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Month: August 2024
Taiwan president to visit front-line islands at center of China tensions
Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will on Friday make his first visit since taking office in May to the sensitive Kinmen islands that sit next to the Chinese coast and have been the scene of stepped up tensions between Taipei and Beijing.
Taiwan has controlled Kinmen, and the Matsu islands further up the Chinese coast, since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists. No peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed.
The scene of on-off fighting during the height of the Cold War, China’s coast guard has since February conducted regular patrols around Kinmen following the death of two Chinese people on a speedboat which Beijing blamed on Taipei.
Lai’s office said on Thursday that he would travel to Kinmen on Friday for events marking the 66th anniversary of a key military clash with Chinese forces, better known internationally as the start of the second Taiwan Strait crisis.
“Located in the first island chain, Taiwan faces the immediate threat of China. But Taiwan will not be intimidated,” Lai told a security forum in Taipei on Wednesday.
China views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory and has repeatedly denounced Lai as a “separatist.” He rejects Beijing’s sovereignty saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, but has also offered talks with China.
Kinmen faces the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou and at its closest is less than two kilometers away from Chinese-controlled territory.
The 1958 crisis was the last time Taiwanese forces battled China on a large scale.
In August of that year, Chinese forces began more than a month of bombardment of Kinmen, along with Matsu, including naval and air battles, seeking to force them into submission.
Taiwan fought back at the time with support from the United States, which sent military equipment like advanced Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles, giving Taiwan a technological edge.
The crisis ended in a stalemate, and Taiwan observes Aug. 23 every year as the date it fended off the Chinese attack.
Late Wednesday, Taiwan’s defense ministry held a concert in Taipei that celebrated the “glorious” anniversary, with songs about shooting down Chinese MiG fighter jets and bemoaning the “red catastrophe” of communism.
Formerly called Quemoy in English, Kinmen today is a popular tourist destination, though Taiwan maintains a significant military presence.
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Dispute stops Canadian freight railroads, could cause US disruption
TORONTO — Both of Canada’s major freight railroads have come to a full stop because of a contract dispute with their workers, an impasse that could bring significant economic harm to businesses and consumers in Canada and the U.S. if the trains don’t resume running soon.
Canadian National and CPKC railroads both locked out their employees after the deadline of 12:01 a.m. Eastern Thursday passed without new agreements with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference that represents some 10,000 engineers, conductors and dispatchers.
All rail traffic in Canada and all shipments crossing the U.S. border have stopped, although CPKC and CN’s trains will continue to operate in the U.S. and Mexico.
Billions of dollars of goods each month move between Canada and the U.S. via rail, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“If rail traffic grinds to a halt, businesses and families across the country will feel the impact,” Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a statement. “Manufacturing workers, their communities and consumers of all sorts of products will be left reeling from supply chain disruptions.”
There will be other impacts as well, including on the more than 30,000 commuters in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal who will be scrambling to find a new way into work because their trains won’t be able to operate over CPKC’s tracks while the railroad is shut down.
Business groups had urged the government to intervene, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declined to force both sides into arbitration.
CN said it was waiting for a response on one final offer made late Wednesday when it locked the workers out. CPKC spokesperson Patrick Waldron said the union rejected its last offer that CEO Keith Creel made at the table in person. Both railroads have said they would end the lockout if the union agreed to binding arbitration.
“Despite the lockout, the Teamsters remain at the bargaining table with both companies,” the union said in a statement.
CN had been negotiating with the Teamsters for nine months while CPKC had been trying to reach an agreement for a year, the unions said.
Many companies across all industries rely on railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products, so without regular rail service they may have to cut back or even close.
That’s why the U.S. government kept rail workers from going on strike two years ago and forced them to accept a contract despite their concerns about demanding schedules and the lack of paid sick time.
Canada’s railroads have sometimes shut down briefly in the past during contract negotiations — most recently CPKC was offline for a couple of days in March 2022 — but it is rare for both railroads to stop at the same time. The impact on businesses will be magnified because both CN and CPKC have stopped.
Both CN and CPKC had been gradually shutting down since last week ahead of the contract deadline. Shipments of hazardous chemicals and perishable goods were the first to stop, so they wouldn’t be stranded somewhere on the tracks.
As the Canadian contract talks were coming down to the wire, one of the biggest U.S. railroads, CSX, broke with the U.S. freight rail industry’s longstanding practice of negotiating jointly for years with the unions. CSX reached a deal with several of its 13 unions that cover 25% of its workers ahead of the start of national bargaining later this year.
The new five-year contracts will provide 17.5% raises, better benefits and vacation time if they are ratified. The unions that have signed deals with CSX include part of the SMART-TD union representing conductors in one region, the Transportation Communications Union, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen and the Transport Workers Union. TCU President Artie Maratea said he’s proud that his union reached a deal “without years of unnecessary delay and stall tactics.”
Trudeau has been reluctant to force arbitration because he doesn’t want to offend the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference and other unions, but he urged both sides to reach a deal Wednesday because of the tremendous economic damage that would follow a full shutdown.
“It is in the best interest of both sides to continue doing the hard work at the table,” Trudeau said to reporters in Gatineau, Quebec. “Millions of Canadians, workers, farmers, businesses, right across the country, are counting on both sides to do the work and get to a resolution.”
Numerous business groups have been urging Trudeau to act.
Trudeau said Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon met with both sides in the CN talks in Montreal on Tuesday and would be on hand for the CPKC talks in Calgary, Alberta. MacKinnon later said he wrapped up his meetings with the rail companies and the Teamsters.
‘Workers, farmers, commuters and businesses can’t wait. Canadians need urgency at the table. The parties need to get deals done now,” he posted on the social platform X.
The negotiations are stuck on issues related to the way rail workers are scheduled and concerns about rules designed to prevent fatigue and provide adequate rest to train crews. Both railroads had proposed shifting away from the existing system, which pays workers based on the miles in a trip, to an hourly system they said would make it easier to provide predictable time off.
The railroads said their contract offers have included raises consistent with recent deals in the industry. Engineers make about $150,000 a year on Canadian National while conductors earn $120,000, and CPKC says its wages are comparable.
Similar quality-of-life concerns about demanding schedules and the lack of paid sick time nearly led to a U.S. rail strike two years ago until Congress and President Joe Biden intervened and forced the unions to accept a deal.
Manufacturing companies may have to scale back or even shut down production if they can’t get rail service, while ports and grain elevators will quickly become clogged with shipments waiting to move. And if the dispute drags on for a couple weeks, water treatment plants all across Canada might have to scramble without new shipments of chlorine.
Some companies would undoubtedly turn to trucking to keep some of their products moving, but there’s no way to make up for the volume railroads deliver. It would take some 300 trucks to haul everything just one train can carry.
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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepts Democratic Party VP nomination
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepted his party’s nomination as vice president during the third day of the Democratic National Convention. VOA Midwest Correspondent Kane Farabaugh has more from Chicago.
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Taiwan defense spending to outpace GDP growth as China threat rises
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s defense spending will rise 7.7% next year, outpacing expected economic growth, the Cabinet said on Thursday, as the island adds more fighter jets and missiles to strengthen deterrence against a rising threat from Beijing.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military and political pressure over the past five years to assert those claims, which Taipei strongly rejects.
Taiwan’s Cabinet said following a regular weekly meeting that 2025 defense spending would rise 7.7% year-on-year to $20.25 billion, accounting for 2.45% of gross domestic product and exceeding the government’s expectation for economic growth of 3.26% for the year.
The spending includes a special budget worth $2.8 billion to buy new fighter jets and ramp up missile production. That was part of the military’s extra spending worth $7.5 billion announced in 2021 over five years.
Taiwan’s government has made military modernization a key policy platform and has repeatedly pledged to spend more on its defenses given the rising threat from China, including developing made-in-Taiwan submarines.
China’s air force flies almost daily missions into the skies near Taiwan, and in May staged war games around the island shortly after President Lai Ching-te took office, a man Beijing brands a “separatist.” Lai rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
The budget will still need to be passed by parliament, where the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its majority in January elections.
Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, has repeatedly expressed its support for firming up the island’s defenses, though it is currently involved in a standoff with the DPP about contested reforms to give parliament greater oversight powers the government says is unconstitutional.
China is also rapidly modernizing its armed forces, with new aircraft carriers, stealth fighter jets and missiles.
China in March announced a 7.2% rise in defense spending for this year to $234.10 billion outpacing the economic growth target of around 5% for 2024, though accounting for only some 1.3% of GDP according to analysts.
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Mexico to charge drug lord for delivering another drug lord to US
MEXICO CITY — The strange saga of how two Mexican drug lords were detained after landing in a plane in the United States in July just got stranger.
The Mexican government now says it is bringing charges against Joaquín Guzmán López, but not because he was a leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel founded by his father, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Instead, Mexican prosecutors are bringing charges against the younger Guzmán for apparently kidnapping Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada — an older drug boss from a rival faction of the cartel — forcing him onto the plane and flying to an airport near El Paso, Texas.
The younger Guzmán apparently intended to turn himself in to U.S. authorities, but may have brought Zambada along as a prize to sweeten any plea deal.
Federal prosecutors issued a statement saying “an arrest warrant has been prepared” against the younger Guzmán for kidnapping.
But it also cited another charge under an article of Mexico’s criminal code that defines what he did as treason. That section of the law says treason is committed “by those who illegally abduct a person in Mexico in order to hand them over to authorities of another country.”
That clause was apparently motivated by the abduction of a Mexican doctor wanted for allegedly participating in the 1985 torture and killing of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Kiki Camarena.
Nowhere in the statement does it mention that the younger Guzmán was a member of the “little Chapos” faction of the Sinaloa cartel, made up of Chapo’s sons, that smuggles millions of doses of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States, causing about 70,000 overdose deaths each year.
The federal prosecutors’ statement also included an unusually harsh and revealing description about evidence presented by prosecutors in the northern state of Sinaloa that has since proved to be false.
Sinaloa state prosecutors were apparently trying to distance the state’s governor, Rubén Rocha, from the killing of a local political rival, Hector Cuén, who was at a meeting that was used as a pretext for luring Zambada to the abduction site. Zambada has said he expected the governor to be at that meeting; Rocha has said he made a trip out of the state that day.
To play down reports of the purported meeting, state prosecutors published a video of an apparent shooting during what they claimed was a botched robbery at a local gas station. They said Cuén was killed there, not at the meeting site, where Zambada said Cuén was murdered.
While federal prosecutors stopped short of saying the gas station video was a fake, they earlier noted that the number of gunshots heard on the video didn’t match the number of gunshot wounds on Cuén’s body.
On Wednesday, the federal prosecutors went further, saying the video “is unacceptable, nor does it have sufficient value as evidence to be taken into account.”
Zambada has said that Guzmán, whom he trusted, had invited him to the meeting to help iron out the fierce political rivalry between Cuén and Rocha. Zambada was known for eluding capture for decades because of his incredibly tight, loyal and sophisticated personal security apparatus.
The fact that he would knowingly leave that all behind to meet with Rocha means that Zambada viewed such a meeting as credible and feasible. The same goes for the idea that Zambada, as the leader of the oldest wing of the Sinaloa cartel, could act as an arbiter in the state’s political disputes.
The governor has denied he knew of or attended the meeting where Zambada was abducted.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters rally, march on Democratic convention’s 3rd night
CHICAGO — More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched Wednesday past a park where pro-Israel demonstrators had gathered earlier and toward the arena hosting the third night of the Democratic National Convention.
The demonstration, which stayed largely peaceful, came a day after violent clashes between police and protesters led to 56 arrests at a much smaller unsanctioned protest outside the Israeli Consulate.
Organizers of Wednesday’s demonstration drew on the Chicago area’s Palestinian community, one of the largest in the country, by bringing buses from suburban mosques.
Raed Shuk, 48, came with his children from the suburbs, including his 2-year-old son, who sat on Shuk’s shoulders ahead of the march. Shuk, whose parents are Palestinian, said they have come to so many rallies that his son knows the chants by heart.
“Everybody’s humanity needs to be equally addressed here and there,” he said of Gaza. “I want to help my children learn from this experience that you always like to stand up for your rights and always peacefully protest.”
The march, one of the largest anticipated demonstrations of the week, took on a festive tone at times as a drum line led marchers and a sea of Palestinian flags waved above the crowds. Some kids ate popsicles as they walked, and others were pushed in strollers or rode in wagons.
The crowd stopped outside a park that is roughly a block from the United Center and used megaphones and air horns to call out elected leaders, including Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, for being “complicit” in the war in Gaza. The two-term Democrat, who was under consideration as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, criticized a cease-fire resolution Chicago approved in January.
The crowds of pro-Palestinian protesters included many families and people of different faiths. Small groups of Muslims gathered in prayer at a park just ahead of the march’s kickoff, using keffiyeh as prayer rugs. Rabbis were among the leaders of the march, and a small group marched through in the crowd holding a sign that said, “Christians for Ceasefire.”
Rabbi Brant Rosen, a founder of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council, condemned Democrats for not speaking out about the war in Gaza at the convention.
“The word Palestine is not allowed inside the Democratic National Convention. The word cease-fire has barely been uttered,” he said. “This is a Hollywood-style coronation of a candidate. They assume they are entitled to our votes, but they are not entitled to our votes.”
Earlier in the day, police escorted pro-Israel demonstrators out of a park near the United Center as the area was blocked off ahead of the march of activists heading there.
The rally near the United Center was organized by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, a Palestinian and Arab community-based organization. It was in stark contrast to the protest Tuesday night outside the Israeli Consulate. Protesters not affiliated with a coalition of more than 200 groups that have the city’s permission for demonstrations ended up in an intense standoff with Chicago police.
Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said those arrested Tuesday night outside the Israeli Consulate, about 3.2 kilometers from the United Center, “showed up with the intention of committing acts of violence, vandalism.” Snelling called the police response “proportionate.”
Thirty of the people detained by police were issued citations for disorderly conduct, according to Chicago police. One person was arrested on a felony charge of resisting police, while nine were charged with misdemeanors including disorderly conduct, resisting officers, battery, assault and criminal damage to property, police said.
Snelling said that two people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, one for knee pain and one with a finger injury. Two officers were injured, but they refused medical attention because they did not want to leave fellow officers, Snelling said. He said three journalists were among those arrested, but he did not have details on charges.
Hatem Abudayyeh, co-founder of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, put the onus on police to keep the peace when asked about the clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and police. The police “only have one responsibility here,” he said. “They have the responsibility of not infringing on our First Amendment rights.”
The Israeli Consulate has been the site of numerous demonstrations since the war in Gaza began in October, and protests during the DNC have largely focused on opposing the Israel-Hamas war.
The largest protest so far, which attracted about 3,500 people on Monday, was largely peaceful and resulted in 13 arrests, most related to a breach of security fencing. Two were arrested Sunday night during another mostly peaceful march.
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Senior US officials meet Dalai Lama in New York
washington — Senior U.S. officials met with the Dalai Lama in New York on Wednesday, according to a State Department statement, a rare high-level direct meeting between Washington and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
The Dalai Lama, who is denounced by Beijing as a separatist, met with senior U.S. State Department official Uzra Zeya and White House National Security Council official Kelly Razzouk in New York, where he is visiting to receive medical treatment.
During the meeting, Zeya “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to advancing the human rights of Tibetans and supporting efforts to preserve their distinct historical, linguistic, cultural, and religious heritage.”
Beijing imposes strict controls on Tibet, which it considers an inalienable part of its territory, and denounces the Dalai Lama, who advocates for greater autonomy for Tibet, as a rebel.
During the meeting on Wednesday, Zeya also discussed U.S. “support for resuming dialogue between the PRC and His Holiness and his representatives,” the statement said, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.
Talks between Beijing and Tibetan leaders have been frozen since 2010.
The Dalai Lama, 89, received knee surgery in New York this year, saying he was recovering well in a statement released in July.
He stepped down as his people’s political head in 2011, passing the baton of secular power to a government chosen democratically by some 130,000 Tibetans around the world.
In July, China sanctioned a U.S. lawmaker for “interference” over his support for Tibetans, a month after the U.S. Congress passed a law strengthening support for Tibet and senior U.S. lawmakers met with the Dalai Lama in India.
China took control of Tibet in 1951 before the Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959.
Tibet had previously been largely autonomous, following the fall of the Qing dynasty, which lasted three centuries.
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Ukraine’s Zelenskyy considers ban on Russia-linked religious groups
WASHINGTON — A new Ukrainian law aimed at removing the influence of the pro-Moscow Russian Orthodox Church enjoys broad popular support in Ukraine but is being viewed with reservations by international advocates for religious freedom.
Passed on Tuesday by Ukraine’s parliament, the law banning religious organizations that maintain ties to Moscow follows years of controversy over ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The law empowers a government office, the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, to scrutinize religious organizations for possible connections with Russia. If connections are found, the SSU will first issue a prescription to eliminate the violations. If the ties remain, the office will go to court to stop the religious organization’s activities.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to sign the law. He congratulated lawmakers for passing the legislation “regarding our spiritual independence,” saying that they will “continue strengthening Ukraine and our society.”
The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, which represents more than 90% of Ukrainian religious communities, welcomed the law’s adoption.
“We categorically condemn activities of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has become an accomplice to the Russian invaders’ bloody crimes against humanity, which sanctifies weapons of mass destruction and openly declares the need to destroy Ukrainian statehood, culture, identity, and, more recently, Ukrainians themselves,” it said in a statement.
The Russian Orthodox Church operates only in Russia-occupied parts of Ukraine and in some monasteries directly subordinated to it. So, the ban will mostly apply to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which, according to the Ukrainian authorities, still maintains its ties to the ROC. After the Russian invasion in 2022, the UOC claimed that it broke those ties.
According to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology conducted in May, 83% of Ukrainian citizens believe that the state should intervene in the activities of the UOC; 63% of respondents want it to be banned.
Religious freedom critics
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent agency responsible for reviewing possible violations of religious freedom abroad and making policy recommendations to the U.S. administration and Congress, has expressed concern about the law’s impact on Ukraine’s regular faithful.
“The most recent version of the law does not fully address prior concerns about the law’s potential to impose collective punishments on entire religious communities. It also introduced new problematic aspects that could compromise the protection of freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression,” says a statement that USCIRF Chair Stephen Schneck sent to VOA.
The commission said it will monitor the law’s implementation after it goes into effect and urged Ukrainian authorities “to ensure that the legislation complies with Ukraine’s commitments under international law.”
Mónika Palotai, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Religious Freedom Institute, called the legislation “divisive.”
“It divides people. It divides the international community. There will be questions about what will happen to those people who belong to this church. What choices do they have?”
Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, told VOA that Ukraine will adhere to its laws and international obligations.
“Ukraine is not North Korea,” Yelensky said. “The procedure established by this law is quite democratic. The organization in question can challenge our demands in court at various stages. Only the court can stop the activities of the structures of the UOC if it does not want to sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.”
Most Ukrainian Orthodox Christians belong to parishes with no affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church.
After centuries in which the Russian Orthodox Church was the predominant Christian denomination in Ukraine, represented by the Ukrainian Exarchate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church established itself as a separate entity in 1990 while maintaining relations with the Russian church.
In May 2022, its leaders announced their complete independence from the Moscow-based church, which has been a strong supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy of conquering Ukraine.
According to a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, only 4% of Ukraine’s population identifies with the UOC. UOC claims that the true number is higher.
There is another Orthodox Christian church in the country — the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was granted independence by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2019. Since then, many parishes and individuals have switched their affiliation from UOC to OCU, and the process continues.
The UOC spokesperson, Metropolitan Kliment, insisted that the new law will deny Ukrainian citizens and UOC believers the freedom of conscience and religious beliefs. He said that lawmakers ignored appeals from Ukrainian soldiers faithful to this church and targeted the UOC for ties with Moscow that do not exist.
“There are no Moscow churches in Ukraine. Our Church has been operating in Ukraine since time immemorial, and its priests and millions of believers are conscious citizens of Ukraine, not imported from abroad. We did not elect this Verkhovna Rada [parliament] so that it would take away our churches during the war, as the Russians do in the occupied territories,” he wrote to VOA.
In March 2024, the Moscow Patriarchate officially declared the war in Ukraine “holy.” The “World Russian People’s Council” issued a decree which said that “the entire territory of modern Ukraine should fall under the exclusive influence of Russia.”
The UOC, in its statement published the next day categorically rejected and condemned that declaration: “Instead of providing ideological support and justification for Russia’s military aggression and intervention in Ukraine, we believe that the Orthodox Church in Russia should have raised her voice against this war of aggression.”
However, since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian authorities have opened criminal cases against more than 100 clergy members of the UOC for such crimes as treason, collaborationism, aiding and abetting the aggressor country and the sale of firearms.
Ukrainian MP Mykyta Poturaiev, the chairman of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, which worked on this legislation, told VOA that the law doesn’t ban the UOC. Its latest version, adopted this week, established an extended grace period of nine months for Ukrainian organizations that still have ties with Russia to sever them and decide on their future.
“They can establish a dialogue with Istanbul, with the Patriarch of Constantinople, or they can establish a dialogue with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” he said.
He insisted that the law doesn’t target religious customs or beliefs but only collaboration with the enemy. “It would be strange if we allowed the FSB or another Russian state body to operate in Ukraine now because they are enemies,” he said.
Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun, a Ukrainian theologian and professor at University College Stockholm, says the challenge posed by the Russian Orthodox Church is not unique to Ukraine but is more urgent there than elsewhere.
“All European countries with a sizeable presence of the Moscow Patriarchate face the same dilemma: how to neutralize its influence without violating human rights.”
He said no single country, including Ukraine, has come up with an ideal solution.
“Nevertheless, the adopted law features mechanisms that help contain the damaging Russian influence without damaging the freedom of religion in the country,” he told VOA.
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Ukraine says it hit pontoon bridges in Russia with US-made weapons
kyiv, ukraine — Ukraine said Wednesday that it had destroyed Russian pontoon bridges with U.S.-made weapons to defend its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, while Moscow said its forces had halted Kyiv’s advance there and had gained ground in eastern Ukraine.
Kyiv has announced a string of battlefield successes since it crossed unexpectedly into the Kursk region on August 6. Moscow has steadily inched forward in eastern Ukraine, pressuring troops worn down by 2½ years of fighting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s military was responding to the Russian push by strengthening its forces around Pokrovsk, the focus of Russian advances in eastern Ukraine.
Speaking in one of his regular televised addresses, he also urged Kyiv’s allies to honor commitments to send munitions for use by the Ukrainian armed forces.
“This is fundamental for defense,” he said.
Ukraine has closely guarded its overarching aims in the Kursk region but said it had carved out a buffer zone from an area Russia has used to pound targets in Ukraine with cross-border strikes.
A video posted by Ukrainian special forces showed strikes on several pontoon crossings in the Kursk region, where Russia has reported that Ukraine has destroyed at least three bridges over the Seym River as it seeks to hold the captured land.
“Where do Russian pontoon bridges ‘disappear’ in the Kursk region? Operators … accurately destroy them,” Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said on the Telegram messenger.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has said Kyiv has made bigger territorial gains in the Kursk region than Moscow has made in Ukraine this year. Russia has called the incursion an escalation.
Ukraine smashed through the Russian border in the Kursk region on August 6 in an attempt to force Moscow to divert troops from the rest of the front, though Russian forces have continued to advance in recent days.
Russia took the settlement of Zhelanne, which lies less than 20 km to the east of the transport hub Pokrovsk, according to the Russian defense ministry.
Both sides reported being targeted by major drone attacks. Ukraine said it intercepted 50 of 69 drones launched by Russia; Moscow said its air defenses destroyed 45 drones over Russian territory, including 11 over the Moscow region.
Reporting back to Moscow, Major General Apti Alaudinov, commander of Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces and the deputy head of the defense ministry’s military-political department, said Russia had stalled the Ukrainian incursion.
“We halted them and started pushing them back,” Alaudinov told Rossiya state television. He said Ukrainian forces were regrouping and could soon launch a new attack, though he gave no further details.
Russia has repeatedly said the Ukrainian offensive has been halted. Ukraine has kept touting gains, saying it has captured 92 settlements over an area of more than 1,250 square km.
The Ukrainian military, which has not made significant gains on its own soil since late 2022, has gotten a much needed morale boost from the incursion.
Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Ukrainian parliament’s national defense committee, said Russia’s priority remained to capture the Donetsk region despite the incursion and that it was not pulling forces from near Pokrovsk to act as reinforcements.
Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at the Ukrainian National Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank in Kyiv, said attacks on bridges and pontoons would help Ukraine build a defensive line along the river.
“This is an opportunity to make it more stable, systemic, ready to repel Russian attacks,” he said in remarks on national television.
Reuters confirmed that all of the strike locations of pontoon bridges shown in the video were on or near the Seym River in the Kursk region.
The video also showed drone strikes on military trucks and other locations described as a Russian munitions warehouse and an electronic warfare complex in the region. Other locations or the date when the video was filmed could not be independently verified.
Separately, Reuters was able to verify that at least one pontoon crossing was apparently destroyed.
The Ukrainian statement said U.S.-manufactured HIMARS rocket systems had been used as part of operations to disrupt Russian logistics in the Kursk region, Kyiv’s first official statement acknowledging its use of the weapon during its incursion.
Washington has not commented directly on the use of U.S.-made weapons in the Kursk region, while saying U.S. policies have not changed and Ukraine was defending itself from Russia’s ongoing all-out invasion.
While allies have barred Ukraine from conducting long-range strikes with Western weapons inside Russia, they have allowed Kyiv to use them to hit border areas since Russia’s new offensive on Kharkiv region this spring.
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New York man accused of spying on Chinese dissidents, DOJ says
WASHINGTON — A New York man was charged on Wednesday with operating as an illegal agent of the Chinese government in the United States, accusing him of spying on Chinese pro-Democracy activists and dissidents, the Justice Department said.
The DOJ alleges that Yuanjun Tang, 67, acted as a Chinese agent between 2018 and 2023 at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security, its principal intelligence agency.
Tang gave to MSS intelligence officers information about individuals and groups viewed by China “as potentially adverse” to its interests, including prominent U.S.-based Chinese dissidents, the DOJ said.
He helped MSS infiltrate a group chat on an encrypted messaging application used by numerous Chinese dissidents, the DOJ said.
Tang is also accused of making false statements to the FBI when he claimed he was no longer able to access an email account used to communicate with his MSS handler, the department said.
Tang is a former Chinese citizen who was imprisoned for his activities as a dissident, according to the department. He was granted political asylum in the U.S. and later became a citizen.
The Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters was unable to contact Tang.
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Nigeria deploys armed rangers to protect farmers
abuja, nigeria — As attacks on farmers intensified across Nigeria, Fatima Bello from Sokoto abandoned dry season farming.
The smallholder farmer of rice, millet and beans shared her experience of farming under constant threat.
“During the dry season last year, I did not even plant anything because of this issue of insecurity,” she said. “What I would have produced that I would have used for my family and also take to the market, other people are going to benefit from what I will sell. They will buy, but now it means if I don’t produce anything, then it means I will not have been able to have something to use.”
Violent attacks, land levies and kidnappings have forced many farmers to abandon their lands, driving up food inflation. In response, the government declared a state of emergency on food security in 2023 and recently deployed 10,000 agro rangers across 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory. Their mission is to safeguard farmland and mediate conflicts, especially in areas hit by farmer-herder clashes.
Bello sees this as a positive step.
“I think it is welcomed development,” she said. “It has just been started, so we need to see, maybe take some time. Then we will be able to know the impact.”
Affirming the rangers’ readiness to restore safety across the food belt, Babawale Afolabi, a spokesperson for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, says all hands are on deck.
“Our operatives have been on top of the game since the commissioning of the agro rangers squad nationwide. … The agro ranger is a well-seasoned, trained and formidable special force, and we thank the federal government for providing necessary logistics so far,” he said.
“We have increased and upskilled our intelligent base so we can tackle head-on rising challenges,” he said. “We are all for engaging the communities to create awareness on how to give credible information.”
Plateau, Zamfara, Niger and other states considered hot zones for farmer insecurity are supporting the squad with logistics.
While praising the government’s intervention, farmer and agricultural economist Retson Tedheke stresses the need for more personnel.
“It’s a very good thing,” he said, “but 10,000 is a very small number. If you ask me, there are over 150,000 polling units. Multiply that by five, that should be the agro rangers we have. And not just in the agro ranger level – if you are sending five agro rangers in a particular location, send five extension workers.”
Tedheke warns that addressing the root causes of insecurity in farming communities requires sustained effort.
“Nigerian farmers should be getting loans at between 5% and 7%,” he said, “because we are producing food. … Food security is a major component of political development, governmental development and leadership development.”
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says that 22 million Nigerians could face food insecurity in 2024, with projections rising to 82 million by 2030.
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RFE/RL journalist marks 1,000 days jailed in Belarus on charges viewed as bogus
washington — A journalist with VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Wednesday marked 1,000 days in jail in Belarus on charges that he and his employer reject as politically motivated.
Andrey Kuznechyk, with RFE/RL’s Belarusian Service — known locally as Radio Svaboda — has been jailed in Belarus since his arrest on November 25, 2021.
He was initially sentenced to 10 days in jail on hooliganism charges, which he rejected. When Kuznechyk was due to be released, authorities kept him in prison and added an additional charge of creating an extremist group.
In a trial that lasted only one day, a regional court found Kuznechyk guilty in June 2022 and sentenced him to six years in prison.
“Belarus’ treatment of Andrey Kuznechyk is reprehensible,” RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said in a post on the social media platform X.
The U.S. Agency for Global Media, the parent organization of RFE/RL and VOA, also called for Belarus to release Kuznechyk.
“Journalism is not a crime, yet journalists around the world continue to be persecuted just for reporting the truth,” USAGM CEO Amanda Bennett told VOA in a statement. “Today sickeningly marks the 1,000th day Andrey Kuznechyk has been wrongly detained in Belarus. Every moment he spends in this hard-labor camp is one too many.”
Kuznechyk is one of several journalists and activists who have been jailed in Belarus since 2020, when President Aleksander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, claimed yet another victory in a contested presidential election. Massive protests against the disputed election were met with a severe government crackdown.
There are more than 1,400 political prisoners still held in Belarus, according to the rights group Viasna, and independent news outlets have been forced to shutter or retreat into exile. At the end of 2023, Belarus ranked third worst in the world in terms of journalist jailings, with 28 behind bars, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Kuznechyk is one of two RFE/RL journalists currently jailed in Belarus.
The second is Ihar Losik, who has been detained since June 2020, before the contested election took place. He was eventually tried behind closed doors on charges including “organization of mass riots” and “incitement of hatred” and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The charges against him are also widely viewed as bogus.
“Andrey Kuznechyk and Ihar Losik have been locked away for years, with callous disregard by Belarus,” Capus said on X.
Kuznechyk and Losik — as well as opposition leader Viktar Babaryka — are being held at Correctional Colony No. 1, which is considered one of the harshest prisons in Belarus.
The third RFE/RL journalist who is imprisoned is Vladyslav Yesypenko, who has been jailed in Russian-occupied Crimea since March 2021. He was charged with “possession and transport of explosives,” which he denies, and sentenced in a closed-door trial to six years in prison.
“Their so-called crimes?” Capus said, referring to the three jailed journalists. “Sharing journalistic words of truth.” RFE/RL calls for their immediate release, he added.
American RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was among the outlet’s wrongly jailed journalists until early August, when she was released from Russia as part of a historic prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
The Washington embassy of Belarus told VOA it had no comment for this story. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment. Russia’s Washington embassy also did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.
your ad hereAttorney for far-right Oath Keepers group pleads guilty to Capitol riot charges
WASHINGTON — An attorney who represented the far-right Oath Keepers pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges stemming from a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including members of the extremist group.
Kellye SoRelle, who was general counsel for the anti-government group and a close associate of its founder, is scheduled to be sentenced on January 17 by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C.
SoRelle, 45, of Granbury, Texas, answered routine questions by the judge as she pleaded guilty to two charges: a felony count of obstructing justice and a misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. The felony carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, but her estimated sentencing guidelines recommend a maximum of 16 months behind bars.
SoRelle was arrested in Junction, Texas, in September 2022. Her case remained suspended for months amid questions about her mental health.
More than a year ago, medical experts concluded that SoRelle was mentally incompetent to stand trial. In November 2023, she reported to a federal Bureau of Prisons facility for treatment. Last month, Mehta ruled that SoRelle had recovered to an extent that she could understand the nature of her charges and could assist in her defense.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is serving an 18-year prison sentence for orchestrating a plot to keep Donald Trump in the White House after the 2020 presidential election. After Rhodes’ arrest, SoRelle told media outlets she was acting as the president of the Oath Keepers in his absence.
SoRelle, a former Texas prosecutor, was photographed with Rhodes outside the Capitol on January 6. As the riot erupted, she posted a chat message for other Oath Keepers that said, “We are acting like the founding fathers — can’t stand down. Per Stewart, and I concur.”
“Although SoRelle did not personally enter the Capitol Building on January 6, she understood the role those inside and outside the building, like herself, played in delaying the certification proceeding that had been taking place inside the Capitol,” said a court filing accompanying her guilty plea.
The night before the riot, she joined Rhodes in meeting with other extremist group members in an underground garage in Washington, D.C. The meeting also included former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio, who is serving a 22-year prison sentence for his role in a separate plot to stop the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden after the election.
Rhodes, a former U.S. Army paratrooper, founded the Oath Keepers in 2009. The group recruits current and former military, police and first responders and pledges to “fulfill the oath all military and police take to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
During the trial for Rhodes and other Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy, jurors heard testimony that SoRelle had a romantic relationship with Rhodes.
SoRelle pleaded guilty to obstructing justice for encouraging others to destroy electronic evidence of their participation in the plot. Two days after the riot, Rhodes and SoRelle both sent messages from her cellphone encouraging Oath Keepers to delete any incriminating evidence.
She was indicted on other charges, including conspiring with Rhodes and other Oath Keepers to obstruct Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote. But she did not plead guilty to the conspiracy charge.
Also on Wednesday, a judge set a February 3 trial date for an Illinois man charged with firing a gun during the riot. John Banuelos climbed scaffolding outside the Capitol, took out his revolver and fired two shots into the air, according to prosecutors.
Banuelos, of Summit, Illinois, was arrested in March. U.S. District Judge Judge Tanya Chutkan refused on Wednesday to free Banuelos from pretrial custody. She ruled that he poses a flight risk and a danger to the public.
“It could have been much more tragic,” the judge said of the gunshots.
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US official holds talks in Africa on responsible use of military AI
Abuja, Nigeria — A U.S. State Department official was in Nigeria this week to meet with local and regional authorities about the responsible use of artificial intelligence in military applications.
Mallory Stewart, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence and Stability, said her two-day visit with Nigerian officials from the regional bloc ECOWAS was part of the United States’ commitment to deepen security cooperation in Africa.
The U.S. government has been working with 55 nations, including African nations, “to agree upon responsible uses of AI in the military context, using AI in a manner consistent with international laws [and] recognizing inherent human bias,” Stewart told journalists Wednesday.
“We’ve learned the hard way [that there is] inherent human bias built into the AI system … leading to maybe misinformation being provided to the decisionmaker,” she said.
The goal, she continued, “is to hear from as many countries as possible that are at the stage of working in artificial intelligence to their military to see how we can minimize the risks.”
Last year, the Global Terrorism Index report named sub-Saharan Africa an epicenter of terrorism, accounting for nearly 60% of terror-related deaths. It is unclear whether the terror groups are using AI.
Nigerian authorities have been pushing for the integration of artificial intelligence in military operations, while acknowledging that adopting AI will require Africa-specific policies.
Security analyst Kabiru Adamu of Beacon Consulting said the use of AI in military operations has advantages.
“Given the position of the U.S. in terms of its military capacity and technological advancement, it will definitely be in the position to support Nigeria’s desires, especially if it’s able to contextualize some of the peculiarities within the Nigerian security space,” Adamu said. “We can’t isolate ourselves from the international committee of nations. AI is embedded in security, so we have to do it. But we need to be cognizant of the supporting infrastructure for good technology. Power is one of them, culture.”
The founder of Global Sentinel online magazine, Senator Iroegbu, said that while AI has benefits, the technology still needs to be treated with caution.
“It limits casualties in terms of the number of soldiers that will be deployed, so you conserve your boots,” Iroegbu said. “It helps penetrate rough terrains, gather more intelligence. It’s good that there’s growing awareness of the issue of artificial intelligence, but Nigeria needs to first of all try to define its own policy and strategy with regards to artificial intelligence. More sensitization needs to be done, and more policy aspect of it needs to be developed.”
In June, African ministers unanimously endorsed landmark continental AI strategy to advance Africa’s digital future and development aspirations. And last week, the African Union approved the adoption of AI in public and private sectors in member states, including Nigeria.
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Cameroon opposition, civil society blame low voter registration on president Biya
Yaounde — Cameroon is trying to register voters before the nearing deadline. But the political opposition and civil society say most qualified voters are reluctant to register because they think President Paul Biya plans to rig elections. Barely 50% of qualified civilians have registered for the election expected in October 2025.
Cameroon’s elections management body, ELECAM, says 7.9 million civilians have registered as voters ahead of the August 31 deadline set by the central African states electoral law.
Cameroon is preparing for presidential elections next year to end an ongoing seven-year mandate. The date for the presidential polls will be decided by longtime leader Paul Biya.
Biya was declared the winner of the country’s 2018 presidential polls, even though some opposition and civil society groups reject the results and accuse Biya of massive fraud to maintain his grip on power.
Cameroon rights groups say citizens are afraid to register because voters who protested what they claim was the stolen victory of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement, or MRC, leader Maurice Kamto in 2018 were jailed for rebellion and attempted insurrection.
The MRC and a coalition of political parties that support Kamto say they will not tolerate fraud and electoral malpractice during the expected 2025 polls. They are urging civilians to register because voter registration is fundamental to credible elections.
The opposition and civil society say they have sent caravans to towns and villages all over Cameroon to encourage citizens to register and qualify to vote before registration ends in 10 days.
A member of the opposition moves in neighborhoods in Buea, capital of Cameroon’s English-speaking Southwest region, is asking people who expect to register to also be ready to protest, should the polls be rigged.
Tamfu Richard is a human rights lawyer and a member of the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation, or CPNR. Richard said the CPNR is particularly encouraging disgruntled youths who constitute a majority of Cameroon’s population to register, vote and come out massively to protest, should their victory be stolen again.
He said the opposition will not allow Biya and his government to continue ruling Cameroon with an iron fist.
“Cameroon is at a crossroads where the current leader is of age and has been there for 42 years, so it is in the interest of Cameroonians to have a different face, somebody who is young at the helm. It is in the interest of Cameroonians to make sure that they massively register, supervise their votes and defend it when the time comes,” he said.
Cameroon’s opposition and civil society estimate there are close to 16 million potential voters in the country of about 30 million civilians.
Forty-seven-year-old merchant Emmanuel Neba said a majority of Cameroonians are reluctant to register because they believe Biya, who has been in power for over four decades, wants to rule until he dies.
“We know that Paul Biya will still win the elections. In America Joe Biden is 82 and he abandoned his candidacy to a younger person, but in Cameroon, Paul Biya who is 91 wants to continue to be president forever, and that is why the youths are not eager to go and register to{qualify} to vote,” he said.
Cameroon opposition and civil society say citizens should emulate the example of Chad, which has more than 8.2 million registered voters among a population of about 18 million. They say Cameroonians should also get inspired by Senegal where over 7 million people in a population of about 17.5 million registered for the West African state’s March 19 presidential elections.
Opposition and civil society proponents say that the massive involvement of youth in Senegal made victory possible for 40-year-old Bassirou Diomaye Faye over 62-year-old Macky Sall, who was running for a third term as president in the West African country.
Cameroon government officials assert Biya has won all presidential elections he contested since the return of multiparty politics in 1990. The government refutes opposition claims that Biya is planning to rig elections next year and warns civilians against what officials say is increasing hate speech ahead of the polls.
Opposition and civil society say the Cameroon government considers criticizing Biya hate language and threatens arrests.
Biya has not publicly announced that he will run again in the October 2025 presidential elections, but his supporters and government ministers have been organizing political rallies calling on him to run again.
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