US officials are warning that China and Russia would capitalize on the ‘chaos’ that would ensue if the United States defaulted on its debt. The warnings come amid a monthslong standoff between President Joe Biden and Republicans in securing congressional approval to raise the nation’s debt limit. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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Month: May 2023
US Director Damien Chazelle to Head Venice Film Festival Jury
U.S. director Damien Chazelle, best known for the Oscar-winning La La Land, will lead the jury of the upcoming Venice Film Festival, organizers announced Friday.
The 80th edition of the prestigious festival will take place from Aug. 30-Sept. 9 on the swanky, beach-lined Lido island.
“For 10 days each year this city of the arts, of Tintoretto and Titian and Veronese, becomes a city of cinema, and I am humbled and delighted to be invited to lead this year’s jury,” said Chazelle, 38, whose most recent film is Babylon.
Chazelle’s musical about making it in Hollywood, La La Land, opened the Venice festival in 2016, and went on to win six Academy Awards, including for its director, the youngest ever to win the prize.
Heading the jury for Venice’s parallel competition, Orizzonti, will be Italy’s Jonas Carpignano, director of a trilogy (Mediterranea, A Ciambra, A Chiara) based in the Calabrian port city of Gioia Tauro.
Last year, the festival’s top Golden Lion prize went to U.S. director Laura Poitras for All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. The documentary traced the campaign by photographer and activist Nan Goldin to hold the rich Sackler family accountable for the U.S. opioid crisis.
U.S. actress Julianne Moore headed last year’s jury, with Spanish director Isabel Coixet at the helm of Orizzonti.
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Ukraine Welcomes Lifting of Ban on Grain Shipments to Neighbors
The Polish ban on Ukrainian agricultural products last month sent a shock wave across Ukraine, which lost $143 million in a month, Deputy Minister of Economy Taras Kachka told an audience at the Brussels Economic Forum on Friday.
Shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s early April visit to Poland, Polish officials, under pressure from local producers, suspended the import of grain and other agricultural products from Ukraine. Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania followed suit because of concerns about a flood of Ukrainian grain that, before the war, would have been shipped farther afield through Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian minister of agriculture, who is traveling for negotiations through neighboring states, told VOA that the decision of the Polish government was unexpected. Ukrainians were informed about it a day before, and the restriction hit almost all Ukrainian agricultural production.
“We learned about the decision on Friday night, and it was imposed on Saturday morning,” said Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solskyi of Poland’s April 15 ban. The EU had earlier liberalized all imports from Ukraine to help the country maintain its economy in the face of the Russian invasion.
Ukrainian agricultural businesses were shocked, said Oleksyi Mushak, a former Ukrainian MP and co-founder of ReGenerative Agro, an agriculture company.
“It’s like a missile hit you, but in this situation, it was a Polish ban — unexpected,” Mushak told VOA. “This brings us long-term problems. Now no one will have confidence, and no one will work on the long-term, only short-term contracts, making it difficult for Ukraine to access the money.”
After lengthy negotiations with the European Union, Poland agreed to cancel the unilateral restrictions. The European Commission agreed to allocate 100 million euros ($110.1 million USD) as compensation to farmers adversely affected by the glut of Ukrainian grain.
According to the agreement, Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed can be sold to any country in the EU except to the five countries that had complained that the cheaper Ukrainian agricultural product was making their domestic production unprofitable.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, welcomed the agreement as “a deal that preserves both Ukraine’s exports capacity, so it continues feeding the world and our farmers’ livelihoods.”
“We hope to continue to talk to our Polish partners. We hope that the transit routes will start working again and the relationship between Polish and Ukrainian businesses will continue, including the products that are not restricted,” Solskyi told VOA.
The European Commission has had to negotiate hard with the five so-called frontline states neighboring Ukraine to ensure grain can be exported from Ukraine. Brussels realized that new ways of exporting Ukrainian agricultural products must be found.
In the last 10 years, Ukraine has become an agricultural powerhouse. According to the European Commission, as reported by Deutsche Welle, Ukraine accounts for 10% of the world wheat market, 15% of the corn and 13% of the barley market. Ukraine is also a significant player in the sunflower oil market. The war on Ukrainian soil reduced the ability to produce and export. However, even in the current situation, Ukraine is creating market competition.
“We have been present in the European market for a long time. We have competed with different countries and local producers for 10 to 15 years,” said Solskyi. “The key is the war that created this situation. Ukrainian farmers and traders looked at the western borders because the sea routes were blocked, and the amount of product that went to the European direction rose. That is why solidarity lanes were created. So, it is good there is competition; healthy competition is a key for development.”
However, the latest crisis is a sign of possible future obstacles to Ukraine’s EU membership. Poland will assume the EU presidency in the first half of 2025. Ukrainian membership in the EU will be a priority for Poland, Polish President Andrzej Duda said this week. But experts and officials are pointing out that the agricultural talks, particularly, can become very difficult because of Ukraine’s huge agricultural potential.
“It is in the general interest of Poland that Ukraine will be a member of the EU. We have a common security issue,” said Mushak of ReGenerative Agro. “However, we have to separate security and economic issues. Unfortunately, now we mix these two things.”
But Solskyi offered a reassuring message.
“Even before this current situation, we understood — and Europeans understood, our partners understood, we all understood — that the negotiations could be the most difficult regarding agriculture,” the Ukrainian minister told VOA.
“But Ukraine is not unique. Most countries that joined the European Union had the most prolonged and difficult negotiations. However, I am confident there are solutions and ways that we can take that will work for Ukraine and be comfortable for EU countries.”
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13 Die in Attack on DR Congo Displacement Camp
At least 13 people were killed in a displacement camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday night, officials said, in the latest violence to hit the conflict-torn region.
The bloodshed occurred in a camp in Kisimba, in North Kivu province’s Masisi territory, said a local administrator who requested anonymity.
Five people were also wounded, he told Agence France-Presse, adding that pro-Hutu Nyatura militiamen were the suspected perpetrators.
A Red Cross official provided the same casualty toll.
Armed groups have plagued much of eastern DRC for three decades, a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s.
One militia, the M23, has captured swaths of territory in North Kivu since taking up arms again in late 2021 after years of dormancy.
The rebel campaign has displaced more than 1 million people, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
A rights activist in Kisimba, who asked not to be named, said the M23 was initially assumed to be behind the attack but that the perpetrators were members of a Nyatura group.
AFP was unable to independently verify either the death toll or the motive behind the attack.
An East African regional military force has taken over some areas previously occupied by the M23 since December.
But the Tutsi-led rebels are still present in North Kivu and still occasionally clash with rival militias.
The DRC accuses its smaller central African neighbor Rwanda of backing the M23, something Rwanda has repeatedly denied. But United States and French officials, as well as United Nations experts, agree with the assessment.
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Kidnapped Nigerian Girls Freed, Return to Chibok With Babies
Two Nigerian women abducted as schoolgirls by a jihadi militant group nine years ago have been rescued, the West African nation’s military has said. One has a year-old baby while the second gave birth to her second child days after her freedom.
Hauwa Maltha and Esther Marcus were among 276 schoolgirls abducted in April 2014 from the Government Girls Secondary School in the village of Chibok by Boko Haram militants.
They were rescued in April by Nigerian soldiers and reunited with their families in the northeastern Borno state, according to Major General Ibrahim Ali, who leads the Nigerian military operation against the extremist violence experienced in the northeast region for more than a decade.
Boko Haram fighters stormed the school in Borno nine years ago as the girls were preparing for exams. The mass kidnap sparked global outrage and led to the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign.
More than 20 of the girls have regained their freedom in the past year, but nearly 100 are still missing.
Maltha and Marcus, both 26, were forcibly married to extremists while in captivity, Ali told journalists Thursday in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. His comments echoed concerns of parents and activists about the maltreatment of the girls by Boko Haram, whose name in the local Hausa language means “Western education is forbidden.”
Both girls were married three times as one husband after another was killed during clashes with the Nigerian military.
“Hauwa was about eight months and two weeks pregnant during her rescue [and] delivered a bouncing baby boy on April 28 while undergoing thorough medical examination along with her baby, Fatima,” said the military commander.
The girls’ return brought excitement to many in the Chibok community, but also sadness.
“It has made the memories fresh for the parents that their children are still missing,” said Hassan Chibok, a local leader.
Several girls have returned home in recent months, mostly after escaping the Sambisa Forest, a known hideout for the extremists.
Most of those who returned had babies after either being forced into marriage or after losing hope that they would ever regain their freedom, their parents and the freed girls have said.
Since the abduction in 2014, Boko Haram has grown in reach and influence. Most of its members now operate as a more brutal faction backed by the Islamic State group. More than 35,000 people have died and over 2 million have been displaced by the extremist violence in Nigeria, according to the U.N. Development Program.
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Biden Seen Selecting Air Force General as Joint Chiefs Chair
President Joe Biden is expected to nominate a history-making Air Force fighter pilot with years of experience in shaping U.S. defenses to meet China’s rise to serve as the nation’s next top military officer, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the decision.
If confirmed by the Senate, Air Force General CQ Brown Jr. would replace the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Mark Milley, whose term ends in October.
Brown has long been considered a front-runner for the position and Biden is likely to announce his nomination shortly, according to the officials, who spoke Friday on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters.
While Brown would not be the first Black chairman — the late Army General Colin Powell was the first — it would be the first time that both the Pentagon’s top military and civilian positions were held by African Americans. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the first Black Pentagon chief, has been in the job since the beginning of the administration.
Brown, 61, is a career F-16 fighter pilot with more than 3,000 flight hours and command experience at all levels. For the last year he’s been widely viewed as the front-runner to replace Milley, as the Pentagon shifts from preparing for the major land wars of the past to deterring a potential future conflict with Beijing.
That effort could depend heavily upon the military’s ability to rapidly meet China’s rise in cyberwar, space, nuclear weapons and hypersonics, all areas Brown has sharply focused on for the last several years as the Air Force’s top military leader, in order to modernize U.S. airpower for a 21st-century fight.
Notable firsts
Brown has broken barriers throughout his career. He served as the military’s first Black Pacific Air Forces commander, where he led the nation’s air strategy to counter China in the Indo-Pacific as Beijing rapidly militarized islands in the South China Sea and tested its bomber reach with flights near Guam.
Three years ago he became the first Black Air Force chief of staff, the service’s top military officer, which also made him the first African American to lead any of the military branches.
The Joint Chiefs chairman is the highest-ranking officer in the country and serves as the senior military adviser to the president, the defense secretary and the National Security Council. The chairman commands no troops and is not formally in the chain of command. But the chairman plays a critical role in all major military issues, from policy decisions to advice on major combat operations, and leads meetings with all the chiefs who lead the various armed services.
Arnold Punaro, a retired major general and former staff director for the Senate Armed Services Committee who has worked with many nominees through the confirmation process, said Brown has the credibility and experience to push the services onto a modern warfare footing.
“We have not yet made the needed adjustments to deal with the threat posed by China,” Punaro said in a statement, calling Brown the “perfect nominee” for this point in history.
As Air Force chief, Brown has pushed to modernize U.S. nuclear capabilities, including the soon-to-fly next-generation stealth bomber, and led the effort to shed aging warplanes so there’s funding to move forward with a new fleet of unmanned systems. He’s also supported the development of the U.S. Space Force, which received many of its first Guardians and capabilities from the Air Force.
Representative Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., said that she hadn’t been formally told of the announcement but that Brown was a good choice.
“I do think it’s really important that the next person in charge have that [Indo-Pacific] experience,” Sherrill said. “I just think that’s so critical.”
Brown is private and deliberate and seen as a polar opposite to Milley, whose four-year tour has been tumultuous at times. Milley’s big personality and blunt talk may have helped propel him to the top job under former President Donald Trump, but that same outspokenness eventually infuriated Trump.
Milley’s past two years under Biden have been much calmer, and he has assumed a lower profile as well, as he has been consumed with U.S. efforts to provide military aid to Ukraine.
Brown is expected to maintain that lower profile.
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Nigeria Evacuates More Nationals From Sudan
A group of 130 Nigerians evacuated from Sudan arrived in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Friday, about 36 hours after another group of nearly 400, mostly students, had landed.
The arrivals — 128 females and two males — were evacuated from Port Sudan on the Red Sea and received by Nigerian officials. More evacuations are expected in coming days.
Nasir Sani Gwarzo, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, told a crowd that Nigerians who fled Sudan to Egypt also will be brought home.
“We’re getting good cooperation from the Nigerian communities that are living in that port,” said Gwarzo. “In the next few hours, we shall have no Nigerian stranded in the Egyptian side.”
Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency estimates some 5,000 Nigerians were in Sudan when fighting broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.
On Wednesday, Nigeria evacuated 376 Nigerians from Sudan. Gwarzo said hundreds more will be evacuated soon.
Ismail Aliyu, chairman of the nonprofit Center for Peace and Literacy Propagation, said students sponsored by the nonprofit to study in Sudan have yet to be evacuated.
“As I speak right now, none of my students is back from Sudan, they’re still in Port Sudan,” Aliyu said. “The most important thing is that most of the students have left the war zone.”
Authorities said the evacuation was delayed by logistics and bottlenecks at the Sudanese-Egyptian border.
“Some Nigerians were claimed to have entered the bus without permission which caused the Egyptian side to delay the flight until that was sorted,” said Gwarzo. “The Nigerians have now been moved into the Egyptian side of the border and we have two planes that can carry all of them at the same time.”
NEMA said authorities have expanded partnerships with more airlines to evacuate the remaining nationals as soon as possible.
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US to Control Land Sales to Foreigners Near 8 Military Bases
Foreign citizens and companies would need U.S. government approval to buy property within 160 kilometers of eight military bases, under a proposed rule change that follows a Chinese firm’s attempt to build a plant near an Air Force base in the U.S. state of North Dakota.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Investment Security published its proposed rule Friday in the U.S. Federal Register. The rule would give expanded powers to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which screens business deals between U.S. firms and foreign investors and can block sales or force the parties to change the terms of an agreement to protect national security.
Controversy arose over plans by the Fufeng Group to build a $700 million wet corn milling plant about 19 kilometers from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, which houses air and space operations.
As opposition to the project grew, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and U.S. Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, all Republicans, raised questions about the security risks and asked the federal government last July for an expedited review.
CFIUS told Fufeng in September that it was reviewing the proposal and eventually concluded that it did not have jurisdiction to stop the investment.
The plans were eventually dropped after the Air Force said the plant would pose a significant threat to national security.
The new rule would affect Grand Forks and seven other bases, including three that are tied to the B-21 Raider, the nation’s future stealth bomber. The Pentagon has taken great pains to protect its new, most-advanced bomber from spying by China. The bomber will carry nuclear weapons and be able to fly manned and unmanned missions.
Six bombers are in various stages of production at Air Force Plant 42, located in Palmdale, California, while the two other bases will serve as future homes for the 100-aircraft stealth bomber fleet: Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota and Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.
Also on the list are Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, both training bases. The others selected for greater protection are the Iowa National Guard Joint Force Headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, and Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona.
The locations were selected for a variety of reasons, including the sensitivity of either current or future missions that would be based there, if they were near special use airspace, where military operations would be conducted or whether they were near military training routes, said a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
CFIUS, a committee whose members come from the State, Justice, Energy and Commerce departments among others, already had the power to block property sales within 160 kilometers of other military bases under a 2018 law.
Hoeven said the CFIUS process for reviewing proposed projects needed to be updated.
“Accordingly, China’s investments in the U.S. need to be carefully scrutinized, particularly for facilities like the Grand Forks Air Force Base, which is a key national security asset that serves as the lead for all Air Force Global Hawk intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations and has a growing role in U.S. space operations,” he said.
In February, Andrew Hunter, an assistant secretary of the Air Force, said in a letter to North Dakota officials that the military considered the project a security risk but did not elaborate on the kinds of risks Fufeng’s project would pose.
The letter prompted Grand Forks officials, who had initially welcomed the milling plant as an economic boon for the region, to withdraw support by denying building permits and refusing to connect the 150-hectare site to public infrastructure.
Fufeng makes products for animal nutrition, the food and beverage industry, pharmaceuticals, health and wellness, oil and gas, and other industries. It’s a leading producer of xanthan gum. It denied that the plant would be used for espionage.
Lawmakers have also called for a review of foreign investments in agricultural lands. Earlier this year, Senators Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana, and Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota, introduced legislation aimed at preventing China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from acquiring U.S. farmland.
“Countries like China who want to undermine America’s status as the world’s leading economic superpower have no business owning property on our own soil — especially near our military bases,” Tester said in a statement Thursday.
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Spanish Journalist’s Supporters Denounce Spy Claims
Supporters of a Spanish journalist accused of spying for Moscow have condemned a Russian media outlet for publishing what it said were leaked allegations of espionage in the case against the reporter.
Pablo Gonzalez has been held in pre-trial custody in Poland since February last year when Russia invaded Ukraine, while authorities investigate allegations that he was spying for Moscow — accusations the journalist has denied.
Poland’s secret service says Gonzalez used his role as a journalist as a cover for espionage, but officials have not disclosed any supporting evidence.
Agentstvo, an independent Russian online media outlet, published a report Tuesday saying Gonzalez was a Russian military secret service agent who infiltrated dissident circles.
The website said it based its report on records from Gonzalez’s mobile phone and dissident contacts.
In response, the Free Pablo Gonzalez Association, which campaigns on behalf of the journalist, tweeted: “We are not going to go into these leaks [from the investigation] but we are surprised that this has happened when the lawyers have not had access to the telephone records of Pablo.
“In this way they have created accusations [against Gonzalez] without respecting the presumption of innocence, without proof of someone who has spent 14 months in prison and without respecting his rights as a European citizen.”
The association added: “If Pablo is guilty or not, the only ones who can decide that is the justice system. The only thing we would ask is a rapid and fair trial.”
Agentstvo said in its report that Gonzalez was an agent from the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service.
Nemtsov’s daughter
According to the report, Gonzalez came to know Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of Boris Nemtsov, the Russian physicist and opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was assassinated in 2015.
The two met in Brussels in 2016, the report said, quoting a source from the Boris Nemtsov Foundation who is an acquaintance of Nemtsova.
Agentstvo reported that Gonzalez socialized with employees of the foundation.
“When Gonzalez was detained in Poland in February 2022, reports on the activities of Nemtsova and people from her circle were found on his digital media,” the website reported.
Gonzalez was allegedly interested in students of the Summer School of Journalism of the Nemtsov Foundation from Ukraine and the U.S.
Boris Nemtsov’s letters were allegedly found on the journalist’s digital media, which Agentstvo said could have come from Nemtsova’s laptop.
Zhanna Nemtsova declined to comment, citing a nondisclosure agreement that she has signed with the Polish authorities.
Olga Shorina, co-founder of the foundation, told Agentstvo that Gonzalez had taken part in the organization’s events but did not have access to confidential information.
VOA has attempted to verify the Agentstvo report with the Polish judicial services, but they declined to comment. Lawyers for the Spanish journalist said Polish authorities have not released details of the case against him.
The journalist’s family has links to Russia because his father moved there as a child after the Spanish Civil War. But Gonzalez is not part of the Russian intelligence service, his Spanish lawyer Gonzalo Boye has said.
Ukraine, Syria coverage
Gonzalez has covered conflicts in Ukraine and Syria for various outlets, including the left-wing Spanish newspaper Public, and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper. He also provided some camera work for VOA in 2020 and 2021.
He was arrested February 28, 2022, when crossing from Poland to Ukraine, where he had been reporting on the start of the Russian invasion.
Ukrainian secret service officials had earlier detained him and accused him of spying for Russia, which he denied.
He returned to Spain for a few days before leaving for Poland.
International rights organizations and press freedom commentators have criticized how Poland, a European Union nation, handled the case and demanded that Gonzalez be afforded due process and civil rights.
He is taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, seeking to secure his release on the ground that the terms of his imprisonment contravene his constitutional rights.
Jim Fry, a spokesman for VOA, said: “Because of the nature of the allegations against Mr. Gonzalez, the reports he contributed to VOA remain offline and under review. We continue to monitor the situation but have nothing to add at this time.”
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Britain Pledges $102 Million for Brazil’s Amazon Fund
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged more than $100 million Friday for Brazil’s fund to protect the Amazon rainforest, at a meeting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of King Charles III’s coronation.
“Beyond football, there are so many interests we have in common … [including] combating climate change,” Sunak told Lula as they met at 10 Downing Street in London.
“I’m delighted to announce we will be investing in your Amazon Fund, and I pay tribute to your leadership on this issue,” Sunak added.
The British contribution to the fund will be £80 million ($102 million), aimed at stopping deforestation and saving the region’s rich biodiversity, said a Downing Street spokesperson.
The investment is the latest diplomatic win for Brazil as it seeks to get wealthy nations to help bankroll the fight to save the world’s biggest rainforest.
Launched in 2008 during Lula’s first presidency with a $1 billion commitment from Norway, the Amazon Fund was suspended under far-right climate-skeptic former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula, who beat Bolsonaro at the polls to return to power in January, revived the fund on his first day in office.
He has been lobbying fellow world leaders to contribute in the name of saving the Amazon, a key resource in the race to curb climate change.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced $500 million for the fund last month — though the financing will have to be approved in Congress, a potentially tough battle.
And Germany pledged 200 million euros to protect the rainforest in January, including 35 million euros for the Amazon Fund.
Veteran leftist Lula has been hammering home the message that “Brazil is back” as a partner in the fight against climate change, after average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased by more than 75% under Bolsonaro from the previous decade.
Lula is one of a string of world leaders and royals in town for Saturday’s coronation ceremony, Britain’s first in 70 years.
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IMF Chief Advocates Africa Continental Free Trade Area
The head of the International Monetary Fund is urging African countries to implement the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.
Speaking Friday in Nairobi, Kristalina Georgieva said intracontinental trade could grow by 53% if steps are taken to remove trade barriers and improve logistics and transportation.
Georgieva said there are many benefits to be gained from the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, or AfCFTA. But first, she said, reforms are needed to capture the full advantages, including what the IMF sees as the number one priority — reducing trade barriers, such as tariffs.
“If Africa decides to follow our science for example and bring trade barriers from 6% down to 1%, that would be a major step,” she said.
She also wants to see countries use fewer non-trade barriers, like quotas and embargoes, attempt to integrate into global supply chains and diversify their economies.
Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, head of the World Trade Organization, praised the agreement, but said that to make it work, it’s imperative to reduce the cost of trading within and outside Africa.
“Trading with the outside, that cost is equivalent to a tariff of 350%, which is 1.5 times larger than what you find in developed countries,” Iweala said.
But, Iweala said, trading within Africa is even worse.
“The barriers … are equivalent to 435% tariffs,” Iweala said. “So, unless we can deal with these costs and bringing them down, it will be very difficult for us to actualize a good implementation of the Continental Free Trade Area.”
But with many countries just recovering from the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, reducing tariffs comes with its own problems.
“For some countries in the continent, they actually depend on those tariffs and customs duties for the bulk of their revenue, so it’s going to be a real challenge,” Iweala said. “That is why for the least developed countries for example, the agreement is that they have a longer period of time to implement because of the recognition that it is difficult, that it is not going to happen overnight.”
The agreement establishing the AfCFTA was signed in 2018.
The AFCFTA is the world’s largest free trade area, according to the bloc, bringing together the more than 50 countries of the African Union and eight regional economic communities, such as ECOWAS and the East African Community.
So, said the IMF chief, it might take some time to realize its full potential.
“We are not talking about moving from today to tomorrow, we are talking about the process,” Georgieva said. “We just have to have the ambition to pursue reduction of tariffs. … There is still quite a lot that could be done to bring tax revenues up by improving tax collections and tapping into higher income in a fairer and more prudent way.”
Last year, Kenya shipped its first batches of locally made car batteries and tea to Ghana.
Njuguna Ndung’u, the cabinet secretary at the Kenyan National Treasury, celebrated but noted that the batteries took eight weeks to be transported from Nairobi to Accra.
“Why did it take eight weeks? It’s because of the infrastructure problem we have, the connectivity is a problem,” Ndung’u said. “Because you have an opportunity to trade, you look for opportunities in terms of how to solve the problems in the process and do you make that solution sustainable? Right now, I wouldn’t say taking eight weeks is sustainable but it’s worth the try.”
In the meantime, he said, “We are going to look into how to improve connectivity.”
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US Centers for Disease Control Director Walensky Resigns
The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Friday she is stepping down from that position effective June 30.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who along with Dr. Anthony Fauci, was one of the faces of U.S. President Joe Biden’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, reportedly announced she was stepping down at a CDC staff meeting.
Biden confirmed the announcement in a statement Friday praising Walensky for saving lives through “her steadfast and unwavering focus on the health of every American.” Biden said Walensky, as CDC director, “led a complex organization on the front lines of a once-in-a-generation pandemic with honesty and integrity.”
Biden said she leaves the CDC “a stronger institution, better positioned to confront health threats and protect Americans. We have all benefited from her service.”
The Associated Press reports, citing CDC sources, that Walensky, in a resignation letter to Biden, expressed “mixed feelings” about the decision to leave and while she did not give a specific reason, said she felt the U.S. is at a moment of transition as emergency declarations come to an end.
Walensky wrote of her time at the CDC, “I have never been prouder of anything I have done in my professional career.”
Walensky began her job at the CDC shortly after Biden took office in January 2021. She came to the position from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she served as chief of the Infectious Diseases Division. She also was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press.
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Cinco de Mayo Celebrates Mexican Culture, Not Independence
American bars and restaurants gear up every year for Cinco de Mayo, offering special deals on Mexican food and alcoholic drinks for the May 5 holiday that is barely celebrated south of the border.
In the United States, the date is largely seen as a celebration of Mexican American culture stretching back to the 1800s in California.
Typical festivities include parades, street food, block parties, mariachi competitions and baile folklórico, or folkloric ballet, with whirling dancers wearing shiny ribbons and braids and bright, ruffled dresses.
For Americans with or without Mexican ancestry, the day has become an excuse to toss back tequila shots with salt and lime and gorge on tortilla chips smothered with melted orange cheddar that’s unfamiliar to most people in Mexico.
That’s brought some criticism of the holiday, especially as beer manufacturers and other marketers have capitalized on its festive nature and some revelers embrace offensive stereotypes, such as fake, droopy mustaches and gigantic straw sombreros.
This year’s celebrations
With May 5 falling at the end of the work week this year, festivities are kicking off Friday evening with happy hours and pub crawls in cities including Hollywood, featuring $4 beers and two-for-one margaritas, and a boozy party aboard a yacht on Chicago’s Lake Michigan with música norteño, or northern Mexico music, and ballads called corridos.
Celebrations are planned throughout the weekend, especially in places with large Mexican American populations, such as Los Angeles, Houston, New York, San Antonio and Washington, D.C.
A Sunday festival in downtown Phoenix will feature performers including Los Lonely Boys, who describe their music as “Texican rock,” as well as lucha libre, or wrestling matches with masked adversaries. A Cinco de Mayo parade will take place in Dallas on Saturday, while a Holy Guacamole Cinco de Mayo Run steps off that morning in Palisades Park in Santa Monica, California.
What it is
Cinco de Mayo marks the anniversary of the 1862 victory by Mexican troops over invading French forces at the Battle of Puebla.
The triumph over the better equipped and more numerous French troops was an enormous emotional boost for the Mexican soldiers led by General Ignacio Zaragoza.
Historical re-enactments and parades are held annually in the central Mexico city of Puebla to commemorate the inspirational victory over the Europeans, with participants dressed in historical French and Mexican army uniforms.
What it isn’t
Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day, Mexico’s most important holiday.
Mexicans celebrate their country’s independence from Spain on the anniversary of the call to arms against the European country issued September 16, 1810, by the Reverend Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a priest in Dolores, Mexico.
Mexico’s president reenacts el Grito de Independencia, or the Cry of Independence, most years on September 15 at about 11 p.m. from the balcony of the country’s National Palace, ringing the bell Hidalgo rang.
The commemoration typically ends with three cries of “¡Viva México!” above a colorful swirl of tens of thousands of people crowded into the Zócalo, or main plaza, in central Mexico City.
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Rights Commission Denounces Security Measures in Ethiopia
Ethiopia’s Human Rights Commission has denounced security measures against protesters in the Amhara region this week that it said led to the deaths of civilians.
The government-established commission, which is monitoring operations in the region, reported civilian deaths, though it did not specify how many people were killed.
The regional director for monitoring and investigation, Alemu Meheretu, said the commission has received reports of shelling in the Amhara region’s North Shewa Zone.
“There have been attacks with heavy weapons. People have died because of this, and we have also been informed about the destruction of houses as well,” Meheretu said. “Roadblocks and tensions are also being reported.”
Meheretu added that the commission will issue a report and work on interventions when it has full information.
The clashes are between the Ethiopian military and the Amhara region militia, which has set up roadblocks on major routes to the capital.
Protests in Amhara started in early April, following government calls to integrate regional forces into the military or the police.
Regional Amhara forces fought alongside the Ethiopian government during the two-year war in the neighboring Tigray region.
The government’s law enforcement operations have also targeted opposition members accused of inciting protesters, according to the Human Rights Commission.
Attempts to reach the region’s communications director went unanswered.
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Mali Sets Date for Delayed Vote, Saying It’s True to Its Word on Democracy
Mali’s military government on Friday set a new date for a delayed constitutional referendum meant to pave the way for presidential elections next year.
The vote, initially scheduled for March 19, is the first in a series of polls meant to restore democracy in the West African country after two military takeovers since August 2020.
It was delayed days before that date to give electoral management authorities more time to set up in all of Mali’s 19 administrative regions.
Government spokesman Abdoulaye Maiga announced on state television on Friday that the referendum would now take place on June 18. He added that the new date showed authorities were true to their word and democratic commitments.
Mali’s junta has pushed back against regional and international pressure to rapidly return to civilian rule, proposing lengthy transition timelines after failing to hold promised elections in February last year.
The region’s main economic and political bloc ECOWAS imposed stiff sanctions on the country at the start of 2022 for straying from its commitments.
After months of negotiations with its rulers, the bloc accepted a new 24-month transition that was to begin in March 2022. It has lifted sanctions but kept Mali suspended from the bloc.
Presidential elections are now scheduled to take place in February 2024.
Mali’s two coups were spurred in part by anger over the failure of authorities to block a violent Islamist insurgency that has spread through West Africa over the past decade.
Similar frustrations contributed to two military takeovers in neighboring Burkina Faso last year. Authorities there have pledged to restore democracy by next July.
Military rulers in both countries have previously blamed election delays on insecurity, saying it made it difficult to organize polls.
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Taking Up Space Teaches Native American Girls STEM
The American Association of University Women estimates that about 28% of professionals in science, technology, engineering, and math, also called STEM, are women. But in one Native American community teachers are working to get girls involved in the sciences. VOA’s Virginia Gunawan reports from Tucson, Arizona. Camera: Rere Wahyudi, Supriyono
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US Adds a Solid 253,000 Jobs Despite Fed’s Rate Hikes
America’s employers added a healthy 253,000 jobs in April, evidence of a labor market that still shows surprising resilience despite rising interest rates, chronically high inflation and a banking crisis that could weaken the economy.
The unemployment rate dipped to 3.4%, matching a 54-year low, the Labor Department said Friday. But the jobless rate fell in part because 43,000 people left the labor force, the first drop since November, and were no longer counted as unemployed.
In its report Friday, the government noted that while hiring was solid in April, it was much weaker in February and March than it had previously estimated. And hourly wages rose last month at the fastest pace since July, which may alarm the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve.
April’s hiring gain compares with 165,000 in March and 248,000 in February and is still at a level considered vigorous by historical standards. The job market has remained durable despite the Fed’s aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes over the past year to fight inflation. Layoffs are still relatively low, job openings comparatively high.
Still, the ever-higher borrowing costs the Fed has engineered have weakened some key sectors of the economy, notably the housing market. But overall, the job market has remained stable. Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself sounded somewhat mystified this week by the job market’s durability. The central bank has expressed concern that a robust job market exerts upward pressure on wages — and prices. It hopes to achieve a so-called soft landing – cooling the economy and the labor market just enough to tame inflation yet not so much as to trigger a recession.
One way to do that, Powell has said, is for employers to post fewer job openings. And indeed, the government reported this week that job openings fell in March to 9.6 million — a still-high figure but down from a peak of 12 million in March 2022 and the fewest in nearly two years.
At the staffing firm Robert half, executive director Ryan Sutton said he still sees “pent-up demand” for workers.
Applicants, not employers, still enjoy the advantage, he said: To attract and keep workers, he said, businesses — especially small ones — must offer flexible hours and the chance to work from home when possible.
“Giving a little bit of schedule flexibility so that somebody might finish their work late or early so that they can take care of children and family and elderly parents — these are the things that the modern employee needs,” Sutton said. “To not offer those and to try to still have a 2019 business model of five days a week in an office — that’s going to put you at a disadvantage” in finding and retaining talent.
Powell has said he is optimistic that the nation can avoid a recession. Yet many economists are skeptical and have said they expect a downturn to begin sometime this year.
Still, steadily rising borrowing costs have inflicted some damage. Pounded by higher mortgage rates, sales of existing homes were down a sharp 22% in March from a year earlier. Investment in housing has cratered over the past year.
America’s factories are slumping, too. An index produced by the Institute for Supply Management, an organization of purchasing managers, has signaled a contraction in manufacturing for six straight months.
Even consumers, who drive about 70% of economic activity and who have been spending healthily since the pandemic recession ended three years ago, are showing signs of exhaustion: Retail sales fell in February and March after having begun the year with a bang.
The Fed’s rate hikes are hardly the economy’s only serious threat. Congressional Republicans are threatening to let the federal government default on its debt, by refusing to raise the limit on what it can borrow, if Democrats don’t accept sharp cuts in federal spending. A first-ever default on the federal debt would shatter the market for U.S. Treasurys — the world’s biggest — and possibly cause an international financial crisis.
The global backdrop already looks gloomier. The International Monetary Fund last month downgraded its forecast for worldwide growth, citing rising interest rates around the world, financial uncertainty and chronic inflation.
Since March, America’s financial system has been rattled by three of the four biggest bank failures in U.S. history. Worried that jittery depositors will withdraw their money, banks are likely to reduce lending to conserve cash. Multiplied across the banking industry, that trend could cause a credit crunch that would hobble the economy.
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Latest in Ukraine: Wagner Group Chief Says He’s Withdrawing Fighters from Bakhmut Next Week
New developments:
Russia “highly likely” unable to protect its vast rail system from sabotage uptick, according to British Defense Ministry.
Ukraine shoots down its own malfunctioning drone over Kyiv.
Kyiv, Odesa targeted by Russian missiles and drones.
The Wagner Group chief said Friday he is withdrawing his fighters from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on May 10 because they do not have enough ammunition.
Yevgeny Prigozhin said that without ammunition his private military units are “doomed to a senseless death.”
Prigozhin has complained for some time that his mercenaries in Ukraine have not received enough support from Russia.
Meanwhile, video has emerged for the Black Sea Economic Cooperation assembly in Ankara of a Russian and a Ukrainian delegate scuffling, after the Ukrainian flag was grabbed from the Ukrainian delegate, to prevent the flag from being in the background while a Russian official was being interviewed.
The British Defense Ministry attributed a “recent uptick” in Russian rail accidents in areas bordering Ukraine to “sabotage committed by unknown actors.”
In the report posted on Twitter on Friday, the ministry said the attacks have “almost certainly” resulted in “short-term localized disruption of Russia military rail movements.”
Russia’s Railway Troop Brigades can quickly restore the lines, the ministry said. However, Russia’s internal security forces will be subjected to increasing pressure and “will highly likely remain unable to fully protect Russia’s vast and vulnerable rail networks from attack.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine shot down one of its own drones that was malfunctioning over central Kyiv on Thursday evening.
Initial reports from government officials said the Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicle was an enemy drone, but later the air force said that the vehicle was Ukrainian.
The air force said in a statement that the uncontrolled presence of the drone in the sky could have led to “undesirable consequences.”
There were no reports of any injuries when the drone was shot down.
Earlier Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin would eventually face an international war crimes trial for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a speech at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Zelenskyy said, “Only one Russian crime led to all of these crimes: this is the crime of aggression, the start of evil, the primary crime. There should be responsibility for this crime.”
The ICC in March issued an arrest warrant for Putin on a war crimes charge involving the alleged deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia. Zelenskyy said Putin “deserves to be sentenced for these criminal actions right here in the capital of the international law.”
“And I’m sure we will see that happen when we win. And we will win,” he said.
The ICC cannot prosecute the crime of war aggression itself. But Zelenskyy appealed for a full-fledged tribunal to prosecute that overarching crime.
“If we want true justice, we should not look for excuses and should not refer to the shortcomings of the current international law but make bold decisions that will correct … shortcomings that unfortunately exist in international law,” he said.
Zelenskyy was welcomed outside the ICC building by the court’s president, Poland’s Piotr Hofmański. The court staff crowded at windows to watch Zelenskyy’s arrival and raised a Ukrainian flag next to the court’s own flag outside the building.
The ICC said in a March 18 statement that Putin “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.”
But the chances of Putin standing trial in The Hague are remote. The court does not have a police force to execute its warrants, and the Russian leader is unlikely to travel to any of the ICC’s 123 member states that are under an obligation to arrest him if they can. Neither the U.S. nor Russia recognizes the authority of the court.
Zelenskyy’s speech came a day after he denied that Ukrainian forces were responsible for what the Russian government alleged was an attempt to assassinate Putin in a drone attack on the Kremlin. Moscow promised retaliation for what it termed a “terrorist” act.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday accused the United States of being behind the alleged attack. He said Russia was “well aware that the decision on such actions and terrorist attacks is not made in Kyiv, but in Washington.”
“And then Kyiv does what it’s told to do,” Peskov said, without offering evidence for his claim.
In Washington, U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby rejected the Russian accusation, telling MSNBC, “I can assure you that there was no involvement by the United States. … We had nothing to do with this, so Peskov is just lying there, pure and simple.”
U.S. officials also have voiced skepticism about the attack itself, including whether it was possibly staged by Moscow. “I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.
On the battlefront, Ukraine’s military claimed three Russian drones that hit the southern city of Odesa early Thursday had “for Moscow” and “for the Kremlin” written on them, seemingly signaling the drone attacks were specifically retaliatory. Also, Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, was the target of an air attack for the third time in four days.
Ukraine’s Air Force said it intercepted 18 of the 24 Iranian-made drones launched by Russian forces in various regions. No casualties were reported.
Fuel depot fires
A product storage area at a refinery in southern Russia caught fire after a drone attack Thursday. However, the Russian Tass news agency said the fire at the Ilsky refinery, near the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk in the Krasnodar region was put out after two hours and the facility was now working normally.
Wednesday, Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region, said on the messaging app Telegram that a fuel depot in the village of Volna was targeted by a drone. He said there were no reports of casualties from the fire.
Volna is near the bridge spanning the Kerch Strait that separates mainland Russia from the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The bridge, which is a vital link for Russia’s military to transport supplies to its soldiers in Ukraine, was partially destroyed by a truck bomb last October that Moscow blamed on Kyiv.
Wednesday’s fuel depot fire comes after a suspected drone attack last Saturday on an oil depot in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol.
The British Defense ministry in its daily intelligence update posted on Twitter said the attacks on Russian fuel depots in occupied Ukraine and the Russia Ukraine border area “will likely force adjustments to Russia’s military refueling operations to mitigate targeting.”
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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King’s Coronation Draws Apathy, Criticism in Former Colonies
When King Charles III is crowned on Saturday, soldiers carrying flags from the Bahamas, South Africa, Tuvalu and beyond will march alongside British troops in a spectacular military procession in honor of the monarch.
For some, the scene will affirm the ties that bind Britain and its former colonies. But for many others in the Commonwealth, a group of nations mostly made up of places once claimed by the British Empire, Charles’ coronation is seen with apathy at best.
In those countries, the first crowning of a British monarch in 70 years is an occasion to reflect on oppression and colonialism’s bloody past. The displays of pageantry in London will jar especially with growing calls in the Caribbean to sever all ties with the monarchy.
“Interest in British royalty has waned since more Jamaicans are waking to the reality that the survivors of colonialism and the holocaust of slavery are yet to receive reparatory justice,” the Rev. Sean Major-Campbell, an Anglican priest in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, said.
The coronation is “only relevant in so far as it kicks us in the face with the reality that our head of state is simply so by virtue of biology,” Major-Campbell added.
As British sovereign, Charles is also head of state of 14 other countries, though the role is largely ceremonial. These realms, which include Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, represent a minority of the Commonwealth nations: most of the 56 members are republics, even if some still sport the Union Jack on their flags.
Barbados was the most recent Commonwealth country to remove the British monarch as its head of state, replacing Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, with an elected president in 2021. The decision spurred similar republican movements in neighboring Jamaica, the Bahamas and Belize.
Last year, when Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness welcomed Prince William and his wife, Kate, during a royal tour of the Caribbean, he announced that his country intends to become fully independent. It made for an awkward photo with the royal couple, who were also confronted with protests calling for Britain to pay slavery reparations.
William, the heir to the throne, observed later on the same trip that the relationship between the monarchy and the Caribbean has evolved. The royal family will “support with pride and respect your decisions about your future,” he told a reception in the Bahamas.
Rosalea Hamilton, an advocate for changing Jamaica’s constitution to get rid of the royals, said she was organizing a coronation day forum to engage more Jamaicans in the process of political reform.
The timing of the event is meant to “signal to the head of state that the priority is to move away from his leadership, rather than focus on his coronation,” Hamilton said.
Two days ahead of Charles’ crowning, campaigners from 12 Commonwealth countries wrote to the monarch urging him to apologize for the legacies of British colonialism.
Among the signatories was Lidia Thorpe, an Australian senator, who said Thursday that Charles should “begin a process of repairing the damage of colonization, including returning the stolen wealth that has been taken from our people.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who will attend the coronation and join in an oath of allegiance to the king, favors ditching the monarchy, though he has ruled out holding a referendum during his current three-year term.
“I want to see an Australian as Australia’s head of state,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Buckingham Palace said last month that Charles supported research into the historical links between Britain’s monarchy and the transatlantic slave trade. The king takes the issue “profoundly seriously,” and academics will be given access to the royal collection and archives, the palace said.
In India, once the jewel of the British Empire, there’s scant media attention and very little interest in the coronation. Some people living in the country’s vast rural hinterlands may not have even heard of King Charles III.
“India has moved on,” and most Indians “have no emotional ties with the royal family,” Pavan K. Varma, a writer and former diplomat, said. Instead, the royals are seen more like amusing celebrities, he said.
And while the country still values its economic and cultural ties with the European country, Varma pointed out that India’s economy has overtaken the U.K.’s.
“Britain has shrunk globally into a medium-sized power,” he said. “This notion needs to be removed, that here is a former colony riveted to the television watching the coronation of Prince Charles. I don’t think this is happening in India.”
Since gaining independence in 1947, India has moved to shed the vestiges of British imperialism. The statue of King George V that used to stand near the India Gate monument in New Delhi was moved in the 1960s to Coronation Park. Once the scene of celebrations honoring Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and George V, the park is now a repository for representations of former monarchs and officials of the British Raj in India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led a renewed push to reclaim India’s past and erase “symbols of slavery” from the country’s time under the British crown. His government has scrubbed away colonial-era street names, some laws and even flag symbols.
In Nairobi, Kenya, motorcycle taxi driver Grahmat Luvisia was similarly dismissive of the idea of following the coronation on TV.
“I will not be interested in watching the news or whatever is happening over there because we have been mistreated back then by those colonizers,” he said.
Herman Manyora, a political analyst and journalism professor at the University of Nairobi, said memories of Britain’s harsh response to the Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950s are still raw.
Many Kenyans will not watch the coronation “because of the torture during colonialism, because of the oppression, because of detentions, because of killings, because of the alienation of our land,” Manyora said.
Not everyone is as critical. In Uganda, political analyst Asuman Bisiika says British culture continues to have a strong influence on young people in the East African country, especially those who follow English soccer. There is also a lot of goodwill for Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September after 70 years on the throne.
In the South African city of Durban, expat British communities have planned a live screening of the coronation ceremony, complete with trumpeters to announce the moment the archbishop of Canterbury crowns Charles. On Sunday, there will be a special church service followed by a picnic or a “braai,” a traditional South African barbecue.
Experts say that despite its flaws, historical baggage and fraying edges, the Commonwealth still holds appeal, especially for poorer nations. Gabon and Togo, which are former French colonies with no colonial links to Britain, became the association’s newest members last year. Most observers believe countries like Jamaica that want an elected head of state are likely to retain their memberships.
Myers Jr. reported from Kingston, Jamaica. Pathi reported from New Delhi. AP writers Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa; Khaled Kazziha in Nairobi, Kenya; and Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report.
your ad hereSerbia Arrests Suspect in Second Mass Shooting in 2 Days
Serbian police said Friday they had arrested a suspect in the second mass shooting case in two days in Serbia.
The man arrested Friday is a suspect in Thursday’s shootings that ended with the death of eight people and the wounding of 14 in a village near Belgrade.
Thursday’s shooting came a day after a 13-year-old boy allegedly opened fire in a school in Belgrade, killing nine and wounding 7.
The arrest Friday of a suspect in Thursday’s shooting came after hundreds of police officers searched all night for the gunman who shot randomly in three villages near Mladenovac. He was arrested near the city of Kragujevac
On Wednesday, the 13-year-old boy turned himself after allegedly using his father’s gun to kill eight of his fellow students and a security guard at his school in Belgrade.
Officials say the teenager is too young to charge. The Associated Press reports that the boy has been placed in a mental institution.
The boy’s father, however, has been detained in the case, on suspicion that he endangered public safety because his son was able to get hold of the weapons, officials said.
After the school shootings, the government introduced new gun control measures, including a two-year ban on issuing new gun permits.
Wednesday’s shooting was Serbia’s first mass shooting in 10 years.
After Wednesday’s shootings, Serbia announced three days of national mourning to begin Friday.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Justice Clarence Thomas Let Republican Donor Pay Child’s Tuition
A Republican megadonor paid two years of private school tuition for a child raised by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who did not disclose the payments, a lawyer who has represented Thomas and his wife acknowledged Thursday.
The revelation of tuition payments made by Dallas billionaire Harlan Crow is the latest example of Crow’s generosity to Thomas and his family that has raised questions about Thomas’ ethics and disclosure requirements more generally. The payments, along with the earlier examples of Crow’s financial ties to Thomas, were first reported by the nonprofit investigative journalism site ProPublica.
ProPublica reported Thursday that Crow paid tuition for Thomas’ great-nephew Mark Martin. Thomas and his wife, Virginia, raised Martin from the age of 6.
Over the past month, ProPublica has reported in other stories about luxury vacations paid for by Crow that the conservative justice took as well as Crow’s purchase of property from the Thomas family, neither of which were disclosed. Democrats have used the revelations to call for stronger ethics rules for the Supreme Court, and the Democrat-controlled Senate held a hearing on ethics issues this week. Republicans have defended Thomas.
According to the ProPublica story, Crow paid tuition for Martin at a military boarding school in Virginia, Randolph-Macon Academy, as well as Hidden Lake Academy in Georgia.
ProPublica said Thomas did not respond to questions. Crow’s office responded in a statement to questions but did not address a question about how much he paid in total for Martin’s tuition. He did say that Thomas had not requested the support for either school, ProPublica reported.
A Supreme Court spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press about whether Thomas would have any response to the story. On Twitter, however, lawyer Mark Paoletta defended Thomas in an extended statement. Paoletta, a longtime friend of Thomas, called the story “another attempt to manufacture a scandal about Justice Thomas.”
Paoletta said in his statement that Crow had recommended that Thomas consider Randolph-Macon Academy, which Crow had attended, and had offered to pay for Martin’s first year there in 2006, a payment that went directly to the school. When the school recommended Martin spend a year at Hidden Lake Academy, Crow offered again to pay for that year, a payment that also went directly to the school, Paoletta said.
In response to the story, lawmakers in Congress were again divided by party.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who once clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts, said it was “just the latest installment of the left’s multi-decade campaign to target Justice Thomas.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a statement that with “every new revelation in this case, it becomes clearer that Harlan Crow has been subsidizing an extravagant lifestyle” that Thomas could not otherwise afford.
“This is a foul breach of ethics standards, which are already far too low when it comes to the Supreme Court,” Wyden said.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, urged Roberts to take note.
“I hope that Chief Justice Roberts reads this story this morning and understands something has to be done,” Durbin said. “The reputation of the Supreme Court is at stake here, the credibility of the court when it comes to its future decisions is at stake.”
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At Least 8 Dead, 13 Wounded in 2nd Mass Shooting in Serbia
A shooter killed at least eight people and wounded 13 in a drive-by attack near a town close to Belgrade late Thursday, the second such mass killing in Serbia in two days, state television reported.
The attacker shot randomly at people near the town of Mladenovac, some 50 kilometers south of the capital, the RTS report said early Friday. Police were looking for a 21-year-old suspect who fled after the attack, the report said.
No other details were immediately available, and police had not issued any statements.
School shooting
On Wednesday in Belgrade, a 13-year-old boy allegedly used his father’s guns in a school shooting rampage that killed eight of his schoolmates and a school guard. The bloodshed sent shockwaves through the Balkan nation unused to such mass shootings.
Dozens of Serbian students, many wearing black and carrying flowers, paid silent homage Thursday to peers killed a day earlier.
The students filled the streets around the school in central Belgrade as they streamed in from all over the city. Earlier, thousands had lined up to lay flowers, light candles and leave toys to commemorate the eight children and a school guard who were killed on Wednesday morning.
The Balkan nation is struggling to come to terms with the school shooting. Though awash with weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s, mass shootings still have been extremely rare — and this is the first school shooting in Serbia’s modern history.
Authorities on Thursday moved to boost gun control, as police urged citizens to lock up their guns and keep them safe, away from children.
“The Ministry of Interior is appealing to all gun owners to store their guns with care, locked up in safes or closets so they are out of reach of others, particularly children,” police said in a statement that also announced tightened controls on gun owners in the future.
The shooting Wednesday morning in Vladislav Ribnikar primary school also left seven people hospitalized — six children and a teacher. One girl who was shot in the head remains in a life-threatening condition, and a boy is in serious condition with spinal injuries, doctors said on Thursday morning.
Serbians mourn, donate blood
To help people deal with the tragedy, authorities announced they were setting up a helpline. Hundreds answered a call to donate blood for the wounded victims. A three-day mourning period will begin Friday morning.
Serbian teachers’ unions announced protests and strikes to demand changes and warn about a crisis in the school system. Authorities shrugged off responsibility, with some officials blaming Western influence rather than a deep social crisis in the country.
The alleged shooter, whom the police identified as Kosta Kecmanovic, has not given any motive for his actions.
Authorities have said that Kecmanovic is too young to be charged and tried. He has been placed in a mental institution while his father has been detained on suspicion of endangering public security because his son allegedly got hold of the guns.
‘Too much violence’
Gun culture is widespread in Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans: The region is among the top in Europe in the number of guns per capita. Guns are often fired into the air at celebrations and the cult of the warrior is part of national identity. Still, the last mass shooting was in 2013 when a war veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.
Experts have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the number of weapons in a highly divided country like Serbia, where convicted war criminals are glorified and violence against minority groups often goes unpunished. They also note that decades of instability stemming from the conflicts of the 1990s as well as ongoing economic hardship could trigger such outbursts.
“We have had too much violence for too long,” psychologist Zarko Trebjesanin told N1 television. “Children copy models. We need to eliminate negative models … and create a different system of values.”
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White House Denies Russian Allegations of US Involvement in Kremlin Drone Attack
The White House says the United States was not involved in Wednesday’s drone attack on the Kremlin, after Russia claimed, without evidence, that the U.S. ordered the strike and Ukraine carried it out. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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Napoli Wins First Title Since Maradona Played for Club
Napoli won its first Italian soccer league title since the days when Diego Maradona played for the club, sealing the trophy with a 1-1 draw at Udinese on Thursday.
The “scudetto” (championship) set off wild scenes of celebrations throughout Naples, inside the stadium in Udine and beyond. Maradona led Napoli to its only previous Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990.
“I’m happy for all Napoli fans worldwide,” said league scoring leader Victor Osimhen. “No one deserves the scudetto more than Neapolitans — more than us.
“I don’t care who scored, I just wanted to get the scudetto,” he added.
Besides the 11,000 Napoli fans inside and 5,000 more outside the stadium in Udine in northern Italy, a capacity crowd of more than 50,000 watched the match on jumbo screens at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in Naples.
“Napoli, this is for you,” coach Luciano Spalletti said. “There are people here who will be able to get through difficult moments in their lives because they remember this moment. These people deserve all the joy.”
Spalletti said the impact of Maradona, who died 2½ years ago, was “felt in this success.”
In Udine, celebrating fans invaded the field at the final whistle, while in Naples there were fireworks and delirium.
“You always told me, ‘We want to win,’ and now we’ve won. We’ve won all together,” Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis told the crowd at the Naples stadium before he embraced Naples Mayor Gaetano Manfredi.
De Laurentiis took over the club in 2004 when Napoli was declared bankrupt, restarting in the third division.
“This is the coronation of a dream that’s been going on for 33 years,” De Laurentiis added. “It’s been a long process.”
It’s the first time a club south of Italy’s traditional soccer capitals of Milan and Turin has won the league since Roma claimed the title in 2001.
Napoli moved an insurmountable 16 points ahead of second-place Lazio with five matches still to play.
Napoli matched the record of clinching with five rounds to spare, shared with Torino (in 1947-48), Fiorentina (1955-56), Inter Milan (2006-07) and Juventus (2018-19).
In the 52nd minute, Osimhen slotted in a rebound off a shot from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia following a corner kick.
It was Osimhen’s 22nd goal in the league this season and the 46th of his Serie A career, matching former AC Milan standout and current Liberia President George Weah as the top African scorers in Italy.
Afterward, Osimhen — who has acknowledged that he would like to play in the Premier League one day — would not commit to remaining with Napoli.
“I want to enjoy this moment for the rest of my life. Then after the season my other dreams can come,” Osimhen said. “But for now, it’s not a time to talk about my other dreams. I wanted to win this. … For me this is just a moment.”
Napoli has dominated all season and didn’t lose in the league until a loss to Inter in January. A 5-1 victory over Juventus nine days later left no doubt that this was their year.
Napoli wasn’t considered a title contender before the season because of the departures of former captain Lorenzo Insigne, club record scorer Dries Mertens and defensive stalwart Kalidou Koulibaly.
But Osimhen has developed into the most dangerous striker in the league, and dribbling wizard Kvaratskhelia has done far more than just replace Insigne on the left wing as one of the biggest revelations in Europe this season.
The title also gives Spalletti the one honor he has coveted most after previously managing Roma and Inter and winning two Russian league championships with Zenit St. Petersburg.
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