Divers turn conservationists as corals bleach worldwide 

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Koh Tao, Thailand — A diver glides over an expanse of bone-white coral branches, recording the fish that dart between the ghostly arms extending from the sea floor off the Thai island of Koh Tao.

Nannalin Pornprasertsom is one of a growing number of scuba divers learning conservation and citizen science techniques as coral reefs experience a fourth global bleaching event.

After a two-week course in Koh Tao, the 14-year-old can identify coral types, carry out reef restoration, and help scientific research on coral health by recording the color and tone of outcroppings at dive sites.

“It’s just something that I can do that will have a good consequence for the environment,” Nannalin, who has been diving since she was 12, told AFP after a series of dives.

“I want to help the reef.”

And she is not alone.

The Professional Association of Diving Instructors — better known as PADI, one of the world’s leading dive training organizations — says conservation certifications jumped over six percent globally from 2021-2023.

This year, it is launching a major shark and ray census, harnessing its network of divers to collect data that will shape protection policies.

On Koh Tao, Black Turtle Dive offers courses on everything from how to properly “dive against debris” — collecting marine plastic or stranded fishing nets — to coral restoration techniques.

“There’s an increased awareness,” said Steve Minks, a certified conservation instructor at Black Turtle.

“There’s a lot of bleaching going on and there’s a lot of concern about the marine environment.”

Death spiral

Coral polyps are animals that depend on algae to provide most of their food. These algae also generally give the reef its color.

But when the sea is too warm, the polyps expel the algae. The reef turns white and the coral begins to starve.

Coral bleaching has been recorded in more than 60 countries since early 2023, threatening reefs that are key to ocean biodiversity and support fishing and tourism globally.

The death spiral is everywhere in the waters of the Gulf of Thailand around Koh Tao.

Worst affected are branching species that grow quickly, but are also less resilient.

If water temperatures come down, they will have a chance at recovery. But for now, their spectral stems are even visible from the surface, glimmering through the aquamarine water.

“I was not ready for that much bleaching, it’s quite an impact,” admits instructor Sandra Rubio.

The 28-year-old says bleaching and other marine degradation are driving divers to take her conservation courses.

“People want to start learning because they see these kinds of changes,” she told AFP.

“And even if they don’t really understand why, they know it’s not good.”

She walks students through how to identify species, including soft coral. Wave at it, she explains, mimicking wiggling a hand in the water, and wait to see if it “waves back.”

The skills taught at Black Turtle and other dive shops are not simply theoretical.

Artificial coral reefs are dotted around Koh Tao, actively rebuilding marine habitats.

And Nannalin’s data on coral health is part of Coral Watch — a global citizen science project that has produced numerous research papers.

“What we’re doing is collecting data for scientists so they can actually work with governments and authorities,” explained Minks.

‘Doing our best’

On a sunny afternoon on Koh Tao, a boat carries a starfish-shaped rebar structure designed by schoolchildren out to sea, where it will become Global Reef’s latest coral restoration project.

Since it was founded two years ago, Global Reef has transplanted around 2,000 coral colonies, with a survival rate of about 75 percent, said Gavin Miller, the group’s scientific program director.

“It’s not really going to maybe save coral reefs globally… but what it does do is have a very, very large impact locally,” he said.

“We have snappers returning. We have resident puffer fish.”

Global Reef also hosts interns who are training artificial intelligence programs to identify fish in 360-degree videos for reef health surveys, and collaborates regularly with the dive school next door.

And they are studying the surprising resilience of some local coral to persistently high temperatures.

“These might be sort of refuges for coral,” explained Miller.

This year’s bleaching has left many marine enthusiasts despondent, but for conservation divers on Koh Tao, it is also a call to arms.

“In the previous generations, we didn’t have this research and education that we have now,” said Nannalin.

“I think people my age should make the most of it and try their best to reverse the things that have already been done.”

The work also helps Rubio balance the sadness she feels at the changes below the water.

“It’s not like we are going to change things from one day to another, but we are doing our best, and that is the best feeling,” she said.

“I’m working every day to do something good for the environment and for the reef that I love.”
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Nigeria power shortages strain businesses, public services

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IBADAN, Nigeria — Dimly lit and stuffy classrooms stir with life every morning as children file in. Rays of sunlight stream through wooden windows, the only source of light. Pupils squint at their books and intermittently the blackboard as teachers try to hold their attention.

It’s a reality for many schoolchildren across Nigeria, where many buildings don’t have access to the national electricity grid. In Excellent Moral School in Olodo Okin in Ibadan, “the entire community is not connected, including the school,” said school founder Muyideen Raji. It acutely affects pupils, he said, who can’t learn how to use computers or the internet and can’t study in the evenings.

About half of Nigeria’s more than 200 million people are hooked up to a national electricity grid that can’t provide sufficient daily electricity to most of those connected. Many poor, rural communities like Olodo Okin are off the grid entirely.

In a country with abundant sunshine, many are looking to solar energy to help fill the gaps, but getting risk-averse investors to finance major solar projects that would give Nigeria enough reliable energy is an uphill struggle. It means that millions in the country are finding ways to live with little to no electricity.

Lots of sun, few funds

Studies have shown that Nigeria could generate much more electricity than it needs from solar energy thanks to its powerful sunshine. But 14 grid-scale solar projects in the northern and central parts of the country that could generate 1,125 megawatts of electricity have stalled since contracts were signed in 2016.

Those trying to develop solar projects in the country blame interest rates for borrowing which can be as high as 15 percent, two to three times higher than in advanced economies and China, according to the International Energy Agency.

That means it’s more costly for solar companies to work in Nigeria or other developing nations than in rich countries. Africa only has one-fifth the solar power capacity of Germany, and just 2% of global clean energy investments go to the continent.

“The same project put up in Nigeria and Denmark; the Danish project will get funding for 2 to 3 percent” interest rate, said Najim Animashaun, director of Nova Power, one of the stalled solar projects. Meanwhile he struggles to get loans even with interest rates of 10 percent or higher, “even though my solar project can produce two and half times more power,” than a Danish one.

Nigeria also does not set so-called cost-reflective tariffs, meaning the price consumers pay for electricity doesn’t cover the costs to produce and distribute it. This means distribution companies can’t fully pay producers and the industry relies on government interventions to stay afloat, scaring off lenders from investing in the solar industry.

Currently, power producers say they are owed up to 3.7 trillion Naira ($2.7 billion) by the government, making it difficult to meet obligations to their lenders and contractors.

One option would be getting World Bank guarantees that would put investors at ease and make them more willing to put money into solar projects. But the government is wary of signing up to anything that would force them to pay large sums even if electricity from the projects does not get to consumers because of inadequate transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Without World Bank guarantees “nobody will develop or finance a project with a government subsidy, because it can dry off,” said Edu Okeke, the managing director of Azura Power. Azura Power has a stake in the now-stalled 100 megawatt Nova solar project in Nigeria’s northern Katsina State.

Stop-gap solutions

With less than 8,000 megawatts of capacity and an average supply of less than 4,000 megawatts — less than half of what Singapore supplies to just 5.6 million people — power outages are an everyday occurrence in Nigeria.

Communities like Excellent Moral School’s in Ibadan that have no access to electricity are often surrounded by more fortunate ones that are connected to the grid but experience frequent outages and have to use gasoline and diesel-run private generators.

With the long-running petroleum subsidies now removed, many households, schools, hospitals and businesses struggle with the cost of the fuel for their backup generators.

“We have stopped using a diesel generator as an alternative due to costs,” said Abdulhakeem Adedoja, the head of Lorat Nursery and Primary School in Ibadan. He added that although the school is in an Ibadan area that is connected to the grid, they could go two weeks without a power supply.

The problem is not just the lack of electricity for computer-aided learning, proper lighting, and fans to make classes less stuffy for pupils and teachers, but also that students are unable to complete their school assignments at home, Adedoja said.

For more energy-hungry small businesses like restaurants, they either close shop or continue with alternative power generation, incurring high costs that hurt their capacity for expansion.

Ebunola Akinwale, the owner of Nature’s Treat Cafe in Ibadan, said she pays 2.5 million Naira ($1,700) monthly to power backup generators in her four branches.

“If nothing changes, I probably would have to close one or two branches,” she said, though she is planning to go solar which she enthuses will help us cut “pollution from the diesel (generators).” She’s in talks with her bank for a low-cost loan package specially designed for young women entrepreneurs to finance the solar alternative.

However, not every business and household has such access or can afford the upfront capital for a private solar system. School heads Raji and Adedoja said they find the costs prohibitive.

Finding a way forward

The stalled solar projects aren’t happening as finances don’t add up, but even for other sources of electricity generation, Nigeria struggles to attract desperately needed private financing.

The power minister, Adebayo Adelabu, said in May that in order to address the financial crisis affecting the electricity sector, prices must reflect the true costs of service because a broke “government cannot afford to pay 3 trillion Naira ($2.4 billion) in subsidy.”

The government also insists that Nigerians paying fully for the electricity they consume would encourage investments in the sector.

There has been some pushback to that, as labor unions went on strike in early June in part to protest electricity tariff increases.

But businesspeople like Akinwale understand the government’s position because regularly supplied grid electricity, even without a subsidy, is “still cheaper and cleaner” than diesel for generators, she said.

If finances for grid-scale solar projects do not add up, the government should offer incentives such as tax relief and payment plans to encourage private solar adoption, Akinwale said. “Sunlight is there abundantly,” she said.

Former regulatory chief Sam Amadi doubts if consumers in Nigeria — where the minimum wage is 30,000 Naira ($20) a month — “can today pay for energy consumed without subsidy.” He also wants a policy that makes it more affordable to have smaller-scale solar projects dotted across communities, businesses and homes.

Until then, there are consequences to the frequent blackouts, he said.

“I have the story of a person who died in hospital because the electricity went out during operation,” he said. “Every day, we see the real-world effects of the lack of electricity.”
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Crocodiles cannot outnumber people in Australian territory where girl was killed, leader says

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Crocodile numbers in Australia’s Northern Territory must be either maintained or reduced and cannot be allowed to outstrip the human population, the territory’s leader said after a 12-year-old girl was killed while swimming.

The crocodile population has exploded across Australia’s tropical north since it became a protected species under Australian law in the 1970s, growing from 3,000 when hunting was outlawed to 100,000 now. The Northern Territory has just over 250,000 people.

The girl’s death came weeks after the territory approved a 10-year plan for management of crocodiles, which permits the targeted culling of the reptiles at popular swimming spots but stopped short of a return to mass culls. Crocodiles are considered a risk in most of the Northern Territory’s waterways, but crocodile tourism and farming are major economic drivers.

“We can’t have the crocodile population outnumber the human population in the Northern Territory,” Chief Minister Eva Lawler told reporters Thursday, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “We do need to keep our crocodile numbers under control.”

In this week’s deadly attack, the girl vanished while swimming in a creek near the Indigenous community of Palumpa, southwest of the territory’s capital, Darwin. After an intense search, her remains were found in the river system where she disappeared with injuries confirming a crocodile attack.

The Northern Territory recorded the deaths of 15 people in crocodile attacks between 2005 and 2014 with two more in 2018. Because saltwater crocodiles can live up to 70 years and grow throughout their lives — reaching up to 7 meters in length — the proportion of large crocodiles is also rising.

Lawler, who said the death was “heartbreaking,” told reporters that 500,000 Australia dollars ($337,000) had been allocated in the Northern Territory budget for crocodile management in the coming year.

The region’s opposition leader, Lia Finocchiaro, told reporters that more investment was needed, according to NT News.

The girl’s death “sends a message that the Territory is unsafe and on top of law and order and crime issues, what we don’t need is more bad headlines,” she said.

Professor Grahame Webb, a prominent Australian crocodile scientist, told the AuBC that more community education was needed and the government should fund Indigenous ranger groups and research into crocodile movements.

“If we don’t know what the crocodiles are likely to do, we’re still going to have the same problem,” he said. “Culling is not going to solve the problem.”

Efforts were continuing to trap the crocodile that attacked the girl, police said on Thursday. Saltwater crocodiles are territorial and the one responsible is likely to remain in nearby waterways.
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Storm Beryl spares Mexico’s Yucatan beaches, takes aim at Texas

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CANCUN/TULUM, Mexico — Tropical Storm Beryl was blowing out to the Gulf of Mexico on Friday afternoon and appeared likely to reach Texas by late Sunday, after its strong winds and heavy rain largely spared Mexico’s top beach destinations.

The core of the storm, downgraded from a hurricane, crossed the Yucatan Peninsula by Friday afternoon, with its maximum wind speeds slowing to around 105 kph after striking near the coastal beach resort of Tulum in the morning.

The storm, which at one point intensified to a massive Category 5 hurricane, left a deadly trail of destruction across the Caribbean earlier this week. However, there were no casualties in Mexico, the head of the country’s civil protection agency, Laura Velazquez, said in a press conference on Friday afternoon.

While Beryl’s passage over Mexico’s Quintana Roo and Yucatan states resulted in slower winds, the U.S. National Hurricane Center still forecast dangerous storm surges in the surrounding area.

For those who hunkered down as Beryl churned overhead, a sense of relief prevailed.

“Holy cow! It was an experience!” said Mexican tourist Juan Ochoa, who was staying in Tulum.

“Really only some plants flew up in the air,” he said. “Thank God we’re all OK.”

Tourist infrastructure was without major damage in Quintana Roo, the state government said in a statement.

Still, many in the area lost electricity, including 40% of Tulum, said Guillermo Nevarez, an official with Mexico’s national electricity company CFE, speaking to local broadcaster Milenio.

Civil protection chief Velazquez said she expected service to be restored in full by Sunday.

Among Mexico’s top tourist getaways, the Yucatan Peninsula is known for its white sand beaches, lush landscapes and Mayan ruins.

Stranded tourists camped out in Cancun’s international airport on Friday, unsure of when they would make it home.

Nora Vento said her flight home to Chile was postponed multiple times, and that her airline’s counter was unstaffed.

“So, I don’t know when I will get to Chile,” she said.

Beryl, currently located over the port of Progreso in Mexico’s Yucatan state, was expected to pick up intensity as it enters the Gulf of Mexico and forecast to regain hurricane status and approach the western Gulf coast on Sunday.

A hurricane watch was in effect for the Texas coast from the mouth of the Rio Grande northward to Sargent, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).

Mexico’s meteorological service issued a hurricane watch for the northeastern coast of Mexico from Barra el Mezquital to the mouth of the Rio Grande.

“There is an increasing risk of damaging hurricane-force winds and life-threatening storm surge in portions of northeastern Mexico and the lower and middle Texas Coast late Sunday and Monday where hurricane and storm surge watches have been issued,” the NHC said.

It warned that flash and urban flooding were possible across portions of the Texas Gulf Coast and eastern Texas from Sunday through the middle of next week.

Rainfall of 13 to 25 centimeters, with localized amounts of 38 centimeters, is projected across portions of the Texas Gulf Coast and eastern Texas beginning late on Sunday through the middle of next week.

Mexico’s national water commission, CONAGUA, flagged a risk of flooding around the tourist hubs, as well as in neighboring Campeche state.

Quintana Roo schools were closed, as were local beaches, and officials lifted a temporary ban on alcohol sales.

Beryl was the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, and this week became the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, with scientists pointing to its rapid strengthening as almost certainly fueled by human-caused climate change.

Before reaching Mexico, Beryl wreaked havoc across several Caribbean islands. It swept through Jamaica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, in addition to unleashing heavy rainfall on northern Venezuela. It has claimed at least 11 lives, tearing apart buildings while felling power lines and trees.

Destruction in the islands of Grenada was especially pronounced.

Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell pointed to major damage to homes in Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique during a video briefing Thursday night. Parts of the latter two islands suffered “almost complete devastation,” he said.

“Many of our citizens have lost everything.”

Mexico’s major oil platforms, primarily located in the southern rim of the Gulf of Mexico, are not expected to be affected or shut down.

Beryl is also expected to have little impact on U.S. offshore oil and gas production, energy companies said on Friday while evacuating personnel from some facilities out of caution.

Research by the ClimaMeter consortium determined that climate change significantly intensified Beryl. According to the study, the storm’s severity, along with its associated rainfall and wind speed, saw an increase of 10%-30% as a direct result of climate change.
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Court: Social media influencer can leave Romania as he awaits trial

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BUCHAREST, Romania — A court in Romania’s capital ruled Friday that social media influencer Andrew Tate can leave Romania but must remain within the European Union as he awaits trial on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

The Bucharest Tribunal’s decision to allow Tate, 37, to leave the country was hailed by his spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, as a “significant victory and a major step forward” in the case. It is not clear whether prosecutors can or will appeal the court’s decision.

Tate, a former professional kickboxer and dual British U.S. citizen, was initially arrested in December 2022 near Bucharest along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four in June last year and all four have denied the allegations.

After Friday’s decision, Tate wrote on the social media platform X: “I AM FREE. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 3 YEARS I CAN LEAVE ROMANIA. THE SHAM CASE IS FALLING APART.”

“We embrace and applaud the decision of the court today, I consider it a reflection of the exemplary behavior and assistance of my clients,” said Eugen Vidineac, one of Tate’s lawyers, adding that the Tates are “still determined to clear their name and reputation.”

On April 26, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that the prosecutors’ case file against Tate met the legal criteria and that a trial could start but did not set a date for it to begin. That ruling came after the legal case had been discussed for months in the preliminary chamber stages, a process in which the defendants can challenge prosecutors’ evidence and case file.

After the Tate brothers’ arrest, they were held for three months in police detention before being moved to house arrest. They were later restricted to Bucharest municipality and nearby Ilfov county, and then to Romania.

Vidineac said the ability to travel within the 27-nation EU bloc will allow the Tates to “pursue professional opportunities without restriction.”

Andrew Tate, who has amassed 9.5 million followers on the social media platform X, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. He was previously banned from various social media platforms for allegedly expressing misogynistic views and using hate speech.

In a separate case, Andrew Tate was served at his home in Romania with a civil lawsuit lodged by four British women after a claim was issued by the High Court in London, according to a statement released in May by McCue Jury & Partners, the law firm representing the four women.

The four allege Tate sexually and physically assaulted them and they reported him to British authorities in 2014 and 2015. After a four-year investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service decided in 2019 not to prosecute him. The alleged victims then turned to crowdfunding to pursue a civil case against him.

In a separate third case, the Tate brothers also appeared in March at the Bucharest Court of Appeal after British authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual aggression in a U.K. case dating back to 2012-15.

The appeals court granted the British request to extradite the Tates to the U.K., but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.
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Post-communist generation hopes for new era of democracy in Mongolia

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ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia — Tsenguun Saruulsaikhan, a young and newly minted member of Mongolia’s parliament, is unhappy with below-cost electricity rates that she says show her country has yet to fully shake off its socialist past.

Most of Mongolia’s power plants date from the Soviet era, and outages are common in some areas. Heavy smog envelops the capital Ulaanbaatar in the winter because many people still burn coal to heat their homes.

“It’s stuck in how it was like 40, 50 years ago,” said Tsenguun, part of a rising generation of leaders who are puzzling out their country’s future after three decades of democracy. “And that’s the reason why we need to change it.”

Democracy in Mongolia is in a transition phase, said Tsenguun, who at 27 is the youngest member of a new parliament sworn in this week. “We are trying to figure out what democracy actually means,” she said in a recent interview.

Discontented voters deliver ruling party setback

Mongolia became a democracy in the early 1990s after six decades of one-party communist rule. Many Mongolians welcomed the end of repression and resulting freedoms but have since soured on the parliament and established political parties. Lawmakers are widely seen as enriching themselves and their big business supporters from the nation’s mineral wealth rather than using it to develop a country where poverty is widespread.

Voters delivered an election setback to the ruling Mongolian People’s Party last week, leaving it still in charge but with a slim majority of 68 out of the 126 seats in parliament.

Tsenguun was one of 42 winning candidates from the main opposition Democratic Party, which made a major comeback after being reduced to a handful of seats in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

She articulates a vision for Mongolia that dovetails with small government Republicans in the United States. In her view, too many people think the government will take care of them, and the large budget just feeds corruption. Government should be as invisible as possible, she said, and give people the freedom and responsibility to build their own lives.

“I don’t think that (the) free market has developed yet because the people are not used to this mentality,” she said. “People are afraid of competition.”

The detention of journalists in the past several months has fueled worries that the government may be edging backward, eroding the freedoms that democracy brought.

Younger voters, female representation

The ruling party, which also ran the country during the communist period, is well-entrenched and enjoys the support of many older voters.

Younger voters historically have not voted in large numbers, but anecdotal reports suggest their turnout may have risen in Ulaanbaatar in last week’s election. Nearly half the country’s population of 3.4 million people live in the capital.

“It was really encouraging to see so many young people in such a long line to vote as early as possible,” said Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, a former Democratic Party lawmaker and Cabinet minister who founded her own party two years ago.

The proportion of female representatives rose from 17% to 25% in the new parliament, but most of those came in 48 seats that are allocated to parties based on their share of the vote. Female candidates did not do well in the head-to-head competition to represent 13 multi-member districts.

As a young woman, Tsenguun sees requirements that political parties nominate female candidates as a two-edged sword. She has to fight against the assumption that she got her position only because of a quota.

“I have to prove I’m not too young or inexperienced, and then afterwards comes, oh, she’s a woman,” she said. ‘We are equal people and … we can equally be strong candidates. And that’s what I want to say to my fellow female candidates.”
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Japan, Philippines seek to finalize defense agreement at talks

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taipei, taiwan — As the maritime conflict between China and the Philippines escalates, Japan and the Philippines are set to meet Monday for talks to deepen their security cooperation.  

The talks in Manila, known as the “two plus two” meeting, will bring together the Japanese and Philippine foreign and defense ministers to potentially finalize a key defense agreement.  

Romeo Saturnino Brawner Jr., chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said at a press conference on Thursday that he hopes the Philippines will sign the defense agreement, known as the Reciprocal Access Agreement, or RAA, with Japan, which will allow either side to deploy troops on the other’s territory.  

The RAA also stipulates how the two countries are to arrange weapons and ammunition when they conduct joint training, and it lays out the procedures in the event of any accidents.

Philippine Senator Francis Tolentino said earlier that the draft agreement also specifies the legal status of the Philippine military and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces when they temporarily stay in each other’s country. 

Japan and the Philippines are also expected to discuss a Japanese program, launched in April 2023, that provides weapons and equipment free of charge to like-minded countries to increase security cooperation. In November, Japan provided the Philippines with five surveillance radars to strengthen its coastal supervision capabilities. 

Nations have grown closer, says expert

Saya Kiba, an associate professor of international relations at Kobe University of Foreign Studies in Japan, says that Tokyo and Manila have had increasingly close relations in recent years. 

Kiba told VOA Mandarin in a video interview that in addition to discussing existing cooperation frameworks, the two countries are expected to plan further defense exchanges. 

The talks come at a time of escalating tensions over China’s actions in the disputed South China Sea. 

On June 17, Chinese and Philippine military vessels collided at the Second Thomas Shoal (“Ren’ai Reef” in Chinese), part of the Spratly Island chain where several nations have overlapping claims. A Filipino crew member lost a finger in the crash that Manila described as “intentional-high speed ramming” by the Chinese coast guard. 

On July 4, the Philippine military asked China to pay over $1 million (60 million pesos) in financial compensation for the June collision. The Chinese Foreign Ministry called on the Philippines to stop “provocations,” saying that China was safeguarding its rights and enforcing the law. It said the Philippines should “bear the consequences of its infringement activities.” 

Julio Amador III, CEO of Amador Research Services, a consulting firm in the Philippines that provides policy analysis and strategic advice on ASEAN and Southeast Asian issues, said that the Philippines and Japan may be close to completing negotiations on the RAA, and that the “two plus two” meeting would be a good time to announce the agreement. 

However, the agreement would not take effect immediately as it must first be signed by the leaders of the two countries. 

A signal to Beijing

Kei Koga, a professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, pointed out in a video interview with VOA Mandarin that an RAA signed by Japan and Australia in January 2022 was not ratified until a year later. 

Nevertheless, he said that the RAA will send a signal to Beijing that Japan and the Philippines “will conduct more types of military collaboration and cooperation,” which can have a deterrent effect on China’s hegemonic behavior at sea. 

Kei emphasized that Japan’s constitution says its Self-Defense Forces can only defend their own country and cannot go abroad to fight. That limits the scale of military force that Japan can deploy in the South China Sea. 

Kobe University’s Kiba agreed that Japan’s military influence in the South China Sea will be limited since the Japanese Self-Defense Forces can only conduct multilateral and joint exercises with allies.  

“So, if the Philippines is attacked in the future, the United States may be the only ally that can provide assistance, because this is the form of alliance,” Kiba said. 
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Trump denies knowledge of Project 2025, allies’ plan to transform US government

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miami — Donald Trump distanced himself Friday from Project 2025, a massive, proposed overhaul of the federal government drafted by longtime allies and former officials in his administration — days after the head of the think tank responsible for the program suggested there would be a second American Revolution.  

“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump posted on his social media website. “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Plan expands presidential power

The 922-page plan outlines a dramatic expansion of presidential power and a plan to fire as many as 50,000 government workers to replace them with Trump loyalists.

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has worked to draw more attention to the agenda, particularly as Biden tries to keep fellow Democrats on board after his disastrous debate. 

Trump has outlined his own plans to remake the government if he wins a second term, including staging the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and imposing tariffs on potentially all imports. His campaign has previously warned outside allies not to presume to speak for the former president and suggested their transition-in-waiting efforts were unhelpful. 

‘The second American Revolution’

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast Tuesday that Republicans are “in the process of taking this country back.” Former U.S. Representative Dave Brat of Virginia hosted the show for Bannon, who is serving a four-month prison term.   

“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts said. 

Those comments were widely circulated online and blasted by the Biden campaign, which issued a statement saying Trump and his allies were “dreaming of a violent revolution to destroy the very idea of America.” 

Some of the people involved in Project 2025 are former senior administration officials. The project’s director is Paul Dans, who served as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under Trump. Trump’s campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt was featured in one of Project 2025’s videos. 

John McEntee, a former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office in the Trump administration, is a senior adviser. McEntee told the conservative news site The Daily Wire this year that Project 2025’s team would integrate a lot of its work with the campaign after the summer when Trump would announce his transition team.   

Trump’s comments on Project 2025 come ahead of the Republican Party’s meetings next week to begin to draft its party platform. 

Project 2025 has been preparing its own 180-day agenda for the next administration that it plans to share privately, rather than as part of its public-facing book of priorities for a Republican president. A key Trump ally, Russ Vought, who contributed to Project 2025 and is drafting this final pillar, is also on the Republican National Committee’s platform writing committee. 

A spokesperson for the plan said Project 2025 is not tied to a specific candidate or campaign.   

“We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president,” a statement said. “But it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement.”   

Plan ‘should scare’ Americans, say Democrats 

The Democratic National Committee said the plan and the Trump campaign are part of the same “MAGA operation.” A Biden campaign spokesperson said that Project 2025 staff members are also leading the Republican policy platform. 

“Project 2025 is the extreme policy and personnel playbook for Trump’s second term that should scare the hell out of the American people,” said Ammar Moussa.   

On Thursday, as the country celebrated Independence Day and Biden prepared for his television interview after his halting debate performance, the president’s campaign posted on X a shot from the dystopian TV drama “The Handmaid’s Tale” showing a group of women in the show’s red dresses and white hats standing in formation by a reflecting pool with a cross at the far end where the Washington Monument should be. The story revolves around women who are stripped of their identities and forced to give birth to children for other couples in a totalitarian regime. 

“Fourth of July under Trump’s Project 2025,” the post said. 
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US refutes Russia’s denial of violating North Korea sanctions

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washington — The United States has flatly rejected Russia’s claim that it has not violated international sanctions imposed on North Korea, calling on Moscow to stop illegal arms transfers from Pyongyang.

“The U.S. and like-minded countries have successfully highlighted Russia’s U.N. Security Council Resolutions violations,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email to VOA’s Korean Service on Wednesday, responding to an inquiry made about Russia’s denial of violating North Korea sanctions.

“Unfortunately, we now have a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council willing to openly flout sanctions to support the Kim [Jong Un] regime’s priorities.”

The spokesperson continued: “We call on the DPRK and Russia to cease unlawful arms transfers and urge the DPRK to take concrete steps toward abandoning all nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and related programs.” DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

In a Monday press conference, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia insisted that his country had complied with international sanctions against North Korea.

“We’re not violating the North Korea sanctions regime and all those allegations that come out. They are not proved by material evidence,” he said.

The Russian ambassador went even further, questioning the integrity of a now-defunct U.N. panel of experts charged with monitoring North Korea sanctions. The panel’s annual mandate was not extended this year, following Russia’s veto at the U.N. Security Council in March.

Nebenzia alleged that the panel of experts got involved in the politics after being encouraged by certain countries, adding that “that was the major mistake that they made.”

“The sanctions regime against DPRK is an unprecedented thing in the United Nations. It’s not time bound. It doesn’t have any provisions for reviewing, and this cannot be tolerated.”

The Kremlin’s refusal to renew the expert panel’s annual mandate marked a drastic change from its earlier support for U.N. Resolution 1718, which put in place an arms embargo on North Korea by banning all imports and exports of most weapons and related material.

The U.N. Security Council passed the resolution unanimously in October 2006, just several days after North Korea’s first nuclear test.

This week’s exchange between Washington and Moscow comes as Russia has been deepening military ties with North Korea.

Russian President Vladmir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty during their summit in Pyongyang last month.

In recent months. the U.S. government has repeatedly blown the whistle on Russia’s alleged violations of international sanctions, accusing Moscow of financially and materially facilitating Pyongyang’s efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.

In a May briefing, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby released specific figures of the refined oil Russia has provided to North Korea so far this year, stressing it has already exceeded the limit set by the U.N. Security Council.

“Russia has been shipping refined petroleum to the DPRK. Russian shipments have already pushed DPRK inputs above [those] mandated by the U.N. Security Council. In March alone, Russia shipped more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to the DPRK,” Kirby said.

In October last year, the White House released three satellite images showing containers moved by ships and trains, saying North Korea had provided Russia with more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and ammunition.

Experts in Washington say this standoff between the U.S. and Russia over North Korea will likely persist for some time.

Scott Snyder, president of the Korea Economic Institute of America, told VOA’s Korean Service via email on Thursday that the recent defense pact between Moscow and Pyongyang is not something the U.S. can afford to ignore.

“North Korea will remain a source of conflict in U.S.-Russia relations as long as North Korea sustains their strategic relationship, which will continue at least until the end of military hostilities in Ukraine,” Snyder said.

Evans Revere, who formerly served as deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said in an email to VOA’s Korean Service on Friday that Russia is setting itself up as North Korea’s backer.

“Russia has made it clear that it intends to oppose U.N. Security Council sanctions, work with North Korea and others to find ways to get around current U.N. Security Council restrictions and strengthen its tactical and strategic coordination with North Korea,” Revere said.

“Russia, which was once part of the important coalition supporting the use of pressure and sanctions to deal with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, has now gone over to the other side and become Pyongyang’s de facto protector.”

Jiha Ham contributed to this report.
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Retired General Breedlove says NATO must not capitulate to Russia

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Washington — The United States will host a NATO summit in Washington next week, at which more military support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s ongoing invasion will top the agenda. 

Douglas Jones, deputy U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, told VOA earlier this week that NATO will put forward “concrete ways” to accelerate Ukraine’s eventual membership in the alliance. 

Retired U.S. Air Force four-star General Philip Breedlove was the commander of U.S. European Command and the 17th Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations from 2013 to 2016.  

In an interview with VOA, Breedlove said that NATO should use next week’s summit to detail how it will help Ukraine “win the war against Russia and to expel Russian forces from Ukrainian lands.”  

Allowing Russia to keep that Ukrainian territory it has occupied would amount to “capitulation,” Breedlove said, adding that whoever wins the U.S. presidential election in November must remember that capitulation to Russia’s ambitions in Ukraine “is not a way forward.”  

The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity: 

VOA: What are the main challenges for NATO ahead of the summit in Washington? 

Retired four-star U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove: I think the main challenge is going to be how to move forward with Ukraine. There are quite a number of NATO nations that want to get started on Ukraine’s program to join [NATO], there are other nations that are not ready for that yet. And so I think that the compromise is this “bridge” to NATO, whereby Ukraine will be invited to join in the headquarters on a U.S. base somewhere. I hear that maybe Wiesbaden [Germany] is that place. More importantly though, since there will not be a formal offer to Ukraine for membership, the members of NATO are going to need to discuss how do we begin to guarantee the security of Ukraine. 

VOA: How do you think the elections in Europe and the U.K. will affect — and maybe already have affected — NATO’s immediate future?  

Breedlove: So I would broaden that scope. In elections in America, elections in many of our countries, we see a growing nationalistic trend, some isolationist trends, and these are all going to have to be addressed by NATO as a body. Because the strength of NATO is solidarity first, and so we have to figure out how to maintain that solidarity in the alliance when we have several nations that are now challenging norms. NATO has always made it through this. I remind people — and some of my French friends hate it when I do — but we were once thrown out of a capital of a NATO country. And so NATO has faced challenges in the past.  

And I think that NATO will survive this current set of issues as well and frankly maybe be stronger. The absolute audacity, the criminality, the inhumane war that [Russian President] Mr. [Vladimir] Putin is waging on Ukraine is in a way drawing NATO closer together, even though there are less than perfect conversations about how we should go about fixing things. Broadly now, people understand what Mr. Putin is, what Russia represents, and the problems that this is going to give us in the future. And we see nations now realizing that they have to invest in their defense.  

VOA: According to Politico, some Trump-aligned national security experts are saying that he is “mulling a deal” where NATO commits to no further eastward expansion, specifically into Ukraine and Georgia, and negotiates with Putin over how much Ukrainian territory “Moscow can keep” in exchange for a cease-fire. What would that mean for Georgia and Ukraine?  

Breedlove: So, what you’re talking about, to me, amounts to capitulation. I don’t believe that Mr. [Donald] Trump would capitulate in quite that manner to Russia and give in to all of Russia’s demands. I think what we need to focus on is what changes in respect to Russia in these conversations, remembering that Russia is a nation that amassed its army, marched across internationally recognized borders and is now trying to subjugate one of its neighbors. I do not believe that even Mr. Trump will sign up to that as an end result. 

At some point we will have to sit down at the table, and what it looks like coming away from the table, I think, is a long way from being determined. And I do not believe that the American people will support capitulation. … And so I think that whoever is the next president, as their team sits down to try to resolve this, we’re going to have to remember that capitulation is not a way forward. 

VOA: If Georgia’s domestic political problems grow, what effect will that have on its prospects for joining NATO? 

Breedlove: I think that the question should be asked like this: if Russia’s interference in Georgia’s internal affairs continues and gets worse, what does that mean? Because I believe that there is Russian bad money and Russian bad people and politics involved in Georgia right now. Georgia is a hybrid warfare battleground whereby Russia is trying to use all manner of influence to drag Georgia away from the West and to regain control of Georgian politics. 

VOA: It’s clear that during next week’s summit, Ukraine will not be offered NATO membership. But apart from the offer to establish a “bridge” at a NATO base, what do you think can be done to bring Ukraine and NATO closer together?   

Breedlove: Well, the first thing to do is to help them win this war. Our policies are very weak. We say things like “we’re going to be there for as long as it takes” or “we’re going to give them everything they need.” What we fail to say is — we’re going to be there as long as it takes to do what? We’re going to give them everything they need to do what? And that “to do what” should sound something like “to completely defeat the Russian forces inside of Ukraine and drive them back behind Russia’s borders.” But we are not doing that. And so one of the most important things about this upcoming summit … is that we need a demonstrative public declaratory policy on how we would support Ukraine to win the war against Russia and to expel Russian forces from Ukrainian lands. 
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Amnesty International questions Nigeria’s choice of Shell evaluators

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Abuja, Nigeria — Human rights group Amnesty International raised concerns Friday about the Nigerian government’s hiring of two firms with past dealings with Shell to assess the proposed $2.4 billion sale of the company’s onshore assets in the Niger Delta.

Amnesty said the choice cast doubt on the independence and transparency of the process and called again for accountability in the proposed sale.

Amnesty described the hiring of the Boston Consulting Group, or BCG, and S&P Global by the Nigerian oil regulator as “concerning,” saying the firms are in business with Shell.

Amnesty said S&P Global plays a role in rating Shell’s debt and credit worthiness, while BCG performs a variety of services for Shell.

Amnesty’s Isa Sanusi said that BCG and S&P could be influenced by their commercial interests and that they may become lenient in their review of problems caused by Shell’s activities.

“I don’t think that it is possible for these companies to be independent,” Sanusi said. “In fact, the whole exercise of assessing Shell’s plan has now been jeopardized by this conflict of interest. There’s no way a company working for Shell can be hired to examine the books of Shell. I don’t think that is right.”

In January, Shell announced plans to sell its onshore properties to a local consortium of five companies for $2.4 billion. Shell said the move would enable it to focus on more-profitable offshore business as it plans to transition away from fossil fuels.

But the proposed sale has sparked concern among environmental and human rights activists calling on authorities to delay the deal until a review of Shell’s activities and assets in the region is done.

The groups say years of exploration by Shell have caused massive environmental damage and a loss of livelihoods for residents.

Energy expert Emmanuel Afimia agreed with Amnesty International, saying, “The consultants have existing relationships with Shell. This might compromise the consultants’ ability to conduct an impartial review.

“We need to understand that the independence of these consultants is crucial to ensure a fair assessment, and their ties to Shell could undermine trust in the process,” she said.

Nigerian law mandates Shell provide money for cleanup and decommissioning of its assets before exiting.

But Shell, like other foreign energy firms, has often blamed sabotage and theft for oil spills. Earlier this year, the company released on its website a list of eight cleanup operations it planned to carry out — all for spills of less than 100 barrels of oil.

Amnesty said that unless the right thing is done, enormous human rights risks are at stake.

“There must be an examination of all the environmental liabilities, community liabilities and human rights liabilities,” Sanusi said. “Shell has to pay for it before going ahead to sell its assets in the region. It is about human life, and that should be the priority of Nigerian authorities.”

In March, the Netherlands-based nonprofit Center for Research on Multinational Corporations accused Shell of trying to avoid responsibility for oil spills and warned that if allowed, it could set a negative example for other foreign firms seeking to leave the Niger Delta.
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Alaska Public Media given boost for local broadcasts

Posted on by SeeUS

washington — A grant of nearly $1 million is being provided to Alaska Public Media as part of a two-year plan to strengthen local news for rural communities.

The nonprofit Cooperation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, awarded the $936,000 grant to the Alaska Public Media, which is made up of radio and TV media outlets.

Lori Townsend, news director for Alaska Public Media, or APM, said the funding will help deepen “the connection between the local community and its public broadcasting station.”

Investing in this way, she told VOA via email, means “the community will continue to support the local and regional journalism they can only get from their local newsroom.”

Townsend said the grant will allow Alaska Public Radio to help rural station partners better reach remote areas that have less coverage.

An NPR-member station, Alaska Public Radio produces national and state-specific daily news programming such as Alaska News Nightly. The award-winning statewide program has been broadcast for over four decades.

The stations also relay national and international news through NPR and the BBC. But many of the 733,400 Alaska residents receive important information in their regions from local stations, information such as emergency messages related to fires, earthquakes or other disasters as part of emergency messaging system for the state.

Most of Alaska’s communities are not on the road system and public radio is a lifeline, said Townsend.

“The public radio system in Alaska has been a more than four-decade model of collaboration and providing critical news, information and public safety service to Alaskan communities,” she added.

Federal investment in rural communities is critical for the 99% of the U.S. population who have access to public broadcastings, said Brendan Daly, of CPB. The nonprofit oversees federal investment in public broadcasting.

Rural and Indigenous communities depend on the state’s public media for news and public affairs, said Daly. “This is especially true in Alaska, which is such a large and rural state.”

The two-year grant will be used to fund reporters and editors, travel and equipment.

“The editors and reporters will mostly likely be a mix of new hires and existing Alaska journalists, currently working in the APM network and other newsrooms in Alaska,” said Townsend.

Stations will apply to host the new hires, Townsend said. The idea is to put the staff in stations across the state to make it easier to collaborate.

“We are in an exciting time of increased recognition of the importance of journalism in supporting and strengthening the bedrock of democracy,” said Townsend.

She added that the Alaska desk will work closely with communities on local priorities and on “elevating voices that are seldom heard.”

The plan is to produce stories that “resonate with not only Alaskans, but the rest of the nation and world, as geopolitical conflicts and world resource needs draw more attention to the Arctic,” she said.
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Kenyan president bows to pressure, makes major concessions

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Nairobi, Kenya — Kenyan President William Ruto on Friday ordered significant cuts in the federal budget along with other government reforms to pay off a crushing debt burden in a move seen as a concession to popular disapproval of a tax bill that sparked violent protests.

Following weeks of protests during which dozens of people reportedly were killed, Ruto withdrew a finance bill intended to raise $2.7 billion — most of it from tax increases — to pay off debt.

Ruto instead offered a compromise: a plan is to cut $1.39 billion from the budget and borrow the difference.

To make it work, Ruto said, his government will eliminate 47 state corporations with overlapping or duplicative functions and reduce by 50% the number of government advisors, among many other actions.

Filling the positions of chief administrative secretaries is suspended, Ruto said, and government funds will not be used for the operations of the offices of the first lady, the spouse of the deputy president and the prime cabinet secretary.

And there’s more.

“Public servants who attain retirement age of 60 shall be required to immediately proceed on retirement with no extensions,” Ruto said.

Also, government purchase of new motor vehicles is suspended for 12 months, except for security agencies, and all nonessential travel by state and public officers is suspended, the president said.

Some of the actions were on a list of demands made by protesters.

Ruto also said he has appointed an independent task force to carry out a comprehensive, forensic audit of the country’s public debt.

“This audit will provide Kenyans with clarity on the extent and nature of our debt and how public resources have been expanded and also recommend proposals for managing public debt in a manner that is sustainable and does not burden future generations,” he said.

Nearly 40 people died and 360 were injured nationwide since the protests started three weeks ago, according to Kenya’s National Commission on Human Rights.
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CAR pleads with fleeing civilians to return after rebels attack villages

Posted on by SeeAF

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Central African Republic officials are pleading with civilians to go back to their villages, after up to 10,000 civilians were displaced this week by fighting between rebels and C.A.R. forces.  

Officials say a rebel group known as the Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation, or 3R, has relaunched hostilities in the central African nation. This week, military sources said 3R rebels attacked nearly 10 villages between the towns of Bocaranga and Bazoum in northeastern C.A.R., near the Cameroon border. 

The C.A.R. military says bodies of five government troops and six civilians have been found in villages since the attacks began Tuesday. The military says it is still searching for bodies and transporting injured civilians to hospitals for treatment. 

On Thursday, officials said several hundred troops and humanitarian workers were deployed to the villages to push back the rebels and protect civilians. 

Glwadys Siopathis led a delegation of humanitarian workers to villages affected by the fighting. She says about 10,000 civilians — including children — are hiding in the bush, and are hungry, thirsty and malnourished.

She says a majority are reluctant to return to their homes because they believe rebels have simply retreated and could again attack villages for supplies. 

The C.A.R. says that besides its troops, forces of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, or MINUSCA, have been deployed to protect civilians and their goods. 

Both forces say huge quantities of ammunition were seized and several rebels were either neutralized or captured, but did not give further details. The C.A.R is pleading with civilians to return to villages where they will be protected by government troops. 

Bruno Yapande, C.A.R.’s territorial administration minister, says the government of the Central African Republic has ordered its military to immediately seal border areas where rebels traditionally attempt to pass through when attacked by government troops.  

He says several border security checkpoints have been erected to sort out rebels who disguise themselves as cattle ranchers or infiltrate civilian communities to escape to neighboring countries. 

Yapande spoke Friday on C.A.R. state TV. He did not say which countries the rebels may be attempting to escape to, but the C.A.R. shares borders with Cameroon, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo and Chad. 

Last week, Cameroon and C.A.R. officials met in the C.A.R.’s capital, Bangui, and signed an agreement to jointly combat what they describe as increasing insecurity and criminality caused by armed gangs and rebels operating in towns and villages along their border. 

The C.A.R. says the 3R, formed in 2015, is one of several rebel groups in the central African state. 3R rebels claim that they protect Muslim cattle ranching populations from regular attacks by Christian anti-Balaka militias. 

C.A.R. officials say the rebel group has several hundred armed fighters who fight to control villages on the C.A.R. border and regularly escape to eastern villages in Cameroon when attacked by government forces. The C.A.R. accuses the rebel group of killing, maiming, raping, looting, and regularly displacing civilians from the villages. 

The Central African Republic descended into violence and political chaos in 2013 when Muslim-led Seleka rebels seized power and forced then-President Francois Bozize from office in the majority Christian nation. A Christian-dominated militia called the anti-Balaka fought back, with both the Seleka and anti-Balaka being accused of targeting and killing civilians. 

The U.N. says fighting in the C.A.R. has forced close to a million Central Africans to flee to neighboring countries, including Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Chad.
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Australia plans to build secret data centers with Amazon

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SYDNEY — Australia said Thursday a $1.35 billion deal with U.S. technology giant Amazon to build three secure data centers for top-secret information will increase its military’s “war-fighting capacity.”

The data centers are to be built in secret locations in Australia and be run by an Australian subsidiary of the U.S. technology company Amazon Web Service, the government said.

The deal is part of Australia’s National Defense Strategy, outlining its commitment to Indo-Pacific security and maintaining “the global rules-based order.” The country has a long-standing military alliance with the United States and is a member, with the United Kingdom, U.S., Canada and New Zealand, of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

Australian officials said the project would create a “state-of-the-art collaborative space” for intelligence and defense agencies to store and gain access to sensitive information in a centralized network.

Andrew Shearer, director-general of Australia’s Office of National Intelligence, said in a statement that the project would allow “greater interoperability with our most important international intelligence partners.”

Similar data clouds have been set up in the United States and Britain, allowing the sharing of information among agencies and departments.

Richard Marles, Australia’s deputy prime minister and defense minister, told reporters that highly sensitive national security data will be safely secured in the new system.

“If you consider that any sensor which is on a defense platform, which in turn feeds that data to a high tech capability, such as the Joint Strike Fighter, which will use that to engage in targeting or perhaps to defend itself from an in-coming threat, or … to defend another asset, such as a ship — all of that is top secret data,” Marles said.

The government said the Amazon Web Services storage system will use artificial intelligence to detect suspected intrusions and to retrieve data.

Richard Buckland, a professor in CyberCrime, Cyberwar and Cyberterror at the University of New South Wales, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the storage plan has risks.

“Putting more data together in a central spot and sharing it widely as people intend to do obviously increases the risk of a data breach,” he said.

In a statement, Amazon Web Services’ managing director in Australia, Iain Rouse, said the system would “enable the seamless sharing of classified data between Australia’s National Intelligence Community and the Australian Defense Force.”

The so-called top-secret cloud is scheduled to be in operation by 2027.
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Some voters blame media for U.S. polarization as election nears

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With four months remaining until the U.S. presidential election, political divisions among the electorate are stark. Some voters blame the media for deepening the sense of separation. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has more.
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Calls for Jakarta, nearby cities to tighten coordination to mitigate gridlock, emissions

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Jakarta, Indonesia — Every weekday, Andika Hidayatullah weaves his motorbike through congested roads in Indonesia’s crowded capital from his home in the satellite city of Depok. He says all the traffic makes what should be a 40-minute commute almost twice as long. 

“A car should be used with four occupants,” says Hidayatullah, 26. “But most workers here drive a car to their workplace by themselves, and that causes huge traffic.” 

A report issued by the global public health organization Vital Strategies based on research by the Bandung Institute of Technology says vehicular emissions are Jakarta’s biggest source of air pollution — just one in a range of urban congestion problems that are prompting calls for better coordination between the city and its surrounding communities. 

There were days last year when Swiss company IQAir ranked Jakarta’s air as the most polluted of any major city in the world. 

Willy Sastrawijayadi, 37, says the polluted air makes him feel ill some days. “It affects the respiratory system, whether it’s coughing or feeling kind of like you have the flu.” 

The city has about 10 million residents, but the greater Jakarta region has more than 30 million. When it comes to cities with the world’s worst road traffic congestion, navigation specialist Tom Tom ranked Jakarta 30th last year. First place is considered the worst among 387 cities in 55 countries. Jakarta has commuter trains and buses available, but old habits are proving hard to break. 

“Public transport is currently much better than, let’s say, 10 or 20 years ago,” says Ahmad Gamal, associate professor in urban planning at the University of Indonesia.  “What has not happened is people starting to leave their motorbikes and their cars.” 

Gamal adds that one of the underlying reasons behind these quality-of-life issues is because Jakarta and its surrounding communities have not worked hand in hand to coordinate on a regional level.  

“Jakarta gets all of the offices, gets all of the industries; but most of the housing projects, they probably need to go a little bit farther [out] because the land is much more expensive in Jakarta,” Gamal says. “So, naturally, the adjacent areas in their best interests in promoting development [were overbuilt].” 

Gamal adds that overdevelopment in upstream communities leads to rivers overflowing downstream in Jakarta, flooding urban neighborhoods. “So much of the land upstream is overbuilt and unable to absorb much of the water.” 

After heavy storms, Zainudin, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, and his neighbors along the Ciliwung River have to clean out mud that’s 30 centimeters thick inside their homes. “We’ve gotten used to dealing with this,” says Zainudin, 58, noting that he’s lived by the river his entire life. 

Along the coast in North Jakarta, the government is extending a seawall. Just on the other side of it is the Wal Adhuna Mosque, which is no longer used because it’s always flooded. Small portions of North Jakarta have already been washed over by rising sea levels due to climate change and now it’s a race against time to prevent more of the city from being lost. About 40% of Jakarta is below sea level.

“The northern part of Jakarta is facing the biggest challenge because the sea is rising while the land is actually sinking,” Gamal says. 

Gamal points to the fact that many Jakartans get their water from illegal wells tapping the ground water which is a major reason why the city is now sinking. The government is building pipes to get more of the public water supply across the city, but Gamal says that project could take 30 years to complete. 

The national government is laying plans for an agglomeration council for Greater Jakarta to coordinate all of its local and regional governments. 

But Gamal says it’s not clear yet if this council will have the authority it needs to succeed.  

“It is going to work if it is a superseding authority on top of these regional governments, listening to their needs but capable of creating plans that are binding for them.” 

Meanwhile, people like Andika Hidayatullah say they’re just hoping the government figures it out. “I’ve had enough of all the traffic and bad air,” he said.
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Hungary’s Orban arrives in Moscow for talks with Putin, a rare visit from a European leader

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India’s Modi will meet with Putin on 2-day visit to Russia starting Monday, Kremlin says

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MOSCOW — The Kremlin on Thursday said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia next Monday and Tuesday and hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The visit was first announced by Russian officials last month, but the dates have not been previously disclosed.

Russia has had strong ties with India since the Cold War, and New Delhi’s importance as a key trading partner for Moscow has grown since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China and India have become key buyers of Russian oil following sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies that shut most Western markets for Russian exports.

Under Modi’s leadership, India has avoided condemning Russia’s action in Ukraine while emphasizing the need for a peaceful settlement.

The partnership between Moscow and New Delhi has become fraught, however, since Russia started developing closer ties with India’s main rival, China, because of the hostilities in Ukraine.

Modi on Thursday skipped the summit of a security grouping created by Moscow and Beijing to counter Western alliances.

Modi sent his foreign minister to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization at its annual meeting in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana. The meeting is being attended by Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Indian media reports speculated that the recently reelected Modi was busy with the Parliament session last week.

Modi last visited Russia in 2019 for an economic forum in the far eastern port of Vladivostok. He last traveled to Moscow in 2015. Putin last met with Modi in September 2022 at a summit of the SCO in Uzbekistan. In 2021, Putin also traveled to New Delhi and held talks with the Indian leader.

Tensions between Beijing and New Delhi have continued since a confrontation in June 2020 along the disputed China-India border in which rival troops fought with rocks, clubs and fists. At least 20 Indian troops and four Chinese soldiers were killed.

After his reelection to a third straight term. Modi attended the G7 meeting in Italy’s Apulia region last month and addressed artificial intelligence, energy, and regional issues in Africa and the Mediterranean.

In the early 1990s, the Soviet Union was the source of about 70% of Indian army weapons, 80% of its air force systems and 85% of its navy platforms.

India bought its first aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, from Russia in 2004. It had served in the former Soviet Union and later in the Russian navy.

With the Russian supply line hit by the fighting in Ukraine, India has been reducing its dependency on Russian arms and diversifying its defense procurements, buying more from the U.S., Israel, France and Italy.
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