Month: December 2023

Israel has resumed military operations in Gaza as the weeklong truce expired Friday. Wrapping up intense diplomacy in the region, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken blamed Hamas for the end of the pause but is urging another one. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Developers at the University of Maryland are using a holographic camera to capture people’s movements in three dimensions for what could be high-impact training, education and entertainment. It is technology with the power to transform how we learn and entertain ourselves. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum.
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Japan’s top government spokesperson expressed concern on Friday that the U.S. military is continuing to fly Osprey aircraft in the country without providing adequate information about a fatal crash this week in southwestern Japan despite repeated requests that it do so.

One crew member was killed and seven others are missing, along with the aircraft. The cause of Wednesday’s crash, which occurred during a training mission, is still under investigation. Search operations widened Friday with additional U.S. military personnel joining the effort, while Japanese coast guard and military ships focused on an undersea search using sonar.

The Pentagon said Thursday that U.S. Ospreys continue to operate in Japan, and Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said she was not aware of an official request from Japan to ground them.

“We are concerned about the continuing Osprey flights despite our repeated requests and the absence of a sufficient explanation about their safety” from the U.S. military, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Friday.

The U.S.-made Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but can rotate its propellers forward and cruise much faster, like an airplane, during flight.

Ospreys have had a number of crashes, including in Japan, where they are used at U.S. and Japanese military bases, and the latest crash rekindled safety concerns.

Japanese officials say they asked the U.S. military to halt Osprey flights in Japan except for those involved in the search operations.

Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said he met with the commander of U.S. Forces Japan, Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp, on Thursday afternoon and repeated his request that flights be allowed only after the aircraft’s safety is confirmed. He acknowledged that he did not specifically use the words “grounding” or “suspension.”

Kihara said he asked Rupp to explain what measures are being taken for Osprey flights in Japan in response to the crash.

On Thursday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa met with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and asked the United States “to promptly provide information to the Japanese side.”

U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command said the CV-22B Osprey that crashed was one of six deployed at Yokota Air Base, home to U.S. Forces Japan and the Fifth Air Force, and was assigned to the 353rd Special Operations Wing.

The aircraft had departed from the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi prefecture and crashed on its way to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japanese officials said.

A total of 44 Ospreys have been deployed at U.S. and Japanese military bases in Japan. In Okinawa, where about half of the 50,000 American troops in Japan are based, Gov. Denny Tamaki called on Japan’s defense and foreign ministries to request the U.S. military to suspend all Osprey flights in Japan, including in search operations.

“It is extremely regrettable that Ospreys are still flying in Okinawa,” Tamaki said in a statement Thursday. “I have serious doubts about Osprey safety even for their search and rescue operations.”
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Lawyer Isabel Lazo’s jobs are being systematically canceled by Nicaragua’s increasingly repressive government.

Lazo worked at a university before the government of President Daniel Ortega closed it. She now is employed at a nongovernmental organization that she fears will soon be shuttered too.

Nicaragua’s poisonous mix of economic decline and repression has led to about half of the country’s population of 6.2 million saying they want to leave their homeland, according to a new study, and 23% saying they had contemplated the possibility deeply enough to consider themselves “very prepared” to emigrate.

“A large proportion of them have already taken concrete steps to try to get out,” said Elizabeth Zechmeister, the director of the AmericasBarometer study “The Pulse of Democracy in the Americas.”

The study, which was released on Wednesday, shows that the number of Nicaraguans wanting to leave rose from 35% five years ago to almost half today, and that about 32% of people in 26 Latin American countries surveyed say they want to migrate.

Lazo, 42, and her husband Guillermo Lazo, 52, a systems engineer, both taught at the University of Northern Nicaragua until the Ortega government shut it down in April. It was one of 26 universities that closed because Ortega accused them of being centers of revolt, or failing to register or pay special taxes to the government, which has feuded with the Roman Catholic church, as well.

The couple lives in the northern city of Somoto, where Isabel Lazo now works for a European-backed NGO. Ortega’s government has outlawed or closed more than 3,000 civic groups and NGOs.

In May, the government ordered the Nicaraguan Red Cross shut down, accusing it of “attacks on peace and stability” during anti-government demonstrations in 2018. The local Red Cross says it just helped treat injured protesters.

Lazo said Thursday she is worried that it’s only a matter of time for the group where she now works.

“This will be ending soon,” she said dispiritedly, The couple is now awaiting a decision on a U.S. application for “humanitarian parole,” a program under which up to 30,000 people are being allowed each month to enter the U.S. from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Until then, there are few prospects for them, even though they are among Nicaragua’s educated elite.

“We were left without jobs from one day to the next,” Lazo said. “And even though we have graduate degrees and master’s degrees, we haven’t found decent jobs. You can kill yourself studying here and it’s worth nothing.”

Thousands have already fled into exile since Nicaraguan security forces violently put down mass anti-government protests in 2018. Ortega says the protests were an attempted coup with foreign backing, aiming for his overthrow.

Rosemary Miranda is another educated Nicaraguan who wants to leave. A psychologist, she graduated from the Jesuit-run University of Central America, also closed and confiscated by the government.

Miranda, 24, works for a microfinancing firm at an office in Managua, the capital, but the $402 per month she earns there doesn’t even cover the cost of commuting, meals and clothing.

“In this country, the majority of people work just to eat. They can’t buy clothing or shoes without waiting a month between purchases,” Miranda said.

She has wanted to emigrate for some time, but she helps her family by giving them some of what little money she earns. With the purchasing power of wages falling, she is now rethinking her decision to stay.

“The situation here is very difficult. Every month the price of food, electricity, water and transportation rises,” she said. “What have I gotten in return for studying so much and graduating?”
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US lawmakers warned Thursday that the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to spread disinformation will only increase ahead of the 2024 elections in the United States. As VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, social media giant TikTok is lawmakers’ top concern.
Camera: Saqib Ui Islam
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is back in the Middle East, holding talks Thursday with Israeli and Palestinian officials and coming out with an unusually blunt message to Israel about the next phase of its war against Hamas. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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In his closing arguments for remaining a member of the House, a defiant Representative George Santos depicted himself as a victim of a smear campaign by some of his colleagues and made clear that he would not resign before a vote Friday on whether he should be expelled.

The first-term Republican congressman from New York could well become just the sixth member of the House to have been ousted by colleagues. While Santos survived two earlier expulsion efforts, a critical House Ethics Committee report released on November 16 has convinced more members that his actions merit the House’s most severe punishment.

“I will not stand by quietly,” Santos said during Thursday afternoon’s debate on the House floor. “The people of the Third District of New York sent me here. If they want me out, you’re going to have to go silence those people and go take the hard vote.”

‘This will haunt them,’ says Santos

Of the previous expulsions in the House, three were for disloyalty to the Union during the Civil War and two were for lawmakers convicted in federal court. Santos appealed to those lawmakers who worry that a new precedent is being set for the chamber’s harshest punishment.

“This will haunt them in the future where mere allegations are sufficient to have members removed from office when duly elected by their people in their respective states and districts,” Santos said during a press conference held early in the morning before House debate began.

Santos was a bright spot for the Republican Party when he won his election in November 2022, flipping a seat that had been held by the Democrats and helping Republicans take control of the House. But, soon after, reports began to emerge that Santos had lied about having Jewish ancestry, a career at top Wall Street firms and a college degree. He turned into a distraction and an embarrassment to his party.

In early March, the House Ethics Committee announced it was launching an investigation into Santos. That was followed in May when the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York unveiled a 13-count federal indictment that was later replaced with the 23-count indictment.

The indictment alleges he stole the identities of campaign donors and then used their credit cards to make tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges. Federal prosecutors say Santos wired some of the money to his personal bank account and used the rest to pad his campaign coffers.

Santos has pleaded not guilty.

Panel says it has evidence of lawbreaking

Meanwhile, Ethics Committee investigators spent eight months on the Santos case. The panel said it amassed “overwhelming evidence” of lawbreaking by Santos that it sent to the Justice Department. Among other things, the panel said that Santos knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission, used campaign funds for personal purposes, and violated the Ethics in Government Act with his financial disclosure statements.

The disgraceful association that comes with expulsion was not lost on Santos. But rather than seek to avoid it by resigning, he sought to frame it as an unfair persecution, saying “If I leave, they win. If I leave, the bullies take place. This is bullying.”

Members of the Republican delegation from New York led the arguments for expelling Santos. Representative Anthony D’Esposito acknowledged that the expulsion would set a new precedent, but he said he was confident the American people would welcome lawmakers being held to a higher standard.

Arguing against expulsion, Louisiana Republican Representative Clay Higgins said that while he respects the Ethics Committee, he had concerns about how the Santos case was handled. He said he was troubled that a Republican-led committee would submit a report that was so judgmental and publicized.

While the Ethics Committee does have a Republican chairman, its membership is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.
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Emilio Gutierrez Soto came to the National Press Club on Wednesday with a message of gratitude. Press freedom advocates came with a call to action.

The 60-year-old journalist fled with his son to the U.S.-Mexico border in 2008 seeking asylum after receiving death threats because of his reporting on Mexican military corruption.

After 15 years, the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled in favor of Gutierrez Soto.

He still needs to go in front of an immigration judge in March 2024 to receive his asylum papers, but his immigration lawyer said his case has been resolved. 

At an event in Washington to highlight his case, Gutierrez Soto was smiling, shaking hands with other journalists, and at times holding back tears as he thanked the people who helped him along the way. 

“These fifteen years have been terrible. … I feel profoundly grateful for everyone here,” Gutierrez Soto said. 

The ruling was a win for the National Press Club and more than 20 other journalism organizations who joined his legal fight.

Press freedom advocates and first amendment lawyers say Gutierrez Soto’s journey offers a case study in how press freedom cases are often overlooked as a priority in the United States.

And they want better protections for at-risk journalists who have to come to the U.S. for safety reasons.

Press freedom advocates recommend sending court watchers to immigration asylum hearings, creating a legal taskforce of First Amendment experts willing to take on the asylum cases of journalists, and producing a database of these experts around the country so at-risk reporters can easily connect with them.

“These experts should be all over the country because they know the system of various judges, immigration judges and federal judges,” said Rutgers University law professor Penny Venetis, who was also one of Gutierrez Soto’s attorneys. 

They also said more media attention on cases of journalists at risk is needed.

“Publicize all cases. I think a big part of this [win] was that it was constantly in the press,” Venetis said. 

Experts involved in Gutierrez Soto’s case on Wednesday talked about ideas to develop a team of experts that can file amicus briefs in every single immigration case involving a journalist and to require immigration judges to be trained in specific subject areas so that they can process immigration cases faster. 

“[Gutierrez Soto’s] case was pending for 15 years. It should not have been. It was a slam dunk case. There should be a group of immigration judges that only handle cases related to journalists,” Venetis said. 

According to Kathy Kiely, National Press Club freedom fellow and the Lee Hills chair in free-press studies at University of Missouri, one of the ways to support at-risk journalists is by advocating for a special visa for human rights workers and journalists. 

“This is in place in Canada. They started with 250 [visas] and they’ve now doubled it to 500 special visas a year. And it gives people at least a three-year runway, so they know they have legal status, they can work,” she said. 

The U.S. does not have a humanitarian visa category. 

Gutierrez Soto’s case

Gutierrez Soto and his son, Oscar, came to the U.S.-Mexico border in 2008 requesting asylum.

At that time, he had been working as a journalist, writing articles about the military forces robbing and extorting people in Chihuahua, which borders New Mexico and part of Texas.

Gutierrez Soto said he received death threats because of those articles and feared being targeted if he stayed in Mexico.

Following their arrival, father and son, who was then 15, were separated. His son went on to stay with relatives in the U.S. while Gutierrez Soto remained in immigration detention for several months. After he was released, he settled in New Mexico where he and his son lived for nine years while his asylum process wound through immigration courts. 

But in 2017 that asylum claim was denied by immigration Judge Robert Hough who ruled Gutierrez Soto did not present sufficient evidence to prove he was targeted for his journalistic work or that his life would be in danger if he returned to Mexico. 

Hough seemed unconvinced that he was a journalist. He denied the asylum claim and ruled that Gutierrez Soto could be removed from the United States.

The Press Club and immigration advocates stepped in to help in 2017 and were able to stop his deportation. 

Shortly after that, Gutierrez Soto received the John Aubuchon award, the club’s highest honor for press freedom. 

Years went by as his case went through the U.S. immigration courts. Then, on September 5, a three-judge appeals panel said Gutierrez Soto had a reasonable and well-founded fear of returning to Mexico because of his articles exposing the corruption of the Mexican military.

They also said the initial judge in his case twice had ruled in error to deport Gutierrez Soto.

The Mexican journalist was working on a Michigan farm when he first learned that his asylum request was finally approved. 

Kiely hopes his case helps to grow support and advocacy for other at-risk journalists and protect freedom of the press. 

“We need to really, collectively as a profession, begin to point out to policymakers, how much you lose when you waste time, resources and money on a case like Emilio’s that should have been decided years ago and how much we can gain if we enabled the journalists to do their jobs,” Kiely said.  
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Iranian-backed proxies launched a rocket assault against U.S. forces in the Middle East, bringing the total number of attacks on U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq and Syria to 74 since October 17.

A U.S. defense official told VOA a single rocket was launched overnight against Mission Support Site Euphrates in eastern Syria, causing no casualties or damage.

U.S. naval forces in the Middle East continue to counter threats at sea as well. On Wednesday, while in the southern Red Sea, the USS Carney missile destroyer shot down an Iranian-produced drone launched from areas of Yemen controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi militants.

“Although its intentions are not known, the UAV [drone] was heading toward the warship. At the time of the shootdown, the USS Carney was escorting the USNS Supply [oiler] and another U.S.-flagged and -crewed ship carrying military equipment to the region,” U.S. Central Command said.

There were no injuries or damage to any of the vessels during the incident.

On Sunday, two ballistic missiles were fired from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen in the direction of the USS Mason, a destroyer, as it came to the aid of a commercial vessel that was dealing with an apparent pirate attack.

The Pentagon has officially said that it doesn’t believe the USS Mason was the missiles’ target, but two defense officials have since told VOA they disagree with that assessment.

U.S. has countered attacks in Iraq, Syria

Last week, U.S. forces carried out three strikes within 24 hours against Iranian-backed forces and their facilities in what the military said was a “direct response to attacks against U.S. and coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups.”

Two of the U.S. strikes targeted an operations center and a command-and-control node used by the Iranian-backed militant group Kataib Hezbollah near Al Anbar and Jurf al-Saqr in Iraq, a defense official told VOA. Kataib Hezbollah forces were present at the two facilities, which the defense official said had supported recent attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria.

Early assessments pointed to at least six militants killed in the two strikes, the defense official said.

A third U.S. attack struck and killed Iranian-backed proxies who earlier had launched a close-range ballistic missile against al-Asad air base in Iraq.

It was the first time a ballistic missile had been launched against U.S. forces in the Middle East since the surge in attacks began on October 17. Ballistic missiles can be much more powerful and carry much more destructive payloads than the rockets and drones used in previous attacks. 

U.S. Central Command said the ballistic missile attack caused eight injuries to U.S. personnel and minor damage to infrastructure. 

Prior to last week’s attacks, U.S. fighter jets had carried out three rounds of strikes targeting four facilities in Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their proxy groups since October 17.

Most attacks disrupted

Most of the 74 attacks since October 17 were disrupted by the U.S. military or failed to reach their targets, causing no casualties or damage to infrastructure, according to the military. But a handful of attacks have injured dozens of U.S. military personnel. Some suffered shrapnel wounds or perforated eardrums, while a few suffered traumatic brain injuries.

One U.S. contractor at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq suffered a cardiac episode and died while sheltering in place during a false alarm for an air attack. 

Since U.S. President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, Iranian-backed proxies have attacked U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria more than 160 times.

A spate of attacks from Iranian-backed militants in March killed a U.S. contractor in Syria, caused traumatic brain injuries in 23 military personnel and wounded 25 U.S. military personnel, according to the Pentagon. 

The Pentagon responded with air strikes against Iranian-backed facilities in Syria, much like the strikes carried out by U.S. forces in recent weeks. 

The last time Iran or Iranian-backed proxies used ballistic missiles against U.S. forces in Iraq was in 2020 following a U.S. attack in Iraq that killed Iranian Quds force leader Qassem Soleimani.
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