White House Mulls AI Oversight, Protections with Industry Leaders
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Month: May 2023
Belgian Police Arrest 7 Suspected of Planning Terrorist Attack
Belgian police on Thursday arrested seven people suspected of supporting the Islamic State group and plotting a “terrorist attack,” prosecutors said.
Almost all of the suspects are ethnic Chechens, and three of them possess Belgian nationality, prosecutors said in a statement.
“The exact target of the planned attack has not yet been determined,” they said.
Police, backed by elite units, raided nine addresses in several towns in western Belgium in an operation led by an investigating judge who specializes in terrorism cases.
The judge will decide later if there is sufficient evidence to charge the suspects, the statement said. “Possible charges are attempted terrorist assassination, participation in the activities of a terrorist group and preparation of a terrorist attack,” it said.
Prosecutors added that all seven arrested “are suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Belgium.” They all “belong to a group of strong supporters of the IS.”
A spokesman for the federal prosecutors office, Eric Van Duyse, told AFP that “they apparently intended to target an institution located in Belgium” and had been “actively searching for weapons.”
The police raids took place in Ghent and the smaller towns of Roeselare, Menen, Ostend and Wevelgem.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in Belgium on March 22, 2016, that targeted Brussels’ airport and the capital’s metro, killing 32 people and wounding hundreds.
Those bombings occurred months after the November 2015 attacks in Paris that were planned by the same IS cell and that killed 130 people.
Chechnya, a republic in Russia’s North Caucasus region, has a predominantly Muslim population.
It is ruled by pro-Kremlin strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who supports Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and who has sent his militia there to fight.
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Survivor of Rwanda Floods: ‘We Struggled to Cling to Anything Nearby’
Heavy rains and flooding have killed at least 130 people in Rwanda, officials said Thursday. The country began mass burial of victims, mostly in northern and western provinces.
In a service punctuated by tears and stories from the relatives of the victims, 14 bodies were laid to rest Thursday at Rugerero cemetery, 15 kilometers from Rubavu town in western Rwanda.
“A strong wave hit both of us and she lost hold of the support we were clinging to. That was the last time I saw her alive,” Felix Nteziyaremye said, remembering the last moments with his wife Generose Mukamurenzi, 26, who was buried Thursday. Their 6-month-old baby survived.
Rwandan Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente attended the burial service and said authorities will “continue to ensure that you [victims] have shelter and basic needs.”
A VOA Central Africa Service reporter in western Rwanda said floods destroyed hundreds of houses, roads and other infrastructure in the area. On Wednesday, dozens of vulnerable people were trapped in partially submerged houses as they waited for rescue, the reporter said.
More than 5,100 houses destroyed
The floods that began Tuesday evening have destroyed more than 5,100 houses and impacted an additional 2,500, deputy government spokesperson Alain Mukuralinda told reporters.
Speaking to VOA earlier, Mukuralinda warned that the death toll may be higher and that rescuers are still trying to reach people and properties washed away by flooding.
Affected areas include the districts of Rubavu, Ngororero, Nyabihu, Rutsiro, Karongi, Gakenke, Burera, Musanze and Nyamagabe, according to a statement released by the office of the president on Wednesday.
“We are doing everything within our means to address this difficult situation. I am personally following up the response closely,” President Paul Kagame said in a statement.
The president said ongoing rescue efforts include “evacuation and temporary relocation of residents from affected and high-risk areas while rains are ongoing.”
“I have lost everything,” Nyirabihingwa Florence, a resident of the flood-stricken western province, told VOA. “I had seven houses, 500 chicken, a full food store, many things. Everything has been washed away. I have nothing.”
Witnesses in the area say the floods gained momentum due to the overflowing of the nearby Sebeya River.
Hundreds of people are still missing, and several houses submerged in water are collapsing, witnesses told VOA’s Central Africa Service.
“We saw a powerful wave of flood water sweeping through compounds, ripping through houses and leaving nothing in its wake as we struggled to cling to anything nearby to survive. It was horrific,” Nzayisenga Christine, another resident, recounted.
“We are asking the government to put in place a mechanism that stops this river from overflooding in case of heavy rains such as today.”
A communique from the office of the president says the government has set up a command center to coordinate emergency response.
“We are setting up tents in safer areas where we shall be receiving those affected by the floods as rescue operations continue,” spokesperson Mukuralinda told VOA.
Local authorities overwhelmed
Disasters such as floods and landslides are not uncommon in this part of Rwanda. But the magnitude of the latest occurrence seems to have overwhelmed local authorities who sought intervention on national level.
Meanwhile, the National Meteorological Center recently warned that Rwanda is likely to experience heavy rains in May.
Tuesday’s downpour and floods also extended to parts of southwestern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to local authorities.
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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Putin ‘Probably’ Scaling Back Short-Term Goals in Ukraine, US Officials Say
A once-confident Vladimir Putin may finally be giving up on his designs to quickly subdue Kyiv and conquer Ukraine, according to the most recent assessment by U.S. intelligence officials.
U.S. intelligence agencies have previously argued the Russian president believes it is necessary for him to conquer Ukraine for him to fulfill his destiny.
But as the war drags into its second year, U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Russian leader has conceded, somewhat, to realities on the ground.
“We assess that Putin has probably scaled back his immediate ambitions, to consolidate control of the occupied territory in eastern and southern Ukraine and ensuring that Ukraine will never become a NATO ally,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday.
“Russian forces gained less territory in April than during any of the three previous months as they appeared to transition from offensive to defensive operations along the front lines,” Haines said.
“Russian forces are facing significant shortfalls in munitions and are under significant personnel constraints,” she added. “If Russia does not initiate a mandatory mobilization and secure substantial third-party ammunition supplies, beyond existing deliveries from Iran and others, it will be increasingly challenging for them to sustain even modest offensive operations.”
Haines, echoing a warning from her testimony before Congress in March, said Russia and Ukraine remained locked in a “brutally grinding war of attrition in which neither military has a definitive advantage.”
Ukraine, she said, remains reliant upon Western military aid to push back against Russia’s manpower advantage while the Kremlin is being forced to rely more heavily on asymmetric threats and tactics because of the degradation of its ground forces.
Russia’s ground forces are “relying on reserves and reserve equipment,” said Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
“It’s going to take them a while to build back,” he told lawmakers while testifying alongside Haines. “The estimates go from five to 10 years based on how sanctions affect them and their ability to put technology back into their force.”
Nuclear option
Berrier, however, warned that the degradation of Russia’s ground forces should not been seen as an indication of overall weakness.
“Even though their ground forces are degraded right now, they will quickly build those back,” he said, describing Moscow as “still an existential threat” because of its nuclear forces, which have not yet been tested.
But as for whether Putin might be inclined to use nuclear weapons to alter the course of the war in Ukraine, the U.S. intelligence leaders said, as of now, not so much.
“There are a number of scenarios we’ve thought through,” Berrier told lawmakers. “Right now, I’d say we think it’s unlikely.”
“From an IC [intelligence community] perspective, it’s very unlikely,” Haines added.
Kremlin drone attack
Like other senior U.S. officials, Haines and Berrier urged caution regarding Russia’s accusation that Ukraine launched a drone attack against the Kremlin this week as part of an attempt to assassinate Putin.
“You’ve seen the Ukrainian government deny having engaged in this and, at this stage, we don’t have information that would allow us to provide an independent assessment on this,” she said.
Haines said it is well known that Putin does not usually spend the night at the Kremlin, which casts some doubt on the Russian claim.
The DIA’s Berrier also said that the available photos suggested the attack was staged with drones that would need to have been controlled by someone on the ground, within sight of the Kremlin.
Russia, China
Both Haines and Berrier told lawmakers that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had bought Moscow and Beijing closer together.
“Since the invasion, that closeness has accelerated to some extent and, in part, this is due to the fact that Russia is increasingly beholden to and needs China,” Haines said.
“And China perceives Russia increasingly as a country that was already in the sort of little brother role, is often how it’s described, but nevertheless is now even more beholden and therefore they have greater leverage.”
Haines warned that this has led to greater cooperation between the two countries in the Arctic.
“Russia recognizes that they’re going to need China and their investment in order to get to some of the resources that they’re interested in in the Arctic,” she said. “And as a consequence, China sees an opportunity, and an increasing one in light of the current scenario.”
China, US
As relations between China and Russia deepen, ties between China and the United States have become “more challenging,” Haines said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is growing ever more distrustful of the U.S., she said, reflecting a growing pessimism among Chinese officials who increasingly seek to portray Washington as the root of the world’s problems.
Still, Haines said U.S. intelligence analysts “continue to assess that Beijing wants to preserve stability and avoid triggering additional technology restrictions.”
Taiwan
U.S. intelligence agencies are also taking note of Xi’s rhetoric on Taiwan.
“We continue to assess that he [Xi] would prefer to achieve unification of Taiwan through peaceful means,” Haines told lawmakers. “But the reality is that he has directed his military to provide him with the military option.”
If and when Xi might decide to use force to take Taiwan is less clear.
“There are a number of dates out there that mean different things to different people,” Berrier testified. “Bottom line is he’s told his military to be ready. For what, we are not sure. When, we are not sure.”
Islamic State, Afghanistan
While much of the U.S. focus has shifted to great power competition with China and Russia, terrorist groups such as the Islamic State group (IS) and al-Qaida remain a concern.
But Haines suggested that one of IS’s key affiliates has suffered a significant setback.
In March, the commander of U.S. Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, told lawmakers that the IS affiliate in Afghanistan, known as IS-Khorasan or ISIS-K, could launch attacks against U.S. interests or Western allies in under six months.
Haines, however, told lawmakers there is reason to think that external attack capability has been degraded.
“There have been some developments we can talk about in closed session since that statement was made that I think could affect the timeline,” she said.
FISA
Haines also urged lawmakers, again, to renew authorities granted under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expire this year.
FISA Section 702 allows U.S. intelligence agencies to gather electronic data of non-Americans without first obtaining warrants. But its use has been controversial because of repeated incidents in which officials have collected information on U.S. citizens.
FISA Section 702 “is utterly fundamental” to U.S. national security, Haines said. “Fifty-nine percent of every PDB, our president’s daily brief articles, are sourced to 702 information.”
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Iran Nuke Enrichment Could Ignite Region, Israel Minister Says
Israel’s defense minister said Thursday that Iran could have enough enriched uranium for five nuclear weapons and warned Tehran that proceeding to weapons-grade enrichment could “ignite the region.”
His remarks echoed international concerns, which have mounted over the past months, about Tehran’s enriching uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. Experts have said that the Islamic Republic has enough fuel to build several atomic bombs if it chooses.
“Make no mistake, Iran will not be satisfied by a single nuclear bomb,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday during a visit to Athens.
Uranium enriched for use in nuclear power plants is normally below 20%, while 90% enrichment is weapons grade.
“So far, Iran has gained material enriched to 20% and 60% for five nuclear weapons,” Gallant said. “Iranian progress, enrichment to 90%, would be a grave mistake on Iran’s part and could ignite the region.”
Israel’s leadership argues that Iran can be stopped from developing nuclear weapons only by the threat of military action, while the United States publicly favors a return to multilateral diplomatic efforts.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in March that it would restart inspections and camera-monitoring at some Iranian nuclear facilities after it reported that particles of highly enriched uranium had been found at an underground nuclear site.
In Athens, Gallant was hosted by Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos. The two promised to further enhance military cooperation.
Greece last year launched an international pilot training center, assisted by Israel and Israeli defense contractor Elbit in a $1.65 billion deal. And last month, Israel agreed to provide Greece with Spike anti-tank missiles in an agreement worth $400 million.
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Italian Conductor Muti to Visit Syrian Refugee Camp
Italian conductor Riccardo Muti plans to visit Syrian musicians living in the vast Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan on the sidelines of his annual Roads of Friendship concert series that aims to use music to build bridges and help those affected by war.
Muti will conduct Italian and Jordanian musicians in concerts set in ancient Roman amphitheaters in Jerash, Jordan, on July 9 and the Pompeii archaeological site on July 11, for the 27th Roads of Friendship concert series.
The concerts will pay homage to the “generosity of the Jordanian people” for taking in millions of Syrian refugees fleeing civil war in the neighboring country, the Ravenna festival announced Thursday.
While in Jordan, Muti plans to visit the Zaatari camp, a symbol of the long-running Syrian refugee situation and home to about 80,000 refugees nearly 11 years after it was set up near the Syrian border.
He and a delegation from the Ravenna Festival will meet with musicians among the Syrian diaspora, bringing with them musical instruments as gifts.
This year’s Roads of Friendship concert series will launch on July 7 in Ravenna, and feature the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra founded by Muti, the Cremona Ancient Choir as well as Jordanian musicians.
The series was launched in 1997 in Sarajevo, just two years after the Bosnian civil war ended.
your ad hereMudslides in Rwanda Kill at Least 130
Officials in Rwanda say the search for victims continued Thursday after torrential rains this week caused mudslides and severe flooding in the north, western and southern provinces, killing at least 130 people and destroying thousands of homes.
Government officials surveying affected areas said they expect the death toll to rise as several victims are likely buried in mud and debris.
Deputy government spokesman Alain Mukuralinda told reporters that at least 77 people have been injured, 36 of whom were still hospitalized early Thursday.
Mukuralinda said the government did not know the number of people left homeless by the floods and mudslides because the count is still in progress, but he confirmed that more than 5,000 houses were destroyed, and families now need to be relocated.
Officials said many roads and bridges, particularly in the western provinces, were destroyed by mudslides. The Reuters news agency, quoting Mukuralinda, reported that one hospital, two health posts and five health centers were destroyed.
In neighboring Uganda, the local Red Cross reports that at least six people died Wednesday in a mountainous area of the southwestern Kisoro district after their homes were buried in a mudslide triggered by the rains. A local official told The Associated Press he blamed poor farming and soil management practices, along with climate change, for the disaster.
Rwanda and Uganda have been experiencing heavy and sustained rains since late March. The Rwanda Meteorology Agency has forecast more rainfall for the region in the coming days.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Presse.
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Zambian Opposition Decries Kenyan Maize Farming Deal
Zambia’s opposition has criticized an agreement with Kenya to allow Kenyan farming of maize in Zambia to help meet its food needs amid a record drought. The National Democratic Congress says Zambian farmers should be given priority for farming Zambian land for exports to Kenya and note problems with maize supplies at home. Kathy Short reports from Lusaka, Zambia. Camera: Richard Kille.
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US-Hosted Armenia-Azerbaijan Talks to Conclude
The U.S. State Department said peace talks between diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan held outside Washington since Sunday are expected to conclude Thursday.
In a statement, the department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken will take part in a closing session of the bilateral talks between Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov shortly before 2 p.m. Washington time.
The two sides have been meeting at a state department diplomatic facility in Arlington, Virginia.
The talks were convened as tensions between the neighboring, former Soviet republics increased in recent months over Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which is the only land route giving Armenia direct access to the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In a telephone briefing, a senior State Department official, speaking on background, told reporters Monday the United States expects the talks to conclude with “commercial movement of goods” to start soon in the blocked Lachin Corridor.
The official said, “About Lachin, we have been very clear throughout the last few months about the importance of ensuring the free movement of commercial and humanitarian traffic and people through the Lachin Corridor between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. We continue to engage in those discussions.”
Early Monday, Blinken held separate meetings with the Armenian foreign minister and his Azerbaijani counterpart.
Monday’s meetings occurred after Blinken’s call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday, when the top U.S. diplomat reiterated Washington’s call to reopen the land route “to commercial and private vehicles as soon as possible.”
The State Department had voiced “deep concern” that Azerbaijan’s establishment of a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor undermines efforts for peace talks.
A representative from Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Mirzoyan’s working visit to the United States is to discuss “the agreement on normalization of relations” with Azerbaijan.
The two countries have had a decades-long conflict involving the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is inside Azerbaijan but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.
The Lachin Corridor allows supplies from Armenia to reach the 120,000 ethnic Armenians in the mountainous enclave and has been policed by Russian peacekeepers since December 2020.
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4 Proud Boys Leaders Convicted of Seditious Conspiracy in US Capitol Attack
A federal jury in Washington has convicted the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys and three associates of seditious conspiracy for their role in the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio and regional leaders Joe Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Zach Rehl also were found guilty Thursday of conspiring to obstruct Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
But the jury failed to reach a verdict on both conspiracy charges against a fifth defendant in the case, Dominic Pezzola.
Pezzola is a former Marine and boxer who joined the Proud Boys after the 2020 election but held no leadership position.
The five defendants faced a total of nine charges related to the attack on the Capitol, including obstructing an official proceeding and conspiracy to prevent Congress and federal officers from discharging their duties. They were found guilty of most.
Pezzola was also convicted of an additional charge of robbery for stealing a police officer’s riot shield to smash a Capitol window.
The verdict marked a major victory for the U.S. Justice Department as it probes the deadly rampage that left five people dead, wounded more than 100 police officers and sparked one of the largest criminal investigations in U.S. history.
Prosecutors faced a daunting challenge in the case: to build and prove a seditious conspiracy charge that is notoriously difficult to prosecute.
Seditious conspiracy is a rare charge that dates to the early days of the American Civil War. The law defines seditious conspiracy as plotting to use force to overthrow the U.S. government, oppose its authority or “prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States.”
“This is a significant win for DOJ and lends further credence to Attorney General [Merrick] Garland’s commitment to following the facts of the case wherever they lead and to proceed in a deliberate fashion,” Jordan Strauss, a former Justice Department official who now works at the risk consultancy firm Kroll, told VOA.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The verdict followed five days of jury deliberations and a complex trial that lasted four months and featured dozens of witnesses and numerous legal fights.
The convictions marked the third time members of an extremist group involved in the attack of January 6 had been convicted of seditious conspiracy.
In two earlier cases, juries convicted Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and a top lieutenant of seditious conspiracy in November and found four other members of the anti-government militia guilty of the charge in January. They have yet to be sentenced.
In all, 14 members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have now been either convicted of or pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, a charge that carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
The Proud Boys, a self-described group of Western chauvinists known for their anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric, emerged during the 2016 presidential campaign and became among Trump’s most fervent supporters during the 2020 race.
The group caught national attention when Trump declared during a September 2020 presidential debate: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by!”
After Trump lost the election and refused to admit defeat, he launched a relentless campaign of lawsuits to overturn the outcome.
But as his legal efforts floundered, he rallied his supporters to come to Washington on January 6, the day Congress would confirm Biden’s win.
In an infamous tweet repeatedly referenced during the trial, Trump wrote on December 19, 2020: “Be there, will be wild.”
The Proud Boys took that as a call to arms, prosecutors alleged.
To prepare for January 6, Tarrio assembled a group of comrades that he dubbed the “Ministry of Self Defense.”
Under the guise of organizing protests, the group acted as “a violent gang that came together to use force against its enemies,” prosecutors said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe said in his closing arguments that the Proud Boys saw themselves as a “fighting force” for Trump and were “ready to commit violence on his behalf” to overturn the election results.
Defense lawyers countered that there was no evidence of a coordinated plan to attack the Capitol. They said the Proud Boys were so disorganized that they couldn’t plan a trip to McDonald’s.
Prosecutors, the defense argued, failed to show any evidence of a conspiracy to use force against the government.
The defense also tried to shift responsibility for the events of January 6 to Trump.
Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s lawyer, told the jury that his client was not in Washington on January 6 and that prosecutors were using him as “a scapegoat for Donald J. Trump and those in power.”
In the end, however, the defense team “failed to generate reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors,” Strauss of Kroll said.
The unprecedented assault on the Capitol set off one of the largest and most complex criminal investigations in the Justice Department’s history.
As part of the probe, the FBI has arrested more than 1,000 people and says it is seeking information about more than 260 others suspected of committing violence on the Capitol grounds.
More than 500 defendants, including members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, have pleaded guilty to various federal charges, while dozens have been convicted at trial.
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US Names Somali American National Small Business Person of Year
The U.S. Small Business Administration has named Abdirahman Kahin, a Somali American restaurant chain owner in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the National Small Business Person of the Year for 2023. Mohamud Mascadde in Minneapolis and Abdulaziz Osman Washington have more in this report, narrated by Salem Solomon. Videographers: Abdulaziz Osman and Mohamud Mascadde
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Canadian Journalist Turns Meme Into Symbol of Ukrainian Resistance
Days before Russia invaded Ukraine, Canadian journalist Christian Borys, who had worked in Ukraine between 2014 and 2019, started a social enterprise called Saint Javelin to raise $500 for Ukraine ahead of what he saw as a looming invasion. Since then, Saint Javelin has become a powerful fundraiser for the war effort. Misha Komadovsky has the story from Toronto.
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A Year On, Somalia’s All-Women Media Outlet Thrives
Bilan Media, an all-female media outlet in Somalia marked its first-year anniversary in April, bucking societal expectations of what a woman’s role should be. Mohamed Mahmud visited their newsroom in Mogadishu, narrated by VOA’s Salem Solomon. Video editor: Salem Solomon
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Latest in Ukraine: Zelenskyy Calls for Special Tribunal to Investigate Russia’s ‘Crime of Aggression’
New developments:
The Kremlin claims Ukraine launched two drones at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence overnight but that security services disabled them, and Putin wasn’t injured. The Russian claim couldn’t be immediately verified, and a Ukrainian official denied any involvement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in The Hague to visit to the International Criminal Court.
Southern Russian refinery targeted by drone.
Kyiv, Odesa targeted by Russian missiles and drones.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday 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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As Sales Decline, Adidas Faces Pressure to Find Yeezy Fix
Adidas is set to update investors Friday about the unsold Yeezy shoes that have put the German sportswear giant in a predicament since it cut ties with Kanye West over his antisemitic comments late last year.
Executives are expected to tackle the issue when the company reports first-quarter results Friday which will likely show a 4% decline in net sales to $5.07 billion, according to a company-compiled consensus.
Investors have high hopes new CEO Bjorn Gulden can turn Adidas around: the stock has gained around 65% since Nov. 4 when the former Puma CEO was first floated as a successor to Kasper Rorsted, despite Adidas warning it could make a $700 million loss this year if it writes the Yeezy shoes off entirely.
Adidas has been in discussions over the footwear, including with people who “have been hurt” by West’s antisemitic comments, Gulden said in March, but there are no easy fixes.
The value of Yeezy shoes in the resale market has rocketed since Adidas stopped producing them, with some models more than doubling in price, but the company has yet to decide what to do with its unsold stock.
If Adidas decides to sell the shoes, any proceeds should go towards efforts to fight antisemitism, said Holly Huffnagle, U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism at the American Jewish Committee, a non-governmental organization.
“The challenge is if these shoes are going to be out there and be worn by people, we must ensure that the antisemitic messaging of the shoes’ creator doesn’t spread,” she said.
Gulden in March said the company could donate the proceeds of the Yeezy sale to charities, but Adidas has given no updates since. “We continue to evaluate options for the use of the existing Yeezy inventory,” an Adidas spokesperson said, declining to comment on the possible timeline for a decision.
The market would welcome a resolution, but it may be too early given the complexities involved, said Geoff Lowery, analyst at Redburn in London, who sees a donation to charities as the most likely outcome.
The Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in New York, told Reuters it “stands ready and prepared to work with Adidas.”
Adidas in November donated more than $1 million to the organization.
The American Jewish Committee met with Adidas executives in December to discuss their commitment to reject antisemitism.
Adidas said it continues to “stand with the Jewish community in the fight against antisemitism and with all communities around the world facing injustice and discrimination.”
Shareholders want Adidas to draw a line under the Yeezy episode and develop ways to reboot the brand.
“Being successful with Yeezy probably made Adidas lazy on finding other growth drivers,” said Cedric Rossi, nextgen consumer analyst at Bryan Garnier in Paris.
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Heavy Fighting In, Around Khartoum Despite Cease-Fire
In Sudan, heavy fighting was reported in and around the capital Khartoum early Thursday, despite a weeklong cease-fire agreed to by both sides in the conflict.
Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Defense Forces each appeared to be trying to push the other out of central Khartoum and control areas around the presidential palace and army headquarters.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed Wednesday for an end to the fighting in Sudan and international support for the Sudanese people, who he said are facing a humanitarian catastrophe.
“Aid must be allowed into Sudan, and we need secure and immediate access to be able to distribute it to people who need it most,” Guterres said during a news conference in Nairobi, Kenya. “Civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected, and humanitarian workers and their assets must be respected.”
Sudan’s Health Ministry says more than 500 people have been killed and nearly 5,000 wounded since the fighting began April 15, during a power struggle between the leaders of the Sudanese government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The U.N. migration agency (IOM) said this week that at least 334,000 people have been internally displaced by the fighting, in addition to the 100,000 who have fled the country. The U.N. refugee agency has warned the fighting could cause more than 800,000 people to flee the northeastern African country.
Many are going to the seven countries that border Sudan, including Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Egypt and Ethiopia.
Latest cease-fire efforts
South Sudan’s Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, had agreed to the new cease-fire.
The U.N. chief expressed concern that previous cease-fires have consistently been violated, and he urged the international community to press the two generals to respect and implement the latest one.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir stressed the importance of a longer truce and the naming of envoys to peace talks, to which both sides agreed.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said his government would support talks in Sudan between the rival factions, adding he is “being careful about not interfering in their domestic matters.”
“The entire region could be affected,” he said in an interview Tuesday with a Japanese newspaper, as an envoy from Sudan’s army chief met with Egyptian officials in Cairo.
Humanitarian operation
U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths spent Wednesday in Port Sudan — the Sudanese Red Sea city where the U.N. and many nongovernmental organizations have shifted their operations from Khartoum.
Griffiths and the head of the U.N. in Sudan, Volker Perthes, spoke by phone with al-Burhan and Dagalo.
Griffiths told reporters he is working on getting commitments from the two factions to protect humanitarian assistance and allow aid workers and supplies to move, even when there is no formal cease-fire.
“We will need to have agreements at the highest level and very publicly, and we will need to deliver those commitments into local arrangements that can be depended on,” he said, emphasizing that the humanitarian community is “staying and delivering.”
Most aid operations have been suspended or severely scaled back due to the insecurity. Several aid workers have been killed in the fighting. The Norwegian Refugee Council said Wednesday that one of their Sudanese volunteers was killed Sunday in the volatile city of Geneina in West Darfur.
Looting also has hampered aid operations.
The World Food Program said Wednesday that nearly 17,000 tons of food had been stolen from its warehouses across Sudan, and it was working to determine what supplies remain. Before the fighting, WFP had more than 80,000 tons of stocks in the country. The agency still plans to provide food assistance for 384,000 people in the coming days.
The U.N. refugee agency’s Darfur coordinator said looting has long been a problem in Darfur, and many of their facilities have been robbed since April 15.
“Our facilities in Nyala, in South Darfur, and in El Geneina, in West Darfur, have been targeted by looters, criminals, bandits, out of control militias,” Toby Harward told reporters in a video call from Nairobi, where he was evacuated last week.
He said local authorities in Darfur have been working with humanitarians to try to make sure the various national cease-fires are respected at the local level, so aid can be distributed.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Thursday it has launched an emergency appeal to support the Sudanese Red Crescent Society to deliver assistance to 200,000 people.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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King’s Coronation Reignites Australia’s Constitutional Debate
The coronation of Britain’s King Charles III takes place in London on Saturday. The king came to the throne after the September death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Charles is head of state not only in the United Kingdom, but in more than a dozen countries. In Australia, the death of Queen Elizabeth has reignited the debate about the country’s constitutional future.
As the coronation approaches, republican sentiment in Australia is again stirring. Campaigners argue that Australia’s constitutional monarchy, under which King Charles III is the head of state and is represented in Australia by a governor-general whose role is almost exclusively ceremonial, is outdated, although they have yet to settle on the type of republic they would favor. A poll in January showed support for a republic had risen from 36% to 39% among voters since the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The survey was carried out for The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
Charles first visited Australia as a teenager in 1966 and has developed a “special connection” to the country through several visits over the years.
Matt Thistlethwaite is the Australian government’s assistant minister for the republic – a position the Labor government created in the expectation that a referendum would be held in the next few years. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp last month that change was well overdue.
“We woke up in September last year when the queen passed away, and all of a sudden, we had a new head of state,” he said. “The Australian people weren’t consulted about that. The Australian people didn’t get a choice in who should be their head of state, despite the fact that we govern by democratic means.”
Charles is the head of state in more than a dozen countries, including Canada, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, all members of the Commonwealth, a grouping of former British colonies.
Australia voted against severing its ties to the British crown in a referendum in 1999.
Supporters of the monarchy believe the system has made Australia’s democracy safe and secure.
Rachel Bailes, an official spokesperson for the Australian Monarchist League, told local media that it gives her country stability.
“I believe that a constitutional monarchy is a system that works,” she said. “It allows our government to get on with the business of serving the people of Australia through hard-nosed issues like the economy, energy crisis and housing affordability.”
Ultimately it will be up to about 18 million Australian voters to decide the country’s constitutional future.
Although enthusiastic for change, Australia’s Labor government says a vote on a republic won’t be held until its next term in office if it is reelected. Another referendum is taking priority. Later this year, Australians will decide whether to recognize Indigenous people in the constitution.
Constitutional change, though, in Australia is rare. Only eight out of 44 referendums have been passed since 1901.
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COVID-Related Learning Loss in US Mirrors Global Trend
Providing further proof that U.S. children suffered significant learning loss when schools were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Assessment Governing Board released a report Wednesday that showed test scores measuring achievement in U.S. history and civics fell significantly between 2018 and 2022.
The tests, part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly known as the “nation’s report card,” were given to hundreds of eighth-grade students across the country. Scores on the U.S. history assessment were the lowest recorded since 1994, while the scores on the civics test fell for the first time ever.
Only 13% of students tested in U.S. history were considered proficient, meaning that they had substantially mastered the material expected of them. That was 1 percentage point lower than in 2018. Another 46% tested at the NAEP “basic” level, meaning they had partial mastery of the material, down 4 percentage points. The remaining 40% of students tested did not meet the bar for basic knowledge, an increase of 6 percentage points.
In civics, 20% of students tested qualified as proficient, and 48% had basic knowledge of the material — both down 1 percentage point from 2018. Another 31% failed to demonstrate even basic knowledge, an increase by 4 percentage points over 2018.
In both cases, declines in proficiency were concentrated among lower-performing students, while achievement among the top 25% of students was little changed.
Further breakdowns of the data indicated that declines were notably larger among racial minorities and lower-income students, indicating that the impact of the pandemic on educational achievement was not evenly distributed across the population.
Echoes of past warnings
The results issued Wednesday, like those of other NAEP assessments released last year, demonstrated that a decline in educational achievement was exacerbated by lengthy school closures during the pandemic.
In a statement, National Assessment Governing Board Chair Beverly Perdue, a former governor of North Carolina, said the results should be a call to action.
“The wake-up calls keep coming,” she said. “Education leaders and policy makers must create opportunities for students to gain the knowledge and skills they need to catch up and thrive. The students who took these tests are in high school today and will soon enter college and the workforce without the knowledge and skills they need to fully participate in civic life and our democracy.”
U.S. lags in education
Even before the pandemic took hold, experts were sounding alarms about the state of education in the U.S. In 2019, the year before pandemic-related shutdowns began, results of the Program for International Student Assessment, commonly known as PISA, showed U.S. students lagging behind their peers in East Asia and Europe.
The results ranked U.S. students 13th in reading, 18th in science, and 37th in mathematics when compared to a global sample of their peers.
Consistently at the top of each category were China, where only four mainland provinces participated, and Singapore. The U.S. consistently trailed its northerly neighbor, Canada, in all three categories. It also lagged the English-speaking United Kingdom and Australia in all categories except reading.
‘New human crisis’
The U.S. was not the only country where learning suffered because of the coronavirus pandemic. In January, the World Bank issued a report describing pandemic-related learning loss as a “mass casualty event” that, at one time or another, forced 1.4 billion students around the world to miss significant time in the classroom.
Stephen Heyneman, professor emeritus of international education policy at Vanderbilt University and the editor in chief of the International Journal of Educational Development, told VOA that the pandemic-related education crisis is “the worst we’ve had in my lifetime.”
In an editorial published in the May edition of the journal, an editorial board made up of nine researchers from universities worldwide assessed evidence of the pandemic’s impact on education and concluded that the world “is on the verge of a new human crisis.”
The researchers confirmed that in the relatively wealthy industrialized countries, known as the Global North, the poor felt pandemic-related educational impacts most deeply, while financially well-off families often could mitigate much of the impact on students.
The news was worse for the relatively poorer countries, often referred to as the Global South.
“In the Global South, the learning challenges have proved multi-dimensional and much harder to tackle, given the triple burden of schooling deprivation, learning inequality and learning poverty,” they found.
The disparities, first noted early in the pandemic, have continued, the researchers found. “The consensus view is that, despite many promising innovations, learning shortfalls have persisted or even increased, three years into the pandemic.”
Frustration
Asked how the U.S. had performed during the pandemic compared with other developed nations, Heyneman said that “comparison evidence, so far, is too little for me to make any generalizations.”
However, he said, he and his colleagues have noticed — and been frustrated by — a common practice that has been adopted by most public school systems around the world as they have reopened.
Rather than assessing where students had pandemic-related deficits and working to correct them before continuing on with standard curriculums, schools have consistently attempted to simply restart, placing students in the classes and grade levels that correspond to their ages rather than to their actual educational attainment.
“They have not tested the learning loss in any systematic way, and when they have tested, they often haven’t released the scores,” he said. “And whether or not they have tested, they have not treated the results as an emergency. That makes me furious.”
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Biden Administration OKs Boost in Chinese Airline Flights to US
The United States will allow Chinese airlines to increase U.S. passenger services to 12 weekly round trips, the Transportation Department (USDOT) said on Wednesday, equal to the number of flights Beijing has permitted for American carriers.
It is a boost from the eight weekly round-trip flights currently allowed by Chinese carriers and matches what Beijing has permitted for U.S. carriers, but a small fraction of the more than 150 round-trip flights allowed by each side before restrictions were imposed in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
USDOT’s order said its goal was “a gradual, broader reopening of the U.S.-China air services market.” China in March reopened its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in the three years after abandoning COVID-related border controls for its own citizens in January.
U.S. carriers American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines operate scheduled passenger services between the countries, as do Chinese operators Xiamen Airlines, Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.
USDOT noted American began operating two additional round-trip weekly flights to Shanghai from Texas in March after Chinese pandemic restrictions were dropped.
USDOT said in its order that Chinese restrictions on air travel “had, and continue to have, a devastating effect on the U.S.-China air transport market.”
U.S. airlines and other foreign carriers are barred from flying over Russia in retaliation for the United States banning Russia from flights over the U.S. in March 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine.
In February, two key senators issued a letter urging the Biden administration to halt Chinese airlines and other non-American carriers from flying over Russia on U.S. routes, which gives them an advantage in fuel burn and flying time.
Airlines for America, which represents major U.S. carriers, in February praised the senators’ letter, noting it underscored long-standing industry concerns regarding Russian overflights that had disadvantaged American passenger and cargo carriers.
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Republicans Subpoena FBI for Biden Records
A top House Republican subpoenaed FBI Director Chris Wray on Wednesday for what he claimed are bureau records related to President Joe Biden and his family, basing the demand on newly surfaced allegations he said an unnamed whistleblower made to Congress.
The White House said it was the latest example in the years-long series of “unfounded, unproven” political attacks against Biden by Republicans “floating anonymous innuendo.”
Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee and Accountability, is seeking a specific FBI form from June 2020 that is a report of conversations or interactions with a confidential source. Comer, in a letter to Wray with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said that “it has come to our attention” that the bureau has such a document that “describes an alleged criminal scheme” involving Biden and a foreign national “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” when Biden was vice president and includes “a precise description” about it.
The subpoena seeks all so-called FD-1023 forms and accompanying attachments and documents.
The lawmakers used the word “alleged” three times in the opening paragraph of the letter and offered no evidence of the veracity of the accusations or any details about what they contend are “highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures.”
Comer and Grassley said those “disclosures” demand further investigation, and they want to know whether the FBI investigated and, if so, what agents found.
To the White House, the subpoena is further evidence of how congressional Republicans long “have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically motivated attacks” against the Bidens “without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests.”
A White House spokesperson, Ian Sams, said Biden “has offered an unprecedented level of transparency” about his personal finances with the public release of a total of 25 years of tax returns.
The FBI and Justice Department confirmed receiving the subpoena but declined to comment further. The president’s personal lawyers had no comment.
Republicans claim they have amassed evidence in recent years that raise questions about whether Biden and his family have used their public positions for private gain.
House Republicans have used the power of their new majority to aggressively investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including examining foreign payments and other aspects of the family’s finances. Comer has obtained thousands of pages of the Biden family’s financial records through subpoenas to the Treasury Department and various financial institutions since January.
Comer has not revealed much about the findings of his investigation so far. Most recently, Comer claimed one deal involving the Biden family resulted in a profit of over $1 million in more than 15 incremental payments from a Chinese company through a third party.
Both Comer and Grassley have accused both the FBI and Justice Department of stonewalling their investigations and politicizing the agency’s years-long investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes.
Last month, an IRS special agent sought whistleblower protections from Congress to disclose a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition” of a criminal investigation related to the younger Biden’s taxes and whether he made a false statement in connection with a gun purchase.
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McDonald’s Franchises Fined for Child Labor Violations
Two 10-year-olds are among 300 children who worked at McDonald’s restaurants illegally, a Labor Department investigation of franchisees in Kentucky found.
Agency investigators found the 10-year-olds received little or no pay at a McDonald’s in Louisville, the Labor Department said. The franchisee for the Louisville store was among three McDonald’s franchisees fined $212,000 in total by the department.
Louisville’s Bauer Food LLC, which operates 10 McDonald’s locations, employed 24 minors under the age of 16 to work more hours than legally permitted, the agency said. Among those were two 10-year-old children. The agency said the children sometimes worked as late as 2 a.m., but were not paid.
“Below the minimum age for employment, they prepared and distributed food orders, cleaned the store, worked at the drive-thru window and operated a register,” the Labor Department said Tuesday, adding that one child also was allowed to operate a deep fryer, which is prohibited task for workers under 16.
Franchise owner-operator Sean Bauer said the two 10-year-olds cited in the Labor Department’s statement were visiting their parent, a night manager, and weren’t employees.
“Any ‘work’ was done at the direction of — and in the presence of — the parent without authorization by franchisee organization management or leadership,” Bauer said Wednesday in a prepared statement, adding that they’ve since reiterated the child visitation policy to employees.
Federal child labor regulations put strict limits on the types of jobs children can perform and the hours they can work.
The Kentucky investigations are part of an ongoing effort by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division to stop child labor abuses in the Southeast.
“Too often, employers fail to follow the child labor laws that protect young workers,” said division Director Karen Garnett-Civils. “Under no circumstances should there ever be a 10-year-old child working in a fast-food kitchen around hot grills, ovens and deep fryers.”
In addition, Walton-based Archways Richwood LLC and Louisville-based Bell Restaurant Group I LLC allowed minors ages 14 and 15 to work beyond allowable hours, the department said. Archway Richwood didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment and Brdancat Management Inc., which Bell Restaurant Group is part of, declined comment.
“These reports are unacceptable, deeply troubling and run afoul of the high expectations we have for the entire McDonald’s brand,” McDonald’s USA spokeswoman Tiffanie Boyd said. “We are committed to ensuring our franchisees have the resources they need to foster safe workplaces for all employees and maintain compliance with all labor laws.”
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IS-Linked Rebels Kill 6 in DR Congo’s Troubled East
Rebels linked to the Islamic State group attacked a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s volatile east killing at least six people, local authorities said Tuesday.
Hundreds of people have been killed in rebel and militia attacks in the gold-rich Ituri province, where the IS-linked Allied Democratic Forces also operate.
“The ADF rebels entered Makumo village on Monday night” in the Mambasa area, Gilbert Sivamwenda, a local community leader, told AFP.
“This morning we found six bodies,” he said, underlining that the toll could be higher as they did not go far out into the bush to look for bodies as the area was not secure.
“The army arrived when the rebels had already left,” said Tonge Sorone, a young local.
The ADF, originally insurgents in Uganda, gained a foothold in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s and have since been accused of killing thousands of civilians, becoming the deadliest of scores of outlawed forces in the deeply troubled region.
Since 2019, some ADF attacks in eastern DRC have been claimed by the Islamic State group, which describes the fighters as a local offshoot, the Islamic State Central Africa Province.
More than 150 people were killed in Ituri in the first half of April, according to the United Nations. It said nearly 500 people had been killed there between December and March.
Ituri and the neighboring North Kivu province have been under a so-called “state of siege” since 2021, with security officials running the local governments in a bid to stamp out the violence.
The DRC and Uganda also launched a joint offensive that year to drive the ADF out of their Congolese strongholds, but the measures have so far failed to end the group’s attacks.
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USAID Pauses Food Assistance to Ethiopia’s Tigray Region
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced Wednesday the temporary suspension of its food assistance to the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
While describing the move as a “difficult decision,” USAID Administrator Samantha Power said the agency recently discovered that food aid intended for people of the region, who are suffering under famine-like condition, was being diverted and sold on the local market.
The agency referred the matter to its Office of the Inspector General, which launched an investigation and sent leaders from its Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance to Ethiopia before deciding on a temporary pause in food aid, she said.
Power said the U.S. government has raised its concerns with officials from the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray Interim Regional Administration, and that the officials have expressed willingness to work with the U.S. to identify and hold those responsible accountable.
She said USAID “stands ready” to restart the program once strong oversight measures are in place, and it has confidence that assistance will reach the intended vulnerable populations.
A two-year war that broke out in November 2020 between the federal government and forces led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that dominates the region, killed tens of thousands of people, created famine-like conditions for hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.
The government and Tigray forces agreed to end the hostilities in November, which has allowed additional aid to reach the region and for some services to be restored.
Power said the pause has dealt another blow to already suffering civilians and reiterated the United States’ commitment to the Ethiopian people.
“While food aid to the Tigray Region is paused, other vital assistance not implicated in the diversion scheme will continue, including life-saving nutritional supplements, safe drinking water, and support for agricultural activities and development,” she said.
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US Senate Democrats Launch Renewed Effort to Counter China
U.S. Senate Democrats launched a renewed effort to stave off competition from China on Wednesday, planning legislation to boost the country’s ability to face up to the Asian powerhouse on issues from technology to security and threats to Taiwan.
After passing a sweeping bill last year to boost competition with Beijing in semiconductors and other technology, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic committee leaders said they would write legislation they hoped to introduce in the next several months to limit the flow of technology to China, deter China from initiating a conflict with Taiwan and tighten rules to block U.S. capital from going to Chinese companies.
Schumer said the bill, dubbed China Competition 2.0, would broaden last year’s “Chips and Science” act.
“Today, we are announcing a new initiative, one that will build on this momentum and develop new and significant bipartisan legislation,” Schumer said at a press conference.
He said he hoped the bill would be bipartisan and said Republicans in the Senate had been supportive of some of the ideas proposed for the package. The measure will need Republican support to become law, as Republicans control the House of Representatives.
The desire for a hard line on China is one of the few bipartisan sentiments in the perennially divided U.S. Congress, and last year’s legislation passed with overwhelming support from both Democrats and Republicans.
However, John Thune, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, said the new China initiative would have a hard time getting through Congress, given his party’s concerns about spending and the debt and the size of last year’s bill.
“It would be challenging, and partly because of spending and debt — concerns about too much spending and the impact it’s had on inflation, the way the deficits exploded and ballooned,” Thune said.
The bill signed into law by President Joe Biden last year authorized hundreds of billions of dollars to boost scientific research and subsidize domestic semiconductor manufacturers.
This year’s planned legislation would also seek funding for additional domestic investments in key technology areas and provide a better U.S. alternative to China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative, an effort to counter Beijing’s international influence.
“We know that China uses its economic power like a bully,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons told the news conference.
Schumer said lawmakers would look at TikTok and other foreign-based apps while writing the China bill. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, has been a subject of intense scrutiny in Washington and other Western capitals.
TikTok has been banned from government-issued phones in countries such as Canada and Australia over concerns about whether China can access user data or influence what people see. Some U.S. lawmakers have called for a nationwide ban.
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