Month: September 2022

US President Joe Biden hosted Pacific Island leaders at the White House Thursday, offering $810 million of assistance to a region where China is aggressively expanding its influence. The leaders signed the Declaration on US-Pacific Partnership — which covers climate change, security and trade — despite initial discord among summit attendees. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.

Comedian Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, said he was going to leave the program after hosting it for seven years, indicating he wanted to dedicate more time to stand-up comedy.

The 38-year-old comedian — who was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to the United States in 2011 — had big shoes to fill when he took over in 2015 after the exit of longtime host Jon Stewart.

He quickly established himself with his own brand, suited for an era where online influence was often greater than that of content on cable.

His reign on The Daily Show required him to delicately cover some crucial moments in American history, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2021 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.

“I spent two years in my apartment (during COVID-19), not on the road. Stand-up was done, and when I got back out there again, I realized that there’s another part of my life that I want to carry on exploring,” Noah told his studio audience late on Thursday. The Daily Show posted a clip of Noah’s remarks on social media.

“We have laughed together; we have cried together. But after seven years, I feel like it’s time,” Noah said. He ended his remarks by thanking his viewers as his studio audience stood up to applaud him.

Noah, who roasted U.S. politicians and the media at the White House Correspondents Association dinner in April, did not mention his exact departure date in his remarks Thursday. It is not known who would succeed him.

The key to addressing current affairs through a comedic lens lies in a comedian’s intention, Noah said in a 2016 interview with Reuters, adding that he learns from his mistakes.

“I don’t think I would ever have been ready, but that’s when you must do it, you will not be ready,” the comedian told Reuters in the context of having succeeded his legendary predecessor.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris condemned North Korea’s “brutal dictatorship” and “destabilizing” weapons program during a visit Thursday to the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.

North Korea launched ballistic missiles both before and immediately after Harris’ stop at the DMZ, adding to what has already been a record number of North Korean launches this year.

At the Panmunjom Truce Village that straddles North and South Korea, Harris condemned the missile tests, saying they are “clearly a provocation.”

“In the North, we see a brutal dictatorship, rampant human rights violations and an unlawful weapons program that threatens peace and stability,” she said.

Harris earlier Thursday met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who has pushed to improve ties with the United States.

“Our shared goal, the United States and the Republic of Korea, is a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Harris said, using South Korea’s official name.

Harris’ visit is meant to reiterate the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea. About 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950s Korean War, which ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.

At the DMZ, Harris greeted U.S. service members, listened to a briefing by senior military officials, and she peered into the North using large black binoculars — a staple of many DMZ visits by U.S. presidents and vice presidents.

The Panmunjom Truce Village, where the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953, appeared mostly abandoned on the North Korean side, with tall weeds piercing through the concrete sidewalks and steps. The lone activity was three North Korean officials — dressed in white, full-body hazmat suits — who occasionally gazed through a window.

Late Wednesday, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, hours before Harris was to depart for Seoul. About two hours after she left Thursday evening, the North fired two more ballistic missiles, South Korea’s military said.

Harris’ DMZ visit was the final stop on a four-day visit to Asia. On Tuesday, Harris led the U.S. delegation at the state funeral of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.

In Tokyo, Harris also touted the U.S. alliance relationship with Japan, where the United States has about 50,000 troops.

During the trip, U.S. officials repeatedly focused on the U.S. desire to have Japan and South Korea work more closely on common threats such as North Korea.

Seoul-Tokyo ties are regularly strained by disputes related to Japan’s occupation of Korea before World War II.

As Harris landed in Seoul, there were signs of greater cooperation among the three countries. South Korea’s military announced it would soon hold trilateral anti-submarine exercises with Japan and the United States. The exercises, Seoul said, would help counter the North Korean threat.

North Korea has launched 36 ballistic missiles this year, a record number. U.S. and South Korean officials also say the North has completed preparations to conduct its seventh nuclear test.

The Vatican said Thursday it had imposed disciplinary sanctions on Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo in the past two years, following allegations that he sexually abused boys in East Timor during the 1990s.

The Vatican admission came a day after a Dutch magazine, De Groene Amsterdammer, exposed the claims against the revered East Timor independence hero, citing two of Belo’s alleged victims and reporting there were others who hadn’t come forward in East Timor, where the Catholic Church wields enormous influence.

Spokesman Matteo Bruni said the Vatican office that handles sex abuse cases received allegations “concerning the bishop’s behavior” in 2019 and within a year had imposed the restrictions. They included limitations on Belo’s movements and his exercise of ministry, and prohibited him from having voluntary contact with minors or contact with East Timor.

In a statement, Bruni said the sanctions were “modified and reinforced” in November 2021 and that Belo had formally accepted the punishment on both occasions.

The Vatican provided no explanation for why Belo resigned as head of the Roman Catholic church in East Timor two decades early in 2002, and was sent to Mozambique, where he was allowed to work with children.

News of Belo’s behavior sent shock waves through the heavily Catholic, impoverished Southeast Asian nation, where he is a regarded as a hero for fighting to win East Timor’s independence from Indonesian rule.

“We are here also in shock to hear this news,” an official at the archdiocese of Dili in East Timor said Thursday, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Neither the Nobel Committee nor the United Nations immediately responded to requests for comment.

De Groene Amsterdammer said two alleged victims, identified only as Paulo and Roberto, reported being abused by Belo and said other boys were also victims. It said its investigation showed that Belo’s abuse was known to the East Timorese government and to humanitarian and church workers.

“The bishop raped and sexually abused me that night,” Roberto was quoted as telling the magazine. “Early in the morning he sent me away. I was afraid because it was still dark. So I had to wait before I could go home. He also left money for me. That was meant so that I would keep my mouth shut. And to make sure I would come back.”

Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese independence icon Jose Ramos-Horta for campaigning for a fair and peaceful solution to conflict in their home country as it struggled to gain independence from Indonesia, a former Dutch colony.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, in its citation, praised Belo’s courage in refusing to be intimidated by Indonesian forces. The committee noted that while trying to get the United Nations to arrange a plebiscite for East Timor, he smuggled out two witnesses to a bloody 1991 massacre so they could testify to the U.N. human rights commission in Geneva.

Ramos-Horta went on to become president of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony. Upon his return Thursday from the United States, where he addressed the U.N. General Assembly, Ramos-Horta was asked about the allegations against his co-Nobel laureate and deferred to the Vatican.

“I prefer to await further action from the Holy See,” he said.

Belo, who was believed to be living in Portugal, didn’t respond when reached by telephone by Radio Renascença, the private broadcaster of the Portuguese church.

Belo is a priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco, a Roman Catholic religious order that has long had influence at the Vatican. The Portuguese branch of the Salesians said Thursday that it learned “with great sadness and astonishment” of the news.

The branch distanced itself from Belo, saying he hadn’t been linked to the order since he took charge in East Timor. However, Belo is still listed in the 2021 Vatican yearbook by his Salesian initials “SDB” at the end of his name.

“As regards issues covered in the news, we have no knowledge that would allow us to comment,” the Salesian statement said.

It said the Portuguese Salesians took Belo in at the request of their superiors after he left East Timor in 2002 and because he was highly regarded, but said he had done no pastoral work in Portugal.

The Dutch magazine said its research indicated that Belo also abused boys in the 1980s before he became a bishop when he worked at an education center run by the Salesians.

Paulo, now 42, told the Dutch magazine he was abused once by Belo at the bishop’s residence in East Timor’s capital, Dili. He asked to remain anonymous.

“for the privacy and safety of himself and his family,” the magazine said.

“I thought: this is disgusting. I won’t go there anymore,” the magazine quoted him as saying.

Roberto, who also asked to remain anonymous, said he was abused more often, starting when he was about 14 after a religious celebration in his hometown. Roberto later moved to Dili, where the alleged abuse continued at the bishop’s residence, the Dutch magazine reported.

It is unclear whether or when any alleged victims ever came forward to local church, law enforcement or Vatican authorities.

St. John Paul II accepted Belo’s resignation as apostolic administrator of Dili on Nov. 26, 2002, when he was 54. The Vatican announcement at the time cited canon law that allows bishops under 75 to retire for health reasons or for some other “grave” reasons that make them unable to continue.

In 2005, Belo told UCANews, a Catholic news agency, that he resigned because of stress and poor health.

Belo had no other episcopal career after that, and Groene Amsterdammer said he moved to Mozambique and worked as a priest there.

Belo told UCANews he moved to Mozambique after consulting with the head of the Vatican’s missionary office, Cardinal Cresenzio Sepe, and agreed to work there for a year before returning to East Timor.

Efforts to reach Sepe, who is now retired, were not successful.

By 2002, when Belo retired as head of the church in East Timor, the sex abuse scandal had just exploded publicly in the United States and the Vatican had just begun to crack down on abusive priests, requiring all cases of abuse to be sent to the Vatican’s Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith for review.

Bishops, however, were exempted from that requirement. Only in 2019 did Pope Francis pass a church law requiring abuse and sexual misconduct against bishops to be reported internally, and providing a mechanism to investigate the claims.

It is possible that Belo’s sexual activity with teens might have been dismissed by the Vatican in the early 2000s if it involved 16- or 17-year-olds, since the Vatican in those years considered such activity to be sinful but consensual, not abuse. Only in 2010 did the Vatican raise the age of consent to 18.

Belo is not the only church official in East Timor accused of abuse. A defrocked American priest, Richard Daschbach, was found guilty last year by a Dili court of sexually abusing orphaned and disadvantaged young girls under his care and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, the first such case of its kind in the country.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday unsealed an indictment charging Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska and two associates with conspiracy to evade U.S. sanctions.

Deripaska, 52, who is considered a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2018 for acting on behalf of a senior Russian official and for operating in Russia’s energy sector.

He was among seven Russian oligarchs and 17 government officials targeted in response to the Russian government’s “malign activity” around the world, including its continued occupation of Crimea and aggression in eastern Ukraine.

Deripaska’s name also surfaced during the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

However, he was not charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the Russian scheme, and the Treasury Department announcement of sanctions against Deripaska made no mention of the Russian election interference.

Deripaska’s two indicted associates – Natalia Mikhaylovna Bardakova, 45, a Russian national, and Olga Shriki, 42, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in the state of New Jersey – are accused of conducting hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of financial transactions in support of his business and personal activities, according to the 31-page indictment.  Among other things, the two are accused of helping Deripaska’s pregnant girlfriend, Ekaterina Olegovna Voronina, travel to the United States so she could give birth to their child and gain U.S. citizenship for the baby. Voronina has also been charged in the indictment.

Shriki was arrested earlier Thursday.  The other three defendants remain at large.

The criminal charges against Deripaska and his associates are part of a broader effort by the Justice Department to punish Putin allies for supporting Russia’s war effort in violation of sweeping sanctions imposed by the United States following the February 24 military incursion into Ukraine.

In the months since, the U.S. government has designated nearly 2,000 Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian individuals and entities for their involvement in or their support of the war, James O’Brien, the State Department’s coordinator for sanctions policy told a Senate panel on Wednesday.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland launched the interagency law enforcement effort known as Task Force KleptoCapture just days after the Russian assault.

“In the wake of Russia’s unjust and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, I promised the American people that the Justice Department would work to hold accountable those who break our laws and threaten our national security,” Garland said in a statement.  “Today’s charges demonstrate we are keeping that promise.”

The sanctions slapped on Deripaska and other oligarchs made their assets subject to seizure and barred U.S. nationals from doing business with them.

“Yet for four years afterwards, and in violation of those sanctions, Deripaska continued to retain Olga Shriki and…Natalia Mikhaylovna Bardakova … to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of services for his benefit in the United States,” the indictment says.

In 2019, Shriki allegedly facilitated the sale of a California music studio Deripaska had owned through a series of shell companies, according to the indictment.

Deripaska then allegedly tried to transfer the more than $3 million in proceeds from the sale through a California shell company to an account in Russia, the indictment alleges.

In the indictment, the grand jury alleges that in 2020 Deripaska’s girlfriend Voronina, with Shriki’s help, flew on a private jet to the United States where she delivered her child, allowing the baby to receive U.S. citizenship.

But a 2022 attempt to deliver a second child in the United States failed, according to the indictment.

After flying into the United States on another private jet and misleading federal agents about Deripaska’s and his associates’ roles in the sanctions evasion scheme, Voronina was refused entry, according to the indictment.

In addition to evading U.S. sanctions, Shriki is accused of destroying evidence sought by a grand jury while Bardakova and Voronina face charges of making false statements to federal agents investigating the scheme.

According to the indictment, between 2005 and 2008, Deripaska purchased at least three luxury properties in New York and Washington worth tens of millions of dollars.

Last year, FBI agents searched two of the properties in Washington and New York apparently as part of the criminal investigation that led to the indictment.

In 2019, the Treasury Department lifted sanctions against Deripaska’s aluminum behemoth, Rusal, and two linked entities after Deripaska agreed to reduce his ownership interest in them.

But sanctions against Deripaska have remained in place even as Deripaska has mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge in the United States to get his name removed from the Treasury Department list of designated Russian tycoons linked to Putin.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said the indictment of Deripaska and his associates “reflects the FBI’s commitment to use all of the tools at our disposal to aggressively pursue those who attempt to evade the United States’ economic countermeasures against the Russian government.”

“We will continue to aggressively prosecute those who violate measures imposed to protect the national security and foreign policy of the United States, especially in this time of Russia’s unprovoked aggression toward Ukraine,” Wray said in a statement.

Rights group Open Stadiums has called on FIFA to throw Iran out of the World Cup finals in Qatar in November because of the country’s treatment of women. 

In a letter sent to FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Thursday, the organization said Iranian authorities continued to refuse to allow female fans access to games inside the country despite pressure from the game’s governing body. 

“The Iranian FA is not only an accomplice of the crimes of the regime. It is a direct threat to the security of female fans in Iran and wherever our national team plays in the world. Football should be a safe space for us all,” the letter said. 

“That is why, as Iranian football fans, it is with an extremely heavy heart that we have to raise our deepest concern about Iran’s participation in the upcoming FIFA World Cup. 

“Why would FIFA give the Iranian state and its representatives a global stage, while it not only refuses to respect basic human rights and dignities, but is currently torturing and killing its own people? 

“Where are the principles of FIFA’s statues in this regard? 

“Therefore, we ask FIFA, based on Articles 3 and 4 of its statutes, to immediately expel Iran from the World Cup 2022 in Qatar.” 

The articles cited cover the issues of human rights and non-discrimination based on gender, race, religion and other matters, with breaches punishable by suspension or expulsion from the global body. 

Neither FIFA nor Iran’s FA immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment. 

The call comes as protests continued in several cities across Iran Thursday against the death of young woman in police custody, state and social media reported, as a human rights group said at least 83 people had been killed in nearly two weeks of demonstrations. 

Iran President Ebrahim Raisi has described the unrest as the latest in a series of moves against Iran by hostile Western powers since the 1979 Islamic revolution. 

Open Stadiums has campaigned over the last decade for women to be allowed to attend football matches in Iran, but with only limited success. 

Under pressure from Infantino, a small group of female fans were granted access to Persepolis’s home leg of the 2018 Asian Champions League final in Tehran. 

But there has been minimal progress since, with female fans barred from entering Iran’s World Cup qualifying game against Lebanon in Mashad in March, with video emerging of female supporters being pepper sprayed outside the stadium. 

The Carlos Queiroz-coached national team played friendly matches during the recent international break against Uruguay and Senegal in Austria, with both games played behind closed doors over security concerns. 

Iran is due to appear at their sixth World Cup finals and have been drawn to face England, Wales and the United States in Qatar. 

 

Azerbaijan’s president this week approved the rules that will govern a media registry that the country’s journalists warn could further stifle press freedom. 

President Ilham Aliyev on Monday signed off on the “rules for maintaining a media registry” — a set of regulations around media credentials and official recognition that would provide approved media with privileges and benefits, such as accreditation to state and other bodies.  

The rules lay out how the registry will work, the requirements journalists must meet to be eligible for inclusion, what data will be publicly available, and what conditions can result in being excluded or removed from the database.  

The government-run Media Development Agency will oversee the registry and legal entities, and each individual included in it will be issued a certificate and journalistic license.  

Zahid Oruj, chair of the Human Rights Committee of the National Assembly, told VOA that the adoption of the rules is to “continue the will for the formation of free, independent and strong press agencies that was outlined in the new power-building policy that has been implemented since 2019.” 

Journalists, however, have criticized the plan since parliament first passed the law in December 2021. They warn it could allow Azerbaijan’s government to determine who is recognized as a journalist and cited concerns that the registry will include details on reporters and their work contacts.  

Media outlets that operate in exile will also be affected, including through provisions that ban disseminating information from unofficial sources, rights groups including Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said.

Mehman Aliyev, director of the independent Turan News Agency, said independent media already work under restrictive policies and that access to information is difficult. 

Instead of improving access to information, Aliyev believes the new media registry will restrict freedoms.  

 “It is intended to prevent establishment of new media agencies in the future and to create conditions for media outlets that are in the interests of the authorities,” Aliyev said. 

Without an official license, journalists could find it harder to gain access to officials or events.  

Lawyer and media rights expert Alasgar Mammadli said the registry would make it hard for many freelance journalists to obtain the information they need. 

“I believe that keeping [a] journalist registry is an interference with media freedom,” he told VOA. 

Mammadli believes the registry goes against protections for freedom of expression, as laid out in Azerbaijan’s constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. 

“According to the constitution, everyone can receive information. In other words, it is not important whether you have a title of a journalist in front of your name, or whether or not you are a state-qualified journalist,” he told VOA. “In the future, any dispute related to this will result in the European Court making a decision against Azerbaijan.” 

Criticism rejected

But Azerbaijani officials have dismissed that criticism. 

Oruj said journalists not on the register would still be able to work.  

“Being included in this registry only gives advantages and makes it possible to benefit from various privileges, some subsidies, state measures,” Oruj said. 

RSF said nearly all Azerbaijani media are under government control. The few remaining independent voices find access to information difficult and say that some government agencies refuse to engage with them, according to the organization.  

RSF ranks Azerbaijan 154th out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index, where 1 signifies the best media environment.

This story originated in VOA’s Azerbaijani Service.

Ukraine’s bid to fast-track its efforts to join NATO, following Russia’s annexation of four more Ukrainian territories, is being met with caution in Brussels and Washington, where top officials are trying to shift the focus to their unwavering support for Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted video to social media Friday that shows him signing a formal bid for an accelerated membership with the Western alliance.

“De facto, we have already made our way to NATO,” Zelenskyy said in a statement that accompanied the video. “Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure.”

But when asked during a briefing whether the alliance would move quickly on the application, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg demurred.

“Our focus now is on providing immediate support to Ukraine, to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian brutal invasion,” Stoltenberg told reporters.

“That is the main focus and the main effort of NATO allies as we speak,” he added, saying such support would be forthcoming “for as long as it takes.”

Officials with NATO and NATO member countries have long said that sovereign nations, like Ukraine, should have the freedom to seek membership in the alliance. And this past June, Ukraine attended a NATO heads of state and government summit in Madrid.

There has been no rush, however, to grant Ukraine full membership.

“Our view is that the best way for us to support Ukraine is through practical on the ground support in Ukraine, and that the process in Brussels should be taken up at a different time,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Friday.

Russia has repeatedly called the possibility of NATO expansion an existential threat, while arguing prior to its invasion of Ukraine in February that Ukrainian membership in NATO would be a provocation.

Western and U.S. officials, though, argue Russia’s actions have had the opposite effect, with Sweden and Finland moving to join NATO in July.

The U.S. Senate approved NATO membership for the two countries in August. Only Hungary and Turkey still must ratify their applications for membership.