Month: November 2023

US House Approves Plan to Avert Partial Government Shutdown

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The U.S. House of Representatives voted 336-95 on Tuesday to approve a plan to avert a partial government shutdown on Saturday but at the same time push off contentious debates over spending priorities until early 2024.

Current funding for all government agencies expires at midnight on Friday, forcing Congress and the White House to reach a short-term deal to keep the government running.

The House approved a proposal by new Speaker Mike Johnson, leader of the narrow Republican majority in the chamber, that extends funding for some government agencies through mid-January and others until early February. 

By those two dates, Congress will have to debate and decide on spending levels throughout the government through next September, or again approve another short-term deal.

In passing his plan, Johnson received more votes from Democrats — 209 — than Republicans — 127. Opposing it were 93 Republicans and two Democrats.

The Senate is likely to also approve the proposal and send it to President Joe Biden for his signature.

Johnson has drawn the ire of a right-wing faction of his Republican colleagues because his budget plan does not include the spending cuts or policy changes they seek. Several of the archconservatives made clear they would vote against Johnson’s plan, forcing him to look for opposition Democratic votes to assure its passage.

It was just such a scenario in late September when then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy angered the right-wing bloc by winning Democratic votes to push through the seven-week spending plan that expires Friday at midnight. Days after that political fight, eight right-wing Republicans joined the unanimous Democratic caucus in ousting McCarthy from his speakership, a first in U.S. history.

There is no sign that Johnson faces a similar fate, since he is a stalwart conservative himself, and his like-minded colleagues appear, for the moment, to be giving him leeway in reaching a deal to keep the government open. 

Johnson said his “laddered” funding expiration dates in early 2024 are intended to avoid a Washington tradition: passage of a massive spending measure just before the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, appropriations bills that are so lengthy that few lawmakers have had time to read and digest them as Congress rushes to adjourn for its end-of-year recess. 

In the latest dispute, the hard-right Republican faction in the House has demanded spending cuts that more moderate Republican lawmakers and the virtually unanimous caucus of House Democrats, along with the Democratic-controlled Senate and Biden, have rejected.

Instead, Johnson’s plan would keep spending levels at the same level as in the fiscal year that ended September 30. Johnson also rejected attempts to include divisive cultural issues favored by some hard-right conservatives but also did not include billions of dollars in new financial assistance Biden sought for Ukraine and Israel as they fight their respective wars against Russia and Hamas militants.

Congress is expected to consider more funding for Ukraine and Israel in separate legislation in the coming weeks.

Without broad new funding for government agencies by midnight Friday, governmental operations that are deemed nonessential would be halted, such as camping at national parks, advice to taxpayers and some scientific research.

In recent days, credit rating agencies have downgraded the government’s credit rating because of the continuing budget uncertainty, a move that could lead to higher borrowing costs for the United States, where the national debt is now approaching $34 trillion. 
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Biden Believes Hamas Hostages Will Be Released but Gives No Timetable

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Latest developments:

U.S. President Joe Biden says he believes Hamas hostages will be released but gives no timetable. The U.S. leader says hospitals in Gaza “must be protected” amid Israeli military advances.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members operate a command-and-control node from Al Shifa and use tunnels underneath to support their military operations and hold hostages.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement Tuesday that he is “deeply disturbed by the horrible situation and dramatic loss of life in several hospitals in Gaza."
WHO’s director-general says Gaza’s largest hospital is not functioning anymore.
Palestinian health officials say 32 patients at Al Shifa Hospital have died, including three infants, as fuel supplies run out.
Israel says 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, overwhelmingly women and children, in Gaza, according authorities in Gaza.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday he believes hostages being held by Hamas militants in Gaza are going to be released, but he gave no timetable.

“I have been talking to people involved every single day,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “I believe it is going happen, but I don’t want to get into details.”

He sent a message to the estimated 240 hostages being held by U.S.-designated terror group Hamas: “Hang in there. We are coming.”

U.S. officials have said in recent days they have been working with Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials to secure release of the hostages, only four of whom Hamas has freed since capturing them during its shock October 7 attack on the Jewish state.

The United States says that among the hostages are nine Americans and a foreign national with U.S. employment rights.

Meanwhile, Biden said hospitals in Gaza “must be protected” as Israeli forces continue to target health care facilities in the Palestinian enclave over claims Hamas is using them as cover to hide its command centers and weaponry.

The president was responding to reports of the worsening crisis at Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza City’s main medical center, which has been surrounded and under siege by Israeli forces for several days.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members operate a command-and-control node from Al Shifa and use tunnels underneath to support their military operations and hold hostages. He said the militants have stored weapons there and are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.

“Now to be clear, we’re not supporting striking a hospital from the air, and we do not want to see a firefight in the hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve not to be caught in a crossfire,” said Kirby on Tuesday, adding Hamas actions “do not lessen Israel’s responsibilities to protect civilians in Gaza.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement Tuesday that he is “deeply disturbed by the horrible situation and dramatic loss of life in several hospitals in Gaza.”

“In the name of humanity, the secretary-general calls for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire,” his spokesman said.

Doctors Without Borders said bullets were fired Tuesday into one of three of its premises near the Al Shifa facility, where more than 100 of its staff and family members have been staying. The group, which includes 65 children, said it ran out of food late Monday and has been asking the Israeli army and Hamas for safe passage away from the fighting.

Services at Al Shifa have been shut down due to a lack of fuel, food and water. Thousands of desperate patients fled the hospital over the weekend, leaving just 650 patients along with thousands of displaced Palestinians seeking shelter from the fighting.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday that 32 patients at Al Shifa, including three infants, have died since the siege began due to the lack of electricity.

Doctors running low on supplies are reported to be performing surgery without anesthesia on war-wounded patients, including children. One medic shared a photo showing nine premature babies sharing a crib.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it will transfer incubators, which are used to keep premature newborn infants warm, from Israel to Al Shifa Hospital.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the medical center “is not functioning as a hospital anymore,” and the situation at Gaza’s largest hospital is “dire and perilous.”

Al Quds, another Gaza hospital, shut down Sunday because it ran out of fuel.

Israel says Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, is shielding itself among civilians at Al Shifa Hospital and has a command center in and beneath the medical compound.

Israel has not provided photos or videos to back up its claims about Hamas militants at Al-Shifa, although it has shared footage of militants operating in residential neighborhoods and positioning rockets and weapons near schools and mosques.

Both Hamas and the hospital staff deny the Israeli allegations.

“It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action relative to the hospitals,” Biden told reporters during an event in the Oval Office.

Palestinian authorities in Gaza say more than 11,000 people — about 40% of them children — have been killed since Israel launched a major air and ground offensive in response to the attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead. About 240 people were kidnapped and are currently being held hostage by Hamas.

The United Nations humanitarian office said Tuesday that more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began.

The Israeli military on Tuesday confirmed the death of a 19-year-old soldier who was captured in the October 7 attacks.

The military wing of Hamas issued a video Monday of a woman who identified herself as Noa Marciano. She said she had been held in Gaza for four days and urged Israel to end the bombing campaign. The video then showed still images of the woman’s lifeless, bloodstained body lying on a sheet. Hamas said she had been killed by Israeli airstrikes last Thursday.

Israel’s military confirmed the video was that of Marciano, who was attached to a unit deployed at the Israel-Gaza border.

The army said Marciano died at the hands of a terrorist organization but did not comment on the circumstances of her death.

The Israeli military said it has seized several government facilities in Gaza City, including the territory’s legislature building, the Hamas police headquarters and a compound housing Hamas’ military intelligence headquarters.

“In every location, the enemy forces were eliminated, the location was demolished,” an Israeli commander said.

But as its military incursion advances, Israel has rejected growing and intense international pressure to impose a cease-fire to allow for the delivery of critically needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. But it has agreed to four-hour daily humanitarian pauses to allow the opening of two corridors to let Palestinians evacuate northern Gaza. National Security Council spokesman Kirby said Tuesday that in the last 24 hours around 115 more trucks carrying humanitarian aid were able to enter Gaza, bringing the total to 1100.

United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer and White House Bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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US Firm on Taliban Sanctions as Experts Call for Easing, Normalization

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The U.S. State Department says it has no intention of easing sanctions or normalizing relations with de facto Taliban authorities in Afghanistan until the Islamist regime improves the grim human rights situation in the country. 

“The United States’ firm position is that there will be no significant steps toward normalization unless and until the fundamental rights of all Afghans are upheld,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA. 

The Department’s remarks follow the release of a new United Nations assessment that suggests cautious normalization and increased international engagement with Afghanistan’s de facto authorities. 

The assessment, submitted to the U.N. Security Council last week, recommends an expansion of international assistance, allowing for more regular development aid, infrastructure projects, and technical dialogue and cooperation. It also emphasizes the need for increased engagement to occur “in a more coherent, coordinated, and structured manner.”

Despite the Taliban’s assumption of control over Afghan diplomatic missions in various regional countries, including China and Russia, and its continuation of bilateral relations with several governments, the group has not been allowed to take up Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations. Many Taliban leaders, including Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, face travel restrictions due to U.N. sanctions.

Apart from political sanctions, economic sanctions imposed on Taliban entities by the United States, the European Union and other nations have severely impacted the Afghan economy, exacerbating extreme poverty in the landlocked country. 

Experts argue that the isolation of Afghanistan has dire consequences for its people, many of whom depend on humanitarian assistance.

“The main reason why the world should seek a viable pathway towards normalizing the status of Afghanistan is that the Afghan people themselves suffer the consequences of isolation,” Graeme Smith, a senior consultant at the International Crisis Group, told VOA. “Airlines, banks, traders, investors and all kinds of ordinary Afghans would flourish if the country remains at peace and rejoins the international community.” 

US-Taliban agreement

When negotiating a safe military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States pledged to delist the Taliban by August 2020 from its sanctions and the Rewards for Justice programs. 

Under the U.S.-Taliban agreement, widely known as the Doha agreement, the U.S. also committed to diplomatic efforts aimed at removing the Taliban from the U.N. sanctions regime within six months after the start of intra-Afghan talks.

The talks started in September 2020 after some delay but were disrupted by the unexpected collapse of the former Afghan government in August 2021.

“The Doha agreement has not been fully implemented, including lifting sanctions if the Taliban met certain specified conditions,” Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador who negotiated and signed the agreement with the Taliban, told VOA. 

“The stalling of those aspects of the agreement and the resultant continuation of sanctions is causing Afghanistan to face many challenges. It also affects the international community, including the United States.” 

The United States and the Taliban blame each other for the incomplete implementation of the Doha agreement. 

Despite the Taliban’s commitment not to shelter terrorists that threaten the U.S. and its allies, in July 2022 a U.S. drone strike killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the most wanted terrorist by the U.S. government, in Taliban-controlled Kabul. 

The State Department did not comment on a VOA question about the validity of the Doha agreement, particularly since the Taliban seized power outside a political settlement through intra-Afghan talks. 

Experts say the parties need a new agreement to address both the unfulfilled elements of the Doha agreement and other issues that have arisen over the last two years. 

“It is broadly agreed that the current international engagement has not been effective, and a new approach is needed,” said Khalilzad.

“Such a road map would deal with all the major issues of concern, including implementation of articles on terrorism and the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list, given positive steps taken by the Taliban on the issue.”

While acknowledging the Taliban’s counterterrorism efforts against the Islamic State terrorist group, U.S. officials have kept decades-old terrorism-related sanctions on the Taliban regime.  

Senior U.S. intelligence officials have also said that al-Qaida has been reduced to its historic nadir in the region with limited capacity to launch imminent attacks against the United States.
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Mali’s Army Says Kidal Recaptured from Rebels

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Mali’s army said Tuesday it has retaken the northern city of Kidal from rebels, after a raid that left many insurgents dead.

The reported capture, not confirmed by independent observers, would mark a symbolic victory for Mali’s army as they have been virtually absent from the city, with ethnic Tuareg rebels controlling much of the northern part of the country.

“Today, our armed and security forces have taken over Kidal. Our mission is not complete,” Mali’s junta leader, President Assimi Goita, said on X. “I recall it consists of recovering and securing the integrity of the territory, without any exclusion, in accordance with the resolution of the [U.N.] security council.”

Mali’s army said it called for peace in the town of about 25,000 and told its residents to obey soldiers.

Rebel leaders expecting a military offensive cut phone lines in Kidal, and there has been difficulty in contacting the remote town. Insurgents have not commented on the reported takeover. 

The Kidal region has long frustrated the Mali government, after the army suffered several defeats there from 2012 to 2014, and has been unable to regain much of a foothold in the region since.

Mali has faced much violence since 2012 when a coup in Bamako allowed insurgents to seized the northern half of the country.

The U.N. brokered a peace deal between the rebels and Mali’s government in 2015, though Islamist militants connected al-Qaida and Islamic State went on to kill thousands of civilians.

Mali’s military seized power in a 2020 coup, ordering the U.N. peacekeepers to leave the country, leading to fighting between the rebels and military over territories vacated by the U.N.

Some information in this report was taken from Agence France Presse and Reuters
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Young Africans Hope to Address Climate Challenges Through Training Program

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Fifty young innovators and leaders from 19 African countries attended a three-week leadership and professional development training program in Ghana’s capital, Accra. Sponsored by the U.S. government, the Young African Leaders Initiative, or YALI, program challenges them to find technology-focused social and business solutions to climate challenges. Isaac Kaledzi has more from Accra.
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Increase in Use of Land Mines Triggers Rise in Civilian Casualties in Ukraine, Myanmar

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The use of anti-personnel land mines by Russia and Myanmar triggered a surge in the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine and Myanmar last year, according to a new report by a land-mine monitor.

The report, published by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, found that Russia, which is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty, “used antipersonnel mines extensively in Ukraine since its all-out invasion of the country in February 2022.”

The report also found evidence that Ukraine, which is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty, used anti-personnel mines in and around the city of Izium, in Kharkiv oblast, in 2022 when the city was under Russian control.

“This has created an unprecedented situation in which a country that is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty is using the weapon on the territory of a [treaty member],” said Mark Hiznay, associate arms director at Human Rights Watch and an editor of Landmine Monitor 2023. “In the 20-plus years [since the Mine Ban Treaty was adopted], this has never occurred before.”

Ukraine has previously said it would look into allegations in a Human Rights Watch report earlier this year detailing “numerous cases” in which Ukrainian forces deployed banned anti-personnel mines.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which is a global coalition of nongovernmental organizations chaired by Human Rights Watch, recorded 4,710 injuries and deaths in 2022, down from 5,544 casualties in the previous year.

“But there were significant increases in some countries, primarily Ukraine,” said Loren Persi, Landmine Monitor 2023 impact team lead. “In Ukraine, the number of civilian casualties recorded increased 10-fold from around 60 in 2021 to around 600 in 2022.”

The Monitor report says civilians accounted for 85% of casualties from land mines and exploded remnants of war last year, roughly half of them children. The highest number of casualties, 834, was recorded in Syria, followed by Ukraine with 608 casualties, and Yemen and Myanmar, each of which recorded more than 500 casualties in 2022.

Hiznay said that Russia began using landmines in 2014 in support of pro-Russian separatist forces in the contested Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

“Russia has made extensive use of land mines in places like Afghanistan and Chechnya,” he said. “I think they have supplied land mines to 35, 38 different countries over the years.

“Another factor we are noticing is wherever Wagner goes, land mines go,” he said, referring to the Moscow-financed Wagner Group militia. “We do not think that is a coincidence, particularly in Libya, where several new types of land mines were found and documented.”

Myanmar, he said, has been using anti-personnel land mines since 1999, but the magnitude and scope of the contamination is now different.

“It is just bigger,” he said. “You have more use by the government forces and more use by various nonstate armed groups. So, it is a lingering, festering problem that has just got worse in the past reporting period.”

The Monitor report indicates land mines were also used during the reporting period by nonstate armed groups in Colombia, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Tunisia, as well as in eight treaty members in the Sahel region.

Currently 164 countries have signed onto the Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines.

The Monitor says that 30 states who are parties to the treaty have cleared all mined areas from their territory since the treaty came into force in 1999, leaving 60 countries and other areas contaminated. In addition, it notes that 22 states that are not party to the treaty and five other areas remain infested with these lethal weapons.

De-mining activists warn that the number of victims will continue to grow for as long as land mines remain in the ground. They say health care and physical rehabilitation services are seriously underfunded and unable to assist the many people who are disabled by these weapons, including in countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen.

“Alarming increases in the number of civilians killed and injured by recently placed mines in several countries further demonstrate the dire need for increased resources to ensure all the rights of the victims are addressed,” said Persi. 
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US, Britain Impose Sanctions on Hamas  

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The United States and Britain on Tuesday imposed a third round of sanctions targeting the Palestinian militant group Hamas, trying to curb Iranian funding of the group and one of its allies, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, following their shock attack last month on Israel.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement the two countries are trying “to deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out its atrocities.”

“Hamas’s actions have caused immense suffering and shown that terrorism does not occur in isolation,” Yellen said. “Together with our partners we are decisively moving to degrade Hamas’s financial infrastructure, cut them off from outside funding, and block the new funding channels they seek to finance their heinous acts.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the sanctions are aimed at protecting the international financial system “from abuse by Hamas and its enablers.”

“Iran’s support, primarily through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, enables Hamas and [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] terrorist activities, including through the transfer of funds and the provision of both weapons and operational training,” Blinken said. “Iran has trained PIJ fighters to produce and develop missiles in Gaza while also funding groups that provide financial support to PIJ-affiliated fighters.”

Israel says that Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people inside the Jewish state in the attack last month and captured about 240 hostages, only four of whom it has released. Israel has responded with air attacks that Hamas medical authorities say have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including thousands of women and children.

Hamas is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union, Britain and others.

Mahmoud Khaled Zahhar, a senior member and co-founder of Hamas; PIJ’s representative to Iran and the Damascus-based deputy secretary-general of PIJ and leader of its militant wing were among those sanctioned by Washington and London.

Nabil Chouman & Co., a Lebanon-based money exchange group, was also targeted, along with its owner and founder. Treasury accused the company of serving as a conduit for transferring funds to Hamas and said it transferred tens of millions of dollars to the militants.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets held by the Hamas officials and bars Americans from conducting any business with them.
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Don’t ‘Listen to Naysayers’ Says Only Female Ambulance Driver in Kenya’s Refugee Camp

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Batula Ali has defied gender norms and societal expectations to become the only woman ambulance driver in Kenya’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab. Ahmed Hussein met Ali and has this report from Garissa County, Kenya
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Iceland Prepares to Shield Geothermal Plant from Risk of Volcanic Eruption

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Icelandic authorities were on Tuesday preparing to build defense walls around a geothermal power plant in the southwestern part of the country that they hope will protect it from lava flows amid concerns of an imminent volcanic eruption.

Seismic activity and underground lava flows intensified on the Reykjanes peninsula near the capital Reykjavik over the weekend, prompting authorities to evacuate nearly 4,000 people from the fishing town of Grindavik on Saturday.

The probability of an eruption remained high despite a decrease in seismic activity, the Icelandic Meteorological Institute said in a statement on Tuesday.

Nearly 800 earthquakes were recorded in the area between midnight and noon on Tuesday, fewer than the two previous days, it said.  

“Less seismic activity typically precedes an eruption, because you have come so close to the surface that you cannot build up a lot of tension to trigger large earthquakes,” said Rikke Pedersen, who heads the Nordic Volcanological Centre based in Reykjavik.

“It should never be taken as a sign that an outbreak is not on the way,” she said.

Authorities said they were preparing to construct a large dyke designed to divert lava flows around the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, located just over 6 kilometers (4 miles) from Grindavik.

Iceland’s Justice Minister Gudrun Hafsteinsdottir told state broadcaster RUV that equipment and materials that could fill 20,000 trucks were being moved to the plant.  

Construction of the protective dyke around the power station was awaiting formal approval from the government.

A spokesperson for HS Orka, operator of the power plant, said the plant supplies power to the entire country, although a disruption would not effect power supply to the capital Reykjavik.

Almost all of Grindavik’s 3,800 inhabitants, who were evacuated over the weekend, were briefly allowed back in on Monday and Tuesday to collect their belongings, the Icelandic department of civil protection and emergency management said.

Grindavik resident Kristin Maria Birgisdottir, who works for the town municipality, told Reuters on Tuesday she only had the clothes she had worn for work on the day the town was evacuated.

“I’m getting prepared in case I get a chance to visit my house and get some of my belongings,” said Birgisdottir, who has moved to a summer house with her family.

Some residents had to be driven into Grindavik in emergency responders’ cars, while most inhabitants were allowed to drive into Grindavik in their private cars accompanied by emergency personnel.

Most pets and farm animals had been rescued from Grindavik by Monday night, according to charity Dyrfinna.
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Russian Convicted Over Journalist’s Murder Pardoned for Fighting in Ukraine

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A former Russian detective who was convicted in connection with the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya has been pardoned after fighting in Ukraine, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2014 for organizing the deadly attack on Politkovskaya outside her apartment building. Politkovskaya, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin, unveiled abuses committed by Russian and allied forces against rebels in Chechnya for the independent magazine Novaya Gazeta.

Khadzhikurbanov, one of five men tried and convicted in Politkovskaya’s murder, was among thousands of prisoners who were sent to the front lines on the Ukrainian war front in exchange for a pardon.

Russia has probably recruited roughly 100,000 people from prisons to fight in Ukraine, Olga Romanova, the head of an independent prisoners’ rights group, has estimated.

Local Russian media outlets have reported several instances of released prisoners going on to commit serious offenses, including murders, after having left the army.

Some information is from Agence France-Presse.
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Biden in ‘Strong Position’ in Meeting China’s Xi, White House Says

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Preventing Beijing’s election interference on Taiwan and reestablishing communication between American and Chinese militaries will be high on President Joe Biden’s agenda Wednesday during a highly anticipated meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in the San Francisco Bay area.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby spoke with VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara ahead of that meeting, and said Biden intends to place the rocky relationship on a “more responsible footing” but believes that he’s coming into this meeting from a strong position backed by a solid U.S. economy.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: On to the upcoming meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. A key subject for the president is to warn Beijing against interfering in Taiwan’s election. Taiwan says this has already happened through military pressure, through disinformation, manipulating opinion polls. Can Biden convince Xi on this issue, which is clearly very sensitive to the Chinese as well?

JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: The president’s looking forward to this meeting with President Xi this week. It comes after many, many months of ups and downs in our relationship. He believes that as two leaders running two countries, that literally the bilateral relationship is one of the most consequential in the world, that we’ve got to get it onto a more responsible footing than it is or has been to date.

And he believes that he’s coming into this meeting from a strong position. The United States economy is stronger now than it’s been in many, many decades. And we have shored up and revitalized our alliances and partnerships throughout the Asia-Pacific and beyond. And he looks forward to hearing President Xi’s perspectives, as well, about how to manage this relationship going forward.

I won’t go into more detail in terms of the specifics that they will be going through and certainly not with respect to election interference in Taiwan. I would just say that we — it is not uncommon for PRC [People’s Republic of China] actors to behave irresponsibly when it comes to election interference in the region and beyond. And we believe that a real strength of democracy is free and fair elections that are unimpeded and uninterrupted and not impaired by foreign interference.

VOA: Another key thing that President Biden wants is reestablishment of military-to-military communications. This is something that Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken was not able to secure. What is the holdup that it needs the president to push for this?

KIRBY: Again, I’m not going to get ahead of the meeting that he’s going to have with President Xi. Clearly, one avenue of communication that has not been open has been the military-to-military lane, and that’s important because, my goodness, when you look at some of the intercepts that have happened in the Asia-Pacific region, that can get dangerous really, really fast. When you think about the miscalculations that can occur as China presses these, very aggressively presses these maritime claims of theirs that aren’t grounded in maritime law, that having an ability for the two militaries to communicate at various levels is a healthy thing to reduce miscalculation and misunderstanding, reduce the possibilities of conflict.

VOA: Ahead of the APEC summit in San Francisco, we are expecting some sort of announcement on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, but we are also hearing some protests from Democrats. [Ohio] Senator Sherrod Brown has said that the trade pillar of APEC is unacceptable because it threatens American jobs. Will the administration dilute this pillar based on those concerns?

KIRBY: We’re looking forward to a very productive APEC here. Twenty-one countries in the region will be attending, a region that represents 60% of global economic output. And one of the things that the president is going to be pushing for is more inclusive economic growth throughout the region. … In other words, workers’ rights and looking after, you know, the ethical growth of economic output and making sure that we’re doing this in a way that is as transparent and as viable as possible.

VOA: Can we speak a little bit about Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meeting with national security adviser Jake Sullivan? Does the Yermak visit influence in any way the messages President Biden is planning to discuss with APEC leaders and President Xi on Ukraine?

KIRBY: I would look at this meeting as a continuation of discussions that Mr. Sullivan has had with Mr. Yermak … since the beginning of this war, and they are constantly speaking to one another. This is another opportunity now for them to talk about how the United States is going to continue to support Ukraine, how we’re going to continue to talk to members of Congress about the importance of supporting Ukraine going forward and the supplemental request that the president submitted for security assistance in particular, and, again, get a sense from Mr. Yermak about what’s going on in this counteroffensive, what’s going on on the battlefront, what their needs are, and what their, and what they believe their prospects are going forward for these, as the winter months approach.
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VOA Exclusive: Biden, Xi to Meet at Filoli Estate for 4 Hours of Talks Wednesday 

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U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet at the historic Filoli estate south of San Francisco on Wednesday, holding about four hours of in-depth talks on a range of bilateral and global issues, according to people familiar with the planning.

The talks are taking place on the margins of a summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, nations, the city is hosting.

Filoli Estate and choreography

The location of the talks is a VOA exclusive. Filoli boasts nearly 265 hectares of natural lands that feature a Georgian revival-style mansion, English Renaissance gardens, a 2.8-hectare orchard and a 1.6-kilometer trail.

Xi and Biden both arrive in the San Francisco area on Tuesday ahead of their meetings, which are expected to include a working lunch, a stroll on the estate, and a smaller meeting with national security advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken present. Other senior officials will hold separate sessions on particular issues.

Late Wednesday, President Xi is expected to attend two receptions with select U.S. business and cultural leaders. A U.S. Cabinet official is expected to introduce Xi before the Chinese leader delivers an address “to the American and Chinese people,” according to an invited participant, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We’re setting some time aside for the two leaders to sit down and have in-depth conversations on the full range of issues that the U.S. and China face across the globe and bilaterally,” a senior U.S. official told reporters recently when asked about the choreography of the Biden-Xi meeting.

Chinese officials had requested a venue separate from that of this week’s APEC summit, seeking discussions that extend beyond the duration of those held last year in Bali, Indonesia. Biden and Xi met for three hours last November on the margins of the summit of the 20 biggest economies, known as the G20.

 

Video report by Patsy Widakuswara

Artificial Intelligence

Another senior official mentioned that some of the outcomes the U.S. is seeking are “substantial” and “just different from” those in the past.

On Monday, the United States announced its participation, joining 45 governments, in the launching the implementation of the Political Declaration on Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy. This initiative contains 10 concrete measures to guide the responsible military use of the full range of AI applications.

Biden and Xi are reportedly expected to agree to limit the use of AI in nuclear weapons, according to the South China Morning Post.

“When it comes to artificial intelligence, that we believe that artificial intelligence should not be in the loop or making the decisions about how and when a nuclear weapon is used,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told VOA in a press conference last week after a G7 meeting in Tokyo. The G7 is composed of the seven leading industrialized nations.

Blinken declined to say how this issue would be discussed when the two leaders meet later this week.

A State Department official has told VOA the United States will maintain human control for all actions critical to informing and executing decisions concerning nuclear weapons employment. But “the challenge now is to convince” China and other nations to join the U.S. “in committing to norms of responsible AI behavior.”

US, China, and Taiwan

The road to Biden’s meeting with Xi is paved with differences between the two countries over Taiwan and a host of issues, including trade tensions, forced technology transfer, and human rights.

While the U.S. stated that its goal is to responsibly manage competition with China, the government in Beijing has refuted this, saying the relationship between the world’s two largest economies “should not be defined by competition.”

This week, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning said during a briefing in Beijing that “major-country competition runs counter” to the current trend and “provides no answer to the problems in the U.S. or the challenges in the world.”

Without providing a name, Mao accused “external forces” and Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party of supporting a “separatist agenda” that is changing the status quo. She said Taiwan is “China’s internal affair.”

The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan but claims sovereignty over the self-ruled democracy. The U.S. does not take an official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, nor does it support Taiwan independence.

In the weeks leading up to Taiwan’s presidential election scheduled for January 13, 2024, the U.S. has cautioned China against any interference, stating that such a move would raise extremely strong concerns. China considers Taiwan a wayward province and has never ruled out using force to take full control.

The United States has voiced deep concerns over “a ramping up of military activities around Taiwan” by the Chinese military ahead of the election that the U.S. terms “unprecedented,” “dangerous,” and “provocative.”

“We also believe that those actions undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific,” said a senior U.S. official.

“Chinese interference in Taiwan’s democratic election may not unfold as the Chinese government desires, and often, it will create very negative impressions among the Taiwanese people,” said Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s minister of foreign affairs.

He told VOA that high-level talks between Biden and Xi, as described by senior U.S. officials, aim to stabilize the fraught relationship between the two countries and enhance regional security in the Indo-Pacific, which would benefit Taiwan.

“We are not concerned,” said Wu, when asked if Taiwan worries that Washington and Beijing would make deals that hurt its interests and defense needs.
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Internal Documents Show the World Health Organization Paid Sexual Abuse Victims in Congo $250 Each

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Earlier this year, the doctor who leads the World Health Organization’s efforts to prevent sexual abuse traveled to Congo to address the biggest known sex scandal in the U.N. health agency’s history, the abuse of well over 100 local women by staffers and others during a deadly Ebola outbreak.

According to an internal WHO report from Dr. Gaya Gamhewage’s trip in March, one of the abused women she met gave birth to a baby with “a malformation that required special medical treatment,” meaning even more costs for the young mother in one of the world’s poorest countries.

To help victims like her, the WHO has paid $250 each to at least 104 women in Congo who say they were sexually abused or exploited by officials working to stop Ebola. That amount per victim is less than a single day’s expenses for some U.N. officials working in the Congolese capital — and $19 more than what Gamhewage received per day during her three-day visit — according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The amount covers typical living expenses for less than four months in a country where, the WHO documents noted, many people survive on less than $2.15 a day.

The payments to women didn’t come freely. To receive the cash, they were required to complete training courses intended to help them start “income-generating activities.”

The payments appear to try to circumvent the U.N.’s stated policy that it doesn’t pay reparations by including the money in what it calls a “complete package” of support.

Many Congolese women who were sexually abused have still received nothing. WHO said in a confidential document last month that about a third of the known victims were “impossible to locate.” The WHO said nearly a dozen women declined its offer.

The total of $26,000 that WHO has provided to the victims equals about 1% of the $2 million, WHO-created “survivor assistance fund” for victims of sexual misconduct, primarily in Congo.

In interviews, recipients told the AP the money they received was hardly enough, but they wanted justice even more.

Paula Donovan, who co-directs the Code Blue campaign to eliminate what it calls impunity for sexual misconduct in the U.N., described the WHO payments to victims of sexual abuse and exploitation as “perverse.”

“It’s not unheard of for the U.N. to give people seed money so they can boost their livelihoods, but to mesh that with compensation for a sexual assault, or a crime that results in the birth of a baby, is unthinkable,” she said.

Requiring the women to attend training before receiving the cash set uncomfortable conditions for victims of wrongdoing seeking help, Donovan added.

The two women who met with Gamhewage told her that what they most wanted was for the “perpetrators to be brought to account so they could not harm anyone else,” the WHO documents said. The women were not named.

“There is nothing we can do to make up for (sexual abuse and exploitation),” Gamhewage told the AP in an interview.

The WHO told the AP that criteria to determine its “victim survivor package” included the cost of food in Congo and “global guidance on not dispensing more cash than what would be reasonable for the community, in order to not expose recipients to further harm.” Gamhewage said the WHO was following recommendations set by experts at local charities and other U.N. agencies.

“Obviously, we haven’t done enough,” Gamhewage said. She added the WHO would ask survivors directly what further support they wanted.

The WHO has also helped defray medical costs for 17 children born as a result of sexual exploitation and abuse, she said.

At least one woman who said she was sexually exploited and impregnated by a WHO doctor negotiated compensation that agency officials signed off on, including a plot of land and health care. The doctor also agreed to pay $100 a month until the baby was born in a deal “to protect the integrity and reputation of WHO.”

But in interviews with the AP, other women who say they were sexually exploited by WHO staff asserted the agency hasn’t done enough.

Alphonsine, 34, said she was pressured into having sex with a WHO official in exchange for a job as an infection control worker with the Ebola response team in the eastern Congo city of Beni, an epicenter of the 2018-2020 outbreak. Like other women, she did not share her last name for fear of reprisals.

Alphonsine confirmed that she had received $250 from the WHO, but the agency told her she had to take a baking course to obtain it.

“The money helped at the time, but it wasn’t enough,” Alphonsine said. She said she later went bankrupt and would have preferred to receive a plot of land and enough money to start her own business.

For a visiting WHO staffer working in Congo, the standard daily allowance ranges from about $144 to $480. Gamhewage received $231 a day during her three-day trip to the Congolese capital Kinshasa, according to an internal travel claim.

The internal documents show that staff costs take up more than half of the $1.5 million the WHO allotted toward the prevention of sexual misconduct in Congo for 2022-2023, or $821,856. Another 12% goes to prevention activities and 35%, or $535,000, is for “victim support,” which Gamhewage said includes legal assistance, transportation and psychological support. That budget is separate from the $2 million survivors’ assistance fund, which assists victims globally.

The WHO’s Congo office has a total allocated budget of about $174 million, and its biggest funder is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The U.N. health agency continues to struggle with holding perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation to account in Congo. A WHO-commissioned panel found at least 83 perpetrators during the Ebola response, including at least 21 WHO staffers. The youngest known victim was 13.

In May 2021, an AP investigation revealed that senior WHO management was told of sexual exploitation during the agency’s efforts to curb Ebola even as the abuse was happening but did little to stop it. No senior managers, including some who were aware of the abuse during the outbreak, were fired.

After years of pressure from Congolese authorities, the WHO internal documents note it has shared information with them about 16 alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation who were linked to the WHO during the Ebola outbreak.

But the WHO hasn’t done enough to discipline its people, said another Congolese woman who said she was coerced into having sex with a staffer to get a job during the outbreak. She, too, received $250 from the WHO after taking a baking course.

“They promised to show us evidence this has been taken care of, but there has been no follow-up,” said Denise, 31.

The WHO has said five staffers have been dismissed for sexual misconduct since 2021.

But in Congo, deep distrust remains.

Audia, 24, told the AP she was impregnated when a WHO official forced her to have sex to get a job during the outbreak. She now has a 5-year-old daughter as a result and received a “really insufficient” $250 from WHO after taking courses in tailoring and baking.

She worries about what might happen in a future health crisis in conflict-hit eastern Congo, where poor infrastructure and resources mean any emergency response relies heavily on outside help from the WHO and others.

“I can’t put my trust in (WHO) anymore,” she said. “When they abandon you in such difficulties and leave you without doing anything, it’s irresponsible.”
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Detroit-area Doctor Grieves Loss of 20 Relatives Killed During Israel’s War Against Hamas

Posted on by SeeUS

Each time Dr. Emad Shehada’s phone rings, the suburban Detroit pulmonologist worries that it could be more bad news about loved ones in Gaza.

He said that so far, 20 cousins and other relatives have been killed since the start of Israel’s campaign against Hamas following the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel that set off the war.

More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people have been reported missing.

More than 1,200 people in Israel died, most of them in the Hamas attack, and about 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by Palestinian militants.

Among those Shehada grieves are his cousin, Mohammad Khrais, three of Khrais’ children and 19-year-old Mayar, who was pregnant.

“When you hear about these conflicts, your heart is broken for all these people that they die,” Shehada told WXYZ-TV for a story last week. “But when it hits somebody you know, it’s totally different.”

“It’s been horrible,” he added. “A hell of a month. I mean, it’s a nightmare that does not want to end.”

Shehada, whose medical practice is north of Detroit in Rochester Hills, was born in Kuwait and lived in Syria before moving to the United States about two decades ago. He studied at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Both his parents were born in a village outside Gaza. They now live in the United States. Shehada, 47, also has one sister in the U.S., but another remains in Gaza, he said.

The two communicate via text messages because listening to her tear-filled voice as the war rages is difficult, Shehada said.

“The house next to my sister was struck by a missile where I had 12 relatives living there,” he said. “That house was only 10 meters (32 feet) from my sister’s house.”

 
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British Man Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison Over Terror Offenses With Islamic State

Posted on by SeeEU

A British convert to Islam who was convicted in Turkey of being part of the Islamic State group was sentenced to eight years in prison in Britain on Monday after he pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.

Aine Leslie Davis, 39, was deported from Turkey in August 2022 and detained on arrival at London’s Luton Airport after serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for membership in IS.

He pleaded guilty last month to having a firearm for terrorism purposes and two charges of funding terrorism.

Prosecutors said Davis, who left his home in London and travelled to Syria in 2013 to join the armed conflict there, enlisted his wife to persuade a friend to bring him $21,400 to support his cause. The friend was stopped at Heathrow Airport in 2014, and Davis’s wife, Amal El-Wahabi, was convicted of funding terrorism.

Davis’ defense lawyer, Mark Summers, issued an apology to the Syrian people on his behalf, saying he and others like him “caused more harm than good.”

British authorities had long suspected that Davis was part of an IS cell known as “The Beatles” — so called because of the men’s British accents — that tortured and killed Western hostages in Syria a decade ago, when IS controlled a large swath of Syria and Iraq.

Davis has denied being connected to the cell.

Two members of the “Beatles” cell, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, were captured by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in 2018 and are serving life sentences in the U.S. A third, Mohammed Emwazi, was killed in a drone strike in 2015.

Summers asserted during the trial that prosecutors in the U.S. decided last year they would not seek to put Davis on trial as a member of the cell due to insufficient evidence.

The judge said he was sentencing Davis for the offenses on the indictment and not for the reported allegations.
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US Buys 1.2 Million Barrels of Oil for Strategic Petroleum Reserve

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The U.S. has bought 1.2 million barrels of oil to help replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after selling the largest amount ever from the stockpile last year, the U.S. Energy Department said on Monday.

The department said it bought the oil at an average price of $77.57 a barrel from two companies after 18 bids were submitted.

The administration of President Joe Biden last year conducted the largest ever sale from the SPR of 180 million barrels, part of a strategy to stabilize soaring oil markets and combat high pump prices in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It has now bought back about 6 million barrels.

As oil prices have risen on production cutbacks by Saudi Arabia and Russia, it has been difficult for the administration to buy back oil for the reserve. Last month it raised the price at which it hopes to buy back oil to $79 or less a barrel, up from an earlier price range of about $68 to $72.

Last month the Energy Department said it hopes to buy 3 million barrels for December delivery and another 3 million for January at the higher price. It said it expects to issue additional oil purchase solicitations for the reserve on a monthly basis through at least May 2024.

“President (Joe) Biden and the Energy Department remain committed to refilling the SPR at fair prices, safeguarding this critical energy security asset while getting a good deal for American taxpayers,” a department spokesperson said.

The department has said oil in last year’s emergency sales sold for an average of $95 per barrel.
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EU Plan for New Russia Sanctions to go to Members This Week

Posted on by SeeEU

 European Union officials are finalizing the “last details” of a proposed 12th package of sanctions on Russia that will include a diamond ban, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

Borrell said the European Commission, the EU executive, could approve the proposed package on Wednesday. It would then go to the Council of the EU, comprising the bloc’s 27 member countries, for discussion and approval.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has already applied 11 packages of sanctions against Moscow to diminish the Kremlin’s ability to finance the war. The measures span across sectors and include some 1,800 individuals and entities.

“This twelfth package will include … new export bans, among them … diamonds, actions to tighten the oil price cap, in order to decrease the revenue that Russia is getting from selling its oil — not to us but to others — [and] fighting against circumvention,” Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

EU diplomats told Reuters last week the 27-nation bloc had been waiting for a G7 green light to move ahead with the diamond ban. An EU official said the current timing for a European Commission proposal for the package, that would then be debated by the EU’s 27 governments, was “early next week”.

“We are finalizing the last details of this package,” Borrell said.
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Indonesia’s Widodo Appeals to Biden to Stop Atrocities in Gaza

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Indonesian President Joko Widodo, leader of the most populous Muslim country, met with President Joe Biden at the White House Monday, delivering an appeal from 57 countries of the Muslim world for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Romania Inaugurates F-16 Pilot Training Hub for NATO Allies, Ukraine

Posted on by SeeEU

NATO member Romania inaugurated on Monday an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries and other partners, including Ukraine. 

The training facility situated at an air base in Fetesti in southeast Romania will aim to increase interoperability between NATO allies, and better position the military alliance “to face the complex challenges” in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region, Romania’s defense ministry said. 

It said the powerful U.S.-made warplanes will be supplied by the Royal Netherlands Air Force while the aircraft maker Lockheed Martin will provide instructors and maintenance at the training center.

Kathleen Kavalec, the U.S. ambassador to Romania who attended the opening, called the collaboration an “example of how the public and private sectors can cooperate to further our defense priorities.” 

“I am here with one simple message,” she said. “The United States government is here to support in any way we can.” 

Romania, which has been a NATO member since 2004, shares a long border with Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has repeatedly asked its backers to send sophisticated fighter planes to give it a combat edge, and some NATO countries have.

In response to the war next door, Romania ramped up defense spending while NATO bolstered its presence on Europe’s eastern flank by sending additional multinational battle groups to alliance members Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia.

The center’s opening comes after Romania said last week that it is pushing to buy 54 latest-model Abrams main battle tanks and related equipment from the United States in a deal worth at least a billion dollars to help the European Union country meet regional security challenges.

In April, Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defense also approved the acquisition of an unspecified number of latest generation American-made F-35 fighter jets, as Romania pushes to modernize its air force.

Romania has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance throughout the war, including hosting a NATO meeting of foreign ministers in November 2022. 
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Cameron Returns to UK Government as Gaza Protests Prompt Political Upheaval

Posted on by SeeEU

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has made a surprise return to government as the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, following a Cabinet reshuffle and a weekend of violent protests and political chaos in London.  

He succeeds James Cleverly, who now becomes Britain’s new home secretary after the incumbent Suella Braverman was fired Monday by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.  

The 57-year-old Cameron is no longer an elected lawmaker. Instead, Sunak nominated him as a peer who will sit in the House of Lords, Britain’s unelected upper chamber.  

Cameron resigned as prime minister in June 2016 after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum called Brexit for which he legislated. He campaigned to stay in the EU, but voters chose to leave by a margin of 52% to 48%.   

A recent poll taken in July found that 45% of Britons believed Cameron had changed Britain for the worse, versus 29% who thought he had changed it for the better.  

Cameron said in an interview after his appointment as foreign secretary that he felt a dedication to public office.  

‘Daunting challenges’ 

“The prime minister asked me to do this job, and it’s a time where we have some daunting challenges as a country: the conflict in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine,” Cameron said.  

“And of course, I hope that six years as prime minister — 11 years leading the Conservative Party — gives me some useful experience and contacts and relationships and knowledge that I can help the prime minister to make sure we build our alliances, we build partnerships with our friends, we deter our enemies, and we keep our country strong,” he said. 

Israel-Hamas    

The Israel-Hamas war rages on, after an October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and saw 240 hostages taken from Israel into Gaza by Hamas militants. 

Palestinian health authorities said that more than 11,000 civilians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed by Israel’s bombardment and ground assault on the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people.  

As prime minister in 2010, Cameron called the Gaza Strip “a prison camp” and criticized Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank, although he maintained Britain’s close alliance with Tel Aviv.  

“It’s going to be very hard for David Cameron to jump back in as foreign secretary,” said Bronwen Maddox, director of the British policy institute Chatham House.  

“In the Middle East, some of the conflicts have not changed. David Cameron is remembered for intervention in Libya, which was not the greatest success. And in Europe, while he was a ‘remainer,’ he triggered the [Brexit] referendum — some think too casually — which led to Britain leaving the EU and changed all its relations not only with Europe but with many other countries as a consequence,” Maddox told Reuters.  

Domestic signaling  

Cameron’s appointment is unlikely to change Britain’s foreign policy, said Anand Menon, a professor of European politics at King’s College London and director of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative.  

“British foreign policy has been relatively consistent over the last few years and benefits from broad cross-party consensus. So, I don’t think there’s a question of changing foreign policy,” Menon told VOA. “I think this is largely signaling to a domestic audience, and I think the shape of the rest of the reshuffle, as well, indicates a desire to appeal to the more liberal parts of the conservative electoral base than had been the case up till now.”  

China relations  

In 2015, Cameron signaled a “golden era” in relations between Britain and China when he hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at a lavish state visit.  

But relations have soured dramatically amid rising security and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and the West.  

“The golden era is well and truly over, is it not? And I think the mood, particularly inside the Conservative Party in parliament, has hardened considerably on China. And I think David Cameron is just going to have to get used to following a new approach when it comes to Beijing,” Menon said. ‘

Braverman sacked  

Cleverly, who had been foreign secretary since September 2022, now replaces Braverman, who was sacked as home secretary a week after the publication of an article she wrote in The Times newspaper accusing Britain’s police of showing “left-wing bias” toward pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which she described as “hate marches.” 

Sunak reportedly requested changes to the article prior to publication, but these were seemingly ignored.   

Braverman, a favorite figure of the right-wing of the Conservative Party for her hard-line approach to immigration, was asked to step down in a telephone call with Sunak Monday morning.  

London protests  

At least 300,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian protest in London on Saturday calling for a cease-fire. Police had appealed to the demonstrators to postpone the march, as it coincided with Armistice Day commemorations, when the country marks the end of World War I and remembers those killed in past wars.   

There were violent far-right counterdemonstrations, and police made over 120 arrests. Opposition Labour Party lawmakers, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, accused Braverman of stoking community tensions and causing the violence, which she denied.  

Community tensions  

Reports of antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks have risen sharply since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out. 

“Amongst those who have strong views on the issue, the pro-Israel people tend to break Conservative, and the more pro-Palestine people tend to break Labour. So, it reinforces existing party divisions, which I think makes it more likely that this kind of thing will explode along party political lines,” Menon said.   

“With Israel-Gaza, you see it in a particularly acute form, particularly as well, of course, given the high levels of violence from both sides that we’ve seen during this awful war,” he added.  

Political observers say the Cabinet reshuffle and the surprise restoration of Cameron to front-line politics is an effort by Sunak to broaden his Conservative Party’s appeal, as it lags far behind Labour in the polls.  

Britain is due to hold an election before the end of 2024.  
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Army Sets Aside Convictions of 110 Black Soldiers Related to 1917 Houston Riot

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The Army has canceled the courts-martial convictions of 110 Black soldiers tried in connection with the World War I-era Houston riot and has recharacterized their military service as honorable.

“After a thorough review, the Board has found that these soldiers were wrongly treated because of their race and were not given fair trials,” Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said in a statement on Monday. “By setting aside their convictions and granting honorable discharges, the Army is acknowledging past mistakes and setting the record straight.”  

The Houston riot took place on Aug. 23, 1917, following months of racial provocations against members of the 24th Infantry Regiment, whose soldiers were among those dubbed “buffalo soldiers.”  

Following the assault of two Black soldiers and amid rumors of additional threats, a group of armed soldiers marched into the city, where clashes erupted and left 19 people dead.

The Army convicted 110 soldiers following the riots on mutiny, assault and murder charges. More than 60 served life sentences, and 19 were hanged. 

According to the Army, the first set of executions occurred in secrecy and within a day of sentencing, leading the military service branch to “implement an immediate regulatory change which prohibited future executions without review by the War Department and the President.”

In 2020 and 2021, the Army was petitioned to review the cases. 

Upon review, the Army found “significant deficiencies” that led the Army Board for Correction of Military Records to deem the proceedings “fundamentally unfair,” according to the Army. 

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is able to assist any family members of those soldiers upon receipt of the corrected records, as relatives may be entitled to benefits. 
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Jill Biden to Lead New Initiative to Boost Federal Government Research into Women’s Health

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The Biden administration on Monday announced a White House initiative to improve how the federal government approaches and funds research into the health of women, who make up more than half of the U.S. population but remain understudied and underrepresented in health research. 

That underrepresentation can lead to big gaps in research and potentially serious consequences for the health of women across the country, Biden administration officials and others told reporters during a White House conference call to announce the new effort. 

The White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research will be led by first lady Jill Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council. 

President Joe Biden said he’s long been a believer in the “power of research” to help save lives and get high-quality health care to the people who need it. Surrounded by the first lady and other officials who will have a role in the government-wide effort, Biden signed paperwork Monday in the Oval Office to direct federal departments and agencies to begin their work. 

“To achieve scientific breakthroughs and strengthen our ability to prevent, detect and treat diseases, we have to be bold,” the president said in a written statement. He said the initiative will “drive innovation in women’s health and close research gaps.” 

Jill Biden said during the conference call that she met earlier this year with former California first lady and women’s health advocate Maria Shriver, who “raised the need for an effort inside and outside government to close the research gaps in women’s health that have persisted far too long.” 

“When I brought this issue to my husband, Joe, a few months ago, he listened. And then he took action,” the first lady said. “That is what he does.” 

Jill Biden has worked on women’s health issues since the early 1990s after several of her friends were diagnosed with breast cancer, and she created a program in Delaware to teach high school girls about breast health care. 

Shriver said she and other advocates of women’s health have spent decades asking for equity in research but that the Democratic president and first lady “understand that we cannot answer the question of how to treat women medically if we do not have the answers that only come from research.” 

Shriver said women make up two-thirds of those afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis and represent more than three-fourths of those who are diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. 

Women suffer from depression and anxiety at twice the levels of men, and women of color are two to three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women, she said. Millions of other women grapple daily with the side effects of menopause. 

“The bottom line is that we can’t treat or prevent them from becoming sick if we have not invested in funding the necessary research,” Shriver said on the call. “That changes today.” 

Jennifer Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said the leaders of government departments and agencies important to women’s health research will participate, including those from the departments of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Defense and the National Institutes of Health, among others. 

Women’s health issues were raised by most of the women on the Senate health committee during its recent confirmation hearing on Dr. Monica Bertagnolli’s nomination to become permanent director of the National Institutes of Health, one of the world’s leading biomedical research agencies. Bertagnolli gave a broad answer in which she said far too little is known about women’s health through all stages of life. 

President Biden’s memorandum directs members to report back within 45 days with “concrete recommendations” to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of women’s health issues. It also asks them to set “priority areas of focus,” such as research ranging from heart attacks in women to menopause, where additional investments could be “transformative.” 

The president also wants collaboration with the scientific, private sector and philanthropic communities. 

Carolyn Mazure will chair the research effort. Mazure joined the first lady’s office from the Yale School of Medicine, where she created its Women’s Health Research Center. 
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Russian Shelling in Kherson Kills 2, Injures 12, Including Infant

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Russian shelling hit the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson Monday, killing three people and injuring at least 12, including a 2-month-old infant, according to local governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Since their liberation last year, Kherson and the western bank of the Dnipro River have been regularly bombarded by Russians from Dnipro’s eastern bank. There are usually rounds of air alerts during the day.

Two people were killed and 10 more injured in an afternoon combined attack in the central part of the city, Prokudin said.

“Eight vehicles, including one ambulance, an administrative building, a hospital, and at least fifteen houses were destroyed or damaged,” he added.

In a separate message, the governor said on the Telegram messaging app, a car was shot at in a suburb of Kherson, killing one person and wounding a 2-month-old infant and his mother.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky has been formally notified that he is suspected of treason for allegedly spreading misinformation about Ukraine’s political leadership and cooperation with Russia’s military intelligence, officials said on Monday.

In his own post on Telegram, Dubinsky called the notice of suspicion fabricated and “based on the absolute lies of top state officials.”

The Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, said the suspect was a member of a criminal organization, created in 2016 and financed by Russia’s military intelligence.

“It is established that on the instructions of the Russian special services, it organized events to discredit the image of Ukraine in the international arena in order to worsen diplomatic relations with the United States and hamper Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO,” the State Investigative Bureau said in a separate statement published on its website.

In January 2021, the United States imposed sanctions on several Ukrainian individuals and entities, including Dubinsky, accusing them of U.S. election interference and associating with a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker linked to efforts by then-president Donald Trump’s allies to dig up dirt on President Joe Biden and his son.

Ukraine has launched a criminal investigation into the case.

Separately, a Ukrainian military officer is accused of allegedly coordinating last year’s attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, according to The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources in Ukraine and Europe.

No one has taken responsibility for the September 2022 explosions, off the Danish island of Bornholm, that damaged three out of four offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea and delivering Russian gas to Europe.

The United States and NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, called it an act of sabotage, while Moscow said it was an act of international terrorism.

Roman Chervinsky, a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine’s special operations forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, according to people familiar with his role, The Post reported Saturday.

Chervinsky, sources say, managed logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines, The Post reported.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military told the Reuters news agency he had “no information” about the claim. The Ukrainian foreign ministry and Kyiv’s domestic security service, the SBU, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The newspaper also reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has denied Kyiv’s role in the blasts, had been unaware of the operation. Zelenskyy last week replaced the head of Ukraine’s special operations forces.

The Kremlin called the report alarming.

“It says that President Zelenskyy may not have been aware of such actions by his subordinates from the security agencies. This is a very alarming signal not only for us, but also for the countries of the collective West,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters, Monday.

In a statement to The Washington Post and Germany’s Der Spiegel, Chervinsky denied any involvement in the pipeline explosions. An outspoken critic of Zelenskyy’s administration, he claims the case against him is politically motivated.

Chervinsky is currently under arrest for attempting to convince a Russian pilot in 2022 to defect to Ukraine which investigators say led to a deadly Russian attack on a Ukrainian air base. Although he is accused of acting alone in this, his commanding officer at the time, Maj. Gen. Viktor Hanushchak, told Ukrainian media earlier this year that senior military leadership had signed off on the plot to lure the Russian pilot.

The Post and Der Spiegel collaborated on reporting and wrote separate stories that they agreed to publish at the same time.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Ethiopia’s Oromo Rebels in Tanzania for Peace Talks

Posted on by SeeAF

Rebels from Ethiopia’s Oromiya region said Monday they were in Tanzania for a second round of talks with the Ethiopian government to try to end decades of fighting.

The negotiations come more than six months after a first round of discussions between the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and Ethiopia’s government ended without an agreement.

The conflict in recent years has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands in Ethiopia’s most populous region.

“We remain committed to finding a peaceful political settlement,” the OLA said in its statement.

The OLA said it had delayed announcing the negotiations to make sure its team could get safely from what it called the front lines in Oromiya to the venue.

An official close to the mediators, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the talks started last week in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, and is being facilitated by the regional Africa group IGAD.

Ethiopia’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The OLA is an outlawed splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front, a formerly banned opposition party that returned from exile after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed — himself an Oromo — took office in 2018.

Oromiya, which surrounds Addis Ababa, the capital, is home to Ethiopia’s largest ethnic Oromo group and more than a third of the country’s 110 million people.

The talks come as conflict rages on another fault line in Ethiopia, with fighting between the army and the Fano militia group in the medieval holy city of Lalibela last week, residents told Reuters. The government said the area was peaceful.

While Fano has no formal command structure, the part-time militia in northern Amhara region has been battling the army since late July, emerging as the biggest security challenge to Abiy since a war ended in the northern Tigray region a year ago.
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