The White House put forward a $1.7 trillion infrastructure counteroffer Friday to Senate Republicans, dropping from President Joe Biden’s sweeping $2.3 trillion proposal “in the spirit of finding common ground.”White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki disclosed the new offer as talks were still underway between key Cabinet secretaries and GOP senators at a crucial stage toward a deal. Skepticism had been rising on all sides amid complaints about the lack of significant movement off the opening bids. Republicans had offered a $568 billion plan.”This proposal exhibits a willingness to come down in size,” she said at the press briefing.According to a memo obtained by The Associated Press, the administration is cutting more than $550 billion from the president’s initial offer.But the memo makes clear Biden is not interested in the Republicans’ idea of having consumers pay for the new investments through tolls, gas taxes or other fees. Instead, the administration is sticking with his proposal to raise the corporate tax to pay for the new investment, which is a red line for Republicans.”Our approach should ensure that corporations are paying their fair share,” said the memo from the administration’s negotiators to the GOP senators.The White House and Republican senators have been in talks ever since Biden met with a core group of Republican negotiators over the possibility of working together on an infrastructure plan. The White House dispatched the transportation and commerce secretaries and top aides to Capitol Hill to meet with the Republicans earlier this week, and they had a follow up video-call Friday.The more than hour-long meeting was constructive and hopeful, said two administration officials granted anonymity to discuss the private talks.But Republicans dismissed the new White House offer as “disappointing,” according to a GOP aide familiar with the meeting and permitted anonymity to discuss it.The Republicans viewed the changed approach as “very marginal movement” on the topline and without much difference in policy, the aide said.The slog of the negotiations is certain to mean new worries from Democrats that time is slipping to strike a compromise. The president’s team is holding to a soft Memorial Day deadline it had set to determine whether a deal was within reach.Psaki said the new proposal drops the president’s proposed expenditures on broadband as well as roads, bridges and other major investments to meet the Republicans’ lower level. She said the administration’s proposal also involved “shifting investments in research and development, supply chains, manufacturing and small business” out of the infrastructure talks, since they could be considered elsewhere, noting in Endless Frontiers Act, which is a separate bipartisan bill pending in the Senate.But Psaki said the president’s team is still pushing for investments in new veterans hospitals, rail projects and green energy investments to fight climate change that Republicans have excluded from their offers.In all, the White House cut broadband from $100 billion to $65 billion, as Republicans proposed. It also reduced road and bridges spending by $39 billion, from $159 billion to $120 billion, to move closer to the GOP’s proposal of $48 billion in new funds.Removing the research and development funds would cut a whopping $480 billion, the aides said.The White House characterized the GOP’s initial $568 billion “Roadmap” proposal as amounting to an estimated $175 billion to $225 billion in “new investment, above current levels Congress has traditionally funded,” according to the memo.The GOP senators have not publicly disclosed their latest offer.Securing a vast infrastructure plan is Biden’s top priority as he seeks to make good on his campaign pledge to “build back better” in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis and the economic churn from a shifting economy. With narrow Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the president is reaching out to Republicans for support on a potentially bipartisan approach rather than relying simply on his own party to muscle the proposal to passage. But Republicans are refusing Biden’s idea of a corporate tax increase to pay for the package.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday on Fox News that higher taxes on corporations or the wealthiest Americans are nonstarters. Republicans are unwilling to undo the 2017 tax cuts, the party’s signature domestic accomplishment under President Donald Trump. They reduced the corporate rate from 35% to 21%. Biden proposes lifting the corporate tax to 28%.”If they’re willing to settle on target an infrastructure bill without revisiting the 2017 tax bill we’ll work with them,” McConnell told Fox’s Larry Kudlow, a former Trump adviser. But McConnell, R-Ky., said a package topping $2 trillion or more “is not going to have any Republican support.”The new offer from the White House was intended to make a good faith effort at compromise, and to prod Republicans to put a more substantive counteroffer on the table, the officials said.In earlier talks, latest offer from GOP lawmakers left some dismay in the administration that there wasn’t more movement from their initial $568 billion proposal.The White House’s hopes for a bipartisan deal on infrastructure have cooled but they have not abandoned the effort, one of the officials said.Biden has reveled in the face-to-face negotiations, aides said, and has expressed hope to bring Republicans along. West Wing officials have been heartened by the public comments made by some of the GOP negotiating team, the official said.But outward talks of progress have not translated into the two sides getting much closer to a deal. Beyond the significant gap in the two sides’ visions for the size of the package, there has been little discussion of how to reach an agreement on how to pay for it.One GOP senator in the talks suggested tapping unspent funds from the massive COVID-19 aid package to help pay for the infrastructure investment. Other funds could be tapped from uncollected tax revenues or public-private partnerships.One strategy that had gained momentum would be for Biden to negotiate a more limited, traditional infrastructure bill of roads, highways, bridges and broadband as a bipartisan effort. Then, Democrats could try to muscle through the remainder of Biden’s priorities on climate investments and the so-called human infrastructure of child care, education and hospitals on their own.But, administration aides believe, if such an “infrastructure only” bipartisan deal is far smaller than Biden’s original proposal, the White House risks a rebellion from Democrats who could claim that the president made a bad deal and missed the moment to pass a sweeping, transformational package.
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Month: May 2021
Myanmar Election Chief Considers Dissolving Suu Kyi’s Party
The head of Myanmar’s military-appointed state election commission said Friday that his agency will consider dissolving Aung San Suu Kyi’s former ruling party for alleged involvement in electoral fraud and having its leaders charged with treason. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy came to power after a landslide 2015 election victory and won an even greater majority in last November’s general election. It was set to start a second term in February when the military seized power in a coup, arresting her and dozens of top government officials and party members. Junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing cited electoral fraud as the reason for the army’s takeover, saying “there was terrible fraud in the voter lists.” The army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which suffered unexpectedly heavy losses in the election, made similar allegations. FILE – Military supporters carry a portrait of junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing as they celebrate the coup in Naypyitaw.Independent observers dispute the assertions of widespread irregularities. Political parties were called to discuss planned changes in the electoral system at a meeting Friday. Union Election Commission chairman Thein Soe said an investigation of last year’s election that would soon be completed showed that Suu Kyi’s party had illegally worked with the government to give itself an advantage at the polls. “We will investigate and consider whether the party should be dissolved, and whether the perpetrators should be punished as traitors,” he said. Asked for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ reaction, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “Should that happen, that would be a clear step in the wrong direction.” “What we have all been working for, what the Security Council, the international community has been working for, is a restoration of democracy and a restoration of the voice of the people of Myanmar,” Dujarric said. Suu Kyi’s party, which has thrown its weight behind the mass popular movement against the military takeover, has faced constant harassment since the coup, with its members arrested and offices raided and closed. FILE – Anti-coup protesters walk through a market with images of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi at Kamayut township in Yangon, Myanmar, April 8, 2021.The junta initially announced that it would hold new elections a year after taking power, but it later hedged and said the delay could be up to two years. Before the start of democratic reforms a decade ago, Myanmar was ruled by the military for 50 years. Suu Kyi’s party also won a 1990 election, but the military stepped in to prevent it from taking power. Suu Kyi and other members of her government already face various criminal charges that could keep them from running in the next election. Their supporters assert all the charges are politically motivated. The announced purpose of Friday’s commission meeting was to discuss the junta’s plan to change the country’s election system from “first past the post” to proportional representation. In first-past-the-post systems, the candidate with the most votes in a given constituency is the winner, while in proportional representation, the share of winning parliamentary seats in an area with several seats is allocated according to the proportion of the vote won by each party or candidate. Almost all the major parties — including Suu Kyi’s NLD — refused to go to Friday’s commission meeting, as they regard the body as illegitimate. Local media reported that almost a third of the parties boycotted the gathering in the capital, Naypyitaw. Many of the 62 attending were pro-military organizations that polled badly in last November’s election, failing to win a single seat. After taking power, the military dismissed the members of the election commission and appointed new ones. It also detained members of the old commission, and, according to reports in independent Myanmar media, pressured them to confirm there had been election fraud. The new commission declared the last election’s results invalid. A nonpartisan election monitoring organization said this week that the results of last November’s voting were representative of the will of the people, rejecting the military’s allegations of massive fraud. The Asian Network for Free Elections said in a report that it “lacked sufficient information to independently verify the allegations of voter list fraud” because the election law did not allow it access to voting lists, but that it had not seen any credible evidence of any massive irregularities. However, the group also called Myanmar’s electoral process “fundamentally undemocratic” because its 2008 constitution, implemented under army rule, grants the military an automatic 25% share of all parliamentary seats, enough to block constitutional changes. It also noted that large sectors of the population, most notably the Muslim Rohingya minority, are deprived of citizenship rights, including the right to vote. The military ruled Myanmar from 1962 up to 2011, when a quasi-civilian administration backed by the army took over.
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Strong Quakes Rattle Two Regions of China
A series of strong earthquakes rattled northwest and southwest China, leaving at least two people dead, local officials and seismologists said early Saturday.Both Qinghai province in the northwest on the Tibetan plateau and Yunnan province in southwestern China are areas prone to earthquakes. And both tremors were shallow, meaning they generally cause more damage.The Yunnan quake, which had a magnitude of 6.1, struck first at 9:48 p.m. Friday (1348 GMT) near the city of Dali, a popular tourist destination, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was followed by at least two aftershocks, USGS said.Two people were confirmed dead in the mountainous area, local officials said in a statement, adding that at least 17 others had been injured and were receiving treatment.A few hours later, at 1804 GMT, more than 1,200 kilometers away, a 7.3 magnitude quake jolted China’s sparsely populated Qinghai province in the northwest, followed by an aftershock.There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the remote area. State news agency Xinhua said the epicenter was in Maduo County.20,000 evacuatedIn Yunnan, the provincial government said some buildings had collapsed and others had been damaged, and that the “disaster situation was undergoing further verification.”More than 20,000 people have been evacuated, it said. More than 100,000 people live in the area, most of them in rural communities.Local media published videos showing ceiling lamps swinging and vases falling off shelves, as well as groups of people who had run outdoors after the quake.The China Earthquake Networks Center warned people to “stay away from buildings” in a post on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.The quake monitor said the earthquake followed a series of smaller quakes less than an hour before.China is regularly hit by earthquakes, especially in its mountainous western and southwestern regions.— A 7.9 magnitude quake in southwest Sichuan province in 2008 left 87,000 people dead or missing.— In February 2003, a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Xinjiang and caused significant damage.— In 2010, a 6.9 magnitude quake in Qinghai left 3,000 people dead or missing.— And in October 2014, hundreds of people were injured and more than 100,000 displaced when a 6.0 magnitude tremor hit Yunnan, close to China’s borders with Myanmar and Laos.
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Migrant Surge on Spain-Morocco Border Brings More Suffering
Desperate teenagers and jobless men from Morocco’s coastal towns, its mountainous east or even farther away converged on the border town of Fnideq this week, part of an extraordinary mass effort to swim or scale barbed-wire fences to get into Spain for a chance at a new life.More than 8,000 migrants made it into the city of Ceuta, an enclave in North Africa that is separated from the rest of Spain by the Mediterranean — but for most of them, it was a short-lived success.The extraordinary surge of migrants crossing from Morocco into Spain came amid the chaos of a diplomatic spat between the two countries.Spanish troops forced over half of them back to Fnideq, putting additional strain on the Moroccan town whose limited resources are overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.”We will keep trying. We will find one way or another, even if the ocean turns into ice!” said Badreddine, 27.He and his fellow Moroccans — Salah, 22, and Hosam, 24 — all have diplomas but no jobs. Like most seeking to get into Spain, they spoke on condition their last names not be published for fear of their security because they are risking illegal migration.Being stuck in Morocco “is like being dead, so why not risk your life anyway? We’re currently living on streets, sleeping in the cold. Our parents know that we’re here, they pray for us. They told us, ‘Go, may Gold help you,’ ” Salah said.Sleeping outside, eating handoutsThey and others sleep in Fnideq’s parks, on benches and outside mosques. Some hang out near hotels and restaurants, begging for food and whatever people can spare. Volunteers hand out bread and sandwiches.Some have fled the impoverished countries of sub-Saharan Africa, but most are from Morocco, generally seen as one of the continent’s economic engines that has made strides in lowering poverty in recent years.Still, inequality is rife, the pandemic has worsened unemployment and average incomes are a small fraction of those in Europe, which sits tantalizingly close — just across the Fnideq-Ceuta fence.Minors who crossed into Spain take shelter inside an abandoned building in Ceuta, May 21, 2021.Amid tighter security by Spain in recent years, some would-be migrants have abandoned the effort, but others are determined to find a way around the security checkpoints or battle bad weather at sea.”We want to leave [Morocco] because there is nothing left for us in the country, nothing to do, no future. We go to school but don’t want to stay here,” said Khalid, 15.This week, many of them saw an opportunity as word spread quickly in Morocco about the tensions with Spain.When the government in Madrid gave medical treatment to a Western Saharan independence fighter that Morocco considers a terrorist, the decision led to chaos in Ceuta. The port city has always drawn those seeking to cross into Europe, but thousands were seen streaming toward Fnideq on highways and through forests and hills.On the march”Spain, here we come!” a group of Moroccans cried as they marched, singing soccer chants and hurling expletives at their native country. In central Fnideq, thousands lined the corniche that looks toward Ceuta, and they ended up swimming or taking small boats around breakwaters separating the countries.While Moroccan security forces normally are spread out on the beach and in nearby hills patrolling a wide perimeter, there seemed to be fewer guards earlier this week. As large groups of youths scaled the fence and wrapped clothes on their hands to get over the barbed wire, Associated Press reporters saw border police standing by idly.While Morocco has said little about the relaxed border controls, it was widely seen as retaliation for Madrid’s allowing militant leader Brahim Ghali to receive medical treatment inside Spain. Two Moroccan officials made that link in comments Wednesday.Mattresses and belongings of migrants sit atop a hill in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, near the border of Morocco and Spain, May 21, 2021.Spain eventually sent in military forces and pushed most of the migrants back to Morocco. The Red Cross says one young man died and dozens were treated for hypothermia.Khalid, 15, and Amin, 16, came to Fnideq on Sunday in a bus with about 40 others from Temara, a coastal town outside the capital, Rabat. They said they crossed into Spain three times, but were pushed back. The last time, they were forced to swim back along the shore back to Morocco.Back on dutyBy Thursday, Moroccan border guards seemed to be back in their positions, but hundreds of youths have remained, and the men and boys in Fnideq haven’t lost hope of crossing over.”I am the eldest of my brothers. My mother sells vegetables in the market” and can’t afford to support them, said Ayoub, in his early 20s, who arrived Thursday from the inland city of Meknes. “I had to try and help my mother.”While Morocco’s government has focused on the Western Sahara in its limited public statements this week, it hasn’t addressed the poverty and despair that is driving so many to want to leave the country.Fnideq, meanwhile, is suffering under the sudden influx of would-be migrants.The town relied heavily on trade with Ceuta before the pandemic, but Morocco’s strict border closure since March 2020 has deprived residents of livelihoods and access to Spain. Protests broke out earlier this year by residents demanding government aid or an open border.Human rights groups and opposition lawmakers accused the Moroccan government of using migrants as pawns instead of solving their problems. The opposition Istiqlal party urged “an economic alternative that guarantees the population their constitutional right to the necessities of a decent living.”Despite the scenes of tear gas and troops on the border this week, the dream of getting out of Morocco remains strong for many struggling youths, even in the relatively prosperous capital.”If you ask anyone in Rabat … that person will tell you that he wants to go to Europe,” said street vendor Mohammed Ouhaddou. “…Politicians are not doing anything. They are asleep and no one listens to us.”
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US Wary of Reports Boko Haram’s Leader Is Dead
The United States is not ready to declare the leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram terror group dead, despite reports from the region of his demise.”The United States has not yet been able to independently verify these reports and continues to monitor the situation,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told VOA Friday, when asked about the fate of longtime Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.Reports that Shekau was dead first appeared on social media earlier this week, saying that he died during a confrontation with fighters from the rival Islamic State-West Africa terror group in northeast Nigeria’s Sambisa Forest, known to be Shekau’s base of operations. A poster advertising for the search of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is pasted on a wall in Baga village on the outskirts of Maiduguri, in the north-eastern state of Borno, Nigeria, May 13, 2013.Some of the accounts said Shekau killed himself, either by shooting himself or by detonating a suicide vest after he was captured and told to pledge allegiance to the IS terror group.A Nigerian army spokesman told media Friday that the military was investigating the reports, but many officials and analysts have been wary, citing the number of times Shekau has been reported killed, only to be alive days later.A U.S. State Department spokesperson said separately it was also working to confirm the reports, noting that if true, “the death of one of the most violent terrorists in African history would be a positive development.”But the official cautioned that Shekau’s death alone would not be reason to rejoice.”Even if Shekau has been killed, terrorism remains a threat to peace and stability in the region,” the spokesperson told VOA. “Boko Haram is not the only terrorist group operating in the area.”Shekau has led Boko Haram since 2009 and is blamed for orchestrating a campaign of terror that has killed more than 30,000 people and forced millions more to flee their homes. Under Shekau’s leadership, the group gained additional notoriety for the 2014 kidnapping of about 300 schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria.The U.S. named Shekau a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2012 and has been offering a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to his capture.But despite being the target of multiple counterterrorism operations, Shekau has remained elusive, and according to the recent intelligence assessments, still commands an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 fighters across Nigeria and Cameroon.However, Boko Haram has increasingly been challenged by IS-West Africa. The group was formed by fighters who split off from Shekau about five years ago, and has an estimated 3,500 fighters in Nigeria and surrounding countries.Intelligence supplied to the United Nations from member states warned that IS-West Africa has recently strengthened its relationship with IS leadership in Iraq and Syria.There have also been indications that IS-West Africa has been trying to supplant Boko Haram.”ISWA had been making a play to expand into the Sambisa Forest, Shekau’s base,” Emily Estelle, a research manager with the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, told VOA, using an acronym for IS-West Africa.”This means that ISWA had reached a point where it felt strong enough to finally subordinate the Shekau branch,” she said.
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South Sudanese Security Forces Arrest Suspects in Recent Road Attacks
The South Sudan National Security Service this week arrested 12 people suspected of abducting, torturing and killing people along highways linking the capital, Juba, to other states and demanding ransom from their relatives.Officials said security agencies apprehended the suspects Wednesday during a joint operation.Insecurity caused by criminals along South Sudan highways has hindered the movement of goods and services to areas of need, said National Security Service spokesperson John Kumuri.As he paraded the 12 suspects before reporters Wednesday at National Security Service headquarters in Juba, Kumuri said the suspects would be investigated and tried.He alleged that the suspects had been “indulging in hijacking of vehicles at gunpoint; abduction of both South Sudanese and foreign nationals, primarily with the intention of extorting money in the form of ransom; torturing, maiming and to some extent killing the captives or hostages.”Most of the activity was carried out along the Juba-Nimule Highway, Juba-Yei Road and the Juba-Terkeka Road, Kumuri said.Kumuri would not allow reporters to question the suspects despite requests to do so.Some of those arrested had their photos published in the Juba Monitor newspaper earlier this month. Police asked the public to provide information about those pictured and offered a reward of 2 million South Sudanese pounds to anyone providing credible information leading to their apprehension.’Lavish ransom’Several travelers, including seven South Sudanese, two Ugandans and one Ethiopian, were recently abducted along the Juba-Terkeka Road, said Kumuri. After conducting intensified tracing and rescue operations, he said, nine abductees were rescued and reunited with their families.“The abductors, after having received lavish ransom demanded from the relatives of three South Sudanese, set them free, while the Ethiopian is feared executed after his ransom charges were not received on time,” Kumuri said. “Up to now we don’t know this Ethiopian man, whether he was buried or if he is alive.”In a separate incident along the Juba-Nimule Highway, criminals abducted a Somali man and demanded $60,000 be sent to them via a mobile money transfer service, said Kumuri.He said the money was paid but the mobile network operator blocked the transfer, prompting the perpetrators to threaten to kill the unidentified Somali. The man’s relatives eventually handed over the money to the abductor’s representative, whom police later tracked down and arrested, said Kumuri.Kumuri said NSS officers also discovered the bodies of some of the abductees.Rampant insecurity along the highways caused fear among the public and has negatively affected the economy and people’s livelihoods, according to Rajab Muhandis, executive director of the Organization for Responsive Governance.“It gives people fear, especially if there is nothing happening about these issues and no clear actions being taken by government to address these issues,” Muhandis told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. “So we would encourage the National Security Service to continue with this and other government institutions to pursue and apprehend those involved in these criminal activities.”Government action urgedHe said the recent abductions and kidnappings were directly linked to the deteriorating economy and the lack of service delivery.“So long as people find this thing economically beneficial to them and they are desperate without jobs and poverty is looming and they see their family members suffering and they cannot provide for their family, they will always pursue livelihoods in these different ways, so there is a responsibility for the government to ensure that more is done,” Muhandis told VOA.The solution is to fully implement the revitalized peace agreement, which would address some of the problems that have led to more insecurity, abductions and kidnappings in South Sudan, said Muhandis.
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South Korea Seeks Tax Cuts, Incentives for US Investment
South Korea requested from the United States incentives such as tax deductions and infrastructure construction to ease the U.S. investment of Korean firms, including leading chipmaker Samsung Electronics, its presidential office said Friday.South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in Washington for a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, told a gathering of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, her South Korean counterpart and CEOs of Qualcomm, Samsung and other companies that both countries can benefit by strengthening supply chain cooperation.Biden has advocated for support for the U.S. chip industry amid a global chip shortage that has hit automakers and other industries.He met with executives from major companies including Samsung in April and previously announced plans to invest $50 billion in semiconductor manufacturing and research.Samsung plans to invest $17 billion for a new plant for chip contract manufacturing in the United States, South Korea’s presidential Blue House added in a statement, confirming plans previously reported.In February, documents filed with Texas state officials showed that Samsung is considering Austin, Texas, as one of the sites for a new $17 billion chip plant that the South Korean firm said could create 1,800 jobs.There has been no new public documentation filed on the potential Texas chip plant application since March, the website for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts showed Friday.The U.S. Department of Commerce and the Korean industry ministry agreed Friday that for continuous chip industry cooperation, policy measures such as incentive support, joint research and development, cooperation on setting standards, and manpower training and exchange are needed, the Blue House said.Meanwhile, DuPont announced plans to establish an R&D center in South Korea to develop original chip technologies such as photoresist for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the Blue House said.
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Indonesia Muslims Protest at US Embassy Over Israel Strikes
More than a thousand Muslims rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia’s capital on Friday to denounce American support for Israel and demand an end to Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
The protesters marched from several mosques after Friday prayers to a major street outside the embassy, which was under heavy police guard. They halted traffic along the way as they chanted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Great,” and “Save Palestinians.”
Authorities with loudspeakers warned protesters to maintain social distancing during the demonstration, organized by the Islamic Student Association and several other groups, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
More than 3,000 police, many wearing hazmat suits, were deployed to secure the embassy and the nearby presidential palace and United Nations mission.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel and there is no Israeli embassy in the country. It has long been a strong supporter of the Palestinians, and President Joko Widodo has condemned the Israeli airstrikes.
Media reports said similar protests were held Friday in at least 10 provincial capitals and cities across Indonesia.
Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire that took effect Friday, halting a bruising 11-day war that caused widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip and brought life in much of Israel to a standstill.
At least 230 Palestinians were killed, including 65 children and 39 women, and 1,710 people were wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Twelve people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl, were killed in rocket attacks launched from civilian areas in Gaza toward civilian areas in Israel.
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Kentucky Bourbon Producer Welcomes Pause in EU Tariff Hike
James E. Pepper bourbon is as old as America itself.”Originally founded during the American Revolution,” says its current owner, Amir Peay, who adds that since it was established in 1780, this distinct brand of bourbon made in Kentucky has passed the lips of many prominent Americans. “The favorite brand of Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and many, many others.”The distillery closed in the 1960s after the Pepper family left the business and sales tanked. But Peay saw an opportunity to relaunch the historic brand in 2008. Today, the spirit is as popular as ever, both at home and abroad.After spending millions of dollars getting some initial barrels to mature and renovating the distillery, which reopened in 2017, Peay set his sights on increasing the brand’s international market share.”While it only accounted for about 10% of our business in 2017, we saw a lot of opportunity to expand,” Peay told VOA. “In fact, we thought we could grow it to about 20% of our business in 2018 and 2019.”To do so, he invested even more, creating a 700-milliliter bottling line targeted for Europe, which the president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, Eric Gregory, says was a lucrative export market at the time.”Our exports grew from 2010 to 2017 by 98%,” Gregory explained during a recent interview. “Most of that was going to the EU, which was our largest export market. We were averaging between 20% and 30% growth every year to the EU.”Peay says that no trade barriers were on his radar at the time, and he had no reason to think that would change. “In late 2017, there were no tariffs on American whiskey in Europe and most markets around the world.”But his dreams of continued expansion would be shattered by a trade war that erupted during the former Trump administration.”The United States put tariffs on steel and aluminum products from a number of countries, including (some in) the European Union, and the European Union decided to respond with tariffs on a number of products,” he said.Targeted U.S. products included bourbon, which since 2018 has been subject to a 25% tariff in Europe.”Crippling,” Gregory said. “This is something we never saw coming.”Tariff troublesAbout 95% of bourbon is made in Kentucky. The $8 billion industry in the state employs more than 20,000 people.Global sales dropped by 35% after the tariffs were imposed, sending a shockwave through the industry. And it was set to get worse. EU tariffs were scheduled to double from 25% to 50% June 1, but the increase is on pause as the Biden administration negotiates a broader trade agreement.”The problem we face right now is, all the whiskey imports coming into the United States are tariff-free for the next four months. Meanwhile, we are facing still 25% on our exports,” said Gregory, who hopes negotiations lead to a return to zero tariffs. “For us, it’s about getting back to free and fair trade. We just want people to sit down at a table and work this thing out.”Until then, Peay is trying to manage the uncertainty the trade war continues to create for his business, which relies on long-term planning.”Even during the challenging year with the pandemic, domestically we’ve had a very strong performance. Internationally, we’ve been decimated because of the trade war,” he told VOA. “The longer it goes on, the more damage it’s going to do.”Distilling whiskey, Peay explained, is a lengthy and costly process. Market certainty is critical.”You don’t want send over product — and this is especially true for a small business like mine — that sits in a warehouse and doesn’t sell, because that’s a lot of money we’ve tied up in producing that whiskey, and there’s no guarantee that’s going to sell,” he said. “How will we get it back here to the United States? We can’t sell it over here (once it’s returned), so it’s very risky to do that.”An end to the dispute with the EU over steel tariffs that led to the bourbon tariffs isn’t clear. Steel groups in the United States support the tariffs, which have helped rekindle a long-languishing industry.Trade cooperation will be on the agenda during President Joe Biden’s first foreign trip, a U.S.-EU summit slated for June in Brussels.
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German Health Minister Says 3rd COVID Wave Broken
German health officials said Friday the nation has broken the third wave of COVID-19 infections, but cautioned the pandemic is far from over.German Health Minster Jens Spahn, joined by Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases (RKI) President Lothar Wieler, said the nation as a whole — and most of Germany’s 400 cities and counties — had weekly infection rates below the threshold of 100 per 100,000 inhabitants that triggered strict lockdown measures.Spahn credited German citizens for minding social guidelines and suffering through recurring lockdowns for progress that has been made. “It was exactly this combination of confidence and caution, vaccination and taking care of each other, which was important to break the third wave. We did it together.”Spahn said Germany’s vaccination program was progressing well, with about 40% of the German population having received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and about 13% fully vaccinated. He said the decline in coronavirus cases and the steady rise in vaccination rates were encouraging signs.Wieler said a recent RKI survey showed 73% of the population wanted to be vaccinated, which shows “vaccination readiness is very high” in Germany.But he and Spahn both cautioned the pandemic is not over. Spahn urged people to use caution, as beer gardens, cafes and restaurants in Berlin and elsewhere were preparing to serve customers outdoors Friday for the first time in months, provided they prove they had a negative COVID-19 test or present a vaccination certificate.“The danger has not yet been averted,” Wieler said. “Let’s make the best use of the summer and continue to take good care of each other, with as few sick people as possible. If we continue to stick together, we will together overpower this virus.”
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Kentucky Bourbon Industry Welcomes Pause in EU Tariff Hike
James E. Pepper bourbon is as old as America itself.”Originally founded during the American Revolution,” says its current owner, Amir Peay, who adds that since it was established in 1780, this distinct brand of bourbon made in Kentucky has passed the lips of many prominent Americans. “The favorite brand of Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and many, many others.”The distillery closed in the 1960s after the Pepper family left the business and sales tanked. But Peay saw an opportunity to relaunch the historic brand in 2008. Today, the spirit is as popular as ever, both at home and abroad.After spending millions of dollars getting some initial barrels to mature and renovating the distillery, which reopened in 2017, Peay set his sights on increasing the brand’s international market share.”While it only accounted for about 10% of our business in 2017, we saw a lot of opportunity to expand,” Peay told VOA. “In fact, we thought we could grow it to about 20% of our business in 2018 and 2019.”To do so, he invested even more, creating a 700-milliliter bottling line targeted for Europe, which the president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, Eric Gregory, says was a lucrative export market at the time.”Our exports grew from 2010 to 2017 by 98%,” Gregory explained during a recent interview. “Most of that was going to the EU, which was our largest export market. We were averaging between 20% and 30% growth every year to the EU.”Peay says that no trade barriers were on his radar at the time, and he had no reason to think that would change. “In late 2017, there were no tariffs on American whiskey in Europe and most markets around the world.”But his dreams of continued expansion would be shattered by a trade war that erupted during the former Trump administration.”The United States put tariffs on steel and aluminum products from a number of countries, including (some in) the European Union, and the European Union decided to respond with tariffs on a number of products,” he said.Targeted U.S. products included bourbon, which since 2018 has been subject to a 25% tariff in Europe.”Crippling,” Gregory said. “This is something we never saw coming.”Tariff troublesAbout 95% of bourbon is made in Kentucky. The $8 billion industry in the state employs more than 20,000 people.Global sales dropped by 35% after the tariffs were imposed, sending a shockwave through the industry. And it was set to get worse. EU tariffs were scheduled to double from 25% to 50% June 1, but the increase is on pause as the Biden administration negotiates a broader trade agreement.”The problem we face right now is, all the whiskey imports coming into the United States are tariff-free for the next four months. Meanwhile, we are facing still 25% on our exports,” said Gregory, who hopes negotiations lead to a return to zero tariffs. “For us, it’s about getting back to free and fair trade. We just want people to sit down at a table and work this thing out.”Until then, Peay is trying to manage the uncertainty the trade war continues to create for his business, which relies on long-term planning.”Even during the challenging year with the pandemic, domestically we’ve had a very strong performance. Internationally, we’ve been decimated because of the trade war,” he told VOA. “The longer it goes on, the more damage it’s going to do.”Distilling whiskey, Peay explained, is a lengthy and costly process. Market certainty is critical.”You don’t want send over product — and this is especially true for a small business like mine — that sits in a warehouse and doesn’t sell, because that’s a lot of money we’ve tied up in producing that whiskey, and there’s no guarantee that’s going to sell,” he said. “How will we get it back here to the United States? We can’t sell it over here (once it’s returned), so it’s very risky to do that.”An end to the dispute with the EU over steel tariffs that led to the bourbon tariffs isn’t clear. Steel groups in the United States support the tariffs, which have helped rekindle a long-languishing industry.Trade cooperation will be on the agenda during President Joe Biden’s first foreign trip, a U.S.-EU summit slated for June in Brussels.
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Kentucky Bourbon Industry Welcomes Pause in EU Tariff Hike
International exports of bourbon, an American whiskey mostly made in the southern state of Kentucky, have dropped dramatically as a result of the trade war that began during former President Donald Trump’s administration. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, tariffs imposed by the EU on bourbon continue to hurt Kentucky’s $8 billion industry which employs more than 20,000 people.
Camera: Kane Farabaugh Producer: Kane Farabaugh
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North Korea to Top Agenda as Biden Meets with South Korean President at White House
U.S. President Joe Biden is due to meet Friday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Moon is only the second world leader Biden has hosted since taking office in January. The visit may be Moon’s final trip to the United States as head of state and the last chance to fulfill campaign pledges before his term ends. The discussions between the two leaders are set to occur just a few weeks after the Biden administration finalized its months-long review of North Korea policy, one that signals a departure from previous administrations by pursuing a “calibrated, practical approach,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. This shift in rhetoric — one that strays from the Obama-era “strategic patience,” while refraining from making flashy deals — has yielded a “sense of calm” as Moon and Biden prepare to engage in talks, said Jean Lee, director of the Korea program at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. “When you use that rhetoric, that fire and fury, it gives North Korea the justification to test, and when they have that, it means the arsenal gets that much stronger,” Lee said. “The steadiness consistently being exuded by the Biden administration is designed to avoid this escalation of tensions we saw in the early parts of the Trump presidency.” Moon welcomed this open-ended approach in a nationally televised speech marking his four-year anniversary on May 10. Issuing a call to action to restore inter-Korean dialogue, he vowed to do everything he could to “restart the clock of peace.”“I will consider the remaining one year of my term to be the last opportunity to move from an incomplete peace toward one that is irreversible,” Moon said. North Korea is expected to be near the top of the meeting agenda. But while the two leaders have mutually vowed to work toward the ultimate goal of achieving a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, experts say Biden’s incremental approach may potentially frustrate Moon in achieving his promised goal of securing a peace regime. Despite these variances in timelines, upholding the alliance between the U.S. and Republic of Korea will remain the top priority, said Kim Heung-kyu, who teaches political science at Ajou University in South Korea and is the director of the China Policy Institute. The Wilson Center’s Lee echoed these observations, adding that North Korea will be closely watching the summit and that the joint meeting will “send a signal to the North that Moon has Biden’s ear, which is a position of strength that Moon is keen to establish.” Japan, China The Moon-Biden summit will mark Biden’s second in-person meeting since he took office in January. The first was also with an Asian leader, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Together the two meetings serve as a strong indicator of the Biden administration’s broader commitment to forging peace and security across the Indo-Pacific region, bolstering the U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateral security alliance, and preparing to strike back at China’s growing influence. Some of Washington’s larger agenda items may have South Korea walking a tightrope though and will heavily depend on to what extent South Korea decides to participate, said Park Won-gon, who teaches North Korea studies at Ewha University in Seoul. “With Korea-Japan relations still deadlocked, Biden is trying to make headway with the trilateral alliance before granting Korea and Japan space to find common ground on policies,” Park added. When it comes to the role of China in the North Korea equation, Moon and Biden will likely “try to encourage it to instill a positive influence on North Korea,” said Kim, and encourage the North to move toward diplomatic engagement.But South Korea will also be careful to play its cards prudently while sandwiched between two superpowers. As the U.S. responds to greater Chinese assertiveness and aggression, South Korea will seek to strike a balance between nurturing its strong relationship with the U.S. while not jeopardizing relations with China, its largest trading partner.COVID vaccines
Apart from getting North Korea to join the negotiating table, experts suggest vaccine shortage issues may also be a topic of discussion Moon may want to push for. The shortage has been one of the reasons Moon’s approval ratings have dropped in recent months and starkly contrasts with South Korea’s reputation as a pandemic-era success story for its rigorous test-and-trace program. The summit’s success ultimately might be determined by whether Moon manages to procure faster access to vaccines, a South Korean official told Reuters. The summit may also open a conversation about how South Korea and the U.S. can partner to play a role in global vaccine development and distribution in the future. But the more immediate challenge for Biden and Moon involves reaching a mutual decision on engaging North Korea while ensuring their timelines align. “The challenge for Moon and Biden during this summit will be managing their differences behind closed doors while presenting a united front so that North Korea can’t drive a wedge between them,” said Lee.
Juhyun Lee contributed to this report
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Vietnam Vows to ‘Firmly Resist’ Schemes to Undermine Relations with China
An official Chinese news report saying Vietnam will resist outside interference in its relations with Beijing represents an expression of China’s hope for resolving troubled relations but probably does not augur any softening of Hanoi’s political stance toward China, analysts in the region said Thursday.The state-run Xinhua News Agency said April 26 that “Vietnam opposes any forces’ interference in China’s internal affairs” and would “firmly resist any schemes to undermine the Vietnam-China relations.” Vietnam will never “follow other countries in opposing China,” the report added, quoting Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.Phuc and Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party’s Central Committee, had met that day with visiting Chinese National Defense Minister Wei Fenghe in Hanoi.The two sides, despite sharing a border and being ruled by communist parties, dispute sovereignty over parts of the South China Sea and fought a border war in the 1970s – following centuries of other territorial disputes. China still sends vessels to check Vietnamese oil exploration in the contested sea. Vietnam regularly, and vocally, protests.Vietnam, however, counts China as a top source of raw materials for factory work and its No. 2 export market. When disputes come up, their ruling parties often meet first, privately, to smooth things over before any government officials step in.Communist Parties Expected to Ease Latest China-Vietnam Maritime Quarrel
China has gone back on the verbal offensive against Vietnam, its strongest adversary in the disputed South China Sea, after a year of peacemaking, but analysts believe Communist parties on both sides will meet to prevent any escalation.The abrupt end last month of a visit to Vietnam by a Chinese military official and apparent pressure from Beijing this month to make Vietnam quit an offshore oil exploration tract have put the two sides at odds.
Vietnam now as before wants to save ideological and economic ties with China while applying pressure politically, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo.China may have worded the English-language Xinhua statement to show the world that it still has friends despite naysayers in multiple countries, Nagy told VOA.“It’s definitely a meeting on steroids rather than reflective of the underlying current in Vietnam-China relations,” Nagy said of the April 26 encounter.The Vietnam News Agency, which is Xinhua’s counterpart in Hanoi, does not mention “interference” or “opposing China” in its report on the meeting. The Vietnamese agency quotes Phuc saying the two countries should not let “hostile forces” sabotage Vietnam-China relations.Those forces could refer to people from within China or Vietnam rather than foreign countries, said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.As China expands its navy, Vietnam has welcomed military support from the United States as well as Western allies such as Japan. Washington sent warships to the sea 10 times each in 2019 and 2020, moves widely seen as warnings against further Chinese military expansion.Those countries resent Chinese military expansion, especially in the South China Sea where six governments lay competing claims and accuse Beijing of violating international law to seek control of about 90% of the resource-rich waterway.Trong, the Vietnamese party committee general secretary, called on both countries to “maintain and promote their traditional friendship, and advance the relationship between the two militaries of the two countries,” Xinhua reported from the meeting last month. Both sides have expressed these ideas before.“No change in the policy,” Vuving said. “Their policy is basically they know their best weapon is international law and their best friends are in the U.S. and Japan.”Vietnam and China will “cooperate” but remain “competitors” as long as their maritime sovereignty dispute continues and the United States remains a force in the region, said Wang Wei-chieh, Taiwan-based Asia political analyst and co-founder of the FBC2E International Affairs Facebook page.“I think that they have to cooperate, but they also have to compete considering the South China Sea and also considering their geographic location – that makes them also competitors,” Wang said.
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Australia Urged to Ease COVID-19 Border Controls
More than 70,000 people have signed a petition urging the Australian government to ease COVID-19 entry restrictions on foreign-born parents of Australian citizens, who are allowed into the country only on compassionate grounds. Campaigners argue the rules are having a “profound impact” on family relations and mental health.Foreign-born parents of Australian citizens are not considered to be “immediate family” under the law. They need an exemption on compassionate grounds to be allowed into the country under strict COVID-19 border measures. Campaigners argue that few cases are approved and that the regulations should be changed because families have been separated and children have not met grandparents.Celia Hammond, a member of the House of Representatives, the lower house of Australia’s Federal Parliament, from the governing Liberal Party, told the House that parents were a key part of an emotional support system for many immigrants and their families.Kateryna Dmytrieva has tried unsuccessfully to bring her mother back to Australia from Ukraine.“My mum left on the second of March 2020 for what was supposed to be, like, a three- to four-week trip to Ukraine,” she said. “Nothing was indicative at this time that the borders would be closed forever. So she left and she never returned, and I applied for [an] exemption five times and the answer was just ‘Not exempt.’”The petition has been presented to the Parliament in Canberra and is awaiting a response from the government. Australia’s home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, has up to 90 days to respond.Australia banned most foreign nationals more than a year ago to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Citizens returning from overseas face 14 days in mandatory hotel quarantine, but capacity is limited. The government says it probably won’t be safe to reopen international borders until the middle of 2022.“It is not one day the borders are open, one day the borders are closed,” said Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “That is not how it works. There is a sliding sort of scale here, and we are working on the next steps. Now, it is not safe to take those next steps.”Critics, though, say that is far too long to wait and that Australia’s isolation is not sustainable.A recent newspaper poll showed almost three-quarters of Australians want to keep international borders closed until at least the middle of next year.Australia has recorded 30,000 coronavirus infections since the pandemic began, and 910 people have died, according to the Health Department.
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Ethiopia Set to Start Generating Power from Blue Nile Dam
Ethiopia plans to begin generating power from its controversial Blue Nile River dam during the upcoming rainy season between June and August, the foreign ministry announced Thursday.The $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is expected to collect 13.5 billion cubic meters of the Blue Nile River water in the rainy season, swelling its reservoir to 18.4 billion cubic meters, the ministry statement said.The Blue Nile, which originates in Ethiopia, is one of two major tributaries of the Nile River and during the rainy season it contributes up to 80% of the Nile’s water.A power line 650 kilometers long has been completed to connect the electricity generated at the dam to the country’s power grid, said the statement.The dam is now 80% complete and is expected to reach full generating capacity in 2023, making it Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant and the world’s seventh-largest, according to reports in state media.”Ethiopia will not tolerate any move that’s aimed at disrupting the water filling process, its operation and water releasing scheme,” the ministry stated.Ethiopia welcomed a recent report that Egypt does not object to the plans to continue filling the dam this year. Egyptian officials have said they can deal with shortages that may be caused by the water filling process, according to foreign ministry spokesperson Dina Mufti.Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said his country can “deal with the second filling of the Renaissance Dam through tight procedures in managing water resources,” according to reports Wednesday in Egypt’s media.Many of Ethiopia’s social media users expressed support for the second round of filling of the dam’s reservoir and the news that it is expected to start producing electricity this year.Ethiopia began filling the dam’s reservoir last July when heavy rains flooded the Blue Nile.Despite negotiations that have lasted years, Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia have failed to reach agreement over how to share the Nile River’s water, a lifeline for all three countries. The talks with a variety of mediators, including the U.S. government under the previous Trump administration, have failed to produce a resolution.Ethiopia insists the dam, which it has fully financed itself, is a crucial development that will help pull millions of its nearly 110 million citizens out of poverty and make the country a major power exporter.Downstream Egypt, which depends on the Nile to supply fresh water to its farmers and population of 100 million, asserts that the dam poses an existential threat. It has said that Ethiopia is filling the dam too quickly. Sudan has also voiced concern over its access to the Nile’s water.Negotiators have said key questions remain about how much water Ethiopia will release downstream if a multiyear drought occurs and how the countries will resolve any future disputes. Ethiopia rejects binding arbitration at the final stage.
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US, Russia Spar Over Military Buildup at Arctic Summit
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced alarm at Russia’s military build up in the Arctic region, at a summit of the Arctic Council in Iceland late Thursday.
“We’re committed to advancing a peaceful Arctic region where cooperation prevails on climate, the environment, science and safety and where sustainable economic development benefits the people of the region,” Blinken told delegates gathered in Reykjavik.
Moscow’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, questioned NATO’s motives in deploying bombers and submarines to the area. “Problems linked to the escalation of military-political tension remain, because of foreign troops in Norway and in the Baltic region,” Lavrov said at a press conference after the summit.
Russia is also pushing for Arctic states to resume high-level military meetings amid growing tension in the region, a move opposed by Washington.
“It is important to extend the positive relations that we have within the Arctic Council to encompass the military sphere as well,” Lavrov said.
Annual meetings between armed forces chiefs from Arctic states were halted in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Russia assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council from Iceland Thursday. The organization, founded in 1996, aims to facilitate dialogue over issues of common interest and has eight members with sovereignty over lands within the Arctic Circle: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. The council’s mandate explicitly excludes military matters. Other states, including China, are pushing for official observer status at the forum.
Arctic expansion
Russia has significantly expanded its military bases in the Arctic region in recent years. The Nagurskoye base in Franz Josef Land, Moscow’s northernmost military base, lying just 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole, can handle nuclear-capable strategic bombers.
NATO has also increased its military activity in the Arctic. U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers have been training with Norwegian Air Force F-35A jets in recent months, and the U.S. is building facilities at three Norwegian airfields and a naval base.FILE – A group of soldiers stand near the “Arctic Trefoil” on the Alexandra Land island near Nagurskoye, Russia, May 17, 2021. Once a desolate home mostly to polar bears, it now houses Russia’s northernmost military outpost.The military activity in the Arctic poses an increasing risk, says analyst Katarina Kertysova, a policy fellow at the London-based European Leadership Network.
“In the absence of military-to-military dialogue or an appropriate forum where such concerns could be discussed, the likelihood of miscalculation or misreading of intentions and accidental escalation is growing,” said Kertysova.
And the warming climate has opened new shipping routes through the Arctic, alongside new fishing, drilling and mining opportunities. Secretary Blinken urged other council members to oppose Moscow’s plans set maritime rules in the Northern Sea Route, which runs from Norway to Alaska.
Climate focus
Russia says it aims to use its two-year chairmanship to focus on sustainable development, protecting the indigenous communities in the Arctic, and on climate change.
Scientists say the Arctic is warming twice as fast as other regions, with dramatic effects. Fires ripped across Siberia amid a summer heatwave in 2020. Melting permafrost was blamed for a huge oil leak in the Russian Arctic. Some 20,000 tons of diesel leaked into lakes and rivers near the northern city of Norilsk in May last year, when a fuel reservoir collapsed at a power plant.
“Russia acknowledges that there is a problem,” said Kertysova. “But it really focuses its efforts on the adaptation side, you know, adapting to the physical impacts of climate change rather than mitigating strategies that would address their causes.”FILE – An officer stands near Bastion anti-ship missile systems on the Alexandra Land island near Nagurskoye, Russia, May 17, 2021.US-Russia ties
On the sidelines of the summit Wednesday, Secretary Blinken held a bilateral meeting with his Russian counterpart, Lavrov. He said the United States seeks a predictable, stable relationship with Russia.
“It’s also no secret that we have our differences. And when it comes to those differences, as President Biden has also shared with President Putin, if Russia acts aggressively against us, our partners, our allies, we will respond. And President Biden has demonstrated that in both word and deed, not for purposes of escalation, not to seek conflict, but to defend our interests,” said Blinken.
“But having said that, there are many areas where our interests intersect and overlap and we believe that we can work together and indeed build on those interests, whether it is dealing with COVID-19 and the pandemic, combating climate change, dealing with the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, Afghanistan,” he added.
Lavrov said Russia was ready to build relations with Washington. “We have serious differences in the assessment of the international situation, we have serious differences in the approaches to the tasks which have to be solved for its normalization. Our position is very simple: We are ready to discuss all the issues without exception, but under perception that the discussion will be honest, with the facts on the table, and of course on the basis of mutual respect,” Lavrov told reporters.
‘We need to cooperate in the areas where our interests match and where we can achieve positive results on either conflict situations or most important on the issues of strategic stability,” he added.
A summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, first proposed by Washington, could take place in coming weeks. There has yet to be an official confirmation.
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Somalia Recovering From Twin Threats of Civil War, Pandemic
Somalia this year was hit by a double punch: a second wave of coronavirus and political turmoil over elections that threatened to spark armed conflict. But while political tensions cooled, the impact on the economy is ongoing, as Mohamed Sheikh Nor reports from Mogadishu.
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US-Africa Military Collaboration Still Functions in a Virtual World
For 11 years, land forces chiefs in Africa and the U.S. Army have met annually at the African Land Forces Summit, a four-day event where the group discusses security threats on the continent and how these joint forces can tackle the threats together.Since then, the security landscape has changed significantly, and so have the ways that the militaries have tried to keep up with threats, said Major General Andrew M. Rohling, commander of the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force in Africa.The theme of the first summit, held in Washington in 2010, was “Building and Maintaining Strong Relationships.” This year, the event went virtual and was held in one day, Wednesday, with more than 40 countries represented.“Maintaining Security in a Degraded Environment” was this year’s theme, Rohling told journalists via teleconference from Vicenza, Italy. “We discussed military pandemic responses, the effects of the pandemic on operations and its effects on training and exercises,” he said.Rohling said he was looking forward to “trading with our counterparts through exercises in security cooperation activities in the near future.””In fact in June, the United States Army Southern European Task Force, Africa … will work alongside our partners in North Africa during African Lion 21, an exercise we had to cancel last year, to be held in Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia. This will increase our interoperability with our counterparts and strengthen relationships,” Rohling said.The inability to get actual boots on the ground because of pandemic restrictions has transformed the way these important partnerships work, Rohling said, but not necessarily for the worse.“One of the things that came out as a good lesson that we learned of the pandemic is how to conduct virtual activities,” he said. “Virtual training is one, virtual engagements for sure, and virtual collaboration being another. … What we’ve been able to do over the course of the pandemic is decentralize that activity and to a point where what used to be side-by-side mission planning is now being done on collaborative tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.”And that is where he left it for this year, in the virtual realm, as the African continent and the world try to regain stability after an extremely destabilizing year.
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Basketball Tourney Helps Promote Sport in Africa
The inaugural season of the NBA-sponsored and VOA-affiliated Basketball Africa League is underway in Kigali, Rwanda. For VOA’s Sonny Side of Sports, Mike Mbonye spoke to Nigerian-American Ike Diogu, a former NBA forward and captain of Nigeria’s national men’s basketball team, who said that interest in the tournament will grow the sport across the continent.The interview was edited for brevity and clarity.VOA: What’s your thoughts on the inaugural Basketball Africa League?Diogu: Well I’m very excited about the BAL. It’s good to see all the talent that Africa has playing. And it’s good to see that is backed by the NBA. So, I’m very excited. And I’m looking forward to a very good showing.VOA: What benefits await players, coaches, referees, and Africa from the Basketball Africa League?Diogu: I think the benefits of players and coaches is…just more development. I think that’s the one thing that’s plagued Africa, specifically with basketball, is just development and preparation. So now you’re getting to play and coach in these games and referees…getting more experience and that’s what it all comes down to…which will further develop the continent as a whole and just starting the game of basketball.I think that when you have a league that is powerful, that’s backed by the NBA like the BAL is, it can do nothing but continue to grow the game of basketball. You know, for the longest time. I think soccer stood up top and soccer is still at the top. But I think basketball is gradually, gradually getting closer and closer to being neck and neck with soccer because there’s a lot of good African-born and African basketball players that live in the United States and are very talented and are very good players.And you have the popularity starting to grow. And I just think that something like this league can only do nothing but continue to bolster the trajectory that Africa basketball is on.
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US, Russia Spar Over Military Build-Up at Arctic Summit
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced alarm at Russia’s military build up in the Arctic region, at a summit of the Arctic Council in Iceland late Thursday.
“We’re committed to advancing a peaceful Arctic region where cooperation prevails on climate, the environment, science and safety and where sustainable economic development benefits the people of the region,” Blinken told delegates gathered in Reykjavik.
Moscow’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, questioned NATO’s motives in deploying bombers and submarines to the area. “Problems linked to the escalation of military-political tension remain, because of foreign troops in Norway and in the Baltic region,” Lavrov said at a press conference after the summit.
Russia is also pushing for Arctic states to resume high-level military meetings amid growing tension in the region, a move opposed by Washington.
“It is important to extend the positive relations that we have within the Arctic Council to encompass the military sphere as well,” Lavrov said.
Annual meetings between armed forces chiefs from Arctic states were halted in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Russia assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council from Iceland Thursday. The organization, founded in 1996, aims to facilitate dialogue over issues of common interest and has eight members with sovereignty over lands within the Arctic Circle: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. The council’s mandate explicitly excludes military matters. Other states, including China, are pushing for official observer status at the forum.
Arctic expansion
Russia has significantly expanded its military bases in the Arctic region in recent years. The Nagurskoye base in Franz Josef Land, Moscow’s northernmost military base, lying just 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole, can handle nuclear-capable strategic bombers.
NATO has also increased its military activity in the Arctic. U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers have been training with Norwegian Air Force F-35A jets in recent months, and the U.S. is building facilities at three Norwegian airfields and a naval base.FILE – A group of soldiers stand near the “Arctic Trefoil” on the Alexandra Land island near Nagurskoye, Russia, May 17, 2021. Once a desolate home mostly to polar bears, it now houses Russia’s northernmost military outpost.The military activity in the Arctic poses an increasing risk, says analyst Katarina Kertysova, a policy fellow at the London-based European Leadership Network.
“In the absence of military-to-military dialogue or an appropriate forum where such concerns could be discussed, the likelihood of miscalculation or misreading of intentions and accidental escalation is growing,” said Kertysova.
And the warming climate has opened new shipping routes through the Arctic, alongside new fishing, drilling and mining opportunities. Secretary Blinken urged other council members to oppose Moscow’s plans set maritime rules in the Northern Sea Route, which runs from Norway to Alaska.
Climate focus
Russia says it aims to use its two-year chairmanship to focus on sustainable development, protecting the indigenous communities in the Arctic, and on climate change.
Scientists say the Arctic is warming twice as fast as other regions, with dramatic effects. Fires ripped across Siberia amid a summer heatwave in 2020. Melting permafrost was blamed for a huge oil leak in the Russian Arctic. Some 20,000 tons of diesel leaked into lakes and rivers near the northern city of Norilsk in May last year, when a fuel reservoir collapsed at a power plant.
“Russia acknowledges that there is a problem,” said Kertysova. “But it really focuses its efforts on the adaptation side, you know, adapting to the physical impacts of climate change rather than mitigating strategies that would address their causes.”FILE – An officer stands near Bastion anti-ship missile systems on the Alexandra Land island near Nagurskoye, Russia, May 17, 2021.US-Russia ties
On the sidelines of the summit Wednesday, Secretary Blinken held a bilateral meeting with his Russian counterpart, Lavrov. He said the United States seeks a predictable, stable relationship with Russia.
“It’s also no secret that we have our differences. And when it comes to those differences, as President Biden has also shared with President Putin, if Russia acts aggressively against us, our partners, our allies, we will respond. And President Biden has demonstrated that in both word and deed, not for purposes of escalation, not to seek conflict, but to defend our interests,” said Blinken.
“But having said that, there are many areas where our interests intersect and overlap and we believe that we can work together and indeed build on those interests, whether it is dealing with COVID-19 and the pandemic, combating climate change, dealing with the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, Afghanistan,” he added.
Lavrov said Russia was ready to build relations with Washington. “We have serious differences in the assessment of the international situation, we have serious differences in the approaches to the tasks which have to be solved for its normalization. Our position is very simple: We are ready to discuss all the issues without exception, but under perception that the discussion will be honest, with the facts on the table, and of course on the basis of mutual respect,” Lavrov told reporters.
‘We need to cooperate in the areas where our interests match and where we can achieve positive results on either conflict situations or most important on the issues of strategic stability,” he added.
A summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, first proposed by Washington, could take place in coming weeks. There has yet to be an official confirmation.
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Language Barriers, Fear Keep Spain’s Migrants from Getting COVID Vaccine
Spain, one of the early epicenters the COVID pandemic, has been rushing to get its population vaccinated. Thirty-three percent now have received at least a first dose. But aid agencies and advocates estimate many of the country’s one million undocumented migrants are not getting vaccinated because of fear. Jonathan Spier narrates this report from Alfonso Beato in Barcelona.Camera: Alfonso Beato
Video editor: Jonathan Spier
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Hong Kong Court Denies Jury Trial to First Person Charged Under National Security Law
The first person charged under the national security law in Hong Kong will face a trial without jury, the city’s High Court ruled on Thursday, in a landmark decision which marks a departure from the global financial hub’s common law traditions.Police say Tong Ying-kit, carried a sign reading “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” and drove his motorbike into officers during a protest on July 1, knocking several down on the narrow street before falling over and getting arrested.It was the first day on which the national security law was in force. The law punishes anything authorities deem as secession, separatism, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.Tong, 24, was among more than 300 demonstrators against the new law who were arrested that day, and was charged with inciting separatism and terrorism.In February, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng informed the defendant’s legal team his trial will be heard by three judges appointed for national security cases, instead of a jury, citing “the personal safety of jurors and their family members.”Tong then filed for a judicial review of the decision.Judge Alex Lee at the High Court rejected the application, saying in a written judgment on Thursday “there is nothing inherently unreasonable in directing a trial by a panel of three judges sitting without a jury, when there is a perceived risk of the personal safety of jurors and their family members or that due administration of justice might be impaired”.Hong Kong’s Judiciary describes trial by jury as one of the most important features of the city’s legal system, a common law tradition designed to offer defendants additional protection against the possibility of authorities overreaching their power.Article 46 of the new law – drafted by Beijing, where courts are controlled by the Communist Party and conviction rates are close to 100% – states three instances where juries can be scrapped: protecting state secrets, cases involving foreign forces and protecting the personal safety of jurors.Tong has also been repeatedly denied bail. Hong Kong’s common law has traditionally allowed defendants to seek release unless prosecutors can show lawful grounds for their detention.In another departure from common law practices, the burden is now placed on the defendant to prove they will not break the law if released on bail.The trial is due to start on June 23.
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BBC, Journalist Bashir Criticized Over 1995 Princess Diana Interview
An inquiry into how the BBC secured the 1995 interview with Britain’s Princess Diana in which she disclosed intimate details of her failed marriage concluded on Thursday that the journalist involved had acted deceitfully. The BBC set up the investigation, headed by former senior Court judge John Dyson, in November following allegations from Diana’s brother Charles Spencer that forged documents and “other deceit” were used to trick him to introduce Diana to journalist Martin Bashir. FILE – Martin Bashir, then one of the anchors of the ABC news program ‘Nightline’, taking part in a panel discussion at the ABC television network Summer press tour for television critics in Beverly Hills, California, July 26, 2007. Dyson’s report found that Bashir, then a little known reporter, had shown Spencer fake bank statements to induce him to arrange a meeting with Diana. “Mr Bashir acted inappropriately and in serious breach of the 1993 edition of the Producers’ Guidelines on straight dealing,” the report said. He also concluded the BBC had fallen short of “the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark” in its response to allegations of impropriety. During the explosive interview, watched by more than 20 million viewers in Britain, Diana shocked the nation by admitting to an affair and sharing details of her marriage to the heir to the throne, Prince Charles. It came at a nadir for the royal family and was the first time Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997, had made public comments about her doomed marriage. Her remark that “there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded” — a reference to Charles rekindling his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, now his second wife — was particularly damaging to the Windsors. Last week, the BBC announced that Bashir was leaving his current job as the publicly-funded broadcaster’s religious affairs editor because of ill health. Bashir apologized but said he did not believe the faked statements had prompted Diana to give the interview, PA Media reported. Spencer says Bashir had persuaded him to get his sister to agree to the interview by telling him Diana was being bugged by the security services and that two senior aides were being paid to provide information about her. Both Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, have welcomed the investigation as a chance to find out the truth of what had happened. “While the BBC cannot turn back the clock after a quarter of a century, we can make a full and unconditional apology. The BBC offers that today,” BBC director-general, Tim Davie, said in a statement.
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