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Month: December 2023
Putin Vows to Make Russia ‘Self-Sufficient’ in Fifth Term
Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Sunday to make Russia “sovereign and self-sufficient” in the face of the West, in his first campaign speech before a March vote to extend his long rule until at least 2030.
Putin will stand for a fifth Kremlin term in an election with no real opposition that will come just over two years since he launched the seismic Ukraine offensive.
The 71-year-old came to power in 2000, with a whole generation in Russia unable to remember life without him.
The vote will likely prolong his rule until at least 2030 and give him the possibility to stay in the Kremlin until 2036.
“We must remember and never forget and tell our children: Russia will be either a sovereign, self-sufficient state, or it will not be there at all,” Putin said during a congress of the ruling United Russia party.
Putin has said that he will make “sovereignty” — a loosely defined term — one of the key aims of his fifth term in the Kremlin.
“We will only make decisions ourselves without foreign advice from abroad,” Putin told United Russia members.
“Russia cannot — like some countries — give away its sovereignty for some sausage and become someone’s satellite,” he said, using a common Russian expression.
The United Russia party backed Putin’s candidacy unanimously, with party leaders and public figures making adoring speeches lending him support.
The party is headed by Dmitry Medvedev, who switched roles with Putin in 2008 to serve as president, before Putin returned to the Kremlin.
Medvedev has become one of the most hawkish figures in Russia during the Ukraine campaign.
The 2024 election will come as Moscow’s Ukraine campaign drags on for another winter, costing a high number of deaths on both sides, with criticism of the military operation banned in Russia.
Russia has said it is withstanding Western economic pressure.
Putin accused Western countries of wanting to “sow internal troubles” in Russia.
“But such tactics did not work,” he said.
The longtime Kremlin leader said, “we still have a lot to do for the interests of Russia” and that the country faced “historic tasks.”
United Russia leaders and pro-Kremlin figures made speeches in support of Putin.
“There is not a single doubt that Putin should be leader in the hardest circumstances for our country,” Medvedev said, calling Western countries “dangerous and cynical enemies.”
A special forces commander of Ramzan Kadyrov’s brutal regime in Chechnya — Apti Alaudinov — said: “God gave us a leader.”
“We Russians, do not see ourselves without him,” he said.
The vote will take place amid a huge crackdown on dissent in Russia.
Putin’s main political opponent, Alexey Navalny, is serving a 19-year prison sentence.
His allies sounded the alarm last week, saying they have not had any contact with him for ten days, believing he was moved to another prison.
His team says this was done to coincide with Putin’s campaign.
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International Graduate Students Flock to US to Study
Just north of Washington, D.C., the University of Maryland hosts more than 5,000 international students, most of them pursuing master’s degrees or doctorates. VOA’s Laurel Bowman looks at why they choose to study in the U.S. and what they need to succeed.
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Ukraine Inches Closer to EU Membership
Ukraine moves closer to joining the European Union as leaders agree to start membership talks. But money to sustain its war effort against invading Russia hit a familiar roadblock with an ally of Russia’s president in the EU. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi the story.
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Chad Holds Divisive Post-Coup Constitutional Referendum
N’DJAMENA — Chad holds a referendum on a new constitution on Sunday that looks unlikely to mend deep divisions between the junta and opposing groups that have fueled a political and security crisis in one of the world’s poorest countries.
The military authorities have called the vote as a vital stepping-stone to elections next year — a long-promised return to democratic rule after they seized power in 2021 when President Idriss Deby was killed on the battlefield during a conflict with insurgents.
The proposed constitution would establish autonomous communities with local assemblies and councils of traditional chiefdoms among other changes.
But some of the political opposition and rebel groups have called for a “No” vote or said they will boycott the poll. They question the independence of the election commission and reject the new constitution for not engaging with their wishes including for federalization.
Decades of instability and economic mismanagement have hampered development in the oil-producing central African country, where nearly 40% of its 16 million people depend on humanitarian aid.
Brice Nguedmbaye Mbaimon, who coordinates a coalition voting “No”, said Chad had experienced a unitary state for over 50 years without tangible progress.
“It is time to let the population organise into federated states and steer their own development,” he told Reuters.
Haroun Kabadi, coordinator of groups voting “Yes”, said the new constitution does offer more independence as it would allow Chadians to choose their local representatives and collect local taxes for the first time.
“These people talking about a federation simply want to divide Chadians into micro-states and fuel hatred between communities,” he said by phone.
Meanwhile others are calling for a boycott, including former Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke, who told Reuters the junta had too much control over the referendum process.
“This is not fair, and it is not democratic. That’s why we have called on Chadians not to participate in this farce.”
The Africa-focused Institute for Security Studies has warned that tensions around the vote could lead to a repeat of unrest that saw scores killed by security forces amid pro-democracy protests in October 2022.
A central concern is that the referendum could help cement the power of junta leader, Deby’s son Mahamat Idriss Deby, who has already extended a proposed 18-month transition to democracy.
“The pattern of delay and obfuscation echoes the long-honed tactics of Idriss Deby who came to power by force in 1990 and then held on to it for three decades,” analysts at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies said.
Around 8 million Chadians are registered to vote in the referendum. Provisional results are expected to be announced on Dec. 24.
The military regime in Chad is one of several juntas in West and Central Africa, which has seen eight coups since 2020, sparking concerns of a democratic backslide in the region.
your ad hereResearchers Cite Western Progress in Curbing Electronics Transfers to Russian-Iranian Drone Facility
Washington — U.S. and Ukrainian researchers say Western nations are making progress in trying to curb illicit transfers of Western electronic components to a Russian facility suspected of making Iranian-designed attack drones, but that more needs to be done.
The White House released a U.S. intelligence finding June 8 asserting Russia was receiving Iranian materials needed to build an attack drone manufacturing plant in its Alabuga special economic zone.
Russia has said it relies on its own resources in using drones to attack Ukraine; Iran has acknowledged supplying drones to Russia but only before Moscow’s February 2022 Ukraine invasion. Neither Russia’s Washington embassy nor Iran’s U.N. mission in New York responded to questions about the Alabuga plant emailed by VOA Thursday.
The researchers pointed to the U.S. Commerce Department’s December 6 placement of 11 Russian companies on its list of entities requiring a license for items subject to export controls. Commerce officials cited the companies’ association with the suspected Alabuga drone facility. Commerce expanded the items subject to U.S. export controls in February to include semiconductors and other drone components used by Russian and Iranian entities on the Entity List.
David Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, one of the researchers interviewed by VOA in recent weeks, said he “commends” Commerce for sanctioning the 11 Russian companies and considers the move a sign of progress.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, a Ukrainian sanctions researcher serving as an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also welcomed the U.S. move.
“We are happy that the U.S. government is taking actions aimed at thwarting certain Russian facilities, including Alabuga, and thus making an impact on Russia’s military industry,” Vlasiuk told VOA in a Thursday phone call.
Vlasiuk and Albright said the Biden administration should go further, though.
The administration has not sanctioned JSC Alabuga, the plant’s owner, although several of its apparent subsidiaries were added to the Commerce list December 6.
Albright said the U.S. Treasury and State departments should sanction JSC Alabuga and associated companies to discourage foreign businesses from dealing with them, calling such designations “long overdue.”
Vlasiuk said Ukraine also would like to see the United States sanction JSC Alabuga and other companies that Kyiv has identified as engaged in Russia’s drone industry.
Asked by VOA for the U.S. position on sanctioning JSC Alabuga, Commerce said November 28 it “does not comment on potential deliberations related to Entity List actions.”
The statement added that “continuing to respond to Russia’s unjustified war against Ukraine remains a high priority for the department” and listed several U.S. actions taken to crack down on illicit networks for sending chips and other items to Russia.
The State Department referred VOA questions about Alabuga to Commerce, while the Treasury Department did not respond to a November 25 VOA email about Alabuga.
Albright also pointed to the interest of several European governments in using his institute’s research on the Alabuga plant to try to disrupt its access to electronic components made by companies headquartered in their territories. His research is based on documents apparently leaked from Alabuga to The Washington Post, which first reported their existence in August.
Albright’s institute has reported that the documents appear authentic and describe Alabuga supply-chain procurement, production capabilities, and plans for manufacturing Russian-branded copies of Iran’s Shahed 136 attack drone.
While more than half of the electronics on the assembly list for Alabuga’s Shahed 136 drones are made by U.S. companies, according to Albright’s review of the documents, some of the rest come from four Europe-based companies, his institute has said. Those include Switzerland-based TE Connectivity and u-blox, Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors, and STMicroelectronics, which is headquartered in Switzerland and has manufacturing plants in the Netherlands.
“Switzerland and the Netherlands certainly are interested in the information we have to offer,” Albright said.
Vlasiuk also credited the two European nations for working with Ukraine on the issue.
“We are in constant communication with the Dutch government on sanctions and they have been very helpful and proactive,” Vlasuk said. “As for the Swiss, it has been a little harder, but we also are in contact and they mostly are adopting the sanctions of the EU, which is good.”
In response to VOA questions about Alabuga and Albright’s research, the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry said it is a “priority” to prevent the circumvention of sanctions designed to make it as difficult as possible for Russia to continue waging war on Ukraine.
“To that end, we undertake many actions with international partners, both visible and invisible. The ministry cannot comment on contacts with individual companies or organizations,” it said.
The Swiss government provided no comment after VOA emailed its Washington embassy last month to request one.
Albright and Vlasiuk said Western electronics makers also must do more to stop their parts from ending up in Alabuga’s drones.
“In the electronics industry, companies send off millions of components to distributors who could care less about the end user,” Albright said. “So electronics manufacturers need to rapidly work with distributors on policies promoting due diligence. Manufacturers need to say we are just not going to make sales of these critical items unless we really know who the end user is.”
Vlasiuk said Ukraine is unhappy with finding Western parts in attack drones launched by Russia and with how the manufacturers explain the phenomenon. “They say, ‘we are not supplying anything officially to Russia,’ Of course they do not. So I think that they could have tightened their compliance and know-your-customer procedures,” Vlasiuk said.
In a Saturday statement sent to VOA, a spokesperson for Swiss company u-blox said the use of its products in embargoed countries’ weapons systems is a “clear breach” of conditions of sale for its customers and distributors. “We investigate any infringement of this policy very thoroughly and will take legal action in case of infringement,” the spokesperson said.
Asked about Alabuga, u-blox said it is in regular contact with government officials and several NGO representatives.
Regarding how u-blox parts were found in drones used by Russia, the spokesperson said there are several likely explanations, including that the components were purchased before sanctions were in place, that they were part of excess inventory sold by customers to brokers in countries not sanctioning Russia and then shipped into Russia, that they were smuggled into Russia, or that they were removed from products such e-scooters, e-bikes, cars and construction machines and put into Russian drones.
Dutch company NXP Semiconductors also sent VOA a statement on Friday, saying it is “committed” to complying with the law and “working diligently to ensure its products are not improperly diverted to embargoed countries including Russia, Iran and Belarus for use in weapons and other systems for which they were not designed or intended.”
“Our team is in ongoing contact with regulators around the world on this issue, working within an industry-wide effort to prevent illegal chip diversion,” the company added, referring to an initiative of the Semiconductor Industry Association, of which it is a member.
TE Connectivity and STMicroelectronics did not respond to VOA requests for comment emailed on Friday.
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Jungle Between Colombia and Panama Becomes a Highway for Migrants From Around The World
MEXICO CITY — Once nearly impenetrable for migrants heading north from Latin America, the jungle between Colombia and Panama this year became a speedy but still treacherous highway for hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.
Driven by economic crises, government repression and violence, migrants from China to Haiti decided to risk three days of deep mud, rushing rivers and bandits. Enterprising locals offered guides and porters, set up campsites and sold supplies to migrants, using color-coded wristbands to track who had paid for what.
Enabled by social media and Colombian organized crime, more than 506,000 migrants — nearly two-thirds Venezuelans — had crossed the Darien jungle by mid-December, double the 248,000 who set a record the previous year. Before last year, the record was barely 30,000 in 2016.
Dana Graber Ladek, the Mexico chief for the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration, said migration flows through the region this year were “historic numbers that we have never seen.”
It wasn’t only in Latin America.
The number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean or the Atlantic on small boats to reach Europe this year has surged. More than 250,000 irregular arrivals were registered in 2023, according to the European Commission.
A significant increase from recent years, the number remains well below levels seen in the 2015 refugee crisis, when more than 1 million people landed in Europe, most fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. Still, the rise has fed anti-migrant sentiment and laid the groundwork for tougher legislation.
Earlier this month, the British government announced tough new immigration rules aimed at reducing the number of people able to move to the U.K. each year by hundreds of thousands. Authorized immigration to the U.K. set a record in 2022 with nearly 750,000.
A week later, French opposition lawmakers rejected an immigration bill from President Emmanuel Macron without even debating it. It had been intended to make it easier for France to expel foreigners considered undesirable. Far-right politicians alleged the bill would have increased the number of migrants coming to the country, while migrant advocates said it threatened the rights of asylum-seekers.
In Washington, the debate has shifted from efforts early in the year to open new legal pathways largely toward measures to keep migrants out as Republicans try to take advantage of the Biden administration’s push for more aid to Ukraine to tighten the U.S. southern border.
The U.S. started the year opening limited spaces to Venezuelans — as well as Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians — in January to enter legally for two years with a sponsor, while expelling those who didn’t qualify to Mexico. Their numbers dropped somewhat for a time before climbing again with renewed vigor.
Venezuelan Alexander Mercado had only been back in his country for a month after losing his job in Peru before he and his partner decided to set off for the United States with their infant son.
Venezuela’s minimum wage was the equivalent of about $4 a month then, while 2.2 pounds (a kilogram) of beef was about $5, said Angelis Flores, his 28-year-old wife.
“Imagine how someone with a salary of $4 a month survives,” she said.
Mercado, 27, and Flores were already on their way when in September the U.S. announced it was granting temporary legal status to more than 470,000 Venezuelans already in the country. Weeks later, the Biden administration said it was resuming deportation flights to the South American nation.
Mercado and Flores hiked the well-trod trail through the jungle, managing to push through in three days. Flores and their son, in particular, got very sick. She believes they were infected by the contaminated water they drank along the way.
“There was a body in the middle of river and the ‘zamuros’, those black birds, were eating it and picking it apart … all of that was running in the river,” she said.
For Mercado and Flores, the journey accelerated once they left the jungle. In October, Panama and Costa Rica announced a deal to speed migrants across their countries. Panama bused migrants to a center in Costa Rica where they were held until they could buy a bus ticket to Nicaragua.
Nicaragua also seemed to opt for speeding migrants through its territory. Mercado said they crossed on buses in a day.
After discovering that Nicaragua had lax visa requirements, Cubans and Haitians poured into Nicaragua on charter flights, purchasing roundtrip tickets they never intended. Citizens of African nations made circuitous series of connecting flights through Africa, Europe and Latin America to arrive in Managua to start travelling overland toward the United States, avoiding the Darien.
In Honduras, Mercado and Flores were given a pass from authorities allowing them five days to transit the country.
Adam Isacson, an analyst tracking migration at the Washington Office on Latin America, said that Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras grant migrants legal status while they’re transiting the countries, which have limited resources, and by letting migrants pass legally the countries make them less vulnerable to extortion from authorities and smugglers.
Then there are Guatemala and Mexico, which Isacson called the “we’re-going-to-make-a-show-of-blocking-you countries” attempting to score points with the U.S. government.
For many that has meant spending money to hire smugglers to cross Guatemala and Mexico, or exposing themselves to repeated extortion attempts.
Mercado didn’t hire a smuggler and paid the price. It was “very difficult to get through Guatemala,” he said. “The police kept taking money.”
But that was just a taste of what was to come.
Standing outside a Mexico City shelter with their son on a recent afternoon, Flores recounted all of the countries they had traversed.
“But they don’t rob you as much, extort you as much, send you back like when you arrive here to Mexico,” she said. “Here the real nightmare starts, because as soon as you enter they start taking a lot of your money.”
Mexico’s immigration system was thrown into chaos on March 27, when migrants held in a detention center in the border city Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, set mattresses on fire inside their cell in apparent protest. The highly flammable foam mattresses filled the cell with thick smoke in an instant. Guards did not open the cell and 40 migrants died.
The immigration agency’s director was among several officials charged with crimes ranging from negligence to homicide. The agency closed 33 of its smaller detention centers while it conducted a review.
Unable to detain many migrants, Mexico instead circulated them around the country, using brief, repeat detentions, each an opportunity for extortion, said Gretchen Kuhner, director of IMUMI, a nongovernmental legal services organization. Advocates called it the “politica de desgaste” or wearing down policy.
Mercado and Flores made it all the way to Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, where they were detained, held for a night in an immigration facility in the border city of Reynosa and then flown the next morning 650 miles (1046 kilometers) south to Villahermosa.
There they were released, but without their cell phones, shoelaces and money. Mercado had to wait for his brother to send $100 so they could start trying to make their way back to Mexico City through an indirect route that required them to travel by truck, motorbike and even horse.
In late November, they had just made it back to Mexico City again. This time Mercado was unequivocal: They would not leave Mexico City until the U.S. government gave them an appointment to request asylum at a border port of entry.
“It is really hard to make it back here again,” he said. “If they manage to send me back again I don’t know what I would do.”
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In Pivotal Moment, Notre Dame Cathedral Spire Gets Golden Rooster Weathervane
Paris — Notre Dame Cathedral got its rooster back Saturday, in a pivotal moment for the Paris landmark’s restoration.
The installation by a crane of a new golden rooster, reimagined as a dramatic phoenix with licking, flamed feathers, goes beyond being just a weathervane atop the cathedral spire. It symbolizes resilience amid destruction after the devastating April 2019 fire — as restoration officials also revealed an anti-fire misting system is being kitted out under the cathedral’s roof.
Chief architect Philippe Villeneuve, who designed this new rooster, stated that the original rooster’s survival signified a ray of light in the catastrophe.
“That there was hope, that not everything was lost. The beauty of the [old] battered rooster … expressed the cry of the cathedral suffering in flames,” Villeneuve said. He described the new work of art, approximately half a meter long and gleaming in the December sun behind Notre Dame Cathedral, as his “phoenix.”
Villeneuve elaborated on the new rooster’s significance, saying: “Since [the fire] we have worked on this rooster [the] successor, which sees the flame carried to the top of the cathedral as it was before, more than 96 meters from the ground. … It is a fire of resurrection.”
In lighthearted comments, the architect said that the process of design was so intense he might have to speak to his “therapist” about it.
Before ascending to its perch, the rooster — a French emblem of vigilance and Christ’s resurrection — was blessed by Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich in a square behind the monument. The rooster — or “coq” in French — is an emotive national emblem for the French because of the word’s semantics — the Latin gallus meaning Gaul and gallus simultaneously meaning rooster.
Ulrich placed sacred relics in a hole inside the rooster’s breast, including fragments of Christ’s Crown of Thorns and remains of St. Denis and St. Genevieve, infusing the sculpture with religious importance.
The Crown of Thorns, regarded as Notre Dame’s most sacred relic, was among the treasures quickly removed after the fire broke out. Brought to Paris by King Louis IX in the 13th century, it is purported to have been pressed onto Christ’s head during the crucifixion. A sealed tube was also placed in the sculpture containing a list the names of nearly 2,000 individuals who contributed to the cathedral’s reconstruction, underscoring the collective effort behind the works.
Amid the rooster benediction ceremony, Notre Dame’s new restoration chief, Philippe Jost, also detailed pioneering measures taken to safeguard the iconic cathedral against future fires — in rare comments to the press.
“We have deployed a range of fire protection devices, some of which are very innovative in a cathedral, including a misting system in the attics, where the oak frame and in the spire are located,” Jost said. “And this is a first for a cathedral in France.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, who last week visited the site to mark a one-year countdown to its re-opening, announced that the original rooster will be displayed in a new museum at the Hôtel-Dieu. This move, along with plans to invite Pope Francis for the cathedral’s reopening next year, highlights Notre Dame’s significance in French history and culture.
The rooster’s installation, crowning a spire reconstructed from Eugène Viollet-le-Duc’s 19th-century design, is a poignant reminder of its medieval origins as a symbol of hope and faith.
Its longstanding association with the French nation since the Renaissance further adds to its historical and cultural significance, marking a new chapter of renewal and hope for Notre Dame and the French people.
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How the US Keeps Funding Ukraine’s Military — Even as It Says It’s Out of Money
WASHINGTON — The White House has been increasingly pressuring Congress to pass stalled legislation to support Ukraine’s war against Russia, saying that funding has run out.
On Tuesday, however, President Joe Biden touted a new military aid package worth $200 million for Ukraine.
Money is dwindling. But the announcement of more weapons being sent to Kyiv just underscores the complexity of the funding. So has the money run out? Or are there still a few billion dollars floating around?
It’s complicated.
Store credit …
In a Nov. 4 letter to Congress, White House budget director Shalanda Young said flatly: “We are out of money to support Ukraine in this fight. This isn’t a next year problem. The time to help a democratic Ukraine fight against Russian aggression is right now.”
Since then, the U.S. has announced three more aid packages totaling $475 million. That may seem contradictory, but it’s due to the complex programs used to send aid to Ukraine.
There are two pots of money for weapons and security assistance set up specifically for the war. One is the Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, under which the U.S. provides weapons already in its stockpile. The other is the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds long-term weapons contracts.
Money for USAI has all been spent. That pot is empty.
And money for the PDA also appeared to be gone. But then the Pentagon determined that it had overstated the value of the weapons it had already sent Ukraine, overcharging the Ukraine weapons account by $6.2 billion. That effectively left Ukraine with a store credit that is slowly being whittled down. It now stands at around $4.4 billion.
PDA packages continued to be announced every few weeks. But in recognition of the dwindling money, the latest packages have been smaller — about $200 million or less, compared with previous ones that often totaled $400 million to $500 million.
… but empty shelves
In theory, the Pentagon would have enough equipment to offer these smaller packages for months. But there’s a caveat: While the credit exists, there may not be enough stock on the Pentagon shelves. So some weapons may be unavailable.
Congressional funding to buy weapons to replace the ones the U.S. sends to Ukraine is now down to about $1 billion. That dwindling money means the military services are worried they won’t be able to buy all the weapons they need to ensure the U.S. military is ready to defend the American homeland.
For example, the 155 mm rounds commonly used by Howitzers are one of the most requested artillery munitions by Kyiv. The demand has been so high that the Army has pressed the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Pennsylvania, where the shell casings for the rounds are made, to increase production in order to meet war demands and have enough on hand for American military needs.
On Thursday, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters the U.S. could provide the full $4.4 billion in weapons, but with only a quarter of that amount available for replenishment, it’s a tough choice. “We have to start to make decisions about our own readiness,” he said.
Political wrangling
The U.S. has already sent Ukraine $111 billion in weapons, equipment, humanitarian assistance and other aid since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion more than 21 months ago. But the latest package is stalled.
Support for Ukraine funding has been waning as some lawmakers see the war taking funding from domestic needs. But the broader problem is a political battle over the southern U.S. border.
President Joe Biden is urging Congress to pass a $110 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs. It includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, with about half to replenish Pentagon stocks. It also includes about $14 billion for Israel as it fights Hamas and $14 billion for U.S. border security. Other funds would go for security needs in the Asia-Pacific.
Prospects for compromise remain in doubt, even as Zelenskyy warned in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington on Monday that, “If there’s anyone inspired by unresolved issues on Capitol Hill, it’s just Putin and his sick clique.”
The jobs argument
Harkening back to the “all politics is local” idea, the Pentagon and the White House have rolled out maps and statistics to show members of Congress how their own districts and states are reaping benefits from the Ukraine funding.
Charts detail $10 billion in industry contracts for weapons ranging from air defense systems and missiles to a wide array of drones, ammunition and other equipment. And they break out an additional nearly $16.8 billion in contracts to replenish Pentagon stocks.
The maps show contracts benefitting industries and companies in more than 35 different states. And U.S. officials are hoping the local jobs argument will help build support for the funding.
How big is the need?
Winter has set in, so the fighting in Ukraine has leveled off a bit. And along stretches of the battlefront, fighting is somewhat stalemated.
But Ukrainian forces have been taking ground back in some key locations, and Zelenskyy and other leaders have said they want to keep pushing forward. Ukraine does not want to give the Russians weeks or months this winter to reset and further solidify their fighting positions — as they did last winter.
During his visit to Washington this week, Zelenskyy said his forces are making progress, and the White House pointed to newly declassified intelligence that shows Ukraine has inflicted heavy losses on Russia in recent fighting around the eastern city of Avdiivka — including 13,000 casualties and over 220 combat vehicles lost. The Ukrainian holdout in the country’s partly occupied east has been the center of some of the fiercest fighting in recent weeks.
Putin on Thursday, however, said his troops are making gains.
“Almost all along the line of contact our armed forces, let’s put it modestly, are improving their positions, almost all are in an active stage of action and there is an improvement in the position of our troops all along,” he said.
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More Than 60 Drown When Migrant Vessel Capsizes Near Libya, UN Says
CAIRO — A boat carrying dozens of migrants trying to reach Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving more than 60 people dead, including women and children, the U.N. migration agency said.
Saturday’s shipwreck was the latest tragedy in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, a key but dangerous route for migrants seeking a better life in Europe. Thousands have died, according to officials.
The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said in a statement the boat was carrying 86 migrants when strong waves swamped it off the town of Zuwara on Libya’s western coast and that 61 migrants drowned, according to survivors.
“The central Mediterranean continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes,” the agency wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, even though the North African nation has plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
More than 2,250 people died on the central European route this year, according to Flavio Di Giacomo, an IOM spokesperson.
It’s “a dramatic figure which demonstrates that unfortunately not enough is being done to save lives at sea,” Di Giacomo wrote on X.
According to the IOM’s missing migrants project, at least 940 migrants were reported dead and 1,248 missing off Libya between January 1 and November 18.
The project, which tracks migration movements, said about 14,900 migrants, including over 1,000 women and more than 530 children, were intercepted and returned to Libya this year.
In 2022, the project reported 529 dead and 848 missing off Libya. More than 24,600 were intercepted and returned to Libya.
Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the chaos in Libya, smuggling in migrants across the country’s lengthy borders, which it shares with six nations. The migrants are crowded onto ill-equipped vessels, including rubber boats, and set off on risky sea voyages.
Those who are intercepted and returned to Libya are held in government-run detention centers rife with abuses, including forced labor, beatings, rapes and torture — practices that amount to crimes against humanity, according to U.N.-commissioned investigators.
The abuse often accompanies attempts to extort money from the families of those held, before the imprisoned migrants are allowed to leave Libya on traffickers’ boats to Europe.
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Confederate Memorial to be Removed From Arlington National Cemetery
arlington, virginia — A Confederate memorial is to be removed from Arlington National Cemetery in the U.S. state of Virginia in the coming days, part of the push to remove symbols that commemorate the Confederacy from military-related facilities, a cemetery official said Saturday.
The decision ignores a recent demand from more than 40 Republican congressmen that the Pentagon suspend efforts to dismantle and remove the monument from Arlington cemetery.
Safety fencing has been installed around the memorial, and officials anticipate completing the removal by December 22, the Arlington National Cemetery said in an email. During the removal, the surrounding landscape, graves and headstones will be protected, the Arlington National Cemetery said.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin disagrees with the decision and plans to move the monument to the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in the Shenandoah Valley, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said.
In 2022, an independent commission recommended that the memorial be taken down, as part of its final report to Congress on renaming of military bases and assets that commemorate the Confederacy.
The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. According to Arlington, the woman holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, with a Biblical inscription at her feet that says: “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.”
Some of the figures also on the statue include a Black woman depicted as “Mammy” holding what is said to be the child of a white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner to war.
In a recent letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, more than 40 House Republicans said the commission overstepped its authority when it recommended that the monument be removed. The congressmen contended that the monument “does not honor nor commemorate the Confederacy; the memorial commemorates reconciliation and national unity.”
“The Department of Defense must respect Congress’ clear legislative intentions regarding the Naming Commission’s legislative authority” the letter said.
U.S. Representative Andrew Clyde, a Georgia Republican, has led the push to block the memorial’s removal. Clyde’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.
A process to prepare for the memorial’s removal and relocation has been completed, the cemetery said. The memorial’s bronze elements will be relocated, while the granite base and foundation will remain in place to avoid disturbing surrounding graves, it said.
Earlier this year, Fort Bragg shed its Confederate namesake to become Fort Liberty, part of the broad Department of Defense initiative, motivated by the 2020 George Floyd protests, to rename military installations that had been named after confederate soldiers.
The North Carolina base was originally named in 1918 for General Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general from Warrenton, North Carolina, who was known for owning slaves and losing key Civil War battles that contributed to the Confederacy’s downfall.
The Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted nationwide after Floyd’s killing by a white police officer, coupled with ongoing efforts to remove Confederate monuments, turned the spotlight on the Army installations. The naming commission created by Congress visited the bases and met with members of the surrounding communities for input.
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Portugal’s Socialists Pick Young New Leader for March Election
LISBON, Portugal — Portugal’s Socialist Party (PS) on Saturday elected Pedro Nuno Santos to lead them in a March 10 snap parliamentary election, following Antonio Costa’s resignation as prime minister and party leader last month amid a corruption investigation.
The 46-year-old former infrastructure minister beat acting Interior Minister Jose Luis Carneiro, who was seen as a more moderate candidate, with 62% of the vote to become the PS secretary-general.Nuno Santos, who has described himself as “a cobbler’s grandson, son of a businessman,” is from the left wing of the center-left party and is known for successfully coordinating support in parliament for a previous government with the far-left in 2015-19.
Costa, in power since 2015, resigned on November 7 over an investigation into alleged illegalities in his government’s handling of green energy projects. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has called a snap election for March 10.
Nuno Santos had himself resigned in late 2022 in a scandal around a large severance payout by state-owned airline TAP, which he oversaw as infrastructure minister. Although the scandal dented his popularity, analysts have long seen him as Costa’s successor.
Nuno Santos eulogized Costa in his victory speech, praising the strong economic growth of the past few years, financial stability and a significant reduction of public debt.
“We want to build Portugal where nobody is excluded or forgotten,” he said as he advocated a strong welfare state, adding though: “We do not want the state to replace companies, we want companies as partners.”
His main rival in the upcoming general election is Luis Montenegro, 50, of the center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD), who has promised tax cuts in a bid to secure a majority and said he expected the implosion of the majority Socialist administration to play into his hands.
Most opinion polls put the PS neck and neck with the PSD, and many analysts fear a post-election quagmire and a potential strengthening of the role of the populist, anti-establishment party Chega.
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Violence Mars Congo Election Campaign, Two Candidates Killed
Beni, Congo — Two candidates running for parliament in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s December 20 general election were killed in separate incidents Friday, as a rights group warned in a report Saturday that electoral violence risks undermining the vote.
A candidate for the ruling coalition in the South Kivu province in the eastern Congo region was killed by unknown gunmen while he was returning from a campaign event Friday evening, a regional government official told Reuters.
Another ruling coalition candidate in Beni, in the North Kivu province, also in eastern Congo, died from gunshot wounds late Friday night after his campaign convoy was ambushed, Jeremie Muhindo, director of the Beni hospital, told Reuters.
Congo will vote in a general election next week. Alongside the violence, opposition parties and independent observers have warned that issues including illegible voter cards, blocked campaign plans and electoral list delays threaten the legitimacy of the results.
Election-related violence risks undermining the election, said Human Rights Watch in a report on Saturday.
“Since early October, Human Rights Watch has documented clashes across the country between supporters of rival political parties that have resulted in assaults, sexual violence and at least one death,” the report said.
It added that the violence was coming from both supporters of the ruling coalition as well as supporters of opposition parties, and said incidents continue to be reported.
An evangelical church, the Church of Christ in Congo, said in a statement Friday its temple in the capital Kinshasa was vandalized during violent clashes between supporters of an opposition politician and those of the ruling coalition.
In a separate incident unrelated to the election, at least 11 civilians — including six women — were decapitated in an attack on a village in Ituri province Friday, a deputy mayor said. The attack has been blamed on militants linked to the Islamic State-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces, which operates in the eastern Congo region.
“There was a funeral in the village. The assailants surprised the victims while they were gathered. Eleven people were killed, others had managed to escape,” Katembo Salamu, deputy mayor of Mangina municipality in Ituri, told Reuters.
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Thousands Flee as Battle for Sudan’s Wad Madani Opens New Front
DUBAI, UAE — Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces battled the army outside the central city of Wad Madani on Saturday, pressing an attack that has opened a new front in the 8-month-old war and forced thousands to flee, witnesses said.
Crowds of people — many of whom had taken refuge in the city from violence in the capital Khartoum — could be seen packing up their belongings and leaving on foot in video posted on social media.
“The war has followed us to Madani so I am looking for a bus so me and my family can flee,” 45-year-old Ahmed Salih told Reuters by phone.
“We are living in hell and there is no one to help us.” He said he planned to head south to Sennar.
Sudan’s army, which has held the city since the start of the conflict, launched airstrikes on RSF forces to the east of the city, the capital of Gezira state, as it tried to push back the assault that started Friday, witnesses said.
The RSF responded with artillery and RSF reinforcements were seen moving in the direction of the fighting, the witnesses added.
RSF soldiers have also been seen in villages to the north and west of the city in recent days and weeks, residents said.
The United Nations said 14,000 people had fled the area so far, and a few thousand had already reached other cities. Half a million people had sought refuge in Gezira, mainly from Khartoum.
The Sudanese Doctors Union warned in a statement that hospitals in the area, which had become a humanitarian and medical hub, were emptying out and could be forced to shut.
It also said that more than 340 children and staff relocated from the Maygoma orphanage in Khartoum needed urgent help relocating again.
The fighting has raised fears for other army-held cities in southern and eastern Sudan where tens of thousands of people have been sheltering.
“I urge the RSF to refrain from attacks and for all parties to protect civilians at all costs. Perpetrators of terror will be held accountable,” the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said.
The army and RSF last week cast doubt on an East African mediation initiative aimed at ending a war that has triggered the largest internal displacement in the world and warnings of famine-like conditions.
In Khartoum and cities in Darfur that the RSF has already taken, residents have reported rapes, looting and arbitrary killing and detention. The group is also accused of ethnic killings in West Darfur.
The RSF has denied those accusations and said anyone in its forces found to be involved in such crimes would be held accountable.
On another front, activists reported fresh clashes after weeks of relative calm around the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
RSF forces surrounding that city had earlier stopped their advance there after other armed groups said they would get involved.
Residents also reported heavy strikes by the army in Nyala, South Darfur, and in Bahri, one of the cities that make up the wider national capital with Khartoum.
While the army has not made a statement on the fighting in Wad Madani, Sudan’s foreign ministry branded the RSF as terrorists for a “declared attack on a number of safe villages and neighborhoods [in the] east of Gezira state which are devoid of military targets.”
The war between the RSF and the Sudanese army broke out in April after disputes over a transition to democracy and integration of the two forces.
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Moldovan President Hails Adoption of Defense Strategy, Cites Russia as Threat
chisinau, moldova — Moldovan President Maia Sandu hailed the adoption by parliament Saturday of a new defense strategy — calling for anchoring Moldova alongside its Western allies — and identifying Russia as a threat to the former Soviet state.
Sandu posted on Facebook two days after the European Union agreed to open talks on extending its membership with both Moldova and neighboring Ukraine — more than 21 months into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sandu has denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accused Moscow of plotting a coup to oust her. She said the new security strategy outlined the “main threats” facing Moldova and how to “effectively counter” them. “There are two principal threats to our national security — the aggressive policy of the Russian Federation against our country as a whole and deep-rooted corruption in Moldova,” she wrote.
Members of Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity hold a majority in Moldova’s parliament, which on Friday adopted the strategy focusing on closer ties with the EU, Romania, the United States and NATO.
But Moldova is to retain the “neutral” status set down in its constitution and, unlike Ukraine, is not seeking NATO membership.
The document said the new strategy was “vital in the current geopolitical context to limit the risks facing Moldova.”
“It is clear that the Russian Federation in the near future will not abandon its hostile actions against Moldova,” the document read. “We must therefore learn to live in conditions of a protracted, high-intensity hybrid war.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova denounced the document as “Russophobic,” saying Moscow had always respected Moldova’s interests.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov derided the EU’s decision to launch membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova, saying neither country met the bloc’s criteria for membership.
The Moldovan Foreign Ministry’s press secretary, Igor Zaharov, said Peskov’s comments were a clear indication that Moldova was drawing clear of Moscow’s sphere of influence.
“We are decisively moving along the European path,” Zaharov told Radio Moldova. “This naturally makes the Russian political class unhappy or even indignant, but we have chosen this path and ask outside forces to stay out of our internal decisions.”
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US Destroyer Downs 14 Drones in Red Sea Launched From Yemen
washington — An American destroyer shot down more than a dozen drones Saturday in the Red Sea launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
“The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS CARNEY… operating in the Red Sea, successfully engaged 14 unmanned aerial systems launched as a drone wave from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” CENTCOM said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The aerial vehicles were “assessed to be one-way attack drones and were shot down with no damage to ships in the area or reported injuries,” according to the statement.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched a series of drone and missile strikes targeting Israel since Hamas militants poured over the border into Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures. Around 240 people were kidnapped in the attacks.
Vowing to destroy Hamas and bring back the hostages, Israel launched a massive military offensive that the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry says has killed more than 18,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from the Hamas government in Gaza.
The Houthi rebels have threatened to attack any vessels heading to Israeli ports unless food and medicine are allowed into the besieged Gaza Strip.
The latest attacks mark a significant escalation in the threat to shipping in the area.
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Congo Recalls Envoys to Kenya and Tanzania Over Alliance Launch in Nairobi
kinshasa, congo — Democratic Republic of Congo recalled its ambassadors from Kenya and Tanzania for consultations on Saturday, after a new Congolese military alliance that includes rebels was launched in the Kenyan capital.
Alain Tshibanda, spokesperson for Congo’s foreign ministry, made the announcement on the X social media platform, formerly called Twitter.
The envoy to Tanzania was recalled because Tanzania hosts the headquarters of the East African Community, which Congo also belongs to.
Earlier on Saturday, the Kenyan embassy’s head of mission had been summoned to the foreign ministry in Kinshasa. The Kenyan government could not immediately be reached for comment.
On Friday, Congolese politicians and groups including the M23 rebels, who have seized territory in eastern Congo, and Corneille Nangaa, a former Congo election commission chief, launched the Congo River Alliance in Nairobi.
Speaking at the launch, Nangaa, who was sanctioned by the U.S. for corruption and obstructing the 2018 election, said the alliance would bring together various Congolese armed groups, militias, social and political organizations.
“I am looking for a lasting solution; all communities must live together in Congo,” Nangaa told Reuters on Saturday.
Congo is due to hold presidential and legislative elections on December 20.
The new alliance is an additional concern in a region where insecurity has persisted for decades, fueled by ethnic rivalries and a tussle over land and resources with regional implications.
Bintou Keita, head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo, said in a post on social media platform X that she was “extremely concerned by the creation of a new political-military platform.”
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Cambodia Welcomes Museum’s Plan to Return Looted Antiquities
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA — Cambodia has welcomed the announcement that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will return more than a dozen pieces of ancient artwork to Cambodia and Thailand that were tied to an art dealer and collector accused of running a huge antiquity trafficking network out of Southeast Asia.
This most recent repatriation of artwork comes as many museums in the United States and Europe reckon with collections that contain objects looted from Asia, Africa and other places during centuries of colonialism or in times of upheaval.
Fourteen Khmer sculptures will be returned to Cambodia and two will be returned to Thailand, the Manhattan museum announced Friday, although no specific timeline was given.
“We appreciate this first step in the right direction,” said a statement issued by Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. “We look forward to further returns and acknowledgements of the truth regarding our lost national treasures, taken from Cambodia in the time of war and genocide.”
Cambodia suffered from war and the brutal rule of the communist Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and 1980s, causing disorder that opened the opportunity for its archaeological treasures to be looted.
The repatriation of the ancient pieces was linked to well-known art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was indicted in 2019 for allegedly orchestrating a multiyear scheme to sell looted Cambodian antiquities on the international art market. Latchford, who died the following year, had denied any involvement in smuggling.
The museum initially cooperated with the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan and the New York office of Homeland Security Investigations on the return of 13 sculptures tied to Latchford before determining there were three more that should be repatriated.
“As demonstrated with today’s announcement, pieces linked to the investigation of Douglas Latchford continue to reveal themselves,” HSI Acting Special Agent in Charge Erin Keegan said in a statement Friday. “The Metropolitan Museum of Art has not only recognized the significance of these 13 Khmer artifacts, which were shamelessly stolen, but has also volunteered to return them, as part of their ongoing cooperation, to their rightful owners: the People of Cambodia.”
This isn’t the first time the museum has repatriated art linked to Latchford. In 2013, it returned two objects to Cambodia.
The Latchford family also had a load of centuries-old Cambodian jewelry in their possession that they later returned to Cambodia. In February, 77 pieces of jewelry made of gold and other precious metal pieces — including items such as crowns, necklaces and earrings — were returned. Other stone and bronze artifacts were returned in September 2021.
Pieces being returned include a bronze sculpture called the “Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Seated in Royal Ease,” made sometime between the late 10th century and early 11th century. Another piece of art, made of stone in the seventh century and named “Head of Buddha,” will also be returned. Those pieces are part of 10 that can still be viewed in the museum’s galleries while arrangements are made for their return.
“These returns contribute to the reconciliation and healing of the Cambodian people who went through decades of civil war and suffered tremendously from the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge genocide, and to a greater strengthening of our relationship with the United States,” Cambodia’s Minister of Culture and Fine Arts, Phoeurng Sackona, said in her agency’s statement.
Research efforts were already underway by the museum to examine the ownership history of its objects, focusing on how ancient art and cultural property changed hands, as well as the provenance of Nazi-looted artwork.
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Cardinal Sentenced to 5½ Years in Vatican Fraud Trial
VATICAN CITY — A Vatican court Saturday sentenced a once powerful Italian cardinal to five years and six months in jail for financial crimes at the end of a historic trial.
Angelo Becciu, 75, a former adviser to Pope Francis who was once considered a papal contender himself, was the most senior clergyman in the Catholic Church to face a Vatican criminal court.
He and nine other defendants, including financiers, lawyers and ex-Vatican employees, were on trial for accusations of financial crimes focused on an opaque London property deal.
Court President Giuseppe Pignatone read out the verdict Saturday, with Becciu accused of embezzlement, abuse of office and witness tampering.
His lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said they respected the sentence but would “certainly” appeal. He was also handed a fine of 8,000 euros ($8,727).
At the heart of the trial is the 350 million euro ($380 million) purchase of a luxury property in London, as part of an investment that began in 2014 and ended up costing the Vatican tens of millions of euros.
A test of Francis’ reforms
The trial, which began in July 2021, has shone a light on the Holy See’s murky finances, which Francis has sought to clean up since taking the helm of the Catholic Church in March 2013.
It is also a test of his reforms.
Just weeks before the trial, Francis gave the Vatican’s civilian courts the power to try cardinals and bishops, where previously they were judged by a court presided over by cardinals.
Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi had requested seven years and three months in jail for Becciu and between almost four and 13 years for the others.
Becciu had always strongly protested his innocence, denouncing the accusations against him as “totally unfounded” and insisting he never took a cent.
For its part, the Holy See viewed itself as “an offended party” and has asked through Secretary of State Pietro Parolin for the court to “punish all crimes.”
Four Vatican entities are civil parties. They had requested compensation from the defendants, including 177 million euros ($193 Million) for moral and reputational damage.
Since the trial opened, there have been more than 80 hearings in the dedicated room within the Vatican Museums, where a portrait of a smiling Pope Francis hangs on the wall.
The process had been mired by procedural wrangling, with defense lawyers complaining about a lack of access to key evidence.
Once high ranking
Becciu, a globe-trotting former Vatican diplomat, has been a near constant presence in the courtroom.
He was number two in the Secretariat of State, the Vatican department that works most closely with the pope, from 2011 to 2018.
He was moved to lead the department that deals with the creation of saints, before abruptly resigning in September 2020, after being informed of an investigation against him.
Initially, he told the trial, this was about a probe into 125,000 euros of Vatican money he donated to a charity in his native Sardinia, which prosecutors claim benefited his brother, who ran the organization.
But he was later drawn into investigations into the purchase and sale of the property on London’s Sloane Avenue — resulting in losses that, according to the Vatican, dipped into resources intended for charitable causes.
When the trial opened, prosecutors painted a picture of risky investments with little or no oversight and double-dealing by outside consultants and insiders.
Among the defendants are two brokers involved in the London deal, Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione, as well as Enrico Crasso, a former Vatican investment manager, and former Vatican employee Fabrizio Tirabassi.
Becciu is also accused over payments made to a Sardinian woman, Cecilia Marogna — who is also on trial — which he claims were to help negotiate the release of a Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali.
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