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Month: March 2024
Ukrainians See Putin’s Reelection as Another Sign War Won’t End Soon
Like many people around the world, Ukrainians were not surprised by what was reported as President Vladimir Putin’s landslide victory in the Russian elections. Many see the outcome as another sign the war in Ukraine will not end anytime soon. For VOA, Anna Chernikova reports from Kyiv. Videography: Vladyslav Smilianets.
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Even Before Latest Violence, Thousands of Haitians Fled for US
Thousands of Haitians fled their country’s economic and political instability even before the latest outbreak of violence. The first stop for many is South America, where some try to work before heading for the United States. VOA’s Austin Landis met with one man on the Columbia-Panama border preparing to cross the treacherous Darien Gap. Camera: Jorge Calle
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Former Mississippi Deputy Sentenced to 40 Years in Torture of 2 Black Men
jackson, mississippi — A fourth former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in federal prison for his part in the racist torture of two Black men by a group of white officers who called themselves the “Goon Squad.”
Christian Dedmon, 29, did not look at the victims as he apologized and said he’d never forgive himself for the pain he caused.
All six former officers charged in the case pleaded guilty last year, admitting that they subjected Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to numerous acts of racist torture in January 2023 after a neighbor complained the men were staying in a home with a white woman. Prosecutors said Dedmon slapped the men with a sex toy and threatened to brutalize them with it.
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee said Wednesday that Dedmon carried out the most “shocking, brutal and cruel attacks imaginable” against Jenkins and Parker and against a white man during a traffic stop weeks earlier.
Jenkins, who still has trouble speaking because of his injuries, said in a statement read by his lawyer that Dedmon’s actions were the most depraved of any of those who attacked him.
“Deputy Dedmon is the worst example of a police officer in the United States,” Jenkins said. “Deputy Dedmon was the most aggressive, sickest and the most wicked.”
Hours before Dedmon’s sentencing, former Officer Daniel Opdyke, 28, cried profusely as he spoke before the judge announced his sentence of 17.5 years. Turning to look at the two victims, Opdyke said isolation behind bars has given him time to reflect on “how I transformed into the monster I became that night.”
“The weight of my actions and the harm I’ve caused will haunt me every day,” Opdyke told them. “I wish I could take away your suffering.”
Parker rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes, then stood and left the courtroom before Opdyke finished speaking. Jenkins said he was “broken” and left “ashamed” by the cruel acts inflicted upon him.
The judge said Opdyke might not have been fully aware of what being a member of the Goon Squad entailed when Lieutenant Jeffrey Middleton asked him to join, but he did know it involved using excessive force.
“You were not a passive observer,” Lee said. “You actively participated in that brutal attack.”
All six former officers pleaded guilty last year of breaking into a home without a warrant and torturing the Black men with a stun gun, a sex toy and other objects.
On Tuesday, Lee gave a nearly 20-year prison sentence to Hunter Elward, 31, and a 17.5-year sentence to Middleton, 46, calling their actions “egregious and despicable.” They, like Opdyke and Dedmon, worked as Rankin County sheriff’s deputies during the attack.
Another former deputy, Brett McAlpin, 53, and a former Richland police officer, Joshua Hartfield, 32, are set for sentencing Thursday.
Last March, months before federal prosecutors announced charges in August, an investigation by The Associated Press linked some of the deputies to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.
The former officers stuck to their cover story for months until finally admitting that they tortured Michael Corey Jenkins and Parker. Elward admitted to shoving a gun into Jenkins’ mouth and firing it in a “mock execution” that went awry.
After Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, lacerating his tongue and breaking his jaw, the officers devised a cover-up that included planting drugs and a gun. False charges stood against Jenkins and Parker for months.
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Russia Donates Fertilizer, Grain to Zimbabwe
Harare, Zimbabwe — Russia donated 25,000 tons of grain and 23,000 tons of fertilizer to Zimbabwe to help combat the effects of El Nino-induced drought, which has dwindled crop yields in most parts of Southern Africa.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa accepted the donation Wednesday, saying it would help alleviate the drought Zimbabwe is coping with and the targeted sanctions which the government has long blamed for the country’s economic doldrums.
“Zimbabwe and the Russian Federation continue to be subjected to the heinous and illegal sanctions imposed by the hegemonic powers of the West,” he said. “Throughout the 23 years of sanctions against Zimbabwe, the Russian Federation has been a true, trusted and dependable ally of the people of this country.”
The president added that it should be no surprise that two countries who are the subject of sanctions talk to each other and try to work together.
Western countries slapped travel and financial sanctions on Zimbabwe’s leadership and affiliated companies in the early 2000s for alleged election rigging and human rights abuses.
The U.S. recently removed sanctions on most Zimbabweans, but a few prominent figures — including Mnangagwa — remain on the list.
Meanwhile, Russia and its president Vladimir Putin were hit with sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
On Wednesday, the Russian ambassador to Harare, Nikolai Krasilnikov, said the donated fertilizers would aid Zimbabwe’s agricultural production.
“It is a commitment made by Russia to continue to support states and regions in need to do its utmost to prevent a global food crisis through participation in establishing a more equitable system for the distribution of resources,” Krasilnikov said. “And let us not forget that food security cannot [be achieved] without fertilizers, as they ensure growth, resilience and productivity of agricultural crops.”
However, the fertilizers may not work in Zimbabwe’s current growing season, as most crops have been dried out by a lack of rain.
In an interview, Alexander Rusero, an international relations professor at Africa University, said he was not surprised by Russia’s donations to Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabwe does not have an ambivalent foreign policy with regards to Russia,” Rusero said. “Its position in terms of its interaction with Russia [is] very clear. Zimbabwe is on the side of Russia at whatever cost so it is not surprising. I wouldn’t know why it looks like a surprise that Zimbabwe has received some gift from Russia. And remember, these are fulfillments of pledges already made some time ago.”
Zimbabwe’s electoral commission sent a mission to Moscow to observe the Russian elections this week in which Putin won another six-year term. At a press conference in Moscow, commission chair Priscilla Chigumba declared the elections to be credible.
“We found the general atmosphere to be conducive for elections, the mood was relaxed and cheerful as people were exercising their right to vote,” Chigumba said. “It is our view that this is a clear sign of mature democracy in which elections are not perceived as life and death activity.”
The remarks drew wide criticism in Zimbabwe, given the way the electoral commission ran the country’s 2023 elections, which were plagued by irregularities and delays and were condemned by several observer missions, including from the Southern African Development Community.
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Berlin Summons Iran Ambassador Over 2022 Synagogue Plot
BERLIN — Germany on Wednesday said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador over an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in 2022 that Berlin believes was planned with the help of Tehran.
A German Iranian national was sentenced in December to two years and nine months in prison in the plot to attack a synagogue in the western German city of Bochum.
The 36-year-old, identified only as Babak J., had planned to target the synagogue but ended up throwing an incendiary device at an adjacent school building. No one was injured.
In handing down the verdict, the Duesseldorf court said the attack had been planned with the help of “Iranian state agencies.”
The foreign ministry on Wednesday said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it had summoned the Iranian envoy after receiving a written justification of the judgment.
“We will now immediately share the judgment with our European partners and the EU institutions and examine further steps,” the ministry said.
Germany also summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in December over the plot.
A summoning is a way for a nation to show high-level disapproval with another country.
Germany has grown increasingly alarmed in recent years about rising anti-Jewish sentiment nearly eight decades after the end of the Holocaust.
Anti-Semitic acts have increased sharply in the country amid the latest turmoil in the Middle East, according to the Federal Association of Research and Information Centers on Anti-Semitism.
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‘Tide Is Turning’ Against Myanmar’s Junta, UN Special Rapporteur Says
Geneva — Myanmar’s ruling junta “is losing” its war against a coalition of domestic forces but still remains highly dangerous, according to a U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in that country.
“The tide is turning in Myanmar because of widespread citizen opposition to the junta and mounting battlefield victories by resistance forces,” said Tom Andrews, who presented his latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday.
At a briefing for reporters Wednesday, Andrews said the junta is losing territory, bases, and troops, and losing its capacity “to promote the fiction that it is in any way legitimate” or that it can unify the country by force.
“The junta now controls less than half of Myanmar and has lost tens of thousands of troops to casualties, surrender, or defections since it launched its military coup over three years ago,” he said.
Andrews added that Myanmar’s military, “while desperate,” remains extremely dangerous and has escalated its punishing assault on the civilian population.
“The past five months have seen a fivefold increase in airstrikes against civilian targets,” he said, noting that the number killed or injured by landmines “more than doubled last year.”
Since the junta toppled the country’s democratically elected government on February 1, 2021, thousands of people have been killed, tens of thousands arbitrarily arrested and detained, and millions displaced.
In response, supporters of the ousted democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi have joined forces with a collection of ethnically based militias to fight against the brutalizing, repressive leadership, with increasing success.
A terrible toll
The special rapporteur is calling on states to stop exporting the sophisticated, powerful weapons Myanmar is using to kill civilians, warning that the violence and chaos in Myanmar could spill over into the region and the wider world.
“Thousands of desperate people continue to flee into neighboring countries. Junta fighter jets have violated the airspace of Myanmar’s neighbors, bombs have landed across borders,” he said.
Underscoring the dangers of appeasing and supporting the junta, Andrews noted that criminal networks “have found a safe haven in Myanmar.”
“Myanmar is now the top opium producer in the world and a global center for cyber-scam operations that enslave tens of thousands and victimize untold numbers of people around the world,” he said.
The junta’s military crackdown and its abusive treatment of the civilian population have exacted a terrible toll.
The Burmese human rights organization The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners estimates more than 4,500 people have been killed and over 26,000 arrested, most of whom remain detained.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, reports 2.7 million people have been displaced and 18.6 million people in Myanmar, including 6 million children, need humanitarian assistance.
“When I began my service as special rapporteur, before the coup, that number was 1 million,” Andrews said.
‘The unfathomable’
To make matters worse, he said the junta has begun a program of forced military recruitment, “at times abducting young men on the street.” Others are going into hiding or fleeing the country.
“Particularly hard hit are the besieged members of the Rohingya community who are now being subjected to ongoing bombardment by junta forces. But, unlike most in Myanmar, the Rohingya are prohibited from moving to safety,” he said.
“Now, the junta is trying to force young Rohingya to do the unfathomable — join the very military that is committing these relentless attacks and that committed genocide against their community, forcing hundreds of thousands over the border into Bangladesh.”
In August 2017, nearly 1 million Rohingya Muslims fled to Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh to escape persecution, violence, and serious human rights violations in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
They live in what is known as “the world’s largest refugee camp” in overcrowded conditions, with little access to education and no ability to earn an income, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and serious protection risks.
The United Nations describes the Rohingya as “the most persecuted minority in the world.”
Myanmar’s military junta has denied the Rohingya citizenship and sees them as foreign interlopers.
Andrews has called on the international community not to turn a blind eye to the horrors that are ongoing in Myanmar. He said strong, concerted international action is required to stop the killing of innocent civilians and bring down the illegitimate leaders.
He said impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Myanmar must end. For that to happen, he said, “Those who are responsible for atrocity crimes in Myanmar must know that they will be held accountable.”
Myanmar was unable to respond to the special rapporteur’s report at the U.N. Human Rights Council because the United Nation does not recognize the de facto military rulers as a legitimate government.
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South African Media Outlet Files Complaint Over Op-Ed
Johannesburg — One of South Africa’s leading news websites has filed a complaint with the country’s Press Council, alleging that another media company is trying to discredit reporters who investigated the owner’s business practices.
News24 and industry analysts claim that the Independent Media group is failing to respect the usual “firewall” that exists between owners and editorial departments.
Independent Media is a multi-platform company with numerous newspapers and websites. News24 claims that it uses those publications to put out hit pieces on its critics, including op-eds that News24 claims are written under fake bylines, and which try to discredit other reporters.
The dispute comes after an Independent Media website, IOL, published an op-ed comparing News24 legal reporter Karyn Maughan to a Nazi propagandist.
Maughan regularly reports on court cases involving Iqbal Survé, the chair of Sekunjalo, a South African private equity company. Survé is in court fighting the decisions by several major banks to close his companies’ accounts on the basis that they pose “reputational risks.”
An op-ed, published under the byline Edmond Phiri on March 3, accused Maughan of unfairly reporting on Survé’s legal woes.
The graphic that went with the article depicted Maughan, who is white, in front of an apartheid flag and accused her of racism in her reporting on Sekunjalo, a Black-owned company.
Maughan’s colleagues deplored the op-ed as a hit piece.
Pieter du Toit, assistant editor for investigations at News24, told VOA they have sought legal advice and filed a complaint to the Press Council.
The complaint, he says, will be “one of the first times, if not the first time, that one media house has lodged a complaint against another media house.”
“The interests of Independent’s owner Iqbal Survé have become so intertwined with the interests of the media company that they have become completely inseparable,” he added.
A News24 investigation published in March claimed that Survé was “waging a public-relations war, using a team of pliant journalists, PR staffers, and seemingly fictitious opinion writers to polish his image and attack journalists critical of him.”
The investigation found no evidence of a writer named Edmond Phiri living in South Africa. When News24 contacted Independent Media’s editor in chief to ask for the op-ed writer’s contact details, they were given an address at an encrypted email service.
When they wrote to Phiri asking for an interview, they received a bizarrely worded response that a digital analyst said appeared to be partially AI-written.
“It’s pretty clear to us, based on the evidence that we were able to gather … that this writer, and other writers, simply do not exist as human beings,” said du Toit.
“The only conclusion that we can reach is that these are all bots and/or AI-generated opinion pieces, or opinion pieces written under pseudonyms, purely designed to denigrate and attack another media house.”
News24 is not the first to allege that Independent Media uses fake writers. Journalist Ferial Haffajee wrote a similar article in The Daily Maverick in 2022 citing a report by nonprofit data journalism lab Code for Africa.
That report found no evidence that an Independent Media writer named “Jamie Roz,” who had also been publishing pieces defending Sekunjalo’s business interests, existed.
Independent’s response
Asked for her response to the News24 investigation, Independent Media editor in chief Adri Senekal De Wet, referred VOA to a statement by Sekunjalo.
“The article is yet another attempt to smear and undermine Sekunjalo, Independent Media and its chairman, Dr Iqbal Survé. The allegations, relying on innuendo and lacking any concrete evidence, are dismissed outright by Sekunjalo,” the statement said.
“We categorically reject the baseless and preposterous claims made by News24 that Independent Media opinion writers are part of a ‘PR’ campaign for Sekunjalo or our chairman,” it continued. “Any suggestion that a chairman of a media conglomerate controls and runs the editorial process, as the article implies, is both laughable and without basis.”
Separate to this statement, Independent Media published a follow-up op-ed by Phiri that dismissed News24’s claim that he was not real.
“This is an outright lie, and they back it up with no credible evidence. The claim by News24 is an attempt to reduce my opinion pieces to some PR-controlled efforts,” the op-ed ran.
The op-ed again criticized News24 along racial lines, saying: “Deploying an army of journalists and cyber investigators to trace me, rather than engaging with the substance of my arguments, is a brute force intimidation tactic reminiscent of apartheid-era suppression of dissenting views.”
Women journalists targeted
Media analysts say the op-ed on Maughan reflects a wider trend of female journalists being harassed or discredited.
“It’s unacceptable that such abuse and disappointing piece should even be allowed to be published. Media owners are always discouraged to use their publications for such nefarious intentions,” Reggy Moalusi, director of the South African National Editors Forum, or SANEF, told VOA.
The SANEF earlier this month noted that South Africa’s female journalists are often targets of bullying.
In the op-ed on Maughan, the SANEF noted, “The piece went beyond a publication giving a platform to someone to air their views,” adding that the “accompanying picture/graphic on the article had a gun pointed at her image, which was a clear indication of its intention to incite violence against her.”
The editor’s forum acknowledged the harassment female journalists confront, including cyberbullying.
Anton Harber, a former journalism professor at Johannesburg University of the Witwatersrand, says that women journalists in South Africa are more often targeted then their male counterparts.
Such attacks, he said, are “harmful to journalism as a whole because we all know journalism is in a global credibility crisis.”
Speaking about the Survé case, Harber said the case shows “an absolute breakdown of the wall that’s supposed to exist, or the barriers that are meant to exist between owners, publishers, and journalism.”
Du Toit at News24 says the media group is waiting for the Press Council to respond to the complaint filed Monday. The council can forward complaints to an ombudsman who rules on the case and has power to request retractions or apologies.
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Prabowo Subianto, Ex-General Tied to Past Dictatorship, Confirmed as Indonesia’s Next President
JAKARTA — Prabowo Subianto, a former special forces general with ties to Indonesia’s current president and past dictatorship, was confirmed the victor of last month’s presidential election over two former governors who have vowed to contest the result in court.
Prabowo won 58.6% of the votes, while former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan received 24.9% and former Central Java Gov. Ganjar Pranowo got 16.5%, the General Election Commission said Wednesday after the official counting was completed.
In Indonesia, election disputes can be registered with the Constitutional Court during the three days that follow the announcement of official results.
The two other candidates have alleged fraud and irregularities in the election process, such as the vice presidential candidacy of President Joko Widodo’s son. The popular outgoing president is serving his second term and could not run again, but his son’s candidacy is seen as a sign of his tacit backing for Prabowo.
Widodo’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, is 37 but became Prabowo’s running mate after the Constitutional Court made an exception to the minimum age requirement of 40 for candidates. The Constitutional Court’s chief justice, who is Widodo’s brother-in-law, was then removed by an ethics panel for failing to recuse himself and for making last-minute changes to the election candidacy requirements.
Prabowo, who is Widodo’s defense minister, had claimed victory on election day after unofficial tallies showed he was winning nearly 60% of the votes.
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Cameroon’s Opposition Says It Won’t Stop Efforts to Oust Biya Despite Threats
YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — The Cameroon government has threatened to arrest members of two opposition parties, accusing them of seeking to create coalitions and alliances for a transitional government to oust 90-year-old President Paul Biya, who has been in power for more than four decades.
Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji last week ordered an end to activities of the Political Alliance for Change and the Alliance for Political Transition in Cameroon.
Nji said that only legally recognized political parties have the right to exercise political activities in Cameroon and that people who join the two illegal alliances would be arrested.
Cameroon opposition and civil society groups say the recent ban on activities of the two alliances is another indication that Cameroon disrespects democracy and fundamental rights to freedoms.
Roger Justin Noah, a spokesperson for the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement, said the opposition will not be intimidated by government officials and Biya supporters.
Rather, he said, it is the Cameroon government that has become nervous about the growing popularity of opposition leader Maurice Kamto after more than 30 civil society and opposition groups joined the Political Alliance for Change that Kamto leads.
Kamto claims that he won the October 2018 presidential election and that Biya stole his victory.
Noah said the Political Alliance for Change is encouraging Cameroonians unhappy with Biya’s rule of 40-plus years to register to vote in the 2025 presidential polls, be ready to defend their votes and report any incidents of fraud or irregularities.
Opposition parties say the Cameroon government is exhibiting bad faith by banning opposition coalitions but allowing other parties to gather support for Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement.
Rene Emmanuel Sadi, Cameroon’s communication minister and government spokesperson, said there is no reason for some opposition parties to create alliances for a political transition when state institutions are fully functioning and Biya is indisputably exercising his functions as president.
Sadi, who spoke in an interview broadcast by Cameroon state radio CRTV this week and the international media organ RFI several times within the past seven days, said the opposition is trying to pressure Biya to declare whether he will be a candidate in 2025. Sadi said Biya will announce his decision in 2025, shortly before the election.
The government also threatened to arrest members of the alliances who the government says visited jailed rebel leaders to negotiate an end to a separatist crisis that has killed over 6,000 people in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions. The separatists say they want to create an independent English-speaking state separate from the French-speaking majority.
Cameroon’s opposition accuses the Biya government of using excessive military force instead of negotiations and dialogue to solve what the opposition says is a political crisis in English-speaking regions.
Biya is Africa’s second-longest serving leader, after the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been in power since 1979.
Biya was Cameroon’s prime minister and became president in 1982 after his predecessor, Cameroon’s first president following the country’s independence from France, stepped down due to health.
Cameroon’s opposition and civil society say Biya rules with an iron fist and is not ready to relinquish power until he dies, a claim Biya’s supporters deny.
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Spanish Court Grants Bail to Soccer Star Dani Alves While Appealing Rape Conviction
BARCELONA, Spain — A Spanish court decided Wednesday that Brazilian soccer star Dani Alves could leave prison if he pays a bail of one million euros ($1.1 million) and hands over his passports while awaiting the appeal of his conviction for raping a woman in Barcelona.
Alves was found guilty of having raped the woman in a nightclub in 2022 and sentenced to four years and six months in prison. He denied wrongdoing during the three-day trial.
He has been behind bars since being arrested in January 2023. His prior requests to be released on bail were denied because the court deemed him a flight risk. Brazil does not extradite its own citizens when they are sentenced in other countries.
To now go free, in addition to the bail money, the 40-year-old Alves is also required to hand over his Brazilian and Spanish passports and is prohibited from leaving the country. He also cannot come within 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) of the victim or try to communicate with her and must make weekly check-ins at the courthouse. He still has a residence near the city.
The decision came a day after a hearing where Alves told the court via video conference from prison that he had no intention of fleeing the country, according to his lawyer, Inés Guardiola.
Guardiola and the state prosecutor have appealed the conviction. His defense is seeking his acquittal while the prosecutor wants his prison sentence increased to nine years. The victim’s lawyer wants him put away for 12 years. There is no date yet for the new trial at a higher court in Barcelona. After that, it can then go to the Supreme Court in Madrid.
The panel of judges at the Provincial Court in Barcelona was split on the decision, two to one. The judges in favor of granting Alves bail said that they believed the flight risk had lowered, adding that they considered the fact that Alves responded to police summons when he was arrested while visiting Spain. The other judge disagreed, saying he was still able to flee despite the restrictions placed on him.
Another factor cited by the two judges was that according to Spanish law a person cannot be kept in preventative detention for more than half the period of his or her prison sentence while awaiting an appeal. In Alves’ case that leaves him just over a year before he would reach the mid-way mark of two years, three months, while the appeals could easily take longer. Once his appeals are exhausted, and if his conviction is maintained, then depending on the final sentence he could go back to prison.
As part of his conviction, the court ordered Alves to pay 150,000 euros ($162,000) in compensation to the victim, banned him from approaching the victim’s home or place of work, and from communicating with her by any means for nine years.
He was with Mexican club Pumas when he was arrested. Pumas terminated his contract immediately.
Alves won dozens of titles with elite clubs including Barcelona. He helped Brazil win two Copa Americas and an Olympic gold medal. He played for Barcelona from 2008-16, helping to win three Champions Leagues, and briefly rejoined the club in 2022.
Alves is being held at Brians 2 prison about 45 minutes northwest of Barcelona.
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Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar to Step Down
LONDON — Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who made history as his country’s first gay and first biracial leader, announced Wednesday that he will step down within weeks once a successor is chosen.
Varadkar announced Wednesday he is quitting immediately as head of the center-right Fine Gael party, part of Ireland’s coalition government. He’ll be replaced as prime minister in April after a party leadership contest.
He said his reasons were “both personal and political” and he had no firm future plans. He said he plans to remain in parliament as a backbench lawmaker.
Varadkar, 45, has had two spells as taoiseach, or prime minister — between 2017 and 2020, and again since December 2022 as part of a job-share with Micheál Martin, head of coalition partner Fianna Fáil.
He was the country’s youngest-ever leader when first elected, as well as Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister. Varadkar, whose mother is Irish and father is Indian, was also Ireland’s first biracial taoiseach.
He played a leading role in campaigns to legalize same-sex marriage, approved in a 2015 referendum, and to repeal a ban on abortion, which passed in a vote in 2018.
“I’m proud that we have made the country a more equal and more modern place,” Varadkar said in a resignation statement in Dublin.
Varadkar recently returned from Washington, where he met President Joe Biden and other political leaders as part of the Irish prime minister’s traditional St. Patrick’s Day visit to the United States.
Varadkar has faced discontent within Fine Gael. Ten of the party’s lawmakers, almost a third of the total, have announced they will not run for reelection.
Earlier this month, voters rejected the government’s position in referendums on two constitutional amendments. Changes backed by Varadkar that would have broadened the definition of family and removed language about a woman’s role in the home were resoundingly defeated. The result sparked criticism that the pro-change campaign had been lackluster and confusing.
Even so, his resignation was not widely expected. Martin, the current deputy prime minister, said he’d been “surprised, obviously, when I heard what he was going to do.”
“But I want to take the opportunity to thank him sincerely,” Martin said. “We got on very well.”
Martin said Varadkar’s resignation should not trigger an early election, and the three-party coalition government that also includes the Green Party would continue.
Varadkar said he knew his departure would “come as a surprise to many people and a disappointment to some.”
“I know that others will, how shall I put it, cope with the news just fine – that is the great thing about living in a democracy,” he said. “There’s never a right time to resign high office. However, this is as good a time as any.”
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West Eyes New Measures After Passage of Hong Kong Security Law
Taipei, Taiwan — Hong Kong’s adoption of a second national security law Tuesday is being criticized by foreign governments, while some business figures say the law will hasten foreign businesses’ departure from the city.
The United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union expressed concern about the ambiguous language in the law and its speedy adoption, which was completed in less than two weeks.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that the vague provisions in the bill, also known as Article 23, could lead to the criminalization of freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and the right to receive and impart information, which are all rights protected under international human rights law.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department said passage of Article 23 could accelerate the closing of a once-open society, adding that the U.S. is analyzing the potential impact of the law.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the law has failed to “provide certainty for international organizations, including diplomatic missions” operating in Hong Kong, and it will foster “the culture of self-censorship” that is now dominating the social and political landscape in the city.
Apart from reiterating concerns about the law’s potential impact on Hong Kong people’s basic rights and freedom, the EU said the bill’s increased penalties, extraterritorial reach and partial retroactive applicability are “also deeply worrying.”
Despite the international criticism, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee hailed the passage of Article 23 as “a historic moment for Hong Kong,” while the Chinese government expressed “full support” of the development.
Rights activists call for sanctions
While they welcome the concerns expressed by foreign governments, some human rights activists urged democratic countries to respond with more forceful measures.
“With the enactment of the Article 23 legislation, now is the time to impose sanctions on officials like Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee,” said Benedict Rogers, the CEO of U.K.-based nongovernmental organization Hong Kong Watch.
Since Hong Kong implemented the controversial national security law and detained dozens of pro-democracy activists and politicians in 2020, the U.S. is the only country that has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials, 24 of them in all.
Rogers said since the U.K. doesn’t want to damage trade relations with China, the British government remains reluctant to impose sanctions on Chinese officials over the deteriorating conditions in Hong Kong.
“[While] they imposed sanctions on some Chinese officials over the human rights violations in Xinjiang, they haven’t done anything similar on Hong Kong,” he told VOA by phone.
While the U.S. has introduced some tools to counter China’s tightening control over Hong Kong — including sanctions, new legislation to ban the export of certain items to Hong Kong and the elimination of Hong Kong’s special status — some observers urged Washington to roll out more forceful measures following the passage of the Article 23.
“There’s a lot that Congress and the administration can do, including issuing additional sanctions against people responsible for the implementation of the two national security laws and advancing other existing legislations related to Hong Kong,” Samuel Bickett, a Washington-based human rights activist, told VOA by phone.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Thursday, leaders of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party urged him to consider imposing new sanctions against officials responsible for undermining freedom and rule of law in Hong Kong.
They also vowed to advance the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office Certification Act and the Transnational Repression Policy Act through Congress. Once passed, the two bills would require Hong Kong to shut down its trade offices in the U.S. and allow the U.S. government to impose sanctions against Chinese or Hong Kong officials responsible for launching transnational repression against dissidents in the U.S.
Laws’ effect on immigration, business
Apart from adopting more forceful measures against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, Bickett and Rogers think democratic countries should introduce new immigration measures to accommodate the growing number of Hong Kong citizens leaving the city. According to statistics from Bloomberg, around 500,000 people have left Hong Kong since 2021.
While the U.K. has introduced an immigration program for holders of British Overseas Passports from Hong Kong, which was recently extended to more young people, Rogers hopes other countries, including the U.S. and those in Europe, can create similar programs tailored for Hong Kongers.
“I would like to see the EU and the U.S. offer some options so Hong Kongers who don’t qualify for the U.K.’s immigration scheme can have alternative options,” he said.
Since the Article 23 legislation uses vague language to define espionage and theft of state secrets, some analysts say foreign businesses may face serious challenges when conducting due diligence investigations or seeking information.
“This could be a big blow to banks and financial institutions, and it will further discourage investors from coming to Hong Kong since access to information is now further restricted,” Eric Lai, an expert on Hong Kong’s legal system at Georgetown Center for Asian Law, told VOA by phone.
Some analysts say the growing uncertainty in the business environment would lead more foreign businesses to consider leaving Hong Kong.
“Article 23 will hasten the departure of international businesses unless the Hong Kong government quickly establishes guard rails constricting the operational boundaries of the new law,” Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research, told VOA in a written response.
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Officials Caution US Voters About Election Misinformation, Disinformation
Analysts say U.S. voters need to be alert for foreign misinformation and disinformation seeking to disrupt the November presidential election. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at how Americans perceive the so-called “influence operations” threat and what the government and nonprofits are doing to help them fend it off.
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High Level Meeting Further Mends Fractured Australia-China Ties
SYDNEY — Human rights and trade sanctions dominated talks Wednesday between the Chinese and Australian foreign ministers in Canberra.
Analysts say that bilateral relations are stabilizing after years of friction over various geopolitical and trade disputes, but disagreements remain.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said there would be a “frank exchange of views” with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, ahead of Wednesday’s talks in Canberra.
Wang Yi is the most powerful Chinese politician to visit Australia since 2017.
During the talks, Wong said she raised the death sentence imposed on Yang Hengjun, a Chinese-born Australian democracy activist, insisting that “Australians were shocked at the sentence.”
Wong told reporters in Canberra that there were also discussions on human rights in China’s Xinjiang province, Tibet, and Hong Kong.
She said there would also be expanded dialogue in the future “in key areas such as the Pacific, climate and energy cooperation.”
Wong said the bilateral relationship needs to be carefully cultivated to prosper.
“A stable relationship between Australia and China does not just happen, it needs ongoing work, and this was the latest meeting in that process. As Minister Wang reflected in our meeting, it’s in both our interests that we have a mature and productive relationship,” she said.
Wang Yi told the news conference in Canberra that Wednesday’s talks had helped to dispel “doubts and boosting trust” and he hoped “that this sound interaction can continue further.”
China has previously voiced objections to Australia’s plan to build nuclear-powered submarines with the United States and Britain.
Australia and China have slowly rebuilt their diplomatic relationship. It hit its lowest point in 2020 when Canberra called for an inquiry into the origins of coronavirus pandemic.
Beijing was infuriated and saw it as a criticism of its handling of the pandemic.
Retaliatory trade restrictions followed, but earlier this month, Chinese authorities released an interim statement that high tariffs on Australian wine are no longer necessary. The tariffs could be lifted by the end of this month. The duties were imposed in 2020 as tensions simmered between China and Australia over various geopolitical flashpoints.
Analysts have said the two countries are economically interdependent. China’s demand for raw materials has underpinned Australia’s recent prosperity.
Australian iron ore and liquefied natural gas have been key drivers of China’s economic expansion.
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Immigration a Top Issue for Floridians
Five U.S. states held presidential primaries Tuesday. The presumptive nominees, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, have achieved enough votes to secure their party nominations. Former President Trump voted in his home state of Florida. That’s where VOA senior Washington correspondent Carolyn Presutti is and tells us where that state stands on a big issue, immigration.
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How Texas’ Plans to Arrest Migrants Would Work
McALLEN, Texas — A law that would allow Texas law enforcement to arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S. is back on hold.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Tuesday issued an order preventing its enforcement, just hours after the Supreme Court allowed the strict new immigration law to take effect.
The Justice Department is challenging the law, saying Texas is overstepping the federal government’s immigration authority. Texas argues it has a right to take action over what the governor has described as an “invasion” of migrants on the border.
Here’s what to know:
Who can be arrested?
The law would allow any Texas law enforcement officer to arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally. Once in custody, migrants could either agree to a Texas judge’s order to leave the U.S. or be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges of illegal entry. Migrants who don’t leave could face arrest again under more serious felony charges.
Arresting officers must have probable cause, which could include witnessing the illegal entry or seeing it on video.
The law cannot be enforced against people lawfully present in the U.S., including those who were granted asylum or who are enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Critics, including Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, fear the law could lead to racial profiling and family separation.
American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Texas and some neighboring states issued a travel advisory a day after Gov. Greg Abbott signed the law. The advisory warns of a possible threat to civil and constitutional rights when passing through Texas.
Abbott has rejected concerns over profiling. While signing the bill, he said troopers and National Guard members at the border can see migrants crossing illegally “with their own eyes.”
Where would the law be enforced?
The law can be enforced in any of Texas’ 254 counties, including those hundreds of miles from the border.
But Republican state Rep. David Spiller, the law’s author, has said he expects most arrests would occur within 80 kilometers of the U.S.-Mexico border. Texas’ state police chief has expressed similar expectations.
Some places are off-limits. Arrests cannot be made in public and private schools, places of worship, or hospitals and other health care facilities, including those where sexual assault forensic examinations are conducted.
It is unclear where migrants ordered to leave might go. The law says they are to be sent to ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, even if they are not Mexican citizens. However, Mexico’s government said Tuesday it would not accept the return of any migrants to its territory from the state of Texas.
Is the law constitutional?
The Supreme Court’s decision did not address the constitutionality of the law.
The Justice Department, legal experts and immigrant rights groups have said it is a clear conflict with the U.S. government’s authority to regulate immigration.
U.S. District Judge David Ezra, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, agreed in a 114-page order. He added that the law could hamper U.S. foreign relations and treaty obligations.
Opponents have called the measure the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since a 2010 Arizona law — denounced by critics as the “Show Me Your Papers” bill — that was largely struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Ezra cited the Supreme Court’s 2012 Arizona ruling in his decision.
Texas has argued that the law mirrors federal law instead of conflicting with it.
What is happening on the border?
Arrests for illegal crossings along the southern border fell by half in January from record highs in December. Border Patrol officials attributed the shift to seasonal declines and heightened enforcement by the U.S. and its allies. The federal government has not yet released numbers for February.
Texas has charged thousands of migrants with trespassing on private property under a more limited operation that began in 2021.
Tensions remain between Texas and the Biden administration. In the border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, National Guard members have prevented Border Patrol agents from accessing a riverfront park.
Other Republican governors have expressed support for Abbott, who has said the federal government is not doing enough to enforce immigration laws. Other measures implemented by Texas include a floating barrier in the Rio Grande and razor wire along the border.
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China, Not Russia, Still Tops List of Threats to US
WASHINGTON — Russia’s war in Ukraine — portrayed by top U.S. officials as posing a danger to the United States itself — still trails China when it comes to long-term threats to America’s security, according to a top Pentagon official.
The warning from Ely Ratner, the Defense Department’s assistant secretary for Indo-Pacific security affairs, comes in testimony prepared for a hearing Wednesday by the House Armed Services Committee on security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region.
“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to present the most comprehensive and serious challenge to our national security,” Ratner is set to tell lawmakers, according to a copy his opening statement obtained by VOA.
“The PRC remains the only country with the will and increasingly the capability to dominate the Indo-Pacific region and displace the United States,” Ratner warns, adding, “the PRC is pursuing its revisionist goals with increasingly coercive activities in the Taiwan Strait, the South and East China seas, along the Line of Actual Control with India, and beyond.”
This is not the first time Ratner has addressed the growing threat from Beijing.
In October he called out China’s military for what he described as a “sharp increase” in risky behavior in the East and South China seas.
Ratner also cautioned, separately, that China’s leaders were “increasingly turning to the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] as an instrument of coercion.”
Additionally, the Pentagon’s annual China Military Power report said that China’s nuclear arsenal has been growing faster than expected, while Beijing is building out the infrastructure needed for a further expansion of its nuclear forces.
China has responded to such allegations by accusing the U.S. of “hyping up” the threat.
On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a warning of his own, emphasizing the threat from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The United States stands by Ukraine because it’s the right thing to do,” Austin told a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany. “But we also stand by Ukraine because it’s crucial to our own security.”
“The United States would face grave new perils in a world where aggression and autocracy are on the march and where tyrants are emboldened and where dictators think that they can wipe out democracy off the map,” he said.
U.S. intelligence officials argued recently that the threats from Russia and China are linked, and that Russia’s war has served to embolden China’s leadership.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers earlier this month that Beijing has managed to get long-sought concessions from Moscow in exchange for support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
And CIA Director William Burns said Russian success in Ukraine could “stoke the ambitions of the Chinese leadership in contingencies ranging from Taiwan to the South China Sea.”
Ratner is set to tell U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that the Defense Department is working to strengthen key alliances in the Indo-Pacific and develop what he calls a “regional force posture” including Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia.
He is also set to testify that the Pentagon’s proposed 2025 budget is placing a priority on investments in air, sea and undersea power, as well as in modernizing U.S. nuclear forces with an eye toward Beijing’s own military modernization efforts.
your ad hereBiden, Trump Notch Wins; Other Races Offer Hints on National Politics
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Joe Biden and Donald Trump won their party’s primaries in four of the five states voting on Tuesday, notching more delegates as they continue their march to a rematch in this November’s presidential election.
Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, easily won primaries Tuesday in Illinois, Ohio and Kansas. Trump also won Florida’s Republican primary. There was no contest for Biden to win in Florida as Democrats there canceled their primary and opted to award all 224 of their delegates to him, a move that has precedence for an incumbent president.
Polls are still open in the fifth state, Arizona, where Trump and Biden are expected to easily win primaries.
But races outside of the presidency could provide insight into the national political mood. In Ohio’s Republican Senate primary, Trump-backed businessman Bernie Moreno defeated two challengers, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Matt Dolan, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball team.
Chicago voters will decide whether to assess a one-time real estate tax to pay for new homeless services. And voters in California will move toward deciding a replacement for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who resigned his seat after being pushed out of Republican leadership.
Trump and Biden have for weeks been focused on the general election, aiming their campaigns lately on states that could be competitive in November rather than merely those holding primaries.
Trump, a Florida voter, cast his ballot at a recreation center in Palm Beach on Tuesday and told reporters, “I voted for Donald Trump.”
Trump on Saturday rallied in Ohio, which has for several years been reliably Republican after once being a national bellwether in presidential elections. Trump won the state by about 8 percentage points in 2016 and 2020. But there are signs the state could be more competitive in 2024. Last year, Ohio voted overwhelmingly to protect abortion rights in its constitution and voted to legalize marijuana.
Biden, meanwhile, visited Nevada and Arizona on Tuesday, two states that were among the closest in 2020 and remain top priorities for both campaigns.
Trump and Biden are running on their records in office and casting the other as a threat to America. Trump, 77, portrays the 81-year-old Biden as mentally unfit. The president has described his Republican rival as a threat to democracy after his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results and his praise of foreign strongmen.
Those themes were evident Tuesday at some polling locations.
“President Biden, I don’t think he knows how to tie his shoes anymore,” said Trump supporter Linda Bennet, a resident of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, not far from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Even as she echoed Trump’s arguments about Biden, she criticized Trump’s rhetoric and “the way he composes himself” as “not presidential at all.” But she said the former president is “a man of his word,” and she said the country, especially the economy, felt stronger to her under Trump’s leadership.
In Columbus, Ohio, Democrat Brenda Woodfolk voted for Biden and shared the president’s framing of the choice this fall.
“It’s scary,” she said of the prospect that Trump could be in the Oval Office again. “Trump wants to be a dictator, talking about making America white again and all this kind of crap. There’s too much hate going on.”
Bennet and Woodfolk agreed that immigration in one of their top concerns, though they offered different takes on why.
“This border thing is out of control,” said Bennet, the Republican voter. “I think it’s the government’s plot or plan to bring these people in to change the whole dynamic for their benefit, so I’m pretty peeved.”
Woodfolk, the Democrat, said she doesn’t mind immigrants “sharing” opportunities in the U.S. but worried it comes at the expense of “people who’ve been here all their lives.”
Trump and Republicans have hammered Biden on the influx of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years, seeking to capitalize on the issue well beyond border states.
Biden has ratcheted up a counteroffensive in recent weeks after Senate Republicans killed a migration compromise they had negotiated with the White House, withholding their support only after Trump said he opposed the deal. Biden has used the circumstances to argue that Trump and Republicans have no interest in solving the issue but instead want to inflame voters in an election year.
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