Belarus has become an accomplice to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine. Russian troops used it as a launchpad for missile strikes and air raids on Ukraine. In response, Western countries have imposed tough sanctions on Belarus. Maxim Moskalkov reports. Camera: Elena Matusovsky.
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Month: September 2022
Russia Shuts Key Pipeline, Burns Off Gas as West Accuses Putin of Weaponizing Energy
Russia closed the major Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Germany on Wednesday, claiming the three-day shutdown is necessary for the maintenance of turbines. Europe and the U.S. dispute that claim and accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of “weaponizing” energy.
Last year, Russia supplied 40 percent of the European Union’s gas. In recent weeks, Russia has reduced the flow through Nord Stream 1 to just 20 percent of capacity. Moscow blamed the latest shutdown on Western sanctions that have targeted its economy.
Visiting the town of Lubmin on Germany’s Baltic coast Tuesday, where the Nord Stream pipeline comes ashore, Markus Soeder, the premier of the German state of Bavaria, said his country was in a difficult position.
“Putin is playing a game with Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. I think it’s a kind of game. Our problem right now is that we are not in a position to adequately respond to this game,” Soeder told reporters.
Current European gas prices have soared to about 10 times their average price over the past decade. Germany declared a gas crisis in June and warned that consumers and businesses must cut back. Consumption has since fallen by around 20 percent.
In a stark speech last week, French President Emmanuel Macron warned of “the end of abundance” and said the French people would have to make sacrifices.
“Our freedom — the system of freedom, which we are used to living in — has a cost. And at times, if it needs to be defended, that could entail sacrifices to reach the end of certain battles we must carry out,” Macron said at a cabinet meeting August 24.
Looking for other sources
As Russia turns off the taps, Europe is scrambling to find alternative sources. Imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) have helped Europe fill gas storage sites to 80 percent capacity, two months ahead of the EU target. That has calmed markets and brought down prices in recent days. But storage will only last so long, said Tom O’Donnell, who teaches at the Free University in Berlin and is the founder of energy analyst group The Global Barrel.
“Storage by itself isn’t enough for the winter,” O’Donnell told VOA. “With all the pipelines cut off — which is what we have to expect from Russia, that all their pipelines will be cut off — [even with] all the LNG we can take, that storage is going to last 2½ months in heating season. And then, you know, Europe’s stuck.”
Europe is trying to wean itself off Putin’s gas, but it will take at least two years, O’Donnell said.
“In the meantime, he has leverage and he will use it all he can before totally loses the business,” O’Donnell said. “The dependence of Europe on Russian-delivered gas by pipeline is much greater than, let’s say, the importance of that money for Putin, because he makes so much more money from oil.”
Meanwhile, there is growing concern over a Russian gas flare, which has been burning close to the Finnish border for two months. Experts say it’s burning an estimated $10 million worth of gas every day, sending the equivalent of 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
“It is on the site where the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Germany is starting,” said professor Esa Vakkilainen of Lut University in Lappeenranta, the closest city to the border.
“But it is also a place where the Russians have built an LNG plant to deliver LNG, and that plant was supposed to open this spring,” Vakkilainen told the Reuters news agency. “And so, it is probably operating. But due to the war in Ukraine, there is very little information about what is actually happening there. So, we can only speculate that right now there are some technical difficulties either involved with Nord Stream or with this LNG station.”
Across Europe, new LNG terminals are under construction, old coal and nuclear power plants are being fired up again, and there is a big investment in renewable power. But in the short term, it may not be enough, and governments are warning of a difficult winter ahead.
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TPLF Reports ‘Massive’ Offensive by Ethiopian Government, Eritrean Forces
Tigrayan rebels in Ethiopia say government forces and troops from neighboring Eritrea have launched a coordinated offensive, as fighting intensifies in the region.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front said on Twitter that Eritrean forces have joined Ethiopian federal forces in the fight against the TPLF.
Getachew Reda said the forces launched what he called a “massive four-pronged offensive” early Thursday in the Adyabo area of northwestern Tigray, adding that TPLF forces are defending their positions.
A later statement by the Tigray Military Command said planes belonging to Ethiopian Airlines are being used to transport military personnel and supply munitions to troops in the north.
There has been no independent confirmation of the TPLF accusations. An Ethiopian government spokesperson and the Eritrean ministry of information did not respond to requests for comment.
In their own statements, Ethiopian officials have accused the TPLF of launching attacks in Amhara this week.
Bloomberg News reports that Ethiopia’s foreign minister told diplomats Thursday that the government is taking measures against Tigrayan forces while trying to avoid civilian casualties.
William Davison, analyst with the International Crisis Group, a research institution based in Belgium, said, “Now Tigrayan reports, which seem to be accurate, of a large-scale incursion into Tigray from the north by Eritrean and federal forces. So, it is evident that the conflict is now seriously escalating.
“There are also reports of confrontations and a heavy federal military buildup around Wag Hemra in northern Amhara, a little bit to the west of where fighting started, shows that the fighting has spread to a major new front,” he added.
Eritrea is a longtime opponent of the TPLF, which effectively ruled Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018.
Fighting between Tigrayan fighters and pro-Ethiopian government forces resumed in northern Ethiopia a week ago, ending a five-month cease-fire.
As a result, the U.N. has stopped humanitarian aid deliveries to Tigray, where relief groups say parts of the region are likely in a state of famine.
your ad hereUS to Revise Afghan Resettlement Policy, White House Official Says
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is stopping – with a few exceptions – the temporary relocation of Afghans to the United States and focusing on reuniting immediate family members with pathways to permanent residency, according to a senior administration official.
The policy revision follows criticism by some lawmakers, refugee organizations and veterans groups that the administration failed to properly plan the evacuation of Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution when it pulled the last U.S. troops out of Afghanistan a year ago.
The administration says the evacuation – marred by chaos at Kabul airport and a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 170 Afghans – was a success, with nearly 90,000 Afghans resettled in the United States in one of the largest operations of its kind.
The administration’s “commitment to our Afghan allies is enduring,” the senior administration official said while briefing reporters on Wednesday on changes to the relocation policy. “This commitment does not have an end date.”
The revised policy, dubbed Enduring Welcome, begins on Oct. 1.
Under the changes, the official said, the United State will stop – with a few exceptions – admitting Afghans on humanitarian parole, a special program that grants temporary entry but no pathway to lawful permanent residence.
The revised policy, the official said, will focus on relocating to the United States immediate family members of U.S. citizens, green card holders and Afghans with Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) granted to those at risk of Taliban retaliation because they worked for the U.S. government.
Family members admitted from those categories will have “durable, long-term immigration status,” allowing them to “more quickly settle and integrate into their new communities,” the official said.
“We know family reunification remains a really high priority for Afghans themselves and for the communities who care about them and for advocates across the country, veterans groups as well,” said the official. “It is for us, too.”
The revised policy follows months of talks between the administration and the AfghanEvac coalition of groups that help evacuate and resettle Afghans in the United States.
“It’s a massive deal for us,” said Shawn VanDiver, the coalition head, adding that the government still needs to improve processing SIV applications and increase relocation flights.
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UN Concerned About Minority Group Discrimination in Benin, Zimbabwe
A U.N. monitoring committee is urging Benin and Zimbabwe to address alleged discrimination against minority and marginalized groups in their countries. The committee released findings this week on progress in seven countries whose records were under review.
The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed regret that Benin’s national plan of action against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance has been only partially implemented since it was adopted in 2014.
While discrimination and hate speech remain prevalent, mainly against albinos, the committee said few people have formally complained about the crimes.
Committee member Pansy Tlakula surmised it might be due to lack of awareness of available judicial remedies, lack of confidence in the justice system or fear of reprisals on the part of victims.
She said people with albinism are most victimized by the discrimination that pervades the society. “In our interactive dialogue with Benin, the committee raised concerns about reports that people with albinism are often subjected to extreme physical attacks, stigmatization and discrimination based on beliefs related to witchcraft and skin color.”
The committee urged Benin to take effective measures to protect people with albinism from such vicious behavior and to ensure they have equal access to education, health, and employment.
Regarding Zimbabwe, the committee said it was pleased with the positive measures taken by the government to implement the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
However, Tlakula said the committee was disturbed by reports that atrocities committed during the Gukurahundi violence of the 1980s continue to be a source of ethnic tension. Around 20,000 Ndebele-speaking people were killed in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces by government forces in the 1980s.
Tlakula said many victims remain traumatized. She said the committee is concerned that they are barred by state agents from participating in mourning and commemorative activities.
“It urged Zimbabwe to take measures to ensure that mourning and commemorative activities can be conducted without restrictions or threats. It also called on the state party to ensure that the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission fulfills its responsibilities to provide a platform for post-conflict public truth-telling,” she noted.
The committee also criticized the widespread discrimination against people who work in the informal sector or as domestic laborers, noting most are Black women who face low wages and work in dehumanizing conditions.
The U.N. experts requested Zimbabwe amend its labor laws to end discrimination on the grounds of race, class, and gender.
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Zambia Receives IMF Bailout for Debt Reduction Plan
Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema has pledged to improve the country’s financial situation after it received a $1.3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Zambia was the first African country to default on its debt in the COVID-19 era.
President Hakainde Hichilema, speaking Thursday at the launch of plans aimed at boosting the country’s socioeconomic development, said the IMF Executive Board had approved a financial assistance program for Zambia.
“They approved our extended credit facility for this great country whose greatness lies ahead of us and for us to make our country greater we have to do what is necessary in all the spheres and in all the areas,” said Hichilema.
The $1.3 billion bailout is aimed at kickstarting the country’s economy and restructuring its debt. The plan allows Zambia to immediately access $185 million.
The financial assistance approved on Wednesday will give Zambia room in the budget to increase social spending and strengthen governance. The framework of the bailout will require the country to improve its public financial management.
According to Zambian government debt data, the country accumulated $31.74 billion by the end of 2021, of which $17.27 billion was external debt.
Nearly one-third of the debt — $5.78 billion – is owed to China.
In November 2020, Zambia was unable to make its payments on a $42.5 million Eurobond, becoming the first African country in the pandemic era to default on its debt.
In July of this year, the southern African nation canceled projects worth $2 billion to prevent its debt from growing further.
The country plans to increase copper production to 3 million tons a year in the next 10 years and produce foodstuffs for export in an effort to reduce its debt.
Hichilema says his government will have to make tough choices for high economic growth.
“The macroeconomic objectives set out in the eight national development plans are to place our economy on a higher growth trajectory, no question about it,” said Hichilema. “That’s the agenda next to restrain fiscal deficits that we experienced in the last seven or so years to a point where we failed to live within our means and defaulted on our obligations.”
Hichilema said the country must depart from rampant corruption, overvaluing the government projects and failing to finish them on time.
He pledged to reduce domestic debt and inject money into the economy.
Zambia’s next step is to sign a legally non-binding memorandum of understanding with the G-20 bilateral creditors committee, which is intended to assist countries in resolving their debt. The authorities hope to complete discussion on the memorandum by the end of 2022. The G-20 refers to the Group of 20 large economies.
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Kremlin: Putin Can’t Attend Gorbachev Funeral Due to ‘Work Schedule’
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be able to attend the funeral service of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader who died earlier this week, because of his work schedule.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow Thursday that while Gorbachev will not be honored with a full state funeral, the service will have an honor guard and some other elements usually given during such a ceremony.
He added that Putin stopped by the Central Clinical Hospital earlier in the day to bid farewell to the man credited with helping end the Cold War, whose body remains there after he passed away at the age of 91 on August 30 following a prolonged illness.
“Unfortunately, the president’s work schedule will not allow him to do that [attend the service] on September 3, which is why he decided to it today,” Peskov said.
Gorbachev’s daughter, Irina Virganskaya, has said her father’s funeral will be held on September 3 at the historic House of the Unions, where all Soviet leaders, except Nikita Khrushchev, have laid in state. The site is just a short walk away from the Kremlin.
Putin’s decision not to attend the funeral highlights the frosty response the Kremlin has had to the death of a man much of the West praised for ushering in political and economic changes known as “glasnost” (openness) and “perestroika” (restructuring) that helped trigger the fall of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Germany, and ultimately the demise of the Soviet Union.
Putin, who had a strained relationship with Gorbachev, has called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century.”
Gorbachev had carefully criticized Putin, at times, for rolling back democratic reforms and reintroducing elements of repression that seemed more at home during the Soviet era than post-perestroika Russia.
The Gorbachev Foundation said that anyone who wants to bid farewell to the man who stopped the Cold War can attend the ceremony in the House of the Union from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on September 3.
Gorbachev will be laid to rest at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife, Raisa Gorbacheva, who died in 1999 of leukemia at the age of 67.
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Russia Launches War Games with China, Others
Russia on Thursday launched weeklong war games involving forces from China and other nations in a show of growing defense cooperation between Moscow and Beijing as they both face tensions with the U.S.
The maneuvers are also intended to demonstrate that Moscow has sufficient military might for massive drills even as its troops are engaged in military action in Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Vostok 2022 (East 2022) exercise will be held until Sept. 7 at seven firing ranges in Russia’s Far East and the Sea of Japan and involve more than 50,000 troops and over 5,000 weapons units, including 140 aircraft and 60 warships.
Russian general staff chief, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, will personally oversee the drills that will involve troops from several ex-Soviet nations, China, India, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua and Syria.
The Defense Ministry noted that as part of the maneuvers, the Russian and Chinese navies in the Sea of Japan will “practice joint action to protect sea communications, areas of marine economic activity and support for ground troops in littoral areas.”
The drills showcase increasing defense ties between Moscow and Beijing, which have grown stronger since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. China has pointedly refused to criticize Russia’s action, blaming the U.S. and NATO for provoking Moscow, and has blasted punishing sanctions imposed on Moscow. Russia, in turn, has strongly backed China amid the tensions with the U.S. that followed a recent visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Putin has drawn parallels between U.S. support for Ukraine and Pelosi’s trip, describing them both as part of alleged efforts by Washington to foment global instability.
Alexander Gabuyev, a political analyst who closely follows Russia-China ties, noted that “it’s very important for Beijing to show to the U.S. that it has levers to pressure America and its global interests.”
“The joint maneuvers with Moscow, including the naval drills, are intended to signal that if the pressure on Beijing continues it will have no other choice but to strengthen the military partnership with Russia,” Gabuyev said. “It will have a direct impact on the interests of the U.S. and its allies, including Japan.”
He noted that the Kremlin, for its part, wants to show that the country’s military is powerful enough to flex its muscle elsewhere despite the campaign in Ukraine.
“The Russian leadership demonstrates that everything goes according to plan and the country and its military have resources to conduct the maneuvers along with the special military operation,” Gabuyev said.
The exercise continues a series of joint war games by Russia and China in recent years, including naval drills and patrols by long-range bombers over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. Last year, Russian troops for the first time deployed to Chinese territory for joint maneuvers.
China’s participation in the drills “aims to deepen pragmatic and friendly cooperation between the militaries of the participating countries, enhance the level of strategic cooperation among all participating parties, and enhance the ability to jointly respond to various security threats,” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Tan Kefei said last week.
Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have developed strong personal ties to bolster a “strategic partnership” between the former Communist rivals as they both are locked in rivalry with the U.S.
Even though Moscow and Beijing in the past rejected the possibility of forging a military alliance, Putin has said that such a prospect can’t be ruled out. He also has noted that Russia has been sharing highly sensitive military technologies with China that helped significantly bolster its defense capability.
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Zimbabwe Moves 2,500 Wild Animals Due to Climate Change
A helicopter herds thousands of impalas into an enclosure. A crane hoists sedated upside-down elephants into trailers. Hordes of rangers drive other animals into metal cages and a convoy of trucks starts a journey of about 700 kilometers to take the animals to their new home.
Zimbabwe has begun moving more than 2,500 wild animals from a southern reserve to one in the country’s north to rescue them from drought, as the ravages of climate change replace poaching as the biggest threat to wildlife.
About 400 elephants, 2,000 impalas, 70 giraffes, 50 buffaloes, 50 wildebeest, 50 zebras, 50 elands, 10 lions and a pack of 10 wild dogs are among the animals being moved from Zimbabwe’s Save Valley Conservancy to three conservancies in the north — Sapi, Matusadonha and Chizarira — in one of southern Africa’s biggest live animal capture and translocation exercises.
“Project Rewild Zambezi,” as the operation is called, is moving the animals to an area in the Zambezi River valley to rebuild the wildlife populations there.
It’s the first time in 60 years that Zimbabwe has embarked on such a mass internal movement of wildlife. Between 1958 and 1964, when the country was white-minority-ruled Rhodesia, more than 5,000 animals were moved in what was called “Operation Noah.” That operation rescued wildlife from the rising water caused by the construction of a massive hydro-electric dam on the Zambezi River that created one of the world’s largest man-made lakes, Lake Kariba.
This time it’s the lack of water that has made it necessary to move wildlife as their habitat has become parched by prolonged drought, said Tinashe Farawo, spokesperson for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.
The parks agency issued permits to allow the animals to be moved to avert “a disaster from happening,” said Farawo.
“We are doing this to relieve pressure. For years we have fought poaching and just as we are winning that war, climate change has emerged as the biggest threat to our wildlife,” Farawo told The Associated Press.
“Many of our parks are becoming overpopulated and there is little water or food. The animals end up destroying their own habitat, they become a danger unto themselves and they encroach neighboring human settlements for food resulting in incessant conflict,” he said.
One option would be culling to reduce the numbers of wildlife, but conservation groups protest that such killings are cruel. Zimbabwe last did culling in 1987, said Farawo.
The effects of climate change on wildlife is not isolated to Zimbabwe. Across Africa, national parks that are home to myriad wildlife species such as lions, elephants and buffaloes are increasingly threatened by below-average rainfall and new infrastructure projects. Authorities and experts say drought has seriously threatened species like rhinos, giraffes and antelopes as it reduces the amount of food available.
For example, a recent study conducted in South Africa’s Kruger National Park linked extreme weather events to the loss of plants and animals, unable to cope with the drastic conditions and lack of water due to longer dry spells and hotter temperatures.
The mass movement is supported by the Great Plains Foundation, a non-profit organization that works “to conserve and expand natural habitats in Africa through innovative conservation initiatives,” according to its website. The organization is working with the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, local experts, the University of Washington-Seattle’s Center for Environmental Forensic Science and Oxford University’s Department of Zoology, according to the website.
One of the new homes for the animals moved in Zimbabwe is Sapi Reserve. the privately run 280,000-acre private concession is east of Mana Pools National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its splendid setting along the Zambezi River that forms the border between Zimbabwe with Zambia.
Sapi “is the perfect solution for many reasons,” Great Plains Chief Executive Officer Dereck Joubert said on the foundation’s website.
“This reserve forms the middle-Zambezi biosphere, totaling 1.6 million acres,” wrote Joubert. “From the 1950s until we took it over in 2017, decades of hunting had decimated wildlife populations in Sapi Reserve. We are rewilding and restoring the wild back to what it once was.”
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Waterborne Diseases Spread Among Flood Victims in Pakistan
Pakistani health officials on Thursday reported an outbreak of waterborne diseases in areas hit by recent record-breaking flooding, as authorities stepped up efforts to ensure the provision of clean drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people who lost their homes in the disaster.
Diarrhea, skin diseases and eye infections are spreading at relief camps set up by the government across the country. More than 90,000 diarrhea cases were reported from one of the worst-hit provinces, Sindh, in the past 24 hours, according to a report released by the health officials.
The latest development comes a day after Pakistan and the World Health Organization raised concern over the spread of waterborne diseases among flood victims. Pakistan blames climate change for unusually early and heavy monsoon rains, which since June have caused flash floods that have killed 1,191 people and affected 33 million people. About a million homes have also been damaged or destroyed.
Floodwaters continued to recede in most of the country, but many districts in southern Sindh province remained underwater.
Nearly half a million flood-displaced people are living in relief camps. In Sindh province, thousands of medical camps have been set up in flood-stricken areas to treat victims, said Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, the provincial health minister. Mobile medical units have also been deployed. The World Health Organization says it is increasing surveillance for acute diarrhea, cholera and other communicable diseases and providing medical supplies to health facilities.
Doctors say initially they were initially seeing mostly patients traumatized by the flooding but are now treating thousands of people suffering from diarrhea, skin infections and other waterborne ailments. Many pregnant women living in flood-affected areas were also exposed to risks.
According to the U.N. Population Fund, 6.4 million flood victims in Pakistan need humanitarian assistance. It said about 650,000 pregnant women in flood-affected areas, including 73,000 expected to deliver in the next month, need maternal health services.
Meanwhile, rescuers, backed by the military, continued operations to evacuate marooned people to safer places. Rescuers are mostly using boats, but helicopters are also flying to evacuate stranded people from those areas where bridges and roads were destroyed, making it difficult to evacuate people and deliver food to them.
Days ago, Pakistan and the United Nations issued an appeal for $160 million in emergency funding to Pakistan. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday took to Twitter, thanking the United Arab Emirates for delivering the first tranche of relief goods worth $50 million. He also thanked the United States for announcing $30 million in aid.
So far, several countries, including Turkey, China, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, have sent planeloads of aid to flood victims in Pakistan. According to initial government estimates, the devastation caused $10 billion in damages.
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IMF Agrees to Provide Crisis-Hit Sri Lanka $2.9 Billion
The International Monetary Fund said Thursday it has reached a staff-level agreement with Sri Lanka to provide $2.9 billion over four years to help salvage the country from its economic crisis.
An IMF team visiting Sri Lanka said in a statement that the preliminary agreement is subject to approval from the agency’s management and executive board “contingent on the implementation by the authorities of prior actions, and on receiving financing assurances from Sri Lanka’s official creditors and making a good faith effort to reach a collaborative agreement with private creditors.”
Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis in recent memory with acute shortages of essentials like fuel, medicines and food because of serious foreign currency shortages.
The island nation has suspended repayment of nearly $7 billion in foreign debt due for this year. The country’s total foreign debt amounts to more than $51 billion of which $28 billion has to be repaid by 2028.
The IMF said Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to contract by 8.7% and inflation has exceeded 60%.
“Against this backdrop, the authorities’ program, supported by the Fund, would aim to stabilize the economy, protect the livelihoods of the Sri Lankan people, and prepare the ground for economic recovery and promoting sustainable and inclusive growth,” it said.
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UN Inspectors Set to Start Work at Ukraine Nuclear Plant
U.N. nuclear inspectors expect to begin their work Thursday at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, assessing safety and security matters amid international concern that fighting in the area could endanger the facility.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi told reporters there has been “increased military activity, including this morning,” near the plant.
“But weighing the pros and cons and having come so far, we are not stopping,” Grossi said.
Ukraine and Russia have repeatedly accused each other of shelling the area near the power plant, the largest nuclear facility in Europe and a key source of energy for Ukraine.
That continued Thursday, with Russia saying Ukraine sent a team of troops to try to seize the plant, while Ukraine said Russian forces shelled the route the IAEA team would travel to get to the site.
The company that oversees Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, Enerhoatom, said Russian shelling led the Zaporizhzhia plant’s emergency protection system to shut down one of its reactors.
Grossi said he expects his team’s initial work to last a few days and that he hopes to establish a permanent presence.
With the nuclear plant in the midst of a war zone, world leaders have expressed fears it could be damaged and result in a radiation disaster like that at Ukraine’s Chernobyl plant in 1986.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Wednesday reiterated his call for Russia to fully demilitarize the area around the plant.
“They are playing games. They are gambling with the nuclear security,” Borrell said. “We cannot play war games in the neighborhood of a site like this.”
Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder welcomed the presence of the IAEA team and called on Russia to enable them to do their work at the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Ryder also announced U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will lead a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Sept. 8 at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Ryder said the meeting, the group’s fifth, would bring together defense ministers and senior military officials from 50 nations to discuss the Ukraine conflict and coordination for Ukraine aid.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Wednesday there would be an announcement in the coming days about “future security assistance” for Ukraine on top of the $13 billion already pledged by the United States.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Africa Urged to Propose Action on Climate at Conference
Africa’s nations must develop strategies to address climate change, which poses an existential threat to the continent’s megacities, Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba said at the third Africa Climate Week conference.
African officials and experts should sharpen the positions they will present at the 27th annual United Nations climate conference to be held in Egypt in November, said Bongo.
The third African climate meeting is bringing together more than 1,000 government officials and stakeholders in Gabon’s capital Libreville. They are working to form strong African regional climate responses.
“Climate change is a profound challenge in Africa and a great challenge of our time, amplifying existing social, political and economic inequalities,” Patricia Scotland, secretary-general of the Commonwealth group of former British colonies, said to the meeting.
The African climate week comes as the continent reels from several extreme weather events such as drought in East Africa and the Horn of Africa, sandstorms and extreme heat in West Africa’s Sahel region, and destructive flash floods, storm surges including cyclones in central, western and southern Africa.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who will host the upcoming U.N. conference, lamented that promises made to African countries to help them fight climate change have not been fulfilled.
“The international community is lagging behind in mitigation, adaptation and finance. Several pledges on mitigation and adaptation finance celebrated in Glasgow are yet to be delivered,” said Shoukry.
He said the “backtracking on commitments by many developed countries is a matter of concern” for many African countries. “The delayed delivery of climate finance continues to affect Africa’s efforts to contribute to the global effort against climate change,” he said.
The African climate week conference will discuss other critical concerns of the continent including food security, carbon markets, climate migrants, and coastal resilience. Climate early warning systems, integrated water management to address scarcity and international cooperation to boost climate action are also issues to be examined.
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Journalists Reflect on Gorbachev Legacy
As the world marks the passing of former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, VOA’s Kane Farabaugh shares the thoughts of international journalists and his own memories of what it was like to report on the international statesman.
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Why China’s Leaders Think Gorbachev Took Wrong Path
The death of the Soviet Union’s last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, whose reforms led to the disintegration of the former communist giant in 1991, is seen by many in China as a reminder to avoid the same fate as its neighbor.
Gorbachev, who died Tuesday at 91, is lauded in China for normalizing Sino-Soviet relations, paving the way for solid ties between the two countries in subsequent years. But Beijing also blames him for bringing about the dissolution of its ally, the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
While the West saw Gorbachev as a brave hero who brought much needed democratic reforms to his country and freed the Soviet satellite states to be independent, China sees him as a weak leader who failed his country.
Both countries were at a crossroad in the late 1980s. The Soviet Union’s economy was near collapse and changes were urgently needed; China’s people were yearning for political reforms after decades of poverty and political turmoil.
Whereas Gorbachev allowed political reforms, China’s then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping crushed protesters and put reformist General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Zhao Ziyang under house arrest.
At that time and even now, China thinks it made the right decision.
“Back in the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping believed Mr. Gorbachev got the perestroika (restructuring) wrong,” said Victor Gao, a former interpreter for Deng. He is currently a professor at China’s Soochow University and vice president of the Center for China and Globalization. “Gorbachev was pushing political reform ahead of economic reform; China under Deng was promoting economic reform ahead of political reform.”
Gorbachev loosened control over not only the USSR’s state-controlled economy but also its political society, leading eventually to satellite states such as Latvia and Lithuania and later Eastern European countries splitting off and chaos in the Russian economy.
To Deng, this was not a smart move.
“Deng believed Gorbachev got the priorities and the sequence wrong. By the end of the day, what matters the most is whether you can bring bread and butter to the table for the people,” Gao said.
Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor of international relations at the International Christian University in Japan, said the Soviet Union’s collapse led China’s leadership to harden its commitment to socialism.
To make sure that socialist principles were sustainable, Deng opened up the Chinese economy, starting by setting up special economic zones to grow prosperity, Nagy said.
His successor, Jiang Zemin, allowed the country’s growing number of capitalists to join the Chinese Communist Party. Current leader Xi Jinping, meanwhile, has campaigned to root out corruption to maintain the legitimacy of the party.
Today, China is much wealthier than it was in the 1980s and is soon to become the world’s biggest economy, whereas Russia still suffers serious economic problems.
The two countries’ different fates also may be because of their “very different” political systems, Nagy said.
“Russia today is a kleptocracy, it’s very few men and it’s always men who run the economy, it’s like a mafia state. They don’t have centralized control and a centralized state. It’s very corrupt,” Nagy said.
In China, the Chinese Communist Party has been able to exert centralized control to govern effectively, he said.
“Whatever you can say about the CCP, in China, 800 million people have been pulled out of poverty, they have really good infrastructure, a lot of people are well off, and this is due to relatively good governance of the party,” Nagy said.
Critics argue that China risks eventual collapse, given problems such as an unhealthy property market, a slowing economy and disruptions from its zero-COVID policy that has led to major cities being locked down.
However, a former Taiwanese official who has dealt with China believes that regardless of the challenges China may face, it is impossible for Chinese leaders to ever accept the disintegration of their country as Gorbachev did.
“Chinese people always have a sense that their country must be unified, it can’t be split for whatever reason. This mindset goes back to the first emperor who unified China. This feeling of unification is very strong among Chinese people,” he said. “The Soviet state on the other hand was made up of many countries. Their views of one nation are not so strong.
“China definitely wouldn’t let Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan split off,” added the former official, who requested anonymity to avoid problems ahead of upcoming local elections in Taiwan.
It is unclear whether China’s growing economy and attendant problems will ever lead to the kind of political reforms that Gorbachev fostered, he said.
Nagy also questions whether China will ever move toward the kind of political reforms initiated by Gorbachev.
“In the Chinese context, I’m not sure a democratic system will be able to deal with all their challenges and manage the stable economic growth without the current control of the state,” he said. “Something more fractious like Taiwanese democracy could create problems in the internal stability in the Chinese context.
“I don’t think any political system can deal with the challenges in China today: demographics, environmental problems, productivity problems in economy, quality of economic growth, debt, water security, food security, selected diversification from Chinese supply chains.”
At the end of the day, Gao said, the Chinese leadership’s top priority is maintaining political stability.
“The collapse of the USSR under Mr. Gorbachev has been closely studied and analyzed by China. China has been successful in navigating through more than four decades of reform and opening to the outside world,” Gao said.
“However … maintaining political stability has always been a most important task. … China believes reform needs to be steady, but not hasty; gradual, but not in one stroke. Stability needs to be protected at all cost,” Gao said.
“China will continue to push for greater reform and opening to the outside world, in building a unique system of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
In response to Gorbachev’s death, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Wednesday: “Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev made positive contribution to the normalization of relations between China and the Soviet Union. We mourn his passing and extend our condolences to his family.”
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News Outlet in Malta Battles 40 Lawsuits Over Records Request
When Caroline Muscat filed Freedom of Information requests in Malta to access public contracts and payments to the director of a prominent media company, the agencies in Malta told her the information “does not exist.”
Muscat, founder and editor of a small independent news website called The Shift, appealed. After investigating, the Data Protection Commission ruled in her favor, ordering the agencies in July 2021 to share the information.
Instead, 40 government ministries and agencies sued The Shift, appealing the ruling.
Some of the lawsuits alleged that The Shift’s requests, filed in December 2020, amounted to harassment of officials, the news website reported.
“This is nothing more than an attempt to dissect our work and cripple us financially,” Muscat told VOA.
To fight the cases, the website needs to raise $40,185 — half of its yearly operational budget.
“We are a community-funded newsroom, and having to raise this amount of money in such a short period of time is close to impossible,” Muscat said.
The Maltese Embassy did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.
Legal fight
The use of mass lawsuits — known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPPs — to target journalists is not new.
At the time of her death in October 2017, the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was facing 48 libel cases — five criminal and 43 civil.
Many were filed by government officials, including former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who is unrelated to The Shift founder.
The Council of Europe criticized authorities for not immediately dismissing the cases after a car bomb killed Galizia, who came to prominence reporting on political corruption in Malta.
But the tactic is not confined to Malta. Over a decade, 570 cases of SLAPPs have been recorded in Europe, with the number increasing every year, according to data collected by the nongovernmental Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) and Amsterdam Law Clinics.
Oliver Money-Kyrle, head of Europe advocacy and programs at the International Press Institute, described SLAPPs as legal action “with the intent not of winning the case, but with the intent of silencing the person and intimidating them so they either settle out of court, or they withdraw what is being published.”
Corinne Vella of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation — a nonprofit set up after her sister Galizia’s death — said the journalist’s experience aligned with this apparent lack of intent to win the cases.
“Eventually, the cases collapsed because [the plaintiffs] never turned up in court,” Vella said of the lawsuits against Galizia. “So, very clearly, they found excuses just to harass her.”
With The Shift’s case, Vella said it appeared to be “an orchestrated attempt to prevent any information from being accessed by The Shift and being made public.”
SLAPPs are “very effective” in hindering journalists’ work, according to Vella, because of how exhausting, expensive and time-consuming it can be to fend off so many cases.
“It makes you a target in more ways than one because once you’ve hit so many lawsuits, people can start to think that you’ve actually done something wrong,” Vella said. “And this certainly was the case for Daphne.”
Resource drain
The Shift has argued that its freedom-of-information requests are important to the public interest because they concern the administration of public funds. Since the 40 lawsuits were filed, 12 rulings have been issued, all in favor of the news website.
But those rulings are being appealed.
“You have 40 government agencies — and we’re talking 40 to 60 lawyers over there — that the government is paying to fight an individual newsroom,” Muscat said. “Why? Simply because it does not want to abide by, first of all, the Freedom of Information Act — its own legislation — and two, government-appointed bodies that have already ruled in our favor.”
The rise of SLAPPs in Europe has led to a heightened awareness of the lack of legislative safeguards against such practices.
Since Galizia’s killing, media groups and some members of the European Parliament have advocated for EU-wide legislation protecting journalists from SLAPPs.
In April, the European Commission proposed an anti-SLAPP directive that would allow judges to quickly dismiss such cases.
“[The experiences of] both The Shift and Daphne show very, very clearly just how important it is to have protection mechanisms built into law,” Vella said. “It’s not a matter of tinkering with existing legislation and adding clauses and provisions. There has to be a law that comprehensively protects people from abusive lawsuits.”
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