U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says the leaders of Ukraine and Russia should be “prepared to make a deal” to end the brutal conflict that has consumed Ukraine since 2022. He also slammed President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike inside Russian territory with U.S.-provided weapons – hinting that when he takes office, he may reverse that move. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington. Iuliia Iarmolenko, Kim Lewis and Kateryna Lisunova contributed.
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US ambassador: US arms manufacturers could help boost Vietnam’s capabilities
HANOI, VIETNAM — U.S. weapons manufacturers could work with Vietnamese counterparts to help build Vietnam’s armed forces, the U.S. ambassador to the southeast Asian country said on Thursday.
“Our goal is to ensure that Vietnam has what it needs to defend its interests at sea, in the air, on the ground and in cyberspace,” U.S. Ambassador Marc Knapper said at an international arms expo in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi.
The expo, held at the Gia Lam airport, brought together 250 exhibitors, including geopolitical rivals such as the United States, China, Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Iran.
U.S. exhibitors included Boeing and Textron Aviation. China was present with Norinco and Gaodu International Trade. Iran’s defense ministry pavilion wasn’t far from booths set up by Israeli companies Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. Several Russian firms also attended, along with Ukraine’s Motor Sich.
Vietnam has been trying to increase its domestic arms manufacturing while reducing its reliance on Russia for weapon imports.
In 2022, Russia made up around 60% of all of Vietnam’s military purchases, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. But Vietnam’s longstanding efforts to diversify its imports have been accelerated by the war in Ukraine. It has also been trying to boost its own capacity to make arms and displayed military equipment it made at the expo.
A key driver for Vietnam is the escalating tensions in the South China Sea, a key trade and security route. It is a flashpoint in Asia and a fault line in the U.S.-China regional rivalry. Vietnam has been critical of China’s increasingly hostile actions in the disputed waters. Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries have overlapping claims in the busy sea passage.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hailed the event as a “message of peace, cooperation and development.” He was later given a tour of a military plane made by U.S. firm Lockheed Martin.
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France’s Macron visits cyclone-devastated Mayotte as residents plead for aid
MAMOUDZOU, MAYOTTE — French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Thursday in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey Cyclone Chido’s destruction and was immediately confronted with a firsthand account of devastation across the French territory.
“Mayotte is demolished,” Assane Haloi, a security agent, told Macron after he stepped off the plane.
Macron had been moving along in a line of people greeting him when Haloi grasped his hand and spoke for a minute about the harrowing conditions the islands faced without bare essentials since Saturday when the strongest cyclone in nearly a century ripped through the French territory off the coast of Africa.
“We are without water, without electricity, there is nowhere to go because everything is demolished,” she said. “We can’t even shelter, we are all wet with our children covering ourselves with whatever we have so that we can sleep.”
Numbers of dead unknown
At least 31 people have died and more than 1,500 people were injured, more than 200 critically, French authorities said. But it’s feared hundreds or even thousands of people have died.
Macron arrived shortly after The Associated Press and other journalists from outside were able to reach Mayotte to provide accounts from survivors of the horror over the weekend when winds howled above 220 kph (136 mph) and peeled the roofs and walls from homes that collapsed around the people sheltering inside.
In the shantytown Kaweni on the outskirts of the capital Mamoudzou, a swath of hillside homes was reduced to scraps of corrugated metal, plastic, piles of bedding and clothing, and pieces of timber marking the frame where homes once stood.
“Those of us who are here are still in shock, but God let us live,” Nassirou Hamidouni said as he dug in the rubble of his former home. “We are sad. We can’t sleep because of all of the houses that have been destroyed.”
Macron took a helicopter tour of the damage and then met with patients and staff at a hospital, who described having to work around the clock.
A woman who works in the psychological unit became emotional as she described staff becoming exhausted and unable to care for patients.
“Help the hospital staff, help the hospital,” pleaded the woman, whose name was not known. “Everyone from top to bottom is wiped out.”
More help on the way
Macron, who was wearing a traditional red, black and gold Mayotte scarf over his white dress shirt and tie, put his hand on her shoulder as she wiped away tears.
He sought to reassure people that food, medical aid and additional rescuers arrived with him and more help was on its way in the form of water and a field hospital to be set up Friday. A navy ship brought 180 tons of aid and equipment, the French military said.
But the visit took a testy turn when Macron was criticized for being out of touch about what was happening on the ground by a man who said they had gone six days in Ouangani without water or a visit from rescue services.
The president said it took the military four days to clear the roads and get a plan in place to deliver aid.
“If you want to continue shouting to get airtime,” Macron said as he was cut off, by the man saying he didn’t intend to shout. “If you are interested in my response, if not I will walk away.”
Residents have expressed agony at not knowing if loved ones were dead or missing, partly because of the hasty burials required under Muslim practice to lay the dead to rest within 24 hours.
“We’re dealing with open-air mass graves,” said Estelle Youssoufa, who represents Mayotte in the French parliament. “There are no rescuers, no one has come to recover the buried bodies.”
Macron acknowledged that many who died haven’t been reported. He said phone services will be repaired “in the coming days” so that people can report their missing loved ones.
France’s poorest territory
Mayotte, with a population of 320,000 residents and an estimated 100,000 additional migrants, is France’s poorest territory.
It is part of an archipelago located between mainland Africa’s east coast and northern Madagascar that had been a French colony. Mayotte voted to remain part of France in a 1974 referendum as the rest of the islands became the independent nation of Comoros.
The cyclone devastated entire neighborhoods as many people ignored warnings, thinking the storm wouldn’t be so extreme.
Signs of the disaster and its impact were everywhere.
Streets remained swamped in puddles. Bright clothing was hung to dry on the wooden frames of homes and along the railings of a footbridge over a debris-strewn stream in the Kaweni slum. Throngs of motorbikes and cars lined up at a gas station still in service.
Families sprawled out on blankets at a school where 500 people were taking shelter. Women washed clothing in buckets of water as children played with the pieces of a giant chessboard.
Alibouna Haithouna, a displaced mother of four, was with her own mother who had been forced to leave a hospital after her son died there.
“There was a tragedy. We lost my brother. We are here,” Haithouna said. “My brother’s body, we haven’t been able to get it from the hospital because there is a lot of paperwork to do and in addition to that you have to pay to recover the body.”
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French court finds 51 defendants guilty in mass rape trial
After a French court Thursday found all 51 defendants guilty in a drugging-and-rape case, the victim, Gisele Pelicot said that the trial has been a “difficult ordeal,” but that she never regretted making the case public.
Following a four-month trial in the southeastern city of Avignon, Pelicot’s ex-husband of 50 years, 72-year-old Dominique Pelicot, received a sentence of a maximum of 20 years in prison.
He pleaded guilty in September to repeatedly drugging his wife, raping her while she was unconscious and recruiting strangers to join him over a period of 10 years.
The five-judge panel handed Pelicot’s 50 co-defendants, a group of men from 27 to 74 years old, sentences ranging from three to 20 years in prison.
In her first comments following the verdicts, Gisele Pelicot told reporters her first thoughts were with her three children and her grandchildren, “because they are the future, and it is also for them that I have fought this battle.”
She said she was also thinking of all the other families affected “by this tragedy.” Finally, she said, “I think of the unrecognized victims whose stories often remain in the shadows. I want you to know that we share the same struggle.”
Pelicot has become a symbol of courage and resilience to many, and crowds of supporters gathered outside the courthouse as the case went on.
Asked by reporters about complaints by her supporters that the sentences were too lenient, Pelicot said she respected the court and the decision. She said, “I trust, now, in our capacity to collectively seize a future in which each one of us, woman and man, may live in harmony with mutual respect and understanding.”
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Amazon workers strike at seven US facilities ahead of Christmas rush
Amazon.com workers at seven U.S. facilities walked off the job early on Thursday during the holiday shopping rush, aiming to pressure the retailer into contract talks with their union.
Warehouse workers in cities including New York, Atlanta and San Francisco are taking part in the “largest” strike against Amazon, said the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents about 10,000 workers at 10 of the firm’s facilities.
The company, however, said it does not expect any effect on its operations during one of the busiest times of the year.
Unions represent only about 1% of the hourly workforce of Amazon, the world’s second-largest private employer after Walmart, and it has multiple locations in many metro areas.
The Teamsters had given Amazon a Dec. 15 deadline to begin negotiations and warehouse workers had recently voted to authorize a strike.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters’ General President Sean O’Brien said late on Wednesday.
“We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it. This strike is on them.”
The retailer’s shares were trading 1.5% higher in premarket hours, a sign that investors do not expect a big disruption from the strike.
The Teamsters have “intentionally misled the public” and “threatened, intimidated and attempted to coerce” employees and third-party drivers to join them, an Amazon spokesperson said on Thursday.
Observers said Amazon was unlikely to come to the table to bargain as that could open the door to more union actions.
It employs more than 800,000 people at its U.S. warehouses and has more than 600 fulfillment centers, delivery stations and same-day facilities in the country.
Amazon has responded to recent organization efforts with legal challenges. Amazon has filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over a 2022 union vote in Staten Island, alleging bias among agency officials.
It also challenged the constitutionality of the NLRB in a September federal lawsuit.
Earlier this year, the company announced a $2.1 billion investment to raise pay for fulfillment and transportation employees in the U.S., increasing base wages for employees by at least $1.50 to around $22 per hour, a roughly 7% increase.
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China lets Sweden, Finland, Germany, Denmark board ship in cable breach case
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — China has allowed representatives from Germany, Sweden, Finland and Denmark to board a Chinese bulk carrier at the center of an investigation into Baltic Sea cable breaches, the Danish foreign minister said on Thursday.
The Yi Peng 3 vessel is wanted in Sweden for questioning over a breach of two undersea fiber-optic cables in November and has been stationary in waters nearby for a month while diplomats in Stockholm and Beijing discussed the matter.
Investigators quickly zeroed in on the ship, which left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15, and a Reuters analysis of MarineTraffic data showed that the vessel’s coordinates corresponded to the time and place of the breaches.
The Baltic Sea cables, one linking Finland and Germany and the other connecting Sweden to Lithuania, were damaged on Nov. 17 and 18, prompting German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to say he assumed it was caused by sabotage.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen on Thursday said his country had facilitated a meeting earlier this week between representatives from Germany, Sweden, Finland and China, helping break a monthlong standoff.
“It is our expectation that once the inspection has been completed by this group of people from the four countries, the ship will be able to sail towards its destination,” Lokke Rasmussen said.
LSEG data showed Yi Peng 3 remained anchored in the same spot in the Kattegat strait between Denmark and Sweden.
Swedish police in a statement said they participated on board the vessel as observers only, while Chinese authorities conducted investigations.
“In parallel, the preliminary investigation into sabotage in connection with two cable breaks in the Baltic Sea is continuing,” the police said.
The actions taken on board the ship on Thursday were not part of the Swedish-led preliminary investigation, the police added.
The breaches happened in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone and Swedish prosecutors are leading the investigation on suspicion of possible sabotage.
Western intelligence officials from multiple countries have said they are confident the Chinese ship caused the cuts to both cables. They have expressed different views on whether these were accidents or could have been deliberate.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson had urged the ship to return to Sweden to aid the investigation.
The was no immediate response from the Chinese Foreign Ministry outside of business hours on Thursday.
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Pakistan defends ballistic missile development amid new US sanctions
Islamabad — Pakistan sharply criticized the United States Thursday for imposing new sanctions against the nuclear-armed country’s long-range ballistic missile program, labeling the move as “double standards and discriminatory practices.”
U.S. State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller announced the measures on Wednesday, saying they were imposed under an executive order that “targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.”
Miller said the sanctions cover Pakistan’s state-owned National Defense Complex and three entities collaborating with it in the development of long-range ballistic missiles, including the Shaheen services of missiles.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry rejected the move as “unfortunate and biased.” The ministry statement said Islamabad’s defense capabilities are aimed at safeguarding Pakistan’s sovereignty and preserving peace in South Asia.
“The latest installment of sanctions defies the objective of peace and security by aiming to accentuate military asymmetries,” the ministry said, apparently referring to Pakistan’s rivalry with nuclear-armed neighbor India.
“Such policies have dangerous implications for the strategic stability of our region and beyond,” the ministry warned, without elaborating.
The designation of National Defense Complex and other firms freezes all U.S. property they own and bars U.S. citizens from engaging in business transactions with them.
“Pakistan’s strategic program is a sacred trust bestowed by 240 million people upon its leadership. The sanctity of this trust, held in the highest esteem across the entire political spectrum, cannot be compromised,” the foreign ministry stated Thursday in response to the U.S. announcement.
The accompanying U.S. State Department fact sheet said the Islamabad-based National Defense Complex has worked to acquire items “intended to be used as launch support equipment for ballistic missiles and missile testing equipment” to advance the country’s missile development program.
The other companies hit with U.S. sanctions are Affiliates International, Akhtar and Sons Private Ltd., and Rockside Enterprise, all located in Karachi, according to the fact sheet.
“The United States will continue to act against proliferation and associated procurement activities of concern,” Miller said.
Pakistan’s Shaheen surface-to-surface rocket is capable of carrying nuclear warheads to a range of approximately 2,750 kilometers, with experts saying the range enables the solid-fueled, multistage missile to reach targets anywhere in India and parts of the Middle East.
New Delhi and Islamabad conducted their first nuclear weapons tests in May 1998, raising fears another war between the arch-rivals could escalate into a nuclear exchange in South Asia. Both nations have fought three wars, resulting in strained relations and persistent military tensions.
India and Pakistan oppose and refuse to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, an international agreement aimed at curbing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
“These country-specific U.S. sanctions against a close and longstanding strategic partner like Pakistan are unfortunate, divorced from historical realities, and indicate weaker U.S. commitment towards regional peace, security and strategic stability,” Syed Muhammad Ali, a security expert based in Islamabad, told VOA.
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Stampede in southwestern Nigerian city causes multiple deaths
ABUJA — A stampede at a religious event in Ibadan, the capital of Nigeria’s southwest Oyo state, resulted in multiple deaths and injuries, Governor Seyi Makinde said on Wednesday.
The incident occurred at an Islamic high school where a large crowd had gathered for a family event.
“While investigations are ongoing, the primary organizers of the event that led to this stampede have been taken into custody,” Makinde said in a statement posted on X.
Reuters could not immediately establish how many people had died or what caused the incident.
Emergency services, including medical personnel and ambulances, were immediately dispatched to the scene, Makinde said.
Security forces were also deployed to control the situation and prevent further casualties. The event has been halted, and the rest of the attendees have been safely evacuated from the venue, he said.
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Vietnam police arrest suspect in Hanoi cafe fire that killed 11
Hanoi — Police in Vietnam have arrested a man suspected of starting a blaze that killed 11 following an argument with staff in a Hanoi cafe, authorities said on Thursday, while two of seven pulled from the flames were admitted to hospital.
In a statement, police said the man had confessed to using gasoline to set Wednesday’s fire on the ground floor of the three-story cafe, where people were also singing karaoke-style.
The suspect is in his early 50s, said the state-run Tien Phong newspaper, adding that one witness reported hearing an explosion.
“The fire blocked all the exits,” another witness told the paper. “The smell of gasoline was strong.”
It took about 40 minutes to rein in the fire, reported just after 11 p.m., police added, with two of the seven rescued admitted to hospital.
Images in an online newspaper, VnExpress, showed firemen working to douse the flames, while the bodies of several victims were carried away.
“I noticed a column of smoke from afar,” it cited a witness as saying. “I was so frightened that I had to urge my grandchild to go downstairs.”
“The flames were so fierce. We saw the fire … but there was nothing else we could do.”
On Thursday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called for urgent investigation and strict action against anyone who violated the law.
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Polish defense chief: Poland ready to face Russia’s threats
Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz laid out his country’s plans to deal with feared Russian aggression, such as possible missile infiltrations and conflict on its borders, in an interview with VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze.
Plans include bolstering air defenses to building a $2.1 billion “East Shield,” he said Tuesday.
“Polish F-16s are ready to act if a missile threatens our territory,” he said, confirming the military’s heightened readiness amid the war in Ukraine. Kosiniak-Kamysz emphasized the urgency of European countries pulling their weight in defense, warning that NATO’s unity is key to keeping American forces in Europe.
With the war in Ukraine showing no signs of letting up, Poland is leading the charge in Europe, spending more on defense than any other NATO member and urging others to follow suit.
This interview, translated from Polish, has been edited for brevity and clarity.
VOA: You’re buying a lot of equipment from the United States. How do you assess this cooperation, and what are you looking forward to?
Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz: Our cooperation is really at the best possible level. I have concluded several contracts worth dozens of billions of dollars, including the purchase of 26 Apache aircraft. Poland will be one of the best armies equipped with attack aircraft, Apaches. We’re talking about a strategic partnership, and I think we are meeting President [-elect Donald] Trump’s expectations. We’re spending a lot on armaments, and we have good trade relations. We’re buying a lot of equipment in the U.S. That’s a guarantee of security, as well as it is investment in U.S. production.
VOA: How do you assess the Russian threat today, and who are Poland’s main adversaries?
Kosiniak-Kamysz: Russia is the greatest threat since the end of World War II. Many people have said that since the end of the second World War, but today, it’s not the Cold War. We have an active war just beyond our border. We have crises — a conflict in the Near East. We have a conflict situation in the Pacific and also, recently, the developments in Syria have totally changed the position of Russia, Iran and other countries. So, we are living in very difficult times. Poland is spending 4.7% of its GDP —the greatest amount among NATO member states on defense — on armaments. Why are we spending that money? Because the situation is utmost difficult. The threat from Russia is realistic. The citizens of Ukraine are experiencing it every day.
VOA: How important it is to invest in defense, and how would you encourage others to put more into defense?
Kosiniak-Kamysz: Two percent is not enough. It is the absolute minimum. I believe that the 2% of GDP that NATO countries have committed to, and those that do not meet it, will not even be invited to the table with the new Trump administration. … So, all countries must fulfill their obligations. … Europe must do more for security, not to replace the Americans in Europe, but to keep them in Europe. If we do not spend more on security, if other countries do not follow Poland’s example, we will not be able to keep Americans in Europe.
The EU has created the program for defense development, but it has assigned just 1.5 billion euros ($1.55 billion). It’s just symbolic. Where are the capacities to manufacture the munitions that North Korea, Russia and Iran have? Europe, as well as the Western world, the U.S., Canada and our allies don’t have those capacities. We have to make up for it. 100 billion euros ($103 billion) — that would be the money we should be talking about.
VOA: So, are you saying that Europe is not ready to fight the active war today?
Kosiniak-Kamysz: We are ready — we have to be ready each day. But Europe has to be more ready to a better extent each day. So, it’s not enough to say that we are ready and do nothing. A lot has happened since the outbreak of war in Ukraine. But it’s still not enough to say that it’s at the best level. We have to be ready to fight each time of day and night, each state. We are prepared for that. But each day, we could be prepared better, hence the pressure that we are exerting on other countries. Hence the building of a resilient society. This is something that Western societies don’t have today. …
We have already been attacked with lies, fake news, with misinformation. And it does not matter if you live next to the border with the Kaliningrad region, near the Belarusian border here in Poland, or [if] you live in Portugal, in Quebec, or anyplace today. You are being attacked. Russia has already attacked you.
VOA: Poland has experienced Belarusian helicopters entering its airspace. A Russian missile violated Poland’s airspace during an attack on Ukraine. Is Poland ready to do something about it?
Kosiniak-Kamysz: The situation of infringing the airspace of Poland also affects Latvia, often affecting Romania with UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), and we’ve prepared the air defense system. We also have enhanced air defense. We’re talking about Rzeszow Airport, which is almost being passed onto the protection of NATO. Our allies —America, Britain, Germany, Norway and other nations — are protecting us at the air base. And if that airspace is infringed, then the target missile or a drone can be shot [down]. … But it’s a different situation when it comes to shooting targets above the Ukrainian territory. There is no NATO decision on that position, or agreement to do so. We are protecting our territories.
VOA: Are you saying that if a rocket infiltrates Polish airspace, you’re ready to shoot them down?
Kosiniak-Kamysz: Very often, we activate our F-16s to act accordingly, if there is a danger to Polish territory, to defend our territory.
VOA: But it hasn’t happened yet?
Kosiniak-Kamysz: No, because there has been no such event where the missile would be aimed at a target in the Polish territory. But yes, last week, the Polish F-16s took off and were ready to protect near the border.
VOA: There are talks about the defense line you’re building on the eastern border called the “East Shield.” What are the plans for that for the next year or two?
Kosiniak-Kamysz: This is preparation for the event of a conflict on the Polish-Russian, Polish-Belarusian borders. We are building barriers that will complicate the movement of enemy troops. We are also building warehouses for artillery and other means of defense. We are building places for the defense of manpower. …. This should be combined with the Baltic line of defense, [and] strengthening the Russian-Finnish border. In addition, we are increasing protection against illegal migrants.
VOA: French President Emmanuel Macron visited Poland last week and hinted at the idea of Polish and French military personnel going to Ukraine as security guarantees if a peace agreement is signed. Poland declared it was not planning to do so. Why?
Kosiniak-Kamysz: We have not seen any peace plan from President Trump yet. There are many reports in the press about this or that outcome, following the example of Finland, or the example of Germany, but these are all speculations. We exclude the possibility of the Polish military being on the territory of Ukraine. We believe that such decisions should not be made by the group of countries, but NATO should have a key role in this decision. We will consider further steps when that stage comes. At this stage, as you said, we do not plan to send troops to Ukraine.
VOA: So, if NATO would make that decision, you’re open to it?
Kosiniak-Kamysz: Well, we’ll see. I won’t be making any declarations here. I’m just saying that we are not planning to deploy any troops to Ukraine, as long as the peace process has not been finalized, and that is not possible without Ukraine at the table.
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US deaths are down and life expectancy is up, but improvements are slowing
NEW YORK — U.S. life expectancy jumped last year, and preliminary data suggests there may be another — much smaller — improvement this year.
Death rates fell last year for almost all leading causes, notably COVID-19, heart disease and drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday. That translated to adding nearly a year the estimated lifespan of Americans.
Experts note it’s part of a bounce-back from the COVID-19 pandemic. But life expectancy has not yet climbed back to prepandemic levels, and the rebound appears to be losing steam.
“What you’re seeing is continued improvement, but slowing improvement,” said Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, a University Minnesota researcher who studies death trends. “We are sort of converging back to some kind of normal that is worse than it was before the pandemic.”
Last year, nearly 3.1 million U.S. residents died, about 189,000 fewer than the year before. Death rates declined across all racial and ethnic groups, and in both men and women.
Provisional data for the first 10 months of 2024 suggests the country is on track to see even fewer deaths this year, perhaps about 13,000 fewer. But that difference is likely to narrow as more death certificates come in, said the CDC’s Robert Anderson.
That means that life expectancy for 2024 likely will rise — “but probably not by a lot,” said Anderson, who oversees death tracking at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live, given death rates at that time. It’s a fundamental measure of a population’s health.
For decades, U.S. life expectancy rose at least a little bit almost every year, thanks to medical advances and public health measures. It peaked in 2014, at nearly 79 years, and then was relatively flat for several years. Then it plunged during the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping to just under 76 1/2 years in 2021.
It rebounded to 77 1/2 years in 2022 and, according to the new report, to nearly 78 1/2 last year.
Life expectancy for U.S. women continues to be well above that of men — a little over 81 for women, compared with a little under 76 for men.
In the last five years, more than 1.2 million U.S. deaths have been attributed to COVID-19. But most of them occurred in 2020 and 2021, before vaccination- and infection-induced immunity became widespread.
The coronavirus was once the nation’s third leading cause of death. Last year it was the underlying cause in nearly 50,000 deaths, making it the nation’s No. 10 killer.
Data for 2024 is still coming in, but about 30,000 coronavirus deaths have been reported so far. At that rate, suicide may surpass COVID-19 this year, Anderson said.
Heart disease remains the nation’s leading cause of death. Some underappreciated good news is the heart disease death rate dropped by about 3% in 2023. That’s a much smaller drop than the 73% decline in the COVID-19 death rate, but heart disease affects more people so even small changes can be more impactful, Anderson said.
There’s also good news about overdose deaths, which fell to 105,000 in 2023 among U.S. residents, according to a second report released by CDC on Thursday.
The causes of the overdose decline are still being studied but there is reason to be hopeful such deaths will drop more in the future, experts say. Some pointed to survey results this week that showed teens drug use isn’t rising.
“The earlier you start taking a drug, the greater the risk that you could continue using it and the greater the risk that you will become addicted to it — and have untoward consequences,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the survey study. “If you can reduce the pipeline (of new drug users) … you can prevent overdoses.”
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Malaysian court acquits wife of ex-PM of money laundering, tax evasion
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA — Malaysia’s High Court on Thursday acquitted Rosmah Mansor, the wife of jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak, of money laundering and tax evasion, citing insufficient grounds to charge her.
Najib and Rosmah have been the subject of multiple graft investigations since Najib’s surprise election defeat in 2018, when voters’ fury over his alleged role in a multibillion-dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) ended his nine years in power. Both have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Rosmah is not yet out of the woods, however, and is currently free on bail pending an appeal against a 10-year jail sentence in 2022 for soliciting and receiving bribes to help a company win a $279 million solar power supply project from Najib’s government.
Rosmah has been widely scorned in Malaysia for her extravagant lifestyle and penchant for luxury handbags, more than 500 of which were found at properties searched by police as part of investigations into the 1MDB scandal, on top of 12,000 items of jewelry.
According to Thursday’s High Court judgment seen by Reuters, Rosmah was acquitted of the 12 money laundering charges and five tax evasion charges against her, which it said lacked probity, propriety and legality.
Rosmah said she was grateful the case had concluded and thanked her lawyers.
“I also want to thank the judge who has made the right decision. This is what I call justice, and this is the kind of justice that everybody should have,” she told a livestreamed news conference.
Her acquittal follows the recent dropping of corruption charges against Najib linked to 1MDB due to procedural delays and the failure of the prosecution to disclose key documents.
Najib faces several trials linked to the scandal at 1MDB, from which Malaysian and U.S. authorities say about $4.5 billion was stolen in a complex, globe-spanning scheme between 2009 and 2014.
Najib, who helped found 1MDB when he was premier, was found guilty of corruption and money laundering in 2022 in a case linked to the scandal and sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2022, though the term was later halved by a pardon’s board chaired by Malaysia’s king.
Najib has also apologized for his role in mishandling the 1MDB scandal, though he maintained he had no knowledge of any illegal transfers from the state fund. Najib has been pressing to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
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UN peacekeepers guard Congolese farmers working their fields
DHENDRO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO — Under a scorching sun in the Democratic Republic of Congo, many of the farmers tending to their fields in the troubled eastern region are guarded by United Nations peacekeepers.
The U.N. mission has fallen under increasing scrutiny over the years as the eastern conflict between rebel groups, self-defense forces and other militias has raged.
But in this corner of Djugu territory in the village of Dhendro, farmers are unequivocal in their support for the U.N. force known by the acronym MONUSCO. The farmers, many displaced from their homes by the conflict, shelter in camps near the U.N. bases.
“I came here because of the presence of MONUSCO. It’s thanks to their presence that I’m going to the field; otherwise I’m afraid,” 23-year-old Lokana Heritier, who left his village to live closer to the blue helmets, told Reuters.
MONUSCO has been deployed in Congo since 2010, when it took over from an earlier U.N. operation to secure the troubled eastern region that borders Rwanda.
The operation to guard farmers who grow corn, beans, potatoes and manioc is known as “Secure Harvest” and it aims to allow them to work freely during the harvesting season and provide protection from militia groups who steal produce and kill people.
“The main objective is to secure the farmers in their farmland when they are working. We believe this is directly linked to the protection of civilians that MONUSCO is mandated for,” Brigadier General Monzurul Alam told Reuters.
Last year, the U.N. Security Council approved the end of the mission at the request of President Felix Tshisekedi. The 13,500-strong force had faced attacks and protests over perceptions that it had failed to secure the population.
Congo’s government reversed course in July and asked MONUSCO to remain in Ituri and North Kivu provinces until conditions were met for the force’s departure, without providing further details.
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Russian officials report oil refinery fire after Ukraine targets border regions with dozens of drones
Officials in Russia’s Rostov region reported a fire Thursday at an oil refinery after a wave of attacks from several dozen Ukrainian aerial drones.
Rostov acting Governor Yuri Slyusar said on Telegram that the fire happened at the Novoshakhtinsk refinery and was later extinguished. Slyusar reported one person was injured in the attack.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it destroyed 36 Ukrainian drones over Rostov, part of a total of 84 drones it shot down mostly over regions bordering Ukraine.
The ministry said the other intercepts took place over Bryansk, Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Tambov and Krasnodar.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that Ukrainian drone attacks damaged several residential buildings.
Ukraine’s military said Thursday its air defenses shot down 45 of 85 Russian drones used in overnight attacks targeting the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava and Sumy regions.
The military also said Russian missiles damaged residential buildings and municipal property in Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy.
Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram that the areas damaged included a school and a hospital in Kryvyi Rih.
Some information for this story came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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US effort to curb China’s and Russia’s access to advanced computer chips ‘inadequate,’ report finds
WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department’s efforts to curb China’s and Russia’s access to American-made advanced computer chips have been “inadequate” and will need more funding to stymie their ability to manufacture advanced weapons, according to a report published Wednesday by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
The Biden administration imposed export controls to limit the ability of China and Russia to access U.S.-made chips after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.
The agency’s Bureau of Industry and Security, according to the report, does not have the resources to enforce export controls and has been too reliant on U.S. chip makers voluntarily complying with the rules.
But the push for bolstering Commerce’s export control enforcement comes as the incoming Trump administration says it is looking to dramatically reduce the size and scope of federal government. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” to dismantle parts of the federal government.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
BIS’s budget, about $191 million, has remained essentially flat since 2010 when adjusted for inflation.
“While BIS’ budget has been stagnant for a decade, the bureau works diligently around the clock to meet its mission and safeguard U.S. national security,” Commerce Department spokesperson Charlie Andrews said in a statement in response to the report.
Andrews added that with “necessary resources from Congress” the agency would be “better equipped to address the challenges that come with our evolving national security environment.”
In a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, chair of the subcommittee, pointed to news reports of the Russian military continuing to acquire components from Texas Instruments through front companies in Hong Kong to illustrate how the export controls are failing as an effective tool.
Blumenthal in a statement called on “Commerce to take immediate action and crack down on the companies allowing U.S.-made semiconductors to power Russian weapons and Chinese ambition.”
Texas Instruments said it opposes the use of its chips in Russian military equipment and the illicit diversion of its products to Russia.
“It is our policy to comply with export control laws, and any shipments of TI chips into Russia are illicit and unauthorized,” the company said in a statement. “If we find evidence indicating product diversion, we investigate and take action.”
It’s not just Texas Instruments that’s the issue. The subcommittee in September published a report that found aggregated exports from four major U.S. advanced chip manufacturers nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022 to Armenia and Georgia.
Both of those countries are home to front companies known to assist Russia in acquiring advanced chips made in the U.S. despite export controls.
China, meanwhile, has created “vast, barely disguised smuggling networks which enable it to continue to harness U.S. technology,” the subcommittee report asserts.
Washington has been gradually expanding the number of companies affected by such export controls in China, as President Joe Biden’s administration has encouraged an expansion of investments in and manufacturing of chips in the U.S.
But Chinese companies have found ways to evade export controls in part because of a lack of China subject matter experts and Chinese speakers assigned to Commerce’s export control enforcement.
The agency’s current budget limits the number of international end-use checks, or physical verification overseas of distributors or companies receiving American-made chips that are the supposed end users of products. Currently, Commerce has only 11 export control officers spread around the globe to conduct such checks, the report said.
The committee made several recommendations in its report, including Congress allocating more money for hiring additional personnel to enforce export controls, imposing larger fines on companies that violate controls and requiring periodic reviews of advanced chip companies’ export control plans by outside entities.
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VOA Kurdish: US senators threaten sanctions against Turkey over Syrian ceasefire proposal
U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Lindsey Graham have warned of bipartisan sanctions against Turkey if it rejects a ceasefire proposal from the U.S. and a plan by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazlum Abdi to establish a demilitarized zone in Kobani. The senators argue that Turkey’s attacks on Kurdish allies in Syria undermine regional stability and efforts to prevent a resurgence by Islamic State.
The proposed initiative, supported by the SDF and under U.S. supervision, aims to address Turkey’s security concerns while maintaining stability in northern Syria. With 900 U.S. troops still deployed in Syria as part of the anti-ISIS coalition, the senators emphasized the importance of Turkey’s cooperation in fostering long-term peace and security in the region.
Click here to see the full report in Kurdish.
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VOA Kurdish: US and Iraq discuss Syrian developments and regional stability
During a visit to Baghdad last week, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to discuss the evolving situation in Syria. Blinken emphasized the need for a Syrian government that respects human rights, safeguards the rights of women and minorities, and protects religious holy sites. He also stressed that Syria must not become a haven for terrorism or a threat to its neighbors. Prime Minister al-Sudani echoed these concerns, highlighting the necessity of a Syrian government that represents all communities to ensure lasting stability, while cautioning that Iraq expects concrete action, not just rhetoric.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, speaking at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Jordan, reinforced the link between Syria’s stability and Iraq’s security.
Click here to see the full report in Kurdish.
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Expert: Several African governments unaware of young workers in Russian drone factories
WASHINGTON — They were promised a chance to earn money, get an education abroad, and gain work experience. Instead, they found themselves assembling military drones in Russia and, in one case, subjected to a Ukrainian drone strike.
A series of investigative reports has shed light on a Russian labor recruitment program that has allegedly lured young African women to work at an industrial park in provincial Russia with false promises and coerced them into contributing to the Kremlin’s war effort in Ukraine.
The reported victims of the program, which attracts recruits largely through online job advertisements, includes women from Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.
Media reports from The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and others have exposed the operation, entitled Alabuga Start, but VOA reporting has found that African countries have largely failed to intervene or give an official response. Some even appear to be building ties with the Russian entity behind the program.
That entity called the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, has been intensifying its outreach across the African continent, according to David Albright, founder of the Institute for Science and International Security and the researcher behind a report exposing the program that exploited the young women. “In some of the initial investigations of this, the recruiters in Africa were oblivious when they were asked where these women were going,” Albright said, adding that some are now aware and that he hopes there will be “pushback from these governments about what exactly [Alabuga is] recruiting these women to do.”
Albright said representatives from Alabuga recently visited Sierra Leone, Zambia and Madagascar, signing memorandums of cooperation with local organizations, despite the reports of misleading recruitment practices and questionable labor actions.
Albright said the young women are forced to handle toxic materials, which he says is forbidden in Russian labor law. But African and other governments have also been willing to send their citizens off to Alabuga Start. VOA discovered a series of documents online indicating the government ministries had officially promoted the program.
VOA reached out to authorities of Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Nigeria but several emails and phone calls went unanswered. VOA also requested comment from Alabuga and the Russian Embassy in Washington but received no response.
Recruitment under false pretenses
Located 1,000 kilometers to the east of Moscow in Russia’s Tatarstan region, the city of Yelabuga, known as Alabuga in the local Tatar language, would hardly seem a desirable location for young people from Africa.
But the nearby Alabuga Special Economic Zone has been casting a wide net on the African continent. In promotional materials, it paints an exciting, optimistic picture of life in the Alabuga Start program.
In one recruitment video intended to appeal to potential recruits, an African woman arrives in Alabuga and begins work at a restaurant, where she waits on a young Russian man. At the end of the video, she returns to the restaurant as his pregnant wife.
Other promotional videos show participants working in construction, cleaning and warehouse operations, as well as studying and playing sports with their friends. Only one video features the women assembling drones, but no indication is given that the drones have a military purpose.
According to the Russian independent news outlet Protokol, the program has specifically targeted young women because its organizers believe young men from Africa “could be too aggressive and dangerous.”
Researchers and reporters found that some of the program’s internal documents, as reported by Albright and others, often referred to the women as mulattos using an outdated racial term that is now widely considered offensive.
Its appeal to African young people is not difficult to understand, says Maxim Matusevich, a Russia-Africa expert and a global history professor at Seton Hall University.
“A lot of these nations have very high unemployment rates,” he told VOA. Russia is “offering them attractively packaged and attractively sold job packages.”
Matusevich believes Alabuga Start aims to solve the problem of a shortfall of workers in Russia due to the heavy demand of the war in Ukraine.
Albright said that inaction has global ramifications: Alabuga Start is involving young Africans in Russian violence against Ukrainians.
“It’s been a very deceptive program in the sense that the applicants didn’t know they’d be working in essentially a U.S.- [and] European-sanctioned company making drones that are being used to devastating effect against Ukrainian civil targets, energy targets, electrical plants,” he told VOA.
“And so, in that sense, they’re complicit in a crime, an international crime, given that the war against Ukraine is illegal. They’re getting involved in making drones that are being used against civilian targets, not just military targets.”
Exploitation factory
Alabuga didn’t start out exploiting young African women. Before that, it used young Russians in drone production.
Since 2019, the special economic zone has operated a program called Alabuga Polytech, which recruits Russian high school students. Unlike workers from the African continent and other countries, the Russian students take part in a four-year work-study program, receiving accredited technical education while doing industrial work.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, that program ramped up its activity. It hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing. When the program pivoted to drone production, Alabuga had to lobby the Russian authorities to alter labor laws. According to a July report from the Institute for Science and International Security, that allowed Alabuga to hire children under the age of 18 to work with toxic chemicals.
Parents soon began to complain about the poor work conditions: Participants were working 12-hour factory shifts and their movements were strictly controlled, Albright recounted. He said the program has since stopped recruiting people younger than 18.
When the special economic zone launched Alabuga Start and began recruiting workers from abroad in 2022, the program was almost entirely focused on drone production.
According to estimates by Albright’s organization, only a third of Polytech students work on drone production, while over 90% of Alabuga Start participants do.
Despite that stark distinction, organizers appear to have frequently conflated the two programs, including by sometimes depicting Alabuga Start participants wearing school uniforms in promotional materials.
Multinational conveyer belt
Alabuga’s recent outreach to African nations signals a potential expansion of its recruitment efforts.
VOA found that African and other governments have at times been willing partners. Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education shared on its website a document announcing open admissions to Alabuga Start in 2023.
Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sport shared a similar announcement. In the document upload site Scribd, a digital document library, VOA found two files that appear to be official letters from the government ministries of Mali and Burkina Faso announcing that Alabuga Start had reserved spots for participants from those countries in 2023.
VOA also found a document by Bangladesh’s Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training announcing that applications were open for Alabuga Start in 2023.
The special economic zone’s many meetings with African diplomats and government officials, some of which included the signing of memoranda of understanding, appear to signal a deepening of ties.
Albright emphasizes that the special economic zone’s drone factory has been a linchpin of Russian-Iranian collaboration during the war against Ukraine.
“Alabuga is a special economic zone that basically builds and hires out or sells buildings for civilian industry,” he said. “With the war in Ukraine, their international occupants pulled out and they were desperate for money. And so, they made a contract with the Russian government and the Iranian government to build drones.”
The Alabuga factory in question primarily assembled the Shahed-136, an Iranian kamikaze drone.
In the first half of 2023, around 100 Alabuga Polytech students traveled to Tehran for two months of training in Shahed-136 airframe production, The Washington Post reported in August 2023.
Alabuga Start participants are largely used as low-skilled labor, assigned to complete the simplest tasks involved in assembling the airframes. A list of 100 Russian words that participants must know to take part in the program drives that conclusion home. It largely consists of basic vocabulary but also includes several higher-level words: “to hook,” “to unhook,” “factory,” and “task.”
The military nature of the work is largely absent from promotional materials for the program viewed by VOA. They typically show participants working in the service industry, construction, or non-military industrial production.
One brochure emphasizes that, after completing Alabuga Start, participants have the opportunity to continue working on a permanent basis, get a job at another Alabuga factory, or enroll in Polytech.
It also includes images that appear to show articles by the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal with headlines praising the factory and its salaries. In reality, the images have been edited to conceal the fact that both stories are about military drone production at the facility.
That work has placed African women in direct danger. On April 22, a Ukrainian drone crashed into the dormitory where Alabuga Start participants live.
A day later, Alabuga Start released a video featuring a Kenyan woman –– one of the program’s public-facing participants –– who said she would be going to work in a cafe. The participant notably said she had come to work and study at Alabuga Polytech — and not Start.
“Those who attacked our hostel today are real barbarians and they deserve serious condemnation,” she said. “In my opinion, they wanted to intimidate us. But I want to tell you they did not succeed. You won’t scare me, because Alabuga is a strong place and we will get through this.”
This story is a collaboration between VOA’s Africa Division and VOA’s Russian Service.
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Australian search and rescue teams arrive in quake-hit Vanuatu
SYDNEY — Australian rescue and medical teams have reached Vanuatu, authorities said on Thursday, where at least 14 people including one French and two Chinese nationals were killed and hundreds were injured in a 7.3 magnitude earthquake two days ago.
France’s Ambassador Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer on Thursday confirmed the death of a French national, Vincent Goiset, a resident in Vanuatu who was killed by the rubble of a collapsed building in the city center, he said in a Facebook post.
French and Australian rescue teams are searching for survivors at a collapsed building, where eight to 15 people are buried, with some confirmed dead, he wrote.
Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office said in a report the number of deaths and injuries was expected to increase, as search and rescue continues.
A Chinese woman who ran a shop on the ground floor of another collapsed building, a four-story building owned by Chinese company Kenwu Industries, had died, said Michael Mai, who works for the company. She was one of two Chinese nationals the Chinese embassy said were killed in the earthquake, he told Reuters in an interview.
“She was near to the building, very close when it collapsed,” he said.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia would help Vanuatu restore operations at the international airport in the nation’s capital of Port Vila, which has been closed to commercial airlines because of damage.
“Additional assistance will be provided where possible, ahead of the airport reopening,” Wong said in a post on X.
About 150 Australian citizens returned home overnight on the two aircraft that delivered assistance, Wong said.
Other countries have also offered support, with a U.S. military aircraft expected to arrive on Thursday, while France sent a military helicopter with satellite communications and military engineers.
A Royal New Zealand Air Force Hercules arrived in Port Vila with rescue equipment and medics on Thursday and will assist with the evacuation of New Zealanders, New Zealand officials said.
Another New Zealand military flight had to be diverted on Wednesday evening to New Caledonia due to an engine fire warning and will be repaired on Thursday.
Disruptions to power and communication in Vanuatu are hindering rescue efforts, while UNICEF has said water contamination was a major concern.
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Expert: North Korea accelerating production, transfer of arms to Russia
UNITED NATIONS — An independent weapons expert told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that North Korea is procuring parts for missiles from third countries and producing and transferring them to Russia faster than previously thought, for use in its war against Ukraine.
Jonah Leff, who heads Conflict Armament Research (CAR), an independent organization that tracks weapons used in conflicts, said his researchers documented remnants of four missiles they assess came from North Korea that were recovered in July and August in Ukraine. He said one of the missiles had markings indicating it was produced this year.
“This is the first public evidence of missiles having been produced in North Korea and then used in Ukraine within a matter of months, not years,” Leff said.
He said this indicates “a very short” period between the production of these ballistic missiles, their transfer and eventual use in Ukraine.
Leff also noted that some missile remnants had components not manufactured in North Korea, including with production marks as recently as 2023, indicating Pyongyang has a “robust acquisition network for its ballistic missile program,” despite international sanctions prohibiting such transfers to the rogue regime.
“Despite nearly two decades of sanctions on the DPRK, it has demonstrated this year its ability to produce and supply ballistic missiles for use against Ukraine within just a matter of months,” he said, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name.
Some parts for North Korean drones and missiles that have been used against Ukraine had components branded from companies in Europe, Japan and the United States.
“Through CAR’s collaborative approach with industry, we have ascertained that these components found in remnants of weapons systems used against Ukraine derived from supplies by third-party distributors, mostly based in East Asia,” Leff said.
Russian, North Korean ambassadors
Russia’s ambassador did not address the transfer of arms from Pyongyang to the Kremlin. Of their deepening relations, Vassily Nebenzia said they are close neighbors and developing relations in “all areas.”
“This is our sovereign right. Russian cooperation with the DPRK at the military and other areas is in accordance with international law, not in violation thereof,” Nebenzia said. “This is not directed against any third countries. It does not pose any threat to states in the region or the international community — and have no doubt, we will continue to develop such cooperation.”
North Korea’s ambassador, Song Kim, said their relations are “a positive contribution to peace and security” and should not be criticized.
Wednesday’s meeting was called by the United States, with support from South Korea, Japan and several Western council members.
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Washington has information that “a large number of DPRK-origin 170 mm long-range self-propelled artillery pieces and 240 mm long-range multiple rocket launchers” are being introduced into the Ukrainian conflict.
“We also have information that Russia has transferred air defense systems to the DPRK,” she said, indicating what Pyongyang may be getting in return for sending both arms and more than 11,000 troops to assist Moscow.
“And not just any soldiers,” she said. “North Korea sent elite special forces units to Russia.”
She noted that this is the first time that North Korean troops have been deployed in large-scale fighting in more than 70 years, and it is the first time outside the Korean Peninsula.
Ukraine’s ambassador said Russian forces have integrated North Korean troops into joint units in the Kursk region.
“They primarily advance in large numbers on foot across open terrain, and in extended chains,” Sergiy Kyslytsya said. “This approach bears a striking resemblance of infantry tactics employed during World War II but is highly unusual for the Russian-Ukrainian war.”
He said that the North Korean troops do not appear well-trained in modern warfare.
“Available video evidence reveals that North Korean soldiers seem unprepared to react to enemy drones and lack even the basic understanding of measures to counter drone-related threats,” he said, saying the joint units had suffered “noticeable losses.”
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Bluesky could become target of foreign disinformation, experts warn
washington — Experts on cybersecurity and online foreign influence campaigns are urging social media company Bluesky, whose app has exploded in popularity in recent weeks, to step up moderation to counter potential state-sponsored influence efforts.
Over the past month, Bluesky, a microblogging platform with its roots in Twitter, has seen one of its biggest increases in new user registrations since it was publicly released in February. Over 25 million are now on the platform, close to half of whom joined after the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Rose Wang, Bluesky’s chief operating officer, said in a recent interview that Bluesky does not intend to push any political ideologies.
“We have no political viewpoint that we are trying to promote,” she said in early December.
Exploiting users’ political leanings
Many who joined Bluesky have cited user experience as one of the reasons for migrating from social media platform X. They also have said they joined the platform after Election Day because they are critics of Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump. Some commentators in the U.S. have questioned whether Bluesky is risking becoming an echo chamber of the left.
Some experts contend the platform’s liberal-leaning users could be exploited by foreign propagandists. Joe Bodnar, who tracks foreign influence operations for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told VOA Mandarin that Russian propaganda often appeals to the anti-establishment left in the U.S. on contentious topics, like Gaza, gun violence and America’s global dominance.
“The Kremlin wants to make those arguments even louder,” Bodnar said. “Sometimes that means they play to the left.”
So far, at least three accounts that belong to RT, a Russia-controlled media outlet, have joined Bluesky. Sputnik Brazil is also actively posting on the platform.
VOA Mandarin found that at least two Chinese accounts that belong to state broadcaster CGTN have joined the platform.
Bluesky does not assign verification labels. One way to authenticate an account is for the person or organization to link it to the domain of its official website.
There are at least four other accounts that claim to be Chinese state media outlets, including China Daily, the Global Times and People’s Daily. None of the three publications replied to VOA’s emails inquiring about these accounts’ authenticity.
Additionally, Beijing has played heavily to the Western left on certain global issues. China has consistently called for a ceasefire in Gaza and blamed the West for supporting Israel.
But those familiar with Chinese and Russian state media say the left-leaning user base on Bluesky actually could give Beijing and Moscow a hard time for pushing their narratives.
“Bluesky isn’t the most hospitable place for Russian narratives,” Bodnar said.
Sean Haines, a British national who used to work for Chinese state media outlets, shared similar opinions in a recent blog post about Bluesky.
“With its predominately Western liberal leaning, the platform also will be an uphill challenge for those looking to push overtly nationalistic viewpoints,” he wrote.
Most of the Chinese and Russian state media accounts have only hundreds of followers, with RT en Espanol at the top, with nearly 7,000.
Could ‘decentralization’ be detrimental?
China and Russia have been finding ways to reach the American public through covert disinformation operations on social media. During this year’s election, disinformation campaigns connected to China and Russia promoted claims that cast doubt on the integrity of the voting process.
Similar tactics could soon be coming to Bluesky.
“I don’t think Bluesky is more vulnerable to influence campaigns than X or other social networks,” Jennifer Victoria Scurrell, a researcher on AI-supported influence operations, told VOA Mandarin. But Scurrell, of ETH Zurich’s Center for Security Studies, said Bluesky’s decentralized moderation approach is flawed.
Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, started Bluesky as an internal project to give users more power over moderation. Bluesky then went independent in 2021.
“Our mission is to develop and drive large-scale technologies of open and decentralized public conversation,” the company says on its website.
To do that, Bluesky “decentralized” its moderation authority, giving users tools to customize their experience on the site.
Bluesky offers a universal basic moderation setting for every user, which labels content such as extremism, misinformation, fake accounts and adult content. Users can choose whether to see the content labeled by Bluesky. Users can report to Bluesky content or accounts they believe have violated Bluesky’s guidelines.
On top of that, users get to create their own moderation settings to label or filter out certain content and accounts. Other users can subscribe to these customized settings, should they choose.
Scurrell, who helps test security weaknesses for OpenAI as a contractor, told VOA Mandarin the decentralized approach to moderation could be a double-edged sword.
“Societal values are diverse, contextual and local, which makes decentralized moderation an appealing concept,” she wrote in her replies to VOA.
She warned that outsourcing content moderation to users, though, “raises serious concerns” because the approach would give bad actors the same amount of power as normal users.
“What happens if an entire node is taken over by malicious actors spreading disinformation or manipulative content,” she wrote, or “if the system gets hijacked by an army of bots?”
VOA Mandarin emailed Bluesky a list of detailed questions about its moderation policy against potential foreign influence attempts but did not receive a response.
Experts have urged Bluesky to implement measures to counter potential foreign influence campaigns.
In a recent blog post, Sarah Cook, an independent China watcher and former China director at Freedom House, urged Bluesky to label state media accounts, a practice exercised by many social media companies, so users know of these accounts’ ties to foreign governments.
Eugenio Benincasa, an expert on Chinese cyber threats at ETH Zurich, asserts that studying how Chinese tech companies help Beijing surveil social media platforms and manipulate online discussions can help Bluesky better prepare.
“It is crucial to thoroughly study the evolving influence tactics enabled by tools like public opinion monitoring systems to identify vulnerabilities that may have been overlooked or are emerging, in order to develop effective safeguards,” Benincasa said.
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NATO chief aims to put Ukraine in position of strength for peace talks with Russia
BRUSSELS — NATO’s secretary-general said he wants to discuss ways to put Ukraine in a position of strength for any future peace talks with Russia during a meeting Wednesday with Ukraine’s president and a small number of European leaders.
But Mark Rutte appeared frustrated at growing speculation in NATO capitals about when those peace talks might start and whether European peacekeepers would be involved, saying that speaking publicly about it plays into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“High on the agenda is to make sure that the president, his team in Ukraine, are in the best possible position one day when they decide to start the peace talks,” Rutte told reporters as he welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to his residence in Brussels.
The focus, Rutte said, must be “to do everything now to make sure that when it comes to air defense, when it comes to other weapons systems, that we make sure that we provide whatever we can.”
He said that another issue up for discussion would be “how to make sure that when peace comes one day that we also think about the economy of Ukraine now, but also after a future peace deal.”
Zelenskyy posted on Telegram that he would hold talks with the leaders of the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland and U.K. representatives, who were in Brussels. He’s also due to take part in an EU summit in the Belgian capital on Thursday.
Zelenskyy said that the meeting would provide “a very good opportunity to speak about security guarantees for Ukraine, for today and for tomorrow.” Ukraine sees NATO membership as the ultimate security guarantee, but the U.S. and Germany lead a group of countries that oppose this while war continues.
After separate talks with Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron said his country is making reinforced support for Ukraine its ″absolute priority″ and will continue giving Ukraine ″the means to defend itself and to make Russia’s war of aggression fail,″ according to Macron’s office.
Noting his recent meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Zelenskyy, Macron said he will maintain a ″tight dialogue with Ukraine and its international partners to work for a return to a fair and lasting peace,″ the statement said.
At NATO headquarters earlier, Rutte had said the terms of any peace talks should be up to Ukraine, Russia and any others at the negotiating table. “If we now start to discuss amongst ourselves what a deal could look like, we make it so easy for the Russians,” he said.
“I think we would be very wise to put some lid on this and focus on the business at hand, and the business at hand is to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to prevent Putin from winning,” Rutte added.
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More than 2 million Nigerians kidnapped in one year, survey finds
Abuja, Nigeria — Security officials in Nigeria are raising concerns after a National Bureau of Statistics survey revealed that more than 2 million people were kidnapped in the West African nation between May 2023 and April 2024, and that Nigerians paid a cumulative $1.42 billion to kidnappers within the same period.
The NBS released its Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey 2024 on Tuesday. The report said some 600,000 Nigerians were killed and 2.2 million others abducted across the country between May 2023 and April 2024.
Armed gangs, known locally as bandits, were mostly responsible for the escalation of violence in northwest and north central Nigeria, while terror-related violence was reported in the northeast region of Nigeria.
The report said 91% of the kidnappings were attributed to ransom demands, while other cases were due to political, criminal or terrorist motives. It also said Nigerians spent $1.4 billion cumulatively to free their loved ones from kidnappers at an average of $1,700 per incident.
Security analyst Senator Iroegbu said the report is no surprise.
“The figure is not surprising. The only difference is that the media focus has shifted, and that’s what makes it look as if it [insecurity] has reduced,” Iroegbu said. “So, this report has brought back to light what is going on.”
According to the NBS report, 82.1% of the kidnapped victims were released, 12.8% were killed, 3.3% remained in captivity and the outcome of about 1.3% of victims was unknown.
The report comes amid growing security concerns in Africa’s most populous nation already struggling to curb a range of insecurities that have stretched the security forces thin.
It also revealed that nearly seven out of 10 households in Nigeria reported murder cases to the police within the same period.
Security analyst Saheed Shehu said the trend is worrying.
“These figures should serve as a yardstick as a baseline for the president and commander-in-chief to hold his military, police, accountable,” Shehu said. “The figures should serve as a tool to hold the leaders of the security agencies accountable. We should not just be reading figures and then wait for the end of 2025 to release another figure.”
In November, Nigeria announced the discovery of a new terror group known as Lakurawa but said security forces were already on their trail.
Two weeks ago, Nigerian defense authorities said the military killed a total of 8,000 terrorists and apprehended over 11,000 suspects and rescued over 6,000 victims between January and December.
But Shehu is skeptical.
“This report coming from the National Bureau of Statistics — to be honest, it makes me to be at a quandary whether the reports we’re getting from security agencies of successes … it does not balance with this report,” Shehu said. “So, something must be wrong somewhere.”
Improving security is a major challenge for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government as it desperately seeks to attract foreign investments to grow the country’s struggling economy.
Nigeria allocated about $4 billion, or 12% of this year’s budget, to defense and security — the largest single allocation to any sector.
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South Sudan set to hold elections in 2026, but will it be ready?
JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN — South Sudan is due to hold long-delayed general elections in December 2026, and some wonder if the world’s youngest nation will be ready.
The vote was set for this month but was delayed for a number of reasons, including the need for more time to complete a census, draft a permanent constitution and register political parties.
The postponement, first announced in June, extended the term of the current transitional government, headed by President Salva Kiir.
Abendengo Akok, head of South Sudan’s National Electoral Commission, told VOA that the political will must be present for the vote to be successful, using as an example the 2018 peace agreement that ended the country’s civil war.
“If we are serious, two years are enough for us to run the election,” Akok said, adding that adequate funding is necessary for a successful vote.
Nicholas Haysom, the head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, warned last week that mismanaged elections could reignite violence and upset South Sudan’s stability.
“We have been insisting that properly prepared elections, which have also been preceded by proper trust-building exercises, can play a significant role in taking an exercise which can be very divisive and make it a nation-building exercise,” he said.
People coming together to vote, he said, will help them recognize that “together they control the future of South Sudan.”
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011. The country was set to hold its maiden election in 2015, but civil war broke out in 2013. Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar, Kiir’s former vice president, were locked in a power struggle, triggering fighting between forces loyal to each man.
In 2018, Kiir and Machar signed the comprehensive peace agreement, which was to culminate in elections this month. In June, however, Kiir and Machar agreed to push the election out another two years.
Wani Yusuf was 14 years old when he cast his vote in the referendum to secede from Sudan. Now he looks forward to casting his first vote as an adult and believes he will make an informed and independent decision in helping choose South Sudan’s first democratically elected government.
Yusuf, however, questioned whether the 2026 vote will materialize.
“When you look at the period that we spend postponing the election, it still tells you that that if they cannot conduct election in that time up to now, then there is also high possibility that election might not take place within those two years’ time,” he said.
Apart from budgetary constraints, the electoral commission still needs to conduct a census and draw up guidelines, which will take up to 17 months, according to the document outlining the delay in the vote.
These processes have not started because of a lack of a budget, according to Gabriel Deng, the electoral commission’s deputy chair.
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