Month: January 2025

EU renews sanctions against Russia, eases them on Syria

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PARIS — European Union foreign ministers agreed Monday to continue sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, but to ease some sanctions against Syria following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.

Weeks of stalling by Hungary ended Monday, allowing the EU to renew sanctions against Russia for another six months.

But in return, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban — considered close to Moscow — is pushing for Ukraine to reopen a gas pipeline to central Europe after letting a transit deal expire.

The bloc also earmarked aid for Moldova’s energy needs, which Europe says are threatened by Russia.

The 27-member bloc moved in the opposite direction when it came to Syria — agreeing to scale up humanitarian aid and ease some sanctions, now that the country is under new leadership.

“This could give a boost to the Syrian economy and help the country get back on its feet,” said Kaja Kallas, EU’s foreign policy chief.

Syria’s foreign minister, Asaad al-Shibani, has called the EU’s move a “positive step.”

European foreign ministers also discussed a raft of other thorny issues, from the Gaza ceasefire to Iran and the conflict in eastern Congo.

Another key topic: relations with the new Trump administration.

“As the United States shifts to [a] more transactional approach, Europe needs to close ranks. We are stronger when we are united — that was a view that everybody shared,” Kallas said.

She described Washington as Europe’s closest ally, but tensions have surfaced over trade, military spending and Greenland, after President Donald Trump indicated he wanted to acquire the territory.

“We are not negotiating on Greenland,” Kallas said. “Of course, we are supporting our member state, Denmark, and its autonomous region, Greenland.”

Kallas also noted the many ways the EU and U.S. are interlinked. But she said Europe needs to take into account its own strengths, in discussions with partners as well as with adversaries.
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New US defense secretary promises agility, accountability

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Pentagon — New U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised more changes are coming to the country’s military before even walking through the doors of the Pentagon.

Hegseth, a decorated veteran and a former Fox News host, was greeted just outside the Pentagon by General Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after arriving for his first full day of work.

Hegseth said serving as defense secretary was the honor of a lifetime, telling reporters that the Defense Department will operate at a faster tempo.

“The lawful orders of the president of the United States will be executed inside this Defense Department swiftly and without excuse,” Hegseth said. “We’re going to hold people accountable.”

Hegseth won Senate confirmation late Friday by a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking ballot.

He was sworn in on Saturday and spoke Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in what the Pentagon described as an “introductory call.”

“We will be no better friend to our allies and no stronger adversary to those who want to test us and try us,” Hegseth told reporters Monday before entering the Pentagon.

He said that President Donald Trump is expected to sign additional executive orders on Monday impacting the military, including orders calling for a U.S. version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, the removal of all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from the Pentagon, and the reinstatement of troops forced to leave the military after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccination.

Hegseth also said the Pentagon will make sure Trump has all the resources needed to secure the U.S. southern border.

“Whatever is needed at the border will be provided,” the defense secretary said. “This is a shift. It’s not the way business has been done in the past.”

“The Defense Department will support the defense of the territorial integrity of the United States of America, the southern border, to include reservists, National Guard and active duty in compliance with the Constitution and the laws of our land and the directives of the commander in chief,” he added.

Asked about the fate of Afghans who worked alongside the United States before the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, Hegseth said, “We’re going to make sure there’s accountability for what happened in Afghanistan and that we stand by our allies.”

Hegseth also deflected questions about whether he plans to fire the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

“I’m standing with him right now,” Hegseth said. “I look forward to working with him.”
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Relief group pulls workers out of DRC’s Goma as M23 rebels advance

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Nairobi, Kenya — Amid fighting between M23 rebels and government forces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, some organizations are relocating staff because they no longer feel safe. This comes after the reportedly Rwandan-backed rebels said over the weekend they had taken control of Goma, the biggest city in the region. 

Rose Tchwenko, the DRC’s country director for Mercy Corps, told VOA that since last week, the humanitarian group has closely monitored the situation as government forces and M23 clashed in and around Goma, a city of around 2 million people. 

“From Wednesday last week, with the fall of Minova, followed by the fall of Sake, which are key supply routes into Goma, the situation looked a little bit more dire with the imminent takeover or incursion into Goma itself by the rebel forces,” she said. “We made some decisions, first to move out non-essential staff, pull back our teams from the ground where it was no longer safe to continue to provide humanitarian services.”

But that changed quickly, as the situation grew more unstable in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, which is on the border with Rwanda.

“On Sunday with the escalation of the conflict around Goma, we had to pull out even the senior team into Gisenyi (across the border in Rwanda) so that we can continue to operate and provide the necessary support to our teams across the country,” she said.

She told VOA the situation was dire.

“As of yesterday, we know that the airport in Goma is closed and under M23 control,” she said. “We have heard reports of sporadic fighting throughout the center of Goma city. Some of us on this side of the border could actually [hear] gunshots at some point during the night. We are aware of M23 presence in Goma but still uncertain of what the actual situation is.” 

As M23 rebels last week made advances into Goma, three U.N. peacekeepers died and seven South African soldiers and three from Malawi, serving in a separate Southern African Development Community mission, also were killed, according to U.N. and South African officials. 

At an emergency meeting on Sunday, the United Nations Security Council called for an end to the hostilities.

Bintou Keita, the head of the U.N. mission in Congo, addressed the Council via video link, painting a bleak picture.

“Roads are blocked and the airport can no longer be used for evacuation or humanitarian efforts,” he said. “M23 has declared the airspace over Goma closed. In other words, we are trapped.”

Jack Mongi, a Goma resident who sent VOA an audio message in French via WhatsApp, said that fighting was still going on around the airport.

“As I speak, you can hear gunshots, we are under our mattresses, under our beds and if you listen, you can hear the gunshots….”

The Congolese minister of foreign affairs told the U.N. Security Council that this is “a frontal assault, a declaration of war.” 

VOA reached out to the Rwandan government for comment but has not immediately heard back.

Many countries represented at the special Security Council meeting condemned the attacks, including the acting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Dorothy Shea, who called for a ceasefire.

“The United States will consider all the tools at its disposal in order to hold accountable those responsible for sustaining armed conflict, instability and insecurity,” she said.

In Nairobi, Kenya’s President William Ruto said he spoke to both Congolese and Rwanda presidents and called for an “immediate and unconditional cessation of hostilities.” 

Ruto, who’s also the chair of the East African Community, says he’ll be convening an extraordinary EAC summit in coming days to try to chart a way forward in this crisis.
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DeepSeek’s ‘Sputnik moment’ prompts investors to sell big AI players 

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LONDON/SINGAPORE — Investors hammered technology stocks on Monday, sending the likes of Nvidia and Oracle plummeting, as the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model cast doubts on Western companies’ dominance in this sector. 

Startup DeepSeek last week launched a free assistant it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent players’ models, possibly marking a turning point in the level of investment needed for AI.  

Futures on the Nasdaq 100 slid almost 4%, suggesting the index could see its biggest daily slide since September 2022 later on Monday, if those losses are sustained. 

Those on the S&P 500 dropped 2%. Shares in AI chipmaker Nvidia fell more than 11%, rival Oracle dropped 8.5% and AI data analytics company Palantir lost 6.5% in pre-market trading.  

DeepSeek, which by Monday had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in terms of downloads on the Apple Store, offers the prospect of a viable, cheaper AI alternative which has raised questions about the sustainability of the level of spending and investment on AI by Western companies, including Apple and Microsoft.  

From Tokyo to Amsterdam, shares in AI players tumbled. 

“We still don’t know the details and nothing has been 100% confirmed in regards to the claims, but if there truly has been a breakthrough in the cost to train models from $100 million+ to this alleged $6 million number this is actually very positive for productivity and AI end users as cost is obviously much lower meaning lower cost of access,” Jon Withaar, a senior portfolio manager at Pictet Asset Management, said. 

The hype around AI has powered a huge inflow of capital into the equity markets in the last 18 months in particular, as investors have bought into the technology, inflating company valuations and sending stock markets to record highs. 

Little is known about the small Hangzhou startup behind DeepSeek. Its researchers wrote in a paper last month that the DeepSeek-V3 model, launched on Jan. 10, used Nvidia’s H800 chips for training, spending less than $6 million – the figure referenced by Pictet’s Withaar. 

H800 chips are not top-of-the-line. Initially developed as a reduced-capability product to get around restrictions on sales to China, they were subsequently banned by U.S. sanctions. 

‘Sputnik moment’  

Marc Andreessen, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, said in a post on X on Sunday that DeepSeek’s R1 model was AI’s “Sputnik moment,” referencing the former Soviet Union’s launch of a satellite that marked the start of the space race in the late 1950s. 

“Deepseek R1 is one of the most amazing and impressive breakthroughs I’ve ever seen — and as open source, a profound gift to the world,” he said in a separate post.  

In Europe, ASML which counts Taiwan’s TSMC, Intel and Samsung as its customers, dropped almost 7.5%, while Siemens Energy lost nearly 18%. In Japan, startup investor SoftBank Group slid more than 8%. Last week it announced a $19 billion commitment to fund Stargate, a data-center joint venture with OpenAI. 

Given the volatility, investors sought out safe-havens such as U.S. Treasuries, which pushed 10-year yields down nearly 10 basis points to 4.52%, while low-yielding currencies like the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc soared against the dollar.  

Big Tech has ramped up spending on developing AI capabilities and optimism over the possible returns has driven stock valuations sky-high. 

Nvidia alone has risen by over 200% in about 18 months and trades at 56 times the value of its earnings, compared with a 53% rise in the Nasdaq .IXIC, which trades at a multiple of 16 to the value of its constituents’ earnings, according to LSEG data. 

Nick Ferres, chief investment officer at Vantage Point Asset Management in Singapore said the market was questioning the capex spend of the major tech companies. 

Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management said: “The idea that the most cutting-edge technologies in America, like Nvidia and ChatGPT, are the most superior globally, there’s concern that this perspective might start to change.”  

“I think it might be a bit premature,” Ichikawa said. 
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US M113 armored personnel carriers prove crucial to Ukraine’s fighting forces

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Part of a U.S. military aid package to Ukraine in April 2022, the M113 armored personnel carrier has proved vital in conducting assault operations and providing protection for Ukrainian infantry. And many of these vehicles are still up and running nearly three years later. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. Camera: Pavel Suhodolskiy
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Ukraine says Russian drone attacks hit infrastructure in several regions

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Russian drone attacks damaged infrastructure sites in western, central and eastern Ukraine on Monday.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 57 of the 108 total drones that Russian forces launched overnight.

The intercepts took place over the Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions, the military said.

Officials in Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk and Sumy said drone attacks hit “critical infrastructure.”

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak also said on Telegram that Russian shelling Monday injured at least five people in the city of Nikopol.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 32 Ukrainian drones, including intercepts over Voronezh, Belgorod, Kursk, Oryol and Tver.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that a Ukrainian drone attack damaged a house, but did not hurt anyone.

A Kremlin spokesperson said Monday that Russia had not received any signals about a potential meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.

The comment came days after Putin said he and Trump should discuss the war in Ukraine as well as energy prices.

Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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China captures scam center suspect with Thailand’s help

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BEIJING — Police have detained a man suspected of involvement in the case of a Chinese actor who was duped into travelling to Thailand for a film job and then trafficked to Myanmar, China’s Public Security Ministry said.

The joint efforts of the ministry’s task force and the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, helped by Thai law enforcement, led to the arrest of a “major criminal suspect” on Saturday, the ministry said in a notice late on Sunday.

The ministry added that the suspect was surnamed Yan and returned to China on Saturday, but did not elaborate.

Wang Xing, a 22-year-old Chinese actor, traveled to Thailand early this month after receiving an unsolicited offer to join a film that was shooting in Thailand.

When Wang got to Bangkok, he was kidnapped, authorities said, and taken to an online scam compound, one of hundreds of thousands of people the United Nations says have been trapped into working for criminal networks running fraudulent telecommunications operations across the region.

Wang’s case drew national interest after his girlfriend began a social media campaign about his plight, and he was later freed by Thai police who found him in Myanmar.

The ministry said the police would step up their efforts to crack down on the scam centers, deepen international law enforcement cooperation, and coordinate with countries involved to detain the criminals and rescue Chinese citizens.

The scam compounds that have proliferated in Southeast Asia since the COVID-19 pandemic defraud people across the globe and generate billions of dollars every year for organized crime groups, many of Chinese origin.

Last week, officials from China, Myanmar and Thailand reached a consensus on eradicating the centers in Myanmar.

China and Thailand also agreed to set up a coordination center in Bangkok to investigate and combat the scam complexes that have mushroomed along Thai borders with Myanmar and Cambodia. The initiative is expected to start operations next month.
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China bans livestock product imports from numerous countries on disease worries

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BEIJING — China has prohibited imports of sheep, goat, poultry and even-toed ungulates from African, Asian and European countries due to outbreaks of livestock diseases such as sheep pox, goat pox and foot-and-mouth-disease.

The ban, which also includes processed and unprocessed products, comes after the World Health Organization released information of disease outbreaks in various countries, according to a series of announcements by China’s General Administration of Customs dated Jan. 21.

The ban from the world’s largest meat importer affects Ghana, Somalia, Qatar, Congo (DRC), Nigeria, and Tanzania, Egypt, Bulgaria, East Timor and Eritrea.

China also said it has stopped imports of sheep, goat and related products from Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh due to sheep pox and goat pox outbreaks.

It also blocked the imports of even-toed ungulates and related products from Germany following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, it said.
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Chiefs, Eagles reach Super Bowl

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The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles are set to face off in the National Football League’s Super Bowl, with the Chiefs looking to become the first team to win three consecutive championships and the Eagles trying to avenge their loss from two years ago.

The Chiefs reached the Feb. 9 championship game in New Orleans with a 32-29 win on Sunday night over the Buffalo Bills.

Kansas City’s star quarterback Patrick Mahomes ran for two touchdowns and threw for another score to reach his fifth Super Bowl in six years. That included the 2023 Super Bowl in which the Chiefs defeated the Eagles 38-35.

The Eagles earned their Super Bowl spot with a resounding 55-23 win Sunday over the Washington Commanders.

Philadelphia outscored Washington 21-0 in the game’s final quarter to secure the victory.

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts ran for three touchdowns and added another through the air, while running back Saquon Barkley added three rushing touchdowns.

Oddsmakers made Kansas City the narrow early favorite for the game.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press
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Sweden opens sabotage probe into Baltic undersea cable damage

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STOCKHOLM/VILNIUS — An undersea fiber optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged on Sunday, likely as a result of external influence, Latvia said, prompting NATO to deploy patrol ships to the area and triggering a sabotage investigation by Swedish authorities.

Sweden’s Security Service has seized control of a vessel as part of the probe, the country’s prosecution authority said.

“We are now carrying out a number of concrete investigative measures, but I cannot go into what they consist of due to the ongoing preliminary investigation,” senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said in a statement.

NATO was coordinating military ships and aircraft under its recently deployed mission, dubbed “Baltic Sentry.” The effort follows a string of incidents in which power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines have been damaged in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina said her government was coordinating with NATO and other countries in the Baltic Sea region to clarify the circumstances surrounding the latest incident.

“We have determined that there is most likely external damage and that it is significant,” Silina told reporters following an extraordinary government meeting.

Latvia’s navy said earlier on Sunday it had dispatched a patrol boat to inspect a ship and that two other vessels were also subject to investigation.

Up to several thousand commercial vessels make their way through the Baltic Sea at any given time, and a number of them passed the broken cable on Sunday, data from the MarineTraffic ship tracking service showed.

One such ship, the Malta-flagged bulk carrier Vezhen, escorted to Swedish waters by a Swedish coastguard vessel on Sunday evening, MarineTraffic data showed. It later anchored outside the Swedish naval base in Karlskrona in southern Sweden.

It was not immediately clear if the Vezhen, which passed the fiber optic cable at 0045 GMT on Sunday, was subject to investigation.

A Swedish coastguard spokesperson declined to comment on the Vezhen or the position of coastguard ships.

Bulgarian shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgare, which listed the Vezhen among its fleet, did not immediately reply to requests for comment outside of office hours.

NATO cooperation

Swedish navy spokesperson Jimmie Adamsson earlier told Reuters it was too soon to say what caused the damage to the cable or whether it was intentional or a technical fault.

“NATO ships and aircrafts are working together with national resources from the Baltic Sea countries to investigate and, if necessary, take action,” the alliance said in a statement on Sunday.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country was cooperating closely with NATO and Latvia.

NATO said last week it would deploy frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones in the Baltic Sea to help protect critical infrastructure and reserved the right to take action against ships suspected of posing a security threat.

Finnish police last month seized a tanker carrying Russian oil and said they suspected the vessel had damaged the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and four telecoms cables by dragging its anchor across the seabed.

Finland’s prime minister in a statement said the latest cable damage highlighted the need to increase protection for critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

The cable that broke on Sunday linked the Latvian town of Ventspils with Sweden’s Gotland island and was damaged in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone, the Latvian navy said.

Communications providers were able to switch to alternative transmission routes, the cable’s operator, Latvian State Radio and Television Centre (LVRTC), said in a statement, adding it was seeking to contract a vessel to begin repairs.

“The exact nature of the damage can only be determined once cable repair work begins,” LVRTC said.

A spokesperson for the operator said the cable was laid at depths of more than 50 meters (164 feet).

Unlike seabed gas pipelines and power cables, which can take many months to repair after damage, fiber optic cables that have suffered damage in the Baltic Sea have generally been restored within weeks.
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Percival Everett’s ‘James’ awarded Carnegie Medal for fiction

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NEW YORK — For author Percival Everett, libraries have long been a source of knowledge and discovery and pleasure, even of the forbidden kind.

“I remember making friends at age 13 with the librarian at the University of South Carolina, and she used to let me go through the stacks when I wasn’t supposed to,” Everett, who spent part of his childhood in Columbia, said during a telephone interview Sunday.

“One of the wonderful things about libraries is that when you’re looking for one book, it’s surrounded by other books that may not be connected to it. That’s what you get (online) with links, but (in libraries) no one’s decided what the links are.”

Everett’s latest honor comes from the country’s public libraries. On Sunday, the American Library Association announced that Everett’s “James” was this year’s winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, which includes a $5,000 cash award. Kevin Fedarko’s “A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon” was chosen for nonfiction.

Everett’s acclaimed reworking of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of Jim, Huck Finn’s enslaved companion, has already received the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize and is a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award. “James” has even topped The New York Times fiction hardcover list, a rare feat in recent years for a literary work that wasn’t a major book club pick or movie tie-in.

“Percival Everett has written a modern masterpiece, a beautiful and important work that offers a fresh perspective from the eyes of a classic character,” Allison Escoto, chair of the award’s selection committee, said in a statement. “Kevin Fedarko’s unforgettable journey through the otherworldly depths of the Grand Canyon shows us the triumphs and pitfalls of exploration and illuminates the many vital lessons we can all learn from our precious natural world.”

Fedarko is a former Time magazine correspondent whose work also has appeared in The New York Times and Esquire. A Pittsburgh native fascinated by distant places, Fedarko has a long history with libraries — Carnegie libraries. He remembers visiting two while growing up, notably one in the suburb of Oakmont near the hairdressing salon his parents ran. He would read biographies of historical figures from George Washington to Daniel Boone, and otherwise think of libraries as “important threads running through his life,” windows to a “wider world.”

Now a resident of Flagstaff, Arizona, Fedarko says that he relied in part on the library at the nearby Northern Arizona University campus for both “A Walk in the Park” and its predecessor, also about the Grand Canyon, “The Emerald Mile.”

“The library has an important and unique collection about the Grand Canyon, and it’s the backbone of the kind of history that helps form the framework of both books,” he says. “Neither of them could have been done without the library.”

Previous winners of the medals, established in 2012 with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, includes Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch,” Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad” and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “The Bully Pulpit.”

This year’s finalists besides “James” in the fiction category were Jiaming Tang’s “Cinema Love” and Kavin Akbar’s “Martyr!”

Adam Higginbotham’s “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space” and Emily Nussbaum’s “Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV” were the nonfiction runners-up.

All three fiction nominees were published by Penguin Random House and all three nonfiction finalists by Simon & Schuster.
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Sierra Leone investigating reports Dutch drug kingpin took refuge in country

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FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Sierra Leone’s information ministry said Sunday it was investigating media reports that European cocaine kingpin Jos Leijdekkers is in the country and benefiting from high-level protection there.

Two sources told Reuters on Friday that Leijdekkers, who was sentenced last June in absentia to 24 years in prison by a Dutch court for smuggling more than 7 tons of cocaine, had been in Sierra Leone since at least early 2023.

A spokesperson for the Dutch prosecutors’ office said in response to questions from Reuters about Leijdekkers’ whereabouts that he has been living in Sierra Leone for at least six months. Leijdekkers is on Europol’s list of most wanted fugitives.

In a statement, the Sierra Leonean ministry said the country’s police were ready to collaborate with the Dutch government, Interpol and other international law enforcement agencies about the case.

The statement said the country’s president “attended numerous family events during the festive season” and “has no knowledge about the identity and the issues detailed in the reports about the individual in question.”

Reuters was not able to reach Leijdekkers.

Videos and photos verified by Reuters of a church Mass in Sierra Leone on Jan. 1, 2025, show Leijdekkers, 33, sitting two rows behind Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio.

In the images, Leijdekkers was sitting next to a woman who three sources said was Bio’s daughter Agnes and who they said was married to Leijdekkers. Reuters could not confirm the relationship.

Bio’s daughter and the Dutch lawyer who last represented Leijdekkers in the Netherlands did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Three sources told Reuters Leijdekkers was benefiting from high-level protection in Sierra Leone, which international law enforcement officials say is a transshipment point for large volumes of Latin American cocaine headed to Europe.

The Sierra Leonean information ministry said the government had not received any formal communication on Leijdekkers from any state or institution, and was resolute in ensuring the country would not become a haven for any organized crime.
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Italy resumes migrant transfers to processing centers in Albania

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Rome — Italy said Sunday it was transferring 49 migrants picked up in the Mediterranean to new processing centers in Albania, in the third such attempt facing hurdles by courts.

The navy vessel Cassiopea with the migrants on board was expected to reach the Albanian port of Shengjin on Tuesday morning, port officials said.

The Interior Ministry said Sunday that 53 other migrants “spontaneously presented their passports” after they were told that it would avoid their transfer to Albania. Where the nationality is confirmed, processing generally takes less time as people who are determined by Italy to be ineligible to apply for asylum in the European Union are repatriated via a fast-track procedure.

Italian judges refused to validate the detention of the first two small groups in the Albanian centers, built under a contentious agreement between Rome and Tirana.

Their cases have been referred to the European Court of Justice, which had earlier established that asylum applicants could not undergo a fast-track procedure that could lead to repatriation if their country of provenance was not deemed completely safe.

The European court hearing on the case is scheduled for Feb. 25.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s government had vowed to reactivate the two centers in Albania that have remained dormant following the Italian courts’ decisions.

The premier’s position was partially backed by a ruling in late December by Italy’s highest court, which said Italian judges could not substitute for government policy in deciding which countries are safe for repatriation of migrants whose asylum requests are rejected.

The decision does allow lower courts to make such determinations on a case-by-case basis, short of setting overall policy.

Italy has earmarked $675 million (650 million euros) to run the centers over five years. They opened in October ready to accept up to 3,000 male migrants a month picked up by the Italian coast guard in international waters.

Human rights groups and nongovernmental organizations active in the Mediterranean have slammed the agreement as a dangerous precedent that conflicts with international laws.

Meloni has repeatedly stressed that plans to process migrants outside EU borders in Albania had received strong backing from other European leaders.
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Border czar: Trump administration prioritizes undocumented migrants seen as security threats

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President Donald Trump’s border czar said Sunday that the administration’s current priority is to deport undocumented immigrants who are deemed to pose security threats to the U.S. But he stressed that illegal immigration in general won’t be tolerated. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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UN chief calls for Rwandan forces to leave DR Congo

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United Nations, United States — U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called Sunday on Rwandan forces to withdraw from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and halt support for fighters advancing on the key Congolese city of Goma. 

M23 fighters backed by several thousand Rwandan troops have been quickly advancing toward the city, which lies along DRC’s eastern border and is home to more than a million people. 

Several foreign peacekeepers have been killed in the mounting violence around Goma. 

“The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the escalating violence” and “calls on the Rwanda Defense Forces to cease support to the M23 and withdraw from DRC territory,” said a statement from his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. 

Guterres had previously referred to a U.N. experts’ report citing Kigali’s backing of the M23 but had not explicitly called on Rwanda to withdraw from DRC territory. 

In his statement Sunday, made after three U.N. peacekeepers in eastern DRC had been killed within 48 hours, Guterres emphasized that “attacks against United Nations personnel may constitute a war crime.” 

The U.N. in the meantime has begun to evacuate “non-essential” staff from the major city of Goma in eastern DRC, a United Nations source told AFP. 

During an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council session Sunday, permanent member states France, Britain and the United States called on Rwanda to pull its forces back. 

But others, including China and the African nations holding rotating council seats, did not specifically name Kigali. 

The Security Council as a whole has yet to accuse Rwanda of taking part directly in the conflict, simply underlining the importance of the DRC’s territorial integrity. 

But the French ambassador to the U.N., Nicolas de Riviere, indicated Sunday he was working on a Security Council statement that would “call a cat a cat,” a phrase essentially meaning to state directly what something is without sugarcoating it. 

He urged the Council to condemn what he said was a grave threat to regional peace and security. 

Congolese foreign minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner went further, urging the Council to impose sweeping economic and political sanctions on Kigali. 

She accused Rwanda of having sent new troops into eastern DRC on Sunday, actions which she said amounted to a “declaration of war.” 

But Rwanda’s ambassador to the U.N., Ernest Rwamucyo, rejected the accusations, accusing Kinshasa of being responsible for the deteriorating situation and failing to make a “genuine commitment to peace.” 

He suggested that the U.N. peacekeepers in the DRC had joined a “coalition” seeking regime change in Rwanda. 

The fighting in the region has forced some 230,000 to flee their homes.  

Eastern DRC has vast mining resources and is a complex landscape of rival armed militias which has seen violence ebb and flow since the 1990s. 
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Mel Gibson’s ‘Flight Risk’ is No. 1 at box office, ‘The Brutalist’ expands 

Posted on by SeeUS

New York — Critics lambasted it and audiences didn’t grade it much better. But despite the turbulence, Mel Gibson’s “Flight Risk” managed to open No. 1 at the box office with a modest $12 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. 

On a quiet weekend, even for the typically frigid movie-going month of January, the top spot went to the Lionsgate thriller starring Mark Wahlberg as a pilot flying an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) and fugitive (Topher Grace) across Alaska. But it wasn’t a particularly triumphant result for Gibson’s directorial follow-up to 2016’s “Hacksaw Ridge.” Reviews (21% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience scores (a “C” CinemaScore) were terrible. 

President Donald Trump recently named Gibson a “special ambassador” to Hollywood, along with Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone. 

Going into the weekend, Hollywood’s attention was more focused on the Sundance Film Festival and on Thursday’s Oscar nominations, which were twice postponed by the wildfires in the Los Angeles region. 

The weekend was also a small test as to whether the once more common Oscar “bump” that can sometimes follow nominations still exists. Most contenders have by now completed the bulk of their theatrical runs and are more likely to see an uptick on VOD or streaming. 

But the weekend’s most daring gambit was A24 pushing Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” a three–and-a-half-hour epic nominated for 10 Academy Awards, into wide release. Though some executives initially greeted “The Brutalist,” which is running with an intermission, as “un-distributable,” Corbet has said, A24 acquired the film out of the Venice Film Festival and it’s managed solid business, collecting $6 million in limited release. 

In wide release, it earned $2.9 million — a far from blockbuster sum but the best weekend yet for “The Brutalist.” 

The audience was downright miniscule for another best-picture nominee: RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys.” Innovatively shot almost entirely in first-person POV, the Amazon MGM Studios release gathered just $340,171 in 540 locations after expanding by 300 theaters. 

Coming off one of the lowest Martin Luther King Jr. weekends in years, no new releases made a major impact. 

Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” a well-reviewed horror film shot from the perspective of a ghost inside a suburban home, debuted with $3.4 million in 1,750 locations. The film, released by Neon and acquired out of last year’s Sundance, was made for just $2 million. 

The top spots otherwise went to holdovers. The Walt Disney Co.’s “Mufasa: The Lion King,” in its sixth weekend of release, scored $8.7 million to hold second place. After starting slowly, the Barry Jenkins-directed film has amassed $626.7 million globally. 

“One of Them Days,” the Keke Palmer and SZA-led comedy from Sony Pictures, held well in its second weekend, dropping just 32% with $8 million in ticket sales. In recent years, few comedies have found success on the big screen, but “One of Them Days” has proven an exception. 

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday. 

  1. “Flight Risk,” $12 million. 

  2. “Mufasa: The Lion King,” $8.7 million. 

  3. “One of Them Days,” $8 million. 

  4. “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” $5.5 million. 

  5. “Moana 2,” $4.3 million. 

  6. “Presence,” $3.4 million. 

  7. “Wolf Man,” $3.4 million. 

  8. “A Complete Unknown,” $3.1 million. 

  9. “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” $3 million. 

  10. “The Brutalist,” $2.9 million. 
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Thousands in Ireland still without power as officials say Storm Eowyn cleanup will take time 

Posted on by SeeEU

London — Ireland called in help from England and France on Sunday as repair crews worked to restore power to hundreds of thousands of people after the most disruptive storm for years.

More than 1 million people in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland were left without electricity after Storm Eowyn roared through on Friday.

In Ireland, which suffered the heaviest damage, the wind snapped telephone poles, ripped apart a Dublin ice rink and even toppled a giant wind turbine. A wind gust of 183 kph was recorded on the west coast, breaking a record set in 1945.

The state electricity company, ESB Networks, said that more than 300,000 properties in Ireland still had no power on Sunday, down from 768,000 on Friday. The Irish military was also helping out, but the company said that it could be two more weeks before electricity is restored to everyone.

Irish Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary said authorities were “throwing everything at it.”

“We’re bringing additional people from England today and we’re looking for people from France, additional technicians,” he told broadcaster RTE. “What we’re focused on is getting our infrastructure back up, getting our power back up, getting our water and connectivity back up as soon as is possible.”

Another 75,000 people were still without power on Sunday in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom and neighbors the Republic of Ireland.

At least two people died during the storm. Kacper Dudek, 20, was killed when a tree fell on his car in County Donegal in northwest Ireland, local police said.

Police in Scotland said that a 19-year-old man, who hasn’t been named, died in a hospital on Saturday after a tree fell on his car in the southwestern town of Mauchline on Friday.

More rainy and windy weather battered Britain and Ireland on Sunday, with a gust of 132 kph recorded at Predannack in southwest England.
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Jannik Sinner beats Alexander Zverev for 2nd Australian Open title

Posted on by SeeEA

MELBOURNE, Australia — There’s all sorts of ways beyond merely the score to measure just how dominant Jannik Sinner was while outplaying and frustrating Alexander Zverev during the 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory Sunday that earned the 23-year-old Italian a second consecutive Australian Open championship. 

The zero break points Sinner faced. Or the 10 he accumulated. The 27-13 advantage in points that lasted at least nine strokes. Or the way Sinner accumulated more winners, 32 to 25, and fewer unforced errors, 27 to 45. The way Sinner won 10 of the 13 points that ended with him at the net. Or the way he only let Zverev go 14 of 27 in that category, frequently zipping passing shots out of reach. 

Well, here’s is one more bit of evidence: what Zverev said about Sinner. 

“I’m serving better than him, but that’s it. He does everything else better than me. He moves better than me. He hits his forehand better than me. He hits his backhand better than me. He returns better than me. He volleys better than me,” Zverev said. “At the end of the day, tennis has five or six massive shots — like, massive factors — and he does four or five of them better than me. That’s the reason why he won.” 

High praise from a guy who is, after all, ranked No. 2. Sinner has held the No. 1 spot since last June and is not showing any signs of relinquishing it. This was the first Australian Open final between the men at No. 1 and No. 2 since 2019, when No. 1 Novak Djokovic defeated No. 2 Rafael Nadal — also in straight sets. 

“It’s amazing,” Sinner said, “to achieve these things.” 

The “things” include being the youngest man to leave Melbourne Park with the trophy two years in a row since Jim Courier in 1992-93, and the first man since Nadal at the French Open in 2005 and 2006 to follow up his first Grand Slam title by repeating as the champion at the same tournament a year later. 

Sinner was asked later whether he felt more relief or excitement when he raised his arms after the last point was his. 

“This one was joy. We managed to do something incredible this time, because the situation I was in was completely different from a year ago here,” he said. “I had more pressure.” 

Probably true, but it’s hard to tell. 

Go to the start of 2024 and take stock. In that span, Sinner has won three of the five major tournaments, including the U.S. Open in September, meaning he now has claimed three straight hard-court Slams. His record is 80-6 with nine titles. His current unbeaten run covers 21 matches. 

“There’s always something that can get better,” said one of his two coaches, Simone Vagnozzi. “He is playing really well right now and everything comes easily. But there will be tough moments ahead.” 

The only thing that’s clouded the past 12 months for Sinner, it seems, is the doping case in which his exoneration was appealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency. He tested positive for a trace amount of an anabolic steroid twice last March but blamed it on an accidental exposure involving two members of his team who have since been fired. Sinner initially was cleared in August; a hearing in the WADA appeal is scheduled for April. 

“I keep playing like this because I have a clear mind on what happened,” Sinner said Sunday. “I know if I would be guilty, I would not play like this.” 

While he became the eighth man in the Open era (which began in 1968) to start his career 3-0 in Grand Slam finals, Zverev is the seventh to be 0-3, adding this loss to those at the 2020 U.S. Open and last year’s French Open. 

Those earlier setbacks both came in five sets. This contest was not that close. Not at all. 

“I’ll keep doing everything I can,” Zverev said, “to lift one of those trophies.” 

Just before Zverev began speaking into a microphone during the trophy ceremony, a voice cried out from the stands, making reference to two of the player’s ex-girlfriends who accused him of physical abuse. 

During the match, there truly was only one moment that contained a hint of tension. It came when Zverev was two points from owning the second set at 5-4, love-30. But a break point — and a set point — never arrived. 

A year ago, Sinner went through a lot more trouble to earn his first major, needing to get past Novak Djokovic — who quit one set into his semifinal against Zverev on Friday because of a torn hamstring — before erasing a two-set deficit in the final against 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev. 

This time, Sinner applied pressure with an all-around style that does not really appear to have holes. 

“The facts speak for themselves,” Zverev said. “He’s in a different universe right now.” 
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Congo severs ties with Rwanda as rebels close in on Goma, displacing thousands 

Posted on by SeeAF

GOMA, DRC — Congo severed diplomatic ties with Rwanda as fighting between Rwanda-backed rebels and government forces raged around the key eastern city of Goma, leaving at least 13 peacekeepers and foreign soldiers dead and displacing thousands of civilians.

The M23 rebel group has made significant territorial gains along the border with Rwanda in recent weeks, closing in on Goma, the provincial capital of around 2 million people and a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts.

Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which is mainly made up of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army more than a decade ago. It’s one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich region, where a long-running conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

Rwanda’s government denies backing the rebels, but last year acknowledged that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to safeguard its security, pointing to a buildup of Congolese forces near the border. U.N. experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.

The Congolese foreign ministry said late Saturday it was severing diplomatic ties with Rwanda and pulling out all diplomatic staff from the country “with immediate effect.” Rwanda did not comment immediately.

The U.N. Security Council moved up an emergency meeting on the escalating violence in eastern Congo to Sunday. Congo requested the meeting, which had originally been scheduled for Monday.

On Sunday morning, heavy gunfire resonated across Goma, just a few kilometers from the front line, while scores of displaced children and adults fled the Kanyaruchinya camp, one of the largest in eastern Congo, right near the Rwandan border, and headed south to Goma.

“We are fleeing because we saw soldiers on the border with Rwanda throwing bombs and shooting,” said Safi Shangwe, who was heading to Goma.

“We are tired and we are afraid, our children are at risk of starving,” she added.

Some of the displaced worried they will not be safe in Goma either.

“We are going to Goma, but I heard that there are bombs in Goma, too, so now we don’t know where to go,” said Adèle Shimiye.

Hundreds of people attempted to flee to Rwanda through the border crossings east of Goma on Sunday while migration officers carefully checked travel documents.

“I am crossing to the other side to see if we will have a place of refuge because for the moment, security in the city is not guaranteed,” Muahadi Amani, a resident of Goma, told The Associated Press.

Earlier in the week, the rebels seized Sake, 27 kilometers from Goma, as concerns mounted that the city could soon fall.

Congo’s army said Saturday it fended off an M23 offensive with the help of allied forces, including U.N. troops and soldiers from the Southern African Development Community Mission, also known as SAMIDRC.

Two South African peacekeepers were killed Friday, while a Uruguayan soldier was killed Saturday, a U.N. official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak on the matter publicly.

Additionally, three Malawian peacekeepers were killed in eastern Congo, the United Nations in Malawi said Saturday.

Seven South African soldiers from the SAMIDRC were also killed during clashes with M23 over the last two days, South Africa’s Defense Department said.

Since 2021, Congo’s government and allied forces, including SAMIDRC and U.N. troops, have been keeping M23 away from Goma.

The U.N peacekeeping force, also known as MONUSCO, entered Congo more than two decades ago and has around 14,000 peacekeepers on the ground.
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Thousands wait to return to northern Gaza, Trump urges Jordan, Egypt to take Palestinians 

Posted on by SeeUS

Cairo — Tens of thousands of Palestinians waited, blocked on the road, to return to their homes in northern Gaza on Sunday, voicing frustration after Israel accused Hamas of breaching a ceasefire agreement and refused to open crossing points. 

A day after a second exchange of Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, the holdup underlined the risks hanging over the truce between the militant group and Israel, longtime adversaries in a series of Gaza wars. 

In central areas of Gaza, columns of people were waiting along the main roads leading north, some in vehicles and some on foot, witnesses said. 

“A sea of people is waiting for a signal to move back to Gaza City and the north, people are fed up and they want to go home,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a displaced person from Gaza City. “This is the deal that was signed, isn’t it?” 

“Many of those people have no idea whether their houses back home are still standing. But they want to go regardless, they want to put up the tents next to the rubble of their houses, they want to feel home,” he told Reuters via a chat app. 

On Sunday, witnesses said many people had slept overnight on the Salahuddin Road, the main thoroughfare running north to south and on the coastal road leading north, waiting to go past the Israeli military positions in the Netzarim corridor running across the center of the Gaza Strip. 

Vehicles, trucks and rickshaws were overloaded with mattresses, food, and with the tents that used to shelter them for over a year in the central and southern areas of the enclave, and volunteers were distributing water and food. 

Under the agreement worked out with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the United States, Israel was meant to allow Palestinians displaced from the homes in the north to return to their homes. 

But Israel said that Hamas’ failure to hand over a list detailing which of the hostages scheduled for release is alive or to hand over Arbel Yehud, an Israeli woman taken hostage during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 meant it had violated the agreement. 

As a result, checkpoints in the central Gaza Strip would not be opened to allow crossings into the northern Gaza Strip, it said in a statement. Hamas issued a statement accusing Israel of stalling and holding it responsible for the delay. 

‘Demolition site’ 

On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump instructed the U.S. military to release 2,000-pound bombs that his predecessor, Joe Biden, had ordered to be withheld from delivery to Israel over concern about their impact on the civilian population of Gaza. 

He also called on Egypt and Jordan to take on more Palestinians from Gaza either temporarily or permanently, saying “we should just clear out the whole thing.” 

“It’s literally a demolition site, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there,” he told reporters after a call with Jordan’s King Abdullah. 

An official of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza, reacted with suspicion to the remarks, echoing longstanding Palestinian fears about being driven permanently from their homes. 

Palestinians “will not accept any offers or solutions, even if [such offers] appear to have good intentions under the guise of reconstruction, as announced in the proposals of U.S. President Trump,” Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told Reuters. 

Al-Awda Hospital officials said four people were wounded by Israeli fire, from soldiers apparently trying to prevent people coming too close. 

The Israeli military issued warnings to Palestinians not to approach its positions in Gaza and said soldiers had fired warning shots on several occasions but said “as of now, we are unaware of any harm caused to the suspects as a result of the shooting.” 

 
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South Korean president indicted as ‘ringleader of an insurrection’ 

Posted on by SeeEA

Seoul — South Korean prosecutors indicted impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol Sunday for being the “ringleader of an insurrection” after his abortive declaration of martial law, ordering the suspended leader to remain in detention. 

 

Yoon plunged the country into political chaos with his December 3 bid to suspend civilian rule, a move which lasted just six hours before lawmakers defied armed soldiers in parliament to vote it down. 

 

He was impeached soon after, and earlier this month became the first sitting South Korean head of state to be arrested. 

 

That came after a weekslong holdout at his residence, where his elite personal security detail resisted attempts to detain him. 

 

In a statement, prosecutors said they had “indicted Yoon Suk Yeol with detention today on charges of being the ringleader of an insurrection.” 

 

He has been held at the Seoul Detention Center since his arrest, and the formal indictment with detention means he will now be kept behind bars until his trial, which must happen within six months. 

 

The indictment was widely expected after a court twice rejected requests by prosecutors to extend his arrest warrant while their investigation proceeded. 

 

“After a comprehensive review of evidence obtained during investigations [prosecutors] concluded that it was only appropriate to indict the defendant,” they said in a statement. 

 

The need to keep Yoon behind bars was justified by a “continued risk of evidence destruction,” they said. 

 

The specific charge — being the ringleader of an insurrection — is not covered by presidential immunity, they added.  

 

‘Process of accountability’ 

 

The opposition hailed the indictment. 

 

“We need to hold not only those who schemed to carry out an illegal insurrection, but also those who instigated it by spreading misinformation,” said lawmaker Han Min-soo. 

 

Without providing evidence, Yoon and his legal team have pointed to purported election fraud and legislative gridlock at the opposition-controlled parliament as justification for his declaration of martial law. 

 

Yoon has vowed to “fight to the end”, earning the support of supporters who have adopted the “stop the steal” rhetoric associated with U.S. President Donald Trump. 

 

“This indictment will provide a sense of relief, reaffirming that the constitutional order is functioning as it should,” said Bae Kang-hoon, co-founder of political think tank Valid. 

 

Yoon also faces a series of Constitutional Court hearings, to decide whether to uphold his impeachment and strip him formally of the presidency. 

 

If the court rules against Yoon, he will lose the presidency and an election will be called within 60 days. 
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Facebook scammers use fake VOA article to push Russian cryptocurrency scheme

Posted on by SeeEU

When American conservative commentator Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian IT entrepreneur Pavel Durov in April, he had an additional unexpected audience: scammers.

After the video was published, a phony Russian-language transcript of the interview tried to attract “investors” to a cryptocurrency scheme that promised monthly earnings of $13,000.

That scheme came to VOA’s attention because its creators used a copy of a VOA Russian article page in their attempts to defraud internet users.

It is one of many examples of legitimate media outlets being exploited for fraudulent purposes.

These schemes buy advertising using Facebook accounts — often hacked without the user’s knowledge — spanning countries like the Philippines, Mexico and Afghanistan.

The strategy and rhetoric follow a pattern, according to Jordan Liles, at American fact-checking site Snopes.com.

“There are so many scams online that pose as legitimate publishers,” he told VOA. “Name any publisher – they’ve probably been used in scams to try to fool people who don’t look at their web address bar.”

There is no indication that Durov or Carlson is involved in the scheme. VOA reached out to them for comment but received no response.

In a statement, Facebook parent company Meta told VOA it takes scams seriously.

“Fraud is a problem that’s always persisted with new technology,” the company wrote. “But that’s exactly why Meta always has — and always will — take a hard line against scams, fraud and abuse in all of its forms to help keep it off of our platforms.”

Scammers have previously posed as Voice of America, using deepfakes in two separate cases that targeted VOA Russian journalists.

Those cases relied on artificial intelligence.

In contrast, the Durov scam takes a distinctly low-tech approach: It uses a Q&A-style text transcript in Russian that falsely claims to be a “continuation” of Carlson’s interview.

The founder of Russian social media site VKontakte and messenger app Telegram, Durov is a well-known tech entrepreneur. That makes him harder to impersonate.

According to an April 2024 report by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, while deepfakes of public figures “are relatively routine,” they also tend not to be believable.

Layers of lies 

At the center of the cryptocurrency scam impersonating VOA is an intriguing promise and a trail of stolen accounts spanning the globe.

The fake story claims that Durov told Carlson about his latest creation: ProTON-Invest, an open program that will allow even the least financially literate person to earn large sums of money with minimal effort.

VOA attempted to trace the origins of the ProTON-Invest scheme and its promotional content, but the fraudsters had done a good job covering their tracks.

When VOA approached the owners of the Facebook accounts that bought advertising for the scheme, those who responded said they had lost access to their pages.

One of the accounts, called “Simply News” in Russian, had previously been the page of a business in Calumpit, a provincial city in the Philippines, that sold house plants and baked goods during the coronavirus pandemic.

The business’s co-owner, Dannie Roxas, told VOA that the page had been hacked. 

“We do not have any access to it and we cannot take it back anymore,” she said in a Telegram message. “We already have reported it.”

Another Facebook page promoting the scam (but without the fake VOA story) was “Golden News.” It formerly belonged to a travel agency in Kabul, Afghanistan.

VOA wrote to the agency over WhatsApp. A man who did not identify himself said the most recent posts were not from the company and they had likely been hacked.

When VOA inquired further, he declined to provide more information.

VOA also identified several more accounts sharing the fake transcript or pushing the fraud scheme. Two appeared to belong to a graphic designer in the Punjab region of Pakistan. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Another belonged to a Mexican rapper. The man behind that page did not respond to a request for comment but had previously written from his personal Facebook page that his music account was hacked.

According to Facebook’s Page Transparency data, the stolen accounts often had managers supposedly located in multiple countries, including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Ukraine, China and the U.S.

But it’s unclear how Facebook determines where the managers are located. Meta did not respond to a question from VOA about that.

If the determination is based on an IP address, that can easily be spoofed using a virtual private network (VPN), a basic tool for maintaining privacy online.

Trouble fighting back

At its core, the ProTON-Invest scam appears to benefit from the current online environment.

When hackers take over an account, they often change the password, recovery email and phone number. That makes it extremely difficult to retake the account.

After cryptocurrency scammers took over his Facebook account in early 2024, it took journalist Yuri – who asked to be identified only by his first name to discuss the hack without his employer’s permission – nearly six months to regain control.  Ultimately, he had to hire a lawyer to engage with Facebook parent company Meta.

“If the lawyer hadn’t helped me, I would have spent a long time writing to Meta,” Yuri said.

The scams are also relatively inexpensive to create.

Facebook advertising costs very little, according to Snopes’ Liles. Meanwhile, people who fall victim to the scams give them hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

“If [the scammer] spent only $100, their scam has, unfortunately, been successful,” Liles told VOA.

So, how can internet users distinguish a scam from real VOA?

Besides looking for an accurate VOA URL in the web address of any supposed VOA page, users should also look for specific signs that VOA social media pages are legitimate.

“In our branding, VOA uses specific colors, and the social media accounts’ names are the same across platforms. On Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, look for the verification check mark, and follow links to other social media platforms from our website or official social media accounts,” a representative of VOA Public Relations said. “On X, not all of our accounts are verified because they require a paid subscription, so always crosscheck the link on the website or official social media accounts.”
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Taipei pet shop strives to break down anti-snake prejudice

Posted on by SeeEA

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — As the Year of the Snake approaches, a pet store in Taipei is offering adventurous customers an opportunity to enjoy the company of snakes while sipping coffee, hoping to break down some of the prejudice against the animal.

Taiwan has been plastered with images of the reptile ahead of the start of the Lunar New Year, which starts on Wednesday and whose zodiac animal this year is the snake.

The snake has a mixed reputation in traditional Taiwanese and Chinese culture as a symbol of either good or bad.

Some of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples venerate snakes as guardian spirits, and while the island is home to species potentially deadly to humans, including vipers and cobras, deaths are rare given the wide availability of anti-venom.

Luo Chih-yu, 42, the owner of the Taipei pet shop Pythonism which opened in 2017, is offering potential snake owners the chance to interact with snakes over a cup of coffee.

“I provide a space for people to try and experience, finding out whether they like them without any prejudice,” he said.

Liu Ting-chih took his daughter to the shop, who looked curiously at the animals in their cages.

“Through this activity she can learn how to take care of small animals and cherish them,” Liu said.

Sub-tropical and mountainous Taiwan is home to some 60 native snake species. 
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WHO chief urges end to attacks on Sudan health care after 70 drone strike kills 70

Posted on by SeeAF

The head of the World Health Organization called on Saturday for an end to attacks on health care workers and facilities in Sudan after a drone attack on a hospital in Sudan’s North Darfur region killed more than 70 people and wounded dozens.

“As the only functional hospital in El Fasher, the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital provides services which include gyn-obstetrics, internal medicine, surgery and pediatrics, along with a nutrition stabilization center,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X after the Friday strike.

“We continue to call for a cessation of all attacks on health care in Sudan, and to allow full access for the swift restoration of the facilities that have been damaged,” Tedros said.

The war between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces, which broke out in April 2023 due to disputes over the integration of the two forces, has killed tens of thousands, driven millions from their homes and plunged half of the population into hunger.

The conflict has produced waves of ethnically driven violence blamed largely on the RSF, creating a humanitarian crisis.

Darfur Governor Mini Minnawi said on X that an RSF drone had struck the emergency department of the hospital in the capital of North Darfur, killing patients, including women and children.

Fierce clashes have erupted in El Fasher between the RSF and the Sudanese joint forces, including the army, armed resistance groups, police, and local defense units. 
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