Month: April 2024

US Congress seeks to change Hong Kong office’s address to Jimmy Lai Way

Posted on by SeeEA

Washington — Two U.S. congressmen have introduced a bill to rename the street in front of Hong Kong’s de facto embassy in Washington as “Jimmy Lai Way” in honor of the jailed media entrepreneur.

The bill would also apply the name change to the mailing address for the office, officially known as the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office.

Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey announced the bill in a statement Thursday, saying he and the bill’s co-author, Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, wanted to honor the “renowned Hong Kong human rights defender who remains unjustly imprisoned by Hong Kong authorities.”

Authorities jailed the 76-year-old founder of Hong Kong media group Next Digital, formerly Next Media, in December 2020 after accusing him of fraud.

They also charged him with “conspiracy to collude with foreign countries or external forces to endanger national security” under Hong Kong’s National Security Law.  The cases are still ongoing, and Lai has been denied bail.

In the statement, Smith, who is chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called the charges “fabricated” and “politically motivated.”

“Jimmy Lai is a man of faith and conviction, someone who fervently believed that Hong Kong’s prosperity and vitality were built on the rights promised to its citizens,” Smith said. “For peacefully acting on this belief, he is arbitrarily detained.”

Since Beijing imposed the tough Hong Kong security law in 2020, U.S. lawmakers from both parties have become increasingly concerned about the Asian financial hub’s autonomy and are looking at measures to put pressure on its government.

Beijing says the security law is needed to maintain stability but has used it to arrest, jail and try hundreds of pro-democracy activists, stifling Hong Kong’s once vibrant civil society.

In March, Hong Kong lawmakers unanimously and quickly approved their own sweeping national security law known as Basic Law Article 23, strengthening the government’s ability to silence dissent.

“We will continue to press for Jimmy Lai’s unconditional release and seek ways to raise the diplomatic and reputational costs globally for the Hong Kong government and their Chinese Communist Party masters for their rough dismantling of democratic freedoms and the rule of law in Hong Kong,” Smith said in the statement.

Smith, who has long been concerned about human rights in China, nominated Lai and other jailed, well-known Chinese rights defenders Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, along with Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize in February. U.S. lawmakers called them “advocates for peace and freedom.”

“The free world must continue calling attention to the Chinese Communist Party’s crimes in Xinjiang, erosion of democracy in Hong Kong, and saber-rattling against Taiwan,” Suozzi said in the statement.

“Naming a street in Washington, D.C., after Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy advocate and journalist standing up for human rights in Hong Kong, will signal to the entire world that the United States stands in solidarity with those who oppose the tyranny and repression of the Chinese government,” he added.

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office has locations in three U.S. cities — Washington, New York and San Francisco.

VOA contacted the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office and the Chinese Embassy in Washington for their reaction to the proposed bill. They forwarded VOA’s inquiry to the Information Services Department in Hong Kong, which did not receive respond by publication time.

U.S. lawmakers have on several occasions proposed name changes for roads in front of foreign embassies and territories to memorialize and honor rights defenders from those countries who were persecuted by their own governments.

In 2014, a bill was introduced to rename a portion of International Place NW, a street that runs in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington after Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo. The Chinese writer and government critic died in custody in 2017.

In 2020, U.S. lawmakers proposed renaming the same street “Li Wenliang Plaza” after the doctor who was punished for posting warnings on social media about the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 in Wuhan. He died that same year from the virus.

In 2018, the city government in Washington renamed a section of the avenue in front of the Russian Embassy as “Boris Nemtsov Plaza” in honor of the Russian opposition activist who had been fatally shot in Moscow three years earlier.

In 2022, the street in front of the Saudi Arabian Embassy was renamed “Jamal Khashoggi Way” after the Washington Post columnist was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by government agents.

In February, a bipartisan group of U.S. congressmen announced legislation to rename a section of the street near the Russian ambassador’s residence as “Alexei Navalny Way” to memorialize the late Russian opposition leader less than two weeks after his sudden death in prison.
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Rwanda’s genocide survivor housing now ready for migrants from Britain

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KIGALI, Rwanda — Rwanda says it’s ready to receive migrants from the United Kingdom after British Parliament this week approved a long-stalled and controversial bill seeking to stem the tide of people crossing the English Channel in small boats by deporting some of them to the East African country.

There is even a place ready and waiting for the migrants — a refurbished Hope Hostel in the vibrant upscale neighborhood of Kagugu, an area of the Rwandan capital of Kigali that is home to many expats and several international schools.

The hostel once housed college students whose parents died in the 1994 genocide, this African nation’s most horrific period in history when an estimated 800,000 Tutsi were killed by extremist Hutu in massacres that lasted over 100 days.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged the deportation flights would begin in July but has refused to provide details or say how many people would be deported.

Rwanda government’s deputy spokesperson Alain Mukuralinda told The Associated Press on Tuesday that authorities here have been planning for the migrants’ arrival for two years.

“Even if they arrive now or tomorrow, all arrangements are in place,” he said.

The plan was long held up in British courts and by opposition from human rights activists who say it is illegal and inhumane. It envisages deporting to Rwanda some of those who enter the U.K. illegally and migrant advocates have vowed to continue to fight against the plan.

The measure is also meant to be a deterrent to migrants who risk their lives in leaky, inflatable boats in hopes that they will be able to claim asylum once they reach Britain. The U.K. also signed a new treaty with Rwanda to beef up protections for migrants, and adopted new legislation declaring Rwanda to be a safe country.

“The Rwanda critics and the U.K. judges who earlier said Rwanda is not a safe country have been proven wrong,” Mukuralinda said. “Rwanda is safe.”

The management at the four-story Hope Hostel says the facility is ready and can accommodate 100 people at full capacity. The government says it will serve as a transit center and that more accommodations would be made available as needed.

Thousands of migrants arrive in Britain every year.

After they arrive from Britain, the migrants will be shown to their rooms to rest, after which they will be offered food and given some orientation points about Kigali and Rwanda, said hostel manager Ismael Bakina.

Tents will be set up within the hostel’s compound for processing their documentation and for various briefings. The site is equipped with security cameras, visible across the compound.

Within the compound are also entertainment places, a mini-soccer field, a basketball and a volleyball court as well as a red-carpeted prayer room. For those who want to light up, “there is even a smoking room,” Bakina explained.

Meals will be prepared in the hostel’s main kitchen but provisions are also being made for those who want to prepare their own meals, he said. The migrants will be free to walk outside the hostel and even visit the nearby Kigali city center.

“We will have different translators, according to (their) languages,” Bakina added, saying they include English and Arabic.

The government has said the migrants will have their papers processed within the first three months. Those who want to remain in Rwanda will be allowed to do so while authorities will also assist those who wish to return to their home countries.

While in Rwanda, migrants who obtain legal status — presumably for Britain — will also be processed, authorities have said, though it’s unclear what that means exactly.

For those who choose to stay, Mukurilinda said Rwanda’s government will bear full financial and other responsibilities for five years, after which they will be considered integrated into the society.

At that point, they can start managing on their own.
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Public urged to join fight for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

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sydney — Analysis of more than 25,000 images from divers, tourism operators and recreational boats on Australia’s annual Great Reef Census is getting under way. Now in its fourth year, one of the world’s fastest-growing conservation projects is helping to gauge the health and degradation of the world’s largest coral system, which is suffering from another mass bleaching event.

The Great Reef Census collects a trove of images of what is arguably Australia’s greatest natural treasure.

Each picture can contain vital information about the health of the Great Barrier Reef. Together, the images create a vital evaluation of the state of the ecosystem.

The barrier reef stretches for 2,300 kilometers down Australia’s northeastern coast. It is under increasing threat from global warming, pollution and overfishing, as well as coral-eating crown of thorns starfish.

The surveillance project is urging so-called citizen scientists around the world to help in the analysis of the images. The survey also uses artificial intelligence to scan much of the data.

The public is being asked to analyze the images to see which reefs fared better than others and potentially identify so-called new “key source reefs,” which are those reefs that appear to have escaped the worst of the degradation.

Anyone can help in the effort, said Nicole Senn, impact and engagement lead at Citizens of the Reef, which coordinates the survey.

“Citizen scientists using our A.I assisted platform can actually provide data that is highly comparable in accuracy to a reef expert, and it takes as little as one minute to analyze an image, and the data you are generating helps to prioritize conservation efforts on the reef and identify key source reefs,” she said. “These are healthy reefs that are positioned in a way that they can help nearby reefs recover and this is just one of the many ways your analysis of these images can help.”

The Great Barrier Reef is suffering from another widespread bleaching event.

Scientists say that corals bleach, or turn white, when they are stressed by changes in water temperature, light, or nutrients. In response, the coral expels the symbiotic algae living in their tissues that give them their color and energy, exposing their white skeleton.

Not all bleaching incidents are due to warm water, but experts say the mass bleaching reported on the Great Barrier Reef is caused by a marine heatwave.

Experts say reefs around the world last year and early this year have been affected by high ocean surface temperatures.

Chris Lawson, a data scientist with the Great Reef Census’ Science Committee, told VOA that the situation appears to be dire.

“The latest mass bleaching event has been designated as the fourth global mass bleaching event,” he said. “So, it is not just in Australia, it has been observed globally and by all accounts is the worst one on record in terms of its extent and its severity of bleaching.”

Experts say reefs’ extreme susceptibility to warming sea temperatures makes them one of the world’s ecosystems that is most vulnerable to climate change.
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British officials charge 2 with spying for China

Posted on by SeeEA

Washington — British officials formally charged two men Friday with spying on behalf of China in the latest in a series of European arrests of suspected Chinese intelligence agents.

The two men, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, were charged with violations of the Official Secrets Act by “providing prejudicial information to a foreign state, China” between 2021 and February 2023.

Their arrests on Monday occurred at the same time that German authorities arrested three people suspected of spying for China and leaking information on military technology. German authorities separately arrested an assistant to a far-right European Parliament member.

The Chinese Embassy in London said the charges Cash and Berry face are “completely fabricated” and “malicious slander,” a part of British “anti-China political manipulation.”

Dominic Murphy, who leads the counterterrorism command of London’s Metropolitan Police, told The Associated Press the charges are the result of “an extremely complex investigation into what are very serious allegations.”

Cash, a parliamentary researcher with the governing Conservative Party, and Berry, an academic, have been granted bail and released after a court appearance in London. They will next appear in court for a preliminary hearing on May 10.

Cash maintains his innocence, while Berry and his lawyers have provided no public statements.

British and EU officials have warned of the threat that Chinese covert activities pose, with Ken McCallum, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, warning in 2022 that China has sought to target and influence British political officials.

Last month, the U.S. and U.K. governments announced new sanctions against hackers with ties to the Chinese government, and both countries accused the hackers of targeting government officials and businesses at the direction of Chinese government leadership.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press. 
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King Charles to resume public duties after cancer diagnosis

Posted on by SeeEU

LONDON — Britain’s King Charles III will return to public duties next week for the first time since being diagnosed with cancer as he makes good progress following treatment and a period of recuperation, Buckingham Palace said on Friday.

In February, the palace revealed that the 75-year-old king had been diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer detected in tests after a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate.

Although Charles continued with official state business, the diagnosis led him to postpone public engagements to begin treatment and rest.

“His majesty’s treatment program will continue, but doctors are sufficiently pleased with the progress made so far that the king is now able to resume a number of public-facing duties,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said.

“His majesty is greatly encouraged to be resuming some public-facing duties and very grateful to his medical team for their continued care and expertise.”

Although it was too early to say how much longer his cancer treatment would last, the spokesperson said his doctors were “very encouraged by the progress made so far and remain positive about the king’s continued recovery.”

No further details about his condition or his treatment were given, in line with the usual stance on medical privacy.

While pictured and filmed carrying out some official duties in private, Charles’s only public appearance since his cancer diagnosis came last month when he greeted well-wishers in an impromptu walkabout after an Easter church service in Windsor, raising hopes that his health was improving.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak responded to the news of the king’s return to public duties, saying on social media site X: “Brilliant news to end the week!”

Japanese emperor visit

To mark his return, Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, will visit a cancer treatment center in London next Tuesday, the palace said. It was also confirmed that the Japanese Emperor Naruhito and his wife, Empress Masako, would pay a state visit in late June.

However, Charles will not carry out his usual summer program and his plans will be crafted in consultation with his medical team to minimize risks to recovery, the palace said.

The king’s absence has coincided with news that his daughter-in-law Kate, wife of his son and heir Prince William, was undergoing preventative chemotherapy after tests in the wake of major abdominal surgery revealed cancer had been present.

The Princess of Wales, often known by her maiden name Kate Middleton, will herself only return to public duties when her medical team say she is well enough to do so.

Charles’s health scare came less than 18 months into his reign after he succeeded from his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, and less than a year since his coronation, Britain’s biggest ceremonial event for seven decades.

“As the first anniversary of the coronation approaches, their majesties remain deeply grateful for the many kindnesses and good wishes they have received from around the world throughout the joys and challenges of the past year,” Buckingham Palace said.
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Blinken criticizes protesting students’ ‘silence’ on Hamas

Posted on by SeeUS

washington — As student protests against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza continue at more than three dozen American universities, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the demonstrations were “a hallmark” of American democracy. At the same time, he criticized the students for their “silence” on Hamas.

“It is also notable that there is silence about Hamas. It’s as if it wasn’t even part of the story,” Blinken said to reporters Friday during a visit to Beijing. “But as I’ve also said repeatedly, the way Israel goes about ensuring that October 7th never happens again matters profoundly.”

Speaking in a country where dissent is often harshly suppressed, Blinken said he understood the war invokes “strong, passionate feelings” and voiced support for the students’ right to protest.

“It’s a hallmark of our democracy that our citizens make known their views, their concerns, their anger, at any given time, and I think that reflects the strength of the country, the strength of democracy,” he said.

Protests have grown in campuses across the country since Columbia University in New York started cracking down on pro-Palestinian protesters occupying a lawn on its campus on April 18. Police interventions have led to hundreds of arrests but have failed to contain the spread of antiwar demonstrations.

“We have students of all backgrounds and of all histories and identities coming out here to stand on the side of justice and to oppose genocide,” said Malak Afaneh, who spoke with VOA from the encampment at the University of California-Berkeley. The third-year law student who has Palestinian parents said there has been an “outpouring of community support.”

In many universities, Jewish students participated in expressing their anger about U.S. support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and their schools’ financial and academic ties to Israel and to weapons manufacturers.

“We have a university that’s actively investing money into companies that are helping fuel [the war], kill these innocent people,” a Jewish student from Georgetown University told VOA, declining to share her name because of security concerns. “And it’s just not something that I morally can – I have never been able to stand by – but especially not now anymore.”

Yet some Jewish students have complained of rising antisemitism and have felt unsafe on their own campuses, including Columbia, because of the protests.

Overall, the protests are peaceful, even as some are met with counterprotests from pro-Israel and pro-Zionist students. Demonstrations are broadly protected as free speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Antisemitic language

Still, the protests are potentially explosive for university administrators, particularly as some students have been called out for using antisemitic language.

Interpreted differently by its supporters, a chant like, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is seen by many Jews and Israelis as a call to dismantle the Jewish state and replace it with a Palestinian state that extends from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. 

The demonstrations are also becoming a political headache for President Joe Biden. Student protesters and progressive Democrats who support their cause are important constituencies for Biden ahead of the November presidential election. His reelection bid depends in part to his ability to pacify progressives’ anger about his administration’s support of Israel, a close U.S. ally. 

An added complication for Biden is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to portray the antiwar sentiment in the U.S. as antisemitic. On Wednesday, Netanyahu called the protests “horrific” and said they must be stopped. 

“Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities,” he said. “They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty.”

Netanyahu, who is facing protests demanding his resignation at home, said the American demonstrations are “reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s,” drawing parallels to scenes that preceded the Holocaust under Nazi Germany.

Ties are already tense as the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress demand that Israel improve its conduct of the war. In March, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, described the Israeli prime minister as an impediment to peace in the Middle East and called for a new election to replace him. Schumer is the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S.

Republicans decry protests

Netanyahu’s criticisms of the protests are echoed by Republican lawmakers who accuse the students of condoning terrorism and supporting Hamas. Republican-led committees in Congress have summoned university administrators to testify, accusing them of allowing campuses to become hotbeds of antisemitism.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson and several other Republican lawmakers visited Columbia University, calling for the resignation of university President Minouche Shafik and decrying the student protests as violent and uncontrollable.

“This is dangerous. This is not the First Amendment, this is not free expression,” Johnson said, amid raucous booing and shouts from protesters.

The speaker demanded that Biden call out the country’s military reserve force to quell the protests. “There is an appropriate time for the National Guard,” he said. “We have to bring order to these campuses.”

The White House declined to weigh in, saying decisions to call in National Guard units to break up protests are up to state governors.
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US review of Israeli military units over alleged rights violation in West Bank is ‘ongoing’

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State Department  — A U.S. review will decide whether certain Israeli military units violated the human rights of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank before the October 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel, making them ineligible to receive U.S. military assistance.

A source familiar with the investigation told VOA on Friday that the “process continues to be ongoing” and is consistent with a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Israel that requires Washington to consult with Israeli officials prior to any conclusion.

The Israeli government will continue to receive U.S. military aid during the review process, in which the State Department is assessing whether the Israel Defense Forces are taking appropriate steps to remediate any violations.

There will be restrictions on the provision of U.S. military assistance if it is determined that there has not been appropriate accountability and remediation taken by Israel’s military, according to the source.

The review process has drawn sharp criticism from Muslim rights groups who say the Biden administration has not done enough to hold Israel accountable for human rights violations against Palestinian civilians.

Some analysts also have said the protracted process indicates the “special treatment” that Israel continues to receive from the United States.

The Leahy Law

The review is being conducted under a U.S. law known as the Leahy Law, which prohibits U.S. funding from going to foreign security units implicated in severe human rights violations.

However, exceptions exist, such as when a foreign government addresses the issue through “remediation” as well as when the U.S. equipment is used for disaster relief.

The State and Defense departments have a joint remediation policy allowing resumption of assistance if the foreign government is effectively addressing the violations through investigations, adjudications and proportional sentencing.

On Thursday, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said the Biden administration takes “extensive steps to fully implement the Leahy Law” for all countries that receive applicable U.S. assistance.

“That, of course, includes Israel, with whom we have a long-standing security relationship,” Patel told reporters during a press briefing.

U.S. officials declined to identify the units under review, but Israeli media said they include Netzah Yehuda, a military unit made up mostly of ultra-Orthodox Israeli soldiers that operated primarily in the West Bank before it was reassigned to the northern border in 2022.

The allegations related to the IDF units were based on incidents that took place before the October 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel. They are not connected to Israel’s military operations in Gaza after October 7, nor to actions against Iran and its proxies.

One incident involved the death of an elderly Palestinian American, Omar Assad, in January of 2022.

The Biden administration’s review process has drawn scrutiny from Muslim civil rights groups.

In a statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said: “Sanctioning this unit is the least the Biden administration should have done, and suspending military aid altogether is what the administration should do now.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S.

Blacklisted foreign security units

If foreign security units are blacklisted by the U.S. because of serious human rights violations, they cannot receive U.S. military assistance, use U.S. weapons, or participate in U.S. training.

However, technically, the foreign government can use its own funds to purchase U.S. weapons and issue them to any unit it chooses, according to analysts.

“It’s not really a sanction or a punishment. It’s the way in which Congress frames its laws to advance certain values, like human rights in this instance,” Sarah Harrison from International Crisis Group told VOA.

“The fact that the State Department is now slow-rolling its decision underscores this exceptional treatment that Israel continues to receive,” Harrison added.

Pro-Palestinian protests by US college students

The investigation comes amid rising international anger over the high death toll and suffering among Palestinian civilians in Gaza during Israel’s drive to destroy the militant group Hamas, whose October 7 attack in Israel claimed some 1,200 Israeli lives.

U.S. college students have staged pro-Palestinian protests on campuses across the United States.

Asked about the protests during a press conference Friday in Beijing, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that in America, it is a “hallmark of our democracy that our citizens make known their views, their concerns, their anger at any given time, and I think that reflects the strength of the country, the strength of democracy.”

“This could be over tomorrow, it could have been over yesterday, it could have been over months ago, if Hamas had put down its weapons, stopped hiding behind civilians, released the hostages, and surrendered, but of course, it has chosen not to do that,” Blinken said.

“And it is also notable that there is silence about Hamas” from the students.

VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara and VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this story.
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UN warns of fighting around major Darfur city

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GENEVA — The United Nations says Sudan’s warring parties appear headed toward major clashes in the northern Darfur city of El Fasher, home to 2 million people and about a half-million internally displaced.

The office of the spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general said in a statement Friday that “The Rapid Support Forces [RSF] are reportedly encircling El Fasher, suggesting a coordinated move to attack the city may be imminent. Simultaneously, the Sudanese Armed Forces [SAF] appear to be positioning themselves.”

The statement said the secretary-general’s personal envoy, Ramtane Lamamra, is working with the parties to de-escalate tensions in El Fasher.

At least 43 people, including women and children, reportedly have been killed in fighting in the northern Darfur city since April 14 when the RSF, backed by its allied militia, began a push to gain control of the city, the SAF’s last remaining stronghold in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Earlier, a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged the parties to immediately halt violence in and around El Fasher.

Speaking from the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, Seif Magango warned that the fight for El Fasher, already raging outside the city for several weeks, may be taking a turn for the worse. 

“Reports indicate that both parties have launched indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons with wide-area effects, such as mortar shells and rockets fired from fighter jets, in residential districts,” the spokesperson said. “Since early April, the RSF has conducted several large-scale attacks on the villages in western El Fasher mostly inhabited by the African Zaghawa ethnic community,” he said, noting that several Zaghawa villages have been burned down.

“Such attacks raise the specter of further ethnically motivated violence in Darfur, including mass killings,” he said.

Last year, fighting and attacks between the Rizeigat and the African Masalit communities in West Darfur left hundreds of civilians dead or injured, and thousands displaced from their homes.

The earlier Darfur conflict that erupted in 2003 between Arab and non-Arab communities killed at least 200,000 people and left a deadly legacy of mines and explosive remnants of war, which continue to wreak havoc on communities long after that war ended.

The new war between rival factions of Sudan’s military that broke out last year has left more than 18 million people facing acute food insecurity and uprooted nearly 9 million from their homes.

OHCHR spokesperson Magango said civilians trapped in El Fasher are afraid they will be killed if they try to flee the city.

“This dire situation is compounded by a severe shortage of essential supplies as deliveries of commercial goods and humanitarian aid have been heavily constrained by the fighting, and delivery trucks are unable to freely transit through RSF-controlled territory,” he said.

High Commissioner Türk is urging both parties to the conflict and their allies to grant civilians safe passage to other areas and allow safe and unhindered humanitarian aid to reach civilians in dire need.

For his part, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has reiterated his call on all warring parties “to refrain from fighting in the El Fasher area,” warning of devastating consequences for the civilian population that is “in an area already on the brink of famine.”
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Planned Biden-Erdogan meeting at White House postponed, Turkish official says

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ANKARA — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s planned meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, set for May 9 at the White House, has been postponed because of changes in the Turkish leader’s schedule, a Turkish official said on Friday. 

A new date will soon be set, the official said, requesting anonymity. 

The White House had not formally announced the visit, but a U.S. official told Reuters in late March that the White House had offered, and Ankara had accepted, May 9 for the meeting. 
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Blinken warns China over support for Russia’s war efforts

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Seoul, South Korea — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “serious concern” about China’s support for Russia’s defense industry on Friday, warning Chinese leaders that Washington could impose sanctions over the matter.

Blinken’s comments came in Beijing, shortly after he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior Chinese leaders during meetings that covered a wide range of disputes between the two powers.

Near the top of Blinken’s agenda, U.S. officials said, was China’s provision of items such as microchips, machine tools, and other items Russia is using to create weapons for use in its war against Ukraine.

“I told Xi, if China does not address this problem, we will,” said Blinken.

For weeks, U.S. officials have hinted at further sanctions meant to deter China’s provision of so-called dual-use items to Russia, which Washington says has been crucial to Moscow’s war on Ukraine. It is not clear how far Washington will go, however, since cutting off major Chinese banks from the U.S. financial system also could hurt the U.S. and global economy.

At a press conference in Beijing, Blinken did not reveal details about any possible measures, stating only that the United States has already imposed sanctions on more than 100 Chinese entities. “We’re fully prepared to act, take additional measures, and I made that very clear in my meetings today,” he noted.

China has defended its approach to Russia, saying it is only engaged in normal economic exchanges with a major trading partner. In his public remarks Friday, Xi did not mention the Russia-Ukraine issue. Instead, he focused on the necessity for U.S.-China ties to improve.

“China and the United States should be partners rather than rivals; help each other succeed rather than hurt each other; seek common ground and reserve differences, rather than engage in vicious competition,” Xi said.

Blinken’s meeting with Xi had not been previously announced but was widely expected.

U.S.-China relations stabilized last year, after Xi met U.S. President Joe Biden in California. At that summit, the two sides agreed to reopen military-to-military communication and take steps to reduce the flow of fentanyl, a dangerous narcotic responsible for tens of thousands of drug overdoses in the United States each year.

Blinken cited “important progress” on the fentanyl issue, even while insisting China needs to do more, including prosecute those who sell chemicals and equipment used to make fentanyl. Blinken also announced that both sides agreed to hold their first talks related to concerns over artificial intelligence.

Even as communications lines remain open, the United States and China continue to spar over a broad range of issues, including trade policies and territorial disputes.

The Biden administration is concerned about cheap Chinese exports, including heavily subsidized green technology products they say are undercutting U.S. companies.

During a five-and-a-half hour meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday, Blinken raised concerns, including the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Chinese activities in the disputed South China Sea, and the need to avoid further escalation in the Middle East and on the Korean Peninsula, according to a U.S. readout.

China accuses the United States of inappropriately trying to contain its economic and military power. Following his meeting with Blinken, Wang said China-U.S. ties are “beginning to stabilize” but asserted that negative factors are “increasing and building,” warning that the relationship faces “all kinds of disruptions.”

“Should China and the United States keep to the right direction of moving forward with stability or return to a downward spiral?” Wang asked. “This is a major question before our two countries.”
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Pew: Asian Americans fastest growing group of US voters

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Asian Americans are the fastest growing group of eligible voters in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center. That makes them an important focus for presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns has our story. Video: VOA Khmer Service, VOA Mandarin Service, Matt Dibble 
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Smallholding farmers in Kenya hop on tractors, see profits rise

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For some African communities, the road to food security is traveled best by tractor. A company called Hello Tractor, supported by non-profit Heifer International, is enabling poor, smallholding farmers to rent or buy mechanized farm equipment that is helping them increase their productivity and profits. Mohammed Yusuf reports from the town of Rabuor in western Kenya.
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Soaring prices threaten Nigeria’s malaria control

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Abuja, Nigeria — Thursday, April 25, marked World Malaria Day, a day to mark progress against the deadly disease. In Nigeria, that progress is being threatened by soaring drug costs caused by inflation, a poor exchange rate and the exit of pharmaceutical companies. Nigeria accounts for 27 percent of the global malaria burden – the highest in the world.

Two months ago, Abuja resident Damian Gaau came down with fever. He immediately suspected malaria and went to a local clinic for treatment.

But he says the price of his regular anti-malarial medicine had more than doubled.

“Before, I can use a little amount of money to get some drugs to care for my malaria but now, everything is cost [expensive] even to get medicine is not easy, for you to get medicine you age to take half of your salary before you get drugs to treat yourself,” said Gaau.

Gaau says to get the care he needed, he had to forgo other necessities.

“The increase of the medicine has cost me a lot, like I have to cut down some of my expenses to get some drugs for myself, even to buy food, clothes, all those kinds of stuff I have to cut down from there to get my medicine,” said Gaau.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Africa accounted for about ninety five percent of malaria cases and deaths globally in 2021. That year, Nigeria reported 194,000 deaths from the mosquito-borne disease, more than any other country.

Health experts say pregnant women and children younger than five are most at risk of the disease and access to affordable treatment and poverty are some of the reasons malaria cases are high.

“What has driven up all the prices is the exchange rate. Almost 70 percent of medicines we use in this country are imported if not more. Most of the pharmaceutical companies working in Nigeria, some of them are closing up and leaving so that means the foreign exchange component is very high so if the dollar to Naira ratio is not favorable, it will drive up this cost which is what’s going on,” said Orji.

Last year, Nigeria’s health ministry said the economic burden of malaria in the country will increase from $1.6 billion to $2.8 billion by 2030.

Like most commodities, the cost of anti-malarial drugs has gone through the roof in recent months amid Nigeria’s growing cost of living crisis, fueled by the withdrawal of fuel subsidy payments and currency control measures.

Nigerian authorities say they’re working to address the rising cost of medicine, but Orji says there are other factors.

“There are a lot of interventions government has actually put in place but unfortunately the implementation is so poor that Nigerians are still suffering,” said Orji. “The only one that is working, not so well but at least working, is the National Health insurance scheme. What we should also pay attention [to] is our population. Our population is galloping in a way that whatever economic sense we’re making will not make any sense.”

As Nigerian health officials marked World Malaria Day under the theme “Accelerate the fight against malaria for a more equitable world,” progress against the disease is under threat, leaving many people like Damian Gaau more vulnerable.

 
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Vietnam parliament chief quits over ‘violations’ in latest leadership upheaval

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HANOI — The chairman of Vietnam’s parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue. has resigned over his “violations and shortcomings,” its government said on Friday, in a new sign of political turbulence just weeks after the high-profile dismissal of the country’s president.  

The head of the assembly is among the four “pillars” of the leadership in Vietnam, which officially has no paramount ruler.

Hue, 67, had been touted as a possible candidate for the Communist Party secretary position, Vietnam’s most powerful job.  

“Comrade Vuong Dinh Hue’s violations and shortcomings have caused negative public opinion, affecting the reputation of the Party, State and him personally,” the government’s website said, carrying a statement from the Communist Party’s Central Committee.  

The statement said his resignation had been accepted and would be removed from the Central Committee and the powerful Politburo. It did not specify what the violations were.

Hue was seen attending a ceremony earlier on Friday alongside the prime minister ahead of next week’s 49th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and the reunification of North and South Vietnam under communist rule.  

His resignation comes just days after the announcement that his assistant had been arrested over alleged bribery involving an infrastructure company.  

‘Blazing furnace’

Under a yearslong anti-corruption campaign, called “blazing furnace,” hundreds of senior state officials and high-profile business executives have been prosecuted or forced to step down.

The latest change among Vietnam’s top leadership could raise new concerns about political stability in the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub, which is highly reliant on foreign investment and trade.  

The departure of Hue, a trained economist and former deputy prime minister who previously served as chief state auditor, follows the dismissal in March of President Vo Van Thuong after the Communist Party said he had violated party rules.  

Thuong was the second president to exit in just over a year, prompting multiple commentators to warn that the country’s appeal as an investment destination may be affected by prolonged infighting.  

A survey of over 650 business leaders conducted by foreign chambers of commerce in Vietnam and published in March said foreign firms were attracted to the country mostly for its political stability.  

Hue had met Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 8 during a weeklong visit to China and while abroad, rumors spread in Vietnam that his assistant had been arrested. The detention was announced two weeks later.  

Earlier in April, real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death for her role in a multibillion-dollar financial fraud, which had been going on for years with multiple senior officials turning a blind eye.
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Russian women face violence from Ukraine veterans

Posted on by SeeEU

Warsaw, Poland — Olga drew her index finger abruptly across her neck as she recounted the threats her husband leveled at her after he returned to Russia, wounded from fighting in Ukraine.

“I’m going to cut your head and hands off and beat you up. I’ll burn you in acid,” he threatened her, she said.

Even before her husband went off to fight in Ukraine, he was a violent alcoholic, Olga — not her real name — told AFP.

When he returned home seven months later, he was even worse. And now he was a war hero, endowed with a sense of impunity and moral righteousness.

“He became even more radical,” she said. “He said that he was untouchable, that nothing could happen to him.”

Domestic violence

Long before Russia invaded Ukraine, rights groups had sounded the alarm over the country’s woeful record on protecting women from domestic violence.

In 2017, lawmakers — with the blessing of the Orthodox Church — reduced penalties for Russians convicted of beating family members.

And the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin has in recent years argued that abuse within families should be resolved by families, not law enforcement.

With the war in Ukraine, campaigners say that an already widespread problem could now be getting even worse.

While there are no publicly available figures on the scope of violence perpetrated by veterans, campaigners have identified a slew of survivors.

Local media, too, is awash with reports of violent crimes committed by ex-soldiers.

AFP spoke to two Russian women about the violence they had suffered from veterans of the war in Ukraine. Both requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Their testimonies are rare, given how the Kremlin has sought to exalt veterans fighting in a war it paints as existential.

Moscow has brought in new laws to criminalize criticism of the Russian army and its soldiers.

‘Ice-cold’ eyes

Olga’s life in her isolated Russian town had long been marked by violence.

Her husband was an alcoholic who regularly raped and beat her, stole money and monitored her every social interaction, she said.

Over and over, he would beg for forgiveness after an altercation, only to become violent again, she said.

So, when he volunteered for the army in October 2022, Olga hoped that proximity to “death and tears” might calm him down and sober him up.

Her hopes were dashed. He returned from the front earlier than expected to recover from a shrapnel wound.

“The next evening, I had a nervous breakdown,” she said.

“He was totally sober, but his eyes were shining. His eyes were ice-cold. He started insulting me,” she recalled.

Tensions were building at home that evening and Olga called an ambulance for refuge, pre-empting the moment he would raise his hand at her.

“If you let me out of this vehicle, he will kill me,” she told the ambulance crew.

AFP independently reviewed threats Olga received by text message, as well as reports compiled by the rights advocacy group Consortium that support the women’s testimonies.

‘Dreams of justice’

The police took a statement from Olga and told her husband to leave, but otherwise took no action, she said — a practice that rights campaigners have denounced for years.

Her husband remained at liberty, and free to spend the equivalent of the 30,000 euros he had received as compensation for being wounded.

The couple eventually divorced, and Olga’s ex-husband returned to Ukraine months later in December 2023 — but not before assaulting her one final time and robbing her of money.

Ever since her former partner had left for Ukraine again, Olga said she had become preoccupied with the idea of holding him accountable — “dreams of justice,” as she called it.

What triggered it was a television show she watched on domestic violence. “It felt as if they were speaking directly to me.”

The program prompted Olga to file a complaint with law enforcement and telephone Consortium for advice on how to protect herself.

Sofia Rusova from the group told AFP she had received around 10 reports like Olga’s involving veterans last year alone.

She echoed warnings voiced by other advocacy groups that the Kremlin’s decision to invade Ukraine had exacerbated domestic abuse in Russia and normalized extreme violence.

“The consequences may be felt for a decade,” she warned.

‘Won’t be punished’

The placing of veterans on a pedestal — part of a push by the Kremlin to shore up support for the devastating conflict — has endowed them with a feeling that they are above the law, she added.

“Women often tell me that their attacker said he wouldn’t be punished,” Rusova told AFP. “These men flaunt their status.”

But that feeling among veterans also has roots in the failure of the Russian judicial system to tackle domestic violence, she added.

“The system sometimes failed to defend women before, so these men think it will keep failing women, and that the state will be on their side,” Rusova said.

Regional media outlets across Russia regularly publish reports on violent crimes committed by servicemen or former members of the Wagner paramilitary group that fought for the Kremlin in Ukraine.

While in some cases, the defendants are handed long prison sentences, sometimes they get off lightly.

In separate cases in the southern regions of Volgograd and Rostov near Ukraine, two veterans were allowed to walk free after having stabbed their girlfriends. One of the victims died.

The main difficulty in bringing them to justice is that Russia has limited mechanisms for prosecuting violence within the family.

Russia in 2017 decriminalized certain forms of domestic violence, classifying them as an administrative offence and not a crime, with reduced penalties.

The weakness of legal protection for women means there is little incentive for law enforcement to go after suspects — or for those among victims to report the problem in the first place, say activists.

This month, AFP asked the Kremlin to comment on the slew of reports in local press describing bouts of violence among veterans.

Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin had recently met with officials from the interior ministry and that the issue had not been raised.

“This kind of violence was not among the areas of concern,” he said.

‘Pure horror’

The Kremlin has also spoken in favor of the military’s recruitment drive in prisons, paving the way for dangerous criminals to return to society if they survive a months-long battlefield stint.

Rusova, from the Consortium campaign group, said several Russian prisons had confirmed to her that people convicted of domestic violence had been recruited to fight in Ukraine.

One woman had voiced relief when she learned her abusive husband had been killed in Ukraine, she told AFP.

Nadezhda had to face her abusive ex-husband, a veteran of the Wagner group, when he returned from the front a year ago even more aggressive than before.

The Wagner group suffered tens of thousands of losses during some of the bloodiest battles of the war before it was dissolved by Moscow after its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged a short-lived rebellion.

When her former husband returned, he had a serious drug problem, said Nadezhda. But he insisted she pay due respect to his service with what he saw as an elite fighting force.

She struggled for months with feelings of shame and uncertainty over whether she should seek help, she said.

Finally, after one outburst of violence that got her fearing for the lives of her children, she fled to a shelter at the end of last year.

A sympathetic police officer helped her file a legal complaint that — to her surprise — led to her ex-husband being arrested.

“We had got used to the nightmare,” she said. “We lived with it. We thought it wasn’t serious.”

“But now that we’re processing it all, we understand that it was pure horror,” she said.

Nadezhda and her children are now receiving psychological support. But even though her ex-husband is behind bars, she is haunted by the fear he might someday return seeking revenge.

“Still, you walk around, and there’s this fear that he’ll jump out,” Nadezhda told AFP.

“There’s always the feeling he’s out there with a knife. It’s just so ingrained in my head.”
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Zelenskyy blasts Russian nuclear risks on Chernobyl anniversary

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Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Friday that Russia’s capture of a major nuclear power plant threatened a radiation catastrophe, as the country marked the anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in southern Ukraine in the first days of its 2022 invasion.

Both sides regularly accuse each other of endangering safety at the site, Europe’s largest nuclear facility.

“For 785 days now, Russian terrorists have held the Zaporizhzhia NPP hostage,” Zelenskyy said on social media.

“It is the entire world’s responsibility to put pressure on Russia to ensure that ZNPP is liberated and returned to full Ukrainian control, as well as that all Ukrainian nuclear facilities are protected from Russian strikes,” he added.

“This is the only way to prevent new radiation disasters, which the Russian occupiers’ presence at ZNPP constantly threatens.”

The call came 38 years after the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.

The incident, which is considered the world’s worst nuclear disaster, contaminated vast areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Swathes of western Europe were also exposed to radiation.

“The Chernobyl disaster demonstrated how rapidly deadly threats can emerge,” Zelenskyy said Friday.

Russian forces captured the decommissioned Chernobyl facility on February 24, 2022 — the first day of its invasion, when it sent troops into Ukraine from Belarus — but abandoned it weeks later.

Russian troops have controlled the Zaporizhzhia plant since early March 2022.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has dispatched inspectors to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, has expressed concern over safety at the plant.

Moscow has accused Ukraine of firing drones at the power station, while Kyiv says Moscow has militarized the facility and is holding it “hostage.”
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Columbia University drops deadline for dismantling pro-Palestinian protest camp

Posted on by SeeUS

New York — Columbia University backed off late Thursday from an overnight deadline for pro-Palestinian protesters to abandon an encampment there as more college campuses in the United States sought to prevent occupations from taking hold.

Police have carried out large-scale arrests in universities across the country, at times using chemical irritants and tasers to disperse protests over Israel’s war with Hamas.

The office of New York-based Columbia University President Minouche Shafik issued a statement at 11:07 p.m. (0307 GMT Friday) retreating from a midnight deadline to dismantle a large tent camp with around 200 students.

“The talks have shown progress and are continuing as planned,” the statement said. “We have our demands; they have theirs.”

The statement denied that New York City police were invited on the campus. “This rumor is false,” it said.

A student, identifying herself only as Mimi, told AFP she had been at the camp for seven days.

“They call us terrorists, they call us violent. But the only tool we actually have are our voices,” she said.

Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll has topped 34,305, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

More than 200 people protesting the war were arrested Wednesday and early Thursday at universities in Los Angeles, Boston and Austin, Texas, where around 2,000 people gathered again Thursday.

Riot officers in the southern state of Georgia used chemical irritants and tasers to disperse protests at Emory University in Atlanta.

Photographs showed police wielding tasers as they wrestled with protesters on neatly manicured lawns.

The Atlanta Police Department said officers responding to the school’s request for help were “met with violence” and used “chemical irritants” in their response.

The spreading protests began at Columbia University, which has remained the epicenter of the student protest movement.

Free speech?

The protests pose a major challenge to university administrators who are trying to balance campus commitments to free expression with complaints that the rallies have crossed a line.

Pro-Israel supporters and others worried about campus safety have pointed to antisemitic incidents and allege that campuses are encouraging intimidation and hate speech.

“I’ve never felt more scared to be a Jew in America right now,” said Skyler Sieradsky, a 21-year-old student of philosophy and political science at George Washington University.

“There are students and faculty standing by messages of hate, and standing by messages that call for violence.”

Demonstrators, who include a number of Jewish students, have disavowed antisemitism and criticized officials equating it with opposition to Israel.

“People are here in support of Palestinian people from all different backgrounds… (compelled by) their general sense of justice,” a 33-year-old graduate student at the University of Texas, Austin, who said he was Jewish and gave his name as Josh, told AFP. 

U.S. ally Israel launched its war in Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Hamas militants also took roughly 250 people hostage. Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 presumed dead.

Coast to coast

At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, 93 people were arrested for trespassing on Wednesday, authorities said they were canceling events at the May 10 graduation ceremony.

The ceremony, which usually attracts 65,000 people, made headlines this month when administrators canceled a planned speech by a top student after complaints from Jewish groups that she had links to antisemitic groups. She denied the charge.

At Emerson College in Boston, local media reported classes were canceled Thursday after police clashed with protesters overnight, tearing down a pro-Palestinian encampment and arresting 108 people.

In Washington, students from Georgetown and George Washington University (GW) established a solidarity encampment on the GW campus Thursday.

Protests and encampments have also sprung up at New York University and Yale — both of which also saw dozens of students arrested earlier this week — Harvard, Brown University, MIT, the University of Michigan and elsewhere.

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt said its campus could remain closed into next week due to protesters occupying buildings.

On Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden denounced “blatant antisemitism” that has “no place on college campuses.”

But the White House has also said the president supports freedom of expression at U.S. universities.
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