Month: June 2023

White House, Reporters Condemn Harassment of Journalist Over Questions to Indian PM

Posted on by SeeUS

The White House has condemned an online harassment campaign targeting a Wall Street Journal reporter who asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his human rights record during a joint press conference last week.

During the event with President Joe Biden and Modi at the White House last Thursday, reporter Sabrina Siddiqui asked the prime minister about discrimination against religious minorities in India.

Siddiqui then became the target of online abuse, primarily from Modi’s supporters. The White House Correspondents’ Association says the reporter has been “subjected to intense online harassment,” with people wanting to know the motive for the question and asking about her religion and heritage.

Biden administration officials earlier this week denounced the harassment.

“It’s completely unacceptable, and it’s antithetical to the very principles of democracy that … were on display last week during the state visit,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later said, “We’re committed to the freedom of the press” and “condemn any efforts of intimidation or harassment of a journalist.”

Her questions

At the press conference, Siddiqui said, “There are many human rights groups who say your government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics.” She asked, “What steps are you and your government willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in your country and uphold free speech?”

Speaking through an interpreter, Modi responded, “In India’s democratic values, there is absolutely no discrimination, neither on basis of caste, creed or age or any kind of geographic location.

“Indeed, India is a democracy. And as President Biden also mentioned, India and America — both countries — democracy is in our DNA. The democracy is our spirit. Democracy runs in our veins. We live democracy.”

Before becoming prime minister, Modi had been denied a U.S. visa for several years over “severe violations of religious freedom.”

Since becoming prime minister in 2014, he has been criticized for his Hindu nationalist policies that are said to discriminate against Muslims, as well as for crackdowns on press freedom.

Poor ranking

India ranks poorly in terms of media freedom, with Reporters Without Borders putting the country at 161st out of 180 countries, where 1 has the best environment for journalists.

The media watchdog has said journalists there are exposed to violence and that members of the Hindu far right “wage all-out online attacks” on anyone with opposing views.

The attacks often are directed at women, with personal details shared online that put the reporters’ safety at greater risk, the watchdog says.

The White House Correspondents’ Association also expressed support for Siddiqui.

“The WHCA stands by Sabrina and the questions she chose to ask. In a democracy, journalists shouldn’t be targeted simply for doing their jobs and asking questions that need to be asked,” WCHA President Tamara Keith said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal also condemned the harassment as “unacceptable.”

The harassment facing Siddiqui underscores global press freedom trends.

Reports show that female journalists face disproportionate harassment online as a result of their coverage. In one survey, 73% of journalists identifying as women said they experienced online violence in the course of their work.

The South Asian Journalists Association also backed Siddiqui.

“We want to express our continued support of our colleague @SabrinaSiddiqui who, like many South Asian and female journalists, is experiencing harassment for simply doing her job. Press freedom is the hallmark of any democracy and PM Modi leads the world’s largest democracy,” the group said in a tweet.
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Blinken: US Seeks to Coexist Peacefully With China

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STATE DEPARTMENT – The United States has to find a way to “coexist peacefully” with China amid intense competition, said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, noting that Washington is not economically “decoupling” from Beijing and that bilateral trade last year hit a record high.

“China is not going away. We are not going away,” Blinken told a New York audience during an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. “We have to find a way to coexist and coexist peacefully.”

Days after Blinken concluded his meetings in Beijing with senior Chinese officials, he said the U.S. relationship with China is “a long-term competition” without a “clear finish line.”

As the United States is considering measures to limit the flow of U.S. money and technology to China because of national security concerns, the top U.S. diplomat said, “we want to make sure that in that competition, we’re in a position of strength” and “able to shape what comes next.”

Yellen’s China visit

Blinken’s remarks came ahead of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s expected trip to Beijing in the coming weeks. He highlighted the fact that bilateral trade between the two countries continues to expand despite tensions over issues such as advanced semiconductors and Beijing’s persecution of Uyghurs.

“Our trade with China last year reached the highest level ever. We had more foreign direct investment going to China last year than any year since 2014,” said Blinken, adding U.S. export controls and sanctions on Chinese entities affect only a very small fraction of companies operating in China.

Yellen has warned of the economic downside of decoupling with China and called for a deepening economic relationship between the world’s two largest economies.

But U.S. officials are also facing tough questions from critics who want the Biden administration to take a harder position on China.

This week, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley a 2024 Republican presidential hopeful, called for Washington to revoke China’s permanent normal trade relations status until the Beijing government helps eradicate the flow of chemicals used to create fentanyl.

In an event hosted by the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, Haley said she would push American companies to leave China.

“China is much more than just a mere competitor. Communist China is an enemy. It is the most dangerous foreign threat we’ve faced since the Second World War,” she said.

Taiwan provocations

In Beijing last week, Blinken said the U.S. is concerned with China’s military provocations in the Taiwan Strait as Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy, plans to hold a presidential election in 2024.

Blinken also reiterated to China that the U.S. remains opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo, expects the peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences, and does not support Taiwan independence.

On Wednesday, Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, asked Blinken why Washington can’t communicate to China with greater certainty that “we are there for Taiwan if they [China] use coercion.”

“I think it’s evident not only in what we’re saying, but also in what we’re doing, that we are there for Taiwan,” Blinken responded. “Under the Taiwan Relations Act, we’ve had a long-standing policy of making sure that we could do what’s necessary to help Taiwan defend itself.”

Blinken added that China’s “deployment of forces, the exercises, the missile tests” since 2016, “economic coercion exerted against Taiwan,” and its efforts to “pry Taiwan out of the international system” are “antithetical to the preservation of the status quo.”

The People’s Republic of China claims sovereignty over Taiwan. The U.S. “acknowledges” but does not “endorse” the PRC’s position.

The State Department has said the U.S. does not take a position on Taiwan’s sovereignty under Washington’s “One China” policy.

Some information for this report came from Reuters. VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this report.
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Ethiopia’s Social Media Ban Brings Challenges

Posted on by SeeAF

WASHINGTON – Four months into a social media ban, communications businesses and civil rights groups in Ethiopia are feeling the impact. Strict regulations are making it harder for them to reach audiences or verify information.

In March, the country blocked access to Facebook, TikTok, Telegram and YouTube nationwide following a disagreement with the country’s Orthodox Church, where some religious leaders called for protests.

But human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have said the ban violates freedom of expression and goes against Ethiopia’s constitution, laws and international treaties.

“The restriction further stains the country’s already dismal record on media freedom,” Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty’s deputy director for East and Southern Africa, said in a statement shortly after the ban was introduced.

The ban has created challenges for those who use social media to share news or to promote their businesses. And while they can use virtual private networks, or VPNs, to circumvent the ban, some say that limits their ability to reach audiences within Ethiopia.

Until the ban was imposed, social media influencer and filmmaker Luna Solomon used the platforms to make advertisements for products and institutions.

An architect by training, she is better known for her videos aimed at young people. She has over 140,000 followers on TikTok alone, and she  gained recognition for her film “Behind the Surface,” which examines childhood trauma.

Luna says she can create her work using a VPN, but doing so limits her from reaching new followers and limits her income.

“When we use a VPN, it always changes the country of location. So, the audience is also determined according to proximity,” she told VOA. “It doesn’t reach the people we intend to reach, and that reduces the engagement, viewership and page reach.”

Luna said it is also creating obstacles for generating money.

“It has impacted the income we get, especially when it is in dollars. We cannot withdraw money using PayPal or other trading applications because our location always varies, and the system flags us,” she said.

The ban was imposed following tensions in February, when three archbishops in Ethiopia’s Oromia region broke away from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and announced a new structure.

The move resulted in clashes where at least three people were killed in Shashamene, over 200 kilometers south of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

Church leaders and supporters then staged a protest and blacked out their social media pages to express solidarity.

Bahru Zeinu, deputy director of Digital Transformation Ethiopia and CEO of Africom Technologies, estimated that the ban has forced 30 million internet users in the country to use VPNs to access social media.

“This situation has caused many problems. After the ban and the introduction of VPNs, internet and social media users have decreased because VPN service is expensive,” he said.

Bahru, whose association focuses on policy and legislation related to digital issues in Ethiopia, said his organization informally submitted a request to lift the social media ban but has not yet received a response.

“They always respond saying they are working on it. Yet to be honest, as the association spokesperson and as an individual expert, the ban should not take this long. It is not even justifiable,” he said.

Some Ethiopian nongovernmental organizations and civic institutions, including the Center for Advancement of Rights and Democracy, have cited concerns about the ban’s impact on the right to freedom of expression and how it has hampered documentation of rights abuses.

Atnafu Brhane, the organization’s program director, said they have submitted an open letter to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office.

“For the past six years, we had been vocal about how the interruption of the internet affects human rights,” Atnafu told VOA. “And our letter explains how the internet interruptions worsen human rights violations, how various parties can use this opportunity to avoid reporting human rights violations. And it is preventing various sections of society from receiving medical treatment or other services.”

Ethiopia is not alone in restricting access to the internet during times of tension or unrest. In its 2022 Freedom on the Net report, Freedom House found several countries, including Ethiopia, China, Cuba, Russia, Iran and India, all had blocked social media or messaging apps.

Abiy’s government has also imposed similar bans since coming to power in 2018, including during the war in Tigray.

“The shutdown has prevented people in Tigray from sharing their stories and reporting on actions by combatants that human rights groups have described as mass atrocity crimes, limiting opportunities for accountability and global solidarity,” Freedom House said in its report.

In response to VOA’s request for comment, internet and telephone provider Ethio Telecom said via messaging app, “The decision didn’t come from us. Please contact other government officials.”

Ethio Telecom CEO Frehiwot Tamru said in a presentation on June 23 that her organization was waiting for signals from officials to open internet access.

VOA’s request for comment, sent via messaging app to the spokesperson for the Ethiopian prime minister’s office, went unanswered.

This story originated in VOA’s Horn of Africa Amharic Service.
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Ukraine Calls for Signal on NATO Membership at Alliance Summit

Posted on by SeeEU

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged NATO on Wednesday to send Ukraine a clear signal at a summit next month that it can join the military alliance when Russia’s war on his country ends.

In a speech to parliament on Ukraine’s Constitution Day, he suggested global leaders should stop thinking about how Moscow would react when making decisions about Ukraine and described Russia’s political and military leaders as “bandits.”

He then set out what Kyiv expects of the July 11-12 NATO summit in Lithuania after holding talks in the Ukrainian capital with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.

“We understand that we cannot be a member of NATO during the war, but we need to be sure that after the war we will be,” Zelenskyy told a joint press conference.

“That is the signal we want to get — that after the war, Ukraine will be a member of NATO.”

Zelenskyy said Kyiv also hoped to receive security guarantees at the summit to help protect Ukraine until it is accepted as a NATO member.

Duda said Poland and Lithuania were doing all they could to help Ukraine secure its goals as soon as possible. The two countries are big supporters of Ukraine, and Vilnius is buying NASAMS air defense systems for Kyiv from a Norwegian company.

“We are trying to ensure that the decisions made at the summit clearly indicate the perspective of membership. We are conducting talks on this issue with our allies,” Duda said.

Though Ukraine wants to join as quickly as possible, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is divided over how fast that step should be taken.

Membership obstacles

Western governments such as the United States and Germany are wary of moves they fear could take the alliance closer to entering an active war with Russia, which has long seen NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe as evidence of Western hostility.

“Some states and world leaders still, unfortunately, look back at Russia when making their own decisions,” Zelenskyy said in his speech to parliament. “This can be called an absurd and shameful self-limitation of sovereignty, because Ukrainians proved that Russia should not be feared.”

Russia has occupied swaths of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine, but Kyiv has launched a counteroffensive to try to retake that land.

Zelenskyy reiterated that Kyiv would not accept any peace proposals that would lock in Russian gains and turn the war into a frozen conflict.

Some NATO states have expressed concern about the arrival of Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, in Belarus after leading an aborted mutiny.

Prigozhin has gone into exile in Belarus, Ukraine’s northern neighbor, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wagner fighters would be offered the choice of relocating there.

“The presence of the Wagner Group in Belarus is a very significant signal which, in our opinion, NATO should definitely pay attention to,” Nauseda said. “Questions arise as to why these troops were relocated there. A group of experienced mercenaries can always pose a potential danger.”
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Biden: Putin ‘Absolutely’ Diminished by Wagner Group Mutiny

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U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin had “absolutely” been weakened inside his country by last weekend’s short-lived mutiny led by mercenary Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.

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

“He’s clearly losing the war in Iraq,” Biden said, meaning to refer to Putin’s 16-month war against Ukraine. “He’s losing the war at home. And he has become a bit of a pariah around the world. And it’s not just NATO. It’s not just the European Union. It’s Japan. It’s … 40 nations.”

Prigozhin intended to try to capture Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s general staff, during a visit to a southern region that borders Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported. But Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, found out about the plan two days before it was to be executed, according to Western officials, forcing Prigozhin to move ahead with his rebellion more quickly than he had planned.

Prigozhin arrived in Belarus on Tuesday at the invitation of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a Putin ally who claimed that he had to talk the Russian leader out of killing Prigozhin in retribution for the Wagner Group’s advance on Moscow last Saturday. Prigozhin called off the rebellion against Putin and his defense leaders well short of a confrontation with Russian troops on the outskirts of the capital.

Lukashenko on Saturday negotiated with Putin over Prigozhin’s departure for Belarus, but it still is not clear where Prigozhin is in Belarus, how many fighters accompanied him or how long he plans to stay there.

Putin has promised Prigozhin’s safety in Belarus, and according to Belarusian state media, the authoritarian Lukashenko has urged Putin to not kill Prigozhin.

“I said to Putin, ‘We could waste [Prigozhin], no problem. If not on the first try, then on the second.’ I told him, ‘Don’t do this,’” Lukashenko said during a meeting with security officials, according to state media.

Western countries have sanctioned Lukashenko, 68, for cracking down on opposition figures and allowing Russia to attack Ukraine last year from Belarusian territory, while more recently letting Russia store tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus for possible use in the conflict in Ukraine.

While pledging that Prigozhin would be safe in Belarus, Putin has expressed mixed views about the Wagner Group since the rebellion against his authority and the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry. 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.

“The content of the entire Wagner Group was fully provided by the state, from the Ministry of Defense, from the state budget. We fully funded this group,” Putin told defense officials in televised remarks. 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.

As it has turned out, however, many of the Wagner recruits were poorly trained, were ill-equipped for warfare on the front lines in Ukraine and were quickly killed.

In addition to Russia’s payments of salaries and incentive awards to the Wagner troops, Putin said Prigozhin’s food and catering business was paid nearly another $1 billion to feed Russian troops.

“I do hope that as part of this work, no one stole anything, or let’s say, stole less. But we will, of course, investigate all of this,” Putin said of the state’s funding of Wagner and Prigozhin’s catering company.

Prigozhin said earlier this year that he had always financed Wagner but had looked for additional funding after Putin launched his 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. Prigozhin for weeks had complained that Russian defense officials had not provided his troops enough ammunition.

Putin has assailed the Wagner advance on Moscow as an armed rebellion and ordered that Wagner lose its heavy weaponry while its fighters either join the regular armed forces or accept exile in Belarus.

Russia’s Federal Security Service announced Tuesday that it was closing an investigation into the armed mutiny.

In a statement carried by Russian news agencies, the FSB said those involved “ceased activities directed at committing the crime.” Not prosecuting the fighters was part of an agreement late Saturday that ended the mutiny.

Russia’s Defense Ministry also said Tuesday that the Wagner Group was preparing to transfer heavy military equipment to the Russian military.

The U.S. intelligence community “was aware” that the mutiny orchestrated by Prigozhin “was a possibility” and briefed Congress “accordingly” before it began, according to a source familiar with the issue, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Biden said earlier this week, “We made clear we were not involved. We had nothing to do with this.” Biden’s message that the West was not involved was sent directly to the Russians through various diplomatic channels, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. He did not characterize Russia’s response.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Smoky Skies Hang Over US Midwest and East Coast, Hurting Air Quality

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Smoke from raging Canadian wildfires hung over the U.S. Midwest and parts of the East Coast on Wednesday, creating hazy skies and worsening air quality, making for dangerous, unhealthy conditions for millions of Americans.

A wide swath of the Midwest, reaching from western Iowa through Illinois and Wisconsin and into Michigan, was under an air quality alert that was expected to last through the day and into Thursday or even longer, the National Weather Service said.

Air quality alerts were also in effect for Western New York and Pennsylvania, the Washington, D.C., area and parts of North Carolina.

Forecasters urged people living in those areas, especially children, the elderly and those affected by respiratory illness to limit prolonged or heavy exertion and, if they can, to stay indoors or wear a mask.

In Chicago on Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of residents woke up to a smoke-induced fog that washed out the summer sun and the air smelled of burning lumber. The city’s air quality in was categorized as “very unhealthy” by AirNow.gov, a government website that tracks pollution.

The smoke was caused by prolonged wildfires in Canada’s two biggest provinces, Ontario and Quebec.

In Toronto, the Air Quality Health Index was forecast to reach 9 on a 10-point scale on Wednesday, indicating a high level of risk. Authorities were encouraging residents to limit outdoor activities.

Canada is wrestling with its worst-ever start to wildfire season, which has already burned 6.5 million hectares (16 million acres), an area a little bigger than West Virginia.

In the U.S. South, Florida and California, high temperatures combined with high humidity were the big worry, with some 56 million people expected to experience stifling heat throughout the day and into the weekend, the weather service said in its forecast.

Heat indexes – which use humidity and temperature to calculate how hot it feels – were expected to climb to the equivalent of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). In some spots, the heat index was forecast to reach 115 degrees, the service said, urging people to stay indoors and drink plenty of water.
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Gunfire Shatters Eid Prayer for Peace by Fed-Up Sudanese

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Hundreds gathered in the Sudanese capital Khartoum Wednesday to pray for peace on the first day of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, but gunfire shattered the brief respite, residents said.

Witnesses in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman late Wednesday reported airstrikes and anti-aircraft fire, despite separate unilateral truces announced by the warring generals for the holiday.

“The country can’t take any more of this,” Khartoum resident Kazem Abdel Baqi told AFP earlier in the day.

Nearly 2,800 people have been killed and more than 2.8 million displaced in the war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy-turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). 

Burhan on Tuesday called for Sudanese “youth and all those able to defend” to take up arms with the military. His appeal echoed one from the defense ministry last month, and has been widely rejected by civilians. 

“We pray to God to make our country safe and secure,” Baqi said, rejecting Burhan’s call to arms, after the early morning prayer that rang in the three-day festival, normally a highlight of the year for Sudanese. 

In neat rows in an empty courtyard, men in white and women in brightly colored outfits gathered to pray, embracing and wishing each other well in a rare moment of respite from more than 10 weeks of relentless gunshots, airstrikes and artillery fire that have reduced civilians’ homes to rubble. 

In both Khartoum and the western region of Darfur, where most of the violence has occurred, bodies have been left to rot in the streets. 

Similar prayer gatherings took place outside Khartoum, including in Jazira region where many have fled from the capital. 

Grim Eid 

With millions trapped in the embattled capital still rationing electricity and water in the oppressive heat, families struggled to conjure up holiday cheer. 

Omar Ibrahim, who lives with his three children in Khartoum’s Shambat district, said the rituals of Eid have become an “unattainable dream”.  

“Will the guns be silent for Eid?” asked Ibrahim.  

Multiple ceasefires announced by both sides have been systematically violated, as well as others mediated by the United States and Saudi Arabia. 

The United Nations mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) welcomed the latest unilateral truce announcements. 

“May Eid al-Adha be a reminder that the violence must stop,” it said in a statement, reminding warring parties that “accountability for crimes committed during wartime will be pursued.” 

In past years, those Sudanese Muslims who could afford it would slaughter an animal for Eid, but now a record 25 million people in Sudan need humanitarian aid, the U.N. says. 

The RSF and the army battled for control of Khartoum on multiple fronts this week, with paramilitaries seizing the capital’s main police base and attacking military bases across the city. 

In his Eid address urging the youth to defend Sudan, Burhan called the RSF “an existential threat” to the state. 

Khartoum resident Ahmed al-Fateh said he was “against Burhan’s call to tell the youth to take up arms and fight with the army.” 

“The youth have never fought before, and could do more harm than good,” he told AFP. 

More than a month ago the defense ministry had called on army reservists and military pensioners to report to military bases, before the governor of Darfur urged civilians to take up arms to defend themselves. 

On Twitter, researcher Hamid Khalafallah called Burhan’s address “very irresponsible”, given fears that what began as a power struggle between generals is spiraling into civil conflict. 

‘Every 30 seconds’

In the western region of Darfur the situation continues to worsen. 

Entire cities are under siege, the U.N. says, and neighborhoods burned to the ground. 

Residents, as well as the U.N., United States and others, say civilians have been targeted and killed for their ethnicity by the RSF and allied Arab militias — in a bleak reminder of Darfur’s bloody history. 

In 2003, former strongman Omar al-Bashir armed and unleashed the RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, against Darfur’s non-Arab ethnic minorities in a war that killed more than 300,000 and displaced 2.5 million. 

Since April, more than 170,000 people have fled Darfur into neighboring Chad, according to the U.N. refugee agency. 

A total of almost 645,000 people have sought refuge outside Sudan, according to the latest International Organization for Migration data, with around 2.2 million more displaced within the country. 

According to Laura Lo Castro, UNHCR’s representative in Chad, “every 30 seconds, five (Sudanese) families cross the border into Chad through Adre town.”
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Blinken Says No Nuclear Deal on Table With Iran

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that no new nuclear agreement was on the table with Iran, after quiet new diplomacy between the adversaries.

“There is no agreement in the offing, even as we continue to be willing to explore diplomatic paths,” Blinken said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

“We’ll see by their actions,” Blinken said of the future relationship, calling on Iran to choose to “not take actions that further escalate the tensions” with the United States and in the Middle East.

President Joe Biden took office with hopes of returning to a 2015 nuclear accord with Iran that was scrapped by his predecessor, Donald Trump. But EU-mediated talks collapsed and mass protests in Iran made Washington increasingly hesitant to strike a deal with the clerical state.

Diplomats, however, say indirect talks have quietly resumed in recent months with Oman as an intermediary, with the focus largely on the status of U.S. prisoners in Iran.

The talks on restoring the 2015 nuclear accord broke down over disputes on the extent of relief from sweeping U.S. sanctions imposed by Trump and over when Iran would return to compliance by pulling back from countermeasures taken in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the deal.  

Blinken said the Biden administration had made a “good-faith effort” with European powers as well as rivals China and Russia to return and that for a time “that looked possible.”

“Iran either couldn’t or wouldn’t do what was necessary to get back into compliance,” he said.

Elsewhere in the region, Blinken has served as a go-between for Israel and Saudi Arabia, both of which have uneasy relations with the United States, as they explore establishing relations.  

“Both Saudi Arabia and Israel of course are interested in the prospect of normalization,” said Blinken, who traveled to Saudi Arabia earlier in June.

“It is incredibly challenging, hard, not something that can happen overnight, but it’s also a real prospect and one that we’re working on,” he said.  

Israel in 2020 normalized relations with three Arab states — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco — in what both Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu see as a crowning achievement.  

For Netanyahu, Saudi recognition would be an ultimate coup because of the country’s size and influence in the Arab world and its status as the guardian of Islam’s holiest sites. The Saudis have called for progress on the rights of the Palestinians.

Blinken on Tuesday spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen to make a new call for de-escalation in the West Bank and to voice concern over recent unrest, which has included violence against Palestinian-Americans.  

“We’ve told our friends and allies in Israel that if there’s a fire burning in their backyard, it’s going to be a lot tougher if not impossible to actually both deepen the existing agreements, as well as to expand them to include potentially Saudi Arabia,” Blinken said.
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South African Court Rules Against Government Over Ending Permits for Nearly 200,000 Zimbabweans

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A South African court on Wednesday ruled against the government and ordered it to reconsider its decision to terminate the special permits allowing nearly 200,000 Zimbabwe nationals to live and work in the country.

The government’s decision was set to force Zimbabweans to return home if they didn’t obtain regular work visas, even if they have children who were born in South Africa and are South African citizens.

In its ruling, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria said the Department of Home Affairs’ decision in 2022 to end the special exemption for citizens from neighboring Zimbabwe was “unlawful” and “unconstitutional” because it didn’t follow “a fair process” of consultation.

The permits were extended until at least June 28 next year under the court ruling.

The department initially set a deadline of June 30 this year — Friday — for the termination of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit system. That deadline was recently extended to the end of the year.

Around 178,000 Zimbabwe nationals live in South Africa under the scheme. It was introduced in 2010 in an attempt to deal with a surge in migration by Zimbabweans escaping the economic woes of their home country, which have persisted.

The Helen Suzman Foundation NGO and a group advocating for the rights of migrants in South Africa took the government’s Department of Home Affairs to court over its decision.
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Zimbabwean Opposition Politician Spends Year in Jail

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Zimbabwe opposition lawmaker Job Sikhala was found guilty in May of obstruction of justice and is now on trial on additional charges of incitement to commit violence, and disorderly conduct. But he’s not alone. Rights groups say the charges against Sikhala are part of a wider crackdown on the opposition ahead of August 23 elections. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare, Zimbabwe. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe.
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South Korea Sanctions Ex-Citizen for Working on Behalf of North Korea 

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South Korea has for the first time placed sanctions on a former South Korean national for setting up business entities to bypass United Nations Security Council resolutions against North Korea and its nuclear weapons program.

Choi Chon Gon is suspected of engaging in illicit financial deals on behalf of Pyongyang, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Wednesday, including co-investing in a Russia-based trade company, Epsilon, with a North Korean.

Choi fled South Korea while under investigation by local authorities, Yonhap reports, and is now based in Vladivostok, having acquired Russian citizenship.

The 66-year-old set up a front company, Hanne Ulaan, in Mongolia in 2019 through which authorities in Seoul believe he acquired goods for Pyongyang, including foodstuffs, estimated to be worth more than $7.6 million.

South Korea also put sanctions for the first time on his North Korean accomplice, So Myong, of North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank in Vladivostok, and the company they co-invested in, Epsilon, as well as Hanne Ulaan in Mongolia.

North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank, responsible for the regime’s overseas currencies, was placed under sanction by the United Nations Security Council in 2017.

Seoul hopes that by casting a wide sanctions net centered around Choi, they can prevent the former national from accessing South Korean financial resources, as well as raise awareness of the group’s operations.

Choi and Hanne Ulaan were mentioned in a U.N. Security Council Sanctions Committee panel of experts’ report in 2021 which noted that Mongolian authorities had frozen $13,800 in funds after documents flagged their suspected ties to North Korea.
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France Heightens Security After Unrest Over Police Shooting of Youth

Posted on by SeeEU

France’s government on Wednesday announced heightened police presence around Paris and other big cities and called for calm after scattered violence erupted over the death of a 17-year-old delivery driver who was shot and killed during a police check. 

The death prompted nationwide concern and widespread messages of indignation and condolences, including from soccer star Kylian Mbappe. 

It also triggered unrest in multiple towns around Paris. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 31 people were arrested, 25 police officers injured and 40 cars burned in overnight unrest. 

The tensions focused around the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where lawyers say 17-year-old Nael M. was killed Tuesday during a traffic check. The police officer suspected of firing on him was detained and faces potential manslaughter charges, according to the Nanterre prosecutor’s office. 

The Nanterre neighborhood where Nael lived remained tense Wednesday morning, with police on guard and burned car wreckage and overturned garbage bins still visible in some areas. 

Nael’s mother appealed online for a silent march on Thursday in her son’s honor, near the scene of his death. 

Videos purported to be of the incident were “extremely shocking,” Darmanin said, pledging a full investigation. The images show two police officers leaning into the driver-side window of a yellow car, before the vehicle pulls away as one officer fires into the window. The car is later seen crashed into a post nearby. 

“I call for calm and truth,” Darmanin said. 

He said 1,200 police were deployed overnight and 2,000 would be out in force Wednesday in the Paris region and around other big cities to “maintain order.” 

Deadly use of firearms is less common in France than in the United States. Tuesday’s death unleashed anger in Nanterre and other towns, including around housing projects where many residents struggle with poverty and discrimination and feel police abuse is under-punished. 

A lawyer for Nael’s family, Yassine Bouzrou, told The Associated Press they want the police officer pursued for murder instead of manslaughter, and want the investigation handed to a different region because they fear Nanterre investigators won’t be impartial. 

The lawyers refuted a reported statement by the police that their lives were in danger because the driver had threatened to run them over. 

Mbappe, who grew up in the Paris suburb of Bondy, was among those who were shocked by what happened. 

“I hurt for my France. Unacceptable situation. All my thoughts go to the family and loved ones of Nael, this little angel gone much too soon,” he tweeted. 

The government will hold a security meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss next steps, Darmanin said. 

The victim was wounded by a gunshot and died at the scene, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. A passenger in the car was briefly detained and released, and police are searching for another passenger who fled. 

Several people have died or sustained injuries at the hands of French police in recent years, prompting demands for more accountability. France also saw protests against racial profiling and other injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police in Minnesota. 
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Generative AI Might Make It Easier to Target Journalists, Researchers Say

Posted on by SeeUS

Since the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT launched last fall, a torrent of think pieces and news reports about the ins and outs and ups and downs of generative artificial intelligence has flowed, stoking fears of a dystopian future in which robots take over the world.  

While much of that hype is indeed just hype, a new report has identified immediate risks posed by apps like ChatGPT. Some of those present distinct challenges to journalists and the news industry.  

Published Wednesday by New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, the report identified eight risks related to generative artificial intelligence, or AI, including disinformation, cyberattacks, privacy violations and the decay of the news industry.  

The AI debate “is getting a little confused between concerns about existential dangers versus what immediate harms generative AI might entail,” the report’s co-author Paul Barrett told VOA. “We shouldn’t get paralyzed by the question of, ‘Oh my God, will this technology lead to killer robots that are going to destroy humanity?'” 

The systems being released right now are not going to lead to that nightmarish outcome, explained Barrett, who is the deputy director of the Stern Center.  

Instead, the report — which Barrett co-authored with Justin Hendrix, founder and editor of the media nonprofit Tech Policy Press — argues that lawmakers, regulators and the AI industry itself should prioritize addressing the immediate potential risks.  

Safety concerns

Among the most concerning risks are the human-level threats that artificial intelligence may pose to the safety of journalists and activists.  

Doxxing and smear campaigns are already among the many threats that journalists face online over their work. Doxxing is when someone publishes private or identifying information about someone — such as their address or phone number — on the internet.  

But now with generative AI, it will likely be even easier to dox reporters and harass them online, according to Barrett.  

“If you want to set up a campaign like that, you’re going to have to do a lot less work using generative AI systems,” Barrett said. “It’ll be easier to attack journalists.”  

Propaganda easy to make

Disinformation is another primary risk that the report highlights, because generative AI makes it easier to churn out propaganda.  

The report notes that if the Kremlin had access to generative AI in its disinformation campaign surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Moscow could have launched a more destructive and less expensive influence operation.  

Generative AI “is going to be a huge engine of efficiency, but it’s also going to make much more efficient the production of disinformation,” Barrett said.  

That bears implications for press freedom and media literacy, since studies indicate that exposure to misinformation and disinformation is linked to reduced trust in the media.  

Generative AI may also exacerbate financial issues plaguing newsrooms, according to the report. 

If people ask ChatGPT a question, for instance, and are happy with the summarized answer, they’re less likely to click on other links to news articles. That means shrinking traffic and therefore ad dollars for news sites, the report said.  

But artificial intelligence is far from all bad news for the media industry.  

For example, AI tools can help journalists research by scraping PDF files and analyzing data quickly. Artificial intelligence can also help fact-check sources and write headlines.  

In the report, Barrett and Hendrix caution the government against allowing this new industry to make the same mistakes as were made with social media platforms.  

“Generative AI doesn’t deserve the deference enjoyed for so long by social media companies,” they write.  

They recommend the government enhance federal authority to oversee AI companies and require more transparency from AI companies.  

“Congress, regulators, the public — and the industry, for that matter — need to pay attention to the immediate potential risks,” Barrett said. “And if the industry doesn’t move fast enough on that front, that’s something Congress needs to figure out a way to force them to pay attention to.” 
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Five Eyes Security Partners Meet in New Zealand

Posted on by SeeUS

Politicians from the Five Eyes alliance are meeting in the New Zealand capital, Wellington, where migration and security are top of the agenda. The grouping includes the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The Five Eyes alliance is an intelligence-sharing accord among five English-speaking democracies. British Home Secretary Suella Braverman is among those attending meetings in Wellington, New Zealand. 

War and China likely on agenda

The war in Ukraine and China’s growing assertiveness are expected to be discussed at the five-country ministerial talks Wednesday in Wellington. Also on the agenda in the New Zealand capital are cyber security, child sex abuse, and foreign espionage at universities. Delegates are also expected to discuss migration and labor mobility schemes between alliance countries. 

Anne-Marie Brady is a professor in the department of Political Science and International Relations at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury. 

She told VOA Wednesday that the Five Eyes alliance has an important part to play in maintaining global security. 

“Because the rules based international order is under such threat by the behavior of Russia and China and the way they misuse their positions in international organizations such as the (U.N.) Security Council, that is leading to increasing prominence of groupings of interested states,” said Brady. “That relationship of the five countries in Five Eyes is very important and relevant in a very challenging international environment.”   

Alliance formed after war

The Five Eyes alliance began between the United States and Britain in the aftermath of the Second World War. Over the next decade, it was expanded to include Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It has had a reputation for secrecy. 

Earlier this year, it blamed China for recent cyber-attacks targeting “critical infrastructure” in the U.S. Beijing responded by accusing the English-speaking alliance of spreading disinformation.   

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has been in China this week on an official visit. Tuesday, he met Chinese President Xi Jinping. Both leaders acknowledged the importance of the bilateral relationship.  They discussed trade, international relations and the war in Ukraine.   

Hipkins said in a statement that his country’s “relationship with China is one of our most significant and wide-ranging.” 

New Zealand’s exports to China are worth more than $12.8 billion, or a quarter of the country’s total export earnings, according to government data.  
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White House Takes a Bet on ‘Bidenomics’ Amid Americans’ Pessimism on Economy

Posted on by SeeUS

Ahead of President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign, the White House is promoting the term “Bidenomics” to make the case that his policies to “grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out” have succeeded in taming inflation and lowering unemployment.

“The share of working-age Americans in the workforce is higher now than it has been for 15 years,” Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, said Tuesday during a news briefing. “While we have more work to do, inflation has been coming down for 11 months in a row.”

She touted 13 million jobs created since Biden took office in February 2021 and an unemployment rate that has remained below 4% since February of this year.

Recent economic indicators give the administration reasons to be hopeful. While inflation still poses a challenge, employers continue to hire, and consumer prices rose at a slower pace in May compared with the previous year.

But so far most Americans do not share the administration’s optimism. The most recent Ipsos poll shows Biden’s approval rating remaining steady in the low 40s. The economy remains a top concern, and most are pessimistic about the direction of the country, a fact that Republicans have been eager to underscore.

“It’s frankly staggering to me that the president continues to have the audacity to say things like ‘hardworking families are reaping the rewards’ of his policies,” Senate Republican Whip John Thune said earlier this month. “Hardworking families are certainly reaping something from the president’s policies, but it isn’t rewards.”

Disconnect from data

The disconnect between economic data and how people are feeling about their financial well-being may be attributed to the fact that Americans are not digesting the good news, said Ipsos spokesperson Chris Jackson. He pointed to surveys measuring Americans’ familiarity with positive economic developments such as low unemployment and falling inflation versus bad news such as supply chain issues and high inflation.

“The bad news, everyone knows about. The good news, very few Americans know about,” he told VOA. “In an environment like that, it’s hard to make a compelling case that you’re doing a good job, when nobody knows anything that’s good.”

The administration is aware of the disconnect. On Wednesday, Biden will be in Chicago to deliver a speech explaining Bidenomics and trying to convince Americans that the economy is thriving under his leadership.

 

The speech is part of a three-week push in which top officials will travel across the country to argue that legislation championed by the president is delivering results for Americans. This includes massive investments under the infrastructure law, the COVID-19 relief package and the CHIPS and Science Act that injects over $52 billion in semiconductor research, development, manufacturing and workforce development.

Republicans believe some of the administration’s policies are too costly and contribute to high inflation. They say that most of the job gains since 2021 were simply jobs that were being recovered from the pandemic, not new job creation.

Still, the decision to brand the country’s fortunes with the president’s name reflects the administration’s confidence that the trajectory is upward, and the economy will not fall into recession – at least before November 2024 when the presidential election will be held.

Last week, the Federal Reserve paused its aggressive rate hike campaign for the first time in 18 months but signaled that the battle against inflation isn’t over. More interest rate hikes are likely, even as early as July.

Move over, Reaganomics

Bidenomics is also an attempt to distinguish the president’s and the Democrats’ agenda from that of Republicans who favor cutting taxes and slashing government spending.

Biden and his aides have often criticized former Republican President Ronald Reagan’s agenda of lowering tax rates, deregulation and slashing spending on government programs. Since the push for Reaganomics in the 1980s, Republicans have credited low taxes with boosting corporate profits and ultimately all workers and the population in general.

“He rejected trickle-down economics, the theory that tax cuts at the top would trickle down, that all we needed was for government to get out of the way,” said Brainard, the director of Biden’s economic council.

“That failed approach led to a pullback of private investment from key industries, like semiconductors to solar. It led to a deterioration of the nation’s infrastructure. And it led to a loss of a path to the middle class for too many Americans and too many communities around the country.”

Brainard said that in Chicago, the president will outline the main pillars of Bidenomics, including strategic investments in critical sectors such as infrastructure, clean energy and semiconductors; empowering and educating American workers, particularly those who have been previously marginalized; and promoting competition to lower costs and provide fair opportunities for small businesses.

Just two weeks ago, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled a proposed series of new tax breaks aimed at businesses and families, a proposal that would reverse some of Biden’s legislative victories.

Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
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An NPR Icon Bids Farewell After 40 Years of Reporting From Italy

Posted on by SeeEU

As a veteran correspondent for National Public Radio, Sylvia Poggioli spent the bulk of her 41-year career at the American broadcaster living and reporting in Italy.  

Now, as she moves into retirement, the Rhode Island-born journalist is watching with interest at how the change in Italy’s government is affecting the media and some of the key issues she has covered there over the years, including immigration.  

Last October, Giorgia Meloni — head of Fratelli d’Italia, or the Brothers of Italy party — became prime minister of Italy, the country’s first far-right leader since the end of World War II. 

Under her administration, the government has blocked humanitarian ships that rescue migrants from docking at Italian ports and ordered the Milan City Council to stop recognizing same sex partners on birth registers. 

Globally, Italy is not often top of mind for press freedom advocates, but a rise in lawsuits, changes at the state broadcaster and a decline in government press briefings are raising concerns.

“There are a lot of frustrating things here. It’s not all ‘White Lotus’ life,” Poggioli told VOA, referring to the television show set at a Sicilian resort. ”Especially Rome — it’s not an easy city. But I’m used to it. I call it home.” 

Poggioli first moved to Italy after college on a Fulbright Scholarship. 

She got her start in journalism in the early 1980s as a correspondent for NPR at a time when she said the outlet “was considered sort of on the liberal fringe.”   

One of her first major stories: a mafia assassination of a prosecutor in Sicily.   

Other stories from her early years include the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981 and the Achille Lauro hijacking in 1985, when Palestinian terrorists seized an Italian cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea.   

Her work eventually brought her to the Balkans, where she covered wars in countries including Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia.  

Looking back, the Rome-based Poggioli is proudest of her coverage of immigration and refugee issues, including the migrant crisis facing countries including Italy and Greece.  

“Those have been the most consequential events that I’ve covered,” she said.

When she retired in March, she was the longest-serving reporter on NPR’s international desk.   

“For many, her name is synonymous with NPR,” the outlet wrote in a statement announcing the reporter’s departure.

Poggioli is exiting a career in journalism just as the industry faces new challenges in Italy.    

One of the most striking aspects for Poggioli is how inaccessible to the media Meloni has made herself. Press conferences are few and far between.   

“There haven’t been any specific curbs or crackdowns,” Poggioli said. “But there’s a lot of wariness, I’d say, about a government that doesn’t make itself accessible to the press.” 

More concerning is the use of lawsuits to target reporters. At least four members of the current government, including Meloni, have filed lawsuits against journalists and outlets over their coverage, according to the free expression group Article 19.

The Italian Embassy in Washington did not reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.   

In Italy, “investigative journalists are still very much under pressure, and they face threats and lawsuits, and are often overwhelmed by them,” Jessica White, who researches European media freedom at Freedom House, told VOA. “This is a real concern for press freedom in the country. And it also results in higher levels of self-censorship.”  

White is the author of a June Freedom House report looking at conditions for media in Italy and five other European countries.

Despite the challenges, the threat to press freedom in Italy is minor compared with elsewhere. In terms of media freedom, the country ranks 41 out of 180 countries, according to Reporters Without Borders.

To Poggioli, another noteworthy shift is taking place at the state-run broadcaster.

Whenever there’s a change of government in Italy, Poggioli said, the new leadership traditionally installs its own people at the upper levels of state broadcaster RAI.

But, she said, “it’s been more drastic this time.” 

In late May, The Guardian reported that Meloni’s government was exerting “ruthless” influence at RAI.

“They want to take control of Rai and change the narrative to their way of thinking,” one anonymous source told The Guardian.

Several RAI executives and reporters have resigned, with some citing government pressure.  

Among them is former RAI Chief Executive Carlo Fuortes, who in his resignation letter said, “Since the beginning of 2023, there has been a political conflict concerning me and my position, which is weakening Rai and the public service.”  

Still, one source at RAI, who requested anonymity to speak freely about their employer, told VOA they haven’t experienced significant changes.

“The thing is the left has dominated the cultural language for decades,” they said. ”Now the right wants to gain some lost points.” 

RAI did not reply to VOA’s email requesting comment. 

The changes facing the state broadcaster may underscore the significance of outlets like NPR.   

Investing in public media “helps bridge information gaps and fosters an informed citizenry, which is vital for a well-functioning democracy,” Karen Rundlet, who works at the journalism nonprofit the Knight Foundation, told VOA.  

For Poggioli, public broadcasting opened the door to her career.

“I saw a good portion of the world and some very nice experiences. And unfortunately, as journalists, we also cover a lot of really depressing stories too,” she said. “But it’s been a really good ride.”  
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US Election Commission Not Acting on Deepfakes in Campaign Ads

Posted on by SeeUS

The commission that enforces rules for U.S. elections is not regulating AI-generated deepfakes in political advertising ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Deana Mitchell has the story.
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Sudan Capital Sees Heavy Fighting on Eve of Muslim Holiday

Posted on by SeeAF

Fighting raged in the Sudanese capital on Tuesday, the eve of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, after paramilitaries seized Khartoum’s main police base.

Fighting in the city between the army led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo is now concentrated around military bases.

At the same time in Sudan’s west, the conflict is worsening to “alarming levels” in Darfur, the United Nations warned.

Since the war erupted on April 15, the RSF has established bases in residential neighborhoods of the capital while the army has struggled to gain a foothold on the ground despite its air superiority.

As the RSF fights to seize all of Khartoum, millions of people are still holed up despite being caught in the crossfire without electricity and water in oppressive heat.

Late Sunday, the RSF said it had seized the headquarters, on Khartoum’s southern edge, of the paramilitary Central Reserve police, sanctioned last year by Washington for rights abuses.

On Tuesday the RSF attacked army bases in central, northern and southern Khartoum, witnesses said.

Mawaheb Omar, a mother of four who has refused to abandon her home, told AFP that Eid, normally a major event in Sudan, will be “miserable and tasteless,” as she cannot even buy mutton, a usual part of the feast.

Looting, violence

Burhan took to state television on Tuesday to urge “all the young people of the country, and all those who can defend it, not to hesitate to do so … or to join the military units.”

The United States, Norway and Britain, known as the Troika, on Tuesday condemned “widespread human rights violations, conflict-related sexual violence, and targeted ethnic violence in Darfur, mostly attributed to soldiers of the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias.”

RSF are descended from Janjaweed militia unleashed by Khartoum in response to a rebel uprising in Darfur in 2003, leading to war crimes charges.

In the current fighting, the RSF has been accused of looting humanitarian supplies, factories and houses abandoned by those displaced by the fighting or taken by force.

Dagalo responded to these accusations on Tuesday in an audio recording posted online.

“The RSF will take swift and strict action” against those in its ranks who have carried out such abuses, he said.

The RSF had said Monday evening that it was beginning to try some of its “undisciplined” members and announced the release of “100 prisoners of war” from the army.

Since the beginning of the conflict, both sides have regularly announced prisoner swaps through the Red Cross, without providing the exact number of those captured.

Dagalo, a former Darfur militia chief, also warned against “plunging into civil war.”

The U.N. and African blocs have warned of an “ethnic dimension” to the conflict in Darfur, where on Tuesday, Raouf Mazou, the U.N. refugee agency’s assistant high commissioner for operations, told a briefing in Geneva there is a “worsening situation” in West Darfur state.

“According to reports from colleagues on the ground, the conflict has reached alarming levels, making it virtually impossible to deliver life-saving aid to the affected populations,” he said.

New fronts

Elsewhere in the country, new fronts have opened against the army from a local rebel group in South Kordofan state, south of the capital, as well as in Blue Nile state on the border with Ethiopia.

In South Kordofan, authorities have decreed a nighttime curfew to curb the violence.

The Troika expressed “deep concern” about the fighting in Blue Nile and South Kordofan, as well as Darfur, that “risked further broadening the conflict.”

Hundreds of civilians have fled over the border to Ethiopia because of the fighting reported around Kurmuk in Blue Nile, the U.N. said.

This adds to the ever-increasing number, now almost 645,000 people, who have fled to neighboring countries, mostly Egypt and Chad, according to the latest International Organization for Migration data. About 2.2 million people have been displaced within Sudan, the agency said.

A record 25 million people in Sudan need humanitarian aid and protection, the U.N. says.
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Actor Julian Sands Died While Hiking on California Mountain, Authorities Confirm

Posted on by SeeUS

Actor Julian Sands, who starred in several Oscar-nominated films in the late 1980s and ’90s including “A Room with a View” and “Leaving Las Vegas,” was found dead on a Southern California mountain five months after he disappeared while hiking, authorities said Tuesday.

An investigation confirmed that it was Sands whose remains hikers found Saturday in wilderness near Mount Baldy, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said. The 65-year-old actor was an avid and experienced hiker who lived in Los Angeles and was reported missing January 13 after setting out on the peak that rises more than 3,048 meters east of the city. Crews aided by drones and helicopters had searched for him several times but were severely hampered by wintry conditions that lasted through spring. No sign of him was found until the civilian hikers came upon him.

The chances of Sands being discovered alive had long since diminished to nearly nothing, but the Sheriff’s Department, which conducted an official search the day before he was found, emphasized that the case remained active.

An autopsy has been conducted, but further test results are needed before the cause of death can be determined, authorities said.

Sands, who was born, raised and began acting in England, worked constantly in film and television, amassing more than 150 credits in a 40-year career. During a 10-year span from 1985 to 1995, he played major roles in a series of acclaimed films.

After studying at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, Sands embarked on a career in stage and film, playing small parts in films including “Oxford Blues” and “The Killing Fields.” He landed the starring role of George Emerson, who falls in love with Helena Bonham Carter’s Lucy Honeychurch while on holiday in Tuscany in the 1985 British romance, “A Room with a View.”

The film from director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for best film, and was nominated for eight Oscars, winning three.

In the wake of its success, Sands moved to the United States to pursue a career in Hollywood.

He played the title role in the 1989 horror fantasy “Warlock” and its sequel. In the 1990 horror comedy “Arachnophobia,” with Jeff Daniels and John Goodman, Sands played an entomologist specializing in spiders.

The following year he appeared in director David Cronenberg’s surreal adaptation of the William Burroughs novel “Naked Lunch” in 1991. In 1993, Sands starred in the thriller “Boxing Helena.”

In 1995’s “Leaving Las Vegas,” Sands played an abusive Latvian pimp alongside Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue. The film was nominated for four Oscars, with Cage winning best actor.

Sands touted his love of the outdoors in a 2020 interview with the Guardian, saying he was happiest when “close to a mountain summit on a glorious cold morning” and that his biggest dream was scaling “a remote peak in the high Himalayas, such as Makalu.”

The actor said in the interview that in the early 1990s, he was caught in an “atrocious” storm in the Andes and was lucky to survive when three others near his party didn’t.

After “Leaving Las Vegas,” the quality of the films Sands was cast in, and the size of his roles, began declining. He worked steadily, appearing in director Wim Wenders’ “The Million Dollar Hotel” and director Dario Argento’s “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Sands was born in Yorkshire, the middle child of five brothers raised by a single mother. He had three children of his own.

He had been married since 1990 to journalist Evgenia Citkowitz, with whom he had two adult daughters, Imogen Morley Sands and Natalya Morley Sands. His eldest child was son Henry Sands, whom he had with his first wife, journalist Sarah Harvey.

A few days before he was found, Sands’ family issued a statement saying, “We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer.”
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Aid Cuts, Climate Change Hit South Sudanese Refugees in Uganda

Posted on by SeeAF

Plans by a United Nations agency to cut food aid beginningJuly 1 for refugees in Uganda, Africa’s biggest refugee host, are expected to worsen their struggle with food shortages from climate change. The U.N.’s World Food Program says aid cuts leave them no choice but to help only the most vulnerable. Halima Athumani reports from Palorinya refugee camp in Obongi district, Uganda. Camera: Francis Mukasa
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US Sanctions Companies Linked to Gold Trade to Fund Wagner Fighters

Posted on by SeeAF

The United States on Tuesday accused companies in the United Arab Emirates, the Central African Republic and Russia of engaging in illicit gold deals to help fund the mercenary fighters of Russia’s Wagner Group.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement it has sanctioned four companies linked to Wagner and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, that it alleged were used to help pay the paramilitary’s forces fighting in Ukraine and undertaking operations to support Russian interests in Africa.

“The Wagner Group funds its brutal operations in part by exploiting natural resources in countries like the Central African Republic and Mali. The United States will continue to target the Wagner Group’s revenue streams to degrade its expansion and violence in Africa, Ukraine, and anywhere else,” Brian Nelson, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement.

The State Department said the sanctions were unrelated to Wagner’s short-lived mutiny last weekend against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s defense leadership for its handling of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The sanctions block any assets the companies hold in the U.S. and prohibit them from engaging in new deals in the U.S.

Wagner has fought in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic, Mali and other countries, and has fought some of the bloodiest battles of the 16-month war in Ukraine, including at Bakhmut. Wagner was founded in 2014 after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and started supporting pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

The sanctions were imposed on Central African Republic-based Midas Ressources SARLU and Diamville SAU; UAE-based Industrial Resources General Trading; and Russia-based DM, a limited liability company.

Russia’s embassy in Washington and Industrial Resources did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reuters could not immediately reach a spokesperson for Midas Ressources, Diamville or Limited Liability Company DM.

Andrey Nikolayevich Ivanov, a Russian national, was also sanctioned. The Treasury Department accused him of being an executive in the Wagner Group and said he worked closely with senior Malian officials on weapons deals, mining concerns and other Wagner activities in the country.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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Klimt Portrait Sets European Auction Record: $108 Million

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A portrait of an unnamed woman by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt sold for 85.3 million pounds ($108.4 million) on Tuesday, setting a record price for any work of art sold at an auction in Europe, London-based auction house Sotheby’s said.  

The painting, which had been given a guide price of 65 million pounds ($82.9 million), was sold after a tense 10-minute bidding war as auctioneer Helena Newman, Sotheby’s head of impressionist and modern art, eked out the final bids in half-million pound increments.

Described by Newman as a “technical tour de force, full of boundary-pushing experimentation, as well as a heartfelt ode to absolute beauty,” the painting titled “Dame mit Fächer” (“Lady with a Fan”) was still on an easel in Klimt’s studio when he died in February 1918.

“It was created when he was still in his artistic prime and brings together all the technical prowess and creative exuberance that define his greatest work,” she said.

The fall of the hammer at 74 million pounds broke the tension, triggering a collective exhalation in the room and a round of applause. The total price includes fees.

The painting sold to a Hong Kong-based art advisory firm, bidding on behalf of a collector based there.

The previous highest price for a painting sold at auction in Europe was Claude Monet’s “Le Bassin Aux Nympheas” in 2008 at $80.4 million, while the record for any work of art sold at auction in Europe was set by Alberto Giacometti’s bronze “Walking Man I,” which went for $104.3 million in 2010.  

Sotheby’s said the painting was one of a small number of Klimt’s portraits in private collections. It is now the most expensive Klimt artwork sold at auction anywhere in the world.

It was last offered for sale nearly 30 years ago, when it was acquired by the family of the present owner for $11.6 million, according to the auction house.
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Will Prime Minister Modi’s Visit Boost US-India Trade?  

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The United States is India’s largest trading partner, with trade between the two countries currently around $191 billion, in 2022. With the two forging a closer relationship, VOA’s Chris Casquejo looks at the prospects for boosting U.S.-India trade.
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