Veteran politician Shigeru Ishiba is set to become Japan’s next prime minister. The outspoken Ishiba won the leadership race in Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday. The 67-year-old has a reputation for irking his conservative colleagues, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Seoul, South Korea.
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Month: September 2024
Deportations begin under Panama-US agreement
Panama has begun deporting migrants who cross the dangerous Darien Gap from Colombia into Panama as part of an agreement with the United States signed in July. Veronica Villafane narrates this story by Oscar Sulbaran.
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Deportations begin under Panama-US agreement
Panama has begun deporting migrants who cross the dangerous Darien Gap from Colombia into Panama as part of an agreement with the United States signed in July. Veronica Villafane narrates this story by Oscar Sulbaran.
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Is China-US competition driving the Africa proposal in the UN?
Johannesburg — This week at U.N. meetings in New York, the United States said that two African countries should have permanent seats on one of the world’s major decision-making bodies, the United Nations Security Council.
For years, numerous African leaders have called for the continent to have representation on the U.N. Security Council, which since World War II has had just five permanent members: the U.S., France, the UK, Russia and China.
This week, the top representative of one of those permanent seats, U.S. President Joe Biden, threw his weight behind the idea. However, there was one major caveat, which Kenyan analyst Cliff Mboya said is not going over well on the continent. The new African members would not have veto power on decisions.
“We’ve already seeing a lot of backlash… like this is a big joke, the question is what is the point in joining the Security Council if you don’t have veto powers, what are you going to do there?” asked Mboya.
That could play in China’s favor, as it has long positioned itself as a fellow developing country and leader of what’s become known as the Global South, while disparaging the West for its colonial past, said Mboya, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg.
“So I don’t think this helps the U.S. and the West in terms of perception and narratives, and it will only embolden African countries to lean more to the East because it just speaks to the hypocrisy,” he said. “China’s been able to, you know, build this coalition of emerging and developing countries against the U.S. and Western-led world order.”
But Paul Nantulya, a research associate with the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said he thought the announcement was a “win’’ for U.S. diplomacy and would mostly be welcomed by African nations as it opens the door to further negotiations.
“Regarding China, China has been very, you know, kind of like sitting on the fence. So rhetorically China has said all the right things, supporting Africa’s, what it calls Africa’s legitimate interests in the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council,” he said.
But its plan for that has been hazy, he added.
“When it comes to specific details, in terms of whether China supports permanent African representation on the council with veto power, when it comes to that China has not articulated a position.”
Among those in New York this week calling for U.N. reform was South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. He said, quote: “Africa and its 1.4 billion people remain excluded from its key decision-making structures.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also called for reform, saying the UNSC hasn’t kept up with a changing world and Africa is underrepresented.
Some African countries want veto power in the Security Council dispensed with entirely.
If there is reform, and Africa gets the two seats on the Security Council that the U.S. proposes, key contenders could include the continent’s largest economy, South Africa; most populous country, Nigeria; or North African heavyweight Egypt, Nantulya told VOA.
However, analysts say any future process of adding African countries as permanent members is likely to face hurdles, as there will be problems reaching consensus. Nantulya said some African politicians think it could even drive a wedge between countries on the continent.
There are also concerns the U.S. statement could just be rhetoric — and so far no timeline has been given regarding the next steps. Under U.N. rules, any change to Security Council membership would need approval from two-thirds of the General Assembly, including all five permanent members.
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Veteran lawmaker Ishiba set to become Japan PM
TOKYO — Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba was set on Friday to become Japan’s next prime minister after winning a closely fought contest in his fifth and final attempt to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The 67-year-old prevailed over hardline nationalist Sanae Takaichi in a run-off vote in what was one of the most unpredictable leadership elections in decades with a record nine candidates in the field.
The leader of the LDP, which has ruled Japan for almost all of the post-war era, is essentially assured of becoming the next premier because of its majority in parliament.
The scramble to replace current premier Fumio Kishida was sparked in August when he announced his intention to step down over a series of scandals that plunged the LDP’s ratings to record lows.
“We must believe in the people, speak the truth with courage and sincerity, and work together to make Japan a safe and secure country where everyone can live with a smile once again,” an emotional Ishiba said in a brief speech to lawmakers after the result.
Ishiba must quell anger at home over rising living costs and navigate a volatile security environment in East Asia fueled by an increasingly assertive China and nuclear-armed North Korea.
His approach to diplomacy with Japan’s closest ally, the United States, will be in focus given he has repeatedly called for a more balanced relationship.
In his campaign, he also called for the creation of an Asian NATO, an idea that could draw ire from Beijing and has already been dismissed by a senior U.S. official as hasty.
U.S. ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, congratulated Ishiba in a post on X saying he looked forward to working with him to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance.
Ishiba entered parliament in 1986 after a short banking career, but his outspoken views have earned him enemies in the LDP.
He was sidelined by outgoing prime minister Kishida, instead becoming a dissenting voice in the party who enjoyed broad support from the public and rank-and-file members.
He has rebelled on policies including the increased use of nuclear energy and has criticized his party for not allowing married couples to use separate surnames.
His contrarian views and spats with colleagues contributed to four previous failed leadership bids. He has said this was his “final battle.”
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Sudan’s army chief: RSF must withdraw before peace
United Nations — Sudan’s de facto ruler said Thursday that he wants to end the war in his country, but he said he will not sit with his rival general unless he withdraws his fighters.
“We are keen on stopping the war and restoring peace and security, without any pre-conditions,” Army Chief Abdel-Fattah al Burhan told reporters in New York, where he was attending U.N. General Assembly meetings.
However, he stated several conditions for talks to start.
“We will never sit with Hemedti unless his forces pull out, and unless they implement what we agreed to,” he said referring to his rival, the head of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti.”
Once allies in Sudan’s transitional government following a 2021 coup, the two generals have turned into bitter rivals for power. On April 15, 2023, fighting erupted between their forces in the capital, Khartoum. It has since spread across Sudan, resulting in widespread atrocities and killing.
Burhan was asked about new fighting that erupted between his forces and the RSF in Khartoum on Thursday, but did not offer any new details.
Earlier Thursday, Burhan addressed the U.N. General Assembly annual debate. He used most of his speech to talk about the war in his country. Not to be outdone, his rival, Hemedti, issued a “General Assembly speech” of his own, on the social media platform X.
Ten million people have been displaced and half of Sudan’s population, 26 million people, are struggling with crisis levels of food insecurity. Famine was confirmed in August in Sudan’s Darfur region, which has seen heavy fighting. At least 14 other areas of Sudan are considered at risk of famine in the coming months.
“The food gap is there, but it hasn’t reached the level of famine yet,” Burhan told reporters.
Regarding efforts by the United States and Saudi Arabia to bring the parties to the negotiating table in Switzerland in August, the army chief said it didn’t happen because “external parties interfered” with the process.
The Sudanese military accuses the United Arab Emirates of arming and equipping the RSF. The UAE was invited to a meeting in Switzerland in August and Burhan did not attend.
He said he was also not happy with how the invitation was sent to him – in his personal capacity, not as head of state. He added that any peace process should be purely Sudanese-led.
Asked about a July phone call he had with the leader of the UAE, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Burhan said he told the Emirati that the RSF has received either direct or indirect assistance from the UAE in the forms of weapons and training.
He said MBZ, as the UAE leader is known, “promised to reconsider the situation.”
A report by a U.N. panel of experts earlier this year said there was substance to media reports that cargo planes originating in the UAE capital had landed in eastern Chad with arms, ammunition and medical equipment destined for the RSF.
Publicly, the UAE denies that it arms the RSF and says it has only sent humanitarian aid to Sudan.
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Blinken to meet Chinese counterpart amid concerns over China’s drone supply to Russia
New York — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
This meeting between the countries’ top diplomats comes amid growing U.S. concerns over Chinese firms supplying chips and drones to Moscow, which have significantly bolstered Russia’s battlefield capabilities in its war against Ukraine.
Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has told the Congress that China’s material support for Russia’s war effort “comes from the very top.”
Blinken’s talks with Wang will take place ahead of a call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, expected later this fall.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. General Assembly that Ukraine would never accept a deal imposed by other nations to end Russia’s 31-month invasion, questioning the motives of China and Brazil in pushing for negotiations with Moscow.
For months, U.S. officials have accused China of actively aiding Russia’s war effort. Washington has sanctioned Chinese firms providing crucial components to Russia’s defense industry.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller recently told VOA that the U.S. openly discusses its “differences” with China to ensure that both countries “at least understand where the other is coming from, even if we can’t reach an agreement.”
He added that Washington is managing its relationship with China to prevent it from “veering from competition into conflict.”
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US offers $20M for details about Iranian allegedly behind plot to kill official
Washington — The U.S. State Department announced a $20 million reward on Thursday for information leading to the arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind behind a plot to assassinate former White House official John Bolton.
U.S. officials said in August 2022 that they had uncovered a plot by Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to kill Bolton, who served as national security adviser to former President Donald Trump.
The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program “is offering a reward of up to $20 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction” of Poursafi, a notice said Thursday.
The move came as Trump, 78, who is running for a new White House term, claimed there were “big threats” on his life by Iran.
Bolton, considered a foreign policy hawk, is a fierce critic of Iran and advocated that Trump unilaterally withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.
Poursafi allegedly offered an unidentified person inside the United States $300,000 to kill Bolton in the capital area.
The plan was likely set in motion after the U.S. killing of top IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020, the Justice Department said at the time.
But it never made headway because the ostensible assassin became an informant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Iranian authorities have dismissed the allegations as “fiction.”
The United States designated the entire IRGC a “foreign terrorist organization” in 2019, after previously designating its external operation, the Quds Force.
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Haiti’s prime minister urges ‘partners’ to fulfill pledges to help bring peace
With violent gangs controlling most of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, calls for a formal U.N. peacekeeping mission are growing. The country’s prime minister says the current international effort lacks resources, manpower and the capability to face the gangs. Celia Mendoza reports.
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Groups call to protect women, children working in Africa’s mines
nairobi, kenya — As the global race to acquire economically vital minerals unfolds, those working in Africa’s mining sector are calling for the protection of women and children laborers who keep it running.
Women in Mining Africa, an advocacy group that aims to mitigate harsh working conditions in rural communities, organized a virtual meeting this week with organizations and experts. They are working to promote gender equity and social justice in the mining sector as demand for African resources continues.
“We seek to empower women in mining by advocating for equal access to resources, opportunities, and leadership roles across the continent,” said Comfort Asokoro Ogaji founded Women in Mining Africa, which works in 36 African countries.
“We also work to promote responsible mining and advocate for sustainable, ethical, and socially inclusive mining practices,” Ogaji said. “Child protection in mining communities is at the core of our mission and also capacity building and collaboration across the continent.”
Challenges women face in industry
The World Bank says women represent 30% of the industry known as Artisanal and Small-scale Mining, or ASM. However, women are often barred from entering the mines and relegated to lower-paying jobs.
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, women’s contributions are overshadowed by the historically dominant role of men, hindering women’s meaningful participation and resulting in unequal pay.
Women, unlike their male counterparts, also face gender inequality, violence and harassment.
Jose Diemel works as a senior adviser at Levin Sources, a consulting firm that drives the transition to just and sustainable minerals value chains. Diemal has worked with artisanal and small-scale miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She said the management of mining fields has improved over the years.
“I’ve seen the mentality change towards artisanal mining, and we slowly started to talk about artisanal management plans around the possibility of peaceful coexistence,” said Diemel. “And now we’re working at 11 sources, we very regularly receive a request from large-scale mining companies, industrial mining companies, to help them set up ASM management plans that range from peaceful coexistence to collaboration.”
Mining experts say miners are being empowered, receiving different ways to sustain their livelihood and undergoing safety training.
The small-scale miners also have been able to obtain loans to purchase equipment that ease their work, increase their product, and their income.
Call to get more women into sector
Thokozile Budaza advocates for women’s rights in South Africa, the largest platinum and manganese producer in the world. She said the voices of the resource owners and those working on them must be included in decision-making.
“African leaders can better anticipate the ripple effects of their policies and decisions and the lack of decisions ensuring that the benefits of mining are equitably distributed and the voices of the stakeholders, especially those marginalized, are heard and respected while dealing with investors coming into Africa to source critical materials for development,” said Budaza.
A World Bank report released at the 2024 Mining Indaba Conference urges implementation of gender-focused legislation to improve mining rules and regulations and promote greater participation of women in the sector.
The report also calls for changing property laws and land tenure agreements that restrict women’s ability to own land and access mineral resources.
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US Congress passes security pact with Pacific Island allies
Washington — Buried in the hundreds of pages of the continuing resolution passed Wednesday by U.S. lawmakers to prevent a government shutdown are Washington’s final steps to implement a 20-year security pact with Pacific Island allies, cementing a U.S. commitment to the region in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
The Compacts of Free Association, or COFA, provide economic support for Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. In exchange, the nations will allow the U.S. military exclusive access to their land, water and airspace and the right to deny Beijing access to their ports and expansive territorial waters.
But six months after the compacts were passed, extending $7 billion in economic aid over 20 years to the three Pacific Island nations, key provisions still languished. Palau’s access to postal service, aviation security, national weather service and federal banking insurance was set to run out on September 30. The temporary spending package finalized Wednesday contained an extension of those services, Representative Ed Case, a Democrat, said in a statement to VOA.
In doing so, said Case, “The U.S. restates its commitment to the people of Palau as a full partner in a shared future and to assisting Palau in resisting the dependence upon and coercion by the PRC that has marked the PRC’s efforts to dominate the countries of the Pacific.” PRC is an abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.
“Reassuring the people of Palau that they [the services] will continue is an important message from the people of the United States to the people of Palau,” Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. said in an interview with VOA on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
Cleo Paskal, a nonresident senior fellow for the Indo-Pacific at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argues that the extension of these services also sends a message to Beijing. Palau is just one of three remaining Pacific Island nations who still recognize Taiwan diplomatically over Beijing.
Paskal said that a gap in these basic services could have left Whipps — who is running for reelection in November — vulnerable to “those wanting to undermine the relationship with the U.S., possibly feeding into the narrative that the U.S. isn’t helping” its Pacific partners.
But U.S. lawmakers of both parties coalesced around closing the loophole for Palau, said Whipps.
The agreement for Palau “represents a significant milestone in the process of affirming our countries’ partnership for another 20 years,” U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a Democrat, said in a statement to VOA. “This relationship is vital to the security and stability” of the U.S. “as we work to promote democracy and our shared values throughout the Pacific.”
U.S. Representative Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, a Republican who represents the U.S. territory of American Samoa, led a hearing earlier this month that exposed gaps in COFA implementation, including the Palau federal services expiration.
“It’s extremely important to the entirety of the Pacific region for our allies, and any nation at all, to see the U.S. following through with its commitments to our closest friends in the region,” Coleman Radewagen said in a statement to VOA.
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Hong Kong court jails former editor, releases another on health grounds
HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court on Thursday night sentenced a former editor to jail for 21 months and immediately released another after both had earlier been found guilty of conspiring to publish seditious articles.
In a landmark case about media freedom, Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam of the now-defunct Stand News media outlet were convicted last month — the first time journalists have been found guilty of sedition since the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997.
Chung was sentenced to 21 months while Lam was given a sentence that allowed him to be released immediately on health grounds.
District Court Judge Kwok Wai-kin noted evidence from Lam’s lawyer on Thursday that he had serious autoimmune and advanced kidney disease and that prison could further endanger him.
Chung smiled as the judge said his colleague Lam would be released, and Lam’s wife wept.
Chung would have to serve around 10 months in jail given earlier remand custody.
Stand News, once Hong Kong’s leading online media outlet, was known for its hard-hitting reports about the city’s 2019 pro-democracy protests and later the national security crackdown.
Under the colonial-era sedition law, the maximum sentencing is two years imprisonment and a fine of HKD5,000 ($642).
Western diplomats that included representatives from the United States, the European Union, France, Britain, Canada and Ireland witnessed the sentencing.
Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the United Nations Human Rights Office, said earlier that the office was calling on Hong Kong authorities to review the court’s decision in line with obligations under international human rights law.
Twenty-three member states of the Media Freedom Coalition, including the U.S., U.K. and Canada, have similarly signed a statement, urging “Hong Kong and China authorities to abide by their international human rights commitments and legal obligations, and to respect freedom of the press and freedom of speech in Hong Kong.”
A spokesperson for Hong Kong’s government said in a statement that the government “strongly disapproved of and rejected the fact-twisting remarks and baseless smears” by the coalition. Hong Kong and Chinese officials have said the security clampdown was needed to maintain stability after the pro-democracy protests.
Judge Kwok wrote in a verdict in August that “the political ideology of Stand News was localism” and “the line it took was to support and promote Hong Kong local autonomy.”
Hong Kong’s mostly youthful localist movement emerged in the 2010s amid political tensions with Beijing, emphasizing local identity and culture, as well as greater autonomy. Some supporters called for Hong Kong independence.
“I believe that during the offense period, the … defendants did not carry out real media work but participated in the so-called struggle at that time,” the judge said on Thursday.
In August, Chung wrote in a mitigation letter to the court that some Hong Kongers “care about the freedom and dignity of everyone in the community and are willing to pay the price of losing their own freedom.”
Lam wrote that “the only way for journalists to defend press freedom is to report.”
Stand News was raided by police in December 2021, and its assets were frozen, leading to its closure.
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Push for renewable energy sparks new environmental worries
According to the International Energy Agency, the world now invests almost twice as much in clean energy as it does in fossil fuels. But with that shift comes environmental risks related to the mining of critical minerals. VOA’s Jessica Stone looks at how nations are navigating the environmental challenges of creating a renewable future.
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US, Vietnamese leaders meet, seek deeper ties
Washington — U.S. President Joe Biden says Washington is committed to a strong, prosperous, resilient, and independent Vietnam and discussed a broad range of ways the two countries can cooperate during a meeting with this Vietnamese counterpart, To Lam.
Since coming to office in May, Vietnam’s new president has been actively reaching out, meeting with the leaders of China and Russia. Washington is seeking to counter those advances and strengthen ties with Hanoi as well.
Lam, who is also head of the ruling Communist Party, met with Biden on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York Wednesday. According to a White House statement, the two talked about “building secure and resilient semiconductor supply chains” and strengthening their tech relationship as well as progress in cybersecurity cooperation and Vietnam’s efforts to increase its digital connectivity.
Vietnam is looking to the United States and China to triple its number of subsea cables by 2030. Biden and Lam also focused on ways the two could deepen a comprehensive strategic partnership they entered last year.
Biden said Washington wants to cooperate with Vietnam to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific and discussed the importance of maintaining peace and stability — especially in the South China Sea, according to the White House statement.
During the meeting, which lasted a little more than an hour, Lam assured Biden that the United States is “a partner of strategic importance,” while Biden told Lam that Vietnam is “a top partner of the U.S. in the region,” Vietnam News Agency reported.
Analysts say that while the meeting did not take place in the White House, it did highlight the high level of trust between Hanoi and Washington and the growing importance of bilateral ties.
Nguyen Hong Hai, a lecturer of international relations at Hanoi-based VinUni, told VOA in an email that the way Washington and Hanoi are talking about one another and the high importance they attach to bilateral relations is significant. It is also a sign of deepening trust, Hai added.
“Vietnam falls short of a U.S. ally. But as a partner, it is a top of its kind,” Hai said.
Hai said that Hanoi fits perfectly into Washington’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy since it supports the rules-based order and is playing an increasingly bigger role in the U.S.-led global supply chain. On the other hand, Hanoi needs Washington as a regional security guarantor while its goal of becoming a developed economy with high income by 2045 is contingent on access to the U.S. market as well as its capital and technology.
Ha Hoang Hop, chair of the Hanoi-based Think Tank Viet Know, said it was significant that both leaders reaffirmed the importance of their comprehensive strategic partnership. So, too, was Biden’s commitment to support Vietnam’s tech-driven growth and encouragement for Hanoi to play an active role in regional security.
“The momentum of U.S.-Vietnam comprehensive strategic partnership will be maintained far beyond Biden’s and To Lam’s presidencies no matter who will succeed Biden next year or who will take the helm of the Vietnamese Communist Party in 2026,” Hop told VOA in an email.
The two countries recently marked the first anniversary of the comprehensive strategic partnership Biden signed with Nguyen Phu Trong, Lam’s predecessor, during a visit to Hanoi last year.
At that time, Lam was the country’s security czar. He became president following the forced resignation of President Vo Van Thuong in March and replaced Nguyen Phu Trong as party chief after Trong unexpectedly died in late July.
Lam’s first foreign trip after becoming Vietnam’s top leader took him to Beijing in August, when he and Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed their commitment to bilateral ties. He also hosted Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Hanoi in late June.
Although readouts of Wednesday’s meeting gave no indication that China was discussed, Beijing was watching the meeting closely, Hai said.
China became Vietnam’s first comprehensive strategic partner in 2008, and the two countries agreed late last year to build what they call a “community of shared future” following the upgrade in U.S.-Vietnam ties.
“Any progress in U.S.-Vietnam ties is unwelcome in Beijing. However, Bejing should understand that Hanoi’s deepening ties with the U.S. is not targeted at any country but just serves its own security,” Hai said.
Think Tank Viet Know’s Ha Hoang Hop said that Beijing is “fully aware of Hanoi’s strategic position in the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy” and is trying to capitalize on this to serve its interests.
“For its part, Hanoi is proactively navigating between the two superpowers,” he said.
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Cryptocurrency exchange network accused of helping Russia hit with sanctions
WASHINGTON — A network of people and virtual currency exchanges associated with harboring Russian cybercrime were hit with sanctions on Thursday, in a government-wide crackdown on cybercrime that could assist Russia ahead of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
U.S. Treasury sanctioned alleged Russian hacker Sergey Ivanov and Cryptex — a St. Vincent and Grenadines registered virtual currency exchange operating in Russia. Virtual currency exchanges allow people and businesses to trade cryptocurrencies for other assets, such as conventional dollars or other digital currencies.
Treasury alleges that Ivanov has laundered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of virtual currency for cyber criminals and darknet marketplace vendors for the last 20 years, including for Timur Shakhmametov, who allegedly created an online marketplace for stolen credit card data and compromised IDs called Joker’s Stash. Ivanov laundered the proceeds from Joker’s Stash, Treasury says.
The State Department is offering a $10 million reward for information that would lead to the arrest and possible conviction of the two men, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia has unsealed an indictment against them.
Biden said in a statement announcing the sanctions Thursday that the U.S. “will continue to raise the costs on Russia for its war in Ukraine and to deprive the Russian defense industrial base of resources.”
He meets with Zelenskyy Thursday to announce a surge in security assistance for Ukraine and other actions meant to assist the war-torn country as Russia continues to invade.
State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said, “We will continue to use all our tools and authorities to deter and expose these money laundering networks and impose cost on the cyber criminals and support networks. We reiterate our call that Russia must take concrete steps to prevent cyber criminals from freely operating in its jurisdiction.”
U.S officials have taken several actions against Russian cybercriminals since the start of the invasion in February 2022.
Earlier this year, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 13 firms — five of which are owned by an already sanctioned person — and two people who have all either helped build or operate blockchain-based services for, or enabled virtual currency payments in, the Russian financial sector, “thus enabling potential sanctions evasion,” according to U.S. Treasury.
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US gun owners’ views unchanged by Trump assassination attempts
U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has been the target of two assassination attempts during this campaign. VOA spoke with some gun owners, who say the shootings have not changed their views on gun laws. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has our story. Some VOA footage by Genia Dulot.
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Hearing on Trump assassination attempts suggests failure was with Secret Service, not local police
WASHINGTON — Members of a bipartisan House panel investigating the Trump assassination attempts suggested during its first hearing Thursday that the failures that led to a gunman being able to open fire on former President Donald Trump were with the U.S. Secret Service, not local police.
In his opening statement, the Republican co-chair of the committee, Rep. Mike Kelly from Pennsylvania, blamed a cascade of failures by the Secret Service that allowed the gunman, Thomas Michael Crooks, to gain access to the roof of a nearby building and open fire on Trump. Trump was wounded and a man attending the rally with his family was killed.
“In the days leading up to the rally, it was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country’s most elite group of security professionals. There were security failures on multiple fronts,” said Kelly.
The panel — composed of seven Republicans and six Democrats — has spent the last two months analyzing the security failures that allowed a gunman to scale a roof and open fire at the former president during a July 13 campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Now they are also investigating this month’s Secret Service arrest of a man with a rifle on Trump’s Florida golf course who sought to assassinate the Republican presidential nominee.
The suspect in the second assassination attempt, Ryan Wesley Routh, was allegedly aiming a rifle through the shrubbery surrounding Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course when he was detected by a Secret Service agent. The agent opened fire and Routh fled before being apprehended by local authorities.
The hearing Thursday is the first time the task force presents its findings to the public after spending weeks conducting nearly two dozen interviews with law enforcement and receiving more than 2,800 pages of documents from the Secret Service. It focuses on the use of local law enforcement by the Secret Service, featuring testimony from Pennsylvania and Butler County police officials.
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Oxfam: ‘Oligarchy’ of super-rich undermining cooperation to tackle poverty, climate change
London — As world leaders gather for the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, the charity Oxfam says they are being undermined by what it calls a “global oligarchy” of the super-rich who exert considerable control over the global economy – and who it blames for exacerbating problems like extreme inequality and climate change.
“Today, the world’s richest 1% own more wealth than 95% of humanity. The immense concentration of wealth, driven significantly by increased monopolistic corporate power, has allowed large corporations and the ultrarich who exercise control over them to use their vast resources to shape global rules in their favor, often at the expense of everyone else,” the Oxfam report says.
The charity says international cooperation on issues like climate change and poverty is failing due to extreme economic inequality.
“The wealth of the world’s five richest men has doubled since the start of this decade. And nearly five billion people have got poorer,” said Nabil Ahmed, the director of economic and racial justice at Oxfam America, in an interview with VOA.
Fair taxes
The report urges fairer taxation of large corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
“We live in a world in which mega-corporations… are paying next to or little to no tax basically. Not like the small businesses, not like the rest of us,” Ahmed said.
“It’s such a phenomenal lost opportunity because we know governments, rich and poor, across the world need to claw back these revenues to be able to invest in their people, to be able to meet their rights,” he added.
Oxfam praises a campaign led by Brazil, which currently holds the presidency of the G20, to impose a 2% minimum tax on the world’s richest billionaires. Brazil’s government claims it would raise up to $250 billion from about 3,000 individuals, to pay for healthcare, education and tackling climate change.
A report by the French economist Gabriel Zucman, commissioned by Brazil, suggests billionaires currently pay the equivalent of 0.3% of their wealth in taxes.
The plan is backed by other members including South Africa, Spain and France. However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke against the move at a G20 meeting in July.
“Tax policy is very difficult to coordinate globally and we don’t see a need or really think it’s desirable to try to negotiate a global agreement on that. We think that all countries should make sure that their taxation systems are fair and progressive,” Yellen told reporters.
Private debt
Oxfam says tax revenues in the global south meanwhile are increasingly spent on servicing debt to private creditors like banks and hedge funds.
“This shift has exacerbated the debt crisis, further entrenching “debtocracy.” Compared with official creditors, private entities issue debt with shorter maturities and higher, more volatile interest rates,” the Oxfam report says.
Vaccines
The charity also accuses large pharmaceutical companies of shaping rules over intellectual property rights to benefit their shareholders. Oxfam says that during the COVID-19 pandemic, this meant poorer nations struggled to access coronavirus vaccines, such as the mRNA vaccine made by Pfizer.
“Its negative impacts are most harshly felt by countries in the Global South, which bear the brunt of “artificial rationing,” where pharmaceutical corporations keep drug costs — and thus profits — high by limiting generic manufacturing, while simultaneously failing to invest in research and development for priority diseases in the Global South deemed less profitable,” Oxfam said.
Responding to VOA, Pfizer highlighted an open letter written by the company’s chairman Albert Bourla in 2021, in which he said the company had created a tiered pricing structure and had offered its mRNA coronavirus vaccine at cost price or for free to poorer nations. However, Bourla said that many richer countries moved faster to purchase the available doses.
“When we developed our tiered pricing policy, we reached out to all nations asking them to place orders so we could allocate doses for them. In reality, the high-income countries reserved most of the doses,” Bourla wrote.
Pfizer’s chairman also warned that losing intellectual property rights could “disincentivize” anyone else from taking a big financial risk in developing such vaccines, a view echoed by other large pharmaceutical giants.
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Zelenskyy meets with Biden, Harris amid Republican allegation of election interference
White House — U.S. President Joe Biden is hosting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House Thursday, where the Ukrainian leader is set to discuss his plans for winning the war against Russia, as Republicans accuse him of “election interference.”
Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet separately with Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris following his meeting with Biden. However, no plans have been announced for a meeting with Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, who has in recent days increased his criticism that the U.S. continues to “give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal” to end the war.
Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans are demanding that the Ukrainian leader fire his ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, for organizing Zelenskyy’s visit Monday to an ammunition factory in Pennsylvania, a hotly contested battleground state in the November presidential election.
In a letter to Zelenskyy, Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said the visit to the factory that made munitions for Ukraine was a “partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats” that amounts to “election interference.”
“Support for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to be bipartisan, but our relationship is unnecessarily tested and needlessly tarnished when the candidates at the top of the Republican presidential ticket are targeted in the media by officials in your government,” Johnson said.
On Wednesday Trump suggested that Biden and Harris are at fault for prolonging the war that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“Biden and Kamala allowed this to happen by feeding Zelenskyy money and munitions like no country has ever seen before,” Trump said. He argued that Kyiv should have made concessions to Moscow before Russian troops attacked, asserting that Ukraine is now “in rubble” and in no position to negotiate the war’s end.
“Any deal — the worst deal — would’ve been better than what we have now,” Trump said.
New aid announced
Ahead of Zelenskyy’s visit, the U.S. administration announced $8 billion in new aid for Ukraine. In a statement, Biden said the aid includes a Patriot missile battery and missiles, as well as air-to-ground munitions and a precision-guided glide bomb with a range of up to 130 kilometers.
The administration is also expanding training for Ukrainian F-16 pilots to include an additional 18 pilots next year.
“For nearly three years, the United States has rallied the world to stand with the people of Ukraine as they defend their freedom from Russian aggression, and it has been a top priority of my administration to provide Ukraine with the support it needs to prevail,” Biden said.
Zelenskyy thanked the U.S., saying the new aid included “the items that are most critical to protecting our people.”
“We will use this assistance in the most efficient and transparent manner to achieve our major common goal: victory for Ukraine, just and lasting peace, and transatlantic security,” Zelenskyy said on social media platform X.
The pair spoke briefly on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, during which Zelenskyy thanked Biden for U.S. support for Ukraine and gave an update on the situation on the front lines.
Among the expected topics to be discussed by the leaders Thursday include Ukraine’s request for weapons donors to allow Ukrainian forces to use the weapons to strike targets deeper inside Russia. Ukrainian leaders say such strikes are needed to degrade Russia’s ability to carry out its daily missile and drone attacks.
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What’s behind China’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile
TAIPEI, Taiwan — China test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday in a rare occurrence, adding to tensions in the region where multiple countries have overlapping territorial claims and both Beijing and Washington seek to project their influence.
The launch was part of routine training by the People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force, which is in charge of conventional and nuclear missile operations, and was not aimed at any country or target, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, landed in a designated area in the sea, the ministry said, without specifying where exactly.
China rarely tests ICBMs out in international waters, with some experts tracing the last such deployment back to May 1980, when Beijing launched a DF-5 missile into the South Pacific. Usually, the PLA test-fires ballistic missiles in China’s remote Xinjiang region or in the Bohai Sea.
Why the Pacific, why now?
China choosing the Pacific Ocean as the location for test-firing its missile comes across as both a display of its increased nuclear capabilities and as a warning to the United States and its allies in the region, experts say.
“There is no other potential audience, as China does not expect to have to confront the EU or the U.K. militarily,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London.
The test also comes weeks ahead of an expected call between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden. It marks an increase in regional security tensions with U.S. allies Japan and the Philippines, and a continuation of frictions with the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it was monitoring the missile launch, along with other military exercises by China in the region.
The launch, coinciding with the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, “is a pretty blunt signal” to the international order, said Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and a former U.S. defense official.
“China is signaling that its forbearance has limits, that it is prepared to use its most powerful weapons to deter adversaries or punish them if needed, if deterrence fails,” he said.
Wednesday’s launch also follows a series of corruption arrests this year that ensnared several leading officers in its rocket corps on allegations of misconduct. Its aim could be to both provide assurances at home and signal to the world that the issues have been resolved.
How strong is China’s military?
China boasts the world’s largest standing army and the biggest navy. Its military budget is the second highest in the world, after that of the U.S.
According to the U.S., China also has the largest air force in the Indo-Pacific, with more than half of its fighter planes consisting of fourth or fifth generation models. China also boasts a massive stockpile of missiles, along with stealth aircraft, bombers capable of delivering nuclear weapons, advanced surface ships and nuclear-powered submarines.
In his more than a decade in power, Xi, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, has spearheaded the armed forces’ modernization, with investments in high-tech military technologies from stealth fighters to aircraft carriers and a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons.
China’s defense budget has more than doubled since 2015, even as the country’s economic growth rate has slowed considerably. A U.S. Department of Defense report last year said China has continued to strengthen the PLA’s ability to “fight and win wars against a strong enemy.”
How do China’s missiles compare to those of others?
The U.S. report also estimated China had more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023 and was on track to accumulate more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030.
China has not revealed the size of its nuclear arsenal.
In comparison, Russia is believed to have a total inventory of more than 5,580 warheads — including 4,380 stockpiled warheads for operational forces, as well as an additional 1,200 retired warheads awaiting dismantlement — according to a report this year by the Federation of American Scientists.
The same report put the U.S. nuclear warheads at 5,044.
How common are missile tests in the region?
Few countries have ICBMs in their arsenal, and testing is usually restricted to their own territory. North Korea has carried out multiple ICBM tests since 2017, including firing a developmental solid-fueled missile in December that came down in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
The U.S. earlier this year fired two unarmed ICBMs equipped with reentry vehicles from California and brought them down on an American test site in the Marshall Islands.
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