VOA Mandarin: Xi’s meeting with tech tycoons signals policy shift — but for how long?

Posted on by SeeEA

WASHINGTON — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent meeting with tech executives, including Jack Ma, signals a shift from regulatory crackdowns to a more supportive stance toward China’s private sector.

This follows China’s cyclical pattern of tech regulation: initial leniency, strict crackdowns, and eventual relaxation to restore market confidence.

The policy shift stems from economic concerns as China faces slowing growth and needs for the private sector to drive innovation and employment. While the tech sector enters a period of regulatory easing, the duration remains uncertain as China’s regulatory pendulum could swing back if new economic or political concerns emerge.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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What we know about Congo illness that has sickened 400, killed 50

Posted on by SeeAF

KINSHASA, CONGO — Unidentified illnesses in northwestern Congo have killed more than 50 people over the past five weeks, nearly half of them within hours after they felt sick. 

The outbreaks in two distant villages in Congo’s Equateur province began on Jan. 21 and include 419 cases and 53 deaths. Health officials still do not know the cause, or whether the cases in the two villages, which are separated by more than 190 kilometers (118 miles), are related. It’s also unclear how the diseases are spreading, including whether they are spreading between people. 

The first victims in one of the villages were children who ate a bat and died within 48 hours, the Africa office of the World Health Organization said this week. More infections were found in the other village, where at least some of the patients have malaria. 

Outbreaks in two remote villages 

Illnesses have been clustered in two remote villages in different health zones of Equateur province, which is 640 kilometers (398 miles) from Kinshasa. 

The first outbreak began in the village of Boloko after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours. More than two weeks later a second and larger outbreak was recorded in the village of Bomate, where more than 400 people have been sickened. According to WHO’s Africa office, no links have been established between the cases in the two villages. 

Dr. Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring center, and one of the government experts deployed to respond to the outbreak, says the situations in the two villages are somewhat different. 

“The first one with a lot of deaths, that we continue to investigate because it’s an unusual situation, (and) in the second episode that we’re dealing with, we see a lot of the cases of malaria,” said Ngalebato. 

The WHO Africa office said the quick progression from sickness to death in Boloko is a key concern, along with the high number of deaths in Bomate.

What are the symptoms? 

Congo’s Ministry of Health said about 80% of the patients share similar symptoms including fever, chills, body aches and diarrhea. 

While these symptoms can be caused by many common infections, health officials initially feared the symptoms and the quick deaths of some of the victims could also be a sign of a hemorrhagic fever such as Ebola, which was also linked to an infected animal. 

However, Ebola and similar diseases including Marburg have been ruled out after more than a dozen samples were collected and tested in the capital of Kinshasa. 

The WHO said it is investigating a number of possible causes, including malaria, viral hemorrhagic fever, food or water poisoning, typhoid fever and meningitis. 

What is being done in response? 

Congo’s government says experts have been sent to the villages since Feb. 14, mainly to help investigate the cases and slow the spread. 

Ngalebato said patients have been responding to treatments that target the different symptoms. 

The remote location of the villages has hindered access to patients while the weak health care infrastructure has made it difficult to carry out surveillance and manage patients. Such challenges are common in disease outbreaks in Congo. In December, an unknown illness killed dozens. 

In the latest outbreaks, several victims died before experts could even reach them, Ngalebato said. 

There needs to be urgent action “to accelerate laboratory investigations, improve case management and isolation capacities, and strengthen surveillance and risk communication,” the WHO Africa office has said. 

The United States has been the largest bilateral donor to Congo’s health sector and supported the training of hundreds of field epidemiologists to help detect and control diseases across the vast country. The outbreaks were detected as the Trump administration put a freeze on foreign aid during a 90-day review. 

Is there a link to Congo’s forests? 

There have long been concerns about diseases jumping from animals to humans in places where people regularly eat wild animals. The number of such outbreaks in Africa has surged by more than 60% in the last decade, the WHO said in 2022. 

Experts say this might be what is happening in Congo, which is home to about 60% of the forests in the Congo Basin, home to the largest expanse of tropical forest on Earth. 

“All these viruses are viruses that have reservoirs in the forest. And so, as long as we have these forests, we will always have a few epidemics with viruses which will mutate,” said Gabriel Nsakala, a professor of public health at Congo’s National Pedagogical University, who previously worked at the Congolese health ministry on Ebola and coronavirus response programs.
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Security experts highlight pros, cons of Ukraine-US minerals deal

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Ukraine and the United States are set to sign a landmark minerals agreement, marking a significant step toward strengthening economic ties between the two nations. However, security experts tell VOA that concerns persist about the broader implications of the deal. 

Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers approved the agreement Wednesday and U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the White House on Friday to sign it.

The deal includes provisions for the co-ownership and management of a post-war reconstruction fund for Ukraine, to which Ukraine will allocate 50% of future revenues from the country’s natural resources.

The agreement states that the U.S. will maintain a “long-term financial commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine.” 

The deal makes no direct reference to efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though, or about future security arrangements for the Eastern European country, apart from a single line: “The Government of the United States of America supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace.” 

While the deal aims to unlock Ukraine’s mineral wealth and bolster its economic recovery, security experts warn it may fall short in addressing Ukraine’s ongoing security challenges amid continued Russian aggression. 

American business perspective 

Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, explained to VOA by telephone that the deal aims to establish a new American-Ukrainian fund, focusing on state-owned enterprises and Ukraine’s rich subsoil resources, including gas, oil, and critical minerals.

A representative of American business in Ukraine, Hunder expressed optimism about the agreement’s potential impact: “We’re excited. Professional fund managers can turn these enterprises profitable very quickly. This is a win-win for both Ukrainian and American taxpayers,” he told VOA on Wednesday. 

Hunder said the fund could unlock profits rapidly by introducing professional management to Ukraine’s state-owned enterprises, which currently face mismanagement issues. 

“Ukraine has the second highest number of state-owned enterprises in the world, many of which are being managed, or some are being mismanaged, by the Ukrainian state. So, I think we get new professional fund managers into these entities, and this is where you could seal profits and turn them around very, very quickly,” he said.  

Hunder revealed that discussions about Ukrainian economic potential were high on the agenda between the two countries in 2024, “[s]tarting when Senator Lindsey Graham came in March and May of 2024, and we have looked into this, and we see opportunity.”  

“To take advantage of this opportunity, the war must end, and this deal, in his view, is a step toward a peaceful solution. I think this is really what the new administration under President Trump is focusing on — finding ways to stop the killing of Ukrainians by the Russians. We do expect a ceasefire this year, in 2025, and now is the time when Ukraine will present the biggest opportunity, the largest recovery, and the reconstruction of a nation in Europe since World War II,” he said to VOA. 

Roman Opimakh, former general director of the Ukrainian Geological Survey. agrees the deal could benefit both countries.

It will help the U.S. to diversify its rare metal supply and “decrease dependence on China,” he said. For Ukraine, he said, the deal could enable post-war re-industrialization and economic growth. We can renew the industrial potential of our country and actually increase the role of Ukraine globally,” Opimakh said by phone.  

While the deal indicates strong U.S. interest in Ukraine’s economic future, security experts caution that it is not a comprehensive solution to Ukraine’s security challenges. 

Former defense minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk, now the chairman of the Center for Defense Strategies in Ukraine, told VOA in a phone call the deal has broader implications: “The U.S. framed this deal as a demonstration of vested interest in Ukraine, signaling support for Ukrainian stability. Investments of this scale serve as anchor investments, potentially attracting more resources to Ukraine’s economy.”  

Zagorodnyuk cautioned that economic ties are “not enough” to guarantee Ukrainian sovereignty in the face of Russian aggression. To deter future attacks, Ukraine needs military power — either on its own or in partnership with NATO and European allies, he stated to VOA.   

“We recognize that Russia might be attempting to manipulate the situation and convey to Trump’s administration that even if they continue their aggression for any reason, they would still respect American interests or something like that,” he said.   

Asked by VOA what Ukraine needs from the U.S. for long-term security, Zagorodnyuk said ideally, the country would have NATO. However, “if NATO isn’t an option, there should be a package that enables Ukraine to defend against aggression. This package must be robust, and that strength needs to be clear to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he said. 

Agreement details  

According to VOA sources, who cannot be named because they are not authorized to speak about the matter, negotiations concerning the details of the deal continued right up to the Cabinet ministers’ meeting late Wednesday afternoon, Kyiv time. 

According to news reports, Ukraine negotiated more favorable terms than the U.S. originally proposed, bringing down an initial U.S. demand for a $500 billion claim on its natural resources.  

The deal does not include explicit U.S. security guarantees, which Kyiv had originally sought. The U.S. will maintain decision-making authority within the fund under its own legal framework, with ownership terms to be defined in later agreements. 

Geopolitical ramifications 

Despite praising the agreement as a step toward strengthening Ukraine’s economy, Trump sparked controversy recently by labeling Zelenskyy a “dictator” without elections and pressuring him to finalize the deal quickly. The U.S. administration has described the deal as a way for the U.S. to recover tens of billions of dollars in military aid sent to Ukraine.  

The question remains whether this economic partnership also can foster lasting peace and stability in Ukraine.
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US, Ukraine to sign minerals deal, but security issues unsettled

Posted on by SeeEU

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will sign a deal giving the United States substantial rights to Kyiv’s lucrative rare earth minerals and to compensate Washington for weapons sent to Ukraine to fight Russia’s three-year war of aggression.  

Trump, at the first Cabinet meeting of his new presidential term, said that Zelenskyy will be at the White House on Friday to sign the pact and for discussions about the state of the war. 

Trump said the deal “brings us great wealth,” but said his first goal is to end the war, which has killed or wounded several hundred thousand Russian and Ukrainian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians. 

“My No. 2 thing is to get paid back,” Trump said of the more than $100 billion in munitions Washington has shipped to Kyiv to support its fighters. “Without our equipment, that [war] would have been over very quickly,” with Russia overrunning Ukraine.  

As it is, Russia now controls about a fifth of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory and has vowed to not give any of it back in a would-be peace settlement. 

Trump said he expects to eventually reach a deal with Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the fighting. Trump initiated talks with Putin about ending the conflict but the first discussions last week between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, excluded Ukrainian and European officials.   

“Because I got elected, this war is going to come to an end,” Trump declared. He said Putin “had no intention of settling this. We’re going to have a deal.”   

But he said Ukraine “could forget about” joining NATO, the West’s main military alliance, as part of a peace settlement.  

In Kyiv, Zelenskyy said at a news conference that the framework for the rare earth mineral deal was complete, but that U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine that the Kyiv government views as vital have yet to be settled. 

Trump has long expressed skepticism about continued U.S. military support for Ukraine. Last year, he refused to say he wants Ukraine to win the war.  

Trump has called Zelenskyy a dictator, without blaming Putin for the invasion.   

The U.S. leader has said he is particularly peeved that his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, agreed to the Ukraine military assistance without any provision that Ukraine would pay back the cost. Biden led the coalition of Western allies in providing the military aid as a way to fight Russian aggression without sending their own troops to fight alongside Ukrainian forces. 

 Zelenskyy says the U.S. military aid was a grant and not a loan that needed to be repaid but now has agreed to the deal for the rare earth minerals needed for manufacturing technology products.  

Zelenskyy said he expects to have wide-ranging substantive discussions with Trump.  

“I want to coordinate with the U.S.,” Zelenskyy said.  

The Ukrainian leader said he wants to know whether the U.S. plans to halt military aid and, if so, whether Ukraine would be able to purchase weapons directly from the U.S. He also wants to know whether Ukraine can use frozen Russian assets for weapons investments and whether Washington plans to lift its economic sanctions on Russian entities and high-level associates and friends of Putin.  

Elements of the deal

Earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the country’s public television channel that the agreement sets out the terms and conditions of an investment fund for the rebuilding of Ukraine.

Under terms of the deal, the plan would include investing 50% of proceeds from Ukraine’s minerals, oil and gas to create a “stable and economically prosperous Ukraine” if the war is ended, and half to a U.S.-controlled fund.  

The New York Times reported the economic agreement includes a line that says the U.S. “supports Ukraine’s effort to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace,” but does not spell out details on what that might entail.  

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting with Trump on Wednesday in Washington to spell out a European initiative for a 30,000-person peacekeeping force to enforce a Russian ceasefire with Ukraine if such a truce can be reached, although no peace talks have been scheduled.  

European leaders have said a peacekeeping force would require an American “backstop” of military assistance, such as American satellite surveillance, air defense or air force support. Trump has not committed the U.S. to such a plan but on Wednesday called the peacekeeping force “a good thing.”  

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 

 
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WFP pauses food aid in famine-hit Sudan refugee camp

Posted on by SeeAF

ROME — The U.N. World Food Program said Wednesday that it was forced to suspend operations in and around the famine-hit Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan’s North Darfur because of escalating violence.

“Intense fighting in Zamzam camp in Sudan’s North Darfur region has forced” the Rome-based agency “to temporarily pause the distribution of life-saving food and nutrition assistance in the famine-hit camp for displaced people.”

“Over the past two weeks escalating violence left WFP’s partners with no choice but to evacuate staff for safety,” it said in a statement.

Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, intensified this month in the camp, which the United Nations says shelters more than half a million people.

“Without immediate assistance, thousands of desperate families in Zamzam could starve in the coming weeks,” said Laurent Bukera, WFP’s regional director for Eastern Africa and acting country director for Sudan.

“We must resume the delivery of life-saving aid in and around Zamzam safely, quickly and at scale. For that, the fighting must stop and humanitarian organizations must be granted security guarantees,” Bukera said.

The RSF stormed Zamzam on Feb. 11, triggering two days of clashes with the army and allied militias and forcing about 10,000 families to flee, according to the International Organization for Migration.

“The recent violence left Zamzam’s Central Market destroyed by shelling, pushing residents of the camp … further away from accessing essential food and supplies,” the WFP statement said.

Famine was first declared in Zamzam in August and has since spread to two more displacement camps near the North Darfur capital of El-Fasher.

It is expected to expand to five more areas, including El-Fasher itself, by May, according to a U.N.-backed assessment.

Before the latest violence, around 1.7 million people were displaced in North Darfur alone, with 2 million civilians facing extreme food insecurity, the United Nations said.

Established in 2004, Zamzam has received waves of displaced Sudanese during the current war.
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EU will ask India to cut tariffs on cars, wine to boost ties, reduce reliance on China 

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NEW DELHI — The European Union plans to urge India to lower its high tariffs on cars and wine to boost trade, as it seeks to reduce its reliance on China, a senior official from the bloc said, ahead of a visit by the European Commission president to New Delhi.

Echoing U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of reciprocal tariffs, the official said the EU would press India to cut tariffs on some goods and broaden market access for its products, while offering flexibility on agriculture issues to expedite free trade agreement talks.

“The Indian market is relatively closed, especially to key products of commercial interest to the European Union and our member states’ industries, including cars, wines and spirits,” said the official, who requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the discussions.

EC President Ursula von der Leyen’s two-day visit from Thursday, accompanied by leaders of EU member nations, coincides with escalating geopolitical tensions, with Brussels and New Delhi set to outline key areas for deeper cooperation under their strategic partnership.

Leyen will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, followed by discussions with trade minister Piyush Goyal.

The next trade negotiations round is scheduled for March 10-14 in Brussels.

The EU’s call for lower tariffs comes amid Trump’s threats to impose reciprocal tariffs from early April, which has caused anxiety for India’s exporters. Analysts from Citi Research estimate potential losses of about $7 billion annually.

The EU is India’s largest trading partner in goods, with trade nearing $126 billion in 2024, marking an increase of about 90% over the past decade.

Reducing reliance on China

As part of its “de-risking” strategy, the EU aims to strengthen economic and security ties with India, diversify supply chains, and reduce reliance on key products from China.

The EU also views India as a vital ally in addressing security challenges, the official said, including cyber threats and tensions in the South China Sea and Indo-Pacific.

Leyen is also expected to seek India’s support for a “peaceful and just deal” for Ukraine’s security, the official said.

The EU and India could sign an agreement to share classified security information to tackle common threats such as cyber attacks and terrorism, while exploring defense equipment trade.

Despite these potential benefits, trade analysts said the visit may not yield tangible results.

For substantial cooperation, the EU should acknowledge India as a data-secure country, said Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Delhi-based think-tank Global Trade Initiative, and India’s former negotiator on trade talks with the EU.

“While both parties have concerns about China, neither sees it as a top priority,” Srivastava said, adding India is focused on border tensions with China, while the EU is more concerned with the Ukraine-Russia conflict and NATO matters.
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Philippine police rescue kidnapped teen, hunt ex-gambling site operators 

Posted on by SeeEA

Manila — A young kidnap victim clad in pajamas and missing a finger was rescued from the side of a busy Manila thoroughfare this week after his abductors ditched him during a police pursuit, Philippine authorities said Wednesday.

The kidnappers, like their teenaged target, were Chinese nationals, said the interior department’s Juanito Victor Remulla, and part of a “sophisticated” syndicate with ties to the now-banned offshore gambling sites known locally as POGOs.

Notorious as fronts for human trafficking, money laundering and fraud, POGOs were banned by President Ferdinand Marcos last year, sending those who worked for them in search of new income streams.

“We are definite that the syndicate behind the kidnapping were former POGO operators,” Remulla told reporters, adding those involved had lost a lucrative living when the sites were shuttered.

The kidnappers tried and failed to obtain a ransom — at one point sending the parents a video of the victim’s finger being severed — before they were tracked down on Tuesday and pursued by police who homed in on their cellphone signal.

“The choice was pursuing the vehicle or securing the child. Obviously, the [police] prioritized the child,” Remulla said. A manhunt remains underway.

The boy’s driver, who had picked him up outside an exclusive private school days earlier, was found murdered inside another vehicle in Bulacan province north of Manila.

“These [cases] arose in January after all POGOs were closed; they got into kidnapping,” Remulla said, without providing statistics.

AFP is aware of at least two other kidnapping cases involving Chinese nationals living in the Philippines this year.

While describing the incident as “Chinese against Chinese” crime, Remulla said disaffected former Filipino police or soldiers were likely used as foot soldiers in some cases.

Gilberto Cruz, chief of the Philippines’ anti-organized crime commission, told AFP that government figures showed there were still about 11,000 Chinese nationals in the country after the gambling sites they worked for were shuttered.

“Some have turned to other crimes, but we can’t provide numbers as of now,” he said, before adding that some had likely ventured into “kidnapping operations.”

At a press conference on Wednesday, the immigration department said about 300 foreign nationals linked to POGOs were being held at a detention facility built for 100 while awaiting deportation.

In a separate statement, the department said 98 Chinese nationals had been repatriated to China aboard a chartered Philippine Airlines flight on Tuesday night.

The Chinese embassy said the joint repatriation marked “another step in the law enforcing cooperation of the two countries after the ban on POGOs.”
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Sudanese army plane crashes in residential area, 46 killed

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Forty-six people were killed when a Sudanese army plane crashed in a residential area near a military airport in the capital’s twin city Omdurman, the Khartoum state media office said, and military sources said a senior commander was among the dead.

The crash took place late on Tuesday near the Wadi Sayidna military airport in northern Omdurman. The Sudanese army had said several military personnel and civilians were killed, but did not provide further details.

Military sources said the plane crash was most likely due to technical reasons. The media office said 10 people were also injured.

Among those killed was Major General Bahr Ahmed, a senior commander in Khartoum who previously served as the commander of the army across the entire capital, military sources said.
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France wants Europe cooperation on visas over expulsion of undocumented migrants

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PARIS — France’s foreign minister said Wednesday that he wanted “all” European countries to cooperate and start cutting back visas available to nationals of countries that refuse to take back illegal migrants expelled by Paris.

Jean-Noel Barrot spoke after an Algerian-born man went on a stabbing rampage in the eastern French city of Mulhouse at the weekend, killing one person and wounding several others in what President Emmanuel Macron called an “Islamist terrorist act.”

The 37-year-old suspect was on a terrorism watch list and subject to a deportation order.

France had attempted to expel him multiple times, but Algeria refused to cooperate, French authorities say.

“If a country does not cooperate with the French authorities, I will propose that all European countries restrict the issuing of visas at the same time,” Barrot told broadcaster France 2.

“When we do it on a national level, it doesn’t work unfortunately,” he added.

But if foreign governments cooperate, the European Union also could consider reducing customs tariffs for such countries, Barrot proposed.

“It is a particularly powerful lever,” he said.

French authorities are seeking to tighten immigration policies and border controls, in a move emblematic of the right-ward shift in French politics.

“If we want our migration policy to be as effective as possible, there are many things that will be much more effective if we do it at a European level,” he said.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou was set later Wednesday to chair a meeting on immigration controls.

Bayrou has called for a national debate on immigration and what it means to be French, suggesting that immigrants were “flooding” France.
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Ukrainian officials say deadly drone attack hits Kyiv region

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Ukrainian officials said Wednesday a Russian drone attack killed at least one person and injured two others in the Kyiv region.

Kyiv Governor Mykola Kalashnyk said on Telegram that the attack also damaged five houses and four multi-story residential buildings.

Fragments from destroyed drones damaged apartment buildings, a university building, and a theater in the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, the regional governor said Wednesday.

Ukraine’s military said Wednesday it shot down 110 of the 177 drones that Russian forces used in their latest overnight attacks.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday its air defenses destroyed 130 Ukrainian drones, more than half of which were shot down over the Krasnodar region located along the Black Sea.

Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram that the attacks damaged homes in three districts but did not hurt anyone.

Russian air defenses also shot down drones over Russia-occupied Crimea, the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea and Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk regions, the Defense Ministry said.

Some information for this story was provided by Reuters
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Thailand bus overturns in ditch killing at least 18 passengers

Posted on by SeeEA

BANGKOK — At least 18 people were killed and 23 injured in eastern Thailand on Wednesday after the brakes failed on a tour bus and it rolled upside down into a ditch, police said.

“It was a downhill road and the brakes failed, and the driver lost control of the vehicle before it overturned,” said Colonel Sophon Phramaneehe, adding that those who died were adults on a study trip.

There were 49 people on the bus, all Thai, including the driver, the police official told Reuters.

Social media posts showed rescue and medical workers at the scene in Prachinburi province, 155 km east of the capital Bangkok, helping victims near the bus with its undercarriage exposed.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed her condolences to the victims’ families and said an investigation was taking place.

“If it is found that there is a violation of the use of vehicles that do not meet the standards or are involved in reckless use of vehicles, legal action will be taken,” she said in a post on X.

“Inspection of vehicles must be safe and pass the specified standards before they are put into use to prevent accidents and reduce losses like this again,” she said.

Road accidents and fatalities are common in Thailand due to weak enforcement of vehicle safety standards and poorly maintained roads. The Southeast Asian nation ranked ninth out of 175 World Health Organization member countries for road traffic deaths, according to its 2023 report.

Last year, a school bus caught fire due to a gas cylinder leak, killing 23 people, including 16 students.
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8 sentenced to death for murder of Tunisia opposition leader

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TUNIS, TUNISIA — A Tunisian court sentenced eight defendants to death on Tuesday over the 2013 assassination of leftist opposition figure Mohamed Brahmi, according to local reports. 

Charges included “attempting to change the state’s nature” and “inciting armed conflict,” local media reported. 

Three of the defendants also received additional death sentences for “deliberate participation in premeditated murder,” according to the reports. 

A ninth, who is on the run, was sentenced to five years in prison for “failing to report terrorist crimes to the authorities,” said the reports. 

Tunisia still hands down death sentences, particularly in “terrorism” cases, even though a de facto moratorium in effect since 1991 means they are effectively commuted to life terms. 

The verdict marked the first set of rulings in the case of Brahmi’s assassination, which took place outside his home on July 25, 2013, amid Tunisia’s turbulent post-revolution political landscape. 

Demonstrators took to the streets across the country, as Brahmi’s distinctive round face and thick mustache became symbols of protest against militant violence. 

Brahmi, a nationalist left-wing leader of the People’s Movement and member of Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly, was an outspoken critic of the Islamist-inspired government dominated by Ennahdha at the time. 

His assassination further shocked the nation as it came less than six months after the killing of another prominent leftist figure, Chokri Belaid, who was also gunned down outside his home. 

Brahmi had been elected in Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the 2011 revolution that toppled ex-president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and later swept through the Arab world. 

He was shot 14 times by two assailants in front of his wife and children. 

His family had long accused Ennahdha of being behind the murder, but the then-ruling party denied the allegations. 

It had also pushed back against accusations of excessive leniency, blacklisting the formerly legal Salafist movement Ansar al-Charia as a terrorist organization. 

Fighters affiliated with the Islamic State claimed responsibility for both the Brahmi and Belaid assassinations. 

The aftermath of the 2011 revolution saw a surge in Islamist radicalism in Tunisia with thousands of volunteers leaving to fight in Syria, Iraq and neighboring Libya. 

Tunisia faced heightened security threats, with armed groups operating from the Chaambi Mountains near the Algerian border, primarily targeting security forces and the military.  

In 2015, attacks in Sousse and the capital Tunis killed dozens of tourists and police, although authorities say they have since made significant progress against the extremists. 

In recent years, Tunisian authorities claim significant progress in combating violence, but the country remains under a state of emergency.   

In 2022, President Kais Saied — who has framed the murders of Brahmi and Belaid as national issues and often called them “martyrs” — dismissed dozens of judges after alleging they had obstructed investigations.   

The high-profile killings, and the mass protests they drew, ultimately forced Ennahdha to relinquish power to a technocratic government following the adoption of a new constitution. 

The crisis had nearly derailed Tunisia’s fragile democratic transition. 

But political dialogue led by four civil society organizations, including the Tunisian General Labour Union, helped restore stability and earned the nation of 12 million the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. 
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Nominee for No. 2 spot at Pentagon warns China ‘incredibly determined’ to surpass US

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PENTAGON — President Donald Trump’s nominee for deputy secretary of defense is warning that China’s military is resolute on surpassing the United States and is calling for a fix to “significant” military shortages at a time when administration leaders are trying to make big budget cuts.

“China is incredibly determined, they feel a great sense of urgency, and they’ll be fully dedicated to becoming the strongest nation in the world and having dominance over the United States,” Steve Feinberg told members of the Senate Armed Service Committee on Tuesday.  

Feinberg, a businessman and investor, said the U.S. military shortages include “shipbuilding, nuclear modernization, aircraft development, cyber defense, hypersonics, counter space, defending our satellites [and] counter drones.”

“We really need to plug these shortages, focus on our priorities, get rid of legacy programs, be very disciplined, while at the same time focusing on the economics. If we do that, given America’s great innovative capability, entrepreneurship, we will defeat China. If we don’t, our very national security is at risk,” Feinberg said.

The hearing comes as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has called on the department to cut 8% — roughly $50 billion — to reinvest in priorities aligned with a “more lethal fighting force.”

Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Tuesday pushed back against the move saying, “Slashing the defense budget will not create efficiency in our military. It will cripple it.”

The concern about cuts to the military has echoed on both sides of the aisle.

Republican committee Chairman Roger Wicker told the Breaking Defense news organization last month that he hoped to increase defense spending by as much as $200 billion in coming years.

And Republican Senator Dan Sullivan on Tuesday called for prioritizing solutions to shipbuilding to counter threats from China and others.

“We’re in the worst crisis in shipbuilding in over 40 years. The Chinese are building a giant navy. It’s already bigger than ours,” he said.

China’s military has about 370 warships, according to the Pentagon’s latest China Military Power Report, while the U.S. military has about 300.

Feinberg acknowledged that the shipbuilding shortage is “a tough problem” for the military.

“Our supply chain is definitely weak. Our workforce needs to be improved. But a big piece of improving our supply chain is working more closely with our private sector. We have companies that can get at where our needs are, where our shortages are, and we need to work more closely with them. We need people inside of government that understand their issues,” Feinberg said.

Several Democrats on the committee were critical of interference at the Pentagon by the Department of Government Efficiency, saying it could create a major vulnerability should its members not handle data more carefully.

“They [DOGE] just sent an unclassified email with CIA recent hire names in an unclassified space. As a former CIA officer, you just blew the cover of someone who was going to risk their life abroad to protect our country,” said Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin.

“Do you know how appetizing it is for our adversaries to have this data? … It is quite literally an issue of safety and security,” she added.

Democrats also raised concern about plans to let go more than 5,000 Pentagon civilian employees this week, while Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin countered that cutting 5,000 jobs amounted to less than 0.5% of the workforce.

“Our national debt is now costing us more to just pay interest than we spend on our military. That’s a huge national security risk,” he said. “And so, at what point do we start making cuts?”
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Ukraine, US agree on a framework economic deal, Ukrainian officials say

Posted on by SeeEU

KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine and the United States have reached an agreement on a framework for a broad economic deal that would include access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, three senior Ukrainian officials said Tuesday.

The officials, who were familiar with the matter, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. One of them said Kyiv hopes that signing the agreement will ensure the continued flow of U.S. military support that Ukraine urgently needs.

President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, said he’d heard that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was coming and added that “it’s OK with me, if he’d like to, and he would like to sign it together with me.”

The agreement could be signed as early as Friday and plans are being drawn up for Zelenskyy to travel to Washington to meet Trump, according to one of the Ukrainian officials.

Another official said the agreement would provide an opportunity for Zelenskyy and Trump to discuss continued military aid to Ukraine, which is why Kyiv is eager to finalize the deal.

Trump called it “a very big deal,” adding that it could be worth 1 trillion dollars. “It could be whatever, but it’s rare earths and other things.”

According to one Ukrainian official, some technical details are still to be worked out. However, the draft does not include a contentious Trump administration proposal to give the U.S. $500 billion worth of profits from Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as compensation for its wartime assistance to Kyiv.

Instead, the U.S. and Ukraine would have joint ownership of a fund, and Ukraine would in the future contribute 50% of future proceeds from state-owned resources, including minerals, oil, and gas. One official said the deal had better terms of investments and another one said that Kyiv secured favorable amendments and viewed the outcome as “positive.”

The deal does not, however, include security guarantees. One official said that this would be something the two presidents would discuss when they meet.

The progress in negotiating the deal comes after Trump and Zelenskyy traded sharp rhetoric last week about their differences over the matter.

Zelenskyy said he balked at signing off on a deal that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed during a visit to Kyiv earlier this month, and the Ukrainian leader objected again days later during a meeting in Munich with Vice President JD Vance because the American proposal did not include security guarantees.

Trump then called Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections” and claimed his support among voters was near rock-bottom.

But the two sides made significant progress during a three-day visit to Ukraine last week by retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia.

The idea was initially proposed last fall by Zelenskyy as part of his plan to strengthen Kyiv’s hand in future negotiations with Moscow.
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US Embassy tracks 3 Americans on death row in Democratic Republic of Congo

Posted on by SeeAF

STATE DEPARTMENT — The United States says its embassy in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to attend legal proceedings and closely follow developments in the case of three detained U.S. citizens who face the death penalty. The U.S. State Department declined to comment on whether negotiations are underway to secure their release.

Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy for hostages, Adam Boehler, noted in a social media post that the three Americans are still being held by the DRC government.

In September 2024, a military court in the DRC sentenced 37 people to death, including three Americans — Tyler Thompson Jr., Marcel Malanga and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun — for their role in a failed coup in the Central African nation in May 2024.

A State Department spokesperson told VOA on Monday, “The United States supports DRC authorities upholding a fair and transparent legal process,” adding that U.S. Ambassador to Congo Lucy Tamlyn and embassy staff in Kinshasa have been communicating with their counterparts at the highest levels of the DRC government throughout the process.

The U.S. State Department has not declared the three Americans to be wrongfully detained.

“The Department continuously reviews the circumstances surrounding the detentions of U.S. nationals overseas, including those in the DRC, for indicators that they are wrongful,” the State Department spokesperson said.

“When making these assessments, the Department looks at the totality of the circumstances for each case individually,” the spokesperson added, noting that the Secretary of State has the ultimate authority to determine whether a case qualifies as a wrongful detention.

Once the U.S. government designates an American detained abroad as wrongfully detained, the case must be transferred from the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs to the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. The U.S. government is then required to actively seek the release of wrongfully detained Americans.

The State Department refrained from commenting on whether discussions are in progress to repatriate the three American citizens.

“Due to privacy and other considerations, we have no further comment,” said the spokesperson.

Minerals for peace?

Meanwhile, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi has reportedly proposed granting the United States access to its vast mineral resources as an incentive for U.S. intervention to help end the conflict in eastern Congo, where Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have captured two provincial capitals — Goma and Bukavu — and other territory.

Rwanda continues to deny backing the group in the face of evidence presented by United Nations experts and human rights groups. The United States has called on Rwanda’s leaders to end their support for M23 and to respect the DRC’s sovereignty.

In a social media post on X on Sunday, Tshisekedi’s spokesperson, Tina Salama, shared a photo from a recent meeting between the Congolese President and Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell. The post indicated that a proposal on DRC’s rich mineral resources was “revealed” during the meeting.

She said Tshisekedi “invites” the U.S. to buy minerals directly from Congo instead of sourcing looted resources through Rwanda.

The State Department did not respond to questions from VOA about whether a mineral deal was in offered in the meeting.
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Though battling fatigue and uncertainty, Ukrainians still express hope, polls show

Posted on by SeeEU

Despite rising uncertainty over waning U.S. support, growing existential questions and ongoing Russian advances, polls find Ukrainians remain generally optimistic about their future. Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv, Ukraine. Camera: Vladyslav Smilianet.
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Apple shareholders reject proposal to scrap company’s diversity programs

Posted on by SeeUS

Apple shareholders rebuffed an attempt to pressure the technology trendsetter into joining President Donald Trump’s push to scrub corporate programs designed to diversify its workforce. 

The proposal drafted by the National Center for Public Policy Research — a self-described conservative think tank — urged Apple to follow a litany of high-profile companies that have retreated from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives currently in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. 

After a brief presentation about the anti-DEI proposal, Apple announced shareholders had rejected it. In a regulatory filing submitted Tuesday evening, Apple disclosed that 97% of the ballots cast were votes against the measure. 

The outcome vindicated Apple management’s decision to stand behind its diversity commitment even though Trump asked the U.S. Department of Justice to look into whether these types of programs have discriminated against some employees whose race or gender aren’t aligned with the initiative’s goals. 

But Apple CEO Tim Cook has maintained a cordial relationship with Trump since his first term in office, an alliance that so far has helped the company skirt tariffs on its iPhones made in China. After Cook and Trump met last week, Apple on Monday announced it will invest $500 billion in the U.S. and create 20,000 more jobs during the next four years — a commitment applauded by the president. 

Tuesday’s shareholder vote came a month after the same group presented a similar proposal during Costco’s annual meeting, only to have it overwhelmingly rejected, too. 

That snub didn’t discourage the National Center for Public Policy Research from confronting Apple about its DEI program in a pre-recorded presentation by Stefan Padfield, executive director of the think tank’s Free Enterprise Project, who asserted “forced diversity is bad for business.” 

In the presentation, Padfield attacked Apple’s diversity commitments for being out of line with recent court rulings and said the programs expose the Cupertino, California, company to an onslaught of potential lawsuits for alleged discrimination. He cited the Trump administration as one of Apple’s potential legal adversaries. 

“The vibe shift is clear: DEI is out, and merit is in,” Padfield said in the presentation. 

The specter of potential legal trouble was magnified last week when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a federal lawsuit against Target alleging the retailer’s recently scaled-back DEI program alienated many consumers and undercut sales to the detriment of shareholders. 

Just as Costco does, Apple contends that fostering a diverse workforce makes good business sense. 

But Cook conceded Apple may have to make some adjustments to its diversity program “as the legal landscape changes” while still striving to maintain a culture that has helped elevate the company to its current market value of $3.7 trillion — greater than any other business in the world. 

“We will continue to create a culture of belonging,” Cook told shareholders during the meeting. 

In its last diversity and inclusion report issued in 2022, Apple disclosed that nearly three-fourths of its global workforce consisted of white and Asian employees. Nearly two-thirds of its employees were men. 

Other major technology companies for years have reported employing mostly white and Asian men, especially in high-paid engineering jobs — a tendency that spurred the industry to pursue largely unsuccessful efforts to diversify.

 
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AU, Somalia agree on troop numbers for new mission

Posted on by SeeAF

The federal government of Somalia and the African Union have agreed on the number of troop-contributing countries for a new AU mission following weeks of differences between Ethiopia and Somalia, and later on between Somalia and Burundi over the number of troops coming from each country.

An AU official, who requested anonymity because he does not have authorization to speak with media, told VOA that Burundian forces who have been in Somalia since 2007 will be leaving the country after the two governments disagreed on the number of troops coming from Burundi.

The African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia, or AUSSOM, is expected to have 11,900 personnel operating on the ground in Somalia, including soldiers, police and civilian support staff, according to Somali and AU officials.

The new arrangement allocates 4,500 soldiers to Uganda, 2,500 to Ethiopia, 1,520 to Djibouti, 1,410 to Kenya and 1,091 to Egypt, according to the official.

A second AU diplomat who requested anonymity for the same reasons told VOA that the negotiations about Burundian soldiers in Somalia are still ongoing.

“The departure of Burundi would have significant political and financial repercussions for the AU,” the second diplomat said.

“In addition, there is still a major issue of funding for AUSSOM that has not been resolved. Burundi sacrificed a lot, and they deserve to have their concerns addressed,” he added.

There will also be several hundred police personnel from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Egypt, to be based in Mogadishu, Jowhar, and Baidoa.

The completion of the troop-contributing countries was delayed by diplomatic tension between Somalia and landlocked Ethiopia over the latter’s controversial sea access deal with Somaliland on Jan. 1, 2024. Mogadishu protested the deal as a “violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Somaliland is a breakaway region of Somalia.

The tensions eased after the two sides reached a breakthrough agreement on Dec. 11 in Ankara with the mediation of Turkey, where they pledged to end their differences.

This week, Somalia and Ethiopia signed an agreement that secured the participation of Ethiopian troops in the new African Union mission in Somalia.

The agreement followed a visit to Mogadishu over the weekend by an Ethiopian delegation led by military chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, accompanied by Ethiopian intelligence chief Redwan Hussien, where they met with their Somali counterparts, General Odawa Yusuf Rage and Abdullahi Mohamed Ali Sanbalolshe. State media in Somalia and Ethiopia both confirmed the visit.

Somalia’s National News Agency, or SONNA, said the talks focused on counterterrorism, regional stability and the role of Ethiopian forces in AUSSOM.

“The chiefs underscored the role of ENDF (Ethiopian National Defense Force) in African Union peace support operations and agreed on the Force disposition of ENDF in the African Union Support and Stabilization mission in Somalia (AUSSOM),” said a communique published by SONNA.

Ethiopian troops will be deployed to the same Somali regions where they were stationed over the years — Gedo, Bay, Bakool and Hiran regions. The only new troops joining the mission will come from Egypt, which supported Somalia in Mogadishu’s dispute with Ethiopia.

Ethiopia also maintains troops outside the AU mission based on a bilateral agreement. This week’s deal between Ethiopian and Somali officials extends that arrangement.

“At bilateral level, the Chiefs agreed to develop a Status of Force Agreement a (SOFA) for all the bilateral forces that will operate in Somalia,” Sunday’s communique read.

The first AU contingent from Uganda was deployed in Somalia in March 2007 at a time when al-Shabab was gaining a foothold in the country.

The U.S.-designated terrorist group remains a threat to the international community-backed government. On Tuesday, al-Shabab launched multiple front attacks in central Somalia, entering small towns and villages before government forces repelled them.

In the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, security forces are continuing their almost two months long offensive against Islamic State militants, taking one town after the other.

Local security officials say they are confident of capturing the largest main base of the group within days.

This story originated in VOA’s Africa Division.
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German election winner: Europe must defend itself as US ‘does not care’

Posted on by SeeEU

London — Germany’s likely next chancellor has warned that the United States cares little about Europe’s fate and has called for the continent to urgently organize its own defense capabilities, marking a profound shift in approach from Europe’s biggest economy.

“I would never have thought that I would have to say something like this in a TV show. But after Donald Trump’s remarks last week, it is clear that the Americans — or in any case, the Americans in this administration — do not care much about the fate of Europe,” Friedrich Merz said in a post-election televised debate after his Christian Democrats, or CDU Party, won 28.5% of the vote in Sunday’s election, 8% ahead of the second place Alternative for Germany Party, or AfD.

“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” added Merz.

He said the NATO summit in June could be a defining moment, adding that it’s unknown whether allies “would still be talking about NATO in its current form or whether we will have to establish an independent European defense capability much more quickly.”

Ukraine support

Until now, Germany has been the second-biggest donor of military aid to Ukraine, after the United States. Merz may seek to boost that support, according to Liana Fix of the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations.

“Friedrich Merz has spoken in favor of Ukraine’s victory. In general, he has adopted a more hawkish position than [outgoing Chancellor] Olaf Scholz had. He advocated for German long-range missile deliveries to Ukraine, the Taurus. He made clear that support for Ukraine will have to continue, even if a ceasefire deal is reached,” Fix told VOA.

Merz’s election victory came on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Brandenburg Gate, once the frontier between east and west Berlin during the Cold War, was lit up Monday in the Ukrainian national colors to mark the anniversary.

The potential threat from Moscow loomed heavy over the German election. Berlin resident Juergen Harke, who was among those attending a pro-Ukrainian demonstration outside the Russian Embassy, said it was vital that Merz remains true to his word.

“I hope that the new government will continue to supply weapons to Ukraine, that it will work together with the European states to develop a major counterweight to Russia — and now also to Trump,” Harke told Reuters.

Shifts in US policy

Trump has engineered a dramatic change in U.S. policy toward Ukraine and its defense against the Russian invasion. Last week, he falsely blamed Kyiv for starting the war and labeled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator.”

On Monday, the U.S. joined Russia in voting against a European-backed resolution at the United Nations Security Council which blamed Moscow for the war and called for an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

Monday on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump congratulated Merz on his victory.

“Looks like the conservative party in Germany has won the very big and highly anticipated election. Much like the USA, the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration that has prevailed for so many years,” Trump wrote, using all capital letters.

Russia, meanwhile, said it would wait to see how relations with the new German chancellor play out.

“Each time we want to hope for a more sober approach to reality, for a more sober approach to what could be issues of mutual interest [between Russia and Germany] and mutual benefits. But let’s see how it will be in reality,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

Europe defense

The sudden reversal in U.S. foreign policy has shocked Europe, said analyst Mattia Nelles, founder of the German-Ukrainian Bureau, a policy consultancy based in Dusseldorf.

“We are, as Germany, shocked and utterly unprepared for the end of the Pax Americana, the end of America providing security for Europe. And we now find ourselves in a difficult position to organize the transition away from U.S. being the leading provider of security to a more European-driven approach — not just to Ukraine, but to organizing our own self-defense,” Nelles told VOA.

“And that’s a huge effort. It’s going to require a lot of political will,” he said. “But Merz has said he’s willing to lead on that, and let’s see whether we are able to step up.”

Can Europe afford to pay for its own defense?

“Merz can agree to joint debt on the European level, which the conservatives always hated,” Fix of the Council on Foreign Relations said.

Europe is currently holding around $200 billion of Russian state assets, which were frozen following the invasion.

Merz “can agree to seizing Russian frozen assets, which has not been done so far but should be done soon before Hungary vetoes. He has talked about the U.K. and France having to extend the nuclear umbrella to Germany as a possible pathway,” Fix added.

German debt

In the election campaign, Merz supported maintaining Germany’s so-called “debt brake,” which limits annual government borrowing to only 0.35% of the country’s gross domestic product.

Germany’s budget deficit is among the lowest in the G7 group of nations, although critics say the policy blocks critical investment. Merz has hinted that the debt brake may be eased to boost defense spending.

“Given the challenges at hand, we’re looking at the reform of the so-called debt brake, and that requires constitutional amendments, for which there is not a majority of the centrist parties in parliament,” Nelles noted.

The Christian Democrats are well short of a majority, but Merz has ruled out forming a coalition with the far-right AfD.

Far-right firewall

The so-called “firewall” around the AfD, whereby German centrist parties have refused to rely on parliamentary votes or to enter any coalition with the far right, has been strongly criticized by Washington.

Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD, echoed those concerns.

“We consider this blockade to be undemocratic. You cannot exclude millions of voters per se,” she told supporters on Monday.

Instead, Merz plans to begin coalition talks with the Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“The conservatives now have to negotiate and change the tone and find constructive agreement with the Social Democrats on the difficult issues ranging from migration to debt reform in Germany, public financing, rebooting the German economic model and of course, on Ukraine,” Nelles said.

Merz said Monday that he hoped a coalition government would be formed by Easter at the latest.

“There’s optimism that there is a reenergized focus now — with Germany soon having a functioning government again and a majority in parliament — reenergizing and joining this coalition of the willing, to rally more support for Ukraine and more support for European defense,” Nelles added.
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US consumer confidence drops sharply, survey shows

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. consumer confidence plunged in February in its biggest monthly decline in more than four years, a business research group said Tuesday.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index dropped from 105.3 in January to 98.3 this month, the largest month-to-month decline since August 2021.

With U.S. consumer spending accounting for about 70% of the world’s largest economy, the three major stock indexes on Wall Street all fell on news of the report. The tech-heavy NASDAQ dropped by more than a percentage point.

The Conference Board said in a statement, “Views of current labor market conditions weakened. Consumers became pessimistic about future business conditions and less optimistic about future income. Pessimism about future employment prospects worsened and reached a 10-month high.”

Separately, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent contended Tuesday that the U.S. economy is more fragile under the surface than economic indicators suggest, and he vowed to “reprivatize” growth by cutting government spending and regulation.

In his first major economic policy address, Bessent told a group at the Australian Embassy in Washington that interest rate volatility, enduring inflation and reliance on the public sector for job growth have hobbled the American economy, despite general national economic growth and low unemployment.

Bessent blamed “prolific overspending” under former President Joe Biden and regulations that have hindered supply-side growth as the main drivers of “sticky inflation.”

“The previous administration’s over-reliance on excessive government spending and overbearing regulation left us with an economy that may have exhibited some reasonable metrics but ultimately was brittle underneath,” he said.

Bessent said that 95% of all job growth in the past 12 months has been concentrated in public and government-adjacent sectors, such as health care and education, jobs offering slower wage growth and less productivity than private-sector jobs.

Meanwhile, he said jobs in manufacturing, metals, mining and information technology all contracted or flatlined over the same period.

“The private sector has been in recession,” Bessent said. “Our goal is to reprivatize the economy.”

Consumers had appeared increasingly confident heading toward the end of 2024 and spent generously during the holiday season. But U.S. retail sales dropped sharply in January, with unusually cold weather throughout much of the U.S. taking some of the blame.

Retail sales fell 0.9% last month from December, the Commerce Department reported last week. The decline, the biggest in a year, came after two months of robust gains.

With inflation remaining a concern for consumers and uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s plan to impose new or stiffer tariffs on imports from other countries, policymakers at the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, have taken a cautious approach on whether to further cut its benchmark interest rate.

The Fed left its key borrowing rate alone at its last meeting after cutting it at the previous three.

“Consumers’ confidence has deteriorated sharply in the face of threats to impose large tariffs and to slash federal spending and employment,” Pantheon Macroeconomics chief Samuel Tombs wrote in a note to clients.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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More Thai firms turning up on US sanctions list for trade with Russia

Posted on by SeeEA

BANGKOK — Thailand is emerging as one of Russia’s main pipelines for machine and computer parts with the potential for military use, with a growing number of local companies accused of helping Moscow evade Western export controls meant to cripple its war on Ukraine. 

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States has imposed sanctions on seven companies in Thailand for exporting these “high priority items” to Russia, the last of them in December. 

Trade data published last year by S&P Global, a financial analytics and services firm based in New York, also show a huge spike in these exports out of Thailand since 2022. 

Thailand eluded mention when the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments started warning in mid-2023 of third countries being used to funnel high-priority items to Russia as a way of skirting the West’s export controls. 

“So, it was a surprise to see them … as a new country or a new location which had been involved in this type of goods transaction,” Byron McKinney, a sanctions risk and supply chain expert at S&P Global Market Intelligence, told VOA of his team’s research. 

Supply chains hit by sanctions, McKinney said, are “a little like water in a stream — if you try damming in one place, it will try and move around. So, Thailand kind of appeared in this way, as a country which wasn’t there originally for the transshipment or transit of these goods but has appeared later on.”  

Within days of the 2022 invasion, the U.S. Commerce Department placed export controls on dozens of high-priority items it said Russia needed most “to sustain its brutal attack on Ukraine,” from ball bearings to microchips. These are commonly known as dual-use goods for their potential to be put to both civilian and military use. 

A 2024 report by McKinney and his team shows China exporting or reexporting the vast majority of these goods to Russia since the invasion — over $6 billion worth in 2023 alone. It also shows countries funneling more such goods to Russia than Thailand. 

But of the 14 countries whose exports and reexports to Russia that the report breaks down, Thailand saw the sharpest spike of any, from $8.3 million in 2022 to $98.7 million in 2023, a jump of over 1,000%. 

Thailand’s 2023 shipments also included an especially large proportion of the most sensitive, high-priority goods such as microchips, designated by U.S. Customs as Tier 1. 

More recent data shared with VOA by S&P Global show Thailand’s exports and reexports of high-priority goods to Russia again topping $90 million in 2024. 

McKinney said the trade routes on which the goods are shipped are in constant flux. 

But for the time being, he added, “Thailand just happens to be in an area where there’s the possibility to transit these goods easier or quicker because maybe the regulation is a bit more light touch, for example, than it would be in other locations. So, it kind of gets picked on from that particular perspective and … turns up as a particular transit or transshipment hub.” 

The U.S. has put sanctions on seven Thailand-registered companies in the past 13 months.  

The first was NAL Solutions in January 2024. In announcing the sanctions, the U.S. Treasury Department said NAL was part of a network of companies controlled by Russian national Nikolai Aleksandrovich Levin channeling electronics and other goods from the United States and other countries to Russia. 

Washington sanctioned another five firms in Thailand in October, including Intracorp, which Treasury accused of setting up other companies that send high-priority goods to Russia. 

Treasury also tied Thailand’s Siam Expert Trading — added to the sanctions list in December — to the TGR Group, which it described as “a sprawling international network of businesses and employees that have facilitated significant sanctions circumvention on behalf of Russian elites.” 

Five of the seven firms did not reply to VOA’s repeated requests for comment about the sanctions. The other two could not be reached. 

Spokespersons for the Thai government and Ministry of Commerce, which oversees the country’s exports and company licensing, did not reply to VOA’s requests for comment either. 

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Thailand has been keen to keep up warm diplomatic and economic ties with Russia. 

At an international summit on China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing two years ago, Thailand’s prime minister at the time, Srettha Thavisin, hailed his country’s “close relations” with Russia, shook hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and invited him to Thailand. 

“When Srettha became prime minister in 2023, he was focused like a laser on economic growth and viewed Russia as a useful economic partner,” Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told VOA. “Visa-free entry was extended for Russian tourists, and the authorities turned a blind eye to incidents of antisocial behavior and illegal activities.” 

He said Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who replaced Srettha last year, has carried on both his fixation on economic growth and neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war. 

Just last month at Putin’s invitation, Thailand joined BRICS, a group of developing countries with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa at its core, focused on forging closer economic ties. 

And while bilateral trade between Russia and Thailand has been falling in recent years, Storey says Russians have become major players in Thailand’s property market. They have also helped boost Thailand’s tourism sector, a pillar of the economy. 

In an interview with Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency in 2023, Vitaly Kiselev, president of the Thai-Russian Chamber of Commerce, said Western sanctions on Moscow were also opening up more trade opportunities between Russia and Thailand. He said chamber membership was on the rise. 

Given Thailand’s priorities, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s approach to negotiating an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, Storey doubts that Thai authorities will step in to stop the country’s trade in dual-use goods. 

“If Bangkok hasn’t taken action to crack down on this trade three years after the war started, there’s little chance that it will do so now, especially as the Trump administration is making nice with Russia,” he said. 

Across Asia, only Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan have imposed trade restrictions or other sanctions on Russia since the 2022 invasion. 
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Trial begins in Germany for 4 alleged Hamas members

Posted on by SeeEU

BERLIN — A trial began Tuesday in Germany for four alleged members of U.S.-designated terror group Hamas who are suspected of organizing weapons caches across Europe.

The country’s top prosecutor accuses the men of membership in a foreign terrorist organization. It’s a pilot case for prosecutors, German news agency dpa reported.

“For the first time in Germany, people are facing charges of participating as members of the foreign terrorist organization Hamas,” prosecutor Jochen Weingarten said, according to dpa.

The men are accused of seeking out some weapons depots set up years ago, as well as setting up new ones, for Hamas across Europe so it could later use the firearms and ammunition for attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets on the continent, prosecutors said when filing charges last year.

The weapons were allegedly moved around Europe in preparation for Hamas’ terror attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, prosecutors said. Around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in that attack, and about 250 taken hostage.

The attack triggered Israel’s air and ground offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 48,200 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians. The ministry says more than half the dead have been women and children.

Hamas also considered targeting the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, the area around Tempelhof Airport in the capital and the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany, authorities said.

Abdelhamid Al A., Mohamed B., Nazih R. and Ibrahim El-R. were arrested in December 2023. Prosecutors identified them only by their first name and last initial in line with German privacy laws.

All four had important positions within Hamas, prosecutors asserted.

The men allegedly set up a weapons cache in Bulgaria in 2019 and in Denmark later that year. They sought to find a spot in Poland but were unsuccessful, prosecutors said.
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Unknown illness kills over 50 in part of Congo with hours between symptoms and death 

Posted on by SeeAF

KINSHASA, DR Congo — An unknown illness has killed over 50 people in northwestern Congo, according to doctors on the ground and the World Health Organization on Monday. 

The interval between the onset of symptoms and death has been 48 hours in the majority of cases, and “that’s what’s really worrying,” Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring center, told The Associated Press. 

The latest disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo began on Jan. 21, and 419 cases have been recorded including 53 deaths. 

According to the WHO’s Africa office, the first outbreak in the town of Boloko began after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours following hemorrhagic fever symptoms. 

There have long been concerns about diseases jumping from animals to humans in places where wild animals are popularly eaten. The number of such outbreaks in Africa has surged by more than 60% in the last decade, the WHO said in 2022. 

After the second outbreak of the current mystery disease began in the town of Bomate on Feb. 9, samples from 13 cases have been sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, for testing, the WHO said. 

All samples have been negative for Ebola or other common hemorrhagic fever diseases like Marburg. Some tested positive for malaria. 
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Taiwan investigating Chinese-crewed ship believed to have severed an undersea cable 

Posted on by SeeEA

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwanese authorities are investigating a Chinese-crewed ship suspected of severing an undersea communications cable in the latest such incident adding to tensions between Taipei and Beijing. 

Taiwan’s coast guard intercepted the Togolese-flagged cargo ship Hongtai in waters between its main island’s west coast and the outlying Penghu Islands early Tuesday, according to a statement by the coast guard. 

The coast guard had earlier been notified by telecommunications provider Chunghwa Telecom that one of its undersea cables had been severed 6 nautical miles (11 kilometers) northwest of Jiangjun Fishing Harbor. 

The Hongtai had been anchored in that same area since Saturday evening, the coast guard said. From Saturday until early Tuesday, authorities in the nearby Anping Port in Tainan had sent signals to the vessel seven times but had received no response. After the Chunghwa Telecom cable damage report, the coast guard approached the ship, which had begun to sail northwestward, and escorted it to Anping Port. 

Taiwanese authorities said the ship’s entire eight-person crew were Chinese nationals and the case was being handled “in accordance with national security-level principles.” 

“The cause of the underwater cable break, whether it was due to intentional sabotage or simply an accident, is still pending further investigation for clarification,” the coast guard said. 

“The possibility of this being part of a gray-zone incursion by China cannot be ruled out,” it added. 

Communications on the Penghu Islands were not disrupted because Chunghwa Telecom had successfully activated a backup cable, the coast guard said. 

This is the latest in a series of incidents in recent years in which undersea Taiwanese cables have been damaged — with Taipei in some instances blaming China. Earlier this year, a Chinese cargo ship was suspected of severing a link northeast of the island. 

In February 2023, two undersea cables serving Taiwan’s Matsu Islands were severed, disrupting communications for weeks. 

Taipei fears China might damage its underwater communications cables as part of attempts to blockade or seize the island, which Beijing claims as its own. 

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said during a regular press briefing on Tuesday that he was not aware of the issue and it did not pertain to diplomacy. 
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