Month: July 2022

Britain, EU Extend Sanctions Against Russia

Posted on by SeeEU

Britain and the European Union have extended sanctions on Russia in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The U.K. Foreign Office said on its website Tuesday that the sanctions, which included travel bans and asset freezes, were imposed on 42 new people and entities, including several governors of Russian regions and the Kremlin-installed prime minister of the separatist-controlled Donetsk region of Ukraine, Vitaly Khotsenko.

The EU, meanwhile, approved the extension of its sanctions for another six months until January 31, the European Council said in a statement.

The U.K. said its list also includes Vladislav Kuznetsov, the Moscow-imposed first deputy chairman of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, which is held by Russia-backed separatists.

“We will not keep quiet and watch Kremlin-appointed state actors suppress the people of Ukraine or the freedoms of their own people,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement “We will continue to impose harsh sanctions on those who are trying to legitimize Putin’s illegal invasion until Ukraine prevails.”

Since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Britain has sanctioned more than 1,100 people and over 100 businesses.

The EU has introduced six rounds of sanctions on Russia in coordination with its Western partners.
…

your ad here

Tunisia’s President Cheers Outcome of Controversial Referendum  

Posted on by SeeAF

Tunisian President Kais Saied and his supporters are celebrating the apparent adoption of his controversial new constitution, following a referendum Monday. But turnout for the vote was low and the opposition is disputing the results.

Tunisian President Kais Saied promised a new “phase” for his country as he met cheering supporters. He called the results of Monday’s referendum an historic moment that offered lessons for the world.

But President Saied’s political opponents, who called on supporters to boycott the vote, see things differently.

Samira Chaouachi, president of the Heart of Tunisia party and vice president of Tunisia’s now-dissolved parliament, questioned the turnout and numbers presented by Saied’s appointed election commission. She said the opposition would do its own check. Either way, she said the low voter turnout, whether out of opposition or indifference, stripped the draft charter of legitimacy.

 

President Saied says his new constitution, designed to create a strong presidency, dilute legislative powers and establish a new regional assembly, will end the political gridlock that has gripped Tunisia for years.

The opposition fears it will consolidate his one-man rule that began a year ago, when Saied seized far-reaching powers, dissolving government and firing dozens of judges.

Tunis University professor Hamadi Redissi says the outcome threatens the country’s fledgling democracy.

“Probably this is not the end of the transition, but it is a big step back. Next, we have no idea.”

But voters like furniture salesman Adel Zine are happy with the results.

Still, he believes President Saied can’t rule on his own — he lacks experience. If he becomes a dictator, Zine adds, voters will kick him out.
…

your ad here

Is South Africa Headed Toward its Own ‘Arab Spring?’

Posted on by SeeAF

Former South African president Thabo Mbeki launched a rare attack last week on the ruling African National Congress party and President Cyril Ramaphosa. Mbeki said public discontent with the government is so high the country could be headed toward its own “Arab Spring,” the uprising that toppled leaders starting in 2010 and spread across parts of the Arab world.

In his address at the funeral of an ANC stalwart, Mbeki was unequivocal in his criticism of the party to which he’s dedicated his life, saying there was no national plan to address the poverty, unemployment, and inequality plaguing South Africa and warning that it could lead to violence.

“One of my fears is that one of these days, we’re going to have our own version of the Arab Spring,” said Mbeki.

Independent political analyst Asanda Ngoasheng said she thinks Mbeki’s warning is on target.

“I think that former President Thabo Mbeki is right in his assessment that South Africa is ripe for an Arab Spring,” Ngoasheng said. “In fact, I would even take it further and say that South Africa has already had the preemptions and predecessors of revolt.”

Ngoasheng pointed to the riots that broke out after the brief jailing of former president Jacob Zuma last year as one example. She said the COVID-19 pandemic had also exacerbated poverty.

“South Africa has a ticking time bomb of youth unemployment and the combination of the post-Covid world,” Ngoasheng said.

But analyst and author Ralph Mathekga said he thought Mbeki’s comparison went a step too far, arguing that even if the ANC lost power it wouldn’t mean the country would fall apart.

“The problem is that the formulation by Mbeki then says if the ANC’s not holding, then South Africa’s going to an Arab Spring, what that means is only the ANC can actually lead politically,” Mathekga said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed Mbeki’s criticism that he had failed to create jobs in a speech over the weekend, saying “we should challenge the claim that nothing is being done.”

“While we all agree that our overriding objectives are to grow the economy, create jobs, and reduce poverty and inequality and we must remember that the problem and challenge of jobs did not start yesterday,” Ramaphosa said.

Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, said it’s vital for government to address unemployment and poverty to prevent growing discontent.

“The crux of this is actually making sure we grow the economy,” said Sihlobo.

But will it be a case of too little too late? With youth unemployment at 63 percent, frequent blackouts and failing state services, South Africa could be primed for a repeat of last year’s violence.
…

your ad here

Russian FM Lavrov Heads to Ethiopia, Seeking Closer Ties

Posted on by SeeEU

Russia’s foreign minister is heading to Ethiopia Tuesday, his last stop on a four-nation tour of Africa aimed at countering Western criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  Western nations blame the invasion for worsening food shortages in record drought-stricken East Africa, including Ethiopia. But Ethiopia has also been under Western pressure over its war with Tigray rebels and has a historic friendship with Russia.

Sergey Lavrov will round off his Africa tour by meeting with Ethiopian officials in Addis Ababa as he fends off accusations that his country is exporting hunger through its war in Ukraine.

He will also try to strengthen ties with Ethiopia’s federal government, whose relations with the West have soured amid accusations of human rights abuses in the Tigray conflict.

Russia’s presence in Ethiopia is scant compared to other countries. It does not have a large aid footprint like the U.S. Nor does it invest heavily in infrastructure as the Chinese do.

But the two countries have a strong diplomatic partnership. Since the Tigray war started in November 2020, Russia has shielded Ethiopia at the United Nations Security Council by insisting meetings be held behind closed doors and using its veto to block statements condemning alleged abuses by Ethiopian forces.

It is not unusual to hear people in Addis Ababa express a preference for Russia over Western countries, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has suggested are behind a conspiracy supporting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front rebel group, or TPLF.

Moges Zewdu Teshome, an independent researcher, said the Russia-Ethiopia relationship has deep historical roots.

“The Ethiopian government has always been in a good relationship even during those turbulent periods of the Cold War, of course, siding with the Soviet Union, as you may recall,” he said. “And then if we see it in the context of the current quagmire which Ethiopia is in when it comes to its international relations and foreign policy posture, Russia has been backing the Ethiopian claims and or at least positions in the U.N. Security Council.”

Ethiopian officials will likely seek assurances from Lavrov that Black Sea wheat exports will resume. Ethiopia has plans to boost its wheat production in an attempt to become self-sufficient. But for the time being, it imports over 40% of its grain from Ukraine and Russia, and some 30 million Ethiopians currently rely on food aid sourced from global grain markets.

Last year, as the Tigray war continued, Russia signed a security partnership with Ethiopia. The deal raised eyebrows among Western diplomats whose countries suspended aid.

However, Awet Weldemichael, a professor at Queen’s University in Ontario, said Russia cannot displace the Western presence in Ethiopia, especially as the prime minister tries to rehabilitate ties with the U.S. now that the Tigray conflict is cooling down.

“I don’t think that the West’s relationship with the Ethiopian prime minister is as bad as it was six months ago or a year ago,” he said. “We increasingly see the West has been actively normalizing the prime minister and his policies. In light of that, in light of the mending of fences, so to speak, between Addis Ababa and Western capitals. I doubt that Foreign Minister Lavrov will have much of a chance.”

Ethiopia abstained from voting on the U.N. resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March.
…

your ad here

Tim Giago, Trailblazing Native American Journalist, Dies

Posted on by SeeUS

Tim Giago, the founder of the first independently owned Native American newspaper in the United States, has died at age 88, his former wife said.

Giago, who died at Monument Health in Rapid City, South Dakota, on Sunday, created an enduring legacy during his more than four decades of work in South Dakota journalism, his colleagues said.

Giago, who was a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, founded The Lakota Times with his first wife, Doris, in 1981, and quickly showed that he wasn’t afraid to challenge those in power and advocate for American Indians, she said.

Launching the paper, even years after the 1973 Wounded Knee siege between U.S. marshals and the Native American Movement, was challenging because wounds still existed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and in South Dakota, Doris Giago said.

Tim Giago blamed the American Indian Movement for violence on the reservation. Windows at the paper were broken and the office was firebombed.

“And through it all, Tim never backed down,” said Doris Giago, who was married to him from 1979 to 1986.

The Lakota Times was eventually renamed Indian Country Today, and later became ICT. In a July 2021 interview with the paper, Giago recounted that tense period and “some of the hard things that came out of work.”

“One night got in my pickup and somebody put a bullet through my windshield and just missed my head,” Giago told the newspaper. “So, I mean, if that’s what it took to get the freedom of the press going on the reservation, I guess that’s what it took.”

Giago, a 1991 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, wrote years later that while he was working as a reporter for the Rapid City Journal, he was bothered by the fact that although he had been born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, he was seldom given an opportunity to do news stories about the people of the reservation.

“One editor told me that I would not be able to be objective in my reporting. I replied, ‘All of your reporters are white. Are they objective when covering the white community?”‘

The Giagos started the Lakota Times in a former beauty shop on the reservation, with no real training on the business side of newspapering, Doris Giago recalled.

“They gave us six months to succeed. They didn’t think we would last after that. We learned from our mistakes,” she said.

In 1992, he changed the paper’s name to Indian Country Today to reflect its national coverage of Native American news and issues. He sold the paper to the Oneida Nation in 1998.

Two years later he founded The Lakota Journal and in 2009, he founded the Native Sun News, based in Rapid City, South Dakota.

“He always pushed for more, reaching for an even better way to serve Native American people with news. So, after Lakota Times it was Indian Country Today. Then Lakota Journal. Then Native Sun News. He never lost his vision about how important it is for a community to have a journalistic recording of itself,” said Mark Trahant, ICT’s editor-at-large.

Giago founded the Native American Journalists Association and served as its first president. He was also the first Native American to be inducted into the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame.

Even though Giago’s work had critics, they still respected him “for doing his job and protecting Native people,” ICT’s editor Jourdan Bennett-Begaye said.

“Nothing could stop him. What I really admired about him was his fearlessness,” she said.

Survivors include his wife, Jackie Giago; a sister, Lillian; 12 children and numerous grandchildren. Funeral arrangements were pending.
…

your ad here

Trump Returning to Washington to Deliver Policy Speech

Posted on by SeeUS

 

 

Former President Donald Trump will return to Washington on Tuesday for the first time since leaving office, delivering a policy speech before an allied think tank that has been crafting an agenda for a possible second term.

Trump will address the America First Policy Institute’s two-day America First Agenda Summit as some advisers urge him to spend more time talking about his vision for the future and less time relitigating the 2020 election as he prepares to announce an expected 2024 White House campaign.

“I believe it will be a very policy-focused, forward-leaning speech, very much like a State of the Union 5.0,” said Brooke Rollins, AFPI’s president. Composed of former Trump administration officials and allies, the nonprofit is widely seen as an “administration in waiting” that could quickly move to the West Wing if Trump were to run again and win.

Trump’s appearance in Washington — his first trip back since Jan. 20, 2021, when President Joe Biden was sworn into office — comes as his potential 2024 rivals have been taking increasingly overt steps to challenge his status as the party’s standard-bearer. They include former Vice President Mike Pence, who has been touting his own “Freedom Agenda” in speeches that serve as an implicit contrast with Trump.

“Some people may choose to focus on the past, but I believe conservatives must focus on the future. If we do, we won’t just win the next election, we will change the course of American history for generations,” Pence had planned to say in a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on the eve of Trump’s visit. Pence’s appearance was postponed because of bad weather, but he will be delivering his own speech Tuesday morning before the Young America’s Foundation not far from the AFPI meeting.

On Tuesday, he plans to focus on public safety.

“`President Trump sees a nation in decline that is driven, in part, by rising crime and communities becoming less safe under Democrat policies,” said his spokesman, Taylor Budowich. “His remarks will highlight the policy failures of Democrats, while laying out an America First vision for public safety that will surely be a defining issue during the midterms and beyond.”

 

 

Beyond the summit, staff at the America First Policy Institute have been laying their own groundwork for the future, “making sure we do have the policies, personnel and process nailed down for every key agency when we do take the White House back,” Rollins said.

The nonprofit developed, she said, from efforts to avoid the chaotic early days of Trump’s first term, when he arrived at the White House unprepared, with no clear plans ready to put in place. As Trump was running for reelection, Rollins, then the head of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, began to sketch out a second-term agenda with fellow administration officials, including top economic policy adviser Larry Kudlow and national security adviser Robert O’Brien.

When it became clear Trump would be leaving the White House, she said, AFPI was created to continue that work ”organized around that second term agenda that we never released.”

The organization, once dismissed as a landing zone for ex-Trump administration officials shut out of more lucrative jobs, has grown into a behemoth, with an operating budget of around $25 million and 150 staff, including 17 former senior White Houses officials and nine former Cabinet members.

The group also has more than 20 policy centers and has tried to extend its reach beyond Washington with efforts to influence local legislatures and school boards. An “American leadership initiative,” led by the former head of the Office of Personnel Management, Michael Rigas, launched several weeks ago to identify future staff loyal to Trump and his “America First” approach who could be hired as part of a larger effort to replace large swaths of the civil service, as Axios recently reported.

The group is one of several Trump-allied organizations that have continued to push his polices in his absence, including America First Legal, dedicated to fighting Biden’s agenda through the court system, the Center for Renewing America and the Conservative Partnership Institute.

The summit is intended to highlight AFPI’s “America First Agenda,” centered around 10 key policy areas including the economy, health care and election security. It includes many of Trump’s signature issues, like continuing to build a wall along the southern border and a plan to dismantle the administrative state.

In a speech Monday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose “Contract with America” has been credited with helping Republicans sweep the 1994 midterm elections, praised the effort as key to future GOP victory.

“The American people want solutions,” he said.

Trump has spent much of his time since leaving office fixated on the 2020 election and spreading lies about his loss to sow doubt about Biden’s victory. Indeed, even as the Jan. 6 committee was laying bare his desperate and potentially illegal attempts to remain in power and his refusal to call off a violent mob of his supporters as they tried to halt the peaceful transition of power, Trump continued to try to pressure officials to overturn Biden’s win, despite there being no legal means to decertify the past election.
…

your ad here

Ukraine Says Russian Strikes Hit Areas Along Black Sea

Posted on by SeeEU

Ukraine’s military reported Russian missiles strikes struck areas of the Ukrainian Black Sea coast on Tuesday.

The attacks hit multiple locations, including the Odesa area and port infrastructure in the city of Mykolaiv.

The strikes happened days after a Russian missile attack against Odesa raised questions about an agreement to resume Ukrainian exports from the region.

Britain’s defense ministry said Tuesday that Russian forces likely perceive anti-ship missiles as a key threat and one that is preventing them from launching an attempt to seize Odesa using its Black Sea fleet.

“Russia will continue to prioritize efforts to degrade and destroy Ukraine’s anti-ship capability. However, Russia’s targeting processes are highly likely routinely undermined by dated intelligence, poor planning, and a top-down approach to operations,” the ministry said.

The United Nations said Monday that grain exports from Ukraine should begin again within days.

Ukrainian officials said they were working to get grain exports going again following the deal Ukraine and Russia signed on Friday. Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said grain exports would begin on Wednesday, according to the Kyiv Independent.

The grain exports will be made from Odesa and two other Black Sea ports, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny, U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said, “and we want to make sure that all conditions are right for the safe travel of ships.”

“Anything that’s not commensurate with that is, of course, not helpful for the success of this initiative,” Haq said as he reiterated Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ condemnation of Russia for launching the Saturday missile attack on Odesa.

Russia said Monday its missile strikes on military installations on Odesa should not affect the agreement to resume grain exports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the strikes in “no way related to infrastructure that is used for the export of grain.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, “There’s nothing in the [grain export] commitments that Russia signed up to in Istanbul that would prohibit us from continuing our special military operation, destroying military infrastructure and other military targets.”

The United Nations and Turkey helped broker the agreement, which calls for Russia’s fleet in the Black Sea to allow safe passage through areas that Russia has blockaded since it launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey expects Russia and Ukraine to adhere to the agreement.

Erdogan told state broadcaster TRT Haber, “We expect them to own up to the deals they signed and to act according to the responsibilities they undertook,” according to Reuters news agency.

The White House said Monday the attack casts doubt on Russia’s intentions to follow through with the agreement.

“We are going to be watching this closely to see if Russia meets their commitments under this arrangement since this attack casts serious doubt on Russia’s credibility,” a National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement.

Gazprom

Russia’s natural gas giant Gazprom added to the economic and political tensions of the war by announcing Monday it would again cut deliveries to Europe. The company said it would reduce gas flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which links Russia to Germany, to 20% of capacity.

The move raised fears that Russia was trying to pressure Europe over its support for Ukraine.

Russia said the action was taken because of mechanical reasons, while Germany said it saw no technical reason for the reduction.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Monday that Russia was using the gas restrictions to inflict “terror” on Europe, and he called for the European Union’s next sanctions package against Moscow to be “significantly stronger.”

“All this is done by Russia on purpose to make it as difficult as possible for Europeans to prepare for winter,” he said.

Deportations

U.S. intelligence has concluded that Russia “almost certainly is using so-called filtration operations to conduct the detention and forced deportation of Ukrainian civilians to Russia.”

Russia uses such operations to temporarily detain and screen Ukrainians to identify anyone perceived as a threat to Moscow, according to a memo by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence released on the agency’s website Friday.

The ODNI said Ukrainians often face one of three fates after undergoing filtration.

Those who are deemed “non-threatening” to Russia may be permitted to remain in Ukraine with certain restrictions. Those deemed “less threatening, but still potentially resistant to Russian occupation” face forcible deportation to Russia.

And Ukrainians found to be most threatening to Russia, including anyone with ties to the military, “probably are detained in prisons in eastern Ukraine and Russia, though little is known about their fates,” according to the memo.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

your ad here

US Sends Sherman, Kennedy to Visit the Solomon Islands

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States is sending a high-profile diplomatic delegation to visit the Solomon Islands next week led by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and including Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy. 

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday the trip is to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal and for the diplomats to meet with Solomon Islands officials to “highlight the enduring relationship” between the two nations. 

The visit will hold particular personal interest for Sherman and Kennedy, whose fathers both fought there during World War II. 

And it comes after the United States and several Pacific nations expressed deep concern about a security pact the Solomon Islands signed with China in April, which many fear could result in a military buildup in the region. 

The trip will also highlight the reopening of the U.S. embassy in the capital, Honiara, which is part of an express U.S. strategy to counter China’s growing influence. 

The United States previously operated an embassy in the Solomon Islands for five years before closing it in 1993. 

Kennedy has just begun her role in Australia after formally presenting her credentials on Monday. When she arrived in Australia last week, she told reporters the Pacific region was critical and “I think the U.S. needs to do more.” 

“We’re putting our embassies back in and the Peace Corps is coming, and USAID is coming back and we’re coming back,” she said. 

Kennedy said the Pacific held great personal significance because her father, the late President John F. Kennedy, had served there during World War II and “was rescued by two Solomon Islanders and an Australian coast watcher.” 

Sherman’s father Mal Sherman was a Marine who was wounded during the Battle of Guadalcanal. 

As well as Sherman and Kennedy, the delegation will include Kin Moy, a state department principal deputy assistant secretary, and Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Stephen Sklenka, the deputy commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. 

During the Aug. 6-8 trip, Sherman is scheduled to give speeches at Skyline Ridge, the site of the U.S. Guadalcanal Memorial, and at Bloody Ridge. 
…

your ad here

Russia Resumes Griner Trial

Posted on by SeeUS

The trial of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner resumed Tuesday in a Russian courtroom. 

Griner is facing drug possession charges in connection to her February arrest at a Moscow airport. She acknowledged at an earlier trial session that she was carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil, but did not have criminal intent. 

U.S. officials have said Griner was wrongfully detained. 

Griner’s lawyers provided documentation at the trial that a U.S. medical center had permitter her to use cannabis to treat chronic pain. 

Russia’s foreign ministry rejected that line of defense, saying last week that U.S. laws do not apply in Russia, and that Russian laws must be respected. 

Griner faces a sentence of up to 10 years if convicted. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

your ad here

Russian Foreign Minister Arrives in Uganda, Seeking Allies

Posted on by SeeAF

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived Monday in Uganda, the third stop on an African tour to strengthen ties with the continent and seek support against Western pressure over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Lavrov was greeted in Entebbe by his Ugandan counterpart, Jeje Odongo, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. 

The top Russian diplomat is scheduled to hold talks on Tuesday with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, according to the Russian Tass news agency. 

Uganda is one of several countries in East Africa that is suffering from food shortages following a severe drought. Rising inflation fueled by the war in Ukraine has further stressed food supplies in the region. 

Western nations blame Russia’s war and its Black Sea blockade of Ukrainian grain for the soaring global food prices that are fueling risks of famine in the Horn of Africa. 

Russia blames Western sanctions for the precarious food situation. 

Like most of Africa, Uganda has remained neutral in the conflict. 

Lavrov’s trip to Africa, which also includes stops in Egypt, the Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, appears to be aimed in part at seeking allies, as Moscow is under intense Western pressure for its invasion of Ukraine. 

In a column published in newspapers in the four countries Lavrov is visiting, the Russian foreign minister wrote, “We appreciate the considered African position as to the situation in and around Ukraine” and described the pressure being put on African nations to join Western sanctions as “unprecedented.” 

Earlier Monday, Lavrov was in the Republic of Congo, the first visit by Russia’s top diplomat to that country and Lavrov’s second stop in Africa, after Egypt. 

The Russian foreign minister met Monday with the Republic of Congo’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso at his residence in Oyo, a town 400 kilometers north of the capital, Brazzaville. 

In Egypt, Lavrov met with the Arab League leadership, seeking the support of the group’s 22 member states and accusing the West of ignoring his country’s security concerns. 

Ahead of his trip, Lavrov praised African nations for their independence and lashed out at Western nations that profited from Africa’s past colonial rule. 

Lavrov’s visit to the Republic of Congo, a former French colony, came as French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in the region for visits to Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau. 

France has pulled back support from some former colonies, such as Mali, as they have become less democratic. Mali is under military rule and is accused by Paris of hiring Russian mercenaries. Both Moscow and Bamako deny deploying Russian mercenaries in Mali. 

After visiting Uganda, Lavrov will next travel to Ethiopia, where the African Union has its headquarters. 

During his Africa trip, Lavrov is also promoting the second Russia-Africa summit, which would be held in mid-2023, he announced Sunday in Egypt. 

The U.S. plans to hold a summit with African leaders in December. 

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse.
…

your ad here

Ex-Pence Aide Testifies Before Grand Jury Investigating Capitol Attack, Reports Say

Posted on by SeeUS

Marc Short, who was a top staffer to Republican former Vice President Mike Pence, has testified before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, ABC News reported on Monday. 

Short, who served as Pence’s chief of staff, was seen Friday afternoon leaving the federal courthouse in Washington, alongside his attorney, Emmet Flood. ABC and Reuters cameras both filmed Short’s exit. 

Neither Flood nor Short could be immediately reached for comment. 

Short is the most high-profile official known to have appeared before the grand jury, which is also investigating the effort by former President Donald Trump’s allies to submit slates of fake electors to overturn the 2020 election. The grand jury convenes on Fridays, according to a copy of a subpoena seen by Reuters that was sent to an elector in Georgia in May of this year. 

In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco confirmed the Justice Department had received referrals about slates of alternative fake electors that were sent to the National Archives, and said prosecutors were reviewing them. 

Copies of the phony electoral slates submitted to the National Archives by pro-Trump Republicans in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were made public in March by the nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight, which obtained them through a public records request. 

The Office of the Federal Register, part of the National Archives, coordinates some functions of the Electoral College between the states and Congress, including receiving the certificates from the states that identify their electors and receiving the certificates of votes by the electors. 

The fake elector plot has featured prominently in multiple hearings of the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives committee probing the attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

Rusty Bowers, the Arizona state House Republican speaker, testified in June that Trump and his close aides, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and adviser John Eastman, urged Bowers to reject the election results. 

In recent months, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington has started issuing grand jury subpoenas to electors, including some who signed the bogus certificates. 

According to one subpoena seen by Reuters that is focused on the phony slate of electors in Georgia, investigators are seeking copies of documents from October 2020 related to “any effort, plan or attempt to serve as an elector in favor of Donald J. Trump and/or Mike R. Pence.” 

They are also seeking copies of communications between would-be electors and any federal government employees, any employees or agents of Trump, as well as communications with a long list of people including Giuliani and Eastman. 

Arizona’s Republican party chair, Kelli Ward, and her husband, Michael Ward, who both signed their names on one of the slates of alternate electors for Trump, have also received subpoenas. 

Alexander Kolodin, an attorney for the Wards, told Reuters earlier this month that the DOJ’s investigation is “based on allegations that our clients engaged in core First Amendment-protected activity, namely petitioning Congress for redress of grievances.”
…

your ad here

US: ‘All Options on Table’ to Punish Myanmar Junta Over Executions

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States on Monday condemned Myanmar’s execution of political activists and elected officials and called on the military government to immediately end the violence.

U.S. officials said that “all options are on the table,” including economic measures to cut off the military junta’s revenues that it uses to commit the violence.

Myanmar state media said the Southeast Asian country executed four democracy activists it had accused of helping carry out “terror acts” against the government that seized power last year in a coup. The four had been sentenced to death in closed-door trials in January and April.

Those executed were democracy figure Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy; former lawmaker and hip-hop artist Phyo Zeya Thaw, an ally of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi; and two others, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw.

“The United States condemns in the strongest terms the Burmese military regime’s heinous execution of pro-democracy activists and elected leaders,” the White House National Security Council said in a statement. Myanmar is also known as Burma.

The U.S. called on Myanmar’s rulers to “release those they have unjustly detained and allow for a peaceful return to democracy in accordance with the wishes of the people of Burma.”

At the State Department, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “these reprehensible acts of violence further exemplify the regime’s complete disregard for human rights and the rule of law.”

Myanmar remains mired in civil unrest since a military coup toppled the country’s civilian-led government in February 2021.

The junta has killed more than 2,100, displaced more than 700,000, and detained members of civil society and journalists since the coup, the State Department said.

“There can be no business as usual with this regime,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during Monday’s briefing.

“We urge all countries to ban the sale of military equipment to Burma, to refrain from lending the regime any degree of international credibility, and we call on ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] to maintain its important precedents, only allowing Burmese nonpolitical representation at regional events.”

In the U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez urged President Joe Biden’s administration to step up actions against the junta after the executions over the weekend, which were the first such executions in Burma since 1988.

“The Biden administration must exercise the authorities that Congress has already granted it to impose additional targeted sanctions on the Naypyidaw regime—including on Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise,” Menendez said.

China is among the major suppliers to the Myanmar military and has maintained close ties with the junta. In Beijing, Chinese officials refrained from condemning the Burmese military publicly.

“China always adheres to the principle of noninterference in other countries’ internal affairs,” said Zhao Lijian, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, during a Monday briefing.

“All parties and factions in Myanmar should properly handle their differences and conflicts within the framework of the constitution and laws,” Zhao said.

The mother of Phyo Zeya Thaw told VOA Burmese that she had been able to meet her son virtually on Friday.

She said that prison authorities had refused to provide details about her son’s execution, including the exact day and time of her son’s death, which are critical in planning for traditional funeral rituals. Prison officials also told her there was no precedent in Insein Prison of returning bodies to families.

The executions appeared to be a direct rebuke of ASEAN members’ appeals.

In a June letter to the junta, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who chairs this year’s ASEAN, had expressed deep concerns and asked junta chief Min Aung Hlaing not to carry out the executions.

Others, including Malaysian lawmaker Charles Santiago, chair of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, also weighed in.

“Not even the previous military regime, which ruled between 1988 and 2011, dared to carry out the death penalty against political prisoners,” Santiago said.

The United Nations was among numerous critics of the executions.

“I am dismayed that despite appeals from across the world, the military conducted these executions with no regard for human rights,” U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said. “This cruel and regressive step is an extension of the military’s ongoing repressive campaign against its own people.”

She added: “These executions—the first in Myanmar in decades—are cruel violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of a person and fair trial guarantees. For the military to widen its killing will only deepen its entanglement in the crisis it has itself created.”

Myanmar’s National Unity Government, a shadow administration outlawed by the ruling military junta, said it was “extremely saddened. … The global community must punish their cruelty.”

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said, “This goes against our repeated calls for all detainees to be freed. It also will sharpen the feelings of the [Myanmar] people and worsen the conflict as well as deepening Myanmar’s isolation from the international community. It is a matter of deep concern.”

Richard Horsey, a senior adviser on Myanmar at the International Crisis Group, said, “Any possibility of dialogue to end the crisis created by the coup has now been removed. This is the regime demonstrating that it will do what it wants and listen to no one. It sees this as a demonstration of strength, but it may be a serious miscalculation.”

Amnesty International Regional Director Erwin van der Borght said the “executions amount to arbitrary deprivation of lives and are another example of Myanmar’s atrocious human rights record. … The international community must act immediately, as more than 100 people are believed to be on death row after being convicted in similar proceedings.”

Margaret Besheer, VOA Burma and Reuters contributed to this report.
…

your ad here

Tunisians Back New Constitution in Early Results, but Turnout Just 25%

Posted on by SeeAF

A new Tunisian constitution greatly expanding presidential powers easily passed a referendum on Monday, according to an exit poll, but with very low turnout. 

President Kais Saied ousted the parliament last year and moved to rule by decree, saying the country needed saving from years of paralysis. He rewrote the constitution last month. 

Opposition parties boycotted the referendum, saying it dismantles the democracy Tunisia introduced after its 2011 revolution and could start a slide back toward autocracy. 

Tunisia, meanwhile, faces a looming economic crisis and is seeking an International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue package, issues that have preoccupied ordinary people far more over the past year than the political crisis. 

The exit poll by Sigma Conseil said 92.3% of the eligible voters who took part in the referendum supported Saied’s new constitution. There was no minimum level of participation. The electoral commission put preliminary turnout figures at 27.5%. 

The new constitution gives the president power over both the government and judiciary while removing checks on his authority and weakening the parliament. 

His opponents say his moves last year constituted a coup and have rejected his unilateral moves to rewrite the constitution and put it to a referendum as illegal. 

However, his initial moves against the parliament appeared hugely popular with Tunisians, as thousands flooded the streets to support him, but with little progress in addressing dire economic problems, that support may have waned. 

Official turnout figures for the referendum will be closely watched and the electoral commission is expected to release its own preliminary number later. 

The lowest turnout of any national election since the 2011 revolution, which triggered the Arab Spring, was 41% in 2019 for the parliament that Saied has dissolved. 

The president’s opponents have also questioned the integrity of a vote conducted by an electoral commission whose board Saied replaced this year, and with fewer independent observers than for previous Tunisian elections. 

Casting his own vote on Monday, Saied hailed the referendum as the foundation of a new republic. 

Western democracies that looked to Tunisia as the only success story of the Arab Spring have yet to comment on the proposed new constitution, although they have urged Tunis over the past year to return to the democratic path. 

“I’m frustrated by all of them. I’d rather enjoy this hot day than go and vote,” said Samia, a woman sitting with her husband and teenage son on the beach at La Marsa near Tunis. 

Others voiced support for Saied. 

Casting his vote on Rue Marseilles in downtown Tunis, Illyes Moujahed said former law professor Saied was the only hope. 

“I’m here to save Tunisia from collapse. To save it from years of corruption and failure,” said Moujahed, first in line. 

But the atmosphere was muted in the run-up to the referendum, with only small crowds attending rallies for and against the constitution. 

Economic decline since 2011 has left many Tunisians angry at the parties that have governed since the revolution and disillusioned with the political system they ran. 

To address economic privations, the government hopes to secure a $4 billion loan from the IMF, but faces stiff union opposition to the required reforms, including cuts to fuel and food subsidies. 

 
…

your ad here

David Trimble, Architect of N Ireland Peace Deal, Dies at 77

Posted on by SeeEU

David Trimble, a former Northern Ireland first minister who won the Nobel Peace Prize for playing a key role in helping end Northern Ireland’s decades of violence, has died, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) said Monday. He was 77.

The party said in a statement on behalf of the Trimble family that the unionist politician died earlier Monday “following a short illness.”

Trimble, who led the UUP from 1995 to 2005, was a key architect of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended three decades of violent conflict in Northern Ireland known as “the Troubles.”

Keir Starmer, leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, called Trimble “a towering figure of Northern Ireland and British politics” in a tweet Monday. Current UUP leader Doug Beattie praised Trimble as “man of courage and vision,” a tribute echoed by leaders from across the political divide.

The UUP was Northern Ireland’s largest Protestant unionist party when, led by Trimble, it agreed to the Good Friday peace accord.

Although a hardliner unionist when he was younger, Trimble became a politician whose efforts in compromise were pivotal in bringing together unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland’s new power-sharing government.

Like most Protestant politicians at the time, Trimble initially opposed efforts to share power with Catholics as something that would jeopardize Northern Ireland’s union with Britain. He at first refused to speak directly with Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army.

He ultimately relented and in 1997 became the first unionist leader to negotiate with Sinn Fein.

Former British Prime Minister John Major said Trimble’s “brave and principled change of policy” was critical to peace in Northern Ireland.

“He thoroughly merits an honorable place amongst peacemakers,” Major said.

The peace talks began formally in 1998 and were overseen by neutral figures such as former U.S. Senator George Mitchell. The outcomes were overwhelmingly ratified by public referendums in both parts of Ireland.

Trimble shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with Catholic moderate leader John Hume, head of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), for their work.

Trimble was elected first minister in Northern Ireland’s first power-sharing government the same year, with the SDLP’s Seamus Mallon as deputy first minister.

But both the UUP and the SDLP soon saw themselves eclipsed by more hardline parties — the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein. Many in Northern Ireland grew tired of Trimble and his colleagues, who appeared to be too moderate and compromising.

Trimble struggled to keep his party together as the power-sharing government was rocked by disagreements over disarming the IRA and other paramilitary groups. Senior colleagues defected to the DUP, Trimble lost his seat in Britain’s parliament in 2005, and soon after he resigned as party leader. The following year he was appointed to the upper chamber of parliament, the House of Lords.

Northern Ireland power-sharing has gone through many crises since then — but the peace settlement has largely endured.

“The Good Friday Agreement is something which everybody in Northern Ireland has been able to agree with,” Trimble said earlier this year. “It doesn’t mean they agree with everything. There are aspects which some people thought were a mistake, but the basic thing is that this was agreed.”

William David Trimble was born in Belfast on October 15, 1944, and was educated at Queen’s University, Belfast.

He had an academic career in law before entering politics in the early 1970s, when he became involved in the hardline Vanguard Party. He surprised many when he won the leadership of the UUP in 1995.

Trimble was not always a popular leader, and his negotiations toward the peace accord attracted criticism from elements of his party.

“David faced huge challenges when he led the Ulster Unionist Party in the Good Friday Agreement negotiations and persuaded his party to sign on for it,” Adams said Monday in a statement. “It is to his credit that he supported that Agreement. I thank him for that.

“While we held fundamentally different political opinions on the way forward nonetheless I believe he was committed to making the peace process work,” Adams continued. “David’s contribution to the Good Friday Agreement and to the quarter century of relative peace that followed cannot be underestimated.”

Trimble is survived by his wife, Daphne, and children Richard, Victoria, Nicholas and Sarah.
…

your ad here

Study: Millennials Didn’t Stray Far From Where They Grew Up

Posted on by SeeUS

Growing up in mid-sized Virginia Beach, Virginia, Andrew Waldholtz wanted to live in a big city, so he moved to the District of Columbia for college. After four years in the comparatively expensive city, he realized he wanted a place to live that was more affordable.

Waldholtz, 35, eventually found a happy compromise in St. Louis, Missouri, whose Midwestern affordability and opportunities to build his career in corporate compliance had an added bonus: His sister and brother-in-law lived there.

Now living 940 miles (1,513 kilometers) away from Virginia Beach, Waldholtz is in a distinct minority among others who reached adulthood in the 21st century in that he resides a half-continent away from where he grew up, according to a new study by U.S. Census Bureau and Harvard University researchers released Monday.

The study found that by age 26, more than two-thirds of young adults in the U.S. lived in the same area where they grew up, 80% had moved less than 100 miles (161 kilometers) away and 90% resided less than 500 miles (804 kilometers) away. Migration distances were shorter for Black and Hispanic individuals, compared with white and Asian young adults, and the children of higher-income parents traveled farther away from their hometowns than those of less wealthy parents, according to the study.

“For many individuals, the ‘radius of economic opportunity’ is quite narrow,” the report said.

Young adulthood is a period in life when migration is highest in the U.S. The study looked at the likelihood of people born primarily between 1984 and 1992 moving away from the commuting zone they grew up in. Commuting zones are made up of one or more counties that reflect a local labor market, and there are more than 700 commuting zones in the U.S. The birth range in the study overlaps the generation typically referred to as millennials.

It turns out that the most common destinations for young adults were concentrated near where they grew up, said the study, which used decennial census, survey and tax data.

For instance, three-quarters of people who grew up in the Chicago area stayed there. Rockford was the top destination for people who moved away and stayed in Illinois but only represented less than 1% of the young adults from Chicago. Los Angeles was the top destination for those who moved out of state, but that accounted for only 1.1% of young adults from Chicago, according to an interactive data tool that accompanies the study.

Popular destinations

Where young adults moved to varied by race.

Atlanta was the most popular destination for young Black adults moving away from their hometowns, followed by Houston and Washington. Young Black adults who grew up in high-income households were multiple times more likely to move to these cities in a “New Great Migration” than those from low-income families, according to the study.

For white adults leaving their hometowns, New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Denver were the most population destinations. Los Angeles and New York were the top two destinations for Asians and Hispanic young adults. San Antonio and Phoenix also were popular with Hispanics, while San Francisco also appealed to Asian young adults.

Despite the region’s economic woes and the prospect of job opportunities elsewhere, young adults in Appalachia were less likely to move far from their hometowns compared with those of similar incomes living elsewhere, the report said.

The reluctance of millennials to move far away is backed by recent studies showing declines in mobility in the U.S. for the overall population. In the middle of the last century, about a fifth of U.S. residents, not just young adults, moved each year. That figure has dropped steadily since the 1950s, going from about 20% to 8.4% last year, due to an aging population, dual-income households that make it more difficult to pick up and move and, more recently, the pandemic, according to a recent report from Brookings.

Multigenerational living

A Pew Research Center survey released last week showed that a quarter of U.S. adults ages 25 to 34 resided in a multigenerational family household in 2021, up from 9% in 1971. The age groups in the Pew study and the study by the Census Bureau and Harvard University researchers overlap to some degree.

When there were wage gains in a local labor market, most of the benefits went to residents who grew up within 100 miles (161 kilometers) rather than people who had migrated to the area. Wage increases’ effect on migration to an area was rather small, and migrants likely would have moved there regardless of wage hikes. Young Black adults were less likely to move to a place because of wage hikes compared with white and Hispanic millennials, said the study released Monday.

Waldholtz, who is white, graduated into the recession in 2008 and went back to Virginia Beach for work.

“Probably the worst time ever to be looking for a job,” he said. He eventually went to law school in Ohio and prioritized work opportunities when deciding where to live after graduation three years later.

“All of us need a job to pay our bills,” Waldholtz said. “That factor has to be the most important factor.”
…

your ad here

Tunisians Vote on Controversial New Constitution

Posted on by SeeAF

Tunisia voted Monday on a new constitution that supporters hope will end years of economic and political turmoil and that critics fear will end the Arab Spring’s only democracy. Though the opposition called for a boycott of the referendum, voters are expected to approve the new constitution pushed by Tunisian President Kais Saied. For VOA, Lisa Bryant reports from the Tunis suburb of Ariana.
…

your ad here

Uzbekistan to Host US-Taliban Talks on Economic Challenges Facing Afghans

Posted on by SeeUS

Uzbekistan this week is hosting delegates from more than 20 countries and international organizations for a conference on Afghanistan, with envoys from the war-torn country’s ruling Taliban and the United States among the participants.  

 

The two-day international event in the capital, Tashkent, which is scheduled to run until Tuesday, comes as the Taliban prepares to mark the first year of their return to power in Afghanistan. No country, however, has yet to recognize the hardline group’s male-only government in Kabul over human rights and terrorism-related concerns.  

 

“The main objective of this conference is to combine all international efforts aimed at deterring the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan by providing effective and emergency assistance to the people of Afghanistan and taking political and economic measures at the international level,” Javlon Vakhabov, the Uzbek ambassador to the U.S., told VOA.  

 

“Another objective is about establishing an effective dialogue of the international community and developing consolidated positions in the fight against international terrorism,” Vakhabov said.  

 

The diplomat stressed that Uzbekistan currently has no intention to recognize the Taliban and the “primary focus” of the Tashkent conference “is about the recovery of Afghan economy.”  

Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is leading the Taliban delegation at the conference. 

 

The U.S. team is being led by Thomas West, special envoy for Afghanistan, who will be accompanied by Rina Amiri, the special envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights, according to a State Department statement. 

 

It said the delegation would join the international community at the conference to underscore Washington’s “unwavering” support for the Afghan people and to call on the Taliban to fulfill their commitments. 

 

“The international community is committed to a stable, peaceful, and inclusive Afghanistan that respects the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Afghans — including women and ethnic and religious communities — and that prevents terrorist threat from Afghan soil,” the U.S. statement said.  

 

US-Taliban talks 

 

The statement added that the conference would be followed by direct talks between Taliban and U.S. delegates scheduled for Wednesday “to address the economic challenges faced by the Afghan people.”  

 

Brian Nelson, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, would join the West for the meeting.   

 

The negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban are mainly focused on how to allow Afghanistan’s central bank to use some $7 billion in frozen funds held in the United States to help bring the troubled economy back on track and help the country deal with a hunger crisis stemming from years of war and persistent drought. 

U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order in February aimed at unfreezing half that amount for humanitarian aid to benefit the Afghan people. The rest would be held for ongoing terrorism-related lawsuits in U.S. courts against the Taliban.  

 

Washington says it is “working to help find an appropriate mechanism that can serve as a steward of the $3.5 billion that President Biden set aside.” But the Taliban demand the entire sum be released, insisting the money belongs to Afghanistan.  

 

“The Taliban’s ongoing and expanding restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls was a central focus of U.S. officials’ engagement with the Taliban,” the State Department said of last month’s two-day meeting in Qatar. 

 

The Islamist group retook control of Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, when the Western-backed government collapsed and all U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from the country after nearly 20 years of war with the Taliban. 

 

The Islamist rulers have since significantly rolled back women’s rights to work and education, and barred most teenage girls from resuming secondary school. They have defended their policies as in line with Afghan culture and Shariah or Islamic law. Women working in the public sector have been told to stay at home, with the exception of those who work for the ministries of education, health and a few others. 

The United States defends its engagement with the Taliban, citing deteriorating economic and humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan. Washington says “a policy of pure isolation” cannot help it achieve its objectives.  

 

Donal Lu, a senior U.S. diplomat for regional affairs, told VOA earlier this month, however, that no foreign government, including Russia, China and Iran, is contemplating legitimacy for Taliban rule in Afghanistan.  

 

The U.N. lists Afghanistan among the world’s largest humanitarian emergencies, where it estimates 18.9 million people — nearly half of the population — could be acutely food insecure between June and November 2022. 

 

The international community is also pressing the Taliban to govern the conflict-torn South Asian nation through an inclusive political system where all Afghan groups have their representation.  

 

Taliban leaders have ignored the criticism, maintaining that their government is inclusive and brought peace to the entirety of Afghanistan in a short period of time.  

 

The United Nations, in an annual report issued this month on the status of human rights in the country, lamented the erosion of women’s rights, which has been one of the most notable aspects of the Taliban takeover.  

 

“Since 15 August, women and girls have progressively had their rights to fully participate in education, the workplace and other aspects of public and daily life restricted and in many cases completely taken away,” the report said.

VOA Afghan Service contributed to this report.
…

your ad here

Pope Apologizes for ‘Evil’ Committed at Canada’s Indigenous Schools

Posted on by SeeEU

Pope Francis apologized Monday for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s former policy of separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to attend Christian schools, where many were abused.

“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Pope Francis said at a former Indigenous residential school in the western Canadian town of Maskwacis, Alberta.

More than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend government-funded Christian residential schools from the late 1880s to the 1970s in an effort to distance them from their native languages and cultures.

Many of the children were physically and sexually abused in a system that Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called “cultural genocide.”

Thousands of Indigenous peoples gathered Monday to hear the pope speak near the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School, many wearing traditional dress. Others wore orange shirts, a symbol of residential school survivors.

The pope said the residential schools were a “disastrous error” that was “incompatible” with the gospel and said the schools had “devastating” effects on generations of Indigenous peoples.

“I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time,” he said.

He apologized for the Catholic Church’s support of a “colonizing mentality” and called for a “serious investigation” of the traumas inflicted on Indigenous children in Catholic educational institutions.

The pope has already apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in the Canadian residential schools during a visit by Indigenous delegates to the Vatican earlier this year. However, this is the first time the pope has apologized on Canadian soil.

The abuses at the Canadian residential schools drew international attention in the past year following the discoveries of hundreds of potential burial sites at former schools. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called on the pope to apologize for the abuses on Canadian soil.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has apologized for Canada’s role in the residential school system, saying it was an “incredibly harmful government policy.”

On his arrival in Canada on Sunday, the pope was met by representatives of Canada’s three main Indigenous groups — First Nations, Metis and Inuit – along with Trudeau.

On his flight from Rome to Edmonton on Sunday, Francis told reporters “This is a trip of penance. Let’s say that is its spirit.”

The pope’s visit to Canada will also take him to Quebec City and Iqaluit, the capital of the territory of Nunavut.

The 85-year-old pope canceled a trip earlier this month to Africa because of a knee problem.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

your ad here

Why Are Heat Waves Becoming So Common in Europe?

Posted on by SeeEU

Sweltering heat broke records across Europe last week, the latest in a series of heat waves that have baked the continent since June. Temperatures crept near or above 40 degrees Celsius in much of western Europe, and the heat is now moving east, where it is expected to linger into August.

Heat waves are becoming increasingly intense, frequent and long lasting around the world because of climate change. But the pattern of heat waves unfolding in Europe is a global outlier.

“We have had an outstanding increase in the number [and] intensity of heat waves,” climate scientist Robert Vautard of the Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory in France told VOA. “The last one is just the continuation of the series.”

The European heat wave of 2003 was blamed for more than 70,000 deaths. Subsequent heat waves in 2006, 2010, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020 killed thousands more.

Europe warming disproportionally fast

Now 1.94 to 1.99 degrees Celsius hotter on average than the preindustrial average, Europe has warmed by nearly twice the global average of 1.1 degrees. Recent European heat waves reached temperatures three to five degrees higher than was recorded prior to the current period of climate change, Vautard said.

But while climate models capture a bit of this extra heat, their predictions fall short of the real warming in Europe.

“We do not understand why we have such an increase [in temperature] that the models do not predict,” said Vautard. “Models predict easily an increase of 1.5 to 2 degrees in the extreme heat waves since about 100 years, but they do not predict 4 degrees. So, it’s really outstanding.”

Dim Coumou, a climate scientist at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, told VOA that Europe is warming three to four times faster than the rest of the midlatitudes.

“But it’s not well understood why heat waves in Europe [have] been increasing faster than in other regions,” he said.

Scientists continue to look for answers. Coumou is researching how changes in the jet stream encourage heat waves in Europe. Other potential factors include parched soils and sluggish ocean circulation.

Disturbed jet stream

Europe’s climate is moderated by the jet stream, a current of fast-moving air that loops around the northern hemisphere from west to east. Sometimes the jet stream splits in two — what scientists call a double jet. Double jets are normal, but climate change seems to be making them happen more often and last longer.

Earlier this month, Coumou and his colleagues published results in Nature Communications, linking frequent and persistent double jets to European heat waves.

“We showed that especially for Western Europe, the increased frequency in this particular jet state can explain … the increase in heat waves here,” he said.

Coumou’s results show that for Western Europe, almost all the “extra” heat not predicted by climate models can be explained by double jets. For Europe as a whole, double jets explain about 30% of the excess heat.

Under a double jet, airflow over most of Europe is more sluggish than usual, which can set the stage for heat waves. The current heat wave, for instance, involved a pocket of low-pressure air that stalled off the coast of Portugal because it was cut off from the swift winds of the jet stream.

Dry soils, hot days

This year’s heat waves saw “strong waves, strong patterns in the jet,” said Coumou. But while it’s still too early to say if a double jet was involved, Coumou said the ongoing droughts in Europe were “very likely” a factor in the July heat wave.

Wet soils act as a buffer against extreme heat, climate scientist Sonia Seneviratne of ETH Zurich explained in a voice memo to VOA.

“When the soil gets drier in regions where normally those soils are humid, you get less evapotranspiration, so less water that is evaporated through plants or directly from the soils,” Seneviratne said. “Evapotranspiration normally takes up a lot of energy, which means that if it doesn’t take place, because the soils are too dry, this energy is used instead to warm the air.”

Seneviratne agreed with Coumou that aridity likely contributed to this year’s heat waves.

“There is a clear indication that risers have contributed to the intensity of the heat waves that are currently being seen in Europe,” she said.

Sluggish ocean currents

A slowdown in a major ocean current — the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) — could also be contributing to European heat waves.

The AMOC shuttles warm and salty water north, and brings deep, cold water southward. Climate models have long predicted that the AMOC will slow as the climate warms, and some researchers think this is already happening.

“It’s still not 100% sure … but there’s actually a lot of evidence pointing at an AMOC slowdown over the last decades,” climate physicist Levke Caesar of Maynooth University in Ireland said in a voicemail to VOA.

An AMOC slowdown would cool the North Atlantic, promoting changes to the jet stream that would channel more warm air from the south into central Europe. That could cause heat waves in Europe, said Caesar.

Still, Caesar cautioned that despite the long-term AMOC slowdown, there are still years when it runs at full speed. She also said there are some indications that the AMOC wasn’t involved in the most recent European heat waves.

“The North Atlantic is not particularly cold at the moment, which might indicate [that] in this case, the AMOC did not play a big role,” she said.

Cause and effect

All of the potential drivers of European heat waves can interact, making it hard to determine a single cause for any given heat wave — or for the unusually strong pattern of extreme heat waves in Europe as a whole.

“It is difficult to assign cause-effect relationships because it’s all dynamically happening together,” Coumou said.

More research is needed to understand exactly why Europe is heating up fast, most of the researchers who spoke to VOA agreed.

What is clear is that summer in Europe will only get hotter. Vautard said European policymakers should prepare for future heat waves as intense as 50 degrees now and not wait for climate models to catch up with reality.

“Forty degrees [Celsius] reached in London — I think if one would have told me that 20 years back, I wouldn’t have believed it. But now, it’s here,” Vautard said.
…

your ad here

Nigeria Families Call for Release of Kidnapped Relatives After Fresh Threats From Kidnappers

Posted on by SeeAF

A demonstration was held at the Ministry of Transportation in Abuja on Monday morning by the relatives of victims still in captivity.

The protest was triggered by footage released Sunday by the kidnappers, who were shown mercilessly flogging the captives. The kidnappers also threatened to kill some of the victims and sell the rest if the government did not respond to their demands.

They also threatened to abduct Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Kaduna state Governor Nasir El-Rufai.

It is not clear what the terrorists’ demands are, but the video triggered criticism of the government’s inability to rescue the victims.

On Sunday, the president’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu, called the terrorists’ threats “propaganda” and said security and defense forces “have their plans and ways of doing things.”

Shehu was not immediately available for further comment, but security analyst Senator Iroegbu said the terrorists cannot possibly kidnap the president. But he warned that the threats must be taken seriously.

“They’re trying to show that they’re more emboldened and there’s nothing the commander in chief can do. They could smell weakness, that this government is weak. The fear is that citizens are more vulnerable.”

Nine people were killed, and scores kidnapped on the Abuja-Kaduna train the night of March 28 after armed men bombed the tracks and derailed the moving train.

Experts blamed the attack on an unprecedented alliance between jihadists and criminal gangs.

In the recent video, one of the terrorists claimed to have been freed from the Kuje prison in Abuja after a jail break on July 5.

The claim corroborates claims that bandits and terror groups were working hand in hand, says Iroegbu.

“Terrorists can use banditry as a means to obtain money to advance their cause. Bandits can also use terrorism to obtain whatever they’re looking for, so there’s a mix already. The linkage between terrorism and banditry that is going on, the terrorists have seen a loophole there and married the two together.

Protesting relatives say they will not relent until authorities free their loved ones from their captors.

Temitope Kabir’s husband is among those held.

“We’re tired of waiting. We don’t want a situation where these people will carry out their threats. We need the government to do something, and they should do it now. We’re ready to be here for as many days as we can under rain, under sun.

Experts and families say Nigerian authorities have shown weak political will to secure the release of the victims. But authorities say they’re trying to tactically handle the issue without losing innocent civilians to a gun battle with the terrorists.

This month, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) claimed responsibility for a jail break that freed hundreds of inmates from Kuje prison, including high-profile terrorists.

Authorities have been searching for missing inmates. Also this month, Buhari’s advance convoy was ambushed in his hometown in Daura in northwest Katsina state. The president was not in the convoy.
…

your ad here

White House Doctor: Biden’s COVID Symptoms Almost Resolved

Posted on by SeeUS

President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 symptoms have “almost completely resolved,” his physician said Monday.

The president has been isolated in the White House since he tested positive last Thursday.

Biden reported “some residual nasal congestion and minimal hoarseness,” Dr. Kevin O’Conner said in memo. 

He said Biden, who is vaccinated and double boosted, is not experiencing any shortness of breath and is “responding to therapy as expected.”

The president has been taking the anti-viral drug Paxlovid as a treatment. He has also been given a small dose of aspirin as a blood thinner. 

Health officials believe the BA.5 variant of omicron is what caused Biden’s symptoms. Dr. Ashish Jha, White House coronavirus response coordinator, said the BA.5 omicron variant makes up 75% to 80% of the current COVID-19 cases in the United States. 

Biden canceled his upcoming trips for the week, including a trip to Florida. However, he will continue to work and attend events virtually until he is cleared from isolation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

First lady Jill Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday and is staying in their Delaware home until further notice. Vice President Kamala Harris also tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday and was cleared to travel to Indiana for an event on abortion.
…

your ad here

Media Watchdogs Condemn Brief Detention of BBC Staff in Somaliland

Posted on by SeeAF

The Somali Journalists Syndicate has condemned police in the breakaway region of Somaliland for briefly detaining five journalists with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Saturday. BBC broadcasts in Somaliland remained off the air Monday following a ban imposed last week by authorities.

The Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Somali Media Association (SOMA) on Monday called for authorities in the breakaway republic of Somaliland to halt the threats and harassment against BBC staff and journalists.

They also called on Somaliland to unconditionally allow the BBC to resume operations in the region.

Somaliland police in the capital, Hargeisa, raided the BBC Media Action office on Saturday and detained five staff members, according to Somali media defenders.

The media associations identified the arrested journalists as Mohamed Gaas, Abdullahi Jama and Samatar Gahnuug, film editor Ahmed Fa’iz and their transport manager Yahye Ali. 

National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) secretary-general Omar Faruk Osman said the shutdown of the BBC office was “an angry response that helps no one.” 

“[The] National Union of Somali Journalists see the banning of [the] BBC from operating in Somaliland intimidation and action that doesn’t serve independent journalism,” he said. “We see it as an action that is against freedom of expression that doesn’t also translate the democratic gains that Somaliland has achieved.”

Osman called on authorities to allow the BBC to operate and find ways to resolve issues with the network other than through harassment and intimidation.

Yasmin Omar Mohamoud, chairperson of the Human Rights Center in Somaliland, told VOA by phone that the police detained the BBC staffers “unlawfully.”

“The police arrested five BBC media action staff members, although fortunately, they have [been] released,” she said. “But the arrests [have] been conducted unlawfully and without any court warrant. The problem is arresting people without any wrongdoing, and we are sorry for what happened.”

Last week, Somaliland announced a ban on the BBC, saying the broadcaster had reduced its identity and dignity of the 

Somaliland is a self-declared independent republic considered internationally to be part of Somalia.
…

your ad here

Russian Visit to Africa Seen as Chance to Counteract Western Narrative

Posted on by SeeAF

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is visiting Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Republic of Congo this week, trying to counteract Western blame of Russia for a growing global food crisis. Experts say Russia will push its own narrative as to why it’s attacking Ukraine and use the visit to show it has friends.

Lavrov was in the Republic of Congo Monday, the second day of his tour, to meet with the leadership of the central African nation.

Steven Gruzd is the head of the Russia-Africa Program at the South African Institute of International Affairs, said Russia will play the victim card when meeting with African leaders.

“It’s a propaganda war as much as it’s a shooting war and we have seen from the Ukrainian side how successfully President Zelensky has used social media,” Gruzd said. “He gives daily messages, he talks to parliaments and to [the U.S.] Congress and to groups around the world. Virtually, he is seen being on the frontline and Russia is mounting a counter-offensive. I think this is all part of that same trend.”

Gruzd said it’s interesting that it is an in-person visit rather than online communication.

“I think it’s deliberately calculated to show that Russia is not isolated, that Russia still has friends in the world, that Russia still cares about Africa,” Gruzd said.

In Egypt, Lavrov met with Arab League leadership, seeking the support of the group’s 22-member states and accusing the West of ignoring his country’s security concerns. He is expected to do the same when he visits African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Wale Olusola, who teaches international politics at Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University, said Russia is using the African visit to clean up its image after invading Ukraine and seeks to influence the continent.

“The visit reverberates across all of Africa, so there is a message it sends globally in terms of a new relationship that Russia is trying to cut,” Olusola said. “Russia can make a big deal out of this visit, to at least give the impression to other members of the global community that it’s not isolated.”

Olusola said Russia could be seeking a long-term gain as well.

“These kinds of visits are not just diplomatic purely on the surface,” Olusola said. “We expect that some arrangement, some deals may be signed or informally agreed upon with Russia fairly in respect to countries that are having issues with security.”

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Africa imports almost half of its military equipment from Russia, adding that arms export is a critical component of Russia’s economic growth.

By the institute’s count, the number of African countries buying weapons from Russia has grown to 21 from 16 in the 2000s. A handful of countries also use Russian-supplied mercenaries.

Olusola said African countries should use opportunities such as Lavrov’s visit to push for their own interests and that Russia must be willing to provide some kind of concrete economic and financial support for the challenged African economies.

“I think it’s an opportunity for African countries to reinstate the African position on the Ukraine crisis and, of course, to see ways beyond the Western relations and benefits it gets from Western countries,” Olusola said.

At the United Nations General Assembly in March, 38 African countries condemned Russia’s war on Ukraine, but supporters of Ukraine accuse African countries of doing too little to hold Russia accountable for its invasion.
…

your ad here

Ukraine Army Gets Helping Hand From Local Blacksmith

Posted on by SeeEU

A local blacksmith in Sumy, Ukraine, who used to weld metal to make furniture, has transformed his business in the face of war. Olena Adamenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage and video editing by Mykhailo Zaika.
…

your ad here