US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, in person for the first time Friday on the sidelines of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the details.
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UN refugee chief: 114 million have fled homes because nations fail to tackle causes of conflict
UNITED NATIONS — The number of people fleeing their homes because of war, violence and persecution has reached 114 million and is climbing because nations have failed to tackle the causes and combatants are refusing to comply with international law, the U.N. refugee chief said Thursday.
In a hard-hitting speech, Filippo Grandi criticized the U.N. Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, for failing to use its voice to try to resolve conflicts from Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan to Congo, Myanmar and many other places.
He also accused unnamed countries of making “short-sighted foreign policy decisions, often founded on double standards, with lip service paid to compliance with the law, but little muscle flexed from the council to actually uphold it and — with it — peace and security.”
Grandi said non-compliance with international humanitarian law means that “parties to conflicts — increasingly everywhere, almost all of them — have stopped respecting the laws of war,” though some pretend to do so.
The result is more civilian deaths, sexual violence is used as a weapons of war, hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure are attacked and destroyed, and humanitarian workers become targets, he said.
Calling himself a frustrated humanitarian and looking directly at the 15 council members, Grandi said that instead of using its voice, “the council’s cacophony has meant that you have instead continued to preside over a broader cacophony of chaos around the world.”
The high commissioner for refugees told the council it’s too late for the tens of thousands who have been killed in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and other conflicts.
“But it is not too late to put your focus and energy on the crises and conflicts that remain unresolved, so that they are not allowed to fester and explode again,” Grandi said. “It is not too late to step up help for the millions who have been forcibly displaced to return home voluntarily, in safety and with dignity.”
It’s also not too late to save millions of people from the scourge of war, the refugee chief said.
But the Security Council is increasingly polarized, and its five veto-wielding permanent members are at odds, with the U.S., Britain and France often strongly opposed to the views of Russia and China.
On the Gaza war, the council has not called for a cease-fire because of opposition from the United States, Israel’s closest ally. And on Ukraine, the council has been ineffective as Russia, a key party to the conflict after Moscow invaded its smaller neighbor in February 2022, would veto almost any resolution.
Grandi called what’s happened in Gaza since Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7 and the “atrocious” recent events in the southern city of Rafah after an Israeli airstrike led to a deadly fire at a camp for displaced Palestinians an example of the “brutal conduct of hostilities meant not only to destroy but also to terrify civilians,” who increasingly more often have no choice but to flee.
He said Gaza is also “a tragic reminder of what happens when conflicts (and by extension a refugee crisis) are left unattended” for decades. He also pointed to Syria where after 13 years of conflict, 5.6 million Syrian refugees remain in neighboring countries including Lebanon and Jordan which also host Palestinian refugees.
Grandi said violations of international law, including forcing people to flee, are having a devastating effect on people around the world.
For example, in Myanmar, more than 1.5 million people have been displaced by fighting since October, bringing the total to over 3 million, “with many trying to seek refuge in neighboring countries,” he said.
In Ukraine, international humanitarian law is violated every day with Russian attacks on the country’s power networks, houses and other civilian infrastructure, he said.
And in Congo, Grandi said, “violence between men with guns is so common that no other place on Earth is as dangerous for women and children than the east of that country.”
“But how can members of the United Nations, how can ‘we the peoples’ pay so little attention and have so much inaction in a place where sex with a child can be bought for less than a cold drink?” the refugee chief asked.
“What a shameful stain on humanity!” Grandi said.
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Some EU nations allow 16-year-olds to decide in June polls
BRUSSELS — Youth leader Rareș Voicu remembers like it was yesterday when he went to the polls five years ago for the European Union elections in his Romanian hometown of Brăila.
The problem was that he was 16 years old at the time and not eligible to cast a ballot. Once his family went into the voting booths, he knew he could not.
“I had done so much research on the parties and on the candidates, and I knew who I would have voted for,” Voicu said. “So I know firsthand the frustration, and how frustrating it can be as a young person when you’re 16, when you’re 17.”
Now 21, Voicu is leading a drive to make sure as many 16- and 17-year-olds as possible go to the June 6-9 polls in the five member states of the 27-nation bloc that allow them to vote. In the other nations, the minimum voting age still stands at 18, like it is in the United States.
The voting age is set at 16 in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Malta and 17 in Greece. In Belgium, voting is mandatory.
Nateo Carnot from Celles in southern Belgium, who is 16, won’t have to deal with the issue Voicu had, but he knows that teens like him will have to step up and overcome political apathy, even helplessness.
“Youth sees politics as something from up high — men in big ties in big cars that won’t listen. So there is a disinterest,” he said. “Whatever we do. It won’t change anything. They won’t listen,” is the reasoning of many.
Yet lowering the bar to 16, as Belgium did for these elections, shows improvement, Carnot said. “It shows politicians start to show interest in us and realize that we are mature enough to express our voice.”
Some see the lowering of the minimum voting age as a ploy to get an easy vote from unwitting teens who have barely outgrown childhood. Voicu vehemently disagrees.
“When you’re 16, when you’re 17, you often have the right to make medical decisions for your own body. You have the obligation to pay taxes if you have a job. You can enter civil partnerships or you can get married. So you have all of these duties, all of these obligations,” he said.
“What we’re asking for is for the democratic rights of young people to match their responsibilities. We think it’s only fair,” said Voicu, who also wants more countries to lower the voting age.
Their demands can be heard by the exceptionally young, too, since late teens can also run for office in many nations. The United States has a minimum age of 25 years to run for Congress, but most EU nations allow anyone 18 years or up to represent their electorate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, and Brussels.
Kira Marie Peter-Hansen was shocked when she found herself elected to the European Parliament on a Danish Independent Greens party ticket five years ago, at barely 20 years old. “I never expected to get elected, so I never planned for that either. And it wasn’t part of my childhood dreams.” Yet, she was thrown into EU politics at the deep end.
Working the hallowed halls of Parliament early on not only had her puzzled but EU politicians and staff too. “People thinking I’m an intern. And then checking my badge,” she said. “The first half year was super difficult and confusing.”
But she grew into it.
“So the last time I was the youth candidate. Now, I am the leading candidate while being young,” Peter-Hansen said.
If there is one thing she has learned over the past five years, it is that there are few specific youth-versus-elderly issues that need specific approaches.
“A lot of younger (and) a lot of older voters are concerned by the climate crisis, the nature crisis. So there are some places where we can meet across generations,” she said.
Many members of extreme right and populist parties expect that the youngsters will unite with the elderly in rejecting the traditional powers and parties that have ruled the EU Parliament for so long.
“They look at the future and the future looks grim,” said Tom Vandendriessche of the far-right Flemish Interest party, which is part of the Identity and Democracy Group.
“How could they have trust in these traditional parties … that have been governing us for decades and who brought us into this mess,” he said, mentioning the issues of migration and terrorism. “They are looking for answers which are different.”
Manon Aubry, a member of Parliament from the hard left France Unbowed party, pointed to different issues for the young to get riled up about, such as social exclusion, inequality and poverty. Aubry insisted the elections are the ideal moment to stand up to anyone from the Hungarian prime minister to the French president to the head of the world’s largest luxury goods company.
“It’s the only time, the only place when you, me, any youth has as much power as Viktor Orban, as Emmanuel Macron, as Bernard Arnault, one of the richest guys in the European Union,” she said.
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Lava spurts from Iceland volcano for second day
GRINDAVIK, Iceland — Lava continued to spurt from a volcano in southwestern Iceland on Thursday but the activity had calmed significantly from when it erupted a day earlier.
The eruption Wednesday was the fifth and most powerful since the volcanic system near Grindavik reawakened in December after 800 years, gushing record levels of lava as its fissure grew to 3.5 kilometers in length.
Volcanologist Dave McGarvie calculated that the amount of lava initially flowing from the crater could have buried the soccer pitch at Wembley Stadium in London under 15 meters of lava every minute.
“These jets of magma are reaching like 50 meters, into the atmosphere,” said McGarvie, an honorary researcher at Lancaster University. “That just immediately strikes me as a powerful eruption. And that was my first impression … then some numbers came out, estimating how much was coming out per minute or per second and it was, ‘Wow.'”
The activity once again threatened Grindavik, a coastal town of 3,800 people, and led to the evacuation of the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions.
Grindavik, which is about 50 kilometers southwest of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, has been threatened since a swarm of earthquakes in November forced an evacuation in advance of the initial December 18 eruption. A subsequent eruption consumed several buildings.
Protective barriers outside Grindavik deflected the lava Wednesday but the evacuated town remained without electricity and two of the three roads into town were inundated with lava.
“I just like the situation quite well compared to how it looked at the beginning of the eruption yesterday,” Grindavik Mayor Fannar Jónasson told national broadcaster RUV.
McGarvie said the eruption was more powerful than the four that preceded it because the largest amount of magma had accumulated in a chamber underground before breaking the earth’s surface and shooting into the sky.
The rapid and powerful start of the eruption followed by it diminishing quickly several hours later is the pattern researchers have witnessed with this volcano, McGarvie said. It’s unknown when eruptions at this volcano will end.
“It could go on for quite some considerable time,” McGarvie said. “We’re really in new territory here because eruptions like this have never been witnessed, carefully, in this part of Iceland.”
Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, sees regular eruptions. The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe.
None of the current cycle of eruptions have had an impact on aviation.
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Nigerians call President Tinubu’s first year in office ‘tough’
Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation, leading to widespread hardship and anger. Some Nigerians are demanding a reversal of government policies one year after authorities embarked on bold but unpopular economic reforms. President Bola Tinubu has so far refused to change course, insisting his reforms will improve Nigeria’s ailing economy. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
Camera: Timothy Obiezu
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US-British strikes leave at least 2 dead in Yemen, Houthi TV says
CAIRO — The U.S. and British militaries said they launched strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Thursday as part of efforts to deter the militant group from further disrupting shipping in the Red Sea, with Houthi media reporting at least two people killed.
The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that U.S. and British forces had hit 13 targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
The British Defense Ministry said the joint operation targeted three locations in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, which it said housed drones and surface-to-air weapons.
The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported at least two deaths and 10 injuries from strikes against a radio building in Hodeidah’s Al-Hawk district.
“As ever, the utmost care was taken in planning the strikes to minimize any risk to civilians or non-military infrastructure,” the British Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“Conducting the strikes in the hours of darkness should also have mitigated yet further any such risks.”
The Houthi-run media said a total of 13 strikes had been launched against Yemen, including six on the capital Sanaa.
The Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital and most populous areas, have attacked international shipping in the Red Sea since November in solidarity with the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas militants, drawing U.S. and British retaliatory strikes since February.
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US, China hold diplomatic talks to try to defuse tensions, advance cooperation
STATE DEPARTMENT — Senior officials from the United States and the People’s Republic of China held diplomatic talks in Washington on Thursday to try to defuse tensions, to discuss efforts to maintain military-to-military communication, and to advance cooperation.
Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Kurt Campbell hosted China’s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu at the State Department for talks aimed at maintaining open communication to prevent miscalculations and unintended conflicts, especially during times of tension.
Following two hours of face-to-face discussions, U.S. and Chinese officials had a working lunch at the State Department. Later in the afternoon, U.S. deputy national security adviser Jon Finer continued discussions with Ma.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also stopped by the meeting to greet Ma and exchanged views on key issues.
“The two sides discussed ongoing work to continue military-to-military communication and advance cooperation in areas where our interests align, such as counternarcotics,” the White House said in a statement, ahead of the expected meeting between U.S. and China defense chiefs during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
They also discussed areas of disagreement.
“Finer affirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He underscored U.S. support for international law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. The two sides also discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine, challenges in the Middle East, and efforts to advance the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the White House statement said.
The visit by Ma follows U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Shanghai and Beijing in April. Officials said it builds on the U.S.’s intensive diplomacy with the PRC to responsibly manage competition in the relationship, even in areas where the two countries disagree.
The State Department has said the U.S. is engaging in face-to-face diplomacy with China to clearly and directly communicate Washington’s positions and intentions, aiming to make progress on bilateral, regional and global issues.
A spokesperson from PRC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Ma would also “interact and communicate with representatives from various sectors in the U.S.” during his visit to the country Thursday to Sunday.
State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Thursday that the U.S. would continue its engagement with China at senior levels while raising concerns over contentious issues, including Beijing’s support for Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.
“If China does not curtail its support for Russia’s defense industrial base, the U.S. would be prepared to take further steps,” Patel told reporters during a briefing.
He added, “The PRC’s reconstitution of the Russian defense industrial base not only threatens Ukrainian security but also threatens European security,” a view held by the United States, the G7, the European Union and NATO countries.
However, Patel declined to preview any potential U.S. sanctions.
While in Beijing last month, Blinken voiced “serious concern” regarding China’s support for Russia’s defense industry, warning Chinese leaders that Washington could impose sanctions over the matter.
China has defended its approach to Russia, saying it is engaged only in normal economic exchanges with a major trading partner.
On Wednesday, Campbell renewed the U.S. warnings, saying Chinese support was helping to revitalize Russia’s military capabilities, including long-range missiles, artillery, drones and battlefield tracking.
During his visit to Brussels, Campbell emphasized the urgent need for European and NATO countries “to send a collective message of concern to China about its actions, which we view are destabilizing in the heart of Europe.”
The latest U.S.-China talks occur just days after China conducted a large-scale, two-day military exercise involving 111 aircraft and 46 naval vessels around Taiwan. Washington has strongly urged Beijing to exercise restraint and has reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Mark Lambert, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan, met virtually on May 23 with Hong Liang, the PRC’s director-general for boundary and ocean affairs. During the meeting, Lambert expressed profound concerns regarding People’s Liberation Army joint military drills in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan.
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Partial count puts ruling ANC below 50% in South Africa election
JOHANNESBURG — Partial results in South Africa’s national election put the long-ruling African National Congress party at well below 50% of the vote as counting continued Thursday, and it could be on the brink of losing its majority for the first time since sweeping to power under Nelson Mandela at the end of apartheid in 1994.
That would be a momentous change for South Africa, where the ANC has been dominant for all 30 years of its young democracy and the only governing party many have known.
The ANC had the most votes and was well ahead in the early results, as expected. But if it fails to secure a majority, it may have to form a coalition to remain in the government — something that has not happened before in post-apartheid South Africa. Without a majority, the ANC would also need help from other parties to reelect President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second term.
“I think we are seeing a massive change in South African politics,” Susan Booysen, a political analyst and professor emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said on national broadcaster SABC TV.
It was still only an early picture after Wednesday’s election. The final results were expected to take days, with the independent electoral commission saying they would be delivered by Sunday, although they could come earlier.
The ANC’s worst performance in a national election is the 57.5% it won in the last one in 2019. A projection from a government agency and SABC, based on early vote returns, estimated that the ANC would end up with about 42% this time, a drop of more than 15%, which would be a stunning result in the context of South Africa.
South Africa may be the continent’s most advanced country, but it has struggled to solve a profuse inequality that has kept millions in poverty decades after the segregation of apartheid ended. That inequality and widespread poverty disproportionately affects the Black majority that make up more than 80% of the country’s population. South Africa has one of the worst unemployment rates in the world at 32%.
Voters repeatedly referred to unemployment as well as other issues like ANC corruption scandals, problems with basic government services and high violent crime as their main grievances.
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Zambian authorities arrest five on espionage charges
Lusaka, Zambia — Police in Zambia have arrested five people on espionage charges following their earlier allegations via social media that the government was involved in the apparent abduction of independent lawmaker Jay Jay Banda last week.
Police spokesperson Danny Mwale confirmed to journalists in Lusaka on Thursday the arrests of opposition lawmakers Munir Zulu and Maureen Mubonga, opposition activist Brebner Changala, and opposition party chiefs Edith Nawakwi and Danny Pule.
All suspects earlier this week were charged with spreading hate speech related to last weekend’s alleged abduction of Banda, who has since resurfaced. Mwale further said that police charged Zulu, Mubonga and Pule with proposing a tribal war.
In Zambia, espionage charges carry up to a maximum 25 years in prison upon conviction while hate speech charges carry a punishment of up to $6,000 in fines and two years in prison.
Makebi Zulu, a lawyer representing some of the suspects, all of whom are awaiting court appearances in police custody, called the charges “unacceptable” and demanded immediate courtroom hearings.
Political analyst Boniface Cheembe at the University of Zambia has urged political leaders from both the ruling United Party for National Development and the opposition to focus on improving the lives of ordinary Zambians.
“We need to do more as a country,” Cheembe said, “Our citizens need to demand more from their political leaders to focus on issues” such as economic difficulties, infrastructure needs and provision of services.
Earlier this week, President Hakainde Hichilema warned that anyone promoting hate speech and tribalism to disturb social peace would face the full force of the law.
Thursday’s arrests came barely a week after opposition Patriotic Front Secretary General Raphael Nakachinda was sentenced to 18 months of hard labor for violating a now-defunct presidential defamation law, stemming from his December 2021 allegations that Hichilema had coerced and intimidated Zambian judges into politically favorable rulings.
Human Rights Watch said Nakachinda’s sentencing has had a broad chilling effect on the right to freedom of expression in Zambia.
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Vietnam protests Chinese hospital ship deployed in South China Sea
Washington — Vietnam protested what is said was China’s violation of its sovereignty after Beijing dispatched a navy hospital ship to the Paracels, a group of small coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea currently occupied by China but claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
China Central Television first reported the story on May 21.
Doan Khac Viet, deputy spokesperson for the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said his country objected to the ship’s presence. He spoke May 23 in response to a question from the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper regarding the Youai hospital ship being sent to the archipelago, known as Hoang Sa in Vietnamese.
“Vietnam resolutely opposes any activities infringing upon Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa,” Viet emphasized.
The Youai hospital ship is under the command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command. According to a report in the Global Times, citing China Central Television, the ship sailed around the Paracels, covering around 1,000 kilometers, and stopped at some islands to provide health service and treatment to Chinese soldiers.
Viet said Vietnam “objects to any action that hinders and infringes on the sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction” of Vietnam over the Paracels in accordance with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the online VnExpress newspaper reported.
VOA contacted the Chinese foreign affairs ministry and its embassy in Washington for comment but received no response at the time of publication.
“This would appear to be a pro forma objection by Vietnam, intended to publicly respond to China’s public announcement of the hospital ship’s voyage, and thus register Hanoi’s continued claim of sovereignty over the Paracel Islands,” Raymond Powell, a fellow at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, told VOA via email.
“China consolidated its control over the Paracels 50 years ago when it seized the western islands from South Vietnam, at a time when Hanoi’s chief interest was in prosecuting its conquest of the South,” Powell said.
China has since developed and militarized its presence in the Paracels, making any change in the status quo highly unlikely.
According to Powell, “This makes Hanoi’s claims largely defensive in nature, more intended as a lawfare bulwark against future encroachments into Vietnam’s waters by staving off international recognition of a Chinese exclusive economic zone claim based on the Paracels.”
In 1959, China set up government offices in the Paracels, and in 1974, acquired and obtained full control of the islands after its naval battle against the then-South Vietnamese government.
The floating hospital, commissioned in November 2020 and equipped with a helicopter landing pad, is expected to provide support in China’s “multidimensional drills in the South China Sea,” according to China Military online.
Earlier in May, the ship took part in a series of training, including transporting the wounded in emergency situations and rescuing damaged vessels, China Central Television reported.
“As Vietnam has recently deepened its relations with both China and the U.S., I think it is a good idea for Vietnam to maintain the quo status in the South China Sea, as well as to continue to occupy its outposts in the Spratly Islands,” Hoang Viet told VOA in a recent phone interview. He is an expert on South China Sea disputes at the National University of Ho Chi Minh City.
In January, Pham Thu Hang, a spokesperson for Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Vietnam had “sufficient evidence to claim sovereignty over the islands” as it marked the 50th anniversary of China’s invasion of the Paracel Islands.
Pham spoke in Hanoi in response to reporters’ questions on Vietnam’s position concerning China’s invasion of the Hoang Sa Islands in 1974.
Four days later, the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing’s claims of the islands were “fully supported by history and jurisprudence,” the Reuters news agency reported.
“China was the first to discover, name, develop and manage these islands and archipelagos, and continues to exercise sovereign jurisdiction over them,” Wang Wenbin, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said at a regular news conference on January 24.
“China always opposes relevant countries’ illegal claims on China’s territory and will continue to firmly safeguard its sovereignty,” Wenbin said.
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Pakistan arrests 11 militants in deadly attack on Chinese engineers
Islamabad — Eleven militants accused of being involved in carrying out the deadly March suicide attack on Chinese engineers are in custody, according to Pakistani officials.
Following the arrests, Beijing urged Islamabad to continue the investigation. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Monday that China was attaching great importance to the progress made by Pakistan.
“China supports Pakistan in continuing to get to the full bottom of what happened and hunting down and bringing to justice all the perpetrators,” she said.
The suicide attack killed five Chinese engineers on March 26 along with their Pakistani driver. They were on their way to work at the largest dam at Dasu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistani officials said. A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle filled with explosives into their convoy.
Pakistan blames Afghanistan as a launching pad for militants who attack Pakistan – an accusation the Taliban has repeatedly denied. Islamabad said the suicide bomber who targeted the Chinese engineers was an Afghan national.
“The attack on the Chinese engineers at Shangla (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) is not the only attack. There are several attacks that are carried out by Afghan nationals in Pakistan, their dead bodies were there, and they were identified as Afghans,” Abdullah Khan, an Islamabad-based researcher for the Pakistan Institute of Conflict and Security Studies, told VOA.
Mounting security threats have prompted Pakistani officials to introduce security protocols requiring residential addresses of Chinese nationals and information about their mobility in the country.
Baloch separatist groups and Islamist militants have been targeting Chinese interests and personnel in Pakistan’s resources-rich southwestern Balochistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Militants associated with the Baloch separatist groups have claimed past attacks on Chinese nationals and interests.
Earlier this month, the army said its troops were carrying out 100 intelligence-based operations daily, as part of its fight against terrorism.
Militants associated with radical Islamists groups claimed an attack in 2021 targeting a bus carrying workers to the same hydropower project. The attack killed 13 people, including at least nine Chinese nationals. The two Islamist militants accused of the crime were sentenced to death for that attack.
No group has accepted the responsibility for the latest suicide attack on the Chinese engineers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pakistan announced on May 23 the government will pay $2.58 million to the victims of the March attack.
Pakistan is host to Chinese workers connected to Beijing’s mega projects under the umbrella of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), an initiative with $62 billion in overall Chinese investments. Pakistani officials say the pace on the Chinese projects has slowed in recent years.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will be visiting Beijing the first week of June to persuade China to revive CPEC, according to media reports.
This story originated in VOA’s Deewa Service.
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Coordinated effort leads to arrest of Chinese national for cyberattacks
Washington — A 35-year-old Chinese national is facing charges related to committing cybercrimes that FBI Director Christopher Wray described as “likely the world’s largest botnet ever.”
The arrest in Singapore was the result of an international coordinated effort that included law enforcement agencies from Germany, Singapore, the United States and Thailand.
YunHe Wang, arrested on May 24, is accused of being the creator of the 911 S5 botnet, a residential proxy service.
Wang, along with other unnamed parties, created the 911 S5 botnet to facilitate “cyber-attacks, large-scale fraud, child exploitation, harassment, bomb threats, and export violations,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a Department of Justice press release on Wednesday.
Wang sold access to infected IP addresses to cybercriminals in exchange for crypto or fiat currency. From these transactions, he received at least $99 million in profits, the DOJ stated.
The cybercriminals Wang transacted with were allegedly able to use the infected IP addresses to “bypass financial fraud detection systems and steal billions of dollars from financial institutions, credit card issuers, and federal lending programs,” according to the DOJ release.
The compromised IP addresses allowed Wang’s customers to create fraudulent unemployment claims that targeted pandemic relief programs. The United States estimates they lost $5.9 billion from these fraudulent claims.
Wang used his profits to buy property in China, St. Kitts and Nevis, the United States, Singapore, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. Wang also spent his money on luxury cars and watches.
Wang faces several charges including substantive computer fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Wang could face up to 65 years in prison if convicted.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Kenyan MPs probe alleged British Army crimes
Nairobi, Kenya — A Kenyan parliamentary committee is visiting central Kenya to hear from locals about the conduct of a British Army training unit that is accused of human rights violations, including the unresolved death of a woman more than ten years ago. The Kenya National Human Rights Commission prompted the inquiry by petitioning parliament to hold the British army accountable for alleged human rights abuses.
Kenya’s Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Foreign Affairs is visiting Laikipia and Samburu counties. They’re there to hear people’s complaints and look into reported abuses by the British army in the area.
The committee, which started its inquiry on Tuesday, listened to families who blame the deaths of their relatives on unattended explosives around British training camps.
The lawmakers also heard complaints of abuses at the hands of British officers, including mistreatment, torture, and unlawful detention and killings.
The committee chair, Nelson Koech, outlines explains some of the other complaints they heard from Laikipia and Samburu residents.
“We’ve listened to people from different areas, to Lolldaiga Hills, where it’s believed that officers from British Army lit fire, were burning vegetation and an entire conservancy, and driving animals out of the conservancy to where the human population is because many people have been maimed or killed by animals that now are under distress because of the training that is happening in those grounds, to many other allegations of water becoming heavily polluted. People are now starting to get effects from the fire and having chest problems,” Koech said.
In March 2021, a British training exercise caused a fire in the Lolldaiga Conservancy that lasted for several days.
Local activist James Mwangi wondered why the British army was allowed to train in water catchment areas with dangerous weapons.
“Lolldaiga supports so many water streams. Why are they allowing the army to train with chemical and poisonous weapons that they don’t know how to use,” Mwangi said.
The inquiry was prompted by a petition to the parliament from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).
Kenya has a defense cooperation agreement with the British government that allows up to 10,000 soldiers per year to conduct exercises in the East African nation.
According to the Kenyan government, the presence of the British Army Training Unit in Kenya, or BATUK, provided 3,000 people with jobs and contributed $45 million to the economies of Isiolo, Laikipia, and Samburu.
Koech says the parliamentarians will listen to all those who allegedly suffered from British Army activities and other government agencies to verify any abuses and human rights violations.
“You must remember this is one side of the story we have listened to. We will be visiting BATUK, and we will be going there personally to get information from the British army. This inquiry is important to mention that in an inquiry of this nature, the verdict of this inquiry is equivalent to the verdict of a high court of Kenya,” Koech said.
A spokesperson for the British High Commission in Kenya told the French news agency AFP that they intend to cooperate with the inquiry.
In 2012, Agnes Wanjiru was killed, allegedly by a British soldier. An investigation did not begin until 2019 and the findings of that probe were never made public.
In 2021, the Sunday Times reported that a British officer confessed to killing a 21-year-old in central Kenya to a colleague. Afterward, Kenyan police said they were reopening the inquiry. Wanjiru’s family told the parliamentary committee to take her killing seriously and remove obstacles that may stop the prosecution of the British soldier.
The killing of Wanjiru has led to tensions between Kenya and Britain regarding the jurisdiction of British soldiers who commit crimes in Kenya. The committee found that while some victims received compensation, it was usually less than what they were promised.
The committee will present its findings to the full parliament and also closely examine the Kenya’s defense cooperation agreement with the British government.
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Tribute to late Iranian president at UN stirs anger
United Nations — The U.N. General Assembly drew criticism Thursday for its tribute to the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash, with Washington boycotting the gathering.
Following a minute’s silence, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres offered his condolences to the families of the victims of the May 19 incident, as well as to the Iranian people.
“I wish to assure that the United Nations stands in solidarity with the Iranian people and in the quest for peace, development and fundamental freedoms,” Guterres said.
“For that, the United Nations will be guided by the Charter to help realize peace and security, sustainable development and human rights for all,” he added.
Asked about the U.N. chief offering condolences in the days after the leader’s death, Guterres’s official spokesman defended his position.
The secretary-general “has never been shy about expressing his deep concerns about the human rights situation in Iran, notably on the issues of women,” Stephane Dujarric said.
“It does not stop him from expressing condolences when the head of state of a Member State of this organization, and a foreign minister, with whom he met regularly … dies in a helicopter crash,” he added.
The General Assembly pays tribute to any head of state of a U.N. member country who dies in office, including Namibian President Hage Geingob, an independence stalwart, last February, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2011.
Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.N., Munir Akram, spoke for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and hailed what he called Raisi’s legacy of “socio-economic and political transformation” in Iran.
No representatives of Western countries spoke at the tribute and some, such as France and the United States, did not send representatives.
“The U.N. should be standing with the people of Iran. Raisi was involved in numerous, horrific human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killings of thousands of political prisoners in 1988,” said Nate Evans, spokesman for the U.S. delegation.
“Some of the worst human rights abuses on record took place during his tenure,” Evans added.
Outside the U.N. headquarters in New York several dozen protesters opposed to the Iranian authorities chanted “shame on U.N.”
Israel’s ambassador Gilad Erdan, who condemned the initial minute silence at the Security Council on May 20, also criticized Thursday’s event.
“The UN was founded to prevent atrocities, but today it salutes mass-murdering dictators!” he wrote on X last week.
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Far right expected to score strongly in EU legislative vote
Right wing, populist parties are expected to surge in three-day elections starting June 6th across the European Union for the bloc’s parliament — capitalizing on voter anger and distrust of mainstream parties. Analysts predict the fallout could influence EU-wide policies like the environment, the economy, immigration and foreign affairs, including potentially waning support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Paris correspondent Lisa Bryant reports.
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Africa leaders call for reform of ‘unjust’ debt structure to accelerate growth
NAIROBI, KENY — Africa has what it takes to transform and grow its economy but faces rigid barriers, including a sometimes unfriendly global financial architecture, say leaders who gathered in Nairobi this week for the African Development Bank’s annual summit.
While the continent’s average GDP growth is estimated to have slowed in 2023, African economies remain resilient, Africa Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said at the meeting.
“The African Development Bank projects that Africa’s real GDP growth will rise from 3.1 percent in 2023 to 3.7 percent in 2024 and 4.3 percent in 2025. Importantly, more than half — that is 31 countries — achieved higher GDP growth rates in 2023 than in 2022,” Adesina said.
GDP, or gross domestic product, is used to measure the economic health of a country.
As Africa’s bank, the AFDB — which turns 60 this year — has the responsibility to mobilize financing to develop the continent, said Adesina, the former Nigerian agriculture minister.
That work is done, he added, against the backdrop of major global challenges including “heightened geopolitical tensions, the disruption of global value chains, rising food and energy crisis, increasing debt service payments and, of course, the devastating effects of climate change … from droughts to floods, cyclones to unpredictable weather patterns, the loss of lives and poverty. And enormous fiscal cost to countries.”
Heavy rains and flash floods recently killed hundreds and displaced thousands across East Africa, where the U.N. estimates that 1.6 million people were affected.
In Kenya, the rains killed more than 280 people, displaced about 53,000, and destroyed thousands of crops.
Kenya’s President William Ruto was among those who attended the summit, along with leaders and officials from Zimbabwe, Somalia, Namibia, Rwanda, Congo-Brazzaville, Libya and others.
Ruto said with the world’s 10 fastest growing economies being in Africa, the continent has what it takes to succeed, but it faces the rigid barrier of the global financial architecture that is misaligned with the continent’s aspirations.
“We routinely borrow from international markets at rates far above those paid by the rest of the world, often up to 8 or 10 times more,” he said.
Ruto, Adesina and other leaders called for a reform of the global financial architecture to mobilize even more financial resources they say are needed to accelerate Africa’s growth and development.
“The debt problem faced by many countries, which consume the largest share of national resources and starve [the] development agenda, we are a direct result of [this] unjust financial architecture,” Ruto said. “This situation not only makes debt unsustainable but also undermines growth, prevents countries from investing in resilience.”
That sentiment was echoed by African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, who said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which tested economies worldwide and especially in Africa, is still being felt.
He said that all of the African Union’s member states have been caught in the spiral of an ever-pernicious debt which keeps them under the control of lenders with suffocating demands, despite numerous promises to alleviate this burden.
An economic outlook published during the summit by the bank lays out a mixture of policies that are needed to address some of the continent’s challenges. These include promoting local production and diversifying import sources to address rising food prices, and helping reform the current global financial architecture to help with debt restructuring.
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From laundries to almond boneless chicken, Chinese Americans make mark in Detroit
The Midwestern U.S. city of Detroit is known as the home of American automakers. What’s less known are the contributions of the Chinese residents in the city’s history. Some of them did the laundry of the autoworkers and others even cooked up what’s become a local favorite. VOA’s Chris Casquejo has more on Detroit’s two Chinatowns and what happened to them. Videographer and video editor: Yu Chen
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California constructing largest bridge for wildlife in the world
In early May, the state of California announced the estimated opening of what will be the world’s largest bridge for animals. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, just outside of Los Angeles, will offer wildlife safe passage across a ten-lane highway. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Vazgen Varzhabetian.
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