Month: November 2021

Biden Pardons Thanksgiving Turkeys, Jokes They’ll Get ‘Boosted,’ Not ‘Basted’ 

Posted on by SeeUS

President Joe Biden on Friday pardoned two Thanksgiving turkeys, saying that the white male birds were selected based on their “temperament, appearance and, I suspect, vaccination status.” 

“Instead of getting basted, these two turkeys are getting boosted today,” Biden joked. 

Biden was in a jovial mood when he appeared before White House staffers and their families in the Rose Garden to pardon the Indiana turkeys, who gobbled merrily throughout the event. And while they were given a reprieve from the fate met by millions of turkeys on Thanksgiving Day, Biden said their names — Peanut Butter and Jelly — reminded him of the sandwich he often enjoys for lunch. 

The pardoning comes as Biden’s agenda has seen fresh signs of life, with the president signing his $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Monday and the House passing an even bigger companion bill — the nearly $2 trillion social services and climate change bill — on Friday. That bill will have to make it through the 50-50 Senate before landing on Biden’s desk. 

On Friday, Biden poked fun at his recent speeches on the infrastructure bill, declaring that “turkey is infrastructure” and that “Peanut Butter and Jelly are going to help build back the butterball as we move along,” a reference to his administration’s “Build Back Better” catchphrase. 

“I’ve said before, every American wants the same thing: You want to be able to look the turkey in the eye and tell them, it’s gonna be OK,” he joked. 

This year’s turkeys spent a busy few days in Washington, appearing before the media alongside members of Indiana’s congressional delegation before retiring to a suite at the luxurious Willard Hotel. 

They’ll have a comfortable new home, too. Duly pardoned, the turkeys are now heading to Purdue University’s Animal Science Research and Education Center, where they’ll spend the rest of their days in an enclosed setting with access to a shaded grassy area, according to Purdue. 

The turkey pardon is traditionally an opportunity for presidents to crack jokes — often at their own expense — and usher in the holiday season. 

Presidents have pardoned turkeys since Abraham Lincoln, but President George H. W. Bush made the pardon the American tradition it is today by sparing a 50-pound bird in 1989. 
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US, China in ‘Early Stages’ of Possible Talks on Nukes, Cyberspace 

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A top U.S. national security official says Washington and Beijing are “in the very early stages” of discussions that could eventually tamp down military tensions but that China’s seriousness will have to be tested.

Kurt Campbell, U.S. National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, told a virtual audience Friday that the focus of the discussion will be areas like nuclear weapons, cyberspace and space, where potential missteps could lead to disaster.

“We go into this carefully,” he said of the potential talks. “President Xi [Jinping] indicated he was prepared for some of this, but I think that’s going to have to be tested over time.”

Campbell’s comments came days after U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi spent more than three hours in a virtual meeting to talk about a range of issues, including human rights, economic competition and Taiwan.

A U.S. official expressed caution following the meeting in a background briefing for reporters where the White House asked that the official not be quoted by name. The senior administration official said that there had been no expectations for any significant breakthrough and told reporters that afterward, “There were none to report.”

But Campbell, who attended the virtual meeting between Biden and Xi, indicated it could prove to be a starting point to ensure there are clear lines of communication between Washington and Beijing and an “ability to communicate honestly at the highest level.”

Just how much can be done in the near term, though, remains to be seen.

U.S. officials have repeatedly warned of China’s rapid military expansion, described by some senior generals as “stunning,” which has Beijing on track to potentially surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest military power in the coming decades.

A recent Pentagon report also raised concerns about China’s nuclear arsenal, which could number as many as 1,000 warheads by the end of the decade – more than twice as many as predicted in earlier estimates.

Campbell on Friday described China’s military buildup as one of the most concerning military expansions in modern times. 

Chinese officials have not commented on Campbell’s remarks. Beijing’s embassy in Washington has not responded to an email sent Friday afternoon.

Earlier this month, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry rejected concerns from the Pentagon report and instead called the United States “the top source of nuclear threat in the world.”

The spokesperson said Beijing remains “firmly committed to a self-defensive nuclear strategy” and abides by the policy of no first use of nuclear weapons. 

Despite China’s insistence that it is not a threat, however, Campbell said Friday that Beijing is being forced to reckon with how other countries, like the U.S., are reacting to its military buildup.

“It would be fair to say at the virtual meeting President Xi made very clear that a number of things that the United States is doing cause China some heartburn,” Campbell said. “And I think at the top of that list is our bilateral reinforcing and revitalizing our bilateral security alliances.”

Campbell said the Chinese characterized Washington’s stronger ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as multilateral efforts like AUKUS and the Quad as “Cold War thinking.”

Only Campbell said the U.S. made clear it sees such efforts as “essential,” and said Japan has agreed to a host a meeting of the Quad next year to work on additional areas of cooperation.

Additionally, Campbell said Washington also hopes to bolster its ties with India.

“I’m very bullish about the future with India,” he told the virtual audience at the United States Institute for Peace. “We are determined to do what we can in the bilateral context to build relations.”

Campbell further pointed to Washington’s growing ties with Vietnam, calling the country “a critical swing state not just strategically but commercially and technologically.”

“There’s going to be more training, more ship visits and the like,” he said. “I believe fundamentally the ability to work closely with Vietnam will be decisive for us going forward.”

VOA’s Nike Ching contributed to this report.
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Blinken: US Sees African Countries as Equal Partners

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday the United States sees African countries as equal partners as it seeks to bolster its influence on a continent that receives much of its foreign aid from U.S. rival China.

“The United States firmly believes that it’s time to stop treating Africa as a subject of geopolitics — and start treating it as the major geopolitical player it has become,” Blinken said in Abuja, Nigeria, outlining the Biden administration’s policy toward Africa.

The continent needs billions of dollars annually for massive infrastructure projects such as building roads, railways and dams. Over the past decade, China has provided much of the infrastructure funding Africa has received.

‘We do things differently’

Without mentioning China, Blinken vowed the U.S. would agree only to transparent and voluntary global infrastructure agreements that produce tangible benefits on the continent.

“Too often, international infrastructure deals are opaque, coercive; they burden countries with unmanageable debt; they’re environmentally destructive; they don’t always benefit the people who actually live there,” Blinken said. “We will do things differently.”

Blinken is nearing the end of a five-day, multination visit to Africa, his first as secretary of state. He said Friday his trip is aimed at fostering cooperation on global health security, battling the climate crisis, expanding energy access and economic growth, revitalizing democracy and achieving peace and security.

The trip is part of the Biden administration’s effort to strengthen alliances in Africa after four years of a unilateralist approach under former U.S. President Donald Trump. It comes amid worsening crises in Ethiopia and Sudan. While in Kenya, Blinken called for ending the violence in Ethiopia, combating terrorism in Somalia and reviving Sudan’s transition to a civilian government.

Despite large contributions of money and vaccines to contain COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, the U.S. has had little success in gaining influence on the continent.

Improved relations the goal

Nevertheless, Blinken said U.S. President Joe Biden would continue to work to improve relations with African countries. 

“As a sign of our commitment to our partnerships across the continent, President Biden intends to host the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit to drive the kind of high-level diplomacy and engagement that can transform relationships and make effective cooperation possible,” Blinken said. 

The top U.S. diplomat did not say when the summit would take place. 

Hours after his speech in Nigeria, Blinken arrived in Senegal, the last stop on his trip to Africa that also took him to Kenya. Blinken will meet in Dakar with Senegalese President Macky Sall “to reaffirm the close partnership between our two countries,” the U.S. State Department said earlier this week. 

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Blinken Announces US Will Host Summit With African Leaders

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his first visit to Nigeria, delivered a key speech on U.S.-Africa policy to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). At the meeting, the top U.S. diplomat announced that the United States will host a summit of African leaders to further deepen ties with the continent. 

Blinken made the announcement Friday at the ECOWAS headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital — his second stop since he began his three-nation Africa tour this week 

Blinken said “the U.S. president intends to host the U.S.-Africa leaders’ summit to drive high-level diplomacy and engagement that can make effective cooperation possible.” 

He gave no details on when or where the summit may occur.

On Thursday, after a meeting with Nigerian President Muhamadu Buhari and top government officials, Blinken and Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister signed an agreement for the U.S. to give Nigeria $2.1 billion to support health care, education, agriculture and good governance. 

Blinken also discussed renewed cooperation with Nigerian authorities to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, security, and human rights concerns. 

“The engagements that I’ll have throughout my time here in Nigeria reflect the depth of this partnership, now more than six decades, and the way that our cooperation is viable and maybe more viable than ever in tackling sheer challenges and actually delivering results to our people, which is what our responsibility really is,” Blinken said. 

Nigeria has seen increasing waves of violence and a declining human rights record in the last few years.

This week, more than a year after bloody protests against police brutality, a Lagos panel report accused security agents of using excessive force to disperse protesters last October, leading to the death of at least 11 people.

Blinken also met with members of Nigerian’s civil society groups on Friday. While praising the panel’s investigation, Blinken said the government must be more accountable. 

“We anticipate and look to the state and the federal government’s response to the findings and expect those to include steps that ensure accountability and address the grievances of the victims and their families,” he said. 

The secretary of state’s visit comes amid concerns about China’s growing influence in Africa and the increasing debt that many African countries owe Chinese companies. On Friday, Blinken said the U.S. engagements with Africa have “no strings attached.” 

Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said, “There was just a huge infrastructural deficit that we’re facing in this country and we saw a great opportunity with the Chinese. They’re used to a lot of these huge capital projects and infrastructure projects. We would have gone with anybody else that was providing something at a competitive rate for us.” 

Blinken began his Africa tour Wednesday in Nairobi and will end it with a visit to Dakar, Senegal, where he will meet with President Macky Sall.
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Pentagon Chief in Mideast to Reaffirm US Support for Region 

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin landed in Bahrain Friday at the start of a Middle East trip that will also take him to the United Arab Emirates. 

In Bahrain, he will speak at the annual International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Manama Dialogue, where he will “reaffirm the U.S. resolve to advance and strengthen enduring defense partnerships and commitment to the long-standing U.S. leadership role in strengthening regional security and stability,” according to a Pentagon press release. 

The IISS brings together defense ministers, chiefs of defense, and other high-ranking government officials from across the Middle East. 

In the UAE, Austin will meet with senior officials to underscore the bilateral relationship. 

According to a news release, Iran will be a topic in many of the discussions. 

“It’s not lost on me that this trip comes at a time when Iran is stoking tensions and undermining stability in the region,” Austin said in a statement. “We remain deeply committed to preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons. And I’ve said before, no problem in the Middle East gets easier to solve with a nuclear-armed Iran.” 

Austin will also meet with U.S. troops stationed in each country.
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Biden Returns to White House, Resumes Duties Following Physical

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The White House said Friday that Joe Biden had resumed his duties as U.S. president following a physical earlier in the day that required him to transfer the power of the presidency to the vice president.

In a statement, the White House said as part of the routine physical, the president underwent a colonoscopy that required him to be unconscious for a brief time. Under the Constitution, that required him to formally transfer his powers to Vice President Kamala Harris.

At a news briefing later Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president called Harris around 11:35 a.m. Washington time to let her know he was conscious, in good spirits and ready to resume his duties.

Psaki said medical experts were preparing a comprehensive written summary of the president’s health based on the physical examination, which would be released to the media later Friday.

The physical was the first of Biden’s presidency and was conducted at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Maryland, just north of Washington.
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Austria Imposes COVID Lockdown as Cases Surge

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Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced Friday the government will begin a nationwide lockdown Monday and mandate vaccinations for all, making it the first European nation to reimpose COVID-19 measures, as cases throughout the region surge.

At a news conference Friday, Schallenberg said Monday’s lockdown will be reevaluated after 10 days, but they will run a maximum of 20 days, ending automatically December 13. He also announced COVID-19 vaccinations will become mandatory beginning February 1.

The lockdown will include an all-day curfew for the entire country, though schools and kindergartens will remain open. People may leave their homes only for work, school and basic needs, which can include physical exercise or if there is a threat to their health or property.

Schallenberg told reporters substantially increasing vaccination rates “is our only way out of this vicious circle of virus waves and lockdown discussions once and for all. We don’t want a fifth wave, we don’t want a sixth and seventh wave.”

The chancellor said he understands that many people in the country are already vaccinated and also will be subject to the lockdown restrictions, which he blamed on “too many among us have shown a lack of solidarity.”

Despite months of persuasion, he said, the government had not succeeded in convincing enough people to get vaccinated. The latest figures from Europe’s Centers for Disease control show the 64.1% of Austria’s total population is fully vaccinated.

Schallenberg expressed anger at anti-vaccination campaigns that have spread misinformation about the vaccines or promote sham COVID-19 treatments.

“Personally,” he said, “I think it’s irresponsible by certain political forces to exploit this pandemic to divide society and not to put people’s health in the foreground but to endanger it.”

Other European countries also are tightening restrictions as cases surge across the continent.

The government of Hungary, which borders Austria to the east, announced Thursday it is mandating mask-wearing indoors again beginning Saturday.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
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New Law in Kenya Allows Refugees to Work

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This week, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a new law that will give a half-million refugees in the country an opportunity to earn a living, instead of depending on the aid agencies that assisted them for three decades.

Victor Odero is a policy and advocacy adviser at the International Rescue Committee. He says the law will help aid agencies to focus more on creating opportunities that can improve the lives of the refugees.

“What stands out for me, and I suppose for humanitarian and also development and private sector actors, is that for the first time we see in legislation provisions that allow refugees to become self-reliant, which is very important because over the last couple of decades refugees have been wholly reliant on humanitarian assistance. I think this bill presents an opportunity for us to shift from this and to focus, to enable and empower refugees to become self-reliant,” he expressed.

The refugee bill allows refugees to get education, jobs and integrate into Kenyan society.

Siad Tawane came to the Dadaab refugee camp as a toddler. He is a university graduate. The 34-year-old tells VOA the law can help him and other professionals in the camp to work in other parts of the country to sustain their lives.

“We are very much hopeful that refugees will get access to several opportunities such as work permits because that has been one of the things that we have been asking ourselves; Why the government of Kenya is not giving us the work permit for refugees to work elsewhere, not only in the camps? Some of us are educated, some of us have some skills and if they get the opportunity to move to form the camps and to move to other parts of Kenya. We are very hopeful we can deliver very many things, and we can earn a living.”

Kenya hosts one of the largest refugee populations in Africa. Most of the refugees live in two big camps – Dadaab, which borders Somalia, and Kakuma, which borders South Sudan.

The Kenyan government has said it will close the camps next year.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) says it has not been able to provide a full food ration to refugees since 2018, and last month it was forced to cut rations another 20 percent.

Twenty-seven-year-old Aza Nsabimana lives in the Kakuma refugee camp. She says getting employment and other opportunities can help her overcome the food shortage experienced in the camps.

“Here in the camp, our needs are too much. There are those who are jobless, and the food we are given in the camp is not enough for two months. And if you are jobless, life becomes hard for you. If they can get those opportunities to work for themselves, it can help so much.”

In September, the WFP said it needs $40 million to feed refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma camps for six months.

The aid agencies in Kenya have argued refugees can contribute a lot to Kenya’s economy and social fabric if given opportunities instead of remaining in the camps.
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Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad Say New Jihadist Terrorism Threats Warrant Change of Military Response

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Cameroonian, Nigerian and Chadian troops fighting terrorism in the Lake Chad basin say attacks on military positions have been increasing since Boko Haram leader Aboubakar Shekau was declared dead in May.

Military officials from the three countries say the Islamic State in West Africa Province group, or ISWAP, is completely changing terrorism tactics to gain the sympathy of Lake Chad basin civilians. They say ISWAP is emerging as the terrorist group that is taking over from Boko Haram, which is weakened by the death of its leader Shekau.

Major General Saly Mohamadou is commander of Cameroon’s troops fighting terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin. He says, unlike Boko Haram, which attacked civilians for supplies and killed both the military and people who opposed the terrorist group when it was very active, ISWAP only attacks military positions to gain support from civilians. He says ISWAP is fighting to control border areas between Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria.

Mohamadou said senior military officials of the Multinational Joint Task Force or MNJTF met in Maroua, Cameroon this week to formulate a strategy toward the new terrorism threat.

The task force, headquartered in the Chadian capital of N’djamena, is made up of more than 10,000 troops from Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria.

The MNJTF says militants have carried out scores of attacks on its military positions since May, causing many casualties, but gives no further details.

Officials accuse ISWAP of infiltrating areas along the Cameroon-Nigeria-Chad border. Cameroonian authorities say ISWAP promises jobs and better living conditions to convince vulnerable and jobless youths to join the terror group.

The governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, on the border with Nigeria and Chad Midjiyawa Bakari says Cameroon is carrying out actions that will keep its civilians from sympathizing with terrorists. He says besides fighting terrorists, Cameroon troops have been teaching children in schools abandoned by teachers because of terrorism. He says military medical teams treat wounded and sick civilians who are in villages on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria that are hard to reach. Bakari says the military distributes food and water to civilians in former Boko Haram strongholds.

The governor also said that to stop ISWAP from recruiting vulnerable youths, Cameroon ordered the creation of militias in all northern villages.

ISWAP has not made any formal statement on its expansion to the Lake Chad Basin.

In August though, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said African states should act quickly to stop the restructuring of ISWAP. It says if the countries fail to act, Islamic State’s plans to expand in the region will further endanger millions of Africans. 
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German Officials: Current COVID Surge Is ‘National Emergency’

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German health officials said Friday the current COVID-19 situation in the country is a national emergency and called for immediate measures to be taken to mitigate the situation — including lockdowns, even for people who have been vaccinated.

Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases (RKI) reported 52,970 new COVID-19 cases Friday, the third straight day new infections topped 50,000.  The infection incidence rate remains just more than 340 per 100,000.

At a news conference Friday in Berlin, RKI President Lothar Wieler did not hold back his concern, saying, “All of Germany is one big outbreak. This is a nationwide state of emergency. We need to pull the emergency brake.”

Wieler told reporters they estimate there are more than half a million active COVID cases in Germany, the highest number ever recorded. He said among children aged 5-14, the incidence rate is more 700 per 100,000.

At the same news conference, Health Minister Jens Spahn was asked if Germany would consider returning to lockdowns, as neighboring Austria has done to address its own COVID-19 situation. Spahn said, “We shouldn’t rule anything out.”  

Wieler was more emphatic, saying Germany needs to “massively reduce contact to slow down the spread of the virus. This means, for example, staying at home if possible, canceling large events, reducing the number of people at small events, closing down hotspots such as bars and poorly ventilated clubs.”

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Thursday with the governors of Germany’s 16 states, and they agreed to introduce a new threshold linked to the number of hospital admissions of COVID-19 patients per 100,000 people over a seven-day period.

Some states also are considering mandatory vaccinations for some professional groups, such as medical staff and nursing home employees.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
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Business nonprofit helps ready girls, women for STEM jobs

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Helping women move up in the world of business is the idea behind the Business Women’s Giving Circle. Started in 2014, this philanthropy has already helped hundreds of women. Liliya Anisimova has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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Activists Expected More From Biden-Xi Talks

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The videoconference between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week was lauded as a step forward in the countries’ relationship. Xi called Biden an “old friend,” and Biden said he hoped the two could work together on climate change and other challenges. But some critics of Beijing in the U.S. were hoping for more. VOA’s Laurel Bowman has that story. Camera – Saqib Ul Islam, Ralph Jennings.
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Ukrainian Soldier Killed in Separatist Attack

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Ukraine said Friday that one of its soldiers had been killed by pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, as the West accuses Moscow of a troop build-up near Ukraine.

Kiev’s army has been battling fighters in two breakaway regions bordering Russia since 2014, after Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.

Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of sending troops and arms across the border to support the separatists — claims Moscow denies.

Kiev’s military said Friday that the separatists had targeted Ukrainian military positions with artillery and mortars.

“As a result of hostilities, one serviceman was fatally wounded,” the military said on Facebook.

Ukraine said on Thursday it was seeking more military aid from its Western allies after they voiced concerns over Russian troop movements along the Ukrainian border.

Social media videos have in recent days shown Russia moving troops, tanks and missiles towards the Ukrainian border, raising concerns over an escalation in the conflict.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week voiced fresh concern about Russian troop movements and warned Moscow against any possible invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin for his part said Thursday that the West is “escalating” the Ukraine conflict by holding drills in the Black Sea and flying bombers near its borders.

After an uptick in violence at the beginning of the year, Russia massed around 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders in the spring, raising fears of a major escalation in the conflict.

Russia later announced a pullback but both Ukraine and its ally the United States said at the time the withdrawal was limited.

The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 13,000 people.
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Belarus Moves Refugees to Large Warehouse

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Officials in Belarus have cleared a refugee camp on the Poland-Belarus border where thousands of refugees had hunkered down in the hope of entering the European Union via Poland.

Approximately 2,000 refugees, many of them Middle Eastern, were moved Thursday into a large warehouse, enabling them to escape the freezing cold of the outdoor makeshift encampment.

European Union countries have been watching the developments at the Poland-Belarus border, anxious about the prospect of several thousand migrants entering within their borders.

Meanwhile, several hundred refugees decided Thursday to give up their hope of entering the EU and decided, instead, to take an Iraqi government repatriation flight to Irbil, in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.
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House Delays Vote on Biden’s $1.75 Trillion Bill

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The vote on U.S. President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending bill has been delayed until Friday in the House of Representatives, after Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy gave an hourslong speech.

The vote was originally scheduled for Thursday evening after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan arbiter, released a cost assessment of the bill, which several moderate Democrats said they needed before they would vote.

But the vote was delayed until 8 a.m. (1300 GMT) Friday after McCarthy spoke – and often seemed to stray – from a thick binder of prepared remarks for more than four hours, at times shouting over Democrats in the House who were openly dismissive of his obstruction.

Democrats in the House were attempting to advance Biden’s $1.75 trillion domestic investment bill, despite the CBO’s finding that it would add to the deficit.

“I’ve had enough. America has had enough,” McCarthy said in his speech that cataloged a list of Republican grievances, some related to the bill and some not.

The House voted 220-211 to approve the rule for debating the measure, clearing the way for a vote on passage later in the night. No Republicans supported the move.

McCarthy was occasionally interrupted by Democrats.

Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described it in a video posted on social media as “one of the worst, lowest quality speeches” she had ever seen.

“It is stunning to me how long a person can talk (while) communicating so little,” she said.

Earlier, the CBO said the legislation would increase federal budget deficits by $367 billion over 10 years, although it acknowledged that additional revenues could be generated through improved Internal Revenue Service tax collections.

The CBO estimated that the new tax enforcement activities would generate a net increase in revenues of $127 billion through 2031. The White House estimates the changes will generate $400 billion in additional revenue and said the bill overall will reduce deficits by $121 billion over a decade.

Several of the moderate Democrats who had wanted to see the CBO “score” before voting said they accepted the White House’s math.

“We put in the work and look what we gota Build Back Better Act that’s fully paid for, reduces the deficit and helps American families,” said Representative Carolyn Bordeaux. “Now it’s time to pass it.

Representative Stephanie Murphy said she had reservations about the size of the legislation but there were “too many badly needed investments in this bill not to advance it in the legislative process.

If passed, the bill would be in addition to the more than $1 trillion infrastructure investment legislation that Biden signed into law this week.

The new bill provides free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds, boosts coverage of home-care costs for the elderly and disabled, significantly lowers the cost of some prescription drugs such as insulin, expands affordable housing programs and increases grants for college students.

The two measures comprise the twin pillars of Biden’s domestic agenda and would be on top of the $1.9 trillion in emergency coronavirus pandemic aid that Biden and his fellow Democrats pushed through Congress in March over a wall of opposition from Republicans.

Democrat House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called the bill “transformational,” adding that its success “will be measured in the deep sense of hope that Americans will have when they see their economy working for them instead of holding them back.”

Republicans have vowed to withhold their support, leaving Democrats to employ a special “budget reconciliation” procedure that would allow them to ram the legislation through the Senate with a simple majority vote, instead of at least 60 votes in the 100-member chamber normally needed to advance measures.

Republican Representative Guy Reschenthaler said the bill will worsen inflation and hand tax breaks to the wealthy. He labeled it “the Democrats’ big government socialist spending spree.”

In addition to funding expanded social programs, the bill provides $550 billion to battle climate change.

If it passes the Democratic-controlled House, it would go to the Senate for consideration, where two centrist Democratic members have threatened to hold it up. Senators are expected to amend the House bill. If so, it would have to be sent back to the House for final passage, possibly around the end of December.

Democrats have a 221-213 majority in the House and can only afford to lose three Democratic votes on the bill since no Republicans are expected to vote for it. One Democrat said on Thursday evening he intended to vote against it, due to tax breaks that would favor rich Americans. 

 

 

 
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After Pledging to Lead on Climate Issues, US Sells New Oil Drilling Rights

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In a move that has some environmental activists charging it with hypocrisy, the Biden administration has approved the sale of oil and gas drilling rights to more than 80 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico — an act it says was mandated by a federal court ruling.

The auction on Wednesday by an arm of the U.S. Interior Department resulted in leases for 1.7 million of the 80 million available acres, with Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. among the top buyers. Some 308 lots were purchased for a total of $191.7 million, though it is not certain exactly how much of that will ultimately be developed. 

The decision came just days after the close of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), at which President Joe Biden promised that the United States would be “leading by the power of our example” in the effort to achieve a zero-emissions future.

While some environmental groups accuse the administration of going back on its word, the Biden administration has said that it was forced to agree to the sale by a federal court ruling. 

Shortly after taking office in January, Biden announced a moratorium on new leases for oil and gas projects on federal property. Republican attorneys general in more than a dozen states filed lawsuits challenging the halt in lease auctions, and in June, a U.S. District Court judge in Louisiana issued an injunction instructing the Biden administration to resume selling drilling rights. 

At the time, a spokesperson for the Interior Department, which oversees the leasing of public lands for energy development, said, “We are reviewing the judge’s opinion, and will comply with the decision.” 

In 2018, a report from the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that the operations of the fossil fuels industry — that is, the extraction, refining, and transportation of fuels, before they are actually used by the consumer — is responsible for about 23% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. The report is frequently cited by environmental groups opposed to the leasing of public lands for energy development. 

Wednesday’s auction took place despite a pending lawsuit filed in Washington by the climate activist group Earthjustice. The suit alleges that an environmental impact study conducted in 2017, which the Biden administration used to justify the auction, was flawed and cannot be relied on. 

Other options available 

Brettny Hardy, a senior attorney with Earthjustice, told VOA that Biden had several other options for preventing the auction of the new leases but chose not to exercise them. 

“The administration keeps saying that his hands were tied because of this Louisiana court ruling. But the administration has a ton of discretion under the underlying statute which is at play here, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.” 

She acknowledged that the administration is appealing the district court ruling but criticized it for not seeking a stay of the judge’s ruling while the appeal is decided.

Additionally, she said, the administration is aware of the failings of the environmental impact study underpinning the lease auction, pointing out that two other courts have already ruled that the greenhouse gas emissions model it used was insufficient. The administration could have used that knowledge to declare the auction illegal under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Energy industry pleased 

By contrast, the energy industry and its supporters in Washington cheered the move.

In a statement provided to VOA, Frank Macchiarola, American Petroleum Institute senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs, said: “U.S. oil and natural gas production on federal lands and waters delivers the affordable and reliable energy America needs while providing much-needed funding for conservation, education, infrastructure and other important state and local priorities.” 

“Notably, U.S. oil and natural gas produced offshore in the Gulf of Mexico is also among the lowest carbon barrels produced in the world, according to U.S. Department of the Interior analysis that shows emissions from international substitutions are more carbon intensive,” he added.

In a statement, Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, a trade group for the offshore energy industry, called on the Biden administration to offer more lease auctions in the future. 

“Continued leasing is critical to our energy future; good decisions today will benefit America tomorrow,” he said, adding that certainty about future leases “will advance climate progress, stimulate continued economic growth, support high-paying jobs throughout the country, and strengthen our long-term national security.” 

Lease extensions 

It will take between five and 10 years for actual oil production to begin on the new sites, but once a site is producing oil, the energy company running the drilling operation is typically allowed to extend the lease indefinitely. 

The Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf, a 160-million-acre expanse that includes the areas sold Wednesday, holds about 48 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 141 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. 

A ‘carbon bomb’ 

Environmental organizations said this week that they remain focused on pressuring the Biden administration to roll back the leases and reimpose the moratorium on additional auctions. 

“The Biden administration is lighting the fuse on a massive carbon bomb in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s hard to imagine a more dangerous, hypocritical action in the aftermath of the climate summit,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

“This will inevitably lead to more catastrophic oil spills, more toxic climate pollution and more suffering for communities and wildlife along the Gulf Coast,” she said. “Biden has the authority to stop this, but instead he’s casting his lot in with the fossil fuel industry and worsening the climate emergency.” 

 
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Judge Temporarily Blocks New York Times From Publishing Project Veritas Materials 

Posted on by SeeUS

A New York trial judge on Thursday temporarily blocked The New York Times from publishing some materials concerning the conservative activist group Project Veritas, a rare step that the newspaper said violated decades of First Amendment protections. 

The order by Justice Charles Wood of the Westchester County Supreme Court covers memos written by a Project Veritas lawyer and obtained by the Times. 

Wood scheduled a hearing for November 23 to consider a longer prohibition against publication and whether the Times should remove references to privileged attorney-client information in a November 11 article about Project Veritas’ journalism practices. 

“This ruling is unconstitutional and sets a dangerous precedent,” Dean Baquet, the Times’ executive editor, said in an emailed statement. 

“When a court silences journalism, it fails its citizens and undermines their right to know,” he added. “The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. That principle clearly applies here. We are seeking an immediate review of this decision.” 

Baquet’s statement referred to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1971 rejection of the Nixon administration’s bid to stop the Times and The Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers, which detailed U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. 

Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, called prior restraint “among the most serious threats to press freedom” and said an appeals court should vacate Wood’s order if the judge does not. 

“This is the first prior restraint entered against The New York Times since the Pentagon Papers, and it is an outrageous affront to the First Amendment,” Brown said in a statement. 

Project Veritas has also been involved in a U.S. Department of Justice probe into its possible role in the reported theft of a diary from President Joe Biden’s daughter, Ashley. 

It said in court filings that the FBI this month seized cellphones, pursuant to search warrants, from the homes of founder James O’Keefe and two of the group’s former members. 

O’Keefe suggested in a statement after Wood issued his order that the Times applied different journalistic standards in covering those searches. 

“The paper needs to decide if it is in favor of press freedom for all, or only itself, because it can’t have it both ways,” he said. 

Lawyers for Project Veritas had urged Wood to intervene after “references to, descriptions of, and verbatim quotations” from memos by its lawyer Benjamin Barr appeared in the Times. 

The group is also suing the Times for defamation over aSeptember 2020 article describing a video it released alleging voter fraud in Minnesota. 

In a court filing, Project Veritas called the November 11 article “a bare and vindictive attempt to harm and embarrass a litigation adversary.” 

Times lawyers told Wood he should not impose a “draconian and disfavored restriction” against publication without giving the newspaper a chance to show that Project Veritas’ request was “factually and legally deficient.” 

 
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US Aims to Boost COVID-19 Vaccine Production by a Billion Doses in 2022

Posted on by SeeUS

The intended increase in effort and manufacturing comes as US lawmakers question inequities in global vaccine distribution and vaccination rates among richer and poorer nations. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
Producer: Katherine Gypson
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Crises in Sudan, Ethiopia Flare as Blinken Visits Africa

Posted on by SeeAF

Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Thursday in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and a major U.S. partner on the continent. Blinken’s five-day Africa tour comes as crises in Ethiopia and Sudan are worsening. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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Uganda Police Kill 5, Including Cleric, After Bomb Blasts 

Posted on by SeeAF

Ugandan authorities have killed at least five people, including a Muslim cleric, accused of having ties to the extremist group responsible for Tuesday’s suicide bombings in the capital, police said Thursday.

Four men were killed in a shootout in a frontier town near the western border with Congo as they tried to cross back into Uganda. A fifth man, a cleric named Muhammad Kirevu, was killed in “a violent confrontation” when security forces raided his home outside Kampala, police spokesman Fred Enanga said.

A second cleric, Suleiman Nsubuga, is the subject of a manhunt, he said, accusing the two clerics of radicalizing young Muslim men and encouraging them to join underground cells to carry out violent attacks.

The police raids came after blasts Tuesday in which at least four civilians were killed when suicide bombers detonated their explosives at two locations in Kampala. One attack happened near the parliamentary building and the second near a busy police station. The attacks sparked chaos and confusion in the city as well as outpourings of concern from the international community.

Twenty-one suspects with alleged links to the perpetrators are in custody, Enanga said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s explosions, saying they were carried out by Ugandans. Ugandan authorities blamed the attacks on the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, an extremist group that has been allied with IS since 2019.

President Yoweri Museveni identified the alleged suicide bombers in a statement in which he warned that security forces were “coming for” alleged members of the ADF.

Fears of crackdown

While Ugandan authorities are under pressure to show they are in control of the situation, the killings of suspects raised fears of a violent crackdown in which innocent people may be victims.

Despite the horror of the bomb attacks, “it remains critical to ensure no terrorist attack translates into a blank check to violate human rights under a pretext of fighting terror,” said Maria Burnett, a rights lawyer with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

“Across East Africa, terrorism has been a pretext at times to ensnare political opponents, civic actors and even refugees seeking protection,” she said. “Such actions risk radicalizing people in support of nonstate actors and hands those actors an easy propaganda tool.” 

Human Rights Watch has previously documented cases in which Ugandan security officials have allegedly tortured ADF suspects and held them without trial for long periods.

The ADF has for years been opposed to the long rule of Museveni, a U.S. security ally who was the first African leader to deploy peacekeepers in Somalia to protect the federal government from the extremist group al-Shabab. In retaliation over Uganda’s deployment of troops to Somalia, that group carried out attacks in 2010 that killed at least 70 people who had assembled in public places in Kampala to watch a World Cup soccer game. 

But the ADF, with its local roots, has become a more pressing challenge to Museveni, 77, who has ruled Uganda for 35 years and was reelected to a five-year term in January.

The ADF was established in the early 1990s by some Ugandan Muslims who said they had been sidelined by Museveni’s policies. At the time, the rebel group staged deadly attacks in Ugandan villages as well as in the capital, including a 1998 attack in which 80 students were massacred in a town near the Congo border. 

A Ugandan military assault later forced the rebels into eastern Congo, where many rebel groups are able to roam free because the central government has limited control there.
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Recycling Company Provides Safe Sanitation for Kenyan Slum Dwellers

Posted on by SeeAF

A Kenyan recycling company is improving sanitation for slum dwellers in Nairobi and turning the waste products into fertilizer for farmers.

Anita Mutinda walks to a small structure located inside the cluster of makeshift houses that she calls home, in the heart of Mukuru kwa Ruben, a poor neighborhood in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.

The structure is one of the toilets installed by a company providing the much-needed service here. It is one of the reasons that Mutinda rented and has lived here for five years.

She says life where she lived before was hard because she had to pay five shillings every time she needed to use a public toilet, and it was far from the house. Here, she doesn’t have to pay a single cent to access this facility.

Her landlady, Deborah Kerubo, says the availability of the toilet facility on her property has become a major selling point.

She says tenants want a facility that has both day and night access. If they don’t get that, they will keep moving, she says, until they get what they are looking for.

No sewage system

Mukuru kwa Ruben, like many other slum areas in Kenya’s capital, is not connected to a sewage system. An estimated 60% of the population lives with this lack of sanitation.

Elijah Gachoki, a clinical officer at a local community health center, says these conditions are a major cause of communicable diseases. “We start getting water wash diseases, conjunctivitis, and skin diseases, so there is a need for proper safe and adequate provision of sanitation,” he expressed.

It is a gap that Sanergy, a company providing sanitation solutions, says it is bridging. Sanergy provides toilets that separate liquid and dry waste and help with waste management in the informal settlements.

Sheila Kibuthu, Sanergy Kenya’s external relations manager, says the company believes in not wasting any waste. On a regular basis, she notes “we make sure that we provide a waste management service where all of the sanitation waste is generated is then safely removed and transported to our organics recycling factory for processing along with other forms of organic waste.”

Turned into fertilizer

The toilet waste is collected daily and mixed with other organic waste from the community. It is then processed at Sanergy’s plant on the outskirts of Nairobi and turned into organic fertilizer and other agricultural inputs like high protein feed for livestock.

“One of the biggest challenges farmers are facing today is soil infertility, so what the organic fertilizer does is that it helps restore the soil fertility and that way farmers can improve their yields.”

Sanergy believes more and more farmers will be served as it keeps the cycle of turning waste into useful products going, while providing a necessary service.

Currently, the company has more than 5,000 toilets spread across 11 informal settlement areas in Nairobi, serving over 140,000 residents.
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Recycling Company Provides Safe Sanitation for Kenyan Slum Dwellers

Posted on by SeeAF

A Kenyan recycling company is improving sanitation for slum dwellers in Nairobi and turning the waste products into fertilizer for farmers. Brenda Mulinya has more from Nairobi.
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Neutral Pronoun in French Dictionary Stirs Boisterous Debate

Posted on by SeeEU

A nonbinary pronoun added to an esteemed French dictionary has ignited a fierce linguistic squabble in the country. 

Le Petit Robert introduced the word “iel” — an amalgamation of “il” (he) and “elle” (she) — to its online edition last month. While the term is gaining currency among young people, it is still far from being widely used, or even understood, by many French speakers. 

Though at first the change went mostly unnoticed, boisterous debate broke out this week in a nation that prides itself on its human rights tradition but that also fiercely protects its cultural heritage from foreign meddling. In one camp are the traditionalists, including some political leaders, who criticize the move as a sign that France is lurching toward an American-style “woke” ideology. In the other is a new generation of citizens who embrace nonbinary as the norm. 

“It is very important that dictionaries include the ‘iel’ pronoun in their referencing as it reflects how the use of the term is now well accepted,” said Dorah Simon Claude, 32, a doctoral student who identifies as “iel.” 

“It is,” Claude added, “also a way of confronting the Academie Francaise that stays in its conservative corner and continues to ignore and scorn users of the French language.” 

Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer is not in the same camp. He went to Twitter on Wednesday to say that “inclusive writing is not the future of the French language.” The 56-year-old former law professor warned that schoolchildren should not use “iel” as a valid term despite its inclusion in Le Robert, seen as a linguistic authority on French since 1967. 

Francois Jolivet, a lawmaker from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, also made his distaste plain. Nonbinary pronouns are, he suggested, a worrying sign that France is embracing a “woke” ideology. 

Jolivet wrote a letter to the bastion of French language, the 400-year-old Academie Francaise, claiming that Le Robert’s “solitary campaign is an obvious ideological intrusion that undermines our common language and its influence.”

The general director of Le Robert editions, Charles Bimbenet, jumped to the dictionary’s defense Wednesday in a statement. Far from dictating which terms should be used, he said, Le Petit Robert was elucidating the word’s meaning, now that it is growing in currency nationwide. 

Since “the meaning of the word ‘iel’ cannot be understood by reading it alone,” Bimbenet said, “it seemed useful to us to specify its meaning for those who encounter it, whether they wish to use it or … reject it.” 

“Robert’s mission is to observe and report on the evolution of a changing and diverse French language,” he said. 

Warning on neutrality

In 2017, the Academie Francaise warned that moves to make French more gender neutral would create “a disunited language, with disparate expression, that can create confusion verging on illegibility.” 

Gendered languages like French are seen as a particular hurdle for advocates of nonbinary terms as all nouns are categorized as either masculine or feminine, unlike in English. 

Not all European countries are moving at the same speed as France. In Greece, where all nouns have not two, but three possible genders, there is no official nonbinary pronoun, but groups who support them suggest using “it.” 

In Spain, after Carmen Calvo, a former deputy prime minister and affirmed feminist, asked the Royal Spanish Academy to advise on the use of inclusive language in the Constitution, its reply the next year was crystal clear: “Inclusive language” means “the use of the masculine to refer to men and women.”
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Cuban Dissident Vows to Keep Battling ‘Brutal Tyranny’ of Regime

Posted on by SeeEU

The leader of a Cuban dissident group who left the island for Spain said Thursday that the communist government was “behaving like an abusive husband” toward its people.

Activist and playwright Yunior Garcia Aguilera arrived Wednesday in Madrid with his wife, Dayana Prieto, two days after police surrounded his house in Havana to stop him from taking part in a national protest planned by an opposition group, which is demanding the release of imprisoned dissidents and greater freedoms for Cubans.

Leaders of Archipelago, the opposition organization, had announced it would stage a “Civic March for Change,” a mass demonstration Monday that the Cuban government described as “counter-revolutionary” and said was part of a U.S. interventionist plan.

At a news conference Thursday in Madrid, Garcia said, “The relationship between the Cuban government and the people is like a marriage which has failed. The government is behaving like an abusive husband to the people.”

“This is a dictatorship and brutal tyranny,” he said.

Harassment

On the eve of the planned demonstration, police and government supporters surrounded the home of Garcia and other activists and independent journalists to prevent them from leaving.

Garcia said Thursday that the Cuban government had cut his telephone and access to social media.

“My house is watched continually by people. They left doves with their heads cut off outside my house to put me off taking part in the demonstration,” he told journalists.

Garcia contends the Cuban government allowed him to leave the country only so that he would not become “a symbol of resistance.”

“The regime needed to silence me, to convert me into a non-person,” he told reporters.

He said he had come to Spain so he could be free to speak out against the Cuban government.

“All I have is my voice. I could not stay silent. That is why I came to Spain,” he said, adding that he wanted to return to the island in the future.

Archipelago blamed the failure of the demonstration on government coercion.

It said there were “more than 100 activists under arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, acts of repudiation, violence, threats, coercion and hate speech.”

Garcia said fear of reprisals had prevented people from joining the demonstration Monday.

“The problem is the fear, but we have social media, which they cannot control,” he said.

Call for condemnation of oppression

Garcia said the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba had helped the communist government, which he asserted used it for propaganda purposes.

He speculated that if opinion polls were allowed, however, they would show that the government has lost the support of the people.

He called on the international community to condemn what he said was repression in his home country.

“What is important is that the international community stops looking the other way,” Garcia said.

After Archipelago said it had been unable to contact Garcia, he reported on his Facebook page Wednesday that he had left Cuba and was in Spain with his wife.

While the protests were suppressed in Havana, Cuban expatriates were in the streets in Mexico City and other cities across Latin America in solidarity with their compatriots.

‘Absolute failure’

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that Cuban opposition groups had failed in their efforts to organize Monday’s demonstration.

“It is clear that what I called a failed operation — a political communication operation organized and financed by the United States government with millionaire funds and the use of internal agents — was an absolute failure,” Rodriguez said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press.

“I wish they [the United States] would allow Americans their freedom to travel and that they could come to Cuba and see the reality firsthand and discover the deception to which they are frequently subjected, with the aim of sustaining an obsolete, genocidal policy that violates human rights and international law and causes suffering among the Cuban people,” he added.

The arrival of Garcia in the Spanish capital means the Cuban dissident movement has largely moved to Madrid in much the same way as opposition leaders from Venezuela have done.

Venezuelan dissident Leopoldo Lopez has made Madrid his home since making a dramatic exit from Venezuela in 2020. He was living in the Spanish Embassy in Caracas before making a dash for Colombia, from which he headed to Spain.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press.
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