In Pakistan, where public schools often lack resources, middle-class families in the city of Karachi are choosing to pay extra to send their children to private schools, hoping they will receive a better education. VOA’s Sidra Dar talks to one of these families in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. Camera: Muhammad Khalil
…
Plan to get electricity to more Africans wins $8B in new pledges
DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA — An initiative to connect 300 million Africans to electricity in the next six years has won new pledges worth more than $8 billion from lenders including the Islamic Development Bank and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank.
The Mission 300 initiative, launched by the World Bank and the African Development Bank in April, is projected to cost $90 billion. Its implementation faces challenges because the economies of countries in the region are severely constrained, mainly due to sluggish revenue and high debt service costs.
“Our national balance sheets are insufficient… to achieve Mission 300’s objectives,” Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema told an Africa energy summit in Tanzania.
Funding for the project is expected to come from multilateral development banks, development agencies, private businesses and philanthropic organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, which is part of the initiative.
Muhammad al Jasser, chairman of the Islamic Development Bank, said in a statement released during the summit that ended on Tuesday, that the Jeddah-headquartered bank was committing $2.65 billion in project financing and another $2 billion to insure power projects in Africa.
Beijing-based AIIB is set to provide $1-1.5 billion in financing.
“Six hundred million people in Africa without access to electricity is intolerable,” said AIIB President Jin Liqun.
Others funding the project include the French Development Agency (AFD), which committed to providing $1.04 billion, and the OPEC Fund for International Development, which made an initial commitment of $1 billion, the AfDB said in a closing statement.
The additional finance builds on commitments of up to $48 billion from the World Bank and the AfDB, officials at the summit said. The two organizations’ contributions could be increased during implementation, they said.
Provision of 300 million people with access to electricity, half of those currently without power on the continent, is a crucial building block for boosting Africa’s development by creating new jobs, said World Bank President Ajay Banga.
Half of the targeted new connections will get electricity from existing national grids, officials said at the summit, while the other half will be from renewable energy sources, including wind and solar mini-grids.
Apart from lighting up homes and businesses, Mission 300 is expected to boost the provision of clean cooking energy to homes, cutting reliance on wood and charcoal which are harmful, said Tanzania’s president, Samia Suluhu Hassan.
…
Tiger poachers use fishing boats to smuggle body parts out of Malaysia, study shows
Bangkok — Commercial fishing fleets have been playing a key role in trafficking parts of tigers poached in Malaysia, according to research released Wednesday that could help enforcement efforts to save the critically endangered cat.
The fishing boats are part of a network of routes used by sophisticated teams of poachers to move parts of illegally killed Malayan Tigers and other poached animals to Vietnam, according to the study by conservation organizations Panthera and ZSL, in conjunction with Malaysia’s Sunway University.
Through interviews with more than four dozen people involved in the operations, including poachers and those who brokered sales of the illicit goods, researchers found that fishing boats were able to carry larger consignments, cheaper, and less likely to be checked by customs than land or air routes.
“To really crack a problem and insert the right intervention that’s going to have any impact you have to understand the thing, inside out,” said Panthara’s Rob Pickles, the lead author of the study, in a phone interview from Kuala Lumpur. “That’s what we hope that this study does — contribute to that depth of understanding of the problem, to allow us to tailor the interventions.”
From a population estimated at some 3,000 tigers in the middle of the 20th century, the latest estimates are that there are only about 150 of the cats left in Malaysia. The big cats already have gone extinct in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam over the last 25 years.
In addition to poaching, tigers have lost much of their habitat to deforestation, and they have been falling victim in recent years to the canine distemper virus while a major source of food, the wild boar, has been decimated by the African swine fever virus.
“It’s their last gasp,” Pickles said. “This is the last chance to turn things around.”
The tigers live in the forests of peninsular Malaysia, which is connected by land to Thailand to the north. They have also been targeted by poachers from Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand, but researchers said the Vietnamese teams operate on a “different order of magnitude.”
Almost all from the poor, rural and rugged province of Quang Binh, where many took to the jungles to escape relentless American bombing during the Vietnam War, the poachers use well-honed bushcraft skills to live as small teams in the forests for three to five months at a time on poaching excursions.
They capture wild tigers with heavy steel snares made of wires as thick as a person’s index finger, as well as other animals.
Once caught, the tigers are killed and processed largely for their bones, which are boiled for days until they become a gelatinous glue-like substance that is pressed into small blocks and sold for perceived medicinal benefits. Claws and teeth are used to make amulets.
As Malaysia went on lockdown during the COVID pandemic, poaching operations came to a near standstill. The researchers were able to use the time to find and interview more than 50 individuals involved in the operations for the study, which was done in two phases, concluding in 2024.
Researchers learned that fishing boats were also used to carry bear paws and bile, live civets, wild boar tusks and meat, pangolins, monitor lizards and turtles.
One person told researchers the fishing boats were ideal to send larger items like tiger skins.
“Nobody checks,” the interviewee was quoted as saying. “In addition, people can go back by boat, so many things also can be brought back by this route.”
Malaysia and Vietnam have both been increasing maritime controls recently, making trafficking by fishing boats riskier.
Malaysian authorities have also had success in catching poachers and have substantially increased punishments for wildlife crime in recent years, though the study also found that the managers who send the teams into the forests are rarely caught and can easily recruit replacements.
Researchers also learned that many Vietnamese poachers take on significant debt to travel to Malaysia.
They recommend that, in addition to focusing more on fishing boats, authorities should target potential poachers in their home villages in Quang Binh with information about the increasing risks and diminishing returns, to try and dissuade them from coming to Malaysia in the first place.
Officials in Malaysia and Vietnam, both of which were celebrating public holidays this week, did not respond to requests for comment on the survey and its recommendations.
“We can’t arrest our way out of a problem or over-rely on the criminal justice system,” said ZSL’s Gopalasamy Reuben Clements, a co-author of the report.
“We need to explore other approaches, such as highly targeted behavioral change interventions, that can run in parallel to arrests and prosecutions.”
…
Year of the Snake underway with Lunar New Year festivities
BEIJING — Lunar New Year festivals and prayers marked the start of the Year of the Snake around Asia and farther afield on Wednesday — including in Moscow.
Hundreds of people lined up in the hours before midnight at the Wong Tai Sin Taoist temple in Hong Kong in a bid to be among the first to put incense sticks in the stands in front of the temple’s main hall.
“I wish my family will be blessed. I hope my business will run well. I pray for my country and wish people peace. I hope this coming year is a better year,” said Ming So, who visits the temple annually on the eve of the Lunar New Year.
The holiday — known as the Spring Festival in China, Tet in Vietnam and Seollal in Korea — is a major festival celebrated by diaspora communities around the world. The snake, one of 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, follows the just-ended Year of the Dragon.
The pop-pop-pop of firecrackers greeted the new year outside Guan Di temple in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, followed by lion dances to the rhythmic beat of drums and small cymbals.
Ethnic Chinese holding incense sticks in front of them bowed several times inside the temple before sticking the incense into elaborate gold-colored pots, the smoke rising from the burning tips.
Many Chinese who work in bigger cities return home during the eight-day national holiday in what is described as the world’s biggest annual movement of humanity. Beijing, China’s capital, has turned into a bit of a ghost town, with many shops closed and normally crowded roads and subways emptied out.
Traditionally, Chinese have a family dinner at home on New Year’s Eve and visit “temple fairs” on the Lunar New Year to watch performances and buy snacks, toys and other trinkets from booths.
Many Chinese take advantage of the extended holiday to travel both in the country and abroad. Ctrip, an online booking agency that operates Trip.com, said the most popular overseas destinations this year are Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, the United States, South Korea, Macao and Vietnam.
Russians cheered, waved and took smartphone photos of a colorful procession with drummers, costumed dancers and large dragon and snake figures held aloft that kicked off a 10-day Lunar New Year festival in Moscow on Tuesday night.
The Chinese and Russian governments have deepened ties since 2022, in part to push back against what they see as U.S. dominance of the world order.
Visitors shouted “Happy New Year” in Russian and expressed delight at being able to experience Chinese food and culture in Moscow, including folk performances and booths selling snacks and artwork.
…
US children fall behind in reading, make little improvement in math
WASHINGTON — America’s children have continued to lose ground on reading skills in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and have made little improvement in math, according to the latest results of an exam known as the nation’s report card.
The findings are yet another setback for U.S. schools and reflect the myriad challenges that have upended education, from pandemic school closures to a youth mental health crisis and high rates of chronic absenteeism. The national exam results also show growing inequality: While the highest-performing students have started to regain lost ground, lower-performing students are falling further behind.
Given every two years to a sample of America’s children, the National Assessment of Educational Progress is considered one of the best gauges of the academic progress of the U.S. school system. The most recent exam was administered in early 2024 in every state, testing fourth- and eighth-grade students on math and reading.
“The news is not good,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees the assessment. “We are not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic.”
Among the few bright spots was an improvement in fourth grade math, where the average score ticked up 2 points on a scale of 500. It’s still 3 points lower than the 2019 pre-pandemic average, yet some states and districts made significant strides, including in Washington, D.C., where the average score increased 10 points.
For the most part, however, American schools have not yet begun to make progress.
The average math score for eighth grade students was unchanged from 2022, while reading scores fell 2 points at both grade levels. One-third of eighth grade students scored below “basic” in reading, more than ever in the history of the assessment.
Students are considered below basic if they are missing fundamental skills. For example, eighth grade students who scored below basic in reading were typically unable to make a simple inference about a character’s motivation after reading a short story, and some were unable to identify that the word “industrious” means “to be hard working.”
Especially alarming to officials was the divide between higher- and lower-performing students, which has grown wider than ever. Students with the highest scores outperformed their peers from two years ago, making up some ground lost during the pandemic. But the lowest performers are scoring even lower, falling further behind.
It was most pronounced in eighth grade math: While the top 10% of students saw their scores increased by 3 points, the lowest 10% decreased by 6 points.
“We are deeply concerned about our low-performing students,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policies for the exam. “For a decade, these students have been on the decline. They need our urgent attention and our best effort.”
The latest setbacks follow a historic backslide in 2022. In that year’s exam, student achievement fell across both subjects and grade levels, in some cases by unprecedented levels.
This round of testing again featured students whose lives were disrupted by the pandemic. When COVID hit in 2020, the fourth graders were in kindergarten, and the eighth graders were in fourth grade.
But Carr said poor results can no longer be blamed solely on the pandemic, warning that the nation’s education system faces “complex challenges.”
A survey done alongside the exam found in 2022 that fewer young students were reading for enjoyment, which is linked to lower reading scores. And new survey results found that students who are often absent from class — a persistent problem nationwide — are struggling the most.
“The data are clear,” Carr said. “Students who don’t come to school are not improving.”
The results provide fresh fuel for a national debate over the impact of pandemic school closures, though they’re unlikely to add clarity. Some studies have found that longer closures led to bigger academic setbacks. Those slower to reopen were often in urban and Democratic-led areas, while more rural and Republican-led areas were quicker.
The new results don’t show a “direct link” on the topic, Carr said, though she said students clearly do better when they’re in school.
Among the states that saw reading scores fall in 2024 are Florida and Arizona, which were among the first to return to the classroom during the pandemic. Meanwhile, some big school systems that had longer closures made strides in fourth grade math, including Los Angeles and New York City.
The success of big urban districts — 14 of which saw notable improvement in fourth-grade math when the nation as a whole saw only minor gains — can be credited to academic recovery efforts funded by federal pandemic relief, said Ray Hart, executive director of the Council of Great City Schools. Investing in efforts like intensive tutoring programs and curriculum updates is “really proving to make a difference,” he said.
Republicans in Congress were quick to cast blame on Democrats and former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the decline is “clearly a reflection of the education bureaucracy continuing to focus on woke policies rather than helping students learn and grow.”
“I’m thankful we have an administration that is looking to reverse course,” he said in a reference to President Donald Trump.
Compared with 2019 results, eighth grade reading scores are now down 8 points. Reading scores are down 5 points in both grades. And in fourth grade math, scores are down 3 points.
Yet officials say there’s reason to be optimistic. Carr highlighted improvement in Louisiana, where fourth grade reading is now back above pre-pandemic levels, and in Alabama, which accomplished that feat in fourth grade math.
Carr was especially laudatory of Louisiana, where a campaign to improve reading proficiency resulted in both higher- and lower-performing students exceeding 2019 scores.
“I would not say that hope is lost, and I would not say that we cannot turn this around,” Carr said. “It’s been demonstrated that we can.”
…
Several people are feared dead in a stampede at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in India
PRAYAGRAJ, India — Several people were feared dead and many more injured in a stampede early Wednesday as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to take a holy bath in the river at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in northern India’s Prayagraj city, local media reported.
Distressed families lined up outside a makeshift hospital inquiring about their missing relatives, rescuers were helping the injured and police tried to manage the crowds.
People’s belongings like clothes, blankets and backpacks were strewn around the scene of the stampede. It was not immediately clear what triggered the panic or how many people had been hurt. Some local news websites said 10 people had died.
Wednesday was a sacred day during the six-week festival, and authorities were expecting a record 100 million devotees to engage in a ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers. The ritualistic bathing’s main draw are thousands of ash-smeared Hindu ascetics who arrive in massive processions towards the confluence to take a holy dip in the waters.
The incident did not appear to have deterred millions of Hindu pilgrims who continued to throng the site even as police officials urged them over megaphones to keep away from the confluence.
Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of the Uttar Pradesh state, also urged people to not head toward the confluence and instead take baths at other riverbanks. Adityanath, in a post on social platform X, did not make any reference to the stampede but warned people not to “pay attention to any rumors.”
The Maha Kumbh festival, held every 12 years, started on Jan. 13 and is the world’s largest religious gathering. Authorities expect more than 400 million people to throng the pilgrimage site in total.
Hindus believe that a dip at the confluence of three rivers — two worldly and one mythical — will cleanse them of their past sins and end their process of reincarnation.
Indian authorities have touted the festival as the world’s largest religious gathering. Nearly 150 million people have already attended the festival, including the likes of Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah and celebrities like Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
Authorities built a sprawling tent city on the riverbanks to accommodate visitors. It has 3,000 kitchens and 150,000 toilets, plus roads, electricity and water, communication towers and 11 hospitals.
About 50,000 security personnel are stationed in the city to maintain law and order and manage crowds. Authorities also installed more than 2,500 cameras, some powered by AI, to send crowd movement and density information to four central control rooms, where officials can quickly deploy personnel to avoid stampedes.
In 2013, at least 40 pilgrims who were taking part in the same festival were killed in a stampede at a train station in Prayagraj.
Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with shoddy infrastructure and few safety measures. In July at least 116 people died, most of them women and children, when thousands at a religious gathering in northern India stampeded at a tent in Hathras town.
…
Singapore oil firm urged to quit war-torn Myanmar
BANGKOK — Singapore-based petroleum company Interra Resources is being accused by an activist group in Myanmar of complicity in alleged war crimes committed by Myanmar’s military government.
The group Justice for Myanmar said Interra Resources’ majority stake in energy company Goldpetrol makes it complicit in war crimes because Goldpetrol produces and sells millions of barrels of oil that benefits the country’s military government.
In a report released Wednesday, Justice for Myanmar said Interra holds 60% of the Goldpetrol Joint Operating Company. The report describes the venture as one of the few remaining companies in Myanmar still extracting oil from the country’s onshore fields since the military overthrew a democratically elected government in February 2021, setting off a civil war that has killed thousands of civilians and displaced over 3 million people.
“Interra Resources must take action now so that it is consistent with its international human rights responsibilities. This necessarily involves stopping the supply of crude oil to the junta. It needs to decide the most responsible way to do this, and it may involve suspending operations or divestment,” Yadanar Maung, a Justice for Myanmar spokesperson, told VOA ahead of the report’s release.
Interra did not reply to VOA’s requests for comment.
Justice for Myanmar said Interra’s annual reports and leaked financial statements from Goldpetrol reveal that all of Goldpetrol’s oil production goes to the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) — more than 2.3 million barrels from 2021 to 2023, the last full year of available data.
Those sales, the group said, have been earning Interra record profits. It said the firm reported $24.5 million and $19.1 million in crude oil sales to MOGE in 2022 and 2023, respectively, far more than in any of the previous five years. The average annual profits for the previous five years is $12.9 million.
Citing in its report anonymous sources with knowledge of Goldpetrol’s operations and the country’s oil supply chains, Justice for Myanmar said the crude Goldpetrol is pumping out of its two fields heads to the Mann refinery in the country’s Magwe region, which supplies the area’s military bases with jet fuel and other refined oil products.
The refinery sits in the heart of Myanmar’s military weapons-making hub, between an air force base and a gunpowder mill.
Since the coup, the military claims it has been fighting so-called “terrorists” — armed rebel groups — with proportionate force to restore peace and order.
But United Nations experts and others have repeatedly accused the junta of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. As the junta continues to lose ground to armed rebel groups across the country, the U.N. said, it is resorting ever more to indiscriminate artillery and airstrikes on civilian areas, destroying scores of churches, schools and clinics and razing whole villages.
Conflict data collected by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a U.K.-based research group, show a gradual drop in armed clashes since late 2023 but a rise in air and drone strikes, including a record 345 in October.
A military airstrike in January on a village under rebel control in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, which borders Magwe, reportedly killed about 40 people, including women and children.
Justice for Myanmar said Interra bears some of the responsibility.
“Interra Resources is complicit in the junta’s international crimes through the supply of crude oil. This oil fuels Myanmar military operations that indiscriminately target civilians and amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Yadanar Maung said.
“The domestic production of fuel is particularly important for the junta, given the impact of sanctions against junta banks and its aviation fuel supply chain,” the spokesperson added.
The U.S. and other Western governments have imposed sanctions on a number of Myanmar banks and firms owned by or in business with the country’s miliary since the coup in 2021, including some handling jet fuel sales and supplies.
Besides urging Interra to consider suspending its Myanmar operations or selling off its shares in Goldpetrol, Justice for Myanmar said Singapore’s stock exchange should investigate Interra for any breaches of its rules. Trading in another listed firm was halted in 2021 because of its operations in Myanmar, which the exchange had designated a “sanctioned nation.”
The stock exchange did not reply to VOA’s requests for comment.
Justice for Myanmar said Interra told the activist group ahead of the report’s launch that Goldpetrol’s contract with MOGE requires it to sell all its crude oil to the government, and that the joint venture has continued supplying MOGE after the coup to fulfill its “contractual obligations.”
The group said Interra declined to comment on how that oil was being used.
Amnesty International, which has also investigated Myanmar’s jet fuel supply chains, said the military’s airstrikes continue to devastate civilian areas, driving even schools to build bomb shelters.
“Airstrikes are only becoming more frequent, and aviation fuel remains a key asset for the Myanmar military, which is why we continue to call for states and companies to suspend shipments,” Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman told VOA.
The group said public pressure has convinced some of the foreign firms along Myanmar’s jet fuel supply chain to pull out but said their exit does not always solve the problem.
“After that departure, either local companies with even closer ties to the Myanmar military entered the scene or regional companies with limited international operations —and for the most part, immune to sanctions — came in to fill the void. We have seen this happen in a number of business sectors in Myanmar,” Freeman said.
Goldpetrol’s other shareholder that owns the remaining 40% stake in the company is North Petroleum International, a subsidiary of the China North Industries Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned weapons conglomerate doing business worldwide as NORINCO.
China has been the Myanmar military’s main weapons supplier since the coup, along with Russia. It also has billions of dollars invested in Myanmar’s energy sector, including parallel oil and gas pipelines that stretch across the country from the Bay of Bengal to China’s Yunnan province.
China North Industries Group did not reply to VOA’s request for comment.
…
Caroline Kennedy calls on US lawmakers to oppose RFK Jr.’s health post
Caroline Kennedy, a member of the famed U.S. political family, urged senators on Tuesday to reject her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the top U.S. health agency, calling him a “predator” and his healthcare views “dangerous.”
The daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy said that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known as RFK Jr., has discouraged vaccinations for his own profit. She added he does not have the medical, financial or government experience to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Republican President Donald Trump nominated him in November.
A spokesperson for RFK Jr. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Senators will question RFK Jr. on Wednesday starting at 10 a.m. about his views before they vote on whether to confirm his nomination.
The Washington Post first reported the letter.
RFK Jr. has long sown doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that have helped curb disease and prevent deaths for decades. He disputes the anti-vaccine characterization and has said he would not prevent Americans from getting inoculations.
“Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie and cheat his way through life today,” Caroline Kennedy said in a video on social media platform X, in which she read her letter addressed to senators.
U.S. doctors, nurses, researchers, scientists and caregivers “deserve a secretary committed to advancing cutting-edge medicine, to save lives, not to rejecting the advances we have already made,” said Caroline Kennedy, a former ambassador to Australia and Japan who served during the Democratic Biden and Obama administrations. “They deserve a stable, moral and ethical person at the helm of this crucial agency.”
In written testimony for the Finance committee, RFK Jr. said he is not “anti-vaccine” or “anti-industry” and that he believes “vaccines have a critical role in healthcare,” pointing to his own children being vaccinated, according to the document seen by Reuters.
However, RFK Jr. has led the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense and in a 2023 interview with podcaster Lex Fridman said no vaccines are safe and effective.
RFK Jr. has said he wants to work to end chronic disease, break any ties between employees at the U.S. drug regulator and industry and advise U.S. water systems to remove fluoride.
RFK Jr. has faced new scrutiny over his ties to Wisner Baum, a law firm specializing in pharmaceutical drug injury cases.
He has an arrangement to earn 10% of fees awarded in contingency cases he refers to the firm, according to a letter RFK Jr. wrote to an HHS ethics official released last week.
If confirmed, RFK Jr. would retain that financial interest in cases that do not directly impact the U.S. government, the letter said.
…
DRC tries to slow rebels’ assault amid reports of bodies in the streets
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Congolese security forces on Tuesday tried to slow the advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who say they have captured Goma after entering eastern Congo’s largest city. U.N. officials reported violence, looting and bodies in the streets.
The officials said hospitals are overwhelmed in Goma, a regional trade and humanitarian hub that is now a refuge for hundreds of thousands fleeing gunfire and shelling in the major escalation of one of Africa’s longest conflicts.
The M23 rebels are one of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in the conflict-battered North Kivu province, which includes Goma and is rich in minerals critical to much of the world’s technology.
Reports of rapes, looting
There were reports of gender-based violence and rape committed by fighters, looting of property, including a humanitarian warehouse, and humanitarian and health facilities being hit in the city, U.N. humanitarian affairs office spokesman Jens Laerke said at a media briefing on Tuesday.
“The humanitarian situation in and around Goma remains extremely worrying, and this morning (there were) heavy small arms fire and mortar fire across the city and the presence of many dead bodies in the streets,” said Laerke, adding that hospitals are “struggling to manage the influx of wounded people.”
Many continued to flee across the border into Rwanda, braving heavy rains and sometimes being caught between shootouts by the Congolese soldiers and the rebels.
“What we want is this war to come to an end,” said Christian Bahati, a Congolese teacher among hundreds now sheltering in the Rwandan town of Gisenyi. “You can see the level of frustration. Congolese people are victims, but now they find themselves seeking refuge from the aggressor.”
Growing anger in the capital
Dozens of demonstrators looted and set fires to parts of at least 10 foreign embassy buildings far off in the capital, Kinshasa, including those of Rwanda, U.S., France, Belgium and Kenya.
The protesters demanded that the international community condemn Rwanda over its role in the conflict.
“We denounce the hypocrisy of the international community,” said Timothée Tshishimbi, one of the protesters. “They must tell Rwanda to stop this adventure.”
The attacks were condemned by the respective countries as well as the Congolese government, which said it has reinforced the security at the embassies.
Several countries, including the United States, United Kingdom and France have condemned Rwanda for the rebel advance. The African Union Peace and Security Council demanded the M23 and other rebel groups “immediately and unconditionally withdraw and cease their attacks and permanently disband and lay down their arms.”
M23 rebels emboldened, plan to set up administration in Goma
It was unclear how much of Goma is controlled by the M23 rebels, though analysts say they are more emboldened than in 2012 when they temporarily took over the city before being forced to pull out under international pressure.
They resurfaced in late 2021 with increasing support from Rwanda, according to Congo’s government and U.N. experts. Rwanda has denied such support although U.N. experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
“Since morning, we have heard bomb explosions and crackling bullets,” Sam Luwawa, a resident of Goma, said of the fighting in the city. “So far we cannot say who really controls the city.”
Seventeen peacekeepers and foreign soldiers have been killed in the fighting, according to U.N. and army officials.
Manzi Ngarambe, a representative for the M23 diaspora, told the AP that the group is in control of Goma and plans to set up an administration in the city so people can continue living normal lives and displaced people can return home.
Ngarambe said they would be willing to sit at the table with Congolese officials and denied that they were being supported by Rwanda.
Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said that Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi “will have to accept talks with M23 to end the situation once and for all.”
Rwanda’s goal in Congo is to protect its borders against attacks, army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ronald Rwivanga told the AP, adding that appropriate measures would be “all-encompassing,” including the use of water, air and land defense.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame recently accused Congo of enlisting Hutu rebels and former militiamen that it blames for the 1994 genocide.
Dire situation
“Key roads surrounding Goma are blocked, and the city’s airport can no longer be used for evacuation and humanitarian efforts. Power and water have reportedly been cut to many areas of the city,” said David Munkley, head of operations in eastern Congo for the Christian aid group World Vision.
Some analysts worry about the risk of a regional war if peace efforts led by Kenya fail. Past attempts at dialogue between Congolese and Rwandan leaders have failed, including in December when the meeting of the two leaders was canceled.
Congo might seek support from countries like South Africa — whose troops are among foreign militaries in Congo — while Rwanda might be motivated to continue backing the M23 rebels, said Murithi Mutiga, program director for Africa at the Crisis Group.
“The risk of a regional confrontation has never been higher,” Mutiga said.
…
Analysts: Rubio charts a course for countering China
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Southeast and East Asia strategies will be aimed at countering China by toughening U.S. policies to secure regional peace and maximize American interests, analysts say.
Rubio gave a glimpse of what U.S. foreign policy will look like as he began his first day as the head of the State Department last week.
Speaking to his staff after he was sworn on Jan. 21, Rubio said, “Our job across the world is to ensure that we have a foreign policy that advances the national interest of the United States.”
Referencing President Donald Trump’s objective, Rubio continued that the “overriding goal of global policy is the promotion of peace, the avoidance of conflict.”
Putting “America First” and achieving “Peace through Strength” are twin pillars on which Trump said he will prop up the U.S. as he took office on Jan. 20.
Rubio is currently likely to consult with country directors of the region and coordinate with the Pentagon and intelligence agencies to formulate Asia Pacific strategies, said Richard Armitage, who served as deputy secretary of state during the Bush administration, to VOA Korean on Jan. 24.
“Secretary Rubio’s Southeast Asia policy will focus on countering China through stronger U.S. trade, security partnerships and supply chain diversification,” said Mark Kennedy, director at the Wilson Center’s Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition, to VOA on Jan. 23
On Pyongyang and Moscow, “Rubio will ask China – as Trump did – to help convince North Korea to resume negotiations with the U.S.,” said Joseph DeTrani, who served as special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration.
“If successful, with or without China’s help, this may help to distance North Korea from Russia,” DeTrani told VOA on Jan. 24.
Rubio’s roots
In shaping and executing regional policies, Rubio’s strong opposition to authoritarianism, communism, and human rights violations is likely to “color his approach at the State Department,” said Evans Revere, who served as acting secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs during the George W. Bush administration.
The former senator grew up in Miami with Cuban immigrant parents and has exhibited an aversion toward communist governments throughout his political career.
This stance, mixed with the twin foreign policy pillars, are likely to result in tough strategies for countries like North Korea and China and their activities in the region, according to analysts.
Rubio signaled this on a call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday, stressing that “the Trump Administration will pursue a U.S.-PRC relationship that advances U.S. interests” and “the United States’ commitment to our allies in the region.” China’s official name is the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
He also expressed “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan and in the South China Sea.”
In line with the policy goal of avoiding conflict, Rubio may support Trump’s personal diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration.
North Korea said Sunday it conducted a sea-to-surface strategic cruise missile test the previous day.
Rubio, doubtful initially about Trump’s summits with Kim during his first term, said at a confirmation hearing earlier this month that Trump’s personal diplomacy was able to stop the country from testing missiles.
He spoke by phone with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul last week emphasizing the alliance is the linchpin of peace on the Korean Peninsula and across the Indo-Pacific.
In a meeting also last week in Washington, Rubio and Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi discussed North Korea’s ties with Russia.
Rally against China
Among Southeast Asian countries, Rubio last week held calls with the foreign ministers of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, each time stressing stable maritime security in the South China Sea.
Particularly in his calls with Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo, Rubio underscored “PRC’s dangerous and destabilizing actions in the South China Sea.”
With Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, Rubio expressed concern over “China’s aggressive behavior in the South China Sea.”
Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told VOA on January 23 that the Trump administration “will look primarily to the Philippines and outside partners like Japan and Australia to defend freedom of the seas in the South China Sea.”
One of the first meetings Rubio held was with the Australian, Japanese and Indian leaders of the Quad security dialogue last week in Washington where they expressed opposition to unilateral actions to change the status quo of the region by force or coercion and vowed to keep the Indo-Pacific free and open.
Poling continued the administration will look “secondarily to Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia to deepen practical maritime cooperation.”
Rubio “may push Indonesia to take a stronger stance vis-à-vis Chinese activities in disputed waters, particularly in light of controversial Indonesia-China maritime development deal signed in November 2024,” Anreyka Natalegawa, associate fellow for the Southeast Asia Program at CSIS told VOA on Jan. 23.
Indonesia and China signed a $10 billion deal in November agreeing to develop fisheries, oil and gas exploration, among other things, across their private sectors.
Diplomatic balancing
Analysts say Washington’s push to have regional countries align more closely with Washington could lead to some tensions. Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar tend to lean more toward Beijing, and Indonesia tends to balance its engagement with China and the U.S.
Robert McMahon, a foreign relations expert at The Ohio State University, said Rubio’s harsh stance on China could put Indonesia in a “difficult position, since it has not been willing to join the anti-China bandwagon.”
He told VOA in December after Rubio was nominated as the secretary of state that “to the extent that the United States tries to pressure Indonesia to move in that direction, that could lead to some conflict.”
Rubio said to his State Department staff last week that he expects other countries “to advance their national interests” but hopes “there will be many – in which our national interests and theirs align.”
Seng Vanly, an assistant dean and lecturer at the Techo Sen School of Government and International Relations at the University of Cambodia, said Washington is likely to increase pressure on Cambodia over concerns for human rights, democratic setbacks, and restricted civil society activities, coupled with its growing ties with China.
However, analysts say U.S. foreign policy under Rubio will likely balance issues such as human rights with regional security and economic goals.
Rahman Yaacob, a research fellow for the Southeast Asia program at the Lowy Institute, said, “Washington will be more practical.”
“While it could raise human rights issues with regional countries, the Americans understand if they disengage from the region because of human rights, China will fill in the void,” Yaacob said.
…
VOA Mandarin: Consumers slow spending during spring festival
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — As China’s economy slows, consumer behavior during the Lunar New Year has also changed. Many Chinese netizens have expressed concerns about the pressure of celebrating the holiday, especially among the younger generation, who are cutting back on unnecessary spending. The highlights of past Spring Festivals — red envelopes, gift exchanges and even holiday plans — are all being affected.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
…
UN: Civilians’ suffering ‘unimaginable’ in Congolese city under rebel attack
UNITED NATIONS — A senior U.N. official in the eastern Congolese city under threat from Rwandan-backed rebels said Tuesday that civilian suffering there is “truly unimaginable” and called for “urgent and coordinated” international action to end the fighting.
“Immediate action is required to alleviate the suffering of civilians and enable lifesaving humanitarian efforts to proceed,” said Vivian van de Perre, the deputy head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known as MONUSCO.
She briefed the second emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in the last 72 hours on the situation in Goma. Van de Perre spoke from the city by video call, wearing a flak jacket and military helmet.
“Electricity and water supplies remain disrupted in Goma, and medical facilities are completely overwhelmed due to the intensity of the ongoing combat and the proximity of the front lines,” she said. “Humanitarian operations have been suspended or readjusted.”
The World Food Program said Tuesday it is temporarily pausing its operations in North Kivu province, of which Goma is the capital. WFP said that will affect 800,000 people who would not get food aid due to the insecurity. The agency warned that if the fighting is drawn out, it could lead to a food shortage and high prices in the city of 2 million to 3 million people.
Civilians are not the only ones running out of supplies.
“Many troops are now running out of critical equipment, especially water, food, medical supplies and blood,” van de Perre said. “In some camps, fuel shortages have rendered generators inoperable, affecting communications equipment.”
In early January, M23 rebels broke a ceasefire agreement, launching a large-scale offensive in the east with the support of the Rwandan army. The U.N. said the rebels have made significant territorial gains and are seeking to open a new front in neighboring South Kivu province.
The United Nations Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have called for the M23 to immediately cease hostilities and withdraw from occupied territories. They have called for the withdrawal of Rwandan forces and a return to the Luanda process of mediation overseen by Angolan President Joao Lourenco.
At Tuesday’s Security Council meeting, Congolese Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner expressed her government’s frustration with the lack of a strong international response.
“Over this past 72 hours, we’ve seen a regional tragedy that could have been prevented if the Council had been able to take action,” she told its members. She said she had asked for action at its first meeting on Sunday and asked if “this council is unwilling to act?”
Some 2,574 kilometers away in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, protesters turned violent Tuesday, attacking, looting and burning some embassies, including those of France and Rwanda. The U.S. State Department said on its X account that its embassy is closed until further notice.
Rwanda’s U.N. ambassador condemned the attack, saying it was “totally burned down.”
“Rwanda calls on the DRC to take its diplomatic obligations seriously and hold perpetrators accountable,” Ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo told council members.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission, known by its acronym MONUSCO, has also reinforced its positions to counter the rebels’ advance on Goma, deploying a quick reaction force, a rapid deployment battalion, a reserve battalion, a platoon of special forces and an artillery battery.
In the past few days, three U.N. peacekeepers have been killed and several injured in the conflict.
Kenyan President William Ruto said he plans to hold crisis talks Wednesday with Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame at an emergency meeting of the East African Community.
The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a phone call Monday with Tshisekedi, “condemned the assault on Goma by the Rwanda-backed M23 and affirmed the United States’ respect for the sovereignty of the DRC.”
Before the latest round of violence, eastern DRC was already mired in one of the largest and most protracted humanitarian crises in the world, with nearly 6.5 million people displaced due to efforts by armed groups to seize control of the country’s valuable mineral deposits.
…
New private sector initiative to help victims of the California fires
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday launched LA Rises, a private sector initiative aimed at raising money to help residents of Southern California rebuild their lives in the wake of the recent, devastating fires.
Rebuilding will be expensive, with some estimates reaching as high as $40 billion.
The fires, which began three weeks ago, killed 28 people, burned through more than 4,000 square meters and destroyed more than 16,000 buildings, according to Cal Fire.
Newsom recruited basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Dodgers baseball team Chairman Mark Walter and Casey Wasserman, president and chairperson of LA28, to help recruit other philanthropists for the initiative.
“With Mark, Earvin and Casey’s proven leadership and deep commitment to Los Angeles, we’ll tap into the enormous creativity, experience, and resources of the private sector, alongside local, state, and federal efforts, to deliver a recovery that benefits all Angelenos,” the governor said in a statement Tuesday
“It’s time for those with means to come forward and make a positive impact to build back better,” Walter said.
The initiative already has a pledge of up to $100 million from Walter, his family’s foundation and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation.
“We can’t lose hope,” Newsom said while urging victims of the fires to seek support from the new philanthropic effort, known as LA Rises. “It is possible that we can come back more climate resilient, come back stronger.”
Three of the biggest fires that hit the region are almost fully contained, according to Cal Fire. The Eaton fire is 99% contained, followed by the Hughes fire at 98% containment. And the Palisades fire is 95% contained.
…
Surge in terror attacks in northern Nigeria raises analysts’ concern
ABUJA, NIGERIA — Security analysts in Nigeria are expressing alarm after a surge in attacks by terror groups in the country’s north near the border with Niger. The deterioration of relations between Abuja and Niamey following Niger’s July 2023 coup has disrupted joint military patrols, creating opportunities for armed groups to intensify incursions and attacks.
Last Friday’s killing of 20 soldiers, including a commanding officer, at a military base in the remote town of Malam Fatori is among the latest attacks by terror groups.
Malam Fatori is located near Nigeria’s border with Niger. Suspected fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) arrived in trucks outfitted with guns and overpowered Nigerian troops in a coordinated assault.
That attack took place three weeks after a similar raid on a military base in nearby Damboa, in Borno state, where six soldiers were killed.
On Sunday, Nigeria’s defense authorities announced that 22 soldiers died during military operations against militants in Borno state between Jan. 16 and 25.
They also said troops killed nearly 80 militants during those operations.
Kabiru Adamu, an analyst with Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited, explained the growing challenge.
“If the Nigerian military does not take steps to fortify those locations, we’d see attacks around that proximity increase. It appears to be that the objective of that particular attack is to weaken the response capability of the Nigerian military,” Adamu said. “The fact that they did not fortify that place, the fact that they did not quickly replenish what was lost — we’ve seen consistently where churches are being burnt, military bases are being attacked.”
The terror threat is not limited to northeastern Nigeria.
In the northwest, a new militant group called Lakurawa is wreaking havoc in remote communities and crossing the border into Niger.
Nigerian authorities first raised the alarm about the group in November, stating it has ties to jihadist factions in Mali and Niger, and had embedded itself in communities along the Nigeria-Niger border for years, marrying local women and recruiting young men.
Strained relations between Nigeria and Niger following the July 2023 coup have disrupted joint security operations, allowing groups like ISWAP and Lakurawa to expand their activities.
Nigeria is already engaged in a protracted counterinsurgency war, and Adamu said the situation is becoming increasingly complex.
“Lakurawa is a radicalized group and so the same counterterrorism approach that Nigeria is implementing in the northeast is what it will implement in the northwest,” Adamu said. “But what this means is that there’s a new theater of conflict — the northeast and the northwest. Given the fact that Nigerian military resources are strained, it poses a challenge.”
Security analyst Senator Iroegbu said the government must adopt a more proactive and comprehensive approach to addressing the insecurity.
“The Sahel region, for two years or more, has been regarded as the epicenter of terrorism and Nigeria shares a lot of borders with the core Sahelian countries. So it’s definitely a challenge now with the diplomatic spat that is affecting other areas of security and intelligence,” Iroegbu said. “I’m not surprised about their emergence. In past years, there were reports about the growing linkage between bandits and what is happening in the northwest as terrorist organizations, and I don’t think the authorities made any concrete effort.”
Last week, a federal court in Nigeria declared the Islamist Lakurawa group a terrorist organization, allowing the military to use maximum force against the group.
…
China sees boom in feasts for pets on Lunar New Year’s Eve
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — As pet parents in China usher in the Year of the Snake and host Lunar New Year’s Eve dinners with their loved ones, some are also making sure that their fur babies, or “mao hai zi,” are not left out.
Over the past month, a growing number of consumers have been ordering pet-friendly versions of the traditional New Year’s Eve reunion dinner, ranging from freshly made meals to gift boxes of dried food.
A search for “dogs’ and cats’ Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner” on Douyin, the Chinese version of Tiktok and the most popular short-video app in China, lists dozens of choices.
‘Lucky’ dumplings
Some vendors even tout traditional Chinese delicacy dishes such as “Buddha jumps over the wall,” which includes seafood and meats, and “eight treasures duck rice” in addition to common ones such “lucky” dumplings and rice cake, adapted for dog palates.
The prices range from 19.9 to 168 yuan ($2.8 to $24) per set.
One vendor on Douyin, LAOTOU Pet Bakery, told VOA in a written reply Monday that it sold out of the special holiday pet meals more than a week before the Lunar New Year, which starts on Wednesday this year.
Lou Yu, vice president of Favor Pets Company in Beijing, also that the pet service firm has seen a boom year in holiday sales of pet food.
Business peaked during the Dragon Boat Festival in June, Mid-Autumn Festival in September and the Christmas holidays in December, when, respectively, rice dumplings, moon cakes and special Christmas treats were offered for pets, he said.
Booming holiday sales
“For [pets’] reunion dinner on Lunar New Year’s Eve, we’ve probably seen a 45% to 50% growth in sales this year, compared to a year ago, when sales were still tepid,” Lou told VOA by phone on Monday.
The company ran out of stock before the eight-day-long holiday began this week as a growing number of owners splurge on their pets.
Festive Fido and feline food have become an emerging and “under-supplied” niche market that is bucking the trend despite China’s economic slowdown. China’s “cat and dog parents” total more than 120 million, more than double from a decade ago, according to Lou.
Last year, there were some 9.54 million babies born in China. Pets are expected to outnumber children under 4 years of age by a ratio of 2 to 1 by 2030 — a shift that will likely create a substantial $12 billion market for pet food in China, U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs forecasted in a report late last year.
Authorities in China ended the country’s one-child policy in 2016 and started encouraging young couples to have three children in 2021 as the country’s population ages and the number of newborns declines.
Pets over kids
By contrast, many couples who find it too expensive to raise children are instead choosing pets over kids.
On Saturday, 11 dogs were treated with plates of shredded chicken and lettuce — a special Lunar New Year meal — in a Shanghai restaurant. Their owners were all female.
“He’s my soulmate! He gives me a lot of emotional support … and he’s a good friend that I’d like to be with and enjoy the New Year atmosphere together,” attendee Momo Ni told Reuters news agency, referring to her border collie, Yakult.
Daisy Xu, another 28-year-old owner, said her dog, named Niu Niu, is already a beloved member of the family.
“We will make her another dog meal. … When it comes to New Year gifts, I think my parents will probably give their granddaughter a red envelope,” Xu told Reuters. Adults traditionally give red envelopes containing money to children during the Lunar New Year.
Rich people’s world
While some Chinese social media users share postings of their pets’ special holiday treats, some users were not as enthusiastic, with several complaining that “these dogs and cats are better fed than I am.”
A Guizhou province-based Weibo user named “magnolia0526” said, “The luxurious lifestyle of cats and dogs highlights the uneven distribution of resources in human society, which is not cute at all.” The post was in response to the hashtag “sales of reunion dinner and dumplings for pets has seen a 480% growth.”
Another Shandong province-based user mocked the trend, saying “this is the world of the rich people.”
Aside from pet food, Favor Pet’s Lou said China has experienced a booming pet economy in recent years with growing business opportunities from pet grooming and sitting services, especially during holiday seasons.
He said that a growing number of job seekers have signed up for the company’s training programs as they shift career paths to find opportunities in the pet service sector.
This article originated in VOA’s Mandarin Service.
…
China tests US commitment to South China Sea by pressuring Philippines
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — A little more than a week after Beijing and Manila reached an agreement aimed at easing tensions in the South China Sea, the Philippines has accused Chinese coast guard vessels of fresh incursions, harassment and “aggressive maneuvers.”
Analysts say the pressure campaign, which has stepped up in recent days, is part of Beijing’s attempt to test the United States’ commitment to support the Philippines.
“They want to see how far they can push the Philippines under the new administration in the U.S.,” Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told VOA by phone.
In a statement released on social media platform X last Saturday, the Philippine coast guard said two vessels from the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries encountered “aggressive maneuvers” from three Chinese coast guard vessels while heading to Sandy Cay for a marine scientific survey last Friday.
In one video released by Manila, a large Chinese coast guard vessel was seen moving within a few meters of one Philippine vessel. Another video showed a Chinese helicopter hovering above two inflatable boats carrying Philippine crew members.
Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the Philippine vessels were forced to suspend the scientific survey due to the “continuous harassment and the disregard for safety” shown by the Chinese coast guard.
In response to Manila’s accusations, Beijing said Chinese coast guard vessels “thwarted” two Philippine vessels’ attempts to “land on” Sandy Cay, which China calls “Tiexian Reef.”
“The vessels attempted to illegally land on the reef and conduct sand sampling. China Coast Guard [CCG] vessels lawfully obstructed the Philippine ships’ course and warned them away,” the Chinese coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said in a statement released last Friday.
China views almost all of the South China Sea as its territory and is engaged in a series of disputes with several Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, that have overlapping claims over the strategic waterway.
Apart from the incident near Sandy Cay, the Philippine coast guard said its vessels had successfully kept Chinese coast guard vessels from operating in waters near the coastline of the Philippines’ Zambales province since last Friday.
“The Philippine Coast Guard [PCG] vessel has maintained the China Coast Guard vessel to keep a distance of 90-100 nautical miles away from the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone,” said Jay Tarriela from the Philippine coast guard in a post on social media platform X on Sunday.
Then on Monday, the Philippine coast guard said its vessels were hindered by Chinese coast guard vessels while trying to recover the body of a dead Philippine fisherman from a Philippine fishing boat.
The series of incidents comes more than a week after senior Chinese and Philippine diplomats vowed to settle territorial disputes in the South China Sea through dialogues during a bilateral consultation.
Although the agreement has allowed the Philippines to conduct resupply missions to its forces near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal since late last year, some experts say the latest incidents are part of a bigger effort by Beijing to drive a wedge between Manila and Washington.
“Beijing isn’t happy with Manila’s assertive stance in the South China Sea and its close ties with the United States, so [these factors] serve as convenient justifications for Beijing to try to push Manila in the South China Sea,” said Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
Despite the persistent Chinese aggression, Koh said some in Manila think the Philippines can maintain its current approach in the South China Sea since there is bipartisan support for a more assertive position against China in the U.S. and some Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, have reiterated Washington’s “ironclad” defense commitment to the Philippines during interactions with their Philippine counterparts last week.
“Manila appears to be more cautiously optimistic that it can maintain the current policy, knowing that there is U.S. backing for that,” he told VOA by phone.
To counter Beijing’s pressure campaign, Don McLain Gill, a lecturer in international studies at De La Salle University in the Philippines, said it’s important for the Philippines and its allies, including the United States, to maintain close collaboration in areas such as joint maritime exercises.
Since China is expected to “continue pressing the Philippines into submission with its grey zone operations, which are now shifting from low intensity to high intensity, this must be addressed with more robust presence operations between the alliance and like-minded partners, along with continued support in the Philippines military modernization in line with the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defence Concept,” he told VOA in a written response.
With the Trump administration’s announcement to suspend new funding for almost all U.S. foreign assistance for 90 days, however, Chong in Singapore said Beijing may think there is a window of opportunity to pressure countries like the Philippines.
…
AI technology helps boost forest conservation in Kenya
Conservationists in Kenya are using an artificial intelligence-powered application to monitor forest degradation and launch reforestation. The data collected by the application is also used to project the amount of carbon that can be stored by a growing patch of forest. Juma Majanga reports from Nyeri, Kenya.
…
Trump takes aim at DEI, COVID expulsions and transgender troops
Washington — U.S. President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders on Monday to remove diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI, from the military, reinstate thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, and take aim at transgender troops.
Earlier on Monday, Pete Hegseth, who narrowly secured enough votes to become defense secretary, referred to the names of Confederate generals that were once used for two key bases during his remarks to reporters as he entered the Pentagon on his first full day on the job.
Trump signed the executive orders while flying back from Miami to Washington, D.C.
One of the executive orders signed by Trump said that expressing a “gender identity” different from an individual’s sex at birth did not meet military standards.
While the order banned the use of “invented” pronouns in the military, it did not answer basic questions including whether transgender soldiers currently serving in the military would be allowed to stay and, if not, how they would be removed.
Trump’s plans have been heavily criticized by advocacy groups, which say his actions would be illegal.
“President Trump has made clear that a key priority for his administration is driving transgender people back into the closet and out of public life altogether,” Joshua Block, with the ACLU, said earlier on Monday.
During his first term, Trump announced that he would ban transgender troops from serving in the military. He did not fully follow through with that ban his administration froze their recruitment while allowing serving personnel to remain.
Biden overturned the decision when he took office in 2021.
The military has about 1.3 million active-duty personnel, Department of Defense data shows. While transgender rights advocates say there are as many as 15,000 transgender service members, officials say the number is in the low thousands.
When Trump announced his first ban in 2017, he said the military needed to focus on “decisive and overwhelming victory” without being burdened by the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of having transgender personnel.
Internal focus
Hegseth has promised to bring major changes to the Pentagon, and he has made eliminating DEI from the military a top priority.
Trump’s executive order on ending DEI in the military said service academies would be required to teach “that America and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history.”
The Air Force said on Sunday that it will resume instruction of trainees using a video about the first Black airmen in the U.S. military, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, which has passed review to ensure compliance with Trump’s ban on DEI initiatives.
Hegseth was warmly greeted on the steps of the Pentagon by the top U.S. military officer, Air Force General Charles Brown, whom Hegseth criticized in his latest book. Asked if he might fire Brown, Hegseth joked that he was standing right next to him.
“I’m standing with him right now. I look forward to working with him,” as he patted Brown on the back.
Reuters has previously reported about the possibility of mass firing among top brass, something Hegseth repeatedly refused to rule out during his confirmation process.
Hegseth referred to Fort Moore and Fort Liberty by their previous names, Fort Benning and Fort Bragg, while speaking with reporters.
The names honoring Confederate officers were changed under former President Joe Biden as part of an effort to reexamine U.S. history and the Confederate legacy.
“I’m thinking about the guys and gals in Guam, Germany, Fort Benning and Fort Bragg,” Hegseth said.
Much of Hegseth’s focus at the Pentagon could be internal to the military, including making good on Trump’s executive order on bringing back troops discharged for refusing COVID vaccines.
Thousands of service members were removed from the military after the Pentagon made the vaccine mandatory in 2021.
US missile defense
Trump also signed an executive order that “mandated a process to develop an ‘American Iron Dome’.”
The short-range Iron Dome air defense system was built by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with U.S. backing, and it was built to intercept rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza toward Israel.
Each truck-towed unit fires radar-guided missiles to blow up short-range threats such as rockets, mortars and drones in midair.
The system determines whether a rocket is on course to hit a populated area. If not, the rocket is ignored and allowed to land harmlessly.
Any such effort would take years to implement in the United States.
…
ICC prosecutor seeking arrest warrants for those accused of atrocities in Sudan’s West Darfur
UNITED NATIONS — The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced Monday that his office will be seeking arrest warrants for those accused of atrocities in Sudan’s West Darfur region, which has seen reported ethnic cleansing by paramilitary forces that have been fighting government forces for 19 months.
Karim Khan told the U.N. Security Council that crimes are being committed in Darfur “as we speak and daily” and are being used as a weapon of war. He said that conclusion is the result of “a hard-edged analysis” based on evidence and information collected by his office.
Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including the vast western Darfur region.
Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.
Khan told the council in January there were grounds to believe both government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force, which was born out of the Janjaweed, may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.
The Biden administration, just before it left office this month, determined that the RSF and its proxies are committing genocide in Sudan’s civil war. And the ICC prosecutor told the council Monday that there are “very clear echoes” in the current conflict of what happened 20 years ago.
“The pattern of crimes, the perpetrators, the parties, tracked very closely with the same protagonists, the same targeted groups as existed in 2003” and led the Security Council to refer Darfur to the ICC, Khan said. “It’s the same communities, the same groups suffering, a new generation suffering the same hell that has been endured by other generations of Darfuris, and this is tragic.”
Human Rights Watch in a major report last May said the Rapid Support Forces and their allied militias carried out attacks against the ethnic Masalit and other non-Arab groups in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, from April to June 2023, with attacks intensifying that November.
At least thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced during the attacks, according to the report by the leading rights group.
“I can confirm today that my office is taking the necessary steps to put forward applications for warrants of arrest in relations to crimes we allege are being committed and have been committed in West Darfur,” Khan told the council on Monday.
He gave no details on the specific crimes or the people the ICC wants arrested. But he did say his office is particularly concerned about a stream of allegations of gender crimes against women and girls, which he said were “a priority” for the ICC.
He said the last six months have seen “a tailspin into deeper suffering, deeper misery for the people of Darfur,” with famine present, conflict increasing, children targeted, girls and women subjected to rape and the whole landscape “one of destruction.”
Khan had a simple message for those on the ground in El Geneina in West Darfur, the city of El Fasher in North Darfur, which is besieged by RSF forces, and elsewhere in Darfur: “Now, better late than never, for goodness sake, comply with international humanitarian law, not as a charity, not out of some political necessity, but out of the dictates of humanity.”
Khan told the council he made efforts to engage with the RSF to obtain information relevant to the ICC’s investigations, and members of his office met with representatives of the paramilitary force last week.
“I do expect, and hope, and require swift and meaningful action, and will be monitoring that,” he said.
…
Fast-moving fires torch national parks in southeast Australia
SYDNEY — Firefighters were desperately trying to stop a cluster of fast-moving blazes in southeast Australia on Tuesday, as thousands of acres of national park burned and a farming community was forced to evacuate.
Lightning strikes on Monday evening ignited several fires in the Grampians National Park, a forested mountain range about 300 kilometers west of Victoria’s state capital Melbourne.
A separate fast-moving fire in Little Desert National Park in the west of the state has torn through almost 65,000 hectares in less than 24 hours, emergency services said, scorching an area almost as large as Singapore.
That fire had forced the evacuation of rural Dimboola before threat levels were downgraded on Tuesday afternoon.
“I’m incredibly thankful that no lives have been lost and we have no reports of injury either,” emergency management commissioner Rick Nugent told reporters.
Chris Hardman from Forest Fire Management Victoria warned that weather conditions over the next few days are increasing the possibility the fires will spread.
“Right now firefighters are planning to do everything in their powers to protect communities,” he said.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Kevin Parkyn said stifling heatwave conditions would settle over parts of Victoria on Saturday, escalating fire risks.
“When we look at the next seven to 10 days, the main message is that there will be a hot dome over Victoria.
“Once we get into the weekend don’t be surprised if we see heatwave conditions unfold across the state, and continue to intensify into next week.
“The landscape is dry, and if we continue to see these hot conditions, it will continue to dry the landscape out further.”
Hotter temperatures are fueling increasingly severe natural disasters across Australia, researchers have found.
Scientists have documented a marked increase in extreme fire weather across the country since the 1950s.
The unprecedented “Black Summer” bushfires of 2019-2020, for example, killed 33 people and millions of animals, razed vast tracts of forest and blanketed major cities in thick smoke.
…
App provides immediate fire information to Los Angeles residents
When fires burned in the Los Angeles, California, area, residents turned to an app for immediate fire information about the dangers. Michelle Quinn reports.
…
New Zealand reviews its aid to Kiribati after the Pacific island nation snubs an official’s visit
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand is reconsidering all development funding to the aid-dependent island nation of Kiribati, following a diplomatic snub from the island nation’s leader, government officials said.
The unusual move to review all finance to Kiribati was prompted by the abrupt cancellation of a planned meeting this month between President Taneti Maamau and New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, Peters’ office told The Associated Press on Monday.
It followed months of growing frustration from Australia and New Zealand — jointly responsible for more than a third of overseas development finance to Kiribati in 2022 — about a lack of engagement with the island nation. Tensions have risen since Kiribati aligned itself with China in 2019 and signed a series of bilateral deals with Beijing.
A strategically important island nation
The bond between Kiribati — population 120,000 — and its near neighbor New Zealand, a country of 5 million people, might not appear the South Pacific’s most significant. But the acrimony reflects concern from western powers that their interests in the region are being undermined as China woos Pacific leaders with offers of funding and loans.
That has provoked a contest for influence over Kiribati, an atoll nation that is among the world’s most imperiled by rising sea levels. Its proximity to Hawaii and its vast exclusive economic zone — the world’s 12th largest — have boosted its strategic importance.
Powers vie for sway with aid
Kiribati, one of the world’s most aid-dependent nations, relies heavily on international support, with foreign assistance accounting for 18% of its national income in 2022, according to data from the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. About 10% of development finance that year came from New Zealand — which contributed 102 million New Zealand dollars ($58 million) between 2021 and 2024, official figures show.
However, officials in Wellington and Canberra have expressed frustration over a lack of engagement from Tarawa regarding development projects. Frictions escalated when Kiribati suspended all visits from foreign officials in August, citing a need to focus on the government formation process after elections that month.
Kiribati switched its allegiance from pro-Taiwan to pro-Beijing in 2019, joining a growing number of Pacific nations to do so. Self-governing Taiwan is claimed by China and since the shift, Beijing has increased aid to Kiribati.
An official snub provokes backlash
Peters was scheduled to meet Maamau, who has led the country since 2016, in Kiribati on Jan. 21 and Jan. 22, Peters’ office said, but was told a week before the trip that Maamau could not accommodate him. It would have been the first visit by a New Zealand minister in more than five years.
“The lack of political-level contact makes it very difficult for us to agree joint priorities for our development program, and to ensure that it is well targeted and delivers good value for money,” a statement supplied by Peters’ office said. New Zealand will review all development cooperation with Kiribati as a result, the statement added.
The government of Kiribati did not respond to a request for comment, although Education Minister Alexander Teabo told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday that Maamau had a long-standing engagement on his home island — and denied a snub.
New Zealand cautioned that the diplomatic rift could have broader consequences, including impacting New Zealand resident visas for Kiribati citizens and participation in a popular seasonal work scheme that brings Pacific horticulture and viticulture workers to New Zealand. New Zealand — home to large populations of Pacific peoples — is a popular spot for those from island nations to live and work.
“In the meantime, New Zealand stands ready, as we always have, to engage with Kiribati at a high level,” said the statement.
Australia’s softer approach
The decision to review all development funding is a “different, and more forceful approach” than New Zealand has taken before, said Blake Johnson, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and contrasted with a different tack taken recently by Australia — which is Kiribati’s biggest funder.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles traveled to the island nation this month as planned to deliver a patrol boat promised to Kiribati in 2023 — even though he did not meet with Maamau. Australia’s foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday that the country “remains committed to its longstanding partnership with Kiribati.”
…
Zimbabweans turn to cheaper informal markets as economy struggles
Zimbabwe’s traditional stores are struggling to stay afloat as customers flock to informal vendors to buy cheaper products amid a struggling economy. Meanwhile, the government is working to ensure it does not lose critical tax revenue from informal business sales. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.
…
DOJ official: Trump administration fires team of lawyers who prosecuted him
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday fired more than a dozen Justice Department lawyers who brought two criminal cases against him, an official said, as the Republican moves swiftly to exert greater control over the department.
The officials were fired after Acting Attorney General James McHenry, a Trump appointee, concluded they could not be trusted “because of their significant role in prosecuting the President,” a Justice Department official said.
McHenry cited Trump’s power as chief executive under the U.S. Constitution to justify the firings, according to a copy of the termination letter seen by Reuters.
The lawyers worked with Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the two federal prosecutions of Trump that the department dropped after his November election. Smith resigned from the department earlier this month.
The norm-shattering move was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain with the department across presidential administrations and are not punished by virtue of their involvement in sensitive investigations. The firings are effective immediately.
News of the firings came the same day that Ed Martin, the top federal prosecutor in Washington and a Trump appointee, opened an internal review into the use of a felony obstruction charge in prosecutions of people accused of taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The U.S. Supreme Court raised the legal bar for that offense in a 6-3 ruling last year, prompting prosecutors to drop the charge in several cases.
Monday’s moves came after the Trump administration already reassigned up to 20 senior career Justice Department officials, including Bradley Weinsheimer, the top ethics official, and the former chief of the public corruption section, Corey Amundson, from their roles.
Amundson, whose section provided advice to Smith’s prosecutors, announced his resignation on Monday.
The moves to shake up the Justice Department’s workforce have happened before the U.S. Senate votes on Trump’s attorney general nominee Pam Bondi. Bondi’s nomination is set to be voted on by a Senate panel on Wednesday.
Smith, who was appointed by former Attorney General Merrick Garland, brought cases accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents at his Florida social club and attempting to interfere with the certification of the 2020 election.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and argued the cases reflected a “weaponization” of the legal system.
Smith dropped both cases after Trump’s election, citing a longtime policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Many of those who worked on Smith’s cases were longtime public corruption and national security prosecutors who remained in the department when Smith closed his investigation earlier this month.
Some material for this report came from The Associated Press.
…