Month: September 2022

UN Chief Calls for Action on Global Food, Climate Crises

Posted on by SeeAF

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to leaders Tuesday to unite and take action to address the problems of a world “teeming with turmoil.”

“We are in rough seas; a winter of global discontent is on the horizon,” he said at the opening of the annual weeklong gathering of presidents, prime ministers and other officials at the U.N. General Assembly.

“A cost-of-living crisis is raging. Trust is crumbling. Inequalities are exploding.

“And our planet is burning,” he cautioned.

“We need hope …. and more. We need action.” His immediate call was for easing the global food crisis. An essential element of that is addressing what he called the “global fertilizer market crunch.”

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, it has imposed quotas on its exports of fertilizer. Russia is one of the world’s top exporters and the shortages it has created have led to steep price increases on international markets, making it unaffordable for some small farmers, with the potential to dramatically decrease their harvests.

“Without action now, the global fertilizer shortage will quickly morph into a global food shortage,” Guterres said.

He called for the removal of “all remaining obstacles” to the export of Russian fertilizers and their ingredients, including ammonia.

“These products are not subject to sanctions — and we are making progress in eliminating indirect effects,” he emphasized.

While there are no Western sanctions on either Russian food or fertilizer exports, Moscow claims that there are. A deal signed in Istanbul on July 22 is helping to get millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to international markets and is working to build confidence among shippers, insurers and buyers of Russian grain and fertilizer so they will resume at pre-invasion levels.

Two giant screens in the assembly hall above the secretary-general showed a photo of the Brave Commander, one of the ships that carried Ukrainian grain to the Horn of Africa. He said it represents multilateral diplomacy in action.

“Meanwhile nuclear saber-rattling and threats to the safety of nuclear plants are adding to global instability,” he said, alluding to the threatened Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, as well as rhetoric and actions from North Korea and questions around Iran’s nuclear program.

Wider turmoil

Guterres mentioned a litany of crises both new and entrenched from Ethiopia and the Sahel to Haiti, Syria and Myanmar that he said must be resolved.

In Afghanistan, he said human rights are “being trampled,” especially those of women and girls, who have seen their rights disappear under the Taliban.

He warned of the dangerous divisions between the global West and the South and geopolitical tensions splitting between developed and developing countries.

The world’s top diplomat urged making conflict prevention and peace-building a priority.

“In all we do, we must recognize that human rights are the path to resolving tensions, ending conflict and forging lasting peace,” he reminded leaders.

All this conflict is leading to an unprecedented amount of humanitarian need. He said U.N. aid appeals are running a deficit of $32 billion.

In his sea of bad news, he found a few “glimmers of hope.”

“In Yemen, the nationwide truce is fragile but holding,” he said. “In Colombia, the peace process is taking root.”

The world’s youth are also a source of hope, he said, as they work for a better future.

Existential threat

The secretary-general’s strongest words were for the rapidly warming planet.

“The climate crisis is the defining issue of our time,” he said. “It must be the first priority of every government and multilateral organization.”

He worried that climate action has been pushed to the back of the international agenda, despite global public support for leaders to do more.

Greenhouse gas emissions are rising at record levels and he said they need to be slashed by 45% by 2030 to have any hope of reaching the net zero target by 2050.

To do that, he urged the world to end its “addiction” to fossil fuels and accelerate its transition to clean, renewable energy. And as part of that, he said, “Polluters must pay.”

“Today, I am calling on all developed economies to tax the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies,” the secretary-general declared, noting that G20 countries emit 80% of all greenhouse gas emissions.

He said those funds should go to help defray the costs of climate change in countries suffering loss and damage from the climate crisis and to people struggling with rising food and energy prices.

He urged unity to develop “common solutions to common problems.”

“Let’s work as one, as a coalition of the world, as united nations,” he said.
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Somali Military Liberates Strategic Town in Central Region 

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Somalia’s national army said Tuesday it recaptured the small but strategic town of Booco in the country’s central Hiran region from al-Shabab militants. 

The military said local militia backed them up in this latest offensive against the Islamist militants, who state TV said have controlled the town for 13 years.   

Somalia National Television (SNTV) reported that Army Chief Brigadier General Odawa Yusuf visited the Hiran region village of Yasoman on Tuesday, where troops also drove out militants with local support.   

Hiran Governor Hiran Ali Jeyte Osman spoke to VOA by phone. He said Booco was an al-Shabab stronghold that was used as the region’s base for their so-called shadow court and to extort money from locals. 

Osman said in the last two days the army took over the villages of Garisiyani, Booco and Nur-Fanah, as well as many other locations. He said he wants to tell the Somali people that the al-Shabab fighters were cowards who can’t compete with the army. 

The offensive came just a day after Somalia’s government said the military forced al-Shabab out of 30 villages in clashes this month that killed more than 200 militants. 

Somalia’s Defense Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur praised local militias who backed the military in the fights against al-Shabab. 

Somalia’s Information Ministry in a statement Monday night acknowledged the army had received air support from the U.S. during the offensives in Hiran. 

Somalia has been workimg to defeat the al-Shabab terrorist group for 15 years.   

Last month, the group attacked an international hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, killing 20 people and wounding more than 100. 

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud responded to the deadly siege by announcing a “total war” against the militants. 

 
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Biden to Focus on Food Security, Global Health at UN General Assembly

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President Joe Biden will address the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, where he is expected to highlight U.S. efforts to strengthen global food security and replenish the Global Fund to fight AIDS and other pandemics.

On Friday, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that while leaders will not ignore Ukraine, the gathering will not be dominated by it.

“We know that as this horrible war rages across Ukraine, we cannot ignore the rest of the world. There are conflicts taking place elsewhere,” she told reporters.

Greenfield outlined three U.S. priorities for the General Assembly: addressing global food insecurity; advancing global health and global health security; upholding the U.N. Charter and shaping the future of the United Nations.

“We believe this is a moment to defend the United Nations and to demonstrate to the world that it can still take the world’s most pressing global challenges on,” she said.

Observers say Biden will seek to balance U.S. and European allies’ interests of supporting Ukraine and isolating Russia, with the myriad problems faced by the rest of the world.

“The U.S. and its allies will be trying to convince non-Western countries that while there is a very strong focus on Russia’s war on Ukraine, the West also cares about the global food crisis and [it] becoming [a] global recession, and what that will do to the developing world,” Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group told VOA.

Gowan said that during the early phase of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Western diplomats demanded support for Ukraine from their African and Asian counterparts but did not hear their concerns about food security and the economic shocks linked to this war.

“Now, the U.S. and the Europeans are really trying to send the message that they are sympathetic to the developing world’s economic concerns, and that they will work to address those concerns,” he said.

Food and health security

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, exports of food and fertilizer from the region have been disrupted, pushing post-pandemic food prices even higher. Some 828 million people go to bed hungry every night, according to the World Food Program.

The world is now not on track to achieve the U.N. goal of zero hunger by 2030, said Rob Vos, economist at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

“We need to invest a lot more in agriculture and food systems or particularly, to change things around in food systems such that they become more inclusive so that poor people can reap more benefits from it, that food prices stay low so that they’re accessible, and that production becomes more resilient and sustainable,” Vos told VOA.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will co-host a food security summit on the sidelines of the General Assembly Tuesday. On Wednesday, Biden will host a conference on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The U.S. has given $2 billion out of the $6 billion committed, to meet the $18 billion needed globally.

“As COVID-19 reminded us, global health threats do not respect borders. We must tackle COVID-19, monkeypox and other outbreaks and we must do it together,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

Security Council reform

The U.S. will seek to advance efforts to reform the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), including “forging consensus around sensible and credible proposals to expand Security Council membership,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

The UNSC is composed of five permanent members with veto rights – China, France, Russia, the U.S., and the U.K., and 10 non-permanent members elected by UNGA.

While UNSC reform is a decadeslong recurring narrative at the world body, the U.S. has only recently said that it wants to work on it, Gowan said.

“I don’t think the Biden administration has a very clear plan for what sort of reforms he would like to see to the U.N. Charter,” Gowan said. “But since Russia’s assaults on Ukraine in February, a lot of diplomats in New York have been asking if this organization is fit for [its] purpose, and the U.S. is responding to that general sense that you do need some reforms to the U.N. in light of this conflict.”

Gowan added that by showing it’s open to reform, the Biden administration can corner China and Russia by highlighting their reluctance to reform the council where they have the right to veto important decisions on global security.

Thomas-Greenfield noted that the U.S. has and will continue to refrain from wielding its veto power except in “rare, extraordinary” circumstances. “Since 2009, Russia has cast 26 vetoes, 12 of which they were joined with China, and the U.S. has only used our veto four times since 2009,” she said.

She said Biden will consult with other leaders during the assembly’s high-level session to reach consensus on expanding the council.

Observers say prospects of UNSC reform are dim. A key point of contention is whether new permanent seats should be created and whether they should have veto power. Proposals are under discussion to create a new category of permanent members without veto rights.
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Opposition Leader: Belarus Not ‘Appendix to Russia’

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Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is attending this year’s United Nations General Assembly as a member of an unnamed European country’s delegation. In an exclusive interview with VOA, Tsikhanouskaya said Belarus should not be viewed as an “appendix to Russia,” even though “Vladimir Putin wants to drag it back to the Soviet era.” In New York, Igor Tsikhanenka has more.
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With Griner in Jail, WNBA Players Skip Russia in Offseason

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Brittney Griner’s highly publicized legal woes in Russia and the country’s invasion of Ukraine has the top WNBA players opting to take their talents elsewhere this offseason.

For the past few decades, Russia has been the preferred offseason destination for WNBA players to compete because of the high salaries that can exceed $1 million and the resources and amenities teams offered them.

That all has come to an abrupt end.

“Honestly my time in Russia has been wonderful, but especially with BG still wrongfully detained there, nobody’s going to go there until she’s home,” said Breanna Stewart, a Griner teammate on the Russian team that paid the duo millions. “I think that, you know, now, people want to go overseas and if the money is not much different, they want to be in a better place.”

Griner was arrested in February, then detained and later convicted on drug possession charges amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Griner was sentenced last month to nine years in prison.

Now, Stewart and other WNBA All-Stars, including Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot — who also have made millions of dollars playing in Russia — are going elsewhere this winter. All three played for Ekaterinburg, the same Russian team as Griner. That club won five EuroLeague titles in the past eight seasons and has been dominant for nearly two decades with former greats DeLisha Milton Jones and Diana Taurasi playing there.

Nearly a dozen WNBA players competed in Russia last winter and none of them are heading back this year.

After the World Cup tournament, Stewart is going to Turkey to play for Fenerbahçe. Top players can make a few hundred thousand dollars playing in Turkey, much less than their Russian salaries. Playing in Turkey also allows Stewart to be closer to her wife’s family in Spain.

“You want to have a better lifestyle, a better off-the-court experience, and just continue to appreciate other countries,” Stewart said.

Like Stewart, Vandersloot also isn’t headed back to Russia, choosing to play in Hungary where she obtained citizenship in 2016.

“I am Hungarian. I thought it would be special since I haven’t played there since I got the citizenship,” Vandersloot said.

The 33-year-old guard said a lot would have to change before she’d ever consider going back to Russia to play even though she has many fond memories of the Russian people.

“The thing about it is, we were treated so well by our club and made such strong relationships with those people, I would never close the door on that,” she said. “The whole situation with BG makes it really hard to think that it’s safe for anyone to go back there right now.”

Jones will be joining Stewart in Turkey, playing for Mersin. The 6-foot-6 Jones said she would consider going back to Russia if things change politically and Griner was back in the U.S.

The Griner situation also is weighing heavily on the minds of young WNBA players.

Rhyne Howard, the 2022 WNBA Rookie of the Year, is playing in Italy this winter — her first overseas experience. She said was careful when deciding where she wanted to play.

“Everyone’s going to be a bit cautious seeing as this situation is happening,” she said.

It’s not just the American players who are no longer going to Russia. Chicago Sky forward Emma Meesseman, who stars for the Belgium national team, had played in Russia with Stewart, Jones and Vandersloot. She also is headed to Turkey this offseason.

The WNBA has also been trying to make staying home in the offseason a better option for players. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said at the WNBA Finals that top players could make up to $700,000 this year between base salary, marketing agreements and award bonuses. While only a select few players could reach that amount, roughly a dozen have decided take league marketing agreements this offseason.
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Australia and European Union Resume Free Trade Talks

Posted on by SeeEU

Australia and the European Union (EU) have resumed free trade talks in the Australian capital, Canberra. 

Negotiations over an trade agreement between Australia and the European Union began in 2017.  

Progress has not always been easy.  There was dismay over Australia’s shelving of a lucrative submarine deal with France in favor of the AUKUS alliance with the United States and Britain.  That anger has subsided.  There were, though, also concerns in Europe about Australia’s environmental targets under the previous conservative Canberra government, which was a strong supporter of the fossil fuel industry. 

However, the recently elected Labor government plans to cut emissions by 43% by 2030.  It is the first time environmental targets have been legislated in Australia and the new policy has kick-started trade discussions with Europe.  The EU sent a senior delegation to Canberra this week, and there are hopes a free trade agreement can be signed by the end of 2023.  

The European Union is eager to harness Australian green hydrogen and other critical minerals, such as lithium, used in renewable power. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent impact on energy supplies, have intensified the EU’s search for reliable suppliers of the minerals needed for energy and digital enterprises.

Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s committee on International Trade, believes Australia can play a big part in industrial decarbonization. 

“We are going away from fossil fuels and Australia has a big volume of possible green hydrogen, of lithium, of copper and we want to get it in a sustainable way for the transformation of industry in Europe but also in Australia,” he said.

Australian negotiators want greater access for key farming exports, including beef, dairy, sugar and grain.  However, analysts say that agriculture is a sensitive issue, with some members of the European Union wanting to restrict imports to protect local producers.  

As a bloc, the EU is Australia’s second largest two-way trading partner of goods and services.  The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 countries.

Officials have said “Australia’s position in the world as a global top 20 trading nation is underpinned by our advocacy for an open global economy.”

The Canberra government has signed more than a dozen free trade pacts with various countries and groupings, including Japan, the United States and China, its biggest trading partner.  

Its first free trade agreement was signed with New Zealand in 1983.
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Explainer: What Has Happened to Puerto Rico’s Power Grid Since Hurricane Maria?

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Hurricane Fiona knocked out electrical power to the entire commonwealth of Puerto Rico starting on Sunday, reviving memories of Hurricane Maria, the deadly Category 4 storm that struck in 2017 and exposed the feeble nature of the island’s electrical grid.

Now, nearly all of Puerto Rico’s roughly 3 million residents are in the dark again, and five years after Maria, it is raising renewed questions about the state of the grid.

WHO RUNS PUERTO RICO’S POWER GRID?

The state-run Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) owned and operated the island’s power network when Maria hit. PREPA had been long criticized for inadequate investment in its power system and failure to establish back-ups to maintain power during disasters.

Before Maria struck, the debt-laden government and PREPA had been mired in bankruptcy, and a federally appointed oversight board was created to manage the island’s finances.

In June 2021, Puerto Rico privatized the grid by engaging LUMA Energy to operate the system, even though PREPA still owned the infrastructure. LUMA is a joint venture between units of Canadian energy firm ATCO Ltd ATCx.TO and U.S. energy contractor Quanta Services PWR.N.

A study from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found that service restoration times and voltage fluctuations increased after privatization largely due to a shortage of experienced workers. The island also endured a power outage in April that knocked out electricity for a third of homes and businesses. Read full story

LUMA did not immediately respond to request for comment.

WHY IS THE GRID STILL STRUGGLING?

Hurricane Maria decimated the island’s electrical system when it struck in late September 2017, mainly by knocking out transmission lines. Since then, restoration work has been focused on replacing those lines, while most other facets of the grid have not been updated, said Tom Sanzillo of IEEFA, who researches Puerto Rico’s power system.

It took several years under the Trump Administration for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to approve $9.6 billion in September 2020 to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical grid. About another $3.4 billion in federal funding has been added since.

Analysts say bureaucratic holdups, policy disagreements and grid privatization issues have slowed progress. Disputes over how to spend funds have also stymied improvements. Read full story

“Many enterprises, both for profits and NGOs, want a slice of the $12 billion in federal money for rebuilding the grid,” said Sergio Marxuach, policy director of Puerto Rico-based think tank, Center for a New Economy (CNE).

WHERE DOES PUERTO RICO’S POWER GENERATION COME FROM?

Natural gas power plants account for 44% of electricity, while 37% comes from petroleum like diesel fuel, 17% is from coal and about 3% from renewable energy, U.S. Energy Information Administration data shows.

Under the Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act, passed in 2019, the commonwealth is required to get 40% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025, 60% by 2040 and 100% by 2050, according to the EIA. However, the grid’s modernization has also been delayed by policy disagreements over using renewables versus adding more natural gas, Marxuach said.

Puerto Rico has to import all its oil, coal and natural gas as it does not produce any fossil fuels. It does have solar and wind generation that has contributed to renewables generation. Coal-fired generation is planned for phase-out by 2028.

In early 2020, two of the island’s largest power plants were damaged in a 6.4 magnitude earthquake. Those plants relied more on natural gas, causing Puerto Rico to shift its power mix to more petroleum, according to the EIA.
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Strengthening Fiona Barrels Toward Turks and Caicos Islands

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A strengthening Hurricane Fiona barreled toward the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as it threatened to strengthen into a Category 3 storm, prompting the government to impose a curfew.

Forecasters said Fiona could become a major hurricane late Monday or on Tuesday, when it was expected to pass near the British territory.

“Storms are unpredictable,” Premier Washington Misick said in a statement from London, where he was attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. “You must therefore take every precaution to ensure your safety.”

Misick was scheduled to return home on Thursday.

Fiona was centered 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Grand Turk Island late Monday. It had maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 kph) and was moving north-northwest 10 mph (17 kph).

The intensifying storm kept dropping copious rain over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where a 58-year-old man died after police said he was swept away by a river in the central mountain town of Comerio.

Another death was linked to the blackout — a 70-year-old man who was burned to death after he tried to fill his generator with gasoline while it was running, officials said.

The National Guard has rescued more than 900 people as floodwaters continue to rush through towns in eastern and southern Puerto Rico with up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) of rain forecast for some areas. Multiple landslides also were reported.

The blow from Fiona was made more devastating because Puerto Rico has yet to recover from Hurricane Maria, which killed nearly 3,000 people and destroyed the power grid in 2017. Five years later, more than 3,000 homes on the island are still covered by blue tarps.

Authorities said at least 1,300 people and some 250 pets remain in shelters across the island.

Fiona sparked a blackout when it hit Puerto Rico’s southwest corner on Sunday, the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which slammed into the island in 1989 as a Category 3 storm.

By Monday night, authorities said they had restored power to more than 114,000 customers on the island of 3.2 million people.

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi has warned it could take days before everyone has electricity.

Water service was cut to more than 837,000 customers — two thirds of the total on the island — because of turbid water at filtration plants or lack of power, officials said.

Forecasts called for Fiona to grow into a major hurricane of Category 3 or greater. It was on a path to pass close to the Turks and Caicos islands on Tuesday and was not expected to threaten the U.S. mainland.

In the Dominican Republic, authorities reported one death: a man hit by a falling tree. The storm displaced more than 12,400 people and cut off at least two communities.

The hurricane left several highways blocked, and a tourist pier in the town of Miches was badly damaged by high waves. At least four international airports were closed, officials said.

The Dominican president, Luis Abinader, said authorities would need several days to assess the storm’s effects.

Fiona previously battered the eastern Caribbean, killing one man in the French territory of Guadeloupe when floodwaters washed his home away, officials said.
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VOA Interview: Belarusian Opposition Leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

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Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told VOA New York Bureau Chief Ihar Tsikhanenka that the democratic world should not be “putting the [Lukashenko] regime and the Belarusian people into one basket.”
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Biden’s Taiwan Comments Raise Questions About US Stance

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Officials in the administration of President Joe Biden keep insisting that nothing about the United States’ policy toward Taiwan has changed, but the president’s own repeated statements that the U.S. would defend the self-governing island in the event of an attack by China are making those assurances difficult for many to accept.

In an interview Sunday night with the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” Biden, for the fourth time since taking office in 2021, said that the United States would respond militarily to a Chinese attempt to take over Taiwan by force.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has made “reunification” of the island with the mainland a major goal of his government. China maintains that Taiwan is part of One China, despite the fact that the island has been self-governing since 1945.

For decades, the U.S. has tried to pursue a course of “strategic ambiguity” with regard to Taiwan. Relations between Washington and Taipei have been friendly, and the U.S. has for years sold military equipment to the Taiwanese government. At the same time, successive U.S. administrations have said they agree with the “One China” policy, with the caveat that any disagreement between Taiwan and China must be resolved without the use of force.

Prior U.S. presidents have attempted to create uncertainty about how the U.S. would react to Chinese military action against Taiwan, though without creating specific obligations.

‘60 Minutes’ exchange

Asked in the Sunday interview what Chinese leader Xi Jinping ought to understand about the United States’ commitment to Taiwan, Biden said, “We agree with what we signed onto a long time ago. And that there’s ‘One China’ policy, and Taiwan makes their own judgments about their independence. We are not moving — we’re not encouraging — their being independent. That’s their decision.”

Interviewer Scott Pelley followed up, asking, “But would U.S. forces defend the island?”

Biden replied, “Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack.”

Pelley then asked, “So, unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, U.S. forces — U.S. men and women — would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?”

“Yes,” the president said.

White House officials later told reporters that there had been no change in U.S. policy toward Taiwan.

China reaction

Chinese officials responded angrily to Biden’s comments, saying that they had made “stern representations” to U.S. officials in their wake.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Monday, “We are willing to do our best to strive for peaceful reunification. At the same time, we will not tolerate any activities aimed at secession.”

“There is only one China in the world, Taiwan is part of China, and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government of China,” Mao said.

Confirming suspicions

Several experts contacted by VOA said that China’s angry response aside, Biden’s comments probably did little to change Beijing’s expectations about what would happen in the event of a conflict over Taiwan.

“Beijing already has priced in an expectation of American involvement in any cross-Strait conflict that it initiates against Taiwan,” Ryan Hass, a senior fellow and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo chair in Taiwan Studies at the Brookings Institution, told VOA. “President Biden’s comments validate assumptions. They do not alter expectations in Beijing of how America would respond in case of conflict.”

In an email exchange with VOA, Manjari Chatterjee Miller, a senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, agreed that Biden’s repeated statements that the U.S. would support Taiwan militarily likely align with Beijing’s assumptions about U.S. intentions.

“I think Beijing has long been suspicious of the U.S. commitment to ‘strategic ambiguity,’ so in a sense, President Biden’s remarks are simply a confirmation of its long-held suspicions,” Miller said. “U.S.-China relations have been on a downward spiral for a while, and this highlights for China the importance of the [People’s Liberation Army] planning for a Taiwan contingency.”

Concerns about miscalculations

Miller said she is concerned that Biden’s repeated statements on Taiwan might lead to a reaction from Beijing.

“The first time the president made a statement such as this on Taiwan, his aides walked it back,” she said. “But this is the third or fourth such statement. Yet U.S. policy on China has not officially changed, and the United States apparently continues to support One China. This confusion and lack of clarity on the U.S. government’s stance means that there is now further uncertainty in what is already a very rocky bilateral relationship.”

She continued, “To add to this uncertainty, President Xi has prioritized reunification with Taiwan, which means that there could be a reputation cost to him personally if the Chinese government is seen as not pushing back. So, I worry, not so much about a Chinese preemptive action on Taiwan, but a potential miscalculation on Beijing’s part given that heightened uncertainty that could muddy its judgment.”

Potentially destabilizing

Bonnie S. Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told VOA that she had focused on a different aspect of the president’s comments in the “60 Minutes” interview: his assertion that “Taiwan makes their own judgments about their independence.”

Glaser pointed out that historically, U.S. presidents have said they do not support Taiwan’s independence, and Biden reiterated that point Sunday. However, his addition of the suggestion that it is “their decision” could be seen by China as the real change in policy. The president made similar comments in November.

“I think that this is something that could truly lead the Chinese to decide to go to war, because they believe that the United States would actually support an independent Taiwan,” she said.

“As [Biden] keeps saying these things over and over again — and particularly these comments about letting Taiwan decide if it wants to go independent — I think that it’s destabilizing,” Glaser said. “I think the world wants us to have a clear and consistent policy. We need to deter, not provoke, China. And I’m not convinced what the Biden administration is doing is contributing to deterrence.”
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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II Laid to Rest After State Funeral

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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who died earlier this month, has been laid to rest following a funeral service attended by over 100 world leaders. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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‘Serial’ Case: Adnan Syed Released, Conviction Tossed

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A Baltimore judge Monday ordered the release of Adnan Syed after overturning Syed’s conviction for the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee — a case that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial.”

At the behest of prosecutors, Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn ordered that Syed’s conviction be vacated as she approved the release of the now-41-year-old who has spent more than two decades behind bars.

Phinn ruled that the state violated its legal obligation to share evidence that could have bolstered Syed’s defense. She ordered Syed to be placed on home detention with GPS location monitoring. The judge also said the state must decide whether to seek a new trial date or dismiss the case within 30 days.

“All right Mr. Syed, you’re free to join your family,” Phinn said as the hearing ended.

Syed has always maintained his innocence. His case captured the attention of millions in 2014 when the debut season of “Serial” focused on Lee’s killing and raised doubts about some of the evidence prosecutors had used, inspiring countless dinner table debates about Syed’s innocence or guilt.

Last week, prosecutors filed a motion saying that a lengthy investigation conducted with the defense had uncovered new evidence that could undermine the 2000 conviction of Syed, Lee’s ex-boyfriend.

“I understand how difficult this is, but we need to make sure we hold the correct person accountable,” assistant state’s attorney Becky Feldman told the judge as she described various details from the case that undermine the decades-old conviction, including flawed cellphone data, unreliable witness testimony and a potentially biased detective.

Syed was serving a life sentence after he was convicted of strangling 18-year-old Lee, whose body was found buried in a Baltimore park.

The investigation “revealed undisclosed and newly-developed information regarding two alternative suspects, as well as unreliable cellphone tower data,” State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office said in a news release last week. The suspects were known persons at the time of the original investigation but weren’t properly ruled out nor disclosed to the defense, said prosecutors, who declined to release information about the suspects, due to the ongoing investigation.

Prosecutors said they weren’t asserting that Syed is innocent, but they lacked confidence “in the integrity of the conviction” and recommended he be released on his own recognizance or bail. The state’s attorney’s office had said if the motion were granted it would effectively put Syed in a new trial status, vacating his convictions, while the case remained active.

Syed was led into the crowded courtroom in handcuffs Monday. Wearing a white shirt with a tie, he sat next to his attorney. His mother and other family representatives were in the room, as was Mosby.

In 2016, a lower court ordered a retrial for Syed on grounds that his attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, who died in 2004, didn’t contact an alibi witness and provided ineffective counsel.

But after a series of appeals, Maryland’s highest court in 2019 denied a new trial in a 4-3 opinion. The Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that Syed’s legal counsel was deficient in failing to investigate an alibi witness, but it disagreed that the deficiency prejudiced the case. The court said Syed waived his ineffective counsel claim.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Syed’s case in 2019.

The true-crime series was the brainchild of longtime radio producer and former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig, who spent more than a year digging into Syed’s case and reporting her findings in almost real-time in hourlong segments. The 12-episode podcast won a Peabody Award and was transformative in popularizing podcasts for a wide audience.
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Iran Asks for US Guarantees It Won’t Leave Nuclear Deal Again

Posted on by SeeUS

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi says there will be no agreement to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal unless the U.S. provides guarantees it will not pull out of the pact again, as the Trump administration did in 2018. Meanwhile, two Republican Congressmen tell VOA they do not believe Tehran is operating in good faith, as VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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Somali Military Recaptures Villages, Kills over 100 al-Shabab Fighters

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Somali army commanders say their forces killed more than 100 al-Shabab militants during weekend offensives to retake territory from the Islamist militant group. Witnesses say the troops also recaptured two villages that al-Shabab had held for more than a decade.

The Somali National Army said Monday that troops launched a fresh offensive against al-Shabab in the central Hiran region over the weekend.

Senior army commanders in Hiran who spoke to VOA via phone said that fierce firefights between the military and al-Shabab began early Saturday, especially in the villages of Aborey and Yasooman.

They told VOA that 75 al-Shabab militants were killed in the fighting in Yasooman and 30 in the vicinity of Aborey.

Local residents told VOA via WhatsApp that troops took control of both villages, which had been under al-Shabab control for more than a decade.

Speaking to media at the frontline, Abdifatah Hassan Afrah, the former governor of Hiran, said troops are defeating “the enemy of Somali people,” referring to al-Shabab.

He says our victories are bringing more victories, and it is coming one after the other. And their defeat will bring them more defeat. By the will of Allah (God), we are wishing that they will be cleared out of the country.

Somalia’s information ministsaid Sunday that the army’s recent offensives have killed 200 al-Shabab fighters and “liberated” 30 villages from the group in all.

Malik Abdalla is a member of the Somali federal parliament from Hiran. He told VOA via WhatsApp that the fighting in Hiran also involved local militias known as Macawisley.  

He said residents of the villages have had enough of al-Shabab.

He says the reason why the people of Hiran or the people in this region fight is because they could not bear the hardships they faced day and night. He says they stood up to survive after al-Shabab blew up their water wells and their villages burned.

Al-Shabab has yet to comment on the army and Information Ministry’s claims. But in a video released by the group’s media wing Sunday night, spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage, known as Ali Dhere, said the group is ready for the war that Somalia’s president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, declared on them. 

Rage warned Mogadishu residents to stay away from hotels that are frequented by Somali government officials. 

President Mohamud, who was elected in May, announced that his administration will wage a “total war” against the al-Shabab network after the group attacked a hotel in Mogadishu, killing more than 20 people and wounded at least 100 others.
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South African Energy Crisis Sees Rolling Blackouts

Posted on by SeeAF

South Africa’s state power utility, Eskom, has implemented its highest level of nationwide power cuts to reduce pressure on the grid after two more of its aging power plants broke down.

South Africans will be forced to go up to nine hours a day without electricity, putting a severe strain on Africa’s most industrialized economy.

The energy crisis is so severe that President Cyril Ramaphosa is cutting short his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York to return home and try to find solutions to the electricity shortages. 

Ramaphosa, who is currently in England for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, had just held an urgent virtual meeting with the concerned ministers to find out what led to so many units tripping, his spokesman Vincent Magwenya told VOA. 

“He further wanted to understand what could be done immediately to resolve the current state of loadshedding which is devastating to businesses as well as households,” Magwenya said. 

On Sunday, officials from state power utility Eskom warned that the country could be heading for even higher stages of what’s known here as “loadshedding” — scheduled blackouts to save energy. 

Stage Six, the worst level seen so far, and which was last implemented in June during South Africa’s winter, allows for some 6,000 megawatts to be cut to avoid total collapse of the national grid. 

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said loadshedding might have to be ramped up to Stage Eight, but that “total blackout” was not an imminent risk. 

“I think we are doing our level best to avoid a total system collapse, that is why we have to impose loadshedding,” de Ruyter said. 

For ordinary South Africans, loadshedding makes all aspects of daily life difficult, from having to plan when to cook, to making sure they always have gas lamps or candles available for when homes across the country are plunged into darkness. 

And for small businesses that can’t afford to get generators, the cuts are devastating. 

Jeanette Mmelwa is a hairdresser at a small Johannesburg salon which was empty on Monday morning. She says there’s no electricity to run the hair dryers, so no clients are coming in. Mmelwa works on commission, so isn’t earning anything. 

“I am concerned because of this loadshedding my boss can one day just say, ‘No, I can’t take this anymore. We’re not making enough money, so we have to close.’ I am worried about that,” she said.

Things are even worse at home, said Mmelwa, who has a young son. 

“Waking up in the morning and there’s no lights, now you think, ‘What is he going to eat before he goes to school?’ So yes, it’s very stressful,” she said. 

The current electricity crisis has been brewing for a decade. The cash-strapped and debt-ridden power utility relies on aging coal plants that are prone to breakdowns. 

Corruption has also weakened the utility considerably, said independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga. 

“The problem with loadshedding is that ours is self-created, it is about corruption, inability to turn things around and fight against corruption,” Mathekga said. 

If South Africa’s energy crisis persists, there will be massive damage to the economy, which has already been badly hit by the pandemic, with the official unemployment currently at 33.9 percent. 

 
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Interview: Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Speaks to VOA

Posted on by SeeEU

VOA Eastern Europe bureau chief Myroslava Gongadze spoke to Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov about a United Nations program to deliver Ukrainian grain to the world and his country’s efforts to replace bridges damaged during Russia’s invasion. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: After you signed the agreement with the World Food Program under the U.N., and over 3 million tons of grain was delivered to the world, does it mean that the World Food Program and this agreement [are] working?

KUBRAKOV: Yes, you’re absolutely right. … Almost each week, we load in one, two vessels, which is going to Somalia, to Ethiopia, Kenya, and other African countries which are suffering now because you know that according to statistics of United Nations almost 70 million people now, they feel lack of food and there is a huge risk for these countries.

VOA: There was a report about Russia stealing Ukrainian grain. How are you dealing with this issue?

KUBRAVOV: We are trying to block these supplies. Normal countries which appreciate, which try to stick to international laws, they understand this, and they are not accepting such vessels with stolen grain from our country. But still there is Syria. Still there are some other countries oriented on the Russian Federation and they support such transactions.

VOA: And they are accepting the grain, Ukrainian grain under Russian pretext. There are a lot of Ukrainian grains. The world learned how big Ukraine is as an agricultural country and how much impact Ukraine has in the world. How are you planning to actually save Ukrainian grain?

KUBRAVOV: The most important for us is just to increase volume of our exports. Results of August were quite optimistic. We reached almost 5 million. It’s very similar volumes which we had before the war. So, I hope that if we will continue with the same volumes, I think we will save all our agricultural products and nothing will be spoiled. So, we will reach volumes which we had before the war.

VOA: My understanding that you are developing other ways to deliver grain, tell me about that.

KUBRAVOV: Last month we exported more than 2 million, about 2.2 million tons of different products through three ports on [the] Danube [River] and 1.6 million tons of agricultural products. So, it’s also like a huge contribution to whole export. We are developing our railway lines in direction to Poland, to Romania. It’s also important because we passed over 1 million tons of exports through these channels.

And for sure we are trying to simplify border cross checkpoints and all of these issues with our colleagues from Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Hungary. It’s not so easy, we understand that our points, they were not ready for such volumes. But we are working on this, and the European Commission also supports us.

VOA: We are standing on this bridge. It’s a fresh new building. You are replacing all the bridges that were destroyed during the first stage of invasion. My understanding [is that] a lot of infrastructure would have to be replaced. How are you dealing with that? And how much you are relying on the international community for support?

KUBRAVOV: First of all, we understand that the war is continuing, and now we’re focusing only on the main roads, the main railway roads, the main infrastructure. So, we are standing on a bridge which is part of international road, so that’s why we understand it’s like top priority for us. And we have 320 destroyed bridges. We have 53 temporary bridges which are already constructed. This bridge won’t be temporary. It will be a permanent, normal bridge. I hope that we will finish it in less than one and a half months, before first of November we will open the bridge.

And you asked about support of our international partners. Fortunately, they support us, and recently we have received the decision of the European Commission and European investment Bank, they will provide financing for such recovery of like fast recovery. It’s first part of the most important bridges, railway lines and almost half a billion euro program. So, I hope that it will be enough just to cover all these urgent issues.

VOA: So far, your assessment, how much would have to be replaced?

KUBRAVOV: I can rely on figures of Kyiv School of Economy and World Bank, they are very close because one of the organizations they calculated the date on — the date was beginning of summer — Kyiv School of Economy, they are trying to update almost each week, months. So, they are close to $100 billion of direct losses of infrastructure and number one point in this figure, it’s residential buildings and second issue it’s transport infrastructure.
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Turkish, Greek Tensions Escalate as Allies Focus on Ukraine Conflict

Posted on by SeeEU

Tensions between NATO members Turkey and Greece are escalating over territorial disputes. Some analysts warn domestic politics are fueling the tensions, with little sign of mediation efforts by Western allies who are focused on the Ukrainian conflict. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Hurricane Fiona Roars Over Dominican Republic After ‘Catastrophic’ Damage in Puerto Rico

Posted on by SeeUS

Hurricane Fiona roared over the Dominican Republic on Monday after knocking out power across the U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico, where the governor described the damage as “catastrophic.”

No deaths have been reported, but many people were left without water service in Puerto Rico. The full scope of the damage from high winds and torrential rains has yet to be assessed.

The island’s U.S. National Weather Service office said flash flooding was occurring in south-central parts of Puerto Rico and urged residents to immediately move to higher ground. Up to 56 centimeters of rain fell in some places, and as much as another 38 centimeters were predicted even as the storm moved away.

Authorities also projected 38 centimeters of rain for the eastern Dominican Republic and told most people to stay home from work. Ports were closed and beaches were shut down.

“Heavy rains from Fiona will continue to produce life-threatening and catastrophic flooding along with mudslides and landslides across Puerto Rico” through Monday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

“Life-threatening flash and urban flooding is likely for eastern portions of the Dominican Republic through early Tuesday,” the hurricane center said.

Forecasters say the Category 1 storm is not expected to threaten the U.S. mainland.

At last report, Fiona was moving into the Atlantic, traveling northwest at 15 kilometers an hour, with tropical storm-force winds extending out for 220 kilometers.

The latest bulletin said Fiona was 270 kilometers southeast of Grand Turk Island in the Turks and Caicos Islands with maximum sustained winds of 150 kilometers per hour.

Forecasters say the storm was expected to pass close to the islands on Tuesday and likely to strengthen in the coming days.

It could near Bermuda as a major hurricane late Thursday or on Friday.

Puerto Rico’s Governor Pedro Pierluisi said, “The damages that we are seeing are catastrophic.”

In the north coast town of Catano, authorities in a boat navigated flooded streets before dawn on Monday, using a megaphone to tell people that pumps had collapsed and urged them to evacuate as quickly as possible.

Officials said at least 1,300 people spent the night in shelters across Puerto Rico. Muddy water rushed through streets and into homes and consumed a runway airport in southern Puerto Rico. Roofs were torn off some houses and asphalt was ripped from roads.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press.
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EU Drafts Media Act Amid Concern Over Spying, State Pressure 

Posted on by SeeEU

The European Union’s executive branch has unveiled plans for new laws that it said would help protect media freedom and independence in the 27-nation bloc at a time of mounting concern about the dangers of political influence in several member countries.

Spurred into action allegations of state spying on reporters, the use of political pressure on news outlets and the placing of advertising to peddle influence, the European Commission said the EU needs a European Media Freedom Act.

“We see a lot of worrying trends regarding media in Europe, and it’s not only a matter of one or two countries,” European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova told reporters in Brussels. She said the proposed legislation is needed “for the times we live in, not for the times we would like to live in.”

The commission has criticized the governments of Hungary, Poland and Slovenia in recent years for trying to pressure their national media. But EU officials say they see the risk of political influence in more than 20 member countries.

“We need to establish clear principles: No journalist should be spied on because of their job. No public media should be turned into propaganda channel,” Jourova said.

The main thrust of the new act is to protect media outlets from governments attempting to determine what they can publish or broadcast, and to prevent countries from spying on media workers.

The legislation also aims to ensure stable funding of public service media and to make media ownership more transparent.

The proposal would only take effect once it has been debated and endorsed by EU member countries and the European Parliament.

The centerpiece of the legislation would create an independent body, made up of national media authorities, to issue opinions on national measures and decisions affecting media markets and media market ownership. But the opinions of the European Board for Media Services would not be binding on national authorities.

Jourova rejected suggestions that the board would be answerable to the European Commission or serve as an oversight body that itself keeps tabs on what reporters and editors are doing.

“We are not going to regulate the media themselves, but the space for media,” she said.

The act would ban the use of spyware against journalists and their families, with exceptions only for investigations of crimes such as terrorism, child abuse or murder. Journalists would have the right to judicial protection, and countries would set up an independent authority to handle complaints.

The allocation of state advertising to media would also be made more transparent. Officials say that 21 countries are at medium to high risk of misusing advertising revenue to influence editors and journalists.

The plan is the commission’s second recent foray into the media world. On Sept. 6, it launched a consortium of 18 European news agencies to “carry out independent reporting on EU affairs.” The European Newsroom benefits from around 1.8 million euros ($1.8 million) in EU funding.
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 Bidens Attend Packed Funeral For Queen Elizabeth II 

Posted on by SeeEU

U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden paid their respects to Queen Elizabeth II Monday, joining world leaders, the royal family and a small group of invited guests at a somber, pomp-filled funeral ceremony at Westminster Abbey that celebrated her 70 years of service as Britain’s longest-serving monarch.

The Bidens arrived late Saturday for the event and have kept a low profile in the British capital, holding no official diplomatic meetings and keeping their public comments to the topic of the queen’s recent death September 8 at the age of 96.

White House officials told VOA before the funeral that Washington’s strong ties to London will continue after the recent change in leadership — which includes the new king, Charles III, and the recently installed prime minister, Liz Truss. Biden will meet with Truss Wednesday in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

“We are confident that with King Charles and with Prime Minister Truss that the special relationship between the United States and Great Britain will endure, we’re not worried about that at all,” National Security Council director of strategic communications John Kirby told VOA.

On Sunday, Biden and his wife paid their respects as the queen’s body lay in state at Westminster Hall, where tens of thousands lined up for hours to pass by her elaborately draped casket, which also bore the Imperial State Crown, orb and scepter — a priceless and instantly recognizable piece capped by the massive, glittering Star of Africa diamond, a 530-carat stone given to the Crown by then-colony South Africa, in 1907.

On Sunday, the Bidens also signed condolence books, and the president praised the queen for her legacy of selfless duty.

“I think what she gave us is a sense of, maybe above all, the notion of service, that we all owe something,” he said. “There’s something within our capacity to do that can make things — not just the world better, but your neighborhood better, your household better, your workplace better. And that’s what she communicated to me anyway.”

The king also hosted a formal state reception for dignitaries Sunday, which Biden attended.

The British crown has extended a controversial funeral invitation to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is widely believed to be responsible for ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. They did not invite the leaders of Russia, Belarus, Syria, Afghanistan or Venezuela.

Elizabeth will be buried privately later on Monday at St. George’s Chapel within the grounds of Windsor Castle, next to her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip.
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In Photos: Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II

Posted on by SeeEU

The state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II is being held at London’s historic Westminster Abbey.

Her body has been lying in state since Wednesday at Westminster Hall, where thousands of mourners have filed past her coffin to pay their respects.

Heads of state and dignitaries from around the world have flown into London to attend Elizabeth’s funeral which is certain to be full of British pomp and circumstance.
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Where Does the British Monarchy’s Wealth Come From?

Posted on by SeeEU

The British royal family is wealthy, but where does their money come from? Here, we break it down and explain some of the history.
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Flood Waters Receding After Storm Batters Western Alaska

Posted on by SeeUS

Floodwaters were starting to recede in some parts of western Alaska that were battered by the worst storm in a half century, leaving debris flung by the powerful Bering Sea waves on beaches and in seaside communities.
 

he storm, the remnant of Typhoon Merbok, was weakening Sunday as it moved north from the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast. But it remained a hazardous threat to smaller communities along Alaska’s northwest coast, said National Weather Service meteorologist Kaitlyn Lardeo.

“This guy is going to hang out in the Chukchi Sea for the next few days and just rapidly weaken because it’s so stationary,” she said.

The storm’s crashing waves caused widespread flooding and damage along 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) of the Alaska coastline, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said.

It was also massive system — big enough to cover the mainland U.S. from Nebraska west to the Pacific Ocean and from Canada to Texas — that has influenced weather systems as far away as California, where a rare late-summer storm was dropping rain on the northern part of the state.

There have been no reports of injuries or deaths in Alaska, the governor said during a Saturday evening news conference. However, roads have been damaged and state officials are assessing potential damage to seawalls, water and sewage systems, airports, and ports.

Several communities reported the force of the incoming water, often propelled by winds gusting near 70 mph (113 kph), knocked some homes off their foundations. One house in Nome floated down a river until it got caught under a bridge.

Many homes were flooded and about 450 residents on the western coast sought refuge in shelters, with more than half of them at a school in Hooper Bay, where they ate processed moose donated by village residents. Others rode out the storm on higher ground outside their communities.

The former typhoon caused the highest water level at Nome — 11.1 feet (3.38 meters) above the normal tide level — since a large storm in 1974, and other communities might have surpassed levels seen in 48 years ago.

“One of the big features of this storm was the wide swath of significant damage,” said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“So, did it live up to the hype? I would say absolutely,” he said of the storm, which had officials urging people to prepare days before it hit.

Becca Luce and her family live about a half mile from the Bering Sea coast in Nome.

“We have a pretty good view of the ocean from our living room,” she said. “We could see the waves crashing from our window and going over the road.”

Nome itself was inundated, including Front Street, the city’s main business thoroughfare that also doubles as the finish line for the Iditarod Trail Sled-Dog Race. The city’s mini-convention center, which also serves as Iditarod headquarters for the end of the race each March, was surrounded by water.

One downtown restaurant, the Bering Sea Bar and Grill, was destroyed by fire Saturday night, but the cause and whether it was related to the storm is not yet known, said interim city manager Bryant Hammond.

The receding water revealed the detritus left in the streets and yards, including trash, organic debris, rocks and asphalt, Hammond said. Cleanup was to start immediately.

Part of a highway was washed out in Nome, forcing residents to use a bypass to reach the community of Council, adding up to 15 miles (24 kilometers) to the 72-mile (116-kilometer) trip, he said.

“Another major concern is that freeze-up is near, and all of this damage to the roads will need to be repaired before the month ends,” Luce said, using the local term for the onset of winter, which is in October in many parts of Alaska. “And it’s hard to say if that will be possible, especially for the remote village villages without as many resources as Nome has.”

Dunleavy, who issued a state disaster declaration Saturday and is considering seeking a federal disaster, said state officials intend to get communities up and running again as soon as possible.

“We just have to impress upon our federal friends that it’s not a Florida situation where we’ve got months to work on this,” he said. “We’ve got several weeks.”

The rain in Northern California helped firefighters increase containment on the biggest wildfire in the state so far this year. The Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of the capital of Sacramento was 34% contained after downpours early Sunday. More rain was expected, which fire spokesman Scott McLean called a mixed blessing.

“It did help a bit to stifle that aggressive fire,” McLean said. “But we’re going to have new safety issues now with all the mud that’s out there. And the ground moisture could cause some of those damaged trees to fall over.”

An average of a quarter inch (2 centimeters) of rain fell overnight across Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties north of San Francisco, with more than double that amount recorded in some mountain areas, the National Weather Service said.

Winds gusting up to 40 mph (64 kph) were forecast Sunday along Northern California coastal areas and at higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada. Gusts that strong can blow down branches and drought-stressed trees and cause power outages, warned weather service meteorologist Ryan Walbrun. He said thunderstorms were expected on and off until at least Monday, making for slick roads during the morning commute.
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Somali Militia Beheads Islamist Insurgents After Battle, Witnesses Say

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A government-allied Somali militia killed at least 45 al-Shabab fighters and beheaded some of them, three witnesses said on Sunday, as citizens in central regions of the country increasingly take up arms against the insurgents.

The beheadings on Saturday followed a battle in the Hiran region of Hirshabelle State, where there has been significant fighting this month between al-Shabab and newly expanded militias allied with the federal government.

Al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked Islamist group, has been fighting Somalia’s weak central government since 2006. It wants to implement a strict interpretation of sharia law.

Al-Shabab has increasingly burned houses, destroyed wells, and beheaded civilians in the Hiran region, residents say; that, combined with its demands for taxes amidst the worst drought in 40 years, has pushed more residents to take up arms.

“Al-Shabab is not strong, it just burns people, beheads people and put their heads in the streets just to terrorize,” said Ahmed Abdulle, a Hiran elder.

“Now, we are doing the same: we have ordered the beheading of al-Shabab fighters,” he told Reuters.

Videos widely shared on Telegram showed at least two beheaded alleged al-Shabab fighters and dozens more dead bodies in fatigues and red-and-white checked scarves. Some of the dead appeared to have died in battle.

Reuters was not independently able to verify the authenticity of the videos, but three witnesses to the beheadings said they were real. Seven other residents, including Abdulle, said family members had been present and confirmed the deaths to them.

The three witnesses asked not to be named for security reasons.

“Al-Shabab put us in hell. … So our people decided to liberate themselves. … My daughter is also fighting in the frontline, she has an AK-47 on her shoulder,” resident Halima Ismail said.

Somali Interior Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

An al-Shabab spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Fighters have retaken 10 villages from al-Shabab in recent weeks, elder Hassaan Farah told Reuters.

Residents in nearby Galmudug state are also taking up arms.

“This week, we have recaptured nine villages,” said Ahmed Shire, the Galmudug information minister. “It is a big revolution by Galmudug state.”

On Saturday, the federal government sent troops to reinforce Galmudug fighters, the Somali National News Agency said.

Earlier this month, al-Shabab militants killed at least 18 civilians and destroyed food aid trucks. In August, they killed more than 20 people in a hotel siege.

Somalia has been in civil war since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew a dictator then turned on each other.
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