Biden blocks Japan’s Nippon Steel from buying US Steel

Posted on by SeeEA

Washington — President Joe Biden has made good on his months of public opposition to the proposed purchase of American company U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, announcing Friday he is blocking the $14.9 billion takeover.  

The acquisition would “place one of America’s largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains,” he said in a statement. He did not elaborate on how the deal would jeopardize national security.

The collapse of the proposed acquisition represents a victory for workers of the company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an electorally crucial swing state. In March, the powerful United Steelworkers union endorsed Biden, who at that time was still running for reelection in the November election. 

“This was clearly a political decision that President Biden had been chewing over for a long time. He is determined to demonstrate that he’s going to protect American workers, and particularly in the steel sector,” said Matthew Goodman, director of the RealEcon Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

“It is an important sector, and it is subject to unfair trade practices, but it’s hard to really understand the national security logic of blocking this transaction,” he told VOA. 

Federal law gives the president power to block a transaction based on the recommendation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, chaired by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and made up of other Cabinet members. Last month, CFIUS failed to reach consensus on the possible national security risks of the deal. 

Biden made the announcement in his remaining days in office, despite some analysts and advisers warning that his rejection of the deal could damage relations with Japan, a key U.S. ally and trade partner. Especially with a looming trade war under the incoming Trump administration who has vowed to slap high tariffs on trading partners. 

“We need allies especially in the war — a potential war against China,” said John Ferrari, nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.  

“Japan is a staunch ally in the Pacific. They have prowess in ship building and in manufacturing, and so we need them,” Ferrari told VOA. “Allowing them to invest in the United States would make us stronger.” 

President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to come to power on Jan. 20, also opposes the acquisition. In a November social media post, he vowed to block the deal and to use tax incentives and tariffs to grow U.S. Steel. 

Both Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel have vowed to pursue legal action, citing that the U.S. government failed to follow proper procedures in considering the acquisition. 

“The President’s statement and Order do not present any credible evidence of a national security issue, making clear that this was a political decision,” the companies said in a statement. “Following President Biden’s decision, we are left with no choice but to take all appropriate action to protect our legal rights.” 

The announcement followed other protectionist moves by the administration. Last year, Biden tripled tariffs on steel imports from China. 

“For too long, U.S. steel companies have faced unfair trade practices as foreign companies have dumped steel on global markets at artificially low prices, leading to job losses and factory closures in America,” the president said in his statement Friday. 
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South Sudan begins mass inoculation campaign with cholera vaccines 

Posted on by SeeAF

Juba, South Sudan   — More than 1.1 million doses of an oral cholera vaccine have arrived in South Sudan, as the government launched a program to inoculate more than 80 percent of the population. But the mass vaccination exercise faces numerous challenges, including a lack of access to the areas dealing with the worst cholera outbreaks.

Medics in South Sudan will attempt to vaccinate at least 9 million people against cholera, an exercise that targets mostly children and mothers.

More than 1.1 million doses of oral cholera vaccine arrived in the capital, Juba, and will be dispatched next week to hot spots areas like the town of Bentiu.

The country’s Ministry of Health reported last week that 199 people have died of cholera, with 13,000 more diagnosed so far with the bacteria.

Dr. Gabriel Boum Tap is an immunization officer at UNICEF in South Sudan.

“Of course, we had also received some vaccines before; only that they were not enough, because, you know, it’s not like the cholera vaccine is manufactured and is put in one place already,” he said.

At least one cholera case has been recorded in 29 of the 79 counties in South Sudan, with Bentiu, Renk and Juba most affected.

The first case was reported on September 23 in Renk, northeast of the capital.

But as the country prepares to roll out a mass vaccination exercise, the process faces some serious headwinds.

Thinjin Khoat is one of the victims of the cholera outbreak. He says he has seen people die of the disease, with many more trooping to local health centers seeking urgent medical attention.

“I was at one of the health facilities, and there was a suspected case of cholera. The patient was a 5-year-old. The patient was vomiting, and in the process, the health workers couldn’t get the vein. The patient is not able to get the oral fluid. … In that process, the patient died of dehydration,” he said.

Cholera is an acute diarrhea infection caused by consuming contaminated food or water. If not treated, it can be fatal within hours.

Khoat says accessibility to health care remains a major hindrance to the fight against the disease.

“Some of the community members, they don’t have access, because, you know, in Bentiu here, there is flooding. There are some areas that health workers cannot access because of the flood and also security issues,” he said.

According to Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, poor living conditions in South Sudan have created the perfect breeding ground for cholera.

Stephanie Ngai is MSF’s project coordinator for cholera response in Bentiu, located in Rubkona County, an area with a large refugee population.

“Here in Rubkona, the explosion on the outbreak very quickly overwhelmed the local systems that are responsible for coordinating the response and scaling up the interventions,” she said. ‘Other partners don’t have adequate funding to properly scale up the level needed, which is massive. And the overall response coordination has not been strong enough to manage the response and ensure that the needs are adequately met.”

The government says the vaccination exercise is expected to roll out next Monday with support from international partners such as MSF and the World Health Organization.

Buok Danhier, the immunization program manager for the Unity State Ministry of Health, says the various entities will split up duties in Rubkona.

“Rubkona has many payams [local districts]. Most of the payams are affected by flooding, and these are the ones that will be taken by WHO — the hard-to-reach areas. WHO and other partners are pledging to cover all those areas that are hard to reach and also very far from town. Bentiu IDP, Rukona and Bentiu town — these areas will be covered by MSF, and the recruitment process is ongoing,” said Danhier.

The vaccination exercise will target children 1 year and above.

WHO says up to 143,000 people worldwide die from cholera each year out of an estimated 4 million annual cases.
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US blocks Nippon Steel’s bid to purchase US Steel 

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Washington — U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday followed through on his pledge to block Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel, citing concerns the deal could hurt national security.

The move, long expected, cuts off a critical lifeline of capital for the beleaguered American icon, which has said it would have to idle key mills without the nearly $3 billion in promised investment from the Japanese firm.

It also represents the final chapter in a high-profile national security review, led by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, CFIUS, which vets investment for national security risks and had until December 23 to approve, extend the timeline or recommend Biden block the deal.

The proposed tie-up has faced high-level opposition within the United States since it was announced a year ago, with both Biden and his incoming successor Donald Trump taking aim at it as they sought to woo union voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel is headquartered. Trump and Biden both asserted the company should remain American-owned.

The merger appeared to be on the fast-track to be blocked after the companies received an August 31 letter from CFIUS, seen by Reuters, arguing the deal could hurt the supply of steel needed for critical transportation, construction and agriculture projects.

But Nippon Steel countered that its investments, made by a company from an allied nation, would in fact shore up U.S. Steel’s output, and it won a 90-day review extension. That extension gave CFIUS until after the November election to make a decision, fueling hope among supporters that a calmer political climate could help the deal’s approval.

But hopes were shattered in December when CFIUS set the stage for Biden to block it in a 29-page letter by raising allegedly unresolved national security risks, Reuters exclusively reported.

 
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Russian drone attack kills 1 in Kyiv suburbs

Posted on by SeeEU

KYIV, UKRAINE — A Russian drone attack towards the Ukrainian capital on Friday killed one person and wounded four in the Kyiv suburbs, local officials said.

Moscow’s forces have escalated their aerial strikes across Ukraine through the first weeks of winter, including a New Year’s Day drone attack targeting central Kyiv that killed two.

“One person killed and four wounded in enemy air attack on Kyiv region,” said Mykola Kalashnyk, the head of the Kyiv region, which surrounds the capital, said on social media on Friday.

He said a truck driver had been killed after he was hit by falling debris from a Russian drone that had been shot down.

Wreckage also fell on a house, wounding three — including a 16-year-old boy and his father.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 93 drones overnight. It said 60 attack drones and 26 decoy-style drones were downed or “lost” — either shot down or disabled by electronic interceptors.

Downed drones also fell on two districts of Kyiv, but there were no injuries, the city mayor said. 
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Republicans face challenges despite control of Congress, White House

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WASHINGTON — The 119th U.S. Congress will come into session Friday. After a contentious government funding battle last month, though, Republican Party control of both houses of Congress and presidency faces challenges.

The Senate enters the new session as Republicans take the majority from Democrats and Senator Mitch McConnell steps away from party leadership for the first time in 18 years. Republican Senator John Thune has already been selected to lead the Senate as majority leader.

Republicans will hold a 53-47 seat majority, well below the 60 votes needed to advance most legislation.

In the House, where Republicans hold a narrow 219-215 majority, the focus will be on votes for speaker. Current Speaker Mike Johnson’s position is in jeopardy after his deal last month with Democrats to keep the government funded and open.

It would take only as few as two Republicans to vote against Johnson to put his speakership in jeopardy.  Democrats are expected to nominate Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for the speakership but are likely to fall short by a few votes.

President-elect Donald Trump posted his support for Johnson on social media Monday, saying the speaker was “a good, hard-working, religious man.”

But Republican representatives Chip Roy and Thomas Massie have already stated their doubts about his leadership and Trump ally and adviser Steve Bannon has called on Republicans to remove Johnson from leadership.

“Mr. Johnson caught a lot of fire from his GOP colleagues. And he has an extraordinarily limited margin for his majority, just a handful of people,” Kevin Kosar, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA via Zoom.

Two years ago, at the start of another Congress, Republican Kevin McCarthy faced similar challenges to his bid for the speakership. He was finally elected on the 15th round of voting.

If Johnson, or another Republican, is unable to garner enough votes for the speakership the chamber could be without a leader in time for the official certification of Trump’s electoral victory on Jan. 6. Whoever does lead the House will, at least temporarily, hold an even tighter majority after Trump takes office on Jan. 20, as he has picked two House Republicans to join his administration.

Traditionally, the first 100 days of a new presidency and Congress are a time for an ambitious legislative agenda.

“He’s going to hit tariffs very hard. He’s going to focus on the border, and executive orders related to immigration and immigrants, particularly from Mexico and Muslim countries. And then he’s going to work on any compromises he can to get through the legislative agenda on things affecting the economy, groceries, as he likes to call it,” Casey Burgat, a professor at The George Washington University in Washington, told VOA via Zoom.

Some information for this story came from Reuters. 
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New Orleans takes first steps forward after terrorist attack

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NEW ORLEANS — Less than 48 hours after Wednesday morning’s attack on their city’s iconic French Quarter neighborhood, New Orleanians are trying to find a way forward.

It’s something they have had to do countless times in the Crescent City’s 307-year history. In the past two decades alone, residents and businesses have come back from a series of disasters including a record-breaking oil spill, the public health catastrophe of being one of the nation’s first coronavirus hotspots and, of course, Hurricanes Ida and Katrina.

This latest disaster — labeled a terrorist attack by the FBI — hit the city at 3:15 a.m. on New Year’s Day when 42-year-old U.S. citizen Shamsud-Din Jabbar plowed a white pickup truck through three blocks of Bourbon Street, killing 14 and seriously injuring many more.

As the city mourns, local restaurateur Ralph Brennan believes his fellow residents will react in their unique New Orleans way: with defiance in the face of a challenge and love for their shared home.

“We’ve been through this before with COVID and Katrina,” he said. One of Brennan’s restaurants, Red Fish Grill, was at ground zero of Wednesday’s attack. It was allowed to reopen with the rest of Bourbon Street on Thursday afternoon.

“Every time there is a disaster,” Brennan continued, “it is our goal to come back as quickly as possible. We want to show the world that New Orleans is safe, and that this tragedy is just a blip in the history of one of the most special cities on the planet.”

Processing grief

Go to the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets and the first thing you’ll notice are reporters, police officers, traffic barriers and caution tape. Look closer, and you’ll see a city cautiously determining how to proceed. A jazz trumpeter plays the national anthem nearby. Employees from a neighborhood restaurant hand out free meals to first responders. Visitors pass by on their way to the Sugar Bowl, postponed to Thursday because of the attack.

But it’s not just downtown. In every corner of New Orleans, residents are wrestling with trauma.

Tom Ramsey is a former chef in the city who now supports mass-catering efforts following disasters and along the U.S.-Mexico border. He woke up on Wednesday morning to dozens of missed calls and text messages asking if he was OK.

“I didn’t know what they were talking about until I checked the news and saw what happened,” Ramsey said.

His first reaction was to contact everyone he knew was in the French Quarter that night. Anything, he said, not to let the news sink in.

“Then, eventually, everyone was accounted for,” Ramsey said. “I looked at my wife, I put my face in my hands, and I cried — the kind of crying where my chest was heaving, and I was making sounds. I hadn’t felt the kind of grief I felt for New Orleans in that moment since I was in New York on 9/11.”

Ongoing trauma

Mental health experts like Erin Stevens, executive director of Ellie Mental Health Louisiana in New Orleans, said she is worried that residents with so much past trauma may have difficulty dealing with this event.

“When you have already experienced significant trauma, it can cause you to feel new and future stressors more intensely,” she said. I’m especially worried about people who are isolated — who don’t have a support system.”

However, Stevens says if handled correctly, past trauma can equip you to handle future stressors more effectively, because resilience is something that is built.

Some New Orleanians seem to have taken lessons from past challenges. For example, several mental health professionals have decided to help their community by offering free mental health services. And Allison Bullach, a local photographer, is offering free headshots to anyone who gives blood to support the attack’s victims.

“I think we just want to find our way to help,” Bullach told VOA, “and I had read that donating blood for victims was a major need.”

“I’m only one person,” she continued, “but if I can find a way to encourage three or four or five more people to help, then I should do it.”

The show must go on?

The past year has been a massive one for New Orleans tourism. In addition to a successful Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, 2024 visitor numbers were bolstered thanks to a three-day stop by Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

Early 2025 looked to be equally promising. The Sugar Bowl, Super Bowl LIX, and Carnival season culminating in Mardi Gras are all big news for a local economy so heavily reliant on tourism.

As a result, the timing of the attack is a worry for Crescent City businesses.

“Of course, it hurts to have to close during one of our busiest times of the year,” said Brennan, owner of Red Fish Grill. “We understand why it was necessary, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”

“But where I got really worried,” he added, “is how this impacts tourism moving forward for Carnival season and the Super Bowl. New Orleans businesses depend on tourism from these big events.”

For some businesses, however, every day matters. Coming off a challenging December, that is definitely the case for Tara Francolini, owner of Francolini’s, a popular sandwich shop.

“More than anything, I want to give our staff a day to grieve for their city,” she told VOA. “But the losses we suffered in December were tremendous, and we need … steady business so we can do basic things like pay our bills and our employees. I’m worried that staying open diminishes the atrocities that the families of the victims are feeling, and it all makes me feel like an awful human being.”

Resilience, a loaded word

On Wednesday night, less than 24 hours after the attack, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry ate dinner in the French Quarter, steps from Bourbon Street. He posted a photo from outside the restaurant, a message to would-be visitors that this “resilient city,” as he and so many others call it, was safe and “open for business.”

The word “resilient” seems to be attached to the city any time there is a disaster. Many residents identify with it, proof that they can bounce back from anything.

Increasingly, however, some say the term is allowing leaders off the hook for their failings. One such critic is Andrew Stephens, owner of Sports Drink, a coffee shop in New Orleans’ Irish Channel neighborhood.

“They call us resilient after they shirk their responsibilities to the public,” Stephens said, “It’s pandering. I don’t want us to be resilient. I want us to be safe.”
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South Korean authorities halt attempt to arrest Yoon

Posted on by SeeEA

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korean authorities Friday suspended their attempt to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol following a tense six-hour standoff between investigators and security forces loyal to the embattled conservative president.

In a statement, the joint investigative team trying to detain Yoon said it was “practically impossible” to proceed with the execution of the court-approved detention warrant considering resistance and the safety of personnel on-site.

In an early morning raid, a team of about 100 investigators and detectives, backed by about 3,000 riot police camped outside, arrived at Yoon’s official residence in central Seoul, as part of a probe into insurrection and abuse of power.

Following minor clashes at the compound’s perimeter, the detention team got within 200 meters of Yoon’s residence but were met by a barricade of about 200 soldiers and other armed security personnel who prevented further access, according to a background briefing by the Corruption Investigation Office, which is leading the joint investigation.

Though none of the security personnel defending Yoon reached for their weapons, the CIO cited a “significant risk of injuries” given the large number of people in a confined space.

The joint investigation team said they would review the next steps regarding the detention warrant, which remains valid through Monday.

The events represent the continuation of an extraordinary month of political chaos that began on Dec. 3, when Yoon, a conservative ex-prosecutor, declared martial law. The declaration was quickly overturned by lawmakers, who later impeached Yoon, suspending his presidential powers, pending a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court.

Separately, Yoon is being investigated for insurrection and abuse of power related to the martial law declaration.    

Yoon ignored three summonses to appear for questioning as part of the investigation, leading a Seoul court to issue a detention warrant earlier this week.

The Presidential Security Service guarding Yoon has repeatedly blocked investigators from entering the presidential office compound or official residence for court-approved searches, citing security and military considerations.

During Friday’s raid, the service was joined by a military unit believed to be part of the Capital Defense Command, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. Those military personnel were being directed by the PSS, not the military, according to the National Defense Ministry.

Prosecutors have warned that any attempt to obstruct a court-approved detention warrant could amount to a crime, though there was no evidence that police attempted to arrest the personnel defending Yoon on Friday.

Yoon’s legal team says the insurrection investigation is illegitimate. The CIO, it insists, does not have jurisdiction to pursue insurrection charges.

In a statement Friday, Yoon’s lawyers said the attempt to execute the detention warrant was illegal and vowed court action to stop it.

If Yoon is detained, authorities would have 48 hours to decide whether to file for a formal arrest warrant or to release him. It would be the first time a sitting South Korean president has been taken into police custody.

Meanwhile, a crowd of Yoon supporters remains camped outside his residence, with some vowing to protect him and others calling for the arrest of South Korean opposition leaders.
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Zelenskyy says Trump could be decisive in stopping war in Ukraine  

Posted on by SeeEU

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump could be “decisive” in the outcome of the yearslong war between Ukraine and Russia.

“Trump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Ukrainian television.

Zelenskyy said Trump had told him he would be one of the first to visit Washington after the presidential inauguration later this month.

“His qualities are indeed there,” Zelenskyy said about Trump. “He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin.”

Trump has previously said he would be able to stop the war in Ukraine in one day, but he has never detailed how he would accomplish that.

Zelenskyy’s comments came as the Ukrainian military said it had carried out a high-precision strike Thursday on a Russian command post in Maryino, in Russia’s Kursk region.

“These strikes disrupt the ability of the Russian Federation to conduct terrorism against innocent Ukrainian civilians,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement on Telegram.

Russia’s military said air defense units had downed four Ukrainian missiles in the region. The regional governor said the strikes had damaged a high-rise apartment building and other buildings in a nearby village.

Another post from the Ukrainian military showed a video of what the military said was damage to a Russian base in Ivanivskoye, next to Maryino.

A school, pharmacy and apartment building were among the structures damaged in the strike, Kursk regional Governor Alexander Khinshtein said.

VOA could not immediately verify the reports.

Ukraine launched an incursion into Russia five months ago. Ukrainian forces remain in the Kursk region, but the Russian military says much of the lost territory has been regained.

Meanwhile, Russia said it had attacked energy facilities in Ukraine that support Kyiv’s military-industrial complex.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that over the past 24 hours, it had used its air force, drones, missiles and artillery to target energy facilities, military airfields and Ukrainian military personnel across multiple locations.

VOA could not independently verify that report.

Russian forces have been advancing quickly on the eastern front of Ukraine.

“They are putting pressure on our boys, who are exhausted, and that is a fact. We will do everything to at least stabilize the front in January,” Zelenskyy said in his Thursday interview.

Ukraine’s military said Thursday that it had shot down 47 drones Russian forces launched overnight at areas in central and eastern Ukraine.

Russia used a total of 72 drones in its attacks, the military said.

Ukrainian air defenses shot down drones over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Odessa and Sumy regions.

Officials in those areas did not immediately report any major damage.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that its forces had destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones, mostly along the Russia-Ukraine border. Intercepts took place in Bryansk, Belgorod, Kursk, Kaluga and Voronezh, it said.

The governors of Bryansk and Kaluga said there were no reports of casualties or damage in their regions.

Thursday’s attacks came a day after Russian forces killed at least two people in Kyiv.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.  
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Carter leaves complex legacy on Korean Peninsula

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washington — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has a complex legacy on the Korean Peninsula, former U.S. officials say, including the vital role he played in defusing a crisis between the United States and North Korea in 1994.

Thomas Hubbard, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea from 2001 to 2004, told VOA Korean by phone Wednesday that Carter’s interventions in North Korea significantly lowered tensions, despite somewhat negative reactions from President Bill Clinton’s administration.

“His initial involvement in the early 1990s when he went to North Korea, met with Kim Il Sung, he opened an opportunity that lowered the chances of war and led to the Agreed Framework,” said Hubbard, referring to Carter’s meeting in June 1994 with late North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.

Hubbard was a principal negotiator of the Agreed Framework signed by the U.S. and North Korea in Geneva in October 1994, aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

VOA Korean sought comment from the Permanent Mission of North Korea to the United Nations, but did not receive a response.

Carter, who was the 39th U.S. president and served from 1977 to 1981, visited Pyongyang as North Korea’s declaration of withdrawal from the International Atomic Energy Agency created the first major crisis over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

He crossed the inter-Korean border in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) from the South Korean side with his wife, Rosalynn, and held talks for two days in Pyongyang with the North Korean leader.

Carter was the first former U.S. president to visit the isolated country and to meet North Korea’s head of state.

Controversial mission

At the time, North Korea threatened to expel IAEA inspectors, demonstrating its intent to develop nuclear weapons, and the United States pushed for U.N. sanctions on North Korea. It was speculated that Clinton was planning a preemptive attack on North Korea.

After the talks between Carter and Kim, North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for a resumption of dialogue with the U.S. The breakthrough led to the first nuclear deal between the U.S. and North Korea in 40 years, although the agreement fell through in 2003.

Daniel Russel, former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said in an email to VOA Korean on Monday, “It is not hyperbole to say that it felt like the brink of war. We were right at the edge of the cliff.”

As a young diplomat, Russel and then-U.S. Ambassador to South Korea James Laney helped prepare Carter for his trip across the DMZ.

North Korea warned that sanctions would be treated as “an act of war” and started the process to withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Russel said.

“The immediate crisis was averted. We had been really close to a war, and Jimmy Carter saved us from that,” he said.

Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, said Carter’s mission was “ultimately successful, but the Clinton administration was unhappy because Carter didn’t try to get any constraint on North Korea’s nuclear program as part of a resolution of that immediate conflict.”

Hubbard offered a similar view.

“What made it controversial, I think, is that Carter accepted some positions that went beyond the Clinton administration’s positions with North Korea, and then he announced them publicly on CNN before even informing us,” Hubbard said. “That was quite a shock.”

CNN, which closely followed Carter’s visit to Pyongyang, first reported that Carter told the North Koreans the U.S. had stopped pursuing international sanctions against North Korea, which Clinton soon flatly denied.

Carter visited North Korea twice more in 2010 and 2011 on private humanitarian missions. While his visit in 2010 secured the release of American teacher Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who had been imprisoned in North Korea for seven months, he failed to meet with Kim Jong Il, who succeeded his father, Kim Il Sung, on either trip.

While his post-presidential efforts on the Korean Peninsula are more widely known, Carter’s presidency had another moment of controversy, as his push for the withdrawal of U.S. ground troops from South Korea shook the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

Push for human rights

When he assumed the presidency, Carter was determined not to overlook the human rights abuses of U.S. allies. He found it problematic that the United States would support a country under a repressive government. To him, South Korea was such a country then.

“One of the big things Carter campaigned on was human rights,” Samore said. “At the time, South Korea was ruled by a military government, and he wanted to reduce relations with countries that were not democracies.”

The former president, who pledged to withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea during his presidential campaign, had a war of words with then-South Korean President Park Chung-hee over the issue during his 1979 visit to South Korea, according to diplomatic documents from both countries.

According to a declassified document from the White House, Park criticized the planned withdrawal of U.S. Forces Korea, arguing the idea itself had emboldened North Korea. To this, Carter suggested that South Korea should increase defense spending.

Joseph DeTrani, former special envoy for the Six-Party Talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006, told VOA Korean on Monday by phone that one of the factors behind Carter’s decision was the burgeoning U.S. relationship with China, which fought against the U.S. during the 1950-53 Korean War in support of North Korea.

“We were normalizing relations with the People’s Republic of China. There was a sense that war was not going to break out on the Korean Peninsula,” said DeTrani, who also served as director of East Asia operations at the Central Intelligence Agency.

“Those people who follow developments on the Korean Peninsula felt that was not the right decision,” he said.

U.S. troop withdrawal from the East Asian ally was ultimately not realized, largely over opposition from the U.S. Congress and the military.

“President Carter was interested in waging peace everywhere, wherever there is conflict. He didn’t believe there was the necessary need for Americans to station so many troops in so many places,” Yawei Liu, senior adviser on China at the Carter Center, told VOA Korean by phone on Monday.

Carter died Sunday at his home in Georgia at age 100. The official state funeral for Carter will be held January 9 in Washington.

South Korea’s foreign ministry expressed condolences at Carter’s passing.

“He was particularly interested in promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula and actively worked on it,” it said in a statement released Monday.
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VOA Kurdish: Three Kurdish women reportedly tortured in Turkish prison

Posted on by SeeEU

The Human Rights Association in Turkey announced that three female prisoners had been tortured in Patnos Prison in Agri, and despite some complaints, no investigation has been initiated. The prison administration neither denied nor confirmed the torture to VOA.  

Click here for the full story in Kurdish.

 

 
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Celebrated South African contemporary dancer Dada Masilo dies at 39

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JOHANNESBURG — The dance world mourned Tuesday the internationally acclaimed South African dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo, who died in the hospital over the weekend at age 39.

Masilo died unexpectedly on Sunday after a brief illness, a spokesperson for her family said in a statement.

Born in Soweto, she was described as a sprite-like, energetic dancer and a fearless rule-breaker, who brought African dance motifs to classic European roles in a career that spanned two decades.

“Deeply respectful of European and contemporary music traditions, but unafraid to go bare on stage and voice her own opinions, she effectively changed the shape and appearance of contemporary dance in South Africa,” family spokesperson Bridget van Oerle said in the statement, announcing her death.

Among the most recent in a series of acknowledgements of her work, Masilo in September received the Positano Leonide Massine lifetime achievement award for classic and contemporary dance, which praised her as “powerful and topical.”

Her revisited versions of the great classics of romantic ballet drew on African dance to speak of the society in which she lived and of tolerance across borders, the award announcement said.

“A brilliant light has been extinguished,” the Joburg Ballet company said, praising Masilo’s “creative force as a choreographer and her wisdom as a human being.”

“Her groundbreaking work reshaped the world of contemporary dance, and her spirit will continue to inspire generations of artists and audiences,” the University of Johannesburg’s arts and culture department said.

The U.K.-based Dance Consortium, which toured with Masilo in Britain twice, called her death a “tragic loss to the dance world.”

“Her fresh perspective, extraordinary presence and stunning creations wowed and inspired audiences and artists across the U.K. and around the world,” it said.

‘Extraordinary role model’

Masilo was best known for her iconic re-invention of the great ballet classics such as Swan Lake and Giselle, said Lliane Loots, artistic director at the JOMBA! dance center at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

She used her “remarkable skill as a ballet dancer” to meld this European dance form “with the rhythms and intentions of her own histories of African dance and of being South African,” Loots said.

In 2016, Masilo’s Swan Lake was nominated for a New York Bessie Award and the following year her Giselle won Best Performance by the Italian Danza and Danza Award, the family statement said.

In 2018, she won the Netherlands’ Prince Claus Next Generation award, where she was described as an “extraordinary role model for young people and girls.”
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Tigray leader says region losing gold without benefit

Posted on by SeeAF

Ethiopia’s prime minister recently touted the country’s mining resources and said the industry could achieve a historic milestone by generating up to $2 billion in gold revenue this year. He made the comment while inaugurating a gold exploration and mining factory in the Gambella Region.

On Dec. 10, Abiy Ahmed reported that Ethiopia’s economy is “one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa and a beacon of opportunity on the continent.”

“Among its many thriving sectors, the gold mining industry stands out as a significant driver of growth, presenting immense potential for both local and international investment,” he said on social media.

But officials in Tigray, one of the richest gold mining regions in Ethiopia, say they are losing resources without benefit for their region at a time when Tigray is trying to recover from two years of brutal war between local rebels and the federal government.

The interim president of Tigray, Getachew Reda, speaking on Nov 15 said during the three and half months prior (August, September and October) “28.25 quintals of Gold entered into the Federal Government.” “The government has not received a single penny,” he said.

Ethiopia’s Commercial Bank, through its branch in Shire Inda Selasse, the hub of the gold in Tigray, recently bought $132 million worth of gold in just three months, according to branch manager Tekie Giday. The Tigray region’s entire budget for this year is nearly $100 million.

Officials in Tigray said the region is struggling with budget shortfalls as it attempts to bring back services discontinued or destroyed during the war.

Environmental fears

In addition to lack of economic benefits, officials in Tigray reported that gold mining has exposed some of the region’s residents to dangerous chemicals like mercury and cyanide, which are used for extracting gold.

Residents living close to the mining fields say the chemicals have been harmful to humans and livestock, with reports of deformed skin on cows and degraded farmland, witnesses and officials said.

Some residents in Tigray’s Northwest region have gone to the courts seeking justice, to get judges to act against goldminers, who they accuse of polluting the environment and causing ill health to their children.

The president of the High Court of the Northwest, Judge Mengistu Teklay, told VOA that chemicals used by miners are becoming the source of health, security and stability concerns.

“Utilizations of natural resources must be governed by law and order. It shouldn’t benefit the few individuals,” Mengistu said. “Those individuals who benefit from these resources should not be allowed to bring safety concerns, existential threats, and health concerns to the unbenefited public.”

Cyanide and mercury have both been used during the mining process in Tigray, according to multiple interviews conducted by VOA’s Horn of Africa Service. The World Health Organization identifies mercury as one of the top 10 chemicals or chemical groups posing public health concerns.

Alarmed by the use of the chemicals, Ethiopia’s Bureau of Innovation and Technology, a government body tasked with overseeing the country’s science and technological development, asked Tigrayan regional government institutions to take action to prevent unsafe use of the chemicals.

Gizachew Weldetsadik Beyene is director of the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Department in Tigray’s Bureau of Innovation and Technology. He said a team from the bureau posing as traditional miners traveled to the mining areas and saw what he called a “sad” situation.

“It is so scary,” Gizachew said, sharing a video of a cow affected by the chemicals, and pictures of women washing the soil using chemicals in search of gold without safety protocols and with their bare hands.

“We’ve seen the damage to animals, to the land, the soil, to people who use running water and suffer, with their skin damaged, the animals which are drinking that water and exposed to dangerous diseases,” Gizachew said.

Action taken

The Tigray region’s Cabinet this week called for a halt to goldmining. The announcement was made by the deputy president of Tigray’s interim administration, Lieutenant General Tsadkan Gebretinsae. He did not elaborate about when the suspension will start and how the measure will be implemented.

Prior to that, the Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau said in a statement that action was taken against people who were using illegal dangerous chemicals to process gold in Tahtay Koraro district near a dam that is a source of potable water for the city of Shire Inda Selasse.

No details were given about the actions and the type of chemicals used.

A security source who requested anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media alleged that foreign companies are working with Ezana Mining Development, a local mining company.

The head of Ezana company, Tesfatsion Desta, did not initially respond to VOA calls.

After a VOA Tigrigna Service radio report aired, Ezana put out a statement saying it was not asked to comment on the story, which it called “distorted.”

In the statement, Ezana said it worked with foreign companies before the Tigray war. The statement continued that because of insecurity and instability, however, these companies did not come back after the war.

The company said the gold factory located in Northwest Tigray’s Asgede district, in the Tabia Lemat area, is free from pollution, waste and environmental distraction.

Without naming a specific country, Tigray President Getachew told the region’s diaspora community in a Zoom meeting that he believes more gold than reported is smuggled out of Ethiopia.

Getachew said what is happening in Tigray is becoming “a crime.”

“It is a very serious problem. It is not just robbery. People are losing their animals because of the dangerous chemical used by the miners. There are people who are known to participate in this network from top to bottom among government and security officials.”

VOA’s repeated attempts to get comment from the Tigray Bureau of Land and Mining and the Mining Ministry, as well as the National Bank of Ethiopia, were unsuccessful.

This story originated in VOA’s Horn of Africa Service. 
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Belgian Catholic university denounces pope’s views on women’s roles in society

Posted on by SeeEU

brussels — Pope Francis’ burdensome trip through Belgium reached new lows Saturday when defiant Catholic university women demanded to his face a “paradigm change” on women’s issues in the church and then expressed deep disappointment when Francis dug in. 

The Catholic University of Louvain, the Francophone campus of Belgium’s storied Catholic university, issued a scathing statement after Francis visited and repeated his view that women are the “fertile” nurturers of the church, inducing grimaces in his audience. 

“UC Louvain expresses its incomprehension and disapproval of the position expressed by Pope Francis regarding the role of women in the church and society,” the statement said, calling the pope’s views “deterministic and reductive.” 

Francis’ trip to Belgium, ostensibly to celebrate the university’s 600th anniversary, was always going to be difficult, given Belgium’s legacy of clerical sexual abuse and secular trends that have emptied churches in the once staunchly Catholic country. 

Francis got an earful Friday about the abuse crisis starting with King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander Croos and continuing on down to the victims themselves. 

But it’s one thing for the pope to be lambasted by the liberal prime minister for the church’s mishandling of priests who raped children. It’s quite another to be openly criticized by the Catholic university that invited him and long was the Vatican’s intellectual fiefdom in Belgium. 

Church needs ‘paradigm shift,’ say students

The students made an impassioned plea to Francis for the church to change its view of women. It is an issue Francis knows well: He has made some changes during his 11-year pontificate, allowing women to serve as acolytes, appointing several women to high-ranking positions in the Vatican, and saying women must have greater decision-making roles in the church. 

But he has ruled out ordaining women as priests and has refused so far to budge on demands to allow women to serve as deacons, who perform many of the same tasks as priests. He has taken the women’s issue off the table for debate at the Vatican’s upcoming three-week synod, or meeting, because it’s too thorny to be dealt with in such a short time. He has punted it to theologians and canonists to chew over into next year. 

In a letter read aloud on stage with the pope listening attentively, the students noted that Francis’ landmark 2015 environmental encyclical Laudato Si (Praised Be) made virtually no mention of women, cited no women theologians and “exalts their maternal role and forbids them access to ordained ministries.” 

“Women have been made invisible. Invisible in their lives, women have also been invisible in their intellectual contributions,” the students said. 

“What, then, is the place of women in the church?” they asked. “We need a paradigm shift, which can and must draw on the treasures of spirituality as much as on the development of the various disciplines of science.” 

Francis said he liked what they said, but repeated his frequent refrain that “the church is woman,” only exists because the Virgin Mary agreed to be the mother of Jesus, and that men and women were complementary. 

“Woman is fertile welcome. Care. Vital devotion,” Francis said. “Let us be more attentive to the many daily expressions of this love, from friendship to the workplace, from studies to the exercise of responsibility in the church and society, from marriage to motherhood, from virginity to the service of others and the building up of the kingdom of God.” 

Louvain said such terminology had no place in a university or society today. It emphasized the point with the entertainment for the event featuring a jazz rendition of Lady Gaga’s LGBTQ+ anthem “Born This Way.” 

“UC Louvain can only express its disagreement with this deterministic and reductive position,” the statement said. “It reaffirms its desire for everyone to flourish within it and in society, whatever their origins, gender or sexual orientation. It calls on the church to follow the same path, without any form of discrimination.” 

The comment followed a speech Friday by the rector of the Dutch campus of the university in which he ventured that the church would be a much more welcoming place if women could be priests. 

The university’s back-to-back criticism was especially significant as Francis was long held up in Europe as a beacon of progressive hope following the conservative papacies of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. 

Pope prays at king’s tomb

Yet Francis toed the conservative line earlier in the day too. 

He went to the royal crypt in the Church of Our Lady to pray at the tomb of King Baudouin, best known for having refused to give royal assent, one of his constitutional duties, to a parliament-approved bill legalizing abortion. 

Baudouin stepped down for one day in 1990 to allow the government to pass the law, which he would otherwise have been required to sign, before he was reinstated as king. 

Francis praised Baudouin’s courage when he decided to “leave his position as king to not sign a homicidal law,” according to the Vatican summary of the private encounter, which was attended by Baudouin’s nephew, King Philippe, and Queen Mathilde. 

The pope then referred to a new legislative proposal to extend the legal limit for an abortion in Belgium, from 12 weeks to 18 weeks after conception. The bill failed at the last minute because parties in government negotiations considered the timing inopportune. 

Francis urged Belgians to look to Baudouin’s example in preventing such a law and added that he hoped the former king’s beatification cause would move ahead. 
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Biden, Harris call Israeli killing of Hezbollah’s Nasrallah ‘measure of justice’

Posted on by SeeUS

REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware — The Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah was a “measure of justice” for victims of a four-decade “reign of terror,” President Joe Biden said Saturday. 

The comments came after Lebanon’s Hezbollah group confirmed earlier Saturday that Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut the previous day. 

Biden noted that the operation to take out Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023. 

“Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a ‘northern front’ against Israel,” Biden said in a statement. 

He also noted that Hezbollah under Nasrallah’s watch has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese. 

Hezbollah attacks against U.S. interests include the truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy and multinational force barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the kidnapping of the Central Intelligence Agency chief of station in Beirut, who died while held captive. The U.S. said Hezbollah leaders armed and trained militias that carried out attacks on U.S. forces during the war in Iraq. 

The White House sees the death of Nasrallah as a huge blow to Hezbollah. At the same time, the administration has sought to tread carefully as it has tried to contain Israel’s war with Hamas, which, like Hezbollah, is backed by Iran, from exploding into an all-out regional conflict. 

The White House and Pentagon were quick Friday, shortly after the strike, to say publicly that Israel offered it no forewarning of the operation. 

“President Biden and I do not want to see conflict in the Middle East escalate into a broader regional war,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement Saturday that echoed Biden’s description of a “measure of justice.” She added, “diplomacy remains the best path forward to protect civilians and achieve lasting stability in the region.” 

The confirmation of Nasrallah’s death comes during a week that began with Biden’s top national security aides working on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to build support for a 21-day Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire that they hoped might also breathe new life into stalled efforts to secure a truce in Gaza. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiant speech Friday to the United Nations, vowing to keep up operations against Hezbollah until tens of thousands of Israeli citizens displaced by rocket attacks can return home. Shortly after, Israel carried out the strike that killed Nasrallah. 

Biden reiterated Saturday that he wants to see cease-fires both in Gaza and between Israel and Hezbollah. 

“It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability,” Biden said. 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the United States of supporting the killing that took out Nasrallah and dozens of others. 

“The world community will not forget that the order of the terrorist strike was issued from New York and the Americans cannot absolve themselves from complicity with the Zionists,” Pezeshkian was quoted as saying in a statement read on Iranian state television. 
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At UN, Russian foreign minister dismisses Zelenskyy’s peace plan as ‘doomed’

Posted on by SeeUS

united nations — Russia’s foreign minister reinforced the Kremlin’s disagreements with the West in his United Nations General Assembly remarks Saturday and showed no interest in a genuine peace with Ukraine. 

“I’m not going to talk here about the senselessness and the danger of the very idea of trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power, which is what Russia is,” Sergey Lavrov said. 

Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin revised his government’s nuclear doctrine, in a clear attempt to discourage the West from lifting its restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons to strike inside Russian territory. 

Lavrov dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace formula as “doomed,” and said a resolution of the conflict is not possible unless the root causes of the crisis, as Moscow sees them, are addressed. 

The veteran diplomat also took the opportunity to repeat complaints about NATO, Washington, London and the European Union. 

His speech came a few hours after Lebanese Hezbollah acknowledged the death of their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, following a series of targeted Israeli airstrikes in Beirut. 

“We are particularly concerned by the now almost commonplace practice of political killings, as once again, took place yesterday in Beirut,” he told the assembly. 

At a news conference following his speech, Lavrov expressed concerns about a wider regional war. 

“A lot of people say that Israel wants to create the grounds to drag the U.S. directly into this,” he said. “And so, to create these grounds, is trying to provoke Iran and Hezbollah. So the Iran leadership, I think, are behaving extremely responsibly, and this is something that we should take due note of.” 

War in Ukraine 

In February 2022, Russia and China declared a “no limits partnership,” just days before President Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

The United States has repeatedly accused China of assisting the Kremlin with its war. 

“China, another permanent member of this council, is the top provider of machine tools, microelectronics, and other items that Russia is using to rebuild, to restock, to ramp up its war machine and sustain its brutal aggression,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday at a high-level U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine that President Zelenskyy attended. 

Beijing denies the charge and has sought to distance itself publicly from Moscow on the war. 

“The top priority is to commit to no expansion of the battlefield, no escalation of fighting, and no provocation by any party, and push for de-escalation of the situation as soon as possible,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the General Assembly on Saturday. 

Beijing says it is committed to playing “a constructive role” in ending the conflict. 

China and ‘multipolar world’ 

On the margins of the annual U.N. meetings, China and Brazil launched what they are calling the group of friends for peace for Ukraine, which includes several other countries from the global south. 

In a sign of China’s desire to be recognized as a global economic and political power, Wang said international relations should be “more democratic.” 

“Gone are the days when one or two major powers call the shots on everything,” he said. “We should advocate an equal and orderly multipolar world and see that all countries, regardless of their size, have their own place and role in the multipolar system.” 

Wang also called for full U.N. membership for the Palestinians and urged implementation of a two-state solution. 

“There must not be any delay in reaching a comprehensive cease-fire, and the fundamental way out lies in the two-state solution,” he said. 

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi asked the assembly how the international community could believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim on Friday that “Israel yearns for peace.”   

“Yesterday, while he was here, Israel conducted an unprecedented, massive air attack on Beirut. Prime Minister Netanyahu wants the war to continue. We must stop that! I repeat, we must stop that! We must pressure Israel to come back to a political solution for a two-state solution,” she said to much applause. 

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister also expressed concern about regional stability following the escalation in Lebanon. 

“We call on all parties to show wisdom and to show restraint in order to avoid a true war breaking out in the region,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said. 
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6 killed by bomb blasts in Somalia after leader addresses UN

Posted on by SeeAF

WASHINGTON — Bomb blasts in Mogadishu and a town in the country’s Middle Shabelle region killed at least six people and injured 10 others Saturday, police said and witnesses confirmed to VOA.

“An explosives-laden vehicle, which was parked on the road near a restaurant in the busy Hamar Weyne district, went off. I could see the dead bodies of at least three people, two of them women,” Mohamed Haji Nur, a witness, told VOA.

The explosion site is opposite of Somalia’s National Theater, about one kilometer from the president’s office.

The target of the attack is still unknown, but the affected Gel Doh restaurant is frequented by government staff and people from the diaspora for serving traditional Somali food.

In a separate incident, a bomb planted in a livestock market in Jowhar city in Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region killed one person and injured three other civilians, Jowhar police Commander Bashir Hassan told a news conference.

It was not immediately clear who had carried out the attacks. However, the Islamist militant group al-Shabab is known for orchestrating bombings and gun attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa country.

Barre addressed UN General Assembly

Somalian Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre publicly accused Ethiopia before the U.N. General Assembly on Friday of actions that he says “flagrantly violate” Somalia’s territorial integrity.

This accusation comes as tensions continue to escalate between the two neighboring countries since January, when Ethiopia struck a controversial maritime deal with the breakaway region of Somaliland.

This region, at the northern tip of the country, declared independence in 1991 but lacks international recognition.

Under the deal, Somaliland would lease 20 kilometers of shoreline to Ethiopia in return for recognition, a move that raised alarms in Mogadishu.

“Somalia currently faces a serious threat from Ethiopia’s recent actions, which flagrantly violate our territorial integrity,” Prime Minister Barre stated at the U.N. General Assembly.

Somalia has accused Ethiopia of unlawfully attempting to build a naval base and commercial port in Somaliland.

“Ethiopia’s attempt to annex part of Somalia under the guise of securing sea access is both unlawful and unnecessary,” Barre emphasized, highlighting the gravity of the situation.

Ethiopia, a landlocked nation, has long sought access to the sea, but its move to deal with Somaliland infuriated the Somali government.

Barre elaborated on the implications of Ethiopia’s actions, saying, “Somalia ports have always been accessible for Ethiopia’s legitimate commercial activities, reflecting our commitment to regional trade and cooperation.”

He warned, though, that “Ethiopia’s aggressive maneuvers undermine Somalia’s sovereignty and embolden secessionist movements, which could threaten national unity.”

“These actions also serve as propaganda for terrorist groups like al-Shabab, who exploit Ethiopia’s provocations to recruit and radicalize vulnerable individuals,” he said.

Ethiopia denies accusations

Addressing the General Debate of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Taye Atske-Selassie, minister for foreign affairs of Ethiopia, denied Somalia’s accusation.

“Ethiopia’s memorandum of understanding with Somaliland is based on existing political dispensation in Somalia,” he said.

“Our objective is a shared growth and prosperity in the region. Similar agreements have been concluded by other states, and there is no reason for the government of Somalia to incite hostility that obviously intends to cover internal political tensions. I therefore reject the unfounded allegations leveled against my country.”

In a show of defiance, several times Somalia has threatened to expel Ethiopian troops who have been part of an African Union mission against al-Shabab militants since 2007.

Afyare Abdi Elmi, a Mogadishu-based professor of international affairs, told VOA that recent Egyptian military cooperation with Somalia raised concerns in Addis Ababa.

“The stakes are raised further, as Mogadishu has signed a military deal with Cairo and received weapons shipments that have alarmed Ethiopian officials.”

“I am afraid that the unfolding events signal a crucial moment in the Horn of Africa, with the potential to reshape the region’s geopolitical landscape and security dynamics,” said Somalia analyst Abdiqafar Abdi Wardhere, who is based in Virginia.

Last week, the Somali government accused Ethiopia of sending an “unauthorized shipment of arms and ammunition” to Somalia’s semiautonomous region of Puntland.

“Ethiopia must be held accountable for actions threatening to destabilize the Horn of Africa,” Barre warned in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

As the African Union mission prepares to transform at the end of the year, Egypt has offered to replace Ethiopian troops for the first time.

Somalia may also push for the removal of the estimated 10,000 Ethiopian troops stationed in Somalia’s regions along the border, aimed at preventing incursions by Islamist militants.

Although he did not name Egypt, Ethiopia’s foreign minister said that other actors’ actions are undermining regional stability.

“The recent maneuvers of actors from the outside of the Horn of Africa region undermine these efforts. Ethiopia will not be deterred from its resolute commitment to combating terrorism,” Atske-Selassie said. “I am confident that the government of Somalia will reckon and recognize the sacrifice we made to Somalia’s liberation from the grip of terrorist groups.”

Some information in this report is from Reuters.
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9 die in migrant boat shipwreck off Spanish island; 48 missing

Posted on by SeeAF

Madrid — A boat carrying migrants capsized off Spain’s Canary Islands overnight, killing at least nine people and leaving 48 missing, the national maritime rescue service said Saturday.

Eighty-four people were on board and 27 were saved after rescuers responded to a distress call received shortly after midnight from off El Hierro, one of the islands in the Atlantic archipelago, a statement said.

This follows the death of 39 migrants in early September when their boat sank off Senegal while attempting a similar crossing to the Canaries, from where migrants hope to reach mainland Europe.

Thousands of migrants have died in recent years setting off into the Atlantic to reach Europe onboard overcrowded and often dilapidated boats.

The latest tragedy “again underlines the dangerousness of the Atlantic route,” Canaries regional President Fernando Clavijo wrote on X.

“We need Spain and the EU to act decisively in the face of a structural humanitarian tragedy” as lives are lost “meters from Europe’s southern border,” he said.

In late August, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited Mauritania and Gambia to sign cooperation agreements to crack down on people smugglers while expanding pathways for legal immigration.

As of August 15, some 22,304 migrants had reached the Canaries since the start of the year, up from 9,864 in the same period the previous year.

Almost 40,000 migrants entered the Canaries in 2023, a record on course to be broken this year as easier navigation conditions from September tend to lead to a spike in crossing attempts.

The Atlantic route is particularly deadly, with many of the crowded and poorly equipped boats unable to cope with the strong ocean currents. Some boats depart African beaches as far as 1,000 kilometers from the Canaries.

The International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency, estimates that 4,857 people have died on this route since 2014.

Many aid organizations say that is a massive undercount, with Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish nongovernmental organization that aids migrants, saying 18,680 have died trying to reach Europe.
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Thai MP Rome urges reform to fix Myanmar migration crisis, corruption

Posted on by SeeEA

Bangkok — As Thailand faces a growing influx of refugees from Myanmar following the military coup, MP Rangsiman Rome, chair of the Thai House Committee on National Security and deputy leader of the People’s Party, emphasizes the need for urgent reform.

“The immediate step is to register the people,” Rome tells VOA, citing corruption and the lack of legal recognition that leave many refugees vulnerable. “By recognizing them, we can give them access to education and work, while ensuring they contribute by paying taxes.”

In this exclusive interview with VOA, Rome discusses Thailand’s challenges with migration, corruption and the need for coordinated government action to address the crisis.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: What are your criticisms of the government’s handling of this crisis, and what should they do differently?

Rangsiman Rome: The civil war in Myanmar is devastating, forcing many to flee into Thailand. Unfortunately, Thailand wasn’t prepared, and refugees now live in the shadows without legal status. We can’t return them due to international and domestic laws, so we’ve been working with [nongovernmental organizations] to provide humanitarian aid, but a long-term solution is necessary.

Thailand shares a 2,400-kilometer border with Myanmar, and instability there allows for illegal activities like drug smuggling and human trafficking, affecting Thailand and the region. ASEAN [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] must pressure the State Administration Council [SAC], Myanmar’s junta, to support peace and democracy in Myanmar.

In the short term, Thailand must register the 6 million Myanmar people here, providing them with legal status, work and education. Right now, the government’s policy on this issue remains unclear.

VOA: What immediate steps should be taken?

Rome: Registering the Myanmar people who are in Thailand would be a good first step. One of the problems that we are facing is corruption. A lot of refugees have to pay the money to the police or other authorities in order to work. If the Thai government would recognize these people living in Thailand, it would make it so they can not only access health care and education, but also they will be able to work and therefore have the responsibility to pay taxes. At the same time, we need to reach out to our friends like Japan, the U.S. and Australia for help with managing this situation, such as humanitarian aid.

VOA: A recent Lower House report highlighted legal loopholes contributing to human rights violations. What changes do you propose?

Rome: When we register them, we can make sure that our law will protect them. Abuses can happen because we don’t recognize them. So, [if] anything happens to them, they cannot report it; but if they are registered, they can earn, can live like normal people in Thailand.

At the same time, if you want to solve this, we have to talk about how it starts. In Myanmar we find out that as many as 2 million refugees are in the IDP [internally displaced people] camps because of the ongoing bombardment by the SAC. If everyone in the international community would come together to pressure the SAC to stop this, maybe a million refugees could return to their homes again. So, we need to not just manage the refugees in Thailand, but we have to deal with the situation in Myanmar.

VOA: Ministries have been criticized for working in “silos.” How do you plan to improve coordination?

Rome: As chair of the National Security Committee, I ensure that our recommendations benefit Thailand. We aim to play a larger role in the U.N. Human Rights Council, but we must manage the refugee situation appropriately to maintain our reputation.

We are working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure Myanmar refugees can live safely in Thailand. Additionally, the SAC has been using Thailand’s banking system to launder money for weapons, and we’ve been pushing the foreign minister to take action on this.

VOA: Access to health care, education and basic services for migrants remain major issues. How do you assess the government’s efforts, and what would you do differently?

Rome: The policy around education in Thailand is not very clear. For example, there have been cases where the government closed a day care because they were singing a song to the children in Burmese and they found that unacceptable. The problem is that it’s very hard for refugee children to access school in Thailand and not every school has the same policies.

The people at the border, they cannot have a Thai education, so the Thai authority is trying to create a separate Burmese program for them, but it doesn’t make sense to me. How can the Thai government make a Burmese program?

I think one of the very important things is we need to change this policy. Kids are innocent. They should have access to the Thai education system, and actually, we have space for them. We are an aging society. Schools are actually closing due to a lack of enrollment because of low birth rates. I think Thailand must change, and if I controlled the government, absolutely we would open the education system for Myanmar people to study in Thailand. I believe that if they are better educated, it benefits not only themselves but all of Thailand.

VOA: There was a protest in front of the Myanmar Embassy a few days ago where protesters were complaining about the large number of Myanmar refugees in Thailand. What do you think is driving this protest?

Rome: Thailand’s struggling economy has led to job losses, and with over 6 million Myanmar refugees here, tensions are rising. Corruption adds to the issue, with refugees forced to pay bribes just to live. Crimes involving Myanmar refugees are often publicized more, worsening relations between Thai and Myanmar people.

Registering the refugees would reduce corruption and ensure equal treatment under the law. Right now, Thai law restricts foreigners from working in many sectors, but if managed properly, Myanmar workers could contribute significantly to our economy. They are essential to Thailand and bringing them out of the shadows will help us all.

VOA: Given the current situation, what message would you like to share with the Myanmar migrants living in Thailand?

Rome: I understand that the people from Myanmar seek peace and safety here, hoping to provide for their families. The crisis in Myanmar forced them to flee and find opportunities elsewhere.

As an MP, I want Thailand to uphold human rights, but that’s difficult due to many factors — history, education and the economy. Still, I believe that Myanmar and Thailand, as neighbors, must work together. Real change requires improving the situation in Myanmar. I know the Myanmar people want peace and democracy, and I hope we can achieve that together.
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Australian treasurer, visiting Beijing, welcomes Chinese efforts to stimulate its economy

Posted on by SeeEA

BEIJING — Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Friday welcomed Chinese efforts to stimulate its slowing economy, noting that its recent weakness has hurt Australia.

Chalmers was wrapping up a two-day visit to Beijing, the first to China by an Australian treasurer in seven years, as strained bilateral relations mend.

He told reporters that Australia’s economy was slowing because of global economic uncertainty, high interest rates and China’s slowdown.

“Those three things are combining to slow our own economy considerably and when steps are taken here to boost economic activity and to boost growth in the Chinese economy, subject to the details that will be released in good time, we see that as a very, very good development for Australia,” Chalmers said.

China is the biggest buyer of Australia’s most lucrative exports: iron ore and coal.

“Our resilience and prosperity are closely connected to China’s economy and the global economy,” Chalmers wrote in an opinion piece published Friday in The Australian newspaper. He noted that his department forecasts Chinese annual economic growth at below 5% for the next three years, the weakest expansion since the late 1970s.

While in Beijing the two sides held meetings for the Australia-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, reviving the once annual talks aimed at growing trade and investment after a seven-year hiatus.

In 2020, China introduced a series of official and unofficial trade bans on Australian commodities, including coal, that cost Australian exporters more than 20 billion Australian dollars ($14 billion) a year.

Such “trade impediments” now cost Australian exporters less than AU$1 billion ($690 million) a year, Chalmers says.

At the outset of Thursday’s meetings, Zheng Shanjie, chair of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, noted how relations had improved since Chalmers’ center-left Labor Party government was elected in 2020, ending nine years of conservative rule in Australia.

“Our development represents opportunities rather than challenges with each other,” Zheng said through an interpreter.

“At a time when the international situation is intricate and turbulent, it is of great significance for both countries to discuss economic development and cooperation opportunities together,” Zheng added.

Two-way bilateral trade reached a record AU$327 billion ($225 billion) last year, more than double its value when a free trade deal was struck in 2015.

During his visit, Chalmers was expected to raise the Chinese restrictions on imports of Australian lobsters and red meat from two Australian processors.

Chalmers confirmed he had raised the lobster trade in discussions and said Australia was seeking a “speedy resolution of the restrictions.” He blamed “technical issues” between bureaucracies of the two nations for the delay.

China raised concerns about Australian foreign investment rules.

Chalmers said he had explained to Zheng that Australia’s regulations did not target China and had agreed to further discuss the restrictions.

“Ours is a non-discriminatory regime which is about managing risks in foreign investment,” Chalmers said.

“Rejecting proposals is a very rare thing and it isn’t just (proposals) from one country,” Chalmers added.

China wants to invest in Australian critical minerals, but Australia shares U.S. concerns over China’s global dominance in critical minerals and control over supply chains in the renewable energy sector.

Citing Australia’s national interests, in June Chalmers ordered five Chinese-linked companies to divest their shares in the rare earth mining company Northern Minerals.

China has been grappling with a lagging economy post-COVID, with weak consumer demand, persistent deflationary pressures and a contraction in factory activity.

Earlier this week, China announced a series of new measures to boost the economy and revive its ailing property sector. The central bank lowered bank reserve requirements by 0.5% as of Friday. It also has slashed interest rates on its loans to commercial banks and lowered the minimum down payments for some mortgages.

Unconfirmed reports Thursday by the South China Morning Post and Bloomberg said the government plans to spend about 1 trillion yuan ($142 billion) on recapitalizing six big state-owned banks.

While China is growing economically closer to Australia, Beijing is becoming militarily more belligerent in the Asia-Pacific region.

On security issues, Chalmers said he raised in his discussions a Chinese aircraft carrier accompanied by two destroyers entering an area near Japan’s shores for the first time last week.

He also raised international concerns over China test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean this week.

“I was able to reiterate in the meetings yesterday afternoon our expectations of safe and professional conduct of all militaries operating in our region,” Chalmers said.

“But as you would expect, the overwhelming focus of our discussions here have been the economy,” he added. 
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Chinese nuclear attack submarine sank during construction, US official says

Posted on by SeeEA

WASHINGTON — Satellite imagery showed that China’s newest nuclear-powered attack submarine sank alongside a pier while under construction, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday.

The sinking of China’s first Zhou-class submarine represents a setback for Beijing as it continues to build out the world’s largest navy. Beijing has become increasingly assertive in pursuing its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, which is crucial to international trade.

Meanwhile, China faces longtime territorial disputes involving others in the region including Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. The United States has sought to strengthen ties to its allies in the region and regularly sails through those waters in operations it says maintains the freedom of navigation for vessels there, angering Beijing.

The submarine likely sank between May and June, when satellite images showed cranes that would be necessary to lift it off the bottom of the river, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about the submarine loss.

China has been building up its naval fleet at a breakneck pace, and the U.S. considers China’s rise one of its main future security concerns.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday he was not familiar with the topic and did not provide any information when asked about it at a Beijing press conference.

The U.S. official said it was “not surprising” that China’s navy would conceal it. The submarine’s current status is unknown.

The identification of the sunken nuclear submarine was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Thomas Shugart, a former U.S. Navy submariner and an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, first noticed the incident involving the submarine in July, though it wasn’t publicly known at the time that it involved the new Zhou-class vessel.

Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press show what appears to be a submarine docked at the Shuangliu shipyard on the Yangtze River before the incident.

An image taken June 15 appears to show the submarine either fully or partially submerged just under the river’s surface, with rescue equipment and cranes surrounding it. Booms surround it to prevent any oil or other leaks from the vessel.

A satellite image taken August 25 shows a submarine back at the same dock as the submerged vessel. It’s not clear if it was the same one.

It remains unclear if the affected submarine had been loaded with nuclear fuel or if its reactor was operating at the time of the incident. However, there has been no reported release of radiation in the area in the time since.

China as of last year operated six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear-powered attack submarines and 48 diesel-powered attack submarines, according to a U.S. military report.

News of the submarine’s sinking comes as China this week conducted a rare launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into international waters in the Pacific Ocean. Experts say it marked the first time Beijing had conducted such a test since 1980. 
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Brazil imposes new fine, demands payments before letting X resume

Posted on by SeeUS

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA BRAZIL — Brazil’s Supreme Court said on Friday that social platform X still needs to pay just over $5 million in pending fines, including a new one, before it will be allowed to resume its service in the country, according to a court document. 

Earlier this week, the Elon Musk-owned U.S. firm told the court it had complied with orders to stop the spread of misinformation and asked it to lift a ban on the platform. 

But Judge Alexandre de Moraes responded on Friday with a ruling that X and its legal representative in Brazil must still agree to pay a total of $3.4 million in pending fines that were previously ordered by the court. 

In his decision, the judge said that the court can use resources already frozen from X and Starlink accounts in Brazil, but to do so the satellite company, also owned by Musk, had to drop its pending appeal against the fund blockage.  

The judge also demanded a new $1.8 million fine related to a brief period last week when X became available again for some users in Brazil. 

X, formerly known as Twitter, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

According to a person close to X, the tech firm will likely pay all the fines but will consider challenging the fine that was imposed by the court after the platform ban.  

X has been suspended since late August in Brazil, one of its largest and most coveted markets, after Moraes ruled it had failed to comply with orders related to restricting hate speech and naming a local legal representative. 

Musk, who had denounced the orders as censorship and called Moraes a “dictator,” backed down and started to reverse his position last week, when X lawyers said the platform tapped a local representative and would comply with court rulings. 

In Friday’s decision, Moraes said that X had proved it had now blocked accounts as ordered by the court and had named the required legal representative in Brazil. 
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US-led coalition ending operations against Islamic State in Iraq

Posted on by SeeUS

The global coalition to ensure the defeat of Islamic State group terrorists is ending its military mission in Iraq. U.S. officials said a two-phased plan would not hinder counter-IS operations elsewhere in the region but did not detail how, or if, U.S. troop numbers would change. Carla Babb reports.
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Exiled opposition leader: ‘We want Belarus to return to family of European countries’

Posted on by SeeEU

New York — Among those in New York City for the 79th United Nations General Assembly is exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

On Monday, Tsikhanouskaya and Evgenia Kara-Murza, the Russian human rights activist and wife of former political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza, received the annual human rights prize awarded by the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, founded by the late Tom Lantos, who was the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to the U.S. Congress.

Addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that same day via video link, Tsikhanouskaya said she was speaking on behalf of the more than 1,400 Belarusians imprisoned for political reasons by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s government.

“Many of them are held in complete isolation, incommunicado … no letters, no phone calls, no contact with the outside world,” she said. “My husband, Syarhei, has been cut off for over a year. I do not know if he is alive.”

Tsikhanouskaya was interviewed in New York by Victoria Kupchinetsky of Voice of America’s Russian Service.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: What is the purpose of you coming here to New York to the General Assembly?

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: The U.N. is a good platform where you can meet not only your allies, but also the countries who might be useful to your cause. We are, as Belarusians … fighting for the restoration of democracy in Belarus, for the release of our political prisoners. And we are looking for world leaders who can somehow assist us with these questions. People in Belarusian prisons are dying. This is the most painful topic for us in the democratic movement. And I think that countries who still have some relationship with this [Lukashenko] regime, they can assist us in solving the humanitarian crisis.

VOA: Why do you think Lukashenko released those dozens of political prisoners? Do you know if there are any negotiations about an exchange similar to the recent prisoner exchange with Russia?

Tsikhanouskaya: Lukashenko wants to sell the release of about 100 people as an act of humanity. But it has nothing in common with this. I think this release is connected with the pressure that is imposed on Lukashenko’s regime. They want to have the sanctions lifted, they want to be relevant in the political world, but they are not.

Our task is to make sure that the policy of our democratic allies will not change toward Belarus. And, of course, putting pressure on the regime, strengthening Belarusian civil society, agents of democratic forces. We are looking for venues how we can release political prisoners [for] humanitarian reasons. … People are dying. We are looking for countries, for organizations, that can be mediators on this issue.

VOA: Are you collecting materials, evidence, against Lukashenko to present in The Hague, at the international tribunal?

Tsikhanouskaya: I’m totally sure that in the world, justice has to be restored, and Lukashenko has a long list of crimes — crimes against humanity, crimes of the deportation of Belarusians, crimes of the abduction of Ukrainian children, the immigration crisis, the hijacking of airplanes, bringing our country into the war [against Ukraine], and so on and so forth. And, of course, for years we have been collecting evidence of these crimes, and we want to use international mechanisms — the ICC [International Criminal Court], ICJ [International Court of Justice, aka World Court] — [words indistinct] to bring Lukashenko and his cronies to account, though these instruments are rather slow, honestly speaking. But we are consistent in our approach, and hopefully very soon will start a special investigation against the crimes.

VOA: What is the ultimate goal of your struggle — to actually remove Lukashenko from power or something else?

Tsikhanouskaya: Our goal is to restore justice in Belarus, hold free and fair elections in my homeland, but I understand that we can’t do this while Lukashenko is there. So, our ultimate goal is to release political prisoners, hold free and fair elections, but before this, of course, we have to weaken the regime as much as possible and strengthen national identity, civil society, democratic forces, to have a smooth and fast transition period. And of course, we want Belarus to return to the family of European countries.
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