Haiti has responded to a tweet by Julie Chung, the U.S. acting assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, expressing alarm at “authoritarian and undemocratic acts” by President Jovenel Moise.Chung’s tweet on Wednesday also said, “Respect for democratic norms is vital and non-negotiable.”The United States will not be silent when democratic institutions and civil society are attacked.We condemn all attempts to undermine democracy by violence, suppression of civic freedoms, or intimidation.2/3— Julie Chung (@WHAAsstSecty) February 17, 2021Haiti Ambassador to the United States Bocchit Edmond announced on Twitter early Thursday that he had a “constructive meeting” with Chung about the situation in the country.”We’re determined to create a better environment for free, fair & transparent elections under robust international observations,” Edmond tweeted.2/2) I also spoke with @WHAAsstSecty about the steps taken by the Electoral Council to prepare for the Constitutional referendum and the elections. We’re determined to create a better environment for free, fair & transparent elections under a robust international observations.— Bocchit Edmond (@BocchitEdmond) February 18, 2021Chung’s tweet also said, “The United States will not be silent when democratic institutions and civil society are attacked.” It also cited “unilateral removals and appointments of Supreme Court Justices” and attacks on the media.Addressing Chung’s concerns about attacks on the press, Edmond tweeted: “I reassured her that the Govt of Haiti has no intentions of targeting journalists.”1/2) I had a constructive meeting with @WHAAsstSecty Julie Chung about the current situation in Haiti. I reassured her that the Govt of Haiti has no intentions of targeting journalists. We are deeply devoted to respecting freedom of the Press & improve our ranking 83 on 189 PFGI.— Bocchit Edmond (@BocchitEdmond) February 18, 2021On the night of Feb. 12, President Moise tweeted that he had appointed three new Supreme Court Justices, to replace the justices he retired last week.J’ai nommé à la Cour de Cassation trois juges issus d’une liste préalablement soumise par le sénat de la République, conformément aux dispositions de l’art 175 de la Constitution.— Président Jovenel Moïse (@moisejovenel) February 13, 2021He also issued an “Arrete,” an official announcement, saying he had chosen a new secretary of state for communications, secretary of state for public security and a new delegate for the Artibonite Department.The announcements came hours after a statement by U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele Sison expressing concern about Moise’s unilateral moves.”What troubles us is governance by decree, governance by presidential decree that has been going on in Haiti for a period that is not normal and is ongoing,” Sison told VOA in an exclusive interview on Feb. 12.At least two journalists have died due to their interactions with law enforcement during protests so far this year. Others have been severely injured and hospitalized.Chung’s tweets about Haiti, which the U.S. Embassy in Haiti retweeted on its official Twitter account and translated into French and Creole, echo what Ambassador Sison told VOA.”Elections are essential to end the political paralysis that exists in Haiti since a long time. For more than a year,” Sison said. “Haitians should have their say, so they can realize their own vision for their country.”Laurent Weil, a country analyst for The Economist magazine’s Intelligence Unit who specializes in Latin America and the Caribbean, told VOA elections are central to an improvement in Haiti’s situation in 2021.”The best-case scenario is that you have an elected parliament. You have an elected president that takes office following this long and uncertain process,” Weil told VOA. “There is a generalized sentiment on the ground that things need to change.”
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Month: February 2021
China Blocked Clubhouse App Fearing Uncontrolled Public Discourse
For a brief time before Beijing banned the audio chat app Clubhouse, tech-savvy Chinese joined global discussions on taboo topics — Beijing’s placement of Uighurs in concentration camps in Xinjiang, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests — absorbing perspectives and information far outside the lines drawn by the Communist Party.Unlike Twitter posts, there was no public record of the app’s audio messages, which may complicate official monitoring efforts, according to In this file illustration photo taken on Jan. 25, 2021, shows the application Clubhouse on a smartphone in Berlin.Yu Ping, the former China country director of the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative, told VOA that while only a few people with access to iPhones registered outside China can access Clubhouse, they are often members of “China’s intellectual class, and for the authorities these are people who need to be more controlled” than ordinary citizens.Ping pointed out that any authoritarian government like China’s wants to control information and public opinion. In China, if information is not effectively manipulated and public opinion is not well-directed, authorities see an intolerable existential threat to the regime.Banning Clubhouse and the virtual private networks (VPNs) that give users the ability to surmount the Great Firewall manifests Beijing’s fear, he said.June Dreyer, professor of political science at the University of Miami, said Chinese authorities removed Clubhouse because audio content is harder to control compared with text content. Dreyer said although Chinese people used the app to comment on current affairs and even criticize the government, authorities shouldn’t have blocked the app even though they can.Users are going to get angry because they enjoyed Clubhouse, she said. Blocking it will upset people even more and then they will “seek more ways to vent their grievances. Sometimes it’s just better to let people who want to complain, complain.” Dreyer said the damage that banning Clubhouse causes to people who want to voice their opinion is limited. “As I say, people who have things that they want to talk about will always find ways to talk about them,” she said. “They can be repressed or suppressed, but there are always ways around that.” There are also concerns that the app has security flaws that could provide Chinese authorities access to user information. The Stanford Internet Observatory believes Clubhouse chatroom metadata are relayed to servers hosted in China, so the Chinese government potentially has access to users’ raw audio. In addition, the Stanford Internet Observatory blog confirmed that the software that supplies back-end infrastructure to Clubhouse is based in China and because a user’s unique Clubhouse ID number and chatroom ID are transmitted in plain text, it is possible to connect Clubhouse IDs with user profiles. Clubhouse told the Stanford Internet Observatory blog that it is “deeply committed to data protection and user privacy.”The app told the blog that when it launched, it was available to every country worldwide except China. Some people in China found a workaround to download the app, which meant that the conversations they were a part of could be transmitted via Chinese servers.“With the help of researchers at the Stanford Internet Observatory, we have identified a few areas where we can further strengthen our data protection.”
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Supporters of Hotel Rwanda Figure Denounce ‘Show Trial’
Family and supporters of Paul Rusesabagina, an activist depicted in the Oscar-nominated film Hotel Rwanda, are decrying as a sham his terrorism trial that began this week. He was one of 20 defendants appearing before a judge in a courtroom outside Kigali.“These are defendants who are on trial for their lives and possibly life imprisonment,” said Brian Endless, a professor at Loyola University-Chicago’s Political Science Department who has worked with Rusesabagina’s foundation. “Most importantly, there were no lawyers next to them to assist in their defense. Their lawyers were kept in the back of the room. And just the physical dynamics of that were, kind of, incredible to see.”Rusesabagina gained international recognition for saving hundreds of people by providing shelter in the Hotel des Mille Collines, which he managed. In the film, he is depicted helping to save mainly Tutsi people who sought refuge during the killing that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in a 100-day period.Rusesabagina comes from a Hutu and Tutsi background. After the genocide, he adopted orphans. In 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.Now, the daughters are fighting to get their adoptive father back home. Two of Rusesabagina’s daughters, as well as a team of lawyers and supporters, watched Wednesday’s proceedings livestreamed from Kigali.The man hailed as a hero for saving hundreds of lives during the 1994 Rwandan genocide stands accused of sponsoring terrorism in the country for his support of an opposition party and rebel groups. Family members and advocates claim he was effectively kidnapped in September when he boarded a private plane in Dubai on false pretenses and was flown against his will to the Rwandan capital.“I would like to insist on the fact that Rusesabagina is in Rwanda illegally,” Rusesabagina’s lawyer, Gatera Gashabana, told reporters in Rwanda. “He did not come following an extradition. He didn’t even come of his own free will. He found himself in Rwanda against his will.”During the proceedings at the Supreme Court in Kimihurura, Rusesabagina insisted the court did not have jurisdiction because he is a Belgian citizen and was unlawfully abducted. Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has defended the means used to arrest Rusesabagina.“There was no kidnap. There was not any wrongdoing in the process of his getting here,” Kagame said in state media in September 2020, when Rusesabagina was initially arrested. “He got here on the basis of what he believed and wanted to do.”Daughter of Rwandan ‘Genocide Hero’ Pleads for His ReleasePaul Rusesabagina is one of many Rwandan opposition figures to have been arrested, while others have died under mysterious circumstancesThe trial has prompted international criticism.Thirty-seven U.S. senators and representatives signed a letter to Kagame calling for Rusesabagina’s release on humanitarian grounds since he is a cancer survivor. They expressed “grave concerns” about the “extrajudicial” way he was brought to the country. The U.S. State Department also said it is closely monitoring the situation and has engaged the Rwandan government at its highest levels.“We continue to underscore that the legal process adjudicating the charges against Mr. Rusesabagina must be fair, transparent, respect the rule of law and be consistent with Rwanda’s own international human rights obligations and commitments,” Ned Price, State Department spokesperson, said during a press conference on Wednesday.Rusesabagina’s daughter Carine Kanimba said she has been receiving harassing phone calls and text messages from someone claiming to be her father’s guard in jail. He told her he wanted to help her father escape, a ploy she believes is intended to add charges to Rusesabagina or even give authorities an excuse to execute him.“We just know that this is a method that they use. And it’s very inhumane considering the condition that our family is in and the worries we have for our father,” Kanimba said. “We will get our father out of that prison legally, not through these methods.”Rusesabagina did not enter a plea during his court appearance on Wednesday. The judge is expected to rule on the question of whether the court has jurisdiction on February 26.The 66-year-old has had detractors who say his role was overblown and not entirely accurate.Phil Clark, professor of international politics at the SOAS University in London who has studied the region, said there are concerns within Rwanda of Hollywood’s depiction of Rusesabagina.“Many survivors who were inside the Hotel des Mille Collines during the genocide have come out and said that Rusesabagina, in fact, charged many of those survivors quite exorbitant fees to have safe haven within the hotel. And that Rusesabagina allegedly also handed over some Tutsi to the Hutu militias to be killed,” he told VOA via Skype after Rusesabagina was arrested.“But I think while there might be some skepticism about exactly what Rusesabagina did in 1994, I think we also have to recognize that there has been an active smear campaign against him, that in 1995 and 1996, he became increasingly vocal against Kagame’s regime.”Clark added that after Rusesabagina’s exile, and because he was a dissenting voice, Kagame initiated a government-orchestrated smear campaign against him.“There has been this government attempt to try to denigrate him as an individual as he became a much more vocal critic,” he said. “And that’s the backdrop to this current court case, that there has been a battle going on for Rusesabagina’s reputation long before he became the leader of an opposition political movement. And long before he allegedly had any connection to the rebel movements in eastern Congo.”
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US Says It’s Ready for Talks with Iran Over Nuclear Deal
The United States on Thursday said it was ready to talk to Iran about both nations returning to a 2015 agreement that aimed to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, seeking to revive a deal that Washington abandoned nearly three years ago. Iran reacted coolly to the U.S. idea, which was conveyed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a video meeting with his British, French and German counterparts gathered in Paris. FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, Jan. 27, 2021.Blinken reiterated the U.S. position that President Joe Biden’s administration would return to the accord formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) if Iran came into full compliance with the deal. “Secretary Blinken reiterated that … if Iran comes back into strict compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, the United States will do the same and is prepared to engage in discussions with Iran toward that end,” a joint statement from the four nations said. A U.S. official told Reuters that Washington would respond positively to any European Union invitation to talks among Iran and the six major powers who negotiated the original agreement: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. “We are ready to show up if such a meeting were to take place,” the official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity, after a senior EU official said he was prepared to convene such a meeting among the parties to the deal. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attends talks in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 26, 2021.London, Paris and Berlin welcomed Biden’s intention to return to diplomacy with Iran. But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif fired back that it was for Washington to make the first move. Iran began breaching the deal in 2019 after former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal and reimposed economic sanctions. Tehran has accelerated its breaches in recent months and become locked in a standoff with Biden’s administration over who should move first to save the accord. “Instead of sophistry & putting onus on Iran, E3/EU must abide by own commitments & demand an end to Trump’s legacy of #EconomicTerrorism against Iran,” Zarif said in a tweet. “Our remedial measures are a response to US/E3 violations. Remove the cause if you fear the effect,” he continued. “We’ll follow ACTION w/ (with) action.” Uranium enrichment A French diplomatic source said Washington’s shift marked an opening for Iran but the path ahead was fraught with obstacles. “The Americans said they were available to talk to Iran” in a meeting along with the original parties to the deal,” he said after the talks in Paris. “It’s an opening.” Tehran has set a deadline of next week for Biden to begin reversing sanctions imposed by Trump, or it will take its biggest step yet to breach the deal — banning short-notice inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog permitted under an Additional Protocol. Britain, France and Germany, known collectively as the E3, and the United States called on Iran not to take any additional steps “with respect to the suspension of the Additional Protocol and to any limitations on IAEA verification activities in Iran.” The ministers said they were determined that Iran should not get a nuclear weapon and “expressed their shared concerns over Iran’s recent actions to produce both uranium enriched up to 20% and uranium metal,” the statement added. Refining uranium to high levels of fissile purity is a potential pathway to nuclear bombs, though Iran has long said it its enrichment program is for peaceful energy purposes only. Enrichment of 20% is well above the deal’s 3.67% limit, though still well below the 90% that is weapons grade.
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Federal Aid Dispatched to Dark, Freezing Texas
Federal aid moved into Texas and other states Thursday amid a winter storm that left more than 1 million people shivering in the dark after the state’s independent power grid failed. Alabama and Louisiana also saw widespread electrical outages.The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden was “working every lever that we have at our disposal through the federal government to get relief to the people of Texas,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.That aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency included 60 generators with fuel for hospitals and water facilities, 729,000 liters of water, 60,000 blankets and 225,000 meals, White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said.In a tweet noting the FEMA assistance, Biden said he was ready to fulfill additional requests for help from the governors of Texas, Oklahoma and other states. His tweet ended: “Please heed the instructions of local officials and stay safe.”Jill and I are keeping Texas, Oklahoma, and other impacted states in our prayers. I’ve declared states of emergency, authorized FEMA to provide generators and supplies, and am ready to fulfill additional requests. Please heed the instructions of local officials and stay safe.— President Biden (@POTUS) People living on the streets use blankets to keep warm, Feb. 18, 2021, in downtown San Antonio, Texas. Snow, ice and subfreezing weather continue to wreak havoc on the state’s power grid and utilities.The Texas grid was “seconds and minutes” away from a catastrophic failure that could have caused uncontrolled blackouts for months, said officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the power grid for 90% of the state.Grid operators had to act quickly to cut the amount of power distributed, ERCOT President Bill Magness said, because if they had waited, “then what happens in that next minute might be that three more [power generation] units come offline, and then you’re sunk.”Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for the state Legislature to investigate ERCOT and “ensure Texans never again experience power outages on the scale they have seen over the past several days.”ERCOT operates independently of the country’s primary eastern and western power grids, and that severely limits the amount of electricity that be transferred in and out of Texas.According to ERCOT, 800 megawatts daily can be transferred through connections to the eastern grid and 400 megawatts per day through the Mexican grid, but that total is insufficient to meet Texas’ current needs.“There is a need to assess and take a look at how we protect and support critical infrastructure across the country, including our national energy grids, and ensure that we are better prepared in the future,” Psaki told reporters during Thursday’s audio-only briefing, which was held online amid a shutdown of federal offices in Washington because of hazardous winter weather.Keith Hernandez drinks a beer as his friends pull him with their truck on a snow-covered road in Waco, Texas, on Feb. 17, 2021, as severe winter weather over the last few days has forced road closures and power outages over the state.The extreme weather across much of the United States this week again demonstrated “climate change is real, and it’s happening now. And we’re not adequately prepared for it,” Sherwood-Randall told reporters during the virtual briefing with Psaki.The homeland security adviser added that power grids in Texas and across the country “are overloaded by the demands that are placed on them under these circumstances. And the infrastructure is not built to withstand these extreme conditions.”The Biden administration “will be leading an effort to strengthen and harden our critical infrastructure so that it can be prepared to meet the full spectrum of challenges that we’re likely to face in the future,” Sherwood-Randall said.Asked about the cost and specifics of such projects, White House officials were unable to provide any detailed information.“I don’t have anything to preview for you, other than to convey that our focus is on the emergency at hand,” Psaki responded.At least 30 fatalitiesThe massive storm system has been blamed for at least 30 deaths in the U.S. this week. In the Houston area, The Associated Press reported, one family died from carbon monoxide poisoning from car exhaust in their garage, while a grandmother and three children were killed by flames that escaped the fireplace they were using to keep warm.The National Weather Service said the storm was moving across several states on a 2,300-kilometer (1,430-mile) track to the Northeast, with 38 centimeters (15 inches) of snow on the ground in the state of Arkansas, which is northeast of Texas, heavy snow and ice farther north through the Appalachian Mountains and up to 20 centimeters (8 inches) of snow predicted Thursday and Friday in the New York metropolitan region.In addition to residents’ outrage at elected leaders and other officials in several states for insufficient storm preparation, one U.S. senator faced particular condemnation for an ill-timed vacation.FILE – Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asks a question during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Oct. 29, 2019, in Washington.The Texas Democratic Party is calling for the resignation of Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who left his home state Wednesday with his family for Cancun, Mexico.The senator, in a statement released Thursday, acknowledged the suffering Texans were experiencing, noting, “Our homes are freezing and our lights are out. Like millions of Texans, our family lost heat and power, too.”’A good dad’Cruz explained that he took a commercial flight to the sunny beach resort south of the border at the request of his daughters because school had been canceled.”Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon,” he said.Cruz “is emblematic of what the Texas Republican Party and its leaders have become: weak, corrupt, inept and self-serving politicians who don’t give a damn about the people they were elected to represent,” Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said.“Our focus is on and working directly with leadership in Texas and the surrounding states on addressing the winter storm and the crisis at hand, the many people across the state who are without power without the resources they need,” Psaki, the White House press secretary, said when asked about Cruz’s vacation. “And we expect that would be the focus of anyone in the state or surrounding states who was elected to represent them, but I don’t have any update on his whereabouts.”
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WHO Sends Ebola Vaccine to Guinea
The World Health Organization said Thursday it is sending 11,000 doses of Ebola vaccine and more than 100 experts to Guinea to address an Ebola outbreak in the West African nation.
Speaking in a virtual news conference from her headquarters in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said officials are also expecting an additional 8,600 doses of vaccine from the United States, for a total of nearly 20,000 shots. She expects them to arrive by Sunday and Ebola vaccinations to begin by Monday.
Health officials in Guinea declared an epidemic Sunday after three cases were detected in Gouécké, a rural community in N’Zerekore prefecture. At least one victim there has died. It is the first Ebola outbreak in Guinea since 2016 when a large one was brought under control.
Moeti said the WHO released $1.25 million to support the response in Guinea and to show its “readiness” in the neighboring countries of Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone. She said the epicenter of the outbreak was in the border area, so the entire sub-region is on high alert.
Meanwhile, the WHO said there four confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including two deaths. The agency has around 20 experts supporting national and provincial health authorities in the DRC.
The United Nations announced it is releasing $15 million from its emergency relief fund to help fight the outbreaks in both Guinea and the DRC.
Ebola is an acute severe viral illness and is extremely lethal. It is characterized by sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache, nausea and sore throat. This can be followed by vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.
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Facebook Dubbed ‘Bully’ as Backlash Grows over Dispute with Australia
An international backlash was growing Thursday to Facebook blocking users of its platform in Australia from viewing or sharing links to domestic and international news stories, with the social media giant accused of behaving like a “bully.”
Facebook’s move to block the content ahead of Australian lawmakers approving a new measure forcing the company to pay media organizations is prompting widespread condemnation from politicians in Europe and North America.
They say the social media giant is being disrespectful of democracy and shamelessly exploiting its monopolistic commercial power.Campbell Brown, head of Facebook’s news partnerships team, introduces Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Paley Center, Oct. 25, 2019 in New York.”What the proposed law introduced in Australia fails to recognize is the fundamental nature of the relationship between our platform and publishers,” Campbell Brown, Facebook’s vice president of global news partnerships, wrote in a post Wednesday. “I hope in the future, we can include news for people in Australia once again.”
Rights groups also joined in with scathing criticism. Amnesty International said it was “extremely concerning that a private company is willing to control access to information that people rely on.”
It added, “Facebook’s willingness to block credible news sources also stands in sharp distinction to the company’s poor track record in addressing the spread of hateful content and disinformation on the platform.”The ABC News Facebook page is seen on a screen in Canberra, Australia, Feb. 18, 2021.Access cut
Facebook’s action means that users located outside Australia are unable to access via the platform news produced by Australian broadcasters and newspapers, and people inside Australia cannot access any news content via Facebook at all.
Facebook’s move is not deterring the Australian Parliament from approving the new law — the world’s first to require social media companies to pay media outlets for using their content.FILE – Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is pictured in Tokyo, Nov. 17, 2020.The law will likely come into force next week. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Facebook had “unfriended Australia.” He described the company as arrogant and bullying and warned that Facebook was stoking international fears about oversized technology companies.
Under Australia’s new media code, social media companies will be required to reach a payment deal for news content linked or shared on their platforms. If an agreement proves elusive, an independent arbitrator can set pricing.
Facebook’s block took effect overnight Wednesday, with the digital giant preventing the sharing of news, including content from the country’s public broadcasters, as well as government pages featuring weather and emergency service warnings. Sharing or linking to community, women’s health and domestic violence pages also disappeared.
Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch, said it was a “dangerous turn of events. Cutting off access to vital information to an entire country in the dead of the night is unconscionable.”
“We will not be intimidated by this act of bullying by Big Tech,” Morrison said in a statement.
He added, “These actions will only confirm the concerns that an increasing number of countries are expressing about the behavior of Big Tech companies who think they are bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them. They may be changing the world, but that doesn’t mean they should run it.”
Morrison’s remarks were echoed elsewhere.
In Britain, Facebook’s action was described by Conservative lawmaker Julian Knight, chairman of a parliamentary culture and media committee, as “one of the most idiotic but also deeply disturbing corporate moves of our lifetimes.
“Australia’s democratically elected government is democratically elected. And they have the right to make laws and legislation. And it’s really disrespecting democracy to act in this fashion,” he told British broadcaster Sky News.
In 2019, a British government review found that Facebook and Google had a damaging impact on Britain’s news media because they attracted the lion’s share of online advertising revenue, starving private sector broadcasters and newspapers of income. Researchers found that 61% of British media advertising goes to either Facebook or Google.
Google threatened to take similar action, but last week it began signing preemptive payment deals. Google also has been striking voluntary deals in Britain and some European countries.
Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s competition commissioner, said Facebook and Google, owner of the world’s most used search engine, act like “a de facto duopoly.”
In a post, Facebook told Australia’s 18 million users that it had acted reluctantly and argued the new law misunderstood the relationship between Facebook and publishers who use it to share news content.Facebook advocates
But Facebook also has defenders in the tech industry.
Mike Masnick, founder of the California-based blog Techdirt.com, said users are not being blocked from accessing news. “Contrary to the idea that this is an ‘attack’ on journalism or news in Australia, it’s not. The news still exists in Australia. News companies still have websites. People can still visit those websites,” he said in a blog post.
Australia’s move to tax links is alarming, Masnick adds. “This is fundamentally against the principles of an open internet. The government saying that you can’t link to a news site unless you pay a tax should be seen as inherently problematic for a long list of reasons. At a most basic level, it’s demanding payment for traffic.”
On Thursday, the tech giant started to allow access via its platform from public health websites.
Facebook’s move to block media content in Australia was lambasted by Britain’s News Media Association. Henry Faure Walker, chairman of the group, said the action showed why countries need to coordinate robust regulation. He said the action was “a classic example” of a monopoly power “trying to protect its dominant position with scant regard for the citizens and customers it supposedly serves.”
Facebook’s British critics also highlighted emerging news that the tech giant has accepted funding from China’s state-controlled media organizations, including the China Daily newspaper and China Global Television Network (CGTN), to promote Chinese government denials that Beijing has been targeting ethnic Uighur Muslims and other minorities in the northwest region of Xinjiang in what the U.S. government has labeled a “genocide.”
An investigation this week by Britain’s trade journal the Press Gazette unearthed details of payments being made by Chinese state-controlled media to Facebook to advertise and promote the stories dismissing international concerns over the plight of the Uighurs as Western “disinformation.”
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Hotel Rwanda Figure Appears in Court as Supporters Denounce ‘Show Trial’
Paul Rusesabagina, a humanitarian and activist who is depicted in the Oscar-nominated film Hotel Rwanda, appeared in court Wednesday, accused of supporting rebel groups. His family and human rights groups say he was kidnapped by the Rwandan government and they are demanding his immediate release. VOA’s Salem Solomon has the story.Produced by: Jon Spier and Salem Solomon
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Democrats Unveil US Citizenship Bill
U.S. Democratic lawmakers introduced President Joe Biden’s immigration bill Thursday that would provide one of the quickest routes to citizenship of any proposed legislation in recent years.The measure, which would allow some 11 million current U.S. residents to become citizens within eight years, includes an increase in visas and funding for processing asylum applications.The bill also would enhance technology at the U.S.-Mexico border, expand international drug interdiction task forces in Central America, and attempt to ease backlogs at the border by establishing refugee processing in the region. The measure would immediately provide green cards to farm workers, people with temporary protected status and young people who entered the U.S. illegally as children, allowing them to live and work permanently in the U.S.The bill reflects the priorities Biden presented on his first day in office and was sponsored by 12 Democratic lawmakers, including lead sponsors Senator Bob Menendez and Congresswoman Linda Sanchez. “It will modernize our system, offer a path to citizenship for hardworking people in our communities, reunite families, increase our opportunities for legal immigration and ensure America remains a powerhouse for innovation and a beacon of hope to refugees around the world,” Menendez said, as he unveiled details of the bill at a virtual news conference.Comprehensive immigration reform has failed to gain meaningful support in Congress for decades. It last passed a significant citizenship measure in 1986, when Republican President Ronald Reagan signed an amnesty bill legalizing nearly 3 million illegal immigrants.Some Republican senators already have voiced opposition to major proposals in the bill, as has the political arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation.“This latest move would only further harm American workers already struggling from our health and economic national crises caused by the ongoing pandemic and our government’s response,” said Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson.
While Democrats have a majority in the House, the 100-member Senate is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the tie-breaking vote if necessary.
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Much of US Facing Frigid, Stormy Weather
Millions of people in the United States are facing frigid, stormy weather, although the number of people without power in the southwestern state of Texas dropped below a half million on Thursday for the first time in four days.
Electricity in Texas, the country’s second-biggest state, was restored to about 2.5 million people. The head of the cooperative that is responsible for most of the state’s electricity said there was progress Wednesday in boosting available power and that officials hoped that soon people would only have to deal with rolling blackouts before service is fully restored.
But the state faced a new problem, with officials ordering 7 million people, about a quarter of its population, to boil tap water before drinking it because of damaged infrastructure and frozen pipes.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott urged residents, if possible, to shut off water to their homes, to prevent pipes from bursting and preserve water pressure in municipal systems.
The massive storm system has been blamed for at least 30 deaths in the U.S. this week. In the Houston area, the Associated Press reported that one family died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to car exhaust in their garage, while a grandmother and three children were killed by flames that escaped the fireplace they were using to keep warm.
The National Weather Service says the storm is moving across several states on a 2,300-kilometer track to the northeast, with 38 centimeters of snow on the ground in the state of Arkansas to the east of Texas, heavy snow and ice further north through the Appalachian Mountains and up to 20 centimeters of snow predicted Thursday and Friday in the New York metropolitan region
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Spain Hopes to Capitalize on Fresh US Approach to Venezuela
The arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden in the White House has ushered in hopes for a new approach towards one of the thorniest foreign policy questions – how to restore democracy in Venezuela. As the U.S seeks to rebuild ties with European allies that became distanced during the presidency of Donald Trump, analysts say Venezuela will be one of many tests of this new relationship.In Madrid, the left-wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has cheered Biden and what it hopes will be his fresh approach to relations with a region that both nations consider their backyard. Because of its historical ties to Latin America, Spain has been at the forefront of European efforts to negotiate with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in order to push for democratic change. During the Trump era, talk in Washington of using military clashed with the EU strategy of seeking to force change through sanctions while maintaining a peaceful dialogue with both the Maduro government and opposition groups. FILE – Venezuelan opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez embraces a person after participating in a popular consultation launched by opposition leader Juan Guaido to decline Venezuela’s Dec. 6 parliamentary election, in Bogota, Colombia Dec. 12, 2020.White House press secretary Jen Psaki recently laid out the new U.S. government’s approach to the political crisis in Venezuela.The Biden administration “will focus on addressing the humanitarian situation, providing support to Venezuelan people and reinvigorating multilateral diplomacy to press for a democratic outcome and pursue individuals involved in corruption, human rights abuses,” she said.Worsening political situationIn Venezuela, meanwhile, the political situation worsened at the end of 2020 after legislative elections in December were criticized by the opposition and the EU as lacking legitimacy. Venezuela is mired in a deep institutional crisis. The Maduro government exercises power without international credibility but faces a divided opposition which has no clear road map for how to wrestle control of the nation. The economic situation for 30 million Venezuelans is even more volatile, with many barely able to cover basic needs such as food, health and access to public services. The International Monetary Fund expects inflation to rise by 6,500% this year. Despite the growing convergence on policy, Washington and its European allies disagree on how to deal with the Venezuelan opposition. Unlike the U.S., Brussels has refused to recognize Juan Guiadó as the de-facto president of Venezuela. Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said this week the EU supported the Venezuelan opposition movement and called for a “humanitarian response” as well as a “dialogue between all political forces and social actors” within the country. However, she said that the opposition movement must seek more “unity and strength.” In a signal that Madrid aligns itself with Biden’s foreign policy, Gonzalez Laya added: “I listened carefully to the statements of the U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, where he clearly explained that the strategy followed in recent years had not worked and that it and that it was necessary to work with all U.S. allies to promote a change in Venezuela and that is where Spain will be of course.” FILE – Secretary of State Antony Blinken.The decision not to recognize Guaidó as interim president angered some elements of the Venezuelan opposition. Isadora Zubillaga, deputy foreign minister in Guaido’s interim government, described the EU’s position as “muddled” in a Politico article. Sanctions may become aligned Analysts said that while Biden has indicated he wants to pursue a peaceful resolution of the Venezuelan situation, he remains committed to sanctions. Carlos Malamud, an analyst who specializes in Latin America at the Real Elcano Institute, a Madrid think tank, believes the U.S. sanctions policy towards Venezuela will change. “I think they may become more aligned towards the European Union which maintains committed to collective sanctions,” he told VOA in an interview.The sanctions blacklist on Venezuela may be expanded, the EU said recently, warning Maduro against further crackdowns on the opposition. Brussels placed an arms embargo on Venezuela, froze certain assets and imposed a travel ban on 36 people aligned to the Maduro government. Geoff Ramsey, director for Venezuela at WOLA: Advocacy for Human Rights in the Americas, expects Biden to use a “carrot and the stick” strategy with Maduro’s government. “Moving forward, it’s very likely we’ll see a clearer emphasis on negotiations leading to free and fair elections,” he told VOA. “None of this means Biden will let up the pressure. The president has been quite clear that he sees sanctions as a valid tool for free, fair and credible elections in Venezuela and is not going to lift U.S. sanctions with nothing in exchange.”
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New Allegations on France’s Role in Rwanda Genocide Put Pressure on Fact-Finding Commission
Two years ago, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a fact-finding commission of historians to shed full light on a less glorious past: notably France’s role in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
Now, with the Duclert Commission expected to present its conclusions in a matter of weeks, new findings suggest the country did more than commit “errors” nearly three decades ago, as one former French leader once said.
Extracts from French Foreign Ministry cables at that time, recently published by investigative website Mediapart and Agence France-Presse, appear to show Paris was aware genocide suspects were hiding in a French-army-controlled “safe-zone” in Rwanda following the slaughter—and did nothing to arrest them. Instead, the ministry instructed its envoy to Rwanda, Yannick Gerard, to request their departure from the area.
The allegations have sparked sharp debate, even outrage, in recent days. But they are simply the latest to trickle out from interviews and archives from former President Francois Mitterrand’s government at the time—documents that nonetheless remain largely inaccessible except to a handful of scholars. Together, they add pressure on the Duclert Commission for a comprehensive and transparent accounting of France’s role across the horrific arc of the genocide that killed more than 800,000 people.
“For us, it’s an extra element that confirms what we’ve denounced for years,” said Thomas Borrel, a spokesman for Survie (Survival), a victims’ rights association that won access to the Mitterrand archives last year. “We hope this new discovery will prevent any kind of conclusion in the [Duclert] report that seeks to legitimize French action at the time.”
Macron, for his part, has promised an honest accounting by the commission—whose report is due in early April.
“We owe it to ourselves to look at our past in its entirety, without any desire to conceal or self-flagellate,” he said in a November interview with The Africa Report.
Like his recent predecessors, Macron has sought to mend long-fraught ties with Kigali over Paris’ role in the mass slaughter, inviting his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame to visit the French capital in 2018.FILE – Names of victims of one of many Rwanda genocide massacres are seen on panels at the Bisesero Genocide Memorial in Bisesero, western Rwanda, Dec. 2, 2020.France also championed the successful but controversial nomination of Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo to head the Paris-based International Organization of la Francophonie, although Kigali has long pivoted toward English and Mushikiwabo’s mastery of French reportedly was shaky.
“What we fear is closer diplomatic ties between Paris and Kigali to the detriment of the truth,” said Borrel of the Survie group, about his fears the Duclert Commission report will whitewash its findings.
Borrel points to the departure of one commission member late last year, after her allegedly favorable take on France’s military role during the genocide was reported in the press.
The French Foreign Ministry cables offer a different take on events.
They were disclosed by another Survie member, researcher Francois Graner, who was granted access to the Mitterrand archives. The instructions from Paris were signed by Bernard Emie, a former diplomatic adviser who now heads France’s DGSE secret service.
They are part of a raft of allegations trickling out over the years of what France knew—and what it did—not only during, but also before and after the genocide. Others include reports the country delivered weapons to Rwanda’s government before the slaughter, which largely targeted Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and provided visas to alleged genocide perpetrators afterwards.
They underscore a once-close relationship between Paris and the Hutu-dominated government of the time, which analysts say was forged in a bid to maintain French influence in the country.
France has never apologized for any role in the genocide, but in 2010, former President Nicolas Sarkozy recognized “errors.”
Recent years have seen a number of arrests of genocide suspects in France, including last May, when French police nabbed the alleged genocide “financier” Felicien Kabuga, who had been hiding outside Paris for years.
But several dozen suspects remain at large, or have yet to be brought to trial, says Alain Gauthier, who heads a genocide survivors’ group with his Rwandan wife.
“We continue to denounce the slowness of the French justice system, we find it insupportable,” Gauthier said. “Some people being pursued are in their ‘80s, and they may die before being brought to justice.”
But Gauthier says he will keep an open mind when it comes to the Duclert Commission and its forthcoming report.
“Let it do its work and we’ll see what comes out of it,” he said. “If it doesn’t produce what we hope, we’ll say so.”
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Malawi Ends COVID-19 School Restrictions After Infections Drop
Malawi will reopen schools on Monday (Feb 22), five weeks after President Lazarus Chakwera suspended classes due to a surge in COVID-19 cases. Malawi’s Presidential Task-Force on COVID-19 determined it is safe to resume classes after a drop in the rate of infection.Co-Chairperson of the Presidential Task-Force on COVID-19 Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda said in a televised address Wednesday night the infection rate is at 16%, down from 30% in January, when classes were suspended.She said, “Actually what we wanted is that once we reopen the schools our children should be safe because we know that when we were closing the schools, some teachers were COVID-19 positive and were on quarantine. So we wanted to give them enough time to recover.”However, Kandodo Chiponda, who is also minister of health, said some schools will require students to produce COVID-19-negative certificates to be allowed into class.She asked parents to comply with such a requirement, saying the government has enough COVID-19 test kits in all public hospitals in the country.She said, “I would like to ask schools with such a requirement not to suspend learners with positive COVID-19 results but reverse their places and give them enough time to recover.”Critics say the decision to resume classes has been rushed and many schools, especially in rural areas, are not ready to reopen.They say unmet requirements include on-the-campus water sources for hand washing and enough classrooms for proper social distancing when learning. But Education Minister Agness Nyalonje says everything is set and that the ministry has allocated about $6 milion for the reopening of schools.Nyalonje said part of the money will be used to drill 400 boreholes in primary schools and 240 in secondary schools to improve sanitation.“My ministry has made money [available] directly to schools through zonal accounts for them to procure soaps, to procure masks, to procure buckets where buckets need replacing, to make sure that when schools open, these things are in place,” she said.She said the challenge is to find tents for additional classrooms in highly congested schools.“Because it so happens that globally, the scramble for tents is very, very high but we are very advanced to get tents and we are hopeful that we will find tents and probably within a week,” said Nyalonje. Nyalonje also said the government has recruited 2,275 auxiliary teachers to ease pressure on permanent teachers.
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Deadly ‘Red-Tagging’ Campaign Ramps Up in Philippines
Human rights activists say “red-tagging,” a tactic whereby individuals are labelled as communists or terrorists – often without substantial proof – is being increasingly deployed by government supporters and state officials in the Philippines.
The practice equates many left-wing activities with terrorism. Rights activists say it is now being used against doctors, activists, academics, students and journalists, among others. Rights groups say the tagging spree has led to a spate of unlawful detentions and killings.
Cristina Palabay, secretary general of the human rights organization Karapatan, told VOA at least 78 people have been killed as a result of either red-tagging or anti-terrorism police operations in the last year alone. There were also some 136 arrests, according to records compiled by the group.
“More and more people are now in the firing line – things appear to only be getting worse,” said Palabay.
Ibarra Gutierrez, a human rights lawyer and former member of the Philippine House of Representatives, told VOA that while the Philippines has a long history of red tagging, the current administration is the first to use the tactic openly.
“Red-tagging also occurred during prior administrations, but people at the top were still smart enough to distance themselves from it – they would not outright condone the killings.
“Now we have officials in government who regularly use the tactic themselves – the levels of shamelessness in the Philippines have reached an all-time high,” said Gutierrez.
For more than 50 years, the Philippine government has been mired in a civil war with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).
After peace talks to end the insurgency collapsed in 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte has since accused the CCP and other left-wing groups of trying to “overthrow the government.” The accusation comes alongside the enactment of a controversial anti-terror law in July last year.
Amid this heightened anti-terrorism campaign, those who express dissent may now find their names appearing on lists, street tarpaulins or Facebook posts, accusing them of being communist rebels. For some, the simple label is tantamount to a death sentence.
In a high-profile case last December, a red-tagged doctor and her husband were gunned down in broad daylight by unknown assailants in the city of Guihulngan. Dr. Mary Rose Sancelan – who had led her community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic – had reportedly appeared on a list from local militia group ‘Kagubak,’ which baselessly claimed Sancelan had links to the NPA.
Some local rights groups have long asserted that a ‘culture of red-tagging’ is ‘state-sponsored,’ but presidential spokesperson Harry Roque has repeatedly denied claims of a government-led plan to accuse people of being communists.
While red-tagging has been embraced by many anti-communist groups, some Philippine state officials have also used the tactic.
Last month, Facebook pages belonging to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) published a list of academics and alumni from the University of the Philippines, claiming the individuals were either deceased or current NPA rebels.
In an online statement following his red-tagging in the now-deleted list, former Philippine Health Insurance Corporation CEO Alexander Padilla said: “I am appalled and disgusted [at] how [the] government cavalierly plays with the lives of innocent people. I am now anxious for me and for others on the list, whose lives are now placed in peril.”
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana called the list an “unpardonable gaffe,” while the AFP’s Civil Military Operations Office (CMOO) released a statement to “apologize for those who were inadvertently affected by inconsistencies.”
The CMOO also said that personnel responsible would be held accountable, with the Presidential Palace urging the military to ‘exercise prudence’ when disseminating information online.
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European Markets Down as Gold, Oil Maintain Solid Gains
European markets were in a slump Thursday as investors pulled back from their recent buying spree.
The London-based FTSE index was 0.6% lower at midday. The CAC-40 in Paris was down 0.2%, while Frankfurt’s DAX index was 0.3% higher.
Asian markets finished mostly lower earlier in the day. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index dropped 0.1%, while both the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong and the KOSPI in South Korea plunged 1.5%. Mumbai’s Sensex fell 0.7%.
Shanghai’s Composite index gained 0.5% in its first trading session after a long Lunar New Year holiday, and Taiwan’s TSEC closed up 0.3%.
Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX index finished nearly three-quarters of one point higher (+0.01%).
In commodities trading, gold was selling at $1,782.00 per ounce, up 0.5%. U.S. crude oil was selling at $61.47 per barrel, up 0.5. Brent crude was also 0.5% higher, selling at $64.67 per barrel.
All three major U.S. indices were trending downward in futures trading ahead of Thursday’s opening bell on Wall Street.
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US Life Expectancy Drops By One Year
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Thursday released statistics indicating over-all life expectancy dropped by one full year in the first half off 2020, the biggest drop since World War II.Provisional data released by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics for January to June 2020 indicates minorities suffered the biggest impact, with Black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics, nearly two years.
Health officials say the data reflects the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as a rise in deaths from drug overdoses, heart attacks and diseases that accompanied the outbreak.After 4 Years of Decline, US Life Expectancy Rises — a LittleSuicides and deaths because of flu and pneumonia rose, but cancer and drug overdose deaths fell slightlyThe CDC calculates life expectancy based on how long a baby born today can expect to live, on average. The statistics show, overall, in the first half of last year, that was 77.8 years for Americans overall, down one year from 78.8 in 2019. For males it was 75.1 years and for females, 80.5 years.The CDC says the last time life expectancy at birth dropped more dramatically was during World War II. The CDC indicates, based on the latest numbers, U.S. residents can now expect to live as long as they did in 2006.Life expectancy at birth, considered a reliable barometer of a nation’s health, has risen steadily in the United States since the middle of the 20th century. It had already been known that 2020 was the deadliest year in U.S. history, with deaths topping 3 million for the first time.The only good news in the report is that life expectancy typically bounces back quickly, because of the way it is calculated. Health experts said that when the coronavirus pandemic subsides in the United States they expect that to occur.
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US Needs to Brace Itself for More Deadly Storms, Experts Say
Deadly weather will be hitting the U.S. more often, and America needs to get better at dealing with it, experts said as Texas and other states battled winter storms that blew past the worst-case planning of utilities, governments and millions of shivering residents.This week’s storms — with more still heading east — fit a pattern of worsening extremes under climate change and demonstrate anew that local, state and federal officials have failed to do nearly enough to prepare for greater and more dangerous weather.At least two dozen people have died this week, including from fire or carbon monoxide poisoning while struggling to find warmth inside their homes. In Oklahoma City, an Arctic blast plunged temperatures in the state capital as low as 14 degrees below 0 (-25 Celsius).”This is a different kind of storm,” said Kendra Clements, one of several businesspeople in Oklahoma City who opened their buildings to shelter homeless people, some with frostbite, hypothermia and icicles in their hair. It was also a harbinger of what social service providers and governments say will be a surge of increased needs for society’s most vulnerable as climate and natural disasters worsen.Other Americans are at risk as well. Power supplies of all sorts failed in the extreme cold, including natural gas-fired power plants that were knocked offline amid icy conditions and, to a smaller extent, wind turbines that froze and stopped working. More than 100 million people live in areas under winter weather warnings, watches or advisories, and blackouts are expected to continue in some parts of the country for days.The crisis sounded an alarm for power systems throughout the country: As climate change worsens, severe conditions that go beyond historical norms are becoming ever more common. Texas, for example, expects power demand to peak in the heat of summer, not the depths of winter, as it did this week.The dire storms come as President Joe Biden aims to spend up to $2 trillion on infrastructure and clean energy investment over four years. Biden has pledged to update the U.S. power grid to be carbon-pollution free by 2035 as well as weatherize buildings, repair roads and build electric vehicle charging stations.”Building resilient and sustainable infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather and a changing climate will play an integral role” in creating jobs and meeting Biden’s goal of “a net-zero emissions future,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday.The storms are big news this week, especially in light of their effect on COVID-19 vaccinations as well as freezing Americans, but that doesn’t mean they won’t become more common, experts say.”This definitely was an anomaly,” but one that is likely to occur more frequently as a result of climate change, said Sara Eftekharnejad, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Syracuse University.”There probably needs to be better planning, because we’re starting to see more extreme weather events across the country,” she said, whether it’s severe cold in Texas or the intense heat wave in California last year that fueled deadly wildfires.People collect firewood on a wood heap opened to the public to enable them to heat their homes after widespread power outages left them in the cold, in Dallas, Texas, Feb. 17, 2021.Better forecasting — both short-term and long-term — would help avoid catastrophic failures such as the current outages in Texas and other states, as would large-scale storage systems that can supply electricity when demand spikes and a greater diversity of power sources, Eftekharnejad and other experts said.Climate change also is hurting military readiness. Damage from a 2018 hurricane at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida and 2019 flooding at Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base, for example, led the Pentagon to send service members as far away as Britain to train.Another 2018 hurricane that hit North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune, home to one-third of the U.S. Marine Corps’ capability, caused enough damage to degrade training overall, senior U.S. military authorities concluded.Hardening military installations against worsening natural disasters will cost trillions. But it has to be done, said Joan VanDervort, a former longtime Defense Department climate expert now with the Center for Climate and Security think tank. “We have eyes overseas that are looking at our vulnerability and seeing how we respond. … There are enemies out there that will certainly take advantage of it.”Michael Craig, an assistant professor of energy systems at the University of Michigan, said the events in California and Texas show that “what we have now is not going to do it in the face of climate change. It’s only going to get worse from here.”The disaster in Texas and other states “is a reminder that our nation’s critical infrastructure is vulnerable to extreme weather events and we can no longer turn a blind eye to the resiliency investments needed to protect it,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, who met with Biden at the White House last week.”The cost associated with addressing climate change and improving our infrastructure’s resilience is always going to be less than the cost of rebuilding or failing to act,” Carper said.Meanwhile, federal regulators are looking into the operations of the bulk-power system during the severe winter storm that affected states from Louisiana to Minnesota.In Texas, where wind power is a growing source of electricity, the wind turbines generally are not equipped to withstand extended low temperatures, as they are in Iowa and other cold-weather states. Modifying the turbines slightly to withstand freezing temperatures is one step needed to confront climate change, said Roy McCann, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Arkansas.While some Republican politicians, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have tried to pin blame on wind and solar power for the outages, traditional thermal power plants, which rely mostly on natural gas, provide the bulk of power in the state and were the larger problem.”The entire system was overwhelmed,” said Joshua Rhodes, a research associate on energy issues at the University of Texas.
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UAE Dismantles Eritrea Base as it Pulls Back After Yemen War
The United Arab Emirates is dismantling parts of a military base it runs in the East African nation of Eritrea after it pulled back from the grinding war in nearby Yemen, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show.
The UAE built a port and expanded an airstrip in Assab beginning in September 2015, using the facility as a base to ferry heavy weaponry and Sudanese troops into Yemen as it fought alongside a Saudi-led coalition against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels there.
But the country once praised as “Little Sparta” by former U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis appears to have found the limits of its military expansion in Yemen’s stalemate conflict, experts say. After it withdrew troops from the conflict, the satellite photos show it began shipping off equipment and tearing down even newly built structures.
“The Emiratis are paring back their strategic ambitions and are pulling out of places where they had presences,” said Ryan Bohl, an analyst at the Texas-based private intelligence firm Stratfor. “Having that hard-power deployment exposed them to more risk than the Emiratis are now willing to tolerate.”
Emirati officials did not respond to questions from the AP. Eritrea, which gave a 30-year lease to the Emiratis for the base, similarly did not respond to questions sent to its embassy in Washington.
The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, poured millions of dollars into improving the facility at Assab, only some 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Yemen. It dredged a port and improved the dusty airstrip’s roughly 3,500-meter (11,500-foot) runway to allow for heavy support aircraft.
The Emiratis also built barracks, aircraft canopies and fencing across the 9-square-kilometer (3.5-square-mile) facility initially built in the 1930s by colonial power Italy.
Over time, the UAE stationed Leclerc battle tanks, G6 self-propelled howitzers and BMP-3 amphibious fighting vehicles at the airport, according to United Nations experts. Those types of heavy weapons have been seen on Yemeni battlefields. Attack helicopters, drones and other aircraft have been seen on its runways.
Barracks on the base housed Emirati and Yemeni troops, as well as Sudanese forces filmed disembarking in Yemen’s port city of Aden. Records show the ship carrying them, the SWIFT-1, traveled back and forth to Assab. The vessel later came under attack by Houthi forces in 2016 and the Emirati government asserted it carried humanitarian aid, a claim for which U.N. experts later described themselves as being “unconvinced of its veracity.”
The base also aided wounded soldiers by housing “one of the best field surgical hospitals anywhere in the Middle East,” said Michael Knights, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy who has studied the Assab base.
As Yemen’s war dragged on, the Emiratis also used the base for holding prisoners as the Saudi-led coalition faced increasing international pressure over detainee abuse and airstrikes killing civilians. The UAE announced in the summer of 2019 it had begun withdrawing its troops from the war, which still rages today.
“There’s only so far that they can punch above their weight, which they do militarily and economically,” said Alex Almeida, a security analyst at Horizon Client Access who has studied Assab. “Once they figured out Yemen wasn’t worth it for them, they decided, ‘We’re going to end it,’ and they ended it pretty suddenly.”
Satellite pictures from Planet Labs Inc., analyzed by the AP, show that decision appears to extend to Assab as well.
In June 2019, around the time the Emiratis made their withdrawal announcement, workers apparently razed structures believed to be barracks alongside the port, the satellite images show. Workers gathered neat rows of materiel just north of the port, apparently waiting to be shipped off.
In early January of this year, another photo showed what appeared to be vehicles and other equipment being loaded onto a waiting cargo ship. By Feb. 5, the ship and that equipment were gone.
The deconstruction included newly built canopies along a new tarmac near the facilities’ runway as well. In the Feb. 5 images, another set of canopies that analysts earlier linked to the drones being flown out of the base had been dismantled as well. The UAE has used Chinese-made armed drones in the Yemen war to kill leaders among the Houthi rebels.
Destruction of the drone hangars come after rebels in Ethiopia’s Tigray region in November alleged that Emirati drones from Assab had been used against their positions. The UAE hasn’t commented on the allegation for which the rebels offered no evidence.
The U.N.-backed government in Libya also has alleged the UAE has flown weapons through Assab on its way there. U.N. experts have accused the UAE among other nations of funneling weapons into Libya amid its yearslong civil war.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian-registered Antonov An-124 cargo plane flew several flights in late January back and forth to the Emirati city of Al Ain from Assab, according to flight data from FlightRadar24.com.
That aircraft, once linked to the Emirati military, now flies for an Ukrainian-Emirati company called Maximus Air. The firm did not return a request for comment left at its Abu Dhabi office.
Despite the dismantling work, Emirati attack helicopters still have been seen at the base. It remains a strategically important point as well, sitting just off the crucial Bab el-Mandeb strait connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
But the UAE may face more-pressing concerns. Since 2019, tensions between the U.S. and Iran have seen a series of escalating incidents, including attacks on ships off the Emirates. Those threats closer to home may take precedence over an expanded military footprint abroad.
“I think what ‘Little Sparta’ is doing is to keep its powder dry for whatever it needs to do next,” Knights said.
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China’s Tough New Coast Guard Law Takes Aim at US-backed Southeast Asian States
Analysts are warning that China’s new law authorizing its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels in the disputed South China Sea will target five other Asian governments that have competing maritime claims and growing support from Beijing’s superpower rival, Washington. The National People’s Congress standing committee in Beijing passed a law January 22 that expressly lets the coast guard use force. The law prescribes “all necessary means” to stop foreign vessels, including use of weapons aboard Chinese ships. The coast guard fleet of about 200 boats regularly encounters vessels from Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, three countries with rival sovereignty claims in the resource-rich South China Sea that extends from Hong Kong south to Indonesia. FILE – A ship (top) of the Chinese Coast Guard is seen near a ship of the Vietnam Marine Guard in the South China Sea, about 210 km ff shore of Vietnam May 14, 2014.The U.S. Navy regularly passes warships through the 3.5 million-square-kilometer waterway to warn China, a former Cold War foe, and show support for the Southeast Asian claimants. China cites historical records to back its claim to about 90% of the sea. Other countries believe China’s claims violate international maritime laws. “Using guns and real force against others will be against Vietnam and the Philippines and Malaysia in the South China Sea because of the sheer imbalance of power in favor of China,” said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. “Big guns” on the Chinese coast guard ships would intimidate the Southeast Asian states, he said. The three Southeast Asian countries, plus quieter claimants Brunei and Taiwan, resent China for its expansion at sea, especially in the heavily contested Paracel and Spratly islands. China, backed by the strongest armed forces in Asia and the third most powerful worldwide, has built up some of the islets that Southeast Asian states call their own. The surrounding sea is prized for fisheries and undersea fuel reserves. Philippine National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said China’s coast guard law raises the risk of “miscalculation” at sea, domestic media outlets said. A Vietnamese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman reacted to China’s move by urging all countries to follow international laws. Vietnamese sailors died in 1974 and 1988 in military clashes with China. The two countries rammed each other’s boats in 2014 when Beijing authorized placement of a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters. China and the Philippines entered a standoff in 2012 as the Chinese side took control of a shoal west of Luzon Island. China and Malaysia were locked in their own standoff in early 2020. Southeast Asian claimants also shadow Chinese ships that pass near the contested islets and repel Chinese fishing vessels. Chinese resentment has grown because of U.S. support for the Southeast Asian claimants including regular warship movement in the South China Sea — such as U.S. carrier group exercises earlier this month. Washington, which does not claim the sea, helps train Philippine troops and in 2016 it authorized sales of lethal weapons to Vietnam. Taiwan already buys advanced U.S. arms. In this photo provided by U.S. Navy, the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76, front) and USS Nimitz (CVN 68, rear) Carrier Strike Groups sail together in formation, in the South China Sea, July 6, 2020.“I think the PLA [China’s People’s Liberation Army] is playing that game of uncertainty in the minds of everyone else, so that uncertainty claims a buffer of ‘don’t take precipitate action in these territories, because we have this option,’” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. In Beijing, Standing Committee Chairman Li Shanzhu said the coast guard law “provides legal guarantees for effectively safeguarding national sovereignty, security and maritime rights and interests,” according to the official Xinhua News Agency. China’s coast guard has the largest ships of any patrol force in the world, but it cannot match U.S. forces, Vuving said. China hopes instead to reset relations with the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden after a rocky four years under former president Donald Trump, said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Stimson Center. “The context of the great power competition in the past four years is already very negative,” Sun said. “If the Chinese have any expectation for improvement, overreaction at this point is not a good strategy.”
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Belarus Court Jails Journalists for Covering Protest
A court in Belarus sentenced two journalists to two years in prison Thursday on charges of orchestrating demonstrations against President Alexander Lukashenko.
Katsiaryna Andreyeva and Daria Chultsova of Poland’s Belsat TV were arrested in November in a Minsk apartment. They were livestreaming ongoing protests taking place in support of a demonstrator who was killed several days earlier.
Andreyeva told the court ahead of the verdict she would work to build “a Belarus that won’t have political repressions.”
A lawyer for the journalists said they would appeal the verdict.
There have been mass demonstrations in Belarus following a contested August election that Lukashenko’s opponents said was rigged to give him another term. Lukashenko has denied the election was fraudulent.
A subsequent crackdown on the protests has led to the arrests of thousands of people, and prompted the United States and European Union to enact sanctions against officials in Belarus.
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US Prosecutors Allege 3 North Koreans Stole Billions in Cyberattacks
The U.S. Justice Department has charged three North Korean computer programmers with stealing billions through numerous cyberattacks on financial institutions and other companies.Jon Chang Hyok, Kim Il and Park Jin Hyok are accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud in an unsealed indictment revealed Wednesday. The indictment says the trio carried out the cyberattacks on behalf of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s military intelligence agency.The trio allegedly conspired to steal as much as $1.3 billion in money and cryptocurrency, including the theft of $81 million via wire transfers from a bank in Bangladesh bank in 2016 and at least $112 million from various cryptocurrency exchanges and financial institutions. U.S. prosecutors also said the three hackers are responsible for launching the malicious WannaCry global ransomware attack in 2017, as well as the infamous 2014 attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in retaliation for producing “The Interview,” which depicted the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Park Jin Hyok had been previously charged for the Sony Pictures attack in a separate 2018 complaint.The trio allegedly carried out their activities from locations in Russia and China.
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Texans Deal with Power, Water Outages as US Winter Storm Moves East
Millions of people in the United States are dealing with the effects of frigid, stormy weather, including many in the southern state of Texas who have spent days without electricity and have had water supplies disrupted.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the head of the cooperative responsible for most of the state’s electricity said there was progress Wednesday in boosting available power and that they hoped soon people would only have to deal with rolling blackouts before service is fully restored.Authorities ordered about 7 million people in Texas, one quarter of the state’s population, to boil tap water before drinking it due to damage to the water system.The infrastructure breakdowns have left many in the dark and cold for days in Texas and prompted calls for answers and accountability.The region is experiencing unusually cold temperatures. In Dallas, the typical high for this time of year is about 16 degrees, while on Wednesday the maximum was minus 3.The storm system is moving east on Thursday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue winter storm warnings along a 2,300-kilometer stretch of states from Texas to Massachusetts with forecasters predicting snow and ice.The weather has been blamed for at least 30 deaths in the United States this week.
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US, China Compete Over Vaccine, Post-pandemic Recovery in Europe
The United States plans to “repair” and “revitalize” cooperation with its European allies as Washington and Beijing are seen as competing for influence in supporting vaccine distribution and post-pandemic recovery in Europe. U.S. President Joe Biden is set to speak virtually at the Munich Security Conference on Friday. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will engage virtually with his counterparts from France, Germany and the United Kingdom — the so-called E3 — to discuss what State Department spokesperson Ned Price called “shared global challenges.” Blinken will also participate in the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council on February 22 at the invitation of EU High Representative Josep Borrell. Biden’s speech would come after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pledge to boost imports from Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries into the Chinese market in coming years. FILE – A video of China’s President Xi Jinping plays at an exhibition about China’s fight against COVID-19 at a convention center that was previously a makeshift hospital for coronavirus patients, in Wuhan, Jan. 15, 2021.Last week, Xi chaired a long-delayed virtual summit with leaders and senior officials from the so-called “17+1” bloc, eyeing access to the European COVID-19 vaccines market while reasserting China’s influence in the region. The 17+1 bloc was launched in 2012 as China sought cooperation with CEE nations. Twelve of those are European Union members. “China is willing to actively consider the vaccine cooperation needs of CEE countries,” Xi said, citing Serbia and Hungary as two countries that have already begun to roll out nationwide vaccination programs with Chinese vaccines. FILE – A man holds China’s flag next to Serbia’s flag as a plane transporting one million doses of Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group vaccines for the coronavirus arrives at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade, Serbia, Jan. 16, 2021.”China intends to import, in the coming five years, more than 170 billion U.S. dollars of goods from CEE countries,” Xi said, proposing to set up a farm produce wholesale market in the CEE region, in a bid to double CEE countries’ agricultural exports to China and raise two-way agricultural trade by 50% over the next five years. Beijing’s appeal to European countries came as Washington is shoring up efforts to, as officials described it, “revitalize core alliances” and return to multilateralism. “The Biden-Harris administration is committed to deepening dialogue and cooperation with our allies and partners on China, starting with Europe,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA. “We recognize our European partners have their own interests and relationships, and we are not forcing them to choose between China and the United States. However, we remain concerned that China has frequently used multilateral organizations as a tool to advance the PRC’s economic, national security and foreign policy interests at the expense of other countries’ peace and prosperity, respect for human rights and the rules-based international order,” said the spokesperson. Regional observers said Xi was greeted with a cold reception, with six nations choosing to send ministers instead of heads of state to the virtual summit, the lowest level of representation in nine years. The six nations are Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia. “Based on [the] collective work of @chinaobseervers, the preliminary list of participation from CEE countries at the 17+1 [is expected to be] the lowest level [of] representation in the history of the summit,” tweeted China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe, a group of experts that provide informed analysis on the rising influence of China in the region.Based on a collective work of @chinaobseervers the preliminary list of participation from CEE countries at the 17+1 seems is as below. The lowest level representation in the history of the summit. pic.twitter.com/gE24VRbIqT— ChinaObservers (@chinaobservers) February 9, 2021Other observers said Beijing’s biggest success at the virtual summit was proving that the 17+1 bloc is “not dead,” while noting that Xi failed to attract all CEE heads of state to attend despite personal invitations and “desperate actions” of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “No tangible additional influence gained in the EU by Beijing,” tweeted Jakub Jakóbowski, senior fellow at the Centre for Eastern Studies, a Warsaw-based think tank. “Little chance for this summit to stop the deterioration of relations with CEE (econ. co-op stalled, wolf warrior conflicts, US pressure),” Jakóbowski added. “Certainly won’t derail CEE-US regional co-op.”Little chance for this summit to stop the deterioration of relations with CEE (econ. co-op stalled, wolf warrior conflicts, US pressure). Certainly won’t derail CEE-US regional co-op. Also, unlike 🇩🇪🇫🇷-led #CAI, no tangible additional influence gained in the EU by Beijing (4/4)— Jakub Jakóbowski (@J_Jakobowski) February 9, 2021In January, Serbia received a million doses of Chinese Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine, becoming the first European country to use Chinese vaccines for its mass rollout. Serbia and China have maintained close ties as Chinese companies invest billions of euros in Serbia’s infrastructure and energy projects.Serbia Becomes First European Country to Use Chinese COVID Vaccine for Mass Rollout Belgrade maintains close ties with Beijing and Chinese companies have invested billions of Euros in Serbia, mainly in infrastructure and energy projectsAlso in January, Hungary became the first European Union country to approve China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine. Many EU countries rely on vaccines provided by American companies Pfizer and Moderna.
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Despite Senate Acquittal, Trump Faces Many Legal Problems
As president, Donald Trump was immune from criminal prosecution and civil liability.But now that he is a private citizen, he no longer enjoys the cloak of presidential immunity — and his legal troubles are starting to pile up.On Tuesday, just three days after the Senate acquitted him of an impeachment charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Trump was sued over the riot in federal court by a prominent U.S. Democratic representative.The suit by Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, accuses Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and two far-right groups of conspiring to incite the riot to prevent congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.The lawsuit is likely to be the first of many. But Trump’s legal troubles are not limited to his role in the riot. Ongoing investigations in New York and other lawsuits are likely to keep him “wrapped up” for years, said Sarah Tuberville of the Project on Government Oversight.“I think one of his biggest perils now is that the many defenses that he had before, both legal, as well as political, are not available to him” outside of office, Tuberville said.Jason Miller, a spokesperson for the former president, called the investigations and lawsuits “nakedly partisan stuff that we’re seeing from partisan Democrats.”Despite growing calls from Democrats for the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack, it remains uncertain whether the law enforcement agency will undertake such a politically charged probe.Biden has said he will leave it up to his incoming attorney general, Merrick Garland, to decide whether to investigate or prosecute Trump. The question is likely to dominate Garland’s confirmation hearings set for next week.Here is a look at some of the civil and criminal cases that Trump now faces.GeorgiaFani Willis, the top prosecutor for Fulton County, Georgia, is investigating whether Trump broke state law when he pressed top officials in the battleground state to reverse his election loss to Biden.At the heart of the investigation is a Jan. 2 phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” him enough votes to change the outcome of the election in the state.In a Feb. 10 letter to top Georgia officials, Willis wrote that the criminal investigation is a high priority for her office and that she is examining a wide range of potential violations, from solicitation of election fraud to violence or threats related to the election’s administration.Kimberly Wehle, a former federal prosecutor and now a law professor at the University of Baltimore, said the investigation appears to be moving along “in a serious way.”“That’s because we know what the evidence is, and it’s pretty clear what happened,” Wehle said.New YorkFor more than two years, New York State Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. have been investigating Trump and his real estate empire, The Trump Organization, for alleged fraud and financial improprieties.Vance’s civil probe grew out of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s 2019 congressional testimony during which he alleged that Trump committed financial crimes by manipulating the value of his real estate assets over a period of several years.The investigation appears to be gathering steam. Last month, a New York Supreme Court judge ordered The Trump Organization to turn over documents to James’ office.The separate criminal investigation, led by Vance’s office, began in 2018 as a probe of “hush money” payments that Cohen made in 2016 to two women who allegedly had extramarital affairs with Trump. Cohen subsequently served time for tax evasion, campaign finance violations and perjury in connection with the payments.The Vance investigation resumed after federal prosecutors closed the case in 2019 without charging Trump, and it has since widened to include a range of criminal violations, from tax and insurance fraud to falsifying business records.While Trump has yet to turn over his financial records to Vance despite a Supreme Court ruling last year, the investigation appears to be picking up, with Vance’s office reportedly hiring forensic experts to aid with the probe.District of ColumbiaDistrict of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine’s office is looking into whether Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol violated a local anti-riot statute, a spokesperson told VOA.Racine’s jurisdiction is limited to enforcing the capital city’s code. The more than 200 rioters arrested to date have all been federally charged.Under Washington’s local code, “rioting or inciting to riot” is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison. Racine’s office has not decided whether to move ahead with a charge under the code, the spokesperson said.Wehle said that while a misdemeanor is “not a serious disincentive,” it would put a “stain on (Trump’s) presidency.”DefamationTrump faces a pair of defamation lawsuits brought by two women who have accused him of sexual misconduct. In 2019, E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, sued him for defamation after he denied her accusation that he raped her in a New York department store in the 1990s, saying she is “not my type” and “it never happened.”Shortly before Trump left office on Jan. 20, the Justice Department argued in court that as president, Trump was an “employee of the government” and could not be sued. But now that he is a private citizen, he can no longer claim immunity, Wehle said.Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice, the reality show hosted by Trump that premiered in 2004, sued him for calling her a liar after she accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2007. Last week, Zervos asked a New York court to allow her lawsuit to proceed now that Trump is out of office.InsurrectionThe lawsuit by Thompson alleges that false election claims by Trump and Giuliani fomented the Jan. 6 riot and the two extremist groups — the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers — in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 law barring violent interference in congressional constitutional duties.
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