Month: May 2022

Latest Developments in Ukraine: May 17

Posted on by SeeEU

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:

1:50 a.m.: Retired Russian Col. Mikhail Khodaryonok said on state television Monday thatthe Ukrainian armed forces “is able to arm a million people,” and that Ukrainians “intend to fight until the last man,” according to a translation provided by the BBC’s Francis Scarr.

“Let’s look at the situation as a whole from the overall strategic position,” Khodaryonok says. “Don’t engage in sabre-rattling with missiles in Finland’s direction. It actually looks quite amusing. After all, the main deficiency of our military-political position is that, in a way, we are in full geopolitical isolation, and that, however much we would hate to admit this, virtually the entire world is against us. And it’s that situation that we need to get out of.”

 

 

1:30 a.m.: In its Intelligence Update, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense predicts Russia is “likely to continue to rely heavily on massed artillery strikes as it attempts to regain momentum in its advance in the Donbas.”

 

 

12:30 a.m.: After weeks of fighting, Ukraine appears to have surrendered the Mariupol steel complex, according to The New York Times.
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Migrant Border Entries Rise in April, Boosted By Ukrainians 

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U.S. authorities said Monday they stopped migrants more than 234,000 times in April, one of the highest marks in decades as the Biden administration prepares to lift pandemic-era restrictions on claiming asylum. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials made 234,088 stops on the Mexican border last month, a 5.8% increase from 221,303 in March, according to a Justice Department filing in a lawsuit filed by Texas and Missouri. 

The April total would have been lower without more than 23,000 people — many of them Ukrainian refugees admitted on humanitarian parole — who went through a San Diego border crossing. The number of Ukrainians has dropped sharply since April 25, when the administration began directing those fleeing Russia’s invasion to U.S. airports from Europe, instead of through Mexico. 

On May 23, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to end restrictions that have prevented migrants from seeking asylum under U.S. law and international treaty on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Migrants have been expelled more than 1.9 million times since March 2020 under Title 42 authority, named for a 1944 public health law. 

A federal judge in Louisiana is expected to rule in favor of 24 states seeking to keep Title 42 in effect while litigation proceeds. U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, has said he will rule before May 23. 

Even if the judge allows Title 42 to end, Congress may try to keep it alive in an alliance between Republicans and some Democrats who worry that a widely anticipated increase in illegal crossings will put them on the defensive in an already difficult midterm election year. 
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Mali Junta Says It Thwarted Coup Attempt 

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Mali’s military junta on Monday said it thwarted an attempted coup last week led by army officers and supported by an unnamed Western state.  

The statement read on state television said a “small group of anti-progressive Malian officers and non-commissioned officers attempted a coup in the night of May 11 to 12, 2022.”  

“These soldiers were supported by a Western state. The attempt was thwarted thanks to the vigilance and professionalism of the defense and security forces.” 

The statement gave few details on what allegedly happened.  

It mentioned arrests and said the detainees would be handed over to justice. Their identity and whereabouts were not revealed. 

It added that checks have been strengthened around the capital, Bamako, and at Mali’s borders. 

A military source speaking on condition of anonymity spoke of around 10 arrests and said others were underway. 

The government statement said “all necessary means” were being mobilized for the investigation and to find accomplices. 

No indication of the attempted coup that reportedly happened last week had surfaced until Monday evening. 

Mali has undergone two military coups since August 2020, when the army ousted elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.  

The West African state has been fighting a jihadist insurgency against groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group since 2012 in the north and center of the country.   

The fighting has also spread to neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso. 

The country’s military-dominated government has broken with traditional partner France and forged closer ties with Russia in its battle against the jihadists.   

It had pledged to return power to civilians by February 2022 but has since extended the timetable, incurring regional sanctions. 
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EU Fails to Clinch Russian Oil Embargo  

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The European Union again failed to agree to an oil embargo against Russia Monday as part of a sixth package of sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Hungary remains a key holdout, demanding a high price for greenlighting the package. 

Signs of exasperation against Hungary emerged at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels — including from Ukraine’s top envoy Dmytro Kuleba, who was invited to the talks. An oil embargo against Russia, he said, was essential.  

“It’s clear who’s holding up the issue,” Keleba said. “But time is running out because every day, Russia keeps making money and investing this money into the war.” 

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis also expressed frustration.  

“Now, unfortunately, we are — the whole union is being held hostage by one member state which cannot help us find a consensus.”  

The EU needs unanimous agreement from its 27 members to push through each set of sanctions. Until now, that’s happened. An oil embargo would be the toughest sanction so far—hurting Moscow’s ability to finance the war. 

It would also hit some European countries highly dependent on Russian energy. But Hungary — already considered an EU maverick on other issues — is especially putting on the brakes. Reports say Budapest wants hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, and possibly more, to transition from Russian oil imports. 

EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell said the conversations with Hungary were largely technical. He offered no timeline for coming to an agreement. Still, some EU members are hopeful that a breakthrough is only days or weeks away.  

“One thing is clear — I think it’s clear for everyone in the council: We have to get rid of the energy dependency of the European Union with respect to oil, gas and coal coming from Russia,” Borrell said. 

Borrell said the war in Ukraine has tested the bloc in key ways, not just the conflict itself. But it is also testing Europe’s energy resiliency as it unwinds its dependency on Russian supplies — and its very legitimacy.  

 
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Residents Mourn 10 Killed in Buffalo, New York, Mass Shooting   

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A community mourns the 10 people killed Saturday afternoon in Buffalo, New York, when a lone gunman opened fire at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood. The U.S. is investigating the killings as a hate crime. VOA’s Laurel Bowman has more.
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Supreme Court Limits Review of Some Deportation Cases   

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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal courts cannot revise immigration judges’ decisions in some deportation cases, even when the government made what Justice Neil Gorsuch called “egregious factual mistakes.”

The court ruled against a Georgia man, Pankajkumar Patel, who has lived in the United States for 30 years and faces deportation because he checked the wrong box on a driver’s license application stating he was a U.S. citizen.  

In a 5-4 vote, the majority interpreted the law at issue as limiting courts from considering relief and leaving it up to the discretion of immigration officials to apply in factual dispute cases as to whether someone is eligible for that discretionary relief in removal cases. 

“Today’s decision lets immigration officials make discretionary decisions based on totally mistaken assumptions about the immigrant. The official might know they’re false, or it might be based on an honest mistake. But either way, our courts exist to correct such mistakes and allow all people to be treated fairly,” Paul Gordon, legislative counsel at the People for the American Way, told VOA. 

Per court documents, in 2007, Patel and his wife, Jyotsnaben, sent an application to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to change their immigration status under the discretionary adjustment of status code, which would have made Patel and his wife lawful permanent residents. 

USCIS was aware that Patel had previously checked a box on a driver’s license application falsely stating that he was a U.S. citizen while his petition to adjust status was pending.  

It then denied Patel’s application, saying he failed to satisfy the requirements to be legally admissible for permanent residence. He was charged with making a false statement, but the charges were later dropped.  

According to filings in the case, Patel said he checked the box by mistake in his license renewal application. His lawyers argued that U.S. officials could not conclude Patel had misrepresented himself as a citizen on purpose as Georgia does not require a resident to be a U.S. citizen to receive a driver’s license. 

Yet, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security placed him and his wife in removal proceedings. 

Today’s ruling was authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who said although the U.S. attorney general can allow protection from deportation, people have to first be eligible. And, per previous decisions in Patel’s case, he was ineligible.  

“Federal courts have a very limited role to play in this process,” Barrett wrote, adding immigration law “precludes judicial review of factual findings that underlie a denial of relief.” 

But Justice Neil Gorsuch parted ways with his conservative colleagues to join three liberal justices in dissent. 

He said Monday’s decision will act as a shield to protect the government from the “embarrassment” of having to correct even obvious errors. 

“It is no secret that when processing applications, licenses, and permits the government sometimes makes mistakes. Often, they are small ones — a misspelled name, a misplaced application. … Our case is such a case. An immigrant to this country applied for legal residency,” he wrote.  

The government rejected his application, allegedly, based on a glaring factual error, per Gorsuch. 

“In circumstances like that, our law has long permitted individuals to petition a court to consider the question and correct any mistake. Not anymore. … As a result, no court may correct even the agency’s most egregious factual mistakes about an individual’s statutory eligibility for relief,” Gorsuch added.  

Patel and his wife, Jyotsnaben, entered the U.S. illegally about 30 years ago after leaving India. He applied for an adjustment of status with the support of his employer. The couple have three adult sons. 

The Supreme Court ruling means Patel is not able to challenge the possible deportation in court. 

“Today’s decision finds a loophole that will likely harm a lot of people. Immigration officials will have less incentive to get their facts right when they know there won’t be a judge checking their work,” Gordon added. 
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Biden Praises Greece for Leadership After Russia Invasion

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President Joe Biden on Monday thanked Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for his country’s “moral leadership” in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the two held talks at the White House about the ongoing conflict. 

The visit by Mitsotakis comes as he was in Washington to mark a COVID-delayed commemoration of the bicentennial of the start of the Greek War of Independence, a more than eight-year-long struggle that led to the ouster of the Ottoman Empire. The president and first lady Jill Biden hosted Mitsotakis and his wife, Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis, later Monday at a White House reception to mark the bicentennial. 

But the celebratory moment was overshadowed by the most significant fighting on the continent since World War II, and as Biden seeks to keep the West unified as it pressures Russia to end the war. 

“We are now facing united the challenge of Russian aggression,” Mitsotakis said at the start of his meeting with Biden. The prime minister added that the U.S.-Greek relationship was at an “all-time high.” 

As Europe looks to wean itself off Russian energy, Mitsotakis has pushed the idea of Greece becoming an energy hub that can bring gas from southwest Asia and the Middle East to Eastern Europe. 

A new Greece-to-Bulgaria pipeline — built during the COVID-19 pandemic, tested and due to start commercial operation in June — is slated to bring large volumes of gas between the two countries in both directions to generate electricity, fuel industry and heat homes. 

The new pipeline connection, called the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, will give Bulgaria access to ports in neighboring Greece that are importing liquefied natural gas, or LNG, and also will bring gas from Azerbaijan through a new pipeline system that ends in Italy. Russia announced last month it was cutting off natural gas exports to Bulgaria and Poland over the countries’ refusal to pay in rubles. 

The Oval Office meeting with Biden also comes after Greece, a fellow NATO nation, last week formally extended its bilateral military agreement with the United States for five years, replacing an annual review of the deal that grants the U.S. military access to three bases in mainland Greece as well as the American naval presence on the island of Crete. 

Mitsotakis has expressed support for Finland and Sweden seeking membership in the NATO defense alliance, a development welcomed by much of the 30-nation group with the notable exception of Tukey, which remains locked in a decades-old dispute with Greece on sea boundaries and mineral rights in the eastern Mediterranean. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday again voiced some objections to accepting Finland and Sweden, accusing the two countries of supporting Kurdish militants and others whom Turkey considers to be terrorists. 

“Neither country has an open, clear stance against terrorist organizations,” Erdogan said at a joint news conference with the visiting Algerian president. “We cannot say ‘yes’ to those who impose sanctions on Turkey, on joining NATO, which is a security organization.” 

Mitsotakis, in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday, expressed optimism that Turkey, in the end, won’t hold up Finland and Sweden’s bid to join NATO and addressed speculation that Erdogan might use the moment to win concessions from the Biden administration on weapons sales or other matters. 

“This is not really the right time to use a NATO membership (application) by these two countries to bargain” for other issues,” he said. 

In addition to his address to Congress, Mitsotakis is scheduled Tuesday to be honored at a luncheon hosted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and will meet with members of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

 
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US Supreme Court Rules for Sen. Cruz in Campaign Finance Case

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The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Monday sided with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in his challenge to a provision of federal campaign finance law, in a ruling that a dissenting justice said runs the risk of causing “further disrepute” to American politics.

The justices, in a 6-3 decision that divided the court along ideological lines, agreed that the somewhat obscure section of the law violates the Constitution. The decision comes just as campaigning for the 2022 midterm elections is intensifying.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that the provision “burdens core political speech without proper justification.”

The Biden administration had defended the provision as an anti-corruption measure, and in a dissent Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the majority, in striking it down, “greenlights all the sordid bargains Congress thought right to stop.” She said the decision “can only bring this country’s political system into further disrepute.”

The case may be important for some candidates for federal office who want to make large loans to their campaigns. But the administration has also said that the great majority of such loans are for less than $250,000 and therefore the provision Cruz challenged does not apply.

The case involves a section of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. The provision says that if a candidate lends his or her campaign money before an election, the campaign cannot repay the candidate more than $250,000 using money raised after Election Day. The loans can still be repaid with money raised before the election.

Cruz argued that makes candidates think twice about lending money because it substantially increases the risk that any candidate loan will never be fully repaid. A lower court had agreed the provision was unconstitutional.

Cruz, who has served in the Senate since 2013 and ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016, lent his campaign $260,000 the day before the 2018 general election for the purpose of challenging the law.

The government has said that in the five election cycles before 2020, candidates for Senate made 588 loans to their campaigns, about 80% of them under $250,000. Candidates for the House of Representatives made 3,444 loans, nearly 90% under $250,000.

The case is Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate, 21-12.
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Biden Approves ‘Small, Persistent’ US Military Presence in Somalia

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U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized a deployment of fewer than 500 troops to the East African nation of Somalia to conduct operations against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab insurgent group, a White House official said Monday, in a reversal of a Trump-era decision to withdraw the forces. 

“President Biden has approved a request from the Department of Defense to reposition U.S. forces in East Africa in order to reestablish a small, persistent U.S military presence in Somalia,” a senior administration official told journalists. He said the troops would come from nearby bases on the African continent. Camp Lemonnier, in nearby Djibouti, is the primary base of operations for U.S. Africa Command in the region. 

Before the withdrawal, the U.S. kept some 700 troops in the African nation, which has struggled with violence and instability since a 1991 coup devolved into a cycle of brutal conflict involving rival clan leaders. The insurgent group surfaced in 2006, pledging to bring stability by instituting its strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic, law. It has since grown and conducted strikes outside of Somalia, including in Kenya and Uganda. 

The White House said the U.S. Department of Defense made the request to Biden, after more than a year of having troops rotate into Somalia. Defense officials argued that plan posed challenges to those troops’ safety and effectiveness.

“We’ve spent the past year plus since the last administration’s decision, moving in and out of Somalia episodically, to try to help with counterterrorism there,” the official said, adding, “That rotational presence with which we were left created a very real force protection risk.”

It was not clear whether Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was elected to the post on Sunday, made this request. The U.S. official added that the new stance includes diplomatic efforts, security assistance to Somali forces and capacity building for the Somali government, which has been plagued by political infighting, violence and instability. 

“We’re concerned about the potential for al-Shabab’s upward battlefield and financial trajectory to generate more space for the group to plan and ultimately to execute external attacks,” the administration official said. “All that is to say, in a world in which we must prioritize how we approach global counterterrorism, al-Shabab is a notable priority given the threat it poses.”

The official declined to say where the troops would be positioned, what branch of the U.S. military they would come from, or which members of al-Shabab they might target. When asked how long this operation would last, he did not specify.  

“We don’t plan to be there forever,” he said. 
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Officials: Biden Approves Redeployment of Some Ground Troops to Somalia

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U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized the redeployment of several hundred American troops into Somalia, two U.S. officials said on Monday, after Donald Trump ordered their withdrawal during his presidency.

Prior to Trump’s withdrawal, the United States had about 700 troops in Somalia focused on helping local forces defeat the al Qaida-linked al Shabab insurgency.

“President Biden has approved a request from the Secretary of Defense to reestablish a persistent U.S. military presence in Somalia to enable a more effective fight against al Shabab,” a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.

“This is a repositioning of forces already in theater who have traveled in and out of Somalia on an episodic basis since the previous administration made the decision to withdraw,” the official added.

Al Qaeda-linked insurgent group al Shabab is seeking to topple the government and establish its own rule in Somalia based on its strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

Al Shabab frequently carries out bombings in Mogadishu and elsewhere as part of its war against the Horn of Africa country’s central government.

Somalia has endured conflict and clan battles with no strong central government since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The government has little control beyond the capital and the African Union contingent guards in an Iraq-style “Green Zone.”

While the United States did not have troops in Somalia since Trump ordered their withdrawal in December 2020, the military has occasionally carried out strikes in the country and has had troops in nearby countries.
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When Not Tending to War Wounded, Ukraine Rock Star Jams With Bono, Sheeran

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Taras Topolya is a Ukrainian rock singer. From the first day of the war in Ukraine, he has been working as a paramedic with the country’s Territorial Defense. But when he has a break, he plays with big names in the Western music industry. Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Yuriy Zakrevskiy.
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UN Says Tigray War Costing 1 Million Children a Third Year of School

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The United Nations says Ethiopia’s war on Tigray region means more than 1 million children are entering their third school year without education. In neighboring regions, schools are reopening as fighters and displaced people that occupied them leave, but some face grim challenges, and their students, trauma. Henry Wilkins reports from Gashena, Ethiopia.
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EU Cuts Eurozone Growth Forecast As Ukraine War Bites

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The European Commission on Monday sharply cut its eurozone growth forecast for 2022 to 2.7 percent, blaming skyrocketing energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The war also spurred the EU’s executive to revisit its eurozone inflation prediction for 2022, with consumer prices forecast to jump by 6.1 percent year-on-year, much higher than the earlier forecast of 3.5 percent.

“There is no doubt that the EU economy is going through a challenging period due to Russia’s war against Ukraine, and we have downgraded our forecast accordingly,” EU executive vice president Valdis Dombrovskis said.

“The overwhelming negative factor is the surge in energy prices, driving inflation to record highs and putting a strain on European businesses and households,” he added.

The EU warned that the course of the war was highly uncertain and that the risk of stagflation -– punishing inflation with little or no growth — remained a real risk going forward.

If Russia, the EU’s main energy supplier, should cut off its oil and gas supply to Europe completely, the commission warned that the forecast would worsen considerably.

“Our forecast is subjected to very high uncertainty and risks,” EU commissioner Paolo Gentiloni told reporters.

“Other scenarios are possible under which growth may be lower and inflation higher than we are projecting today. In any case, our economy is still far from a normal situation,” he said.

For the EU as a whole, including the eight countries that do not use the euro as their currency, the commission had also forecast growth of four percent in February, but has now cut this to 2.7 percent, the same level as for the eurozone.

The sharp reduction in expectations is in line with the forecast made in mid-April by the International Monetary Fund, which predicted 2.8 percent growth for the eurozone this year.

The EU’s warning for the months ahead lands as the European Central Bank is increasingly expected to increase interest rates in July to tackle soaring inflation.

Critics warn that this could put a brake on economic activity just when the economy faced the headwinds from the war in Ukraine.
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Harris and Blinken Pay US Condolences in Abu Dhabi, Seek to Boost Ties

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U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Abu Dhabi, joining a high-ranking U.S. delegation led by Vice President Kamala Harris, to pay his condolence to the family of the late President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who died last Friday.

Harris and Blinken are expected to meet with late president’s brother, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, who is the country’s new president and already an influential power broker in the Middle East and beyond.

It is the highest-level visit to date by the Biden administration to the oil-rich country, a financial hub in the region. The delegation also includes Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, CIA Director William Burns and Climate Envoy John Kerry.

Before her departure, Vice President Harris said she was traveling on behalf of President Joe Biden to pay her respects. Analysts also view the visit as an important gesture to boost America’s strained relations with the UAE. Abu Dhabi has been frustrated with the Biden administration for lifting a terrorist designation on Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have fired missiles and drones at the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The UAE and other Gulf States also oppose efforts by the Biden administration to revive the international Iran nuclear deal, which former President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of in 2018.

For its part, Washington has asked both the UAE and Saudi Arabia to pump more oil since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, to lower soaring gas prices and improve stability in energy markets as Europe tries to start weaning itself off Russian oil and natural gas. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have rejected Washington’s demands, seeking to maintain good relations with Russia.

Blinken arrived in Abu Dhabi from Paris, where he had a working dinner with his French counterpart, Jean Yves Le Drian. The State Department said the two top diplomats discussed “issues of importance in the bilateral relationship, especially the urgent need to confront global food insecurity exacerbated by Russia’s” war in Ukraine and efforts to achieve a mutual return to the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

Blinken’s first stop in this tour was in Berlin, where he met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Sunday. They also discussed plans to work together to ensure that Ukrainian food exports reach consumers in Africa and Asia. Berlin hosted a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, called to discuss the situation in the ground on Ukraine and to coordinate efforts to provide Ukraine with the humanitarian assistance and the weapons it needs to defend itself against Russia.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has caused food prices to soar and raised the threat of famine in many parts of the world. Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven countries meeting in Germany Saturday called on the Russian government to end its blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports, to free up exports of critically needed Ukrainian grain, fertilizer and other agricultural products.

Blinken and the other NATO foreign ministers also discussed Finland’s decision to apply to join NATO without delay. The U.S. has said it would support both Finland and Sweden’s applications to join the transatlantic security alliance. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto in a phone call Saturday that any attempt by Helsinki to join NATO would harm bilateral relations. Finland’s leaders see Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a threat to their country’s security, since the two countries share a 1,340-kilometer border.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had also expressed concerns about Finland and NATO joining the alliance. Blinken said Turkey has not said it will block Helsinki from joining, and that the application is a “process,” and NATO is a place for discussion.
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Ukraine Says Troops Make Gains in Kharkiv

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Ukraine said Monday its forces had pushed back Russian troops in the Kharkiv region in a counter-offensive that allowed the Ukrainians to reach the Russian border.

The Ukrainian defense ministry posted a video showing what it said were its troops at the border, with one soldier telling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “We are here.”

There was no immediate confirmation of the development.

After repelling Russian advances on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Ukrainian forces have regained territory in the region and sought to push Russia from its staging area in Izyum as it focuses on the eastern Donbas region.

“Kremlin dreamed of capturing Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, then at least the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted Monday. “Now, Russian troops are concentrated on the Luhansk region due to lack of forces. We continue the treatment of imperial megalomania and make Moscow face reality.”

Zelenskyy said in a video address late Sunday that Ukraine was preparing for new Russian attacks in the Donbas and southern Ukraine.

“The occupiers still do not want to admit that they are in a dead-end and their so-called ‘special operation’ has already gone bankrupt,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia warned Monday of “far-reaching consequences” if Finland and Sweden join the NATO western military alliance.

Russian news agencies quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov saying the “general level of military tensions will increase,” and that the security of Finland and Sweden would not improve.

“They should have no illusions that we will just put up with this,” Ryabkov said.

Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced the NATO membership bid Sunday at the presidential palace in Helsinki.

“This is a historic day,” Niinisto said. “A new era begins.”

Sweden is also expected to seek entry into the alliance, ending two centuries of military non-alignment. Sweden’s governing party on Sunday dropped its opposition to joining NATO.

The two Nordic countries’ NATO applications will likely move swiftly, with the alliance’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, saying in recent days that they will be welcomed.

“Finland and Sweden are already the closest partners of NATO,” NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana said Sunday in Berlin, where members were meeting to discuss their continued support of Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and the expansion of the Atlantic alliance.

Russia cut off electricity to Finland in apparent retaliation for its bid to join NATO. Finland gets 10% of its energy from Russia and the void is now being filled by Sweden.

Turkey initially expressed concerns about Finland and Sweden joining the security alliance, but Saturday said it isn’t closing the door on the possibility. Any NATO enlargement requires the unanimous consent of the existing members.

“I’m not that worried,” Niinisto said of Turkey’s stance.

NATO and the United States said Sunday they both were confident that Turkey would not stand in the way of Finland and Sweden joining NATO. Turkish officials Sunday told foreign ministers in Berlin they want the Nordic countries to halt support for Kurdish militant groups present in their territory, and lift bans on some sales of arms to Turkey.

The top diplomats from the U.S. and Ukraine met Sunday in Berlin to talk about Russia’s invasion and the impact it has had not only on Ukraine, but the rest of the world.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba of the support that Ukraine has from its allies and discussed this week’s Group of Seven industrialized nations and NATO foreign ministerial meetings.

Cindy Saine contributed to this report. Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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US, EU to boost coordination on semiconductor supply, Russia

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The United States and the European Union plan to announce on Monday a joint effort aimed at identifying semiconductor supply disruptions as well as countering Russian disinformation, officials said.

The U.S. officials are visiting the French scientific hub of Saclay for a meet up of the Trade and Technology Council, created last year as China increasingly exerts its technology clout.

U.S. officials acknowledged that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has broadened the council’s scope, but said the Western bloc still has its eye on competition from China.

The two sides will announce an “early warning system” for semiconductors supply disruptions, hoping to avoid excessive competition between Western powers for the vital tech component.

The industry has suffered from a shortage of components for chipmaking, blamed on a boom in global demand for electronic products and pandemic snarled supply chains.

“We hope to agree on high levels of subsidies — that they will not be more than what is necessary and proportionate and appropriate,” Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, told reporters Sunday.

The aim is that “as both Washington and Brussels look to encourage semiconductor investment in our respective countries, we do so in a coordinated fashion and don’t simply encourage a subsidy race,” a U.S. official said separately, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States already put in place its own early warning system in 2021 that looked at supply chains in Southeast Asia and “has been very helpful in helping us get ahead of a couple of potential shutdowns earlier this year,” the US. .official said.

The official added that the two sides are looking ahead to supply disruptions caused by pandemic lockdowns in China — the only major economy still hewing to a zero-Covid strategy.

The European Union and United States will also announce joint measures on fighting disinformation and hacking, especially from Russia, including a guide on cybersecurity best practices for small- and medium-sized companies and a task force on trusted technology suppliers, the official said.

“It’s not a European matter but a global matter,” she said.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai are visiting for the talks.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken attended an opening dinner on Monday before cutting short his visit to head to Abu Dhabi for the funeral of late leader Sheikh Khalifa.
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Biden Heading to Buffalo Following Mass Shooting

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U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel Tuesday to the city of Buffalo, New York, where authorities are investigating an attack at a grocery store by what Biden said was a gunman “armed with weapons of war and a hate-filled soul.”

The president and his wife, Jill, will “grieve with the community that lost ten lives in a senseless and horrific mass shooting,” according to the White House.

Speaking Sunday in Washington, Biden said the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the shooting as “a hate crime, a racially motivated act of white supremacy and violent extremism.”

“We must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America,” Biden said.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the shooting, with his spokesman saying Sunday that Guterres was “appalled by the killing of 10 people in a vile act of racist violent extremism in Buffalo.”

Authorities identified the 18-year-old shooter as Payton Gendron, of Conklin, New York, about 330 kilometers southeast of Buffalo. He is white and 11 of the 13 shooting victims were Black.

Authorities said he carried out the attack while wearing military gear and livestreaming it with a helmet camera. He eventually dropped his weapon and surrendered to police inside the Tops Friendly Market, located in a predominantly Black neighborhood in the city of 255,000 people.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told CBS’s “Face the Nation” show Sunday that police “are going through every element, every detail in this shooter’s background to piece together why this happened, how this happened, and the reason that this person came to the city of Buffalo to perpetrate this horrific crime.”

“We are certainly saddened that someone drove from hundreds of miles away, someone not from this community that did not know this community that came here to take as many Black lives as possible, who did this in a willful, premeditated fashion, planning this,” said Brown, who is Buffalo’s first Black mayor.

“But we are a strong community, and we will keep moving forward,” he said. “This is a community that is experiencing development. People have been hoping and waiting for investment and growth and opportunity. We won’t let hateful ideology stop the progress that we are seeing and experiencing in the city of Buffalo.”

As is often the case after mass shootings in the United States, Brown called on Congress to enact tougher gun control laws, saying, “We have to put more pressure on lawmakers in Washington, those that have been obstructionists, to sensible gun control, to reforming the way guns are allowed to proliferate and fall into the wrong hands in this country.”

Such pleas after past mass shootings have mostly gone unheeded, with scant changes in gun control laws.

Wearing a hospital gown, Gendron was arraigned in court Saturday night on first-degree murder charges and ordered detained without bail. Another court hearing is scheduled in the coming days.

At an earlier news briefing, Erie County Sheriff John Garcia pointedly called the shooting a hate crime.

“This was pure evil. It was straight up [a] racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community, outside of the City of Good Neighbors … coming into our community and trying to inflict that evil upon us,” Garcia said.

Investigators said they are reviewing a lengthy statement that they suspect was posted online by the gunman describing his white supremacist motivations and ideology. The 180-page document details the author’s radicalization on internet forums, as well as a plan to target a predominantly Black neighborhood.

The author also described himself as a fascist and antisemite. The statement repeats a far-right conspiracy theory that baselessly argues that the white population in Western countries is being reduced — or “replaced” — by non-white immigrants.

Mayor Brown said the combination of guns and such ideology is combustible.

“It’s not just Buffalo, New York. It’s communities in every corner of this country that are unsafe with guns and with the hateful ideology that has been allowed to proliferate on social media and the internet,” he told CBS. “That has to be reined in. That has to be stopped. It’s not free speech. It’s not American speech. It’s hate speech. And it must be ended.”
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California churchgoers detained gunman in deadly attack

Posted on by SeeUS

A man opened fire during a lunch reception at a Southern California church on Sunday, killing one person and wounding five senior citizens before being stopped and hog-tied by parishioners in what a sheriff’s official called an act of “exceptional heroism and bravery.”

Four of the five people wounded suffered critical gunshot injuries during the violence at Geneva Presbyterian Church in the city of Laguna Woods, Orange County Sheriff’s Department officials said.

The suspect in the shooting, an Asian man in his 60s, was in custody and deputies recovered two handguns at the scene, Undersheriff Jeff Hallock said. A motive for the shooting wasn’t immediately known but investigators don’t believe the gunman lives in the community, he said.

The majority of those inside the church at the time were believed to be of Taiwanese descent, said Carrie Braun, a sheriff’s spokesperson.

Between 30 and 40 members of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church were gathered for lunch after a morning church service at Geneva when gunfire erupted shortly before 1:30 p.m., officials said. When deputies arrived, parishioners had the gunman hog-tied and in custody.

“That group of churchgoers displayed what we believe is exceptional heroism and bravery in intervening to stop the suspect. They undoubtedly prevented additional injuries and fatalities,” Hallock said. “I think it’s safe to say that had people not intervened, it could have been much worse.”

The wounded victims were four Asian men, who were 66, 75, 82, and 92 years old, and an 86-year-old Asian woman, the sheriff’s department said. Authorities originally said only four of the five surviving victims had been shot.

Information about the person who was killed was not immediately released.

The investigation was in its early stages, Hallock said. He said the many unanswered questions include whether the assailant attended the church service, if he was known to church members, and how many shots were fired.

The afternoon lunch reception was honoring a former pastor of the Taiwanese congregation, according to a statement from the Presbytery of Los Ranchos, a church administrative body.

“Please keep the leadership of the Taiwanese congregation and Geneva in your prayers as they care for the those traumatized by this shooting,” the presbytery’s Tom Cramer said in a statement on Facebook.

Federal agents from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded. The FBI also sent agents to the scene to assist the sheriff.

Laguna Woods was built as a senior living community and later became a city. More than 80% of residents in the city of 18,000 people about 80 kilometers southeast of Los Angeles are at least 65.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said on Twitter that he was closely monitoring the situation.

“No one should have to fear going to their place of worship. Our thoughts are with the victims, community, and all those impacted by this tragic event,” the tweet said.

The incident occurred in an area with a cluster of houses of worship, including Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist churches and a Jewish synagogue.

On its website, Geneva Presbyterian Church describes its mission as “to remember, tell, and live the way of Jesus by being just, kind, and humble.”

“All are welcome here. Really, we mean that! Geneva aspires to be an inclusive congregation worshipping, learning, connecting, giving and serving together.”

The shooting came a day after an 18-year-old man shot and killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

“This is upsetting and disturbing news, especially less than a day after a mass shooting in Buffalo,” said U.S. Rep Katie Porter, whose district includes Laguna Woods. “This should not be our new normal. I will work hard to support the victims and their families.”
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Latest Developments in Ukraine: May 16

Posted on by SeeEU

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

 

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:

12:45 a.m.: CNN reports that, in areas of Ukraine that Russia has occupied, educators are being intimidated and threatened into changing their curriculum “to align with pro-Russian rhetoric.”

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Mali Withdraws From Regional Anti-jihadist Force 

Posted on by SeeAF

Mali said Sunday it was withdrawing from a west African force fighting jihadists to protest its being rejected as head of the G5 regional group, which also includes Mauritania, Chad, Burkina and Niger. 

“The government of Mali is deciding to withdraw from all the organs and bodies of the G5 Sahel, including the joint force” fighting the jihadists, it said in a statement. 

The G5 Sahel was created in 2014 and its anti-jihadist force launched in 2017. 

A conference of heads of state of the G5 Sahel scheduled for February 2022 in Bamako had been due to mark “the start of the Malian presidency of the G5.” 

But nearly four months after the mandate indicated this meeting “has still not taken place,” the statement said. 

Bamako “firmly rejects the argument of a G5 member state which advances the internal national political situation to reject Mali’s exercising the G5 Sahel presidency,” the statement said, without naming the country. 

The Mali government said “the opposition of some G5 Sahel member states to Mali’s presidency is linked to maneuvers by a state outside the region aiming desperately to isolate Mali,” without naming that country. 

Mali has been since January 9 the target of a series of economic and diplomatic sanctions from west African states to punish the military junta’s bid to stay in power for several more years, following coups in August 2020 and May 2021. 

The junta has opted for a two-year transition while the Economic Community of West African States has urged Bamako to organize elections in 16 months maximum.  

Beyond Mali and Burkina, the G5 Sahel, composed of around 5,000 troops, includes Mauritania, Chad and Niger. 

The military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso are undermining the regional force’s opertional capacity, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to Security Council on May 11. 

“I am deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the Sahel, as well as by the potentially debilitating effect the uncertain political situation in Mali, Burkina Faso and beyond will have on efforts to further operationalize the G5-Sahel Joint Force,” Guterres’ report said. 
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Pope Declares 10 New Saints, Including Dutch Priest Killed By Nazis   

Posted on by SeeEU

Pope Francis on Sunday declared 10 people saints of the Roman Catholic Church, including an anti-Nazi Dutch priest murdered in the Dachau concentration camp and a French hermit monk assassinated in Algeria.   

The 85-year-old pope, who has been using a wheelchair due to knee and leg pain, was driven to the altar at the start of the ceremony, which was attended by more than 50,000 people in St Peter’s Square. It was the one of the largest gatherings there since the easing of COVID-19 restrictions earlier this year.   

Francis limped to a chair behind the altar but stood to individually greet some participants. He read his homily while seated but stood during other parts of the Mass and read his homily in a strong voice, often going off script, and walked to greet cardinals afterwards. 

Francis read the canonization proclamations while seated in front of the altar and 10 cheers went up in the crowd as he officially declared each of 10 saints. 

Titus Brandsma, who was a member of the Carmelite religious order and served as president of the Catholic university at Nijmegen, began speaking out against Nazi ideology even before World War II and the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. 

During the Nazi occupation, he spoke out against anti-Jewish laws. He urged Dutch Catholic newspapers not to print Nazi propaganda. 

He was arrested in 1942 and held in Dutch jails before being taken to Dachau, near Munich, where he was subjected to biological experimentation and killed by lethal injection the same year at the age of 61. He is considered a martyr, having died because of what the Church calls “in hatred of the faith.” 

The other well-known new saint is Charles de Foucauld, a 19th century French nobleman, soldier, explorer, and geographer who later experienced a personal conversion and became a priest, living as a hermit among the poor Berbers in North Africa. 

He published the first Tuareg-French dictionary and translated Tuareg poems into French. De Foucauld was killed during a kidnapping attempt by Bedouin tribal raiders in Algeria in 1916. 

The other eight who were declared saints on Sunday included Devasahayam Pillai, who was killed for converting to Christianity in 18th century India, and Cesar de Bus, a 16th century French priest who founded a religious order.   

The others were two Italian priests, three Italian nuns, and a French nun, all of whom who lived between the 16th and 20th centuries. 

“These saints favored the spiritual and social growth of their nations and the whole human family, while sadly in the world today, distances are widening, tensions and wars are increasing,” Francis said after the Mass. 

World leaders had to be “protagonists of peace and not of war,” he said in an apparent reference to Ukraine. 

Miracles have been attributed to all the new saints.   

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that only God performs miracles, but that saints, who are believed to be with God in heaven, intercede on behalf of people who pray to them. 

Several other Catholics killed in Nazi concentration camps have already been declared saints. They include Polish priest Maximilian Kolbe and Sister Edith Stein, a German nun who converted from Judaism. Both were killed in the Auschwitz camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. 
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Persistent Drought in Ethiopia Result of Climate Change, Experts Say

Posted on by SeeAF

Drought is not new to the Horn of Africa, but experts say the record one killing crops and cattle across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia has underscored the increasing frequency of drought due to climate change.

In Ethiopia, the U.N.’s World Food Program is not just feeding those affected but also working to help drought-proof communities for the longer term.

Hawo Abdi Wole has lived through many droughts in her 70 years of life. But until now, she said she had never seen four consecutive rainy seasons fail. Wole said she has seen a big difference. In early years, she said, people used to see more rains and animals produced more milk. There is a big, big difference now.

The World Food Program is helping her village not only survive the crisis but rebuild for the long term.

The group is digging meter-wide, semi-circular holes in the barren soil to capture runoff water when rains return so that grass can grow more effectively and people feed their surviving livestock.

Forward-looking interventions are desperately needed. Scientists say climate change is the culprit for these more frequent, severe conditions.

“The climate in this region is driven by what is happening in the neighboring ocean,” said Abubakr Salih Babiker, who is with World Meteorological Organization in Ethiopia. “There are studies that indicated that this is the world’s fastest warming part of the tropical ocean system. So, it is warming rapidly during the past 100 years. And this warming, as I said…it was… it is associated with the dryness of the March-June season.”

It also results in flooding when the rain does return. These events aren’t just examples of climate change, but inequality, said Habtamu Adam, a climate policy expert in Addis Ababa.

“When you compare from the emission level from our contribution to the climate change, it is very incomparable because most of the emissions are emitted from developed countries,” he said.

Yet developing countries like Ethiopia don’t have the funds to fight the effects.

The World Meteorological Organization estimates that sub-Saharan Africa will need up to $50 billion annually to adapt to climate change. Without it, the number of people displaced and in need of aid will only continue to rise, said Ali Hussein, who is with the World Food Program in the Somali region.

“We need to build the community resistance to these shocks and in that line, we want to put more emphasis on these regreening activities, such as half-moons, to regenerate this dry desert area to become a green land in the future, which can be more useful to both communities and as well as livestock,” he said.

These projects around the Somali region are showing success and could be replicated to help more people.

Ibrahim Kurbad Farah is an elder of a village that saw its land restored with the construction of a channel that is effectively diverting streams and rainwater. He said they have experienced numerous advantages. They’re now able to farm and use the grass for livestock, as well as thatches for their houses. He said they also use the water for drinking, especially for the livestock.

While adaptation is crucial to communities’ health and survival, climate scientists warn reducing emissions remains a priority in preventing even worse conditions in the future.
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Somali Parliament Reelects Former President to Top Job

Posted on by SeeAF

Somalia’s parliament has reelected former President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud following marathon voting in Mogadishu on Sunday.

The voting took place in the heavily guarded Mogadishu airport with African Union forces securing the tent inside a hangar, where the secret balloting took place. In a joint session of the two houses of the parliament, the Upper House and Lower House, 327 lawmakers cast ballots for 36 presidential candidates in three rounds of voting.

Outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and his immediate predecessor, Mohamud, competed in the final round of voting, needing a simple majority to win. It was a rematch of the 2017 election when Farmaajo beat Mohamud to become president.

“Out of 327 parliamentarians who voted the final round, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud got 214 (votes), while President Farmaajo got 110, three votes spoiled,” Speaker Adan Mohamed Nur said. “He is the legitimate president from this hour.”

Farmaajo congratulated Mohamud during a live broadcast on national television.

“Thanks to Allah for allowing us to complete our election tonight. I thank those who voted for me and those who voted against me,” Farmaajo said. “I want to welcome my brother, the new president. Congratulations.”

Mohamud was immediately sworn in.

In a brief speech, Mohamud thanked Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble for leading the election process.

Mohamud said he would not be looking to go against Farmaajo supporters. “There will be no revenge,” he said. “If we have differences, we will use the country’s laws to settle it.”

Voting

The voting went into the third round after no candidate won the two-thirds (220) majority required for a candidate to win outright in the first and second rounds.

In the first round, Mohamud finished third, with 52 votes. But he finished on top in the second round with 110 votes. Farmaajo finished second in the first round with 59 votes, and 83 in the second round.

The president of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, Said Abdullahi Dani, and former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire finished third and fourth in the race, respectively.

Mohamud was president from September 2012 to February 2017. In his previous administration, he led with a “six pillar policy” plan topped by stability and the rule of law, peace-building, reconciliation, economic recovery and national unity. When he left power in February 2017, the main challenge to Somalia’s stability was the insurgent group al-Shabab. His successor failed to remove the al-Shabab threat, too.

Earlier this month, the militant group attacked an Africa Union military base in the town of El-Baraf, killing at least 30 Burundian peacekeepers.

Mohamud was born in the town of Jalalaqsi in the Hiran region in 1955. He graduated from Somali National University with a bachelor’s degree in technology and received a master’s in technical education from Barkatullah University. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the same school in 2015.

In 1999, he cofounded the Somali Institute of Management and Administration Development (SIMAD) in Mogadishu, which later became one of the biggest universities in Mogadishu.

In 2008, Mohamud was appointed as the CEO of Telecom Somalia.

In 2011, he entered politics and established the independent Peace and Development Party (PDP), which elected him as the party’s chair. In August 2012, Mohamud was selected as a member of parliament. The following month he was elected president of Somalia.

Marathon election process

Mohamud was elected by an indirect election as the country’s leaders could not agree on an election model.

On February 20, 2020, Farmaajo signed a landmark election law that allowed popular voting. But it immediately hit a snag because the government did not control the entire country. Key Somali regional leaders and opposition politicians resisted the initiative, accusing Farmaajo of concentrating power at the center of the country and weakening the role of other regions.

In June 2020, National Independent Election Commission (NIEC) chair Halima Ismail Ibrahim ruled out holding direct elections by Nov. 27, 2020, as scheduled, the date the parliament’s mandate expired. Halima gave the parliament two options: An electionbased on biometric registration that she proposed to take place in August 2021; and a manual-based registration that could have been held in March 2021.

She cited that buying voting machines and election equipment, securing election centers and enacting a mass awareness campaign would take months to complete.

That sparked a long political tussle that forced a return to the indirect election where clans and regional leaders played a role in who is elected to parliament. On Sept. 17, 2020, the sides agreed that elections would take place in two towns in each of the federal member states, and in Mogadishu. They also agreed that 101 electoral delegates would elect each lawmaker.

The September 17 agreement faced a setback on April 12, 2021, when the Somali parliament controversially extended the mandate of the parliament and the president by two years. This led to violence in Mogadishu and condemnations by the international community.

On May 1, the Somali lawmakers retreated from the controversial term extension plan and accepted a return to the Sept. 17 agreement. On that same day, Farmaajo handed over the security and management of the election process to Prime Minister Roble.

On July 29, 2021, the first MP was elected. On May 6, 2022, the last MP was elected.

Allegations of voter irregularities overshadowed the election process. The election results of at least four seats were nullified amid fraud concerns, two were later approved, one was recontested and one remains nullified. Roble himself admitted the election was not taking place as scheduled and fired several members of the election disputes resolution team.

Challenges

The new president faces the same challenges that has impeded the country’s progress. In addition to ongoing droughts and al-Shabab, the country’s federal system is not functioning properly.

Ibrahim, the chair of the National Independent Electoral Committee, says key among the challenges is settling the constitution. “We have a federal system but it’s incomplete, the constitutional is incomplete,” she said.

She also said the new president needs to work on making sure the Somali people directly elect the next president. She said the election model the country is going to adopt must be stated in the constitution.

The other key challenge is tackling the country’s security problems. Al-Shabab has been fighting the Somali government for nearly 15 years.

Jihan Abdullahi Hassan, former director of the Somali Ministry of Defense, said the new president must restore discipline among the military. “The army has mingled in politics,” she said. “The first task is to separate the army from the politics.”

Jihan said the country needs a clear national security policy, better-equipped army and a unified front against al-Shabab.

“Al-Shabab can be defeated,” she said. “The important thing is to have a well-defined overall national security policy between the federal government and the federal member states.”
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IBM: 6 Black Colleges Getting Cybersecurity Centers

Posted on by SeeUS

Six historically Black universities in five Southern states will be getting the first IBM cybersecurity centers aimed at training underrepresented communities, the company said.

The schools are Xavier University of Louisiana, that state’s Southern University System, North Carolina A&T, South Carolina State, Clark Atlanta and Morgan State universities, according to a news release Tuesday.

“Technology-related services are in constant demand, and cybersecurity is paramount,” said Dr. Ray L. Belton, president of the Southern University System based in Baton Rouge.

The centers will give students, staff, and faculty access to modern technology, resources, and skills development, said Dr. Nikunja Swain, chair and professor of the Computer Science and Mathematics Department at South Carolina State, in Orangeburg.

“It will further enhance our ongoing activities on several key areas, including cybersecurity, data science analytics, cloud computing, IOT, blockchain, design thinking, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence,” he said.

IBM said it plans more than 20 such centers at historically Black colleges and universities nationwide.

The company said each school will get customized courses and access to company academic programs. They also will be able to experience simulated but realistic cyberattacks through IBM Security’s Command Center.

The company said it also will provide faculty and students free access to multiple SaaS IBM Cloud environments.

Xavier is in New Orleans, North Carolina A&T in Greensboro and Morgan State in Baltimore.
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