Month: January 2024

Niger Celebrates Unity in the Wrestling Arena

Posted on by SeeAF

Agadez, Niger — The winner falls to his knees, arms raised triumphantly. After just eight minutes, his opponent’s knee and elbow have touched the sand, handing “Issaka Issaka” an historic win in Niger’s king of sports.

The annual wrestling tournament in the northern city of Agadez enthralls the vast West African nation.

It’s more than just a sporting event.

The prime minister is joined by his counterparts from fellow military-led neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso to watch the competition.

Now in its 44th year, the National Saber event takes place this time under the banner “safeguarding the homeland.”

It comes at the close of a turbulent year for Niger which saw military officers seize power on July 26.

A few days later, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) threatened an armed intervention to restore democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum.

The regional bloc also imposed tough sanctions against Niger, which has one of the world’s poorest populations despite having major resources.

But for 10 days, those troubles are forgotten as all eyes are on the skill and maneuvers of the wrestlers.

“It’s true we’re facing a difficult economic situation, but the Nigerien people are resilient,” regional councilor Alhassane Youssoufa, who is among the spectators, said.

Opportunity

Around the giant screen showing the matches, on posters and billboards, the portraits of the leaders of Niger, Burkina and Mali are an indicator of a defence pact struck in September.

Arenas are decked out in the colors of the three Sahel states, which are all fighting a jihadist insurgency that erupted in northern Mali in 2012.

Warm messages of support for Niger’s ruling National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) and its leader General Abdourahamane Tiani play constantly over the speakers.

“Everyone is tuned in to the wrestling, in offices, taxis,” said sports journalist Issoufou Kodo, who is covering the event live for national radio and in Hausa, one of Niger’s national languages.

“It’s the perfect time to run all possible communications,” he added.

With millions of viewers, it’s also a boon for sponsors.

Businesses and patrons stump up the prizes worth up to $16,500 which are also bestowed for best dance, costume and even best ability to sing one’s own praises.

The ECOWAS prize this year is now known as the Alliance of Sahel States prize, the announcement says.

“Street vendors, traders, everyone benefits,” Lawel Hamet, a representative of the regional energy company, which is among the sponsors, said.

‘Cement of unity’

Issaka Issaka — whose real name is Kadri Abdou — has won his third consecutive title at the Saber and the sixth of his career.

His would-be opponent Aibo Hassan, who was ruled out of the tournament by injury, is propped up on crutches watching.

In a sport where fair play and solidarity are de rigueur, when Issaka Issaka won the final, he crossed over and hugged him out of respect.

“Traditional wrestling… is something we inherited from our ancestors, so it’s normal for people to feel attached to this traditional sport, which unites Nigeriens,” Hassan said.

“Thanks to tournaments, we all know each other. We build strong relationships. We are one family,” he enthused.

“It’s the cement of unity.”

Social cohesion is one of the watchwords at the event in Agadez, capital of a region shaken by several Tuareg rebellions in the 1990s and 2000s, and known for backing the former elected government.

“Djerma, Hausa, Tuaregs — this wrestling brings us together. It’s a source of pride for me to come here,” artist and actor Omar Mahamane, who has come from the capital Niamey, said.

To the beat of traditional sogolo music, wrestlers from all teams perform dances together in a cultural demonstration that finds particular favor with spectators.

“What I love about wrestling is the musicians, the tradition, the sogolo. Everyone loves to see their culture,” spectator Mohamed Lamine said.

Once practiced by villagers to mark the end of the harvest, traditional wrestling became a professional sport in the 1970s under the military regime of Seyni Kountche.

He wanted to promote a “typically Nigerien” sport that “has nothing to do with the West”, said the sports journalist Kodo.

Since then, “wrestling has become so popular that no regime has ever allowed itself to neglect it.”
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Pro-Palestinian Protest Restricts Access to NYC Airport’s International Terminal

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NEW YORK — Access to a busy terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was restricted Monday as pro-Palestinian protesters converged on the airport for the second time in a week.

Videos posted online show heavy traffic and a slow-moving line of cars, some flying Palestinian flags and featuring text on the windows such as “Stop the genocide.” Police directed a line of cars around a checkpoint. Protesters also had planned to arrive at the airport in Queens, New York, by public transportation.

The New Year’s Day action was the latest in a series of protests around the nation calling for a cease-fire since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7. Last Wednesday, activists brought traffic to a standstill on an expressway leading up to JFK for about 20 minutes. Protesters shut down a major thoroughfare leading to the Los Angeles International Airport on the same day.

Entry into JFK’s Terminal 4 was temporarily restricted Monday afternoon to ticketed passengers, employees and people with what authorities consider a valid reason to be there, such as passenger pickups, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the region’s airports. 

Similarly, AirTrain access was temporarily restricted to ticketed passengers and employees.

“The Port Authority, in coordination with our local, state, and federal partners, has deployed safety and security measures to help ensure an uninterrupted travel experience at JFK,” port authority spokesperson Seth Stein said in an email.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey didn’t report any arrests.

City officials had warned people flying out of JFK on Monday, a busy travel day, to get to the airport early because of the protests.

Police said the caravan of cars was later headed to protest outside LaGuardia Airport, which is also in Queens. 

 
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135th Rose Parade Boasts Floral Floats, Sunny Skies as California Tradition Kicks Off New Year

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pasadena, california — Floral floats, marching bands and equestrian units took to the streets under a sunny California sky as the 135th Rose Parade drew hundreds of thousands of spectators on New Year’s Day.

The Pasadena tradition on Monday featured Broadway legend Audra McDonald as grand marshal and the theme “Celebrating a World of Music: The Universal Language.”

After recent rains and gray skies, there was plenty of sun for the 8 a.m. start of the spectacle with a military flyover of a B-2 stealth bomber.

Among the fanciful floats was Kaiser Permanente’s colorful “Symphony of You,” which featured 8,000 roses and received the President Award for most outstanding use and presentation of flowers.

The top prize, the 2024 Sweepstakes Trophy, went to the San Diego Zoo for the 16.8-meter float “It All Started With a Roar,” depicting its mascot Rex the Lion and celebrating wildlife conservation.

Huge crowds lined the 8.8-kilometer parade route. Many camped out on sidewalks overnight, staking out their spots in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve.

The parade was briefly interrupted by about 50 pro-Palestinian protesters carrying a banner demanding a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas. They blocked the route before peacefully dispersing under police orders, said city spokesperson Lisa Derderian.

McDonald was set to toss the coin before the 110th Rose Bowl college football game between Alabama and Michigan.
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Tunisian Journalist Detained After Criticizing Minister, Lawyer Says

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Tunis, Tunisia — Tunisian judicial authorities on Monday ordered that prominent journalist Zeid El-Heni should be detained and tried on charges of defamation, days after he criticized the trade minister, his lawyer said.

El-Heni will have his first court hearing on January 10 on the charge of “defaming others on social media,” his lawyer Ayachi Hammami told reporters.

Police first arrested him on Thursday after he made comments about the minister on local radio in an interview that was posted on Facebook, Tunisia’s state news agency said.

Tunisia’s journalists union demanded his immediate release, calling his detention a “violation of legal provisions governing the trial of reporters.”

Freedom of speech and media were key gains for Tunisians after the 2011 revolution that ousted autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and triggered the “Arab Spring” protests.

But activists and journalists say freedom of speech has been deteriorating since President Kais Saied seized wide powers in 2021. Saied has said his actions were needed to save Tunisia from chaos under what he calls a corrupt elite.
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Russian Drones Hit Sites Linked to Ukrainian Nationalists

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lviv, ukraine — Russian drones attacked a university and a museum linked to two of the most prominent 20th-century defenders of Ukrainian national identity on Monday, leaving locals vowing to repair the damage.

The first smashed windows and much of the roof at the National Agrarian University, outside the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where Stepan Bandera — a hero in Ukraine but a villain according to the Kremlin —studied.

It hit on what would have been Bandera’s 115th birthday.

The second ravaged a nearby museum devoted to Roman Shukhevych.

Both men were key figures in nationalist resistance to Soviet rule and were associated with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought Soviet forces in World War II.

“This is the building in which Stepan Bandera attended classes. There’s a memorial plaque dedicated to Bandera, and the statue, too,” 82-year-old Sofia Zdorovyk said as people cleared up the rubble around her.

“Everything that’s been going on in our country, for so many years, do they [Russia] feel better because of it? Don’t they have enough land? Natural resources? What is it that they need?”

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi described the strike on the museum as a symbolic act.

“We will restore it after our victory,” he said.

Bandera was the most prominent figure in a group associated with the UPA, whose ranks swelled to 100,000 by 1944, according to historical accounts, and continued fighting Moscow’s rule until the mid-1950s. Shukhevych was the UPA’s supreme commander.

Moscow still invokes Bandera’s name to underpin its assertions that it invaded Ukraine in February 2022 to “denazify” the country, pointing to the fact that some nationalists initially cooperated with German forces in their battle against the Russians — though they later also fought the Nazis.

“Just hearing the name Bandera scares them [the Russians]. It causes rage and hatred,” Vasyl Lapushniak, president of the Lviv National Agrarian University, said. “They did not scare us with this. It only united us once more and showed our strength.”

The honor of “Hero of Ukraine” was bestowed on both men in the post-Soviet period. Soldiers from the UPA’s ranks were declared “veterans” alongside Soviet Red Army soldiers.

The nationalist army’s activity has long been clouded by allegations that it carried out massacres of tens of thousands of ethnic Poles in western Ukraine’s Volyn region — part of an area that was under Polish rule between the two world wars.

Poland and Ukraine have taken measures to honor those deaths and seal a reconciliation between the two neighbors.
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US Aircraft Carrier Returning Home After Extended Deployment Defending Israel

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WASHINGTON — After months of extra duty at sea providing protection for Israel, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group will be heading home, the Navy announced on Monday. 

The Ford and its accompanying warships will be replaced by the amphibious assault ship the USS Bataan and its accompanying warships, the USS Mesa Verde and the USS Carter Hall. The three vessels had been in the Red Sea and have been transiting toward the Eastern Mediterranean over the last few days. 

The Ford will sail for home “in the coming days,” the U.S. 6th Fleet, the European-based U.S. naval command that’s responsible for ships sailing in the Mediterranean, said in a statement. 

The Ford was sent to the Eastern Mediterranean to be within striking distance of Israel since the day after Hamas’ October 7 attacks. The carrier stayed in the Eastern Mediterranean while its accompanying warships had sailed into the Red Sea, where they repeatedly intercepted incoming ballistic missiles and attack drones fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited the Ford last month. 

Since it was extended in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Ford and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier have been part of a two-carrier presence bracketing the Israel-Hamas war, underscoring U.S. concerns that the conflict will widen. The Eisenhower has recently patrolled near the Gulf of Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea waterway, where so many commercial vessels have come under attack in recent weeks. 

On Sunday, helicopters from the Eisenhower and its destroyer the USS Gravely responded to a distress call from the container ship Maersk Hangzhou, which was under attack by four Iranian-backed Houthi small boats. As the helicopters responded, the boats fired at them with crew-served weapons and small arms and the helicopters returned fire, sinking three of the four boats and killing their crews, the U.S. Central Command said. 

The incessant attacks on the commercial ships have led some companies to suspend transits through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the southern Red Sea and then the Suez Canal. 

The Bataan’s accompanying warship, the Mesa Verde, is a transport dock ship carrying approximately 2,000 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Those Marines provide “forces capable of supporting a wide range of missions,” the U.S. 6th Fleet said. 

The Carter Hall is a dock landing ship, which carries amphibious landing craft and their crews. Both vessels and the Bataan can support rotary aircraft; the Bataan can also carry and support Marine Corps’ F-35 vertical takeoff fighter aircraft. 
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Poll: More Americans Think Foreign Policy Should Be Top US Priority for 2024

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WASHINGTON — In this time of war overseas, more Americans think foreign policy should be a top focus for the U.S. government in 2024, with a new poll showing international concerns and immigration rising in importance with the public.

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults named foreign policy topics in an open-ended question that asked people to share up to five issues for the government to work on in the next year, according to a December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That’s about twice as many who mentioned the topic in the AP-NORC poll conducted last year.

Long-standing economic worries still overshadow other issues. But the new poll’s findings point to increased concern about U.S. involvement overseas — 20% voiced that sentiment in the poll, versus 5% a year ago.

It also shows that the Israeli-Hamas war is feeding public anxiety. The conflict was mentioned by 5%, while almost no one cited it a year ago. The issue has dominated geopolitics since Israel declared war on Hamas in Gaza after that group’s October 7 attack on Israeli soil.

Four percent of U.S. adults mentioned the conflict between Russia and Ukraine as something for their government to focus on this year. That’s similar to the 6% who mentioned it at the end of 2022.

Foreign policy has gained importance among respondents from both parties. Some 46% of Republicans named it, up from 23% last year. And 34% of Democrats list foreign policy as a focal point, compared with 16% a year ago.

Warren E. Capito, a Republican from Gordonsville, Virginia, worries China could soon invade Taiwan, creating a third major potential source of global conflict for the U.S.

 “They would love to have us split three ways,” he said of China, and “we’re already spread so thin.”

Immigration is also a rising bipartisan concern.

Overall, the poll found that concerns about immigration climbed to 35% from 27% last year. Most Republicans, 55%, say the government needs to focus on immigration in 2024, while 22% of Democrats listed immigration as a priority. That’s up from 45% and 14%, respectively, compared with December 2022.

Janet Brewer has lived all her life in San Diego, across from Tijuana, Mexico, and said the situation on the border has deteriorated in recent years.

“It’s a disaster,” said Brewer, 69, who works part time after running a secretarial and legal and medical transcription small business. “It’s crazy.”

The politics of foreign military aid and immigration policy are entangled, with President Joe Biden’s administration promoting a $110 billion package that includes aid for Ukraine and Israel that remains stalled in Congress while Republicans push for a deal allowing major changes in immigration policy and stricter enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Brewer said she wouldn’t vote for Biden or a Republican for president in 2024, and may opt for independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But she also questions whether a change in the White House would necessarily improve immigration policy.

As for foreign aid, she said, “I know that we need to help. But come on. We’ve done enough.”

Even as immigration and foreign policy rose as concerns, those issues were no match for worries about the economy. Inflation has fallen, unemployment is low, and the U.S. has repeatedly defied predictions of a recession — yet this poll adds to a string of them showing a gloomy outlook on the economy.

Some 76% of U.S. adults said this time that they want the government to work on issues related to the economy in 2024, nearly the same as the 75% who said so at this point in 2022.

About 85% of Republicans and 65% of Democrats name the economy as a top issue. But Republicans are more likely than Democrats to want the government to address some specific economic issues: on inflation 41% vs. 22% and on government spending or debt, 22% vs. 7%.

Meanwhile, 3 in 10 U.S. adults listed inflation as an issue that the government should focus on, unchanged from 2022.

The economy is a top issue mentioned by 18- to 29-year-olds (84%), followed by inflation specifically (39%), personal finance issues (38%) and foreign policy (34%). In the same age bracket, 32% mentioned education or school loans as something for the government to address in 2024. That’s despite the Biden administration trying new, more modest efforts to cancel debts after the Supreme Court struck down its larger original push.

Among those 30 and older, only 19% mention student loans. But Travis Brown, a 32-year-old forklift operator in Las Vegas, noted that he’s back to getting calls seeking payment of his student loans.

“Right now, with the economy, wages are not matching,” Brown said. “Blue collar’s going away, and I don’t see how that’s going to boost an economy. An economy thrives off the working class. Not off the rich.”

Brown also suggested that the U.S. is too focused on shipping aid to its overseas allies.

“I care about others, I do,” he said. “But when you sit here and say, ‘I just sent $50 million over to Israel,’ and then I go outside, and I see half a neighborhood run-down … you’ve got to take care of home.”

One possible sign that larger sentiments on the economy could be improving slightly is that overall mentions of personal financial issues declined some, with 30% mentioning them now compared with 37% last year. Drops occurred for Democrats, 27% vs. 33%, and among Republicans, falling to 30% compared with 37% in 2022.

One-quarter of U.S. adults say 2024 will be a better year than 2023 for them personally, and 24% expect it will be a worse year. Some 37% of Republicans expect it’ll be a worse year for them, compared with 20% of independents and 13% of Democrats.

Just 5% of U.S. adults are “extremely” or “very” confident that the federal government can make progress on the important problems and issues facing the country in 2024, with 7% of Democrats and 11% of independents being optimistic, compared with 1% of Republicans.

Brown is a Democrat but said he was disillusioned enough to perhaps sit out the presidential election — especially if it proves to be a 2020 rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump, who has built a commanding early lead in the 2024 Republican primary.

“I don’t think I will participate, and maybe that’s bad,” Brown said. “But it’s like, you’re losing faith.”
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Fifth Suspect Detained With Ties to Cologne Cathedral Threat

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BERLIN — German authorities said Monday they detained another suspect in connection with an alleged threat of an attack on the world-famous Cologne Cathedral over the holidays, bringing the overall number of people detained in connection with the alleged plot to five.

The latest suspect, a 41-year-old German-Turkish man, was detained Sunday night in the western city of Bochum in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Police detained three people Sunday morning and one man last week. All the detained suspects allegedly belong to a larger Islamic extremist network that included people across Germany and in other European countries, according to Cologne police chief Johannes Hermanns, German news agency dpa reported.

The other four suspects were detained in different cities across North Rhine-Westphalia. The one who was detained last week was identified as a 30-year-old Tajik man. No details were given for the three who were detained Sunday morning.

The attack was supposed to have been carried out on New Year’s Eve with a car loaded with explosives, local media reported.

Cologne police said in a Sunday news conference that the cathedral’s underground parking garage had been searched and that explosives detection dogs had been deployed, but nothing was found. The entrance and exit of the underground garage had also been checked for suspicious activity.

North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul on Sunday called the latest detentions a “success, for which I would like to thank the investigators.”

Islamic extremists have always been active, but they are currently more active than usual, and the Catholic cathedral was a prime target for them, Reul said, according to dpa. “The police always try to be a few steps ahead,” he added.

Police had received information about a planned militant attack on Cologne Cathedral shortly before Christmas.

The city’s world-famous cathedral has been under high protection for a week and the threat led to the closure of the house of worship for tourists since Christmas Eve. 
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Chad Ex-Opposition Figure Succes Masra Appointed PM

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N’Djamena, Chad — Chad’s transitional president General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno on Monday appointed a former leading opposition leader, who recently returned from exile, as prime minister.

Succes Masra, president of The Transformers party, was a long-time opponent of the Deby dynasty but returned to Chad in November after reaching an agreement with its military leaders.

Days before last month’s referendum on a new constitution — which saw 86 percent of participants vote “yes”  Masra publicly urged supporters to vote in favor, with the outcome now expected to pave the way to elections.

“Doctor Succes Masra is appointed prime minister, head of the transition government,” general secretary to the presidency Mahamat Ahmat Alabo announced on state TV.

Masra went into exile shortly after October 20, 2022, protests against the military regime, which had just extended by two years an 18-month transition supposed to culminate in elections and the return of power to a civilian government.

Authorities say some 50 people were killed that day. The opposition and local and international NGOs put the toll between 100 and 300.

Almost all of the victims were shot dead by the military and the police, mainly in the capital N’Djamena.

Masra only returned from exile on November 3 following a reconciliation agreement signed in Kinshasa on October 31 which guaranteed him free exercise of political activities.

He has told the government he wants to “continue dialogue… with a view to a peaceful political solution”.

Several opposition parties have distanced themselves from Masra, while furthermore speaking out against a general amnesty the regime has granted for “all Chadians, civilians and military” involved in the events of the October 2022 protest which has become known as Black Thursday.
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President Hopeful Zimbabwe Economy Will Turn Around in 2024

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Harare — President Emmerson Mnangagwa has predicted Zimbabwe’s moribund economy will turn around this year following the recent discovery of oil and gas near the country’s border with Mozambique and Zambia and improvement in the country’s mining and tourism sectors. Economists are not as optimistic, as Zimbabweans continue to leave the country.

In a new year message broadcast to Zimbabweans at home and in the diaspora on national television and on social media, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said all was shaping for a prosperous Zimbabwe. He said the mining sector had surpassed the target of $12 billion in 2023, while the country was now food sufficient. That’s not all, said the 81-year-old politician.

“I am encouraged by the increased number of both local and international tourists visiting our country. Equally, investments in new tourism products and facilities which bolstered the sector are a welcome development. As we drive towards energy self-sufficiency, the discovery of oil and gas in Muzarabani confirms Zimbabwe’s potential as a future producer of gas. This should translate into meeting our energy demands commensurate with the ever growing economy,” he said.

Gift Mugano, an economics professor at Durban University of Technology, responded to Mnangagwa’s speech.

“We are in agro-based economy. We sneeze when the agriculture sector catches a cold. We know that this year there is a drought. That will have a devastating impact on the economy. With drought, we will be importing food. Because of the Russia-Ukraine war, which has seen prices of food, globally, going up around 50%,” said Mugano.

“We will be forking [out] something in the region of close to $1 billion. Which is almost 20% or so of our total foreign currency receipt. So this will weigh down on the economy in terms of the economy performance. So, to be quite frank and quite honest, the economy will underperform in this year. Yes, we are talking about the discovery of gas and oil but it’s too early to talk about that development as the driver of the economy.”

Prosper Chitambara, senior economist with the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe, says the country’s agro-based economy will only improve this year if there is no drought as most farmers depend on rains.

“In terms of the discovery of oil and gas, I think it’s going to take a bit of time probably for the country to begin to benefit from this important discovery. I think they should be some gestation period, which obviously also then allows for the investor to fully set up and to start commercial activities. But overall, this year the economy is expected to grow by 3.5% which is lower than the 5.5% estimated growth there for last year,” said Chitambara.

Ranga Chivi is an electrical engineer who recently left Zimbabwe with his family for greener pastures in Australia who listened to Mnangagwa’s speech.

“It would be interesting to see how the gas and oil discoveries will turn around the economy. We did not leave Zimbabwe because we are unemployed, but we left Zimbabwe because of search of greener pastures and a much more stable economic environment you can raise a family in. So the discovery of gas and oil, it’s positive for the country and we are more than eager to help where we can, but what remains is the issue to do with stability that I am hoping that this project will bring,” said Chivi.

According to World Bank, the primary reason Zimbabweans migrate is to search for economic opportunities. It says of the approximately 908,000 emigrants counted in Zimbabwe’s 2022 census, a large majority (84%) had left the country in search of employment, while another 5% had migrated for education or training.
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The Empire State Rings in New Year With Pay Bump for Minimum-Wage Workers 

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ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s minimum-wage workers had more than just the new year to celebrate Monday, with a pay bump kicking in as the clock ticked over to 2024.   

In the first of a series of annual increases slated for the Empire State, the minimum wage increased to $16 in New York City and some of its suburbs, up from $15. In the rest of the state, the new minimum wage is $15, up from $14.20.   

The state’s minimum wage is expected to increase every year until it reaches $17 in New York City and its suburbs, and $16 in the rest of the state by 2026. Future hikes will be tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, a measurement of inflation.   

New York is one of 22 states getting minimum wage rises in the new year, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute.   

In California, the minimum wage increased to $16, up from $15.50, while in Connecticut it increased to $15.69 from the previous rate of $15.   

This most recent pay bump in New York is part of an agreement made last year between Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature. The deal came over the objections of some employers, as well as some liberal Democrats who said it didn’t go high enough.   

The federal minimum wage in the United States has stayed at $7.25 per hour since 2009, but states and some localities are free to set higher amounts. Thirty states, including New Mexico and Washington, have done so. 
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Six Killed in Disputed Region Bordering Sudan, South Sudan 

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JUBA — Six people including a senior local administrator were killed in an ambush by armed men in the Abyei region claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan, local officials said.   

The oil-rich region experiences frequent bouts of violence, where rival factions of the Dinka ethnic group — Twic Dinka from South Sudan’s neighboring Warrap State, and Ngok Dinka from Abyei — are locked in a dispute over the location of an administrative boundary.   

Abyei Deputy Chief Administrator Noon Deng and his team came under attack along the road from Abyei to Aneet town when they were returning from an official visit to Rummamer county, where they were celebrating the New Year, government officials said.   

“His driver and two bodyguards plus two people of national security were all killed,” Tereza Chol, a South Sudanese lawmaker, told Reuters.   

Bulis Koch, the information minister for Abyei Administrative Area, blamed the Sunday evening attack on armed youth from Twic County of Warrap State, and said the bodies had not been retrieved as of Monday morning.   

His counterpart in the Warrap State William Wol said it was still early “to point fingers.”  

The incident is the latest in a region where dozens were killed in ethnic clashes in November.   

Straddling an ill-defined border between Sudan and South Sudan, Abyei has been claimed by both countries since Juba declared independence from Khartoum in 2011.   

It has a special administrative status, governed by an administration comprising officials appointed by both countries.   

South Sudan erupted into civil war shortly after independence, which pitted President Salva Kiir and his allies against his Vice President Riek Machar.   

A peace agreement signed in 2018 is largely holding, but the transitional government has been slow to unify the various factions of the military.  

 
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Nearly 30,000 Migrants Crossed Channel to UK Last Year

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London — Nearly 30,000 migrants crossed the Channel to Britain from mainland Europe in small boats in 2023, an annual drop of more than a third, government figures released Monday showed.

However, the unauthorized arrivals of 29,437 people on the southeast English coast remains the second largest yearly tally since officials began publishing the numbers in 2018.

The perilous journeys across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes have become a huge political problem for the Conservative government, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledging last year to “stop the boats.”

One of five key promises he made for 2023, the persistently high number of arrivals could haunt the Tory leader as he bids to win a general election due this year.

Sunak said last month there was no “firm date” for meeting his pledge.

The beleaguered leader will likely point to a 36 percent reduction in small-boat arrivals last year, after a record 45,000 migrants made the journey in 2022.

His ministers have claimed Britain’s £480 million ($610 million) agreement with France to increase efforts to stop the migrants is starting to pay off, alongside fast-track return deals struck with countries such as Albania.

But the main Labour opposition — which has enjoyed double-digit poll leads for the duration of Sunak’s nearly 15 months in power — says he has failed to keep his promise and his immigration policy is in chaos.

The ruling Conservatives had hoped to deter the crossings by preventing all migrants arriving without prior authorization from applying for asylum and sending some to Rwanda.

But the policy remains stalled after the UK Supreme Court ruled that deporting them to the east African country is illegal under international law.

The cross-Channel journeys on small inflatable vessels, which are often overloaded and unseaworthy, has repeatedly proved deadly.

In one of the latest tragedies, at least six men died and dozens more required rescuing in August after a small vessel bound for the southeast English coast from France sank.

In November 2021, at least 27 people drowned when their dinghy capsized. 
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US Chief Justice Urges ‘Caution’ as AI Reshapes Legal Field

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Washington — Artificial intelligence represents a mixed blessing for the legal field, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said in a year-end report published Sunday, urging “caution and humility” as the evolving technology transforms how judges and lawyers go about their work.

Roberts struck an ambivalent tone in his 13-page report. He said AI had potential to increase access to justice for indigent litigants, revolutionize legal research and assist courts in resolving cases more quickly and cheaply while also pointing to privacy concerns and the current technology’s inability to replicate human discretion.

“I predict that human judges will be around for a while,” Roberts wrote. “But with equal confidence I predict that judicial work – particularly at the trial level – will be significantly affected by AI.”

The chief justice’s commentary is his most significant discussion to date of the influence of AI on the law — and coincides with several lower courts contending with how best to adapt to a new technology capable of passing the bar exam but also prone to generating fictitious content, known as “hallucinations.”

Roberts emphasized that “any use of AI requires caution and humility.” He mentioned an instance where AI hallucinations had led lawyers to cite nonexistent cases in court papers, which the chief justice said is “always a bad idea.” Roberts did not elaborate beyond saying the phenomenon “made headlines this year.”  

For instance, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, said in court papers unsealed last week that he mistakenly gave his attorney fake case citations generated by an AI program that made their way into an official court filing. Other instances of lawyers including AI-hallucinated cases in legal briefs have also been documented.  

A federal appeals court in New Orleans last month drew headlines by unveiling what appeared to be the first proposed rule by any of the 13 U.S. appeals courts aimed at regulating the use of generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT by lawyers appearing before it.

The proposed rule by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would require lawyers to certify that they either did not rely on artificial intelligence programs to draft briefs or that humans reviewed the accuracy of any text generated by AI in their court filings.
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EU Visa-Free Travel for Kosovo in Force

Posted on by SeeEU

Pristina, Kosovo — A long-awaited European Union’s visa liberalization scheme allowing Kosovo nationals to travel to Europe’s borderless zone without a visa came into force Monday.

The new regime, which came into force at midnight (2300 GMT Sunday), enables Kosovars to travel to the passport-free Schengen zone without a visa for periods of up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Kosovo, with a population of 1.8 million, was the last of the six countries in the Western Balkans to get the waiver.

The reform is perceived in Pristina as another step toward full recognition and a boost for the ambition of the country that proclaimed independence in 2008 to join the EU.

According to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, Kosovo by 2018 met all the needed criteria for the visa-free regime, including border and migration management.

But the approval has been held up by France and the Netherlands, that were concerned about the possibility of new migration waves as well as by five other EU members — Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

The five do not recognize Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, neither does the latter.

Before the EU lifted the visa regime with Kosovo, its passport holders could travel without a visa only to 14 countries all over the world.

During the past few months, the government in Pristina has been conducting a public awareness campaign urging people not to misuse the freedom of travel by looking for jobs in the EU.  

Later Monday, Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who leads the campaign himself, is to address the first Kosovo residents who will travel from the Pristina airport to the EU without a visa. 
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