January 2023 - Page 16 of 23

US Says it Intercepted Iranian Weapons Bound for Yemen

Posted on 01/11/2023 by SeeUS

The U.S. Navy said Tuesday it intercepted a shipment of assault rifles last week bound for Yemen that it believes came from Iran.

A statement from the U.S. 5th Fleet said 2,116 AK-47 assault rifles were found on a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman that was traversing “a route historically used to traffic illicit cargo” to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The statement said U.S. forces had intercepted two other fishing vessels in the same area during the past two months that were also carrying weapons from Iran to Yemen.

“This shipment is part of a continued pattern of destabilizing activity from Iran,” said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces. “These threats have our attention. We remain vigilant in detecting any maritime activity that impedes freedom of navigation or compromises regional security.”

Iran has repeatedly denied arming the Houthis, while independent and U.N. experts have traced components from seized shipments back to Iran.

Yemen erupted into conflict in late 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital. The fight escalated in early 2015 with the entry of a Saudi-led coalition fighting on the side of Yemen’s exiled government.

A six-month cease-fire expired in October, and the years of fighting has left millions in Yemen in need of humanitarian aid.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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North American Leaders Resolve to Work on Challenges of Migration, Drugs and More

Posted on 01/11/2023 by SeeUS

The leaders of the U.S., Mexico and Canada say they are working together on some of the biggest challenges their continent faces, among them: irregular migration, drug trafficking, trade agreements in the face of Chinese competition and unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the solutions — and the leaders’ views of them — are not so straightforward. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from the summit of North American leaders in Mexico City.
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Landslides, Sinkholes, Floodwaters Wrack California; More Rain Looms

Posted on 01/11/2023 by SeeUS

Sinkholes swallowed cars and floodwaters swamped towns and swept away a small boy as wild weather wracked California and another powerful storm loomed on the horizon.

Millions of residents faced flood warnings, nearly 50,000 people were under evacuation orders, and more than 110,000 homes and businesses were without power because of heavy rains, lightning, hail and landslides.

At least 17 people have died from storms that began late last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a visit to the scenic town of Capitola on the Santa Cruz coast that was hard hit by high surf and flooding creek waters last week. The deaths included a pickup driver and motorcyclist killed Tuesday morning when a eucalyptus tree fell on them on Highway 99 in the San Joaquin Valley near Visalia, the California Highway Patrol said.

“We’ve had less people die in the last two years of major wildfires in California than have died since New Year’s Day related to this weather,” Newsom said. “These conditions are serious and they’re deadly.”

Rain, snow

The latest storm, which began Monday, dumped more than 45 centimeters of rain in Southern California mountains and buried Sierra Nevada ski resorts in more than 1.5 meters of snow.

Rockfalls and landslides shut down roads, and gushing runoff turned sections of freeways into waterways. Swollen rivers swamped homes, and residents of small communities inundated with water and mud were stranded.

“We’re all stuck out here,” said Brian Briggs, after the deluge unleashed mudslides in remote Matilija Canyon that buried one house completely and cut off the only road to nearby Ojai.

Briggs described a scary night during which the canyon creek began to flood people’s yards and the surrounding hills — stripped of vegetation in the 2017 Thomas Fire — began to tumble down in the dark.

Mudflows dragged sheds, gazebos and outhouses into the creek, he said. After helping neighbors get to higher ground, he returned home to find his fence destroyed by waist-deep mud.

A helicopter dropped off 10 sheriff’s deputies Tuesday to help the residents of dozens of homes in the canyon and Briggs said he was hoping to be airlifted out.

Raging waters crested the banks of Bear Creek and flooded parts of the city of Merced and neighboring Planada, a small agricultural community along a highway leading to Yosemite National Park.

Neighborhoods were under water with cars submerged up to their roofs. Residents ordered to evacuate carried whatever they could salvage on their backs as they left in the rain.

A break in the weather Tuesday on the central coast allowed searchers near San Miguel to look for Kyle Doan, the child who vanished after he and his mother were stranded in a truck in rising waters. His mother was rescued, but Kyle was swept away, and a seven-hour search Monday turned up only one of his Nikes.

“It’s still very dangerous out there,” said San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s spokesperson Tony Cipolla. “The creeks are very fast flowing.”

‘Weather whiplash’

The wet and blustery weather left California’s large homeless population in a precarious situation. At least two homeless people in Sacramento County died, and more than a dozen people were rescued from a homeless encampment on the Ventura River.

Theo Harris, who has been living on the streets of San Francisco since getting out of jail in 2016, fortified his shelter with tarps and zip ties and took in his girlfriend after her tent flooded.

“The wind has been treacherous, but you just got to bundle up and make sure you stay dry,” Harris said. “Rain is part of life. It’s going to be sunny. It’s going to rain. I just got to strap my boots up and not give up.”

The storms have created what Newsom called a “weather whiplash,” swinging from an epic drought to the other extreme and arriving with a fury and frequency likely to create problems well into next week.

While most of the state remains in extreme or severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the state said the water content in the snowpack is more than double the average.

“It’s fair to say that what we’re seeing right now in California will certainly help to relieve some of the localized aspects of drought, but will not resolve the long-term drought challenges,” said Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The latest atmospheric river — a long plume of moisture stretching out into the Pacific that can drop staggering amounts of rain and snow — began easing in some areas. But more rain was forecast to arrive Wednesday in Northern California, and then a longer storm system was predicted to last from Friday until January 17.

Flood watch

The weather service issued a flood watch through Tuesday for the entire San Francisco Bay Area, along with the Sacramento Valley and Monterey Bay. Areas hit by wildfires in recent years faced the possibility of mud and debris sliding down bare hillsides.

Gusts as high as 141 kilometers per hour were recorded in the mountains north of Los Angeles, and rainfall was expected to reach up to 1.27 centimeters per hour. Tornadoes that had been forecast never materialized.

The squalls and flooding have forced school cancellations in some communities and intermittently shut down sections of major roadways that have flooded or been blocked by trees, rocks and landslides.

A sinkhole swallowed two cars on a Los Angeles street, trapping two motorists who had to be rescued by a team of firefighters. Photos Tuesday showed a chasm nearly the width of a street and with huge chunks of pavement and the little car deep inside it.

Another sinkhole damaged 15 homes in the rural Santa Barbara County community of Orcutt.

In the wealthy seaside community of Montecito, 128 kilometers northwest of Los Angeles, evacuation orders were lifted Tuesday for about 10,000 people, including Prince Harry, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities. The community had been told to evacuate on the fifth anniversary of a mudslide that killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes.
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Australian Cardinal George Pell, Acquitted of Child Sexual Assault, Dead at 81

Posted on 01/11/2023 by SeeEU

Australian Cardinal George Pell, a leading Roman Catholic conservative and former top Vatican official who in 2020 was acquitted of sexual abuse allegations, died Tuesday at the age of 81, his private secretary said.

Father Joseph Hamilton told Reuters that Pell died in Rome on Tuesday night.

Archbishop Peter Comensoli, the archbishop of Melbourne, said Pell had died from heart complications following hip surgery.

“Cardinal Pell was a very significant and influential Church leader, both in Australia and internationally, deeply committed to Christian discipleship,” he said in a statement on Facebook.

An Australian appeals court ruling in 2020 quashed convictions that Pell sexually assaulted two choir boys in the 1990s. He spent 13 months in jail.

The ruling allowed the then-78-year-old Pell to walk free, ending the case of the most senior figure accused in the global scandal of historical sex abuse that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.

Pell, a former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, served as Vatican economy minister from 2014 until he took a leave of absence in 2017 to return to Australia to face the charges.

He had been living in Rome since his acquittal in 2020 and had several meetings with Pope Francis. Pell often attended the pontiff’s Masses, and Francis praised him publicly after his return.

Even before the sexual assault allegations, Pell was a polarizing figure in the two decades that he dominated the Australian Catholic hierarchy, revered by conservative Catholics but scorned by liberals for his staunch opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion and women’s ordination.

In May 2018, Pell was committed to stand trial on multiple historical sexual offense charges relating to alleged incidents at a pool in his hometown of Ballarat in the 1970s and at Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the 1990s. The so-called swimmers case was dropped after a judge did not allow certain evidence.

Returning from Rome where he had been tasked with cleaning up the Vatican’s finances, Pell denied the allegations but did not take the stand at two trials, the first of which ended with a hung jury. At the retrial, a jury unanimously convicted him on five charges of assaulting two teenage choirboys at the cathedral when he was archbishop of Melbourne.

Pell was sentenced to six years in jail, becoming the most senior Catholic official worldwide to go to prison for child sex assault. He lost his first appeal and was in solitary confinement for 404 days until Australia’s seven High Court judges unanimously overturned his conviction, saying it was not proven beyond reasonable doubt.

“Look, it was bad, it wasn’t like a holiday, but I don’t want to exaggerate how difficult that was. But there were many dark moments,” Pell said of his jail time in a Reuters interview after returning to Rome in 2020.

The former choirboy who accused Pell at his trial and was known as Witness J said he understood it was difficult to satisfy a criminal court beyond the shadow of a doubt that child sexual assault offenses occurred. The other former choirboy died before Pell was charged.

Gold miner’s son

The high-profile case was one of the Australia’s most divisive, and some media organizations went so far as to breach a court suppression order barring coverage of the trial.

The son of an Anglican gold miner father and a devout Irish Catholic mother, Pell was talented both academically and at sports. At 18, he landed a contract to play professional Australian Rules football and played in the reserves for a club, but later chose to enter the seminary.

He went on to earn a doctorate in church history from Oxford and then became a parish priest in Ballarat.

A burly and imposing figure at 1.9 meters, Pell rose to prominence in the mid-1990s first as archbishop of Melbourne, then archbishop of Sydney in 2001.

Through the 1990s, the church increasingly came under attack for protecting priests and other church personnel who had committed sexual offenses and for failing to support their victims.

Pell took pride in having set up one of the world’s first schemes to compensate victims of child sexual abuse in Melbourne. Critics, however, later told a government-appointed inquiry that the scheme was designed to persuade victims not to pursue legal action.

The inquiry, known as a Royal Commission, began in 2013, a five-year investigation into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church and other institutions.

It found the church and other institutions had repeatedly failed to keep children safe with cultures of secrecy and cover-ups. It also found that Pell was aware of child sex abuse by at least two priests in the 1970s and 1980s and had failed to take steps to get the priests removed.

The commission also said Pell should have looked into why Gerard Ridsdale, a priest who was subsequently convicted on more than 130 charges of sexually abusing children, was being moved from one parish to another during the 1970s and 1980s.

Pell told the commission he was unaware of Ridsdale’s offenses until his 1993 conviction.

“It’s a sad story, and it wasn’t of much interest to me,” he said.
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Constantine, Former and Last King of Greece, Dies at 82

Posted on 01/11/2023 by SeeEU

Constantine, the former and last king of Greece who spent decades in exile, died Tuesday. He was 82.

Doctors at the private Hygeia Hospital in Athens confirmed to The Associated Press that Constantine died late Tuesday after treatment in an intensive care unit but had no further details pending an official announcement.

When he rose to the throne as Constantine II 1964 at the age of 23, the youthful monarch who had achieved glory as an Olympic gold medalist in sailing was hugely popular. By the following year he had squandered much of that support with his active involvement in the machinations that brought down the elected Center Union government of Prime Minister George Papandreou.

The episode involving the defection from the ruling party of several lawmakers, still widely known in Greece as the “apostasy,” destabilized the constitutional order and led to a military coup in 1967. Constantine eventually clashed with the military rulers and was forced into exile.

The dictatorship abolished the monarchy in 1973; a referendum after democracy was restored in 1974 dashed any hopes that Constantine had of ever reigning again.

Reduced in the following decades to only fleeting visits to Greece that raised a political and media storm each time, he was able to settle again in his home country in his waning years when opposing his presence no longer held currency as a badge of vigilant republicanism. With minimal nostalgia for the monarchy in Greece, Constantine became a relatively uncontroversial figure.

Constantine was born June 2, 1940, in Athens, to Prince Paul, younger brother to King George II and heir presumptive to the throne, and Princess Frederica of Hanover. His older sister Sophia is the wife of former King Juan Carlos I of Spain. The Greek-born Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh and husband of the late Queen Elizabeth II, was a relative.

The family, which had ruled in Greece from 1863 apart from a 12-year republican interlude in 1922-1935, was descended from Prince Christian, later Christian IX of Denmark, of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Gluecksburg branch of the Danish ruling family.

Before Constantine’s first birthday, the royal family was forced to flee Greece during the German invasion in World War II, moving to Alexandria in Egypt, South Africa and back to Alexandria. King George II returned to Greece in 1946, following a disputed referendum, but died a few months later, making Constantine the heir to King Paul I.

Constantine was educated at a boarding school and then attended three military academies as well as Athens Law School classes as preparation for his future role. He also competed in various sports, including sailing and karate, in which he held a black belt.

In 1960, at age 20, he and two other Greek sailors won a gold medal in the Dragon Class — now no longer an Olympic class — at the Rome Olympics. While still a prince, Constantine was elected a member of the International Olympic Committee and became an honorary member for life in 1974.

King Paul I died of cancer on March 6, 1964, and Constantine succeeded him, weeks after the Center Union party had triumphed over the conservatives with 53% of the vote.

The prime minister, George Papandreou, and Constantine initially had a very close relationship, but it soon soured over Constantine’s insistence that control of the armed forces was the monarch’s prerogative.

With many officers toying with the idea of a dictatorship and viewing any non-conservative government as soft on communism, Papandreou wanted to control the ministry of defense and eventually demanded to be appointed defense minister. After an acrimonious exchange of letters with Constantine, Papandreou resigned in July 1965.

Constantine’s insistence on appointing a government composed of centrist defectors that won a narrow parliamentary majority on the third try was hugely unpopular. Many viewed him as being manipulated by his scheming mother, dowager Queen Frederica.

“The people don’t want you, take your mother and go!” became the rallying cry in the protests that rocked Greece in the summer of 1965.

Eventually, Constantine made a truce of sorts with Papandreou and, with his agreement, appointed a government of technocrats and then a conservative-led government to hold an election in May 1967.

But, with the polls heavily favoring the Center Union and with Papandreou’s left-leaning son, Andreas, gaining in popularity, Constantine and his courtiers feared revenge and prepared a coup. They were instead surprised by a coup led by a group of lower-ranking officers who proclaimed a dictatorship on April 21, 1967.

On Dec. 13, 1967, Constantine and his family flew to the northern city of Kavala with the intention of marching on Thessaloniki and setting up a government there. His counter coup, badly managed and infiltrated, collapsed and Constantine was forced to flee to Rome the following day. He would never return as reigning king.

To his final days, Constantine, while accepting that Greece was now a republic, continued to style himself King of Greece and his children as princes and princesses even though Greece no longer recognized titles of nobility.

For most of his years in exile he lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, and was said to be especially close to his second cousin Charles, the Prince of Wales and now King Charles III.

While it took Constantine 14 years to return to his country briefly to bury his mother, Queen Frederica in 1981, his visits increased and, from 2010, made his home there.

He is survived by his wife, the former Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, youngest sister of Queen Margrethe II; five children, Alexia, Pavlos, Nikolaos, Theodora and Philippos; and nine grandchildren.
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Trump Executive Allen Weisselberg Gets 5-Month Jail Sentence

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeUS

Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump ‘s business empire, was taken into custody Tuesday to begin serving a five-month jail term for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in job perks — a punishment the judge who sentenced him said was probably too lenient for a case “driven entirely by greed.”

Weisselberg, 75, was promised the short sentence in August when he agreed to plead guilty to 15 tax crimes and to be a witness against the Trump Organization, where he worked since the mid-1980s. His testimony helped convict the former president’s company, where he had served as chief financial officer, of tax fraud.

But when he made the sentence official Tuesday, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan said that after listening to Weisselberg’s trial testimony, he regretted that the penalty wasn’t tougher. He said he was especially appalled by testimony that Weisselberg gave his wife a $6,000 check for a no-show job so that she could qualify for Social Security benefits.

Had he not already promised to give Weisselberg five months, Merchan said, “I would be imposing a sentence much greater than that.”

“I’m not going to deviate from the promise, though I believe a stiffer sentence is warranted, having heard the evidence,” he added.

Weisselberg, who came to court dressed for jail rather than in his usual suit, was handcuffed and taken away by court officers moments after the sentence was announced. He was taken to New York City’s Rikers Island complex, where he was expected to be housed in an infirmary unit. He will be eligible for release after little more than three months if he behaves behind bars.

Weisselberg’s sentencing also marked the end of his career at the Trump Organization, where he had been on leave since the fall, continuing to make $1.14 million in salary and bonuses, even as he was testifying against the company. His lawyer, Nicholas Gravante, said that as of Tuesday, the executive and the company “have amicably parted ways.”

As part of the plea agreement, Weisselberg was required to pay nearly $2 million in back taxes, penalties and interest, which prosecutors said he has done. Prosecutors recommended a six-month jail sentence, but Merchan said he settled on five months, in part because of mitigating factors, such as Weisselberg’s military service and a stint as a public school teacher. In addition, Merchan ordered Weisselberg to complete five years of probation after he leaves jail.

Gravante had asked the judge for an even lighter sentence than the one in the plea bargain, citing Weisselberg’s age and “far from perfect health.”

“He has already been punished tremendously by the disgrace that he has brought not only on himself, but his wife, his sons and his grandchildren,” Gravante said.

Weisselberg faced the prospect of up to 15 years in prison — the maximum punishment for the top grand larceny charge — if he were to have reneged on his deal or if he didn’t testify truthfully at the Trump Organization’s trial. Weisselberg is the only person charged in the Manhattan district attorney’s three-year investigation of Trump and his business practices.

Weisselberg testified for three days, offering a glimpse into the inner workings of Trump’s real estate empire. Weisselberg has worked for Trump’s family for nearly 50 years, starting as an accountant for his developer father, Fred Trump, in 1973. He joined Donald Trump in 1986 and helped expand the company into a global golf and hotel brand.

A Manhattan jury convicted the Trump Organization in December, finding that Weisselberg had been a “high managerial” agent entrusted to act on behalf of the company and its various entities.

Weisselberg’s arrangement reduced his own personal income taxes but also saved the company money because it didn’t have to pay him more to cover the cost of the perks.

The Trump Organization is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday and faces a fine of up to $1.6 million.
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Court Orders Release of Senegal Government Critic

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeAF

A judge on Tuesday ordered the release of a Senegalese journalist and prominent anti-government critic after more than two months in detention, his lawyers said.

Pape Ale Niang, head of the Dakar Matin online news site, was arrested on November 6 and charged with “divulging information likely to harm national defense.”

Widely followed in Senegal for his regular columns on current affairs, Niang was released on December 14 but sent back to prison a week later and had since been on a hunger strike in protest over his detention.

Lawyer Moussa Sarr told Agence France-Presse the temporary release order came with a strict ban on Niang commenting on the case as well as a travel ban.

He was “extremely strained” from a hunger strike launched in protest at his detention, the lawyer said, adding that he is still in hospital.

The journalist has been at Dakar’s main hospital since December 24, where doctors have voiced concern about his condition, according to a local press organization.

Another of his lawyers, Cire Cledor Ly, said the case was “political” and Diang ought to end the hunger strike.

“He held out, it was very hard, but he was fighting for a principle and he has won,” the lawyer said.

The case against Niang arose after he wrote about rape charges faced by Senegal’s main opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko.

Niang was accused of describing confidential messages about security arrangements for Sonko’s questioning by investigators, according to trade unions.

His detention sparked a wave of criticism from the press, civil society groups and Senegal’s opposition, with many calling for his release.

The Coordination of Press Associations put out a statement praising the “victory” of the release order and called for cancellation of the “fantasy and political charges which earned him more than 60 days in prison.”

Senegal has a strong reputation for openness and press freedom in West Africa, but this status is in decline, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Its 2022 Press Freedom Index ranked Senegal 73rd out of 180 countries — a fall of 24 places compared with 2021.
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Chinese Top Diplomat Arrives in Africa to Strengthen Cooperation

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeAF

China’s new foreign minister, Qin Gang, has begun a five-nation tour of Africa aimed at bolstering Chinese-African ties. Qin, who had been ambassador to the U.S. until December, will visit African Union headquarters in Ethiopia before traveling to four other African countries.

Analysts say trade and investment are the top priorities for both sides as China and the U.S. compete for influence in Africa.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed welcomed Qin to Addis Ababa as the Chinese foreign minister began his week-long tour.

After visiting African Union headquarters Tuesday, the Chinese foreign minister will go to Angola, Benin, Egypt and Gabon.

David Monyae, head of the Center for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg, offered some insight into what Qin and his hosts are likely to discuss.

“At AU level there might be some issues in terms of requests by Africans for China to help on the issues of reform of the United Nations.” he said. “The AU itself is going to get a seat within the G-20 and there are a number of issues within multilateral institutions and China is a permanent member of the Security Council.”

China’s investment in Africa is focused on infrastructure and telecommunications.

According to the Chinese General Administration of Customs, in the first three months of 2022, trade between China and Africa reached nearly $65 billion, a 23% increase over the same period in 2021.

Cliff Mboya, a researcher at the Afro-Sino Centre of International Relations, said economic revival will be at the top of most African countries’ agenda.

“What I expect [Qin] to address is China-Africa relations post-COVID,” he said. “China is gradually opening up to the rest of the world and they are trying to embrace the post-COVID world which some of us have already embraced. So, economic recovery would be key and we must factor in that there is a lot of renewed interest coming from the U.S. and Europe. So, China would want to put its stake in the relationship and just affirm to African countries that it’s here to stay and just to build on what it has.”

Western nations have accused China of using massive loans for infrastructure projects to put African countries in debt to Beijing, both politically and economically.

Rights groups say China also promotes corruption and ignores human rights concerns, while seeking access to Africa’s natural resources.

Monyae said Africans are to blame for the corruption involving big projects in the continent.

“My blame goes more on ourselves, Africans,” he said. “I don’t think we have clear laws and are tough on corruption. The idea of blaming Chinese or Americans on anything is not something I buy into. There are issues. No doubt. Is there corruption in some of the Chinese projects? Yes, is there corruption in some of the American projects in Africa? Yes. What are we doing and there is no one we can say is better than the other.”

Last month, the U.S. government hosted African leaders in Washington, where both sides agreed to support infrastructure projects on the continent as well as invest in digital transformation, health, and telecommunications.

Mboya said African nations will see if they can get similar or greater benefits from interaction with Qin and China.

“So, he will be received well and African leaders will be keen to see what he has to offer,” he said. “The African Union, the leaders who are there, would want to establish personal contact with him just to get an idea of his ideas and his strategy and see how to align themselves with what he will have to say or what China intends to do going forward.”

In Egypt, the foreign minister is scheduled to meet with the secretary general of the Arab League. The visit is set to conclude Saturday.
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French PM to Unveil Pension Changes that Upset Many Workers

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeEU

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Tuesday unveiled a contentious pension overhaul aimed at raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030, which has prompted vigorous criticism and calls for protests from leftist opponents and worker unions.

Speaking in a news conference in Paris, Borne said the minimum retirement age to be entitled to a full pension will be gradually increased by three months every year, starting this year, in line with a longstanding pledge by President Emmanuel Macron.

In addition, people will need to have worked for at least 43 years to get a full pension, starting from 2027, she said.

“Working more will allow future retirees to get higher pensions,” Borne said.

“By 2030, our system will be financially balanced,” she added.

Those who started working before the age of 20 will be able to get early retirement, Borne added. Specific categories of workers such as police officers and firefighters will also be able to retire earlier.

The government argues that French people live longer than they used to and therefore need to work longer to make the pension system financially sustainable. All French workers receive a state pension.

Center-left and hard-left worker unions unanimously expressed their disapproval of the proposed changes after talks with Borne last week.

Some are in favor of an increase in payroll contributions paid by employers instead.

The country’s eight main worker unions are gathering on Tuesday evening to set the date of a first protest day against the pension changes.

A heated debate at parliament also is to be expected.

Macron’s centrist alliance lost its parliamentary majority last year — and most opposition parties are opposed to the changes.

Macron’s lawmakers hope to be able to ally with members of the conservative The Republicans party to pass the measure. Otherwise, the government may use a special power to force the law through parliament without a vote — at the price of much criticism.

The pension reform is an electoral promise from Macron, who failed to implement a similar measure during his first term. The proposal at that time sparked nationwide strikes and protests, before the COVID-19 crisis led the government to postpone the changes. Macron was reelected for a second term last year.

France’s Retirement Guidance Council issued a report last year showing that the pension system is expected to have a deficit over the next decade, with the government having to compensate.

The minimum retirement age applies to people who have worked enough years to qualify. Those who do not fulfil the conditions, like many women who interrupt their career to raise their children and people who did long studies and started their career late, must work until 67 to retire without penalty.

The average pension this year stands at 1,400 euros per month ($1,500 per month) once taxes are deducted. But that average masks differences across pension schemes depending on professions.

Over the past three decades, French governments have made numerous changes to the system but each reform has been met with massive demonstrations.
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Czechs Prepare to Choose New President, as Rivals Clash Over Support for Ukraine

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeEU

Military support for Ukraine and relations with Russia and China are among the key issues as Czech voters prepare to choose a new president Friday, with three candidates neck-and-neck in the polls.

Among them is Andrej Babiš, the billionaire former prime minister who received a boost after he was acquitted of fraud Monday.

Babiš was charged in 2022 for taking his “Stork Nest” farm out of his giant Agrofert holding company, in order to make it eligible for a $2 million European Union subsidy for small companies.

Prague Municipal Court Judge Jan Sott said it had not been proven that his actions constituted a crime. State prosecutors are considering an appeal.

The 68-year-old Babiš described the prosecution as a “political process.”

“I think it is good news for the whole Czech Republic, for all citizens of the Czech Republic, that we live in the rule of law,” he told reporters following the verdict Monday.

Babiš, who served as prime minister from 2017 to 2021, is seen as a populist and a political ally of the outgoing president, Miloš Zeman. Babiš has criticized government and European Union policies on issues like migration and support for Ukraine. That has won him support – but also energized his critics.

Rivals

Babiš’ main rivals include Petr Pavel, a retired Czech general, and former chairman of the NATO Military Committee. His campaign slogan is, “Bring order and calm.’”

The third leading candidate is Danuše Nerudová, a former economist and university rector who promises a progressive, pro-European presidency. She would become her country’s first female president if elected.

“Both Petr Pavel and Danuše Nerudová are highly committed to the Czech Republic as a liberal democracy and also to its role in the liberal order more widely,” said Benjamin Tallis, an analyst with the German Council on Foreign Relations.

“That’s really the clear choice facing Czechs. Do they seize the chance to go back towards the liberal democratic mainstream, or is it a time that they would prefer to actually go back to the recent times of the Zeman-Babiš period and more towards this populist nationalist and authoritarian politics?” Tallis told VOA.

Ukraine

The president does not have executive powers; however, analysts say a Babiš victory could make life difficult for the current government under Prime Minister Petr Fiala, which has taken a strongly pro-Ukrainian stance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“In his (Babiš’) view it’s too much support, too much help to Ukraine and also to Ukrainian refugees,” said Lubomír Kopeček, a professor of political science at Masaryk University. “But I don’t think that Babiš would be somebody like Zeman in the past – a pro-Russian and pro-Chinese president. Because his business interests are connected to western and central Europe.”

Velvet divorce

The Czech Republic and Slovakia have just marked the 30-year anniversary of the so-called ‘velvet divorce’ – the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia following the fall of communism. For some voters, the historical resonance is significant, says Tallis.

“Lessons the Czech Republic has learned from history about how to stand up to autocracy, things about what is worthwhile about democracy, about how Ukrainians have revived memories of why freedoms and rights are worth fighting and dying for. What is actually liberty all about and where is the hope of that progressive future?” Tallis told VOA.

If no candidate secures an outright majority in Friday’s election, the top two go through to a second round two weeks later.

According to the Financial Times newspaper, recent surveys indicate the three candidates each have between 20 and 30 percent of the vote, with six other contenders splitting the remaining votes.

Some of the information in this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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As BRICS Chair, South Africa Vows to ‘Advance African Interests’

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeAF

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says he’ll use his chairmanship of the BRICS group of leading emerging economies to focus on advancing African interests. The bloc — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — is seen as an alternative to dominant Western economies.

South Africa has just taken over the BRICS chairmanship from China and will host the group’s annual summit this year — with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa promising more African countries will be invited to attend.

“We want to use this opportunity to advance the interests of our continent, and we will therefore through the BRICS summit be having an outreach process or moment, where we will invite other African countries to come and be part of the BRICS because we do want BRICS in whatever BRICS does to focus on helping to develop our continent,” said Ramaphosa.

“Our continent was pillaged and ravaged and exploited by other continents and we therefore want to build the solidarity in BRICS to advance the interests, of course initially of our own country, but also of the continent as a whole.”

Asked what form advocating for Africa might take, Mikatekiso Kubayi, a researcher at the Pretoria-based research organization the Institute for Global Dialogue, told VOA it would likely be focused on helping African countries gain greater access to the global economy.

He said BRICS is all about allowing the “voices of the marginalized to actually be heard” and said Africa wants to better the living standards of its people and create employment.

“The collective strength of the BRICS economy and the technological capability, market size, and other qualities that make BRICS a solid development partner for Africa is what South Africa will look to harness with the BRICS partners. I think that is what the president was referring to,” said Kubayi.

Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, of the South African Institute of International Affairs, said that trade would be a priority and there would be a focus on unlocking the potential of the recently formed African Continental Free Trade Area.

She noted that China, the world’s second-largest economy, is the continent’s single largest trade partner.

She said the summit is also about getting investment from external partners and sparking intra-continental trade.

“South Africa would want to advocate in the discussions on these issues with its other BRICS partners in terms of how we, we use the creation of a continental free trade area, not only to trade more with the external world, but primarily, which is what this initiative is really about, to trade, to create goods in the continent that we can trade within the continent,” she said.

Sidiropoulos said aside from trying to advance the economies of developing countries, BRICS is also about reforming the current multilateral system which “does not necessarily advance the interests of the global South.”

At the last BRICS summit, hosted virtually by Beijing, Ramaphosa took aim at the West, saying that during the COVID-19 pandemic rich nations did not adhere to “the principles of solidarity and cooperation when it comes to equitable access to vaccines.”

As well as an economic force, BRICS — which includes three democracies but also communist China and authoritarian Russia — is increasing a political force that positions itself as an alternative to the U.S.-led liberal world order.

Only Brazil voted against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations last year, while the other members abstained. South Africa, as the continent’s foremost democracy, was widely criticized for taking a neutral stance on the conflict.

And it looks like BRICS might soon expand. Saudi Arabia is reportedly interested in joining the bloc, as are Iran, Algeria and Argentina.
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Iran Sentences Belgian Aid Worker to Prison, Lashes

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeEU

Iran has sentenced a Belgian aid worker to a lengthy prison term and 74 lashes after convicting him of espionage charges in a closed-door trial, state media reported Tuesday.

The website of Iran’s judiciary said a Revolutionary Court sentenced 41-year-old Olivier Vandecasteele to 12.5 years in prison for espionage, 12.5 years for collaboration with hostile governments and 12.5 years for money laundering. He was also fined $1 million and sentenced to 2.5 years for currency smuggling.

Under Iranian law, Vandecasteele would be eligible for release after 12.5 years. The judiciary website said the verdicts can be appealed.

Iran has detained a number of foreigners and dual nationals over the years, accusing them of espionage or other state security offenses and sentencing them after secretive trials in which rights groups say they are denied due process. Critics accuse Iran of using such prisoners as bargaining chips with the West, something Iranian officials deny.

Iran has not released any details about the charges against Vandecasteele. It is unclear if they are related to anti-government protests that have convulsed Iran for months or a long-running shadow war with Israel and the U.S. marked by covert attacks on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

The nationwide protests began after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained for allegedly violating Iran’s strict Islamic dress code. Rallying under the slogan “Women, life, freedom,” the protesters say they are fed up with decades of social and political repression. Iran has blamed the protests on foreign powers, without providing evidence.

Vandecasteele’s family said last month that he has been detained in an Iranian prison for months and has been on a hunger strike. They said he was deprived of access to a lawyer of his choice and is suffering from serious health problems.

Belgium has urged its nationals to leave Iran, warning that they face the risk of arbitrary arrest or unfair trial. There was no immediate comment on the verdict.

At least 520 protesters have been killed and more than 19,300 people have been arrested since the demonstrations began, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been monitoring the unrest. Iranian authorities have not provided official figures on deaths or arrests.

Iran has executed four people after convicting them of charges linked to the protests, including attacks on security forces. They were also convicted in Revolutionary Courts, which do not allow those on trial to pick their own lawyers or see the evidence against them.

London-based Amnesty International has said such trials bear “no resemblance to a meaningful judicial proceeding.”

The protests, which have continued for nearly four months with no sign of ending, mark one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution that brought it to power.
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Uganda Court Quashes Part of Law Used Against Government Critics

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeAF

A court in Uganda on Tuesday quashed a section of a communications law that has been used to prosecute government critics, journalists and writers, including two who fled to exile in Germany, its judgment said.

Under Uganda’s Computer Misuse Act, one of the sections proscribes the use of electronic communication to “disturb the peace, quiet or right of privacy of any person with no purpose of legitimate communication.”

Punishments for offenders can range from steep cash penalties to jail sentences of several years.

In a ruling on a petition filed by a rights activist seeking the quashing of that section of the law, the Constitutional Court agreed, saying it violated the constitution.

Constitutional Court Judge Kenneth Kakuru, who wrote the lead judgment on behalf of a panel of five judges, said that section of the law “is unjustifiable as it curtails the freedom of speech in a free and democratic society.”

He declared it “null and void” and banned its enforcement.

There was no immediate response from government spokesman Ofwono Opondo to a Reuters request for comment.

Rights activists have long complained of Uganda’s various communications laws enacted by the government of President Yoweri Museveni.

Critics say the laws are indiscriminately broad, disguised censorship and have mostly been used to punish opponents of Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986.

Stella Nyanzi, a university lecturer and author who earned a huge social media following for her profanity- and vulgarity-laced criticism attacks on Museveni, spent more than a year in jail after she was convicted under Uganda’s electronic communications laws.

She subsequently fled Uganda and now lives in exile in Germany alongside another Ugandan author and international award winner, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, who was prosecuted under the same laws before he also fled.
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In Photos: Flooding in California

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeUS

The latest in a string of Pacific storms blamed for at least 12 deaths soaked California on Monday, prompting evacuations of some 25,000 people, including the entire town of Montecito and nearby areas of the Santa Barbara coast, due to heightened flood and mudslide risks, Reuters reported.
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Czechs to Choose President as Rivals Clash Over Support for Ukraine

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeEU

Czech voters are preparing to choose a new president — with support for Ukraine and relations with Russia and China among the key issues. As Henry Ridgwell reports, three candidates are neck and neck in the polls.
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Virgin Orbit Rocket Carrying Satellites Fails to Reach Orbit

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeEU

A mission to launch the first satellites into orbit from Western Europe suffered an “anomaly” Tuesday, Virgin Orbit said.

The U.S.-based company attempted its first international launch on Monday, using a modified jumbo jet to carry one of its rockets from Cornwall in southwestern England to the Atlantic Ocean where the rocket was released. The rocket was supposed to take nine small satellites for mixed civil and defense use into orbit.

But about two hours after the plane took off, the company reported that the mission encountered a problem.

“We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit. We are evaluating the information,” Virgin Orbit said on Twitter.

Virgin Orbit, which is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, was founded by British billionaire Richard Branson. It has previously completed four similar launches from California.

Hundreds gathered for the launch cheered earlier as a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft, named “Cosmic Girl,” took off from Cornwall late Monday. Around an hour into the flight, the plane released the rocket at around 35,000 feet (around 10,000 meters) over the Atlantic Ocean to the south of Ireland.

The plane, piloted by a Royal Air Force pilot, returned to Cornwall after releasing the rocket.

Some of the satellites are meant for U.K. defense monitoring, while others are for businesses such as those working in navigational technology. One Welsh company is looking to manufacture materials such as electronic components in space.

U.K. officials had high hopes for the mission. Ian Annett, deputy chief executive at the U.K. Space Agency, said Monday it marked a “new era” for his country’s space industry. There was strong market demand for small satellite launches, Annett said, and the U.K. has ambitions to be “the hub of European launches.”

In the past, satellites produced in the U.K. had to be sent to spaceports in other countries to make their journey into space.

The mission was a collaboration between the U.K. Space Agency, the Royal Air Force, Virgin Orbit and Cornwall Council.

The launch was originally planned for late last year, but it was postponed because of technical and regulatory issues.
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Flood, Mudslide Threats Prompt Evacuations Along California Coast

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeUS

The Montecito evacuation zone was among 17 California regions where authorities worry a series of torrential downpours since late December could unleash lethal cascades of mud, boulders and other debris in hillsides stripped bare of vegetation by past wildfires.

The mandatory evacuations came five years after mudslides from heavy rains struck newly fire-scarred slopes and canyons around Montecito, an affluent coastal enclave 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles, causing widespread damage and killing more than 20 people in January 2018.

Sheriff’s deputies were out plying flooded roads in armored high-clearance BearCat SWAT vehicles to rescue residents trapped by high water, said Raquel Zick, a Santa Barbara County sheriff’s spokesperson told Reuters.

Among the nearly 9,000 residents of Montecito, many with opulent homes in the picturesque town, are such celebrities as media mogul Oprah Winfrey, and Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan.

It was not immediately clear whether they were among those forced to flee the area. Winfrey was known to have been in Hawaii over the New Year’s holiday.

Another famous Montecito resident, actress-comedian Ellen DeGeneres, posted a video selfie on Twitter of herself standing in the rain beside a flooded torrent flowing through what she described as a normally dry creek bed near her property.

‘Mother nature is not happy’

The performer, garbed in a hooded jacket, tweeted that she had been advised to “shelter in place” rather than evacuate since her home was on higher ground.

“We need to be nicer to Mother Nature, because Mother Nature is not happy with us,” she said in the video. “Let’s all do our part. Stay safe, everybody. Yikes,” DeGeneres said.

All 15 districts of Montecito were ordered to immediately evacuate along with portions of the city of Santa Barbara and adjacent areas of Carpinteria and Summerland where “burn scars” posed a threat of mudslides, the Montecito Fire Department said.

Social media video posted online by TMZ.com showed a man paddling his kayak in the middle of a flooded street in Santa Barbara. The Los Angeles Times reported numerous road closures from flooding and debris flows, including sections of U.S. highway route 101 in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Along the central California coast, some 14,000 people were ordered evacuated early on Monday from four Santa Cruz County communities inundated with flash floods, extreme tides and heavy runoff from local mountains, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the state Office of Emergency Services.

Nearly 4,000 more people in the town of Wilton remained under evacuation orders due to flood threats from breached levees along the Cosumnes River south of Sacramento, the state capital. Another 42,000 residents of roughly a dozen counties were under evacuation warnings, Ferguson said.

The torrential rains, along with heavy snow in mountain areas, were the product of yet another “atmospheric river” of dense moisture funneled into California from the tropical Pacific, powered by sprawling low-pressure systems churning offshore.

At least a dozen fatalities have been attributed to several back-to-back storms that have lashed California since December 26, including a toddler killed when a redwood tree was blown over his family’s trailer home last week.

Experts say the growing frequency and intensity of such storms, interspersed with extreme dry spells, are symptoms of climate change, posing greater challenges to managing California’s precious water supplies while minimizing risks of floods, mudslides and wildfires.

The six storms since just after Christmas have been accompanied by pounding surf that has battered seaside communities, as well as fierce, gale-force winds that have uprooted thousands of trees weakened by prolonged drought.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has warned the latest onslaught would impact most of California’s 39 million residents, with up to 5 inches of additional rain expected to fall near the coast and more than a foot of snow on the Sierra Nevada mountains over the next few days.

The high winds have wreaked havoc on the state’s power grid, knocking out electricity to tens of thousands of Californians. As many as 120,000 homes and businesses were without electricity on Monday morning, according to data from Poweroutage.us.

U.S. President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate disaster relief efforts and mobilize emergency resources in California.
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House GOP Kicks Off Majority With Vote to Slash IRS Funding

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeUS

House Republicans began their tenure in the majority Monday by passing a bill that would rescind nearly $71 billion that Congress had provided the IRS, fulfilling a campaign promise even though the legislation is unlikely to advance further.

Democrats had beefed up the IRS over the next decade to help offset the cost of top health and environmental priorities they passed last year and to replenish an agency struggling to provide basic services to taxpayers and ensure fairness in tax compliance.

The money is on top of what Congress provides the IRS annually through the appropriations process and immediately became a magnet for GOP campaign ads in the fall, claiming that the boost would lead to an army of IRS agents harassing hard-working Americans.

The bill to rescind the money passed the House on a party-line vote of 221-210. The Democratic-controlled Senate has vowed to ignore it.

Shortly before the vote, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that rescinding the extra IRS funding would increase deficits over the coming decade by more than $114 billion. That created an awkward moment for Republicans, who have been saying that addressing deficits would be one of their top concerns in the majority.

Still, the CBO’s projection didn’t appear to dampen Republican support. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said the extra IRS funding Democrats provided last year was for one purpose.

“To go after small businesses, hard-working Americans to try to raise money for reckless spending, reckless spending that has caused $31 trillion in debt in this nation,” Duncan said.

Duncan and other GOP lawmakers routinely say the extra funding will be used to hire 87,000 new agents to target Americans, but that’s misleading. The number is based on a Treasury Department plan saying that many IRS employees would be hired over the next decade if it got the money. But those employees will not all be hired at the same time, they will not all be auditors and many will be replacing some 50,000 employees who are expected to quit or retire in coming years.

“This debate about IRS lends itself to be the most dishonest, demagogic rhetoric that I have seen in the Congress at any point in time,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

Charles Rettig, the former commissioner of the IRS, said in a final message to the agency in November that the additional money would help in many areas, not just beefing up tax enforcement. He said the investments would make it “even less likely for honest taxpayers to hear from the IRS or receive an audit letter.”

Additional funding for the agency has been politically controversial since 2013, when the IRS under the Obama administration was found to have used inappropriate criteria to review tea party groups and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status.

In the ensuing years, the IRS was mostly on the losing end of congressional funding fights, even as a subsequent 2017 report found that both conservative and liberal groups were chosen for scrutiny.

In April, Rettig told lawmakers the agency’s budget has decreased by more than 15% over the past decade when accounting for inflation and said the number of full-time employees — 79,000 in the last fiscal year — was close to 1974 levels.

But Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., and other Republicans weren’t buying the argument that the funding would be focused on auditing the wealthy.

“This is meant to nickel-and-dime, audit and harass America’s small businesses and families, who they know cannot afford the legal fees to fight this army,” Malliotakis said.

Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said a decade of Republican-led budget cuts gutted the IRS.

“The only way that House Republicans could make it any more obvious that they’re doing a favor for wealthy tax cheats is by coming out and saying it in exactly those words,” Wyden said. “This bill is going nowhere in the Senate.”

And the White House said President Joe Biden would veto the bill if it gets to his desk, saying that the wealthiest 1% of Americans hide about 20% of their income so they don’t have to pay taxes on it, shifting more of the tax burden to the middle class.

“With their first economic legislation of the new Congress, House Republicans are making clear that their top economic priority is to allow the rich and multibillion-dollar corporations to skip out on their taxes, while making life harder for ordinary, middle-class families that pay the taxes they owe,” the White House said.
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China’s New Foreign Minister Heads to Africa

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeAF

China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang is starting his term with a weeklong trip to five African countries, the Foreign Ministry announced Monday.

Qin, who until recently was ambassador to the United States, will visit Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, Benin and Egypt from January 9-16, spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily media briefing. In Egypt, Qin will also meet the secretary-general of the Arab League.

The new foreign minister is following in the footsteps of his predecessors, who have for more than three decades started each year with a trip to Africa.

“It shows that China attaches great importance to the traditional friendship with Africa and the development of China-Africa relations,” Wang said.

The U.S. is battling China for influence in Africa, with President Joe Biden making an appeal to African leaders at a summit in Washington in December. China has become a major trading partner with the continent and investor in infrastructure and mining projects.

Qin, 56, was appointed foreign minister December 30. He succeeded Wang Yi, 69, who has replaced Yang Jiechi as the government’s top foreign policy official.

Wang’s new position has not been announced, but a recent article by him on the Foreign Ministry website described him as director of the ruling Communist Party’s foreign affairs office, the post that Yang held.
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Five Suspects Held in Murder of Kenyan LGBTQ Activist

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeAF

A court in Kenya says five suspects are being held in connection with the murder of prominent LGBTQ activist Edwin Chiloba, whose mutilated body was found on a roadside last week stuffed in a metal trunk.

Kenyan police say they are investigating a possible love triangle as motive for the killing.

Rights activists suspect the killing was one in a series of hate crimes in Kenya, where homosexuality is illegal.

Among the five suspects arraigned in court in Eldoret Monday was Jacktone Odhiambo, a freelance photographer said to be a longtime friend of the 25-year-old Chiloba, who was a leading activist in Kenya’s LGBTQ community.

The arraignment comes just a day after police arrested three more suspects for their alleged role in disposing of the victim’s remains. Chiloba’s family told VOA they are satisfied with the investigation process so far, even as they demand justice for their kin.

“We want the culprits or the murderers of my brother to be charged according to the Kenyan law,” said Gaudensia Chirchir, Chiloba’s cousin and the family spokesperson.

Chiloba’s body was discovered about 40 kilometers outside the Rift Valley town of Eldoret after it was reportedly dumped from a moving car.

The killing has drawn widespread condemnation, including from the U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk and the African Union’s human rights commissioner Solomon Ayele Dersso.

Rights activists say members of the LGBTQ community are increasingly being targeted with discrimination and attacks.

Fahe Kerubo, an LGBTQ campaigner at the Reproductive Health Network in Kenya, said that “The incident of Edwin is not a first. This comes after Sheila Lumamba has been killed and others that I can remember.”

Kerubo added that, “We’ve also seen increased homophobia, especially online. We’ve seen a lot of increased violation of incidents among the queer community or that is directed toward the LGBTQ community.”

Under a British colonial-era law, homosexuality is illegal in Kenya.
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Scholz: Berlin Will Not Go It Alone as Pressure Mounts to Supply Kyiv Tanks

Posted on 01/10/2023 by SeeEU

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Monday he remained convinced of the need to coordinate weapons deliveries to Ukraine with allies as pressure mounts on Berlin to send Kyiv its Leopard 2 battle tanks.

Germany announced last week it would provide Ukraine with Marder infantry fighting vehicles to help repel Russian forces. The announcement came on the same day that the United States pledged Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and a day after a similar announcement from France.

Scholz, who has often underscored the importance of not escalating the conflict in Ukraine or giving Russia a reason to deem it party to the war, said the Western allies had spent “a long time preparing, discussing and organizing this.”

Kyiv has also requested heavier vehicles such as the Leopards, which would represent a significant step up in Western support to Ukraine.

“Germany will not go alone,” he said at an event of his center-left Social Democrat party (SPD) kicking off the campaign for the Berlin state election.

“Germany will always remain united with its friends and allies. … Anything else would be irresponsible in such a dangerous situation.”

Germany has become one of Ukraine’s top military supporters in response to Russia’s invasion after last year overcoming a taboo that is rooted in its bloody 20th century history on sending weapons to conflict zones.

Still, critics say Scholz and his ruling SPD are too slow, waiting for allies to act first instead of assuming Germany’s responsibility as the Western power closest to Ukraine.

The SPD’s junior coalition partners, the Greens and liberal Free Democrats, have been more vocal in their calls to ramp up military support to Ukraine.

Germany cannot rule out the delivery of Leopard tanks, heavier fighting vehicles than the Marders, to support Ukrainian military forces in the future, Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens told German broadcaster ARD.

Britain is considering supplying Ukraine with the British army’s Challenger 2 main battle tank, Sky News reported Monday, citing unnamed sources.
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New Guidance: Use Drugs, Surgery Early for Obesity in Kids

Posted on 01/09/2023 by SeeUS

Children struggling with obesity should be evaluated and treated early and aggressively, including with medications for kids as young as 12 and surgery for those as young as 13, according to new guidelines released Monday.

The long-standing practice of “watchful waiting,” or delaying treatment to see whether children and teens outgrow or overcome obesity on their own, only worsens the problem that affects more than 14.4 million young people in the U.S. Left untreated, obesity can lead to lifelong health problems, including high blood pressure, diabetes and depression.

“Waiting doesn’t work,” said Dr. Ihuoma Eneli, co-author of the first guidance on childhood obesity in 15 years from the American Academy of Pediatrics. “What we see is a continuation of weight gain and the likelihood that they’ll have [obesity] in adulthood.”

For the first time, the group’s guidance sets ages at which kids and teens should be offered medical treatments such as drugs and surgery — in addition to intensive diet, exercise and other behavior and lifestyle interventions, said Eneli, director of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

In general, doctors should offer adolescents 12 and older who have obesity access to appropriate drugs and teens 13 and older with severe obesity referrals for weight-loss surgery, though situations may vary.

The guidelines aim to reset the inaccurate view of obesity as “a personal problem, maybe a failure of the person’s diligence,” said Dr. Sandra Hassink, medical director for the AAP Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight, and a co-author of the guidelines.

“This is not different than you have asthma and now we have an inhaler for you,” Hassink said.

‘Not a lifestyle problem’

Young people who have a body mass index that meets or exceeds the 95th percentile for kids of the same age and gender are considered obese. Kids who reach or exceed that level by 120% are considered to have severe obesity. BMI is a measure of body size based on a calculation of height and weight.

Obesity affects nearly 20% of kids and teens in the U.S. and about 42% of adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The group’s guidance takes into consideration that obesity is a biological problem and that the condition is a complex, chronic disease, said Aaron Kelly, co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

“Obesity is not a lifestyle problem. It is not a lifestyle disease,” he said. “It predominately emerges from biological factors.”

The guidelines come as new drug treatments for obesity in kids have emerged, including approval late last month of Wegovy, a weekly injection, for use in children ages 12 and older. Different doses of the drug, called semaglutide, are also used under different names to treat diabetes. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk, helped teens reduce their BMI by about 16% on average, better than the results in adults.

How Wegovy works

The drug affects how the pathways between the brain and the gut regulate energy, said Dr. Justin Ryder, an obesity researcher at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

“It works on how your brain and stomach communicate with one another and helps you feel more full than you would be,” he said.

Still, specific doses of semaglutide and other anti-obesity drugs have been hard to get because of recent shortages caused by manufacturing problems and high demand, spurred in part by celebrities on TikTok and other social media platforms boasting about enhanced weight loss.

In addition, many insurers won’t pay for the medication, which costs about $1,300 a month.

One expert in pediatric obesity cautioned that while kids with obesity must be treated early and intensively, he worries that some doctors may turn too quickly to drugs or surgery.

“It’s not that I’m against the medications,” said Dr. Robert Lustig, a longtime specialist in pediatric endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. “I’m against the willy-nilly use of those medications without addressing the cause of the problem.”

Lustig said children must be evaluated individually to understand all factors that contribute to obesity. He has long blamed too much sugar for the rise in obesity. He urges a sharp focus on diet, particularly ultra-processed foods high in sugar and low in fiber.

Dr. Stephanie Byrne, a pediatrician at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said she’d like more research about the drug’s efficacy in a more diverse group of children and about potential long-term effects before she begins prescribing it regularly.

“I would want to see it be used on a little more consistent basis,” she said. “And I would have to have that patient come in pretty frequently to be monitored.”

At the same time, she welcomed the group’s new emphasis on prompt, intensive treatment for obesity in kids.

“I definitely think this is a realization that diet and exercise is not going to do it for a number of teens who are struggling with this — maybe the majority,” she said.
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Plane Carrying Rocket Takes Off for First UK Satellite Launch

Posted on 01/09/2023 by SeeEU

A modified jumbo jet carrying a Virgin Orbit rocket took off from southwestern England Monday, marking the first attempt to launch satellites into orbit from Western Europe.

Hundreds gathered for the launch cheered as the repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft, named “Cosmic Girl,” took off from Cornwall late Monday. Around an hour into the flight, the plane will release the rocket at 35,000 feet (around 10,000 meters) over the Atlantic Ocean to the south of Ireland.

The rocket will then take nine small satellites for mixed civil and defense use into orbit, while the plane, piloted by a Royal Air Force pilot, returns to Cornwall.

If successful, the mission will mark the first international launch for Virgin Orbit, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson. The company, which is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, has already completed four similar launches from California.

In the past, satellites produced in the U.K. had to be sent to spaceports in other countries to make their journey into space.

“This is the start of a new era for the U.K. in terms of launch capabilities,” said Ian Annett, deputy chief executive at the U.K. Space Agency. There was strong market demand for small satellite launches, he said, and the U.K. has ambitions to be “the hub of European launches.”

Annett said it was too early to say whether more missions are planned in coming months.

The mission is a collaboration between the U.K. Space Agency, the Royal Air Force, Virgin Orbit and Cornwall Council.

The launch was originally planned for late last year, but it was postponed because of technical and regulatory issues.
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CEO of South Africa’s State-Owned Power Company Eskom Allegedly Poisoned

Posted on 01/09/2023 by SeeAF

South African police are investigating allegations by the outgoing head of state-owned power company Eskom that he was poisoned.

Andre de Ruyter alleges someone put cyanide in his coffee a day after he tendered his resignation. De Ruyter has been criticized for failing to end widespread graft in the company that fueled the worst blackouts in South Africa’s history.

Debt-ridden Eskom says due to the police investigation, it cannot comment on de Ruyter’s claim that someone tried to poison him at his Johannesburg office on December 13.

The story broke over the weekend with de Ruyter telling energy analyst and editor of EE Business Intelligence Chris Yelland that after drinking the coffee, he became weak, dizzy and confused, and started vomiting.

De Ruyter went to a doctor and tests were conducted.

South Africa’s minister of public enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, says the alleged attempt on de Ruyter’s life will be thoroughly investigated and those responsible will be charged.

Morne Malan, the head of communications at Solidarity, a union with 6,000 members at Eskom, believes the alleged poisoning was linked to de Ruyter’s fight against corruption.

“All the indications at the moment are that he was in fact poisoned based on the toxicology report,” Malan said. “From our understanding, normal cyanide levels for a human being would be around 15 milligrams per liter of blood whereas Andre de Ruyter’s was at over 40 milligrams per liter.”

De Ruyter submitted his resignation shortly after Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe criticized Eskom’s management, saying, “Eskom by not attending to load-shedding is actively agitating for the overthrow of the state.”

Malan says the union doesn’t believe Mantashe’s accusation because he says de Ruyter always put Eskom first and did his best.

Malan added that due to political interference in South Africa’s state-owned enterprises, it’s almost impossible for any CEO to conduct business independently.

“It’s terribly difficult to actually judge the extent to which he was effective,” Malan said. “There are certain things we can point to. We do believe he did a relatively good job at alleviating Eskom’s debt load. The fact of the matter is that load-shedding was significantly worse last year than ever before. We did have over 200 days of load-shedding in 2022.”

Across the country, rolling power cuts known as load-shedding were first implemented by Eskom around 2008 due to demand outstripping supply. In 2022, South Africa experienced blackouts for up to 10 hours a day at times.

Energy analysts blame corruption, crippling debt, lack of maintenance of aging coal-powered plants, and the inability to procure new plants and renewable energy sources in a timely manner as reasons for the demise of the once world-class power utility.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa has refused to comment on the poisoning investigation, referring instead to a statement issued in December. It said it is overjoyed by de Ruyter’s resignation and called him the worst CEO in the history of Eskom.

Energy expert Ted Blom was also critical of de Ruyter.

“In terms of delivering the fix-up at Eskom, he grossly underperformed and he’s actually leaving Eskom in a far worse situation than what he inherited it,” Blom said.

He added that he doesn’t know anyone who would want to take the job at Eskom.

“It certainly is not fixable by one or two people. If you are going to bring in a team to fix up Eskom it’s going to have to be in the form of a task force. They’re going to have to be independent and they’re going to have a mandate that is irrevocable for a period of time,” Blom said. “You can’t have chopping and changing every 18 months or every year like Eskom’s had in the past 15 years.”

De Ruyter, who officially started as CEO in January 2020, is expected to leave Eskom on March 31.

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