Month: August 2022

Nigerian Police Deploy Massively in Abuja

Posted on by SeeAF

Nigerian police have increased security around the capital of Abuja after last week’s ambush of presidential guards in a suburb and a deadly attack on a military checkpoint.

Nigerian media reported two soldiers were killed in the July 28 attack and others were injured. The attack came just weeks after a brazen jailbreak in Abuja that freed hundreds, including high profile terrorism convicts.

The reinforcement was announced Tuesday by national police spokesperson Muyiwa Adejobi, following a national security management team meeting held in Abuja.

Adejobi said the police have ordered a massive deployment of operatives and operational assets around the capital but did disclose how many more officers will be deployed.

Adejobi did not respond to VOA’s request for more details on Wednesday. But Abuja police spokesperson Josephine Adeh told VOA the decision to withhold operational details was in the interest of security.

“Crimes have taken a new trend and we too are strategizing, that’s all,” Adeh said. “We are doing more deployment, that is the strategy we’re taking. You’ll see more visibility policing.”

The massive deployment comes amid rising security threats in the Nigerian capital, even though authorities have told citizens not to worry.

Local media reported two soldiers were killed during an attack on a military checkpoint in Niger state near Abuja last Thursday.

It was the second recent attack in Abuja blamed on the militant group Islamic State West Africa Province. An attack last month on an Abuja prison freed about 440 inmates, including many alleged terrorists.

The American non-profit SITE intelligence group said Friday’s attack was an indication that the Islamic State group has drawn too close to the Nigerian capital.

Police spokesperson Adeh said residents should trust the security forces.

“We’ve always been assuring the residents that everything is under control but they choose to believe fake news and whatever they see on social media,” she said. “There’s no cause for alarm. People should go about their lawful businesses.”

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned latest attacks in the country and said he had “given security forces full freedom to bring an end to this madness.”

But security analyst Senator Ireogbu said authorities have failed to deliver on its promise to make the country safe.

“Though we have a very faulty security architecture, the security apparatus can effectively deal with the problem arising from these terrorists,” Ireogbu said. “The challenge we’re having is that the political will is not there, especially from the presidency, they keep on pushing, outsourcing the blames to others, not taking responsibility.”

Nigeria faces growing insecurity, especially in its northern states.

Last week, an Abuja-based security and risk management firm, Beacon Security Consulting, said violent attacks in Nigeria increased by 47% in the first half of the year compared to 2021.
…

your ad here

Malawi Government Stops Plans to ‘Export’ Unemployed Nurses

Posted on by SeeAF

Malawi’s nurses’ union is urging President Lazarus Chakwera to allow about 2,000 nurses to work in the United States and Saudi Arabia, after the government ordered the plan be stopped.

The National Organization of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi (NONM) announced the plan a month ago, saying the nurses were forced to take jobs abroad due to high unemployment in Malawi. The health care brain drain raised concerns, and the Ministry of Labor on August 2  ordered the plan canceled, saying the union has no legal mandate on labor migration.  

Malawi’s Minister of Labor Vera Kantukule told VOA on August 2 that the decision to suspend the plans was made after considering that NONM is just a union of medical workers. 

“What we told them is that if you want to be doing this thing, then you probably have to register a separate identity that will be doing the recruitment but you, the way you are, your mandate does not allow you to engage yourself in labor migration,” Kantukule said. 

Kantukule said there was also a need for a memorandum of understanding between the countries where the nurses are going to work and the Malawi government, before the nurses’ organization can proceed with its plans.

The labor minister said Malawi is among the countries where the World Health Organization has put restrictions on medical workers’ migration. 

“Last time, we had an inquiry from Scotland. One of the hospitals in Scotland wanted to do this,” Kantukule said. “And the Scottish government got a response from the WHO saying ‘Malawi is on the list of those countries that you cannot take their health personnel.'”    

Shouts Simeza, president of the nurses’ organization in Malawi, said he is surprised by the ministry’s position. 

“The minister cannot cancel this thing. The minister has no mandate all together to tell us we don’t have the mandate, that’s being rude, in fact,” Simeza said. “And it is the government that has identified us as NONM to facilitate this. And the government has often said that it is not the only entity to recruit, that’s what the head of state Lazarus Chakwera says, ‘job creation campaign.’ And that’s exactly what we are doing.”   

Simeza said the decision to seek jobs for nurses abroad came because 3,000 trained nurses in Malawi are unemployed. 

Simeza said the earlier arrangement was that the first group of 1,000 nurses was expected to leave for Saudi Arabia this month. The plan is to send 1,000 each year for a five-year project. 

But he said there was a delay because they were waiting for guidelines from various ministries including the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Labor on how to move forward. 

“The team that we are sending out are our members, our members,” Simeza said. “They are not employed by a government ministry. So they don’t belong to any ministry, they don’t. So we went seeking guidance from the Ministry of Labor on the safety and security of the membership that are going to the U.S. [and] Saudi Arabia.” 

The Malawi government said recently that it cannot recruit more nurses now, because of financial constraints.     

In a statement August 2, a group of Malawi’s nurses and midwives urged Chakwera to intervene and prevent the Ministry of Labor from halting the plan to send some of them abroad to work. 

There was no immediate response from Chakwera on the matter. 

 
…

your ad here

Jews’ Silence Undermines Russia’s Claim of ‘Denazifying’ Ukraine

Posted on by SeeEU

From the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Jewish community in Russia has not explicitly supported the military actions of the Kremlin, thus undermining President Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russian forces are on a mission to denazify Ukraine. Russian Jews avoid talking about this issue, and many have chosen to leave the country. Marcus Harton narrates this report from VOA’s Moscow Bureau.
…

your ad here

Cold Showers, No Lights: Europe Saves as Russian Gas Wanes

Posted on by SeeEU

PARIS – Fanning out like urban guerrillas through Paris’ darkened streets well after midnight, the anti-waste activists shinny up walls and drain pipes, reaching for switches to turn off the lights.

Click. Click. Click.

One by one, the outdoor lights that stores had left on are extinguished. It’s one small but symbolic step in a giant leap of energy saving that Europe is trying to make as it rushes to wean itself off natural gas and oil from Russia so factories aren’t forced to close and homes stay heated and powered.

Engineer Kevin Ha and his equally nimble friends had been acting against wasteful businesses in Paris long before Russia started cutting energy supplies to Europe in a battle of wills over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. As such, the campaigners were precursors of the energy economy drive becoming all the rage in France, Germany and elsewhere. Their message — that everyone can contribute — is almost word-for-word what public officials from cabinet ministers to mayors are saying now, too.

“Everyone can have a positive impact at their own level, by adopting good practices, by doing the right things to reduce their overall energy footprint,” the 30-year-old Ha said on a recent night of light-extinguishing on the Champs-Élysées boulevard.

The stakes are high. If Russia severs the supplies of gas it has already drastically reduced, authorities fear Europe risks becoming a colder, darker and less-productive place this winter. It’s imperative to economize gas now so it can be squirreled away for burning later in homes, factories and power plants, officials say.

“Europe needs to be ready,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “To make it through the winter, assuming that there is a full disruption of Russian gas, we need to save gas to fill our gas storages faster. And to do so, we have to reduce our gas consumption. I know that this is a big ask for the whole of the European Union, but it is necessary to protect us.”

And although Europe is scrambling to get energy from elsewhere, any difficulties this winter could be a harbinger of worse to come if Russian gas supplies are completely severed and stay off through 2023, said France’s minister overseeing energy, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

“If gas deliveries are cut by the end of the year, that will mean we’ll have a full year without Russian gas, so the following winter could be even harder,” Pannier-Runacher told French senators.

Hence the mounting appeals — already familiar to exasperated parents of wasteful teenagers everywhere — for Europeans to take shorter showers, switch off power sockets and otherwise do what they can.

Germany had been getting about a third of its gas from Russia, making the EU’s biggest economy and most populous nation conspicuously vulnerable. Energy saving is in full swing, with lights going off, public pools becoming chilier and thermostats being adjusted.

The glass dome of the Reichstag, the parliament building in Berlin, is going dark after it closes to visitors at midnight, and two facades will no longer be lit. Legislators’ office temperatures will drop by 2 degrees to 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) this winter. Berlin City Hall, the Jewish Museum, two opera houses and the landmark Victory Column with panoramic views are among about 200 sites in the German capital that will no longer be lit at night.

Saunas are closing in Munich’s municipal swimming pools, which have chillier water now, too. There’ll only be cold showers at public pools in Hannover, part of a plan by the northern city to cut its energy use by 15%.

“The sum of all the contributions will help us get through this winter and be prepared for the next one,” said Robert Habeck, Germany’s vice chancellor and economy minister. He also told news weekly Der Spiegel he has slashed the time he spends showering.

“It will be a demanding, stony road, but we can manage it,” he said.

With a campaign dubbed “Flip the Switch,” the Netherlands’ government is urging showers of no more than five minutes, using sun shades and fans instead of air conditioning, and air-drying laundry.

Under a law passed Monday in often-sweltering Spain, offices, stores and hospitality venues will no longer be allowed to set their thermostats below 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer, nor raise them above 19 degrees Celsius in winter.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez asked office workers to ditch neckties, presumably to lessen the temptation to use air conditioning. He led by example, appearing at a news conference in an open-necked shirt.

The Italian government also is recommending limits on heating and cooling in public buildings.

In France, the government is targeting a 10% reduction in energy use by 2024, with an “energy sobriety” drive. Mayors are also waging their own war on waste, with fines introduced for air-conditioned or heated stores that leave front doors open; others are working to limit the pain of soaring energy prices.

The 8,000 residents of Aureilhan, in the foothills of the Pyrenees in southwestern France, have been adjusting to nights without street lights since July 11. Extinguishing all 1,770 of them from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. will save money that Mayor Yannick Boubée would rather spend on roads and other maintenance. Otherwise, he said, the town’s 84,000-euro ($86,000) lighting bill in 2021 was on course to nearly triple next year.

“When it comes down to it, there’s no reason to keep the lights on at night,” he said by phone. “It is shaking up our way of thinking.”

Next will be convincing townspeople to agree to less-heated classrooms when schools reopen.

“We’re going to ask parents to put a pullover on their children, all measures that don’t cost anything,” he said. “We have no choice, unfortunately.”
…

your ad here

Millions of Hungry People in Horn of Africa Resort to Extreme Measures

Posted on by SeeAF

The World Health Organization warns a lack of humanitarian aid is driving millions of hungry people in the Horn of Africa to engage in desperate measures to survive.

Conditions in the Horn of Africa are worsening. Conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic have turned the region into a hunger hotspot. That is having disastrous consequences for the health and lives of millions of people.

A recent U.N. analysis of the food situation in the region found 37 to 50 million people as being in what is classified as IPC phase 3. The World Health Organization explains that level of food insecurity forces people to sell their possessions to feed themselves and their families. At that stage of crisis, it says malnutrition is rife and special nutritional treatment is needed.

Sophie Maes is the WHO incident manager for drought and food insecurity in the greater Horn of Africa. Speaking from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, she says the WHO and other aid agencies are unable to provide the help needed to stave off hunger and ill health because of a severe funding shortage.

“Normally what you do in this kind of situation is you do blanket supplementary feeding so that people do not slide further into malnutrition,” said Maes. “This is not being well funded at the moment due to the competing crises that are going on.”

She notes the World Food Program ran out of money and had to cut rations for many beneficiaries to be able to support those most in need. She says health risks have been compounded by four years of consecutive drought. She says the hoped-for reprieve is unlikely to come as forecasts indicate the upcoming rainy season is expected to fail.

She says growing numbers of people are engaging in risky behavior just to get something to eat and support their families.

“People are desperate to get money. So, there is survival sex going on. There is more violence, fighting for the meager resources. And, also, gender-based violence going up with women having to go farther to find food and water,” said Maes. “So, as they are further away from where they live, they are more prone to be attacked.”

The WHO says it needs nearly $124 million to spend through the end of the year to protect lives in the fragile region. It says the money will provide millions of people with the aid they need to fight disease outbreaks, provide life-saving nutritional feeding for severely malnourished children, and ensure they have access to health services.
…

your ad here

Inflation Weighs on Back-to-School Buying for Many Families

Posted on by SeeUS

To understand the impact of surging inflation on this year’s back-to-school spending, look no further than children’s rain boots with motifs like frogs and ladybugs made by Washington Shoe Co.

Spending held steady for these evergreen items even after the Kent, Washington-based business was forced to pass along 15% price increases in January to its retail clients because of soaring transportation costs. But by May, as gas and food prices also surged, shoppers abruptly shifted away from the $35 higher-end rain boots to the no-frills versions that run $5 to $10 cheaper, its CEO Karl Moehring said.

“We are seeing consumers shift down,” said Moehring, noting dramatic 20% sales swings in opposite directions for both types of products. “Wages are not keeping up with inflation.”

This back-to-school shopping season, parents — particularly in the low to middle income bracket — are focusing on the basics while also trading down to cheaper stores amid surging inflation, which hit a new 40-year high in June.

Last week, Walmart noted higher prices on gas and food are forcing shoppers to make fewer purchases of discretionary items, particularly clothing. Best Buy, the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain, cited that inflation has dampened consumer spending on gadgets. Both companies cut their profit forecasts as a result.

Such financial struggles amid the industry’s second-most important shopping season behind the winter holidays mark a big difference from a year ago when many low-income shoppers, flush with government stimulus and buoyed by wage increases, spent freely.

Matt Priest, CEO of trade group Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America, noted that last year, the group’s retail members saw a noticeable uptick in online sales mid-month when shoppers received their monthly child tax credit checks that amounted to a couple of hundred dollars. This season, without that bump, he expects shoppers will buy fewer shoes for their children and rely on private label brands.

Inflation has squeezed household finances for Jessica Reyes, 34, who took her daughters Jalysa, 7, and Jenesis, 5, to a “Back to School Bash” event last month in the Chicago’s northside that offered free backpacks filled with supplies for students.

“I feel like everything is going up these days,” she said at the event. ”We’re a one-income household right now … so I think it’s greatly affected us in all areas, in bills and in house necessities and school necessities.”

Out shopping, her girls were drawn to the school supplies featuring TV characters and animals they love, but she’ll focus on the plain versions.

“They want the cute ones, you know, the kitty ones. And those are always more expensive than the simple ones. And same thing with folders, or notebooks, or pencils,” Reyes said.

Earlier, Manny Colon and his daughters Jubilee, 8, and Audrey, 5, stopped by the back-to-school event to pick out backpacks.

Colon, 38, works at his daughters’ elementary school. He said his spouse has had to pick up extra work because of high prices for school supplies, groceries and gas.

“I think it’s definitely impacted us,” he said.

Multiple forecasts point to a solid back-to-school shopping season.

Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending across all payment forms including cash, forecasts back-to-school spending will be up 7.5% from July 14 through Sept. 5 compared with the year-ago period when sales rose 11%. For the 2020 back-to-school period, sales fell 0.8% as the pandemic wreaked havoc on schools’ reopening plans and back-to-school shopping.

Still, higher prices are propping up much of the numbers.

A basket of roughly a dozen supply items showed a price increase of nearly 15% on average for this back-to-school season compared with a year ago, according to retail analytics firm DataWeave. The price of backpacks are up nearly 12% to an average of $70, for example.

Back 2 School America, an Illinois-based nonprofit that distributes back-to-school kits to kids from low-income families, has seen “a significant increase in costs of supplies,” including a 10% increase from their vendor with another possible mark-up on the way, said the organization’s CEO Matthew Kurtzman. And shipping costs have also gone up.

Thanks to increased support this year, Back 2 School America will be able to cover the new costs and is on track to distribute more kits than ever before — 12,000 so far, and more than 30,000 by the end of August, Kurtzman said. But the funding isn’t guaranteed in the future as worries about a recession increase.

Retailers face big challenges to get shoppers to spend, particularly on clothing.

Walmart said last week it was taking extra discounts on clothing to clear out inventory. Analysts believe those sales will exert more pressure on other rivals to discount more to stay competitive. However, Walmart said it’s encouraged by the early signs for sales of school supplies.

Meanwhile, Gap’s low-price Old Navy division is guaranteeing a price freeze on its denim from July 29 through the end of September.

As for Washington Shoe, Moehring said he’s shifting production away from higher priced children’s boots to more value-priced products in the months ahead. The company still sees annual sales ahead of last year, but he’s being cautious.

“I believe it is a muddy outlook,” he said.
…

your ad here

Pelosi Meets Taiwan Lawmakers in Taipei

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met Taiwan political leaders in the capital, Taipei, Wednesday, as China showed its dissatisfaction over the visit by conducting military maneuvers outside the territory it claims as its own. VOA’s Michael Brown reports.
…

your ad here

US Voters Cast Primary Ballots

Posted on by SeeUS

Voters in multiple U.S. states cast ballots Tuesday in primary elections ahead of the November general elections that will decide control of the U.S. congress. 

In the state of Arizona, Karrin Taylor Robson led Kari Lake in the Republican race for governor with more than half the ballots counted.  Lake has the backing of former U.S. President Donald Trump, whose support is being closely watched ahead of the November vote. 

The winner will advance to face Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, in the general election. 

A U.S. Senate seat will also be on the November ballot in Arizona with incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly facing reelection.  Trump-backed Blake Masters was leading Jim Lamon with more than half the votes counted. 

The race for Arizona secretary of state featured Mark Finchem, another Trump-backed candidate who was at the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Finchem was leading three other Republicans early Wednesday. 

Voters in the U.S. state of Kansas rejected a constitutional amendment that would have removed abortion protections. 

It was the first time U.S. voters decided an abortion-related matter since the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision overturning a longstanding constitutional right to end a pregnancy. 

In another Kansas vote, state Attorney General Derek Schmidt won the Republican nomination for governor. Trump supported Schmidt, who will go up against Democratic Governor Laura Kelly in the November election. 

In the state of Michigan, Republican Tudor Dixon won the party’s nomination to face Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Dixon is among a group of Republican candidates who have supported Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 presidential election. 

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Talib won her primary election by a wide margin.   

Two other Michigan lawmakers, Congresswoman Haley Stevens and Congressman Andy Levin faced off against each other in a Democratic primary due to the fact that the state lost one of its seats in the House of Representatives in the latest round of redistricting.  Stevens prevailed and will face Republican Mark Ambrose in the general election. 

In Missouri, Democratic Congresswoman Cori Bush also handily won a spot on the November ballot. 

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt won the Republican race to oppose Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine, an heiress to the Anheuser-Busch beer fortune, in a November election for a seat in the U.S. Senate. 

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

your ad here

US Says Terror Threat Hasn’t Died With al-Qaida Leader

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S.-directed killing of al-Qaida’s leader in Afghanistan was a blow to the terror group’s leadership, but will it affect its offshoots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia? The White House says it’s not taking its eyes off any terror threats that arise, and terrorism researchers say the U.S. needs to be vigilant and patient. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
…

your ad here

Guatemala Arrests Migrant Smugglers Wanted by the US

Posted on by SeeUS

At dawn, police and federal agents with cover from helicopters flying overhead raided a large ranch nestled among the mountains of northern Guatemala, not far from the border with Mexico.

Unlike the ranch’s impoverished neighbors, inside authorities found horse stables, a swimming pool, late-model vehicles, guns and Felipe Diego Alonso, the alleged leader of a smuggling ring that moved migrants from Guatemala north to the United States.

The raid was part of several carried out Tuesday in four Guatemalan provinces against a migrant smuggling ring, for which authorities say they’ve documented $2 million in revenue since 2019.

Alonzo and three others arrested Tuesday were targets of U.S. prosecutors, wanted in connection with the death of a Guatemalan migrant in Texas last year. In total, authorities nabbed 19 alleged members of the smuggling ring.

The arrests came a month after 53 migrants, including 21 Guatemalans, died in a failed smuggling attempt when they were abandoned inside a sweltering trailer in San Antonio, Texas. There was no indication those arrested Tuesday were involved in the San Antonio tragedy.

The extradition of alleged migrant smugglers known as “coyotes” has been rare and these would be the first known cases in Guatemala of smugglers allegedly pursued for the death of a migrant in the United States.

Prosecutions of migrant smugglers in Guatemala have proven exceedingly difficult because migrants are almost never willing to identify or testify against their smugglers. In some cases, they hope for another chance to migrate to the United States with the smuggler’s help. In others, they are afraid of the smugglers or their organized crime connections.

Alonzo, appearing groggy in blue jeans and a white golf shirt, said he was an onion grower who also sometimes sold land and automobiles.

Some of the detainees were flown to Guatemala City for their initial court appearances.

The arrests come at a time of heightened tensions between Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei and Washington.

The Biden administration has been outspoken in its criticism of perceived backsliding on corruption prosecutions. The U.S. government sanctioned Guatemala’s Attorney General Consuelo Porras, alleging she was an obstacle to anti-corruption work and was now pursuing judges and prosecutors who had worked on corruption cases.

It was the Attorney General’s Office, backed by National Police, that carried out the raids near the northern town of Huehuetenango at dawn Tuesday.

“This was an organized group dedicated to getting migrants with the proposal of transporting them to Mexico and then to the United States,” said Stuardo Campo, Guatemala’s prosecutor for migrant trafficking.

He said that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had supported the operation. Guatemalan authorities had documented 11 operations by the smuggling network to move migrants since last October, but Campo did not say how many migrants were smuggled.

The four people arrested at the request of U.S. authorities are allegedly linked to the death of Marta Raymundo Corio who was found dead near Odessa, Texas, after being smuggled through Mexico in early 2021.

Campo said the woman had died in a warehouse in Texas due to a lack of food and water and her relatives had requested the help of authorities in determining what had happened.

As Alonzo was led away Tuesday, he told authorities to take care of his animals. Speaking Kanjobal, an Indigenous language, he said “I’d rather they eat than I eat.”
…

your ad here

State Department Prepares New Focus on Cyber Diplomacy

Posted on by SeeUS

President Joe Biden’s nominee to become the first U.S. ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy faces a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday as the administration pushes forward with an effort to assert U.S. leadership in the development of global standards and best practices for the modern internet. 

Nate Fick, a technology company executive and former U.S. Marine, is in line to fill the position, which will place him in charge of the recently created bureau within the State Department. 

In announcing the formation of the new bureau last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has “a major stake in shaping the digital revolution that’s happening around us and making sure that it serves our people, protects our interests, boosts our competitiveness, and upholds our values.” 

That includes developing policies meant to deter countries such as China, Russia and North Korea, which the U.S. has accused of financing malign online activity, including hacking private businesses and meddling in U.S. elections. 

Necessary step 

Experts say the creation of the new bureau and the placement of Fick at its head, should he be confirmed, will help establish certainty about U.S. policy related to the internet. The bureau combines three pre-existing policy units within the State Department: International Cyberspace Security, International Information and Communications Policy, and Digital Freedom.  

Adam Segal, director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said U.S. efforts to focus its approach to digital diplomacy have been haphazard, starting strong at the end of the Obama administration, but fizzling in later years. 

“We kind of dropped the ball on it,” Segal told VOA. “And in that time, lots of other countries developed their own cyber ambassadors. The U.S. efforts on the international stage have been somewhat uncoordinated and kind of coming from many different angles. It also meant that many people just had no idea who to talk to.” 

Major opportunity 

James A. Lewis, senior vice president and director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA that if Fick is confirmed, he will come to the job at a moment where American leadership could be critical to the way policies shaping the modern internet evolve around the world. 

“There’s a real opportunity here for the U.S. to think about how we shape the rules and institutions that will govern technology that will govern cyberspace,” he said. 

“Challenge 1 for the U.S. is to work with other democracies to come up with rules, and maybe institutions, for security and digital policy,” he said. “Challenge 2 … is to come up with the right kind of diplomatic strategies, the right kind of international policies to deal with some very aggressive opponents. And it’s not just hacking. It’s not election interference. It’s a battle over who controls the digital environment.”

Arguing against authoritarianism 

Lewis said that, globally, there are two leading approaches to regulating activity in cyberspace. In North America, Europe and among many American allies in the Pacific, the tendency is toward lighter regulation biased in favor of the free flow of information. At the same time, countries such as Russia, China and Iran sharply limit the flow of information to and among their citizens. 

“But then there’s everyone else, mainly in the developing world,” Lewis said. “And they’re kind of fence-sitters. Their thing is, ‘Tell me what works best for my economy. Tell me what works best for my national sovereignty.'” 

Lewis said the task facing the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy is to make the case for developing countries to incorporate openness and freedom into their regulation of the internet rather than authoritarian control. 

“That’s where the new bureau has a challenge, but also an opportunity,” he said. 

Former marine 

A native of the U.S. state of Maryland, Fick graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in classics and immediately joined the Marine Corps as a second lieutenant in 1999. He was still in the Marines when the 9/11 attacks ushered in the global war on terror, and he ended up serving combat tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

During his time in Iraq, Fick’s platoon was accompanied by Rolling Stone magazine journalist Evan Wright for several months. Wright’s subsequent book, “Generation Kill,” won several awards for its unflinching description of the reaclities of modern combat and was turned into a miniseries by HBO. Fick is a featured character in the story. 

Fick is also an accomplished writer. His memoir, “One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer,” was a New York Times bestseller. 

After leaving the Marines, Fick earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School. He was CEO of the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based national security think tank, before becoming CEO of Endgame, a cybersecurity software firm that was acquired by the cloud computing firm Elastic in 2019. 

Having worked with Fick in the past, Segal of the Council on Foreign Relations said he is “very familiar with all the issues that the ambassador is going to have to deal with.” 

He described Fick as “extremely straightforward, very open and friendly. He’s got a pretty good sense of humor.”  

Segal said he expects Fick’s background with technology companies will be a major asset if he is confirmed. 
…

your ad here

Britain’s Conservative Party Voting for Next PM Delayed After Hacking Alert

Posted on by SeeEU

Voting by Britain’s Conservative Party members to pick the next prime minister has been delayed after a British spy agency warned that cyber hackers could change people’s ballots, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

There was no specific threat from a hostile state, and the advice was more general and about the voting process and its vulnerabilities, report added.

As a result of the concerns, the Conservative Party has been forced to abandon plans to allow members to change their vote for the next leader later in the contest, according to The Telegraph.

Postal ballots are also yet to be issued to the around 160,000 party members who have now been warned they could arrive as late as Aug. 11, the report added. The ballots were earlier due to be sent out from Monday, The Telegraph reported.

Former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss are competing in the leadership contest to succeed Boris Johnson as the next British prime minister.

Truss leads in opinion polls among Conservative Party members, who will decide who becomes the next prime minister on Sept. 5 after weeks of voting.

The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) gathers communications from around the world to identify and disrupt threats to Britain. A spokesperson for the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is a part of the GCHQ, said that it provided advice to the Conservative Party.

“Defending UK democratic and electoral processes is a priority for the NCSC and we work closely with all Parliamentary political parties, local authorities and MPs to provide cyber security guidance and support,” an NCSC spokesperson told Reuters.

“As you would expect from the UK’s national cyber security authority we provided advice to the Conservative Party on security considerations for online leadership voting,” the spokesperson added.
…

your ad here

Justice Department Investigating More Than 100 Cases of Threats Against Election Workers

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating more than 100 cases of threats made against local election officials over the past year, most of them in states that former President Donald Trump lost to President Joe Biden during the 2020 election.

The disclosure was made Monday by the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force during a briefing for a bipartisan group of about 750 election officials and workers.

The task force has reviewed more than 1,000 “contacts” reported as “hostile or harassing” by election workers, determining that 11% of the contacts — made by phone, email, social media, or in person — met the Justice Department’s threshold to open a federal criminal investigation.

That amounts to roughly 110 threats under investigation. But because many of the cases under investigation involved more than one threat, the actual number of ongoing probes is far less than 110, a department spokesman explained.

The task force was set up in June 2021 in response to growing threats against election workers in the aftermath of the contentious 2020 presidential election. Its members review threats reported to the FBI, which has appointed an election crime coordinator at each of its 56 field offices.

The 1,000-plus harassing and hostile contacts made to election officials covered the period from June 2021 to June 2022. The trend continued in July, the task force told the election officials, according to Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, who attended the briefing.

Fifty-eight percent of the potentially criminal threats reported during the 12 months were made in states where Trump challenged his electoral loss or where officials held post-election recounts and audits. These were Arizona, Georgia, Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin.

In total, 89% of the contacts made to election officials were deemed protected speech and could not be investigated.

“A lot of the questions were aimed at ‘Wait. Really? You can only investigate 11% of cases?’ And them saying, ‘Yes, I’m sorry but we can only investigate things not protected by First Amendment,’” Albert said.

Since its inception last year, the task force has faced criticism for not aggressively investigating and prosecuting threats against election officials.

To date, the group has filed charges in four federal cases and said it expects additional prosecutions in the near future.

In the first conviction secured by the unit, a Nebraska man pleaded guilty in June to threatening an election worker on an Instagram page associated with the official.

“Do you feel safe? You shouldn’t,” Travis Ford allegedly wrote. “Do you think Soros will/can protect you?” and “Your security detail is far too thin and incompetent to protect you. This world is unpredictable these days … anything can happen to anyone.”

Barb Byrum, the Ingham County Clerk in Michigan, said while her office has not received any threats, she knows of other election officials in Michigan who have been the target of “vile messages.”

“One of the email responses that I heard was, if you send me any more emails about this election, I’m going to slit your throat,” Byrum said in an interview with VOA.

The Ingham County Clerk’s office continues to receive messages from people who are convinced that elections are not “safe and secure.”

“And it is very concerning that these same individuals are grocery shopping right next door to election administrators,” she said. “They are in the same school pickup line as me.”

Byrum said the DOJ election threats task force can have a mitigating effect on threats against election workers.

“When people are finally being held accountable, I think the attacks and harassment will decrease,” Byrum said.
…

your ad here

Explainer: Why Pelosi Went to Taiwan, and Why China’s Angry

Posted on by SeeUS

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flew into Taiwan on an Air Force passenger jet Tuesday, she became the highest-ranking American official in 25 years to visit the self-ruled island. China announced military maneuvers in retaliation, even as Taiwanese officials welcomed her and she headed to her hotel.

The reason her visit ratcheted up tension between China and the United States: China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, and it views visits by foreign government officials as them recognizing the island’s sovereignty.

President Joe Biden has sought to calm that complaint, insisting there’s no change in America’s longstanding “one-China policy,” which recognizes Beijing but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei.

Pelosi portrays her high-profile trip as part of a U.S. obligation to stand with democracies against autocratic countries, and with democratic Taiwan against China.

A look at some of the issues at play:

Why did Pelosi go to Taiwan?

Pelosi has made a mission over decades of showing support for embattled democracy movements. Those include a trip in 1991 to Tiananmen Square, where she and other lawmakers unrolled a small banner supporting democracy, as frowning Chinese security officers tried to shut them down. Chinese forces had crushed a homegrown democracy movement at the same spot two years earlier.

The speaker is framing her Taiwan trip as part of a broader mission at a time when “the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.” She led a congressional delegation to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in the spring, and her latest effort serves as a capstone to her years of promoting democracy abroad.

“We must stand by Taiwan,” she said in an opinion piece published by The Washington Post on her arrival in Taiwan. She cited the commitment that the U.S. made to a democratic Taiwan under a 1979 law.

“It is essential that America and our allies make clear that we never give in to autocrats,” she wrote.

What is the U.S. stand on Taiwan?

The Biden administration, and Pelosi, say the United States remains committed to its “one-China policy.”

Taiwan and mainland China split during a civil war in 1949. But China claims the island as its own territory and has not ruled out using military force to take it.

China has been increasing both diplomatic and military pressure in recent years. It cut off all contact with Taiwan’s government in 2016 after President Tsai Ing-wen refused to endorse its claim that the island and mainland together make up a single Chinese nation, with Communist Beijing the sole legitimate government.

Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island’s decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don’t support.

How is the Chinese military handling the tension-raising trip?

Soon after Pelosi’s arrival, China announced a series of military operations and drills, which followed its promises of “resolute and strong measures” if Pelosi went through with her visit.

China’s People’s Liberation Army said the maneuvers would take place in the waters and skies near Taiwan and include the firing of long-range ammunition in the Taiwan Strait.

China’s official Xinhua News said the army planned to conduct live-fire drills from Thursday to Sunday across multiple locations. An image released by the news agency indicated that the drills were to take place in six different areas in the waters surrounding Taiwan.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said early Wednesday that China had sent 21 planes flying toward Taiwan, 18 of them fighter jets. The rest included an early warning plane and an electronic warfare plane.

How has the United States responded?

While Biden has expressed some wariness about Pelosi’s trip, the administration has not openly opposed it and said it is up to Pelosi to decide whether to go.

Ahead of Pelosi’s visit, the American military increased its movements in the Indo-Pacific region. The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group were in the Philippine Sea on Monday, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

The Reagan, the cruiser USS Antietam and the destroyer USS Higgins left Singapore after a port visit and moved north toward their home port in Japan. The carrier has an array of aircraft, including F/A-18 fighter jets and helicopters, as well as sophisticated radar systems and other weapons.

Is armed conflict a risk?

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Biden both have made clear they don’t want that. In a call with Biden last week, Xi echoed a theme of Biden’s — their countries should cooperate on areas where they can.

The biggest risk is likely an accident if China tries the kind of provocative maneuver it’s increasingly been executing with other militaries around the South China Sea. Those include close fly-bys of other aircraft or confronting vessels at sea.

However, when it comes to the United States, with the world’s strongest military, “despite a chorus of nationalistic rhetoric, China will be careful not to stumble into a conflict with colossal damages on all fronts,” said Yu Lie, a senior research fellow at the Chatham House think tank.

For China, the best approach is patience and time, Jie said — building toward the day when its economy and military could be too big for the U.S. to challenge.
…

your ad here

Tensions Rise Between Israel and Russia

Posted on by SeeEU

Tensions between Jerusalem and Moscow are rising over a Russian attempt to close the Jewish Agency office in Moscow. The quasi-governmental Jewish Agency helps Jews immigrate to Israel, but Russia says it violates local laws by gathering information on Russian citizens. Israeli officials say they believe it has more to do with growing Israeli support for Ukraine. Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem.
Videographer: Ricki Rosen
…

your ad here

What Are the Obstacles to Peace Talks in Ethiopia?

Posted on by SeeAF

Ethiopia’s government and the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front are preparing for peace talks to end the conflict that broke out in November 2020. In the town of Abala, badly damaged by the conflict, militiamen and locals say they are ready for peace, but analysts say it won’t come easy. Henry Wilkins reports from Abala, Ethiopia.
…

your ad here

US Imposes New Sanctions on Russian Elites, Including Putin’s Reported Lover

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. imposed new sanctions Tuesday targeting Russian elites, including oligarchs and a woman — one-time Olympic rhythmic gymnast champion Alina Kabaeva — often named in news reports as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lover and mother of four of his children. 

The Treasury Department froze the visa of Kabaeva, 39, and imposed other property restrictions on her. She is a former member of the Russian Duma, the country’s legislative body, and is also head of a Russian national media company that has promoted Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.  

Kremlin opponents and Putin critic Alexey Navalny have called for sanctions against Kabaeva, contending that her news outlet had taken the lead in portraying Western commentary on the invasion as a disinformation campaign. 

Britain sanctioned Kabaeva in May, and the European Union imposed travel and asset restrictions on her in June. 

Among the others sanctioned was Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, an oligarch who owns the Witanhurst estate, a 25-bedroom mansion considered to be the second-largest estate in London after Buckingham Palace. 

The U.S. also blocked movement of his $120 million yacht, the Alfa Nero, and sanctioned his son, Andrey Andreevich Guryev, and his son’s Russian investment firm, Dzhi AI Invest OOO. 

“As innocent people suffer from Russia’s illegal war of aggression, Putin’s allies have enriched themselves and funded opulent lifestyles,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. 

“Together with our allies, the United States will also continue to choke off revenue and equipment underpinning Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine.” 

The State Department also imposed additional visa restrictions and other sanctions.  

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “As Ukrainians continue to valiantly defend their homeland in the face of President Putin’s brutal war, Russia’s elite are running massive revenue-generating companies and funding their own opulent lifestyles outside of Russia. Today, the United States is taking additional actions to ensure that the Kremlin and its enablers feel the compounding effects of our response to the Kremlin’s unconscionable war of aggression.” 

 
…

your ad here

US, Taliban Exchange Blame after Al-Zawahiri’s Killing

Posted on by SeeUS

Hours before U.S. President Joe Biden announced that al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by a U.S. drone strike in central Kabul on July 30, the Taliban accused Washington of violating the February 2020 U.S.-Taliban deal known as the Doha Agreement.  

“Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the USA, Afghanistan and the region,” the Taliban said in a statement on August 1.  

U.S. officials, however, blame the Taliban for acting against their counterterrorism commitments made in the same agreement.  

“By hosting and sheltering the leader of al Qaida in Kabul, the Taliban grossly violated the Doha Agreement and repeated assurances to the world that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries,” the State Department said in a prepared statement.  

Senior U.S. officials have said that the fugitive al-Qaida leader was hosted in Kabul by the Haqqani Network, a powerful faction within the Taliban with deep ties to the Pakistani intelligence community. 

Since seizing power in Kabul last year, the Taliban have defied U.S. calls to form an inclusive Afghan government, allow women to work and get an education, and respect the rights of religious minorities.   

Washington has declined to recognize the Taliban government, has imposed strict financial sanctions on it, and has withheld from the Taliban over $7 billion of Afghanistan’s financial reserves in New York.  

Neither Washington nor Kabul has used Saturday’s drone strike in Kabul — the first such incident since the U.S. withdrew all military forces from the country last August — to indicate an end to the Doha Agreement, which has prevented direct U.S.-Taliban confrontation thus far. 

Problematic agreement   

“One of the many problems with the Doha Agreement was the lack of mechanisms for arbitration and enforcement. There is no referee, and no specific consequences for any violations. So there is nobody who can say whether the agreement is broken and the consequences would be unclear,” Graeme Smith, a senior consultant with the International Crisis Group (ICG), told VOA.  

The Doha Agreement, which has no specified end date, commits the Taliban to prevent security threats from Afghanistan to the U.S. and its allies. It also requires the Taliban not to allow any terrorist groups or individuals, including al-Qaida, to use Afghan territory against U.S. interests.  

Experts also blame the agreement for its alleged lack of clarity in regard to specific individuals like al-Zawahiri.  

“I guess the Taliban understood from it [the agreement] that they were not allowed to host any operationally active international terrorist groups, which to them did not include someone like Ayman al-Zawahiri,” Obaidullah Baheer, an Afghan analyst and a lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan, told VOA.  

Whether or not al-Zawahiri was actively threatening the security and interests of the U.S. and its allies from his home in Kabul, he was the most wanted terrorist by the U.S. government with a bounty of $25 million on his head.  

Counterterrorism ahead  

Afghanistan remains a country of serious concern for U.S. national security officials, who have said that terror groups such as Islamic State’s Khorasan Branch continue to plot against U.S. interests in the region.  

On paper, the Taliban have pledged they will not harbor terrorists that will threaten U.S. security and interests, but the drone strike on al-Zawahiri’s residence, less than two kilometers from the Taliban’s intelligence headquarters in Kabul, shows U.S. officials will take preemptive and unilateral action rather than trusting the Taliban to neutralize terror threats.  

However, the U.S. will still need the Taliban to remain committed to counterterror objectives.  

“Even if this strike hit the intended target, air power often fails to address security problems in the long term. The U.S. and its allies will probably need to work with the de facto authorities to resolve security issues eventually, even if such engagement is hard to imagine in the aftermath of this incident,” said Smith.  

A day after Washington confirmed a U.S. drone strike had killed al-Zawahiri, the Taliban offered no explanation as to how the world’s most wanted terrorist was residing in the heart of Kabul.  

U.S. officials say gunmen of the Haqqani Network took members of al-Zawahiri’s family to other locations after the strike, but it is unclear what the Taliban have done to al-Zawahiri’s corpse.  

The Taliban have repeatedly refused to cooperate with the U.S. on counterterror issues, and it is unlikely the group will share anything left from al-Zawahiri that will help U.S. intelligence to target other al-Qaida remnants. 

 
…

your ad here

US, EU Officials Urge Talks to Settle Ethiopia’s Tigray Conflict

Posted on by SeeAF

U.S. and European Union special envoys for the Horn of Africa have called on Ethiopian authorities to restore basic services to the Tigray region in order to encourage peace talks with rebels. The envoys have just completed their first trip to the region.

The officials have expressed support for attempts by the African Union to broker peace talks between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, and the federal government, after nearly two years of conflict.

In a joint statement issued after returning from Tigray’s regional capital, Mekelle, on Tuesday, Mike Hammer, the U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa and his European counterpart, Annette Weber, also called for services to be restored to the region.

Tigray has been without access to phone, internet or bank services since federal forces withdrew in June of last year, sparking accusations of a government-imposed “blockade.”

The federal government has previously said it is unable to restore services in Tigray because it is unable to safely send engineers to the region, which is under TPLF control.

But in their statement, envoys Hammer and Weber said they had been handed a letter from TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael, containing “security guarantees” for workers needed to restore services.

“With this security assurance, there should be no obstacle for the restoration of services to begin,” the envoys said.

Last week, the Ethiopian prime minister’s national security adviser, Redwan Hussein, said the government was ready for talks “without preconditions,” but the TPLF’s Debretsion has said phone and banking services should be restored before negotiations can begin.
…

your ad here

Aid Cuts Threaten DRC’s Internally Displaced

Posted on by SeeAF

The U.N. refugee agency says it will be forced to cut aid programs for millions of internally displaced people and refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo without an immediate injection of money.  

UNHCR says it has received only 19 percent of the $225 million required to run its humanitarian operation this year. That, it says, is not enough to meet the bare minimum let alone respond to the growing needs of millions of people whose lives have been shattered by conflict and violence. 

The DRC is home to the biggest displacement crisis in Africa, with more than 5.6 million internally displaced people and over half-a-million refugees and asylum-seekers. 

Dominique Hyde, director of the UNHCR’s Division for External Relations, returned from a trip last week to strife-ridden Ituri province in eastern DRC. She said she was shocked at the extent of loss and suffering experienced by survivors of ongoing fighting by the many armed groups in the province.

“There was not a single internally displaced person that I met who had not suffered the loss of a family member,” Hyde said. “I am meaning their children, their husband, their wives. Or in the case of women who had not been a victim of sexual violence. We, as UNHCR, are providing mental health support and psychosocial support to these women but, honestly, we are only able to do the bare minimum.” 

She said a lack of funding means the ability to respond to even the most basic needs of the families is not possible. She added that 82 percent of the country’s internally displaced people will not receive adequate shelter. 

“This means that displaced women, children, men, boys will be forced to sleep in churches, in schools, in stadiums out in the open,” Hyde said. “Or they are going to decide to go back to their homes and again being targets of these attacks. I met multiple people who had been displaced multiple times during their lives in the past years or so.” 

UNHCR warns it will be forced to cut cash and livelihood kits for agriculture, fisheries and livestock if it does not receive additional support. That, it says, will create food shortages for many people. Without more money, it says few refugee children will receive a primary education, which will have a lifelong detrimental effect. 

Agency officials say the war in Ukraine has taken the oxygen out of humanitarian appeals for Africa. International solidarity toward people fleeing war in Ukraine has been overwhelming, they note, adding that similar support should be extended to all crises around the world. 

 
…

your ad here

Former Al-Shabab Commander, Al-Qaida Member Named to Somali Cabinet

Posted on by SeeAF

Somalia’s prime minister has appointed the former deputy leader of the al-Shabab militant group, Mukhtar Robow, to the cabinet as minister for endowment and religious affairs.

Robow, also known as Abu Mansour, was in the Somali presidential palace Tuesday as Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre unveiled his new cabinet. The stunning development came a day after Robow was released from the headquarters of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA).

Robow has been in detention since December 2018, when Somali government forces supported by African Union forces from Ethiopia detained him in the Somali city of Baidoa, to prevent him from running for the leadership of Southwest federal member state.

Deadly protests followed his arrest as his supporters clashed with regional forces leading to the shooting death of 15 people in Baidoa.

The selection of Abu Mansour for the cabinet post is an apparent attempt to put him in charge of ideological confrontation against al-Shabab. His new portfolio will put him in direct collision with his former colleagues as he will attempt to implement President Hassan Mohamud’s policy of waging war against al-Shabab on three fronts; economic, ideology, and military.

Other key Cabinet appointments include Salah Ahmed Jama as the deputy prime minister, Abshir Omar Huruse as foreign minister, and Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur, who retains his post as defense minister,

Who is Mukhtar Robow?

Before the creation of al-Shabab, Robow trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

Five years ago, he told VOA Somali reporter Harun Maruf, in an interview for the book Inside al-Shabab, that he was training at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan on September 11, 2001 and saw camp members celebrate upon hearing of the attacks that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Robow rose to prominence as deputy defense chief of Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union in 2006, when the group temporarily seized control of most of southcentral Somalia, defeating a coalition of U.S.-backed warlords.

Robow went on to serve as al-Shabab’s official spokesperson and later as the group’s deputy leader. In 2008, the U.S. designated al-Shabab a terrorist organization. In 2012, the U.S. offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Robow’s capture, although that offer was withdrawn in June 2017.

Robow surrendered to the government in August 2018 after al-Shabab attacked his base in his home village of Abal, south of Huddur.

In December of that year, he announced his candidacy for the president of Southwest state. Many observers regarded him as a favorite because they thought he would confront al-Shabab. The government blocked him from running, which paved the way for a pro-federal government candidate, the current president Abdiaziz Hassan Laftagareen, to emerge as eventual winner.

The Somali government defended its decision to detain him, arguing he did not meet all the preconditions for running for office. It said he was still under sanctions by members of the international community for his prior membership with al-Shabab.

He was initially detained at NISA’s headquarters. In August 2019 he was moved from prison to house arrest. He was returned to NISA headquarters after giving an interview to VOA Somali in Octoberof last year.

In that interview, the first he has given since leaving al-Shabab, he said he was being held for political purposes and to prevent him from running for office. He described what happened to him as an “abduction” and denial of his basic rights.

He said he was not giving up running for office, adding, “I will always be ready to work for the development of our people and our country. I will not be demoralized; if I don’t die, I will continue that journey.”
…

your ad here

Afghan Migrants in Turkey Worried About Increased Deportations

Posted on by SeeEU

Thousands of Afghans took refuge in Turkey as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last year. Many of these Afghans say they are now worried about being sent back. VOA’s Mahmut Bozarslan and Soner Kizilkaya bring us one man’s story in this report, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. VOA footage by Mahmut Bozarslan and Ogulcan Bakiler. Ezel Sahinkaya contributed.
…

your ad here

Russia High Court Labels Ukraine’s Azov Regiment ‘Terrorist’ Group

Posted on by SeeEU

The Supreme Court of Russia, acting on a request by the Prosecutor General’s Office, has designated Ukraine’s ultra-right Azov Regiment as a “terrorist” organization.

The court announced the decision on Tuesday against the group, one of the most prominent Ukrainian military formations fighting against Russia in eastern Ukraine.

The court ruled to “recognize the Ukrainian paramilitary unit Azov a terrorist organization and to ban its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the judge was quoted by the state news agency TASS as saying.

The ruling takes immediate effect.

The Azov Regiment is a far-right volunteer group that is part of Ukraine’s National Guard. Formerly known as the Azov Battalion, it espouses an ultranationalist ideology that U.S. law enforcement authorities have linked with neo-Nazi extremism. But supporters see it as a patriotic and effective part of the country’s defense forces.

Russia falsely claims that Ukraine is controlled by Nazis and used that charge as one of the justifications for its unprovoked invasion of the country.

Some relatives of Azov Regiment soldiers have worried that the court’s designation could mean that those who surrendered to Russia, or were captured by Russian forces, could now be tried as terrorists.

The Azov Regiment fought Russian troops for months in the southern city of Mariupol before around 2,500 of its fighters surrendered in mid-May.
…

your ad here

Indigenous Communities Pushing for Dam Destruction to Boost Salmon

Posted on by SeeUS

Conservationists and Indigenous communities in the U.S. Pacific Northwest are pushing for the destruction of four dams along the lower Snake River in Washington state to help spawning salmon. Dam supporters say they are important sources of renewable energy and irrigation for local farms. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya has our story from Washington state’s lower Snake River.
…

your ad here