Month: January 2024

Trump Back in Court for Second Defamation Trial After Iowa Victory

Posted on by SeeUS

NEW YORK — Fresh off a campaign victory in Iowa, Donald Trump sat in a New York courtroom on Tuesday to defend himself for a second time against charges that he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of raping her decades ago.

Trump watched from the defendant’s table as Carroll’s lawyer told a jury that the then-U.S. president made her life miserable when she went public in 2019 with her story that he had attacked her in a department store dressing room in Manhattan.

“He used the world’s biggest microphone to attack Ms. Carroll, to humiliate her, and to destroy her reputation,” lawyer Shawn Crowley said.

Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10 million in damages in a civil case that will put the allegations of sexual assault back in the headlines while Trump pursues the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Jurors will only consider how much Trump should pay Carroll in damages, not whether the alleged assault took place or whether Trump lied about it afterward.

Crowley said Trump’s “horrible” lies unleashed a torrent of abuse from his followers and wrecked her sense of safety.

“As he’s campaigning for president of the United States, Donald Trump continues to lie about Ms. Carroll,” Crowley said.

Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba countered that Carroll was “basking in the limelight” in the years since she released her memoir and accused Trump of rape.

“She is looking for you to give her a windfall because some people on social media said mean things about her,” Habba said.

Trump, 77, has said he wants to testify.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has barred him from arguing that he did not defame or sexually assault Carroll or that she made up her account.

Nevertheless, Trump accused Carroll on social media of lying as court proceedings got underway on Tuesday morning.

Shortly after the court adjourned for the day, Trump accused Kaplan of being politically biased against him, echoing complaints he has made against judges overseeing his other cases.

Trump could spend much of this year shuttling between campaign rallies and courtrooms, as he seeks to win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

He won the first state contest in Iowa on Monday by a wide margin, and opinion polls show him leading in the next contest in New Hampshire a week from Tuesday.

“I should be in New Hampshire, campaigning and fighting for our Country, and I will be later today, but for now I had to spend time in a Federal Courthouse with a Trump Hating, Radical Left Judge,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform after the court adjourned for the day.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in four criminal cases that could potentially land him in prison before the November presidential election, including two that accuse him of trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. He also is a defendant in at least two other civil cases.

Kaplan said he expects the trial to last three to five days.

Second trial

Trump’s high profile was apparent as prospective jurors were screened for the case. Many acknowledged they were familiar with Trump’s various legal troubles, though none said they knew the details of the first defamation trial.

One said she used to work for his daughter Ivanka. She was not chosen for the jury.

Jurors’ identities are being kept confidential.

Trump has already lost one defamation case against Carroll.

A jury last May ordered Trump to pay the former Elle magazine columnist $5 million for having sexually abused her during the encounter and defaming her in 2022 by denying that it happened. Trump skipped that trial.

Trump is appealing the $5 million award and could appeal any award at the second trial. Appeals could take years.

In both cases, Trump has said he did not know Carroll and that she invented their encounter to sell her memoir.

Kaplan has barred Trump from suggesting he did not rape Carroll, as New York’s penal law defines the term, because the first jury did not find that Trump committed rape. Kaplan has ruled that Carroll’s rape claim was “substantially true.”

Trump also cannot discuss DNA evidence or Carroll’s sexual activities or suggest that Democrats are bankrolling her case.

As at the first trial, jurors will be able to see the 2005 “Access Hollywood” video where Trump graphically described the ability of famous people like himself to have sexual relations with beautiful women.

Kaplan has said the video could offer “useful insight into Mr. Trump’s state of mind” toward Carroll.

On social media, Trump accused Kaplan of being “biased,” echoing attacks he has made on judges overseeing some of his other cases.
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White House ‘Troubled’ by Deal Between Ethiopia and Breakaway Somaliland Region

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washington — The White House sees national security concerns in a recent agreement giving Ethiopia leasing rights to the Red Sea coastline in Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland region, administration officials said Tuesday. But experts questioned Washington’s commitment and ability to quell tensions in the volatile region. 

The two parties inked the deal on January 1. At the time, Ethiopian government spokesman Redwan Hussien said the deal also “paves the way for accessing a leased military base on [the] Red Sea.” 

John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, told VOA that Washington was working with partners in the region — including the African Union and the eight-member Intergovernmental Authority on Development trade bloc — to push against the nonbinding memorandum of understanding, which Somalia’s government, headquartered in Mogadishu, sees as illegitimate. 

“We’re certainly troubled,” Kirby said, adding: “As we’ve said many, many times, we support Somalia’s sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and it’s got to be respected.” 

Situation could embolden militants, says official

Somaliland, the fragile nation’s breakaway province, has long claimed autonomy and governs from the city of Hargeisa. It has sought recognition since 1991, but the African Union’s official policy opposes changes to colonially drawn borders.  

The situation poses a national security concern, Kirby said, in that it could embolden Islamist al-Shabab militants that have long been the main antagonist in Somalia’s brutal civil war. 

“What we’re particularly concerned about is this [Memorandum of Understanding] inked recently between Ethiopia and Somaliland threatens to disrupt the fight that Somalis, Africans and regional international partners, including us, are waging against Al-Shabab,” he said. “Al-Shabab remains a viable terrorist threat in the region, without question. We don’t believe that the region can afford any more conflict.” 

“It’s a dangerous path,” Somalia’s former foreign minister and former ambassador to the U.S., Ahmed Isse Awad, told VOA. “The sister nations have gone to war twice in the last 50 years. 

“We thought we recovered from that conflict and bad history,” he added, speaking to VOA from the northeastern city of Garowe. “And as of late, we were working towards a great Horn of Africa cooperation and openness to each other. But now, this misguided step by Ethiopia endangers all of that and takes us back to the days of conflict and violent confrontation. It risks the whole region and the security of the region.” 

And, he said, while the U.S., “had a respected voice in the international arena,” its staunch support of Israel has changed that. 

“They don’t have the same leverage, I feel, because of the way America is conducting its foreign policy,” he said. “It’s losing some of its moral voice.” 

Ethiopia seeks to be naval power

Analysts say it’s logical that landlocked Ethiopia would seek sea access to serve the needs of its rapidly growing population. 

“The Bab al-Mandab Strait is becoming an increasingly contested chokepoint,” said Michael Walsh, a senior fellow in the Africa program at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute. Addis Ababa, he said, clearly wants to safeguard Ethiopia’s supply chains by avoiding reliance on ports in the tiny coastal nation of Djibouti, which is affected by conflict in Yemen. 

And, he said, “the Abiy Ahmed administration has a desire to reestablish Ethiopia as a naval power. It recognizes that there is a regional naval power vacuum. This would provide a way to not only quickly project near-shore military power and influence across the region. It would provide a long-term pathway to becoming a regional naval hegemon.”  

Cameron Hudson, who researches Africa at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that may be more than Ethiopia can handle.  

“[Ethiopia] doesn’t have, I think, a full understanding of the degree that it will also be responsible for its own security and the general security, contributing to the general security, of the Red Sea,” he said. “So, it comes with a great responsibility that I’m not quite sure Ethiopia has fully thought through or appreciates.”  

He also questioned whether Washington’s actions show it “isn’t something that Washington has taken particularly seriously.” 

“Washington has done virtually nothing to try to put the pieces back together in the Horn of Africa,” said Hudson. 

“In my mind, Washington views the stakes in the Horn of Africa probably as too low and as not rising to the level of national security interest, where we would take meaningful high-level external action to avoid a worst-case scenario,” he said. “I think the quintessential example of this is we actually have a special envoy for the Horn of Africa, who has not been to the region in over a month.” 
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US to Relist Yemen’s Houthis as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, AP Sources Say

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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is expected to soon announce plans to redesignate Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen as specially designated global terrorists, according to two people familiar with the White House decision and a U.S. official.

The move comes as the Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The group says it has attacked the ships in response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The three people familiar with the decision were not authorized to comment and requested anonymity to discuss the matter ahead of the expected formal announcement.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken delisted the Houthis as both a foreign terrorist organization and as specially designated global terrorists in February 2021 as the administration sought to make it easier to get food imports and humanitarian aid into Yemen.

In its waning days, the Trump administration designated the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization over the strong objections of human rights and humanitarian aid groups.

The foreign terrorist designation barred Americans and people and organizations subject to U.S. jurisdiction from providing “material support” to the Houthis, which the groups said would result in an even greater humanitarian catastrophe than what was already happening in Yemen.

Shortly after the Biden administration took office, Blinken removed the designations in a step that was roundly criticized by conservative lawmakers and others but was intended to keep much-needed food, medicine and other aid flowing to Yemen.

Yemen, on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula bordering the Red Sea, is the poorest country in the Arab world. War and chronic misgovernment have left 24 million Yemenis at risk of hunger and disease as of 2023, and roughly 14 million in acute need of assistance, the United Nations says. About two-thirds of Yemenis live in territory controlled by the Houthis.

While supporters of broad sanctions argue it’s possible to shape any enforcement mechanisms to exempt food and humanitarian aid, aid organizations worry that fears of running afoul of U.S. regulation could scare away shippers, banks and other players vital to Yemen’s commercial food supply. Arid Yemen imports 90% of its food.

“This designation would add another level of uncertainty and threat for Yemenis still caught in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises,” said Scott Paul, an associate director of Oxfam America. “The Biden administration is playing with fire, and we call on them to avoid this designation immediately and prioritize the lives of Yemenis now.”

The specially designated global terrorists label to be reimposed on the Houthis does not include sanctions for providing “material support,” and it does not come with travel bans that are also imposed with the foreign terrorist organization label, steps intended to help prevent the U.S. move from harming ordinary Yemenis.

Meanwhile, a senior White House official said Tuesday that addressing the ongoing threat by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial vessels in the Red Sea is an “all hands on deck” problem that the U.S. and allies must address together to minimize impact on the global economy.

“How long this goes on and how bad it gets comes down not just to the decisions of the countries in the coalition that took strikes last week,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during an appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The Iran-backed Houthi group has launched dozens of attacks since November on vessels in the Red Sea, a vital corridor for the world’s shipping traffic, in what they say is an effort to support Palestinians in the war with Israel. U.S. and British forces have responded by carrying out dozens of air and sea strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen since Friday. The attacks by the Houthis have continued.

Linda Thomas Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said last week that 2,000 ships since November have been forced to divert thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea. Houthi militants have threatened or taken hostage mariners from more than 20 countries.

The Red Sea attacks have already caused significant disruptions to global trade. Oil prices have edged higher in recent days, though Brent crude futures were down slightly in early trading Tuesday.

The U.S. launched a new strike against the Houthis on Tuesday, hitting anti-ship missiles in the third assault on the Iranian-backed group in recent days. The strike came as the Iranian-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for a missile attack against the Malta-flagged bulk carrier Zografia in the Red Sea. No one was injured.

Sullivan said it was critical that countries with influence on Tehran and other Middle East capitals make it clear “that the entire world rejects wholesale the idea that a group like the Houthis can basically hijack the world.”

President Joe Biden’s senior adviser acknowledged that the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea as well as groups allied with Iran carrying out attacks in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen pose concerns that the Israel-Hamas war could escalate even as Israeli officials have indicated a shift in intensity in their military campaign.

“We have to guard against and be vigilant against the possibility that in fact, rather than heading towards de-escalation, we are on a path of escalation that we have to manage,” Sullivan said.

The comments from Sullivan came after Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said during an appearance at the Davos forum that the situation in the Middle East is a “recipe for escalation everywhere.” He said Qatar believes that ending the conflict in Gaza will stop the Houthis and militant groups from launching attacks elsewhere in the region.

Sullivan on Tuesday met with Al Thani as well as Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, according to the White House.

Iran fired missiles late Monday at what it said were Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighborhood near the sprawling U.S. Consulate compound in Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and at targets linked to the extremist Islamic State group in northern Syria.

Iraq on Tuesday called the attacks, which killed several civilians, a “blatant violation” of Iraq’s sovereignty and recalled its ambassador from Tehran.
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Sudan Suspends Ties With East African Bloc for Inviting Paramilitary Leader to Summit

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CAIRO — The Sudanese government suspended ties Tuesday with the East African regional bloc trying to mediate between the country’s army and a rival powerful paramilitary force, accusing the body of violating Sudan’s sovereignty by inviting the paramilitary leader to an upcoming summit.

The army, headed by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have been fighting for control of Sudan since April. Long-standing tensions erupted into street battles concentrated in the capital but also in other areas, including the western Darfur region.

In a statement, The Sudanese Foreign Ministry — which is aligned with the army — said the move is a response to the Intergovernmental Authority of Development (IGAD) for inviting Dagalo without previous consultation, which it said was a “violation of Sudan’s sovereignty.” 

The 42nd IGAD summit is set to take place in Kampala, Uganda, on Thursday.

IGAD did not immediately respond to the Foreign Ministry announcement. Dagalo confirmed last week on social media that he received an invitation from IGAD.

The eight-member bloc is part of mediation efforts to end the conflict, along with Saudi Arabia and the United States, which facilitated rounds of unsuccessful, indirect talks between the warring parties as recently as early November. The two military leaders are yet to meet in person since the war broke out.

Tuesday’s announcement comes one week after Dagalo finished a tour of Africa, where he met with government officials in Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Rwanda.

Over the past two months, the RSF has appeared to take the upper hand in the conflict, with its fighters making advances eastward and northward across Sudan’s central belt.

The United Nations says at least 12,000 have been killed in the conflict. Rights groups have accused both sides of war crimes.

The countries that make up IGAD include Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
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Guinness World Records Has Doubts About Age of World’s Oldest Dog

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LISBON, Portugal — Bobi the Dog’s title as the world’s oldest canine was suspended on Tuesday after Guinness World Records officials began to have doubts about his real age. 

He died in October at the official age of 31 years and 165 days, eight months after the record-breakers’ hall of fame declared on its website that he was the world’s oldest living dog.

The purebred Rafeiro — a Portuguese race of livestock guard dog whose life expectancy is usually 12 to 14 years — was also declared the oldest dog ever, breaking a nearly century-old record held by an Australian cattle dog named Bluey, who died in 1939 aged 29 years and five months.

“While our review is ongoing, we have decided to temporarily pause both the record titles for Oldest Dog Living and [Oldest Dog] Ever just until all of our findings are in place,” a Guinness spokesperson told AFP.

The reference site for extreme achievements did not say what had raised their suspicions.

But skeptics cited by British and U.S. media said Bobi’s feet appeared to be a different color in photos of him as a puppy and snaps of him in his dotage.

And Miguel Figuereido, a veterinarian in Lisbon, told AFP last year: “He doesn’t look like a very old dog … with mobility problems … or with an old dog’s muscle mass.”

Guinness World Records insisted the suspension was “temporary, while [the review] is ongoing.”

Bobi’s owner, Leonel Costa, insisted that all the “suspicions are unfounded.”

In a statement sent to AFP, he said that the certification procedure “took almost a year” and that he had complied with all the requirements demanded by Guinness. 

Costa accused “a certain elite in the veterinary world” of being behind these suspicions, because they had difficulty accepting that Bobi had always fed on a “natural diet” instead of dog food.

Bobi, who was officially born on May 11, 1992, cheated death in his first days of life.

He and three other puppies were from a litter born in a woodshed owned by the Costa family in the village of Conqueiros in central Portugal.

Because the family already owned so many animals, the parents decided to get rid of the newborn puppies.

They unwittingly left one puppy — Bobi — behind and were eventually persuaded by Leonel Costa and his sister to keep him.

Costa has attributed Bobi’s longevity to the tranquility of country living and his varied diet.

He was never chained up or put on a lead, and used to roam the woods around the village before he got too old to move much and spent his days lolling around the yard with the family cats, he said.
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Kenya Embarks on its Biggest Rhino Relocation Project; Previous Attempt Was a Disaster

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nairobi, kenya — Kenya has embarked on its biggest rhino relocation project and began the difficult work Tuesday of tracking, darting and moving 21 of the critically endangered beasts, which can each weigh over a ton, to a new home.

A previous attempt at moving rhinos in the East African nation was a disaster in 2018, as all 11 of the animals died.

The latest project experienced early troubles. A rhino targeted for moving was successfully hit with a tranquilizer dart shot from a helicopter but ended up in a creek. Veterinarians and rangers held the rhino’s head above water with a rope to save it while a tranquilizer reversal drug took effect, and the rhino was released.

Wildlife officials have stressed that the challenging project will take time, likely weeks.

The black rhinos are a mix of males and females and are being moved from three conservation parks to the private Loisaba Conservancy in central Kenya, the Kenya Wildlife Service said. They are being moved because there are too many in the three parks, and they need more space to roam and hopefully, to breed.

Rhinos are generally solitary animals and are at their happiest in large territories.

Kenya has had relative success in reviving its black rhino population, which dipped below 300 in the mid-1980s because of poaching, raising fears that the animals might be wiped out in a country famous for its wildlife.

Kenya now has nearly 1,000 black rhinos, according to the wildlife service. That’s the third biggest black rhino population in the world behind South Africa and Namibia.

There are just 6,487 wild rhinos left in the world, according to rhino conservation charity Save the Rhino, all of them in Africa.

Kenyan authorities say they have relocated more than 150 rhinos in the last decade.

Six years ago, Kenya relocated 11 rhinos from the capital, Nairobi, to another sanctuary in the south of the country. All died soon after arriving at the sanctuary. Ten of them died from stress, dehydration and starvation intensified by salt poisoning as they struggled to adjust to saltier water in their new home, investigations found. The other rhino was attacked by a lion.

Some of the 21 rhinos in the latest relocation are being transferred from Nairobi National Park and will make a 300-kilometer (186-mile) trip in the back of a truck to Loisaba. Others will come from parks closer to Loisaba.

The moving of the rhinos to Loisaba is poignant, given the region was once home to a healthy black rhino population before they were wiped out in that area 50 years ago, said Loisaba Conservancy CEO Tom Silvester.

Kenyan wildlife authorities say the country is aiming to grow its black rhino population to about 2,000, which they believe would be the ideal number considering the space available for them in national and private parks.
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At Davos Summit, Zelenskyy Tries to Keep Ukraine Atop Global Agenda

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Ukraine’s president Tuesday urged leaders gathering at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to give more military aid to his country — or risk Russia attacking other nations. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Kyiv fears the war is slipping off the top of the global agenda.
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Turkey’s Sanction-Busting Faces Growing Scrutiny

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Washington is stepping up efforts to enforce sanctions against Russia with secondary sanctions meant to stop Turkey from helping Moscow and its trading partners circumvent trade restrictions over the war in Ukraine. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, analysts say the success or failure of the sanctions will depend on how much nations stand to lose by restricting commercial links with Russia.
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US Seizes Iranian-Made Missile Parts in Raid Near Somali Coast

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JERUSALEM — U.S. Navy SEALs seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weapons bound for Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militants in a raid last week where two service members went missing, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

The SEALs boarded a traditional dhow sailing vessel near the coast of Somalia in international waters of the Arabian Sea, seizing Iranian-made ballistic missile and cruise missile components, including propulsion, guidance, and warheads for Houthi medium range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command or CENTCOM, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.

The raid last Thursday marked the “first seizure of advanced Iranian-manufactured ballistic missile and cruise missile components by the U.S. Navy since November 2019,” the U.S. military said. As the SEALs were boarding the dhow in rough seas, one SEAL got knocked off by high waves. A fellow SEAL went in after him, and both remain missing.

The U.S. military detained the dhow’s 14 crew members and sank the ship after deeming it unsafe, according to CENTCOM. A United Nations resolution bans arms transfers to the Houthis. Iran has denied arming the Houthis despite evidence of the contrary.

The announcement came as Houthi militants attacked another ship traveling through international waters in the region on Tuesday. The Maltese-flagged vessel was struck by a missile and sustained some damage, though no one was wounded, according to officials.

Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. forces destroyed four Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles that were prepared to launch from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. A U.S. defense official said the ballistic missiles “presented an imminent threat to both merchant and U.S. Navy ships in the region.”

The Houthis have launched a series of attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The militants say the attacks are due to Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but many of the ships targeted have no links to Israel.

The military said missile components seized during last week’s raid included parts like those used in recent Houthi attacks. Images released by the U.S. military showed components resembling motors for rockets and what looked like an anti-ship cruise missile’s turbojet engine.

The United States, Britain and a handful of other allies answered dozens of Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with a series of powerful airstrikes on Friday and Saturday designed to severely degrade the Iranian-backed group’s capabilities.

U.S. and U.K. military leaders said the strikes hit dozens of targets ranging from command-and-control nodes, munitions depots, launching sites for drones and missiles, and production facilities.
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Professional Riders Brave Eight Seconds on a Bucking Bull

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In the Western United States, professional bull riders risk serious injury on the back of bulls that can weigh more than 700 kilograms. But eight seconds on a bucking beast can mean thousands of dollars. VOA’s Scott Stearns takes us to the show.
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Most Iowa Republican Caucus-goers Say Trump Fit to be President if Convicted

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WASHINGTON — Most Republicans at Iowa’s caucus said they felt Donald Trump would be fit for the White House even if he were convicted of a crime, an entrance poll showed on Monday, underscoring the stronghold the former president has on the Republican Party.

About two-thirds of caucus-goers also said they did not believe Democratic President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, according to the poll.

Following are highlights from the Edison Research poll based on interviews with 1,628 Iowa Republicans.

66% said they did not think Biden legitimately won the presidency in 2020.
65% said they decided who to support in the presidential nomination contest before this month.
65% said Trump would still be fit to be president if he were convicted of a crime. 31% said he would be unfit if convicted.
61% said they favor a federal law that would ban abortions nationwide.
53% of white caucus-goers who considered themselves evangelical or born-again Christians supported Trump, while 27% backed DeSantis.
46% of voters said they considered themselves part of the MAGA movement, a reference to Trump's Make America Great Again slogan. 50% said they were not part of that movement.
Trump led Haley and DeSantis by double digits among men and women alike. But among college graduates Trump was preferred by about 37% of caucus-goers, compared to 28% for Haley and 26% for DeSantis.
38% percent of caucus-goers said the economy was the issue that mattered most in deciding who to vote for on Monday, compared to 34% who cited immigration, while the rest cited foreign policy or abortion.
14% said the most important quality a Republican presidential nominee should have is the ability to beat Biden, compared to 41% who said shared values mattered most.

Edison Research conducted the poll on behalf of the National Election Pool, a consortium of news organizations including Reuters.

 
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US: Nauru’s Decision to Break with Taiwan ‘Disappointing’

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WASHINGTON — The United States said Monday that the government of Nauru’s severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan is “disappointing,” despite it being a sovereign decision.

The Pacific Island nation announced its decision to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China shortly after Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections.

“Taiwan is a reliable, like-minded, and democratic partner. The PRC often makes promises in exchange for diplomatic relations that ultimately remain unfulfilled,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement late Monday.  He was referring to People’s Republic of China.

Miller added: “We encourage all countries to expand engagement with Taiwan and to continue to support democracy, good governance, transparency, and adherence to the rule of law.”

The Republic of Nauru “will no longer recognize the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a separate country but rather as an inalienable part of China’s territory,” said the Nauru government in an official statement on Monday.  

In Beijing, Chinese officials praised the move.

“China appreciates and welcomes the decision of the government of the Republic of Nauru,” said Mao Ning who is a spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The Nauru government’s decision of reestablishing diplomatic ties with China once again shows that the one-China principle is where global opinion trends” are, said Mao.  

She repeated China’s assertion that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory” during a briefing Monday.

Implications to the U.S. policy towards the Pacific Islands

Nauru is one of the members of the Pacific Islands Forum, or PIF, the premier political and economic policy-making body for the region. It comprises 18 member states, with Australia and New Zealand being the largest economies in the bloc. Neither the United States nor China is a full member.

Last September, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted leaders from this Pacific Islands bloc at a two-day summit in Washington, amid rising U.S. concerns about China’s growing military and economic influence in the region.

 

The shift in Nauru’s position means the next Pacific Islands Forum secretary general will be from a country that recognizes the government in Beijing, rather than the government in Taipei.

Some analysts believe Nauru’s move could make it more challenging for the PIF to resist overtures from China.

Last November, former Nauru President Baron Waqa was selected as the next PIF Secretary General, at a time when Nauru still maintained diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Waqa has reportedly resisted China’s pressure in the past. It remains to be seen whether he will continue as the PIF Secretary General.

According to Cleo Paskal, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, or FDD, Chinese offers to Nauru have been present for years, and the specifics of this deal were likely finalized before the Taiwan elections.

She suggested that Beijing might have delayed the announcement until after the Taiwan elections to “reinforce” the PRC’s narrative.

“U.S. policy in the Pacific Islands is not shining at the moment,” Paskal told VOA.

“Nauru has been asking for help with things like developing its port and protecting its waters for years – things that would help regional security as well.  The longer they wait, the more room for PRC operatives to say ‘they aren’t coming, you should cut the deal in front of you now, with us’.  The window for U.S. relevance is closing.”

UN resolution 2758

Monday, the State Department said the United States will continue to support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community and deepen economic ties, consistent with Washington’s longstanding One China policy.

The U.S. does not take a position on Taiwan’s sovereignty. Under Washington’s One China policy, the U.S. acknowledges Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over Taiwan but does not endorse them.

Washington and Taipei have held regular consultations to explore Taiwan’s participation in the United Nations system and other international forums, to address a range of global challenges, including public health, aviation safety and climate change.

In Beijing, Chinese spokesperson Mao Ning said, “There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory,” citing United Nations resolution 2758. 

On October 25, 1971, the U.N. General Assembly passed U.N. Resolution 2758, which replaced the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan’s formal name) with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a permanent member of the Security Council in the United Nations.

While the resolution stated the representatives of the PRC government were the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations, it neither determined Taiwan’s status nor said Taiwan was part of China.

The PRC’s efforts to rewrite Taiwan’s status at the United Nations intensified during the 1990s and early 2000s, coinciding with the island’s democratization, according to an analysis by the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
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Millions of Overseas Brits Now Eligible to Vote in UK Elections

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LONDON — An estimated 3.5 million Britons living overseas will from Tuesday be eligible to vote in United Kingdom general elections, in one of the biggest increases in the country’s electoral franchise in a century.

The expansion in the electorate follows a change in the law, approved by parliament in 2022, scrapping a previous curb on U.K. citizens voting if they had lived overseas for over 15 years.

Implemented ahead of an election set for later this year, it is the most significant change to the voter rolls since a 1928 law granted women equal voting rights, and a 1969 move to lower the voting age to 18 from 21.

Britons worldwide will now be able to register to vote online, regardless of how long they have been overseas.

Under U.K. election law, once registered overseas voters will also be permitted to donate to political parties and campaigners.

Around 233,000 overseas voters were registered for the last election in December 2019, a significant Brexit-attributed bump on the numbers seen in previous contests.

The government estimates that Tuesday’s change could enfranchise around 3.5 million people — nearly triple the 1.3 million votes that was the winning margin in the 2016 referendum on European Union membership.

It is also greater than the difference in the vote totals for Britain’s two main parties — the Conservatives and Labour — in five of the last six general elections.

But U.K. elections ignore the parties’ overall vote counts, instead electing lawmakers under the first-past-the-post system in 650 individual constituencies.

It remains unclear how many of the newly eligible 3.5 million U.K. citizens living overseas will successfully register to vote.

They will need to provide details of the address and time they were last registered to vote or living in Britain.

Local authorities, who are responsible for the electoral roll in their areas, must be able to verify an applicant’s identity and past connection to the area, according to the Electoral Commission.

Unlike some countries, there is no provision for in-person voting overseas, and all ballots have to be cast by mail or by using a proxy in the U.K.

The Electoral Commission is launching a publicity campaign and working with partner organizations to raise awareness of the rule change.

“We know there are eligible voters in every corner of the world, so we’re calling on those with friends and family abroad to help spread the news,” communications director Craig Westwood said.

Research by Britain’s Office for National Statistics suggests the largest numbers of British emigrants are in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and European Union member countries.  

 
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Menendez’s Wife Asks for Separate Trial From Husband  

Posted on by SeeUS

washington — The wife of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez on Monday sought to sever the government’s corruption case against her from that of her husband, according to a court document. 

In the document, Nadine Menendez’s lawyers said a joint trial would prejudice her right to defend herself at a fair trial. They added that a joint trial would force the married defendants to make a Hobson’s choice “as exercising their right to testify in their own defense may necessitate waiving their privilege against providing testimony adverse to their spouse.” 

“Ms. Menendez’s interests in both maintaining the confidentiality of her privileged marital communications and exercising her spousal testimonial privilege without sacrificing her ability to testify in her own defense collectively support a finding of a ‘serious risk’ that a joint trial will compromise her ‘specific trial rights,’ ” the lawyers said. 

The pair pleaded not guilty in October after they were charged with taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen. 

In charging the senator last September, prosecutors said investigators had found gold bars and envelopes stuffed with cash inside jackets in the New Jersey Democrat’s apartment. 

They also said businessman Wael Hana had arranged meetings between Menendez and Egyptian officials, who pressed the senator to sign off on military aid. 

In return, Hana put Menendez’s wife on the payroll of a company he controlled, prosecutors said. 

Earlier this month, prosecutors accused Menendez of helping a New Jersey businessman seek an investment from a Qatari company with ties to the Middle Eastern country’s government. 

The latest allegations, which accused him of acting as a foreign agent, add pressure on the embattled senator, who has resisted calls to resign from members of his own party.
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Oxfam Report: Growing Inequality Could See World’s First Trillionaire

Posted on by SeeEU

London — As hundreds of world leaders and chief executives headed to the Swiss ski resort of Davos Monday for this year’s five-day annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Oxfam is warning of a growing gulf of inequality fueled by corporate power.

“The world’s richest five men have more than doubled their fortunes this decade since 2020 … while nearly 5 billion people have been made poorer. At current rates, the world will see its first trillionaire within a decade, while it will take over two centuries to end poverty,” said Nabil Ahmed of Oxfam America.

Decade of division

The report by Oxfam says the global economy has entered a new era of widening inequality.

“We are living through what appears to be the start of a decade of division: In just three years, we have experienced a global pandemic, war, a cost-of-living crisis and climate breakdown. Each crisis has widened the gulf — not so much between the rich and people living in poverty, but between an oligarchic few and the vast majority,” the report says.

The charity argues that the ultra-rich are using their corporate power to increase the wealth of the few.

“Corporations are driving inequality through squeezing workers, for example, dodging taxes — corporations aren’t paying the rates that smaller businesses are, that ordinary folks are; through privatizing the state — really we’ve seen in so many countries the sell-off of what is public to the state; and also plundering the planet,” Oxfam’s Ahmed told VOA.

Many of the world’s richest executives argue that their companies generate taxes and jobs.

Conflict

The Davos summit is being overshadowed by wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine.

A group of artists from Kyiv have created an exhibition in the center of Davos that showcases everyday life in Ukraine, including videos and images of the suffering caused by Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

“We want the world to understand that the war in Ukraine is ongoing,” said exhibition curator Bjorn Geldhof. “Ukraine needs help, Ukraine needs all [the] support and all [the] weapons it can get to be victorious, not just because this is defense of Europe’s freedom, because it is defense of life itself. And this is one of the things you can see in this exhibition,” he told Reuters news agency.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to address the summit later in the week amid speculation that he could meet China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang, a key ally of Moscow.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani are also at Davos and are expected to discuss Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French President Emmanuel Macron are among other world leaders heading to Davos.

Economy

The summit meeting will address core economic issues including high global debt and interest rates, along with new challenges and opportunities — especially artificial intelligence, or AI.

“[AI] has huge transformative potential, akin to what the steam engine did for physical labor: It took loads off the backs of humans, off the backs of the animals that we used to have plow our fields and put it onto machinery. I think that’s a good analogy to what these large language models are going to do to intellectual labor,” said Aiden Gomez, CEO of the Canadian AI company Cohere, who is attending the summit in Davos.

“I do want to emphasize that we may be over indexing on fear at the moment, which is very natural for humanity. I think it’s important to think about the opportunities for good. And it’s not spoken about enough,” Gomez told The Associated Press.

Critics argue the Davos summit is an undemocratic get-together for the global elite. Hundreds of protesters, many dressed in clown outfits, staged a demonstration outside the summit venue Sunday, ahead of the WEF meeting.

“We here are the voice for so many people who can’t be here today. It’s really important we stand here for so many people who are suffering from the decisions of these people,” said Gianna Catrina, a spokesperson for the “Strike WEF” protest group.

Supporters of the Davos summit say that dialogue among the world’s political and business leaders is vital in an increasingly fractious and uncertain world.
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Pope Concedes Resistance to Same-Sex Blessings but Adds, ‘The Lord Blesses Everyone’

Posted on by SeeEU

rome — Pope Francis has defended his controversial decision to let priests bless same-sex couples but admitted that “solitude is a price you have to pay” when you make difficult decisions.

Francis doubled down and insisted that the “Lord blesses everyone,” during a Sunday interview with an Italian talk show. But he acknowledged the remarkable opposition his decision has sparked — Africa’s bishops have united in a continent-wide refusal to implement the Vatican declaration and individual bishops in Eastern Europe, Latin America and elsewhere have also voiced opposition.

The Vatican’s December 18 declaration restated traditional church teaching that marriage is a lifelong union between a man and woman. But it allowed priests to offer spontaneous, non-liturgical blessings to same-sex couples seeking God’s grace in their lives, provided such blessings aren’t confused with the rites and rituals of a wedding.

During an appearance on “Che Tempo Che Fa,” Frances acknowledged, in his first comments since the uproar, the “resistance” the decision has generated. He blamed it on bishops not really understanding the issue and refusing to open a dialogue about it.

Asked if he felt alone, Francis replied: “You take a decision and solitude is a price you have to pay.”

“Sometimes decisions are not accepted,” he said. “But in most cases, when you don’t accept a decision, it’s because you don’t understand.”

The danger, he said, is that when people who don’t understand refuse to enter into a “brotherly discussion” and instead harden their hearts, resist and “make ugly conclusions.”

“This has happened with these last decisions about blessing everyone,” Francis said. “The Lord blesses everyone.”
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Tanzania Withdraws Approval for Kenya Airways Flights

Posted on by SeeAF

NAIROBI — Tanzania has withdrawn approval for Kenyan national carrier Kenya Airways to operate flights between the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital, its civil aviation authority said Monday.  

Tanzania said the decision was taken in retaliation for Kenya’s denial of rights to Tanzania national carrier Air Tanzania to operate cargo flights between the two countries.  

In a statement, the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority said it decided “to rescind the approvals for Kenya Airways to operate passenger flights between Nairobi and Dar es Salaam … with effect from 22 January 2024.” 

“This is to reciprocate the decision by the aeronautical authorities of the Republic of Kenya to refuse the Tanzania request for all-cargo flight operations by Air Tanzania Company.” 

TCAA also said Kenya’s decision to decline Air Tanzania’s request for cargo flights violated a 2016 Memorandum of Understating between both countries on air services.  

In a statement, Kenya Airways said it was aware of the ban on its flights and was engaging aviation authorities in both countries “to find a solution that will ensure there are no flight disruptions between Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.” 

Kenya Airways is one of Africa’s largest airlines. Tanzania, where attractions include mountains and vast wildlife reserves that teem with game, draws more than a million tourists a year, making it one of its biggest markets. 

The clash between Tanzania and Kenya adds to a growing number of trade and commercial disputes between members of the East African Community, a regional bloc that operates a customs union. 

Kenya has previously complained about cheap products from neighboring Uganda and blocked some, including milk and sugar, drawing protests from Kampala.  

Landlocked Uganda has also taken Kenya to a regional court over a dispute related to the importation of petroleum products. 

Although Air Tanzania is a small airline, in recent years authorities have been trying to expand its fleet, routes and operations to earn a bigger share of revenues from the region’s aviation business. 
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