Month: December 2023

Dodgers, Ohtani Got Creative With $700 Million Deal

Posted on by SeeUS

PHOENIX, ARIZONA — Once the initial shock wore off on the price tag of Shohei Ohtani’s record-shattering $700 million, 10-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, details about the contract emerged that were nearly as stunning.

A total of $680 million — 97% of the money — was deferred until 2034-43 with no interest.

Had the Dodgers invented some kind of contract voodoo new to Major League Baseball?

Not really. But it appears to be a team-friendly deal that also has benefits for Ohtani as the Japanese superstar departs the Angels, heads 30 miles up Interstate 5 and establishes a new home with the Dodgers in Chavez Ravine.

“Thanks to his endorsements and other off-the-field revenue streams, he has the luxury to defer compensation,” said Michael Rueda, head of the U.S. division of sports and entertainment at Withers law firm. “But there’s always some risk.”

Part of Rueda’s job is giving financial advice to high-profile sports stars and celebrities. He said the Ohtani-Dodgers deal looks like a solid arrangement, even if there are tradeoffs for both sides.

Make no mistake, the 29-year-old Ohtani is a rich man and will be rich long into the foreseeable future, but money promised later is never the same as money in hand.

One example of Ohtani’s risk: Former Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Mario Lemieux was out about $26 million in the 1990s when the franchise was in financial trouble and couldn’t pay the money it owed the hockey legend in a deferred deal.

Things eventually worked out. Lemieux converted his deferred salary into equity with the team, then partnered with Ron Burkle to pull the club out of bankruptcy. They eventually made a windfall after selling part of their stake in 2021 — but it’s a reminder that financial circumstances can change when 20 years pass. The Dodgers were certainly a fan-drawing juggernaut in 2023, but 2043 doesn’t come for a long time. L.A., after all, is only 12 years removed from filing for bankruptcy protection under former owner Frank McCourt.

There’s also at least some risk for the franchise: The New York Mets famously deferred $5.9 million that slugger Bobby Bonilla was owed in 2000 and — thanks to an 8% interest rate — will end up paying nearly $30 million total in annual installments until 2035.

In contrast, Ohtani’s deferred pay comes with no interest. That’s a potentially monstrous savings — maybe billions — on a deal that could have been much more costly. Ohtani’s deal with 8% interest would come out to nearly $3 billion by 2043.

“It’s interesting to me that the deferred money comes with no interest, from what I’ve read” Rueda said. “That’s giving up a lot of money.”

Ohtani’s other potential advantage from the contract is he receives $680 million of the $700 million after he’s done playing, which means he might not be living in California, where taxes are relatively high. Depending on where he lives from 2034-43, that could lead to sizable savings.

Rueda said there are many variables, particularly if he goes back to Japan.

“Tax is always a big part,” Rueda said. “The concept of moving to a different jurisdiction and avoiding the California state tax — yeah, that could be accurate.”
…

your ad here

As Holidays Approach, Migrants Face Eviction From New York City Shelters

Posted on by SeeUS

NEW YORK — It could be a cold, grim New Year for thousands of migrant families living in New York City’s emergency shelter system. With winter setting in, they are being told they need to clear out, with no guarantee they’ll be given a bed elsewhere.

Homeless migrants and their children were limited to 60 days in city housing under an order issued in October by Mayor Eric Adams, a move the Democrat says is necessary to relieve a shelter system overwhelmed by asylum-seekers crossing the southern U.S. border.

That clock is now ticking down for people like Karina Obando, a 38-year-old mother from Ecuador who has been given until January 5 to get out of the former hotel where she has been staying with her two young children.

Where she will end up next is unclear. After that date, she can reapply for admission to the shelter system. A placement might not happen right away. Her family could wind up getting sent to one of the city’s huge tent shelters far from where her 11-year-old son goes to school.

“I told my son, ‘Take advantage. Enjoy the hotel because we have a roof right now,’” Obando said in Spanish outside Row NYC, a towering, 1,300-room hotel the city converted into a shelter for migrants in the heart of the theater district. “Because they’re going to send us away and we’re going to be sleeping on the train, or on the street.”

A handful of cities across the U.S. dealing with an influx of homeless migrants have imposed their own limits on shelter stays, citing a variety of reasons, including spiraling costs, a lack of space and a desire to put pressure on people to either find housing on their own, or leave town entirely.

Chicago imposed a 60-day shelter limit last month and is poised to start evicting people in early January. In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, has capped the number of migrant families in emergency shelters at 7,500.

Denver had limited migrant families to 37 days but paused the policy this month in recognition of winter’s onset. Single adults are limited to 14 days.

In New York, the first families were expected to reach their 60-day limits just days after Christmas, but the mayor’s office said those migrants will receive extensions through early January. Roughly 3,500 families have been issued notices so far.

Unlike most other big cities, New York has a decades-old “right to shelter” obligating the city to provide emergency housing to anyone who asks.

But officials have warned migrants there is no guarantee they will get to stay in the same hotel, or the same city borough, for that matter.

Adult migrants without children are already subject to a shorter limit on shelter stays: 30 days.

Those who get kicked out and still want help are told to head for the city’s so-called “reticketing center” that opened in late October in a former Catholic school in Manhattan’s East Village.

Dozens of men and women, many with their luggage and other belongings in tow, line up every morning in freezing weather where they must petition for a renewed stay.

They are offered a free, one-way ticket to anywhere in the world. Most people decline.

Some are able to secure another shelter for 30 days, but many others say they leave empty-handed and must line up again the next day to try their luck.

“I’m scared of dying, sleeping on the street,” Barbara Coromoto Monzon Peña, a 22-year-old from Venezuela, said as she spent a second day waiting in line on a recent weekday.

Obando said her eldest son, who is 19, hasn’t been able to find a place to rent since he and his wife exhausted their 30 allowed days at the Row NYC hotel.

“As a mother, it hurts,” she said, breaking down in tears. “He’s sleeping on the train, on the street, in the cold. He’s in a lot of pain, and now it’s our turn. They told me that this country was different, but for me it’s been hell.”

Adams has insisted the city is doing a lot more for migrant families than almost anywhere else. New York is on track to spend billions of dollars opening shelters, paying for hotel rooms, buying meals and offering assistance overcoming bureaucratic hurdles for asylum-seekers.

The mayor also has warned repeatedly that the city’s resources are stretched thin, with more than 67,200 migrants still in its care and many more arriving every week.

“We’re doing everything in our power to treat families as humanely as possible,” said Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for Adams. “We have used every possible corner of New York City and are quite simply out of good options.”

She stressed that the administration intends to avoid having families sleeping on the streets and said there will be an orderly process for them to request another 60-day stay.

Advocates for immigrants say the end result will still uproot vulnerable families during the coldest months of the year and disrupt schooling for new students just settling into classes.

“It’s maybe the most Grinch move, ever,” said Liza Schwartzwald, a director at the New York Immigrant Coalition. “Sending families with children out like in the middle of winter right after the holiday season is just cruel.”

Adams has stressed that migrant children would not be required to change schools when they move. But some kids could potentially face epic commutes if they are placed in new shelters far from their current schools.

Migrant parents say two months simply isn’t enough time to find a job, get kids settled into childcare or school and save up enough for rent.

Obando, who arrived in the U.S. three months ago, said that outside of the odd cleaning job, she has struggled to find consistent work because there is no one to care for her 3-year-old daughter with her husband still detained at the border in Arizona.

“It’s not that we Ecuadorians come to take their jobs or that we’re lazy,” she said. “We’re good workers. More time, that’s all we ask.”

For Ana Vasquez, a 22-year-old from Venezuela who is eight months pregnant, the situation is more urgent.

Her baby is due in late December, but she has until January 8 to leave the Row NYC, where she has been staying with her sister and two young nieces for the past four months.

“They are going to leave me out in the cold,” Vasquez lamented in Spanish one chilly morning this month outside the hotel. “We don’t have an escape plan. The situation is difficult, even more so with the baby.” 
…

your ad here

DR Congo’s Democracy Backsliding Ahead of Vote, Rights Groups Say

Posted on by SeeAF

Kinshasa, DRC — DR Congo’s democracy has been backsliding ahead of elections this month, according to rights defenders, as prominent journalists languish in prison and the murder of an opposition politician remains unsolved.

President Felix Tshisekedi came to power in 2019 after a campaign criticizing the rights record of his predecessor Joseph Kabila, among other issues.

But a slew of recent events have sparked concerns about the president’s own record.

A former minister turned opposition member was found dead in the central African nation’s capital of Kinshasa in July.

A few months later, one the best-known Congolese journalists was imprisoned after authorities accused him of spreading fake news about the murder.

“These are signs of the narrowing of the democratic space,” said a rights researcher, who requested anonymity.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is scheduled to hold elections on December 20. Tshisekedi, 60, will be running for a second term.

Human Rights Watch warned Saturday that it had documented clashes and other violence between supporters of rival parties that could undermine the vote.

“Political parties and candidates should publicize their anti-violence stance and help ensure that people have the opportunity to vote for the candidates of their choice,” said HRW researcher Thomas Fessy.

Tshisekedi released hundreds of political prisoners when he first took office, but initial optimism began to fade after intimidation of critics started again in 2020.

Opposition members regularly say they are harassed, and point to arrests they claim are politically motivated.

Despite its mineral riches, DRC is one of the poorest nations of the world, and has a history of autocratic rule.

Floribert Anzuluni, a presidential candidate and former rights activist, told AFP that repression often spikes around elections.

“It’s the case today, there’s a hardening of the democratic space,” he said.

Murder in Kinshasa

In a high-profile case in May, Congolese military intelligence arrested Salomon Idi Kalonda, a close adviser to opposition presidential contender Moise Katumbi.

Kalonda was accused of colluding with M23 rebels in the country’s east, as well as the group’s alleged backers, Rwanda. His trial is ongoing.

A month later, the body of Cherubin Okende, a former transport minister and Katumbi ally, was found riddled with bullets in Kinshasa.

The government has condemned the killing and opened an investigation.

But several analysts say the investigation has stalled.

“The justice system seems not to be doing its job,” Anzuluni said.

In September, the prominent Congolese journalist Stanis Bujakera, who works for Reuters and Jeune Afrique magazine, was arrested on suspicion of spreading false information about Okende’s killing.

His arrest followed a Jeune Afrique article  — which was not bylined — that suggested that Congolese military intelligence had assassinated Okende.

The article was based on a memo that the Congolese authorities have said is fake.

Bujakera remains in prison with the trial ongoing.

Eric Nsenga, who works on human rights for ECC, a federation of Congolese protestant churches, said Bujakera’s arrest “sends an image of intimidation.”

‘Fatigue’

Bujakera’s case attracted an outpouring of international criticism. But rights defenders say arrests of lesser-known figures have gone unnoticed.

Human Rights Watch said last week that opposition member Lens Omelonga had been freed after seven months in detention. He had shared a social media post criticizing the foundation of the president’s wife, Denise Tshisekedi.

Fred Bauma, the executive director of Kinshasa-based think tank Ebuteli, said repression had long gone under the radar — especially in the east, where he highlighted cases of protesters detained arbitrarily.

In 2021, Tshisekedi placed two eastern provinces under martial law in a bid to curb militia violence.

But the policy has mostly failed and has been criticized for facilitating a crackdown on dissent.

The president promised to roll it back after an elite army unit, in late August, massacred over 50 members of a religious sect who were planning a protest in the eastern city of Goma.

The government condemned the massacre, and a military court handed down prison sentences to several officers involved.

But several rights defenders told AFP they were frustrated with the accumulation of such cases, and apparent government impunity.

“They’ve been able to trick a lot of the international community,” said one, accusing the government of saying the right things on the diplomatic stage but rarely following up.

One U.N. official agreed that there was little international will to confront abuses, saying “There’s fatigue when it comes to the DRC.”

A government spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. 
…

your ad here

Engagement Vital to Relations With China, US Ambassador Says

Posted on by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — The U.S.-China relationship will be defined by strategic competition in the coming decades but must involve engagement when the interests of the two countries align, the U.S. ambassador to China said Friday, one month after President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to stabilize the fraught relations.

Nicholas Burns said the U.S. and China are “vying for global power as well as regional power” as they compete militarily, politically and economically.

“I think we are systematic rivals, if you think about our national security and economic and political interests around the world,” Burns said at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

In the Indo-Pacific region, China “wishes to be the strongest power,” Burns said. 

“China has a very different view of global governance and the future of the liberal order,” he said. “And of course, we are attached to a liberal order because it speaks to our values and our interests, and we think this is the best order of the world.”

Yet, the two countries need to work together on issues such as climate change, narcotics, global health and food security, he said.

“No person in their right mind should want this relationship to end up in conflict or in war,” he said. “So we’re going to develop a relationship where we can compete, but, as the president says, to compete responsibly, drive down the probability of a conflict and bring our people together in a balanced relationship is one way to do that.”

Washington is recalibrating its relationship with Beijing after several years of tumult that began with the imposition of tariffs on Chinese goods under the Trump administration. Ties further deteriorated over the COVID-19 pandemic and military tensions in the South China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait.

Last month, Biden met with Xi in Woodside, California, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The two leaders vowed to stabilize relations and agreed to combat illegal fentanyl and reestablish military communications.

Burns said China had begun shutting down some of the black market for fentanyl precursors, but the test would be whether the effort would continue. The ambassador said the resumption of military communications was important because the two militaries were operating “in very close proximity to each other” in the South China and East China seas, and communications could help prevent any crisis from getting out of control.

But differences on economic competition and global security remain. 

On Thursday night, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the U.S.-China Business Council the Biden administration seeks to strengthen relationships with like-minded nations but also has established economic working groups with China to exchange information.

The Biden administration has kept the tariffs slapped on some Chinese goods by the previous administration and has tightened export controls and investments in high-tech areas such as advanced chips.

Xi also sent a letter to the business council, urging the group and its members to “build more bridges for friendly exchange” and expand cooperation. He vowed to build a better business environment in China.

“The Chinese-style modernization will create more opportunities for global businesses including U.S. companies,” Xi’s letter said.

China’s economy slowed in the third quarter, as global demand for its exports faltered and the ailing property sector sank deeper into crisis.
…

your ad here

Palestinian Americans Sue Biden Administration Over Relatives Stuck in Gaza 

Posted on by SeeUS

washington — Two Palestinian American families have sued the Biden administration, saying the government has not done as much to evacuate their U.S. relatives stuck in Gaza as it did for Israeli dual nationals. 

In the days after Hamas’ October 7 assault in southern Israel, the U.S. government organized charter flights from Tel Aviv to Europe to help Americans leave Israel after many airlines canceled service to the country.  

The State Department says it has helped around 1,300 U.S. Palestinians leave Gaza and escape Israel’s retaliatory bombardment — in part by coordinating their exit to neighboring Egypt with Israeli and Egyptian authorities. 

But the United States has not taken steps to organize dedicated flights or otherwise help secure the exit of an estimated 900 U.S. citizens, residents and family members who remain trapped in Gaza, the American families suing the government say.  

They say this violates their constitutional rights.  

“There is more that the U.S. government can do, and they are choosing not to do it for Palestinians,” Yasmeen Elagha, who has family stuck in Gaza and helped organize the lawsuit, said in an interview.  

The State Department declined to comment on pending litigation, but a spokesperson said the department is working to get more Americans and family members out of Gaza. The White House referred questions on the lawsuit to the Justice Department, which did not immediately comment. 

Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israeli border communities with Gaza and took 240 hostages during their October 7 assault, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israeli bombardment has killed nearly 19,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. According to U.N. estimates, up to 85% of the 2.3 million people in the densely populated enclave have been displaced from their homes.  

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, accuses the federal government of failing to protect U.S. citizens in an active war zone and denying equal protection to Palestinian Americans, a right under the U.S. Constitution. 

The suit seeks to force the government to begin evacuation efforts and secure the safety of its citizens “on equal terms to other noncombatants in the same war zone.” 

Two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Elagha’s cousins, Borak Alagha and Hashem Alagha, U.S. citizens who were studying engineering in the Palestinian coastal enclave.  

Americans listed by the United States as wanting to leave Gaza at the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing must be approved by both Israel and Egypt. 

The three Americans cited in the lawsuit have not been cleared to leave, said Elagha, who lives near Chicago.  

Maria Kari, a lawyer with the Arab American Civil Rights League who represents the plaintiffs, said her organization filed about 40 lawsuits in the first month of the conflict on behalf of Palestinian dual nationals.  

“We’re simply asking the Biden administration to do something it already did for a class of citizens in the same war,” she said.
…

your ad here

US Homelessness Hits Highest Reported Level as Rents Soar, Pandemic Aid Lapses

Posted on by SeeUS

washington — The United States experienced a dramatic 12% increase in homelessness to its highest reported level as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans, federal officials said Friday.

About 653,000 people were homeless, the most since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007. The total in the January count represents an increase of about 70,650 compared with a year earlier.

The latest estimate indicates that people becoming homeless for the first time were behind much of the increase, and the increase ended a downward trend in family homelessness that began in 2012.

“This data underscores the urgent need for support for proven solutions and strategies that help people quickly exit homelessness and that prevent homelessness in the first place,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge said in a prepared statement.

Going back to the first survey, the U.S. then made steady progress for about a decade in reducing the homeless population as the government focused particularly on increasing investments to get veterans into housing. The number of homeless people dropped from about 637,000 in 2010 to about 554,000 in 2017.

The numbers ticked up to about 580,000 in the 2020 count and held relatively steady over the next two years as Congress responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with emergency rental assistance, stimulus payments, aid to states and local governments and a temporary eviction moratorium.

Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, a federal agency, said the extra assistance “held off the rise in homelessness that we are now seeing. While numerous factors drive homelessness, the most significant causes are the shortage of affordable homes and the high cost of housing that have left many Americans living paycheck to paycheck and one crisis away from homelessness,” Olivet said.

Within the overall rise, homelessness among individuals rose by nearly 11%, among veterans by 7.4% and among families with children by 15.5%.

People who identify as Black make up about 13% of the U.S. population but comprised 37% of all people experiencing homelessness. People who identify as Hispanic or Latino make up about 19% of the population but comprised about 33% of those experiencing homelessness. Also, more than 25% of adults experiencing homelessness were over age 54.

HUD said that rental housing conditions were “extraordinarily challenging” in 2022, with rents increasing at more than twice the rate of recent years. It noted that trend has subsided since the January count. That could show benefits when volunteers and housing officials around the country begin the next homeless count in just a few weeks.

Officials also noted that President Joe Biden’s budget for this fiscal year has recommended guaranteed vouchers for low-income veterans and youths aging out of foster care, among other investments designed to reduce homelessness.

More than half the people experiencing homelessness in the country were in four states: California, New York, Florida and Washington. While about 28% of the nation’s homeless are estimated to be in California, its portion went up about half the national rate. New York’s homelessness went up more than three times the national rate, according to HUD’s report.

New Hampshire, New Mexico and Colorado along with New York saw the largest percentage increases in homelessness. In all, the number of people experiencing homelessness increased in 41 states and the District of Columbia, and decreased in just nine states.

HUD also sought to highlight improvements and noted that some communities bucked the national trend. Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the surrounding region, for example, saw a 49% drop from the 2022 count to this year’s. Chattanooga increased efforts to more rapidly connect people to permanent housing and boosted efforts to prevent people from becoming homeless.

Other communities highlighted for a drop were Dallas, which experienced a 3.8% decrease, and Newark and Essex County, New Jersey, which saw a 16.7% drop. Houston has closed numerous homeless encampments across the city and saw a 17% reduction in unsheltered homelessness. San Jose, California, and Tucson, Arizona, were also cited for improvements.
…

your ad here

Jury Awards $148 Million to Election Workers Over Giuliani’s 2020 Vote Lies

Posted on by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — A jury awarded $148 million in damages on Friday to two former Georgia election workers who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020 that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.

The damages verdict follows emotional testimony from Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who tearfully described becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Republicans as they tried to keep then-President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.

There was an audible gasp in the courtroom when the jury foreperson read aloud the $75 million award in punitive damages for the women. Moss and Freeman were each awarded another roughly $36 million in other damages.

Giuliani didn’t appear to show any emotion as the verdict was read in Washington’s federal courthouse after about 10 hours of deliberations. Moss and Freeman hugged their attorneys after the jury left the courtroom and didn’t look at Giuliani as he left with his lawyer.

Giuliani had already been found liable in the case and previously conceded in court documents that he falsely accused the women of ballot fraud. Even so, the former New York City mayor continued to repeat his baseless allegations about the women in comments to reporters outside the Washington courthouse this week.

Giuliani’s lawyer acknowledged that his client was wrong but insisted that Giuliani was not fully responsible for the vitriol the women faced. The defense sought to largely pin the blame on a right-wing website that published the surveillance video of the two women counting ballots.

The judgment adds to growing financial and legal peril for Giuliani, who was among the loudest proponents of Trump’s false claims of election fraud that are now a key part of the criminal cases against the former president.

Giuliani had already been showing signs of financial strain as he defends himself against costly lawsuits and investigations stemming from his representation of Trump. His lawyer suggested that the defamation case could financially ruin the former mayor, saying, “It would be the end of Mr. Giuliani.”

Giuliani is still facing his biggest test yet: fighting criminal charges in the Georgia case accusing Trump and 18 others of working to subvert the results of the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden, in that state. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty and characterized the case as politically motivated.

Jurors in the defamation case heard recordings of Giuliani falsely accusing the election workers of sneaking in ballots in suitcases, counting ballots multiple times and tampering with voting machines. Trump also repeated the conspiracy theories through his social media accounts.

Lawyers for Moss and Freeman, who are Black, also played for jurors audio recordings of the graphic and racist threats the women received.

The women’s lawyers asked for at least $24 million for each woman in defamation damages alone. They also sought compensation for their emotional harm and punitive damages.

On the witness stand, Moss and Freeman described fearing for their lives as hateful messages poured in. Moss told jurors she tried to change her appearance, seldom leaves her home and suffers from panic attacks. Her mother described strangers banging on her door and recounted fleeing her home after people came with bullhorns and the FBI told her she wasn’t safe.

“It’s so scary, anytime I go somewhere, if I have to use my name,” Freeman said, gasping through her tears to get her words out. “I miss my old neighborhood because I was me, I could introduce myself. Now I don’t have a name, really.”

Defense attorney Joseph Sibley told jurors they should compensate the women for what they are owed, but he urged them to “remember this is a great man.”

An attorney for Moss and Freeman, in his closing argument, highlighted how Giuliani has not stopped repeating the false conspiracy theory asserting the workers interfered in the November 2020 presidential election. Attorney Michael Gottlieb played a video of Giuliani outside the courthouse on Monday, in which Giuliani falsely claimed the women were “engaged in changing votes.”

“Mr. Giuliani has shown over and over again he will not take our client’s names out of his mouth,” Gottlieb said. “Facts will not stop him. He says he isn’t sorry, and he’s telegraphing he will do this again. Believe him.”

The judge overseeing the election workers’ lawsuit had already ordered Giuliani and his business entities to pay tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees. In holding Giuliani liable, the judge ruled that the former mayor gave “only lip service” to complying with his legal obligations while trying to portray himself as the victim in the case.
…

your ad here

Lithuania Now a Repair Hub for Ukraine’s Tanks

Posted on by SeeEU

RUKLA, LITHUANIA — Two German Leopard tanks damaged in Ukraine were test driven in Lithuania on Friday following repairs, to showcase how the Baltic NATO member has become a hub for such work.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas sat on a turret on one of the tanks as he was driven along a rough road in the military training area in the central town of Rukla.

“What can I say?… A powerful tank,” he told reporters.

The tanks presented on Friday — among the first repaired in Lithuania — are expected to reach Ukraine next month, nearly two years after it was invaded by Russia.

According to the latest public data, Western countries have delivered 71 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

Some have already been damaged beyond repair during Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

Lithuania will be Europe’s only country to repair Leopard 2 A6 and A5 tanks, the company responsible for the work said.

“For these variants, this is the only hub,” Sebastian Dietz, CEO of Lithuania Defense Services, or LDS, told reporters.

The company was established by German industry giants Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, or KMW, which also manufacture the Leopard tank.

LDS took in its first tanks in October and, according to the current contract, will conduct repair work until the end of next year.

According to Dietz, the repairs were commissioned by Rheinmetall and KMW and are being carried out according to an agreement between the German and Ukrainian defense ministries.

LDS said it was ready to accept as many tanks as needed.

“We can’t plan how many units will be damaged on the battlefield,” LDS managing director Aivaras Kasuba told reporters.

Dietz said that judging from the units they have received, the tanks sustain all kinds of combat-related damage — “direct hits, mines, drone attacks and also water.”

The Leopard 2 tank was created during the Cold War, with potential clashes with the Soviets in mind.

Almost a quarter-century after the Leopard 2 was delivered to the West German army, these tanks are now being used in Ukraine against Russian forces that are still heavily dependent on Soviet arms.
…

your ad here

Conflict-Ridden Sudan Facing Looming Hunger Catastrophe

Posted on by SeeAF

GENEVA — As Sudan marks eight months of a horrific war that has killed more than 12,000 people and displaced 6.6 million, United Nations food agencies are warning of a looming hunger catastrophe by next year’s lean season, when food stocks will be at their lowest.

A new analysis released Friday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — a scientific evaluation of food security — warns that nearly 18 million people across Sudan face acute hunger.

“These figures are the highest ever recorded that coincide with Sudan’s harvesting season,” a period when more food is available, said Adam Yao, Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, deputy representative in Sudan.

Speaking to journalists from Sudan’s Sennar state, he said, “The food crisis is exacerbated by ongoing conflict, escalating violence, low agricultural production, high food prices, climate shocks and displacement.”

He warned that more financial support and unimpeded access to people trapped in conflict hotspots is needed to ward off the worst results.

According to the U.N., vulnerable populations in Greater Darfur, Greater Kordofan and Khartoum are most at risk.

“The Sudanese people require more support more than ever,” said Yao. “Our immediate action to preserve the lives and livelihoods of rural Sudanese communities is absolutely crucial. The longer we take to respond, the more lives we expose to the imminent threat of famine.”

The war, which erupted April 15, was triggered by a power struggle between rival generals from the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Support Response Forces, unleashing eight months of terror, violence and displacement in what is described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

“The suffering is unimaginable, yet the crisis has not been getting the international focus and attention that is warranted, as the conflict continues to upend millions of lives and worsen what was already a dire situation,” said Leni Kenzli, World Food Program spokesperson.

Speaking from Nairobi, Kenya, Kenzli said regular and safe humanitarian access to civilians in areas worst hit by violence was inadequate, as was international financial support for a crisis of this magnitude.

“Since the start of the conflict, WFP has provided lifesaving assistance to over 5 million people, preventing an even worse deterioration of food security, especially in eastern and northern Sudan.

“Yet, this is only scratching the surface compared to the immense needs that we are seeing on ground,” Kenzli said, noting that WFP needed $252 million to provide assistance for 6 million to 7 million people over the next six months.

While the hunger and displacement crises continue to deepen in violent, unstable parts of Sudan, large areas of the country remain relatively calm, and farmers are still able to plant their crops.

Adam Yao said that FAO has helped upwards of a million farmers in places such as Sennar, Kosti and the White Nile state to produce between 2 million and 3 million tons of cereal.

He said FAO needs $75 million to support local food production. “We have to get ready now for the planting season, which goes from May to August,” he said.

At the same time, he noted FAO is appealing for a cease-fire “to allow a humanitarian corridor to be opened so that organizations that are distributing food items can have access” to volatile, dangerous areas.

WFP echoed this appeal. Leni Kenzli said, “WFP is urgently calling all parties to the conflict for a humanitarian pause and unfettered access to avert a hunger catastrophe in the coming lean season. Lives are depending on it.”
…

your ad here

High-Risk Environment Training for Journalists and More

Posted on by SeeEU

The wars in Ukraine, Gaza and other dangerous places around the world have heightened the need to prepare journalists, NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), health care professionals and civilians to be ready for life and death situations in high-risk environments. Global Journalist Security (GJS) is a company doing just that. Philip Alexiou reports.
…

your ad here

Chad Leaders Urge Civilians to Participate in Sunday’s Constitutional Referendum

Posted on by SeeAF

Yaounde, Cameroon — Chad’s military government says a majority of about 8 million voters are not ready to vote in the December 17 constitutional referendum that would pave the way for a return to civilian rule. A campaign for voter participation is taking place amid opposition and civil society calls for a total boycott of what they call Sunday’s sham referendum.

The National Commission Charged with the Organization of Chad’s December 17 Constitutional Referendum, or CONOREC, says several million voters have not collected their voter cards less than 48 hours ahead of Sunday’s referendum. 

CONOREC says that without voter cards, civilians who registered will not be allowed to vote in the referendum on a new constitution that sets the stage for elections and a return to civilian rule.

Chad’s military government this week said it had dispatched what it called friendly civil society groups, opposition parties, and government ministers to towns and villages to some 8.5 million voters CONOREC says are eligible to cast their votes on December 17.

Brice Mbaimon Guedmbaye is a former presidential candidate and president of the opposition Movement of Chadian Patriots for the Republic. He says a majority of civilians do not believe the referendum will pave the way for Chad’s military ruler Mahamat Idriss Deby to leave power because he initially refused to hand power to a civilian government in October 2022 as agreed and instead extended the transition period by two years. 

He says civilians are angry and refusing to collect voter cards that will enable them to vote in the December 17 referendum because Deby is intimidating opposition political parties and civil society groups that are against a constitution that maintains Chad as a unitary state with powers centered in the capital Ndjamena. Guedmbaye says many civilians want Chad to adopt a federal system, end the dictatorship and the grip on power exerted by the Deby family on the country for 30 years.  

Mahamat Idris Déby came to power on April 20, 2021, following the death of his father Idriss Déby Itno while fighting rebels in the north of his country. The rebels were fighting to end what they called Itno’s 31-yearlong autocratic rule. 

His son took power and promised to organize elections within 18 months but instead extended his rule until November 2024.

Civil society and opposition leaders say the referendum the military leader is organizing cannot be taken seriously because Deby rules with an iron fist, and cracks down on freedom of speech and assembly. The opposition says CONOREC, the referendum management body, is partisan. Several dozen opposition parties and civil society groups are calling for either a “no” vote or a boycott of the referendum. 

Francois Djekonbe leads a Yes Coalition set up by Chad’s military rulers to campaign for a vote for a new draft constitution, which the military junta says strengthens judicial independence and institutional reforms. He says claims that Deby does not want to leave power are unfounded.

Djekonbe says Chad will — for the first time since it achieved independence from France in 1960 — have a National Assembly and a Senate to both legislate, vote laws and control activities of government ministers. He says the constitution also reinstates presidential term limits of two five-year terms that was abolished by Chad’s former president Idris Deby Itno before he died,  

Djekonbe said the new constitution gives all 23 regions that make up Chad greater financial autonomy in a decentralized system of government, and the possibility of electing their local governors previously appointed by the central government in Ndjamena.

Sunday’s constitutional referendum will enable the junta to manage Chad’s transition until presidential elections are held by October 2024. Chad’s opposition says the constitution to be voted on Sunday does not bar Deby, a 39-year-old military general, from participating in Chad’s 2024 presidential election. 
…

your ad here

Education, Faith Leaders Denounce Planned Satan Club at US Elementary School

Posted on by SeeUS

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Faith and education leaders are denouncing plans for an After School Satan Club at a Tennessee elementary school but said they would follow the law and allow the organization hosting the club to meet.

Around 40 members of the faith community in Memphis stood united with leaders at Memphis-Shelby County Schools on Wednesday to criticize the planned club and to question The Satanic Temple’s intentions in offering it, according to the Commercial Appeal newspaper. The faith community and educators also wanted to make it clear that students would need signed permission slips to attend and to express support for religious organizations that have partnered with the district, the newspaper reported.

“You see the faith-based community standing here,” said board chair and local pastor Althea Greene, who wore a clerical collar. “We’re going to stand up and we’re going to be vocal. Satan has no room in this district.”

The Satanic Temple plans to host the club at Chimneyrock Elementary School in Cordova. It will begin meeting January 10 in the school’s library and run through the spring semester, according to an announcement Tuesday posted on social media.

A flyer about the club says the Satanic Temple is a nontheistic religion that views Satan “as a literary figure who represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny and championing the human mind and spirit.”

It says it does not attempt to convert children to any religious ideology but offers activities that “emphasize a scientific, rationalistic, non-superstitious worldview.”

Memphis-Shelby County Schools said in a statement that the district would rent out the space to the nonprofit organization per its policy.

Since the announcement, interim Superintendent Toni Williams said some have demanded that the district ban all faith-based organizations from schools, but that won’t happen.

“As a superintendent, I am duty bound to uphold our board policy, state laws, and the Constitution,” she said during the event. “But let’s not be fooled. Let’s not be fooled by what we’ve seen in the past 24 hours, which is an agenda, initiated to make sure that we cancel all faith-based organizations that partner with our district.”
…

your ad here

Conservationists, US Tribes Say Salmon Deal Is Map to Breaching Dams

Posted on by SeeUS

seattle — The U.S. government said Thursday it plans to spend more than $1 billion over the next decade to help recover depleted populations of salmon in the Pacific Northwest, and that it will help figure out how to offset the hydropower, transportation and other benefits provided by four controversial dams on the Snake River, should Congress ever agree to breach them.

President Joe Biden’s administration stopped short of calling for the removal of the dams to save the fish, but Northwest tribes and conservationists who have long sought that called the agreement a road map for dismantling them. Filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon, it pauses long-running litigation over federal operation of the dams and represents the most significant step yet toward breaching them.

“Today’s historic agreement marks a new direction for the Pacific Northwest,” senior White House adviser John Podesta said in a written statement. “Today, the Biden-Harris administration and state and tribal governments are agreeing to work together to protect salmon and other native fish, honor our obligations to tribal nations, and recognize the important services the Columbia River system provides to the economy of the Pacific Northwest.”

The Columbia River Basin, an area roughly the size of Texas, was once the world’s greatest salmon-producing river system, with at least 16 stocks of salmon and steelhead.

Today, four are extinct and seven are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Another iconic but endangered Northwest species, a population of killer whales, also depends on the salmon.

Dams blamed for decline

Dams are a main culprit behind the salmon’s decline, and federal fisheries scientists have concluded that breaching the dams in eastern Washington on the Snake River, the largest tributary of the Columbia, would be the best hope for recovering them, providing the fish with access to hundreds of miles of pristine habitat and spawning grounds in Idaho.

Conservation groups sued the federal government more than two decades ago in an effort to save the fish. They have argued that the continued operation of the dams violates the Endangered Species Act as well as treaties dating to the mid-19th century ensuring the tribes’ right to harvest fish.

Republicans in Congress who oppose the breaching of the dams released a leaked copy of the draft agreement late last month.

“I have serious concerns about what this agreement means for the future of our region,” Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington, said in an emailed statement Thursday. “It jeopardizes the energy, irrigation and navigation benefits that support our entire way of life, and it makes commitments on behalf of Congress without engaging us.”

Details of agreement

Under the agreement, the U.S. government will build enough new clean energy projects in the Pacific Northwest to replace the hydropower generated by the dams — the Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Lower Granite.

The agreement includes a compromise regarding dam operations — providing for additional water to be spilled in the spring, fall and winter to help some salmon runs such as spring and summer Chinook, while reducing the spill required in late summer, when energy demand is high and production is especially profitable. That could harm fall Chinook, said the environmental law firm Earthjustice, which is representing environmental, fishing and renewable energy groups in the litigation.

The federal Bonneville Power Administration, which operates the dams, will spend $300 million over 10 years to restore native fish and their habitats throughout the Columbia River Basin, though it said the agreement would result in rate increases of only 0.7%. Two-thirds of that money will go toward hatchery improvements and operations, and the rest will go to what the agreement refers to as the “six sovereigns” — Oregon, Washington and the four tribes involved: the Yakama Nation, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs.

Combined with other fish-restoration funding, the federal government will be spending more than $1 billion over the next decade, the White House said.

The U.S. also will conduct or pay for studies of how the transportation, irrigation and recreation provided by the dams could be replaced. The dams made the town of Lewiston, Idaho, the most inland seaport on the West Coast, and many farmers in the region rely on barges to ship their crops, though rail is also available.

The agreement “lays out a pathway to breaching,” said Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe. “When these things are replaced, and the Pacific Northwest is transforming into a stronger, more resilient, better place, then there’s a responsibility … to make the decisions that are necessary to make sure these treaty promises are kept.”

Utility and business groups Northwest RiverPartners, the Public Power Council and the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association have opposed the agreement.

“This settlement undermines the future of achieving clean energy goals and will raise the rates of electricity customers across the region while exacerbating the greatest threat to salmon that NOAA scientists have identified — the warming, acidifying ocean,” Northwest RiverPartners said in a news release Thursday.

There has been growing recognition that the harm some dams cause to fish outweighs their usefulness, but only a few lawmakers in the region have embraced the idea. Dams on the Elwha River in Washington state and the Klamath River along the Oregon-California border have been or are being removed.

In 2021, Republican Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho proposed removing the earthen berms on either side of the four Lower Snake River dams to let the river flow freely, and to spend $33 billion to replace the benefits of the dams.

Last year, Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Washington U.S. Senator Patty Murray, both Democrats, released a report saying carbon-free electricity produced by the dams must be replaced before they are breached. Inslee declined to endorse breaching the dams during a conference call with reporters on Thursday, but he said figuring out how to replace their benefits would enable Congress to make a better decision.

“I don’t think this agreement makes anything inevitable, but it does make it much more likely that we’ll have the information we need to make the decision,” he said.

In October, Biden directed federal agencies to use all available resources to restore abundant salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin, but that memo too stopped short of calling for the removal of the dams.

“The energy needs of the Pacific Northwest should not rest on the backs of salmon,” said Donella Miller, fisheries science manager with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. “What’s good for the salmon is good for the environment, and what’s good for the environment is good for the people.”
…

your ad here

Preparations to Deploy Kenyan Police to Haiti Ramp Up, Despite Legal Hurdles

Posted on by SeeAF

Nairobi, Kenya — The head of Haiti’s national police visited Kenya Thursday, as local authorities prepare for the deployment of Kenyan police to the Caribbean nation plagued by gang violence.

Kenyan authorities said Thursday that Frantz Elbe, on a fact-finding mission, met Kenyan police chief Japhet Koome on Thursday.

Elbe “is on a three-day official visit to Kenya for bilateral security discussions between the two law enforcement agencies,” a statement from Koome’s office said. No more details were given.

In October, the U.N. Security Council approved the deployment of a Kenyan-led foreign armed force to Haiti to help bring gang violence under control. More than 1,230 killings and 701 kidnappings were reported across Haiti from July 1 to September 30, more than double the figure reported during the same period last year, according to the U.N.

Elbe’s visit comes days after a Kenyan team flew to Haiti for discussions with authorities there.

Kenyan police would lead a U.N.-backed multinational force to Haiti, but the proposed deployment has proved controversial as it faces a legal hurdle at home.

Kenyan officials told The Associated Press that the first group of about 300 officers is expected to be deployed by February, with authorities still awaiting the verdict in a case that seeks to block the deployment. A decision is expected in January.

The planned deployment was first blocked by the High Court in Nairobi in October. The court’s decision came hours after Kenya’s parliament passed a motion allowing the deployment of the security officers.

The total deployment would eventually rise to 1,000 officers as part of a multinational force of 3,000 sent to Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. Jamaica, the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda are among the countries pledging to contribute troops.
…

your ad here

Turkey Expects Somali President’s Son to Return, Face Trial Over Fatal Traffic Accident

Posted on by SeeEU

washington/istanbul — Turkey’s justice minister announced Thursday that Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s son is expected to return to Turkey to face trial over a fatal traffic accident in Istanbul.

Yilmaz Tunc, Turkey’s justice minister, told reporters that Ankara held talks with Somali judicial authorities over extraditing Mohamed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

“In the coming days, the defendant will come to Turkey, and the trial process will take place,” Tunc said.

Accident

On November 30, Mohamud hit Yunus Emre Gocer, a motorcycle courier in the Fatih district of Istanbul, while driving a vehicle with a diplomatic license plate. The 38-year-old victim was immediately taken to the hospital, where he died on December 6.

According to police documents that VOA Turkish obtained, after providing testimony, Mohamud was released on the same day of the accident per an Istanbul prosecutor’s instructions.

In a press statement last Friday, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office announced that following Gocer’s death, it issued a detention order for Mohamud accusing him of involuntary manslaughter, but he had already left the country on December 2.

The prosecutor’s office said an arrest warrant for Mohamud was issued on December 8.

Iyaz Cimen, the lawyer for Gocer’s family, says the Somali president’s son was allowed to leave Turkey due to “a chain of negligence.”

“We went to the police station on the evening of the accident day where [the police] ignored us. We requested detention at the prosecutor’s office for eight days from November 30 to December 7. [Mohamud] was not arrested, and in fact, any judicial control, including a travel ban, was not placed,” Cimen told VOA.

On the other hand, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told The Associated Press on Tuesday that his son did not flee Turkey and stayed in Istanbul for several days after the crash.

“It was an accident. He did not run away, and he hired a lawyer for this purpose,” the Somali president said. “And there was no arrest warrant. … So, he has a business, and he came out of the country.”

Mohamud added that he is advising his son to present himself to the Turkish court, noting that his son is an adult and “the decision is his — but I am giving that advice.”

The Somali president also extended his condolences to Gocer’s family.

Investigation

Ankara has launched an investigation of the police officers who conducted the crime scene investigation and wrote the initial police report, Tunc posted on social media on Monday.

Also on Monday, a Somali diplomat in Turkey, who requested anonymity, told The Associated Press that Mohamud has since traveled to Dubai. He added that the Somali president’s family travels with diplomatic passports and previously lived in Turkey.

On Tuesday, a Turkish official told Reuters that Ankara sought information from Somali authorities on the incident and the use of a diplomatic car.

“Someone who does not have diplomatic status has no right to use these vehicles,” the official told Reuters. According to the official, as the Somali president’s son does not enjoy “immunity or diplomatic exceptionality,” and it makes no difference that he was driving a vehicle with a diplomatic plate.

VOA contacted Turkey’s justice and foreign ministries but did not receive a response.

Tunc has not disclosed Mohamud’s whereabouts but has noted that there is no mutual legal assistance treaty between Somalia and Turkey.

“However, these are issues that can be achieved within the framework of bilateral relations,” Tunc said.

“We expect that the suspect will actively participate in the trial process amid its return to Turkey and that the family’s damage here will be remedied,” Cimen, the Gocer family’s lawyer, told VOA.

The accident has stirred controversy in Turkey over the police and judicial system.

Ozgur Ozel, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, visited Gocer’s family on Tuesday and said, “If any citizen committed this crime or were involved in this accident, that person would be detained, interrogated, arrested, and if that person were not arrested, a travel ban would be imposed. Everyone knows this.

“But when [that person] is the son of a foreign statesman, what kind of privilege is this? What kind of public administration is this? What kind of justice is this?” Ozel added.

Ankara has built close ties with Mogadishu, as it is part of the Somalia “Quint” group alongside the United States, United Kingdom, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, which was formed to ensure security and counterterrorism support for the African country. The last Quint meeting was held in Ankara in October.

Turkey has its largest overseas military base in Somalia, where it trains Somali forces. In 2016, Erdogan opened the Turkish Embassy in Mogadishu, which he called “the largest Turkish embassy in the world.”

Turkish companies are active in the country for many development projects as Turkish state-run Ziraat bank opened a branch in Mogadishu in October 2023 and became the first foreign bank to operate in Somalia in over a half-century.

Some information came from The Associated Press and Reuters. This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service, and VOA Somali contributed to this report.
…

your ad here

US Launch of New Vulcan Centaur Rocket Delayed Until January

Posted on by SeeUS

washington — The maiden liftoff of a new American rocket called Vulcan Centaur has been delayed from December 24 to January 8, the company that developed it said Thursday.

The postponement stems from last-minute technical snags, but United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno said on X, formerly Twitter, that a recent dress rehearsal on the launch pad went well.

The rocket will carry a private lunar lander, developed by the startup Astrobotic, which could become the first such private craft to touch down on the moon and the first American robot to land on the surface since the Apollo program ended in 1972.

“This is sort of, in a way, the first giant step in the campaign for the U.S., and for all of our friends, to go back to the moon, eventually with people,” Bruno told AFP in an interview last week.

“It’s a pretty big deal to have a payload at all, let alone one that goes to the surface of the moon,” he added.

“We wanted to do something really important, and we have a lot of confidence, obviously, in the design of our rocket,” Bruno said.

Liftoff for this mission called Cert-1 will take place at the U.S. Space Force launch base at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In dress rehearsals in recent days, some “routine” issues emerged in the ground system so a Christmas Eve flight is now out, and the new window opens January 8, Bruno wrote on X.

Besides the lunar lander, this rocket will carry the cremated remains of several people associated with the original “Star Trek” series, including creator Gene Roddenberry and cast member Nichelle Nichols, who played the character Uhura. Roddenberry’s ashes have been launched into orbit previously.

A sample of Bruno’s own DNA will also be taken into space. “Who wouldn’t want to go to space with five ‘Star Trek’ people?” he mused in the interview with AFP.

Vulcan Centaur is meant to replace ULA’s Atlas V and Delta IV rockets and is designed to carry a payload of up to 27.2 metric tons into low orbit, comparable to what the SpaceX Falcon 9 can do.
…

your ad here