As the war in Ukraine drags on, Ukrainian civilians are coping the best they can. For hundreds, that means attending special military centers to learn how to fight. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. Videographer: Pavel Suhodolskiy
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Month: August 2024
Germany’s president approves date for next year’s national election
Berlin — Germany’s next national election has been set for Sept. 28, 2025. Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he will run for a second term, but his party and the others in his three-party coalition have seen their popularity decline sharply as a result of constant infighting.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s office said Friday that the head of state has signed off on the government’s recommendation and formally set the date of the election for the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. The Bundestag then elects the chancellor, after weeks or sometimes months of coalition negotiations.
Scholz has run a three-party coalition of his center-left Social Democrats with the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats since December 2021. The alliance, which brings together parties that weren’t traditionally allies, has become notorious for frequent infighting and on several occasions has reopened hard-fought policy agreements.
Last week, its leaders agreed on details of the 2025 budget, weeks after an initial deal got bogged down in a new dispute that further damaged the government’s image.
Elections to the European Parliament in June produced dismal results for the governing parties. They brought a clear win for the mainstream conservative opposition bloc, the Union, and a second-place finish for the far-right Alternative for Germany.
The Union, which led Germany for 16 years until 2021 under former Chancellor Angela Merkel, hasn’t yet chosen its challenger to Scholz in the 2025 election. It plans to do so after three state elections over the next month in the formerly communist east, a region in which Alternative for Germany is particularly strong.
Germany is the most populous member of the European Union and has Europe’s biggest economy.
Elections have to be held between 46 and 48 months after a parliamentary term begins. The last one was held on Sept. 26, 2021.
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Cholera spreads as Sudan grapples with rains and displacement
Port Sudan — For the second consecutive year Sudan is in the grip of a cholera outbreak that has left at least 28 people dead in the last month as rains fall in areas crammed with those fleeing the country’s 16-month-old war, officials said.
Since July 22, when the current wave began, 658 cases of cholera have been recorded across five states, World Health Organization (WHO) country director Shible Sahbani told Reuters in Port Sudan.
With much of the country’s health infrastructure collapsed or destroyed and staffing thinned by displacement, 4.3% of cases have resulted in deaths, a high rate compared to other outbreaks, Sahbani said.
Some 200,000 are at high risk of falling ill, he said.
The war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises and displaced more than 10 million people inside Sudan and beyond its borders.
The country is dealing with a total of five concurrent disease outbreaks include dengue fever and measles.
The RSF has advanced across swathes of Sudan, where people have been cut off from aid as the army has withheld access and RSF soldiers loot supplies and hospitals. Efforts to deliver aid to the western region of Darfur have been complicated by rains.
International experts have determined that there is a famine in Darfur’s Zamzam camp, an area flooded in the rains and highly susceptible to cholera.
About 12,000 cases and more than 350 deaths were registered in the previous cholera wave between October 2023 and May 2024, health minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said, adding that there had been no major outbreak in the nine years before the war.
The current outbreak is centered in Kassala and Gedaref states, which host 1.2 million displaced people.
In Gedaref, a Reuters reporter filmed pools of water attracting insects and large ponds of stagnant rain water mixing with refuse. A local official said that the vast majority of diseases were caused by insects, poor water quality, and sewage.
Many people fleeing raids by the RSF shelter in crowded, makeshift displacement centers, where lavatories have overflowed as heavier-than-usual rains continue to fall. Cholera is transmitted from food and water contaminated with infected feces and thrives in such conditions.
Sahbani said that states like Khartoum and Gezira, largely controlled by the RSF, had also seen cholera cases, while states in the Kordofan and Darfur regions could likely see outbreaks.
“The challenge is getting supplies to the areas we need them. Due to the rainy season many roads are not usable now, but also there are security constraints and bureaucratic constraints,” he said.
On Friday, he told reporters in a virtual briefing that the International Coordinated Group for vaccine allocation (ICG) had approved delivery of 455,000 cholera vaccine doses to Sudan, some “good news in the middle of this horrible crisis.”
Ibrahim said the army-aligned government had used “unorthodox measures” including air drops to try to get vaccines and supplies into those RSF-controlled areas as well as isolated army-controlled areas.
Both officials emphasized that the need in Sudan far outweighed the aid effort, particularly as the U.N.’s humanitarian appeal for Sudan is only about one-third funded.
your ad hereDeath toll from bandit attack on police in Pakistan rises to 12
LAHORE, Pakistan — The death toll from Pakistan’s deadliest bandit attack on police rose to 12 after one of the wounded officers died at a hospital in the eastern province of Punjab as police pursued the bandits believed to be behind the attack, officials said Friday.
Thursday’s attack with guns and rocket-propelled grenades also wounded eight officers. It took place in the Kacha area in Rahim Yar Khan district, which is known for hideouts along the Indus River where hundreds of heavily armed bandits evade police.
Punjab police chief Usman Anwar said police had killed a bandit leader believed to have been behind the attack named Bashir Shar, and wounded five others, as they pursued the gang. In a statement, Anwar said the operation against the robbers is still ongoing, and it will continue until the last bandit is eliminated in the province.
Senior police and government officials will attend the funerals of slain officers later Friday.
Bandits often rob people traveling on highways in Punjab and elsewhere in the country. Some areas in Punjab are so dangerous that people avoid traveling after sunset to avoid getting robbed, though police have cleared most of the so-called “no-go areas.”
Abdullah Khan, a senior defense analyst and managing director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, said the bandits were armed with guns, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and pistols.
“These weapons were smuggled to Pakistan from Afghanistan in recent years, and are available to the robbers too,” he told The Associated Press.
According to police, the bandits ambushed police when one of the vehicles carrying officers broke down while passing through flooded farm fields. Pakistan has been lashed by monsoon rains since July.
The attack was denounced by President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who released statements to express sorrow and described the slain officers as martyrs.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in violence, mostly blamed on militants, in recent years but the death of so many police officers in one attack in unprecedented.
Police said the robbers took advantage of the darkness to attack police. In a statement, they said that the “morale of the police is high, and such cowardly actions by robbers cannot lower the morale of the police.”
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Second set of giant panda cubs born in Berlin
BERLIN — The Berlin Zoo announced Friday that longtime resident giant panda Meng Meng has given birth to twins — for a second time.
The cubs were born on Thursday, the zoo said in a statement. They were born only 11 days after ultrasound scans showed that Meng Meng, 11, was pregnant. Their sex has not yet been determined “with certainty.”
“Now it’s time to keep your fingers crossed for the critical first few days,” the zoo said. The cubs are tiny, weighing just 169 grams and 136 grams respectively, and are about 14 centimeters long.
As with other large bears, giant pandas are born deaf, blind and pink. Their black-and-white panda markings only develop later.
“I am relieved that the two were born healthy,” zoo director Andreas Knieriem said. “The little ones make a lively impression and mom Meng Meng takes great care of her offspring.”
The zoo said that giant pandas usually only raise one cub when they give birth to twins, so it will “actively support” Meng Meng’s cub care in cooperation with two experts from China’s Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding who are in the German capital.
“With around 20 births a year, they have much more experience and are better able to assess development,” panda curator Florian Sicks said.
The cubs will alternate being with their mother every two to three hours to drink milk and are otherwise being cared for in an incubator donated by a Berlin hospital.
Meng Meng and male panda Jiao Qing arrived in Berlin in 2017. In August 2019, Meng Meng gave birth to male twins Pit and Paule, also known by the Chinese names Meng Xiang and Meng Yuan, the first giant pandas born in Germany.
The twins were a star attraction in Berlin, but they were flown to China in December — a trip that was contractually agreed from the start but delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. China gifted friendly nations with its unofficial mascot for decades as part of a “panda diplomacy” policy. The country now loans pandas to zoos on commercial terms.
Giant pandas have difficulty breeding and births are particularly welcomed. There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and a few hundred in captivity worldwide.
Meng Meng was artificially inseminated on March 26. Female pandas are fertile only for a few days per year at the most.
The new arrivals and their mother won’t be on show to the public for the time being — but visitors can still see Jiao Qing, 14, as male pandas don’t get involved in rearing cubs.
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Russia accuses Ukraine of trying to attack Kursk nuclear power plant with drone
moscow — Russia accused Ukraine on Friday of trying to attack the Kursk nuclear power station overnight in what it called an act of “nuclear terrorism,” days before the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog is due to visit the site.
The Ukrainian defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation, the second that Moscow has made in two days.
The nuclear plant is located in the Kursk region of western Russia, where fierce fighting has raged since Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion on Aug. 6, hitting back as Russian troops advance in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its air defense units had shot down three Ukrainian drones overnight in the Kursk region and spoke of thwarting a Ukrainian attempt to carry out “a terrorist attack” against Russian facilities.
Russian state news agency TASS quoted an unnamed source as saying a drone had been shot down near a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at the Kursk power plant. Reuters could not independently confirm details of the alleged incident.
TASS quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova as saying it was an “act of nuclear terrorism” that required an immediate response from the U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, is due to visit the power station next week. He has appealed for maximum restraint to avoid a nuclear accident.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Thursday of trying to attack the facility, and said Moscow had informed the IAEA. He did provided no details or evidence of a Ukrainian attack.
Ukraine’s August 6 incursion into Kursk, in which thousands of Ukrainian troops punched through Russia’s border, is the biggest into Russia by a foreign power since World War Two and Moscow was caught by surprise.
Kyiv has said it has carved out a buffer zone from an area that Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, has used to pound targets in Ukraine.
Fighting around 30 kilometers from the nuclear plant has raged since then as Russian troops battle to dislodge the Ukrainian soldiers who have sought to consolidate and expand the territory they control.
The plant has four reactors, of which two are operational. Construction of two more reactors began in 2018.
Russian state nuclear firm Rosenergoatom said on Friday that unit number 4 at the plant would be disconnected from the grid on Sunday for what it called “scheduled preventive maintenance” lasting 59 days. It said the work would involve modernization and extending the service life of equipment.
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Indian PM Modi in Kyiv for talks with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy
KYIV — India’s Narendra Modi arrived in wartime Kyiv on Friday to hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the first trip by an Indian prime minister to Ukraine since Kyiv gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The visit comes at a volatile juncture in the war in Ukraine, with Ukrainian forces still in Russia’s western Kursk region following their incursion on Aug. 6 and Russian troops grinding out slow but steady advances in Ukraine’s east.
The visit, which follows a trip by Modi to Moscow in July, is important for Western-backed Kyiv, which has been trying to nurture diplomatic relations in the Global South in its efforts to secure a fair settlement to end the war.
“Reached Kyiv earlier this morning. The Indian community accorded a very warm welcome,” Modi wrote on X. The Ukrainian railways company showed footage of him stepping off a train carriage and being received by Ukrainian officials.
In the run-up to the trip he said he was looking forward to sharing “perspectives on peaceful resolution of the ongoing Ukraine conflict”.
Modi’s visit to Moscow last month coincided with a heavy Russian missile strike on Ukraine that hit a children’s hospital. The attack prompted Modi to use emotive language to deliver an implicit rebuke to Putin at their summit.
But the trip elicited fierce criticism from Zelenskyy who said it was a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day”.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in the Ukrainian president’s office, told Reuters Modi’s visit to Kyiv was significant because New Delhi “really has a certain influence” over Moscow.
“It’s extremely important for us to effectively build relations with such countries, to explain to them what the correct end to the war is — and that it is also in their interests,” he said.
India, which has traditionally had close economic and defense ties with Moscow, has publicly criticized the deaths of innocent people in the war.
But it has also strengthened its economic ties with Moscow after Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia and cut trade relations with it over the invasion.
Indian refiners which rarely bought Russian oil in the past have emerged as Moscow’s top clients for sea-borne oil since Russia poured troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Russian oil accounts for over two-fifths of India’s oil imports.
Peace vision
Ukraine has said it hopes to bring together a second international summit later this year to advance its vision of peace and involve representatives from Russia.
The first summit in Switzerland that pointedly excluded Russia in June attracted scores of delegations, including one from India, but not from China, the world’s second largest economy.
“Lasting peace can only be achieved through options that are acceptable to both parties. And it can only be a negotiated settlement,” Tanmaya Lal, secretary [West] in the Indian foreign ministry, told reporters.
“This is an important visit that is expected to catalyze our ties in a whole range of sectors,” Lal said, listing economic and business links, agriculture, infrastructure, health and education, pharmaceuticals, defense and culture.
Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kyiv-based political analyst, said he expected no breakthrough proposals to be made to end the war during the trip by Modi, who visited Poland on Thursday.
For there to be an attempt to negotiate, the military situation has to stabilize and the presidential election must be held in the United States, a close ally of Ukraine, he said.
He said the visit was important for India to demonstrate it was “not on Russia’s side” and that Kyiv wanted to normalize relations after Modi’s Moscow trip.
your ad hereNATO air base in Germany raises security level due to ‘potential threat’
berlin — The NATO air base in the German town of Geilenkirchen has raised its security level “based on intelligence information indicating a potential threat,” it said late Thursday.
“All non-mission essential staff have been sent home as a precautionary measure,” the base said in a statement on the social media platform X, without giving details. “The safety of our staff is our top priority. Operations continue as planned.”
A spokesperson for the base in Geilenkirchen said the threat level had been raised to Charlie, the second highest of four states of alert, which is defined as “an incident (that) has occurred or intelligence has been received indicating that some form of terrorist action against NATO organizations or personnel is highly likely.”
It was the second time the base housing NATO’s fleet of AWACS surveillance planes raised the security level after an incident last week when a military base in nearby Cologne was temporarily sealed off as authorities investigated possible sabotage of the water supply.
The same day, the base in Geilenkirchen also reported an attempted trespassing incident that prompted a full sweep of the premises.
With regard to the suspected sabotage at the base in Cologne, the German military later gave the all-clear, saying test results had shown that the tap water was not contaminated.
NATO has warned in the past of a campaign of hostile activities staged by Russia, including acts of sabotage and cyberattacks. Russia has regularly accused NATO of threatening its security.
In June, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Western military alliance saw a pattern evolving and that recent attacks were a result of Russian intelligence becoming more active.
Several incidents on NATO territory have been treated as suspicious by analysts in recent years, among them the severance of a vital undersea cable connecting Svalbard to mainland Norway in 2022.
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Volcano in Iceland erupts for sixth time since December
COPENHAGEN, denmark — A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Thursday, the meteorological office said, spraying red-hot lava and smoke in its sixth outbreak since December.
“An eruption has begun. Work is under way to find out the location of the recordings,” the Icelandic Met Office, which is tasked with monitoring volcanoes, said in a statement.
The total length of the fissure was about 3.9 kilometers (2.42 miles) and had extended by 1.5 kilometers (.93 mile) in about 40 minutes, it said.
Livestreams from the volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula showed glowing hot lava shooting from the ground.
Studies had shown magma accumulating underground, prompting warnings of new volcanic activity in the area just south of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik.
The most recent eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula, home to 30,000 people or nearly 8% of the country’s total population, ended on June 22 after spewing fountains of molten rock for 24 days.
The eruptions show the challenge faced by the island nation of nearly 400,000 people as scientists warn that the Reykjanes peninsula could face repeated outbreaks for decades or even centuries.
Since 2021, there have been nine eruptions on the peninsula, following the reactivation of geological systems that had been dormant for 800 years.
In response, authorities have constructed barriers to redirect lava flows away from critical infrastructure, including the Svartsengi power plant, the Blue Lagoon outdoor spa and the town of Grindavik.
Flights were unaffected, Reykjavik’s Keflavik Airport said on its web page, but the nearby Blue Lagoon luxury geothermal spa and hotel said it had shut down and evacuated its guests.
Volcanic outbreaks in the Reykjanes peninsula are so-called fissure eruptions, which do not usually disrupt air traffic as they do not cause large explosions or significant dispersal of ash into the stratosphere.
Iceland, which is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Kentucky, boasts more than 30 active volcanoes, making the north European island a prime destination for volcano tourism.
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UAE accepts Taliban ambassador’s credentials
islamabad — The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday accepted the credentials of the Taliban’s ambassador to the oil-rich Gulf Arab state, the biggest diplomatic coup for Afghanistan’s rulers, who are not officially recognized as the country’s legitimate government.
The development, the first Taliban ambassador since one was appointed to China last December, underscored the international divide over how to deal with the government now in Kabul.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul confirmed the news about Badruddin Haqqani in a post on the social media platform X. The ministry did not respond to requests for information about Haqqani, who was previously the Taliban’s envoy to the UAE.
Haqqani is not related to the Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who in June met the UAE leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, but he is from his team.
Sirajuddin Haqqani is the current leader of the powerful Haqqani network, a militant movement allied with the Taliban, and a designated global terrorist. He is wanted by the United States for his involvement in deadly attacks and is also on several sanctions lists.
Even though the Taliban remain isolated from the West, they have pursued bilateral ties with major regional powers. Last week, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov arrived in Afghanistan in the highest-level visit by a foreign official since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan three years ago.
The United Nations says that official recognition of the Taliban-run Afghanistan is “nearly impossible” while restrictions on women and girls are in place.
In a separate development Wednesday, a U.N.-appointed rights expert decried the Taliban’s decision to bar him from Afghanistan. The special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has frequently criticized the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls.
Bennett said the Taliban’s announcement that they would no longer grant him access to Afghanistan was “a step backwards and sends a concerning signal” about their engagement with the U.N. and the international community on human rights.
“I urge the Taliban to reverse their decision and reiterate my willingness and availability to travel to Afghanistan,” Bennett said.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Kabul warned that Bennett’s activities were detrimental to the interests of Afghanistan and the Afghan people.
“It was deemed appropriate that Bennett continue his unprofessional conduct from the comfort of his office instead of tiring himself with needless travels,” the spokesperson, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, told The Associated Press in a message.
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Armed men kill at least 13 farmers in Nigeria’s conflict-hit region, official says
ABUJA, Nigeria — Armed men killed at least 13 farmers during an attack in north-central Nigeria, a local official said Thursday.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the killings, which took place Wednesday in the state of Niger.
Akilu Isyaku, a local government official, told the local radio station Crystal FM that herders and kidnappers were suspected in the attack. He suggested the farmers were killed for providing information to intelligence agencies about the movements of the gunmen.
North-central Nigeria has been plagued by fights for control over water and land between nomadic herders and rural farmers. The violence has killed hundreds in the region so far this year.
Once armed with sticks, the two sides now fight with guns that have been smuggled into the country. Both accuse the government of injustice and marginalization, but the clashes have also taken on a religious dimension, giving rise to militias that side with the herders, who are primarily Muslim, or the farmers from Christian communities.
The area is also known as a place of frequent kidnappings. Last week, gunmen abducted at least 20 students during an ambush in Benue state.
Armed groups take advantage of a limited security presence to abduct people during attacks on villages and along major roads. Most victims are released only after the payment of ransoms that sometimes run into the thousands of dollars.
Attacks can go on for hours, with the assailants fleeing before security forces arrive on the scene. Arrests are rare.
In December, assailants killed at least 140 residents during an attack that targeted more than a dozen communities over two days.
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Pakistani YouTuber returns after alleged abduction, draws attention to enforced disappearances
lahore, pakistan — Mystery surrounds the abduction and release three days later of a popular YouTuber who created a satirical song making fun of high electricity bills in Pakistan.
Family members say Aun Ali Khosa was abducted August 14 after his song went viral. Based on a famous patriotic song “Dil Dil Pakistan,” which means “Heart Heart Pakistan,” the satirical version changed the lyric to “Bill Bill Pakistan.”
According to Aun Ali Khosa’s wife, Benish Iqbal, eight or nine masked men arrived at their home in a large car and a pickup truck. She said they entered the house by breaking a window and door and took Khosa with them.
He returned home at midnight three days later and is in fine health, according to the family, but his face shows signs of fatigue, and he is not speaking to anyone.
In a conversation with VOA, Khosa said, “I’m absolutely fine. I do not want to talk about where I was, who took me, or why.”
When VOA asked Khosa if he was fed during his disappearance, he replied, “I don’t want to talk about that.”
Iqbal filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, alleging Khosa was unlawfully detained by law enforcement officers. Authorities so far have not responded to the accusation.
This is not the first incident of apparent disappearance over satirical writing. Earlier this year, Ahmed Farhad, a poet and journalist from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, also went missing. After several days, the police announced his arrest.
Enforced disappearance rising
According to human rights activists, cases of short-term allegedly enforced disappearances across the country have increased in recent years, with a spike since May 9. Most of the “disappeared” do not speak openly about their experiences.
Human rights activist and lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari observes that while enforced disappearances used to be for longer durations, since 2022, there has been an uptick in cases where people are taken for just a few days and then released — marking a troubling new pattern.
“The purpose of making someone disappear for a short period of time is to silence them by intimidation,” Mazari told VOA.
“For example, a journalist could be arrested for a week so he is intimidated and does not publish a story. Or an officer can be kidnapped for allegedly disobeying an ‘illegal’ order,” Mazari added.
Legal expert Khadija Siddiqui believes that Pakistan’s law is clear that if a person commits a crime, he or she is arrested and brought to court within 24 hours. But, she says, some people are picked up even if there is no case against them.
“There is no law in the country for forced disappearance or abduction of people by force,” Siddiqui told VOA.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a nongovernmental human rights organization in Pakistan, has expressed its concern about enforced disappearances and demanded that such persons be recovered as soon as possible.
While talking to VOA, HRCP Chairman Asad Butt said, “Incidents like Aun Ali Khosa show the weakness of the state.”
Legal expert Siddiqui suggests that stricter judicial measures against enforced disappearances could significantly cut down on future incidents.
This story originated in VOA’s Urdu Service.
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Belgian coalition talks in turmoil as chief negotiator quits
brussels — Talks on forming a Belgian coalition government were thrown into turmoil Thursday when the chief negotiator handed his resignation to King Philippe, threatening further political limbo for the country two months after elections.
With its linguistic divide between French and Dutch and a highly complex political system, Belgium has a record of painfully protracted coalition discussions, reaching 541 days back in 2010-11.
Five groups had agreed in mid-July to formal coalition talks led by Flemish conservative Bart De Wever, in the wake of June legislative polls that boosted right-leaning parties.
Usually, the person forming the coalition goes on to become prime minister.
But De Wever, the mayor of Antwerp and head of the N-VA party that holds sway over the Dutch-speaking Flanders region, informed the king during a meeting late Thursday that the talks had fallen apart, largely over taxation.
A palace statement said the king had accepted De Wever’s resignation and would pursue negotiations with the five party leaders himself starting Friday “with a view to forming a government.”
Alongside the N-VA, the other parties involved are the Reformist Movement and Les Engages (The Committed Ones) in French-speaking Wallonia, and the Christian-Democrats and the leftist Vooruit (Onward, formerly the Socialist Party) in Flanders.
Together, the five hold an 81-seat majority in Belgium’s 150-seat parliament.
The difficult talks finally hit a wall after the Reformist Movement apparently rejected a capital gains tax proposed by De Wever as a way to plug the country’s budget deficit — 4.4% of gross domestic product in 2023 — while winning over the left-wing Vooruit.
In a statement, the N-VA acknowledged the failure to win agreement on a budgetary framework for the new coalition including labor market, pension and tax reforms.
“Bart De Wever remains convinced of the need for a government of recovery and reforms in order to protect Flemish prosperity and avoid European sanctions over the excesses of the federal budget,” it said.
Belgium is one of seven European Union countries facing disciplinary action for running a deficit above 3% of GDP, in violation of the bloc’s fiscal rules.
The country’s June 9 elections, conducted the same day as a European Parliament vote across the EU, saw the right and center-right triumphant.
The result was the loss of a parliamentary majority for the outgoing government of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, a Flemish liberal who fronted a seven-party coalition formed after an arduous 493 days back in 2019.
With center-right parties in prime positions across the country, analysts had predicted that finding a deal could take less time than usual, but still at least six months.
For the time being, De Croo remains as a caretaker leader until his successor is named.
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Taliban enact law that silences Afghan women in public, and curbs their freedom
islamabad — Taliban leaders in Afghanistan have ordered fresh limitations on women, forbidding them from singing, reciting poetry or speaking aloud in public and mandating them to keep their faces and bodies covered at all times.
The restrictions are part of a new so-called Vice and Virtue decree published by the Taliban’s Justice Ministry on Wednesday after approval from their reclusive supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, said a ministry spokesman in a video message.
The 35-article document is the first formal declaration of the vice and virtue laws under the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law since they regained power in Afghanistan three years ago.
The decree greatly restricts personal freedoms and religious practices, covering aspects of everyday life such as transportation, music, shaving, celebrations, and women’s behavior and appearance in public.
The rules targeting female members of the Afghan society explained that a woman’s voice is deemed intimate and should not be heard singing, reciting poetry or reading aloud in public. Women also are not allowed to look at men they are not related to by blood or marriage and vice versa.
Under the new law, females must cover their bodies and faces at all times in public to avoid temptation and to avoid tempting others. Their clothing should not be thin, short or tight, it emphasized.
The legal document empowers the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice to enforce these rules across the impoverished, war-torn South Asian country. It can give warnings before imprisoning offenders for durations from one hour to three days, and it also may seize properties as a penalty if considered appropriate.
The actions of the Vice and Virtue Ministry are already under international scrutiny.
The United Nations reported last month that the ministry’s ever-expanding policing of public morality was contributing to a climate of fear and intimidation among Afghans through edicts and the methods used to enforce them.
One of the articles in the legal document released Wednesday bans the publication of images of living beings, which critics fear could further shrink media in Afghanistan, forcing the closure of television channels, digital media and print newspapers. Media outlets are already suffering from Taliban-ordered censorship.
Another article prohibits playing music in public transport, the travel of female passengers unless accompanied by a male guardian, and the mingling of unrelated men and women. Additionally, passengers and drivers are required by law to observe designated prayer times. Men cannot shave beards or trim them to less than a fistful, although the law does not define what qualifies as an “Islamic” hairstyle.
Human rights activists feared the latest restrictions underscore a significant increase in the Taliban’s attempts to enforce their version of Islamic law, especially in suppressing and removing women from public life.
The fundamentalist Taliban have already barred Afghan girls ages 12 and older from attending school and many women from public and private sector jobs, including United Nations agencies. No country has officially recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, mainly over their harsh treatment of women.
On Wednesday, Richard Bennett, the U.N.-appointed special rapporteur on Afghan human rights, confirmed that the Taliban had barred him from visiting the country, calling it a “step backward” and urging the de facto Afghan government to lift the travel ban.
Bennett has taken several trips to Kabul and highlighted in his subsequent reports the Taliban’s sweeping curbs on Afghan women’s access to education, employment and public life at large. He alleged that women and girls under Taliban rule “are being persecuted” based on gender, which he called a crime against humanity.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has defended their travel ban on the U.N. envoy, alleging that Bennett was “spreading propaganda” by providing “misleading” information to the international community.
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Gunmen ambush, kill 11 police officers in eastern Pakistan, say officials
LAHORE, Pakistan — Gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades ambushed a police convoy in eastern Punjab province on Thursday, killing at least 11 officers and wounding seven others, authorities said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the Rahim Yar Khan district. The officers were ambushed while patrolling a deserted area in search of robbers who operate in the region.
Punjabi police said the gunmen were likely robbers. The victims were taken to a nearby hospital.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in violence and attacks in recent years, but such a high number of police casualties in a single attack is rare.
Security forces often carry out operations against bandits in Punjab and in the southern Sindh province, where criminals hide in rural, forested areas and where they have killed several police officers in attacks over the past months.
Thursday’s attack was in the district of Rahim Yar Khan’s area of Kacha, known for robbers’ hideouts along the Indus River, where hundreds of heavily armed bandits evade police.
Police said dozens of bandits launched the attack after one of the police vehicles had apparently broken down while passing through accumulated rainwater along farm fields. Pakistan has been lashed by monsoon rains since July.
Authorities swiftly condemned the Kacha attack, one of the deadliest on police in recent years. President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi released statements denouncing the violence, expressing sorrow and describing the slain officers as martyrs.
Police were ordered to take immediate action against the attackers, and Sharif demanded the best medical care for the wounded officers.
Earlier on Thursday, gunmen opened fire on a school van in Punjab, killing two children and wounding six other people, police said. No one claimed responsibility for that attack.
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UN agencies help in attempts to contain mpox in south, east Africa
Harare, Zimbabwe — The United Nations said Thursday it is working with governments and health officials in Eastern and Southern Africa to contain the outbreak of mpox there.
UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with local partners, are responding to the spread of the new mpox clade 1b variant, said Etleva Kadilli, UNICEF’s regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Kadilli said in a statement that more than 200 confirmed cases have been detected in five countries: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.
Dr. Francis Kasolo, director and head of the WHO at the African Union and U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, told a joint WHO-Africa CDC meeting, “Our collaboration has been instrumental in enhancing surveillance, laboratory capacity and effective deployment of technical capacity to countries. Together we are making progress.”
But, he said, there is still much to be done.
It is imperative that we remain vigilant and proactive in our efforts to combat mpox. This means not only addressing it in the immediate needs, but also investing in long-term strategies that will build resilient health systems capable of withstanding future outbreaks and shocks,” Kasolo said.
Last week, the WHO declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern following a surge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a growing number of other African countries.
An earlier emergency was declared in 2022. The U.N. agency said that one was declared over in May 2023.
Botswana and Zimbabwe are now screening for mpox after their neighbor, South Africa, recorded three deaths from the new strain. Zimbabwe is screening for the viral ailment at all ports of entry.
“We have said all those who present [high fever] and rash should be thoroughly investigated — where they are coming from and for how long they have been there and possible contact with people who have monkey pox,” Zimbabwean Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora said, referring to mpox’s previous name.
“We have kits to do tests for monkey pox,” he said. “So yes, we are on a very high alert. … I know there was a scare a few days ago. Some people were reporting on social media that there were people who had presented with some rash. They thought it was monkey pox. We did not take it for granted. The patient was said to have tested negative.”
Dr. Norman Matara of Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights said that given the country’s poor health care system, keeping mpox out is better than trying to contain it after cases appear.
“It saves the nation a lot of money because treatment is always expensive,” he said. “It also prevents us from unnecessary lockdown restrictions of movements … like what we saw with COVID-19.”
For now, he said, there is no need to panic.
“At the moment we have not recorded any case of mpox. … We just need to increase our health surveillance so that anyone with symptoms can be isolated and they can be screened and any case can be easily identified and minimize the virus spreading in the country,” Matara said.
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa, told VOA this week that the Democratic Republic of Congo was the “epicenter” of mpox. She said front-line health workers in affected areas should be given priority on vaccinations against the ailment.
“The issue of access to vaccines is something which we are working on collectively at the international level,” she said. “This is really a case of negotiating with pharmaceutical companies that are able to produce the vaccine to ensure they scale up their production and increase availability of vaccines.”
Besides a rash, other symptoms of the viral infection can include lesions, muscle aches and swollen lymph glands. Most people fully recover, but some become very ill and die.
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