U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday welcomed NATO leaders and heralded the alliance’s 75th anniversary while making the case for peace through strength amid the largest challenge to peace Europe has faced in decades. Other administration officials made similar arguments for bolstering defense to fight global threats. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington
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Biden: Ukraine to get 5 more air defense systems
Pentagon — Ukraine is receiving five additional air defense systems to protect its sovereign territory, including three additional Patriot batteries from the United States, Germany and Romania.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced the five systems as NATO members commemorated the 75th anniversary of the alliance during a summit in Washington.
Allies marked the anniversary at Mellon Auditorium, the site of the original signing of the North Atlantic treaty that established the defensive bloc in 1949.
Topping the summit agenda is support for Ukraine’s battle against Russia’s illegal invasion.
The Netherlands and other partners are donating Patriot components to build a fourth Patriot battery, while Italy is donating an additional SAMP-T system, according to a joint statement Tuesday by the leaders of the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NATO members in April that Ukraine needed a minimum of seven Patriot or other high-end air defense systems to counter Russian air strikes.
NATO allies say they are coordinating closely with Kyiv to make these systems available as soon as possible. They also said they are working to make another announcement about additional strategic air defense systems for Ukraine later this year.
“Not even our support for Ukraine has been a given,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday. “The reality is there are no cost-free options with an aggressive Russia as a neighbor. There are no risk-free options in a war, and remember, the biggest cost and the greatest risk will be if Russia wins in Ukraine.”
Since the U.S. Congress approved new aid for Ukraine following months of delays, the United States has provided Ukraine with hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment pulled from U.S. stockpiles, including the additional Patriot battery announced Tuesday and multiple rounds of long-range missiles known as ATACMS, two U.S. officials told VOA.
The ATACMS have a range of up to 300 kilometers (about 185 miles) and nearly double the striking distance of Ukraine’s missiles.
In addition, the U.S. has provided billions of dollars of funding for Kyiv’s long-term defense needs, including last week’s $2.2 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative package that is being used to purchase interceptors for NASAMS (medium-range ground-based air defense system) and Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine.
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Cameroon’s opposition says postponing elections is president’s ploy to stay leader for life
Moki Edwin Kindzeka — Lawmakers with the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement passed a law on Tuesday extending their term of office for one year.
The lawmakers were elected in 2020 to serve a five-year term expiring on March 10, 2025. But this week, President Paul Biya asked his government to pass a bill extending terms for all 180 members of Parliament by 12 months — well into 2026.
Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement — also known as CPDM — holds 156 of parliament’s 180 seats.
Government officials say Cameroon’s constitution gives Biya the power to consult the Constitutional Council and ask parliament to vote on extensions and postpone elections whenever circumstances warrant.
Joshua Osih, a lawmaker and president of the opposition Social Democratic Front, disagrees.
Osih said the Social Democratic Front Party he leads strongly condemns as undemocratic the law extending the mandate of parliamentarians, postponing parliamentary elections in Cameroon from February 2025 to February 2026. He said the Cameroon government had five years to prepare for fresh polls in 2025 and should not give the impression that it was taken by surprise.
Opposition and civil society groups say Biya ordered CPDM lawmakers to vote on the bill because it makes it difficult for some main opposition leaders, including Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement Party (CRM), to be a candidate in presidential elections expected in October 2025.
Opposition says win was stolen
Kamto claims he won Cameroon’s October 7 presidential polls and that his victory was stolen by Biya. In 2020, his party did not take part in local council and parliamentary elections claiming that Biya had planned to rig the polls in favor of CPDM.
Cameroonian laws state that a political leader who aspires to be president must be in a political party that has at least a municipal councilor or is represented by a lawmaker in parliament. Kamtos’ CRM party has neither. The CRM said it expected to take part in February’s local and parliamentary elections to be able to endorse Kamto.
Kamto said the law extending the term of parliamentarians, along with a presidential decision postponing local elections, is another ploy by 91-year-old Biya to remain leader for life.
Kamto said he wants to reiterate to the government of Cameroon that his party and followers will not tolerate plans by Biya to stay in power. He said Biya and his government should not continue to take civilians for granted by abusing democratic rights and ruling the country with an iron fist.
Kamto said he will disrupt the elections if his rights are abused but did not say how. The government said joint local council and parliamentary elections will take place in 2026 after presidential elections in 2025.
Kamto said although Cameroon laws make it possible for presidential aspirants who are not endorsed by political parties to run, submitting 300 signatures from influential politicians, including former ministers, traditional rulers and religious leaders, as the law states, is very difficult. He said the leaders are either scared of Biya or are his political partners.
Biya has not said if he will be a candidate. But last March, CPDM supporters marched in the streets urging the world’s oldest leader to run for office in the 2025 presidential election, potentially extending his more than four-decade rule.
They said Biya is the only one who can bring peace and development to Cameroon, but the opposition says Biya must leave office after running Cameroon for decades.
Biya rules with an iron fist and is not ready to relinquish power until he dies, opposition and civil society say. But Biya’s supporters say he is a democrat and has won all elections since Cameroon’s 1990 return of multi-party politics.
If reelected, Biya will rule up to 2032. By then, he will be 98 years old.
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New York City targets hundreds of illegal marijuana stores
New York City officials are contending with a surge of illegal marijuana shops that have appeared on nearly every corner of the Big Apple due to cannabis legalization. Aron Ranen reports.
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Nigeria’s bushmeat consumption comes under scrutiny
Abuja — In Nigeria, bushmeat is more than just food, it’s a culinary tradition and a trade. Despite the risk of zoonotic diseases like Ebola and Lassa fever, 45% of the country consumes bushmeat regularly, and now discussions to raise awareness are taking center stage.
Following last week’s World Zoonoses Day celebrations, Nigeria’s bush meat consumption comes under scrutiny due to the associated health risks.
Abuja-based civil servant Barnabas Bagudu among the 45% of Nigerians who consume bushmeat frequently, despite being aware of the potential risks. His personal favorites include antelope, rabbit, grasscutter, and alligator.
Bagudu emphasizes bushmeat’s unique taste and cultural significance.
“I like bushmeat so much that if I see it anywhere, I like to eat it, mostly antelope and rabbit. Since it is from bush, it’s blessed by God naturally, more than the one that we trained at home,” he said.
Bushmeat is also a thriving trade for many, like Evelyn Agbo, a seller of various types of bushmeat for over a decade.
She draws a huge patronage across Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, with antelope being her bestseller.
Agbo explains the preparation process.
“When I get the bushmeat, I dress it with salt and heat over fire with firewood until it is dried. I could do this for two days because if it’s not dry, flies will perch on it and attract diseases,” she said.
The World Health Organization states that about 60% of all infectious diseases are zoonotic, passing from animals to humans.
Nigeria has a high prevalence of zoonotic pathogens like Ebola, tuberculosis, and Lassa fever.
Abuja-based public health expert Ejike Orij warns about bushmeat consumption amid a fragile healthcare system.
“So, if for any reason that animal is infected and then it is now killed and served to humans in bats and in restaurant, that’s how the transmission starts,” he said.
The theme of the 2024 World Zoonoses Day was awareness and prevention of zoonotic diseases.
In Nigeria, efforts to promote safer bushmeat consumption practices remain low.
Orji stresses the need to ramp up awareness.
“There has been a lot of public education and community engagement by government on the issue of bushmeat, especially when there was an epidemic of lassa fever…it’s just to spread the awareness especially to the people who prepare it,” he said.
While bushmeat is a top delicacy in Nigeria, the need for safer consumption practices is urgent.
Public health experts urge Nigerians to explore domestic protein sources like chicken and to increase public awareness to mitigate risks.
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Burkina Faso’s internally displaced scramble to make a living
Burkina Faso is home to many people internally displaced by years of insecurity and conflict. Most of them live in various towns across the country, and some are now trying to find jobs in the capital, Ouagadougou, or starting businesses. VOA’s Gildas Da has this report, narrated by Anthony LaBruto.
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Federal Reserve’s Powell says US making ‘modest’ progress on inflation
Washington — The U.S. Federal Reserve is making “modest” progress in its inflation fight, the head of the U.S. central bank told lawmakers Tuesday, on the first of two days of testimony in Congress.
When prices surged in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fed responded by hiking interest rates to a two-decade high as it attempts to cool down the U.S. economy and return inflation to its long-term target of two percent.
Inflation has eased significantly since it peaked in 2022, but progress stalled in the first quarter of this year, effectively putting the Fed’s fight on pause.
The data in the second quarter has been more encouraging, prompting some cautious optimism from some policymakers in recent weeks.
Speaking in Washington on Tuesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee that the most recent readings “have shown some modest further progress” since the first quarter of the year.
“More good data would strengthen our confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward two percent,” he added, according to prepared remarks.
The Fed is widely expected to hold interest rates again when it meets to set interest rates later this month, but could begin cutting rates in September.
Futures traders have assigned a probability of more than 75% that the Fed will make its first rate cut by September.
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Ukrainian boxer sacrificed Olympic dreams and life to fight against Russia
Romny, Ukraine — Maksym Halinichev won silver at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires in a match described at the time as “two of the best young fighters going for glory.” He considered the bout a loss – it wasn’t gold, after all – but it gave him a map for the future.
So Halinichev made plans: He would defeat that boxer the next time around. He would teach his daughter the basics of his sport so she could defend herself. And he would win a medal for Ukraine at the Paris Olympics.
Halinchev outlined those ambitions as an athlete in an interview for the Ukraine Boxing Federation website in December 2021, as Russian troops were already massing at Ukraine’s borders.
Asked if he was afraid before a fight, he described his thinking.
“Fear can influence people in various ways. Some people are paralyzed by it. Some react by becoming more liberated,” he said then. “If you can control yourself and your body and if you can set yourself the right way, then the fear will retreat.”
He’ll not get to prove that philosophy in the Olympic ring in Paris.
Halinichev signed up as a soldier and was killed at the front in March 2023 at age 22, one of more than 400 athletes killed since the outbreak of the war. His body has yet to be recovered.
As one of Ukraine’s most promising boxing prospects, Halinichev could have been shielded from the war. Ukraine has sent many of its Olympic hopefuls to train abroad ahead of the Summer Games. But not everyone wants to be saved. Some choose to defend their country’s honor on the battlefield instead of the sports arena.
Halinichev’s attitude toward fear remained intact after the full-scale Russian invasion, but his priorities changed.
It happened during a drive in April 2022 from his home region of Sumy to Kyiv, where he had planned to train for the next European championship. Russia had just retreated from the region, and all along the highway, he saw towns and villages ripped apart by Russian troops during their brief occupation, said his coach Bohdan Dmytrenko.
“I have a little child. I don’t want her to live in occupation among the aggressor, among the Russians,” Halinichev told another of his coaches, Volodymyr Vinnikov.
“I said, Maksym, please listen to me, you are still a representative of Ukrainian boxing, you also defend the honor of Ukraine. The flag, the anthem — it’s also very important,” Vinnikov recounted.
“You won’t convince me. I’ve made this decision. I will learn to shoot,” Halinichev told him.
Boxing was still important to him, but he wanted more, said his life partner, Polina Ihrak. Sumy, a border region, was still under attack despite the Russian withdrawal. Kherson, where he trained, was under Russian occupation and reports of the suffering of Ukrainians there were trickling back.
“He couldn’t understand how his friends, coaches who were in Kherson, were left without the ability to live, let alone train, and he would go somewhere in Europe,” Ihrak said. “He couldn’t let himself do it. It mattered to him.”
In May 2022, at 21 years old, Halinichev joined the airborne assault troops, according to Ukraine’s Boxing Federation. He was wounded before the year ended near Bakhmut, with an injury to his foot and shrapnel embedded so deeply in his leg that doctors couldn’t remove it.
While recovering, Halinichev spent time with his coach but avoided discussing what he saw in the war. Everyone hoped he would quit the army, but Halinichev returned to the battlefield with his wounds unhealed.
“He believed he had to return to his brothers in arms because he was needed,” said Ihrak, the mother of their daughter, Vasilisa.
Halinichev and Ihrak last spoke by video call on March 9, 2023. Days without contact became weeks. She tried calling Halinichev and his commander. Neither answered.
She took to scrolling through Russian Telegram channels, looking for his face among battlefield photos of the dead and injured. One photo stood out, of a body in the forest.
“His mom recognized him immediately, but I didn’t because I guess I refused to acknowledge it,” Ihrak said. He was killed on March 10, 2023, in Luhansk, a region now almost entirely under Russian control.
At a recent commemoration for her father in the gym where he used to train, the 4-year-old Vasilisa bounced joyfully around the boxing ring, wearing oversized gloves that dwarfed her small hands.
It will not be her father who teaches her how to fight, but Ihrak couldn’t imagine Halinichev would do anything differently.
“People go there (to the front) not to regret but to change something,” Ihrak said. “He went back without any doubt.”
Among others who died fighting for Ukraine: pistol shooters Ivan Bidnyak, who won silver at the European Championships, and Yehor Kihitov, a member of Ukraine’s national team; Stanislav Hulenkov, a 22-year-old judoka whose body was identified 10 months after he was killed; and weightlifter Oleksandr Pielieshenko, who represented Ukraine at the Rio Olympics in 2016. A Russian missile strike on Dnipro killed acrobatics coach Anastasia Ihnatenko, her husband and their 18-month-old son.
Vinnikov, who coached Halinichev in 2017, has no doubt that the young man would be representing his country at the Paris Games that open July 26 had the invasion not derailed his plans. “He would have won a medal for his country,” the coach said emphatically.
He had huge potential: gold medal at the 2017 European Youth Championships, silver medal at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, silver medal at the 2021 European Under-22 Championships.
In his empty apartment in the town of Shostka, his parents have filled a room with proof of what he’d already achieved: trophies and medals from 2010 to 2021, neatly arranged on a shelf.
His photograph stands in the corner along with a candle, his childhood pictures, a religious icon and flowers. His boxing gloves rest nearby.
But Halinichev’s parents don’t live there anymore. Since the war, they’ve remade their lives in the Czech Republic. Ihrak is contemplating a move to Germany.
Dmytrenko, his coach, keeps his photos of Halinichev neatly arranged in folders and still has the archive of their messages to each other. He recalled a moment just before the war where he was praising Halinichev’s achievements.
Halinichev simply replied: “Everything is still ahead.”
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French parties scramble for influence after inconclusive vote
Paris — French parties sought to project strength and gather allies on Tuesday, with the government adrift following an election in which no one political force claimed a clear majority.
Having defied expectations to top the polls, new MPs from the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance began showing up to visit their new workplaces in parliament ahead of a first session on July 18.
But the coalition of Greens, Socialists, Communists and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) is still debating over who to put forward as a potential prime minister and whether it could be open to working in a broader coalition.
Combined, the left-leaning parties’ hold 193 of 577 seats in the National Assembly and are well short of the 289-seat threshold for a majority.
Nevertheless, members plan to name a potential prime minister “by the end of the week,” leading LFI figure Mathilde Panot said.
In the French system, the president nominates the prime minister, who must be able to survive a confidence vote in parliament — a tricky proposition with three closely-balanced political forces in play.
Any left-leaning government would need “broader support in the National Assembly,” influential Socialist MP Boris Vallaud acknowledged in an interview with broadcaster France Inter.
Macron’s camp came second in Sunday’s vote, taking 164 seats after voters came together to block the far-right National Rally (RN) from power.
This left the anti-immigration, anti-Brussels outfit in third place with 143 MPs.
The president has kept Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s government in place for now, hoping horse-trading in the coming days and weeks could leave an opening for him to reclaim the initiative.
However, “there has been an institutional shift. Everyone thinks it’s up to the newly-elected National Assembly to bring forth a solution, which (Macron) would simply have to accept,” wrote commentator Guillaume Tabard in conservative daily Le Figaro.
‘None can govern alone’
In a sign that some divisions remain, the left parties’ MPs planned to enter the parliament at different times throughout the day.
The Socialists are still hoping to glean a few more members for their group to outweigh LFI and have a greater say over the alliance’s direction.
Meanwhile, members of Macron’s camp were eyeing both the centre-left Socialists and conservative Republicans as possible allies of convenience for a new centrist-dominated coalition.
“None of the three leading blocs can govern alone,” Stephane Sejourne, head of Macron’s Renaissance party, wrote in daily Le Monde.
“The centrist bloc is ready to talk to all the members of the republican spectrum,” he added — while naming red lines including that coalition members must support the EU and Ukraine and maintain business-friendly policies.
These requirements, he warned, “necessarily exclude LFI” and its caustic founder Jean-Luc Melenchon.
Markets are paying close attention to the EU’s second-largest economy.
Ratings agency Moody’s warned it could downgrade its credit score for France’s more than three-trillion-euro debt pile if a future government reverses Macron’s widely-loathed 2023 pension reform, echoing a Monday warning from S&P on the deficit.
What next?
Even as politicians struggle to define the immediate path ahead, eyes are also already turning to the next time French voters will be called to the polls.
Macron’s term expires in 2027 and he cannot run a third time — potentially leaving the way open for his twice-defeated opponent, RN figurehead Marine Le Pen, to finally capture the presidency.
The far-right outfit has been digesting a disappointing result after polls suggested it could take an absolute majority in parliament.
On Tuesday, party sources told AFP its director-general Gilles Penelle had resigned.
Penelle, elected last month to the European Parliament, was the architect of a “push-button” plan supposed to prepare the RN for snap elections, which ultimately failed to produce a full roster of credible candidates.
The far right outfit’s progress is undeniable, having advanced from just eight MPs soon after Macron’s first presidential win in 2017 to 143 today.
Greens and LFI leaders nevertheless called Tuesday for the RN to be shut out of key parliamentary posts.
“Every time we give them jobs, we increase their competence. It’s important not to give them jobs with responsibilities,” leading LFI lawmaker Mathilde Panot said.
“Today we represent 10 million French people with 143 MPs,” retorted RN representative Thomas Menage, calling the appeal “anti-democratic”.
As for Macron, he has sought to stay above the fray, planning for a trip to Washington for a NATO summit starting on Wednesday where allies may be in need of reassurance of France’s stability.
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Women gradually rise in Japanese politics but face deep challenges
TOKYO — Eight years ago, Yuriko Koike became the first woman to lead Tokyo, beating her male predecessor. She won her third term as governor Sunday, and one of her closest rivals was a woman.
Multiple women competing for a top political office is still rare in Japan, which has a terrible global gender-equality ranking, but Koike’s win highlights a gradual rise in powerful female officials and a society more open to gender balance in politics. That said, even if a woman eventually becomes prime minister, politics here is still overwhelmingly dominated by men, and experts see a huge effort needed for equal representation.
“There are growing expectations for women to play a greater role in politics,” said parliamentarian Chinami Nishimura, a senior official with the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. “In politics or parliament, which are still largely considered men’s work, it is extremely meaningful for women to show their presence and have our voices heard.”
Nishimura, who also heads the opposition party’s gender-equality promotion team, hopes to have women make up 30% of her party’s candidates in the next national election. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party last year vowed to achieve 30% female representation within 10 years and is working to recruit more female candidates.
Finding aspiring female candidates, however, isn’t easy. Women in Japan are still often expected to be in charge of childrearing, elderly care and other family responsibilities.
National parliamentarians are also expected to regularly travel between Tokyo and their home constituencies, which makes it especially difficult for female lawmakers trying to balance a career and family. Nishimura says former female colleagues have quit national politics and returned to local assemblies because of such demands.
Nishimura began her political career in her hometown Niigata’s prefectural assembly in 1999, the first woman to serve there in decades. The 53-member assembly now has five women.
A growing number of women are now seeking political careers, but they are still in the minority, especially in national politics where electoral decisions are largely determined by closed-door, male-dominated party politics, and outspoken women tend to be targets.
One of Koike’s top rivals was a woman, Renho, a veteran former parliamentarian who goes by one name and who finished third. Renho told reporters last month that she often saw headlines about the Tokyo governor’s race that trumpeted “A battle of dragon women.”
“Would you use that kind of expression to describe a competition between male candidates?” she asked.
Koike, a stylish, media-savvy former television newscaster, was first elected to parliament in 1992 at age 40. She served in several key Cabinet posts, including as environment minister and defense chief, for the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, before becoming Tokyo governor in 2016.
Renho, known for asking sharp questions in parliament, was born to a Japanese mother and Taiwanese father. A former model and newscaster, she was elected to parliament in 2004 and served as administrative reform minister in the government led by the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan.
Attacks on Renho’s aggressive image were a clear example of gender bias in a society that expects female candidates to be “motherly or cute,” said Chiyako Sato, a Mainichi Shimbun editorial writer and a commentator on politics.
Because of a small female presence in politics, powerful women tend to get excessive attention. Their presence in Tokyo governor’s election “conveyed a positive message that women can become political leaders, but a large amount of the noise about them also reflected Japan’s sad reality,” said Mari Miura, a Sophia University professor and expert on gender and politics.
For instance, a survey of national and local lawmakers in 2022 conducted by a civil group showed one-third of about 100 female respondents faced sexual harassment during election campaigns or at work.
Earlier this year, a gaffe-prone former prime minister, Taro Aso, was forced to apologize for describing Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, a woman, as capable but not beautiful.
Women make up about 30% of the Tokyo assembly, and their presence in town assemblies in urban areas is also growing. On average, female representation in more than 1,740 Japanese local assemblies doubled to 14.5% in 2021 from 20 years ago. There are growing calls for more female voices in politics.
But in rural areas, where more traditional gender roles are more usual, 226, or 13% of the total, had “zero women” assemblies last year, according to the Gender Equality Bureau of the Cabinet Office.
In parliament, where conservative Liberal Democrats have been in power almost uninterruptedly since the end of World War II, female representation in the lower house is 10.3%, putting Japan 163rd among 190 countries, according to a report by the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union in April.
In 1946, the figure wasn’t much different — only 8.4% — when a first group of 39 women were elected to parliament, according to the Gender Equality Bureau.
“There have been changes starting from regional politics, but the pace is too slow,” Sato said, proposing a mandatory quota for women.
One woman in a Cabinet of about 20 ministers was standard in the 1990s. Lately, two is usual. Maintaining an increased number of female ministers is a challenge because of a shortage of women with seniority. Women are also given limited leadership chances, which delays gender equality laws and policies.
“Because of the absence of leadership change, the metabolism is bad in Japan. Because of that, politics does not change despite changes in the public view,” Miura said.
Koike became the first female candidate to run in the LDP leadership race in 2008. Two others, Sanae Takaichi and Seiko Noda, ran in 2021 against Kishida.
Most recently, Kamikawa, the foreign minister, is seen as having a chance, because the LDP wants change as it struggles with dwindling support ratings and corruption scandals.
The winner, determined by a vote among LDP lawmakers and party members, automatically becomes prime minister because of the LDP’s dominance in parliament.
Under the Japanese system, however, having a female prime minister doesn’t necessarily mean progress in gender equality because of overwhelming male political influence. But it could be a crucial step forward, even if symbolic, said Sato, the political commentator.
“Having role models is very important … to show gender equality and that women can also aim for a top job,” Sato said. “Women in politics are no longer expected to be wallflowers.”
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Malaysia arrests six ‘Ninja Turtle Gang’ members, seizes tortoises
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — Malaysian authorities have arrested six members of an international crime ring known as the “Ninja Turtle Gang” and seized about 200 smuggled tortoises and turtles, a wildlife official said Tuesday.
Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim, director-general of Malaysia’s wildlife and national parks department, said four Cambodians and two Malaysians were arrested during a July 2 raid on a house in Kuala Lumpur by police and wildlife officials.
He told AFP some 200 turtles and tortoises worth an estimated $52,300 were rescued during the raid, the second seizure in Malaysia in less than a week.
Many people across Asia believe turtles and tortoises bring good luck and prosperity.
Abdul Kadir said the six arrested belong to the Ninja Turtle Gang, an international crime ring involved in smuggling the reptiles.
Police and wildlife officials rescued 400 tortoises during an initial raid on June 29 that were meant for sale in Southeast Asia and were worth $805,084 on the black market.
Animals rescued in the latest raid included the critically endangered Chinese striped-necked turtle, which is also known as the golden thread turtle, Abdul Kadir said.
Other species included the endangered black pond turtle, snapping turtle, sulcata tortoise, leopard tortoise and the red-footed tortoise found throughout South America and the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Barbados.
“Initial investigations revealed that the reptiles were smuggled from abroad to meet the lucrative pet market,” Abdul Kadir said.
Also discovered were three snakes, four softshell turtles, a skink and five frogs.
The rescued animals were being kept in a Malaysian wildlife department quarantine center.
The reptiles are illegally brought into Malaysia by road or in suitcases by smugglers aboard commercial flights, Abdul Kadir said last week.
Traffic, a wildlife NGO, has said that Southeast Asian countries “function as source, consumer and as entrepots for wildlife originating from within the region as well as the rest of the world.”
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No oil, no food: Damaged pipeline piles misery on South Sudan
Juba, South Sudan — At 75, Galiche Buwa has lived through civil wars, famine and natural disasters, but the South Sudanese widowed mother of four always managed to get by, thanks to her grocery business.
Now, however, even that standby is on shaky ground, as the oil-dependent nation’s economy reels from revenue losses following the rupture of a key pipeline in its war-torn neighbor Sudan in February.
The damaged pipeline was crucial for transporting South Sudan’s crude oil abroad, with petroleum exports traditionally accounting for about 90 percent of the impoverished country’s GDP.
The implications have been far-reaching, with inflation soaring as the value of the South Sudanese pound relative to the U.S. dollar plunges on the black market, from 2,100 in March to 3,100 today.
The official rate slipped from around 1,100 in February to nearly 1,550 this month.
“Since the 1970s up to now I am still here, but these days we are suffering. Things are tough,” Buwa said as she glumly tended to her stall at the Konyo-Konyo market in the capital Juba.
“We are unable to buy stock, things are expensive… and prices keep rising every day,” she said, compelling her to purchase supplies on credit.
As wholesale costs shoot up, retail prices follow — a mug of maize sold by Buwa was worth 800 South Sudanese pounds in March, compared to 2,000 today, she said.
Teddy Aweye, a 28-year-old mother of two, said she was struggling to put food on the table, forcing her family to eat just one meal a day.
“You go to the market today, you get a price, and tomorrow you go back and you get a different price… I had to return home without buying anything,” Aweye told AFP.
“Life is really very difficult.”
Losses upon losses
It is a common refrain across Juba’s biggest market, where several traders told AFP they were racking up losses every day.
Abdulwahab Okwaki, a 61-year-old butcher, said his business was in crisis.
“A customer who used to (buy) one kilo is now taking half a kilo, and the one taking half a kilo now takes a quarter… and the one who was taking a quarter is not coming anymore,” he said.
The father of eight often loses money when he is unable to sell meat before it goes bad.
Many of his fellow butchers have simply quit, unable to make ends meet, he said.
Higher-end businesses have also taken a hit.
Harriet Gune, a 27-year-old entrepreneur, said her fashion boutique was losing customers.
“The more you increase prices for the items in the shop, the more you scare away clients,” she told AFP.
A pair of jeans that used to cost 25,000 South Sudanese pounds in March now sells for 35,000, she told AFP, adding that she needed to raise prices “to be able to get enough money to order new stock”.
‘Develop alternatives’
Even government officials are feeling the pinch.
In May, Finance Minister Awow Daniel Chuang told parliament that the government would struggle to pay salaries to lawmakers, military, police, civil servants and other officials because of a shortfall in revenues.
He said the country was losing about 70 percent of its oil revenues because of the pipeline rupture, which has affected exports of Nile blend crude and Dar blend crude.
“The production is only from Blocks 12, 14, and 58, which means there is only around 30 to 35 percent of the oil that is flowing,” he said.
South Sudan was in crisis even before the pipeline shutdown sent shock waves through its economy, with fears that long-anticipated elections, currently scheduled for December, will be delayed.
In addition to rampant corruption draining its coffers, with the ruling elite routinely accused of plunder, the country is very vulnerable to currency shocks, because it imports nearly everything, including agricultural produce.
The fighting in Sudan between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023 has only exacerbated the situation, analysts say.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, forced millions to flee — including over 700,000 to South Sudan — and pushed Sudan to the brink of famine.
Economist and government advisor Abraham Maliet Mamer told AFP that South Sudan, which declared independence from Sudan in 2011, needed to plan ahead to secure its future.
“Our country is suffering. We have less money, we have fewer services, and our security is a problem,” he said, urging the government to build refineries and pipelines through other nations.
“Sudan will never be the same again. Until we develop alternatives… we will be having issues,” he warned.
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Australia appoints first antisemitism envoy
SYDNEY — Australia has Tuesday appointed its first antisemitism envoy in response to an increase in attacks against its Jewish community.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the envoy would promote social cohesion and help to curb a rise in violence and abuse against Australia’s Jewish community since the start of the Israel-Gaza conflict last October.
The Prime Minister said that overwhelmingly Australians did not want the conflict in the Middle East to bring violence here.
Jillian Segal, a lawyer and business executive who has been a senior member of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, will serve as antisemitism envoy for three years.
Albanese told reporters in Sydney Tuesday that the country’s successful multiculturalism must be protected.
“What is clear is that we cannot take that for granted. What is clear is we continue to reinforce the need for social harmony and that is what today’s announcement of Jillian (Segal) is all about.”
Segal will advise the government and also promote education and awareness of antisemitism.
She told a media conference in Sydney on Tuesday that intolerance must not be allowed to take root.
“It triggers the very worst instincts in an individual,” she said. “To blame others for life’s misfortunes and to hate, and it is often based on misinformation and inaccurate rumor and it can spread from individual to individual to contaminate the collective, damaging life for the entire community and leading to violence as we have seen.”
But the Jewish Council of Australia, which has been critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, told local media in a statement that Segal was an “Israel lobbyist” and her appointment would worsen social division.
Community groups have reported an increase in Islamophobic and antisemitic abuse in Australia since Israel’s war in Gaza began more than nine months ago.
Australian police are continuing to investigate an attack by a masked gang on the Melbourne office of a Jewish-Australian lawmaker last month.
Windows were smashed, and fires were lit.
The slogan “Zionism is fascism” was graffitied in red paint over an image of Josh Burns, a federal government parliamentarian.
Albanese also reconfirmed the government would also appoint a special envoy on Islamophobia.
your ad hereNew Myanmar clashes turn northern town to rubble
Kyaukme, Myanmar — Residents of Kyaukme in northern Myanmar are counting their dead and picking through rubble following fresh fighting that shredded a Beijing-brokered ceasefire between the junta and an alliance of armed ethnic groups.
Last week fighters from the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) took control of the town of 30,000 — on the main trade route to China — in the latest setback for the military as it battles opponents across the country.
But air and artillery strikes, as well as rocket attacks, have gutted parts of the northern Shan State town, leaving buildings without roofs or windows, and residents desperate to flee.
Burned-out cars stood in front of one shattered four-story building, its corrugated roofing strewn about the streets.
TNLA soldiers in combat fatigues stood guard outside the police station, while others carried out patrols and checked vehicles.
Kyaukme resident Kyaw Paing told AFP his home was damaged by a huge blast after he saw a military plane fly overhead.
“Pieces of body — head, hands and legs — were scattered on my roof when the bomb hit some houses nearby,” he said.
“Seven people were killed here, and there was huge damage.
“I don’t want to live this poor, miserable life in the war… I feel so sad.”
Myriad armed groups
Myanmar’s borderlands are home to myriad armed ethnic groups who have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 for autonomy and control of lucrative resources.
Some have given shelter and training to opponents of the military’s 2021 coup that ousted the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and plunged the country into turmoil.
In January, China brokered a ceasefire between the military and the “Three Brotherhood Alliance,” made up of the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the TNLA.
The truce ended an offensive launched last October by the alliance that seized a swath of territory in Shan state — including lucrative trade crossings to China — dealing the biggest blow to the junta since it seized power.
Other towns along the highway that runs from China’s Yunnan province to Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay have also been rocked by the fighting.
On Thursday, TNLA fighters attacked the government military’s northeastern command, located in Lashio, around 85 kilometers from Kyaukme.
One Lashio resident who did not want to be named told AFP she heard artillery firing and airstrikes on Monday morning, but that the town had since been quiet, with some shops open.
A worker at Lashio’s bus station said there were lines of vehicles queuing to leave, but traffic was slow because of damage to the road outside the town.
Local rescue workers say dozens of civilians have been killed in the latest clashes.
AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment, but the military has said some civilians were killed in shelling by the alliance.
China diplomacy
Amid the new fighting, top general Soe Win traveled to China to discuss security cooperation in the border regions, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar.
China is a major ally and arms supplier to the junta, but analysts say Beijing also maintains ties with Myanmar’s armed ethnic groups holding territory near its border.
Ties between the junta and Beijing frayed in 2023 over the junta’s failure to crack down on online scam compounds in Myanmar’s borderlands targeting Chinese citizens.
Analysts suggest Beijing gave tacit approval to the October “Three Brotherhood” offensive, which the alliance said was launched partly to root out the scam compounds.
The threat of further military air strikes had caused many residents of Kyaukme to try to flee, although fuel is scarce and food prices are soaring.
“We don’t have extra money,” said Naung Naung, another resident.
“We have faced many difficulties — not only our family, but the whole town.
“All residents are very worried about how long this war will go on.”
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