March 2023 - Page 9 of 21

US Announces Charges for Attempts to Help Iranian Weapons Program

Posted on 03/22/2023 by SeeUS

A U.S. federal court unsealed indictments Tuesday charging Iranian and Turkish defendants with conspiring to procure and export U.S. technology to support Iran’s weapons programs.

The U.S. Justice Department said that between 2012-2013 Amanallah Paidar, of Iran, and Murat Bükey, of Turkey, sent a device used to test fuel cells from the United States through Turkey, and tried to obtain a bio-detection system that can be used in the research and use of weapons of mass destruction.

Bükey was sentenced Monday to 28 months in prison after being extradited from Spain to the United States in July 2022 and pleading guilty to conspiracy charges in December. Paidar is still at large, the Justice Department said.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday it added both Bükey and Paidar to its sanctions list.

“Mr. Bükey acted on behalf of a larger network attempting to deliver sensitive U.S. technology into the hands of a hostile nation,” Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Derek W. Gordon said in a statement. “If we allow such networks to meet with success, they could potentially put the safety of every American at risk.”

In another indictment unsealed Tuesday, the Justice Department said Iranians Agshar Mahmoudi and Bahram Mahmoudi Mahmoud Alilou, and Shahin Golshani of the United Arab Emirates, used their companies to conspire to obtain “a high-speed camera that has known nuclear and ballistic missile testing applications, a nose landing gear assembly for an F-5 fighter jet, and a meteorological sensor system.”

All three of those defendants are still at large, the Justice Department said.

“The sentencing of Murat Bükey and the charging of four others with conspiring to illegally export technologies and goods to Iran demonstrates our determination to hold those who attempt to circumvent U.S. export laws and sanctions accountable,” FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg said in a statement. “Export controls exist to protect the security of the United States and its people, and we will aggressively investigate those who threaten our national security by violating these laws. We are grateful to our international partners for their assistance in dismantling this scheme and bringing the defendant to justice.”
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How US Grand Juries Work

Posted on 03/22/2023 by SeeUS

Grand juries play a central role in the American justice system. They are tasked with listening to evidence presented by prosecutors and witnesses and then deciding, by a secret vote, whether there’s enough evidence to charge a person with a felony, which is any criminal offense punishable by at least one year in prison. 

Grand juries are required in federal felony prosecutions, and many U.S. states have adopted a similar system. However, in some states, prosecutors can also present their evidence to a judge, who then decides whether someone can be charged with a crime.   

Federal grand juries are made up of 16 to 23 members. At least 12 jurors must agree before an indictment — a formal charge — can be brought against someone. Grand jurors are selected from the same pool of ordinary citizens who serve as trial jurors. They are identified from public records such as driver’s licenses and voting registries. Grand jurors serve from 18 to 36 months, usually meeting a few times a month, and have the power to question witnesses and issue subpoenas. 

“The grand jury system is important in terms of deciding who’s going to face criminal charges, but it’s also important for involving citizens in the criminal justice system,” said Peter Joy, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. “The origins of the grand jury system are based on, in a sense, a certain degree of trying to keep the government honest.”  

Grand juries were originally conceived as a safeguard against government power, which is why the Founding Fathers wrote them into the U.S. Constitution. But former federal prosecutor Green isn’t convinced the so-called “people’s panel” fulfills that function in a meaningful way. 

“If the original idea of the Founding Fathers was, as I believe it was, to be a restraint on government power … it’s probably not a very effective tool to protect people from prosecution overreaching,” Green says. “And there’s a pretty significant risk that, if the prosecutor gets it in their head that somebody’s guilty, they can achieve an indictment whether the person is guilty or not.” 

Grand juries rarely decline to indict. In 2010, government statistics showed that federal grand juries brought charges more than 99% of the time.

High stakes 

While the grand jury might be a rubber stamp in most cases, the panel is more likely to play a meaningful role in cases that draw widespread public attention, Joy says.   

“I think it’s very likely that prosecutors in presenting the evidence to the grand jury most likely tried to present more evidence than they might in a typical type of case and presented in a way that would be balanced,” he says. 

Some states require prosecutors to show evidence that the accused might be innocent. However, federal prosecutors are not required to do so. 

“The higher the profile the accused has, the greater the likelihood is that the prosecutor really wants to feel that he or she has a solid case, and they’re going to want to test out the evidence in a way that would give them increasing confidence in the case that they have,” Joy says. 

“Because the stakes are high, a smart prosecutor — if there is some contrary evidence that might put into question guilt or innocence — they’re likely to use the grand jury as a vetting [testing] process for that.”
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Putin-Xi Meeting Won’t End Ukraine War, Says White House

Posted on 03/22/2023 by SeeEU

As Xi Jinping wraps up his three-day visit to Moscow, the White House expressed pessimism that the Chinese leader’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin will pave the way to end the war in Ukraine. White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.
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Los Angeles Education Workers Strike, Canceling School for 420,000 Students

Posted on 03/22/2023 by SeeUS

About 30,000 education workers backed by the teachers’ union began a three-day strike in Los Angeles on Tuesday, canceling school for nearly half a million students at the second-largest school district in the United States.

The Service Employees International Union Local 99 seeks to increase what it calls poverty wages that average $25,000 per year for many of their members, including school bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and classroom assistants.

Thousands of protesters gathered for a rally in the rain outside the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters, vowing to continue picketing for the next two days.

“We love our students, and we’re here for the students. But if we can’t properly take care of our kids, how can we properly come here and work as well?” Lynneier Boyd-Peterson, a striking bus driver, told KTLA 5 television news.

She was one of the striking workers who marched in pouring rain under umbrellas early on Tuesday carrying signs reading “Respect Us!” at a school bus yard.

The service workers are backed by the 35,000 members of the teachers’ union United Teachers Los Angeles, which refused to cross their picket line.

The work stoppage is the latest in a series of job actions by educators across the U.S. who have complained of burnout and low wages, leading to a teacher shortage in many parts of the country.

The Los Angeles strike follows a six-day teachers’ strike in 2019 and the coronavirus pandemic that closed in-classroom instruction for more than a year in 2020 and 2021.

Los Angeles schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho has acknowledged workers have been underpaid for years and said he was committed to reaching a deal.

The strike has disrupted classes for 420,000 students, many of whom also depend on schools for meals, counseling and other social services. The city opened dozens of meal and safe-place sites on Tuesday for students.

“I will make sure the well-being of L.A. students always comes first as I continue to work with all parties to reach an agreement to reopen the schools and guarantee fair treatment of all LAUSD workers,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.

The union, which said 96% of its membership had authorized the strike, is demanding a 30% salary increase plus an additional $2 per hour for the lowest-paid workers, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Carvalho told reporters on Monday the district was offering a 23% raise plus a 3% bonus and that “there are still additional resources to put on the table.”

Education experts have been warning of staff burnout for years. Those concerns grew when the coronavirus pandemic put additional stress on teachers, many of whom left the profession for better pay in the private sector, where their skills and education were valued.

“What’s happening in L.A. is going to happen in all the major cities if we don’t start doing something collectively as a nation,” said Jamie Sears, a former third-grade teacher who now teaches a master class for educators.
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Ukrainian Refugees in Israel Stuck in Legal Limbo

Posted on 03/22/2023 by SeeEU

While Europe and the United States have welcomed large numbers of Ukrainian refugees, many of them are in Israel, living in legal limbo without official refugee status. Linda Gradstein reports from the Israeli port city of Haifa, where a group is offering the refugees help.
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Nigeria’s Obi, Atiku Challenge Presidential Election Results

Posted on 03/22/2023 by SeeAF

Nigeria’s two main opposition leaders on Tuesday filed petitions seeking to cancel results from last month’s disputed presidential election, court papers showed, to begin what could be a legal battle lasting several months.

There have been numerous legal challenges to the outcome of previous Nigerian presidential elections, but none has succeeded.

Atiku Abubakar from the biggest opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party’s Peter Obi asked the Appeals Court to invalidate the election won by Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Party.

The opposition leaders said in separate affidavits the election was fraught with irregularities and accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of breaching the law by failing to use electronic machines to upload polling station results, among other criticisms.

Atiku and Obi asked for an order “canceling the presidential election” and for the INEC to conduct a fresh vote.

Tinubu has defended the election as credible.

Obi campaigned as an outsider, galvanized young and first-time voters and had appeared to throw the contest wide open, raising some voters’ hopes for change after years of hardship and violence under outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, 80, a former army general.

But Obi came third behind Tinubu and Atiku, both of whom had powerful political machines and decades of networking behind them.

The APC and PDP have between them governed Nigeria since the end of military rule in 1999.

Election observers from the European Union, the Commonwealth and other groups reported a range of problems, among them failures in systems designed to prevent vote manipulation.

The observers criticized the INEC for poor planning and voting delays, but they did not allege fraud. The commission itself apologized for the technical problems during the count.

The Appeals Court has 180 days to hear and make a ruling on Obi’s challenge.

If a candidate is not satisfied with the outcome of the tribunal, they can approach the supreme court, which will deliberate on an appeal within 60 days.

Nigeria’s next president will be sworn in on May 29.

Violence and voter intimidation marred last month’s presidential vote as well as last weekend’s governorship polls. Turnout was low, despite the highest number of registered voters, at 93 million.
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Biden Honors Springsteen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mindy Kaling

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeUS

U.S. President Joe Biden made an observation when conferring the National Medal of Arts on rocker Bruce Springsteen on Tuesday:

“Bruce, some people are just born to run, man.”

Springsteen and a host of actors, authors, singers and other artists joined Biden in the White House East Room where they received either a National Medal of Arts or National Humanities Medal for their contributions to American society.

Comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus, whose “Veep” show made light of the vice presidency — an office Biden once held — was also honored.

“She embraces life’s absurdity with absolute wit, and handles real life turns with absolute grace. A mom, a cancer survivor, a pioneer for women in comedy, she is an American original,” Biden said.

Actress Mindy Kaling, a main character on the long-running television show, “The Office,” set in Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, received a medal as well.

When Biden introduced author Colson Whitehead to the crowd, he noted that Whitehead had won back-to-back Pulitzer Prizes for his books and gave a hint of his own ambitions.

“I’m trying to go back to back myself,” said Biden, who has said he intends to run for reelection in 2024.

Singer Gladys Knight, the “empress of soul,” was an honoree, along with clothing designer Vera Wang, historian Walter Isaacson and authors Amy Tan, Ann Patchett and Tara Westover, among others.
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US Says China Should Push Russia to End the War in Ukraine

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeUS

U.S. officials are reacting to the joint statement by China and Russia on the Russian war on Ukraine. A statement was issued Tuesday in Moscow, where Chinese President Xi Jinping held two days of talks with his host, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, at the White House press room lectern on Tuesday, said there is nothing from the talks and agreement between the Chinese and Russian leaders that gives hope the war in Ukraine is going to end any time soon.

“If China wants to play a constructive role here in this conflict, then they ought to press Russia to pull its troops out of Ukraine and Ukrainian sovereign territory,” Kirby said. “They should urge President Putin to cease bombing cities, hospitals and schools, to stop the war crimes and the atrocities and end the war today.”

Kirby added that while China should not be considered a neutral party, the United States has seen no indication the Chinese are poised to provide the Russians with lethal weapons.
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UN: School Meal Programs More than Just a Plate of Food

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeAF

Nearly 420 million children benefited from free school meals last year, a new World Food Program report said Tuesday, providing an important safety net as hunger reaches unprecedented crisis levels worldwide.

“Governments worldwide seem to be increasingly recognizing that the health and nutrition of children is something that needs to and must be protected, even in the context of fiscal crises that are affecting the world, and particularly low-income countries,” Carmen Burbano, WFP’s head of school-based programs, told reporters in a video briefing from Rome.

The State of School Feeding report is the first since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the education of 1.5 billion students and young people around the world, and took away the only guaranteed daily meal for millions of them.

The report says the number of children reached by school meal programs now exceeds pre-pandemic levels. In 2022, WFP says 418 million children worldwide received school meals — 30 million more than just before the pandemic hit in early 2020.

Burbano said much of this is due to governments ramping up domestic funding by around $5 billion over the last two years to nearly $48 billion overall for these programs. She said this is happening in both rich and poor countries.

“One of the big findings of the report is that the rally of governments, this domestic mobilization, is unprecedented,” she said.

She attributed much of that success to the School Meals Coalition, which was launched in 2021 and seeks to provide a nutritious, free school meal to every child by 2030. More than 75 heads of state have joined the coalition.

“And it’s their commitment, it’s their mobilization, that’s achieved this unprecedented result,” Burbano said.

Safety net

WFP says school meal programs are a critical safety net for vulnerable children and households, especially at a time when 345 million people face crisis levels of hunger worldwide, including 153 million children.

The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts, economic and climate crises, and now Russia’s war in Ukraine, have seen food prices rise over the past three years, making it harder for many families to regularly put nutritious meals on the table. While the Food and Agriculture Organization says prices for key food items are beginning to come back down, healthy meals are still not affordable for everybody.

Millions still hungry

But despite successes, disparities persist, and millions of children who need the meals are not getting them.

“We are estimating at the moment about 73 million children living in low-income countries in extreme poverty, with high levels of malnutrition, don’t have access to these programs,” Burbano said, urging the international community to help bridge that gap.

She said feeding program coverage in low-income countries is only at about 18%, compared with around 60% in high-income countries.

“If you are a child that is born in a country like Niger, like Somalia or Haiti, you have the double whammy of going to school in sub-funded education systems, but also understanding that you are probably going there on an empty stomach. You are probably sick. You are probably hungry. And then we wonder why children are not learning in these countries,” Burbano said.

She added that research shows that in low-income countries, 70% of children under age 10 cannot read or write a simple sentence.

“Part of this is because they don’t have enough to eat, and they are sitting in these classrooms hungry and without the proper support,” she said.

For many low-income families, a free school meal is an added incentive to keep their children in school. This is especially important for girls, who are usually the first ones pulled from the classroom when parents cannot afford to educate all of their children.

For girls, this can have lifelong consequences, including exposure to early marriage and motherhood, and a loss of earning potential. The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization says just one more year of school can increase a girl’s earnings as an adult by as much as 20%.

School feeding programs don’t just benefit the students. WFP says these programs have created 4 million jobs in 85 countries, many of them supporting women who prepare the food, as well as small holder farmers who produce it.
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Putin, Xi Call for Ukraine Peace Talks as Russian Leader Says West Not Ready

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeEU

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Tuesday signed a new strategic partnership between their countries and called for a diplomatic solution to Moscow’s war against Ukraine, but Putin said he sees no indication that the Kyiv government and its Western allies are ready for peace talks.

After two days of talks with Xi at the Kremlin, Putin accused the United States and Western countries of fighting “to the last Ukrainian,” but praised what he said was China’s “neutral position” on the war.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Beijing and Moscow believe that the United Nations Charter “must be observed and international law must be respected,” but made no demand that Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine or honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.

Putin called his talks with Xi “open and friendly,” discussions aimed at cementing their “no limits” partnership agreed to in early 2022, less than three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.

China recently proposed a 12-point plan calling for a de-escalation and eventual cease-fire in Ukraine, which the West has rejected because it would lock in place Russian territorial gains its illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and more land seized by Russia in eastern Ukraine during its 13-month invasion.

Putin said, “We believe that many of the provisions of the peace plan put forward by China are consonant with Russian approaches and can be taken as the basis for a peaceful settlement when they are ready for that in the West and in Kyiv. However, so far, we see no such readiness from their side.”

Kyiv has welcomed Beijing’s diplomatic overture but says that Russia must first withdraw its troops from Ukraine. Fighting has mostly stalemated in eastern Ukraine along the main battlefront line.

The series of documents Putin and Xi signed called for “strategic cooperation” between the two countries, including a planned pipeline shipping Russian natural gas to China.

“I am convinced that our multi-faceted cooperation will continue to develop for the good of the peoples of our countries,” Putin said in televised remarks. He said Moscow was ready to help Chinese businesses replace Western firms that have left Russia in protest over the invasion of Ukraine.

Xi said he invited Putin to visit China later this year.

In opening remarks before their closed-door talks Monday, Putin said Russia was “slightly envious” of the rapid development of China in recent decades that has boosted it to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States.

Russian news agencies later reported that the two leaders talked for nearly four-and-a-half hours before breaking for dinner, where Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said Putin would likely give Xi a “detailed explanation” of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

The Chinese leader’s three-day visit to Moscow gives both Xi and Putin a public show of partnership in opposing what both see as American domination of global affairs. Their growing alliance also facilitates economic deals, such as shipment of Russian oil and natural gas to China at a time when the U.S. and its Western allies have imposed widespread sanctions to curb Russia’s foreign business transactions in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Washington Monday that any proposal for Ukraine that allows Russian forces to remain in the country would merely let Moscow regain its strength to continue its offensive.

“Calling for a cease-fire that does not include the removal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory would effectively be supporting the ratification of Russian conquest,” he said.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called on Xi “to press President Putin directly on the need to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Some material in this report came from Reuters.

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Niger Credited With Negotiating Release of US Aid Worker, French Journalist

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeUS

The government of Niger says it negotiated the release of a U.S. aid worker and a French journalist who were held captive by Islamist militants in the Sahel region. Aid worker and missionary Jeffery Woodke was held for more than six years, while reporter Olivier Dubois spent nearly two years in captivity.

Kidnappings in the Sahel are growing at an alarming rate. Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger saw a combined 532 abductions in 2022, up from to 33 in 2017, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. Some 115 abduction incidents have already been recorded in the region this year.

Kidnappings in the Sahel represent a “permanent risk” for all actors working in the region, said Fahiraman Kone, a security analyst with the Institute for Security Studies in Dakar.

“This is a practice that has been put forward for a long time by jihadist groups as a method of financing, but also by other ransom groups who simply engage in banditry,” he said.

Due to the private nature of hostage negotiations, it’s difficult to decipher the role each country plays in securing someone’s release, Kone said. Niger’s efforts, however, should not go unnoticed, he added.

“Niger nevertheless stands out more and more in the central Sahel in its approach to the fight against insecurity,” he said. “While in Burkina Faso and Mali we see a strengthening of the militarized approach to the fight, Niger is trying to set forth a policy of negotiation so as to disengage fighters from groups and to negotiate with jihadist leaders themselves.”

While abductions of foreigners often make headlines, the majority of kidnappings target locals. Some 97% of civilians abducted in Mali since 2012 were Malian, according to a 2021 report from the Institute for Security Studies. Local humanitarian workers, village chiefs, religious leaders and journalists are among the most targeted groups.

Sadibou Marong is the West Africa director for Reporters Without Borders. People must not forget Malian journalists Hamadoun Nialibouly and Moussa M’Bana Dicko, who are still being held captive, he said.

The safe return of Dubois shows that hostage release campaigns can be successful, he added.

“When people generally think it’s not possible, we need to go far and wide,” Marong said. “It’s always possible to set up mechanisms to advocate, to mobilize allies everywhere, so as to achieve such a positive result.”

Dubois was kidnapped on April 8, 2021, in Mali’s northern Gao region by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, or JNIM, a coalition of jihadist insurgent groups active in the Sahel. He was there to interview a jihadist leader when he was abducted.

In a video posted to Twitter from Niamey airport Monday he told reporters he was tired but felt fine.

“It’s huge for me to be here, to be free,” he said. “I’d like to acknowledge Niger and their expertise with this sensitive mission. And to France as well — to everyone that allowed me to be here today.”

Dubois returned to Paris Tuesday, where he was greeted by President Emmanuel Macron.

U.S. aid worker Jeffery Woodke was kidnapped in October 2016 from his home in Abalak, Niger, and was believed to have been taken to Mali.

Niger’s interior minister said Nigerien authorities secured his release from JNIM.

Via Twitter, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said he was “gratified” and “relieved” over Woodke’s liberation and thanked Niger for its help in securing the aid worker’s release.

The releases followed a recent trip to Niger by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
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Ukrainian Artists Use Their Craft to Counter Russian Messaging in Africa

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeAF

Ukraine is supporting artists painting murals in Europe and Africa to counter Russian disinformation about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Dubbed ”The Wall,” a nod to the album by British rock band Pink Floyd, the project was recently launched in Kenya’s capital and also employs local artists. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi. Kenya footage by Jimmy Makhulo.
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Ethiopia Rejects US Accusation of War Crimes as Inflammatory

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeAF

Ethiopia’s government has rejected a U.S. assertion that all sides in the two-year Tigray war committed war crimes, calling the statement “inflammatory.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday on Twitter that the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies, Amhara region forces and Tigray People’s Liberation Front forces all committed “atrocity crimes” during the Tigray war that ended in November.

Blinken said he condemns these atrocities and welcomes commitments to pursue transitional justice.

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs struck back in a statement Tuesday, saying it rejects the U.S. allegation that all sides committed war crimes during the Tigray conflict.

It said Blinken’s statement, coming a week after the secretary of state visited Ethiopia, “unfairly proportions blame” and is inflammatory and “untimely.”

The government said it has just launched national consultations on a transitional justice policy.

The ministry added that a report on human rights released by the U.S. State Department on Monday does not contain any information that wasn’t included in a previous joint report done by the U.N. and Ethiopia’s Human Rights Commission.

That report in September of last year said investigators had found evidence of crimes against humanity by the Ethiopian government, including using starvation as a weapon.

The government rejected that report.
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Washington Tries to Ease Potential Anger by China over Taiwan Leader’s Upcoming Visit to US

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeUS

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is trying to lower any possible animosity from China over an upcoming visit to the United States by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.

President Tsai will stopover in California and New York later this month before embarking on an official mission to Central America. An unnamed administration official says the Biden administration has told Beijing that past Taiwanese presidents have routinely made stopover visits in the U.S. on their way to other nations, including Tsai, who has made six stopover visits between 2016 and 2019.

The official says China should not use Tsai’s stopover in the U.S. as a reason to take any aggressive action towards Taiwan.

China responded to a visit to Taiwan last August by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by launching several days of massive military drills over the Taiwan Strait, including firing ballistic missiles in the waterway that separates the island from mainland China.

Beijing considers the democratically-ruled island part of its territory, even though Taiwan has been self-governing since the end of China’s civil war in 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces were driven off the mainland by Mao Zedong’s Communists. China has vowed to bring the island under its control by any means necessary, including a military takeover.

The United States switched diplomatic recognition of China from Taiwan to Beijing in 1979, but it provides Taiwan military equipment for self-defense under the Taiwan Relations Act.

News outlets said last month that Tsai will give a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Center near Los Angeles ahead of her scheduled trip to Central America. It was also reported that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet with President Tsai during her stopover in the U.S. The Republican leader, who represents a district in California, has previously expressed an interest in visiting Taiwan himself.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Biden Expresses Support for ‘Brave Women’ of Iran as White House Marks Nowruz

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeUS

U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday the United States stands with the “brave women and all the citizens of Iran” who are inspiring the world with their conviction and courage as they fight for their “human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Speaking at a White House event celebrating Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, Biden said the United States and its partners will “continue to hold Iranian officials accountable for their attacks against their people.”

Biden also highlighted the people who have been unjustly detained in Iran, and elsewhere in the world, saying it is a top priority for his administration to bring those people home.

In a statement earlier Monday, Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden “send our best wishes to everyone celebrating Nowruz across the United States and around the world— from the Middle East, to Central and South Asia, to the Caucasus, to Europe.”

“This year, Nowruz comes at a difficult time for many families, when hope is needed more than ever — including for the women of Iran who are fighting for their human rights and fundamental freedoms,” President Biden said.
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US Welcomes Yemen Prisoner Exchange Deal

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeUS

The United States has welcomed an agreement between Yemen’s warring sides to free nearly 900 detainees.

“This important step builds on the positive environment created by a truce in Yemen that has effectively stopped the fighting for the past 11 months,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement. “We thank UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg and the International Committee of the Red Cross for their hard work finalizing the agreement.”

Monday’s agreement came after 10 days of negotiations in Switzerland.

It includes the Iran-backed Houthi rebels releasing 180 prisoners in exchange for Yemen’s internationally recognized government freeing more than 700 Houthi prisoners, according to Abdul-Qader el-Murtaza, the head of the Houthi delegation.

U.N. special envoy Hans Grundberg said the two sides agreed to meet again in mid-May to discuss more releases but added that there is much more work to be done to resolve the conflict that began in late 2014.

“A comprehensive and sustainable end to the conflict is necessary if Yemen is to recover from the devastating toll the eight-year conflict has had on its men and women,” Grundberg said.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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UK Hits More Iranian Officials with Sanctions

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeEU

The U.K. on Monday sanctioned more senior officials of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including financiers and commanders, in its latest set of asset freezes and visa bans.

The government said it was slapping sanctions on five board directors of a foundation which manages the IRGC’s domestic investments, as well as two provincial commanders of the state security service.

It follows a flurry of other sanctions against Iranian officials by London, the European Union and the United States in recent months over Tehran’s bloody crackdown on protesters.

“Today we are taking action on the senior leaders within the IRGC who are responsible for funneling money into the regime’s brutal repression,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

“Together with our partners around the world, we will continue to stand with the Iranian people as they call for fundamental change in Iran.”

The U.K. has imposed dozens of asset freezes and U.K. travel bans since the start of the year on Iranian individuals and organizations, including leading IRGC commanders and Tehran’s prosecutor general.

The last set of sanctions in January followed Iran announcing that it had executed British-Iranian dual citizen Alireza Akbari for spying for the U.K., prompting widespread Western outrage.

Demonstrations have swept Iran since the September 16 death in custody of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest for allegedly failing to adhere to the Islamic republic’s strict dress rules.

Iran has since arrested thousands of people in the wave of protests, according to the United Nations and rights groups.
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Russia to Hold UN Meeting on Ukrainian Children Taken to Russia

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeEU

Russia plans to hold an informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council in early April on what it said is “the real situation” of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, an issue that has gained the spotlight following the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes related to their abduction.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told a news conference Monday that Russia planned the council meeting long before Friday’s announcement by the ICC. Russia holds the rotating presidency of the council in April.

The court said it was seeking Putin’s arrest because he “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

The announcement of the warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, was welcomed by Ukraine as a first step toward accountability by Russia for crimes following its February 2022 invasion. It was dismissed by Moscow, which is not one of the 123 countries that are parties to the court, calling the action “legally void” and “outrageous.”

The announcement followed a report Thursday by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine that said there was evidence of the illegal transfer of hundreds of Ukrainian children to Russia.

The commission said both parents and children faced many obstacles in establishing contact, with the burden falling primarily on the children, with young children likely unable to make any contact. It concluded that the forced deportations “violate international humanitarian law, and amount to a war crime.”

The Ukrainian government claims 16,221 children have been taken to Russia since the war began.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan was quoted by the Courthouse News Service as telling Russia on Monday at a conference in London of justice ministers from more than 30 countries: “Return the children, repatriate the children.”

Russia’s Nebenzia called the issue of the children “totally overblown” and said Moscow wants to explain at the Security Council meeting, around April 6, that they were taken to Russia “simply because we wanted to spare them of the danger that military activities may bring.”

Nebenzia was asked whether Russia planned on returning the children. “When conditions are safe, of course. Why not?” the Russian envoy replied.
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Ghana Border Towns Say Weapons Leaking from Burkina Faso

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeAF

Burkina Faso’s struggle against Islamist militants has raised security concerns in neighboring Ghana. Observers say illegal weapons are being smuggled into Ghana via the porous border. Senanu Tord reports from Paga, Ghana.
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Putin Hosts Xi for Second Day of Talks After Welcoming China’s Ukraine Peace Plan

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeEU

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a second day of talks Tuesday, after Putin welcomed Beijing’s peace plan to resolve Russia’s war against Ukraine and signaled to Western leaders the extent of what they call their “limitless” friendship.      

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday’s meetings would involve a range of subjects and officials from both countries.

Russian news agencies later reported that the two leaders talked for nearly 4 1/2 hours before breaking for dinner, where Peskov had said Putin would likely give Xi a “detailed explanation” of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

Putin said Monday he viewed the Beijing peace plan with respect.

But China’s proposal has little chance of enactment as proposed because it does not meet key demands from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — namely, that Russia withdraw from Ukraine to honor its internationally recognized borders, including the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed in 2014 and the eastern Ukrainian regions Russian forces invaded in February of last year.      

“Calling for a cease-fire that does not include the removal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory would effectively be supporting the ratification of Russian conquest,” he said.     

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called on Xi “to press President Putin directly on the need to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”    

Ahead of Xi’s visit, in an article published in the Chinese People’s Daily newspaper, Putin described the visit as a “landmark event” that “reaffirms the special nature of the Russia-China partnership.”     

The Russian leader specifically said the meeting sent a message to Washington that the two countries aren’t prepared to accept attempts to weaken them.     

“The U.S. policy of simultaneously deterring Russia and China, as well as all those who do not bend to the American diktat, is getting ever fiercer and more aggressive,” he wrote.     

The Chinese leader’s trip to Moscow came just days after the International Criminal Court in The Hague charged Putin with the illegal deportation of thousands of children from Ukraine to Russia. Russia has ignored the allegations as “null and void.”     

It was not immediately clear what China hoped to gain from Xi’s visit. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Xi’s trip was a “journey of friendship, cooperation and peace.”     

On the war, Wang said, “China will uphold its objective and fair position on the Ukrainian crisis and play a constructive role in promoting peace talks.”     

The spokesperson added, “President Xi will have an in-depth exchange of views with President Putin on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues of common concern.”     

Wang said that Xi aims to “promote strategic coordination and practical cooperation between the two countries and inject new impetus into the development of bilateral relations.”     

While trying to broker an end to the war in Ukraine, Beijing has not supplied weapons to Moscow, nor has it condemned the invasion. At the same time, it has accused NATO and the United States of provoking Putin’s attack on Ukraine.     

The U.S. has strongly rejected Beijing’s call for a cease-fire, which it says would leave in place Moscow’s territorial gains in eastern Ukraine.     

“The first and main point is the capitulation or withdrawal of the Russian occupation troops from the territory of Ukraine in accordance with the norms of international law and the U.N. Charter,” Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Monday on Twitter.     

On Monday, Xi wrote in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta, a Russian state-run daily publication, that the Chinese peace proposal represents “as much as possible the unity of the world community’s views,” according to an English translation of the article issued by the Chinese Mission to the United Nations.    

“The document serves as a constructive factor in neutralizing the consequences of the crisis and promoting a political settlement,” Xi said. “Complex problems do not have simple solutions.”        

White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara and Paris Huang of VOA’s Mandarin service contributed to this report. Some material for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Analysts: US Shifting Sahel Conflict Strategy to One of Containment

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeAF

U.S. forces are training West African troops to counter the growing terror threat spreading from the Sahel region. Meanwhile, security experts say Burkina Faso and Mali have essentially fallen to terrorist groups, meaning the U.S. and security partners are now looking at containing the Sahel conflict rather than stopping it entirely. Henry Wilkins reports from Sogakope, Ghana.
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Biden Signs Bill on COVID Origins Declassification

Posted on 03/21/2023 by SeeUS

President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan bill Monday that directs the federal government to declassify as much intelligence as possible about the origins of COVID-19 more than three years after the start of the pandemic.

The legislation, which passed both the House and Senate without dissent, directs the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify intelligence related to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. It cites “potential links” between the research that was done there and the outbreak of COVID-19, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic March 11, 2020. The law allows for redactions to protect sensitive sources and methods.

U.S. intelligence agencies are divided over whether a lab leak or a spillover from animals is the likely source of the deadly virus.

Experts say the true origin of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 1.1 million in the U.S. and millions more around the globe, may not be known for many years — if ever.

Biden, in a statement, said he was pleased to sign the legislation.

“My Administration will continue to review all classified information relating to COVID-19’s origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” he said. “In implementing this legislation, my Administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security.”
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Breaking Down Possible Indictment of Trump

Posted on 03/20/2023 by SeeUS

The criminal charges looming over former President Donald Trump pivot around the payment of hush money to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels in the final days of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The payment was made by former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen as part of a scheme to “catch and kill” politically damaging stories about the real estate mogul’s marital infidelities.

Cohen pleaded guilty in connection with the case in 2018 but federal prosecutors did not charge Trump, leaving it to New York City’s district attorney to investigate the case under state law.

In court documents, federal prosecutors laid out how Cohen, working at the behest of Trump, sought to prevent then-candidate Trump’s accusers from going public with their allegations.

In October 2016, an agent for Daniels contacted American Media Inc. (AMI), the publisher of the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer, to offer the rights to a story about an alleged sexual encounter she had with Trump a decade earlier.

AMI Chairman David Pecker, a longtime Trump friend, had offered to help the Trump campaign deal with negative press about his relationships with women by identifying stories that could be bought but not published, a tactic known as “catch and kill.”

The tabloid agreed to keep Cohen “apprised of such stories,” according to federal prosecutors.

In August 2016, AMI had identified one such story and, after receiving Cohen’s assurances of reimbursement, agreed to pay former Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007.

But when Daniels’ agent approached AMI, the chairman put him in touch directly with Cohen, who negotiated a $130,000 agreement to buy her silence, federal prosecutors say.

Paying hush money is not a crime. But federal prosecutors say Cohen arranged for the payments to Daniels and McDougal in an attempt to influence the presidential campaign while falsely recording it as a legal “retainer” expense and receiving reimbursements from the Trump Organization.

In fact, “there was no such retainer agreement, and the monthly invoices COHEN submitted were not in connection with any legal services he had provided in 2017,” federal prosecutors wrote.

In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight federal criminal charges, including campaign finance violations related to the payment of $130,000 to Daniels.

In the lead up to his guilty plea, Cohen admitted under oath that he had facilitated the hush money payments “in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump.

Trump, who has denied Daniels’ allegation, later said that he “never directed Michael Cohen to break the law” and said the payment was not a “campaign contribution.”

“If it were, it’s only civil, and even if it’s only civil, there was no violation based on what we did. OK?” he told Reuters in 2018.

Cohen spent a little over two years in federal prison before being released in 2021.

Federal prosecutors did not charge Trump in the case.

The Manhattan District Attorney has since been investigating whether the hush money payments violated any state laws.

While it remains unknown what charges the prosecutor will ultimately bring, legal experts say they could center on the falsification of business records.

The theory is that Trump allegedly used the guise of a legal retainer agreement to conceal the hush money payments in violation of federal election laws.

Under New York law, falsifying business records is typically a misdemeanor. To elevate the charge to a felony, prosecutors would have to show that the act of fraud was carried out with the intent to commit, aid or conceal another crime.

“That other crime would appear to be the federal election violations which the Justice Department previously declined to charge,” Jonathan Turley, a law professor at the George Washington University, wrote in a column in The Hill.

Saying he “did absolutely nothing wrong,” Trump has called the New York District Attorney’s investigation a “witch hunt” led by a “racist” prosecutor. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is Black.

This is not the only criminal case hanging over the former president. In Georgia, prosecutors are considering bringing criminal charges in connection with Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election result in the state. Trump narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia.

Meanwhile, special counsel Jack Smith has been investigating Trump’s role in the effort to overturn the election results as well as his handling of classified documents after he left office.
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Report: 43,000 Died in 2022 Somalia Droughts

Posted on 03/20/2023 by SeeAF

Droughts in Somalia may have killed an estimated 43,000 people last year, a new report by the Somali government and United Nations said.

The report released Monday said half of the drought-related deaths may have occurred among children under the age of 5.

The highest death rates were estimated to have occurred in south central Somalia, including the Bay, Bakool and Banadir regions — the current epicenter of the drought according to the report — which presents retrospective estimates of mortality across Somalia from January to December 2022.

Somalia’s Ministry of Health, and two U.N. organizations, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released the report.

“This report has clearly indicated that the impact of the drought that is unprecedented in this country, had a severe impact on the lives of the people of Somalia,” WHO Somalia told VOA Somali.

“This report has clearly indicated that the impact of the drought that is unprecedented in this country had a severe impact on the lives of the people of Somalia,” WHO Somali Representative Dr. Mamunur Rahman Malik told VOA Somali.

Malik said because of the droughts the estimated number of deaths in 2022 is 208,000. In the absence of droughts, the number of deaths expected was estimated to be 165,000 people.

“The difference is 43,000, and this is what we are calling ‘excess deaths’ meaning that these 43,000 deaths would not have happened if there was no drought or food hunger-like situation in 2022 in Somalia. So that’s the interpretation we are giving.”

Malik said due to hunger in Somalia, immunity to diseases has gone down, which caused the deaths.

“Some of the diseases, which are easily preventable like measles, diarrhea diseases, cholera have killed these 43,000 people, excess in number compared to the usual number,” he said.

“I think it was [an] inability to provide health care during that period that claimed the lives of these people, some of these deaths are preventable and this is the learning that we are doing. We need to bring health care and health services closer to the people where they are.”

The report warns that although famine has been averted, the drought situation is not over. The report estimates that from January to June this year, 135 people might also die each day due to the hunger crisis, with total deaths projected to fall between 18,100 and 34,200 during this period.

“We continue to be concerned about the level and scale of the public health impact of this deepening and protracted food crisis in Somalia,” said Somali Minister of Health Dr. Ali Haji Adam.

He said he is optimistic that the risk of famine can be pushed back if ongoing health and nutrition efforts are sustained and scaled.

“We, therefore, urge all our partners and donors to continue to support the health sector in building a resilient health system that works for everyone and not for the few,” he said.

“Building a healthier and happier world for all Somalis remains at the heart of our government.”

Humanitarian agencies in Somalia said droughts in the country have affected 7.8 million people and are blamed for 3.5 million livestock deaths.

The International Rescue Committee said it’s “deeply concerned” by the report.

“These deaths are absolutely preventable,” Shashwat Saraf, IRC’s Regional Emergency Director of East Africa, said in a statement.

Saraf urged the U.N. to prioritize countries at the highest risk, such as Somalia, and urged donors to support a national effort to extend lifesaving malnutrition treatment to children in need.
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