October 2022 - Page 7 of 23

Tribal Conflict Kills Over 150 in Sudan’s Blue Nile State

Posted on 10/23/2022 by SeeAF

Witnesses in Sudan’s Blue Nile region say more than 150 people have been killed this week in communal violence triggered by a land dispute.

Blue Nile governor Ahmed al-Omda Badi declared a night curfew in Wed al- Mahi locality, Wednesday, after the renewed communal fighting between the Hausa and local Berti tribes.

According to an eyewitness, the three days of clashes have killed more than 150 people, injured scores of others and displaced thousands.

Speaking to VOA from al-Damazine town early Friday, local activist Abdulatti Ahmed al-Fekki says the fighting continued for a third day, displacing families, including women and children.

Al-Fekki says according to a report from Wed Al Mahi, houses have been burned to the ground and property is being looted. He describes the situation as horrible.

“The preliminary death toll up to this morning is more than 160 and up to this moment, there are uncounted wounded individuals from Madina villages, two and three who are unable to be taken to the hospital. I am quite sure that in such a situation, there will be victims who have yet to be identified,” he said.

VOA could not independently verify the casualty figures.

Inter-communal clashes erupted between tribes in July due to a land dispute.

Al-Fekki says all health facilities in the town of al-Russairis are filled with injured people, and that about two thousand displaced people have gathered in a nearby village.

The Sudanese national government has deployed more troops to the area to de-escalate tensions between the two rival communities.

Al-Fekki said he saw additional troops being sent to the area Friday morning to end the cycle of violence.

“As I speak, I could see some military Land Cruiser pick-ups, full of armed Sudanese Armed Forces, heading to the conflicted area. Apart from this, he adds, I can confirm that there are some forces that went yesterday to the conflict area to contain the clashes,” he said.

The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Eddie Rowe, expressed concern at the renewed inter-communal fighting in Blue Nile and West Kordofan, appealing for an end to the violence.

At least 1,200 people have been displaced and an unconfirmed 170 people have been killed and 327 have been injured, Rowe said in a statement published Thursday.

Rowe urged all parties in the conflict to enable the free and safe movement of affected people in search of safety and assistance. He said humanitarian organizations in Sudan stand ready to aid people affected by the conflicts.

The international charity organization, Save the Children in Sudan, also expressed deep concern about renewed violence in Blue Nile. “We urge authorities and community leaders to do everything possible to end violence affecting innocent civilians,” it said.
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Officials: Russian Military Plane Crashes into Residential Building in Siberia, 2 Pilots Killed

Posted on 10/23/2022 by SeeEU

A Russian fighter plane crashed into a residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday and the two pilots were killed, officials said.

In a post on Telegram, Irkutsk governor Igor Kobzev said the plane crashed into a two-story house in the city. The emergencies ministry said the pilots died, but there were no other casualties.

It was the second such incident in six days. Last Monday, a Sukhoi Su-34 fighter plane crashed into an apartment block in the southern city of Yeysk, near Ukraine, and at least 15 people were killed.

Russian news agencies said the plane in Sunday’s incident was an Su-30. In a statement, the emergencies ministry said the plane crashed during a test flight.

Footage shared on social media showed what appeared to be several buildings on fire and dense black smoke rising into the sky.
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Al-Shabab Militants Storm Hotel in Kismayo

Posted on 10/23/2022 by SeeAF

Al-Shabab militants in Somalia have attacked a hotel in the southern port town of Kismayo, Sunday, witnesses said.

The attacked started with an explosion outside the hotel that was followed by the storming of the Tawakal Hotel by armed men. The first explosion was heard around 12:15 local time.

Witnesses and videos from the scene reported sustained gunfire near the hotel, between the attackers and security forces.

Ambulances were also seen moving towards Kismayo Port Road, where the hotel is located.

The hotel is frequented by the local elders and business community leaders. Casualties are not yet known.

The al-Shabab militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
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Military Think Tank: Russia Withdraws Officers From Kherson

Posted on 10/23/2022 by SeeEU

Russia’s military leadership has withdrawn its officers in the Russian-annexed city of Kherson across the Dnieper River in anticipation of an advance of Ukrainian troops, the Institute for the Study of War think tank said Sunday.

To delay the Ukrainian counteroffensive as the Russians complete their retreat, Moscow has left newly mobilized, inexperienced forces on the other side of the wide river, it added.

The troop movements come as the Ukrainian military said its forces have continued their counteroffensives in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

On Saturday, Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine told all Kherson residents to leave immediately ahead of the expected action by Ukrainian troops to take back the city.

Kherson has been in Russian hands since the early days of the eight-month-long war in Ukraine. The city is the capital of a region of the same name, one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last month and put under Russian martial law on Thursday.

On Friday, Ukrainian forces bombarded Russian positions across the province, targeting pro-Kremlin forces’ resupply routes across the Dnieper River and preparing for a final push to reclaim the city.

The ISW think tank also said Sunday that Russia’s latest war strategy of targeting power plants in recent days appears to be aimed at diminishing Ukrainians’ will to fight and forcing Ukraine’s government to spend additional resources to protect civilians and energy infrastructure. It said the effort was unlikely to damage Ukrainian morale but would have significant economic impact.

The Ukrainian military said Sunday that Russian forces are now mostly on the defensive but are keeping up offensive attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and on several towns in the eastern Donbas area.

Nine regions across Ukraine, from Odesa in the southwest to Kharkiv in the northeast, saw attacks again targeting energy and other critical infrastructure over the past day, the Ukrainian general staff said. It reported a total of 25 Russian air strikes and more than 100 missile and artillery strikes around Ukraine.

Ukrainian counteroffensive forces in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, meanwhile, targeted Russian-held facilities, notably in the town of Nova Kakhovka, and carried out 17 air strikes in the overall campaign, according to the Ukrainian general staff.

In a Telegram post Sunday, the Ukrainian military claimed to have destroyed 14 Iranian-made Rian drones over the past day.

Russian S-300 missile strikes overnight hit a residential neighborhood in the city of Mykolaiv, injuring three people, according to the Ukrainian military’s southern command.

Two apartment buildings, a playground and a warehouse were damaged or destroyed, it said in a Facebook post. The reports could not be immediately verified.
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Fears Over Russian Threat to Norway’s Energy Infrastructure

Posted on 10/23/2022 by SeeEU

Norwegian oil and gas workers normally don’t see anything more threatening than North Sea waves crashing against the steel legs of their offshore platforms. But lately they have noticed a more troubling sight: unidentified drones buzzing in the skies overhead.

With Norway replacing Russia as Europe’s main source of natural gas, military experts suspect the unmanned aircraft are Moscow’s doings. They list espionage, sabotage and intimidation as possible motives for the drone flights.

The Norwegian government has sent warships, coastguard vessels and fighter jets to patrol around the offshore facilities. Norway’s national guard stationed soldiers around onshore refineries that also were buzzed by drones.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has invited the navies of NATO allies Britain, France and Germany to help address what could be more than a Norwegian problem.

Precious little of the offshore oil that provides vast income for Norway is used by the country’s 5.4 million inhabitants. Instead, it powers much of Europe. Natural gas is another commodity of continental significance.

“The value of Norwegian gas to Europe has never been higher,” Ståle Ulriksen, a researcher at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy, said. “As a strategic target for sabotage, Norwegian gas pipelines are probably the highest value target in Europe.”

Closures of airports, and evacuations of an oil refinery and a gas terminal last week due to drone sightings caused huge disruptions. But with winter approaching in Europe, there is worry the drones may portend a bigger threat to the 9,000 kilometers of gas pipelines that spider from Norway’s sea platforms to terminals in Britain and mainland Europe.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine in late February, European Union countries have scrambled to replace their Russian gas imports with shipments from Norway. The suspected sabotage of the Nordstream I and II pipelines in the Baltic Sea last month happened a day before Norway opened a new Baltic pipeline to Poland.

Amund Revheim, who heads the North Sea and environment group for Norway’s South West Police force, said his team interviewed more than 70 offshore workers who have spotted drones near their facilities.

“The working thesis is that they are controlled from vessels or submarines nearby,” Revheim said.

Winged drones have a longer range, but investigators considered credible a sighting of a helicopter-style bladed model near the Sleipner platform, located in a North Sea gas field 250 kilometers from the coast.

Norwegian police have worked closely with military investigators who are analyzing marine traffic. Some platform operators have reported seeing Russian-flagged research vessels in close vicinity. Revheim said no pattern has been established from legal marine traffic and he is concerned about causing unnecessary, disruptive worry for workers.

But Ulriksen, of the naval academy, said the distinction between Russian civilian and military ships is narrow and the reported research vessels could fairly be described as “spy ships.”

The arrest of at least seven Russian nationals caught either carrying or illegally flying drones over Norwegian territory has raised tensions. On Wednesday, the same day a drone sighting grounded planes in Bergen, Norway’s second-biggest city, the Norwegian Police Security Service took over the case from local officers.

“We have taken over the investigation because it is our job to investigate espionage and enforce sanction rules against Russia,” Martin Bernsen, an official with the service known by the Norwegian acronym PST. He said the “sabotage or possible mapping” of energy infrastructure was an ongoing concern.

Støre, the prime minister, warned that Norway would take action against foreign intelligence agencies. “It is not acceptable for foreign intelligence to fly drones over Norwegian airports. Russians are not allowed to fly drones in Norway,” he said.

Russia’s Embassy in Oslo hit back Thursday, claiming that Norway was experiencing a form of “psychosis” causing “paranoia.”

Naval academy researcher Ulriksen thinks that is probably part of the plan.

“Several of the drones have been flown with their lights on,” he said. “They are supposed to be observed. I think it is an attempt to intimidate Norway and the West.”

The wider concern is that they are part of a hybrid strategy to both intimidate and gather information on vital infrastructure, which could later be targeted for sabotage in a potential strike against the West.

“I do not believe we are heading for a conventional war with Russia,” Ulriksen said. “But a hybrid war … I think we are already in it.”
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‘Where The Goodies Are Great’: Sweets Lovers in US Welcome Diwali

Posted on 10/23/2022 by SeeUS

Many preparations go into the celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, which starts Monday.

There’s cleaning and decorating the house, buying new clothes, visiting friends and family — and of course preparing and sharing food. And although the foods associated with Diwali vary from culture to culture, one central theme is snacks and sweets.

The holiday honors the goddess Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity. It celebrates light over darkness, new beginnings, and the triumph of good over evil.

Roni Mazumdar is the founder and CEO of Unapologetic Foods, a restaurant group that includes Dhamaka and Semma in New York City. He moved to the U.S. from Kolkata when he was 12 and misses the Diwali celebrations of his youth.

“In India, every single relative would be there, and that’s what made it Diwali to me,” he says.

The sweet that encapsulates the delight of the holiday for him is fresh rasgulla, a Bengali sweet with jaggery, a type of brown cane sugar.

“Imagine these little cheese dumplings that are dipped in a sweet jaggery syrup that you can just pop into your mouth all day long. It’s like a divine intervention of mankind,” he says.

The rasgulla he most associates with Diwali are made from nolen gur, a jaggery syrup made from the sap of date palms, which is harvested as Diwali approaches, when the weather gets cooler.

Milk is also a big part of the sweets from Kolkata and eastern India, he says. He loves kacha gulla, made from milk that has been curdled and has a loose texture “like ricotta cheese.” It’s used in many kinds of sweets.

Raghavan Iyer, a cookbook author and James Beard Award winner, has fond memories of Diwali celebrations in Mumbai, where he lived until age 21.

“The food itself is important, but it’s also about the exchange of foods with relatives and friends — that is the fun part of it,” he says. “Growing up, we always knew which neighbors to go to — the houses where the goodies would be really great.”

He remembers fondly a steamed-rice, flour-based dumpling called kozhukattai. His family made two versions: a sweet one made with fresh coconut and jaggery, and a savory one filled with lentils and chilies.

Iyer says Diwali always featured kaaju barfi, bars made from pureed cashews, ghee (clarified butter) and sugar. (Hint to his sister: He is hoping you send him some this year!)

And many desserts, he says, are finished by soaking them in a sweet syrup. One of his favorites is jalebi, which features chickpea flour. It’s dipped in sugar syrup laced with cardamom, saffron and lime.

Leela Mahase from Queens, New York, grew up in a Hindu family in Trinidad. Her Diwali sweets include ladoos, which she makes with a paste made from ground split peas and turmeric. It is fried in oil, then ground again, and combined with a syrup made from brown sugar, various spices and condensed milk. It’s formed into balls for eating.

Mahase also makes prasad, made by toasting flour in ghee, then adding cream of wheat. In a separate pot, she simmers evaporated milk with water, raisins, cinnamon and cardamom. This milk-based syrup is added to the cream of wheat mixture, and cooked until the liquid has evaporated. It has a texture she compares to mashed potatoes, and is eaten with the fingers.

Maneesha Sharma, a lawyer and mother of three in New York City, celebrates Diwali along the traditions of northern India, where her family is from.

“Diwali is celebrated with grandeur. You decorate the front door with lights, you put out your finery, and you eat delicacies you would not eat on a daily basis,” she says.

In India, she says, it is common to give others boxes and hampers with food and gold coins featuring images of gods, such as Ganesh and Lakshmi.

Sharma says that “as part of the prayer service when you light the flame, you make a food offering — always a sweet — to the gods.”

She says that including crushed nuts in desserts is a traditional way to both demonstrate wealth and offer respect. Pistachios and almonds are popular.

Here too, milk is featured in many desserts, she says, including phirni, a custard baked in a ramekin, sprinkled with pistachios and served cold. There’s also burfi, cut into small fudge-like squares.
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US Farm Gives Refuge from Pain, for Man and Beast Alike

Posted on 10/23/2022 by SeeUS

The leader has the name of her dead baby spelled out in beads on her left wrist, and standing before her is a mother so grief-choked by her young son’s death that she flips on her side at one point in this creekside yoga class and sobs. In the next row, a woman whose daughter died by suicide goes through the poses next to a man with a tattoo of three little ducks, one for each of the children who was murdered.

Just beyond, in the fields of this sanctuary for the grieving, is a sheep whose babies were snatched by coyotes, a goat saved from slaughter and a horse that was badly mistreated carrying loads at the Grand Canyon.

Soon, the morning fog will lift and the chorus of cicadas will end the quiet. But for a moment, all is still, as if nature has paused to acknowledge this gathering of worldly suffering.

“There’s a comfort in knowing,” says Suzy Elghanayan, a mother whose young son died earlier this year of a seizure, “that we’re all in the same place that we never wanted to be.”

The world turns away from stories like theirs because it’s too hard to imagine burying a child. So mourning people from around the globe journey to this patch of farmland just outside the red rocks of Sedona.

There is no talk at Selah Carefarm of ending the pain of loss, just of building the emotional muscle to handle it.

Here, the names of the dead can be spoken and the agony of loss can be shown. No one turns away.

Joanne Cacciatore was a mother of three in a customer service job when her baby died during delivery.

Long after she closed the lid to the tiny pink casket, the grief consumed her. She’d sob for hours and withered to 90 lbs. She didn’t want to live. All she thought about was death.

“Every cell in my body aches,” she wrote in her journal a few months after the death in 1994. “I won’t smile as often as my old self. Smiling hurts now. Most everything hurts some days, even breathing.”

Cacciatore became consumed with understanding the abyss of heartache she inhabited. But counseling and bereavement groups were as disappointing as the body of research Cacciatore found on traumatic loss.

So, she set out on twin paths for answers: Enrolling in college for the first time, focusing her studies on grief, and starting a support group and foundation for others like her.

Today, all these years after the death that set her on this journey, those academic and therapeutic pursuits have converged on the vegan farm, which opened five years ago. As plans for Selah took shape, Cacciatore was reminded of the two dogs who stayed by her side even when the depths of her sorrow were too much for many friends. So the farm is home to dozens of animals, many rescued from abuse and neglect, that are central to many visitors’ experiences here.

While most who come to Selah take part in counseling sessions, Cacciatore believes visitors’ experiences with the animals can be just as transformative. Across the farm, stories repeat of someone washed over by a wave of grief only to find an animal seem to offer comfort – a donkey nestling its face in a crying woman’s shoulder or a horse pressing its head against a grieving heart.

“There’s a resonance,” Cacciatore says. “There’s a symbiosis,”

The 10-acre swath of valley feels something like a bohemian enclave crossed with a kibbutz. In the day, the sprawling expanse is baked in sun, all the way back to the creek at the farm’s border, where a family of otters comes to play. At night, under star-flecked skies of indigo, paths are lit by lanterns and strings of bulbs glow, and all is quiet but the gentle flow of spring water snaking through irrigation ditches.

It is an oasis, but a constantly changing one, reinvented by each new visitor leaving their imprint.

On one tree, the grieving tie strips of fabric that rain like multicolored tickertape, remnants of their loved one’s favorite shirts and socks and pillowcases. Nearby, little medallions stamped with the names of the dead twinkle in the breeze. And in a grotto beneath an ash tree, the brokenhearted have clipped prayer cards to the branches, left objects including a baseball and a toy truck, and painted dozens of stones memorializing someone gone too soon.

For Andy, “My Twin Forever.” For Monica, “Loved Forever.” For Jade, “Forever One Day Old.”

Memories of the dead are everywhere. The farm’s guest house was made possible by donors, just like everything else here, and names of their lost ones are on everything from benches to butterfly gardens.

After a few days here, many find the stories of their beloved have become so stitched into the farm’s fabric it makes hallowed ground of earth on which the dead never set foot.

For Liz Castleman, it is a place she has come to feel her son Charlie’s presence even more than home. A rock with a dinosaur painted on it honors him and a wooden bird soars with his name. Strawberries at the farm have even been forever rebranded as Charlieberries in recognition of his favorite fruit.

Few in Castleman’s life can bear to hear about her son anymore, three years after he died before even reaching his third birthday. When she first came to the farm, part of her wondered if Cacciatore might somehow have the power to bring Charlie back. In a way, she did. She’s returned five more times because here, people relish hearing of the whip-smart boy who made friends wherever he went, who’d do anything to earn a laugh, who was so outgoing in class a teacher dubbed him “Mayor of Babytown.”

“All of the old safe spaces are gone. The farm, it really is the one safe space,” says 46-year-old Castleman, whose son died while under anesthesia during an MRI, likely due to an underlying genetic disorder. “There’s something, I don’t know if it’s magical, but you know that anything you say is OK and anything you feel is OK. It’s just a complete bubble from the rest of the world.”

Many who come here have been frustrated by communities and counselors who tell them to move on from their loss. They’ve been pushed to be medicated or plied with platitudes that hurt more than help. Friends tell a grieving mom that God needed an angel or ask a brokenhearted spouse why he’s still wearing his wedding ring. Again and again, they’re told to forget and move on.

Here, though, visitors learn the void will be with them, some way or another, forever.

“I’m picturing my life with my grief always with me and how I’m going to live life with that grief,” says 58-year-old Elghanayan, struggling to imagine her years unfolding without her 20-year-old son Luca, the compassionate, rock-climbing, surfing, piano-playing aspiring scientist. “I have to figure out how to get up and breathe every day and take one step every day and pray my years go by swiftly.”

If it seems counterintuitive that coming to a place where every story is sad could actually uplift, Selah’s adherents point to their own experiences on the farm and the inching progress they’ve made.

Erik Denton, a 35-year-old repeat visitor to Selah, is certain he can’t ever get over the deaths of his three children last year, but he’s functioning again. He does the dishes and makes his bed. He doesn’t hole up alone for days at a time. He’s again able to talk about the children he loves: 3-year-old Joanna, the firecracker who climbed trees and helped friends; 2-year-old Terry, the mischief maker who seemed to think no one was watching; and 6-month-old Sierra, the silly girl who just had begun to ooh and aah.

Denton’s ex-girlfriend, the children’s mother, has been charged in their drownings in a bathtub and sometimes repeating the story or hearing another mourner’s tragedy becomes too much for him. But mostly, Denton feels as if he can connect with people here more than anywhere else.

“Even though we’re surrounded by so much pain, we’re together,” he says.

A sense of solidarity is inescapable at Selah. Guests eagerly trade stories of their lost loved ones. And when someone is hurting, human or animal, they can count on others being by their side.

This day, Cacciatore is shaken because Shirin, a chocolate brown sheep with a white stripe across her belly, has been growing sicker and can’t be coaxed to eat, not even her favorite cookies.

Shirin was rescued after her two babies were taken by coyotes. Her udders were full for lambs no longer around to feed. She remained so shaken by it all that no one could get close to her for weeks.

As Cacciatore awaits the veterinarian, she and a frequent farm guest, 57-year-old Jill Loforte Carroll, dote on the sheep. Cacciatore tries to coax Shirin to eat some leaves and Loforte Carroll cues a recording of “La Vie en Rose” sung by her daughter Sierra before the quietly observant, shyly funny 21-year-old died by suicide seven years ago.

For a moment, it’s just three mournful moms sharing a patch of field.

When the vet arrives, their fears are confirmed, and as injections to euthanize are given, Cacciatore massages the sheep, repeatedly cooing reassuring words as her tears fall to the dirt below.

“It’s OK, baby girl, it’s OK,” she says. “You’re the prettiest girl.”

By the time the vet looks up with a knowing nod, seven people crouch around Shirin, splayed across the field in such anguished drama it seems fit for a Renaissance painting. On a farm shaped by death, another has arrived, but those who gathered infused it with as much beauty and comfort as they could.

“It’s not our children,” Cacciatore says before burying Shirin beneath a hulking persimmon tree, “but it’s still hard.”

This is Cacciatore’s life now, one she never could have imagined before her own tragedy. She has a Ph.D. and a research professorship at Arizona State University. A book on loss, “Bearing the Unbearable,” was well received. A fiercely loyal following has found solace in her work and her counseling.

“I had a little girl who was born and who died, and it changed the trajectory of my life,” she says. “But I’d give it back in a minute just to have her back.”
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New Face of Russian War Has Reputation as ‘General Armageddon’

Posted on 10/23/2022 by SeeEU

The general carrying out President Vladimir Putin’s new military strategy in Ukraine has a reputation for brutality — for bombing civilians in Russia’s campaign in Syria. He also played a role in the deaths of three protesters in Moscow during the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991 that hastened the demise of the Soviet Union.

Bald and fierce-looking, Gen. Sergei Surovikin was put in charge of Russian forces in Ukraine Oct. 8 after what has so far been a faltering invasion that has seen a number of chaotic retreats and other setbacks over the nearly eight months of war.

Putin put the 56-year-old career military man in command following an apparent truck bombing of the strategic bridge to the Crimean Peninsula that embarrassed the Kremlin and created logistical problems for the Russian forces.

Russia responded with a barrage of strikes across Ukraine, which Putin said were aimed at knocking down energy infrastructure and Ukrainian military command centers. Such attacks have continued daily, pummeling power plants and other facilities with cruise missiles and waves of Iranian-made drones.

Surovikin also retains his job of air force chief, a position that could help coordinate the airstrikes with other operations.

During the most recent bombardments, some Russian war bloggers carried a statement attributed to Surovikin that signaled his intention to pursue the attacks with unrelenting vigor to pound the Kyiv government into submission.

“I don’t want to sacrifice Russian soldiers’ lives in a guerrilla war against hordes of fanatics armed by NATO,” the bloggers quoted his statement as saying. “We have enough technical means to force Ukraine to surrender.”

While the veracity of the statement couldn’t be confirmed, it appears to reflect the same heavy-handed approach that Surovikin took in Syria where he oversaw the destruction of entire cities to flush out rebel resistance without paying much attention to the civilian population. That indiscriminate bombing drew condemnation from international human rights groups, and some media reports have dubbed him “General Armageddon.”

Putin awarded Surovikin the Hero of Russia medal, the country’s highest award, in 2017 and promoted him to full general.

Kremlin hawks lauded Surovikin’s appointment in Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin, a millionaire businessman dubbed “Putin’s chef” who owns a prominent military contractor that plays a key role in the fighting in Ukraine, praised him as “the best commander in the Russian army.”

But even as hardliners expected Surovikin to ramp up strikes on Ukraine, his first public statements after his appointment sounded more like a recognition of the Russian military’s vulnerabilities than blustery threats.

In remarks on Russian state television, Surovikin acknowledged that Russian forces in southern Ukraine were in a “quite difficult position” in the face of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

In carefully scripted comments that Surovikin appeared to read from a teleprompter, he said that further action in the region will depend on the evolving combat situation. Observers interpreted his statement as an attempt to prepare the public for a possible Russian pullback from the strategic southern city of Kherson in southern Ukraine.

Surovikin began his military career with the Soviet army in 1980s and, as a young lieutenant, was named an infantry platoon commander. When he later rose to air force chief, it drew a mixed reaction in the ranks because it marked the first time when the job was given to an infantry officer.

He found himself in the center of a political storm in 1991.

When members of the Communist Party’s old guard staged a hardline coup in August of that year, briefly ousting Gorbachev and sending troops into Moscow to impose a state of emergency, Surovikin commanded one of the mechanized infantry battalions that rolled into the capital.

Popular resistance mounted quickly, and in the final hours of the three-day coup, protesters blocked an armored convoy led by Surovikin and tried to set some of the vehicles ablaze. In a chaotic melee, two protesters were shot and a third was crushed to death by an armored vehicle.

The coup collapsed later that day, and Surovikin was quickly arrested. He spent seven months behind bars pending an inquiry but was eventually acquitted and even promoted to major as investigators concluded that he was only fulfilling his duties.

Another rocky moment in his career came in 1995, when Surovikin was convicted of illegal possession and trafficking of firearms while studying at a military academy. He was sentenced to a year in prison, but the conviction was reversed quickly.

He rose steadily through the ranks, commanding units deployed to the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, leading troops sent to Chechnya and serving at other posts across Russia.

He was appointed commander of Russian forces in Syria in 2017 and served a second stint there in 2019 as Moscow sought to prop up President Bashar Assad’s regime and help it regain ground amid a devastating civil war.

In a 2020 report, Human Rights Watch named Surovikin, along with Putin, Assad and other figures as bearing command responsibility for violations during the 2019-20 Syrian offensive in Idlib province.

He apparently has a temper that has not endeared him to subordinates, according to Russian media. One officer under Surovikin complained to prosecutors that the general had beaten him after becoming angry over how he voted in parliamentary elections; another subordinate reportedly shot himself. Investigators found no wrongdoing in either case.

His track record in Syria could have been a factor behind his appointment in Ukraine, as Putin has moved to raise the stakes and reverse a series of humiliating defeats.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has repeatedly called for ramping up strikes in Ukraine, praised Surovikin as “a real general and a warrior, well-experienced, farsighted and forceful who places patriotism, honor and dignity above all.”

“The united group of forces is now in safe hands,” the Kremlin-backed Kadyrov said, voicing confidence that he will “improve the situation.”
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Joanna Simon, Acclaimed Singer, TV Correspondent, Dies at 85

Posted on 10/23/2022 by SeeUS

Joanna Simon, an acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Emmy-winning TV correspondent and one of the three singing Simon sisters who include pop star Carly, has died at age 85.

Simon, the eldest of four, died Wednesday, just a day before her sister Lucy died, according to Lucy’s daughter, Julie Simon. Their brother Peter, a photographer, died in 2018 at 71. All three had cancer.

“In the last 2 days, I’ve been by the side of both my mother and my aunt, Joanna, and watched them pass into the next world. I can’t truly comprehend this,” Julie wrote on Facebook.

Joanna Simon, who died of thyroid cancer, rose to fame in the opera world and as a concert performer in the 1960s. She was a frequent guest on TV talk shows. After her retirement from singing, she became an arts correspondent for PBS’s MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour, where she won an Emmy in 1991 for a report on mental illness and creativity.

“I am filled with sorrow to speak about the passing of Joanna and Lucy Simon. Their loss will be long and haunting. As sad as this day is, it’s impossible to mourn them without celebrating their incredible lives that they lived,” Carly Simon said in a statement Saturday.

She added: “We were three sisters who not only took turns blazing trails and marking courses for one another. We were each other’s secret shares. The co-keepers of each other’s memories.”

Joanna Simon was married to novelist and journalist Gerald Walker from 1976 until his death in 2004. She was the companion of Walter Cronkite from 2005 until his death in 2009.

Onstage, she made her professional debut in 1962 as Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at New York City Opera. That year, she won the Marian Anderson Award for promising young singers. Simon took on a range of material. As a concert performer, she leaned into classic and contemporary songs of her time.

The siblings were born to publishing giant Richard Simon and his wife, Andrea. Carly and Lucy once performed as the Simon Sisters, opening for other acts in Greenwich Village folk clubs.

“I have no words to explain the feeling of suddenly being the only remaining direct offspring of Richard and Andrea Simon,” Carly Simon said. “They touched everyone they knew and those of us they’ve left behind will be lucky and honored to carry their memories forward.”
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A Spate of Drownings: Classes Help Black Americans Learn to Swim

Posted on 10/23/2022 by SeeUS

Ten-year-old Aiden Reed had reason to be a little nervous as he dipped into a swimming pool in Washington.

“I almost drowned,” the young African American recalled of an incident at another pool when a lifeguard had to rescue him.

Since then, Aiden has found the courage to face his fears and go back in the pool for lessons with Swim Up, a nonprofit group that offers free classes.

Out of nine new swimmers on a recent October afternoon, eight were African American, a vulnerable group for drowning. In the United States, the drowning rate for Black children ages 5-9 is 2.6 times higher than that of white children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For Black children ages 10-14, drowning rates are 3.6 times higher, the CDC says.

Some 64% of Black children know little or nothing about swimming, compared to 40% of white children, according to USA Swimming, a national federation.

A tragedy in August 2010 brutally illustrated the situation. During a barbecue with friends in Shreveport, Louisiana, DeKendrix Warner, a Black teenager, waded into shallow water in the Red River.

He didn’t know how to swim. Neither did the six friends and cousins who went in to try to save him. Warner slipped and plunged into a pool of much deeper water. A passerby jumped in and saved him, but the six others had also followed him into the deep water. Family members on shore, who couldn’t swim, watched helplessly.

DeKendrix survived, but the six teenagers, aged 13-18, all drowned.

Closed swimming pools

In the United States, there is no federal requirement to teach swimming in schools. The reason so many Black children don’t know how to swim, though, is rooted in the history of slavery and racial inequality, according to activists and historians.

“Enslaved Africans could escape slavery with swimming skills,” said Ebony Rosemond, executive director of Black Kids Swim, an organization that helps African American youth learn to swim.

“It was in the best interest of those who owned humans to make sure that they didn’t have the skill, or that they were too afraid to jump into the water,” she said.

After the abolition of slavery in 1865, white supremacists terrorized African Americans, “lynching them, brutalizing them, and hanging their bodies near bodies of water,” Rosemond added.

With the civil rights movement came desegregation. Courts ordered cities to open their public pools to Black people. But many, especially in the South, chose to close them instead, said historian Jeff Wiltse of the University of Montana, author of A Social History of Swimming Pools in America.

Such racial discrimination “severely restricted Black Americans’ access” to pools, he summarized in a 2014 article. “Swimming never became integral to Black Americans’ recreation and sports culture and was not passed down from generation to generation.”

It’s cold!

Today, many initiatives are trying to correct this, like Swim Up.

Mary Bergstrom, a co-founder, handed out caps and swim shorts to kids one recent afternoon. “Get in the water,” she urged. One of them jumped in and yelled, “It’s cold!”

The kids learn skills step by step. First, they float on their backs, then kick their feet to move forward, arms outstretched, guided by Bergstrom, a lawyer and former competitive swimmer.

Aiden, his fear of the water a thing of the past, floats easily. One of his distracted buddies forgets to breathe, and Bergstrom gently pats his head to get him to take a breath of air.

“We are almost at 100 kids that we’ve kind of taught to swim or kind of got them over their fear of the water,” Bergstrom said.

“Eventually our goal is to… put this into schools, and it can be burden-free on families. You can make it a part of the curriculum, and you can make a difference,” she said.

Not far from the pool is Howard University, the only historically Black university in the United States with a competitive swim team, whose swimmers sometimes give lessons to Swim Up youth.

On Oct. 1, they entered Burr Gymnasium to thunderous applause as they took on rival Georgetown. About 1,200 people attended the event, which was designed by their coach, Nick Askew, to raise the profile of Black swimmers.

“We can create a fan experience like none other, the fact that we can also back it up with some amazing swims… is one of the things… a lot of people will grab on to, and make them more encouraged to touch the water, to learn how to swim,” Askew told AFP.

The Howard Bisons held their own, although both the male and female teams lost to their Georgetown competitors.

Niles Rankin, a 21-year-old competitive swimmer at Howard, said coach Askew has a goal for his athletes.

“He wanted us to get our name out there to kind of be like, I guess, a symbol for other Black swimmers,” he said.

“You can do it… You can be a Black swimmer.”
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Indictment of Oligarchs a How-to Guide to Avoid US Sanctions

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeUS

It was a deal that brought together oligarchs from some of America’s top adversaries.

“The key is the cash,” the oil broker wrote in a text message, offering a deep discount on Venezuelan crude shipments to an associate who claimed to be fronting for the owner of Russia’s biggest aluminum company. “As soon as you are ready with cash we can work.”

The communication was included in a 49-page indictment unsealed Wednesday in New York federal court charging seven individuals with conspiring to purchase sensitive U.S. military technology, smuggle oil and launder tens of millions of dollars on behalf of wealthy Russian businessmen.

The frank talk among co-defendants reads like a how-to guide on circumventing U.S. sanctions — complete with Hong Kong shell companies, bulk cash pick-ups, phantom oil tankers and the use of cryptocurrency to cloak transactions that are illicit under U.S. law

It also shines a light on how wealthy insiders from Russia and its ally Venezuela, both barred from the Western financial system, are making common cause to protect their massive fortunes.

Two Russians

At the center of the alleged conspiracy are two Russians: Yury Orekhov, who used to work for a publicly traded aluminum company sanctioned by the U.S., and Artem Uss, the son of a wealthy governor allied with the Kremlin.

The two are partners in a Hamburg, Germany-based company trading in industrial equipment and commodities. Prosecutors allege the company was a hub for skirting U.S. sanctions first imposed against Russian elites following the 2014 invasion of Crimea. Both were arrested, in Germany and Italy respectively, on U.S. charges including conspiracy to violate sanctions, money laundering and bank fraud.

On the other end of the deal was Juan Fernando Serrano, the CEO of a commodities trading startup known as Treseus with offices in Dubai, Italy and his native Spain. His whereabouts are unknown.

In electronic communications among the men last year, each side boasted of connections to powerful insiders.

“This is our mother company,” Orehkov wrote to Serrano, pasting a link to the aluminum company’s website and a link to the owner’s Wikipedia page. “He is under sanctions as well. That’s why we (are) acting from this company.”

Serrano, not to be outdone, responded that his partner was also sanctioned.

“He is one of the influence people in Venezuela. Super close to the Vice President,” he wrote, posting a link showing search results for a Venezuelan lawyer and businessman who is wanted by the U.S. on money laundering and bribery charges.

Neither alleged partner was charged in the case, nor are they identified by name in the indictment. Additionally, it’s not clear what ties, if any, Serrano really has to the Venezuelan insider he cited.

The partners

But the description of the Russian billionaire matches that of Oleg Deripaska, who was charged last month in a separate sanctions case in New York. Some of the proceeds he allegedly funneled to the U.S. were to support a Uzbekistani track and field Olympic athlete while she gave birth to their child in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan is media magnate Raul Gorrin, according to someone close to U.S. law enforcement who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Gorrin remains in Venezuela and is on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s most-wanted list for allegedly masterminding a scheme to siphon $1.2 billion from PDVSA, Venezuela’s state oil company.

A U.S.-based attorney for Deripaska didn’t respond to requests for comment. Gorrin declined to comment but has rejected other criminal charges against him as politically motivated.

While U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil apply only to Americans, many foreign entities and individuals with business in the U.S. stay away from transactions involving the OPEC nation for fear of being sanctioned themselves.

For that same reason, Venezuela’s oil sells at a deep discount — about 40% less than the market price, according to the indictment. But such choice terms require some unorthodox maneuvering.

For example, instead of instantly wiring funds through Western banks, payment has to take a more circuitous route.

Tanker of oil

In one transaction this year cited in the indictment — the $33 million purchase of a tanker full of Venezuelan fuel oil — the alleged co-conspirators discussed channeling payments from a front company in Dubai, named Melissa Trade, to shell accounts in Hong Kong, Australia and England. To hide the transaction, documents were allegedly falsified to describe the cargo as “whole green peas” and “bulky paddy rice.”

But as is often the case in clandestine transactions, cash appears to have been king.

“Your people can go directly to PDVSA with one of my staff and pay directly to them. There are 550,000 barrels … to load on Monday,” Serrano wrote Orekhov in a November 2021 message.

There was also discussion of dropping off millions in cash at a bank in Moscow, Evrofinance Mosnarbank, which is owned by PDVSA. It was a major conduit for trade with Russia until it was hit with U.S. sanctions in 2019. The two defendants also contemplated a possible mirror transaction whereby cash delivered to a bank in Panama would be paid out the same day at a branch of the same unnamed institution in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.

But Orekhov’s preferred method of payment appears to be Tether, a cryptocurrency that purports to be pegged to more stable currencies like the U.S. dollar.

It’s not just financial transactions that are a challenge. Delivering the crude presents its own risk because most shipping companies and insurers won’t do business with Venezuela and other sanctioned entities. In recent years, the U.S. government has seized several tankers suspected of transporting Iranian fuel heading for Venezuela.

To obscure the oil’s origins, Orekhov and Serrano discussed instructing the Vietnamese tanker they were using to turn off its mandatory tracking system to avoid being spotted while loading in “Disneyland” — a coded reference to Venezuela.
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Illegal Border Crossings to US From Mexico Hit Annual High

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeUS

A surge in migration from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua in September brought the number of illegal crossings to the highest level ever recorded in a fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The year-end numbers reflect deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries, the relative strength of the U.S. economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions.

Migrants were stopped 227,547 times in September at the U.S. border with Mexico, the third-highest month of Joe Biden’s presidency. It was up 11.5% from 204,087 times in August and 18.5% from 192,001 times in September 2021.

In the fiscal year that ended September 30, migrants were stopped 2.38 million times, up 37% from 1.73 million times the year before, according to figures released late Friday night. The annual total surpassed 2 million for the first time in August and is more than twice the highest level during Donald Trump’s presidency in 2019.

Nearly 78,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua were stopped in September, compared to about 58,000 from Mexico and three countries of northern Central America that have historically accounted for most of the flow.

The remarkable geographic shift is at least partly a result of Title 42, a public health rule that suspends rights to see asylum under U.S. and international law on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Due to strained diplomatic relations, the U.S. cannot expel migrants to Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua. As a result, they are largely released in the United States to pursue their immigration cases.

Title 42 authority has been applied 2.4 million times since it began in March 2020 but has fallen disproportionately on migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

U.S. and Mexican officials said Friday that Venezuelan migration to the United States plunged 80% since October 12, when the U.S. began expelling Venezuelans to Mexico under Title 42. At the same time, the Biden administration pledged to admit up to 24,000 Venezuelans to the United States on humanitarian parole if they apply online with a financial sponsor and enter through an airport, similar to how tens of thousands of Ukrainians have come since Russia invaded their country.

“While this early data is not reflected in the [September] report, it confirms what we’ve said all along: When there is a lawful and orderly way to enter the country, individuals will be less likely to put their lives in the hands of smugglers and try to cross the border unlawfully,” said CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus.

The expansion of Title 42 for Venezuelans to be expelled to Mexico came despite the administration’s attempt to end the public health authority in May, which was blocked by a federal judge.

Venezuelans represented the second-largest nationality at the border after Mexicans for the second straight month, being stopped 33,804 times in September, up 33% from 25,361 times in August.

Cubans, who are participating in the largest exodus from the Caribbean Island to the United States since 1980, were stopped 26,178 times at the border in September, up 37% from 19,060 in August.

Nicaraguans were stopped 18,199 times in September, up 55% from 7,298 times in August.

The report is the last monthly reading of migration flows before U.S. midterm elections, an issue that many Republicans have emphasized in campaigns to capture control of the House and Senate. Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee released a one-sentence statement Saturday in response to the numbers: “You’ve got to be kidding.”
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Boris Johnson Returns to Britain in Bid for Rapid Political Comeback

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeEU

Boris Johnson returned to Britain on Saturday as he considers an audacious attempt to win a second term as prime minister only weeks after he was forced to step down, with some colleagues warning his comeback could create more political chaos.

Potential candidates to replace Prime Minister Liz Truss, who quit on Thursday after six weeks in office, were embarking on a frantic weekend of lobbying to secure enough nominations to enter the leadership contest before Monday’s deadline.

Johnson, who was on holiday in the Caribbean when Truss resigned, has not commented publicly about a bid for his old job. He has received the support of dozens of Conservative lawmakers, but he needs to secure 100 nominations to be considered.

Trade department minister James Duddridge said Friday that Johnson told him he was “up for it.” He said Saturday that Johnson had secured 100 nominations, although a Reuters tally put him with about 40. The tally showed former finance minister Rishi Sunak, for now the bookmakers’ favorite, had exceeded 100.

The Sunday Times reported Sunak and Johnson could meet late Saturday, without giving details on the planned discussions.

Only former defense minister Penny Mordaunt has formally declared she will run, although a Reuters tally showed she only had 22 nominations so far before Monday’s 1300 GMT deadline.

The next prime minister, a post that will have changed hands three times in four years, faces a huge inbox after Truss’s economic plans hammered bond markets, raised government borrowing costs and added more strains on households and businesses already struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.

Johnson was booed by some passengers on the plane to Britain, according to a Sky News reporter on the flight, which arrived in London on Saturday morning.

Wearing a dark jacket and backpack, Johnson waved to photographers at London’s Gatwick Airport before driving away.

It would be a stunning comeback for the former journalist and ex-Mayor of London, who left Downing Street shrouded in scandal, saying fellow party lawmakers “changed the rules halfway through” to prevent him serving a full term.

In a boost to Sunak, another potential contender, trade minister Kemi Badenoch who ran in a leadership race earlier this year, backed the former finance minister. The move means she ruled herself out from another bid for the top job.

Divisive twist

The prospect of another Johnson premiership is a polarizing issue for many in the Conservative Party, which is deeply divided after seeing off four prime ministers in six years.

For some Conservative lawmakers, Johnson is a vote-winner, able to appeal across the country with his celebrity image and brand of energetic optimism. For others he is a toxic figure who would struggle to unite the party and so might undermine efforts to build a stable leadership to calm rattled financial markets.

Former interior minister Priti Patel said her old boss had “the mandate to deliver our elected manifesto and a proven track record getting the big decisions right.”

Andrew Bridgen, another Conservative lawmaker, said he might resign from the parliamentary group if Johnson returned and told Conservatives not to create a Johnson “personality cult.”

Former Conservative party leader William Hague said Johnson’s return would lead to a “death spiral” for the party. If Johnson can secure enough nominations, he could go head-to-head with Sunak, who quit as his finance minister in July, saying his former boss was unable to take tough decisions.

Johnson is currently under investigation by Parliament’s Privileges Committee to establish whether he lied to the House of Commons over lockdown-breaking parties. Ministers found to have knowingly misled parliament are expected to resign.

The contest has been accelerated to take only a week. Under the rules, only three candidates will be able to reach the first ballot of lawmakers on Monday afternoon, with the final two put to a vote on Friday that is limited to about 170,000 signed up members of the Conservative Party.
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Thousands Rally in Berlin, Elsewhere in Support of Iranian Women

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeEU

Thousands of Iranians were among an estimated 80,000 people who joined in a rally Saturday in Berlin, the largest of several protests in cities around the world showing solidarity with women-led protests in Iran.

Iranians traveled to Berlin for the protests and were in other demonstrations in Sweden, Italy, France, Switzerland and other European cities, photos show. Protests were also reported in London and Finland.

An Iranian who lives in the Netherlands and traveled to Berlin to participate in the rally sent a photo to Voice of America.

Music played, including the song “For Freedom,” which has become a symbol of the nationwide protests of Iranians. And various groups chanted together “Death to the Islamic Republic.”

“Today, thousands of people are showing their solidarity with courageous women and demonstrators in Iran,” tweeted Germany’s Green Party minister for family affairs, Lisa Paus. “We are by your side,” she noted.

‘Women, Life, Freedom’

At a rally in New Zealand, Iranians held Iran’s lion and sun flag and chanted the slogan “women of freedom.”

In Brisbane, Australia, Iranians held a demonstration despite the rain.

At the Berlin rally, called by a women’s collective, some marchers brandished slogans such as “Women, Life, Freedom” and some waved Kurdish flags.

“From Zahedan to Tehran, I sacrifice my life for Iran,” human rights activist Fariba Balouch said after giving a speech at the Berlin gathering, referring to Iranian cities swept up in the protests. The crowd responded with “Death to Khamenei,” referring to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Anti-government activists said the Berlin march was the largest ever demonstration against the Islamic Republic by Iranians abroad.

“I feel very good, because we are here to [say] ‘We are with you, with all Iranian people.’ I am Mahsa Amini’s voice,” said a protester who gave her name as Maru.

Participants peacefully made their way toward the city center in radiant autumnal sunshine, as police followed their progress from helicopters.

Protests around Iran

Iran has seen six weeks of growing women-led protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini. She was arrested in mid-September by Iran’s morality police and died in their custody three days later. Amini, 22, was arrested for allegedly breaching the country’s strict dress code for women.

In Iran Saturday, protests were reported in Tehran, where protesters chanted “Death to the dictator” around Tehran’s bazaar, among several cities, and shopkeepers and factory workers went on strike as citizens continue to react angrily to Amini’s death.

Protests also were reported in Karaj, a suburb of Tehran, and Mashhad.

In Mashhad, Iran’s second-most populous city, protesters reportedly chanted, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, we are all together” as drivers honked their horns in support.

The protests are the biggest seen in the Islamic republic for years, harking back to 2019 rallies sparked by rocketing fuel prices.

The published images from the cities of Sanandaj, Saqqez and Marivan in Kurdistan province, as well as Bukan in the West Azerbaijan province, depict the general strike of workers.

Young women have led the charge, removing their headscarves, chanting anti-government slogans and confronting the security forces.

The Oslo-based, Iran Human Rights group says at least 122 people — including some children — have died in the unrest.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
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South African Ex-President Zuma Calls Courts Unjust After Completing Jail Term

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeAF

South Africa’s scandal-embroiled former president, Jacob Zuma, addressed the media Saturday for the first time after completing a 15-month jail term for contempt of court, alleging the country’s justice system is unjust and infiltrated by foreign interests.

Zuma, who has faced myriad corruption allegations, also had failed to appear in front of an inquiry into state graft — locally called “state capture” — that occurred under his nearly decadelong tenure.

Yet, Zuma told the press he had been unfairly imprisoned without a trial, despite the fact he was summoned and failed to appear before the inquiry. Analysts say Zuma is refusing to acknowledge the validity of the inquiry, essentially attempting to portray the presiding judge as leading a witch hunt for the former leader.

Zuma said the country’s justice system has been “infiltrated” by both international interests and the interests of sympathizers of the former racially segregated apartheid regime.

Zuma also claimed the judge presiding over the inquiry, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, had unfairly targeted him and his allies to distract the public from the country’s real issues.

At the time of his arrest in July 2021, protests led by his supporters in his home province of KwaZulu Natal spiraled into riots around the country that resulted in millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure and stolen goods.

Police said earlier this week that one of Zuma’s daughters remains under investigation for inciting the unrest.

Zuma spent just three of the 15 months behind bars, and he was released on medical parole for an undisclosed condition.

On Saturday, Zuma didn’t provide any evidence of so-called infiltration of the country’s courts — which are viewed by many as the strongest institution for averting otherwise widespread corruption.

Instead, Zuma blamed, but didn’t name, the country’s leadership for selling out the judiciary and the constitution to “global commercial interests.”

The allegations come just two months ahead of the convention of the ruling African National Congress party, where current President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is politically at odds with his predecessor, Zuma, is expected to face fierce competition to retain party leadership.
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Russian-Installed Authorities Order Evacuation of Ukraine’s Kherson

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeEU

Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine told all residents of the city of Kherson to leave “immediately” Saturday ahead of an expected advance by Ukrainian troops waging a counteroffensive to recapture one of the first urban areas Russia took after invading the country.

In a post on the Telegram messaging service, the pro-Kremlin regional administration called on civilians to use boat crossings over a major river to move deeper into Russian-held territory, citing a tense situation on the front and the threat of shelling and alleged “terror attacks” by Kyiv.

Kherson has been in Russian hands since the early days of the nearly 8-month-long war in Ukraine. The city is the capital of a region of the same name, one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last month and put under Russian martial law on Thursday.

On Friday, Ukrainian forces bombarded Russian positions across the province, targeting pro-Kremlin forces’ resupply routes across the Dnieper River and inching closer to making a full assault on Kherson city. Ukraine has retaken some villages in the region’s north since launching its counteroffensive in late August.

Russian-installed officials were reported as trying desperately to turn Kherson city — a prime objective for both sides because of its key industries and ports — into a fortress while attempting to relocate tens of thousands of residents.

The Kremlin poured as many as 2,000 draftees into the surrounding region to replenish losses and strengthen front-line units, according to the Ukrainian army’s general staff.

The Dnieper River figures prominently in the regional battle because it serves multiple critical functions. It provides crossings for supplies, troops and civilians; drinking water for southern Ukraine and the annexed Crimean Peninsula; and power generation from a hydroelectric station.

Much of the area, including the power station and a canal feeding water to Crimea, is under Russian control.

Kherson’s Kremlin-backed authorities previously announced plans to evacuate all Russia-appointed officials and as many as 60,000 civilians across the river, in what local leader Volodymyr Saldo said would be an “organized, gradual displacement.”

Another Russia-installed official estimated Saturday that about 25,000 people from across the region had made their way over the Dnieper. In a Telegram post, Kirill Stremousov claimed that civilians were relocating willingly.

“People are actively moving because today the priority is life. We do not drag anyone anywhere,” he said.

Ukrainian and Western officials have expressed concern about potential forced transfers of residents to Russia or Russian-occupied territory.

Ukrainian officials have urged Kherson residents to resist attempts to relocate them, with one local official alleging that Moscow wanted to take civilians hostage and use them as human shields.

Elsewhere in the invaded country, hundreds of thousands of people in central and western Ukraine awoke Saturday to power outages and periodic bursts of gunfire. In its latest war tactic, Russia has intensified strikes on power stations, water supply systems and other key infrastructure across the country.

Ukraine’s air force said in a statement Saturday that Russia had launched “a massive missile attack” targeting “critical infrastructure,” adding that it had downed 18 out of 33 cruise missiles launched from the air and sea.

In a Telegram post published later Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy referenced 36 missiles, “most of which were shot down.” The reason for the discrepancy in numbers was not immediately clear.

Air raid sirens blared across Ukraine twice by early afternoon, sending residents scurrying into shelters as Ukrainian air defense tried to shoot down explosive drones and incoming missiles.

“Several rockets” targeting Ukraine’s capital were shot down Saturday morning, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging service.

The president’s office said in its morning update that five suicide drones were downed in the central Cherkasy region southeast of Kyiv.

The governors of six western and central provinces, as well as of the southern Odesa region on the Black Sea, gave similar reports.

Ukraine’s top diplomat said the day’s attacks proved Ukraine needed new Western-reinforced air defense systems “without a minute of delay.”

“Air defense saves lives,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Telegram that almost 1.4 million households lost power as a result of the strikes. He said some 672,000 homes in the western Khmelnytskyi region were affected and another 242,000 suffered outages in the Cherkasy region.

Most of the western city of Khmelnytskyi, which straddles the Bug River and had a pre-war population of 275,000, was left with no electricity, shortly after local media reported several loud explosions.

In a social media post on Saturday, the city council urged local residents to store water “in case it’s also gone within an hour.”

The mayor of Lutsk, a city of 215,000 in far western Ukraine, made a similar appeal on Saturday. Power in Lutsk was partially knocked out after Russian missiles slammed into local energy facilities, Mayor Ihor Polishchuk said.

He later added that a civilian suffered burns when a shockwave from the strike hit his house, and that one power station had been damaged beyond repair.

The central city of Uman, a key pilgrimage center for Hasidic Jews with about 100,000 residents before the war, also was plunged into darkness after a rocket hit a nearby power station, regional authorities said on Telegram.

Ukraine’s state energy company, Ukrenergo, responded to the strikes by announcing that rolling blackouts would be imposed in Kyiv and 10 Ukrainian regions to stabilize the situation.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, the company accused Russia of attacking “energy facilities within the principal networks of the western regions of Ukraine.” It claimed the scale of destruction was comparable to the fallout earlier this month from Moscow’s first coordinated attack on the Ukrainian energy grid.

Both Ukrenergo and officials in Kyiv have urged Ukrainians to conserve energy. Earlier this week, Zelenskyy called on consumers to curb their power use between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. and to avoid using energy-guzzling appliances such as electric heaters.

Zelenskyy said earlier in the week that 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed since Russia launched the first wave of targeted infrastructure strikes on October 10.

In a separate development, Russian officials said a shelling attack on a frontier town just kilometers north of the Ukrainian border killed two people and wounded 12.

Andrey Ikonnikov, the health minister for the southern Belgorod region of Russia, said a 14-year-old boy and an older man died on the spot after shells hit civilian infrastructure in Shebekino, which is home to about 44,500 people.

Earlier social media posts by the regional governor, Vladislav Gladkov, blamed the attack on Ukraine. Russia has previously accused Ukrainian forces of numerous strikes on civilians in the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk. Kyiv has not formally responded to these accusations.
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UN Food Agency Warns Somalia Near Full-Blown Famine

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeAF

The World Food Program warned Friday it is only a matter of time before Somalia is hit with a full-blown famine and people start dying in droves.

The United Nations food agency said it has been able to keep famine at bay in Somalia by massively increasing food assistance to millions of acutely hungry people.

WFP Somalia Deputy Country Director Laura Turner said international donations have allowed increased aid, reaching nearly 4.2 million people with food and cash relief.

Speaking from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, she said the WFP is delivering food and nutrition support to record numbers of people. She said beneficiaries include half a million malnourished children and mothers with malnutrition treatment services.

She said the increased food aid so far has prevented Somalia’s hunger crisis from reaching a point of no return. However, she warned Somalia is not yet out of danger.

“We are in a desperate race against time,” she said. “As we discussed a month ago, if the situation continues to worsen, and we are expecting that it will because we are currently in the rainy season, and we have not seen the rains materialize. Or the relief assistance does not continue to increase to meet the growing needs, then famine is projected before the end of this year.”

The U.N. predicts famine is likely in the Baidoa and Burhakaba districts of the country’s Bay region. It forecasts up to 6.7 million people across the country will face crisis-level food insecurity before the end of the year.

Turner said the WFP is now reaching more than double the numbers of vulnerable people with aid that it was reaching earlier this year. She said food assistance alone will not prevent loss of life.

“Disease, poor hygiene, dehydration — they are all equally concerning,” she said. “We work very closely on an integrated response to make sure that sanitation, water access, health services are also included in what we are doing so that we can address the drivers of mortality.”

Turner said in her 20-year humanitarian career she has never experienced a looming catastrophe of such proportions. She called soaring malnutrition rates horrifying, saying severely acutely malnourished children are at particular risk of dying from hunger and disease.

The World Health Organization reports half of Somalia’s children, some 1.8 million, are suffering from this condition.
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Vatican Confirms Renewal of Contested Accord With China on Bishops’ Appointments

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeEU

The Vatican said Saturday it and China had renewed a secret and contested agreement on the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops in the communist country.

It was the second time the accord, which is still provisional, was extended for another two years since it was first reached in 2018. The latest extension had been widely expected, with Pope Francis foreseeing it in an exclusive interview with Reuters on July 2.

The deal was a bid to ease a longstanding divide across mainland China between an underground flock loyal to the pope and a state-backed official church. For the first time since the 1950s, both sides recognized the pope as supreme leader of the Catholic Church.

Critics, including Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, the former archbishop of Hong Kong, have denounced it as a sell-out to the communist authorities. Zen is currently on trial over the use of a charity fund for pro-democracy protesters and critics have accused the Vatican of not doing enough to defend him in public.

Zen pleaded not guilty.

The Vatican-China deal centers on cooperation over the appointment of bishops, giving the pope the final and decisive say.

Only six new bishops have been appointed since the deal was struck, which its opponents say proves it is not producing the desired effects. They also point to increasing restrictions on religious freedoms in China for Christians and other minorities.

In the July interview with Reuters, the pope acknowledged the deal “is going slowly” but that the Church needed to take the long view in China and that an imperfect dialogue was better than no contact at all.

Francis compared the deal’s opponents to those who criticized Popes John XXII and Paul VI in the 1960s and 1970s over the so-called small steps policy, in which the Vatican struck sometimes uncomfortable deals with Eastern European communist nations to keep the Church alive during the Cold War and limit its persecution there.

Steps toward healing

Official Vatican media ran interviews with two cardinals defending the deal.

Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the accord’s chief architect, said that while the achievements since 2018 “may seem small,” in the context of a conflicted history they were “important steps toward the progressive healing of the wounds inflicted” on the Chinese Church.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, a Filipino whose mother is of Chinese descent, said the challenge was to convince authorities that “belonging to the Church does not represent an obstacle to being a good Chinese citizen.”

The Vatican has insisted that the deal is circumscribed to the Church structure in China and is not in itself a precursor to establishing full diplomatic relations with Beijing, which would necessitate the Holy See severing ties with Taiwan.

The Vatican is the last state in Europe to recognize Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, to be taken by force if necessary.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said it set great store by the Vatican’s “solemn commitment” that the deal was about religious rather than diplomatic or political matters, adding that it hoped the accord would “help improve China’s growing religious freedom problem.”

The renewal of the Vatican-Beijing deal came as China’s Communist Party wrapped up its twice-a-decade congress on Saturday, approving amendments cementing President Xi Jinping’s iron grip on the party.

Last month, the Vatican tried to arrange a meeting between Xi, 69, and the pope, 85, while both leaders were in Kazakhstan, but China declined.
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Boeing Crashes: Passengers’ Families Deemed Crime Victims

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeUS

A federal judge ruled Friday that relatives of people killed in the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max planes are crime victims under federal law and should have been told about private negotiations over a settlement that spared Boeing from criminal prosecution.

The full impact of the ruling is not yet clear, however. The judge said the next step is to decide what remedies the families should get for not being told of the talks with Boeing.

Some relatives are pushing to scrap the government’s January 2021 settlement with Boeing, and they have expressed anger that no one in the company has been held criminally responsible.

Boeing Co., which is based in Arlington, Virginia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Boeing, which misled safety regulators who approved the Max, agreed to pay $2.5 billion including a $243.6 million fine. The Justice Department agreed not to prosecute the company for conspiracy to defraud the government.

The Justice Department, in explaining why it didn’t tell families about the negotiations, argued that the relatives are not crime victims. However, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, said the crashes were a foreseeable consequence of Boeing’s conspiracy, making the relatives representatives of crime victims.

“In sum, but for Boeing’s criminal conspiracy to defraud the FAA, 346 people would not have lost their lives in the crashes,” he wrote.

Naoise Connolly Ryan, whose husband died in the second Max crash, in Ethiopia, said Boeing is responsible for his death.

“Families like mine are the true victims of Boeing’s criminal misconduct, and our views should have been considered before the government gave them a sweetheart deal,” she said in a statement issued by a lawyer for the families.

The first Max crashed Indonesia in October 2018, killing 189, and another crashed five months later in Ethiopia, killing 157. All Max jets were grounded worldwide for nearly two years. They were cleared to fly again after Boeing overhauled an automated flight-control system that activated erroneously in both crashes.
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Guinea Junta Agrees Return to Civilian Rule in 2 Years

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeAF

Guinea’s ruling junta has agreed to restore civilian rule in two years, after facing sanctions over its original plan for a three-year transfer of power, the West African bloc ECOWAS said Friday.

West African leaders had last month suspended Guinea from the bloc and imposed sanctions on a number of individuals following a military coup.

“In a dynamic compromise, experts from ECOWAS and Guinea have jointly developed a consolidated chronogram (timetable) for a transition spread over 24 months,” ECOWAS said in a report following a technical mission to the country published on social media by the junta.

The country’s military leader, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, said in an address broadcast on state television that the timetable would take effect from Jan. 1, 2023.

Leaders from the Economic Community of West African States must approve the timetable before it is officially implemented, with the bloc due to hold a summit before the end of the year.

The bloc had given the junta one month to present a “reasonable and acceptable” timetable for the return to civilian rule, an ultimatum that theoretically expires this weekend.

Diplomatic links between the two sides have remained and Guinean authorities have reiterated their readiness to cooperate with ECOWAS, which had dispatched its mission to Conakry to work out a compromise schedule.

Acceptable

The poor but mineral-rich West African state has been under a military government since a September 2021 coup that ousted president Alpha Conde after more than 10 years in power.

Colonel Doumbouya has since appointed himself president and vowed to restore civilian rule within three years.

Several West African officials have indicated that a two-year transition period would be acceptable.

A similar timeframe was agreed between ECOWAS and the junta in neighboring Mali after months of wrangling.

Under the terms of that agreement, reached in July, the Malian military was to hand over power in March 2024. By that time, they would have been in power for more than three-and-a-half years since overthrowing the elected civilian president in August 2020.

In recent years, ECOWAS has witnessed a succession of military coups in West Africa, in 2020 and 2021 in Mali, in 2021 in Guinea and twice this year in Burkina Faso.

In the face of military authorities, the bloc has duly increased its summits and country missions while ramping up pressure to shorten the transitional periods back to civilian rule.

Four dead in clashes

The transition compromise was reached after demonstrations broke out Thursday in the capital Conakry, with young protesters clashing with security forces and opposition group the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution claiming four civilians had been killed.

The FNDC — outlawed by the junta — had called for the protests to demand a quick return to a civilian-led government and the release of all prisoners detained for political reasons.

In response, Guinea’s top prosecutor on Friday called for a crackdown on the organizers and participants of a giant anti-government protest in which he said six security personnel had been wounded while the opposition said four civilians had been killed.

The FNDC identified three of the people killed as Thierno Bella Diallo, Boubacar Diallo and Thierno Moussa Barry. It said 20 people suffered gunshot wounds while many others were arrested.

Justice Minister Alphonse Charles Wright confirmed their deaths in a statement on Friday, but said the causes “remain to be clarified by autopsy.”

He ordered prosecutions, without commenting on the alleged perpetrators.
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Somali Americans, Many Who Fled War, Now Seek Elected Office

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeUS

It’s a busy Friday afternoon at a Somali restaurant on the northeast side of Columbus, home to second-largest Somali population in the United States. The smell of spices is just as robust as the loud conversation, and the East African restaurant is crowded after afternoon prayers at the nearby mosque.

The hubbub grows when a familiar face swaggers in — Ismail Mohamed, a young Somali lawyer and candidate for the Ohio Legislature. Elders and youth alike clamor to say hello. The excitement that someone from their community could represent them in the legislature is palpable.

“It’s humbling to, you know, to be in this position, but it puts a lot of pressure on you to where folks have really high expectations,” he said.

The 30-year-old Democrat is one of a small but growing number of immigrants who fled civil war and famine in Somalia, ready to add their voices to the political process in the places they now call home.

Across the country, 11 Somali Americans are running for legislative seats in Maine, Minnesota, Ohio and Washington state. Somali Americans have also been elected to city councils, school boards and, in Minnesota, legislative seats and Congress.

The growing political clout corresponds with growing numbers. There was an influx of Somalians arriving in the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and their numbers now top 300,000.

“We’re just getting started. I hope there are more to come,” said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

They are part of an age-old trend of new immigrants testing the waters of the political process once they have settled in the United States. Many Somali American candidates say they want to lend their voices, ensure their communities have a seat at the table, and offer up solutions to the problems plaguing their communities.

“Our driving force is to see betterment for everybody that lives here. Running for office is our way of showing we’re here and we’re willing to contribute,” said Mana Abdi, who is expected to win her race and make history as the first Somali American in the Maine legislature.

Abdi wears a headscarf because of her Muslim faith, like most people from Somalia, while knocking on doors and visiting with residents outside assisted living community on a recent afternoon.

The 26-year-old Democrat came to America as a child, graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington and works at Bates College, and is unopposed because her Republican opponent dropped out after sharing a social media post saying that Muslims shouldn’t hold office.

She could be joined by another Somali American, South Portland Mayor Deqa Dhalac, who’s running for another legislative district in Maine.

Dhalac, a 54-year-old social worker and a Democrat, said part of the reason she was inspired to run was Republican former President Donald Trump, who made a vulgar comment about immigrants from Haiti and Africa and banned travel from several Muslim countries, including Somalia.

“If we do not run for office, we cannot blame other people for making policy and legislation and complain about it. You have to be at the table if you want to make good decisions for your community,” she said.

The newcomers share many of the same concerns as those born in the U.S. The candidates are focused on affordable housing, public safety and increased funding for schools — issues that directly impact their communities.

“People do ask ‘are you an American?’ just because your last name is, you know, Mohamed or, you know, Abdi,” Mohamed said, noting that fellow immigrants are proving they’re just as American as others by serving in the armed forces and becoming doctors, lawyers, engineers and more.

Like Abdi, 26-year-old Munira Abdullahi is all but guaranteed to be the first Somali woman and first Muslim woman to serve in the Ohio Legislature because she, too, is unopposed. Abdullahi, who is running as a Democrat, was born in a refugee camp after her parents fled Somalia. A couple decades later, she’s youth director for the Muslim American Society and a graduate of Ohio State University.

“I know a lot of young women are looking up to me and seeing themselves in me and they’re realizing, like, they could also do this,” she said. “I really want young women and young women of color, especially, to look at me and say, like, if I really want to do this, I can.”

The immigrants are bringing diverse views and experiences and are contributing to the economy by starting businesses and bringing new energy to communities, said Molly Herman, citizenship and civic engagement manager for the Immigrant Welcome Center in Portland, Maine.

“Getting new individuals, new perspectives, new or different backgrounds, people coming from all types of places, I think is really important, in continuing a successful democracy,” she said.

The inspiration for some of the candidates is U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who grew up in a refugee camp and became the first Somali American member of Congress. She and several other young Democratic women of color were collectively nicknamed “the squad.”

She said she’s eager to see more Somali Americans joining her in Washington.

“Somali Americans are as American as anyone else, and we don’t need an invitation to show up or serve our communities. I am incredibly proud of all the Somali Americans who are entering into public service and can’t wait to see more of us in the halls of Congress,” she said.
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3 European Missions to UN Urge Probe of Drone Use in Ukraine

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeEU

France, Germany and Britain called Friday for the United Nations to investigate allegations that Russia is using Iranian drones for attacks in Ukraine.

A letter from the French, German and British missions to the U.N. cited “significant open-source evidence, including photographs and video, of Russia deploying Mohajer and Shahed series UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] in Ukraine.”

It says the transfer of such weapons violates U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Both Iran and Russia deny that Tehran is providing Moscow with drones.

Ukraine says Russia has used the drones to carry out so-called kamikaze attacks, in which the aircraft is intentionally crashed into a target. The strikes have been terrorizing the country, causing casualties and taking out power facilities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, citing Ukrainian intelligence services, has alleged that Russia ordered 2,400 Shahed drones from Iran and then rebranded them as Geran-2 drones — meaning “geranium” in Russian.

The drones pack an explosive charge and can linger over targets before nosediving into them. They are relatively cheap, costing about $20,000.

Some Ukrainians say they fear the drone attacks could become commonplace as Russia tries to avoid depleting its stockpiles of precision long-range missiles.

The United States, Britain and France – all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – have recently said that Iran is violating U.N. Security Council resolution 2231 by providing drones to Russia. The U.N. resolution endorsed the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers.

The U.S. Thursday alleged Iranian military personnel are “on the ground” in Ukraine, assisting the Russian military with drone operations.

“Our understanding is that they [Iranian forces] are on the ground in Crimea, assisting Russian military personnel as they conduct these drone operations in Ukraine,” Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters.

When asked about Russia denying it uses Iran-made drones, Ryder responded, “It’s obvious that they’re lying” and charged Tehran with “exporting terror, not only in the Middle East region but now also to Ukraine.” 
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Germany’s New Program to Take in At-Risk Afghans Challenging

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeEU

Germany’s announcement that it will take in 1,000 at-risk Afghans with their families from Afghanistan will be challenging, an Afghan lawyer says, because it is becoming increasingly difficult for Afghans to leave Afghanistan.

In a joint statement, the German Foreign and Interior ministries announced the new humanitarian admission program on Monday.

“The plan is to approve around 1,000 Afghans at particular risk, along with their family members from Afghanistan for admittance every month,” said the statement.

“It is going to be very challenging,” said Abdul Subhan Misbah, former deputy head of Afghanistan’s Lawyers Union who has been involved in the efforts to evacuate judges and prosecutors from Afghanistan, adding that “it is not clear who would be included, and it won’t be easy to take people out of Afghanistan that is ruled by the Taliban.”

The German government said that the new program would evacuate at-risk women’s and human rights activists, former government officials, and civil society members. The program also includes those persecuted in Afghanistan because of their gender, sexual orientation, and/or religion.

Misbah said that many employees of the former government and members of civil society want to leave their country.

“Most of the people want to leave,” he said. “What are the criteria based on which people will be admitted? How are they going to help those at risk to get out of Afghanistan? These questions have to be answered.”

Besides the problems they face to get passports and visas, he said, Afghans must travel to a third country because there are no direct flights from Afghanistan to Germany.

“It should be something that the German government has to negotiate with neighboring countries to facilitate the process,” Misbah said.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, Christopher Burger, told VOA that his government is working with the neighboring countries to help with the process.

“We will continue to work through all channels available to us in order to assure safe passage to the people that we want to bring to safety,” he said.

Germany has admitted 26,000 Afghans since Kabul fell and the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

Burger said to implement the new program, German authorities would work with organizations already on the ground and involved in helping at-risk individuals leave the country, but the German government would make the final decision on who is the “most vulnerable and most in need of admission to Germany.”

Local contractors

Burger said the program will continue until October 2025 and does not include 12,000 former German contractors who are “officially granted admission” to Germany but are still in Afghanistan.

“Simply, we are not able to bring people outside the country. They do not have a passport,” Burger said. “We are working with the neighboring countries on achieving that.”

He added that a “larger group” of Afghans had “some sort of association” with German organizations in Afghanistan and “are still in the proceedings to be recognized as former German contracts.”

Axel Steier, the founder of the German-based civil society organization Mission Lifeline, told VOA that his organization runs several safe houses for those who worked with the German government.

He added that these local contractors fear for their lives.

Steier said that “the Taliban want to kill them, and [we are] keeping them into safe houses and waiting for a decision from the German government to take them in.”

Difficult to leave

The German government said that Afghans who have left Afghanistan would not be considered under the new humanitarian admission program.

“So, this is a big issue,” said Steier, adding that many at-risk Afghans left Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power. Most of the individuals are staying in Pakistan, Iran or Tajikistan and are unable to return to Afghanistan.

He added that it is difficult for people to get passports and visas to leave the country.

“And for both, you need a lot of money. Because you can get a passport only if you pay $1,200 to $1,500,” he said. “Also, it is very difficult to get [a] visa for Iran. At the moment, it costs $500.”

“For people who are poor … [and have no] money for stuff like a passport or visa, it is almost impossible to come [to Germany],” Steier said.
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EU Debates China Policy as German Chancellor Plans Beijing Visit

Posted on 10/22/2022 by SeeEU

EU leaders struggled at a European Council summit in Brussels this week to arrive at a common response to the rising economic and diplomatic power of China, even as Chinese leader Xi Jinping signaled his intention to sustain an aggressive foreign policy during a Communist Party congress in Beijing.

While largely preoccupied by the war in Ukraine, the leaders devoted more than three hours of their two-day summit ending Friday to “a strategic discussion on the European Union’s relations with China,” according to a tweet by the South China Morning Post’s Brussels-based correspondent.

Detailed reports of the discussion have yet to emerge, but the difficulty in bringing all 27 EU members to a common position was foreshadowed at a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers earlier in the week in Luxembourg.

In a brief statement issued at the conclusion of that Foreign Affairs Council meeting, the ministers said the European Council “reconfirmed the validity of the EU’s multifaceted approach on China” and described Beijing as “a partner with whom the EU must engage, a tough competitor and a systemic rival.”

EU sticking to its position

Analysts saw little new in the statement, which sought to bridge “a variety of approaches” by the various member states, according to Filip Sebok, a research fellow with the Prague-based Association for International Affairs.

“Overall, the EU is still sticking to the ‘partner, competitor, rival’ trifecta,” he said in an emailed interview with VOA. Although there is increasing emphasis on the systemic rivalry with China, “we should not expect a departure from the basic definition of the EU policy towards China in [the] short term.”

Charles Parton, a senior fellow at the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies, said the immediate challenge posed by the war in Ukraine “is obscuring the bigger, longer-term threat of China to [Europe’s] security, prosperity, data and values.”

Nevertheless, Parton thinks attitudes in the EU are slowly changing.

“The question is whether EU countries can tolerate the pain of actions, which are required to match that change of attitudes,” he said.

Parton, whose diplomatic career in the British foreign service included years of advising the EU delegation in Beijing on matters pertaining to China, pointed out the difficulty of bringing so many countries together on a common position.

“As ever, a central issue is whether the 27 can achieve unity of purpose and action,” he said. “A lowest common denominator approach may not be sufficient.”

Certainly, there is concern within the bloc about the intentions of the Chinese leader, who in an address to the party congress Sunday pledged to “resolutely safeguard the security of China’s state power, systems and ideology — and build up security capacity in key areas.”

“We will crack down hard on infiltration, sabotage, subversion and separatist activities by hostile forces,” Xi added in what was widely interpreted as a reference to the United States and its Western allies.

The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service told the German parliament on Monday that the consensus among Western intelligence chiefs was that China posed the greatest long-term security and overall challenge.

“When I speak with foreign partners about China, they always say: Russia is the storm, China is climate change. So, we’re going to have to brace for this climate change in the coming years,” Thomas Haldenwang said.

“We must not allow a situation where the Chinese state can influence political events in Germany via critical infrastructures, where opportunities for sabotage are perhaps also opened up, where there’s also the possibility of influencing public opinions,” he warned.

Hamburg port

His warning came amid tension in Berlin over whether China should be allowed to purchase significant stakes in a port in Hamburg, one of Europe’s most important hubs.

German media have reported that Haldenwang’s intelligence service is one of six government agencies that oppose the plan. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a former mayor of Hamburg, is said to support the Chinese investment.

Scholz confirmed on the sidelines of the Brussels summit that he would lead a delegation including business executives to visit China in the coming weeks.

Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, expressed her reservation when questioned about Scholz’s travel plans, telling reporters Friday that she favored a whole EU approach and cautioning against deals that could threaten the unity of the bloc.
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