Month: August 2023

England Accelerates Vaccine Programs Because of New COVID Variant

Posted on by SeeEU

England will bring forward the start of its autumn flu and COVID-19 vaccination programs as a precautionary step after the identification of highly mutated COVID variant BA.2.86, which has been found in Britain. 

Scientists have said BA.2.86, an offshoot of the omicron variant, was unlikely to cause a devastating wave of severe disease and death, given immune defenses built up worldwide from vaccination and prior infection. 

However, Britain’s health ministry said annual vaccination programs for older and at-risk groups would start a few weeks earlier than planned in light of the variant. 

“As our world-leading scientists gather more information on the BA.2.86 variant, it makes sense to bring forward the vaccination program,” junior health minister Maria Caulfield said in a statement. 

The variant was first detected in Britain on August 18, and vaccinations will start on September 11, with care home residents and people at highest risk to receive the shots first. 

It is not currently categorized as a “variant of concern” in Britain, and the health ministry said there was no change to wider public health advice. 

The variant was first spotted in Denmark on July 24 after the virus that infected a patient at risk of becoming severely ill was sequenced. It has since been detected in other symptomatic patients, in routine airport screening, and in wastewater samples in a handful of countries. 

England has been without coronavirus restrictions since February 2022, but UK Health Security Agency Chief Executive Jenny Harries said new variants were expected.

“There is limited information available at present on BA.2.86, so the potential impact of this particular variant is difficult to estimate,” Harries said in a statement. 

“As with all emergent and circulating COVID-19 variants … we will continue to monitor BA.2.86 and to advise government and the public as we learn more.”
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US Senate Republican Leader McConnell Briefly Freezes at Event

Posted on by SeeUS

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell appeared to briefly freeze and be unable to answer a reporter’s question during an event in Kentucky on Wednesday, weeks after he had a similar episode in Washington. 

According to video from a local news station, the 81-year-old was asked whether he would run for reelection in 2026. The senator asked the reporter to repeat the question before trailing off and staring straight ahead for about 10 seconds. 

A woman standing at the front of the room with McConnell asked him whether he heard the question, and she repeated it. When McConnell did not answer, she announced to the room that “we’re going to need a minute.” McConnell eventually answered two additional questions — though not the one about a 2026 campaign — and was halting and appeared to have some difficulty speaking. The woman then ended the news conference and McConnell left the room, walking slowly. 

McConnell’s reaction was similar to an earlier incident when he froze for about 20 seconds at a news conference in the Capitol in late July. He went back to his office with aides and then returned to answer more questions. 

The latest incident in Covington, Kentucky, on Wednesday adds to the questions in recent months about McConnell’s health and whether the Kentucky Republican, who was first elected to the Senate in 1984 and has served as Republican leader since 2007, will remain in his leadership post. 

His office said afterward that McConnell was feeling “momentarily lightheaded” and would see a physician before his next event. Similarly, after the July episode, aides said McConnell was lightheaded. McConnell told reporters several hours later that he was “fine.” Neither McConnell nor his aides have given any further details about what happened. 

In March, McConnell suffered a concussion and a broken rib after falling and hitting his head after a dinner event at a hotel. He did not return to the Senate for almost six weeks. He has been using a wheelchair in the airport while commuting back and forth to Kentucky. Since then, he has appeared to walk more slowly and his speech has sounded more halting. 

McConnell had polio in his early childhood, and he has long acknowledged some difficulty as an adult in climbing stairs. In addition to his fall in March, he also tripped and fell four years ago at his home in Kentucky, causing a shoulder fracture that required surgery. 
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Many Big US Cities Answer Mental Health Crisis Calls With Civilian Teams, Not Police

Posted on by SeeUS

Christian Glass was a geology geek, a painter and a young man beset by a mental health crisis when he called 911 for help getting his car unstuck in a Colorado mountain town last year.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived, he refused to get out of the car after saying that supernatural beings were after him, body camera video shows. The officers shouted, threatened and coaxed. Glass made heart shapes with his hands and prayed: “Dear Lord, please, don’t let them break the window.”

They did, and the 22-year-old grabbed a small knife. Then he was hit with bean bag rounds, stun gun charges and, ultimately, bullets that killed him and led to a murder charge against one deputy and a criminally negligent homicide charge against another.

As part of a $19 million settlement this spring with Glass’ parents, Colorado’s Clear Creek County this month joined a growing roster of U.S. communities that respond to nonviolent mental health crises with clinicians and EMTs or paramedics, instead of police.

The initiatives have spread rapidly in recent years, particularly among the nation’s biggest cities.

Data gathered by The Associated Press show at least 14 of the 20 most populous U.S. cities are hosting or starting such programs, sometimes called civilian, alternative or non-police response teams. They span from New York and Los Angeles to Columbus, Ohio, and Houston, and boast annual budgets that together topped $123 million as of June, AP found. Funding sources vary.

“If someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, law enforcement is not what they need,” said Tamara Lynn of the National De-Escalation Training Center, a private group that trains police to handle such situations.

There’s no aggregate, comprehensive data yet on the programs’ effects. Their scope varies considerably. So does their public reception.

In Denver, just an hour’s drive from where Glass was killed, a program called STAR answered 5,700 calls last year and is often cited as a national model. Its funding has totaled $7 million since 2021.

In New York, a more than $40 million-a-year program dubbed B-HEARD answered about 3,500 calls last year, and mental health advocates criticize it as anemic.

Representatives from some other cities were frank about challenges — staffing shortages, acclimating 911 dispatchers to sending out unarmed civilians, and more — at a conference in Washington, D.C., this spring.

Still, officials in places including New York see no-police teams as an important shift in how they address people in crisis.

“We really think that every single B-HEARD response is just a better way that we, the city, are providing care to people,” said Laquisha Grant of the New York Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health.

Federal data is incomplete, but various studies and statistics show that mentally ill people make up a substantial proportion of those killed by police. Often, the dead are people of color, though Glass was not.

Calls for change

The alternative approach dates back decades but gained new impetus from calls for wide-ranging police reform after the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. There also were specific pleas for better responses to psychiatric crisis after such tragedies as the death of Daniel Prude that year in Rochester, New York. Prude was just out of a psychiatric hospital and running naked through snowy streets when he was suffocated by police who had been called to help him. He was Black, as was Floyd.

Reports of mental distress made up about 1% of police calls in a 2022 study involving nine police agencies; there’s no nationwide statistic. A long-established civilian response program in Eugene, Oregon, says it diverts 3% to 8% of calls from police. The Vera Institute of Justice, a police reform advocacy group, suggests alternative teams could handle 19% if homelessness, intoxication and some other troubles were included.

In Denver, STAR teams arrive in vans stuffed with everything from medical gear to blankets to Cheez-Its. In one recent instance, they spent three hours — more time than police could likely have spent — with a Denver newcomer who was living on the streets. The team helped him get a Colorado ID voucher, groceries, and medications and took him to a shelter.

“It’s really about meeting the needs of the community and making sure we are sending the right experts, so we can actually solve the problem,” says Carleigh Sailon, a former STAR manager who now works elsewhere.

STAR responded to 44% of calls deemed eligible last year, said Evan Thompkins, a STAR program specialist.

A Stanford University study found that petty crime reports fell by a third and violent crime stayed steady in areas that STAR served in its earliest phase. Throughout the program’s three years, police have never been called for backup due to safety concerns but have helped direct traffic, Thompkins said.

Identifying callers’ needs

Some observers wonder if safety worries will grow as non-police programs do. While there’s an appeal to the idea of pulling cops out of psychiatric crisis calls, “the challenge is identifying those calls,” said Stephen Eide, a senior fellow specializing in mental health issues at the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank.

In New York, dispatchers must gauge the potentially life-or-death risk of “imminent harm” while deciphering sometimes frantic 911 calls that often come from bystanders or relatives, not the person in crisis.

Officials say B-HEARD answered 53% of eligible calls in the last six months of 2022, the most recent data available. But that was 16% of all mental health crisis calls within the program’s limited territory.

Combined, staffers citywide answered about 2% of the 171,000 such calls throughout last year.

“Very unimpressive,” says Ruth Lowenkron, an attorney involved in a federal lawsuit that seeks changes in B-HEARD.

Grant says the city is exploring whether more calls could qualify. Meanwhile, officials note that B-HEARD’s social workers and EMTs resolve about half of calls by talking to people or taking them to social service or community health centers, rather than the hospitals where armed officers have traditionally brought people in crisis. Plans call for extending B-HEARD citywide.

Grant credits the program with “providing people with more options and letting people know that they can stay safely in their homes, in their communities, with the connection to the right resources.” 
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Washington Following Gabon ‘Closely’ After Military Detains President 

Posted on by SeeUS

Washington is following events in Libreville “very, very closely,” the White House said Wednesday, hours after military officers in the West African nation of Gabon seized power from the family that has ruled the nation for more than half a century.

The White House also defended U.S. commitments to Africa after being asked whether a wave of coups in the region was a sign that Washington has taken its eye off the resource-rich, volatile continent.

“It all kind of unfolded overnight,” said John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, during a virtual briefing with reporters.

Gabon’s longtime President Ali Bongo Ondimba released a video confirming his house arrest, just hours after he was confirmed the winner of a recent election that observers said was marred by irregularities.

He took office after the death of his father in 2009 and weathered a coup attempt in 2019. The Bongo family has led the former French colony continuously since 1967 and has been accused by rights groups of becoming fabulously wealthy in a nation that is rich in resources, but where average citizens struggle to survive amid high unemployment.

“It’s deeply concerning to us,” Kirby said of the events. “We will remain a supporter of the people in the region, supporting the people of Gabon and their demand for democratic governance, of course. But we’re going to also stay focused on continuing to work with our African partners and … all the people on the continent to address challenges and to support democracy. So, again, we’re watching this closely.”

Since 2020, military officers have toppled regimes in Sudan, Mali, Chad, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger.

‘Contagion effect’

Analyst Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution said Wednesday that the events illustrated “the contagion effect in full swing,” and she described the power seizure as “another big blow” to the United States, France and the Economic Community of West African States.

She added: “Each additional one, any single one is harder to reverse as focus & resources of [international] democracy supporters [are] divided.”

Kirby said the White House was not ready to reach the same conclusions.

“I think it’s just too soon to do a table slap here and say, ‘Yep, we got a trend here going,’ or, ‘Yep, there’s going to be a domino effect,’” he said.

On the Africa in Transition blog maintained by the Council on Foreign Relations, analyst Ebenezer Obadare pointed to a worrying trend in the region.

“The gangsta militariat (more gangsta than militariat) is the logical outcome of the African military’s involvement in politics, insofar as the latter has resulted in the militarization of politics, the politicization of the military, and subsequently the de-professionalization of the armed forces,” he wrote.

Kirby also batted away claims that Washington is not invested in the continent.

“I don’t think any measured consideration of the president’s foreign policy goals over the last two and a half years would lead anybody to conclude that we’re walking away from Africa or that we haven’t been paying attention to it,” he said.

“We are very focused on the continent on many different levels, including investment in infrastructure and economic development, again announcing millions and millions of dollars to help bolster African infrastructure and investment, and that’s on top of all the security cooperation that we have with African partners.”

At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the world body was trying to gather facts before acting. Gabon currently holds a seat on the U.N. Security Council.

“Until we know what exactly is happening on the ground, we won’t take any actions,” she said. “But let me just say clearly: We condemn any efforts by militaries to take power by force.”

VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
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Education Also Becomes a War Casualty for Ukrainian Children

Posted on by SeeEU

Millions of children across Ukraine and in seven neighboring asylum countries are being deprived of an education and the skills needed to help Ukraine recover from the devastation caused by Russia’s invasion of their country, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF.

“Inside Ukraine, attacks on schools have continued unabated, leaving children deeply distressed and without safe spaces to learn,” said Regina De Dominicis, UNICEF’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia.

“Not only has this left Ukraine’s children struggling to progress in their education, but they are also struggling to retain what they learned when their schools were fully functioning,” she said at a Tuesday briefing.

De Dominicis visited Ukraine last week and met several teachers there who she said were injured in an attack on a civilian area in the northern city of Romny.

“The attack ripped through a school where teachers were preparing lessons for the new school year. On the same day, a kindergarten in Kherson city was hit in another attack,” she said, noting that such attacks are not anomalies.

An assessment by UNICEF and the Ukrainian Ministry of Education reports that Russian attacks have destroyed more than 1,300 schools, and that others are damaged and not ready to open for the academic year, which begins this week.

“These senseless and reckless attacks have left many of Ukraine’s children deeply distressed and without a safe space to learn,” De Dominicis said. “As a result, children in Ukraine are showing signs of widespread learning loss, including a deterioration in learning outcomes of the Ukrainian language, reading and mathematics.”

According to the latest UNICEF survey data, up to 57% of teachers report a deterioration in students’ Ukrainian language abilities; up to 45% report a reduction in mathematics skills; and up to 52% report a reduction in foreign language abilities.

Another UNICEF survey finds that just one in three schoolchildren in Ukraine are learning in person full time, and that three-quarters of children of preschool age in front-line areas are not attending kindergarten.

“This war is layering crisis upon crisis,” De Dominicis said. “It is leaving children grappling with mental health problems. It is denying millions a chance to be educated.”

As for Ukraine’s refugee children, UNICEF reports that they, too, are missing out on an education, noting that more than half of children from preschool to secondary school age are not enrolled in the national education systems of their host countries.

De Dominicis cited language difficulties as one of the main reasons children do not attend school.

“In Poland, in Czech Republic, in Moldova — very often, the family were hoping to go back after a couple of months,” she said. “So, they prefer to be hooked to the online Ukrainian language system. Unfortunately, we see that they will reside in these countries for longer, because the war is still ongoing. Many of them are facing difficulty in not having teachers to support their children” in preparing them to attend classes in their host countries.

De Dominicis said that children are resilient and can learn multiple languages, even at a young age.

“So, we hope they will see a richness in actually being included in host country education without losing their right to their culture, to their language,” she said.

UNICEF said schools provide far more than a place of learning in times of crisis or war. They can provide a safe space where children can escape violence, make friends and create a sense of normalcy in an otherwise uncertain environment.

“The war in Ukraine has become a war on children,” De Dominicis said.

When the war ends and the children grow up, they will be essential to the country’s recovery and future. This will require a workforce that is both highly educated and healthy, she said.

“Investing in education for Ukraine’s children, no matter where they reside, is the best investment we can make in the country’s future,” De Dominicis said.
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Gabon Coup Ignites Debate on Central Africa’s Long Serving Leaders 

Posted on by SeeAF

The apparent military coup in Gabon Wednesday is raising concern about the future of countries in the Central African economic bloc CEMAC, which has some of the world’s longest serving leaders.

Several dozen youths, a majority of them students from the University of Yaounde, watch attentively as soldiers declare on Gabonese TV that the military, united in a transitional committee, is putting an end to the leadership of President Ali Bongo.

The 64-year-old Bongo has ruled Gabon, an oil-producing nation, since succeeding his father Omar Bongo, who died in 2009 after 42 years in power.

Gabon held elections on August 26 with Ali Bongo running for re-election. But contested results indicate 69-year-old Albert Ondo Ossa, a former minister and university professor, won the poll. Ondo said Ali Bongo wanted to steal his victory.

Anong Jacob, a secondary school teacher in Yaounde, says post-election confusion in Gabon has given the military an opportunity to seize power, claiming that they want freedom for civilians, just like the militaries of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.

“It is a shared feeling with those in Niger who are thinking at the moment that the time is now or never. They have all the resources, gold, diamond, timber and all of that, but we don’t have any of the industries or factories that can process these materials, all are transported to the West and we have little or nothing to benefit from it,” he said.

Gabon is a member of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, an economic bloc that has some of the world’s longest serving leaders.

Eighty-one-year-old President Teodora Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea won elections for a sixth term in 2022. Obiang came to power in a 1979 military coup and is the world’s longest-serving head of state.

In the Republic of Congo, 80-year-old Denis Sassou Nguesso has been president for all but five of the last 44 years.

And in Cameroon, 90-year-old Paul Biya has been the president for 41 years, since 1982.

Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadera hasn’t been around as long but recently extended the presidential term from five to seven years and did away with the two-term limit for presidents. The C.A.R. opposition says Touadera created a life presidency for himself.

Langeh Ngah Derick, lecturer at the International Relations Institute of Cameroon, says these leaders’ desire to hang onto power is causing systematic problems and widespread frustration.

“Something has to be done especially in French tropical Africa, ex-French colonies, particularly where egoistic interest frustrates most of the youths,” he said. “You come out from the university, policies do not favor your integration into the system and to help build your nation especially in some of these Francophone African countries.” 

Ngah said if the opposition in French-speaking central African countries remains fragmented and leaders keep their strong grip on power, the trend of militaries taking power — as happened in Gabon Wednesday — may spread even further.
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Africa’s Animation Industry on Rise as Zambian Series Debuts on Netflix

Posted on by SeeAF

An original animated series from Africa has made its debut on the Netflix streaming platform. The series, dubbed “Supa Team 4,” was written by a young Zambian and takes place in a futuristic version of Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. Kathy Short reports from Lusaka. VOA footage by Richard Kille.
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Plan to Build Chinese Plant Divides Michigan Town Residents

Posted on by SeeUS

Gotion Inc. is the US subsidiary of a Chinese EV battery maker. It plans to build a plant on a parcel of farmland in Michigan. But that’s dividing local residents. VOA’s Carolyn Calla Yu reports from Green Charter Township, Michigan. Camera:  Songlin Zhang, Contributor: Bo Gu
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US Commerce Secretary Wraps Up China Visit With Commitments for More Talks

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U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo wrapped up a four-day visit to China on Wednesday in the latest move by U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to stabilize commercial and trade links between the world’s two largest economies.

In public remarks Wednesday, Raimondo said that she is hopeful about holding regular and direct talks with Chinese officials, but that she is “very clear-eyed” and does not expect every issue with Beijing will be resolved “overnight.”

Earlier in her visit, she said American companies have told her that China’s unlevel playing field and unpredictable regulatory environment with steep penalties have made the country “uninvestible.”

Raimondo said the two sides planned to hold meetings with technical experts to talk about disputes over protecting trade secrets as well as sharing information about export controls.

“We are not returning to the days when we had dialogue for dialogue’s sake, but shutting down communication and de-coupling services is neither in our economic or national security goals,” Raimondo told reporters during a phone briefing.

While the United States and China maintain more than $700 billion in annual trade, escalating tensions in recent years have made it more challenging for U.S. firms to operate in China.

“I did mention that my own emails had been hacked,” she said, “and I mentioned that as an example of an action that erodes trust at a time that we are trying to stabilize the relationship and increase channels of communication.”

U.S. officials have said Washington is not seeking a “de-coupling” with the Beijing government, but focusing on “de-risking.” Biden signed an executive order earlier this month to restrict U.S. investments in some sensitive and high-tech industries in China, including in semiconductors, microelectronics, quantum computing and certain artificial intelligence capabilities.

In Beijing, Chinese officials said the United States was engaging in “de-coupling” under the guise of “de-risking.” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Aug. 10 that the U.S. decision “seriously disrupts the security of global industrial and supply chains.”

The two countries have traded other restrictions in recent months.

In May, China’s Cyberspace Administration banned its corporations from buying memory chips from U.S.-based Micron Technology Inc., as the U.S. works with its allies to ensure that advanced semiconductor manufacturing stays out of the reach of the Chinese industry.

In March, Chinese officials closed the Beijing offices of the U.S. due diligence company Mintz Group and detained five of its employees, accusing the firm of doing “unapproved statistical work.” With 18 offices worldwide, Mintz Group specializes in background checking, fact gathering and internal investigations.

Raimondo visited Shanghai Disneyland and a Boeing facility, as well as New York University’s campus in Shanghai on Wednesday, after meetings with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Tuesday.  She held meetings with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao on Monday.

Although Raimondo agreed to launch an information exchange on export control enforcement and a new working group on commercial issues, Congressional critics are skeptical about Washington’s ability to work constructively with Beijing.

Congressman Michael McCaul, a Republican who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, accused the Biden administration of being “at best naive” in starting a working group with China.

McCaul said it is a dangerous move because the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, “steals U.S. intellectual property and hacks the emails of senior government officials, including Secretary Raimondo. The administration must stop treating the CCP as anything other than an adversary who will stop at nothing to harm our national security and spread its malign authoritarianism around the globe.”

Raimondo’s visit follows recent trips by other senior U.S. officials, including CIA Director Bill Burns in May and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June, as well as separate trips by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and U.S. Special Envoy on Climate John Kerry in July.
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Pope Heads to Mongolia to Minister to Few Catholics, Complete Centuries-Old East-West Mission 

Posted on by SeeEU

When Pope Francis travels to Mongolia this week, he will in some ways be completing a mission begun by the 13th-century Pope Innocent IV, who dispatched emissaries east to ascertain the intentions of the rapidly expanding Mongol Empire and beseech its leaders to halt the bloodshed and convert.

Those medieval exchanges between Roman pope and Mongolian khan were full of bellicose demands for submission and conversion, with each side claiming to be acting in the name of God, according to texts of the letters that survive.

But the exchanges also showed mutual respect at a time when the Catholic Church was waging Crusades and the Mongol Empire was conquering lands as far west as Hungary in what would become the largest contiguous land empire in world history.

Some 800 years later, Francis won’t be testing new diplomatic waters or seeking to proselytize Mongolia’s mostly Buddhist people when he arrives in the capital Ulaanbaatar Friday for a four-day visit.

His trip is nevertheless a historic meeting of East and West, the first-ever visit by a Roman pontiff to Mongolia to minister to one of the tiniest, newest Catholic communities in the world.

“In a way, what’s happened is that both sides have moved on,” said Christopher Atwood, professor of Mongolian and Chinese frontier and ethnic history at the University of Pennsylvania. “Once upon a time, it was either/or: Either the world was ruled by the pope, or the world was ruled by the Mongol Empire. And now I think both sides are much more tolerant.”

Officially, there are only 1,450 Catholics in Mongolia and the Catholic Church has only had a sanctioned presence since 1992, after Mongolia shrugged off its Soviet-allied communist government and enshrined religious freedom in its constitution. Francis last year upped the Mongolian church’s standing when he made a cardinal out of its leader, the Italian missionary Giorgio Marengo.

“It is amazing [for the pope] to come to a country that is not known to the world for its Catholicism,” said Uugantsetseg Tungalag, a Catholic who works with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in a nursing home in the capital. “When the pope visits us, other countries will learn that it has been 30 years since Catholicism came to Mongolia.”

The Mongol Empire under its famed founder Genghis Khan was known for tolerating people of different faiths among those it conquered, and Francis will likely emphasize that tradition of religious coexistence when he presides over an interfaith meeting Sunday. It was after all, one of Genghis Khan’s descendants, Kublai Khan, who welcomed Marco Polo into his court in Mongol-ruled China, providing the Venetian merchant with the experiences that would give Europe one of the best written accounts of Asia, its culture, geography and people.

Invited to Francis’ interfaith event are Mongolian Buddhists, Jewish, Muslim and Shinto representatives as well as members of Christian churches that have established a presence in Mongolia in the last 30 years, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which officially claims more than 12,500 members in Mongolia in 22 congregations.

In a message to Mongolians ahead of his visit, Francis emphasized their interfaith traditions and said he was travelling to the “heart of Asia” as a brother to all.

“It is a much-desired visit, which will be an opportunity to embrace a Church that is small in number, but vibrant in faith and great in charity; and also to meet at close quarters a noble, wise people, with a strong religious tradition that I will have the honor of getting to know, especially in the context of an interreligious event,” Francis said Sunday.

Aside from the historic first, Francis’ trip holds great geopolitical import: With Mongolia sandwiched between China and Russia, Francis will be travelling to a region that has long been one of the thorniest for the Holy See to negotiate.

Francis will fly through Chinese airspace in both directions, allowing him a rare opportunity to send an official telegram of greetings to President Xi Jinping at a time when Vatican-Chinese relations are once again strained over the nomination of Chinese bishops.

As Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s crackdown on religious minorities grind on, Francis will be visiting a relatively neutral player but one that is striving to show its regional importance in the shadow of its two powerful neighbors, said Manduhai Buyandelger, a professor of anthropology at MIT and a Mongolia scholar.

“I think Mongolia is a very safe arena for the pope to land to demonstrate his outreach, as well as to show Mongolia’s belonging on equal stage with the rest of the world,” she said from Ulaanbaatar.

Mongolia’s environmental precariousness, climate shocks and the increasing desertification of its land are likely to be raised by the pope, given he has made combatting climate change and addressing their impacts on vulnerable peoples a priority of his 10-year pontificate.

Mongolia, a vast, landlocked country historically afflicted by weather extremes, is considered to be one of the most affected by climate change. The country has already experienced a 2.1-degree Celsius increase in average temperatures over the past 70 years, and an estimated 77% of its land is degraded because of overgrazing and climate change, according to the U.N. Development Program.

The cycles of dry, hot summers followed by harsh, snowy winters are particularly devastating for Mongolia’s nomadic herders, since their livestock are less able to fatten up on grass in summer before cold winters, said Nicola Di Cosmo, a Mongolian historian and professor of East Asian Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

“If these events become more and more common and more frequent … this change interferes with this very delicate pastoral economy, which is a delicate balance between the resources of the grassland and the animals using those resources,” Di Cosmo said.

Already, many of Mongolia’s herders, who comprised about a third of the population of 3.3 million, have abandoned their traditional livelihoods to settle around Mongolia’s capital, stressing social services in a country where already nearly 1 in 3 people live in poverty.

More recently, Mongolia has turned to extraction industries, particularly copper, coal, gold, to fuel the economy, which gets more than 90% of its export revenue from minerals. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Francis would likely refer to this trend in his remarks; Francis has frequently spoken out about the harm caused by extraction industries, particularly on the natural environment and local populations.

Munkh-Erdene Lkhamsuren, a professor of anthropology at the National University of Mongolia, said he hoped Francis would speak out about “predatory” Western mining companies which, he said, together with Mongolian officials, are robbing Mongolia of its natural wealth.

In December, hundreds of people braved freezing cold temperatures in the capital to protest corruption in Mongolia’s trade with China over the alleged theft of 385,000 tons of coal.

The government has declared 2023 to be an “anti-corruption year” and says it is carrying out a five-part plan based on Transparency International, the global anti-graft watchdog that ranked Mongolia 116th last year in its corruption perceptions index.

“It is well known fact that most common Mongolians now see their country as a victim of a neo-colonialism,” Lkhamsuren said.
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Two Ugandan Males Face Death Penalty for Violating Anti-Gay Law

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Two Ugandan males have become the first people who may face the death penalty under Uganda’s new anti-homosexuality law.

Prosecutors accuse Julius Byaruhanga in the eastern district of Jinja of performing a sexual act with a boy aged 12.

Another man, 20-year-old Michael Opolot allegedly performed an unlawful act of sexual intercourse with a 41-year-old male in the eastern city of Soroti.

Justine Balya, a lawyer from the group Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, is defending Opolot. She said her client was reportedly seen engaging in a sexual act in a public space with a person who has a disability. 

Opolot now faces a possible death sentence if convicted under the anti-homosexuality law that took effect in June.

“Having the death penalty on the books, that changes significantly the protections that one is entitled to while they are waiting for trial,” Bayla said. “And it certainly makes trial remand a punishment in and of itself.”

Because the case involves a capital offense, Opolot will probably have to wait between three and four years for his case to be heard.  

Balya said several other cases involving alleged homosexuality are waiting to go to trial in Ugandan courts. 

“We also have a case of a lady who has been charged with promotion of homosexuality and homosexuality because of what they allege people were doing at a massage parlor that she owns. And of course, there’s a host of other cases that are not in court but where people have been charged formally with homosexuality, promotion of homosexuality, even child grooming in one case.” 

Frank Mugisha, a lawyer and activist, said these cases are textbook examples of a witch hunt for lesbian, gay and transgender people. 

“Those people have not identified themselves as LGBTQ,” Mugisha said. “But the fact that there’s an assumption that they were engaging in same-sex acts. And then they are saying one person is living with disability. Which automatically the prosecution will have to prefer the death penalty under aggravated homosexuality. It’s exactly as activists what we’ve been saying that this law can be wrongly interpreted.” 

Uganda last hanged a convict in 1999 and in 2005 formally scrapped the death penalty. 

But the anti-homosexuality law reintroduced the death penalty for the offense of aggravated homosexuality, a move that gay rights activists have strongly criticized and are challenging in the courts. 

During the passing of the law, government authorities argued that they were protecting the moral values and principles of the Ugandan society against what they termed corrupt Western values.

Meanwhile, journalists and media houses in Uganda say they fear heavy fines or the loss of their registration if they are somehow found guilty of “promoting homosexuality,” a term critics say has been vaguely explained in the law.
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Report: African Americans Remain Top Target of Hate Crimes

Posted on by SeeUS

The recent killing of three Black people in Jacksonville, Florida, has drawn attention to a grim reality that researchers have long documented: Black Americans are the most frequent victims of racially motivated hate crimes in the United States.

A new report released Tuesday confirms the trend, showing that Black people were the targets of more than one-fifth of all hate crimes reported in major U.S. cities last year, the highest share of any group.

The report, based on police data analyzed by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino, found that hate crimes targeting Black people fell by an average of 6% last year, after surging in the previous two years.

But the trend was not uniform across the country, and many cities and states reported their worst numbers ever.

Out of 42 cities surveyed by the center, more than half showed an increase in anti-Black hate crimes, with some reaching historic highs. New York City, Los Angeles, Austin, Texas, and Sacramento, California, all set modern records.

Five states — Colorado, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas and Utah — also broke their records for anti-Black hate crimes, while incidents in California and New York state — both with large Black populations — surged by more than 20%, according to the report.

Historically, African Americans have been the most frequent victims of hate crimes in the U.S., and that did not change last year.

The report found they were the targets of 22% of all hate crimes in 2022, the highest share of any group. In 2021, the share was as high as 31%.

Jews came in second last year, with 16% of all hate incidents, followed by gay men, with 12%, and white people, with 8.5%, according to the report.

Overall, hate crimes reported to police in the 42 U.S. cities rose 10% in 2022. That’s on top of a nationwide increase of nearly 31%  seen in 2021.

Frequent targets of hate crime

The report comes just days after a white gunman killed two Black men and a Black woman at a Florida variety store in a hate-fueled rampage.

The 21-year-old shooter, who took his own life after the killings, left behind a racist screed in which he expressed hatred for Black people. One firearm he used in the attack had swastikas drawn on it.

“Blacks remain the most frequent target not only for these extremist killers but have been the most frequent target for overall hate crime for every year since data has been collected, right up through our partial 2023 totals,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and the lead author of the report.

The FBI, which has been collecting hate crime data since 1991, said it was investigating the Jacksonville shooting as an anti-Black hate crime.

“From everything we know now, this was a targeted attack — a hate crime that was racially motivated,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said Monday during a call with civil rights leaders and law enforcement officials.

The shooting was not the first of its kind in Jacksonville this year.

In May, three white men were charged in connection with the shooting death of a 39-year-old Black man in downtown Jacksonville.

‘Replacement’ theory

Legin said the vast majority of racially motivated homicides over the past five years have been carried out by white supremacists and right-wing ideologues.

The cycle is being repeated this year, he said.

“We expect this killing cycle to continue, especially as we enter a volatile election season,” Levin said. “These atrocities are often carried out by angry young adult males who make recent weapon acquisitions, act within their home state, and who reference the ‘replacement’ doctrine statements of previous killers.”

The replacement theory, which asserts that non-white immigrants are being brought into the U.S. to “replace” white people, inspired a white gunman to shoot and kill 10 Black people in May 2022 at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

While the total number of extremist-motivated homicides fell last year, the figures “ignore the numerous plots and thwarted attacks which unfortunately could have driven the death count substantially higher,” Levin said.

He attributed the surge in hate crimes to several factors, including the proliferation of online and political rhetoric that promotes bigotry, stereotypes and conspiracy theories.

“The ubiquity and seepage of hateful rhetoric of various depths now in the mainstream of sociopolitical discourse demonizes whole groups of people and creates a deep well,” Levin said.
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Gabon Military Officers Declare Coup

Posted on by SeeAF

A group of army officers in the central African nation of Gabon say they have overthrown the government of President Ali Bongo.

The officers announced the coup early Wednesday morning on national television channel Gabon 24, hours after the nation’s election commission had announced that President Bongo had won a third term in last week’s general elections.

The group said that the election results were invalidated, all state institutions dissolved and all borders closed until further notice. 

“We have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime,” one of the officers said.

Bongo first took office in 2009, after the death of his father, Omar Bongo who had become president in 1967.

Gunfire was heard throughout Gabon’s capital, Libreville, after the television appearance.

Some information for this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse.

 
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Trump’s Indicted Lawyers Say They Were Doing Their Jobs; Is That Likely to Win?

Posted on by SeeUS

As John Eastman prepared to surrender to Georgia authorities last week in an indictment related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, he issued a statement denouncing the criminal case as targeting attorneys “for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients.”

Another defendant, Rudy Giuliani, struck a similar note, saying he was being indicted for his work as Donald Trump’s attorney. “I never thought I’d get indicted for being a lawyer,” he said.

The 18 defendants charged alongside Trump in this month’s racketeering indictment in Fulton County include more than a half-dozen lawyers, and the statements from Eastman and Giuliani provide early foreshadowing of at least one of the defenses they seem poised to raise: that they were merely doing their jobs as attorneys when they maneuvered on Trump’s behalf to undo the results of that election.

The argument suggests a desire to turn at least part of the sprawling prosecution into a referendum on the boundaries of ethical lawyering.

But while attorneys do have wide berth to advance untested or unconventional positions, experts say a “lawyers being lawyers” defense will be challenging to pull off to the extent prosecutors can directly link the indicted lawyers to criminal schemes alleged in the indictment. That includes efforts to line up fake electors in Georgia and other states who would falsely assert that Trump, not Democrat Joe Biden, had won their respective contests.

“The law books are replete with examples of lawyers who were disciplined for claiming they were representing their clients,” said Barry Richard, who represented George W. Bush’s winning presidential campaign in 2000 in a dispute ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. “Lawyers are required to follow very stringent rules of propriety. And there are certain things you can’t do for your clients. You cannot tell the court facts you have reason to know are not true.”

A more complicated question, though, is how far lawyers can go in advancing legal theories — even poorly supported ones — to achieve a desired outcome for a client, said Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor and former Justice Department official.

“Bad lawyering” in and of itself is not a crime, nor is “testing the waters” of legal arguments, he said.

“The real question is, at what point does a lawyer who knows that the legal theory that that lawyer is espousing has never been accepted anywhere — when does the lawyer cross the line if the lawyer suggests sort of that it is OK, that it’s clearly OK?” Saltzburg said. “And that’s a fuzzy line.”

Of course, attorneys are expected, as Eastman noted in his statement, to zealously represent clients — though he did privately acknowledge that he anticipated the Supreme Court might unanimously dismiss a legal theory he advanced that then-Vice President Mike Pence was entitled to reject the counting of electoral votes.

There’s also a long history of election-related lawsuits, none more famous than the 2000 Florida fight between Democrat Al Gore and the Bush campaign. Justice Department counsel Jack Smith acknowledged as much in his own federal indictment against Trump, saying he was entitled like any candidate to file lawsuits challenging ballots and procedures and contest the results through other legal means.

But the Georgia indictment lists numerous acts in which prosecutors allege that lawyers went beyond conventional legal advocacy and engaged themselves in criminal activities.

It alleges, for instance, that former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark — who has denied any wrongdoing — drafted a memo he wanted to send to Georgia officials falsely claiming that fraud had been identified that could have affected the election outcome in that state. It also accuses another lawyer, Sidney Powell, of plotting to illegally access voting equipment in a rural county in Georgia in an attempt to prove voting fraud claims.

And the indictment says multiple other lawyers — including Kenneth Chesebro, Giuliani and Eastman — were involved in discussions about enlisting fake electors in battleground states won by Biden in place of the legitimate ones. A lawyer for Chesebro has said that each allegation against him related to his work as an attorney; lawyers for Powell declined to comment Tuesday.

“The difference here is between recommending to the client that it may be possible to appoint electors other than those identified by the secretary of state, and then the client does it or doesn’t do it,” said Stephen Gillers, a legal expert at New York University. “It’s different when the lawyer himself or herself proceeds to follow that advice.”

He added: “The lawyer as actor, as opposed to the lawyer as advocate, gets less freedom to trespass on legal principles.”

Richard, who represented the Bush campaign in 2000, said there was no fair comparison to those legitimate court challenges of that era and the alleged misconduct 20 years later. The fighting then was done in court, and once the Supreme Court ruled, the matter was considered resolved.

When it came to that decision, Richard said, “I remember people said to me, ‘How is anybody going to govern after this?’ I said, ‘The Monday after this is over, everybody will go back to work, and everybody will acknowledge that we have a president’ — and that’s exactly what happened.”
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Indian Rice Export Ban Prompting Shutdown of Nigerian Mills

Posted on by SeeAF

In July, India banned exports of non-basmati rice to keep prices low at home. But that ban is causing problems for rice mills in Nigeria. Alhassan Bala reports from Kano, Nigeria.
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US, Costa Rica Affirm Cooperation on Migration, Semiconductors

Posted on by SeeUS

President Joe Biden met with Costa Rica’s leader Tuesday to talk about concerns near and far, including the toll that irregular migration is taking on the small Central American nation and the challenges posed by China’s increased global ambitions, which rely on semiconductors.

Biden was quick to praise the relationship the U.S. and Costa Rica have built in the past year.

“Just over a year ago in California, we stood together with partners across the region for the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection,” Biden said from the Oval Office, where he met with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves on Tuesday afternoon. “You’ve done an incredible job since then, been a great partner.”

Chaves echoed the warm sentiments.

“Costa Rica has been, and shall remain, one of the strongest allies in the world regarding your economic and security interests that are ours,” he said.

The White House says the two nations align ideologically as well.

“Costa Rica has been a regional leader,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “They are a strong democracy with a thriving economy and leading by example on migration management.”

 

The leaders had serious issues to discuss, like the challenges posed by a flood of migrants streaming through Costa Rica en route to the U.S. Earlier in the year, Chaves said his nation needed help.

“What we have to do is to ask countries like the United States to help us to fulfill what we want: to be good international citizens, good citizens of the world, a country that continues to be generous, but the costs are becoming immense,” he said. “Let there be clearer signals in the United States.”

And analysts say the small coastal nation – famed for its beaches and biodiversity – also has a role to play in countering China’s economic ambitions.

A program funded by Biden’s 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to counter China, is looking to Costa Rica as a partner in the manufacture of semiconductors: the chips so small they measure in nanometers but that power machines that can fly to the moon.

“Recently, the United States announced that Costa Rica would receive funds from the so-called ‘ITSI’ Fund, which is part of the CHIPS and Science Act, to help it build out some parts of its semiconductor supply chains,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He noted that Costa Rica is not new to the industry.

“Intel, specifically, has an operation in Costa Rica,” he said. “So we’re not trying to build something from scratch. There is a foundation there to build on. And I think much of the proof will be in the pudding of the actual training programs themselves, whether Costa Rica can build out the human capital to attract more spending in that space.”
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US, Costa Rica Affirm Cooperation on Migration, Semiconductors

Posted on by SeeUS

President Joe Biden met with Costa Rica’s leader Tuesday to talk about challenges near and far, including the toll that irregular migration is taking on the small Central American nation and the challenges posed by China’s global ambitions — which rely on technology fueled by semiconductors. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
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EU Fossil Fuel Energy Production Hits Record Low, Report Says

Posted on by SeeEU

The European Union’s fossil fuel energy production hit a record low the first half of the year, think tank Ember Climate reported Wednesday, although green sources are struggling to fill the gap. 

The decline in coal and gas generation was driven by a drop in electricity consumption across the bloc of 4.6% amid high power prices, which surged after Russia invaded Ukraine, upending gas supplies. 

“The decline in fossil fuels is a sign of the times,” said Ember analyst Matt Ewen.  

Coal generation was down 23%, accounting for less than 10% of the EU’s total electricity production for the first time ever in May, Ember reported. 

While gas prices have fallen from “crisis highs” last year, they remain double the cost compared with the first half of 2021, the report said.  

The drop in electricity consumption resulted from emergency measures implemented by nearly all EU members between November and March to combat rising prices.  

Industrial demand, notably in Germany, had also declined over the period, the report said.  

Fossil fuels now make up the “lowest share ever of the power mix” at 33%, Ember said.  

The greatest declines in fossil fuel use year-over-year at more than 30% were seen in Portugal, Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia and Finland.  

But reduced demand being the driver for the decline in fossil fuel use is not “sustainable or desirable,” Ember warned.  

With demand expected to rise in the future, replacing fossil fuels with alternative sources needs to happen faster, Ewen said.  

Solar power generation was up 13% in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2022, while wind was up a more modest 4.8%.  

Denmark and Portugal saw renewables account for more than 75% of the electricity mix while in Greece and Romania renewables for the first time exceeded 50% of the share of supply.  

However the growth in clean energy was still not enough to compensate for the gap left by the fall in fossil fuels, the report found.  

“A massive push, especially on solar and wind, is urgently needed to underpin a resilient economy across Europe,” Ewen said.  
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Analysis: Election Victories for Greece and Turkey’s Leaders Open Door to Rapprochement

Posted on by SeeEU

Historic rivals Greece and Turkey are stepping up efforts to improve ties after the two countries’ leaders received strong election mandates this year. Next week, Turkish and Greek foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Turkey, but analysts warn substantial obstacles remain between the neighbors. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Somali President Says Military Operations Against Al-Shabab Will Continue Until ‘Final Victory’

Posted on by SeeAF

Somali President Says Military Operations Against Al-Shabab Will Continue Until ‘Final Victory’
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US Providing up to $250 Million in More Aid for Ukraine  

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States is providing up to $250 million in additional military aid for Ukraine in a package that includes more rockets for HIMARS and AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles that can be used to defend Ukrainian skies.

This is the first time the U.S. has provided Ukraine with Sidewinders, which can be used for short range, air-to-air attacks.

The aid also includes mine-clearing equipment and anti-tank weapons such as TOW missiles and shoulder-fired Javelins.

 

The latest aid package marks the 45th authorized presidential drawdown of military equipment from Defense Department inventories since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Once again, long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems known as ATACMS were not included in the package, drawing criticism from analysts such as retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who served as the commanding general for U.S. Army forces in Europe from 2014 to 2017.

“Unfortunately, the Ukrainians are going to continue to suffer a lot of casualties because we, the West, have not provided capabilities that they need,” Hodges told VOA on Tuesday. “And I’m talking specifically about long-range precision weapons.”

Moscow began a renewed offensive in Ukraine earlier this year that has stalled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has characterized the current counteroffensive against Russian forces as slow but steady, with Ukrainian forces inserting reserve troops and breaking through some elements of Russian forces’ southeastern defensive lines this month.

“Ukraine continues to get after it and fight,” Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder told VOA in a briefing at the Pentagon last Thursday. “They are making some progress along the front line, but it’s going to be tough.”
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Afghan Female Commandos Share Story Through Art 2 Years After Kabul’s Fall

Posted on by SeeUS

When the Taliban retook control of Kabul, Afghanistan’s only unit of female commandos was left with a target on their backs. Nearly 40 were evacuated and as their legal statuses remain in limbo, a group called Command Purpose is using art to help release the trauma of the past while supporting their futures. Carla Babb reports. Camera: Henry Hernandez, Command Purpose
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Malawi’s Opposition Wants President to Resign Over Economic Challenges

Posted on by SeeAF

Malawi’s main opposition party is pushing for the resignation of President Lazarus Chakwera over a looming economic crisis resulting in fuel shortages, a scarcity of foreign exchange and increased grain prices.

A government spokesperson said pushing Chakwera to resign is unrealistic.

Dalitso Kabambe, a presidential aspirant for the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), told reporters that the country’s economy is heading into a crisis.

“You see the inflation is very, very high at 28 percent,” said Kabambe. “Exchange rate is wobbling and there is no forex available. When you see growth, it has been subdued for some time now. All these are indicators that the economy has overheated and that it needs to be stabilized.”

Kabambe, also a former governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi, said the problem is that the current administration has no expertise managing the economy.

“To stabilize the economy, that’s the big boy’s job to ensure that now you have opening up as many businesses as possible, you are developing as many mines as possible and in the agriculture sector you are producing large volumes of food and you are getting a lot of surplus for exports,” he said. “That’s the big man’s job because that is what will help the country to grow the economy.”

DPP spokesperson Shadreck Namalomba said the president should resign so other people can take over and address the economic problems Malawians are facing.

Ezekiel Ching’oma, a spokesperson for the Malawi Congress Party, a leading party in the governing Tonse Alliance, would not take a call from VOA to comment on the matter.

Government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu told a local media outlet on Monday that DPP officials were making the remarks out of anger emanating from bitterness over losing elections in 2020.

Kunkuyu, also the minister of information, said Malawi faces economic challenges largely because of trends that have destabilized global economies. Pushing the president to resign is unrealistic, he said.

“What we can say is that President Lazarus Chakwera has not failed to run the affairs of the country,” Kunkuyu said. “The country has taken a path to recovery and we are not where we were when President Chakwera came into office three years ago. This country was worse than where we are today.”

Chakwera took office in 2020 after defeating DPP leader Peter Mutharika in a rerun election.

Chakwera later announced an anti-corruption campaign that saw several officials from the DPP arrested, a move that its president, Mutharika, called political persecution.

Political analyst George Phiri told VOA it is unjustified for the opposition DPP to call for Chakwera’s resignation because it also messed up the economy.

“Because the situation on the ground does not really show that people are looking to DPP and Mutharika for a solution to our situation,” said Phiri. “No, because the surveys around can show clearly that Malawians are not on Peter Mutharika and DPP, they are on somebody else.”

Phiri said Malawians are only waiting for the 2025 elections to choose whom they want.

“People are saying leave the current government until 2025 when we will have the power to bring it back or to throw it out,” said Phiri. “So, it is only when we vote that a government can get out or can remain.”

Malawi’s agricultural sector suffered severe devastation in March due to Cyclone Freddy — the country’s fifth extreme weather event since 2016 — which claimed some 500 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands.

The cyclone came at a time when Malawi was facing several other crises, including inflated food prices and the worst cholera epidemic in decades.

Phiri said that, in the meantime, the Chakwera administration should work on fixing the country’s economic problems if it wants to win back people’s confidence.
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Niger Political Crisis Risks Humanitarian Crisis

Posted on by SeeAF

With no political solution in sight, the United Nations refugee agency warns that Niger’s political crisis could rapidly deteriorate into a humanitarian crisis as attacks by non-state armed groups continue and sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States on the country begin to bite.

Since a military coup ousted Niger’s democratically elected president on July 26, “there has been a crisis of uncertainty,” said Emmanuel Gignac, the representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Niger.

“It is difficult to see what will happen,” but given the unsettled situation, he said, “the UNHCR and U.N. agencies are developing contingency plans to be prepared for whatever emergency may arise.”

Gignac said violence and attacks by armed groups, especially near the Mali and Burkina Faso borders, have displaced more than 20,000 people in the last month.

During the same period, he noted that up to 2,500 refugees, mainly from Mali and Burkina Faso and some from Nigeria, have fled into Niger — a situation that “has heightened protection risks for refugees, asylum-seekers, and their hosts.”

Currently, said the UNHCR, Niger is hosting 700,000 forcibly displaced people; half are refugees and asylum seekers and the other half are internally displaced people.

On a visit to Geneva from his post in Niamey, Gignac told journalists Tuesday that Niger’s status as a hub for refugees was in jeopardy.

“It is also a route, a migration route towards North Africa and Libya in particular,” he said. “And we do have asylum seekers and people in need of international protection who are mixed with these movements.”

Because the borders are closed, he said, it was not clear whether these flows would continue.

“If they do,” he said, “they will have to happen in a way that is far more underground than what they used to be. So, this may also lead to more exploitation and abuses.”

Additionally, Gignac noted that since the UNHCR established the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) in 2017, Niger also has offered protection to more than 4,242 vulnerable asylum-seekers and refugees evacuated from Libya.

“Prior to the July 26 coup, an ETM flight from Libya was planned for the fourth quarter,” he said. “UNHCR is awaiting approval from authorities for the transfer and will keep monitoring conditions to determine the feasibility of bringing new ETM refugees into the country.”

Concern about sanctions, military intervention

Gignac said the threat of military intervention by ECOWAS, though seemingly unlikely, hung in the air and must be taken seriously. He said he was particularly concerned by the sanctions imposed by ECOWAS, which made no exceptions for humanitarian relief.

He called for the sanctions to be lifted, warning that the inability to bring sufficient humanitarian aid into the country would have a catastrophic effect.

“The fact that people do not have access to, as they used to have, to food commodities and the scarcity of goods in general will lead to a number of protection risks that will develop,” he said. “We are talking about early marriage, sexual violence, trafficking and exploitation.”

He said the sanctions already were creating difficulties as they kicked in during Niger’s so-called “hunger period”—the time before the next harvest when food stocks are at their lowest.

“These factors, with an expected increase in agitation by non-state armed groups, as well as ongoing heavy rains, have worsened the already dire humanitarian outlook for vulnerable populations,” he said.

Gignac said the two main non-state actors in Niger were Islamic State militants who operate on the Mali side of the border, and an al-Qaida affiliated group based on a riverbank near Burkina Faso. He added that criminal gangs in the Mali region “enacted similar damage and acts of violence.”

Violence increases since coup

The UNHCR, which has a well-developed monitoring system that tracks incidents of abuse, found there to be 255 incidents in July including kidnapping, gender-based violence and domestic violence. The agency blames the incidents on militants and criminal gangs.

“These data are in line with other months of 2023,” said Gignac. “UNHCR teams have witnessed a sharp increase in such incidents since July 26” noting that “between July 26 and July 31, we observed a 50 percent increase in similar incidents from the earlier weeks in July.”

For now, Gignac said there have been no reports of large movements of people fleeing from Niger to neighboring countries. But given the political crisis, related uncertainties, and the potential for increased inter-communal violence, he said, this could change.

“If there was a military intervention, we know that Nigeria would play a key role in the force,” he said, adding that Nigerians comprised nearly two-thirds of the 350,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Niger.

“How would the host community react?” he asked. “On the one hand, generously hosting refugees from Nigeria and on the other hand being a kind of attacker, you know?”
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