Pope finding strength to carry message of Catholicism to Asia, Oceania, on longest trip 

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SINGAPORE  — Pope Francis will embark on the longest overseas tour of his papacy next week, as he visits four countries across Asia and Oceania on a grueling 11-day trip.

The 87-year-old pontiff is scheduled to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore on a journey emphasizing economic and religious diversity.

The pope has faced recent health challenges and concerns and this is set to be his first overseas trip of 2024.

Francis was forced to pull out of a visit to Dubai last November to recover from a bout of flu and lung inflammation. Ailing health has caused him to cancel several public engagements this year.

The pope currently requires a wheelchair or cane to move about as he deals with mobility issues, caused by persistent knee problems.

Poor health brings doubt on Francis’ ability to complete an 11-day tour in four nations.

“I was extremely surprised when they announced a trip like this. Why four countries? Why so far? Why so long?” said Michel Chambon, a Research Fellow with the Religion and Globalization Cluster at the National University of Singapore.

Added Chambon, he “clearly doesn’t want to slow down.”

Francis will land in Indonesia on Tuesday, becoming the third pope to visit the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

He will start his visit with a meeting with outgoing President Joko Widodo in the country’s capital, Jakarta.

The pope will host an interfaith gathering with representatives of Indonesia’s six officially recognized religions. The meeting will take place at the largest mosque in Southeast Asia.

“He is going to Indonesia clearly not for Indonesian Catholics. Instead, the priority is to remake and repeat a global statement about Christian-Muslim relations,” Chambon told VOA.

Describing the current state of these relations generally as a “matter of concern,” Chambon says Pope Francis will be “proactive in not letting Christian-Muslim ties be weaponized by political interests.”

Though Francis will aim to promote interfaith tolerance and understanding in Indonesia, ensuring the pontiff’s safety in the country will be a complex challenge.

“Terrorist groups, especially those that target the Catholic Church, still exist in Indonesia and of course Southeast Asia,” said Stanislaus Riyanta, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia’s School of Strategic and Global Studies.

Riyanta says Indonesia’s security services will be on high alert during the visit, enabling them to “carry out early detection, early warning and early prevention of any threats to the pope.”

Security will also be tight in Papua New Guinea when Francis arrives for his first visit to a country in Oceania.

The country’s capital, Port Moresby, was put under a state of emergency in January following deadly riots which spread to other cities in the island-nation of some 10 million people.

Trouble again flared-up in February when a gun fight broke out between tribal communities in remote highlands. Dozens were killed in the violence.

Papua New Guinea is made up of multiple ethnic indigenous groups, with hundreds of languages spoken, yet almost the entirety of the population are Christians, with roughly a quarter Catholic, according to a 2011 census.

Christianity is also dominant in Timor-Leste, the pope’s third stop on his tour. More than 95% of the near 1.5 million population are Catholics, making it one of only two majority-Catholic countries in Asia.

Excitement for the pope’s arrival is building in the former Portuguese colony, but questions remain about a clergy abuse scandal that has shocked the country.

In 2022, the Vatican confirmed that Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo had been sanctioned over allegations that he sexually abused young boys.

Belo, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Timor-Leste independence hero, was disciplined with restrictions placed on his movements and a ban on voluntary contact with minors. He now resides in Portugal.

“We might see, maybe not protests but, strong questions in Timor-Leste from a number of people, because of the question of sex abuse,” Chambon said.

The Vatican is hoping the pontiff will be able to highlight Catholic tenants such as compassion, caring and generosity during his tour, and especially in Timor-Leste, scholars say.

“Pope Francis is seeking to shine a spotlight on, and remind the rest of the world about, struggling communities in Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste,” said Jonathan Tan, the Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan Professor of Catholic Studies at Case Western Reserve University.

“They are coping with immense poverty, high illiteracy and unemployment rates, and the effects of climate change on island communities,” Tan told VOA.

Francis’ final stop will be in Singapore, a multi-religious city-state in the heart of Southeast Asia.

Less than 10% of Singapore’s population is Catholic which, according to Tan, presents the pope an opportunity to “encourage and empower minority Catholic communities” in the region.

Francis has made Asia a top priority during his papacy, visiting the continent several times, including trips to South Korea, the Philippines, Japan and Mongolia.

Chambon says the pope’s focus on Asia is a “long-term investment” for the Catholic Church, with his visits “building communion and proximity between Catholics in Asia and the Vatican.”

Trips to the region also present an opportunity for the Vatican to present the ideology of the pope to an Asian audience, says Tan.

“It’s a key issue for the papacy, for the Vatican, to translate its universal ambition into Asian terms and Asian language,” he told VOA.
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In drought-hit Greece, water trucks are keeping crops alive

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NEA SILATA, Greece — Six weeks before harvest, there’s no water left in the ground for farmer Dimitris Papadakis’ olive grove in northern Greece, so he has started a new morning routine.

Joined by his teenage son, he uses a truck to bring water from nearby areas. Using a small generator, he connects the vehicle to irrigation pipes to save what’s left of his thirsty crop.

“Our boreholes have almost dried up … We now depend on tankers to irrigate our fields,” says Papadakis, who heads an agricultural cooperative in a village in Halkidiki, a three-fingered peninsula in northern Greece which is popular with tourists.

This summer, southern Europe has been hammered by successive heat waves, following on from below-average rainfall for up to three years. Drought spots on the map of the region have expanded. In Greece, the effects include water shortages, dried-up lakes, and even the death of wild horses.

The groundwater beneath Papadakis’ 270 olive trees is dwindling and becoming brackish, with the drought expected to cut his expected yield in half.

The water crisis has been exacerbated by a booming tourist season.

In Kassandra, the westernmost finger of the peninsula, the year-round population of 17,000 swells to 650,000 in the summer, placing unsustainable pressure on water resources.

“We’ve seen a 30-40% reduction in water supply following three consecutive winters with almost no rainfall,” says local mayor Anastasia Halkia.

Haroula Psaropoulou owns a home in the area, in the seaside village of Nea Potidea. She says it’s hard to cope with frequent household water cuts that may last up to five days during the searing heat.

“I recycle water from the bathroom sink and from washing, and I use it for the plants,” the 60-year-old Psaropoulou says. “I’ve also carried water from the sea for the toilet.”

According to the European Union’s Emergency Management Service, acute drought conditions currently exist around the Black Sea, stretching westward into northern Greece.

Along the Evros River, which divides Greece and Turkey, severe drought means the delta now has higher levels of seawater. The extra salt is killing the wild horses that depend on the river for drinking water.

“If the horses go without water for a week, they die,” says Nikos Mousounakis, who is leading an initiative to create freshwater drinking points for the horses. “Some of them are still in bad shape, but we hope that with continued help, they’ll recover.”

Until recently, Lake Picrolimni in northern Greece was a popular destination for mud baths, but this summer it’s a shallow basin of cracked earth, dry enough to hold the weight of a car.

“It hasn’t rained for two years now, so the lake has totally dried up,” says local municipal chairman Costas Partsis. “It used to have a lot of water. People came and bathed in the muddy water. The clay has therapeutic properties for many ailments. No one came this year.”

Nearby, Lake Doirani straddles Greece’s northern border with North Macedonia. The shoreline has receded by 300 meters in recent years. Local officials are pleading for public works to restore the river’s water supply, echoing calls from experts who argue that major changes in water management are needed to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change.

“We’re experiencing a prolonged period of drought lasting about three years now, due to lower rainfall and snowfall, a result of the climate crisis and poor water management,” says Konstantinos S. Voudouris, a professor of hydrogeology at the University of Thessaloniki. “The solution lies in three key words: conservation, storage, and reuse.”

Voudouris argues that outdated water networks are losing too much water and that infrastructure improvements must focus on collecting and storing rainwater during the wet season, as well as reusing treated wastewater for agriculture.

“These drought phenomena will return with greater intensity in the future,” Voudouris said. “We need to take action and plan ahead to minimize their impact… and we must adapt to this new reality.”
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US clean energy jobs growth rate double that of overall jobs, report says

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Washington — Jobs in the U.S. clean energy industry in 2023 grew at more than double the rate of the country’s overall jobs, and unionization in clean energy surpassed for the first time the rate in the wider energy industry, the Energy Department said on Wednesday.

Employment in clean energy businesses – including wind, solar, nuclear and battery storage — rose by 142,000 jobs, or 4.2% last year, up from a rise of 3.9% in 2022, the U.S. Energy and Employment Report said. The rate was above the overall U.S. job growth rate of 2% in 2023.

Unionization rates in clean energy hit 12.4%, more than the 11% in the overall energy business, it said. That was driven by growth in construction and utility industries and after legislation passed in 2022 including the bipartisan CHIPS Act and President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the department said.

Construction jobs in clean energy, driven by the legislation and private-sector investments, “is expected to continue for decades to build out the clean energy infrastructure that we need,” Betony Jones, the Energy Department’s head of energy jobs, told reporters in a call. While unionized members “might move from project to project, there is continuity of that work in order for workers to make a career in that industry,” she said.

Employment in the utility scale and rooftop solar industries grew 5.3% adding more than 18,000 jobs, it said. The solar installation industry in California, the country’s most populous state, says it has lost more than 17,000 jobs due to high interest rates and the state’s lowering of net meter rates that allow customers to be credited for excess power their rooftop panels generate.

New jobs in fossil fuels were mixed. The natural gas workforce grew by more than 77,000 or 13.3%, while jobs in petroleum fell more than 44,000 or 6%. Coal jobs fell nearly 8,500 or 5.3% as power generation continued to switch from coal to gas, wind and solar. White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi told reporters that the report showed the administration’s commitment to pursue both energy and climate security.

Energy remained a mostly male workforce with an average of 73% in 2023 compared with the national workforce average that was 53% male, the same numbers as in the previous year. Women accounted for about half the energy jobs added in 2022, but only 17% of the jobs added in 2023, the report said.

 
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Britain’s Starmer in Germany for first bilateral trip as PM

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BERLIN — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Wednesday to discuss a new partnership between the countries, on his first bilateral trip since taking office last month.

The British leader, who will also travel on to Paris, has pledged to rebuild trust with European allies damaged by Brexit, and is set to hold talks with Scholz about launching a new bilateral accord with Germany.

Labour had said it would seek a security and defense treaty with Germany if it won the July 4 general election, which it did by a landslide — propelling Starmer to the premiership.

The new deal, set to be similar to Britain’s 2010 “Lancaster House” treaty with France, will take several months to negotiate and be finalized early next year, according to Starmer’s Downing Street office.

A “key pillar of the UK’s wider reset with Europe,” it will build on a bilateral defense agreement currently being negotiated and expected to be finalized later this year.

It is aimed at boosting business and trade, deepening defense and security cooperation, and increasing “joint action on illegal migration,” Downing Street said.

Starmer’s host Scholz has been under pressure to crack down on illegal migration after a suspected Islamist knife attack in the western city of Solingen on Friday.

The stabbing, which left three people dead and eight injured, was allegedly carried out by a 26-year-old Syrian man who evaded attempts by German authorities to deport him.

Ukraine aid issue

Starmer’s premiership meanwhile has faced an early challenge after a deadly knife attack in Southport last month sparked anti-immigration riots, which officials say were stoked by far-right elements and false information.

On his trip to Berlin, Starmer will note that strengthening ties with Germany and France is “crucial” for tackling illegal migration and “boosting economic growth across the continent and crucially in the UK.”

The talks between Starmer and Scholz will also likely focus on military support for Ukraine, with both countries under pressure over their aid for Kyiv to help it fight off Russia’s invasion.

Kyiv’s western allies have reacted cautiously to Ukraine’s recent incursion into Kursk, worried that their weapons could be used on Russian soil, possibly sparking a strong reaction from Moscow.

Britain allows Kyiv to deploy a squadron of 14 British-made Challenger 2 tanks as it sees fit, but has put limits on the use of its long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

Germany, meanwhile, has repeatedly refused to send Kyiv its long-range Taurus missiles, over fears of escalating the conflict.

Germany has been the second-largest contributor of aid to Ukraine after the United States, but plans to halve the budget for that aid next year.

Where Germany spent around $9 billion on aid for Ukraine in 2024, the latest draft earmarks around 4 billion euros.

UK-Germany security pact

“Clearly, we always encourage allies to continue the crucial support of Ukraine,” a spokesperson for Starmer said ahead of the visit.

At a European Political Community (EPC) summit in England two weeks after his election win, Starmer told European leaders the UK would be a “friend and partner” to them.

Starmer has ruled out rejoining the European single market, customs union or freedom of movement, to avoid reopening what remains a thorny issue among British politicians and the public alike.

But he does want to negotiate a new security pact with the bloc and a veterinary agreement to ease border checks on agricultural foods, as well as an improved trading deal.

Starmer’s visit was a chance to build a “meaningful relationship” with the German leader and support the UK premier’s “wider agendas on migration, trade and defense,” Sophia Gaston, head of foreign policy at the Policy Exchange think tank, told AFP.

The Berlin trip was “the culmination of an early flurry of activity” by Starmer’s new government, said Gaston.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy chose Germany for his first trip abroad just two days after Labour’s election victory, calling for a “reset” in relations with European allies.
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Two more Chinese airlines to start flying China-made COMAC C919 jet

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BEIJING — Air China and China Southern Airlines will become the second and third Chinese carriers to fly China’s homegrown COMAC C919 passenger jet when their first planes are delivered on Wednesday, state-run Chinese Central TV said.

Chinese planemaker COMAC is trying to break into a passenger jet market dominated by Western manufacturers Airbus and Boeing that has been strained by aircraft shortages and a Boeing safety crisis.

The C919 entered domestic service in May last year with China Eastern, which flies seven of the jets domestically.

China’s three big state-owned airlines have each ordered 100 C919s, and COMAC has said more than 1,000 have been ordered overall.

China Southern last week said on social media platform Weibo that the first C919 would be integrated into its fleet by Wednesday.

The C919 seats up to 192 people and is in a similar category as Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320neo planes.

COMAC this year has increased sales and production plans and has been marketing the C919 abroad, especially within Southeast Asia and also to growing aviation market Saudi Arabia.

It is also developing a wide-body plane design.

Zhongtai Securities last month said it expects COMAC to be able to produce 100 aircraft a year by around 2030, with total jets produced exceeding 1,000 by 2035.

Airbus delivered 735 commercial aircraft in 2023.

Industry sources caution that COMAC is a long way from making inroads internationally, especially without benchmark certifications from the United States or European Union – which COMAC is pursuing – or more efficient planes.

A forecast from aviation consultancy Cirium in May sees just under 1,700 C919 deliveries by 2042, giving the C919 around a 25% market share compared to Boeing’s 30% and Airbus’s 45%.

The first C919 delivery to a private airline is expected by year-end.

Shanghai-based Suparna Airlines, a subsidiary of China’s fourth biggest carrier Hainan Airlines 600221.SS which has 60 C919s on order, has said it eventually aims to fly only C919s.

China will more than double its commercial airplane fleet by 2043 and will need 8,830 new planes, Boeing’s annual Commercial Market Outlook said in July.
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Popular Taiwanese dumpling chain to close 14 stores in China as economy loses steam

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Taipei, Taiwan — Din Tai Fung, a popular Michelin-starred Taiwanese restaurant known for its long lines and hot dumplings, says it is closing more than a dozen stores in China as the world’s second-largest economy loses steam and thrifty consumers seek out cheaper options for dining out.

The company’s subsidiary, Beijing Hengtai Feng Catering Company, announced Monday that it plans to close all its 14 restaurants in northern China including one in Xiamen. The brand’s parent company in Taipei told VOA that its 18 remaining restaurants across Eastern China, run by another Shanghai-based partner, will remain in normal operation.

“We deeply apologize for the inconvenience and disappointment this decision may cause to our many loyal Din Tai Fung customers,” the subsidiary said in a statement on the Chinese social media app WeChat. It added that employees’ severance and placement would be handled properly. 

Some 800 employees will be impacted by the move, which comes as price competition between restaurants heats up and consumer habits shift in China.

Since Beijing began loosening its strict COVID-19 control policies in late 2022, allowing more people to eat out again, Chinese consumers have been more frugal in their spending, given a range of economic challenges the country is going through from a property market crisis to high unemployment and a slumping stock market.

“The current situation in China is that while there is still traffic, the consumption power is weak, including in the restaurant service industry,” said Darson Chiu, a Taiwan-based economist and director general of the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry. “A high-end brand like Din Tai Fung may not be able to meet the consumers’ needs as they downgrade their consumption in China’s current economic environment.”

Zhiwu Chen, a professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong, told VOA Mandarin in April that he found it unbelievable that some restaurants in Nanjiang were offering food for a table of 10 for 400 yuan ($56), or 40 yuan per head, down from its previous price range of 700 yuan.

Another factor posing challenges to companies like Din Tai Fung has been foreign companies’ decreasing confidence in China’s economy coupled with a drop in foreign tourists to China.

In an interview with Taiwan’s Central News Agency, Beijing Hengtai Feng’s General Manager Galvin Yang said foreign consumers accounted for 20% to 30% of Din Tai Fung’s customers in China, and foreign consumers have still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

To adjust to weakening demand, Haidilao, a popular hot pot restaurant, has introduced a more affordable sub-brand hot pot called Hailao and begun offering personal services such as free hair washing.

According to DianPing, an app that connects people to local businesses and restaurants, the cost of a visit to a Din Tai Fung restaurant in China averages roughly $21. Most of the chain’s competitors in Beijing offer far more reasonable buffet deals, while fast-food chains serve full meals for just over a dollar.

Reactions to Din Tai Fung’s closings have been mixed in China. Some consumers say they will miss their “beloved dumplings,” while others were indifferent, and some criticized the restaurant chain for poor service.

Despite Din Tai Fung’s struggles in China, the company — which has more than 180 stores globally — has found success abroad in the United States, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirate.

In June and July, Din Tai Fung opened new branches in California and New York. 
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Chips down: Indonesia battles illegal online gambling

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Jakarta, Indonesia — When the wife of Indonesian snack seller Surya asked why he stopped sending money home to his West Java village, he broke down, confessing to a gambling addiction that had cost him more than $12,000.

“When I lost big I was determined to win back what I lost. No matter what — even if I had to borrow money,” the 36-year-old father of two told AFP, declining to use his real name.

While gambling is illegal in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation — with sentences of up to six years in prison — government figures show around 3.7 million Indonesians engaged in it last year, placing more than $20 billion in bets.

The stats prompted President Joko Widodo in June to set up a task force, headed by the country’s security minister, and that month the government ordered telecoms providers to block overseas gambling websites — typically in Cambodia and the Philippines.

Some VPN services, which gamblers use to bypass firewalls on foreign sites, were also blacklisted, but diehard gamblers are still able to bet from their phones or through illegal bookies, and it is easy to borrow money from loan sharks.

Surya was earning up to $250 a month in the West Java capital Bandung, but once he started gambling, he said he was sending home to his family only one-quarter of that.

He would play mobile gambling games until dawn and squander away his hard-earned money.

“Even when you’re winning, the money will be gone instantly. Now, I’d rather give money to my wife,” he said.

‘I want to quit’

Eno Saputra, a 36-year-old vegetable seller in South Sumatra, started buying lottery tickets five years ago but is now addicted to mobile gambling.

He spends at least $6 a day gambling and once won $500, but usually suffers losses.

“From the bottom of my heart, I want to quit, for my children,” the father of three told AFP.

“I know this is wrong and forbidden by my religion.”

There is hope for some in Bogor, south of the capital Jakarta, where a clinic at a psychiatry hospital, since the beginning of the year, has been treating patients struggling to break their gambling addiction.

So far 19 addicts have received counseling and therapy for anxiety, paranoia, sleep disorders and suicidal thoughts, said Nova Riyanti Yusuf, director of the Marzoeki Mahdi Psychiatric Hospital.

But doctors believe there are many more struggling without treatment. 

“I believe this is the tip of the iceberg because not everybody understands that gambling addiction is a disorder,” Nova told AFP.

The hospital is now conducting a study to collect data on how many Indonesians are addicted.

Crime spree

A spate of murders, suicides and divorces linked to illegal online gambling has further cast a spotlight on the surging trade.

In June, an East Java policewoman set her husband on fire because of his gambling, while last year a 48-year-old man in Central Sulawesi robbed and killed his mother to fund his habit, according to local media reports.

Local media have also reported a spike in suicides this year by gambling addicts while Islamic courts on Java island say they are dealing with more divorce requests from women whose husbands won’t stop betting.

“Gambling puts our future at risk … also the future of our family and our children,” President Widodo said when launching the task force.

Experts say, however, that the government’s initiative isn’t enough.

Police say they arrested 467 online gambling operators between April and June, seizing more than $4 million in assets.

But Indonesian judges have been criticized for handing out lenient prison sentences, with operators receiving sentences ranging from seven to 18 months.

“The investigation must be extended to the big names,” said Nailul Huda, an economist from the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) research group.

“Those operators did not work alone. They answered to someone big.”

Surya, meanwhile, has quit gambling for the past month and says he is committed to stopping long-term.

“Nobody is getting rich from online gambling. Now I’ve learned my lesson,” he said.

But for other addicts like Eno, breaking free from the habit is no easy feat.

“This is a stupid thing to do,” he said, “but I am addicted.”
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Media call for greater protections after junta raid kills two journalists

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WASHINGTON — Journalists in Myanmar are calling for greater protections for media following the killing last week of two reporters, and the heavy sentences handed down to other media professionals since the military seized power.

A journalist with the Democratic Voice of Burma, or DVB, and a freelancer were both killed on Aug. 21 when the military raided the home of the freelance reporter in the town of Kyaikhto, in Mon state.

The killings come amid a crackdown on independent journalism, according to media watchdogs. Since the February 2021 coup, media have had licenses revoked, journalists have been forced into exile and dozens have been detained.

Aung Kyaw of DVB told VOA more than 30 military members entered the home of freelancer Htet Myat Thu and fatally shot both him and DVB reporter Win Htut Oo, along with two resistance fighters.

VOA was unable to determine if the journalists, the fighters, or both were the targets. Local authorities did not respond to VOA’s request for comment on the raid.

“When Htet Myat Thu’s mother heard the gunshots and ran back to the house, she saw DVB reporter Win Htut Oo falling down with a gunshot wound,” said Aung Kyaw. “Htet Myat and Win Htut Oo were childhood friends.”

The journalists both reported on the resistance movement. For safety reasons they interviewed opposition members in private spaces, including their home.

Win Htut Oo had previously been arrested by the junta under Section 505 — amended legislation that penalizes spreading anything deemed to be false information or fear about the military. The 26-year-old had more recently been living at the home of his friend, Htet Myat, 28.

The junta cremated the bodies of both journalists instead of returning them to their families.

Media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the killings as “an atrocity against the free press [that] must not go unpunished.”

Nay Aung, the editor-in-chief of The Nation Voice, told VOA that Win Htut Oo worked for the local media outlet.

“He was a reporter who sent us daily news about the resistance activities, not just the battle news, but also the economic news in the region,” said Nay Aung.

Two days before the raid, Win Htut Oo had reported on a police officer arrested by the military over suspected connections to the local People’s Defense Forces, or PDF fighters, and about a female lawyer who was also accused of supporting the local pro-democracy militia.

“I think it must have been the reason behind the raid, which happened the day after the news were published,” Nay Aung said.

“Not only our reporters risk [their] lives to file reports but also all the journalists in Myanmar are risking their lives, reporting news that is happening in the country and the suffering of the people,” he added.

Nay Aung said that more needs to be done to ensure journalist safety in Myanmar and that reporters understand the security risks.

“In addition, we need to prepare more to create safe conditions for journalists to live and travel in the country.”

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, known as RSF, condemned the killings.

In a statement, it said that the junta is “demonstrating ruthless violence against the journalists still courageously reporting in the country despite the prolonged conflict.”

“We again renew our call on the international community to step up pressure on the regime to cease its campaign of terror against reporters,” said RSF Asia-Pacific head, Cédric Alviani.

Myanmar’s journalists have also been renewing calls for the international community to pressure the military council on press freedom.

The editor in chief of the Dawei Watch news agency, Kyaw San Min, told VOA that two of its reporters were unjustly arrested and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

Reporters Myo Myint Oo and Aung San Oo were arrested on Dec. 11, 2023, and questioned for four days. In separate military hearings, Myo Myint Oo was sentenced to life in prison in February and Aung San Oo was sentenced to 20 years in May.

“They were sentenced to long prison terms without knowing what section or article they were charged under. Looking back on this whole process, there is no transparency at all,” said Kyaw San Min. “There is no justice for journalists. There is no right to defend nor explain.”

With the military leaders saying they will hold elections at some point in 2025, some analysts believe more media may face attacks or arrests.

Myanmar is already one of the top jailers of journalists globally, with at least 43 detained there for their work, according to data by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Toe Zaw Latt, of the Independent Press Council of Myanmar, said that journalists are being oppressed unfairly.

“We also need to protect journalists more from this end,” he said, adding that Myanmar’s media are discussing steps with groups including RSF.

This article originated in VOA’s Burmese Service.
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Sullivan’s China visit expected to set stage for Biden-Xi final meeting

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Washington — U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Tuesday in Beijing with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in an attempt to manage tensions between Washington and Beijing ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.

Sullivan’s visit, which ends on Thursday, also aims to set the stage for President Joe Biden to hold his final summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping before Biden leaves office in January, analysts say.

Before holding the closed-door talks, Wang told reporters that China-U.S. relations were “critical,” of great importance to the world, but have taken “twists and turns.” He said he hoped the relationship between the two countries would become healthy and stable. 

Sullivan said the two sides would discuss areas of agreement and disagreement that “need to be managed effectively and substantively.”  

U.S. officials say the main purpose of Sullivan’s visit is to maintain mutual communication that has been severely disrupted over trade tensions, rights concerns and Beijing’s increasingly close relations with Moscow since its invasion of Ukraine.  

At a press briefing last week, a senior administration official said on background that Sullivan and Wang are expected to spend about 10 to 12 hours over two days discussing bilateral, global, regional and cross-strait issues.

“It bears repeating that U.S. diplomacy and channels of communication do not indicate a change in approach to the PRC [People’s Republic of China]. This is an intensely competitive relationship. We are committed to making the investments, strengthening our alliances and taking the common steps — common sense steps on tech and national security — that we need to take. We are committed to managing this competition responsibly, however, and prevent it from veering into conflict,” the official said.

The official added that Sullivan would raise U.S. concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base, the South China Sea and other global issues such as North Korea, the Middle East, Myanmar and the Taiwan Strait.

The visit is not expected to produce a major breakthrough, but media reports noted it could set the stage for Biden to hold his final summit with Xi before leaving office in January.  

Although neither the Chinese Foreign Ministry nor the U.S. State Department has confirmed it, Biden and Xi could meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru from Nov. 10 to 16, or at the G20 summit in Brazil on Nov. 18 and 19.  

With the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5, Biden, who is not seeking reelection and is a “lame duck,” has waning influence on U.S. policy. Nonetheless, Chinese leaders are interested in meeting the U.S. president, said Wesley Alexander Hill, lead analyst and international program manager at the International Tax and Investment Center. 

“Because there is such an unusual bipartisan agreement and skepticism about China, I really wouldn’t think that the lame-duck period is going to be a significant factor in terms of meeting with Biden or talking with Biden,” Hill told VOA.

“Because with China, the theme to stress is continuity in terms of America’s foreign policy. Even with Trump and his, let’s say, very direct mannerisms and his hostility towards China, the Biden administration hasn’t reversed course on the fundamentals of Trump’s policies.”

The senior administration official said at the press briefing last week that Sullivan’s trip shouldn’t be associated too closely with the election. 

“This meeting will be focused on the topics and the issues that we are dealing with now. There is a lot we can get done before the end of the year in terms of just managing the relationship,” the official said.

Neysun Mahboubi, director of the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, told VOA that regardless of who becomes the next U.S. president, the last meeting between Biden and Xi will not be just a formality.

Mahboubi said Chinese leaders, elites and ordinary people are very interested in the U.S. presidential election but said they don’t have a consensus on which candidate would be more helpful to U.S.-China relations.

“I’m sure that there’s a sense that for China, the trade war was particularly damaging. There would be an understanding that [a] Trump presidency is likely to pursue that approach with even more vigor. On the other hand, the Biden administration has been very effective in invigorating allies, including in Europe, including in the Asia Pacific, in a way that the Trump administration really has not done,” he said.

Last week, the United States imposed sweeping sanctions on nearly 400 individuals and companies — 42 of them Chinese — for helping Russia circumvent U.S. sanctions and contributing to Moscow’s war on Ukraine. 

China’s Commerce Ministry on Sunday said the U.S. action “undermines international trade order and rules, obstructs normal international economic and trade exchanges, and affects the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains.”  

At a briefing for diplomats ahead of Sullivan’s arrival in Beijing on Tuesday, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs Li Hui reiterated those sentiments, calling sanctions on Chinese entities “illegal and unilateral” and “not based on facts.” China calls US sanctions over Ukraine war ‘illegal and unilateral.”

  Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.  Some information for this story came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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What might Kamala Harris’ Mideast policy look like?

Posted on by SeeUS

Washington — The White House welcomed on Tuesday the rescue of an Israeli hostage abducted October 7 by Hamas and said a Gaza cease-fire deal is being finalized.

But even if an agreement is reached, a truce is unlikely to extend beyond the six weeks of phase one of the three-phase deal. The next U.S. administration will still inherit the role of managing tensions in the region.

Since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris has aimed to strike a balance between reaffirming U.S. support for Israel and advocating for Palestinian humanitarian needs — in essence, signaling a continuation of President Joe Biden’s policies on the Israel-Hamas war and, more broadly, the Middle East.

Harris summed up her position in her acceptance speech as the Democratic presidential nominee at the party’s convention in Chicago.

“President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination,” she said.

Democrats are enthusiastic about Harris, even though she has not yet laid out her own policies. And unlike Biden, a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, most of Harris’ exposure to foreign policy was during her tenure as vice president.

Not having “foreign policy baggage” might benefit Harris in the eyes of Democratic voters, said Natasha Hall, senior fellow with the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Hall pointed out that in October 2002, Biden was one of 77 senators who gave President George W. Bush the authority to use force in Iraq, a decision that eventually became a liability for Biden, much as his staunch support for Israel has become the most divisive issue in his own party.

Adviser’s influence

Those looking to see whether Harris’ Mideast policy will diverge from Biden’s can look to her national security adviser, Phillip Gordon, who is expected to remain in the role if she is elected. He would be the principal adviser to the president on all national security issues, including foreign policy.

“Phil Gordon is the type of adviser that colors in the lines,” Hall told VOA. “He’s the kind of person that I think very much is sort of old-fashioned American foreign policy.”

Gordon was against ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power in 2003. He chronicled American efforts to overthrow leaders in the Middle East in his 2020 book, “Losing the Long Game: The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle East.”

“The U.S. policy debate about the Middle East suffers from the fallacy that there is an external American solution to every problem, even when decades of painful experience suggest that this is not the case,” he wrote. “And regime change is the worst ‘solution.'”

Such an outlook would make a Harris administration “very, very cautious to deal assertively with Iran,” said Jonathan Rynhold, head of the Political Studies Department at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.

From an Israeli perspective, however, Harris’ direct involvement in the administration’s recent decision to deploy more military assets to the Middle East to deter Iran is good news, Rynhold told VOA.

“If that is the policy that she goes on to adopt, then that crosses the minimal threshold of what Israel needs on Iran,” he said. “It may not be what Israel desires, which is a more forceful approach, but it is not a passive one.”

Current Harris aides have told VOA that Harris she intends to stay on the path that Biden has laid out: working beyond a cease-fire toward a two-state solution without sacrificing Israel’s security.

Harris’ former national security adviser while she was in the Senate, Halie Soifer, agreed.

“The vice president and the president have supported U.S. military assistance to Israel, not just for the existing agreement that we have with Israel,” said Soifer, who is now the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “But also an increase this year because of their security needs,” she told VOA

Generational and personal background

Biden’s generation, with a more visceral sense of the Holocaust, views Israel as a tiny democracy surrounded by hostile Arab powers. People of Harris’ generation and younger see Israel for what it is today: a thriving democracy and the region’s top military power. While Biden and Harris may share the same goal for Israel’s security, there’s not the same emotional resonance, Rynhold said.

Younger Americans “don’t remember a time when Jews and Israel were extremely vulnerable,” he said. “So they don’t have a same sense of that continuing vulnerability that President Biden really has.”

And for the president, Israel is integral to the story of America’s role in the world.

“America is there to prevent the Holocaust. America is there to support democracies, and Israel is central to his way of understanding that role,” Rynhold said.

If elected, Harris would become the first person to hold the highest office in the land whose parents are both immigrants. Barack Obama’s father was born in Kenya, and Donald Trump’s mother was born in the U.K. Harris’ father came from Jamaica and her mother, from India.

Unlike Biden, who often underscores that he is a Zionist, a loaded term often viewed with scorn in many parts of the world, Harris may be more sensitive to views from the Global South.

In a 2018 speech to an Indian American group, Harris spoke fondly of childhood visits to the home of her maternal grandfather, P.V. Gopalan, describing him as someone who had fought for “freedom and for justice and for independence.”

“She is aware of how the rest of the world may feel about the Middle East, about neocolonialism, neoimperialism,” Hall said. “I really hope that she has the opportunity to bring those experiences to bear if she becomes the president.”

But it’s hard to tell what a Harris doctrine would eventually look like.

“What she says now is directed to winning an election and keeping the Democratic Party together,” Rynhold said.

And since the party is evenly split between those sympathetic to Israel and those sympathetic to the Palestinians, she must express platitudes, he said.

“And that’s what she has done.”
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Ukraine deals with aftermath of massive air attack on infrastructure

Posted on by SeeEU

In the wake of Russia’s massive air attacks across Ukraine Monday, Ukrainians are moving quickly to get power and transportation back online. Ukraine’s military says Russia launched more than 200 missiles and drones during the attacks, with more strikes on Tuesday. As Lesia Bakalets reports, cities are dealing with power outages, water supply interruptions and train delays. Camera: Vladyslav Smilianets
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Burkina victims’ families criticize army over massacre

Posted on by SeeAF

Abidjan, Ivory Coast — Families of Burkina Faso civilians killed in a massacre have accused the army of exposing them to their militant killers by making them leave their village to dig a trench.

Armed men carried out the attack in the village of Barsalogho in north central Burkina Faso on Saturday, killing dozens of civilians and security personnel, local sources said.

A group linked to al-Qaeda, known by its Arabic initials JNIM, claimed responsibility and said it had seized control of a local militia headquarters.

A group representing victims’ families, the Justice Collective for Barsalogho, said in a statement seen by Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that Burkina Faso military officials had “obliged people, through threats, to take part in construction work, against their will.”

It said they forced the locals to dig a trench 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from the village for forces to use in fighting off the militants.

The collective demanded that investigations be carried out to determine who was responsible for the alleged order.

In two videos apparently documenting the massacre —circulated on social media and attributed by various sources to JNIM — assailants in military dress are seen firing automatic weapons at a trench containing at least 91 bodies.

Authorities have not given a toll.

A member of the collective, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals by the army, told AFP they helped bury victims in mass graves that contained “more than 100 bodies.”

Rebels affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have waged an insurgency in Burkina Faso since 2015 that has killed more than 20,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

A security source earlier claimed that “the response of the soldiers” and auxiliary troops “made it possible to neutralize several terrorists and avoid a greater tragedy.”

After taking power in a coup in September 2022, Burkina’s junta leader Ibrahim Traore vowed to make fighting terrorism a priority.

This year he issued a call to civil auxiliary fighters who are aiding the army to “mobilize local people to dig trenches to protect yourselves” until machinery could be delivered.
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How would a potential Harris administration handle Mideast tensions?

Posted on by SeeUS

White House officials welcomed the rescue of an Israeli hostage held by Hamas Tuesday and said they are finalizing a Gaza cease-fire deal. But even if an agreement is reached, a future U.S. administration will still inherit the problem of managing tensions in the Middle East. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara looks at potential U.S. policy under Vice President Kamala Harris should she win the November presidential election.
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US urges certain ‘negative actors’ not to fuel Sudan’s civil war

Posted on by SeeAF

WASHINGTON — The United States is urging certain foreign nations not to fuel Sudan’s civil war by arming fighting factions, as the country faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Meanwhile, Washington has also called on Sudan’s warring sides to enforce a code of conduct to reduce abuses, noting that the army is considering the proposal after its rival paramilitary forces have agreed to it.

More than 25 million people face acute hunger and more than 10 million have been displaced from their homes since fighting erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, the State Department said.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen a significant proliferation of the number of external actors that are playing a role on both sides,” and they are not putting the interest of the Sudanese people “at the core of this,” said Tom Perriello, U.S. special envoy for Sudan.

“In addition to UAE [the United Arab Emirates] supporting the RSF,” Perriello told reporters on Tuesday, “we see foreign fighters coming in from across the Sahel. We’ve seen Iran, Russia, other negative actors on the SAF side.”

U.S.-brokered peace talks on Sudan that concluded last week in Geneva failed to end the country’s 16-month conflict. But one of the warring sides, the RSF, agreed to a code of conduct pledging to avoid violence against women, exploitation at checkpoints and the destruction of crops.

Perriello said that the U.S. has presented the proposal to the SAF leaders who were absent in the Switzerland negotiations.

“They have the code of conduct in front of them. We hope to get a response from them in the coming days,” Perriello said.

The United States has accused the SAF and RSF of war crimes, with the RSF specifically charged with ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity targeting the indigenous African-origin people of Darfur.

During the talks in Geneva, the U.S., along with representatives from the African Union, the United Arab Emirates, the United Nations, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, focused on reopening three humanitarian corridors — the Western border crossing in Darfur at Adre, the northern Dabbah Road from Port Sudan and the southern access route through Sennar.

Later this week, the U.S. will have a first formal follow-up with the heads of delegations.

Humanitarian assistance deliveries have resumed via two of the three routes: across the border at Adre from Chad and along the Dabbah Road into famine-stricken areas of Sudan.

In a statement late Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the reopening of humanitarian corridors, saying lack of humanitarian aid access into Darfur over the past six months has exacerbated the historic levels of famine and acute hunger across Sudan, particularly within the Zamzam camp.
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Vaccine shortage hinders mpox inoculation in Africa

Posted on by SeeAF

Nairobi, Kenya   — The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the continent needs 10 million doses of mpox vaccines to stop the spread of the disease, which it recently declared a public health emergency.

However, experts say the global shortage of mpox vaccines will affect any inoculation drives in Africa.  

Professor Salim Abdool Karim, a virologist at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine in Durban, South Africa, said there are currently three types of vaccines for mpox, but they are hard to obtain. 

“They aren’t available, and if people are to start manufacturing them now, it will take quite a while before doses will become available,” he said, adding that price is also an obstacle. “They sell for between $100 to $200 a dose, and you need to give everybody two doses. So that’s a very expensive vaccine.”   

The mpox ailment, formally known as monkeypox due to its original discovery in monkeys in Denmark, was first detected in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been the epicenter of the current outbreak.  

Karim said mpox, which previously did not pose serious health concerns, has been mutating and the current strain is worrying, especially for Africa’s younger population, which is more susceptible. 

“If left unchecked, we will see mpox spread quite rapidly. And the reason it will spread rapidly is because it is now sexually transmitted. And we’ve seen from other sexually transmitted infections like HIV … that sexually transmitted infections can spread quite widely in Africa,” he said.   

Since July, mpox cases have been detected in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, as well as the DRC. 

Kenya has recorded two cases, and hopes to receive vaccine doses as part of the international effort to stop transmission of the disease. 

Kenyan Ministry of Health officials, however, say they are worried about the global vaccine shortage.  

“Africa requires 10 million doses,” said Dr. Patrick Amoth, director general for health in Kenya. “What could be available up to the end of the year is two million doses, if the …  manufacturer of the vaccine repurposes its manufacturing capacity to stop manufacturing — or scale down the manufacture of — other vaccines and prioritizes manufacture of the mpox vaccine.

“So, in terms of priority, of course it will be pegged on the number of cases that each and every country gets. So, for now, we cannot even … start talking about vaccination if we have only recorded two cases of the disease.”   

Amoth said there is no cause for alarm as the country has put in place measures to deal with the outbreak of the disease.   

“We have formed rapid response teams to be able to support counties in terms of contact tracing and other logistics required, including case management,” he said.  

Karim is challenging African countries to move toward developing their own vaccines locally, saying he worries wealthy countries could be hoarding the available vaccines for their own citizens. 

“I’m pretty convinced that if African scientists put their heads together, we can make an mpox vaccine and we can manufacture it right here in Africa,” he said. “It’s not rocket science. It just needs the investments to be made to do that.”   

As the wait for vaccines continues, health experts say testing, contact tracing, and public education are the best strategies in dealing with the outbreak in Africa, at least for now.  
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New Hampshire resident dies after testing positive for mosquito-borne encephalitis virus

Posted on by SeeUS

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Climate change activists, deniers fight for hearts and minds in Kenya

Posted on by SeeAF

Nairobi, Kenya — Few countries have been hit harder by climate change than Kenya, where more frequent droughts and floods have become a fact of life for much of the country. One woman who won a contest to be named Miss Climate Kenya is working to build climate resilience and convince people to adapt to a changing world. At the same time, a farmer in western Kenya is denying the existence of climate change and defending the exploration of fossil fuels in Africa.

Over the past two decades, new weather patterns have become all too common in eastern Africa, killing off crops, pasture and livestock. Conversely, Kenya saw heavy flooding that killed dozens of people and displaced tens of thousands more this year.

Twenty-four-year-old Dorcas Naishorua, who was named Miss Climate Kenya in May, has experienced what climate change can do to lives and livelihoods. Naishorua is a member of the Maasai tribe. Her community relies on livestock for survival. Members move from one place to another in search of water and pasture for their animals to survive. 

“Since the onset of the serious climate crisis, I have personally been affected by it,” she said. “The same livestock my parents depended on to take me to school, most of them were lost during the drought, and due to that, I had to cut short my education.”

Naishorua said she is using her platform to educate her community about climate change and how to deal with its effects.

“We have stopped lamenting,” she said. “Now we have a drought. What changes are we bringing? So, through my capacity, I have been engaging with different rescue centers. I have been with different schools in tree growing and sensitization what is a tree and what tree to plant where I have been doing that on my platforms.”

But as some activists try to build climate resilience, Kenyan farmer Jusper Machogu is attracting the attention of climate change deniers or skeptics, and his social media network is growing by the day.

Just today, he shared a video on X of former U.S. President Donald Trump denying climate change and said, “I think he represents some of my views, and so I kind of like him.”

Machogu, a farmer in Kisii, Kenya’s highland region, says he denies climate change is taking place because he believes it is hard to predict weather patterns.

Mochugu, who is also an agricultural engineer, says he supports the exploration and use of fossil fuels, which scientists have shown to be a major factor in global warming due to the emission of carbon dioxide. 

Machogu says clean energy sources cannot replace fossil fuels like oil and gas.

“We have plenty of fossil fuels,” he said. “We have plenty of natural gas. We have it in Uganda. We have it in Nigeria. We have oil in Angola, Namibia, all of these countries. But now we’re being told that we should not use that to flourish. We should not use it.” 

And he spoke of the importance of fossil fuels.

“And most people don’t realize how important, how crucial fossil fuels are,” he said. “Like we can’t have steel if we don’t use fossil fuels; there is no way to produce steel minus fossil fuels. Most people have heard that solar and wind are going to save the world, but solar and wind is just electricity.”

African farmers have experienced severe impacts from climate change. Weather patterns have become unpredictable, making it difficult for them to prepare land, grow food, and harvest on time.

Environmental earth scientist Edward Mugalavai says climate change skeptics could be won over with greater development of clean energy sources. 

“When you touch on the issue of fossil fuel, then it is like you are telling people you reduce industrialization,” he said. “That cannot happen. But what we are coming up with is to come up with green energy solutions where people can continue to industrialize but use green energy that does not pollute the environment. But if you have alternatives, people can easily accept the changes that are taking place.”

Naishorua, Kenya’s Miss Climate, said those denying climate change should check how their environment has changed over the years.

If that is too difficult to observe, she said, then they should take care and protect the environment around them.
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Dam collapse in eastern Sudan kills at least 30 people following heavy rains, UN agency says 

Posted on by SeeAF

Cairo, Egypt — The collapse of the Arbaat Dam in Sudan’s eastern Red Sea state over the weekend flooded nearby homes and killed at least 30 people following heavy rains, a U.N. agency said.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said late Monday, citing local officials, that the actual number of fatalities from the collapse on Sunday might be higher. Additionally, about 70 villages around the dam were affected by the flash flooding, including 20 villages that have been destroyed.

The Arbaat Dam, which is about 38 kilometers (nearly 25 miles) northwest of Port Sudan, was massively damaged because of heavy rains. In areas west of the dam, the flooding either destroyed or damaged the homes of 50,000 people — 77% of the total population living there. Those affected urgently need food, water and shelter, OCHA warned, adding that damage in eastern parts of the dam is still being assessed. 

More than 80 boreholes collapsed because of the flooding, OCHA said citing officials, while 10,000 heads of livestock are missing, and 70 schools have been either damaged or destroyed.

Heavy rain and flooding across Sudan this month impacted more than 317,000 people. Of those impacted, 118,000 people have been displaced, exacerbating one of the world’s biggest displacement crises due to the ongoing war in the country.

Tuesday marks 500 days since Sudan plunged into war after fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

The conflict began in the capital, Khartoum, and raged across Sudan, killing thousands of people, destroying civilian infrastructure, and pushing many to the brink of famine. More than 10 million people were forcibly displaced to find safety, according to the U.N.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement Tuesday that “this is a shameful moment” for international humanitarian organizations, which for more than 16 months, “have failed to provide an adequate response to the country’s escalating medical needs — from catastrophic child malnutrition to widespread disease outbreaks.”

“At the same time, heavy restrictions from both warring parties have drastically limited the ability to deliver humanitarian aid,” MSF said. 

Abdirahman Ali, CARE’s Sudan country director warned in a statement Tuesday that the war “shattered” the health care system, “leaving countless without care.”

More than 75% of health care systems have been destroyed since the war began, according to a World Health Organization estimate in July.
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Modi tells Putin he supports early end to Ukraine war

Posted on by SeeEU

New Delhi — Days after visiting Ukraine, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he supports a quick end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Modi’s discussion with the Russian leader on Tuesday came a day after he had a phone conversation about the war with U.S. President Joe Biden.

In a post on X, Modi wrote that he had “exchanged perspectives on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and my insights from the recent visit to Ukraine” with Putin. He said that he reiterated “India’s firm commitment to support an early, abiding and peaceful resolution of the conflict.”

During his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, the Indian prime minister had urged talks between Russia and Ukraine and said that “we should move in that direction without losing any time.” He had offered to play an active role in efforts to achieve peace.

Modi’s visit to Kyiv came amid criticism from Western allies that New Delhi has not condemned Russia’s invasion.

The Indian foreign ministry said that during his phone talk with Putin, Modi underlined the importance of dialogue and diplomacy as well as “sincere and practical engagement between all stakeholders.”

Modi and Putin also reviewed progress on bilateral ties and discussed measures to further strengthen their partnership, the statement said.  

In his talk on Monday with Biden, Modi had also expressed India’s support for an early return of peace and stability.

“I think Modi’s conversations with the Russian and American leaders come amid an effort by India to convey that it is serious about using its leverage to resolve this conflict and to stake a claim for itself as an autonomous actor,” according to Harsh Pant, vice president for studies at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. “It has been faulted for not doing that in the past, so it is reaching out to the countries most closely involved in the conflict.”

India has not proposed any peace plan to resolve the war. But with New Delhi being one of the few countries that enjoys good relations with both Russia and the West, it hopes to push talks between Moscow and Ukraine.

Following Modi’s visit, Zelenskyy told reporters that he had told Modi that he would support India hosting the second summit on peace as Kyiv hopes to find a host among the countries in the Global South. The first peace summit was held in Switzerland in June.

In Kyiv, India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyan Jaishankar, had said that India is willing to do whatever it can to help end the war “because we do think that the continuation of this conflict is terrible, obviously for Ukraine itself but for the world as well.”

The resolution of the conflict is important for India, as Russia’s continued isolation could push Moscow into a tighter embrace with New Delhi’s arch rival, China, say analysts.

“India does not want Russia and the West’s rupture to be permanent because that only means that the Moscow-Beijing dynamic becomes much more solid,” according to Pant. “India also wants a stable Europe which can then play a larger role in ensuring a stable Indo-Pacific. That is very important for India. A Europe which is involved with its own internal challenges rather than a global role is something India does not want.”

Modi visited Ukraine six weeks after his visit to Moscow elicited strong criticism from Zelenskyy and Western allies. The first-ever visit by an Indian prime minister to the country was billed as a “landmark” one.

However analysts in New Delhi point out that Modi’s trip to Ukraine will have no bearing on India’s warm relationship with the Kremlin. Before he visited Kyiv, India’s foreign ministry had said that India has “substantive and independent ties with both Russia and Ukraine, and these partnerships stand on their own.”
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Flag football finds unlikely popularity in war-torn Ukraine

Posted on by SeeEU

Before Russia invaded in February 2022, American football was becoming popular in Ukraine. Today, most of the players are on the front lines. A gentler version of the game — flag football — is gaining ground in the meantime among kids and youth. Tetiana Kukurika has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Sergiy Rybchynski
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Vatican: China recognizes Catholic bishop of Tianjin

Posted on by SeeEA

Vatican City — China’s government has recognized the authority of the Catholic bishop of Tianjin, Melchior Shi Hongzhen, the Vatican said on Tuesday, who had previously been placed under house arrest for refusing to join China’s state-backed church structure. 

“This development is a positive fruit of the dialog established in recent years between the Holy See and the Chinese Government,” the Vatican said in a statement.

The Vatican struck a landmark deal with the Beijing government in 2018, which was renewed in 2022, over the appointment of Catholic bishops in the country.

The agreement gives Chinese officials some input into who Pope Francis appoints as bishops in the country and seeks to ease tensions in China between an underground Catholic flock loyal to the pope and the state-backed church.

Shi, 94, who has been bishop of Tianjin in northern China since 2019, was ordained as a Catholic bishop in 1982 and had refused to join the state church.

Shi took part in an inauguration ceremony on Tuesday as part of his official recognition by the government, the outlet AsiaNews reported. The ceremony took place in a hotel rather than a church, to stress that Shi had already been ordained a bishop decades ago, the report said. 

The Vatican and Beijing are due to decide this autumn whether to renew their agreement over bishop appointments. The Vatican’s chief diplomat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, had said in May that the church hoped to renew it.
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