Month: September 2022

Biden Keeps US Target for Refugee Admissions at 125,000

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President Joe Biden on Wednesday formally kept the nation’s cap on refugee admissions at 125,000 for the 2023 budget year, despite pressure from refugee advocates to raise it even higher to meet the need after falling far short of that target this year. 

Advocates for refugees had been pushing the Biden administration to do more to restore the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. It had suffered deep cuts under the Trump administration and had admitted fewer than 20,000 refugees so far this year, or only about 20% of the 125,000 target for 2022, according to the latest count in August. 

The budget year ends Friday. 

A White House memorandum issued Tuesday provided a geographical breakdown of admissions, allocating 40,000 for Africa, 35,000 for Near East/South Asia, 15,000 for East Asia, 15,000 for Europe and Central Asia, and 15,000 for Latin America. Five thousand are listed as unallocated and held in reserve. 
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Uyghur Rights Groups Support Request to Debate China’s Xinjiang Record

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Rights groups urge other countries to follow the lead of the U.S. and several other Western countries that are asking the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold a debate in its next session in 2023 on China’s human rights record in the Xinjiang region.

“The international community must remember its obligation to end atrocity crimes like genocide and crimes against humanity,” said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress.

The draft resolution presented Monday included the backing of Britain, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway.

More than 60 Uyghur organizations from 20 countries welcomed the draft resolution. In a joint statement, the groups said they will continue to push for further action following last month’s U.N. assessment on China’s treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The report concluded that Beijing may have committed “crimes against humanity” against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim populations.

“Governments must seize this opportunity to finally respond to the abuses,” said Omer Kanat, executive director of the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project.

While Uyghur rights groups are encouraged by some of the Western governments’ action, “the response from governments needs to be commensurate with the gravity of the abuses Uyghurs have faced, and are still facing, on the ground,” Peter Irwin, senior program officer at the Uyghur Human Rights Project, told VOA.

“When negotiations get underway, governments need to keep in mind the legitimacy of the U.N. human rights system itself — a system they may need to rely on one day for support,” Irwin said.

Beijing’s response

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told the press in Beijing that the Western countries that signed the draft resolution are using the U.N. Human Rights Council to interfere with Beijing’s domestic affairs. He added that some countries are trying to discredit and contain China’s development.

“They blatantly apply double standard and have gone so far as to name and shame some developing countries and openly pressure them. This has poisoned the atmosphere and led to aggravated confrontation at the Human Rights Council, which is detrimental to international human rights cooperation. The international community firmly rejects such practice,” Wang said.

Chinese officials have repeatedly said accusations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang are lies and that Beijing’s policies are aimed at fighting terrorism, separatism, radicalization and violence.

The Chinese embassy’s spokesperson, Liu Pengyu, told VOA that Beijing has addressed “both the symptoms and root causes” of terrorism and has made it safe for the residents of Xinjiang.

“We hope that the United States and the West will stop using the Human Rights Council as a tool for political manipulation, view Xinjiang’s anti-terrorism and radicalization efforts in a fair, objective and responsible manner,” Liu wrote in an email response to VOA.

Last week, 27 nations supported Beijing on this issue in a statement to the council.

UN Xinjiang assessment

Just before Michelle Bachelet’s term ended as U.N. high commissioner for human rights, she released a much-anticipated report on China’s human rights violations in Xinjiang, including arbitrary detention of Muslim groups including Uyghurs in so-called vocational education training centers, forced sterilization, coerced labor, family separation and religious repression.

The recommendations in the assessment included asking for the Chinese government to release individuals who have been arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang and conduct “a full review of the legal framework governing national security, counterterrorism and minority rights” in the Xinjiang region.

Commission of inquiry

The U.N. General Assembly has become a platform for rights organizations to ask the international community to take further action toward China following the U.N. assessment.

On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York last week, some rights groups and diplomats met and pushed for a U.N. investigative and accountability tool called a commission of inquiry, which would further look into allegations of China’s human rights violations.

Survivors of China’s so-called reeducation camps went on a hunger strike last week outside the White House and accused Beijing of causing “ongoing forced starvation” of Uyghurs and other minorities under COVID-19 lockdown measures in Xinjiang.

Two U.S. lawmakers, Republican Congressman Chris Smith and Democratic Congressman Tom Suozzi, introduced legislation Friday urging the U.S. government to sponsor a resolution that would establish a U.N. commission to investigate the rights violations in Xinjiang.

“The first concrete step done immediately is to file a resolution. We have only a few days to get that done at the U.N.,” Smith told VOA. “And even that’s not enough.”

On Saturday, dozens of Uyghurs protested outside the U.N. building in New York, calling for an investigation into the alleged abuses in Xinjiang.

This week’s draft resolution presented to the U.N. generated more response from rights organizations.

“A modest — and yet unprecedented — step at the UN Human Rights Council’s 51st session towards accountability for Chinese government,” tweeted Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch.

The 51st session of the U.N. Human Rights Council convened September 12 and ends October 7.

The council is expected to vote on the draft resolution next week. It is the first time a draft resolution to the council is focused on China.
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Capitol Rioter, a ‘One-Man Wrecking Ball,’ Gets 7-Year Term

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A judge sentenced a Capitol rioter to seven years in prison Tuesday, calling the Iowa man a “one man wrecking ball” who helped in a sustained assault on a police officer. 

Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Kyle Young in U.S. District Court in Washington to the long term, noting he had admitted to helping in the assault of a police officer during the January 6, 2021, riot. She gave him credit for the 17 months he’s been held since his arrest, meaning he likely will serve nearly six years in prison. 

“You were a one-man wrecking ball that day,” Berman Jackson told Young. 

The sentence is among the longest handed down so far in the riot, which halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory and sent lawmakers running for their lives. The harshest sentence of 10 years behind bars was given to a former New York City police officer who assaulted an officer at the Capitol with a metal flagpole. About 900 people have been charged in the Capitol attack and more than 400 have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial. 

Young cried as he apologized to former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone and said he wished he could take back his actions of that day. 

“I hope someday you forgive me,” he said. 

Fanone told the court of the near-death experience he endured at the hands of the rioters in which he was beaten and repeatedly shocked with a stun gun. Young admitted to handing a stun gun to another rioter who used it on Fanone, and of grabbing the officer’s hand as he struggled to protect himself from the attacking mob. 

Fanone said the attack ended his career as an officer. 

He told Jackson that Young should get 10 years in prison. 

“What I hope you do with that time is, I hope you suffer,” Fanone told Young during his own emotional recount of the day’s events. 

Fanone embraced a fellow officer outside the courthouse after the sentencing. He did not speak with media when asked for his reaction to the sentence. 

Fanone was among the officers who testified before the U.S. House Committee that’s investigating the insurrection about the violence experienced that day. Fanone told House investigators that he was “grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country.” That assault on him, which stopped only when he said he had children, caused him to have a heart attack. 

Young, 38, of Redfield, Iowa, originally faced more than a dozen charges but entered a plea to the single charge of assault of an officer. 

He went to the Capitol with his 16-year-old son, and video played by federal prosecutors indicated Young took part during fighting on the Capitol’s lower west terrace, including at one point throwing a heavy speaker that hit another rioter, drawing blood. He used a strobe light to blind fighting officers and at one point gave it to his son, allowing him to directly participate in the fighting, a point the judge used to illustrate her disgust at his actions that day. 

Young’s attorney Samuel Moore argued his engagement with the officer was two to three seconds of holding Fanone’s wrist. He tried to convince the judge that the government’s request of seven years was excessive and “outside his specific criminal conduct. 

Young also will serve three years under supervision once released. A hearing will be held later to determine his restitution. He also was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service. 

“You are one of the most serious January 6 offenders in my caseload and you were personally involved in and instrumental to one of the most horrific attacks on officers encased in this building,” the judge told Young. “I have seldom in my years on the bench been presented with anything like this.” 

 
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Horses Helping Wounded Ukranian War Vets Heal

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Ukrainian war veterans who lost limbs in the war are undergoing a unique form of therapy that involves help from some four-legged friends. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Camera: Yuriy Dankevych
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Russia: Ukrainians Widely Support Annexation in Four Regions; West Calls Vote ‘Sham’    

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Russia claimed Tuesday that early vote counting in what Western allies say are sham referendums showed Ukrainians in four regions overwhelmingly supporting joining Russia. 

State news agency RIA Novosti said that with about a fifth of the vote counted from the five days of balloting in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, more than 97% of the voters in all four regions favored annexation. Together, the regions comprise about 15% of Ukraine’s territory. 

The referendums have been widely denounced by Ukraine, the U.S. and other Western countries as an illegal exercise. No matter the outcome announced by Moscow, it is not expected to be accepted globally. 

But the balloting, and the widely expected outcome purportedly favoring annexation, would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a pretext to unilaterally change the Russian-Ukraine border and annex the four regions. That, in turn, could portray any attack on them by Kyiv’s forces as an attack on Russia itself. 

He said last week that he was willing to use nuclear weapons to defend the “territorial integrity” of Russia, a threat widely denounced by Ukraine, the U.S. and other Western countries that have sent billions of dollars to the Kyiv government to fend off Russia’s seven-month invasion. 

Ukraine has also repeatedly warned that Russian annexation of additional land would destroy any chance of peace talks. 

Some Ukrainians reported they were forced at gunpoint by Russian fighters to leave their homes to vote. Voting is ending Tuesday, with the U.S. saying in advance it will not recognize any outcome that Russia announces. 

“We stand with our partners around the world in rejecting whatever fabricated outcomes Russia announces,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday.   

“As far as what we are doing, we are prepared to impose additional swift and severe economic costs on Russia, along with our allies and partners, in response to these actions that we’re seeing currently if they move forward with annexation,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’ve been very clear about that.”   

The voting began Friday in the Russian-controlled Luhansk and Kherson regions, and in occupied areas of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.       

Nuclear saber-rattling    

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and the country’s former president, said Tuesday that if Russia is threatened beyond a certain limit, it has the right to respond “without asking anyone’s consent and holding long consultations.” 

“Let’s imagine that Russia is forced to use the most powerful weapon against the Ukrainian regime that has committed a large-scale act of aggression, which is dangerous for the very existence of our state,” Medvedev wrote on his messaging app channel. “I believe that NATO will steer clear from direct meddling in the conflict in that case.”  

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS News’s “60 Minutes” show in an interview broadcast late Sunday that the United States has made it clear publicly and privately to Russia to “stop the loose talk about nuclear weapons.”  

“It’s very important that Moscow hear from us and know from us that the consequences would be horrific, and we’ve made that very clear,” Blinken said.  

A U.S. State Department official said Putin gave the United States and its allies a gift last week by engaging in nuclear saber-rattling, calling for the troop mobilization and announcing the referenda while the U.S. was at the United Nations “talking about sovereignty and international peace and security.” The official said Russia “couldn’t have timed it better to put a spotlight on the grave offenses that Russia is committing to Ukraine and the international order.”    

Protests against mobilization  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported heavy fighting in several areas of Ukraine as he gave his nightly address Monday.   

“The situation is particularly intense in the Donetsk region,” he said. “We are doing everything to curb the enemy activity. That is where our number one goal is right now, as Donbas is still the number one goal for the occupiers.”   

Zelenskyy called Russia’s mobilization of 300,000 reservists “a sincere attempt to give commanders on the ground a constant stream of cannon fodder.”    

Widespread protests against Putin’s troop call-up have erupted in Russia, with police arresting hundreds of demonstrators participating in street protests in Moscow and elsewhere.     

In Russia’s Siberia region Monday, a 25-year-old man shot a military commandant at an enlistment center, the local governor said.    

Many men opposed to Putin’s war or fearful of being killed on the battlefield have abruptly fled Russia on flights to other countries, while others have joined long lines of cars on land routes headed to the Russian borders with Finland, Georgia and other countries.   

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

 
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As Ebola Spreads, Ugandan Medical Interns Strike Over Safety

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As Uganda reports more deaths from the latest Ebola outbreak in the country, medical interns at the hospital handling most of the cases have gone on strike. The interns say they are not being provided with adequate personal protective equipment against the deadly virus, which causes a hemorrhagic fever. Uganda’s health ministry has so far confirmed five deaths and 18 probable fatalities out of 36 cases.

Ugandan Health officials say they are holding talks with striking interns at central Mubende district’s hospital, which is handling most of the country’s spreading Ebola outbreak.

President for the Federation for Uganda Medical Interns, Dr. Musa Lumumba, says there is not enough personal protective gear for the interns at the hospital.

Speaking to VOA by phone, he called on Uganda’s Ministry of Health to urgently address the issue to protect doctors-in-training. 

“The issue of not having accommodation, so they stay in communities, which communities have got cases of Ebola,” Lumumba said. Protection of those at the frontline. And those at the frontline are the health care workers.”

Uganda Medical Association President, Dr. Samuel Oledo, told VOA one intern, three staff, and a medical student have been confirmed for exposure to the virus and at least three senior health officers (SHO) are showing symptoms.  

“We have 34 interns in Mubende.  And we have less than 12 doctors employed on the ground,” Oledo said. “If you have interns and they are pulling out at once, it’s catastrophic.  And the justifications are clear, honestly.  Results have come out today and one of the SHOs who actually performed surgeries with one of the interns on one case has become positive of Ebola.”

Oledo said they suspect as many as 104 medical students in Mubende hospital have been exposed to the virus.   

Uganda’s Ministry of Health has yet to confirm the exposures and infections of students and staff at the hospital.   

Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona denied there is a lack of protective equipment there to guard against Ebola.  

“All the protective gear to safeguard their life is available,” Ainebyoona said. “But like [with] any other infectious disease, fear will be expected. But we are working to ensure that we engage and counsel.  And ensure that there are teams to respond.”

Despite the spreading virus, Uganda’s Health Ministry said the situation is under control but acknowledged that three people suspected of being infected with the virus fled Mubende’s isolation unit on Monday.

Officials say security has been beefed up since to avoid a repeat. 

Uganda’s Ebola outbreak was first detected last week in Mubende, a central district, but has since spread to neighboring districts Kyegegwa and Kasanda.  

Some schools in Kyegegwa have shut down for two weeks to protect students.

First reports of a possible Ebola outbreak came from Kyegegwa’s Kyaka 11 refugee camp, raising alarm bells of a possible quick spread in the packed camp.  

But testing ruled out an outbreak in the camp.  

After Mubende’s cases were confirmed, the U.N.’s Refugee Agency UNHCR said it added controlled entry measures at refugee settlements.

“We are stepping up some assistance programs that had been curtailed due to lack of funding since July,” said Matthew Crentsil, the UNHCR Uganda representative. “That is procurement of soap. You would agree with me, this is fundamental in curbing the spread of Ebola.”

Uganda has yet to identify the source of the Ebola outbreak, which is the Sudan strain of the virus.  

The Sudan strain is less common than the Zaire strain and has no current, effective vaccine.

Uganda’s last Ebola outbreak in 2019 was the Zaire strain.  It last reported a Sudan strain outbreak in 2012.
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Kenyan Lawyer Charged With Bribing Witnesses in President’s ICC Case Found Dead

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A Kenyan lawyer who was charged with bribing and threatening witnesses who were to testify against the country’s current president, William Ruto, has been found dead.

Kenyan police and family members of Paul Gicheru confirmed his death Monday night to local media.

It was not immediately clear what caused the 50-year-old lawyer’s death, and a police spokesman did not answer our calls.

The Kenyan Human Rights Commission told VOA news Gicheru’s death while he faced a trial before the International Criminal Court for alleged witness tampering is quite unfortunate. Senior program advisor Martin Mavenjina.

“It’s unfortunate that he has passed on under mysterious circumstances. As we speak right now there have not been conclusive investigations surrounding the circumstances of his death,” Mavenjina said.

Mavenjina says that he’s been keeping up on Gicheru for a long time and death is a big surprise. 

“I have been keenly following Paul Gicheru since he surrendered to the ICC,” Mavenjina said. “At no point in time have we been informed that Paul Gicheru had any health conditions or underlying health conditions or was sick at any point in time. We received this news in shock yesterday because the way it was reported you know he was found dead at his house with foam coming out of his mouth.”

Gicheru was facing charges of bribing and threatening witnesses in a case against Kenya’s newly-elected president, William Ruto, and broadcaster Joshua Sang.

Ruto and Sang were among several Kenyans, including former president Uhuru Kenyatta, who were charged with prompting violence in the 2007 disputed election.

Street clashes over the election left more than 1,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The ICC declared a mistrial in 2016, citing witness tampering, and a trial against Gicheru and Sang began in February with Gicheru pleading not guilty.

ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah told VOA he could not comment on Gicheru’s case until the confirmation of Gicheru’s death was submitted by Kenyan authorities to the trial chamber. 

A statement issued by the Law Society of Kenya urged the inspector general of the National Police Service to ensure that thorough investigations are conducted. It goes on to say that it’s in the public domain that several witnesses in the ICC cases have either disappeared or died, therefore there is significant public interest in knowing what caused Gicheru’s death. 

The group also wished a speedy recovery to Gicheru’s son, who was reportedly in the same house with his father at the time of his death and has been admitted to the hospital in critical condition. 
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Officials Say 98,000 Russians Enter Kazakhstan After Reservists Call-up

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About 98,000 Russians have crossed into Kazakhstan in the week since President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of reservists to fight in Ukraine, Kazakh officials said Tuesday, as men seeking to avoid the call-up continued to flee by land and air into neighboring countries.

Kazakhstan and Georgia, both part of the former Soviet Union, appeared to be the most popular destinations for those crossing by car, bicycle or on foot.

Those with visas for Finland or Norway also have been coming in by land. Plane tickets abroad had sold out quickly despite steep prices.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has said that only about 300,000 people with prior combat or other military service would be called up, but reports have emerged from various Russian regions that recruiters were rounding up men outside that description. That fueled fears of a much broader call-up, sending droves of men of all ages and backgrounds to airports and border crossings.

In announcing the number of Russians crossing the border, Kazakhstan Interior Minister Marat Akhmetzhanov said authorities will not send those who are avoiding the call-up back home, unless they are on an international wanted list for criminal charges.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered his government to assist Russians entering his country “because of the current hopeless situation.”

“We must take care of them and ensure their safety. It is a political and a humanitarian issue. I tasked the government to take the necessary measures,” Tokayev said, adding that Kazakhstan will hold talks with Russia on the situation.
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Suspect Detained in Poland in Dutch Reporter’s Slaying

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Dutch prosecutors said Monday that a 30-year-old man suspected of involvement in the slaying of crime reporter Peter R. De Vries has been arrested by authorities in Poland.

De Vries, one of the Netherlands’ best-known journalists who also campaigned to solve cold cases, was gunned down in Amsterdam on July 6 last year. He died nine days later of his injuries at age 64.

Prosecutors said the Polish man was arrested on suspicion of helping prepare the attack and that he is believed to have lived in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam at the time of the shooting.

His identity wasn’t released in line with privacy regulations. Dutch authorities have requested his transfer to the Netherlands.

Two men were arrested near The Hague soon after De Vries were shot and are on trial for his murder. Prosecutors have sought life sentences for both. One of them is a Polish national, Kamil E., who was the alleged getaway driver.

Another Polish national was arrested in July on suspicion of instructing the two men who carried out the hit. Two other suspects were arrested in Spain and Curacao on the same day.

Before his shooting, De Vries acted as an adviser and confidant for a witness in the trial of the alleged leader and other members of a crime gang that police described as an “oiled killing machine.” The witness’ brother and his lawyer both were murdered.

The suspected gangland leader, Ridouan Taghi, was extradited to the Netherlands from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2019 and is currently awaiting verdicts in his trial. Prosecutors have sought a life sentence for his alleged involvement in a string of murders. He hasn’t been charged in De Vries’ killing.
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Spanish Court Formally Sends Shakira to Trial for Tax Fraud

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A Spanish court on Tuesday formally ordered Colombian superstar Shakira to stand trial on accusations that she failed to pay $14.31 million in income taxes, a court document released on Tuesday showed.

The ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ singer, 45, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, rejected in July a deal to settle the case, which meant she would have to stand trial in a case that could see her sent to prison for eight years.

The Esplugues de Llobregat court on Tuesday confirmed the trial will go ahead on a date still to be announced.

The prosecutor is seeking an eight-year prison term for the singer, who is accused of failing to pay taxes between 2012 and 2014, a period in which she said she was leading a “nomadic life” because of her work.

“The order to send Shakira to trial is just another step in any proceedings of this kind. The situation has not changed and everything continues as normal. Shakira’s legal defense will do its job by presenting its written arguments at the appropriate time,” a statement from her lawyers said.

Shakira vowed last week to fight what she claimed were “false” accusations by Spanish authorities and added that she had already paid what the Spanish tax office said she owed before they filed a lawsuit. 
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US Vice President Harris to Visit DMZ During Visit to South Korea

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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the Demilitarized Zone ((DMZ)) that serves as a buffer between North and South Korea on Thursday.

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo announced Harris’ visit to the 250 kilometer long zone Tuesday in Tokyo during one-on-one talks before they attended the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  

Prime Minister Han said the U.S. vice president’s visit “will be very symbolic demonstrations” of Washington’s “strong commitments to the security and peace on the Korean Peninsula.”

A U.S. official told reporters Harris “will reflect on the shared sacrifice of tens of thousands of American and Korean soldiers who fought and died together” during the 1950-53 conflict that pitted communist North Korea against the U.S.-backed South.  The official  said her visit “will reaffirm” that the U.S. commitment to South Korea’s defense is “ironclad.”

Harris’ visit comes just days after North Korea staged another ballistic missile launch.  The White House issued a separate statement Tuesday saying Harris told Han the alliance between the United States and South Korea “remains the linchpin of peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and around the world.”

The U.S. military has about 28,000 troops in South Korea, a remnant of the 1950s Korean War, which ended in an armistice, not a formal peace treaty.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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Kurdish Militants Attack Turkish Police, Kill Themselves

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Two suspected Kurdish militants opened fire on police in southern Turkey and later killed themselves by detonating suicide bombs, Turkey’s interior minister said. One police officer was killed in the attack while a second officer and a civilian were wounded.

The attack was carried out late on Monday in the Mezitli district in the Mediterranean coastal province of Mersin, by two women affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters.

They fired on police guarding a hotel for security officers, touching off clashes between them and police and a group of night guards who rushed to the scene, Soylu said.

“The women terrorists were wounded during these clashes. As the clashes continued, two separate explosions were heard,” the minister said. “Because they were wounded, they understood they would not be able to escape and they (killed) themselves.”

Soylu said a woman who was sitting on a balcony near the scene was hit by a stray bullet during the clashes. Neither she nor the second police officer was seriously hurt, he said.

There was no immediate comment from the militant group.

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey, Europe and the United States. It has led an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since then.

A fragile cease-fire and peace talks between the state and the PKK collapsed in the summer of 2015.
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Ian Becomes a Major Hurricane as it Nears Landfall Over Western Cuba

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Hurricane Ian has evolved into a major hurricane as it nears landfall over western Cuba on its way to the southern U.S. state of Florida.

Forecasters at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center say Ian is moving over the Caribbean Sea carrying maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometers an hour, making it a Category 3 storm on the center’s five-level scale that measures a storm’s maximum sustained wind speed and destructive potential.

Ian was last spotted 135 kilometers east of the western tip of Cuba, and 55 kilometers from the city of Pinar Del Rio, traveling at a speed of 20 kilometers an hour. The NHC says the storm will remain a major hurricane as it travels over the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday.

If the storm continues on its current track, it is expected to reach the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg on Florida’s western Gulf Coast as early as Wednesday. The area has not sustained a direct hit by a major hurricane since 1921.

Forecasters have issued hurricane, tropical storm and storm surge warnings and watches for parts of western Cuba and Florida that are in the current path of Hurricane Ian. Hurricane Ian is expected to produce between 15 to 25 centimeters of rainfall in western Cuba, with the Florida Keys expected to receive 10 to 15 centimeters and central west Florida to get between 15 to 30 centimeters of rainfall.

U.S. President Joe Biden has issued an emergency declaration for Florida, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster-relief efforts and provide more federal funding. Authorities have issued evacuation orders for hundreds of thousands of residents along Florida’s Gulf Coast. The potential devastation from Ian has even prompted officials at the U.S. space agency NASA to roll its massive Artemis 1 moon rocket and space capsule from its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center — located on Florida’s eastern coast — back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, further delaying its planned test flight.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Female Fighters Detail Russian Atrocities in Ukraine

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Ukrainian female fighters who recently met with U.S. State Department officials and members of Congress said they witnessed war crimes committed by Russia during its war on Ukraine. During an interview with VOA, two Ukrainian warriors detailed personal stories and firsthand information on atrocities committed by Russian troops.

United Nations investigators have said there is evidence that Russian forces who invaded Ukraine in February 2022 committed war crimes. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine presented its findings on Friday, September 23, to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

“They [Russian troops] use forbidden ammunitions like cluster munitions and phosphorus bombs that burn everything to the ground. It’s prohibited by all the civilized world,” Daria Zubenko, a senior sergeant in the Ukrainian armed forces, told VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching on Friday. “We know the facts of women being raped and even children.”

Russia has repeatedly dismissed accusations of abuses during its war on Ukraine.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization to boost troop levels, recruiting civilians of fighting age into the military at a time when Russian armed forces are suffering significant losses.

Despite the buildup, “we don’t fear,” Yaryna Chornoguz, a Ukrainian combat medic and drone operator, told VOA. She added that Ukraine’s counteroffensive, with the new security assistance from the United States, has been making progress. “We believe we win them because of our new weaponry.”

Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced an additional $457.5 million in civilian security assistance to boost capacity of Ukrainian law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. A portion of this new assistance will continue U.S. support for the Ukrainian government’s efforts to “document, investigate and prosecute atrocities perpetrated by Russia’s forces,” according to the State Department.

The following includes excerpts from the interviews, which have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Interview with Daria Zubenko

VOA: Can you please tell our audience your name?

Daria Zubenko: My name is Daria Zubenko. I’m a a senior sergeant of Ukrainian armed forces.

VOA: Which area in Ukraine are you from?

Zubenko: I was born in Chernihiv. It’s the north part of Ukraine. Mostly I lived in Kyiv, studied there and worked there.

VOA: What have you seen during the war?

Zubenko: I was in the armed forces officially since 2018. Before, I was a volunteer paramedic in 2015. I spent some time on the front line in 2015 around Mariupol region near Donetsk. I gave first aid. And then, after a break, I joined the official armed forces and became an instructor of sniper school.

With the full-scale invasion in the end of February, I took part in operations around Kyiv when there was war and combat battles around Kyiv region and also in Chernihiv region. I was in Irpin, I was in the village Moshchun that is north from Kyiv, where Russians were stopped. And then we had operations in Chernihiv region, going into the villages that have just been left by Russians.

I saw people coming out of their houses. When they saw Ukrainian troops and Ukrainian flags, they started crying and saying, ‘Thank you, boys and girls, finally you came.’ Most of them asked ‘Please make sure that Russians never come back.’

What those people have experienced is really horrible. We saw pictures of Bucha, Irpin and recently liberated cities like Izium, Kupyansk, and all these mass graves, all this evidence of people being tortured, captured and killed.

In [a] small village of Yahidne near Chernihiv, people spent about a month locked in the basement. Russian troops didn’t let them go out — there were about 200 people there in one place, with small children. The youngest child was 3 months old.

And there were some older people — none of them unfortunately could survive all of this. Some men were taken out of this basement and convoyed by Russians to the forest and shot. I saw women who just received the news about their husbands being killed — I felt ashamed that we just let this happen.

Russian (troops) don’t have any principles or any rules of war when dealing with civilians. That’s why we hope to liberate our cities and towns as soon as possible.

VOA: Today, the U.N. investigators said they found evidence of war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine. Do you think it’s a valid finding?

Zubenko: It’s good that these crimes are being investigated. The evidence is found, gathered, and we can finally get some punishment to those who are doing that. For Russia, no international law ever worked.

We know the facts of women being raped and even children. We know evidence of people being killed (while) trying to evacuate. They (Russian troops) were shooting civilian cars. We know people have been captured and held somewhere in the basement and tortured.

VOA: Do you agree with the finding that Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine?

Zubenko: Absolutely. We know, for example, they use forbidden ammunitions like cluster munitions and phosphorus bombs that burn everything to the ground. It’s prohibited by all the civilized world. But for Russia, it’s OK. We saw it with our own eyes. We just need the world to react properly and for Russia to be completely isolated.

Interview with Yaryna Chornoguz

VOA: Can you please tell our audience your name, and where on the front line you were fighting?

Yaryna Chornoguz: My name is Yaryna Chornoguz. I’m a soldier of Reconnaissance Battalion of Ukraine Marine Corps which belongs to Ukraine Defense Forces. I’m here right from the front line from the Donetsk Region. My battalion has been on the front lines during 13 months. We have seen plenty of towns, Donetsk region, Mariupol, Bakhmut, Sloviansk, and the others.

VOA: What have you seen during the war?

Chornoguz: First, when the war started, our battalion had been eight months on the rotation in [the] Luhansk region. And then at the end of February we were relocated to the Mariupol direction in order to reinforce our embattled forces there.

But when we came to the outskirts of Mariupol, it was already in battle. We tried to restrain the breakthrough in the Mariupol city to the north of Ukraine. And there, my battalion, we had really hard battles. I was on the observation post on the fuel road when we see a big long Russian tank column that moved on us and on the Ukrainian village and we had hard battles. My commander was killed.

I saw with my own eyes how Russian tanks destroyed and ruined villages of Ukrainians. During the first month of [Russia’s] full-scale invasion, I had a quite hard experience to help not only wounded soldiers because I’m a combat medic, but also a civilian.

I already told that story to the American news [outlets] about rescuing the boy age 10 from the basement and his mother with a 10-month [old] child in her hands. I just had this picture before my eyes when we took the boy in a blanket … to our military car and evacuated that village. Every day, it was bombed by cluster munitions by Russians.

What I can say now is that [the] HIMARS system, and the Howitzers that we got from the U.S. changed everything. They [Russian troops] came with such big forces, with such long tank columns and we managed to stop them. And I believe that we’ve made counteroffensive.

VOA: Thousands of Russians, men of fighting age, are fleeing the country after the partial mobilization [of civilians into the military] order from the government. What does that tell you?

Chornoguz: I can tell you that Ukrainians are joking about this conscription of Russians that Putin has announced. Because you know, for artillery that we got from our allies, and with our experience — it doesn’t matter whether it’s 10 occupants per square meters or whether it’s 100. It doesn’t matter. We believe we win them because of our new weaponry. We don’t fear.
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NASA Spacecraft Crashes Into Asteroid in Defense Test

Posted on by SeeUS

A NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid at blistering speed Monday in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth.

The galactic slam occurred at a harmless asteroid 9.6 million kilometers away, with the spacecraft named Dart plowing into the space rock at 22,500 kph. Scientists expected the impact to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and dirt into space and, most importantly, alter the asteroid’s orbit.

“We have impact!” Mission Control’s Elena Adams announced, jumping up and down and thrusting her arms skyward.

Telescopes around the world and in space aimed at the same point in the sky to capture the spectacle. Though the impact was immediately obvious — Dart’s radio signal abruptly ceased — it will take days or even weeks to determine how much the asteroid’s path has changed.

The $325 million mission was the first attempt to shift the position of an asteroid or any other natural object in space.

“We’re embarking on a new era of humankind,” said NASA’s Lori Glaze, planetary science division director.

Earlier in the day, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson reminded people via Twitter that, “No, this is not a movie plot.” He added in a prerecorded video: “We’ve all seen it on movies like ‘Armageddon,’ but the real-life stakes are high.”

Monday’s target: a 160-meter asteroid named Dimorphos. It’s actually a moonlet of Didymos, Greek for twin, a fast-spinning asteroid five times bigger that flung off the material that formed the junior partner.

The pair have been orbiting the sun for eons without threatening Earth, making them ideal save-the-world test candidates.

Launched last November, the vending machine-size Dart — short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — navigated to its target using new technology developed by Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, the spacecraft builder and mission manager.

Dart’s onboard camera, a key part of this smart navigation system, caught sight of Dimorphos barely an hour before impact.

“Woo-hoo!” exclaimed Adams, a mission systems engineer at Johns Hopkins. “We’re seeing Dimorphos, so wonderful, wonderful.”

With an image beaming back to Earth every second, Adams and other ground controllers in Laurel, Maryland, watched with growing excitement as Dimorphos loomed larger and larger in the field of view alongside its bigger companion. Within minutes, Dimorphos was alone in the pictures; it looked like a giant gray lemon with boulders and rubble on the surface. The last image froze on the screen as the radio transmission ended.

Flight controllers cheered, hugged one another and exchanged high fives.

A mini satellite followed a few minutes behind to take photos of the impact. The Italian Cubesat was released from Dart two weeks ago.

Scientists insisted Dart would not shatter Dimorphos. The spacecraft packed a scant 570 kilograms, compared with the asteroid’s 5 billion kilograms. But that should be plenty to shrink its 11-hour, 55-minute orbit around Didymos.

The impact should pare 10 minutes off that, but telescopes will need anywhere from a few days to nearly a month to verify the new orbit. The anticipated orbital shift of 1% might not sound like much, scientists noted. But they stressed that over years, it would amount to a significant change.

Planetary defense experts prefer nudging a threatening asteroid or comet out of the way, given enough lead time, rather than blowing it up and creating multiple pieces that could rain down on Earth. Multiple impactors might be needed for big space rocks or a combination of impactors and so-called gravity tractors, not-yet-invented devices that would use their own gravity to pull an asteroid into a safer orbit.

“The dinosaurs didn’t have a space program to help them know what was coming, but we do,” NASA’s senior climate adviser Katherine Calvin said, referring to the mass extinction 66 million years ago believed to have been caused by a major asteroid impact, volcanic eruptions or both.

The nonprofit B612 Foundation, dedicated to protecting Earth from asteroid strikes, has been pushing for impact tests like Dart since its founding by astronauts and physicists 20 years ago. Monday’s feat aside, the world must do a better job of identifying the countless space rocks lurking out there, warned the foundation’s executive director, Ed Lu, a former astronaut.

Significantly less than half of the estimated 25,000 near-Earth objects in the deadly 140-meter range have been discovered, according to NASA. And fewer than 1% of the millions of smaller asteroids, capable of widespread injuries, are known.

The Vera Rubin Observatory, nearing completion in Chile by the National Science Foundation and U.S. Energy Department, promises to revolutionize the field of asteroid discovery, Lu noted.

Finding and tracking asteroids, “That’s still the name of the game here. That’s the thing that has to happen in order to protect the Earth,” he said.
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US Does Not Take a Position on Taiwan’s Sovereignty, State Department Says

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The United States does not take a position on Taiwan’s sovereignty under Washington’s “One China” policy, the State Department said Monday.

The remarks came days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in New York on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly where Blinken told Wang Washington’s “One China” policy has not changed.

While Washington has not agreed to take any position regarding sovereignty over Taiwan, Monday’s statement from the State Department is a rare public comment.

“We don’t take a position on sovereignty, but the policy that has been at the crux of our approach to Taiwan since 1979 remains in effect today,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price during Monday’s briefing. He was asked if Taiwan is part of China under Washington’s “One China” policy.

“What we want to see preserved is the status quo, precisely because the status quo since 1979, more than 40 years now, has undergirded peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We want to see that continue. Unfortunately, I don’t believe the same could be said of the PRC, which has become only more coercive and intimidating in its actions and its maneuvers across the Taiwan Strait,” said Price.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) claims sovereignty over Taiwan. The U.S. “acknowledges” but does not “endorse” PRC’s position.

“Both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one & the same China. Taiwan is part of China’s territory. China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity has never been split. This is the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and one China is at the heart of this status quo,” a spokesperson from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in a tweet.

For decades, the U.S. has been clear that its decision to establish diplomatic relations with the PRC in 1979 rested on the expectation that “the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means,” as stipulated in the Taiwan Relations Act.

The U.S. also does not support Taiwan independence.

Senior American officials have said Washington’s “One China” policy is “distinct” from Beijing’s “One China” principle.

The U.S. said it remains committed to its long-standing, bipartisan “One China” policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances.

Chinese officials have rejected the Taiwan Relations Act, calling the U.S. law governing its relations with Taiwan “illegal and invalid.”

On August 31, 2020, then-Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell told an audience at a Washington think tank that “the United States has not agreed to take any position regarding sovereignty over Taiwan” and it is important to review history because “Beijing has a habit of distorting it.”
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US Sanctions Iranian Cargo Plane for Export Violation

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. Department of Commerce Monday cited a fourth Iranian cargo plane for flying into Russia, adding it to a list of planes believed to be in violation of U.S. sanctions against Russia.

The U.S. Department of Commerce said in a statement that the cargo plane belongs to Saha Airlines, which is owned by the Iranian Air Force. On Sept. 19, the department added three other Iranian cargo planes to a list of those in apparent violation of U.S. export controls, Reuters reported.   

The fourth cargo plane flew to Russia without permission from the Department of Commerce, its statement said. 

“Last Monday, we announced that three Iranian cargo planes have been backfilling items to Russia in an attempt to circumvent our hard-hitting export controls,” Matthew Axelrod, assistant secretary of commerce for export enforcement, said in a statement. “Today, we’ve identified a fourth Iranian cargo plane that has flown to Russia in violation of our controls, this one under the control of the Iranian Air Force. Given Iran’s support for Russia’s war machine, including the recent provisioning of unmanned aerial vehicles, we are alerting the global aviation community that support for such aircraft violates our controls and is subject to enforcement action.”

According to reports, Iran has sent hundreds of drones to help Russia in its war with Ukraine. Iranian authorities have officially denied these reports. 

But the Kayhan newspaper, which is close to the leader of the Islamic Republic, confirmed Saturday that “hundreds of Iranian combat drones” have been exported to Russia. 

Some information for this article came from Reuters. 
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Influential Egyptian Cleric Al-Qaradawi Dies at 96

Posted on by SeeAF

Prominent Egyptian Islamist cleric Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, a major force behind the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions across the Middle East, died Monday in Qatar at age 96, leaving Islamists across the region without a spiritual mentor.

Known to many as a prominent force in the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions thata toppled veteran Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, Tunisia’s President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali and Libyan leader Moammar al Gaddafi, Sheikh al-Qaradawi is remembered for calling on those leaders to “step down” on Al Jazeera TV.

Al-Qaradawi, who was a top figure in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood group, lived in exile in Qatar for the latter part of his life, where he headed an association of world Islamic clerics and hosted a religious program on Qatar’s Al Jazeera network.

The often jovial and avuncular Egyptian cleric could also spew tirades of vitriol and hatred against “despotic Arab leaders” making him persona non grata in his native Egypt and a number of European countries, where he was often not allowed to address conferences of fellow Islamists.

Al-Qaradawi is remembered by many for his angry and bitter sermons where he justified the killing of Jews, calling Israel an evil state and urging that it be destroyed.

Al-Qaradawi also spoke frequently on his Islamic religious TV show, where he answered questions on Islamic law, justifying things like the killing of gays and lesbians and the beating of wives by their husbands.

After the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and the civil war that broke out in Syria in 2011, al-Qaradawi told viewers of his TV program that suicide bombings were permitted in Islam, despite verses in the Quran that prohibit individuals from killing themselves.

Numerous Islamic clerics opposed al-Qaradawi’s views, posting YouTube videos to criticize or condemn his positions on a variety of issues. Al-Qaradawi’s support for the setup of Islamic regimes in the Middle East met bitter opposition in his homeland of Egypt, as well as parts of the Gulf and North Africa.

Egyptian professor of political sociology Said Sadek tells VOA that he thinks that al-Qaradawi was mistakenly credited with the downfall of Egyptian President Mubarak, as well as Tunisian President Ben Ali — who he says were “toppled after 16 days of street protests.”

“What made [al] Qaradawi famous in the Arab world, more than his books, was his weekly program on Jazeera TV that promoted him and presented him like the [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini of the Sunni world and that he is the one who should guide the Muslim world,” Sadek said. “But in Sunni Islam it is different from Shia Islam. We had many others who were competing for this post.”

Sadek added that al-Qaradawi died at a time “when Islamic projects in the area were collapsing in places like Egypt, in Tunisia, in Morocco, and now fighting for survival in Iran.” He said secularists “don’t generally gloat about the demise of Islamists, but many see his death as part of a general decline of the Islamist wave which hit the region after 1967 and began declining after 2013 (following a street revolt against Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood).
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Somalia Military Makes Gains in Large-scale Offensive Against Al-Shabab

Posted on by SeeAF

Somalia’s state media on Monday said the military has pushed al-Shabab terrorists out of large parts of the country’s central area in the latest gains in a large-scale offensive. 

An offensive by the Somali tribal militia backed by the Somali government was launched in the Hiran region a few weeks ago against al-Shabab militants, liberating several key townships before moving on to Galgaduud and then the Bay region in the south.  

There has been significant progress in the liberation of 40 settlements in the Hiran region alone, with the support of the Somali government’s military commandos trained by the United States. 

However, the actual fight is taken up by the clan-based, state-supported independent Macawisley militia as part of the popular uprising against militants. 

Local militia members formally linked to the southwest administration of Somalia captured four settlements on the outskirts of Baidoa in the Bay region from militants with the support of the Somali national army forces Monday, proving that the uprising against the group has now expanded to the south. 

State-run media reported Monday that Busley, Bulo-Jadid, Matani and Usli were among the newly liberated villages. 

In an appearance on a talk show hosted by a local TV station Sunday, Ahmed Moallim Fiqi, the interior minister of the Somalia government, said the Somali army and local militia tribes had defeated militants in central Somalia after liberating much of the Hiran and Galgaduud regions. 

He noted that 40 settlements in Hiran and six more in Galgaduud had been liberated in less than three weeks, deeming this work commendable. 

“Our forces seized territory from militants which stretches over 40 settlements including villages, places where fewer people live and others where more people live,” he said. “These 40 settlements are located only in the Hiran region and a new operation has been launched in the Galgaduud region to liberate more territories, and you can imagine what happened yesterday and today when militants fled their dead comrades and ammunition, and so far, six villages have been liberated, and this only started yesterday.” 

VOA has not independently verified the Somali government claims. 

The Somali military gains come just one day after al-Qaida-linked militants attacked a training camp, killing one soldier and wounding six others. 

The Somali government’s campaign to regain control of the country comes at a time when the country is experiencing a raging drought, which U.N. officials warn will lead to famine within months. 

 
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France’s Macron Lands First State Visit of Biden’s Presidency

Posted on by SeeEU

French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Washington in early December for the first state visit of President Joe Biden’s tenure, an occasion marked by pomp and pageantry that is designed to celebrate relations between the United States and its closest allies.

The December 1 visit, following the U.S. midterm elections and the Thanksgiving holiday, will be the second state visit for Macron, who was first elected to lead his country in May 2017 and won a second term earlier this year. Macron also had a state visit during the Trump years.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced the visit Monday, saying it will “underscore the deep and enduring relationship with France, our oldest ally.” It will be the first time the White House has hosted a world leader for a state visit since the coronavirus outbreak.

The invitation comes as a sign that relations between Biden and Macron have come full circle. The relationship tanked last year after the United States announced a deal to sell nuclear submarines to Australia. The decision by the U.S. undermined a deal that had been in place for France to sell diesel-powered submarines to Australia.

After the announcement of the deal, which was born out of a new security agreement between the U.S., Australia and Britain, France briefly recalled its ambassador to Washington, Philippe Etienne, to Paris. Biden also sought to patch thing up with France by eventually acknowledging to Macron that his administration had been “clumsy” in how it handled the issue.

The Biden administration since has heaped praise on Macron for being among the most vociferous Western allies in condemning Russia’s 7-month-old war in Ukraine and pressing broad sanctions on the Russian economy and officials close to President Vladimir Putin.

Central to Biden’s pitch for the presidency was a vow to restore America’s global leadership after four years of Donald Trump’s “America First” worldview. But Biden has acknowledged that Macron and other allies remain skeptical about whether he can make good on robust U.S. leadership worldwide.

Biden is fond of telling the story of how, at a world leader meeting he attended soon after taking office, he declared that “America is back.” He says his counterparts, starting with Macron, countered by asking, “For how long?”

Macron also was the first world leader to earn a state visit under Trump, though their relationship later became fractious.

The French leader had sought to cultivate a close partnership with Trump and hosted the Republican in 2017 for Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. Trump reciprocated with Macron’s state visit.

But the relationship soured after Trump pulled U.S. troops from Syria without coordinating with France and other NATO allies. Trump disparaged NATO.

In one of their last face-to-face encounters, at a gathering of NATO leaders in London in 2019, Trump and Macron hardly hid their frustration with each other.

Not long before that meeting, Macron had complained that the alliance was suffering “brain death” caused by diminished U.S. leadership under Trump. Trump snapped back after a meeting with Macron that the French leader had made “very, very nasty” and “disrespectful” comments.

When Macron visited in April 2018, Trump and his wife, Melania, planned a double date with Macron and his wife, Brigitte, at Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, America’s founding president.

The couples helped plant a tree on the White House lawn before they departed on a helicopter tour of monuments built in a capital city designed by French-born Pierre L’Enfant as they flew south to Mount Vernon, situated along the Potomac River. Macron was welcomed at the White House the next day with a booming 21-gun salute, his first Oval Office meeting with Trump, a joint news conference with the president and a state dinner for 150 guests in the White House State Dining Room.

Scott Morrison, then the prime minister of Australia, also came on a state visit at Trump’s invitation in September 2019. Trump had announced a third state visit, by Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, but it was postponed due to the pandemic and could not be held before Trump lost reelection in 2020.

President Barack Obama also afforded France the honor of a state visit, in 2014.

Obama and French President Francois Hollande celebrated ties between their nations by touring Monticello, the sprawling Charlottesville, Virginia, estate owned by Thomas Jefferson, the former U.S. president and famed Francophile. Jefferson was an early U.S. envoy to France.

Hollande’s visit was the first such recognition for France in two decades.
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White House to Hold First Pacific Islands Summit

Posted on by SeeUS

This week, the White House hosts Pacific island nations for the first summit of its kind with the U.S. The meeting comes after a spike in American diplomatic engagement in the region following Beijing’s new security pact with the Solomon Islands. Jessica Stone has this report.
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Denmark Reports Leak in Gas Pipeline in Baltic Sea 

Posted on by SeeEU

Denmark’s maritime authority said Monday that a gas leak had been observed in a pipeline leading from Russia to Europe underneath the Baltic Sea and that there is a danger to ship traffic.

The operator of Nord Stream 2 confirmed that a leak in the pipeline had been detected southeast of the Danish island Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

The pipeline runs 1,230 kilometers (764 miles) from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. It is completed and filled with gas, but gas has never been imported through it, dpa reported.

The cause of the detected leak wasn’t immediately clear.

The Danish energy agency said in a statement that the country’s maritime authority has issued a navigation warning and established a five-nautical mile prohibition zone around the pipeline “as it is dangerous for ship traffic.”

The relevant authorities are currently coordinating the effort, and the Danish energy agency added that “outside the exclusion zone, there are no security risks associated with the leak.”

The incident is not expected to have consequences for the security of the supply of Danish gas, the country’s energy agency said.

A spokesman for the operator of Nord Stream 2 said a loss of pressure was detected in a tube early Monday, and the responsible marine authorities in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Russia were immediately informed, dpa reported.

While the pressure inside the pipeline is normally 105 bar, it is now only 7 bar on the German side, spokesman Ulrich Lissek said.

He fears that the pipeline, filled with 177 million cubic meters of gas, could run dry in the coming days, dpa reported.

It wasn’t immediately clear what consequences would follow from that, but a German environmental group said that the leaking gas isn’t toxic.

Deutsche Umwelthilfe pointed out that natural gas is methane, which partially dissolves in water and is not toxic. The deeper the gas is released in the sea, the higher the proportion that dissolves in the water, the group said, according to dpa.

Even in the event of an underwater explosion, there would only be local effects, Deutsche Umwelthilfe said.

The German economy ministry said it had been informed about the suspected site in Danish territorial waters and was in touch with the authorities in Germany and Denmark.

The pipeline was already complete when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suspended the certification of Nord Stream 2 on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, after Russia formally recognized two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.

Germany has been heavily reliant on natural gas supplies from Russia, but since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, Berlin has been trying to look for other sources of energy.

The leak comes a day before the inauguration of a new pipeline, Baltic Pipe, which will bring Norwegian gas through Denmark to Poland. The Norwegian gas is meant to have an important role in replacing Russian gas.
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Kenya’s ‘Marathon King’ Inspires Runners After Beating World Record

Posted on by SeeAF

Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge is spurring young athletes to follow in his footsteps after breaking his own world record Sunday in Berlin. 

Cheers erupted from the crowd Sunday at Nairobi’s Karura Forest as they watched Kipchoge race on TV. The watch party followed an amateur marathon organized by the Friends of Karura Forest to celebrate their 25th anniversary.  

Karanja Njoroge, a past chairman of the conservation group who serves on its board, called Kipchoge’s win “absolutely magnificent.”  

“Everybody went wild,” Njoroge said of the crowd at the watch party. “Seeing the guy was way ahead. Everybody felt so elated by the efforts of our king of athletics, Eliud Kipchoge.” 

Kipchoge’s new record, 30 seconds faster than his previous world record set in Berlin in 2018, is now two hours, one minute and nine seconds. Njoroge called it an inspiration. 

“I think it encourages people. Gives people hope. And even those who would never compete begin to believe, because this guy is 37 years old and he’s breaking world records,” Njoroge said. 

Barnabas Korir, an executive member of Athletics Kenya, the governing body for track and field sports, agreed.    

“He’s inspired the youth, but not only the youth but particularly all the athletes from Kenya,” Korir said. “You know Kipchoge is one of the few athletes who is completely determined. He’s also very focused.” 

Korir, who is also chairman of youth development at Athletics Kenya, said camps have been set up nationwide to encourage sports.   

“We got the support from the government to do that and in the last 3 years, Eliud Kipchoge talk to the athletes when they were in the camps,” Korir said. “So, this is an opportunity for us now to give our athletes a symbol that they can do well if they remain focused, if they work hard.” 

Kipchoge has won 15 out of his 17 career marathons, including two Olympic gold medals.  

Daniel Schearf contributed to this report.

 
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Putin Grants Russian Citizenship to US Document Leaker Snowden

Posted on by SeeEU

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to Edward Snowden, the former American security contractor who leaked information about top-secret documents detailing government surveillance programs and then fled the U.S. to escape prosecution. 

Snowden, 39, was one of 75 foreigners granted citizenship by the Russian leader but says he has no intention of renouncing his U.S. citizenship. Russia granted him asylum in 2013, where he has been living since. 

The U.S. State Department immediately mocked Snowden’s new-found citizenship status in Russia, saying he “may well be conscripted” to fight for Russia in its now seven-month invasion of Ukraine. 

Despite the State Department speculation, Snowden lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said that Snowden would not be subject to the 300,000-troop mobilization that Putin decreed last week to help Russia’s flagging war in Ukraine, since Snowden has never served in the Russian army. 

Putin said only those with previous military experience would be called up, though there have been widespread reports that others have been summoned as well, including men arrested at protests against mobilization. 

Snowden, a former contractor with the U.S. National Security Agency, was granted permanent Russian residency in 2020 and said at the time that he planned to apply for Russian citizenship, without revoking his U.S. citizenship. 

Snowden considers himself a whistleblower and when he leaked the classified U.S. documents, some U.S. government critics hailed him as a hero advancing government transparency. But numerous government officials said they were appalled at the leaks and called for his swift apprehension and prosecution. 

Kucherena told the state-run news agency RIA Novosti that Snowden’s wife, Lindsay Mills, is also applying for Russian citizenship. Mills joined Snowden in Moscow in 2014. They were married in 2017 and have a son together. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on Snowden’s new citizenship status. 

Snowden’s revelations, published first in The Washington Post and the Guardian, amounted to one of the biggest security breaches in U.S. history. The information he disclosed revealed top-secret NSA surveillance as part of a program known as PRISM and a wide range of digital information. 

In 2017, Putin said in a documentary film that he did not consider Snowden “a traitor” for leaking government secrets. 

“He did not betray the interests of his country,” Putin said. “Nor did he transfer any information to any other country which would have been pernicious to his own country or to his own people. The only thing Snowden does, he does publicly.” 

In 2020, Snowden explained his decision to seek dual citizenship. 

“After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our son. That’s why, in this era of pandemics and closed borders, we’re applying for dual US-Russian citizenship,” Snowden wrote on Twitter at the time. 

“Lindsay and I will remain Americans, raising our son with all the values of the America we love — including the freedom to speak his mind. And I look forward to the day I can return to the States, so the whole family can be reunited,” he said. 

Nike Ching contributed to this report. Some material in this report came from The Associated Press. 

 
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