Vietnam has extradited Vasil Veremeychik, a former anti-Alexander Lukashenko activist who later became a soldier in Ukraine’s Kastus Kalinouski Regiment. The regiment is made up of Belarusian military volunteers fighting on Ukraine’s side. Veremeychik was detained in Vietnam, where he had traveled, after Lithuania denied his asylum request because of his service in the Belarusian armed forces.
See the full story here.
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TALLINN, ESTONIA — Imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Gorinov was convicted again on Friday for opposing Russia’s war in Ukraine and handed a three-year prison term.
A swift, three-day trial against Gorinov, once a low-profile activist, underscored Moscow’s intolerance of any dissenting voices.
Gorinov, a 63-year-old former member of a Moscow municipal council, is already serving a seven-year prison term for public criticism of the full-scale invasion.
Taking into account his previous conviction and sentence, a court in Russia’s Vladimir region ordered him to serve a total of five years in a maximum-security prison, a facility with stricter conditions than the one he’s currently in.
Russia’s independent news site Mediazona quoted Gorinov’s lawyer as saying that it means he will spend a year more behind bars compared to his previous sentence.
Gorinov was first convicted in July 2022, when a court in Moscow sentenced him to seven years in prison for “spreading false information” about the Russian army at a municipal council meeting.
Gorinov allegedly voiced skepticism about a children’s art competition in his constituency while saying that “every day children are dying” in Ukraine.
He was the first known Russian sent to prison under a 2022 law that essentially bans any public expression about the war that deviates from the official narrative.
His arrest, conviction and imprisonment has shocked many. In written comments to The Associated Press from behind bars in March 2023, Gorinov said that “authorities needed an example they could showcase to others (of) an ordinary person, rather than a public figure.”
Authorities launched a second case against him last year, according to his supporters. He was accused of “justifying terrorism” in conversations with his cellmates about Ukraine’s Azov battalion, which Russia outlawed as a terrorist organization, and the 2022 explosion on the Crimean bridge, which Moscow deemed an act of terrorism.
Gorinov vehemently rejected the accusations Wednesday, independent news site Mediazona reported. It quoted him as telling the court that he merely said the annexed Crimean Peninsula was Ukrainian territory and called Azov a part of the Ukrainian army.
Gorinov’s trial began Wednesday in the Vladimir region, where he is serving time stemming from his previous conviction. Photos from the courtroom, published by Mediazona, showed a weary Gorinov in the defendant’s cage, with a hand-drawn peace symbol on a piece of paper covering his prison badge. He held a hand-written placard saying: “Stop killing. Let’s stop the war.”
He had part of a lung removed before prison and has struggled with respiratory illnesses behind bars.
In his closing statement in court on Friday, Gorinov remained defiant and once again condemned the Russian authorities for the war in Ukraine.
“My guilt is that I, as a citizen of my country, allowed this war to happen and could not stop it,” Mediazona quoted him as saying.
“But I would like my guilt and responsibility to be shared with me by the organizers, participants, supporters of the war, as well as the persecutors of those who advocate peace. I continue to live with the hope that this will happen someday. In the meantime, I ask those who live in Ukraine and my fellow citizens who suffered from the war to forgive me,” Gorinov said.
According to OVD-Info, a prominent rights group that tracks political arrests, some 1,100 people have been implicated in criminal cases over their anti-war stance since February 2022. A total of 340 of them are currently behind bars or have been involuntarily committed to medical institutions.
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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has urged his NATO counterparts to issue an invitation at a meeting in Brussels next week to Kyiv to join the Western military alliance, according to the text of a letter seen by Reuters on Friday.
The letter reflects Ukraine’s renewed push to secure an invitation to join NATO, which is part of a “victory plan” outlined last month by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to end the war triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Ukraine says it accepts that it cannot join the alliance until the war is over but extending an invitation now would show Russian President Vladimir Putin that he could not achieve one of his main goals — preventing Kyiv from becoming a NATO member.
“The invitation should not be seen as an escalation,” Sybiha wrote in the letter.
“On the contrary, with a clear understanding that Ukraine’s membership in NATO is inevitable, Russia will lose one of its main arguments for continuing this unjustified war,” he wrote. “I urge you to endorse the decision to invite Ukraine to join the Alliance as one of the outcomes of the NATO Foreign Ministerial Meeting on 3-4 December 2024.”
NATO diplomats say there is no consensus among alliance members to invite Ukraine at this stage. Any such decision would require the consent of all NATO’s 32 member countries.
NATO has declared that Ukraine will join the alliance and that it is on an “irreversible” path to membership. But it has not issued a formal invitation or set out a timeline.
Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister in charge of NATO affairs, said Kyiv understood that the consensus for an invitation to join NATO “is not yet there” but the letter was meant to send a strong political signal.
“We have sent a message to the allies that invitation is not off of the table, regardless of different manipulations and speculations around that,” she told Reuters.
In his letter, Sybiha argued an invitation would be the right response “to Russia’s constant escalation of the war it has unleashed, the latest demonstration of which is the involvement of tens of thousands of North Korean troops and the use of Ukraine as a testing ground for new weapons.”
In recent days, however, diplomats have said they do not see any changes of stance among NATO countries, particularly as they await the Ukraine policy of the United States — the alliance’s dominant power — under the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
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ABUJA, NIGERIA — At least 100 people, most of them women, were missing after a boat transporting them to a food market capsized along the River Niger in northern Nigeria, authorities said Friday.
The boat was taking the passengers from Kogi state along the river to neighboring Niger early Friday when it capsized, Niger State Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Ibrahim Audu told The Associated Press.
At least eight people were confirmed dead at the scene while local divers were trying to rescue others, the local Channels Television reported, citing witness accounts.
Authorities have not confirmed what caused the sinking. However, local media reported that the boat was carrying more than 200 passengers, suggesting it might have been overloaded. Overcrowding in vehicles is common in remote parts of Nigeria where the lack of good roads leaves many with no alternative routes.
Officials in Kogi are yet to locate the exact location of the incident and were seeking assistance from other agencies, according to Justin Uwazuruonye, who oversees Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency operations in the state.
Such deadly incidents are increasingly becoming a source of concern in Nigeria, Africa’s most-populous country, as authorities struggle to enforce safety measures and regulations for water transportation.
Most of the accidents have been attributed to overcrowding and the lack of maintenance of the boats, often built locally to accommodate as many passengers as possible in defiance of safety measures.
Authorities have not been able to enforce the use of life jackets on such trips, often because of lack of availability or cost.
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Cucumbers shipped to 13 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces have been recalled because of potential salmonella contamination, the Food and Drug Administration said this week.
SunFed Produce, based in Arizona, recalled the cucumbers sold between October 12 and November 26, the FDA said Thursday.
No illnesses were immediately reported. People who bought cucumbers during the window should check with the store where they purchased them to see if the produce is part of the recall. Wash items and surfaces that may have been in contact with the produce using hot, soapy water or a dishwasher.
Salmonella can cause symptoms that begin six hours to six days after ingesting the bacteria and include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps. Most people recover without treatment within a week, but young children, people older than 65 and those with weakened immune systems can become seriously ill.
Earlier this summer, a separate salmonella outbreak in cucumbers sickened 450 people in the United States.
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In Southern California, what was once America’s second-largest landfill is on its way to becoming a recreational park. From Los Angeles, VOA’s Genia Dulot reports on its development in an urban environment with scare green spaces.
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Paraguayan Foreign Minister Ruben Dario Ramirez Lezcano said Friday the country remains committed to diplomatic ties with Taiwan despite farm sector calls for it to switch to having formal relations with China.
At the same time, Ramirez Lezcano said his government is open to establishing trade and other relations with Beijing as long as it would not have to break off its ties with Taiwan. Paraguay is one of only 12 countries maintaining diplomatic relations with Taiwan — and the only one in South America.
“Paraguay is open to establishing diplomatic, consular or commercial relations with China without conditions,” Ramirez Lezcano told VOA and five other U.S. news organizations.
“We are still committed to supporting the Taiwan government, and we don’t accept any condition to break our relations with Taiwan,” he said.
Paraguay has been seeking to gain access to the Chinese market though a trade deal between Beijing and the South American Common Market, known by its Spanish initials Mercosur, which includes countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Uruguay as well as Paraguay.
“Our position with China is one of total openness,” said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena during an August interview with Reuters. “We are in favor of advancing trade agreements.”
However, talks toward a China-Mercosur trade deal have so far been frustrated by disagreements among the Mercosur members and China’s insistence that any country seeking relations with Beijing must renounce its diplomatic recognition of Taiwan.
‘Principles and values’ matter, too
Ramirez Lezcano reiterated Friday that economic benefit is not the only consideration for Paraguay when deciding whether to maintain diplomatic relations with any country.
“The most important factors are principles and values, rather than just trade and money,” he said.
Analysts say Paraguay’s recognition of Taiwan is not the only obstacle to a China-Mercosur trade deal. There are also fears by some countries within the bloc about overreliance on China and the impact that a deal would have on their own industries.
Kung Kwo-Wei, a Latin American affairs expert at Tamkang University in Taiwan, noted that Brazil imposed new tariffs In October on Chinese and other Asian imports such as iron, steel and fiber, describing the move as an effort to combat dumping and protect Brazil’s domestic industries.
“Mercosur can only sign a free-trade agreement with China if all member states approve the proposal, but so far, there is no consensus among all member states because Brazil remains cautious about the move,” said Su Yen-pin, an expert on Latin American affairs at National Chengchi University in Taiwan.
“Since Paraguay has repeatedly said it won’t sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan in exchange for signing trade deals with China, that makes it impossible for Mercosur to approve the free-trade agreement with China anytime soon,” he told VOA by phone.
China has repeatedly emphasized that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and urged Paraguay to “follow the trend of history.”
“We hope the government and leader of Paraguay will follow the trend of history, meet the aspiration of its people, stand on the right side of history as early as possible, join the overwhelming majority of the international community, and make the right decision that serves the fundamental and long-term interests of the country,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in August.
Trade with Taiwan
While Paraguay is unlikely to sign trade deals with China anytime soon, experts say Taiwan faces pressure to increase its imports from Paraguay and its investments there.
“Members of the Paraguayan Congress tend to discuss the benefits for Paraguay to maintain ties with Taiwan, and there is an increasing sense among Paraguay’s agricultural businesses that they are losing a lot of economic benefits from maintaining ties with Taiwan,” said Fabricio Fonseca, an assistant professor of diplomacy at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University.
He said that while Taiwan continues to increase its imports of beef and other agricultural products from Paraguay, farmers in other Mercosur states want the greater access to the China market a trade deal would offer, contributing to the pressure on the Paraguayan government.
“Every once in a while, not only during election cycles, we see these push to discuss the topic of Paraguay’s relations with Taiwan in the Congress, and this will continue to affect bilateral ties between Taiwan and Paraguay,” Fonseca told VOA by phone.
Paraguay has also been seeking more Taiwanese investment. Ramirez Lezcano said Asuncion is trying to attract more Taiwanese investments in the high-tech sector.
“Taiwan is establishing an industrial park in Paraguay, and we are working to establish a technological ecosystem with Taiwanese companies,” he told the reporters Friday.
While Taiwan has sent several trade delegations to Paraguay in recent years, some Taiwanese analysts say the number of Taiwanese businesses investing in Paraguay remains limited.
“Paraguay is geographically far from Taiwan, and Taiwanese businesses often think it’s difficult to ensure a smooth industrial technology transfer to Paraguay,” Kung Kwo-Wei, a Latin American affairs expert at Tamkang University in Taiwan, told VOA by phone.
Despite Taiwan’s limited private sector investment in Paraguay, Kung said the United States and Taiwan are working together to help Paraguay expand its private sector.
“In 2021, Taiwan and the U.S. worked with Paraguay to bolster growth in its renewable energy and electric vehicle sector, and the three countries also jointly established several small business development centers,” he said.
Despite the challenges, Su in Taiwan said Paraguay’s ruling Colorado Party is unlikely to make a major shift.
“Unless there is a regime change in Paraguay’s next election, there won’t be too many opportunities for China to influence the diplomatic ties between Taipei and Asunción,” he told VOA.
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Vinnytsia resident Vyacheslav Strazhets lost his right arm in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but even as an amputee, he is doing what he can to help other soldiers fight the war. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. Camera: Pavel Suhodolskiy
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PRAGUE — Lola Tagaeva has no problem acknowledging that she is not an easy boss. But when you’re running a startup news outlet from exile while your home country is at war, a steely demeanor can be an asset.
“I think it’s incredibly tough to work with me,” Tagaeva said with pride, when we met at a Prague cafe on a rainy October morning. Tagaeva asks her reporters “to travel to the future,” she said, and to figure out what stories haven’t been told yet.
“We have to be two steps ahead,” she said.
That outlook is what helped put the outlet she founded — Verstka — on the map in such a short period of time.
Tagaeva founded the news website from exile shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The outlet now reaches millions of people each month and has grown into a major player in the independent Russian media landscape.
Originally from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Tagaeva left Russia for Prague in 2019 — not because of safety concerns over her work, but because of her daughter.
“I never wanted to move, actually, but when I gave birth to her, I understood that I wanted her to grow up in a free place,” Tagaeva said.
Tagaeva had worked at top Russian independent outlets, including Novaya Gazeta and TV Rain. But after years of hoping that her work would bring change to Russia, only to see the country become more authoritarian, she was burned out.
“Every day was news from [an] apocalypse,” Tagaeva said.
Tagaeva’s break from journalism lasted about three years. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the journalist knew that many more stories would need to be told and that the Kremlin would embark on a harsher crackdown on independent media.
“I started to feel some kind of responsibility,” she said. So, she founded Verstka.
Verstka is Russian for “layout,” like the layout of a newspaper’s front page. The outlet started in April 2022 and now reaches millions of people each month, about 70% of whom are inside Russia, according to Tagaeva.
Verstka’s success is at least partly a product of the time in which it was founded, when Russian journalists were figuring out how to reinvent themselves during war and as a media crackdown forced them into exile, according to Karol Luczka, who covers eastern Europe at the International Press Institute in Vienna.
“They [Verstka’s staff] were able to enter the mainstream of big, Russian independent media without being big and while being very new,” Luczka told VOA.
Tagaeva points to Verstka’s commitment to distribution as a main driver behind the outlet’s early success. She had key staff on board even before the outlet was officially founded, Tagaeva said.
“We didn’t have money. We didn’t have staff. But I already had a director of marketing,” Tagaeva said.
Like many Russian news outlets, the social media platform Telegram is Verstka’s primary hub.
“I don’t believe in media without good distribution, because it’s not a private blog,” Tagaeva said. “If I’m not able to distribute what you wrote, we don’t need it.”
Perhaps more important than distribution is Tagaeva’s commitment to covering underreported issues.
Instead of daily news, Verstka focuses on deeply reported features and investigations — the kinds of stories that readers can’t easily get anywhere else.
The outlet was one of the first to report on Russia abducting Ukrainian children.
Kyiv estimates that 20,000 Ukrainian children have been taken since the invasion. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on war crimes charges related to the practice. Moscow says that it has protected vulnerable children from the war zone and that it does not recognize the ICC.
The opportunity to produce stories of that weight is what convinced journalist Anna Ryzhkova to work at Verstka.
“I have zero questions about the importance of the work we do,” Ryzhkova told VOA. The priority is stories that are “impossible not to pay attention to,” she said.
Ryzhkova reported for various outlets in Russia before leaving for Georgia shortly after the war began. She has worked at Verstka since it was founded and moved to Prague in 2023.
Ryzhkova acknowledges that Tagaeva’s standards are high. But Ryzhkova said she knows that is why Verstka has succeeded in a generally difficult media landscape.
“It’s like an illness. At first, you might not feel really comfortable with the pace of work, but then you just become a part of it,” Ryzhkova said. “What Lola demands from us is something that we actually demand from ourselves now.”
Tagaeva believes that when outlets feel too comfortable, they don’t push themselves, saying, “There is always space to develop yourself.”
In just a couple years, her outlet has expanded from three to about 50 employees — some of whom are still reporting anonymously from inside Russia.
But as the third anniversary of the invasion approaches, Tagaeva is concerned that the repressive environment in Russia will hamper the next generation of journalists.
“This, I’m afraid, will be the most dangerous issue for us,” Tagaeva said.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Moscow has imposed harsh laws and punishments on journalists who don’t follow the Kremlin’s narrative. For journalists still in the country, “you have to shut up, or you have to go to prison,” Tagaeva said.
Although Tagaeva didn’t leave her home because of her work, it’s the main reason that she can’t return anytime soon. She and Verstka have been labeled foreign agents by the Russian government.
Tagaeva expects Verstka to eventually be labeled an undesirable organization, like many other independent Russian news outlets. That designation would ban Verstka’s operations in Russia and open up Verstka staffers and sources to fines, criminal charges and jail time.
But she remains committed to reporting. And her experience running an outlet has reframed for Tagaeva what it means to have impact.
“We’re not changing the world, but we’re helping people to see the reality,” she said. “And I think it’s enough for us.”
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KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA — Malaysia is preparing for its worst floods in a decade after heavier-than-expected monsoon rains caused severe flooding that killed three people and displaced more than 90,000.
The National Disaster Command Center online portal said Friday that 94,778 people from more than 28,000 families across nine states were evacuated to 527 temporary shelters. The northeastern state of Kelantan, bordering Thailand, was the worst affected, with 63,761 people evacuated from their homes, followed by neighboring Terengganu with 22,511.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Friday that all Cabinet ministers were barred from going on vacation. He said they have been instructed to help in flood-prone areas.
“All ministers have been told to go to the ground. Yes, leave has been frozen for them,” Anwar was quoted as saying by national Bernama news agency.
His deputy, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who heads the disaster response, said Thursday that floods this year were expected to be worse than 2014, when more than 250,000 people were displaced and 21 killed. He was cited by local media as saying that the weather forecast indicated heavy rainfall next month would likely affect more states.
Zahid was quoted by the New Straits Times newspaper as saying that government agencies were prepared to tackle the disaster. Nearly 83,000 personnel and thousands of rescue boats, four-wheel vehicles and life jackets as well as 31 helicopters are ready, he said.
The government has also identified 8,481 temporary evacuation centers nationwide that can accommodate over two million people, he said.
“Given the severity of the situation, all parties have been mobilized to ensure the safety and welfare of flood victims,” he was quoted as saying by the national Bernama news agency.
Floods are common in parts of Malaysia during the annual monsoon season, which starts in November and could last until March. The Meteorological Department has said the country can expect between five and seven episodes of heavy rainfall during that period.
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Iran will begin enriching uranium with thousands of advanced centrifuges at its two main nuclear facilities at Fordo and Natanz, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Friday, further raising tensions over Tehran’s program as it enriches at near weapons-grade levels.
The notice from the International Atomic Energy Agency mentioned Iran enriching uranium with new centrifuges to only 5% purity, far lower than the 60% it currently does — likely signaling that it still wants to negotiate with the West and the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
However, it remains unclear how Trump will approach Iran once he enters office, particularly as Iran continues to threaten to attack Israel amid Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and just after a ceasefire started with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the IAEA’s report. Tehran had threatened to rapidly advance its program after the Board of Governors at the IAEA condemned Iran at a meeting in November for failing to cooperate fully with the agency.
In a statement, the IAEA outlined the plans Iran informed it of, which include feeding uranium into multiple cascades of its advanced IR-2M, IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges.
Cascades are a group of centrifuges that spin uranium gas together to more quickly enrich the uranium. Each of these advanced classes of centrifuges enrich uranium faster than Iran’s baseline IR-1 centrifuges, which have been the workhorse of the country’s atomic program.
The IAEA did not elaborate on how many machines would be in each cascade, but Iran has put around 160 centrifuges into a single cascade in the past.
It’s unclear if Iran has begun feeding the uranium yet into the centrifuges. Tehran so far has been vague about its plans. But starting the enrichment at 5% gives Tehran leverage at negotiations with the West and another way to dial up the pressure if they don’t like what they hear. Weapons-grade levels of enrichment are around 90%.
Since the collapse of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers following the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, it has pursued nuclear enrichment just below weapons-grade levels. U.S. intelligence agencies and others assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program.
Iran, as a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, has pledged to allow the IAEA to visit its atomic sites to ensure its program is peaceful. Tehran also had agreed to additional oversight from the IAEA as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw sanctions lifted in exchange for drastically limiting its program.
However, for years Iran has curtailed inspectors’ access to sites while also not fully answering questions about other sites where nuclear material has been found in the past after the deal’s collapse.
Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, had signaled in recent months a willingness to negotiate with the West. But Iran also has launched two large-scale missile attacks on Israel amid the war.
Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian diplomat, said in a post on a social media platform that he met with EU diplomat Enrique Mora and criticized Europe as being “self-centered” while having “irresponsible behavior.”
“With regard to the nuclear issue of Iran, Europe has failed to be a serious player due to lack of self-confidence and responsibility,” Gharibabadi wrote.
For his part, Mora described having a “frank discussion” with Gharibabadi and another Iranian diplomat. Those talks included “Iran’s military support to Russia that has to stop, the nuclear issue that needs a diplomatic solution, regional tensions (important to avoid further escalation from all sides) and human rights,” he wrote on X.
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NYANGAMBE, ZIMBABWE — At first, the suggestion to try farming maggots spooked Mari Choumumba and other farmers in Nyangambe, a region in southeastern Zimbabwe where drought wiped out the staple crop of corn.
After multiple cholera outbreaks in the southern African nation resulting from extreme weather and poor sanitation, flies were largely seen as something to exterminate, not breed.
“We were alarmed,” Choumumba said, recalling a community meeting where experts from the government and the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, broached the idea.
People had flocked to the gathering in hope of news about food aid. But many stepped back when told it was about training on farming maggots for animal feed and garden manure.
“People were like, ‘What? These are flies. Flies bring cholera,’” Choumumba said.
A year later, the 54-year-old walks with a smile to a smelly cement pit covered by wire mesh where she feeds rotting waste to maggots — her new meal ticket.
After harvesting the insects about once a month, Choumumba turns them into protein-rich feed for her free-range chickens that she eats and sells.
Up to 80% of chicken production costs were gobbled up by feed for rural farmers before they took up maggot farming. Many couldn’t afford the $35 charged by stores for a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag of poultry feed, said Francis Makura, a specialist with a USAID program aimed at broadening revenue streams for farmers affected by climate change.
But maggot farming reduces production costs by about 40%, he said.
Black soldier fly
The maggots are offspring of the black soldier fly, which originates in tropical South America. Unlike the house fly, it is not known to spread disease.
Their life cycle lasts just weeks, and they lay between 500 and 900 eggs. The larvae devour decaying organic items — from rotting fruit and vegetables to kitchen scraps and animal manure — and turn them into a rich protein source for livestock.
“It is even better than the crude protein we get from soya,” said Robert Musundire, a professor specializing in agricultural science and entomology at Chinhoyi University of Technology in Zimbabwe, which breeds the insects and helps farmers with breeding skills.
Donors and governments have pushed for more black soldier fly maggot farming in Africa because of its low labor and production costs and huge benefits to agriculture, the continent’s mainstay that is under pressure from climate change and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In Uganda, the maggots helped plug a fertilizer crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. In Nigeria and Kenya, they are becoming a commercial success.
In Zimbabwe
The Zimbabwean government and partners piloted it among farmers struggling with securing soya meal for their animals. A World Bank-led project later used it as a recovery effort for communities affected by a devastating 2019 cyclone.
Now it is becoming a lifesaver for some communities in the country of 15 million people where repeated droughts make it difficult to grow corn. It’s not clear how many people across the country are involved in maggot-farming projects.
At first, “a mere 5%” of farmers that Musundire, the professor, approached agreed to venture into maggot farming. Now that’s up to “about 50%,” he said, after people understood the protein benefits and the lack of disease transmission.
The “yuck factor” was an issue. But necessity triumphed, he said.
With the drought decimating crops and big livestock such as cattle — a traditional symbol of wealth and status and a source of labor — small livestock such as chickens are helping communities recover more quickly.
“They can fairly raise a decent livelihood out of the resources they have within a short period of time,” Musundire said.
Reduces waste, too
It also helps the environment. Zimbabwe produces about 1.6 million tons of waste annually, 90% of which can be recycled or composted, according to the country’s Environmental Management Agency. Experts say feeding it to maggots can help reduce greenhouse emissions in a country where garbage collection is erratic.
At a plot near the university, Musundire and his students run a maggot breeding center in the city of 100,000 people. The project collects over 35 metric tons a month in food waste from the university’s canteens as well as vegetable markets, supermarkets, abattoirs, food processing companies and beer brewers.
“Food waste is living, it respires and it contributes to the generation of greenhouse gases,” Musundire said.
According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, food loss — which occurs in the stages before reaching the consumer — and food waste after sale account for 8% to 10% of greenhouse gas emissions globally, or about five times that of the aviation sector.
The university project converts about 20 to 30 metric tons of the waste into livestock protein or garden manure in about two weeks.
Choumambo said people often sneer as she goes around her own community collecting banana peels and other waste that people toss out at the market and bus station.
“I tell them we have good use for it, it is food for our maggots,” she said. She still has to contend with “ignorant” people who accuse maggot farmers of “breeding cholera.”
But she cares little about that as her farm begins to thrive.
‘Sweet smell of food’
From bare survival, it is becoming a profitable venture. She can harvest up to 15 kilograms (about 33 pounds) of maggots in 21 days, turning out 375 kilograms (826.7 pounds) of chicken feed after mixing it with drought-tolerant crops such as millets, cowpeas and sunflower and a bit of salt.
Choumambo sells some of the feed to fellow villagers at a fraction of the cost charged by stores for traditional animal feed. She also sells eggs and free-range chickens, a delicacy in Zimbabwe, to restaurants. She’s one of 14 women in her village taking up the project.
“I never imagined keeping and surviving on maggots,” she said, taking turns with a neighbor to mix rotting vegetables, corn meal and other waste in a tank using a shovel.
“Many people would puke at the sight and the stench. But this is the sweet smell of food for the maggots, and for us, the farmers.”
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When Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in an August 2023 plane crash, many analysts said his death could mark the end of the Wagner Group, the private military company he co-founded that provided thousands of Russian mercenaries for Moscow’s initiatives and other interests abroad.
But more than a year later, the picture of Russian mercenary activities has only grown more complicated, researchers say.
Before Prigozhin’s death, Wagner’s mercenaries had fought in conflicts around the world –– from Ukraine to the Middle East and Africa –– and helped Russia to spread its influence far beyond its borders.
Along the way, Wagner faced allegations of murdering African civilians and committing war crimes.
Then, in June 2023, Prigozhin launched an unexpected insurrection against Russian authorities over their handling of the war in Ukraine. His mercenaries captured the city of Rostov-on-Don and marched on toward Moscow. Prigozhin stood down only after the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, mediated a deal.
After such brazen insubordination, many were unsurprised when Prigozhin died in a plane crash less than two months later. But predictions that the Wagner Group’s activities would die with him have proven to be untrue.
Wagner Group fighters are still active in the Central African Republic and Mali. In other countries like Niger, it has been replaced by Africa Corps, a successor organization subordinate to Russia’s defense ministry. In other cases, different Russian militarized structures have picked up the Wagner name and symbols.
What is clear to analysts is that Russian mercenaries are not going away. If anything, the future of Russian private military companies will be “more sustainable and less spectacular” according to Jack Margolin, an independent researcher who recently published a book on the Wagner Group.
Since Prigozhin’s death, Russia has “really effectively created infrastructure and incentive structures in order to draw in former [Wagner] fighters and build this system of semi-formal forces,” he told VOA.
Ties with the Russian state
The Wagner Group’s activities around the world have always been intertwined with Russian foreign policy, but the exact nature of that connection is a subject of debate among experts.
Margolin notes that Wagner co-founder Dmitry Utkin –– who also died in the August 2023 plane crash –– served in the special forces of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, commonly called the GRU. Around 2014, he and Prigozhin founded the Wagner Group, which was initially small.
That same year, Wagner took part in the illegal Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Later, the mercenaries were dispatched to the pseudo-state Russia propped up in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.
During this period, there is ample evidence that Wagner actively cooperated with the Russian defense ministry –– in part because Ukraine intercepted Wagner conversations with Russian officers.
But when Wagner operations moved beyond Ukraine, the picture grew more complicated. Experts differ on how to interpret it.
Maria Kucherenko leads Russian studies at the Ukraine-based Come Back Alive Initiatives Center. She believes that Wagner was created by Russian military intelligence and remains under its control.
For this reason, she views the post-Prigozhin changes in the mercenary corps as largely superficial.
“Only the surnames of the GRU generals in charge have changed,” she said.
Other analysts paint a more complex picture of Wagner’s ties with the Russian state. Margolin sees a greater degree of freedom in Wagner’s past activities.
“They acted in the GRU’s interest. They coordinated with the GRU. All of Wagner’s operations abroad were supported by logistics that were owned by the Ministry of Defense,” he said. “But at the same time, they were still able to determine in this local context exactly what they wanted to do.”
John Lechner, a researcher who will publish a book on Wagner in March, believes the mercenary corps’ relationship with the Russian state heavily depended on the country where it was operating.
In Ukraine and Syria, where the mercenaries backed the government of Bashar al-Assad, Wagner actively collaborated with the Russia’s defense ministry. But in sub-Saharan Africa, where the Russian state had a very limited presence, Wagner was able to decide what Russia’s national interests were, Lecher said in an interview.
Wagner wasn’t “just a shadowy arm of the Kremlin pursuing the Kremlin’s interests; they were creating them,” he said.
What next?
Since Prighzoin’s death, Wagner has undergone significant changes –– although analysts disagree about how fundamental they are.
Russian journalist Ilya Barabanov, who coauthored a Russian-language history of Wagner, believes that the old private military company essentially no longer exists.
“Over the last year and a half, we’ve seen Prigozhin’s empire being broken apart,” he told VOA. “Some [parts] are going to the Ministry of Defense. Some are going to the Russian National Guard. Some are going to Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces.”
The original Wagner, meanwhile, continues to operate only in the Central African Republic, Mali, and Belarus.
Despite these changes, the dissolution of Wagner is going more slowly than expected because the Kremlin is too busy waging war in Ukraine, Barabanov added.
Margolin emphasizes that Russia’s successor mercenary structures won’t function the same way Wagner did.
The Wagner Group stood out for its risk appetite and relative independence from the Russian government. In the Central African Republic, it was Wagner that decided to transition from a strategy of defending the capital of Bangui and the country’s political elite to a more aggressive battle with insurgents, he notes. Wagner also decided with whom it would do business.
In contrast, Africa Corps and other successor companies are much more risk-averse and more actively coordinate their activities with Russian military intelligence, Margolin said.
Lechner notes that efforts to replace Wagner have been more successful in some places than others.
Starting in 2019, Wagner mercenaries fought in Libya on the side of rebel general Khalifa Haftar. But in October 2020, he signed a ceasefire with the United Nations-backed Libyan government. Because active fighting had stopped, Russia had little trouble replacing Wagner there with Africa Corps, Lechner said.
In Mali, Wagner mercenaries are engaged in pitched battles with Tuareg separatists and Islamist fighters in the country’s north. In late July, dozens of Russian fighters were killed in an ambush near the town of Tinzaouaten.
Lechner suggests that in the future there will be multiple “mini-Prigozhins” in charge of Russian military companies, but not one individual with “all of the political clout and business interests that Prigozhin had come to represent.”
Both Margolin and Lechner agree that, while Wagner is no longer officially fighting in Ukraine, its influence on that conflict has been significant.
Journalists have often pointed out Wagner’s usage of so-called “meat storms,” when the company was willing to sacrifice waves of men to wear down Ukrainian forces. The tactic was particularly noticeable during the 2022-23 battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which Russia eventually razed and captured.
But Wagner also gained military experience in the Middle East and Africa that the official Russian military is now applying in Ukraine: for example, devolving command authority to lower echelons and small unit tactics, Margolin said.
“Wagner has in many ways achieved the thing that Prigozhin said was necessary during the siege of Bakhmut, which was that the Russian armed forces needed to become more like Wagner to be more effective,” he told VOA.
Lechner refers to it as the “Wagnerization of the Russian military.”
Resisting Russian mercenaries abroad
Regardless of exactly what structures succeed Wagner, Russian mercenary activities will likely continue to worry Western governments. Experts say it will be difficult to push back against their influence abroad.
Ukrainian researcher Kucherenko believes that the U.S., European countries, Ukraine, and other partners must join forces to counteract Russian mercenaries. But she suggests they must look higher in the command structure.
“We need to evaluate them as representatives of the GRU itself,” she said.
She suggests directing particular attention to Yunus-bek Yevkurov, Russia’s deputy defense minister, and Major General Andrei Averyanov, the reported former commander of a secretive military intelligence unit that has conducted assassinations abroad. Both men now are reputed to play key roles in Africa Corps.
Margolin suggests that, among other efforts, the U.S. should focus on export controls to limit the mercenaries’ access to military technologies, especially drone technologies, which played a key role in Wagner’s activities in Ukraine.
He also suggests that Western governments should be cautious about propping up African regimes with poor human rights records and entrenched corruption, despite any fears that Russia will rush in if they do not.
In fact, engaging with such governments feeds popular anger against the West, which in turn provides “fertile ground for organizations like Wagner to take root,” Margolin said.
Lechner notes that Wagner expanded its presence in Africa as Western powers exited the continent.
For example, France withdrew its forces from the Central African Republic in 2016 amid a civil war in the country. Wagner stepped in to provide security for the country’s leadership.
“I don’t think there is any interest for the United States to put troops on the ground in Africa to be perfectly honest,” Lechner said. Short of that, he said, “I’m not exactly sure what [Western powers] can offer.”
Russian mercenaries have few similar competitors in the region. Though China is active in Africa, its activities are mainly focused on large economic investments. Even Wagner’s business activities have mostly not placed it in conflict with China.
Russian journalist Barabanov suggests there is one more factor that will play a key role in determining the future of Russian mercenaries: Russia’s war against Ukraine.
If that conflict ends, then “the Russian government will have a huge human resource of veterans who fought in this war,” he said, “and they can probably be used in other, far-off conflicts.”
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BEIJING/HONG KONG — A Beijing court sentenced veteran Chinese state media journalist Dong Yuyu on Friday to seven years in prison for espionage, his family said in a statement, calling the verdict a grave injustice.
Police in the Chinese capital detained the 62-year-old former Guangming Daily editor and journalist in February 2022 while he was lunching with a Japanese diplomat, the U.S. National Press Club said in a statement. He was later charged with espionage.
“Sentencing Yuyu to seven years in prison on no evidence declares to the world the bankruptcy of the justice system in China,” Dong’s family said in a statement provided to Reuters.
“Today’s verdict is a grave injustice not only to Yuyu and his family but also to every freethinking Chinese journalist and every ordinary Chinese committed to friendly engagement with the world.”
The family added that in the court judgment, Japanese diplomats whom Dong met were “specifically named as agents of an ‘espionage organization,’ which is the Japanese embassy in Beijing.”
Dong’s conviction implied every Chinese citizen would be “expected to know that the Chinese government may consider those embassies to be ‘espionage organizations’,” it said, causing a chilling effect.
Police guarded the court on Friday, with seven police cars parked nearby, and journalists were asked to leave the area. A U.S. diplomat said they had been barred from attending the hearing.
Dong has been detained in a Beijing prison since a closed-court hearing in July 2023, the press club said in September.
“Chinese authorities must reverse this unjust verdict, and protect the right of journalists to work freely and safely in China,” said Beh Lih Yi, Asia program manager at the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“Dong Yuyu should be reunited with his family immediately.”
Dong regularly had in-person exchanges with diplomats from various embassies and journalists.
The Japanese diplomat he met, one of two he had regularly met in the past, was also detained for several hours, spurring a complaint from Japan’s foreign ministry.
At the time, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said the diplomat was engaged in activities “inconsistent with their capacity” in China. The diplomat was later released.
A Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2007, Dong was a visiting scholar and visiting professor at Keio University and Hokkaido University in Japan, his family said in a statement in April 2023.
He joined the Guangming Daily, affiliated to the ruling Communist Party, in 1987, after graduating from Peking University law school, and was the deputy editor of its commentary section.
He wrote opinion articles in Chinese media and liberal academic journals on topics from legal reforms to social issues and co-edited a book promoting the rule of law in China.
His articles advocated moderate reforms while avoiding direct criticism of President Xi Jinping.
His family had initially kept news of his detention private in the hope that charges could be reduced or dropped, but were told in March 2023 that he would stand trial, they said in their statement.
Non-government bodies (NGOs) advocating press freedom have called for his release, with more than 700 journalists, academics and NGO workers signing an online petition for him to be freed.
“Dong Yuyu is a talented reporter and author whose work has long been respected by colleagues,” said Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.
“We stand with many in hoping for his release and return to his family.”
In February, a Beijing court handed a suspended death sentence to Australian writer and pro-democracy blogger, Yang Hengjun, on espionage charges.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday threatened to strike “decision-making centers in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, with Russia’s new Oreshnik hypersonic cruise missiles, after pounding Ukrainian energy infrastructure and cutting off power to more than one million people across the country.
“We do not rule out the use of Oreshnik against the military, military-industrial or decision-making centers, including in Kyiv,” Putin told a news conference in the Kasakh capital, Astana.
He said he launched Thursday’s drone and missile attack against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with U.S. medium-range ATACMS missiles.
The attack marked Russia’s second big attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure this month. Officials said it was the 11th major strike on Ukraine’s energy system since March.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of a “despicable escalation,” saying it had used cruise missiles with cluster munitions.
The attack marks Russia’s second big attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure this month. Officials said it was the 11th major strike on Ukraine’s energy system since March.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow launched the attack in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with U.S. medium-range ATACMS missiles. Putin also said Russia’s future targets could include “decision-making centers” in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Ukraine called on the international community to respond to Putin’s threats to target government centers in Kyiv.
“We expect those countries that have urged everyone to avert the expansion of the war to react to the statements voiced by Putin today,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said.
In addition to the more than 1 million people who lost power in the aftermath of the strikes, millions more had their existing schedule of rolling power cuts escalated.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia used 91 missiles and 97 drones in the assault. The air force said 12 of those hit their targets, the majority of which were energy and fuel facilities. All missiles or drones aimed at Kyiv were brought down, officials said.
“The enemy is using a large number of missiles and drones. Their massive use in certain areas often exceeds the number of means of [air defense] cover,” the air force said in a statement.
In the Lviv region, 523,000 subscribers lost electricity, regional head Maksym Kozytsky said on social media. The region, in the western part of the country, borders Poland.
Directly north of the Lviv region, 215,000 customers lost power in the region of Volyn, and 280,000 lost power in the neighboring Rivne region, their governors said.
“Energy infrastructure is once again targeted by the enemy’s massive strike,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook.
Ukrenergo, the national electrical grid operator, introduced emergency power cuts amid the attack, Galushchenko said.
Officials told Reuters that several nuclear power units were disconnected from the network during the attacks.
Private power company DTEK said the power cuts impacted Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
Some regional officials said water service was also affected by the airstrikes.
The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said in a Telegram post that Russia had stockpiled missiles to strike Ukrainian infrastructure and wage war against civilians during the cold season, The Associated Press reported.
The three-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is looming, and Russian ground forces are advancing at their fastest pace in two years.
On Thursday, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry urged its partners to accelerate the delivery of military aid, saying that was more important than drafting more men.
“We are now in the situation when we need more equipment to arm all the people that have already been mobilized, and we think the first priority is to send quicker, faster military aid,” Tykhyi, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, told reporters in Kyiv.
The statement comes one day after a senior U.S. official said Wednesday that Ukraine should consider lowering the age of military service for its soldiers from 25 years old to 18 in order to replace those lost on the battlefield.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Ukraine is ready to host a second global summit aimed at ending Russia’s invasion in the “nearest future,” according to local media.
Kyiv hosted its first “peace summit” in June in Switzerland. Russia was not invited.
Speaking in Kazakhstan on Thursday, Putin said there were no preconditions to start talks with Ukraine on a possible peace deal, but that terms he set out in June for the deal remained the same.
In June, Putin said Russia would end the war only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over four entire Ukrainian provinces claimed by Moscow. Kyiv rejected those demands as amounting to surrender.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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NEW YORK — The holiday shopping season is about to reach full speed with Black Friday, which kicks off the post-Thanksgiving retail rush this week.
The annual sales event no longer creates the midnight mall crowds or doorbuster mayhem of recent decades, in large part due to the ease of online shopping and habits forged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hoping to entice equivocating consumers, retailers already have spent weeks bombarding customers with ads and early offers. Still, whether visiting stores or clicking on countless emails promising huge savings, tens of millions of U.S. shoppers are expected to spend money on Black Friday itself this year.
Industry forecasts estimate that 183.4 million people will shop in U.S. stores and online between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation and consumer research firm Prosper Insights & Analytics. Of that number, 131.7 million are expected to shop on Black Friday.
At the same time, earlier and earlier Black Friday-like promotions, as well as the growing strength of other shopping events (hello, Cyber Monday), continue to change the holiday spending landscape.
Here’s what you need to know about Black Friday’s history and where things stand in 2024.
When is Black Friday in 2024?
Black Friday falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving each year, which is November 29 this year.
How old is Black Friday? Where does its name come from?
The term “Black Friday” is several generations old, but it wasn’t always associated with the holiday retail frenzy that we know today. The gold market crash of September 1869, for example, was notably dubbed Black Friday.
The phrase’s use in relation to shopping the day after Thanksgiving, however, is most often traced to Philadelphia in the mid-20th century — when police and other city workers had to deal with large crowds that congregated before the annual Army-Navy football game and to take advantage of seasonal sales.
“That’s why the bus drivers and cab drivers call today ‘Black Friday.’ They think in terms of headaches it gives them,” a Gimbels department store sales manager told The Associated Press in 1975 while watching a police officer try to control jaywalkers the day after Thanksgiving.
Earlier references date back to the 1950s and 1960s.
Jie Zhang, a professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, points to a 1951 mention of “Black Friday” in a New York-based trade publication — which noted that many workers simply called in sick the day after Thanksgiving in hopes of having a long holiday weekend.
Starting in the 1980s, national retailers began claiming that Black Friday represented when they went from operating in the red to in the black thanks to holiday demand. But since many retail companies now operate in the black at various times of the year, this interpretation should be taken with a grain of salt, experts say.
How has Black Friday evolved?
In recent decades, Black Friday became infamous for floods of people in jam-packed stores. Endless lines of shoppers camped out at midnight in hopes of scoring deep discounts.
But online shopping has made it possible to make most, if not all, holiday purchases without ever stepping foot inside a store. And while foot traffic at malls and other shopping areas has bounced back since the start of the pandemic, e-commerce isn’t going away.
November sales at brick-and-mortar stores peaked more than 20 years ago. In 2003, for example, e-commerce accounted for 1.7% of total retail sales in the fourth quarter, according to Commerce Department data.
Unsurprisingly, online sales make up a much bigger slice of the pie today. For last year’s holiday season, e-commerce accounted for about 17.1% of all nonadjusted retail sales in the fourth quarter, Commerce Department data show. That’s up from 12.7% seen at the end of 2019.
Beyond the rise of online shopping, some big-ticket items that used to get shoppers in the door on the Black Friday — like a new TV — are significantly cheaper than they were decades ago, notes Jay Zagorsky, a clinical associate professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.
“There is less need to stand in line at midnight when the items typically associated with doorbuster sales are now much cheaper,” Zagorsky told The Associated Press via email. He pointed to Bureau of Labor Statistics data that show the average price for a TV has fallen 75% since 2014.
While plenty of people will do most of their Black Friday shopping online, projections from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights indicated that most Black Friday shoppers (65%) still planned to shop in stores this year.
Black Friday ‘month’ and the rise of Cyber Monday
It’s no secret that Black Friday sales don’t last just 24 hours anymore. Emails promising holiday deals now start arriving before Halloween.
“Black Friday is no longer the start of the holiday shopping season. It has become the crescendo of the holiday shopping season” during what now feels like “Black Friday month,” Zhang said. Some retailers have updated their official marketing to refer to “Black Friday week.”
Retailers trying to get a head start on the competition and to manage shipping logistics helps explain the rush, Zhang said. Offering early holiday deals spreads out purchases, giving shippers more breathing room to complete orders. Zhang therefore doesn’t expect the five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year to cause significant strain because retailers would have taken them into account.
Linking pre-Thanksgiving sales with Black Friday is also a marketing technique since it’s a name consumers recognize and associate with big, limited-time bargains, Zhang said.
Multiple post-Thanksgiving sales events keep shoppers enticed after Black Friday, including Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, which the National Retail Federation’s online arm designated in 2005.
U.S. consumers spent a record $12.4 billion on Cyber Monday in 2023, and $15.7 million per minute during the day’s peak sales hour, according to Adobe Analytics. On Black Friday, they spent $9.8 billion online, Adobe Analytics said.
Enough people still enjoy shopping in person after Thanksgiving that the activity is unlikely to become extinct, Boston University’s Zagorsky said.
While Black Friday’s significance “is being slightly diminished” over time, the shopping event is still “a way to connect with others,” he said. “This social aspect is important and will not disappear, ensuring that Black Friday is still an important day for retailers.”
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N’DJAMENA, chad — Chad’s government said Thursday that it had ended its defense cooperation pact with France, a move that could see French troops leave the Central African country.
In a statement, Chad’s foreign ministry said the country, a key Western ally in the fight against Islamic militants in the region, wanted to fully assert its sovereignty after more than six decades of independence.
It said the decision to end the defense cooperation agreement revised in 2019 would enable it to redefine its strategic partnerships.
Chad has cooperated closely with Western nations’ military forces in the past, but it has moved closer to Russia in recent years.
The decision is another nail in the coffin of France’s historic and colonial role in West and Central Africa after being forced to pull its troops out of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso following military coups.
The military juntas have since turned to Russia, which has mercenaries deployed across the Sahel region – a band of countries stretching from Africa’s northwest to northeast coasts – and has been fostering closer ties with Chad’s President Mahamat Deby.
“In accordance with the terms of the accord, Chad will respect the modalities of the termination, including the necessary deadlines, and will collaborate with French authorities to ensure a harmonious transition,” the statement said.
The French foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment.
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, on Thursday visited Chad’s border with Sudan.
There were no indications that Paris had been given advance notice of the decision, although a French envoy to President Emmanuel Macron this week handed in a report with proposals on how France could reduce its military presence in Chad, Gabon and Ivory Coast, where it has deployed thousands of troops for decades.
France has around 1,000 troops as well as warplanes stationed in Chad.
In a further blow to France, Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said in an interview with French state TV on Thursday that it was inappropriate for French troops to maintain a presence in his country.
He stopped short of saying if or when French troops would be asked to leave, but he said Paris would be the first to know. Around 350 French troops are based in Senegal.
The statement by Chad’s foreign ministry said the decision to end the nation’s defense partnership with France should in no way undermine the friendly relations between the two countries.
Earlier this year, Chad ordered a small contingent of U.S. special operations to leave the country. In September, the U.S. said it was in talks for them to return.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment on whether it has a presence in Chad.
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MONROVIA, LIBERIA — Prince Johnson, the Liberian former warlord and senator whose brutal tactics shocked the world, has died at the age of 72, authorities said Thursday.
Johnson, who infamously videotaped himself drinking Budweiser as his men cut off the ears of the nation’s former president, remained active in politics after the civil war ended and was elected senator in 2006.
He died on Thursday at a local hospital in Paynesville, a suburb of Monrovia, said Siafa Jallah, deputy director of press relations at the Liberian senate.
Liberia’s civil wars, marked by mass killings, torture and sexual violence, killed an estimated 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003. Johnson was named one of the “most notorious perpetrators” by the country’s post-war truth and reconciliation committee, and was accused of killing, extortion, massacre, torture and rape among other charges.
Neither Johnson nor the other seven people that the committee listed as leaders of warring factions were ever tried in Liberia. But a handful were convicted overseas, including Charles Taylor, a former president, who is serving a 50-year-sentence in the United Kingdom.
Mohammed Jabbateh, a rebel commander who witnesses said killed civilians and ordered his soldiers to rape young girls, was sentenced to 30 years in the U.S.
Earlier this year, President Joseph Boakai signed an executive order to create a long-awaited war crimes court to deliver justice to the civil wars’ victims, but the court hasn’t begun operating.
Adama Dempster, a Liberian human rights advocate, expressed regret that Johnson was unable to testify before the proposed tribunal before he died.
“It’s sad and has a deep meaning for an accountability process,” he said.
In 1990, the then-38-year-old Johnson led a rebel faction that invaded Monrovia, captured former President Samuel Doe and tortured him in front of a rolling camera. Johnson is seen kicking back in a chair, his feet up on a table and a bottle of beer in one hand. He taunts the former ruler as his men strip the president to his underwear then cut off his ears, as blood streams down his temple. The president later died, and according to one witness’ testimony in front of the nation’s truth and reconciliation commission, Johnson later showed off Doe’s head on a platter.
After the end of the war, Johnson became a born-again Christian and ordained preacher, before being elected senator representing Nimba County. The country banned the sale of Doe’s notorious torture tape that had once been widely available at streetside stalls.
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WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — At least five Democratic members of Congress from Connecticut were targeted by bomb threats on their homes Thursday, the lawmakers or their offices said.
Senator Chris Murphy and Representatives Jim Himes, Joe Courtney, John Larson and Jahana Hayes all reported being the subject of such threats. Police who responded said they found no evidence of explosives on the lawmakers’ properties.
There was no immediate word whether Representative Rosa DeLauro, the fifth Democratic House member from the state, and Connecticut’s other Democratic senator received threats.
The bomb threats against Democrats came a day after a number of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks and appointees reported that they had received such threats, as well as “swatting attacks,” in which perpetrators initiate an emergency law enforcement response against a victim under false pretenses.
Murphy’s office said his Hartford home was the target of a bomb threat, “which appears to be part of a coordinated effort involving multiple members of Congress and public figures.” Hartford Police and U.S. Capitol Police determined there was no threat.
Hayes said the Wolcott Police Department informed her Thursday morning that it had received “a threatening email stating a pipe bomb had been placed in the mailbox at my home.” State police, U.S. Capitol Police, and the House sergeant at arms were notified, Wolcott and state police responded, “and no bomb or explosive materials were discovered.”
Courtney’s Vernon home received a bomb threat while his wife and children were there, his office said.
Himes said he was told of the threat against his home during a Thanksgiving celebration with his family. The U.S. Capitol Police, and Greenwich and Stamford police departments responded.
Hines extended his family’s “utmost gratitude to our local law enforcement officers for their immediate action to ensure our safety.” Echoing other lawmakers who were threatened, he added: “There is no place for political violence in this country, and I hope that we may all continue through the holiday season with peace and civility.”
Larson said Thursday that East Hartford Police responded to a bomb threat against his home.
The threats follow an election season marked by violence. In July, a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing his ear and killing one of his supporters. The Secret Service later thwarted a subsequent assassination attempt at Trump’s West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course when an agent spotted the barrel of a gun poking through a perimeter fence while Trump was golfing.
Among those who received threats Wednesday were New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick to serve as the next ambassador to the United Nations; Matt Gaetz, Trump’s initial pick to serve as attorney general; Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, whom Trump chose to lead the Department of Labor, and former New York congressman Lee Zeldin, who has been tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
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Previously all-powerful, the Wagner Group has slowly been reduced in size and dismantled in many of the countries it operated in since the death of its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in August 2023. VOA Russian spoke to U.S. and Russian researchers who have written books about the Wagner Group in the past year, and they tell a story of the military group now narrowly focused only on certain countries in Africa where they continue to serve the Kremlin’s interests.
See the full story here.
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GABORONE, BOTSWANA — Botswana has been added as a second center, in addition to Belgium, to verify the origin of rough diamonds meant for export to the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries, the nation’s presidency announced Thursday.
African producers had complained that making Belgium the sole verification center led to disruptions in the global diamond supply chain, as the G7 moved to stop the flow of gems mined in Russia.
A statement by the office of the president said Botswana was granted permission to set up a verification center following “intensive” discussions with the G7 Diamond Technical Team.
The announcement comes as President Duma Boko and Minister of Minerals Bogolo Kenewendo returned Thursday from a diamond conference in Brussels.
Kenewendo told state television it is logical to grant Botswana, the world’s second-largest producer of diamonds, the right to certify rough stones.
She said that Botswana has a track record in verification and certification, together with other countries under the Kimberley Process.
The Kimberley Process is a trade regime that certifies rough diamond exports entering the global market, but it has been criticized for failing to do enough to keep out diamonds from conflict zones.
Diamond-producing countries such as Angola and Namibia should be recognized verifiers because they have prepared through the Kimberley Process, Kenewendo said.
To sanction Russian diamonds, the G7, at the start of the year, proposed that all stones destined for export to their member countries be routed through Antwerp, Belgium, to verify their origin.
African producers, led by Botswana, protested, saying the move caused disruptions to the global supply chain due to delays and added costs.
Belgian-based diamond industry researcher Hans Merket said the addition of Botswana as a verification center will allow more flexibility.
“Botswana appears to be something of a test case with the G7 Diamond Technical Team already explicitly referencing Namibia and Angola as potential future certification nodes,” Merket said.
“By diversifying the certification points, this approach could establish a more balanced and inclusive framework for the G7 certification scheme aligning more closely with the global dynamics of the global supply chain,” he said.
“Moreover, it can also help pave the way for stricter controls and higher ethical standards in the diamond sector, particularly as the Kimberley Process certification scheme faces increasing criticism for its declining credibility and leniency,” Merket said.
Jaff Bamenjo, coordinator of the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition, said more African diamond producers should be added as verification centers because the addition of only Botswana will not resolve supply chain disruptions.
“African diamond producing countries are suffering from a problem they did not create,” Bamenjo said.
Botswana’s export certification center is expected to be operational early next year.
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WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA — Namibia extended voting for a second time Thursday with the opposition crying foul after logistical failures prevented many people from casting their ballots in the closely fought election.
With the ruling party facing its strongest challenge yet, opposition parties called for a halt to the vote counting and said they had lost confidence in the process.
The polls are a key test for the liberation-era South West Africa People’s Organization party that has governed the mineral-rich country since independence 34 years ago. But SWAPO is being challenged by a younger generation of voters frustrated by high unemployment and enduring inequalities.
About 1.5 million people in the sparsely populated desert nation were registered to vote in Wednesday’s presidential and legislative elections.
Many were still in line when polls were scheduled to close at 9 p.m. Wednesday, some saying they were in line for 12 hours.
The Electoral Commission of Namibia kept some polling stations open overnight into Thursday and allowed others to begin ballot counting.
The disarray led to angry complaints from opposition parties, which suggested there may have been an attempt to limit voting amid a strong showing for the parties challenging SWAPO’s grip on power.
The Electoral Commission said it had decided to keep 36 polling stations open on Friday and Saturday in response to the criticism and to accommodate anyone who had not been able to cast their ballot.
It acknowledged a range of problems that held up voting, including a shortage of ballot papers because of higher-than-expected turnout and the overheating of tablets used to verify voters.
In some cases, mobile voting teams left areas with voters still in the queues, it said.
The main opposition party, Independent Patriots for Change, led the calls for a halt in the process.
“We have a reason to believe that the [Electoral Commission] is deliberately suppressing voters and deliberately trying to frustrate voters from casting their vote,” said IPC official Christine Aochamus.
The smaller Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party said it wanted the vote to annulled.
“This election process was not free,” said representative Saddam Amushelelo. “We are not going to accept the election results.”
The IPC’s leader, former dentist and lawyer Panduleni Itula, is perhaps the strongest challenger to SWAPO’s candidate, Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who could become the first woman to lead the country.
Analysts have said Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, would be forced into a second round if she does not win more than half of the votes.
The long queues were “a signal that people really want a change,” said Ndumba Kamwanyah, lecturer in the Department of Human Sciences at the University of Namibia.
“For me, it seems it’s not good news for the incumbent party,” he told AFP.
Some voters had given up after standing in line for hours in the sun and before voting was first extended on Wednesday night, said Maria Nambahu, who waited five hours to cast her ballot.
“It should have been better organized,” the 25-year-old said. “That makes it unfair.”
Edison Bernardo, a 25-year-old financial assistant, said there should be a rerun.
“People did not vote; many left the line,” he told AFP. “If this is the actual election, there will definitely be riots.”
Namibia is a major uranium and diamond exporter, but not many of its nearly 3 million people have benefited from that wealth in terms of improved infrastructure and job opportunities, analysts say.
Around 42% of Namibia’s registered voters are younger than 35, the election authority says.
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stockholm — One of two Baltic subsea cables that were damaged earlier this month in a suspected sabotage is back online, a spokesman for operator company Arelion said.
The cable connecting Sweden and Lithuania was repaired as of Thursday and traffic had resumed at full capacity, spokesman Martin Sjogren said.
Two subsea cables, the other linking Finland and Germany, were damaged in less than 24 hours on November 17-18, prompting German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to say he assumed it was sabotage.
Undersea cables transmit nearly all the world’s internet data traffic and are considered critical infrastructure because they are the communication backbone between countries.
Investigators have zeroed in on Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the country sent a formal request to China seeking cooperation to help clarify what happened when the undersea cables were damaged in the Baltic Sea.
“We are cooperating with Swedish police in their investigation of our damaged cable,” Sjogren said.
“It’s very difficult to secure the entire subsea infrastructure but the international cooperation between authorities, military and companies is working very well,” he said.
Arelion, once part of telecom company Telia, owns 75,000 kilometers of fiber network.
Finland’s Cinia, which owns the other cable, has also started repair work and estimated completion by the end of this month.
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British and American authorities are investigating why several drones were flying over four U.S. air bases in England in recent days. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Britain has deployed dozens of troops around the bases amid concerns such drones could be used to disrupt operations or carry out acts of deception and sabotage.
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