In his first State of the Union address, U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday night condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and rallied bipartisan support for the country. VOA’s White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Month: March 2022
Biden Says Putin ‘Miscalculated’ on Ukraine
In his first State of the Union address Tuesday night, U.S. President Joe Biden touted his success in uniting much of the world against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden said Ukraine is on the front line of the global battle between democracies and autocracies, and that democracy will prevail.
With Putin ratcheting up attacks on major Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv and Kyiv, Biden stood in the House chamber and told Americans the free world is united against Putin’s aggression.
“The free world is holding him accountable,” Biden said. “Along with 27 members of the European Union, including France, Germany, Italy, as well as countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and many others, even Switzerland are inflicting pain on Russia and supporting the people of Ukraine. Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been.”
Biden said Putin badly miscalculated when he launched a full-scale invasion of his neighbor, meeting “a wall of strength he never anticipated or imagined” instead of a world that would “roll over.”
“He thought he could divide us at home in this chamber and this nation. He thought he could divide us in Europe as well, but Putin was wrong. We are ready, we are united, and that’s what we did,” Biden said.
The U.S. leader listed some of the major actions the United States and other governments have taken in response to Russia’s invasion, including sanctions against the country’s financial system, a new U.S. Justice Department task force targeting Russian oligarchs, a ban on Russian flights within U.S. air space and direct support to Ukraine in the form of military, economic and humanitarian aid.
“In the battle between democracy and autocracies, democracies are rising to the moment, and the world is clearly choosing the side of peace and security,” Biden said. “This is a real test. It’s going to take time. So let us continue to draw inspiration from the iron will of the Ukrainian people.”
Among the topics not discussed in the address was the chaotic departure of U.S.-led NATO forces from Afghanistan last August. But in the Republican response to Biden’s speech, Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa blasted the president for what she called his failure there.
“The disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal did more than cost American lives; it betrayed our allies and emboldened our enemies,” Reynolds said.
Experts said in light of the current crisis, it makes sense that Biden devoted his foreign policy part of the speech to Ukraine, even though much there remains uncertain.
“So now it’s a moment where I think Biden thus far has proved a lot of his experience and value, but it all depends on how things play out in Ukraine,” Brian Katulis, vice president of policy at the Middle East Institute, told VOA.
Another expert told VOA the strong positive, bipartisan response Biden received on his Ukraine remarks will be noticed in Moscow.
“And foreign policy wise, that’s a very important signal,” said Michael Kimmage, professor of history at the Catholic University of America and fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “Putin will be looking for any kind of division or vulnerability in American politics. I think everybody in the room, not just Biden, but everybody in the room knew this is not the moment to send that signal.”
President Biden again made clear the United States will not send troops into Ukraine, but vowed that he and the other members of the NATO alliance will defend NATO territory.
“For that purpose, we have mobilized American ground forces, air squadrons, ship deployments to protect NATO countries including Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia,” Biden said. “As I have made crystal clear, the United States and our Allies will defend every inch of territory that is NATO territory with the full force of our collective power. Every single inch.”
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Latest Developments in Ukraine: March 2
Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine
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Amid Ukraine Exodus, Reports Emerge of Bias Against Africans
African workers and students seeking to flee Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion are complaining of being blocked from buses, trains and border crossing points while priority is given to Ukrainian citizens.
A VOA reporter in western Ukraine says that priority is being given to Ukrainians but that he has not seen evidence Africans are being treated differently from other foreigners.
Nevertheless, some Africans — among the hundreds of thousands of people desperately trying to leave Ukraine — are alleging racial discrimination, prompting denials from Ukrainian authorities and concern from the United States and international bodies.
Augustine Akoi Kollie, a Liberian national studying medicine in the western Ukraine’s city of Ternopil, said he witnessed the disparities while waiting overnight Saturday to cross the border near Suceava, Romania.
People stood shivering in long lines, clutching luggage and children, and “if a Ukrainian comes, you have to shift and make way for the Ukrainians to go to the front,” Kollie told VOA. Although authorities called for women and children to be processed first, African women were left behind, he said.
“It was racial discrimination,” he said, “because if you say you are taking women and children, you have foreign students there who are females. So why are you not taking them?”
Kollie also saw aggressive behavior, which one of his traveling companions captured on video while they waited at the border. The video clip, shared with VOA, shows a nighttime scene of several uniformed men shoving what Kollie called “foreign students,” who were sitting on the ground and barely visible behind a parked vehicle. The men fired several shots into the air.
His account dovetails with reports by other news media.
A 24-year-old Nigerian doctor told The New York Times she was stranded for over two days at the Ukraine-Poland border crossing at the Polish town of Medyka, with guards holding back foreigners while allowing Ukrainians to pass through.
“They were beating up people with sticks,” the doctor, Chineye Mbagwu, told The Times. “They would slap them, beat them and push them to the end of the queue. It was awful.”
The hashtag #AfricansinUkraine has been trending on Twitter, showing video clips of Black people appearing to be denied boarding on a train or pulled from seating. VOA has not been able to authenticate the videos independently.
A VOA correspondent reporting from Ukraine said authorities there have prioritized Ukrainians for outbound buses and trains, making it harder for foreigners — including him, a white European national — to leave.
Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted Tuesday: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected Ukrainians and non-citizens in many devastating ways. Africans seeking evacuation are our friends and need to have equal opportunities to return to their home countries safely. Ukraine’s government spares no effort to solve the problem.”
Disturbing reports
The African Union released a statement Monday saying its top officials — current chair Macky Sall, president of Senegal, and Moussa Faki Mahamat, African Union Commission chairperson — were “particularly disturbed by reports that African citizens on the Ukrainian side of the border are being refused the right to cross the border to safety.”
“Reports that Africans are singled out for unacceptable dissimilar treatment would be shockingly racist and in breach (of) international law,” the statement continued.
The International Committee of the Red Cross could not confirm such reports, “but they are disturbing,” the agency said in an email to VOA Tuesday. “Safe passage and the ability to seek safe haven is a right for everyone affected by conflict. The ICRC (is) working and responding to everyone affected by the fighting.”
The U.S. State Department has denounced any attempts at racial bias.
“We are aware of these media reports,” a department spokesperson said Monday. “Any act of racial discrimination, particularly in a crisis, is inexcusable.”
The spokesperson said the department was “engaging closely with U.N. agencies on the ground to ensure that every single person crossing into neighboring countries is received equally and with the protection assistance their circumstances require.”
Meanwhile, the AU has commended efforts by its member states and embassies in neighboring countries to receive African citizens and their families trying to leave Ukraine.
Nigeria’s ambassador to Romania, Safiya Ahmad Nuhu, told VOA’s Hausa Service that more than 600 Nigerians have arrived in Bucharest “and there are many more on buses that are coming from the various entry points.”
“The Romanian authorities have been very helpful in terms of coordination, preparation and assistance,” she added. “It’s not even just the government but even individuals, organizations, universities, private individuals — they’ve all been so helpful in providing assistance.”
Kollie, the Liberian student, said once he and his two companions crossed into Romania, they were given blankets, plenty of food and transportation to the town of Timisoara, where they’re sharing a hotel room. He said new arrivals were told they would get help with food and lodging for 30 days.
‘Exponential’ increase expected
The United Nations anticipates that, with a sustained Russian assault, refugees will continue to pour over Ukraine’s borders.
“I have rarely seen such an incredibly fast-rising exodus of people,” with numbers “rising exponentially hour after hour since Thursday,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, addressing the U.N. Security Council on Monday. “… We are currently planning for up to 4 million refugees in the coming days and weeks. Such a rapid increase would be a huge burden for receiving states.”
Already, the outward surge represents the largest displacement in Europe since the Balkan wars in the early 1990s, Grandi said. Then, more than 2 million people fled their homes, the U.N. refugee agency estimated at the time.
Grandi noted that amid the current crisis, more than 280,000 people have sought relief in Poland; in Hungary, 94,000; in Moldova, nearly 40,000; in Romania, 34,000; in Slovakia, 30,000 — plus tens of thousands elsewhere in Europe. Grandi said “a sizeable number” also have relocated to the Russian Federation.
The European Commission — the European Union’s executive arm — earlier this week had discussed asking member nations to grant temporary asylum for Ukrainians for up to three years, The New York Times and Reuters reported. Residents of Ukraine, which on Monday applied for EU membership, can currently stay for up to 90 days and travel visa-free within the bloc’s countries.
Asked by VOA about EU policy and provisions for Ukrainian and other refugees, the European Commission said in an email Tuesday that it would “soon propose (to) activate the Temporary Protection Directive to offer quick and effective assistance to people fleeing the war in Ukraine. The Commission stands ready to support its member states providing a safe haven for people fleeing Ukraine and is working on an overall contingency plan to respond to Russian aggression, which includes the protection of Ukrainian people. … We are considering all courses of action to help member states process arrivals quickly and effectively. Until we present our proposal, we are unable to go into further detail.”
As for reported mistreatment of people of color, the commission said: “All people in need, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, or their skin color, who are fleeing violence in Ukraine should be granted access to the EU.”
Contributors to this report include VOA’s Eastern Europe Chief Myroslava Gongadze, Grace Alheri Abdu of the Hausa Service, Ignatius Annor of the English to Africa Service, and Betty Ayoub and Carol Guensburg of the Africa Division.
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Biden: Putin ‘Will Never Gain the Hearts and Souls of the Ukrainian People’
U.S. President Joe Biden said late Tuesday Russian leader Vladimir Putin “badly miscalculated” in his invasion of neighboring Ukraine and the thought that he could make the free world “bend to his menacing ways.”
Biden used the beginning of his State of the Union address to the nation to express support for Ukraine and outline the widespread, unified response from Ukrainian allies that has included sending weapons and aid to Ukraine and imposing strong economic sanctions against Russia.
“Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks, but he will never gain the hearts and souls of the Ukrainian people,” Biden said. “He will never extinguish their love of freedom. He will never, never weaken the resolve of the free world.”
Biden announced the closing of U.S. air space to all Russian flights and said the U.S. Justice Department is forming a special task force “to go after the crimes of Russian oligarchs.”
He reiterated that the United States will not be sending troops to fight in Ukraine, while stating that NATO allies would “defend every inch” of territory in member states.
“The Ukrainians are fighting back with pure courage, but the next few days, weeks and months will be hard on them,” Biden said. “Putin has unleashed violence and chaos, but while he may make gains on the battlefield, he will pay a continuing high price over the long run.”
Among the audience in the U.S. Capitol was Ukraine Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova. Many of the lawmakers in attendance wore forms of yellow and blue, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, to show their support.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with Biden by phone Tuesday about sanctions against Russia and defense aid for Ukraine.
“We must stop the aggressor as soon as possible,” Zelenskyy tweeted.
Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, faced increased Russian shelling Tuesday, including a strike at the Kharkiv Regional State Administration building in the center of the city that Zelenskyy called “undisguised terror” and a war crime.
A day after hours of talks with Russian officials yielded no resolution on Ukraine’s demands for a cease-fire and a withdrawal of Russian forces, Zelenskyy again called for a halt in fighting to give negotiations a chance.
“It’s necessary to at least stop bombing people, just stop the bombing and then sit down at the negotiating table,” Zelenskyy told Reuters and CNN in a joint interview in a heavily guarded government compound in Kyiv.
A U.S. defense official told reporters that despite instances of Russian forces in some areas being slowed by logistical problems, the Russian military still has significant combat resources that have not yet been utilized in Ukraine.
One closely watched situation is the approach of a kilometers-long Russian column that has been making its way toward Kyiv.
The official said the U.S. assesses that since the invasion began last Thursday, Russia has launched more than 400 missiles, and that Ukraine’s air and missile defense systems remain viable.
International pressure on Russia continues, with Canada announcing Tuesday it will refer the situation in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court for a probe of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Ukraine.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday that Russian shelling of civilian infrastructure that took place Monday in Kharkiv “violates the laws of war.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed allegations of war crimes and told reporters that “Russian troops don’t conduct any strikes against civilian infrastructure and residential areas,” despite extensive, mounting evidence of Kremlin attacks on homes, schools and hospitals documented by reporters.
The United Nations General Assembly is also expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution calling for Russia to immediately withdraw its military forces from Ukraine and condemning Putin’s move earlier this week to “increase the readiness” of Russia’s nuclear forces.
The resolution, which is non-binding but does signal international opinion, follows a failed effort at the U.N. Security Council where Russia used its veto power to block a similar resolution.
In addition to sanctions that have directly targeted Russia’s banking system and figures close to Putin, many companies have halted their Russian operations in response to the invasion.
Exxon Mobil said it would exit Russia, joining other oil companies such as Shell and BP. Apple stopped selling iPhones and other products in Russia, while car maker Ford and airplane manufacturer Boeing announced they are suspending Russian operations.
Reuters reported late Tuesday that Russian President Putin issued a decree banning cash exports of foreign currency from the country exceeding $10,000 in value with effect from March 2, according to a Kremlin statement.
Also on Tuesday, Echo Moskvy, one of Russia’s oldest radio stations that is critical of the authorities, was taken off the airwaves. The Associated Press confirmed that the blockage, along with threats to shutter the renowned station permanently, is a result of its coverage of the invasion.
Ukraine’s parliament said a Russian missile hit the television tower in Kyiv. Local media reported the attack caused several explosions and Ukrainian channels stopped broadcasting shortly thereafter.
Ukrainian officials said five people were killed in the attack. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that it rekindles memories of the mass killing of Jews by Nazi SS troops and local collaborators during World War II.
“Kyiv TV tower, which has just been hit by a Russian missile, is situated on the territory of Babyn Yar. On September 29-30, 1941, Nazis killed over 33 thousand Jews here. 80 years later, Russian Nazis strike this same land to exterminate Ukrainians. Evil and barbaric.”
The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that more than 677,000 people, most of them women and children, had fled Ukraine to neighboring countries since Thursday. It said it expects 4 million people could eventually flee Ukraine.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters.
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Biden Uses State of the Union to Define US Values at Home, Abroad
President Joe Biden came to his first State of the Union address Tuesday night with tough words for his autocratic adversaries and a balm for his beleaguered population, battered by a grueling pandemic, rising prices and bitter political divides.
Biden strode into a full chamber of Congress, to applause and – incongruously after two years of the pandemic – nary a face mask in sight.
“Last year, COVID kept us apart,” Biden said. “This year we’re finally together again.”
Members of Congress waved small blue and yellow Ukrainian flags, and Biden wasted no time in addressing the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine, announcing that he was immediately closing U.S. airspace to Russian flights. He stuck to the topic for the next 10 minutes.
“Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the foundations of the free world thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways,” he said, to what appeared to be widespread applause from the crowd of both Democrats and Republicans. “But he badly miscalculated. He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead he met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people.”
As if to underscore that point, Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, joined first lady Jill Biden in her viewing box, and was greeted by a standing ovation. The White House said that the first lady had a small embroidered applique of a sunflower, Ukraine’s national flower, sewn onto the wrist of her dark blue dress for the speech.
The coronavirus pandemic and as always, the economy, also featured prominently in Biden’s address. He had previously addressed a joint session of Congress, but this is his first State of the Union speech.
On the pandemic, he said: “Because of the progress we’ve made, because of your resilience and the tools we have, tonight I can say we are moving forward safely, back to more normal routines.”
But the evolving crisis in Ukraine overshadowed much of the speech preparations, with Biden being compelled to deliver three speeches on the U.S. reaction to the conflict. The U.S. and NATO allies have leveled several rounds of bruising sanctions at Russia and at Putin personally.
In the past week, Biden has repeatedly addressed the escalating crisis in Ukraine.
Biden’s fiercest American critics have also spared no words in lobbing critiques at him, with former President Donald Trump on Tuesday saying that “there should be no war waging now in Ukraine, and it is terrible for humanity that Biden, NATO and the West have failed so terribly in allowing it to start.”
Biden’s speech will be followed by the Republican Party’s response, delivered by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.
‘Building a better America’
On the economy, Biden focused on four steps he plans to take: increasing manufacturing in the U.S. and strengthening supply chains; working to bring down prices of goods; promoting fair competition in order to protect small businesses; and eliminating barriers to well-paying jobs.
His economic pronouncements showed some of the deep divides in Congress, with members at one point booing at his mention of a pandemic relief bill known as the American Rescue Plan.
“I think I have a better idea to fight inflation: lower your cost, not your wages,” he said. “Make more cars and semiconductors in America or infrastructure and innovation in America or goods moving faster and cheaper in America. More jobs where you can earn a good living in America instead of relying on foreign supply chains. Let’s make it in America.”
This speech is usually a showcase for some pomp and reflection on what it means to be American. This year was no different. The first lady was joined in her box by eight guests who the White House says were selected “because they represent policies or themes to be addressed by the president in his speech.”
They included Americans who represent union labor, parents attending college, the health care workforce, technological innovators, military families, Indigenous Americans, and the future of America.
The youngest among them was seventh-grader Joshua Davis of Midlothian, Virginia, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a baby. At age 4, he advocated for the Virginia General Assembly to pass a bill making school safer for children with Type 1 diabetes.
As is customary in a State of the Union speech, Biden exercised his presidential prerogative to make an announcement: He told the chamber that just a day earlier, Joshua turned 13.
“Happy birthday, buddy, by the way,” Biden said.
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Despite Sanctions, Europe Continues to Bankroll Russia for Gas and Oil
Western nations are paying Russia hundreds of millions of dollars every day for gas and oil imports, despite sanctions imposed on the country’s banking and aviation sectors following its invasion of Ukraine. With around 40 percent of Europe’s energy needs imported from Russia, leaders are scrambling to find alternatives, as Henry Ridgwell reports from Berlin.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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MLB Cancels Opening Day After Sides Fail to End Lockout
Major League Baseball has canceled opening day, with Commissioner Rob Manfred announcing Tuesday the sport will lose regular-season games over a labor dispute for the first time in 27 years after acrimonious lockout talks collapsed in the hours before management’s deadline.
Manfred said he is canceling the first two series of the season that was set to begin March 31, dropping the schedule from 162 games to likely 156 games at most. Manfred said the league and union have not made plans for future negotiations. Players won’t be paid for missed games.
“My deepest hope is we get an agreement quickly,” Manfred said. “I’m really disappointed we didn’t make an agreement.”
After the sides made progress during 13 negotiating sessions over 16 1/2 hours Monday, the league sent the players’ association a “best and final offer” Tuesday on the ninth straight day of negotiations.
Players rejected that offer, setting the stage for MLB to follow through on its threat to cancel opening day.
“Not a particularly productive day today,” Manfred said.
At 5:10 p.m., Manfred issued a statement that many fans had been dreading: Nothing to look forward to on opening day, normally a spring standard of renewal for fans throughout the nation and some in Canada, too.
The ninth work stoppage in baseball history will be the fourth that causes regular season games to be canceled, leaving Fenway Park and Dodger Stadium as quiet in next month as Joker Marchant Stadium and Camelback Park have been during the third straight disrupted spring training.
“The concerns of our fans are at the very top of our consideration list,” Manfred said.
The lockout, in its 90th day, will plunge a sport staggered by the coronavirus pandemic and afflicted by numerous on-field issues into a self-inflicted hiatus over the inability of players and owners to divide a $10 billion industry. By losing regular-season games, scrutiny will fall even more intensely on Manfred, the commissioner since January 2015, and Tony Clark, the former All-Star first baseman who became union leader when Michael Weiner died in November 2013.
“Manfred gotta go,” tweeted Chicago Cubs pitcher Marcus Stroman.
Past stoppages were based on issues such as a salary cap, free-agent compensation and pensions. This one is pretty much solely over money.
This fight was years in the making, with players angered that payrolls decreased by 4% from 2015 through last year, many teams jettisoned a portion of high-priced veteran journeymen in favor of lower-priced youth, and some clubs gave up on competing in the short term to better position themselves for future years.
The sport will be upended by its second shortened season in three years. The 2020 schedule was cut from 162 games to 60 because of the pandemic, a decision players filed a grievance over and still are litigating. The disruption will create another issue if 15 days of the season are wiped out: Stars such as Shohei Ohtani, Pete Alonso, Jake Cronenworth and Jonathan India would be delayed an extra year from free agency.
Players would lose $20.5 million in salary for each day of the season that is canceled, according to a study by The Associated Press, and the 30 teams would lose large sums that are harder to pin down. Members of the union’s executive subcommittee stand to lose the most, with Max Scherzer forfeited $232,975 for each regular-season day lost, and Gerrit Cole $193,548.
Scherzer and free-agent reliever Andrew Miller were present for talks. Both stopped to sign autographs for fans as they left Roger Dean Stadium, the vacant spring training home of the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins where negotiations have been held since the start of last week.
The first 86 games of the 1973 season were canceled by a strike over pension negotiations, the 1981 season was fractured by a 50-day midseason strike over free agency compensation rules that canceled 713 games, and a strike that started in August 1994 over management’s attempt to gain a salary cap canceled the final 669 games and led to a three-week delay of the 1995 season, when schedules were cut from 162 games to 144.
Players and owners entered deadline day far apart on many key issues and unresolved on others. The most contentious proposals involve luxury tax thresholds and rates, the size of a new bonus pool for pre-arbitration players, minimum salaries, salary arbitration eligibility and the union’s desire to change the club revenue-sharing formula.
While the differences had narrowed in recent days, the sides remained apart, with how far apart depending on the point of view.
MLB proposed raising the luxury tax threshold from $210 million to $220 million in each of the next three seasons, $224 million in 2025 and $230 in 2026. Players asked for $238 million this year, $244 million in 2023, $250 million in 2024, $256 million in 2025 and $263 in 2026.
MLB proposed $25 million annually for a new bonus pool for pre-arbitration players, and the union dropped from $115 million to $85 million for this year, with $5 million yearly increases.
MLB proposed raising the minimum salary from $570,500 to $675,000 this year, with increases of $10,000 annually, and the union asked for $725,000 this year, $745,000 in 2023, $765,000 in 2024 and increases for 2025 and 2026 based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners.
your ad hereUkraine Envoy, Facebook Whistleblower to Sit With Jill Biden
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, and Frances Haugen, the former Facebook employee who exposed what the company may have known about damage caused by its social media platforms, will sit with Jill Biden for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, the White House said Tuesday.
Also sitting with the first lady are Patrick Gelsinger, the CEO of Intel Corp., and several people she met during the past year of traveling around the country on behalf of the Biden administration. They include a community college student-parent, a military spouse, a middle school student, a nurse, a member of a Native American tribe and a labor union member.
The guest list marks a big change from last year when Biden delivered a speech — not called a State of the Union address — to a joint session of Congress a few months after he took office in 2021.
The coronavirus pandemic was raging at the time and attendance for the annual presidential appearance in the House chamber in the U.S. Capitol was severely limited so that lawmakers, who were required to wear face coverings, could spread out and be socially distant.
Guests that lawmakers usually bring to the speech were barred last year because of the pandemic. The first lady attended alone, after having a virtual meeting with a group of guests.
But the COVID-19 situation has improved in the year since.
The federal government recently made mask-wearing optional in much of the U.S., including Washington, and congressional leaders invited all members of the House and Senate to attend, thought a negative COVID-19 test result was required.
Lawmakers were not allowed to bring guests this year, but that prohibition apparently did not extend to the first lady.
Jill Biden followed up on her public show of support for Ukraine on Monday — when she wore a white mask with a sunflower, the country’s national flower, to a public event at the White House — by inviting Markarova to sit with her for the nationally televised speech.
Tradition holds that the first lady invite guests who help personify policies and positions that are important to the administration. President Biden has rallied Western nations in opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision last week to launch a war against its smaller neighbor, Ukraine.
Haugen has said Facebook’s systems amplify online hate and extremism and fail to protect young people from harmful content, and said the company lacks any incentive to fix the problems. Her revelations last year shed light on an internal crisis at the company that provides free services to 3 billion people.
Haugen backed up her claims with a series of disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission that were also provided to Congress in redacted form by her legal team. The redacted versions given to Congress were obtained by a consortium of news organizations, including The Associated Press.
Gelsinger joined President Biden at the White House in January to announce that his company would build a $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility near Columbus, Ohio. The plant will help the U.S. produce semiconductor chips that are in high demand and short supply, contributing to supply chain disruptions. The plant will also create thousands of jobs, Biden and Gelsinger said.
The president’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, and Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, will also sit in the first lady’s box.
But at least a half-dozen lawmakers were not expected in the House chamber after they reported positive COVID-19 tests. They include Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., both members of the committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot, and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, cited a different reason for staying away from the speech.
“I’m just not taking any more COVID tests unless I’m sick,” he said.
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Tanzania’s Zanzibar Island Helps Ukrainians Stranded by Russia’s Invasion
Authorities in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar are helping at least 900 Ukrainian tourists who were left stranded after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Zanzibar’s President Hussein Mwinyi on Monday said they were helping about 900 Ukrainians who were there on vacation when Russia invaded their country last week.
Authorities said the Ukrainians are not able to safely return home but cannot stay on the Tanzanian island as local media reported they are running out of money.
In comments sent to the press, Mwinyi said they have initiated talks with hotel owners on how they can help these people. He said they will help the Ukrainians until their government is ready to come to their assistance.
Authorities said they are communicating with Ukraine’s embassy in neighboring Kenya to try to evacuate the tourists to Ukraine’s neighbor, Poland.
Officials with the Ukrainian Embassy in Kenya said, “Zanzibar is a pretty popular tourism destination for Ukrainian nationals, so it was clear that there would be an issue. We contacted the tour operators who sent the tourists to Zanzibar. … We realize that we have about 1,000 people — we got in touch with Zanzibar to see the possible measures and possible ways how the Tanzanian government can cooperate with the Zanzibars to protect our nationals.”
Poland’s foreign minister on Tuesday said they have accepted 400,000 Ukrainians who have fled for safety since Russia’s invasion.
The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said more than 660,000 Ukrainians fled the invasion in the last six days to neighboring countries.
The East African nation reported on Tuesday that Ukraine’s Ambassador to Kenya was scheduled to meet the stranded tourists and Zanzibar officials.
Zanzibar’s beaches and historic Stone Town attract about half a million tourists each year and account for 30% of the semi-autonomous island’s output.
Zanzibar’s tourism ministry says the country received more than 2,300 Ukrainian tourists and more than 18,000 Russian tourists in 2020.
Some in the industry fear Russia’s war against Ukraine could have a negative impact on tourism.
Theresia Cosmas is a tourism officer at Tanzania’s College of African Wildlife Management.
Cosmas said the fighting already affects Zanzibar since foreign income will drop as Zanzibar receives many tourists from various corners of the world, including from those two countries.
Tanzania last week ordered its few hundred citizens living in Ukraine to leave the country.
The U.N. said more than 136 civilians in Ukraine have been killed since Russia’s military invaded and began striking Ukrainian military and civilian areas.
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Could Russia Get Around Sanctions with Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency purchases in rubles are at a record high following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, raising questions about whether the likes of bitcoin can help Moscow get around sanctions.
Why is crypto attracting Russians?
The United States and its Western allies have sought to cripple Russia’s banking sector and currency with a barrage of sanctions.
They include cutting selected Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system, rendering them isolated from the rest of the world.
SWIFT’s system allows banks to communicate rapidly and securely about transactions. Cutting Russia off is aimed at preventing it from trading with most of the world.
Western measures that prohibit transactions with Russia’s central bank have also helped plunge the country’s economy into turmoil.
The ruble is down 27% against the dollar since the start of the year and is trading at more than 100 rubles per U.S. unit, its weakest level on record.
Russians are consequently flocking to cryptocurrencies that operate on a decentralized network and therefore are not directly affected by sanctions.
Crypto data-provider Kaiko has reported record purchasing volumes of bitcoin in rubles since last week’s invasion.
Another type of digital currency to have benefitted hugely from Russia’s assault on its neighbor is tether, a “stablecoin” that is seen as less volatile than cryptocurrencies since it is pegged to the dollar.
“What we saw … looking at tether (is) the average trade size has increased” in Russia, Clara Medalie, head of research at Kaiko, told AFP.
“However, it’s still relatively low, which shows an interest split between institutional and retail buyers.”
Is crypto a long-term solution against sanctions?
Governments can, if they wish, order shopping platforms to place restrictions on purchases made using cryptocurrencies as a way of blocking attempts to get around sanctions.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also minister of the country’s digital transformation, demanded via Twitter that crypto platforms block Russian accounts, a request reportedly being considered by U.S. authorities.
Analysis group Chainalysis said in a statement that it was “optimistic that the cryptocurrency industry can counter attempts by Russian actors to evade sanctions.”
It pointed out that blockchains, or the registers of transactions made by digital currencies, allow Western governments to identify violations.
At the same time, North Korea and Iran have succeeded in getting around sanctions thanks to cryptocurrencies.
North Korea has earned billions of dollars from cyberattacks, while Iran has used low-cost energy to mine bitcoin, according to Caroline Malcolm of Chainalysis.
However, using crypto to sell key Russian export commodities, such as wheat, oil and gas, is unlikely because, one veteran broker said, trading volumes of bitcoin and its rivals remain insufficient to support large-scale trades.
Crypto reactions to invasion?
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices have jumped since the invasion but not simply because of Russian investment.
The Ukranian government since Saturday has received $17.1 million worth of crypto following a call for donations, according to analysts Elliptic.
“We didn’t get to choose the time or manner of our little industry becoming geopolitically critical overnight, but it is upon us,” tweeted Nic Carter, partner at crypto fund Castle Island.
But Medalie cautioned that the “ruble is not a large cryptomarket. There is not a lot of influence on the rest of the market,” she said.
your ad hereZimbabwe Launches Emergency Road Repair Program After Years of Neglect
Zimbabwe has launched an emergency road repair program after a public outcry over the country’s high death toll on its roads, among the deadliest in Africa. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.
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Despite Sanctions, Europe Continues to Bankroll Russia for Gas, Oil
Western nations are continuing to pay Russia hundreds of millions of dollars every day for gas and oil imports, despite the tough sanctions imposed on the country’s banking and aviation sectors following its invasion of Ukraine.
With around 40% of Europe’s oil and gas imported from Russia, governments are scrambling to find alternatives. European Union ministers met Monday in Brussels to discuss how to break the dependency.
Russia dependency
“Every day we spend 350 million euros, which we give to the Russian system, to be able for them to invest in arms, which are dropping on the city of Kyiv and elsewhere today. So yes, for climate reasons and for the security of our people, we need to reassess that dependency on fossil fuels,” Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s minister for the environment, climate and communications, told Reuters.
Russia supplies about a third of Europe’s gas, and the latest figures show imports have increased since its invasion of Ukraine. The soaring price makes trade even more profitable, and analysts say there are no quick alternatives.
“I think that the West is going to try to continue to hold back on sanctioning on the oil and gas sector,” said Douglas Rediker, a nonresident fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
Gas imports
Germany is among the EU states most dependent on Russian energy. Last week, it announced the cancellation of the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia.
Gas industry executives say the fossil fuel will remain vital for Germany’s economy.
“We have to think about the future,” Timm Kehler, managing director of the Zukunft Gas Association told Reuters. “Germany will need more gas because domestic production is declining, because we also need more gas-fired power plants, because we will also use more gas in other industrial sectors in order to achieve the climate targets. And we have to answer the question, ‘Where will gas come from in the future?’ Nord Stream 2 has played a very central role in this up till now.”
Energy U-turn
In recent days, Germany’s government has signaled a dramatic U-turn on energy policy. Addressing lawmakers Sunday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced plans to build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to diversify supply. Europe’s LNG imports hit a record high in January, with nearly half coming from the United States.
Germany had pledged to switch off its nuclear power stations by the end of this year and all coal-fired plants by 2030. Scholz said those decisions could be reversed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The events of the past few days have shown us that responsible, forward-looking energy policy is decisive not only for our economy and the environment. It is also decisive for our security. … We must change course to overcome our dependence on imports from individual energy suppliers,” Scholz said at the emergency session of parliament on Sunday.
Renewables
German ministers are drafting laws to ensure renewable energy sources will account for 100% of Germany’s power supply by 2035. The continent must speed up the change, said former environment and energy secretary Rainer Baake, now managing director at the Berlin-based Climate Neutrality Foundation.
“Now we have to talk about even faster implementation of these plans. I think it is doable. It has to happen in all sectors. It has to happen in the power sector. It has to happen in the transport sector, in the heating sector, and of course also in the industrial sector,” Baake said.
“There should be a very clear message to Russia now: We don’t want your gas, and we don’t want your oil in the future. It’s going to be painful, because prices are probably going to be higher. But the only way to free ourselves from this dependency from fossil fuels is to put efficiency and renewables instead of the fossil energies,” Baake told VOA.
Cutting ties
Meanwhile, European energy giants have announced they are offloading their stakes in Russian oil firms worth billions of dollars. British Petroleum said it would sell its 20% share in Russian state-owned firm Rosneft, while Royal Dutch Shell said Monday it would end its joint ventures with Gazprom.
“We are shocked by the loss of life in Ukraine, which we deplore, resulting from a senseless act of military aggression which threatens European security,” Shell’s chief executive, Ben van Beurden, told reporters.
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Libyan Lawmakers Approve New Government, Fueling Tensions
Libyan lawmakers confirmed a new transitional government Tuesday, a move that is likely to lead to parallel administrations and fuel mounting tensions in a country that has been mired in conflict for the past decade.
Prime Minister-designate Fathi Bashagha submitted his Cabinet to the east-based House of Representatives, where 92 of 101 lawmakers in attendance approved it in a vote broadcast live from the city of Tobruk.
The new government includes three deputy prime ministers, 29 ministers and six ministers of state. There are only two women in the Cabinet, overseeing the Ministry of Culture and Arts and holding the position of State Minister for Women Affairs.
Bashagha appointed Ahmeid Houma, the second deputy speaker of the parliament, to lead the Ministry of Defense, and Brig. Essam Abu Zreiba, from the western city of Zawiya, as interior minister. Former ambassador to the European Union, Hafez Qadour, was named foreign minister.
The appointment of Bashagha last month, a powerful former interior minister from the western city of Misrata, is part of a roadmap that also involves constitutional amendments and sets the date for elections within 14 months.
The move deepened divisions among Libyan factions and raised fears that fighting could return after more than a year and a half of relative calm.
Bashagha has formed an alliance with powerful east-based commander Khalifa Hifter, who welcomed Bashagha’s appointment as prime minister earlier this month. That alliance has caused concerns among anti-Hifter factions in western Libya and their main foreign backer, Turkey.
“Now the question is whether this contrived alliance will be enough for Bashagha and his ministers to impose themselves in Tripoli and rule,” said Jalel Harchaoui, a researcher specializing in Libya. “It is not clear at all that Turkey and, importantly, Misrata’s main forces will let that happen right away.”
Embattled Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who like Bashagha hails from Misrata, remained defiant Tuesday against replacing his government. In a statement, Dbeibah’s government called Tuesday’s confirmation a “new farce” and accused the parliament’s leadership of “messing with the security and stability of Libyans.”
Dbeibah has repeatedly said his government will hand over power only to an elected government. He has proposed a four-point plan to hold a simultaneous parliamentary vote and referendum on constitutional amendments late in June. That would be followed by a presidential election after the new parliament crafts a permanent constitution. He did not offer a time frame for the presidential election.
Dbeibah was appointed through a U.N.-led process in February 2021 on the condition that he shepherd the country until elections. The effort to replace him stems from Libya’s failure to hold its first presidential election during his watch.
The presidential vote was planned for December 24, but it was postponed over disputes between rival factions on laws governing the elections and controversial presidential hopefuls. Lawmakers have argued that the mandate of Dbeibah’s government ended on December 24.
The vote’s delay was a major blow to international efforts to end a decade of chaos in the oil-rich Mediterranean nation.
Libya has been unable to hold elections since its disputed legislative vote in 2014, which caused the country to split for years between rival administrations, each backed by armed militias and foreign governments.
The oil-rich North African nation has been wrecked by conflict since a NATO-backed uprising toppled then killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
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Central Asian Countries Tread Cautiously on Russia’s War in Ukraine
Despite strategic partnerships with the Kremlin, no Central Asian government has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or recognized Luhansk and Donetsk as independent. Russian claims that regional leaders “understand” President Vladimir Putin’s decisions have been refuted or ignored.
U.S. media reports that Kazakhstan refused Moscow’s “request to send troops,” attributed to the U.S. National Security Council, also have not been confirmed by authorities in Nur-Sultan, the Kazakh capital. Kazakh and American pundits suspect the White House may have disclosed intelligence without providing details.
Central Asian governments have been evacuating their citizens from Ukraine.
During a February 28 virtual meeting with Central Asian foreign ministers, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine and reiterated Washington’s support for that nation’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. His Central Asian colleagues, however, did not publicly echo this line.
Experts tell VOA that authorities in the region are “walking the thinnest line ever.” The public has been more critical of Russia’s war than their leaders.
“The government is calculating possible risks,” said Kazakh scholar Daniyar Kosnazarov. “All of us will be affected.”
The Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) sent a short-duration military deployment to Kazakhstan in January when the government faced mass protests and violence.
“No one wants foreign troops. We had this experience, even for a small amount of time, so we can relate to Ukraine,” said Kosnazarov, who is based in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city.
He urged the Kazakh government to focus on its domestic agenda and implement political and economic reforms promised by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
“This conflict will definitely affect the course and quality of reforms, but society will continue to demand increased living standards.”
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan also are part of the CSTO. Uzbekistan, which has joined and withdrawn twice, has observer status.
The Kremlin has said the Kyrgyz and Uzbek leaders have told Russian President Vladimir Putin that they support his military action in Ukraine but press services in those nations have stressed only that they “exchanged views on the situation around Ukraine.”
Bishkek, Tashkent and Dushanbe have chosen to stay neutral, citing close ties to both Russia and Ukraine, calling for dialogue and upholding international norms. All five Central Asian countries, like Ukraine, were once part of the Soviet Union.
More than 3 million Uzbeks work in Russia. Tajikistan has more than 1.6 million, and Kyrgyzstan 620,000 citizens working in that country, according to official statistics. World Bank data shows that remittances from Russia constitute nearly one-third of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Tajikistan — more than 20% for Kyrgyzstan and more than 10% for Uzbekistan.
“As Russia’s economy sinks, ours will, too. Ruble devaluation will mean further devaluation of our currencies,” predicted Tajik intellectual Parviz Mullojanov.
Central Asian states want productive relations with the United States, European Union, and Russia, he said. “They don’t want to sever ties with the West at all but need to deal with Russia next door.”
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are members of Moscow’s Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which also includes Armenia and Belarus.
Emil Umetaliev, former Kyrgyz economy minister, said the costs of war always fall on ordinary people.
“As an EEU member, our country will suffer. We are dependent on Russia’s diminishing economy. This will especially hurt small- and medium-size businesses.”
Countries in the region must survive as independent nations, argued Umetaliev. “Central Asian leaders should coordinate foreign policies, establishing a common strategy in line with international agreements, to prevent separatism and invasion.”
Marlene Laruelle, Central Asia program director at George Washington University in Washington, believes the region’s players are “very unhappy and afraid of what Russia is doing.”
“They may see Russia as the aggressor, but also feel that the West has pushed it too much, especially on NATO enlargement.”
These states do not have much room to maneuver, she added. “The Russian economic recession, driven by Western sanctions, will have a huge impact on investment and remittances.”
Maqsuda, 45, an Uzbek migrant in Samara, Russia, told VOA that workers like her are extremely nervous about their earnings losing value. “I send at least $400 a month to my family in Jizzakh. I may lose my job and even if I keep it, how am I to exchange and send money? ATMs here already don’t work.”
Laruelle thinks the war on Ukraine will damage Russia’s credibility. “Clearly the regime will now be seen as more repressive and authoritarian than ever.”
She views Central Asian opinion on Ukraine-Russia as polarized.
“Putler,” a play on “Hitler,” is a common pejorative for Putin on Uzbek and regional social media. Posts in both native languages and Russian condemn the war and support Ukraine.
Uzbekistan’s Parliamentary Deputy Speaker Alisher Kadirov, known for anti-Russian stands, applauds Ukraine for fighting, calling the Kremlin’s war wrong.
But he advocates a calm, pragmatic approach, and peace, hailing the position taken by the administration of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
“As friends of both Ukraine and Russia, we hope these dark clouds will vanish soon,” Kadirov wrote on his Telegram channel.
Don’t be fooled by this social media outpour, said Uzbek blogger and editor Eldar Assanov, underlining that Central Asia still largely lives in a Russian-dominated information space.
Several Uzbek news outlets informed VOA that they’ve been unofficially ordered not to publish and air pro-Ukraine content.
“We’ve been warned to be balanced and neutral, which we always try to be, but in this case, the authorities don’t want us to put out any view deploring Russia and/or defending Ukraine,” said a manager of a well-established media outlet in Tashkent, speaking on condition of anonymity and not revealing the name of the organization.
Assanov is not surprised at such restrictions. “Many follow Russian websites and channels, don’t know Ukrainian arguments, and just support Russia.”
But the Russian media presence has decreased with improved content in native languages. And social media expose Central Asians to global debates and diverse opinion.
Still, Assanov said, Russian influence is very strong. “Uzbek media just copy Russian content.”
“No country wants what Ukraine is experiencing,” he said. “So, leaders may get softer with Russia, but not rush to join its projects and cultivate other powers to counter the Russian pressure, such as Turkey.”
Journalists and bloggers across Uzbekistan take credit for advancing Uzbek media but don’t see particularly higher levels of critical thinking. “I can’t say we’ve been that effective yet, perhaps with the next generation,” said Assanov. “For now, for many, Russia is great because it can invade.”
This story originated in VOA’s Uzbek Service. Davron Hotam in Kyrgyzstan and Ozod Mas’ul in Tajikistan contributed to this report.
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Blinken: Putin Must Not Be Allowed to Flout International Humanitarian Law
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warns that rules of the international order that help protect peace and security will be weakened if Russian President Vladimir Putin is allowed to get away with his premeditated invasion of Ukraine.
In a video address to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Blinken warned the human rights and humanitarian crises affecting Ukraine will get worse if Putin succeeds in toppling the country’s democratically elected government.
“Look at Crimea, where Russia’s occupation has come with extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary detention, the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, the brutal repression of dissent. … Reports of Russia’s human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law are mounting by the hour,” Blinken said.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine six days ago, Blinken notes Russian strikes against civilians and civilian infrastructures have escalated. He says schools, hospitals and residential buildings have been targeted. He says critical infrastructure providing millions of people with drinking water, with gas to prevent them from freezing, with electricity to keep the lights on has been destroyed.
“The High Commissioner said yesterday that Russia’s attacks had killed at least a hundred civilians, including children, and wounded hundreds more — and said she expects the real figures are much higher. … Russia’s violence has driven over half a million Ukrainians from the country in just a few days,” Blinken said. “Children, the elderly, people with disabilities, who are making harrowing journeys through conflict zones.”
The Kremlin insisted Tuesday that Russian troops don’t conduct any strikes against civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
The U.N. Refugee Agency is preparing for up to 4 million Ukrainians to flee for safety to neighboring countries. UNHCR officials say the situation looks set to become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century.
Blinken says Russia’s repression does not stop at Ukraine’s borders. He says the Kremlin also is ramping up its repression within Russia. He says human rights defenders, journalists, Putin’s political opponents have long been subjected to harassment, intimidation, poisoning and imprisonment.
He says this treatment now is being meted out to Russians peacefully protesting the invasion of Ukraine. He says thousands have been detained, and anyone found to be assisting a foreign country or organization could be imprisoned for up to 20 years.
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Ghana Welcomes First Citizens Evacuated From Ukraine
Ghana has welcomed home a first group of evacuated students who were studying in Ukraine when Russia invaded. Ghana’s foreign ministry says more than 500 other Ghanaian students have fled Ukraine and can come home if they wish.
The first batch of 17 students arrived Tuesday in the capital, Accra, on two flights.
Looking very calm, the students were welcomed by a government delegation led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong.
Nana Boakye Agyemang, a first-year medical student who has been studying in Ukraine for the past five years, spoke briefly to reporters at the airport.
“This is quite unfortunate that we have to come home. Siblings should be calm, friends should be calm. The government is doing its possible best to make sure that we all come back home. For the meantime, we want to say thank you and we appreciate whatever has been done for us,” Agyemang said.
Priscilla Adjai, another student, told VOA she decided to return to Ghana because she feared for her life.
“We decided to move because they said the targeted areas were eastern Ukraine but we were in western Ukraine. We were not supposed to be targeted but two hours from me cities were bombed, so I became afraid because it’s narrowing down to where I am. So I talked to my parents and they said, ‘Yes, go ahead,’” Adjai said.
The deputy foreign minister told the media the government is working around the clock to evacuate Ghanaians who want to return home.
“We thank the Almighty God that he’s seen you through and brought you home. In the next couple of hours you’ll reconcile and re-engage with your families. The government is determined to continue to make sure that your colleagues who are still in transit to be evacuated will be eventually evacuated,” Ampratwum-Sarpong said.
The students were later reunited with their parents, who were in a separate meeting with government officials.
More than 500 Ghanian students who were in Ukraine when Russia invaded have made their way to Poland and Romania. Officials say those desiring to come back to Ghana will be flown home.
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Big Tech Grapples With Russian State Media, Propaganda
As Russia’s war in Ukraine plays out for the world on social media, big tech platforms are moving to restrict Russian state media from using their platforms to spread propaganda and misinformation.
Google announced Tuesday that it’s blocking the YouTube channels of those outlets in Europe “effective immediately” but acknowledged “it’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up.”
Other U.S.-owned tech companies have offered more modest changes so far: limiting the Kremlin’s reach, labeling more of this content so that people know it originated with the Russian government, and cutting Russian state organs off from whatever ad revenue they were previously making.
The changes are a careful balancing act intended to slow the Kremlin from pumping propaganda into social media feeds without angering Russian officials to the point that they yank their citizens’ access to platforms during a crucial time of war, said Katie Harbath, a former public policy director for Facebook.
“They’re trying to walk this very fine line; they’re doing this dance,” said Harbath, who now serves as director of technology and democracy at the International Republican Institute. “We want to stand up to Russia, but we also don’t want to get shut down in the country. How far can we push this?”
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced Monday that it would restrict access to Russia’s RT and Sputnik services in Europe, following a statement by European Union President Ursula von der Leyen over the weekend that officials are working to bar the sites throughout the EU.
Google followed Tuesday with a European ban of those two outlets on YouTube.
The U.S. has not taken similar action or applied sanctions to Russian state media, leaving the American-owned tech companies to wrestle with how to blunt the Kremlin’s reach on their own.
The results have been mixed.
RT and other Russian-state media accounts are still active on Facebook in the U.S. Twitter announced Monday that after seeing more than 45,000 tweets daily from users sharing Russian state-affiliated media links in recent days, it will add labels to content from the Kremlin’s websites. The company also said it would not recommend or direct users to Russian-affiliated websites in its search function.
Over the weekend, the Menlo Park, California-based company announced it was banning ads from Russian state media and had removed a network of 40 fake accounts, pages and groups that published pro-Russian talking points. The network used fictitious persons posing as journalists and experts, but didn’t have much of an audience.
Facebook began labeling state-controlled media outlets in 2020.
Meanwhile, Microsoft announced it wouldn’t display content or ads from RT and Sputnik, or include RT’s apps in its app store. And Google’s YouTube restricted Russian-state media from monetizing the site through ads, although the outlets are still uploading videos every few minutes on the site.
By comparison, the hands-off approach taken by TikTok, a Chinese platform popular in the U.S. for short, funny videos, has allowed pro-Russian propaganda to flourish on its site. The company did not respond to messages seeking comment.
One recent video posted to RT’s TikTok channel features a clip of Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to ex-President Donald Trump who now hosts a podcast with a penchant for misinformation and conspiracy theories.
“Ukraine isn’t even a country. It’s kind of a concept,” Bannon said in the clip, echoing a claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “So when we talk about sovereignty and self-determination it’s just a corrupt area where the Clintons have turned into a colony where they can steal money.”
Already, Facebook’s efforts to limit Russian state media’s reach have drawn ire from Russian officials. Last week, Meta officials said they had rebuffed Russia’s request to stop fact-checking or labeling posts made by Russian state media. Kremlin officials responded by restricting access to Facebook.
The company has also denied requests from Ukrainian officials who have asked Meta to remove access to its platforms in Russia. The move would prevent everyday Russians from using the platforms to learn about the war, voice their views or organize protests, according to Nick Clegg, recently named the company’s vice president of global affairs.
“We believe turning off our services would silence important expression at a crucial time,” Clegg wrote on Twitter Sunday.
More aggressive labeling of state media and moves to de-emphasize their content online might help reduce the spread of harmful material without cutting off a key information source, said Alexandra Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based non-profit.
“These platforms are a way for dissidents to organize and push back,” Givens said. “The clearest indication of that is the regime has been trying to shut down access to Facebook and Twitter.”
Russia has spent years creating its sprawling propaganda apparatus, which boasts dozens of sites that target millions of people in different languages. That preparation is making it hard for any tech company to mount a rapid response, said Graham Shellenberger at Miburo Solutions, a firm that tracks misinformation and influence campaigns.
“This is a system that has been built over 10 years, especially when it comes to Ukraine,” Shellenberger said. “They’ve created the channels, they’ve created the messengers. And all the sudden now, we’re starting to take action against it.”
Redfish, a Facebook page that is labeled as Russian-state controlled media, has built up a mostly U.S. and liberal-leaning audience of more than 800,000 followers over the years.
The page has in recent days posted anti-U.S. sentiment and sought to down play Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “military operation” and dedicating multiple posts to highlighting anti-war protests across Russia.
One Facebook post also used a picture of a map to highlight airstrikes in other parts of the world.
“Don’t let the mainstream media’s Eurocentrism dictate your moral support for victims of war,” the post read.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia sent letters to Google, Meta, Reddit, Telegram, TikTok and Twitter urging them to curb such Russian influence campaigns on their websites.
“In addition to Russia’s established use of influence operations as a tool of strategic influence, information warfare constitutes an integral part of Russian military doctrine,” Warner wrote.
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Former US Defense Officials in Taiwan to Signal Washington’s Support
A delegation of former U.S. defense officials is in Taiwan to meet with senior leaders and signal support for the self-governing island, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlights threats to democracies around the world.
The group includes former U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen; former Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan Meghan O’Sullivan; former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy; and former National Security Council senior directors for Asia Mike Green and Evan Medeiros. The group collectively served under former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
“The selection of these five individuals sends an important signal about the bipartisan U.S. commitment to Taiwan and its democracy and demonstrates that the Biden administration’s and the United States’ commitment to Taiwan remains rock solid,” a senior Biden administration official in Washington told VOA on background.
The trip coincides with a separate visit by former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, who will arrive in Taiwan on Wednesday to speak at the government-affiliated Prospect Foundation. He will also meet with Vice President Lai Ching-te and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.
Michael Mazza, a non-resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, speculated that Mullen may have come with a message for Taiwan’s senior leadership and would return with a response for White House officials.
While Mullen is a former official, someone of his stature carries more diplomatic weight than a normal diplomatic message, Mazza said.
“The selection of Admiral Mullen to lead this delegation may serve multiple purposes. He is, first, well-poised to deliver important messages regarding defense and, second and related, to assess any defense-related issues or concerns that Taiwan’s leaders may raise,” Mazza told VOA by email.
“There is significant concern in Washington right now that the Overall Defense Concept has been abandoned, or at least downgraded, in Taiwan’s defense strategy. It is likewise unclear what, if anything, has replaced the ODC. I’d be surprised if Mullen did not raise these concerns and seek out details about the direction Taiwan’s defense strategy is taking,” he said.
Under President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan has focused on an “asymmetric defense” strategy to make it an unattractive target to China’s Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as a wayward province and has not ruled out an invasion.
This strategy has focused on making it clear to Beijing that the cost of invading Taiwan would be extremely high even though it has superior military power.
While this policy has been advocated by Tsai, there is ongoing concern in Washington that these policies are not being fully carried out by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, an institution that typically skews conservative in its policymaking.
Wen-ti Sung, a cross-strait relations expert at the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University, said that rather than abandoning its Overall Defense Concept, Taiwan is in the midst of discussing how to rebalance and “future-proof Taiwan’s capacity.”
Sung said analysts in Taiwan have questioned whether the island’s current defense strategy is too focused on deterring an amphibious landing by China’s People’s Liberation Army.
Weapons purchases and training have reflected that strategy, he said, but they may not be of much use after 2035 when the PLA completes its modernization campaign.
“They need to spread eggs in more baskets and shift away from single threat-based planning and move towards a more balanced capability-based approach to force building,” Sung said by phone.
“I think discussion and some [white] papers are discussing that kind of rebalancing,” he said. “I don’t think Taiwan is ditching the ODC, but there are new thoughts being given to ODC and more traditional deterrence.”
Last week, Taiwan’s foreign minister told the McCain Institute for International Leadership that the democracy needs continued U.S. support to defend itself from China, which experts say could have the ability to attack Taiwan as early as 2027.
In the meantime, China has scaled up pressure on Taiwan in other ways. In 2021, China sent more than 1,000 flights into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, a swathe of land and sea around the Taiwan Strait monitored by Taiwan’s military, to send the message that the democracy is “doomed,” according to Wu.
While Taiwan and the United States do not have formal diplomatic relations, the U.S. is the island’s most important ally and has committed to providing Taipei with the means to defend itself under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act and other follow-up agreements. These have included major weapons sales, which escalated during the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump and have continued under current President Joe Biden.
Last August, the Biden administration approved $750 million in weapons sales to Taiwan.
Former and sitting U.S. officials regularly visit Taiwan although the opposite is rare. Visitors last year included former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd and former Deputy Secretaries of State Richard Armitage and James Steinberg, while Alex Azar, then-secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, also visited Taiwan in 2020.
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Young Nigerian Activists Try Leap From Protest to Power
As Nigeria prepares to go to the polls next year, youth groups are urging young people to run for office to unseat older generations who have largely run the country for decades. Youth-led mass protests in 2020 against police brutality and bad governance have sparked fresh interest, but Nigerian youth find there are many challenges to entering politics. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja. Camera – Emeka Gibson.
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Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds Takes National Spotlight With State of the Union Response
Governor Kim Reynolds of the midwestern U.S. state of Iowa will deliver the official Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.
The 62-year-old Reynolds began her political career as the elected treasurer of a rural county, serving four terms in that office before her election to the Iowa state Senate in 2008. She was elevated to the post of lieutenant governor two years later as the running mate of Governor Terry Branstad, succeeding him in 2017 when he was confirmed as then-President Donald Trump’s choice as ambassador to China.
Since being elected governor in her own right a year later, Reynolds has emulated other Republican governors in fighting against coronavirus restrictions such as vaccine and mask mandates, signing into law bills that banned all public schools from implementing mask mandates for students and requiring them to maintain in-person learning, even in the early days of the pandemic.
In a statement announcing her selection to deliver the party’s response to Biden’s address, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said Governor Reynolds handled the COVID-19 pandemic “by choosing freedom over lockdowns and personal responsibility over mandates — leading to real economic recovery from the pandemic.”
Reynolds has also pushed other initiatives supported by the most conservative wing of the Republican party, such as banning the teaching of critical race theory, which conservatives contend could further divide Americans and worsen race relations, as well as preventing transgender athletes from participating in high school sports and providing public funds for private schools.
She also just signed legislation that would replace a progressive income tax structure with a single 3.9% flat rate that would take effect in 2026.
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Waves of Women and Children Leaving Ukraine
In the first three days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, over 100,000 people crossed Ukraine’s border in the West. On February 27th alone – according to the Ukrainian border police – over 120,000 people poured out of the embattled country. For VOA, Oksana Lihostova has more from western Ukraine in this report narrated by Anna Rice.
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Abortion Rights Bill Fails to Pass Procedural Vote in US Senate
A bill to protect the right to have an abortion in the United States died in the Senate on Monday after it failed to garner enough Republican support to pass a procedural vote.
While the Women’s Health Protection Act was expected to fail, Democratic leaders were under pressure from constituents to put it to a vote anyway in a show of support for federal abortion rights, as the U.S. Supreme Court could soon upend those rights.
Reproductive rights advocates see federal legislation as possibly the best chance to codify the right to terminate pregnancy in the United States, particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative justices signaled, they could soon cut constitutional protections.
The bill would have needed several Republicans’ support to reach the necessary 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster. The vote was 48-46. Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, voted against the bill, as did Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, moderate Republicans who have supported limited abortion rights.
“Abortion is a fundamental right and women’s decisions over women’s health care belong to women, not to extremist right-wing legislators,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters ahead of Monday’s vote.
Abortion opponents characterized the bill as radical and said it would nullify state laws that have been passed to restrict abortions.
“It’s extreme. It’s an egregious violation of the most fundamental of all human rights, and that is the right to life,” Republican Senator Steve Daines of Montana said of the bill in debate on Monday.
The Women’s Health Protection Act, co-sponsored by 48 Senate Democrats, stated that healthcare providers should be able to provide abortions without a number of barriers, including restrictions on abortions prior to fetal viability, which many states currently have in place. It proposed that the U.S. attorney general could sue any state or government official who violated its terms.
Abortion rights advocates said the fact that the Senate was holding the vote at all was a victory, since it forced senators to go on the record for their constituents to judge.
Abortion is poised to be a key campaign issue for members of Congress running for re-election in 2022.
“Every American deserves to know where their senator stands on an issue as important as the right to choose,” Schumer told reporters.
The right to have an abortion prior to fetal viability, typically around 23 or 24 weeks, has been protected under the Constitution since the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.
In December, the Supreme Court signaled its willingness to undermine Roe v. Wade and permit a Mississippi ban on abortion after 15 weeks. The court’s decision in that case is expected in late spring.
Some 26 states would move to immediately ban abortion if Roe is overturned, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy research group.
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