Month: June 2023

Rwandan Refugees in Malawi Complain of Being Targeted and Victimized

Posted on by SeeAF

Rwandan refugees and asylum-seekers in Malawi say they fear being deported or losing their right to stay in the country, following steps by the government to apprehend refugees wanted in their home countries on various charges.

Malawi’s government said last week it has received a request from Rwanda to help track down 55 so-called warlords who are hiding in Malawi. Rwandan refugees say officials need to verify the allegations before acting.

The Rwandan refugees expressed their fears in a statement following the deportation Monday of a Rwandan genocide suspect, Vincent Ngendahimana Kanyoni, who was indicted in 2019.

In a statement, a refugee group called the Concerned Rwandan Refugees said Malawi should be cautious with requests from the Rwandan government. The group said Rwanda might be playing what it called “the genocide card” to target political opponents in exile.

Odette Narikundo, a representative of Rwandan refugees in Malawi, told VOA she believes Kanyoni’s deportation was based on wrong information. She said the suspect never worked as a soldier in Rwanda and never had any military training there.

Narikundo said she doubts Rwanda’s claim that so many former Rwandan generals are hiding in Malawi. She said that if the generals were hiding, they would not have been at Dzaleka refugee camp. She wondered why Malawi was acting in such a way.

Narikundo said she believes that Rwanda is using genocide-related accusations to target political opponents living abroad. She said many Rwandan refugees fear being picked up and deported without even being taken to court to defend themselves, as was the case with Kanyoni.

Now, she said, people are living in fear. Because he didn’t go to court before being deported, she called Malawi’s actions kidnapping.

Narikundo said Malawi should verify any information from Rwanda with the group known as the Government of Rwandans in Exile, based in France, before rushing to take any action.

Patrick Botha, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Homeland Security in Malawi, told VOA that Malawi is a sovereign state doing everything according to its laws.

“But we have a working relationship with different countries especially our neighbors [and] that includes Rwanda, Burundi, just as we do with Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania,” Botha said. “In terms of security, we work hand in hand with these governments.”

Botha, however, declined to take more questions, citing the sensitivity around the issue.

“That’s all I can say on the matter,” he said. “The other issues concerning this are very sensitive, many security issues, so it’s not right for me to go into those details.”

Michael Kaiyatsa, executive director for the Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation in Malawi, shares the concerns of the Rwandan refugees.

“Because the way the government is doing it, it means even genuine refugees stand a risk of being deported like that,” Kaiyatsa said. “They will not have an opportunity to defend themselves. You know, police or immigration [officers] cannot make that determination, they are not a court themselves.”

Last month, Malawi started revoking the citizenship of refugees and asylum-seekers whom officials say obtained their status fraudulently.

Some 400 people, mainly from Burundi and Rwanda, have had their Malawian citizenship revoked and plans are under way to deport them.
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With Millions in Need, Saudi Announces Sudan Aid Funding Conference

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Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced an international conference next week to gather aid pledges for war-ravaged Sudan, where the United Nations says more than half the population urgently needs assistance and protection. 

Many of them are in Sudan’s Darfur region, where attacks against civilians could amount to crimes against humanity, the U.N.’s head of mission said. 

The pledging conference will be held on June 19, the official Saudi Press Agency said. It cited the Foreign Ministry and added that the kingdom would jointly lead the meeting with Qatar, Egypt, Germany and the European Union, as well as U.N. agencies.  

Saudi Arabia and the United States have been mediating in the eight-week war between Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. 

A record 25 million people, more than half the population, are in need of aid and protection, according to the U.N., but as of late May, the world body’s needs for $2.6 million to address the crisis were only 13% funded. 

Entire districts of Khartoum no longer have running water, electricity is only available for a few hours a week, most hospitals in combat zones are not functioning, and aid facilities have been looted. 

The country’s western Darfur region has also been a center of the fighting. Darfur Governor Mini Minawi, a former rebel leader now close to the army, in early June declared Darfur a “disaster zone” and appealed for help from the international community. 

In May, the warring sides signed a written agreement for a Saudi and U.S.-brokered weeklong cease-fire, later extended by five days, that aimed to provide safe humanitarian corridors. These did not materialize. 

Sudan’s annual rainy season begins in June, and medics have repeatedly warned that it threatens to make parts of the country inaccessible, while raising the risks of malaria, cholera and waterborne diseases. 

More than 1,800 people have been killed since battles began, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). 

Fighting has forced nearly 2 million people from their homes, including 476,000 who have sought refuge in neighboring countries, the U.N. says. 

The head of the U.N. mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, on Tuesday said the situation in Darfur “continues to deteriorate,” with “an emerging pattern of large-scale targeted attacks against civilians based on their ethnic identities, allegedly committed by Arab militias and some armed men” in RSF uniforms. 

If these reports are verified, they “could amount to crimes against humanity,” Perthes said. 

Also Tuesday, a government official said Sudan’s army chief is not ready to meet Dagalo, after a regional bloc proposed a face-to-face encounter between the two. 

At a summit held in Djibouti on Monday, the East African Intergovernmental Authority on Development announced it would expand the number of countries tasked with resolving the crisis, with Kenya chairing a quartet including Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan. 
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Cash-strapped World Food Program to Halve Aid to Needy Syrians

Posted on by SeeUS

The World Food Program said Tuesday it will be forced to end food assistance to 2.5 million Syrians next month if it does not receive at least $180 million in donations to fund programs through the end of this year.

“Further reductions in ration size are impossible; our only solution is to reduce the number of recipients,” said WFP Syria Director Ken Crossley in a statement. “The people we serve have endured the ravages of conflict, fleeing their homes, losing family members and their livelihoods. Without our assistance, their hardships will only intensify.”

The WFP currently assists 5.5 million people in Syria. Without the drastic cuts, the agency says it would run out of food completely by October.

After more than a decade of conflict, a spiraling economic crisis and a series of deadly earthquakes in February, many Syrians are barely getting by. The WFP says even those who receive regular food assistance are struggling to cope.

Overall, the United Nations says 15.3 million people – or 70% of the population – need some form of humanitarian assistance. More than half the population are food insecure, and malnutrition and childhood stunting are reaching unprecedented levels.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the European Union will host a ministerial conference in Brussels focusing on “Supporting the future of Syria and the region.” The conference aims to revitalize international political and financial support for Syrians in their country and in host countries.
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US: Sudan’s Warring Factions Not Taking Advantage of Jeddah Talks for Agreed Truce Goal

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Sudan’s warring factions are not taking advantage of talks facilitated by the United States and Saudi Arabia meant to yield a permanent ceasefire they originally agreed, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday.

The United States is now consulting with Saudi Arabia and other partners, including in the Arab world and in Africa, about a path forward and hopes to announce a recommended approach in the next few days, the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters in Washington.

“We think we’ve given them every shot. We’ve given them this venue to try and come together and try and find a way forward that doesn’t involve achieving an outcome that’s based on violence or military dominance,” the official said.

“They are clearly not taking advantage of the format that we’ve given them. It’s not succeeding in the way they had originally agreed in terms of this step-by-step process to reach a permanent cessation of hostilities.”

The war between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has raged for almost two months, forcing almost 2 million people to flee and wrecking the economy, causing frequent electricity and water outages.

Talks in Jeddah have failed to permanently halt fighting and clashes intensified as soon as a frequently violated ceasefire pact expired on Sunday.

Air strikes, artillery and gunfire rocked several areas of the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Monday with further fighting trapping civilians in a worsening humanitarian crisis.

A second senior State Department official told reporters there was a “dawning realization” among the parties to the conflict that there is no acceptable military solution.

But this had not yet translated into the willingness to take tangible steps to lock in a longer cease-fire and a broader permanent cessation of hostilities, the official said.
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Cameroon Officials Campaign Against Taboos to Encourage People to Donate Blood

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Blood banks in Cameroon are usually close to empty due to widely held taboos against blood donation. Officials in the central African country are trying to convince people to move past those beliefs amid an increased demand for blood and blood products in hospitals and on the front lines where soldiers are fighting separatists and Islamist militants. The effort comes ahead of World Blood Donor Day, observed on June 14. 

Illustrating the shortages is the story of a woman who told nurses at the Yaounde military hospital that she has not found anyone to donate blood to save the life of her two-year-old son. 

Hospital workers said the 34-year-old fruit seller’s blood was infected and that it could not be transfused to her son.

Medical staff members have requested blood from government hospitals to save the child’s life, the hospital said, adding that the blood bank at the military hospital is empty.

Celestin Ayangma, head of the laboratory that is in charge of the hospital’s blood bank, said that since January of this year, the Yaounde military hospital had been able to provide only six of the 20 units of blood it needs every day. Ayangma added that patients eventually die if they do not have relatives, friends or other donors to give the blood that the patients need.

By midday on Tuesday, the baby was still waiting for blood. 

Cameroon’s public health ministry reported that in 2022, hospitals in the country were able to collect a little more than 120,000 pints of blood from voluntary donors, family members and friends of sick patients. 

But each year, Cameroon needs at least 600,000 pints of blood for both private and government-owned hospitals.

The government says blood donation needs in Cameroon are increasing due to the separatist conflict in the country’s western regions and fighting with Boko Haram militants on the northern border with Nigeria. 

This year, government officials, health workers and aid agencies took to the streets ahead of World Blood Donor Day, trying to convince people to donate blood and save lives.

Ruth Abeng of the Cameroon Medical Council, an association of Cameroonian doctors, took part in the campaign. She sayid there are very few voluntary blood donors in Cameroon as some people are compelled to donate blood only when they see their sick relatives and friends in need of blood and dying. She said it is disheartening to see patients dying because some of their relatives believe that a blood donation is mystical.

Some Cameroonians believe that if they give blood, the recipient will receive any good luck and success they’ve had in life. Others say God will punish them if they donate blood to an evil person. 

The government says such beliefs are unfounded and people should not be afraid to donate blood. 

The Ministry of Health also says donated blood is not sold as some people erroneously believe. Blood that is donated is stored in banks and transfused to people in need, the government says. 

Hospitals say patients pay a fee of about $50 for the hospital to test donated blood and make sure it is safe to use. 

The government gives donors about $10 in a bid to encourage more donations. 

Cameroon says it expects to raise about 20,000 pints of blood by June 14. 

Hospitals say the amount will not be enough to meet the country’s needs but that it will reduce suffering and prevent some people from dying.
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Critics Say Ailing Economy a Challenge for Zimbabwe’s Ruling Party as Election Nears

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The Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front or ZANU-PF has ruled the country for 43 years. But the opposition party thinks the nation’s poor economy might give it an opportunity to make gains in the country’s upcoming elections. Columbus Mavhunga has this report from Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe
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US Consumer Price Growth Slowed Last Month

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Consumer prices in the United States cooled last month, rising just 0.1% from April to May and extending the past year’s steady easing of inflation. At the same time, some measures of underlying price pressures remained high.

Measured year over year, inflation slowed to just 4% in May — the lowest 12-month figure in over two years and well below April’s 4.9% annual rise. The pullback was driven by tumbling gas prices, a much smaller rise in grocery prices than in previous months and less expensive furniture, air fares and appliances.

Tuesday’s inflation figures arrive just as Federal Reserve officials begin a pivotal two-day meeting, after which they’re expected to leave interest rates alone after imposing 10 straight rate hikes dating back to March 2022. On Wednesday, the central bank will likely announce that it’s skipping a rate hike but may hint that it will resume raising rates as soon as July. Top Fed officials have said they’re leaning toward a so-called “skip” to allow time to assess how their rate hikes have affected inflation and the overall economy.

Still, last month’s drop-off in overall inflation isn’t likely to convince the Fed’s policymakers that they’re close to curbing the high inflation that has gripped the nation for two years. The Fed tends to focus more on “core” prices, which exclude volatile food and energy costs and generally provide a clearer view of inflation.

And core prices remained high last month, rising 0.4% from April to May, the sixth straight month of increases at that level or higher. Compared with a year ago, core inflation slipped to 5.3% from 5.5%. That is still far above the Fed’s target of 2%.

Last month’s core inflation was fueled mainly by high apartment rental costs and a second straight jump in used car prices, which soared 4.4% just from April to May. On the other hand, wholesale prices of used cars declined last month, which may foretell lower retail used-car prices in coming months.

Gas prices, adjusted for seasonal patterns, fell 5.6% from April to May; they’re down nearly 20% from a year ago. And grocery prices ticked up just 0.1%, a relief to consumers, though they’re still 5.8% higher than they were a year ago.

The stubbornness of underlying inflation reflects a fundamental challenge for the Fed: The economy has steadily defied long-standing forecasts for a recession, dating back more than a year. Instead, businesses have kept hiring at a healthy pace, average paychecks are climbing and workers are freely spending their larger wages.

Though a resilient economy is great for households and businesses, it may also be helping fuel chronically high inflation. Some economists argue that many companies are keeping prices artificially high, more than is needed to cover their own higher costs, to drive profit growth. The nation’s consumers might have to pull back, en masse, before most businesses will reduce prices. In the meantime, steadily robust hiring is allowing Americans, as a whole, to keep spending.

The Fed has raised its benchmark rate by a hefty 5 percentage points over the past 15 months — the fastest pace of rate increases in four decades. Those hikes have led to much higher costs for mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and business borrowing. The Fed’s goal is to slow borrowing and spending, cool the economy and tame inflation — without causing a deep recession. It’s a notoriously difficult task.

There are some signs that the Fed’s efforts are having the desired effect. Inflation is expected to take another big step down in the June figures that will be reported next month. Price growth could slide as low as 3.2% from a year earlier, according to some economists’ estimates. That would be significantly below inflation’s peak of 9.1% in June 2022, the highest level in four decades.

Yet any sharp declines in May and June will in part reflect the fact that prices soared in both those months last year. As those months drop out of the year-over-year inflation calculations, they are replaced with smaller monthly gains. The effect can sharply lower measures of annual inflation.

Still, core prices are expected to stay high in May, driven up by another jump in used car prices and steady increases in rental costs. Used car prices soared 4.4% just from March to April. Economists expect another increase, though not quite as large, from April to May.
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Kosovo PM Presents Plan to Defuse Tensions in Serb-Majority Area

Posted on by SeeEU

Kosovo’s prime minister on Tuesday presented a plan to defuse tensions in its Serb-majority north that would include fresh local elections and cuts in special police, bowing to pressure from key Western supporters of its independence.

Kosovo police meanwhile said they arrested a Serb identified by Pristina as an organizer of attacks on NATO peacekeepers who deployed in the north last month amid violent Serb unrest over the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors in their area.

During the operation to arrest Milun Milenkovic, three Kosovo Albanian policemen were slightly injured, Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said on his Facebook page.

Some 30 peacekeepers and 52 Serbs were injured in the clashes late last month after ethnic Albanian mayors took office following a local election in which turnout was just 3.5% after Serbs who form a majority in the region boycotted the vote.

The United States and European Union have called on Prime Minister Albin Kurti to withdraw the mayors, remove special police used to install them and uphold a 2013 deal for an association of autonomous Serb municipalities in the region.

Kurti said that “violent (Serb) groups have been withdrawn from Kosovo territory (and therefore) the presence of Kosovo police troops in three municipal buildings will be downsized.”

“The government of the Republic of Kosovo will coordinate with all the actors and announce early elections in four municipalities in the north,” Kurti told a press conference after meeting ambassadors of the United States, Italy, France, Germany and Britain, known as the Quint group.

He said he had presented his plan to EU and U.S. envoys and called for a follow-up meeting between Serbian and Kosovo officials in Brussels, where the EU is based.

Kurti said nothing about setting up the association of Serb municipalities which would ensure greater autonomy for the Serb majority area. He has been loath to implement the accord, citing fears that it would spur the region to seek to rejoin Serbia.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic urged Kosovo last week to grant more autonomy to Serbs before organizing a new vote.

Kosovo declared internationally recognized independence from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after an uprising by the 90% ethnic Albanian majority against repressive Serbian rule. NATO bombing drove out Serbian security forces but Belgrade continues to regard Kosovo only as its southern province.
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Seattle Girls Making Splash with Floating Lemonade Stand

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For many American children, running a lemonade stand during the hot summer months serves as their first venture into the world of business. Two sisters from Seattle took the idea to a whole new level. VOA Correspondent Natasha Mozgovaya has their story.
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Latest in Ukraine: Deadly Russian Missile Attack Hits Kryvyi Rih

Posted on by SeeEU

Latest developments:

French President Emmanuel Macron pledges continued deliveries of ammunition, weapons and armed vehicles in the coming weeks, saying France wants Ukraine’s counteroffensive “to be as successful as possible.”   
U.S. President Joe Biden to host NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House after talks delayed by a day for Biden dental procedure   

Ukrainian officials said Tuesday a Russian missile attack on Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine killed at least six people and injured 25 others.      

Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, said Russia destroyed a five-story residential building in the attack and that rescuers were searching through the rubble.   

Kryvyi Rih is the birthplace of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who posted on Telegram, “Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people.”      

“Terrorists will never be forgiven, and they will be held accountable for every missile they launch,” Zelenskyy said.   

The attack on Kryvyi Rih was part of a wider aerial assault by Russia that also targeted the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the city of Kharkiv.      

Ukraine’s military said it shot down 10 of 14 cruise missiles launched by Russia, as well as one of four Iranian-made drones used by Russian forces.      

Russia’s defense ministry said Tuesday its forces captured several German-made Leopard tanks and U.S.-made Bradley Fighting Vehicles during fighting in southern Ukraine.  Russia called the hardware “our trophies” and said they were captured in the Zaporizhzhia area after Ukrainian crews fled. 

Ukrainian counteroffensive 

Ukraine said Monday it had recaptured seven villages since launching the counteroffensive last week with the aim of reclaiming areas occupied by Russian forces.      

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed confidence Monday that Ukraine will “continue to have success in what they’re trying to achieve, which is to take back the land that’s been seized from them by Russia.”   

Blinken told reporters the United States will “continue to maximize our support to Ukraine now” and also provide enduring support to help Ukraine deter Russia from invading again in the future.   

“It’s very important to note that, in terms of what President Putin was trying to achieve in Ukraine, it’s already been a strategic failure, because the objective that Putin had — that he stated himself — was to erase Ukraine from the map, to eliminate its independence, and to absorb Ukraine, in one fashion or another, into Russia.  That has failed and it cannot succeed,” Blinken said.        

 

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power     

The United Nations atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi is expected to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant this week to assess risks from the decrease of water levels at the Kakhovka reservoir. 

Grossi tweeted Monday that he was on his way to Ukraine to meet with Zelenskyy and discuss assistance following what he called the “catastrophic” flooding that followed the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine last week.   

The Kakhovka reservoir has lost nearly three-quarters of its volume of water, but it has not impacted the plant’s cooling ponds, Ukrainian Environment Minister Ruslan Strilets said Monday.          

Ukrainian nuclear authorities said the water at the plant’s cooling ponds remains stable and high enough because the ponds are separate from the reservoir and can be refilled by wells in the area. The water in the pond evaporates slowly, they said, because the reactors are not producing power.          

In Kherson, the United Nations is coordinating relief efforts for the Kakhovka disaster by delivering water, food and hygiene items to almost 180,000 people. Since the day of the disaster, the U.N. has distributed more than 800,000 liters of bottled water and 70,000 monthly rations of ready-to-eat food, U.N. spokesperson Stephanie Dujarric told reporters Monday, adding that the U.N. has also provided information to 100,000 people in the area about risks regarding mine contamination.   

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Outgoing NATO Chief Stoltenberg at White House Tuesday 

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U.S. President Joe Biden is set to meet outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House on Tuesday as jockeying to secure Stoltenberg’s successor intensifies.

The meeting was originally set for Monday but was postponed after Biden underwent a root canal procedure.

While the White House says the official agenda for the meeting is to discuss the alliance’s upcoming July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, the issue of who will be next at NATO’s helm during this difficult period in its 74-year history will no doubt be front and center, as the alliance faces Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, is the longest running NATO chief in a generation and has had his tenure extended three times since taking the job in 2014. In February, his spokesperson said he will leave office when his current term ends in October.

Stoltenberg is widely credited for managing rocky transatlantic relations between former U.S. President Donald Trump and European allies over defense spending; the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan in August 2021; and overseeing the alliance’s response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. His preference about his successor carries weight and Biden is expected to consult with him.

“A lot of people will look to him to say, ‘Who do you think is the best to follow up your leadership?” said Andrew Hyde, senior fellow at the Stimson Center, to VOA.

Whoever succeeds Stoltenberg will face the daunting challenge of shepherding the security of 1 billion people in 31 countries and growing. He or she must manage the tough balancing act of supporting Ukraine militarily while preventing the conflict from bleeding into the territory of a NATO member, which would trigger the alliance’s Article 5 principle of collective defense and potentially lead to World War III.

Selections done through consensus

A U.S. general is traditionally the Supreme Allied Commander Europe but the post of NATO chief has always been assumed by a European, even though there’s nothing in the organization’s charter that requires it.

There’s no formal process to pick a new leader, and candidates don’t announce that they’re running for the post. Selection is done through consensus, achieved mostly through quiet and informal diplomatic channels.

As the biggest donor, the U.S. plays a key role — the reason why two contenders have paid a visit to the Oval Office recently.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen met with Biden at the White House last Monday. She is seen as a front-runner; however, her candidacy would mean a third successive secretary-general from a Nordic country.

Another potential hurdle is that Denmark has long failed to meet the 2% minimum requirement in defense spending for member states. In December, her government launched a plan to meet NATO’s target by 2030, and recently ramped up military aid to Ukraine.

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Washington days after Frederiksen, with a broad agenda that includes lobbying for his defense secretary, Ben Wallace. Britain, supplier of more military assistance to Ukraine than any country after the United States, has clout. And as one of the first defense ministers to provide lethal aid to Ukraine, Wallace is well-known among the alliance.

However, out of 13 chiefs in NATO’s history, three were British.

Biden was non-committal when asked whether it was time for another one. “Maybe. That remains to be seen,” he said during a joint news conference with Sunak Thursday.

All who have filled the post since 1952 were male.

Several women likely candidates

There is a sense that it’s time the alliance selects a female leader, Hyde said. With the Russian war raging, “there’s also a feeling it should be somebody from Eastern Europe,” he added.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and her Lithuanian counterpart Ingrida Simonyte meet both requirements. However, some observers argue that a leader from one of the Baltic countries, which are usually hawkish on Russia, could be perceived as a provocation by Moscow.

Slovakia’s President Zuzana Caputova and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of Germany have been floated as potential candidates. So has Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, although her Ukrainian heritage may prove to be a complication.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte also has been mentioned as a contender. And there’s always the possibility that the allies might prevail on Stoltenberg to extend his tenure yet again.

The issue of who is the next NATO secretary-general is expected to be settled by July, when the group’s leaders meet in Vilnius.
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Denver Nuggets Win First-Ever NBA Championship

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On their home court, the Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat 94-89 Monday to win the 2022-23 National Basketball Association championship.

The Nuggets entered the game holding a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, but found themselves down 51-44 against a Miami franchise that reached the NBA Finals despite entering the playoffs as one of the lowest-seeded teams in the Eastern Conference.

Denver relied on solid defense and clutch play from role players such as Michael Porter Jr., and Bruce Brown to help the Nuggets overcome the Heat’s desperate effort to keep their season alive.

Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, a two-time regular season Most Valuable Player, was named the Finals MVP. Jokic, who shares the nickname “The Joker” with tennis star and fellow Serb Novak Djokovic, finished the game with 28 points and 16 rebounds. Teammate Jamal Murray, who returned to the Nuggets this season after suffering a devastating knee injury in 2021, had 14 points.

The title is the first for the Denver Nuggets in the team’s 56-year history, which includes 10 seasons in the old American Basketball Association before the ABA merged with the NBA after the 1975-76 season.

Jimmy Butler scored 21 points and teammate Bam Adebayo finished with 20 points for Miami. The two had led the Heat to its second trip to the NBA Finals in three seasons. Miami lost to the Los Angeles Lakers at the end of the 2019-20 season during which the league played in isolation at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Miami has won three NBA championship titles since their debut in the 1988-89 season.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Trump Set to Be Arraigned on Federal Indictment

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Former President Donald Trump arrived at his golf club outside Miami on Monday ahead of his arraignment on charges stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified national security documents after he left the White House in 2021.

The arraignment, set for 3 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, will take place under heavy security in a federal courtroom in downtown Miami.

Federal authorities have beefed up security around the court building, and Miami officials say they’re prepared to prevent violence from Trump supporters and counterprotesters.

“In our city, we obviously believe in the Constitution and believe that people should have the right to express themselves,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said at a news conference. “But we also believe in law and order. And we know that, and we hope that tomorrow will be peaceful.”

Trump’s arraignment comes five days after a federal grand jury in Miami indicted him on 37 criminal counts, including 31 counts accusing him of “willfully retaining” classified national defense documents in violation of the Espionage Act.

A Trump aide, Walt Nauta, was also indicted in connection with obstructing government efforts to retrieve the documents.

Trump is the first former president to face a federal indictment. This is the second time in two months that he has been indicted.

The former president faces separate state criminal charges in New York in connection with a hush money payment to an adult film star during his 2016 presidential campaign.

At Tuesday’s hearing, a judge will inform Trump of his rights and read the charges against him. He’s expected to enter a plea of not guilty.

Usually, arraignments happen within a day of an arrest. But given the unprecedented nature of Trump’s case, his initial court appearance was delayed for five days.

The case has been assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who drew fire for favoring the former president in her rulings in the case last year.

Cannon briefly blocked federal investigators from examining the documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last August and appointed a special master to review them. But an appeals court later overturned her ruling, saying she did not have the authority to rule as she did.

The charges against Trump stem from an investigation that began after Trump allegedly spurned repeated efforts by the National Archives to take possession of the documents that he had taken from the White House and kept at Mar-a-Lago.

The federal indictment accuses Trump of 31 counts of “willful retention” of classified national defense information, each for a different document that he took from the White House.

Twenty-one of those documents were among the more than 100 that the FBI recovered during a search of Mar-a-Lago last August.

The indictment says the documents contained information about U.S. nuclear programs, the potential vulnerability of the U.S. and its allies to an attack and plans for a possible response. Their disclosure, the indictment says, could endanger U.S. national security.

The six other charges against Trump — which include counts of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements — are related to efforts by Trump to obstruct the investigation and conceal his retention of classified documents.

Trump has claimed that he had an order to declassify all documents taken from the Oval Office to his residence in the White House.

But the indictment says Trump was well aware of laws governing classified national security information and willfully flouted them.

In one case, in July 2021, Trump allegedly showed a document about a “plan of attack” to a group of four unauthorized people — a writer, publisher and two staff members — at his New Jersey golf club, telling them it was “highly confidential” and “secret” and that he could no longer declassify it.

In another instance, in September 2021, Trump showed a classified map to a representative of his political action committee, telling him that he “should not be showing it to (him) and that (he) should not get too close,” according to the indictment.

After his arraignment, Trump will be released on his own recognizance. The start date of his trial remains uncertain. Some experts speculate that it could take months to begin and might even be postponed until after the 2024 election.

Despite his growing legal troubles, however, Trump is free to pursue his presidential bid and has vowed to continue campaigning even if he is found guilty.

“I’ll never leave,” Trump told Politico in an interview Saturday.

Trump is reportedly planning to fly to New Jersey following his arraignment where he’ll host the first fundraiser for his campaign at his golf club.
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Eritrea Rejoins East African Bloc Nearly 16 Years After Walkout

Posted on by SeeAF

Eritrea has rejoined the East African bloc, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), nearly 16 years after the politically isolated state pulled out of the body, Information Minister Yemane Meskel said Monday.

“Eritrea resumed its activity in IGAD and took its seat” at a summit organized by the seven-nation bloc in Djibouti on Monday, Meskel said on Twitter.

He said the country was ready to work toward “peace, stability and regional integration.”

The authoritarian state suspended its IGAD membership in 2007 following a string of disagreements, including over the bloc’s decision to ask Kenya to oversee the resolution of a border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia in 1993 and fought a two-year border war with its neighbor that poisoned relations until a peace agreement in 2018.

Following the rapprochement with Addis Ababa, Eritrean troops supported Ethiopian forces during the federal government’s war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and have been accused by the United States and rights groups of some of the conflict’s worst atrocities.

That war ended with a peace deal signed in November last year that called for the withdrawal of foreign forces, but Asmara was not a party to the agreement and its troops continue to be present in bordering areas of Tigray, according to residents who have accused the soldiers of murder, rape and looting.

‘North Korea of Africa’

Monday’s announcement comes after Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki told reporters during a visit to Kenya in February that his country would rejoin IGAD “with the idea of revitalizing this regional organization.”

Isaias, 77, did not attend Monday’s summit in Djibouti, sending Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and Presidential Adviser Yemane Ghebreab to the meeting instead.

Workneh Gebeyehu, executive secretary of IGAD, hailed Eritrea’s return to the bloc, saying in an official statement: “Let me take this opportunity to welcome back the State of Eritrea to the IGAD family.”

Dubbed the “North Korea” of Africa, Eritrea was sanctioned by the United States in 2021 after sending troops into Tigray.

In a rare news conference in Kenya earlier this year, Isaias dismissed accusations of severe rights abuses by Eritrean troops in Tigray as “fantasy.”

Human Rights Watch in February called for fresh sanctions against Eritrea, accusing it of rounding up thousands of people, including minors, for mandatory military service, during the Tigray war.

The country sits near the bottom of global rankings for press freedom, as well as human rights, civil liberties and economic development.
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Protests in US Over Russians Taking Ukrainian Children to Russia

Posted on by SeeEU

Across the United States this past weekend, demonstrators protested the transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children to territories occupied by Russia. VOA Correspondent Natasha Mozgovaya reports from Seattle.
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US Utility Could Be Liable for Billions After Jury Verdict in Devastating Oregon Wildfires

Posted on by SeeUS

A jury in the northwestern U.S. state of Oregon on Monday found the electric utility PacifiCorp responsible for causing devastating fires during Labor Day weekend in 2020, ordering the company to pay tens of millions of dollars to 17 homeowners who sued and finding it liable for broader damages that could push the total award into the billions.

The Portland utility is one of several owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. The property owners, suing on behalf of a class of thousands of others, alleged that PacifiCorp negligently failed to shut off power to its 600,000 customers during a windstorm, despite warnings from then-Governor Kate Brown’s chief of staff and top fire officials, and that its power lines were responsible for multiple blazes.

There has been no official cause determined for the Labor Day fires, which killed nine people, burned more than 1,875 square miles (4,856 square kilometers) in Oregon, and destroyed upward of 5,000 homes and structures. The blazes together were one of the worst natural disasters in Oregon history.

In a written statement, lawyers for the plaintiffs called the decision historic and said it “paves the way for potentially billions of dollars in further damages for the class members.”

PacifiCorp immediately said it would appeal.

“Escalating climate change, challenging state and federal forest management, and population growth in the wildland-urban interface are substantial factors contributing to growing wildfire risk,” PacifiCorp said in an emailed statement after the verdict. “These systemic issues affect all Oregonians and are larger than any single utility.”

The Multnomah County Circuit Court jury awarded more than $73 million to 17 homeowners who sued PacifiCorp a month after the fires, with each receiving between $3 million and $5.5 million for physical damage to their property and emotional distress.

The jury also applied its liability finding to a larger class including the owners of nearly 2,500 properties damaged in the fires, which could push the price tag for damages well into the billions of dollars. Those damages will be determined later.

The jury heard testimony Monday afternoon over whether to make PacifiCorp pay punitive damages. Nick Rosinia, an attorney for plaintiffs, told the jurors they should award punitive damages totaling five times what they have already been awarded for the harm PacifiCorp caused.

Doug Dixon, an attorney for the power company, insisted that none were warranted. The company keeps working on safety and was not recklessly negligent, he said. And while lawyers for the property owners described PacifiCorp as deep-pocketed, the company is $9 billion in debt.

Among those in court for the verdict was Rachelle McMaster, whose home in the town of Otis near the Oregon coast was destroyed in the fires. Wearing a tie-dye T-shirt that read “keep Earth awesome,” she wiped her eyes and clasped her spouse’s hand after it was read.

The seven-week trial wrapped with closing arguments last Wednesday, Oregon Public Radio reported.

The plaintiffs alleged PacifiCorp was negligent when it didn’t shut off its power lines despite extreme wind warnings over the holiday weekend.

“They have no real response to any of this,” plaintiffs’ attorney Cody Berne said during closing statements. “(PacifiCorp) started the fires. They destroyed the evidence. And now they have come before you and are asking not to be held accountable.”

Jurors were to determine PacifiCorp’s responsibility in four of those blazes: the Santiam Canyon fires east of Salem; the Echo Mountain Complex near Lincoln City; the South Obenchain fire near Eagle Point; and the Two Four Two fire near the southwest Oregon town of Chiloquin.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said utility executives kept the power on even as the company’s line workers took calls about damaged electrical equipment. The same executives, attorneys said, took no responsibility at the trial, saying it was front-line workers who make de-energization decisions, the news outlet reported.

In his closing arguments, Dixon said “alleged power line fires” in Santiam Canyon, where more than half the class members live, could not have spread to plaintiff’s homes. Plus, PacifiCorp does not have equipment in some areas where they were accused of causing damage, he said.

The risk of wildfires is increasingly fraught for power companies in the West. Pacific Gas & Electric declared bankruptcy and pleaded guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter after its neglected equipment caused a fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills in 2018 that destroyed nearly 19,000 homes, businesses and other buildings and virtually razed the town of Paradise, California.
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‘First of Its Kind’ Illinois Law Penalizes Libraries That Ban Books

Posted on by SeeUS

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law Monday a bill that he says will make Illinois the first state in the nation to outlaw book bans.

Illinois public libraries that restrict or ban materials because of “partisan or doctrinal” disapproval will be ineligible for state funding as of Jan. 1, 2024, when the new law goes into effect.

“We are not saying that every book should be in every single library,” said Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who is also the state librarian and was the driving force behind the legislation. “What this law does is it says, let’s trust our experience and education of our librarians to decide what books should be in circulation.”

The new law comes into play as states across the U.S. push to remove certain books in schools and libraries, especially those about LGBTQ+ themes and by people of color. The American Library Association in March announced that attempts to censor books in schools and public libraries reached a 20-year high in 2022 — twice as many as 2021, the previous record.

“Illinois legislation responds to disturbing circumstances of censorship and an environment of suspicion,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation.

To be eligible for state funds, Illinois public libraries must adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which holds that “materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation,” or subscribe to a similar pledge.

Downers Grove Democrat Representative Anne Stava-Murray sponsored the legislation in the Illinois House of Representatives after a school board in her district was subject to pressure to ban certain content from school libraries.

“While it’s true that kids need guidance, and that some ideas can be objectionable, trying to weaponize local government to force one-size-fits-all standards onto the entire community for reasons of bigotry, or as a substitute for active and involved parenting, is wrong,” Stava-Murray said Monday at the bill’s signing, which took place at a children’s library in downtown Chicago.

Despite Giannoulias’ assertion that “this should not be a Democrat or Republican issue,” lawmakers’ approval of the bill splintered across party lines, with Republicans in opposition.

“I support local control,” said House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, a Republican who voted against the measure, in an emailed statement. “Our caucus does not believe in banning books, but we do believe that the content of books should be considered in their placement on the shelves.”
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Americans ‘Need to Be Prepared’ for Chinese Cyberattacks

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States may not be resilient enough to fend off and survive Chinese attacks on its critical infrastructure should the present great power competition between Washington and Beijing evolve into an actual conflict, according to a top U.S. cyber official.

U.S. officials have ramped up efforts to bolster cybersecurity for the country’s electric grid and water systems — much of them run by private companies — since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, but the head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned Monday that more precautions need to be taken in case China decides to strike.

“In the event of a conflict, China will almost certainly use aggressive cyber operations to go after our critical infrastructure, to include pipelines and rail lines to delay military deployment and to induce societal panic,” CISA Director Jen Easterly told an audience at the Aspen Institute in Washington.

“Given the formidable nature of the threat from Chinese state actors, given the size of their capability, given how much resources and effort they’re putting into it, it’s going to be very, very difficult for us to prevent disruptions from happening,” she said.

And what worries her just as much as the cyberattacks themselves is the ability of Americans to repair any damage while also being able to demonstrate the strength to carry on.

“We as an American people need to understand not just cyber resilience, but the imperative of operational resilience and the importance of societal resilience,” Easterly said. “I worry, frankly, that we’ve lost a bit of societal resilience.”

This is not the first time that key U.S. officials have warned about China’s ability to inflict considerable damage using cyberattacks.

Most of the warnings have centered on scenarios in which China tries to take Taiwan by force.

“If the Chinese have a plan to invade Taiwan in 2027, I would expect they have a cyber plan to go along with that,” a senior defense official told reporters this past April.

Other U.S. officials have warned that China could use a series of cyberattacks against Taiwan and the U.S. as part of an opening blow aimed at minimizing Washington’s ability to help fend off the incursion.

China rejected the U.S. assertions.

“We have always firmly opposed and cracked down on all forms of cyber hacking in accordance with the law,” Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told VOA in an emailed statement.

“The allegation by the U.S. side that the Chinese government is ‘supporting hacking’ is completely distorting the truth,” Liu added, accusing the U.S. itself of engaging in “large-scale, organized and indiscriminate cyber theft and monitoring of foreign governments, enterprises, and individuals.”

Easterly has also warned that Beijing will likely seek to create “panic and chaos” in cyberspace ahead of any move on Taiwan.

And just last month, CISA, along with partner agencies in Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, warned of activity by a Chinese threat actor known as Volt Typhoon, which had been targeting networks linked to U.S. critical infrastructure.

On Monday, however, Easterly said recent incidents like the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and the scare from China’s high altitude spy balloon have given her cause for concern beyond a scenario involving Taiwan.

“We need to be prepared to be able to respond, recover, learn from disruptions and to be able to move forward in a way that we can continue to operate our critical services and our networks and our businesses even under the threat of Chinese state actors who want to hold that critical infrastructure at risk,” she said.

To improve American resilience, Easterly said CISA could soon launch a “Shields Up” awareness campaign focused on China, similar to the one it launched following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The ongoing campaign encourages private companies to take additional security precautions to protect against potential cyberattacks by Russia itself or by criminal hackers working on Moscow’s behalf.
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Ugandan Ban on Charcoal-Making Disrupts Lucrative but Destructive Business

Posted on by SeeAF

The charcoal makers in the forests of northern Uganda fled into the bush, temporarily abandoning their precious handiwork: multiple heaps of timber yet to be processed.

The workers were desperate to avoid capture by local officials after a new law banned the commercial production of charcoal. They risked arrest and beatings if they were caught.

But what’s really at stake for the charcoal makers is their livelihood.

“We are not going to stop,” said Deo Ssenyimba, a bare-chested charcoal maker who has been active in northern Uganda for 12 years. “We stop and then we do what? Are we going to steal?”

The burning of charcoal, an age-old practice in many African societies, is now restricted business across northern Uganda amid a wave of resentment by locals who have warned of the threat of climate change stemming from the uncontrolled felling of trees by outsiders. Not much has changed as charcoal producers skirt around the rules to keep the supply flowing and watchful vigilantes take matters into their own hands.

Much of northern Uganda remains lush but sparsely populated and impoverished, attracting investors who desire the land mostly for its potential to sustain the charcoal business. And demand is assured: Charcoal accounts for up to 90% of Africa’s primary energy consumption needs, according to a 2018 report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Before the charcoal ban, local activists formed vigilante groups in districts such as Gulu, where a former lawmaker recently led an attack on a truck that was dispossessed of 380 bags of charcoal.

Although Odonga Otto was then charged with aggravated robbery, the country’s chief justice praised him as a hero.

“I have not heard anybody who is destroying our environment being charged,” said Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, who is from northern Uganda. “If you steal from a thief, are you a thief?”

The week after Owiny-Dollo’s public comments, President Yoweri Museveni issued an executive order banning the commercial production of charcoal in northern Uganda, disrupting a national trade that has long been influenced by cultural sensibilities as much as the seeming abundance of idle land. Commercial charcoal production is still permitted in other regions.

The ban follows a climate change law, enacted in 2021, that empowers local authorities across the country to regulate activities deemed harmful to the environment. Trees suck in planet-warming carbon dioxide from the air, but burning charcoal emits the heat-trapping gas instead.

Days after Museveni’s order, a team of Associated Press journalists walked into a charcoal-burning enclave in a remote part of Gulu, 335 kilometers (208 miles) from the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

One local official, Patiko Sub-County Chairman Patrick Komakech, gave chase when he heard fleeing footsteps. A small patch of bamboo opened to an almost bare patch where trees were being cut, juicy stumps still fresh here and there.

Komakech was agitated and on the verge of tears.

Timber had been heaped like contraband ivory in different spots, and grey smoke rose from one pile being processed. Beside it stood loaded bags of charcoal. The charcoal makers slept in little tarp tents draped in dry leaves.

“I am completely perturbed (by) all this destruction,” Komakech said, speaking of charcoal makers who “are actually imported and put in this community, and they do this thing without the mercy of leaving any vegetation.”

Uganda’s population explosion has heightened the need for cheap plant-based energy sources, especially charcoal. In this east African country of 45 million people, charcoal is preferred in households across the income spectrum but especially in those of the urban poor — seen as ideal in the preparation of certain dishes that require slow cooking. Middle-class families maintain both gas cookers and charcoal stoves.

“Even those policemen who are coming to beat us, they are cooking with charcoal,” said Peter Ejal. “We are not here to spoil the environment. We are here by their orders, those people who are selling these trees.”

His colleague, the ragtag charcoal maker Ssenyimba, said bluntly, “When we finish this place we will go to another place.”

One charcoal maker asserted that charcoal from northern Uganda was likely used even in the State House. Others charged that they were cutting the trees with the complicity of landlords who sell charcoal-making rights by the acre to interested dealers.

The industry can be lucrative for landowners and investors.

In nearby towns a bag of charcoal fetches about $14, but the price rises further as the goods approach Kampala. Ssenyimba said he’s paid about $3 for every bag he makes.

An acre of property with plenty of trees goes for up to $150 in Gulu, although the sum can be much smaller in remote but vegetation-rich ranches owned by the poorest families. The investors then deploy men armed with power saws and machetes, working over specific places and leaving when they have cut down all the trees they were sold.

District councils in the region raise revenue from licensing and taxes, and corrupt members of the armed services have been protecting charcoal truckers, according to Museveni and Otto, the former lawmaker now leading vigilantes against charcoal makers.

Otto has helped cause the impounding of multiple trucks in recent weeks, including two recently seized ones parked outside a police station where a crowd gathered one afternoon, hoping to grab the goods.

He said he plans to serve hundreds of local officials with letters of intent to sue for any lapses in protecting the environment. Otto told the AP his goal is to make the rest of Uganda “lose appetite” for charcoal from his region.

“We go to the fields where the charcoal ovens are and we destroy the bases,” he said. “We managed to make the business risky. As of now, you drive a hundred (of) kilometers, and you will not find any single truck carrying charcoal.”

The ban on commercial production in northern Uganda is almost certainly bound to push up the retail price of charcoal. Otto and others were concerned that charcoal dealers would avoid authorities by ferrying charcoal bags in small numbers — on the backs of passenger motorcycles — to towns where the merchandise could be stealthily loaded into trucks.
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Mother Jailed in England for Medicated Abortion Later in Pregnancy

Posted on by SeeEU

A 44-year-old mother of three was sentenced Monday to more than two years in an English prison for medically inducing an abortion about eight months into her pregnancy.

Justice Edward Pepperall in Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court said the “tragic” case required him to balance the woman’s reproductive rights with the rights of the fetus and said the sentence might deter others from exceeding the 24-week limit on abortions.

Pepperall said the mother could have avoided prison if she had pleaded guilty sooner and that he was sentencing her despite her “deep and genuine remorse” and the fact that her children, including one with special needs, would suffer without her.

“You are wracked by guilt and have suffered depression,” Pepperall said. “I also accept that you had a very deep emotional attachment to your unborn child and that you are plagued by nightmares and flashbacks to seeing your dead child’s face.”

The woman was 32 to 34 weeks along when she induced a miscarriage in May 2020 using medication intended for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, the judge said.

The woman obtained the pills during the COVID-19 pandemic when the restrictions were loosened to allow abortion drugs to be delivered by mail. The woman lied when she told a pregnancy advisory service she was seven weeks pregnant and she continued to lie to others, including police, the judge said.

Evidence found the woman had conducted several internet searches for ending her pregnancy, including one that said, “I need to have an abortion but I’m past 24 weeks,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

“While the baby was not full term, she was approaching that stage of development,” prosecutor Robert Price said. “Multiple and prolonged internet searches showed a level of planning.”

Supporters of abortion rights criticized the sentence as unnecessarily harsh and called for an end to criminalizing abortion.

“This case is a damning indictment of abortion law in England,” said Mandu Reid, leader of the Women’s Equality Party. “Nothing about this conviction serves the public interest, or the interests of her and her children. It also reveals the indefensible, ugly truth about the criminalization of abortion. Opposition to abortion has never been about what’s best for children or women.”

Executives from professional organizations representing obstetricians, gynecologists and midwives had urged the judge in writing not to imprison the woman.

Pepperall said they shouldn’t have sent the letter, saying it was as inappropriate as abortion opponents lobbying the court.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said criminalizing abortion was proper in the right circumstances.

“Our laws as they stand balance a woman’s right to access safe and legal abortions with the rights of an unborn child,” spokesperson Max Blain said. “I’m not aware of any plans to address that approach.”

The woman was sentenced to 28 months in prison, but Pepperall said she’d serve up to half that term in custody.

Pepperall said he arrived at the sentence by consulting the 2012 case of a mother originally sentenced to eight years in prison for using medication to terminate her pregnancy a week before she was due to give birth. The Court of Appeal later reduced her prison term to 3½ years.
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US Providing $325 Million More in Aid for Ukraine  

Posted on by SeeEU

The United States is providing up to $325 million in additional military aid for Ukraine, a U.S. defense official tells VOA.

The package is expected to include Stryker and Bradley armored vehicles that can replace those damaged and destroyed in the Ukrainian counteroffensive currently underway, according to two Defense officials, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity ahead of the package’s expected release Tuesday.

The officials said the latest aid also includes munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), along with more rockets for Ukraine’s High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

The aid announcement comes amid reports that Ukraine has lost more than a dozen Bradley infantry fighting vehicles in recent days, highlighting the military costs of the current counteroffensive.

“These top systems, as good as they are, are vulnerable and will need to be replaced, and so it’s a reminder that this security provision is not a one-off. This is going to have to continue for the long term,” said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Once released, the latest aid package will mark the 40th authorized presidential drawdown of military equipment from Defense Department inventories since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.  

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin travels to Brussels this week for a meeting of NATO defense ministers, where support for Ukraine will be a top priority.

During his time in Brussels, Austin will host another meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group to discuss how Western allies can better support Ukraine’s military now that its new counteroffensive has begun, according to officials.

Defense leaders also will continue to iron out plans for Ukrainian pilots to train on F-16 fighter jets, the officials added.

 

The U.S. has pledged more than $39 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, although the Pentagon continues to work through an accounting error that overstated the amount of value going to Kyiv. 

When calculating its aid package estimates, the Defense Department was counting the cost incurred to replace the weapons given to Ukraine, while it should have been totaling the cost of the systems actually sent, officials told VOA.  

The error is expected to translate into billions of additional dollars that will be available for more aid to Ukraine, according to officials. 

The Pentagon announced Friday it is providing an additional $2.1 billion in long-term weapons aid for Ukraine, including more Patriot missile battery munitions and small, hand-launched Puma drones.

Unlike the immediate aid to Ukraine sent from Pentagon stocks through the presidential drawdown authority, this aid money is provided under the United States’ Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and is meant to be spent on Ukraine’s future security needs. 

Moscow began a renewed offensive in Ukraine earlier this year that has stalled, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently confirmed that Kyiv’s massive counteroffensive has begun.

A senior military official, speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, said the Ukrainian counteroffensive would probably not be “as dramatic” as some people expect but still would be carried out “deliberately and effectively” by targeting Russia’s ability to control its defenses inside Ukraine. 

Russian forces have spent months heavily fortifying their positions inside Ukraine, making Kyiv’s counteroffensive even more difficult to execute.

“It’s harder to go on offense than it is to be on defense,” Bowman said. Ukrainians “have entrenched, dug in Russian forces with minefields in front of them. That’s about as hard as it can get in warfare.”
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Zimbabwe Charges 39 Opposition Supporters Over Violence

Posted on by SeeAF

Zimbabwean authorities charged 39 opposition activists with political violence over the alleged “demolishing” of a ruling party office on Monday, as tensions grow ahead of national elections in August. 

Prosecutors said the group attacked an office of the ruling ZANU-PF party, in Nyatsime, south of the capital, last week. 

The ruling ZANU-PF party has been in power since independence in 1980. 

The group “destroyed several houses and also assaulted members of the Nyatsime community thereby causing massive destruction to property and inflicted serious injuries on them,” prosecutors said. 

The incident comes as rights groups and opposition parties have complained of a clampdown ahead of the vote. 

Lawyers for those detained, however, stopped short of saying the accusations were politically motivated. 

“Our clients were not even at the scene,” Anesu Chirisa, legal lead at Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, an umbrella group representing the 39, told AFP. 

The 39 were arrested over the weekend and on Monday briefly appeared before a local court. 

They were remanded into custody after investigating authorities called for a “lengthy custodial sentence.” 

Members of the group are supporters of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), Zimbabwe’s leading opposition party. 

CCC’s leader Nelson Chamisa, a 45-year-old lawyer and pastor, is hoping to replace President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 80, who is seeking a second term in the August 23 vote. 

Analysts are bracing for a tense ballot in a country where discontent at entrenched poverty, power cuts and other shortages runs deep.

Critics have accused the government of using the courts to target opposition politicians and say there has been an increase in arbitrary arrests and repression.

Earlier this month, another five CCC activists were held on various charges including assault after an alleged altercation at a voter registration center. 
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Sudanese Refugees in Chad Risk Losing Aid as Rainy Season Looms, Says MSF

Posted on by SeeAF

Thousands of Sudanese refugees who fled to Chad to escape fighting in their country could be cut off from humanitarian and medical aid during the approaching rainy season, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Monday. 

More than 100,000 people have fled across the border to Chad since conflict broke out in Sudan in April, and numbers could double over the next three months, the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) warned earlier this month. 

MSF’s Head of Mission in Chad, Audrey van der Schoot, said the flooding that usually occurs during this time of year could isolate refugees and host communities in Chad’s eastern Sila region and other areas that share a border with Sudan. 

Rains will also bring a higher risk of waterborne and infectious diseases, given poor access to clean water and sanitation, she said. 

“We fear that with the coming rainfall, people in this border area will be trapped and forgotten,” she said, noting that arrivals from Sudan were continuing. 

Nearly 30,000 refugees are in Sila, where they lack shelter, water and food due to deficiencies in humanitarian assistance. Many have moved in with local host families as a result, putting pressure on meager resources, MSF said. 

One of the poorest countries in the world, Chad was already hosting close to 600,000 refugees before the latest Sudanese crisis. 

The UNHCR said Chad needs $214.1 million to provide vital services to displaced people in the Central African country, of which only 16% were funded at the start of June. 

The conflict in Sudan is affecting Chadian citizens, too, as those living near the border are no longer able to access health care and markets in Sudan. This has caused food and commodity prices to soar in areas already suffering from high levels of malnutrition, MSF said. 
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Swedish Court Upholds Rejection of Quran Burning Ban

Posted on by SeeEU

A Swedish appeals court on Monday said police had no legal grounds to block two gatherings where protesters had planned to burn the Quran earlier this year.

A burning of Islam’s holy book outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm in January sparked anger in the Muslim world, leading to weeks of protests and calls for a boycott of Swedish goods, and further stalled Sweden’s NATO membership bid.

Following that incident, police refused to authorize two other requests, one by a private individual and one by an organization, to hold Quran burnings outside the Turkish and Iraqi Embassies in Stockholm in February.

Police argued the January protest had made Sweden “a higher priority target for attacks.”

Following appeals from both protest organizers, the Stockholm Administrative Court overturned the decisions, saying the cited security concerns were not enough to limit the right to demonstrate.

But Stockholm police in turn appealed the rulings to the appeals court, which on Monday sided with the lower administrative court.

In both rulings — on the two separate applications — the appeals court said “the order and security problems” referenced by the police did not have “a sufficiently clear connection to the planned event or its immediate vicinity.”

It added that the ruling could be appealed to Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court.

Swedish police had authorized the January protest organized by Rasmus Paludan, a Swedish-Danish activist who has been convicted of racist abuse.

Paludan also provoked rioting in Sweden last year when he went on a tour of the country and publicly burned copies of Islam’s holy book.

The Quran burning in January also damaged Sweden’s relations with Turkey, which took particular offence that police had authorized the demonstration.

Ankara has blocked Sweden’s NATO bid because of what it perceives as Stockholm’s failure to crack down on Kurdish groups it views as “terrorists.”

“It is clear that those who caused such a disgrace in front of our country’s embassy can no longer expect any benevolence from us regarding their application for NATO membership,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in January.

Swedish politicians have criticized the Quran burnings but have also adamantly defended the right to freedom of expression.
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