Month: July 2023

Why Does Sweden Allow Quran Burnings? It Has No Blasphemy Laws

Posted on by SeeEU

STOCKHOLM — A recent string of public desecrations of the Quran by a handful of anti-Islam activists in Sweden has sparked an angry reaction in Muslim countries and raised questions – including in Sweden – about why such acts are allowed.

In the latest such incident, an Iraqi living in Sweden on Thursday stomped on and kicked Islam’s holy book in a two-man rally outside the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm. The protest was authorized by Swedish police, who kept a handful of agitated counterdemonstrators at a safe distance.

The same Iraqi man burned a Quran outside a Stockholm mosque last month in a similar protest that was approved by police. And at the start of the year, a far-right activist from Denmark carried out a similar stunt outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

Here’s a look at how Swedish authorities have been dealing with these acts.

Is desecrating the Quran allowed in Sweden?

There is no law in Sweden specifically prohibiting the burning or desecration of the Quran or other religious texts. Like many Western countries, Sweden doesn’t have any blasphemy laws.

It wasn’t always that way. As late as the 19th century, blasphemy was considered a serious crime in Sweden, punishable by death. But blasphemy laws were gradually relaxed as Sweden became increasingly secularized. The last such law was taken off the books in 1970.

Can Swedish authorities stop such acts?

Many Muslim countries have called on the Swedish government to stop protesters from burning the Quran. But in Sweden it is up to police, not the government, to decide whether to authorize demonstrations or public gatherings.

The freedom of speech is protected under the Swedish constitution. Police need to cite specific grounds to deny a permit for a demonstration or public gathering, such as risks to public safety.

Stockholm police did just that in February when they denied two applications for Quran-burning protests, citing assessments from the Swedish Security Service that such acts could increase the risk of terror attacks against Sweden. But a court later overturned those decisions, saying police need to cite more concrete threats to ban a public gathering.

Can Quran-burning be considered hate speech?

Sweden’s hate speech law prohibits incitement against groups of people based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Some say burning the Quran constitutes incitement against Muslims and should therefore be considered as hate speech. Others say such acts are targeting the religion of Islam rather than practitioners of the faith, and that criticism of religion must be covered by freedom of speech, even when some consider it offensive.

Seeking guidance from the justice system, Swedish police have filed preliminary hate crime charges against the man who burned the Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm in June and desecrated Islam’s holy book again Thursday. It’s now up to prosecutors to decide whether to formally indict him.

Are Swedish authorities singling out Muslims and the Quran?

Some Muslims in Sweden who were deeply hurt by recent Quran burnings questioned whether Swedish police would allow the desecration of holy books from other religions.

One Muslim man apparently decided to put that to the test and applied for permission to stage a protest Saturday outside the Israeli Embassy in which he said he intended to burn the Torah and the Bible.

Though Israeli government officials and Jewish groups condemned the planned act and called on Swedish authorities to stop it, police approved the man’s request. However, once at the scene the man backed away from his plans, saying that as a Muslim he was against the burning of all religious books.

How is blasphemy viewed in other parts of the world?

Blasphemy is criminalized in many countries. A Pew Research Center analysis found that 79 countries and territories out of the 198 studied had laws or policies on the books in 2019 that banned blasphemy, defined as “speech or actions considered to be contemptuous of God or of people or objects considered sacred.” In at least seven countries – Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia – it carried a potential death sentence.

In the Middle East and North Africa, 18 of the 20 countries studied had laws criminalizing blasphemy, although not in most cases punishable by death.

In Iraq, publicly insulting a symbol or a person that is held sacred, revered, or respected by a religious sect is a crime punishable by up to three years in prison.

Likewise in religiously diverse Lebanon, where sectarian divisions helped fuel a 15-year civil war from 1975-90, any act “intended to or resulting in” provoking “sectarian strife” is a crime punishable by up to three years in prison.

In the United States, under the freedom of speech protections in the First Amendment of the Constitution, it’s not illegal to burn copies of the Quran or other holy books.

For example, authorities were appalled by Florida pastor Terry Jones’ threat in 2010 to burn a copy of the Quran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but were unable to take legal action. Jones didn’t go through with that plan, but he led a Quran-burning in Florida the next year. 
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No Diplomatic Ties, But US, NKorea Can Still Talk About US Soldier

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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — A pink phone. A New York mission. Swedish diplomats. A North-South Korean hotline.

The United States and reclusive North Korea have no diplomatic ties — but they still have ways to contact each other. An American official said Wednesday that the U.S. government had reached out to the North as it tries to discuss a U.S. soldier who dashed into North Korea during a tour of a border area this week. The North has not yet responded, according to the U.S.

Here’s a look at possible channels the rivals could use to discuss Pvt. Travis King, the first American held in North Korea in nearly five years.

Pink phone

One of the most reliable ways for the U.S. to reach North Korea is via a light pink touch-tone phone at the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the Korean border village of Panmunjom, the place where King bolted into the North on Tuesday. The telephone line connects the liaison officers from each side — whose offices are reportedly only 40 meters apart.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday that the Pentagon reached out to its counterparts in the North’s Korean People’s Army but “those communications have not yet been answered.”

Miller didn’t elaborate. But observers say the U.S. likely used the “pink phone.”

In January, the U.N. Command tweeted that it had maintained “24/7/365” contact with the North’s army throughout 2022.

“Talking via the ‘pink phone,’ we passed 98 messages & held twice-daily line checks for timely & meaningful information exchange,” it said.

Moon Seong Mook, a retired South Korean brigadier general, said North Korean liaison officers appear to not be answering the calls made by the U.N. Command at the order of their higher-ups.

When North Korea previously suspended that telephone line, U.N. officers used a megaphone, Moon said.

The exact motive for King’s border crossing is unclear. He was convicted of assault in South Korea and could be discharged from the military.

New York mission

Miller said the U.S. retains a number of channels to send messages to North Korea.

One of those is North Korea’s mission to the U.N. in New York that has provided a back-channel negotiation option for the two countries, serving as a kind of substitute embassy since they don’t have embassies in each other’s capitals.

Despite the exchange of crude insults and threats of total destruction in 2017, the two countries used this “New York channel” to discuss the fate of Americans held in North Korea and the overall bilateral relationship. At the start of their second summit in Vietnam in 2019, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-President Donald Trump both supported the opening of a U.S. liaison office in Pyongyang, but the idea was shelved after their diplomacy broke down.

Swedish Embassy

Sweden, which does have relations with the North and an embassy in Pyongyang, has offered consular services for U.S. citizens, including those who had been detained in North Korea on charges of illegally entering the country or engaging in espionage acts.

Miller said State Department officials have reached out to Sweden on King’s case.

But a mediator role for Sweden could be complicated by the fact that its diplomats based in Pyongyang reportedly haven’t returned to the North since leaving the country due to its severe COVID-19 restrictions in 2020. Still, experts say the North’s embassy in Sweden could be a channel for communications.

Other hotlines

The rival Koreas have a set of phone and fax channels of their own to set up meetings, arrange border crossings and avoid accidental military clashes. But North Korea has been unresponsive to South Korean attempts to exchange messages via those channels since April at a time of heightened animosities over the North’s nuclear program.

Kim Yeol Soo, an expert at South Korea’s Korea Institute for Military Affairs, said communication could happen via a hotline between the two Koreas’ spy agencies. That line was reportedly previously active when others stalled. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Seoul and Washington were in contact, without elaborating.

Prospects

Kim, the expert, said North Korea won’t respond to the U.S. outreach until it completes its investigation of King, and that will likely take at least two weeks. After the investigation, he said that a protracted negotiation between the U.S. State Department and the North Korean Foreign Ministry is expected.

While King’s custody could provide North Korea with a tool to wrest diplomatic concessions from the U.S., the country would also find it difficult to detain a low-ranking solider without much high-profile intelligence on the U.S. for an extended period, Moon said.

“If he expresses his hopes to return home, it would be burdensome for North Korea to hold him but they would still try to reach a deal with the U.S. to get what it wants,” Moon, now an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said.

In the past, North Korea released U.S. civilian detainees after high-profile Americans such as former presidents travelled to Pyongyang to win their freedoms. Kim said similar steps could be required in King’s case.

King’s entry to North Korea is an embarrassment to the U.S., said Chun In-bum, a retired lieutenant general who commanded South Korea’s special forces, noting that it came the same day that the United States took major steps toward boosting its security commitment to South Korea. It deployed a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in four decades and held the inaugural meeting of a bilateral nuclear consultative body with South Korea. North Korea test-fired two missiles on Wednesday, apparently in response.

“The news of the nuclear submarine and the nuclear consultative body were both buried by him,” said Chun.
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End to Russia Grain Deal a Blow to Kenyan Refugees Already Short on Food

Posted on by SeeEU

DADAAB, KENYA — Abdikadir Omar was trapped in an extremist-controlled town in Somalia for years until May, when he slipped out to make a 12-day journey with his wife and seven children to neighboring Kenya in search of food and safety.

To his surprise, “I found peace but no food,” the 30-year-old told The Associated Press. He stood near the withered maize he tried to plant around his family’s makeshift shelter of branches and plastic sheeting outside one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

As global food insecurity suffers another shock with Russia’s termination of a deal to keep grain flowing from Ukraine, the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have fled climate change and insecurity offer a stark example of what happens when aid runs low.

Omar, a farmer, was forced to give most of his produce as tax to al-Shabab, the al-Qaida-linked extremists who have controlled parts of Somalia for years, and the little that remained wasn’t enough to feed his family during Somalia’s worst drought in decades. The final blow came when al-Shabab, under pressure from a Somali military offensive, killed his younger brother.

Omar and his family joined a new wave of Somalis on the run. They were among 135,000 new refugees who arrived at Dadaab in recent months and eventually were allowed to access food aid when the Kenyan government resumed refugee registrations in February at the camp located 90 kilometers from the Somali border.

Dadaab is home to more than 360,000 registered refugees and many unregistered ones. The camp was established in the 1990s, its permanence reflected in the neat rows of corrugated iron homes in its older sections.

Food rations, however, are more fragile. They have been cut from 80% of the minimum daily nutritional requirement to 60% due to reduced donor funding, according to the World Food Program. Traditional donors have been quick to bring up hunger in places like Somalia when criticizing Russia for ending the grain deal, however they have focused their giving elsewhere, including Ukraine. In May, a high-level donors’ conference for Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia raised less than $3 billion of the $7 billion that organizers wanted for humanitarian aid.

Refugee camps like Dadaab, especially in Africa, will see further cuts in aid because of Russia’s action, the WFP’s executive director, Cindy McCain, told the AP on Tuesday. Under the recently ended deal, WFP was procuring 80% of its global wheat supply from Ukraine.”There are going to be some serious shortages and, in some cases, none at all as a result of this,” she said, adding that it was too soon to predict what those cuts would be.

Already, “families that used to prepare probably three meals a day have now reduced to prepare either two meals or a meal a day, and that’s quite extreme,” the WFP head of programs at Dadaab, Colin Buleti, told the AP at a food distribution center during a visit last week.

Families receive monthly rations of sorghum, rice, beans, maize and vegetable oil, alongside a cash transfer for buying fresh produce that has been halved to $3.

Aid workers say the reduced rations are likely to worsen malnutrition. In one of Dadaab’s three sections, Hagadera, 384 malnutrition cases were reported in the first half of the year, already exceeding the 347 reported there all of last year, according to the International Rescue Committee, which provides health services.

The malnutrition ward in Hagadera is filled beyond capacity with crying babies. It is meant to handle 30 patients and is currently at 56.

Dool Abdirahman, 25, arrived with her malnourished baby daughter in November. The family fled Somalia when the infant developed hydrocephalus, or a buildup of fluid on the brain. Until then, the family had struggled to hold out at home, Abdirahman said.

The International Rescue Committee’s health manager in Dadaab, Barbara Muttimos, said that even the nutrient-dense peanut paste used to treat children who are acutely and severely malnourished is threatened by reduced funding and the growing number of hungry people.

But for mothers like Mabina Ali Hassan, 38, the conditions in Dadaab are better than the nonexistent services back home, where conflict has destabilized the country over the past three decades.

“I regret going back to Somalia in 2016 when I heard it was safer,” the mother of eight said. “This baby was born there and couldn’t get health care because the hospitals were not equipped.” She said she returned to the refugee camp when her son, now a year old, became malnourished.

Maryan Mohamed, 30, said she was lucky to be among the newly registered refugees. The former teashop owner and her six children arrived at Dadaab in March and for four months lived off food handouts from friends who were already registered.

“While stability welcomed me here, I’m still striving for the life I dreamed of,” she said.

The threat of insecurity remains, even for the refugees. Al-Shabab this month attacked a Somali military base just 12 kilometers from the Kenya border. Somali forces are under pressure to assume security responsibilities as an African Union peacekeeping force continues its withdrawal from the country.

Kenya’s government is now in discussions with the United Nations on how to integrate the hundreds of thousands of refugees into host communities in the future. The U.N. refugee agency says such integration is the best way to host refugees as donor funding shrinks.
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US, China Dig In Despite Hopes for Thaw

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The United States and China appear no closer to easing mounting tensions despite a recent flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of upcoming trips by high-profile U.S. officials to the Indo-Pacific region.

Instead, officials from both countries in recent days have spoken publicly of showing strength while also lamenting the lack of progress in a variety of talks.

“Deterrence today is real, and deterrence is strong,” Ely Ratner, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, told lawmakers Thursday during a hearing focused on Washington’s China policy.

“The department is making historic progress toward a regional force posture that is more mobile, distributed, resilient and lethal,” Ratner said. “We have a U.S. military that is more capable, more distributed across the region, and more deeply integrated with our allies and partners.”

Speaking alongside Ratner, Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told lawmakers efforts are underway to ensure that competition between Washington and Beijing does not boil over into conflict.

“Intense competition requires intense diplomacy,” he said. “We are committed to managing this competition responsibly and to maintaining open lines of communication with the PRC [Peoples Republic of China].”

Three senior U.S. officials have made trips to China in recent weeks, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry.

And while not an official U.S. visit, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is in Beijing this week, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The 100-year-old Kissinger is revered in China for the role he played in opening relations between Washington and Beijing in the 1970s.

But according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi’s message for Kissinger was one of caution.

“China and the United States are once again at the crossroads of where to go,” Xi said. “The two sides need to make new decisions.”

Xi’s words echoed warnings a day earlier by China’s ambassador to the U.S.

“This is, frankly speaking, a difficult time for China-U.S. relations,” Xie Feng said during a panel Wednesday at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado, describing the foundations of the relationship between the two countries as “still fragile.”

“There’s a Chinese saying that we will not make provocations, but we will not flinch from provocations,” Xie said, adding that when it comes to some of Washington’s recent actions, “The Chinese people cannot remain silent, and the Chinese government cannot sit idly by.”

Xie and other Chinese officials have pointed to Washington’s support for Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own.

Washington’s long-standing policy has been to acknowledge Beijing’s claims but not endorse them. But U.S. military and political support for Taiwan, including a trip by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last August, have rankled Chinese officials.

“The first and foremost thing we should bear in mind is that Taiwan is China’s Taiwan,” Xie said Wednesday in Aspen, warning that the actions of those he described as “Taiwan separatists” cannot be tolerated.

“This is a very dangerous path they are taking,” he said. “The priority for us is to stop [Taiwanese Vice President William Lai] from visiting the United States, which is like a great rhino charging at us.”

Xie repeated Chinese government assertions that “no one is more eager or sincere than China to see a peaceful solution … to see a peaceful reunification” of China and Taiwan. But U.S. military and intelligence officials have their doubts.

“President Xi [Jinping] said he wants to be ready by 2027” to take Taiwan by force, U.S. Admiral John Aquilino, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said earlier this week in Aspen.

“We certainly ought to be ready before then if we’re doing our jobs,” Aquilino added. “With what we have today, I’m confident that they would fail.”

But Aquilino and other military officials warn China’s rapid military modernization and expansion has been “second to none,” with Beijing also growing bolder in how it uses its military might.

That combination, along with China’s refusal to talk with U.S. military and defense officials, has Washington concerned.

“Military to military communication remained closed, and that’s unfortunate,” John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, told VOA on Thursday.

“You want to be able to pick up the phone and talk to your opposite and try to take the tensions down, and to avoid miscalculation,” he said. “When you have that kind of military hardware sailing so close together, flying so close together, the potential for miscalculation and risk only shoot up if you can’t talk to one another.”

In the meantime, top U.S. officials will continue their outreach to allies in the Indo-Pacific, many of whom are likewise concerned about Beijing’s behavior.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Blinken are set to visit with key allies in the region, including Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, starting next week, hoping to further cement security arrangements aimed at curtailing China’s influence.

Austin’s visit to Papua New Guinea, building on a recently signed defense cooperation agreement, will be the first-ever by a sitting U.S. defense secretary, underscoring the importance of such alliances.

Other allies are also pushing for more U.S. help, citing growing pressure from China.

“We don’t look at them as friendly,” Palau President Surangel W. Whipps Jr. said earlier this week of repeated Chinese incursions into his country’s territorial waters.

“It looks like they have other intentions,” he said, in response to a question from VOA. “I think it’s time for some [U.S.] destroyers to show up and say, ‘What are you doing in our waters?’”

VOA congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson, White House correspondent Anita Powell and State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching contributed to this report. 
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At Least 9 Killed by Bomb in Northeastern DRC

Posted on by SeeAF

At least nine people were killed and a dozen wounded when a bomb went off in a village in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a local official said Thursday. 

The bomb exploded in the eastern territory of Rutshuru on Wednesday evening, according to Isaac Kibira, a deputy to the province’s governor. A local self-defense fighter — part of a militia to protect the community — was trying to identify an object on the ground when it detonated in the village center, instantly killing him and eight civilians nearby. 

It was not immediately known who planted the bomb, though officials said it was found in an area where armed rebels recently have made incursions. 

“Emergency first aid was provided by elements of the regional forces of the East African Community deployed in the area,” said Kibira. Local health officials said they admitted the wounded to a clinic for treatment. 

Fighting in eastern Congo has been simmering for decades as more than 120 groups fight for power, land and valuable mineral resources, while others try to defend their communities. But it spiked in late 2021 when the rebel group M23, which was largely dormant for nearly a decade, resurfaced and started capturing territory. Earlier this week, the United Nations raised the alarm about a surge in violence in the country’s northeast. 

M23 rose to prominence 10 years ago when its fighters seized Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city on the border with Rwanda. It derives its name from a March 23, 2009, peace deal that it accuses the Congo government of not implementing. The Congolese government and the U.N. have accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels, allegations Rwanda denies. 

M23 and a local self-defense group have been fighting for control of the village. Youth militia groups called Wazalendo (“patriots” in Kiswahili) have formed across northeastern Congo to protect their communities from encroaching armed groups. 

Wednesday’s deaths came less than a week after M23 was accused of killing nearly a dozen people in a different village in the same area. 
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More International Students Eligible for US STEM Work Program

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The United States will add eight new fields of study for international students looking to acquire practical work experience in the country, the Department of Homeland Security announced last week.

The eight new fields of study include: landscape architecture; institutional research; mechatronics, robotics and automation engineering technology/technician; composite materials technology/technician; linguistics and computer science; developmental and adolescent psychology; geospatial intelligence; and demography and population studies.

The new fields will all be added to the science, technology, engineering, mathematics Optional Practical Training, or STEM OPT, program. Announced in a July 12 Federal Register notice, the additions will provide international students with more opportunities to temporarily work in the United States.

This is the latest move intended to attract more foreign STEM students to the United States.

Early last year, the Biden administration added 22 fields of study to the STEM OPT program.

“STEM innovation allows us to solve the complex challenges we face today and make a difference in how we secure and protect our country,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in announcing the 2022 expansion. “Through STEM education and training opportunities, DHS is expanding the number and diversity of students who excel in STEM education and contribute to the U.S. economy.”

DHS received nominations for 120 fields, from which eight were selected and announced last week.

Through OPT, international students on an F-1 visa can gain experience in their area of study during or following the completion of their degree.

More than 200,000 international students used the program to gain work experience in the United States during the 2020-21 academic year.

The program usually lets students work for up to one year, but certain STEM students can extend that for an additional two years.

Boundless, a firm that helps people immigrate to the U.S., hailed the latest STEM expansion.

“As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, initiatives like STEM OPT play a crucial role in promoting innovation, economic growth and cultural exchange,” the Seattle-based company said in a recent statement. “By expanding access to practical training, the U.S. signals a commitment to fostering a diverse and globally connected workforce.”
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Major Strikes Loom in US Labor Market 

Posted on by SeeUS

The labor movement in the United States is having an unusually active moment, with as many as four high-profile strikes possible and a level of coordination among separate unions that experts say has been lacking in recent years. 

 

In May, the Writers Guild of America, which represents film and television screenwriters, went on strike, followed last week by the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The combination of the two has brought production of film and television programs in the U.S. to a near-complete halt. 

 

While labor action in Hollywood has garnered plenty of headlines, its day-to-day impact on average Americans has been limited. That will not be the case if two other major unions, both in contract negotiations right now, wind up on the picket lines. 

 

The United Auto Workers union (UAW) is negotiating with automakers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — the so-called Big Three — to try to avert a strike that could result in hundreds of thousands of autoworkers walking off the job. At the same time, the Teamsters union is in discussions with shipping giant United Parcel Service over its contract with delivery drivers. A strike by either or both would be deeply felt across the U.S. 

 

Changing atmosphere 

The labor movement in the United States has been in a period of protracted decline for several decades. In the mid-20th century, fully one-third of U.S. workers belonged to unions, and it was not uncommon in any given year to see thousands of strikes, with workers in the millions across multiple industries walking off the job for some period of time. 

 

In 1974, at the peak of labor job actions, the federal government counted 6,074 individual strikes across the country, according to data gathered by Judith Stepan-Norris and Jasmine Kerrissey for their recent book, Union Booms and Busts: The Ongoing Fight Over the U.S. Labor Movement. 

 

That began to decline in the 1980s, as legal protections for employers became stronger and the courts became less friendly to labor. Strikes increasingly ended with little or no benefits for the workers involved, while many lost a major source of income for the duration of their work stoppages. Union membership fell, and by 2014, the U.S. saw only 68 strikes in total. Today, union members make up only about 6% of working Americans.

Possible turnaround 

Stepan-Norris, an emerita professor of sociology at the University of California-Irvine, told VOA there are multiple factors that appear to be animating the movement in 2023. She said the coronavirus pandemic and a trend of people leaving the workforce, called by many the “Great Resignation,” changed the dynamic significantly.  

 

“That gave workers more power. You had more of a strong labor market with low unemployment,” Stepan-Norris said.  

 

In addition, she said, they have had the example of some recent successful strikes. Last year, for example, academic workers led a massive strike against the University of California system, which resulted in major concessions in workers’ favor.  

 

“Other workers are looking around and seeing that these strikes are starting to show some progress for people, and so other workers are getting a taste that they can do it, too,” she said. “Not to say that any of these new strikes are directly related to that — it’s just sort of the atmosphere [of success] that surrounds them.” 

 

Horizontal solidarity 

Susan Schurman, who teaches labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University, told VOA that in recent labor actions, she has seen a dynamic at play that has not been present recently: cross-union cooperation. 

 

“The last time the Writers Guild went on strike, SAG-AFTRA didn’t even show up,” Schurman said. “This time, I went to a couple of rallies in New York and the stage actors — Actors Equity —  were there. The stagehands [the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees] were there. The Teamsters were there. The Communication Workers [of America] were there. The building trades were there.  

 

“We call this ‘horizontal labor solidarity’ across unions,” Schurman said. “This is when labor really makes gains. It’s important that you have what we call ‘vertical solidarity,’ within your own union. You have to have that in order to engage in a strike. But it’s not enough. You have to have the support of other unions.” 

 

Horizontal solidarity was commonplace in the mid-20th century, she said, but has not been a notable factor in labor job actions in several decades.  

 

“We have not seen that, like we’re seeing this summer, in a very long time,” she said.

Autoworkers dispute 

The UAW has a long history of striking in order to achieve better contracts for its members, and the current contracts with GM, Ford and Stellantis are all scheduled to expire in September. 

 

Shawn Fain, the leader of the UAW, announced last week that his 160,000 members are prepared to put down their tools and that blame for any work stoppage will lie with the companies’ management. 

 

“If the Big Three don’t give us our fair share, then they’re choosing to strike themselves, and we’re not afraid to take action,” he told reporters last week. 

 

In a sign of how acrimonious the discussions have become, Fain broke with tradition and refused to meet company executives for a public handshake as negotiations got under way, as other UAW leaders have done in the past.  

 

The automakers themselves have said they want to reach a deal but point out that they are trying to remake their companies for a world in which electric vehicles are expected to replace many of the gasoline-powered cars and trucks they currently produce. They warn that the transition will lead to inevitable disruption for their workforce. 

 

Teamsters and UPS 

The Teamsters union represents 340,000 UPS workers poised to strike on August 1. The contract negotiations, which broke down in early July and restarted just this week, are focused on compensation for workers. 

 

One key point is that as the job market has tightened over the past year, the company has been forced to raise the starting salaries it offers in order to attract more workers. However, it did not also raise the wages of many of its more experienced workers. This means that some UPS employees with years of seniority are earning wages equivalent to those of new hires. 

 

A strike by UPS workers could be damaging economically, with the think tank Anderson Economic Group estimating that a 10-day stoppage would cost upward of $7 billion when workers’ lost pay, the company’s lost profits and damage to UPS customers are combined. 

 

In a statement that accompanied the announcement that it would return to the bargaining table, the delivery company emphasized the need for a prompt resolution to the problem. 

 

“We are prepared to increase our industry-leading pay and benefits, but need to work quickly to finalize a fair deal that provides certainty for our customers, our employees and businesses across the country,” it said.
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EU Visa Rejections a Burden on Journalists, Media Groups Say

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Media associations are warning that a rise in visa rejections for Turkish citizens is affecting the ability of the country’s journalists to work.

The number of journalists whose applications for a Schengen visa have been turned down has “significantly risen,” according to the European Federation of Journalists, or EFJ. The visas permit free travel across the European Union.

In a statement this week, the EFJ said that journalists who travel frequently for work are being given short-term visas only, which means they must make repeated applications.

“This burdensome and financially unsustainable process must be addressed,” the federation said.

A Turkish citizen who holds a regular passport must apply for a visa to enter the Schengen area, which encompasses 27 EU member states.

Data from SchengenVisaInfo show the rate of Turkish citizens’ visa rejections at 15% last year. But the EFJ said the rate of visa rejections for Turkish citizens in 2023 has surged to 50 percent, affecting journalists.

“We call upon a number of diplomatic missions to rectify their prejudiced and discriminatory attitudes toward journalists from Turkey, as these biases obstruct reporters from fulfilling their professional responsibilities effectively,” EFJ Vice President Mustafa Kuleli said.

The Turkish government has repeatedly charged that the EU’s motive behind the visa rejections of Turkish citizens is political.

“We will settle the visa problem, which has been used as political blackmail recently, as soon as possible,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on May 30.

The EU authorities deny that claim. “No decisions are taken on political grounds but rather on objective grounds,” Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, head of the EU delegation to Turkey, told Reuters.

Visa deal

Under a 2016 deal between the EU and Turkey, Brussels pledged to provide 6 billion euros (about $6.7 billion) to Ankara to help it prevent refugee crossings onto EU soil and also to ease the visa application process for the Turkish citizens.

“The EU visa liberalization promised to the Turkish citizens is now almost a dream. The application requirements are getting more difficult, and the number of the requested documents is increasing daily,” said EFJ President Nazmi Bilgin.

Bilgin told VOA that Turkish citizens are being treated as potential refugees intending to flee to Europe.

Kivanc El, the head of the Progressive Journalists Association, said the foreign officials from EU nations act as if Turkish journalists will seek asylum there.

“If our colleagues consider seeking asylum, they would do it properly. But, in their visa applications, their destination, where they will be, what meetings they will attend are known,” El told VOA.

On June 15, T24 editor-in-chief Dogan Akin wrote a column detailing that, when the news website’s foreign editor applied for a Schengen visa from the German consulate four years ago, T24 was asked to provide its bank statements.

“We decided not to move forward with the visa application at that point,” Akin wrote.

Last August, Reuters reported that Turkish sports presenter Sinem Okten’s Schengen visa application was rejected twice. “I applied first to Germany, then to France. Both rejected my application,” Okten told Reuters.

“I’ve traveled abroad numerous times to follow and film matches and interview people, maybe 50 to 60 times. This is the first time I am having this problem,” she said.

Bilgin said that visa rejections affect journalistic work.

“In the past, our colleagues could easily get visas only by stating the institution they work for and explaining where and when they will travel. Even if they fulfill the aggravated application requirements, they cannot get a visa these days,” Bilgin said.

The Schengen visa application with additional service fees can cost about 100 euros, more than a quarter of the current monthly minimum wage in Turkey.

Worries about financial security

According to Reuters Institute’s 2022 Digital News report, the media sector in Turkey faces financial problems “with devaluation fueling a 20-year high in inflation.”

“Independent journalists who already work under difficult political conditions are also increasingly worried for their financial security,” the report states.

Journalists with press cards issued by the Turkish presidency’s Directorate of Communications are eligible to obtain service passports that enable them to travel visa-free to the Schengen area for their work.

“Unfortunately, the Directorate of Communications does not issue press cards to many journalists,” El told VOA.

Fahrettin Altun, the director of communications in the Turkish presidency, wrote on Turkey’s Directorate of Communications website, “So long as we are on duty, we will keep combating those who carry out ‘terrorism propaganda’ in the guise of ‘journalism.’ Terror sympathizers should not rejoice in vain.”

Local journalism organizations say the Directorate of Communications hands the press cards only to pro-government media outlets, discriminating against independent or dissident journalists.

This report originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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 Ukrainian Farmers React to Russia’s Grain Deal Withdrawal 

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After Russia withdrew from a deal allowing Ukraine to export grain through ports on the Black Sea, the Kremlin launched attacks on Ukrainian ports and grain hubs. Anna Kosstutschenko spoke with Ukrainian farmers about how this will impact them. VOA footage by Pavel Suhodolskiy
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US Body Reports ‘Horrific Information’ About UN Operations in Afghanistan

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A U.S. watchdog says it has disclosed to Congress information about diversion and control of international humanitarian assistance by de facto Taliban authorities in Afghanistan.

“We have just uncovered, as part of our response to the House Foreign Relations Committee, some really horrific information about the problems with the U.N. operations in Afghanistan,” John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), told an event at King’s College London on Thursday.

Sopko did not offer more details about his findings saying the foreign relations committee had tasked SIGAR to investigate and report to it whether U.S. aid to Afghanistan benefited the Taliban.

“A lot of congressmen are torn in this conundrum between giving humanitarian assistance to Afghans who are suffering versus how much of that [aid] is going to a regime which we hate,” said Sopko.

United Nations officials have not yet responded to VOA questions sent Thursday about what they know about diverted aid.

The Taliban are under U.S. sanctions that date back decades when the group was first in power over much of Afghanistan in the 1990s.

After spending over $146 billion on reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2022, the United States government suspended all development aid to the country following Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.

The Taliban deny they are interfering in humanitarian programs and accuse the U.S. and other Western donors of politicizing aid to Afghanistan.

However, the Islamist regime has imposed gender-based restrictions on aid activities denying Afghan women’s work for the U.N. and other non-government organizations – a move globally condemned as misogynistic.

Meanwhile, the U.N. says there continue to be many incidents of interference involving U.N. aid workers.

“118 gender-related incidents were recorded, with some 97 percent attributed to the de facto authorities and involving, inter alia, interference with programming, incidents at checkpoints, threats against humanitarian workers, assets and facilities, and mahrams [male escorts] required for movement of female staff,” the U.N. Special Representative for Afghanistan reported to the Security Council last month.

The U.N. has reported progress in reducing risks of fraud and diversion of funds in Afghanistan but has not given more details.

Robust funding

The United States, even while enforcing sanctions on the Taliban, has maintained humanitarian funding to Afghanistan amounting to about $2 billion since August 2021.

Despite a reported drop in donors’ response to the U.N. humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan, the United States remains at the top of the donors’ list with over $336 million contribution so far this year. Last year, the United States contributed over $1.26 billion to the U.N. appeal.

As of July 20, only 23% of this year’s Afghanistan appeal has been funded, according to the U.N.

Aid agencies have warned that a lack of funding to the appeal will force millions of vulnerable Afghan households into extreme poverty.

Citing North Korea and Syria, among other countries, John Sopko said in the past “we in the United States held our nose and delivered assistance to people around the world who live under governments we hate.”

Last month, the U.S. Department of States announced an additional $920 million in humanitarian assistance for the people of Syria taking the total U.S. assistance to the country since 2011 to $16.8 billion.

SIGAR said a new proposed draft law, which was passed by the House and under consideration by the Senate, will prohibit any U.S. assistance going “directly or indirectly” to the Taliban. Sopko predicted the bill, if passed, would have “serious implications” for aid to Afghanistan.
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Turkey-Egypt Rapprochement Raises Hopes for Peace in Mideast, Africa

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The restoration of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Egypt in early July is raising hopes for ending conflicts across the Middle East and Africa. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Interview: Kirby Discusses US Soldier in North Korea, Grain Deal, Infighting in Congress

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The Biden administration says it will do “everything we can” to bring home Private 2nd Class Travis King, the junior soldier crossed into North Korea earlier this week “willfully and without authorization.” 

John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, told VOA on Thursday that American officials have not had a chance to communicate with the 23-year-old soldier, who crossed the demilitarized zone earlier this week.

Kirby also expressed concerns about political infighting in Congress that has delayed passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, about concerns over Moscow’s pullout from the deal that allowed grain shipments to leave ports in the Black Sea, and about the continued lack of direct communication between the militaries of the U.S. and China.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: Thank you for joining us this morning. Let’s start with the saga of Private Travis King. Do we have any updates on his condition, his motivations, his whereabouts, and have we heard any communication from Pyongyang? And is the administration committed to bringing him home even if that’s against his wishes?

Kirby: We don’t have any updates on Private King. We continue to conduct appropriate outreach to the North Korean side to try to gain some information and insight as to his whereabouts and his well being, but we just don’t know. And we are absolutely committed to working to getting him returned to his family. We don’t know the motivation here. We haven’t had a chance to talk to him. So we don’t know exactly what he’s thinking right now. But he’s an American soldier. And we’re going to do everything we can to try to find out where he is, how he is, and work to get him back home.

VOA: Let’s move on to Russia and the grain deal. Is the administration looking at any workarounds to get these essential supplies out of port? Things like NATO escorts, or reflagging vessels? How seriously does the administration take the threat from Russia’s defense ministry that it’s going to treat all vessels in that port as carrying military equipment?

Kirby: We have to take that ridiculous threat seriously. We are working and we will work with Ukraine and our allies and partners to try to find other ways to get the grain out of Ukraine. It’ll most likely have to go through ground routes. We’ve done this before [when] the grain deal was in effect. It’s not as efficient; you can’t get as much grain out that way. We understand that. But we’re going to keep trying. 

Look, what has to happen here is — aside from Russia ending its blockade and, make no mistake, what they’re threatening to do is a military blockade that is a military act, so aside from just not doing that — they need to get back into the deal. The deal was good for everybody including Russian farmers. But it was really good for developing nations who have food scarcity issues that are only going to be exacerbated by this throughout the Global South, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. 

VOA: Let’s move on to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. First of all, the Kremlin has said Putin is not going to South Africa, which allows him to avoid getting arrested. Does the U.S. still encourage International Criminal Court signatories to arrest him if they have the opportunity? And does this change or improve the relationship between Washington and Pretoria now that there’s no longer this awkward situation between them?

Kirby: I’ll let the South African leaders speak for themselves. We believe it’s important that everyone responsible for the atrocities and war crimes in Ukraine to be held accountable and that includes Russian leaders who are responsible for the efforts of their troops on the ground in Ukraine.

VOA: We’ve seen Prigozhin resurface and say — allegedly — that Wagner troops are not willing to fight in Ukraine. What do you make of this? What are the implications?

Kirby: It’s too hard to know right now exactly how seriously we should take this or what the impacts on the battlefield will be. I will tell you that Wagner forces — we haven’t seen them fighting in Ukraine since Mr. Prigozhin attempted overthrow of the Ministry of Defense. It’s unclear exactly how many are in Ukraine, but we haven’t seen them contribute much to the fighting in Ukraine. So it’s just too soon to know.

VOA: Moving on to the Aspen Security Forum: China keeps coming up as the big concern. U.S. Admiral John C. Aquilino said that they’re still trying to reopen military-to-military communication with China. Can you update us on that effort and why it’s so important?

Kirby: Military-to-military communications remain closed. That’s unfortunate, especially when tensions are so high. You want to be able to pick up the phone and talk to your opposite. And try to take the tensions down and to avoid miscalculation when you have that kind of military hardware sailing so close together, flying so close together. The potential for miscalculation and risk only shoot up if you can’t talk to one another.

VOA: On Iran: in April the U.S. confiscated some Iranian oil from a tanker. Iran’s navy chief is very unhappy about this and says they’ll retaliate. Is the U.S. ready to engage militarily with Iran on this? And what are the rules of engagement?

Kirby: Nobody wants to see armed conflict in the Gulf region. That said, Iran’s attacks on maritime shipping have continued nearly unabated, some of them successful, some not, because we intervene. You saw that the Pentagon just recently announced some new force deployments to the Gulf region to make us more capable of deterring these kinds of attacks. And we urge the Iranian regime to stop these destabilizing behaviors. In the meantime, we’re going to make sure we’ve got the capabilities that we need and our allies and partners have had the assurance that the United States has the capability that it needs to continue to defend ourselves and in our interests.

VOA: Last week, you told us about a mass grave in Sudan. Does this return of ethnically tinged violence at the hands of the Rapid Support Forces change the U.S. position on who to support in this conflict?

Kirby: We’re supporting the people of Sudan. Make no mistake about it. And you saw us issue sanctions against both sides. You saw us condemn this report of mass graves in West Darfur. We are on the side of the people of Sudan. That’s not going to change and we will continue to hold those accountable who are making it harder for the people of Sudan to live, to work and to achieve the kinds of civilian governance that they so desperately want.

VOA: My final question is about the National Defense Authorization Act. Earlier this week, you gave an impassioned argument for why the administration believes that reproductive care needs to be offered to service members and their families. Some right-wing media in the United States have taken your argument as justification for why women should be barred from the military. I understand that this is not a proposal that the White House or the Pentagon would take seriously. But can you remind us why diversity, equity and inclusion add to national security?

Kirby: Diversity adds to national security because it helps us make better decisions. Yes, there is a representational aspect of this. We are an all-volunteer force. And we need to recruit people from all walks of life in the United States and this is a diverse nation. Why wouldn’t you want your military to represent the very people they’re defending? But I have seen, myself, in almost 30 years of naval service, that when you have diverse people in the room, decisions are smarter, they’re more contextual, and the way we operate is better and more efficient and more effective to national defense. And that’s not something that President [Joe] Biden will ever walk away from.

VOA: Do you want to say anything else about the delay in the passage of the NDAA and the effect that it’s having on morale or national security? 

Kirby: The president looks forward to getting the NDAA legislation on his desk. He knows it’s going to look different when it gets to his desk than what it does right now. But it’s important that we do get an NDAA to the president’s desk as soon as possible so that the troops can have the resources that they need to continue to defend the nation. It is a national security issue.

VOA: Thank you so much for your commitment to our audience, John.

Kirby: It’s a pleasure. 
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Community Memorializes Kenyan Boxer Killed in Protests

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Clashes between Kenya’s opposition-led anti-tax protesters and police this month have left scores dead, including a prominent boxer who was shot earlier this month in Nairobi. Kenya’s boxing fraternity organized an exhibition bout to honor 35-year-old Raphael Shigali, who was the capital’s reigning Bantamweight champion. Francis Ontomwa reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Camera: Amos Wangwa
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Ukraine War Looms Large Over Russia-Africa Summit

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African leaders are to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg at the end of this month for a summit, billed as strengthening cooperation in peace, security, and development.

But the second Russia-Africa Summit comes as Moscow continues to wage war against Ukraine. Russia’s invasion has led to higher food and oil prices for many African nations – and prices could rise further after Russia this week pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a U.N.-brokered deal that allowed Ukrainian food exports to reach international markets.

International summits involve an element of political theater, analysts say, and African attendance will be a measure of success for the St. Peterburg gathering, according to Steven Gruzd, who leads the Africa-Russia project at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg.

“I think there will be a lot of focus on who attends … and last time in 2019, when the world looked very different before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, there were 43 African heads of state that went to Sochi [Russia] for the 2019 summit,” Gruzd told VOA.

Mvemba Dizolele, who directs the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said this will be a high-stakes discussion.

“They [Russia] are under a lot of pressure with what’s happening in Ukraine and the ramifications of the conflict there in terms of commodity prices, particularly for Africans — and also what’s happening with Wagner and so on — so this an opportunity for Russia to try to assert its place on the global stage as well,” Dizolele told VOA.

Trade likely will be discussed.

“I think there would be talk about trade … Russia’s trade with Africa is really negligible. China and the EU are by far much bigger trading partners with Africa,” Gruzd noted.

Russia is also looking to get around sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies.

“No African countries have imposed sanctions on Russia, so it’s a lucrative market,” said Gruzd. “We saw a similar pattern after the invasion of Georgia in 2008, and the first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, as Western markets closed to Russia business, they sought markets elsewhere and of course Africa, Latin America, Asia were areas where they did seek to expand.”

The U.N. General Assembly in February passed a resolution demanding that Russia end the war and leave Ukrainian territory. While 141 countries voted in favor, two African countries voted against it and 15 abstained.

“Russia benefited from that in the sense that it showed them they have some friends,” Dizolele said. “It’s simply an awakening on the African part. They are particularly sending a message to the rest of the world, ‘we also have our own foreign policies, and those reflect our national interest.’”

He said the reality is that every country has done what it needed to do.

“The French president went to Russia and tried to negotiate something that was very different than what the Americans were trying to negotiate. We see various leaders of Europe … go to Russia. Italy did not have the same position and France didn’t have the same position as Germany. It’s totally normal that people have different positions. All that is based on their interest. I think we need to accept that of Africans,” Dizolele said.

The United States, Turkey, China, France, and other countries have convened similar summits of African leaders. Dizolele said the optics of one country summoning the leaders of an entire continent undermines Africa’s efforts to assert itself on the global stage.

“Africa is a big place. Africa is a critical component and critical member of the global community. It has a lot to offer from … natural resources, mineral resources but most importantly the youth. It’s the youngest continent with the median age of 19,” he said.

“So, if that’s the case, it’s important that Africans start demanding that people come to them. You can’t be important and going to everyone all the time, it reduces your value,” he notes.
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US Airstrike in Somalia Kills Five Militants

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The U.S. military command in Africa has said it conducted an airstrike in central Somalia that killed five al-Shabab militants. 

In a press statement Thursday, AFRCOM said the “collective self-defense” airstrike occurred July 19 in a remote area near Hareeri Kalle, approximately 15 kilometers south of Galcad.

AFRICOM said the strike was in support of Somali National Army forces fighting al-Shabab. The strike came at the request of the federal government of Somalia, the statement added. 

AFRICOM said it will continue to assess the results of Wednesday’s operation and will provide additional information “as appropriate.” 

The Somali government has been fighting al-Shabab militants since 2006. The group was removed from major cities but continues to control vast areas in the countryside.

In August 2022, the Somali army, supported by self-mobilized local fighters, launched a military offensive that seized parts of central Somalia from the militant group. 

The militants have struck back, raiding military bases and inflicting heavy losses on government forces in the south and central regions.  

Meanwhile, Hussein Sheikh-Ali, the national security adviser for Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, told VOA this week the Somali government hopes to get a financial boost in December when a fundraising conference will be held in New York for the Somali army.   

Ali said six countries — the United States, United Kingdom, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — as well as the European Union will co-sponsor with Somalia an international donor conference for the Somali security sector.    

“We are expecting something that would take Somalia up to 2027 when Somalia believes we can take over to fund our security forces completely,” Ali said.  

The Somali government is aided by an African Union force and independently operating Ethiopian forces that are also fighting al-Shabab. 

The United States, Turkey, Eritrea and the United Arab Emirates are among the nations training the Somali National Army.  
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British Lawmaker Deletes Video Lauding Taliban Rule in Afghanistan

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A senior British member of parliament deleted a video Thursday praising the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan and apologized for what he said was the outcome of his “poor communication.”

Tobias Ellwood of the Conservative Party released the video commentary Wednesday on Twitter after his trip to the war-ravaged South Asian nation last week.

He argued in his now-deleted video that the security situation in Afghanistan had “vastly improved” since the Taliban returned to power two years ago.

Ellwood added that “corruption is down,” and the Taliban have almost eliminated the opium trade. He recorded his comments in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, one of the world’s largest opium poppy producers.

“This is a very different country indeed — it feels different now since the Taliban have returned to power,” he said. Ellwood urged Britain to re-engage with the Taliban and reopen its embassy in Kabul.

His video sparked outrage and prompted fellow members to move to seek his ouster as chairman of the House of Commons Defense Select Committee.

“I’m very, very sorry that my reflection of my visit could have been much better worded and have been taken out of context,” Ellwood said Thursday in his statement on Twitter after deleting the video. 

 

 

Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid retweeted the video Thursday, calling it a “positive report.” But he, too, later deleted the tweet without explaining. 

 

British media quoted Mark Francois, a defense committee member, telling the House of Commons on Wednesday that the video was “utterly bizarre” and advising Ellwood to be “very careful” in expressing his views. 

 

“Tobias Ellwood’s video could have been issued by the Afghan tourist board,” Jacob Rees-Mogg, a British member of parliament, said in a sarcastic Twitter comment. 

 

On Thursday, Ellwood appeared to defend some of his remarks in the controversial video, including criticism of the British government for not engaging directly with the Taliban, saying, “our current strategy of shouting from afar, after abruptly abandoning the country in 2021” was not working.

“However well-intentioned, reflections of my personal visit could have been better worded,” he said.

“I stand up, speak my mind, try to see the bigger picture, and offer solutions, especially on the international stage, as our world turns a dangerous corner. I don’t always get it right,” the lawmaker added.

“My simple call to action was to see our embassy reopen again and pursue a more direct strategy to help the 40 million people that we abandoned,” Ellwood said.

The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021 when the United States and other Western allies withdrew all their troops after almost two decades of involvement in the war.

The fundamentalist de facto rulers have since introduced their strict interpretation of Islamic law or Sharia, squeezing women out of public life and placing an indefinite ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade. The restrictions on Afghan women and other human rights concerns have kept the international community from granting legitimacy to Taliban rule.

Taliban leaders defend their government, saying it is aligned with the Afghan culture and Sharia.

A U.S. State Department spokesman told reporters Wednesday that “we are not reconsidering opening an embassy at this point” in Afghanistan. He was responding to a question about Ellwood’s video.

“We have always made clear to the Taliban that there are certain steps that we expect them to take if they want to gain any form of international legitimacy, which they are a long way from reaching, if at all possible,” Matthew Miller said and denounced as “abhorrent” curbs the Taliban have placed on Afghan women and girls.

“We strongly object to those steps, and of course, we know that others in the international community take note, and they consider those in assessing their relationship with their government.” 
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Iraq Orders the Expulsion of Sweden’s Ambassador as a Man Desecrated the Quran in Stockholm

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Iraq’s prime minister ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from Iraq and the withdrawal of the Iraqi charge d’affaires from Sweden on Thursday as a man desecrated of a copy of the Quran in Stockholm with permission from Swedish authorities.

The diplomatic blowup came hours after protesters angered by the planned burning of a copy of the Islamic holy book stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad early Thursday, breaking into the compound and lighting a small fire.

Online videos showed demonstrators at the diplomatic post waving flags and signs showing the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr before a planned burning of the Islamic holy book Thursday in Stockholm by an Iraqi asylum-seeker who burned a copy of the Quran in a previous demonstration last month.

Following the incident, the Swedish Embassy announced that it had closed to visitors without specifying when it would reopen.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement after meeting with security officials that Iraqi authorities will prosecute those responsible for the arson as well as referring “negligent security officials” for investigation.

However, the statement also said that the Iraqi government had informed its Swedish counterpart on Wednesday that Iraq would cut off diplomatic relations should the Quran burning go forward. Hours later, Sudani announced the ordered expulsion of the Swedish ambassador.

The announcement came after two men held an anti-Islam protest on a lawn about 100 meters (300 feet) from the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm. One of them, identified by Swedish media as Salwan Momika, an Iraqi Christian living in Sweden, stepped on and kicked the Quran, but didn’t set it on fire.

Momika also stepped on and kicked an Iraqi flag and photographs of Sadr and of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

About 50 people including journalists and a handful of counterdemonstrators who chanted religious slogans watched the demonstration from behind police barricades as plainclothes and uniformed officers stood by.

Following the protest and Sudani’s announcement, the head of Iraq’s Media and Communications Commission announced it had suspended the license of Swedish communications company Ericsson to operate in Iraq.

Before the planned protest in Stockholn dozens of men climbed over the fence at the complex containing the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad, Video footage showed men trying to break down a door, setting a fire and standing, some shirtless in the summer heat, inside what appeared to be a room at the embassy, an alarm audible in the background.

Others later performed predawn prayers outside of the embassy.

As dawn broke, police and other security officials gathered at the embassy as firefighters tried to douse the flames from the ladder of a fire truck. Some demonstrators still stood at the site, holding placards showing al-Sadr’s face, apparently left alone by police.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that its staff were safe.

“We condemn all attacks on diplomats and staff from international organizations,” the ministry said. “Attacks on embassies and diplomats constitute a serious violation of the Vienna Convention. Iraqi authorities have the responsibility to protect diplomatic missions and diplomatic staff.”

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström called the attacks “completely unacceptable” in a statement and said the ministry would summon Iraq’s charge d’affaires in Stockholm, slamming Iraqi authorities for “seriously failing” in their responsibility to protect the embassy and its personnel.

The Finnish embassy in Baghdad is adjacent to the Swedish embassy, in an area enclosed by blast walls. Finland’s ambassador to Iraq, Matti Lassila, told the Finnish public broadcaster YLE that the staff of the Swedish and Finnish embassies were proactively evacuated Wednesday and were uninjured.

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry also issued a statement condemning the attack and promising to hold the perpetrators accountable, without explaining how it allowed the breach to happen or identifying who carried out the assault. 

Stockholm police spokesman Mats Eriksson confirmed that police had granted permission for a demonstration involving two people outside the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm on Thursday. He could not say whether the protesters were planning to burn the Quran, although Momika had announced in videos posted on social media that they planned to do so.

The right to hold public demonstrations is strong in Sweden and protected by the constitution. Blasphemy laws were abandoned in the 1970s. Police generally give permission based on whether they believe a public gathering can be held without major disruptions or risks to public safety.

However, for Muslims, the burning of the Quran represents a blasphemous desecration of their religion’s holy text. Quran burnings in the past have sparked protests across the Muslim world, some turning violent. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have suspended all the activities of Swedish organizations in the country in response to the recent Quran burning.

Last month, man identified by local media and on his social media as Momika burned a Quran outside a Stockholm mosque during the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, triggering widespread condemnation in the Islamic world.

A similar protest by a far-right activist was held outside Turkey’s Embassy earlier this year, complicating Sweden’s efforts to convince Turkey to let it join NATO.

In June, protesters who support al-Sadr stormed the embassy in Baghdad during daylight hours over that Quran burning. Another day of protests saw thousands of demonstrators on the streets in the country. Protesters then, as well as early Thursday, called on Iraqi officials to expel Sweden’s ambassador to Iraq.

Al-Sadr, the chameleonic son of a prominent Shiite cleric assassinated in a 1999 attack believed to be organized by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, quickly organized Shiite dispossessed under Saddam against the American occupation after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Saddam loyalists and Shiite extremists alike would soon fight an insurgency against the American forces. Al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia fought American forces throughout much of 2004 in Baghdad and other cities. Al-Sadr’s forces are believed to have later taken part in the sectarian killings between Shiites and Sunnis that plagued Iraq for several years after the bombing of one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.

Since that time much has changed.

Al-Sadr’s followers have taken part in Iraqi military offensives against the Islamic State group in Tikrit and other cities. He has organized rallies against government corruption, including breaching the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, the highly secure area housing government offices and many foreign embassies.

He claimed he would bow out of politics last August, following a nearly yearlong deadlock in the formation of a new Cabinet. His party won the largest share of seats in the October 2021 parliamentary elections, but not enough to secure a majority government.
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China’s Xi Tells Kissinger That China-US Ties Are at a Crossroads and Stability Is Still Possible

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping told former top U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger on Thursday that relations between the two countries are at a crossroads and both sides need to “make new decisions” that could result in stable ties and “joint success and prosperity.”

The 100-year-old Kissinger is revered in China for having engineered the opening of relations between the ruling Communist Party and Washington under former President Richard Nixon during the Cold War in the early 1970s.

Xi, who is head of state, party general secretary and commander of the world’s largest standing military, met with Kissinger in the relatively informal setting of Beijing’s park-like Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, with Chinese senior diplomat Wang Yi also in attendance.

“China and the United States are once again at the crossroads of where to go, and the two sides need to make new decisions,” Xi said, according to a statement released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

“Looking into the future, China and the United States can achieve joint success and prosperity,” Xi said.

Kissinger’s visit coincided with one by Biden’s top climate envoy, John Kerry, the third senior Biden administration official in recent weeks to travel to China for meetings following Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. The flurry of diplomacy aims to restore dialogue suspended by Beijing, mainly over U.S. support for the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan that China claims as its own territory.

Referring to Kissinger’s role in initiating China-U.S. relations while serving as national security adviser during the Nixon administration, Wang said he had played an “irreplaceable role in enhancing mutual understanding between the two countries.”

“The U.S. policy toward China requires the diplomatic wisdom like that of Kissinger and political courage like Nixon’s,” Wang said, according to the Foreign Ministry. Kissinger also served as secretary of state under Nixon.

The ministry said the two sides also discussed the war in Ukraine, in which China has largely sided with Moscow, as well as artificial intelligence and other economic issues. Wang told Kissinger that it was “impossible” to transform, encircle or contain China, which Chinese leaders say the U.S. is trying to do in disputes over trade, technology, Taiwan and China’s human rights record.

On Tuesday, Kissinger held talks with Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who is barred from visiting the U.S. over arms sales he oversaw with Russia.

China’s Defense Ministry quoted Li as praising the role Kissinger played in opening up China-U.S. relations in the early 1970s, but said bilateral ties had hit a low point because of “some people on the American side who are not willing to meet China halfway.”

U.S. leaders say they have no such intentions and only seek frank dialogue and fair competition.

China broke off many contacts with the Biden administration last August, including over climate issues, to show its anger with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan. China claims the island as its own territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary, threatening to draw the U.S. into a major conflict in a region crucial to the global economy.

Contacts have only slowly been restored and China continues to refuse to restart dialogue between the People’s Liberation Army, the party’s military branch, and the U.S. Department of Defense. Even before Pelosi’s visit, the U.S. says China declined or failed to respond to over a dozen requests from the Department of Defense for top-level dialogues since 2021.

The wave of U.S. diplomacy has yet to be reciprocated by China, which has its own list of concessions it wants from Washington. U.S. officials, including Kerry, have said they will not offer Beijing any such deals.

Kissinger did not meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who has been out of public sight for more than three weeks. Despite speculation about political rivalries and personal scandals, the ministry has provided no information about his status in keeping with the party’s standard approach to personnel matters in a highly opaque political system in which the media and free speech are severely restricted.
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Survey Shows Large Gap in Asian American Opinions of United States, China 

Posted on by SeeUS

A survey of Asian Americans released Wednesday found that more than three-fourths had a favorable view of the United States, while only 20% had a favorable view of China.

The Pew Research Center surveyed more than 7,000 Asian American adults between July 2022 and January 2023, with questions focused on views of their homelands and others in Asia. The respondents included those with Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indian and Chinese ties.

When asked about their own homeland, only 41% of Chinese Americans said they had a very favorable or somewhat favorable view of China. Every other group surveyed had a majority with a favorable opinion about their homeland.

Among other Asian Americans, only 14% said they had a favorable view of China.

The Pew survey found that the longer a Chinese American had been in the United States, the less favorable their view of China. For those living in the United States for 10 years or less, 56% had a positive view compared to 38% for those in the United States for 21 or more years.

When asked if they would ever move to their ancestral homeland, Chinese Americans were the least likely to say yes with 16% signaling they would, compared to 28% for all other Asian Americans.

Economic power

A slight majority of those surveyed (53%) selected the United States as the country they thought would be the world’s top economic power in 10 years.

Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Korean respondents were the most bullish on U.S. prospects, with a gap of more than 30 percentage points between those who selected the United States and those who picked China.

The gap was tighter among Filipino, Chinese and Indian respondents, with the United States only ahead of China by about 13%.

Other findings

Each group viewed its homeland more favorably than any other country. Taiwanese Americans (95%), Japanese Americans (92%) and Korean Americans (86%) had the highest scores.

Filipino Americans were more than four times as likely to say they would consider moving to the Philippines if they were born there than if they were born in the United States. For those who expressed a willingness to move, the top selection for a reason (47%) was a lower cost of living.

The Pew survey found that Indian Americans were the most open to moving to their homeland with 33% saying they would consider doing so.

Among those who said they would, 52% said their reason for moving would be to live closer to family members.

Indian Americans also had the highest percentage of respondents (80%) saying they had a favorable view of the United States.

On the other end of the spectrum, 60% of Indian Americans viewed China negatively, compared to 10% who viewed it positively and 27% who selected neither. Among Indian Americans, no other country had more than 10% unfavorable scores.

While most other Asian Americans (68%) said they had a favorable opinion of Japan, just 36% of Korean American respondents said so. The Pew data showed U.S.-born Koreans (50%) had a more positive view of Japan than those born abroad (31%).

Overall, Vietnamese Americans were second only to China for the least number of respondents saying they had a favorable view of their homeland at 59%. Pew said there was more support among Vietnamese women, with two-thirds saying their view was favorable compared to about half of men.
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Kenya Set for Day 2 of Tax Protests

Posted on by SeeAF

NAIROBI, KENYA – Kenyans angry over the high cost of living and tax hikes were set to continue protests Thursday, a day after police opened fire on protesters, killing at least two and wounding 26 more.

“The voice of the people must be heard. Our peaceful protest continues,” opposition leader Raila Odinga wrote on Twitter.

Kenyan President William Ruto, meanwhile, has vowed that no protests would take place, saying he would take Odinga “head-on.”

The Wednesday-to-Friday demonstrations are the third round of protests that the opposition has called this month.

The Nation newspaper reported that Odinga’s Azimio opposition party had called for its supporters to assemble at Huruma grounds, Kangemi grounds and Central Park in the capital, Nairobi, Thursday.

The Kenyan Interior Ministry said Wednesday that more than 300 people were arrested during the protests and will be charged with crimes that include looting, destroying property and assaulting police.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua said the protests have been politically instigated and have been far from peaceful as the opposition has characterized them.

“What we have witnessed are violent protests with those involved carrying all manner of crude weapons,” he said. “We have seen goons destroy our highways with no police around. That is not a peaceful protest.”

Authorities did not comment on the dead and wounded or respond to witness allegations that police officers had at times fired into homes.

The opposition condemned the arrests of seven elected leaders and two close associates of Odinga, describing them in a statement as a “desperate attempt” by the Ruto administration to paralyze the opposition.

The opposition said protests would continue Thursday.

The Media Council of Kenya alleged cases of police masquerading as journalists “with intent to arrest protesters.” In a statement, the council called such behavior “grave unprofessional conduct.”

Businesses and schools in Nairobi were closed as police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters. Demonstrations were reported in several other parts of the country, including the western counties of Migori and Kisii, where the opposition enjoys huge support.

Police had said the protests were illegal as no permit for them was issued, but the right to peaceful protests is enshrined in the Kenyan constitution.

Wednesday in Nairobi’s Kibera district, Omondi Diatiene said he was ready to protest as long as it takes.

“We are protesting today because the standards (costs) of living in this country have gone drastically up,” he said. “They are going up each and every day. We don’t need Ruto, that’s it. He’s already shown us he’s a very stubborn man, he’s not ready to listen to the people.”

During similar protests last week, at least 10 people were killed, according to watchdogs. A police officer confirmed at least six deaths to the AP. Many others were injured, including 53 children who went into shock after tear gas was thrown inside their school compound.

Religious leaders have called for dialogue between the government and the opposition to end the protests. Catholic bishops Wednesday issued a statement saying, “no further blood should be shed” and urged the president to repeal the finance law that has agitated many Kenyans.

The law has raised the price of fuel to its highest level as the government implements a doubling of value added tax on petroleum products to 16%. The prices have taken effect despite a court order suspending the implementation of the controversial new taxes.

A Nairobi resident, Wycliffe Onyango, said his entire earnings are spent on food. “Right now there is no work going on. We are suffering. I plead with the government to deal with the cost of living,” he said.

The International Monetary Fund this week called the law’s approval a “crucial” step toward reducing Kenya’s debt vulnerabilities.

Western envoys from 13 countries on Tuesday issued a joint statement calling for dialogue and expressed concern over the loss of lives and destruction of property.

The Kenya Medical Association said its members had attended to “hundreds of injured Kenyans and witnessed tens of fatalities” as a result of protests in recent months, and access to health facilities was limited for patients and workers, leading to increased mortality.

Human Rights Watch urged political leaders to stop labelling protesters as “terrorists” and respect the right to peaceful protests. The group also called out the police for using force and live bullets to confront protesters.

VOA’s Mariama Diallo contributed to this report. Some information in this report came from Reuters. 
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Analysts See China-Russia Exercise as Sign of Deepening Cooperation

Posted on by SeeEU

As the war in Ukraine rages on, China and Russia are hosting joint military exercises in the Sea of Japan that analysts say are the latest sign of deepening cooperation between the two military powerhouses. The drills are also part of an effort to counter growing partnership of the U.S. and its allies in the region, they add.

“Russia and China are trying to convey to Japan and the U.S. that they are very unhappy with their cooperation in NATO and the [Indo-Pacific] region, and they want to prove that they can achieve the same level of cooperation in the region as [Washington and its allies,]” Stephen Nagy, a regional security expert at the International Christian University, told VOA.

For Russia, Nagy added, the drills are a way of showing “that they still have the capacity to manage conflicts on the eastern front but also provide capabilities to the Indo-Pacific region to work with China and pressure the U.S.” 

“They want to prove that they can still work with China to cause major disruption, especially in Japan’s backyard,” he said.

On Thursday, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that the “Northern/Interaction-2023” drills had begun in the Sea of Japan and would last until Sunday July 23. The ministry said that in addition to live artillery fire, the exercises will also include “anti-submarine and naval combat” drills.   

The drills main aim, Russia’s ministry said, is to “strengthen naval cooperation” between the two countries and “maintain peace and stability in the Asia Pacific.” Russia and China say they have deployed more than 10 naval vessels and more than 30 military aircraft to take part in the exercise.  

According to China’s state-run Global Times, the exercise marks the first time that both Russia’s navy and air force will participate in a joint exercise led by China. 

Northern/Interaction-2023 is the first joint military exercise conducted near Japan this year, but according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Russia and China conducted at least five military exercises in the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea last year.  

Forceful response?

The announcement of the exercise comes as ties are strengthening between the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, and follows a trilateral missile defense drill involving the three in the Sea of Japan this week aimed at countering North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.  

Some Chinese military commentators say China and Russia’s joint exercise is a forceful response to the trilateral drill conducted by the U.S. and its allies. 

“The Chinese and Russian drills will focus on air defense exercise, anti-missile exercise, anti-submarine exercise, and anti-ship exercise,” Chinese military commentator Song Zhongping said in a video he released last Saturday. He added that he thinks Russia and China will conduct joint sea and air patrols following the exercise.

Since the waterways around the Sea of Japan are all crucial passages for the Chinese and Russian navies to get to the Western Pacific, Song added that China and Russia should challenge the trilateral military alliance because their presence threatens the security of that strategic waterway.

Beijing’s remarks about the drills have not been as explicit. A statement released on China’s defense ministry’s official social media account on WeChat Sunday, when Chinese vessels set out for the exercise, said the drill is aimed at “safeguarding the security of strategic waterways” in the Sea of Japan.

Multiple strategic goals 

The military exercise is not just about countering the U.S. and its allies. Some experts think China and Russia also hope to fulfill some strategic goals through the drills. 

Lin Ying-yu, a China military expert at Tamkang University in Taiwan told VOA that Beijing wants to learn from Moscow’s experience of countering attacks on their navy from land in the Ukraine war. 

“During the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian forces have used missile or fighter jets to attack Russian ships at sea, so Russian forces have experience coping with this kind of attack,” he said. 

Lin adds that the People’s Liberation Army could face similar situations if it attacked Taiwan and the island’s military could use anti-ship missiles or drones to target Chinese naval vessels in a cross-Strait conflict.  

“Scenarios from the Ukraine war may be simulated in the China-Russia joint military exercise,” he said.

Nagy said the drill is also about demonstrating cohesiveness with the Russians, especially in the wake of the Wagner rebellion.

“These kinds of military activities demonstrate that the Chinese are firmly wedded to their relationship with Russia,” he said. “While they are not supportive of the conflict with Ukraine, they want to ensure that Putin remains in power.” 

More drills for the Indo-Pacific

As Beijing and Moscow look to double down on their “no limits” partnership, Lin said he thinks this drill is just the beginning and it is likely that the two countries will increase the number of joint military exercises. 

He argued that maintaining close interaction with China has become critical for Russia as it becomes more and more isolated diplomatically. Just before the drill in the Sea of Japan, the two Russian frigates that will participate docked in Shanghai, hosting visitors for a week according to the Global Times.

At the same time, Shen Ming-shih, Director of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan, said he expects the U.S. and its allies to hold more joint military exercises to counter the growing Russian and Chinese presence in the region. 

“The U.S., Japan, and South Korea will strengthen their military capabilities in maritime warfare, as well as increase the number of relevant exercises,” he told VOA. 

However, one thing that remains to be seen, Lin said, is whether Japan will amend or adjust its security treaties, as it faces security threats from multiple fronts, including Russia to the north, China to the Southwest, and North Korea’s constant missile firing. 

He thinks it’s worth observing whether the U.S., Japan, and Taiwan pursue more security and military cooperation against this backdrop.
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Winning Powerball Ticket — Worth More Than $1 Billion — Sold in California

Posted on by SeeUS

A winning ticket has been sold in California for the Powerball jackpot worth an estimated $1.08 billion, the sixth largest in U.S. history and the third largest in the history of the game. 

The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing were: white balls 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 and red Powerball 24. The California Lottery said on Twitter that the winning ticket was sold in Los Angeles at Las Palmitas Mini Market. 

Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot beyond its earlier estimate of $1 billion to $1.08 billion at the time of the drawing, moving it from the seventh largest to the sixth largest U.S lottery jackpot ever won. 

The winner can choose either the total jackpot paid out in yearly increments or a $558.1 million, one-time lump sum before taxes. 

The game’s abysmal odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to build big prizes that draw more players. The largest Powerball jackpot was $2.04 billion Powerball in November. 

The last time someone had won the Powerball jackpot was April 19 for a top prize of nearly $253 million. Since then, no one had won the grand prize. 

Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 
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US, Japan, South Korea to Hold Summit in August, Say Sources

Posted on by SeeUS

South Korean, US and Japanese leaders will meet in August in the United States, Seoul’s presidential office said Thursday, as the three nations increase military cooperation to counter North Korea’s growing nuclear threats. 

Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul are at one of their lowest points ever, with diplomacy stalled and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calling for increased weapons development, including tactical nukes. 

In response, President Yoon Suk Yeol has pulled South Korea closer to long-standing ally Washington, and even sought to bury the hatchet with former colonial power Japan in a bid to contain North Korea. 

In April, Seoul and Washington said that if Pyongyang ever used its nuclear weapons against the allies, it would face a nuclear reaction and the “end” of its regime.   

“The Korea-US-Japan trilateral summit is scheduled to be held in the United States in August,” Seoul’s presidential office said Thursday, adding the specific date and location would be “announced later.” 

The Yonhap News Agency reported the meeting will take place on August 18 at Camp David near Washington, citing unnamed sources. 

The announcement comes days after Seoul and Washington held their first Nuclear Consultative Group meeting in the South Korean capital.  

On Tuesday, a nuclear-armed American submarine made a port visit to Busan for the first time since 1981.   

Pyongyang last week said it had successfully tested the Hwasong-18, its new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, for the second time. 

Analysts say the tests represent a major breakthrough for North Korea’s banned weapons programs. 

The announcement also comes as Washington confirmed Tuesday that a US soldier — who had been jailed in the South on assault charges — is believed to have been detained by North Korea after crossing the border. 

Pyongyang has a long history of detaining Americans and using them as bargaining chips.  
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Sweden’s Submarine Fleet Could Prove a Major NATO Asset

Posted on by SeeEU

Now that Sweden’s ascension into NATO appears closer to approval following developments during the NATO summit last week, many wonder what power Sweden’s military can bring to the alliance. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb explains more about Sweden’s military might beneath the surface of the Baltic Sea.
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