Sasha Selipanov, a well-known car designer, was born in the Soviet Union but at 17 moved to the U.S. In California, he mastered the skill of designing high-end cars, creating vehicles for Lamborghini and Bugatti among others. He showed VOA Russian the concept of his first hypercar, which he is building in Los Angeles.
Click here for the full story in Russian.
…
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday again refused investigators’ efforts to question him over his failed martial law bid, as the deadline on his detention neared.
Yoon threw the nation into chaos on Dec. 3 when he attempted to impose martial law, citing the need to combat threats from “anti-state elements.”
But his bid lasted just six hours, as the soldiers he directed to storm parliament failed to stop lawmakers from voting to reject martial law.
In the following weeks, Yoon was impeached by parliament and resisted arrest while holed up at his guarded residence, before becoming South Korea’s first sitting president to be detained.
The arrest warrant executed in Wednesday’s dawn raid on Yoon’s residence allowed investigators to hold Yoon for just 48 hours.
But they are expected to seek a new warrant Friday that will likely extend his detention by 20 days, allowing prosecutors time to formalize an indictment against him.
The Corruption Investigation Office is investigating him on possible charges of insurrection, which if found guilty could see him jailed for life or executed.
The new warrant, if filed Friday, would keep Yoon in detention until at least a court hearing and ruling for its approval over the weekend. If the court rejects it after the hearing, he would be released.
The CIO had called Yoon for questioning at 10 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) Friday, Yonhap news agency reported, but his lawyer Yoon Kab-keun told AFP he had refused to appear for the second consecutive day.
CIO officials did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.
Another lawyer, Seok Dong-hyeon, told reporters Friday Yoon had already explained his position to investigators and had no reason to answer their questions.
“The president will not appear at the CIO today. He has sufficiently expressed his basic stance to the investigators on the first day,” he said.
Yoon was questioned for hours Wednesday but exercised his right to silence before refusing to appear for interrogation the next day.
Yoon’s supporters gathered outside the court Friday where investigators were expected to file for the new warrant, linking arms in an apparent attempt to block them, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Impeachment trial
Yoon had evaded arrest for weeks by remaining in his residential compound, protected by loyal members of the Presidential Security Service (PSS).
Hundreds of CIO investigators and police surrounded his compound on Wednesday in a second, and ultimately successful, effort to arrest him.
When he was detained, Yoon said he had agreed to leave his compound to avoid “bloodshed,” but that he did not accept the legality of the investigation.
The opposition Democratic Party celebrated Yoon’s arrest, with a top official calling it “the first step” to restoring constitutional and legal order.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday after his detention, Yoon repeated unfounded election fraud claims and referred to “hostile” nations threatening the country, alluding to North Korea.
Although Yoon won presidential elections in 2022, the Democratic Party won parliamentary elections in April last year by a landslide.
In a parallel probe, the Constitutional Court is deciding whether to uphold Yoon’s impeachment.
If that happens, Yoon would lose the presidency and fresh elections would have to be held within 60 days.
He did not attend the first two hearings this week.
The trial is continuing in Yoon’s absence and proceedings could last for months.
…
Slovenian model turned US first lady Melania Trump is headed back to the White House after a bittersweet experience in the limelight after her husband, President-elect Donald Trump, first took office in 2016. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias gives us a look at her life and voter expectations for her second term.
Camera: Veronica Balderas Iglesias
…
Britain and Ukraine signed a 100-year agreement Thursday, with Britain pledging to provide Ukraine with $3.6 billion in military aid this year.
The deal was announced during a joint news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, at the presidential palace where British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Starmer is on his first trip to Ukraine since he took office.
Starmer called the agreement historic and said the new partnership “reflects the huge affection that exists between our two nations.” The partnership will include cooperation in the areas of culture, education, science and technology.
Regarding military assistance for Kyiv’s war against Russia, Starmer said Britain plans to provide Ukraine with a loan of more than $2.6 billion. He said the loan “will be paid back not by Ukraine, but from the interest on frozen Russian assets.” Starmer also announced that Britain was providing Ukraine with 150 artillery gun barrels and a new mobile air defense system.
In his comments, Starmer credited Ukraine’s allies, particularly the United States, for contributing to the success Ukraine has had against “aggression from Russia.” He said he wanted to pay tribute to the U.S. for “the work that the U.S. has done here, the support that they have put in, because it’s been a vital component of what has been quite an incredible achievement by Ukraine.”
The comments came just days before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, a critic of U.S. support for Ukraine, takes office and a day after the new president’s pick to be the U.S. secretary of state, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, told a Senate panel the war must end.
Speaking at his confirmation hearing, Rubio called the conflict a “war of attrition” and a “stalemate” that must be ended. He said the first step should be a ceasefire that halts ground fighting, which has for more than a year mostly occurred in eastern Ukraine.
Rubio called the destruction in Ukraine “extraordinary,” saying it will “take a generation to rebuild.”
“The truth of the matter is that in this conflict, there is no way Russia takes all of Ukraine,” Rubio said. “It’s also unrealistic to believe that somehow, a nation the size of Ukraine … is also going to push these people all the way back to where they were on the eve of the invasion.”
Even as he argued for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting that started with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Rubio said it was unlikely that there would be much change in the current battle lines. Russia currently holds about a fifth of the internationally recognized Ukrainian land mass.
Democrats, and some Republicans on the committee, continued to voice their support for more military aid to Ukraine, saying it was important to give Kyiv leverage in any eventual peace talks with Moscow.
But Rubio said that one of Ukraine’s key problems was not a shortage of ammunition or money but its inability to train and recruit enough troops.
At Thursday’s news conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy refused to speculate on what U.S. support for Ukraine will look like under a Trump administration.
“It is too early to talk about the details, because we have not yet had a detailed conversation with the new U.S. administration about security guarantees,” he said.
Trump has voiced skepticism about continued U.S. military support for Kyiv and repeatedly vowed that he would end the war when he assumed the presidency on Monday.
In recent days, his aides have said the new timeline is ending the war in the first 100 days of his administration, which would be by the end of April.
Ken Bredemeier and Chris Hannas contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…
washington — Washington has slapped sanctions on Sudan’s army leader, citing his responsibility for war crimes in a conflict that has bled the oil-rich country dry over the last year — sparking a famine, killing tens of thousands of people and driving millions from their homes — just a week after the U.S. sanctioned his opponent for acts it described as genocide.
Thursday’s sanctions on Sudanese Armed Forces leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and a Hong-Kong-based weapons supplier block them from entering or transiting the United States and restrict their access to any U.S. assets.
This leaves both sides economically restrained in this brutal conflict that the State Department has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, but where Washington’s options are limited because of its strained diplomatic ties to the large African nation. This conflict also has drawn in outside players, with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates arming the rivals.
During his final press conference on Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the SAF of war crimes. In last week’s sanctions, the State Department accused the opposing Rapid Support Forces of genocide.
“The SAF has also committed war crimes, and it continues to target civilians,” Blinken said. “It’s obstructed the advancement of the peace process. It’s refused to participate on numerous occasions in ceasefire talks that we’ve sought to convene, and together with the RSF, it’s caused what is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis that people are suffering through every day. And we believe strongly, as we said, there’s no military solution to this conflict.”
‘Flawed’ action, Sudan says
Sudan’s government expressed its objection to the sanctions, calling them “flawed,” “unethical” and “dubious.”
“This decision lacks the basic principles of justice and objectivity, relying on implausible pretexts,” read its statement, which was posted on social media platform X. “It also reflects a blatant disregard for the Sudanese people, who stand firmly united behind General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan as a symbol of their sovereignty and armed forces, and as a courageous leader in the battle for dignity against the terrorist Janjaweed militias.”
Blinken did not address U.S. media reports citing anonymous U.S. officials that the SAF has used chemical weapons at least twice. VOA’s query to the National Security Council went unanswered Thursday.
When asked by reporters whether both sides were equally responsible, Blinken replied, “The actions we took on the RSF, as you know, found a determination of genocide. The actions that we’re looking at for the SAF go to war crimes. So there are gradations in these things, and we follow the law.”
And Blinken expressed regrets that this conflict has escalated. It has followed many of the same contours as the Darfur conflict at the turn of the century.
“It is, for me, yes, another real regret that when it comes to Sudan, we haven’t been able on our watch to get to that day of success,” he said.
He added, “We’ll keep working it for the next three days, and I hope the next administration will take that on as well.”
Hemedti sanctioned
Last week’s sanctions targeted RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, whom the White House named as the leader of a wave of renewed ethnic cleansing, rape and systematic atrocities.
Daglo, who is better known by his nickname, Hemedti, was a commander in the Janjaweed militia considered largely responsible for the brutal Darfur conflict, in which Sudanese Arab Janjaweed militias used scorched-earth tactics on the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa people of Western Sudan, killing at least 200,000. The scale and savagery of the violence prompted the International Criminal Court to issue its first-ever warrant for genocide to Sudan’s then-president, Omar al-Bashir.
Hemedti led the RSF as a paramilitary unit until the April 2023 clash with government forces that sparked the current conflict.
The violence has plunged nearly 640,000 people into the misery of famine, the State Department said. And the United Nations estimates that 30 million people — more than half of the nation’s population — need humanitarian assistance.
Daniel Volman, director of the African Security Research Project, told VOA it’s “unlikely” that the incoming Trump administration will impose further sanctions. He said the U.S. and its allies bear some responsibility for “the conflict escalating to genocidal heights.”
“I think that the United States, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, bears a major responsibility for failing to take effective action against the Bashir regime [which created the RSF and carried out the first genocide in Darfur] and for failing to take effective action to support the civil society groups fighting for a democratic government, which led to the current civil war,” he said by email. “The United States is not alone in bearing responsibility. Russia, Iran and other countries are also arming the rival forces and prolonging the conflict.”
Complicating factor
And, Volman said, the Biden administration’s decision to sanction some of Hemedti’s foreign backers by targeting companies based in the United Arab Emirates is also a complicating factor.
“The involvement of Egypt and the UAE in arming the rival forces and prolonging the civil war will complicate the Trump administration’s relations with these two key allies and may lead them to expand and escalate their military intervention in Sudan,” he said.
Andrew Payne, a lecturer in foreign policy and security at City, University of London, told VOA that for now, sanctions are the main tool that Washington has to constrain Khartoum.
“Sanctions are an easy tool that make it appear like an administration is doing something, regardless of whether that is an appropriate tool to use. It’s relatively cost-free to the United States. If the alternative is something that requires political will, then that will has to be there. … Sanctions are always the tool of cheapest resort, in a sense. So, it’s a way of seeming like you’re engaged, seeming like you’re active, without considering more tougher measures,” Payne said.
…
STILFONTEIN, South Africa — The death toll in a monthslong standoff between police and miners trapped while working illegally in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87, police said Thursday. Authorities faced growing anger and a possible investigation into their initial refusal to help the miners and instead “smoke them out” by cutting off their food supplies.
National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said 78 bodies were retrieved in a court-ordered rescue operation, with 246 survivors also pulled out from deep underground since the operation began on Monday. Mathe said nine other bodies had been recovered before the rescue operation, without giving details.
Community groups launched their own rescue attempts when authorities said last year that they would not help the hundreds of miners because they were “criminals.”
The miners are suspected to have died of starvation and dehydration, although no causes of death have been released.
South African authorities have been fiercely criticized for cutting off food and supplies to the miners in the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine last year. That tactic to “smoke them out,” as described by a prominent Cabinet minister, was condemned by one of South Africa’s biggest trade unions.
Police and the mine owners also were accused of taking away ropes and dismantling a pulley system the miners used to enter the mine and send supplies down from the surface.
A court ordered authorities last year to allow food and water to be sent down to the miners, while another court ruling last week forced them to launch a rescue operation.
‘A disgrace’
Many say the unfolding disaster underground was clear weeks ago, when community members sporadically pulled decomposing bodies out of the mine, some with notes attached pleading for food to be sent down.
“If the police had acted earlier, we would not be in this situation, with bodies piling up,” said Johannes Qankase, a local community leader. “It is a disgrace for a constitutional democracy like ours. Somebody needs to account for what has happened here.”
South Africa’s second biggest political party, which is part of a government coalition, called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish an independent inquiry to find out “why the situation was allowed to get so badly out of hand.”
“The scale of the disaster underground at Buffelsfontein is rapidly proving to be as bad as feared,” the Democratic Alliance party said.
Authorities now believe that nearly 2,000 miners were working illegally in the mine near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, since August. Most of them resurfaced on their own over the last few months, police said, and all the survivors have been arrested, even as some emerged this week badly emaciated and barely able to walk to waiting ambulances.
A convoy of mortuary vans arrived at the mine to carry away the bodies.
Mathe said at least 13 children had also come out of the mine before the official rescue operation.
Police announced Wednesday that they were ending the operation after three days and believed no one else was underground. To be sure, a camera was sent down Thursday in a cage that was used to pull out survivors and bodies.
Two volunteer rescuers from the community went down in the small cage during the rescue operation to help miners. Authorities had refused to allow any official rescue personnel to go into the shaft because it was too dangerous.
“It has been a tough few days. There were many people who [we] saved but I still feel bad for those whose family members came out in body bags,” said Mandla Charles, one of the volunteer rescuers. “We did all we could.” The two volunteers were being offered trauma counseling, police said.
The mine is one of the deepest in South Africa. It’s a maze of tunnels and levels and has several shafts leading into it. The miners were working up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) underground in different groups.
Exits possible, police say
Police have maintained that the miners were able to come out through several shafts but refused out of fear of being arrested. That’s been disputed by groups representing the miners, who say hundreds were trapped and left starving in dark and damp conditions with decomposing bodies around them.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu denied in an interview with a national TV station that the police were responsible for any starvation and said they had allowed food to go down.
The initial police operation last year to force the miners to come out and give themselves up for arrest was part of a larger nationwide clampdown on illegal mining called Vala Umgodi, or Close the Hole. Illegal mining is often in the news in South Africa and a major problem for authorities as large groups go into mines that have been shut down to extract leftover deposits.
Gold-rich South Africa has an estimated 6,000 abandoned or closed mines.
The illicit miners, known as “zama zamas” — “hustlers” or “chancers” in the Zulu language — are usually armed and part of criminal syndicates, the government says, and they rob South Africa of more than $1 billion a year in gold deposits. They are often undocumented foreign nationals, and authorities said that the vast majority who came out of the Buffelsfontein mine were from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, and were in South Africa illegally.
Police said they seized gold, explosives, firearms and more than $2 million in cash from the miners and have defended their hardline approach.
“By providing food, water and necessities to these illegal miners, it would be the police entertaining and allowing criminality to thrive,” Mathe said Wednesday.
But the South African Federation of Trade Unions questioned the government’s humanity and how it could “allow anyone — be they citizens or undocumented immigrants — to starve to death in the depths of the earth.”
While the police operation has been condemned by civic groups, the disaster hasn’t provoked a strong outpouring of anger across South Africa, where the mostly foreign zama zamas have long been considered unwelcome in a country that already struggles with high rates of violent crime.
…
The chief of the Indian army this week said that India is not yet looking to reduce troops at the India-China border in the winter season. The comment comes days after both countries agreed on six principles to ensure peace and stability at the border in a meeting in Beijing. But analysts believe a lack of trust and differences in strategic objectives would make the resolution process extremely difficult.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
With Donald Trump returning to the White House, analysts say Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees an opportunity to rekindle what he calls his close working relationship with the president-elect. However, as Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the incoming Trump presidency poses risks as well as opportunities.
…
NAIROBI, KENYA — Human Rights Watch has found that African governments continue to crack down and wrongly arrest political opponents, critics, activists and journalists. The rights group also says armed forces and armed groups in some African countries have targeted civilians, killing them and driving them from their homes.
The conflicts in Sudan and Ethiopia feature prominently in a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday.
The report says that in Sudan, the war between the armed forces and the rebel Rapid Support Forces has displaced 12 million people, destroyed infrastructure and blocked humanitarian assistance.
In Ethiopia, rights group investigators found that government forces in the Amhara region committed widespread attacks against medical professionals, patients and health facilities.
Mausi Segun, head of the Human Rights Watch Africa Division, said armed conflict is not the only form of rights violation on the continent.
“On top of all of that, you have civic space restriction abuses, including intolerance for freedom of expression, intolerance for freedom of association and assembly,” Segun said. “Protests are being clamped down on, and people who are pushing for their rights or even commenting on government policies and measures are being hunted down. Here in East Africa, we are seeing very disturbing trends towards abductions.”
Kenya has captured the attention of human rights groups for recent alleged abductions of anti-government protesters and activists from foreign countries, some of whom have been deported to Turkey and Uganda.
The HRW report also focuses on the seemingly endless conflict in the Congo, where civilians are killed, women raped, and attacks on camps for the internally displaced push more people into neighboring countries.
Congo has accused Rwanda of supporting M23 rebels, an allegation Rwanda denies.
Clementine de Montoye, Human Rights Watch senior researcher, said the expansion of conflict worsens civilians’ harm, adding, “we are not seeing significant signs of pressure on the different parties to the conflict to reduce violations and harms to civilians.”
The report says that countries in West Africa ruled by the military — like Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — have cracked down on opposition and dissent, freedom of expression, and backsliding in the fight against corruption.
It notes that in Southern Africa, Mozambique is grappling with post-election violence in which hundreds of people have been killed.
Elizabeth Kamundia, deputy director of disability rights at Human Rights Watch, said conflict and violence are causing a rise in physical and psychological issues.
“We have seen a rise in the number of people acquiring injuries that lead to disabilities,” Kamundia said. “We’ve seen increased psychological distress and mental health impacts on people, families and communities as a result of war and conflict. We’ve seen difficulties with access to medication for people who have mental health conditions, and therefore, they are forced to stop their treatment.”
Human Rights Watch’s newly-released World Report reviewed human rights records of more than 100 countries, including 25 in Africa.
Despite the widespread abuses and violence against people in Africa, HRW notes that, like the rest of the world, African people are resisting and pushing back against autocratic rule and abuse of their rights. It notes they are mobilizing on social media and streets to demand an end to the abuses and bad governance that has contributed to divisions and conflict among communities.
…
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — China initiated a new round of diplomatic outreach to Japan and the European Union this week as Washington prepares for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
A delegation of Japanese lawmakers traveled to Beijing and a Chinese military delegation went to Japan for the first time in five years. Meanwhile, the European Council’s new president held his first phone call with China’s leader, Xi Jinping.
Analysts say China is trying to test the alliance between Washington and its allies through the diplomatic efforts.
“Senior Chinese officials believe the incoming Trump administration will be more hawkish toward China, so Beijing needs to try to take U.S. allies out of Washington’s orbit,” Chen Yuhua, a China studies professor at Akita International University, told VOA in a video interview.
Other experts, however, say the effectiveness of Beijing’s strategy remains unclear.
While China is “improving relations with everyone, they are not willing to fundamentally change their external behavior. We don’t know how long [this trend] will last,” said Stephen Nagy, a professor of politics and international studies at Tokyo’s International Christian University.
Seafood and soldiers
On Monday, lawmakers from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, and its coalition partner Komeito began a three-day visit to China. During the trip, Japanese lawmakers met with top Chinese leaders, including Premier Li Qiang and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The Japanese side urged China to lift import bans on Japanese seafood “at an early date” and ensure the safety of Japanese nationals living in China.
Hiroshi Moriyama, the secretary general of the LDP, said during his keynote speech on Tuesday that China and Japan “need to boost mutual understanding between their peoples and strengthen dialogue at various levels to improve their ties.”
Moriyama also reiterated Tokyo’s concern about rising tensions in the East China Sea and Beijing’s detention of several Japanese nationals under espionage charges.
During his meeting with the Japanese delegation Tuesday, Wang said Japan and China “face important opportunities” to improve and develop bilateral relations.
On Wednesday, Li said Beijing and Tokyo should focus on exploring economic cooperation in areas such as the digital economy and green development, while increasing people-to-people exchanges at the sub-national level.
At the same time lawmakers were visiting Beijing, a Chinese military delegation started a five-day visit to Japan. During the trip, the Chinese delegation was expected to meet their Japanese counterparts and visit some military units, according to a statement from China’s Defense Ministry.
Japanese government spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi said during a press conference on Tuesday that the Chinese delegation’s visit helped to resume “exchanges among troops” and “contributes to the peace and stability of the region.”
China’s Defense Ministry said the visit “is expected to strengthen mutual understanding and trust while advancing defense exchanges between the two countries.”
The latest bilateral exchanges between Japan and China follow Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya’s trip to Beijing on Dec. 25, during which Tokyo and Beijing agreed to facilitate Wang’s trip to Japan and hold high-level economic and security dialogues.
Despite Japan and China’s attempts to improve bilateral relations, Nagy said the efforts can’t be sustained. “China thinks Japan and other countries’ growing alignment on issues such as the South China Sea dispute, economic security and resilience policy are against its core interests,” he told VOA by phone.
So “while they can have exchanges with Japan, it doesn’t take away their concerns about these issues,” Nagy said.
Driving a wedge
Apart from mending ties with Japan, China has also been trying to improve relations with the European Union amid rising trade tensions in recent months.
During his first phone call with European Council President Antonio Costa on Tuesday, Xi said there are “no clash of fundamental interests or geopolitical conflicts” between China and the EU, “making them partners that can contribute to each other’s success.”
“China remains confident in the EU and hopes the EU will also prove to be a trustworthy cooperation partner for China,” he said, adding that both sides should “expand mutual openness, consolidate existing cooperation mechanisms and foster new growth points in their cooperation.”
Costa said he had a “constructive” phone call with Xi, during which he highlighted how Russia’s war against Ukraine threatens global peace and agreed with Xi that China and the EU should work together to “tackle global challenges.”
“The EU and China are important trading partners. Our relations need to be balanced and based on a level-playing field,” Costa wrote in a post on the social media platform X.
The call between Xi and Costa comes amid rising trade tensions between China and the EU. Last October, the EU decided to impose tariffs of up to 45.3% on imported Chinese electric vehicles. The move prompted Beijing to impose “temporary anti-dumping measures” on brandy imported from the EU.
Experts say China’s outreach to the EU is part of Beijing’s attempt to weaken the alliance between Washington and Brussels ahead of Trump’s return to office.
“China always has this anxiety that the U.S. and EU would work together to deal with China, so the upcoming regime change in Washington presents an opportunity [for Beijing] to exploit the anxiety that European countries have about the second Trump administration,” Matej Simalcik, executive director of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, told VOA in an interview in Taipei.
In his view, while China’s approach is unlikely to soften the EU’s tough trade approach against Beijing, it could present challenges to the bloc’s foreign policy agenda by leveraging its influence over certain EU member states.
“There are a lot of policy areas where EU member states have to agree on them unanimously and China could use its friendly relationship with certain member states to veto certain parts of the EU’s foreign policy agenda,” Simalcik said.
While the effectiveness of Beijing’s diplomatic outreach to U.S. allies remains unclear, Chen in Japan said these efforts show China’s foreign policy approach has become “more sophisticated.”
“Compared to their ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’ during the first Trump administration, China’s current diplomatic approach has become more delicate,” he told VOA.
…
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he wants the United States to be the world leader in artificial intelligence and crypto currency. To that end, he has tapped a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor to be the AI and crypto czar. Michelle Quinn has the story.
…
UVIRA, THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO — A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sentenced three Chinese nationals to seven years in prison for engaging in activities related to illegal mining.
The court, in Congo’s eastern city of Bukavu, the capital of Congo’s gold-rich South Kivu province, sentenced the men late Tuesday for the illegal purchase and possession of minerals, money laundering and other offenses.
The suspects were found in possession of $400,000 in cash and a substantial amount of gold on Sunday, raising concerns about the scale of their operations and the potential involvement of organized networks.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, the governor of South Kivu province, Jean Jacque Purusi, said people there are tired of those who plunder the country’s resources.
“This is only one-tenth of what they have already taken from us. We will not let it go. This is the wealth of the people of South Kivu. We are determined to go all the way because enough is enough,” Purusi said.
Jean Paul Kasinga a local official, told VOA that it was unusual for someone to be moving around with that much money.
“They didn’t have any official document allowing them to work and without government knowledge.”
Etienne Mutware, a lecturer at the Evangelical University in Africa in Panzi, Bukavu, said that illegal mining activities rob the local community of potential revenue.
“Partnerships are meant to bring mutual benefits like infrastructure, schools, and development. However, fraud, corruption, and illegal mining in the Congo have thwarted these expectations, resulting in a significant loss for both the population and the nation,” Mutware told VOA.
Purusi halted mineral mining in July to curb illegal mining and ensure that mining operations are conducted in a regulated and sustainable manner.
In December religious groups and civil society members in South Kivu’s Mwenga territory took to the streets, voicing their concerns over the activities of Chinese mining companies. Protesters demanded infrastructure development and accountability from foreign companies.
“These Chinese companies in (the towns of) Lugusha, Kitutu, Kaboke, Suguru, and Mitobo have failed to fulfill their promises. They promised to build schools, bridges, roads, hospitals, and a stadium, and to provide scholarships for our students. But they have done nothing,” one protester told VOA’s Central Africa Service.
This story originated in VOA’s Central Africa Service. Some information also came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus on Thursday hailed a U.S. memorandum allowing military sales, including arms, to the island as a milestone affirming recognition of the island as a pillar of stability in the east Mediterranean region which has been fraught with conflict.
U.S. President Joe Biden boosted security ties with Cyprus on Wednesday by issuing a memorandum that makes the island eligible to receive American defense articles, military sales and training.
Cyprus has over the years played a key role in evacuating people out of conflict zones and established a maritime corridor for aid to war-ravaged Gaza last year.
“This (memorandum) is a clear recognition of the Republic of Cyprus as a pillar of stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean, with the potential to further contribute to peace and the management of humanitarian challenges,” the Cypriot presidency said in a statement.
The foreign ministry of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot administration in northern Cyprus said the U.S. decision showed Cyprus’ internationally recognized Greek government would “continue its arms race as if it were preparing for war.”
“We call on the countries that support the warmongering of the Greek Cypriot side to act by calculating the consequences of these actions and to be sensible,” the statement said, adding it would keep taking steps with Turkey to protect the security of its citizens.
Cyprus was close to Russia for decades, but there has been a marked shift in allegiances in recent years.
Many in Cyprus have drawn parallels between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974, and EU-member Cyprus has followed its peers in adopting sanctions on Moscow. It is now getting FBI expertise in countering illicit finance.
The U.S. embassy in Nicosia said access to U.S. programs would enable greater interoperability to respond to regional humanitarian crises, counter malign influence, and combat terrorism and transnational organized crime.
The deepening in ties between the U.S. and Cyprus has been closely followed by Turkey, which in September criticized the pair’s signing of a roadmap to boost defense co-operation.
The 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus followed a brief Greek-inspired coup after years of sporadic violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots that had led to the collapse of a power-sharing administration in 1963.
…
BEIJING — Chinese authorities in Tibet have detected problems, including cracks, at five out of 14 hydropower dams that they have inspected since a magnitude 6.8 earthquake rocked the southwest region last week, an emergency official said Thursday.
Of the five affected dams, three have since been emptied, the Tibet emergency management official told a news conference.
In the county of Tingri, the quake’s epicenter, the walls of one hydrodam have tilted, prompting the evacuation of about 1,500 people from six villages downstream to higher ground, he said.
At another hydrodam, monitoring devices have been installed as it is being drained.
The earthquake, which has killed at least 126 people and injured hundreds, was a reminder of the risks from a hydropower-building spree by China and India in one of the world’s most remote, quake-prone regions.
Earthquakes have damaged dams in the past, particularly by setting off landslides and rockfalls. A massive earthquake in Nepal in 2015 shuttered almost a fifth of its hydropower for more than a year.
The Jan. 7 quake in Tibet, the fifth-deadliest in China since the 2008 Sichuan temblor, destroyed more than 3,600 houses and damaged religious structures, with aftershocks of up to 5.0 in magnitude still shaking the area.
Southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India are often hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. Tingri, which sits atop the zone where the Indian plate pushes under Tibet, is particularly vulnerable.
…
Southern California firefighters made some progress in containing two major wildfires, while forecasters said weather conditions in the coming days could bring welcome relief from the days of dry air and high winds that have plagued the region.
The relief will give firefighters a key window to battle the Palisades Fire on the west edge of Los Angeles and the Eaton Fire in the foothills east of the city before another potential turn to dangerous conditions next week.
“Good news: We are expecting a much-needed break from the fire weather concerns to close this week,” the National Weather Service said Wednesday. “Bad News: Next week is a concern. While confident that we will NOT see a repeat of last week, dangerous fire weather conditions are expected.”
The Palisades Fire was 21% contained late Wednesday after burning 96 square kilometers, according to the California Department of Foresty and Fire Protection. The agency said the Eaton Fire was 45% contained and had burned 57 square kilometers.
More than 82,000 people were under evacuation orders, while 8,500 firefighters from the United States, Canada and Mexico were battling the two fires and several smaller ones in the region.
The fires have killed at least 25 people and burned 12,000 homes and other structures, according to authorities.
The wildfires ignited Jan. 7, fueled by strong Santa Ana winds in a region that has been largely without rain for eight months. Weather forecasts show little to no chance of rain in the next week.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…
In his farewell address from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, US President Joe Biden warned of the dangers in the concentration of power and wealth. The speech capped his decades-long political career and a four-year term bookended by Donald Trump, who in days is set to be inaugurated for a second time. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
…
Taiwan plans to spend $4.56 billion to boost its startup ecosystem and has set up a liaison center in Silicon Valley designated to attract American venture capital and talent to Taiwan. Liu Chin-ching, minister of the National Development Council of Taiwan, told VOA of the importance of the bridge between the U.S. and Taiwan, adding that the Taiwan government would support new tech sectors such as quantum computing, silicon photonics and next-generation drones.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
…
Ukrainians formerly imprisoned by Russia testified at the United Nations this week about the torture they were subjected to in captivity. Ukrainian journalist and activist Maxym Butkevych, who spent more than two years in a Russian prison in an occupied Ukrainian town, described how he was deprived of fresh air and sunlight, subjected to beatings and electric shocks, denied medical assistance and forced to appear in recorded videos under duress.
Click here for the full story in Russian.
…
Hundreds of thousands in Southern California faced new threats of fire-spreading high winds on Wednesday as firefighters continued to fight wildfires that have killed at least 25 people and left nearly 30 missing.
A day after firefighters got a reprieve with lighter winds than expected, gusts were hitting up to 56 kilometers per hour on the Pacific coast and 88 kilometers per hour in the mountains before dawn, National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall said.
“This is really just the last push of these winds here today,” Hall said. “Hopefully, if we get through today, we’re going to have some better conditions for late week, especially into Friday and Saturday.”
The National Weather Service issued a high-level “particularly dangerous situation” warning through 3 p.m. local time Wednesday and extended a red-flag warning through Thursday for some areas north of the city.
“Please stay on guard for a fast-moving fire,” forecasters said.
On Tuesday, weaker-than-expected winds had allowed firefighters to make some progress in containing the two largest blazes, the Palisades and Eaton fires, but they were far from fully controlled. Authorities said that the Palisades blaze was 19% contained and the Eaton fire 45%.
But no more homes or major structures were reported burning in the two blazes, although officials said embers could still be lingering unseen and that it could take weeks to fully extinguish them.
The wildfires, which ignited on January 7, have displaced more than 100,000 people and left thousands more on edge, wondering whether they could be forced to evacuate their homes and flee for safety on a moment’s notice. More than 82,000 people in Los Angeles County are under evacuation orders, with another 90,400 under evacuation warnings, county Sheriff Robert Luna told reporters.
Diminishing winds will likely make it easier for firefighters to gain control of the blazes, though meteorologists have warned the dangerous Santa Ana windstorms may return early next week. Weather forecasts show little to no chance of rain.
Utility companies have shut off power to more than 77,000 households to prevent their power lines from sparking new blazes.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told reporters she took an aerial tour of the affected areas on Monday.
“The massive, massive destruction is unimaginable until you actually see it,” Bass said.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…
BUKAVU, CONGO — Three Chinese nationals have been sentenced to seven years in prison in the Congo’s east after being arrested in possession of gold bars and large sums of cash.
The court sentenced the men late Tuesday for the illegal purchase and illegal possession of minerals in Bukavu, the capital of the gold-rich South Kivu province.
The three men, who presented themselves during the trial as simple traders, were arrested in early January in a car.
They were carrying 10 gold bars and $400,000 in cash, all of which was seized.
The Bukavu court condemned the men to prison and handed them a fine of $600,000 for “illegal purchase and possession of mineral substances, lack of transparency, traceability in the exercise of mining activities and money laundering.”
The charge of “illicit exploitation of minerals” was not retained, but they were found guilty of “illegal stay” in the Congo.
Their lawyer did not respond to comment when contacted by AFP.
Hundreds of mining companies, most of which are Chinese, extract gold in the resource-rich province without declaring profits and often without valid permits, according to local authorities.
Last year the local government declared it was suspending the activities of mining companies that did not comply with Congolese law.
At the start of the year several hundred people in Bukavu protested against illegal mining in the region, demanding that the country’s riches be used to help local communities.
The eastern Congo is abundant with reserves of gold, diamonds and minerals which are widely used in manufacturing mobile phones and electric cars.
This mineral wealth is at the heart of conflicts that have plagued the region for 30 years, which intensified at the end of 2021 with the resurgence of the M23 armed group.
Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23 and of trying to get its hands on the region’s resources.
…
The French government won praise last month for making good on its promise to rebuild the fire-hit Notre Dame cathedral in just five years. But authorities are facing a rockier time when it comes to rebuilding cyclone-hit Mayotte — France’s impoverished overseas territory off the coast of East Africa.
Lawmakers this week began fractious hearings about how to speed up reconstruction of Mayotte, where Cyclone Chido last month killed dozens, injured thousands and flattened thousands of buildings, especially in shantytowns.
On Sunday, another tropical storm triggered flooding in the archipelago, underscoring the fallout of extreme weather events that are becoming more intense and frequent with climate change.
French Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville announced that there were only a few injuries and no deaths from the latest storm and that it was time to get back to work.
Visiting days after Cyclone Chido, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to swiftly rebuild Mayotte.
But reconstructing Mayotte has dug up a raft of grievances and triggered hot political debate. The overseas territory — with an official population of about 320,000 — is the poorest and most underdeveloped department of France. Macron and his centrist government are accused of being too slow in delivering aid and water and restoring power after Cyclone Chido.
Many of Mayotte’s residents are not French citizens, but rather undocumented immigrants, many from nearby Comoros. Top French ministers are now talking about cracking down on illegal immigration.
So is far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose National Rally party is the most popular in France. During a visit to the territory earlier this month, Le Pen got an enthusiastic welcome from many Mayotte citizens — who largely voted for her during 2022 presidential elections. She blames the government for poor public services like education — and for undercounting the number of migrants there illegally.
…
Michael Carpenter, director for Europe at the National Security Council, spoke with VOA, defending the Biden administration’s policies on Ukraine, stating they were undeterred by Russia’s nuclear threats, and attributing Ukraine’s lack of success in regaining lost territories to manpower shortages. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. (Camera: Anne-Marie Fendrick)
…
Johannesburg — Rescue operations were underway at a gold mine in South Africa’s North West province where hundreds of illegal miners have been underground for months.
More than 50 bodies were brought to the surface at the mine, police confirmed on Tuesday, as operations to rescue those still trapped underground continued. More than 100 people were brought up alive.
The illegal miners, known in South Africa as “zama zamas,” or “those who take a chance,” have been down the unused mine shaft for more than two months, after police launched an operation to crack down on the illegal activity.
At first, authorities said the miners were refusing to resurface to avoid arrest, but civil society groups say they are unable to get back to the surface as they are too weak from starvation.
A court last week ordered the government to launch a rescue operation, which started Monday. But Mzukisi Jam, an activist who has been involved in rescue operations, said it was too little too late.
“Our volunteers confirmed with us yesterday that there are more than 400 live illegal miners who are still trapped, and our own volunteers confirmed — who went down there — that there are more than 100 dead bodies,” Jam said.
Police have not confirmed how many miners, living or dead, remain trapped. But Jam said the tragedy could have been prevented.
“We literally begged the government to say, ‘Could you please just save them? Take them and put them to the surface?’ Then, you can further process them in terms of [the] criminality you’re saying they’ve committed.”
But the police minister and minister of mineral resources and energy, who visited the rescue site on Tuesday, defended the government’s actions.
“I’ve not changed my views that illegal mining is a criminal activity,” said Gwede Mantashe, mineral resources minister. Mantashe said illegal mining was an “attack on the economy,” with the illicit precious metal trade estimated at over $3 billion in 2024.
“While there’s a criminal activity, there’s a crime scene. … It should be intensifying the fight against illegal mining,” Mantashe said.
But for Zinzi Tom, whose 26-year-old brother is still down the mine, all that matters is that he comes out alive.
“They told us that he’s not in good condition — the guy who was with him was saying that he last saw him two weeks ago. It’s a very sad moment, but one thing that I told myself is that I pray to God to give me strength,” Tom said. “I have to make sure that he’s OK, and pray to God.”
Illegal miners like her brother are forced to eke out a dangerous living underground because of high unemployment, she said.
Some are South African, but many others are from neighboring countries like Lesotho and Mozambique.
Experts say that while the actual zama zamas taking the risks make little money, the criminal syndicates who run illegal operations are getting rich.
The rescue operation is expected to take 10 days.
…
NEW DELHI — International power rivalry is playing out in the Indian Ocean region, India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday, adding that a strong naval presence in the key trade route was his country’s biggest priority.
While Singh did not name any country, analysts say that China, which commands the world’s largest naval force with more than 370 ships, has been a security concern for India since ties nosedived in 2020 after 24 troops died in clashes along their Himalayan frontier.
The UK and the U.S. also have a joint military base in the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
Chinese and Indian troops have pulled back from two face-off points after a deal was struck in October following a series of talks, but India’s army chief told reporters this week that “a degree of standoff” still persists.
“A large part of the world’s trade and commerce passes through the Indian Ocean region. Due to geo-strategic reasons, the region is also becoming a part of international power rivalry,” Defense Minister Singh said during the induction of one submarine and two navy ships in the city of Mumbai.
He said 95% of India’s trade, in terms of volume, is linked to the Indian Ocean region. “In such a situation, the presence of a strong Indian Navy becomes our biggest priority,” he said.
India has sought to counter China as Beijing grows its influence in India’s neighborhood through investments and development projects in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
New Delhi plans to build a 175-ship strong naval force by 2035 with an increasing emphasis on using domestically made components, but analysts say the pace of construction is slow as compared to China, which builds almost 14 warships a year, while India constructs just four.
…