Month: April 2024

Australian prime minister describes domestic violence as a ‘national crisis’

Posted on by SeeEA

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday described domestic violence as a “national crisis” after thousands rallied around the country against violence toward women.

Thousands protested in cities around Australia on Sunday to draw attention to the deaths of 27 women so far this year allegedly caused by acts of gender-based violence in a population of 27 million.

Albanese said on Monday the rallies were a call to action for all levels of Australian government to do more to prevent gender-based violence.

“Quite clearly, we need to do more. It’s not enough to just have empathy,” Albanese told Nine Network television.

“The fact that … a woman dies every four days on average at the hand of a partner is just a national crisis,” he added.

There were 17 rallies held across Australia over the weekend, with an estimated 15,000 people demonstrating in the city of Melbourne.

Albanese said he will host a meeting of Australian state and territory leaders on Wednesday to discuss a coordinated response.

Albanese, his Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher and Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth received a hostile response when they attended a rally in the capital Canberra on Sunday.

Protesters yelled at the government leaders, “we want action” and “do your job.”

Albanese said there needed to be more focus on perpetrators and prevention of violence. “We need to change the culture, we need to change attitudes — we need to change the legal system,” Albanese told the rally.
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Thousands protest in Georgia against ‘foreign agents’ bill

Posted on by SeeEU

Tbilisi, Georgia — Thousands of Georgians marched through the capital, Tbilisi, on Sunday, as protests built against a bill on “foreign agents” that the country’s opposition and Western countries have said is authoritarian and Russian-inspired.

Georgia’s parliament said it would hold the bill’s second reading on Tuesday, with opposition parties and civil society groups calling for mass protests against its expected passage.

If passed, the draft law would require organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents” or face fines.

Protester Nika Shurgaia said he feared many non-government organizations would be shuttered because of what he called “the Russian law.” This label has been adopted by the opposition to compare the bill to a law used to crush dissent in Russia.

“There are hundreds of such NGOs who have done so much good for Georgia and now they face being stigmatized and possibly shut down,” Shurgaia said.

The EU and Western countries have warned that the bill could halt Georgia’s integration with the EU, which granted Georgia candidate status in December

The bill must pass three readings in parliament to become law, as well as overcome a veto by Georgia’s figurehead president, who opposes it.

Groups opposed to the bill have protested nightly outside parliament for over a week, since the legislature, which is controlled by the Georgian Dream ruling party, approved its first reading.

Thousands of student demonstrators have blocked Tbilisi’s central Rustaveli Avenue, facing off against riot police.

Opponents of the bill who called the mass protests on Sunday have also called for protests against its second reading on Tuesday. The government has called a demonstration in support of the bill for Monday.
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Japan’s ruling party loses all 3 seats in special vote

Posted on by SeeEA

Tokyo — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s governing party, stung by an extensive slush funds scandal, appeared to have lost all three seats in Sunday’s parliamentary by-elections, according to media exit polls and preliminary results.

The Liberal Democratic Party’s loss is considered a voter punishment for its links to a yearslong corruption saga that erupted last year and has undermined Kishida’s leadership. His party’s loss of power is unlikely, however, because of the fractured opposition.

“The results were extremely severe,” LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters in Tokyo. “We humbly accept the severe results, and we will do our utmost to regain the trust from the public as we continue our effort to reform and tackle the challenges.”

The liberal-leaning main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) was certain to win all three seats in Shimane, Nagasaki and Tokyo, according to exit polls by national NHK television, Kyodo News and other media.

CPDJ leader Kenta Izumi said the by-elections were about political reforms. “There are  

many voters across the country who also want to show (similar) views,” he said, adding that he will seek early national elections if reforms by the governing party are too slow.

The loss in the Shimane prefecture was especially shocking to the governing party and could undermine Kishida’s clout, as LDP lawmakers may try to bring him down to put a new face ahead of the next general election. Such a move would dash Kishida’s hope for running in the party presidential race in September for another three-year term. He can call the election any time before the current term for the lower house expires in October 2025.

Kishida has fought plummeting support ratings since the corruption scandal erupted last year. He has removed several Cabinet ministers and others from party executive posts, conducted internal hearings and drafted reform measures, but support ratings for his government have dwindled to around 20%.

The scandal centers on unreported political funds raised through tickets sold for party events. It led to 10 people — lawmakers and their aides — being indicted in January.

More than 80 governing party lawmakers, most of them belonging to a major party faction previously led by assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have acknowledged not reporting funds in a possible violation of the Political Funds Control Law. The money received from the long-term practice is alleged to have gone into unmonitored slush funds.

In Sunday’s by-elections, the LDP did not field its own candidates in the Tokyo and Nagasaki districts because of the apparent low support for the party. It focused instead on defending the seat in the Shimane district that was vacated by the death of former LDP House Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda, who was also linked to a few alleged irregularities, including the slush funds.

Akiko Kamei, a CDPJ candidate who beat former Finance Ministry bureaucrat Norimasa Nishikori from LDP, said her victory in Shimane, known as a “conservative kingdom,” sent a “big message” to Kishida.

“I believe the voters’ anger over LDP’s slush funds problem and the lack of improvement in daily lives in the prefecture became support for me,” she said.

The final results of the special vote are expected early Monday.
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Tesla CEO Musk meets China’s No. 2 official in Beijing

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Beijing — Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk met in Beijing on Sunday with China’s number two official, Premier Li Qiang, who promised the country would “always” be open to foreign firms.

Musk — one of the world’s richest people — arrived in China earlier the same day on his second trip in less than a year to the world’s biggest market for electric vehicles.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said that during their meeting, Li had promised the country would do more to help foreign firms.

“China’s very large-scale market will always be open to foreign-funded firms,” Li was quoted as saying.

“China will stick to its word and will continue working hard to expand market access and strengthen service guarantees.”

Beijing would also provide foreign companies with “a better business environment” so “that firms from all over the world can have peace of mind while investing in China,” Li added.

Musk later said on X, which he also owns, that he was honored to meet with Li, adding the pair “have known each other now for many years.”

Musk has extensive business interests in China and his most recent visit was in May and June of last year. Tesla has not shared his itinerary for the current trip.

CCTV quoted him as praising the “hardworking and intelligent Chinese team” at his Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai during his meeting with Li.

“Tesla is willing to take the next step in deepening cooperation with China to achieve more win-win results,” Musk reportedly added.

Earlier in the day, the billionaire met with the head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Ren Hongbin, “to discuss next steps in cooperation and other topics,” CCTV said.

The mercurial magnate is a controversial figure in the West, but in China, Tesla’s electric vehicles have become a staple of middle-class urban life.

The future

Having once derided Chinese EVs, Musk described their manufacturers this year as being “the most competitive car companies in the world.”

“It’s good to see electric vehicles making progress in China,” he was quoted as saying by a state-backed media outlet Sunday.

“All cars will be electric in the future.”

Musk’s own company has run into trouble in the world’s second-largest economy: in January, Tesla recalled more than 1.6 million electric vehicles in China to fix their steering software.

His arrival in China coincides with a cut-throat price war between firms desperate to get ahead in the fiercely competitive EV market.

China’s local car giant BYD — “Build Your Dreams” — beat out Tesla in last year’s fourth quarter to become the world’s top seller of EVs.

Tesla reclaimed that title in the first quarter of this year, but BYD remains firmly on top in its home market.

An analysis by Wedbush Securities called the visit “a watershed moment for Musk as well as Beijing,” given the level of domestic competition and recent “softer demand” for Tesla.

The trip also comes as Beijing hosts a massive auto show, which held press events from Thursday and opened to the public over the weekend.

Tesla’s last hope

Comments under posts about Musk’s arrival on the social media site Weibo were full of speculation that the celebrity tycoon would attend Auto China while in Beijing.

One user suggested Musk’s visit was motivated by a desire to test drive an SU7, the first car model released earlier this year by Chinese consumer tech giant Xiaomi.

Xiaomi’s entrance into the competitive EV sector appears to be off to a positive start, with CEO Lei Jun saying this month that pre-orders had outpaced expectations by three to five times.

Other commenters responded to reports that Musk’s trip was intended to give him an opportunity to talk with Chinese officials about the possibility of bringing Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology to the local market.

“FSD is Tesla’s last hope for saving its domestic sales,” one Weibo user said.

“While the long-term valuation story at Tesla hinges on FSD and autonomous, a key missing piece in that puzzle is Tesla making FSD available in China which now appears on the doorstep,” the Wedbush analysis said.

Musk’s interests in China have long raised eyebrows in Washington, with President Joe Biden saying in November 2022 that his links to foreign countries were “worthy” of scrutiny.

The tycoon has also caused controversy by suggesting the self-ruled island of Taiwan should become part of China — a stance that was welcomed by Chinese officials but deeply angered Taipei.
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Digital disinformation threatens African elections, activists say

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At least 16 African countries, including South Africa, will hold elections in the remaining months of 2024. Voters who go online for political news are risking exposure to disinformation and misinformation. But a new digital ethics organization aims to help journalists and activists identify false and misleading content so they can educate the public. Zaheer Cassim has the story from Johannesburg.
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Funeral held for Cambodian soldiers killed in army base explosion

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CHBAR MON, Cambodia — A funeral was held Sunday for 20 soldiers who died at an army base in southwestern Cambodia in a huge explosion of stored munitions that also wounded several others and damaged nearby houses. 

There has been no public explanation of what caused the Saturday afternoon blast at the base in Kompong Speu province, though there were no suggestions it was triggered deliberately. 

Defense Minister Tea Seiha, representing Prime Minister Hun Manet, presided over the Buddhist funeral ceremony, which was attended by relatives of the victims and fellow soldiers. Cambodian flags covered the wooden coffins. 

A villager living nearby told The Associated Press on Sunday that he trembled after hearing the blast because he had never before experienced such a loud explosion. 

“When the explosion happened, I was fixing my house with some construction workers,” said Chim Sothea. “Suddenly there was a loud explosion, causing my house to shake and breaking tiles on my roof. They fell down but luckily they didn’t fall inside the house.” 

Images showed several badly damaged buildings on the base, at least one with its roof  blown off, and soldiers receiving treatment in a hospital. Other photos showed nearby houses with holes in their roofs. 

Four buildings on the base — three for storage and one work facility — were destroyed and several military vehicles damaged, Col. Youeng Sokhon, an army officer at the site, said in a report to army chief Gen. Mao Sophan. 

Another villager, who asked to be named only as Sophal, said the military closed the road to the base and “villagers were in a panic, seeking a safe place.” He moved his family to his parent’s home, farther away from the base. When he returned to his own house hours later, he found it undamaged but other villagers’ houses had broken windows, doors and roofs, he said. 

Cambodia, like many countries in the region, has been suffering from an extended heat wave, and the province where the blast took place registered a high of 39 C (102 F) Saturday. While high temperatures normally can’t detonate ammunition, they can degrade the stability of explosives over time, with the risk that a single small explosion can set off a fire and a chain reaction. 

In March 2005, a nighttime blast at an arms depot in the northwestern provincial town of Battambang triggered an hour-long spray of shells and bullets, killing at least six people and causing panic. 

A 2014 report by the Swiss-based group Small Arms Survey highlighted the dangers of poorly stored or mishandled munitions, calling it a “global problem.” It noted that from 1979 through 2013 there were more than 500 incidents involving unplanned explosions at munitions sites. 
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Officials: 23 civilian force members killed in northern Nigeria

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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — At least 23 members of Nigeria’s civilian joint task force were killed Saturday in separate attacks by militants and an armed kidnapping gang in the north, two officials from the force said Sunday. 

In northeast Borno state, the heartland of an Islamist insurgency, suspected Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters used an improvised explosive device (IED) to blow up a vehicle carrying the Civilian Joint Tast Force (CJTF) team, a local force chairman said. 

The CJTF was first formed in 2013 to protect communities in the northeast and help the military fight Boko Haram and later its offshoot ISWAP. The force has since been extended to other northern states that are grappling with armed kidnapping gangs. 

Tijjanima Umar, CJTF chairman for Gamboru Ngala area near the border with Cameroon, said his team was traveling to Borno state capital Maiduguri when they drove over the IED. 

“As the mine blew up, nine of them died instantly … while two other people had severe injuries and were immediately taken to hospital for treatment,” Umar told Reuters by phone. 

The Nigerian military was not immediately available to comment. 

Although severely curtailed by Nigerian security forces, Boko Haram and ISWAP still carry out deadly attacks against civilians and the military. 

In northwestern Soko state, 14 CJTF members were killed and several were missing following an ambush by gunmen Saturday, task force sector commandant Ismail Haruna told Reuters. 

Haruna said the CJTF members were killed in Sokoto’s Isa local government area, where they had raided and destroyed a bush camp belonging to a known armed kidnapping gang leader. 

The gang quickly regrouped and ambushed the CJTF as they drove back to Sokoto state capital, he added. 
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Armed men kidnap a senior judge in Pakistan’s restive northwest 

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Armed men ambushed and kidnapped a senior judge in Pakistan’s restive northwest, a police official said Sunday.

Around 15 men on motorbikes intercepted Judge Shakirullah Marwat’s vehicle as he was travelling toward Dera Ismail Khan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said police official Faheem Khan. The assailants set the car on fire before fleeing with him. The driver was not harmed, Khan said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday evening’s assault, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, who made the province their stronghold.

It’s unusual for militants in the northwest to target a judge of Marwat’s seniority, who normally travels with tight security. The militants have generally attacked security personnel or infrastructure.

Khan said a search operation had been launched for the judge and a counter-terrorism team had joined the investigation.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in violence, mostly blamed on the TTP, since the group unilaterally ended a cease-fire with the central government in November 2022.

Last weekend, gunmen opened fire at customs officials, killing two and wounding three others in Dera Ismail Khan.
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Tornadoes kill 2 in Oklahoma as governor issues state of emergency for 12 counties

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HOLDENVILLE, Okla. — At least two people, including a child, died in tornadoes that swept through Oklahoma, authorities said Sunday as emergency crews assessed the extensive damage to homes and businesses from the high winds, hail and flooding. 

Dozens of reported tornadoes have wreaked havoc in the nation’s midsection since Friday, with flood watches and warnings in effect Sunday for Oklahoma and other states — including Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. 

In Oklahoma, a tornado ripped through Holdenville, a town of about 5,000 people, late Saturday, killing two people, and injuring four others, Hughes County Emergency Medical Services said in a statement Sunday. Holdenville is roughly 129 kilometers (80 miles) from Oklahoma City. 

“My prayers are with those who lost loved ones as tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma last night,” Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement. 

He issued an executive order Sunday declaring a state of emergency in 12 counties due to the fallout from the severe weather as crews worked to clear debris and assess damage from the severe storms that downed power lines. 

Nearly 33,000 customers were without power in Oklahoma as of Sunday morning, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks electric utility outages. In Texas, nearly 67,000 customers were without power. 

Significant destruction from the storm was reported in the southern Oklahoma community of Sulphur and well as around Marietta, where a hospital was damaged, according to the Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management. 

Residents in other states were also digging out from storm damage. A tornado in suburban Omaha, Nebraska, demolished homes and businesses Saturday as it moved for kilometers through farmland and into subdivisions, then slammed an Iowa town. 

Fewer than two dozen people were treated at Omaha-area hospitals, said Dr. Lindsay Huse, health director of the city’s Douglas County Health Department. 

“Miraculous” she said, stressing that none of the city’s injuries was serious. Neighboring communities reported a handful of injuries each. 

The tornado damage started Friday afternoon near Lincoln, Nebraska. An industrial building in Lancaster County was hit, causing it to collapse with 70 people inside. Several were trapped, but everyone was evacuated, and the three injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said. 

One or possibly two tornadoes then spent around an hour creeping toward Omaha, leaving behind damage consistent with an EF3 twister, with winds of 217 to 266 kilometers per hour (135 to 165 mph), said Chris Franks, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Omaha office. 

Ultimately the twister slammed into the Elkhorn neighborhood in western Omaha, a city of 485,000 people with a metropolitan-area population of about 1 million. 

Staci Roe surveyed the damage to what was supposed to be her “forever home,” which was not even two years old. When the tornado hit, they were at the airport picking up a friend who was supposed to spend the night. 

“There was no home to come to,” she said, describing “utter dread” when she saw it for the first time. 

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds spent Saturday touring the damage and arranging for assistance for the damaged communities. Formal damage assessments are still underway, but the states plan to seek federal help. 

 
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Italy PM Meloni announces candidacy at EU election 

Posted on by SeeEU

Rome — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced Sunday she will be a candidate at June’s European elections in a bid to boost support for her Brothers of Italy party, though she will not take up a seat if elected. 

The June 6-9 European Parliament vote is a key test of strength for her 18-month-old rightist coalition. 

“We want to do in Europe what we did in Italy… create a majority that brings together the center-right forces and send the left into opposition,” Meloni told cheering party faithful at a party conference in the coastal city of Pescara to set out EU policies and launch the campaign. 

Meloni, whose party traces its roots to Benito Mussolini’s Fascist group, called for Italy to leave the euro zone when in opposition and her 2022 election raised concerns in some European capitals. 

However, she has followed a broadly pro-European, orthodox line in office, particularly on foreign policy matters such as Ukraine and the Middle East. 

Her party is Italy’s most popular with 27% of support, according to recent polls, ahead of the opposition Democratic Party (PD) on around 20% and the left-leaning 5-Star Movement on 16%. 

Meloni will be the first name on the ballot for Brothers of Italy in all five of Italy’s constituencies for the EU election, but pledged she would not use “a single minute” of her time as prime minister to campaign. 

PD leader Elly Schlein announced last week she would also run, as did Antonio Tajani, head of the centrist Forza Italia party which is in the ruling coalition. 

All three leaders hope to win votes of people who take little interest in politics but are attracted by names of party chiefs on the ballot. 

Assuming they are elected, Meloni, Schlein and Tajani are expected to give up their seats, making way for runner-up candidates. 
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Aerial photos show wide devastation left by tornado in China’s Guangzhou

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Beijing — Aerial photos posted by Chinese state media on Sunday showed the wide devastation of a part of the southern city of Guangzhou after a tornado swept through the day before, killing five people, injuring dozens of others and damaging more than a hundred buildings. 

As businesses and residents began cleaning debris, the images showed block upon block of devastation in the hardest hit areas with a few clusters of buildings standing amid the destruction, a truck overturned on its side and cars crushed by rubble. Some buildings had their sheet metal roofs torn off. 

The tornado, which knocked out power in the area, also injured 33 people on Saturday, officials said. 

Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province and a manufacturing hub near Hong Kong. The tornado that struck during an afternoon thunderstorm that also brought hail damaged 141 factory buildings, according to authorities. 

They said no homes were destroyed, although a news website under the Southern Media Group reported that some had broken windows. 

The tornado hit several villages in Guangzhou’s Baiyun district. In one, packing material known as “pearl cotton” hung from buildings and trees, a report on the Southern Media website said. It blew into the compound of a nearby furniture company, where workers took shelter in a private home after the metal roof was ripped off their building, the news website reported. 

Workers were rolling up the material to be carted away for disposal on Sunday. 

The disaster hit one week after heavy rains and flooding killed at least four people in Guangdong province. 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited Guangzhou during an official visit to China earlier in the month. The city, formerly known as Canton, also recently held the Canton Fair, a major export and import exhibition that draws buyers from around the world. 

In September, two tornadoes killed 10 people in Jiangsu province in eastern China.
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French diplomat in Lebanon to broker halt to Hezbollah-Israel clashes  

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BEIRUT — French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné arrived in Lebanon Sunday as part of diplomatic attempts to broker a de-escalation in the conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border. 

Séjourné was set to meet with United Nations peacekeeping forces in south Lebanon and with Lebanon’s parliament speaker, army chief, foreign minister and caretaker prime minister. 

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has exchanged strikes near-daily with Israeli forces in the border region — and sometimes beyond — for almost seven months against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hezbollah ally Hamas in Gaza. 

Israeli strikes have killed more than 350 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups but also including more than 50 civilians. Strikes by Hezbollah have killed 10 civilians and 12 soldiers in Israel. 

A French diplomatic official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, said the purpose of Séjourné’s visit was to convey France’s “fears of a war on Lebanon” and to submit an amendment to a proposal Paris had previously presented to Lebanon for a diplomatic resolution to the border conflict. 

Western diplomats have brought forward a series of proposals for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Most of those would hinge on Hezbollah moving its forces several kilometers from the border, a beefed-up Lebanese army presence and negotiations for Israeli forces to withdraw from disputed points along the border where Lebanon says Israel has been occupying small patches of Lebanese territory since it withdrew from the rest of south Lebanon in 2000. 

The previous French proposal would have involved Hezbollah withdrawing its forces 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border. 

Hezbollah has signaled a willingness to entertain the proposals but has said there will be no deal in Lebanon before there is a cease-fire in Gaza. 
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Ukrainian ‘Grandpa’ leads over-60s unit fighting Russian forces free of charge

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ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION — Oleksandr Taran’s mobile artillery unit isn’t officially part of Ukraine’s military, but that hasn’t stopped his men from destroying Russian targets on their own dime.

“We … get by thanks to the pension fund,” the 68-year-old commander – whose call sign is “Grandpa” – said with a chuckle.

Taran’s all-volunteer unit, the Steppe Wolves, is comprised of dozens of Ukrainian men mostly over 60 years old who are considered too old to be drafted but still want to fight.

Roving behind the front line with truck-mounted rocket launchers, they take orders from field commanders and work with other troops, contributing to the war effort despite lacking official support from the military.

The unit is funded by donations and stocked with faulty rounds they repair themselves as well as weapons captured from the enemy. Both are delivered to them by front-line troops.

When Reuters recently visited their base in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, they were preparing 122 mm Grad rocket rounds that were later fired by troops from another unit.

“The commanders that provide us with targets are happy,” said a 63-year-old fighter with the call sign “Zorro.”

“They give us more targets [and] help us with ammunition however they can.”

Taran, the commander, said his unit has been attempting to officially join Ukraine’s armed forces to directly receive ammunition – and salaries – but has been unsuccessful.

The unit also includes younger men who have been ruled unfit to fight. 

Willing and able

More than two years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s mobilization effort is struggling amid flagging enthusiasm.

Russian troops have been advancing in the east, and analysts say Ukraine’s shortage of manpower needs to be addressed.

Some prominent Ukrainian and foreign supporters of the war effort have urged Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy to significantly reduce the mobilization age.

Earlier this month, Zelenskyy approved new measures allowing the military to call up more troops and tighten punishment for evasion. He also reduced the mobilization age from 27 to 25.

Taran, who has been fighting since Moscow launched its war in 2014, said coercion would be unlikely to replace genuine enthusiasm from a potential recruit.

“Beat him with a stick if you want, but he won’t fight,” he said. “If a person wants to, he can go on for 100 years to fulfill his tasks and destroy the enemy.”
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Togo split over controversial reform on eve of vote

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Lome, Togo — Togo on Monday holds legislative elections after a highly divisive constitutional reform that opponents say paves the way for President Faure Gnassingbe to further extend his family’s decadeslong grip on power.

At the helm of the small West African country for nearly 20 years, Faure Gnassingbe succeeded his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for almost four decades.

Critics say the political dynasty’s hold on the small West African nation will be extended by the reform.

People in the streets of the seaside capital, Lome, were split over the election, the role of Togo’s leader, and who it should be.

Building painter Komlan Gato said he hoped the vote could usher in a new leader but was unsure about the fairness of the ballot.

“I am certain that if these elections are transparent, there will be change in this country. We are tired of seeing the same family in power,” he said.

“I was born in January 1970, and I only know the Gnassingbe family in power.”

The reform, adopted by lawmakers on April 19, makes the president’s post a largely ceremonial one.

The president will now be elected by parliament and not the people for a four-year term.

Power will reside with the president of the council of ministers, a sort of super-prime minister who happens to be the leader of the majority party in the new assembly.

If the ruling Union for the Republic (UNIR) party — which has an overwhelming parliamentary majority — wins on Monday, Gnassingbe can assume the new post.

Critics say that will allow him to skip presidential term limits. As president he would have been able only to run for one more five-year term in an election next year.

The opposition boycotted the last elections in 2018, citing irregularities. But they have asked supporters to turn out massively to challenge the UNIR’s stranglehold on power.

“The youth are desperate. The country is poorly managed and we are tired of the system in place,” said trader Ayaovi Sohou, 32.

Bernado Agbve, a baker, 28, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to “publish results from the polls: good results and not fictitious results.”

Gnassingbe has been reelected four times since being put in power in 2005 by the military to succeed his father after his sudden death. Each of the votes was rejected as a sham by the opposition.

‘Much remains to be done’

For Elvire Atchou, 38, an accountant in an insurance company, Gnassingbe should be allowed to continue.

“Togo is changing, let President Faure Gnassingbe continue the major projects: construction of roads, schools, health centers,” she said, adding, “I know that much remains to be done.”

With the country facing the risk of spillover from jihadist conflicts in the Sahel to its north, security and stability are key concerns.

Nutsugan Koffi, 25, a taxi driver, said Gnassingbe should be allowed to stay as long as Togo is stable.

“There is peace in Togo. It is very important for the development of a country. President Faure Gnassingbe can remain at the head of this country as long as possible, that does not bother me, provided that we are comfortable,” he said.

“The only thing that young people expect is employment.”

The constitutional reform also means Togo can shift away from presidential elections that have often sparked violence, he said.

All the presidential elections since the start of democracy in 1990 have been contested by the opposition, often with waves of violence, notably during the April 2005 vote.

Violence left at least 105 and perhaps more than 800 people killed, depending on figures from the government or from the opposition. The United Nations estimated at the time that there were between 400 to 500 deaths.

Leaders of opposition parties and civil society organizations brand the reform an “institutional coup” tailor-made to keep Faure in power.

They have announced “large-scale actions” without giving details, though the last attempt to bring supporters to the streets was quickly banned and blocked by authorities.
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Philippines suspends in-person classes due to heat, jeepney strike

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Manila, Philippines — The Philippines will suspend in-person classes in all public schools for two days due to extreme heat and a nationwide strike by jeepney drivers, the education department said Sunday.

Extreme heat has scorched Southeast Asia in recent weeks, prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person operations and authorities to issue health warnings.

Many schools in the Philippines have no air conditioning, leaving students to swelter in crowded, poorly ventilated classrooms.

“In view of the latest heat index forecast… and the announcement of a nationwide transport strike, all public schools nationwide shall implement asynchronous classes/distance learning on April 29 and 30, 2024,” the department said on Facebook.

The education department oversees more than 47,000 schools across the archipelago nation.

Some jeepney drivers also plan to hold a three-day nationwide strike starting Monday to protest the government’s plan to phase out the smoke-belching vehicles used by many Filipinos to commute to work and school.

The suspension of in-person classes comes after Manila recorded its highest ever temperature.

The temperature in the city hit a record high of 38.8 degrees Celsius on Saturday with the heat index reaching 45 degrees, data from the state weather forecaster showed.

The heat index measures what a temperature feels like, taking into account humidity.

The hot weather persisted on Sunday with many people flocking to air conditioned shopping malls and swimming pools for relief.

“This is the hottest I’ve ever experienced here,” said Nancy Bautista, 65, whose resort in Cavite province near Manila was fully booked due to the hot weather.

“Many of our guests are friends and families. They swim in the pool to fight the heat.”

The months of March, April and May are typically the hottest and driest of the year, but this year’s conditions have been exacerbated by the El Nino weather phenomenon.

“All places in the country, not necessarily just Metro Manila, are expected to have hotter temperatures until the second week of May,” Glaiza Escullar of the state weather forecaster told AFP.

“There is a possibility that the areas will exceed those temperatures being measured today until the second week of May.”

Camiling municipality in Tarlac province, north of Manila, recorded a temperature of 40.3 degrees on Saturday — the country’s highest this year.

As the mercury rose, Gerise Reyes, 31, planned to take her 2-year-old daughter to a shopping mall near Manila.

“It’s hot here at home. This is the hottest I’ve ever experienced, especially between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.,” she said.

“We need a free aircon to cut our electricity bill.”

Global temperatures hit record highs last year, and the United Nations weather and climate agency said Tuesday that Asia was warming at a particularly rapid pace.

The Philippines ranks among the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
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Ukrainian duo heads to the Eurovision Song Contest

Posted on by SeeEU

KYIV, Ukraine — Even amid war, Ukraine finds time for the glittery, pop-filled Eurovision Song Contest. Perhaps now even more than ever.

Ukraine’s entrants in the pan-continental music competition — the female duo of rapper alyona alyona and singer Jerry Heil — set off from Kyiv for the competition Thursday. In wartime, that means a long train journey to Poland, from where they will travel on to next month’s competition in Malmö, Sweden.

“We need to be visible for the world,” Heil told The Associated Press at Kyiv train station before her departure. “We need to show that even now, during the war, our culture is developing, and that Ukrainian music is something waiting for the world” to discover.

“We have to spread it and share it and show people how strong (Ukrainian) women and men are in our country,” added alyona, who spells her name with all lowercase letters.

Ukraine has long used Eurovision as a form of cultural diplomacy, a way of showing the world the country’s unique sound and style. That mission became more urgent after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied that Ukraine existed as a distinct country and people before Soviet times.

Ukrainian singer Jamala won the contest in 2016 — two years after Russia illegally seized the Crimean Peninsula — with a song about the expulsion of Crimea’s Tatars by Stalin in 1944. Folk-rap band Kalush Orchestra took the Eurovision title in 2022 with Stefania, a song about the frontman’s mother that became an anthem to the war-ravaged motherland, with a haunting refrain on a traditional Ukrainian wind instrument.

Alyona and Heil will perform Maria & Teresa, an anthemic ode to inspiring women. The title refers to Mother Theresa and the Virgin Mary, and the lyrics include the refrain, in English: “All the divas were born as the human beings” — people we regard as saints were once flawed and human like the rest of us.

Heil said the message is that “we all make mistakes, but your actions are what define you.”

And, alyona added: “with enough energy you can win the war, you can change the world.”

The song blends alyona’s punchy rap style with Heil’s soaring melody and distinctly Ukrainian vocal style.

“Alyona is a great rapper, she has this powerful energy,” Heil said. “And I’m more soft.”

“But great melodies,” alyona added. “So she creates all the melodies and I just jump in.”

Ukraine has been at the forefront of turning Eurovision from a contest dominated by English-language pop songs to a more diverse and multilingual event. Jamala sang part of her song in the Crimean Tatar language, while Kalush Orchestra sang and rapped in Ukrainian.

Ukraine’s Eurovision win in 2022 brought the country the right to host the following year, but because of the war the 2023 contest was held in the English city of Liverpool, which was bedecked in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags for the occasion — a celebration of Ukraine’s spirit and culture.

Thirty-seven countries from across Europe and beyond — including Israel and Australia — will compete in Malmö in two Eurovision semifinals May 7 and 9, followed by a May 11 final. Ukraine currently ranks among bookmakers’ top five favorites alongside the likes of singer Nemo from Switzerland and Croatian singer-songwriter Baby Lasagna.

Russia, a long-time Eurovision competitor, was kicked out of the contest over the invasion.

The Ukrainian duo caught a train after holding a news conference where they announced a fundraising drive for a school destroyed by a Russian strike.

The duo is joining with charity fundraising platform United 24 to raise 10 million hryvnia (about $250,000) to rebuild a school in the village of Velyka Kostromka in southern Ukraine that was destroyed by a Russian rocket in October 2022. The school’s 250 pupils have been unable to attend class since then, relying on online learning.

Teacher Liudmyla Taranovych, whose children and grandchildren went to the school, said its destruction brought feelings of “pain, despair, hopelessness.”

“My grandchildren hugged me and asked, ‘Grandma, will they rebuild our school? Will it be as beautiful, flourishing, and bright as it was?'” she said.

From the rubble, another teacher managed to rescue one of the school’s treasured possessions — a large wooden key traditionally presented to first grade students to symbolize that education is the key to their future. It has become a sign of hope for the school.

Alyona and Heil have also embraced the key as a symbol, wearing T-shirts covered in small metal housekeys.

“It’s a symbol of something which maybe some people in Ukraine won’t have, because so many people lost their homes,” Heil said. “But they’re holding these keys in their pockets, and they’re holding the hope.”
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America’s child care crisis is holding back moms without college degrees

Posted on by SeeUS

AUBURN, Wash. — After a series of lower-paying jobs, Nicole Slemp finally landed one she loved. She was a secretary for Washington’s child services department, a job that came with her own cubicle, and she had a knack for working with families in difficult situations.

Slemp expected to return to work after having her son in August. But then she and her husband started looking for child care – and doing the math. The best option would cost about $2,000 a month, with a long wait list, and even the least expensive option would cost around $1,600, still eating up most of Slemp’s salary. Her husband earns about $35 an hour at a hose distribution company. Between them, they earned too much to qualify for government help.

“I really didn’t want to quit my job,” says Slemp, 33, who lives in a Seattle suburb. But, she says, she felt like she had no choice.

The dilemma is common in the United States, where high-quality child care programs are prohibitively expensive, government assistance is limited, and daycare openings are sometimes hard to find at all. In 2022, more than 1 in 10 young children had a parent who had to quit, turn down or drastically change a job in the previous year because of child care problems. And that burden falls most on mothers, who shoulder more child-rearing responsibilities and are far more likely to leave a job to care for kids.

Even so, women’s participation in the workforce has recovered from the pandemic, reaching historic highs in December 2023. But that masks a lingering crisis among women like Slemp who lack a college degree: The gap in employment rates between mothers who have a four-year degree and those who don’t has only grown.

For mothers without college degrees, a day without work is often a day without pay. They are less likely to have paid leave. And when they face an interruption in child care arrangements, an adult in the family is far more likely to take unpaid time off or to be forced to leave a job altogether, according to an analysis of Census survey data by The Associated Press in partnership with the Education Reporting Collaborative.

In interviews, mothers across the country shared how the seemingly endless search for child care, and its expense, left them feeling defeated. It pushed them off career tracks, robbed them of a sense of purpose, and put them in financial distress.

Women like Slemp challenge the image of the stay-at-home mom as an affluent woman with a high-earning partner, said Jessica Calarco, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“The stay-at-home moms in this country are disproportionately mothers who’ve been pushed out of the workforce because they don’t make enough to make it work financially to pay for child care,” Calarco said.

Her own research indicates three-quarters of stay-at-home moms live in households with incomes less than $50,000, and half have household incomes of less than $25,000.

Still, the high cost of child care has upended the careers of even those with college degrees.

When Jane Roberts gave birth in November, she and her husband, both teachers, quickly realized sending baby Dennis to day care was out of the question. It was too costly, and they worried about finding a quality provider in their hometown of Pocatello, Idaho.

The school district has no paid medical or parental leave, so Roberts exhausted her sick leave and personal days to stay home with Dennis. In March, she returned to work and husband Mike took leave. By the end of the school year, they’ll have missed out on a combined nine weeks of pay. To make ends meet, they’ve borrowed money against Jane’s life insurance policy.

In the fall, Roberts won’t return to teaching. The decision was wrenching. “I’ve devoted my entire adult life to this profession,” she said.

For low- and middle-income women who do find child care, the expense can become overwhelming. The Department of Health and Human Services has defined “affordable” child care as an arrangement that costs no more than 7% of a household budget. But a Labor Department study found fewer than 50 American counties where a family earning the median household income could obtain child care at an “affordable” price.

There’s also a connection between the cost of child care and the number of mothers working: a 10% increase in the median price of child care was associated with a 1% drop in the maternal workforce, the Labor Department found.

In Birmingham, Alabama, single mother Adriane Burnett takes home about $2,800 a month as a customer service representative for a manufacturing company. She spends more than a third of that on care for her 3-year-old.

In October, that child aged out of a program that qualified the family of three for child care subsidies. So she took on more work, delivering food for DoorDash and Uber Eats. To make the deliveries possible, her 14-year-old has to babysit.

Even so, Burnett had to file for bankruptcy and forfeit her car because she was behind on payments. She is borrowing her father’s car to continue her delivery gigs. The financial stress and guilt over missing time with her kids have affected her health, Burnett said. She has had panic attacks and has fainted at work.

“My kids need me,” Burnett said, “but I also have to work.”

Even for parents who can afford child care, searching for it — and paying for it — consumes reams of time and energy.

When Daizha Rioland was five months pregnant with her first child, she posted in a Facebook group for Dallas moms that she was looking for child care. Several warned she was already behind if she wasn’t on any wait lists. Rioland, who has a bachelor’s degree and works in communications for a nonprofit, wanted a racially diverse program with a strong curriculum.

While her daughter remained on wait lists, Rioland’s parents stepped in to care for her. Finally, her daughter reached the top of a waiting list — at 18 months old. The tuition was so high she could only attend part-time. Rioland got her second daughter on waiting lists long before she was born, and she now attends a center Rioland trusts.

“I’ve grown up in Dallas. I see what happens when you’re not afforded the luxury of high-quality education,” said Rioland, who is Black. “For my daughters, that’s not going to be the case.”

Slemp still sometimes wonders how she ended up staying at home with her son – time she cherishes but also finds disorienting. She thought she was doing well. After stints at a water park and a call center, her state job seemed like a step toward financial stability. How could it be so hard to maintain her career, when everything seemed to be going right?

“Our country is doing nothing to try to help fill that gap,” Slemp said. As a parent, “we’re supposed to keep the population going, and they’re not giving us a chance to provide for our kids to be able to do that.”
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Wild horses to remain in North Dakota national park, lawmaker says 

Posted on by SeeUS

BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA — Wild horses will stay in North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park amid fears from advocates that park officials would remove the beloved animals from the rugged badlands landscape, a key lawmaker said Thursday. 

Republican U.S. Senator John Hoeven said he had secured a commitment from the National Park Service to maintain wild horses in the park, though the number remains to be determined. Roughly 200 horses now roam the park. 

Hoeven said the Park Service would abandon its proposed removal of the horses under an environmental review process begun in 2022 and would continue to operate under an existing 1978 environmental assessment that calls for a reduction in their numbers. 

“They’ve committed to me that we will have a thoughtful and inclusive discussion on how many horses they keep in the park,” Hoeven told The Associated Press. There is no timeline on that, he said. 

In a statement, the park said its decision to terminate the review “was made after careful consideration of the information and public comment received during the [environmental assessment] process.”

Park visitors, much to their delight, often encounter the horses while driving or hiking in the rolling, colorful badlands where a young future president, Theodore Roosevelt, hunted and engaged in cattle ranching in the 1880s in what was then Dakota Territory. 

“People love horses,” Hoeven said. “And where do you go to see wild horses? I mean, it’s not, like, an easy thing to do, and most people don’t have horses, and they love the idea of wild horses. They see it as part of our heritage in America.” 

Earlier Thursday, Hoeven’s office said in a statement the decision “will allow for a healthy herd of wild horses to be maintained at the park, managed in a way to support genetic diversity among the herd and preserve the park’s natural resources.” 

The horses roam the park’s South Unit near the Western tourist town of Medora. In 2022, park officials began the process of crafting a “livestock plan” for the horses as well as about nine longhorn cattle in the park’s North Unit near Watford City. Park officials have said that process aligned with policies to remove non-native species when they pose a potential risk to resources. 

“The horse herd in the South Unit, particularly at higher herd sizes, has the potential to damage fences used for wildlife management, trample or overgraze vegetation used by native wildlife species, contribute to erosion and soil-related impacts … and compete for food and water resources,” according to a Park Service environmental assessment from September 2023. 

Proposals included removing the horses quickly or gradually or taking no action. Park Superintendent Angie Richman has said the horses, even if they ultimately stay, will still have to be reduced to 35 to 60 animals under the 1978 environmental assessment. The park will continue to manage the longhorns as done previously, according to Hoeven’s office. 

Thousands of people made public comments during the Park Service review, the vast majority of them in support of keeping the horses. North Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature made its support official in a resolution last year. Governor Doug Burgum offered state help to maintain the horses. 

The Park Service reached out to the five tribal nations in North Dakota to find out if the tribes wanted to be involved in managing the horses, Hoeven said. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe indicated interest, he said. 

The senator’s announcement came after Congress passed and President Joe Biden recently signed an appropriations bill with a provision from Hoeven strongly recommending the Park Service maintain the horses. The legislation signaled that funding to remove the horses might be denied. 

Chris Kman, president of Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates, said she was in tears when she read Hoeven’s announcement. She said she planned to pursue federal protection for the horses and explore potential state legislation. 

“If they don’t have federal protection, then they’re at the mercy of the next administration that comes in or whatever policy they want to pull out and cite next time and try to get rid of the horses again,” Kman said by phone from the park. 

The horses descend from those of Native American tribes and area ranches and from domestic stallions introduced to the park in the late 20th century, according to Castle McLaughlin, who researched the horses as a graduate student while working for the Park Service in North Dakota in the 1980s.
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South Africa marks 30 years since apartheid ended

Posted on by SeeAF

PRETORIA, South Africa — South Africa marked 30 years since the end of apartheid and the birth of its democracy with a ceremony in the capital Saturday that included a 21-gun salute and the waving of the nation’s multicolored flag.

But any sense of celebration on the momentous anniversary was set against a growing discontent with the current government.

President Cyril Ramaphosa presided over the gathering in a huge white tent in the gardens of the government buildings in Pretoria as head of state.

He also spoke as the leader of the African National Congress party, which was widely credited with liberating South Africa’s Black majority from the racist system of oppression that made the country a pariah for nearly a half-century.

The ANC has been in power ever since the first democratic, all-race election of April 27, 1994, the vote that officially ended apartheid.

But this Freedom Day holiday marking that day fell amid a poignant backdrop: Analysts and polls predict that the waning popularity of the party once led by Nelson Mandela is likely to see it lose its parliamentary majority for the first time as a new generation of South Africans make their voices heard in what might be the most important election since 1994 next month.

“Few days in the life of our nation can compare to that day, when freedom was born,” Ramaphosa said in a speech centered on the nostalgia of 1994, when Black people were allowed to vote for the first time, the once-banned ANC swept to power, and Mandela became the country’s first Black president. “South Africa changed forever. It signaled a new chapter in the history of our nation, a moment that resonated across Africa and across the world.”

“On that day, the dignity of all the people of South Africa was restored,” Ramaphosa said.

The president, who stood in front of a banner emblazoned with the word “Freedom,” also recognized the major problems South Africa still has three decades later with vast poverty and inequality, issues that will be central yet again when millions vote on May 29. Ramaphosa conceded there had been “setbacks.”

The 1994 election changed South Africa from a country where Black and other nonwhite people were denied most basic freedoms, not just the right to vote. Laws controlled where they lived, where they were allowed to go on any given day, and what jobs they could have. After apartheid fell, a constitution was adopted guaranteeing the rights of all South Africans no matter their race, religion, gender or sexuality.

But that hasn’t significantly improved the lives of millions, with South Africa’s Black majority that make up more than 80% of the population of 62 million still overwhelmingly affected by severe poverty.

The official unemployment rate is 32%, the highest in the world, and more than 60% for young people between the ages of 15 and 24. More than 16 million South Africans — 25% of the country — rely on monthly welfare grants for survival.

South Africa is still the most unequal country in the world in terms of wealth distribution, according to the World Bank, with race a key factor.

While the damage of apartheid remains difficult to undo, the ANC is increasingly being blamed for South Africa’s current problems.

In the week leading up to the anniversary, countless South Africans were asked what 30 years of freedom from apartheid meant to them. The dominant response was that while 1994 was a landmark moment, it’s now overshadowed by the joblessness, violent crime, corruption and near-collapse of basic services like electricity and water that plagues South Africa in 2024.

It’s also poignant that many South Africans who never experienced apartheid and are referred to as “Born Frees” are now old enough to vote.

Outside the tent where Ramaphosa spoke in front of mostly dignitaries and politicians, a group of young Black South Africans born after 1994 and who support a new political party called Rise Mzansi wore T-shirts with the words “2024 is our 1994” on them. Their message was that they were looking beyond the ANC and for another change for their future in next month’s election.

“They don’t know what happened before 1994. They don’t know,” said Seth Mazibuko, an older supporter of Rise Mzansi and a well-known anti-apartheid activist in the 1970s.

“Let us agree that we messed up,” Mazibuko said of the last 30 years, which have left the youngsters standing behind him directly impacted by the second-worst youth unemployment rate in the world behind Djibouti.

He added: “There’s a new chance in elections next month.”
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