The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed two bills involving China. One will restrict the Department of Homeland Security from purchasing batteries made by Chinese companies. The other will set up a working group in the Department of Homeland Security to monitor and respond to threats from China. The bills will now await consideration by the Senate.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
…
Month: March 2025
Malawi lions get birth control in effort to save their prey
In Malawi’s Majete Wildlife Reserve, conservation experts are testing birth control methods on lions. The goal of the wildlife management effort is to control the lion population to ensure antelopes and other prey species continue thriving. Lameck Masina reports from the reserve in the Chikwawa district.
…
Europe holds high-level talks on rearming continent, boosting Ukraine aid
Paris — European military and political heads are holding high-level talks this week after calls for massively rearming Europe — and boosting aid for Kyiv — amid fears of a less engaged United States. Lisa Bryant has more from Paris.
Speaking to top NATO and European Union military brass gathered in Paris Tuesday, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans stressed the urgency of boosting Europe’s defense. While the transatlantic alliance is important, he said Europeans can no longer take U.S. protection for granted.
“Europe therefore needs to fortify its security architecture. And we don’t have much time to get this right. We only have one shot,” said Brekelmans.
The same message came from European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen at the European Parliament.
“We need a surge in European defense, and we need it now,” she said.
The European Union’s executive arm has proposed an $873 billion plan for rearming Europe and supporting Ukraine. It includes relaxing fiscal rules and some $164 billion in loans for defense investments. It has proposed increasing defense spending by an additional 1.5 percent of member states’ GDP yearly over four years.
The proposed surge comes as Washington’s priorities appear to be shifting. And European leaders are worried Russia may not stop at Ukraine — fears their populations appear to share.
One Ipsos survey found three-quarters of French and half of Germans are concerned the Ukraine conflict will spread elsewhere in Europe. Another poll, however, found few Europeans want to pay more for defense.
Critics, including Hungary’s Viktor Orban, suggest Europe can’t afford to defend Ukraine. Others argue Brussels is assuming too much power.
Europeans are also divided over whether to invest in their own defense industry — or buy externally. The U.S. has been a top supplier.
Former French Ambassador Michel Duclos said, “They want to continue to sell weapons to European counties.”
Duclos is now an analyst at the Montaigne Institute research group in Paris. That’s one argument, he believes, for Washington’s at least short-term commitment to Europe’s security.
“What I fear more is not that they [the U.S.] will disengage. It’s more that they will want the Europeans to pay more and more for European protection,” he said.
This week sees more high-level meetings on Ukraine and European security. There’s another in Paris Wednesday, gathering Europe’s five top military powers, along with NATO and Ukrainian defense chiefs.
…
Measles cases rising in southwestern US as more states report infections
Measles outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico are now up to more than 250 cases, and two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes.
Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that is airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.
Texas state health officials said Tuesday there were 25 new cases of measles since the end of last week, bringing Texas’ total to 223. Twenty-nine people in Texas are hospitalized.
New Mexico health officials announced three new cases Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 33. The outbreak has spread from Lea County, which neighbors the West Texas communities at the epicenter of the outbreak, to include one case in Eddy County.
Oklahoma’s state health department reported two probable cases of measles Tuesday, saying they are associated with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks.
A school-age child died of measles in Texas last month, and New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult last week.
Measles cases have been reported in Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases — and there have been three clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025.
In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates.
The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.
People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.
Adults with “presumptive evidence of immunity” generally don’t need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.
A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don’t always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.
Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.
People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from killed virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don’t know which type they got.
There’s no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
…
Fate of 8 Uyghurs in Thailand in limbo after 40 deported to China
BANGKOK — Human rights advocates say at least some of the eight ethnic minority Uyghurs who remain in Thailand’s custody since authorities deported 40 others to China last month are at risk of the same fate.
After weeks of denying it was planning to repatriate any of the 48 Chinese Uyghurs it had held since arresting them for illegal entry in 2014, Thailand abruptly turned 40 of them over to China on Feb. 27.
The United States, United Nations and international rights groups strongly condemned Thailand for sending Uyghurs back to China. They say it violates Thailand’s international treaty obligations and, as of 2023, its own domestic law against deporting people to countries where they face a good chance of being abused or tortured.
The United States and others have accused Beijing of genocide over its treatment of the Turkic-speaking Muslim minority Uyghurs in China’s western Xinjiang province. The United Nations says their treatment may amount to crimes against humanity. Beijing denies the allegations.
The Thai and Chinese governments have said nothing about the eight Uyghurs who were not sent back to China last month. The two governments have ignored VOA requests for comment.
But rights groups tell VOA they have confirmed that all eight remain in Thai custody — three in immigration detention without charge, with the other five serving prison sentences since 2020 for robbery and attempted escape from a detention center.
They say the five in prison face the greatest risk of being deported once their prison terms end.
“After they complete their sentence, they have to come back to the immigration detention centers. That is … worrisome, because if there [is] the push from the Chinese again, these five people might be the most vulnerable group of people that will be deported again,” Kannavee Suebsang, an opposition lawmaker and deputy chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Legal Affairs, Justice and Human Rights, told VOA.
He said their sentences are due to end in 2029.
Rights groups, though, say the five could face a forced return to China much earlier than that if they are added to the lists of prisoners pardoned by Thailand’s king on royal holidays each year.
‘We are very concerned’
In a statement addressing the Feb. 27 deportations posted online the day after, the Thai government said China had in fact asked for the return of 45 “Chinese nationals,” referring to the Uyghurs. Krittaporn Semsantad, program director for the Peace Rights Foundation, a Thai rights group, says that number appears to include the five Uyghurs still in prison in Thailand — a sign, she believes, that China wants them returned as well.
“So, yes, we are very … concerned,” she told VOA. “It could be very high risk and very high chance that these five will be sent back after they finish their sentence.”
For the eight Uyghurs still in Thai custody, “the danger is not passed yet,” agreed Polat Sayim, an ethnic Uyghur living in Australia and the executive committee vice chair of the World Uyghur Congress.
Chalida Tajaroensuk, who heads Thailand’s People’s Empowerment Foundation, another local rights group, echoed their concerns.
She told VOA she visited the five Uyghurs in prison the day after the 40 were deported and said they were terrified of being forced back to China as well.
“They are afraid, and they also cried. They don’t want to go back,” she said.
‘We need to closely monitor’
The rights groups told VOA that their sources in the Thai government and inside its detained centers have told them the other three Uyghurs also remain in Thailand, in the custody of the Bureau of Immigration.
Neither China nor Thailand has explained why they were not deported along with the 40 last month. Unlike the five Uyghurs in prison, Kannavee and the rights groups say these three, who also hail from China, claimed to have come from other countries when they were first caught in Thailand, which may have helped to spare them from being sent back.
“But still we need to also closely monitor about the situation of the three, because they [have] already been disclosed, I mean their information has been disclosed that they are [from] the same group of the Uyghurs,” said Kannavee, who previously worked for the U.N.’s refugee agency in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand.
He was referring to the more than 300 Uyghurs Thailand caught entering the country illegally in 2014 as they sought to make their way to Turkey, where some had relatives, and other countries.
Of that group, Thailand deported 173 mostly women and children to Turkey in 2015 but sent 109, most of them men, back to China days later. Those sent back to China have not been heard from since.
Following the rebukes over last month’s deportations, the Thai government said Beijing had assured it that the Uyghurs would be treated well and that Bangkok could send envoys to check up on them regularly.
Rights groups and opposition lawmakers such as Kannavee, though, say they take little comfort in Beijing’s promises and still hope to persuade the Thai government to let the eight Uyghurs who remain in its custody settle elsewhere.
‘We don’t have a country’
Thai officials initially claimed that no other country had offered to take in the Uyghurs but later acknowledged that some had, without naming them, and that Thailand turned them down for fear that China might retaliate.
The Reuters news agency has reported that Australia, Canada and the United States all offered to resettle the Uyghurs.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told VOA on Sunday it had been working with Thailand for years to avoid their return to China, “including by consistently and repeatedly offering to resettle the Uyghurs in other countries, including, at times, the United States.”
Sayim, of the World Uyghur Congress, said those countries should keep their offers open for the eight Uyghurs Thailand still holds, and continue putting pressure on the Thai government to accept.
“We don’t have [a] country. That’s why we have to ask European countries if they can help. … Always we asking [the] U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, Australia if they could make a decision and take them,” he said. “The Thai government shouldn’t give these people back to China. They know it’s not good when they go back.”
…
Protesters block main state Serbian TV building as tensions soar ahead of planned rally
Belgrade, Serbia — Several hundred student protesters have blocked Serbia’s public television station building in Belgrade as tensions soar in the Balkan country, days ahead of a large rally planned for the weekend and billed as an endgame in months of anti-government demonstrations.
The students first blocked the TV building in central Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, late on Monday and several hundred gathered again on Tuesday, after announcing that their blockade will last for at least 22 hours. A similar blockade was organized in the country’s second-largest city of Novi Sad.
University students in Serbia are behind almost daily rallies that started after a concrete canopy crashed down in November at a railway station in Novi Sad, killing 15 people. The protests have rocked the populist rule of President Aleksandar Vucic and his firm grip on power.
During the blockade late Monday, riot police briefly intervened with batons as the crowd tried to block one of the entrances to the TV building with metal security fences. At least one plainclothes police officer was injured in skirmishes after apparently being struck in the head by a uniformed officer, according to a video released on social media.
The students blame public TV for biased reporting and for siding with Vucic and the government during the demonstrations. The Serbian president was the guest of the main TV news bulletin on Monday evening.
During the interview, Vucic insulted the student-led protests, warning that security forces will use force against participants of the big rally planned for Saturday. He pledged never to step down because of the massive nationwide demonstrations.
“You will have to kill me if you want to replace me,” he said,
The TV reporter who interviewed Vucic called the protesting students “a mob,” which the president appeared to approve of. The station, RTS, issued a statement, denouncing the blockade.
“Forcibly preventing RTS employees from coming to their workplaces represents a dangerous step into open conflicts with unpredictable consequences,” it said.
Some of the TV station’s employees apparently managed to enter the building through a side entrance that’s not publicly known, allowing the program to continue uninterrupted.
Meanwhile, Vucic met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who arrived in Belgrade on Tuesday. The purpose of his visit was not immediately known. Pro-Russian Vucic is a vocal supporter of the U.S. president.
Many in Serbia believe that the huge concrete construction fell down because of poor renovation work fueled by government corruption. The students have insisted on full accountability in the tragedy, a call that has garnered widespread support among citizens who are largely disillusioned with politicians and have lost trust in state institutions.
Student-led rallies have drawn tens of thousands of people, becoming among the biggest ever in Serbia, which has a long history of anti-government protests. Vucic has described the rallies as a Western-orchestrated ploy to oust him from power.
The next big rally is planned on Saturday in Belgrade and Vucic has alleged the protesters “will try to achieve something with violence and that will be the end.” Many demonstrators “will end up behind bars accused of criminal acts,” he added.
All student-led protests in the past months have mostly been peaceful, while incidents were recorded when opponents drove their cars into protest blockades or attacked the protesters.
Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have held a firm grip on power in Serbia for over a decade, facing accusations of stifling democratic freedoms despite formally seeking European Union entry for Serbia.
Authorities have indicted 16 people over the canopy collapse, but many doubt that the actual culprits will face justice.
…
Gunmen attack hotel in Somalia, killing at least 5
WASHINGTON — Gunmen stormed a hotel in the Somali city of Beledweyne on Tuesday, leaving at least five people dead and triggering an ongoing siege, according to witnesses and a Somali lawmaker.
In an interview with VOA Somali, federal lawmaker Dahir Amin Jesow said local elders and government officials were meeting at the Qahira Hotel in central Somalia.
“They attacked the hotel at dawn this morning, with an explosion and then gunmen stormed it. At least five people including two well-respected elders were killed, and five others were injured,” Jesow said.
A VOA reporter in the town said at least six people have been confirmed dead, while the siege continues.
The reporter said Somali security forces backed by Djiboutian soldiers, who are part of the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somaila, AUSSOM, and units of Ethiopian soldiers could be seen surrounding the hotel.
Local media reports say the death toll may be higher — up to 10 fatalities, including five al-Shabab militants, who were involved in the assault, and government soldiers.
Plumes of smoke from the explosions could be seen throughout the town, and an eyewitness said there has been ongoing gunfire.
“We can still hear sporadic gunfire from the hotel as some militants are still resisting and fighting with the security forces,” said Mohamed Qoone, a resident who witnessed the attack.
Video circulating on social media shows parts of the Qahira Hotel reduced to rubble.
The Islamist militant group al-Shabab immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement, the group said it had killed more than 10 people.
The group frequently conducts bombings and gun assaults in Somalia, aiming to topple the government and impose its strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.
This attack follows an operation conducted by Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) just hours earlier, which resulted in the deaths of 16 al-Shabab militants, including key leaders and fighters.
According to NISA, “The operation dealt a significant blow to al-Shabab, eliminating key members of the group. In addition to the fatalities, the operation also led to the destruction of combat vehicles used by the militants.”
Somali government soldiers, supported by local clan militias and the U.S. military, are conducting operations against al-Shabab in central Somalia, focusing on the Middle Shabelle and Hiran regions.
VOA’s Sahra Abdi Ahmed contributed to this report.
…
Ukraine to present peace plan in talks with US
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — U.S. and Ukrainian officials began talks Tuesday in Saudi Arabia with the Ukrainian side expected to present a partial ceasefire plan with Russia.
The Ukrainian plan includes halting long-range missiles strikes and a truce covering the Black Sea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not take part in Tuesday’s meetings, with Ukraine represented by his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and military commander Pavlo Palisa.
Yermak told reporters just before the start of Tuesday’s meeting that Ukraine is ready “to do everything to achieve peace.”
When asked if Ukraine is seeking security guarantees, Yermak said ‘yes’ and that Ukraine wants to ensure that Russia never repeats its aggression.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz led the U.S. delegation amid President Donald Trump’s push to broker a swift end to the war that began in early 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Rubio said Monday the United States hopes to resolve the pause in aid to Ukraine.
He said the U.S. is in a listening mode and aims to understand what concessions Ukraine might be willing to make.
“The Ukrainians are already receiving all defensive intelligence information as we speak. I think all the notion of the pause in aid broadly is something I hope we can resolve. Obviously, I think what happens tomorrow will be key to that,” Rubio told reporters aboard a military plane before landing in Jeddah.
“We’re not going to be sitting in a room drawing lines on a map, but just get a general sense of what concessions are in the realm of the possible for them [Ukrainians],” Rubio said, adding that there is no military solution to the war, and that both Russia and Ukraine need to “do difficult things.”
Later on Monday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Rubio in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.
Salman held a separate meeting with Zelenskyy in Riyadh earlier in the day.
Mineral deal?
Trump has voiced interest in making continued military aid conditional on access to Ukraine’s raw materials.
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.
But Rubio clarified that securing a deal on Ukraine’s mineral resources was not the primary focus of Tuesday’s talks.
“There’s still more details to work out, and at this point, we’re probably — rather than a memorandum of understanding — just wanting to sign a specific agreement. And that would take a little bit more time,” he told reporters.
“I wouldn’t prejudge tomorrow by whether or not we have a minerals deal. … It’s an important topic, but it’s not the main topic on the agenda,” Rubio added.
Rubio also credited Britain and France for playing a constructive role in talks with Ukraine.
He told VOA that there have been no discussions about China playing a role in postwar peacekeeping and reconstruction in Ukraine.
This marks Rubio’s second visit to Saudi Arabia since taking office. He and other senior U.S. officials held talks with Russian officials in Riyadh on February 18. He is scheduled to travel to Canada on Wednesday for meetings with G7 foreign ministers.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
…
‘Nervous and rushed’: Massive Fukushima plant cleanup exposes workers to high radiation and stress
OKUMA, Japan — The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s radiation levels have significantly dropped since the cataclysmic meltdown 14 years ago Tuesday.
Workers walk around in many areas wearing only surgical masks and regular clothes.
It’s a different story for those who enter the reactor buildings, including the three damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. They must use maximum protection — full facemasks with filters, multi-layered gloves and socks, shoe covers, hooded hazmat coveralls and a waterproof jacket, and a helmet.
As workers remove melted fuel debris from the reactors in a monumental nuclear cleanup effort that could take more than a century, they are facing both huge amounts of psychological stress and dangerous levels of radiation.
The Associated Press, which recently visited the plant for a tour and interviews, takes a closer look.
Cleaning 880 tons of melted fuel debris
A remote-controlled extendable robot with a tong had several mishaps including equipment failures before returning in November with a tiny piece of melted fuel from inside the damaged No. 2 reactor.
That first successful test run is a crucial step in what will be a daunting, decades-long decommissioning that must deal with at least 880 tons of melted nuclear fuel that has mixed with broken parts of internal structures and other debris inside the three ruined reactors.
Akira Ono, chief decommissioning officer at the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant, says even the tiny sample gives officials a lot of information about the melted fuel. More samples are needed, however, to make the work smoother when bigger efforts to remove the debris begin in the 2030s.
A second sample-retrieval mission at the No. 2 reactor is expected in coming weeks.
Operators hope to send the extendable robot farther into the reactor to take samples closer to the center, where overheated nuclear fuel fell from the core, utility spokesperson Masakatsu Takata said. He pointed out the target area as he stood inside the inner structure of the No. 5 reactor, which is one of two reactors that survived the tsunami. It has an identical design as No. 2.
Hard to see, breathe or move
Radiation levels are still dangerously high inside the No. 2 reactor building, where the melted fuel debris is behind a thick concrete containment wall. Earlier decontamination work reduced those radiation levels to a fraction of what they used to be.
In late August, small groups took turns doing their work helping the robot in 15- to 30-minute shifts to minimize radiation exposure. They have a remotely controlled robot, but it has to be manually pushed in and out.
“Working under high levels of radiation [during a short] time limit made us feel nervous and rushed,” said Yasunobu Yokokawa, a team leader for the mission. “It was a difficult assignment.”
Full-face masks reduced visibility and made breathing difficult, an extra waterproof jacket made it sweaty and hard to move, and triple-layered gloves made their fingers clumsy, Yokokawa said.
To eliminate unnecessary exposure, they taped around gloves and socks and carried a personal dosimeter to measure radiation. Workers also rehearsed the tasks they’d perform to minimize exposure.
The mission stalled early on when workers noticed that a set of five 1.5-meter pipes meant to push the robot into the reactor’s primary containment vessel had been arranged in the wrong order.
A camera on the robot also failed because of high radioactivity and had to be replaced. The workers’ highest individual radiation dose was more than the overall average but still far below anything approaching a 100-millisievert five-year dose limit.
Even so, a growing number of workers are concerned about safety and radiation at the plant, said Ono, the decommissioning chief, citing an annual survey of about 5,5,00 workers.
In 2023, two workers splashed with contaminated sludge at a water treatment facility suffered burns and were hospitalized, though they had no other health problems.
Making sure it’s safe
Yokokawa and a plant colleague, Hiroshi Ide, helped in the 2011 emergency and work as team leaders today. They say they want to make the job safer as workers face high radiation in parts of the plant.
On the top floor of the No. 2 reactor, workers are setting up equipment to remove spent fuel units from the cooling pool. That’s set to begin within two to three years.
At the No. 1 reactor, workers are putting up a giant roof to contain radioactive dust from decontamination work on the top floor ahead of the removal of spent fuel.
To minimize exposure and increase efficiency, workers use a remote-controlled crane to attach pre-assembled parts, according to TEPCO. The No. 1 reactor and its surroundings are among the most contaminated parts of the plant.
What’s next?
Workers are also removing treated radioactive wastewater. They recently started dismantling the emptied water tanks to make room to build facilities needed for the research and storage of melted fuel debris.
After a series of small missions by robots to gather samples, experts will determine a larger-scale method for removing melted fuel, first at the No. 3 reactor.
Experts say the hard work and huge challenges of decommissioning the plant are just beginning. There are estimations that the work could take more than a century. The government and TEPCO have an initial completion target of 2051, but the retrieval of melted fuel debris is already three years behind, and many big issues remain undecided.
Ide, whose home in Namie town, northwest of the plant, is in a no-go zone because of nuclear contamination, still has to put on a hazmat suit, even for brief visits home.
“As a Fukushima citizen, I would like to make sure the decommissioning work is done properly so that people can return home without worries,” he said.
…
Stena Immaculate tanker spills fuel; Solong has toxic chemicals
WITHERNSEA, England — Fires continued to burn on Tuesday after two ships collided off the coast of northeast England a day earlier, adding to concerns the jet fuel carried by one and toxic chemicals aboard the other could cause an environmental disaster.
Following the crash, both crews abandoned their ships and 36 people were brought ashore, the coastguard said. Rescue teams on Monday called off a search for a missing crew member from the Portuguese-flagged container ship Solong.
The tanker Stena Immaculate, which carries jet fuel for the U.S. military, was at anchor when it was struck by the smaller Solong, releasing fuel into the sea.
Equipment to minimize pollution at sea, such as spray dispersants for oil spills and containment booms, were on standby, said the British government, as its agencies prepared for action to protect the North Sea environment and wildlife.
The potential environmental impact was being assessed, coordinated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and an East of England environmental group, and the situation was being monitored overhead by plane, the government said.
Environmental harm?
Two maritime security sources said there was no indication that malicious activity or actors were involved in the incident.
The Stena Immaculate was carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel in 16 segregated cargo tanks, but it was unclear how much of it was spilt after at least one tank was hit, Crowley, the U.S. logistics group which operated the vessel, said on Monday.
Onboard the Solong were 15 containers of sodium cyanide, a toxic chemical used mainly in gold mining, and an unknown quantity of alcohol, according to a casualty report from maritime data provider Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
Those cargoes could pollute the sea, harming large colonies of protected seabirds including puffins and gannets which live on the coast in the area, and the fish on which they feed.
The crash occurred on Monday morning in a busy waterway, prompting a significant rescue response from British teams who sent aircraft, lifeboats and other vessels.
While Britain’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch will gather initial evidence, overall responsibility for investigating the crash lies with the U.S. and Portuguese authorities, the flag states of the vessels.
…
Uganda says special forces deploy in South Sudan capital amid tensions
NAIROBI, KENYA — Uganda’s military chief said Tuesday his country had deployed special forces in South Sudan’s capital Juba to “secure it” as tensions between President Salva Kiir and his First Vice President Riek Machar stoke fears of a return to civil war.
Tensions have been growing in recent days in South Sudan, an oil producer, after Kiir’s government detained two ministers and several senior military officials allied with Machar. One minister has since been released.
The arrests in Juba and deadly clashes around the northern town of Nasir are seen as jeopardizing 2018 peace deal that ended a five-year civil war between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar that cost nearly 400,000 lives.
“As of two days ago, our Special Forces units entered Juba to secure it,” Uganda’s military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, said in a series of posts on the X platform overnight into Tuesday.
“We the UPDF (Ugandan military), only recognize one President of South Sudan, H.E. Salva Kiir … any move against him is a declaration of war against Uganda,” he said in another post.
South Sudan government information minister and the military spokesperson did not pick up phone calls seeking comment.
After the civil war erupted in South Sudan in 2013, Uganda deployed its troops in Juba to bolster Kiir’s forces against Machar. They were eventually withdrawn in 2015.
Ugandan troops were again deployed in Juba in 2016 after fighting reignited between the two sides but they also were eventually withdrawn.
Uganda fears a full-blown conflagration in its northern neighbor could send waves of refugees across the border and potentially create instability.
Kainerugaba did not say whether the latest deployment was in response to a request from Kiir’s government or how long the troops would remain in South Sudan.
…
Dalai Lama says his successor to be born outside China
NEW DELHI — The Dalai Lama’s successor will be born outside China, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism says in a new book, raising the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of the Himalayan region he fled more than six decades ago.
Tibetans worldwide want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue after the 89-year-old’s death, he writes in “Voice for the Voiceless,” which was reviewed by Reuters and is being released on Tuesday.
He had previously said the line of spiritual leaders might end with him.
His book marks the first time the Dalai Lama has specified that his successor would be born in the “free world,” which he describes as outside China. He has previously said only that he could reincarnate outside Tibet, possibly in India where he lives in exile.
“Since the purpose of a reincarnation is to carry on the work of the predecessor, the new Dalai Lama will be born in the free world so that the traditional mission of the Dalai Lama – that is, to be the voice for universal compassion, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and the symbol of Tibet embodying the aspirations of the Tibetan people – will continue,” the Dalai Lama writes.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled at the age of 23 to India with thousands of other Tibetans in 1959 after a failed uprising against the rule of Mao Zedong’s Communists.
Beijing insists it will choose his successor, but the Dalai Lama has said any successor named by China would not be respected.
China brands the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping alive the Tibetan cause, as a “separatist.”
When asked about the book at a press briefing on Monday, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said the Dalai Lama “is a political exile who is engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion.
“On the Tibet issue, China’s position is consistent and clear. What the Dalai Lama says and does, cannot change the objective fact of Tibet’s prosperity and development.”
Beijing said last month it hoped the Dalai Lama would “return to the right path” and that it was open to discussing his future if he met such conditions as recognizing that Tibet and Taiwan are inalienable parts of China, whose sole legal government is that of the People’s Republic of China. That proposal has been rejected by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile in India.
Supporters of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause include Richard Gere, a follower of Tibetan Buddhism, and Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
His followers have been worried about his health, especially after knee surgery last year. He told Reuters in December that he might live to be 110.
In his book, the Dalai Lama says he has received numerous petitions for more than a decade from a wide spectrum of Tibetan people, including senior monks and Tibetans living in Tibet and outside, “uniformly asking me to ensure that the Dalai Lama lineage be continued.”
Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death. The current Dalai Lama was identified as the reincarnation of his predecessor when he was two.
The book, which the Dalai Lama calls an account of his dealings with Chinese leaders over seven decades, is being published on Tuesday in the U.S. by William Morrow and in Britain by HarperNonFiction, with HarperCollins publications to follow in India and other countries.
The Dalai Lama, who has said he will release details about his succession around his 90th birthday in July, writes that his homeland remains “in the grip of repressive Communist Chinese rule” and that the campaign for the freedom of the Tibetan people will continue “no matter what,” even after his death.
He expressed faith in the Tibetan government and parliament-in-exile, based with him in India’s Himalayan city of Dharamshala, to carry on the political work for the Tibetan cause.
“The right of the Tibetan people to be the custodians of their own homeland cannot be indefinitely denied, nor can their aspiration for freedom be crushed forever through oppression,” he writes. “One clear lesson we know from history is this: if you keep people permanently unhappy, you cannot have a stable society.”
Given his advanced age, he writes, his hopes of going back to Tibet look “increasingly unlikely.”
…
Only seven countries met WHO air quality standards in 2024, data shows
SINGAPORE — Only seven countries met World Health Organization air quality standards last year, data showed on Tuesday, as researchers warned that the war on smog would only get harder after the United States shut down its global monitoring efforts.
Chad and Bangladesh were the world’s most polluted countries in 2024, with average smog levels more than 15 times higher than WHO guidelines, according to figures compiled by Swiss air quality monitoring firm IQAir.
Only Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Estonia and Iceland made the grade, IQAir said.
Significant data gaps, especially in Asia and Africa, cloud the worldwide picture, and many developing countries have relied on air quality sensors mounted on U.S. embassy and consulate buildings to track their smog levels.
However, the State Department has recently ended the scheme, citing budget constraints, with more than 17 years of data removed last week from the U.S. government’s official air quality monitoring site, airnow.gov, including readings collected in Chad.
“Most countries have a few other data sources, but it’s going to impact Africa significantly, because often times these are the only sources of publicly available real-time air quality monitoring data,” said Christi Chester-Schroeder, IQAir’s air quality science manager.
Data concerns meant Chad was excluded from IQAir’s 2023 list, but it was also ranked the most polluted country in 2022, plagued by Sahara dust as well as uncontrolled crop burning.
Average concentrations of small, hazardous airborne particles known as PM2.5 hit 91.8 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/cu m) last year in the country, slightly higher than 2022.
The WHO recommends levels of no more than 5 mg/cu m, a standard met by only 17% of cities last year.
India, fifth in the smog rankings behind Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, saw average PM2.5 fall 7% on the year to 50.6 mg/cu m.
But it accounted for 12 of the top 20 most polluted cities, with Byrnihat, in a heavily industrialized part of the country’s northeast, in first place, registering an average PM2.5 level of 128 mg/cu m.
Climate change is playing an increasing role in driving up pollution, Chester-Schroeder warned, with higher temperatures causing fiercer and lengthier forest fires that swept through parts of Southeast Asia and South America.
Christa Hasenkopf, director of the Clean Air Program at the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute (EPIC), said at least 34 countries will lose access to reliable pollution data after the U.S. program was closed.
The State Department scheme improved air quality in the cities where the monitors were placed, boosting life expectancy and even reducing hazard allowances for U.S. diplomats, meaning that it paid for itself, Hasenkopf said.
“(It) is a giant blow to air quality efforts worldwide,” she said.
…
Ukraine to present peace plan in US talks
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — krainian officials are expected to present a partial ceasefire plan with Russia during talks Tuesday with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia.
The Ukrainian plan includes halting long-range missiles strikes and a truce covering the Black Sea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not expected to take part in Tuesday’s meetings, with Ukraine represented by his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and military commander Pavlo Palisa.
Zelenskyy said on X ahead of the talks that Ukraine hopes for “practical outcomes.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz lead the U.S. delegation amid President Donald Trump’s push to broker a swift end to the war that began in early 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Rubio said Monday the United States hopes to resolve the pause in aid to Ukraine.
He said the U.S. is in a listening mode and aims to understand what concessions Ukraine might be willing to make.
“The Ukrainians are already receiving all defensive intelligence information as we speak. I think all the notion of the pause in aid broadly is something I hope we can resolve. Obviously, I think what happens tomorrow will be key to that,” Rubio told reporters aboard a military plane before landing in Jeddah.
“We’re not going to be sitting in a room drawing lines on a map, but just get a general sense of what concessions are in the realm of the possible for them [Ukrainians],” Rubio said, adding that there is no military solution to the war, and that both Russia and Ukraine need to “do difficult things.”
Later on Monday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Rubio in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.
Salman held a separate meeting with Zelenskyy in Riyadh earlier in the day.
Mineral deal?
Trump has voiced interest in making continued military aid conditional on access to Ukraine’s raw materials.
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.
But Rubio clarified that securing a deal on Ukraine’s mineral resources was not the primary focus of Tuesday’s talks.
“There’s still more details to work out, and at this point, we’re probably — rather than a memorandum of understanding — just wanting to sign a specific agreement. And that would take a little bit more time,” he told reporters.
“I wouldn’t prejudge tomorrow by whether or not we have a minerals deal. … It’s an important topic, but it’s not the main topic on the agenda,” Rubio added.
Rubio also credited Britain and France for playing a constructive role in talks with Ukraine.
He told VOA that there have been no discussions about China playing a role in postwar peacekeeping and reconstruction in Ukraine.
This marks Rubio’s second visit to Saudi Arabia since taking office. He and other senior U.S. officials held talks with Russian officials in Riyadh on February 18. He is scheduled to travel to Canada on Wednesday for meetings with G7 foreign ministers.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
…
Coffee theft surges in the US as prices for the beans soar
Theft of truck loads of green coffee beans is surging in the United States, the world’s largest importer of the commodity, as prices for the beans increased to all-time highs in the last year, according to transportation companies.
The issue was discussed by market participants over the weekend in Houston, where the U.S. National Coffee Association held its annual conference.
The U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of the beverage. Since coffee is only produced in warmer geographies, it has to import nearly 100% of what it uses and transport millions of bags from ports to roasting plants, mostly via trucks.
“There were dozens of thefts in the last year, something that would happen only rarely in the past,” said Todd Costley, logistic sales coordinator for Hartley Transportation, a freight broker in Pembroke, New Hampshire.
Theft of coffee has been reported in producing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam, usually in farms where the beans are temporarily stored after the harvest. Those sites are more vulnerable because they are isolated.
Armed men took 500 bags of coffee worth around $230,000 from a farm in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state in January, according to the local police.
In the U.S., the thefts have been done by organized gangs who disguise as transportation companies.
Costley said those fake companies are in the market trying to get small contracts from importers by offering better prices or immediate availability of trucks.
“Importers should be careful about who they hire,” he said. “Once they get the coffee, they disappear.”
Each truck load has about 19,958 kg of green beans, which at current market value is worth around $180,000.
Some market participants believe the gangs then try to sell the beans to smaller roasters, which are feeling the pain from sky-high prices.
Some importers have started attaching tracking devices to the coffee bags, in an effort to protect their shipments.
…
VOA Mandarin: DRC wants mineral deal with US, potential check on China’s dominance
U.S. President Donald Trump, in a speech last week, vowed to take “historic action” to “dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths.” The latest announcement came as the Democratic Republic of Congo approached the United States to strike a Ukraine-like minerals deal. Experts say the U.S .could offer a viable alternative to the DRC and check China’s influence while ensuring access to critical minerals for Washington. But they caution that a mineral agreement is also fraught with challenges.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
your ad hereVOA Russian: Russian filmmakers reflect on impact from war in Ukraine
Russian documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky produces Artdocfest, an annual film festival that showcases documentary features from independent film directors. He says most documentary films reflect the negative impact of the war in Ukraine, from resettling Ukrainian refugees to daily struggles of Russians who fled the war and try to set up their life anew in other countries.
Click here for the full story in Russian.
…
VOA Mandarin: China escalates pressure against Taiwan during two Sessions
During China’s Two Sessions, Beijing has ramped up pressure on Taiwan. On Sunday, a People’s Liberation Army delegate warned that “Taiwan independence is a dead end,” and Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s claim that “Taiwan’s only designation at the UN is China’s Taiwan Province” was echoed by several Taiwanese celebrities on Weibo. In response, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council took an unusually tough stance, condemning these celebrities and vowing to investigate them under relevant regulations.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
…
Music flows in Roberta Flack’s ‘Celebration of Life’ memorial with Stevie Wonder and Al Sharpton
NEW YORK — A public memorial service bursting with choral music and the Berklee College of Music’s Nebulous String Quartet, with Stevie Wonder and the Rev. Al Sharpton also on the bill, celebrated the life and legacy of Grammy-winning singer and pianist Roberta Flack.
Flack’s songs “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” made her a global star in the 1970s and beyond. She died last month at age 88.
Wonder was among the artists scheduled to perform during the service at a historic Harlem church, while Sharpton was to deliver the eulogy, according to the memorial program.
Flack was an influential performer with an intimate vocal and musical style that ranged easily between soul, jazz and gospel.
Her “Celebration of Life” memorial was livestreamed at www.RobertaFlack.com and on YouTube.
Here are some highlights:
For the memory of a singing legend, an historic location
Flack’s memorial was open to the public at The Abyssinian Baptist Church. Founded in 1808, it is one of the oldest Black Baptist churches in the U.S.
The church was decorated for the ceremony with stunning white and yellow bouquets and filled quickly beforehand. At the center, a screen showed a young Flack at the piano and played highlights of her career.
It was a fitting location: Flack grew up with church gospel and her mother played organ at the Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia. As a teen, she began accompanying the church choir on piano.
The program featured a powerful quote from Flack.
“Remember: Always walk in the light,” it read. “If you feel like you’re not walking in it, go find it. Love the Light.”
A celebration of a life in music … with music
“Many of us are here today because she has touched not just our hearts, but she also touched our souls,” said the Rev. Dr. Kevin R. Johnson, the senior church pastor who led the service.
Choir performances including a rousing rendition of “Amazing Grace” came in between a video recollection of Flack’s life and scripture readings.
“That’s what we call church, y’all,” Johnson said at the close of one choral performance.
Organ and piano riffs played off and on in the background.
“She just sang the song. She let you hear the lyrics. She let you understand the beauty. But I also want you to understand that this woman was also a pure genius,” Santita Jackson, daughter of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a friend of Flack, told the near-capacity crowd.
Actor Phylicia Rashad remembered first seeing Flack perform when she was a student at Howard University — to an audience that grew rapt by her quiet, steady voice.
Flack lived comfortably with her genius and without having to proclaim it to people, Rashad said.
“She wore that like a loose fitting garment and lived her life attending to that which she cared for most: music, love and humanity,” Rashad said.
What are some of Flack’s best-known songs?
Flack leaves behind a rich repertoire of music that avoids categorization. Her debut, “First Take,” wove soul, jazz, flamenco, gospel and folk into one revelatory package, prescient in its form and measured in its approach.
She will likely be remembered for her classics. Those include “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” her dreamy cover of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” written by English folk artist Ewan MacColl for his wife Peggy Seeger. It marked the beginning of Flack’s mainstream success when it was used in a love scene between Clint Eastwood and Donna Mills in his 1971 film “Play Misty for Me.”
But most will think of “Killing Me Softly with His Song” when Flack’s name comes up in conversation. She first heard Lori Lieberman’s “Killing Me Softly with His Song” while on a plane and immediately fell in love with it. While on tour with Quincy Jones, she covered the song, and the audience fell in love with it, too, as they’d continue to for decades.
…
Greek lawmaker attacks paintings he said were offensive to Christians
ATHENS — A far-right Greek lawmaker attacked four paintings in an exhibition at the country’s National Gallery on Monday, the gallery said, after he had described one as offensive because of its distorted depictions of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
The lawmaker, named by the gallery as Nikolaos Papadopoulos, from the ultra-religious Niki party, was temporarily detained, and the gallery said it had had to close for the day due to the incident.
The gallery said that with assistance from another person he had violently taken down four paintings included in the exhibition inspired by Spanish master Francisco de Goya.
“The above violently detached them from the wall and threw them on the floor, which resulted in their damage,” the gallery said in a statement.
Papadopoulos’ lawyer Constantinos Vathiotis told Reuters that he was illegally detained for five hours. Lawmakers are protected from arrest under the constitution and only parliament can lift their immunity.
The exhibition, “The allure of the bizarre,” is by a group of Greek artists, with works corresponding with 80 etchings from Goya’s late 18th century Los Caprichos series. It has been on display in Athens since January at the country’s main gallery, which is a major draw for Greeks and tourists alike.
In a question to the culture ministry submitted to parliament in January, the lawmaker said that one painting, among the group of four he is accused of damaging, was “clearly offending the Orthodox Christian faith, directly insulting the holy faces of Virgin Mary and Christ, which are depicted distorted.”
The culture ministry responded at the time that it “never engages in censorship.”
The Hellenic League for Human Rights condemned the lawmaker’s action, saying “freedom of art and freedom of expression are protected by the constitution and are not subject to the personal taste and religious and ideological beliefs of self-appointed judges and ultimately punishers.”
…
UK charity calls to close gender employment gap for disabled
NAIROBI — A British charity for the disabled, citing World Bank data, says the world could gain trillions annually in Gross Domestic Product if women were employed at the same rate as men. Failure to close gender employment gaps reduces a country’s economic growth by 20% on average, according to the data.
In many countries, women face multiple challenges when seeking employment or starting a business. Gender discrimination alone can drive women into poverty, but the risk increases if paired with disabilities.
In recognition of International Women’s Day, Sightsavers International, a British nongovernmental agency that aims to prevent avoidable blindness and ensure equality for the visually impaired, cited the World Bank’s figures showing that global GDP would increase from $106 trillion to $127 trillion if women were employed at the same rate as men.
Michelle Madau, a 41-year-old beautician from Zimbabwe, is living with osteogenesis imperfecta, a brittle-bone disease. Despite her disorder, she helps people like her learn how to run a business.
“I am mentoring the upcoming beauticians who are disabled and I am availing myself, making sure I am there when needed, speaking to them, helping them build up their own businesses,” Madau said. “Of course, not all of them are in the beauty industry; whichever line of business I am familiar with, I am always there to assist them because I also want to see them win, just like I am winning right now.”
Lydia Rosasi, 29, works at the office of the Kenyan government spokesperson, where she assists people living with blindness, deafness and other disabilities in accessing government communications.
She says she bettered herself to stand out in the job market.
“For me, one of the greatest pillars in terms of navigating this double bias has been education and skills development. This has been the crucial thing that has kept me afloat as I go through these challenges,” Rosasi said. “For example, in 2021, I joined the IT Bridger Academy and at that time the digital skills were gaining a lot of prominence in the job market. So it gave me confidence and the capabilities that opened my doors. And then I have found supportive mentors and leaders who have been very important.”
Many African women struggle to get jobs, either because they were married off or became mothers at a young age, leaving them unable to finish their studies. Others encounter discrimination or sexual violence in their workplaces.
Experts say empowering girls with education and allowing them to finish school is one way to reduce the gender employment gap.
Lianna Jones works on economic empowerment at Sightsavers. She says closing the gender gap requires policy reforms and cultural change.
“In terms of closing the gender gap in employment and entrepreneurship, this requires coordinated interventions at multiple levels,” Jones said. “At the policy level, we need to eliminate discriminatory laws and regulations that restrict women’s economic participation. Women with disabilities need specialized approaches that address both gender- and disability-related barriers simultaneously, and lastly, we need to challenge social norms to engage with community leaders, men, and boys.”
According to Equal Measures 2030, a coalition of national, regional and global leaders from feminist networks, civil society and international development, women in at least 77 countries are prohibited from working in the same jobs or sectors as men. In Africa, only five countries have a full set of laws mandating workplace equality for women.
…
US stocks drop sharply as Trump hedges on recession
All three major U.S. stock indexes dropped sharply in Monday morning trading, with investors worried about the uncertainty of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on key trading partners and then his refusal to rule out the possibility of a U.S. recession in the coming months.
The key Dow Jones average of 30 blue chip stocks dropped more than 1%, with the broader S&P 500 index falling 2 percentage points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq barometer off more than 3 percentage points.
The S&P 500 finished Friday with a 3.1% weekly drop, its biggest such decline in six months, and the index is down 7.4% from its all-time high set on Feb. 19.
Trump imposed new 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian exports to the U.S. last week and then days later paused the duties until April 2, leaving it uncertain what might happen then.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC News over the weekend, “There’s going to be no recession in America,” but Trump hedged.
“I hate to predict things like that,” the U.S. leader told Fox News. “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing.” He then added, “It takes a little time. It takes a little time.”
On Monday, the sell-off of big-tech stocks continued. The stock of electric carmaker Tesla, whose chief executive is billionaire Elon Musk, a key Trump adviser, slid more than 8%.
Other key technology stocks such as Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia and Meta Platforms all dropped by more than 2%.
The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, has already given some signals of weakening, mostly through surveys showing increased pessimism from consumers, whose purchases account for 70% of the country’s economic output. A widely followed collection of real-time indicators compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta suggests the U.S. economy may already be shrinking.
Analyst David Mericle at the Goldman Sachs investment company cut his 2025 year-over-year estimate for U.S. economic growth from 2.2% to 1.7%, largely because Trump’s tariffs look like they will be bigger than he was previously forecasting. He said he sees a one-in-five chance of a recession over the next year.
…
Tibetans scuffle with police outside the Chinese Embassy in India as they mark uprising anniversary
NEW DELHI — Dozens of Tibetan protesters clashed with police outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on Monday as Tibetans living in exile marked the 66th anniversary of their uprising against China that was crushed by Chinese forces.
As in past years, police blocked the protesters from entering the embassy and briefly detained some of them after wrestling them to the ground. Hundreds also marched in the north Indian town of Dharamshala, the seat of the exiled Tibetan government and home of Dalai Lama, their 89-year-old spiritual leader.
Separately, about a hundred Tibetan women gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, an area designated for protests close to Parliament. The protesters shouted anti-China slogans, carried Tibetan flags and played the national anthems of Tibet and India.
India considers Tibet to be part of China, although it hosts the Tibetan exiles. The 1959 independence uprising was quelled by the Chinese army, forcing Dalai Lama and his followers into exile in India.
Many had their faces painted in colors of the Tibetan national flag. The demonstrators observed a minute of silence to remember Tibetans who lost their lives in the struggle against China. Monks, activists, nuns and schoolchildren marched across the town with banners reading, “Free Tibet” and “Remember, Resist, Return.”
Penpa Tsering — the president of the Central Tibetan Administration, as the exiled Tibetan government calls itself — accused China’s leadership of carrying out a “deliberate and dangerous strategy to eliminate the very identity of the Tibetan people.”
“This marks the darkest and most critical period in the history of Tibet,” Tsering told the gathering. “As we commemorate the Tibetan National Uprising Day, we honor our brave martyrs, and express solidarity with our brothers and sisters inside Tibet who continue to languish under the oppressive Chinese government.”
The Tibetan government-in-exile in India accuses China of denying the most fundamental human rights to people in Tibet and trying to expunge the Tibetan identity.
China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, but the Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent until China occupied it in 1950.
The Dalai Lama denies China’s claim that he is a separatist and says he only advocates substantial autonomy and protection of Tibet’s native Buddhist culture.
…
Russia expels 2 British diplomats from embassy in Moscow over espionage claims
Russia said Monday it was expelling two British diplomats based at the embassy in Moscow over spying allegations that the U.K. called “malicious and baseless.”
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement quoted by the state news agency RIA Novosti that the two diplomats had provided false personal data while seeking permission to enter the country and had engaged in alleged intelligence and subversive activities that threatened Russia’s security. It didn’t offer any evidence.
According to the RIA Novosti report, a decision has been made to revoke the diplomats’ accreditations, and they have been ordered to leave Russia within two weeks. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement that it summoned a British Embassy official. “Moscow will not tolerate the activities of undeclared British intelligence officers on Russian territory,” it said.
The Foreign Office in London said in a statement: “This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff.” It did not say whether the U.K. planned any retaliatory moves.
The FSB last year accused seven British diplomats of spying. Six expulsions were announced in September, and one more in November. The U.K. called the moves at the time “baseless.” The expulsions came amid soaring tensions over the war in Ukraine and after London decided to revoke the credentials of an attaché at the Russian Embassy and limit Moscow’s diplomatic activities in Britain.
Last month, London expelled a Russian diplomat in response to the November expulsion.
In May 2024, the U.K. expelled Russia’s defense attaché in London, alleging he was an undeclared intelligence officer, and it closed several Russian diplomatic properties in Britain that it said were being used for spying. Days later Russia reciprocated and expelled Britain’s defense attaché.
Expulsions of diplomats — both Western envoys working in Russia and Russians in the West — have become increasingly common since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In 2023, the Russian news outlet RBC said Western countries and Japan had expelled a total of 670 Russian diplomats between the start of 2022 and October 2023, while Moscow responded by expelling 346 diplomats. According to RBC, that was more than in the previous 20 years combined.
…