Month: June 2022

US Primary Voting Carries Warning Message for Democrats

Posted on by SeeUS

A round of primary elections in seven U.S. states on Tuesday outlined some potential struggles facing Democrats in November’s midterm elections, but the results also called into question the degree to which unquestioning loyalty to President Donald Trump is a requirement for Republican candidates.

In several states, most notably California, Democratic turnout was low, something that analysts say signals disengagement among the party’s core voters who might fail to turn out to support Democratic candidates in November.

In two major California cities, voters also sent a strong message about rising crime. A politically progressive district attorney in San Francisco was recalled, and in Los Angeles, a billionaire former Republican won the most votes in the mayoral primary with a campaign that focused on quality of life issues including crime and homelessness.

In multiple Republican primary elections across the country, incumbent members of Congress who voted in favor of the creation of a congressional committee to investigate the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, survived primary challenges, despite criticism from former President Donald Trump.

In the U.S., primary elections allow voters to narrow a sometimes broad field of eligible candidates down to a small number. Often they produce just two candidates, representing the Democratic and Republican parties. The winners of primaries typically face off on the ballot in the November elections.

Democratic turnout in question

“One consistent theme for 2022 is that Republican turnout has been more robust than Democratic turnout, particularly as compared to 2018,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

Early returns, Kondik told VOA, suggest that was true on Tuesday night. “If you believe that this is a Republican-leaning cycle, and that Republicans are poised to do well in November, more robust Republican turnout is consistent with that story,” he said.

Crime as an issue

In the Los Angeles mayoral race, former Republican Rick Caruso, a wealthy property developer, appears to have come in first, with Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass a close second. Votes are still being counted, but if the result holds, the two will face each other in November.

Caruso, who left the Republican Party in 2019 and only registered as a Democrat this year, spent millions of his own money on the race. He campaigned as a crime-fighter who would also work to address the profusion of people experiencing homelessness in the city.

Further north in San Francisco, a city known for its progressive politics, voters overwhelmingly chose to recall Chesa Boudin, a public defender-turned district attorney, who was in the middle of his first term. Boudin’s philosophy of not prosecuting low-level criminal activity and abolishing cash bail was seen as a major contributor to increased crime in the city.

The two results are a reminder that a major point of attack that Republicans will use against Democrats is the perception that crime, particularly in urban areas, is rising in the United States.

However, Kondik, of the Center for Politics, warned against reading too much into a result like Boudin’s recall.

“Are Democrats vulnerable on law and order issues in this election? Yeah, probably. Republicans are running on it a lot, and a lot of Democrats feel like they were hurt by the association with ‘Defund the Police’ rhetoric in 2020,” he said. “But we didn’t need San Francisco to tell us that. I didn’t find it to be particularly meaningful.”

Good night for governors

Of the states that voted Tuesday, three will hold gubernatorial elections in November, and in each of them the result was good news for the sitting governor.

With ballots still being counted, California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, running in an open primary where the top two finishers advance, was comfortably ahead on Wednesday. Newsome, who survived a recall vote last year, is expected to win another term easily.

In South Dakota, sitting Republican Gov. Kristi Noem won the Republican primary with more than 75% of the vote and is expected to cruise to another term in November.

In New Mexico, sitting Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, ran uncontested and will face Republican Mark Ronchetti, a former Senate candidate and television meteorologist in November, a race she is expected to win.

Congress in balance

In midterm elections, the party of the sitting U.S. president typically loses seats, and the same is expected to happen in 2022. That is especially significant this year, because the Democratic Party holds very narrow majorities in both houses of Congress, and could easily lose control of both of them.

One hope for Democrats was that Republicans would nominate especially radical candidates in some congressional races, and while there were several on ballots across the country, relatively few of them won.

“Given the strong political headwinds facing them, Democratic hopes for holding down their losses this fall rests partly on GOP primary voters nominating the more flawed GOP candidate in crowded primary contests,” said an analysis published Wednesday morning by Amy Walter, Jessica Taylor, and David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report.

“However, that didn’t pan out for Democrats on Tuesday,” they added. “The more electable GOP candidate emerged victorious in states like California, New Jersey, Iowa, and New Mexico.”

Defying Trump not (necessarily) fatal

In Republican primaries across the country, there were five incumbent House candidates running after they bucked the party’s leadership, and former President Trump, by voting in favor of the creation of a select committee to investigate the January 6 assault on the Capitol.

In California, with only 32% of the vote tallied, Rep. David Valadao was the leading Republican candidate in the open primary, with 26.7% of the total vote, and he appeared poised to move on to the November election as the GOP nominee for his seat.

In Iowa, Mariannette Miller-Meeks ran unopposed for the Republican nomination.

In Mississippi, Rep. Michael Guest came in second in a tight race against former Navy pilot Michael Cassidy, but because neither achieved a majority of the votes, they will meet in a run-off.

In New Jersey, veteran GOP Rep. Chris Smith won renomination with 58% of the vote, and in South Dakota, incumbent Dusty Johnson won the right to run again with 59% of the vote.

While the four who faced challengers all survived, none won by the huge margins that incumbents usually enjoy in primaries. However, the fact they stood up to the former president and weren’t summarily ousted suggests that crossing Trump is not quite as politically poisonous at the ballot box as many in the GOP had assumed it would be.
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Belgian King Regrets Colonial ‘Humiliation’ in Landmark Congo Trip

Posted on by SeeEU

King Philippe of Belgium, in a historic visit to Congo, said on Wednesday that his country’s rule over the vast central African country had inflicted pain and humiliation through a mixture of “paternalism, discrimination and racism.” 

In a speech outside Congo’s parliament, Philippe amplified remorse he first voiced two years ago over Belgium’s brutal colonial rule — an era during which historians say millions died. 

“This regime was one of an unequal relationship, in itself unjustifiable, marked by paternalism, discrimination and racism,” Philippe said, speaking in French.  

“It led to abuse and humiliation,” he said. 

The king noted that many Belgians had been sincerely committed to Congo and its people, however. 

Philippe landed in Kinshasa on Tuesday afternoon for a six-day visit, billed as a chance for reconciliation between Congo and its former colonial master. 

Belgium’s colonization of Congo was one of the harshest imposed by the European powers that ruled most of Africa from the late 19th into the mid-20th centuries. 

King Leopold II governed

King Leopold II, the brother of Philippe’s great-great-grandfather, governed what is now Congo as his personal property between 1885 and 1908, before it became a Belgian colony.  

Historians say that millions of people were killed, mutilated or died of disease as they were forced to collect rubber under his rule. The land was also pillaged for its mineral wealth, timber and ivory.  

As Congo headed to its 60th anniversary of independence, Philippe wrote a letter to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in 2020 to express his “deepest regrets” for the “wounds of the past.” 

The king’s speech Wednesday went further in expressing regret, but it fell short of an apology for colonial-era crimes.  

 

Looted art 

Earlier Wednesday, Philippe visited Congo’s national museum in Kinshasa, where he handed over a mask the ethnic Suku group use in initiation rites.  

The ceremonial mask is on “unlimited” loan from Belgium’s Royal Museum for Central Africa, he announced.  

The Belgian government last year set out a plan for returning artworks looted during the colonial era, a sensitive topic in Congo.   

“The colonizer hauled away our artworks. It’s right that they should be returned to us,” said Louis Karhebwa, 63, a businessman. 

Prince Pungi, a young civil servant, agreed. “Congo is changing, moving forward,” he said. “It’s time to take back what belongs to us.”  

Philippe is due to address university students in the southern city of Lubumbashi on Friday.  

On Sunday, he will also visit the clinic of gynecologist Denis Mukwege, co-winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against sexual violence, in the eastern city of Bukavu. 

His trip comes as Belgium is preparing to return to Kinshasa a tooth — the last remains of Patrice Lumumba, a hero of the anti-colonial struggle and short-lived first prime minister of the independent Congo.  

Lumumba was murdered by Congolese separatists and Belgian mercenaries in 1961 and his body dissolved in acid, but the tooth was kept as a trophy by one of his killers, a Belgian police officer. 

Eastern violence  

The Belgian sovereign’s trip also comes at a time of heightened tension between Kinshasa and neighboring Rwanda over rebel activity in the conflict-torn eastern Congo.  

The Congolese government has accused Rwanda of backing the resurgent M23 militia, an accusation that Rwanda has denied. 

At a news conference Wednesday in Kinshasa, Tshisekedi told reporters that he saw security support as a priority in Congo’s relationship with Belgium.  

“There is no development without security,” the president said.  

Congo, a nation of about 90 million people, is one of the poorest countries in the world. 

Over 120 groups roam the country’s volatile east, many of which are a consequence of regional wars more than two decades ago, and civilian massacres remain common. 

Philippe, in his speech Wednesday, also said the situation in eastern Congo “cannot continue.”  

“It is the responsibility of all of us to do something about it,” he added.
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Justice Department Unveils Team to Review Texas School Massacre

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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday announced a new team of Justice Department officials and outside experts leading a review of the recent Texas school massacre, saying the inquiry will get to the bottom of what went wrong.

“Nothing can undo the pain that has been inflicted on the loved ones of the victims, the survivors, and the entire community of Uvalde,” Garland said. “But the Justice Department can and will use its expertise and independence to assess what happened and to provide guidance moving forward.”

The May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two teachers dead and more than a dozen other people injured. It was the deadliest U.S. school shooting in nearly a decade.

Garland spoke before meeting with members of the team conducting the “critical incident review” of the police response to the mass shooting.

The inquiry will look at police actions and responses, identify lessons and best practices, and it will suggest a road map for “community safety and engagement” during such incidents, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Garland said, “We will be assessing what happened that day. We will be doing site visits at the school. We will be conducting interviews with an extremely wide variety of stakeholders: witnesses, families, law enforcement, government officials, school officials.”

The team’s findings and recommendations will be published at the end of the review, the attorney general said.

Garland said the request to conduct a review came from Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin and that the department has been promised cooperation by local and state law enforcement.

In the wake of the shooting, law enforcement has faced criticism for their slow response and for providing contradictory information about the incident.

Parents and family members gathered outside the school as the shooting unfolded and implored police officers to storm the school and take down the gunman. But the police waited outside for more than an hour before going in.

The decision not to immediately breach the classroom occupied by the gunman was made by school district police chief Pete Arredondo, who led the law enforcement response on the scene, the Texas Department of Public Safety said last week.

Arredondo reportedly treated the shooting as a “barricaded suspect” situation rather than an active shooter incident, which would have triggered immediate police action to shoot the gunman.

Garland said the Justice Department review, conducted with the support of outside experts, will be “comprehensive, it will be transparent, and it will be independent.”

The department has previously conducted similar reviews of other mass shootings, including a 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, California, and the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Among the nine outside experts aiding the investigation are several retired police chiefs who led law enforcement agencies during mass shootings.

The Uvalde school massacre was the deadliest since December 2012 when a 20-year-old gunman shot and killed 26 people at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The Texas shooting came less than two weeks after an 18-year-old white supremacist shot and killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The FBI is investigating that shooting as an act of racially motivated violent extremism.

Garland’s announcement came as members of Congress heard testimony from survivors and family members of the victims of the Texas shooting who called for tightening access to guns.

Garland said the Justice Department “stands ready to support the bipartisan gun safety negotiations that are going on in Congress.”
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US Supreme Court Ruling Curbs Ability to Sue Federal Officials

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday nixed a Washington state bed-and-breakfast owner’s lawsuit accusing a Border Patrol agent of civil rights violations during a violent 2014 encounter, as its conservative majority further curtailed the ability to sue federal officials for damages. 

The court decided in a 6-3 ruling authored by Associate Justice Clarence Thomas that Robert Boule, owner of the Smuggler’s Inn in Blaine, along the U.S.-Canadian border, could not sue agent Erik Egbert for using excessive force in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.

The court’s conservative justices were in the majority and its liberal members in dissent. The lawsuit accused Egbert of throwing Boule to the ground after the innkeeper objected to the agent’s investigation of the immigration status of a Turkish citizen who was a guest at the bed-and-breakfast.

The court also unanimously found that Boule could not pursue a separate claim under the First Amendment’s protection of free speech accusing Egbert of unlawfully retaliating against him for complaining about his treatment at the hands of the agent.

The court reversed a 2021 ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had sided with Boule, allowing his suit filed in 2017 to proceed. 

The Supreme Court’s decision was the latest in a string of rulings by its conservative majority that limit the scope of a 1971 decision that allows people to sue federal officials individually for civil rights violations. The court has stopped short of overturning that precedent in a case called Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents. 

Up to Congress

Thomas wrote that it is up to Congress, not courts, to decide under what circumstances federal officials can be sued, noting that the 1971 ruling has “no shortage of detractors.”

Along similar lines, the court in 2020 ruled that a Border Patrol agent could not be sued for fatally shooting a Mexican teenager who was standing on Mexican soil.

Boule’s bed-and-breakfast was known to federal agents as a place where people seeking to cross the border illegally would stay, according to the ruling. Boule would offer a shuttle service to the border, charge for a night of lodging even if guests did not plan to stay and would often inform agents about people staying with him. He drove a car with a personalized license plate that read: “SMUGLER.”

In 2021, Boule was convicted in Canada of helping smuggle people into the country. 

The 2014 incident occurred when Boule told Egbert about a Turkish bed-and-breakfast guest. Egbert arrived at the establishment to check on the guest’s immigration status. Boule asked Egbert to leave the property, prompting a physical altercation in which Egbert allegedly shoved Boule against a car and pushed him to the ground, according to court records. 

The lawsuit accused Egbert of asking various U.S. agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, to investigate Boule, which was the basis of the innkeeper’s retaliation claim. 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissenting opinion that the excessive force claim should have been allowed under existing precedent. 

“The court goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid this result,” Sotomayor wrote, adding that Wednesday’s ruling prevents civil rights claims filed by “many who will suffer serious constitutional violations at the hands of federal agents.”
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Belarus Hands RFE/RL Freelancer Kuznechyk 6-Year Prison Sentence, Relatives Say

Posted on by SeeEU

The family of RFE/RL freelance correspondent Andrey Kuznechyk say the journalist has been sentenced to six years in prison in Belarus on a charge of creating an extremist group. 

According to the relatives, the Mahilyou regional court in the country’s east took only a few hours to hear the case and hand down its verdict and punishment on June 8 in a closed-door trial.

The 43-year-old father of an 8-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son was initially sentenced to 10 days in jail on November 26 on hooliganism charges that he rejected.

On December 6, when his sentence ended, he was kept in detention and handed another 10-day jail term, also on a hooliganism charge.

After serving that jail term, Kuznechyk remained in jail and subsequently was charged with creating an extremist group, a charge that officials withheld from Kuznechyk’s relatives and colleagues for months.

Kuznechyk’s relatives told RFE/RL at the time that the journalist continues to maintain his innocence.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly has said Kuznechyk’s previous sentence was based on “absurdly fabricated charges” and should be considered a crime in itself.

Fly has also condemned the Belarusian government’s actions against independent media in the country, saying Kuznechyk is among the “hostages taken by this lawless regime, not criminals. Factual reporting is not an ‘extremist’ activity, and journalism is not a crime.”

Since a disputed August 2020 presidential election sparked mass protests over authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko’s victory, tens of thousands of Belarusians have been arrested for voicing any dissent against the regime.

The crackdown has pushed most opposition politicians, who say the vote was rigged, to leave the country fearing for their safety.

Many Western governments have refused to recognize the results of the election and do not consider Lukashenko to be the country’s legitimate leader. Many countries have imposed several rounds of sanctions against his regime in response to the suppression of dissent in the country.
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Turkey-Russia Talks Make Little Progress on Ukraine Grain Shipments

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Millions of tons of grain remain trapped in Ukraine as Russia continues its aggression against the country and world wheat prices soar.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Ankara Wednesday with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu for talks focused on creating shipping corridors to allow Ukrainian grain exports to access world markets. But both sides failed to reach any agreements to avert a looming world food crisis.

At a joint news conference with Lavrov, Cavusoglu said Turkey was ready to work with the United Nations to create a secure shipping corridor to allow Ukrainian ships to transport wheat to world markets.

Cavusoglu said Turkey sees it as a reasonable and implementable plan. But, he said, both Russia and Ukraine must accept the request from the U.N. Cavusoglu said Turkey offered to host a meeting in Istanbul to discuss the details.

Turkish and Russian officials have been talking about a plan for both navies to provide passage for Ukrainian cargo ships. But a key issue remains the removal of mines protecting the Ukrainian port of Odesa. Lavrov laid the responsibility on Kyiv.

Lavrov said that to solve this problem, the only thing needed, in Russia’s view, is for the Ukrainians to let vessels out of their ports, either by de-mining them or by marking out safe corridors. Nothing more, the Russian top diplomat said, is required.

But before removing the mines, Kyiv is looking for guarantees that Russian forces will not launch an amphibious attack on Odesa.

Lavrov pledged Russia would not attack, but Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, dismissed the offer as “empty words.”

Russian officials say soaring food prices have little to do with the Ukraine conflict.

On Wednesday, Cavusoglu backed Moscow’s call to lift international sanctions on Russia if a deal was struck to allow Ukrainian grain to reach world markets.  

But Aaron Stein of the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute said Washington is unlikely to agree.

“One of the main hindrances of this (grain corridor deal), is that the Russians are demanding an easing of sanctions,” he said. It has been their position since this first came up a month or two ago. But the U.S. has no intention of easing sanctions.”

Despite a lack of progress in Wednesday’s talks, Turkish officials say a deal can still be achieved, although they say the current mistrust between Kyiv and Moscow remains a big obstacle.
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Armed Man Arrested Near Home of Supreme Court Associate Justice Kavanaugh

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An armed man was arrested near the home of Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh early Wednesday morning in Maryland, outside Washington, D.C. 

The man, reportedly from California, is in his 20s and had a knife and a gun, according to officials. His identity has not yet been released. He reportedly had made threats to Kavanaugh. 

The man reportedly told police he was mad over the court’s potential move to overturn Roe v. Wade. He was also angry about the spate of mass shootings that have occurred in recent weeks. 

All of the Supreme Court justices have been provided round-the-clock security after a leaked document indicated the court was considering overturning the landmark abortion ruling. Some abortion proponents have protested near Kavanaugh’s home, and some have threatened violence should Roe v. Wade be overturned. 

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press. 

 
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Kenyan Firms Decry Share of Business Going to Global Shipping Lines

Posted on by SeeAF

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenyan companies that unload freight ships and transport cargo faced growing competition from international shippers. Now, workers unions say unless steps are taken to protect local businesses an estimated 1,000 firms and 10,000 jobs may be lost. Juma Majanga reports from the port of Mombasa, Kenya. Camera: Amos Wangwa.
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High Profile Soccer Trial Delayed Due to Illness

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A high-profile fraud trial of soccer’s once most powerful men was delayed Wednesday in Switzerland after one of the accused, Sepp Blatter, said he was too ill to testify.

“The pain will come back, and I am having difficulty breathing,” said the 86-year-old in a whisper.

Blatter, the former head of soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, along with Michel Platini, former star player and former head of UEFA, are charged with fraud over an alleged 2011 payment of $2 million from Blatter to Platini. UEFA is soccer’s governing body in Europe.

Blatter’s 17 years as FIFA president came to an end in June 2015, when he resigned amid the scandal.

Both men deny wrongdoing and say the payment was for advisory work Platini did for FIFA from 1998 to 2002.

The two men were banned from soccer several years ago.

“I know I have not done anything against the law. My life was football, for 45 years with FIFA. My life is football,” Blatter reportedly told reporters.

The trial was set to end on June 22 with a verdict on July 8. Both could face prison time or fines.

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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UK Prosecutors Authorize Indecent Assault Charges Against Harvey Weinstein

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British prosecutors said on Wednesday they had authorized charges to be brought against former Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein on two counts of indecent assault against a woman 26 years ago.

“Charges have been authorized against Harvey Weinstein, 70, following a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation,” Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) Special Crime Division.

The CPS said the alleged assault took place in August 1996 in London. London’s Metropolitan Police said the accusation involved a woman, now aged in her 50s.

Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence in the United States after being convicted in 2020 of assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi and raping former aspiring actor Jessica Mann.

That conviction was upheld by a New York appeals court last week.

The verdict was considered a landmark in the #MeToo movement where women came forward to accuse dozens of powerful men of sexual misconduct. Many view the accusations against Weinstein, which surfaced in 2017, as the key spark for that movement.

“The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against the defendant are active and that he has the right to a fair trial,” Ainslie said.
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Zimbabwe Leaning to Russia as Others Shun Moscow for Invading Ukraine 

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As much of the world is shunning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Zimbabwe this month hosted Russia’s third highest ranking official. Analysts say Zimbabwe is looking to Russia for fuel as well as cooking oil and wheat that it used to get from Ukraine, while Russia has its eyes on Zimbabwe’s minerals.

During a visit to Zimbabwe last week, Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko, chairperson of the Federation Council of Russia, said Moscow would improve trade relations between the two countries given that the West was shunning them.

Alexander Rusero, who heads international relations studies at Africa University in Zimbabwe, says the nation’s ties with Russia are both ideological and historical.

He says the relationship goes back to when Russia supplied arms to the now-ruling ZANU-PF party as it fought for Zimbabwe’s independence in the late 1970s.

Russia later vetoed proposed U.N. sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2008, when President Robert Mugabe won re-election through vote-rigging and heavy-handed intimidation.

“And given the realities that Zimbabwe is perceived as a pariah state, it is perceived as an outpost of tyranny by the Western international community, by the United States which is currently in an antagonistic relation with Russia, so Zimbabwe historically and ideologically will be leaned more to Russia and China than the Western international community,” said Rusero.

Harare-based independent political commentator Rejoice Ngwenya says Russia has an interest in Zimbabwe’s minerals, such as gold and platinum.

“Not to mention the business arrangements and relations that have been established in the last two decades. So it is not realistic to expect any drastic change of any policy between Zimbabwe and Russia on the basis of the Ukraine war. It is important to condemn invasions of any country, but unfortunately international politics also works in terms of self-interests and self-preservation,” said Ngwenya.

Zimbabwe depends on Russia and Ukraine for about 65 percent of its imported wheat. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the price of bread and flour in the country has increased drastically as exports from the war zone have dried up.

“We have been affected. We are working with the government to bring in more wheat. We need as soon as possible. The commodity prices are going up, some of our wheat products such as bread are going up,” said Tafadzwa Musarara, the chairman of Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe, which is in charge of importing grain.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he considered Africa “friendly” and would make efforts to ensure goods in shortage reach the continent.

That would certainly be good news for countries like Zimbabwe, which even in the best of times struggles to feed its population.

 
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Simone Biles, Others Seek $1B-Plus from FBI Over Nassar

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Former Olympic gymnasts, including gold medalist Simone Biles, are among dozens of assault victims who are seeking more than $1 billion from the FBI for failing to stop sports doctor Larry Nassar, lawyers said Wednesday.

There’s no dispute that FBI agents in 2015 knew that Nassar was accused of molesting gymnasts, but they failed to act, leaving him free to continue to target young women and girls for more than a year.

“It is time for the FBI to be held accountable,” said Maggie Nichols, a national champion gymnast at Oklahoma in 2017-19.

Under federal law, a government agency has six months to respond to the tort claims filed Wednesday. Lawsuits could follow, depending on the FBI’s response. The Justice Department said in May that it would not pursue criminal charges against former FBI agents who failed to quickly open an investigation.

The approximately 90 claimants include Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, all Olympic gold medalists, according to Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, a California law firm.

“If the FBI had simply done its job, Nassar would have been stopped before he ever had the chance to abuse hundreds of girls, including me,” said former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy.

Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics told local FBI agents in 2015 that three gymnasts said they were assaulted by Nassar, a team doctor. But the FBI did not open a formal investigation or inform federal or state authorities in Michigan, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general, an internal watchdog.

Los Angeles FBI agents in 2016 began a sexual tourism investigation against Nassar and interviewed several victims but also didn’t alert Michigan authorities, the inspector general said.

Nassar wasn’t arrested until fall 2016 during an investigation by Michigan State University police. He was a doctor at Michigan State.

The Michigan attorney general’s office ultimately handled the assault charges against Nassar, while federal prosecutors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, filed a child pornography case. He is serving decades in prison.

The FBI declined to comment in April when a smaller batch of claims was filed, referring instead to Director Christopher Wray’s remarks to Congress in 2021.

“I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed. And that’s inexcusable,” Wray told victims at a Senate hearing.

Michigan State University, which was also accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement.
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Public Hearings to Detail the 2021 Riot at US Capitol   

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Nearly a year and a half ago, a mob of about 2,000 supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a destructive rampage, trying to block lawmakers from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s decisive victory in the 2020 presidential election.

Starting Thursday night, Americans will get a first-hand accounting of how the attack on January 6, 2021, unfolded. Witnesses will testify before a congressional investigative committee about the planning of the insurrection, Trump’s role in promoting the mayhem, how he tried to thwart election results to claim another four-year term, and what he was doing at the White House during the rampage that was televised across the globe.

It was a seminal moment in America, an attack on the seat of American democracy. The Capitol is often seen around the world as the symbol of a freely elected representative form of government and the place where the power of the presidency is peacefully passed from one president to the next.

In the first of at least six days of hearings this month, some of them televised in prime time, witnesses are expected to tell the U.S. House select committee investigating the January 6 attack how Trump acolytes supported the insurrection in a futile attempt to keep him in power.

The committee is planning a combination of live testimony from key Trump administration insiders; videotaped interviews with others, including Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner — both of whom were White House advisers — and previously undisclosed video of the hours of chaos inside the Capitol building.

On the first night, the committee says it plans to hear testimony from two witnesses: British filmmaker Nick Quested, who recorded members of the far-right Proud Boys as they stormed into the Capitol, and Caroline Edwards, a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was seriously injured as the rioters barged past police. Edwards sustained a traumatic brain injury battling the rioters.

Committee investigators have interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses linked to the riot and Trump’s effort to upend the election results. Among them is Cassidy Hutchinson, a top assistant to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who reconstructed details of White House meetings and discussions for the committee.

But other possible witnesses, including Meadows, other key Trump aides and five Republican congressmen with links to Trump have all refused to testify. Short of a late-minute change of mind, they are likely to succeed in stonewalling the committee’s efforts to have them appear. Meadows initially provided House investigators with voluminous records before refusing to testify.

Two former Trump advisers, Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon, have been charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the committee, but the Justice Department decided to not bring contempt charges against Meadows and another former Trump aide, Dan Scavino, who also refused to testify.

To this day, Trump claims he was cheated out of re-election by fraudulent vote counts in several closely contested states, although recount after recount showed minimal irregularities — not enough to upend the national outcome. Trump has lost five dozen court suits contesting the vote. He has derided the congressional investigation.

The nine-member committee — seven Democrats and two Republicans who turned against the former president — is expected to call witnesses to describe Trump’s efforts to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the national results, which would have thrown the outcome of the election into legal chaos.

But Pence refused Trump’s overtures, saying his role as presiding officer over certification of the votes from all 50 states was merely administrative and that he had no power to overturn the official count.

As it turned out, the unofficial results ahead of the official certification proved to be the same as when the state counts were tallied in the early hours of January 7, 2021: a 306-232 Biden victory in the Electoral College.

U.S. presidents are chosen by the Electoral College, a system of counting states’ electoral votes based on the popular vote outcome in each state. The number of electoral votes is based on a state’s population and its total number of senators and representatives in Congress.

As the hearings start, one of the Republicans on the committee, Representative Liz Cheney, told CBS News on Sunday, “People must pay attention. People must watch, and they must understand how easily our democratic system can unravel if we don’t defend it.”

​

‘Fight like hell’

Just ahead of the official certification of his electoral loss, Trump staged a rally near the White House, telling thousands of supporters to head to the Capitol to “stop the steal” and “fight like hell” to block certification of Biden’s win.

About 2,000 of his supporters stormed into the U.S. Capitol, smashing windows and doors, ransacking offices and scuffling with police, injuring 140 of them. Five people died that day or in the immediate aftermath. One protester was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer during the riot.

To this point, at least 861 people have been charged with criminal offenses committed at the Capitol. Many have faced minor trespassing charges, while others have been charged with assaulting police, damaging parts of the Capitol and ransacking congressional offices.

At least 306 of those arrested have pleaded guilty, with many sentenced to a few weeks in jail. Some who faced assault charges have been sentenced to more than four years. The rest of the cases remain unresolved as investigators pore through vast video footage of the mayhem to identify the rioters.

Trump says he supports those charged in the attack on the Capitol and has said if he runs for the presidency in 2024 and wins, “we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.”
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As Russia Claims Gains, Zelenskyy Says ‘Heroic Defense of the Donbas Continues’       

Posted on by SeeEU

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the work of his troops in the eastern Donbas region and said Russia had not expected to meet much resistance, while Russia claimed to have assumed control of almost all of one of the provinces that makes up the Donbas.

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

Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Tuesday that “the absolutely heroic defense of the Donbas continues.” He added that Russia had made no significant advances in the region during the past day.

Britain’s defense ministry gave a similar assessment Wednesday morning, saying neither side had achieved significant gains over the course of 24 hours with Russia attacking from multiple sides but Ukraine’s defenses holding. 

The Donbas region also includes Donetsk province and has been the key objective for Russia since it turned away from efforts to advance on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, two months ago.

Fighting has been particularly intense in the key Luhansk city of Sievierodonetsk, where Russian and Ukrainian forces have been engaging in street-to-street battles.

Shoigu said Tuesday that Russian forces seized the residential areas of the city, while Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Russia controlled the industrial outskirts.

The battle for Sievierodonetsk is crucial to Moscow’s attempt to assume full domination over Luhansk province. A week ago, Russian forces had captured 70% of the city, but a Ukrainian counteroffensive pushed back Moscow’s troops before Russia mounted another advance.

Both Russia and Ukraine claim to have inflicted huge casualties on each other.

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.

He said 6,489 Ukrainian troops have been taken prisoner since the start of the military action in Ukraine on February 24, including 126 over the past five days.

A spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department said Tuesday the United States had started training Ukrainian soldiers on the use of advanced rocket systems being sent to Ukraine as part of a $700 million aid package approved last week.

Marine Lt. Col. Anton Semelroth said the training was taking place in Germany and elsewhere in Europe for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS. The truck-mounted system can carry six rockets with a range of about 70 kilometers.

Norway said it trained Ukrainian soldiers in Germany on the use of M109 self-propelled howitzers as part of its shipment of 22 of the weapons to Ukraine. 

Norwegian Defense Minister Bjorn Arild Gram said the donation, which includes spare parts and ammunition, is a substantial contribution very much in demand by Ukraine. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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Latest Developments in Ukraine: June 8

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.

1:30 a.m.: Britain’s defense ministry said Wednesday morning the previous 24 hours had brought little significant gains for either Russia or Ukraine in the fight for the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, with Russia attacking from multiple sides but Ukraine’s defenses holding.

 

 

12:01 a.m.: The Associated Press is reporting that Angela Merkel defended her approach to Ukraine and Russia during her 16 years as Germany’s leader, saying that a much-criticized 2015 peace deal for eastern Ukraine bought Kyiv precious time. She won’t apologize for her diplomatic efforts, AP reported.

In her first substantial comments since leaving office six months ago, Merkel said there was no excuse for Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine and it was “a big mistake on Russia’s part.”

Merkel, who dealt with Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout her chancellorship, rejected a suggestion that she and others engaged in appeasement that ultimately enabled the invasion.

“It is a matter of great sorrow that it didn’t succeed, but I don’t blame myself now for trying,” Merkel said.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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US Senators Consider Former VOA Director to Head US Agency for Global Media  

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U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) pledged Tuesday to advance the agency’s mission of objectivity and balanced reporting at a time when disinformation is on the rise globally.

Former Voice of America director Amanda Bennett told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee she would be a pragmatic leader willing to adapt news delivery to whatever suits audiences best.

During the hourlong hearing, senators questioned Bennett on her record at VOA, how she would handle challenges facing the free press amid a global trend of disinformation, and USAGM’s ability to deliver news to audiences under authoritarian regimes.

If confirmed, Bennett would lead USAGM, the federal agency with an $840 million annual budget that oversees VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Middle East Broadcasting Networks and the Open Technology Foundation.

USAGM is currently led by former VOA director of programming Kelu Chao, who holds the CEO position in an acting capacity. Chao was assigned the position after Michael Pack, the last presidential appointee, resigned at Biden’s request.

In her opening remarks to the committee, Bennett spoke of the role journalism plays in society. “We’re at a critical moment in history,” she said. “Journalism and public diplomacy alike are targeted as never before by authoritarian regimes using myths and disinformation to undermine those seeking credible, fact-based and unbiased coverage of the world around them.”

Bennett said she would work with all USAGM entities to maintain high journalistic standards and protect the safety and privacy of journalists and audiences.

Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, who presided over the hearing and cited Russia’s crackdown on opposition to its war in Ukraine and the threats to media globally, said, “It’s clear that [USAGM’s] mission of providing balanced and objective media to societies without a free press has never been more important.”

Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, said Bennett’s nomination comes at a time when press freedom and democracy are declining around the world.

“U.S. international broadcasting has a very important role to play with authoritarian governments [that] shut down the news and censor their people; this agency can give credible and timely and accurate information,” he said.

Senators also examined Bennett’s record while VOA director between 2016 and June 2020, when she resigned before Pack took over. During the Trump administration, the agency came under criticism from the president for using Chinese government data on coronavirus infections and deaths, implying the agency was “soft” on China, an accusation VOA vigorously disputed at the time.

Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, said he backed Bennett’s journalistic track record leading the federal agency’s news coverage during her VOA tenure.

Bennett denied the agency had provided uncritical coverage of China, saying, “My entire journalistic career has been devoted to giving truthful news and information and not advocating for any position whatsoever, especially not a repressive regime.”

Outside view

Bennett’s nomination is expected to pass the Democratic-controlled committee in the coming weeks before moving to a full floor vote in the U.S. Senate.

Her journalism experience and her experience as head of VOA were cited as reasons for her suitability for the role.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist has a long career in U.S. media, including as executive editor at Bloomberg News and managing editor of The Oregonian newspaper. She was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal for more than two decades, including in Beijing.

Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, a former member of the USAGM’s governing board, told VOA that Bennett’s media background and knowledge of USAGM from her time as VOA director make her a strong candidate. She said Bennett could set “the standard for all who follow.”

“Her leadership is essential at a time of resurgent authoritarianism around the world — to ensure that people living under repressive regimes not only have access to accurate information but also can see models of excellent journalism in practice.”

Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, speaking on background, highlighted to VOA key areas they believe the next head of the agency should focus on.

As well as closely tracking the increased funding provided under the latest spending bill, priorities include the creation of an advisory board to ensure objective news coverage without bias; ensuring robust coverage in Russia, Ukraine and surrounding countries, including via RFE/RL; and pro-American coverage of Iran and China.

Other issues include examining the rehiring of staff who were dismissed under Pack’s watch; and details, including the cost, of an investigation into allegations of Pack’s wrongdoing at the agency.

Critics also question Bennett’s decisions to cut a live interview broadcast by the network’s Mandarin service with a prominent critic of Beijing, and to dismiss Mandarin Service head Sasha Gong and others over the incident.

VOA says no wrongdoing has been proven in that decision.

“In no instance has any court or other adjudicative or administrative body found that the Agency failed to prove its allegations,” VOA’s Public Relations said Tuesday. “Third-party reviews of this matter concluded that the decision to curtail the live interview was based solely on and consistent with journalistic best practices.”

Committee hearings for presidential nominees take place after a White House vetting process. Candidates are also investigated by the FBI, IRS and Office of Government Ethics.

During nomination hearings, senators question the candidate to determine their suitability for the position and seek evidence of partisanship. The committee members eventually vote on whether to recommend the nominee for consideration by the full Senate.
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Proud Boys Indictment Highlights Stakes in Capitol Riot Hearings    

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The stakes have risen for high-profile congressional hearings beginning later this week with the filing of seditious conspiracy charges against leaders of one of the most prominent groups involved in the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

The timing of the indictment is coincidental to the hearings, which will kick off with a prime time nationally televised session Thursday, but the seriousness of the charges drives home the importance of the investigation and is likely to draw more viewers to the broadcast.

A federal grand jury on Monday returned the superseding indictment alleging that former Proud Boys national chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola conspired to use force to prevent members of Congress from certifying the results of the election in which President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump.

The indictment includes the text of various messages and voice memoranda that members of the Proud Boys exchanged which suggest there was an extensive planning process in advance of the attack.

In the indictment, the Justice Department alleges that an associate of Tarrio’s provided him with a nine-page document called “1776 Returns” that outlined a plan for occupying several federal buildings in Washington. The associate wrote to Tarrio, “The revolution is [sic] important than anything,” to which Tarrio replied, “That’s what every waking moment consists of … I’m not playing games.”

Hearings planned

The group’s actions are also expected to figure at some point during half a dozen public hearings being planned to publicize the findings of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

The committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, has conducted more than 1,000 interviews and has obtained more than 100,000 documents in the course of its investigation. However, some of the most high-profile figures from whom it has sought testimony, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, have defied subpoenas.

Members of the committee have indicated in public statements and in court filings that the hearings will outline ways in which investigators believe members of the Trump administration and others close to the former president planned to overturn the results of the election. They have also indicated that they will try to connect the former president’s false claims that the election was stolen from him to the violent protests on the day of the attack.

The hearings, some of which are to be broadcast in the evening, are being designed for maximum public impact, mixing live witness testimony, videotaped depositions and a steady drumbeat of previously unrevealed facts about the run-up to the assault.

Up to 20 years in prison

The seditious conspiracy charge leveled against Tarrio and his associates carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

According to statute, it requires the government to prove that two or more people conspired “to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.”

In this case, the government is arguing that the Proud Boys named in the indictment conspired to use force to prevent the counting of electoral votes by then-Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress on January 6. That count, required by law under the Electoral Count Act of 1887, is the final step in confirming the winner of a presidential election.

Monday’s indictment is the second time that a group of individuals involved in the storming of the Capitol has been charged with seditious conspiracy. Earlier this year 10 members of the right-wing Oath Keepers group, including its leader, Stewart Rhodes, faced the same allegations.

Rare charge

The spate of seditious conspiracy charges arising from the attack on the Capitol masks the fact that it is a crime only rarely alleged in the United States.

“The crime itself is pretty rare, because it is essentially an agreement to obstruct the government in a significant way, and that just doesn’t happen that much,” Carlton F. W. Lawson, a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California-Davis School of Law, told VOA.

However, he said, the government appears to have a strong case.

“At this point, these are just allegations,” Larson said. “But assuming that they are true, I think it states a pretty clear case for a seditious conspiracy charge.”

He added, “This is a pretty cautious Justice Department, so the fact that they thought that this was appropriate does tell us they are taking January 6 very seriously.”

Not present at Capitol

Neither the Proud Boys’ Tarrio, charged on Monday, nor the Oath Keepers’ Rhodes actually entered the Capitol on January 6.

Tarrio had been arrested in Washington, D.C., several days prior to the attack, on charges related to an earlier Proud Boys event in the city. A judge directed him not to return to the city until those allegations were resolved, and he appears to have complied with that order.

Rhodes was in Washington at the time of the attack but did not enter the Capitol.

The fact that both are still facing charges highlights the fact that to be successful, a seditious conspiracy charge does not require that the act of sedition was successful, or that it was even carried out at all.

“The actual offense really is the conspiracy, the prior agreement to do these things,” said UC-Davis’ Larson.

An attorney representing Tarrio told the Wall Street Journal that his client “looks forward to being vindicated.” Rhodes has pleaded not guilty. Both men, along with others charged in their cases, remain in federal custody.
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Son of Buffalo Victim Pushes Congress: ‘What Are You Doing?’

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The son of Ruth Whitfield, an 86-year-old woman killed when a gunman opened fire in a racist attack on Black shoppers in Buffalo, New York, challenged Congress on Tuesday to act against the “cancer of white supremacy” and the nation’s epidemic of gun violence.

Garnell Whitfield Jr.’s emotional testimony comes as lawmakers are working furiously to strike a bipartisan agreement on gun safety measures in the aftermath of back-to-back mass shootings.

Ten days after the shooting death of his mother and nine others in New York by an 18-year-old gunman, another 18-year-old with a semi-automatic rifle opened fire in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 school children and two teachers.

“What are you doing? You were elected to protect us,” Whitfield told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires?” he asked. “If there is nothing, then respectfully, senators … you should yield your positions of authority and influence to others that are willing to lead on this issue.”

The hearing is the first of two this week as families of the victims and survivors of the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde appear at public hearings and events on Capitol Hill to show the human toll of America’s gun violence and urge Congress to act.

Pressing for a deal, President Joe Biden met Tuesday with Senator Chris Murphy, a key Democratic negotiator, who has worked most of his career trying to curb the nation’s mass-shooting scourge after the heartbreaking slaughter of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary in his home state of Connecticut a decade ago.

Murphy told reporters after the meeting that he was grateful to have an opportunity to update the president on the talks in the Senate. “Obviously, we’ve still got work to do in the Senate,” he said.

Murphy said his goal is to try to get an agreement this week, but he added that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been clear that “we need some extra time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s that will get it.”

On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee is expected to hear from more victims’ families and from fourth-grader Miah Cerrillo, who captured Americans’ attention after she described covering herself in her dead classmate’s blood and playing dead to survive the shooting rampage in Uvalde.

The Senate hearing Tuesday focused directly on the white supremacist ideology that authorities say led an 18-year-old gunman dressed in military gear to drive hours to a predominately Black neighborhood in Buffalo and live stream his violent rampage. The shooting left 10 people dead and several others wounded.

“My mother’s life mattered,” Whitfield said. “Your actions here will tell us if and how much it mattered to you.”

Shortly after the Buffalo massacre, a bill that would have bolstered federal resources to prevent domestic terrorism failed in the Senate at the hands of Republican opposition. Even at Tuesday’s hearing, Republican senators took the time to focus on the racial injustice protests that took place in the summer of 2020, citing those incidents as acts of domestic extremism.

Since the failed vote, senators have regrouped and began to meet privately in a small bipartisan group headed by Murphy and Republican Senator John Cornyn, trying to hash out a compromise that could actually become law.

But lawmakers have been here before — unable to pass any substantial gun safety laws in decades in the face of steep objections from Republicans in Congress, some conservative Democrats and the fierce lobby of gun owners and the National Rifle Association. No major legislation has made it into law since the 1994 assault weapons ban, which has since expired.

The package under discussion is far short of the sweeping measures for an assault weapons ban or universal background checks that are popular with Americans and advocated by gun safety groups but rejected by Republicans.

Instead, the senators are focusing on incremental policy changes through a system that would send funds and other incentives to the states to bolster security at school campuses, provide more mental health services to young people and possibly encourage states to pursue red-flag laws to keep firearms out of the hands of people who would do harm.

“I’m optimistic we can get 60-plus votes — but the question is what that package looks like,” Cornyn told reporters as lawmakers arrived back in town Monday from a week-long recess.

Cornyn was referring to the 60-vote threshold needed in the 50-50 Senate to advance legislation past a filibuster that can block most any bill.

The Texas senator said he was preparing to brief his colleagues Tuesday at their weekly Senate lunch on the status of negotiations. But he warned Democrats off rushing the process, saying “arbitrary deadlines” are no help in the talks.

While senators are reluctant to raise the age requirement for gun purchases from 18 to 21, as has been done in some states, an alternative idea surfacing is to open the records of juvenile offenders to look for problem spots before allowing adults to purchase weapons.

Murphy said that Cornyn has articulated a legitimate concern that many times law enforcement doesn’t have access to juvenile records when making a decision on a background check.

“That clearly seems like something we should fix and address,” Murphy said. “That’s certainly a part of our talks. It’s complicated because different states have different rules when it comes to juvenile records.”

The proposals are gaining traction, but also raising concerns from Democrats and some advocacy groups who are pushing senators to do more, faster, to stem the tide of mass shootings across the nation.
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UN: Without Action, Famine Looms for Somalia

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The United Nations warned Tuesday that Somalia is at risk of another famine, as consecutive droughts have withered crops and killed scores of livestock, and grain imports from Ukraine and Russia have dramatically dropped due to their war.

“Somalia is certainly heading toward a famine, if action is not taken now,” U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Adam Abdelmoula told reporters in a video call from Mogadishu.

He said if the international community waits until a formal declaration of famine to act, it will be too late.

“We have been there before — in 2011, severe drought resulted in a famine that killed a-quarter-of-a-million people, partly because we were slow to act. We must not allow that to happen again,” the humanitarian coordinator said.

Abdelmoula said that nearly half the country’s population, about 7.1 million people, are facing crisis-level food insecurity or worse at least through September. He said 213,000 of them would face famine-like conditions. The situation in south and central parts of the country is especially grim.

Somalia has endured four consecutive failed rainy seasons, plunging much of the country into severe drought, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency. Recent moderate rains have not alleviated the crisis.

Complicating the situation is Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Before Moscow’s February 24 invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine provided Somalia with about half of its grain imports, while Russia accounted for 35%.

“Both of those import sources have come to a complete halt,” Abdelmoula said. He added that global supply chain disruptions and increased fuel prices, as a result of the war, have also disproportionately affected Somalia.

“In some parts of the country, food prices have risen by 140% to 160%, leaving poor families hungry and destitute,” he said.

The United Nations appealed for $1.5 billion for its Somalia humanitarian response this year, but with the year half over, it has only received 18% of the funds needed. This has resulted in the shuttering of hundreds of U.N.-operated feeding centers and health clinics.

Abdelmoula said the World Food Program and partners have decreased food and cash handouts to affected communities by as much as 40% already. And of the 5.1 million people they had been trying to assist, they have only been able to reach 2.8 million.

“And the rest were left out,” the humanitarian coordinator said.

The situation is especially dangerous for children under five years old. Suspected cholera cases are on the rise and at least 8,700 cases of measles have been reported. Malnourished children are much more likely to succumb to those diseases.

In 2017, Somalia also faced the prospect of famine, but it was averted by concerted action by both the government and the international community.

 
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IMF Sets Conditions for Malawi Aid to Resume

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Malawi wants renewed access to the International Monetary Fund’s Extended Credit Facility, or ECF, after a two-year halt. 

In 2020, the IMF canceled a planned $70 million in loans to Malawi after it came to light that former president Peter Mutharika gave the lender false information about how ECF funds were being used. 

The investigations into the matter last year led to the arrest of the former governor of Reserve Bank of Malawi, Dalitso Kabambe, and former finance minister Joseph Mwanamveka. 

 

In a statement released Monday, at the end of a weeklong mission in Malawi aimed at discussing terms of the resumption of the ECF, the IMF said Malawi should first meet certain conditions. 

 

Among those, the IMF asked Malawi to address what it called the country’s unsustainable public debt and to produce a report on allegations the country was giving false information between 2018 and 2020 about the administration of ECF funds.  

 

Sosten Gwengwe, Malawi’s finance minister, told a news conference Monday the government has engaged a debt adviser to help the country address its problem.  

 

“For us to be able to do that, we needed technical expertise,” he said. “And the advice from the Fund was that we get a qualified debt adviser, and that’s why we recruited the Global Sovereign Advisory of France. They have been in the country since last week and they also hope to put together the debt strategy for us in the next one week, maximum, two weeks.”  

 

Gwengwe said a report on alleged falsification of documents on ECF funds is also in its final stages.   

 

“The interim report is out but the substantive report should be coming out mid this month,” he said. “Once these two documents are on the table, then we will re-engage again for a staff level agreement which must be taken to their board, mid-July.” 

 

Economic experts say the ECF is now the only program that can help bail Malawi out of its dire economic straits. 

 

“I am squarely behind the government on this one that we need the ECF,” said Betchani Tchereni, a lecturer in economics at Malawi University of Business and Applied Science. “There might be issues that we have, we are trying to do our best. Yes, we have got some bad apples within the system that may be not helping us well, but the bottom line is that we need those resources. However, way they are going to make those resources available to us as Malawians.”  

 

The IMF says it will make its final decision on the resumption of the ECF to Malawi at its board meeting scheduled for July.  

 
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US Woman Pleads Guilty to Leading Islamic State Battalion 

Posted on by SeeUS

An American woman who prosecutors say led an all-female battalion of Islamic State militants in Syria pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a case that a prosecutor called a first of its kind in the United States. 

Allison Fluke-Ekren broke down sobbing after admitting in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, a charge that carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. 

The guilty plea resolves a criminal case that came to light in January after Fluke-Ekren, 42, who once lived in Kansas, was brought to the U.S. to face accusations that she led an Islamic State unit of women and young girls in the Syrian city of Raqqa and trained them in the use of automatic rifles, grenades and suicide belts. 

It is the first prosecution in the U.S. of a female Islamic State battalion leader, said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh, who told a judge that some of the more than 100 women and girls who received training may wish to speak at Fluke-Ekren’s sentencing hearing. 

“Some of them may wish an opportunity to address the court because we would argue that there is lifelong trauma and pain that has been inflicted on them,” Parekh said. 

Charging documents in the case trace Fluke-Ekren’s travels and activities in the Middle East over the last decade, though they don’t shed light on what inspired her alleged allegiance to foreign militant groups. 

She had been in Syria since late 2012 or early 2013, where according to one witness cited in court documents, she spoke openly about her desire to conduct an attack in the U.S., including by parking car loaded with explosives in an underground garage of a shopping mall. Another witness said Fluke-Ekren spoke about a desire to bomb a college campus. 

Prosecutors say that after Fluke-Ekren’s second husband, identified in court papers as a member of the militant group Ansar al-Sharia, was killed in an air strike in Syria in February 2016, she led a center that offered medical services and child care — but also advanced weapons training — to dozens of women and young girls. 

Her all-female battalion, known as Khatiba Nusaybah, began operations in 2017, with a goal of teaching female Islamic State members how to defend themselves against the group’s enemies, prosecutors say. 

According to court documents, she continued her affiliation with the Islamic State until the spring of 2019, when she was smuggled out of IS territory. Fluke-Ekren has said she tried to turn herself in at a local police station last summer because she wanted to leave Syria, and that about two weeks later, she was taken into custody at her home and later held in prison. 

A criminal complaint against Fluke-Ekren was filed under seal in the U.S. in 2019 but not made public until she was brought to Virginia in January to face charges. 

Fluke-Ekren, who said in court that she had a master’s degree in the U.S. in teaching, moved to Egypt with her second husband in 2008 and lived in Benghazi, Libya in the fall of 2012, when a n attack on U.S. government facilities resulted in the deaths of four Americans. Fluke-Ekren is not alleged to have played any part in that attack, but prosecutors say she helped her second husband review and summarize documents that he said were stolen from the U.S. compound there. 

Fluke-Ekren admitted to the gist of the government’s allegations against her, though at one point she suggested that one of the witnesses quoted in court documents was young at the time they were speaking and may have had a different understanding of their conversations. She also suggested that she had not intentionally trained young girls. 

 
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No Justice Reform in Poland, No Money, EU Chief Vows

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The European Union’s chief executive vowed Tuesday that Poland would get no money from the bloc’s vast pandemic relief fund until the right-wing government rolls back measures deemed to limit the independence of the country’s judiciary.

Poland is line to receive nearly 36 billion euros ($38.5 billion) to help its economy recover from the impact of measures introduced to limit the spread of the coronavirus. But the EU has frozen Poland’s access to the funds amid concern about political interference with the judiciary.

The European Commission, which proposes EU laws and supervises the way they are enacted, insists that a disciplinary chamber for Polish judges be abolished, that its rulebook be rewritten and that judges sanctioned by the chamber have their cases reviewed.

“Let me be very clear. These three commitments, translated into milestones, must be fulfilled before any payment can be made,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France.

The European Parliament has also launched action against Poland over democratic backsliding. The lawmakers have criticized von der Leyen and her commission for being too slow to act. Some are calling for a no-confidence vote on her should the commission release any funds too early.

“I know that some of you are skeptical but let me assure that no money will be disbursed until these reforms are undertaken,” von der Leyen said. “A first payment will only be possible when a new law is in force that ticks all the boxes under this contract,” she said of a plan for Poland to access the funds.

Von der Leyen added that “Poland must demonstrate by the end of 2023 that all unlawfully dismissed judges have been reinstated. If this is not the case there cannot be any further disbursement.”

Poland’s lawmakers are still working on changing Supreme Court regulations to abolish the disciplinary chamber. Only one of the dozens of suspended judges has been reinstated, but to a different section in his court, and has been ordered to go on leave.

Many EU lawmakers argued that Poland should have met the conditions before its action plan for access to the recovery fund was submitted. Even some senior members of von der Leyen’s own commission had reservations about the Polish plan.

Dutch liberal parliamentarian, Sophia In’t Veld, said the commission’s conditions are merely “a smokescreen.” Facing von der Leyen, she said: “If you make any payment to Poland without all the criteria having been fully met, you lose my confidence. It’s democracy.”

Poland’s pandemic recovery plan must still be endorsed by the other 26 EU member states before the end of the month. It would pave the way for government to eventually gain access to 23.9 billion euros ($25.4 billion) in grants and 11.5 billion euros ($11.7 billion) in loans.

EU officials have said that Poland is unlikely to win access to any of the money for several months.
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Spanish Journalist Marks 100 Days in Prison on Spy Claim

Posted on by SeeEU

 It was a moment Pablo González’s family had been longing for: a letter from the Spanish journalist imprisoned in Poland for 100 days on accusations of spying for Russia.

“It was a thrill and a present for me and our three children,” González’s wife, Oihana Goiriena, told VOA.

The four-page letter, which arrived last week, was the first contact the family has had with González since his arrest in February.

Poland’s secret service alleges he used his role as a journalist as a cover for espionage, but officials have not publicly disclosed any supporting evidence. González denies the accusation.

The journalist’s family has links to Russia because his father moved there as a child after the Spanish Civil War. But González is not part of Russia’s secret intelligence service, his Spanish lawyer Gonzalo Boye said.

A court in Poland last month ordered González to remain in custody for a second three-month period. Under Polish law, he can be held for up to a year. If convicted, he could be jailed for 10 years.

Bartosz Rogala, a Polish lawyer appointed to González at the request of the Spanish government, said that under Polish law, he is not permitted to reveal the reasons that González is being held longer.

“The arrest hearing was part of the preparatory proceedings (for trial) and therefore remains classified,” Rogala told El Español, a Spanish online news site.

The lawyer said González will appeal the detention.

Rogala can communicate with González, but Polish authorities have denied the journalist telephone calls or visits from his Spanish lawyer. He is in a jail located about 400 km from the capital, Warsaw.

“Pablo has not been allowed any (physical) contact with his family nor his lawyer. The Spanish consul has seen him three times,” Boye told VOA. “He is being held with one other man in a cell. He is no longer in solitary confinement. He is OK, but he is missing his family.”

González was arrested on February 28 when crossing from Poland into Ukraine, where he had been reporting the start of the Russian invasion.

Ukrainian secret service officials had earlier detained González and accused him of spying for Russia, which he denied. He returned to Spain for a few days before leaving for Poland.

International rights organizations and commentators have criticized how Poland, a European Union nation, handled the case, and demanded that González be afforded due process and rights. 

In an opinion piece, Enric González, a columnist for the center-left Spanish daily newspaper El Pais, likened the treatment to that of inmates in Guantanamo Bay, where the U.S. government kept terror suspects without charges for lengthy periods. The lawyer is not related to Pablo.

In Spain, a campaign led by friends, journalists and television presenters called #FreePabloGonzález marked the 100th day of his detention on Tuesday.

More than 40,600 people signed a petition calling for the release of the experienced war reporter. 

González, 40, has covered conflicts in Ukraine and Syria for various outlets including the left-wing Spanish paper Publico and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper. He also provided some camera work for VOA in 2020 and 2021.

The news that he would be held for another three months was a blow to his family, who live in the Basque Country in northern Spain. But the family’s first letter from González, which arrived May 31, lifted spirits, his wife said. 

“The letter was dated April 9, so he congratulated our youngest, who is 7, for his birthday. Said he missed us all very much, and thanked his family and friends and supporters for all the help they have given him,” Goiriena said.

“Pablo said he was OK but has lost a lot of weight. He wrote a few anecdotes about his childhood and told us what he was doing. He is reading a lot, doing exercise, and things are a bit better. He says (the spying allegations) is something that will pass,” Goiriena said.

Goiriena sent a package to her husband in prison containing books on the Basque language and a National Geographic magazine but said she first must have the list of contents translated into Polish.

González has received one letter from his wife, which she sent in March. It was written in Spanish and must be translated and examined by the Polish prosecutor.

Letters from Boye must also be translated and seen by the prosecutor.

 “This is in case they have secret messages to (Russian President) Putin,” jokes Goiriena. “This is not a laughing matter, but you have to laugh or you would cry.”

 Osoigo, a Spanish campaign group, has called on lawmakers to campaign for González.

“Pablo is a Spanish journalist who has been detained and held incommunicado (while accused of spying) and cannot speak with his lawyer or his family. That is why we are campaigning,” Yolanda Llamas of Osoigo told VOA.

For those campaigning for González’s release, his treatment in Poland has been shocking.

In May, Enric González wrote in El Pais, “I ignore whether he has spied or not, (he would not be the first journalist to do so, the frontier between both jobs is clouded), or if he is innocent. But it seems to me that in the European Union, there should not be situations similar to Guantanamo (Bay).”

Amnesty International supported the campaign to free González, tweeting: “We demand that his right to a fair process and due guarantees be respected, allowing him access to a lawyer of his free choice and to communicate with his family.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told parliament last month that the foreign minister had been in contact with his Polish counterpart over the case.

A spokesperson for Spain’s Foreign Ministry told VOA, “Our consul has visited him three times. We made sure that he had a local lawyer, and our ambassador in Poland is following the case carefully.”

The Spanish Defense Ministry, which has responsibility for the intelligence services, declined to comment on the matter.

VOA asked the Polish embassy in Madrid for comment but received no response.

Following González’s arrest, VOA issued a statement saying it was aware of his arrest and has removed some of the content filed by him “out of an abundance of caution.”
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Nomination Hearing Set for Biden’s Pick to Lead USAGM

Posted on by SeeUS

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a hearing Tuesday for President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Biden in November 2021 nominated former Voice of America director Amanda Bennett to run USAGM.

As head of the agency, Bennett would oversee an annual budget of $840 million and the running of six entities including the independent news networks VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Middle East Broadcasting Networks and the Open Technology Foundation.

Former VOA director of programming Kelu Chao currently holds the position in an acting authority. She was assigned the position after Michael Pack, the last presidential appointee, resigned at Biden’s request.

The role of USAGM chief executive was created with legislation during the administration of President Barack Obama as a way to make the agency more effective and efficient. The first person confirmed to the role was conservative filmmaker Pack.

But Pack’s tenure was tumultuous, drawing criticism from Republicans and Democrats in Congress. It also led to several whistleblower complaints, an order from the Office of Special Counsel to investigate allegations of mismanagement, and separate court orders barring him and his aides from interfering in VOA editorial decisions or installing appointees at the Open Technology Fund, respectively.

Chao testified in the lawsuit alleging editorial interference, and lawmakers in 2020 revised the agency head’s powers after bi-partisan criticism of how Pack interpreted the role.

Bennett has prior experience at USAGM, where she was VOA director from 2016 to June 2020, resigning just before Pack took over.

The Pulitzer prize-winning journalist has a long career in U.S. media, including as executive editor at Bloomberg News and managing editor of The Oregonian newspaper. She was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal for more than two decades, including in Beijing.

In 2019 the National Press Club awarded Bennett its Fourth Estate award for significant contributions to American journalism.

In her acceptance speech, Bennett spoke of the role VOA plays in providing uncensored news around the world and underscored that the network is independent and not a government mouthpiece.

“We don’t do propaganda. And God willing, we never will,” she said in her remarks.

VOA’s public relations website says that under Bennett, the network’s weekly audience grew by around 109 million, and she oversaw more coverage of women and refugees, expansions to include a technology beat, investigative journalism unit, the fact-checking team Polygraph and dedicated press freedom coverage.

Critics however have said Bennett allowed VOA’s news coverage to become “soft” on China including during the coronavirus pandemic, citing a story about Beijing’s offer for personal protective equipment and medical supplies. Others, in columns for Washington newspapers, note that the agency scored poorly on staff satisfaction during her time.

Critics also question Bennett’s decisions to cut short a live interview broadcast by the network’s Mandarin service with a prominent critic of Beijing, and to dismiss Mandarin Service head Sasha Gong and others over the incident.

Gong at the time claimed VOA was pressured by Beijing to cut the interview.

Bennett disputed that, saying in a statement to staff the actions were “the result of VOA leadership’s attempt to enforce previously agreed-upon journalistic standards. The investigations found no evidence to support allegations that pressure from the Chinese government, purportedly driven by ‘spies’ within VOA, had caused the termination.”

As head of USAGM, Bennett would oversee the agency at a critical time, with its journalists under pressure or restricted in countries including Russia, Belarus, Iran and China.

Supporters of Bennett say her experience in foreign journalism makes her suited for the role.

Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, a former member of the USAGM’s governing board, told VOA that Bennett’s media background and knowledge of USAGM from her time as VOA director make her a strong candidate. She said Bennett could set “the standard for all who follow.”

“Her leadership is essential at a time of resurgent authoritarianism around the world — to ensure that people living under repressive regimes not only have access to accurate information but also can see models of excellent journalism in practice.”

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, was due to preside over Tuesday’s nomination hearing with Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, as co-chair.

Committee hearings for presidential nominees take place after a White House vetting process. Candidates are also investigated by the FBI, IRS and Office of Government Ethics.

During nomination hearings, senators question the candidate to determine their suitability for the position and seek evidence of partisanship. The committee members eventually vote on whether to recommend the nominee for consideration by the full Senate.
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