Month: July 2024

Florida zoo works to protect animals from summer heat 

Posted on by SeeUS

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Malayan tigers and Aldabra tortoises are native to hot and humid lands, but that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy a frozen treat on a hot Florida summer day.

Temperatures in South Florida this month have reached the upper 90s Fahrenheit (mid-30s Celsius) with humidity reaching 70%, combining for “feels like” temperatures regularly exceeding 100 F (38 C).

Staff at the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society use a variety of techniques to keep their animals cool. Zookeepers throw large piles of ice into the black bear enclosure for the animals to wallow in, chilling their pool to 23 C. The otters get ice blocks and frozen fish tossed into their water for playing and eating.

Tigers feast on more ingenious treats: They get frozen cow bones crammed into blocks of ice, along with a side of frozen goat milk. The big cats also like to swim.

Giant tortoises, native to the islands of the Indian Ocean, enjoy cool showers from a hose, which they can feel through their shells.

“Even though all of our animals are acclimatized to the South Florida weather, they look for ways to cool off during the hot days, just like we do,” said Mike Terrell, the zoo’s curator of animal experiences. “All of our animals that we have here at the zoo were specifically chosen because they’re used to warm climates. And so they’re totally happy in a high, high heat, high humidity environment.”

The zoo’s guests love to watch the animals cool down and children press their faces up against the glass for a better look, Terrell said.

Figuring out what cooling activities the animals enjoy requires a bit of trial and error, he said.

“They really tell us what they like,” Terrell said. “We can take our best guess, but if we’re giving them something that they don’t like or they’re not interacting with, we’re not going to continue to give it to them.”
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Unregistered Senegal youth struggle for legal status

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Dakar — It was only when 12-year-old Senegalese schoolboy Lassou Samb prepared to sit his end-of-year exams that his lack of any legal documentation finally caught up with him.

Like many young people in the West African country, Samb was never registered at birth, an oversight with potentially profound consequences for his education.

Hundreds of thousands of Senegalese pupils are sitting exams until Wednesday to mark the end of their school year.

But Samb almost did not take the test needed to move onto the next grade because he lacked the required birth certificate.

Every year, the exam period highlights a major failure to register births, not just in Senegal but across Africa.

Of the more than 300,000 students registered for the end of elementary school exams, almost 70,000 had no civil status documents, the examinations department said.

The issue has potentially serious consequences ranging from the protection of rights, access to public services and government policy planning.

Samb, one of six children born in a village in central Senegal, was the only one in his family not to be registered.

“Our (school) director often calls me into his office to remind me that I haven’t brought my birth certificate yet, but I don’t know what to tell him,” he said.

Samb “was born with a fractured hand at a time when things were hard for us,” said his father Malick, a factory worker.

“The priority then was to treat him.”

Like previous administrations, Senegal’s new government this year ignored the rule requiring a birth certificate for exams and allowed children to sit them without.

Unregistered children

“There is no question of sacrificing these children twice,” said Moussa Bala Fofana, Minister for Local and Regional Authorities. 

“Firstly by not declaring them at birth, and secondly by preventing them from sitting their exams because they have no papers, even though they have nothing to do with it,” he said.

While 98 percent of births are registered in Europe, the number stands at just 44 percent in Africa, according to a 2024 WHO report.

More than half of the world’s unregistered children live in Africa, totaling around 91 million, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said in 2022.

Birth registration is a critical first step in access to healthcare, education and justice, and is also an essential tool in government planning for public health and development.

But long distances to registry offices, a lack of knowledge, local customs and, in some countries, discriminatory practices and fees can prevent parents from registering a birth, UNICEF said.

Some parents neglect or ignore the importance of birth certificates even though they have up to a year to register their child free of charge, said Aliou Ousmane Sall, Director of Senegal’s national civil status agency.

After this deadline, a court has to authorize the registration and parents must pay a fee of 4,000 CFA francs ($7).

Fraud

Obtaining a birth certificate can take several years due to the difficulty of accessing the necessary services, obsolete equipment and poorly trained officials.

“For most of our African countries, we had to make a transition from the colonial state to the post-colonial state,” said Oumar Ba, president of the country’s mayors’ association.

“As a result, many measures were not taken in time. Our states inherited a civil registry that was not well structured,” he added. 

The shortfalls are conducive to fraud, with concerns about identification number trafficking widespread in Senegal.

Seydina Aidara, 23, said he was about to sit his final high school exams when he discovered that his civil registration number had been stolen, preventing him from taking the test.

For Lassou Samb, a birth certificate would later allow him to get an identity card, passport or driving license.

But his father said that despite his efforts, he had not been able to complete the registration process.

The government has launched a plan to modernize and digitize the civil registry in a bid to improve access and minimize fraud.

Nineteen million records have already been digitized, said Sall, of the national civil status agency.

“With this program, the problems will soon be over,” he said.
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Five things to know about Turkey’s interests in Africa

Posted on by SeeAF

Istanbul — Turkey is pushing for diplomatic and economic influence on the world stage — not least in Africa, where it announced plans this week to search for oil and gas off Somalia.

Over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s two decades in power, Ankara has consolidated its foothold on the continent, quadrupling its number of embassies there.

Here are five of Turkey’s diplomatic and economic interests and strategies in Africa:

‘Alternative to the West’

At a time when many African countries are turning away from their former colonial rulers, Turkey has looked to fill the void left behind.

“Erdogan presents himself as an alternative to the West,” said Selin Gucum, author of a study on Turkish interests in Africa for Paris’s Observatory of Contemporary Turkey.

Gucum told AFP that Ankara often emphasizes the “sincerity” of its presence on the continent compared to that of Europeans, who bear the legacy of colonialism.

And Erdogan can be less squeamish about what partners he chooses, according to a report on Turkey’s defense accords with African countries by Teresa Nogueira Pinto, an analyst at Geopolitical Intelligence Services.

“Unlike the West, Turkey does not make this assistance conditional on governance or human rights commitments,” Pinto wrote.

Defense and security

Turkey has signed defense agreements with a number of states spanning the breadth of the continent, including Somalia, Libya, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Ghana.

Those agreements have opened up contracts for Turkey’s defense manufacturers, notably for its reputedly reliable and inexpensive drones.

Popularly used in the fight against terrorism, Turkish drones have been recently delivered to Chad, Togo, and the junta-led Sahel trio of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Fossil fuels and nuclear

Turkey is also expanding its interests in Africa’s energy sector.

In September or October it plans to launch an oil and gas exploration mission off the coast of Somalia, similar to the one it is carrying out in Libyan waters.

Ankara is also said to be coveting Niger’s abundant uranium deposits which it needs to operate its future Russian-built Akkuyu nuclear power station — although Ankara’s diplomats deny this.

Nonetheless, Erdogan has bolstered ties with Niger’s ruling generals since their 2023 coup d’etat. Niamey received Turkey’s intelligence chief and foreign, energy and defence ministers on Wednesday.

Infrastructure and construction

Ankara is generally seen as a “reliable partner”, said Didier Billion, Turkey specialist at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs — “particularly in the construction and infrastructure sectors.”

When Turkish companies build big-ticket projects like hospitals, airports, or mosques, “deadlines and budgets are met, he added.

That reputation means more demand: in 2023, Turkish contractors were involved in $85.5 billion worth of projects, according to the trade ministry.

Turkish Airlines also crisscrosses the continent, flying to 62 destinations in Africa.

In 2012, it became the first airline to return to Mogadishu, whose airport was rebuilt with Turkish funding and assistance.

Religion, schools and television

Turkey has accumulated considerable soft power in the region, notably through education, the media and its shared religion with Africa’s many Muslim countries.

The religious Turkish Maarif Foundation has expanded to a network of 140 schools and institutions catering for 17,000 pupils, while 60,000 Africans are students in Turkey.

Ankara’s powerful Directorate of Religious Affairs has stepped up its humanitarian activities and support for mosques and religious education across the region.

Billing itself as the first Turkish television channel on the continent, NRT boasts on its website that it serves 49 African countries, spreading the Turkish language.

Public broadcaster TRT also has programs in French, English, Swahili and Hausa and is developing training courses for future journalists. 

Turkey’s religious conservatism likewise resonates with many African countries, at a time when anti-LGBTQ laws are being adopted on the continent.

“When Erdogan denounces ‘LGBTQ people who undermine family values’, for many Africans, that’s music to their ears,” Billion said.
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Zelenskyy calls for long-range weapons after drone attack on Kyiv

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KYIV — Ukraine needs long-range weapons to protect its cities and troops on the frontline from Russian bombs and drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday after a massive overnight drone and missile attack.

Russia launched its fifth drone attack on Kyiv in two weeks overnight, with Ukraine’s air defense systems destroying all the air weapons before they reached the capital, Ukraine’s military said.

Ukraine’s air force said on Telegram that its air defense systems destroyed 35 of the 39 drones and two cruise missiles that Russia had launched overnight. The weapons, the air force said, targeted 10 of Ukraine’s regions.

It was not immediately clear how many drones were launched at Kyiv. There were no casualties and no significant damage reported, Serhiy Popko, head of the Ukrainian capital’s military administration, said on the Telegram.

“During last night alone, the Russian army used almost 40 ‘Shaheds’ against Ukraine. Importantly, most of them were shot down by our defenders of the sky,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram, referring to the drones.

He said it was necessary to destroy Russian bombers at Russian air bases to protect Ukraine from air raids.

“Our sufficient long-range capabilities should be a fair response to Russian terror. Everyone who supports us in this supports the defence against terror,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy renewed his call for Western allies to allow long-range strikes on Russia on Friday in London, saying Britain should try to convince its partners to remove the limits on their use.

NATO members have taken different approaches to how Ukraine can use weapons they donate. Some have made clear Kyiv can use them to strike targets inside Russia while the United States has taken a narrower approach, allowing its weapons to be used only just inside Russia’s border against targets supporting Russian military operations in Ukraine.

Russia launched three Iskander ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s air force said, without saying what happened to them.

The military administration of the Sumy region in Ukraine’s northeast bordering Russia said on Telegram that a Russian missile damaged critical infrastructure in the Shostkynskyi district of the region.

The administration did not provide detail on what infrastructure was hit.

There was no immediate comment from Russia about the attacks. Moscow says it does not attack civilian targets in Ukraine.

“These systematic attacks … with drones, once again prove that the invader is actively looking for an opportunity to strike Kyiv,” Popko said. “They’re testing new tactics, looking for new approach routes to the capital, trying to expose the location of our air defense.”
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Taiwan must protect its sovereignty, know its own history, president says

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taipei, taiwan — Taiwan must protect its sovereignty and know its own culture and history, President Lai Ching-te said on Sunday, rejecting what he said was the previous mistaken belief the island could serve as a base to “retake” China.   

Lai, who took office in May, and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party, champion Taiwan’s separate identity from China, a position that frequently angers Beijing which views the island as an inviolable part of Chinese territory.   

Speaking to the DPP’s annual convention, Lai said those who fought to bring democracy to Taiwan — martial law only ended in 1987 — had a clear understanding of the island’s place in the world.   

They “did not hesitate to shed blood and used their lives to debunk the mistaken idea that ‘Taiwan is a base to retake the mainland’, and instituted the national policy of putting Taiwan first,” said Lai, who is also DPP chairman. 

Chiang Kai-shek and his defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists. 

Chiang hoped to regroup his forces on Taiwan and attack China to destroy Mao’s People’s Republic of China. Chiang died in 1975 without achieving that dream. 

Lai said Taiwan had different priorities. 

“Now, our responsibility to unite the people, oppose annexation [by China] and ensure national sovereignty,” he said, speaking in Taiwanese, also known as Hokkien, rather than the main language of government, Mandarin. 

“We must do our best to let the whole country’s people understand Taiwan’s own history and culture, and establish a national identity that the 23 million people living in Taiwan are a community of destiny,” he added. 

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not answer calls seeking comment outside of office hours on Sunday. China calls Lai a “separatist.” 

Lai rejects China’s sovereignty claims saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future. He has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but been rebuffed. 

China staged war games shortly after Lai’s inauguration, and has continued to send warplanes and warships around Taiwan on a daily basis.   

Taiwan starts is annual Han Kuang war games on Monday, which this year aim to be as close as possible to actual combat. 

Lai said the DPP will always adhere to a democratic and free constitutional system.  

“We will never allow Taiwan to suffer the danger of extinction due to the failure of democratic politics,” he added. 
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With AI, jets and police, Paris is securing Olympics — and worrying critics

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paris — A year ago, the head of the Paris Olympics boldly declared that France’s capital would be ” the safest place in the world ” when the Games open this Friday. Tony Estanguet’s confident forecast looks less far-fetched now with squadrons of police patrolling Paris’ streets, fighter jets and soldiers primed to scramble, and imposing metal-fence security barriers erected like an iron curtain on both sides of the River Seine that will star in the opening show.

France’s vast police and military operation is in large part because the July 26-August 11 Games face unprecedented security challenges. The city has repeatedly suffered deadly extremist attacks, and international tensions are high because of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Rather than build an Olympic park with venues grouped together outside of the city center, like Rio de Janeiro in 2016 or London in 2012, Paris has chosen to host many of the events in the heart of the bustling capital of 2 million inhabitants, with others dotted around suburbs that house millions more. Putting temporary sports arenas in public spaces and the unprecedented choice to stage a river-borne opening ceremony stretching for kilometers along the Seine, makes safeguarding them more complex.

Olympic organizers also have cyberattack concerns, while rights campaigners and Games critics are worried about Paris’ use of AI-equipped surveillance technology and the broad scope and scale of Olympic security.

Paris, in short, has a lot riding on keeping 10,500 athletes and millions of visitors safe. Here’s how it aims to do it.

The security operation, by the numbers

A Games-time force of up to 45,000 police and gendarmes is also backed up by a 10,000-strong contingent of soldiers that has set up the largest military camp in Paris since World War II, from which soldiers should be able to reach any of the city’s Olympic venues within 30 minutes.

Armed military patrols aboard vehicles and on foot have become common in crowded places in France since gunmen and suicide bombers acting in the names of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group repeatedly struck Paris in 2015. They don’t have police powers of arrest but can tackle attackers and restrain them until police arrive. For visitors from countries where armed street patrols aren’t the norm, the sight of soldiers with assault rifles might be jarring, just as it was initially for people in France.

“At the beginning, it was very strange for them to see us and they were always avoiding our presence, making a detour,” said General Eric Chasboeuf, deputy commander of the counter-terror military force, called Sentinelle.

“Now, it’s in the landscape,” he said.

Rafale fighter jets, airspace-monitoring AWACS surveillance flights, Reaper surveillance drones, helicopters that can carry sharpshooters, and equipment to disable drones will police Paris skies, which will be closed during the opening ceremony by a no-fly zone extending for 150 kilometers (93.2 miles) around the capital. Cameras twinned with artificial intelligence software — authorized by a law that expands the state’s surveillance powers for the Games — will flag potential security risks, such as abandoned packages or crowd surges.

France is also getting help from more than 40 countries that, together, have sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements.

Trump assassination attempt highlights Olympic risks

Attacks by lone individuals are major concern, a risk driven home most recently to French officials by the assassination attempt against former U.S. President and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Some involved in the Olympic security operation were stunned that the gunman armed with an AR-style rifle got within range of the former president.

“No one can guarantee that there won’t be mistakes. There, however, it was quite glaring,” said General Philippe Pourque, who oversaw the construction of a temporary camp in southeast Paris housing 4,500 soldiers from the Sentinelle force.

In France, in the last 13 months alone, men acting alone have carried out knife attacks that targeted tourists in Paris, and children in a park in an Alpine town, among others. A man who stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school in northern France in October had been under surveillance by French security services for suspected Islamic radicalization.

With long and bitter experience of deadly extremist attacks, France has armed itself with a dense network of police units, intelligence services and investigators who specialize in fighting terrorism, and suspects in terrorism cases can be held longer for questioning.

Hundreds of thousands of background checks have scrutinized Olympic ticket-holders, workers and others involved in the Games and applicants for passes to enter Paris’ most tightly controlled security zone, along the Seine’s banks. The checks blocked more than 3,900 people from attending, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. He said some were flagged for suspected Islamic radicalization, left- or right-wing political extremism, significant criminal records and other security concerns.

“We’re particularly attentive to Russian and Belorussian citizens,” Darmanin added, although he stopped short of linking exclusions to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Belarus’ role as an ally of Moscow.

Darmanin said 155 people considered to be “very dangerous” potential terror threats are also being kept away from the opening ceremony and the Games, with police searching their homes for weapons and computers in some cases.

He said intelligence services haven’t identified any proven terror plots against the Games “but we are being extremely attentive.”

Critics fear intrusive Olympic security will stay after Games

Campaigners for digital rights worry that Olympic surveillance cameras and AI systems could erode privacy and other freedoms, and zero in on people without fixed homes who spend a lot of time in public spaces.

Saccage 2024, a group that has campaigned for months against the Paris Games, took aim at the scope of the Olympic security, describing it as a “repressive arsenal” in a statement to The Associated Press.

“And this is not a French exception, far from it, but a systematic occurrence in host countries,” it said. “Is it reasonable to offer one month of ‘festivities’ to the most well-off tourists at the cost of a long-term securitization legacy for all residents of the city and the country?”
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Australia warns of ‘malicious websites’ after cyber outage

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sydney — Australia’s cyber intelligence agency said on Saturday that “malicious websites and unofficial code” were being released online claiming to aid recovery from Friday’s global digital outage, which hit media, retailers, banks and airlines. 

Australia was one of many countries affected by the outage that caused havoc worldwide after a botched software update from CrowdStrike. 

On Saturday, the Australian Signals Directorate — the country’s cyber intelligence agency — said “a number of malicious websites and unofficial code are being released claiming to help entities recover from the widespread outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident.” 

On its website, the agency said its cyber security center “strongly encourages all consumers to source their technical information and updates from official CrowdStrike sources only.” 

Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil said on social media platform X on Saturday that Australians should “be on the lookout for possible scams and phishing attempts.” 

CrowdStrike — which previously reached a market cap of about $83 billion — is a major cybersecurity provider, with close to 30,000 subscribers globally. 
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Belarus in talks with Berlin about German man on death row

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Warsaw, Poland — Belarus and Germany are holding “consultations” over the fate of a German man reportedly sentenced to death by a court in Minsk last month, Belarus’s foreign ministry said Saturday. 

Rico Krieger, 30, was convicted under six articles of Belarus’s criminal code including “terrorism” and “mercenary activity” at a secretive trial held at the end of June, according to Belarusian rights group Viasna. 

“Taking into account a request from the German Foreign Ministry, Belarus has proposed concrete solutions on the available options for developing the situation,” Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anatoly Glaz said. 

“The foreign ministries of the two countries are holding consultations on this topic,” he added. 

Few details have been published about the case. 

Part of the court proceedings were held behind closed doors, the exact allegations against the man were not immediately clear and there has been little information in Belarusian state media about the trial. 

According to a LinkedIn profile that Viasna said belonged to Krieger, he worked as a medic for the German Red Cross and had previously been employed as an armed security officer for the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. 

A source at the German Foreign Ministry told AFP on Friday that it and the embassy in Minsk were “providing the person in question with consular services and are making intensive representations to the Belarusian authorities on his behalf.” 

The source added that “the death penalty is a cruel and inhuman form of punishment that Germany rejects under all circumstances.” 

Belarus is reported to have executed as many as 400 people since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, according to Amnesty International.  

But executions of foreign citizens are rare.  

The country is run as an authoritarian regime by long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko, who has detained thousands of dissidents and civic activists who oppose him. 
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Vietnam to hold state funeral for communist party leader Trong next week

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hanoi, vietnam — Vietnam will hold a state funeral next week for Nguyen Phu Trong, the leader of its ruling Communist Party who died Friday, the government said on Saturday.

There will be two days of national mourning July 25-26, a government statement said, with the state funeral the second day. During the mourning period there will be no public entertainment and flags at offices and other public places will fly at half-staff, it said.

Trong, 80, died after holding Vietnam’s most powerful position for 13 years, overseeing fast economic growth, a years-long anti-graft crackdown and a pragmatic foreign policy.

His duties have been temporarily assigned to President To Lam, a rising star within the party who could further consolidate his powers if he is allowed to keep the two roles.

The government statement called Trong’s death a huge loss to the party, the state, the Vietnamese people and his family.

“After nearly 60 years of work, Trong has made many great and especially outstanding contributions to the glorious revolutionary cause of the Party and the nation,” it added.

During his time as party head Trong had pursued a pragmatic foreign policy, including nurturing ties with the United States.

Foreign leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, have sent condolences to the people of Vietnam and his family, according to a statement from the Communist Party of Vietnam.
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Ugandan leader says anti-corruption protesters ‘playing with fire’

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Kampala, Uganda — Ugandan protesters who said they would press ahead with a banned anti-corruption march on Tuesday are “playing with fire,” the country’s president warned.  

“Some elements have been planning illegal demonstrations, riots,” President Yoweri Museveni said in a televised address late Saturday.  

Museveni has ruled the East African country with an iron fist since 1986. 

He said the protesters included “elements working for foreign interests,” without elaborating. 

Earlier Saturday, Ugandan police had informed organizers that it would not permit the planned protest in the capital, Kampala, as authorities had intelligence that “some elements were trying to take advantage of the demonstration to cause chaos in the country.” 

“Demonstrations can only be allowed under our mandate as long as they are not causing public disorder and disrupting lives of lawful citizens,” Ugandan police operations director Frank Mwesigwa told AFP. 

The protest organizers told AFP they would press on with the demonstration. 

“We don’t need police permission to carry out a peaceful demonstration,” one of the main protest leaders, Louez Aloikin Opolose, said Saturday. “It is our constitutional right.” 

The protesters hope to take the march past parliament, which they accuse of tolerating corruption. 

“Our starting point in the fight against corruption is parliament … and the demonstration is on irrespective of what police is saying,” protester Shamim Nambasa said. 

The NGO Transparency International ranks Uganda low on its corruption perceptions index. With the least corrupt countries ranking highest, Uganda comes in at 141 on the list of 180 countries. 

The anti-corruption protesters have been keeping track of the sometimes deadly demonstrations that have shaken neighboring Kenya for more than a month. 

The Kenyan protests, which began as peaceful rallies against controversial tax hikes, turned into a wider anti-government campaign, with disgruntled activists also seeking action against corruption and alleged police brutality. 

At least 50 people have been killed and 413 injured since the demonstrations began on June 18, according to the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. 
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Azerbaijan’s president vows to help French territories secure independence

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SHUSHA, Azerbaijan — Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pledged Saturday to help France’s overseas territories secure independence, the latest in a series of incidents pitting his ex-Soviet state against Paris over long-running conflicts in the Caucasus region. 

Aliyev accuses France of interfering in its affairs over its contacts with Armenia, against which it has waged two wars in 30 years linked to disputes over Baku’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. 

In recent months, Azerbaijani leaders have focused on France’s South Pacific territory of New Caledonia, gripped by weeks of violence over the objections of Indigenous Kanak activists to a contentious electoral reform. 

Aliyev made his latest comments at a media forum days before the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris and just after the staging in Baku of a congress bringing together pro-independence groups from New Caledonia and other French territories. 

“We will support you until you are free,” Aliyev told the forum, citing French territories that he said were still subject to colonialism. 

“Some countries are still suffering from this. The Comoros islands, Mayotte are still under colonial rule. It has been our duty to help these countries liberate themselves from this revolting remnant from the past.” 

Accusations of meddling

Earlier this week, an “initiative group” staged a congress in Baku attended by pro-independence groups from New Caledonia and other French territories, including Corsica and Caribbean and Pacific islands. 

French media accounts of the meeting said participants sharply criticized French authorities and an Azerbaijani delegation was invited to visit New Caledonia. 

France accused Azerbaijan in May of meddling and abetting unrest in New Caledonia by flooding social media with what it said were misleading photos and videos targeting French police. 

Azerbaijan has denied the allegations. 

Azerbaijani authorities accuse France of bias in favor of Armenia in efforts to achieve a peace treaty to end three decades of conflict and in signing defense contracts with authorities in Yerevan. Azerbaijan expelled two French diplomats last December. 
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US urges travelers to avoid Bangladesh amid civil unrest

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washington — The U.S. State Department said on Saturday it has raised Bangladesh’s travel advisory to level four, which urges people to not travel to the Asian country because of what Washington described as “civil unrest” amid ongoing protests.

The State Department also said it authorized the voluntary departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees and family members in Bangladesh. A day earlier, the department had urged people to reconsider travel to the country.

Why it’s important

Massive protests have broken out in Bangladesh over student anger against quotas.

Police have fired tear gas to scatter protesters in some areas while the government has banned public gatherings, imposed communications restrictions, deployed the army in some parts and imposed a curfew. Dozens have been killed in the past week.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the government would form a judicial committee to investigate the killings of protesters.

Key quotes

“Travelers should not travel to Bangladesh due to ongoing civil unrest in Dhaka. Demonstrations and violent clashes have been reported throughout the city of Dhaka, its neighboring areas, and throughout Bangladesh,” the State Department said in a statement.

“Due to the security situation, there may be a delay in provision of routine consular services,” it added.

The State Department also said that due to security concerns, U.S. Embassy personnel in Bangladesh are subject to some movement and travel restrictions, which could limit their ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Bangladesh.

Reaction

The United States and Canada have called on Bangladesh to uphold the right to peaceful protest and expressed concern over violence that has occurred in the country in recent days.

Context

Students have protested over public sector job quotas, which include a 30% reservation for family members of fighters from the 1971 War of Independence from Pakistan.

The quotas have caused anger among students who face high youth unemployment rates, with nearly 32 million young Bangladeshis not working or in school out of a total population of 170 million people.
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Experts discuss effects of indictment of former CIA analyst as South Korea secret agent

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washington — The indictment of a former CIA analyst who allegedly worked for the South Korean government — and the abrupt resignation of the top U.S. envoy for North Korea — will not affect the coordination between Washington and Seoul in dealing with Pyongyang’s threats, said former U.S. officials who dealt extensively with relations between the United States and South Korea.

Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst and prominent North Korea expert, has been indicted by a New York grand jury on charges of secretly working for the South Korean government, serving as a secret agent for South Korea’s main intelligence agency in exchange for luxury goods, expensive meals and $37,000 for a public policy program that she controlled, according to an indictment unsealed last week.

Damning indictment

Terry served in the U.S. government from 2001 to 2011, first as a CIA analyst and later as the deputy national intelligence officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council, before working for think tanks.

Terry is a well-known North Korea expert with a prominent media presence. News of her indictment rattled North Korea experts in Seoul and Washington.

“At the direction of ROK government officials, Terry advocated ROK policy positions, including in published articles and during media appearances, disclosed nonpublic U.S. government information to ROK intelligence officers, and facilitated access for ROK government officials to U.S. government officials,” according to the indictment, which was released Wednesday. ROK refers to the Republic of Korea or South Korea.

Prosecutors say Terry never registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent. She faces two counts, one for failing to register under the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act and the other for conspiring to violate it.

Abrupt resignation

The indictment of Terry followed the abrupt resignation earlier this month of Jung Pak, the U.S. senior official for North Korea, who oversaw North Korean affairs at the U.S. State Department.

A State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Korean Service via email on July 9 that Pak “stepped down from her duties as U.S. senior official for the DPRK and deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs on July 5.”

DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

The indictment and the resignation come as North Korea escalates tensions on the Korean Peninsula while Washington is enhancing security cooperation with Seoul.

U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met on July 11 on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington. They reaffirmed their commitments to the Washington Declaration, which is designed to reinforce U.S. extended deterrence to South Korea in response to North Korea’s advancing nuclear threats.

US-ROK ties

Some South Korean news media outlets raised concerns that the indictment of Terry could affect overall ties between the U.S. and South Korea.

Former U.S. officials say these are separate events that are unlikely to affect the joint efforts by the U.S. and South Korea in addressing the North Korean issues.

Susan Thornton, who served as acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs during the Trump administration, told VOA’s Korean Service via email Friday that she doesn’t believe there would be any disruption to the U.S.-South Korea bilateral coordination.

“Sue Mi Terry is not in the government and the position of DPRK special representative was created to focus on negotiations with North Korea, which do not appear likely any time soon,” Thornton said.

“The two governments currently have ample channels for regular coordination on DPRK threats through the Departments of State, Defense, U.S. forces in Korea and the National Security Council, among others,” she added.

“I will say that I foresee no reduction in cooperation and coordination between the U.S. and South Korea, especially in the combined military relationship,” said Harry Harris, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea during the Trump administration, in an email to VOA’s Korean Service on Friday.

Close coordination

The U.S. dismissed the concerns over the possible friction with one of its closest allies in the world.

“We will continue to consult closely with the Republic of Korea, Japan and other allies and partners about how to best engage the DPRK, deter aggression and coordinate international responses to the DPRK’s violations of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Korean Service in a written statement Friday, referring to South Korea by its official name.

The spokesperson said that the vacancy of the U.S. official, who would solely cover the North Korean affairs, will not affect the U.S. policy toward North Korea.

“EAP Assistant Secretary Dan Kritenbrink is currently overseeing DPRK policy for the Department of State. Ambassador Julie Turner continues to serve as special envoy on North Korean Human Rights,” the spokesperson said. EAP is the State Department’s term for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

Seoul also stressed that South Korea and the U.S. are cooperating and maintaining close communication at various levels related to North Korea policy.

“The director of the Korean Peninsula Policy Bureau continues to serve as the special representative for North Korea and communicates closely with the U.S. counterpart, and the Director of Diplomatic Strategy and Intelligence Division is discussing issues that require high-level consultations,” a spokesperson for the South Korean foreign ministry told VOA’s Korean Service via email Friday.
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Trump campaign releases letter on shooting injury, treatment

Posted on by SeeUS

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s campaign released an update on the former president’s health on Saturday, one week after he survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The memo, from Texas Representative Ronny Jackson, who served as Trump’s White House physician, offers new details about the Republican GOP nominee’s injuries and the treatment he received in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

Jackson said Trump sustained a gunshot wound to the right ear from a high-powered rifle that came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head and struck the top of his right ear.”

The bullet track, he said, “produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear. There was initially significant bleeding, followed by marked swelling of the entire upper ear.”

While the swelling has since resolved and the wound is beginning to heal properly, Jackson said Trump is experiencing intermittent bleeding, requiring the dressing that was on display at last week’s Republican National Convention.

“Given the broad and blunt nature of the wound itself, no sutures were required,” he wrote.

Trump was initially treated by medical staff at Butler Memorial Hospital. According to Jackson, doctors “provided a thorough evaluation for additional injuries that included a CT of his head.”

Trump, he said, “will have further evaluations, including a comprehensive hearing exam, as needed. He will follow up with his primary care physician, as directed by the doctors that initially evaluated him,” he wrote.

“In summary, former President Trump is doing well, and he is recovering as expected from the gunshot wound sustained last Saturday afternoon,” he added.

The letter is the first official update about the former president’s condition since the night of the shooting.

Jackson, a staunch Trump supporter and Trump’s former doctor, said he met Trump in Bedminster, New Jersey, late Saturday after he returned from Pennsylvania.

He said he has been with Trump since that time, evaluating and treating his wound daily. That includes traveling with him Saturday to Michigan, where the former president held his first rally since the shooting, joined by his newly named running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.

It is unclear whether Jackson is still a licensed doctor. A spokesperson for the congressman did not immediately provide a response and Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to questions.
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Plane crash in Ohio kills 3; federal authorities investigating

Posted on by SeeUS

VIENNA, Ohio — A plane trying to make an emergency landing at an airport in the U.S. state of Ohio crashed, killing all three people aboard, authorities said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday that the twin-engine Beechcraft 60 went down near the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Ohio at about 6:45 p.m. Friday.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol post in Trumbull County, which was notified shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday, said the crash just north of the airport killed the pilot and two passengers. The families of the victims have been notified and names are to be released later, an official said.

Anthony Trevena, executive director of the Western Reserve Port Authority, told WKBN-TV that the crash came after an airplane not associated with the air reserve station at the airport came in for an unscheduled emergency landing. A mechanical failure is suspected, the station reported.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, the FAA said in a statement.
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DR Congo summons Uganda diplomat over M23 conflict

Posted on by SeeAF

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo — Uganda again rejected United Nations allegations that it is backing M23 rebels in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo after Kinshasa summoned the Ugandan charge d’affaires over the issue. 

Since late 2021, M23 has seized large tracts of territory in North Kivu province, with a recent report commissioned by the U.N. Security Council alleging “active support” for the rebels by Ugandan army and military intelligence officials. 

On Friday, Uganda’s charge d’affaires, Matata Twaha Magara, denied his country was helping the group after he was summoned for talks with Congolese deputy foreign minister Gracia Yamba Kazadi. 

“Our position has been clear that in the East African community we need to work together to flush all the negative forces that are disturbing us,” Magara said. 

He referred to the joint operation in eastern DRC by Congolese and Ugandan troops against ADF rebels affiliated with the Islamic State. 

The ADF, originally made up of mainly Muslim Ugandan rebels, has established a presence over the past three decades in eastern DRC, killing thousands of civilians. 

Magara claimed that Kazadi “called me to inquire about issues regarding our bilateral relations. She wanted to know what is happening. 

“Of course I assured her our bilateral relations are cordial,” he said, noting that Kampala was still “waiting for the official communication from the U.N. office” to respond to the U.N. allegations. 

“The U.N. should give, first, the concerned countries the report so that they can respond to those accusations,” he said. 

In the report published on July 8, U.N. experts said they had confirmation of “active support” for M23 from members of Ugandan intelligence. 

The report said 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers had been fighting alongside M23 rebels in the mineral-rich east, displacing millions of people, and that Kigali had “de facto control” of the group’s operations, a claim Rwanda denies. 

The experts also said they had evidence confirming “active support for M23 by certain UPDF [Uganda People’s Defense Forces] and Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence officials.” 

Two days later Uganda’s deputy defense spokesperson Deo Akiiki told AFP the allegations against Kampala were “laughable, baseless and illogical.” 
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Beleris returns to prison in Albania after European Parliament opening

Posted on by SeeEU

TIRANA, Albania — A member of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority returned to prison Saturday after a five-day reprieve to attend the opening session of the European Parliament where he was elected to represent Greece’s ruling party.

Fredis Beleris, who holds dual Greek-Albanian citizenship, is serving a two-year prison sentence for vote-buying in municipal elections last year in Albania. He denies the charges, and Greece has described the case against him as being politically motivated.

“I am not sorry to go back to the cell,” said Beleris upon landing at Tirana International Airport.

The 51-year-old politician won the European Parliament after getting a place on Greece’s governing New Democracy party ticket in last month’s European elections. He received 238,801 votes, the fourth among the seven members elected for the party.

European Parliament members enjoy legal immunity from prosecution within the 27-state bloc, even for allegations relating to crimes committed prior to their election. But Albania is not an EU member yet.

Beleris was arrested two days before the May 14, 2023, municipal elections in Himara, with a large ethnic Greek minority in the town on the Albanian Riviera, 220 kilometers (140 miles) southwest of the capital Tirana. He was charged with offering about 40,000 Albanian leks ($390) to buy eight votes.

He won last year’s municipal election with a 19-vote lead, backed by the ethnic Greek minority party and others opposing Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s governing Socialists. But he never took office, being detained until his court conviction in March.

An appeals court upheld the ruling last month, and Albanian authorities stripped Beleris of his post as mayor of Himara, where a new election will be held August 4.
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Republicans united on Trump, divided on abortion

Posted on by SeeUS

During the Republican National Convention, which ended Thursday, delegates approved a political platform that barely mentions abortion — a stark contrast to previous party positions. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman reports from the convention that this softer official stance on reproductive rights is aimed at making its candidate, Donald Trump, more appealing to undecided voters. VOA footage by Mary Cieslak.
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Airlines resume services after global IT crash wreaks havoc

Posted on by SeeUS

Paris — Airlines were gradually coming back online Saturday after global carriers, banks and financial institutions were thrown into turmoil by one of the biggest IT crashes in recent years, caused by an update to an antivirus program.

Passenger crowds had swelled at airports Friday to wait for news as dozens of flights were canceled and operators struggled to keep services on track, after an update to a program operating on Microsoft Windows crashed systems worldwide.

Multiple U.S. airlines and airports across Asia said they were now resuming operations, with check-in services restored in Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand, and mostly back to normal in India and Indonesia and at Singapore’s Changi Airport as of Saturday afternoon.

“The check-in systems have come back to normal [at Thailand’s five major airports]. There are no long queues at the airports as we experienced yesterday,” Airports of Thailand President Keerati Kitmanawat told reporters at Don Mueang airport in Bangkok.

Microsoft said the issue began at 1900 GMT on Thursday, affecting Windows users running the CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity software.

CrowdStrike said it had rolled out a fix for the problem, and the company’s boss, George Kurtz, told U.S. news channel CNBC he wanted to “personally apologize to every organization, every group and every person who has been impacted.”

It also said it could take a few days to return to normal.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s team was talking to CrowdStrike and those affected by the glitch “and is standing by to provide assistance as needed,” the White House said in a statement.

“Our understanding is that flight operations have resumed across the country, although some congestion remains,” a senior US administration official said.

Other industries

Reports from the Netherlands and Britain suggested health services might have been affected by the disruption, meaning the full impact might not yet be known.

Media companies were also hit, with Britain’s Sky News saying the glitch had ended its Friday morning news broadcasts, and Australia’s ABC similarly reporting major difficulties.

By Saturday, services in Australia had mostly returned to normal, but Sydney Airport was still reporting flight delays.

Australian authorities warned of an increase in scam and phishing attempts following the outage, including people offering to help reboot computers and asking for personal information or credit card details.

Banks in Kenya and Ukraine reported issues with their digital services, while some mobile phone carriers were disrupted and customer services in a number of companies went down.

“The scale of this outage is unprecedented and will no doubt go down in history,” said Junade Ali of Britain’s Institution of Engineering and Technology, adding that the last incident approaching the same scale was in 2017.

 

Flight chaos

While some airports halted all flights, in others airline staff resorted to manual check-ins for passengers, leading to long lines and frustrated travelers.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration initially ordered all flights grounded “regardless of destination,” although airlines later said they were reestablishing their services and working through the backlog.

India’s largest airline, Indigo, said operations had been “resolved,” in a statement posted on social media platform X.

“While the outage has been resolved and our systems are back online, we are diligently working to resume normal operations, and we expect this process to extend into the weekend,” the carrier said Saturday.

A passenger told AFP that the situation was returning to normal at Delhi Airport by midnight on Saturday with only slight delays in international flights.

Low-cost carrier AirAsia said it was still trying to get back online and had been “working around the clock toward recovering its departure control systems” after the global outage. It recommended passengers arrive early at airports and be ready for “manual check-in” at airline counters.

Chinese state media said Beijing’s airports had not been affected.

In Europe, major airports, including Berlin’s, which had suspended all flights earlier on Friday, said departures and arrivals were resuming.

‘Common cause’

Companies were left patching up their systems and trying to assess the damage, even as officials tried to tamp down panic by ruling out foul play.

CrowdStrike’s Kurtz said in a statement his teams were “fully mobilized” to help affected customers and “a fix has been deployed.”

But Oli Buckley, a professor at Britain’s Loughborough University, was one of many experts who questioned the ease of rolling out a proper fix.

“While experienced users can implement the workaround, expecting millions to do so is impractical,” he said.

Other experts said the incident should prompt a widespread reconsideration of how reliant societies are on a handful of tech companies for such an array of services.

“We need to be aware that such software can be a common cause of failure for multiple systems at the same time,” said John McDermid, a professor at York University in Britain.

He said infrastructure should be designed “to be resilient against such common cause problems.”
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Experts see rival military exercises as sign of increasing conflict risks in Indo-Pacific 

Posted on by SeeEA

helsinki, finland — Experts see rival air and naval exercises this month across the Indo-Pacific region, involving Western-oriented allies on the one hand and Russia and China on the other, as evidence of mounting strategic competition and the risk of conflict in the region.

The Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, led by the United States and involving 29 countries, will enter its second phase on Monday in the waters around Hawaii. Germany, France and Spain are among the countries joining RIMPAC’s 18 core members in a joint air exercise.

The drill will also include the sinking of the 40,000-ton amphibious landing ship Tarawa, which is believed to be a stand-in for one of China’s large amphibious landing ships and aircraft carriers.

The RIMPAC exercise comes days after a Sino-Russian joint military drill concluded Wednesday in Zhanjiang, on China’s southern coast. Seven Chinese and Russian warships participated, including China’s missile destroyer, a 20,000-ton supply ship and three Russian stealth warships.

At the same time, China’s Shandong aircraft carrier formation, with three missile destroyers and frigates, is conducting exercises in the Philippine Sea.

And next month, India will host its first multinational air exercise, Tarang Shakti-2024, which is likely to see the participation of 10 countries.

Christopher Lamont, a professor at Tokyo International University and dean of E-Track International Relations, said the joint China-Russia exercise adds heightened tension to Japan’s security environment, particularly in the context of closer Moscow-Pyongyang ties following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Stronger Japan-Europe ties

Lamont said the participation of Japan, a RIMPAC member, in exercises with European partners is symbolic in the sense that Spain, France and Germany have limited capacity to project naval power into this region.

But, he said, it underlines “a strengthening of both economic and security ties between Tokyo and European capitals that has picked up pace since 2022.”

In yet another naval exercise this week, a Taiwanese coast guard patrol vessel and a Japanese aircraft-carrying coast guard patrol vessel carried out a joint drill to the south of Japan’s Boso Peninsula, Chiba prefecture, and in waters near Izu Oshima.

It is reportedly the first joint maritime exercise between the two coast guards since Japan and Taiwan cut formal diplomatic ties in 1972. Analysts see the drill as a response to China’s assertive activities in the East China and South China seas.

In a regular briefing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian strongly deplored the maritime exercise and lodged a protest with Japan.

“We urge Japan to … correct the wrongdoing at once, refrain from conniving at or supporting ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces in any form, stay prudent on issues related to the East and South China seas, and stop disrupting cross-strait peace and stability and China-Japan relations,” he said.

Eric Huang, a lecturer at Tamkang University in Taiwan, said the series of joint exercises illustrates “the intensifying strategic competition, increasing regional security uncertainty, and risks of conflict” in the Asia-Pacific.

Global tensions over the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and mounting Chinese pressure on Taiwan, “underscore the urgent need for synchronized national and regional defense strategies, alongside international cooperation in the Asia-Pacific,” added Huang, a former spokesperson and deputy director of the International Affairs Department of Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party.

“Regional democratic allies like South Korea, Australia, India and Taiwan must assertively balance national security with regional stability, navigating the intricacies of great power competition through decisive dialogue and strategic cooperation to ensure enduring regional stability and democratic way of lives,” Huang said.

Eyes on Moscow-Beijing relationship

Marcin Mateusz Jerzewski, director of the Taiwan office of the European Center for Values and Security Policy, said the security environment is increasingly severe in the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific theaters, in large part because of the growing confluence of strategic interests between Moscow and Beijing.

“With the largest kinetic conflict since World War II happening in their backyard, European countries are increasingly concerned about China’s tacit support for Russian atrocities in Ukraine,” he said.

Elio Calcagno, the defense program researcher at the Italian Institute of International Affairs, told VOA that European countries are bolstering efforts to demonstrate their commitment to security in the Indo-Pacific through more frequent and substantial deployments.

Calcagno said the European participants hope to deepen ties with regional partners through the drills while “demonstrating to the U.S. that they are able to contribute to Washington’s most immediate strategic concerns, which regard Chinese posturing in the region.”

At the same time, he said, they are seeking to show “like-minded partners in the Indo-Pacific that European countries can act independently from the U.S. to a certain extent.”

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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