African presidents congratulate Trump on US election victory

Posted on by SeeAF

Johannesburg — Donald Trump’s victory over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris dominated the news cycle across Africa on Wednesday, with coverage reflecting the anxiety being felt by some on the continent. 

In South Africa, the newspaper Business Day ran an opinion column headlined “Trump’s comeback heralds harder U.S. approach to Africa,” while another local newspaper, The Sunday Times, was running a poll for readers asking: “Are you worried about Donald Trump being elected U.S. president?” 

A cartoon by renowned South African political cartoonist Zapiro in the Daily Maverick newspaper depicted a frightened looking globe watching TV as U.S. election results came in. 

The markets were also affected, with South Africa’s currency, the rand, dropping almost 3% on the news in the early hours of trading. 

Trump inspires mixed views on the continent, having riled some by calling African countries a derogatory name in his first term, and being viewed positively by others as a kind of “strongman” leader. 

Steven Gruzd, a political analyst with the South African Institute of International Affairs, told VOA that Trump did not pay much attention to Africa in his first term and he doesn’t expect that to change. 

“Africa is not going to be a priority for the second Trump administration by any measure, and I don’t think we should expect too much,” he said. “I think we’re also going to see a world that has a very different USA in operation, and African countries will have to decide how they deal with that.” 

Asanda Ngoasheng, an independent analyst in Cape Town, said she believes a Trump presidency will affect Africa in terms of trade, with South Africa possibly seeing its exports to the U.S. reduced. 

Ngoasheng said public health funding for Africa could also be affected under the incoming Republican administration, particularly for reproductive health. Likewise, any reduction in U.S. contributions to the United Nations could have negative effects on the continent, she said. 

“Donald Trump has been very clear that his administration will be an America-first administration. … This is going to have implications for Africa,” Ngoasheng said. 

As is diplomatic custom, leaders around the world congratulated the U.S. election winner. 

Kenyan President William Ruto, who recently paid a state visit to the U.S. at President Joe Biden’s invitation, praised what he called Trump’s “visionary, bold and innovative leadership.” 

Nigerian leader Bola Tinubu said he hoped Trump’s presidency would usher in an era of “beneficial and reciprocal economic and development partnerships” between Africa and the U.S. 

And South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa said he looked forward to continuing a “mutually beneficial partnership” between the two countries. 

The statements come as African governments are hoping the U.S. will renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, next year. The preferential trade policy gives some countries duty-free access to the U.S. market. 

However, the president of the Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan, had other concerns about what a second Trump presidency could mean for his Indian Ocean island nation, which is under particular threat from climate change and rising sea levels. 

“We are going through a climate crisis, so will the U.S. once again pull out of the Paris Agreement? … What will be the pronouncement of President Trump?” Ramkalawan asked.

Ramkalawan, speaking at a press event in Johannesburg, was referring to the fact that in his first term Trump withdrew the U.S. from a major international agreement to limit global warming. The U.S. rejoined the pact under President Biden. 
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Nigerian president says army chief is dead

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ABUJA, NIGERIA — Nigerian army chief Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja has died, according to a statement Wednesday from the country’s president.

On the social media platform X, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu announced Lagbaja’s death and expressed condolences to his family and Nigeria’s armed forces.

Lagbaja, 56, died in Lagos on Tuesday night after a period of illness, authorities said. They did not elaborate on his illness.

Two weeks ago, Nigerian defense authorities denied rumors suggesting the army chief had died after his prolonged absence from the public and active duty.

The Nigerian army has been fighting various adversaries across the country, including bandits and the Boko Haram insurgents.

Lagbaja is not the first Nigerian army chief to die while on active duty in recent years. In 2021, Ibrahim Attahiru died in a military air crash along with 10 other high-ranking officials.

Tinubu appointed Lagbaja in June 2023, shortly after taking office. Lagbaja launched a campaign seeking to repair the reputation of the military, which is often accused of mistreating civilians and extrajudicial killings.

Last week, Tinubu appointed Olufemi Oluyede as acting army chief and, on Tuesday, promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general.
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Donald Trump projected winner in US presidential race

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With Donald Trump’s projected victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, VOA’s Tina Trinh explores how his past policies and current positions offer insight into the upcoming presidency. (Camera: Tina Trinh)
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Taiwanese couple prosecuted for spreading China’s propaganda

Posted on by SeeEA

Washington — Judicial investigators in Taiwan have indicted a couple affiliated with a small political party on charges of receiving millions of dollars from Chinese authorities to promote the Chinese government’s political agenda and influence Taiwan’s elections and referendums.

Taiwan’s Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office said Monday it has charged Chang Meng-chung and his wife, Hung Wen-ting, with violating Taiwan’s Anti-Infiltration Act and election laws by making radio and digital media propaganda for Beijing in exchange for NT$74 million, approximately $2.32 million, paid out over more than a decade.

Prosecutors allege China’s Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing and the TAO branch office in China’s Fujian Province paid the couple between 2011 and 2023 to promote candidates favored by Beijing, disparage Hong Kong democracy activists and members of the Falun Gong spiritual group, boast about China’s military power, and urge Taiwan’s troops to surrender in the event of China’s invasion.

Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province that must one day reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary, and carries out frequent military drills around the self-governing island to assert its claim. Most Taiwanese oppose rejoining China.

Chang and Hung are members of the China Unification Promotion Party, or CUPP, a small Taiwanese political party that Reuters reports has about 60,000 members and promotes Taiwan’s unification with the mainland.

Prosecutors allege the couple went to mainland China many times to provide program summaries and plans for Chinese authorities’ review.

In a response to the charges broadcast by multiple Taiwanese TV stations, Chang said, “Taiwan says it’s democratic, but it’s not democratic at all. The CUPP has always been championing cross-strait reunification, so what I said is the same as what the CUPP has always advocated.”

According to a report by Taiwan’s Central News Agency, if found guilty, the couple could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to NT$10 million, roughly $313,400.

Chao Fang-yi, a non-resident fellow at the Research Institute of Democracy, Security, and Emerging Technology in Taiwan, told VOA Mandarin that the use of the Anti-Infiltration Act, which came into effect in January 2020, was significant because authorities have struggled in the past to connect CUPP finances to China.

“Actually, if China wants to give them money, it may be in a very obscure way, and it may be difficult to trace it,” said Chao. “So, this time, there is clear evidence so it can be prosecuted. I think it’s also a pretty powerful thing.”

Taiwan authorities have long sought to prosecute CUPP’s founder Chang An-lo, also known as the “White Wolf,” who had links to organized crime. Chang was imprisoned for 10 years in the U.S. in the 1980s for drug trafficking and then lived in exile for 17 years in China before returning to the island in 2013 and turning himself in to authorities. But charges of organized crime were later dropped.

Taiwanese police in 2018 raided Chang An-lo’s house and CUPP headquarters to look for evidence of funding from Beijing, which Chang denied. Charges that he violated a political donation law were dropped in July 2024, but Chang was sentenced to eight months in prison for forging documents and tax violations.

In August, Taiwan’s High Prosecutors’ Office charged three Taiwanese affiliated with CUPP with developing a spy network to infiltrate the Taiwanese military.

The Investigation Bureau of Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice said in its statement Monday that authorities investigating Chang Meng-chung and his wife searched 24 locations between December 2023 and July of this year. The bureau said it seized mobile phones, computers, financial records and other evidence.

The bureau and prosecutor’s office said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on the mainland has taken advantage of Taiwan’s democratic freedoms to instruct, entrust or fund domestic collaborators to carry out infiltration and division and spread disinformation against Taiwan to manipulate and interfere in its elections and national security.

VOA has not seen any comments on the arrests from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office of the CCP Central Committee or the Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s State Council, Bejing’s relevant authorities who speak on Taiwan issues, by the time of publication.

Adrianna Zhang from VOA Mandarin Service contributed to this story. 
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Arab leaders congratulate Trump but wonder if he can end Middle East wars as promised

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AMMAN, JORDAN — Arab leaders quickly congratulated Donald Trump on his U.S. presidential election victory. Some are hopeful he could bring an end to conflicts raging in the Middle East while others are looking for a stronger stance against Iran.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, United Arab Emirates leaders, and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, all congratulated Donald Trump on his win, saying strengthening strategic partnerships is important.

Dania Koleilat Khatib, president of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building in Beirut, told VOA that during the election, Trump emphasized personal ties with such leaders compared to what she called Biden’s more transactional approach.

Khatib said Arab leaders want Trump to end war in Gaza and Lebanon.

“One of his main campaign promises was to end the war in Gaza. But end it how? Would it end with a Palestinian state? We don’t know,” she said. “The thing that is worrying is [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu attacking Iran. This will be major. Handling Iran will not be easy for Trump.”

Bin Salman has reiterated that his country would not consider improving ties with Israel unless the Gaza war ended and a Palestinian state is established.

Wealthy Gulf states have bolstered ties with Iran and given the Islamic Republic assurances that they won’t allow Israel to use their airspace to facilitate attacks on Iran.

In its response to the elections, Iran played down the results, saying it was ready for confrontation with Israel.

Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Makati, who are involved in trying to negotiate an end to the raging conflicts, also congratulated Trump.

Analyst Osama Al Sharif in Amman said he believes Trump will pressure Netanyahu to end the conflicts before the presidential inauguration next year.

“He will boldly tell Netanyahu … to wrap things up before the 20th of January because those two wars, especially Gaza, have become so toxic and they have become part of the [President Joe] Biden stigma, which was also eventually inflicted on [Vice President Kamala] Harris,” he said.

“Trump doesn’t need to start his first day at the office with more news of children getting killed and hospitals being blown up.”

Al Sharif told VOA that Iran will be a big challenge for Trump, who he says is an “isolationist who wants to extract America from any conflict.” He predicted Trump may tighten sanctions on Iran.

“More sanctions,” he said. “He may be able to communicate with Tehran through [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, who is now a very close ally of the Iranians. That remains to be seen.”

Al Sharif, however, expressed concern that Trump might recognize Israel’s annexation of most of the West Bank under Israel’s current hard right government, which he said “would complicate things dramatically” for the Palestinians and Jordan.
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Ukrainian physicians find homes – and jobs – in Latvia 

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Over 160,000 Ukrainians fled their home country and came to the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia since the Russian invasion. Physicians were among the 50 thousand or so refugees who came to Latvia. Vladislavs Andrejevs spoke with some of them in Riga. Anna Rice narrates his story. (Camera: Vladislavs Andrejevs ; Produced by
Yuriy Zakrevskiy)
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Republicans take control of US Senate; House still undecided

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The Republican party won back a majority in the Senate with at least 51 of 100 seats in Tuesday’s election. Control of the House of Representatives, which is currently held by Republicans, was not yet decided early Wednesday.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives were at stake in elections throughout the United States for new two-year terms, while 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate were contested for new six-year terms.

Before election day, Democrats had narrow control of the Senate and Republicans of the House. Key Republican victories for Senate seats in West Virginia and Ohio put them in position to be back in the majority.

In the House, Republicans held a 220-212 edge, with three vacant seats going into the election. Control of that chamber has not been confirmed yet. Control of the House may not be known for several days, as California has often taken days to count ballots, and recounts and runoffs of close races can take weeks to resolve.

Political surveys throughout the election campaign have shown voters — much like in the Kamala Harris-Donald Trump race for the White House — evenly divided in their political preference for congressional control.

An October Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 43% of registered voters would back the Republican House candidate in their district, while 43% would back the Democratic candidate.
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Can bees and dogs sniff out cancer better than machines?

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In labs across the United States, scientists are working on innovative tests using animals and insects to detect cancer earlier. As VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports, recent research suggests bees and dogs can sniff out the disease sooner than machines can.
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 Russia paints doomsday portrayal of US elections 

Posted on by SeeEU

The FBI said more than 50 election sites across five battleground states received hoax bomb emails on Election Day in the U.S., and the emails in four of these states came from a Russian domain.

None of the threats sent to polling sites in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona were deemed credible, and while causing a brief disruption, they did not affect the voting, the FBI said.

“We identified the source, and it was from Russia,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a news conference, adding that the Russians “don’t want us to have free, fair and accurate elections, and if they could make us fight among ourselves, they could count that as a victory.”

Russia denied involvement, claiming to “never” have interfered in elections in the U.S. or elsewhere. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Russian Embassy in the U.S. used similar language, calling the FBI allegations “malicious slander.”

That belies a well-documented decades-long history of Russian attempts to meddle in the domestic affairs of numerous nations across continents, including systematic efforts against the United States, ranging from malicious cyberattacks to multimillion-dollar disinformation campaigns.

Just last week, German officials said Russia organized bomb threats targeting polling stations during the presidential elections in Moldova, where the Kremlin is accused of trying but failing to replace the pro-Western president, Maia Sandu, with a more amenable candidate.

As it became clear that former U.S. President Donald Trump was poised to return to power, Russian officials and state media signaled their satisfaction with the result.

Vice President Kalala Harris, the Democratic candidate, “is finished,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev posted on social media platform X. “The objectives of the Special Military Operation [Russia’s war in Ukraine] remain unchanged and will be achieved.”

The Kremlin-owned Sputnik News branch in India posted on X a short AI-generated video showing a laughing Harris against a background of exploding bombs and destroyed towns in Ukraine. Harris is leaving behind a “rich foreign policy legacy,” the post said.

Russia-linked accounts shared posts saying goodbye to nearly all officials in the current U.S. administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whom they called a “butcher” for his support to Ukraine.

Russia’s state-controlled news network RT [formerly Russia Today] published an election night story featuring its U.S. correspondent Valentin Bogdanov’s experience among Trump’s “most loyal supporters” near his Mar-a-Largo residence in Florida.

Bogdanov described the affairs in the U.S. as “a deep people against a deep state,” and predicted a civil war in a “dysfunctional state.” He painted a picture of a chaotic, fraudulent election with officials at polling sites in Michigan, Arizona and Maryland among other states faking technical issues to cast Trump votes for Harris.

None of those claims proved credible. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency described the elections as “free, fair and safe.”

Russia’s meddling efforts are not limited to its alleged role in the hoax bomb threats on Election Day. On November 1, the Office of the Direction of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint statement from the U.S. Intelligence Community stating that “Russian influence actors” created a fake video falsely showing people claiming to be from Haiti voting illegally in various Georgia counties.
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Hanoi demands Beijing return detained Vietnamese fishermen, ramps up island-building

Posted on by SeeEA

Ho Chi Minh City — Vietnam is taking a more outspoken and transparent approach in response to China’s recent detention of Vietnamese fishermen in the South China Sea, analysts tell VOA.

Hanoi is also moving forward with the construction of a new airstrip on a reef in its exclusive economic zone to further assert its sovereignty and challenge Beijing’s claims.

Late last week, deputy spokesperson for Vietnam’s foreign affairs ministry Doan Khac Viet called on China to release the fishermen who were captured with their fishing vessels in waters surrounding the Paracel Islands. Vietnam did not specify when or how many fishermen were detained. 

“Vietnam resolutely opposes China’s actions, and requests China to fully respect Vietnam’s rights over the Paracel Islands, release all illegally detained Vietnamese fishermen and vessels, compensate for damage, and stop and not repeat the harassment and illegal capture of Vietnamese vessels and fishermen,” Viet said during a news conference late last week on October 31.

Viet did not say when or how many fishermen have been detained. However, Radio Free Asia quoted a Chinese think tank saying this week that Vietnamese fishermen have been in Chinese detention in the Paracel archipelago for more than six months.

The Beijing-based South China Sea Probing Initiative, or SCSPI, said on the social media platform X that the fishermen “were detained in April and May” for illegal fishing activities in the waters around the Paracels, RFA reported.

“There are always Vietnamese fishermen in waters that are sensitive,” Raymond Powell, a fellow at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, told VOA on Monday. “We don’t know really how many have been detained because Vietnam is not the most transparent of administrations.”

China has disputed Vietnam’s description of what happened.

Asked about the incident last Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, “China urges the Vietnamese side to do more to ask their fishermen to stop being engaged in illegal activities in waters under China’s jurisdiction.”

Known as Hoang Sa in Vietnamese, the Paracels have been under Chinese control since it occupied the islands in a violent conflict with Vietnam in 1974. China claims that most of the South China Sea is part of its territory, despite an international ruling to the contrary.

Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said China’s harassment of Vietnamese fishermen around the Paracels is common but Hanoi’s recent response shows a new approach from Hanoi.

“I think this move is inspired by the ‘transparency initiative’ by the Philippines,” Giang told VOA on a November 5 call, referring to how the Philippines government under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been exposing China’s aggression in the South China Sea.

Hanoi must manage a delicate balancing act, squeezed between its powerful neighbor, Western allies, and showing its population, it is not kowtowing to China, Giang added.

By taking a more transparent approach similar to the Philippines, Vietnam is allowing “anyone who wants to know about the current situation in the South China Sea dispute to judge for themselves who is right and who is wrong,” Giang said. “Vietnam has to play the game. Having this kind of transparency initiative is a part of the game.”

Clashing at sea

Vietnam hasn’t been as outspoken regarding China’s actions in the South China Sea since 2014, when China deployed an oil rig near the Paracel Islands, Giang said. The move led to anti-China protests in Vietnam and a monthslong standoff between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels.

Giang noticed Hanoi again taking a more public approach in early October when local media reported a “brutal attack on fishermen from Quang Ngai province.”

According to local outlet VnExpress, two Chinese ships surrounded a Vietnamese fishing vessel on September 29. About 40 people from the Chinese ships boarded the Vietnamese vessel and beat the fishermen with metal rods, breaking bones and leaving one man unconscious.

The Vietnamese fishermen said their gear and fish catch weighing four tons were also stolen before they were allowed to return to land.

A fisherman in his 30s from coastal Binh Thuan province described Chinese fishing vessels in that area are “armed and aggressive.”

“The Chinese don’t seem afraid of us,” he told VOA in Vietnamese on November 4, asking to withhold his name due to the sensitivity of the topic. “In fact, they behave as if the area belongs to their country.”

The fishermen in Binh Thuan said one of his friends has “been threatened by a Chinese boat” and another has had their vessel “attacked” by a Chinese ship and their equipment stolen.

On October 2, foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang stated, “Vietnam is extremely concerned, indignant and resolutely protests the brutal treatment by Chinese law enforcement forces of Vietnamese fishermen.”

Powell of Stanford University, said that Hanoi is generally more tight-lipped when it comes to China’s attacks on Vietnamese fishermen, but the recent beatings may have been impossible for Hanoi to ignore.

“They may just have reached their limit,” Powell told VOA over the phone on November 4. “The injury to those fishermen was so bad that it really couldn’t be contained.”

New airstrip

In addition to protesting China’s treatment of Vietnamese fishermen, Hanoi has been building up artificial islands in the South China Sea. Satellite imagery shows its most recent effort is building an airstrip on Barque Canada reef, a rock near the within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone.

Collin Koh Swee Lean, senior fellow at Singapore’s Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, told VOA on November 5 that the airstrip could be as long as 3,000 meters (1.86 miles). He noted that the airstrip is likely to be used for temporary stopovers, refueling aircraft, and potentially to store munitions and rearm during a crisis.

The airstrip “will allow the Vietnamese to have a much more persistent presence over the South China Sea,” Koh said.

Powell said that Vietnam has used China’s preoccupation with the Philippines in recent years to focus on island-building. “China hasn’t said very much about [Vietnam’s island-building] perhaps because they’ve been so preoccupied with the Philippines,” Powell said. “Vietnam is literally strengthening their military outposts.”

Growing its military strength at sea is considered crucial for Hanoi as China’s influence grows over neighboring Cambodia and Laos. Hanoi may also be concerned about the Philippines swinging to a more China-friendly leadership in its 2028 election.

“The Vietnamese realized that there is so much Chinese build-up in the neighborhood,” he said. “Vietnam is trying to counter that with its own build-up.” 
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Ukraine reports destroying 38 Russian drones

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Ukraine’s military said Wednesday it shot down 38 of the 63 aerial drones that Russian forces launched in overnight attacks.

The Ukrainian air force said it intercepted the drones over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zhytomyr and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv, said on Telegram that Russia’s attack damaged energy infrastructure, but did not hurt anyone.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it destroyed two Ukrainian drones over the Kursk region and another drone over Oryol.

Russian officials said there were no reports of damage or casualties.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that his country’s forces have engaged in battle with the North Korean troops that were deployed to Russia to assist in its war on Ukraine.

“The first battles with North Korean soldiers open a new page of instability in the world,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday in his daily address — his first official acknowledgement of the encounter between the two forces.

Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defense minister, has also confirmed the arrival of the North Korean forces. In an interview with South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS, he said the Ukrainian and North Korean forces have engaged in “small-scale” fighting.

“The first North Korean troops have already been shelled in the Kursk region,” said Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

According to a U.S. official quoted by The New York Times late Tuesday, a “significant number” of North Korean troops had been killed, though the report said it was not clear when the fighting had occurred.

Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse, Reuters and The Associated Press. 
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Trump speaks to supporters in Florida

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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks to his supporters at an election night watch party early Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.  
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Germany’s awkward coalition faces make-or-break moment

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berlin — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition faces a make-or-break moment on Wednesday as leaders of the three parties convene to forge compromises between their differing visions on rescuing the economy from decline.

Relations between Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and free-market Free Democrats (FDP) have sunk to new lows over the past week as they aired their respective strategies without consulting one another.

The FDP, long the odd-one-out in the ideologically mismatched and fractious coalition, has doubled down on its ultimatum: that some key deals must be reached in what the party has called an “autumn of decisions,” or the coalition is finished.

“We need a real change in direction,” FDP parliamentary chief Christian Duerr said on Tuesday.

Scholz, Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the FDP and Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens are set to hold two crisis meetings on Wednesday, in addition to attending a cabinet meeting with a packed agenda.

Then they will join a broader gathering of parliamentary and party leaders from the three camps at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT) that could extend into the night.

The chancellor and his two top ministers hope to reach a preliminary agreement on how to plug a multi-billion-dollar hole in the budget and forge a compromise on economic policies that they can present to their respective parties.

“It’s clear it is possible,” Scholz told reporters on Tuesday.

A coalition collapse could leave Scholz heading a minority government and relying on ad hoc parliamentary majorities to govern, or trigger an early election – which surveys suggest would be disastrous for all three coalition parties.

The SPD and Greens are polling well below their scores in the 2021 election, while the FDP could be ejected from parliament altogether.

The three parties are at odds over how best to rescue Europe’s largest economy, which is now facing its second year of contraction and a crisis in its business model after the end of cheap Russian gas and amid increasing competition from China.

The FDP has proposed public spending cuts, lower taxes and less regulation as the answer to this malaise. It also wants to slow down Germany’s shift to a carbon-neutral economy.

The SPD and the Greens, meanwhile, while at odds on a host of other issues, agree that targeted government spending is needed.

Still, Habeck made a major concession towards the FDP on Monday, saying the funds earmarked as subsidies for a new Intel chip factory could now be used to plug the hole in the budget.
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Trump nears US presidential win

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump moved close to an election victory early Wednesday with wins in several key states, including Pennsylvania, leaving former Vice President Kamala Harris with a narrowing path to a White House term.

In the U.S. system, where the presidential election is tallied in a series of state-by-state contests, both Harris and Trump were quickly declared winners after polls closed Tuesday in states where their parties enjoy clear majority support. Meanwhile, seven so-called battleground states were expected to tip the balance and determine the winner.

Trump pushed ahead with important wins in those areas, combining his victory in Pennsylvania with wins in Georgia and North Carolina to give him at least 267 of the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch a majority. Harris would need to win all of the outstanding states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona.

In addition, the Republicans took control in the 100-member Senate late Tuesday, but it was not yet known which party would control the U.S. House.

Trump claimed victory early Wednesday as he thanked his supporters at a rally in Florida.

“This was a movement like nobody’s ever seen before, and, frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time,” Trump said.

He pledged to “fix our borders” and “fix everything in our country.”

Trump also said he would work to deliver a “strong, safe and prosperous America.”

A Harris campaign official told a crowd of her supporters in Washington that she would not address the gathering overnight but would speak later Wednesday.

The state-by-state electoral system includes different rules for how and when votes are counted, adding to the complexity of how results are reported.

In some states, ballots that are cast in-person before Election Day, or by mail, were allowed to be counted as they came in, leading to faster results. But in other states, those counts did not begin until polls closed Tuesday night, while some states also allowed ballots to be put in the mail as late as Tuesday, meaning final results in those areas will not come for days.

Looming over the eventual result was the prospect of legal challenges. Both the Trump and Harris campaigns were ready with legal experts to contest any irregularities they saw.

A Harris win would make her the country’s first female president. A Trump victory would make him the first U.S. leader since Grover Cleveland in the 1890s to serve non-consecutive terms.

The next president is set to be inaugurated for their four-year term on January 20.

A key foreign policy focus in either a Trump or Harris administration will be relations between the United States and China, including subjects such as trade, Taiwan and China’s actions in the South China Sea.

Vincent Wang, dean of the college of arts and sciences at Adelphi University, told VOA Mandarin that China would approach the prospective presidents differently, including being potentially more aggressive toward the United States if Harris wins.

“China may create some events to give her (Harris) a show of force,” Wang said. “After all, the United States is tied up with wars in the Ukraine, and in Israel and Gaza. In the Taiwan Strait, China has already carried out so-called gray area strategy on a daily basis. I think China may expand its gray area strategy closer to Taiwan as a way to a test Harris.”

“If Trump is elected, I think China may not dare, because he doesn’t go through drafts, he has already said harsh words. If he wakes up today, he might say he’s going to raise tariffs by 200%. If he wakes up tomorrow, he might want to bomb Beijing. So I think this so-called this Trump-type deterrent, on the contrary, will make them a little bit more restrained.”
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Indonesia to permanently relocate thousands of residents after volcanic eruptions

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JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Indonesian government plans to permanently relocate thousands of residents after a series of eruptions of Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano which killed nine people and damaged thousands of houses, officials said.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki, located on Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara province, erupted on Sunday night, followed by smaller eruptions on Monday and Tuesday, and remains on the highest volcanic alert status.

Permanent relocation is considered as “long-term mitigation measures” to anticipate similar eruption in the future, said Suharyanto, the head of Indonesia’s disaster agency in a statement on Wednesday.

The government aims to relocate all residents living within a 7-kilometer radius from the crater, he added.

There are more than 16,000 residents living in the nearest villages from the volcano, but the government is still calculating how many residents will be permanently relocated.

As of Wednesday morning, at least 2,500 people had been evacuated, said Heronimus Lamawuran, spokesperson of East Flores regional government.

The government will also build houses for the relocation, said Suharyanto without giving further detail.

“The volcano cannot be moved so it is the people who must move to safer locations,” Suharyanto said.

The local government has declared a state of emergency for the next 57 days and prohibited any activity within 7 kilometers from the crater.

Indonesia’s volcanology agency on Tuesday raised the status of another volcano located in East Nusa Tenggara province, around 200 kilometers from Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki, to the second-highest level due to its “rising” volcanic activity, although no eruption has been recorded as of Wednesday morning.

Hadi Wijaya, the spokesperson for the volcanology agency, said the rising activity of Mount Iya had no correlation with eruptions of Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki.

Indonesia straddles the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area of high seismic activity where multiple tectonic plates meet.
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Listeners protest as Turkey silences radio station

Posted on by SeeEU

In Turkey, listeners of Acik Radyo are protesting after regulators revoked the Istanbul-based station’s license. For nearly 30 years, Acik sought to bridge the country’s divides. Analysts say the action against it is part of a wider government media crackdown. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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VOA talks with US presidential 3rd party candidates

Posted on by SeeUS

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have spent the past few months battling for the White House, and experts say that votes for third party candidates could be a deciding factor for who will become the next president of the United States.  

With the latest polls showing Harris and Trump in a dead heat in battleground states around the country, ballots cast for third-party candidates Jill Stein of the Green Party, independent Cornel West and Libertarian Chase Oliver could be enough to tip the scales.  

VOA Persian spoke with all three of them. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.  

Green Party candidate Jill Stein 

VOA: During one of his final campaign rallies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump praised you, saying he loved the Green Party and that you might be one of his favorite politicians. What do you make of this?  

Jill Stein: I make of that about as much as I make of Donald Trump’s assessment of climate change, which is that he sort of believes the opposite of reality. I am in this race to provide an alternative to the two parties that are bought and paid for, that are serving Wall Street and the war contractors and definitely not the American people. So I don’t have a lot of high regard for Donald Trump’s political strategies or his values.  

VOA: How much support do you expect to receive in battleground states like Michigan? There were some polls that suggested you have support of over 40% of the Arab American population there.  

Stein: Exactly what the numbers will turn out to be, it depends how many people are turning out to vote. It depends how strong the vote of the, not only the Muslim population, but also many African Americans and Hispanics and young people who feel like they do not have a future under Kamala Harris, and they do not have a future under Donald Trump. At this point, it’s too soon to say. We ourselves do not strictly work based on polls. We’re really in this based on principle and for the long haul. We would be delighted if we make the 5% cut in the national poll in the national results, but it’s very hard to say at this point.  

VOA: What would be your position regarding the government of Iran?  

Stein: I think we need to open the door to negotiations with Iran. Iran has elected a new president who is said to be moderate and interested in improving relations with the West, and we need to explore that. I think the most critical thing in the Middle East right now is resolving this expanding war and the intention of Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to create a wider war and drag the U.S. into it. I think that is the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East right now and has the potential to grow into a conflict that’s even bigger than the Middle East. 

Independent candidate Cornel West 

VOA: How many states allowed you to have your name on the ballot and why did others not?    

Cornel West: We’ve got 16 states where we have direct ballot access. We have 24 states where we have write-in access, and that did require petitions and signatures. So that required a lot of work on behalf of magnificent volunteers. But it was very difficult. There’s been a tremendous struggle, but we come up swinging.  

VOA: How different will your policy be compared to what we hear from Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump?  

West: Martin Luther King [Jr.] said, militarism, racism, poverty and materialism are the four forces that are sucking the democratic energy out of the American social experiment. I take very seriously his critique of militarism. I see that as a criticism of American foreign policies in which we are so eager to create these lethal armed forces rather than engage in wise diplomatic processes. And so there would be no genocide. I would have had an embargo on any kind of military or financial support of Israel as it was very clear that they were laying bare this kind of massive massacre on innocent people, especially innocent children and women and men.  

The same would be true in terms of being able to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. Same would be true in terms of trying to be more diplomatic with China. I see Kamala Harris as a militarist, Black woman. That is to say she’s willing to not just provoke, but to push [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. And I think Putin himself is still very much a gangster and a war criminal in his own way, but he has a right — Russia has a right to security. And the same is true with China. There’s too much provocation, and I think that moves us toward World War III in the same way that Trump moves us towards Civil War II at home. And that was one reason why I wanted to provide some kind of alternative to Trump and [U.S. President Joe] Biden.

And then when Biden had his LBJ moment [referring to Biden’s poor debate performance] something that we talked about many, many months ago, we just predicted that Harris now is following through on the same militarism in Gaza. And of course, genocide, the crime of genocide, is a litmus test of morality of any nation, any country, and if you deny it, if you enable it, it’s a sign that you don’t have a moral fiber in your military policy.  

VOA: Many people in the occupied West Bank are disturbed by Tehran’s support for militants in Gaza. How do you see this considering the moral aspects of your vision, your doctrine and your policy?    

West: Malcolm X used to say, I’m for truth, no matter who’s for it, and justice, no matter who supports it. People can actually support just movements for motivations that themselves are highly suspicious. When the French supported the American revolutionaries, when Lafayette came to the United States, it was partly because the French were over against the British in Europe, they didn’t have a whole lot of solidarity with these colonists responding against the British Empire. … The Soviet Union supported the freedom struggles in Africa. It wasn’t always because they just love Africans so much. It was anti-United States. They had a Cold War going on, and their policies were strategic and tactical in that way. The same would be true for Iran vis-a-vis Palestinians.

So I think we have to be very truthful about the ways in which the motives might not always be attractive, but when you’re a people like Palestinians this moment, whose backs are against the wall, they need help from anybody, and it’s very important that people highlight their plight so that their babies are not crushed. But that doesn’t mean that those who are supporting them always have the right motives, and therefore we can still be critical of what those motives are.  

Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver 

VOA: In your platform, you mentioned that Libertarians seek the United States at peace with the world. How different will your foreign policy be?

Chase Oliver: It would be a drastic difference than what the status quo has been, certainly since I’ve been an adult. Since I’ve been an adult, let’s just call it the post-9/11 War on Terror kind of foreign policy mindset that we’ve had, which I think is rooted in ideas that are very black and white. You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists.

The best way to solve a problem is through a preemptive war or through increasing our military presence in the region, to flex our muscle. And what I think that has done is actually created further instability, particularly in the Middle East, which I don’t think has been a success despite the trillions of dollars we’ve spent in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t think you can say either of those nations are particularly bastions of democracy, or that the region itself is now more stable than it was.

And so for me, I would say let’s remove our military footprint and start flexing our diplomatic muscle. Let’s start meeting with world leaders directly, one on one. Let’s start forming coalitions around peaceful ideas and free trade and voluntary exchange to tear down barriers between our nations so that we can have cultural exchanges with one another. I think these are the ideas that we really need to be pushing, and not a militarized foreign policy that’s ruined the idea that the United States must be the world’s enforcer.   

VOA: So you don’t see America as the leader of the free world with its responsibilities?    

Oliver: I absolutely see America as a leader in terms of the markets of the world, the economic engine of the world, the diplomatic arm of the world. But it doesn’t need to be coming, using the military might of the world. Teddy Roosevelt said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” We have a very powerful military that can defend ourselves, and ultimately, if there were a need and if Congress declared a war, fight a war anywhere in the world with absolute certainty that we could dominate our opponent. But you don’t flex your muscle like that around the world. That’s not a position of strength. When you use that military might to push your agenda, that’s actually a position of weakness, because good ideas should not require force, and you should be able to diplomatically work throughout the world.

And I recognize the world is not perfect. The world does not lack violence. The world is not lacking for bad people, particularly governments around the world who represent good people. And Iran is no different. The government of Iran is abhorrent. They’re abusive to their people. They curtail their rights. But the people of Iran are good, innocent people who don’t deserve to have things like airstrikes and missiles raining down upon them because of the evils of their government. And I hope that ultimately, we can liberalize the world more towards more liberalized things like free speech, freedom of movement and freedom of religion. But that’s not going to come just from us beating people down. 

VOA: How difficult is it to run as a third-party candidate?    

Oliver: Running as an alternative party candidate has a lot of challenges because the two mainstream parties have a lot of built-in incumbency power, both in the number of elected officials they have as well as things like taxpayer-funded primaries. So they basically take taxes out of my wallet to fund primaries that help promote the candidates that are Republicans and Democrats.

And as a Libertarian, we’re kind of left in the lurch there. So there’s a lot of challenges, especially around things like ballot access. There’s a lot of solutions. And actually a big part of my platform is a thing called the voter bill of rights that will open up this process, not just for Libertarians like myself, but all sorts of other alternative parties that really need to have their voices heard. 
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US Army soldier injured while working on Gaza pier has died

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washington — A U.S. Army soldier who was injured in May while working on the American-built pier to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza has died. 

Sargeant Quandarius Stanley, 23, was a motor transport operator and was critically injured when high winds and heavy seas damaged the pier, causing four Army vessels to become beached. Two other service members also were injured but later returned to duty. 

U.S. military officials have not provided details on how exactly Stanley was injured but have noted it was not in combat. He died last Thursday and had been assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade Expeditionary at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. 

“Sergeant Quandarius Stanley was an instrumental and well respected first-line leader in the 7th Transportation Brigade Expeditionary (TBX), especially during the mission to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. We will continue to provide support to his family during this difficult time,” said Colonel John “Eddie” Gray, brigade commander. “Our entire unit mourns alongside his family.” 

Captain Shkeila Milford-Glover, spokesperson for the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, said Stanley had recently retired and was receiving treatment in a long-term care medical center. 

The massive pier project was hampered by unexpected bad weather and security issues, as well as persistent safety issues involving Israeli forces that prompted aid agencies to halt distribution of the supplies out of fear of being injured and killed. 

The Defense Department formally pulled the pier from the Gaza shore on June 28 and declared an end in mid-July to the mission to bring aid into the territory besieged by the war between Israel and Hamas. 

The military moved nearly 20 million pounds of aid onto the Gaza shore in what officials said was the “largest volume of humanitarian assistance” ever delivered into the Middle East. 

But aid agencies had difficulty moving the food brought ashore to areas farther into Gaza where it was needed most because humanitarian convoys came under attack. 
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Police fire tear gas at protests of deadly canopy collapse in Serbia

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NOVI SAD, Serbia — Protesters threw flares and red paint Tuesday on the City Hall building in the Serbian city of Novi Sad in rage over last week’s collapse of a concrete canopy at the railway station that killed 14 people. Police responded by firing tear gas canisters. 

The protesters surrounded the building in central Novi Sad, breaking windows and throwing stones and other objects despite calls by organizers to remain calm. Special police troops were deployed inside the building. 

Some of the angry protesters wearing masks, believed to be soccer hooligans who are close to the populist government, tried to get inside the building and hand over their demands that those responsible for the canopy collapse face justice. 

Serbia’s autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic said the police are “showing restraint,” but also issued a warning saying “horrific, violent protests are underway.” 

“People of Serbia, please do not think violence is allowed,” he said on X, formerly Twitter. “All those taking part in the incidents will be punished.” 

Protest organizers said they wanted to enter the Hall and submit their demands. 

Miran Pogacar, an opposition activist, said “one glass window can be mended but we cannot bring back 14 lives. People are angry. Serbia won’t stand for this.” 

Bojan Pajtic, an opposition politician, said he believed the violent incidents were stoked deliberately by provocateurs, a tactic used before in Serbia to derail peaceful anti-government protests and paint the opposition protesters as enemies of the nation. 

Thousands first marched through the city streets demanding that top officials step down because of the fatal outer roof collapse last Friday, including President Vucic and Prime Minister Milos Vucevic. 

The protesters first gathered outside the railway station where they held a moment of silence for the victims as organizers read their names. The crowd responded by chanting: “arrest the gang” and “thieves.” 

The protest started peacefully but some demonstrators later hurled plastic bottles and bricks at the headquarters of Vucic’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party and smeared red paint on posters of the Serbian president and the prime minister — a message that they have blood on their hands. 

The protesters removed most of the Serbian national red, blue and white national flags that were apparently hung on the headquarters to prevent it from an attack. That triggered an angry reaction from the president. 

“Our Serbian tricolor has been destroyed, hidden and removed by all those who do not love Serbia,” Vucic wrote on X. “Tonight, in Novi Sad, this is being done by those who tell us that they love Serbia more than us, the decent citizens of this country.” 

Critics of Serbia’s populist government have attributed the disaster to rampant corruption in the Balkan country, a lack of transparency and sloppy work during renovation work on the station building which was part of a wider railway deal with Chinese state companies. 

The accident happened without warning. Surveillance camera footage showed the massive canopy on the outer wall of the station building crashing down on the people sitting below on benches or going in and out. 

Officials have promised full accountability and, faced with pressure, Serbia’s construction minister submitted his resignation Tuesday. 

Prosecutors have said that more than 40 people already have been questioned as part of a probe into what happened. Many in Serbia, however, doubt that justice will be served with the populists in firm control of the judicial system and the police. 

Opposition parties behind Tuesday’s protest said they are also demanding the resignation of Vucevic and that documentation be made public listing all the companies and individuals involved. 

The victims included a 6-year-old girl. Those injured in the roof collapse remained in serious condition Tuesday. 

The train station has been renovated twice in recent years. Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work, suggesting this was the reason why it collapsed but giving no explanation for why it was not included. 

The Novi Sad railway station was originally built in 1964, while the renovated station was inaugurated by Vucic and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, over two years ago as a major stopover for a planned fast train line between Belgrade and Budapest. 
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Migrant caravan of 3,000 heads north in Mexico

Posted on by SeeUS

A caravan of approximately 3,000 migrants set off on Tuesday from southern Mexico, headed toward the United States on the day when U.S. voters were deciding between U.S. presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Immigration has been a key issue in the U.S. election campaign.

Before heading northward, the migrants gathered in Tapachula, the capital of the southern Chiapas state, carrying banners with messages such as “NO MORE MIGRANT BLOOD” and images of the Virgin of Guadalupe, an important religious and cultural symbol in Mexico, according to Reuters witnesses.

“We want U.S. authorities to see us, to see that we are people who want to work, not to harm anyone,” said Honduran migrant Roy Murillo, who joined the caravan with his two children and his pregnant wife.

In recent years, several caravans with people hoping to enter the United States have attempted to reach the U.S.-Mexican border, traveling in mass groups for safety. Most have dispersed along the way.

“I’m afraid to travel alone with my family. Here, the cartels either kidnap you or kill you. … That’s why we’re coming in the caravan,” Murillo said.

Murillo recounted his unsuccessful attempts to secure an asylum appointment through a mobile app developed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.

Tapachula, a mandatory crossing point for tens of thousands of migrants, has become one of Mexico’s most violent cities in recent months, with migrants frequently targeted by organized crime, according to official data.

“I feel suffocated here. That’s why we decided to leave,” said 28-year-old Venezuelan migrant Thais, who spoke on condition that her surname not be used due to safety concerns.

She joined the caravan with her husband and 3-year-old daughter.

“I wish Mr. Trump and Ms. Kamala would see that we are human beings, that we want to live and support our families,” she added.

Voters cast ballots on Tuesday in the race between Vice President Harris, a Democrat seeking to become the first female U.S. president, and Trump, a Republican immigration hard-liner aiming to regain the presidency.
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WHO: 2 UK mpox cases first local transmissions in Europe

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London — Two new cases of the mpox variant clade 1b detected in the U.K. are the first locally transmitted cases in Europe and the first outside Africa, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed late Monday that the two new cases were household contacts of Britain’s first case identified last week, bringing the country’s total confirmed cases to three.

The WHO warned that European states should be prepared for “rapid action” to contain the latest mpox variant, which spreads through close physical contact including sexual relations and sharing closed spaces.

The two cases are also the first to be locally transmitted outside Africa since August 2024, when the WHO declared the outbreak of the new variant an international public health emergency — its highest level of alarm.

Those affected are under specialist care and the risk to the U.K. population “remains low,” UKHSA said.

The original case was detected after the person traveled to several African countries on holiday and returned to the U.K. on Oct. 21.

The patient developed flu-like symptoms more than 24 hours later and, on Oct. 24, started to develop a rash that worsened in the following days.

Mpox, a viral disease related to smallpox, has two types, clade 1 and clade 2. Symptoms include fever, a skin rash or pus-filled blisters, swollen lymph nodes and body aches.

The WHO first declared an international public health emergency in 2022 over the spread of clade 2. That outbreak mostly affected gay and bisexual men in Europe and the United States.

Vaccination and awareness drives in many countries helped stem the number of worldwide cases and the WHO lifted the emergency in May 2023 after reporting 140 deaths out of around 87,400 cases.

In 2024, a two-pronged epidemic of clade 1 and clade 1b, a new strain that affects children, has spread widely in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The new strain has also been recorded in neighboring Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, with imported cases in Sweden, India, Thailand, Germany and the U.K.
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A week after Spain’s floods, families hopeful missing loved ones are alive

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SEDAVI, Spain — Francisco Murgui went out to try to salvage his motorbike when the water started to rise. 

He never came back. 

One week after catastrophic flooding devastated eastern Spain, Maria Murgui still holds out hope that her father is alive and among the unknown number of the missing. 

“He was like many people in town who went out to get their car or motorbike to safety,” the 27-year-old told The Associated Press. “The flash flood caught him outside, and he had to cling to a tree in order to escape drowning. He called us to tell us that he was fine, that we shouldn’t worry.” 

But when Maria set out into the streets of Sedavi to try to rescue him from the water washing away everything in its path, he was nowhere to be found. 

“He held up until 1 in the morning,” she said. “By 2, I went outside with a neighbor and a rope to try to locate him. But we couldn’t find him. And since then, we haven’t heard anything about him.” 

At least 218 have been confirmed dead after a deluge caused by heavy rains late on October 29 and the next morning swamped entire communities, mostly in Spain’s Valencia region, catching most off guard. Regional authorities have been heavily criticized for having issued alerts to mobile phones some two hours after the disaster had started. 

Authorities have yet to any give an estimate of the missing seven days on. Spanish state broadcaster RTVE, however, shows a steady stream of appeals by people who are searching for family members who are not accounted for. 

Maria Murgui herself has posted a missing person’s message on social media with a photo of her father, a 57-year-old retiree. 

“This is like riding a roller coaster. Sometimes I feel very bad and sometimes I feel better. I try to stay positive,” she said. “This truly is madness. We don’t know what else to do. Neither does anybody else in town.” 

Relief package 

While many search for their loved ones, the gargantuan recovery efforts in Sedavi and dozens of other communities slowly moved forward. 

To aid those in need, the central government approved a 10.6-billion-euro relief package for 78 communities on Tuesday. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez compared it to the measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The package includes direct payments of 20,000 euros to 60,000 euros to owners of damaged homes, among other financial aid for businesses and municipal governments. 

“We have a lot of work left to do, and we know it,” Sanchez said.  

Sanchez said that he will ask the European Union to help pay for the relief, saying, “it is time for the European Union to help.” 

Many people are still without basic goods amid scenes of devastation. 

Street after street in town after town is still covered with thick brown mud and mounds of ruined belongings, clumps of rotting vegetation, and wrecked vehicles. A stench arises from the muck.

In many places, people still face shortages of basic goods, and lines form at impromptu emergency kitchens and stands handing out food. Water is running again but authorities say it is not fit for drinking. 

The ground floors of thousands of homes have been ruined. It is feared that inside some of the vehicles that the water washed away or trapped in underground garages there could be bodies waiting to be recovered. 

Thousands of soldiers are working with firefighters and police reinforcements in the immense emergency response. Officers and troops are searching in destroyed homes, the countless cars strewn across highways, streets, or lodged in the mud in canals and gorges. 

Authorities are worried about other health problems caused by the aftermath of the deadliest natural disaster in Spain’s recent history. They have urged people to get tetanus shots and to treat any wounds to prevent infections and to clean the mud from their skin. Many people wear face masks. 

Thousands of volunteers are helping out, filling the void left by authorities. But the frustration over the crisis management boiled over on Sunday when a crowd in hard-hit Paiporta hurled mud and other objects at Spain’s royals, Sanchez and regional officials when they made their first visit to the epicenter of the flood damage. 

Sanchez’s national government is set to announce a new package of relief on Tuesday. 
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In photos: America votes in 2024 presidential election

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Millions of U.S. voters are set to cast their ballots Tuesday as they decide whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump will be the country’s next leader.
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Iran claims Iranian-German prisoner died before he could be executed

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DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — An Iranian official claimed Tuesday that Iranian-German prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd died before Tehran could execute him — directly contradicting the country’s earlier announcement he had been put to death.

The comment by Asghar Jahangir came after Germany shut down all three Iranian consulates in the country over Sharmahd’s death, leaving only the embassy in Berlin open. Germany later disputed Jahangir’s remark.

Meanwhile, even Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has offered his own criticism of Germany’s response to Sharmahd’s death as tensions remain high between Tehran and the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear program and the ongoing Mideast wars.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency quoted Jahangir as saying: “Jamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death, his sentence was ready to be carried out, but he passed away before implementation of the sentence.”

He did not elaborate. Jahangir’s remarks were made to the state-affiliated Quds newspaper after a weekly news conference, when journalists typically buttonhole the spokesperson into answering questions he didn’t take from the podium.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry, reacting to the official’s comment, said, “His death was confirmed to us by the Iranian side.

“Jamshid Sharmahd was abducted by Iran and held for years without a fair trial, in inhumane conditions and without the necessary medical care,” the ministry said. “Iran is responsible for his death.”

Germany added it was “lobbying the Iranian government to hand over his body to his family.”

The State Department in the United States, where Sharmahd once lived, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jason Poblete, a lawyer representing Sharmahd’s family, told The Associated Press that the conflicting comments from Iran were “deeply concerning.”

“This inconsistency raises serious questions about the circumstances of the death and the transparency of the Iranian system,” Poblete said. “The family has been urging the German and U.S. authorities to investigate this matter to ascertain the truth, ensure accountability thoroughly and reunite Jimmy with his family in California.”

Iran had said it executed Sharmahd on October 28. He was 69.

Iran accused Sharmahd, who lived in Glendora, California, of planning a 2008 attack on a mosque that killed 14 people — including five women and a child — and wounded over 200 others, as well as plotting other assaults through the little-known Kingdom Assembly of Iran and its Tondar militant wing.

Iran also accused Sharmahd of “disclosing classified information” on missile sites of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard during a television program in 2017.

His family disputed the allegations and worked for years to see him freed. Germany, the U.S. and international rights groups dismissed Sharmahd’s trial as a sham. Amnesty International said the proceedings against Sharmahd were a “grossly unfair trial” because he was denied access to an independent lawyer and “the right to defend himself.”

However, Amnesty also noted that Sharmahd ran a website for the Kingdom Assembly of Iran and its Tondar militant wing that included claims of “responsibility for explosions inside Iran,” although he repeatedly denied being involved in the attacks.

Sharmahd was apparently kidnapped while on a layover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2020. His family received their last message from him on July 28, 2020.

It’s unclear how the abduction happened, but tracking data showed that Sharmahd’s cellphone traveled south from Dubai to the city of Al Ain on July 29, crossing the border into Oman. On July 30, tracking data showed the phone traveled to the Omani port city of Sohar, where the signal stopped.

Two days later, Iran announced it had captured Sharmahd in a “complex operation.” The Intelligence Ministry published a photograph of him blindfolded.

In the time since his execution, Germany shut the consulates. It’s a diplomatic tool Germany seldom uses and signals a major downgrade in relations with Tehran.

However, Iran has responded by criticizing Germany and the West, including Pezeshkian, who campaigned on a promise of getting sanctions on the Islamic Republic lifted.

“When someone who has slaughtered dozens is executed, they say you do not observe human rights,” Pezeshkian said.
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