Month: August 2022

Tunisia Hosts Japanese-African Economic Cooperation Meeting

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African heads of state, representatives of international organizations and private business leaders gathered in Tunisia on Saturday for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, a triennial event launched by Japan to promote growth and security in Africa.

Economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, a food crisis worsened by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and climate change are among the challenges facing many African countries expected to define the two-day conference.

Tensions among African countries also weighed on the meeting: On Friday, Morocco announced a boycott of the event and recalled its ambassador to Tunisia to protest the inclusion of a representative of the Polisario Front movement fighting for independence for Western Sahara.

The conference comes as Russia and China have sought to increase their economic and other influence in Africa.

While 30 African heads of state and government attended the event in Tunis, Tunisia’s capital, many key talks are being held remotely, including those involving Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the summit.

The Japanese government created and hosted the first TICAD summit in 1993. The conferences now are co-organized with the United Nations, the African Union and the World Bank. The summits have generated 26 development projects in 20 African countries.

This year, discussion around an increase of Japanese investments in Africa is anticipated, with particular focus on supporting start-ups and food security initiatives. Japan has said it plans to provide assistance for the production of rice, alongside a promised $130 million in food aid.

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies, an academic institution of the U.S. Defense Department, compared the conference’s format to the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “where government, business, and civil society leaders participate on an equal basis.”

However, this weekend’s summit has sparked controversy in Tunis, which faces its own acute economic crisis, including a recent spike in food and gasoline shortages.

Critics have spoken about the organizers’ alleged “white-washing” of the city, which has seen cleaner streets and infrastructure improvements in preparation for the conference summit. One local commentator said the North African capital looked like it had applied makeup to impress participants.

Meanwhile, the journalists’ union in Tunisia issued a statement Friday condemning restrictions on reporting and information around the summit.

Morocco’s complaint stemmed from Tunisia inviting the Polisario Front leader to attend. Morocco annexed Western Sahara from Spain in 1975, and the Polisario Front fought to make it an independent state until a 1991 cease-fire. It’s a highly sensitive issue in Morocco, which seeks international recognition for its authority over Western Sahara.

“The welcome given by the Tunisian head of state to the leader of the separatist militia is a serious and unprecedented act, which deeply hurts the feelings of the Moroccan people,” Morocco’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Morocco announced its withdrawal from the conference and the recall of its ambassador for consultations. But the ministry said the decision does not “call into question the commitment of the Kingdom of Morocco to the interests of Africa.”
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Buses Move 400 Asylum-Seekers From Squalid Dutch Camp

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Authorities transferred some 400 asylum-seekers away from a makeshift camp outside an overcrowded migrant reception center in the northeastern Netherlands after a damning report called the site where hundreds of people were sleeping rough a health hazard.

Leon Veldt, a spokesperson for the government’s asylum-seeker accommodation organization, said Saturday that the migrants were moved overnight to alternative accommodations in other locations.

The move came after a team from the Inspectorate for Health Care and Youth visited the squalid, temporary camp in the village of Ter Apel and said there was “a serious risk of outbreaks of infectious diseases as a result of the total lack of hygiene.”

A day earlier, 150 people were transferred to two sports halls in a central city in a bid to alleviate the crisis that has seen some 700 people sleeping outside the packed center this week. Refugee advocates likened the situation to overcrowded camps in Greece and Italy, which are common first destinations of Europe-bound asylum-seekers.

A 3-month-old baby died this week in a sports hall at the Ter Apel center, and authorities are investigating the cause of death. Two men were taken to the hospital, one for a heart attack and another for diabetes that had gone untreated for weeks.

The conditions were so bad that the Dutch branch of Doctors Without Borders sent a team there on Thursday, the relief agency’s first deployment in the Netherlands.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Friday he was ashamed of the scenes in Ter Apel. On Friday night, Rutte’s government announced a raft of measures aimed at easing the country’s asylum-seeker accommodation crisis.

They include temporarily reining in refugee family reunions and the number of arriving migrants earmarked for the Netherlands under a 2016 deal between the European Union and Turkey.

The government said it also was working with local municipalities to create more homes for people who receive refugee status so they can more quickly move out of asylum-seeker centers, freeing up space for new arrivals.

The Dutch military was tasked with setting up a new camp to house people who are waiting to register asylum claims at the Ter Apel center.

Milo Schoenmaker, the board chairman of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers, welcomed the moves, saying: “With the measures that have been announced, the application center in Ter Apel can hopefully be relieved quickly. At the same time, there are still insufficient available places to accommodate everyone.”

While many Dutch towns and cities have offered places to stay to Ukrainians who fled the war in their country, the welcome has worn thin for asylum-seekers from other countries. Most people arriving in Ter Apel are Syrians fleeing their nation’s grinding civil war.
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Tunis Hosts Japan-Africa Investment Conference

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Japan opens an African investment conference in Tunisia on Saturday, seeking to counter the influence of rival China which has steadily grown its economic imprint on the continent.

The conference takes place amid a “complex” international environment caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the Japanese foreign ministry has noted.

Some 30 heads of state and government are expected to attend the event in the capital Tunis, at a time when the import-dependent North African nation is grappling with a deepening economic malaise.

The eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) also comes as Beijing cements its influence on the continent with its “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative.

It is the first TICAD — held every three years either in Japan or an African country — since the pandemic began.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be attending remotely after testing positive for COVID-19.

The Japanese delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, with about 5,000 participants set to attend.

But the opening risks being overshadowed by Morocco withdrawing from the event and recalling its ambassador from Tunisia for consultations, after Tunisia’s President Kais Saied hosted the head of Western Sahara’s Polisario independence movement.

Since 1993, TICAD conferences backed by the United Nations and other international agencies have generated 26 development projects in 20 African countries.

Most are funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The conference will focus on three pillars: economy; society; and peace and stability.

A slick promotional video said the conference aims to promote “African development led by African people.”

But no journalists from African news outlets have been given access to delegates ahead of the event, except Tunisian state media, alongside Japanese journalists.

Japanese economic paper Nikkei reported that aid to Africa could increase by 40% over the next three years, in response to other powers that have boosted their presence on the continent.

At the last TICAD in 2019, former premier Shinzo Abe — who was assassinated at a campaign event last month — warned investors in Africa that they must beware of burdening countries with “excessive” debt, an apparent swipe at China.

Tunisian authorities hope their struggling economy will benefit from hosting the conference by attracting Japanese investment, particularly in the health, automotive and renewable energy sectors.

The conference has sparked anger among Tunisians as major road closures threatened traffic disruptions in the capital.

Authorities also drew widespread mockery after detaining Japanese satellite engineers — TICAD delegates — at Tunis airport for hours because they were in possession of a model satellite that they intend to use to showcase technology.

Authorities have spruced up parts of the city likely to be seen by delegates and dug in roadside plants, but these efforts have also drawn the ire of social media users.

“I feel deeply insulted by the clean-up of Tunis for the TICAD,” one Tunisian wrote on Twitter, arguing that “those we pay to make our lives easier” should instead focus on making the capital livable for citizens all year round.
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Shootouts, Blasts Erupt In Libyan Capital Amid Political Standoff

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Intense fighting erupted in the Libyan capital overnight and lasted until Saturday morning, with rival factions exchanging heavy gunfire and the sounds of several loud blasts ricocheting around the city.

The clashes took place in Tripoli’s city center, witnesses said, amid a political standoff over control of Libya’s government that has seen armed groups increasingly mobilize around the capital in recent weeks.

Pictures and video shared online of the city center, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed military vehicles speeding through the streets, fighters shooting and local residents trying to douse fires.

“This is horrible. My family and I could not sleep because of the clashes. The sound was too loud and too frightening,” said Abdulmenam Salem, a central Tripoli resident. “We stayed awake in case we had to leave quickly. It’s a terrible feeling.”

There was no immediate comment from the interior and health ministries regarding the fighting, which stopped late in the morning, or any casualties.

The main Libyan standoff pits the Government of National Unity in Tripoli under Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah against a rival administration under Fathi Bashagha, which is backed by the eastern-based parliament.

The United Nations mission in the country warned this week against any attempt to resolve the dispute through violence.
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Native American News Roundup, August 21-27, 2022

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Here is a summary of Native American-related news around the U.S. this week:

Air Force Base in Washington State to Rename Housing Units

Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington State has announced it will change the names of all parts of the base named after George Wright, a 19th-century Army general with a record of unusual cruelty against tribes in the northeast of the state.

“We are renaming Ft Wright Village and Ft Wright Oval in base housing to Lilac Village and Willow Loop,” Fairchild Air Force Base posted on Facebook Monday. “This change is the result of long consideration by Fairchild leadership, in accordance with an Air Force directive to evaluate historically divisive names on installations.”

In the autumn of 1858, then-Colonel Wright launched a two-month campaign against the Spokane, Palouse and Coeur d’Alene tribes to avenge an Army defeat several months earlier.

Donald Cutler, in his book “Hang Them All”: George Wright and the Plateau Indian War, 1858, described Wright’s strategy for dealing with tribes, writing, “Col. Wright, by admitting his intent was to strike fear into the tribes, showed that he understood the power of cruelty.”

Wright captured and slaughtered 900 Indian horses, burned tribes’ crops and food supplies, and staged public hangings that Cutler describes as “theatrically gruesome.”

Fairchild’s announcement generated some criticism on Facebook, coming amid vigorous debate in the U.S. about history, democracy and patriotism in America, which has seen the removal of dozens of Confederate and Christopher Columbus statues and reviews of the way history is being taught in some school districts.

In 2021, the city of Spokane, Washington, renamed a street that formerly carried Wright’s name. The new name is Whistalks Way, after a Spokane woman warrior who played a key role in resisting Wright.

Air Force erasing decorated Union Army veteran from base over ‘brutal acts’ towards Native Americans

Labor Department to Boost Native American Employment, Training Programs

The U.S. Department of Labor has announced the award of $70.8 million in grant funding to 166 Indian and Native American tribes and organizations to help provide employment and training services to low-income and unemployed Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians to help them compete in today’s workforce.

Of the funds awarded, $56,351,790 will serve low-income and unemployed American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians. The remaining $13,932,627 will serve low-income American Indian, Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian youth ages 14-24 living on or near Indian reservations or in Hawaii.

The unemployment rate for American Indians and Alaska Natives has declined since April 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it hit 28.6 percent, nearly double the seasonally adjusted rate of 14.7 percent for the total population.

The lack of employment and/or educational opportunities in or near Indian reservations is one of the biggest challenges to tribal well-being today. In February, for the first time ever, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published data showing that the Native American unemployment rate in December 2021 was 7.9 percent, a rate much higher than the rate of 3.9 percent for the general U.S. population.

US Department of Labor awards $70.8M in grants to expand employment, training services for low-income, unemployed Native Americans

Cherokee Lawmaker is GOP Nominee for US Senate Seat

Conservative U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, this week won the Republican nomination for the Senate seat currently held by James Inhofe, who is set to retire at the end of the year.

In November midterm elections, Mullin will face off against the Democratic candidate, former U.S. Representative Kendra Horn.

 

Mullin, a businessman and former mixed martial arts fighter, is widely viewed as the favorite in Oklahoma, where Republicans control the offices of governor, secretary of state, attorney general and both chambers of the state Legislature.

Markwayne Mullin wins Republican bid for U.S. Senator Inhofe’s seat

 

Wailaki Astronaut to Head for the Stars

As a former Marine Corps test pilot, Nicole Aunapu Mann, a Wailaki citizen of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in Northern California, has flown on many missions, but none can compare to the flight she’s about to undertake next month: commanding a crew of five on a SpaceX flight to the International Space Station.

Once she reaches the ISS, she’ll spend six months conducting science experiments.

“One of the ones that I’m looking most forward to is called the biofabrication facility. And it is literally 3D printing human cells,” she told Jourdan Bennett-Begaye, editor of Indian Country Today.

 

Scientists have long envisioned using 3D biological printers to print human organs, but they’ve found it nearly impossible to print finer tissue, such as capillaries, in Earth’s gravitational environment. That’s because gravity flattens and deforms 3D-printed tissue. But in space, the lack of gravity allows 3D printed tissues to hold up.

Flying with Mann will be NASA astronaut Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.

In 2002, John Herrington of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma became the first Native American in space.

September’s space trip may not be Mann’s last: In 2020, she was also selected to be one of a group of eligible astronauts to travel to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program.

First Native woman in space

 

 

Pueblo Potter Takes Top Prize in Santa Fe Indian Market

Over the weekend, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts announced winners of the 100th annual Santa Fe Indian Market in New Mexico, the largest Native North American art market in the world.

San Ildefonso Pueblo potter Russell Sanchez won best in show — and a $30,000 award — for a lidded clay jar described as a contemporary interpretation of traditional Pueblo craftsmanship.

A bear stands atop the lid, an animal the Pueblo people associate with strength and protection. Winding around the center of the jar is the deity Avanyu, a plumed water serpent to whom Sanchez’s ancestors appealed to in times of drought.

Sanchez still fires his clay pieces outdoors in the traditional Pueblo manner, using cedar and dried cow or horse dung as fuel. He then carves, paints and polishes his pieces, which are inlaid with minerals and gemstones.

Navajo silversmith Ernest Benally won best in the jewelry category for a belt made of a dozen turtles, each embedded with turquoise, lapis lazuli and other gemstones.

To see the full list of winners in 10 categories, click on the link below; to see photos of the winning artworks, visit SWAIA’s Facebook page.

Santa Fe Indian Market Announces Centennial Best of Show Winners

 

Digital Solution Aims to Thwart Counterfeiters of Native Art

In a related story, counterfeit Native American art is a big problem in the U.S. and abroad. Jewelry, paintings and crafts falsely marketed as Native-made make big money for fraudsters but drive down the value of genuine Native art and denies Native artists a livelihood.

In one highly publicized case, federal investigators in 2015 raided 11 jewelry and Indian arts stores in New Mexico and California, seizing 350,000 pieces of Filipino-made jewelry with a retail value of $35,000,000.

This week, the art security registry Imprint announced it would partner with the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts to supply 800 Native American artists with permanently certified Imprint digital titles to their artwork.

Imprint gives artists and galleries permanent digital titles that allow them to officially register and create a digital certificate of authenticity that will be stored on a secure blockchain database — a digital “ledger” of all art transactions.

This means that buyers of Native artwork can be sure that they are getting works by legitimate Native artists, not frauds. Squeezing out the fakes means that genuine Native artworks retain or increase their value.

“When Imprint approached us to launch their blockchain-based art security registry with SWAIA artists, we immediately recognized the opportunity as one that will help combat theft and counterfeit within the Native American art world,” said SWAIA Executive Director Kimberly Peone, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Nespelem, Washington, and an Eastern Band of Cherokee descendant. “We are thrilled to be able to provide cutting-edge solutions to SWAIA artists.”

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 was intended to protect Native American artists by imposing fines and prison time for counterfeiting. Any individual falsely selling or presenting work as Native American can face civil or criminal penalties up to a $250,000 fine and/or a five-year prison term; any business selling fakes can face civil penalties or can be prosecuted and fined up to $1,000,000.

Imprint, SWAIA Partner to Combat Counterfeit Native American Art With Launch of New Digital Art Registry

 
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Will Monarch Butterflies Go Extinct? Some Say It’s a Flight of Fancy

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As fall draws near in the U.S, Monarch butterflies in the eastern part of the country are primed for their winter sojourn to Mexico. Conservationists worry that the Monarchs are in peril from climate change and farming, but the science isn’t settled. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at the complexities of counting and protecting Monarch butterflies.
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UN Condemns Air Strike in Ethiopia That ‘Hit Kindergarten’

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The UN children’s agency UNICEF on Saturday condemned an air strike that “hit a kindergarten” in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, killing at least four people, including two children.

Friday’s strike in the Tigray capital, Mekelle, came days after fighting erupted on the region’s southern border between government forces and rebels, ending a five-month truce.

“UNICEF strongly condemns the air strike …  (that) hit a kindergarten, killing several children, and injuring others,” UNICEF’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said on Twitter.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that controls the northern region said the air raid demolished a kindergarten and hit a civilian residential area, claims the government denied.

Addis Ababa said it only targeted military sites and accused the TPLF of staging civilian deaths.

Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief clinical director at Mekelle’s Ayder Referral Hospital, told AFP that four people were killed in the strike, including two children.

Nine others were receiving treatment for injuries, he said.

Tigrai TV, a local network, said the death toll had reached seven and broadcast footage of mangled playground equipment at the apparent scene of the strike.

Russell said the 21-month war in Ethiopia’s north had “caused children to pay the heaviest price.”

“For almost two years, children and their families in the region have endured the agony of this conflict. It must end,” she said.
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Cuba Asks US For Technical Help to Clean Up Oil Depot After Fire

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Cuba has asked the United States for technical help in restoring a major oil storage plant after a massive fire at the facility, killing 16 people.

Cuba’s foreign ministry said Friday that experts from Cuba and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency met online Wednesday to talk about exploring “possible ways of cooperation to rehabilitate the worst-affected areas” of the plant in Cuba’s western port of Matanzas.

The foreign ministry described the meeting as a “professional and fruitful exchange” and said the Cuban delegation asked about “the most innovative techniques and procedures” used by the EPA as well as oil companies to clean up such disasters.

A lightning strike earlier this month started the fire at the oil storage facility in Matanzas, about 100 kilometers from Havana.

The strike ignited an oil storage tank and the fire soon spread to three more tanks. It took firefighters a week to extinguish the blaze, which caused four of the eight tanks at the facility to collapse.

Sixteen firefighters were killed trying to stop the blaze and more than 130 people were injured by the fire.

Cuba’s government has described the fire as the worst blaze in the country’s history.

The governments of Mexico and Venezuela sent teams to help local firefighters put out the blaze. The United States offered technical advice by phone.

Cuba’s port of Matanzas receives crude oil and fuel imports, much of which are used to generate electricity on the island.

Damage to the facility has greatly affected the country’s ability to store crude.

The fire came as Cuba was already facing shortages of electricity and fuel that led authorities to impose energy blackouts. The power outages and economic troubles helped spark anti-government protests last year.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Humanitarian Ship Rescues 268 Migrants in Mediterranean

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The Ocean Viking, a humanitarian ship of SOS Mediterranee, has rescued 268 people since Thursday during five rescues of migrants mostly found in overcrowded wooden boats between Libya and Malta, the NGO announced Friday.

“Many have high levels of exhaustion and dehydration” and “severe sunburn,” said the NGO, whose headquarters are in Marseille.

Several minors, including unaccompanied minors, pregnant women and even a 3-week-old baby are now cared for by SOS Mediterranee and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent on the Viking Ocean.

On Tuesday, the ship said it had spotted four empty boats in this area, including one without a motor. But “without communication from the maritime authorities, the fate of the people on board remains unknown,” the ship communicated.

Since the beginning of the year, 1,161 migrants have disappeared in the Mediterranean, including 918 in the central Mediterranean, the most dangerous migratory route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The U.N. agency estimated the number of dead and missing in 2021 at 2,048 in the Mediterranean, including 1,553 for the central Mediterranean alone.

Every year, thousands of people fleeing conflict or poverty attempt to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, whose coasts are 300 kilometers from Italy.
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Nuclear Treaty Conference Near End with Ukraine in Spotlight

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As Friday’s end to a four-week conference to review the landmark U.N. treaty aimed at curbing the spread of nuclear weapons neared, delegates scrambled to reach agreement on a final document with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and takeover of Europe’s largest nuclear power a key obstacle.

Argentine Ambassador Gustavo Zlauvinen, president of the conference reviewing the 50-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which is considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament, circulated a revised 36-page draft final document that aimed to address some of China’s concerns. But it still made the same four references to Russia’s occupation of Europe’s biggest nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine — though without naming Russia.

Any document must be approved by all 191 countries that are parties to the treaty, and the closing plenary meeting to consider the revised draft was delayed while delegates met behind closed doors to try to get all countries on board.

Earlier this week, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council that the Biden administration is seeking a consensus final document that strengthens the nuclear treaty and acknowledges “the manner in which Russia’s war and irresponsible actions in Ukraine seriously undermine the NPT’s main purpose.”

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States and its allies at that council meeting of “politicizing the work on the final document, putting their geopolitical interests in punishing Russia above their collective needs in strengthening global security.”

“Against the backdrop of the actual sabotage by the collective West of the global security architecture, Russia continues to do everything possible to keep at least its key, vital elements afloat,” Nebenzia said.

The four references to Zaporizhzhia, where Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of shelling, would have the parties to the NPT express “grave concern for the military activities” at or near the facility and other nuclear plants, recognize Ukraine’s loss of control and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inability to ensure its nuclear material is safeguarded.

The parties would also support IAEA efforts to visit Zaporizhzhia to ensure there is no diversion of its nuclear materials, which the agency’s director is hoping to organize in the coming day. And it would express “grave concern” at the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, in particular Zaporizhzia, and stress “the paramount importance of ensuring control by Ukraine’s competent authorities.”

The NPT review conference is supposed to be held every five years but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The last one in 2015 ended without an agreement because of serious differences over establishing a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

Those differences haven’t gone away but are being discussed, and both draft documents obtained by The Associated Press would reaffirm the importance of establishing a nuclear-free Mideast zone. So, this is not viewed as a major stumbling block this year.

The issue that has changed the dynamics of the conference is Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning that Russia is a “potent” nuclear power and any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen,” and his decision soon after to put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert.

Putin has since rolled back, saying that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” a message reiterated by a senior Russian official on the opening day of the NPT conference on Aug. 2. But the Russian leader’s initial threat and the occupation of Zaporizhzhia by Russian forces soon after the invasion as well as their takeover of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, renewed global fears of another nuclear emergency.

Under the NPT’s provisions, the five original nuclear powers — the United States, China, Russia (then the Soviet Union), Britain and France — agreed to negotiate toward eliminating their arsenals someday and nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire nuclear weapons in exchange for a guarantee to be able to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

India and Pakistan, which didn’t join the NPT, went on to get the bomb. So did North Korea, which ratified the pact but later announced it was withdrawing. Non-signatory Israel, which is believed to have a nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies it, has been an obstacle in discussions of a Mideast zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

Nonetheless, the treaty has been credited with limiting the number of nuclear newcomers (U.S. President John F. Kennedy once foresaw as many as 20 nuclear-armed nations) as a framework for international cooperation on disarmament.

The draft final document would express deep concern “that the threat of nuclear weapons use today is higher than at any time since the heights of the Cold War and at the deteriorated international security environment.” It would also commit the 191 parties to the treaty “to making every effort to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again.”

The parties would call on India, Israel and Pakistan to join the NPT “as non-nuclear-weapon states” and on South Sudan to become a party as soon as possible. It would call on North Korea to return to the treaty at an early date and immediately cease its nuclear activities.

Diplomats and nuclear experts monitoring the closed-door negotiations cited differences between China and the West that could have blocked agreement on a final document but appear to have been resolved in the final draft.

China wanted the document to mention the U.S.-UK-Australia deal to provide Australia with a nuclear-powered submarine, and the final draft notes that parties to the NPT are interested in “the topic of naval nuclear propulsion” and the importance of a transparent and open dialogue on it.

Of the five nuclear powers, China is the only one still producing fissile material — either uranium or plutonium — needed to produce nuclear weapons, and several Western nations wanted to pressure Beijing to halt production.

The original draft included a call to the five nuclear weapon states “to declare or maintain existing moratoria on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and other explosive devices.” This was eliminated in the final draft which calls for the immediate start of negotiations on a treaty banning production of fissile material.

The final draft document barely mentions the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, saying only that it was adopted in July 2017, entered into force in January 2021, and held its first meeting of states parties in June 2022. Some Western countries maintain that calls for immediate nuclear disarmament are totally unrealistic in the current highly polarized and chaotic world.
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Amid Fears of Voting Machines, Nevada Approves Hand Counting

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As parts of rural Nevada plan to count ballots by hand amid misinformation about voting machines, the Nevada secretary of state’s office on Friday approved regulations for counties to hand count votes starting as soon as this fall’s midterm elections.

But the revised regulations will no longer apply to the one county that has been at the forefront of the drive to count by hand.

That’s because Nye County, in the desert between Las Vegas and Reno, will also use a parallel tabulation process alongside its hand count, using the same machines that are typically used to count mail-in ballots. All ballots in Nye County will resemble mail-in ballots, interim Nye County Clerk Mark Kampf said in an interview earlier this month.

Nye County is one of the first jurisdictions nationwide to act on election conspiracies related to mistrust of voting machines. Nevada’s least populous county, Esmeralda, used hand counting to certify June’s primary results, when officials spent more than seven hours counting 317 ballots cast.

The longtime Nye County clerk resigned in July after election conspiracies led to a successful push to hand count votes.

Kampf, her replacement, has falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. He has vowed to add hand counting to the rural county of about 50,000, alongside the parallel tabulation process using machines.

Rule changes

The Nevada secretary of state’s office changed the hand counting regulations after Kampf and others criticized them during an August 12 feedback session. The state officials changed the definition of “hand count” to apply only when it is the only method of counting ballots.

The rules require bipartisan teams of at least four people to count the votes, mandate spacing between tables and require room for observers, among many other provisions. State officials originally said the teams could count batches of 20 votes at a time but increased the number to 50. Kampf had criticized the lower number of votes per batch, saying it would be more efficient for the teams to count 50-vote batches.

“I think this represents a good partnership with the secretary of state’s office in refining these procedures,” Kampf said Friday.

The regulations take effect October 1 and will last until November 2023, though officials hope to adopt them permanently.

Four voting groups — Brennan Center, All Voting Is Local, American Civil Liberties Union Nevada and Silver State Voices — had previously urged the secretary of state’s office to drop the regulations and instead ban hand counting, saying that hand counting leads to more mistakes than machine voting and takes longer.

Several showed up on Friday to again speak against the changes.

‘A slippery slope’

Voting rights attorney Sadmira Ramic of ACLU’s Nevada chapter called adopting the regulations “a slippery slope that will have dire consequences for the state,” creating more room for election errors and tampering.

“The secretary of state’s office, by passing these regulations, is condoning the use of hand counting while ignoring the urgency of the issues that such procedures will produce,” she said.

She also criticized a lack of enforcement or consequences for counties that don’t follow the rules.

Deputy Secretary for Elections Mark Wlaschin acknowledged in an interview earlier this month that there is no enforcement mechanism outlined in the regulations.

He said his office has considered “a number of contingencies” for noncompliance. Part of ensuring compliance falls on the secretary of state’s office, he said, and part of that role falls on county clerks.

Hand counting supporters have described the old-fashioned method as a way to address distrust in elections, especially unproven claims that voting machines are prone to hacking and are untrustworthy. Experts have said hand counting is far more time consuming and exposes the process to more errors.

Wlaschin has said the new rules will help counties that decide to switch to hand-counting systems, preventing clerks from drawing up rules from scratch. The regulations will also create a uniform structure so the state can ensure the counting is valid in the counties that decide to only use hand counting, of which there are currently none.

But questions remain about the implementation of the regulations and how they will unfold in counties that vary in population, size and differing political leanings.

Humboldt County Clerk Tami Rae Spero said in an interview it would be difficult to follow the guidelines that require finding bipartisan vote counters and the physical space that will be needed for observation of the hand counts.

At a hearing earlier this month, Wlaschin asked Kampf if Nye County planned to eventually phase out the parallel tabulation process, leading to an all-hand count.

Kampf responded: “I hope we can prove to you and to those who are doubting and have significant doubts that it can work, that you’d make that decision at that point in time.”

Some Nevada state lawmakers will discuss next week whether to rein in efforts by rural counties to count votes by hand.

Up for discussion

At an interim legislation session Monday for the committee on legislative operations and elections, lawmakers are scheduled to deliberate whether to draft a bill requiring counties that discontinue using voting machines to return state funds given to them for the machines.

The bill would not be voted on until at least February, when Nevada’s next legislative session begins.

The hearing for the hand-counting regulations on Friday came as several Nevada Republicans in key races have repeatedly questioned the results of the 2020 election without evidence.

Senate candidate Adam Laxalt led former President Donald Trump’s campaign in Nevada and filed paperwork in an attempt to overturn the state’s 2020 result.

Republican secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant has made election distrust central to his platform and has repeatedly denied the results of the 2020 election.

In February, he told voters that “your vote hasn’t counted in decades.”

He also worked with Kampf to design the hand-counting plan in Nye County and hopes to spread it across the country.
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Turkish Pop Star Jailed Over Joke About Religious Schools

Posted on by SeeEU

Turkish pop star Gulsen has been arrested on charges of “inciting hatred and enmity” with a joke she made about Turkey’s religious schools, the country’s state-run news agency reported.

The 46-year-old singer and songwriter, whose full name is Gulsen Colakoglu, was taken away from her home in Istanbul for questioning and formally arrested late Thursday. She was then taken to a prison pending trial.

The arrest sparked outrage on social media. Government critics said the move was an effort by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to consolidate support from his religious and conservative base ahead of elections in 10 months.

The charges were based on a joke Gulsen made during an April concert in Istanbul, where she quipped that one of her musicians’ “perversion” stemmed from attending a religious school. A video of the singer’s comment began circulating on social media recently, with a hashtag calling for her arrest.

Gulsen — who previously became a target in Islamic circles due to her revealing stage outfits and for unfurling an LGBTQ flag at a concert — apologized for the offense the joke caused but said her comments were seized on by those wanting to deepen polarization in the country.

During her questioning by court authorities, Gulsen rejected accusations that she incited hatred and enmity, and said she had “endless respect for the values and sensitivities of my country,” the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Her request to be released from custody pending the outcome of a trial was rejected.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, called on Turkey’s judges and prosecutors to release Gulsen.

“Don’t betray the law and justice; release the artist now!” he wrote on Twitter.

The spokesperson for Erdogan’s Justice and Development party, known by its Turkish acronym AKP, appeared however, to defend the decision to arrest the singer, saying “inciting hatred is not an art form.”

“Targeting a segment of society with the allegation of “perversion” and trying to polarize Turkey is a hate crime and a disgrace to humanity,” AKP spokesperson Omer Celik tweeted.

Erdogan and many members of his Islam-based ruling party are graduates of religious schools, which were originally established to train imams. The number of religious schools in Turkey has increased under Erdogan, who has promised to raise a “pious generation.”

Among those calling for Gulsen’s release was Turkish pop star, Tarkan, best known internationally for the song Kiss Kiss.

“Our legal system, which turns a blind eye to corruption, thieves, those who break the law and massacre nature, those who kill animals and those who use religion to polarize society through their bigoted ideas — has arrested Gulsen in one whack,” Tarkan said in a statement posted on Twitter.  
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Redacted Affidavit Shows Fears of Endangering Sources Drove Mar-a-Lago Search

Posted on by SeeUS

A redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for the Florida residence and club of former President Donald Trump reveals that the Justice Department was concerned that human intelligence sources could be put in danger. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more.
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‘Star Trek’ Actress Nichelle Nichols’ Ashes Headed for Solar Orbit

Posted on by SeeUS

The late actress Nichelle Nichols, best known as Lieutenant Uhura on “Star Trek,” will become the latest member of the 1960s television series to be memorialized by having some of her earthly remains flown into space.

Nichols, who died July 30 at age 89, is credited with helping shatter racial stereotypes and redefining Hollywood roles for Black actors at the height of the U.S. Civil Rights movement, as one of the first Black women to portray an empowered character on network television.

Now she has been added to the posthumous passenger manifest of a real-life rocket ship due to carry a collection of vials containing cremated ashes and DNA samples from dozens of departed space enthusiasts on a final, and eternal, voyage around the sun, according to organizers of the tribute.

A date for the launch has not yet been set.

Other “Star Trek” cast members and executives who have had remains launched into space include James Doohan, who played the show’s chief engineer, Scotty, and “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry.

Also joining the launch will be the remains of Roddenberry’s wife, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who played nurse Christine Chapel on the series, and the renowned sci-fi visual effects artist Douglas Trumbull, whose work was featured in such films as “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”

The launch is organized by Celestis Inc., a Texas company that has created a unique niche in the burgeoning commercial space sector by offering a measure of cosmic immortality to customers who can afford a dramatic sendoff.

Celestis, which contracts with private rocket ventures, has not publicly divulged the fees and other financial details of its service.

The upcoming memorial flight will be aboard a Vulcan Centaur rocket, still under development by the Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture, United Launch Alliance (ULA).

Plans call for the 200-plus capsules carrying human remains and DNA for what Celestis is calling its “Enterprise Flight” to go inside the upper rocket stage that will fly on into deep space, beyond the gravitational pull of the Earth and moon, and eventually enter a perpetual solar orbit, said Charles Chafer, co-founder and chief executive officer of Celestis.

“It’s a wonderful memorial for her, an eternal one,” Nichols’ son Kyle Johnson told Reuters.

In the 1970s, Nichols was hired by NASA to help recruit more marginalized groups and women to the space agency, where she was influential in attracting such talent as the first woman U.S. astronaut, Sally Ride; the first Black woman astronaut, Mae Jemison; and the first Black NASA chief, Charlie Bolden.
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Big Name Entertainment Buyers Attend Africa’s Biggest Film, TV Market Since Lockdown

Posted on by SeeAF

Big name entertainment providers like Netflix, Showmax and Paramount have been meeting African content creators this week at the Fame Week Africa conference in South Africa. The three-day conference, which ended Friday, was billed as the continent’s premier business conference for the creative and cultural sectors.

A local government official who declined to be named said numerous deals were being concluded on the floor – and predicted that Fame Week Africa would put Cape Town on the world map in terms of film events.

Countries like the United States, Canada and Kenya had government representation there, while businesses in film, TV, animation, music and entertainment technology had cubicles set up in the Cape Town International Convention Center.

Bonolo Madisakwane, the content distribution executive for Paramount Africa, was sitting in one of them.

“Next week is going to be a very busy week for me and my programming team,” she said. “We have received a lot of screeners. I’m very, very hopeful.”

She said Fame Week Africa was the biggest event of its kind in Africa since the COVID-19 lockdown and people have taken full advantage of it.

“Most of them I had pre-meetings already but quite a number of them, the minute they see me and I’ve got nobody sitting there with me, they just take a seat and they just pitch whatever it is that they want to pitch and they ask all the questions,” Bonolo said.

One man who was hoping to catch up with the likes of Bonolo was South African actor and social media influencer Ernest St. Clair, who has over 67,000 followers on Instagram. He stars in a new film, “2 Thirds of a Man.

“We shot this film in lockdown and it’s finally released and been picked up,” he said. “We are really hoping for it to be picked up by other channels like Showmax.”

Another participant, Canadian singer Domanique Grant, was there to promote her company that works with brands and artist management and development.

“We help to do everything from sponsoring vocal lessons to bringing them to major conferences so that they can get into the industry,” she said.

Having lived in Uganda, she’s also hoping to reach a wider African audience. She is also at the conference to promote her new album, “Queen/Dom.”

“‘Queen/Dom’ is about generational healing and self-love,” she said.

Jill Casserley, Africa sales manager for RX Global, which organized Fame Week Africa, said she believes there will be more events like this to come and that a lot of business was done at this one.

“I’m sure it will continue,” she said. “People are happy to be back to face-to-face meetings. I think they’re done with virtual markets.”

The event was sponsored by MIP Africa, the International Animation Festival, Muziki Africa, Media and Entertainment Solutions Africa and the city of Cape Town.
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Fifth Consecutive Year of Drought Forecast for Horn of Africa

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The World Meteorological Organization warns millions of people in the greater Horn of Africa will likely face a fifth consecutive season of insufficient rains. According to the U.N. weather agency the terrible four-year long drought in the Horn of Africa is set to continue for another year.

World Meteorological Organization spokeswoman Claire Nullis says the seasonal climate outlook for the region, which was issued Thursday, bears bad news for millions of people who already have suffered the longest drought in 40 years.

“The predictions show high chances of drier than average conditions across most parts of the region. In particular, the drought affected areas of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia are expected to receive significantly below rainfall until the end of the year.”

The WMO notes the October to December season contributes up to 70 percent of the annual total rainfall in the equatorial parts of the greater Horn of Africa, particularly in eastern Kenya. It says the lack of rain is likely to extend to parts of Eritrea, most of Uganda and Tanzania.

Last month humanitarian agencies and the regional bloc IGAD issued an alarming report about the growing number of people suffering from acute hunger in the region.

World Food Program spokesman Tomson Phiri says drought is not a new phenomenon in the Horn of Africa. However, he says what is happening now is more severe and is occurring with greater frequency.

“Hunger and malnutrition is worsening across all drought-affected areas. And there is a very real risk of famine in Somalia”, says Phiri. “I think this is well documented. This is on the record. It is in the public domain…No one has called for a famine now, but it does not mean it may not be declared in the coming months. It is very much a real threat.”

U.N agencies estimate more than 50 million people in the greater Horn of Africa suffer from acute food insecurity. The director of the WMO’s regional climate center for East Africa, Guleid Artan, warns the region is on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
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Russian-Occupied Nuclear Power Plant Resumes Electricity Supply to Ukraine

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The Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant resumed electricity supplies to Ukraine on Friday after one of its six reactors was reconnected to the Ukrainian grid, state nuclear company Energoatom said.

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which is located in southern Ukraine, was disconnected from the Ukrainian grid for the first time in its history on Thursday after a fire caused by shelling damaged a power line, Kyiv said earlier.

“The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station is connected to the grid and is producing electricity for the needs of Ukraine,” Energoatom said in a statement on Friday.

Authorities began providing iodine tablets Friday to residents who live around the nuclear power plant in the event of a radiation leak, as fears grow that the fighting around the plant could spark a catastrophe.

Iodine tablets help block the absorption of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland, and they were handed out to people in the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is about 45 kilometers from the plant.  

The move came a day after the plant was temporarily knocked offline because of what officials said was fire damage to a transmission line. The incident heightened dread of a nuclear disaster in a country still haunted by the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl.

Continued shelling was reported in the area overnight, and satellite images from Planet Labs showed fires burning around the complex over the last several days.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February and took control of the nuclear plant in March, though it is still operated by Ukrainian technicians working for Energoatom.

The nuclear plant remains near the frontline and repeatedly has come under fire in recent weeks. Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the facility.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a nuclear radiation disaster was narrowly avoided after Russian shelling in the area caused the electricity to be cut for hours.

“Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster,” he said.

Russian bombardment triggered fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power station that disconnected the Russian-controlled plant from the power grid, Zelenskyy said, but backup diesel generators provided the electricity supply vital for cooling and safety systems at the plant.

An engineer working under Russian occupation since March 4 at the nuclear power plant has told VOA that Russian forces have placed artillery and missile installations within and around the property of the plant.

The engineer, whose identity is being withheld for fear of retaliation by the occupying authorities, supports Ukrainian government claims that Russia itself is responsible for the explosions.

Western leaders have demanded that Russia hand the plant back to Ukraine, while U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for it to be “demilitarized.”

 

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron warned against the use of civilian nuclear facilities as an instrument of war.

“War in any case must not undermine the nuclear safety of the country, the region, and all of us. Civil nuclear power must be fully protected,” Macron said during a visit to Algeria.

A team from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to send a mission soon to inspect the power station.

In Washington, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday that “Russia should agree to the demilitarized zone around the plant and agree to allow an International Atomic Energy Agency visit as soon as possible to check on the safety and security of the system.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday its forces had destroyed a U.S.-made M777 howitzer, which it claimed Ukraine had used to shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Reuters reported.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the howitzer had been destroyed west of the town of Marganets, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.

On the battlefield, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said its troops had repulsed Russian assaults on the towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region, and they also struck ammunition depots and enemy personnel in the southern Kherson region.

In Geneva on Thursday, Michelle Bachelet, the outgoing United Nations human rights chief, described Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukraine as “unimaginably horrifying.” She called on Russian President Vladimir Putin “to halt armed attacks against Ukraine.”

In other news, Ukraine summoned the papal ambassador on Thursday to complain about latest comments about the war by Pope Francis.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters in Kyiv that “the Ukrainian heart is torn apart by the pope’s words.”

Kuleba was responding to the pope’s comments about last weekend’s car bomb slaying in Moscow of Darya Dugina, a nationalist Russian TV commentator and daughter of a right-wing political theorist who ardently supports the war.

Francis referred to her as the “poor girl” among the “innocents” who have been victimized by the “insanity of war.”

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Reuters.  
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US Suspends China Flights Over COVID-19 Regulations

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The U.S. announced late Thursday it is suspending 26 China-bound flights from the United States by four Chinese carriers after the Chinese government suspended some U.S. flights because of COVID-19 restrictions.

In a statement, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) said the suspensions from September 5 to 28 will affect seven flights from New York to China and 19 China-bound flights from Los Angeles. The airlines include Xiamen, Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.

The DOT said the action is in response to China’s recent cancellation of 26 American, Delta and United Airlines flights under newly-revised COVID-19 regulations.

In its statement, the department said, as of August 7, China revised its COVID-19 policies, requiring airlines to suspend a flight if the number of passengers testing positive for COVID-19 reaches 4% of total passengers onboard. Previously, if up to nine passengers on a flight tested positive, a carrier could suspend a flight for two weeks or reduce the number of passengers to 40% of its capacity.

The U.S. DOT statement says China’s rules place “undue culpability” on airlines for passengers who present negative test results before boarding but test positive after arriving in China.

A spokesperson with the Chinese Embassy in Washington told the Reuters news agency the U.S. DOT action was “extremely irresponsible” and “groundlessly suspended Chinese airline flights.” The spokesperson said China’s COVID-19 “circuit breaker” measures were fair and transparent, applied both to Chinese and foreign airlines and were consistent with bilateral air transportation agreements.

Reuters reports China and U.S. regulators have been at odds regarding air services since the start of the pandemic. In January, the U.S. suspended 44 China-bound flights from the United States by the four Chinese carriers in response to China’s decision to suspend 44 flights on U.S. carriers.

The news agency says in August 2021, the U.S. DOT limited four flights from Chinese carriers to 40% passenger capacity for four weeks after Beijing imposed identical limits on four United Airlines flights.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Ethiopian Government Launches Airstrike on Tigray Capital Mekelle

Posted on by SeeAF

An Ethiopian government airstrike hit the capital of the volatile Tigray region Friday, reportedly killing several people. The airstrike followed the collapse of a humanitarian cease-fire in northern Ethiopia that had halted fighting for five months.

The French news agency AFP reports that just before 3 p.m. local time Friday, the Ethiopian Air Force bombed targets in the Tigrayan capital of Mekelle.  

A doctor at a Mekelle hospital later told the Reuters news agency the airstrike hit a children’s playground, killing at least four people, including two children.

The Ethiopian federal government issued a statement online advising all citizens in Tigray to keep away from potential military targets.

Some on Twitter pointed out that most communications have been severed in Tigray for months due a government shutdown of the internet, and that people inside Tigray would have no way of seeing the statement.

In an email to VOA, government spokesperson Selamawit Kassa said the Ethiopia Air Force is targeting only military sites.  He accused the TPLF of “dumping fake body bags in civilian areas in order to claim that the Air Force attacked civilians.”

An information war between the federal government and the TPLF has been ongoing since their conflict began almost two years ago.

Airstrikes are another escalation in the recent return to fighting in northern Ethiopia.  On Wednesday, ground fighting in the Amhara effectively ended a five-month ceasefire, which had raised hopes of peace talks.

The international community has expressed grave concern over the renewed hostilities.  Humanitarian organizations say even before fighting intensified, large parts of Tigray were likely in a state of famine.
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Turkey, Finland, Sweden Discuss Security Concerns, to Keep Meeting Through Autumn

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Officials from Turkey, Finland and Sweden agreed on Friday to keep meeting in the coming months to discuss security concerns that Turkey raised as a precondition for allowing the two Nordic countries to join the NATO military alliance. 

Officials from the three countries held their first such meeting on Friday in the southern Finnish city of Vantaa. 

Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said the meeting aimed to establish contacts and set goals for cooperation that the countries agreed to by signing a memorandum of understanding at NATO’s Madrid summit in June. 

“The participants discussed the concrete steps to implement the Trilateral Memorandum and agreed that the mechanism will continue to meet at the expert level during the autumn,” the Finnish foreign ministry said in a statement after the meeting. 

The two Nordic countries applied for NATO membership in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but faced opposition from Turkey which accused them of imposing arms embargoes on Ankara and supporting groups it deems terrorists. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office said the sides had agreed to intensify their cooperation and fight terrorism. 

“Finland and Sweden will show full solidarity and cooperation with Turkey in the fight against all forms and manifestations of terrorism… [and] they reiterated their commitment not to provide support to these organizations,” it said. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has demanded Sweden and Finland extradite suspects Turkey seeks over terrorism-related charges, while the Nordic countries say they have not agreed to specific extraditions. 

Finland’s foreign ministry had been tight-lipped about Friday’s meeting, refusing to give its location or timing, but later said it had taken place in the city of Vantaa near the capital Helsinki. 
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US Justice Department Set to Unseal Trump Search Affidavit

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The U.S. Justice Department is set to release later Friday one of the most sought-after legal documents in recent history: an affidavit supporting the FBI’s recent search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence.

The document is being sought by a group of news organizations and others amid intense public interest and political uproar over the FBI’s unprecedented action as part of an ongoing investigation of the former president’s handling of classified government documents after he left the White House in January 2021. 

A federal judge directed the Justice Department late Thursday to unseal a redacted version of the affidavit by noon Friday after prosecutors proposed blacking out sections to guard sensitive details about the investigation. The redactions were made under seal and can’t be seen by the public.

The August 8 search of Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida, during which FBI agents removed 11 sets of classified documents, some of them labeled top secret, has triggered a political firestorm, with Trump and his allies accusing the Biden administration of “weaponizing” law enforcement against him.  The administration denies the charge. 

The search warrant, unsealed on August 12, showed that Trump is being investigated for potential violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses in connection with his handling of government documents.  

On his Truth Social platform, Trump, who has said he wants the affidavit unsealed, wrote Friday, “The political Hacks and Thugs had no right under the Presidential Records Act to storm Mar-a-Lago and steal everything in sight, including Passports and privileged documents.”

Just what details about the investigation the affidavit will reveal remains to be seen. Before Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart’s order, the Justice Department had opposed making the affidavit public, saying it contains critical details about the ongoing investigations, and requires so many redactions that unsealing it would worthless. 

But Reinhart appeared to accept the government’s proposed redactions to the document. In his order, Reinhart wrote that he had reviewed the redacted affidavit as well as an accompanying legal memo, and found that “the Government has met its burden of showing a compelling reason/good cause to seal portions of the Affidavit because disclosure would reveal (1) the identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents, and uncharged parties, (2) the investigation’s strategy, direction, scope, sources, and methods, and (3) grand jury information protected by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure.”  

Citing the “historical significance” of the Mar-A-Lago search, media outlets pressing for unsealing the affidavit filed a new motion on Thursday asking that portions of the Justice Department’s memo justifying the redactions be unsealed.

“Like the search warrant affidavit itself, the Brief is a judicial record to which a presumption of public access applies,” they wrote. 

The FBI’s search of Mar-A-Lago came seven months after Trump turned over to the National Archives 15 boxes of government records that he’d taken to Mar-A-Lago after leaving the White House in January 2021. 

Under the Presidential Records Act, all presidential records are the property of the U.S. government and must be turned over to the National Archives by outgoing presidents. 

In a May 10 letter to a Trump lawyer, acting U.S. archivist Debra Wall wrote that the boxes included more than 100 classified documents consisting of more than 700 pages. The National Archives released the letter this week. 

The FBI investigation of Trump’s handling of classified records represents the latest legal headache for the former president as he mulls running for re-election in 2024. 

In the 21 months since he lost his re-election bid in November 2020, Trump has been under investigation by congressional investigators and prosecutors for his efforts to overturn the results of the vote.
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New Jersey Charity Helps Deaf, Hearing-Impaired Kids in Ukraine

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A U.S. charity based in Jersey City, New Jersey, is collecting donations and raising funds not only to support Ukraine’s armed forces but also to help build a special bomb shelter at a boarding school for deaf and hearing-impaired children in Lviv, Ukraine. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Aleksandr Barash.
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Drought Forcing New Arrivals in Somali Relief Camps to Eat Animal Skins

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Somali authorities say a record drought has created near-famine conditions in South West state.  New arrivals at relief camps say they are eating animal skins to survive.  

Baidoa, the administrative capital of Somalia’s South West state, is one of the worst drought-affected areas in the country. People who have lost their livelihoods due to drought arrive at relief camps every day in search of humanitarian assistance.

Sumadle,  a new camp on the outskirts of Baidoa, hosts hundreds of new arrivals, mostly from the marginalized Eyle community. 

Some of the Eyle walk over 150 kilometers to Sumadle after losing their livestock and harvests because of three consecutive seasons of no rain.

Iisho Mad Keer Madey, a young and pregnant mother of four, told VOA she took a difficult journey to arrive at the camp from Hawal-Barbar, in Bay region. 

Madey said she and her children walked for two days and two nights to arrive at camp. She said people helped the exhausted family with a ride in an auto-rickshaw. She migrated after losing 20 goats and 20 camels because of drought, forcing her to beg to feed her children.

Habibo Ibrahim Haydar, the administrator of the camp, said the camp houses more than 300 new arrivals who have nothing to eat, and some have started to eat animal skins because they have not received humanitarian aid so far.

Two and half kilometers away there is another relief camp. Mercy Corps, an American humanitarian group, is providing the people there with water and cash to live in the camp, but it is not enough.

Mukhtar Haji Abukar, 73, arrived at the camp three days ago from the Bakol region. He told VOA he lost everything because of the drought.

Abukar said he had 60 cattle before the drought and now the only thing remaining is the  animal skin he was sitting on. He said he and his family hadn’t cooked anything today or last night. It took him four days and four nights to get here from Bakol.

Abukar said this drought is the worst he has seen in his entire life.

In a trip for journalists arranged by Mercy Corps CEO Tjada D’Oyen McKenna said the situation in Somalia is dire and “beyond comprehension.”

“I met two women who had lost babies along the way and had to bury them on the roads as part of their journey,” she said. “We at Mercy Corps are providing cash to vulnerable families to buy food and other essentials and also providing water and hygiene kits to prevent disease spread.”

Somalia is witnessing one of the worst droughts in recent history. More than 1 million people have already been displaced by the drought, according to the United Nations.

The U.N. said more than 7.7 million Somalis—nearly half of the country’s population – need humanitarian assistance because of the drought.

UNICEF earlier told VOA that drought-related malnutrition has already killed 500 children in Somalia.
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