China says it’s economy grew 2.3% in 2020, recovering from the novel coronavirus pandemic that brought the global economy to a screeching halt. The world’s second-largest economy was boosted by a 6.5% increase in the fourth and final quarter of the year, according to data released Monday by the government’s statistics bureau, up sharply from the 4.9% increase in the previous quarter. Analysts attribute the rise to a continuing demand for Chinese-made products, such as face masks and other protective items and electronics. Industrial output rose 7.3% in December from a year earlier. The final numbers indicate China is the only nation in the world to avoid contraction last year as it dealt with the rapid spread of COVID-19, which was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. But it was China’s weakest economic year since 1976 when the decade-long Cultural Revolution was coming to a disastrous end. China’s economic rebound is all the more remarkable considering it had shut down all social and economic activity in an effort to contain the virus, which led to a steep 6.8% decline in the first months of 2020.
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Month: January 2021
Report: Images Show Evidence of Attack on Ethiopia Refugee Camp
New satellite images of a refugee camp in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region show more than 400 structures have been badly damaged in what a research group believes is the latest “intentional attack” by fighters. The report by the Great Britain-based DX Open Network nonprofit, shared with The Associated Press, says “it is likely that the fire events of 16 January are yet another episode in a series of military incursions on the camp as reported by (the United Nations refugee agency).” The Shimelba camp is one of four that hosted 96,000 refugees from nearby Eritrea when fighting erupted in early November between Ethiopian forces and those of the defiant Tigray region. The fighting has swept through the camps and two of them, including Shimelba, remain inaccessible to aid workers. Many refugees have fled. On Thursday, U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi cited recent satellite imagery of fires and other destruction at the two inaccessible camps as “concrete indications of major violations of international law.” On Sunday the U.N. refugee agency urged that it be given access to the camps. “Until November, 8,700 refugees were registered in Shimelba. We have no information on how many refugees were still in the camp last week,” U.N. refugee agency spokesman Chris Melzer said in an email. “We still have no access to the two northern camps, Shimelba and Hitsats (25,248 refugees registered in November),” he added. “We demand access since the refugees are without supplies for two and a half months now and we are extremely concerned. We also saw satellite pictures and heard frightening reports. But since we don’t have access, we cannot confirm them.” The new report says the satellite images show “smoldering ruins, blackening of structures and collapsed roofs.” The structures, it said, “match the profile of mud-brick dwellings constructed by the refugees themselves. The attackers likely split into multiple groups going door to door to set fires inside buildings,” consistent with previous attacks on the Hitsats camp, which also is inaccessible to the U.N. Neither the U.N. nor DX Open Network has blamed anyone for the attacks, but the presence of troops from Eritrea, a bitter enemy of the Tigray region’s now-fugitive leaders, has caused alarm. Grandi noted “many reliable reports and firsthand accounts” of abuses including the forced return of refugees to Eritrea. The day after Grandi’s statement, Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel tweeted that “UNHCR seems to indulge, yet again, in another bout of gratuitous & irresponsible smear campaigns against Eritrea.” He said Eritrea rejects the “forced repatriation of ‘refugees.'” Eritrea has been described by human rights groups as one of the world’s most repressive countries. Thousands of people have fled the country over the years to avoid a system of military conscription. Fighting continues in parts of the Tigray region. Thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced.
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More Than 80 People Killed in West Darfur Attack
Unknown armed men killed more than 80 people and injured at least 160 others in the Krinding refugee camp and elsewhere in Genena, the capital of Sudan’s West Darfur state this weekend, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency. Governor Mohamed Abdallah Al Douma also deployed hundreds of troops across the state to restore security. The trouble began Friday when a member of the Masalit tribe killed a member of an Arab tribe in a personal dispute, Douma said. He said the killer was arrested and the state public prosecutor opened an investigation into what happened. Early Saturday morning, armed men from different parts of Darfur planned and launched what appeared to be revenge attacks, Douma said. “And I see no reason for attacking the camp because — I don’t know if the killer is from this camp or not, but even if he is, it was an individual act,” Douma told South Sudan in Focus. “But they burned down more than a third of the camp and killed a number of people that we are still counting.” Thousands of internally displaced persons fled the camp because of the violence. Douma said the attackers also looted property.This photo shows aftermath of an attack in the village of Masteri in west Darfur, Sudan Saturday, July 25, 2020.On Sunday evening, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors reported 83 deaths and more than 160 injured people, but Douma expects the death toll to climb. He told South Sudan in Focus that West Darfur state is awash in firearms, machine guns and heavy artillery, all of which were used during the attacks. “That’s why we strongly need to disarm all civilians in this state and not just try to collect firearms on a voluntary basis, that’s not going to happen; we need to disarm people. There is a frightening number of weapons in the hands of civilians,” Douma said, adding that the peace deal signed in Juba in October cannot be implemented unless Darfur civilians are disarmed. The United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) began withdrawing from the region at the end of December as its mission to protect civilians ended. Sudan’s Attorney General Taj al-Ser Ali al-Hebr told VOA from Khartoum that his office is sending a team of prosecutors and investigators to West Darfur state to open criminal cases against the perpetrators of the weekend’s violence. “It’s a committee I put together from the office of public prosecution that will go and investigate this incident as crimes, and it’s comprised of four prosecutors who are very experienced in criminal investigation. They will find out who perpetrated this violence and what are the reasons behind it,” Hebr said. The Darfur Bar Association released a statement expressing its concern about the situation in West Darfur state. Saleh Mahmoud, a human rights lawyer and president of the Darfur Bar Association, said information indicates at least 100 people were killed and local medical facilities are not equipped to treat the victims. “One small hospital in Genena is already occupied, there’s no service for the wounded. People are dying due to bleeding inside the hospital. Worse than that, I think also the performance of the regular forces was not appropriate,” Mahmoud told South Sudan in Focus. He said authorities should conduct a full investigation, and all perpetrators should be brought to justice. “There are accusations that the military is also implicated in the commission of killings inside houses and in the streets,” including women, children and the elderly, Mahmoud told VOA. He said there was a critical absence of security forces and called their performance delayed and insignificant on Saturday. In October 2020, Sudan’s transitional government signed a peace agreement with several armed groups from Darfur. The agreement provided for a joint security force comprised of 12,000 members tasked with securing the region of Darfur. The force has yet to be established.
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Biden’s Inauguration Will Look Like No Other
Except for rare cases, the inauguration of a new president symbolizes the American tradition of a peaceful transfer of power. VOA’s Steve Redisch explains how and why Wednesday’s swearing-in of Joe Biden will be far from ordinary.
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Small Numbers of Protesters Gather at Fortified US Statehouses
Small groups of right-wing protesters — some of them carrying rifles — gathered outside heavily fortified statehouses around the country Sunday as National Guard troops and police kept watch to prevent a repeat of the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol.There were no immediate reports of any clashes.Security was stepped up in recent days after the FBI warned of the potential for armed protests in Washington and at all 50 state capitol buildings ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration Wednesday.A few people demonstrated in some capital cities, with crowds of a dozen or two, while streets in many other places remained empty. Some protesters said they supported President Donald Trump. But others said they weren’t backing Trump and had instead come to voice their support for gun rights or oppose government overreach.Some statehouses were surrounded by new protective fences, had boarded-up windows and were patrolled by extra police. Legislatures generally were not in session over the weekend.Tall fences also surrounded the U.S. Capitol. The National Mall was closed to the public, and the mayor of Washington asked people not to visit. Some 25,000 National Guard troops from around the country are expected to arrive in the city in the coming days.The security measures were intended to safeguard seats of government from the type of violence that broke out at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, when far-right Trump supporters galvanized by his false claims that the election had been stolen from him stormed the building while Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote.The attack left a Capitol Police officer and four others dead. More than 125 people have been arrested on charges related to the insurrection. At the Ohio Statehouse on Sunday, about two dozen people, including several carrying long guns, protested outside under the watchful eyes of state troopers before dispersing as it began to snow. Kathy Sherman, who was wearing a visor with Trump printed on it, said she supports the president but distanced herself from the mob that breached the U.S. Capitol.”I’m here to support the right to voice a political view or opinion without fear of censorship, harassment or the threat of losing my job or being physically assaulted,” she said. The roughly 20 protesters who showed up at Michigan’s Capitol, including some who were armed, were significantly outnumbered by law enforcement officers and media. At Oregon’s Capitol, fewer than a dozen men wearing military-style outfits, black ski masks and helmets stood nearby with semiautomatic weapons slung across their bodies. Some had upside-down American flags and signs reading such things as “Disarm the government.”At the Texas Capitol, Ben Hawk walked with about a dozen demonstrators up to the locked gates carrying a bullhorn and an AR-15 rifle hanging at the side of his camouflage pants. He condemned the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and said he did not support Trump.”All we came down here to do today was to discuss, gather, network and hang out. And it got blown and twisted completely out of proportion,” Hawk said.At Nevada’s Capitol, where demonstrators supporting Trump have flocked most weekends in recent months, all was quiet except for a lone protester with a sign.”Trump Lost. Be Adults. Go Home,” it read.Authorities in some states said they had no specific indication that demonstrations would occur, much less turn violent. Yet many state officials vowed to be prepared.One counter-protester came early to greet any demonstrators at the Pennsylvania Capitol, saying he had heard about the possibility of a meet-up of a far-right militant group. But no one else was there.”I’m fundamentally against the potential protesters coming here to delegitimize the election, and I don’t want to be passive in expressing my disapproval of them coming into this city,” Stephen Rzonca said.More than a third of governors had called out the National Guard to help protect their capitols and assist local law enforcement. Several governors declared states of emergency, and others closed their capitols to the public until after Biden’s inauguration.Some legislatures also canceled sessions or pared back their work for the coming week.Even before the violence at the Capitol, some statehouses had been the target of vandals and angry protesters during the past year.Last year, armed protesters entered the Michigan Capitol to object to coronavirus lockdowns. People angry over the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck for several minutes, vandalized capitols in several states, including Colorado, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin. Last month, crowds in Oregon forced their way into the state Capitol in Salem to protest its closure to the public during a special legislative session on coronavirus measures.Anticipating the potential for violence in the coming week, the building’s first-floor windows were boarded up and the National Guard was deployed. “The state Capitol has become a fortress,” said Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat. “I never thought I’d see that. It breaks my heart.”
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Impeachment Manager: Trump Watched Storming of Capitol on TV
The lead Democratic impeachment manager on Sunday accused President Donald Trump of doing nothing on January 6 to stop his supporters from storming the U.S. Capitol to try to upend his defeat for reelection.“He was watching it on TV, an insurrection tailgate party,” Congressman Jamie Raskin told CNN.No date has been set for Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate on a single charge that he incited insurrection by urging thousands of his supporters to fight to overturn his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, who is set to be inaugurated at noon Wednesday.Protesters rampaged past authorities into the Capitol building, ransacked some lawmakers’ offices and scuffled with police, mayhem that left five people dead, including one police officer whose death is being investigated as a homicide.Trump, after several hours of chaos in the Capitol building, urged his supporters to “go home,” but added, “We love you, you’re very special.”
Trump has defended his actions and statements leading up to the attack on the Capitol, saying his speech at the rally before the attack was “totally appropriate.”
Trump castigated what he called “the impeachment hoax” as the “continuation of the greatest and most vicious witch hunt” in U.S. history. FILE – Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump riot in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.After he was impeached last week by the House, Trump deplored the violence in a video statement, saying “violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement. Making America Great Again has always been about defending the rule of law.” The trial of Trump, the only U.S. president to be impeached twice, could start soon after Biden’s inauguration, or in the days to follow. If convicted by a two-thirds vote in the politically divided Senate, Trump could be barred, on a simple majority vote, from ever holding public office again. Trump has yet to pick his legal team to defend him in the Senate trial. Rudy Guiliani, the president’s personal lawyer, is being considered although J. Hogan Gidley, national press secretary for Trump’s campaign, said in a tweet that “President Trump has not yet made a determination as to which lawyer or law firm will represent him for the disgraceful attack on our Constitution and democracy.” Raskin, the lead House impeachment manager, called Trump’s actions “the most dangerous crime committed against the United States,” saying that the rioters “came within a hair’s breadth of hanging the vice president,” Mike Pence. When the rioters stormed into the Capitol, Pence was in the initial stages of presiding over the congressional certification of the Electoral College vote that Biden won over Trump.Pence, to Trump’s anger, had rejected the president’s repeated entreaties to block the certification of Biden’s victory.In addition, Raskin, who represents the eastern state of Maryland, said, “There was an assassination squad looking for Nancy Pelosi,” the speaker of the House of Representatives who led last week’s 232-197 vote to impeach Trump, in which 10 Republicans joined all House Democrats in voting against Trump.FILE – Supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.One Trump supporter, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said protesters had “defiled the seat of government,” but blamed Pelosi for the security lapse.
“How in the hell could that happen?” Graham said on Fox News. “Where was Nancy Pelosi? It’s her job to provide Capitol security.” Several top security officials have resigned in the wake of the violence under threat from lawmakers that they would be fired if they did not quit.Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, rebuffed Graham’s contention that she should be held accountable for the rampage of the protesters, dozens of whom have been arrested.“This disgraceful attempt to shift blame for the mob attack on the Capitol is absurd & pathetic,” Hammill said on Twitter, adding that Graham “need only look in the mirror if he wants to start pointing a finger. He has repeatedly cast doubts on results of a fair election & dangerously fanned flames of rightwing quackery” that Trump had been cheated out of re-election.Raskin said the trial will focus on Trump’s complicity in the march on the Capitol that followed a rally near the White House where he continued his weekslong, unfounded claims that he had been cheated out of a second term in the White House and urged supporters to walk to the Capitol.“This was the most terrible crime against our country by a president,” Raskin said.The second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois, told CNN that even though Trump’s four-year term will have expired by the time his impeachment trial starts, “he will be held responsible for what happened on January 6.”
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Ugandan Opposition to Challenge Presidential Election Results
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine’s party said Sunday that it would challenge his loss in the recent presidential election.
“We have evidence of ballot stuffing and other forms of election malpractice and after putting it together we are going to take all measures that the law permits to challenge this fraud,” Mathias Mpuuga of Wine’s National Unity Party (NUP) told a news conference Sunday, a day after Uganda’s election commission declared President Yoweri Museveni the winner of the 2021 general elections.
Since seizing control of Uganda in 1986, Museveni, 76, has ruled the country continuously. He has dismissed claims of voting fraud in the recent election against Wine, 38, a singer turned lawmaker.
Sunday’s announcement from the opposition party came as two people were confirmed dead in protests since the election result, Reuters reported.
Both the U.S. and Britain expressed concern over the validity of the election results, noting the internet blackout throughout Uganda since before the election day.
Wine said Sunday that his polling agents have video evidence of voting fraud, but cannot make them public because of the internet blackout, the Associated Press reported.
“We urge authorities to address such irregularities and restore communications,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus tweeted Saturday.We applaud Ugandans who exercised their right to vote in the January 14 elections, yet remain concerned by reports of election irregularities and politically motivated arrests. We urge authorities to address such irregularities and restore communications. https://t.co/HI0qd8A9q3
— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) January 16, 2021On Sunday, Jake Sullivan, whom U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has chosen to be his national security adviser, tweeted:
“The news from Uganda is deeply concerning. Bobi Wine, other political figures, and their supporters should not be harmed, and those who perpetrate political violence must be held accountable. After this flawed election, the world is watching.”
Wine’s party also said Sunday that the opposition candidate and his wife are unable to leave their home, with soldiers surrounding the entrance and barring his colleagues and journalists from entering.
“Everyone including media and my party officials are restricted from accessing me,” Wine tweeted Sunday.Everyone including media and my party officials are restricted from accessing me. @ZaakeFrancis was arrested outside my gate as he made his way to my house, he was badly beaten by soldiers. He is now in Rubaga hospital.
(ADMIN)
— BOBI WINE (@HEBobiwine) January 17, 2021Legislator Francis Zaake, a Wine supporter who in the past has been arrested and allegedly tortured by security forces, was given access Saturday, only to be stopped at the roadblock. He was then pulled from his car and beaten before being thrown into a police van.
Electoral Commission head Simon Byabakama announced just after 4 p.m. Saturday local time that Museveni had won the election with 58.64% to Wine’s 34.83% of the votes cast in Thursday’s balloting. Voter turnout was 52%.
Nine of Museveni’s cabinet ministers, including his vice president, did not win, according to the AP. Some lost to members of Wine’s party.
Byabakama called on Ugandans, especially those supporting those who lost in the election, to stay calm.
The U.S. Embassy in Uganda declined to observe the election after authorities denied more than 75% of its accreditation requests. On polling day, more than 30 election observers were arrested.
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Leading Greek Sporting Official Resigns Following Rape Charges
A leading Greek sporting official has resigned over allegations that he sexually assaulted Olympic sailing champion Sofia Bekatorou. The revelation has sparked an urgent judicial investigation, prompting more alleged victims to speak out about similar sexual assaults. But prosecuting the alleged offenders may prove impossible due to ineffective laws.
Greeks are already calling her the silence breaker. And 23 years after the alleged rape took place during qualifying matches for the 2000 Games in Sydney, Sofia Bekatorou now says she wants more women victims to speak out. “The messages I am receiving are hugely positive and supportive,” she said. Bekatorou says she knows more victims are out there in the field of sport and is calling on them all to make their accusations known. A gold medalist at the 2004 Olympics in her homeland, Bekatorou referred to the alleged rape during an online conference organized by the Greek Sports Ministry over the weekend. She refused to name the official at the time, but when a local prosecutor called her in during an urgent probe, she is said to have identified Aristides Adamopoulos, then a senior member of the Hellenic Sailing federation. He is also a local official of the ruling New Democracy party. Bekatorou is due to reappear before the prosecutor by Tuesday to provide additional details – accusations that Adamopoulos has not denied. Adamopoulos has urged he public to refrain from reaching what he called any rash decision. Andonis Dimitrakopoulos, the president of the federation, said he pushed Adamopoulos to resign over the weekend to clear his name. Dimitrakopoulos said the sporting organization was not aware of the alleged assault and more importantly, would have helped put a lid on the entire affair if Adamopoulos had sought out the support of the federation. Bekatorou says the admission left her stunned. “That the federation would respond to such a serious accusation in such a way is just regrettable,” she said. Two other leading athletes have since spoken out about similar alleged assaults, including national water polo champion Mania Bikoff, who alleges her team doctor sexually harassed her decades ago. The doctor, who was not named, did not respond to the accusation. “I was going in for shoulder treatments and he was asking me to instead pull down my pants. He never did anything but would sit there and observe me naked,” said Bikoff. The Hellenic Olympic Committee has also opened an investigation. For a small, close-knit society like Greece, public revelations of this sort are uncommon, even as #MeToo movements grip countries across the globe. But even if a subtle change in the country’s cultural mindset is starting to take form, pundits warn that laws lag far behind. Rape offenders in Greece can face between five and 20 years in prison if convicted. A statue of limitations has already expired in the case of Adamopoulos. Legal experts contacted by VOA say related laws should now be revised to have the timing on the statute of limitations begin when alleged victims like Bekatorou report the offense.
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At Least 78 Dead after Friday’s Earthquake in Indonesia
Indonesian rescue teams have pulled more bodies from the rubble of residential and commercial buildings toppled by a strong earthquake that hit Sulawesi island last week, killing at least 78 people, authorities said on Sunday.More than 800 people have been injured. Thousands of others were left homeless.The 6.2 earthquake, with an epicenter 36 kilometers south of West Sulawesi province’s Mamuju district and at a depth of 18 kilometers, struck after 2 a.m. on Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.Indonesia earthquake locator map, Jan. 15, 2021 (Credit: USGS)Rescue teams, aided by heavy equipment, have worked around the clock searching for survivors in the hardest-hit city of Mamuju and the neighboring district of Majene.Power supplies and telephone service have improved since Friday, aiding rescue operations.On Thursday, a 5.9-magnitude undersea quake struck the same region, damaging several homes but causing no casualties.Earthquakes, volcanos and tsunamis are common in Indonesia due to its location on the “Ring of Fire,” which is one of the world’s most seismically active areas.In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami that followed in Palu on Sulawesi killed more than 4,000 people.In December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in Indian Ocean and triggered a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in the region, most of them in Indonesia.
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Young Tunisians Riot, Marking 10 Years Since President’s Resignation
Riots and looting shook parts of Tunisia early Sunday, days after the country marked the 10th anniversary of the resignation of long-time President Zein el Abidine Ben Ali in an Arab Spring revolution. The riots also came as Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi announced a major ministerial reshuffle Saturday.
Arab media broadcast amateur video of crowds of young men setting fires and looting banks and private businesses in a second day of violence in a number of Tunisian cities. The Interior Ministry reported that 242 people were arrested in the wake of the violence. Prime Minister Hichem Meshishi said in a public address Saturday that he was presenting a ministerial reshuffle to parliament to try and alleviate corruption, unemployment and economic woes plaguing the country. He says that the coming months pose a serious threat and reforms must be made to the economy along with efforts to redress social injustice and underdevelopment. More cooperation is also needed at the ministerial level, he adds, and this is the reason for the decision to reshuffle the Cabinet. Egyptian political sociologist Said Sadek, speaking to VOA from Tunisia, says the majority of the rioters were “teenagers and young men,” and that police have been “reluctant to crack down on them due to criticism of brutality by various political parties.” Sadek notes that many Tunisians are not happy with the current situation, either economically or politically, and many feel that politicians don’t care about the fate of ordinary people. “This model of the Arab Spring is facing a lot of difficulties despite all the Western media coverage and the image that this is a success. Inside the country, people are not feeling or seeing any success. They don’t have bread, they don’t have water, (and) security of the country is problematic,” he said.The government announced a four-day lockdown last week, saying the move was due to a surge in the number of coronavirus cases. Some analysts, however, say the lockdown was meant to prevent possible violence on the anniversary of thedeparture of former President Ben Ali on January 14, 2011.
Tunisia has been facing serious economic problems in the years since the departure of Ben Ali and the recent coronavirus crisis has left the country with a budget shortfall. Tunisians also say the government does not have enough money to buy enough vaccines for its population. The “Arab Spring” revolution in Tunisia broke out in Dec. 2010 after a young vegetable seller by the name of Mohammed Bouazizi set fire to himself to protest economic conditions and alleged police brutality. It was the first of revolutions across the Arab world, in places like Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria. Despite the overthrow of dictatorial governments like that of Zein el Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia in 2011, many of the demands and aspirations of protesters were never fulfilled, leading to periodic outbursts of public anger like the latest rioting and violence of the past several days.
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Iran’s Zarif to France: Avoid ‘Absurd Nonsense’ about Tehran’s Nuclear Work
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday dismissed a claim by France that Tehran was in the process of building up its nuclear weapons, calling it “absurd nonsense”. French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche published on Saturday, said Iran was building up its nuclear weapons’ capacity and it was urgent that Tehran and Washington return to a 2015 nuclear agreement.”Dear colleague: You kick-started your cabinet career with arms sales to Saudi war criminals. Avoid absurd nonsense about Iran,” Zarif said in a Twitter post, in which he tagged his French counterpart @JY_LeDrian. French President Emmanuel Macron’s government has drawn criticism from some countries and rights groups over its support of Saudi Arabia’s actions and allowing weapons it has sold to Riyadh potentially to be used in its Yemen operations. “Reality check: YOU are destabilizing OUR region. Stop protecting criminals who chainsaw their critics and use YOUR arms to slaughter children in Yemen,” Zarif tweeted, referring to Le Drian’s previous post as French defense minister. Iran, which denies seeking to make nuclear bombs, rejected a statement on Saturday by three European powers party that warned the Islamic Republic against starting work on uranium metal-based fuel for a research reactor, saying it violated the nuclear pact and had serious military implications. Zarif criticized France, Germany and Britain — which remain in the deal with China and Russia – for failing to enforce the agreement since 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal and restored harsh economic sanctions on Iran. “E3 leaders — who rely on [the] signature of OFAC functionaries to carry out their obligations under JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] have done ZILCH to maintain JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]. Remember @EmmanuelMacron’s stillborn initiative or UK non-payment of court-ordered debt? JCPOA is alive because of Iran and not E3,” Zarif tweeted. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on Jan. 20, has pledged to return the United States to the deal “if Iran resumes strict compliance” with the agreement that imposed strict curbs on its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions. In reaction to Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy, Iran has gradually breached many of the deal’s restrictions. But Tehran says it could quickly reverse those steps if Washington first lifts its sanctions.
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Zimbabwe Minister Accuses China of Manufacturing COVID-19
—Public health experts in Zimbabwe are condemning remarks by the country’s defense minister who accused China of botched “experiments” as responsible for the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has since distanced itself from the accusations made in a tearful interview as the defense minister mourned a fellow minister lost to COVID-19 on Friday. The minister also said she would only take a COVID-19 vaccine if it is developed in Zimbabwe.Zhao Baogang, deputy Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe, Sunday said the embassy would only comment on the accusations by Defense Minister Oppah Muchinguri in the coming week after reaching Beijing as it was a “sensitive issue.”In an interview with an online publication, which has gone viral on social media, Muchinguri who is also head of Zimbabwe’s cabinet taskforce on COVID-19 – said the pandemic was now decimating the southern African nation.She said Zimbabwe has no vaccine yet and added that she is not going to take another nation’s vaccine. She wondered why Zimbabwe could not develop its own vaccine and hoped that a Chinese vaccine might be successful.A preacher speaks to a health worker during a burial of a person who died from COVID-19, in Harare, Zimbabwe, Jan, 15, 2021.But in the same tearful interview, Muchinguri blamed China for the virus which has infected nearly 27,000 Zimbabweans, including 683 deaths.Muchinguri asked isn’t there another serious upsurge of COVID-19 cases in China? She alleged it is China who had botched experiments, leading to the spread of the virus. She complained that China can’t reverse the spread anymore. Look at where the people we call friends have taken us to.”On Sunday, Muchinguri refused to speak about her interview when reached for comment.Calvin Fambirai is executive director for Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights. He said his organization condemned the “reckless utterances” by Muchinguri, especially on the importance of a vaccine to contain the coronavirus.Executive director for Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights says, Jan. 17, 2021, his organization condemned the “reckless utterances” by Defense Minister Oppah Muchinguri. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)“This bears testimony to the lack of capacity within government in handling the pandemic. Vaccines have been scientifically proven to work and have gone the rigorous clinical trials process. For a government minister to suggest otherwise, is irresponsible, and we hope the appointing authority will take disciplinary measures. The circumstances behind the origin of the coronavirus are still being investigated by WHO and we do not promote any xenophobic utterances on this matter. The focus must be on taming the spread of the virus, expanding health sector preparedness and planning for vaccine roll out,” he said.In a move which analysts say is meant to avert a potential diplomatic fallout with China, Zimbabwe’s ministry of foreign affairs late Saturday, distanced Harare from Muchinguri’s remarks on the origins of the coronavirus disease.Constance Chemwayi, foreign affairs spokeswoman, said Muchinguri’s sentiments did not reflect the position of the government of Zimbabwe.She added, “Zimbabwe and China enjoy excellent relations. The government does not hold the Chinese government responsible for the emergence and spread of the coronavirus that has affected every global citizen. The government appreciates that China has exercised global leadership in efforts to find both the cause and a solution to the pandemic.”Last year, Muchinguri was in the limelight after she took delight in the virus’ spread — then mainly in Western countries, such the U.S. — saying it was God’s punishment for imposing economic sanctions on the southern African nation.
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Navalny Flying Back to Russia with Threat of Arrest Looming
Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny is on his way back to Russia from Germany despite the Russian authorities’ stated desire to arrest him and potentially jail him for years.Navalny is flying to Moscow from Berlin, where he has received months of medical treatment for a poisoning that he has blamed on the Russian authorities.The outspoken Kremlin critic announced on January 13 that he would return to Russia despite having received a notice that the country’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) would seek his arrest.His return sets the stage for a potentially dramatic new showdown between the Kremlin and Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken foes.Police patrol the arrival hall of Vnukovo airport outside Moscow, Russia, prior to opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s arrival, Jan. 17, 2021.Late last month, FSIN demanded Navalny return immediately from Germany or face jail in Russia for violating the terms of a suspended prison sentence relating to a 2014 fraud conviction and for evading criminal inspectors.According to court documents, he could face a jail sentence of as much as 3 1/2 years.“The question ‘to return or not’ never stood before me as I didn’t leave on my own. I ended up in Germany in an intensive care box. On January 17, Sunday, I will return home on a Pobeda flight,” he said in a tweet on January 13, referring to a Russian airline whose name means Victory.His supporters plan to meet him at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. About 2,000 people have used a Facebook page to say they plan to be there, with another 6,000 expressing an interest. Pro-Kremlin activists are also expected to turn up.The Moscow Prosecutor-General’s Office has said the event is illegal because it is not sanctioned by the authorities.Citing COVID-19 restrictions, the airport has said it will not allow media inside.ComaNavalny fell ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow and was treated and placed in an induced coma in a Siberian hospital before being transferred to a medical facility in Germany.Lab tests in three European countries, confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent of the Novichok class. The findings led the European Union to imposed sanctions on six Russian officials and a state research institute.Russian authorities have claimed that no trace of poison was found in Navalny’s body before he was airlifted to Germany, and have refused to open a criminal investigation into the incident.FILE – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny poses for a selfie picture with his family at Berlin’s Charite hospital, Germany, Sept. 15, 2020. (Credit: Instagram @navalny)On the eve of his return, Navalny thanked the German people in a Facebook post and said they don’t fit the stereotype that they are unfriendly and only want to give and follow orders.“The five months I’ve been here, I’ve been amazed how much the Germans don’t match the stereotypical idea of them,” Navalny wrote. “These are really the sweetest people with a great sense of humor, always trying to help.””Thank you friends!” he wrote in German.Earlier on January 16, Germany demanded that Moscow carry out a full investigation into the poisoning and sent to Russia the transcripts of interviews its authorities conducted with him.The German Justice Ministry said that, with the sending of the information requested by Moscow — including blood and tissue samples — the Russian government now has all the information it needs to carry out a criminal investigation.A ministry spokesman said Berlin expects that “the Russian government will now immediately take all necessary steps to clarify the crime against Mr. Navalny.””This crime must be solved in Russia. This requires investigations commensurate with the seriousness of this crime,” the spokesman added.
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At Least 48 Dead in Militia Attack on El Geneina, West Darfur, says SUNA
At least 48 people died and 97 people were injured in a militia attack on the West Darfur city of El Geneina on Saturday, Sudan’s state news agency SUNA said, citing a local doctors union. The attack came just weeks after U.N. peacekeepers began withdrawing from the region, where violence is increasing, and was triggered when a member of the Masalit tribe stabbed a member of an Arab tribe, human rights organization the Darfur Bar Association said in a statement. “Armed militias took advantage of the incident and attacked El Geneina from all sides,” the association said, as well as the nearby Kreinding camp for internally displaced people, from where SUNA said there was now a wave of people moving towards the city. The association accused the militias of looting and human rights abuses. Similar incidents have occurred in Darfur since conflict began in 2003, when the government of Omar al-Bashir armed militias to help repress a revolt. “We have warned several times about the deteriorating security situation in Darfur … as armed militias still pose a constant threat,” a coordinating committee for IDP camp residents said in statement. Camp residents have protested the exit of UNAMID, the peace-keeping mission that had patrolled the region until its mandate ended on January 1. On Saturday, the governor of West Darfur declared a state of emergency, authorizing the use of force in order to stabilize the situation and imposing a curfew. While the military had begun to deploy, the bar association said the commander for the region had not responded to the state governor’s directives. The West Darfur doctors union said it had asked for help protecting medical facilities and staff, but called the response “weak”, SUNA reported. Sudan’s civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has dispatched a high-level group led by the public prosecutor to El Geneina, his office said in a statement.
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Harris to Be Sworn In by Justice Sotomayor at Inauguration
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday, a history-making event in which the first Black, South Asian and female vice president will take her oath of office from the first Latina justice.Harris chose Sotomayor for the task, according to a person familiar with the decision. She’ll also use two Bibles for the swearing-in, one of which belonged to Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice.ABC News first reported the latest details of Harris’ inauguration plans.Harris has expressed admiration for both Sotomayor and Marshall. She and Sotomayor share experience as prosecutors, and she once called Marshall — like Harris, a graduate of Howard University — one of her “greatest heroes.”The vice president-elect said in a video posted to Twitter that she viewed Marshall as “one of the main reasons I wanted to be a lawyer,” calling him “a fighter” in the courtroom.And this will be the second time Sotomayor takes part in an inauguration. She swore in President-elect Joe Biden as vice president in 2013.
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At Least 60 Dead after Friday’s Earthquake in Indonesia
Indonesian rescue teams have pulled more bodies from the rubble of residential and commercial buildings toppled by a strong earthquake that hit Sulawesi island last week, killing at least 60 people, authorities said on Sunday.More than 800 people have been injured. Thousands of others were left homeless.The 6.2 earthquake, with an epicenter 36 kilometers south of West Sulawesi province’s Mamuju district and at a depth of 18 kilometers, struck after 2 a.m. on Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.Indonesia earthquake locator map (Credit: USGS)Rescue teams, aided by heavy equipment, have worked around the clock searching for survivors in the hardest-hit city of Mamuju and the neighboring district of Majene.Power supplies and telephone service have improved since Friday, aiding rescue operations.On Thursday, a 5.9-magnitude undersea quake struck the same region, damaging several homes but causing no casualties.Earthquakes, volcanos and tsunamis are common in Indonesia due to its location on the “Ring of Fire,” which is one of the world’s most seismically active areas.In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami that followed in Palu on Sulawesi killed more than 4,000 people.In December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in Indian Ocean and triggered a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in the region, most of them in Indonesia.
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Los Angeles First US County to Reach 1 Million COVID Cases
John Hopkins University reported early Sunday there are 94.5 million global COVID-19 cases. The United States leads the world in the number of cases with 23.7 million infections, followed by India with 10.5 million and Brazil with 8.4 million.Los Angeles County in California has become the first U.S. county to record 1 million COVID-19 cases. The news of the number of infections is compounded by the confirmation of the appearance in the county of the highly contagious British variant of the coronavirus.Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the county’s public health director, said in a statement, “The presence of the U.K. variant in Los Angeles County is troubling, as our health care system is already severely strained with more than 7,500 people currently hospitalized.” She added that Los Angeles is also experiencing “hospitalizations and deaths, five-times what we experienced over the summer.”Norway is investigating the deaths of more than 25 elderly people who died after receiving Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. The Norwegian Medicines Agency said the affected people already had “serious basic disorders.”In southwestern England, people 80 and older have been able to get their vaccination shots to the sound of live organ music in the 800-year-old Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral’s music director chose the works of Bach and Handel to help people relax as they waited.The Australian Open will go ahead as planned, despite the discovery of three coronavirus cases that have put 47 players into quarantine for two weeks, the tennis tournament’s director, Craig Tiley, said Saturday.Australia’s international borders are closed, but there are exceptions.For the international tennis tournament, players and their coaches flew into the country on 17 charter flights from seven nations. Each of the estimated 1,200 players, coaches, staff members and officials was required to receive a negative coronavirus test before they boarded the planes, which were kept at 25% capacity.However, two positive cases were detected in people who arrived on a flight from Los Angeles and a third case arrived on a flight from Abu Dhabi. Sylvain Bruneau, who coaches Canadian star Bianca Andreescu, said he tested positive after arriving from Abu Dhabi, but the rest of his team has tested negative.Since the pandemic began, Australia has recorded nearly 29,000 cases and just over 900 deaths, according to Hopkins. Just over 800 of those cases occurred in Victoria state during a second wave of the virus. Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, is where the Australian Open is played.Tournament organizers had hoped that charter flights, early arrivals and frequent testing would allow the Open to be played without a hitch.
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China Using ‘Cognitive Warfare’ Against Taiwan, Observers Say
A Taipei think tank and observers in Taiwan say China is trying to influence residents with “cognitive warfare,” hoping to reverse opposition to Beijing’s desired takeover of Taiwan so it can be accomplished without having to go to war.Taiwanese attitudes have been drifting away from the mainland, especially among the younger generation, whose members see themselves “born independent” with no ties to China.China’s effort, these analysts say, includes tactics ranging from military intimidation and propaganda to misinformation spread by its army of online trolls in a bid to manipulate public opinion. They say the complexity and frequency of the effort puts Taiwan on a constant defensive.“Its ultimate goal is to control what’s between the ears. That is, your brain or how you think, which [Beijing] hopes leads to a change of behavior,” Tzeng Yi-suo, director of the cybersecurity division at the government-funded Institute of National Defense and Security Research in Taipei, told VOA.Campaign intensifies amid COVIDCognitive warfare is a fairly new term, but the concept has been around for decades. China has never stopped trying to deter the island’s separatists, according to Tzeng, who wrote about the Chinese efforts last month in the institute’s annual report on China’s political and military development.Liberal democracies such as Taiwan, that ensure the free flow of information, are vulnerable to cognitive attacks by China, while China’s tightly controlled media and internet environment makes it difficult for democracies to counterattack, according to Tzeng.China’s campaign has intensified since the outbreak of COVID-19, using official means such as flying military jets over Taiwan, and unofficial channels such as news outlets, social media and hackers to spread misinformation. The effort is aimed at dissuading Taiwan from pursuing actions contrary to Beijing’s interests, the report said.China has used these tactics to attack Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration, undermine support for democracy and fuel Taiwan’s social tensions and political divide, it said.The South China Situation Probing Initiative, for example, a project run by Najing University in China, has disseminated information about Chinese military activities in the region through its Twitter account, but some of the posts have been found to be false, apparently aimed at intimidating Taiwan’s public and weakening Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party government’s resolve, according to the report.Tzeng said China’s efforts didn’t work in Taiwan’s presidential election last January, when Tsai won a landslide victory. The island’s growing anti-China sentiments – seem further strengthened by disapproval of China’s brutal suppression of pro-democracy Hong Kong protests.China “set out to [actively] promote the island’s reunification with the mainland, its identity as ethnic Chinese or favorable views toward the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]. But now all it can hope for is to curb Taiwan’s [growing] pro-independence sentiments” – a trend Beijing has found it difficult to contain, he said.Tzeng added that he believes China is biding its time and experimenting with new tactics, which it hopes will succeed in influencing the island’s future elections.For example, the report said that China’s Communist Party is believed to have played a role in hacking Tsai’s office in May to discredit her. Reporters covering her office at the time claimed to have received minutes of internal meetings from an anonymous email account, which accused the president of corruption. Tsai’s administration responded by saying that the documents had been doctored and contained fabricated content.Taiwan should, Tzeng said, stay alert and establish a comprehensive fact-checking system to prevent fake news and misinformation from subverting public opinion.Taiwan should also “work with regional and global liberal democracies to establish a common defense mechanism” as China’s influencing attacks have a global outreach and aren’t limited to Taiwan. They constitute the most serious challenge facing democratic societies today, Tung Li-wen, former head of the ruling DPP’s China affairs department, wrote in a 2019 essay.Chinese citizen journalist and blogger Zhou Shuguang, who now lives in Taiwan, said many Chinese have taken to the internet to spread China’s narrative. Two groups of such online promoters of China’s narrative are known as “Little Pink” and “50 Cent Party,” The groups, he said, have formed China’s sizable army of online trolls to spread fake news, for example, rumors about Tsai’s academic background. Despite repeated clarifications, many kept circling rumors that the president’s 1984 doctorate degree from the London School of Economics was fake.A 2016 study, led by Harvard University data scientist Gary King, found that 50 Cent Party produced 488 million “fake” social media posts a year to distract other internet users from news and online discussions painting the Communist Party in a negative light.Global propaganda campaignChina has also been aggressive in expanding its global propaganda campaign to “tell China’s story well” and disrupt democracy, said Huang Jaw-nian, an assistant professor of National Chengchi University in Taipei, who specializes in media politics.“[China] is running its global propaganda campaign by expanding its state media abroad and deploying a strategy called ‘borrowing a boat out to sea,’ that is, buying up foreign news outlets [with better credibility]… The media buyouts are, in some cases, made by pro-Beijing businesspeople,” who will likely spin coverage to curry favor with China, Huang told VOA.However, Li Zhenguang, deputy director of Beijing Union University’s Institute of Taiwan Studies, flatly denied that China has launched any efforts against Taiwan or Tsai’s administration.“She [Tsai] is putting a feather in her own cap. She is a nobody to China. I find the accusations nonsense. Why on earth does China want to attack her?” he told VOA over the phone, refusing to elaborate.
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For Undocumented Afghan Migrants in Turkey, Life is Hard but Better
Turkey has often been described as the gateway between Asia and Europe and because of its location, millions of refugees have arrived in the country as a way station in their effort to migrate to Europe. VOA’s Hilmi Hacaloglu and Umut Colak filed this report on how Afghan refugees are struggling to survive in Istanbul. Bezhan Hamdard narrated their report.
Camera: Umut Colak Producers: Hilmi Hacaloglu and Umut Colak
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China Builds Hospital After Surge in ‘Harder to Handle’ Virus Cases
China on Saturday finished building a 1,500-room hospital for COVID-19 patients to fight a surge in infections the government said are harder to contain and that it blamed on infected people or goods from abroad.The hospital is one of six with a total of 6,500 rooms being built in Nangong, south of Beijing in Hebei province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.About 650 people are being treated in Nangong and the Hebei provincial capital, Shijiazhuang, Xinhua said. A 3,000-room hospital is under construction in Shijiazhuang.Virus clusters also have been found in Beijing and the provinces of Heilongjiang and Liaoning in the northeast and Sichuan in the southwest.The latest infections spread unusually fast, the National Health Commission said.”It is harder to handle,” a commission statement said. “Community transmission already has happened when the epidemic is found, so it is difficult to prevent.”The commission blamed the latest cases on people or goods arriving from abroad. It blamed “abnormal management” and “inadequate protection of workers” involved in imports but gave no details.”They are all imported from abroad. It was caused by entry personnel or contaminated cold chain imported goods,” said the statement.The Chinese government has suggested the disease might have originated abroad and publicized what it says is the discovery of the virus on imported food, mostly frozen fish, though foreign scientists are skeptical.Also Saturday, the city government of Beijing said travelers arriving in the Chinese capital from abroad would be required to undergo an additional week of “medical monitoring” after a 14-day quarantine but gave no details.Nationwide, the Health Commission reported 130 new confirmed cases in the 24 hours through midnight Friday. It said 90 of those were in Hebei.On Saturday, the Hebei government reported 32 additional cases since midnight, the Shanghai news outlet The Paper reported.In Shijiazhuang, authorities have finished construction of 1,000 rooms of the planned hospital, state TV said Saturday. Xinhua said all the facilities are to be completed within a week.A similar program of rapid hospital construction was launched by the ruling Communist Party at the start of the outbreak last year in the central China city of Wuhan.More than 10 million people in Shijiazhuang underwent virus tests by late Friday, Xinhua said, citing a deputy mayor, Meng Xianghong. It said 247 locally transmitted cases were found.Meanwhile, researchers sent by the World Health Organization were in Wuhan preparing to investigate the origins of the virus. The team, which arrived Thursday, was under a two-week quarantine but was scheduled to talk with Chinese experts by video link.The team’s arrival was held up for months by diplomatic wrangling that prompted a rare public complaint by the head of the WHO.That delay, and the secretive ruling party’s orders to scientists not to talk publicly about the disease, have raised questions about whether Beijing might try to block discoveries that would hurt its self-proclaimed status as a leader in the anti-virus battle.
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Uganda’s Museveni Extends 35-year Rule with Disputed Election Win
Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni has won a sixth term in office, the election commission said Saturday, extending his 35-year rule after a poll which his main rival said was marred by fraud.The 76-year-old leader, who took power in 1986, is one of Africa’s longest-serving presidents. He was accused of crushing the opposition and media ahead of one of the most violent election campaigns in recent years.Museveni won with 58.6% of the vote, seeing off a stiff battle from 38-year-old former ragga singer Bobi Wine, who fired up a youthful population where three quarters are under 30 years old.Wine was under heavy guard at his home on the outskirts of Kampala as the results were announced, with his party saying he was under “effective house arrest.” The government said it was merely providing him with security.The singer-turned-MP was among 10 opposition candidates and came second with 34.8% of the vote.”The electoral commission declares Yoweri Museveni… elected President of the republic of Uganda,” said election commission chairman Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama.He said turnout was about 57% of almost 18 million registered voters.Security forces poured into the streets of Kampala after the announcement, with one soldier atop an armored personnel carrier urging citizens to maintain social distancing as a helicopter buzzed overhead.Images on state television showed jubilant Museveni supporters in his home district waving flags and cheering, while soldiers in the capital helped marshal motorcycle drivers for a parade — handing them yellow vests and Museveni posters.Museveni, in a wide-ranging speech on state television after the announcement, thanked his supporters and said that now, “the only thing to avoid is violence.””I think this might turn out to be the most cheating-free election since 1962,” when the country achieved independence, he said.However, the election was marked by harassment and arrests of the opposition, attacks on the media and the deaths of at least 54 people.U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus praised Ugandans on Saturday for voting “despite an environment of intimidation and fear.”She added that the US was “deeply troubled by the many credible reports of security force violence during the pre-election period and election irregularities during the polls.”Wine alleged widespread fraud such as ballot box stuffing and said his party agents had in some places been beaten and chased from polling stations.”Whatever is being declared is a complete sham, we reject it and we dissociate ourselves with it,” he said on Friday.’We don’t control them’Wine’s home remained sealed off by soldiers and police on Saturday, after he told AFP Friday evening that security forces had breached the fence around it and he felt under “siege.”The army’s deputy spokesman Deo Akiiki said the soldiers were there for “his own security.”However, the spokesman for Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP), Joel Ssenyonyi, told AFP Bobi Wine “is under effective house arrest.””People are angry because their vote has been stolen. They don’t need me or Bobi Wine to tell them to get angry,” Ssenyonyi said. “Even we can’t control them.”Disappointed at Wine’s loss, 31-year-old carpenter Dennis Agaba complained that “the election was not fair.”However, 35-year-old electrician Dennis Tusiime was celebrating the result, describing himself as “very, very happy.”Tibor Nagy, the top US diplomat for Africa, tweeted the vote was “fundamentally flawed,” citing the denial of accreditation to election observers and “violence and harassment of opposition figures.”The internet has been down for four days, and government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo said the measure was taken due to “abuse, misuse, disinformation, fake news with the overall objective of undermining the integrity of the electoral process including the results… and possibly to cause destabilization.”He said the internet would be restored once the threat had passed, possibly on Monday morning.Odds stacked against WineMuseveni has ruled Uganda without pause since seizing control in 1986, when he helped to end years of tyranny under Idi Amin and Milton Obote.Once hailed for his commitment to good governance, the former rebel leader has crushed any opposition and tweaked the constitution to allow himself to run again and again.For many in the country, where the average age is 16 and most have known only one president, Museveni’s glory days are no longer relevant or sufficient.Wine, with his humble origins in a slum and popular songs about economic and social injustice, struck a chord with young people. But observers said the odds were stacked against him with Museveni’s powerful grip on the state.Wine’s newly formed NUP is however on track to become the main opposition party in parliament, notably winning eight of nine constituencies in the capital Kampala.
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Researchers: More Than a Dozen Extremist Groups Took Part in Capitol Riots
In the 10 days since the violent Jan. 6 rampage at the U.S. Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters, a fuller picture has emerged about the rioters, with researchers identifying members of more than a dozen extremist groups that took part in the riots.The storming of the Capitol drew extremists that included adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, the far-right group the Proud Boys, militiamen, white supremacists, anti-maskers and diehard Trump supporters, all gathered to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.“There have been any number of groups that the Southern Poverty Law Center normally tracks and monitors as a part of our work addressing hate and extremism,” said Lecia Brooks, chief of staff for the SPLC.Brooks shared with VOA the names of more than a dozen extremist groups that she said took part in the riots. Other extremist researchers interviewed by VOA confirmed the list. While designated as hate groups by the SPLC, none of the organizations is considered a domestic terrorist entity, and law enforcement officials have not accused any of them of conspiring to mount an attack on the Capitol.Clues into the rioters’ affiliation came from their clothes, signs, flags, banners and other markers, experts say. While some groups sought to disguise their ties, others flaunted their ideological affiliation. A group of Proud Boys in orange hats identified themselves on camera as members of a state chapter. The Three Percenters carried a U.S. Revolution-era American flag.“They were operating in plain sight,” said Brian Levin, executive director of the center for the study of hate and extremism at California State University.While the presence of the militias and the Proud Boys has attracted the most attention, members of lesser-known groups also joined the rioters.One is the Nationalist Socialist Club, or NSC-131, a recently founded hate group known for disrupting Black Lives Matter protests. Another is No White Guilt, a white nationalist group whose founder has blamed “anti-whiteism” for the spread of the coronavirus in the United States.Levin said that a combination of national groups, smaller state chapters and autonomous regional entities “participated in one way or another in the gathering.”Just how many extremist group members took part in the rioting is unclear. While QAnon boasts tens of thousands of adherents, several of the groups identified by the SPLC have far fewer members. The precise number taking part in the riots may never be known.While prosecutors have so far identified about 300 suspects accused of involvement in the riots, with one or two exceptions, they’ve not tied them to any known extremist groups. Two days after the riots, the FBI arrested Nick Ochs, the founder of the Proud Boys Hawaii, who was among the rioters.Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said law enforcement officials are aware of the ties between the rioters and extremist groups and are seeking to determine the extent to which the attack was a coordinated effort among multiple groups.“If you look at social media you could see a lot of affiliation with some of the protest activity, some of the rioting activity, and it runs the whole gamut of different groups, from soup to nuts, A to Z,” Sherwin told reporters Friday. “But right now … we’re not going to label anything because everything’s on the table in terms of extremist groups.”Arie Perliger, an extremism researcher and professor at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, said that the extremist groups that took part in the Capitol riots also attended the sometimes-violent protest against state-imposed lockdowns earlier this year.“I’m talking about the Boogaloo, I’m talking about the Proud Boys, I’m talking Rise Above Nation,” Perliger said. “I think what really brings all these groups together is their perception that Trump was a very effective vehicle to try to disrupt, to dismantle, to undermine the capabilities of the federal government.”Among those who stormed the Capitol were participants of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the death of a counterprotester.One was Tim Gionet, a far-right activist who goes by the online pseudonym “Baked Alaska.” Gionet livestreamed a video of himself on DLive from inside the capitol.users on Tim Gionet’s, aka Baked Alaska, live stream on DLive are calling to give lawmakers the “rope” and to “hang all the congressmen” on DLive while he’s streaming inside the Capitol building. pic.twitter.com/fq9t7KAlfA— hannah gais (@hannahgais) January 6, 2021He was arrested Friday by the FBI in Houston, Texas, and charged with participating in the Capitol riot.Another is Nick Fuentes, an organizer of the Charlottesville rally who attended Trump’s speech before the riots but did not enter the building, according to Brooks.Here is a look at some of the groups involved in the Capitol riot.Proud BoysThe Proud Boys describe themselves as a “Western male chauvinist” club.The group came to national attention after Trump, asked during a presidential debate in late October to denounce them, declared, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”The Proud Boys’ leader, Enrique Tarrio, is a staunch Trump supporter and led the Latinos for Trump group during the campaign.Brooks said the Proud Boys were among the organizers of the Capitol rioting. In the days leading up to the riots, Brooks said, the Proud Boys used social media platforms popular with extremists to telegraph that “this was something that was going to happen, that other extremist groups should be involved in, so they kind of they kept this going.”In late December, Tarrio wrote on Parler that the Proud Boys “will turn out in record numbers” on Jan. 6 without their traditional black and yellow uniform.Tarrio was arrested days before the riots and barred from returning to Washington. Two days after the riots, the FBI arrested Nick Ochs, the founder of Proud Boys Hawaii.Oath Keepers and Three PercentersThe Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters are part of a growing anti-government “Patriot” movement known for recruiting members of law enforcement and the military.The Oath Keepers was founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, a former paratrooper and Yale Law School graduate. The oath in the name is a reference to the vow military personnel make to defend the Constitution. The group requires its members to pledge, among other things, not to “disarm the American people,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.The Three Percenters, established in 2018, view themselves as the ideological descendants of the purported 3% of Americans that took part in the Revolutionary War.Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said dozens of Oath Keepers took part in the riots, many carrying the group’s flag. Rhodes was seen in photographs standing outside the Capitol building.The Oath Keepers took to Telegram and other social media and messaging platforms to urge their followers to show up for the protest, according to Beirich. In an interview after the Nov. 3 election with Alex Jones, a far-right radio show host and conspiracy theorist, Rhodes said “we have men stationed outside D.C. as a nuclear option. In case they attempt to remove the president illegally, we’ll step in and stop it.”QAnonQAnon is not an organized group but rather a growing conspiracy theory movement that believes Trump is secretly battling a “deep state” cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles that control the world.Trump has repeatedly retweeted messages from accounts that promote QAnon, and more than a dozen Republican candidates running for Congress in the November election have embraced some of its tenets.Beirich said a number of people marching on the Capitol were carrying QAnon signs.“QAnon were everywhere,” she said. “So it sure seems like a large chunk of the people who stormed the Capitol were members of QAnon.”The FBI has identified QAnon as a potential domestic terror threat.
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Biden Outlines ‘Day One’ Agenda of Executive Actions
In his first hours as president, Joe Biden plans to take executive action to roll back some of the most controversial decisions of his predecessor and to address the raging coronavirus pandemic, his incoming chief of staff said Saturday.The opening salvo would herald a 10-day blitz of executive actions as Biden seeks to act swiftly to redirect the country in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency without waiting for Congress.On Wednesday, following his inauguration, Biden will end Trump’s restriction on immigration to the U.S. from some Muslim-majority countries; move to rejoin the Paris climate accord; and mandate mask-wearing on federal property and during interstate travel. Those are among roughly a dozen actions Biden will take on his first day in the White House, his incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, said in a memo to senior staff.Other actions include extending the pause on student loan payments and taking steps to prevent evictions and foreclosures for those struggling during the pandemic.”These executive actions will deliver relief to the millions of Americans that are struggling in the face of these crises,” Klain said in the memo.Key legislation awaits “Full achievement” of Biden’s goals will require Congress to act, Klain said, including passage of the $1.9 trillion virus relief bill the president-elect outlined Thursday. Klain said Biden would also propose a comprehensive immigration reform bill to lawmakers on his first day in office. The next day, Thursday, Klain said Biden would sign orders related to the COVID-19 outbreak aimed at reopening schools and businesses and expanding virus testing. The following day, Friday, will see action on providing economic relief to those suffering the economic costs of the pandemic. In the following week, Klain said, Biden will take actions relating to criminal justice reform, climate change and immigration — including a directive to speed the reuniting of families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under Trump’s policies. More actions will be added, Klain said, once they clear legal review. Incoming presidents traditionally move swiftly to sign an array of executive actions when they take office. Trump did the same, but he found many of his orders challenged and even rejected by courts.
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UN Says Breakthrough Achieved in Libya Transition Talks
The top U.N. official for Libya said Saturday that an advisory committee for representatives of Libya’s different regions has proposed a way forward for choosing a transitional government that would lead the war-torn country to elections late this year.The talks in Geneva, structured around the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, have been taking place amid a heavy international push to reach a peaceful settlement to Libya’s civil war. Previous diplomatic initiatives have all collapsed.U.N. acting envoy for Libya Stephanie Williams told a news conference in Geneva that the advisory committee’s members “have met their responsibility with a constructive spirit, cooperative efforts, and a great deal of patriotism.”The committee is part of a 75-member forum that represents the three main regions of Libya. The 18-member committee has proposed that each region’s electoral college name a representative to a three-member presidential council, Williams said. A prime minister would be chosen by the 75-member forum. A successful nominee should receive 70% of votes.Williams said that the forum would resort to lists formed from Libya’s three regions, with each list consisting of four names, nominated for the presidential council and a prime minister position.She said a list should obtain 17 endorsements: eight from the western region, six from the eastern region and three from southern Libya. The wining list should receive 60% of the votes of the 75-member forum in the first round. A run-up is expected if no list received the required votes, she said.Williams said the forum would vote on the proposed mechanism Monday and the results are expected the following day.The transitional government would be “a temporary unified executive staffed by Libyan patriots who want to share responsibility rather than to divide the cake,” the U.N. acting envoy said.The U.S. welcomed the breakthrough and urged all parties of Libya “to work with urgency and in good faith” to establish an interim government, according to a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Libya.”It is time to move past the conflict and corruption facilitated by the status quo,” it said.The forum is part of the U.N. efforts to end the chaos that engulfed the oil-rich North African nation after the 2011 overthrow and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. It has reached an agreement last year to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 24, 2021.The oil-rich country is now split east to west between two rival administrations, each backed by an array of militias and foreign powers.The warring sides agreed to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire in October in Geneva, a deal that included the departure of foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya within three months.No progress was announced on the issue of foreign forces and mercenaries since they inked the cease-fire deal almost two months ago.
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