June 2022 - Page 16 of 23

Turkish Media Groups Voice Concern Over Draft Disinformation Bill

Posted on 06/10/2022 by SeeEU

A years-old piece of draft legislation that seeks to criminalize the spread of disinformation is moving toward a vote in the Turkish parliament. The bill is being met with deep concern by media rights groups across the country.

If passed, the so-called “disinformation” law put forward by ruling majority parliamentarians would carry a sentence of up to three years in prison for the spread of fake new or disinformation as defined by government officials.

Newly drafted proposals are laid out across 40 articles, including some that would target social media users and regulate digital media. If passed, the bill would consider digital media outlets as conventional media and subject them to the same rights and regulations as print and broadcast outlets, including the eligibility to apply for press cards and provisions around access to state advertising revenue.

Skeptics of the proposed law say the bill could be used to pressure digital media before the upcoming elections in Turkey. The next presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for June 2023, but the opposition parties are calling for snap elections, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected.

“We are concerned that if this bill becomes law before the elections, it will be used as a tool of silencing,” Faruk Eren, head of the press union of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey, told VOA. “There are vague terms such as ‘fake news and false news’ in the bill. The government already calls every news that disturbs it [a] ‘lie’ or ‘unfounded.’ Now they will try to silence the digital media by using this law.”

The proposal’s signatories, however, say that the bill is needed to protect people from “slander, insults, smears, defamation, hatred and discrimination.” They also argue that such regulations on disinformation are enforced by Western countries, including the United States and European countries.

“Similar regulations are being implemented in Europe,” Mahir Unal, parliamentary group deputy chairman for Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said in a nationally televised interview.

Turkey already has a poor record for media rights, ranking 149 out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders’s (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, where No. 1 is freest. In the report, Paris-based RSF describes Turkey as a country in which “all possible means are used to undermine critics.”

More press cards, more potential violations

Some observers call parts of the bill a step in the right direction for press freedoms in Turkey, such as granting digital reporters eligibility to apply for press cards, which have been a controversial issue in Turkey.

RSF and the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists say the Turkish government has politicized the press card issuance process — which has been run by the presidential communications directorate since 2018 — and discriminated against independent journalists.

“One of the most important regulations in this proposal is considering digital media as conventional media and enabling them to apply for press cards,” Mustafa Gokhan Teksen, an Ankara-based lawyer, told VOA. “This would provide the opportunity of job security for journalists in digital media.”

On the other hand, Teksen said other articles in the bill propose new offenses in the Turkish penal code.

Yaman Akdeniz, a cyberlaw professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, thinks that subjecting digital and conventional media to the same guidelines looks good on paper but, in reality, it comes with specific punitive regulations.

“Not only will decisions to block access and remove content be sent to news websites, but also there will be applications like rebuttal in the press law,” Akdeniz told VOA.

Another section seen as troubling by media rights analysts is Article 29, which allows for jail sentences of up to three years for those who “disseminate misleading information to the public” that disturbs public order and “creates fear and panic.”

The proposed article includes language referring to Turkey’s foreign and domestic security, along with issues of public order and health.

Akdeniz is concerned that Article 29 defines the violations too broadly, such that the language could be exploited against dissidents, media outlets and journalists if the bill becomes the law.

“We are entering a period where we will see more self-censorship due to the expansion of a pre-existing environment of fear with vague definitions,” Akdeniz said. “We will see that investigation of crime will be opened against media outlets because of their coverage, and journalists will be prosecuted for disinformation crimes.”

Social media

The bill also recommends restrictions and penalties for social media companies and individual users deemed to have spread disinformation, with expanded sentences for those who do so anonymously.

Under Article 34, social media companies will be required to appoint representatives holding Turkish citizenship and residing in the country. The representatives will be required to follow legally binding content removal requests and hand over personal data about users. Failure to do could result in “bans, fines and even prison sentences for international companies.”

Akdeniz says that a separate social media law passed in 2020 paved the way for Article 34.

“Back then, [critics of the law warned] social media platforms, ‘Don’t open offices in Turkey; if you give [the Turkish government] an inch, it will take a yard.’ Now, this looks like it is happening,” Akdeniz said.

If the bill becomes the law, Akdeniz said, “social media platforms that do not comply with these regulations would be punished” and possibly face state-backed bandwidth restrictions.

Article 22 covers access to state advertising revenue, including the Press Advertising Agency’s powers to issue penalties and control the appeals process.

Critics say a proposal in Article 22 that allows advertising penalties to be issued without trial, regardless of the appeals process, is particularly threatening for opposition newspapers.

The proposed bill, which passed parliament’s digital media commission with minor changes on June 2, is currently being examined by the justice commission.

The bill is expected to go up for a vote later this month.

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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Russia, China Unveil First Road Bridge

Posted on 06/10/2022 by SeeEU

Russia and China on Friday unveiled the first road bridge between the two countries as Moscow pivots to Asia amid its confrontation with the West over Ukraine.

The kilometer-long bridge over the Amur River links the far eastern Russian city of Blagoveshchensk with Heihe in northern China.

The construction of the bridge was completed two years ago but its inauguration was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

During a ceremony in Blagoveshchensk on Friday, the bridge opened to freight traffic, with the passage of the first trucks greeted by fireworks.

Consisting of two traffic lanes, the bridge cost around 19 billion rubles ($328 million), according to official figures.

Once bitter foes during the Cold War, Moscow and Beijing have over the past years ramped up political and economic cooperation as both are driven by a desire to counterbalance what they see as US global dominance.

Trade between Russia and China, which share a 4,250-kilometre border, has flourished since the normalization of relations between the two giants in the late 1980s, but has always come up against the region’s lack of transport infrastructure.
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Congressional Panel Lays Out Findings on 2021 Riot at US Capitol

Posted on 06/10/2022 by SeeUS

A U.S. congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol held its first public hearing Thursday evening, with dramatic footage of the violent riot and excerpts of interviews with members of former President Donald Trump’s inner circle.

The two-hour televised hearing, the first in a series of seven scheduled for the month, followed a wide-ranging probe into the attack by Trump supporters after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to President Joe Biden.

While key details of the committee’s findings leaked in recent months, members of the committee used the hearing to offer what the panel’s chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, called “a true accounting of what happened and what led to the attack.”

The attack, Thompson said during opening remarks, was “the culmination of an attempted coup.”

The violence resulted from a “sprawling, multistep conspiracy aimed at overturning the election” and Trump was at the center of the plot, Thompson said.

“And ultimately, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down to the Capitol and subvert American democracy,” he said.

The January 6 attack followed a speech Trump delivered earlier that day at a really near the White House, where he urged thousands of his supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell.”

As members of Congress gathered inside the Capitol for a quadrennial ritual of the certification of the presidential election results, in this case, Biden’s victory over Trump, more than 2,000 Trump supporters breached the building to stop the proceeding.

Then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the session, and members of Congress were evacuated to safety and did not return until later that evening to complete the certification of electoral votes.

Seven people, including one police officer, died as a result of the attack, according to a bipartisan Senate report, and more than 150 police officers were injured.

The attack was an unprecedented event in American history.

Encouraged by Trump, the rioters sought to stop the peaceful transfer of power, “a precedent that had stood for 220 years,” Thompson said.

Trump’s speech and the violence that followed led to his second impeachment, shortly before he left office, making him the only American president to be impeached twice.

Trump was spared ouster from office when most Republican senators voted against his conviction.

The panel’s vice chair, Republican Representative Liz Cheney, said Trump sought to overturn the election by alleging fraud despite being told by advisors that he had lost the vote.

In back-to-back video clips aired during the hearing, several former Trump aides said they did not believe the former president’s allegations of voter fraud.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr recalled telling Trump after the election that he thought his allegation of fraud was “bullshit.” Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, said she accepted Barr’s assessment.

Nevertheless, Trump relentlessly tried to get the Justice Department to declare electoral fraud, enlisting an official to draft a letter to states stating that the department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election.”

When rioters descended on the Capitol, instead of condemning the violence, Trump “justified it,” Cheney said.

“President Trump summoned the mob, he assembled the mob and he lit the flame of this attack, ” Cheney said.

Citing testimony by a former Trump administration official, Cheney said when Trump was informed on January 6 that his supporters outside the Capitol were chanting to hang Mike Pence, the former president said, “Maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence deserves it.”

Previewing the committee’s remaining public hearings, Cheney said the next session, scheduled for Monday, will focus on Trump’s claims of voter fraud despite knowing he’d lost reelection.

The nine-member House committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, was established by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last July after Senate Republicans blocked a move to create a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the Capitol riot.

Committee members and staffers interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, combed through more than 140,000 documents, and issued nearly 100 subpoenas for testimony and documents.

Many in Trump’s orbit, including son Donald Trump Jr, daughter Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, testified before the committee.

Others, though, refused to answer questions, and at least two — former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro and former White House strategist Stephen Bannon — have been charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with investigators.

Republicans have repeatedly attacked the committee’s investigation as a partisan witch hunt designed to undermine Trump’s prospects as a presidential candidate in 2024.

“It is the most political and least legitimate committee in American history. It has used congressional subpoenas to attack Republicans, violate due process, and infringe on the political speech of private citizens,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

The hearing featured a timelined video of the riot and testimony by witnesses U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured during the riot, and British documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who filmed the far-right organization the Proud Boys.

Members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia, have been charged with seditious conspiracy as part of the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation into the Capitol riot.

The department estimates between 2,000 and 2,500 people entered the Capitol on January 6, and Attorney General Merrick Garland has vowed to hold everyone involved in the attack accountable.

To date, more than 840 people have been arrested in connection with the January 6 attack, with about 305 pleading guilty, mostly to misdemeanor charges, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the Justice Department said its “resolve to hold accountable those who committed crimes on Jan. 6, 2021, has not, and will not, wane.”

Jordan Strauss, a former Justice Department and White House official, called Thursday night’s hearing “an opening statement in a complex and sprawling criminal conspiracy case.”

“In terms of scale, the size and scope of this investigation is unprecedented,” Strauss, a fellow at the Kroll Institute, said. “The committee added color not seen before, and a timeline that was powerful and only possible with the benefit of hindsight and close study.”

In addition to the criminal investigation of the rioters, the department has reportedly stepped up its probe of efforts by political operatives and state lawmakers to overturn the 2020 election results.

That has not stopped politicians on the left from taking the Justice Department to task for “failing” to launch a criminal investigation of Trump’s role in the January 6 attack.

Garland has said prosecutors will “follow the facts wherever they lead.”
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Congressional Investigators Say Trump Plotted ‘Coup’ in First Public Hearing

Posted on 06/10/2022 by SeeUS

After more than a year of investigation, the January 6 Committee held its first public hearing Thursday night, making the case before the American people that former U.S. President Donald Trump directed his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol as part of a conspiracy to hold on to the presidency. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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Europe’s Central Bank to Hike Rates in July, 1st in 11 Years

Posted on 06/10/2022 by SeeEU

The European Central Bank will raise interest rates next month for the first time in 11 years and add another hike in September, catching up with other central banks worldwide as they pivot from supporting the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic to squelching soaring inflation.

The surprise move Thursday marks a turning point after years of extremely low interest rates but faces risks from weakening prospects for economic growth. Russia’s war in Ukraine has sent shock waves through the global economy, particularly as energy prices have soared and clobbered Europe, which relies on Russian oil and natural gas.

“Russia’s unjustified aggression towards Ukraine continues to weigh on the economy in Europe and beyond,” bank President Christine Lagarde told reporters. The war is “disrupting trade, is leading to shortages of materials and is contributing to high energy and commodity prices.”

The bank’s 25-member monetary policy council, which met in Amsterdam, said inflation had become a “major challenge” and that those forces had “broadened and intensified” in the 19 countries that use the euro currency. Consumer prices rose by a record 8.1% in May. The bank’s target is 2%.

The ECB will first end its bond purchases that buoy the economy and then raise rates by a quarter-point in July. It left open the possibility that it would make a more drastic, half-percentage-point increase in September, saying that if the inflation outlook persists or deteriorates, “a larger increment will be appropriate.”

The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its key rate by a half-point May 4 and has held out the prospect of more of those larger increases. The Bank of England has approved rate hikes four times since December.

The bar to a half-point hike in September “has been set very low,” said Marc Ostwald, chief economist and global strategist at ADM Investor Services International.

How far the bank will go after that is harder to tell, said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING bank.

“Simply put, the ECB just announced the end of a long era,” Brzeski said. “Whether this will also be the start of a new era of continuously rising interest rates, however, is still far from certain.”

The prospect of rapid increases has sent shudders through stock markets, as higher rates would raise the returns on less risky alternatives to stocks and can make credit more expensive for businesses. Lagarde said, however, that the path of increases would be “gradual but sustained” after September.

“High inflation is a major challenge for all of us,” the bank said in a policy statement. “The governing council will make sure that inflation returns to its 2% target over the medium term.”

By raising its benchmarks, the bank can influence what financial institutions, companies, consumers and governments have to pay to borrow the money they need. So higher rates can help cool off an overheating economy.

But higher rates can also weigh on economic growth, making the ECB’s job a delicate balance between snuffing out high inflation and not blunting economic activity.

The ECB slashed its growth projection for this year to 2.8% from 3.7%. It raised its outlook for inflation, saying price increases would average 6.8% this year, up from 5.1% in its March forecast.

The bank also increased its crucial inflation forecast for 2024 — to 2.1% from 1.9%. That is significant because it indicates the bank sees inflation as above target for several years, a strong argument for more rate increases.

The euro’s exchange rate to the dollar jumped by almost a half-cent, to $1.076, after the decision. Higher rates can increase demand for investments denominated in a currency, boosting its exchange rate. The sudden jump indicates the bank had gone further than expected in announcing rate rises.

An ECB’s move to attack inflation has raised concerns about the impact of higher interest rates on heavily indebted governments, most notably Italy. The bank announced no new support measures that could help such countries, saying only that it would respond with flexibility if some parts of the eurozone were facing excessive borrowing costs.

The rate hikes end an era of persistently low rates that started during the global financial crisis, which broke out in 2008. The increases will start from record lows of zero for the ECB’s lending rate to banks and minus 0.5% on overnight deposits from banks.
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Biden Announces Climate Initiatives to Reduce Energy Dependence in Americas

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeUS

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday presented his plan for nations in the Americas to tackle climate change while boosting clean energy production — a plan he’s touting as an economic boost that will bring lucrative jobs to nations that struggle to retain skilled workers amid migration flows in the hemisphere.

The Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, he said, “will tackle the climate crisis head on, with the same mentality we’re bringing to the work in the United States.

“When I hear ‘climate,’ I think jobs — good-paying, high-quality jobs that will help speed our transition to a green economy of the future and unleash sustainable growth; jobs in developing and deploying clean energy; jobs in decarbonizing the economy; jobs in protecting biodiversity of our hemisphere; jobs that will provide dignity of being able to feed your family, give your children a better life and envision a future of possibilities.”

Biden spoke in Los Angeles at the start of the Summit of the Americas, a gathering of 23 heads of state. The leaders of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras boycotted the summit over objections that the United States did not invite Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela — countries that the U.S., as host, said didn’t deserve to attend because they are not democratic.

The climate plan involves steps to promote trade and investment in clean energy and encourage regional collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean, administration officials told reporters Wednesday. They also announced the expansion of a United Nations and Inter-American Development Bank initiative to boost renewable energy sources by 2030.

The administration said it had secured a commitment of up to $50 billion from four regional development banks over the next five years.

On Wednesday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced a separate initiative, the U.S.-Caribbean Partnership to Address the Climate Crisis 2030. That plan focuses on reducing island nations’ dependence on energy imports.

But when asked what level of investment the U.S. would provide there, a senior administration official said, “That’s going to be a process, and we couldn’t, at this point, put a dollar figure on it.”

Bolsonaro’s position

Diego Abente Brun, director of the Latin American and Hemispheric Studies Program at George Washington University, told VOA that any climate proposal aimed at the Americas was likely to run headlong into a large obstacle: The president of the largest nation in South America, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, is a noted climate skeptic. Other nations, such as Ecuador and Costa Rica, are likely to be more open, he said.

“I think the proposal will run into a lot of problems and resistance from climate-change skeptical people and countries,” he said. “Having said this, the worst thing you can do is not bring this issue to the table just because you’re not going to accomplish 100% of the goal. You say, ‘Well, I’m not going to do anything. I’m not going to move forward.’ So I value greatly this initiative, and I think it’s important.”

Luiza Duarte, a global fellow at the Brazil Institute at the Wilson Center, told VOA that perhaps the U.S. needs to look at Brazil — home to a vast rainforest and much of the Amazon River — from a different perspective.

“I think the U.S. needs a new policy for the region,” she said. “And it needs to engage with Brazil in a different way, and may engage in the subnational level with regions, with cities, to try to move environmental policy forward.”

All must invest

Countries in the region understand the need to fight climate change, said Enrique Dussel Peters, a professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

“The region has been changing. We are not only expecting that the U.S. gives us aid,” he told VOA. “It is very clear that even the poorer countries have to invest with their own resources. If the U.S. supports us, fantastic; if the U.S. does not, we will have to deal with climate change, with or without U.S. support.”

The U.S. proposal is still in its early stages, Duarte noted.

“We need to read the facts of the initiatives and see,” she said. “I think those summits, as we know, involve a lot of announcements, and not always announcements that are translated in concrete policies and concrete developments for the region. So we need more time to see. It is a long way between an announcement and a policy to be implemented in all the region.”
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AU Chair Urges Ukraine to Demine Odesa Port to Ease Wheat Exports

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeAF

Senegalese President and African Union Chair Macky Sall on Thursday urged Ukraine to demine waters around its Odesa port to ease much needed grain exports from the war-torn country.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions have disrupted grain deliveries from the two countries, fueling fears of hunger around the world.

Cereal prices in Africa, the world’s poorest continent, have surged because of the slump in exports, sharpening the impact of conflict and climate change and sparking fears of social unrest.

If wheat exports do not resume from Ukraine, Africa “will be in a situation of very serious famine that could destabilize the continent,” Sall told French media outlets France 24 and RFI.

Russia and Ukraine produce 30% of the global wheat supply.

But grain remains stuck in Ukraine’s ports because of a Russian blockade and Ukrainian mines, while Western sanctions on Moscow have disrupted exports from Russia.

Moscow has called for Ukraine to demine the waters surrounding the Ukrainian-controlled port of Odesa to allow out blocked grain, but Kyiv has refused for fear of a Russian attack.

Sall said Russia President Vladimir Putin, whom he met last week in Russia, had assured him this would not happen.

“I even told him: ‘The Ukrainians said that if they demine, you’ll enter the port.’ He says, no, he will not enter, and that’s a commitment he made,” the Senegalese leader said.

“There must now be work towards getting the demining done, the United Nations involved … so that we can start getting the Ukrainian wheat out,” he said.

Sall is to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in France on Friday.

He is expected to ask him to help lift EU sanctions against Russia, especially to reverse its exclusion from the global SWIFT bank messaging system.

“Since our banks are mostly linked to European banks, they cannot pay as they used to” for Russian products, the AU chair explained.

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US States Enact New Gun Laws

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeUS

A series of mass shootings across multiple U.S. states has shaken the nation and reignited debate about how to prevent gun violence in America. As some U.S. lawmakers seek to end nearly three decades of congressional inaction on gun legislation, state governments are taking differing approaches to address mass violence.

In New York this week, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law legislation that raises the minimum age to purchase semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21, restricts the sale of body armor and strengthens the state’s so-called “red-flag law” to heighten reporting requirements for mental health workers and law enforcement officers who receive credible information that a person poses a danger to public safety.

State lawmakers approved the measures days after an 18-year-old wielding an assault-style rifle opened fire inside a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, killing 10 people. Ten days later, an 18-year-old shot and killed 19 students and two faculty members at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

“Mass shootings just keep happening over and over again,” Hochul said during the bill-signing ceremony. “I have to ask, when did we become a nation that reveres the right to have the ability to possess a gun over the right of a child to stay alive? When did that happen?”

New York’s push for tighter gun restrictions come as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule this month on a 100-year-old New York law that strictly limits a person’s ability to carry handguns. Some gun control advocates believe if the high court strikes down the law, it could invalidate similar statutes in Maryland, California, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Differing approaches

While some Democrat-led states look to enact or strengthen gun control laws, several Republican-led states are contemplating other ways to prevent mass shootings, which number more than 250 in America so far this year, according to GunViolenceArchive.org, a Washington-based group that tracks gun violence.

Ohio’s legislature last week passed legislation allowing school boards in the state to authorize teachers to carry firearms in the classroom. State lawmakers also appropriated funds to boost security measures at school buildings and university campuses.

In Texas, Republican lawmakers and officials have proposed measures ranging from boosting the number of armed school police officers to restricting entryways to places of learning.

“We have to harden these targets to prevent would-be shooters from getting into schools ever, except maybe through one entrance,” said the state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, speaking recently on Fox News. “Maybe that would help. Maybe that would stop someone.”

In Washington, meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Democrats and Republicans can unite behind any measures to contain gun violence. The Democrat-led House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill raising the age to purchase semiautomatic rifles and banning the sale of ammunition magazines that can hold more than 15 rounds, among other provisions. Senate passage of the bill is viewed as highly unlikely.

Familiar arguments on Capitol Hill

A bipartisan group of senators is trying to hammer out a set of gun violence prevention measures that can pass the evenly divided chamber. While negotiations continue, familiar arguments are being made on Capitol Hill for and against gun control.

“Only in America can a troubled teenager, showing all sorts of warning signs, get his hands on high-powered semiautomatic rifles and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted after the Uvalde shootings. “NO OTHER NATION ALLOWS THIS TO HAPPEN.”

The debate “immediately becomes about Democrats wanting to take away guns,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, said on Fox News Sunday. “Let’s go search for the root of the problem. How can we do a better job of connecting the dots and stopping something before it happens, like we did after September 11, which has worked well as it relates to stopping terrorist attacks?”

Polls show overwhelming public support for certain gun control measures, like making background checks of gun purchasers universal, and majority backing for banning the sale of the deadliest weapons.

“If people can easily have access to guns, the number of mass shootings will only increase,” Washington resident Joe Williams told VOA. Williams works with young people in high-crime neighborhoods in the nation’s capital to deescalate conflicts that could result in gun violence.

“We need laws that will keep guns out of the hands of young people,” Williams added. “We cannot stand by and watch people die and lives shattered without doing anything meaningful.”

States taking the lead

Action at the state level is not new.

Last year Democrat-led Colorado repealed a so-called preemption law. The law had prevented local governments from enacting stricter gun regulations than what state law allows. In recent weeks, several municipalities have put in place restrictive gun ordinances such as banning assault-style weapons, raising the minimum age for gun purchases and prohibiting carrying firearms openly in public places.

Laws changed in several states after the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, where a 19-year-old former student killed 17 people. Republican-led Florida was one of several states to pass red-flag laws after the tragedy.

Florida also raised the minimum age to purchase long guns from 18 to 21 years old. Additionally, the state mandated a three-day waiting period to purchase guns and created a program to allow trained school staff to carry guns.

Now, as pressure mounts on lawmakers of both political parties to address rising gun violence at the federal level, the families of mass shooting victims are speaking out.

“It’s not about Republicans, it’s not about Democrats,” said Kimberly Salter, the widow of Buffalo mass shooting victim Aaron Salter, speaking at a news conference on Capitol Hill earlier this week. “It’s about people, it’s about human life.”
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Gunmen Kill 32 in Northwest Nigeria Villages, Residents Say

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeAF

Attacks by armed gangs on motorcycles are blamed for the deaths of at least 32 people in rural northwestern Nigeria, residents told The Associated Press.

The gunmen attacked four villages in the Kajuru area of Kaduna state on Sunday, said Monday Solomon, a resident of the area, about 230 kilometers (143 miles) from Abuja. The attackers moved from village to village for hours before leaving, he said.

Poor telecommunications delayed residents from reporting the attacks, as is often the case in parts of Nigeria’s north.

News of the killings in Kaduna state came shortly after more than 30 people were killed in an attack on a Catholic church on Sunday in southwestern Ondo, a state previously known as one of Nigeria’s safest.

Nigeria’s National Security Council said Thursday that the attack in Ondo was carried out by extremist rebels under the Islamic State West Africa Province group, confirming alarms raised in the past by local authorities and security analysts that the militants who have been restricted to the northeast for many years are looking to expand their influence and reach to other parts of the country.

Following the recent attack in Kaduna state, at least 32 bodies have been recovered from the villages, according to the Adara Development Association. It said survivors continue to “comb surrounding bushes for more corpses.” Twenty-eight people have so far been buried, residents said.

In the Kajuru area, attackers arrived on more than 100 motorcycles, said resident Usman Danladi. Many villagers “took to their hills and ran into the bush [but] they [the attackers] followed them with motorcycles and killed many of them,” said Danladi.

More than 20 people were kidnapped and the abductors are demanding money for their release, he added.

Such attacks have become frequent in Nigeria’s troubled northwest. Thousands have been killed in the violence, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations. Residents are often abducted and kept in detention for weeks, usually in forest reserves, until ransoms are paid.

The gunmen in the latest violence were “armed Fulani militia,” said resident Danladi. “That is the language they were speaking. That was their outlook. They are not new to our environment because this is not the first time they were attacking.”

Herdsmen, farmers in conflict

The Fulani herdsmen, who are mostly Muslim, have been in conflict for decades against the settled farmers over access to land for grazing. The rivalry has become deadly in recent years as gangs of gunmen attack rural communities.

In one of the villages, residents were able to repel them at first before a helicopter arrived and “started gunning the youths from the air,” Awemi Dio Maisamari, the Adara association national president, said in a statement.

Neither the police nor Kaduna state officials have yet confirmed the attacks. The limited security presence in many remote communities in Nigeria makes it difficult for government forces to protect residents from the attacks or quickly arrest the perpetrators, analysts say.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has been accused of not doing enough to end the country’s security woes, a key campaign promise the former military general made when he sought election in 2015. Buhari’s tenure as president ends in May next year after eight years in office.
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Nigeria Suspects Islamic State of Killing 40 in Catholic Church

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeAF

Nigerian authorities suspect the insurgent group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) carried out a massacre in a Catholic church on Sunday in which 40 people were killed, Interior Minister Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said on Thursday.

Assailants wielding AK-47 rifles and explosives attacked the congregation at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, in southwestern Ondo State, during Pentecost mass on Sunday, leaving behind a scene of carnage as they escaped.

“We have been able to see the footprint of ISWAP in the horrendous attack in Owo and we are after them. Our security agencies are on their trail and we will bring them to justice,” Aregbesola told reporters in the capital Abuja.

The authorities had not previously made any comment about the identity or motive of the killers.

ISWAP, predominantly active in northeastern Nigeria and neighboring Chad, is one of two major Islamist insurgent groups that have been fighting each other and the Nigerian military for years. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions have been displaced.

Ondo State is far from ISWAP’s usual area of operations.

The state governor, Arakunrin Akeredolu, gave new casualty figures on Thursday. He said a total of 127 people had been affected by the attack in the church, of whom 40 had died, 61 were still in hospital and 26 had been discharged.

Previously, an official from the National Emergency Management Agency had given a death toll of 22. Akeredolu said the new casualty figures had been compiled from reports from multiple hospitals, including private ones.

He said the state government would provide land for a mass burial of the victims but did not say when that would take place.

“We will have a memorial park here where those who died in the attack will be buried,” he said, addressing Catholic clergymen who had come on a condolence visit.
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Turkey Hardens Stance on Finland, Sweden NATO Bids

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeEU

Finland and Sweden’s bid to join NATO remains in question ahead of the alliance’s summit this month. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is hardening his opposition on their joining, accusing the two countries of supporting terrorists. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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UK, Moroccan Fighters Sentenced to Death in Ukraine’s Pro-Russian Donetsk

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeEU

Three foreign men have been sentenced to death by pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine who say the men fought for Ukrainian forces.

The two British citizens and a Moroccan were found guilty by a court that is not internationally recognized in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic of fighting for Ukraine and of being mercenaries and therefore not covered by traditional prisoner of war protections.

Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti, identified the three as Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Saaudun Brahim.

Pinner and Aslin surrendered to pro-Russian forces in the southern port of Mariupol in mid-April, while Brahim did so in mid-March in the eastern city of Volnovakha.

The three have a month to appeal the verdict or face a firing squad.

Two of the three are claiming to have lived in Ukraine since 2018 and should be considered “long-serving” members of the Ukrainian military.

Pro-Russian forces also hold Andrew Hill, a British fighter accused of helping Ukrainian forces, who is awaiting trial.

The UK Foreign Office condemned the sentences.

“We condemn the exploitation of prisoners of war for political purposes,” a spokesperson said. “They are entitled to combatant immunity and should not be prosecuted for participation in hostilities.”

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press.
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Michigan Governor Candidate Arrested in 2021 Riot at US Capitol

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeUS

U.S. authorities on Thursday charged Ryan Kelley, one of five Republican candidates running for governor in the midwestern state of Michigan, with four misdemeanor offenses for his role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol aimed at blocking certification of Democrat Joe Biden as the new president.

The 40-year-old Kelley was arrested at his western Michigan home. His presence at the Capitol that day among thousands of supporters of then-President Donald Trump has been widely known, although he has denied going inside the building or that he did anything wrong.

In a court document, investigators filed photos of him in a baseball cap worn backward, trying to rally the crowd supporting Trump as he tried to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory in the November 2020 election.

The state Democratic Party in Michigan last year released a video appearing to show Kelley standing outside the Capitol building during the riots, apparently yelling, “Come on, let’s go! This is it! This is — this is war.”

In a charging document filed in federal court in Washington, the government did not accuse Kelley of being involved in plotting any attack that day. Instead, it charged him with allegedly knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building illegally; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; and knowingly engaging in acts of physical violence against persons or property.

He also was charged with willfully injuring or committing “depredation” against property of the United States. If convicted, Kelley faces up to a year in prison on each of the charges.

The charging papers alleged that Kelley waved a crowd up the stairway leading to the Capitol building and helped another rioter pull a metal barricade onto scaffolding that was holding up the stage for Biden’s inauguration two weeks later.

Prosecutors alleged that Kelley “used his hands to pull a covering off” the inauguration scaffolding, and “continued to gesture to the crowd, consistently indicating that they should move toward the stairs that led to the entrance of the U.S. Capitol interior spaces.”

In a March 2021 interview with MLive, a Michigan news outlet, Kelley said, “I think that event was definitely an energizing event, right? … It will live on in history, absolutely. For a lot of different things.”

But he added, “As far as going through any barricades, or doing anything like that, I never took part in any forceful anything. Once things started getting crazy, I left.”

More than 800 people have been charged with an array of offenses stemming from the riot nearly a year-and-a-half ago, with more than 300 of them already having pleaded guilty or been convicted at trials, with the remaining cases unresolved.

Kelley’s arrest came on the same day that a House of Representatives investigating committee was opening a string of high-profile hearings on the riot.

Kelley, who sells real estate, is one of five gubernatorial candidates on the August 2 Republican primary ballot. The winner will face Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer in the November general election.

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US Boosts Asia Diplomacy to Address Growing Competition With China

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeUS

A senior U.S. official says the State Department is “on the right track” to open its first embassy in Maldives “very quickly” at a time of increased geopolitical competition with China.

More than 1½ years after the embassy was first announced, U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to soon nominate the first American ambassador to the Maldives.

“I feel confident that we will be notifying the Congress soon (regarding) opening a (diplomatic) presence there,” Donald Lu, assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs, told U.S. lawmakers during a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday. “We’re on the right track. I think we’ve got the cooperation of a friendly government.”

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the island archipelago in the Indian Ocean to announce the mission during an October 2020 trip. The islands are tiny — less than 300 square kilometers of land — but they stretch across 90,000 square kilometers of ocean crisscrossed with global shipping lanes.

“It’s such a critical place in the world, a tiny chain of 180 islands, but it is adjacent to a waterway where 40% of all the world’s trade passes through, and 60% of all the world’s energy passes through. If that island chain becomes dominated by Chinese presence, military or otherwise, I think it could spell real trouble for not only our interests but the broader interests of our partners,” Lu said. “So, we are looking to establish a presence there as quickly as possible.”

The United States has operated the American Center in Malé since 2004. The U.S. ambassador and embassy staff in Sri Lanka are accredited to Maldives and make periodic visits. The U.S. established diplomatic relations with Maldives in 1966 following its independence from Britain. Beijing opened its embassy in Malé in 2011.

Washington has become more focused on small island nations in the Indo-Pacific and Asia Pacific since China launched a more aggressive diplomatic outreach in recent years. Last month, China’s foreign minister completed a 10-day tour of eight nations in the South Pacific after signing a security agreement with the Solomon Islands in April. But Beijing fell short of signing a broader security agreement with 10 island nations.

State Department ‘China House’

As part of its increased focus on China, the State Department is launching the so-called “China House,” an integrated team that plans to help coordinate and implement U.S. policy on China, countering challenges ranging from maritime security to misinformation.

U.S. officials for years have accused China of advancing unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea, where Beijing has built military bases on uninhabited islands outside its recognized international borders.

More recently, the United States has denounced what it has called a genocide against ethnic Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region. China has rejected the claims and insists its internment camps in the region are training centers.

This week, U.S. officials denounced a Chinese government social media post that claimed American officials in Guangzhou admitted that allegations of human rights abuses were fabricated. A State Department spokesperson told VOA that the false statements endanger American diplomats overseas.

“We call upon the PRC to stop attributing false statements to U.S. officials or taking other actions that might subject our diplomats to harassment. Such action potentially endangers the U.S. officials being named,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.

“This is not the first time U.S. officials spoke their true mind,” Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said during a briefing. Zhao asked the U.S. to “stop its despicable moves of smearing Xinjiang with political manipulation.”

On Wednesday, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Camille Dawson told congressional members that the State Department is requesting funding to increase staffing to expand U.S. public diplomacy in the Pacific Islands and to counter Chinese disinformation.

“The FY 23 (Fiscal Year 2023) request does include 51 additional positions, 14 of which I believe are public diplomacy positions. We are also working as we look to the FY 24 request with a very heavy focus on expanding our public diplomacy resources in the Pacific Islands specifically,” Dawson said during testimony at a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing.

Lu said he has “been the victim of Russian and Chinese propaganda almost on a daily basis,” adding the U.S. is investing in programs to support factual information to “fact-check the garbage that’s coming out of Moscow and Beijing.”

It is unclear if the State Department’s newly announced China House team will report directly to Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who has been tasked to manage the tense relationship between Washington and Beijing.

State Department officials declined to provide details on the management and staffing of the new unit.

Politico reported that China House staffers will grow from the current 25 China Desk officers to around 60, and they would have access to secure phones and classified information. But it could be 1½ to two years before China House becomes operational.

The initiative to build a China House team is still in the early stages and is said to pull together individuals from various bureaus within the State Department to focus on PRC.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the announcement about China House in a speech on May 26, months after the Central Intelligence Agency said it is forming a new China Mission Center in October 2021, which raised questions on “layers of bureaucracy.”

“On one hand, it’s great to have a focus (on policy toward PRC), but on the other hand, do you really need it? I mean, we have a coordinating body, and it’s called the (White House) National Security Council,” said Mary Kissel, a former senior adviser at the State Department.

“This continuity (of a bipartisan China policy) is good, but these measures will (only) be meaningful unless they have policy clarity and realistic policy from the top,” added Kissel, who is now a senior policy adviser of an independent financial service firm Stephens Inc.
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Ethiopia Denies Tigrayan Detentions, Mass Graves during Tightly Controlled Visit

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeAF

The war in Ethiopia has seen reports alleging ethnic cleansing and mass detention of Tigrayans, including in western Tigray region, where authorities have prevented entry to rights groups and journalists. VOA was given rare but limited and tightly controlled access to the region and some sites allegedly used for detentions and mass graves. Henry Wilkins reports from Humera, Ethiopia.
Videographer: Henry Wilkins  
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US Urges Malian Transition Government to Take Steps Towards Elections

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeAF

The United States on Thursday called on the Malian transition government to take steps toward holding elections, adding to pressure on military leaders in Mali to restore democracy.

The West African country’s military leaders toppled the government and failed to keep a promise to hold elections in February, prompting sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The length of the transition has also caused a rift with Mali’s partners including the United States and former colonial power, France.

“We urge the Malian transition government to make sustained, tangible action toward holding elections, including detailed benchmarks and the early adoption of the electoral law,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson on Thursday.

On Monday, a spokesman for Mali’s military junta said it would take 24 months from March 2022 to restore civilian rule after an August 2020 coup.

Mali’s putsch leaders and regional heads of state have been at odds over a proposed five-year election timeline that was then revised to two — a delay that was previously rejected as too long by ECOWAS.

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS said on Tuesday that it regretted the decision by Mali’s interim government to extend the transition back to civilian rule by 24 months while negotiations between the two sides were ongoing.
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Artist Who Overcame Dark Past Now Brightens US City

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeUS

Some of the most popular public art in the Northwest U.S. city of Seattle, Washington, comes from an artist who has battled homelessness and addiction. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya brings us the story of Ryan “Henry” Ward.
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Zelenskyy: Sievierodonetsk Battle One of War’s Most Difficult

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeEU

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the battle for the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk is “one of the most difficult” of the war, while highlighting its importance in the key Donbas region.

“In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there,” Zelenskyy said in a video address late Wednesday.

Ukrainian forces were forced to retreat to the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk on Wednesday in the face of a fierce Russian attack.

Days ago, Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive that gave them control of about half the city, but Luhansk regional Governor Serhiy Haidai told the RBC-Ukraine media outlet that when Russia started flattening the city with shelling and air strikes, it made no sense to stay.

“Our [forces] now again control only the outskirts of the city,” Haidai said. “But the fighting is still going on, our [forces] are defending Sievierodonetsk, it is impossible to say the Russians completely control the city.”

He acknowledged the difficulties for Kyiv’s forces, telling The Associated Press, “Everything the Russian army has — artillery, mortars, tanks, aviation — all of that, they’re using in Sievierodonetsk in order to wipe the city off the face of the Earth and capture it completely.”

Haidai indicated that Ukrainian forces could pull back to more defensible positions, such as Lysychansk, a city across the Siverskyi Donets River, which sits on higher ground. He has previously suggested that Kyiv’s forces would have to pull back to avoid being surrounded.

After weeks of focusing its attacks on eastern Ukraine, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday Russian forces now control 97% of Luhansk province.

Sievierodonetsk is the last major city in the region yet to be captured during Moscow’s 3½-month offensive.

Shoigu said Russian troops were also advancing toward the town of Popasna, and he said they have taken control of Lyman and Sviatohirsk and 15 other towns in the region.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Latest Developments in Ukraine: June 9

Posted on 06/09/2022 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.

1:30 a..m.: The body of French journalist Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, who was killed in Ukraine, is repatriated, reports Agence France-Presse.

12:30 a.m.: Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian retailers have lost almost $1.7 billion, according to a tweet by The Kyiv Independent.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Algeria Suspends 20-Year Friendship Treaty With Spain

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeAF

Algeria has suspended a two-decade-old friendship treaty with Spain.

Relations between Algeria and Spain have deteriorated since March, when Madrid openly backed Morocco’s plan to grant autonomy to Western Sahara, which Rabat annexed in 1975 when Spanish forces withdrew from the region.

Algiers supports the region’s Polisario independence movement, which has led to steadily worsening ties between the neighboring North African countries.

Under the friendship treaty signed in 2002, Algeria and Spain agreed to cooperate on controlling the flow of migration and fight against human trafficking.

Spain’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying it regretted Algeria’s decision but remained committed to upholding the principle of the treaty.

The growing tensions between Algeria and Spain could also further complicate Algeria’s role as a key supplier of natural gas to Spain. Algiers stopped pumping gas to Spain through a pipeline that passes through Morocco last year.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Mexican Megachurch Leader Sentenced to 16 Years for Abuse

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeUS

The leader of La Luz del Mundo church has been sentenced to 16 years and eight months in a California prison for sexually abusing three girls.

Naasón Joaquín García was sentenced Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court after pleading guilty to three felonies on the eve of a long-awaited trial.

García, who is considered the apostle of Jesus Christ by his 5 million worldwide followers, had vigorously fought the charges until he abruptly pleaded guilty last week.

Prosecutors say he used his spiritual influence to have sex with several female followers. García had faced trial Monday on 19 counts that included child rape allegations.

Judge Ronald Coen called García a sexual predator.

“It never ceases to amaze me what people do in the name of religion and how many lives are ruined in the guise of a supreme being,” Coen said.

The women Garcia admitted to abusing and at least one other accuser were united in their criticism of the plea deal that was offered by prosecutors from the attorney general’s office.

They said they had looked forward to García facing a trial in the hopes he’d be locked up for life. Now that option was gone and they pleaded with Coen to impose at least a 20-year sentence, telling him that García had made a mockery of the court and told his followers he only pleaded guilty because he wasn’t being treated fairly.

Coen denied requests by the victims to impose a stiffer sentence, saying his hands were tied by the plea agreement.

Patricia Fusco, supervising deputy attorney general, tearfully praised the victims for their bravery in standing up to García and his faithful followers who have rallied around him and shamed the young women.

“They trusted him. They thought he was basically God on Earth,” Fusco said of the victims. “We know, of course, he’s not God. Not even close. … Anyone who still believes he’s God is complicit and they’re supporting a child molester.”

García, dressed in orange jail scrubs and wearing a surgical mask pulled under his glasses, didn’t turn to face the women. He sat upright and looked straight ahead with his hands shackled at his waist.

García had been scheduled to go on trial Monday on 19 counts that also included allegations of human trafficking to produce child pornography. A judge had thrown out four counts of extortion and sentencing enhancements for great bodily injury for lack of evidence.

Defense lawyers had said prosecutors were operating under a far-fetched legal theory that García used spiritual coercion for sexual pleasure.

But prosecutors said the victims were essentially brainwashed by García and felt they would be ostracized by the insular church community if they didn’t submit to him.

The church has tried to cultivate a law-abiding, hard-working image in Mexico — where it counts about 1.8 million followers. Its male members favor suits and short hair, and female members wear veils that cover their hair and modest dresses. There are about 1 million U.S. members.
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Monkeypox Outbreak Tops 1,000 Cases; WHO Warns of ‘Real’ Risk

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeAF

The risk of monkeypox becoming established in nonendemic nations is real, the WHO warned Wednesday, with more than 1,000 cases confirmed in such countries.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the U.N. health agency was not recommending mass vaccination against the virus and added that no deaths had been reported from the outbreaks.

“The risk of monkeypox becoming established in nonendemic countries is real,” Tedros told a press conference.

The zoonotic disease is endemic in humans in nine African countries, but outbreaks have been reported in the past month in several other states — mostly in Europe, and notably in Britain, Spain and Portugal.

“More than 1,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox have now been reported to WHO from 29 countries that are not endemic for the disease,” Tedros said.

“So far, no deaths have been reported in these countries. Cases have been reported mainly, but not only, among men who have sex with men.

“Some countries are now beginning to report cases of apparent community transmission, including some cases in women.”

Greece on Wednesday became the latest country to confirm its first case of the disease, with health authorities there saying it involved a man who had recently traveled to Portugal and who was hospitalized in stable condition.

The initial symptoms of monkeypox include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a blistery chickenpox-like rash.

Tedros said he was particularly concerned about the risk the virus poses to vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and children.

He said the sudden and unexpected appearance of monkeypox outside endemic countries suggested that there might have been undetected transmission for some time, but it was not known for how long.

One case of monkeypox in a nonendemic country is considered an outbreak.

Tedros said that while this was “clearly concerning,” the virus has been circulating and killing in Africa for decades, with more than 1,400 suspected cases and 66 deaths so far this year.

“The communities that live with the threat of this virus every day deserve the same concern, the same care and the same access to tools to protect themselves,” he said.

Vaccines

In the few places where vaccines are available, they are being used to protect those who may be exposed, such as health care workers.

Tedros said that post-exposure vaccination, ideally within four days, could be considered for higher-risk close contacts, such as sexual partners or household members.

He added that the WHO would issue guidance in the coming days on clinical care, infection prevention and control, vaccination and community protection.

He said people with symptoms should isolate at home and consult a health worker, while people in the same household should avoid close contact.

Few hospitalizations have been reported, apart from patients being isolated, the WHO said last weekend.

Sylvie Briand, the WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director, said the smallpox vaccine could be used against monkeypox, a fellow orthopoxvirus, with a high degree of efficacy.

The WHO is trying to determine how many doses are currently available and to find out from manufacturers what their production and distribution capacities are.
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Students Challenge US Secretary of State on Press Freedom Support

Posted on 06/09/2022 by SeeUS

Speaking to student journalists in Los Angeles, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken faces questions such as why the U.S. deals with countries that have allegedly killed journalists while condemning others for threatening press freedom. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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