Month: August 2022

Angolan Opposition UNITA Rejects Ruling Party’s Election Win

Posted on by SeeAF

Angola’s opposition party has filed a complaint against the election victory of the ruling MPLA party in which President Joao Lourenco won a second term and the party got a reduced majority in the legislature.

The main opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, known as UNITA, said Tuesday that it has submitted an objection to the results.

“UNITA reiterates that it will not recognize the results announced by the National Electoral Commission until the complaints already in its possession are resolved,” the party said in a statement.

If UNITA’s written complaint is rejected, the party can take the objection to the Constitutional Court, which must rule on the complaint within 72 hours, according to Angola’s electoral regulations.

The Peoples Movement for the Liberation of Angola, known by its Portuguese acronym MPLA, won with 51% of the votes cast, extending its 47-year rule of the country, according to the electoral commission’s results.

As the party’s leader, Lourenco, 68, welcomed the official results which have given him a second five-year presidential term.

UNITA got its best-ever result, coming in second with about 44% of the votes, according to the electoral commission.

However, UNITA on Tuesday claimed that according to its calculations it should have won the election with 64% of the vote.

Although UNITA’s leader, Adalberto Costa Junior has rejected the official results, he has urged calm. There have been no reports of major demonstrations in the capital, Luanda, or other cities.

Voter turnout was low on voting day last week with just 45.7% of registered voters casting their ballots.

In the national legislature, the MPLA lost the two-thirds majority that it needs to pass major bills, although it won a majority with 124 of the National Assembly’s 220 seats. UNITA has nearly doubled its presence in the legislature to 90 seats. The remaining seats were won by smaller parties.

UNITA had campaigned for the support of Angola’s young, urban population and it won in Luanda, Angola’s most populous province, and in Cabinda and Zaire, the country’s main oil-producing provinces.

Angola is Africa’s second-largest producer of oil and has rich diamond deposits, but the majority of the southern African country’s 34 million people remain in poverty, according to the U.N, and unemployment is currently above 30%.

Both the MPLA and UNITA are former rebel movements that fought Portuguese colonial rule. The MPLA won power with backing from the Soviet Union and established Marxist rule when Angola became independent in 1975.

UNITA fought a bitter civil war against the MPLA, with support from the U.S. and apartheid-ruled South Africa.

In a negotiated truce, the MPLA agreed to multiparty elections held in 1992. UNITA furiously rejected the MPLA’s win and the country was plunged back into civil war that only ended in 2002.

Since then, UNITA has transformed itself from a rebel group into a political party, particularly under the new leadership of Costa Junior, who didn’t fight in the civil war. Costa Junior has succeeded in gaining support from other opposition politicians and intellectuals.

UNITA legally challenged its loss in the 2017 election but the courts ruled in favor of the MPLA.
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First Ship Carrying Ukrainian Grain to Africa Since Beginning of Conflict Arrives in Djibouti

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The first shipment of Ukrainian grain to Africa since Russia’s invasion arrived in Djibouti on Tuesday. The grain will be distributed in Ethiopia to help the drought-stricken nation cope with worsening hunger that threatens to become a famine. 

Mike Dunford, East Africa regional director for the U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP), spoke to reporters at the port.  

“The food on the [U.N.-chartered ship] Brave Commander will feed 1.5 million people, for one month in Ethiopia,” he said. “So, this makes a very big impact, for those people who currently have nothing and now WFP will be able to provide them with their basic needs.” 

A Russian blockade of Ukraine’s seaports forced Ukraine to halt nearly all deliveries of grain, which sparked worries of a worldwide food crisis. Russia invaded the country in February. 

A settlement between Kyiv and Moscow that was mediated by the U.N. and Turkey in July, known as The Black Sea Initiative, saw a resumption in exports of wheat, other foodstuffs, and fertilizers from three Black Sea ports at the beginning of August. 

The WFP said 150,000 tons of additional wheat grain from Ukraine will be sent in the coming weeks thanks to funding provided by the United States. 

In landlocked Ethiopia, where the grain is now headed, more than 5 million people have been displaced because of conflict. A total of 17 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance as the Horn of Africa endures another year of drought.  

Dunford said the Black Sea Initiative is a step toward easing the situation.  

“We’ve already seen a reduction of 15% in wheat prices globally, since the Black Sea Initiative commenced,” he said. “What we want to see is more food flowing. We need, from WFP’s perspective, millions of tons in this region. In Ethiopia alone, three quarters of everything that we used to distribute originated from Ukraine and Russia.” 

There are concerns the resumption of exports from Ukraine may not be enough to make a dent in the crisis. 

Adullahi Halakhe, with the Washington-based advocacy group Refugees International, said the amount of grain arriving to Ethiopia is not enough. 

“When you consider over 20 million people are in need of humanitarian aid, food inflation stands at 40%, I think this is very important,” he said. 

Humanitarian organizations say parts of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region may be in a state of famine, because of the conflict there and a de facto humanitarian blockade imposed by Ethiopia’s federal government. 

Although limited aid was entering the region, renewed fighting between the government and Tigrayan forces that began last week led to the U.N. announcing Monday that it has suspended aid convoys into the region.  

 
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Water Plant Breaks Down in US Southern State Capital

Posted on by SeeUS

Jackson, the capital city of the southern U.S. state of Mississippi, has been left without safe water to drink and for other uses after its long-neglected water treatment plant broke down Monday. 

State Governor Tate Reeves said that 180,000 people in Jackson and surrounding communities will not have running water until the treatment plant is repaired, possibly in a couple of days. 

“It means the city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to reliably flush toilets, and to meet other critical needs,” Reeves said. 

The governor said the state’s emergency management agency is distributing bottled drinking water and tanker trucks are being deployed for other water needs. Jackson’s public schools were closed Tuesday and classes were moved online. 

The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the Mississippi water crisis and that the federal government stands ready to help state officials.  

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the city’s latest water emergency was caused by complications from recent Pearl River flooding. 

Consumption of water from the treatment plant has been disrupted several times in recent years, by winter storms last February and earlier by contamination from high lead levels and E. coli. 

Some material in this report came from Reuters. 

 
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Kenya’s Supreme Court Orders Recount of Some Ballot Boxes

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Kenya’s Supreme Court has ordered the recount of ballots cast at 15 polling stations during the August 9 presidential election. The order was one of several issued Tuesday as the court began hearing a challenge to the win of President-elect William Ruto.

 

The recount request from Raila Odinga and his running mate, Matha Karua, was for 15 polling stations in four counties: Kericho, Nandi, Nyandarua and Mombasa. 

The first three counties voted heavily for Ruto, while Mombasa residents voted mainly for Odinga. 

Judges said the recounts must be done within 48 hours. 

 

The court also told Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, the IEBC, to provide the official voter registries and some election-related equipment for examination.  

Chief Justice Martha Koome said after looking at the arguments submitted by Odinga and his lawyers, the judges will be ruling on several questions. 

“The first issue [is whether] the technology deployed by IEBC for the conduct of the 2022 general election met the standards of integrity, verifiability, security, and transparency to guarantee accurate and verifiable results,” Koome said. “Issue number two is whether there was interference with the uploading and transmission of forms 34A from the polling stations to the IEBC public portal. Issue number three is whether there was a difference between forms 34A’s uploaded on the IEBC public portal and forms 34A’s received at the national tallying center and forms 34A’s issued to the agents at the polling stations.” 

Form 34A is the form signed at local polling stations after vote counts are completed. Once signed, the form is transmitted to the national tally center to be included in the presidential vote totals.  

The Supreme Court will also examine whether there were discrepancies between the total votes cast for the presidential candidates and for other electoral positions, such as the governors and senators. 

 

In addition, the judges will examine whether Ruto got more than 50 percent of the vote — the standard needed to avoid a run-off — and whether there were irregularities and illegalities in the counting process that could affect the results. 

 

Odinga is challenging the official election results that saw him lose by a small margin. Ruto got 7.1 million votes, while Odinga got 6.9 million. 

 

The Odinga camp believes the election was rigged in favor of Ruto, allegedly with the help of some electoral officers and IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati, a claim the chairman has denied. 

After the vote count was completed, Chebukati declared Ruto to be the winner, but four of the seven commissioners publicly disowned the results, citing issues with the counting process. 

In Tuesday’s hearing, lawyers from the opposing camps clashed over who had the right to represent IEBC, despite the court saying it would admit the arguments of all the commissioners. 

 

The electoral commissioners have made individual submissions to the court, a move that legal experts say will likely weaken any attempts to defend how the IEBC conducted the electoral process.  

Hearings are expected to continue until Friday. 

 
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Vatican Seeks to Clarify Pope’s Stance on Ukraine

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The Vatican sought on Tuesday to clarify the pope’s position on Ukraine, after the pontiff’s comment on the death of a Russian ultranationalist’s daughter ruffled feathers in Kyiv.

“The Holy Father’s words on this dramatic issue are to be read as a voice raised in defense of human life and the values associated with it, and not as political positions,” the Vatican said in a statement.

It stressed that the war in Ukraine had been “initiated by the Russian Federation” and that Pope Francis had been “clear and unequivocal in condemning it as morally unjust, unacceptable, barbaric, senseless, repugnant and sacrilegious.”

Speaking on Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24, the pope had said of the conflict: “So many innocents… are paying for madness.”

He cited as one example Daria Dugina — the daughter of a Russian ultranationalist ally of President Vladimir Putin’s — who was killed when a bomb exploded under her car.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, Andriy Yurash, responded that the pope should not have put “aggressor and victim” in the same category and the Vatican’s envoy to Kyiv was summoned to the foreign ministry to explain.

Pope Francis, who has repeatedly condemned the conflict, has, on several occasions, been criticized in some quarters for not painting the war in black and white terms, and for leaving the door open to discussions with Moscow.

“Someone may say to me at this point: but you are pro Putin! No, I am not,” the pope stressed in an interview published in June by Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica.

“I am simply against reducing complexity to… good guys and bad guys, without reasoning about roots and interests, which are very complex.”

In July, the head of the Roman Catholic Church repeated his wish to visit Ukraine.

The 85-year-old pontiff is due to attend a congress of religious leaders in Kazakhstan in mid-September.

Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church and a fervent supporter of both Putin and his war in Ukraine, had been due to attend the congress but has now said he will not be going.
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Russian Prosecutors Ask for 24-Year Sentence for Ex-Reporter

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Russian prosecutors at the trial of a former journalist asked the court Tuesday to hand him a 24-year prison sentence on treason charges.

Ivan Safronov who worked as a journalist for a decade before becoming an adviser to the head of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos, has been in custody since his July 2020 arrest in Moscow. He has rejected the charges of passing military secrets to Czech intelligence and insisted on his innocence. 

Safronov’s case reflects the challenges faced by Russian journalists, which have grown even tougher amid Moscow’s military action in Ukraine.

Safronov, who covered military and security issues for the leading Russian business daily Kommersant before joining Roscosmos, stated that he had collected all the information from open sources in the course of his work and did nothing illegal. He has argued that the investigators have failed to spell out the treason charges and explain what secrets he had allegedly revealed.

Many Russian journalists and human rights activists have pushed for Safronov’s release, and some have alleged that the authorities may have wanted to take revenge for his reporting that exposed Russian military incidents and shady arms deals.

Roscosmos has said that Safronov didn’t have access to state secrets, and claimed that the charges didn’t relate to Safronov’s work for the corporation, which he joined in May 2020.

Rights activists, journalists, scientists and corporate officials who have faced treason accusations in Russia in recent years have found it difficult to defend themselves because of secrecy surrounding their cases and a lack of public access to information.

Safronov’s father also worked for Kommersant covering military issues after retiring from the armed forces. In 2007, he died after falling from a window of his apartment building in Moscow.

Investigators concluded that he killed himself, but some Russian media outlets questioned the official version, pointing to his intent to publish a sensitive report about secret arms deliveries to Iran and Syria. 
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Some African Laws Create Difficulty for Young Mothers to Attend School

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A new Human Rights Watch report says that in nearly one-third of African countries, teenage girls who become pregnant face “significant legal and policy barriers” to continuing their formal education.

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday it examined more than 100 laws and policies concerning education, gender equity, and reproductive health, that are detrimental to the education of teenage mothers.

Adi Radhakrishnan works with the rights group’s children rights division. He says some African laws have pushed young mothers out of school.

“It’s shocking to understand how governments are undermining girls’ education and effectively closing the door on girls’ futures… These are students who are denied their basic rights to education for reasons that have nothing to do with their desire or their ability to learn and they are not supported by their government,” Radhakrishnan said.

Researchers found that at least 10 African countries have no legal means or measures to protect adolescent girls’ education when they are pregnant and become mothers.

Several countries, including Sudan, impose punishments on teenage girls who have sexual relationships outside marriage. For those girls, going to school while pregnant raises suspicion and exposes them to possible criminal prosecution.

Hannibal Uwaifo is the head of the African Bar Association. He says cultural norms are mostly to blame for young mothers not continuing with their education.

“The issues have to do with families, society, and the community. I don’t think there are any specific laws that bars people going back to school,” Uwaifo said. “I think we need to deliberately encourage African girls to return back to school. We need to actively and deliberately campaign that this teenage pregnancy doesn’t mean they should give up schooling or give up formal education otherwise, if there are any laws which are in place saying a teenage mother cannot go back to school, we would like to know about them and work on them.”

On the positive side, Radhakrishnan says 38 countries in Africa have laws that protect the education of pregnant and young mothers.

“Far more countries have positive frameworks than countries lack them or have discriminatory measures. We have seen students excluded because teachers do not know whether the positive law exists, or parents don’t know there are great lessons to be learned … countries across Africa draw positive practices from their neighbors and develop useful guidelines that make sure that all girls — regardless of pregnancy or motherhood status — all girls are able to access education in Africa,” Radhakrishnan said.

Human Rights Watch urges authorities in countries that lack such laws to create legal frameworks that affirm girls’ right to education. The advocacy group also encourages countries that already have laws and policies to fully implement them so young mothers — and their children — can benefit.
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Excitement Over Cryptocurrency Tinged With Fear

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The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has fallen dramatically in recent months. Still, many investors are excited about the future of digital currencies despite the risks. VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports from San Francisco.
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Arizona Governor to Focus on Semiconductors in Taiwan Visit 

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Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday for a visit focused on semiconductors, the critical chips used in everyday electronics that the island manufactures.

Ducey is on a mission to woo suppliers for the new $12 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) plant being built in the state. He is traveling with the Arizona Chamber of Commerce president and the head of the state’s economic development agency.

Ducey is to meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, business leaders and university representatives in the semiconductor industry, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

American states are competing to attract a multibillion-dollar wave of investment in chip factories as the U.S. government steps up spending on expanding the U.S. semiconductor industry with a recently passed law. Last week, the Indiana governor visited Taiwan for a similar purpose.

U.S. officials worry that the country relies too heavily on Taiwan and other Asian suppliers for processor chips used in smartphones, medical devices, cars and most other electronic devices.

Those worries have been aggravated by tensions with China over technology and security. The potential for disruption was highlighted by chips shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic that sent shockwaves through the auto and electronics industries.

Taiwan produces more than half the global supply of high-end processor chips.

Beijing, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, fired missiles into the sea near the island starting on Aug. 4 after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited, disrupting shipping and air traffic, and highlighting the possibility that chip exports might be interrupted.

A law approved by Congress on July 29 promises more than $52 billion in grants and other aid to develop the U.S. semiconductor industry and a 25% tax credit for investors in chip factories in the United States.

State governments are now promising tax breaks and grants to lure chip factories they hope will become centers for high-tech industry.

Intel Corp., the only major U.S. producer, announced plans in March 2021 to build two chip factories in Arizona at a cost of $20 billion. The company has had another facility in Arizona since 1980.

In January, Intel announced plans to invest $20 billion in a chip factory in Ohio.

TSMC., headquartered in Taiwan and which makes chips for Apple Inc. and other customers, announced plans last year to invest $3.5 billion in its second U.S. manufacturing site in North Phoenix, Arizona.

TSMC’s first U.S. semiconductor wafer fabrication facility is in Camas, Washington. It also operates design centers in San Jose, California, and Austin, Texas.

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics says it will break ground in 2024 for a $17 billion chip factory near Austin, Texas. The state says it is the biggest single investment to date in Texas.
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Malawi Police Welcomes Country’s First Albino Officers

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Malawi’s police service has welcomed two officers with albinism into its ranks, the first people with the rare genetic pigment disorder in Malawi’s state security organization. Rights groups say the hirings should help efforts to crack down on attacks against albinos and restore confidence in police after some officers were connected to such attacks.

Police constables Hamid Vasco and Brenda Mhlanga graduated Friday after six-months of training and were welcomed into the police service Monday along with other new recruits.

Vasco, who is 25 years old, said he decided to join the police to help stop attacks on people with albinism in Malawi.

Statistics show that since 2014, more than 170 albinos have been attacked or killed in Malawi because of false beliefs that concoctions mixed with their body parts bring luck and wealth.

“So, this gave me the [opportunity] to apply to be a police officer so that I can work hand in hand with my fellow officers on issues of investigating the cases and crimes concerning the killing and abduction of persons with albinism,” said Vasco.

Rights groups say the hiring of albino officers will help rebuild public confidence in the police, after some officers were connected to such attacks.

In June, the High Court in Blantyre sentenced police officer Chikondi Chileka and four others to 30 years imprisonment with hard labor, after finding them guilty of transacting in human tissue. The body parts came from MacDonald Masambuka, a man with albinism murdered in 2018.

Vasco and Mhlanga are also the first people with the rare genetic pigment disorder working in Malawi’s state security organization.

Young Mahamba is the president of the Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi or APAM.

He said there was a change in policy after his association and other campaigners lobbied for police to hire albinos.

“APAM as an organization, and all other stakeholders, we have been advocating for people to understand albinism and to know that albinism is not a limit. So, we have seen positive development. For example, we have seen a person with albinism [for the first time] being a member of parliament. This shows that the attitude is changing, and we will gear up,” said Mhlanga.

However, a representative for Malawi Police Service, Peter Kalaya, said there was no change in policy. He said the problem was that people with albinism were not applying for police jobs.

“There is no specific change of policy because we have the requirements which each and every person who wants to join the police service must be satisfied. And these two managed to meet those conditions and they even managed to succeed in both physical and classroom training,” said Kalaya.

He said police do not expect any special contribution from Vasco and Mhlanga toward combating attacks on albinos.

“Their coming will of course add something because having them in the service might be a message to those people who perpetrate these acts. For example, sending a message to perpetrators that ‘Okay, these people they can also be police officers, they can also carry guns.’ But in terms of efforts at investigating, prosecuting or following up on cases to do with attacks and killings of people with albinism, we were capable, and we are still capable,” he said.

Kalaya encourages other people with albinism to apply for jobs in the police service, saying the service does not discriminate against anyone in terms of skin pigment disorders.
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Ukraine Reports Heavy Fighting in Kherson Amid Southern Offensive

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Ukraine’s presidential office reported heavy fighting Tuesday in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, an area occupied by Russian forces where Ukraine says it has launched a counteroffensive to try to retake territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed in his nightly address Monday that Ukrainian forces would take back their territory. He said Ukraine would chase Russia’s forces “to the border.”

“If they want to survive — it’s time for the Russian military to run away. Go home,” he said.

Britain’s defense ministry said Tuesday that as of early Monday, “several brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces increased the weight of artillery fires in front line sectors across southern Ukraine.”

It added that since the start of August, Russia has worked to reinforce its presence on the western bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson area.

“Most of the units around Kherson are likely undermanned and are reliant upon fragile supply lines by ferry and pontoon bridges across the Dnipro,” the British defense ministry said.

Russia’s defense ministry said Monday that Russian forces had stopped Ukrainian attacks in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions and inflicted “heavy losses” on Ukrainian forces.

A senior U.S. defense official told reporters Monday that the United States would know more about Ukraine’s offensive near Kherson “in the next 24-36 hours.” The official said Ukrainian force numbers are gaining parity with Russian forces in the south.

“Are they on the offensive? I think they are,” the official said.

Russia failed to capture the capital, Kyiv, in northern Ukraine in its initial attack that began in late February, but later took control of wide swathes of land in the south along the Black Sea coast.

Fighting for months has centered on eastern Ukraine in the Donbas region, where Russia-supported separatists and Kyiv’s forces have fought since 2014, the same year Moscow seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in a move not recognized by the international community.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine has been at somewhat of a standstill for weeks, with Russia and Ukraine gaining or losing territory incrementally.

But Western allies, led by the United States, have continued to ship armaments to the Kyiv government, possibly giving Ukraine new confidence to attack farther in the southern reaches of the country.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. VOA’s Carla Babb contributed to this report.
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Experts: Challenges to Kenya Presidential Poll Results Have Improved Election Integrity

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For the third time in his career, Kenya’s main opposition leader Raila Odinga is challenging presidential election results at the country’s Supreme Court. Some critics are mocking the former prime minister for again refusing to accept defeat. But legal experts say Odinga’s petitions have played a key role in improving the integrity of Kenya’s elections and the stability of its democracy. Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Camera: Amos Wangwa
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Advocates Say Child Marriage Hinders Girls’ Education in Nigeria

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Timothy Obiezu reports from Benue, Nigeria, about aid groups working in rural communities to address Nigeria’s child marriage rate – one of the highest in Africa   
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Turkey Places Pop Star Under House Arrest Over Remark

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An Istanbul court has released Turkish pop star Gulsen from pretrial detention but put her under house arrest with judicial control on Monday over a remark she made about religious schools in Turkey.

The 46-year-old singer-songwriter, whose full name is Gulsen Colakoglu, was taken into custody for questioning on charges of “inciting hatred and enmity among the public” and put in pretrial detention last Thursday.

The charges were based on a joke she made onstage about Turkey’s religious Imam Hatip schools in April.

“He studied at an Imam Hatip [school] previously. That’s where his perversion comes from,” Gulsen says in a video of the incident, referring to a musician in her band.

The video was circulated by pro-government daily Sabah a day before her detention and widely shared on social media by pro-government accounts.

Several ministers condemned her words on Twitter, including Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag.

“Inciting one part of society towards another using begrudging, hateful and discriminating language under the guise of being an artist is the biggest disrespect to art,” Bozdag tweeted.

Imam Hatips are state-run middle and high schools providing religious education for boys and girls ages 10 to 18 in Turkey. There are several graduates of Imam Hatip schools in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Cabinet, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Bozdag.

The AKP government is a staunch supporter of Imam Hatip schools, as Erdogan has said in the past that he aims to raise a “pious generation” in Turkey.

In a statement on her social media accounts, Gulsen apologized for her remark, adding that what she said was used by some people who want to polarize society. She also denied the accusations in her testimony at the police station.

Her lawyer Emek Emre appealed the pretrial detention decision last Friday and said he will appeal the house arrest decision Monday.

Reactions

Her arrest has sparked controversy about Turkey’s freedom of expression and judicial independence.

Yigit Acar, a lawyer who specializes in freedom of expression and human rights violations, calls the court decision to keep her under house arrest “a disgrace.”

“This decision meets the wishes of a group of conservative people who are uncomfortable with her and are not a large group. Look at the court decision where the lynching campaign against Gulsen was used as a reason for the arrest,” Acar told VOA.

Acar believes that putting the singer under house arrest is intended to be a deterrent.

“The purpose has already been accomplished. The purpose was to keep Gulsen away from the stage and to make her modern, secular view invisible,” Acar said, adding that the government is sending a message to millions of people by putting the singer under house arrest.

The singer has long been a target of conservative circles in Turkey because of her revealing stage outfits and support for the LGBTQ community.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), called for her release, saying that her arrest was aimed at polarizing society to keep Erdogan’s government in power. The next parliamentary and presidential elections are scheduled for June 2023, but the opposition parties are calling for snap elections, which Erdogan has repeatedly rejected.

Responding to an inquiry from VOA on the pop star’s arrest, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said, “The right to exercise freedom of expression, even when it involves speech which some find controversial or uncomfortable, strengthens democracy and must be protected.”

“The United States remains concerned by widespread use of censorship, criminal insult suits, and other forms of judicial harassment to restrict freedom of expression in Turkey. We urge Turkey to respect and ensure freedom of expression,” the spokesperson said, adding that the U.S. “opposes discrimination against LGBTQI+ persons and those who support LGBTQI+ rights.”

The Turkish government has argued that the judiciary is free from political interference.

Cultural hegemony

Yuksel Taskin, deputy leader of the CHP and a former professor of political science at Istanbul’s Marmara University, argues that the singer’s arrest was part of the government’s efforts to establish cultural hegemony among the Turkish public through its ideological lens.

Taskin recalls Turkish presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun’s tweet from 2018: “Your political hegemony is over. Your cultural hegemony will also end,” referring to Turkey’s Kemalist elites before the AKP came into power. Kemalism, as an ideology, is based on the principles of modern Turkey founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, which include secularism.

“A cultural hegemony based on intimidation and oppression has no chance to survive,” Taskin told VOA.

Ezel Sahinkaya contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press and Reuters.

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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Russia’s Latest Move Toward ‘De-Dollarization’ Seen as Symbolic

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In the Russian government’s latest move to reduce its reliance on a global financial system dominated by the United States and its allies, Kremlin authorities Monday began a policy of barring the use of U.S. dollars as collateral for transactions on the Moscow Exchange, Russia’s largest financial services marketplace.

According to experts, the change was more symbolic than practical, because a broad slate of sanctions imposed on Russia over its expanded invasion of Ukraine have made it almost impossible for Russian businesses to make dollar-based transactions. The change comes just a few weeks after the Moscow Exchange reduced the acceptable percentage of U.S. dollars in collateral from 50% of total value to 25%.

Still, the change underlines Moscow’s efforts to chart a path through the maze of economic barriers constructed by the U.S. and its allies over the more than six months since the invasion began. Kremlin officials have called on Russian businesses and individuals to divest themselves of “toxic” currencies issued by governments that have acted to thwart President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to expand Russian territory by force.

“The blocking of Russian assets by unfriendly countries, as well as operational restrictions on settlements in the world’s major reserve currencies, create risks for citizens and businesses when using the U.S. dollar and the euro,” the Russian central bank said in a statement issued last month.

Heavy sanctions

In the days after Russian troops crossed into Ukraine in February, the U.S. and its allies, including most of the European Union, Canada, Japan, Australia and almost all other major Western economies began applying unprecedented economic pressure in an effort to get Putin to reverse course.

A large portion of the assets of the Russian central bank held overseas were frozen, as were the assets of many wealthy Russian businesspeople. U.S. banks were effectively barred from doing business with Russian businesses, with some exceptions for energy payments, which had the result of cutting Russian firms off from the dollar-based transactions that represent a large share of global commerce.

Russian banks were eventually barred from SWIFT, the global messaging network that international banks use to settle cross-border transactions, and export controls have made it difficult for Russia to purchase high-end electronic components and other goods essential to operating a modern economy in the 21st century.

Faulty assumptions

The Kremlin may have been surprised by the unity with which the U.S. and its allies acted. Experts said that Russian leaders likely assumed that it would be cut off from the dollar after invading Ukraine — indeed, Russian has, for years, been taking steps to insulate itself from the dollar.

However, the Kremlin did so on the assumption that other global currencies, primarily the euro, but also the Japanese yen and the British pound, would remain available to it.

“What’s so important to understand about this is that Putin and Elvira Nabiullina, the central bank governor, truly believed that it was OK to be less reliant on the dollar, because they could diversify into euros and other currencies,” Josh Lipsky, the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, told VOA.

But the world’s seven leading industrialized democracies, the G-7, remain firm on sanctions, and have pledged solidarity with Ukraine.

“What surprised them was the unity amongst the G-7 — that the dollar and the euro and the yen and the pound were acting in tandem,” Lipsky said. “And that gave them no other outlets.”

Other markets

While Russia has found itself largely blocked from doing business with much of the world, a set of exceptions has been put in place that allow the Kremlin to continue selling energy products, primarily oil and gas. Those sales, boosted by months of abnormally high energy prices, have helped Russia avoid the worst potential consequences of its economic isolation.

At the same time, Russia has been working to develop alternatives to its traditional trade and financial flows. Turkey, whose leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has positioned himself as an intermediary between Putin and Western leaders, agreed earlier this month to pay for some Russian natural gas in rubles.

China and India, both major consumers of Russian energy, have both increased their purchases in the months since the invasion, settling transactions in their national currencies rather than in dollars, as is common on global markets.

However, even Russian officials have conceded that creating a system completely independent of the dollar is not feasible.

Commenting on his country’s growing relationship with China in June, Russian Ambassador to China Andrei Denisov said, “Full de-dollarization is impossible in principle, and no one is setting this goal, considering that the dollar is actually a tool, an accounting currency, means for international settlements and international payments.”

Bad options

Jeffrey Mankoff, a distinguished research fellow at the National Defense University and a non-resident senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA that while Russia may be able to make some transactions in non-dollar currencies, the practice is “suboptimal” at best, and the future looks bleak for the Russian economy.

“The problem is, there’s not really a good alternative to the dollar at this point,” Mankoff said. “There’s no other currency that is convertible to the extent the dollar is and has a deep liquid securities market behind it so that you’re not taking on big exchange rate risks by doing business in it.”

While the use of non-dollar currencies for settlement keeps cash flowing into Russian coffers, he said, “The problem is the money can’t really flow out. Or, it can’t flow out to buy the things that Russia needs, which are restricted because of sanctions.”

Russia cannot import many of the consumer goods that its citizens had been used to purchasing, which has eroded living standards. Additionally, Russia cannot import semiconductors and other high-tech components needed for domestic manufacturing operations.

In the end, Mankoff said, Russia’s options are starkly limited if it remains cut off from most global markets, and economic conditions are likely to get worse.

“Manufacturing, anything kind of high-tech related, and that includes military goods, is going to get harder and harder,” Mankoff said. “If this war is still going on six months or 12 months or longer from now, I think you’re going to see the impact of these restrictions increasing over time.”
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UN: 6 Million Afghans at Risk of Famine as Winter Looms

Posted on by SeeUS

The United Nations said Monday that 6 million Afghans are on the brink of famine, with winter around the corner and humanitarian appeals dramatically underfunded.

“Afghanistan’s crisis is a humanitarian crisis. It’s an economic crisis. It’s a climate crisis. It’s a hunger crisis. It’s a financial crisis,” U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council. “But it’s not a hopeless crisis.”

But he painted a bleak picture.

Griffiths said 24 million people need some kind of humanitarian assistance, and almost 19 million of them face acute hunger. An estimated 3 million children are acutely malnourished.

“They include over 1 million children estimated to be suffering from the most severe, life-threatening form of malnutrition,” he said. “Without specialized treatment, they could die.”

The U.N. launched its largest appeal ever last year, seeking $4.4 billion to assist Afghans, but faces a shortfall of $3.14 billion as winter approaches. Griffiths said $614 million is urgently needed to repair shelters and provide warm clothes and blankets, as well as another $154 million to pre-position supplies in remote areas that are hard to reach in winter.

“But we are up against time,” he said. “These activities must be implemented in the next three months.”

In the past year, Griffiths said, humanitarians have reached nearly 23 million people with assistance.

“But let me be clear. Humanitarian aid will never be able to replace the provision of systemwide services to 40 million people across the country,” the aid chief said.

He called on the international community to stand by the Afghan people and for the de facto Taliban authorities to do their part.

Since the Taliban seized power just over one year ago, the suspension of most international aid, which had propped up the previous government, has contributed to a breakdown in many basic services, including electricity, health services and education. Inflation is rampant, and the price of ordinary goods is beyond the reach of most Afghans.

On top of the political crisis, there has been an earthquake and severe floods. Afghanistan is also reeling from the effects of two severe droughts, in 2021 and 2018. After dropping significantly, civilian casualties have begun to rise again.

“The last three weeks have seen the highest number of civilian casualties in a one-month period since 15 August 2021, in a series of improvised explosive device attacks in Kabul, most claimed by ISIL-K [Islamic State Khorasan],” said Markus Potzel, the acting head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

Russia, US trade criticism

Russia asked for Monday’s meeting and used the opportunity to criticize the U.S. and its NATO partners for their 20-year-long war on terrorism in Afghanistan.

“Ultimately the people of Afghanistan, who as our American colleagues repeatedly told us they were there to protect, were abandoned to their fate,” Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said. “They were left face-to-face with ruin, poverty, terrorism, hunger and other challenges.”

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Washington and its allies have continued to assist the Afghan people, providing humanitarian assistance and other help.

“What are you doing to help other than rehash the past and criticize others?” she asked her Russian counterpart. “If you are concerned that Afghan women and children are dying, how are you helping them?”

She noted that Washington has provided more than $775 million in humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people in just the past year.

“Russia has contributed only $2 million to the U.N. Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan to date,” she said. “And Russia has contributed nothing — not one cent — nothing this year.” She suggested that if Moscow wanted to talk about how Afghanistan needs help, that is fine, “but we humbly suggest you put your money where your mouth is.”
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Medic: 18 Die as Madagascar Police Shoot at Albino Kidnap Protesters

Posted on by SeeAF

Eighteen people died Monday after police in Madagascar opened fire on what they called a lynch mob angered at the kidnapping of an albino child, a senior doctor told AFP. 

Dozens were wounded, some of them seriously. 

“At the moment, 18 people have died in all, nine on the spot and nine in hospital,” said doctor Tango Oscar Toky, chief physician at a hospital in southeastern Madagascar. 

“Of the 34 injured, nine are between life and death,” said the doctor giving graphic details of the injuries. “We are waiting for a government helicopter to evacuate them to the capital.” 

Around 500 protesters armed with blades and machetes “tried to force their way” into the station, a police officer involved in the shooting said, speaking on condition of anonymity.  

“There were negotiations, [but] the villagers insisted,” the officer told AFP over the phone from the town of Ikongo, 90 kilometers (56 miles) southeast of the capital Antananarivo. 

Police first fired tear gas and then rounds in the air to try to disperse the crowd, he said.  

“They continued to force their way through. We had no choice but to defend ourselves,” the officer added. 

The national police in the capital confirmed the “very sad event,” but only gave a toll of 11, with 18 injured.  

Andry Rakotondrazaka, the national police chief, told a news conference that what happened was a “very sad event. It could have been avoided but it happened.” 

He said the police “did everything to avoid confrontation,” including negotiating with the crowd, “but there were provocations”… (and) there were people with “long-bladed knives and sticks,” he said, adding others hurled stones towards the police.  

“The gendarmes used tear gas. But that was not enough to stop the crowd from advancing. There was shooting in the air.”  

But in the end the gendarmes had “no choice but to resort to self-defense … and limit the damage by shooting.” 

The kidnapping took place last week, according to Jean-Brunelle Razafintsiandraofa, a member of parliament for Ikongo district. 

Revenge attacks 

Revenge attacks are common in Madagascar. 

In February 2017, a mob of 800 people barged into Ikongo prison in search of a murder suspect they intended to kill. 

They overpowered guards and 120 prisoners broke out of jail. 

In 2013, a Frenchman, a Franco-Italian and a local man accused of killing a child on the tourist island of Nosy Be were burned alive by a crowd.  

Some sub-Saharan African countries have suffered a wave of assaults against people with albinism, whose body parts are sought for witchcraft practices in the mistaken belief that they bring luck and wealth.  

Albinism, caused by a lack of melanin, the pigment that colors skin, hair and eyes, is a genetic condition that affects hundreds of thousands of people across the globe, particularly in Africa. 

Under The Same Sun, a Canada-based charity working to combat discrimination, has been logging cases of similar violence across Africa. 

It ranks Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania as the countries where such attacks are most prevalent. 

Madagascar, a large Indian Ocean island country, is ranked among the poorest in the world. 

 
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Some Trump Contacts with Lawyers Found Amidst Seized Classified Documents

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. Justice Department said Monday that it found “a limited set of materials” that might contain information about President Donald Trump’s private contacts with his attorneys that should be excluded from the government’s investigation of highly classified documents it seized three weeks ago from Trump’s oceanside estate in Florida.

Prosecutors, in a court filing in Florida, said they would provide more information in the coming days about what they found in the 20 boxes of materials FBI agents took from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago during a court-approved search of the property.

The material taken in the unannounced August 8 search included 11 files marked with varying degrees of national security classifications that Trump took with him when his term as president ended on January 20, 2021, rather than turning them over to the National Archives as required by U.S. law.

Attorney General Merrick Garland authorized the search, and it was approved by a federal magistrate judge in Florida, after prosecutors suspected that Trump had not turned over all the classified documents he was holding even after handing over hundreds of pages of classified materials to the Archives in January and June.

A search warrant authorizing the FBI agents to look for the material said the government is investigating whether espionage and obstruction of justice laws were violated. 

 

But under U.S. criminal justice procedures, any contacts, written or conversational, that Trump might have had with his attorneys would be considered privileged.

As such, the information from such an attorney-client contact could not be used by prosecutors if the Justice Department eventually takes the unprecedented step of pursuing criminal charges against the former president, which at this stage of the investigation is by no means a certainty.

Trump’s lawyers have also asked that a special master be named to review the seized material and U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said Saturday she was inclined to grant his request pending a further hearing on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear how the Justice Department’s review looking for potentially privileged information on Trump’s contacts with his lawyers would affect the former president’s request for the special master to essentially conduct the same review.

In the Florida court filing Monday, the prosecutors also said that the Justice Department and the office of Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines are reviewing the classified material that Trump had stored at Mar-a-Lago, his wintertime home.

In addition, Haines has told key lawmakers overseeing U.S. intelligence matters that her office is assessing the potential risk to national security that would have resulted from disclosure of the material Trump was holding.
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Tigrayan Forces Deny Taking Town in Amhara Region

Posted on by SeeAF

A spokesman for forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray region is denying a report that Tigrayan forces have captured a town in the neighboring Amhara region. Renewed clashes broke out last week between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Ethiopian government after a five-month lull.

On Sunday night, some international media reported that the TPLF had entered the Amhara region town of Weldiya. Speculation also spread on social media.

However, Monday, a TPLF representative told VOA that these claims were false, saying Tigrayan forces have not “yet” entered the town.

So far, the renewed fighting has been centered around the town of Kobo farther north.

Weldiya sits just over 300 kilometers from Addis Ababa and is a strategic point on the road leading south from the Tigray region’s capital, Mekelle, to Addis Ababa.

Any movement by the TPLF farther south could set alarm bells ringing for the federal government. Last year, the TPLF came within 200 kilometers from Addis after it took the town of Dessie on the same road.

Both the Ethiopian government and the TPLF have blamed each other for triggering the clashes last week that ended a five-month cease-fire in Ethiopia’s civil war.

On Friday, it was reported that an Ethiopian government airstrike hit a kindergarten in Tigray, killing at least seven people.

The government accused the TPLF of staging images of the attack.
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US Navy Turns to Driverless Ships for Indo-Pacific Strategy

Posted on by SeeUS

As the U.S. military continues to consider China’s military strength in the Indo-Pacific region, the U.S. Navy is turning to driverless ships to multiply its forces. VOA’s Jessica Stone takes us along for a closer look at this military innovation. Camera: Keith Lane
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Angola’s President, MPLA Party Declared Winner of Divisive Election

Posted on by SeeAF

Angola’s electoral commission on Monday declared the ruling MPLA, in power for nearly five decades, the winner of last week’s national election, handing President Joao Lourenco a second term. 

The election commission gave the ex-Marxist People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) a 51.17% majority after all votes were counted while its longtime opponent, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, got 43.95%, its best result ever. 

Fewer than half of Angola’s registered voters turned out for Wednesday’s election, which despite being the closest fought yet, will extend the rule of MPLA to beyond 50 years since independence from Portugal in 1975. 

UNITA leader Adalberto Costa Junior has rejected the results, citing discrepancies between the commission’s count and the main opposition coalition’s own tally. 

He did not immediately respond to the final results announcement. 

Analysts fear any dispute could ignite mass street protests and possible violence among a poor and frustrated youth who voted for Junior. 

The announcement came a day after the funeral of Angola’s long-serving ex-ruler and MPLA stalwart, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died in Spain in July, so security in the capital Luanda was tight. 

 
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Germany Secures Link to Planned Baltic Sea Renewable Energy Island

Posted on by SeeEU

Germany has secured a power link to a planned offshore wind hub in the Danish part of the Baltic Sea that will help reduce energy dependence on Russia, Denmark’s energy ministry said on Monday.

The planned energy hub on the island of Bornholm will by 2030 link several offshore wind parks in the Baltic Sea with a total generating capacity of at least 3 gigawatts, enough to power 4.5 million German households, the ministry said in a statement.

The hub will be connected to Germany via a 470 kilometer power cable.

Investment and future profit will be shared equally between Germany and Denmark, the statement said without giving financial details.

“The Danish-German cooperation is a flagship project,” Germany’s Minister of Economy and Climate, Robert Habeck, said in the statement.

“The green electricity from Bornholm Energy Island will supplement the national electricity production and reduce our dependence on importing fossil energy,” he said.

Last year, the two countries began operating a smaller cross-border cable that also connects several wind farms in the Baltic Sea.

Bornholm Energy Island is part of Denmark’s broader plan to increase domestic offshore wind power production five-fold by 2030.

Early plans by Northern European countries to create a common power grid under the North Sea to connect future offshore wind farms have faced financing and regulatory challenges.

Denmark will host an energy summit on the Baltic Sea island on Tuesday.
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Norwegian CO2 Storage Company Agrees to Store Emissions Captured at Fertilizer Maker

Posted on by SeeEU

Norwegian carbon dioxide (CO2) storage company Northern Lights and its owners have agreed to store emissions captured at fertilizer maker Yara’s Dutch operation from 2025 in what they say is a commercial breakthrough for the business. 

The joint venture founded by oil companies Equinor, TotalEnergies and Shell plans to inject CO2 from industrial plants into rock formations beneath the North Sea ocean floor. 

“With the first commercial agreement for transportation and storage of CO2, we open a value chain that is critical for the world to reach net zero by 2050,” Equinor Chief Executive Anders Opedal said in a statement. 

Under the deal with Yara, 800,000 tons of CO2 per year will be transported on ships from the Netherlands from early 2025. 

Northern Lights also has preliminary deals to store CO2 from a cement plant and a waste plant that, if confirmed, will fill the project’s phase 1 capacity of 1.5 million tons per year. 

Following the Yara deal, the partnership will now work on expansion of its storage capacity to between 5 million and 6 million tons of CO2 per year, Equinor said. 

The International Energy Agency says carbon capture and storage (CCS) is vital to reducing global CO2 emissions, including from hard-to-abate sectors such as cement production, to curb global warming. 

However, there are few commercial projects in existence. 

Norway tried a decade ago to create a carbon capture project at a gas power plant in a plan once touted as the oil-producing country’s “moon landing,” but it failed because of cost issues. 

In addition, some environmentalists say that CCS merely serves to prolong the age of burning carbon for energy and that the world needs a more decisive shift to renewables. 

Yara, one of the world’s largest fertilizer manufacturers, uses natural gas in its production processes and has long sought solutions to cutting the resulting emissions. 

France’s TotalEnergies said the deal to transport CO2 to Norway and store it 2,600 meters (8,500 feet) under the seabed was a breakthrough for commercial CCS operations. 

“TotalEnergies aims to develop CO2 storage capacity of more than 10 million tons per year by 2030, both for its own facilities and for its customers,” Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said in a separate statement. 
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Strike Deadlock Shuts Nigerian Universities for Months

Posted on by SeeAF

Adenekan Ayomide had been attending the University of Abuja for two years when the lecturers went on strike in February. The 27-year-old undergraduate student hoped he would return to school quickly but immediately took a job as a taxi driver to pay bills.

Unfortunately for him, the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities has now clocked six months and Ayomide’s hopes of returning to classes anytime soon grow thin.

“Nobody is talking about school again,” said Ayomide, who said he is working more than one job and the budget he had for getting through university now looks unrealistic.

University strikes are common in Nigeria, which has more than 100 public universities and an estimated 2.5 million students, according to Nigeria’s National Universities Commission. The universities here have recorded at least 15 strikes covering a cumulative period of four years since 2000.

The latest strike, however, is biting harder on an education sector that is struggling to recover from a COVID-19 lockdown and an earlier strike that lasted for most of 2020.

No alternative means of learning is provided for students because “more than 90%” of lecturers in Nigerian universities are members of the academic staff union, according to Haruna Lawal Ajo, director of public affairs at Nigeria’s universities commission.

The striking lecturers are demanding a review of their conditions of service including the platform the government uses to pay their earnings, improved funding for the universities and the payment of their salaries withheld since the strike started.

Talks between the lecturers and the government ended in deadlock this month, dashing hopes of a compromise agreement.

Lecturers have faulted the government’s position, arguing that the government has still not provided higher pay for lecturers and more funds for the education sector which it agreed to in 2009.

If the government has not fulfilled a promise made in 2009 by 2022, how can it be trusted? asked Femi Atteh, a lecturer at the University of Ilorin in northcentral Kwara state who now works with his wife to run a food retail business.

“I just see ASUU (the union) trying to fight for the rights of its people. … Nigerian lecturers are far behind in terms of welfare when compared to others,” said Atteh.

Atteh said some of his colleagues are moving abroad for better opportunities and improved pay.

“Our situation in this country is just in a sorry state,” said lecturer Sabi Sani at the University of Abuja. After 12 years of teaching, Sani said his monthly salary is “not even enough to pay my children’s school fees.”

He said that when “more lecturers realize they can migrate, we will be left with unqualified lecturers to teach our children (because) all the qualified ones will run away.”

It is not just lecturers who are eyeing relocation for better opportunities.

Amidat Ahmed, a 22-year-old economics student at the University of Abuja said the strike has prevented her from getting clearance that would see her wrap up her undergraduate studies in the school because lectures are not available. She is now considering going abroad for a fresh undergraduate degree program.

“My life is stagnant,” said Ahmed who said she is working two jobs including one as a shoemaker where she is learning the skill to set up a business later in life.

It is a case of using the lemons to make lemonade, she said.

“Apart from this (learning the shoe-making trade), I don’t think I have done anything with my life all this while and it has been six months.”

Across Nigeria, students are looking for work to survive. Rent and other bills have accumulated, making things worse for many from poor backgrounds in this nation with a 40% poverty rate, according to the latest government statistics.

Some students’ financial situation is better when school is in session as a small proportion of the students get funding provided by nonprofits and government agencies.

After the latest round of talks to end the strike was unsuccessful, Ayomide remained on the roads as a taxi driver.

“I don’t have 5 naira ($0.012) in my account and I cannot go home because there is no money,” said Ayomide. His only option is to work long hours, he said. “Sometimes, I sleep at the airport or inside the car.”

“We just have to double our hustle and hope for the best,” he said. “This is the country where we are, so we have no choice.”
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