February 2025 - Page 13 of 17

Japan prime minister voices optimism over averting US tariffs

Posted on 02/09/2025 by SeeUS

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed optimism on Sunday that his country could avoid higher U.S. tariffs, saying President Donald Trump had recognized Japan’s huge investment in the U.S. and the American jobs that it creates.

At his first White House summit on Friday, Ishiba told public broadcaster NHK, he explained to Trump how many Japanese automakers were creating jobs in the United States.

The two did not specifically discuss auto tariffs, Ishiba said, although he said he did not know whether Japan would be subject to the reciprocal tariffs that Trump has said he plans to impose on imports.

Tokyo has so far escaped the trade war Trump unleashed in his first weeks in office. He has announced tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China, although he postponed the 25% duties on his North American neighbors to allow for talks.

The escalating trade tensions since Trump returned to the White House on Jan. 20 threaten to rupture the global economy.

Ishiba said he believes Trump “recognized the fact Japan has been the world’s largest investor in the United States for five straight years and is therefore different from other countries.”

“Japan is creating many U.S. jobs. I believe (Washington) won’t go straight to the idea of higher tariffs,” he said.

Ishiba voiced optimism that Japan and the U.S. can avoid a tit-for-tat tariff war, stressing that tariffs should be put in place in a way that “benefits both sides.”

“Any action that exploits or excludes the other side won’t last,” Ishiba said. “The question is whether there is any problem between Japan and the United States that warrants imposing higher tariffs,” he added.

Japan had the highest foreign direct investment in the United States in 2023 at $783.3 billion, followed by Canada and Germany, according to the most recent U.S. Commerce Department data.

Trump pressed Ishiba to close Japan’s $68.5 billion annual trade surplus with Washington but expressed optimism this could be done quickly, given a promise by Ishiba to bring Japanese investment in the U.S. to $1 trillion.

On Sunday, Ishiba identified liquefied natural gas, steel, AI and autos as areas that Japanese companies could invest in.

He also touched on Trump’s promise to look at Nippon Steel investing in U.S. Steel as opposed to buying the storied American company, a planned purchase opposed by Trump and blocked by his predecessor, Joe Biden.

“Investment is being made to ensure that it remains an American company. It will continue to operate under American management, with American employees,” Ishiba said. “The key point is how to ensure it remains an American company. From President Trump’s perspective, this is of utmost importance.”

On military spending, another area where Trump has pressed allies for increases, Ishiba said Japan would not increase its defense budget without first winning public backing.

“It is crucial to ensure that what is deemed necessary is something the taxpayers can understand and support,” he said.
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Scandal-hit narco-musical ‘Emilia Perez’ wins Spanish film prize

Posted on 02/09/2025 by SeeEU

GRANADA, SPAIN — Narco-musical Emilia Perez won best European film at Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars on Saturday, after social media posts by the movie’s star prompted a backlash in the middle of awards season.

The mostly Spanish-language musical tells the story of a Mexican drug cartel boss who transitions to life as a woman and turns her back on crime.

Before the scandal broke, the film earned 13 Oscar nods, picked up four Golden Globes in January and won multiple prizes at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.

But old social media posts by star Karla Sofia Gascon, in which she denigrates Islam, China and African American George Floyd, unleashed a scandal that has harmed her reputation and the film.

Voting for the Goya awards closed on Jan. 24, days before the posts were uncovered.

Spaniard Gascon, the first transgender woman nominated for an Oscar for best actress, has apologized for her posts and distanced herself from publicity for the film.

She lives near Madrid but did not attend the Goya awards ceremony in Granada.

The movie’s French director Jacques Audiard has called the posts “inexcusable” and “absolutely hateful.”
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Ukrainians in Colorado open food truck featuring traditional food

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeUS

Ukrainians Yevhenia and Kostiantyn Mukhin fled Kherson in 2022 with nothing but a backpack. They made their way to Denver, Colorado, determined to rebuild their lives, but also to spread the joy of Ukrainian culture. Svitlana Prystynska reports the story narrated by Anna Rice.
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US declares interest in developing African mining sector

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeAF

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is interested in developing the mining sector in Africa. On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order focusing on minerals, mineral extraction, and mineral processing.

“Mainly in the United States but if you read closely there are also multiple references in that executive order to international partnerships and you know, cooperating with partner nations,” said Scott Woodard, the acting deputy assistant secretary of state for energy transformation at the U.S. State Department.

Woodard spoke at a recent African mining conference — also known as an indaba — in Cape Town, South Africa.

Moderator Zainab Usman, director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, asked Woodard whether the U.S. understands that in addition to mineral extraction, Africans want projects that add value to the raw material in order to boost the continent’s industrialization.

Woodard replied that the Trump administration is still putting together its policies.

In recent years, America’s investment in the African minerals needed for cleaner energy has been driven by the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

In 2022, the U.S. entered into agreements with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to establish a supply chain for electric vehicle batteries, underscoring its interest in both countries’ copper, lithium and cobalt resources.

The U.S. also has funded the rebuilding of the Lobito Rail Corridor, which will transport minerals from Congo, Zambia and Angola on the west coast.

Speaking in the exhibition hall during the indaba, Zambia’s minister of transport and logistics, Frank Tayali, thanked the U.S. for its leadership.

“We have something like a $350 billion gap in terms of infrastructure gap financing that the continent needs,” said Tayali. “Now this focus on infrastructure development is really key in helping the African economies to be able to improve so that they are able to look after their people more effectively.”

China, meanwhile, is invested in rehabilitating the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority — known as TAZARA — to bolster rail and sea transport in East Africa.

And in South Africa, the conference’s host country, transport and logistics problems at the state-owned Transnet railway system are being considered.

“The CEO of Transnet is very open about the state of the rail network,” said Allan Seccombe, head of communications at the Minerals Council of South Africa. ” … it needs a lot of work.”

How will they raise the money?

“They are going out on public tenders to try and get that investment in,” said Allan Seccombe, head of communications at the Minerals Council of South Africa. “Also, significantly they’re speaking to their customers who are by and large, large mining companies to maybe through tariffs they can invest in the rail network, improve it, then have private trains they can operate on the network.”
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Emboldened by Trump, Iranian dissidents demand overthrow of rulers

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeEU

PARIS — Thousands of opponents to Iran’s authorities rallied in Paris on Saturday, joined by Ukrainians to call for the fall of the government in Tehran, hopeful that U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign could lead to change in the country.

The protest, organized by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, which is banned in Iran, comes as two of the group’s members face imminent execution with a further six sentenced to death in November.

“We say your demise has arrived. With or without negotiations, with or without nuclear weapons, uprising and overthrow await you,” NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi said in a speech.

People from across Europe, some bussed in for the event, waved Iranian flags and chanted anti-government slogans amid images deriding Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Hundreds of Ukrainians accusing Iran of backing Russian President Vladimir Putin in the war against Ukraine joined the protest.

Iryna Serdiuk, 37, a nurse turned interpreter originally from Ukraine’s embattled Donbas region and now exiled in Germany, said she had come to Paris to join forces against a common enemy.

“I’m happy to see these Iranians because they are opposition. They support Ukraine and not the Iranian government which gives Russia weapons. We are together and one day it will be victory for Ukraine and Iran too,” she said.

The NCRI, also known by its Persian name Mujahideen-e-Khalq, was once listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union until 2012.

While its critics question its support inside Iran and how it operates, it remains one of the few opposition groups able to rally supporters.

Mohammad Sabetraftar, 63, an Iranian in exile for 40 years and who now runs a taxi business in the United Kingdom, dismissed criticism of the NCRI saying that it was the only alternative capable of achieving democracy in Iran.

“What we expect from Mr. Trump or any Western politician is to not support this government. We don’t need money, we don’t need weapons, we rely on the people. No ties with the regime, no connections and put as much pressure on this government.”

Tehran has long called for a crackdown on the NCRI in Paris, Riyadh, and Washington. The group is regularly criticized in state media.

In January, Trump’s Ukraine envoy spoke at a conference organized by the group in Paris.

At the time, he outlined the president’s plan to return to a policy of maximum pressure on Iran that sought to wreck its economy, forcing the country to negotiate a deal on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and regional activities.

Homa Sabetraftar, 16, a schoolgirl in Britain, said she felt it was her duty to come to the event to represent the youth of Iran.

“Some people in Iran don’t have that voice and aren’t able to vocalize as freely as we are able to here,” she said. “We need to push for a better future.”
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White South Africans reject Trump’s resettlement plan

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeUS

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA — Groups representing some of South Africa’s white minority responded Saturday to a plan by President Donald Trump to offer them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by saying: thanks, but no thanks.

The plan was detailed in an executive order Trump signed Friday that stopped all aid and financial assistance to South Africa as punishment for what the Trump administration said were “rights violations” by the government against some of its white citizens.

The Trump administration accused the South African government of allowing violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and introducing a land expropriation law that enables it to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”

The South African government has denied there are any concerted attacks on white farmers and has said that Trump’s description of the new land law is full of misinformation and distortions.

On Saturday, two of the most prominent groups representing Afrikaners said they would not be taking up Trump’s offer of resettlement in the U.S.

“Our members work here, and want to stay here, and they are going to stay here,” said Dirk Hermann, chief executive of the Afrikaner trade union Solidarity, which says it represents about 2 million people. “We are committed to build a future here. We are not going anywhere.”

At the same news conference, Kallie Kriel, the CEO of the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, said: “We have to state categorically: We don’t want to move elsewhere.”

Trump’s move to sanction South Africa, a key U.S. trading partner in Africa, came after he and his South African-born adviser Elon Musk accused its Black leadership of having an anti-white stance. But the portrayal of Afrikaners as a downtrodden group that needed to be saved would surprise most South Africans.

“It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged,” South Africa’s Foreign Ministry said.

There was “a campaign of misinformation and propaganda” aimed at South Africa, the ministry said.

Whites in South Africa still generally have a much better standard of living than Blacks more than 30 years after the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994. Despite being a small minority, whites still own about 70% of South Africa’s private farmland. A study in 2021 by the South Africa Human Rights Commission said 1% of whites were living in poverty compared with 64% of Blacks.

Trump’s action against South Africa has given international attention to a sentiment among some white South Africans that they are being discriminated against as a form of payback for apartheid. The leaders of the apartheid government were Afrikaners.

Solidarity, AfriForum and others are strongly opposed to the new land expropriation law, saying it will target land owned by whites who have worked to develop that land for years. They also say an equally contentious language law that’s recently been passed seeks to remove or limit their Afrikaans language in schools, while they have often criticized South Africa’s affirmative action policies in business that promote the interests of Blacks as racist laws.

“This government is allowing a certain section of the population to be targeted,” said AfriForum’s Kriel, who thanked Trump for raising the case of Afrikaners.

The South African government says the laws that have been criticized are aimed at the incredibly difficult task of redressing the wrongs of colonialism and then nearly a half-century of apartheid, when Blacks were stripped of their land and almost all their rights.
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White House order halts Myanmar refugee resettlement deal with Thailand

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeEA

BANGKOK — The head of a Thai parliamentary committee that oversees border affairs and refugee camp officials told VOA the suspension by the United States of refugee admissions has halted a resettlement deal the U.S. struck with Thailand last year to take in thousands of Myanmar families.

About 90,000 refugees from Myanmar are in Thailand in a string of nine sealed-off camps along the countries’ shared border. Some have lived in the camps since the mid-1980s, fleeing decades of fighting between Myanmar’s military and ethnic-minority rebel groups vying for autonomy. Most are ethnic minority Karen.

After more than a year of talks and planning, the United States agreed to start taking in some of the refugees last year, although the U.S. State Department would not say how many of them might resettle. However, Thai lawmaker Rangsiman Rome, and an aid worker previously told VOA that local United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees staff told them in 2023 that it could be up to 10,000 per year, a claim the U.N. would not confirm or deny.

The first groups of 25 families left the camps for the United States in July.

U.S. President Donald Trump said that during the previous four years — the term of former President Joe Biden — “the United States has been inundated with record levels of migration, including through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program,” and he suspended the program by executive order Jan. 20, effective a week later.

The administration is allowing only case-by-case exceptions, “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”

The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok declined to comment to VOA on the order’s impact on the resettlement deal the United States and Thailand struck last year.

Asked about the deal’s fate, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA it was “coordinating with implementing partners to suspend refugee arrivals to the United States” and refused further comment.

Rangsiman, who chairs the Thai House of Representatives National Security, Border Affairs, National Strategy and National Reform Committee, which monitors the refugee camps, confirmed Friday that Trump’s order has put a stop to the deal, at least for the time being.

“We are aware that the deal is on hold but still waiting for updates from related departments if this deal can be renegotiated,” he told VOA.

Officials and spokespersons for the Thai government and ministries involved in managing the deal either refused to speak with VOA or did not reply to requests for comment.

Camp administrators told VOA that all work vetting and preparing the refugees in the camps for resettlement to the U.S., including interviews and medical checks, has stopped since the White House order.

“After the 20th, after the announcement, everything stopped,” said Nido, who goes by one name, the vice chairman of the committee managing day-to-day operations at the Umpiem camp in Tak province.

“On the 27th, many people from the camp had to go for their second vaccination. The doctors and nurses were there already preparing to vaccinate. But when the people arrived, they said there were some changes, so they had to stop the vaccination process. They told the people they will have to stop this process for a while, but they could not say for how long,” he said. “The interviews, the vaccinations — they had to stop it.”

Bweh Say, secretary of the Karen Refugee Committee that oversees the individual camp committees, said he was told by UNHCR staff that resettlement work was on hold across all the camps.

“Some of their staff, when we sit together, we talk together … they said [it has] stopped,” he said.

The UNHCR has been helping Thailand and the United States run the resettlement program, but it refused to comment to VOA on the impact of the suspension of the U.S. refugee admissions program, USRAP.

Camp officials and refugee advocates say the deal between Thailand and the U.S. was the only foreseeable chance in the near term for thousands of families to have a future other than as permanent refugees.

The Myanmar military’s overthrow of a democratically elected government in 2021 amplified violence in the country, setting off a civil war that has killed thousands of civilians.

Thailand itself will not allow the refugees to settle outside the camps and mostly denies them the chance to work or study outside the camps legally. Aid and advocacy groups that work with the refugees have described rising despair, drug abuse and violence.

No other country besides the United States has taken up Thailand’s call to resettle the refugees in large numbers.

“This [deal] is very important for the refugees. Some of us have been staying in the camps for decades — two or almost three. Children have been born here,” said Nido, a refugee himself who fled Myanmar nearly 20 years ago.

“The situation in Myanmar now is very terrible,” he said. “A lot of conflict and fighting. It’s not possible to go back. It’s also not possible to be recognized as a Thai national or to get Thai ID, and when you’re stateless, it is very hard to move around or find work.”

Inside the camps, jobs are hard to come by except for running a small shop or working with an aid group for a modest stipend. Schools are barred from teaching the Thai curriculum or language, leaving little chance for a higher education. Monthly food allowances, funded by international donors, barely keep pace with inflation.

Since Trump took office, the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development also has compelled the clinics it was funding across the camps to close, forcing the refugees onto Thailand’s own public health care system. The Thai government has vowed to plug the gap, but media reports say it is struggling.

Some critics say the USAID programs are wasteful and promote an agenda that fosters dependence without addressing the root of the problem. A Justice Department official, Brett Shumate, said Friday, “The president has decided there is corruption and fraud at USAID,” although he did not detail the alleged mismanagement.

“If they could return [to Myanmar], if the situation [were] safe, of course everyone would want to return to their homes. But since it is impossible, then resettlement is one of their first options,” said Wahkushee Tenner, a former refugee from the camps who now runs the Karen Peace Support Network, a nongovernment group based in Thailand that advocates for the Karen.

“Resettlement is not the best option,” she said, “but there is no best … option.”
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African leaders call for ‘immediate ceasefire’ at DRC summit

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeAF

BUKAVU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO — A summit of African leaders meeting to address the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday called for an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” within five days.

The M23 armed rebel group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC in an offensive that has left thousands dead and displaced vast numbers.

The DRC government has officially designated the M23 rebel group as a terrorist organization, while the United Nations and the United States classify it as an armed rebel group.

The summit in Tanzania brought together Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart, Felix Tshisekedi, as well as leaders from the East African Community bloc and 16-member Southern African Development Community.

Kagame appeared in person, while Tshisekedi joined via video call.

In the final statement, the summit called for army chiefs from both communities “to meet within five days and provide technical direction on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.”

It also called for the opening of humanitarian corridors to evacuate the dead and injured.

Meanwhile, fighting was ongoing about 60 kilometers from the South Kivu provincial capital of Bakuvu, local and security sources told AFP.

The M23 took the strategic city of Goma, capital of North Kivu province, last week and is pushing into neighboring South Kivu in the latest episode of decadeslong turmoil in the region.

Local fears

Since the M23 reemerged in 2021, peace talks hosted by Angola and Kenya have failed and multiple ceasefires have collapsed.

While Rwanda continues to deny supporting the M23 militarily, a report by United Nations experts said last year Rwanda had around 4,000 troops in the DRC and profited from smuggling out of the country vast amounts of gold and coltan — a mineral vital for phones and laptops.

Rwanda accuses the DRC of sheltering the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The summit comes amid reports that the M23 is closing on the town of Kavumu in South Kivu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying Congolese troops.

There have also been reports of panic in the provincial capital, Bukavu, as residents board up shops and seek to escape.

“The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It’s total chaos,” they said.

Gang rape, slavery

U.N. rights chief Volker Turk warned Friday: “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come for the people of the eastern DRC but also beyond the country’s borders.”

Turk said that nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 wounded since the M23 entered Goma on Jan. 26, and that the final tolls were likely to be much higher.

He also said his team was “currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery.”

M23 has already installed its own mayor and local authorities in Goma.

It has vowed to march all the way to the national capital, Kinshasa, even though the city lies about 1,600 kilometers away across the vast country, which is roughly the size of Western Europe.

The DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats.

The M23 offensive has raised fears of a regional war, given that several countries are supporting the DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.
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Zelenskyy hints at ‘intensive’ talks with Trump as US, Ukraine discuss peace deal

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeEU

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not confirmed that he will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump next week but said the coming weeks may be “very intensive in diplomacy.”

Trump said on Feb. 7 that he is likely to meet with Zelenskyy next week. The site of the meeting “could be Washington,” he said, adding that he would not be going to Kyiv.

He also said he would “probably” be speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon but did not give a time frame. Zelenskyy said it is important that he and Trump meet in person before the U.S. president meets with Putin.

Zelenskyy did not confirm a meeting with Trump but said diplomacy would be ramping up.

“The coming weeks may be very intensive in diplomacy, and we will do what’s needed to make this time effective and productive. We always appreciate working with President Trump,” he said shortly after Trump spoke.

“Weʼre also planning meetings and talks at the teams’ level. Right now Ukrainian and American teams are working out the details. A solid, lasting peace shall become closer.”

In his comments earlier at the White House, the U.S. president reiterated that he is interested in tying continued military aid to access to Ukraine’s raw materials.

“One of the things we’re looking at with President Zelenskyy is having the security of their assets. They have assets underground, rare earth and other things, but primarily rare earth,” he said.

“We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earths and other things,” Trump said on Feb. 3.

He said on Feb. 7 that the United States wants “an equal amount of something” in exchange for U.S. support. “We would like them to equalize,” Trump said.

More than four dozen minerals, including several types of rare earths, nickel, and lithium, are considered critical to the U.S. economy and national defense. Ukraine has large deposits of uranium, lithium, and titanium.

Ukraine floated the idea of opening its critical minerals to investment by allies last year when it presented its plan to end the war and now suggests it could be open to a deal.

“If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal. We are only for it,” Zelenskyy said on Feb. 7, emphasizing Ukraine’s need for security guarantees from its allies as part of any settlement of the war.

“Strong security always has many elements, and each one matters,” he said on X. “Ukraine possesses some of the largest strategic resource reserves in Europe, and protecting Ukraine also means protecting these resources.”

Less than 20% of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including about half its rare earth deposits, are under Russian occupation, Zelenskyy said in an interview with Reuters published on Feb. 7. Moscow could open those resources to North Korea and Iran if it maintains its hold on the territories.

“We need to stop Putin and protect what we have — a very rich Dnipro region, central Ukraine,” he told Reuters.

Zelenskyy is likely to further discuss the idea with allies next week at the Munich Security Conference.

Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, said this week he plans to attend the conference, but denied a report that he will present Trump’s plan for ending the war in Ukraine at the gathering, which starts Feb. 14.

Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said he had spoken to Kellogg about the battlefield situation, the safety of Ukrainian civilians, and meetings at the annual security conference. He also said Ukraine is looking forward to Kellogg’s visit later this month.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and dpa.
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Rwandan, Congolese leaders to meet over eastern DRC conflict

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeAF

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA — Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame was due to meet his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi in Tanzania on Saturday as regional leaders convene in a bid to defuse the conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo.

The M23 armed group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC in an offensive that has left thousands dead and displaced vast numbers.

The group took the strategic city of Goma last week and is pushing into the neighboring South Kivu province in the latest episode of decades-long turmoil in the region.

Kagame and Tshisekedi are due to attend a joint summit in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam, bringing together the eight countries of the East African Community and 16-member South African Development Community.

Since the M23 reemerged in 2021, several peace talks hosted by Angola and Kenya have failed.

Rwanda denies military support for the M23 but a U.N. report said last year it had around 4,000 troops in DRC and profited from smuggling vast amounts of gold and coltan — a mineral vital to phones and laptops — out of the country.

Rwanda accuses the DRC of sheltering the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Local fears

The summit comes as the M23 advances on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying Congolese troops.

Kavumu is the last barrier before the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu on the Rwandan border, where panic has set in.

A Bukavu resident said shops were barricading their fronts and emptying storerooms for fear of looting, while schools and universities suspended classes on Friday.

“The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It’s total chaos,” they said.

U.N. rights chief Volker Turk warned: “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders.”

‘Gang rape, slavery’

Turk said nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 injured since M23 entered Goma on Jan. 26, and that final tolls were likely much higher.

He also said his team was “currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery.”

The M23 has already installed its own mayor and local authorities in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

It has vowed to go all the way to the national capital Kinshasa, even though it lies about 1,600 kilometers away across the vast country, which is roughly the size of Western Europe.

The DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats.

The offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.

Regional foreign ministers gathered on Friday for the first day of the summit in Tanzania ahead of their leaders on Saturday.

Kenyan foreign secretary Musalia Mudavadi said there was a “golden opportunity” to find a solution, calling for the previous peace processes hosted by Angola and Kenya to be merged into one.
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Uyghurs mark 28 years since Ghulja violence, condemn ongoing repression

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeEA

WASHINGTON — The first week of February is marked by grief for Zubayra Shamseden not only because she lost loved ones nearly three decades ago, she says, but because China’s repressive policies toward Uyghurs continue.

“I have been commemorating this day and protesting for the past 28 years, every February 5,” Shamseden told VOA. “The Ghulja massacre in 1997 was the beginning of today’s ongoing genocide of Uyghurs.”

Many protesters were killed by the Chinese armed forces that day in what Shamseden describes as a violent Chinese government crackdown on a peaceful Uyghur protest in Ghulja, a city in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang. During subsequent crackdowns, she also lost her brother, Sadirdin, and her nephew, Hemmat Muhammet.

In the aftermath, another brother was sentenced to life in prison.

“The Chinese government should release all prisoners, including my brother, who were unjustly imprisoned,” she told VOA.

Outset of violence

In recent years, China’s policy toward Uyghurs in Xinjiang has drawn global attention, with the U.S. officially labeling China’s actions as genocide. The United Nations has raised alarms, warning that China’s conduct may constitute crimes against humanity, including mass detentions, forced labor, and other abuses. Beijing, which refers to the 1997 crackdown as “the Yining incident” — a measured police response to an unfolding “riot” — has dismissed these claims as “sheer falsehoods” driven by U.S.-led anti-China forces.

Now Chinese outreach coordinator for the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, Shamseden led a demonstration Wednesday outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington. Joined by a dozen activists, she marked the anniversary of what she and many others refer to as the Ghulja Massacre.

Recalling the violence of that day, Shamseden says a few hundred unarmed Uyghur youths marched through Ghulja, calling for basic rights.

“They took to the streets peacefully and unarmed, asking the government to respect their Islamic religious freedom and Uyghur cultural practices,” said Shamseden, a former vice president of the World Uyghur Congress.

The youths also called for the release of previously “arrested leaders of their gatherings, because the Chinese authorities didn’t allow them to gather for Meshrep,” she said.

Meshrep, a traditional Uyghur community gathering, has been recognized by UNESCO as part of Uyghur intangible cultural heritage since 2010.

Some Meshrep organizers, Shamseden said, had previously been arrested despite initial government approval to hold Meshrep gatherings.

Speaking out about a drug crisis among fellow youths in the region had been the purpose of their gatherings.

“The Uyghur youth in Ghulja sought to address the growing heroin addiction crisis that spread in the early 1990s,” Shamseden said. “They turned to Meshrep — traditional gatherings that included sports, music, performances, and other forms of entertainment — to help young Uyghurs struggling with addiction and alcohol.”

Officials in Beijing, however, soon deemed the gatherings a threat. In August 1995, key organizers were arrested, prompting protests in Ghulja. Authorities responded by banning Meshrep and cracking down on other Uyghur-led initiatives.

Uyghurs were later barred from holding events of any kind.

Different perspective

Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, described the protest as “not a so-called massacre, but a serious incident of beating, smashing, and looting” carried out by a burgeoning terrorist group.

“Xinjiang was once a major area where extremist groups infiltrated and carried out violent terrorist activities,” Liu said, adding that China’s measures in the region have been aimed at countering terror-based insurgency within the framework of Chinese law.

A 1997 Human Rights Watch report, however, linked the crackdown to a secret Chinese government directive known as “Document No. 7.” Issued in March 1996 by the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the document laid out measures to strengthen control over Xinjiang, including restrictions on religious and cultural activities, increased military presence and tighter security enforcement.

The Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs described the Chinese government crackdown on protesters as a massacre, stating that the policies behind that bloodshed have evolved into the genocide unfolding today.

The Ghulja Massacre was “a pivotal moment when the world had an opportunity to recognize China’s trajectory towards mass atrocities — and failed to act,” said Rushan Abbas, the group’s executive director, in a statement issued Wednesday.

“That failure emboldened the [Chinese Communist Party],” said Abbas, who is also chairperson of the executive committee at World Uyghur Congress. “Today, as Uyghurs endure genocide, history repeats itself. The price of inaction is paid in human lives, and every day without accountability reinforces the Chinese regime’s belief that it can commit atrocities without consequence.”

According to Shamseden, who had been in Australia since 1993, visiting Ghulja only in the aftermath of the crackdown in 1998, mass arrests and collective punishment had by then become routine.

This crackdown led to the arrest, torture and release of her sister for allegedly helping a Ghulja protester, the killing of her brother Sadirdin in Kazakhstan under mysterious circumstances, and the killing of her nephew Hemmat Muhammet by Chinese police in Ghulja. Shamseden’s nephew and brother were leading members of earlier Meshrep gatherings.

In 1999, Shamseden said another younger brother, Abdurazzak was sentenced by the Chinese officials for being a separatist, receiving a sentence of life in prison.

To this day, she said, she has been unable to learn any details about her brother’s current fate, including whether he is alive.

According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Abdurazzak’s sentence was commuted by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region High People’s Court in August 2016. He had reportedly been serving time at Urumqi No.1 Prison, and is expected to be released in 2036, but his exact whereabouts remain unknown.
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Stradivari violin made in 1714 sells for $11.3M

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeUS

NEW YORK — A violin made in 1714 by the legendary luthier Antonio Stradivari sold for $11.3 million at an auction in New York on Friday, short of estimates that would have made it the most expensive instrument ever sold.

Sotheby’s auction house had estimated that the “Joachim-Ma Stradivarius” violin could sell for between $12 million and $18 million, with the higher end of the range potentially eclipsing the record-breaking $15.9 million someone paid for another Stradivari violin at auction more than a decade ago.

The “Joachim-Ma Stradivarius” is regarded as one of Stradivari’s best works, built during his “Golden Period” at the height of his craftsmanship and acoustic mastery, according to the auction house.

Adding to the intrigue, the violin is believed to have influenced legendary composer Johannes Brahms when he wrote the famed “Violin Concerto in D Major” and was actually played during the concerto’s 1879 premiere.

“This extraordinary violin represents the pinnacle of craftsmanship and classical music history, its unparalleled sound and storied provenance captivating collectors and musicians alike,” Mari-Claudia Jimenez, chair at Sotheby’s. “The Joachim-Ma Stradivarius garnered global attention, achieving one of the highest prices ever for a musical instrument — an acknowledgment of its rarity and historical importance.”

$2M increase in seconds

Bidding at Sotheby’s began at $8 million and within seconds shot up to $10 million, as auctioneer Phyllis Kao scanned the room, looking for someone to put up $10.5 million.

“Am I selling? At $10 million,” she said, looking to potential bidders.

The room was quiet.

“Last chance, at $10 million,” she said. “I can sell, and I will, at $10 million, unless you go on.”

“Sold. $10 million,” she said, banging a gavel.

The final price includes auction house fees.

Sale funds scholarships

The name of the instrument comes from two of its famous violin virtuoso owners, Joseph Joachim of Hungary and Si-Hon Ma of China. Ma’s estate gifted the violin to the New England Conservatory in Boston after his death.

The conservatory will use the proceeds to fund student scholarships.

“The sale is transformational for future students, and proceeds will establish the largest named endowed scholarship at New England Conservatory,” said Andrea Kalyn, president of New England Conservatory. “It has been an honor to have the Joachim-Ma Stradivari on campus, and we are eager to watch its legacy continue on the world stage.”
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Wreckage of missing Alaska plane found; no survivors

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeUS

The wreckage of a small commuter plane missing in Alaska has been found, Coast Guard officials said Friday. All 10 people aboard the plane – nine passengers and a pilot – are dead, according to media reports.

Coast Guard spokesman Mike Salerno said rescuers saw the crash from their helicopter as they flew over the Cessna 208 Caravan’s last known location. Two rescue swimmers were lowered to investigate the scene, Salerno said.

Several groups were involved in the search for the plane, including the Alaska State Troopers the U.S. Coast Guard, Alaska Air National Guard, Alaska Army National Guard and local search teams.

Authorities said a Jayhawk helicopter was brought in Friday morning to help with the search.

The FBI provided technical assistance, including cellphone analysis to help locate the aircraft.

The Bering Air flight was traveling in western Alaska, just south of the Artic Circle, from Unalakleet to Nome. Alaska State Troopers said they were notified Thursday at 4 p.m. about the missing plane.

The U.S. Coast Guard said on X the flight’s last known position was 19 kilometers offshore.

Early Friday, the Nome fire department posted on X that it was conducting a ground search, but weather and visibility conditions were hampering the department’s air search. The department urged people not to form their own search parties because of hazardous weather conditions in the region, which is prone to sudden snow squalls and high winds.

Airplanes are often the only method of transportation between rural Alaskan villages.

Nome is well-known as the last stop in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

This is the third major U.S. aviation incident in recent days. On Jan. 29, a commercial airliner and an Army helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport outside Washington. Two days later, a medical transport plane crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood shortly after takeoff, killing six people onboard and another person on the street.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Sweden wants to tighten gun laws after mass shooting

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeEU

Sweden said Friday it wants to tighten its gun laws, following a lone gunman’s mass shooting of 10 people Tuesday with his licensed firearms at an education center in Orebro, about 200 kilometers west of Stockholm.

After killing seven women and three men between the ages of 28 and 68, the attacker apparently killed himself with one of his weapons.

The coalition government said in a statement that it has come to an agreement on a proposal restricting access to semiautomatic weapons, specifically citing the AR-15 rifle, which has been used in several U.S. shootings. It is “an example of a weapon that is compatible with large magazines and can cause a lot of damage in a short time,” the statement said.

“There are certain types of weapons that are so dangerous that they should only be possessed for civilian purposes as an exception,” the government said.

While it is not immediately clear what weapons were used in Tuesday’s shooting, Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told Reuters a ban on the AR-15 would be a “preventative measure.”

Sweden’s government also called for a reassessment of the requirements for hunting licenses that would allow Swedes to possess an AR-15, which could then be used, with some adjustments, in a mass shooting.

AR-15 rifles have been allowed in Sweden for hunting since 2023, Reuters reported and since then 3,500 licenses have been issued.

Police have not revealed what weapons were used in this week’s incident but have said that three rifles found near the suspect’s body were licensed to him. Police have seized a fourth gun also licensed to the suspect.

Police say they have not determined a motive for the shootings. However, Broadcaster TV4 has shown a video shot by a student hiding in a bathroom during the ordeal. Someone can be heard in the video shouting, “You will leave Europe.”

The police have not released the nationalities of the victims, nor have they released the identity of the shooter.

The Swedish press, however, has identified the suspect as 35-year-old Rickard Andersson, whom they describe as a recluse with mental health issues.
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Trump orders freeze of aid to South Africa, cites country’s land expropriation law

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeAF

washington — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday formalizing his announcement earlier this week that he’ll freeze assistance to South Africa because of its law aiming to address some of the wrongs of South Africa’s racist apartheid era — a law the White House says amounts to discrimination against the country’s white minority.

“As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country,” the White House said in a summary of the order. The White House said Trump is also going to announce a program to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees.

Trump was responding to a new law in South Africa that gives the government powers in some instances to expropriate land from people. The White House said the law “blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority Afrikaners.”

The Expropriation Act was signed into law by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month and allows the government to take land in specific instances where it is not being used, or where it would be in the public interest if it were redistributed.

It aims to address some of the wrongs of South Africa’s racist apartheid era, when land was taken away from Black people and they were forced to live in areas designated for nonwhites.

Elon Musk, who is a close Trump ally and head of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, has highlighted that law in recent social media posts and cast it as a threat to South Africa’s white minority. Musk was born in South Africa.

The order also references South Africa’s role in bringing accusations of genocide against Israel before the International Court of Justice.

The halt in foreign aid to South Africa comes amid a broader pause in most U.S. overseas assistance under Trump, as he looks to shift to what he calls an “America First” foreign policy.
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US defense secretary hosts Australian counterpart

Posted on 02/08/2025 by SeeEA

pentagon — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles to the Pentagon on Friday, after Australia made its first $500 million payment to the United States under the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal involving Washington, Canberra and London.

“The check did clear,” Hegseth joked to Marles and reporters ahead of the defense ministers’ meeting.

Marles said the “strength of American leadership” in the Indo-Pacific region is “critically important” to Australia. He added that the AUKUS submarine deal also represented an increase in Australian defense spending.

“We really understand the importance of building our capability, but in paying our way,” Marles told Hegseth.

Marles was the first foreign defense counterpart that Hegseth had hosted since his confirmation.

U.S. and Australian officials confirmed that Australia transferred the $500 million after a call between Marles and Hegseth late last month.

AUKUS is a trilateral partnership that Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. announced in September 2021 to support a “free and open Indo-Pacific” amid increased Chinese aggression.

The first initiative under AUKUS was aimed at strengthening the U.S. submarine industrial base so that Australia can acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. It also provides for the rotational basing of American and British nuclear submarines in Australia.
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Vietnam braces for fallout from US tariffs on Chinese goods

Posted on 02/07/2025 by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh instructed his Cabinet to prepare for a possible global trade war after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs of 10% on all Chinese products.

“Prepare for the possibility of a world trade war this year,” the prime minister said at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, according to the Dan Tri online newspaper.

Pham spoke after Trump announced a pause in his threatened tariffs against Mexico and Canada for 30 days.

Pham told the Cabinet that the situation in the world and the region was “developing very unpredictably, directly affecting our country, especially on exports, production and business, and the macro economy.”

He emphasized that if a global trade war were to occur, with countries imposing retaliatory tariffs on each other’s exports, it could disrupt supply chains and shrink the country’s export markets, posing significant risks to Vietnam’s economy.

Pham did not specifically mention Trump’s tariffs on products from China, a strategic trade partner and a neighboring country of Vietnam.

There are worries that Trump’s tariffs may cause rising product prices and reduced consumer purchasing power in Vietnam, a highly open economy that relies heavily on exports and foreign direct investment, with China as its leading trade partner.

Vietnamese businesses and consumers are bracing for U.S. tariffs on China to drive up the costs of some goods as the country imports machinery and electronic devices, such as computers and cellphones, from the U.S., with elements or pieces that originated from China.

The country will also likely have to cope with pressure from Beijing to import more Chinese products, analysts said.

“Vietnam may be under pressure to import more products from China as Chinese products are levied higher tariffs by the U.S.,” Nguyen Quang A, an economic political observer and businessman in Hanoi, told VOA this week.

Others predict that as American markets close to Chinese companies, they will increasingly turn to regional trading partners, like Vietnam.

In 2024, Vietnam’s exports to China totaled $61.2 billion. Meanwhile, imports from China surged to $144 billion, according to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

With the United States, the situation is reversed, with Vietnam’s trade surplus in 2024 exceeding $123 billion, Reuters reported.

According to analysts, Hanoi’s pledges to import more from the U.S. as well as other offsetting measures could spare Vietnam from the Trump administration’s tariffs.

Nguyen noted a major hidden risk for Vietnam is that Chinese companies are setting up factories in Vietnam to import products for re-export, meaning they would repackage Chinese products with minimal labor by cheap Vietnamese workers and export them under the “Made in Vietnam” label to avoid tariffs.

“Chinese businesses [are] moving to Vietnam and are processing their imported materials from China and then labeling their products as ‘Made in Vietnam’ before exporting to the U.S. The U.S. will definitely examine this issue carefully,” Nguyen said.

Vietnam, which has long had geopolitical tensions with China, may face the risk of potential reprisal measures from China as Beijing said it would impose retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. goods as soon as next week.

However, Vietnam seemed to win big in Trump’s first-term trade war with China as the Southeast Asian country attracted manufacturers wanting to avoid Chinese tariffs.

If Trump’s tariffs are extended to Vietnam, the economic effects could ripple through trade balances, exchange rates, supply chains and foreign direct investment, said Vo Tri Thanh, former vice president at the Central Institute for Economic Management and a member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, writing in Vietnam News.

The sweeping tariffs have triggered the phenomenon of goods being stockpiled in Vietnam and in the region to avoid tax hikes, driving up demand for container shipping and pushing freight costs to new highs.

Despite these pressures, Vietnam may find itself positioned to capitalize on global supply chain shifts, Nguyen Hong Dien, Vietnam’s minister of industry and trade, told Tuoi Tre Online, explaining that the country could attract more investment in high-value sectors.
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VOA Uzbek: Central Asian countries moving closer to China

Posted on 02/07/2025 by SeeEU

While Russia is still controlling Central Asian countries politically and economically, those states are also looking for new partners, especially with China, to help ensure their own development. And according to the regional experts, even if the U.S. starts a tough policy against Beijing, it will not have a serious impact on Central Asia, and they will not stop their economic relations with China.

Click here for the full story in Uzbek.
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Initially exempted, US intelligence faces ‘fork in the road’

Posted on 02/07/2025 by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — A handful of key U.S. intelligence agencies have given most of their employees a chance to walk away, offering them the opportunity to take the deferred resignation option extended to the government’s civilian workforce.

Under the initial rollout of the plan, aimed at drastically reducing the size of the U.S. government, military and security employees were exempt, due to the critical nature of their work in protecting the United States.

But over the past few days, at least five U.S. intelligence agencies have come forward, telling their workforces that they can choose to take the so-called “fork in the road” deal, allowing them to get paid until September while no longer working on a daily basis.

The list includes the CIA, the country’s premiere spy agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is charged with overseeing all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies.

The National Security Agency, which specializes in electronic intelligence gathering, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office also confirmed to VOA their participation in the downsizing program.

A CIA spokesperson, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the initiative, said it was triggered by the agency’s newly confirmed director, John Ratcliffe, to be more responsive to President Donald Trump’s priorities.

“These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position the CIA to deliver on its mission,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The other intelligence agencies taking part in the deferred resignation program declined to explain why workers initially seen as critical to U.S. national security are now deemed as expendable. Nor did they answer questions about the impact potential resignations could have on their missions.

The White House National Security Council referred questions about the decision to make the intelligence agencies eligible for the program and the potential impact to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. OMB has yet to respond to multiple requests for comment.

The move, though, has raised concern among some former intelligence officers and experts who fear the potential reductions could hamper the ability of U.S. intelligence agencies to gain information and insights that are vital to the security of the U.S. homeland.

Daniel Byman, director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the impact on the CIA could be significant.

“If many employees take the option, it risks reducing the tremendous expertise the CIA has built up on a variety of areas,” he told VOA.

“It takes years to develop the operational and analytic expertise to be a good intelligence officer, and losing this would be a significant blow to U.S. capabilities during a turbulent time in the world,” Byman said, noting that proposed job cuts at the FBI could boost U.S. adversaries that “try to exploit U.S. security vulnerabilities and influence U.S. public discourse.”

Senior Democratic lawmakers such as Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner have likewise raised concerns — noting even Trump’s hiring freeze exempted national security jobs.

Others describe the push to get U.S. intelligence officials to quit as “crazy.”

“I think that’s a great way to send some of our best talent packing,” said Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

“It’s a way to help our adversaries,” Krishnamoorthi told VOA. “I hope that they reconsider this nutty HR [human resources] move and instead try to attract the best and brightest in the intelligence community because we need them.”

But Republican Senator Thom Tillis called such fears “overblown.”

“Really, if people think that special operators and clandestine operators are suddenly going to take it, they don’t understand what’s trying to be happening here,” he told VOA. “What they’re trying to do is probably get less out of the head office and less out of administrative positions, so they can put more into the field.”

“The press is going for the worst-case scenario,” Tillis added. “Most of these people are at the end of their career anyway, and so you’re doing buyouts so that you can bring in new people and right-size.”

Other former officials see an upside to the inclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies in the deferred resignation program, casting it as a clear message to U.S. adversaries to beware.

“What this says to a country like Russia or China or others, [is] Trump is a very strong leader,” said former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker.

“This is something that they did not see with President [Joe] Biden, who is a weak leader in their eyes,” Volker told VOA. “In Trump, they see someone who is willing to go there. He is willing to break crockery. He’s willing to escalate. He’s willing to do what he wants in order to get his will accomplished. That sends a very strong message to adversaries.”

The deferred resignation program’s numerical impact on U.S. intelligence agencies remains unclear.

U.S. officials say that so far, 65,000 of the government’s approximately 2 million employees have chosen to accept the offer, although the number of intelligence agency employees is classified. The individual agencies are unlikely to release data.

The original deadline for government employees — including at the intelligence agencies — to accept the deferred resignation offer was Thursday, but a court order has delayed that until at least Monday.
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Trump hosts Japan’s Ishiba amid early moves that have rattled some allies

Posted on 02/07/2025 by SeeEA

WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House on Friday, in a visit that Tokyo hopes will reaffirm the U.S.-Japan alliance amid Trump’s early foreign policy moves that have rattled allies and adversaries.

Trump and Ishiba are expected to discuss increasing joint military exercises and cooperation on defense equipment and technology, ramping up Japanese investments to the United States, and American energy exports to Japan, a senior Trump administration official said in a briefing to reporters Friday.

The official said they also will talk about improving cybersecurity capabilities, bolstering space cooperation and promoting joint business opportunities to develop critical technologies, including AI and semiconductors.

Ishiba’s visit comes amid anxiety in Tokyo as Trump has put pressure on some U.S. allies and partners, saying he wants to absorb Canada as a U.S. state, acquire Greenland from Denmark and take control of the Panama Canal.

“We would like to first establish a higher relationship of trust and cooperation between two countries, especially the two leaders,” a senior Japanese government official told reporters during a briefing Thursday.

The U.S. president has imposed fresh 10% tariffs on China and 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico — although the latter two have been at least temporarily delayed. He has warned of possible tariffs against other countries, especially those with whom the U.S. holds a trade deficit, such as Japan.

“We all know that President Trump pays a lot of attention to the deficit as an indication of the economic strength of the relationship. So, I’m sure discussions will happen about that,” the Trump administration official said.

Other strains on the U.S.-Japan relationship include former President Joe Biden’s blocking of a $15 billion acquisition bid by Japan’s largest steel producer, Nippon Steel, for Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel.

Biden blocked the deal during the final weeks of his term, citing national security concerns. Trump has said he also opposes the deal.

The White House has not responded to VOA’s query on Trump’s current position on Nippon Steel. The Japanese prime minister’s office did not respond to VOA’s query on whether the issue will be raised today.

Continuity on security front

Under then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Japan became a key player in what the Biden administration called a “lattice-like strategic architecture” to bolster deterrence against the two main U.S. adversaries in the Pacific: China and North Korea.

Biden’s approach connected Tokyo with other allies in trilateral formats and other groupings, including with South Korea, Australia and the Philippines, to deter regional threats in the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea and Korean Peninsula.

Japan is anxious to maintain ties forged in recent years, during which time Tokyo has increased defense spending and intensified joint military exercises with the U.S. and other regional allies.

Japan needs a “multilayered network of security” to defend itself, the senior Japanese official said.

The Trump administration will continue to support trilateral efforts and some of the working groups that have come out from under those over the last few years, the Trump official said. “There may be some adjustments to where the focus is on trilateral cooperation, but I think largely you will see continuity.”

Under his first term, Trump and then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on the “free and open Indo-Pacific” framework to promote peace and prosperity in the region. The two countries also agreed to elevate what’s known as the Quad grouping with India and Australia.

The fact that the Trump administration sees those formats as a critical part of its strategy in the Pacific is important, said Jeffrey Hornung, the Japan Lead for the RAND National Security Research Division.

A key indicator to watch is whether the leaders will come out with a joint statement on a free and open Indo-Pacific. While it may sound like a diplomatic cliché, it would deliver a strong message to Beijing to not be provocative toward Taiwan, Hornung told VOA.

In dealing with the threats from Pyongyang, the Trump official underscored the U.S. is “committed to the complete denuclearization of North Korea.”

Making deals with Japan

While maintaining the security alliance, analysts say Trump may use the visit as an opportunity to broker deals that would further his “America First” agenda, using what he sees as Tokyo’s interests as leverage.

“Part of President Trump’s negotiating stance for almost all issues is that we don’t really know where he wants to land in the end,” said Kenji Kushida, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“If the promise to allow Nippon Steel to acquire U.S. Steel can be used as bargaining leverage, he may use this to get Japan to pay much more than they’re already committed, to help contribute to U.S. military bases and other defense costs,” he told VOA.

Ahead of Ishiba’s visit, Nippon Steel said its proposed acquisition is aligned with Trump’s goals of a stronger United States.

“From Japan’s perspective, they want to position themselves as the staunch ally of U.S. interests in Asia, and so fitting into that set of interests is Nippon Steel’s strategy here,” Kushida said.

Tokyo is aware of what Trump wants — investments in key industries such as AI and semiconductors, increasing Tokyo’s defense spending and American energy purchase.

“Those are all areas that Japan does have shared interests. They have technology. They have the money to invest in some of these areas, and so they’re able to use their leverage in a very strategic manner,” Hornung said. “At the same time, trying to promote with Trump the things that they’re interested in: making sure that U.S. forces remain in Japan, making sure that the U.S. remains committed to the Indo-Pacific.”

The best-case scenario for Ishiba is that Trump doesn’t ask beyond what Tokyo already expected, said Kushida.

“Perhaps an increase in the defense sharing burden, mainly buying U.S. military equipment, expansion of U.S. bases, perhaps, and then perhaps some other financial commitments, but nothing that would upset the sort of geopolitical status in East Asia to Japan’s disadvantage,” Kushida said. “Nothing very extreme, or to get mixed in with some of the issues In the Middle East in ways that Japan has been trying to keep out.”

The leaders are expected to hold a press conference later Friday.

Calla Yu and Kim Lewis contributed to this report.
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US to push Russia to end war in Ukraine through sanctions

Posted on 02/07/2025 by SeeEU

The U.S. special envoy to Russia and Ukraine said Thursday the U.S. plans to significantly step up pressure on Russia through sanctions to end the war in Ukraine.

In an exclusive interview with the New York Post, Special Envoy Keith Kellogg said there is a lot of room to increase sanctions on Russia, particularly in Russia’s energy sector. He characterized sanctions enforcement on Russia as “only about a 3” on a scale of 1 to 10 on “how painful the economic pressure can be.”

Kellogg told the Post he understands that both Moscow and Kyiv will have to make concessions to end what he called the “industrial-sized” killing in the war.

In the interview, Kellogg also was critical of the approach by the administration of former President Joe Biden of “supporting Ukraine as long as it takes,” calling it “a bumper sticker, not a strategy.”

Kellogg said the Trump administration is focused on a “holistic approach” to ending the war, combining support for Ukraine with increased pressure on Russia.

Kellogg’s Chief of Staff Ludovic Hood echoed those sentiments when he told the GLOBSEC Transatlantic Forum in Washington on Thursday, “Nothing’s off the table at this stage” as far as negotiations for a peace deal.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s presidential website reported the U.S. special envoy also spoke Thursday with Ukraine’s head of the office of the president, Andriy Yermak. In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said the two discussed Kellogg’s upcoming visit to Ukraine, as well as the situation on the front lines and security issues for Ukrainian civilians.

The statement said the two gave “special attention” in their conversation to the upcoming Munich Security Conference, scheduled to begin in one week.

In a separate interview with the Associated Press on Thursday, Yermak stressed the importance of “active engagement” between Ukraine and the Trump administration, particularly as any peace negotiations.

Yermak emphasized the importance of keeping the Trump White House up to date and providing accurate information about the battlefield situation. He said direct communication with U.S. partners is crucial for establishing a shared position, because it is impossible to form any peace plans without Ukraine.

Meanwhile, in the latest reports from the battlefield, Ukraine’s air force reported Friday – from its Telegram social media account – Russian attacks across multiple Ukrainian regions killed at least three civilians and injured five over the past 24 hours.

The report said Ukrainian air defenses shot down 81 of 112 Shahed combat drones and decoy drones Russia launched over nine oblasts, or regions, while 31 other drones were lost without causing damage.

From his Telegram account, Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Russian shelling killed one person and wounded five others, and two high-rise buildings and six private houses were damaged.

The regional administration in Sumy Oblast says two people were killed when Russian shelling destroyed a two-story apartment building. The report said the victims’ bodies were found in the rubble as rescue crews cleared the area and there are fears more bodies could be found.

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African nations prepare for what’s to come after pause on US aid

Posted on 02/07/2025 by SeeAF

NAIROBI, KENYA — African governments are gearing up for what is to come following the 90-day pause on most U.S.-funded foreign aid as they worry about the potential effects.

In Kenya, for instance, Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa said Wednesday in Nairobi that as her country navigates complex challenges, ensuring continuation of essential health services, especially with programs related to HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, is essential.

“For more than 40 years, we’ve been able to depend on partners. PEPFAR has done a great job in ensuring that HIV patients, TB patients are receiving health services,” she said, referring to the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a program that works with partners in 55 countries worldwide.

“With more than 3.7 million being on HIV medication [in Kenya] … I believe it’s critical for us to think of sustainable solutions … [and] alternative forms of funding,” Barasa said.

While the freeze has been modified to allow waivers for “life-saving humanitarian assistance,” including “core life-saving medicine,” which may apply to health programs such as PEPFAR, many countries are working to assess the implications of what may amount to an end of U.S. foreign aid.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the waiver is clear: “If it saves lives, if it’s emergency lifesaving aid — food, medicine, whatever — they have a waiver. I don’t know how much clearer we can be.”

South Africa, with 7.8 million people with HIV, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the PEPFAR program the past two decades. Its health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, told reporters last week in Johannesburg that the country was taken by surprise by the pause in aid and that officials are still trying to decipher the full meaning.

This week, Motsoaledi met with U.S. Embassy officials to discuss bilateral health cooperation and the new U.S. policies on assistance. The two sides promised to keep the communications channels open as they discuss lifesaving health partnerships, according to a joint statement after the meeting.

Asanda Ngoasheng, a South African political analyst, said countries will be affected one way or the other because many public health systems exist only because of the PEPFAR program.

“Even in the case PEPFAR is not funding 100% of the programs, any money that is removed means that countries simply would not be able to afford programs that they were able to afford with the money that was being supplemented by PEPFAR before,” Ngoasheng said.

Programs not related to health are also affected. In Senegal, for example, an infrastructure and development project financed by the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an initiative that was started by Republican U.S. President George W. Bush, could lose funding.

The $550 million power project being implemented by Millennium Challenge Account Senegal was designed to improve the country’s transmission network and increase electricity access in rural areas and to those on the outskirts of cities in the south and central regions.

Mamadou Thior, a journalist and chair of the media watchdog CORED, told VOA: “The financing coming from the U.S. for this second phase will impact about 12 million people.”

Thior referred to a recent speech by Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko that emphasized the need for countries to work on being self-sufficient.

“It’s high time for Africans and other people to depend on themselves and not from Western aid because this is what can be the drawbacks,” Thior said.

“They will have to depend on national resources to go ahead with the rest of the [electricity] project because there’s no way to go backwards,” he said.

In Nigeria, a country that received about $1 billion in U.S. foreign aid last year, officials this week launched a committee with members from finance, health and environmental ministries to develop an alternative for some U.S.-funded programs.
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US employers added just 143,000 jobs last month, jobless rate slips to 4% to start the year

Posted on 02/07/2025 by SeeUS

Washington — U.S. employers added just 143,000 jobs last month, but the jobless rate slipped to 4% to start 2025 and the government revised November and December payrolls higher.

The first job report of Donald Trump’s second presidency suggested that he inherited a labor market that is solid but unspectacular. Economists had expected about 170,000 new jobs in January.

It’s a downshift from 2024 which averaged 186,000 new jobs a month, including a surge of 256,000 in December. The unemployment rate is expected to remain low at 4.1%.

The future is cloudier.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to push out federal workers by offering them financial incentives, yet a federal hiring freeze that Trump imposed January 20 is a “negative for employment growth,’’ Bradley Saunders, an economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a commentary last week.

The freeze came after the Labor Department collected the January jobs numbers, so any impact would be revealed in upcoming employment data.

Likewise, a cold snap that probably increased seasonal layoffs in the Midwest and Northeast occurred late in January and won’t register in government jobs data until the February numbers come out, Saunders wrote.

Economists are also worried about Trump’s threat to wage a trade war against other countries. He’s already imposed a 10% tax on imports from China.

Canada and Mexico — America’s two largest trading partners — remain in his crosshairs, although he gave them a 30-day reprieve from the 25% tariffs he was planning to sock them with on Tuesday, allowing time for negotiations. Trump says that America’s two neighbors and allies haven’t done enough to stem the flow of undocumented immigrants and fentanyl into the United States.

Trump is also ready to slap tariffs on the European Union; pointing to America’s deficit in the trade of goods with the EU, which came to $236 billion last year, he says that Europe treats U.S. exporters unfairly.

The tariffs, which are paid by U.S. importers who generally try to pass along the cost to customers, could rekindle inflation – which has fallen from the four-decade high it reached in mid-2022 but is still stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. If the tariffs push prices higher, the Fed may cancel or postpone the two interest-rate cuts it had forecast for this year. And that would be bad for economic growth and job creation.

The job market already has cooled from the red-hot days of 2021-2023. American payrolls increased by 2.2 million last year, down from 3 million in 2023, 4.5 million in 2022 and a record 7.2 million in 2021 as the economy roared back from COVID-19 lockdowns. The Labor Department also reports that employers are posting fewer jobs. Monthly job openings have tumbled from a record 12.2 million in March 2022, to 7.6 million in December – still a decent number by historical standards.

As the labor market cools, American workers are losing confidence in their ability to find better pay or working conditions by changing jobs. The number of people quitting has fallen from a record 4.5 million near the height of the hiring boom in April 2022, to December’s 3.2 million, which is below pre-pandemic levels.

Still, layoffs remain below pre-pandemic levels, creating an unusual situation: If you are employed, you probably enjoy job security. If you’re looking for one, things have gotten tougher.

The Labor Department also is expected to report annually released revisions Friday that will show job creation from April 2023 through March 2024 wasn’t as strong as originally reported.

A preliminary version of the revisions, released in August, showed that 818,000 fewer jobs were created over those 12 months – lowering average monthly hiring during that span from 242,000 to 174,000. Because they are not final, the August estimates have not yet been added to the official government payroll numbers. The revisions out Friday will become official and part of the historic data.
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Trump administration plans to slash all but a fraction of USAID jobs, officials say

Posted on 02/07/2025 by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration presented a plan Thursday to dramatically cut staffing worldwide for U.S. aid projects as part of its dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, leaving fewer than 300 workers out of thousands.

Late Thursday, federal workers associations filed suit asking a federal court to stop the shutdown, arguing that President Donald Trump lacks the authority to shut down an agency enshrined in congressional legislation.

Two current USAID employees and one former senior USAID official told The Associated Press of the administration’s plan, presented to remaining senior officials of the agency Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to a Trump administration order barring USAID staffers from talking to anyone outside their agency.

The plan would leave fewer than 300 staffers on the job out of what are currently 8,000 direct hires and contractors. They, along with an unknown number of 5,000 locally hired international staffers abroad, would run the few life-saving programs that the administration says it intends to keep going for the time being.

It was not immediately clear whether the reduction to 300 would be permanent or temporary, potentially allowing more workers to return after what the Trump administration says is a review of which aid and development programs it wants to resume.

The administration earlier this week gave almost all USAID staffers posted overseas 30 days, starting Friday, to return to the U.S., with the government paying for their travel and moving costs. Workers who choose to stay longer, unless they received a specific hardship waiver, might have to cover their own expenses, a notice on the USAID website said late Thursday.

Speaking to reporters Monday in El Salvador, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the agency as historically “unresponsive” to Congress and the White House, even though the agency, he claimed, is supposed to take its direction from the State Department.

“USAID has a history of sort of ignoring that and deciding that there’s somehow a global charity separate from the national interest,” Rubio said. “These are taxpayer dollars, and we owe the American people assurances that every dollar we are spending abroad is being spent on something that furthers our national interest.”

Speaking in the Dominican Republic on Thursday, Rubio said the U.S. government will continue providing foreign aid.

“But it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest,” he told reporters.

The Trump administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who is running a budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, have targeted USAID hardest so far in an unprecedented challenge of the federal government and many of its programs.

Since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, a sweeping funding freeze has shut down most of the agency’s programs worldwide, and almost all of its workers have been placed on administrative leave or furloughed. Musk and Trump have spoken of eliminating USAID as an independent agency and moving surviving programs under the State Department.

Democratic lawmakers and others call the move illegal without congressional approval.

The same argument was made by the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees in their lawsuit, which asks the federal court in Washington to compel the reopening of USAID’s buildings, return its staffers to work and restore funding.

Government officials “failed to acknowledge the catastrophic consequences of their actions, both as they pertain to American workers, the lives of millions around the world, and to U.S. national interests,” the suit says.
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