Month: May 2024

Canada finds foreign meddling in elections; results not affected

Posted on by SeeEA

OTTAWA — An official probe found evidence of foreign interference in Canada’s last two federal elections, but the results of the votes were not affected, and the electoral system was robust, according to initial findings released on Friday.

The findings in the interim report confirm Trudeau’s assertion that China tried to meddle in the elections to no avail. The commission will release its final report by the end of this year. Beijing has repeatedly denied any interference.

“Acts of foreign interference did occur during the last two federal general elections, but they did not undermine the integrity of our electoral system,” said commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue, who is leading the independent public inquiry.

The Foreign Interference Commission was set up last year by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government under pressure from opposition legislators unhappy about media reports on China’s possible role in the elections. The commission is mandated to investigate allegations of foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections.

“Our system remains sound. Voters were able to cast their ballots, their votes were duly registered and counted, and there is nothing to suggest that there was any interference whatsoever in this regard,” Hogue said in a statement.

“Nonetheless, the acts of interference that occurred are a stain on our electoral process and impacted the process leading up to the actual vote,” she said.
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Nigeria arrests alleged mastermind of Abuja-Kaduna train attack

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Abuja, Nigeria — Nigerian authorities said Thursday they have arrested the mastermind of a 2022 terrorist attack on a moving train that killed 10 passengers.

Police arrested Ibrahim Abdulahi, who is also known as “Mande,” during a raid in January at the Abuja-Kaduna road flyover near Rido junction, Police Force public relations officer Olumuyiwa Adejobi told journalists.

“The suspect confessed to being the leader of the kidnap syndicate terrorizing Abuja-Kaduna highway,” Adejobi said.

Police had received a tip-off about Abdulahi’s whereabouts, Adejobi said, adding that Mande admitted to participating in several deadly attacks on citizens, including the kidnapping of 20 Greenfield University students in Kaduna in 2021 and the 2022 attack on the train.

On March 28 of that year, armed terrorists bombed the passenger train traveling from Abuja to Kaduna and opened fire on passengers. Ten people were killed, and the attackers abducted at least 61 passengers. The abductees were freed many months later.

The attack sparked fear and widespread criticism of the government. Authorities shut down the train service for nine months and, when they reopened it, provided improved security and escorts on each trip.

Security analyst Senator Iroegbu praised the arrest but said authorities must be more proactive.

“What actually Nigerians want is to be sure that never [happens] again,” Iroegbu said “They [shouldn’t] wait till people get kidnapped before they start taking actions, whether militarily or through ransom payments. Nigerians want the kidnappings to end.”

Insecurity is one of the major problems standing in the way of prosperity in Africa’s most-populous country.

In the past year, gangs have kidnapped more than 4,700 people, according to security consulting firm SBM Intelligence.

Last month, Nigeria’s president said the country would no longer pay ransom to armed gangs to free hostages and pledged that gangs will face the full force of security agencies. Many victims and relatives of those in captivity are hoping the decision does not ruin their chances of rescuing their loved ones.
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Ukrainian priests serve church, support state

Posted on by SeeEU

As Orthodox Christians in Ukraine prepare to celebrate Easter on May 5th, Orthodox priests in Ukraine are finding themselves trying to serve their church and support their state, even when those two are at adds. VOA’s Anna Kosstutschenko reports.
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Most countries in Asia see decline in press freedom

Posted on by SeeEA

Bangkok — Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, says press freedom in Asia continues to see a decline, with 26 out of 31 countries falling on its annual index.

According to the group’s latest press freedom index, Asia is the second-most difficult region for practicing journalism. Five countries in the region — Myanmar, China, North Korea and Vietnam — are among the world’s 10 most dangerous countries for media professionals in the 2024 rankings.

There are no countries in the Asia-Pacific region in the top 15 ranking for press freedom.

China, North Korea and Vietnam, three of the world’s remaining communist governments, have long been near the bottom of RSF’s press freedom index ranking of 180 countries. This year, China was ranked 172, Vietnam 174 and North Korea 177.

Overall, it’s the countries and territories that have shown a drop in press freedom in recent years that have contributed to East Asia becoming a difficult place for media to operate.

Hong Kong was once a model for press freedom in the Asia region, but the city’s ranking recently dropped from 80 to 148 following political unrest and new laws that affect media freedoms.

Since the Beijing-imposed national security law came into force in 2020, at least a dozen media outlets have closed. Beijing says the law has been necessary to stabilize the city following mass political unrest in 2019.

Aleksandra Bielakowska, an advocacy officer at RSF, said Hong Kong’s media freedoms still haven’t improved.

“The worst for Hong Kong is the political and legal factors. Hong Kong’s position is very low; the situation remains very difficult,” she told VOA.

Hong Kong is in the middle of two high-profile national security trials. Jimmy Lai, the media mogul and founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, faces national security charges for “collusion with foreign forces” that could see him sentenced to life in prison. Stand News, which ceased operations in 2021 after a police raid, is also on trial, with its chief editors facing charges under Hong Kong’s colonial-era sedition law. The verdict was recently postponed until August.

Hong Kong’s Justice Secretary Paul Lam recently said that press freedom still exists in the city and that media can criticize the government.

But Emily Lau, a former journalist and former chair of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, said many reporters are unsure whether that is the case.

“There is concern. I don’t know whether that is reassuring. Journalists themselves are concerned. People are not sure whether it is really true,” she told VOA.

Due to the sensitivity of the cases and concerns over press freedom, several media experts in Hong Kong declined to speak to VOA when requested.

Although RSF ranked Hong Kong up five spots to 135 in 2024, that doesn’t mean press freedoms have improved.

“The reasons for that are because of the movement of other countries inside the index itself,” Bielakowska said.

RSF said the deteriorated media environments in Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea, which are the bottom three countries of the rankings, have pushed other countries further up the list.

The same can be applied with Myanmar. The new RSF rankings puts Myanmar up two places to 171, but it doesn’t mean press freedom is improving.

Today, the Southeast Asian country is the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists, only behind China, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Following a military coup led by General Min Aung Hlaing and his troops in 2021, Myanmar’s junta has been accused of arbitrary arrests, harassment and torture, while at least four journalists have been killed by the military, rights groups say.

At least a dozen media outlets have had their licenses revoked by the military government in three years, while hundreds of journalists have been arrested.

Media outlets who are allowed to legally report in Myanmar must be registered with the military government to operate. But registering for press accreditation means journalists must provide the junta with their personal details, which discourages them from doing so over fear of arrest. For the journalists who have continued to report, they have had to work “undercover” to avoid being targeted by military personnel.

Aung Naing Soe, a Myanmar reporter, said journalists are a “primary threat” toward the military’s attempts to rule.

“The junta arrests not only journalists but everyone against them. They see journalists as one of their primary threats since before the coup,” he told VOA.

Since the junta attempted to rule, ousted politicians formed a civilian-led government, while civilian defense forces and ethnic political groups have taken up arms against the military.

But Aung Naing Soe, who is also the filmmaker of the documentary “Undaunted” —about the uprising against military rule — added that the difficulties in reporting come from both sides.

“Everybody knows the risks from the military’s intimidation. We expected a little bit of press freedom from the revolutionary groups, but lately we’ve started seeing some [rebel] groups attempt to control the media,” he said.

“Like everyone else in the country, Myanmar journalists are getting tired. Sometimes we don’t have any energy left to write a short story or make a short interview. We’re all emotionally drained.”

There was some encouraging news for media freedom in East Asia. Thailand saw the biggest jump in the 2024 rankings, moving up 19 spaces to 87. Thailand’s security performance was one of the main reasons for the jump, according to Bielakowska.

“There was less violence than in other years, and the electoral campaign for the general elections of May 2023 did not result in demonstrations of violence against journalists,” she said.

On the other hand, she said that despite the political transition, there has not been notable improvement in the overall political environment.
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US, Australia, Japan, Philippines hold talks in Hawaii

Posted on by SeeUS

Defense ministers from the United States, Australia, Japan and the Philippines met for a second round of quadrilateral talks in less than a year this week amid further aggression from the Chinese military. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports on the allies’ growing military ties.
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US employers add 175,000 jobs in April

Posted on by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — The nation’s employers pulled back on their hiring in April but still added a decent 175,000 jobs in a sign that persistently high interest rates may be starting to slow the robust U.S. job market. 

Friday’s government report showed that last month’s hiring gain was down sharply from the blockbuster increase of 315,000 in March. And it was well below the 233,000 gain that economists had predicted for April. 

Yet the moderation in the pace of hiring, along with a slowdown last month in wage growth, will likely be welcomed by the Federal Reserve, which has kept interest rates at a two-decade high to fight persistently elevated inflation. Hourly wages rose a less-than-expected 0.2% from March and 3.9% from a year earlier, the smallest annual gain since June 2021. 

The Fed has been delaying any consideration of interest rate cuts until it gains more confidence that inflation is steadily slowing toward its target. Fed rate cuts would, over time, reduce the cost of mortgages, auto loans and other consumer and business borrowing. 

Stock futures jumped Friday after the jobs report was released on hopes that rate cuts might now be more likely sometime in the coming months. 

Even with the April hiring slowdown, last month’s job growth amounted to a solid increase, although it was the lowest monthly job growth since October. With the nation’s households continuing their steady spending, many employers have had to keep hiring to meet their customer demand. 

The unemployment rate ticked up 3.9% — the 27th straight month in which it has remained below 4%, the longest such streak since the 1960s. 

Last month’s hiring was led by health care companies, which added 56,000 jobs. Warehouse and transportation companies added 22,000 and retailers 20,000. 

The state of the economy is weighing on voters’ minds as the November presidential campaign intensifies. Despite the strength of the job market, Americans remain generally exasperated by high prices, and many of them assign blame to President Joe Biden. 

America’s job market has repeatedly proved more robust than almost anyone had predicted. When the Fed began aggressively raising rates two years ago to fight a punishing inflation surge, most economists expected the resulting jump in borrowing costs to cause a recession and drive unemployment to painfully high levels. 

The Fed raised its benchmark rate 11 times from March 2022 to July 2023, taking it to the highest level since 2001. Inflation did steadily cool as it was supposed to — from a year-over-year peak of 9.1% in June 2022 to 3.5% in March. 

Yet the resilient strength of the job market and the overall economy, fueled by steady consumer spending, has kept inflation persistently above the Fed’s 2% target. 

The job market has been showing other signs of eventually slowing. This week, for example, the government reported that job openings fell in March to 8.5 million, the fewest in more than three years. Still, that is nevertheless a large number of vacancies: Before 2021, monthly job openings had never topped 8 million, a threshold they have now exceeded every month since March 2021. 

On a month-over-month basis, consumer inflation hasn’t declined since October. The 3.5% year-over-year inflation rate for March was still running well above the Fed’s 2% target. 
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Chad opposition protests military involvement in May 6 presidential polls

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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Angry youths in Chad are pulling down campaign posters of transitional President General Mahamat Idriss Deby in protest of what they call his attempt to seize power. Deby’s main challengers in the May 6 election, including former opposition leader and current Prime Minister Succes Masra, say several hundred of their supporters have been arrested. Some among the disgruntled opposition are calling for an election boycott.

Several hundred civilians shout as they pull down campaign posters of Chad’s transitional president, General Mahamat Idriss Deby.

The posters have come down in several towns, including Chad’s capital, N’djamena, and Moundou, the central African nation’s second-most-populated city.

In the audio extracted from videos circulating on social media, especially Facebook and WhatsApp, the civilians say they need a leadership change in Chad and an end to what they call a Deby dynasty.

Deby took power as a military ruler in April 2021 after his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled the country for 30 years, was killed by rebels.

Chad’s opposition and civil society have always condemned what they call Deby’s seizure of power, asking him to hand power to civilians.

The younger Deby told Chad state TV this week that campaigning for Chad’s May 6 polls has faced major hitches, including attacks on his campaign officials and the pulling down of his posters.

Deby says he has asked government troops, the guarantors of peace and security, to restore order and end growing hate speech and preelection violence. He says when he took power three years ago, he vowed to maintain Chad as a peaceful country before handing it to constitutional order after the May 6 presidential polls.

Deby did not accuse his challenges of ordering or allowing their supporters to pull down his campaign posters. But he said civilians who are planning to disturb the elections have been arrested.

Deby’s main election rivals, Prime Minister Masra and Pahimi Padacke Albert, who also served as Chad’s prime minister under Deby from April 2021 to October 2022, say hundreds of their supporters are in jail illegally.

Meanwhile, opposition candidates also accuse Deby of ordering government troops to crack down on his challengers’ campaign caravans.

Masra says Deby wants to crack down on his rivals to maintain his grip on power. He spoke to VOA via a messaging app from N’djamena Friday.

Masra says he and his supporters will not be intimidated into stopping the fight for the rule of democracy in Chad. He says he is committed to making sure that all Chadians have access to electricity, water and security, which are basic needs Deby and his father have not been able to give civilians for more than three decades. And yet, he says, the Deby family wants to stay in power eternally.

Some opposition and civil society groups have intensified their campaign for a total boycott of the election. They assert that Deby controls Chad’s election commission, the National Agency for Elections Management, or ANGE.

Djimet Clemen Bagaou, president of the Democratic Party of Chadian People says ANGE will declare Deby the winner, so there is no point to the elections.

ANGE rejects that line of thinking, saying the country’s more than 8 million registered voters should count on its independence to ensure a free, transparent and credible vote. It is urging Chadians to come out to the polls.

Deby says he will respect the verdict of the ballot and hand over power if defeated.

 
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Kenya floods death toll tops 200 as cyclone approaches

Posted on by SeeAF

Nairobi, Kenya — The death toll from flood-related incidents in Kenya has crossed 200 since March, the interior ministry said Friday, as a cyclone barreled towards the Tanzanian coast.  

Torrential rains have lashed East Africa, triggering flooding and landslides that have destroyed crops, swallowed homes, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.   

Some 210 people have died in Kenya “due to severe weather conditions,” the interior ministry said in a statement, with 22 killed in the past 24 hours.   

More than 165,000 people had been uprooted from their home, it added, with 90 others missing, raising fears that the toll could rise further.   

Kenya and neighboring Tanzania, where at least 155 people have been killed in flooding, are bracing for cyclone Hidaya, bringing heavy rain, wind and waves to their coasts.   

Tanzanian authorities warned Friday that Hidaya had “strengthened to reach the status of a full-fledged cyclone,” at 3:00 am local time (0000GMT) when it was some 400 kilometers from the southeastern city of Mtwara.    

“Cyclone Hidaya has continued to strengthen further, with wind speeds increasing to about 130 kilometers per hour,” they said in a weather bulletin.  

Kenya’s interior ministry forecast that the cyclone was likely to “bring strong winds and large ocean waves, with heavy rainfall” expected to hit the coast starting Sunday. 

Race against the clock   

Rescuers in boats and aircrafts have raced against the clock in pouring rain to help people marooned by the floods in Kenya.   

In dramatic footage shared on Monday, the Kenya Red Cross rescued a man who said he was stranded by floodwaters and forced to shelter in a tree for five days in Garissa in the country’s east.  

The country’s military also joined search and rescue efforts after President William Ruto deployed them to evacuate everyone living in flood-prone areas.   

Opposition politicians and lobby groups have accused Ruto’s government of being unprepared and slow to respond to the crisis despite weather warnings.  

In the deadliest single incident in Kenya, dozens of villagers were killed when a makeshift dam burst on Monday near Mai Mahiu in the Rift Valley, about 60 kilometers north of Nairobi.  

The interior ministry said 52 bodies had been recovered and 49 people were still missing after that disaster.  

The ministry ordered that anyone living close to major rivers or near 178 “filled up or near filled up dams or water reservoirs” must vacate the area within 24 hours.  

The heavier than usual rains have also claimed at least 29 lives in Burundi, with 175 people injured, and tens of thousands displaced since September last year, the United Nations said.  

The rains have been amplified by the El Nino weather pattern — a naturally occurring climate phenomenon typically associated with increased heat worldwide, leading to drought in some parts of the world and heavy downpours elsewhere.  

Late last year, more than 300 people died in rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades.  

Cyclone season in the southwest of the Indian Ocean normally lasts from November to April and sees around a dozen storms each year. 

 
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South African journalists winning battles in war against environmental crime

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This year’s World Press Freedom Day theme is “journalism in the face of the environmental crisis,” and a South African media outlet called Oxpeckers focuses on exactly that. For VOA, Kate Bartlett spoke to some of its journalists about what drives and challenges them as they report on people and practices that hurt the planet. Camera and edit: Zaheer Cassim    
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Campus protests over Gaza war hit Australia

Posted on by SeeEA

sydney — Hundreds of supporters of Israel and Gaza faced off at a Sydney university Friday, bringing echoes of U.S. college protests and Middle East tumult to a campus and continent on the other side of the world.

Rival demonstrators came eye to eye shouting slogans and waving flags. Still, except for a few heated exchanges, the protest and counterprotest passed off peacefully.

But it was another sign that the war in Gaza, approaching its seventh month, and the long-rumbling U.S. culture wars are roiling politics oceans away.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been camped for 10 days on a green lawn in front of the University of Sydney’s sprawling Gothic sandstone edifice — a bastion of Australian academia.

The dozens of tents festooned with banners and Palestinian flags have become a focal point for hundreds of protesters — students and otherwise — who oppose Israel’s ground invasion and bombardment of Gaza.

Deaglan Godwin, a 24-year-old arts and science student and one of the camp’s organizers, said U.S. protests were both an inspiration and a warning.

New York’s Columbia University, the scene of police crackdowns and mass arrests, inspired “us to set up our own camp,” Godwin said.

He said Columbia is “also now a warning, a warning that the government is willing to use quite lethal, brutal force in order to put down Palestinian protesters.”

Similar to their U.S. counterparts, the protesters want to see Sydney University cut ties with Israeli institutions and reject funding from arms companies.

Sydney University administrators are keen not to replicate the U.S. experience.

Vice Chancellor Mark Scott has written to students and staff expressing a “commitment to freedom of expression” and has not called on the police to dismantle the camp.

Australian police were conspicuously absent even during Friday’s protests, which brought about 100 pro-Israel counter protesters face to face with 400 demonstrators at the pro-Palestinian camp.

Public order and riot squad vehicles were parked well out of view, on the periphery of the campus.

Security was left to university guards who exchanged jokes with each other about their ill-fitting high visibility coats while forming a very porous separating barrier between the opposing camps.

A few inquisitive Chinese students stopped to take a look on the edges of the demonstration, while the media surveyed the scene and a right-wing vlogger hunted for any hint of confrontation or violence.

‘Stop hate, mate’

But like the United States, allegations of extremism have been levelled at Sydney’s pro-Palestinian protesters.

Jewish groups have voiced concern that slogans about the “Zionist entity” and “from the river to the sea” are evidence of rising antisemitism.

Against that backdrop, more than a hundred Jewish and pro-Israeli protesters decided to march near the pro-Palestinian encampment Friday, hoping to send a message that Jewish students are safe on campus and that they, too, have the right to be heard.

Wearing T-shirts reading “Stop hate, mate” they sang “Hatikvah” — Israel’s national anthem – a capella and danced to the cheesy Australian pop classic “A Land Down Under.”

Protester David Treves said he hoped the march would show people there is more than one perspective about what is happening in the Middle East.

“I’m not looking to change people’s opinion. I’m looking just to get them to think,” he said, voicing concern that the camp could incite the type of clashes seen in the United States.

“As long as it’s legal, as long as within the law I have nothing against it. There is free speech in Australia” he said. “I wouldn’t go and aggressively just remove the whole thing. But I don’t want it to get out of hand.”

A small group of counter protesters donned tefillin — the black leather boxes and straps usually worn during Jewish prayer that have come to signify more orthodox and conservative views.

Another group of students wearing keffiyeh scarves linked arms in a circle and danced the dabkeh — a Levantine dance popular at weddings.

When the groups came together a few from each camp confronted each other and traded slogans, but the tension was quickly defused.
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Russian shelling kills 2 in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region

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Kyiv, Ukraine — Two people were killed on Friday in a Russian attack on the city of Kurakhove, located in the eastern Donetsk region, which is bearing the brunt of the fighting between Kyiv and Moscow.

“Various high-rise buildings were damaged. Two people were injured, two people died,” the head of the military administration Roman Padun said on social media.

Kurakhove is near the front lines in eastern Ukraine, 40 kilometers west of the Russia-occupied main city of Donetsk.

Outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian troops in the wider region are struggling against Russian forces who are pushing toward the key town of Chasiv Yar.

Ukrainian officials have said Russian forces aimed to seize the hilltop town before May 9, when Russia marks victory over Nazi Germany of World War II, to give President Vladimir Putin a symbolic win.

In an interview with Britain’s The Times, Ukraine’s Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Pavliuk described a dire situation around the key city.

“We are trying everything we can do to stop the Russian plan to capture Chasiv Yar before May 9,” Pavliuk was quoted as saying.

“But Russians have a 10-to-1 ratio of artillery superiority there, and total air superiority,” he said.

Ukrainian forces have been suffering from ammunition shortages, partly due to months-long delays in U.S. aid, which were approved by President Joe Biden last week after Congress finally passed the measure.

Biden vowed to ensure the aid shipments would reach Ukraine swiftly.
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In Ukraine, damaged church rises as a symbol of faith, culture

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LYPIVKA, Ukraine — This Orthodox Easter season, an extraordinary new church is bringing spiritual comfort to war-weary residents of the Ukrainian village of Lypivka. Two years ago, it also provided physical refuge from the horrors outside.

Almost 100 residents sheltered in a basement chapel at the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary while Russian troops occupied the village in March 2022 as they closed in on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, 60 kilometers to the east.

“The fighting was right here,” the Rev. Hennadii Kharkivskyi said. He pointed to the churchyard, where a memorial stone commemorates six Ukrainian soldiers killed in the battle for Lypivka.

“They were injured and then the Russians came and shot each one, finished them off,” he said.

The two-week Russian occupation left the village shattered and the church itself — a modern replacement for an older structure — damaged while still under construction. It’s one of 129 war-damaged Ukrainian religious sites recorded by UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural organization.

“It’s solid concrete,” the priest said. “But it was pierced easily” by Russian shells, which blasted holes in the church and left a wall inside pockmarked with shrapnel scars. At the bottom of the basement staircase, a black scorch mark shows where a grenade was lobbed down.

But within weeks, workers were starting to repair the damage and work to finish the solid building topped by red domes that towers over the village, with its scarred and damaged buildings, blooming fruit trees and fields that the Russians left littered with land mines.

For many of those involved — including a tenacious priest, a wealthy philanthropist, a famous artist and a team of craftspeople — rebuilding this church plays a part in Ukraine’s struggle for culture, identity and its very existence. The building, a striking fusion of the ancient and the modern, reflects a country determined to express its soul even in wartime.

The building’s austere exterior masks a blaze of color inside. The vibrant red, blue, orange and gold panels decorating walls and ceiling are the work of Anatoliy Kryvolap, an artist whose bold, modernist images of saints and angels make this church unique in Ukraine.

The 77-year-old Kryvolap, whose abstract paintings sell for tens of thousands of dollars at auction, said that he wanted to eschew the severe-looking icons he’d seen in many Orthodox churches.

“It seems to me that going to church to meet God should be a celebration,” he said.

There has been a church on this site for more than 300 years. An earlier building was destroyed by shelling during World War II. The small wooden church that replaced it was put to more workaday uses in Soviet times, when religion was suppressed.

Kharkivskyi reopened the parish in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and set about rebuilding the church, spiritually and physically, with funding from Bohdan Batrukh, a Ukrainian film producer and distributor.

Work stopped when Russian troops launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Moscow’s forces reached the fringes of Kyiv before being driven back. Lypivka was liberated by the start of April.

Since then, fighting has been concentrated in the east and south of Ukraine, though aerial attacks with rockets, missiles and drones are a constant threat across the country.

By May 2022, workers had resumed work on the church. It has been slow going. Millions of Ukrainians fled the country when war erupted, including builders and craftspeople. Hundreds of thousands of others have joined the military.

Inside the church, a tower of wooden scaffolding climbs up to the dome, where a red and gold image of Christ raises a hand in blessing.

For now, services take place in the smaller basement, where the priest, in white and gold robes, recently conducted a service for a couple of dozen parishioners as the smell of incense wafted through the candlelit room.

He is expecting a large crowd for Easter, which falls on Sunday. Eastern Orthodox Christians usually celebrate Easter later than Catholic and Protestant churches, because they use a different method of calculating the date for the holy day that marks Christ’s resurrection.

A majority of Ukrainians identify as Orthodox Christians, though the church is divided. Many belong to the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, with which the Lypivka church is affiliated. The rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church was loyal to the patriarch in Moscow until splitting from Russia after the 2022 invasion and is viewed with suspicion by many Ukrainians.

Kharkivskyi says the size of his congregation has remained stable even though the population of the village has shrunk dramatically since the war began. In tough times, he says, people turn to religion.

“Like people say: ‘Air raid alert — go see God,’” the priest said wryly.

Liudmyla Havryliuk, who has a summer home in Lypivka, found herself drawn back to the village and its church even before the fighting stopped. When Russia invaded, she drove to Poland with her daughters, then 16 and 18 years old. But within weeks she came back to the village she loves, still besieged by the Russians.

The family hunkered down in their home, cooking with firewood, drawing water from a well, sometimes under Russian fire. Havryliuk said that when they saw Russian helicopters, they held hands and prayed.

“Not prayer in strict order, like in the book,” she said. “It was from my heart, from my soul, about what should we do? How can I save myself and especially my daughters?”

She goes to Lypivka’s church regularly, saying it’s a “place you can shelter mentally, within yourself.”

As Ukraine marks its third Easter at war, the church is nearing completion. Only a few of Kryvolap’s interior panels remain to be installed. He said that the shell holes will be left unrepaired as a reminder to future generations.

“(It’s) so that they will know what kind of ‘brothers’ we have, that these are just fascists,” he said, referring to the Russians.

“We are Orthodox, just like them, but destroying churches is something inhumane.”
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China sending probe to less-explored far side of moon

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TAIPEI, Taiwan — China on Friday launched a lunar probe to land on the far side of the moon and return with samples that could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side.

It is the latest advance in China’s increasingly sophisticated space exploration program, which is now competing with the U.S., still the leader in space.

China also has a three-member crew on its own orbiting space station and aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030. Three Chinese lunar probe missions are planned over the next four years.

Free from exposure to Earth and other interference, the moon’s somewhat mysterious far side is ideal for radio astronomy and other scientific work. Because the far side never faces Earth, a relay satellite is needed to maintain communications.

The rocket carrying the Chang’e-6 lunar probe — named after the Chinese mythical moon goddess — lifted off Friday at 5:27 p.m. as planned from the Wenchang launch center on the island province of Hainan. About 35 minutes later it separated entirely from the massive Long March-5 rocket — China’s largest — that had slung it into space, as technicians monitoring the launch from ground control smiled and applauded.

Shortly afterward, launch mission commander Zhang Zuosheng took to a podium at the front of the room and said the launch had gone off exactly as planned and the spacecraft was on its set trajectory. “I declare this launch mission a complete success,” Zhang said to further applause.

The Philippine Space Agency issued a statement saying expected debris from the rocket launch was “projected to have fallen within the identified drop zones.”

China in 2021 was forced to defend its handling of a rocket booster that burned up over the Indian Ocean after the administrator of the American space agency and others accused Beijing of acting recklessly by allowing its rocket to fall to Earth seemingly uncontrolled after the mission.

Huge numbers of people crowded Hainan’s beaches to view the launch, which comes in the middle of China’s five-day May Day holiday. As with previous recent launches, the event was televised live by state broadcaster CCTV.

After orbiting the moon to reduce speed, the lander will separate from the spacecraft and within 48 hours of setting down it will begin drilling into the lunar surface and scooping up samples with its robotic arm. With the samples sealed in a container, it will then reconnect with the returner for the trip back to Earth. The entire mission is set to last 53 days.

China in 2020 returned samples from the moon’s near side, the first time anyone has done so since the U.S. Apollo program that ended in the 1970s. Analysis of the samples found they contained water in tiny beads embedded in lunar dirt.

Also in the past week, three Chinese astronauts returned home from a six-month mission on the country’s orbiting space station after the arrival of its replacement crew.

China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely because of U.S. concerns over the Chinese military’s total control of the space program amid a sharpening competition in technology between the two geopolitical rivals. U.S. law bars almost all cooperation between the U.S. and Chinese space programs without explicit congressional approval.

Faced with such limitations, China has expanded cooperation with other countries and agencies. The latest mission carries scientific instruments from France, Italy and the European Space Agency in cooperation with Sweden. A small Pakistani satellite is also on board.

China’s ambitious space program aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030, as well as bring back samples from Mars around the same year and launch three lunar probe missions over the next four years. The next is schedule for 2027.

Longer-term plans call for a permanent crewed base on the lunar surface, although those appear to remain in the conceptual phase.

China conducted its first crewed space mission in 2003, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space using its own resources.

The three-module Tiangong, much smaller than the ISS, was launched in 2021 and completed 18 months later. It can accommodate up to six astronauts at a time and is mainly dedicated to scientific research. The crew will also install space debris protection equipment, carry out payload experiments, and beam science classes to students on Earth.

China has also said that it eventually plans to offer access to its space station to foreign astronauts and space tourists. With the ISS nearing the end of its useful life, China could eventually be the only country or corporation to maintain a crewed station in orbit.

The U.S. space program is believed to still hold a significant edge over China’s due to its spending, supply chains and capabilities.

The U.S. aims to put a crew back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. They plan to land on the moon’s south pole where permanently shadowed craters are believed to be packed with frozen water.
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Russian troops enter base housing US military in Niger, US official says

Posted on by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — Russian military personnel have entered an air base in Niger that is hosting U.S. troops, a senior U.S. defense official told Reuters, a move that follows a decision by Niger’s junta to expel U.S. forces.

The military officers ruling the West African nation have told the U.S. to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel from the country, which until a coup last year had been a key partner for Washington’s fight against insurgents who have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russian forces were not mingling with U.S. troops but were using a separate hangar at Airbase 101, which is next to Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger’s capital.

The move by Russia’s military, which Reuters was the first to report, puts U.S. and Russian troops in close proximity at a time when the nations’ military and diplomatic rivalry is increasingly acrimonious over the conflict in Ukraine.

It also raises questions about the fate of U.S. installations in the country following a withdrawal. “(The situation) is not great but in the short-term manageable,” the official said.

Asked about the Reuters report, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin played down any risk to American troops or the chance that Russian troops might get close to U.S. military hardware.

“The Russians are in a separate compound and don’t have access to U.S. forces or access to our equipment,” Austin told a press conference in Honolulu.

“I’m always focused on the safety and protection of our troops … But right now, I don’t see a significant issue here in terms of our force protection.”

The Nigerien and Russian embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. and its allies have been forced to move troops out of a number of African countries following coups that brought to power groups eager to distance themselves from Western governments. In addition to the impending departure from Niger, U.S. troops have also left Chad in recent days, while French forces have been kicked out of Mali and Burkina Faso.

At the same time, Russia is seeking to strengthen relations with African nations, pitching Moscow as a friendly country with no colonial baggage in the continent.

Mali, for example, has in recent years become one of Russia’s closest African allies, with the Wagner Group mercenary force deploying there to fight jihadist insurgents.

Russia has described relations with the United States as “below zero” because of U.S. military and financial aid for Ukraine in its effort to defend against invading Russian forces.

The U.S. official said Nigerien authorities had told President Joe Biden’s administration that about 60 Russian military personnel would be in Niger, but the official could not verify that number.

After the coup, the U.S. military moved some of its forces in Niger from Airbase 101 to Airbase 201 in the city of Agadez.

It was not immediately clear what U.S. military equipment remained at Airbase 101.

The United States built Airbase 201 in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million. Since 2018 it has been used to target Islamic State and al Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) fighters with armed drones.

Washington is concerned about Islamic militants in the Sahel region, who may be able to expand without the presence of U.S. forces and intelligence capabilities.

Niger’s move to ask for the removal of U.S. troops came after a meeting in Niamey in mid-March, when senior U.S. officials raised concerns including the expected arrival of Russia forces and reports of Iran seeking raw materials in the country, including uranium.

While the U.S. message to Nigerien officials was not an ultimatum, the official said, it was made clear U.S. forces could not be on a base with Russian forces.

“They did not take that well,” the official said.

A two-star U.S. general has been sent to Niger to try to arrange a professional and responsible withdrawal.

While no decisions have been taken on the future of U.S. troops in Niger, the official said the plan was for them to return to U.S. Africa Command’s home bases, located in Germany.
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Austin: US sees no indications of intent to hurt US troops building Gaza pier

Posted on by SeeUS

Washington — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said late Thursday he does not see signs that Hamas is going to attack U.S. forces who are building a pier off the coast of Gaza to deliver aid to the war-torn strip by sea.

“I don’t see any indications currently that there is an active intent to do that,” Austin told reporters at a press conference in Hawaii.

Austin stressed that the top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, CENTCOM chief Gen. Erik Kurilla, has put several security measures in place to keep the troops who are building the pier and helping with aid distribution safe.

“Our allies are also providing security in that area as well, and so it’s going to require that we continue to coordinate with them very closely to ensure that if anything happens that, you know, our troops are protected,” Austin said.

The new port is just southwest of Gaza City. Last week a mortar attack targeted the port site but officials said no one was hurt.

“This is an accident, a very serious accident waiting to happen,” Bradley Bowman, the senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA.

Bowman, who is also a U.S. Army veteran, said Thursday that efforts to feed those in desperate need are “laudable,” but security concerns since the inception of this U.S. mission appear to remain unanswered while some of the plans are still being developed.

“The kind of terrorists, the kind of person – I hesitate to use that term – that would … wage the October 7 terror attack, use human shields and hold innocent men, women and children as hostages, those are the very same people that will not hesitate to attack those trying to bring food and water to hungry and thirsty people,” Bowman said.

Crews from the USNS Roy P. Benavidez and several Army vessels started building the floating platform for the operation last week, according to a senior military official. Next will come construction of the causeway, which will be anchored to the shore by the Israel Defense Forces.

U.S. and Israeli officials have said they hope to complete construction and begin operations this month.

The senior military official told reporters the Pentagon expects deliveries to “begin at about 90 trucks a day … and then quickly increase to 150 trucks a day.”

Aid has been slow to get into Gaza because of long backups of vehicles at Israeli inspection points. The U.S. and other nations have been air-dropping food into Gaza, but each military plane only holds about one to three truckloads of food, a U.S. official told VOA.

Aid organizations have said several hundred truckloads of food are needed in Gaza each day.

Israel attacked Hamas in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 terror attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw hundreds more taken hostage. In the nearly seven months since the attack, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to Gazan health officials.  
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In Europe, exiled Russian journalists offer alternative to state news

Posted on by SeeEU

Moscow has cracked down on Russian media outlets that offer independent reporting on the war in Ukraine, prompting hundreds of journalists to flee. While in exile, these media workers have found ways to keep the news flowing into the heavily censored country. For VOA News, Lisa Bryant has the story from Paris. VOA footage by Vahid Karami.
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Deby victory looks certain in Chad election

Posted on by SeeAF

Chad’s election on May 6 is almost certain to result in victory for transitional president and military leader Mahamat Idriss Déby, according to analysts. In the run-up to the vote, authorities have cracked down on the media and opposition leaders have been kept off the ballot. Despite that, experts say Chad will remain an important ally for Western security efforts in the Sahel region. Henry Wilkins reports.
Camera: Henry Wilkins
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Ukraine unveils AI-generated foreign ministry spokesperson

Posted on by SeeEU

Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukraine has an AI-generated spokesperson called Victoria who will make official statements on behalf of its foreign ministry.

The ministry said on Wednesday that it would “for the first time in history” use a digital spokesperson to read its statements, which will still be written by humans.

Dressed in a dark suit, the spokesperson introduced herself as Victoria Shi, a “digital person,” in a presentation posted on social media.

The figure gesticulates with her hands and moves her head as she speaks.

The foreign ministry’s press service told AFP that the statements given by Shi would not be generated by AI but “written and verified by real people.”

“It’s only the visual part that the AI helps us to generate,” it said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the new spokesperson was a “technological leap that no diplomatic service in the world has yet made.”

The main reason for creating her was “saving time and resources” for diplomats, he said.

Shi’s creators are a team called The Game Changers who have also made virtual reality content related to the war in Ukraine.

The spokesperson’s name is based on the word victory and the Ukrainian for artificial intelligence: shtuchniy intelekt.

Shi’s appearance and voice are modeled on a real person: Rosalie Nombre, a singer and former contestant on Ukraine’s version of The Bachelor reality show.

Nombre was born in the now Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

She has 54,000 followers on her Instagram account, which she uses to discuss stereotypes about mixed-race Ukrainians and those who grew up as Russian speakers.

The ministry said that Nombre took part free of charge.

It stressed that Shi and Nombre “are two different people” and that only the AI figure gives official statements.

To avoid fakes, these will be accompanied by a QR code linking them to text versions on the ministry’s website.

Shi will comment on consular services, currently a controversial topic.

Ukraine last week suspended such services for men of fighting age living abroad, making it necessary for them to return to their country for administrative procedures and potentially face the draft. 
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US remains committed to diplomacy despite North Korea’s nuclear escalation   

Posted on by SeeEA

washington — The U.S. says it has been trying to engage North Korea by sending messages repeatedly despite Pyongyang’s apparent lack of interest in dialogue and its escalation of threats in the region.

“We have sent such messages in multiple ways – through third parties and directly, orally and in writing – and have included specific proposals on humanitarian cooperation and other topics for discussion,” a State Department spokesperson said.

“We have also emphasized our willingness to discuss practical steps both sides could take to address the security situation in the region,” the spokesperson continued via email to VOA’s Korean Service on April 26.

“To date, however, the DPRK has shown no indication it is interested in engaging. Instead, we have seen a marked increase in the scope and scale of DPRK provocations, which have only served to raise regional tensions and increase the risk of accidental or unintentional escalation,” the spokesperson added.

North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

North Korea has been conducting multiple missile and rocket tests, including what it said was its first nuclear counterattack drills using “super-large” artillery rockets carrying mock nuclear warheads on April 22.

Pyongyang has also ramped up its cooperation with Russia, sending arms to support Moscow’s fight against Ukraine. Russia has been shipping refined petroleum to North Korea above the limit of 500,000 barrels annually set by the U.N. Security Council, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Thursday.

The North Korean mission to the U.N. did not respond to a VOA inquiry on its reaction to the U.S. description of its efforts made to resume talks.

Dialogue between the two has been deadlocked since October 2019 when working-level talks failed to reconcile differences over denuclearization and sanctions relief that became apparent a few months earlier at a summit in Hanoi.

Washington has maintained that it is open to renewed dialogue on Pyongyang’s nuclear program without preconditions.

Former U.S. officials suggested that the Biden administration provided the unusually detailed account of its efforts to engage Pyongyang in response to criticisms saying it has not done enough.

“The Biden team is quite sensitive to the attacks coming from ‘liberals,’ especially critics who claim the administration has not attached sufficient priority to North Korea and has not done enough to pursue diplomacy with Pyongyang,” said Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea.

Revere added that some of these critics are arguing that Washington needs to change its approach, offer concessions and engage in arms control and threat reduction talks with North Korea. He said this explains not only the administration’s detailed description of its efforts at talks but its willingness to discuss “interim steps” toward denuclearization.

Two senior U.S. officials said in March that Washington is willing to consider such steps and discuss sanctions and confidence-building measures.

Robert Rapson, who served as charge d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, said the Biden administration may be trying to address China’s call for talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

“It’s possible Beijing may have laid out a quid pro quo for any support with North Korea by calling on the U.S. to up its efforts to engage with Pyongyang – hence the statement” from the State Department, said Rapson.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference in Beijing after talks with Chinese officials that he “encouraged” Beijing “to press Pyongyang to end its dangerous behavior and engage in dialogue.”

Joseph DeTrani, who served as the special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006, said, “The Biden administration wants to make it clear, for the record and as we approach the November presidential election, that the administration was proactive in its policy toward North Korea and they did everything possible” to have Pyongyang “return to negotiations.”

 
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US journalist held in Russian prison for 400 days

Posted on by SeeEU

united nations — Four hundred days.

That’s how long American journalist Evan Gershkovich has been held in a Russian prison.

Russia’s Federal Security Service detained him while he was on assignment for U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal in the city of Yekaterinburg and accused him of espionage.

The newspaper and the U.S. government have denied the charges against the now 32-year-old reporter.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Thursday at a U.S.-hosted event on the eve of World Press Freedom Day that reporters are too often wrongfully detained for “simply telling the truth.”

“That was Evan’s crime. Reporting the facts about Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine,” she said.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in March 2022. Gershkovich was arrested a day after publishing a report on how the war had hurt Russia’s economy.

Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration will not rest until Gershkovich is reunited with his family. His parents and sister were present at the event.

Mariana Katzarova, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, told the gathering by video from Bulgaria that she is very concerned that Gershkovich has been held for over a year without a trial or evidence.

“The arrest and detention of Evan raises serious concerns about his personal safety, as well as the safety of all foreign journalists conducting their legitimate business in Russia,” she said.

In October 2023, dual U.S.-Russian national Alsu Kurmasheva, 47, who works for VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was also arrested in Russia. She remains jailed on charges of failing to self-register as a so-called foreign agent and spreading what Moscow views as false information about the Russian military. If convicted, she could face up to 15 years in prison.

Kurmasheva was in Russia to visit her elderly and ailing mother.

Katzarova said Russia has one of the highest conviction rates in the world.

“Once charged, the likelihood of being found guilty in the Russian court is very high,” she said, “raising concerns about the fairness and independence of the judiciary in Russia and about the rights of the accused to a fair trial.”

David Rohde, an American journalist who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2008 but escaped after seven months in captivity, told the gathering that the source of attacks on journalists has shifted in the past several years.

“There has been a dramatic change where the people detaining and in some places killing journalists has shifted from extremist groups and criminal groups to a large number of states,” he said.

“It has been more than a year now, and every day is a day too long,” Danielle Gershkovich said of her brother’s detention.

“We need to do whatever it takes to bring him home now.”
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