Moldovan president visits Kyiv to talk energy, security

Posted on by SeeEU

KYIV, UKRAINE — Moldovan President Maia Sandu visited Kyiv on Saturday for talks with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid growing tensions in Transnistria, a pro-Russian separatist enclave of Moldova that neighbors Ukraine.

The territory, which has a population of half a million, has seen heating, hot water and electricity cut-offs since the start of the year because a Kyiv-Moscow gas transit contract that had allowed Russian gas to flow there has expired.

“We’ll discuss security, energy, infrastructure, trade and mutual support on the EU path,” Sandu wrote on X as she arrived in the Ukrainian capital.

There was a demonstration in Transnistria on Friday to call on Moldova to facilitate the transit of Russian gas and end the energy crisis, local media reported.

Transnistria used to receive gas from Russia via a pipeline that crossed Ukraine and Moldova.

Kyiv has refused to renew the transit contract, which expired on Jan. 1, abruptly ending Russian gas supplies to Transnistria, which has declared a state of emergency.

The rest of Moldova has been spared gas cuts thanks to gas and electricity imports from neighboring Romania.

With Ukraine’s struggle against a Russian invasion nearly in its fourth year, Moldova is afraid the conflict could expand onto its territory in case of Russian attempts to destabilize Transnistria.

In an interview with AFP, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean on Wednesday accused Moscow of trying to generate “instability” in Moldova. He said the crisis could only be resolved if Russian troops stationed in Transnistria since a war against Moldova in 1992 are pulled out.
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Drone attack on hospital in Sudan’s Darfur kills 30, source says

Posted on by SeeAF

PORT SUDAN, SUDAN — A drone attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in El-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region killed 30 people and injured dozens, a medical source said Saturday.

The bombing of the Saudi Hospital on Friday evening “led to the destruction” of the hospital’s building where emergency cases were treated, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation.

It was not immediately clear which of Sudan’s warring sides had launched the attack.

Since April 2023, the Sudanese army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.

They have besieged El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, since May, but have not managed to claim the city, where army-aligned militias have repeatedly pushed them back.

According to the medical source, the same building had been hit by an RSF drone “a few weeks ago.”

Attacks on health care have been rampant in El-Fasher, where medical charity Doctors Without Borders said this month the Saudi Hospital was “the only public hospital with surgical capacity still standing.”

Across the country, up to 80% of health care facilities have been forced out of service, according to official figures.

The war has so far killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million and brought millions to the brink of mass starvation.

In the area around El-Fasher, famine has already taken hold in three displacement camps — Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam — and is expected to expand to five more areas including the city itself by May, according to a U.N.-backed assessment.
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Buoyed by Trump’s promises, Uzbeks seek closer ties to US

Posted on by SeeUS

TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN/WASHINGTON — Uzbekistan is expected to push to deepen relations with the United States in the coming year, a position that is broadly popular among Uzbeks across the country, VOA found during a recent reporting trip.

With more than 37 million people, Uzbekistan, Washington’s strategic partner in Central Asia, accounts for more than half of the population of the region, which includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

“I understand that the U.S. prefers dealing with us in the C5+1 format — five republics plus Uncle Sam — but we want more bilateral attention, at least for now,” said Sherbek Artikov, a young Uzbek hoping to study political science in America.

Artikov is aware that many of his fellow Uzbeks are often denied U.S. visas and that hundreds of them have been deported since 2019 as undocumented immigrants. Yet, he remains optimistic: “I believe over time, Washington will see that Uzbeks are not only reliable strategic partners but also hardworking, compassionate people — both as migrants and visitors.”

In recent conversations with a VOA reporter traveling across Tashkent, Ferghana, Bukhara, Samarkand, and Surkhandarya, most Uzbeks expressed enthusiasm about U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. They hoped his administration would foster stronger connections with the people of Uzbekistan, not just its government.

From journalists and activists to entrepreneurs and educators, they want Trump to fulfill his promises to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“We are a peaceful region, despite the continuous turmoil in neighboring Afghanistan, but these conflicts deeply trouble us,” said Zuhra Amonova, an English teacher in Bukhara.

Calls for new approach

As relations between Washington and Central Asian nations have evolved, there have been some calls by American experts for creating a new diplomatic approach, shifting the U.S. government away from grouping the countries with South Asian nations and instead aligning them more with the Caucasus.

Veteran bureaucrats who have worked with these regions at the State Department and the Pentagon told VOA that Washington’s view of this part of the world has increasingly been seen through a Russian lens since the U.S. exit from Afghanistan.

Ikboljon Qoraboyev, a professor at Maqsut Narikbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, says the Central Asia-Caucasus proposal reflects the region’s crucial role between China and Russia and the growing significance of the Middle Corridor, a transit route across the Caspian Sea that carries goods westward to European markets.

“Central Asian policymakers may welcome the change, as their previous alignment with South Asia felt misaligned with their identity,” Qoraboyev told VOA. “But U.S. policymakers must recognize each country’s distinct interests, rather than relying solely on regional frameworks.”

Like many experts VOA spoke to, he points out that Central Asian governments are eager for closer ties with the U.S., seeking investment, political support, development aid, and expanded educational and technological exchanges.

These are among the key factors in the policy recommendations by Eric Rudenshiold, a former White House, Congress, and USAID official, now a senior fellow at the Caspian Policy Center.

“Successful U.S. engagement in the Trans-Caspian region will preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Caucasus and Central Asia,” Rudenshiold said at a forum in Washington ahead of the inauguration.

He emphasized that such an approach would benefit the U.S. while creating opportunities in energy development, trade, and connectivity.

Rudenshiold believes that promoting American values in this way could spur economic and political reforms in the region and shape democratic institutions.

“The Trans-Caspian region is becoming a vital geopolitical and economic crossroads, important to U.S. interests as it counters Russia’s restrictions on the region’s gas, oil, and uranium supplies and China’s efforts to control next-generation energy,” he wrote in a strategic brief.

Washington needs security agreements and closer partnerships in the region, Rudenshiold argued, “due to shared concerns over renewed terrorist threats and its geostrategic location bordering Russia, China, Afghanistan, and Iran.”

Leaders encourage Trump visit

In congratulatory messages to Trump, regional leaders have invited him to visit. No U.S. president has ever toured Central Asia and the Caucasus.

In a letter to Trump, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev wrote that his country “deeply values and appreciates the U.S. policy of consistently supporting the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of our nation.”

He credited Trump’s first term for renewing the strategic partnership, adding: “We are committed to further developing our long-term cooperation within bilateral and multilateral frameworks.”

The Trump administration has yet to outline its priorities both in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Rudenshiold and his center are pressing to appoint a special representative for these regions.

Javlon Vakhabov, Uzbekistan’s former ambassador to the U.S. and Canada who now heads the International Institute for Central Asia in Tashkent, also advocates for deeper political dialogue.

“In an era of global uncertainty, Central Asia seeks to collectively champion its interests on the international stage and coordinate efforts to address shared challenges,” Vakhabov told VOA. “A high-level U.S. visit to Uzbekistan would underscore the region’s importance.”

Vakhabov sees great potential in the Middle Corridor, where secondary routes via Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan could strengthen supply chains and diversify transportation lines.

He highlights the Uzbekistan–Afghanistan—Pakistan railway, “which will reduce delivery times from 35 days to just three and cut shipping costs by two-thirds.”

Vakhabov agrees with Rudenshiold that U.S. support for such initiatives would enhance regional stability and attract more American businesses. Touting Uzbekistan’s natural resources, he underlines that collaboration on essential minerals and rare earth elements could help the U.S. strengthen “defense, manufacturing, and technological competitiveness.”

Some yearn to learn 

The U.S. has a long history of cooperation with Central Asian countries on counterterrorism and border security. Vakhabov recommends expanding that cooperation “since they serve common interests.”

The Human Rights Watch 2025 annual report describes Central Asia as a region where autocratic regimes systematically violate freedoms, reforms are stalled or superficial, and security forces hold significant power, undermining the rule of law.

Uzbeks interviewed by VOA this winter expressed mixed views on the U.S. role in promoting justice and freedom, but most admired its democratic system.

“We need to grasp how democracy works in practice,” said Dilrabo Zaripova, a small business owner in Samarkand. “From what we saw in this U.S. presidential election, it requires a strong will and commitment. I don’t think we’re there yet. But having close ties with America would help us learn from its resilience and complex experience.”
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One of last Auschwitz survivors makes telling the stories his mission

Posted on by SeeEU

HAIFA, ISRAEL — Naftali Furst will never forget his first view of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, on Nov. 3, 1944. He was 12 years old.

SS soldiers threw open the doors of the cattle car, where he was crammed in with his mother, father, brother, and more than 80 others. He remembers the tall chimneys of the crematoria, flames roaring from the top.

There were dogs and officers yelling in German “Get out, get out!” forcing people to jump onto the infamous ramp where Nazi doctor Josef Mengele separated children from parents.

Furst, now 92, is one of a dwindling number of Holocaust survivors able to share first-person accounts of the horrors they endured, as the world marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazis’ most notorious death camp. Furst is returning to Auschwitz for the annual occasion, his fourth trip to the camp.

Each time he returns, he thinks of those first moments there.

“We knew we were going to certain death,” he said from his home in Haifa, northern Israel, earlier this month. “In Slovakia, we knew that people who went to Poland didn’t return.”

Strokes of luck

Furst and his family arrived at the entrance to Auschwitz on Nov. 3, 1944 -– one day after Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler ordered the cessation of the use of the gas chambers ahead of their demolition, as the Soviet troops neared. The order meant that his family wasn’t immediately killed. It was one of many small bits of luck and coincidences that allowed Furst to survive.

“For 60 years, I didn’t talk about the Holocaust, for 60 years I didn’t speak a word of German even though it’s my mother tongue,” said Furst.

In 2005, he was invited to attend the ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald, where he was liberated on April 11, 1945, after being moved there from Auschwitz. He realized there were fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors who could give first-person accounts, and he decided to throw himself into memorial work. This will be his fourth trip to a ceremony at Auschwitz, having also met Pope Francis there in 2016.

Some 6 million European Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust — the mass murder of Jews and other groups before and during World War II. Soviet Red Army troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on Jan. 27, 1945, and the day has become known as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. An estimated 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Just 220,000 Holocaust survivors are still alive, according to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, and more than 20% are over 90.

A meeting place after the war

Furst, originally from Bratislava, then part of Czechoslovakia, was just 6 when the Nazis first started implementing measures against the country’s Jews.

He spent ages 9 to 12 in four different concentration camps, including Auschwitz. His parents had planned to jump off of the cattle car on the way to the camp, but people were packed so tightly they couldn’t reach the doors.

His father instructed the entire family, no matter what, to meet at 11 Sulekova St. in Bratislava after the war. Furst and his brother were separated from their mother. After numbers were tattooed on their arms, they also were taken from their father. They lived in Block 29, without many other children. As the Soviet army closed in on the area, so close they could hear the booms from the tanks, Furst and his brother, Shmuel, were forced to join a dangerous journey toward Buchenwald, marching for three days in the cold and snow. Anyone who lagged behind was shot.

“We had to prove our desire to live, to do another step and another step and keep going,” he said. Many people gave up, longing to end the hunger and thirst and cold, and just sat down, where they were shot by the guards.

“We had this command from my father: ‘You must adapt and survive, and even if you’re suffering, you must come back,'” Furst recalled.

Furst and his brother survived the march, and an open-car train ride in the snow, but they were separated at the next camp. When Furst was liberated from Buchenwald, captured in a famous photo that included Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel in the bunkbeds, he was sure he was alone in the world.

But within months, just as Furst’s father had instructed, the four family members reunited at the address they memorized, the home of family friends. The rest of their family –- grandparents, aunts, uncles — were all killed. His family later moved to Israel, where he married, had a daughter, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, with another on the way.

‘We couldn’t imagine this tragedy’

On Oct. 7, 2023, Furst awoke to the Hamas attack on southern Israel, and immediately thought of his granddaughter, Mika Peleg, and her husband, and their 2-year-old son, who live in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz on the border with Gaza where scores of people were killed or kidnapped.

“It just kept getting worse all day, we couldn’t get any information what was happening with them,” said Furst. “We saw the horrors, that we couldn’t imagine this type of horror is happening in 2023, 80 years after the Holocaust.”

Toward midnight on Oct. 7, Peleg’s neighbors sent word that the family had survived. They spent almost 20 hours locked inside their safe room with no food or ability to communicate. Her husband’s parents, who both lived on Kfar Aza, were killed.

Despite his close connection, comparisons between Oct. 7 and the Holocaust make Furst uncomfortable.

“It’s awful and terrible and a catastrophe, and hard to describe, but it’s not a Holocaust,” he said. As awful as the Hamas attack was for his granddaughter and others, the Holocaust was a multi-year “death industry” with massive infrastructure and camps that could kill 10,000 people a day for months at a time, he said.

Furst, who was previously involved in coexistence work between Jews and Arabs, said his heart also goes out to Palestinians in Gaza, although he believes Israel needed to respond militarily. “I feel the pain of everyone who is suffering, everywhere in the world, because I think I know what suffering is,” he said.

Furst knows that he is one of very few Holocaust survivors still able to travel to Auschwitz, so it’s important for him to be present there to mark the 80th anniversary.

These days, he is telling his story as many times as he can, taking part in documentaries and movies, serving as the president of the Buchenwald Prisoner’s Association and working to create a memorial statue at the Sered’ concentration camp in Slovakia.

He feels a responsibility to be the mouthpiece for the millions who were killed, and people can relate to the story of a single person more than the hard numbers of 6 million deaths, he said.

“Whenever I finish, I tell the youth, the fact that you were able to see living testimony (from a Holocaust survivor) puts a requirement on you more than someone who did not: you take it on your shoulders the obligation to continue to tell this.” 
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US pressure mounts on Thailand over 48 Uyghur detainees as hunger strike continues

Posted on by SeeEA

WASHINGTON — The plight of 48 Uyghur detainees in Thailand has drawn international scrutiny as the group’s hunger strike protesting their possible return to China stretches into day 15 with the U.S. State Department, U.N. officials and activists voicing concern.

“By international human rights standards, such a prolonged hunger strike requires authorities to address grievances and ensure the detainees’ well-being,” said Rushan Abbas, executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs and chairperson of the World Uyghur Congress executive committee.

The group of Uyghurs has been held in Bangkok’s Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) since 2014, fleeing alleged persecution in China’s Xinjiang region. After more than a decade of detention there, their future remains precarious amid mounting calls for Thailand to uphold its human rights commitments.

US and Thai response

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA late Thursday that Washington is “following this situation closely” and “deeply concerned by the reports.”

The spokesperson told VOA that the United States is engaging with the Royal Thai Government on the matter.

“We continue to urge the Royal Thai Government to respect the principle of non-refoulement and to uphold its respective non-refoulment obligations under international law,” the spokesperson said. “As Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio indicated during his confirmation hearing, he is prepared to use diplomacy and leverage the longstanding U.S.-Thailand alliance to engage the Royal Thai Government on the reported imminent repatriation of Uyghur detainees to China.”

At a press conference on Friday, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said “no decision has been made” regarding the Uyghur detainees.

“Any decision on this matter will be based on relevant domestic legal frameworks, human rights principles, especially the principle of non-refoulement, including Thailand’s obligation to refrain from returning people to where they will face torture or enforced disappearance,” said Nikorndej Balankura, the ministry’s director general of information. “For the time being no decision has been made. I can assure their safety.”

Advocates sound alarm

Despite assurances from Thai officials, human rights advocates remain skeptical, warning of the severe consequences if the Uyghur detainees are repatriated to China.

The 48 men, arrested in 2014 alongside over 300 other Uyghurs attempting to cross into Malaysia via human trafficking routes from China’s Yunnan province, have been detained in Thailand for more than a decade. In 2015, 109 of the Uyghurs were forcibly deported to China, sparking international outrage, with their fates still unknown. Meanwhile, 173 women and children were resettled in Turkey, and five detainees, including two children, have died since 2014.

Abbas expressed alarm over the uncertain future of the Uyghur detainees, drawing a parallel to the “devastating precedent” set in 2015.

“These 48 men could face the same dark fate as those deported nearly a decade ago. The Thai government must not repeat the mistakes of 2015,” Abbas said. “At that time, despite making similar assurances as today’s, Thai authorities sent 109 Uyghur men to China. They likely disappeared into the black hole of a regime infamous for torture and genocide.”

Abbas also cited concerns that the deportations could occur imminently, possibly before the Thai prime minister’s scheduled visit to China on Feb. 4.

“It seems they are trying to gain leverage from China by acting before the visit,” she told VOA in a phone interview.

The stakes in 2025, Abbas emphasized, are even higher than in 2015.

“If Thailand chooses to deport these Uyghurs despite the U.S. genocide determination and the U.N. finding of crimes against humanity, it would be a grave violation of international law and an affront to the principles of human rights,” she said. “Thailand should prepare for a tsunami of condemnation and face severe economic and political consequences.”

In 2021, the U.S. formally designated China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide, and in a 2022 report, the U.N. human rights office stated that China’s actions in Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity, including torture, forced labor, and forced sterilization.

China’s response

China has repeatedly denied the U.N. and U.S. determinations of genocide, asserting that its actions in Xinjiang are aimed at combating separatism, extremism and terrorism – what Beijing refers to as the “three evils.”

The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok weighed in last Wednesday, alleging the Uyghur detainees had terrorist affiliations.

“A small number of individuals, enticed by external forces, fled abroad and even joined the ‘East Turkestan Islamic Movement’ [ETIM], a terrorist organization recognized by the United Nations, becoming terrorists themselves,” the embassy stated on its website.

However, the narrative surrounding ETIM has evolved. While the group was designated a terrorist organization by the U.N. in 2002, the U.S. delisted it in 2020. A report by the Congressional Research Service at the time cited a lack of “clear and convincing evidence of ETIM’s existence.”

Health deterioration

According to U.N. experts, the detainees’ health is rapidly deteriorating. In a statement earlier this week, they said 23 of the 48 suffer from serious health conditions including diabetes, kidney disfunction, lower body paralysis, skin diseases, gastrointestinal illnesses, and heart and lung conditions.

“It is essential they be provided with the necessary and appropriate medical care,” the report said.

U.S. Representative Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a statement on Wednesday condemning any potential deportation.

“If these Uyghurs are deported back to the PRC, Thailand would be violating the customary practice of nonrefoulement and its commitments as State Party to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,” he said, using the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

Meeks called on the Thai government to guarantee the detainees’ protection, provide them with access to asylum procedures, and ensure they receive the medical care they need.

Nike Ching and Rattaphol Onsanit contributed to this report.
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App provides immediate fire information to Los Angeles residents

Posted on by SeeUS

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — From his home in northern California, Nick Russell, a former farm manager, is monitoring the Los Angeles-area fires.

He knows that about 600 kilometers south, people in Los Angeles are relying on his team’s live neighborhood-by-neighborhood updates on fire outbreaks, smoke direction, surface wind predictions and evacuation routes.

Russell is vice president of operations at Watch Duty, a free app that tracks fires and other natural disasters. It relies on a variety of data sources such as cameras and sensors throughout the state, government agencies, first responders, a core of volunteers, and its own team of reporters.

An emergency at his house, for example, would be “much different” from one at his neighbor’s house .4 kilometers away, Russell said. “That is true for communities everywhere, and that’s where technology really comes in.”

Watch Duty’s delivery of detailed localized information is one reason for its success with its 7 million users, many of whom downloaded the app in recent weeks.

It acts as a virtual emergency operations center, culling and verifying data points.

Watch Duty’s success points to the promise that technologies such as artificial intelligence and sensors will give residents and first responders the real-time information they need to survive and fight natural disasters.

Google and other firms have invested in technology to track fires. Several startup firms are also looking for ways to use AI, sensors and other technologies in natural disasters.

Utility firms work with Gridware, a company that places AI-enhanced sensors on power lines to detect a tree branch touching the line or any other vibrations that could indicate a problem.

Among Watch Duty’s technology partners is ALERTCalifornia, run by the University of San Diego, which has a network of more than 1,000 AI-enhanced cameras throughout the state looking for smoke. The cameras often detect fires before people call emergency lines, Russell said.

Together with ALERTCalifornia’s information, Russell said, “we have become the eyes and ears” of fires.

Another Watch Duty partner is N-5 Sensors, a Maryland-based firm. Its sensors, which are placed in the ground, detect smoke, heat and other signs of fire.

“They’re like a nose, if you will, so they detect smoke anomalies and different chemical patterns in the air,” Russell said.

Watch Duty is available in 22 states, mostly in the western U.S., and plans to expand to all states.

While fire has been its focus, Watch Duty also plans to track other natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis, Russell said.

“Fire is not in the name,” he said. “We want to be that one-stop shop where people can go in those times of duress, to have a source that makes it clear and concise what’s happening.” 
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Russian deepfake videos target Ukrainian refugees, including teen

Posted on by SeeEU

New online videos recently investigated by VOA’s Russian and Ukrainian services show how artificial intelligence is likely being used to try to create provocative deepfakes that target Ukrainian refugees. 

In one example, a video appears to be a TV news report about a teenage Ukrainian refugee and her experience studying at a private school in the United States.

But the video then flips to footage of crowded school corridors and packets of crack cocaine, while a voiceover that sounds like the girl calls American public schools dangerous and invokes offensive stereotypes about African Americans. 

“I realize it’s quite expensive [at private school],” she says. “But it wouldn’t be fair if my family was made to pay for my safety. Let Americans do it.” 

Those statements are total fabrications. Only the first section — footage of the teenager — is real. 

The offensive voiceover was likely created using artificial intelligence (AI) to realistically copy her voice, resulting in something known as a deepfake. 

And it appears to be part of the online Russian information operation called Matryoshka —‚ named for the Russian nesting doll — that is now targeting Ukrainian refugees. 

VOA found that the campaign pushed two deepfake videos that aimed to make Ukrainian refugees look greedy and ungrateful, while also spreading deepfakes that appeared to show authoritative Western journalists claiming that Ukraine — and not Russia — was the country spreading falsehoods. 

The videos reflect the most recent strategy among Russia’s online disinformation campaign, according to Antibot4Navalny, an X account that researches Russian information operations and has been widely cited by leading Western news outlets. 

Russia’s willingness to target refugees, including a teenager, shows just how far the Kremlin, which regularly denies having a role in disinformation, is prepared to go in attempting to undermine Western support for Ukraine. 

Targeting the victims  

A second video targeting Ukrainian refugees begins with real footage from a news report in which a Ukrainian woman expresses gratitude for clothing donations and support that Denmark has provided to refugees. 

The video then switches to generic footage and a probable deepfake as the woman’s voice begins to complain that Ukrainian refugees are forced to live in small apartments and wear used clothing. 

VOA is not sharing either video to protect the identities of the refugees depicted in the deepfakes, but both used stolen footage from reputable international media outlets.  

That technique — altering the individual’s statements while replicating their voice — is new for Matryoshka, Antibot4Navalny told VOA.  

“In the last few weeks, almost all the clips have been built according to this scheme,” the research group wrote. 

But experts say the underlying strategy of spoofing real media reports and targeting refugees is nothing new. 

After Russia’s deadly April 2022 missile strike on Ukraine’s Kramatorsk railway station, for example, the Kremlin created a phony BBC news report blaming Ukrainians for the strike, according to Roman Osadchuk, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. 

During that same period, he noted, Russia also spread disinformation in Moldova aimed at turning the local population against Ukrainian refugees.

“Unfortunately, refugees are a very popular target for Russian disinformation campaigns, not only for attacks on the host community … but also in Ukraine,” Osadchuk told VOA. 

When such disinformation operations are geared toward a Ukrainian audience, he added, the goal is often to create a clash between those who left Ukraine and those who stayed behind. 

Deepfakes of journalists, however, appear designed to influence public opinion in a different way. One video that purports to contain audio of Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins, for example, claims that Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is just a bluff. 

“The whole world is watching Ukraine’s death spasms,” Higgins appears to say. “There’s nothing further to discuss.” 

In another video, Shayan Sardarizadeh, a senior journalist at BBC Verify, appears to say that “Ukraine creates fakes so that fact-checking organizations blame Russia,” something he then describes as part of a “global hoax.” 

In fact, both videos appear to be deepfakes created according to the same formula as the ones targeting refugees. 

Higgins tells VOA that the entirety of the audio impersonation of his own voice appears to be a deepfake. He suggests the goal of the video was to engage factcheckers and get them to accidentally boost its viewership. 

“I think it’s more about boosting their stats so [the disinformation actors] can keep milking the Russian state for money to keep doing it,” he told VOA by email. 

Sardarizadeh did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.  

Fake video, real harm  

The rapid expansion of AI over the past few years has drawn increased attention to the problem of deepfake videos and AI images, particularly when these technologies are used to create non-consensual, sexually explicit imagery. 

Researchers have estimated that over 90% of deepfakes online are sexually explicit. They have been used both against ordinary women and girls and celebrities. 

Deepfakes also have been used to target politicians and candidates for public office. It remains unclear, however, whether they have actually influenced public opinion or election outcomes. 

Researchers from Microsoft’s Theat Analysis Center have found that “fully synthetic” videos of world leaders are often not convincing and are easily debunked. But they also concluded that deepfake audio is often more effective.

The four videos pushed by Matryoshka — which primarily uses deepfake audio — show that the danger of deepfakes isn’t restricted to explicit images or impersonations of politicians. And if your image is available online, there isn’t much you can do to fully protect yourself. 

Today, there’s always a risk in “sharing any information publicly, including your voice, appearance, or pictures,” Osadchuk said. 

The damage to individuals can be serious.   

Belle Torek, an attorney who specializes in tech policy and civil rights, said that people whose likenesses are used without consent often experience feelings of violation, humiliation, helplessness and fear. 

“They tend to report feeling that their trust has been violated. Knowing that their image is being manipulated to spread lies or hate can exacerbate existing trauma,” she said. “And in this case here, I think that those effects are going to be amplified for these [refugee] communities, who are already enduring displacement and violence.” 

How effective are deepfakes? 

While it is not difficult to understand the potential harm of deepfakes, it is more challenging to assess their broader reach and impact. 

An X post featur phony videos of refugees received over 55,000 views. That represents significant spread, according to Olga Tokariuk, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. 

“It is not yet viral content, but it is no longer marginal content,” she said. 

Antibot4Navalny, on the other hand, believes that Russian disinformation actors are largely amplifying the X posts using other controlled accounts and very few real people are seeing them. 

But even if large numbers of real people did view the deepfakes, that doesn’t necessarily mean the videos achieved the Kremlin’s goals. 

“It is always difficult … to prove with 100% correlation the impact of these disinformation campaigns on politics,” Tokariuk said. 

 Mariia Ulianovska contributed to this report.
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What Rubio’s term as US secretary of state could mean for Africa

Posted on by SeeAF

Marco Rubio, the new U.S. secretary of state, has not been specific about his Africa policy, but South Africa’s president says he is confident in his country’s relationship with the U.S. under President Donald Trump, as Kate Bartlett reports from Johannesburg. Camera: Zaheer Cassim.
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Executive Orders: The Presidential Power

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. government consists of three branches designed to keep each other in check, with Congress responsible for passing legislation. But presidents have some power to unilaterally direct government policy by using executive orders. 
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Nigerian journalist misleads on Trump’s ability to travel internationally

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Some countries have laws that refuse entry to convicted felons. They can still allow entry to a felon with a valid reason. Canada, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom have already invited Trump.
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Ahead of election, media group accuses Belarus of crimes against humanity

Posted on by SeeEU

WASHINGTON — Ahead of Belarus’ presidential election this weekend, a media advocacy group filed a complaint Friday with the International Criminal Court accusing the country’s longtime leader of crimes against humanity against journalists.

The complaint, filed by Reporters Without Borders, known by French acronym RSF, accuses President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating a harsh crackdown on independent media that began after he claimed victory in the disputed 2020 election.

That election was widely seen as rigged, with opposition candidates jailed or forced to flee. Security forces violently suppressed the subsequent mass protests.

Paris-based RSF cited in its complaint the imprisoning and persecution of journalists and displacement of media workers as examples of crimes against humanity.

“RSF calls on the ICC Prosecutor to include these crimes against journalists in its preliminary investigation,” Antoine Bernard, RSF’s director of advocacy and assistance, said in a statement.

Since the crackdown on independent media began, Belarus has ranked among the worst jailers of journalists in the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Belarusian media experts say the dire environment has made it harder to access credible information.

“The Belarusian information space is tightly controlled by the government,” Natalia Belikova, the head of international cooperation at Press Club Belarus, told VOA from Warsaw.

Repression against journalists and activists has been increasing in the lead up to the election, she said. Press Club Belarus counts more than 40 journalists currently jailed in the country.

The European Parliament and exiled Belarusian leader Svetlana Tikhanovskayahave condemned the upcoming election in Belarus as a sham.

Since 2020, the Belarusian government has pressured independent media through raids on news outlets, blocking websites and designating media organizations as “extremist.”

The harsh environment forced some reporters to quit their jobs. Meanwhile, hundreds of other journalists fled into exile, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

“For five years, the Belarusian regime has systematically persecuted independent voices, starting with journalists,” Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement.

Belikova said she thinks the complaint to the ICC is significant.

“On the level of raising the profile of repression in Belarus, especially against journalists and free press, I think this is a very important move,” she said.

But Belikova added that she wasn’t sure whether the complaint will improve the crisis facing Belarusian journalists.

The office of the ICC prosecutor said it does not comment on complaints but confirmed it had received one from RSF.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment for this story.

The assault on independent media has created an environment where state-run propaganda can thrive, according to analysts.

Beginning last week, the Belarusian state-run television network ONT has aired a series of propaganda films that feature three jailed journalists. The journalists are seen in prison facilities, looking emaciated and exhausted as they are asked questions.

The journalists — Ihar Losik and Andrey Kuznechyk, who work for VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Ihar Karney, who previously contributed to RFE/RL — are jailed on charges that press freedom groups view as politically motivated.

The ONT propaganda series accused the journalists of trying to “set Belarus on fire.”

“It is a very bad and malicious practice. It is against all human rights,” Belikova said about the interviews.

Belikova said the interviews were likely intended to discredit RFE/RL in the eyes of Belarusians. RFE/RL’s Belarusian Service is one of the main independent outlets delivering independent news to people inside the country.

RFE/RL said it had no comment on the interview series.

Despite the proliferation of state-run propaganda, Belarusians still regularly access banned news sites.

The five biggest sites had over 17 million visits in December 2023, according to a 2024 JX Fund report. Belarus has a population of around 9 million people.
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Lunar New Year travel offers boost to China’s economic woes

Posted on by SeeEA

China’s annual mass migration ahead of the Lunar New Year will peak with billions of trips anticipated during this year’s holiday, which begins Tuesday.

An estimated 9 billion trips are expected. This year’s holiday lasts from Jan. 28 through Feb. 4 and marks the arrival of the Year of the Snake. Authorities in China extended the annual break an extra day, so the public holiday will last eight days this year.

During the holiday, travel is expected to pick up domestically and internationally. The government said it expects trips by train to surpass 510 million, with 90 million more traveling by air. Inside the country, most will travel by car.

For trips overseas, travel to Southeast Asia has surged, with ticket volumes to Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia rising by more than 50%, according to data from the World Travel and Tourism Council. Additionally, demand for travel to Hong Kong has nearly doubled, and Japan is seeing a 58% increase in airline ticket purchases.

While the Lunar New Year is known as a festive time characterized by colorful lanterns, parades and lion dances, it holds more than just cultural significance to Chinese authorities who see the period as an opportunity to boost a sluggish economy.

That is one key reason authorities increased the holiday to eight days. They also launched several efforts to help revive weak consumer spending, such as promoting winter-themed holiday destinations and ensuring affordable airfares, according to officials at a State Council press conference in Beijing.

Despite the efforts, Reuters reported businesses and consumers appear to be spending less than usual during the holiday season, citing concerns over a prolonged property slump and worries over job security.

Throughout the past year, China has implemented a series of measures aimed at addressing those concerns, including stimulus measures such as cutting interest rates, increasing pensions and widening trade-in programs for consumer goods.

One industry that appears to have gotten a boost from the festival season is cinema.

The film industry in China had struggled recently, seeing a 22.6% decrease in total box office revenue in 2024. However, according to data from Maoyan, a Chinese ticketing platform, movie tickets exceeded $55 million by Jan. 23, the fastest presales for the Lunar New Year season.

A large part of that increased demand has been from the film “Legends of the Condor Heroes,” starring Xiao Zhan, an actor and singer who is also a brand ambassador for luxury goods companies such as Gucci and Tod’s.

Shops and restaurants also hope to see an increase in spending that mirrors the film industry over the course of the holiday.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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Court bars Oath Keepers founder from Washington without approval

Posted on by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Friday barred Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes from entering Washington without the court’s approval after U.S. President Donald Trump commuted the far-right extremist group leader’s 18-year prison sentence for orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Capitol four years ago.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta issued the order two days after Rhodes visited the Capitol, where he met with at least one lawmaker, chatted with others and defended his actions during a mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021. Rhodes was released from a Maryland prison a day earlier.

Mehta’s order also applies to other Oath Keepers members who were convicted of charges that they participated in a violent plot to attack the Capitol.
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Chocolate industry braces as Ivory Coast expects dire cocoa crop

Posted on by SeeAF

Ivory Coast expects to record one of the worst mid-crop cocoa harvests of the last 15 years this season with production seen no higher than 300,000 metric tons compared with a yearly average of 500,000 tons, regulator and industry sources said.

A poor harvest could add upward pressure to cocoa prices, which are already around record highs after nearly tripling last year. Analysts have said the chocolate industry is in for a rough 2025 that could see shelf prices increase by a percentage in the teens.

Ivory Coast is the world’s top cocoa producer, but a lack of rain and excessive heat since November across all its 13 growing regions have stalled development of the mid-crop harvest, which is meant to start in April.

The unfavorable conditions mean that the first beans will start to arrive in ports in June at the earliest, provided the weather improves and rains return in the coming weeks, the sources said.

“There is no sign of any production at all on almost any plantation in the country,” said a pod counter who had just visited Ivory Coast farms.

His words echo those of two regulator officials, who said that after touring farms their team decided to lower the outlook for cocoa production to 300,000 metric tons from 400,000 tons.

“Like everyone else, we’re seeing the same thing. The mid-crop harvest will be one of the worst in 15 years,” one of the officials said.

He added that the regulator had sold only about 250,000 tons in export contracts to grinders, preferring to be cautious.

The regulator sources said the entire mid-crop harvest would be sold to local grinders to guarantee them the volumes necessary to maintain their activity.

A dozen planters and middlemen across the West African country described the situation as unprecedented, characterized by a total absence of flowers and small pods after those that appeared in December and January dried up in the high heat.

“Even if the rain comes today … it’s already too late,” said Paul Kouame Kouakou, who owns four hectares of cocoa in Duekoue, a town in west Ivory Coast.

It usually takes a flower around 22 weeks to become a mature pod. While the harvest was expected to start in April, there will be no cocoa until at least June, the farmer said.

“Usually, it’s around November and December that we get the rains that herald the mid-crop harvest, but this year there’s been no rain so far, and February and March are the hottest months,” said another pod counter.

He visited dozens of plantations that did not have any sign of flowers or pods, which he called “very bad news” for the crop.
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Reclaiming Rudolf Hoss’s House as center countering hate, extremism and radicalization

Posted on by SeeEU

Near Auschwitz’s walls, the former home of the concentration camp’s commandant, Rudolf Hoss, stands as a symbol of denial and complicity, its windows overlooking the site of some of the Holocaust’s worst atrocities. As the world marks the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation (Jan. 27), plans are under way to transform the house into a research center on hate, extremism, and radicalization. VOA’s Eastern Europe bureau chief, Myroslava Gongadze, visited the house and has the story.
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Russia, Ukraine report large-scale overnight drone attacks

Posted on by SeeEU

Officials in Ukraine say Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack Friday killing at least two civilians, wounding several others and damaging commercial and residential buildings.

The interior ministry said two victims were killed by drone debris in the central Kyiv region. It said a multistory residential building and commercial buildings were among the infrastructure that sustained damage during the attack.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses intercepted and destroyed some 120 drones over a dozen regions, including Moscow, overnight Friday, launched by Ukraine.

No casualties were reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he would talk soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to push the Russian leader to end his nearly three-year war on neighboring Ukraine.

“Millions of young lives are being wasted. That war is horrible,” Trump, via video link from Washington, told global business leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He said that “Ukraine is ready to make a deal,” although no peace negotiations have been announced. “This is a war that never should’ve started.”

Trump, three days into his second term in the White House, said he would ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to cut global oil prices, now about $77 a barrel, to curb Russia’s oil revenues, which it uses to fund the war.

“If the price comes down,” Trump said, “the war in Ukraine will end immediately.”

“It’s so important to get that done,” he said. “It’s time to end it.”

Trump’s new remarks on the war came a day after he described the conflict as a “ridiculous war” and told Putin in a social media message that if he didn’t move to end it, the U.S. would impose new tariffs, taxes and sanctions on Russian exports to the West.

But the Kremlin was unmoved by Trump’s threat, saying Thursday it did not see any particularly new elements in U.S. policy toward Russia.

“He likes these methods, at least he liked them during his first presidency,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said Russia remains ready for “mutually respectful dialogue” with the United States as Trump starts a four-year term in the White House.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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US agents raid New Jersey worksite as Trump escalates immigration crackdown

Posted on by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — U.S. immigration agents rounded up undocumented migrants as well as American citizens in a raid of a Newark, New Jersey, worksite on Thursday that the city’s mayor said involved detaining a military veteran and violations of the people’s rights.

The raid in New Jersey’s most populous city, hailed in the past by Mayor Ras Baraka for its “sanctuary” policies protecting migrants, follows President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport millions of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.

Trump issued a raft of executive orders after taking office on Monday that aim to clamp down on illegal immigration. He has taken steps to punish officials who resist enforcement of his sweeping crackdown.

In a raid of a business establishment in Newark, outside New York City, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents failed to produce a warrant as they detained “undocumented residents as well as citizens,” Baraka said in a statement.

“One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned,” Baraka said.

In a statement, an ICE spokesperson said that agents “may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual’s identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite today in Newark.”

The spokesperson said that ICE was investigating the incident.

Baraka said the raid had violated the citizens’ rights under the U.S. Constitution.

“Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized,” he said.

Neither Baraka nor ICE identified the business raided by name.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on X that the Trump administration arrested 538 people Thursday, describing all of them as “illegal immigrant criminals.” She said they included members of a Venezuelan prison gang and people convicted of sex crimes.

Leavitt did not provide more details.

A range of studies by academics and think tanks have shown that immigrants do not commit crime at a higher rate than native-born Americans. Other studies find that immigrants in the U.S. illegally also do not commit crimes at a higher rate.

Sanctuary cities

Baraka, the Newark mayor, is one of the first local officials in the U.S. to issue a statement on a specific raid following the start of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

In 2017, he signed an executive order cementing Newark’s sanctuary status and was a vocal opponent of Trump’s immigration policies during the president’s first term.

Of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with temporary status in 2022, about 44% lived in states with “sanctuary” laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

That figure does not include those in sanctuary cities and counties in places without a statewide law, such as New Mexico.

U.S. media outlets reported that federal law enforcement and ICE agents had arrested nearly 500 undocumented migrants wanted for outstanding crimes in sanctuary cities, including some from New York and New Jersey. The reports cited ICE officials who said the arrests took place Tuesday and Wednesday. 
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VOA Spanish: Migrants bemoan deactivation of CBP One mobile application 

Posted on by SeeUS

After U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, appointments scheduled for the asylum process through the CBP One application were canceled.  

Click here for the full story in Spanish.
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Trump to global businesses: Make products in US or pay tariffs

Posted on by SeeEU

President Donald Trump laid out his approach to foreign investment to the world’s largest gathering of global business leaders, offering investors a take-it-or-leave-it deal to build in the U.S. or face stiff tariffs. VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell reports.
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Fighting reaches outskirts of eastern Congo’s largest city as rebels close in

Posted on by SeeAF

GOMA, CONGO — Panic spread in eastern Congo’s main city on Thursday, with M23 rebels steadily inching closer to Goma and seizing a nearby town as they battle the Congolese army. Bombs were heard going off in the city’s distant outskirts, and hundreds of wounded civilians were brought in to the main hospital from the area of the fighting.

The rebel group has been making significant advances in recent weeks, closing in on Goma, which is home to around 2 million people and a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts. On Thursday, the rebels took Sake, a town only 27 kilometers (16 miles) from Goma and one of the last main routes into the provincial capital still under government control, according to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo, along the border with Rwanda, in a decades-long conflict that has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

More than 7 million people have been displaced by the fighting. Earlier this month, the M23 captured the towns of Minova, Katale and Masisi, west of Goma.

“The people of Goma have suffered greatly, like other Congolese,” an M23 spokesperson, Lawrence Kanyuka, said on X. “M23 is on its way to liberate them, and they must prepare to welcome this liberation.”

The M23 seized Goma in 2012 and controlled it for over a week.

As news of the fighting spread, schools in Goma sent students home Thursday morning.

“We are told that the enemy wants to enter the city. That’s why we are told to go home,” Hassan Kambale, a 19-year-old high school student, said. “We are constantly waiting for the bombs.”

Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing the M23, mainly composed of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army over a decade ago.

Rwanda’s government denies the claim but last year admitted that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to safeguard its security, pointing to a buildup of Congolese forces near the border. U.N. experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.

On Wednesday, Congo’s minister of communication, Patrick Muyaya, told French broadcaster France 24 that war with Rwanda is an “option to consider.”

Late Thursday, Guterres condemned, “in the strongest terms, the renewed offensive launched by the 23 March Movement [M23],” including the “seizure of Sake.”

“This offensive has a devastating toll on the civilian population and heightened the risk of a broader regional war,” Guterres’ statement read. He also urged “all parties to uphold human rights and international humanitarian law.”

Earlier in the day, Congolese authorities claimed that the military pushed back an attack from the “Rwandan army” on Sake. The Associated Press was unable to verify if Rwanda’s army took part in the offensive.

“The population is in panic. The M23 now control large parts of the town,” said Leopold Mwisha, president of civil society of the area of Sake.

Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” by the most recent reports about the “presence of Rwandan troops on Congolese soil and continued support to the M23.”

The U.S. Embassy in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, in a notice Thursday warned of “an increase in the severity of armed conflict near Sake” and advised U.S. nationals in North Kivu province, which includes Goma, to be on the alert in case they needed to leave their homes on short notice.

The United Kingdom also issued a travel advisory that said M23 now controls Sake and urged British nationals to leave Goma while roads remained open.

Many Sake residents have joined the more than 178,000 people who have fled the M23 advance in the last two weeks.

The CBCA Ndosho hospital in Goma was stretched to the limit, with hundreds of newly wounded on Thursday.

Thousands escaped the fighting by boat on Wednesday, making their way north across Lake Kivu and spilling out of packed wooden boats in Goma, some with bundles of their belongings strapped around their foreheads.

Neema Matondo said she fled Sake during the night, when the first explosions started to go off. She recounted seeing people around her torn to pieces and killed.

“We escaped, but unfortunately,” others did not, Matondo told AP.

Mariam Nasibu, who fled Sake with her three children, was in tears — one of her children lost a leg, blown off in the relentless shelling.

“As I continued to flee, another bomb fell in front of me, hitting my child,” she said, crying.
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Will Trump spark a mineral ‘gold rush’ in Greenland?

Posted on by SeeEU

NUUK, GREENLAND — The mineral wealth on the Arctic island of Greenland is in the global spotlight after U.S. President Donald Trump said he wants to take control of the territory from Denmark, prompting alarm from European allies.

Trump’s words were echoed in a January 12 interview on “Fox News Sunday” by Vice President JD Vance, who said, “There is a deal to be made in Greenland,” and that the island has “a lot of great natural resources.”

Until now, Greenland’s mining industry has struggled to turn a profit, but could that be about to change?

‘Full of minerals’

Greenland currently has only one active commercial mine — White Mountain —located north of the capital, Nuuk, and gets its stark, monochrome color from anorthosite rock, which is rich in calcium deposits and other minerals.

The mine’s operator, Lumina Sustainable Materials, ships the rock from Greenland’s western coastline to Asia, Europe and North America, where it is used to make a variety of products such as fiberglass, paint, fillers, cement and polymers. Efforts are under way to exploit aluminum deposits within the anorthosite.

“Greenland is a country full of minerals. We have, literally, minerals available all over the place,” Bent Olsvig Jensen, Lumina’s managing director in Greenland, told VOA in an interview.

Dozens of other mining companies from around the world are conducting exploration and feasibility studies across Greenland, although White Mountain remains the only commercial operation currently trading.

China competition

The minerals include plentiful rare earth elements such as lithium and scandium, which are critical for devices such as batteries. Global supply chains for those elements are currently dominated by China.

Trump has repeatedly said that U.S. control of Greenland is necessary for “international security.” His comments caused a political storm in Greenland and Denmark, but mining companies see an opportunity.

“His interest in Greenland can actually help the industry get access to further investment, which is needed for the industry to develop in Greenland,” Jensen said. “So, yes, I definitely welcome it. And I think it’s important that both from the industry side but also from the political side in Greenland that we position ourselves towards Trump and the U.S.”

‘Not for sale’

Greenland’s government is largely autonomous, although Denmark is responsible for the island’s security.

Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for resources, emphasized the government’s long-held response to Trump’s interest: Open for business, but not for sale.

“We do want American investments. We do want collaboration with the U.S. State Department, and we’ve been trying to advocate for that for some time,” she told VOA.

Greenland signed a deal with Trump during his first administration in 2019 to boost the mining industry.

“The U.S. funded our direct marketing towards investors all over the world, and this agreement has just come to its end. So we’ve been trying to … get engagement from the U.S. for some time now in order to renew this deal,” Nathanielsen said.

Challenges

Despite widespread recognition of Greenland’s mineral wealth, attracting investment in mining has been a long-term problem.

“For many years now, we have seen that there has been some hesitance in the investor environment to engage in high-risk, long-term projects. We only have one American-owned license at the moment. In comparison, we have 23 from Canada, 23 from the U.K. and about 10 from Denmark. So, it’s not an area where you see a lot of U.S. engagement as of now. Of course we welcome it, and there’s plenty of opportunity,” Nathanielsen said.

Greenland’s government is pushing for full independence from Denmark. Supporters hope the island’s mineral wealth could one day provide the economic foundation for full statehood. But there’s a long way to go, said Ulrik Pram Gad, an analyst at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen.

“If you want minerals out of the ground and financing Greenlandic self-sufficiency economically, then you will need to have the uptake in the international processing going,” Gad told VOA.

“And then, probably you’ll have to think very closely about how to make sure that these mining projects benefit people who live close to them, rather than being a new version of imperialist extraction. Because then, the Greenlanders might not want it in the end,” he explained.

The risk doesn’t always end in reward. Rubies and pink sapphires were extracted at the Aappaluttoq mine until 2023, when its operator, Greenland Ruby, went bankrupt, $71 million in debt. The company is restructuring and seeking new investors, with a goal of restarting operations.

Greenland’s 2.1 million square kilometers of land is icebound for much of the year.

“Obviously, we are in the middle of the Arctic, so there are some logistical challenges,” Jensen of Lumina said. “Not all of Greenland is open all year round. However, that is something that we can plan our way out of.”

Jensen added that investors must have patience to make a profit.

“It takes time to develop a project from the early-stage exploration until you actually have a mine where you can extract and start selling. And as we all say in mining, ‘Time is money.'”
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Trump signs executive orders on AI, cryptocurrency and issues more pardons

Posted on by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order related to AI to “make America the world capital in artificial intelligence,” his aide told reporters in the White House’s Oval Office.

The order sets a 180-day deadline for an Artificial Intelligence Action Plan to create a policy “to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.”

Trump also told his AI adviser and national security assistant to work to remove policies and regulations put in place by former President Joe Biden.

Trump on Monday revoked a 2023 executive order signed by Biden that sought to reduce the risks that artificial intelligence poses to consumers, workers and national security.

Biden’s order required developers of AI systems that pose risks to U.S. national security, the economy, public health or safety to share the results of safety tests with the U.S. government, in line with the Defense Production Act, before they were released to the public.

Trump also signed an executive order creating a cryptocurrency working group tasked with proposing a new regulatory framework for digital assets and exploring the creation of a cryptocurrency stockpile.

The much-anticipated action also ordered that banking services for crypto companies be protected, and banned the creation of central bank digital currencies that could compete with existing cryptocurrencies.

The order sees Trump fulfill a campaign trail pledge to be a “crypto president and promote the adoption of digital assets.”

That is in stark contrast to Biden’s regulators that, in a bid to protect Americans from fraud and money laundering, cracked down on crypto companies, suing exchanges Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and dozens more in federal court, alleging they were flouting U.S. laws.

The working group will be made up of the Treasury secretary, attorney general and chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, along with other agency heads. The group is tasked with developing a regulatory framework for digital assets, including stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency typically pegged to the U.S. dollar.

The group is also set to “evaluate the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile … potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government through its law enforcement efforts.”

In December, Trump named venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks as the crypto and artificial intelligence czar. He will chair the group, the order said.

Finally, Trump signed pardons for 23 anti-abortion protesters on Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House.

The pardons came a day before anti-abortion protesters were due to descend on Washington for the annual March for Life.
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VOA Mandarin: Chinese actor Hu Ge enters politics

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Hu Ge, a Chinese actor who is well-known in China for dramas including Flowers, was recently confirmed to serve as the deputy director of the Central Propaganda Committee of the China Democratic League. He was invited to Taiwan in June 2024 to participate in a film exchange activity.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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Trump promises global businesses lower taxes for products made in US, tariffs if not

Posted on by SeeEU

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday invited global businesses to manufacture their products in the U.S. and promised them lower taxes but warned if they choose to produce their goods elsewhere, they would have to pay tariffs to export them to the United States. 

 

“America is back and open for business,” Trump, in a video linkup from Washington, told corporate leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 

 

“My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth,” Trump said. “But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.” 

 

Trump, three days into his second term in the White House, said he wants to cut the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21 to 15%, although that needs approval from his political allies in the Republican-controlled Congress. Lawmakers have begun debating how to extend and reshape personal and corporate tax cuts enacted in 2017 during Trump’s first term in office. 

 

Trump promised the U.S. would supply Europe with the liquified natural gas it needs but contended that the European Union treats the United States “very, very unfairly” with the extent of regulations it imposes on American businesses operating in the 27-nation bloc. 

 

The president complained specifically about tariffs and environmental impact statements for new construction projects, calling them “things you shouldn’t have to do.”  

 

Trump promised that his administration would make the U.S., already the world’s biggest economy, “a manufacturing superpower” and said the government during his four-year term would eliminate 10 business regulations for every new one that is imposed. 

 

He said he plans to ask Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut the price of oil they produce to boost the global economy. 

 

He contended that if the current global oil price — about $77 a barrel — is cut, “the war in Ukraine will end immediately.” Russia uses revenue from its own oil production to help fund its three-year war on neighboring Ukraine.  

 

Trump said that in the global economy, the U.S. “just wants to be treated fairly by other countries.” 

 

He said the U.S. wants to have a “fair relationship” with China, the world’s second-biggest economy. 

 

“We don’t want to take advantage,” he said of Washington-Beijing relations. “We just want to have a level playing field.” 
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