Month: November 2022

Nigeria’s Bid to Expand Oil Exploration in its North Raises Concerns

Posted on by SeeAF

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari opened the first oil drilling site in the country’s north Tuesday, saying it will bring energy security and economic development.

The fresh source of oil comes as Nigeria’s production ranking has dropped from Africa’s top spot due to the theft of oil in the Niger Delta. Nigeria’s state oil company said the northern Kolmani fields could hold as much as 1 billion barrels of oil, but analysts question whether locals stand to benefit.

The Kolmani River Field is located between Bauchi and Gombe states in northeastern Nigeria – a region that has been battling Islamist militants for years.

It’s the first time Nigerian authorities have turned to another source of crude oil outside the Niger Delta region. Crude oil was first discovered there by the privately operated NNPC Limited in 2019.

President Buhari said at the launch Tuesday the Kolmani River Field holds up to 1 billion barrels of oil reserves, about 14 billion cubic meters of gas.

The president said the new project will include upstream production, oil refining, power generation, and fertilizer production. He said it already has attracted three billion dollars’ worth of investment.

Buhari spoke in a televised broadcast during the launch.

“This discovery had emanated from our charge to NNPC to re-strategize and expand its oil and gas exploration footprints. Similar activities across the other basins are currently actively ongoing,” he said.

The project is expected to produce up to 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Buhari said the project will benefit locals through job creation, energy security, financial security and community development.

Nigeria now ranks seventh on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ crude oil production list, according to the group’s November oil market tally.

Authorities blame massive theft in the Niger Delta region for the decline and have been trying to boost production.

Emanuel Afamia, the founder of Enermics Consulting Limited, said past mistakes made in the Niger Delta region must be avoided this time around.

“The government should have learned from that and then be able to provide or create an enabling environment for people residing in that community to actually earn a living. They have to provide the infrastructure that would make it such that the drilling activities in that area will not affect the source of living of the people,” said Afamia.

Afimia said the new drilling project needs more investment to be able to contribute significantly to Nigeria’s oil output.

“We’ve discovered a new site but then, what really is the plan for developing it? What really is the plan for building infrastructures necessary for producing oil in that place? The access to finance plays a huge role in this,” said Afimia.

Another oil and gas analyst, Toyin Akinosho, said success includes thinking about how oil production can benefit people.

“If we just think in terms of compensating, not just about money but also engaging communities ensuring that people have access to basic health care, education, that’s already a very treasured land where they’re sitting on, so they shouldn’t be living in penury; it doesn’t matter if it is in Delta or the northeast,” said Akinosho.

Nigeria is hoping to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060 using gas as a transition fuel.

Buhari has urged NNPC Limited and its partners to ensure harmonious relationships with host communities.
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Some Zimbabweans Need Food Aid Despite Bumper Wheat Harvest

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Despite the country’s sizable wheat crop, Zimbabwe’s government says the number of people facing food insecurity in the country is growing fast. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Buhera, Zimbabwe. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe.
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Turkish Airstrike Hits 300 Meters From US Forces in Syria  

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A Turkish airstrike launched as part of Ankara’s new offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters came uncomfortably close to hitting U.S. forces in northeastern Syria, further escalating tensions in the region, two sources tell VOA.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees the approximately 900 U.S. troops in Syria tasked with countering the Islamic State terror group, first acknowledged the strike Tuesday, saying no U.S. personnel were at the base at the time.

But a U.S. defense official told VOA late Wednesday that U.S. troops were nearby, just 300 meters away from the base, located north of the city of Hasaka.

A source close to the leadership of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, further told VOA that the base is part of a larger compound and that U.S. forces were in a different building that is not part of the base itself.

“We have received additional information that there was a risk to U.S. troops and personnel,” CENTCOM spokesman Colonel Joe Buccino said in a statement shared with VOA. 

“These actions threaten our shared goals, including the continued fight against ISIS to ensure the group can never resurge and threaten the region,” he added, using another acronym for Islamic State. SDF officials said Tuesday’s airstrike killed two U.S.-trained members of its counterterrorism forces. 

 

An SDF spokesman told VOA Wednesday that U.S. troops had been at the base just five days earlier, doing some aerial surveillance of the area. 

The U.S. revelation that the Turkish airstrike might have directly endangered U.S. personnel follows repeated calls by U.S. officials for Turkey and the Syrian Kurds to pull back. 

“We continue to urge for de-escalation on all sides and in our conversations, and what we have said publicly is that these strikes from all sides risk our mission, which is to defeat ISIS,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Tuesday, responding to a question from VOA. 

On Wednesday, the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart, emphasizing the need to maintain communications. 

 

Turkey launched its most recent offensive, Operation Claw-Sword, against the Syrian Kurds this past week, blaming them for a November 13 bombing in Istanbul that killed at least eight people and injured dozens more. 

The U.S.-backed SDF and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian-based offshoot of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group, have denied responsibility. 

While the U.S. views the Kurdish-led SDF as a key ally in the fight against IS and as separate from the YPG, Ankara views the SDF and YPG as a single organization, arguing many fighters belong to both groups. 

“Turkey does continue to suffer a legitimate terrorist threat, particularly to their south,” John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, told reporters Tuesday. ”They certainly have every right to defend themselves and their citizens.” 

But Kirby emphasized Washington’s concerns that the Turkish offensive, in the long run, will do more harm than good. 

“It might force a reaction by some of our SDF partners that would limit, constrain their ability to continue to fight against ISIS. … It’s still viable as a threat,” he said. 

The SDF told VOA Wednesday those fears are already starting to play out. 

“Due to our forces’ preoccupation with addressing the Turkish occupation, they cannot continue their mission of pursuing ISIS cells,” SDF Commander Mazloum Abdi said in a statement shared with VOA.

“Currently, we’re forced to be preoccupied with confronting Turkish aggression,” he added.

Other SDF officials speaking with VOA emphasized the change in posture should not be viewed as a policy decision or as a cessation of anti-IS operations, explaining they have no choice but to prioritize defending themselves against Turkish airstrikes and a possible Turkish ground assault.

The SDF also accused Turkey of boosting IS with its actions.

SDF spokesman Farhad Shami told VOA that Turkey launched five airstrikes against the security forces guarding IS families at the al-Hol displaced persons camp in northeast Syria Wednesday, allowing some of the families to escape. 

He said six individuals, including three women, have been recaptured.

The SDF additionally accused Turkey of targeting civilian infrastructure, including homes, hospitals and schools, and killing at least 15 civilians since the start of its offensive Saturday. 

Turkey rejected the SDF allegations Wednesday.

“It is the PKK/YPG terrorist organization that have long hampered civilian infrastructure across Syria as well as in Türkiye,” Turkish Embassy officials in Washington told VOA in a statement, accusing Syrian Kurdish forces of targeting civilians themselves.

“The PKK/YPG carried out from Syria another round of cross-border rocket and mortar attacks, indiscriminately targeting schools, kindergartens as well as residential areas, resulting in civilian casualties, including teachers and pupils,” the Turkish officials wrote, further accusing the group of collaborating with IS “to stage attacks in the west of Euphrates against Syrians.”

Turkey has said its offensive has so far killed 184 militants, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday signaled he was preparing to intensify efforts against the Syrian Kurds. 

“While we press ahead with air raids uninterrupted, we will crack down on terrorists also by land at the most convenient time for us,” Erdogan said during a speech to members of parliament.

“Turkey has the power to identify, catch and punish terrorists who are involved in attacks against our country and nation, and those helping them, inside and outside our borders,” he said. 

Mutlu Civiroglu, Patsy Widakuswara and VOA’s Turkish Service contributed to this report.
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US Warns Turkish Offensive Endangering US Troops in Syria

Posted on by SeeEU

Turkey’s offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters is quickly ratcheting up tensions with Washington, with new information suggesting some Turkish airstrikes have put U.S. personnel in harm’s way.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees the approximately 900 U.S. troops in Syria tasked with countering the Islamic State terror group, said Wednesday that at least one of the airstrikes, against a counterterrorism base in the country’s northeast, did endanger U.S. forces.

“We have received additional information that there was a risk to U.S. troops and personnel,” CENTCOM spokesman Colonel Joe Buccino said in a statement shared with VOA.

“These actions threaten our shared goals, including the continued fight against ISIS to ensure the group can never resurge and threaten the region,” he added, using another acronym for IS.

CENTCOM officials have so far declined to provide additional information about the incident Tuesday, which targeted a base near Hasakah used both by the U.S. and by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

SDF reports two casualties

In its initial assessment on Tuesday, CENTCOM had said no U.S. forces were at the base at the time of the airstrike, although it criticized the Turkish airstrikes in general, saying such actions “do place U.S. troops operating in Syria to defeat ISIS at risk.”

SDF officials said Tuesday’s airstrike killed two U.S.-trained members of its counterterrorism forces.

An SDF spokesman told VOA on Wednesday that U.S. troops had been at the base just five days earlier, doing some aerial surveillance of the area.

The U.S. revelation that the Turkish airstrike might have directly endangered U.S. personnel followed repeated calls by U.S. officials for Turkey and the Syrian Kurds to pull back.

“We continue to urge for de-escalation on all sides. … (T)hese strikes from all sides risk our mission, which is to defeat ISIS,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Tuesday, responding to a question from VOA.

On Wednesday, the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart, emphasizing the need to maintain communications.

 

Turkey launched its most recent offensive against the Syrian Kurds this past week, blaming them for a November 13 bombing in Istanbul that killed at least eight people and injured dozens more.

The U.S.-backed SDF and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian-based offshoot of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group, have denied responsibility.

While the U.S. views the Kurdish-led SDF as a key ally in the fight against IS and as separate from the YPG, Ankara views the SDF and YPG as a single organization, arguing many fighters belong to both groups.

“Turkey does continue to suffer a legitimate terrorist threat, particularly to their south,” John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, told reporters Tuesday. “They certainly have every right to defend themselves and their citizens.”

But Kirby emphasized Washington’s concerns that Turkish offensive, in the long run, will do more harm than good.

“It might force a reaction by some of our SDF partners that would limit, constrain their ability to continue to fight against ISIS … it’s still viable as a threat,” he said.

The SDF told VOA on Wednesday that those fears were already starting to play out.

SDF spokesman Farhad Shami said Turkey launched five airstrikes against security forces guarding IS families at the al-Hol displaced-persons camp in northeast Syria, allowing some of the families to escape.

The SDF also accused Turkey on Wednesday of targeting civilian infrastructure, including homes, hospitals and schools, killing at least 15 civilians, since the start of its offensive on November 19.

Turkey pledges more

Turkish officials have said the offensive has killed 184 militants, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled Wednesday that he was preparing to intensify efforts against the Syrian Kurds.

“While we press ahead with air raids uninterrupted, we will crack down on terrorists also by land at the most convenient time for us,” Erdogan said during a speech to members of parliament.

“Turkey has the power to identify, catch and punish terrorists who are involved in attacks against our country and nation, and those helping them, inside and outside our borders,” he said.

Mutlu Civiroglu and Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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Native American Tribe Helps Sacred Condors Recover After a Century’s Absence

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California condors are North America’s largest bird. But they came close to extinction before conservationists and Indigenous communities joined to save them. Matt Dibble reports from California on how the Yurok Tribe is helping condors recover.     
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Cameroon Merchants Say Equatorial Guinea Partially Reopens Border

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Traders working on Cameroon’s border with Equatorial Guinea say Malabo has partially reopened border traffic a day after partial election results indicate Teodoro Obiang Nguema will extend his 43-year rule. The 80-year-old Nguema, the world’s longest-ruling head of state, came to power in a 1979 coup and has since ruled the west African nation with an iron fist.

Merchants from Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria say they were permitted to enter Equatorial Guinea Wednesday.

 

Equatorial Guinea closed its borders October 30 ahead of its November 20 elections and said it wanted to prevent what it called “infiltration of mercenaries who want to destabilize the elections.”

 

Cameroon-born building material exporter Pierre Marie Mihamle says several hundred traders entered Equatorial Guinea a day after the central African state’s government announced November 20 elections results.

 

He says the re-election of Obiang as president of Equatorial Guinea means the movement of goods and persons to the central African state will be frequently interrupted or meticulously controlled. Mihamle says foreign nationals who speak against Obiang will be chased from Equatorial Guinea.

 

Mihamle said Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo Brazzaville are members of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, or CEMAC, but Obiang regularly orders the deportation of foreign citizens, citing national economic and security concerns.

 

Obiang’s ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea, or the PDGE, is winning over 98% of the vote in presidential, legislative, and municipal elections held Sunday, according to preliminary election results released this week by Equatorial Guinea’s interior minister, Clemente Engonga Nguema Onguene. The results indicate that Obiang’s challengers, Andrés Esono Ondo of the CPDS party and former ally Buenaventura Monsuy Asumu of the PCSD, got 1.34% and 0.35% of the vote.

 

The final results of the one-round election will be announced November 26, according to Equatorial Guinea’s electoral laws. The 80-year-old Obiang is Africa’s longest serving leader. He took power from his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in an August 1979 coup.

 

Ngah Derrick is an international relations specialist at Cameroon’s National Institute of International Relations. He says Equatorial Guinea should not expect any changes from Obiang, who has ruled the country with an iron fist.

“Obiang has done everything to eternalize power,” said Derrick. “The reigning vice president of the country that is his son is the vice president of the Republic and it tells you that he is gradually grooming his son in order to be able to ascend to the highest office of magistracy of the state in Equatorial Guinea in case he [Obiang] becomes tired, sick or in case of death.”

 

Obiang’s son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, is Equatorial Guinea’s vice president. Equatorial Guinea’s political opposition says Obiang’s rule is marked by favoritism, persecution and torture of political opponents. Santiago Oliveira, who led Obiang’s election campaign in Cameroon, denies the charges. He says the long-serving central African state’s leader should be credited with bringing development to his country.

 

He says Obiang has transformed Equatorial Guinea from a very poor and heavily indebted country it was in 1980, to an emerging economy today.

 

Oliveira said Equatorial Guinea civilians who voted in Cameroon should wait for Malabo to declare election results. He said all civilians should rally behind Obiang as he continues managing affairs of the state in the country’s general interest.

 

The United Nations says Equatorial Guinea has an annual oil revenue of more than $3 billion, but most of its 1.5 million people live in abject poverty. The nation’s opposition parties say most of the wealth is in the hands of Obiang, his family and friends.
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Senegal’s Women Gold Miners Carry Heavy Burden

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Gold mining in Senegal plays a key role in the country’s economy, but the chemicals used for processing are harming the environment and the health of the miners. Women make up half the miners and often carry their children with them, causing both to suffer the health consequences. Annika Hammerschlag reports from Kedougou, Senegal.
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Families, Food Banks Feel Pinch of Inflation This Thanksgiving

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Skyrocketing food prices due to soaring inflation are taking a bite out of this year’s feast on Thanksgiving, a national holiday in the United States on November 24. People traditionally share a big meal and give thanks for their blessings.

Thanksgiving dinner often includes turkey and trimmings, such as cranberries, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.

A survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation indicates Thanksgiving dinner costs are up 20% from last year. And the cost of a turkey alone is up 21%.

Some people say they plan to pare down their big holiday feast.

“I will not have as much food this year. I used to have too much food anyway,” said Cynthia Walsh, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. “What is more important is that my family is together to appreciate what we have.”

For those in need, food banks across the country are lending a hand. But with donations down, and a huge influx of clients, they are feeling the pinch.

Millions of people are reaching to the food banks for help.

Among them is Marguerita Vicencio, who came to the U.S. from Chile six years ago.

“My husband just lost his job, and this is the first time I’ve come to a food bank for help,” she said as she picked up supplies at Food for Others in Fairfax, Virginia, a Washington suburb.

Her 11-year-old son, Tomas Arancibia, said his family combines their Chilean roots with American Thanksgiving traditions.

“We’re going to celebrate with a turkey and the food we get here with my brothers and sisters and friends of our family,” he said.

Annie Turner, executive director of Food for Others, told VOA that high food prices are making it challenging for the nonprofit to support the clients.

“We’ve not only seen an increase in our food costs, but our donors are giving less money, so we have to buy more food ourselves,” she said. “Meanwhile, the number of families that are coming here has increased 60% over this time last year.”

“We get many families who come to get food for Thanksgiving, and we hand out stuffing, potatoes and other fresh produce,” she added. “Instead of providing a turkey, we give them a gift card to buy food, so they can get a turkey or other food they would prefer.”

In the Midwest, food service organizations in cities like Chicago and St. Louis are also getting inundated with clients.

“The number of people turning to our food programs is up 42% compared to last year,” said Greg Trotter, director of marketing and communications at Nourishing Hope, a social services group in Chicago. “Our donations have not been enough to keep pace with the increase in the number of people we serve, which includes a lot more families with children.”

“Even though we had to pay twice as much as we did for turkeys this year, we try to provide turkeys and other holiday food to anyone who comes in the door,” he said.

At the St. Louis Area Foodbank in Missouri, the organization is holding their “Thanksgiving Together” for the fifth year.

“We are distributing Thanksgiving meals to over 4,000 families, the highest we’ve ever planned for,” Meredith Knopp, the president and CEO of the foodbank, told VOA. “Since this area has such a diverse population, which includes people from Afghanistan and large Bosnian and Asian populations, we are also providing foods that they are more accustomed to since not everybody celebrates Thanksgiving.”

In Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the U.S., the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank through its partner agencies reach 800,000 people every month.

Michael Flood, the CEO of the food bank, said a major problem is “we’re having supply issues getting enough turkeys for Thanksgiving.

“Besides turkeys, we’re bringing in truckloads of chickens for people during the holiday,” he said.

At St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, Arizona, the number of people who come in continues to skyrocket, said Jerry Brown, the director of public relations.

“We’ve had twice as many people than this time last year — 7,000 of them came to our two main locations in one week, which we’ve never had happen before,” Brown said. However, “donors are cutting back, so we’re spending more money on food and we’re giving out more food than we ever have before.”

Despite the obstacles, Brown said the food bank is determined to give families a good Thanksgiving.

“We’re anticipating we will be able to send 12,000 people home with food boxes before Thanksgiving,” Brown said. “We have prided ourselves at St. Mary’s for decades that the last car leaving us before Thanksgiving will have a turkey in the back seat.”
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Thanksgiving Travel Rush Is Back with Some New Habits

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The Thanksgiving travel rush was back on this year, as people caught planes in numbers not seen in years, setting aside inflation concerns to reunite with loved ones and enjoy some normalcy after two holiday seasons marked by COVID-19 restrictions.

Changing habits around work and play, however, might spread out the crowds and reduce the usual amount of holiday travel stress. Experts say many people will start holiday trips early or return home later than normal because they will spend a few days working remotely — or at least tell the boss they’re working remotely.

The busiest travel days during Thanksgiving week are usually Tuesday, Wednesday and the Sunday after the holiday. This year, the Federal Aviation Administration expects Tuesday to be the busiest travel day with roughly 48,000 scheduled flights.

Chris Williams, of Raleigh, North Carolina, flew Tuesday morning with his wife and two kids to Atlanta, Georgia, to spend the holiday with extended family.

“Of course, it’s a stressful and expensive time to fly,” said Williams, 44, who works in finance. “But after a couple years of not getting to spend Thanksgiving with our extended family, I’d say we’re feeling thankful that the world’s gotten to a safe enough place where we can be with loved ones again.”

Although Williams said the family’s budget has been tight this year, he’s capitalized on the opportunity to teach his kids some personal finance basics. His youngest, 11, has been learning how to budget her allowance money since March and is excited to buy small gifts for her friends on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. “Probably slime,” she said, “with glitter.”

The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 2.6 million travelers on Monday, surpassing the 2.5 million screened the Monday before Thanksgiving in 2019. The same trend occurred Sunday, marking the first year that the number of people catching planes on Thanksgiving week surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

“People are traveling on different days. Not everyone is traveling on that Wednesday night,” says Sharon Pinkerton, senior vice president at the trade group Airlines for America. “People are spreading their travel out throughout the week, which I also think will help ensure smoother operations.”

AAA predicts that 54.6 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home in the U.S. this week, a 1.5% bump over Thanksgiving last year and only 2% less than in 2019. The auto club and insurance seller say nearly 49 million of those will travel by car, and 4.5 million will fly between Wednesday and Sunday.

U.S. airlines struggled to keep up as the number of passengers surged this year.

“We did have a challenging summer,” said Pinkerton, whose group speaks for members including American, United and Delta. She said that airlines have pared their schedules and hired thousands of workers — they now have more pilots than before the pandemic. “As a result, we’re confident that the week is going to go well.”

U.S. airlines plan to operate 13% fewer flights this week than during Thanksgiving week in 2019. However, by using larger planes on average, the number of seats will drop only 2%, according to data from travel-researcher Cirium.

Airlines continue to blame flight disruptions on shortages of air traffic controllers, especially in Florida, a major holiday destination.

Controllers, who work for the Federal Aviation Administration, “get tested around the holidays. That seems to be when we have challenges,” Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said a few days ago. “The FAA is adding another 10% to headcount, hopefully that’s enough.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has disputed such claims, saying that the vast majority of delays and cancellations are caused by the airlines themselves.

TSA expects airports to be busier than last year and probably about on par with 2019. The busiest day in TSA’s history came on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2019, when nearly 2.9 million people were screened at airport checkpoints.

Stephanie Escutia, traveling with four children, her husband and her mother, said it took the family four hours to get through checking and security at the Orlando airport early Tuesday. The family was returning to Kansas City in time for Thanksgiving after a birthday trip to Disney World.

“We were surprised at how full the park was,” said Escutia, 32. “We thought it might be down some, but it was packed.”

She welcomed the sense of normalcy and said her family would be gathering for Thanksgiving without worrying about keeping their distance this year. “Now we are back to normal and looking forward to a nice holiday,” she said.

People getting behind the wheel or boarding a plane don’t seem fazed by higher gasoline and airfare prices than last year or the widespread concern about inflation and the economy. That is already leading to predictions of strong travel over Christmas and New Year’s.

“This pent-up demand for travel is still a real thing. It doesn’t feel like it’s going away,” says Tom Hall, a vice president and longtime writer for Lonely Planet, the publisher of travel guides. “That’s keeping planes full, that’s keeping prices high.”
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 Multiple Dead in Virginia Walmart Shooting

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Police in the U.S. state of Virginia are investigating a shooting at a Walmart store late Tuesday that left multiple people dead and wounded. 

A police spokesman told reporters he did not know the number of dead, but at that moment it was “less than 10.” 

The spokesman also said police believe there was a lone shooter responsible for the attack and that the shooter was dead. 

The attack comes just days after a shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that left five dead and 18 wounded. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Tiger Tops PGA Tour Bonus List Again to Earn $15 Million

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Tiger Woods, who has played only nine competitive rounds in 2022, topped the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program for the second consecutive year to claim a $15 million bonus, the tour announced Tuesday.  

Woods, whose 82 PGA triumphs share the all-time record with Sam Snead, led the analysis of global media exposure with top-ranked FedEx Cup winner Rory McIlroy second and Jordan Spieth third.  

McIlroy, a four-time major winner, took home $12 million while Spieth, a three-time major champion, made $9 million.  

The second-year impact program paid money to 23 players, the top 20 as planned plus three additional players who would have made the list under tweaked 2023 criteria — Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Americans Cameron Young and Sam Burns. Each will be paid $2 million.  

The program, designed to reward those who delivered greater interest in the PGA, uses data measurement of internet searches, news article mentions, weekend television sponsor exposure, popularity measurement and social media reach and engagement.  

Woods, a 15-time major winner who turns 47 next month, continued to recover this year from severe leg injuries suffered in a February 2021 car crash.  

Woods finished 47th at the Masters in his return to competition, making the cut and battling through the walk over 72 holes at hilly Augusta National.  

He made the cut in May at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills but withdrew due to leg pain after three rounds. Woods missed the cut at the British Open in July at St. Andrews.  

Woods has announced he will play in next week’s Hero World Challenge, an invitational which he hosts in the Bahamas. 

He also will partner with McIlroy against the US duo of Spieth and Justin Thomas, this year’s PGA Championship winner, in “The Match,” a 12-hole exhibition under lights next month at Pelican Golf Club in Belleaire, Florida. 

There is also a chance that Woods will make a third consecutive appearance with son Charlie at the father-son PNC Championship in Orlando on December 15-18. 

Thomas was fourth on the bonus list at $7.5 million followed in order by Spain’s Jon Rahm ($6 million), Masters champion Scottie Scheffler ($5.5 million), Tokyo Olympic champion Xander Schauffele ($5 million), US Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick ($5 million) and Americans Will Zalatoris ($5 million) and Tony Finau ($5 million).    
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Nigeria Inaugurates First Oil and Gas Project in North

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Nigeria began drilling for oil and gas in the northeast on Tuesday, a first for the African oil giant, which has exploited large deposits in the south for decades and whose production is declining.

President Muhammadu Buhari visited the Kolmani field, located in Gombe and Bauchi states and with estimated reserves of over 1 billion barrels of crude, to inaugurate the drilling site.

“The successful discovery of the Kolmani Oil and Gas field by NNPC [Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited] and her partners has finally broken the jinx” after long efforts to find commercial oil and gas outside the established Niger Delta Basin, Buhari said in a statement.

In addition to drilling, the project — which has attracted $3 billion in investment — aims to open an oil refinery, a gas processing unit, a power plant and a fertilizer factory, according to the presidential statement.

Buhari in his comments also urged the oil company and partners “to ensure all lessons learnt from our years of experience as an oil-producing nation are utilized to ensure harmonious relationship with the local communities.”

Oil exploitation in Nigeria began in the 1960s in the southeastern Niger Delta region.

Decades of production have enriched government officials and generated huge profits for large foreign companies in particular, but the majority of Nigerians, especially in the oil-rich Delta region, continue to live in poverty.

The region suffers badly from pollution, and tens of thousands of people now make a living from stealing crude oil from pipelines or at sea, from illegal refineries that have sprung up in swampy and forested areas, and from selling fuel on the black market, causing ecological disasters.

This insecurity in the sector has significantly increased the cost of producing Nigerian oil, and major foreign oil companies are now ceding their share of onshore oil fields to focus on offshore operations.

In September, Nigeria lost its position as the largest oil producer on the African continent to Angola as its oil production continued to decline despite rising prices linked to the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

In addition to a severe economic crisis, Africa’s most populous country also faces widespread insecurity, with attacks by criminal groups and a jihadist insurgency in the north, and separatist unrest in the southeast.

In the face of these problems, Nigerian voters will go to the polls in February to elect a successor to Buhari, who is stepping down after two terms.

On Tuesday, Buhari also reiterated Nigeria’s goal to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2060.
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VP Harris in Philippines’ Palawan Island in Signal to China

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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday visited Palawan Island in the Philippines and reaffirmed U.S. support for a U.N. ruling that rejected China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea. Harris is in the country as a show of U.S. support for its ally amid Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance in the region. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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US Calls for De-Escalation as Fighting Between Turkey, Syrian Kurds Escalates

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Renewed hostilities between Turkey and Syrian Kurdish fighters are not sitting well with the United States, which warned repeatedly Tuesday that the fighting will only serve to benefit the Islamic State terror group.

Senior U.S. officials acknowledge Turkey has the right to defend itself from terrorist attacks but cautioned that recent Turkish airstrikes, and rocket attacks by Syrian Kurdish forces, are undermining efforts by all sides to contain and degrade IS.

“We oppose any military action that destabilizes the situation in Syria,” Colonel Joe Buccino, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, told VOA by email.

“These actions threaten our shared goals, including the continued fight against ISIS to ensure the group can never resurge and threaten the region,” he added, using another acronym for the terror group.

The U.S.-led coalition to defeat IS also called for de-escalation, taking the message to social media.

“These strikes jeopardize the safety of civilians, fracture the hard-fought stability within the region and disrupt our common goal of defeating ISIS,” the coalition tweeted.

Defense officials in Washington tried to hammer home the message later in the day, adding U.S. officials have been in touch with both Turkey and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

“We continue to urge for de-escalation on all sides and in our conversations and what we have said publicly, is that these strikes from all sides risk our mission, which is to defeat ISIS,” Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said during a briefing Tuesday, responding to a question from VOA.

Though relations between Washington and Ankara have been strained in recent years, the U.S. and Turkey are longtime allies, with Turkey also a key member of NATO.

But officials in Ankara have bristled at Washington’s willingness to partner with the Kurdish-led SDF in its efforts to defeat IS.

Many of the SDF’s members come from the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian-based offshoot of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), labeled by both Ankara and Washington as a terrorist organization.

In Turkey’s view, the SDF and YPG are one and the same. And Turkish officials launched the recent offensive against both groups after blaming them for a November 13 bombing in Istanbul that killed at least eight people and injured dozens more.

Both the YPG and SDF have denied involvement in the bombing, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday suggested the search for justice was nowhere near done despite calls by the U.S. and others for restraint.

“We have been bearing down on terrorists for a few days with our planes, cannons and guns,” Erdogan said in a speech. “God willing, we will root out all of them as soon as possible, together with our tanks, our soldiers.”

Turkish officials claim to have killed or captured more than 180 Kurdish militants during the operation, while accusing the YPG and SDF of killing at least three civilians and wounding at least six more in cross-border mortar attacks.

Meanwhile, Syrian Kurdish officials accused Turkey of launching airstrikes specifically designed to weaken efforts to counter IS.

“The Turkish air attack is a clear message of hope for ISIS terrorist cells,” SDF spokesman Farhad Shami tweeted late Tuesday, referring to reported airstrikes in the village of al-Makman, 70 kilometers from the border with Turkey.

“That area is where the operations against ISIS cells going on, and our forces with the International Coalition often pursue ISIS cells there,” Shami added.

Earlier, Sinam Mohamad, U.S. representative for the SDF’s political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), tweeted that a separate Turkish airstrike hit a base used by both SDF counterterrorism units and by the U.S.

Two members of the counterterror unit were killed, she said.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the region, confirmed the strike in an email to VOA late Tuesday.

“While no U.S. Forces were on the base at the moment of this morning’s strike, these actions do place U.S. troops operating in Syria to defeat ISIS at risk,” the statement said.

The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria and another 2,500 in Iraq as part of ongoing efforts to contain and defeat IS.

“We are going to continue to monitor what’s happening on the ground and make sure that our forces are safe,” the Pentagon’s Singh told reporters Tuesday, adding, “there has been no change to our force posture right now.”

Dorian Jones contributed to this report.
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British Economy Worst Hit in G7 as Brexit, Political Chaos Bite

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Britain’s economy is forecast to shrink by 0.4% in 2023, more than any other in the Group of Seven richest nations, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Britain is the only G-7 member whose economy has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.

In the Group of 20, or G-20, largest economies, only Russia’s is expected to fare worse than Britain’s in the coming two years.

The OECD said Tuesday that global growth would slow down significantly, including in the United States and Europe. Only the British and German economies are forecast to contract in 2023.

The forecast comes days after Paris overtook London as Europe’s biggest stock market. Analysts say global economic pressures have been compounded in Britain by recent political chaos.

Cost crisis

The British government’s Office for Budget Responsibility, which gives an independent analysis of the nation’s economy, warned that living standards over the next two years are set to fall by the biggest amount on record, as disposable income is squeezed by stagnating wages and rising prices.

Inflation is at a 41-year high of 11.1%, driven by soaring energy bills. Food costs have increased by 15% since this time a year ago.

Britons are cutting back on spending. Hayley Gray, who lives in Bradford, northern England with her seven children, says Christmas this year will be very different.

“Each week I’d normally buy a couple of things, but I’m not able to, because I’m having to make sure I’ve got money for gas and electric … [The children] are going to have hardly anything come Christmas,” Gray told ITN News. Like many families, Gray is taking on debt to pay for the festive period. She said she fears she may not be able to pay it off in the new year.

Charity food banks are seeing unprecedented demand.

“It used to be that those people on the margins of the society who couldn’t access a kitchen were homeless people, who needed that support. Now it’s people in work, it’s people who can’t afford to turn on their cookers, who are needing support,” said Charlotte Hill, CEO of the Felix Project charity in London.

Tax rises

Britain’s economic pain is likely to worsen. The country’s new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announced new tax increases and spending cuts last week to try to reduce the deficit and reassure financial markets. He blamed the coronavirus – and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Global factors are the primary cause of current inflation,” Hunt told lawmakers November 17. “Most countries are still dealing with the fallout from a once in a century pandemic. The furlough scheme, the vaccine rollout and the response of the NHS [National Health Service] did our country proud. But they all have to be paid for.”

The furlough scheme refers to the government subsidizing millions of workers’ wages during the pandemic lockdown.

“The lasting impact on supply chains has made goods more expensive and fueled inflation. And this has been worsened by a made-in-Russia energy crisis,” Hunt said.

Ideology

Those crises are global but Britain has unique problems, said analyst John Kampfner of the London-based policy institute Chatham House.

“Britain’s politics and Britain’s economy are both in a state of somewhere between disarray and mayhem. Of course, all countries are facing considerable difficulties from inflation to energy insecurity shortages, price rises and other associated difficulties. But they are compounded in Britain by a series of ideologically driven governments whose competence was very much open to question, culminating in the disastrous 45 days of Liz Truss,” Kampfner told VOA.

Former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss’s plans to slash taxes and boost spending – the reverse of her successor, Rishi Sunak – sent government borrowing costs soaring and the British pound plummeting, ultimately forcing her to resign

last month. The effects are still being felt.

London overtaken

For the first time since record-keeping began, Paris last week overtook London as Europe’s biggest stock market, according to figures from Bloomberg News, based on the combined market value of listings on the Paris bourse compared to the London Stock Exchange in U.S. dollars.

French luxury goods makers have seen significant share price increases in recent weeks, while the British pound has fallen more sharply than the euro, reducing the relative value of British shares.

Brexit

Analysts say Britain is suffering from another homemade problem: Brexit. Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union meant new economic barriers with its biggest trading partner.

Simon Spurrell founded the Cheshire Cheese Company in 2010 and built a prosperous export business. When new Brexit trading rules took effect in 2021, the company lost $285,000 worth of European business. Last month, Spurrell decided to sell to a bigger local rival, Joseph Heler Cheese, which has a presence in the EU and so is able to trade freely.

“We no longer have access to the EU, (which) meant that we needed to try and find a solution,” Spurrell told Agence France-Presse. “We now have a majority shareholder owner in Joseph Heler, which means we not only have access to the EU again, due to their Netherlands hub, we also have the ability to grow again.”

It’s clear that Brexit is holding back growth, Kampfner said.

“It was camouflaged by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, so the direct consequences of many of the Brexit decisions couldn’t be discerned,” he said. “They are now eventually, belatedly being seen. But the Conservatives are not going to touch a decision to go anywhere close to rejoining the (EU) customs union or the single market. And (the opposition) Labor is not going to do that either.”

The prime minister made that policy clear in a speech Monday at the Confederation of British Industry.

“I voted for Brexit, I believe in Brexit, and I know that Brexit can deliver, and is already delivering enormous benefits and opportunities for the country, migration being an immediate one, where we have proper control of our borders,” Sunak said.
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US Accuses Russia of ‘Systemic’ War Crimes

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A senior U.S. diplomat this week accused the Russian forces invading Ukraine of “systemic” war crimes, saying that abuses are taking place at a scale that suggests leaders in the highest levels of the Kremlin know about and support them.

Russia claimed the allegation was not supported with evidence and that reports of Ukrainian atrocities were being ignored.

In a briefing at the State Department on Monday, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack said evidence of Russian war crimes collected by nongovernmental organizations, the media and dedicated war crimes investigators is extensive.

Van Schaack signaled strong U.S. support for the various efforts currently underway to document war crimes and to eventually present formal charges at the International Criminal Court or other suitable venues.

“The aggression against Ukraine is a manifest violation of the U.N. Charter, and we have mounting evidence that this aggression has been accompanied by systemic war crimes committed in every region where Russia’s forces have been deployed,” Van Schaack said. “This includes deliberate, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks against the civilian population and elements of the civilian infrastructure. We’re seeing custodial abuses of civilians and POWs and also efforts to cover up these crimes.”

‘All the way up the chain of command’

She said the evidence suggests that “these atrocities are not the acts of rogue units or individuals. Rather, they are part of a deeply disturbing pattern of reports of abuse across all areas where we’re seeing Russia’s forces engage.”

Pointing specifically to “filtration” camps, through which an untold number of Ukrainian civilians, including many children, have been processed and deported to Russia, she said that the scale of the operation suggests the Kremlin’s direct support.

“Prosecutors will follow the evidence where it leads, but when we’re seeing such systemic acts, including the creation of a vast filtration network, it’s very hard to imagine how these crimes could be committed without responsibility going all the way up the chain of command,” she said.

Implicating Putin

Monday’s remarks from Van Schaack were not the first time a senior U.S. official has accused Russia of war crimes, but experts said that her comments seemed to mark a shift in the administration’s attitude toward future prosecutions.

David J. Scheffer, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, told VOA that Van Schaack’s emphasis on the “systemic” nature of the alleged war crimes was important.

“She is, rather formally, acknowledging that the commission of war crimes by the Russian military is not an isolated string of crimes, but rather, is part of an overall plan and executed on a large scale basis,” Scheffer said.

“That is not stated lightly, because once there is a determination that war crimes are being committed systemically, that involves sophisticated planning, organization and execution, which can only take place, normally, from the leadership level.”

In that case, he added, “the investigation takes on a much broader and significant character, because there you’re going to the top. You’re trying to establish superior responsibility with respect to civilian leaders like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, or command responsibility with respect to military commanders in the Ministry of Defense.”

New tone from US

The United States has not always been broadly supportive of efforts to establish standards for international criminal law, but in this case, the Biden administration has been actively supporting a variety of ongoing inquiries, including direct cooperation with the International Criminal Court.

“It’s a really remarkable shift in the U.S. stance on international criminal law, from multiple previous administrations, to see this level of involvement,” Marti Flacks, director of the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA. “It’s a sign of, in part, just how serious and widespread and systematic the crimes in Ukraine are at this point.”

In past conflicts, including the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, prosecution of war criminals has been a slow-moving process. However, Flacks said, the combination of surveillance technology and a seeming willingness by Russia to flagrantly violate international law may result in a more rapid pace of indictments.

“I would expect that we’ll see some of those charges come out in a matter of months and not a matter of years,” she said. “The question is how long it’s going to take to actually get to a prosecution, which, of course, requires a defendant. And that’s where we may be playing a very long game, in terms of maintaining that evidence and, and having those procedures ready to go when … we’re able to take someone into custody.”

Indictments may be sealed

In the event that cases made against Russian individuals are complicated by the accused person remaining in Russia, Van Schaack said prosecutors have the ability to issue indictments “in absentia” in order to establish evidence and issue arrest warrants.

Flacks, of CSIS, said that she would also expect some indictments to be issued under seal, so as not to alert individuals that there are active arrest warrants naming them.

“It’s actually very practical,” she said. “You don’t want to announce that somebody’s wanted and deter them from traveling to a place where they might actually be arrested.”

Russian accusations

The comments from Van Schaack come at the same time that Russian sources have been making claims that they have evidence of a war crime committed by Ukrainian forces.

A snippet of video being widely shared on Russian social media shows a group of Russian soldiers emerging from a building, appearing to surrender to Ukrainian forces and being instructed to lie on the ground. With several Russian soldiers already on the ground, another person follows them out of the building and appears to fire a weapon toward Ukrainian troops. The video cuts away, but another scene, apparently shot later, appears to show the Russians who had been lying on the ground still in similar positions, but now dead in pools of blood.

Asked to address the video, Van Schaack said that U.S. officials are monitoring the situation closely, and stressed that the laws of war must be observed by both sides in the conflict.

However, she added, “When we’re looking at the sheer scale of criminality exhibited by Russian forces, it’s enormous compared to the allegations that we have seen against Ukrainian forces. And likewise we’re seeing a really vast difference when it comes to the reaction to such allegations. Russia inevitably responds with propaganda, denial, mis- and disinformation, whereas the Ukrainian authorities have generally acknowledged abuses and have denounced them and have pledged to investigate them.”

Russia responds

The Russian embassy in Washington responded to Van Schaack’s statements with a post on Facebook.

“We noted the statements of Ambassador-at-Large on International Criminal Justice Beth [Van Schaack] on the murder of captured Russian military personnel by Ukrainian neo-Nazis,” the statement said. “The official refused to directly condemn the massacre of our unarmed soldiers, despite the confirmation of the authenticity of the relevant video materials by American journalists, who did not hush up the tragedy.”

It continued, “The diplomat cynically referred to the fact that the ‘war crimes’ of the Russian Army are recorded ‘many times more often’ than those by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the same time the State Department yet again failed to provide any evidence of violent acts allegedly committed by our servicemen.”
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US Supreme Court Clears Way for Lawmakers to Get Trump’s Tax Returns

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the release of Donald Trump’s tax returns to a House of Representatives committee, handing a defeat to the Republican former president who had called the Democratic-led panel’s request politically motivated.

The justices denied Trump’s October 31 emergency application to block a lower court’s ruling that upheld the Ways and Means Committee’s request for his tax records as a justified part of the panel’s legislative work. No justice publicly dissented from the decision.

The committee, which has sought six years of Trump’s tax records spanning 2015 to 2020, will have little time to complete its work related to the returns before a Republican takeover of the House. Republicans secured a narrow majority following the Nov. 8 midterm elections and take control of the House — and the committee — in January.

The fight over his tax returns is one of many legal woes for Trump as he moves forward with another run for the presidency in 2024. Trump last week announced the launch of his candidacy.

Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal said the Supreme Court’s action upholds the principle of congressional oversight.

“This rises above politics, and the committee will now conduct the oversight that we’ve sought for the last three and a half years,” Neal said in a statement.

A Trump spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Trump was the first president in four decades years not to release his tax returns as he sought to keep secret the details of his wealth and the activities of his real estate company, the Trump Organization.

The Ways and Means panel had told the Supreme Court in a legal filing that siding with Trump would harm the constitutional authority of a co-equal branch of government “by in effect preventing Congress from completing any investigation involving a former president whenever there are allegations that the investigation was politically motivated.”

The panel in its request invoked a federal law that empowers its chairman to request any person’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). House Democrats have said they need to see Trump’s tax returns to assess whether the IRS is properly auditing presidential returns and to gauge whether new legislation is needed.

In its filing, the committee told the justices that IRS policy “does not address what to do regarding a president who, like former President Trump, owned hundreds of business entities, had inordinately complex returns, used aggressive tax avoidance strategies and allegedly had ongoing audits.”

Trump’s lawyers have said the committee’s real aim was to publicly expose his tax returns and unearth politically damaging information about Trump.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, sided with Congress in December 2021 and threw out the challenge to the committee’s request, finding that the committee holds broad authority over a former president’s tax returns.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in August also ruled against Trump and in October refused a rehearing.

Tuesday’s order superseded one issued by Chief Justice John Roberts on November 1 that had effectively paused the dispute and prevented the panel from obtaining the Trump returns while the court considered how to proceed.

Trump has mounting legal worries. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland last week named a special counsel to oversee two investigations including a criminal probe related to the FBI’s seizure of government documents from Trump’s Florida home.

His real estate company is in the midst of a criminal trial in New York on tax fraud charges. A trial date for next year was set in a civil lawsuit by New York state’s attorney general accusing Trump and three of his adult children of fraudulently overvaluing the company’s assets and his net worth. In addition, an investigation in Georgia is examining whether he interfered with the 2020 election results in that state.
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Uganda to Deploy 1,000 Troops to Congo to Fight Rebels

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Uganda will deploy around 1,000 soldiers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo by the end of November under a regional force against a rebel offensive, a Ugandan military spokesman said Tuesday. 

The volatile region has witnessed fierce fighting in recent months between Congolese troops and the M23 rebel group, prompting the East African Community (EAC) bloc to deploy a joint regional force to quell the violence.  

Kenyan soldiers arrived in the country on November 12, and Uganda’s military and defense spokesman, Felix Kulayigye, told AFP that a Ugandan contingent would follow shortly.  

“We are doing final mentoring of our troops before inserting them into Eastern DRC before [the] end of this month to join our colleagues from Kenya who are already on the ground,” Kulayigye said.    

“We are sending about 1,000 [soldiers] on the mission,” he said, without giving the exact date of departure.    

The fighting has reignited regional tensions, with the Congo accusing its smaller neighbor Rwanda of backing the M23, something that U.N. experts and U.S. officials have also said in recent months.    

Kigali denies supporting the M23 and accuses Kinshasa of colluding with the FDLR — a former Rwandan Hutu rebel group established in Congo after the 1994 genocide of mainly Tutsis in Rwanda. 

The M23, a largely Congolese Tutsi militia, has seized swaths of territory across North Kivu province, edging toward the region’s main city of Goma.   

Two Ugandan military sources familiar with the matter told AFP on condition of anonymity that Kampala had already sent intelligence, medical and logistical teams into Goma to prepare the ground for the planned deployment.    

The M23 first leapt to prominence 10 years ago when it captured Goma in 2012, before being driven out and going to ground.  

But it reemerged late last year, claiming Congo had failed to honor a pledge to integrate its fighters into the army, among other grievances.   

The EAC regional force is expected to include soldiers from Kenya, Burundi, Uganda and South Sudan. But its intended total size remains unclear.  

The M23 is one of around 120 armed groups active in eastern Congo, many of them a legacy of two regional wars that flared late last century. 
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NASA Capsule Buzzes Moon, Last Big Step Before Lunar Orbit

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NASA’s Orion capsule reached the moon Monday, whipping around the far side and buzzing the lunar surface on its way to a record-breaking orbit with test dummies sitting in for astronauts.

It’s the first time a capsule has visited the moon since NASA’s Apollo program 50 years ago and represents a huge milestone in the $4.1 billion test flight that began last Wednesday.

Video of the looming moon and our pale blue planet more than 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) in the distance left workers “giddy” at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, home to Mission Control, according to flight director Judd Frieling. Even the flight controllers themselves were “absolutely astounded.”

“Just smiles across the board,” said Orion program manager Howard Hu.

The close approach of 81 miles (130 kilometers) occurred as the crew capsule and its three wired-up dummies were on the far side of the moon. Because of a half-hour communication blackout, flight controllers in Houston did not know whether the critical engine firing went well until the capsule emerged from behind the moon. The capsule’s cameras sent back a picture of the Earth — a tiny blue dot surrounded by blackness.

The capsule accelerated well beyond 5,000 mph (8,000 kph) as it regained radio contact, NASA said. Less than an hour later, Orion soared above Tranquility Base, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on July 20, 1969. There were no photos of the site because the pass was in darkness, but managers promised to try for pictures on the return flyby in two weeks.

Orion needed to slingshot around the moon to pick up enough speed to enter the sweeping, lopsided lunar orbit. Another engine firing will place the capsule in that orbit Friday.

This coming weekend, Orion will shatter NASA’s distance record for a spacecraft designed for astronauts — nearly 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Earth, set by Apollo 13 in 1970. And it will keep going, reaching a maximum distance from Earth next Monday at nearly 270,000 miles (433,000 kilometers).

The capsule will spend close to a week in lunar orbit before heading home. A Pacific splashdown is planned for December 11.

Orion has no lunar lander; a touchdown won’t come until NASA astronauts attempt a lunar landing in 2025 with SpaceX’s Starship. Before then, astronauts will strap into Orion for a ride around the moon as early as 2024.

Mission manager Mike Sarafin was delighted with the progress of the mission, giving it a “cautiously optimistic A-plus” so far.

The Space Launch System rocket — the most powerful ever built by NASA — performed exceedingly well in its debut, Sarafin told reporters. He said teams are dealing with two issues that require workarounds — one involving the navigational star trackers, the other the power system.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket caused more damage than expected, however, at the Kennedy Space Center launch pad. The force from the 8.8 million pounds (4 million kilograms) of liftoff thrust was so great that it tore off the blast doors of the elevator, leaving it unusable.

Sarafin said the pad damage will be repaired in plenty of time before the next launch.
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Russia’s Gazprom Threatens to Cut Gas Supplies to Europe via Ukraine

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Russian energy giant Gazprom has threatened to reduce natural gas supplies through the last pipeline heading to Europe via Ukraine, saying the amount it’s supplying for Moldova is not ending up in the former Soviet republic.

Gazprom says the gas company of Europe’s poorest country, Moldovagaz, paid for part of its November flows of gas under its contract. It added that nearly 25 million cubic meters have been supplied this month but not paid for.

The Russian state-owned company tweeted that if “the imbalance observed during the transit of gas to the Moldovan consumers across Ukraine continues,” Gazprom “will start reducing its gas supplies” through Ukraine starting Monday.

Both Moldova and Ukraine hit back at Gazprom, with Ukraine saying all supplies that Russia sent through the country were “fully transferred” to Moldova.

“This is not the first time that Russia resorts to using gas as a tool of political pressure. This is a gross manipulation of facts in order to justify the decision to further limit the volume of gas supplies to European countries,” said Olha Belkova of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine.

It’s the latest escalation after Russia has cut off most natural gas flows to Europe amid the war in Ukraine, which European leaders have called energy blackmail and Gazprom has blamed on maintenance and payment issues. Besides the pipeline through Ukraine, one other pipeline is still bringing Russian gas beneath the Black Sea to Turkey.

Heading into winter, when natural gas is needed to heat homes as well as generate electricity and power factories, any reductions in supplies could mean higher prices, which have been fueling inflation and squeezing households and businesses. Natural gas prices have fallen since August peaks, and European nations have been able to fill their storage capacity for winter, but the crunch could worsen if the weather turns out to be colder than normal.

Moldovan energy crisis

The energy crisis has hit Moldova especially hard, with Russia halving its natural gas supply and Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure triggering massive blackouts in several cities in the former Soviet republic.

Moldova relied heavily on Russian energy before the war, and its Soviet-era energy systems remain interconnected with Ukraine, which is why the missile barrages set off the automatic shutdown of a supply line and caused the lights to go out temporarily.

With energy prices and inflation already high, the threat of a loss of further energy supplies to Moldova could leave consumers scrambling to pay their bills in the country of about 2.6 million.

Simone Tagliapietra, an energy policy expert at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, pointed to a recent meeting between Moldovan President Maia Sandu and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about energy assistance, noting that leaders who visited Kyiv earlier in the war to show their support had their gas cut off subsequently.

“Maybe they are following the same plot,” Tagliapietra said of Russia. “It looks like an act of despair for them. They are running out of energy weapons.”

He said one motive could be to pressure the EU by forcing it to drum up financial support for Moldova.

An international aid conference in Paris co-chaired by France, Germany and Romania raised more than 100 million euros ($102 million) on Monday to support Moldova. Earlier this month, the EU also pledged the country 250 million euros (nearly $256 million) in aid.

Moldova’s office of reintegration policies said in a statement that the energy crisis in the country — including Transnistria, a Russia-backed breakaway region — “was not caused by Chisinau, but by the unjustified decisions of the Russian company Gazprom.”

Moldova’s statement was a response to accusations Tuesday by Transnistria, in which de facto authorities alleged in a letter addressed to the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe that Moldova’s pro-Western leaders are responsible for energy shortages in the breakaway state.

“The only solution for overcoming the crisis is the resumption of the supply of natural gas by Gazprom in the quantities provided by the contract in force,” Moldova’s statement read, adding that Transnistria’s accusations were designed “to mislead public opinion and external partners.”

“Possibly preparing the ground for a new challenge, which could endanger the fragile stability which we have managed to maintain until now.”

Moldova became a candidate for EU membership in June, the same day as Ukraine.
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Fauci Pleads With Americans to Get COVID Shot in Final White House Briefing

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. health official celebrated and vilified as the face of the country’s COVID-19 pandemic response, used his final White House briefing on Tuesday to denounce division and promote vaccines.

Fauci, who plans to retire soon as President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser and top U.S. infectious disease official, has dealt with the thorny questions around health crises from HIV/AIDS to avian flu and Ebola.

But it was his handling of COVID — and his blunt assessments from the White House podium that Americans needed to change their behavior in light of the pandemic — that made him a hero to public health advocates while serving under President Donald Trump, a villain to some on the right and an unusual celebrity among bureaucratic officials used to toiling in obscurity. Fauci has regularly been subjected to death threats for his efforts.

True to form, Fauci used the final press briefing to strongly encourage Americans to get COVID vaccines and booster shots, and touted the effectiveness of masks, all of which became partisan totems in the United States.

The United States leads the world in recorded COVID-19 deaths with more than 1 million.

After 13 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines given worldwide, Fauci said, there is “clearly an extensive body of information” that indicates that they are safe.

“When I see people in this country because of the divisiveness in our country … not getting vaccinated for reasons that have nothing to do with public health, but have to do because of divisiveness and ideological differences, as a physician, it pains me,” Fauci said.

“I don’t want to see anybody hospitalized, and I don’t want to see anybody die from COVID. Whether you’re a far-right Republican or a far-left Democrat, doesn’t make any difference to me.”

Fauci is stepping down in December after 54 years of public service. The 81-year-old has headed the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, since 1984.

The veteran immunologist has served as an adviser to seven U.S. presidents beginning with Republican Ronald Reagan. He made his first appearance at the White House press briefing in 2001.

Republican lawmakers including fierce critic Senator Rand Paul, with whom Fauci tangled during Senate hearings, have vowed to investigate him when they take control of the House of Representatives following November’s congressional elections.

On Tuesday, Fauci said he “will absolutely cooperate fully” in any congressional oversight hearings launched by Republicans next year.
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VP Harris Urges Defense of Sovereignty in South China Sea

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Vice President Kamala Harris urged countries on Tuesday to stand up for territorial integrity and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, which has been challenged by China, and said Washington would press an international campaign against “irresponsible behavior” in the disputed waters.

Harris did not cite China by name but was obviously referring to Beijing when she underscored America’s support to treaty ally the Philippines “in the face of intimidation and coercion in the South China Sea.”

She spoke aboard a Philippine coast guard patrol ship docked in Puerto Princesa in the western island province of Palawan, which lies at the edge of the disputed waters. The highly symbolic visit was the last leg of a two-day visit that kicked off in Manila on Monday with talks with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Citing profound stakes for America and the international community in the region, particularly in the busy South China Sea, she called for a broad effort to fight for unimpeded commerce and freedom of navigation and overflight in the disputed waters.

“We must stand up for principles such as respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, unimpeded lawful commerce, the peaceful resolution of disputes,” Harris said.

“We will continue to rally our allies and partners against unlawful and irresponsible behavior,” she said. “When the international rules-based order is threatened somewhere, it is threatened everywhere.”

A new confrontation erupted ahead of her visit to Palawan when the Philippine navy alleged a Chinese coast guard vessel had forcibly seized Chinese rocket debris as Filipino sailors were towing it to a Philippine-controlled island.

Marcos Jr. told reporters without elaborating that he was inclined to send a diplomatic protest to China over the incident. He added that he wanted a clarification because China denied that it forcibly seized the debris.

The long-seething territorial conflicts involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei are regarded as an Asian flashpoint and a delicate fault line in the U.S.-China rivalry in the region.

In her talks with Marcos Jr. on Monday, Harris reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to defend the Philippines under a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty which obligates the allies to help defend either side which comes under attack.

“An armed attack on the Philippines armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke U.S. Mutual Defense commitments,” Harris told Marcos Jr. “And that is an unwavering commitment that we have to the Philippines.”

Marcos Jr. thanked Harris, saying that with the upheavals in the region and beyond, “this partnership becomes even more important.”

In Palawan’s main city of Puerto Princesa, Harris visited a small fishing community and spoke with impoverished villagers about the impact of illegal fishing on their livelihood. She was welcomed by dancing children and talked with women drying fish under the sun by the sea. “This is my souvenir,” she told one of the women in jest as she held a nugget of fish. The proud villager joked that the vice president could take all their products home.

The U.S. will provide an additional $7.5 million in aid to Philippine maritime law enforcement agencies to boost their capacity to counter illegal fishing, carry out sea surveillance and help in search and rescue efforts, including in the South China Sea, according to a statement issued by her office.

The Philippine coast guard will also receive additional U.S. help to upgrade a vessel traffic management system for better safety at sea. The Philippines is also now receiving real-time surveillance data to be able to detect and counter illicit activities at sea in a project by the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, an informal strategic bloc that involves the U.S., India, Japan and Australia, according to Harris’s office.

While the U.S. lays no claims to the strategic waterway, where an estimated $5 trillion in global trade transits each year, it has said that freedom of navigation and overflight is in America’s national interest.

In March, U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Adm. John C. Aquilino told The Associated Press that China has fully militarized at least three of several islands it built in the disputed waters and armed them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment in an increasingly aggressive move that threatens all nations operating nearby.

In Sunday’s incident in the Spratlys, the most hotly contested area, Vice Adm. Alberto Carlos, commander of the Philippine military’s Western Command, said a Chinese coast guard ship twice blocked a civilian boat manned by Philippine navy personnel before seizing the debris it was towing off Thitu island.

China denied there was a forcible seizure and said the debris, which it confirmed was from a recent Chinese rocket launch, was handed over by Philippine forces after a “friendly consultation.”

Chinese coast guard ships have blocked Philippine supply boats delivering supplies to Filipino forces in the disputed waters in the past but seizing objects in the possession of another nation’s military would constitute a more brazen act.

China has warned Washington not to meddle in what it calls an Asian dispute and has said that U.S. Navy and Air Force patrols and combat exercises in the disputed waters were militarizing the South China Sea.

In July, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China to comply with a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s vast territorial claims on historical grounds in the South China Sea. China has rejected the decision. 

 

 
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Malawi Gets IMF Funding to Mitigate Food Shortage Impact

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved financing to cope with rising global food prices for Malawi, the first low-income country to receive the help. The number of Malawians facing food insecurity has doubled to 20% of the population due to low crop production and increasing prices for fertilizers and seeds. Malawi’s government says the funds will also help address a lack of foreign exchange that has caused a fuel shortage in the country.

Malawi is facing a challenging economic and humanitarian situation, with foreign exchange shortages and an exchange rate misalignment that has led to a sharp decline in imports including fuel, fertilizer, medicine, and food.

The IMF said in a statement released Monday that about 20 percent of the country’s population was projected to be acutely food insecure during the 2022/23 lean season which starts from October to March, more than twice as many people as during the same time last year.

Government authorities say the approval of $88 million to Malawi under the new ‘food shock window’ of the IMF’s Rapid Credit Facility will help address some of those challenges.

Sosten Gwengwe is Malawi’s finance minister.

“Of course, every little (bit) helps. Most important is to be able to have a forex market that is efficient, that is able to work on its own and we are working very hard to build reserves at the Reserve Bank of Malawi so that we are able to normalize the forex market”

The IMF introduced the food shock loan in September for countries that have urgent balance-of-payment needs due to food insecurity, a sharp increase in their food import bill or a shock to their cereal exports.

Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera wrote on his Twitter account Tuesday that the funding “signals new dispensation of trust from bilateral and multilateral global institutions.”

Chakwera said his administration is currently reorienting the fiscal and monetary system to achieve sustainable economic growth.

The issue also brought excitement in the Malawi Parliament Tuesday when the leader of the Malawi National Assembly, Richard Chimwendo Banda, briefed lawmakers.

“Madam deputy speaker, this is a celebration and people who are against me may not be Malawians,” said ChimwendoI. “Today,I am celebrating, and I am happy. Malawi shall rise again, and Malawi is rising again”

However economic experts say Malawi should find its own means of addressing economic challenges rather than relying on borrowing money from lending institutions.

They say, for example, Malawi should invest in programs that would increase its exports base rather than relying on imports.

The IMF funding comes at a time when Malawi is facing fuel problems largely because of lack of foreign exchange.

Information minister Gospel Kazako told the state-run Malawi Broadcasting Corporation Tuesday that the IMF assistance does not mean an immediate end to all challenges facing Malawi.

“It does not mean that things will change by next week. It doesn’t mean that things are going to change tomorrow,” he said. “Because we still need to do much more, we still need to work very, very hard. We want to come up with an economy that is built on concrete and an economy that is strong.”

In the meantime, Malawi is waiting for approval of another chunk of funding from the IMF known as Extended Credit Facility.
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West African Leaders Seek Solutions to Curb Terrorism from Sahel Region

Posted on by SeeAF

West African leaders met in Accra Tuesday to discuss terrorism and worsening security in the region. The Accra Initiative members, which include Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Togo, are discussing preventing spillover of terrorism from the Sahel. European forces have been withdrawing from the region while Russian influence has been growing.

The Accra Initiative is a cooperative and collaborative security mechanism between seven West African countries as they face increasing threats and attacks from Islamist militants across their northern borders in Burkina Faso and Niger.

Addressing the maiden high-level counter terrorism conference of the Accra Initiative, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo said it has become imperative for member states to collaborate to counter rising levels of terrorism.

“West Africa continues to suffer from the effect of the scourge of terrorism and violent extremism, spreading rapidly across the region,” Akufo-Addo said. “Today, the terrorist groups emboldened by their apparent success in the region are seeking new operational grounds, a development that has triggered the southward drift of the menace from the Sahel to coastal West Africa.”

The goal of the Accra Initiative, the Ghanaian leader said, is to curb that spread of terrorism. He added that member states will own the initiative but will require their foreign partners to support them.

“Our assessment points to the fact that support from members of international community will be needed, but we remain firm in our commitment to shoulder a greater part of the responsibility required while engaging international partners who are willing to respect our status as a home-grown initiative,” he said.

Western nations such as Britain, France and Germany are withdrawing from peacekeeping operations in Mali, a situation likely to exacerbate the porous security situation in West Africa.

James Heappey, the British Armed Forces Minister said Britain and other Western countries will continue to be allies and partners with West African states in fighting violent extremism and terrorism but will not dictate to them how to deal with their problems.

“I am acutely aware that there is a security challenge and the U.K. armed forces already enjoy great relationship with many of the countries within the Accra Initiative and we stand ready to build on that,” he said. “This is a regional problem that you have here in West Africa and it’s right that you seek to provide solutions. But given that the instability and security here so profoundly have a consequence to us in Europe it’s also right that we stand ready to assist you in any way that we can.”

Meanwhile, Adam Bonaa, the international relations and security expert with Accra-based Institute of Security, Safety, Policy and Research, told VOA the fight against terrorism in West Africa will be meaningless unless the leaders involve the ordinary citizens to give tips, among other things.

“We cannot just get up and end it. There has to be proper measures put in place,” Bonaa said. “There has to be the willingness on the part of the leaders, but there is a serious disconnect where the citizens are doing one thing and the executives are doing another thing. You cannot fight terrorism without the involvement of the people … and that is not what they are doing.”
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