More people work from home in Colorado, while Mississippi has the lowest percentage of teleworkers
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Month: November 2023
US Says It Does Not Want to See Gaza Hospitals as ‘Battlegrounds’
The White House says it is closer than ever to a deal to release the more than 230 hostages held by Hamas, but that it did not have an update to share Monday. The White House also reaffirmed that the U.S. does not want Israel and Hamas firefights at Gaza hospitals. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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German Defense Minister Pledges Support for Ukraine
An official from another key Western ally paid a surprise visit to Ukraine Tuesday while Russian forces continued to pound civilian infrastructure with missiles and drones.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius arrived in Kyiv a day after a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Both men said their nations would help Ukraine during what is expected to be a long, cold, uncertain winter.
Germany is the second-biggest supplier of military assistance to Kyiv, behind the United States.
Pistorius’ second visit to Ukraine came during a commemoration of the country’s November 2013 pro-democracy uprising.
“I am here again, firstly to pledge further support, but also to express our solidarity and deep bond and also our admiration for the courageous, brave and costly fight that is being waged here,” Pistorius said, laying flowers at Maidan square in central Kyiv.
In his address Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy linked the 2013 demonstrations, which continued for months, to the war with Russia today.
“Ten years ago, people united not only against something, but above all for themselves. Everyone for everyone. All those who after the arbitrariness of force felt that they are also being beaten, that they are also hurt, that these are blows to justice and truth, to freedom, to our common tomorrow.
“What will it be like if we remain silent, swallow it, and fear instead of fighting?” he said. “And then, in fact, the first victory in today’s war took place. The victory of non-indifference. The victory of courage. The victory of the Revolution of Dignity.”
Meanwhile, heavy Russian drone and missile attacks continued, damaging a hospital, a building at a mine and other civilian infrastructure.
“The central city hospital in the town of Selydove in the Donetsk region, the building of the Kotlyarevska mine and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed and damaged,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement.
In his visit Monday, Austin said the Pentagon would be sending an additional $100 million in weapons to Ukraine, including artillery and munitions for air defense systems.
He said Ukraine’s effort to defeat Russian forces “matters to the rest of the world” and that U.S. support would continue “for the long haul.”
Some information for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Record Crowds Expected in Air, on Roads for Thanksgiving
Despite inflation and memories of past holiday travel meltdowns, millions of people are expected to hit airports and highways in record numbers over the Thanksgiving break.
The busiest days to fly will be Tuesday and Wednesday as well as the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 2.6 million passengers on Tuesday and 2.7 million passengers on Wednesday. Sunday will draw the largest crowds with an estimated 2.9 million passengers, which would narrowly eclipse a record set on June 30.
Meanwhile, AAA forecasts that 55.4 million Americans will travel at least 80 kilometers from home between next Wednesday and the Sunday after Thanksgiving, with roads likely to be the most clogged on Wednesday.
The weather could snarl air and road traffic. A storm system was expected to move from the southern Plains to the Northeast on Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing severe thunderstorms, gusty wind and possible snow.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a news conference Monday that the government has tried to better prepare for holiday travel over the last year by hiring more air traffic controllers, opening new air routes along the East Coast and providing grants to airports for snowplows and deicing equipment. But he warned travelers to check road conditions and flight times before leaving home.
“Mother Nature, of course, is the X factor in all of this,” he said.
The good news for travelers by plane and car alike: Prices are coming down.
Air fares are averaging $268 per ticket, down 14% from a year ago, according to the travel site Hopper.
Gasoline prices are down about 45 cents a gallon from this time last year. The national average was $3.30 per gallon on Monday, according to AAA, down from $3.67 a year ago.
A survey of GasBuddy users found that despite cheaper pump prices, the number of people planning to take a long driving trip this Thanksgiving hasn’t changed much from last year. Patrick De Haan, an analyst for the price-tracking service, said inflation has cooled but some things like food are still becoming more expensive. Consumers are also charging more on credit cards and saving less.
“Sure, they love the falling gas prices, but a lot of Americans spent in other ways this summer and they may not be ready to open their wallets for Thanksgiving travel just yet,” De Haan said.
Thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday travel season, and many still haven’t shaken last December’s nightmare before Christmas, when severe winter storms knocked out thousands of flights and left millions of passengers stranded.
Scott Keyes, founder of the travel site Going, is cautiously optimistic that holiday air travel won’t be the same mess. So far this year, he said, airlines have avoided massive disruptions.
“Everyone understands that airlines can’t control Mother Nature and it’s unsafe to take off or land in the middle of a thunderstorm or snowstorm,” Keyes said. “What really irks people are the controllable cancellations — those widespread disruptions because the airline couldn’t get their act together because their system melted down the way Southwest did over Christmas.”
Indeed, Southwest didn’t recover as quickly as other carriers from last year’s storm when its planes, pilots and flight attendants were trapped out of position and its crew-rescheduling system got bogged down. The airline canceled nearly 17,000 flights before fixing the operation. Federal regulators told Southwest recently that it could be fined for failing to help stranded travelers.
Southwest officials say they have since purchased additional deicing trucks and heating equipment and will add staff at cold-weather airports depending on the forecast. The company said it has also updated its crew-scheduling technology.
U.S. airlines as a whole have been better about stranding passengers. Through October, they canceled 38% fewer flights than during the same period in 2022. From June through August — when thunderstorms can snarl air traffic — the rate of cancellations fell 18% compared to 2022.
Even still, consumer complaints about airline service have soared, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. There have been so many complaints, the agency says, that it has only compiled figures through May.
The airlines, in turn, have heaped blame on the Federal Aviation Administration, which they say can’t keep up with the growing air traffic. In fact, the Transportation Department’s inspector general reported this summer that the FAA has made only “limited efforts” to fix a shortage of air traffic controllers, especially at key facilities in New York, Miami and Jacksonville, Florida.
Meanwhile, staffing levels in other parts of the airline industry have largely recovered since the pandemic. After shedding tens of thousands of workers early on, airlines have been on a hiring spree since late 2020. Passenger airlines have added more than 140,000 workers — an increase of nearly 40% — according to government figures updated last week. The number of people working in the business is the largest since 2001, when there were many more airlines.
Airlines are using their expanded work forces to operate more flights. Southwest is the most aggressive among the big carriers, planning to offer 13% more seats over Thanksgiving than it did during the comparable five-day stretch last year, according to travel data provider Cirium. United and Delta are growing 8% each. American will grow a more modest 5% but still have the largest number of seats.
your ad hereFrench Senate to Weigh Compensation for Victims of Anti-Gay Laws
France’s Senate is this week to debate a draft law that would allow people convicted under anti-gay laws before 1982 to receive financial compensation.
Thousands of people were sentenced under two French laws in force between 1942 and 1982, one determining the age of consent for same-sex relations and the other defining such relations as an aggravating factor in acts of “public outrage.”
The sponsor of the bill to be debated on Wednesday, Senator Hussein Bourgi of the Socialist party, said he wanted the French government to recognize the state’s role in discriminating against people engaging in same-sex relations.
“This draft law has symbolic value,” he told AFP.
“It aims to rectify an error that society committed at the time.”
The punishments meted out by the courts had “consequences that were much more serious than you might think today,” Bourgi said.
“People were crushed. Some lost their jobs or had to leave town,” he said.
Beyond the government’s recognition of wrongdoing, Bourgi said he also wanted an independent commission to manage financial compensation of 10,000 euros ($11,000) for each victim.
Antoine Idier, a sociologist and historian, called the initiative “salutary” but added that focusing on two laws of the period made it too restrictive.
“Judges employed a much wider judicial arsenal to repress homosexuality,” he said, including laws that were not specifically aimed at same-sex relations but at “moral failings” or “inciting minors to commit depravity.”
- ‘Hunting gays down’ –
Michel Chomarat, now 74, was arrested in 1977 during a police raid on a gay bar called “Le Manhattan.”
“Homophobia by the state consisted in hunting gays down everywhere,” he told AFP.
The bar was a private space with restricted access “but even so, police took us away in handcuffs and accused us of public moral outrage,” he said.
Chomarat said the draft law came “too late” because many people entitled to compensation had already died.
In an op-ed piece in LGBTQ magazine Tetu in June, activists, unionists and civil servants had already called for a recognition and rehabilitation of victims of anti-gay repression.
“One of the reasons why homophobia persists in today’s society is that state laws, rules and practices legitimized such discrimination in the past,” said Joel Deumier, co-president of SOS Homophobie, a non-profit organization defending lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex rights.
For Bourgi’s text to become law, first the Senate (the upper house of parliament) and then the National Assembly (the lower house) have to vote in favor.
During this process there are often negotiations about the final wording of a bill to make it acceptable to both houses.
There is precedent for the French initiative elsewhere in Europe.
Germany decided in 2017 to rehabilitate and compensate around 50,000 men condemned on the basis of “paragraph 175”, a 19th-century law criminalizing homosexuality that was broadened by Nazi Germany and repealed only in 1994.
Austria is elaborating a similar approach, to become law next year.
‘Brought disgrace’
In Britain, where male anal sex became punishable by death under the Buggery Act of 1533, sexual relations between men were decriminalized in England and Wales in 1967, and later in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
But this was only if the sexual relations occurred in private and the people involved were over 21.
Under a recent “disregard and pardons scheme,” people in Britain can get a historic conviction for gay sex offenses removed from police and court records.
This includes convictions for “buggery,” “gross indecency” and “procuring others to commit homosexual acts” — all since abolished — but not sexual activity in a public toilet, which is still an offense.
Regis Schlagdenhauffen, a social science professor at the EHESS school in Paris, said his research suggested that at least 10,000 people had been condemned for homosexuality in France between 1942 and 1982, mostly men from working-class backgrounds.
A third of them was married and a quarter had children, he said.
“Those condemnations brought disgrace and were a terrible experience to live through,” said Schlagdenhauffen.
This was the reason why many victims of state repression might not come forward, he said, preferring not to revisit the traumatic experience.
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Boakai Declared Winner of Liberia Presidential Election
Political veteran Joseph Boakai was on Monday declared the winner of Liberia’s presidential election, beating incumbent George Weah, electoral authorities said after completing the ballot count.
Boakai won with 50.64 percent of the vote, against 49.36 percent of the vote for former international football star Weah, National Electoral Commission president Davidetta Browne Lansanah told reporters.
Boakai won by a margin of just 20,567 votes.
Weah had already conceded the election on Friday evening, based on the results of more than 99.98 percent of polling stations.
The outgoing president won praise from abroad on Monday for conceding and promoting a non-violent transition in a region marred by coups.
“Liberians have once again demonstrated that democracy is alive in the ECOWAS region and that change is possible through peaceful means,” the Economic Community of West African States said in a statement.
But hours after Boakai’s victory was announced, a car plowed into a crowd of supporters outside his party’s headquarters, injuring at least 16 people, police said. His party said at least 10 people were killed in the incident.
Since 2020, ECOWAS states have seen abrupt regime changes with military forces seizing power in four of the 15 member countries: Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger.
The election six years ago of Weah — the first African footballer to win both FIFA’s World Player of the Year trophy and the Ballon d’Or — had sparked high hopes of change in Liberia, which is still reeling from back-to-back civil wars and the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic.
But critics have accused his government of corruption and him of failing to keep a promise to improve the lives of the poorest.
While his party lost, “Liberia has won,” Weah had said on the radio.
Weah said he had spoken to the man he called the “president-elect” to congratulate him and urged his supporters to accept the election result.
“This is a time for graciousness in defeat,” he said, adding, “Our time will come again.”
The African Union sent its congratulations to Boakai on Monday.
AU chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat also called on “all parties to continue to display maturity and embrace dialogue to consolidate democracy.”
U.S. President Joe Biden also sent congratulations to Boakai, while praising Weah for “respecting the will of the people and putting patriotism above politics.”
‘Defied the stereotype’
The ECOWAS bloc said that the post-election phase was “crucial” and called on “the people of Liberia to maintain and safeguard peace and security.”
However, the NEC head said that on Friday, the commission had received two appeals from Weah’s party concerning the conduct of the election in Nimba County.
The commission has 30 days to investigate and reach a decision, she said.
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who led a mediation mission for the election, said he was “deeply pleased with the successful outcome of the democratic process,” in comments posted on X, formerly Twitter.
He went on to congratulate Boakai, urging him “to be magnanimous in victory and seek to continue the efforts to unite” Liberia.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is a heavyweight in the West African bloc, commended Weah’s concession, saying it had averted any form of socio-political crisis.
“He has defied the stereotype that peaceful transitions of power are untenable in West Africa,” Tinubu said.
Several presidential elections in the region are upcoming in 2024, including polls in Senegal, Ghana and Mauritania, as well as military-ruled Mali and Burkina Faso.
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Namibia’s Small-Scale Miners Say They’re Displaced by Large Corporations
As industrial mining is expanding in Namibia to meet international demand, small-scale miners whose families have worked the land for generations say they are being displaced. Vitalio Angula has the story from Uis, Namibia.
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Official: All Safe After Navy Plane Overshoots Hawaii Runway
A U.S. Navy plane overshot a runway and splashed into a bay in Hawaii on Monday, but authorities said all nine people aboard made it safely to shore with no injuries.
Spokesperson Petty Officer Ryan Fisher said the Coast Guard responded but that rescue operations were quickly called off.
“It sounds like all parties involved were rescued,” he said.
The P-8A aircraft overshot the runway at a Marine base on Kaneohe Bay, said U.S. Marine Corps spokesperson Gunnery Sgt. Orlando Perez. He did not have further information.
A photo taken by a witness showed the plane floating just offshore, a scene reminiscent of the 2009 “ Miracle on the Hudson,” when a commercial aircraft piloted by Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger made an emergency landing on the New York river. All 155 people aboard survived.
The P-8A and the Airbus A320 that Sullenberger piloted are roughly the same size.
Diane Dircks, 61, and her family had just returned to the dock after rainy weather cut their pontoon boat trip short when her daughter noticed the plane in the water.
“We went running over to the end of the dock, and I took some pictures,” she said.
They then heard sirens coming from everywhere.
Dircks, who is visiting from Illinois, said her daughter keeps a pair of binoculars on her for birdwatching, so she was able to see the plane and the rescue boats arriving.
“It was unbelievable,” she said.
The Honolulu Fire Department received a 911 call for a downed aircraft shortly after 2 p.m., spokesperson Malcolm K. Medrano said in an email.
It was cloudy and rainy at the time. Visibility was about 1.6 kilometers, said Thomas Vaughan, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Honolulu.
The P-8A is often used to hunt for submarines and reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. It is manufactured by Boeing and shares many parts with the 737 commercial jet.
The plane belongs to the Skinny Dragons of Patrol Squadron 4 stationed at Whidbey Island in Washington state. Patrol squadrons were once based at Kaneohe Bay, but now they deploy to Hawaii on a rotational basis.
Marine Corps Base Hawaii is about 16 kilometers from Honolulu on Oahu. The base houses about 9,300 military personnel and 5,100 family members. It’s one of several key military installations on Oahu.
The base sits on Kaneohe Bay, which is also home to coral reefs, a breeding ground for hammerhead sharks and a University of Hawaii marine biology research institute.
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US Defense Secretary in Ukraine in Show of Support
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a visit to Ukraine Monday to reassure Ukrainian leaders the United States will continue to support the country in its fight against Russia. It was Austin’s first visit to the Ukrainian capital since April 2022, and the first time members of the press accompanied him since the war began. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb is traveling with the secretary and has more from Kyiv.
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Two Turkeys ‘Liberty’ and ‘Bell’ Pardoned by Biden
“Liberty” and “Bell” — two turkeys — strutted onto the White House South Lawn Monday and became immediate celebrities for what has become the official beginning of the holidays in Washington.
Amid an autumn day, with Christmas carols playing, President Joe Biden addressed the families of staff, 4-H and Future Farmers of America, and students from Eliot-Hine Middle School as they gathered for the popular event.
Next to him stood a table lined with a fall garland of burgundy, green, orange and yellow, bearing a sign “Happy Thanksgiving 2023.” Standing on it was an 18 kg (40lb) turkey, with another next to it on the ground, beside the Minnesota farmers who raised them.
“I hereby pardon Liberty and Bell,” said Biden, as the male turkey fanned its tail. And, with that, the two birds were given the long-held tradition of a long life, just days prior to the American holiday that features a roasted turkey as its centerpiece.
Turkeys on leashes at the White House
In 1989, then President George H.W. Bush promised a crowd of children and reporters that the 23 kg (50lb) turkey donated to the White House would not be eaten.
President Bush was the first to make the pardon an annual action, but not the first to show mercy for a bird. The son of President Abraham Lincoln treated the turkey like a dog, leading him around on a leash inside the White House. Ultimately, President Lincoln granted the turkey clemency.
The act of donating a turkey (or a gaggle of gobblers) dates to the 1800s and embraces the nation’s heritage of farmland. For the past month, Biden has traveled to rural America, announcing $5 billion in investments.
“We’re restoring hope and opportunity so family farms can stay in the family,” proclaimed Biden at Monday’s event, “and children don’t have to leave home if they wish to stay and make a living on the farm.”
Biden told the crowd that the birds love the Minnesota favorites, including Honeycrisp apples, ice hockey, a thousand lakes and the Mall of America.
Happy 81st birthday
President Biden’s 81st birthday coincided with the holiday event. He evoked laughter when he told the crowd, “I just want you to know, it’s difficult turning 60.” The president’s age has been raised by opponents and analysts as he seeks a second term. During his speech Monday, Biden confused Britney Spears with Taylor Swift when referencing Swift’s Eras tour in Brazil.
The president plans to celebrate his birthday with family this weekend in Nantucket.
The birds will live on as agriculture models at the University of Minnesota. Having been named after the Liberty Bell, the symbol of independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the president said his pardon gave the turkeys “a new appreciation for the words, ‘Let freedom ring.’”
your ad hereSolar Panels Over Canals in Gila River Indian Community Will Help Save Water
In a move that may soon be replicated elsewhere, the Gila River Indian Community recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put solar panels over a stretch of irrigation canal on its land south of Phoenix.
It will be the first project of its kind in the United States to break ground, according to the tribe’s press release.
“This was a historic moment here for the community but also for the region and across Indian Country,” said Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis in a video published on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The first phase, set to be completed in 2025, will cover 1,000 feet of canal and generate one megawatt of electricity that the tribe will use to irrigate crops, including feed for livestock, cotton and grains.
The idea is simple: install solar panels over canals in sunny, water-scarce regions where they reduce evaporation and make renewable electricity.
“We’re proud to be leaders in water conservation, and this project is going to do just that,” Lewis said, noting the significance of a Native, sovereign, tribal nation leading on the technology.
A study by the University of California, Merced estimated that 63 billion gallons of water could be saved annually by covering California’s 4,000 miles of canals. More than 100 climate advocacy groups are advocating for just that.
Researchers believe that much of the installed solar canopies would additionally generate a significant amount of electricity.
UC Merced wants to hone its initial estimate and should soon have the chance. Not far away in California’s Central Valley, the Turlock Irrigation District and partner Solar AquaGrid plan to construct 1.6 miles (2.6 kilometers) of solar canopies over its canals beginning this spring and researchers will study the benefits.
Neither the Gila River Indian Community nor the Turlock Irrigation District are the first to implement this technology globally. Indian engineering firm Sun Edison inaugurated the first solar-covered canal in 2012 on one of the largest irrigation projects in the world in Gujarat state. Despite ambitious plans to cover 11,800 miles (19,000 kilometers) of canals, only a handful of small projects ever went up, and the engineering firm filed for bankruptcy.
High capital costs, clunky design and maintenance challenges were obstacles for widespread adoption, experts say.
But severe, prolonged drought in the western U.S. has centered water as a key political issue, heightening interest in technologies like cloud seeding and solar-covered canals as water managers grasp at any solution that might buoy reserves, even ones that haven’t been widely tested, or tested at all.
Still, the project is an important indicator of the tribe’s commitment to water conservation, said Heather Tanana, a visiting law professor at the University of California, Irvine and citizen of the Navajo Nation. Tribes hold the most senior water rights on the Colorado River, though many are still settling those rights in court.
“There’s so much fear about the tribes asserting their rights and if they do so, it’ll pull from someone else’s rights,” she said. The tribe leaving water in Lake Mead and putting federal dollars toward projects like solar canopies is “a great example to show that fear is unwarranted.”
The federal government has made record funding available for water-saving projects, including a $233 million pact with the Gila River Indian Community to conserve about two feet of water in Lake Mead, the massive and severely depleted reservoir on the Colorado River. Phase one of the solar canal project will cost $6.7 million and the Bureau of Reclamation provided $517,000 for the design.
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Oscar Pistorius Will Have a Second Chance at Parole Friday
Oscar Pistorius will have a second chance at parole at a hearing Friday after he was wrongly ruled ineligible for early release from prison in March.
South Africa’s department of corrections said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday that a parole board will consider the former Olympic runner’s case again this week and decide “whether the inmate is suitable or not for social integration.”
Pistorius, a world-famous double-amputee athlete who broke barriers by competing on carbon-fiber running blades at the 2012 London Olympics, has been in prison since late 2014 for the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He was initially convicted of culpable homicide, an offense comparable to manslaughter, for shooting Steenkamp multiple times through a closed toilet cubicle door in his home in the South African capital, Pretoria, in the predawn hours of Valentine’s Day 2013.
His conviction was upgraded to murder, and he was ultimately sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison after a series of appeals by prosecutors. Serious offenders in South Africa must serve at least half their sentence before they are eligible for parole.
Pistorius’ case and his parole eligibility have been complicated by those appeals by prosecutors, who first challenged his culpable homicide conviction and then a sentence of six years for murder, which they called shockingly lenient.
The Supreme Court of Appeal eventually ruled in 2017 that Pistorius should serve South Africa’s minimum sentence of 15 years for murder but considered the year and seven months he had already served for culpable homicide when it delivered the 13 years and five months sentence.
However, the court made an error by not counting another period Pistorius had served while his murder sentence was being appealed, meaning he was in fact eligible for parole in March when he was told at his first hearing that he would only be eligible in August 2024.
Pistorius’ lawyers took his case to the country’s apex Constitutional Court. The decision to give Pistorius another parole hearing Friday is effectively an admission of the appeal court’s error.
Pistorius is not guaranteed to be granted early release. A parole board takes a number of factors into account, including his conduct and disciplinary record in prison, his mental health and the likelihood of him committing another crime.
He could be released on full parole or placed on day parole, where he would be allowed to live and work in the community but have to return to prison at night.
Pistorius was once one of the world’s most admired athletes and one of sports’ most heartwarming stories. He was born with a congenital condition that led to his legs being amputated below the knee when he was a baby, but he took up track and won multiple Paralympic titles on his running blades. He is the only double amputee to run at the Olympics.
Known as the “Blade Runner,” he was at the height of his fame when he killed Steenkamp months after the London Olympics. At his murder trial, he claimed he shot Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, by mistake with his licensed 9 mm pistol because he believed she was a dangerous intruder hiding in his bathroom in the middle of the night.
Pistorius will turn 37 Wednesday and hasn’t been seen for nearly a decade, although there have been occasional glimpses of his time in prison.
He sustained an injury in an altercation with another inmate over a prison telephone in 2017. A year earlier, he received treatment for injuries to his wrists, which his family denied were a result of him harming himself and said were caused by him falling in his cell.
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Ukraine Fires Top Cyber Defense Officials for Graft
Two Ukrainian senior cyber defense officials were fired Monday for alleged embezzlement in the government’s cybersecurity agency, a government official said.
Yurii Shchyhol, head of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP) of Ukraine, and his deputy, Viktor Zhora, were dismissed by the government, senior cabinet official Taras Melnychuk wrote on Telegram.
Melnychuk, the cabinet’s representative to parliament, did not give the reason for the dismissals. Shchyhol wrote on Facebook that he was confident he could prove his innocence, Interfax Ukraine reported. There was no immediate comment from Zhora.
The SSSCIP is responsible for securing government communications and defending the state from cyberattacks.
Anti-corruption prosecutors announced they were investigating the head and deputy head of the SSSCIP over their alleged roles in a six-person plot to embezzle 62 million Ukrainian hryvnia ($1.72 million) between 2020 and 2022.
Authorities suspect the officials of buying software at an inflated price from two companies allegedly under their control in a sale that had been closed to other bidders, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau said.
In a statement on Telegram, the SSSCIP said it was cooperating with investigators and that all agency procurement had been carried out legally.
Last September, Shchyhol told Reuters that Russian spies were using hackers to target computer systems at law enforcement agencies to identify and obtain evidence related to alleged Russian war crimes.
Ukraine has increased its efforts to stomp out corruption as it pursues membership in the European Union, which has made the fight against graft a key prerequisite for negotiations to begin.
Polish protests
Kyiv hopes to negotiate with Poland and the European Commission this week about Ukraine’s export of goods through Polish routes.
About 3,000 mostly Ukrainian trucks were stuck on the Polish side of the border Sunday morning due to a lengthy blockade by Polish truckers, Ukrainian authorities said.
Earlier this month, Polish truckers blocked roads to three border crossings with Ukraine to protest what they see as government inaction over a loss of business to foreign competitors since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Truckers from Ukraine have been exempted from seeking permits to cross the Polish border since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Polish truckers want a limited number of licenses to be issued for Ukrainian truckers, a demand Kyiv said it would not consider.
“This week we hope to have negotiations in a trilateral format,” Taras Kachka, a Ukrainian trade representative, said in televised comments Monday.
He said the blockages may affect critical supplies of energy resources for Ukraine, which is suffering from constant Russian attacks.
Russian shelling increases
Russian shelling killed three people Monday and damaged power lines and a gas pipeline in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk and southern Kherson regions, authorities said.
An elderly woman was killed, and a man injured in a Russian artillery strike on the town of Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk’s governor Serhiy Lysak wrote on Telegram messenger.
On Monday morning, two drivers were killed when Russian forces shelled a private transport company parking lot in Kherson, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Russian drones have increased their attacks on Kyiv targeting Ukrainian infrastructure as the winter is approaching.
Russia launched 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones, targeting the Ukrainian capital and the Cherkasy and Poltava regions, according to a military statement.
Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems shot down 15 of the drones.
Ukraine’s Military Administration spokesperson, Serhii Popko, said that the drones attacked Kyiv from different directions in waves that were “constantly changing vectors.”
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for his pledge of $100 million in new military aid to Ukraine.
“There is a new defense package for our country from the United States. I am grateful for it. In particular, there will be more artillery – shells that are needed right now,” said Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian president also stressed talks on expanding cross-border cooperation with Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova. “This includes the work of the maritime corridor, the Danube export cluster and the overall trade turnover between our countries,” he said.
Some information for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Britain Pushes Tech Solutions to Global Hunger; Critics Blame Inequality
Innovations in food production could alleviate hunger for millions of people, according to Britain, which hosted a global summit on food insecurity Monday. Critics say the focus on technology ignores the real driver of food shortages – growing inequality and poverty. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Federal Appeals Court Deals Blow to Voting Rights Act
A divided federal appeals court Monday ruled that private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the federal Voting Rights Act, a decision voting rights advocates say could further erode protections under the landmark 1965 law.
The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis found that only the U.S. attorney general can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices such as racially gerrymandered districts.
The majority said other federal laws, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, make it clear when private groups can sue said but similar wording is not found in the voting law.
“When those details are missing, it is not our place to fill in the gaps, except when ‘text and structure’ require it,” U.S. Circuit Judge David R. Stras wrote for the majority in an opinion joined by Judge Raymond W. Gruender. Stras was nominated by former President Donald Trump and Gruender by former President George W. Bush.
The decision affirmed a lower judge’s decision to dismiss a case brought by the Arkansas State Conference NAACP and the Arkansas Public Policy Panel after giving U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland five days to join the lawsuit. Neither organization immediately returned messages seeking comment Monday.
Chief Judge Lavenski R. Smith noted in a dissenting opinion that federal courts across the country and the U.S. Supreme Court have considered numerous cases brought by private plaintiffs under Section 2. Smith said the court should follow “existing precedent that permits a judicial remedy” unless the Supreme Court or Congress decides differently.
“Rights so foundational to self-government and citizenship should not depend solely on the discretion or availability of the government’s agents for protection,” wrote Smith, another appointee of George W. Bush.
The ruling applies only to federal courts covered by the 8th Circuit, which includes Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Meanwhile, several pending lawsuits by private groups challenge various political maps drawn by legislators across the country.
A representative for the Justice Department declined to comment.
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Experts Fear Nigeria’s Food Inflation Could Worsen Hunger Crisis
Millions of people in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, are struggling with economic problems analysts say were caused in part by government reform policies introduced earlier this year.
Nigeria scrapped fuel subsidies in May leading to price hikes in food, transportation and energy costs. Data released last week by the National Bureau of Statistics showed Nigeria’s inflation hit an 18-year high of 27.3%. Analysts say the trend could exacerbate suffering in a country with an estimated 25 million food-insecure people.
Nigerian roadside food vendor Vivian Nwankwo started her business four years ago to support her family after her husband died.
But as the cost of food items continues to rise, she said her profit margin has dropped by more than half and forced her to withdraw two of her children from school to free up cash for food.
“Before we were managing, but now things are too expensive,” Nwankwo said. “It’s difficult to cope or make profits. People are complaining and sometimes at the end of the day, I’m at a loss. Even my two children who are in school do not go every day because I cannot provide for them always.”
There are millions of people like Nwankwo in Nigeria struggling to meet basic needs.
The United Nations estimates 25 million people in Nigeria — or about 15% of the total population — are food insecure.
Analysts say regional instability, climate change and inflation are the major triggers of food insecurity in Nigeria. The situation worsened after the government stopped paying subsidies on fuel in May, sharply increasing costs for food, transportation and energy.
Nigeria’s currency devaluation is also impacting commodity prices and contributing to overall inflation.
Nigerian Humanitarian Affairs Minister Betta Edu said authorities are responding to the challenges, in part by declaring a state of emergency on food security.
“We have lots of interventions that we’re putting on the table and the payments of this conditional cash transfer is ongoing,” Edu said. “The conditions attached to it is that they invest in their businesses, ensure that their children go to school. These are all targeted at improving the lives of people and alleviating poverty. The third part is providing fertilizers for poor local farmers to be able to produce food that we’ll buy off from them and sell as food rations.”
According to the World in Data analysis, Nigeria is among countries with the highest food expenditure with an estimated 60% of total personal income spent on food.
Experts say the situation will worsen if food inflation continues to rise, and that vulnerable people will be most adversely affected.
The Nigerian Central Bank on Monday indefinitely postponed a crucial meeting on interest rates even as inflation worsens.
Analysts say unless something changes, many Nigerians like Nwankwo will struggle to get by from day to day.
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Britain Pushes Tech Solutions for Global Hunger; Critics Blame Inequality
Innovations in food production could alleviate hunger for millions of people, according to Britain, which hosted a global summit on food insecurity Monday, but critics say the focus on technology ignores the growing inequality of wealth.
The summit was a joint initiative between Britain, Somalia, the United Arab Emirates, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aimed at boosting food security through science and innovation.
Innovation hub
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said a renewed focus was needed to alleviate hunger.
“It can’t be right that today in 2023, almost 1 billion people across the world regularly do not have enough to eat, that millions face hunger and starvation, and over 45 million children under five are suffering acute malnutrition. In a world of abundance, no one should die from lack of food and no parent should ever have to watch their child starve,” Sunak told delegates in London.
He outlined Britain’s plans to host a “virtual hub” for innovation in food production, known as CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), aimed at making global food systems more resilient to future shocks in a changing climate.
“We’ve already helped develop crops that are drought-resistant and even richer in vitamins, now feeding 100 million people across Africa. And we’re going further, launching a new U.K. CGIAR science center to drive cutting-edge research on flood-tolerant rice, disease-resistant wheat and much more. These innovations will reach millions across the poorest countries, as well as improving U.K. crop yields and driving down food prices,” Sunak said.
Somalia emergency
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud also addressed the summit, telling delegates that the country’s stabilization program, developed in partnership with Britain, was working on tackling his country’s humanitarian crisis.
Somalia is among the countries worst-hit by climate change and food insecurity. The government recently declared a state of emergency after 113,000 people were forced to flee their homes following extreme rainfall and extensive flooding, which also caused widespread damage to crops and farmland. The floods come a year after Somalia suffered its worst drought in 40 years.
Technological solutions
Can new technology end global food insecurity, like that endured by Somalia and many other poorer nations? It’s one tool in the box, said analyst Steve Wiggins, a food security specialist at the ODI development think tank.
“The fundamentals of global hunger are the fundamentals of poverty, marginalization, and people being in situations of extraordinary vulnerability. Those are the fundamentals of hunger and that’s what we have to drive towards,” he told VOA.
“Of course, there are technical advances that we get that we’re very happy for, which make things a little bit easier,” Wiggins added, highlighting innovations like solar-powered irrigation in Mali. “So, if you want to pump water onto your fields, it’s becoming increasingly easy without having to spend money on diesel to do so.”
Inequalities
Critics say the focus on technology ignores the main driver of food insecurity.
“This summit is welcome. I think some of the solutions are welcome. But I think it’s not going to be enough to tackle that huge problem of hunger, which has been with us for decades and which we seem to be going backwards in many steps,” said Nick Nisbett of the Institute of Development Studies.
“Technological solutions tend to focus on the supply side, so new tech for agriculture and supply chains and so on. But what we actually need to do is to tackle the inequalities that lie behind that hunger.”
“Possibly the simplest thing to do is actually to give people food or to give people the money to [go] out and buy and purchase food in [the] markets themselves,” Nisbett told VOA.
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Celebrity Cars & Domestic Novelties: Annual Auto Show Kicks Off in Los Angeles
This year’s Los Angeles Auto Show has kicked off and it is full of flash, speed and new innovations. Angelina Bagdasarian has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian
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Finland’s PM Hints at Further Border Action Amid Russia Protests
Finland’s prime minister said Monday the country may need to take further actions on its border with Russia after closing four border crossings to stem a recent increase in asylum-seekers.
Finland, which joined NATO this year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has accused Moscow of letting migrants from the Middle East and Africa without valid travel documents through to the Finnish border. The government closed the border crossings in southeastern Finland last week, but new migrant arrivals were reported at border checkpoints farther north.
“The situation has progressed in a bad direction,” Prime Minister Petteri Orpo was quoted as saying by Finnish public broadcaster YLE during a visit to the Vartius border crossing in east-central Finland. “If there is no change, we will take more measures, and if necessary, quickly. The message is clear that we do not accept this behavior.”
He did not rule out closing more border crossings along the 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) Finnish-Russian border.
YLE said 500 asylum-seekers have arrived in Finland in November, significantly more than normal.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the decision to close border crossings would “aggravate” Russian-Finnish relations and criticized as a “pretext” Finland’s claim that Russia has been helping undocumented migrants to cross the border. A Foreign Ministry statement said the decision “violates the rights and interests of tens of thousands of citizens of our countries.”
European Union and NATO countries bordering Russia and Belarus have accused those countries of deliberately ushering migrants toward border zones as a type of “hybrid warfare.”
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Malians Suffer Under Unprecedented Power Cuts
Mali is experiencing a severe electricity crisis that analysts say will have dire economic consequences. For the first time, citizens are openly criticizing Mali’s military government, which has until now enjoyed widespread support in the capital. Annie Risemberg has more from the capital, Bamako
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Trump Lawyers Urge Court to Revoke Gag Order in DC Election Case
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump urged a federal appeals court on Monday to revoke a gag order in the federal case charging him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“The order is unprecedented and it sets a terrible precedent for future restrictions on core political speech,” Trump attorney John Sauer told a three-judge panel.
Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith’s team, meanwhile, are urging the court to put back in place an order barring the Republican former president from making inflammatory statements about potential witnesses and lawyers in the case.
The prosecutors say those restrictions are necessary to prevent Trump from undermining confidence in the court system and intimidating people who may be called to testify against him. Defense lawyers call the gag order an unconstitutional muzzling of Trump’s free speech rights and say prosecutors have presented no evidence to support the idea that his words have caused harm or made anyone feel threatened.
During arguments Monday, Trump lawyer Sauer called the gag order a “heckler’s veto,” unfairly relying on the theory that Trump’s speech might someday inspire other people to harass or intimidate his targets.
The gag order is one of multiple contentious issues being argued ahead of the landmark March 2024 trial. Defense lawyers are also trying to get the case dismissed by arguing that Trump, as a former president, is immune from prosecution and protected by the First Amendment from being charged. The outcome of Monday’s arguments won’t affect those constitutional claims, but it will set parameters on what Trump as both a criminal defendant and leading presidential candidate can and cannot say ahead of the trial.
The order has had a whirlwind trajectory through the courts since U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed it last month in response to a request from prosecutors, who cited among other comments Trump’s repeated disparagement of Smith as “deranged.”
The judge lifted it days after entering it, giving Trump’s lawyers time to prove why his words should not be restricted. But after Trump took advantage of that pause by posting on social media comments that prosecutors said were meant to sway his former chief of staff against giving unfavorable testimony, Chutkan put it back in place.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit later lifted it as it considered Trump’s appeal.
The judges hearing the case include Cornelia Pillard and Patricia Millett, both appointees of President Barack Obama, and Brad Garcia, who joined the bench earlier this year after being nominated by President Joe Biden. Obama and Biden are Democrats.
The panel is not expected to immediately rule on Monday. Should the judges rule against Trump, he’ll have the option of asking the entire court to take up the matter. His lawyers have also signaled that they’ll ask the Supreme Court to get involved.
The four-count indictment in Washington is one of four criminal cases Trump faces as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024.
He’s been charged in Florida, also by Smith’s team, with illegally hoarding dozens of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. He’s also been charged in state court in New York in connection with hush money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels, who alleged an extramarital affair with him, and in Georgia with scheming to subvert the 2020 presidential election in that state. He has denied doing anything wrong.
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Russia Puts Ukrainian Winner of Eurovision Song Contest on Wanted List
Russia has placed a Ukrainian singer who won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on its wanted list, state news agencies reported Monday.
The reports said an Interior Ministry database listed singer Susana Jamaladinova as being sought for violating a criminal law.
The independent news site Mediazona, which covers opposition and human rights issues, said Jamaladinova was charged under a law adopted last year that bans spreading so-called fake information about the Russian military and the ongoing fighting in Ukraine.
Jamaladinova, who performs under the stage name Jamala, is of Crimean Tatar descent. She won the 2016 Eurovision contest with the song “1944,” a title that refers to the year the Soviet Union deported Crimean Tatars en masse.
Her winning performance came almost exactly two years after Russia annexed Crimea as political turmoil gripped Ukraine. Most other countries regard the annexation as illegitimate.
Russia protested “1944” being allowed in the competition, saying it violated rules against political speech in Eurovision. But the song made no specific criticism of Russia or the Soviet Union, although it drew such implications, opening with the lyrics “When strangers are coming, they come to your house, they kill you all and say ‘We’re not guilty.'”
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Lawmakers, Companies Set New Rules for AI-Generated Political Ads
As the 2024 U.S. presidential race begins to ramp up, some contenders are already using artificial intelligence to generate promotional videos, some of which blur the lines between what is real and what is not. Karina Bafradzhian has the story. VOA footage by Andrey Degtyarev.
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Verdicts Expected in Italy’s Mafi Syndicate Trial
Verdicts are expected Monday in the trial of hundreds of people accused of membership in Italy’s ’ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, one of the world’s most powerful, extensive and wealthy drug-trafficking groups.
The trial started almost three years ago in the southern Calabria region, where the mob organization was originally based. The ’ndrangheta quietly amassed power in Italy and abroad as the Sicilian Mafia lost influence.
The syndicate now holds almost a monopoly on cocaine importation in Europe, according to anti-mafia prosecutors who led the investigation in southern Italy. The organization also has bases in North and South America and is active in Africa, Italian prosecutors maintain, and ’ndrangheta figures have been arrested in recent years around Europe and in Brazil and Lebanon.
The trial took place in a specially constructed high-security bunker. Part of an industrial park in Lamezia Terme, the bunker is so vast that video screens were anchored to the ceiling so participants could view the proceedings.
More than 320 defendants are charged with crimes that include drug and arms trafficking, extortion and mafia association, a term in Italy’s penal code for members of organized crime groups. Others are charged with acting in complicity with the ’ndrangheta without actually being a member.
The charges grew out of an investigation of 12 clans linked to a convicted ‘ndrangheta boss. The central figure, Luigi Mancuso, served 19 years in Italian prison for his role in leading what investigators allege is one of the ‘ndrangheta’s most powerful crime families, based in the town of Vibo Valentia.
Based almost entirely on blood ties, the ‘ndrangheta was substantially immune to turncoats for decades, but the ranks of those turning state’s evidence are becoming more substantial. In the current trial, they include a relative of Mancuso’s.
Several dozen informants in the case came from the ‘ndrangheta, while others formerly belonged to Sicily’s Cosa Nostra.
Despite the large number of defendants, the trial wasn’t Italy’s biggest one involving alleged mobsters.
In 1986, 475 alleged members of the Sicilian Mafia went on trial in a similarly constructed bunker in Palermo. The proceedings resulted in more than 300 convictions and 19 life sentences. That trial helped reveal many of the brutal methods and murderous strategies of the island’s top mob bosses, including sensational killings that bloodied the Palermo area during years of power struggles.
In contrast, the trial involving the ‘ndrangheta was aimed at securing convictions and sentences based on alleged acts of collusion among mobsters and local politicians, public officials, businessmen and members of secret lodges to show how deeply rooted the syndicate is in Calabria.
“The relevance (of this trial) is enormous,” Italian lawmaker former anti-mafia chief prosecutor and lawmaker Federico Cafiero De Raho, a former chief anti-mafia prosecutor, told The Associated Press in an interview. “First of all, because every trial against the ‘ndrangheta gives a very significant message to the territory, which is not only the Calabrian one, but the national territory.”
“But it has repercussions also at a European and world level, because the ‘ndrangheta is one of the strongest organizations in the world, able to manage the international traffic of narcotics, as well as many other activities,” Cafiero De Raho added.
Awash in cocaine trafficking revenues, the ’ndrangheta has gobbled up hotels, restaurants, pharmacies, car dealerships and other businesses throughout Italy, especially in Rome and the country’s affluent north, criminal investigations have revealed.
The buying spree spread across Europe as the syndicate sought to launder illicit revenues but also to make “clean” money by running legitimate businesses, including in the tourism and hospitality sectors, investigators alleged.
“Arrests allow their activities to be halted for a time, but the investigations determine the need for further investigations each time,” Cafiero De Raho said.
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