Month: March 2023

In Bakhmut, Russia Controls East, Ukraine Controls West

Posted on by SeeEU

Russia’s Wagner Group is in control of the eastern portion of the Ukranian Donbas town of Bakhmut, while Ukranian forces are holding on to the western part of the town, according to an intelligence report Saturday from the British Defense Ministry.

With Ukranian forces firing from fortified buildings, the update said, “this area has become a killing zone likely making it highly challenging for Wagner forces attempting to continue their frontal assault westwards.”

The Defense Ministry said, however, that the Ukrainian forces and their supply lines to the west remain vulnerable to Russian attempts to outflank Ukraine forces from the north and south.

Moscow has said capturing Bakhmut is a step toward the Russian military seizing all of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

Ukraine’s capital had largely restored power Friday, a day after Russia fired a barrage of missiles across the country, which damaged infrastructure and energy supplies.

The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhii Popko, said power and water had been restored in the capital, but said about 30% of city residents were still without heat. He said repair work was continuing.

Ukrainian authorities said that power was fully restored in the southern region of Odesa and that 60% of residences in the second-largest city of Kharkiv that suffered power outages were back online by Friday.

However, authorities said that significant damage to power supplies remained in the wider Kharkiv region, as well as in Ukraine’s northwestern Zhytomyr region.

Russia’s missile attacks killed at least six people Thursday in Ukraine and damaged critical infrastructure across the country.

It was the largest such attack on Ukraine in three weeks, with Ukrainian forces saying they shot down 34 of the 81 missiles that Russia fired, far less than the usual ratio, as well as four Iranian-made drones. The Russian onslaught also included the use of hypersonic Kinzhal cruise missiles.

While missile salvos have become a common Russian military tactic, such onslaughts have also become less frequent since the fall.

The British Defense Ministry said Friday that the interval between such strikes will likely grow. It said Russia needs time “to stockpile a critical mass of newly produced missiles directly from industry before it can resource a strike big enough to credibly overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said the attacks were in retaliation for an alleged Ukrainian attack on the Bryansk region of western Russia. Ukraine has denied carrying out the assault.

Moscow said it hit military and industrial targets in Ukraine Thursday “as well as the energy facilities that supply them.”

In other developments Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended the funeral in Kyiv of one of Ukraine’s best-known fighters and commanders who died in fighting near Bakhmut. Dmytro Kotsiubailo, 27, was killed a few days ago in battle.

Western support

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Friday, also attended the funeral of Kotsiubailo, along with thousands of mourners.

During a news conference in Kyiv, the Finnish leader accused Russia of carrying out war crimes and said Russian leaders must be held accountable.

“Putin knows he will have to answer for his crime of aggression,” Marin said.

Russia has denied deliberately targeting civilians or carrying out war crimes.

Also Friday, the White House accused Russia of stirring unrest in Moldova.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said U.S. intelligence shows that individuals with ties to Russian intelligence are planning to stage protests in Moldova in the hopes of toppling that country’s pro-Western government.

“As Moldova continues to integrate with Europe, we believe Russia is pursuing options to weaken the Moldovan government probably with the eventual goal of seeing a more Russian-friendly administration in the capital,” Kirby said.

Moldova is a western neighbor to Ukraine. Like Ukraine, the country was once part of the Soviet Union and has had to navigate both historic ties to Russia as well as recent moves toward Europe, including ambitions of joining the European Union.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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China’s ‘Digital Silk Road’ in Africa Raises Questions 

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A group of U.S. lawmakers recently drafted a resolution criticizing South Africa’s government for its close relations with Beijing, including its use of Chinese technology, and called on President Joe Biden to review American’s relationship with Pretoria.

The resolution was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives as South Africa conducted naval exercises with China and Russia in February.

There are U.S. concerns about the surveillance risks of Chinese telecommunications, but some analysts say it falls on each government to responsibly use technologies, and China is not the only player in the tech industry.

The U.S. has already banned Chinese technology company Huawei at home, saying it’s a risk to national security. There is also a push on Capitol Hill to ban Chinese social media app TikTok.

In sub-Saharan Africa, where less than 30% of people use the internet, most governments welcome China’s investment in digital infrastructure – a part of the Belt and Road Initiative dubbed the “Digital Silk Road.” Because of Chinese government subsidies, they see it as a cheaper path to greater connectivity.

The U.S. resolution mentioned two South African companies with links to Chinese tech that the lawmakers felt were of concern. One of them, Vumacam, operates about 2,000 cameras in Johannesburg, with the technology intended to crack down on the rampant crime that plagues the commercial capital.

The U.S. concern is Vumacam “has partnered with Chinese company Hikvision for the cameras’ hardware,” the resolution said. The sale of Hikvision products was also recently banned in the U.S.

Contacted by VOA about its use of Hikvision, Vumacam responded: “We can confirm that we have multiple hardware vendors and not one single vendor. … Any hardware is susceptible to penetration risk if not properly managed, regardless of its brand or country of origin. Vumacam’s focus is therefore firmly on system security, and as such, Vumacam’s network is run by its own proprietary platform, which undergoes rigorous and regular testing.”

Huawei dominates

The U.S. resolution also pointed to Telkom, South Africa’s partly state-owned telecom operator, which “launched its 5G network throughout the country in October 2022 using technologies from Huawei technologies.”

Neither Telkom, a spokesperson for South Africa’s state security agency, nor a spokesperson for the Government Communication and Information System responded to requests for comment.

The U.S. faces an uphill battle in vying for telecommunications influence in Africa. Washington has been trying to catch up to China’s vast network in Africa, announcing last year that U.S.-backed telecom company Africell had invested to deliver a 5G network in Angola.

But across the continent, Huawei dominates: Its subsidiaries own up to 70% of all 4G networks.

Last year, Ethiopia rolled out its first 5G network powered by Huawei. Zimbabwe has a Huawei Smart Cities program – as do Kenya and Uganda – and has installed Hikvision cameras in public spaces. Insurgency-wracked Nigeria recently announced it was planning to buy Chinese cameras to monitor its borders.

“China has signed resolutions to increase cooperation in areas like counterterrorism, safe city projects, border security and cybersecurity,” Bulelani Jili, a South African cybersecurity fellow at Harvard University, told VOA. “China also supplements this promise with commitments to offer finance, technical assistance and training to African governments on topics ranging from digital forensic techniques to cybersecurity.”

Spying concerns

Digital watchdogs, however, often label China as one of the worst abusers of internet freedoms domestically, and observers from the West worry that African regimes with undemocratic tendencies could adopt not just Chinese tech but the way China uses it to monitor dissent.

Already in Zambia and Uganda, the governments were found to have used Chinese technology to spy on the opposition and critics. In Zimbabwe, there are concerns it will be used to do the same ahead of elections later this year.

China also made headlines in 2018 with reports of Beijing having bugged the Chinese-built African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa. China stridently denied the allegations.

Responsibility of local governments

In some parts of Africa, Jili said, technology and the potential of its risks are tied to local and geopolitical factors.

“What is clear is that digital surveillance devices do not simply constitute smooth-functioning systems that provide the means of socially equitable and competent policing. Rather, they are convoluted assemblages that are entangled in broader economic, legal and political arrangements,” he said.

“And the risks of using them with inadequate laws are great, particularly in a region with established problems at the intersections of inequality, crime, governance, race, and policing. … The adoption of new technologies on the continent is rarely accompanied by the implementation of robust regulatory frameworks,” he added.

Some China experts say the risks from Chinese tech to Africa are overblown and the focus should be on all the players in the tech arena, including European and American firms.

As well as Vumacam, U.S. firm IBM also has a contract with the city of Johannesburg for digital surveillance, said Iginio Gagliardone, an associate professor at Johannesburg’s Witwatersrand University and author of the book China, Africa and the Future of the Internet.

In terms of spying on opponents, he said, there’s evidence a previous Ethiopian administration spied on dissidents in the diaspora, using software from a number of European companies. Meanwhile, Israeli spyware firm Pegasus has also been used by African governments.

Whether such technology is used to clamp down on opponents is not up to China, Gagliardone argued, but rather the African governments who utilize it.

“China with no doubt is an autocratic regime. … At the same time, China has not tried to impose or suggest that other countries follow in its footsteps,” he told VOA.

Gagliardone said it’s important to hold all large and powerful actors to account when it comes to the possible misuse of tech in Africa.

“The responsibility is really widespread. … If we just focus on China, we miss the bigger picture,” he said.
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Anti-Russia Guerrillas in Belarus Take on ‘Two-Headed Enemy’

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After Russia invaded Ukraine, guerrillas from Belarus began carrying out acts of sabotage on their country’s railways, including blowing up track equipment to paralyze the rails that Russian forces used to get troops and weapons into Ukraine.

In the most recent sabotage to make international headlines, they attacked a Russian warplane parked just outside the Belarusian capital.

“Belarusians will not allow the Russians to freely use our territory for the war with Ukraine, and we want to force them to leave,” Anton, a retired Belarusian serviceman who joined a group of saboteurs, told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

“The Russians must understand on whose side the Belarusians are actually fighting,” he said, speaking on the condition that his last name be withheld for security reasons.

More than a year after Russia used the territory of its neighbor and ally to invade Ukraine, Belarus continues to host Russian troops, as well as warplanes, missiles and other weapons. The Belarusian opposition condemns the cooperation, and a guerrilla movement sprang up to disrupt the Kremlin’s operations, both on the ground and online. Meanwhile, Belarus’ authoritarian government is trying to crack down on saboteurs with threats of the death penalty and long prison terms.

Activists say the rail attacks have forced the Russian military to abandon the use of trains to send troops and materiel to Ukraine.

The retired serviceman is a member of the Association of Security Forces of Belarus, or BYPOL, a guerrilla group founded amid mass political protests in Belarus in 2020. Its core is composed of former military members.

During the first year of the war, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko realized that getting involved in the conflict “will cost him a lot and will ignite dangerous processes inside Belarus,” said Anton Matolka, coordinator of the Belarusian military monitoring group Belaruski Hajun.

Last month, BYPOL claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a Russian warplane stationed near the Belarusian capital. The group said it used two armed drones to damage the Beriev A-50 parked at the Machulishchy Air Base near Minsk. Belarusian authorities have said they requested the early warning aircraft to monitor their border.

Lukashenko acknowledged the attack a week later, saying that the damage to the plane was insignificant, but admitting it had to be sent to Russia for repairs.

The iron-fisted leader also said the perpetrator of the attack was arrested along with more than 20 accomplices and that he has ties to Ukrainian security services.

Both BYPOL and Ukrainian authorities rejected allegations that Kyiv was involved. BYPOL leader Aliaksandr Azarau said the people who carried out the assault were able to leave Belarus safely.

“We are not familiar with the person Lukashenko talked about,” he said.

The attack on the plane, which Azarau said was used to help Russia locate Ukrainian air defense systems, was “an attempt to blind Russian military aviation in Belarus.”

He said the group is preparing other operations to free Belarus “from the Russian occupation” and to free Belarus from Lukashenko’s regime.

“We have a two-headed enemy these days,” said Azarau, who remains outside Belarus.

Former military officers in the BYPOL group work closely with the team of Belarus’ exiled opposition leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who ran against Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election that was widely seen as rigged.

The disputed vote results handed him his sixth term in office and triggered the largest protests in the country’s history. In response, Lukashenko unleashed a brutal crackdown on demonstrators, accusing the opposition of plotting to overthrow the government. Tsikhanouskaya fled to Lithuania under pressure.

With the protests still simmering a year after the election, BYPOL created an underground network of anti-government activists dubbed Peramoha, or Victory. According to Azarau, the network has some 200,000 participants, two-thirds of them in Belarus.

“Lukashenko has something to be afraid of,” Azarau said.

Belarusian guerrillas say they have already carried out 17 major acts of sabotage on railways. The first took place just two days after Russian troops rolled into Ukraine.

A month later, then-Ukrainian railways head Oleksandr Kamyshin said there “was no longer any railway traffic between Ukraine and Belarus,” and thanked Belarusian guerrillas for it.

Another group of guerrillas operates in cyberspace. Their coordinator, Yuliana Shametavets, said some 70 Belarusian IT specialists are hacking into Russian government databases and attacking websites of Russian and Belarusian state institutions.

“The future of Belarus depends directly on the military success of Ukraine,” Shametavets said. “We’re trying to contribute to Ukraine’s victory as best we can.”

Last month, the cyberguerrillas reported hacking a subsidiary of Russia’s state media watchdog, Roskomnadzor. They said they were able to penetrate the subsidiary’s inner network, download more than two terabytes of documents and emails, and share data showing how Russian authorities censor information about the war in Ukraine.

They also hacked into Belarus’ state database containing information about border crossings and are now preparing a report on Ukrainian citizens who were recruited by Russia and went to meet with their handlers in Belarus.

In addition, the cyberguerrillas help vet Belarusians who volunteer to join the Kastus Kalinouski regiment that fights alongside Kyiv’s forces. Shametovets said they were able to identify four security operatives among the applicants.

Belarusian authorities have unleashed a crackdown on guerrillas.

Last May, Lukashenko signed off on introducing the death penalty for attempted terrorist acts. Last month, the Belarusian parliament also adopted the death penalty as punishment for high treason. Lukashenko signed the measure Thursday.

“Belarusian authorities are seriously scared by the scale of the guerrilla movement inside the country and don’t know what to do with it, so they chose harsh repressions, intimidation and fear as the main tool,” said Pavel Sapelka of the Viasna human rights group.

Dozens have been arrested, while many others have fled the country.

Siarhei Vaitsekhovich runs a Telegram blog where he regularly posts about Russian drills in Belarus and the deployment of Russian military equipment and troops to the country. He had to leave Belarus after authorities began investigating him on charges of treason and forming an extremist group.

Vaitsekhovich said his 15-year-old brother was recently detained in an effort to pressure him to take the blog down and cooperate with the security services.

The Russian Federal Security Service “is very unhappy with the fact that information about movements of Russian military equipment spills out into public domain,” Vaitsekhovich said.

According to Viasna, over the past 12 months at least 1,575 Belarusians have been detained for their anti-war stance, and 56 have been convicted on various charges and sentenced to prison terms ranging from a year to 23 years.

Anton says he understands the risks. On one of the railway attacks he worked with three associates who were each sentenced in November to more than 20 years in prison.

“It is hard to say who is in a more difficult position — a Ukrainian in a trench or a Belarusian on a stakeout,” he said.
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John Williams: Hollywood’s Maestro Goes for More Oscars History

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From “Star Wars” to “Jaws” to “Schindler’s List,” John Williams has written many of the most instantly recognizable scores in cinema history.

The 91-year-old is already the oldest person to receive an Oscar nomination for a competitive award, which he earned thanks to his spare yet poignant compositions for Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.”

With 53 total nods, Williams has more Academy Award nominations than any other living person, and is second only to Walt Disney, who had 59.

And if he gets another statuette on Sunday, which would be his sixth, he will become the oldest person ever to triumph in any competitive category. The record is currently held by screenwriter James Ivory, who was 89 when he won.

It “seems unreal that anybody could be that old and working that long,” Williams recently told NBC News, adding: “It’s very exciting, even after 53 years.”

“I’m very pleased, I think it’s a human thing — the gratification of any kind of appreciation of one’s work,” he said.

Out of the dozens of nominations over the course of his extraordinary career, the composer won Academy Awards for the original “Star Wars,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and three films by Spielberg, with whom he is closely associated — “Jaws,” “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” and “Schindler’s List.”

He’s even competed against himself multiple times for Oscars glory.

Williams is known for his grand neo-Romantic scores in the fashion of Wagner, a contrast to the more experimental fare prevalent among many modern composers outside Hollywood.

But his work is also steeped in mid-century influences including jazz and popular American standards.

Williams holds he’s not as Wagnerian as his music might indicate but admits the 19th century German giant’s influence on Hollywood’s early composers, and therefore his own, is palpable.

“Wagner lives with us here — you can’t escape it,” he told The New Yorker in 2020. “I have been in the big river swimming with all of them.”

‘Single greatest collaboration’

Williams was born on February 8, 1932, in New York’s Queens borough to a percussionist father, and was the eldest of four children.

The family moved to Los Angeles in 1948, where Williams later studied composition and took a semester of jazz band at Los Angeles City College.

While in the Air Force, he played both piano and brass while arranging music for the service’s band.

Afterwards, he moved to New York, where he enrolled at the prestigious Juilliard school to study piano.

Though he aspired to be a concert pianist, it became clear to Williams that composition was his forte.

He moved back to LA, where he worked on orchestrations at film — earning plaudits for his range — and as a session pianist, including for the film adaptation of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.”

Williams notched his first Oscar nod for the 1967 film “Valley of the Dolls,” and won his first in 1972 for “Fiddler on the Roof.”

His momentous partnership with Spielberg began in the early 1970s, when the soon to be household-name director approached him to score his debut, “The Sugarland Express.”

Spielberg approached him once more to work on his second film, “Jaws.”

The menacing two-note ostinato Williams composed for the film has practically become synonymous with fear itself: “John Williams actually is the teeth of Jaws,” Spielberg said last year at a concert for the composer’s 90th birthday.

The pair then worked on “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and a decades-long creative partnership unfurled.

At the Williams birthday celebration in Washington, Spielberg dubbed their relationship “the single greatest collaboration of my career and one of the deepest friendships of my life.”

“Through the medium of movies, John has popularized motion picture scores more than any other composer in history,” he said.

‘Soundtrack of our lives’

Spielberg also introduced Williams to one George Lucas — it would become another iconic collaboration that spawned perhaps the most recognizable film score ever.

Several of Williams’ “Star Wars” compositions are prime examples of leitmotif, with musical cues tying together the vast, character-rich story.

“He has written the soundtrack of our lives,” conductor Gustavo Dudamel told The New York Times last year. “When we listen to a melody of John’s, we go back to a time, to a taste, to a smell.”

“All our senses go back to a moment,” Dudamel said.

Other credits from Williams’ more than 100 film scores include the music for 1978’s “Superman,” the first three “Harry Potter” films and a number of “Indiana Jones” films.’

“Harrison Ford made Indiana Jones into an iconic action hero, but John made us believe in adventure again, through that pulse-pounding march,” said Spielberg.

Off-screen, Williams is responsible for the “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” first composed for the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles and used ever since on U.S. broadcasts.

Williams recently indicated he might take a step back from film scoring, giving more energy to conducting and composing concert music; he was a longtime leader of the Boston Pops orchestra.

But speaking at a panel with Spielberg earlier this year, Williams seemed to walk back the notion of slowing down, vowing to work until he’s 100 or so.

“So I’ve got 10 more years to go. I’ll stick around for a while!” he told the crowd. “You can’t ‘retire’ from music. It’s like breathing.”
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Biden, EU Chief Downplay Differences Over US Climate Subsidies

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U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday sought to minimize differences over a Washington plans to subsidize American companies — a concept that has frustrated many in Europe. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.
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UN Weekly Roundup: March 4-10, 2023

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

UN chief makes brief trip to Ukraine

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday assailed Russia’s yearlong invasion of Ukraine as a violation of international law as he arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine,  for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on extending grain shipments from the war-torn country and securing the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The two men met on Thursday in the Ukrainian capital.

UN nuclear board meets following chief’s visit to Tehran

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board of governors met this week in Vienna. Part of its discussions centered on Iran and its nuclear program. Agency chief Rafael Grossi traveled to Iran’s capital, Tehran, last week after reports the IAEA found traces at the Fordow fuel enrichment plant of uranium particles enriched to 83.7% — just below the weapons grade threshold of about 90%. Iran said it would cooperate with the agency’s investigation of the particles. Tehran denies seeking a nuclear bomb and says the resource is only for civilian purposes.

UN buys oil tanker to start salvage operation off Yemen

The United Nations said Thursday it has purchased a $55 million vessel to transfer more than a million barrels of oil from a neglected tanker that threatens Yemen’s Red Sea coast, and the salvage operation is planned for early May. The U.N. has warned for several years that the 47-year-old FSO Safer supertanker is a ticking time bomb that could leak, sink or explode, unleashing a massive ecological and humanitarian catastrophe. David Gressly, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said the tanker purchase is “the most significant step forward” in resolving the issue in many years.

Commission on status of women gets underway

At the start of the Commission on the Status of Women on Monday, Secretary-General Guterres warned that at the current pace, gender equality is projected to be 300 years away. He warned that progress is “vanishing before our eyes” as women’s rights “are being abused, threatened and violated around the world.”

Wednesday marked International Women’s Day. While there was a lot of talk about empowering women and protecting their rights, there was little action at U.N. meetings. [[At UN on International Women’s Day, Talk of Women’s Rights, Little Action

In brief

— Secretary-General Guterres welcomed the announcement Friday that adversaries Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to resume diplomatic relations in the next two months. The deal was agreed to in Beijing, which hosted talks between the two countries. Guterres said good neighborly relations between Tehran and Riyadh are essential for the stability of the Gulf region, and he offered his good offices to further advance regional dialogue. The development comes as the U.N. and other nations have been working to end the war in Yemen, a conflict in which both Iran and Saudi Arabia are deeply involved.

— March 11 will mark 12 years since Syria’s civil war began with a crackdown on anti-government protesters that turned into a full-out conflict that has killed thousands and launched a massive refugee crisis. The suffering has been compounded by the February 6 earthquake. Secretary-General Guterres said support that has come for earthquake survivors must be channeled into the political track, and he called for peace in a statement marking the anniversary. He said, “Now is the time for us to act in unison, to secure a nationwide cease-fire, advance the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people, and create the conditions necessary for the voluntary return of refugees in safety and dignity, with our strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Syria, and to regional stability.”

— The World Health Organization said Wednesday that it had fired its regional director for the Western Pacific following an internal investigation into allegations of misconduct. The WHO probe was triggered by an investigation published by The Associated Press in January last year in which more than two dozen staff members accused Dr. Takeshi Kasai of racist, abusive and unethical behavior that may have undermined the agency’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He denied the charges.

­— The U.N. Security Council is on a field mission to the Congo from March 9-12. The ambassadors are there to assess the security situation and implementation of the U.N. peacekeeping mission’s mandate. They are meeting senior Congolese officials in Kinshasa and plan travel to Goma, in the violence-plagued east.

— International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Rafael Grossi was confirmed Friday by the agency’s Board of Governors for a second four-year term. Grossi expressed appreciation for his reappointment and said it comes at a time when “we face many major challenges, and I’m fully committed to continue to do everything in my power to implement the IAEA’s crucial mission in support of global peace and development.” His new term starts December 3 and runs until December 2, 2027.

Quote of note

“Discrimination diminishes us all. And it is incumbent on all of us to stand up against it. We must never be bystanders to bigotry.”

— Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to a U.N. meeting Friday marking the international day to combat Islamophobia.

What we are watching next week

The package deal that facilitates the export of Ukrainian grain and Russian food and fertilizer products to international markets will expire on March 18. If neither party objects to its renewal, it will automatically continue. But Russia has made noises about the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the corresponding Memorandum of Understanding for Russian food and fertilizer, saying Moscow is not benefiting enough. Secretary-General Guterres made a brief trip to Ukraine, meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday to discuss the deal. Next week, senior U.N. and Russian officials are set to meet in Geneva to discuss implementation. Under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Ukraine has exported more than 23 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs from three ports since the deal was signed in late July.
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US Defense Officials: China Is Leading in Hypersonic Weapons

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Russia’s repeated use of advanced hypersonic missiles as part of its bombardment of Ukraine may be getting the bulk of the West’s attention, but United States defense officials say it is China that has the world’s leading hypersonic arsenal.

“While both China and Russia have conducted numerous successful tests of hypersonic weapons and have likely fielded operational systems, China is leading Russia in both supporting infrastructure and numbers of systems,” the Defense Intelligence Agency’s chief scientist for science and technology told U.S. lawmakers Friday.

“Over the past two decades, China has dramatically advanced its development of conventional and nuclear-armed hypersonic missile technologies and capabilities through intense and focused investment, development, testing and deployment,” said the DIA’s Paul Freisthler, testifying in front of the House Armed Services Committee.

Unlike ballistic missiles, which fly at hypersonic speeds but travel along a set trajectory, hypersonic weapons are highly maneuverable despite flying at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

According to U.S. defense officials, that high-speed maneuverability makes hypersonic weapons especially difficult to detect and, therefore, difficult to stop.

According to the DIA and information gathered by the Congressional Research Service, China operates two research sites for hypersonic weapons, with at least 21 wind tunnels. Some of the wind tunnels can test vehicles flying at speeds of up to Mach 12.

China’s hypersonic arsenal includes the DF-17, a medium-range ballistic missile with a hypersonic glide vehicle that has a range of 1,600 kilometers.

It also has the DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missile, which also carries a hypersonic glide vehicle. During a test of the system in July 2021, the hypersonic weapon circumnavigated the globe, prompting a top U.S. defense official to compare the incident to the start of the original space race in the 1950s.

Beijing also has the DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle, with a range of close to 2,000 kilometers, and the Starry Sky-2, a nuclear capable hypersonic prototype.

Russia’s missile attack against Ukraine on Friday included about six of Moscow’s hypersonic Kinzhal missiles. The Kinzhal travels at speeds of up to Mach 10 and has a range of about 2,000 kilometers.

Russia also has the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, which it claims can travel at speeds of more than Mach 20 with a range of more than 10,000 kilometers, and the ship-launched Zircon hypersonic missile, with a top speed of Mach 8 and a range of 1,000 kilometers.

The DIA’s Freisthler said Friday that Moscow is also developing an air-launched hypersonic missile (the Kh-95) and has announced plans to place a hypersonic glide vehicle on its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile.

The U.S. military has been developing a range of hypersonic weapons, all of which are still in testing or development. Officials have said that, unlike China and Russia, Washington has no plans to arm any of its hypersonic weapons with a nuclear warhead.
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Strong Storm Freddy Set to Hit Mozambique Again 

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Tropical Storm Freddy was on track to hit the coast of southern Africa again early Saturday, after killing at least 27 people in Mozambique and Madagascar since it first made landfall last month. 

One of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, Freddy may also have broken the record for the longest-lasting tropical cyclone, according to the World Meteorological Organization, which said the current record is held by a 31-day hurricane in 1994. 

Freddy was named on February 6, 33 days ago.  

More than 171,000 people were affected when the cyclone swept through southern Mozambique two weeks ago, bringing heavy rains and floods that damaged crops and destroyed houses, according to U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA. 

OCHA on Friday put Freddy’s latest death toll at 27, 10 in Mozambique and 17 in Madagascar. 

As many as 565,000 people could be at risk in Mozambique this time around in Zambezia, Tete, Sofala and Nampula provinces, with Zambezia expected to be the hardest hit, according to the country’s national disaster management agency. 

Its central region director, Nelson Ludovico, said the agency was preparing for the storm’s landfall in the early hours of Saturday and had moved people to makeshift shelters. 

“It’s a slow-moving cyclone. This is bad news in terms of rainfall because it means it’s hovering quite close to the coast and it’s picking up more moisture, so the rainfall will be heavier,” Clare Nullis, spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization, told reporters in Geneva. 

The storm is likely to cause extreme rainfall over large parts of Mozambique as well as northeastern Zimbabwe, southeast Zambia and Malawi, she said. 

Around the world, climate change is making hurricanes wetter, windier and more intense, scientists say. Oceans absorb much of the heat from greenhouse gas emissions, and when warm seawater evaporates its heat energy is transferred to the atmosphere, fueling stronger storms. 

Freddy has set a record for the highest accumulated cyclone energy, a measure of the storm’s strength over time, of any Southern Hemisphere storm in history, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  

The storm has generated about as much accumulated cyclone energy on its own as an average North Atlantic hurricane season, Nullis said. 

“World record or not, Freddy will remain in any case an exceptional phenomenon for the history of the southwest Indian Ocean on many aspects: longevity, distance covered, remarkable maximum intensity, accumulated cyclone energy amount, [and] impact on inhabited lands,” said Sebastien Langlade, a cyclone forecaster at the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre in La Reunion, in a statement from the WMO. 
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BBC Pulls Soccer Host After Migration Comments

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Former England soccer captain Gary Lineker has been taken off the air by the BBC after his comments on Britain’s migration policy sparked a furious spat between the government and the corporation’s highest-paid presenter.

Lineker was told there has to be an agreement on his use of social media before he can return, the BBC said on Friday.

BBC Director General Tim Davie said it had taken “proportionate action.”

The dispute overshadowed a migration deal struck between British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron, with the BBC accused of bowing to political pressure.

On Tuesday, Britain announced details of a new law stating that migrants arriving in small boats across the English Channel would be prevented from claiming asylum and deported either back to their homeland or to so-called safe third countries.

It drew criticism from opposition parties, charities and the United Nations’ refugee agency for its impact on refugees.

Lineker, who has previously hosted refugees in his home, retweeted a post featuring a video of Interior Minister Suella Braverman talking about the law, with the comment “Good heavens, this is beyond awful.”

Challenged by a respondent, he said: “This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?”

Lineker faced a backlash to his comments, which were criticized by Sunak’s spokeswoman as “not acceptable,” but said he would “continue to try and speak up for those poor souls that have no voice.”

The BBC said after talks with Lineker and his team that it had decided he would step back from presenting its flagship “Match of the Day (MOTD)” soccer highlights program “until we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media.”

After four of the show’s regular pundits, former England players Ian Wright, Alan Shearer, Jermaine Jenas and Micah Richards, said they did not wish to appear on the program without Lineker, the BBC said Saturday’s edition would “focus on match action without studio presentation or punditry.”

“Gary Lineker off air is an assault on free speech in the face of political pressure,” the opposition Labour Party said, calling for the BBC to rethink its decision.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called the BBC’s move “indefensible.”

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: “Individual cases are a matter for the BBC.”

Lineker has hosted “MOTD” for more than 20 years, and the charismatic 62-year-old has never been afraid to voice his opinions about political issues.

But the BBC said it considered his recent social media activity to be a breach of its guidelines.

“We have never said that Gary should be an opinion-free zone, or that he can’t have a view on issues that matter to him, but we have said that he should keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies,” it added.

The BBC, funded by what is in effect a $192 (159 pounds) annual “license fee” tax on all television-watching households, has a central presence in British cultural life. It says it is committed to being politically impartial.

Last year the BBC’s complaints unit ruled Lineker had failed to meet editorial standards on impartiality when he sent a tweet asking whether the governing Conservative Party would give back money from Russian donors.

BBC Chair Richard Sharp is under pressure for failing to declare his involvement in facilitating a loan for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson shortly before he was appointed to the role. His appointment, made on the recommendation of the government, is now being reviewed by Britain’s public appointments watchdog.
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France, Britain Strike Migration Deal

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Britain will pay France around 480 million pounds ($577 million) over three years to try to stop migrants traveling in small boats across the English Channel as the two allies took a major step Friday to end years of bickering in the post-Brexit era.

At a summit designed to rebuild ties, French President Emmanuel Macron greeted British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with smiles and mutual backslapping before they agreed to work more closely together.

Describing it as a “moment to reconnect,” Macron said at a joint news conference that relations had been strained by Britain’s departure from the European Union.

Sunak said the time had come for a new relationship, an “entente renewed,” a reference to the Entente Cordiale of the early 20th century that had smoothed over diplomatic relations between the European powerhouses.

“If we are honest the relationship between our two countries has had its challenges in recent years,” Sunak said. “Today we have taken cooperation to an unprecedented level.”

The two agreed to move forward on nuclear energy cooperation, reaffirmed their backing for Ukraine and vowed to strengthen inter-operability of their military forces, including through the development of future missiles and air defense systems.

But for Sunak, migration was the focus as he looked to tout the deal as another achievement after agreeing to new terms with Brussels on Northern Ireland in February.

In office since October, he has made stopping small boats a priority after the number of migrants arriving on the south coast of England soared to more than 45,000 last year, up 500% in the last two years.

He has proposed new legislation to bar those arriving in small boats from claiming asylum, but for this he needs France’s cooperation to intercept the boats and break the people-trafficking rings behind the flow of arrivals from Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and others.

As part of the new deal, Britain will help fund a detention center in France while Paris will deploy more French personnel and enhanced technology to patrol its beaches. Officers from both countries will also look to work with countries along the routes favored by people traffickers.

A British official said London was contributing 30 million euros over three years for the detention center, with the official adding that detained migrants would be sent back to their home countries if they were safe, or to the last country they transited through if their home countries were unsafe.

Firming ties from energy to Ukraine

“We will develop operational needs and will reinforce coordination,” Macron said, while adding that to go further and address the issue of whether migrants could be returned to France would require agreement across the whole bloc.

While the number of applications for asylum in the United Kingdom hit a 20-year high of nearly 75,000 in 2022, it was still below the European Union average. And many EU members are themselves at odds over how to handle migrants, and whether they should be returned to the first EU country they arrived in.

The meeting was the first summit of Europe’s two biggest military and nuclear powers – both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – in five years.

Ties between the two counties have been strained by Brexit, and were particularly difficult during the British premierships of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, with Truss at one point declining to say whether Macron was a “friend or foe.”

Sunak and Macron struck up a personal rapport at the COP27 summit in Egypt in November during their first face-to-face meeting, two weeks after Sunak became prime minister, with their warm relationship labeled “Le Bromance” in British newspapers.

The two former investment bankers, who offered each other Rugby Union shirts ahead of a crunch Six Nations match in London on Saturday, were accompanied by seven ministers on each side in Paris and met business leaders from both countries to deepen their economic relationship.

Energy partnerships

British energy supplier Octopus Energy said after the summit that it would invest 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in the French green energy market over the next two years, while the countries signed two energy partnerships, emphasizing nuclear power as a secure source of low-carbon energy.

“France and the U.K. are working together so that never again can the likes of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin weaponize our energy security,” Sunak said.

With the war in Ukraine, it was also an opportunity for two of Kyiv’s biggest backers to reaffirm their support.

Both leaders emphasized that for now it was imperative to ramp up military support for Ukraine and train its forces to give it an edge on the battlefield and put it in the best position for the day when talks to end the war begin.

“The priority is [the] military,” Macron said.
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US Lifts COVID Test Requirement for Chinese Travelers

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A requirement that travelers to the U.S. from China present a negative COVID-19 test before boarding their flights expired Friday after more than two months as cases in China have fallen.

The restrictions were put in place December 28 and took effect January 5 amid a surge in infections in China after the nation sharply eased pandemic restrictions and as U.S. health officials expressed concerns that their Chinese counterparts were not being truthful to the world about the true number of infections and deaths. The requirement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expired for flights leaving after 3 p.m. Eastern time Friday.

When the restriction was imposed, U.S. officials also said it was necessary to protect U.S. citizens and communities because there was a lack of transparency from the Chinese government about the size of the surge or the variants that were circulating within China.

The rules imposed in January require travelers to the U.S. from China, Hong Kong and Macau to take a COVID-19 test no more than two days before travel and provide a negative test before boarding their flight. The testing applies to anyone 2 years and older, including U.S. citizens.

China saw infections and deaths surge after it eased back from its “zero COVID” strategy in early December after rare public protests of the policy that confined millions of people to their homes and sparked demands for President Xi Jinping to resign.

But as China eased its strict rules, infections and deaths surged, and parts of the country for weeks saw their hospitals overwhelmed by infected patients looking for help. Still, the Chinese government has been slow to release data on the number of deaths and infections.

The U.S. decision to lift restrictions comes at a moment when U.S.-China relations are strained. U.S. President Joe Biden ordered a Chinese spy balloon shot down last month after it traversed the continental United States. The Biden administration has also publicized U.S. intelligence findings that raise concern Beijing is considering providing Russia weaponry for its ongoing war on Ukraine.
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US Lawmaker Blasts China on Human Rights in Front of Embassy

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The Republican chairman of a special House committee targeting China called Beijing’s government “bloodthirsty” and “power hungry” on Friday at a rally outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington. 

Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin attended a rally to commemorate the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against China’s rule. The gathering took place on what is known as Tibetan National Uprising Day and came as tensions between the U.S. and China continue to escalate. 

Speaking to members of the Tibetan community, Gallagher said he wanted to recognize their courage in fighting for their freedom and culture. He described Tibetans as victims of a “cultural genocide” by the Chinese Communist Party. 

“They’ve not changed one bit,” Gallagher said. “The CCP is still a threat, still duplicitous, still power hungry, still bloodthirsty.” 

Tibet is governed as an autonomous region in western China, with authorities maintaining tight control over Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, and harassing and punishing Tibetans suspected of being followers of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who after the failed uprising would flee across the Himalayas to India. 

China has claimed Tibet as part of its territory for centuries and argues it has improved living conditions and reduced poverty in the region. It says the U.S. and its allies falsely accuse Beijing of violating Tibetans’ human rights. 

Tibetans say they were essentially independent before the People’s Liberation Army fought its way into Tibet in 1950. China has built a sprawling network of police stations and extrajudicial detention centers for rebellious monks and nuns — measures that Beijing mimicked in Xinjiang province against Uyghurs. 

Gallagher said that prioritizing human rights early on in the new committee’s work is a way of communicating to Americans that the Chinese Communist Party is not just a distant threat. 

“Increasingly, we see the CCP trying to undermine our own sovereignty, whether it’s through a Chinese spy balloon or a CCP-controlled algorithm that an American teenager uses, or fentanyl precursors from China ultimately killing 70,000 Americans a year,” Gallagher said. 

One of the questions arising from lawmakers’ increasingly harsh criticism of China is whether it will make relations between the two countries worse. Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned in unusually stark terms about the consequences of U.S.-China friction. 

“If the United States does not hit the brake, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there surely will be conflict and confrontation,” Qin said in his first news conference since taking up his post last year. 

Gallagher stressed that no one wants a war with China over Taiwan or any other issue, but said there has been a shift in thinking in Washington that the policy of economic engagement with the country has failed. 

“I think recognizing CCP aggression for what it is and taking sensible steps to combat that aggression is the best path to deterring that aggression over the long term,” Gallagher told The Associated Press after the rally. “I think the best path towards preventing an escalation is a strategy of strength, of communicating we will not be bullied.” 

Taking steps to curb China is one of the few ideas that generates bipartisan support in Congress. The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party held its first hearing last month. China responded by demanding its members “discard their ideological bias and zero-sum Cold War mentality.” 

Gallagher met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries earlier this week to discuss the committee’s future work. 

“Congress is going to disagree about a lot over the next year, but they want this to be an area where we try and identify that bipartisan center of gravity,” Gallagher said.
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NASA’s Artemis Moon Missions Promise Diverse Crews

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By launching an unmanned capsule into space, sending it around the moon and bringing it back to Earth in November, NASA demonstrated how it will once again transport astronauts to the lunar surface — a core goal of the Artemis program.

What remains to be seen is who will crew the first trips.

“Everybody in the astronaut office has the background, the basic training and the qualifications to go do that mission, so everyone is hoping that their name gets called,” astronaut Stan Love told VOA during an interview at Kennedy Space Center ahead of the Artemis 1 launch.

Love is among those being considered for a spot. Artemis 2, a manned mission to orbit but not land on the moon, could launch as early as 2024. Love said the Artemis crews will look different than those of the Apollo program during the 1960s and 1970s.

“We are going to broaden our demographics, so it won’t just be white guys landing on the moon.”

“We make our boss’ jobs actually challenging, we make his job hard because he’s got to pick some of us,” says astronaut Victor Glover, who could make history as the first person of color to reach the moon.

The crew for Artemis 2 will be announced April 3, according to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who said the team will include three NASA astronauts and one member of the Canadian Space Agency.

“I think all of us are ready, trained and capable of making this mission a success,” Glover told VOA. “Just to be where we are now and be a part of this team is an honor.”

The initiative to ensure diversity in NASA’s Artemis program was outlined in the Biden administration’s $25 billion funding request to Congress for NASA for the fiscal year 2022, which includes the moon missions.

“Apollo had a sister, Artemis, and this is our generation, and I think this is a fantastic thing,” said Branelle Rodriguez, who works on the Orion capsule that will transport the astronauts in Artemis.

Ahead of the launch of Artemis 1, she expressed pride taking part in a historic project that will also bring the first woman to the moon.

“I think it’s important for all of us, whether it’s a man or a woman, I think it’s fantastic,” Rodriguez said. “I think as an agency, as a nation and as a world showing that we can explore as humans back to the surface of the moon is what we need to go off and show.”

Danielle Bell, a marketing and communications professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School who focuses on issues of diversity and inclusion, welcomes NASA’s initiative and said she hopes it is permanent.

“NASA has taken the step of naming the entire mission after the sister of Apollo, the Greek god, so that in and of itself is a wonderful symbol, [and a] signal when we think about diversity and inclusion,” Bell said.

“To do this once, would feel like performing,” she added. “When they are transformative and not performative, that happens when the organization lives their values from the inside out.”

Women make up one-third of the current group of 41 astronauts at NASA. Twelve are people of color. While 16 are experienced pilots, the rest are experts in fields such as geology, medicine and engineering, bringing professional diversity to the corps.

Bell said that makeup suggests that skin color or gender won’t likely drive the decision on who goes first.

“What I can appreciate about this mission, is that it’s not just about diversity, it’s not just about representation,” Bell told VOA. “It’s not diversity for diversity’s sake. It’s more meaningful, it’s more impactful. You’ve got an entire pool that is of diverse backgrounds.”

The importance of the Artemis diversity initiative is underscored for Glover whenever he participates in outreach and education efforts for NASA.

“People keep asking me, ‘Is it meaningful to you that little Black kids look up to you and say they want to be like you?’ You know what? Let’s be honest, I represent America. I’m a naval officer and I work for NASA.

“I represent America and little white kids, little Mexican kids, little Hispanic kids and little Iranian kids follow what we’re doing because this,” he said, pointing to the iconic NASA patch on his blue flight suit “is maybe one of the most recognizable symbols in the universe. I think that that’s really important and I take that very seriously.”

While Glover hopes to be picked for an upcoming Artemis mission to the moon, he said he will participate in the mammoth undertaking one way or another.

“If your name gets called or not, I’m going to be happy to still be a part of this team and help from the ground,” Glover told VOA.

“There won’t be any sense of disappointment,” said astronaut Love. “If I’m not on the rocket, I’m going to be in mission control talking to these crews. So, I will be supporting these missions no matter what my role.”
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African Ministers in Malawi Discuss Cholera Outbreaks

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The World Health Organization has called for Africa to step up the fight against cholera, which in the last year killed more than 3,000 people in 12 African countries, with more than half the victims dying in Malawi’s record outbreak. The global health body and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a two-day emergency meeting on cholera this week in Malawi with ministers from 14 African countries.

The two-day meeting ended Friday with a call for countries to take a holistic approach in improving issues of water, sanitation and health among their populations.

A closing statement said more commitment was needed on surveillance and prevention to eliminate the deadly cholera bacteria, which is spread by dirty water.

The participants also resolved that African countries need to start producing their own cholera vaccine.

Dr. Ambrose Talisuna, WHO’s regional adviser for health security in Africa, said the continent continues to face cholera outbreaks despite past commitments to eliminate the disease.

“They committed themselves in 2018 by Regional Framework for Africa but we are lagging behind, the milestones are lagging behind,” Talisuna said. “So we really want to revitalize cholera prevention and control sustainably in Africa.”

Talisuna said 12 African countries have current cholera outbreaks, totaling some 130,000 cases, with more than 51,000 in Malawi.

“This is just too much, and we don’t know how many countries will have cholera before the end of the year,” he said. “But the outbreak we see in Malawi is so far the largest and it is related to issues around climate change but also cross-border movement.”

Malawi has recorded more than half of Africa’s cholera fatalities, making it the worst outbreak the country has battled in decades.

Malawian Vice President Saulos Chilima told the delegates Friday the country is now seeing a drop in cases largely because of an anti-cholera campaign the Malawi government launched last month.

The country has also seen a drop in the fatality rate, from 3.3% in August, to 1.8% now, still above the WHO target rate of 1 percent.

Malawi’s Minister of Health, Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, confirmed that progress has been made.

“The numbers have significantly gone down,” Chiponda said. “About three weeks or two weeks ago we were having about 700 or 800 cases on a daily basis. But as of now there are about 200, sometimes 300. Even people who are dying from cholera, the numbers have gone down.”

Health rights campaigner Maziko Matemba told VOA that the involvement of WHO and the Africa CDC in the cholera fight could help the country abolish some common diseases too.

“We hope that there will be more research and surveillance in Africa, which will help and support the ending of some of these conditions which are preventable in nature,” Matemba said. “But also, it will create awareness to countries to put more resources toward health to end some of these conditions which are preventable in nature.”

Dr. Merawi Aragaw, head of emergency preparedness and response unit at Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there is a historical precedent for eliminating cholera: Europe. He said African outbreaks can be stopped if governments take a well-coordinated, collective and multi-sector approach like Europe did 150 years ago, which helped that continent virtually eliminate the waterborne disease.

Aragaw said the approach would center around improving water and sanitation infrastructures across Africa.
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Georgian Parliament Revokes Controversial ‘Foreign Agents’ Bill That Sparked Protests

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In a dramatic turn of events, Georgian lawmakers have voted to drop a controversial “foreign agents” bill just days after its first reading sparked massive protests over fears the legislation, which mirrored a similar law in Russia, and would have severely restricted dissent and the activity of civil society groups in the country and push it toward authoritarianism. 

Parliament on March 10 voted in the second reading of the draft, a day after the ruling Georgian Dream party announced it was withdrawing the proposed legislation in the face of the protests. 

Lawmakers voted 35-1 against the bill, thus canceling it. The legislation can be brought back within 30 days, but only if it contains changes. 

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Georgian capital over the legislation, and another gathering is planned for March 10, though it is likely to be more celebratory than protest. 

Police had met the demonstrators with tear gas, stun grenades, and water cannons while detaining dozens. 

Georgia’s Interior Ministry said on March 10 that all 133 people who were detained during the protests had been released. It added that almost 60 police officers were injured in clashes during the demonstrations. 

The protests began on March 7 as parliament took up the “foreign agents” legislation despite warnings from critics that the bill, which would force civil society organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to be classified as “foreign agents,” mirrors Russian legislation that has been used to stifle opposition voices and the independent media. 

Georgian Dream officials said the legislation was aimed at bringing transparency and that it needed to hold consultations to “better explain” the law’s purpose in the future. 

In Georgia, anti-Russian sentiment can often be strong. Russian troops still control around one-fifth of Georgia’s territory, most of it taken during a lightning war in 2008 that was ostensibly about breakaway efforts in two northeastern regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 

By suddenly announcing that the bill was being “unconditionally” withdrawn, Georgian Dream deescalated the current crisis — but tensions are likely to persist over the ruling party and its opponents’ competing visions for the heavily polarized Caucasus country and its nearly 5 million residents. 

The opposition has often criticized Georgian Dream for being too closely aligned with Moscow, and the Kremlin’s current war against another former Soviet republic, Ukraine, has heightened those concerns. 

The introduction of the legislation prompted rebukes from several corners, including diplomats from the European Union and the United States. 

Georgia has been moving toward joining the European Union, but EU officials said the “foreign agents” law would complicate that membership path. Last year, the bloc declined to grant candidate status to Georgia, citing stalled political and judicial reforms. 

President Salome Zurabishvili has said she would veto the bill, although parliament could have overridden her veto. 

Speaking on March 10, French President Emmanuel Macron said Georgia was under pressure while expressing hope that the country could find a “path towards greater serenity” and that there is a “calming down of regional tensions.” 

“Georgia is under some heavy pressure and I hope it can find calm,” he said at a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Paris. 

Macron dismissed Russian claims that protests in the Caucasus country were orchestrated by the West. 

“There is a tendency in the Kremlin, which is not new, to imagine that every public demonstration is a foreign manipulation because the fundamental belief is that there is neither public opinion nor free people,” Macron said. 

“As an old democracy, we have the right to believe the opposite.” 

Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presses. 
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Another US Hiring Surge: 311,000 Jobs Despite Fed Rate Hikes

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America’s employers added a substantial 311,000 jobs in February, fewer than January’s huge gain but enough to keep pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates aggressively to fight inflation.

The unemployment rate rose to 3.6%, from a 53-year low of 3.4%, as more Americans began searching for work but not all of them found jobs.

Friday’s report from the government made clear that the nation’s job market remains fundamentally healthy, with many employers still eager to hire. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told Congress this week that the Fed would likely ratchet up its rate hikes if signs continued to point to a robust economy and persistently high inflation. A strong job market typically leads businesses to raise pay and then pass their higher labor costs on to customers through higher prices.

February’s sizable job growth shows that so far, hiring is continuing to strengthen this year after having eased in late 2022. From October through December, the average monthly job gain was 284,000. That average has surged to 351,000 for the past three months.

Economists pointed to other data in Friday’s report that suggested that the job market, while still hot, may be better balancing employers’ need for workers and the supply of unemployed people. More people have been coming off the sidelines to seek work, a trend that makes it easier for businesses to fill the millions of jobs that remain open.

The proportion of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one has risen for three straight months to 62.5%, the highest level since COVID struck three years ago. Still, it remains below its pre-pandemic level of 63.3%.

With more potential hires to choose from, employers seem under less pressure now to dangle higher pay to attract or retain workers. Average wage growth slowed in February, rising just 0.2%, to $33.09, the smallest monthly increase in a year. Measured year over year, though, hourly pay is up 4.6%, well above the pre-pandemic trend. Even so, that’s down from average annual gains above 5% last year.

What the Fed may decide to do about interest rates when it meets later this month remains uncertain. The Fed’s decision will rest, in part, on its assessment of Friday’s jobs data and next week’s report on consumer inflation in February. Last month, the government’s report on January inflation had raised alarms by showing that consumer prices had reaccelerated on a month-to-month basis.

Ahead of the February jobs data, many economists had said they thought the Fed would announce a substantial half-point increase in its key short-term interest rate, rather than a quarter point hike as it did at its meeting in February. Friday’s more moderate hiring and wage figures, though, led some analysts to suggest that the central bank may not need to move so aggressively at this month’s meeting.

“There’s clear signs of cooling when you dig deeper into the numbers,” said Mike Skordeles, head of economics at Truist, a bank. “I think it makes the case for the Fed to say … we’ll still hike rates, but we’re not going to do” a half-point hike.

The Fed’s final determination, though, will rest heavily on Tuesday’s report on consumer prices.

“Everything now hinges on February’s CPI report,” said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics.

When the Fed tightens credit, it typically leads to higher rates on mortgages, auto loans, credit card borrowing and many business loans. Its rate hikes can cool spending and inflation, but they also raise the risk of a recession.

Even for workers who have received substantial pay raises, ongoing high inflation remains a burden. Consumer prices rose 6.4% in January compared with a year ago, driven up by the costs of food, clothing and rents, among other items.

Frustrated by wages that aren’t keeping up with inflation, Rodney Colbert, a cook at the Las Vegas convention center, joined a strike Thursday by the Culinary Workers union to demand better pay and benefits. Colbert said that his hourly pay was $4-$5 less than what cooks were paid at casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

“I’ll average approximately 28 hours a week, and that’s not enough,” Colbert said. “Just in the past two years, my rent has gone up $400, so that’s a lot.”

Nationally, nearly all of last month’s hiring occurred in mostly lower-paid services industries, with a category that includes restaurants, bars, hotels and entertainment adding 105,000 jobs, its second straight month of strong gains. Warmer-than-usual weather likely contributed to the increase. With the weather likely allowing more building projects to continue, construction companies added 24,000 jobs.

Retailers added about 50,000 jobs last month, health care providers 63,000. Local and state governments — some of them flush with cash from stimulus programs — added 46,000 jobs.

Much of that job growth reflects continuing demand from Americans who have been increasingly venturing out to shop, eat out, travel and attend entertainment events — activities that were largely restricted during the height of COVID.

“We’ve created more jobs in two years than any administration has created in the first four years,” President Joe Biden said Friday about the employment report. “It means our economic plan is working.”

Economists note, however, that the very strength of the job market is itself contributing to the high inflation that continues to pressure millions of households.

In February, in contrast to the solid hiring in the services sector, manufacturers cut 4,000 jobs. And a sector that includes technology and communications workers shed 25,000 jobs, its third straight month of losses. It is a sign that some of the announced layoffs in the economy’s tech sector are being captured in the government’s data.

Last month, the government reported a surprising burst of hiring for January — 517,000 added jobs — though that gain was revised down slightly to 504,000 in Friday’s report. The vigorous job growth for January was the first in a series of reports to point to an accelerating economy at the start of the year. Sales at retail stores and restaurants also jumped, and inflation, according to the Fed’s preferred measure, rose from December to January at the fastest pace in seven months.

The stronger data reversed a cautiously optimistic narrative that the economy was cooling modestly — just enough, perhaps, to tame inflation without triggering a deep recession. Now, the economic outlook is hazier.
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EU Wants Joint Naval Exercises Amid Growing Maritime Security Threats

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The European Union wants to hold joint naval exercises as part of plans published Friday to step up its efforts to protect critical infrastructure at sea. 

Concerns about threats to Europe’s maritime infrastructure were heightened by attacks in September on the Nord Stream pipelines, which left them spewing natural gas into the Baltic Sea. 

The EU has updated its maritime security strategy, outlining plans to hold an annual naval exercise from 2024 and coordinate member countries’ national efforts to protect gas pipelines, undersea data cables, offshore wind farms and other critical maritime infrastructure. 

EU environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius told Reuters that planning had been underway before the Nord Stream blasts, but had been strengthened in response to them. 

“After that, member states were very clear that we need to further strengthen cooperation, build capacity, ensure that our critical infrastructure is better protected,” he said. 

The EU plan sets out to increase cooperation between the EU and NATO, expand coastal patrols and improve efforts to identify threats early — such as by using EU satellite programs to detect unidentified vessels. 

The EU will also produce a risk assessment, disaster recovery plans and regional surveillance plans, according to the strategy. 

“The threat level is increasing,” Sinkevicius said.

Energy infrastructure is a particular concern, as Europe expands its offshore wind farms and its use of liquefied natural gas terminals to replace Russian pipeline gas.

The Netherlands said a Russian ship detected at an offshore wind farm in the North Sea last month was part of attempts by Moscow to gain intelligence to sabotage infrastructure.

Improved surveillance of maritime areas should also help countries monitor and respond to environmental degradation and the effects of climate change such as sea level rise.

Authorities in Sweden, Germany and Denmark are investigating the blasts on the Nord Stream pipelines, which were constructed to supply Russian gas to Europe. They have said the explosions were deliberate but have not said who might be responsible. 
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Tanzania’s Opposition Welcomes President’s Pledge to Restore Competitive Politics

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Tanzania’s opposition has welcomed President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s pledge to restore competitive politics and review the country’s constitution. The longstanding demands from the opposition were ignored by her predecessor, the late John Magufuli. 

The president made the remarks Wednesday at an opposition gathering celebrating International Women’s Day, where she was invited as the guest of honor.

Hassan said that every journey of development begins with a step, and that progress will come gradually according to the laws and guidelines set for Tanzania. She also promised that reforms for the country are here, saying a new nation will be built with competitive politics and without violence.

Since coming to power in 2021 following the sudden death of Magufuli, Hassan has been working on changing some of her predecessor’s policies, including lifting the ban on political rallies.

Magufuli’s government passed various strict laws, such as the Media Services Act to censor critics, opposition politicians, and journalists. The law resulted in the suspension of four newspapers and several online media platforms.

It was also under Magufuli’s rule that several opposition members were arrested and jailed for participating in political activities.

Devotha Minja, a member of the women’s wing of the opposition Party for Democracy and Progress, better known as CHADEMA, said she believes Hassan will give the people democratic politics that allow citizens to choose a leader who will be announced by the Electoral Commission and will be held accountable, unlike the current situation.

Tanzanian rights activists are optimistic about the future of democracy in the country.

Kumbusho Dawson, executive director of Reach Out Tanzania, a non-governmental organization that promotes civil and political rights, said this is a big step, and it shows that the president is creating an opportunity for other political parties and competitive politics. This includes allowing political rallies, he added, saying that when it comes to the issue of a new constitution, it has been a longstanding demand. Her predecessor rejected it outright, saying he was prioritizing development.

Political analyst Deus Kibamba, a lecturer at the Center for Foreign Relations in Tanzania, said the president’s comments regarding the restoration of competitive politics and constitutional review are welcome.

However, he wondered whether members of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi Party will support these moves. He said there is a trend where candidates win elections without competition, and a party that is used to swimming in such waters cannot please a president who desires genuine competition.

Meanwhile, opposition politicians and rights activists hope a level political playing field is around the corner, but expressed concerns since it’s the president’s party that created the current environment. 
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Cameroon Says Rebel Attacks Intensify to Disrupt March 12 Senate Elections

Posted on by SeeAF

Cameroon’s military says separatists in its North-West region have blocked roads and attacked military vehicles to disrupt Sunday’s Senate elections.  Witnesses say several bodies were seen around the destroyed vehicles.  The military has not confirmed any casualties and vowed to protect voting, despite the rebel blockade.

Cameroonian government troops exchange fire with separatist fighters in Tadu, a village in the central African state’s North-West region. 

In the audio, extracted from a video shared on social media, a man identifying himself as separatist general Viper says fighters will chase out or kill government troops deployed to protect voters in Cameroon’s March 12 senatorial election.

Cameron’s Senate, the upper house of Parliament, has 100 seats. The election will be held for 70 seats. The other 30 will be appointed by President Paul Biya.

The military confirms that the video was taken in Tadu on Thursday. The military says besides Tadu village, government troops have fought gun battles with separatist fighters in several dozen locations, including Bamenda, Ndop, Wum, Jakiri, Oku, Bambili and Sabga in the North-West region and Manfe, Menji and Tiko in the South-West region.

The government says several military vehicles have been destroyed by improvised bombs planted by separatists in the Northwest. 

Army captain and military spokesman Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo refused to comment on the number of troops killed but said about two dozen fighters have died in two weeks.

Civilians say bodies were seen around destroyed military vehicles.

Vanigansen Mochiggle is an opposition Social Democratic Front, or SDF, candidate. He says battles between Cameroon government troops and separatists are making it impossible for Senate candidates to campaign.

“The prevailing situation in the region is not propitious for an election. The conflict exacerbated,” said Vanigansen. “The separatists are all over the place. It is even very difficult for the candidates to move to their various divisional headquarters, so we have that challenge.”

A statement from the Roman Catholic Church in Kumbo and Ndop says transport buses and private vehicles are grounded and there has been no movement of people or goods in the past three days.

The government says civilians who disrespect separatist orders and move out of their homes are being abducted and tortured.

The SDF says candidates must send campaign messages through radio and TV, telephone calls and social media platforms, including WhatsApp and Facebook.

The SDF accuses Cameroon’s government of ordering the military to protect only candidates with the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, which the government denies.

Deben Tchoffo is the governor of the Northwest region.

Tchoffo says Biya has given instructions to the military to protect all civilians and make sure the March 12 senatorial elections are hitch-free. He says separatists who are attacking government troops and civilians to disrupt the elections will be killed if they do not surrender.

Tchoffo said despite the separatist threats Cameroon will prove to the world that it is a democratic state by organizing free, fair and transparent senatorial elections.

Separatists who have vowed to disrupt the elections in English-speaking western regions launched their rebellion in 2017 after what they said was years of discrimination by the country’s French-speaking majority.

The conflict has killed more than 3,500 people and displaced more than half a million, according to the United Nations.
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US Citizen Imprisoned by Iran Implores Biden to Win His Freedom

Posted on by SeeUS

A U.S. citizen imprisoned by Iran on spying charges the United States rejects as baseless gave a rare interview from Tehran’s Evin prison on Thursday beseeching U.S. President Joe Biden to secure his release and that of two other American nationals.

“I implore you, sir, to put the lives and liberty of innocent Americans above all the politics involved and to just do what is necessary to end this nightmare and bring us home,” Siamak Namazi told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in a telephone interview.

Namazi, 51, was speaking on behalf of himself, Emad Shargi, 58, a businessman and U.S. citizen, and environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, 67, who has both U.S. and British nationality.

Namazi made a similar plea in a letter to Biden on Jan. 16, seven years after Iran released five U.S. citizens in a prisoner exchange that coincided with the implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated under U.S. President Barrack Obama.

“I remain deeply worried that the White House just doesn’t appreciate how dire our situation has become,” he said, saying he, Tahbaz and Shargi were all now held in the same place. Early in his detention, Namazi said he spent months caged in a cell, sleeping on the floor.

Namazi also called it “hurtful and upsetting” that Biden had not met his family “just to give them some words of assurance.”

A White House spokesperson said on condition of anonymity that “Iran’s unjust imprisonment and exploitation of U.S. citizens for use as political leverage is outrageous, inhumane, and contrary to international norms.

“Senior officials from both the White House and the State Department meet and consult regularly with the Namazi family, and we will continue to do so until this unacceptable detention ends,” the spokesperson added.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Heat Takes Toll as Iditarod Mushers Trek Across Alaska

Posted on by SeeUS

Mushers and their dogs in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race face plenty of variables in the Alaska wilderness. An unexpected one this year has been heat that is taking a toll in a sport better suited for temperatures well below zero. 

Jason Mackey said a thermometer hanging from the back of his sled hit 26.67 degrees Celsius at one point this week as he camped alongside the trail while mushers neared the halfway mark of the race. Other racers threw their game plans for the 1,609-kilometer race across Alaska out the window to deal with the heat and messy trail conditions. 

Although it’s warm, it wasn’t 26.67 degrees in interior Alaska, which would probably be a record high in July, said Brian Brettschneider, a climate scientist with the National Weather Service’s Alaska Region. Instead, when you leave a thermometer in the sun, it absorbs the solar energy, which is the reason official measurement thermometers are kept in the shade. 

But it’s still warm and sunny, and it’s having noticeable effects on people who are exposed to it, Brettschneider said. 

Last weekend, the same area was much cooler than normal, with what appeared to be ideal mushing conditions. The warmer conditions are being driven by an area of high pressure, he said.  

Many communities in the nation’s largest state hit record highs this week, from Kodiak off Alaska’s southern coast to Deadhorse, the supply town for oil companies operating on the state’s North Slope, about 2,012 kilometers away. 

Along the Iditarod race route, the community of McGrath didn’t set records but had a high Wednesday of 2.22 degree Celsius, -10 degree Celsius above normal. More telling was a low temperature of -2.78 degrees Celsius. 

“Normally it should be below zero (-17.78 degrees Celsius),” Brettschneider said. 

That warmth was evident all along the Iditarod trail Wednesday. “There’s almost no places that were below freezing along the route,” he said. 

That was not news to Mackey. “I wish the temperatures would cool down,” the musher told a television crew from the Iditarod Insider. 

It’s just not the heat that was bothersome. He said he looked down at his sled at one point and saw two mosquitoes. 

“Yeah, it’s spring,” Mackey said. 

The heat is taking its toll on Mackey’s dogs, which he called “big boys” at 36.29 kilograms. He said other teams were moving in the heat of the day, but he wasn’t willing to do that. “I mean, it zaps them,” he said of the dog team. 

Kelly Maixner, a pediatric dentist, said his dogs don’t like the heat, and he’d rather it be -28.89 degrees Celsius. 

During the race, mushers must take one 24-hour layover at a checkpoint to rest. Part of where to take that layover plays into the strategy of most every musher. 

Nic Petit took his mandatory rest early in the race, at the checkpoint in Nikolai, because the sun was out. “I like hot dogs, just not my dog as a hot dog,” said Petit, who was born in France and raised in New Mexico. 

The melting was causing issues and concerns for some mushers, especially as they made for the race’s halfway point, the ghost village of Iditarod. 

“It could be soft and punchy out there, and who knows how the hills are going into Iditarod,” Richie Diehl told the TV crew. “It could be big tussocks just like a couple of years ago, and it could be a brutal run, you know, with the rolling hills and possibly barren tundra.” Tussocks are clumps of grass. 

Rookie musher Bailey Vitello of New Hampshire was near last place Thursday, running his dogs in the rain during the day and having to deal with ice at night. 

He would rather not be behind and dealing with ripped-up trails. “The back-of-the-pack is the worst part of the trail,” he told the TV crew. 

Riley Dyche of Fairbanks took his 24-hour break before reaching Iditarod because he didn’t want to run his dogs in the heat of the day. That likely cost him either $3,000 in gold nuggets or a new smart phone, the prize given to the first musher at the halfway point. 

“I don’t think the little incentive prize — it would have been cool — but I don’t think it would have been a benefit to these guys for getting to the finish line,” he said, speaking of his dogs. 

Instead, that prize went to race leader Wade Marrs, who is originally from Alaska but now living in Wisconsin. He arrived in Iditarod about 1 a.m. Thursday. 

The good news for mushers is that as they continue west, temperatures will be more Alaska-like, highs around -12 degrees Celsius and lows below -17.78 degrees, Brettschneider said. 

The race started Sunday in Willow, just north of Anchorage. Mushers will take their dog teams over two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and the Bering Sea ice to the finish line in Nome. The winner is expected sometime early next week. 

 
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British Ministry: Intervals Between Russia’s Missile Attack in Ukraine Will Likely Increase

Posted on by SeeEU

Following the wave of missiles strikes that Russia launched Thursday against Ukraine, the British Defense Ministry said Friday that the intervals between such strikes will likely grow.

The ministry said that Russia needs time “to stockpile a critical mass of newly produced missiles directly from industry before it can resource a strike big enough to credibly overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses.”

Russia launched the barrage of missile attacks across Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least six and leaving hundreds of thousands without heat and electricity.

It was the largest such attack on Ukraine in three weeks, with Ukrainian forces saying they shot down 34 of the 81 missiles that Russia fired, far less than the usual ratio, as well as four Iranian-made drones.

“No matter how treacherous Russia’s actions are, our state and people will not be in chains,” Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address.

He also said he met with members of Ukraine’s cultural committee to discuss “ways to strengthen the capacity of Ukrainian culture to communicate with the world to ensure support for Ukraine.”

“Diplomacy, journalism, and culture are the three areas that do the most to make the world understand our struggle and help us,” he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the attacks were in retaliation for a recent assault on the Bryansk region of western Russia by what Moscow alleged were Ukrainian saboteurs. Ukraine has denied the claim and warned that Moscow could use the allegations to justify stepping up its own assaults.

Moscow said it hit military and industrial targets in Ukraine “as well as the energy facilities that supply them.” Nearly half of the households in the capital of Kyiv were left without heat as were many in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, where the regional governor said 15 Russian strikes hit the city.

About 150,000 households were left without power in Ukraine’s northwestern Zhytomyr region. In the southern port of Odesa, emergency blackouts occurred because of damaged power lines.

Among the weapons fired were six hypersonic Kinzhal cruise missiles, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said.

Nuclear power fears

Thursday’s attack also knocked out the power supply to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest. The plant’s operator, Energoatom, said diesel generators were being used to run the plant and that there was enough fuel available to continue for 10 days. The plant was later reconnected to the electrical grid.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi called for urgent action, noting the plant’s power supply had been cut for a sixth time since Russia invaded Ukraine more than a year ago.

“I am astonished by the complacency – what are we doing to prevent this happening? We are the IAEA; we are meant to care about nuclear safety,” Grossi said. “Each time we are rolling a dice. And if we allow this to continue time after time then one day our luck will run out.”

Important stretch

Top U.S. intelligence officials, testifying before lawmakers Thursday, cautioned that the war between Russia and Ukraine is entering a critical period.

“The next four, five, six months are going to be crucial on the battlefield to Ukraine,” CIA Director William Burns told members of the House Intelligence Committee.

“Any prospect for a serious negotiation, which [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin I don’t think is ready for today, is going to depend on progress on the battlefield,” Burns said. “Therefore, I think, analytically, what’s important is to provide all the support that we possibly can, which is what the president and our Western allies are doing for the Ukrainians as they prepare for a significant offensive in the spring.”

During Senate testimony Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Russia’s military has been so badly damaged that it is unlikely Russian forces will be able to make any significant territorial gains for the rest of the year.

But Haines also cautioned Ukraine forces have suffered casualties as well and have been forced to draw heavily on their reserves due to what she described as a grinding war of attrition.

US outreach

Zelenskyy on Wednesday invited the top U.S. House lawmaker to visit Kyiv to see “what’s happening here” in an interview broadcast on CNN.

“Mr. [Kevin] McCarthy, he has to come here to see how we work, what’s happening here, what war caused us, which people are fighting now, who are fighting now. And then after that, make your assumptions,” Zelenskyy told the news outlet through an interpreter.

Responding to CNN, House Speaker McCarthy said, “I don’t have to go to Ukraine or Kyiv” to understand it. He said he received information in briefings and other ways.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 of last year, the United States has sent nearly $100 billion in military, economic and relief aid to Ukraine. That aid was sent when the Democratic Party controlled both chambers in Congress.

The Republican Party took control of the U.S. House after the November midterm elections. Some Republicans have expressed opposition to sending additional arms and financial aid to Ukraine.

McCarthy has said he supports Ukraine, but that House Republicans will not provide “a blank check” for additional U.S. assistance to Kyiv without closer scrutiny of how it is being spent.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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US Semiconductor Manufacturing Expected to Ramp Up With New Deal

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A global shortage of semiconductor chips in the automotive industry starting in 2020 has motivated many countries to increase their domestic manufacturing. The United States has allocated more than $50 billion to promote semiconductor production and research stateside as the global need for the chips is expected to double over the next decade. Keith Kocinski has more from New York.
Camera: Keith Kocinski and Rendy Wicaksana
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In Ghana, Basketball Used as Incentive to Stay in School

Posted on by SeeAF

An aid group in Ghana is using the popularity of basketball and the Basketball Africa League to help keep kids in at-risk communities in school. A program known as DUNK Grassroots offers basketball practice for students who rack up reading credits at the library. Senanu Tord reports from Jamestown, Ghana.
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