With journalists covering the election campaign harassed and security concerns blocking some female reporters from covering events in Sierra Leone, media associations are calling for better protections and greater support. Senanu Tord reports from Freetown. Camera: Senanu Tord.
…
Month: June 2023
Conflict, Climate Crisis Accelerate Somali Hunger Crisis
The head of the United Nations’ World Food Program warned Thursday that conflict and climate change are pushing millions of Somalis to the brink of hunger, as the agency is running out of funds to help them.
“Somalia was hauled back from the abyss of famine in 2022, because the international community saw the warning signs flashing red and raced to respond,” Cindy McCain told the U.N. Security Council in her first briefing since taking over the agency’s leadership in April.
“But now we are in danger of losing the precious gains we have made since those dark days last year,” she said.
Last year, a famine was averted after increased international funding, led by the United States, helped scale up humanitarian assistance. But the country still suffered severely, with the U.N. estimating that 43,000 people died, most likely due to the drought.
The WFP projects this year that some 6.6 million Somalis will face crisis levels or worse of food insecurity, and 1.8 million children under age 5 will suffer acute malnutrition.
“This includes 40,000 people fighting for survival in famine-like conditions,” McCain said.
The country is suffering its longest drought on record. Recent rains brought floods to parts of the country. Climate shocks have wiped out crops and scores of livestock and displaced 1.7 million people from their homes.
Like most U.N. aid programs, the WFP is suffering a serious cash shortfall for its operations in Somalia. McCain said at the end of April, the agency had to reduce the number of people it assists from 4.7 million each month to 3 million and it may have to make further cuts.
“Without an immediate cash injection, we will have to cut our distribution lists again in July, to just 1.8 million [people] per month,” she said. “That’s almost 3 million women, children and men who will be denied the assistance they desperately need, simply because we do not have the money to feed them.”
…
Disabled Syrian Refugee Dreams of Paralympics Glory
Some of the Syrian refugees taken in by Spain have accomplished big things, including Adnan Almousa Alfermli. His eyes are set on winning a gold medal at the Paralympics. Miguel Amaya narrates this report from Alfonso Beato in Barcelona. Camera: Alfonso Beato.
…
Migrant Boat Tragedy in Mediterranean Might Not Deter Pakistanis
Ali Hussain’s mother can barely speak a sentence without breaking down. Her voice is hoarse from crying. Holding back tears, she says that she recites the Quran all day, praying for her son’s miraculous return.
Hussain is among the hundreds of Pakistanis missing since an overloaded fishing boat carrying up to 750 migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea on June 14.
The accident near Greece could be one of the deadliest in recent history. Reports suggest the boat was carrying about 200 to 300 Pakistanis, the most from any single country. Pakistan observed a day of mourning this week.
Hussain, 18, and his cousin Ali Jahanzaib, 21, who is also missing, paid a trafficking agent $3,000 each to fly to Libya from Pakistan. They committed to pay another $5,000 upon reaching Italy by boat.
Sitting in a room full of relatives and friends comforting the family, Hussain’s father, Hafeez-ul-Rehman, told VOA he learned about the accident through social media.
He had come back from midday prayers, Rehman said, when he opened Facebook and saw that the incident was trending as top news. He called the trafficking agent in Libya to find out if his son and nephew had been on that boat.
“He [the agent] was asleep. We asked him what was going on? He said he didn’t know and would check. It was around midnight or so when he confirmed that it was indeed that ship,” Rehman said.
The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, known as Frontex, recorded about 54,000 attempts to illegally enter the continent in the first quarter of this year.
In the same period, more than 440 died taking the perilous journey, according to the International Organization for Migration, making it the deadliest quarter since 2017.
More than half of the illegal attempts, three times more than last year, were made via the central Mediterranean route, according to Frontex.
After Ivory Coast and Guinea, Pakistan accounts for the greatest number of migrants on this route. Many come from the central areas of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
Muhammad Ajmal, an acting deputy director of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency, or FIA, told VOA that human trafficking thrives in these areas because of a mindset that says, “We will send at least one of our children to Europe, at any cost.”
While growing economic desperation drives many, Ajmal said others leave because of the “demonstration effect.”
“People see that a neighbor’s son went overseas and now the family has a nice house, a car, and that pushes them to send their child,” he said.
Watching friends make it to Europe successfully also inspires many to take the perilous journey.
Hussain and Jahanzaib, the missing cousins, belong to a family of gold jewelers. Rehman, Hussain’s father, told VOA he had once gotten the trafficking agent to cancel the tickets, but the young men were adamant, so he caved in.
In response to this tragedy and another earlier this year in which nearly 30 Pakistanis perished in the Mediterranean, authorities have cracked down on human trafficking.
The FIA has arrested at least 17 suspects and registered 54 cases. The agency has collected 167 DNA samples from families to assist in identifying the remains in Greece.
Ajmal rejected the notion the agency had been turning a blind eye to human smuggling or that its agents were involved in the crime, saying that “without the deterrence it [trafficking] would be much more prevalent.”
He said agents were having trouble getting cooperation from families.
“We have sent our teams to every victim’s house. Some have simply refused to meet with us. Others say, ‘We don’t know anything,’ that ‘Our son managed this on his own,’ and ‘We don’t know anything about the agent,’ and ‘We don’t want to disclose.’ Some say, ‘We don’t want to pursue any legal action.’ So, we are running into a lot of problems,” Ajmal told VOA.
Families are desperate for information. Mariam Bibi, a mother of two brothers on the boat, told VOA she just wants closure.
“We have hope, but we don’t have any information,” Mariam said, expressing her frustration. “Someone says they [her sons] are fine, someone else says they are not.”
Rehman said he was prepared for any eventuality, but that his wife was not ready to accept her son might be dead.
Asked if he would recommend that anyone let children attempt the perilous journey, Rehman said no, but he contended the latest tragedy would not deter many.
“Nobody stops. Even those that are already there [in Libya] know the ship has sunk, still they are going” Rehman noted.
The survivors’ tally stands at 104, and a dozen are Pakistani.
…
A Year After Fall of Roe, 25 Million Women Live in States With Abortion Bans or Tighter Restrictions
One year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court rescinded a five-decade-old right to abortion, prompting a seismic shift in debates about politics, values, freedom and fairness.
Twenty-five million women of childbearing age now live in states where the law makes abortions harder to get than they were before the ruling.
Decisions about the law are largely in the hands of state lawmakers and courts. Most Republican-led states have restricted abortion. Fourteen ban abortion in most cases at any point in pregnancy. Twenty Democratic-leaning states have protected access.
Here’s a look at what’s changed since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.
Laws enacted in 25 states to ban or restrict abortion access
Last summer, as women and medical providers began to navigate a landscape without legal protection for abortion, Nancy Davis’ doctors advised her to terminate her pregnancy because the fetus she was carrying was expected to die soon after birth.
But doctors in Louisiana, where Davis lived, would not provide the abortion due to a new law banning it throughout pregnancy in most cases.
At the same time, abortion opponents who worked for decades to abolish a practice they see as murder cheered the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling. Anti-abortion groups said the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide was undemocratic because it prevented states from enacting bans.
“The Dobbs decision was a democratic victory for life that generations fought for,” said E.V. Osment, a spokeswoman for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a major anti-abortion group.
While some states scrambled to pass new restrictions, others already had enacted laws that were designed to take effect if the court overturned Roe.
More than 25 million women ages 15 to 44, or about 2 in 5 nationally, now live in states where there are more restrictions on abortion access than there were before Dobbs.
Davis received help from a fund that raises money for women to travel for abortions and went to New York for a procedure. The whole experience was heartbreaking, she said.
“A mother’s love starts as soon as she knows she’s pregnant. That attachment starts instantly,” she said. “It was days I couldn’t sleep. It was days I couldn’t eat.”
Abortion access has been protected in 20 states
As some states restricted abortion, others locked in access. In 25 states, abortion remains generally legal up to at least 24 weeks of pregnancy. Twenty of them have solidified abortion rights through constitutional amendments or laws.
CHOICES Center for Reproductive Health had for decades treated patients seeking abortions in Memphis, Tennessee. After Tennessee’s abortion ban kicked in last year, the clinic opened an outpost three hours away, in Carbondale, Illinois.
“They’re coming from Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and even Texas,” said CEO Jennifer Pepper. “But now they’re having to travel much farther.”
Number of abortions is not clear
With lags and gaps in official reporting, the impact of the Dobbs ruling on the number of abortions is not clear.
A survey conducted for the Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit organization that promotes research and supports abortion access, has found that the number has fallen to nearly zero in states with bans and risen in neighboring states with fewer restrictions. On balance the number of abortions is declining. But the survey does not capture self-managed abortions outside the traditional medical system, usually done with through a two-pill regimen.
Before the Dobbs ruling, pills were already the most common method of abortion in the U.S. Now, there are more networks to provide access to pills in states with abortion bans.
Some abortion opponents are calling for the abortion drug mifepristone to lose its government approval. The Supreme Court has preserved access for now.
Lawsuits abound
More than 50 lawsuits have been filed over abortion policy since the Dobbs ruling. Many challenges rely on arguments about the rights to personal autonomy or religious freedom. A Texas lawsuit alleges women were denied abortions even when their lives were at risk.
Bans or restrictions are on hold in at least six states while judges sort out their long-term fate. The only states where the top court has permanently rejected restrictions since the Dobbs ruling are Iowa and South Carolina.
Criminal courts have not been busy with abortion cases
There’s little evidence that doctors, women, or those who help them get abortions are being prosecuted.
The Mississippi attorney general’s office says no charges have been brought under a new law that calls for up to 10 years in prison for anyone who provides or attempts to provide an abortion in cases where it wasn’t to save the woman’s life or to end a pregnancy caused by rape or incest.
Progressive prosecutors across the country, including in states with bans, have said that they would not pursue abortion-related cases, or that they would make them a low priority.
Abortion remains a dominant political issue
The political table has been reset, with Republicans entering a new election season weighing how to balance the interests of a base that wants the strictest bans possible against the desires of the broader electorate.
Polling has consistently found that most Americans think abortions should be available early in a pregnancy, but that most also favor restrictions later in a pregnancy.
Last year, voters sided with abortion-rights advocates in all six states with abortion-related ballot measures. The issue was also a major factor in why Democrats performed better than expected in 2022 elections.
It has emerged as a key issue in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
…
Russia’s High Court Quashes Navalny Lawsuit Over Being Deprived of Pen, Paper in Prison
Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit by imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny contesting prison regulations that allow prison officials to deprive him of stationery and pens.
Navalny is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court in a maximum security penal colony in Melekhovo 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of Moscow. This week, another trial against the Kremlin’s archfoe began right there in the penal colony on charges of extremism. If convicted, Navalny will remain behind bars for at least two more decades.
In the lawsuit considered by the Supreme Court on Thursday, Navalny complained that prison officials in the restricted housing unit, where he is held in isolation, no longer gave him a pen and paper.
“Some are being given a pen and paper for an hour. In some places, for 15 minutes, and a convict needs a week to finish a letter. In my case, the time for writing materials was removed from my schedule entirely. How come? The prison chief decided so, that’s how,” Navalny wrote in a typically sardonic social media post on the eve of the hearing.
The complaint is one of many the 47-year-old politician has filed against prison officials, alleging multiple violations of his rights as a convict. All of his lawsuits and petitions have been rejected by Russian courts.
Navalny appeared at the Supreme Court hearing via video link from the Melekhovo colony. During the hearing, Russian authorities argued that there was nothing wrong with prison regulations and that Navalny should be given a pen and paper whenever he asked for them, if he was not required to do something else at that time.
Navalny’s arguments that it doesn’t work that way in his prison were brushed off, and the court quashed his lawsuit.
Navalny, who exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
While imprisoned, the anti-corruption crusader has spent months in a tiny one-person cell, also called a “punishment cell,” for purported disciplinary violations such as an alleged failure to properly button his prison robe, properly introduce himself to a guard or wash his face at a specified time.
Navalny’s associates and supporters have accused prison authorities of failing to provide him with proper medical assistance and voiced concern about his failing health.
…
External Pressures Increasing Suicide Risk at Refugee Settlement in Uganda
Palorinya refugee settlement in Uganda is reporting high numbers of suicides and suicide attempts by the people who live there. Organizations and individuals who work with the refugees say denial of food and a failure to meet basic needs are the main causes. Halima Athumani reports from Obongi District, Uganda. Camera: Francis Mukasa
…
Tornado in Texas Kills Four People, Flattens Buildings
A tornado ripped through the northern Texas town of Matador on Wednesday, killing four people and injuring several others while damaging at least a dozen buildings, officials said.
Touching down at 8 p.m. local time (0100 GMT), the “unprecedented tornado” brought high gusting and battering winds to the small community of about 600 residents, according to Lubbock Fire Rescue. The agency is one of multiple emergency crews from the region to join in search and rescue efforts.
At least ten people were transported to area hospitals, of which one died, law enforcement said at a news briefing on Thursday morning.
“A town of this size with such a small population, with the amount of damage that they experienced — it’s not only physical damage, but the economical and emotional impact that it will have on this town is very well significant,” Lubbock Fire Rescue Public Information Officer Derek Delgado said.
Video of the aftermath showed a string of homes flattened to a rubble and downed power lines. About two dozen emergency vehicles helped to illuminate the dark road in the video shared by the fire agency in nearby city of Lubbock.
Power was knocked out to a majority of customers in Motley County, according to PowerOutage.us. Matador is the county seat. Widespread outages stretched 130 miles (209 km) south of Matador.
Crews hope to restore power in Matador by Friday evening after the storm damaged a substation.
The National Weather Service issued a warning about 8 p.m. about a tornado heading toward Matador and urged residents to take cover.
Last week, Perryton, Texas, was struck by one or more tornadoes, which killed at least three people and injured dozens of others. Hundreds of homes, many of them in a trailer park, were damaged or destroyed.
…
Kenya Video Gamers Unite to Bridge Africa’s Esports Server Gap
Kenyan video gamers are joining forces to advocate for bringing to Africa more world-class gaming servers that provide greater stability and control. Apart from South Africa, many African countries lack servers, placing players at a disadvantage and discouraging many from joining esports. Mohammed Yusuf has more from Nairobi.
…
Calls for US-Mexico Military Cooperation to Address Fentanyl Crisis
In the past few years, political tensions have derailed U.S.-Mexico cooperation in fighting the illegal trafficking of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. U.S. legislators and experts are now calling for a reset of bilateral relations. Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. (Camera: Mino Dargakis)
…
At Paris Summit, World Bank to Unveil Debt Payment Pause for Countries Hit by Disasters
The World Bank chief will announce a raft of measures on Thursday to aid countries hit by natural disasters, including a pause in debt repayments to the lender, as world leaders gather in Paris to give impetus to a new global finance agenda.
Some 40 leaders, including about a dozen from Africa, China’s prime minister and Brazil’s president, will be joined in the French capital by international organizations at the “Summit for a New Global Financial Pact.”
It aims to boost crisis financing for low-income countries, reform post-war financial systems and free up funds to tackle climate change by getting top-level consensus on how to progress several initiatives currently struggling in bodies like the G20, COP, IMF-World Bank and United Nations.
Leaders are set to back a push for multilateral development banks like the World Bank to put more capital at risk to boost lending, according to a draft summit statement seen by Reuters.
In a speech to be delivered on Thursday, new World Bank president Ajay Banga will outline a “toolkit”, including offering a pause in debt repayments, giving countries flexibility to redirect funds for emergency response, providing new types of insurance to help development projects and helping governments build advance-emergency systems.
While the new World Bank measures are designed to give developing nations some financial breathing space, there was no discussion of multilateral lenders offering debt writedowns — so-called haircuts.
China — the world’s largest bilateral creditor — has been pushing for lenders like the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund to absorb some of the losses.
Those institutions and many developed nations, notably the United States, are resisting, arguing that acceding to Beijing’s demand would be tantamount to a bailout for China. Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang is due to speak at the summit on Friday.
New vision
Citing the war in Ukraine, climate crisis, widening disparity and declining progress, leaders said the World Bank and other multilateral financial institutions needed a new vision.
The global financial architecture is outdated, dysfunctional and unjust, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
“It is clear that the international financial architecture has failed in its mission to provide a global safety net for developing countries,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron, hosting the summit, said it was time to act or trust would be lost.
The summit aims to create roadmaps that can be used over the next 18-24 months, ranging from debt relief to climate finance. Many of the topics on the agenda take up suggestions from a group of developing countries, led by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, dubbed the “Bridgetown Initiative.”
The coronavirus pandemic pushed many poor countries into debt distress as they were expected to continue servicing their obligations in spite of the massive shock to their finances.
Africa’s debt woes are coupled with the dual challenge faced by some of the world’s poorest countries of tackling the impacts of climate change while adapting to the green transition.
Wealthy nations have yet to come good on climate finance that they promised as part of a past pledge to mobilize $100 billion a year, a key stumbling block at global climate talks.
Though binding decisions are not expected, officials involved in the summit’s planning said some strong commitments should be made about financing poor countries.
Nearly eighty years after the Bretton Woods Agreement created the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), leaders aim to squeeze more financing from multilateral lenders for the countries that need it most.
In particular, there should be an announcement that a $100 billion target has been met that will be made available through the International Monetary Fund for vulnerable countries, officials said.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, whose country is the World Bank’s biggest shareholder, said multilateral development institutions should become more effective in the way they use their funds before thinking of injecting more money into them.
Some leaders are expected to lend their weight to long-stalled proposals for a levy on shipping industry emissions ahead of a meeting next month of the International Maritime Organization officials said.
…
Six People in Critical Condition, One Still Missing After Paris Blast
Six people remained in a critical condition and one person was believed still missing on Thursday, one day after a blast ripped through a street near Paris’ historic Latin Quarter, the city’s public prosecution office said.
“These figures may still change,” prosecutor Maylis De Roeck told Reuters in a text message, adding that around 50 people had been injured in the blast, which set buildings ablaze and caused the front of one to collapse onto the street.
Of two people initially believed missing, one has been found in hospital and is being taken care of, the prosecutor said, adding: “Searches are ongoing to find the second person.”
Authorities have not yet said what caused the explosion, which witnesses said had followed a strong smell of gas at the site.
The explosion led to scenes of chaos and destruction in the historic Rue Saint Jacques, which runs from the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral to the Sorbonne University, just as people were heading home from work.
It also destroyed the facade of a building housing the Paris American Academy design school popular with foreign students.
Florence Berthout, mayor of the Paris district where the blast occurred, said 12 students who should have been in the academy’s classrooms at the time had fortunately gone to visit an exhibition with their teacher.
“Otherwise, the (death toll) could have been absolutely horrific,” Berthout told BFM TV.
She said three children who had been passing by at the time were among the injured, although their lives were not in danger.
…
US Coast Guard Ship Transited Taiwan Strait After Blinken’s China Visit, US Navy Says
A U.S. Coast Guard ship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday in a transit that China described as “public hype,” after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken having wrapped up a high-profile, widely watched visit to Beijing a day earlier.
The national security cutter Stratton made a “routine” Taiwan Strait transit Tuesday “through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said Thursday.
The politically sensitive strait, which separates China from the democratically governed island of Taiwan, is a frequent source of tension as Beijing steps up its political and military pressure to try to force Taipei to accept Chinese sovereignty.
“Stratton’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows,” the 7th Fleet added in its statement.
The mission happened the day after Blinken ended a visit to Beijing, in which the two countries agreed to stabilize their intense rivalry so it does not veer into conflict, but failed to produce any major breakthrough.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said the ship sailed in a northerly direction, and its forces monitored the situation which it described as “normal.”
The Chinese coast guard described the ship’s transit as “public hype.”
Chinese vessels tailed the U.S. ship “all the way,” a spokesperson at China’s coast guard said in a statement, adding that China will “resolutely” safeguard its sovereignty and security and maritime rights and interests.
U.S. military vessels, and on occasion those of its allies, have routinely sailed through the strait in recent years, to the anger of China, which views such missions as provocation.
This month the U.S. Navy released a video of an “unsafe interaction” in the strait, in which a Chinese warship crossed in front of a U.S. destroyer operating with a Canadian warship.
Taiwan’s military reports almost daily Chinese incursions in the strait, mostly warplanes that cross the waterway’s median line, which once served as an unofficial barrier between the two.
On Wednesday, Taiwan said Chinese warships led by the aircraft carrier Shandong sailed through the strait.
…
Biden to Host Modi for Talks, State Dinner
U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks Thursday at the White House.
“The visit will strengthen our two countries’ shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific and shared resolve to elevate the technology partnership, including in defense, clean energy, and space,” the White House said ahead of the meeting.
In a rare move for the Indian leader, Modi and Biden are scheduled to appear at a joint news conference Thursday.
Modi is also due to give an address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.
Thursday’s events close with a state dinner at the White House.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…
US Not Backing Down on Biden Calling China’s Leader a ‘Dictator’
The US is not backing down on comments made by President Joe Biden likening Chinese President Xi Jinping to a dictator. The remarks, which came a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China to repair bilateral relations, drew sharp criticism from Beijing. White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
…
US Not Backing Down on Biden’s Xi Dictator Comment
The White House is not backing down on comments made by President Joe Biden likening Chinese President Xi Jinping to a dictator.
“It should come as no surprise that the president speaks candidly about China and the differences that we have — we are certainly not alone in that,” a senior administration official said in a statement sent to VOA on Wednesday.
At a California fundraiser for his 2024 presidential campaign Tuesday, Biden said Xi was unaware and embarrassed over a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over American territory that the U.S. military shot down in February.
“That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened,” Biden said. “When it got shot down, he was very embarrassed. He denied it was even there.”
China’s Foreign Ministry hit back, saying Biden’s remarks “seriously violated China’s political dignity and amounted to public political provocation.”
“The relevant remarks by the U.S. side are extremely ridiculous and irresponsible. They seriously violate basic facts, diplomatic protocol and China’s political dignity,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at her Wednesday briefing. “China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to this.”
The press is usually forbidden from recording such fundraising events, but the White House provided a transcript of Biden’s remarks.
The comments were especially notable as they were made a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing to repair bilateral relations that have hit a historical low. Blinken’s visit, originally scheduled for February, was postponed by Washington after the spy balloon was destroyed.
While Blinken’s visit failed to produce any major breakthrough, he and Xi had agreed to stabilize the U.S.-China rivalry so it does not veer into conflict.
Washington rejects the notion that Biden’s comments are counterproductive to his top diplomat’s efforts.
“We will continue to responsibly manage this relationship, maintain open lines of communication with the PRC, but that, of course, does not mean we will not be blunt and forthright about our differences,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said in his briefing Wednesday.
“We have been very clear about the areas in which we disagree, including the clear differences we see when it comes to democracies and autocracies,” he added.
Biden’s comments brought renewed focus on the spy balloon incident that administration officials have sought to put behind them since the president signaled a thaw in relations in May, following a meeting between White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and top Communist Party diplomat Wang Yi.
Domestic pressure
Biden is facing domestic pressure from Republicans in Congress who have sought to portray his administration as weak on China and characterized efforts to mend ties with Beijing as tantamount to appeasement.
“The Biden administration is holding back U.S. national security actions to chase fruitless talks with the CCP,” Representative Michael McCaul, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
Last week a group of Republican senators sent a letter to Biden urging a public accounting of his administration’s assessment of the spy balloon and expressing frustration with its “failure to confront China’s brazen threats to America’s security and sovereignty.”
“Republicans won’t let it go because it provides them with extra ammunition,” said Michael Swaine, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “You got sniping going on in the party, people in Congress who think they know better about how to manage the relationship, when they don’t,” he told VOA.
Rising tensions
The bitter rhetoric shows just how challenging it is to bring down tensions and jump-start communication between the two rivals.
“If the engagements we’re seeing are then followed by such direct criticisms from very senior officials, I think the Chinese side is going to ask what the point of the engagement is in the first place,” said Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“I do think there’s going to be probably some pretty difficult conversations between Beijing and Washington over the next few days and the next few weeks,” Cooper told VOA.
Moscow also condemned Biden’s comments. On Wednesday, the Kremlin said the comments reflected the U.S. administration’s “unpredictable” foreign policy.
“This is a very contradictory manifestation of U.S. foreign policy, which points to a significant element of unpredictability,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
…
A Kenyan Family Searches for Answers Amid Cult Deaths
At the home of James Tole Mwambela, the family says a prayer for their brother Nelson Kimbichi Mwambela. They say it is all they can do. It has been months since they saw him.
It all began when the family noticed he had stopped taking his children to school. His unusual behavior led them to wonder about his well-being, his brother James Mwambela said.
“By that time, people didn’t know about [Pastor Paul] Mackenzie’s teachings, many would assume, but my brother kept saying that the world is ending, and Jesus is coming back,” James said. “We all differed with him, including my mother and father.”
Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, offered doomsday warnings, calling life in the West “evil,” and medicine, education, food, sports and entertainment as “useless.”
Nelson then quit his job and secretly moved his wife and six children to the Shakahola farm owned by Mackenzie. His whereabouts were a mystery. Nelson’s mother, Janet Mwambela, noticed earlier that something was wrong.
“It seems like they started training the kids slowly on how to fast. At one point, I asked my son if he was eating — he had lost a lot of weight,” she told VOA.
Officials say Mackenzie told his followers to starve to death in order to meet Jesus. Investigators are still trying to determine how many people lost their lives while following the cult-like sect. As they continue to unearth shallow graves on the property, the death toll has risen to more than 300.
They also found personal belongings, including a Bible belonging to “Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Kimbichi Mwambela.” It is the only proof the family now has that Nelson and his family were in Shakahola. No remains have been identified as theirs.
Mackenzie is currently in police custody facing charges of preaching dangerous beliefs that led to the starvation deaths of hundreds of his followers. One of his aides, Joseph Juma Buyuka, died this week in police custody after a hunger strike.
Last month, Kenyan President William Ruto said his government took responsibility for the deaths.
When news broke about the discovery of mass graves in the town of Malindi in Shakahola forest, James made his way there to search for Nelson and his family. What he learned was shocking.
“One of the survivors told me about my niece Janet and [the survivor’s] brother called Sylvester, who was later baptized to be called Paul,” James said. “He said that this family was said to be living very close to Pastor Paul Mackenzie and unfortunately, all six children including, their mother, had died.”
VOA could not independently verify this claim.
Janet Mwambela said she misses her son.
“He was a very good boy. He was very quiet and very soft spoken. In fact, his younger brother was louder and more talkative, but not him,” she said.
The Mwambela family has relocated 182 kilometers from their home in Taita to Malindi to be closer to the investigation and give DNA samples to a government chemist to help identify the bodies. The number of missing people is still far greater than the recovered bodies, says Hassan Musa, regional manager of Kenya Red Cross.
“We have registered 618 missing people,” Musa told VOA. “These are people that have been reported by their family members that, in one way or another, they are either in Shakahola forest or at the Malindi sub county morgue.”
The Mwambelas say they just want answers.
This report originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service.
…
More Than 30 Feared Dead as Boat Bound for Spain’s Canary Islands Sinks
More than 30 migrants were feared dead after a small boat headed for Spain’s Canary Islands sank Wednesday, two migration-focused organizations said, as they criticized Spain and Morocco for not intervening earlier to rescue the vessel’s passengers.
The groups, Walking Borders and Alarm Phone, said the boat held around 60 people. Spain’s maritime rescue service confirmed the deaths of two of the dinghy’s occupants, a child and an adult man, and said a Moroccan patrol boat had rescued 24 people.
Neither Spanish nor Moroccan authorities would confirm how many people had been on board the vessel or how many might be missing.
Walking Borders spokesperson Helena Maleno said in a tweet that 39 people had drowned, without giving further details, while Alarm Phone, which operates a trans-European network supporting rescue operations, said 35 people were missing.
The tragedy sparked criticism from migrant rights activists who said the boat was in Spain’s search-and-rescue region under international law, meaning Madrid should have led the operation instead of Rabat.
At the time of its sinking, the dinghy was in waters off the coast of Western Sahara. Although Morocco administers a majority of the former Spanish colony, its sovereignty remains under dispute and the United Nations lists it as a non-self-governing territory.
Spain’s state news agency EFE reported that a Spanish rescue service ship, the Guardamar Caliope, was about 46 kilometers, about an hour’s sail, away from the dinghy Tuesday evening.
The Guardamar Caliope did not aid the dinghy because the operation had been taken over by the Moroccan Rescue Coordination Centre in Rabat, which dispatched a patrol boat that arrived on Wednesday morning, about 10 hours after it had been spotted by a Spanish rescue airplane, EFE added.
The EU has said it and member states have been intensifying efforts to establish an “effective, humanitarian and safe” European migration policy.
Morocco’s Interior ministry has not responded to a Reuters request for comment and Morocco has not made any official communication about what happened.
The Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa have become the main destination for migrants trying to reach Spain, with a much smaller share trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Spanish mainland.
The Atlantic migration route is one of the deadliest in the world. Attempts to reach the Canary Islands’ shores saw at least 559 people, including 22 children, die in 2022, according to data from the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration.
The migrants using the route are typically from several countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
…
US CDC Advisers Recommend RSV Shots Be Available to Older Adults
A panel of advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday recommended that new vaccines from Pfizer and GSK to prevent severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections be available to older adults in the U.S. but stopped short of saying all of them should get the shots.
In two separate votes, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said that people aged 60 and older may receive the RSV shots after consulting with a health care provider.
It was not the strongest recommendation that the ACIP could have made for the shots. Some committee members wanted a broader recommendation, but others had concerns that there was not enough data about how effective the vaccines are in people over age 75 and other high-risk groups.
“Those who are at high risk for disease and for high risk for hospitalizations and death were actually not included in the trials,” said committee member Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot. “The patient population that participated in the study were younger and healthier and had fewer comorbid conditions, were not immunocompromised and were not living in nursing homes.”
The CDC’s director needs to sign off on the recommendation before the vaccines can be made available. Both drugmakers have said they expected to be able to supply the shots ahead of the RSV season later this year.
RSV usually causes mild cold-like symptoms but can also lead to serious illness and hospitalization. It is estimated to be responsible for 14,000 deaths annually in adults aged 65 and older in the United States, according to government data.
During the meeting, the companies presented data on whether one inoculation could remain effective over the course of two RSV seasons compared with protection seen with an annual shot.
In older adults, the efficacy of Pfizer’s vaccine in preventing lower respiratory tract disease with three or more symptoms fell from 88.9% at the end of the first season to 78.6% through the middle of a second RSV season. Efficacy fell to 48.9% from about 65% for less severe forms of the disease in that age group.
With the GSK vaccine, efficacy in preventing severe disease defined by three or more symptoms fell to 84.6% through the middle of the second RSV season, from about 94% at the end of first in older adults. Efficacy of the vaccine in preventing lower respiratory tract disease fell to 77.3% from 82.6% at the end of the first season in older adults.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month approved the first RSV vaccine from GSK, branded as Arexvy, and later Pfizer’s Abrysvo for people aged 60 and older to protect them from lower respiratory tract disease caused by the virus.
Pfizer and GSK have said they expect RSV vaccines to eventually become multibillion-dollar sellers.
For this year, GSK has said it expects the U.S. market to be in the range of 10 million to 15 million people, a small fraction of the size of the expected flu or COVID-19 market for 2023.
At the meeting, GSK said it expects to price its shot between $200 and $295 a dose. Pfizer provided the CDC with a price range of $180 to $270 per dose but would not guarantee that its final price would fall within that range, saying it was in the middle of competitive price negotiations on the shots.
…
Pakistani Parents of Migrant Boat Accident Victims Wait Anxiously for Information
Last week’s migrant boat accident in the Mediterranean Sea near Greece has sent shock waves through Pakistan, home to almost 300 passengers of the overcrowded fishing vessel. VOA’s Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman met with some parents waiting to learn the fate of their missing children.
…
US Coast Guard Bringing in More Ships, Vessels to Search for Lost Titanic Tourist Submersible
Rescuers on Wednesday rushed more ships and vessels to the area where a submersible disappeared on its way to the Titanic wreckage site, hoping underwater sounds they detected for a second straight day might help narrow their search in an increasingly urgent mission.
The full scope of the search was twice the size of Connecticut in waters 2½ miles deep, said Captain Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District, who noted that authorities are still holding out hope of saving the five passengers onboard the Titan.
“This is a search-and-rescue mission, 100%,” he said. ” … We’ll continue to put every available asset that we have in an effort to find the Titan and the crew members.”
But even those who expressed optimism warned that many obstacles remain: from pinpointing the vessel’s location, to reaching it with rescue equipment, to bringing it to the surface — assuming it’s still intact. And all that has to happen before the passengers’ oxygen supply runs out, which some have estimated might happen as early as Thursday morning.
The area of the North Atlantic where the Titan went missing on Sunday is prone to fog and stormy conditions, making it an extremely challenging environment to conduct a search-and-rescue mission, said Donald Murphy, an oceanographer who served as chief scientist of the Coast Guard’s International Ice Patrol. The lost submersible could be as deep as about 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) below the surface near the watery tomb of the Titanic.
Meanwhile, newly uncovered allegations suggest there had been significant warnings made about vessel safety during the submersible’s development.
Frederick said while the sounds that have been detected offered a chance to narrow the search, their exact location and source hasn’t yet been determined.
“We don’t know what they are, to be frank,” he said.
Retired Navy Captain Carl Hartsfield, now the director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Systems Laboratory, said the sounds have been described as “banging noises,” but he warned that search crews “have to put the whole picture together in context, and they have to eliminate potential man-made sources other than the Titan.”
The report was encouraging to some experts because submarine crews unable to communicate with the surface are taught to bang on their submersible’s hull to be detected by sonar.
The U.S. Navy said in a statement Wednesday that it is sending a specialized salvage system that’s capable of hoisting “large, bulky and heavy undersea objects such as aircraft or small vessels.”
The Titan weighs 20,000 pounds (9,071 kilograms). The U.S. Navy’s Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System is designed to lift up to 60,000 pounds (27,216 kilograms), the Navy said on its website.
Aboard the vessel are pilot Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company leading the expedition. His passengers are a British adventurer, two members of a Pakistani business family and a Titanic expert.
Authorities reported the 22-foot carbon-fiber vessel overdue Sunday night, setting off the search in waters about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s.
The submersible had a four-day oxygen supply when it put to sea around 6 a.m. Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission.
Frank Owen, a submarine search-and-rescue expert, said the estimated 96-hour oxygen supply is a useful “target” for searchers, but is only based on a “nominal amount of consumption.” Owen said the diver on board the Titan would likely be advising passengers to “do anything to reduce your metabolic levels so that you can actually extend this.”
At least 46 people successfully traveled on OceanGate’s submersible to the Titanic wreck site in 2021 and 2022, according to letters the company filed with a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, that oversees matters involving the Titanic shipwreck.
The submersible had seven backup systems to return to the surface, including sandbags and lead pipes that drop off and an inflatable balloon.
Jeff Karson, a professor emeritus of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, said the temperature is just above freezing, and the vessel is too deep for human divers to get to it. The best chance to reach the submersible could be to use a remotely operated robot on a fiber optic cable, he said.
“I am sure it is horrible down there,” Karson said. “It is like being in a snow cave and hypothermia is a real danger.”
Documents show that OceanGate had been warned there might be catastrophic safety problems posed by the way the experimental vessel was developed.
David Lochridge, OceanGate’s director of marine operations, said in a 2018 lawsuit that the company’s testing and certification was insufficient and would “subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.”
The company insisted that Lochridge was “not an engineer and was not hired or asked to perform engineering services on the Titan.” The firm also says the vessel under development was a prototype, not the now-missing Titan.
The Marine Technology Society, which describes itself as “a professional group of ocean engineers, technologists, policy-makers, and educators,” also expressed concern that year in a letter to Rush, OceanGate’s chief executive. The society said it was critical that the company submit its prototype to tests overseen by an expert third party before launching in order to safeguard passengers. The New York Times first reported on those documents.
Retired Navy Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, who is now deputy director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law at Syracuse University, said the disappearance of the submersible underscores the dangers associated with operating in deep water and the recreational exploration of the sea and space, “two environments where in recent past, we’ve seen people operate in hazardous, potentially lethal environments,” Murrett said.
“I think some people believe that because modern technology is so good, that you can do things like this and not have accidents. But that’s just not the case,” he said.
…
Seven Killed in Attack on Somali Military Training Camp
At least seven people were killed Wednesday when two cars loaded with explosives detonated outside a military training camp in the southern Somali town of Bardhere.
“The militants targeted regional military recruits with two car bombs. Seven recruits were killed and at least 18 injured,” Osman Nuh Haji, the deputy Gedo region governor in charge of security, told VOA.
In an interview with VOA Somali, Bardhere District Commissioner Mohamed Wali Yusuf said regional security forces prevented the suicide car bombs from reaching the recruitment camp.
“We had security tips about possible attacks, and that helped us foil the attacks and prevent the suicide vehicles from reaching their point,” said Yusuf. “They [the militants] were close to the base, but did not hit it exactly.”
Al-Shabab extremists claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they targeted the camp “because Ethiopian and Somali officials were meeting there.” Regional authorities denied the claim.
In March, a similar car bomb attack on the town’s regional guesthouse killed several soldiers and injured 10 others.
Bardhere is a strategic agricultural town about 450 kilometers south of Mogadishu. It sits near the Middle Juba region, the only area in Somalia fully controlled by al-Shabab militants.
Wednesday’s attack came a day after violence across Somalia that included heavy fighting in the semiautonomous state of Puntland and bomb explosions in the country’s Lower Shabelle region that killed at least 36 people.
…
US Says Amazon Duped Millions of Consumers into Enrolling in Prime
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday accused Amazon.com of enrolling millions of consumers into its paid subscription Amazon Prime service without their consent and making it hard for them to cancel, the agency’s latest action against the ecommerce giant in recent weeks.
The FTC sued Amazon in federal court in Seattle, alleging that the company has “knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in Amazon Prime.” In a statement, Amazon called the FTC’s claims “false on the facts and the law.”
Amazon has used “manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions,” the FTC said as it seeks civil penalties and a permanent injunction to prevent future violations.
The lawsuit is one of several actions taken by President Joe Biden’s administration intended to rein in the outsized market power of Big Tech firms as it tries to increase competition to protect consumers.
The FTC said Amazon Prime is the world’s largest subscription program, generating $25 billion in revenue annually. It offers fast, free shipping on millions of items, various discounts and access to movies, music and television series, as well as other benefits.
Prime members in the United States pay $139 per year and drive much of Amazon’s sales volume. Prime, which has more than 200 million members worldwide, is crucial to Amazon’s other businesses including its streaming service Prime Video and its grocery delivery service.
In its statement, Amazon said, “The truth is that customers love Prime, and by design we make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership.”
Amazon added it finds “it concerning that the FTC announced this lawsuit without notice to us, in the midst of our discussions with FTC staff members to ensure they understand the facts, context, and legal issues, and before we were able to have a dialog with the commissioners themselves.”
Wednesday’s lawsuit came on the day Amazon announced the July dates of its major sales event Prime Day.
The lawsuit said that under substantial pressure from the FTC, Amazon changed its cancellation process in April but that “violations are ongoing” and that it still “requires five clicks on desktop and six on mobile for consumers to cancel from Amazon.com.”
Amazon’s shares were up 0.2% in afternoon trading.
The FTC has been investigating sign-up and cancellation processes for the Prime program since March 2021.
Consumers who attempted to cancel Prime were faced with multiple labyrinthine steps to accomplish the task of canceling, according to the complaint. The FTC complaint said Amazon used the term “Iliad Flow” to describe the process it began in 2016, referencing Homer’s epic poem about the lengthy Trojan war.
Amazon also committed “intentional misconduct” meant to delay the FTC’s investigation by providing “bad faith” responses to requests for documents, the agency said.
Insider Intelligence senior analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf said that the “FTC is making an example of Amazon, but it’s quite common for companies to make it more difficult to cancel an account than it is to create one.”
“Amazon’s market power might work against it in this instance, as the FTC won’t have a hard time proving that consumers are, indeed, harmed if Amazon impedes their ability to exercise their choice to cancel their Prime membership,” Mitchell-Wolf added.
The FTC on May 31 announced a $5.8 million settlement with Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera unit after the agency said cameras had been used for spying on some customers. On the same day, the FTC said Amazon agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that it violated children’s privacy rights by failing to delete Alexa virtual assistant technology recordings at the request of parents and keeping them longer than necessary.
The new lawsuit is “emblematic of efforts by governments across the globe to rein in the excess influence of big tech,” including Amazon, Apple and Meta, according to Tom Forte, managing director at D.A. Davidson Companies.
But Forte also pointed to other retailers and subscription services that make it difficult to end memberships.
…
Iran, EU Negotiators Discuss How to Cool Nuclear Tensions
Iran met in Qatar with European Union mediator Enrique Mora as part of efforts to revive its 2015 nuclear pact with world powers, as Tehran and Washington seek to cool tensions with a mutual understanding to help end the deadlock.
Having failed to revive the deal in indirect talks that have stalled since September, Iranian and Western officials have met repeatedly in recent weeks to sketch out steps that could curb Iran’s fast advancing nuclear work, free some U.S. and European detainees held in Iran, and unfreeze some Iranian assets abroad.
“(I) had a serious and constructive meeting with Mora in Doha. We exchanged views and discussed a range of issues including negotiations on sanctions lifting,” Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said on Twitter, without elaborating.
Mora tweeted that the Doha talks were intense and had touched on “a range of difficult bilateral, regional and international issues, including the way forward on the JCPOA,” the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear deal is officially called.
EU spokesperson Peter Stano said the bloc was “keeping diplomatic channels open, including through this meeting in Doha, to address all issues of concern with Iran.”
Bagheri Kani said last week that he had met his British, German and French counterparts in the United Arab Emirates to discuss “a range of issues and mutual concerns.”
The 2015 agreement limited Iran’s disputed uranium enrichment activity to make it harder for Tehran to develop the means to produce nuclear weapons, in return for a lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.
But then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the pact in 2018, calling it too lenient on Iran, and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.
Tehran responded by gradually moving well beyond the pact’s restrictions on enrichment, rekindling U.S., European and Israeli fears that it might be seeking an atomic bomb.
The Islamic Republic has long denied seeking to weaponize the enrichment process, saying it seeks nuclear energy only for civilian uses.
The meeting between Bagheri Kani and Mora in Qatar’s capital, Doha, came days after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on all state matters such as the nuclear dossier, said a new nuclear deal with the West was possible.
…