Month: July 2024

Kenyans say Biden pulling out of presidential race was the right move 

Posted on by SeeAF

Nairobi — Kenyans watching the U.S. presidential race say they agree with President Joe Biden’s decision to not seek a second term. But some say that choosing a replacement capable of defeating his opponent, former president Donald Trump, is going to be a big task for the Democratic Party.

On the streets of Nairobi, many people told VOA that while Joe Biden’s decision to step out of the race must not have been easy, it was the right decision for him to make.

James Owor said he was expecting Biden to step out of the race.

“A bit unsurprising just based on what I’ve seen in the news. He was obviously not very well. It might not be such a bad idea to take a back seat. He didn’t seem to have the energy he had,” he said.

Biden’s announcement Sunday followed a rising chorus within the Democratic Party urging him to “pass the torch” amid his declining national poll numbers and concerns raised by his shaky performance in the debate against Trump last month.

Brenda Okwaro said what President Biden has done is commendable because he put the needs of his country and party ahead of his need to retain power.

“This is a move that should be emulated by our African presidents. You don’t have to come to the race a second time and you know you are not going to deliver the expectations of the people who elected you. But if you feel you’ve done your best in your first term, you can just get out of the race, go home and rest and focus on other things. You can even give advice to people who are in leadership,” she said.

Africa is home to some of the longest-serving presidents in the world, several of whom, like Biden, are in their 80s. Cameroon’s Paul Biya is 91.

Martin Andati said he believes that if Biden had stayed in the race, it would’ve been difficult for him to beat Republican nominee Donald Trump.

“Biden had to drop out because all the odds are against him, he can’t beat Trump. So, to salvage the image and give the Democratic Party an opportunity, he had no choice but to exit the race,” he said.

President Biden’s announcement comes a little more than three months before the U.S. elections. Andati said he believes the Democrats still have a chance, but it all depends on who they pick to replace Biden, who has endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris.

“The only challenge is that he exited and endorsed Kamala Harris. The numbers are not in favor of Kamala Harris. The question is do they retain Harris or what happens, those are the issues the Democratic party will have to grapple with,” he said.

Macharia Munene, a professor of history and international relations at United States International University in Nairobi, said that while it took Biden a little longer to drop out of the race, it was expected. 

“The signs were that he was not up to par, and it took time before his friends and people he respects to come and tell him [it’s] in the best interest of the country and himself, his own image was to step aside so that he’s not embarrassed in November,” said Munene.

The friends who persuaded Biden to step aside reportedly included Kenya’s favorite former U.S. president, Barack Obama. Obama is not eligible for a comeback because of the two-term limit in the U.S. Constitution.

Munene said he believes Democrats will nominate Harris.

“The question will be who’ll be her running mate in the hope they will make a dent on Trump’s bandwagon. For Harris, it’s a good opportunity if she does not win, she will not lose very badly. Then, it’s a preparation for a future encounter in case she doesn’t make it, she would’ve created a base for herself for the next time to run, maybe in 2028,” said Munene.

Democratic lawmakers, governors and financial donors have already expressed their support for Harris, who says she will work to earn the trust and backing of democratic delegates. The party’s candidate will be formally approved late next month when the party hosts its national convention.
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US supports non-political representation by Myanmar at ASEAN

Posted on by SeeEA

State Department — A top State Department official says the United States supports non-political representation by Myanmar, also known as Burma, at this week’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ foreign ministers’ meetings in Vientiane, Laos.  

This Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to Asia to hold talks with ASEAN officials, including discussions on the ongoing crisis in Burma. Officials say Washington also continues to engage with the Burmese democratic opposition groups.

In a phone briefing on Monday, Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told VOA that it is his understanding that there will be a representative from Burma at the meetings.

“It will be at the permanent secretary, non-political level,” Kritenbrink said. “We believe that any Burmese representation in the ASEAN meeting should be at a downgraded, non-political level, and that is what you will see in this coming week.”

In January, Myanmar’s military junta sent a senior official to attend an ASEAN foreign ministers’ retreat in Laos. Since it launched a coup in 2021 that ousted Myanmar’s democratically elected government, the junta has been barred from sending political appointees to high-level meetings of the Southeast Asian bloc.

Marlar Than Htaik, the permanent secretary of the foreign ministry under the control of Myanmar’s junta, attended meetings earlier this year on January 29.

Last week, more than 300 Burmese civil society organizations and revolutionary forces endorsed a letter sent to ASEAN’s secretary-general, Kao Kim Hourn, and other bloc officials.

The letter urged ASEAN to exclude Myanmar’s military junta members from all meetings and events and to ensure Myanmar is represented by its democratically elected leaders.

“We’ve spent probably even more time and effort in engaging the democratic opposition, various Burmese related groups inside and outside of Burma, and our commitment to those groups will continue going forward,” Kritenbrink told VOA.

He added the U.S. will continue to implement “unprecedented sanctions and other measures” to cut off the junta leaders’ ability to “acquire the funds necessary to continue to prosecute the atrocities.”   

The U.S. also “strongly supports” the ASEAN five-point consensus on ending the Myanmar crisis.

Shortly after the military coup began, the leaders of nine ASEAN member states and the Myanmar junta chief, General Min Aung Hlaing, agreed to an immediate end to violence in the country. They also agreed to the appointment of a special envoy to visit Myanmar and to meet with all parties and promote dialogue and humanitarian assistance from ASEAN.

Despite those promises, the Southeast Asian bloc, has largely been divided over the conflict in Myanmar, analysts say.  

“The most authoritarian members of ASEAN, which would be Laos and Cambodia, to an extent, are still sticking with the junta,” Priscilla Clapp, a senior adviser at the United States Institute of Peace, told VOA.

Other members, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, have had some level of interaction with the Myanmar resistance.  

“I would say that none of the ASEAN countries really understands fully what’s happening on the ground in Burma,” Clapp said in a recent interview.  

She added that since ASEAN operates by consensus, achieving unanimity when dealing with the junta is difficult, given the differences among individual governments.
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Belarus frees head of banned party as Lukashenko slowly releases some political prisoners

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TALLINN, Estonia — The head of a banned Belarusian opposition party who had been behind bars for two years was released on Monday as the authoritarian country frees a trickle of political prisoners, according to the respected human rights group Viasna.

Mikalai Kazlou, who led the United Civic Party, was serving a 2½-year sentence on allegations of organizing actions violating the public order. His arrest came amid a harsh crackdown on the opposition that began as mass demonstrations gripped the country.

Those protests followed a presidential election in 2020 whose disputed results gave Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term.

Many prominent opposition figures were imprisoned in the crackdown and others fled the country, including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was Lukashenko’s prime challenger in the election.

The Belarusian Supreme Court banned the United Civic Party a year after Kazlou’s arrest.

Lukashenko announced an amnesty in early July for some seriously ill political prisoners, and 19 have been released so far. But 1,377 remain imprisoned, according to Viasna. The prisoners include the group’s founder, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski.

Activists say authorities have created conditions akin to torture in prisons, depriving political prisoners of medical care, transfers and meetings with lawyers and relatives.

Lukashenko’s release of ill political prisoners indicates he may be trying to improve relations with the West ahead of seeking reelection next year, Belarusian analysts suggest. He also recently dropped visa requirements for European Union citizens arriving by rail and road.
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Families of Thailand’s ‘Tak Bai Massacre’ seek 11th hour trial

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Bangkok — Relatives of 85 people who died 20 years ago at a protest in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south are in a race against time to take former military and police officers to trial before the statute of limitations for their alleged crimes runs out.

A court in southern Thailand is holding hearings that continue this week to decide whether to indict nine former officers for the so-called Tak Bai Massacre of Oct. 25, 2004, which is still the deadliest single event in Thailand since a Muslim insurgency began earlier that same year.

On that day two decades ago in Tak Bai district, Narathiwat province, soldiers and police responding to a protest for the release of detained rebel suspects shot seven people dead. The officers forced many more protesters into police trucks destined for a military camp some 140 kilometers away, leaving them packed inside and forced to lie on top of one another for hours.

Seventy-eight of them died. A state inquest later determined that they had suffocated. Many others were injured, some for life.

No one has ever been charged over the deaths or injuries, let alone convicted.

Hoping to change that, 48 survivors and relatives of the dead filed a lawsuit with the Narathiwat provincial court in April against nine officers, all since retired, for unlawful detention, malfeasance and murder.

The court began hearings on whether to indict any of the accused last month. It held a third day of hearings last Friday and is due to hold another on July 26.

With the statute of limitations due to expire in October, exactly 20 years from the event, it is a race against time for the plaintiffs, including Latipah Mudo, whose 62-year-old father, Sama-ae Mudo, was among those who died in the trucks.

“I was very sad when it happened, and the feeling is the same today,” Mudo, who is now 45, told VOA.

“I want the perpetrators to be punished for what they did to us. Tak Bai should be an example that this kind of thing will never happen again,” she said.

Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, a human rights activist and lawyer representing a survivor of the trucks whose arm and leg were permanently paralyzed, says the plaintiffs want to hear the accused account for their actions on the record.

“This incident has been haunting … the communities,” she said. “They want the perpetrators to [stand] up in the court and tell them what happened, why did they do this, why did they do [or act] as a not human.” 

The plaintiffs hope their case can help prevent similar alleged abuses in Thailand’s insurgency-racked south from recurring, she added.

Once the seat of a Muslim sultanate, the southern provinces of modern-day Thailand were deeded to the then-kingdom of Siam by the British in 1909. Rejecting the transfer, several armed ethnic Malay Muslim groups have waged a guerrilla war against the Thai state to win independence for the provinces.

More than 7,000 people have died in related violence since fighting intensified in January 2004.

Since the deaths at Tak Bai, locals and rights groups say Thai authorities have repeatedly abused the martial and emergency laws imposed on much of the south in the years that followed in a bid to put the insurgency down. They cite several cases of alleged torture and extrajudicial killings of suspected rebels in custody. Thai courts and prior governments have rejected claims of the state’s responsibility in a number of those cases.

“As I learned from the locals since I’ve been working on other documentation of torture, enforced disappearances, the violence still continues, from then until now. And most of the time there [was] no power enough to bring perpetrators to justice,” Pornpen said. “We wanted to bring the [Tak Bai] case … to prove that something like this should not happen again.”

In December 2004, a fact-finding committee appointed by the government concluded that security forces used inappropriate measures to disperse the Tak Bai protesters and that commanding officers failed to adequately supervise the transport of the detainees. But authorities did not pursue charges, and the police claimed force majeure, a legal term referring to events beyond the parties’ control.

The plaintiffs reject the claim.

“It’s not true. It happened because of somebody’s actions; that’s why they died. Their excuse is not reasonable,” said Mudo.

According to local media reports, the Narathiwat court said Friday it would announce its decision whether to take any of the accused to trial on August 23. The court could not be reached to confirm or comment on the date.

Pornpen said the plaintiffs had not filed a case sooner for many reasons, including the compensation the government paid out to relatives of the dead and fear of reprisal from authorities, especially during the intervening years of military-led and -backed governments.

After nearly two decades, though, the events of Oct. 25, 2004, continue to loom large over the country’s deep south, says Rungrawee Chalermsripinyorat, a lecturer at the Peace Studies Institute of southern Thailand’s Prince of Songkla University.

She says the deaths remain a prime recruiting tool for the insurgent groups, and an enduring example of what many Thais believe to be a two-tier justice system.

“It is a testament of the culture of impunity that [is] happening in southern Thailand, so people want to see that those responsible are being punished, brought to [the] justice system, and that has never happened in the past nearly 20 years,” she said.

Insurgent groups often draw on generations-old grievances to entice and inspire new recruits.

“But when they use the Tak Bai incident, this is something that they don’t really have to tell people so much [about] because it’s still vivid in their memory, so it’s easy … to encourage people to join the movement,” Rungrawee said.

While bombings, assassinations and shootouts across the south continue to occur alongside police raids and arrests, the pace of the violence has waned over the years. The government has gradually scaled back some of its emergency powers over the region as well and is in talks with some of the rebel groups over the terms of a possible cease-fire.

Should the Narathiwat court decide to indict the retired officers and ultimately be seen to have held them accountable, Rungrawee said the Tak Bai case could also help ease tensions and even move the peace talks forward.

“It would help to create a better atmosphere,” she said, “to show … that the state does not endure this culture of impunity, [that] the rule of law will be strictly respected.” 
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Trump assassination bid puts spotlight on US gun violence

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The recent assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump should be a “wake-up call” on gun violence, says U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who recently declared firearm violence in America a “public health crisis.” But disagreements on how to resolve the matter prevail. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has more.
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Russia convicts 2nd American journalist in secret trial

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Trial of Alsu Kurmasheva a ‘mockery of justice’ says RFE/RL president as Russia sentences journalist to more than 6 years in jail
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Police, troops block Ugandan opposition headquarters ahead of protests

Posted on by SeeAF

Kampala, Uganda — Soldiers and police sealed off the headquarters of Uganda’s biggest opposition party on Monday in what a police spokesperson called a precautionary move ahead of anti-government protests planned for Tuesday despite a ban.

In posts on social media platform X, National Unity Platform party chief Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, said security personnel had surrounded NUP headquarters in the capital Kampala, barring anyone from entering or exiting.

Wine said several NUP leaders had been “violently arrested” and also showed pictures of military personnel at the premises alongside parked army trucks.

“The military and police have raided and surrounded the National Unity Platform offices …” he said. “The cowardly regime is so afraid of the people because they know how much they have wronged them!”

Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke did not immediately respond when sought for comment about the reported arrests.

Wine, 42, a pop star turned politician, has in recent years emerged as the biggest challenger to veteran President Yoweri Museveni, 79, who has led the East African nation since 1986.

Ugandan youth who have spearheaded recent protests are planning to march to parliament on Tuesday in defiance of a ban on the demonstration, which is intended to denounce alleged widespread corruption and human rights abuses under Museveni’s long-time rule.

Wine said his party was not organizing Tuesday’s protests, but it supported them.

Rusoke said security forces had taken precautionary steps against what he called NUP “mobilization for the protest.”

“We have been monitoring (this). Their activities raised a red flag and we took precaution measures,” he said.

Protests are constitutionally legal in Uganda but organizers must secure permits in advance from police, which are only rarely granted.

Opposition leaders and rights activists say embezzlement and misuse of government funds are widespread in Uganda and have long accused Museveni of failing to prosecute corrupt top-level officials who are politically loyal or related to him.

Museveni has repeatedly denied tolerating corruption and says whenever there is sufficient evidence, culprits are prosecuted, for example lawmakers and even ministers.

Museveni on Monday directed the Criminal Investigations Directorate “to arrest and prosecute all government officials linked to ghost civil servants on the payroll,” his government announced on X.

In a speech on Saturday, he warned Ugandan youth against the planned protests, alleging they were sponsored by foreigners.

“Some elements, some of them from the opposition, are always working with the foreigners to foment chaos in Uganda – riots, illegal demonstrations, illegal and inconsiderate processions, etc. These people … should check themselves or we shall have no alternative but to check them,” he said.
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US, Japan to hold security talks on July 28 

Posted on by SeeEA

TOKYO — Foreign and defense ministers from Japan and the United States will hold security talks in Japan on July 28 in an effort to push forward what U.S. President Joe Biden called a historic upgrade in the alliance.

The so-called “2+2” talks will cover extended deterrence, a term used to describe the U.S. commitment to use its nuclear and conventional forces to deter attacks on allies, Japan’s foreign ministry said on Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also hold a bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa during the visit, while U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will hold three-way talks with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea.

Tokyo and Washington in April announced a series of initiatives to strengthen their ties in what Biden called the most significant upgrade since the U.S.-Japan alliance, which was first signed in 1951, began.

These include efforts to deepen cooperation between defense industries and upgrade military command structures to improve coordination, as both countries look to deter regional threats they see emanating from China, North Korea and Russia.

“These historic 2+2 talks will cement our shift from a focus on Alliance protection to one of Alliance projection,” U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said.

“Through a transformation of the command structure of the United States forces in Japan, aligned with Japan’s own groundbreaking launch of its joint command next March, the Alliance will be ready and equipped to respond to the security challenges of the Indo-Pacific for decades to come.”
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US envoy to UN visits Haiti, reaffirms aid pledge amid security, humanitarian crisis

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Ukraine’s top diplomat to visit China this week to talk peace, Kyiv says

Posted on by SeeEU

KYIV/BEIJING — Ukraine’s top diplomat will visit China on Tuesday at the invitation of Beijing for talks that Kyiv said would focus on how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine and on a possible Chinese role in reaching a settlement.

Nearly 29 months since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will discuss bilateral ties at talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a trip to China from July 23 to 25, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.

“The main topic of discussion will be the search for ways to stop Russia’s aggression and China’s possible role in achieving a stable and just peace,” the Ukrainian ministry said in a statement on its website.

The Chinese statement said Kuleba’s visit would run from July 23 to 26 and provided less detail.

The trip is unusual as China is widely seen as close to the Kremlin, with which Beijing declared a “no limits” partnership in 2022 just days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Though the world’s second largest economy has not condemned the Russian invasion and helped keep Russia’s war economy afloat, Kyiv has been cautious in its criticism of Beijing.

China meanwhile says its ties with Russia are built on the basis of non-alliance and do not target any third party.

Various peace initiatives have emerged in recent months as the fighting has dragged on ahead of a U.S. election in November that could see the return to power of ex-president Donald Trump who has threatened to cut vital aid flows to Ukraine.

Kyiv held an international summit without Russian representation in Switzerland in June to promote its vision of peace and now says it hopes to be ready to hold another one in November that would feature Russian representation.

China, which did not attend the Swiss summit, together with Brazil published a separate six-point peace plan on May 23, saying they supported an international peace conference being held that would be recognized by both sides in the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that only the world’s powerful countries would be able to successfully bring an end to the war, singling out China as well as Kyiv’s close U.S. ally as two possibilities.

The Ukrainian leader has said that China should play a serious role in helping to resolve the war.
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New Yorkers React to Biden Exiting Presidential race

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Hours after 81-year-old President Joe Biden announced he was abandoning his bid for reelection and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the nomination, VOA spoke with Americans on the streets of New York about their reactions to the historic news.
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Flooding drives Liberia to mull capital city move

Posted on by SeeAF

Monrovia, Liberia — Severe flooding in Liberia has led a group of senators to propose relocating the capital city away from overcrowded and poorly managed Monrovia, a suggestion met with a mixture of enthusiasm and hesitancy in the West African country.

Flash floods triggered by torrential rains between the end of June and early July left nearly 50,000 Liberians in urgent need, the national disaster management agency said.

The flood-prone capital was particularly badly hit, owing in part to overpopulation, a poor sewage system, and a lack of building regulation.

Meeting to discuss the persistent flooding problem, a senate joint committee in early July suggested establishing a new city to replace Monrovia.

“It’s a good idea because our current capital city is a mess,” said Chris Kpewudu, a young motorbike driver in the capital.

“There is garbage all over the city and also when it rains, there is flooding everywhere, but with a new city, it will be well laid out and our capital city could look like, or more than, Abuja,” he added.

Nigeria’s Abuja is one of a handful of planned capital cities on the African continent.

Tanzania’s capital Dodoma and Yamoussoukro in Ivory Coast were also established as administrative capitals towards the end of the 20th century, with all three cities occupying geographically central positions in their respective countries.

Monrovia is home to 1.5 million people and lies on the Atlantic coast of Liberia, one of the poorest countries in the world.

The city is the economic, political, and cultural hub of the country, with the Freeport of Monrovia providing a gateway for Liberian exports including iron ore, rubber, and timber to reach the United States and Europe.

But the city’s poorly functioning infrastructure can barely keep up with its ever-expanding population.

The Ministry of Public Works told AFP it was carefully reviewing the proposal, adding that the the plan did not yet include an exact location for the move, and that any decision would come down to economic viability.

“Having a new city is capital-intensive,” said T. T. Benjamin Myers, the ministry’s communications director.

“As a country, our national budget is still around $600 million… so having a new city will require a lot of technical, financial, and economic factors to be seriously considered,” he added.

‘Not a quick fix’

The proposal to replace the capital is not a new one in Africa’s oldest republic.

In 2012, then-president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf suggested relocating Monrovia to a new city called Zekepa in the center of the country.

“We were all enthusiastic and looking forward to that,” Marayah Fyneah, the national program officer of the Liberian Women’s Legislative Caucus, told AFP.

“But unfortunately, we did not even see a plan to show what the city would look like,” she added.

Fyneah said she was skeptical that a new Liberian capital would ever materialize in her lifetime, given the failure of the previous attempt.

Some residents interviewed by AFP were also hesitant and said the government should first prioritize improving infrastructure and tackling poverty before searching for a new capital.

“Our lawmakers are forgetting the issues that we have on hand as a country. Even the city of Monrovia is poorly managed in terms of sanitation and a lot more,” said one commentator, the journalist Princess Elexa VanjahKollie.

Experts have also warned of the extensive urban planning needed to create a viable new capital.

“To establish a new city is not a quick fix,” Christopher Wallace, an economics lecturer at the University of Liberia, told AFP.

“You want to consider the economic activities that would make the economy vibrant in that area, and you must have done zoning to have a clear layout of what such a city will look like,” he added.
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Trial starts for Vietnam tycoon in $146 million graft case

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Hanoi, Vietnam — A former Vietnamese property and aviation tycoon charged with $146 million in fraud and stock market manipulation went on trial in Hanoi on Monday, the latest corruption case targeting the communist country’s business elite.

Trinh Van Quyet, who owned the FLC empire of luxury resorts, golf courses, and the budget Bamboo Airways, had nearly $2 billion in stock market wealth before his arrest, according to state media estimates.

But on Monday the 48-year-old, handcuffed and dressed in a white shirt, was led into court by police officers.

The trial comes just days after the death of former Communist Party of Vietnam leader Nguyen Phu Trong, who is credited with spearheading a crackdown on graft at the highest levels.

Trong, 80, died on Friday at a military hospital in Hanoi “due to old age and serious illness,” the party said, a day after announcing he was standing down to seek medical care.

Tycoon Quyet is accused of illegally pocketing more than $146 million between 2017 and 2022.

Following his arrest in March 2022, 49 other alleged accomplices were picked up, including his two sisters and the former chairman of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange and its chief executive officer.

According to the prosecution indictment, Quyet set up several stock market brokerages and registered dozens of family members to, ostensibly, trade shares.

But police said while orders to buy shares were placed in hundreds of trading sessions, pushing up the value of the stock, they were cancelled before being matched.

The case is part of a national corruption crackdown that has swept up numerous officials and members of Vietnam’s business elite in recent years.

In April, a top Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death in a $27 billion fraud case, launched an appeal against her conviction.

The head of one of Vietnam’s top soft drinks companies, meanwhile, was jailed for eight years in April in a $40 million fraud case.
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Philippines ‘to assert our rights’ after China sea deal

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Manila, Philippines — Manila insisted Monday it will continue to “assert our rights” over a hotspot South China Sea reef, after reaching a deal with Beijing for resupplying Filipino troops stationed on a grounded warship. 

The Philippine foreign ministry also rejected suggestions by China that the “provisional arrangement” announced Sunday required Manila to give Beijing “prior notification” and verification of deliveries to the BRP Sierra Madre on Second Thomas Shoal. 

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including Second Thomas Shoal, which lies about 200 kilometers from the western Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometers from China’s nearest major landmass, Hainan island. 

“The principles and approaches laid out in the agreement were reached through a series of careful and meticulous consultations between both sides that paved the way for a convergence of ideas without compromising national positions,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Teresita Daza said in a statement. 

“The (Chinese foreign ministry) spokesperson’s statement therefore regarding prior notification and on-site confirmation is inaccurate,” Daza said. 

Daza said the Philippines “will continue to assert our rights and jurisdiction in our maritime zones,” which included Second Thomas Shoal. 

The fish-rich shoal has been a focus of violent clashes between Chinese and Philippine ships in recent months as Beijing steps up efforts to push its claims to almost the entire South China Sea. 

A Filipino sailor lost a thumb in the latest June 17 confrontation when Chinese coast guard members wielding knives, sticks and an axe foiled a Philippine Navy attempt to resupply its troops. 

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Monday Beijing had agreed to an arrangement with the Philippines over Filipino resupply missions “based on our principled position” that the shoal was part of Chinese territory. 

“Should the Philippines need to send living necessities to the personnel living on the warship, China is willing to allow it in a humanitarian spirit if the Philippines informs China in advance and after on-site verification is conducted,” the spokesperson said. 

But it would “absolutely not accept” the delivery of large amounts of construction materials to the ship and attempts to “build fixed facilities or permanent outpost.” 

The resupply arrangement followed talks with Beijing this month when the countries agreed to “de-escalate tensions” and increase the number of communication channels to resolve maritime disagreements between them. 

A handful of Filipino troops are stationed on the decrepit BRP Sierra Madre that was deliberately grounded on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to assert Manila’s claims to the area. 

They require frequent resupplies for food, water and other necessities as well as transport for personnel rotations. 
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Biden’s decision to drop out crystalized Sunday; his staff knew one minute before the public did

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WASHINGTON — At 1:45 p.m. Sunday, President Joe Biden’s senior staff was notified that he was stepping away from the 2024 race. At 1:46 p.m., that message was made public.

It was never Biden’s intention to leave the race: Up until he decided to step aside Sunday, he was all in.

His campaign was planning fundraisers and events and setting up travel over the next few weeks. But even as Biden was publicly dug in and insisting he was staying in the race, he was quietly reflecting on the disaster of the past few weeks, on the past three years of his presidency and on the scope of his half-century career in politics.

In the end, it was the president’s decision alone, and he made it quietly, from his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, sick with COVID-19, the first lady with him as he talked it through with a small circle of people who have been with him for decades.

“This has got to be one of the hardest decisions he’s ever made,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., the president’s closest ally in Congress, who spoke with him Sunday. “I know he wanted to fight and keep going and show that he could beat Donald Trump again, but as he heard more and more input, I think he was wrestling with what would be the best for the country,” Coons said in an interview with The Associated Press.

This story is based on interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the president’s thinking over the past few weeks, days and hours as he made his decision. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to talk about private discussions.

Deciding to leave the race

It wasn’t until Saturday evening that Biden began to come to the conclusion that he would not run for reelection. He started writing a letter to the American people.

Biden had been off the campaign trail for a few days, isolated because of COVID-19, when it all started to deeply sink in — his worsening chances of being able to defeat Donald Trump with so much of his party in open rebellion, seeking to push him out of the race — not to mention the persistent voter concerns about his age that were only exacerbated by the catastrophic debate.

Biden was at his beach home with some of his and Jill Biden’s closest aides: chief strategist Mike Donilon, counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, White House deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal, senior adviser to the first lady.

By Sunday, his decision crystalized. He spoke multiple times with Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he would endorse. He informed White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, and his longtime aide and campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon.

A small group of senior advisers from both the campaign and the White House were assembled for the 1:45 p.m. call to relay Biden’s decision, while his campaign staff released the social media announcement one minute later.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.

Just about a half-hour later came his public vote of support for Harris. It was a carefully choreographed strategy meant to give the president’s initial statement full weight, and to put a period on the moment before launching forward into the next step.

“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” Biden said in another post on X. “Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump.”

About that debate

It’s not like things had been going great before the June 27 debate. In an August 2023 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, fully 77% of U.S. adults said Biden was too old to be effective for four more years. Not only did 89% of Republicans say that, but so did 69% of Democrats.

And it hadn’t gotten any better by April, when more than half of U.S. adults thought Biden’s presidency hurt the country on issues like the cost of living and immigration.

But Biden had insisted — to himself, to the nation, to his supporters — that he would be able to bring voters around if he got out there, told people about his record, explained it to them. Talked to them. Looked them in the eye.

He had a lifetime of experience that told him that if he stuck to it, he’d overcome. His campaign was so confident, in fact, that they arranged to go around the Commission on Presidential Debates to set up a series of faceoffs with Trump under a new set of rules.

That produced the June 27 debate that set Biden’s downfall in motion. Biden gave nonsensical answers, trailed off mid-sentence and appeared to stare blankly in front of an audience of 51 million people. Perhaps most distressing to other Democrats, Biden didn’t go after Trump’s myriad falsehoods about his involvement in the violence around the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, abortion rights or immigration.

Biden and his team blamed the night on so many different things. He had a cold. He was jet-lagged. He needed to get more sleep. That night opened the door for his party to push him out.

A slow acceptance

Publicly and privately Biden was fighting to stay in the race. He was working to convince voters that he was up for the task for another four years. He was frustrated by the Democrats coming out publicly against him, but even angrier about the leaks and anonymous sources relaying how even former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were working to get him to drop out.

It looked like he’d won out a couple times; the chorus of naysayers seemed to die down. He had some well-received speeches mixed with so-so TV interviews and a day featuring an extended news conference in which he displayed a nuanced grasp of policy but also committed a few gasp-inducing gaffes.

But the doubts didn’t go away.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer eventually invited top Biden staff to a meeting on July 11 to talk about their concerns. It didn’t go well. Senators expressed their concerns, and almost none of them said they had confidence in the president. But even afterward, Schumer was worried it wasn’t getting to Biden.

Following the meeting, Schumer called Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Obama. Schumer decided that day to request a meeting with Biden.

At a July 13 meeting in Rehoboth, Schumer told Biden he was there out of love and affection. And he delivered a personal appeal focused on Biden’s legacy, the country’s future and the impact the top of the ticket could have on congressional races — and how that could potentially affect the Supreme Court. That same day came the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

Schumer told the president he didn’t expect him to make an immediate decision, but he hoped Biden would think about what he said, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

Biden responded, “I need another week,” and the two men hugged.

Sunday’s decision

It was full steam ahead until Biden pulled the emergency brake.

The president had lost his voice, but he was recovering well and his doctor had sent an update to the public shortly before 1 p.m. on his condition. His small circle decided to post the statement on X on Sunday, rather than let it leak out for days before he was prepared to address the nation, which he is expected to do sometime early this week.

Much of his campaign was blindsided, and it was clear by how little had changed after he dropped out. For hours after the announcement, Biden’s campaign website reflected that he was still running and KamalaHarris.com still redirected to Biden’s page.

Even Harris’ statement announcing her intent to succeed Biden was sent from “Joe Biden for President.”

After the public announcement, Zients held a senior staff call, sent out an email and spoke with Biden’s cabinet. The president was also making personal calls.

“Team — I wanted to make sure you saw the attached letter from the President,” Zients wrote in the staff email. “I could not be more proud to work for President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the American people — alongside all of you, the best White House team in history. There’s so much more to do — and as President Biden says, ‘there is nothing America can’t do — when we do it together.'”

Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat who had called for Biden to bow out, was gardening with his wife when the news broke, and said he was momentarily “stunned.” Senators texted each other questioning if it was really happening.

Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal was at an event in his state, and there was spontaneous applause when it was announced to the crowd that Biden wouldn’t run, he said.

There was a sense of excitement and energy in the crowd “that has been completely lacking,” Blumenthal said.

“It was also, let’s be blunt, a sense of relief,” he said. “And a sense of reverence for Joe Biden.”

By Sunday evening, Biden for President had formally changed to Harris for President.

O’Malley Dillon told campaign staff their jobs were safe, because the operation was shifting to a campaign for Harris.
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Malawi orphanage provides shelter to vulnerable children

Posted on by SeeAF

In Malawi, according to the U.N.’s most recent numbers, over 15% of children under the age of 18 are orphans, due in part to the high prevalence of deaths from HIV and AIDS among caregivers. The Zoe Foundation is trying to give these at-risk children a future. Reporting from Ndodani village in Lilongwe, Malawi, Chimwemwe Padatha has more.
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Sudan, Iran trade ambassadors after 8-year rupture

Posted on by SeeAF

Port Sudan, Sudan — Sudan’s de facto leader, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, received an Iranian ambassador Sunday and sent his own to Tehran, the government said, cementing a rapprochement after an eight-year rupture.

Sudan and Iran agreed last October to resume diplomatic relations, as the army-aligned government scrambled for allies during its war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). 

The Sudanese government, loyal to the army in its 15-month fight against the RSF, announced in a statement that Burhan had received Tehran’s new ambassador Hassan Shah Hosseini in Port Sudan. 

The Red Sea city has become Sudan’s de facto seat of government since Khartoum became wracked by fighting. 

This is “the beginning of a new phase in the course of bilateral relations between the two countries,” foreign ministry undersecretary Hussein al-Amin said as Burhan sent off Sudan’s new ambassador to Iran, Abdelaziz Hassan Saleh. 

Sudan broke off relations with Iran in 2016 in a show of solidarity with Saudi Arabia, after the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran was attacked following the Saudi execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. 

Several Saudi allies in the region also cut ties with Iran at the time. 

In March 2023, however, Riyadh and Tehran announced the restoration of their relations following an agreement brokered by China. 

Iran has since moved to cement or restore relations with neighboring Arab countries.  

Since Sudan’s war began in April 2023, several foreign powers have supported rival forces.  

In December, Sudan expelled diplomats from the United Arab Emirates on allegations that the Gulf state was funneling weapons to the RSF. 

The UAE has denied taking sides in the conflict. 

Egypt and Turkey have backed the army. 

The United States in February voiced concern at reported arms shipments by Washington’s foe Iran to Sudan’s military. 

Around that time, the army recovered some territory after months of defeats at the hands of the RSF. 

Sudan has also recently drawn closer to Russia, which experts say has reconsidered its previous relationship with the RSF, with which it had links through the mercenary Wagner group. 

Sudan under former strongman Omar al-Bashir, who was toppled in 2019, developed close relations with Iran’s clerical state. 

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates placing the death toll as high as 150,000, according to the U.S. envoy to Sudan, Tom Perriello. 

It has also created the world’s worst displacement crisis — with more than 11 million uprooted, according to the United Nations — and brought the country to the brink of famine. 
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Outrage after Italy reporter attacked at neo-fascist event 

Posted on by SeeEU

Rome — Italian politicians including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed outrage Sunday after a journalist was beaten up in the northern city of Turin by suspected neo-fascists. 

On Saturday night, the reporter for La Stampa daily came upon by chance a party being held by the neo-fascist fringe group CasaPound, involving smoke bombs and fireworks. He started filming with his phone. 

According to his footage and an account by the newspaper, a group of men came up to him and asked, “Are you one of us?” Then they attacked him, causing him to require hospital treatment. 

Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, offered her solidarity with the journalist, Andrea Joly, over the “unacceptable attack.”  

It was “an act of violence that I strongly condemn and for which I hope those responsible will be identified as quickly as possible,” she said in a statement. 

Elly Schlein, leader of the center-left opposition Democratic Party, also offered her solidarity with Joly and condemned a “climate of impunity.” 

“What else are we waiting for before neo-fascist organizations are dissolved, as the constitution says?” she asked. 

The attack was one of two incidents of random violence that made headlines this weekend in Italy, after a shocking video emerged of two gay men being beaten up by three men and a woman in Rome. 

That attack also drew condemnation from across the political spectrum.  

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Sunday deplored “too much violence and intolerance in Italy against those who do not think like you,” writing on X, formerly Twitter, that he “strongly condemned any violence.”
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Austrian police detain 53 protesters trying to disrupt march by far-right extremists

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Berlin, Germany — Police said Sunday that they detained more than 50 people as they clashed with protesters trying to disrupt a march by hundreds of right-wing extremists in the Austrian capital.

The demonstrations Saturday came as Austria’s political parties gear up for September parliamentary elections that are expected to see the far-right make significant gains.

Anti-fascist groups and left-leaning political parties had called for protests against a demonstration and march by identitarian and other hard-right activists, the Austrian Press Agency reported. Social media posts showed marchers in downtown Vienna with a banner calling for “remigration,” a term used to advocate for the mass return of migrants to their countries of origin.

Hundreds of officers were deployed to keep apart the opposing groups — each several hundred strong. Forty-three people were temporarily detained for refusing to end a sit-down protest blocking the march, APA reported, citing city police.

A further 10 were detained after some masked protesters threw rocks and bottles. Three officers were injured, and the windows of a patrol car smashed, police said.

Interior Minister Gehard Karner, a conservative, said police would prosecute offenses, including during demonstrations, “whether they are committed by left- or right-wing extremists or other enemies of democracy.”

Austria goes to the polls on Sept. 29 for elections expected to confirm a recent pan-European trend by swinging toward the political right. The far-right Freedom Party narrowly beat the conservative People’s Party in recent elections to the European Parliament.

Politicians from left-leaning parties including the Greens — the conservatives’ current coalition partner — and the opposition Social Democrats warn that a government that includes the Freedom Party would embolden right-wing radicals.

“They want nothing other than the end of our pluralistic democratic society,” said Eva Blimlinger, a spokesperson for the Greens. 
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