Month: March 2024

Lithuania Blames Russia for Hammer Attack on Exiled Navalny Aide

Posted on by SeeEU

vilnius, lithuania — Lithuania blamed Moscow on Wednesday for an overnight attack by a hammer-wielding assailant on an exiled top aide to late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny outside the aide’s home in Vilnius. 

President Gitanas Nauseda said the attack on Leonid Volkov was clearly planned and tied to other provocations against Lithuania, which is a member of NATO and the European Union. 

“I can only say one thing to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin: nobody is afraid of you here,” Nauseda said. 

Lithuania’s State Security Department counter-intelligence agency said the attack was probably carried out to stop the Russian opposition from influencing Russia’s presidential election.  

Russia’s embassy in Vilnius declined to comment on the accusations.  

Putin, in power for nearly a quarter of a century, is expected to extend his rule by a further six years in the March 15-17 election. 

The Kremlin views Navalny’s team as “the most dangerous opposition force capable of exerting real influence on Russia’s internal processes,” the Lithuanian security agency said. 

Volkov himself pointed the finger directly at Putin. In a post on Telegram, he said he had returned home on Wednesday morning after a night in a hospital, having suffered a broken arm and injuries from about 15 hammer blows to the leg. 

“This is an obvious, typical criminal ‘hello’ from Putin, from criminal Petersburg,” Volkov wrote. 

“We will keep on working and we will not surrender,” he added. “It hard but we’ll handle it. … It’s good to know I’m still alive.” 

Navalny, Putin’s most prominent critic, died last month in an Arctic prison. Russian authorities say he died of natural causes. His followers believe he was killed by the authorities, which the Kremlin denies. 

In an interview with Reuters hours before Tuesday night’s assault, Volkov said leaders of Navalny’s movement in exile feared for their lives. 

“They know that Putin not only kills people inside Russia, he also kills people outside of Russia,” Volkov said in the interview. “We live in very dark times.” 

Former Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh posted images of Volkov with a bruise on his forehead, blood coming from a leg wound, and a vehicle with damage to the driver’s door and window. 

A lone police car could be seen on patrol on Wednesday afternoon outside Volkov’s house, in a pine forest on the outskirts of the Lithuanian capital. 

Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the perpetrators must “answer for their crime.” 

Lithuania’s police commissioner Renatas Pozela said police were investigating the assault. 

He said the attack did not mean that Lithuania was no longer safe. The Baltic nation of 2.8 million people, which borders Russia and Belarus, has become a base for Russian and Belarusian opposition figures. 

“This is a one-time event which we will successfully solve. … Our people should not be afraid because of this,” Pozela said. 

The U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania, Kara McDonald, condemned the attack on Volkov. 

“His resilience and courage in the face of recent attempts to silence and intimidate him are inspiring. The Navalny team remains an outspoken voice against Kremlin repression and brutality,” she said on X. 
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Nigeria Orders Creation of Police Base in Remote Community After Mass Kidnappings

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abuja, nigeria — Police in Nigeria have ordered the creation of a new base for officers and the deployment of special forces in a remote village in northwest Kaduna state, where nearly 300 students were abducted by armed bandits on March 7.

Nigerian police chief Kayode Egbetokun announced plans for the new base and the deployment during a visit with Kaduna Governor Uba Sani on Tuesday.

He said the steps will help restore residents’ confidence in their safety while security forces continue the search for the missing students.

Last Thursday, armed bandits on motorbikes invaded an elementary school in the village of Kuriga in Kaduna state and abducted 287 school students — the highest single abduction of students in years.

Days later in a separate attack, bandits kidnapped 61 people from Kajuru district, about 150 kilometers miles away. 

The new police base will be in Kuriga and deployment of extra officers to the area has begun.

Egbetokun says authorities are working to secure the abductees’ release.

“We’re launching the special intervention squad for Kaduna state,” Egbetokun said. “If only to give confidence to the people, the men will be deployed and with the support that you have pledged to give, I’m sure that the community will start to feel safe again.”

Sani said he is hopeful the police operations will succeed.

“We are extremely confident that the school children by the grace of God will return back home safely,” he said, “and I’m happy by the decision of the inspector general of police to quickly deploy mobile base in Kuriga community.”

Last week, local media reported more than 300 women and children who were gathering firewood were kidnapped in northeastern Borno state by Islamic militants.

Insecurity is a major challenge for President Bola Tinubu, who launched an initiative called “Renewed Hope” after assuming office last May.

The recent kidnappings are blamed, in part, on the absence of security forces in those remote areas.

Last month, the president met with all 36 state governors to discuss decentralizing Nigeria’s police force and creating a police arm for each state.

Analyst Kabiru Adamu of Beacon Security said, if organized properly, this could be a step in the right direction.

“There are gaps within the security architecture,” Adamu said. “I am supportive of the decentralization of policing but I think what we need more than anything is accountability. So that by the time we create state police, the accountability elements that have been created in the federal level will trickle down to the state level.”

Years of fighting Islamist militants and crime gangs have stretched Nigerian security forces thin.

Many are hoping the creation of new bases and state police arms will help keep the kidnappers away.
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US Senator Cruz: Iran’s Treatment of Jailed Iranian German Dissident ‘Barbaric’

Posted on by SeeUS

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Trump or Biden – Whom Does China Prefer?

Posted on by SeeEA

As the U.S. election campaign heats up, both President Joe Biden and his likely challenger, Donald Trump, are vowing to take a tough stance on China. So how does China feel about the race? VOA’s Bill Gallo asked Beijing residents to weigh in on the two candidates. Mingmin Xuan contributed.
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Cameroon Homes and Plantations Destroyed by Seawater

Posted on by SeeAF

YAOUNDE — Cameroon officials have declared a humanitarian emergency after encroaching waters from the Atlantic Ocean destroyed several hundred homes, buildings and plantations along Cameroon’s coast. 

Waves pound walls and houses constructed on the shores of Bekumu, a southern Cameroon village located in Ndian,  an administrative unit along parts of Cameroon’s 400-kilometer coast on the Atlantic Ocean. 

The images broadcast on Cameroon state TV this week show civilians crying out for help.

“If the government does not help immediately, if the government does not do something urgently, I don’t believe Bekumu will exist again. The water level is so high. What is this, oh God.”

The civilian is not identified in the video, but the Bekumu Village Development Committee, in a release, said it shared images of the civilian crying out for help to raise awareness of the fate that has befallen them.

Bekumu villagers say encroaching seawater this week has destroyed homes, public buildings and plantations, and rendered several hundred people homeless.

The Cameroon government says high waves swept through Bekumu destroying coastal villages, plantations, schools, churches and markets.

Civilians say they lack potable water after seawater swept and emptied waste water in streams that are considered a source of drinkable water. 

Sangi John is the traditional ruler of Bekumu village. Speaking to VOA on Wednesday via a messaging app, he said it is the first time encroaching waters from the Atlantic Ocean have caused so much havoc in Bekumu. He said strong sea waves early Wednesday pulled down parts of school buildings and churches where homeless civilians rushed for shelter.

“The disaster is so serious, the water has washed from the schools to people’s houses, right to all churches. The water is everywhere. I am appealing for the government to help us,” he said.

Sangi said scores of civilians have relocated to safer villages while three dozen others are trapped in creeks waiting for help to relocate. He said hunger looms as several hundred hectares of farmland are currently being destroyed by water.

Fishermen, farmers and merchants constitute 75 percent of the population of affected villages.  They say economic activity has nosedived because of the encroaching ocean waters that also killed goats and washed away poultry farms.

In August of last year when seawater swept through the coastal town of Kribi, swallowing homes and plantations, CEMAC, a six member state economic bloc that groups Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo, said the ongoing rise in sea levels was potentially catastrophic for an economic bloc for whom 30 percent of civilians live along the coastline.

The Cameroon government has always blamed global warming and rising sea levels for the encroaching of ocean water into its coastal lands. 

Cameroon’s ministry of agriculture says the ongoing floods in Ndian add to the humanitarian emergency it declared following food shortages because of floods in several parts of the central African state. The government says it has dispatched humanitarian workers and specialized services of its military to rescue civilians but gave no further details.   
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Are They Part of China’s ‘Gang of Three’ or Just Xi’s Minions?

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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — As China’s biggest political meeting of the year wrapped up Monday, analysts highlighted how power in the world’s second-largest economy continues to consolidate under leader Xi Jinping. Some were also discussing two other prominent politicians — Premier Li Qiang and Xi’s Chief of Staff, Cai Qi — and the role they play in Xi’s China.

Li and Cai are members of the Chinese Communist Party’s top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee. Li is ranked second on the PSC, and Cai is ranked fifth. Both are seen as Xi loyalists who were handpicked by China’s leader to serve in their current roles.

They also have ties with Xi that stretch back decades.

Cai worked with Xi in the 1980s when he was posted in China’s southern coastal province of Fujian. They later worked together in Zhejiang, where Xi rose to the post of provincial party secretary.

Li also worked with Xi in Zhejiang, where he held various posts, including party secretary of Shanghai, before rising to his current position as premier.

Some analysts say that during this year’s Two Sessions, the power of Li, who as premier oversees economic decision-making, was weakened, while the power of Cai, who is responsible for maintaining stability, is on the rise, given China’s growing emphasis on national security.

Hsin-hsien Wang, a distinguished professor at the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies at National Chengchi University in Taipei, says one major focus of this year’s meetings was a revision of the Organic Law of the State Council, China’s cabinet. The changes to the law — the first since 1982 — gave the party more executive control over the State Council.

“Li Qiang is responsible for the affairs of the State Council, including economy, society, industry and development, while Cai Qi is responsible for security and party affairs,” 

Wang said. “This division of labor is becoming more and more clear, so some people overseas say it is the ‘Gang of Three,’ meaning Xi, Li Qiang and Cai Qi.”

China also abandoned a 30-year tradition during this year’s meetings when it canceled the premier’s press conference at the end of the meetings. Both moves, analysts say, downgrade the status of Li and the State Council he presides over.

In contrast, Cai is ranked fifth in China’s leadership chain but is the first in that position to become a top aid to the president since the time of China’s former revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. He has accompanied Xi on numerous foreign trips and in meetings with foreign leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden last November.

Willy Lam, a senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation in Hong Kong, says that since winning an unprecedented third five-year term in 2022, X has emphasized that the party leads everything, including the economic and financial fields.

Lam says Xi’s concentration of power even exceeds that of Mao.

“Even in Mao’s era, when [he] wanted to keep all the power in his own hands, Mao still had to [delegate] part of the power, especially because Mao didn’t know much about economics. So, he still [handed it over to] people like Chen Yun and Deng Xiaoping in the party who knew a little bit about economics.”

Cai Shenkun, a U.S.-based independent social media commentator with 288,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, agrees and calls Li and Cai nothing more than “minions who take orders in front of Xi.”

But other analysts, such as Deng Yuwen, say both men still have their own interests and are highly competitive with each other. Deng, a political commentator and former deputy editor at the party journal Study Times, coined the phrase the “Gang of Three” to refer to the Xi-Li-Cai power circle.

The phrase is a reference to the “Gang of Four” that was led by Mao Zedong’s wife, Jiang Qing, during China’s tumultuous Cultural Revolution. Deng sees similarities between the political power dynamics of Xi, Li and Cai today and those of Mao, his wife and Lin Biao, another key leader at that time.

Lin Biao was one of Mao’s greatest supporters and at one time his designated successor, but he died in a mysterious plane crash in 1971 while allegedly fleeing China as a “traitor,” according to China’s Communist Party. Scholars point out the lack of evidence to support the party’s version of events and some believe he was fleeing from a possible purge.

Jiang Qing was a powerful player during China’s Cultural Revolution from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, a movement that suppressed traditional Chinese culture and led to the persecution and deaths of millions. She was purged after Mao’s death in 1976 and imprisoned as a member of the “Gang of Four,” which was blamed for the extremism of the Maoist movement.

Deng says that Li and Cai take orders from Xi just like Lin and Jiang did from Mao. But unlike Lin Biao, whose influence over the military gave him a power base that was seen as a challenge to Mao, Li and Cai are “completely relying on Xi’s hand. … Therefore, in terms of their relationship with Xi, the two have no capital to dare to disobey Xi.”

Still, Deng says he believes Li is looking to be appointed as Xi’s successor.

Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political sciences at the National University of Singapore, says Li and Cai must tread carefully so as not to show too much ambition or else they will not only arouse Xi’s suspicion but also that of their peers. Chong says looking back on the communist party’s history, whoever emerged too early as a possible successor was likely to have trouble.

“I think that in such an environment, it is difficult for them to pursue a certain position more formally,” Chong tells VOA.  “If you do it too obviously, you will become a target.”

National Chengchi University’s Wang says Xi’s succession is not yet an issue and may not be for years to come as he could always be reelected by his peers for an unprecedented fourth term in 2027.

China’s National People’s Congress in 2018 eliminated term limits for the president, which could allow the 70-year-old Xi to remain head of state for life.
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Nigerian Filmmakers Optimistic After Box Office Milestone

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The Nigerian film industry, often referred to as Nollywood, is the second largest moviemaker in the world in terms of volume, and is making strides both in terms of art and in popularity at the box office. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
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Research Highlights Migrants Pay Gap in Australia

Posted on by SeeEA

SYDNEY — A report released Wednesday shows migrants are paid less than Australian-born workers.  

The Committee for Economic Development of Australia, an independent policy advocacy organization, has found migrants often work in jobs beneath their skill levels and can suffer discrimination.

The look into migration highlights missed opportunities for Australia.  

The policy group asserts that about $2.64 billion in foregone wages would be unlocked each year if migrants earned comparable salaries to Australian-born workers.  

The study found that migrants who have been in Australia for between two to six years earn around 10% less than their locally born counterparts.

The report found the biggest losers were female migrants with a postgraduate degree, who earned on average 31% less than Australian-born women in the workforce with similar qualifications.

The survey’s authors have urged the Canberra government to better recognize the international qualifications of migrants to help address severe skills shortages and to combat discrimination in the workplace.

The committee also said there should be a renewed emphasis on providing better English language tuition to new settlers. 

Melinda Cilento, the chief executive of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Wednesday that urgent action is needed.

“What we are finding is that people who come from non-English speaking backgrounds are the ones who are really struggling and that is one of the reasons why when we identify the (pay) gap, we are looking at English language ability,” she said. “It is one of the reasons why we think one of things you need to do is to actually improve English language training for people once they are in Australia.” 

There has been no response, so far, from the Labor government in Canberra.

But last December, the government released its migration strategy. It plans to reduce immigration numbers by half within two years, because it believes current levels are unsustainable. The number of international students will be cut, and there will be a greater effort to attract skilled workers from overseas.

In 2022, more than a half-million immigrants came to Australia, up from 170,000 the previous year in a post-COVID surge after the removal of pandemic border closures.  

Ministers also plan to crack down on international students who have enrolled at bogus colleges in Australia and have been exploiting the system to work and not study.

Most immigrants to Australia come from India and China. 

While Australia seeks to curb the immigration of workers and students, it also has strict refugee policies.  For more than a decade, the navy has been ordered to turn away boats carrying asylum seekers trying to reach Australia.  Those who evade the authorities are automatically detained until their claims are processed.   

Australia grants visas to about 20,000 refugees each year. 
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Berkeley to Return Parking Lot on Sacred Site to Ohlone Tribe

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SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco Bay Area parking lot that sits on top of a sacred tribal shell mound dating back 5,700 years has been returned to the Ohlone people by the Berkeley City Council after a settlement with developers who own the land.

Berkeley’s City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt an ordinance giving the title of the land to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a women-led, San Francisco Bay Area collective that works to return land to Indigenous people and that raised the funds needed to reach the agreement. 

“This was a long, long effort but it was honestly worth it because what we’re doing today is righting past wrongs and returning stolen land to the people who once lived on it,” said Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin. 

The nearly 1-hectare parking lot is the only undeveloped portion of the West Berkeley shell mound, a three-block area Berkeley designated as a landmark in 2000. 

Before Spanish colonizers arrived in the region, that area held a village and a massive shell mound with a height of 6 meters and the length and width of a football field that was a ceremonial and burial site. Built over years with mussel, clam and oyster shells, human remains, and artifacts, the mound also served as a lookout. 

The Spanish removed the Ohlone from their villages and forced them into labor at local missions. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Anglo settlers took over the land and razed the shell mound to line roadbeds in Berkeley with shells.

“It’s a very sad and shameful history,” said Berkeley City Councilmember Sophie Hahn, who spearheaded the effort to return the land to the Ohlone. 

“This was the site of a thriving village going back at least 5,700 years and there are still Ohlone people among us and their connection to this site is very, very deep and very real, and this is what we are honoring,” she added. 

The agreement with Berkeley-based Ruegg & Ellsworth LLC, which owns the parking lot, comes after a six-year legal fight that started in 2018 when the developer sued the city after officials denied its application to build a 260-unit apartment building with 50% affordable housing and along with retail and parking space. 

The settlement was reached after Ruegg & Ellsworth agreed to accept $27 million to settle all outstanding claims and to turn the property over to Berkeley. The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust contributed $25.5 million and Berkeley paid $1.5 million, officials said.

 

The trust plans to build a commemorative park with a new shell mound and a cultural center to house some of the pottery, jewelry, baskets and other artifacts found over the years and that are in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Corrina Gould, co-founder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, addressed council members before they voted, saying their vote was the culmination of the work of thousands of people over many years. 

The mound that once stood there was “a place where we first said goodbye to someone,” she said. “To have this place saved forever, I am beyond words.”

Gould, who is also tribal chair of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Ohlone, attended the meeting via video conference and wiped away tears after Berkeley’s City Council voted to return the land.

 
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UN: Childhood Deaths at Record Low, but Progress ‘Precarious’

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UNITED NATIONS — The number of children worldwide who died before age 5 reached a record low in 2022, the United Nations said in a report published Tuesday, as for the first time fewer than 5 million died.

According to the estimate, 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2022, a 51% decrease since 2000 and a 62% drop since 1990, according to the report, which still warned such progress is “precarious” and unequal.

“There is a lot of good news, and the major one is that we have come to a historic level of under-five mortality, which … reached under 5 million for the first time, so it is 4.9 million per year,” Helga Fogstad, director of health at the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, told AFP.

According to the report, prepared by UNICEF in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, progress was particularly notable in developing countries such as Malawi, Rwanda and Mongolia, where early childhood mortality has fallen by more than 75% since 2000.

“Behind these numbers lie the stories of midwives and skilled health personnel helping mothers safely deliver their newborns … vaccinating … children against deadly diseases, and [making] home visits to support families,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

But “this is a precarious achievement,” the report warned. “Progress is at risk of stagnation or reversal unless efforts are taken to neutralize the numerous threats to newborn and child health and survival.”

Researchers pointed to already worrying signs, saying that reduction in under-5 deaths has slowed at the global level and notably in the sub-Saharan Africa region.

In total, 162 million children under the age of 5 have died since 2000, 72 million of whom perished in the first month of life, as complications related to birth are among the main causes of early childhood mortality.

Between the ages of 1 month and 5 years, respiratory infections, malaria and diarrhea become the main killers — ailments that are all preventable, the report points out.

To reach the U.N.’s goal of reducing under-5 deaths to 25 per 1,000 births by 2030, 59 countries will need urgent investment in children’s health, researchers warned. And without adequate funding, 64 countries will miss the goal of limiting first-month deaths to 12 per 1,000 births.

“These are not just numbers on a page; they represent real lives cut short,” the report said.

The numbers also reveal glaring inequalities across the world, as the sub-Saharan Africa region accounted for half of all deaths of children under age 5 in 2022.

Babies born in countries with high early childhood mortality, such as Chad, Nigeria or Somalia, are 80 times more likely to die before their 5th birthday than babies born in countries with low childhood mortality rates, such as Finland, Japan and Singapore.

“Where a child is born should not dictate whether they live or die,” WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
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Devastating Blast in China Kills 2, Injures 26

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Sanhe, China — A suspected gas leak caused a blast at a restaurant in China’s northern province of Hebei that ripped facades from buildings, damaged cars and scattered debris to kill two people and injure 26, state media and authorities said on Wednesday.

The blast happened at about 8 a.m. in the county of Sanhe, state broadcaster CCTV News said, roughly 30 kilometers from the center of Beijing.

Videos on social media platform Weibo showed a large orange fireball over the site, followed by billows of grey smoke, and scenes of the destroyed frontage of buildings, mangled cars, with glass shards in the streets, and some objects still ablaze.

A suspected gas leak triggered the accident in a shop selling fried chicken in the town of Yanjiao, city emergency officials said in a statement, drawing rescuers, firefighters,

health and other officials to the scene.

“I was at home when I heard a loud blast, I initially thought it might be a gunshot,” said Zhao Li, a woman who lives about a kilometer from the blast site.

“The loud explosion was accompanied by a crash of glass and clouds of smoke,” said Zhao, adding that police sealed off the street to the site.

The fire had been brought under control, fire officials said in an earlier statement, adding that 36 vehicles and 154 people had been dispatched to the site and were carrying out rescue work.

China’s latest deadly gas explosion at an eatery comes after the government issued detailed guidelines last year on the use of gas appliances and cookers to avert safety risks.

Social media posters on Weibo said the explosion occurred near a cultural center in the town. Construction of a metro line was taking place nearby, Chinese weekly the Economic Observer posted on its social media account.

City emergency authorities sent an investigation team, according to social media posts. Regional supplier Taida Gas suspended service in several surrounding areas, as a precaution to prevent secondary injuries, it said in a statement.

“Our company … will resume supply after ensuring safety,” it added in the statement, although it said it did not service the area where the shop is located.
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What is the Difference Between a Caucus and a Primary?

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Before a presidential election can be held, political parties must choose their nominees. That is done either through primaries or caucuses.
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Thailand’s Reformists Brace for Dissolution Decision

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BANGKOK — Thailand’s Election Commission is asking the country’s Constitutional Court to dissolve the main opposition Move Forward Party, citing the party’s campaign promises last year to amend a strict law that prohibits criticism of the country’s monarchy.

The Thai monarchy is central to society and is enshrined in the country’s constitution, with the king enthroned in a “position of revered worship.” 

Thailand’s Move Forward Party won the most seats in last year’s general elections in part on pledges to amend the country’s lèse-majesté law, a move the Election Commission argues was an attempt to overthrow the country’s monarchy. 

“The Election Commission has considered the results of the study and analyzed the decision of the Constitutional Court. It was unanimously decided to submit a petition to the Constitutional Court to order the dissolution of the Kaew Klai Party,” the commission said in a statement.

Article 92 of Thailand’s Political Parties Act states that if a court finds a political party guilty of seeking to overthrow the Thai monarchy, the electoral commission can gather evidence and petitions to present to the Constitutional Court to consider dissolving the party. According to the law, the party’s lawmakers could also be banned from politics for 10 years if the court finds the party guilty.

Parit Wacharasindhu, spokesperson for the Move Forward Party, said they were innocent.

“We have no intention to overthrow the democratic system with the king as the head of state. We will prove our innocence at the Constitutional Court,” he told local media.

Backed by millions of young voters last May, the Move Forward Party won the most seats in the country’s general elections, including 32 out of 33 constituencies in the Thai capital of Bangkok. 

But after the elections, the party was blocked from leading the government by Thailand’s military-appointed Senate when pro-royalists refused to endorse the party over its stance to amend the royal defamation law.

Members of the Move Forward Party declined to comment further when later contacted by VOA. The party has argued that its campaign to change Thailand’s strict law was aimed at preventing misuse of the law and strengthening the country’s constitutional monarchy.

Thailand’s lèse-majesté law, or Article 112 of its Criminal Code, prohibits criticism of the monarchy, and those who violate it are punished with lengthy jail sentences.

According to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights organization, at least 263 people faced charges under Thailand’s royal defamation law from July 18, 2020, through January 2024. In January, a 30-year-old Thai man was given a record sentence of 50 years in prison for breaking the law.

The potential dissolution and charges against the Move Forward Party show they are viewed as a substantial threat to Thailand’s pro-royalist elite, some experts say.

“The party will likely be dissolved, because conservative elites view Move Forward as an existential threat to the constitutional monarchy,” said Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington who focuses on Southeast Asia politics and security.

“The party leadership has been preparing for this; after all it is exactly what happened to Future Forward. They will quickly re-register it,” he told VOA. 

The Move Forward Party’s predecessor, the Future Forward Party, was controversially dissolved in 2020 after Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled the party had been receiving illegal donations. 

Its executives were also banned from politics for 10 years, decisions that sparked Thailand’s 2020 and 2021 protests when hundreds of thousands of youth demonstrators took to the streets in Bangkok calling for government and monarchy reform.

“The real problem is that the charismatic and widely known leadership will likely be red-carded and banned from politics for 10 years,” Abuza said of the Move Forward Party.

“This would be the second generation of leaders banned. That leaves the new party in a much weaker position when by-elections are held. There is also a real concern that voters, while supportive and sympathetic, will grow frustrated and elect politicians who can represent their interests on a daily basis,” he added.

Pita Limjaroenrat, a former candidate for prime minister, is hugely popular with his Move Forward supporters. But as well as facing a decade-long ban from politics should his party dissolve, he has also faced several other charges in recent months.

Although he survived a threat of political disqualification in January over allegations of having shares in a media company, he and seven others were sentenced by a Thai court to four months in jail, suspended for two years, over a flash mob rally in 2019.

VOA attempted to reach Pita for comment on the possible dissolution of the Move Forward Party but has yet to receive a reply.

Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political scientist at the Faculty of Political Science at Ubon Ratchathani University, said any dissolution will only spark a “rebirth” for the party. 

“[It’s] no surprise. It’s only reflecting the same old political game against the progressive party. If the party is dissolved, it’s not the end for Move Forward Party, as we see with the case of the Future Forward Party. The conservative move against Move Forward will only re-energize the rebirth of the party,” he told VOA.
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Classified Document Hearing Shows Stiff Partisan Divides on Biden’s Responsibility, Memory

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WASHINGTON — Members of Congress on Tuesday turned a hearing about President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents into a charged referendum on a question central to the upcoming presidential election: the 81-year-old’s mental fitness. 

The Biden administration and their main challengers, the backers of presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump, emerged from the House Judiciary Committee’s five-hour grilling of Special Counsel Robert Hur with radically different answers to that question.

They also starkly disagreed over Hur’s decision not to file criminal charges, despite concluding in his February report that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials as a private citizen.”

Criminal charges were not warranted, Hur argued in announcing his decision in early February, because, he said, Biden would likely present himself to a jury as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” — words that Republican legislators repeated, repeatedly, during the hearing. 

Afterward, Ian Sams, spokesperson for the White House counsel’s office, gave his take:

“The main thing I took away from the hearing today was that we had three hours of the Republicans showing just how hypocritical they’re willing to be in order to politically attack the president at the same time that they and the Democrats and the special counsel himself laid bare exactly why there is no case here,” he said.

“The case is closed, the evidence did not support bringing charges, and it’s over,” Sams said. “It’s time to move on.”

Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesperson for Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, offered his own conclusion.

“Joe Biden put America’s national security at risk with his illegal retention and disclosure of classified material,” he said. “Biden lied about his wrongdoing in a national press conference, which begs the question — what else is Joe Biden lying about?” 

Further muddying the picture on the matter is Hur’s own grammatically complex statement: 

“The word exoneration does not appear anywhere in my report and that is not my conclusion,” Hur said. 

A newly released transcript of Hur’s five-hour interview held last year with Biden, includes instances of Biden saying he couldn’t recall details or citing dates incorrectly, appearing to say in one instance that his eldest son died in 2017 and that Trump, who was elected in 2016, was “elected in November of 2017.”

“The transcript is now available for every American to see, for all media to see,” Sams said. He noted it shows that, despite the confusion over the year of Beau Biden’s death, it shows that Biden correctly cited the date: May 30. 

“I think that you saw the anger and emotional reaction of a father who still experiences the pain of that loss every single day,” Sams said. 

Many Republicans used their five-minute question periods to compare Biden’s situation to that of his challenger. Trump, too, faces criminal charges over his handling of classified documents after he left office. He was initially slapped with 37 felony counts, including charges that he obstructed justice by failing to return the documents even in response to a subpoena. It’s not clear when that case will go to trial. 

Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, in one sentence, took aim at the justice system and Biden’s mental acuity: “This guy’s not getting treated the same way as Trump, because the elevator is not going to the top floor, so we can’t prove intent.”

Democrats resisted that characterization. 

“Joe Biden is a competent, good president who knows American values,” Tennessee Representative Steve Cohen said.

Hur, in his opening statement, said he would “refrain from speculating or commenting on areas outside the scope of the investigation.”

But he also responded to criticism that he overstepped, saying he could not have reached the conclusion he did “without assessing the president’s state of mind.”

Other elected representatives chose not to ask Hur any questions, such as Missouri Representative Cori Bush, a Democrat, who described Hur’s report as a “partisan hit job” — though she said it was appropriate for both Trump and Biden to be investigated. 

“Our country deserves better than this,” she said of the hearing. 

Texas Representative Nathaniel Moran praised Hur’s efforts, asking him only yes-or-no questions and suggesting Biden could be ruled incompetent by a District of Columbia court and placed under guardianship. And he repeated the critical line from Hur’s report — words sure to echo over November’s presidential contest — although he prefaced it with an adjective, calling Biden a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
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Navalny Ally Volkov Hospitalized After Attack in Lithuania

Posted on by SeeEU

Vilnius, Lithuania — Leonid Volkov, a close ally of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was admitted to a hospital on Tuesday after being attacked outside his home in Lithuania, local police told AFP.

Volkov, 43, is one of Russia’s most prominent opposition figures and was a close confidant of Navalny, working as the late leader’s ex-chief of staff and as chairman of his Anti-Corruption Foundation until 2023.

“Leonid Volkov has just been attacked outside his house. Someone broke a car window and sprayed tear gas in his eyes, after which the attacker started hitting Leonid with a hammer,” Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on X, formerly Twitter.

Volkov’s wife, Anna Biryukova, shared photos of her husband’s injuries on social media, including a black eye, a red mark on his forehead and bleeding on his leg that had soaked through his jeans.

Navalny’s team later shared a photo of Volkov being carried into an ambulance on a stretcher.

Lithuanian police spokesperson Ramunas Matonis confirmed to AFP that a Russian citizen was assaulted near his home in the capital Vilnius around 10 p.m. local time.

“A lot of police are working at the scene,” Matonis said.

A suspect has not been identified and more details about the assault are expected on Wednesday morning, he added.

Police confirmed that Volkov had been admitted into a hospital.

The attack comes almost a month after Navalny’s death in an Arctic prison, which Volkov blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin, and days before elections set to extend the Kremlin chief’s stay in power.

The day before he was attacked, Volkov wrote on social media: “Putin killed Navalny. And many others before that.”

Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis condemned Volkov’s attack in a social media post.

“News about Leonid’s assault are shocking. Relevant authorities are at work. Perpetrators will have to answer for their crime,” he said on X.

NATO member Lithuania is home to many Russian exiles and has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine throughout Russia’s invasion.

Russian dissidents who have spoken out against the Kremlin often complain of being targeted with threats and attacks.

Volkov told the independent Russian news outlet Meduza hours before he was beaten on Tuesday that he was worried for his safety after Navalny’s death.

“The key risk now is that we will all be killed. Why, it’s a pretty obvious thing,” the outlet quoted him as saying.

Volkov went into exile in 2019 along with several of Navalny allies after authorities launched a criminal probe into the leader’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.

Volkov was declared wanted by Russian authorities in 2021 over his role in drumming up mass protests against the Kremlin together with Navalny.
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Russia Steps Up Spy War on West

Posted on by SeeEU

Russia has relaunched its spy operations against the West since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to analysts. Henry Ridgwell has more from London.
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Analysis: Does North Korea’s Kim Want Another Summit With Trump?

Posted on by SeeEA

washington — A re-elected U.S. President Donald Trump could well awaken the following day to a phone call inviting him to Pyongyang for a summit with Kim Jong Un, says a veteran of the two previous Trump-Kim summits in 2018 and 2019.

“If I were Kim Jong Un talking to my advisers in Pyongyang, I’d be thinking of whether I [should] call President-elect Trump the day after the election to congratulate him” and say, “Why don’t you come to Pyongyang? Let’s meet here,” says former Trump adviser John Bolton.

“And Trump might do it,” continued Bolton in an interview with VOA’s Korean Service on Friday.

Bolton served as national security adviser during the period in which Trump and Kim exchanged frequent letters and conducted summits in Singapore in June 2018 and Hanoi in February 2019, as well as an impromptu meeting at the inter-Korean border in June 2019.

The Hanoi summit broke down when Trump walked away from Kim’s offer to dismantle North Korea’s main nuclear plant at Yongbyon in exchange for sanctions relief, and Kim has refused to engage with the United States or South Korea since U.S.-North Korean talks broke down in Stockholm eight months later.

But Bolton said that does not rule out the possibility that Kim might try again, or that Trump might accept.

“The danger with another Trump administration is he prizes making deals more than the substance of the deals, which he often doesn’t understand in the international context,” said Bolton, who has frequently criticized the former president’s approach to foreign affairs since leaving his administration.

Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, told VOA via phone on Friday, “Kim Jong Un may very well believe that if there’s another summit, he can persuade Trump to lift international economic sanctions” and “weaken the U.S.-ROK [South Korea] alliance as Trump did in the Singapore meeting.”

At a news conference following his 2018 summit with Kim in Singapore, Trump announced the U.S. would suspend military drills with South Korea, describing them as “very provocative” and “tremendously expensive.”

Joint exercises resumed, however, under Trump’s successor, President Joe Biden. The U.S. and South Korea are currently holding the annual Freedom Shield exercise. It began on March 4 and will continue through Thursday.

Harry Kazianis, a senior editor at the website 19FortyFive and president of the Rogue States Project, thinks another Trump-Kim summit would be unlikely.

“Right now, North Korea is likely getting billions of dollars a year from Russia to help Putin arm his military in the Ukraine war and likely little sanctions enforcement from China. If those conditions were to hold, Kim has very little to gain from dealing with Trump,” he said.

But, he told VOA via email on Friday, Kim might need to engage with the American leader again if Trump were to bring the war in Ukraine to an end and successfully pressure China to enforce sanctions.

Scott Snyder, director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, said via email on Friday that Pyongyang has made clear it is not interested in talks.

For diplomacy to resume, he said “both sides would have to find a way of putting the Hanoi experience behind them and establishing a new modus vivendi and mutually beneficial rationales for pursuing a new relationship.”

Sangjin Cho contributed to this report.
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Pacific Allies React to Final Security Pact Funding Approval

Posted on by SeeUS

Critical funds to counter China in the Pacific are finally approved for three U.S. allies: Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Over the weekend, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law $7 billion over 20 years in funding for the Compacts of Free Association as part of a partial government funding bill. VOA’s Jessica Stone reports. Camera: Jessica Stone, Greg Harong
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US Providing $300 Million in New Ukraine Military Aid

Posted on by SeeEU

pentagon — The United States is providing a new round of military aid for Ukraine valued at up to $300 million, the first such announcement since late December, in what defense officials have called an “ad hoc” package made possible through U.S. Army procurement savings.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced the 55th presidential drawdown authority (PDA) package at the White House on Tuesday and said it would include artillery rounds and munitions for HIMARS, weapons desperately needed on the Ukrainian front lines where shortages abound.

The funding for this package came from savings garnered in “multiple contract actions over multiple months” where the Army was able to “buy things at a better price” than initially budgeted, according to senior defense officials who spoke to reporters on conditional of anonymity ahead of the White House announcement.

“This is a bit of an ad hoc or one-time shot. We don’t know if or when future savings will come in, and we certainly can’t count on this as a way of doing business,” one of the senior defense officials said.

In one example provided by the officials, the Army had initially estimated the cost of 25 mm rounds at $130 but was able to negotiate the price down to $93.

The savings were then placed back into the U.S. funding pot for Ukraine aid, a process that has happened several times but wasn’t considered as newsworthy during those times because the fund wasn’t “broke” before, according to defense officials.

$10 billion shortfall

The aid package comes despite a Pentagon funding shortfall of about $10 billion for U.S. military weapons needed to replace those already sent to Ukraine, a shortfall that requires additional money from Congress to fix, according to top defense officials.

“We don’t foresee a likely alternative outside of the supplemental funding [bill] or having that money added into an appropriations bill in order to achieve the replenishment that we need,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks told reporters on Monday.

Pentagon officials expected to get the funding to replenish those stocks in a supplemental request from the Biden administration, which included billions of additional dollars in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. However, Congress has yet to pass a supplemental aid bill because of arguments on spending and U.S. border security.

Because it has been 15 months since Congress last approved money to help Ukraine, defense officials say Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has expressed concerns about any future drawdowns.

The department still has about $4 billion in authority to send weapons to Ukraine, but there is no congressionally approved money left to replenish the Pentagon’s weapons stockpiles.

“We have the ability to move funds out of our stocks, but without the ability to replenish them, we are putting our own readiness at some risks,” according to one senior defense official.

The $10 billion shortfall is tied to the way the Pentagon has accounted for the aid sent to Ukraine. Last June, the Pentagon said it overestimated the value of weapons sent to Ukraine by about $6.2 billion over the past two years.

When calculating its aid package estimates, the Department of Defense was counting the cost incurred to replace the weapons given to Ukraine, while it said it should have been totaling the cost of the systems actually sent, officials told VOA at the time.

The error provided the Pentagon the legal cover needed to send more aid to Ukraine, but the problem remained that more funds would be needed to replenish U.S. military stockpiles with newer, costlier weapons.

Asked by VOA why the Pentagon was willing to use its savings to send more aid for Ukraine but was not willing to dip into this the $4 billion of remaining presidential drawdown authority, one of the senior defense officials told reporters that “the lack of clarity” from Congress on whether they will approve additional aid makes the Pentagon “very reluctant to dig the hole deeper.”

“In this case, we are not digging the hole deeper. We’re staying even, while recognizing that Ukraine is in a very tough spot this moment,” the defense official added.
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Turkey Faces Balancing Act With Somalia, Ethiopia

Posted on by SeeEU

Turkey’s new naval agreement with Somalia places the Turkish navy in a strategically vital region, underlining Ankara’s growing naval ambitions. However, analysts warn that the agreement threatens to escalate current tensions with Somalia’s neighbor Ethiopia. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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