Cyclone Chido rips through Mayotte as it barrels toward eastern Africa

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MORONI, COMOROS — The French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean suffered extensive damage from Tropical Cyclone Chido, officials said Saturday, as the storm roared toward the east coast of the African continent.

Chido brought winds in excess of 220 kilometers per hour, according to the French weather service, ripping metal roofs off houses in Mayotte, which has a population of just over 300,000 spread over two main islands. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

“Our island is being hit by the most violent and destructive cyclone since 1934. Many of us have lost everything,” Mayotte Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville said in a Facebook post Saturday. He said the highest alert had been lifted so that rescuers can help after the worst of the cyclone had passed.

Mayotte is still under red alert for the ordinary population, and people were asked to “remain confined in a solid shelter,” Bieuville said. Only emergency and security services were allowed to go out.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Mayotte had been hit hard. “The damages already appear to be extensive,” he said on X. “State and local emergency services are fully mobilized.”

Local broadcaster Mayotte la 1ere said that thousands of homes were without power, tin huts and other small structures had been blown away and many trees had been blown over.

Retailleau said 110 rescuers and firefighters sent to Mayotte from France and the nearby territory of Reunion have been deployed and an additional reinforcement of 140 people will be sent on Sunday.

The nation of Comoros, a group of islands north of Mayotte, also was being battered by Chido and the highest red alert had been announced in some areas. Authorities said they were concerned for a group of 11 fishermen who had gone out to sea on Monday and had not been heard from.

Comoros authorities have ordered all ships to remain anchored in harbors and have closed the main airport and government offices. Schools were ordered closed on Friday so that people could prepare for the cyclone.

Chido was expected to continue its eastern trajectory and hit Mozambique on the African mainland late Saturday or early Sunday, forecasters said. Mozambique’s disaster agency has warned that 2.5 million people might be affected in the northern provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula.

Further inland, landlocked Malawi and Zimbabwe were preparing. Malawi’s Department of Disaster Management Affairs said it was expecting flooding in some parts and urgently advised some people to move to higher ground. In Zimbabwe, authorities said some people should prepare for evacuation.

December through to March is cyclone season in the southeastern Indian Ocean, and southern Africa has been pummeled by a series of strong ones in recent years.

Cyclone Idai in 2019 killed more than 1,300 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries last year.

The cyclones bring the risk of flooding and landslides, but also stagnant pools of water may later spark deadly outbreaks of the waterborne cholera disease — as happened in the aftermath of Idai — as well as dengue fever and malaria.

Studies say the cyclones are getting worse because of climate change. They can leave poor countries in southern Africa, which contribute a tiny amount to climate change, having to deal with large humanitarian crises.
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Ex-soccer player becomes Georgia’s president in blow to EU aspirations

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TBILISI, GEORGIA — Former soccer player Mikheil Kavelashvili became president of Georgia on Saturday, as the ruling party tightened its grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia.

Kavelashvili, 53, easily won the vote given the Georgian Dream party’s control of a 300-seat electoral college that replaced direct presidential elections in 2017.

Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in the South Caucasus nation in an October 26 election that the opposition alleges was rigged with Moscow’s help. Georgia’s outgoing president and main pro-Western parties have since boycotted parliamentary sessions and demanded a rerun of the ballot.

Georgian Dream has vowed to continue pushing toward EU accession but also wants to “reset” ties with Russia.

In 2008 Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which led to Moscow’s recognition of two breakaway regions as independent and an increase in the Russian military presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Critics have accused Georgian Dream — established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow, accusations the ruling party has denied. The party recently pushed through laws like those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.

Pro-Western Salome Zourabichvili has been president since 2018 and has vowed to stay on after her six-year term ends Monday, describing herself as the only legitimate leader until a new election is held.

Georgian Dream’s decision last month to suspend talks on their country’s bid to join the European Union added to the opposition’s outrage and galvanized protests.

 

Who is the outgoing president?

Zourabichvili, 72, was born in France to parents with Georgian roots and had a successful career with the French Foreign Ministry before President Mikheil Saakashvili named her Georgia’s top diplomat in 2004.

Constitutional changes made the president’s job largely ceremonial before Zourabichvili was elected by popular vote with Georgian Dream’s support in 2018. She became sharply critical of the ruling party, accusing it of pro-Russia policies, and Georgian Dream unsuccessfully tried to impeach her.

“I remain your president — there is no legitimate Parliament and thus no legitimate election or inauguration,” she has declared on the social network X. “My mandate continues.”

Speaking to The Associated Press, Zourabichvili rejected government claims that the opposition was fomenting violence.

“We are not demanding a revolution,” Zourabichvili said. “We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again.

“Georgia has been always resisting Russian influence and will not accept having its vote stolen and its destiny stolen,” she said.

Zourabichvili called Saturday’s vote a “provocation” and “a parody” while a leader of one of Georgia’s main opposition parties said it was unconstitutional.

Giorgi Vashadze of the Unity National Movement Coalition said Zourabichvili is “the only legitimate source of power.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that Kavelashvili’s election “will make a significant contribution to strengthening Georgia’s statehood and our sovereignty, as well as reducing radicalism and so-called polarization.”

“The main mission of the presidential institution is to care for the unity of the nation and society,” said Kobakhidze, a former university professor and later chairperson of Georgian Dream.

Who is Kavelashvili?

Georgian Dream nominated Kavelashvili — mocked by the opposition for lacking higher education. He was a striker in the Premier League for Manchester City and in several clubs in the Swiss Super League. He was elected to parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket, and in 2022 co-founded the People’s Power political movement, which was allied with Georgian Dream and become known for its strong anti-Western rhetoric.

Kavelashvili was one of the authors of a controversial law requiring organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.

The European Union, which granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that the country meets the bloc’s recommendations, put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June following approval of the “foreign influence” law.

 

How did opposition protests unfold?

Thousands of demonstrators converged on the parliament building every night after the government announced the suspension of EU accession talks on November 28.

Riot police used water cannons and tear gas almost daily to disperse and beat scores of protesters, some of whom threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the capital’s central boulevard.

Hundreds were detained and over 100 treated for injuries.

Several journalists were beaten by police, and media workers accused authorities of using thugs to deter people from attending antigovernment rallies, which Georgian Dream denies.

The crackdown has drawn strong condemnation from the United States and EU officials.

“[Kavelashvili] is not elected by us. He is controlled by a puppet government, by Bidzina Ivanishvili, by Putin,” protester Sandro Samkharadze said.

Another protester waved a sign saying “We are children of Europe.”

Demonstrators vowed the rallies would continue. “If [the government] wants to go to Russia, they can go to Russia, because we are not going anywhere. We are staying here,” said protester Kato Kalatozishvili.
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12 conservatives join opposition to impeach Yoon

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South Korean lawmakers have impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his attempt to impose martial law. In a vote Saturday, 12 conservative lawmakers joined opposition forces to impeach Yoon, whose powers will now be suspended until the country’s Constitutional Court decides whether to formally remove him from office. Here is more from VOA’s Bill Gallo in Seoul.
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US Marines start partial transfer from Japan’s Okinawa to Guam

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TOKYO — The partial transfer of U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam began on Saturday, 12 years after Japan and the United States agreed on their realignment to reduce the heavy burden of American troop presence on the southern Japanese island, officials said.

The relocation started with 100 members of III Marine Expeditionary Force stationed on Okinawa moving to the Pacific island for the initial logistical work, the U.S. Marine Corps and Japan’s Defense Ministry said in a joint statement.

Under the plan agreed between Tokyo and Washington in April 2012, about 9,000 of the 19,000 Marines currently stationed on Okinawa are to be moved out of Okinawa, including about 4,000 of them to be moved to the U.S. territory Guam in phases. Details, including the size and timing of the next transfer, were not immediately released.

The Marine Corps is committed to the defense of Japan and meeting operational requirements to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific, and it will maintain presence in the region “through a combination of stationing and rotating Marines in Japan, Guam and Hawaii,” the joint statement said.

Japan has paid up to $2.8 billion for the building of infrastructure at the U.S. bases on Guam, and the United States will fund the remaining costs. The two governments will continue to cooperate on the development of Camp Blaz, which will serve as the main installation for Marines stationed in Guam.

The Marines and Japan Self Defense Forces will conduct joint training in Guam, the statement said.

Okinawa, which was under U.S. postwar occupation until 1972, is still home to a majority of the more than 50,000 American troops based in Japan under a bilateral security pact, while 70% of U.S. military facilities are on Okinawa, which accounts for only 0.6% of Japanese land.

Many Okinawans have long complained about the heavy U.S. military presence on the island and say Okinawa faces noise, pollution, aircraft accidents and crime related to American troops.

The relocation is likely to be welcomed by residents, but how much improvement they will feel is uncertain because of the rapid Japanese military buildup on Okinawan islands as a deterrence to threats from China.

The start of the Marines relocation comes at a time of growing anti-U.S. military sentiment following a series of sexual assault cases involving American servicemembers.

On Thursday, a senior Air Force servicemember belonging to the Kadena Air Base was convicted of the kidnapping and sexual assault of a teenage girl last year, a case that triggered outrage on the island. The Naha District Court sentenced him to five years in prison.
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A look at the South Korean leader who has been impeached

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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea’s parliament has voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, a stunning fall from grace for a man who rose from political obscurity to the height of political power.

His decades of achievement could be on the verge of crumbling due to a single, baffling decision to send out troops under martial law over vague claims that one of Asia’s leading democracies was under threat.

The impeachment suspends Yoon’s presidential powers until the Constitutional Court determines whether to dismiss him as president or restore his powers. Yoon also faces investigations meant to find whether his December 3 decree amounts to rebellion, a crime that is punished by up to the death penalty in South Korea if convicted.

Yoon, a staunch conservative and longtime prosecutor, went from political novice to president of South Korea in 2022, ending five years of liberal rule that saw failed efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis and a slackening economy.

His time in office, however, was marked by near-constant friction with an opposition-controlled parliament, threats of annihilation from North Korea and a series of scandals involving him and his wife. Observers said he was impulsive, took criticism personally and relied too much on the advice of hardcore loyalists.

No one thing explained his attempt to shut down the mechanisms of a democratic nation over his claim that “anti-state forces” were acting under the influence of North Korea.

But there are strands in Yoon’s background, and especially in the intense acrimony with the liberal opposition and his hardline standoff with North Korea, that help illuminate the defining moment of his presidency.

A turbulent rise to top prosecutor

Despite 2½ years as president, Yoon’s career was overwhelmingly about the law, not politics.

Yoon, 63, was born in Seoul to two professors, and went to prestigious Seoul National University, where he studied law.

A major moment, according to Yoon, happened in 1980 when he played the role of a judge in a mock trial of then-dictator Chun Doo-hwan, who had staged a military coup the previous year, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. In the aftermath, Yoon had to flee to the countryside as Chun’s military extended martial law and placed troops and armored vehicles at various places including his university.

Yoon returned to the capital and eventually began a career as a state prosecutor that would last nearly three decades, building an image as strong-minded and uncompromising.

Prone to confrontation

But he also faced criticism that his personality was unsuited to high-level leadership.

“President Yoon isn’t well-prepared, and he does things off the cuff,” Choi Jin, director of the Seoul-based Institute of Presidential Leadership, said. “He also tends to express his emotions too directly. The things that he likes and dislikes are easy to see, and he tends to handle things with a small group of his own people, not the majority of people.”

During a parliament audit in 2013, Yoon, then a senior prosecutor, said he was under pressure from his boss, who said he opposed Yoon’s investigation into an allegation that the country’s spy agency had conducted an illicit online campaign to help conservative President Park Geun-hye win the previous year’s election.

At the time, he famously said, “I’m not loyal to [high-level] people.”

He was demoted, but after Park’s government was toppled over a separate corruption scandal in 2017, then-President Moon Jae-in made Yoon head of a Seoul prosecution office, which investigated Park and other conservative leaders. Moon later named Yoon the nation’s top prosecutor.

A neophyte in politics

Yoon joined party politics only about a year before he won the presidency, abandoning the liberal Moon after an impasse over a probe of Moon’s allies. Moon’s supporters said he was trying to thwart Moon’s prosecution reforms and elevate his own political standing.

The 2022 presidential race was Yoon’s first election campaign.

Yoon beat his rival, liberal firebrand Lee Jae-myung, by less than 1 percentage point in South Korea’s most closely fought presidential election.

Their campaign was one of the nastiest in recent memory.

Yoon compared Lee’s party to “Hitler” and “Mussolini.” Lee’s allies called Yoon “a beast” and “dictator” and derided his wife’s alleged plastic surgery.

Domestic political strife

Yoon’s time as president was dominated by frustration and acrimony, much stemming from his narrow victory and his party’s failure to win control of parliament throughout his term.

When Yoon declared the state of emergency, he said a goal was to eliminate “shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces” in an apparent reference to the opposition Democratic Party.

In a fiery speech on Thursday, Yoon again defended his martial law decree and vowed to “fight to the end” in the face of attempts to impeach and investigate him. He called the Democratic Party “a monster” and “anti-state forces” that he argued has flexed its legislative muscle to impeach top officials and undermined the government’s budget bill for next year.

Claims of corruption also battered his approval ratings.

Yoon recently denied wrongdoing in an influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife. Spy camera footage in a separate scandal also purportedly shows the first lady, Kim Keon Hee, accepting a luxury bag as a gift from a pastor.

Choi said he thinks Yoon likely planned the “clumsy martial law” edict to divert public attention away from the scandals.

“He tried to massively shake up the political world,” Choi said. “But he failed. He likely believed there was no other option.”

North Korea lashed out at his hard line

If political squabbles and scandal set the tenor of Yoon’s domestic presidency, its foreign policy was characterized by a bitter standoff with North Korea.

Yoon early on in his presidency promised “an audacious plan” to improve the North’s economy if it abandoned its nuclear weapons.

But things turned sour quickly, as North Korea ramped up its weapons tests and threats to attack the South. North Korea eventually began calling Yoon “a guy with a trash-like brain” and “a diplomatic idiot.”

North Korea took that trash theme literally, sending thousands of balloons filled with garbage over the border, including some that made it to the presidential compound in Seoul at least twice.

Yoon’s mention of North Korea as a domestic destabilizing force reminded some of an earlier South Korea, which until the late 1980s was ruled by a series of strongmen who repeatedly invoked the threat from the North to justify effort to suppress domestic dissidents and political opponents.
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Rights groups urge Zimbabwe’s president to sign bill abolishing death penalty

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HARARE, ZIMBABWE — Rights groups are urging Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa to sign into law a bill that would abolish the death penalty, following the bill’s landmark passage Thursday by the country’s senate, after earlier passage by the lower house of parliament.

In an interview with VOA, Zimbabwe’s justice minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, said passage of the death abolition bill is welcomed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who, since coming to power in 2017, has refused to sign death warrants for those facing capital punishment.

“He is a man who has not been an advocate of death penalty,” Ziyambi said. “The passage of the bill by the senate towards Christmas is an early Christmas present to him, as he has been an advocate to say, ‘We can’t do this.’ And that’s the reason why I said he is the man who is going to appreciate the work that has been done by both houses.”

Human rights groups are now calling for Mnangagwa to sign the bill, among them Lucia Masuka, the head of Amnesty International in Zimbabwe.

“Amnesty International commends the progressive legislative efforts made so far to make the abolition of the death penalty from the country’s statutes a reality,” Masuka said. “We urge the president to take heed of this historic landmark decision by signing this bill without delay and commuting all death sentences to prison terms. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and has no place in our world.”

In the past Mnangagwa has refused to sign some bills after parliament had passed them. But Ziyambi said that will not happen this time.

“How would I say it’s an early Christmas present if he does not want to sign it?” Ziyambi said. “He has lived the trauma of being on death row and was saved by a technicality. He is ready to sign like yesterday.”

But not everyone is happy with this latest development. One of them is Zachariah Choga, an attorney in Harare.

“I still believe adequate to search was not properly done on this regard,” he said. “If you look at the increase in crime in Zimbabwe at the moment, especially violent crimes, robberies, armed robberies to be specific house-breaking, it’s only going to escalate further with the death penalty off the table because it appeared with the death penalty on the table. It could have been the only deterrent that we had at this particular point, but now with the death penalty gone, we’re going to see a rise in violent crimes of that nature.”

According to Amnesty International, 24 countries across sub-Saharan Africa have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, while two additional countries have abolished it for ordinary crimes only.

Zimbabwe’s last known execution was in 2005, though courts continue to impose death sentences – for cases of murder committed under aggravating circumstances.

In April, all those condemned to death had their sentences commuted to life in prison by President Mnangagwa.
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Nutrition experts weigh in on US dietary guidelines

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Americans should eat more beans, peas and lentils and cut back on red and processed meats and starchy vegetables, all while continuing to limit added sugars, sodium and saturated fat.

That’s the advice released Tuesday by a panel of nutrition experts charged with counseling the U.S. government about the 2025 edition of the dietary guidelines that will form the cornerstone of federal food programs and policy.

But the 20-member panel didn’t weigh in on the growing role of ultraprocessed foods that have been linked to health problems, saying there’s not enough evidence to tell people to avoid them. And the group steered clear of updating controversial guidance on alcohol consumption, leaving that analysis to two outside reports expected to be released soon.

Overall, the recommendations for the 2025-30 Dietary Guidelines for Americans sound familiar, said Marion Nestle, a food policy expert.

“This looks like every other set of dietary guidelines since 1980: eat your veggies and reduce consumption of foods high in salt, sugar and saturated fat,” Nestle said in an email. “This particular statement says nothing about balancing calories, when overconsumption of calories, especially from ultra-processed foods, is the biggest challenge to the health of Americans.”

What the scientific panel said about healthy diets

The nutrition panel concluded that a healthy diet for people aged 2 years and older is higher in vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, whole grains, fish and vegetable oils that are higher in unsaturated fat.

It is lower in red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, refined grains and saturated fat. It may also include fat-free or low-fat dairy and foods lower in sodium and may include plant-based foods.

The panel, which met for nearly two years, was the first to focus on the dietary needs of Americans through what they called a “health equity lens,” said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, a Massachusetts General Hospital obesity expert who was part of the group. That meant considering factors such as household income, race, ethnicity and culture when recommending healthy diets. It will help ensure that the guidance “reflects and includes various population groups,” she said in an email.

The panel didn’t come to conclusions on ultraprocessed foods or alcohol

Ultraprocessed foods include the snacks, sugary cereals and frozen meals that make up about 60% of the American diet.

The panel considered more than 40 studies, including several that showed links between ultraprocessed foods and becoming overweight or developing obesity. But the nutrition experts had concerns with the quality of the research, leaving them to conclude that the evidence was too limited to make recommendations.

That decision is likely to bump up against the views of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to lead the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, who has questioned potential conflicts of interest among members of the dietary guidelines panel and vowed to crack down on ultraprocessed foods that contribute to chronic disease.

The panel also didn’t revise recommendations that suggest limiting alcohol intake to two drinks or less a day for men and one drink or less a day for women.

In 2020, the last time the guidance was updated, the government rejected the advice of scientific advisers to recommend less alcohol consumption.

Two groups — the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine and a committee of the government agency that oversees substance abuse — are expected to release reports in the coming months on the effects of moderate alcohol use to inform the guidelines.

Do Americans follow dietary guidelines?

The advisory panel acknowledged that the diets of most Americans don’t meet the current guidelines. More than half of all U.S. adults have one or more diet-related chronic health conditions and 18 million U.S. households have insecure sources of food, according to the report.

“Nutrition-related chronic health conditions and their precursors continue to threaten health through the lifespan,” the report concludes. “Which does not bode well for the future of health in the United States.”

What happens next?

The scientific report informs the dietary guidelines, which are updated every five years. Tuesday’s recommendations now go to HHS and the Agriculture Department, where officials will draft the final guidance set for release next year.

Starting Wednesday, the public will have 60 days to comment on the guidance. HHS and USDA officials will hold a public meeting January 16 to discuss the recommendations.

The new guidance, which will be finalized by the incoming Trump administration, is consistent with decades of federal efforts to reduce diet-related disease in the U.S., said Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

“Broadly, I think these are well-formulated recommendations that the incoming administration would do well to adopt,” Lurie said. 
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New Zealander who doesn’t speak Spanish wins Spanish world Scrabble title

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WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — A New Zealand man playing his first-ever competitive Scrabble game in Spanish, a language he doesn’t speak, has won the board game’s Spanish-language world title.

Nigel Richards, a professional player who holds five English-language world titles, won the Spanish world Scrabble championships in Granada, Spain, in November, losing one game out of 24.

Richards started memorizing the language’s Scrabble word list a year ago, his friend Liz Fagerlund -– a New Zealand Scrabble official -– told The Associated Press.

“He can’t understand why other people can’t just do the same thing,” she said. “He can look at a block of words together, and once they go into his brain as a picture he can just recall that very easily.”

In second place was defending champion Benjamín Olaizola of Argentina, who won 18 of his games.

Nothing like the New Zealander’s feat had ever happened in Spanish Scrabble, said Alejandro Terenzani, a contest organizer.

“It was impossible to react negatively, you can only be amazed,” Terenzani said. “We certainly expected that he would perform well, but it is perhaps true that he surpassed our expectations.”

Richards has done this before. In 2015, he became the French language Scrabble world champion, despite not speaking French, after studying the word list for nine weeks. He took the French title again in 2018.

Recognized in international Scrabble over his three-decade career as the greatest player of all time, Richards’ Spanish language victory was notable even by his standards, other players said.

While compensating for different tile values in English and Spanish Scrabble, Richards also had to contend with thousands of additional seven, eight and nine letter words in the Spanish language -– which demand a different strategy.

Richards in 2008 was the first player ever to hold the world, U.S. and British titles simultaneously, despite having to “forget” 40,000 English words that do not appear in the American Scrabble word list to triumph in the U.S.

His victories are legendary in the Scrabble community, and games analyzed in YouTube videos watched by tens of thousands.

Scrabble does not require players to know the definitions of words, only what combinations of letters are allowed in a country’s version of the game, but native speakers have “a huge leg up,” American Scrabble player Will Anderson said in a video summarizing Richards’ Spanish win.

Richards’ mother, Adrienne Fischer, told a New Zealand newspaper in 2010 that he did not excel at English in school, never attended university and took a mathematical approach to the game rather than a linguistic one.

“I don’t think he’s ever read a book, apart from the dictionary,” she said.

Fagerlund said Richards impressed her when he arrived at his first Scrabble club meeting at age 28. Two years later, in 1997, he cycled 350 kilometers from Christchurch to the city of Dunedin, won the New Zealand title on his first attempt and cycled home again.

At the Spanish event he was shy and modest, organizer Terenzani said, but happily posed for photos and spoke with fans who approached him.

“Although he did so in English, of course,” Terenzani added.

What motivates Richards, who now lives in Malaysia, is a mystery. He never speaks to reporters.

“I get lots of requests from journalists wanting to interview him and he’s not interested,” Fagerlund said. “He doesn’t understand what all the hoo-ha is about.”
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President Macron names centrist ally Bayrou as France’s next prime minister

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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday named centrist ally François Bayrou as prime minister in an effort to address the country’s deep political crisis, after a historic parliamentary vote ousted the previous government last week.

Bayrou, 73, a crucial partner in Macron’s centrist alliance, has been a well-known figure in French politics for decades. His political experience is seen as key in efforts to restore stability as no single party holds a majority at the National Assembly.

Macron’s office said in a statement that Bayrou “has been charged with forming a new government.”

Former Prime Minister Michel Barnier resigned last week following a no-confidence vote prompted by budget disputes in the National Assembly, leaving France without a functioning government. Macron in an address to the nation vowed to remain in office until his term ends in 2027.

Bayrou vows to seek ‘needed reconciliation’

During the handover ceremony, Bayrou said that “no one knows the difficulty of the situation better” than he does.

“I’ve taken reckless risks all along my political life to raise the issue of debt and deficits in the most important elections,” he said.

France is under pressure from the European Union’s executive body and financial markets to reduce its colossal debt, estimated to reach 6% of its gross domestic product this year.

“I know that the risks of difficulties are much greater than the chances of success,” Bayrou said, adding that he hopes to lead the country towards a “needed reconciliation.”

“I think this is the only possible path to success,” he said.

Bayrou is expected to hold talks with political leaders from various parties in the coming days in order to choose new ministers.

Difficult political challenge

The task before him is challenging as Macron’s centrist alliance does not have a majority in parliament and Bayrou’s Cabinet will need to rely on moderate lawmakers from both the left and right to be able to stay in power.

Some conservatives are expected to be part of the new government.

Macron’s strategy aims at preventing far-right leader Marine Le Pen from holding “make or break” power over the government. Le Pen helped oust Barnier by joining her National Rally party’s forces to the left to pass the no-confidence motion last week.

Le Pen said on Friday that her party will adopt a wait-and-see approach for now and called on Bayrou to “hear” her voters’ demands, including preserving their purchasing power.

Bayrou’s appointment comes also in line with Macron’s efforts to build a non-aggression pact with the Socialists so that they wouldn’t support any future move to topple the new government.

The Socialists said Friday they would not take part in the new Cabinet but did not rule out possible “compromises” regarding policies. They asked Bayrou for a commitment not to use a special constitutional power to pass a law without a vote at parliament.

“We expect you to provide the guarantees needed to avoid another no-confidence vote,” the party wrote in a letter to Bayrou.

Weighty partner

Bayrou leads the centrist Democratic Movement, known as MoDem, which he founded in 2007.

In 2017, he supported Macron’s first presidential bid and became a weighty partner in the French president’s centrist alliance.

At the time, he was appointed justice minister, but he quickly resigned from the government amid an investigation into the MoDem’s alleged embezzlement of European Parliament funds.

He this year was cleared in the case by a Paris court, which found eight other party officials guilty and sentenced the party to pay a fine.

Bayrou became well known to the French public when he was education minister from 1993-97 in a conservative government.

Three-time presidential candidate

Bayrou was three times a candidate for president, in 2002, 2007 and 2012, which made him a familiar face in French politics.

His name had repeatedly surfaced as a potential prime minister in the past, but he was repeatedly passed over.

He is widely considered having helped lay the groundwork for Macron’s rise to power in 2017. Long before the French president upended the country’s politics by crushing the traditional right and left, Bayrou tapped into voter frustration with entrenched conservative and Socialist camps.

A father of six and a practicing Catholic, Bayrou has played up his rural farming roots in the Pyrenees mountains, showing off his knowledge of tractors and cattle-raising — even while spending most of his time in the corridors of political power in Paris. 
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Indonesia still eyes BRICS membership despite Trump tariff threat 

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Jakarta, indonesia — Indonesia remains cautiously determined to join BRICS despite a threat from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to double tariffs on members of the Russia- and China-led bloc if it pursues its stated goal of establishing an alternative to the U.S. dollar in international trade.

At a parliament meeting this month with the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, legislators expressed their concern about Trump’s threats.

“Although we are confident in expanding our diplomatic relations, Indonesia’s presence in BRICS may be considered as a departure from traditional trade relations with U.S. and the European Union,” said Sumail Abdullah, a ruling party legislator with a role in foreign affairs. “Don’t let this become a reality, because countries like Russia and China will certainly dominate BRICS.”

Foreign Minister Sugiono defended his decision to join BRICS, arguing that there are many benefits to being a member.

“Essentially, BRICS is a good platform that we can utilize as our vessel to discuss and bring forward the interests of developing countries. It is also an implementation of our independent and active foreign policy,” he told legislators at the December 2 session.

Sugiono stressed the importance of strengthening Indonesia’s economy by building food and energy security and developing downstream industries. Indonesia, he added, should be less reliant economically on other countries so it can better decide its own foreign policy.

Although the BRICS countries have made it a goal to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar as an exchange currency, Sugiono said the issue was not brought up during the October 2024 BRICS Summit in Russia.

However, the minister left the door open to reconsidering the decision in light of Trump’s threat.

“If we think there are things that could harm our national interests, then we can review our membership in BRICS. What is important is that our attempt to join any multilateral group is focused towards maintaining our national interests,” he told the legislators.

Indonesia’s journey to join BRICS

BRICS is a global economic cooperation organization that was formed in 2006 to focus attention on investment opportunities among its founding countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Indonesia expressed its desire to join the bloc at the October summit in Kazan, Russia, where Sugiono proposed several concrete steps to strengthen BRICS and Global South cooperation.

President Prabowo Subianto has repeatedly underlined his intention to befriend both China and the United States, saying Indonesia will not join any military bloc.

Teuku Rezasyah, a professor specializing in diplomacy and foreign policy at Universitas Padjadjaran, told VOA that joining BRICS places Indonesia in the geopolitical center between the rival power blocs.

“We’re not only close with the U.S., the European Union, but also getting closer with Russia and China. As a result, we have more bargaining power, which will benefit us,” he said at a national seminar.

Teuku argued that the shared BRICS vision, as laid out in a 2021 joint statement, calls for a restructured global political, economic and financial architecture with a reformed United Nations at its center. He said this vision reflects a contemporary world that is more equitable, balanced and representative.

Political benefits, challenges

Although Indonesia has been invited to become a BRICS member since 2022, it did not officially express its intention until this October. Indonesia is currently a BRICS partner country, a status that applies to 12 other countries, including fellow ASEAN states Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Teuku said the organization “is commonly understood as an attempt to form a geopolitical bloc capable of counterbalancing the influence of Western-dominated global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.”

Muhsin Shihab, an expert adviser on institutional relations at Indonesia’s foreign ministry, said in November that by joining BRICS, Indonesia can increase its global clout and can help to shape the agenda of the Global South.

But Tobias Basuki, co-founder of Aristoteles Consults, a political consultancy and legal services firm, said in an interview with VOA that he doubted Indonesia would gain much from joining the bloc because most of its political and economic goals can be achieved through bilateral ties with the BRICS members.

Russia and China have more to gain from expanding the group’s membership, he said, adding that they “have their own agenda and interests, which are not necessarily always aligned with the Global South’s needs and interests.

“So by joining BRICS, you’re actually entering their playground. It may not give Indonesia the position that Prabowo wants to be as a bridge-maker between the two competing powers.”

Basuki said that “if Indonesia wants to be a leader of the Global South, then it’s better to revive the [Indonesia-led] Asia-Africa conference and Non-Aligned Movement, which already has 120 countries, a true reflection of a Global South alliance.”

Apart from joining BRICS, Indonesia is also seeking membership at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which signals its ambition to align with global standards of governance and economic openness.
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Nancy Pelosi hospitalized after fall on official trip to Luxembourg

Posted on by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been hospitalized after she “sustained an injury” during an official engagement in Luxembourg, according to a spokesperson.

Pelosi, 84, was in Europe with a bipartisan congressional delegation to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Her spokesperson, Ian Krager, said in a statement that she is “currently receiving excellent treatment from doctors and medical professionals” and is unable to attend the remainder of events on her trip.

He did not describe the nature of her injury or give any additional details, but a person familiar with the incident said that Pelosi tripped and fell while at an event with the other members of Congress. Another person familiar with the situation said she injured her hip. The people requested anonymity to discuss the fall because they were not authorized to speak about it publicly.

Krager said that Pelosi “looks forward to returning home to the U.S. soon.”

Among the members on the trip was Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, who posted on social media that he was “praying for a speedy recovery” for Pelosi. The two lawmakers were captured holding hands in a group photo Friday at the U.S. Embassy in Luxembourg.

“I’m disappointed Speaker Emerita Pelosi won’t be able to join the rest of our delegation’s events this weekend as I know how much she looked forward to honoring our veterans,” McCaul wrote on X. “But she is strong, and I am confident she will be back on her feet in no time.”

The former leader’s fall comes two years after her husband, Paul, was attacked by a man with a hammer at their San Francisco home. The man, who was sentenced in October to 30 years in federal prison, broke into their home looking for Pelosi.

Pelosi, who was first elected in 1987 and served as speaker twice, stepped down from her leadership post two years ago but remained in Congress and was re-elected to represent her San Francisco district in November.

She has remained active in the two years since she left the top job, working with Democrats in private and in public and attending official events. Last summer, she was instrumental in her party’s behind the scenes push to urge President Joe Biden to leave the presidential ticket.

She attended the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington last weekend and was on the Senate floor Monday to attend the swearing in of her former Democratic House colleagues, Adam Schiff of California and Andy Kim of New Jersey.

Earlier this week, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, 82, tripped and fell in the Senate, spraining his wrist and cutting his face. McConnell, who is stepping down from his leadership post at the end of the year, missed Senate votes on Thursday after experiencing some stiffness in his leg from the fall, his office said. 
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Syrian refugees in Somalia hope to return home

Posted on by SeeAF

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA/WASHINGTON — Expressing a renewed desire to return to their homeland, some Syrian refugees residing Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, are hopeful that recent developments, including the ousting of the Assad family regime that brutally ruled Syria for 53 years, might signal a safer future in Syria.

Since the Syrian civil war broke out more than a decade ago, Syrians have fled to countries in the Middle East and Europe, as well as to African countries that have been grappling with instability.

Many Syrian refugees found themselves in Somalia, a war-torn nation in the Horn of Africa that has faced terrorist attacks, piracy and humanitarian crises.

On Wednesday, dozens of Syrian refugees in Mogadishu staged a demonstration marked with emotional speeches to celebrate the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Holding placards that read “We want to go home” and “Syria awaits us,” the demonstrators expressed their longing for peace and stability in their homeland.

Some of them shared their stories with VOA.

“We are victorious because of the free Syrian army. Those in control [Syrian rebels] now are God-abiding people, not the ousted and strayed al-Assad,” said Hussein Hikmat, a refugee from Damascus. “Here, Somalis welcomed us and supported us, but we will go back to our country.”

Ali Al-Zahir, who fled from Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, lost his wife and three children in the Syrian war. He arrived in Mogadishu in hopes of keeping his two surviving children safe.

“I am your brother from Aleppo, a city that suffered at the hands of al-Assad and his predator regime. Syria is free today, and free soldiers control it. I swear to God I want to return to my country,” he said, in tears, reflecting on his deep desire to reunite with his homeland.

Syrian refugee Khadija Mohamed sells perfumes and tusbah, prayer beads used in Islamic practices, in Mogadishu. While she is hopeful about returning to Syria, she acknowledges the challenges her impoverished family faces.

“The situation in Syria is good. Bashar al-Assad is gone, and now Syria is in safe hands,” Mohamed said. “I have lived in Somalia for two years with my husband and kids. We want to return, but our current situation does not allow us to do so.” 

Fatima Mohamed, another refugee, shared a cautious outlook.

“The situation in Syria is improving, and many places are free,” she said. “It is not entirely stable yet. We hear that some of the Syrian prisoners arrested by the Assad regime are still in underground jails,” she added, pointing out that conditions would need to be less volatile for her to consider returning home.

Like Fatima Mohamed, many Syrian refugees remain cautious despite their longing to return home.

Somali officials who spoke at the demonstrations have acknowledged the refugees’ wishes and said they were working with international organizations to assess the situation in Syria and facilitate safe returns.

There is no official data on the number of Syrian refugees living in Somalia, but officials estimate it to be in the thousands.

Syrians who found refuge in Somalia said the two countries’ history of amicable relations drove them.

The Syrians say Somalis’ friendliness toward refugees and Somalia’s lack of visa restrictions also drew them to Mogadishu and other major cities in the country.

In return, the Syrian refugees, which include doctors, nurses, engineers, chefs, technicians, and teachers among their ranks, have enriched Somalia culturally and economically because of the knowledge and skillsets they brought with them.

This story originated in VOA’s Somali Service.  
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China’s Xi to attend Macau 25th handover anniversary next week, state media says

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Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Macau next week for a gathering marking 25 years since the former Portuguese colony’s handover to China, state news agency Xinhua said Saturday.

Xi will also attend the inauguration of Macau’s incoming administration and conduct an inspection tour during the December 18-20 visit, according to Xinhua.

Macau grew into a trading post with a mixed Portuguese-Chinese population and cultural heritage during 442 years of colonial rule before it was handed over to China on December 20, 1999.

The city has since become the world’s top casino hub by gaming revenue and a popular destination for Chinese tourists. It is the only place in China where casino gambling is allowed.

Like neighboring Hong Kong, Macau operates under a “One Country, Two Systems” framework that promises a high degree of autonomy, its own legal system and stronger safeguards for civil liberties than on the mainland.

Former top judge Sam Hou-fai will be sworn in as Macau’s next leader on December 20, replacing Ho Iat-seng.

Sam was the sole candidate in an election where only 400 pro-establishment figures — out of the city’s nearly 700,000 people — were eligible to vote. 
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Texas attorney general sues NY doctor over abortion pill prescription

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday sued a New York doctor for allegedly providing a Texas woman with abortion pills by telemedicine.

The lawsuit by the Republican attorney general, which appeared to be the first of its kind, could offer a test of conservative states’ power to stop abortion pills from reaching their residents.

New York is among the Democratic-led states that have passed so-called shield laws aiming to protect doctors who provide abortion pills to patients in other states. The law says New York will not cooperate with another state’s effort to prosecute, sue or otherwise penalize a doctor for providing the pills, as long as the doctor complies with New York law.

“As other states move to attack those who provide or obtain abortion care, New York is proud to be a safe haven for abortion access,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “We will always protect our providers from unjust attempts to punish them for doing their job and we will never cower in the face of intimidation or threats.”

In the lawsuit, filed in the District Court of Collin County, Paxton said that New Paltz, New York, Dr. Margaret Carpenter prescribed and provided mifepristone and misoprostol, the two drugs used in medication abortion, to a Texas woman via telemedicine.

Medication abortion accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions. It has drawn increasing attention since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision allowing states to ban abortion, which more than 20 have done.

The woman went to the hospital after experiencing bleeding as a complication of taking the drugs, which were subsequently discovered by her partner, according to the lawsuit.

Paxton claimed that Carpenter violated Texas’s abortion law and its occupational licensing law by practicing medicine in the state despite not being licensed there. He is seeking an injunction barring her from further violations of Texas’s abortion ban and at least $100,000 in civil penalties for each past violation.

Carpenter is a member of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, which supports nationwide access to abortion through telemedicine, and helped start Hey Jane, an online telehealth clinic offering abortion pills, according to the coalition’s website. She could not immediately be reached for comment. 
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Moody’s hands France surprise downgrade over deteriorating finances

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PARIS — Credit ratings agency Moody’s unexpectedly downgraded France’s rating on Friday, adding pressure on the country’s new prime minister to corral divided lawmakers into backing his efforts to rein in the strained public finances.

The downgrade, which came outside of Moody’s regular review schedule for France, brings its rating to “Aa3” from “Aa2” with a stable outlook for future moves and puts it in line with those from rival agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.

It comes hours after President Emmanuel Macron named on Friday veteran centrist politician and early ally Francois Bayrou as his fourth prime minister this year.

His predecessor, Michel Barnier, failed to pass a 2025 budget and was toppled earlier this month by left-wing and far-right lawmakers opposed to his $63 billion (60 billion euro) belt-tightening push that he had hoped would rein in France’s spiraling fiscal deficit.

The political crisis forced the outgoing government to propose emergency legislation this week to temporarily roll over 2024 spending limits and tax thresholds into next year until a more permanent 2025 budget can be passed.

“Looking ahead, there is now very low probability that the next government will sustainably reduce the size of fiscal deficits beyond next year,” Moody’s said in a statement.

“As a result, we forecast that France’s public finances will be materially weaker over the next three years compared to our October 2024 baseline scenario,” it added.

Barnier had intended to cut the budget deficit next year to 5% of economic output from 6.1% this year with a $63 billion (60 billion euro) package of spending cuts and tax hikes.

But left-wing and far-right lawmakers were opposed to much of the belt-tightening drive and voted a no confidence measure against Barnier’s government, bringing it down.

Bayrou, who has long warned about France’s weak public finances, said on Friday shortly after taking office that he faced a “Himalaya” of a challenge reining in the deficit.

Outgoing Finance Minister Antoine Armand said he took note of Moody’s decision, adding there was a will to reduce the deficit as indicated by the nomination of Bayrou.

The political crisis put French stocks and debt under pressure, pushing the risk premium on French government bonds at one point to their highest level over 12 years.
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Nigeria unveils new gunboats to enhance operations against oil theft

Posted on by SeeAF

Abuja, Nigeria — Nigerian authorities in oil-rich Rivers State unveiled on Friday six military-grade gunboats to help security agents battle the piracy and oil theft that have plagued the Niger Delta region for decades. The latest measure is part of a broader crackdown aiming at boosting Nigeria’s oil production. 

Local singers and dancers enthralled hundreds of delegates at the ceremony marking the handover of six military gunboats to Nigeria’s navy in southern Rivers State. 

It’s the latest effort by state authorities to support a national crackdown on oil thieves and to check piracy along the waterways in the Niger Delta. 

Officials said the boats will bolster the navy’s ability to patrol and respond to threats, especially near submerged oil export pipelines, which are often prone to attacks by thieves. 

Siminalayi Fubara is the Rivers State governor. 

“We’re doing logistics support to the Nigerian navy, who are the closest agency that can battle the ones off the land,” said Fubara. “It’s a big problem. When you see the technology involved in the lines, you’d see that it’s not small engineering, it’s a professional thing.” 

Nigeria has long declared a war on crude oil theft, but the problem has continued to cut into the government’s income and disrupt exports. 

Authorities estimate the country loses $10 billion every year, or the equivalent of about 200,000 barrels of oil per day, to illegal actors. 

Corruption, lack of security, and poor regulation have hindered authorities’ ability to effectively curb the problem. 

Fubara said in addition to heightening security measures, state authorities will expand investments in infrastructure, health care and education in local communities most prone to oil theft to dissuade them from the practice. 

“This problem is not just a problem that attacking those people on the field can solve,” said Fubara. “What we need is a total reorientation. You need to engage them.” 

The state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company said this week that 94 incidents of crude oil theft occurred between November 30 and December 6. 

On Thursday, the Nigerian military said its 90-day Operation Delta Safe, a program that aimed to reduce oil theft and increase production, was successful upon its conclusion in mid-October. 

Rear Admiral John Okeke is commander of the operation. He spoke to journalists. 

“We’ve been able to arrest, and the appropriate handling of over 300 vehicles comprising trucks, tankers, cars, tricycles conveying crude oil and illegal products,” said Okeke. “Similarly, we’ve been able to handle over 15 million liters of stolen crude oil and about four million liters of illegally refined automotive gasoline oil.” 

Authorities say Nigeria plans to use drones, automated metering systems and other technology to monitor its oil pipelines next year. 
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Trump wants to eliminate daylight saving time in US

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NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump wants to turn the lights out on daylight saving time. 

In a post on his social media site Friday, Trump said his party would try to end the practice when he returns to office. 

“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” he wrote. 

Setting clocks forward one hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall is intended to maximize daylight during summer months but has long been subject to scrutiny. Daylight saving time was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. 

Lawmakers have occasionally proposed getting rid of the time change altogether. The most prominent recent attempt, a now-stalled bipartisan bill named the Sunshine Protection Act, had proposed making daylight saving time permanent. 

The measure was sponsored by Florida Senator Marco Rubio, whom Trump has tapped to helm the State Department. 

“Changing the clock twice a year is outdated and unnecessary,” Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida said as the Senate voted in favor of the measure. 

Health experts have said that lawmakers have it backward and that standard time should be made permanent. 

Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said that it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology. 

Most countries do not observe daylight saving time. For those that do, the date that clocks are changed varies, creating a complicated tapestry of changing time differences. 

The U.S. states of Arizona and Hawaii don’t change their clocks at all. 
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‘You are loved,’ Jill Biden tells military children at toy drive

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washington — Less than 10 minutes was all it took for a large pile of toys donated by the White House staff to disappear as Jill Biden and children from military families sorted them into boxes as part of the annual Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots campaign for the less fortunate.

The White House is a longtime supporter of the program, which has been helping families for 77 years, said Lieutenant General Leonard Anderson IV, commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

“We’re making a significant impact right here in the nation’s capital, where these toys will go to kids in need,” he said at a White House event hosted by the first lady.

Last year, the program delivered over 25 million toys to more than 10 million children nationwide, he said. “This year we think we’re going to set another record, so we’re really excited,” he said.

Jill Biden, whose father and late son served in the military, spoke with  several dozen military children who sat in front of her on the floor of the East Room facing two large glittering Christmas trees flanking the doorway.

“If you only remember one thing for the holidays, after all the wrapping paper is cleaned up, let it be this: You are loved,” she said. “There are so many people who care about you, from your family and your friends, from your teachers and your classmates, to the president and me.

“And the best thing that we can do with that love is to let it overflow, to share it with others who might really need it,” she added.

After her brief remarks, the first lady asked the children: “Are you guys ready to get sorting?” And off they went toward the large pile of dolls, stuffed animals, sports gear, vehicles, books, puzzles and other items, including a copy of “Delaware Opoly” — a Monopoly-style board game themed after President Joe Biden’s home state.
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Nigeria: Experts call for increased funding for malaria intervention

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ABUJA, NIGERIA — The World Health Organization (WHO) and public health experts are calling for increased political commitment and funding to fight malaria, especially in endemic regions like Africa. This week’s release of the 2024 World Malaria Report by the WHO said there were 11 million more malaria cases compared to the previous year and that Ethiopia and Nigeria recorded their highest death tolls from the disease since 2015.

According to Wednesday’s report, there were 263 million cases of the mosquito-borne disease and nearly 600,000 deaths worldwide last year.

The report indicates global malaria cases grew by about 11 million compared to the year prior while fatalities remained nearly the same.

The WHO report said Africa accounted for 95% of global malaria deaths. Most of the victims were children under 5 years of age.

Dr. Kehinde Ajayi, an expert on malaria epidemiology and control, said one issue is that since 2020, most developing nations have had a shortage of resources to combat the disease.

“Some of the resources like insecticide-treated nets and also funding towards the malaria control programs have been hampered because of … COVID-19 and the economic imbalance in developing countries,” Ajayi said.

Ajayi said climate change and declining effectiveness of anti-malaria drugs are threatening progress.

Nigeria bears the world’s highest burden of malaria with more than 27% of global malaria cases and 31% of deaths.

But the WHO report also showed some progress — estimating that about 2.2 billion cases of malaria and 12.7 million deaths were averted globally since 2000.

Ajayi said increased government funding for malaria interventions could change things.

“Mosquitoes thrive very well under temperatures that are more than 19 degrees Celsius, and the climate change has made [that] possible,” Ajayi said. “Also, the plasmodium parasite has gained a lot of resistance against malaria drugs. Also, the government needs to invest more in our health sector. Government also needs to fund research that will help us in discovering indigenous drugs.”

The WHO report said only about half of the $8.7 billion target for malaria intervention last year was achieved.

In Nigeria, spending on health care is about 4% of the national budget, much lower than the 15% agreed upon by the African Union in 2001 — in the so-called Abuja Declaration.

Authorities have pledged to improve spending on health. On Thursday, Nigeria signed a deal to promote local production of test kits for HIV and malaria.

Last week, Nigeria launched its malaria vaccination campaign — becoming the latest African country to provide malaria vaccines to young children.

There are now 17 countries giving new malaria vaccines.
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Blinken calls on Azerbaijan to release Meydan TV journalists 

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The arrests in Azerbaijan of several journalists, including staff at the independent Meydan TV, have been condemned by the international community, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Azerbaijani authorities have detained Meydan TV’s editor-in-chief, Aynur Elgunash, and four of her reporters. Also being held are freelancer Ramin Jabrailzada, who is known as Deko, and Ulvi Tahirov, deputy director of the Baku School of Journalism.

All are charged with smuggling foreign currency and have been ordered to be held for four months in pre-trial detention. The journalists denied the charges and said the criminal case is a result of their journalism work.

During the arrests, others were briefly detained and later released, according to local reports. Journalist Ahmad Mukhtar was placed in administrative detention on charges of petty hooliganism and disobedience to the police.

Blinken in a statement called on Azerbaijani authorities to immediately release the journalists who he said were “arrested for their work on human rights.”

The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, known as RSF, described the arrests as part of a strategy to silence critics of President Ilham Aliyev’s administration.

VOA reached out to authorities, but the calls went unanswered.

Jeanne Cavelier, who heads RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk, said the government has resumed its crackdown against journalists in the aftermath of COP29, the annual U.N. climate change conference that Azerbaijan hosted. 

The Meydan TV arrests again prove the regime’s “willingness to shamelessly target the individuals who dare to keep Azerbaijani citizens informed,” Cavelier said in a statement. She added that Azerbaijan has detained 13 other journalists in the past year.

RSF “calls on the international community not to turn a blind eye to these grave, systematic violations of fundamental rights,” said Cavelier.

Meydan TV in a statement described the arrests and questioning of its team as illegal.

“Since the day we began our activities, our journalists have been arrested, they and their families have been subjected to harassment, and they have been subjected to various pressures and threats. Journalists who cooperate with us have been illegally banned from leaving the country,” the statement said.

Bahruz Maharramov, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, questioned the criticism of the arrests.

“If there are real suspicions based on valid, irrefutable evidence, why should any person’s profession prevent those suspicions from being investigated?” he said. 

“Why should we remain silent about the illegal actions of a mercenary network like Meydan TV, just because they are journalists? Where is the legality, where is the equality?” he told VOA.

Regular pressure

Meydan TV was founded in 2013 as an impartial and objective media organization. It has regularly faced pressure from the authorities, and in 2017 access to its website was blocked in the country. The network’s social media accounts have been hacked multiple times and their contents deleted.

Orkhan Mammad, an editor at Meydan TV, said that some of those detained were subjected to violence and that the authorities tried to forcefully extract statements from them.

“Ramin Deko had bruises under his eyes. He was left without a lawyer for a long time. When Aynur Elgunash’s house was searched, she was pinned against the wall, hit in the kidney region, and her computer was seized,” he said.

The lawyer for Tahirov, Bahruz Bayramov, told VOA that the assistant director of the Baku School of Journalism has no connection with Meydan TV.

“They were just family friends with Aynur Elgunash. A large amount of money was seized during a search at Tahirov’s house. However, Tahirov stated that the money belonged to his wife,” Bayramov said.

The money found was from her salary, the lawyer said.

Zibeyda Sadigova, who is representing another of the journalists, Natig Javadli, said that there was no basis for the arrest.

“We were not provided with the decision and protocols regarding the search of his home, so we were unable to review them. Natig said that his computers and phones were confiscated, but no money was found in the house,”  Sadigova said.

The lawyer said that Javadli has been in journalism for 30 years and that the arrest is related to that work. “They seized his passwords without a court order. He was subjected to psychological pressure,” the lawyer told VOA.

Lawyers representing the journalists have filed an appeal against the pre-trial detention.

Media crackdown

More than 20 journalists and media workers have been arrested in Azerbaijan since late 2023 on allegations of smuggling and other crimes.

Among those affected are journalists from Abzas Media, known for its corruption investigations, and the independent media outlet Toplum TV.

The editor-in-chief of Abzas Media, Sevinj Vagifgizi, was among the Anti-Corruption Champions honored by Blinken on Monday. 

“Vagifgizi has devoted more than a decade in exposing government abuses. She’s also the one awardee who is not with us this afternoon,” Blinken said during a ceremony.

He noted that Vagifgizi had returned to Azerbaijan in November 2023, “knowing that she might be arrested on arrival.” More than a year later, said Blinken, “she remains in detention.”

Azerbaijan’s government has rejected international criticism of the arrests, calling it an “interference in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs and the independence of the judiciary.”

Officials say that fundamental rights, as well as media freedom, are guaranteed. 

Local human rights organizations estimate that there are more than 300 political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

The country ranks 164th out of 180 on the RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, where 1 reflects the best environment for media.

Ulviyya Guliyeva contributed to this report.   
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Southern African countries build $45M military depot in Botswana

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Gaborone, Botswana — The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is building a military logistics hub in Botswana to ensure rapid deployment of troops. The construction follows the regional bloc’s 2021 failure to quickly send forces to quell an insurgence in northern Mozambique.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, in his capacity as SADC chairperson, performed the groundbreaking ceremony Friday to mark the start of construction. 

The 19 hectare-SADC Standby Force Regional Logistics Depot will be built in Rasesa, 40 kilometers north of Gaborone. 

“This groundbreaking ceremony is timely and marks a significant stride in our journey towards promoting and consolidating peace, stability and security in our region,” said Mnangagwa. “Regrettably, the last four years have seen our region witnessing complex and multifaceted threats to peace and security. These require urgent and collective regional responses.”           

Having faced previous deployment challenges, Mnangagwa says the establishment of the center will ensure the region will be able to deploy troops quickly.

“The regional logistics depot will serve as a critical hub for the storage of and the rapid deployment of resources, personnel and equipment,” said Mnangagwa. “This ensures that the SADC Standby Force has tactical capability to swiftly respond to the threats to peace and security.”       

However, Mnangagwa says only $15 million of the $45 million required to complete the facility has been raised. He appealed to international partners to come to the SADC’s aid.   

Botswana President Duma Boko said the military hub will give the SADC the capacity to intervene in strife-torn regions.

“They (people) are mostly unsafe in some of their countries. They face strife, they face belligerent hostilities,” said Boko. “They are in distress and they are looking for help and we in SADC have taken it upon ourselves when these calls of distress are raised to step in, to step up and come to the rescue we set up therefore, a force through which we intervene in some of these situations.”   

Boko said the depot will be crucial to the distribution of military equipment when needed.   

“We have taken it upon ourselves to respond, to take to these trouble spots and deploy forces to assist and to bring an end to the conflicts,” said Boko. “Such missions require facilities where the equipment they will need in the execution of their missions will be kept and from which such equipment can then be moved and distributed with speed and dispatched to the front lines where it is needed.”  

Zimbabwe-based political analyst Effie Dlela Ncube said while it is critical to have the armory, regional leaders must first address the root cause of conflict.   

“We need to go beyond that (deploying troops) and deal with the political, socio-economic, legal and other structural root causes of conflict in the region,” said Ncube. “We need to ensure that there are free and fair elections so that people do not have to rely on war in order to change governments. We need to eradicate discrimination on the basis of where people come from, on the basis of the language they speak, because that is a key driver of conflict. We need to deal with poverty, corruption (and) economic inequalities.”   

The SADC has seen the emergence of trouble spots, notably in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and in northern Mozambique. 
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Landmark climate change hearing ends on question of reparations

Posted on by SeeEA

A landmark hearing into nation-states’ legal obligations over climate change wrapped up at the United Nations’ top court in The Hague on Friday. The outcome could have implications for the fight against global warming — and for the big polluters blamed for emitting most greenhouse gases. Henry Ridgwell has more.
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Chinese Embassy in Kenya partners with state broadcaster to train journalists

Posted on by SeeAF

nairobi, kenya — The Chinese Embassy in Kenya says it has begun training Kenyan journalists to promote professionalism and integrity. But press advocates say the initiative is ironic as China sits close to the bottom in a key press freedom ranking for 2024.

Kenyan news anchor and reporter Allan Aoko is one of dozens of reporters and editors at the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation who recently participated in a Chinese Embassy-sponsored media course in Nairobi. The course touched on a range of journalism topics.

”It was very critical for me to understand the kind of tools that we should be using in artificial intelligence as a reporter using those tools to disseminate the news,” he said. “It was important for me to understand the details.”

Some 70 journalists participated in the training.

Speaking at the opening of the training session, the Chinese Embassy’s deputy ambassador to Kenya, Zhang Zhizhong, talked about the importance of the role of journalism in a nation.

”Journalists and reporters, you are the core of media and also the key factor in the success of media in conveying information and shaping perceptions and leading a country or nation into the correct direction,” Zhang said.

Studies by independent journalist advocacy groups have documented how China uses such partnerships to try to foster more positive coverage, including via press junkets, sponsorships and so-called career development opportunities to nurture better media relations. It has also offered tightly controlled press trips to Xinjiang to try to counter investigative reporting that has exposed its mass detentions and abuses in the region.

As the world’s leading jailer of journalists, China is considered one of the most censored countries in the world, using a combination of censorship, surveillance and legal threats to prevent free expression. The country ranks 172nd out of 180 on the Press Freedom Index, where 1 reflects the best media environment.

Aleksandra Bielakowska works for Reporters Without Borders, which compiles the index. She said that  “inside their country, Beijing is conducting a full-scale campaign against independent voices, which is also independent journalists. In the past 10 years, we could see some space for independent journalism in China. The investigative journalists have almost died out.”

The Kenyan national broadcaster’s editor-in-chief, Simon Maina, told VOA that because resources are limited, accepting help from China may be inevitable. But Maina said his newsroom’s editorial decisions are free of China’s influence.

”The sponsorship they have given us does not interfere with our editorial policy,” Maina said. “Our editorial policy still stands, so it has nothing to do with how they operate in their country.”

A 2021 report by the International Federation of Journalists found that Beijing’s strategy was to target journalists in developing countries, such as in Africa, where it has deep financial interests. The report further showed that three quarters of African respondents said they viewed cooperation with Chinese entities as positive, especially where there was not enough media infrastructure.  

Kenyan foreign policy professor Noah Midamba said that even with Beijing’s efforts and investments in Africa, the continent’s mass media are still aligned with the West because of the language barrier with China.

”What is lagging for the Chinese is their information has not penetrated to the people in the streets, people in the rural areas and the most populous [regions] in Africa, as most Africans don’t understand Chinese,” he said.

At the same time, what has made the headlines is Kenya’s participation in China’s global infrastructure development project called the Belt and Road Initiative – a partnership many economists say has led the country into a debt trap.
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VOA Russian: Sister of American jailed in Russia says she doesn’t know where he is

Posted on by SeeEU

Patricia Hubbard Fox, the sister of the 72-year-old U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard sentenced to jail in Russia for almost seven years on charges of “being a mercenary” for his alleged participation in fighting in Ukraine, says in an exclusive VOA Russian interview that she is still unsuccessfully trying to find out the location of his prison in Russia. She refuted the charges against her brother, saying that he would not be able to fight alongside the Ukrainian army and that he was an English language teacher in a small Ukrainian town.

Click her for the full story in Russian.
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