Month: December 2021

Biden Urged to Appoint North Korea Human Rights Envoy  

Posted on by SeeUS

Human rights groups are calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to appoint a special envoy for North Korean human rights, a position that has been vacant since January 2017.

The North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 directs the U.S. president to name a person for the role, subject to Senate confirmation. The position, however, remains unfilled, even though Biden has elevated the issue of human rights globally.

His predecessor, Donald Trump, downplayed the issue of North Korea’s human rights violations after his first Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June 2018.

VOA’s Korean Service has asked the State Department about the appointment several times, including earlier this month.

“I don’t have any administrative announcement or updates at this time,” a State Department spokesperson said via email. “We remain concerned about the human rights situation in the DPRK and the United States is committed to placing human rights at the center of our foreign policy.” North Korea is officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, said, “For an administration that claims to care greatly about promoting human rights and democracy in the world,” it is critical that it “immediately act to nominate a person well versed in human rights issues in North Korea to take on this important position.”

The Biden administration should also prioritize the appointment of a U.S. ambassador to South Korea, a position that also remains vacant, said Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director at the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

“A strong alliance and bilateral relationship with South Korea is the prerequisite of success on all fronts, including North Korean human rights,” Scarlatoiu said.

“It is past time for action from the Biden administration to match their words of wanting to support human rights,” said U.S. Representative Young Kim, a California Republican. “I cannot see Kim Jong Un — as well as our allies like South Korea and Japan — taking our word seriously” when the “vital” human rights position remains unfilled.

US actions so far

On international Human Rights Day, December 10, the Biden administration placed its first sanctions designations on North Korea-related entities and individuals for rights violations.

Also this month, Biden hosted a virtual Summit for Democracy to promote the values of liberal democracy, including human rights, among allies and partners.

The Biden administration made a series of statements this year promising to fill the rights position while expressing concern about North Korea’s human rights abuses.

In February, the State Department said the position would be filled as part of Biden’s North Korea policy review. The administration announced that review had been completed in April, but it did not mention any nomination or appointment.

In March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee he felt “strongly” about the need to appoint a rights envoy. Blinken repeated the administration’s determination to fill the position to the committee in June.

Roberta Cohen, who was the deputy assistant secretary of state for human rights during the Carter administration, said “there’s no doubt” that the administration will fill the position.

“But the whole process of nominating and confirming ambassadors and envoys and officials within the government that require confirmation — this has been very slow,” she said.

Cohen isn’t the only one who suspects a bureaucratic backlog.

“The real problem is the delay in the Senate in terms of reacting, responding and approving nominees that have been made by the Biden administration for a number of ambassadorial appointments,” said Robert King, who served as the special envoy for North Korean human rights issues under the Obama administration.

“While simple bureaucratic neglect may play a role, there is no disguising the fact that this delay shows a lack of political priority being given to North Korean human rights issues,” added Robertson of Human Rights Watch.

At the same time, Scarlatoiu of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said, the delay is reasonable as “the Biden administration has been dealing with multiple other priorities and emergencies.”

Pressure on North Korea

Some experts think appointing a human rights envoy for North Korea will add pressure on North Korea as the Biden administration remains open to talks with the regime, which have been deadlocked since October 2019.

“Naming a human rights envoy … would signify a return to a much-needed toughening of policy from the post-Singapore summit relaxation during the Trump administration,” said Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Harry Kazianis, senior director of Korean studies at the Center for the National Interest, said, “I do think team Biden realizes a North Korean human rights special envoy, while a good idea, could provide [North Korea] an excuse to lash out.”

Sungwon Baik contributed to this report.
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Have Refugee Camps Escaped Mass COVID Infections? 

Posted on by SeeAF

Roughly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, no massive outbreaks have been reported in refugee camps to date. Health experts have some theories about why, but they also urge continued wariness against “the very real and present danger of widespread transmission” in camps, as the World Health Organization has cautioned.

The U.N. refugee agency, or UNHCR, “had been fearing — and preparing for — large outbreaks at refugee camps, which fortunately did not happen,” spokeswoman Aikaterini Kitidi acknowledged in an email exchange with VOA.

“However, this doesn’t mean we are out of the woods yet,” she said. With new variants such as omicron, “which are far more infectious, we may very well see more cases. We must remain vigilant and scale up surveillance and testing, as well as the equitable distribution of vaccines.”

UNHCR estimates that roughly 80 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced by persecution and conflict, with most living in low-resource countries with frail health systems. Millions of them live in camps — some formal, some informal — with limited water and sanitation facilities. They also face overcrowding, making social distancing a challenge.

Yet comparatively few COVID infections have been reported in the camps: 55 Central African refugees tested positive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for instance, as UNHCR reported in a global COVID-19 response update of December 20.

Because of population density, “early on, we were concerned that [COVID-19] transmission would be very high and so would deaths, even with the younger demographics” of refugee camps, said Paul Spiegel, an epidemiologist who directs Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Humanitarian Health. “That hasn’t been the case that we’re aware of — but then data have been very poor.”

Undercounting is a real possibility, Spiegel said. “There could be scenarios where it [COVID] actually has gone through the refugee camps at a high level” but symptoms weren’t severe enough for the infected people to seek care. He added that there hasn’t been enough blood testing “to know the extent that COVID has actually been transmitted in these settings. … It takes a lot of time and money to be able to do this.”

Individual circumstances

Transmission rates ultimately may vary depending on the individual camp or other setting, said Spiegel, a former UNHCR senior official who has responded to crises in the Middle East, parts of Africa and Asia. He was on a team that, early in the pandemic, advised the United Nations, governments and humanitarian groups on best responses.

In early December, Spiegel completed five weeks of touring and assessing health conditions in Afghanistan for the World Health Organization. In that country, he said, only three of 39 facilities intended for treating COVID were functioning; the rest were devoid of supplies or paid staff following the Taliban takeover in August and subsequent sanctions by the United States and other Western allies. Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department said it would lift restrictions on some humanitarian aid.

On behalf of UNHCR, Spiegel also is looking at COVID’s impact on two Syrian refugee camps in Jordan: Za’atari, a northern site with nearly 80,000 residents, and Azraq, a northeastern site hosting 38,000. Preliminary data indicate lower rates of infection and death in those two camps than among residents of surrounding areas, he said.

“So why would that be? We have some hypotheses,” Spiegel said, noting that those camps went into lockdown early, restricting refugees to the camp, limiting outsiders’ access, and promoting more handwashing and social distancing. Local and international NGOs sustained their support for the camps, he said, so residents could continue to access health care and food, “even if it’s not enough” to meet their caloric needs. He also noted that people in camps spend a lot of time outside.

Spiegel said he’s involved in additional studies of refugees and host communities in Bangladesh and in three African countries: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. He said he anticipated their findings to be published in 2022.
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Low Vaccination Rates a Concern Amid African COVID Surge

Posted on by SeeAF

Low vaccination rates are of mounting concern amid a new wave of COVID-19 infections in Africa, where nearly 227,000 deaths have been reported, according to the Africa CDC’s COVID-19 dashboard. Only 20 African countries had vaccinated at least 10% of their populations as of mid-December, according to the United Nations. 

Vaccine access is a major stumbling block.

Vaccines have been slow to arrive from wealthier countries; when they do, there may not be sufficient infrastructure to support timely distribution. On December 22, Nigeria’s government destroyed more than 1 million doses of donated AstraZeneca vaccine that authorities said could not be used before the expiration date.

Meanwhile, the African Union and its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are pushing efforts to develop vaccine manufacturing on the continent. 

But, “even in countries where vaccines are being rolled out, there might be administrative and other obstacles that prevent refugees from being vaccinated,” said Aikaterini Kitidi, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee Agency, or UNHCR. 

Some countries “require identity documents, which refugees often do not have,” she added. “Others have set up online [registration] systems that can deter or prevent people without access to the internet or who are not computer literate.”

Awareness

Another challenge is misinformation.

It’s “heavily impacting the vaccination process and hindering people from coming,” said Dr. Martin Kalibuze, who directs the vaccination program in Uvira refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province. “There are a lot of rumors, like ‘people are going to die from vaccination, women are going to turn infertile.'”

Sifa Akimana, a 28-year-old Burundian refugee living in the DRC’s Kavimvira transit center with her two babies, told VOA’s Central Africa service she was opposed to getting inoculated because “I hear from people that if you’re vaccinated, it’s very dangerous. It’s a way to control people’s movements with their detective machines.”

Kalibuze said any vaccination drive first needs a strong awareness campaign to smooth the way.

Priorities

There’s at least one more impediment to COVID vaccination: competing priorities.

Across Africa and elsewhere, especially in zones with displaced people, “ministries of health have so many different crises that they have to tackle that COVID isn’t always on the top of their list,” said Jason Straziuso, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). 

For instance, he said, they might decide it’s wiser to invest in more mosquito nets to protect against malaria, a historically deadly disease that the WHO estimates killed 627,000 people in 2020 alone, mostly young African children.

The ICRC doesn’t distribute vaccines on its own but instead partners with health ministries and national Red Cross Societies, Straziuso said, noting it depends on those relationships “to move into contested areas and to carry out vaccination campaigns.”

Straziuso said the organization hopes to “do a lot more in 2022” to aid vulnerable people, including refugees and the displaced. “There’s just millions of people who don’t have access to these vaccines,” he said. “So, it’s a slow and long process.”

Vedaste Ngabo Ndagijimana reported for VOA’s Central Africa Service from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Carol Guensburg reported from Washington, D.C.

 
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As COVID-19 Cases Surge, Hospitalizations Lag, White House Task Force Says

Posted on by SeeUS

COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations so far are comparatively low as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday as cases in the United States reached a record high. 

“In a few short weeks, omicron has rapidly increased across the country, and we expect will continue to circulate in the coming weeks. While cases have substantially increased from last week, hospitalizations and deaths remain comparatively low right now,” she said, referring to overall cases. 

The current seven-day daily average of cases is up 60% over the previous week to about 240,400 per day, she said. The average daily hospitalization rate for the same period is up 14% to about 9,000 per day and deaths are down about 7% at 1,100 per day, Walensky told reporters at a White House briefing. 

The average number of daily confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States set a new record on Wednesday. 

Early data from the U.S. and elsewhere suggests omicron will have a lower hospitalization-to-case ratio than the delta variant, top U.S. infectious disease Anthony Fauci said at the briefing, and COVID-19 vaccine boosters will be critical in tackling it. 

“All indications point to a lesser severity of omicron versus delta,” he said. 

Both Fauci and Walensky said that data on deaths and hospitalizations tend to lag case data by two weeks. 

Fauci said it was possible a second booster shot might be needed, but that it was not possible to know without first determining the durability of the protection offered by an initial booster, for which there is currently no data. 

“Right now, we don’t have that information,” he said. “It is conceivable that in the future we might need an additional shot but right now we are hoping that we will get a greater degree of durability of protection from that booster shot.” 

Fauci also estimated the omicron surge would peak by the end of January. 

“I would imagine given the size of our country, and the diversity of vaccination versus not vaccination, that it’s likely to be more than a couple of weeks, probably by the end of January,” he said on CNBC. 

On the question of testing, Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said the government expects a contract for 500 million antigen tests, promised by President Joe Biden, to help address the surge in cases to be complete late next week. 

“The Department of Defense and HHS are executing (this) on an accelerated timeline,” he said. 

Disease experts have questioned recent CDC guidance rules that cut in half the isolation period for asymptomatic coronavirus, saying they lack safeguards that could result in even more infections as the United States faces a record surge in cases. 

“Unvaccinated people take much longer to clear the virus and not be infectious,” said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. “Some people clear the virus in a day; others take a week or more.” 

Walensky said the decision was based on research showing that up to 90% of COVID-19 transmission occurred within five days of infection. She said the agency balanced that with evidence that only a small minority of people with COVID-19 have been willing to isolate for a full 10 days so far during the pandemic. 

“We, at CDC, are working to provide updated recommendations, using science to ease the burden of lengthy isolation and quarantine recommendations. However, these recommendations will only work if people follow them.” 

 
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2 US Stock Market Indexes Set Records as Omicron Worries Ease

Posted on by SeeUS

The Dow and S&P 500 closed at all-time highs on Wednesday on a boost from retailers including Walgreens and Nike as investors shrugged off concerns on the spreading omicron variant. 

The Dow has now risen six straight trading days, marking the longest streak of gains since a seven-session run from March 5-15 this year. 

Walgreens Boots Alliance and Nike rose 1.59% and 1.42% respectively against the backdrop of recent reports suggesting holiday sales were strong for U.S. retailers. 

Data on Wednesday showed the U.S. trade deficit in goods mushroomed to the widest ever in November as imports of consumer goods shot to a record and the coronavirus pandemic has limited spending by Americans on services. 

Some early studies pointing to a reduced risk of hospitalization in omicron cases have eased some investors’ concerns over the travel disruptions and powered the S&P 500 to record highs this week. 

Meanwhile, the S&P 1500 airlines index dipped. Delta Air Lines and Alaska Air Group canceled hundreds of flights again on Tuesday as the daily tally of infections in the United States surged. 

Typically, the final five trading days of the year and the first two of the subsequent year are seasonally strong for U.S. stocks, in a phenomenon known as the “Santa Claus Rally.” Market participants, however, warned against reading too much into daily moves as the holiday season tends to record some of the lowest volume turnovers, which can cause exaggerated price action. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 90.42 points, or 0.25%, to 36,488.63, the S&P 500 gained 6.71 points, or 0.14%, to 4,793.06 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 15.51 points, or 0.1%, to 15,766.22. 

As 2021 draws to a close, the main U.S. stock indexes are on pace for their third straight year of stunning annual returns, boosted by historic fiscal and monetary stimulus. The S&P 500 is looking at its strongest three-year performance since 1999. 

The focus next year will shift to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s path of interest rate hikes amid a surge in prices caused by supply chain bottlenecks and a strong economic rebound. 

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.89 billion shares, compared with the 11.15 billion average for the full session over the past 20 trading days. 

 
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Ghislaine Maxwell Convicted in Epstein Sex Abuse Case

Posted on by SeeUS

The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. 

The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico. 

Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts. 

She faces the likelihood of years in prison, an outcome long sought by women who spent years fighting in civil courts to hold Maxwell accountable for her role in recruiting and grooming Epstein’s teenage victims and sometimes joining in the sexual abuse. 

The defense had insisted Maxwell was a victim of a vindictive prosecution devised to deliver justice to women deprived of their main villain when Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial in 2019. 

Witnesses for prosecution ​

During the trial, prosecutors called 24 witnesses to give jurors a picture of life inside Epstein’s homes. 

A housekeeper testified he was expected to be “blind, deaf and dumb” about the private lives of Epstein, a financier who cultivated friendships with influential politicians and business tycoons, and Maxwell, who had led a jet-setting lifestyle as the favorite child of a media mogul. 

Pilots took the witness stand and dropped the names of luminaries — Britain’s Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump — who flew on Epstein’s private jets. 

Jurors saw physical evidence like a folding massage table once used by Epstein and a “black book” that listed contact information for some of the victims under the heading “massages.” 

There were bank records showing he had transferred $30.7 million to Maxwell, his longtime companion, one-time girlfriend and later employee. 

But the core of the prosecution was the testimony of four women who said they were victimized by Maxwell and Epstein at tender ages. 

Three testified using first names or pseudonyms to protect their privacy: Jane, a television actress; Kate, a former model from Great Britain; and Carolyn, now a mom recovering from drug addiction. The fourth was Annie Farmer, a psychologist who chose to use her real name after being vocal about her allegations in recent years. 

They echoed one another in their descriptions of Maxwell’s behavior: She used charm and gifts to gain their trust, taking an interest in their adolescent challenges and giving them assurances that Epstein could use his wealth and connections to fulfill their dreams. 

They said the script would darken when Maxwell coaxed them into giving massages to Epstein that turned sexual, encounters she played off as normal. 

Defense team

Maxwell, 60, vehemently denied the charges through her lawyers. 

Still, she declined to take the risk of testifying, telling the judge: “The government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt so there is no reason for me to testify.” 

“The charges against Ghislaine Maxwell are for things that Jeffrey Epstein did,” one of Maxwell’s lawyers, Bobbi Sternheim, emphasized to the jury. “But she is not Jeffrey Epstein, and she is not like Jeffrey Epstein.” 

Maxwell’s legal team questioned whether the accusers’ memories were faulty or had been influenced by lawyers seeking big payouts from Maxwell and from Epstein’s estate in civil court. 

During their two-day presentation, they called as a witness Elizabeth Loftus, a University of California Irvine professor who has testified as a memory expert for defense lawyers at about 300 trials. She said memory can be contaminated by suggestions made by an interviewer, particularly law enforcement or the media. 

Maxwell’s family — faithfully in attendance each day of the trial — complained she was under duress from harsh conditions at the Brooklyn jail where she’s been held since her arrest in July 2020. She had repeatedly, and futilely, sought bail, arguing that she was unable to adequately contribute to her defense. 

The legal fights involving Epstein and Maxwell are not over. 

Maxwell still awaits trial on two counts of perjury. 

Lawsuits involving the abuse allegations also continue, including one in which a woman not involved in the trial, Virginia Giuffre, says she was coerced into sexual encounters with Prince Andrew when she was 17. Andrew has denied her account and that lawsuit is not expected to come to trial for many months. 

 
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Sudan Gunmen Loot UN Food Aid Warehouse in Darfur

Posted on by SeeAF

Sudanese gunmen have looted a World Food Program (WFP) warehouse containing about 1,900 metric tons of food aid in Darfur amid a surge of violence in the western region, officials said Wednesday.

Residents of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, reported heavy gunfire near the warehouse late Tuesday, and the local authorities imposed a nighttime curfew on the town after the attack, state news agency SUNA reported.

“We heard intense gunfire,” local resident Mohamed Salem told AFP.

A WFP official said the organization was “conducting an audit into what was stolen from the warehouse, which contained some 1,900 [metric tons] of food products” intended to be lifesaving supplies for some of the most vulnerable people.

“One in three people in Sudan needs humanitarian assistance,” said Khardiata Lo N’diaye, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Sudan. “Humanitarian assistance should never be a target.”

On Twitter, Darfur Governor Mini Minawi denounced the raid as a “barbaric act” and said those responsible “will face justice.”

The vast, arid and impoverished region awash with guns is still reeling from a conflict that broke out under former President Omar al-Bashir in 2003, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead.

While the main conflict in Darfur has subsided under a peace deal struck with key rebel groups last year, violence continues to erupt.

The region has seen a spike in conflict since October triggered by disputes over land, livestock and access to water and grazing, with around 250 people killed in fighting between herders and farmers.

Tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The violence has occurred while Sudan reels from political turbulence in the wake of a coup led by military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on October 25.

Last week, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned looting and reported violence near a former U.N. logistics base in El Fasher that had been handed over to the local authorities days earlier.

A joint U.N. and African Union mission, UNAMID, ended 13 years of peacekeeping operations in December last year, but Guterres said “substantial amounts of equipment and supplies” from the looted base were intended to be used by Sudanese communities.

More than 14 million Sudanese will need humanitarian aid next year, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the highest level for a decade.
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Ghana’s Coastal Communities Threatened by Erosion, Sand Harvesting

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Tidal waves and coastal erosion have submerged an entire fishing community on Ghana’s eastern coast. Many villagers had already been relocated from past tidal waves and have petitioned the government for a permanent solution. Senanu Tord reports from the village of Fuvemeh in Ghana. 

Camera: Senanu Tord 

 
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Cold War Resentment Has Been Building for Decades in Kremlin

Posted on by SeeEU

A few days after Vladimir Putin was reelected his country’s president in 2018, a former top Kremlin official outlined to VOA how perilous relations had become between the West and Russia. In a wide-ranging conversation, almost foretelling the high-stakes clash developing now between the Kremlin and NATO over Ukraine, he said Putin believed the fracture between Russia and Western powers was irreparable. 

And he identified NATO’s eastward expansion as the key reason. The final blow came for Putin, he said, with the 2013-14 popular Maidan uprising in Ukraine that led to the ouster of his ally, then Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych.

The Kremlin insider, who occupied a senior position in former Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s government and went on to become a core member of Putin’s team, blamed the West for a collapse of trust and the lack of common ground. “Maybe all that can be done is to do smaller things together to try to recreate trust,” he said. “If we can’t do that, maybe we will wake up one day and someone will have launched nuclear missiles.”

Fast forward and Kremlin officials have been openly threatening in recent days to deploy tactical nuclear weapons amid rising fears that Putin is considering a further military incursion into Ukraine. This would be a repeat of Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and its seizure of a large part of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, bordering Russia.

“There will be confrontation,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden and Putin held a two-hour video conference Dec. 18, aimed at defusing a burgeoning crisis over Russian military movements near Ukraine’s borders and an amassing of around 100,000 troops.

Ryabkov warned that Russia would deploy weapons previously banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, an arms control deal struck in 1987 by then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, which expired in 2019.

Last week, in remarks broadcast by Russian media, Putin said, “If the obviously aggressive line of our Western colleagues continues, we will take adequate, retaliatory military-technical measures [and] react toughly to unfriendly steps.”

For Western leaders and officials, the Kremlin’s grievances and fears over NATO’s expansion are delusional at best, or at worst a pretext to redraft the security architecture of Europe with Putin as the deciding architect.  

Western officials say it is nonsensical for Russia to paint the West as the aggressor, considering the hybrid warfare and hostile acts they accuse the Kremlin of conducting against the West for years. They see these as revanchist steps seeking to turn the clock back to when Russia controlled half of Europe.

Western officials cite cyber-attacks targeting American and European nuclear power plants and other utility infrastructure, a nerve gas assassination on British soil of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, disinformation campaigns seeking to meddle in Western elections and politics and the funding of disruptive far-right and far-left populist parties as part of an effort to destabilize the European Union.

“Facts are a funny thing and facts make clear that the only aggression we are seeing at the border of Russia and Ukraine is the military build-up by the Russians and the bellicose rhetoric by the leader of Russia,” Jen Psaki, U.S. President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman, told reporters last week.

But for Kremlin officials, the blame rests with the Western powers for their failure to heed the building Russian frustration over NATO’s enlargement since the end of the Cold War. There have been waves of new admissions to the Western military alliance since 1999, bringing in a dozen central European and Baltic states that were once members of the Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact.

At times as the enlargement proceeded, ugly behind-the-scenes clashes erupted, notably over Western objections to Russia “establishing closer ties” with its former Soviet republics. The issue triggered a face-to-face argument between Putin and then-White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice during a meeting in Sochi. Rice maintained that the former Soviet republics were independent states and should determine their future without what she saw as Russian intimidation.

And Kremlin aides have been adamant that the Maidan protests were Western-fomented and not a popular uprising. The blaming of the West for the return of Cold War-like enmity, and the sense of pessimism Russian officials have been displaying about East-West relations, illustrates how difficult it will be to bridge the rift.

Putin’s pent-up resentment spilled out last week at his end-of-the-year press conference in Moscow during which he demanded an immediate answer to his demand that NATO withdraw its forces from central and eastern Europe. The Russian leader said he was running out of patience. “You must provide guarantees. You must do that at once, now, and not keep blathering on about this for talks that will last decades,” he said.

His demands include not only troop withdrawals from former communist states that are members of NATO but a promise that Ukraine will not one day become a member of the Western alliance. In effect, it would mean the West recognizes former Soviet states and ex-communist countries as part of the Kremlin’s sphere of influence.

Nina Khrushcheva, a professor at The New School in New York, remains pessimistic about the prospects for planned talks next month among the United States, NATO and Russia. In a commentary this week, Khrushcheva, a great-granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, says Russia has a “special-nation” mindset and warns Putin isn’t alone among Russians who “want not to revive the USSR, but rather to preserve their country’s status.”

How that can be done, how Russian Cold War resentment can be soothed, while at the same time not denying the rights of other, smaller sovereign states to decide their own paths, will be the key challenge facing Western negotiators when they hold talks in January.
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Biden, Putin to Hold Call Over Stepped Up Security Demands

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President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will speak Thursday as the Russian leader has stepped up his demands for security guarantees in Eastern Europe.

The two leaders will discuss “a range of topics, including upcoming diplomatic engagements,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement announcing the call.

The talks come as the U.S. and Western allies have watched the buildup of Russian troops near the border of Ukraine, growing to an estimated 100,000 and fueling fears that Moscow is preparing to invade Ukraine.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken “reiterated the United States’ unwavering support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine’s borders.”

Price said the two discussed efforts to peacefully resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine and upcoming diplomatic engagements with Russia.

Putin said earlier this week he would ponder a slew of options if the West fails to meet his push for security guarantees precluding NATO’s expansion to Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Moscow submitted draft security documents demanding that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and roll back its military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe.
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Kenyan Slum Dwellers Evicted for China-Built Nairobi Expressway

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Rights groups in Kenya are pushing authorities to resettle tens of thousands of squatters evicted just ahead of the holidays to make way for a Chinese-backed expressway.  Brenda Mulinya reports from Nairobi.
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Cameroon Military Tribunal Jails 47 Opposition Activists for Planned Protests

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A military tribunal in Cameroon this week sentenced 47 opposition party members to between one and seven years in jail for rebellion and attempted insurrection. Police arrested the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, or MRC, supporters in September 2020 while they were planning protests against the 40-year-rule of President Paul Biya.

More than 20 supporters of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) on Wednesday morning stood in front of MRC leader Maurice Kamto’s house.  

They told a reporter they are waiting to hear from Kamto after a Yaoundé military tribunal this week sentenced 47 of his supporters to up to seven years in jail.   

The tribunal on Monday and Tuesday sentenced the 47 opposition party members to between one and seven years in jail for attempted insurrection. 

The MRC party’s spokesperson, treasurer, coordinator, and president of the women’s wing were among those given seven-year terms.  

41-year-old bread seller Emmanuel Koanye was among those condemning the prison terms.   

He says it is very wrong and abnormal for authorities, who claim they are democratic, to order the arrest and sentencing of people who simply expressed their democratic opinions.  Koanye says they are expecting Maurice Kamto, head of the MRC party, to give directives on what should be done to press for the release of the jailed opposition supporters.

Cameroonian police arrested the opposition members in September 2020 while they were planning protests against President Paul Biya’s long stay in power.

Biya has ruled Cameroon for four decades, making him Africa’s second longest ruling leader.  

Kamto claims he won the October 2018 presidential election in Cameroon and that Biya stole his victory.

More than 500 civilians who protested the crackdown also were arrested.

The MRC says more than 120 are still being held in prisons across Cameroon.

 

When contacted by VOA, MRC officials refused to comment on this week’s sentencing of their members. 

President of the opposition United Socialist Democratic Party (USDP) Prince Ekosso witnessed the military tribunal’s sentencing. 

Ekosso says the ruling shows that Biya will crush opponents to maintain his grip on power.

“It is so disturbing that in Cameroon laws are made to suit the caprices of individuals, to carry out intimidation and arbitrary arrests and sentencing of individuals,” Ekosso said. “Laws are supposed to be made to protect the individuals, to protect the citizens, and to help those citizens to emancipate.”

The USDP and MRC have been pressing for a change in Cameroon’s electoral code, which the opposition parties say favors President Biya. 

MRC leader Kamto said they plan to mobilize supporters to protest peacefully for electoral reforms in Cameroon from January 9. 

Cameroon is hosting the month-long Africa Football Cup of Nations, the continent’s premier soccer tournament, from January 9.

Cameroon’s territorial administration minister Paul Atanga Nji says authorities will not allow protests to release jailed opposition leaders or change the electoral code.   

Nji says Cameroon will not tolerate the disorder the government is aware MRC supporters, and their leader Maurice Kamto, are planning.  He says any MRC supporters and leaders who attempt to violate Cameroonian’s laws will be arrested and face charges in court.

Rights group Amnesty International accuses the Biya government of relentless repression of opposition members.  

In January 2019, authorities detained Kamto and several hundred of his supporters for insisting that Biya stole the 2018 presidential election.  

International pressure led Biya to pardon Kamto, but only after he had spent nine months in prison.
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World Struggles With Rising COVID-19 Infections

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States recorded more than 512,000 daily new coronavirus cases Tuesday – the single highest one-day number of cases recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data released by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center

The one-day record coincides with a New York Times database showing the seven-day average of cases in the U.S. rose above 267,000 on Tuesday.

The recent surge is driven by a record number of children infected and hospitalized with COVID-19.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, lowered its previous estimate of new coronavirus cases driven by the rapidly spreading omicron variant. The federal health agency said Tuesday that omicron accounted for roughly 59 percent of all variants, far lower than the 73 percent figure it announced last week.

The surge of new infections in the United States has forced the cancelation of another postseason college football game. The Holiday Bowl was canceled Tuesday just hours before the game’s scheduled kickoff in San Diego, California, when UCLA (the University of California, Los Angeles) announced it would be unable to play against North Carolina State because too many players had been diagnosed with the infection.

Five postseason games have been canceled, while at least one bowl game is going ahead with a different team. Central Michigan will meet Washington State in Friday’s Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, after the Miami Hurricanes were forced to drop out. Central Michigan was supposed to play in the Arizona Bowl, but that game was canceled after Boise State withdrew.

Officials with the coming major college football championship playoffs have warned the four teams – Alabama, Cincinnati, Michigan and Georgia – that if they cannot play in Friday’s semifinal matchups, they may have to forfeit.

The U.S. is among several nations reporting record new numbers of infections. France on Tuesday reported a new one-day record of 179,807 new cases, making it one of the highest single-day tallies worldwide since the start of the pandemic.

Denmark, which has the world’s highest infection rate, with 1,612 cases per 100,000 people, posted a single-day record of 16,164 new infections on Monday.

Other European nations reporting new record-setting numbers of one-day infections Tuesday include Britain (138,831), Greece (21,657), Italy (78,313), Portugal (17,172) and Spain (99,671).

Australia is also undergoing a dramatic increase in new cases driven by omicron, posting nearly 18,300 infections Wednesday, well above Tuesday’s previous high of about 11,300.

New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, reported just over 11,200 infections Wednesday – nearly double the 6,602 new cases posted the previous day.

Worldwide, the number of recorded cases increased by 11% last week, according to the World Health Organization. The United Nations agency said Wednesday the risk posed by omicron remains “very high.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Police: Gunman in Denver Who Killed 5 Targeted Some Victims

Posted on by SeeUS

A gunman who went on a shooting rampage in several locations around the Denver area, killing five people and wounding two, targeted his victims based on previous personal and business dealings, authorities said.

Lyndon James McLeod, 47, was also killed Monday night after he shot a police officer who confronted him in a busy shopping district in the Denver suburb of Lakewood. The officer managed to fire back at McLeod, killing him, Lakewood police spokesperson John Romero said Tuesday.

Matt Clark, commander of the Denver Police Department’s Major Crimes Division, said the gunman knew most of his victims but not the last person he shot — a clerk in a hotel in Lakewood’s Belmar shopping area. Sarah Steck, 28, who died of her injuries Tuesday, was apparently targeted because of a dispute with the hotel, not with her, Clark said.

McLeod once owned a business in Denver called Flat Black Ink Corp. at an address that is now World Tattoo Studio, according to records from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. A man who answered the phone at World Tattoo Studio hung up after he was asked about McLeod on Tuesday evening.

The first shooting took place at a tattoo shop less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from that address. Four of the victims, including three who died, were shot at two tattoo shops in the Denver area.

Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen said during a news conference that McLeod was on the radar of law enforcement and had been investigated in both 2020 and 2021. He declined to say what McLeod was investigated for but said charges were not filed against him.

The shootings started around 5:30 p.m. in central Denver along Broadway, a busy street lined with shops, bars and restaurants, where two women were killed and a man was injured but expected to survive, police said. Soon after, McLeod forced his way into a home that also housed a business nearby, pursued the occupants through the building and fired shots, but no one was injured, Clark said. Then a man was shot and killed in a home near Denver’s Cheesman Park, he said.

Later, Denver police chased the vehicle believed to have been involved in the shootings, and an officer exchanged gunfire with McLeod, Clark said. McLeod was able to get away, fleeing into Lakewood, after gunfire disabled the officer’s cruiser, he said.

Just before 6 p.m., the Lakewood Police Department received a report of shots fired at the Lucky 13 tattoo shop. Danny Schofield, 38, was killed there, Romero said.

When officers spotted the car suspected of being involved in the shooting at the Belmar shopping area — where shops line sidewalks in a modern version of a downtown — McLeod opened fire and officers shot back, Romero said. He ran away and allegedly threatened some people in a restaurant with a gun before going to the Hyatt House hotel, where he spoke briefly with Steck, the clerk, before shooting her, he said.

About a minute later, the Lakewood police officer saw McLeod and ordered him to drop his weapon. She was shot in the abdomen but fired back at him, Romero said.

The wounded officer, whose name has not been released, underwent surgery Monday night. She is expected to make a full recovery.

Family members identified one of the other victims Tuesday as Alicia Cardenas, 44, the owner of the Sol Tribe tattoo shop, where the first shooting happened.

Alfredo Cardenas told KMGH-TV that his only daughter owned her first tattoo shop when she was 19 and had worked in the Broadway location in Denver for 15 to 20 years.

“Very gregarious, very friendly, but she was a very determined person,” he said. “She knew where she was going.”

Alicia Cardenas is survived by her 12-year-old, Alfredo Cardenas said.

On Tuesday, candles, flower bouquets and some containers of fruit rested in the doorway of Cardenas’ shop as people, including her fiance, Daniel Clelland, stopped by to remember a woman they said cared for so many.

“I don’t know why someone would do this,” Clelland said.
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Uber, Electric Vehicle Group Partner to Deploy Electric Motorcycles Across Africa in 2022

Posted on by SeeAF

Just as in most cities across Africa, motorcycle taxi drivers are in almost every corner of Nairobi. Josephat Mutiso is among the first drivers here to make the switch from fossil fuel to electric motorcycles, thanks to a partnership between Uber and Opibus.

“This is way efficient,” he said. “It is even way easier to ride than the other one. You see, this one you don’t have so ma”ny controls, you just have the throttle, no clutch. The only thing you are focusing on is just the front brake and the rear brake. That way it gives you even more control of the bike. And it is pretty light, it does not vibrate. So even clients like this one better.”    

Motorcycle taxis have become increasingly common as public transportation in cities across Africa.  

Joyce Msuya, the deputy executive director of UNEP, the U.N. Environmental Program, notes that motorcycle taxis have become increasingly common as public transportation in cities across Africa.  

“The number of newly registered motorcycles, commonly used as taxis or boda boda, was estimated in 2018 at 1.5 million and will likely grow to five million by 2030,” she said. “Most are inefficient, poorly maintained and heavily polluting. UNEP’s study shows that boda boda drivers can more than double their income if they make the switch.”

In March, the U.N. Environment Program launched the first electric bikes project in Kenya, creating the momentum for Africa’s shift to electric mobility. The partnership between Uber and Opibus seeks to accelerate that shift.   

“We are just excited to get as many people exposed to the new technology that we built as possible so they know there is an option,” said Alex Pitkin, the chief technology officer at Opibus. “Uber provides, obviously, a lot of boda boda riders, that’s our target client. They often don’t know how beneficial electric motorcycles can be in terms of money-saving, safety, fuel savings, maintenance savings, you know that kind of thing. And longevity of the product as well, they don’t know that.”  

Across the world, there is a shift toward electric vehicles due to rising pollution and climate-damaging emissions from vehicles.  

The African continent has not been left behind in that movement.   

“Targeting Africa and African countries is also part of that movement and as Opibus, that is where we are targeting,” said Lucy Mugala, an engineer at Opibus. “We want all of us to move together. We all move towards a greener energy, a greener economy. And we can only do that if we all come together and empower and build capacity locally.”     

Mutiso says he is earning more money now.  

“Everything I used to earn and save for the maintenance of the bike,” he said. “Right now I’m saving it. So right now, I’m making more.”  

Experts say that a global move to electric mobility is essential to the future and that drivers like Mutiso will benefit.  
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Cape Town to Honor Tutu with Interfaith Service

Posted on by SeeAF

Cape Town is hosting an interfaith service Wednesday to honor Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. 

The city said the event at city hall would be attended by members of Tutu’s family along with representatives of different faiths. 

It is just one of many tributes to Tutu being held this week following his death Sunday at the age of 90. 

Tutu is due to lie in state Thursday and Friday at St. George’s Cathedral, his former parish in Cape Town. 

A funeral Saturday will be limited to 100 attendees due to coronavirus restrictions. Tutu’s ashes will later be interred at the cathedral’s mausoleum. 

Each day this week, the bells at the cathedral are tolling for 10 minutes, and a guest book was placed outside for mourners to sign. 

Tutu, a Nobel peace laureate, was known worldwide for anti-apartheid activism and as a champion of human rights. 

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Harry Reid, Former US Senate Majority Leader, Dies at 82

Posted on by SeeUS

Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader and Nevada’s longest-serving member of Congress, has died. He was 82. 

Reid died Tuesday, “peacefully,” surrounded by family, “following a courageous, four-year battle with pancreatic cancer,” Landra Reid said of her husband in a statement.

“Harry was a devout family man and deeply loyal friend,” she said. “We greatly appreciate the outpouring of support from so many over these past few years. We are especially grateful for the doctors and nurses that cared for him. Please know that meant the world to him.” 

Funeral arrangements would be announced in the coming days, she said.

The combative former boxer-turned-lawyer was widely acknowledged as one of the toughest dealmakers in Congress, a conservative Democrat in an increasingly polarized chamber who vexed lawmakers of both parties with a brusque manner and this motto: “I would rather dance than fight, but I know how to fight.” 

Over a 34-year career in Washington, Reid thrived on behind-the-scenes wrangling and kept the Senate controlled by his party through two presidents — Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama — a crippling recession and the Republican takeover of the House after the 2010 elections. 

He retired in 2016 after an accident left him blind in one eye.

Reid in May 2018 revealed he’d been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment.

Abrupt and underestimated 

He was known in Washington for his abrupt style, typified by his habit of unceremoniously hanging up the phone without saying goodbye.

“Even when I was president, he would hang up on me,” Obama said in a 2019 tribute video to Reid.

He was frequently underestimated, most recently in the 2010 elections when he looked like the underdog to tea party favorite Sharron Angle. Ambitious Democrats, assuming his defeat, began angling for his leadership post. But Reid defeated Angle, 50% to 45%, and returned to the pinnacle of his power. For Reid, it was legacy time. 

“I don’t have people saying, ‘He’s the greatest speaker,’ ‘He’s handsome,’ ‘He’s a man about town,'” Reid told The New York Times in December that year. “But I don’t really care. I feel very comfortable with my place in history.” 

Nevada born 

Born in Searchlight, Nevada, to an alcoholic father who killed himself at 58 and a mother who served as a laundress in a bordello, Reid grew up in a small cabin without indoor plumbing and swam with other children at a pool at a local brothel. He hitchhiked to Basic High School in Henderson, Nevada, about 65 km from home, where he met the woman he would marry in 1959, Landra Gould. At Utah State University, the couple became members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

The future senator put himself through George Washington University law school by working nights as a U.S. Capitol police officer. 

At age 28, Reid was elected to the Nevada Assembly and at age 30 became the youngest lieutenant governor in Nevada history as Governor Mike O’Callaghan’s running mate in 1970. 

Elected to the U.S. House in 1982, Reid served in Congress longer than anyone else in Nevada history. He narrowly avoided defeat in a 1998 Senate race when he held off Republican John Ensign, then a House member, by 428 votes in a recount that stretched into January. 

After his election as Senate majority leader in 2007, he was credited with putting Nevada on the political map by pushing to move the state’s caucuses to February, at the start of presidential nominating season. That forced each national party to pour resources into the state, which still had only six votes in the Electoral College despite having the country’s fastest growth over the past two decades. Reid’s extensive network of campaign workers and volunteers twice helped deliver the state for Obama. 

In 2016 Obama lauded Reid for his work in the Senate, declaring, “I could not have accomplished what I accomplished without him being at my side.” 

Legislative battles 

The most influential politician in Nevada for more than a decade, Reid steered hundreds of millions of dollars to the state and was credited with almost single-handedly blocking construction of a nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain outside Las Vegas. He often went out of his way to defend social programs that make easy political targets, calling Social Security “one of the great government programs in history.” 

Reid championed suicide prevention, often telling the story of his father. He stirred controversy in 2010 when he said in a speech on the floor of the Nevada legislature it was time to end legal prostitution in the state. 

Reid’s political moderation meant he was never politically secure in his home state, or entirely trusted in the increasingly polarized Senate. Democrats grumbled about his votes for a ban on so-called partial-birth abortion and the Iraq war resolution in 2002, something Reid later said was his biggest regret in Congress.

He voted against most gun control bills and in 2013 after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, dropped a proposed ban on assault weapons from the Democrats’ gun control legislation. The package, he said, would not pass with the ban attached. 

Reid’s Senate particularly chafed members of the House, both Republicans and Democrats. When then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, muscled Obama’s health care overhaul through the House in 2009, a different version passed the Senate and the reconciliation process floundered long enough for Republicans to turn it into an election-year weapon they used to demonize the California Democrat and cast the legislation as a big-government power grab. Obama signed the measure into law in March 2010. But angered by the recession and inspired by the small-government tea party, voters the next year swept Democrats from the House majority.

Reid hand-picked a Democratic candidate who won the election to replace him in 2016, former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, and built a political machine in the state that helped Democrats win a series of key elections in 2016 and 2018. 

On his way out of office, he repeatedly lambasted Donald Trump, calling him at one point “a sociopath” and “a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate.” 

Target of organized crime

As head of the Nevada Gaming Commission investigating organized crime, Reid became the target of a car bomb in 1980. Police called it an attempted homicide. Reid blamed Jack Gordon, who went to prison for trying to bribe him in a sting operation that Reid participated in over illegal efforts to bring new games to casinos in 1978. 

Following Reid’s lengthy farewell address on the Senate floor in 2016, his Nevada colleague Republican Dean Heller declared: “It’s been said that it’s better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both. And as me and my colleagues here today and those in the gallery probably agree with me, no individual in American politics embodies that sentiment today more than my colleague from Nevada, Harry Mason Reid.” 

 
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Andrew’s Lawyers Say Accuser Can’t Sue Because She Doesn’t Live in US

Posted on by SeeUS

In a court filing Tuesday, lawyers for Prince Andrew say a lawsuit by an American who claims he sexually abused her when she was 17 might have to be thrown out because she no longer lives in the United States. 

Attorneys Andrew Brettler and Melissa Lerner said they recently discovered that Virginia Giuffre has lived in Australia all but two of the last 19 years and cannot claim she’s a resident of Colorado, where she hasn’t lived since at least 2019. 

In an August lawsuit filed in federal court in New York, Giuffre claimed the prince abused her on multiple occasions in 2001. 

The prince’s lawyers in October asked Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to throw out the lawsuit, saying the prince “never sexually abused or assaulted” Giuffre. The lawyers acknowledged that Giuffre may well be a victim of sexual abuse by financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial. 

A message seeking comment from Giuffre to the latest filing by the prince’s lawyers was sent to a spokesperson for her lawyers. 

Last month, Kaplan said a trial in Giuffre’s lawsuit against the prince could be held between September and December 2022. 

But the prince’s lawyers say the new information about Giuffre’s residence should result in the suspension of any progress in the lawsuit toward trial, including depositions of Andrew and Giuffre, until the issue is settled as to whether her foreign residence disqualifies her from suing the prince in the U.S. 

They asked the judge to order Giuffre to respond to written legal requests about her residency and submit to a two-hour deposition on the issue. 

The lawyers wrote that Giuffre has an Australian driver’s license and was living in a $1.9 million home in Perth, Western Australia, where she has been raising three children with her husband, who is Australian. 

“Even if Ms. Giuffre’s Australian domicile could not be established as early as October 2015, there can be no real dispute that she was permanently living there with an intent to remain there as of 2019 — still two years before she filed this action against Prince Andrew,” the lawyers wrote. 

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Giuffre has. 
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In Russia, State Is Waging Hybrid War Against Media, Nobel Laureate Says

Posted on by SeeEU

In his Nobel speech, Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov described journalism as the “antidote to tyranny.” 

The editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta and his staff face frequent threats because of the independent paper’s investigative, hard-hitting coverage. Several of its journalists and contributors have been killed, including Anna Politkovskaya, who reported on human rights abuses in Chechnya.

A memorial to Politkovskaya was vandalized in December, just a few days after Muratov and Philippine journalist Maria Ressa were handed the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.

In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Russian Service, Muratov spoke about the struggle to defend and uphold media freedom in Russia and how the threat of violence and legal action affects reporting.

This interview has been translated from Russian and edited for length and clarity. 

Question: In your Nobel speech, you called journalism an antidote to tyranny. But in Russia, 15 years of freedom after the end of the Soviet Union have given way to censorship, persecution and killings, and a rollback of civil liberties and democracy. Why is this antidote not working in Russia?

Dmitry Muratov: Society allowed it, the country allowed it, the people allowed it. I reread a book by American researcher Olga Velikanova about the (Soviet) constitution of 1936. This constitution, “Stalin’s constitution,” was unique in its set of freedoms: equal voting rights, no more persecution of “kulaks” (wealthy members of the peasant class). It was considered the most progressive European constitution.

Stalin submitted it (nationwide) for discussion — but hundreds of thousands of letters poured in, saying, “We don’t want your freedoms. We don’t want those put in labor camps to come back. They may claim their property, but now it’s ours. Why do you give voting rights to collective farmers?”

I agree with Velikanova when she says that Stalin (soon) realized that people were ready for nonfreedom, for repression.

It seems to me that in many ways this story is happening again, of people not being ready to take responsibility for themselves. If that’s the case, then they are not ready to resume responsibility for this basic value of freedom of speech.

Question: Do you think that people are deterred from demanding change because of an awareness of what may happen if they do? 

Muratov: I would divide this question into two parts.

In the last century (the Soviet Union and Communism) lost about 100 million people. So how can we judge the country after that? Every family was orphaned in some way, everyone lost someone. Yet the only thing left that people could rely on was the state (even when it was responsible for their loss.) 

The second part of the question is more complicated. There was a moment in the 1990s when it seemed like we had freedom. Where did it all go? 

I don’t have an answer to that question. But for the first time in our history, money became an issue. Under socialism, everyone earned roughly the same, from 114 to 350 rubles. Members of the Politburo received 520.

Now you have to pay the mortgage, otherwise the family can be evicted. Largely, in my country, money did not come to mean personal freedom, the freedom to choose. Rather it meant dependence, dependence on the state. 

I’m not willing to condemn people … for not prioritizing freedom of speech, because for them, the freedom to feed their family is the priority. 

Question: What support do Russian journalists need from colleagues, from human rights activists, or even foreign countries?

Muratov: Readers’ support is very important. Nobody in the parliament represents the people. Only the authorities are represented. Therefore, the media have become a kind of parliament for readers by representing the interests of the people.

Ten years ago, a wonderful slogan was left at Bolotnaya Square (in Moscow). I wish I could give an award to the author of this slogan.

It read “Вы нас даже не представляете,” which translates as “You do not even represent us” or “You are incapable of envisioning who we are.”

(Editor’s note: the Russian word “представляете” has multiple meanings including “represent” and “envision,” which gives the slogan a double meaning.)

The Duma (parliament) still does not represent the people, but the media do. The media are a parliament of readers, and this is the most important thing.

In the past two and a half months alone, more than a hundred people have been declared a “foreign agent.” Let’s not pretend that is not the same as “enemy of the people.” Yes, in the Stalinist connotation — and in Russia it is the Stalinist connotation that is back in circulation right now — a “foreign agent” is an “enemy of the people.”

I am grateful to countries that have taken up the noble mission of taking in our journalists, human rights defenders, leaders of nongovernmental organizations.

Those countries have given us the opportunity to live and work, and to preserve the dignity of our professional journalists. 

Question: Does foreign support increase the risk that a journalist in Russia will be designated as a “foreign agent”? 

Muratov: The current financial monitoring system, which exists not only in our country but also in other countries, can see every penny from a foreign source. The safety of journalists depends on support, but if that support comes in the form of a dollar or a ruble, it certainly increases risks.

Those risks pose a huge threat to journalists, so I think that those countries we call democratic should think about how they can help and do no harm in the process. 

Question: Some people criticized your Nobel speech for not mentioning the Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who harassed Novaya Gazeta. Some said that mentions of President Vladimir Putin were not critical enough. What is your response?

Muratov: You know, I don’t follow social media much. I run a professional media outlet. But I understand those people who criticized me, because they were forced to leave their country, otherwise they would have been imprisoned, arrested.

I can have my own opinion about Leonid Volkov (chief of staff for jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny), but I also understand perfectly well that if he had stayed, he would have been put in jail. How can I judge him, or (Navalny team members and supporters) Lyubov Sobol, for example, or Georgy Alburov? They’ve been pushed out of the country. 

They have a high pain threshold, and they believe that there needs to be a different degree of outrage about what led to Navalny being a hostage in prison for over 300 days. Navalny has become a political prisoner based on false charges.

So at first I thought, “Are you stupid or something, don’t you get it?” and then I thought, “Maybe it’s me who doesn’t get something.”

If someone is disappointed (by my speech), I certainly will not apologize, I have nothing to apologize for. But next time, I promise to consider their feedback. 

Question: What is more dangerous for journalists in Russia: direct violence or repressive laws? 

Muratov: (There is) a hybrid war of the state against the media. It is a hybrid war waged by different people who consider themselves representatives of the state. The nature of hybrid war is such that you can be killed and not even know who did it.

However, if we are talking about which threat is greater for a journalist, the law or violence, the threat of physical violence, as usual, is greater.

(Vandals) desecrated the plaque to Politkovskaya on our building. Before that, they poured toxic liquid everywhere and made it impossible to work for a week. During a parade of Kadyrov’s troops (in Chechnya) they said that Putin should close (Novaya Gazeta) or they’ll take matters into their own hands.

We’ve been sent powders and a severed pig’s head, with an SS Nazi dagger stuck in it. By the way, I still have not found out who tortured the poor pig.

Then they sent us sheep. Ten sheep in a cage, to be exact, delivered near the entrance to the office. We saved the sheep, we gave them to a farm, and they are thriving. They thrive, as do the knuckleheads who wage a hybrid war against us, because they think they captured the state’s frame of mind. 

Question: The Russian Constitution prohibits censorship. Could journalists appeal in court against what they consider censorship and win? 

Muratov: Journalists cannot win in a Russian court. They can win in the European Court of Human Rights; we win all the time. But we always lose in Russian courts. That’s how things are now. We don’t need to pretend otherwise.

We have created a caste state, a corporate state. The ruling caste lives by one set of laws, while the rest of the people live by another. We live by the laws they made for us. Under these laws, we can’t do anything, can’t work, can’t fully perform our duties as journalists. 

This article originated in VOA’s Russian Service.

 
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US, Russia to Discuss Ukraine During January Talks

Posted on by SeeEU

The United States and Russia will hold talks in January about nuclear arms control and tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border. 

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told reporters the two sides would meet January 10, followed by Russia-NATO talks on January 12. In addition, Russia, the United States and other members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which includes Ukraine, will participate in a meeting January 13. 

“When we sit down to talk, Russia can put its concerns on the table, and we will put our concerns on the table with Russia’s activities as well,” the spokesperson said. “There will be areas where we can make progress and areas where we will disagree. That’s what diplomacy is about.” 

Western governments have been alarmed by the buildup of Russian troops along the border with Ukraine, expressing concern about potential plans for a Russian invasion. Russian leader Vladimir Putin has denied any such plans and has demanded guarantees against NATO expansion close to its territory. 

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister, has tweeted Ukraine’s support for the talks and desire to participate. 

“We support the idea of the US, the EU, NATO talking to Russia as long as the primary topic is ending the international armed conflict, Russia’s war on Ukraine. Euro-Atlantic security is at stake in Ukraine, therefore Ukraine should be part of security consultations on the matter.” 

The U.S. National Security Council spokesperson said that in respect to Ukraine’s own interests, the U.S.-Russia talks will not reach any decisions about Ukraine. 

“President Biden’s approach on Ukraine has been clear and consistent: Unite the alliance behind two tracks — deterrence and diplomacy. We are unified as an alliance on the consequences Russia would face if it moves on Ukraine,” the spokesperson said. 

On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier strike group to remain in the Mediterranean Sea, delaying its voyage to the Middle East. 

The “schedule change reflects the need for a persistent presence in Europe and is necessary to reassure our allies and partners of our commitment to collective defense,” a defense official said. 

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 

 
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China Slams US Over Space Station’s ‘Close Encounters’ With SpaceX Satellites

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Beijing on Tuesday accused the United States of irresponsible and unsafe conduct in space over two “close encounters” between the Chinese space station and satellites operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. 

Tiangong, China’s new space station, had to maneuver to avoid colliding with one Starlink satellite in July and another in October, according to a note submitted by Beijing to the United Nations space agency this month. 

The note said the incidents “constituted dangers to the life or health of astronauts aboard the China Space Station.” 

“The U.S. … ignores its obligations under international treaties, posing a serious threat to the lives and safety of astronauts,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a routine briefing on Tuesday. 

Starlink, a division of SpaceX, operates a constellation of close to 2,000 satellites that aims to provide internet access to most parts of Earth. 

SpaceX is a private American company, independent of the U.S. military and civilian space agency, NASA. 

But China said in its note to the U.N. that members of the Outer Space Treaty — the foundation of international space law — are also responsible for actions by their nongovernment entities. 

Addressing reporters, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price declined to respond specifically to the Chinese accusations. 

“We have encouraged all countries with space programs to be responsible actors, to avoid acts that may put in danger astronauts, cosmonauts, others who are orbiting the Earth or who have the potential to,” Price said. 

SpaceX has not responded to a request for comment. 

Evasive maneuvers to reduce the risk of collisions in space are becoming more frequent as more objects enter Earth’s orbit, said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 

“We’ve really noticed the increase in the number of close passes since Starlink started getting deployed,” he told AFP. 

Any collision would likely “completely demolish” the Chinese space station and kill everyone on board, McDowell added. 

The core module of China’s station Tiangong — meaning “heavenly palace” — entered orbit earlier this year, and it is expected to become fully operational next year. 

‘Prepare to boycott Tesla’ 

Beijing’s complaint about Starlink prompted criticism on Chinese social media of SpaceX’s billionaire founder Musk, who is widely admired in China. 

One hashtag about the topic on the Twitter-like Weibo platform racked up 90 million views Tuesday. 

“How ironic that Chinese people buy Tesla, contributing large sums of money so Musk can launch Starlink, and then he (nearly) crashes into China’s space station,” one user commented. 

Musk’s electric car maker Tesla sells tens of thousands of vehicles in China each month, though the firm’s reputation has taken a hit this year following a spate of crashes, scandals and data security concerns. 

“Prepare to boycott Tesla,” said another Weibo user, echoing a common response in China to foreign brands perceived to be acting contrary to national interests. 

 
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California Man Given Second Life Term in 2019 Synagogue Attack

Posted on by SeeUS

A 22-year-old white supremacist was sentenced Tuesday to life in federal prison for killing a woman and injuring three others when he burst into a Southern California synagogue in 2019, adding to a life sentence he received three months earlier in state court.

John T. Earnest declined to speak in a courtroom full of victims, families and congregants. In state court, his attorney said he wanted to speak but a judge refused, saying he didn’t want to give a platform for his hate-filled speech. 

Earnest’s attorney, Ellis Johnston III, said his client acknowledged his actions were “inappropriate,” a statement that was greeted with skepticism by prosecutors. Peter Ko, a federal prosecutor, said Earnest’s expression of regret came shortly after the shooting in a phone call to someone else. 

U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia said the federal and state life sentences would run one after the other instead of concurrently, acknowledging it was symbolic but that it was meant to send a strong message. The judge denied a defense attorney’s request to have Earnest stay in state prison. 

“Obviously this is as serious as it gets,” Battaglia said near the end of a two-hour hearing during which Earnest, tied to restraints, looked straight ahead without expression.

Earnest pleaded guilty to federal charges in September after the Justice Department said it wouldn’t seek the death penalty. Defense attorneys and prosecutors recommended a life sentence, plus 30 years. 

That same month, Earnest received another life term under a plea agreement with state charges that spared him the death penalty. His conviction for murder and attempted murder at the synagogue and arson for an earlier fire at a nearby mosque brought a life sentence without parole, plus 137 years in prison. 

Minutes after the shooting on the last day of Passover, Earnest called a 911 dispatcher to say he shot up the synagogue to save white people.

“I’m defending our nation against the Jewish people, who are trying to destroy all white people,” he said. 

The San Diego man was inspired by mass shootings at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh and two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, shortly before he attacked Chabad of Poway, a synagogue near San Diego, on April 27, 2019. He frequented 8chan, a dark corner of the internet, for those disaffected by mainstream social media sites to post extremist, racist and violent views. 

Earnest legally bought a semi-automatic rifle in San Diego a day before the attack, according to a federal affidavit. He entered the synagogue with 10 bullets loaded and 50 more on his vest but fled after struggling to reload. Worshippers chased him to his car. 

Earnest killed 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye, who was hit twice in the foyer, and wounded an 8-year-old girl, her uncle and Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was leading a service on the major Jewish holiday. 

Gilbert-Kaye’s husband, daughter, two sisters and others spoke about how the victims brightened their lives and called Earnest a coward, an evil animal and a monster. 

Earnest’s parents issued a statement after the shooting expressing shock and sadness, calling their son’s actions a “terrifying mystery.” Their son was an accomplished student, athlete and musician who was studying to be a nurse at California State University, San Marcos. 

“To our great shame, he is now part of the history of evil that has been perpetrated on Jewish people for centuries,” they said. 

 
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Sudan Officials Say Defunct Mine Collapses, Kills 38 People

Posted on by SeeAF

Sudanese authorities said at least 38 people were killed Tuesday when a defunct gold mine collapsed in West Kordofan province.

The country’s state-run mining company said in a statement the collapse of the closed, non-functioning mine happened in the village of Fuja 700 kilometers (435 miles) south of the capital, Khartoum. It said there were also injuries without giving a specific tally.

Local media reported that several shafts collapsed at the Darsaya mine, and that besides the dead at least eight injured people were taken to a local hospital.

The mining company posted images on Facebook showing villagers gathering at the site as at least two dredgers worked to find possible survivors and bodies.

Other images showed people preparing traditional graves to bury the dead.

The company said the mine was not functional but local miners returned to work it after security forces guarding the site left the area. It did not say when the mine stopped working.

The Sudanese Mineral Resources Limited Company in its statement called for troops to guard the site to prevent unregulated mining. It also called on local communities to help it resume its mining activities in the area, which were suspended in 2019. It did not elaborate.

Sudan is a major gold producer with numerous mines scattered across the country. In 2020, the East African nation produced 36.6 tons, the second most on the continent, according to official numbers.

The transitional government has begun regulating the industry in the past two years amid allegations of gold smuggling.

Collapses are common in Sudan’s gold mines, where safety standards are not widely in effect.
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Jimmy Carter Hailed in Canada for 1952 Nuclear Rescue

Posted on by SeeUS

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is being hailed as a national hero in Canada after publication of an article about an obscure 1952 incident in which a Carter-led team helped prevent the world’s first nuclear accident from becoming a much worse disaster. 

A recounting of the incident appeared this month on the Facebook page of the Historical Society of Ottawa and quickly went viral across Canada. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp., the country’s national broadcaster, followed up with its own version soon after. 

“The Historical Society of Ottawa has been telling the great stories of the Ottawa area’s past for over 123 years,” the society’s outreach officer, Ben Weiss, told VOA. “No story, however, has resonated like this one. 

“I had learned of this amazing story reading Jimmy Carter’s memoirs many years ago. Yet I had no idea my post would go viral as it did. Almost 1 million views on Facebook so far — and that many again reshared on Twitter.” 

Carter, a young U.S. Navy lieutenant in 1952, was in in nearby Schenectady, New York, training to work aboard America’s first nuclear submarine at the time of the accident at a reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, just 180 km from Ottawa, the Canadian capital. 

According to a Canadian government website, mechanical problems and operator error “led to overheating fuel rods and significant damage” to the core of the reactor, prompting officials to turn to the United States for help in dismantling the device.

A total of 26 Americans, including several volunteers, rushed to Chalk River to help with the hazardous job. Carter led a team of men who, after formulating a plan, descended into the highly radioactive site for 90 seconds apiece to perform specialized tasks. 

Carter’s job, according to the CBC recounting, was simply to turn a single screw. But even that limited exposure carried serious risks; Carter was told that he might never be able to have children again, though in fact his daughter Amy was born years later. 

For Weiss, the story and the reaction to it are a fitting tribute to Carter, who has devoted much of his post-presidency to public service but who at age 97 is in failing health. 

“To learn of Carter’s ‘action hero’ exploits as a young naval officer (here in Canada of all places!) just seemed a fitting final puzzle piece to complete the story of this remarkable man’s life,” Weiss told VOA in an email exchange. 

“I think many Canadians — and Americans — share a heartfelt fondness for Jimmy Carter. At least those of us of a certain generation.” 

That view is shared by Bruce Heyman, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada. “The recent story of President Jimmy Carter and his heroic activity to prevent a nuclear disaster in Canada is one of many stories that tell us about one of America’s great citizens,” he said in an interview. 

VOA reporter Kane Farabaugh, who has interviewed Carter more than 20 times and is researching a book on the Chalk River incident, believes the former president would be quick to deflect any credit for his role in averting a catastrophe. 

“He did not do this by himself,” Farabaugh said. “He did this with a group of Navy men who were all tasked with the same job. I am sure what he would say is that he has to share the credit.” 

“Let’s think about how humble Jimmy Carter is about all this,” Farabaugh added. “Nobody has really heard about this story almost 70 years past the incident. For almost 70 years, this is an event which has existed in obscurity. President Carter, when he was running for president, didn’t really discuss this. Could you imagine today?” 

Robert A. Strong, author of a book on Carter’s foreign policy, attributes the surge of interest to “a kind of revival of academic and popular interest in Carter,” who was defeated in his bid for a second term as president in 1980. 

“On reflection, Carter is a far better president than was recognized at the time,” said Strong, author of “Working in the World: Jimmy Carter and the Making of American Foreign Policy.” 

Recent reappraisals of Carter’s presidency include an Al Jazeera article titled, “Jimmy Carter’s legacy seems to improve with age,” and PBS a report titled, “Why Jimmy Carter may be the most misunderstood president in American history.” 

“What I want to remind people of, is the Jimmy Carter who we have come to respect and admire post-presidency, is the same Jimmy Carter who was in the White House,” Strong said.
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