are experiencing today. My sister is sitting somewhere
(02:29):
being forced to make what hair pieces. This shipment, which
arrived this past Wednesday, was made by Lop County Mission
Hair Product Company Limited. In May, a similar detention was
placed on Haitian how Len Hair Accessories Company Limited, but
those weaves were synthetic, not human. Holland's products were imported
(02:50):
by O's Hair in Duluth, Georgia, and I and I Hair,
which is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. I and I's weaves
are sold under the Innocence and Two salons and to
individual customers around the country. Both of these exporters are
located in the Xinyang region, which is in the far
west of China. Over the past four years, the government
(03:13):
has detained and estimated one million or more people, all
of ethnic Turkic minority in this part of the country.
These ethnic minorities are held in what are described as
internment camps and prisons, where they are subjected to ideological
discipline a k a. Brainwashing. They're forced to denounce their
religion and they can't use their normal language. They're physically abused.
(03:38):
The government of China has long suspected minorities, particularly the
Weaker people, of harboring separatist tendencies because they have a
distinct culture, language, and religion. We should add that the
weaker are also mostly Muslim. Reports by international news organizations
have repeatedly found the people inside the internment camp. Some prisons,
(04:00):
which the activists called black factories, are making sportswear and
other apparel for popular US brands. The Chinese Ministry of Affairs,
by the way, says there is no forced labor, nor
is there any detention of ethnic minorities. In a statement,
the ministry said, we hope that certain people in the
United States can take off their tented glasses, correctly, understand
(04:23):
and objectively irrationally view normal economic and trade cooperation between
Chinese and American enterprises and Last December, authorities in sin
Yang said that the camps had closed all the detainees
had graduated. It's difficult to corroborate this claim because there
are still tight surveillance routines and many restrictions on reporting
(04:46):
in the region. Some Weakers and some members of Kazak
communities have told international media that their relatives have been released,
yet many others say their loved ones remain locked up,
or were sentenced to prison, or were transfer to forced
labor and other factories. While tariff sand embargoes over political
issues are, to be honest, pretty common, it is very
(05:09):
rare for the US government to block imports produced by
forced labor. Our second story today, some birds on the
North American continent are changing their tune. The white throated
(05:33):
Sparrow has a traditional song. It ends with a distinctive,
repeated triplet of notes. However, it turns out that by
the year two thousand, some birds in Western Canada were
whistling a different song. It was a variation ending with
a two note pattern. And now that new song has
become a runaway hit in the sparrow community, it's spread
(05:57):
across the continent. This is according to a report in
Current Biology that was published on July two. Why are
these findings interesting, Well, they contradict previous hypotheses that birdsong
dialects don't change much in local regions. The rapid spread
of this new song is kind of like someone moving
(06:19):
from the deep South in Mississippi all the way up
to Boston, and then all of a sudden, because of
that one person, everybody in Boston starts speaking with a
deep Mississippi accent. At least, those are the kind of
examples and a van behavioral ecologists named Ken Otter at
the University of Northern British Columbia likes to make. Otter
(06:43):
and his colleagues documented the adoption of the Western song
at a research station in eastern Canada in two thousand
and five. Just one male out of seventy six sparrow
survey saying the doublet ending song the two note ending,
But in just a few years later of one and
one male sparrows surveyed saying that new song, and in
(07:07):
nearly half of ninety two males that were recorded had
also adopted the variation. What's interesting here is that we
can actually see the transition from one song to the
next unfolding in real time. The researchers confirmed the spread
of the song, with the double noted ending across the
continent as far east as Quebec and Vermont, via recordings
(07:30):
that were made from numerous citizens and other scientists. Currently,
experts believe the eastern sparrows probably picked up the new
song at common wintering grounds, and by tracking birds from
central British Columbia with backpack like geo locators, the team
was able to find that birds migrated to the southern
US great planes. These overlap with known wintering grounds of
(07:53):
birds that feed east of the Rockies, and the researchers
have a pretty intry steeing. Been a speculation here to
explain this strange shift in song, there may be romance
in the air. In fact, female sparrows may have a
preference for novel songs. The scientists say that if this
(08:17):
is the cause of the shift, it will become a
focus for study in the future. Our third story today,
two siblings in Mongolia appear to have contracted bubonic plague
(08:39):
after eating the flesh of marmots. Authorities have carried out
urgent checks on one and forty six people with whom
these two brothers were in contact, but there are some
five hundred of other people that these contacts themselves have
been in touch with. Brubonic plague is a deadly serious disease.
(09:01):
It's a bacterial infection that can kill adults within twenty
four hours unless there's some sort of intervening treatment. Pansach BT,
who is twenty seven and his brother is seventeen, are
currently being treated in separate hospitals in the Coved province
in western Mongolia. The elder brother is said to be
(09:21):
in critical condition and the staff at the hospital is
taking major security precautions because everyone is, of course terrified
of this infection spreading. The Bubonic plague can often spread
via fleas that live on wild rodents such as rats
or of course, marmots. Mongolia's National Center for Zoonotic Diseases
(09:45):
confirmed that bubonic plague had been diagnosed for both of
the siblings, but this is unfortunately not a new occurrence.
Just last April, a couple died of bubonic plague and
Western Mongolia again after eating arm at meat marmots. For
anyone unfamiliar are rodents, they're technically the heaviest member of
(10:08):
the squirrel family. As the world continues to fight the
coronavirus pandemic, it's up to local and regional health authorities
to keep an eye out for other outbreaks that may
occur while the populations are in a vulnerable space and
while the typical health infrastructure is already overwhelmed by COVID nineteen.
(10:30):
Stay safe out there, folks. That's all for now. We've
been asking you to chime in with suggestions for stories
you think your fellow listeners might enjoy. To hit us
with your best or worst jokes, as well as your
personal experience with COVID nineteen, the ongoing protests, or anything
else that's happening in your neck of the global woods.
(10:51):
Let us know. Tag hashtag strange daily on Twitter, or
reach out to me directly. I'm at Ben Bullin HSW
on Twitter or at ben Bullin on Instagram him thanks
as always to our super producer Dylan Fagan, our research
associates m T. Garden, and most importantly, thanks to you.
I'm Ben Bully. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, stay strange.
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