The war in Afghanistan was America’s longest, spanning nearly 20 years. The U.S. in 2001 quickly toppled the Taliban government, which had harbored al-Qaida terrorists responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America. But despite years of international support for Afghanistan, the war’s final weeks saw a Taliban takeover, a chaotic U.S. withdrawal, and a massive terror attack that left nearly 200 people dead including 13 U.S. service members. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports.
Camera: Adam Greenbaum, Rob Parcell and VOA Afghan Service
…
Month: December 2021
Afghan Women Call for Rights to Education, Work
A group of several dozen women protested in Afghanistan’s capital on Tuesday, demanding access to education and jobs under the country’s new Taliban leadership.
The women marched and chanted messages that included, “Why have you closed schools?” and “Work, food and education.”
One woman held a sign that said, “We women wake up and hate discrimination.”
Another sign read, “We are the voice of hungry people.”
Governments and human rights groups have pressured the Taliban to commit to upholding rights for women since it seized power in Afghanistan in August.
The Taliban severely curtailed women’s rights during a previous period in power in Afghanistan in the 1990s.
Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…
The Euro: How It Started 20 Years Ago
As Europe rang in the New Year 20 years ago, 12 of its nations said goodbye to their deutschmarks, French francs, liras and pesetas as they welcomed the euro single currency.
On January 1, 2002, euro notes and coins became a reality for some 300 million people from Athens to Dublin, three years after the currency was formally launched in “virtual” form.
Here is a recap of the event, drawn from AFP reporting at the time:
In a far cry from the austere New Year’s celebrations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic 20 years later, fireworks, music and lights blazed at midnight into the early morning of January 1, 2002, to mark the biggest monetary switch in history.
AFP reported that many people passed on their traditional New Year’s Eve parties, choosing instead to queue up at cash dispensers in their enthusiasm to get hold of the first pristine euro notes.
In Berlin, Germans said hello to the euro and goodbye to their beloved mark at a special ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate, as up to 1 million people thronged the streets for the traditional giant New Year’s Eve street party there.
The euro cash was also a hit in the coffee shops and red-light district of Amsterdam.
Irish revelers were, however, less in a hurry to welcome the euro, continuing to pay for Guinness, Ireland’s favorite tipple, in the national currency, leaving the headache of the changeover until the next day.
As many feared, the euro switch provoked sporadic price hikes across Europe.
From Spanish bus tickets, which jumped by 33%, to a Finnish bazaar, where “everything for 10 markka (1.68 euros)” was now “everything for two euros,” many price tags were a bit heftier since the single currency became legal tender.
The European Central Bank president at the time, Wim Duisenberg, who warned merchants not to take advantage of the euro launch to increase prices, said he had not seen signs of widespread abuse.
“When I bought a Big Mac and a strawberry milkshake this week it cost 4.45 euros, which is exactly the same amount as I paid for the same meal last week,” Duisenberg told reporters.
Europe surprised itself with the almost glitch-free transition to the single currency, AFP reported.
The Germans — reputedly skeptical about the single currency and nostalgic for their mark — turned out to be among the most enthusiastic.
An editorial in the popular German tabloid Bild proclaimed: “Our new money is moving full speed ahead. No problems whatsoever in saying adieu to the mark, no tears to be shed.”
Initial “europhoria” was, however, tempered as a few hiccups appeared, such as cash shortages and long lines in banks, post offices and at toll booths.
France urged citizens to not rush all at once to the banks with their savings, often hoarded under mattresses and in jam jars, since they had until June 30 to get rid of their francs at commercial banks and until 2012 at the Bank of France.
And the European Commission reported minor problems in getting small euro bills and coins distributed in most countries.
Duisenberg said, however, he was sure that January 1, 2002, would be written into history books as the start of a new European era.
your ad hereUS, Russia to Hold Security Talks in January
The United States and Russia will hold talks in January about nuclear arms control and tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border.
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told reporters the two sides would meet January 10, followed by Russia-NATO talks on January 12 and a meeting on January 13 with Russia, the United States and other members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
“When we sit down to talk, Russia can put its concerns on the table, and we will put our concerns on the table with Russia’s activities as well,” the spokesperson said.”There will be areas where we can make progress, and areas where we will disagree. That’s what diplomacy is about.”
Western governments have been alarmed by the buildup of Russian troops along the border with Ukraine, expressing concern about potential plans for a Russian invasion.Russian leader Vladimir Putin has denied any such plans and has demanded guarantees against NATO expansion close to its territory.
The National Security Council spokesperson said in respect to Ukraine’s own interests, the U.S.-Russia talks will not reach any decisions about Ukraine.
“President Biden’s approach on Ukraine has been clear and consistent: unite the alliance behind two tracks — deterrence and diplomacy. We are unified as an alliance on the consequences Russia would face if it moves on Ukraine,” the spokesperson said.
Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters
…
US Catholic Clergy Shortage Eased by Recruits From Africa
The Rev. Athanasius Chidi Abanulo — using skills honed in his African homeland to minister effectively in rural Alabama— determines just how long he can stretch out his Sunday homilies based on who is sitting in the pews.
Seven minutes is the sweet spot for the mostly white and retired parishioners who attend the English-language Mass at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in the small town of Wedowee. “If you go beyond that, you lose the attention of the people,” he said.
For the Spanish-language Mass an hour later, the Nigerian-born priest — one of numerous African clergy serving in the U.S. — knows he can quadruple his teaching time. “The more you preach, the better for them,” he said.
As he moves from one American post to the next, Abanulo has learned how to tailor his ministry to the culture of the communities he is serving while infusing some of the spirit of his homeland into the universal rhythms of the Mass.
“Nigerian people are relaxed when they come to church,” Abanulo said. “They love to sing, they love to dance. The liturgy can last for two hours. They don’t worry about that.”
During his 18 years in the U.S., Abanulo has filled various chaplain and pastor roles across the country, epitomizing an ongoing trend in the American Catholic church. As fewer American-born men and women enter seminaries and convents, U.S. dioceses and Catholic institutions have turned to international recruitment to fill their vacancies.
The Diocese of Birmingham, where Abanulo leads two parishes, has widened its search for clergy to places with burgeoning religious vocations like Nigeria and Cameroon, said Birmingham Bishop Steven Raica. Priests from Africa were also vital in the Michigan diocese where Raica previously served.
“They have been an enormous help to us to be able to provide the breadth and scope of ministry that we have available to us,” he said.
Africa is the Catholic church’s fastest-growing region. There, the seminaries are “fairly full,” said the Rev. Thomas Gaunt, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which conducts research about the Catholic church.
Falling numbers
It’s different in the U.S. where the Catholic church faces significant hurdles in recruiting home-grown clergy following decades of declining church attendance and the damaging effects of widespread clergy sex abuse scandals.
Catholic women and married men remain barred from the priesthood; arguments that lifting those bans would ease the priest shortage have not gained traction with the faith’s top leadership.
“What we have is a much smaller number beginning in the 1970s entering seminaries or to convents across the country,” Gaunt said. “Those who entered back in the ’50s and ’60s are now elderly, and so the numbers are determined much more by mortality.”
From 1970 to 2020, the number of priests in the U.S. dropped by 60%, according to data from the Georgetown center. This has left more than 3,500 parishes without a resident pastor.
Abanulo oversees two parishes in rural Alabama. His typical Sunday starts with an English-language Mass at Holy Family Catholic Church in Lanett, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Birmingham along the Alabama-Georgia state line. After that, he is driven an hour north to Wedowee, where he celebrates one Mass in English, another in Spanish.
“He just breaks out in song and a lot of his lectures, he ties in his boyhood, and I just love hearing those stories,” said Amber Moosman, a first-grade teacher who has been a parishioner at Holy Family since 1988.
For Moosman, Abanulo’s preaching style is very different from the priests she’s witnessed previously. “There was no all of a sudden, the priest sings, nothing like that. … It was very quiet, very ceremonial, very strict,” she said. “It’s a lot different now.”
Abanulo was ordained in Nigeria in 1990 and came to the U.S. in 2003 after a stint in Chad. His first U.S. role was as an associate pastor in the diocese of Oakland, California, where his ministry focused on the fast-growing Nigerian Catholic community. Since then, he has been a hospital chaplain and pastor in Nashville, Tennessee, and a chaplain at the University of Alabama.
Amid the U.S. clergy shortage, religious sisters have experienced the sharpest declines, dropping 75% since 1970, according to the Georgetown center.
Culture shocks
When Maria Sheri Rukwishuro was told she was being sent from the Sisters of the Infant Jesus order in Zimbabwe to West Virginia to work as a missionary nun, she asked her mother superior, “Where is West Virginia?”
She was scared, worrying about the unknowns.
“What kind of people am I going to? I’m just a Black nun coming to a white country,” Rukwishuro told The Associated Press from Clarksburg, West Virginia, where she has been teaching religious education to public and Catholic school students since arriving in 2004.
Rukwishuro vividly remembers that at her introduction, a little girl walked to her and “rubbed her finger on my fingers all the way, then she looked at her finger and she smiled but my heart sank. … She thought I was dirty.” Despite that, Rukwishuro says most people have been very welcoming. She’s now a U.S. citizen and says, “It feels like home.”
One of her first culture shocks was an overnight snowfall. “I really screamed. I thought it was the end of the world,” she said. “Now I love it. I do my meditations to that.”
During their integration into American life, it is commonplace for newly arrived clergy to face culture shocks.
For Sister Christiana Onyewuche of Nigeria, a hospital chaplain in Boston administering last rites for the dying, it was cremation. She recalled thinking, “Like really? … How can they burn somebody? I can’t even imagine.”
She came to the U.S. 18 years ago and previously served as the president of African Conference of Catholic Clergy and Religious, a support group for African missionaries serving in the U.S.
‘Jesus necks’
Onyewuche said African clergy can face communication challenges with the Americans they serve. To address this, many dioceses have offered training to soften accents, she said. Abanulo, who went through the training in Oakland, says it helped him slow down his speech and improve his pronunciations.
Abanulo, who moved to Alabama in 2020, admits he was initially apprehensive about his latest posting, which meant exchanging a comfortable role as university chaplain for two rural parishes.
“People were telling me ‘Father, don’t go there. The people there are rednecks,'” he said.
But after a year, and a warm reception, he says he now tells his friends, “There are no rednecks here. All I see are Jesus necks.”
your ad hereYoung South Africans Learn of Tutu’s Activism for Equality
Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s legacy is reverberating among young South Africans, many of whom were not born when the clergyman battled apartheid and sought full rights for the nation’s Black majority.
Tutu, who died Sunday at the age of 90, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for those efforts.
Even though they did not know much about him, some young South Africans told The Associated Press on Monday that they understood his role as one of the most prominent figures to help their country become a democracy.
Zinhle Gamede, 16, said she found out about Tutu’s passing on social media and has learned more about him over the past day.
“At first I only knew that he was an archbishop. I really did not know much else,” Gamede said.
She said Tutu’s death had inspired her to learn more about South Africa’s history, especially the struggle against white minority rule.
“I think that people who fought for our freedom are great people. We are in a better place because of them. Today I am living my life freely, unlike in the olden days where there was no freedom,” she said.
Following the end of apartheid in 1994, when South Africa became a democracy, Tutu chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that documented atrocities during apartheid and sought to promote national reconciliation. Tutu also became one of the world’s most prominent religious leaders to champion LGBTQ rights.
“As a gay person, it is rare to hear people from the church speaking openly about gay issues, but I found out about him through gay activists who sometimes use his quotes during campaigns,” said Lesley Morake, 25. “That is how I knew about him, and that is what I will remember about him.”
Tshepo Nkatlo, 32, said he is focusing on the positive things he hears about Tutu, instead of some negative sentiments he saw on social media.
“One of the things I picked up on Facebook and Twitter was that some people were criticizing him for the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) because there are still many issues regarding the TRC,” Nkatlo said, referring to some who say Tutu should have been tougher on whites who perpetrated abuses under apartheid and should have ordered that they be prosecuted.
South Africa is holding a week of mourning for Tutu. Bells rang at midday Monday from St. George’s Anglican Cathedral in Cape Town to honor him. The bells at “the people’s cathedral,” where Tutu worked to unite South Africans of all races against apartheid, will toll for 10 minutes at noon for five days to mark Tutu’s life.
“We ask all who hear the bells to pause their busy schedules for a moment in tribute” to Tutu, the current archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, said. Anglican churches across South Africa will also ring their bells at noon this week, and the Angelus prayer will be recited.
Several services in South Africa were being planned to honor Tutu’s life, as tributes came in from around the world.
Tutu’s coffin will be displayed Friday at the cathedral in Cape Town to allow the public to file past the casket, “which will reflect the simplicity with which he asked to be buried,” Makgoba said in a statement. On Friday night Tutu’s body will “lie alone in the cathedral which he loved.”
A requiem Mass will be celebrated Saturday, and, according to Tutu’s wishes, he will be cremated and his ashes placed in the cathedral’s mausoleum, church officials said Monday.
In addition, an ecumenical and interfaith service will be held for Tutu on Thursday in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria.
South Africans are laying flowers at the cathedral, in front of Tutu’s home in Cape Town’s Milnerton area and in front of his former home in Soweto.
President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Tutu’s home Monday in Cape Town where he paid his respects to Tutu’s widow, Leah.
“He knew in his soul that good would triumph over evil, that justice would prevail over iniquity, and that reconciliation would prevail over revenge and recrimination. He knew that apartheid would end, that democracy would come,” Ramaphosa said Sunday night in a nationally broadcast address.
“He knew that our people would be free. By the same measure, he was convinced, even to the end of his life, that poverty, hunger and misery can be defeated; that all people can live together in peace, security and comfort,” Ramaphosa said and added that South Africa’s flags will be flown at half-staff this week.
“May we follow in his footsteps,” Ramaphosa said. “May we, too, be worthy inheritors of the mantle of service, of selflessness, of courage, and of principled solidarity with the poor and marginalized.”
…
Taliban Arrest Head of Private TV Network
The whereabouts of a prominent Afghan TV station owner remains unknown a day after he was arrested by the Taliban on Sunday, according to the executive’s son.
Mohammad Arif Noori, the founder and owner of Noorin TV, one of Afghanistan’s leading private TV networks, was taken from his home in Kabul on Sunday afternoon, according to his son Roman Noori.
The younger Noori accused Taliban forces of “raiding” and searching his family’s house without a warrant before taking his father to an unknown location.
“We’ve heard nothing from him in almost 24 hours and the authorities have shared no information with us,” Roman Noori said in a video posted Monday on social media.
The motive for the elder Noori’s arrest remains uncertain. But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) that the arrest was not related to Noori’s media activities, AIJA said in a statement sent to VOA.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called for Mohammad Arif Noori’s immediate and unconditional release.
In a statement, CPJ said dozens of armed men who identified themselves as members of a militia affiliated with Taliban-controlled police district in Kabul stormed Noori’s house and detained him.
“The detention of media owner Aref Noori by a Taliban-affiliated militia marks a serious attack on the independent media in Afghanistan,” CPJ Asia Coordinator Steven Butler said in a statement, referring to Mohammad Arif Noori.
Citing Kashif Noori, another son of the TV executive, CPJ said Noorin TV had operated for the past decade but paused programming this week due to technical issues.
Mohammad Arif Noori is a known supporter of an anti-Taliban group headed by Ahmad Massoud, who fought off Taliban forces in his native Panjshir valley north of Kabul before being overrun in early September.
At least 31 journalists have been detained or arrested by the Taliban since they took over in mid-August, according to the journalists association.
Photojournalist Mortaza Samad was arrested in September while covering a women’s protest in the western city of Heart and spent several weeks in Taliban detention.
Last week, Jawed Yusufi, a reporter for the independent outlet Ufuq News, was stabbed and badly wounded by three unidentified men in western Kabul, according to his employer and local media advocates.
The Taliban takeover has decimated Afghanistan’s media. A joint survey by AIJA and Reporters Without Borders released last week found that at least 40% of the country’s media outlets have disappeared and more than 80% of Afghan women journalists have lost their jobs over the last four months.
your ad hereIndia Denies Bid for Foreign Funding by Mother Teresa’s Charity
India’s government on Monday denied a bid by the late Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity to seek foreign funding, a move that would terminate a vital source of assistance for one of the leading groups providing aid and shelter to the country’s poor.
In a statement released Monday, the Home Ministry said it rejected the MOC’s application for a license renewal on Christmas because of “adverse inputs” in the consideration process.
The ministry did not elaborate.
Earlier on Monday, Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal state, where the MOC is headquartered, alleged in a tweet that the government had frozen the charity’s bank accounts during the Christmas holiday.
The ministry, however, rejected these claims as the MOC confirmed in a statement that its Foreign Contribution Regulation Act renewal application was denied.
“Therefore … we have asked our centers not to operate any of the (foreign contribution) accounts until the matter is resolved,” the MOC said.
According to reports, the federal government clarified that the MOC’s accounts were frozen at the charity’s request.
Vicar General Dominic Gomes of the Archdiocese of Calcutta said that the development was a “cruel Christmas gift to the poorest of the poor.”
Nobel laureate Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun who died in 1997, founded the charity in 1950. Since then, it has spread its operations across the world, with more than 3,000 nuns assisting the poor, sick and homeless through hospices, schools, community kitchens and homes for abandoned children, among other services.
The government’s decision came amid recent accusations from Hindu right-wing groups connected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party that the MOC is trying to force recipients of its services, such as poor Hindus and tribal communities, to convert to Christianity.
The charity was also investigated earlier in December in the western state of Gujarat on allegations that it forced girls in its shelters there to read the Bible and recite Christian prayers, claims the MOC denies.
There has also been a spate of serious physical attacks against Christians, especially in the southern state of Karnataka. According to The Associated Press, a report from the Evangelical Fellowship of India showed that nearly 40 cases of threats or violence against Christians took place in the state this year.
Disruptions to Christmas celebrations last week and over the holiday weekend were also reported. At Ambala in Haryana, a northern state governed by Modi’s party, a life-size statue of Jesus Christ was vandalized.
In Varanasi, the base of Modi’s parliamentary constituency and Hinduism’s holiest city, activists reportedly burned a model of Santa Claus and chanted anti-Christmas slogans outside a church.
Elias Vaz, national vice president of the All India Catholic Union, criticized these incidents, saying they present a rejection of India’s identity as a highly diverse nation, according to the Reuters news agency.
“The strength of India is in its diversity, and the people who have done this at Christmas are the real anti-nationals,” he said.
Critics have accused Prime Minister Modi’s government of igniting religious tensions across the country with its pursuit of a Hindu nationalist agenda. Since assuming his office in 2014, right-wing Hindu groups have launched more frequent attacks against minorities under claims they are working to prevent religious conversions.
Within India’s population of 1.37 billion is the second-largest Catholic population in Asia, after the Philippines, of 18 million. Catholics and other Christians make up only 2.3% of the overall population in the majority Hindu nation.
Despite the right to freedom of belief enshrined in India’s constitution, several states have passed or are considering anti-conversion laws.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
your ad hereOmicron Variant Causing Flight Cancellations Worldwide
Holiday travelers continued to experience widespread flight cancellations as the omicron variant causes airline staff to call in sick.
According to FlightAware, which tracks delays and cancellations, there have been 2,395 total flight cancellations around the world Monday with 869 of those impacting flights “within, into, or out of the United States.”
Some 6,342 flights have been delayed around the world with 1,602 delays impacting U.S flights.
Over the Christmas weekend, thousands more flights were canceled, leaving travelers stranded.
“We apologize to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans,” Delta said in a statement. “Delta people are working hard to get them to where they need to be as quickly and as safely as possible on the next available flight.”
The holiday season is the busiest time of year for air travel. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said 2.19 million passengers were screened on Dec. 23, and the previous day saw more travelers than the same day in 2019.
When things might return to normal is unclear.
Delta and JetBlue have reportedly asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reduce quarantine times for their vaccinated employees. Some airlines are also reportedly offering bonuses to work more to cover for sick employees.
Amid the scramble, some are expressing concern.
“We’ve got to make sure employees don’t feel pressured to come to work when they’ve been exposed to COVID or they think they may have the symptoms,” Captain Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, told ABC News.
…
COVID Outbreaks Lead to Soccer Match Postponements in England
The English Premier League (EPL) is postponing several football (soccer) games as a record number of players have tested positive for COVID-19.
According to the league, more than 100 players and staff tested positive over the past week, leading to the postponement of 15 games.
“The League can today confirm that between Monday 20 December and Sunday 26 December, 15,186 COVID-19 tests were administered on players and club staff. Of these, there were 103 new positive cases,” the league said in a statement.”
One team, Watford, postponed three games due to COVID. For their next match Tuesday, they are reportedly bringing in players under 23.
Some team managers would like to change the rules to allow for five substitutions per game. Currently three are allowed.
Approximately 77% of EPL soccer players are fully vaccinated, according to reports.
U.S. sports leagues like the National Basketball Association, National Football League and National Hockey League have all had to postpone or reschedule games due to COVID outbreaks, despite high vaccination rates.
Some information in this report comes from Reuters and The Associated Press.
…
South Africa Starts Week of Mourning for Archbishop Desmond Tutu
South Africa has started a week of mourning for Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who died Sunday at the age of 90. Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral will toll its bells every day at noon through Friday in honor of the anti-apartheid hero before a Saturday funeral service.
The bells at St. George’s Cathedral rang out for 10-minutes on Monday. It was here that Archbishop Tutu gave refuge to many during the dark days of apartheid.
His non-violent campaign won him international recognition including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. He was also greatly loved by his countrymen and women. Veteran journalist Ayesha Ismail explains.
“You know as a South African and as a journalist when I think about Archbishop Desmond Tutu, I think about love, I think about justice, I think about peace and I think about compassion. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the one who opened the doors of this cathedral when we were fighting the apartheid regime during the height of apartheid and during the state of emergency, we were teargassed, we were sjambokked and it was the archbishop who opened these doors for us to come and seek refuge. He will be deeply missed and I think I can safely say that South Africa has lost its moral compass,” said the journalist.
Once democracy was established in South Africa in 1994, Tutu continued to campaign for human rights, championing all kinds of causes around the world.
In recent years, he also spoke out against the African National Congress which is in power in South Africa. He was outraged by the unchecked corruption within the party.
Children and young people were close to his heart. He was a patron of many trusts. The CEO of one of them, Jason Falken, said even when Tutu was ill, the archbishop was in email contact with him so they could work out a plan to ensure funding came in after he passed on.
“Not only for the trust but for our beneficiaries the Tygerberg Children’s Hospital it’s been immense. You know the arch and Ma Leah their many visits to the hospital were always filled with joy and laughter and the kids really look out for that. But over and above that, the arch was also very instrumental, especially in the early years of the trust in raising significant funds specifically for the purpose of much-needed medical equipment which ran into the hundreds of thousands of rand,” he said.
The assistant priest at St. George’s Cathedral, Marcus Slingers, said it was a great privilege to have visited Tutu at his home in Milnerton, a Cape Town suburb, for about 40 minutes each day.
“We are all saddened by this great loss. The dean and I and others, you know in these last few months, had the opportunity of celebrating the eucharist with him every day and that was part of his life and I’ve just been privileged to have been part of it. And what a man of God and humble,” he said.
The archbishop’s 66-year marriage to Leah Tutu was admired by many. They had four children: Trevor, Thandeka, Naomi and Mpho. Father Marcus said on his visits to Tutu, Mrs. Tutu would tell him stories over cups of tea about how they supported each other.
“And how the two of them had just done things together. Everything that they’ve done, they’ve done together and our hearts and our prayers, our thoughts are with her and the rest of the family,” he said.
A number of events are planned for this week, including a memorial service which the South African Council of Churches will host on Wednesday.
Archbishop Tutu’s body will lie in state at St. George’s Cathedral on Friday. His funeral will take place there on Saturday.
…
Russia Lays Down More Conditions for Peace Talks
The announcement by Russia’s Defense Ministry Saturday that 10,000 troops deployed along the border with Ukraine are to return to their permanent bases isn’t easing the alarm of Western officials, who see the risks mounting of Russian military action.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week indicated his country’s willingness to sit down for talks with the United States and NATO amid soaring tensions, prompted by the Kremlin deploying more than 100,000 troops near its borders with Ukraine.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a televised interview Monday that Moscow was still waiting for NATO’s response to various conditions for talks to take place over security guarantees being sought from the West. They include Russian defense officials and generals participating in the negotiations. “We have said the conversation will make sense only with the direct participation of the military,” Lavrov said.
He said talks with U.S. officials would likely occur “right after the New Year’s Eve” but that Moscow is still waiting for an agreement over parameters for the negotiations with NATO.
The security guarantees the Russian leader is demanding would preclude any further NATO expansion and would roll back any NATO military presence in the Baltic or central European states which joined the Western alliance in waves since 1999. The Kremlin is adamant that former Soviet republics of Ukraine or Georgia should not join the Atlantic alliance.
While the United States and its NATO allies have said they’re willing to enter talks with Russia, Western diplomats have warned Russian security proposals are not acceptable in their current form. In a conference call last week with reporters, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried said talks would have better prospects if Russia de-escalates its military buildup along the border with Ukraine.
“Any dialogue with Russia must address NATO’s and others concerns about Russia’s continued threatening behavior and be based on the core principles and foundational documents of European security. We will not compromise the key principles on which European security is built, including that all countries have the right to decide their own foreign and security policy course free from outside interference,” she added.
U.S. and NATO officials have been adamant that it is unreasonable for Moscow to seek a veto over the foreign policy direction chosen by Kyiv or any other sovereign country.
Western officials say they remain fearful Moscow is still considering launching a full-scale invasion of its neighbor, unless NATO accedes to Kremlin demands that would upend the Western alliance as it has evolved since the end of the Cold War. U.S. and Western officials have expressed rising concerns that Russia is contemplating a repeat of 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea and used armed proxies to seize a large part of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine.
The troop withdrawal announced Saturday amounts to just 10% of the 122,000 Russian soldiers Western and Ukraine intelligence agencies calculate have been gathered along the border since October. Russian military officials said they are withdrawing about 10,000 troops from near Ukraine because they have completed their mission in snap drills, simulating a response to a “massive airstrike” on Russia.
Western defense analysts say the troops are being pulled back from the less militarily important south, while there are no signs of troops and equipment being withdrawn from Ukraine’s northern and northeastern borders, across which Russia would most likely strike.
Back and forth troop movements and increasingly direct rhetoric from Kremlin officials and President Vladimir Putin himself have been keeping Western powers in a state of nervous tension as they try to gauge the intentions of the Russian leader and maintain unity as they mull to what degree they should spurn or engage with the Kremlin.
Midweek, President Putin said Russia would take “appropriate retaliatory” military steps in response to what he called the West’s “aggressive stance,” although on Thursday Putin appeared to lower the rhetorical volume by praising the United States for its “positive” reaction to Russia’s security proposals and said talks would take place in January.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Sunday maintained the drumbeat of stern Russian warnings, saying Putin will ponder a slew of retaliatory options if the West fails to meet his demands for security guarantees.
NATO’s expansion to Ukraine or other ex-Soviet nations is “a matter of life or death for us,” Peskov said in an interview on Russian television. He added that a test firing Friday of Russia’s new Zircon hypersonic missiles was meant to make Russia’s security demands “more convincing.”
Friday’s test firings marked the first time Zircon missiles have been launched in a salvo.
Peskov said the Kremlin would set no artificial deadline for the talks, but meetings likely to go ahead in January would be enough to see if the U.S. is ready to accept Russian terms or would try to drag out the negotiation indefinitely, which he said would be unacceptable. His remarks about there being no artificial deadline contrasted with comments by Putin last week who said in a press conference that he wanted his security demands met “immediately. Right now.”
“Not sure this indicates much hope for talks to succeed,” tweeted Russian political analyst Vladimir Frolov.
Andrew Marshall of the Atlantic Council, a U.S.-based research group, says the geopolitical stakes are rising rapidly. “The outcome of this dispute could decisively rewrite the terms of security on the European continent for an entire generation — just as the decisions of the 1990s did after the end of the Cold War,” he said in an Atlantic Council commentary.
He added, “It could also produce one of two sharply contrasting narratives for the United States in Europe and globally: Negotiating successfully could underline the power of the United States working with its friends and be a model for confronting authoritarianism at gunpoint; but failure will be seen as another marker of American weakness and the unraveling of the transatlantic partnership.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has been lobbying for Ukrainian officials to be able to participate in any security talks among the U.S., NATO and Russia. “We support the idea of the U.S., the EU, NATO talking to Russia as long as the primary topic is ending the international armed conflict, Russia’s war on Ukraine,” he wrote on Twitter Friday. “Decisions on Ukraine’s security can only be made with Ukraine at the table, and with the EU at the table on matters of wider European security,” he said.
…
Pakistan Slams Taliban Curbs on Afghan Women
A Pakistani government minister Monday criticized neighboring Afghanistan’s ruling Islamist Taliban for placing curbs on women, denouncing the curbs as “retrogressive thinking” and as posing threat to his country.
Information Minister Fawad Hussain, while speaking to an Islamabad gathering, described the new Taliban government in Kabul as an “extremist regime.”
“We want to fully help the people of Afghanistan. But saying that women can’t travel alone or go to schools and colleges — this kind of a retrogressive thinking is a threat to Pakistan,” Hussain said.
It is extremely rare for Pakistani officials to publicly criticize the Taliban who have returned to power in Afghanistan, allegedly with the covert support of Pakistan’s military — charges Islamabad denies.
Hussain spoke a day after the Taliban Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued a new directive for women, limiting their ability to travel farther than 72 kilometers unless accompanied by a close male relative. It also advised taxi drivers in Afghanistan to offer rides only to women wearing an Islamic hijab or a headscarf.
Ministry spokesman Sadiq Akif Mahajer defended the restrictions, telling VOA they were in line with Sharia, or Islamic law.
The latest restrictions come weeks after the Taliban asked Afghan television channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring actresses and to require female news anchors to wear hijabs while on the air.
The Taliban militarily regained control of Afghanistan in August as the Western-backed Afghan government and its security forces collapsed in the final stages of the withdrawal by the U.S.-led international forces from the country.
The Islamist movement has since prevented most Afghan women from returning to work and schoolgirls from resuming classes across many provinces, despite pledging a more moderate rule compared with their harsh regime from 1996 to 2001.
No country has recognized the Taliban government, and the global community is refusing to directly engage with Kabul over human rights and terrorism concerns, even as Afghan humanitarian needs have risen to record levels.
The United Nations estimates nearly 23 million Afghans face hunger because of years of war, drought and extreme poverty.
Last week, Pakistan hosted an emergency conference of Islamic countries, with U.S, Russian, Chinese, and European envoys in attendance, to mobilize increased humanitarian assistance for Afghans. Islamabad has also dispatched scores of trucks carrying food and medicines to the conflict-hit country since the Taliban takeover in mid-August.
Islamabad is worried the worsening Afghan humanitarian and economic crisis could send more refugees to Pakistan and others neighboring countries.
Pakistani leaders have repeatedly urged the Taliban to listen to and address international concerns about rights of Afghan women, fighting terrorism and governing the country inclusively.
The Taliban, however, dismiss criticism of their government and polices as interference in internal Afghan affairs, saying they are ruling the country within the framework of Sharia.
Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in a recent media interview, defended his group’s interpretation of Islamic laws and condemned governance systems in Muslim countries, including Pakistan, as un-Islamic.
…
Pandemic Response in Africa Underscores Global Vaccine Inequality
Despite shaky health systems and vaccine drives, the coronavirus pandemic did not hit Africa as badly as many feared. But it did take a toll on the continent’s economies in 2021, as movement was restricted, and also underscored vaccine inequalities. Linda Givetash reports from Johannesburg.
…
Polish President Vetoes Media Bill that Targeted US Company
Poland’s president on Monday said he has decided to veto a media bill that would have forced U.S. company Discovery to give up its controlling share in TVN, a Polish TV network.
President Andrzej Duda noted that the bill was unpopular with many Poles and would have dealt a blow to Poland’s reputation as a place to do business.
The bill, recently passed by the lower house of parliament, would have prevented any non-European entity from owning more than a 49% stake in television or radio broadcasters in Poland.
Its practical effect would have targeted only one existing company, Discovery Inc., forcing the U.S. owner of Poland’s largest private television network, TVN, to sell the majority or even all of its Polish holdings.
Many Poles saw the bill, pushed by the ruling Law and Justice party that Duda is aligned with, as an attempt to silence a broadcaster that broadcasts independent and often critical reporting of the authorities.
Mass nationwide protests were recently held in support of the station and of freedom of speech more broadly.
Discovery had threatened to sue Poland in an international arbitration court.
Duda said he agreed in principle that countries should limit foreign ownership in media companies, saying many other democratic countries — including the United States, France and Germany — have such legislation.
But he also said that in this case, the law would have hurt a business already operating legally in Poland.
He noted that signing the bill into law would have cost the nation billions of dollars, and said he shared the view of many of his countrypeople that this bill was not necessary right now.
…
Somalia’s President Suspends Prime Minister
The political rift between two of Somalia’s top leaders worsened Monday when President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed announced that he is suspending Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble.
A spokesman for President Mohamed, popularly known as Farmajo, said he took the action due to an investigation into an illegal purchase of public land involving Prime Minister Roble.
Roble’s suspension comes a day after the prime minister accused Mohamed of sabotaging parliamentary elections.
Reuters is reporting that security forces have been deployed around Roble’s offices, which the country’s assistant information minister has described as “an indirect coup.”
The feuding leaders had reached an agreement earlier this year that would allow 101 delegates to select members of parliament, who would choose the next head of the state.
Observers warn the feud between Farmajo and Roble could distract the government from the ongoing threat from the violent al Qaida-linked al Shabab insurgent group, which has fought the central government in a bid to seize power and impose sharia law in Somalia, which has been plagued by decades of chaos and conflict since the overthrow of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
…