Elections in the United States are some of the most expensive in the world. In 2020, more than $16 billion was spent on U.S. presidential and congressional races. 2024 election costs are likely to be higher. How do campaigns help finance these elections? Fundraising.
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Month: June 2024
Myanmar ethnic armed group seizes tourist beachfront town
Yangon, Myanmar — A Myanmar ethnic armed group has seized the country’s most popular beach resort town, with junta troops holed up in a nearby airport, military and local sources told AFP on Tuesday.
Clashes have rocked western Rakhine state since the Arakan Army attacked the military there in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the 2021 military coup.
For days, fighting has raged around Ngapali beach in the south of the state, where upmarket resorts dot the pristine, palm-fringed sands of the Indian Ocean.
The town of Thandwe, a few kilometers from the beach and home to the local airport, was largely deserted as of Monday, a resident who fled that day told AFP.
“Almost everyone in the town has fled… Very few people are now in Thandwe,” said the resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons.
“A rocket shell landed in the town yesterday. We also heard continuous heavy artillery shelling.”
A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP security forces had retreated to the airport and were in control of the site.
A local hotel owner who was no longer in the town told AFP his staff said the military had carried out airstrikes near the airport on Monday.
His employees told him there were “some army and police trapped inside the airport building.”
AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment and has contacted an Arakan Army spokesman.
Thandwe airport has been closed since early this month as Arakan Army fighters launched attacks in the area.
Analysts say many of the hotels and resorts at Ngapali are owned by businessmen close to the junta or are part of the military’s sprawling business empire that includes gems, tourism, tobacco and real estate.
Since launching its offensive in November, the Arakan Army has seized territory along the border with India and Bangladesh, piling further pressure on the junta as it battles opponents elsewhere across the Southeast Asian country.
State capital Sittwe is one of the few holdouts for junta troops in Rakhine state.
The Arakan Army, which says it is fighting for autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine population, has vowed to capture the city, home to an India-backed deep sea port and around 200,000 people.
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US and allies clash with Tehran, Moscow at UN Security Council
UNITED NATIONS — The United States and its key European allies clashed with Iran and Russia over Tehran’s expanding nuclear program, with the U.S. vowing “to use all means necessary to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran” in a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday.
The U.S., France, Britain and Germany accused Iran of escalating its nuclear activities far beyond limits it agreed to in a 2015 deal aimed at preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, and of failing to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran and Russia accused the U.S. and its allies of continuing to apply economic sanctions that were supposed to be lifted under the deal and insisted that Tehran’s nuclear program remains under constant oversight by the IAEA.
The clashes came at a semi-annual meeting on implementation of the nuclear deal between Iran and six major countries — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Under the accord, Tehran agreed to limit enrichment of uranium to levels necessary for the peaceful use of nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018. Trump said he would negotiate a stronger deal, but that didn’t happen.
The council meeting followed an IAEA report in late May that Iran has more than 142 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade level of 90%. The IAEA said this was an increase of over 20 kilograms from February.
The IAEA also reported on June 13 that its inspectors verified that Iran has started up new cascades of advanced centrifuges more quickly enrich uranium and planned to install more.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the council that the IAEA reports “show that Iran is determined to expand its nuclear program in ways that have no credible civilian purpose.”
Wood said the U.S. is prepared to use all means to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, but said it remains “fully committed to resolving international concerns surrounding Iran’s nuclear program through diplomacy.”
The three Western countries that remain in the JCPOA — France, Germany and the United Kingdom — issued a joint statement after the council meeting also leaving the door open for diplomatic efforts “that ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon.”
They said Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is now 30 times the JCPOA limit and stressed that Iran committed not to install or operate any centrifuges for enrichment under the JCPOA.
Their joint statement also noted that “Iranian officials have issued statements about its capacity to assemble a nuclear weapon.”
Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani blamed “the unilateral and unlawful U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA” and the failure of the three European parties to the deal “to honor their commitments,” saying it is “crystal clear” they are responsible for the current non-functioning of the agreement.
In the face of U.S. and European sanctions, he said, Iran has the right to halt its commitments under the JCPOA.
Iravani reiterated Iran’s rejection of nuclear weapons, and insisted its nuclear activities including enrichment are “for peaceful purposes” and are subject to “robust verification and monitoring” by the IAEA.
The Iranian ambassador strongly endorsed the JCPOA, calling it a hard-won diplomatic achievement “that effectively averted an undue crisis.”
“It remains the best option, has no alternative, and its revival is indeed in the interest of all of its participants,” he said. “Our remedial measures are reversible if all sanctions are lifted fully and verifiably.”
But France, Germany and the UK said some of Iran’s nuclear advances are irreversible.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said U.S. promises “to abandon the policy of maximum pressure on Tehran and to return to the nuclear deal remained empty words.”
He accused some other JCPOA parties, which he didn’t name, of “doing everything possible to continuously rock the boat, jettisoning opportunities for the implementation of the nuclear deal.”
Nebenzia urged the European parties to the agreement and the United States to return to the negotiating table in Vienna and “demonstrate their commitment to the objective of restoration of the nuclear deal.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the coordinator of the JCPOA, said the compromise text he put forward two years ago for the U.S. to return to the JCPOA and for Iran to resume full implementation of the agreement remains on the table.
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A look at Julian Assange and how the long-jailed WikiLeaks founder is now on the verge of freedom
WASHINGTON — News that the U.S. Justice Department has reached a plea deal that will lead to freedom for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange brings a stunning culmination to a long-running saga of international intrigue that spanned multiple continents. Its central character is a quixotic internet publisher with a profound disdain for government secrets.
A look at Assange, the case and the latest developments:
Who is Julian Assange?
An Australian editor and publisher, he is best known for having founded the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, which gained massive attention — and notoriety — for the 2010 release of almost half a million documents relating to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His activism made him a cause célèbre among press freedom advocates who said his work in exposing U.S. military misconduct in foreign countries made his activities indistinguishable from what traditional journalists are expected to do as part of their jobs.
But those same actions put him in the crosshairs of American prosecutors, who released an indictment in 2019 that accused Assange — holed up at the time in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London — of conspiring with an Army private to illegally obtain and publish sensitive government records.
“Julian Assange is no journalist,” John Demers, the then-top Justice Department national security official, said at the time. “No responsible actor, journalist or otherwise, would purposely publish the names of individuals he or she knew to be confidential human sources in war zones, exposing them to the gravest of dangers.”
What is he accused of?
The Trump administration’s Justice Department accused Assange of directing former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history.
The charges relate to WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents, with prosecutors accusing Assange of helping Manning steal classified diplomatic cables that they say endangered national security and of conspiring together to crack a Defense Department password.
Reports from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq published by Assange included the names of Afghans and Iraqis who provided information to American and coalition forces, prosecutors said, while the diplomatic cables he released exposed journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates and dissidents in repressive countries.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of violating the Espionage Act and other offenses for leaking classified government and military documents to WikiLeaks. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017, allowing her release after about seven years behind bars.
Why wasn’t he already in U.S. custody?
Assange has spent the last five years in a British high-security prison, fighting to avoid extradition to the U.S. and winning favorable court rulings that have delayed any transfer across the Atlantic.
He was evicted in April 2019 from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had sought refuge seven years earlier amid an investigation by Swedish authorities into claims of sexual misconduct that he has long denied and that was later dropped. The South American nation revoked the political asylum following the charges by the U.S. government.
Despite his arrest and imprisonment by British authorities, extradition efforts by the U.S. had stalled prior to the plea deal.
A U.K. judge in 2021 rejected the U.S. extradition request in 2021 on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. Higher courts overturned that decision after getting assurances from the U.S. about his treatment. The British government signed an extradition order in June 2022.
Then, last month, two High Court judges ruled that Assange can mount a new appeal based on arguments about whether he will receive free-speech protections or be at a disadvantage because he is not a U.S. citizen. The date of the hearing has yet to be determined.
What will the deal require?
Assange will have to plead guilty to a felony charge under the Espionage Act of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States, according to a Justice Department letter filed in federal court.
Rather than face the prospect of prison time in the U.S., he is expected to return to Australia after his plea and sentencing. Those proceedings are scheduled for Wednesday morning, local time in Saipan, the largest island in the Northern Mariana Islands.
The hearing is taking place there because of Assange’s opposition to traveling to the continental U.S. and the court’s proximity to Australia.
On Monday evening, he left a British prison ahead of a court hearing expected to result in his release.
Is this case connected to the 2016 election?
It’s not, but beyond his interactions with Manning, Assange is well-known for the role WikiLeaks played in the 2016 presidential election, when it released a massive tranche of Democratic emails that federal prosecutors say were stolen by Russian intelligence operatives.
The goal, officials have said, was to harm the electoral effort of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and boost her Republican challenger Donald Trump, who famously said during the campaign: “WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks.”
Assange was not charged as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. But the investigation nonetheless painted an unflattering role of WikiLeaks in advancing what prosecutors say was a brazen campaign of Russian election interference.
Assange denied in a Fox News interview that aired in January 2017 that Russians were the source of the hacked emails, though those denials are challenged by a 2018 indictment by Mueller of 12 Russian military intelligence officers.
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Mongolians to vote in poll dominated by corruption worries
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia — Mongolians go to the polls Friday in parliamentary elections, with the ruling party expected to hold its majority despite voter fatigue over corruption and concern about inflation and the state of the economy.
People across the vast, sparsely-populated nation of 3.4 million will elect 126 members of the State Great Khural, a democratic exercise in a country surrounded by authoritarian powers China and Russia.
Streets across the capital Ulaanbaatar are decked out with vibrant multi-colored posters advertising candidates from across the political spectrum, from pro-market liberals to hardline nationalists, populist businessmen and environmentalists.
Analysts widely expect the ruling Mongolian People’s Party, led by Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, to retain the majority it has enjoyed since 2016, allowing it to govern the resource-rich country for the next four years.
It can credit much of its success to a boom in coal mining that fueled double digit growth and dramatically improved standards of living for many Mongolians, analysts say.
But that belies deep frustrations with the state of the economy, battered by two years of double-digit inflation — still stubbornly high at seven percent — as well as what is seen as widespread corruption.
On Sunday, as loudspeakers blared out from a packed ruling party rally in downtown Ulaanbaatar’s National Park, retired miner Tumurkhuyag Bayanmunkh, 46, complained that the politicians were “all the same.”
“The parliament is full of wealthy people who promise changes and improvements, but they forget us the next day,” Bayanmunkh told AFP as his grandchildren played nearby.
“I worked in the mine for 25, 26 years but I can’t afford anything,” he explained. “A few elites benefit from the (mining) sector, not the ordinary people.”
The ruling party has promised to crack down on corruption since unrest in late 2022, when hundreds took to the streets of Ulaanbaatar to protest against “coal theft” by officials linked to state coal firms.
But under its rule, Mongolia has plummeted in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
“The middle class is shrinking, real incomes are stagnating, and people very much feel like they’re not getting the benefits of the mining wealth that is coming to this country,” Munkhnaran Bayarlkhagva, an analyst and former adviser on the National Security Council of Mongolia, told AFP.
The ruling party has also presided over a plummeting in press freedom rankings as well as notable declines in the rule of law, campaigners say.
The arrest and trial of high-profile journalist Naran Unurtsetseg sent ripples through Ulaanbaatar’s relatively small community of journalists, compounding fears over a growing crackdown on freedom of speech.
According to the Confederation of Mongolian Journalists, the country’s main press NGO, 20 journalists are now under some kind of formal investigation for their reporting.
And a survey by the Sant Maral Foundation, Mongolia’s top independent polling body, suggested more than a third of Mongolians now believe the country is “changing into a dictatorship.”
Sunday’s rally was largely attended by older Ulaanbaatar residents, illustrating a stark generational divide in a country with an overwhelming young population, with an average age of 26 and where almost two thirds are under 35.
Twenty-six-year-old IT worker Norovbanzad Ganbat told AFP she was unimpressed by the choices on offer.
“Young people don’t vote for (the MPP),” she said.
Many people her age are giving up on Mongolia altogether, choosing to go to South Korea or the United States in search of a better life, Ganbat said.
“I don’t want that. I want to live and work happily in my country. I want young people to be valued more,” she said.
“Young people are undervalued — after we complete higher education, our degree, knowledge and talent is undervalued. The average salary is too low,” she told AFP.
The successor to the Communist party that ruled Mongolia with an iron grip for almost 70 years, the governing MPP remains popular, particularly among rural, older voters, and commands a sprawling campaigning apparatus across Mongolia.
It has benefited from a divided opposition Democratic Party, whose pro-market policies in the last decade remain widely blamed for the country’s grinding income inequality.
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US expected to announce $150M in new military aid for Ukraine
Pentagon — The U.S. is expected to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine valued at up to $150 million as soon as Tuesday, two U.S. officials tell VOA.
The package is being provided to Kyiv under the presidential drawdown authority (PDA), which pulls weapons, ammunition and equipment from U.S. military stockpiles to fulfill Ukraine’s short-term needs.
One of the officials — who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the package ahead of its planned announcement — said the latest round of aid would include munitions for HIMARS and other critical munitions. It does not include cluster munitions, according to the official.
Asked whether the aid package includes long-range missiles known as ATACMS, the official replied, “For operational security reasons, we aren’t going into further details.”
ATACMS have a range of up to 300 kilometers (about 185 miles) and nearly double the striking distance of Ukraine’s missiles.
When asked by VOA on June 12 if the United States had provided Ukraine with more ATACMS since mid-March, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General C.Q. Brown said, “We’re working through the ATACMS piece, and we continue to provide that capability through our PDAs.”
Russia has accused Ukraine of using some of the U.S.-provided ATACMS in deadly strikes this week inside Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.
Russia summoned the U.S. ambassador in Moscow on Monday to protest the use of the missiles.
This week’s aid package for Kyiv will dip into the $61 billion in Ukraine funding signed into law by President Joe Biden in April.
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For Ukraine’s older workers, war opens hope for ending age discrimination
As in many countries, job seekers in Ukraine who are in their 50s and 60s have a harder time than younger workers. One organization is trying to change that by taking advantage of Ukraine’s wartime labor shortage. For VOA, Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv. VOA footage by Vladyslav Smilianets.
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US TV host Rachael Ray visits Ukraine, cooks for locals
TV personality Rachael Ray is a U.S.-based chef, author and celebrity. But Ukrainians know her better thanks to her charity work to help the war-torn country. Omelyan Oshchudlyak reports. Camera: Yuriy Dankevych.
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Signs emerge North Korea-Russia defense pact making China anxious
State Department — The United States is carefully studying a new mutual defense pact between Russia and North Korea, which Washington believes could aid Pyongyang in its nuclear and long-range missile development programs.
There are also signs of tensions between North Korea and its longstanding ally, China, following the signing of the agreement.
China anxious
In a keynote address on sustaining U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific at the Council on Foreign Relations Monday, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said China is probably worried that North Korea will be encouraged to take provocative steps that could lead to a crisis in Northeast Asia.
“I think it is fair to say that China is somewhat anxious about what’s going on between Russia and North Korea. They have indicated so in some of our interactions, and we can see some tension associated with this,” Campbell said.
Campbell said he had a call with South Korean officials Sunday night to discuss next steps to enhance deterrence more clearly.
“We believe that that there are discussions about what North Korea gets in exchange [from the deal with Russia] and they could be associated with its nuclear, long range missile development plans,” he said.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang for the first time in more than 20 years. U.S. officials have said while there are limits to their partnership, it cannot be ignored.
The State Department’s second-ranking diplomat also voiced concerns over China and North Korea’s support for Russia’s efforts to rebuild its defense industrial base since the start of its war on Ukraine.
South China Sea tensions
Campbell said Washington has “significantly démarched Chinese interlocutors” following what he called “Beijing’s military provocations” in the South and East China Sea and near the waters around the Second Thomas Shoal, known as Rénài Jiao in China and Ayungin Shoal in the Philippines.
According to an international tribunal’s legally binding decision issued in July 2016, the Second Thomas Shoal is located within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, and China has no lawful maritime claims to the waters around this low-tide feature. Beijing has rejected the ruling.
“The Philippines are very cautious at this juncture. They do not seek a crisis with China. They are seeking dialogue,” Campbell said. “They’re seeking discussion, and they want the United States to be purposeful with other allies and partners about our goals to maintain peace and stability and to send a very clear message of deterrence and reassurance.”
However, he stopped short of stating whether Washington would invoke a mutual defense treaty with Manila. “I’m not going to speculate in public. I will say we have continually reaffirmed its significance and relevance to these situations at the highest level,” he said.
In a phone call with Philippine Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Maria Theresa Lazaro last week, Campbell reaffirmed that Article IV of the 1951 United States-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft — including those of its coast guard — anywhere in the South China Sea, according to the State Department.
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Kenyan police officers may deploy to Haiti Tuesday, reports say
Nairobi, Kenya — Kenyan police officers may be set for deployment to Haiti on Tuesday, according to local reports and the French news agency, AFP. Multiple inquiries to the government of Kenya for confirmation of such reports were not answered. This development comes after numerous delays and court challenges, including the newest lawsuit that accused Kenyan President William Ruto of contempt of court.
Last year, a United Nations Security Council resolution approved the Kenyan-led mission, but earlier this year the High Court of Kenya ruled against the deployment, saying it was unconstitutional. Issues cited by the court include the lack of a “reciprocal agreement” between the countries.
The Kenyan government eventually secured that agreement but the same people who sued the government in the first place filed another lawsuit seeking to block the deployment.
From a legal perspective, the legitimacy of the agreement is still in question, lawyer Wallace Nderu told VOA.
“The ground for this application is that when the then-prime minister of Haiti was signing this agreement with Kenya, there was no known government in Haiti. The president had been assassinated; there were no elected leaders in Haiti. So where does he drive the mandate to negotiate an agreement on behalf of his country Haiti comes into question,” said Nderu, a lawyer and a program officer at ICJ Kenya, the International Commission of Jurists, a non-governmental, non-profit, member-based organization.
Nderu also said Kenyans feel the agreement was hastily put together, noting its content has not been shared with the population.
“Part of the provisions in the law … indicates that these agreements, after being signed, have to be gazetted in the official Kenya Gazette,” Nderu said. “So, concern is raised that this particular agreement is very secretive. We are not aware of the content of the agreement … it raises the legitimacy of the government deploying the police to Haiti.”
The Kenya Gazette is an official government publication that contains legal notices, government appointments, and other official announcements.
A new commander for the police force was appointed Monday by the inspector general.
President Ruto has maintained that stabilizing the troubled Caribbean nation is “a mission for humanity … a mission for solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Haiti.”
In addition to Kenya, other nations including Benin, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados and Chad said they will join the mission.
While some Kenyans support the mission in Haiti, others have wondered why their country wants to lead the multinational force, given that nations more powerful and better equipped have not been willing to step forward.
The reported deployment will take place on the same day that protests against proposed tax increases that have rocked Kenya in the past week are to resume.
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How Biden, Trump differ over Ukraine policy
U.S. presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump meet Thursday for the first of their two scheduled debates. Russia’s war on Ukraine is expected to be one of the top foreign policy questions. VOA’s Tatiana Vorozhko looks at how the two candidates differ in their approach to Ukraine.
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Turkey wildfire death toll hits 15 as experts flag faulty power cables
Diyarbakir, Turkey — The death toll from last week’s massive wildfire that ripped through Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast has risen to 15, hospital sources said on Monday with experts pointing to faulty wiring as a possible cause.
The blaze, which broke out on Thursday between the cities of Diyarbakir and Mardin, killed 12 people outright and left five more fighting for their lives.
Three succumbed to their injuries on Sunday, hospital sources said on Monday, while two others remained in intensive care.
Agriculture ministry figures showed more than 1,000 sheep and goats perished as a result of the blaze with locals in Koksalan village in Diyarbakir province telling AFP some victims died trying to save their animals.
The government said “stubble burning” was the cause but the Diyarbakir branch of the Chambers of Turkish Architects and Engineers (TMMOB) ruled that out and pointed to faulty electric cables as the likely trigger.
“The fire could have been caused by the power cables,” it said in a report released late on Sunday, indicating that there was “no stubble” in the area and that electric wires there were in a state of disrepair.
“The cause of the fire was not the stubble. The electricity cables and poles were unmaintained and dangerous,” it said, pointing to the absence of “fire prevention measures around the poles.”
It also accused private electricity distributor DEDAS, which is responsible for maintaining the area’s power lines, of “replacing and repairing the poles the day after the fire, thus obscuring the evidence.”
Faulty power cables in Koksalan village
The findings came two days after an expert report sent to the local public prosecutor’s office said conductive wire “broke and ignited the grass on the ground and it spread to a wide area due to the effect of strong wind.”
The faulty wiring was on a pole in Koksalan village, in an area where the fields had not yet been harvested, the experts said.
They calculated the blaze had ravaged between 1,650 and 2,000 hectares (4,080 and 4,940 acres) of farmland, forest and residential areas.
In a post on X, Agriculture Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said the fire destroyed nearly 1,500 hectares of land and that “924 sheep and goats perished in Koksalan.”
He said nearly 200 sheep and goats in the area were treated for burns, and another 83 “with severe injuries that could not be treated” were sent for slaughter.
Last June, a fire that broke out in the same area destroyed 68 hectares of land, with residents pointing to faulty wiring, and an expert report identifying DEDAS as “primarily” responsible.
The villagers filed a legal complaint and won, with a Diyarbakır court finding DEDAS guilty of not properly maintaining the infrastructure and ordering it to pay compensation. It was not clear how much.
The pro-Kurdish DEM party, which criticized the government’s slow response to the fire, called for a parliamentary inquiry to determine responsibility and hold public bodies accountable for the blaze.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on Friday had blamed the fire on “stubble burning” with the justice ministry saying it opened a probe.
Turkey has suffered 81 wildfires so far this year that have ravaged more than 15,000 hectares of land, according to the latest figures from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and more intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Turkey to take measures to tackle the problem.
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Senegal tightens anti-COVID controls after Mecca deaths
Dakar, Senegal — Senegal said Monday it had implemented voluntary COVID-19 screening tests and reimposed the wearing of masks at Dakar’s international airport for returning pilgrims fearing the virus was linked to the deaths of some Mecca pilgrims.
Dakar suspects that a number of the some 1,300 deaths — according to a Saudi tally — are down to a respiratory syndrome ailment such as COVID-19, Health Minister Ibrahima Sy said on Sunday.
“Initially, we thought it was related to heatwaves because the temperature was excessively high, but we realized that there is a respiratory syndrome with the cases of death,” Sy said of the deaths during the hajj pilgrimage, which took place during intense heat.
“We told ourselves that, probably, there is a respiratory epidemic, and it was our duty to be able to monitor the pilgrims on their return by putting in place a screening system for everything COVID-19 related,” said Sy in remarks carried by Senegalese broadcasters.
The health ministry said it had “strengthened the health surveillance system” by deploying a team at the airport to provide voluntary screening tests and identify pilgrims suffering from flu-like illnesses.
The ministry also urged the population “to be vigilant, to show restraint and to be more serene to avoid an epidemic.”
Out of 124 rapid diagnostic tests, 78 proved positive for the COVID-19 virus, 36 of which were later confirmed by PCR tests, the ministry said.
Charles Bernard Sagna, chief medical officer for the airport, said the alert was raised when the Senegalese medical team based in Jeddah had reported “a significant number” of passengers with respiratory problems.
“There is no cause for alarm but there also has to be prevention,” the ministry said Sunday.
Senegalese daily L’Observateur reported that five of the dead at the hajj were Senegalese nationals.
They were among an around 12,000-strong officially registered Senegalese contingent.
Saudi Arabia’s official SPA news agency earlier reported 1,301 deaths at the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, where temperatures climbed as high as 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the country’s national meteorological center.
More than 80 percent of pilgrims attending mainly outdoor rituals were “unauthorized” and walked long distances in direct sunlight, according to SPA.
The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam that all Muslims with the means must complete at least once in their lives.
Saudi officials have said 1.8 million pilgrims took part this year, a similar number to last year, and that 1.6 million came from abroad.
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Chinese hackers have stepped up attacks on Taiwanese organizations, cybersecurity firm says
Hong Kong — A suspected Chinese state-sponsored hacking group has stepped up its targeting of Taiwanese organizations, particularly those in sectors such as government, education, technology and diplomacy, according to cybersecurity intelligence company Recorded Future.
In recent years, relations between China and Taiwan, a self-governed island across the Taiwan Strait that Beijing claims as its territory, have deteriorated. The cyberattacks by the group known as RedJulliett were observed between November 2023 and April 2024, during the lead up to Taiwan’s presidential elections in January and the subsequent change in administration.
RedJuliett has targeted Taiwanese organizations in the past, but this is the first time that activity was seen at such a scale, a Recorded Future analyst said, speaking on condition of anonymity out of safety concerns.
The report said RedJuliett attacked 24 organizations, including government agencies in places like Laos, Kenya and Rwanda, as well as Taiwan.
It also hacked into websites of religious organizations in Hong Kong and South Korea, a U.S university and a Djiboutian university. The report did not identify the organizations.
Recorded Future said RedJuliett accessed the servers of those places via a vulnerability in their SoftEther enterprise virtual private network, or VPN software, an open-source VPN that allows remote connections to an organization’s networks.
RedJuliett has been observed attempting to break into systems of more than 70 Taiwanese organizations including three universities, an optoelectronics company and a facial recognition company that has contracts with the government.
It was unclear if RedJuliett managed to break into those organizations: Recorded Future only said it observed the attempts to identify vulnerabilities in their networks.
RedJuliett’s hacking patterns match those of Chinese state-sponsored groups, according to Recorded Future.
It said that based on the geolocations of IP addresses, RedJulliett is likely based out of the city of Fuzhou, in China’s southern Fujian province, whose coast faces Taiwan.
“Given the close geographical proximity between Fuzhou and Taiwan, Chinese intelligence services operating in Fuzhou are likely tasked with intelligence collection against Taiwanese targets,” the report said.
“RedJuliett is likely targeting Taiwan to collect intelligence and support Beijing’s policy-making on cross-strait relations,” the Recorded Future report said.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately comment.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson dismissed the allegations.
“I don’t know the specifics of what you mentioned, but I can tell you that it’s not the first time the company you mentioned has fabricated disinformation on so-called Chinese hacking operations. There is absolutely no professionalism or credibility to speak of in what the company does,” the spokesperson, Mao Ning, said.
Microsoft reported in August last year that RedJuliett, which Microsoft tracks under the name Flax Typhoon, was targeting Taiwanese organizations.
China has in recent years stepped up military drills around Taiwan and imposed economic and diplomatic pressure on the island.
Relations between Taiwan and Beijing worsened further after the election in January of Taiwan’s new president Lai Ching-te, who China has deemed a “separatist,” after he said in his inauguration speech that Taiwan and China were not subordinate to each other. Like his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen, Lai has said that there is no need to declare Taiwanese independence because it is already an independent sovereign state.
Like many other countries including the U.S., China has been known to engage in cyberespionage. Earlier this year, the U.S. and Britain accused China of a sweeping cyberespionage campaign that allegedly hit millions of people.
Beijing has consistently denied engaging in any form of state-sponsored hacking, instead saying that China itself is a major target of cyberattacks.
According to Recorded Future, Chinese state-sponsored groups will likely continue to target Taiwanese government agencies, universities and critical technology companies via “public-facing” devices such as open-source VPN software, which provide limited visibility and logging capabilities.
Companies and organizations can best protect themselves by prioritizing and patching vulnerabilities once they become known, Recorded Future’s threat intelligence analyst said.
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