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Month: January 2024
Tennis – Ukraine’s Fairytale Qualifier Yastremska Hails Fighters at Home
MELBOURNE, Australia — Dayana Yastremska extended her dream run at the Australian Open on Wednesday to become the first women’s qualifier to reach the semi-finals in 45 years but made sure to remind tennis fans about her countrymen fighting in Ukraine.
Getting to the pointy end of the year’s first Grand Slam was not a specific goal for the 23-year-old, but instead she has focused on keeping her emotions in check after battling personal challenges, which she did not want to talk about.
“I was just trying to enjoy playing here,” Yastremska told reporters after beating Czech teen Linda Noskova 6-3 6-4.
Fresh attacks on Ukraine add to the weight on the shoulders of the world number 93, who revealed at an Australian Open lead-up tournament in Brisbane that just before one of her matches her grandmother’s house had been hit by a rocket.
At Melbourne Park, she has been undaunted by higher ranked players across the net, beating former Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka and reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova along the way.
“The girls, you know, at any ranking can show amazing game,” she said.
“I was doing just my thing and focusing on myself, the way I play. I think that’s working.”
On her way off the court, Yastremska, dressed in blue and yellow matching her country’s flag, scribbled on the camera: “I’m proud of our fighting people from Ukraine.”
She later said the fighters deserve huge respect.
“I think it’s my mission here,” she told reporters. “If I do well, I can get – (it’s) tough to express. I’m just trying to give the signal to Ukraine that I’m really proud of it.”
In the wake of Moscow’s war on Ukraine, Ukrainian players on the tour have refused to shake hands with opponents from Russia and Belarus, which has been used as a staging ground for Russian attacks.
However, a Ukrainian junior, Yelyzaveta Kotliar, caused a stir when she shook hands with her Russian opponent after losing her first round match this week. Yastremska called it a youthful mistake.
“You know, Ukrainians, we have our position. We are not shaking the hands. But I think she’s still a little bit young. Not so experienced,” Yastremska told reporters.
“But I’m sure that she stands by Ukraine, and I’m sure that she just got too emotional and confused.”
Yastremska is not letting tennis get in the way of her musical ambitions. She is working on releasing a song with two other people in February which she said would bring together three countries.
“You’re going to hear it soon, I hope.”
your ad hereAnnual Count of Homeless Residents Begins in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County’s annual count of homeless residents began Tuesday night — a crucial part of the region’s efforts to confront the crisis of tens of thousands of people living on the streets.
Up to 6,000 volunteers with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority fanned out for the effort’s main component, the unsheltered street tally.
The so-called “point-in-time” count will take place over three days and aims to estimate how many people are unhoused and what services they may require, such as mental health or drug addiction treatment.
LA County’s undertaking is the largest among similar tallies in major cities nationwide. The tally, which also makes use of demographic surveys and shelter counts, is mandated by the federal government for cities to receive certain kinds of funding.
The count this year comes amid increasing public outrage over the perceived failure — despite costly efforts — to reduce the surging population of people living in cars, tents and makeshift street shelters.
The 2023 effort reported more than 75,500 people were homeless on any given night in LA County, a 9% rise from a year earlier. About 46,200 were within the city of Los Angeles, where public frustration has grown as tents have proliferated on sidewalks and in parks and other locations.
Since 2015, homelessness has increased by 70% in the county and 80% in the city.
Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, joined city and county officials to kick off the count Tuesday night in the North Hollywood neighborhood of LA’s San Fernando Valley.
The count “is an important tool to confront the homelessness crisis,” Bass said in a statement. “Homelessness is an emergency, and it will take all of us working together to confront this emergency.”
On her first day in office in December 2022, Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness. One year into her term, the mayor, a Democrat, announced that over 21,000 unhoused people were moved into leased hotels or other temporary shelter during 2023, a 28% increase from the prior year. Dozens of drug-plagued street encampments were cleared, and housing projects are in the pipeline, she said last month.
City Hall, the City Council and the LA County Board of Supervisors have said they intend to work together to tackle the crisis. Progress hasn’t always been apparent despite billions spent on programs to curb homelessness.
Homelessness remains hugely visible throughout California with people living in tents and cars and sleeping outdoors on sidewalks and under highway overpasses.
The results of the LA County homeless count are expected to be released in late spring or early summer.
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Oregon Jury Awards $85 Million to 9 Victims of Deadly 2020 Wildfires
PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon jury awarded $85 million Tuesday to nine victims of wildfires that ravaged the state in 2020, the latest verdict in a series of legal proceedings that are expected to put the utility PacifiCorp on the hook for billions of dollars over its liability for the deadly blazes.
“We are so proud of the strength and resilience of our clients, and thankful to the jury for holding PacifiCorp accountable for what happened on Labor Day 2020 — something it will never do itself,” Nick Rosinia, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said in a statement.
PacifiCorp expects post-verdict rulings and insurance payments to bring its share of the verdict to just under $80 million, the company said in a statement.
“The 2020 wildfires were undeniably tragic,” it said. “PacifiCorp has settled and will continue to settle all reasonable claims for actual damages under Oregon law. … The growing threat of wildfires to communities and businesses is bigger than any one company or industry.”
The fires were among the worst natural disasters in Oregon’s history, killing nine people, burning more than 1,875 square miles (4,856 square kilometers) and destroying upward of 5,000 homes and other structures.
Last June a jury found PacifiCorp liable for damages for negligently failing to cut power to its 600,000 customers despite warnings from top fire officials, saying its power lines were responsible for multiple blazes. PacifCorp has appealed.
That jury awarded around $90 million to 17 homeowners named as plaintiffs in the case, with damages to be determined later for a broader class that could include the owners of about 2,500 properties, as estimated by plaintiffs’ attorneys.
The damages awarded Tuesday were the first in cases brought by that broader class, with additional trials expected in February and April.
PacifiCorp also agreed last month to pay $299 million to settle a lawsuit brought by 463 plaintiffs who were harmed by separate devastating wildfires in southern Oregon over Labor Day 2020.
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Green Energy Expected to Cover Growth in Demand for Electricity
Paris — Power generated from low-emissions sources, such as wind, solar and nuclear, will be adequate to meet growth in global demand for the next three years, the International Energy Agency said, adding that emissions from the power sector are on the decline.
Following record growth, electricity generation from low-emissions sources will account for almost half of the world’s power by 2026, up from less than 40% in 2023, the IEA said in report on Wednesday.
Renewables are expected to overtake coal by early 2025, accounting for more than a third of total electricity generation, the report said.
Nuclear power is also forecast to reach a record globally as French output continues to recover from lows in 2022, several plants in Japan come back online and new reactors begin operations in markets including China, India, Korea and Europe.
Electricity demand is expected to rise on average by 3.4% from 2024 through 2026 with about 85% of demand growth seen coming from China, India and southeast Asia, after growth eased slightly to 2.2% in 2023, IEA data showed.
Over this period, China is expected to account for the largest share of the global increase in electricity demand in terms of volume, despite a forecast for slower economic growth and a lower reliance on heavy industry, the report said.
Meanwhile, global emissions are expected to decrease by 2.4% in 2024, followed by smaller declines in 2025 and 2026, the report said.
“The decoupling of global electricity demand and emissions would be significant given the energy sector’s increasing electrification, with more consumers using technologies such as electric vehicles and heat pumps,” the report said.
Electricity accounted for 2% more of final energy consumption in 2023 from 2015 levels, though reaching climate goals would require electrification to advance significantly faster in coming years, the IEA said.
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Netflix Gains Subscribers Despite Price Hikes
San Francisco — Netflix added 13 million subscribers in the final three months of last year, the company said on Tuesday, despite price hikes at the leading streaming service.
Netflix finished 2023 with slightly more than 260 million subscribers worldwide, with a profit of $938 million in the final quarter versus just $55 million in the same period a year earlier.
“We believe there is plenty of room for growth ahead as streaming expands,” the U.S. company said in an earnings letter.
Netflix shares were up more than 8% to $532.75 in after-market trades that followed the release of the earnings figures.
“Netflix sticks out as the clear front-runner in the streaming wars,” said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Ross Benes.
The streaming pioneer said that despite last year’s strikes by Hollywood actors and writers, the company has a “big, bold” slate of content for release this year.
The company touted coming content including a sequel to the hit Squid Game series out of South Korea and a brand new “3 Body Problem” show based on a bestselling novel by the same name.
“Choice and control are the price of entry in modern entertainment, and that is streaming,” Netflix said in the letter. “It’s what consumers want, and we believe it’s the best way for our industry to stay relevant and growing.”
The earnings news came the same day that Netflix sealed a long-term broadcast deal with the WWE professional wrestling juggernaut, as it pushes further into sporting events.
Beginning in the United States in 2025, Netflix will become the exclusive new home of “Raw,” the WWE’s flagship program that has been broadcasting on television since 1993.
The agreement will also see WWE shows and live events streamed across the globe as their rights become available.
With an initial 10-year term for $5 billion, the deal has an option for Netflix to extend the deal for an additional 10 years or opt out after the first five years.
“We expect our industry to remain highly competitive,” Netflix said, citing heavy investment by rivals including Amazon, Apple and YouTube. “It’s why continuing to improve our entertainment offering is so important.”
Netflix late last year increased the price of its basic plan in the United States to $11.99 monthly and its premium plan to $22.99, with similar price increases seen in Britain and France.
After a period of rocky earnings, earlier in 2022, the Silicon Valley giant expanded its crackdown on users sharing passwords with people beyond their immediate family.
In a separate bid for revenue, Netflix launched an ad-subsidized offering around the same time as the crackdown.
The ad-supported tier is priced at $7 monthly and is growing fast but has yet to become a main driver of overall revenue, according to Netflix.
As the ad-tiers gain momentum, the company said on Tuesday that it would retire the lowest cost ad-free plan, starting with Canada and the UK in the second quarter of this year.
The company said earlier this month it has 23 million subscribers using the ad-supported tier, which accounts for 40% of new sign-ups.
Netflix Co-Chief Executive Greg Peters said during an earnings call that the company is continuing to expand its lineup of more than 80 mobile games that subscribers can play, having recently added the blockbuster “Grand Theft Auto.”
“We’re stoked by the performance of GTA,” said Peters, noting that the Netflix mobile game exceeded even the company’s high hopes for it.
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Zambian Construction Companies Say They’re Forced to Close Down Due to Chinese Competition
Construction companies in Zambia say Chinese companies are moving into their area and taking away their business. They say the competition has forced some local construction companies to close. VOA’s Daniel Tonga reports from the capital Lusaka.
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Why European Farmers Are Up in Arms
Paris — The European Commission is due on Thursday to begin “strategic” talks with farmers’ federations, agri-business firms, NGOs and experts on ways to assuage the ire on farms in several countries.
On the agenda are key issues including farming incomes, sustainable agricultural practices, technological innovations and competitiveness, which will be discussed in advance by the European Union’s agriculture ministers at their meeting Tuesday in Brussels.
The initiative was not confirmed until late last week, even though Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had promised in September to start discussions, insisting that farming and environmental protection were not mutually exclusive.
Here is a look at some of the grievances that have sparked discontent in various parts of the 27-nation bloc ahead of this year’s European Parliament elections.
The Netherlands
Grumblings in the Dutch farming sector bubbled to the surface in June 2022, when the government unveiled plans to cut nitrogen emissions by reducing the country’s herd of 4 million cows by nearly a third, and possibly close some farms.
Farmers said the move would ruin their livelihoods.
Nitrogen compounds produced by manure and fertilizer used in farming can contribute to climate change and harm natural habitats.
The move followed a 2019 Dutch court ruling that the government was not doing enough on nitrogen, and that key house building and road projects that also produced the chemical would be on hold until it did.
But farmers in the country of 18 million, which is the world’s second-largest food exporter after the United States, reacted furiously, dumping manure and rubbish on roads and blocking supermarket warehouses.
Their protests drew support from populists abroad, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, who claimed the Dutch farmers were fighting “climate tyranny.”
Months of demonstrations triggered a wave of support at the ballot box for the recently founded BBB farmers’ party, which made a significant breakthrough in Senate elections in March 2023.
It was less successful than predicted in the general election in November last year but continues to attract support from a rural community that feels urban elites in The Hague, Amsterdam and Brussels do not understand its concerns.
Poland and Romania
In recent months, there has also been an increase in exasperation in the east of the EU, namely in Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria, where food producers have complained of unfair competition from cut-price cereals from Ukraine, which is not part of the bloc.
After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and blocked Ukraine from using the Black Sea to export its goods, the EU suspended customs duties on imports from Ukraine and set up corridors so Kyiv could transit its grains through the EU to world markets.
But because of logistical issues, the grain started piling up in EU countries and driving down local prices.
Tractor-riding farmers in Bulgaria and Romania jammed border crossings with Ukraine, and in Poland the anger triggered the resignation of the agriculture minister in April 2023.
That did little to calm tempers, and in November, Polish farmers and lorry drivers started blockading roads from Ukraine.
Farmers suspended their protest on January 6 after the government agreed to provide subsidies.
In Romania, the rural sector staged new demonstrations on January 14 over what they said were excessively high levies.
The customs exemptions granted to Ukrainian exporters expire in June, so the European Commission will need to tell EU farmers fairly soon whether it intends to prolong them or not.
Germany
In Germany, farmers have been up in arms since early January over a government plan to roll back tax breaks on fuel for agricultural machinery and other subsidies.
On January 8, they launched a week of nationwide rallies, blocking several city centers and major road arteries with hordes of noisy tractors, and have vowed to push on with their demands.
The coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz has agreed to stagger the cuts between now and January 2026 and reduce red tape.
But it may feel unable to offer more concessions, after a court ruling forced the government to find savings in the 2024 budget.
France
Farmers in France are also cross about increases in production costs and environmental regulations.
In the autumn, they turned signposts upside down to show the world itself was “upside down.”
Since Thursday they have been blockading motorways in the southwest and rallying at roundabouts.
The powerful farming union FNSEA is planning other forms of protest, after a meeting with newly installed Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Monday failed to produce a breakthrough.
Further afield
In former EU member Britain, fruit and vegetable farmers planted 49 scarecrows outside parliament on Monday to represent the 49% of farmers who say they are on the brink of leaving the industry due to “unfair” treatment by the country’s powerful supermarket chains.
Supermarkets are “bringing British farming to its knees,” Guy Singh-Watson, founder of the fruit and vegetable box delivery firm Riverford Organic, told AFP, adding that government policies failed to adequately support the sector and were rarely enforced.
And there are predictions the rural unrest could spread to other parts of the EU, too.
“There is talk of protest in Italy and Spain,” said Christiane Lambert, head of Europe’s leading farmers’ union, the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organizations (COPA).
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US Strikes Back at Iran-Supported Militants in Iraq
pentagon — United States military aircraft hit Iranian-backed proxies in Iraq in response to a series of attacks against U.S. and coalition forces in recent days.
U.S. officials said the airstrikes, launched in the early morning hours (12:15 a.m.) Wednesday local time, targeted three facilities in western Iraq used by Kataib Hezbollah and other Iranian proxy groups.
“These strikes targeted KH [Kataib Hezbollah] headquarters, storage, and training locations for rocket, missile, and one-way attack UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] capabilities,” according to a statement from U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the region.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned, separately, that Washington is not ruling out additional strikes, if necessary.
“We do not seek to escalate conflict in the region,” Austin said in a statement, adding, “We are fully prepared to take further measures to protect our people and our facilities.”
“We call on these groups and their Iranian sponsors to immediately cease these attacks,” he said.
The new U.S. strikes came shortly after Iranian-backed militants attacked Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq with one-way attack drones.
The base was also targeted on Saturday by a barrage of ballistic missiles launched from inside Iraq. While most of the missiles were shot down, Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said those that landed on base caused traumatic brain injuries in four U.S. personnel.
More than 150 attacks on US forces
There have been more than 150 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since the October 7 Hamas terror attack against Israel, injuring at least 83 Americans in Iraq and Syria, a U.S. defense official told VOA. All but two have returned to duty.
Earlier Tuesday, the United States military stuck an anti-ship missile in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen that was prepared to launch and posed an imminent threat to maritime vessels, according to Ryder.
The attack followed a series of strikes into Yemen by U.S. and British warplanes, backed by surface ships and submarines, that aimed at further degrading the capabilities of the Iranian-backed Houthi militants who have sought to carry out attacks against key shipping lanes in the Middle East.
U.S. defense officials said the strikes hit multiple targets across eight locations, including an underground storage facility as well as missile launch sites and other locations linked to Houthi surveillance capabilities.
The strike locations were intentionally selected to target weapons systems, not to amass casualties, a senior military official told reporters. The official assessed the underground storage facility had “more advanced conventional weaponry” in it than sites hit in the first round of strikes on January 11.
UN leader urges ‘all parties to step back’
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged “all parties to step back from the brink and to consider the horrendous human cost of a regional conflict.”
Ryder told reporters in response to a question from VOA that the U.S. was “not at war” in the Middle East.
“Our goal here is to ensure the Red Sea is safe and secure for international shipping. That is our only goal,” he added.
The Red Sea route carries about 15% of the world’s maritime traffic. Major shipping companies have responded to the attacks by rerouting vessels on the longer and more expensive route around Africa.
A U.S. defense official said Monday the decline in the number and the ferocity of the Houthis’ maritime attacks was directly attributed to the reduction in their capabilities.
“That does not mean they have no more capability, but we definitely believe that has had an impact,” another U.S. official said.
Since mid-November, the Houthis have launched 33 attacks on international shipping lanes, according to the Pentagon. The Houthis say their attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza under attack from Israel.
Many of the Houthi attacks have targeted ships that are not associated with Israel.
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Appeals Court Rejects Trump’s Bid to Reconsider Gag Order in Election Interference Case
washington — Washington’s federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump’s request to reconsider a gag order restricting the former president’s speech in the case charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election.
Lawyers for the Republican presidential front-runner had asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to examine the gag order after a three-judge panel upheld but narrowed the restrictions on his speech. Trump can now appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
An attorney for Trump did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The gag order was imposed by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in October in response to concerns from special counsel Jack Smith’s team that Trump’s pattern of incendiary comments could taint the proceedings, intimidate witnesses and influence jurors.
The three-judge panel that upheld the gag order last month modified it in important ways, freeing Trump to publicly criticize Smith. The special counsel has been a frequent target of Trump’s ire since being appointed by the Justice Department in November 2022 to lead investigations into the former president.
The panel said that though Trump could make general comments about known or foreseeable witnesses, he could not directly attack them over their involvement in the case or about the content of their expected testimony.
Trump’s lawyers argued the panel’s decision contradicted Supreme Court precedent and rulings from other appeals courts. They said a fresh evaluation was needed “both to secure uniformity of this Court’s decisions and because of the question’s exceptional importance.”
A different three-judge panel of the appeals court in Washington is separately weighing Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution in the case, which accuses him of plotting with his Republican allies to subvert the will of voters in a bid to stay in power. Chutkan, who rejected Trump’s immunity claim, has put the case on hold while he pursues his appeal.
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Gaza War Provides Rare Common Ground for Iran, Turkey
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is due to visit Turkey on January 24 for a summit with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the Israel-Hamas war topping the agenda. The two leaders have been vocal in their support for Hamas, but rivalries remain as Tehran and Ankara compete for influence in the Caucasus and Syria. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Upcycling Flip-Flops: Kenya-Based Company Turns Discarded Footwear Into Colorful Art
Nairobi, Kenya — Being the preferred choice of footwear for many, flip-flops – typically made of plastic or rubber – break easily and often aren’t disposed of properly. Therefore, millions of them end up in oceans, waterways, dumpsites, and landfills all over the world.
Ocean Sole, a Kenya-based company, has found creative and functional ways to reuse the hundreds of thousands of discarded flip-flops that arrive regularly at their warehouse located in Karen, about 45 minutes from Nairobi’s city center.
Joe Mwakiremba has been working for the company for about 10 years. He says the company was “founded on the premise of cleaning our ocean and waterways [while] at the same time employing lots of artists from high-impact communities in Kenya.”
He told VOA that flip-flops are generally collected from weekly beach cleanups and other places.
At Ocean Sole, they usually weigh the material and pay collectors about 18 cents per kilogram. Then, to prepare them for carving, they are first hand-washed, one flip-flop at a time.
“The next stage for our smaller and medium-size sculptures, we have a die cut machine that would punch out a template of a giraffe, a lion or a rhino. Those templates are joined together with glue and carved out into that respective animal,” he notes.
For life-size pieces, the company reuses an additional material.
“The big piece like this couch I am sitting on, the inside of it is polystyrene. Polystyrene comes from shipping companies; they use it as insulation. When it’s worn out, they toss it away, so we carve out our big-size sculpture like the giraffe behind me using that material and pad it using the flip flops around it,” he expressed.
Using a machine, the pieces are then sanded before being cleaned again and readied for shipment.
In 2023, the company said it recycled 750,000 flip-flops. This year it aims to recycle one million.
Florence Auma is an artist who has been working for the company for 14 years. Auma told VOA she had to learn the art of carving from scratch.
“I came into this company, washing flip-flops. I started with washing, then I started with blocking, then I am the first female carver in this company. Now, I am happy because I have many skills in this company,” she says.
Skills, she says, that have allowed her to be able to carve just about anything — like coasters — and to travel the world to showcase her talent.
Mwakiremba told us one of the largest pieces the company made was a life-size car for a Honda dealership in the United States. They spent three months on the project, using 2,500 flip flops.
Ocean Sole is now collaborating with a design artist from Uganda who now lives in Finland and founded a studio there, in one of their biggest projects to date.
It’s a project they had planned to work on together in 2019 but had to pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lincoln Kayiwa – who has used material such as ceramic, granite, wood, and glass — has decided to try something new with flip flops.
He recently traveled to Kenya to finalize a furniture project to be launched in April during Milan Design Week — Salone del Mobile — in Italy.
To cook up this kind of project, Kayima told us he wanted to combine different elements, including a unique design concept with a meaningful product combined with his Ugandan and Finnish cultures — and that of Kenyans at Ocean Sole.
“The project itself has 14 pieces; you are just seeing three of them … of course it’s a win-win situation; the more flip-flops are used, that means the more flip-flops are being taken out of the environment. For me that’s the meaning of sustainability,” the Alvar Aalto University graduate said.
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United Questions Future Boeing 737 Orders After Groundings
New York — United Airlines cast doubt Tuesday on future orders and deliveries of Boeing 737s after it was forced to ground dozens of planes following the dramatic Alaska Airlines incident earlier this month.
The U.S. airline grounded its fleet of 79 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft on January 6, a day after a panel blew off the Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight, leaving a hole in the fuselage and forcing an emergency landing.
Although there were no fatalities or serious injuries in the January 5 incident, U.S. regulators grounded 171 jets from the 737 Max 9 fleet with the same configuration as the plane involved in that drama.
United announced Monday that it predicts the aircraft will remain out of action through the end of January, leading to losses in the first quarter of 2024.
In a conference call Tuesday, United’s chief financial officer Michael Leskinen said 31 out of the 107 aircraft United expects to take delivery of this year are Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft.
“It is unrealistic at this time to believe all of those aircraft will deliver as currently planned,” he said.
Alongside its Max 9 orders, United also has 277 as-yet-uncertified Boeing 737 Max 10 aircraft on order through the rest of the 2020s, and options to purchase 200 further aircraft, Leskinen told the conference call.
“We also expect a reduction in orders and deliveries from Boeing in 2025,” he said, noting that orders of 737 Max 10s would also likely be affected.
The Max grounding was “kind of straw that broke the camel’s back with believing that the Max 10 will deliver on the schedule we had hoped for,” he said.
“So we are working through an alternate plan,” he added.
United’s shares were up almost seven percent in mid-day trading, following the release of strong fourth-quarter results after the market closed Monday, while Boeing’s shares slipped by around 0.7 percent.
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Hobbit-Style Bomb Shelter Helps Ease Stress for Ukrainian Children
School volunteers in the Kyiv region of Ukraine constructed a bomb shelter resembling a house straight out of “The Hobbit” films. The school had been destroyed at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. After the volunteers rebuilt it, they added the whimsical shelter for the students. Lesia Bakalets has the story from Kyiv. Videographer: Evgenii Shynkar
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US Defense Secretary Makes First Public Appearance, Virtually, Since Hospitalization
WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday made his first public appearance, virtually and from home, since his secret hospitalization, during a meeting on Ukraine’s military needs.
He skipped over prepared remarks that would have addressed his health.
Austin, 70, was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland on December 22 to treat prostate cancer. He returned to the hospital on January 1 due to complications, including a urinary tract infection. His hospitalization was not revealed until four days later, and the Pentagon did not specify why he was being treated until January 9.
Austin’s failure to tell President Joe Biden he was hospitalized drew criticism from lawmakers and caught the White House by surprise.
Austin appeared on the livestream for a few minutes as he made his opening remarks. He was sitting in front of a white wall with what appeared to be a security system keypad on his left and a Department of Defense seal on the right, with small U.S. and Ukrainian flags on top of a printer next to it.
While there was a slight break in the livestream, Austin did not address his health, even though the topic was in his prepared remarks.
He is not expected to take part in a joint press conference with the top U.S. general after the meeting, something that has become routine after such gatherings.
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Ukrainian Soldiers Share Experiences Battling Russian Tanks
The Ukrainian 80th Separate Galician Air Assault Brigade have been using Ukrainian equipment to take out Russian armored vehicles since the start of the war. Anna Kosstutschenko talked with some of the veteran fighters. (Camera and Produced by: Pavel Suhodolskiy)
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Kenyan Based Company Turns Hundreds of Thousands of Flip-Flops Into Colorful Artwork
Being the preferred choice of footwear for many, flip-flops — typically made of plastic or rubber — break easily and don’t get disposed of properly. Millions of them, therefore, end up in oceans, waterways, dumpsites and landfills all over the world. A Kenya-based company has found creative and functional ways to reuse them. VOA Nairobi Bureau Chief Mariama Diallo visited their warehouse located in Karen, about 45 minutes from the city center, and has this report. Camera: Amos Wangua
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Blinken Expresses US Commitment to Boosting Africa Partnerships
State Department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the United States is committed to growing its partnerships across the African continent and increasingly sees African countries “leading on issues of global consequence.”
Speaking to reporters alongside Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara after talks in Abidjan, Blinken said the discussion included growing commercial ties to create jobs and growth in both the U.S. and Ivory Coast, as well as investing in public health initiatives and addressing regional security challenges.
Blinken said the United States and Ivory Coast “have a strong and growing bond.”
Blinken’s visit to Ivory Coast is seen as reflecting U.S. interests in the country’s stability and its preparations for the 2025 presidential election.
The U.S. and international community are concerned about stability in the Sahel sub-region of West Africa following several coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger since 2020.
Ivory Coast borders three countries that have experienced coups in recent years: Guinea in September 2021; Mali in both August 2020 and May 2021; and Burkina Faso in January and September of 2022.
The United States announced $45 million in new funding to aid Ivory Coast and its neighbors in preventing conflict and promoting stability amid regional threats. This contribution brings the total U.S. stability-focused assistance in Coastal West Africa to nearly $300 million since 2022.
From Ivory Coast, Blinken is traveling Tuesday to Nigeria where he is set to hold talks with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar in Abuja.
Regional security talks in Nigeria
Nigeria shares a border with Niger, where the military ousted its elected leader, Mohamed Bazoum, on July 26, 2023, and subsequently scrapped defense agreements with France, its traditional security partner.
In Abuja, Blinken is anticipated to discuss the military coup in Niger. The meeting comes just days after the country’s military junta agreed to enhance relations with Russia.
American officials have stated that while the U.S. is open to countries diversifying their partnerships, aligning with nations like Russia could be problematic. They point to the situation in Mali, where rising civilian casualties and security issues have followed Russian paramilitary Wagner Group’s involvement and France’s withdrawal.
The French military withdrawal from the Sahel and the end of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali in December have heightened concerns over regional security.
Nigeria is the largest country by population and economy in sub-Saharan Africa, and the dominant political, economic, and military power in the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS.
The United States is the largest foreign investor in Nigeria, and the U.S. maintains a significant security partnership with Nigeria in its counterterrorism operations against both Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa.
Cabo Verde
Blinken’s fourth African trip began Monday in Cape Verde and is scheduled to close in Angola. State Department officials said key priorities included bolstering security partnerships and enhancing health and economic development in the region.
In Cape Verde’s capital, Praia, Blinken held talks Monday with Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva and visited the city’s port, Porto da Praia, which received funding for modernization efforts from the U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation.
“It is extraordinary that Cabo Verde is the first country to complete two Millennium Challenge Corporation compacts, and now you’re starting to build a third one,” said Blinken.
He also congratulated Cabo Verde’s malaria-free certification by the World Health Organization.
Millennium Challenge Compacts are grant agreements designed to fund specific programs that support economic growth.
Silva said Cabo Verde shares values of democracy and good governance with the U.S. in its foreign policy.
“We strongly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we condemned the terrorist act of Hamas in Israel, and we defend solutions that make the two states of Israel and Palestine viable,” he said. “We condemn coup d’etat and changes to constitutional term limits for presidents of the republic that have occurred in Africa.”
Cabo Verde is a small island nation that has a large diaspora in the United States.
The U.S. and Cabo Verde signed a Memorandum of Understanding on defense cooperation in December 2022, focusing on maritime security.
Angola and Luanda Process
In a Monday call, Blinken spoke to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Félix Tshisekedi and discussed the concerns of election observers as well as the need to enhance democratic confidence moving forward.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement that they also discussed the crisis in eastern DRC and potential diplomatic solutions.
Following a contentious December election, Tshisekedi, sworn in Saturday for a second term, pledged to unify the country and address conflicts in the east.
The worsening conflicts in eastern Congo have prompted countries in the region to broker two peace initiatives: the so-called Luanda Process and the Nairobi Process, according to Molly Phee, assistant secretary of state for African Affairs.
Increasing tensions between Rwanda and the DRC have led to several alleged attacks by Congolese and Rwandan forces on each other’s territory.
Angola leads the Luanda Process, where Blinken plans to hold talks with Angolan President João Lourenço and Foreign Minister Téte António.
Last week, Blinken met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he reiterated the need for all actors to take concrete steps to ease tensions.
Last November, Avril Haines, the director of U.S. national intelligence, traveled to both Kinshasa and Kigali, meeting with leaders from the two neighboring countries to secure a commitment to de-escalate tensions in eastern DRC.
“We were able to institute a process of weekly check-ins that we undertook through the end of calendar year 2023,” Phee told reporters during a Thursday briefing.
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Storm Isha Batters Britain and Ireland, Kills 2, Leaves Thousands in Dark
london — Two motorists were killed, tens of thousands of people were left without electricity and hundreds of trains were canceled Monday after the latest winter storm lashed Britain and Ireland with heavy rain and wind gusts that topped 100 mph (160 kph).
The storm littered roads and railways with downed trees that created deadly hazards and blocked travel, disrupting morning commutes. On Sunday night, an 84-year-old male passenger in a car in Scotland and a van driver in his 60s in Northern Ireland were killed when their vehicles struck toppled trees.
The U.K.’s Met Office weather service had issued an unusual wind warning for the whole country before Storm Isha, which peaked overnight after exceeding forecasts for 90 mph (145 kph) gusts.
The Tay Road Bridge, a 1.4-mile (2.2-kilometer) span over the River Tay estuary in Scotland, recorded a 107 mph (172 kph) gust, it announced on social media. A 99-mph (159-kph) gust was recorded at Brizlee Wood radar station in northeastern England, the weather service said.
Ireland and the U.K. have been hammered since fall by gusty, wet storms that have knocked out power and caused flooding along river valleys. Isha is the ninth named storm since September and a 10th, named Jocelyn by the Irish forecaster Met Eireann, is due to bring more wind and rain Tuesday and Wednesday.
The railway operator for Scotland halted train service Sunday night, and service was disrupted through most of Monday morning. Network Rail, which owns the railway infrastructure in England, Scotland and Wales, placed speed limits on most lines to prevent engines from running into debris, leading to delays.
Several major roads in Scotland and northern England were shut because of high winds, downed trees or overturned trucks. Chief Superintendent Davy Beck of the Police Service of Northern Ireland said many roads there remained impassable Monday morning.
In County Antrim in Northern Ireland, three trees were blown down at Dark Hedges, a roadway lined with majestic beeches that became a popular tourist destination after being featured as Kingsroad in the TV series “Game of Thrones.”
The trees are said to be about 250 years old and are approaching the end of their typical life span. Several have been toppled by other storms.
“This is another blow to the Dark Hedges,” said Mervyn Storey, chair of the Dark Hedges Preservation Trust. “In fact, one of the trees that was healthy has been blown down. It is very sad.”
In North Yorkshire in northern England, firefighters rescued several people trapped in flooded vehicles.
“It was definitely a terrifying experience at the time,” Charlie Curry told ITV news after her rescue in Morton-on-Swale.
In Huddersfield outside Leeds in Northern England, an Alpaca shed was blown into the road, the local council warned on X, formerly Twitter.
Planes bound for several airports were diverted, including flights bound for Dublin that ended up in France.
Power was being restored throughout Monday. At one point, about 230,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in Ireland, and 40,000 lacked power in neighboring Northern Ireland.
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Families of Israeli Hostages Demand They Not Be Forgotten
Israeli officials say Hamas is still holding 136 Israelis who were taken hostage Oct. 7, the start of the war in Gaza. Families of some of those hostages are in the United States to raise awareness about an issue they fear has been fading since the collapse of a November cease-fire. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya has our story.
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Abortion on Ballot in 2024, Biden Says; Harris on Swing Through Key States
Abortion is on the ballot in 2024, the White House says, with Vice President Kamala Harris crisscrossing the country to equate the Biden campaign with protection and expansion of reproductive rights, and Republican candidates speaking of possible federal abortion bans. This leaves the ultimate choice on this sensitive issue to American voters. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
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