Month: June 2023

US Special Envoy for Iran on Leave While Security Clearance Under Review

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said on Thursday his security clearance is under review, saying that he expects the investigation to end “favorably and soon” and in the meantime he was on leave.

“I have been informed that my security clearance is under review. I have not been provided any further information, but I expect the investigation to be resolved favorably and soon,” Malley told Reuters, confirming an earlier Axios report.

“In the meantime, I am on leave,” he added.

Earlier, State Department spokesman Matt Miller said Malley was on leave but did not say why or for how long, saying Abram Paley was filling in on an acting basis.

CNN reported Malley was placed on leave without pay on Thursday, which occurred after his security clearance was suspended earlier this year amid an investigation into his handling of classified material.

Neither the State Department nor Malley immediately responded to requests for comment on the CNN story.

Appointed soon after U.S. President Joe Biden took office in 2021, Malley had the task of trying to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal after then-President Donald Trump’s 2018 decision to abandon the pact and reimpose U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

He helped craft the 2015 nuclear deal and, earlier in his career, was deeply engaged in former President Bill Clinton’s failed 2000 effort to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Under the 2015 deal, Iran curbed its nuclear program to make it harder for it to obtain the fissile material for a nuclear weapon in return for broad sanctions relief. Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons.

Having failed to revive the deal, the United States has held talks with Iran to try to ease tensions by sketching out steps that could limit the Iranian nuclear program, release some detained U.S. citizens and unfreeze some Iranian assets abroad, Iranian and Western officials said earlier this month.
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Deputy Acquitted of All Charges for Failing to Act During Deadly Parkland School Shooting

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FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA — A Florida sheriff’s deputy was acquitted Thursday of felony child neglect and other charges for failing to act during the 2018 Parkland school massacre, concluding the first trial in U.S. history of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.

Former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson wept as the verdicts were read. The jury had deliberated for 19 hours over four days.

The campus deputy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Peterson had been charged with failing to confront shooter Nikolas Cruz during his six-minute attack inside a three-story classroom building on Feb. 14, 2018, that left 17 dead.

He could have received nearly 100 years in prison, although a sentence even approaching that length would have been highly unlikely given the circumstances and his clean record. He also could have lost his $104,000 annual pension.

Prosecutors, during their two-week presentation, called to the witness stand students, teachers and law enforcement officers who testified about the horror they experienced and how they knew where Cruz was. Some said they knew for certain that the shots were coming from the 1200 building. Prosecutors also called a training supervisor who testified Peterson did not follow protocols for confronting an active shooter.

Peterson’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, during his two-day presentation, called several deputies who arrived during the shooting and students and teachers who testified they did not think the shots were coming from the 1200 building. Peterson, who did not testify, has said that because of echoes, he could not pinpoint the shooter’s location.

Eiglarsh also emphasized the failure of the sheriff’s radio system during the attack, which limited what Peterson heard from arriving deputies.

Security videos show that 36 seconds after Cruz’s attack began, Peterson left his office about 100 yards (92 meters) from the 1200 building and jumped into a cart with two unarmed civilian security guards. They arrived at the building a minute later.

Peterson got out of the cart near the east doorway to the first-floor hallway. Cruz was at the hallway’s opposite end, firing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

Peterson, who was not wearing a bullet-resistant vest, didn’t open the door. Instead, he took cover 75 feet (23 meters) away in the alcove of a neighboring building, his gun still drawn. He stayed there for 40 minutes, long after the shooting ended and other police officers had stormed the building.

Peterson spent nearly three decades working at schools, including nine years at Stoneman Douglas. He retired shortly after the shooting and was then fired retroactively.

Cruz, a 24-year-old former Stoneman Douglas, student was sentenced to life in prison for the shooting.
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Moscow Sentences Critical Publisher to 8 Years in Prison in Absentia over Military Criticism

Posted on by SeeEU

A Moscow court on Thursday sentenced a Russian media publisher to eight years in prison in absentia for criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ilya Krasilshchik, who left Russia after the invasion and now lives in Berlin, is a former publisher of the exiled Russian news outlet Meduza, which is based in Latvia.

Krasilshchik was charged in absentia in April 2022 with “spreading fake news about the Russian military motivated by political hatred” over comments about the massacre of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, by Russian troops.

 

Spreading “false information” about Russia’s military became a criminal offense in Russia soon after the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

Krasilshchik now runs the “Help Desk” project, a media platform and service that helps those impacted by the war in Ukraine.

Besides his previous work at Meduza, he formerly served as editor-in-chief of the Russian lifestyle magazine Afisha.

In addition to the prison sentence, the Moscow court banned him from administering websites for four years.

Responding to the sentence on Twitter, Krasilshchik said he “will now have four years of excuses for why I’m not answering messages.”

The press freedom group the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, called on Russia to drop the charges against Krasilshchik when they were brought against him last year.

“Russia’s new laws criminalizing so-called ‘fake’ information about the war in Ukraine serve only one purpose: to censor and criminalize accurate coverage of the conflict,” Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a statement at the time.

In a Facebook post commenting on the sentence, Krasilshchik said he will not appeal the sentence.

“The circus is over, and to hell with it,” he wrote.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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Zimbabweans in South Africa Get Relief from Court Ruling

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About 180,000 Zimbabweans working in South Africa who faced the threat of being kicked out of the country, even if their children are citizens, have welcomed a court ruling to stop the action. Pretoria’s High Court ruled the government’s plan to terminate their special residency permits was unconstitutional.

The High Court’s decision is a blow to South Africa’s Home Affairs Ministry and a win for Zimbabweans, many of whom have been in South Africa for more than a decade, having left neighboring Zimbabwe amid political and economic turmoil during former president Robert Mugabe’s rule.

To deal with the influx from across the border, South Africa initially introduced special permits to allow them to work but in 2021 said it was ending the program.

The Zimbabwe Immigration Federation challenged the government’s intention to force Zimbabweans to return home and the group’s chairman, Luke Dzviti, on Thursday welcomed the court’s verdict.

“I welcome with two hands the judgment, handed yesterday by the High Court of South Africa, in the favor of our organization, Zimbabwe Immigration Federation, and such stance or gesture shows that justice is still prevailing in the Republic of South African, and we are grateful because there was going to be a humanitarian disaster,” he said.

Dzviti said the ending of the Zimbabwe exemption permits would have caused a huge exodus and meant many families in Zimbabwe being supported by a breadwinner in South Africa would have been pushed into greater poverty.

The court ruled that the permits would be extended for one more year. After that, Dzviti said his organization would launch another application.

Siya Qoza, spokesman for South Africa’s Minister of Home Affairs, said it was uncertain whether the government would appeal.

“The minister is still studying the two judgements and taking legal advice on them. He will, in due course, respond fully to them. In the ensuing communication he will outline further steps that will be taken, including appeals, if any,” he said.

Silous Sibanda is a driver who has been living in South Africa for about 20 years and currently holds an exemption permit.

“When there was no verdict yet, we remember we were still in the dark. We couldn’t do anything, we couldn’t move, we were worried that maybe we’d lose whatever we’d done. … It’s better for those with jobs and who were working. But at least now we are given the space so we can do things properly, and proper planning as well, so it was a big relief for most of us,” said Sibanda.

As Africa’s most industrialized economy, South Africa is a favored destination for Zimbabweans and other migrants from the continent. There have been incidents of xenophobic violence, however, with South Africans targeting other African nationals. Last year, a Zimbabwean man in Johannesburg was killed by a mob.
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Stockholm Quran Burning Angers Turkey, Hurting Sweden’s NATO Chances

Posted on by SeeEU

Turkey has condemned Wednesday’s public burning of a Quran in Stockholm and analysts say the incident will likely give Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan even more reason to veto Sweden’s bid to join NATO. Erdogan has already threatened to block Sweden’s membership because he accuses Stockholm of harboring Kurdish separatists who he says are terrorists. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Internally Displaced in Sudan Struggle to Find Basic Supplies

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The war in Sudan that began in April 15 has so far forced some 2.5 million people from their homes, according to the U.N., with about 80 percent of them displaced internally. Sidahmed Ibraheem spoke to some of the displaced, now living Sudan’s Al Jazirah state, in this story narrated by VOA’s Vincent Makori.
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California Screenwriters Continue Strike Costing Hollywood Millions Daily 

Posted on by SeeUS

A screenwriters’ strike in Hollywood has been going on for two months,  grinding scripted TV production basically to a halt and costing California millions in losses each day. Angelina Bagdasaryan has more in this story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian        
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Italian Researchers Reach the Edge of Space on Virgin Galactic’s Rocket-Powered Plane

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ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO — A team of Italian researchers reached the edge of space Thursday morning, flying aboard Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered plane as the company prepares for monthly commercial flights.

The flight launched from Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert, with two Italian Air Force officers and an engineer with the National Research Council of Italy focusing on a series of microgravity experiments during their few minutes of weightless.

One wore a special suit that measured biometric data and physiological responses while another conducted tests using sensors to track heart rate, brain function and other metrics while in microgravity. The third studied how certain liquids and solids mix in that very weak gravity.

Virgin Galactic livestreamed the flight on its website, showing the moment when the ship released from its carrier plane and the rocket was ignited. The entire trip took about 90 minutes, with the plane’s touchdown on the runway prompting cheers and claps by Virgin Galactic staff.

With the ship’s copilots, it marked the most Italians in space at the same time. Colonel Walter Villadei, a space engineer with the Italian Air Force, celebrated by unfolding an Italian flag while weightless.

Next up for Virgin Galactic will be the first of hundreds of ticket holders, many who have been waiting years for their chance at weightlessness and to see the curvature of the Earth. Those commercial flights are expected to begin in August and will be scheduled monthly, the space tourism company said.

Virgin Galactic has been working for years to send paying passengers on short space trips and in 2021 finally won the federal government’s approval. The company completed its final test fight in May.

The Italian research flight was initially scheduled for the fall of 2021 but Virgin Galactic at the time said it was forced to push back its timeline due to a potential defect in a component used in its flight control system. Then the company spent months upgrading its rocket ship before resuming testing in early 2023.

After reaching an altitude of nearly 15,000 meters, Virgin Galactic’s space plane is released from a carrier aircraft and drops for a moment before igniting its rocket motor. The rocket shuts off once it reaches space, leaving passengers weight before the ship then glides back to the runway at Spaceport America.

Virgin Galactic has sold about 800 tickets over the past decade, with the initial batch going for $200,000 each. Tickets now cost $450,000 per person.

The company said early fliers have already received their seat assignments.
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Cameroon’s Farmers Decry Crop Export Ban to Nigeria  

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Cameroon is cracking down on the smuggling of cocoa, cotton, and other cash crops to Nigeria by temporarily banning the legal trade as well. Since announcing the ban two weeks ago, authorities have sent hundreds of police to the border and seized scores of trucks. But Cameroon’s struggling farmers are protesting the ban, saying it’s more profitable and safer to sell their goods to Nigeria.

Cameroon police and customs officials say they blocked scores of trucks that attempted to smuggle cash crops in the past two weeks from northern towns and villages into Nigeria.

Police say they seized wheat, corn, rice, cocoa, and cotton since launching a temporary ban on all crop exports to Nigeria on June 13.

Cameroon’s ministry of trade says the ban was needed as it loses $165 million each year from the smuggling of cash crops to its northern neighbor – 60% of the total trade.

The government ordered hundreds of police to the border and to track down at least 12 trucks that fled from authorities.

Cameroon’s farmers say the ban will be hard to enforce along the porous, 2,000-kilometer-long border.

Baba Ahmadou is the spokesperson of the Association of Cereal Farmers on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria.

Speaking by phone from the border town of Mara, he says many farmers are not able to store their crops for selling in Cameroon.

Ahmadou says Cameroon does not have enough facilities to protect cocoa, wheat, corn, rice and sorghum from moisture, dust, and [insect] swarms that invade and destroy crops after harvest. He says farmers prefer selling their produce to a ready Nigerian market because rice, corn, and raw cotton processing equipment is scare, old, and there are regular power cuts.

Ahmadou says selling to Nigerian merchants is also more profitable, and he cites the example that farmers can get about 20% more for a 50-kilogram bag of unprocessed rice.

Cameroon’s government complains it pays subsidies to farmers to sell their cash crops locally and at agreed prices.

The ban was announced by Cameroon’s trade minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana.

He says they are aware of the challenges for the government and the farmers.

“One of the challenges, of course, is the inadequacies of post-harvest processing and storage facilities,” he said. “The government has developed some programs to process 40 percent of our total production, and now with the prohibition of child labor and with the prohibition of deforestation, those people who are destroying forests to create new plantations will not have access to the international market.”

Cameroon’s Ministry of Agriculture says illegal cocoa exports to Nigeria spiked after anglophone separatists in 2017 launched a rebellion against Yaoundé.

The rebels are seeking to create a breakaway state from Cameroon’s French-speaking majority.

Shivron Arrey, a cocoa exporter in Kumba, an English-speaking Southwestern town, says the rebels stop them from selling the cash crops to French-speaking towns.

“With the separatists’ crisis, enterprises no longer come to buy cocoa,” she said. “Fighters destroy vehicles belonging to companies that attempt to buy. Cocoa farmers were abandoned to themselves. The easiest market they could count on was across the border in Nigeria.”

Cameroon authorities say the military is protecting farmers from rebels so the domestic trade can resume.

But farmers say smuggling to Nigeria will continue as long as their options are facing separatist violence and lower prices at home or risking illegal exports across the porous border.
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More Than 100 Million Americans at Risk as Canadian Wildfire Smoke Spreads

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Nearly a third of Americans will experience poor air quality on Thursday as smoke from prolonged Canadian wildfires fill the skies over the Midwest and East, causing unhealthy and, in some spots, dangerous conditions.

Air-quality alerts were in effect until midnight for a swath of the United States that extended from Wisconsin and northern Illinois through into Michigan and stretching into New York and the East Coast, the National Weather Service said.

More than 100 million Americans were urged to limit prolonged outdoor activities, and, if needed, wear a mask if they suffer from pulmonary or respiratory diseases. Children and the elderly were also advised to minimize or avoid strenuous activities.

People living in major U.S. cities such as New York, Chicago and Philadelphia may see murky skies and smell burning wood throughout the day.

“Take precautions on Thursday. If you have health conditions, including respiratory conditions such as asthma, reduce your time outdoors,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Twitter.

On Thursday morning, a dull sky hung over Chicago for the third day in a row. The air quality was “Unhealthy” in the third-largest city in the United States, which had the poorest air of any major city on the planet, according to IQAir.com, which tracks pollution.

“The air quality in Chicago has been dreadful, giving me brutal migraines. Feeling better today with my trusty air purifier on full blast. Taking a chill day,” said a Twitter user named Skaar.

The air-quality alerts were triggered by drifting smoke from wildfires burning in Canada, which is wrestling with its worst-ever start to wildfire season.

An area of 8 million hectares (19.8 million acres), bigger than West Virginia, has already burned. On Wednesday, there were 477 active blazes, about half which were considered out of control, spread from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts.

While poor air quality was the concern in the Midwest and East, the U.S. South was again dealing with a brutal heat wave that promised to persist throughout the day on Thursday and into the long Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The heat index – which measures how hot it feels due to the combination of humidity and temperature – was expected to climb to 38 C and in some spots as high as 46 C. The weather service urged people to seek air-conditioned spaces and drink plenty of water.
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Supreme Court Strikes Down Affirmative Action in College Admissions, Says Race Cannot Be a Factor

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The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action in college admissions, forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.

The court’s conservative majority overturned admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively.

Chief Justice John Roberts said that for too long universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent that the decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.”

In a separate dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — the court’s first Black female justice — called the decision “truly a tragedy for us all.”

The Supreme Court had twice upheld race-conscious college admissions programs in the past 20 years, including as recently as 2016.

But that was before the three appointees of former President Donald Trump joined the court. At arguments in late October, all six conservative justices expressed doubts about the practice, which had been upheld under Supreme Court decisions reaching back to 1978.

Lower courts also had upheld the programs at both UNC and Harvard, rejecting claims that the schools discriminated against white and Asian-American applicants.
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Despite Uncertainty, Syrian Refugees in Turkey Remain Hopeful

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More than three million Syrians have made Turkey home since the start of their country’s conflict in 2011. Despite the challenges of life in Turkey, many have remained active, trying to help other Syrian refugees. VOA’s Eyyup Demir has the story from Ankara, narrated by Sirwan Kajjo.
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Kremlin Defers Comment on Russian General Surovikin 

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The Kremlin said Thursday it could not provide information about Russian General Sergei Surovikin, who has not been seen in public since Saturday, when Wagner mercenary group head Yevgeny Prigozhin led a mutiny attempt against the Russian military.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters he could not clarify the situation with Surovikin and said they should contact the defense ministry.

Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, appeared in a video Saturday urging the Wagner group to halt any moves against the army and return to their bases.

Prigozhin arrived in Belarus earlier this week at the invitation of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as part of a deal to halt the mutiny.

It still is not clear where Prigozhin is in Belarus, how many fighters accompanied him or how long he plans to stay there.

Peskov told reporters Thursday that he did not have information about Prigozhin’s location.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin has “absolutely” been weakened inside Russia by Prigozhin’s rebellion effort.

But Biden, speaking to reporters at the White House, said it was “hard to tell” the extent to which Putin is diminished.

Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, echoed Biden’s comments when speaking with VOA’s Russian service on Wednesday.

“On balance, Putin is much weaker today than he was just four or five days ago. Elites in Russia, soldiers in Russia are all watching this and wondering, ‘What’s happened to our leader?’”

“And I think that’s good. Because a weakened Russia might do less in terms of damage, principally in Ukraine,” McFaul said.

While pledging that Prigozhin would be safe in Belarus, Putin has expressed mixed views about the Wagner Group since the rebellion. Putin has characterized Wagner’s leaders as traitors but said the rank-and-file mercenaries “really showed courage and heroism” in their fight against Kyiv’s forces.

Prigozhin’s arrival in Belarus came as Putin said Tuesday that Moscow had paid $1 billion between May 2022 and May 2023 to fully fund the Wagner mercenary fighters, contrary to claims by Prigozhin that he had financed his mercenaries.

Russia once denied the existence of the Wagner Group but it has advanced Russia’s interests in several African and Middle Eastern countries.

Many of the Wagner fighters in Ukraine were convicted criminals freed from Russian prisons on the promise that if they fought in neighboring Ukraine for six months, the remaining portions of their sentences would be rescinded.

Prigozhin said earlier this year that he had always financed Wagner but had looked for additional funding after Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine.

Prigozhin said Monday that his troops’ advance on Moscow had not been an attempt to overthrow the Russian government and that he remained a patriot.

VOA’s Russian service contributed to this report. Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Red Cross Says 125 Detained Sudanese Soldiers Freed 

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The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it facilitated the release of 125 Sudanese soldiers who were held by the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The ICRC statement said 44 of the freed soldiers had been wounded and that the agency determined they were fit to travel along with the rest of the group from Khartoum to the city of Wad Madani.

“This positive step means that families will be celebrating Eid-al Adha with their loved ones. We stand ready to act as a neutral intermediary for the release of detainees from all side to the conflict whenever requested,” Jean Christophe Sandoz, ICRC’s head of delegation in Sudan, said in a statement.

The ICRC said Wednesday’s release followed another on Monday involving 14 wounded people who were detained in the Darfur region.

Fighting between the Sudanese military and the RSF broke out in mid-April, and the country’s health ministry said the conflict has killed more than 3,000 people.

Multiple cease-fires between the two sides have failed.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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UK Appeals Court Rules That Plan To Send Asylum Seekers to Rwanda Is Unlawful

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A British court ruled Thursday that a government plan to send asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda is unlawful, delivering a blow to the Conservative administration’s pledge to stop migrants making risky journeys across the English Channel

In a split two-to-one ruling, three Court of Appeal judges said Rwanda could not be considered a “safe third country” where migrants could be sent.

But the judges said that a policy of deporting asylum seekers to another country was not in itself illegal. The government is likely to challenge the ruling at the U.K. Supreme Court. It has until July 6 to lodge an appeal.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to “stop the boats” — a reference to the overcrowded dinghies and other small craft that make the journey from northern France carrying migrants who hope to live in the U.K. More than 45,000 people arrived in Britain across the Channel in 2022, and several died in the attempt.

The U.K. and Rwandan governments agreed more than a year ago that some migrants who arrive in the U.K. as stowaways or in small boats would be sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed. Those granted asylum would stay in the East African country rather than return to Britain.

The U.K. government argues that the policy will smash the business model of criminal gangs that ferry migrants on hazardous journeys across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Human rights groups say it is immoral and inhumane to send people more than 6,400 kilometers to a country they don’t want to live in, and argue that most Channel migrants are desperate people who have no authorized way to come to the U.K. They also cite Rwanda’s poor human rights record, including allegations of torture and killings of government opponents.

Britain has already paid Rwanda $170 million under the deal, but no one has yet been deported there.

Britain’s High Court ruled in December that the policy is legal and doesn’t breach Britain’s obligations under the U.N. Refugee Convention or other international agreements, rejecting a lawsuit from several asylum-seekers, aid groups and a border officials’ union.

But the court allowed the claimants, who include asylum-seekers from Iraq, Iran and Syria facing deportation under the government plan, to challenge that decision on issues including whether the plan is “systemically unfair” and whether asylum-seekers would be safe in Rwanda.

In a partial victory for the government, the appeals court ruled Thursday that the U.K.’s international obligations did not rule out removing asylum-seekers to a safe third country.

But two of the three ruled Rwanda was not safe because its asylum system had “serious deficiencies.” They said asylum seekers “would face a real risk of being returned to their countries of origin,” where they could be mistreated.

Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett – the most senior judge in England and Wales – disagreed with his two colleagues. He said assurances given by the Rwandan government were enough to ensure the migrants would be safe.

The government of Rwanda took issue with the ruling, saying the nation is “one of the safest countries in the world.”

“As a society, and as a government, we have built a safe, secure, dignified environment, in which migrants and refugees have equal rights and opportunities as Rwandans,” said government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo. “Everyone relocated here under this partnership will benefit from this.”

Yasmine Ahmed, U.K. director of Human Rights Watch, said the verdict was “some rare good news in an otherwise bleak landscape for human rights in the U.K.”

She urged Home Secretary Suella Braverman, the minister in charge of immigration, to “abandon this unworkable and unethical fever dream of a policy and focus her efforts on fixing our broken and neglected migration system.”

Even if the plan is ultimately ruled legal, it’s unclear how many people could be sent to Rwanda. The government’s own assessment acknowledges it would be extremely expensive, coming in at an estimated $214,000 per person.

But it is doubling down on the idea, drafting legislation barring anyone who arrives in the U.K. in small boats or by other unauthorized means from applying for asylum. If passed, the bill would compel the government to detain all such arrivals and deport them to their homeland or a safe third country.
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UK Court Rules Plan to Relocate Asylum Seekers to Rwanda Is Unlawful

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LONDON – Britain’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is unlawful, London’s Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday, in a major setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who has pledged to stop migrants arriving across the Channel in small boats.

Under a deal struck last year, Britain’s government planned to send tens of thousands of asylum seekers who arrive on its shores more than 6,400 kilometers to the East African country.

The first planned deportation flight was blocked a year ago in a last-minute ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which imposed an injunction preventing any deportations until the conclusion of legal action in Britain.

In December, the High Court ruled the policy was lawful, but that decision was challenged by asylum seekers from several countries along with human rights organizations.

Announcing the Court of Appeal’s decision, three senior appeal judges ruled, by a majority, that Rwanda could not be treated as a safe third country.

“The deficiencies in the asylum system in Rwanda are such that there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk that persons sent to Rwanda will be returned to their home countries where they face persecution or other inhumane treatment,” judge Ian Burnett said.

Burnett said he himself disagreed with the other two judges on this point.

The ruling is a huge blow for Sunak who is dealing with stubbornly high levels of inflation, declining public support, and is under increasing pressure from his own party and the public to deal with migrant arrivals in small boats.

Sunak has made “stop the boats” one of five priorities and is hoping a fall in arrivals might help his Conservative Party pull off an unexpected win at the next national election. 
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UNESCO Expected to Accept US Return

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Members of the U.N.’s cultural agency are gathering Thursday for the start of two days of meetings in Paris that are expected to include a vote to accept the return of the United States to the organization.

The United States withdrew in 2018 complaining of anti-Israel bias and mismanagement at the agency.

Before leaving, the U.S. was UNESCO’s largest single donor, providing about one-fifth of the agency’s overall funding.

U.S. officials said earlier this month that the desire to return to UNESCO was motivated by concerns about China’s influence in policymaking at the agency, particularly regarding artificial intelligence and technology education.

As part of the proposed return plan, the Biden administration has requested $150 million in funding for 2024 UNESCO dues and arrears.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Yankees’ German Throws Perfect Game

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New York Yankees pitcher Domingo German threw the 24th perfect game in major league history Wednesday night as the Yankees defeated the Oakland Athletics 11-0. 

The 30-year-old Dominican needed 99 pitches to complete the outing in which no Oakland player reached base. 

The perfect game was the first in the major leagues since 2012 when Seattle Mariners pitcher Félix Hernández completed the feat. 

Three other Yankees had thrown perfect games, the last in 1999. 

“So exciting,” German said through a translator. “When you think about something very unique in baseball, not many people have an opportunity to pitch a perfect game. To accomplish something like this in my career is something that I’m going to remember forever.” 

Before Wednesday, German had never thrown a complete game during his six seasons in the major leagues and only twice had completed more than seven innings in a start. 

German served a 10-game suspension in May for violating the league’s policy on the use of grip-enhancing substances. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters 
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 Latest in Ukraine: Death Toll in Kramatorsk Attack Rises to 12

Posted on by SeeEU

Latest developments:  

European Union leaders to discuss security assistance for Ukraine at summit. 





U.S. State Department approves sale of up to $15 billion in Patriot missile defense systems for Poland. 

 

Crews in Ukraine found a body Thursday in the rubble of a pizza restaurant in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, bringing the death toll from a Russian missile attack on the site to 12 people. 

Ukrainian authorities said the dead include three children, and that the attack injured another 60 people. 

Ukraine’s counterintelligence service said Wednesday it arrested a man it accused of helping Russia direct the attack. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said those who help Russia “destroy life” deserve maximum punishment. 

“Anyone in the world who does not understand that one cannot be an accomplice of a terrorist state must be held accountable by the entire international community,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. “The spotter is being charged with treason. The possible punishment is life imprisonment. Accomplices of a terrorist state must be treated as betrayers of humanity.” 

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday his foreign ministry would send a note of protest to Russia after the strike in Kramatorsk injured “three defenseless Colombian civilians.” 

Petro tweeted that Russia “violated the protocols of war.” 

The restaurant was frequented by journalists, aid workers, and soldiers as well as local residents. The Security Service of Ukraine provided no evidence for its claim that the man filmed the restaurant and told the Russians about it.

Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov repeated Russia’s claim that it does not target civilians.    

The strike during dinnertime on Tuesday was one of several Russia launched on Ukrainian cities throughout the evening and into early Wednesday.  

Kramatorsk is west of the front lines where fighting is taking place in Donetsk province in eastern Ukraine.  

A Russian airstrike on the city’s railway station in April 2022 killed 63 people.  

Ukraine also reported a Russian missile strike Tuesday in Kremenchuk, which came exactly a year after a Russian attack there killed at least 20 people at a shopping mall.    

“Each such manifestation of terror proves over and over again to us and to the whole world that Russia deserves only one thing as a result of everything it has done — defeat and a tribunal, fair and legal trials against all Russian murderers and terrorists,” said Zelenskyy.  

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Wagner Move Rattles Baltic Nerves, Broadens NATO Summit Agenda Beyond Ukraine

Posted on by SeeEU

WASHINGTON – The fallout from Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny and exile to Belarus is set to broaden the agenda beyond Ukraine in talks at the upcoming annual NATO summit in July 11–12.

The meeting will take place in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, just 35 kilometers from the border of Prigozhin’s new home base, highlighting urgency to fortify the alliance’s eastern flank and increase defense spending.

It is still not clear how many members of Prigozhin’s mercenary army will accompany him to Belarus, but the thought of them setting up camp just a few hours away is rattling nerves in the Baltic countries of Lithuania and Latvia as well as Poland. All of them share a land border with Belarus.

Lithuania and Latvia quickly urged NATO members to bolster their defense, noting the speed with which Wagner forces had advanced on Moscow.

“Our countries’ borders are just hundreds of kilometers from that activity, so it could take them eight to 10 hours to suddenly appear somewhere in Belarus close to Lithuania,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said Tuesday.

Fortification efforts began immediately. On Monday, Germany announced it will permanently station a 4,000-strong army brigade in Lithuania, something Vilnius has demanded since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Until the Wagner uprising, Berlin was only willing to deploy its troops to Lithuania on a temporary basis.

On Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said it was too early to say what the Wagner presence in Belarus could mean for the alliance, but vowed that NATO would protect “every ally, every inch of NATO territory” against threats from “Moscow or Minsk.”

The Wagner fallout also bolsters the case for NATO to increase its defense spending. Earlier this month Stoltenberg reiterated the need for each alliance member to commit at least 2% of their GDP to defense, a long-standing NATO goal.

A NATO report released in March shows that while defense spending across the alliance increased by 2.2% from 2021-22, only seven of NATO’s 30 member states in 2022 met the 2% target – the United States, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom.

Russian instability

President Joe Biden said Wednesday he believed Putin had “absolutely” been weakened inside his country from his clash with Prigozhin but that it was “hard to tell” the extent to which Putin had been diminished.

As soon as the chaos unfolded in Russia, Biden said he directed his national security team to prepare for “a range of scenarios,” and convened a video call with NATO allies.

“We had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO,” Biden said Monday. “We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system.”

However, it’s clear that in Vilnius Biden and NATO leaders will need to address questions of the broader threat posed by Russia and its ally Belarus.

“We’ve gone from thinking about Ukraine as a slightly isolated conflict to again thinking about NATO having this incredibly long, thousands of miles border, all down Finland and down Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,” said Kristine Berzina, managing director for German Marshall Funds North and co-leader of GMF’s Russia Transatlantic Initiative.

“And Poland, because of Kaliningrad,” she told VOA, referring to the Russian exclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania where Moscow has stationed thousands of troops.

“Is Russia unstable? What happens to the nuclear arsenal should Russia be unstable? What happens if you have someone who is more warmongering than Putin coming to power in Russia, and perhaps less predictable? These are questions for NATO itself to answer,” Berzina added.

Concern about Russian instability is decades old, said Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia who is now director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

“Russia has nuclear weapons, and we don’t want those nuclear weapons to get into the hands of people irresponsible,” he told VOA.

Diplomatic end

McFaul argues that since the mutiny attempt by Wagner soldiers was sparked by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, leaders concerned with Russian instability would be well-served to find a diplomatic end sooner rather than later.

“Whether you’re President Biden, or Xi Jinping in China, I think this is the time to put more pressure on Mr. Putin to end his war in Ukraine,” he said. “Because the longer that war goes on, the more likely we are going to see future events of instability inside Russia.”

Administration officials have long underscored that the way to ending the conflict is by boosting Ukraine’s battle capabilities to strengthen Kyiv’s hand in the negotiation table.

The biggest impediment to reaching a diplomatic settlement for a “just and durable peace” is Putin’s conviction that he can outlast Ukraine and NATO, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken during an event at the Council of Foreign Affairs think tank Wednesday.

“The more we’re able to disabuse him of that notion, the more likely it is that at some point, he’ll come to the table,” Blinken said.

As NATO leaders meet in Vilnius to address the concerns surrounding Wagner, they must also decide on the kind of security guarantee to provide to Kyiv. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded clarity on his country’s future in the alliance during the summit.

“During the war we cannot become a member of NATO, but we must be confident that after the war we will be,” he said. “And this is exactly the signal we want to receive, that after the war Ukraine will be a member of NATO.” 
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Biden Refutes Top-Down Economic Policy with ‘Bidenomics’

Posted on by SeeUS

Here comes “Bidenomics,” President Joe Biden’s self-named plan to forge an economic future “for families and communities that have long been written off and left behind.” On Wednesday, he visited Chicago — a legendary city in the nation’s once-booming industrial and agricultural heartland — to introduce Bidenomics to the world. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington. Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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Unrest Erupts in France Again in Response to Police Shooting of Teen

Posted on by SeeEU

PARIS – Protesters shot fireworks at police and set cars ablaze in the working-class Paris suburb of Nanterre on Wednesday, in a second night of unrest following the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop there. 

The use of lethal force by officers against the teenager, who was of North African origin, has fed into a deep-rooted perception of police brutality in the ethnically diverse suburbs of France’s biggest cities.  

Shortly before midnight, a trail of overturned vehicles burned as fireworks fizzed at police lines on Nanterre’s Avenue Pablo Picasso.  

Police clashed with protesters in the northern city of Lille and in Toulouse in the southwest, and there was also unrest in Amiens, Dijon and the Essonne administrative department south of the French capital, a police spokesman said. 

French media reported incidents in numerous other locations across greater Paris. Videos on social media showed dozens of fireworks being directed at the Montreuil town hall, on the eastern edge of Paris. 

Earlier, President Emmanuel Macron called the shooting “unexplainable and inexcusable.”  

A police officer is being investigated for voluntary homicide for shooting the youth. Prosecutors say the youth had failed to comply with an order to stop his car. 

The interior ministry has called for calm and said 2,000 police have been mobilized in the Paris region. 

Rights groups allege systemic racism inside law enforcement agencies in France, a charge Macron has previously denied. 

A video shared on social media, verified by Reuters, shows two police officers beside the car, a Mercedes AMG, with one shooting at the driver at close range as the car pulled away. The driver died shortly afterward from his wounds, the local prosecutor said. 

“You have a video that is very clear: a police officer killed a young man of 17 years. You can see that the shooting is not within the rules,” said Yassine Bouzrou, a lawyer for the family. 

Lawmakers held a minute’s silence in the National Assembly, where Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the shooting “seems clearly not to comply with the rules.” 

The family has filed a legal complaint against the officers for homicide, complicity in homicide and false testimony, the lawyer said. 

In a video shared on TikTok, a woman identified as the victim’s mother called for a memorial march in Nanterre on Thursday. “Everyone come. We will lead a revolt for my son,” she said. 

Unusually frank 

Tuesday’s killing was the third fatal shooting during traffic stops in France so far in 2023, down from a record 13 last year, a spokesperson for the national police said. 

There were three such killings in 2021 and two in 2020, according to a Reuters tally, which shows the majority of victims since 2017 were Black or of Arab origin. 

France’s human rights ombudsman has opened an inquiry into the death, the sixth such inquiry into similar incidents in 2022 and 2023. 

Macron’s remarks were unusually frank in a country where senior politicians are often reticent to criticize police, given voters’ security concerns. 

Two leading police unions fought back, saying the detained police officer should be presumed innocent until found otherwise.  

Macron has faced criticism from rivals who accuse him of being soft on drug dealers and petty criminals, and he has implemented policies aimed at curbing urban crime, including greater authority for police to issue fines. 

Before the violence erupted for a second night, some in Nanterre had expressed hope the unrest would end swiftly.  

“To revolt like we did yesterday won’t change things. We need to discuss and talk,” local resident Fatima said. 
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US: Prigozhin’s Mutiny Shows Putin’s War in Ukraine Has Failed

Posted on by SeeEU

US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken say Saturday’s armed rebellion in Russia shows that President Vladimir Putin is clearly losing the war in Ukraine and highlights the stark contrast between Putin’s grand ambitions when he started the war and where his army stands now. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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US Coast Guard Says ‘Presumed Human Remains’ Found in Wreckage of Titan Submersible

Posted on by SeeUS

PORTLAND, MAINE — The U.S. Coast Guard says it has likely recovered human remains from the wreckage of the Titan submersible and is bringing the evidence back to the United States.

The submersible imploded last week, killing all five people on board. The vessel was on a voyage to see the wreckage of the Titanic.

The Titan debris returned to port in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, on Wednesday is a key piece of the investigation into why the submersible imploded. Twisted chunks of the 22-foot submersible were unloaded at a Canadian Coast Guard pier.

The U.S. Coast Guard said late Wednesday that it had recovered debris and evidence from the sea floor, and that included what it described as presumed human remains.

“I am grateful for the coordinated international and interagency support to recover and preserve this vital evidence at extreme offshore distances and depths,” U.S. Coast Guard Chief Captain Jason Neubauer said in a statement. “The evidence will provide investigators from several international jurisdictions with critical insights into the cause of this tragedy. There is still a substantial amount of work to be done to understand the factors that led to the catastrophic loss of the Titan and help ensure a similar tragedy does not occur again.”

The Canadian ship Horizon Arctic carried a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, to search the ocean floor near the Titanic wreckage for pieces of the submersible. Pelagic Research Services, a company with offices in Massachusetts and New York that owns the ROV, said Wednesday that it had completed offshore operations.

Pelagic Research Services’ team is “still on mission” and cannot comment on the Titan investigation, which involves several government agencies in the U.S. and Canada, said Jeff Mahoney, a spokesperson for the company.

“They have been working around the clock now for 10 days, through the physical and mental challenges of this operation, and are anxious to finish the mission and return to their loved ones,” Mahoney said.

Debris from the Titan was located about 3,810 meters underwater and roughly 488 meters from the Titanic on the ocean floor, the Coast Guard said last week.

Five fatalities

Officials announced on June 22 that the submersible had imploded, and all five people on board were dead.

The victims were OceanGate CEO and pilot Stockton Rush; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

The Coast Guard is leading the investigation into why the submersible imploded during its June 18 descent. It has convened a Marine Board of Investigation into the implosion — the highest level of investigation conducted by the Coast Guard.

One of the experts the Coast Guard consulted with during the search said analyzing the physical material of recovered debris could reveal important clues about what happened to the Titan. And there could be electronic data, said Carl Hartsfield of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

“Certainly, all the instruments on any deep-sea vehicle, they record data. They pass up data. So, the question is, is there any data available? And I really don’t know the answer to that question,” he said Monday.

Representatives for Horizon Arctic did not respond to requests for comment.

Representatives for the National Transportation Safety Board and Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which are both involved in the investigation, also declined to comment. The National Transportation Safety Board has said the Coast Guard has declared the loss of the Titan submersible to be a “major marine casualty” and the Coast Guard will lead the investigation.

A spokesperson for the International Maritime Organization, the U.N.’s maritime agency, has said any investigative reports from the disaster would be submitted for review. Member states of the IMO can also propose changes such as stronger regulations of submersibles.

Currently, the IMO has voluntary safety guidelines for tourist submersibles, which include requirements they be inspected, have emergency response plans and have a certified pilot on board, among other requirements. Any safety proposals would not likely be considered by the IMO until its next Maritime Safety Committee which begins in May 2024.

OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the Titan, is based in the U.S., but the submersible was registered in the Bahamas. The OceanGate company in Everett, Washington, closed when the Titan was found. The Titan’s mother ship, the Polar Prince, was from Canada.

The operator charged passengers $250,000 each to participate in the voyage.

The implosion of the Titan has raised questions about the safety of private undersea exploration operations. The Coast Guard also wants to use the investigation to improve the safety of submersibles.
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