Month: March 2023

Trump Says He Will Be Arrested Tuesday

Posted on by SeeUS

Former U.S. president Donald Trump is indicating he will be arrested within days.

Former president Donald Trump, in a message on his Truth Social media platform on Saturday morning, said he will be arrested Tuesday and called on his supporters to “protest.”

He did not give details. It is known that authorities in New York City have been looking at charges against Trump in a so-called hush money case in which a former adult film performer was paid to keep silent about an alleged affair with Trump before he was president. 

Media reports say law enforcement has been preparing for security in and around the Manhattan Criminal Court, where Trump would surrender if he is indicted. 
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Sudanese Officials to Speed Up Forming Civilian Government

Posted on by SeeAF

Signers of the political deal in Sudan say a transitional civilian government is expected to be named in April. Both civilian and military officials agreed Wednesday to expedite restoration of civilian rule in Sudan, where the military has ruled since a 2021 coup. But some groups are against the framework agreement and many Sudanese are skeptical that the military will ever give up power. 

Signatories to the December 2022 Political Framework Agreement met on Wednesday to discuss progress toward restoring a civilian-led government in Sudan.

Speaking to the press shortly after the meeting, Khalid Omer Yousif, the official spokesperson of the civilian coalition that signed the agreement, says the meeting focused on expediting the process of drafting a new constitutional document.

The document, he said, will be the basis to govern the upcoming transition in Sudan.

He says participants also resolved to form a technical team that consists of representatives of the civilian coalition and military forces and other experts,

The body will be tasked with reviewing the agreement and drafting the constitution.

He said, “the meeting discussed the general progress on the political process and resolved a number of issues, including discussion on the remaining two complex matters, the transitional justice and military and security reforms. He said, those two issues are to be discussed in the ongoing political conference that should end before the holy month of Ramadan.”

Ramadan begins March 23.

The December 2022 framework agreement requires that the parties to the political process organize a conference to discuss issues that need a national consensus.

Yousif says once discussions on transitional justice and military and security reforms are finished, the technical committee will start drafting a final political agreement that will lead to the establishment of a new civilian government in early April.

He said, “The joint technical and coordinated committee that comprises the signatories to the agreement and the trilateral mechanism is expected to urgently draft a new timeframe for the discussion of the remaining issues before signing of the final political agreement as soon as possible.”

Some signatories of the 2018 peace deal aimed at settling Sudan’s internal conflicts refuse to join the ongoing political process because they reject the framework and want to maintain the 2019 constitutional declaration made after the overthrow of longtime president Omar al-Bashir. 

Many Sudanese are skeptical the military will completely give up power, regardless of any deals that are struck.

Khartoum resident Sahar Al-Jazuli says the October 2021 military coup negatively affected the revolution for democratic rule in Sudan and said supporters of democracy will not accept any agreement that doesn’t serve justice. 

Speaking to VOA via a messaging application Friday, Al-Jazuli says Sudanese people are now more aware of their rights and they will continue to speak up once they realize the framework agreement doesn’t serve their interest.

Our people have learned a lot, he said, and they became more aware of their political rights as citizens by participating in the revolution. The Sudanese people learned and understood the meaning of uprooting rights, he said. They became determined toward achieving the slogans of the revolution, freedom, peace and justice.

However, another Khartoum resident, Al-Nazir Adam Musa, applauded the military for what he called “courageous” steps to leave the political scene and allow the country to be under civilian rule.

He said, “What we expect from the current framework agreement is that it would help the country to overcome the ongoing political deadlock because the military is determined to hand over the power to civilians. He said, “This is a good gesture so far.”

Ibrahim Al-Merghani, the head of the political bureau at the opposition Democratic Unionist Party, predicted the ongoing talks on the framework will bear fruit. 

There are not many differences among national political forces about the transitional issues, he said.  He added, the differences will not affect the dialogue, which he forecasts will lead to “completion of the transitional period and sustainable democracy in the country.”
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Before Xi Visit, Russia Says It Held Naval Drills With China and Iran in Arabian Sea

Posted on by SeeEU

Russia, China and Iran have completed three-way naval exercises in the Arabian Sea that included artillery fire at targets on the sea and in the air, the Russian defense ministry said on Saturday.

The exercises, off the Iranian port of Chabahar, took place as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to host his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow for a three-day state visit starting on Monday.

Russia has continued to stage military exercises with partners, especially China, despite the strain on its armed forces from the year-long war in Ukraine, where it has failed to achieve any major advance since last summer.

The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the Chinese destroyer Nanjing were involved in the drills that took place on Thursday and Friday, the defense ministry said.

The Gorshkov, which is equipped with Russia’s latest-generation Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, also took part in joint naval exercises last month with China and South Africa.
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Burundi Declares Polio Emergency

Posted on by SeeAF

Burundi has declared a national public health emergency after polio was detected in a 4-year-old and two other children who had been in contact with the child.  

The polio outbreak is Burundi’s first in more than 30 years. 

The landlocked African country is preparing a vaccination campaign targeting eligible children, from newborns to 7-year-olds. It will be ready in a few weeks. 

In addition to the children, health officials found five polio samples in its surveillance of wastewater, confirming the presence of circulating poliovirus type 2.  Early detection is critical in containing an outbreak of the disease.

Type 2 infections can occur when the weakened strain of the virus contained in the oral polio vaccine circulates among under-immunized populations for long periods. 

The highly infectious disease is also spread through contaminated water and food or contact with an infected person.  
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British Defense Ministry: Russia Likely Preparing for Wider Conscription

Posted on by SeeEU

Russia is “likely” gearing up to cast a wider net to increase its military forces, according to the British Defense Ministry’s daily Intelligence update on Ukraine.

Earlier in the week, the report says, Russian Duma deputies introduced a bill changing the age requirement for conscription to men 21 years of age to 30 years.  Currently, the age bracket is 18 to 27.

The law will “likely” pass, the ministry said, and would go into effect in January. “Russia continues to officially bar conscripts from operations in Ukraine, though at least hundreds have probably served through administrative mix ups or after being coerced to sign contracts,” the ministry said in the update.

The report said many 18- to 21-year-old men are claiming exemptions to continue their education.

The International Monetary Fund said Friday its executive board has approved changes to its financing policy aimed at countries facing “exceptionally high uncertainty.”

The measure is widely viewed as a way to open a new loan program for Ukraine as it enters the second year of fighting back a Russian invasion.

The IMF said in a statement, “The changes apply in situations of exceptionally high uncertainty, involving exogenous shocks that are beyond the control of country authorities and the reach of their economic policies, and which generate larger than usual tail risks.”

Meanwhile, Florida-based app developer and sleep research company DreamApp recently conducted a sleep quality research study on 745 Ukrainians and how the Russian invasion has affected their sleep, dreams and mental health.

A little more than 82% of the participants said they remembered their dreams, which is an indication, DreamApp said, of “superficial sleep that does not provide a full rest.”

“When the brain does not receive enough sleep, traumatic experiences cannot be processed adequately, causing further strain on mental health,” according to Jesse Lyon, DreamApp’s chief dream scientist.  “It effectively traps these experiences in the brain causing a state of constant tension and heightened fight-or-flight response.” 
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Wagner’s Convicts Tell of Horrors of Ukraine War and Loyalty to Their Leader

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In October last year, a Russian news site published a short video of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary army, sitting with four men on a rooftop terrace in the resort town of Gelendzhik, on Russia’s Black Sea coast. Two are missing parts of a leg. A third has lost an arm. They are identified as pardoned former convicts, returned from the front in Ukraine after joining Wagner from prison.

“You were an offender, now you’re a war hero,” Prigozhin tells one man in the clip. It was the first video to depict the return of some of the thousands of convicts who joined Wagner in return for the promise of a pardon if they survived six months of war.

Reuters used facial recognition software to examine this video and more than a dozen other videos and photographs of homecoming convict fighters, published between October 2022 and February 2023. Reporters were able to identify more than 30 of the men by cross-checking the images with social media and Russian court documents.

In their ranks are murderers, thieves and a self-declared “Satanist.” Several are in hospital recovering from wounds sustained in the fighting. Reuters managed to make contact with 11 of these men. Five agreed to be interviewed by phone and messaging app. What follows is the most detailed insider account yet of Wagner’s convict army: the fighters’ recruitment and training, the combat they saw in Ukraine, and their uncertain future in a Russia turned upside down by war with its neighbor.

Four of the men said they were personally recruited by Yevgeny Prigozhin as he toured Russia’s prison system to bolster his private army. Some of the men were deployed to Ukraine’s eastern Bakhmut region, site of some of the most intense fighting of the one-year-old conflict, where one man described the “utter hell” of the battlefield. Thousands have been killed on both sides. The battle for the city of Bakhmut now hangs in the balance. A former Wagner commander who fled to Norway in January has said he witnessed members of Wagner’s internal security administering brutal treatment to prisoner recruits, including executions for desertion.

Combat training, some conducted by veterans of Russia’s special forces, was short but intensive, according to the men. Ukrainian and Western officials say Wagner is sending poorly prepared fighters to certain death in eastern Ukraine. Mike Kofman, an expert in the Russian military at the Arlington County, Virginia-based CNA think tank, told Reuters the two to three weeks of training received by the convict recruits would be unlikely to bring them up to speed, even if some of the men had prior military experience.

“It takes time to learn combat basics, receive individual training, and you also need some collective training as a unit on top of it – a couple of weeks alone isn’t going to do that much for you,” Kofman told Reuters. A more rigorous training scheme would last several months.

All five ex-prisoners expressed a fierce loyalty to Prigozhin for giving them a second chance at life. Though Reuters could not independently confirm the men’s accounts of their service, many of the details were consistent with one another. Russia’s Defense Ministry and penal service did not respond to detailed questions for this article, nor did Prigozhin and Wagner. Prigozhin has previously described Wagner as “probably the most experienced army that exists in the world today” and said its casualty rate is comparable with other Russian units.

From jail to the Ukraine front

When Prigozhin began touring Russia’s sprawling penal system in summer 2022 offering pardons to those who agreed to fight in Ukraine, word quickly spread among prisoners.

Rustam Borovkov, from the small town of Porkhov, near Russia’s border with Estonia, was one of the four men filmed on the rooftop terrace. Court records show that the 31-year-old was six years into a 13-year term for manslaughter and theft in late July when Prigozhin reached his prison, Penal Colony No. 6 in Russia’s western Pskov region. Borovkov and two friends had broken into a house to steal homebrewed alcohol, according to the court papers. One of them struck the homeowner, who died as a result.

Borovkov had heard from inmates in St Petersburg that Prigozhin was traveling from prison to prison in search of recruits. “I knew right away that I would go,” he told Reuters, “even before he came to us.”

Borovkov said he stood with several hundred other prisoners to hear Prigozhin speak. They were given three days to decide whether to join Wagner in return for freedom. About 40 signed up and after three days and a polygraph test, aimed at rooting out drug addicts, they were on their way to war.

Two months later, in September, as a Ukrainian counter-offensive gathered pace, a film emerged on social media of Prigozhin telling convicts in the Volga River region of Mari El that they had only five minutes to make a decision – and those who changed their minds after joining would be shot as deserters.

In another video, published in February this year, Prigozhin tells convicts that fighters are paid 100,000 rubles ($1,300) monthly, with the possibility of additional bonuses. That’s far above Russia’s average monthly wage of around 65,000 rubles . But Borovkov told Reuters his only motivation for joining Wagner was the promise of a pardon. “I have a small child. I wanted to get back to my family.” He said prison officers tried to persuade him not to go because he played an important role as head of his cellblock’s medical unit.

Six-time convicted thief Yevgeny Kuzhelev said a sense of patriotic duty drew him to Wagner. The 29-year-old was serving time in Russia’s southwestern Samara region for stealing cognac, beer and instant coffee from supermarkets in the Volga car-making city of Togliatti, according to court papers.

“I was sentenced to 3 years and 7 months and I’d already served two years. So I didn’t have long left. But I went anyway. Why? I thought about it, and I am sure that if I had been free at the time, I would have one hundred percent gone to fight. I would have gone as a volunteer,” he said. “I remember how from February, when it all started, I called my aunt from time to time from prison. She kept telling me that this friend of yours went [to Ukraine], then another one, then a third, a fourth … And I knew that I would have done the same.”

Kuzhelev said the recruitment process took about two weeks, and during this time inmates were free to back out without consequence. Those who enlisted were moved to separate accommodation in the prison, where they encountered a new respect from the prison officers.

“Among us there was a man who was serving a 25 year sentence,” Kuzhelev said. “He had a few months left of his term and he signed up. The prison officers asked him: ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ And he told them: ‘Everything is fine, I’m going.’ How can you not respect such a decision?”

Reuters was unable to establish the identity of the prisoner or what happened to him.

‘It was clear they were going to die’

Prigozhin has said previously that Wagner’s convict fighters spend a month undergoing rigorous combat drills, sleeping for only four hours a day. The fighters who spoke to Reuters said they received two to three weeks of intensive and well-organized training. Some credited it with saving their lives.

The war in Ukraine is straining Russia’s military capacity. Late last year, Putin announced the mobilization of reservists into the army. They would receive just 10 to 20 days’ training before deployment to the front. Basic training for infantrymen in the U.S. and British armies is around 22 weeks.

One of the convict recruits told Reuters he traveled to a Wagner training camp in the Russian-controlled part of eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region. Borovkov said training was conducted by former members of Russia’s special forces. “Everything was organized at the highest level,” said Borovkov, who previously served with the military force that secures Russia’s railways. “It wasn’t that they gave me a machine gun, showed me how to shoot and that’s it. No, they explained everything, and in great detail. Mining, demining, tactics, shooting, physical training. Everything.”

The men who spoke to Reuters said that most of the inmates who joined Wagner had some kind of military experience. They had previously served as conscripts under Russia’s one-year military draft or as professional soldiers. The convicts with the most military experience were appointed squad commanders, two of the men said.

“When we got to training, we were asked in detail who knew what, who had served, where they served,” said 38-year-old Dmitry Yermakov, who joined Wagner 10 years into a 14-year sentence for kidnapping. He declined to discuss his criminal record. “And then, when we had been divided into units, they let the lads choose their own commanders. By that time I had already earned some kind of authority, so I was chosen.”

Yermakov said the recruits who realized the gravity of the situation and asked instructors to repeat drills were the best prepared for what was to come. “Those were the men who were genuinely ready to go to war,” he said. Others hoped merely to run down the clock on their six-month stints, hoping that they would receive their pardon having seen as little combat as possible. Of these men, Yermakov said: “It was absolutely clear they were going to die.”

Paralyzing fear and adrenaline

Of the five men who spoke to Reuters, three said that they had fought in the area around the eastern city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has cost thousands of lives on both sides. Wagner is spearheading Russia’s months-long push to take the city, which had a pre-war population of 75,000 but is now in ruins. Prigozhin has referred to Bakhmut as a “meat grinder,” and said his men’s task there is to bleed the Ukrainian army dry.

Ukrainian and Western officials have compared the battles around Bakhmut to the First World War, and accused Wagner of using convicts in human wave attacks. According to the United States, by mid-February Wagner had suffered more than 30,000 casualties in Ukraine, including 9,000 dead, almost all of them convicts. Prigozhin has insisted, however, that the casualty rate among convict fighters is comparable to other Russian units.

Yermakov, the convicted kidnapper, said that some fighters lost their nerves in the first hours of battle. “What do they see there? Corpses ripped to shreds. And what do they do? Some of them vomit, some of them cry, and some of them don’t want to climb out of the trench. Fear takes over.”

Other fighters recalled only the thrill of combat.

“It was amazing,” said Andrei Yastrebov, a 22-year-old native of St Petersburg, who was serving time for car theft when he joined Wagner. Yastrebov also goes by the name Andrei Kiriyenko on social media. “So much adrenalin. I wish all real men would join Wagner. You can write that. The Ukies ran and Wagner fucked them up.”

Four of the men interviewed by Reuters were seriously injured and invalided out of Ukraine long before completing their stints. They said Wagner had told them that time spent in hospital and rehabilitation would be counted towards their six-month terms and they would receive clemency regardless. Two said they have already got their pardons.

Yermakov lasted only four days before receiving a serious wound to his arm and groin in mid December while dragging a wounded comrade to safety. He said his squad had been tasked with taking and holding a road junction near the village of Pokrovske, on the eastern approach to Bakhmut. He described his final day on the front as “utter hell,” lying flat on the ground for 24 hours as Ukrainian tanks and mortars shelled his squad’s position and drones flew overhead.

“In a war, you’re almost always lying flat on the ground. It’s the only way to survive,” said Kuzhelev, the convicted thief. He told Reuters he spent two months at the front before receiving a shrapnel wound to his arm. “We always wish people ‘Happy Birthday’ after they have been wounded” because they have dodged death. “That’s what they said to me,” he added.

A new start

Now free years ahead of schedule, whether at home or facing long periods of treatment and rehabilitation, the surviving fighters are returning to a country where their actions on the frontline are lionized by many. Prigozhin has previously said that he is giving convicts who join Wagner a “second chance” at life, and an opportunity to redeem themselves.

Earlier this month the State Duma passed a law making it a crime to “discredit” Wagner fighters. The law, which previously applied more narrowly to Russia’s armed forces, was extended at Prigozhin’s request.

Prigozhin’s growing power has not been greeted warmly by all sections of the Russian elite. In February, a long-running feud between the Wagner leader and Russia’s military chiefs exploded into open hostility. Prigozhin accused Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov of “treason,” saying they were starving Wagner of munitions out of personal animosity towards him. Shoigu and Gerasimov could not immediately be reached for comment. Earlier the same month, Prigozhin said he had ended Wagner’s recruitment of prisoners, hinting in an interview that he was forced to do so by unnamed officials.

The five fighters interviewed by Reuters felt a deep personal gratitude to Prigozhin for recruiting them and wiping their criminal records.

“We’re better than ordinary citizens,” said Yastrebov, the car thief, now at home in his native St Petersburg. “We are not ex-convicts now, thanks to Wagner.”

In a January video, Prigozhin is shown telling injured convict fighters: “The police must treat you with respect. Everything has already been agreed at various levels, so that there is no nit-picking… If necessary, I myself will call and talk to the governors and so on, and we will find a solution.”

For Kuzhelev, who as of February had been in a Krasnodar region hospital for four months, Prigozhin had given him a new lease on life. Court documents show he spent almost seven of his 29 years in prison for six separate convictions. “The last time I was sent to prison, I was thinking: ‘Well, here I am again, what’s next?'” he said. “I’ll serve a year, another, a third, and then what? I’ll go out, and what am I going to do on the outside? What am I going to do with myself, given my background?”

“Well, now I’m clean. I have some money. I can think about the future. Think about getting a mortgage to buy an apartment … I have all this thanks to our esteemed Yevgeny Viktorovich,” Kuzhelev added, using Prigozhin’s patronymic as a sign of respect.

All five of the men who spoke to Reuters said either that they would remain with Wagner after their six month service, or were seriously considering doing so.

Some said they wanted to get back to the frontlines as soon as they were able to. Nikita Lyubimov, a native of the Volga city of Cheboksary who had been serving a four and a half year sentence for grievous bodily harm, said his first priority was “to support the lads, to recover as soon as possible, and get back to the front line.” The 23-year-old had received a shrapnel wound two months into his initial stint in Ukraine, and was invalided out.

The men said that the able-bodied among them were offered the chance to sign on as professional full-time mercenaries, while the injured were offered supporting roles. Borovkov, who is getting a prosthetic arm after amputation, said that he had been offered a job at a Wagner hospital in Luhansk when he recovers.

Yermakov said he hoped to recover sufficiently to re-enroll as a contract mercenary, and hoped to be deployed in future to Libya, Syria or the Central African Republic, where Wagner operations predate the group’s present campaign in Ukraine. He cited limited prospects available in Russia’s civilian economy as pushing him towards returning to Wagner.

“People work hard without days off for 12-14 hours a day, and at best they earn 50-60,000 rubles ($672-$806) a month,” said Yermakov, who told Reuters he has two small daughters. “I will return to the (Wagner) company and I will definitely be able to earn 150,000 rubles ($2,000) a month.”

For others, a return to Wagner offers an alternative to sinking back into a life of crime. Kuzhelev, who has spent almost seven of his 29 years in prison, told Reuters that he hoped that service in Wagner would enable his young daughter to build a career in future, without the stigma of her father’s criminal past.

“My daughter, when she grows up, can go on to study banking, or attend the police academy,” said Kuzhelev. “And she will not have problems because her father was in prison. Isn’t that motivation? Of course it is.”
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Feds Want Justices to End Navajo Fight for Colorado River Water

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States that rely on water from the over-tapped Colorado River want the U.S. Supreme Court to block a lawsuit from the Navajo Nation that could upend how water is shared in the Western U.S.

The tribe doesn’t have enough water and says that the federal government is at fault. Roughly a third of residents on the vast Navajo Nation don’t have running water in their homes.

More than 150 years ago, the U.S. government and the tribe signed treaties that promised the tribe a “permanent home” — a promise the Navajo Nation says includes a sufficient supply of water. The tribe says the government broke its promise to ensure the tribe has enough water and that people are suffering as a result.

The federal government disputes that claim. And states, such as Arizona, California and Nevada, argue that more water for the Navajo Nation would cut into already scarce supplies for cities, agriculture and business growth.

The high court will hold oral arguments Monday in a case with critical implications for how water from the drought-stricken Colorado River is shared and the extent of the U.S. government’s obligations to Native American tribes.

A win for the Navajo Nation won’t directly result in more water for the roughly 175,000 people who live on the largest reservation in the U.S. But it’s a piece of what has been a multi-faceted approach over decades to obtain a basic need.

Tina Becenti, a mother of five, made two or three short trips a day to her mom’s house or a public water spot to haul water back home, filling several five-gallon buckets and liter-sized pickle jars. They filled slowly, sapping hours from her day. Her sons would sometimes help lift the heavy containers into her Nissan SUV that she’d drive carefully back home to avoid spills.

“Every drop really matters,” Becenti said.

That water had to be heated then poured into a tub to bathe her young twin girls. Becenti’s mother had running water, so her three older children would sometimes go there to shower. After a couple of years, Becenti finally got a large tank installed by the nonprofit DigDeep so she could use her sink.

DigDeep, which filed a legal brief in support of the Navajo Nation’s case, has worked to help tribal members gain access to water as larger water-rights claims are pressed.

Extending water lines to the sparsely populated sections of the 69,000-square-kilometer reservation that spans three states is difficult and costly. But tribal officials say additional water supplies would help ease the burden and create equity.

“You drive to Flagstaff, you drive to Albuquerque, you drive to Phoenix, there is water everywhere, everything is green, everything is watered up,” said Rex Kontz, deputy general manager of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. “You don’t see that on Navajo.”

The tribe primarily relies on groundwater to serve homes and businesses.

For decades, the Navajo Nation has fought for access to surface water, including the Colorado River and its tributaries, that it can pipe to more remote locations for homes, businesses and government offices.

It’s a legal fight that resonates with tribes across the U.S., said Dylan Hedden-Nicely, the director of the Native American Law Program at the University of Idaho and an attorney representing tribal organizations that filed a brief in support of the Navajo Nation.

The Navajo Nation has reached settlements for water from the San Juan River in New Mexico and Utah. Both of those settlements draw from the Colorado River’s Upper Basin.

The tribe has yet to reach agreement with Arizona and the federal government for water rights from the Colorado River in the Lower Basin that includes the states of California, Arizona and Nevada. It also has sought water from a tributary, the Little Colorado River, another major legal dispute that’s playing out separately.

In the U.S Supreme Court case, the Navajo Nation wants the U.S. Department of the Interior to account for the tribe’s needs in Arizona and come up with a plan to meet those needs.

A federal appeals court ruled the Navajo Nation’s lawsuit could move forward, overturning a decision from a lower court.

Attorneys for the Navajo Nation base their claims on two treaties the tribe and the U.S. signed in 1849 and 1868. The latter allowed Navajos to return to their ancestral homelands in the Four Corners region after being forcibly marched to a desolate tract in eastern New Mexico.

The Navajo Nation wants the Supreme Court to find that those treaties guaranteed them enough water to sustain their homeland. And the tribe wants a chance to make its case before a lower federal court.

The federal government says it has helped the tribe get water from the Colorado River’s tributaries, but no treaty or law forces officials to address the tribe’s general water needs. The Interior Department declined to comment on the pending case.

“We absolutely think they’re entitled to water, but we don’t think the lower Colorado River is the source,” said Rita Maguire, the attorney representing states in the Lower Basin who oppose the tribe’s claims.

If the Supreme Court sides with the Navajo Nation, other tribes might make similar demands, Maguire said.

Arizona, Nevada and California contend the Navajo Nation is making an end run around another Supreme Court case that divvied up water in the Colorado River’s Lower Basin.

“The first question in front of the court now is: why is the lower court dealing with the issue at all?” said Grant Christensen, a federal Indian law expert and professor at Stetson University.

Even if the justices side with the Navajo Nation, the tribe wouldn’t immediately get water. The case would go back to the U.S. District Court in Arizona, and rights to more water still could be years, if not, decades away. The Navajo Nation also could reach a settlement with Arizona and the federal government for rights to water from the Colorado River and funding to deliver it to tribal communities.

Tribal water rights often are tied to the date a reservation was established, which would give the Navajo Nation one of the highest priority rights to Colorado River water and could force conservation on others, said Hedden-Nicely of the University of Idaho.

Given the likelihood of a long road ahead, Kontz of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority says many older Navajo won’t live to see running water in their homes.

Becenti, the 42-year-old mother of five, remembers shedding tears of joy when running water finally was installed in her house and her family could use a flushable indoor toilet.

It was a relief to “go to the facility without having to worry about bugs, lizards, snakes,” she said.

 
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Day of Hate Raises Questions About Amplification of Extremist Content

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Last month, for several long days, many in the American Jewish community were gripped with fear over a neo-Nazi organized “National Day of Hate.”

Jewish leaders and law enforcement officials urged community members to be vigilant after a little-known white nationalist group announced plans for a day of antisemitic action on February 25.

But the day came and went without incident, raising questions over whether, by spotlighting the event, mainstream organizations such as the American Defamation League helped to quash it or gave its organizers undue publicity, something many fringe groups crave.

The ADL, a prominent anti-hate group, says its “advisories and public advocacy” caused some extremists to stay home rather than partake in the antisemitic event.

“This is a success and a win for the Jewish community in keeping our communities safe,” an ADL spokesperson said in a statement to VOA.

But critics say that by magnifying the Day of Hate, advocacy groups, law enforcement and media outlets played into white nationalists’ strategy of cowing their victims and drawing publicity with what often amounts to little more than stunts.

Warnings about the so-called day of hate “made national headlines, became one of the top trending topics on social media in the United States, frightened the Jewish community, and led to a heightened security posture across the country,” researchers at the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) wrote in a recent report.

Seed planted on Telegram

The episode began on January 4, when an Iowa-based white nationalist group calling itself “Crew 319” went on the Telegram messaging app to announce plans for a “National Day of Hate” on February 25, urging followers to join in “a day of MASS ANTI-SEMITIC ACTION.”

“Shock the masses with banner drops, stickers, fliers and graffiti,” the post read. “Inaction is unacceptable.”

This wasn’t the first time a neo-Nazi group was pushing a “day of action.” In recent years, “White Lives Matter,” a relatively new network of white supremacists, has popularized “days of action” featuring rallies and propaganda distribution.

But Crew 319’s call fell flat. With just a few hundred followers on Telegram, the group barely registered on anyone’s radar, according to extremism researcher Ben Lorber of the social justice think tank Political Research Associates.

“From spending a little bit of time on their online spaces, it was clear that this was a small group with a handful of people at most,” Lorber said in an interview with VOA.

Warnings spread

NCRI researchers studied how the group’s call to action evolved from an obscure post on Telegram into a top trending social media topic.

They found that the clique’s initial post generated roughly 20 likes on Telegram. And when a week later it reposted the announcement, it received even fewer likes — 11.

What is more, white nationalist groups such as the National Socialist Movement largely ignored the announcement.

“There was no momentum around it,” Lorber said. “It was going to be nothing. But then all of a sudden, the national media turned it into a huge thing.”

The turning point came on February 9, more than a month after Crew 319’s initial post, when the ADL highlighted the planned observance in a series of tweets.

Advising its followers that it had been “monitoring plans for a day of antisemitic action,” the ADL wrote that the proposed “National Day of Hate” had been “endorsed and shared online by various extremist groups.”

“If at any time you feel that you may be in danger, contact law enforcement,” the ADL wrote in one of the tweets. “Jewish institutions should use this event as an appropriate moment to review security protocols with staff.”

The ADL isn’t just another Jewish civil rights organization. Though it has its detractors, it is widely respected, and whenever it issues a public alert, “people take it very seriously,” Lorber said.

Crew 319 reveled in the attention.

“The National Day of Hate is already an overwhelming success before it’s even occurred,” the group wrote on its Telegram channel on February 10.

Communities on edge

In the leadup to February 25, the ADL posted about the “nationwide extremist day of hate” several more times. It also sent out several emails about the day to its mailing list.

“White supremacist groups are trying to organize antisemitic activities as a ‘National Day of Hate’ throughout this coming weekend and especially this Saturday,” ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt warned in an email on February 23, urging allies to join in a #ShabbatOfPeaceNotHate.

By then, the “National Day of Hate” had taken on a life of its own.

Cities with large Jewish communities were on alert.

Police departments from New York to Chicago issued advisories that “circulated among Jews on social media, in WhatsApp chats and via email,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

Prominent lawmakers “referenced the ‘National Day of Hate’ in solidarity with the Jewish community,” according to the NCRI report.

And while there was no evidence that large white nationalist organizations intended to participate, news outlets reported that “neo-Nazi groups” were planning to “target” Jews with a “National Day of Hate.”

The Jewish community was on edge.

“This weekend will be hard for the Jewish people,” Rabbi Abram Goodstein tweeted from Alaska on February 23.

With growing online chatter about the National Day of Hate, the term became one of the top trending terms on Twitter the weekend of February 25, according to the NCRI’s analysis.

On Twitter, the term was mentioned in more than 104,000 tweets and retweets and garnered tens of millions of impressions.

On TikTok, the hashtag #nationaldayofhate received close to 100,000 views, and #dayofhate received close to 700,000 views, according to NCRI.

In the face of growing public anxiety, even groups that did not foresee violence felt compelled to put something out.

“By the Wednesday night before the Saturday scheduled Day of Hate reached such a crescendo that we said OK, we better put something out. Let’s try to tamp down some of the fear that’s out there,” said Mitch Silber, executive director of Community Security Initiative.

Yet the feared mass anti-Semitic action did not come to pass.

“Luckily, nothing happened despite the widespread fear,” said NCRI lead intelligence analyst Alex Goldenberg.

Public warnings were ‘necessary,’ say some

The day after, Crew 319 went on Telegram to claim, without evidence, that “tons of people” participated in the event and that it would soon release a video of the day.

It has yet to produce the promised video. And Goldenberg said he hasn’t seen any evidence to suggest that “the National Day of Hate was any different from any other weekend that we typically see in the United States.”

In the days that followed, however, NCRI and other extremism researchers have seized on the event to highlight the dangers of amplifying what they call “low-signal extremist content.”

“To sound an undue or outsized alarm amplifies extremist causes with unnecessary attention, potentially elevating risks of acceleration,” NCRI researchers wrote.

“In their view, they set out to ‘shock the masses,’ and amplification helped them succeed.”

Goldenberg said the amplification may have given white supremacists something to celebrate.

“What happens on February 25th next year?” Goldenberg said. “Are they going to gather up, (and) galvanize around this next year or the year after? And if they do, who is the onus on?”

The ADL stands by its public advocacy.

“Issuing public advisories is not something ADL does lightly,” an ADL spokesperson said in a statement to VOA. “Precisely because we take seriously the importance of not amplifying extremist threats or traumatizing the Jewish community, we send the vast majority of our extremism-related alerts directly to law enforcement. In this instance, we believe going public was not only necessary, but was successful in helping prevent a worse situation.”

Others involved in security preparation for the “National Day of Hate” say the postmortem criticism amounts to “Monday morning quarterbacking” — an American sports analogy for leveling criticism with the benefit of hindsight.

“I think, if, God forbid, something happened, people wouldn’t be saying that,” said Evan Bernstein, national director and CEO of Community Security Service, a volunteer security organization that works with more than 200 synagogues around the country.

For Marc Katz, the rabbi of a synagogue in Bloomfield, New Jersey, the “National Day of Hate” came close to home.

In January, a man wearing a ski mask threw a Molotov cocktail at the synagogue’s door before fleeing. The attack caused superficial damage but left the congregation shaken.

“The ‘National Day of Hate’ re-triggered congregants,” Katz said in an interview with VOA. “I had somebody show up in my office in tears. People were nervous, rightfully.”

In response, local police added extra patrols during the weekend and the synagogue adopted a closed-door policy during services.

“The Day of Hate is a strange name for that day,” Katz said. “And in the back of my mind, I was always wondering whether or not we were being trolled. Something felt off almost like it was meant to panic the Jewish community more than it was a true day that was being planned to wreak havoc.”
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IMF Changes Seen Opening Path for New Ukraine Loan

Posted on by SeeEU

The International Monetary Fund said Friday its executive board has approved changes to its financing policy aimed at countries facing “exceptionally high uncertainty.”

The measure is widely viewed as a way to open a new loan program for Ukraine as it enters the second year of fighting back a Russian invasion.

The IMF said in a statement, “The changes apply in situations of exceptionally high uncertainty, involving exogenous shocks that are beyond the control of country authorities and the reach of their economic policies, and which generate larger than usual tail risks.”

Meanwhile, DreamApp recently conducted a sleep quality research study on 745 Ukrainians and how the Russian invasion has affected their sleep, dreams and mental health.

A little more than 82% of the participants said they remembered their dreams, which is an indication, DreamApp said, of “superficial sleep that does not provide a full rest.”

“When the brain does not receive enough sleep, traumatic experiences cannot be processed adequately, causing further strain on mental health,” according to Jesse Lyon, Dream App’s chief dream scientist. “It effectively traps these experiences in the brain causing a state of constant tension and heightened fight-or-flight response.”
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20 Years Since Start of US War in Iraq

Posted on by SeeUS

Sunday marks 20 years since US President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq. American forces remain in the country today, not as a foe — as was the case in 2003 — but now as a key partner. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb takes a look at the war’s toll on both countries.
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Q&A: White House ‘Concerned’ About Xi-Putin Meeting, ‘Supports’ Xi-Zelenskyy Meeting 

Posted on by SeeUS

The White House is rejecting Beijing’s proposal for a cease-fire in Ukraine, ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week, saying it would ratify Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine.

However, officials say the administration “fully supports” Xi talking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy so that China may consider Kyiv’s perspective. Zelenskyy is scheduled to hold a phone call following the Chinese leader’s meeting with Putin.

John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, spoke Friday with VOA Chinese Service White House correspondent Paris Huang. He said the U.S. still hasn’t seen evidence that China has provided lethal weaponry to Russia. He said the U.S. will deliver more assistance to Ukraine in the coming days.

Kirby also spoke of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s upcoming trip to the U.S., to which Beijing has objected.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: The International Criminal Court, the ICC judges, just issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for the deportation of children. What does this mean for U.S. policies toward Putin? Does that mean President Joe Biden will not be meeting Putin in future?

John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications: Look, this is just breaking news. We’re going to have to take a look at this before we can make any kind of official comment. Separate and distinct from that, President Biden has been clear, we want to make sure that Russia is held accountable for the atrocities, for the war crimes, for the crimes against humanity that they are perpetrating inside Ukraine and against the Ukrainian people. We’re going to continue to help international bodies as they collect evidence and begin to analyze that evidence going forward. But I won’t go any further than that right now.

VOA: China’s President Xi Jinping is going to Moscow to meet with Putin next week. Do you think Xi Jinping’s words carry weight in Putin’s mind? Any concern about this meeting?

Kirby: We know that China and Russia have been improving and increasing their relationship in many different ways, both sides have been. I can’t speak for the kind of influence that Mr. Xi might have over Mr. Putin. We’ll just have to see what it is they decide to talk about. What we are concerned about is that President Xi hasn’t talked to President Zelenskyy and we believe it’s important that he do that as well – that he doesn’t just get the Russian perspective here on this war, but that he gets President Zelenskyy’s perspective. And I would also say, while we’re at this, we’ve seen in the China 12-point so-called peace proposal, they talk about a cease-fire. And we’d be concerned if coming out of this meeting there was some sort of a call for a cease-fire, because right now, while a cease-fire sounds good, it actually ratifies Russia’s gains on the ground. It actually serves Russia’s purpose for a cease-fire to basically call a stop right now without any acknowledgement that Russia is illegally inside Ukraine.

VOA: What is your response to the assessment that if there’s a cease-fire that can temporarily put aside the question of territorial boundaries, that that kind of cease-fire might be what is feasible?

Kirby: That doesn’t serve Ukraine’s interests. Doesn’t serve the world’s interests. It doesn’t serve the U.N. Charter’s interest. It would be a violation of the U.N. Charter. Look in the first line of the Chinese proposal – it says that they want to see sovereignty respected. Well, you know what? We agree with that, everybody should agree with that, and if you want to see sovereignty respected, then that means you don’t call a cease-fire right now which ratifies Russia’s gains and their conquest and leaves it at that, at the expense of the Ukrainian people.

VOA: What is the administration and NATO’s proposal that may be coming forward for lowering tensions? And on that note, can you give us the administration’s current thinking of the discussion of the Germany, France and U.K. defense pact for Ukrainians to encourage peace talks with Moscow?

Kirby: We all want to see this war end, and it could end today if Mr. Putin would pull his troops out. That’s not going to happen, so I think we all envision the possibility that there could be some sort of negotiated settlement. I won’t speak for other countries and what their sovereign approach to this is. For the United States perspective, it’s nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine – no negotiation, no settlement discussion can or should take place without Ukraine being squarely in the middle of it, and President Zelenskyy’s perspective fully and completely understood and respected. That’s where we are.

VOA: President Xi Jinping is going to talk to President Zelenskyy virtually, according to China. So, what would you like to see from that call, and have President Zelenskyy talk to the U.S. side about what kind of message he’s going to convey to President Xi?

Kirby: We fully support President Xi talking to President Zelenskyy. We think it’s important that he gets the Ukrainian perspective. And I won’t speak for President Zelenskyy but I’m sure that if he gets that opportunity, he’ll be very frank and forthright with President Xi, as he has been with leaders around the world, about what this war is doing to his country and to his people, and how much he’s willing to continue to fight off Russian aggression and defend his sovereignty and his independence. And we believe that a more comprehensive picture of those efforts, and President Zelenskyy’s goals and objectives, are absolutely good for President Xi to hear.

VOA: Can we expect President Biden and President Xi’s phone call to happen before Xi’s visit to Moscow? And if that happens, what would President Biden’s message to President Xi be?

Kirby: I’m not going to get ahead of the president. The president said he wants to keep the lines of communications open with China. He means that, and he said he would look forward to a potential discussion with President Xi here in the near future. Nothing’s on the schedule right now, but the president has made his intent obvious to all of us, and we look forward to getting [to] that place in the days and weeks ahead.

VOA: CNN reported that Ukrainian forces shot down a drone that was used during the war, and it turned out to be – it was made by a Chinese company. Is purchasing that kind of drones from Chinese companies, although they are private companies, a violation of sanctions?

Kirby: I don’t know the specifics on this report, so I’m not going to address that. That’s the first I heard of that, but we have not seen China enforce sanctions against Russia and we have been calling, since the beginning, for all nations to observe these sanctions and abide by them, and we certainly want China to be included in that, but I don’t have the details on this particular account.

VOA: There are Chinese companies that have shipped the assault rifles, Chinese-made rifles and drone parts, and body armor through Turkey and UAE to Russia. You said earlier that those are long-standing deals. Does that mean if there’s new deals coming out, that will be a violation?

Kirby: Our understanding is that these are long-standing business transactions, and we don’t have information or confirmation that any of those dual-use items are actually on the battlefield. Now, again, that’s just where we are right now. We have not seen the Chinese move in a direction to provide lethal weaponry to Russia. They’ve not made that decision, that official decision. And so, we urge them not to. What I can tell you is we don’t think it’s in China’s best interests to provide lethal weapons to Russia, to Mr. Putin, so that he can turn around and just kill more innocent Ukrainians. It’s hard to see how that’s in China’s best interests. They have a choice to make, and we obviously have made it clear privately to them and certainly publicly where we think they ought to come down on this.

VOA: U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has confirmed that he will meet with the President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen in California in early April. China is going to react. What precautions is the administration taking in case of China’s retaliation?

Kirby: First of all, I won’t speak for Speaker McCarthy and his schedule or that of Taiwan’s leaders. These transits are not new. They happen and have happened in the past in a fairly routine way. And again, I won’t speak to the particulars of who Speaker McCarthy will meet or when. He can speak to that. We just need to put this into some perspective here, because these are routine, because they have happened before, these transits, there should be no reason for anybody to overreact one way or the other. As we have said many, many times, we do not seek a conflict with China, we don’t seek any kind of escalation in the tensions in this relationship. As a matter of fact, as we’ve just been talking about, the president wants to keep the lines of communication open. He wants to be able to continue to try to build on the progress that he and President Xi were able to make in Bali. Now, unfortunately, that progress has been stunted somewhat by the fact that they flew a Chinese balloon over the country, but he believes that it’s still the most consequential bilateral relationship in the world, and he wants to keep those lines open.

VOA: Honduras announced that it will cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan and switch to China. Is the Biden administration concerned about China’s growing influence in America’s backyard? And what are you doing to prevent this from happening?

Kirby: We aren’t actively telling countries to choose between the United States and China. We’re not, and these are sovereign decisions that nations have to make. We would hope that Hondurans, just like other people around the world, will see what China is trying to do with their expanding influence – that they will see that this is all about China’s self and not about a genuine belief in the power of partnerships around the world. All I can do is speak for our foreign policy. We have a very active, engaged foreign policy in Latin America and we’re going to continue to pursue that.

VOA: Taiwan will certainly be disappointed if Honduras actually cuts the tie. So how can the U.S. convince Taiwan and other allies that siding with the U.S. is beneficial diplomatically?

Kirby: Again, these are decisions that countries have to make, and I understand Honduras has to make this decision on their own, but we would just hope that Honduras and the Honduran people understand the potential risks and downsides that come with simply accepting China’s influence and entering into negotiations with China that may not actually be in the best interest of the Honduran people.

VOA: Ukraine is having an ammunition shortage. Are you confident that Ukraine will be able to achieve their goals on the battlefield in the next few weeks or months? Are the U.S. and its partners trying to speed up the delivery and production right now?

Kirby: We have been putting security assistance in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers at an unprecedented rate and with a sense of urgency that we all have shared over the course of a year now, and that will continue going forward. I’m not going to get ahead of Ukrainian operations, or what they’re going to need, or where they’re going to be. That’s for them to talk to. You’re going to see another delivery package here from the United States in [the] coming days, and I think you’ll see in that package the kinds of materiel, weapons and ammunition that we believe are going to be vital to Ukraine succeeding in the weeks and months ahead.

VOA: Last week Russia launched a massive missile attack against Ukraine using the type of rockets that Ukrainians don’t have the ability to intercept for now. When will the first Patriot battery arrive in Ukraine?

Kirby: The Department of Defense will have a much better sense of that than I do. It’s going to be many months before a Patriot battery can be delivered into Ukraine. I will remind that we continue to provide a full range of air defense capabilities to Ukraine, short and medium range, and it’s not just us, it’s our allies and partners that are doing that as well. There are four things that we think the Ukrainians need the most right now: artillery, ammunition, armored capability and air defense. And I think, again, if you look at what we have provided in recent months and what we will continue to provide, you’ll see that we prioritize air defense.

VOA: Following Tehran’s and Riyadh’s normalization of diplomatic relations, Saudi Arabia’s finance minister said Saudi will soon invest in Iran. Are you concerned that this will be a way for Tehran to circumvent the U.S. sanctions?

Kirby: Iran is a destabilizing actor throughout the region. Make no mistake about that. Whether it’s the way they’re treating their own people, whether the support for the terrorist groups – Hamas and Hezbollah as well as the Houthi rebels – or the attacks on maritime shipping, and let’s not forget the provision of hundreds of lethal drones to Russia, so that Russia can, again, kill more Ukrainian people. That’s what the regime is signing up to. They’re killing their own people who are protesting in the country and they’re helping Russia kill Ukrainian citizens, innocent people who are not involved and should not have ever been invaded. That’s what Iran is up to. I’ll let Iran and Saudi Arabia speak to this arrangement. If this arrangement can decrease tensions, if it can help us end the war in Yemen, if it can make safer the people living in Saudi Arabia, including 70,000 Americans, then that’s all to the good and we support that, but it remains to be seen whether it was going to actually have that effect.

VOA: The Persian New Year, Nowruz, is coming up in a few days. What is the Biden administration’s message to the Iranian people?

Kirby: The president will have a message. I certainly won’t get ahead of that, but obviously, we wish the very best to the Iranian people for Nowruz and for the new year. We recognize that as we do wish the Iranian people a better new year, that the last year visited upon them an inordinate amount of suffering and pain at the hands of their own regime. And no citizen of any country should have to go through what so many Iranians have had to go through. But of course, our issues are with the regime in Tehran, it’s not with the Iranian people. And again, we certainly wish that they have a better, safer, a more secure, and a more prosperous new year than they had last year.
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Президент Зеленський підписав закон 7198 про компенсації за зруйноване майно

Posted on by SeeEA
Основні новації закону 7198, який 17 березня 2023 року підписав Президент України Володимир Зеленський:

– Компенсації надаватимуть виключно за майно (пошкоджене/зруйноване) з 24 лютого 2022 року;

– Закон діє протягом трьох років після припинення або скасування воєнного стану на території, де такий об’єкт знаходиться (знаходився);

– Закон не поширюватиметься на об’єкти, що на дату введення воєнного стану були на тимчасово окупованій території;

– Компенсацію надаватимуться виключно за пошкоджену або знищену житлову нерухомість: квартири, інші житлові приміщення (наприклад, кімнати у гуртожитках), будинки садибного типу, садові та дачні будинки, об’єкти будівництва, у яких зведені опорні та зовнішні конструкції;

– Право на компенсацію отримають фізичні особи – громадяни України, які є власниками пошкодженого/зруйнованого майна;

– Не зможуть отримати компенсації особи із санкційних списків, із судимістю за вчинення злочинів проти основ національної безпеки та їхні спадкоємці;

– За пошкоджене майно отримати грошову компенсацію буде неможливо – для таких випадків пропонують виключно відновлення через будівельні роботи та/або надання будівельних матеріалів для них;

– Власники знищених квартир та інших житлових приміщень одержать житловий сертифікат — документ, що підтверджує гарантії держави профінансувати придбання квартири або іншого житлового приміщення (у тому числі такого, що буде споруджене в майбутньому) в обсязі визначеної грошової суми;

– У власників приватних будинків буде вибір — отримати житловий сертифікат на купівлю квартири чи будинку або грошову компенсацію, яку будуть перераховувати на рахунок зі спеціальним режимом використання для фінансування будівництва;

– Граничний розмір компенсації — і грошової, і у вигляді житлового сертифіката — відсутній, як і обмеження щодо місцезнаходження, типу та площі нового житла, будівництво якого буде профінансоване через сертифікат;

– Використати сертифікат можна протягом п’яти років з дня його видачі, а відчужувати протягом 5 років, окрім успадкування, заборонено;

– Якщо ціна житла буде вищою за суму, зазначену в сертифікаті, недоотриману частину компенсації будуть сплачувати отримувачу лише за рахунок грошових коштів, отриманих від рф для відшкодування збитків;

– Строк подання заяви про надання компенсації за знищене житлове майно збільшили до другого читання — її можна подати під час дії воєнного стану та протягом одного року з дня його припинення;

– До заяви необхідно буде додати копію документа, що підтверджує право власності або придбання нерухомості та, за наявності, матеріали фото- і відеофіксації до або після знищення;

– Розглядати заяви та приймати рішення про надання або відмову в наданні компенсації за знищене майно буде Комісія з розгляду питань щодо надання компенсації. Такі комісії створюватимуться виконавчими органами місцевих рад, військовими або військово-цивільними адміністраціями населених пунктів.

Джерелами фінансування компенсації за пошкоджене та знищене майно будуть:

1. кошти державного та місцевих бюджетів;

2. кошти міжнародних фінансових організацій, інших кредиторів та інвесторів;

3. міжнародна технічна та/або поворотна чи безповоротна фінансова допомога;

4. репарації або інші стягнення з російської федерації;

5. інші джерела, не заборонені законодавством України, в тому числі місцеві фонди, створені з метою надання компенсації та відновлення пошкоджених/знищених (зруйнованих) об’єктів нерухомого майна.

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UN Weekly Roundup: March 11-17, 2023

Posted on by SeeEU

Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Will Ukraine-Russia grain deal continue?

The package deal that facilitates the export of Ukrainian grain, Russian food and fertilizer products to international markets faces another renewal on Saturday. If neither party objects, it will automatically continue. But Russia has said it wants only a 60-day extension, rather than the agreement’s mandated 120 days. Ukraine and Turkey, which helped broker the deal, have both backed the four-month extension.

During a Security Council meeting Friday afternoon on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told council members that the deal is “vital for global food security” and must continue and be fully implemented. He said the U.N. is doing everything it can to make sure the Black Sea Grain Initiative can continue. Under it, Ukraine has exported almost 25 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs from three ports since the deal was signed in late July, while Russia has received assistance in removing obstacles to the export of its food and fertilizer products.

Hague tribunal seeks Putin’s arrest for war crimes

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant on Friday for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes for his alleged involvement in the abduction of children from Ukraine.

This comes on the heels of a report published Thursday from an international commission of inquiry that alleges Russia has committed wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine. The report is based on more than 500 interviews as well as satellite images and visits to detention sites and graves.

Special envoy for Myanmar warns no political settlement in sight

The United Nations envoy for Myanmar said Thursday that the prospect for a political settlement to that country’s military takeover is unlikely. “With both sides intent on prevailing by force, there is no prospect for a negotiated settlement,” Special Envoy Noeleen Heyzer told the General Assembly in a briefing on the situation.

Nuclear watchdog says uranium missing in Libya

Some 2.5 tons of natural uranium stored in a site in war-torn Libya have gone missing, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Thursday, raising safety and proliferation concerns. The IAEA said it is working to “clarify the circumstances of the removal of the nuclear material and its current location.”

Labor study: Essential workers underpaid, ill-treated

A new study by the International Labor Organization finds that essential workers are undervalued, underpaid, laboring under poor working conditions, and exposed to treatment that “exacerbates employee turnover and labor shortages, jeopardizing the provision of basic services.” Data from 90 countries show that during the COVID-19 crisis, key workers suffered higher mortality rates than non-key workers overall, with transport workers being at highest risk.

In brief

— The United States, Albania, Japan and South Korea co-hosted an informal meeting of the Security Council, known as an Arria meeting, on Friday to highlight North Korea’s ongoing human rights violations and their link to Pyongyang’s illegal WMD and ballistic missile programs. Two North Korean defectors shared their stories. The hosts pointed to Pyongyang’s use of forced labor to earn revenue and other abuses used to fund its weapons program while its population struggles with food insecurity. China blocked the hosts from airing the meeting on the U.N. website and their representative said the session was not constructive.

— Humanitarian efforts continued this week to assist victims of Cyclone Freddy in Malawi and Mozambique. Search-and-rescue operations continue in Malawi and aid efforts are scaling up as floodwaters subside. Aid workers are mobilizing air transport and boats to ship supplies to areas that cannot be reached by road. In Mozambique, the U.N. is working with authorities to reach more than 49,000 displaced people and access areas that remain cut off by floodwaters. The U.N. says cholera is also spreading and there is a shortage of water purification supplies. On Thursday, the U.N. released $10 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund for cyclone relief.

­— The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to renew its assistance mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for another year. In a second decision, the council was also united in passing a resolution calling on the secretary-general to launch an independent assessment for an international approach to Afghanistan. The panel would report to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres by mid-November with recommendations for an “integrated and coherent approach” to dealing with humanitarian, political and development challenges in the country.

— The secretary-general announced the members of his next Youth Climate Advisory Group on Thursday. The seven young climate leaders come from Colombia, Gambia, Ireland, Philippines, Poland, St. Lucia and the United States and will each serve a two-year term. Guterres has said that young people are on the front lines of the climate fight and are central to keeping society on track to meet global goals to slow the planet’s warming. The U.N. says the advisers will work with youth climate movements and leaders around the world to bring youth perspectives and solutions directly to the secretary-general and to major climate decision-making meetings.

Next week

March 22 is World Water Day and the U.N. will mark it this year with a three-day conference on charting a course to a more water-secure world. The U.N. says by the end of this decade, the global demand for fresh water is expected to exceed supply by 40%. The conference will look at ways to integrate water and climate policies for current realities. A major outcome is expected in the Water Action Agenda, which will include commitments from governments, businesses, civil society and other groups.
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Donors Pledge More Than $850M for Venezuelan Refugees

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International donors pledged more than $850 million at a conference in Brussels to help support millions of refugees and migrants who have fled Venezuela, the European Union said on Friday.

The EU and Canada co-hosted the two-day meeting aimed at raising awareness and funds to help tackle what they call one of the world’s largest displacement crises.

“Almost 810 million euros [$860 million] have been pledged at the 2023 Solidarity Conference with Venezuelans and their hosts,” European crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarcic said. “I am encouraged by the renewed commitment of the international community.”

More than 7 million Venezuelans have left their country, propelled by grinding poverty and a political crisis, according to estimates by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

Among the main pledges were $171 million from the United States, $80 million from the EU and $42 million from Canada.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government had accused Canada and the European Union of convening a “hostile” conference that politicizes migration.

Caracas strongly objected to the International Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants and their Host Countries and Communities, with the foreign ministry calling it a “spectacle that only serves the commercial interests of some participants.”

The UNHCR and International Organization for Migration, which were both involved in the conference, had urged increased international support for Venezuelan refugees and migrants and the Latin American and Caribbean countries that host them.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi thanked the EU and Canada for hosting the event. He called the plight of the Venezuelan refugees “one of many dimensions of human mobility in the Americas that need humanitarian and development responses.”
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US Seeks to Sanction More Companies for Using Forced Labor in China, Says Official

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One of the top priorities for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this year is to add more companies to a sanctions list for using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region, a senior DHS official said on Friday.

Robert Silvers, DHS undersecretary for strategy, policy and plans, said another priority this year was to work to persuade like-minded countries in Europe, as well as Japan, Australia, India and others, to pursue enforcement regimes similar to those of the United States.

The department was assigned by the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to create a sanctions list for companies known to traffic in forced labor.

“One of our highest priorities for 2023 is to add additional entities to that list,” Silvers told an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington.

“We are very aware based on credible reporting from the NGO and other communities that there’s a significant number of companies that are operating in Xinjiang or around Xinjiang that are engaging in these abhorrent practices, and we want to name them, and we want to ensure that their goods do not come into this country,” he said.

Beijing denies any abuses and rejects allegations by rights groups and governments of forced labor and internment of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority of around 10 million people in the western region of Xinjiang. The United States has accused China of genocide in Xinjiang.

“We’ve seen darkness in Xinjiang province. We continue to see darkness,” Silvers said, adding that DHS was in a position to step up the pace of imposition of sanctions.

It is also possible to remove companies from the entities list if they prove they have “cleaned up” their act, Silvers said. DHS is very interested in using technology, such as DNA testing, to determine whether cotton products came from Xinjiang, he said.
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Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank Has Chinese Startups Worried

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The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has caused panic not just in the U.S. tech industry but also in China, where the bank has been a key player for years among Chinese startups.

In recent days, many startups in China have issued statements to reassure their investors that their deposits with SVB will not impact their operations.

Before the bank failed and was taken over by U.S. regulators this month, Silicon Valley Bank was the 16th-largest American bank. In foreign markets, SVB’s reputation for financing about half of all U.S. venture-backed technology and health care companies made it a popular choice for companies, including those based in China and backed by U.S. venture capitalists.

BeiGene, one of China’s largest biotech companies that specializes in the development of cancer drugs, said that the collapse of SVB would have “no major impact” on its operations, and that its uninsured cash deposits in Silicon Valley Bank totaled only $175 million, or about 3.9% of its cash and other investments.

Zai Lab, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Shanghai, issued a statement saying that SVB’s collapse would have no impact on its operations, including the ability to pay wages and make payments to third parties.

Other startups, including Andon Health, Sirnaomics, Everest Medicines and Jacobio Pharma, have issued similar statements.

After SVB failed, the Biden administration stepped in and ensured that all customers would be able to get their deposits back, even those who had more than $250,000 in their accounts. That’s the maximum amount that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation typically covers when a bank fails, but more than 90% of Silicon Valley Bank accounts were above that amount.

With their SVB deposits frozen, many companies could have been at risk of failing themselves, so the Biden administration said it would step in to guarantee they would get their funds back.

FDIC reimbursements for Chinese customers?

On Chinese social media, there has been concern that the reimbursements may apply only to customers in America.

“Is it true that only depositors who are U.S. citizens can get their money back? What about us?” asked one post on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.

William Hanlon, a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, told VOA Mandarin in an email that the FDIC as receiver “will not categorize account holders by nationality” and “will treat all depositors equally based on their status as depositors.”

David M. Bizar, another partner at Seyfarth Shaw, said the FDIC is continuing to operate SVB as a full-service bridge bank while it searches for buyers of the bank’s assets.

“It can be expected that the United States will continue to maintain these deposit accounts and keep them from losing their value so long as it maintains them in its receivership, and that the FDIC as receiver will not sell these deposit accounts to purchasers who would be permitted under the sale agreements to reduce their values after the transfers,” he told VOA.

So far, several Chinese companies have publicly said they were able to withdraw all their deposits at SVB.

SVB’s role in China

The now-failed SVB carved out a unique role in the Chinese banking scene. It served roughly 2,200 clients and advised government regulators who were eager to build the country’s tech sector. The Santa Clara, California-based bank supported startup companies that not all banks, especially the big commercial ones in China, would accept because of higher risks.

In 2010, then-CEO Ken Wilcox brought the entire board of directors to China to showcase the importance he attached to the China market, according to Chinese media reports. In a 2019 interview, when he was SVB’s chief credit officer, he said SVB was “a model bank for China.”

SVB approached China in two different ways. One involved wholly owned operations in major tech centers, including Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai, where it advised startups on how to manage overseas funding. The other involved a 50-50 joint-venture with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, also known as SPD Silicon Valley bank, that operates under a similar model as SVB.

Following the collapse of SVB, the Chinese policymakers signaled stricter oversight to improve financial market security.

The South China Morning Post quoted Liu Xiaochun, deputy director of the Shanghai Finance Institute, as saying it was inappropriate to set up a similar specialist bank in China.

He argued that to avoid potential losses in supporting tech and health startups, large commercial banks should establish branches to finance innovation, while managing risk exposure at headquarters.
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Russia Sanctions a Boon for Chinese Arms Sales to Africa?

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Russia has long been the biggest exporter of arms to sub-Saharan Africa, but a new study indicates Western sanctions are making it harder for Moscow to sell weapons, opening the door for more Chinese-made arms.

Even before the Ukraine war, China had increased its sales of weapons to sub-Saharan Africa, exporting almost three times as many arms to the region between 2017 and 2020 as the United States, according to a report this month by the Atlantic Council. The lion’s share went to just five African countries where China has invested heavily in its key infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative.

For example, in 2021, Nigeria — which is fighting an Islamist insurgency and spent $4.5 billion on its military that year — purchased 34.4% of its arms from China, with Russia accounting for more than 6% and the U.S. — while still by far the largest arms exporter globally – just over 2%.

The Atlantic Council researchers say this trend will likely continue.

“Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine may open additional opportunities for Chinese military influence in Nigeria. International sanctions in the wake of that invasion may limit the benefits of Nigeria’s 2021 agreement with Moscow for military equipment and training—and could mean an increase in Nigeria’s arms imports from China,” the report said.

“U.S. sanctions of many Russian defense contractors are forcing Nigeria to consider alternatives: China is clearly the default option as the growing relationship between China and Nigeria in the past few years has also made China the top arms exporter to Nigeria, surpassing Russia in arms exports for two consecutive years,” it found.

China, Russia exporting arms to Africa

The Atlantic Council estimated that between 2010 and 2021, Russia accounted for 24% of all arms exports to sub-Saharan Africa, China for 22% and the U.S. for 5%. China’s arms exports peaked in 2013, the year the Belt and Road Initiative was launched.

Oluwole Ojewale, a Nigerian researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, told VOA there were two reasons behind Nigeria and other African nations turning to China for arms. One, he said, is the fact that China is Africa’s largest trade partner generally. The other is that sales of Chinese arms — unlike U.S. arms exports which are governed by International Traffic in Arms regulations — don’t come with strings attached.

“It’s lax on the part of China, on the part of Russia, some of these autocratic countries, compared to the U.S.,” he said, noting that in the past Nigeria has turned to Russia for arms in its fight against Boko Haram because the U.S. was concerned their weapons could be used in abuses.

Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said the Atlantic Council data showed a “big jump” in recent Chinese arms sales compared to previous data.

“I believe that the sanctions that have been incurred by Russia, by the Russian government, by Russian defense companies is obviously a boon for China… China really stands to benefit,” he said, adding that “strategically speaking China and Russia are actually competitors when it comes to weaponry on the African continent.”

“I think one also has to mention the fact that African countries have been quite disappointed at what they’ve seen in how Russian hardware, especially tanks and heavy weapons have fared in Ukraine,” Nantulya said. “They’ve not fared very well.”

In terms of what exactly African countries are buying, Nantulya said that early on, Rwanda purchased China’s “Red Arrow” missile system, and Namibia procured patrol craft and attack vessels from China, as has Algeria. China has always had a monopoly on weapons and training in Tanzania, he said, and in Cameroon, the country’s naval assets have been fitted with high caliber Chinese guns.

The Atlantic Council said China also has graduated from selling mainly small arms to selling heavier weaponry to Africa, and Nantulya noted that “unmanned aerial vehicles have become a very popular defense article among African militaries.”

Selling drones, shopping for jets

This year, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is fighting a rebel movement in the east, purchased nine Chinese attack drones.

The DRC is also reportedly looking to buy fighter jets and, just last week, a high-level delegation from the China-Africa Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation based in Beijing was in Kinshasa along with People’s Liberation Army officials to discuss a deal.

Thomas Newdick, a defense journalist at the U.S.-based War Zone defense technology website, told VOA that Russia does not have anything to offer comparable to China’s drones. Armed drones, he said, are good for insurgency-like situations — which abound in Africa — and countries are turning to China to purchase them because “the U.S. export guidelines for armed drones in particular are extremely strict.”

China also is selling more aircraft, where Russia used to dominate, he said.

“The Chinese footprint in terms of arms sales has been expanding rapidly, even before the war in Ukraine,” said Newdick, noting that now however, because of the war, “the Russian arms industry is struggling even to meet its domestic requirements.”

Asked for comment on its increasing arms exports to Africa, the Chinese Embassy in Washington referred questions to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, which did not respond. The Chinese Mission to the African Union also failed to respond to request for comment, as did an A.U. spokeswoman.

As well as military hardware, China also provides regular training for African forces, as does the U.S.

“For decades, the United States demonstrated this commitment through sustained efforts to build defense capacity, particularly through professional military education, grant assistance, security agreements, joint exercises, training, and military exchanges,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA.

Regardless of where they buy their weapons, analysts say both Western-supplied weapons and Chinese weapons can fall into the wrong hands or be used in human rights abuses.

The U.S. sells billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, an autocratic regime that has been accused of rights abuses in the war in Yemen.

“It matters less where governments of African countries choose to buy arms. What we need to underscore is that irrespective of the source, arms can still fall into the hands of organized criminal groups” including terrorists, said Ojewale.

With African governments increasingly turning to more sophisticated weapons like attack drones and missile systems, analysts expect insurgent and terrorist groups to upgrade their weapons to keep pace.
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Zambian Officials Arrest Auditor General, Others on Corruption Charges 

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Zambian authorities have arrested the country‘s auditor general and 17 others at the Ministry of Finance on charges of corruption and theft of public funds. The suspects allegedly benefited from $25 million in payments for fictitious activities.

Anti-Corruption Commission spokesperson Timothy Moono confirmed the arrests to reporters in Lusaka on Friday. He said the commission was not targeting any one person at the Finance Ministry. 

“The commission has subsequently restricted several bank accounts held by individuals suspected to be involved in this saga as part of ongoing investigations,” Moono said.

The investigations stemmed from a special audit of the government’s financial management information system for the period from 2018 to 2021.

Cabinet Secretary Patrick Kangwa, in an earlier statement, said that “President Hakainde Hichilema has directed that the ongoing investigations must be conducted without any interference.”

Transparency International’s representative in Zambia, Sampa Kalunga, recently complained on a local radio station that the government’s anti-corruption program was “disjointed, archaic and does not show results.”

Many previous arrests have ended in bail, with defendants denying the charges and investigations not resulting in any convictions.
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US Experts Urge More Efforts to Thwart China’s Acquisition of US Military Technology 

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U.S. former officials and experts are urging greater efforts to thwart Chinese espionage, which many believe has enabled Beijing to develop a range of advanced weaponry on the back of stolen American technology.

James Anderson, a former acting undersecretary of defense for policy, said China stole U.S. military technology for developing its J-20 fighter jet and has benefited immensely.

“They have profited greatly from their thievery over the years,” he said. “They’ve put it to good use, and they’ve come up with an advanced fifth-generation fighter,” noting that it’s “hard to say, short of actual combat,” how the J-20 matches up against the U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter.

Matthew Brazil is a researcher and writer with Jamestown Foundation who served in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he both promoted and controlled U.S. high-technology exports to China. He said the FBI doesn’t have enough people to keep track of China’s activities in the U.S.

Brazil told VOA Mandarin, “Chinese communist espionage is not like an army of cockroaches crawling up our arms with daggers between their teeth. It’s spying. We can handle it with a better counterespionage system that includes both the government and the private sector working more closely together.”

He noted the FBI lacks “enough agents trained in Chinese language, culture and area studies. Congress should step in here and fund this sort of program to train people.”

U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Mark Warner last month urged the Biden administration to expand the use of existing tools and authorities at the Treasury and Commerce departments to prevent China’s military-industrial complex and entities from benefiting from U.S. technology, talent and investments.

As of March 14, Warner’s office told VOA Mandarin, “We have not yet received a response and are following up with the relevant departments.”

VOA Mandarin emailed the Chinese Embassy in Washington asking for a comment but did not receive a response in time for publication. Anderson, who made his remarks to Fox News Digital last week, was sworn in on June 8, 2020, and resigned in November 2020.

US tech in Chinese weapons

China claims to have independently developed its fifth-generation stealth fighter J-20, which entered service in 2017. John Chipman, head of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said on February 15 at an IISS event that China’s J-20A production is expected to surpass that of the U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jet by the end of 2023.

China’s sixth-generation fighter jets, hypersonic weapons and missiles, and even the spy balloons that crossed the continental United States last month all appear to incorporate elements of American technology, according to DefenseOne, a Washington news site devoted to military issues.

U.S. defense officials say China has the world’s leading hypersonic arsenal.

Terry Thompson, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and war planner at the Pentagon who blogs, told VOA Mandarin that China lacks a solid technological foundation and has a long history of stealing technology.

He said, “If you look back at the epic progression of Chinese aircraft, they say they’ve produced an aircraft that looks like and flies like the F-16 and like the F-15 and the F-18. I mean, they look just like our aircraft. They’re not building something new that comes from their own base of technology. They don’t have a base of technology.”

Thompson said China targets engine and power system technology, but also “the aerodynamics. They didn’t have the capability to coat airplanes with stealth material. They stole that from us.

“But now China is making its way right up to the table that the rest of the free world is playing on, because they are just stealing their pathway to that table.”

Old-style spies and cyberattacks

Anderson told Fox News Digital that China’s intelligence practices include the old-fashioned — spies and bribes to buy American contractors, university professors and government officials — and high-tech cyberactivity to steal key information on military weapons.

“In effect, we end up subsidizing a portion of their research and development budget because they are successfully stealing some of our secrets,” Anderson said.

Kris Osborn, president and editor-in-chief of the U.S. Military Modernization Center, said in an article published last month that China has hired at least 162 Chinese scientists who had worked at the U.S. Los Alamos National Laboratory on deep-penetrating warheads, new hardened heat-resistant nanocomposite materials, vertical-takeoff-and-landing drones and a new generation of submarine “quiet” technologies.

“However, to put things simply and clearly, many of the U.S.-driven technological advances in these critical areas appear to have been stolen by Chinese spies,” Osborn wrote.

A report published in April 2022 by BluePath Labs, a consulting firm commissioned by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, said, “Despite a wide body of research on China’s scientific progress, the laboratory system remains a less understood component. … This opacity not only leads to gaps in our knowledge of Chinese defense research, but in many cases has allowed these labs to fly under the radar, leading to cases of close interaction, and even cooperation between Chinese defense labs and U.S. and allied academic institutions.”

In 2023, China’s military expenditure will expand significantly, by 7.2% to $224.8 billion, according to the official budget discussed in an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

When meeting with a delegation of the People’s Liberation Army and the Armed Police Force on March 8, China’s President Xi Jinping said China should accelerate the promotion of high-level technological self-reliance.

Emily de La Bruyere, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA Mandarin that China wants semiconductor technology for military functions, development of algorithms and valuable data.

“Stealing technology has been an escalating priority. And I also say that just general aggressiveness of China when it comes to the development of these capabilities, but also its use of international presence in order to coerce – all of those are increasing,” she said. “Not only are they working to catch up, but also if they’re stealing technology from the international system for their military modernization, they’re then able to modernize more cheaply than anybody else.”

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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White House Celebrates St. Patrick’s Day With Irish PM Ahead of Biden’s Ireland Trip

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U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Friday, part of the longstanding White House tradition of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations of Irish culture in the United States.

“It’s a big day in my grandparents’ household, our household, big day here,” Biden told Varadkar in reference to his Irish heritage. “Ireland and the United States share great friendship and long, long traditions,” added the president, who was wearing a green tie and shamrock in his suit pocket, traditional Irish symbols.

Varadkar thanked Biden for his “support and understanding for our position on Brexit.”

During negotiations on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, also known as Brexit, the Irish government pushed to include the Northern Ireland Protocol, designed to maintain an open border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member.

The Irish government feared that a hard border could threaten the U.S.-brokered Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 peace deal that ended decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland over the question of whether it should unify with Ireland or remain part of the UK.

Under the 2021 protocol, Northern Ireland remains in UK customs territory, but it follows many EU rules and regulations.

“And we’ve got to a good place now I think with the Windsor framework, where we can have an agreement that lasts,” Varadkar noted, referring to the post-Brexit deal designed to fix trade issues under the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The White House said the framework is an important step in maintaining the peace accord.

Biden is expected to visit Ireland in coming weeks to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The White House has not officially announced the trip, but Varadkar said he was looking forward to it.

“I promise you that we’re going to roll out the red carpet and it’s going to be a visit like no other,” Varadkar said.

Support for Ukraine

Biden thanked Varadkar for his support in Ukraine. “It means a great deal, speaking out against Russian aggression,” he said.

The taoiseach, as the Irish prime minister is officially known, in turn thanked Biden for his leadership against Moscow.

“I never thought we’d see a war like this happen in Europe in my lifetime,” Varadkar said, repeating a line often used by Western leaders that his country will stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”

After their meeting, Biden and Varadkar headed to Capitol Hill for a Friends of Ireland Caucus luncheon hosted by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, before returning to the White House for a St. Patrick’s Day reception in the evening, where the taoiseach presents the president with a crystal bowl full of shamrocks, as per tradition.

St. Patrick’s Day in-person meetings at the White House and lunch with congressional leaders at the Capitol were suspended the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 44-year-old Varadkar served as prime minister from 2017 to 2020 before returning to the office in December 2022 and was the last Irish leader to visit the White House in person in March 2020 under former president Donald Trump. Biden met with Varadkar’s predecessor, Micheal Martin, virtually in 2021 because of the pandemic, and virtually in 2022, after Martin tested positive for COVID-19 while already in Washington.

With Indian heritage from his father’s side, Varadkar is the first minority taoiseach in the country’s history. He also is the first openly gay Irish leader.

Prior to his White House engagement, Varadkar and his partner, Matthew Barrett, attended a breakfast with Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, at the vice president’s official residence.
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Central African Nations Vow to Reduce Imports to Spur Job Creation

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Leaders of Central African states meeting Friday in Cameroon announced reductions and bans on some imports to encourage local production and create jobs.

The leaders from Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo say the ongoing economic slowdown is stifling development, increasing food and fuel prices, and making living conditions unbearable for a majority the region’s 55 million people.

Daniel Ona Ondo, president of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, said conference attendees decided that Central African states will tackle the crisis by reducing or stopping imports of clothing, food, and manufactured goods, mostly from China, Russia, Ukraine, and the European Union.

Ondo said Central African states will produce goods and grow food locally to boost their economies following a severe recession triggered in 2015 when the international price of oil dipped below $50, forcing many oil exporting countries to scale back production.

He said in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered one of the largest global economic crises in the world, and in 2022, Russia’s war in Ukraine provoked extreme price shocks and disruptions in the supply of food crops and oil in Central Africa.

Ondo said CEMAC, through its financial reforms program, is allocating about $5 million for projects, including import substitutions, over the next five years. He said the funds will be raised through contributions from member states and loans.

Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Central African states relied on Russia and Ukraine for 80 percent of their wheat imports and 60 percent of petroleum products. Russia’s invasion caused disruptions in supply and price hikes, including a 40 percent spike in the cost of fuel.

CEMAC said most of the imported products could be grown locally.

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, outgoing chairperson of the CEMAC Conference of Heads of State, said solidarity is needed among CEMAC member states to put an end to several crises that are making living conditions difficult and causing despair among civilians.

Biya said CEMAC member states that are still reluctant to reduce imports should open their borders for the free movement of goods and people, which is necessary in speeding economic growth and development.

He also said CEMAC members want to establish resilient, stable and prosperous communities at home.

The leaders agreed to continue negotiations to merge the 11-member Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) with the six-member Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) in a move to boost trade and growth.

ECCAS consists of all CEMAC member states plus Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Sao Tome and Principe.
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Xi to Visit Putin in Russia Next Week

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Chinese President Xi Jinging is making a state visit next week to Russia where he will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin from Monday to Wednesday, China and the Kremlin said Friday. 

The two last met in China last year when Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics and in September at a regional conference in Uzbekistan.

Next week’s visit was announced a day after China urged Russia and Ukraine to begin peace talks to end their conflict. 

Russia invaded Ukraine more than a year ago. 

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday that Xi’s Russian visit will “promote strategic coordination and practical cooperation between the two countries and inject new impetus into the development of bilateral relations.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that he would meet with Xi  after Xi called for talks between Russia and Ukraine.  

China and Russia have strengthened their ties in a number of fields and have entered what they say in a “no limits” partnership.   

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Western Donors Pressed to Sanction Rwanda as DRC Violence Escalates

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The U.N. says in the past week, 100,000 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have fled their homes following fighting between M23 rebels and government forces. The UN accuses Rwanda of backing the rebels, a claim Rwanda denies. As Henry Ridgwell reports, critics say European powers should pressure Rwanda to end the fighting.
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After War, Ukraine Might End Up Largest Minefield in World 

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The Ukrainian government says that nearly one-third of its territory is mined, and that when the war ends, demining could last a decade or more. Evgeny Maslov has more in this story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Michael Eckels  
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