Two Ugandan opposition members of parliament were indicted on Tuesday for allegedly orchestrating a wave of machete killings that left dozens dead in the south of the country, a move described as “political persecution” by their lawyer.For two months, the region of Masaka, located about 150 kilometers southwest of the capital, Kampala, has been living in terror of gangs that have killed around 30 people, mainly the elderly, in their homes at night, according to police.After two days of questioning by the police, MPs Muhammad Ssegirinya and Allan Sewanyana were indicted by a court in Masaka on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, their lawyer, Elias Lukwago, told AFP.”They have denied all charges. … This is political persecution by the military regime of (Uganda President Yoweri) Museveni,” Lukwago said.”We condemn in the strongest terms the use of a biased judicial process to meet the political objectives of a ruling party,” he added, indicating that they would be held in pretrial detention until September 15 in the high-security prison of Kitalya, near Kampala.Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga explained that Ssegirinya and Sewanyana were arrested after statements by several suspects accusing them of organizing the attacks “to sow fear among the population and make people hate the government.”Both MPs are members of the National Unity Platform (NUP) of opposition leader Bobi Wine, rival of President Museveni in the disputed January election.Wine, whose real name Robert Kyagulanyi, said the accusations were mounted by the government of Museveni to discredit the opposition.“When the president recently said that the opposition was behind the killings, we thought it was a bad joke. But when the police summoned our MPs, we realized that the regime’s plan to involve the leaders of the NUP in the murders was at work,” he said.In a speech last month, Museveni called the perpetrators “pigs” and vowed their doom.FILE – Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni arrives at an African Union event in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, February 9, 2020.In power since 1986, Museveni, 76, was reelected in January for a sixth term, ahead of Wine, who denounced an electoral “masquerade.””No matter what the Museveni regime does, one day Uganda will be free, and those accused of crimes because they belong to the opposition will be released,” Wine said.In Masaka, residents called on the government to take strong action to stop the killers.”We mourn our loved ones who were killed, we live in fear of being killed by gangs armed with machetes,” Sarah Kasujja, a 45-year-old trader, told Agence France-Presse. She said her 81-year-old grandfather is one of the gangs’ victims.”Some elderly people who lived alone (…) fled their homes to find safety in the cities,” she said. “The government should be held responsible for not defending us against the killers. The army and the police were deployed, but they arrived too late.”Ugandan National Council for the Elderly President Charles Isabirye called the wave of killings a “shock to the nation.””That someone is killing elderly people who live quietly in their homes is inconceivable,” he told AFP. “We call on the government to ensure the protection of the elderly in the countryside, and the people behind (the murders) must be identified and punished.”
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Month: September 2021
Afghan Female Prosecutors Fear Taliban, Newly Released Prisoners
Female prosecutors in Afghanistan fear the Taliban and the thousands of prisoners released by the militant group. These women, who are still in Afghanistan, are calling on the international community for help. Farkhunda Paimani reports.
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Early Stumble as El Salvador Starts Bitcoin as Currency
El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender Tuesday, but the rollout stumbled in its first hours and President Nayib Bukele said the digital wallet used for transactions was not functioning. For part of the morning, El Salvador’s president became tech support for a nation stepping into the world of cryptocurrency. Bukele marshaled his Twitter account — with more than 2.8 million followers — to walk users through what was happening. Bukele explained that the digital wallet Chivo had been disconnected while server capacity was increased. The president said it was a relatively simple problem. “We prefer to correct it before we connect it again,” Bukele said. He encouraged followers to download the app and leave comments about how it was going. Meanwhile, the value of Bitcoin plummeted early Tuesday, dropping from more than $52,000 per coin to $42,000, before recovering about half of that loss — an example of the volatility that worries many. Government employees open the customer service area of a Chivo digital wallet machine, which exchanges cash for Bitcoin cryptocurrency, at Las Americas Square in San Salvador, El Salvador, September 7, 2021.The government has promised to install 200 Chivo automatic tellers and 50 Bitcoin attention centers. The Associated Press visited one of the automatic tellers in San Salvador’s historic center, where attendants waited to help citizens, who initially didn’t show much interest. Asked if he had downloaded the Chivo app, Emanuel Ceballos said he had not. “I don’t know if I’m going to do it. I still have doubts about using that currency.” José Martín Tenorio said he was interested in Bitcoin but had not downloaded the app, either. “I’m running to work. Maybe at home tonight.” In Santa Tecla, a San Salvador suburb, young attendants were waiting to assist people at a help center. Denis Rivera arrived with a friend because they had been trying to download the digital wallet app without success. He said he didn’t understand why some people “have been scandalized” by Bitcoin. “We’ve been using debit and credit cards for years, and it’s the same electronic money,” he said. He was in favor of it and planned to use the $30 offered by the government as an incentive to try it out. “I’m going to see how efficient it is and practical it can be, and based on that, decide if I keep using it or not.” Miguel Menjivar, left, sells bread on a street in San Salvador, El Salvador, before sunrise September 7, 2021, on the day all businesses have to accept payments in Bitcoin, except those lacking the technology to do so.José Luis Hernández, owner of a barbershop in the area, came looking for information. “I have a small business and I want to know how to use the application and how are the rates and all of that,” Hernández said. AP confirmed that at least three international fast food chain restaurants were accepting bitcoin payments through the Chivo digital wallet. David Gerard, author of “Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain,” said Tuesday’s Bitcoin volatility likely had little to nothing to do with El Salvador. “My first guess was shenanigans, because it’s always shenanigans,” Gerard said via email. “Bitcoin basically doesn’t respond to market forces or regulatory announcements,” Gerard said. “That sort of price pattern, where it crashes hugely in minutes then goes back up again, is usually one of the big guys burning the margin traders.” Because Bitcoin is so thinly traded, it could also have been a big holder making a large sale to have cash, thus sending the market for a ride, Gerard said. Three face-to-face public opinion surveys performed recently showed that most Salvadorans did not agree with the government’s decision to make Bitcoin legal currency. Bitcoin joins the U.S. dollar as El Salvador’s official currencies. In June, the Legislative Assembly enacted the Bitcoin law, and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration is providing the government with technical assistance. The law says that Bitcoin can be used for any transaction, and any business with the technological capacity to do so must accept payment in the cryptocurrency. The government will back Bitcoin with a $150 million fund. To incentivize Salvadorans to use it, the government offered $30 worth of credit to those who use Chivo. Critics have warned that the currency’s lack of transparency could attract increased criminal activity to the country, and its wild swings in value could quickly wipe out users’ savings. Opposition groups marched in El Salvador to demand the derogation of the law that allows Bitcoin use. Bukele has said the cryptocurrency — originally created to operate outside government-controlled financial systems — would help attract investment and save Salvadorans money when they transfer earnings in the United States back home to relatives in El Salvador. But its use would be voluntary.
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Media Blocked From Rohingya Refugee Camp
Security forces have blocked reporters from covering a vaccination drive for internally displaced people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, local journalists say.A spokesperson for Myanmar’s military government, Major General Zaw Min Tun, said in late August that members of the Rohingya minority would be given COVID-19 vaccines.But at least two news crews who attempted to visit a camp for internally displaced persons, or IDPs, to cover the vaccination rollout say police told them they could not enter.“Police officers said that journalists are not allowed to enter,” said Tun Tha, the editor of Western News, a Rakhine state news outlet. “If we want to enter the camp, we must seek permission from authorities.” Tun Tha told VOA Burmese that while media have been free to cover other camps without seeking permission, that was not the case at camps housing Muslims.In this June 26, 2014 photo, a girl, self-identified as Rohingya, stands close to her family’s tent house at Dar Paing camp for refugees, suburbs of Sittwe, Western Rakhine state, Myanmar.“We are free to cover Rakhine IDP camp news, whereas we need permission to cover Muslim IDP camps. It seems authorities handle approaches to the Muslim community with discrimination. We take it as disruption of media access in this regard,” Tun Tha said.A Muslim minority in a predominantly Buddhist country, the Rohingya were targeted in 2017 with a campaign that the U.N. described as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” For years before, the Rohingya have been denied citizenship and other basic rights.State officials in Myanmar estimate more than 200,000 Muslim refugees are in Rakhine State.Hla Thein, a military spokesperson for Rakhine State, did not respond to a request for comment from VOA Burmese.A sweeping outbreak of the coronavirus is taxing Myanmar’s public health system that already was strained by the political upheaval after the army seized power in February from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.FILE – Newly built repatriation camps prepared for Rohingya refugees expected to return from Bangladesh are surrounded by barbed-wire, Jan. 24, 2018, in Taungpyo township, border town of northern Rakhine State, Myanmar.Khin Tharapi Oo, senior reporter with Development Media Group (DMG), told VOA Burmese that her team also was denied access to the Thet Kae-Pyin IDP camp located on the outskirts of Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State.“Camp security did not allow us to enter the camp and asked us to get [a] permit, then stopped us from taking video as well. Security even yelled at us to get out,” said Khin Tharapi Oo. “We called state authorities to [seek] permission with no avail. Other news agency reporters faced the same problem, [security would] not even let us take video or photos.”Khin Tharapi Oo said that media had been allowed to visit other Rakhine camps without any restrictions.“This is the first time Muslim refugees get vaccinated, we should be allowed to cover it. Authorities should not restrict us to cover this significant news. They do not have sound reason to restrict us,” she said. Maung Lay, who manages the camp, told VOA Burmese that at least 150 refugees who are over the age of 45 were vaccinated on August 28 and 29, and second doses are scheduled for September 26. He said the camp houses about 3,000 refugees.The media restrictions come amid a general tightening of free speech in Myanmar after the military coup.FILE – Police arrest a Myanmar Now journalist in Yangon, February 27, 2021, as protesters were taking part in a demonstration against the military coup.On September 1, police in Yangon arrested a female journalist who had been in hiding for four months. Ma Thuzar, who contributed to Myanmar Pressphoto Agency and the Friday Times News Journal, was held incommunicado for five days before authorities confirmed her arrest.The reason for her arrest and current location have not been made available, says media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).Ma Thuzar is one of dozens of journalists currently detained in Myanmar by the military.“The way she [Thuzar] has been treated reflects the illegal, brutal and inhuman treatment to which the military junta has subjected all journalists in Myanmar for the past seven months,” RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk head Daniel Bastard said in a statement.Also detained is American journalist Danny Fenster, who has spent more than 100 days in prison since his arrest at Yangon airport in May.At a virtual hearing Monday, a court in Yangon again remanded Fenster, who is managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, in custody for a further two weeks.Elizabeth Hughes contributed to this report. This story originated in VOA’s Burmese service.
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Report: Kenya Leads Globally in P2P Cryptocurrency Trading
Blockchain data platform has ranked internet-using Kenyans as the world’s top peer-to-peer, or P2P, cryptocurrency traders. The group’s survey shows that many Kenyans use form this of trading because they don’t have access to centralized exchanges. Lenny Ruvaga looks at the challenges and what this means for the industry in Kenya.Camera: Amos Wangwa Producer: Lenny Ruvaga
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Mexican Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion in Historic Shift
Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday that penalizing abortion is unconstitutional, a major victory for advocates of women’s health and human rights, just as parts of the United States enact tougher laws against the practice.The court ruling in the majority Roman Catholic nation follows moves to decriminalize abortion at the state level, although most of the country still has tough laws in place against women terminating their pregnancy early.”This is a historic step for the rights of women,” said Supreme Court Justice Luis Maria Aguilar.A number of U.S. states have recently taken steps to restrict women’s access to abortion, particularly Texas, which last week enacted the strictest anti-abortion law in the country after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.The Mexican ruling opens the door to the possibility for the release of women incarcerated for having had abortions. It also could lead to U.S. women in states such as Texas deciding to travel south of the border to terminate their pregnancies. In July, the state of Veracruz became just the fourth of Mexico’s 32 regions to decriminalize abortion.
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Paris Braces for Trial of 2015 Terror Attackers
Twenty people linked to the November 2015 terrorist attacks in France are going on trial in Paris Wednesday in proceedings expected to last nine months. Six defendants are being charged in absentia. Reports say five of the six are presumed dead in Iraq or Syria. Nine Islamic State terrorists, mostly from France and Belgium, left a trail of horror in a multi-pronged attack at the national stadium, various bars and restaurants and at a concert at the Bataclan Theater. A total of 130 people were killed, 90 of them at the concert hall. At least 490 people were injured.A 10th member of the terror cell and the only one still alive, Salah Abdeslam, was arrested in Brussels four months after the November 13, 2015, strikes. He is accused of helping the others.”This trial is really an important step for the victims, those who have been wounded or injured, and those who lost members of their families,” Michael Dantinne, professor of criminology at the University of Liege, told France 24.He added that “it is only a step in the recovery process of the victims” and that “it won’t have any magical effect.”The trial will be held in a specially constructed court in Paris and is described as the biggest in France’s modern day legal history.Some information in this report came from the Associated Press and AFP.
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Vaccines Offer Protection Against ‘Long COVID’, Scientists Say
New research shows that coronavirus vaccines not only offer protection against infection and serious illness – but may also help prevent so-called ‘long COVID’, where symptoms can last for weeks or months. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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Blinken to Testify About US Withdrawal From Afghanistan
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has agreed to testify next week before a congressional panel examining the country’s chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of its two-decade war, the longest in U.S. history.
Opposition Republican lawmakers and some Democratic colleagues of President Joe Biden have attacked his handling of the withdrawal of troops, American citizens and thousands of Afghans who worked for U.S. forces as interpreters and advisers during the war.
The criticism was especially pronounced after 13 U.S. service members died in a suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport in the waning days of the withdrawal. Islamic State-Khorasan, an Afghan offshoot of the terrorist group operating in the Middle East, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Blinken agreed to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next Tuesday, although other congressional committees are likely to investigate the withdrawal as well.
The formal withdrawal ended more than a week ago, but about 100 Americans remain in Afghanistan, with U.S. officials vowing to help them get out if they want to leave. Thousands of Afghans are also looking to move to the United States or other countries to escape life under Taliban insurgents who took control of the country.
National polls of U.S. voters show wide support for Biden’s decision to end what he has called a “forever war” in Afghanistan, but not the way the withdrawal unfolded.
Blinken, the top U.S. diplomat, is likely to face tough questions about why the U.S. did not start evacuating American citizens sooner, especially since Biden announced his intention in April to honor former president Donald Trump’s agreement with the Taliban to end the war and withdraw American forces.
Lawmakers have also attacked U.S. intelligence-gathering for failing to forecast the rapid takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and the collapse of the Afghan government, with President Ashraf Ghani suddenly fleeing to political asylum in the United Arab Emirates.
Republicans say they want to focus their questioning on Biden’s performance in the final weeks and days of the war, while Democrats are hoping to examine the whole of the American war effort that was conducted under four presidents — Republicans George W. Bush and Trump, and Democrats Barack Obama and Biden.
Bush launched the war in late 2001 to eradicate al-Qaida terrorist training grounds where the September 11 attacks against the U.S. were spawned. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the U.S in attacks using hijacked U.S. passenger airliners. The 20th anniversary of the attacks is on Saturday.
Biden has called the withdrawal an “extraordinary success” and defended the decision to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan, saying he would not pass on responsibility for managing U.S. military involvement there to a fifth U.S. leader.
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Millions Face Hunger Crisis as Conflict Engulfs Northern Ethiopia
The World Food Program warns that emergency food needs in northern Ethiopia are increasing, as conflict spills beyond the embattled Tigray region into neighboring Afar and Amhara provinces.The agency reports that up to 7 million people are acutely short of food and are facing a hunger crisis. They include more than 5.2 million people in Tigray who are dependent on U.N. food aid for survival. Additionally, the World Food Program reports the conflict, which has now engulfed the entire region, has thrust 1.7 million more people into hunger. This month, WFP has begun delivering emergency food assistance to communities in Ethiopia’s northern region and says it plans to reach 530,000 people in Afar and 250,000 in Amhara with food aid. Food Aid Only Reaching Half of Tigrayans in NeedAn estimated 90% of the population of Tigray is in need of aid amid ongoing conflict in the region Meanwhile in Tigray, WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri says the situation continues to deteriorate. He says aid agencies are struggling to meet the urgent food needs of more than 5 million people across the war-torn region.”In fact, WFP food stocks had been almost entirely depleted until two days ago when the first convoy in over two weeks entered the region,” said Phiri. “The WFP-led convoy of over 100 trucks carried 3,500 metric tons of food and other life-saving cargo, including fuel, as well as health and shelter items.” Phiri says WFP has only managed to get 355 trucks into the region since mid-July. While this sounds like much, he says it is not. He says 355 trucks represents less than 10 percent of the supplies needed. He says 100 trucks must enter Tigray every day to meet people’s food requirements.He says trucks get stuck in Afar because of bureaucratic delays and difficulties in passing checkpoints. He says some trucks also have been attacked and looted by people in local communities.”Apart from the escalating fighting that is in the north of the country, food security for millions across the whole of Ethiopia is also under threat due to an unprecedented funding gap for WFP activities in the country,” said Phiri.WFP is calling for $426 million to expand its emergency food operation to meet the needs of up to 12 million people throughout Ethiopia this year. The agency warns it will be forced to cut rations for people in northern Ethiopia if it does not receive the extra funding, It says it might have to stop distributing food to about 4 million people in Tigray, Afar and Amhara in the coming months if it runs out of money.November 4 will mark a year since the Ethiopian government began its military offensive to wrest control of the Tigray region from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
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Taliban Name New Afghan Government Amid Protests in Kabul
The Taliban named Mullah Hasan Akhund, an associate of the movement’s late founder Mullah Omar, as the head of Afghanistan’s new government on Tuesday, with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the movement’s political office, as deputy.Sarajuddin Haqqani, son of the founder of the Haqqani network, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, will be the new interior minister, the Taliban’s main spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference in Kabul.Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Mullah Omar, has been named as defence minister. All the appointments are in an acting capacity, Mujahid told a news conference in Kabul.It was not clear what role in the government would be played by Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban supreme leader. He has not been seen or heard in public since the collapse of the Western-backed government and the seizure of Kabul by the Islamist militant movement last month.Akhund, the new head of government, has been close to Akhunzada for 20 years.The Taliban have repeatedly sought to reassure Afghans and foreign countries that they will not return to the brutality of their last reign two decades ago, marked by brutal punishments and the barring of women and girls from public life.The appointment of a group of established figures from different elements of the Taliban gave no indication of any concession towards protests that broke out in Kabul earlier in the day, when Taliban gunmen fired in the air to scatter them.Hundreds of men and women shouting slogans such as “Long live the resistance” and “Death to Pakistan” marched in the streets to protest against the Taliban takeover. Neighboring Pakistan has deep ties with the Taliban and has been accused of assisting its return to power – charges Islamabad denies.The Taliban’s rapid advance across Afghanistan as U.S. forces pulled out last month triggered a scramble to leave by people fearing reprisals.U.S.-led foreign forces evacuated about 124,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans, but tens of thousands were left behind.Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was in contact with about 100 Americans who were still in Afghanistan.About 1,000 people, including Americans, have been stuck in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for days awaiting clearance for charter flights to leave, an organizer told Reuters, blaming the delay on the U.S. State Department.
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European Leaders Mull Strategic Autonomy but Doubts Persist
Four years ago, newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron called for Europe to build “the capacity to act autonomously” in security matters so that the continent would be less dependent on the United States and could decide to act without U.S. backing. Most European leaders derided Macron’s idea as far-fetched. “Illusions of European strategic autonomy must come to an end,” said Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Germany’s defense minister.But in the wake of the U.S.-led withdrawal from Afghanistan, her position has shifted. It is time to make “the European Union a strategic player to be reckoned with,” she announced last week in a commentary for the Atlantic Council, a New York-based think tank. She isn’t alone in rethinking the future of the transatlantic security arrangement. Europe’s opinion pages have been full of columns from politicians and security advisers advocating for the continent to become more independent militarily and less dependent on Washington. European leaders have been decrying President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan as precipitous and complain Washington did not consult sufficiently with NATO allies. Armin Laschet, a contender to succeed Angela Merkel as Germany’s chancellor, said last month: “We’re standing before an epochal change.”Even traditionally pro-American British politicians like Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, and a key partner for the United States in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, questions the reliability of the U.S. as a defense partner. On Monday he said Britain should strengthen its defense partnership with Europe to combat threats. In the U.S. there is “now an overwhelming political constraint on military interventions,” which represents a serious challenge to Britain and NATO, he said, in a speech to mark the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks that precipitated the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.Strategic autonomyHowever, there is little agreement in Europe about what strategic autonomy should mean and what Europe should do with it., The 27 member states of the EU have clashed repeatedly over foreign policy, from relations with Russia to whether China is an adversary or competitor. Central European leaders are especially nervous about loosening any defense ties with Washington and remain unconvinced they could rely on the Western Europeans in a confrontation with Russia.And skeptics question whether Europe is really prepared to spend what it would take to become a serious stand-alone strategic player, especially as they struggle with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
NATO Calls on Russia to Be Transparent With Military Exercises According to a tally by NATO Review, an allied magazine, Russia deployed between 60,000 and 70,000 troops in Zapad-2017 but only declared 12,700 personnel
On average, European Union countries spend around 1.2 percent of their GDP on defense. Russia spends 4.3 percent while the U.S. spends 3.4 percent. But in a recent debate in the House of Commons, Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative lawmaker and chair of the British parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said the lesson he drew from the Afghanistan withdrawal was the need to help reinvigorate Britain’s European NATO partners and “to make sure that we are not dependent on a single ally, on the decision of a single leader, but that we can work together.”Changes needed?
Lawrence Freedman, the influential emeritus professor of war studies at King’s College London, suspects the surge in talk about European strategic autonomy, though, is a knee-jerk reaction to what Armin Laschet has described as the “biggest NATO debacle” since the founding of the alliance.“It is always tempting but usually unwise to draw large geopolitical conclusions from specific events, however dramatic and distressing,” he noted in a commentary for The Times of London this week.The United States’ core strategic alliances in Europe and even Asia have weathered plenty of setbacks and disputes in the past, he said.“These alliances were built up over decades and remain in place. They have survived past disagreements and are unlikely to be set aside because the Biden administration mishandled the final withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan,” he added. “The post-mortems on the withdrawal from Afghanistan will most likely conclude that there is no need to make any fundamental policy changes,” he added.Afghan Pullout Hurt Biden Politically, but for How LongExperts are divided on whether the scenes of chaos in Kabul over the past two weeks will have an impact when the 2022 mid-term elections take place
European interventions with no or little U.S. military support have not fared well. In July Macron announced that France’s anti-jihadist intervention in the volatile Sahel region, involving over 5,000 troops and launched by his predecessor in office, will end next year. The French leader has for years tried to persuade European allies to help shoulder more of the burden of the anti-terror fight in the Sahel, but to no avail. Britain, Denmark, and Sweden provided helicopter capabilities for air-mobility but little else from other European countries aside from some symbolic deployments emerged. In almost a pre-echo of Biden’s reasons for withdrawing from Afghanistan, Macron said: “We cannot secure certain areas because some states simply refuse to assume their duties. Otherwise, it is an endless task.” He added that the “long-term presence” of French troops “cannot be a substitute” for nation states handling their own affairs.Some diplomats suggest the current surge in talk about strategic autonomy will diminish as the shock of withdrawal wears off. They suggest much of the criticism should be seen as displacement activity, a way of coping with antagonistic urges. “They feel bad about leaving [Afghanistan] but they are also relieved to be out of a forever war they know couldn’t be won,” a European envoy in Brussels suggested to VOA. He asked not to be identified for this story.Other diplomats think the transatlantic security bonds will remain tight, but it will take some time for recovery from what they admit was a disorderly withdrawal.It is going to take quite a long time for the West as a whole — because it is a Western failure, a Western disaster, this is not just the UK and the U.S. — to recover from all this, to recover our reputation,” Kim Darroch, former British ambassador to the U.S. and the EU, told the BBC last month. The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, though, says the withdrawal has offered “an opportunity for us to discuss the European Union as a geopolitical actor,” he said. “But this will require unity, in small things and in big things,” he told reporters in Brussels this week.Oxford University historian Timothy Garton Ash agrees. In an interview Tuesday he told the broadcaster Euronews: “President Joe Biden has made the case for what all Europeans are talking about, namely strategic autonomy and European sovereignty.”However, Ash, an advocate for European strategic autonomy, lamented that European powers missed the chance to show what they could do. “There were 2,500 American troops stabilizing Afghanistan. France and Britain alone have 10,000 troops and a rapid reaction force. Why didn’t we have a European conversation about what we could have done about it?”
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Larry Remains Category 3 Hurricane in the Atlantic; Forecasters Watch Tropical Depression
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tuesday that Hurricane Larry remains a large, powerful Category 3 storm that could threaten Bermuda later in the week.In its latest report, the hurricane center said Larry is still 1,340 kilometers southeast of Bermuda with maximum sustained winds of about 195 km/h and is moving toward the northwest. It is a large storm, with hurricane force winds extending outward up to 110 kms from the center, and tropical storm winds extending outward up to 295 kms.Larry is forecast to approach Bermuda during the next couple of days as a large and powerful hurricane, bringing a risk of strong winds, heavy rainfall and coastal flooding to the island by Thursday. Significant swells from Larry should reach the U.S. east coast and Canada’s Atlantic coast by midweek and continue affecting those shores through the end of the week. The swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.A U.S. Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft was scheduled to fly into Larry’s well-formed eye early Tuesday, and the forecasters are waiting for that data before solidifying their long-range forecast.Meanwhile, forecasters are watching a tropical system of disorganized thunderstorms in the south-central Gulf of Mexico that is expected to move to the northeast toward the southeastern United States in the next 48 hours. The forecasters say there is a 30% chance of an organized storm forming in the next five days.Hurricane Ida, which came ashore August 29 in Louisiana as one of the most powerful storms in U.S. history, went from a tropical depression to a Category 3 hurricane in just over two days. The remnants of Ida killed more than 50 people when it moved through the northeastern U.S. last week.
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FAO: Afghanistan is Facing a Looming Hunger Catastrophe
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warns millions of Afghans are at risk of starving if farmers do not receive the seeds they need to plant their winter wheat crop before the end of the month. About 70% of all Afghans live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The Food and Agriculture Organization reports one in three people, or 14 million are suffering from acute hunger, with four million on the brink of famine. The FAO director of emergencies and resilience, Rein Paulsen, says more than 20% of households are facing catastrophic gaps in their food consumption. He says malnutrition levels are soaring and many children risk dying. Speaking on a video link from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, Paulsen says Afghanistan’s critical winter wheat season is under threat. This, from the prevailing drought, as well as the many uncertainties due to the fluid political and military situation in the country. He warns the window of opportunity to assist farmers for the fast-approaching winter wheat season is narrowing. “Towards the end of September, we need to make sure that that planting is starting. There is a very short window of time to be able to address that. The seeds cannot wait, the farmers cannot wait. We need to do everything we can to ensure that those vulnerable households are supported,” he said.Paulsen notes wheat is the most important cereal crop in Afghanistan, providing more than half of the population’s daily caloric intake. In addition to winter wheat, he says millions of Afghans also depend upon their livestock for survival. “There are more than three million livestock at risk. We are approaching winter. Support to ensure that that livestock survives and thrives is vital. So, the drought has already posed a major threat to the livestock. The winter season is a challenge too. So, working with vulnerable herders, ensuring that feed, concentrate feed gets into the hands of those herders and farmers is vital,” he said. FAO has supported more than 1.5 million people across 26 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces this year. The agency says it plans to support another 1.5 million people with seeds, cash, and other aid for the rest of the year, but needs $15 million to do so.
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In a First, Disabled Malawi Fashion Designers Show Off Their Creations
Disabled fashion designers have long struggled against discrimination, especially in developing countries such as Malawi. To combat the problem, Malawian fashion brand House of Xandria on Saturday organized the country’s first fashion show featuring creations by designers with disabilities. Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre.
Camera: Dan Kumwenda
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UK Gov’t Eyes Tax Hike to Pay for Care for Older People
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans Tuesday to fulfill a election promise to grapple with the rocketing cost of the long-term care needed by Britain’s growing older population. To do it, he appears set to break another election vow: not to raise taxes. Johnson is scheduled to tell Parliament how his Conservative government will raise billions to fund the care millions of Britons need in the final years of their lives. That burden currently falls largely on individuals, who often have to deplete their savings or sell their homes to pay for care. One in seven people ends up paying more than 100,000 pounds ($138,000), according to the government, which calls the cost of care “catastrophic and often unpredictable.” Meanwhile, funding care for the poor who can’t afford it is placing a growing burden on overstretched local authorities. Johnson has been tight-lipped about his plans, which are being unveiled to the Cabinet on Tuesday morning before he makes a statement in the House of Commons. But the prime minister said late Monday he would “not duck the tough decisions needed.” He is expected to announce an increase in National Insurance payments made by working-age people to fund care and the broader National Health Service, which has been put under immense strain by the coronavirus pandemic. That would break the firm promise in Johnson’s 2019 election platform not to hike personal taxes. Breaking promises is hardly novel for politicians, but those enshrined in British parties’ election manifestos have long been considered binding on governments. Johnson’s rumored plan has alarmed many Conservative lawmakers — both because it involves breaking a firm election commitment, and because the burden would fall on working-age people and not retirees. Jake Berry, one of a crop of Conservative lawmakers representing northern England seats won from the Labour Party with promises of investment and new jobs, said the proposed plan would help affluent, older voters at the expense of younger, poorer ones. And William Hague, a former Conservative leader, said breaking an election promise would be a “loss of credibility when making future election commitments, a blurring of the distinction between Tory and Labour philosophies, a recruiting cry for fringe parties on the right, and an impression given to the world that the U.K. is heading for higher taxes.” Attempts to reform the care system have stymied British governments. Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, campaigned in a 2017 election on a plan to cut benefits to retirees and change the way they pay for long-term care. The idea was quickly dubbed a “dementia tax” by opponents, and May ended up losing her majority in Parliament.
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