Waxaa saacado kadib Shacabka Somaliland u dareeri doonaan goobaha codbixinta ee  doorashada Madaxweynaha Somaliland iyo ururada…

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Ukraine abandoned its constitutional neutrality to pursue EU and NATO membership only in 2019, years after Russia annexed Crimea and backed pro-Russia separatists in Donbas. NATO considered Ukraine’s membership after Moscow invaded Georgia, starting a war in Europe.

white house — President Joe Biden and President Prabowo Subianto met Tuesday at the White House, marking the 75th anniversary of U.S.-Indonesia relations, part of a multination visit by the newly inaugurated leader of Southeast Asia's largest economy. "I will work very hard to strengthen Indonesia and United States relationship," said Prabowo, who goes by his first name. Biden said he looks forward to deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the highest level among nontreaty allies, which the two countries signed in 2023. "That includes deepening our security cooperation," he said before their meeting. In brief remarks to the press, Biden twice raised an issue of concern for Washington: freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. He said he wanted to strengthen the U.S. partnership with Indonesia, "by advancing [a] free and open Indo-Pacific." "We'll discuss, also, global challenges, including in Gaza and the South China Sea," he said. China's nine-dash line The White House meeting came days after Prabowo's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, where Indonesia and China signed a series of agreements valued at about $10 billion and focusing on infrastructure, green energy, digital technology and agriculture. "In the present situation, geopolitical and geoeconomic, Indonesia and China have become very close partners in many, many fields," Prabowo said. One of the deals is to jointly develop fisheries, and oil and gas exploration in waters around Indonesia's Natuna Islands where China's "nine-dash line" marking its expansive claims in the South China Sea overlaps with Indonesia's Exclusive Economic Zone. Critics say the agreement risks implicitly validating China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, which, according to the United Nations, has no basis in international law. VOA asked the White House whether Biden was specifically referring to this deal in his meeting with Prabowo. "We continue to encourage Indonesia to work with their legal experts to make sure any agreement they make with the PRC [People's Republic of China] is in accordance with international law, especially the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Beijing claims the major shipping route almost entirely, infringing into the EEZs of Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines. All but Indonesia formally dispute the Chinese claim while Taiwan makes a claim to the sea similar to Beijing's. "It's a big deal for Indonesia," as a non-claimant country in the South China Sea dispute that supports the concept of a "free and open Indo-Pacific," said Klaus Heinrich Raditio, author on South China Sea issues and lecturer at Indonesia's Driyarkara School of Philosophy. "People will question our position," he told VOA. The Indonesian Foreign Ministry clarified Sunday that it remains firm in rejecting China's nine-dash line. Beijing's claim, Jakarta said, "does not comply" with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and "therefore has no bearing" on Indonesia's sovereignty and jurisdiction over the North Natuna Sea. Jakarta's agreement with Beijing highlights a "new phase of building the China-Indonesia community with a shared future," according to the joint statement. This reference supports "China's vision of a new global order that is anti-Western hegemony," Raditio said. It's unclear whether this language was an intentional signaling of a geopolitical shift or merely an overlook from a new administration eager to bolster ties with great powers. The Indonesian Embassy in Washington has not responded to VOA's queries. "Most likely, it is a bureaucratic mistake," Raditio said. "We put too much attention on economic cooperation. How many investments that we can attract from China? We kind of sideline other important issues." Prabowo's outreach to Trump Just as important to Jakarta as the White House meeting is Prabowo's outreach to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Jakarta is gearing up for Trump's new administration that begins in January. "Wherever you are, I'm willing to fly to congratulate you personally, sir," Prabowo said in a call to Trump that was posted Monday on his social media. The Trump team has not responded to VOA's queries on the conversation. U.S. foreign policy under Trump "may become more transactional and more focused on elements related to U.S.-China, competition," said Andreyka Natalegawa, associate fellow for the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The downside risk of this as it relates to Southeast Asian countries, is that it may limit some of the decision-making space they have in their diplomatic affairs," Natalegawa said. Prabowo has voiced ambitions to raise Indonesia's international profile and has made early foreign policy moves, including a surprise decision to join Southeast Asia's largest economy to the BRICS bloc. BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a growing group of emerging economies seen as a counterweight to the West. In October, BRICS added Indonesia as one of the group's 13 new "partner countries." The move could be a shift away from the position taken by Prabowo's predecessor, Joko Widodo, who took in massive amounts of infrastructure investments from Beijing but remained mostly nonaligned geopolitically. The White House visit marks a milestone for Prabowo, who was barred from entering the U.S. under the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations over his role in abducting activists of the 1998 "Reformasi" movement that ousted President Suharto, Prabowo's then father-in-law. The Trump administration lifted the visa ban for then-Defense Minister Prabowo, for his visit in 2020.

WASHINGTON — Israel's war against Hezbollah and Hamas, while inflicting considerable damage, has yet to strike a crippling blow to either of the Iran-backed terror groups, according to a top U.S. counterterrorism official. The acting director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) said Tuesday that the impact of Israeli intelligence operations, along with repeated military airstrikes and ground offensives in Lebanon and Gaza, have severely diminished the ability of both groups to launch new attacks on Israel. But he cautioned that both groups remain resilient, and in the case of Hezbollah, retain significant capabilities. "Before the conflict, they [Hezbollah] had built up unprecedented numbers of rockets and missiles and other munitions," the NCTC's Brett Holmgren told an audience in Washington, adding that the Lebanese group was starting at a "very strong point." And he said while Israeli strikes have decimated Hezbollah leadership, the group's ground forces in southern Lebanon "remain somewhat intact." Additionally, Israel's actions have done little to damage Hezbollah's reach beyond the Middle East. "Their external capabilities have largely been untouched," Holmgren said, noting the U.S. and its allies are on alert for any indication Hezbollah may seek to retaliate outside the region. Hamas' staying power Hamas, which touched off the war in Gaza when it launched its October 7, 2023, terror attack that killed about 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians, has also suffered greatly, according to the latest U.S. assessments. "Militarily, they have been significantly diminished," Holmgren said. "They're essentially morphing into an insurgent force on the ground." Yet despite being forced to keep a low profile and resort to hit-and-run-type tactics, U.S. intelligence sees few indications Hamas has lost its appeal. "Hamas has been able to recruit new members to its ranks and will likely continue its ability to do so, so long as there is not another viable political option on the ground for these disaffected young men in Gaza to turn to," Holmgren said.  "There has to be a more viable political actor on the ground in Gaza to give these new recruits for Hamas, to give them a better option," he added. Hamas, Hezbollah numbers Prior to Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, U.S. intelligence estimated that the U.S.-designated terror group had between 20,000 and 25,000 fighters, though some estimates put the number at 30,000 or more, citing support from about a dozen other terror groups that had pledged to fight under the Hamas banner. Hezbollah, according to U.S. estimates, had about 40,000 fighters with "state-like military capabilities." Holmgren on Tuesday did not elaborate on how many fighters from either group had been eliminated.  Israeli officials, however, have said their forces have killed upward of 14,000 Hamas fighters and more than 2,550 Hezbollah fighters. The Israel Defense Forces earlier this month said it estimates that about 80% of Hezbollah's arsenal of medium- and short-range rockets has been destroyed. Health officials in Gaza have said the Israeli offensive there has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children.   Lebanon's Health Ministry said more than 3,000 people have been killed during the conflict, though it does not differentiate between civilians and Hezbollah fighters. Terror spreading There are growing concerns, though, that the death tolls in Lebanon and Gaza are serving as a spark for other terror groups around the world. Less than a month after Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, U.S. counterterrorism officials warned that the event had begun to galvanize other terror groups, including Islamic State and al-Qaida. Holmgren said it appears the Hamas attack, combined with growing political and economic turmoil, has in fact helped to reenergize other groups. Islamic State  "ISIS exploited reduced counterterrorism pressure last year to recover and to rebuild as governments shifted attention and resources to the conflict in Gaza," Holmgren said, using an acronym for the Islamic State terror group, also known as IS or Daesh. Central Syria, he said, had become an epicenter for IS plotting against the U.S. and the West, at large.   And although a series of recent operations by the U.S. and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have again weakened IS, the group continues to benefit from improved finances and resurgent media campaigns, Holmgren said. The IS affiliate in Afghanistan known as IS-Khorasan has likewise shown resilience. State Department officials, in a recent inspector general's report, admitted that serious questions remain about whether Afghanistan's ruling Taliban "have the will and capability to fully eliminate terrorist safe havens or control the flow of foreign terrorist fighters in and through Afghanistan." And although key elements of IS-Khorasan have fled Afghanistan for Pakistan, there are fears the group may be poised for a resurgence. "Sustained pressure will be needed to prevent the group from expanding further," Holmgren said. Africa Holmgren further warned that groups affiliating themselves with IS and al-Qaida are also seeing their fortunes rise in Africa. IS and al-Qaida attacks in West Africa and the Sahel alone are set to surpass more than 3,000 by the end of the year, he said, doubling the total number of attacks from 2021. And it could get worse. Holmgren said IS and al-Qaida affiliates have capitalized on turmoil in countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic, where governments have turned to the Russian military and Russian paramilitary groups to boost security. The situation in Africa, "if left unchecked, could become a much more acute long-term threat to U.S. interests," he said.  Younger terrorists U.S. counterterrorism analysts have also picked up on several other trends that they say bear watching. One is a propensity for younger people to join terror movements. "The rising number of juveniles engaging in terrorism is a global phenomenon, and it may well worsen in the near term as the effects of the Israel-Hamas conflict take hold," Holmgren said. Vulnerable young people the world over, he said, are turning to groups like IS for a sense of belonging and accomplishment. "A lot of the propaganda — it's easily accessible on the social media platforms" he said. "A lot of it [is in] English." Iran and Trump There is also concern about how Iran will respond to Israel's degradation of Hezbollah and Hamas, and to the reelection of former U.S. President Donald Trump. U.S. intelligence officials warned in the run-up to last week's election that Iran was engaged in a series of influence operations aimed at hurting Trump's chance of returning to power. And late last week, the U.S. shed light on another in a series of efforts by Tehran to assassinate the once and future president. In the short term, Holmgren said, Iran could try to leverage its proxy forces in Iraq and Syria to launch additional attacks against U.S. interests and against Israel. But he also expressed concern that Iran continues to play host to al-Qaida's de facto leader, Saif al-Adel. "I won't speculate on what the Iranian intentions are, but suffice to say, it is unhelpful with his presence there," Holmgren said Tuesday in response to a question from VOA. Trump transition  Holmgren promised Tuesday to work with the incoming Trump administration to keep the U.S. and its allies safe. "I look forward to engaging with the Trump administration's national security team to conduct an orderly transition and to ensure that they are ready on Day One to address a dynamic threat environment," Holmgren said. "The U.S. counterterrorism community will be working diligently, as they do each and every day, to keep threats at bay so that our democracy may continue to shine as a beacon of freedom and hope in the world," he added.

Witness reports and Iran’s systematic use of punitive psychiatry to undermine dissent contradict government claims that the woman had a mental health crisis and was not protesting enforcement of the country’s mandatory dress code.

The U.S. Senate's Democratic majority began a crusade on Tuesday to confirm as many new federal judges nominated by President Joe Biden as possible to avoid leaving vacancies that Republican Donald Trump could fill after taking office on Jan. 20. With Republicans set to take control of the chamber on Jan. 3, the Senate on Tuesday held a confirmation vote on one of Biden's judicial nominees - former prosecutor April Perry - for the first time since Trump won the Nov. 5 presidential election. The Senate voted 51-44 in favor of her becoming a U.S. district court judge in Illinois. All told, Biden has announced another 30 judicial nominees who are awaiting Senate confirmation votes. Sixteen have already have been reviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee and are awaiting a final confirmation vote by the full Senate. Another 14 nominees are awaiting committee review. The U.S. Constitution assigns to the Senate the power to confirm a president's nominees for life-tenured seats on the federal judiciary. "We are going to get as many done as we can," Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. Trump made 234 judicial appointments during his first four years in office, the second most of any president in a single term, and succeeded in moving the judiciary rightward - including building a 6-3 conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court with three appointees. Biden has appointed a host of liberal judges. Since the beginning of his presidency in 2021, the Senate has confirmed 214 Biden judicial nominees, including liberal Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. About two-thirds were women, and the same share were racial minorities. Senate Democrats are under pressure to swiftly confirm the remaining nominees, along with any new picks Biden may name in the waning weeks of his presidency. How many nominees Senate Democrats will be able to confirm remains to be seen. Trump in a social media post on Sunday called on the Senate to halt approving Biden's nominees, saying, "Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges." Billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk on Tuesday wrote on social media that "activist" judicial nominees are "bad for the country." Mike Davis, a Trump ally at the conservative judicial advocacy group Article III Project, in another post urged Senate Republicans to vote down all judicial appointments until January. "The American people voted for monumental change," Davis wrote on social media last week. "Grind the Senate to a halt." Current Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's office declined comment. McConnell has consistently opposed Biden's nominees and, as majority leader, was instrumental in getting Trump's previous nominees confirmed. Trump's judicial appointees have been involved in major decisions welcomed by conservatives including Supreme Court rulings rolling back abortion rights, widening gun rights, rejecting race-conscious collegiate admissions and limiting the power of federal regulatory agencies. Judicial nominees require a simple majority for confirmation. Democrats currently hold a slim 51-49 majority, meaning that they can ill afford any defections or absences if Republicans show up in force to oppose Biden's nominees during the chamber's post-election "lame duck" session. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has said he would not vote for any nominee who does not garner at least one Republican vote. Must-pass legislation like a spending bill to avert a government shutdown also may consume precious time during the session. 'Every possible nominee' Biden's allies have said a concerted push to confirm his remaining nominees would allow him to build on his legacy of helping to diversify a federal bench long dominated by white men. He is not done nominating judges. On Friday, Biden announced his first post-election nominee, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, who after unsuccessfully running in the 2021 Democratic primary to be Manhattan district attorney was picked for a job as a federal district judge in New York. A spokesperson for Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat and chair of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that he "aims to confirm every possible nominee before the end of this Congress." White House spokesperson Andrew Bates on Monday noted that during Trump's first term, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed 18 judges after Biden had won the 2020 election but before he took office. Pending nominees include five to the influential federal appeals courts. Republicans said before the election that they had the votes to block two of them: Adeel Mangi, who would become the first Muslim federal appellate judge, and North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park, who unsuccessfully defended the race-conscious admissions policies before the Supreme Court. There are several others nominated to serve as trial court judges like Perry, a former prosecutor now working at Chicago-headquartered GE HealthCare who would join the bench in Illinois. Biden nominated her to a judgeship in April after her prior nomination to become Chicago's top federal prosecutor was blocked by Republican Senator JD Vance. Vance began placing a hold on Biden's nominees to the U.S. Justice Department in 2023 after Special Counsel Jack Smith secured the first of two federal indictments against Trump, who subsequently picked the senator as his vice presidential running mate.

    The United States authorities have declared Olalekan Abimbola Olawusi, a 48-year-old Nigerian man, wanted over the death of a minor, with a $25,000 reward offered for aby information leading to his arrest. The suspect, believed to have fled to Nigeria, faces charges of first-degree murder and two counts of inflicting serious bodily injury […]

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Some people may have been killed as a powerful explosion on Tuesday, rocked the city of Jos, the Plateau State capital, sending shockwaves through surrounding communities. Witnesses said the blast occurred around 10:30 am near the densely populated Terminus market area. Initial reports indicate that several people were injured in the blast, with some sources […]

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday launched three initiatives to drive financial inclusion in the country. This was as part of the second edition of the International Financial Inclusion Conference, which was held in Lagos under the theme, ‘Inclusive Growth: Harnessing Inclusion for Economic Development’. According to The Punch, speakers at the event […]

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The Managing Director of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Ernest Mupwaya said his company has installed 88,000 meters and would install 120,000 units by December 2017 to tackle complaints on estimated billing. upwaya said this at the opening of a two day workshop on energy theft for judges within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). He […]

Abuja DisCo meters 88,000 customers, targets 120,000 by December

The Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered the Nigerian Stock Exchange to suspend trading on the shares of Oando Plc. The commission said in a circular yesterday it had carried out a comprehensive review of the petitions by Alhaji Dahiru Barau Mangal and Ansbury Incorporated and made the following findings amongst others; Breach of the […]

SEC suspends Oando shares from stock market

On June 25, 2018 I woke up to yet another social media trend – a news story with the bold and quite salacious headline “How Safe Are Customer Deposits At FCMB?” had taken over the digital airwaves. Between the shares and likes and comments, a storm in a cup had brewed to great proportions in […]

The Worrisome Trend of Sensational Social Media “Journalism” and the Impact On Legitimate Business Concerns: Recent Travails of FCMB, GTBank and First Bank

FCMB Bank (UK) Limited, an independently incorporated subsidiary of First City Monument Bank Limited (which is a member of FCMB Group Plc), has introduced its Personal and Business banking proposition in London, United Kingdom and Lagos, Nigeria at an impressive ceremony attended by the top echelon of the business community within and from outside the […]

FCMB Bank (UK) Limited Launches Personal and Business Banking Proposition to Deepen Inclusiveness

For many soldiers on the front lines, the trauma of war can be as hard to fight as the war itself. To help, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, has created a program to support Ukrainian women veterans, the families of internally displaced persons, and military relatives. The program is part of the USAID Self-Reliance Learning Agenda. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story.

While Ukraine was on high alert for air attacks on Monday, the country’s top military commander said tens of thousands of Russian troops were ready to advance on the Kursk region. "Following the order of their military leadership, they are trying to dislodge our troops and advance deep into the territory we control," Ukraine’s General Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Ukraine launched an incursion into Kursk in August, taking control of a number of towns and villages in the border region. Meanwhile, at least six people were killed in air attacks in southern Ukraine – five in Mykolaiv and one in Zaporizhzhia, where a residential building was destroyed, regional governors reported. At least a dozen people were injured in Zaporizhzhia, including five children between the ages of 4 and 17. Earlier, the Ukrainian air force put the nation on high alert for a large-scale missile attack, reporting that a large number of bombers were taking off from Russia and heading to Ukraine. "The air alert is related to the launch of cruise missiles from Tu-95MS strategic bombers," the air force said on its Telegram channels. Power was cut to prevent further damage from attacks, and people were encouraged to seek shelter – including in Kyiv’s metro stations. But by 0630 GMT the missiles had not arrived. According to some Ukrainian military bloggers, the Russian bombers performed flights imitating the launch of missiles, Reuters reported. Report: Trump urges Putin not to escalate The Washington Post and Reuters reported that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin and urged him not to escalate the war in Ukraine. Trump, calling from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Thursday, reminded Putin of America's sizable military presence in Europe, the Washington Post reported. Sources familiar with the call told the newspaper Trump expressed an interest in further conversations to discuss "the resolution of Ukraine's war soon." Steven Cheung, Trump's communications director, did not confirm the exchange, saying in a written statement to AFP that "we do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders." The Kremlin on Monday denied that the conversation took place, and said Putin had no concrete plans to speak to Trump. "This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction, it's just false information," Reuters reported Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "There was no conversation." Information from Reuters and Agence France-Presse was included in this report.  

London — A British soldier accused of passing sensitive information to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps pleaded guilty Monday to escaping from prison while awaiting trial. Daniel Abed Khalife is on trial at London's Woolwich Crown Court, accused of collecting sensitive information between May 2019 and January 2022. Khalife, who is no longer a member of the British armed forces, also denies leaving a fake bomb on a desk and absconding from his barracks in 2023. Prosecutors had also alleged Khalife escaped from London's Wandsworth prison in September 2023 by tying himself to the bottom of a delivery van, sparking a brief nationwide manhunt. The 23-year-old had originally pleaded not guilty to escaping from lawful custody but changed his plea to guilty Monday after having given evidence for several days earlier this month. Khalife is also charged with gathering information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iran, obtaining information likely to be useful for terrorism and perpetrating a bomb hoax. He still denies those three charges and his trial continues.

warsaw, poland — Polish President Andrzej Duda marked Independence Day on Monday with a call for sustained U.S. commitment to Europe's security in view of Russian aggression in the region and argued that Ukraine's pre-2014 borders should be restored. Weighing on the minds of many is the war across Poland's border in Ukraine, and an expectation that Donald Trump's return to the White House will bring a change in the security situation in the region. Some fear Trump could end the U.S. commitment to NATO or make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that could result in a permanent loss of territory for Ukraine and encourage Russia to attack other nations. Others believe Trump could persuade Putin to stop the fighting. Duda, who has had friendly relations with Trump, said in a speech in Warsaw that Europe will continue to need U.S. protection. “It is a pipe dream — as some people think — that Europe can ensure its own security today,” Duda said. He emphasized that the security guarantees of successive U.S. presidents are extremely important in times of resurgent Russian imperialism. “Today we have no doubts that for the security of Europe and the world, it is necessary to strengthen Euro-Atlantic ties,” Duda said. He said the territorial integrity of all countries, especially Ukraine, should be respected and it “must return to its borders from before the Russian attack, not only the one in 2022 but also the first one, in 2014." Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. Later in a news conference, Duda said he had spoken to Trump and that they would meet before the inauguration in January. Duda spoke as Poland marked the 106th anniversary of its restored independence at the end of World War I after more than a century of being partitioned and ruled by Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary. The date of Nov. 11 carries powerful weight for a nation where the trauma of losing national sovereignty endures. In Warsaw, tens of thousands of people took part in a march organized by nationalist groups that has sometimes seen violent clashes in past years but passed without major incident Monday. Organizers estimated turnout at 250,000 while city hall put it at 90,000. Police said they detained 75 people and seized banned items from participants, including pyrotechnic materials, knives, telescopic batons and brass knuckles. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the conservative Law and Justice party, which governed Poland from 2015-2023 and is seeking a comeback, joined the march with other party members.

LONDON — The head of the Church of England, spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, is under pressure to resign after an investigation found that he failed to inform police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it. Some members of the General Synod, the church's national assembly, have started a petition calling on Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to step down, saying he had "lost the confidence of his clergy." The petition had garnered more than 1,800 signatures on Change.org by late morning London time on Monday. Compounding the pressure, a senior cleric added her voice to those who believe he should resign. Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, told the BBC that Welby's position is "untenable.'' Calls for Welby's resignation have grown since Thursday, when the church released the results of an independent review into John Smyth, who sexually, psychologically and physically abused about 30 boys and young men in the United Kingdom and 85 in Africa over five decades. The 251-page report concluded that Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, soon after he became Archbishop of Canterbury. Welby last week took responsibility for not ensuring that the allegations were pursued as "energetically" as they should have been after he learned of the abuse but said he had decided not to resign. On Monday, his office issued a statement reiterating Welby's "horror at the scale of John Smyth's egregious abuse." "As he has said, he had no awareness or suspicion of the allegations before he was told in 2013 — and therefore, having reflected, he does not intend to resign," the statement said. "He hopes the Makin Review supports the ongoing work of building a safer church here and around the world." Church officials were first made aware of the abuse in 1982, when they received the results of an internal investigation into Smyth. The recipients of that report "participated in an active cover-up" to prevent its findings from coming to light, the Makin Review found. Between 1984 and 2001, Smyth moved to Zimbabwe and subsequently relocated to South Africa. He continued to abuse boys and young men in Zimbabwe and there is evidence that the abuse continued in South Africa until he died in August 2018. Smyth's abuse wasn't made public until a 2017 investigation by Britain's Channel 4 television, which led Hampshire Police to start an investigation. Police were planning to question Smyth at the time of his death and had been preparing to extradite him. The Makin Review found that if Smyth had been reported to police in 2013, it could have helped to uncover the truth, prevented further abuse and led to a possible criminal conviction. "In effect, three and a half years was lost, a time within which John Smyth could have been brought to justice and any abuse he was committing in South Africa discovered and stopped," the review found. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the Church of England and is seen as the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, which has more than 85 million members in 165 countries. He is considered first among equals with respect to the communion's other primates.

MOSCOW — The key task for Russia and China is to counter any attempt by the United States to contain their countries, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin told China's foreign minister on Tuesday. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose steep tariffs on China and other countries, raising fears of a trade war and the United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat. China's Xi Jinping and Putin in May pledged a "new era" of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States, which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing chaos across the world. Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing that the strong relations between Moscow and Beijing were a stabilizing influence on the world. "I see the most important task as countering the policy of 'dual containment' of Russia and China pursued by the United States and its satellites," Shoigu was quoted as saying by Russian state news agencies. Xi and Putin believe the post-Cold War era of extraordinary U.S. dominance is crumbling after the perceived humiliations of the 1991 Soviet collapse and centuries of European colonial dominance of China.

North Korea troops have begun fighting alongside Russians, a U.S. State Department spokesman said during a briefing on Tuesday. "Over 10,000 DPRK (North Korean) soldiers have been sent to eastern Russia, and most of them have moved to the far western Kursk Oblast, where they have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces," spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters. A day earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian troops were facing 50,000 troops, including 11,000 North Korean troops deployed by Russia to its Kursk region, although Moscow will neither confirm nor deny their involvement. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke Tuesday with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov “to discuss battlefield dynamics and provide an update on U.S. security assistance” for the Eastern European country, according to Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder. Ryder said, "the secretary reaffirmed President [Joe] Biden's commitment to surge security assistance to Ukraine." The Pentagon also clarified the amount of money that remains available for Ukraine's military assistance. There is about $7.1 billion left in the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which includes $4.3 billion approved by Congress in April, plus $2.8 billion that became available after recalculations. Additionally, there is about $2.2 billion available under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative program. Ryder again underscored that the U.S. would rush aid to Ukraine and use all available funds. Ryder said the two defense leaders also talked about the implications of the thousands of North Korean troops now assessed to be mostly in western Kursk Oblast. Airstrike kills mother, children A Russia airstrike on Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s hometown killed a mother and her three children and left 14 people wounded, officials said Tuesday. Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said rescue and recovery operations were complete after the residential building in Kryvyi Rig was hit a day earlier. The office of the prosecutor general said a 32-year-old woman and children who were 10 years, 2 years and 2 months old were killed. In Russia’s Belgorod region, a Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at an oil depot, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov posted on the Telegram messaging app. He said a tank caught fire and 10 fire crews responded in the Starkooskolsky District near the Ukrainian border. The Russian defense ministry also said 13 Ukrainian drones were destroyed overnight, all in regions bordering Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 46 Russian drones overnight. In addition, Ukrainian’s military was “holding back a fairly large grouping of Russian troops – 50,000 of the occupier’s army personnel,” in the Kursk region, Zelenskyy said in his address to the nation Monday. “Our forces' strikes on Russian arsenals have reduced the amount of artillery used by the occupier, and this is noticeable at the front. That is why we need decisions from our partners – America, Britain, Germany – on long-range capabilities,” Zelenskyy said. “This is vital. The further our missiles and drones can hit, the less real combat capability Russia will have.” North Korea defense pact The forces in Kursk include 11,000 North Korean troops deployed by Russia to Kursk, Zelenskyy has said, although Moscow will neither confirm nor deny their involvement. State media in North Korea reported that country ratified a defense agreement with Russia on Tuesday, formalizing months of deepening security ties. The deal "was ratified as a decree" of leader Kim Jong Un, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Tuesday. The notice comes after Russian lawmakers voted unanimously last week to ratify the deal, which President Vladimir Putin later signed. "The treaty will take effect from the day when both sides exchanged the ratification instruments," KCNA said. Putin and Kim signed the strategic pact in June, during Putin’s visit to North Korea. Material from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse was used in this report.

London — Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, resigned Tuesday after an investigation found that he failed to tell police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.  Pressure on Welby had been building since Thursday, when release of the inquiry's findings kindled anger about a lack of accountability at the highest reaches of the church. Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, said Monday that his position was "untenable" after some members of the church's national assembly started a petition calling on Welby to step down because he had "lost the confidence of his clergy."  "I believe that stepping aside is in the best interests of the Church of England, which I dearly love and which I have been honored to serve," Welby said in a statement.  The strongest outcry came from the victims of John Smyth, a prominent attorney who abused teenage boys and young men at Christian summer camps in Britain, Zimbabwe and South Africa over five decades. Andrew Morse, who was repeatedly beaten by Smyth over a period of five years, said that resigning was a chance for Welby to start repairing the damage caused by the church's handling of historical abuse cases more broadly.  "I believe that now is an opportunity for him to resign,'' Morse told the BBC before Welby stepped down. "I say opportunity in the sense that this would be an opportunity for him to stand with the victims of the Smyth abuse and all victims that have not been treated properly by the Church of England in their own abuse cases."  Welby's resignation comes against the backdrop of widespread historical sexual abuse in the Church of England. A 2022 report by the Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse found that deference to the authority of priests, taboos surrounding the discussion of sexuality and a culture that gave more support to alleged perpetrators than their victims helped make the Church of England Church of England "a place where abusers could hide." 

Canada announced Wednesday it won't block access to the popular video-sharing app TikTok but is ordering the dissolution of its Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind it. Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said it is meant to address risks related to ByteDance Ltd.'s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc. "The government is not blocking Canadians' access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content. The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice," Champagne said. Champagne said it is important for Canadians to adopt good cybersecurity practices, including protecting their personal information. He said the dissolution order was made in accordance with the Investment Canada Act, which allows for the review of foreign investments that may harm Canada's national security. He said the decision was based on information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada's security and intelligence community and other government partners. A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of local jobs. "We will challenge this order in court," the spokesperson said. "The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive." TikTok is wildly popular with young people, but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could use it to collect data on Western users or push pro-China narratives and misinformation. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. TikTok faces intensifying scrutiny from Europe and America over security and data privacy. It comes as China and the West are locked in a wider tug of war over technology ranging from spy balloons to computer chips. Canada previously banned TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices. TikTok has two offices in Canada, one in Toronto and one in Vancouver. Michael Geist, Canada research chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, said in a blog post that "banning the company rather than the app may actually make matters worse since the risks associated with the app will remain but the ability to hold the company accountable will be weakened." Canada's move comes a day after the election in the United States of Donald Trump. In June, Trump joined TikTok, a platform he once tried to ban while in the White House. It has about 170 million users in the U.S. Trump tried to ban TikTok through an executive order that said "the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned" by Chinese companies was a national security threat. The courts blocked the action after TikTok sued. Both the U.S. FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share user data such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers with China's government. TikTok said it has never done that and would not, if asked. Trump said earlier this year that he still believes TikTok posed a national security risk, but was opposed to banning it. U.S. President Joe Biden signed legislation in April that would force ByteDance to sell the app to a U.S. company within a year or face a national ban. It's not clear whether that law will survive a legal challenge filed by TikTok or that ByteDance would agree to sell.

QUITO, ECUADOR — Ecuadoran Vice President Veronica Abad was suspended Saturday for 150 days after being accused of “unjustified abandonment” of her duties. It comes during a public rift between Abad and President Daniel Noboa that could have implications for Ecuador's February elections. Abad's suspension without pay came at midnight, her lawyer Dominique Davila told The Associated Press. Davila called the move “extremely serious” and claimed it may not have any legal backing. Abad was accused by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of not following an order in September to temporarily transfer her from Israel — where she also serves as ambassador — to Turkey due to the conflict, arriving eight days after the order. Abad had argued that she was not “properly prepared” for the trip to Turkey and that Ecuador's government suggested “that I leave my children in Israel to go to Turkey alone.” The move comes at a time of deep tensions between Abad and Noboa who, despite running the government together, have clashed for years, establishing a sort of feud, the origins of which are unknown. In August, Abad filed a legal complaint accusing Noboa and other officials of gender-based violence. The suspension was the second sanction against Abad in less than a week. Abad was also fined $8,500 on Tuesday by Ecuador’s Electoral Disputes Tribunal for early election campaigning in 2023, when she was a candidate for mayor of Cuenca. The vice president has previously cited the Israel case and other incidents as government measures to pressure her to resign, while the president has called her “disloyal.” Davila said the suspension was the latest attempt to push Abad out, calling it a “trick to prevent the presidential succession” and something they planned to appeal. Abad’s fate has special importance for Noboa, who hopes to run for reelection in February 2025 and will have to request a leave of absence to carry out the campaign, according to experts. In that case, Abad would take over the presidency. But with the recent sanctions, the pathway to her taking the reins would be blocked, according to constitutional lawyer Andre Benavides. The expert said that while the suspension lacks strong legal backing, any appeals process to reverse the 150-day suspension would take longer than the suspension period.

Mexico City — Mexico and the United States said they have reached an agreement they hope will help Mexico to be timelier with its water-sharing payments in the Rio Bravo watershed, also known as the Rio Grande.  The agreement announced Saturday provides Mexico with tools and flexibility to deliver water earlier in a five-year cycle under the 1944 U.S.-Mexico water treaty, according to the bilateral International Border and Water Commission.  The proposed tools include better coordination on water conservation, re-use, alternative water sources and other measures.  The treaty moves in five-year cycles and allows Mexico to run a water debt in the first four years, if it can make it up in the fifth. That has led Mexico to fall behind, hoping a hurricane or other heavy rains will dump water in the border area.  That has frustrated Texas farmers, who need a predictable supply of water. When a hurricane or tropical storm hits the region, Mexico can play catch-up but at that point, the water isn't needed, and that doesn't always happen. Mexico has long used that wait-and-hope strategy, but it has led to problems in the past, both at home and in the U.S.  Mexico is obliged to deliver 430 million cubic meters of water per year, or about 2.15 billion cubic meters over five years. An acre-foot of water is enough to flood a one-acre field with one foot of water. The United States, in return, gives Mexico even more water from other water sources farther west.  But in the current cycle, which began in 2020, Mexico has so far delivered only about 525 million cubic meters overall, or about one-quarter of what it owes for the five-year period, which ends in October 2025.  Mexico has to release water from dams on tributaries feeding into the Rio Grande but that angers Mexican farmers, who want it for themselves and call it "our water." The treaty gives the United States rights to one-third of the flows from six Mexican tributaries.  In 2020, a dispute over water payments to the United States boiled over into violence, with angry farmers pushing back National Guard troops guarding a dam, because Mexico had fallen behind on payments in that cycle and had to deliver water quickly to the United States.  Mexico dispatched National Guard officers to protect the La Boquilla dam, but hundreds of farmers pushed them back hundreds of yards in a failed bid to take over the dam's control room.  Before that, farmers took over another dam near the border town of Ojinaga. Both dams are near the Texas border, west of the Big Bend area.  During the 2020 conflict, Mexican farmers also burned vehicles and blocked railway lines. In the end, the United States allowed Mexico to transfer rights to water held in joint international reservoirs, in a face-saving solution. 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The Federal Aviation Administration announced Tuesday that it will prohibit U.S. airlines from flying to Haiti for 30 days after gangs shot a Spirit Airlines flight. The United Nations also said it will suspend flights, "obviously limiting the flow of humanitarian aid and humanitarian personnel into the country."  The bullets hit the plane when it was about to land Monday in the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, injuring a flight attendant. It was part of a wave of violence that erupted in Haiti as the country swore in its new prime minister after a politically tumultuous process.  Life in much of Haiti's capital was frozen after the wave of violence, which came to a head when gangs shot the Spirit Airlines airplane Monday, forcing the airport to shut down. Photos and videos obtained by The Associated Press show bullet holes dotting the interior of a plane. A number of airlines suspended flights to Haiti through Thursday, but it was unclear how long closures could drag on.  Neither the former interim prime minister, Garry Conille, nor the newly inaugurated Alix Didier Fils-Aime commented on the violence.  But Luis Abinader, who as president of the neighboring Dominican Republic has cracked down on Haitian migration, called firing on the airplane terrorism.  "This was a terrorist act; the countries that are following and helping Haiti should declare these armed gangs as terrorist groups," Abinader said in a news conference.  On Tuesday, heavily armed police in armored cars outside the airport checked trucks used for public transportation passing by.  Schools were closed, as were banks and government offices. The streets, where just a day before gangs and police were locked in a fierce firefight, were eerily empty.  The sound of heavy gunfire was heard in the streets in the afternoon — a reminder that despite political maneuvering by Haiti's elites and a strong push by the international community to restore peace, the country's toxic slate of gangs kept its firm hold on much of the Caribbean nation.  The United Nations estimates that gangs control 85% of the capital. A U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police to quell gang violence struggles with a lack of funding and personnel, prompting calls for a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

The United States recognized businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime as the newly appointed prime minister of Haiti, a State Department spokesman said in a statement Tuesday.   Matthew Miller said the U.S. “looks forward to working with” Fils-Aime and the Transitional Presidential Council “to advance progress against urgent priorities in the coming months.”  Fils-Aime, the former chairman of the board of Haiti’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was sworn in Monday, replacing Garry Conille, who served as the country’s prime minister for only six months.    Conille is a doctor who previously ran UNICEF’s Latin American regional office. The TPC and Conille had been at odds. Several organizations recently tried to mediate the disagreements, according to the Miami Herald.  The transitional council was created in April to choose the Caribbean country’s prime minister and Cabinet, paving the way to the restoration of the democratic process to the gang violence-plagued country.   Democratic elections have not been held in Haiti since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021.    “The United States welcomes the commitment of the TPC and the new prime minister to release a joint action plan that outlines their vision to improve security and governance, and to set a path toward free and fair elections,” Miller’s statement said.  “The United States views it as vital that they clearly delineate the roles and responsibilities of the TPC vis-à-vis the prime minister and include measures to hold one another accountable as appropriate while preventing further gridlock,” the spokesman said.  As Fils-Aime was being sworn in, gangs shot at a Spirit Airlines airplane as it was attempting to land at Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The flight was diverted to the Dominican Republic, where it landed.    The U.S. Embassy in Haiti said in an alert Monday that it was “aware of gang-led efforts to block travel to and from Port-au-Prince which may include armed violence, and disruptions to roads, ports and airports.”    The alert also said the U.S. Embassy was “aware of a temporary pause in operations at the Toussaint L'Ouverture airport.”    In addition to the gang violence that has clung to Haiti, the country has never fully recovered from a devastating earthquake in 2010.   Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press. 

The United States on Wednesday said Israel must avoid any Gaza-like military action in Lebanon after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned it risked "destruction" like that in the Palestinian territory.

Joe Biden pledged a peaceful transfer of power Thursday after Donald Trump's decisive US election win, while the Republican showed his intent to ditch the outgoing president's policies by suggesting he would talk to Vladimir Putin.

The US-Philippines Alliance Fellowship

US-Korea Commercial Relations Beyond Washington & Seoul Application

Congressional Program on US-Japan Relations and the Indo-Pacific Application

Next-Generation Vision Consortium on ROK-US and the Indo-Pacific Application

Congressional Staff Program on Australia (CSPAUS) Application

Summer Institute 2024: Infusing Korean Studies in American Undergraduate Higher Education

US-ROK-Japan Trilateral Global Leadership Youth Summit

US South Pacific Scholarship Program

Several local government units have announced the suspension of classes on Wednesday, November 13, due to tropical cyclones "Ofel" (international name: Usagi) and "Nika" (international name: Toraji).

The Quad Committee of the House of Representatives, composed of the Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order and Safety, Human Rights, and Public Accounts continued its joint inquiry into the extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration's drug war on Wednesday, November 13. 

After postponing the eleventh hearing into the drug-related extrajudicial killings on November 11, the House Quad Committee proceeded as initially scheduled on Wednesday, November 13.

United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Manila this week to "advance security objectives" and meet Filipino and American troops, the US State Department said on Wednesday, November 13.