RIYADMEDIA

WASHINGTON — U.S. congressional negotiators released a bill Sunday that would fund key parts of the government through the rest of the fiscal year, which began in October 2023.

Among provisions in the appropriations package are critical funds to counter China in the Pacific as part of an agreement signed last year called the Compacts of Free Association, or COFA.  

Under the compacts, Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands will receive $7 billion in economic aid over 20 years. In exchange, Washington will provide for their defense and can deny China access to their territorial waters, a maritime area larger than the continental United States.

The United States has had similar agreements in effect with Micronesia and the Marshalls since 1986 and with Palau since 1994. Citizens from these nations are allowed to travel, live and work in the United States as nonimmigrants.

Congresswoman Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, who represents the U.S. territory of American Samoa, told VOA on Sunday that House Speaker Mike Johnson reached her early Saturday morning to deliver the news.

Radewagen said she then called the presidents of the three Pacific allies to share the details.

“The COFA agreements send a clear message of U.S. commitment to the Pacific region and take a much-needed international strong stand for the ideals of democracy and freedom,” she told VOA in an email.

Senator Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat who has long supported the full funding of the agreement, issued a statement Sunday night.

“As we work to counter China’s growing influence in the Pacific, these agreements are extremely important for our national security and that of our allies, and also for the tens of thousands of COFA citizens who live, work and pay taxes in the U.S.,” she said.

The move comes after 26 senators, including Senators Joe Manchin, a Democrat, and John Barrasso, a Republican, urged Senate leadership to include the language that had previously been dropped from a Senate security spending bill on Feb. 12.

“Failure to act on COFA opens the door to more corrupting influence and funding by the PRC in the region,” wrote the senators, using an acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

Pacific Island leaders remain cautious.

President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands spoke to a Remembrance Day for victims and survivors of nuclear testing on March 1, the 70th anniversary of the U.S. nuclear test on Bikini Atoll.

“Our nation has been a steadfast ally of the United States, but that should not be taken for granted,” she told the audience, according to the news site Islands Business.

U.S. lawmakers face another threat of a partial shutdown if they fail to act by midnight Friday. 

House Speaker Johnson has said he will bring the compromise bill to the floor for a full house vote on Wednesday. 
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Zurich, Switzerland — Police have stepped up security measures at Jewish sites in Zurich following a serious knife attack on an orthodox Jewish man in the Swiss city overnight, local police said Sunday.

Police said they had taken action after a 15-year-old Swiss youth was arrested for inflicting “life-threatening” injuries on the 50-year-old Jewish man in central Zurich on Saturday night.

A Zurich police statement said it was not clear what sparked the attack, but that investigations were “explicitly including the possibility of a crime motivated by antisemitism.”

The extra security was put in place for “specific locations with a Jewish connection,” police said, following discussions with local Jewish organizations. They gave no further details.

Jonathan Kreutner, general secretary of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), told Swiss television that physical attacks on Jewish people in the country were rare.

“A case like this is really a new dimension,” he said.

Concern about the risk of antisemitic behavior in Switzerland has grown since the terror attacks by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent campaign against the Islamist group by the Israeli government in Gaza.

Last month, the SIG raised concern about attitudes to Jewish people after local media reported police had opened an investigation into a sign in Hebrew displayed by a business in Davos which declared Jews were barred from renting ski gear.
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Frankfurt, Germany — Germany’s defense minister said Sunday Russia was conducting an “information war” aimed at creating divisions within Germany, his first reaction to the publication in Russia of an audio recording of a meeting of senior German military officials.

Russian media published a 38-minute recording of a call Friday — in which German officers were heard discussing weapons for Ukraine and a potential strike by Kyiv on a bridge in Crimea — prompting Russian officials to demand an explanation.

On Saturday, Germany called it an apparent act of eavesdropping and said it was investigating.

“The incident is much more than just the interception and publication of a conversation … It is part of an information war that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is waging,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Sunday.

“It is a hybrid disinformation attack. It is about division. It is about undermining our unity.”

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied accusations of spreading false or misleading information when faced with allegations from other countries.

A Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said on social media Friday, “We demand an explanation from Germany,” without detailing its concerns.

The Russian Embassy in Berlin has not responded to an emailed request for comment.

Participants in the call discussed the possible delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv, which German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has publicly so far firmly rejected. They also talked about the training of Ukrainian soldiers, and possible military targets.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke to journalists on Saturday about “cunning plans of the Bundeswehr (German armed forces), which became apparent due to the publication of this audio recording. This is a blatant self-exposure.”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said Sunday the recording indicated that Berlin was preparing to fight Moscow.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put many of the nation’s most at-risk patients in even greater danger, especially young cancer patients. But a Ukrainian charity working with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the U.S. is helping some Ukrainian kids receive care around the world. Iryna Shynkarenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Viacheslav Filiushkin.
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Germany admits to leaked details of a military meeting outlining future munitions and battle plans for Ukraine. Russia calls Germany its “age-old” rival that is again its “sworn” enemy. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the story.
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U.S. Voters in more than a dozen states head to the polls on Tuesday to choose their party’s presidential nominee. Over the weekend, all candidates ramped up their criticism of their challengers and spelled out their priorities to voters. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details.
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LANGKAWI, Malaysia — An airplane carrying Norway’s King Harald V departed Malaysia on Sunday, a day after he was implanted with a pacemaker.   

Europe’s oldest reigning monarch was hospitalized for an infection during a private vacation on the northern resort island of Langkawi, the royal house said Tuesday.   

He underwent surgery at the Sultanah Maliha Hospital on Saturday to implant a temporary pacemaker due to a low heart rate, according to the royal house.   

Norwegian media outlets said Harald traveled to Malaysia with his wife, Queen Sonja, to celebrate his 87th birthday.   

A Scandinavian Airlines medical evacuation plane, which took off from Oslo on Thursday, arrived in Langkawi on Friday. The Boeing 737-700 aircraft has previously been used as a flying ambulance.   

According to Flightradar24, the same plane departed from Langkawi on Sunday headed for Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, from where it is scheduled to travel onward to Norway.   

The Norwegian royal house confirmed Sunday that the monarch has left Malaysia and the plane is expected to arrive in Oslo early Monday.   

“Upon arrival in Norway, His Majesty will be admitted to the [Oslo] hospital Rikshospitalet,” the royal palace said, adding that Harald would remain on sick leave for the next two weeks, during which Crown Prince Haakon will assume the monarch’s duties.   

According to Norwegian news agency NTB, which cited information from Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, the king’s transport back to Norway will cost an estimated 2 million Norwegian kroner ($190,000), which will be taken from the defense budget.   

The aging Norwegian monarch has suffered from frail health over the past few years, and has been admitted to a hospital for treatment on numerous occasions. Harald, who has been seen using crutches, had an operation to replace a heart valve in October 2020 after being hospitalized with breathing difficulties.   

Harald has repeatedly said he has no plans to abdicate, unlike his second cousin Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, who stepped down earlier this year.   

Harald’s duties as Norway’s head of state are ceremonial and he holds no political power. He ascended to the throne following the death of his father, King Olav, in 1991. 
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DENVER — U.S. ski areas lost $5 billion from 2000 to 2019 as a result of human-caused climate change and could lose around $1 billion annually in the 2050s depending on how much emissions are reduced, a new study found.

People “may not care about the loss of the species halfway around the world, or a flood that’s happening in some other part of the world. But sport is often something people care about,” said Daniel Scott, a scientist at the University of Waterloo and study co-author. “And they can see some of these changes happening.”

Warm weather has upended winter recreation across North America and Europe this year, canceling a 402-kilometer dog sled race in Maine, opening golf courses in Minnesota, and requiring snow saved from the previous year to run a ski race in Austria. A warm, dry El Niño weather pattern coupled with global warming is to blame, scientists say, and has put the threat to winter on center stage.

“It’s a now problem, not a future-looking problem,” said Auden Schendler, senior vice-president of sustainability at Aspen One, a ski and hospitality company that helped fund the study, published in Current Issues in Tourism.

It models what average ski seasons would have looked like from 2000 to 2019 in the four major U.S. markets — the Northeast, Midwest, Rocky Mountain and Pacific West — without climate change. Its baseline comparison is ski seasons from 1960 to 1979 — a period when most ski areas were operating and before significant trends of human-caused warming began. It found the average modeled season between 2000 and 2019 was shorter by 5.5 to 7.1 days, even with snowmaking to make up for less natural snow.

Under an optimistic emissions reduction scenario, the future of the U.S. ski industry would see seasons shortened by 14 to 33 days in the 2050s, even with snowmaking. A high-emissions scenario would nearly double the days lost.

Countries meeting for annual climate talks agreed in December that the world needs to be “transitioning away” from the fossil fuels that are heating the planet to dangerous levels, but set no concrete targets for doing so. Earth last year had its hottest year on record, and monthly records have continued this year.

“The future of the ski industry, if that’s something you care about, is really in our hands and it will play out over the next 10 to 15 years in terms of the policies and actions that we take to reduce emissions,” Scott said.

The researchers calculated economic losses based on increased operating costs for snowmaking along with lost skier revenue. Scott called the estimates “probably somewhat conservative,” noting that they don’t include such things as the loss of money that skiers spend on goods and services in winter sport communities.

The researchers said they undertook the study in part to fill a void in good data about how much climate change was costing the ski industry. They also suggested such data would be needed if the industry pursued lawsuits against fossil fuel producers, citing as a precedent ongoing litigation by several Colorado communities that are suing oil companies ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy for the cost of adapting to the impacts of climate change.

The researchers wrote that snowmaking is “no longer able to completely offset ongoing climate changes” and said “the era of peak ski seasons has likely passed in most U.S. markets.”

David Robinson, a Rutgers University researcher and the New Jersey state climatologist, made the same point as he called the study interesting and solid.

“It’s not going to stop snowing,” said Robinson, who wasn’t involved in the work. But “things such as snowmaking are only going to be able to go so far where it’s being done now” as the planet continues to warm.

Julienne Stroeve, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, who also wasn’t involved in the work, said the study doesn’t address how skiers and snowboarders might respond to declining quality of the snow that does fall. She wondered whether skier behavior will change if poor snow conditions become more frequent.

That change in skier behavior is known as substitutability, Scott said. If skiing isn’t an option or doesn’t provide good snow conditions, will people travel to another ski area? Turn to mountain biking? Scott said he would like to find out.

“That’s another one of those things we’d love to know more about, because then you could improve the modeling,” he said.
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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A Native American tribe with one of the largest outstanding claims to water in the Colorado River basin is closing in on a settlement with more than a dozen parties, putting it on a path to piping water to tens of thousands of tribal members in Arizona who still live without it.

Negotiating terms outlined late Wednesday include water rights not only for the Navajo Nation but the neighboring Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribes in the northeastern corner of the state. The water would come from a mix of sources: the Colorado River that serves seven western states, the Little Colorado River, and aquifers and washes on tribal lands.

The agreement is decades in the making and would allow the tribes to avoid further litigation and court proceedings, which have been costly. Navajo officials said they expect to finalize the terms in the coming days.

From there, it must be approved by the tribe’s governing bodies, the state of Arizona, the other parties and by Congress.

“We have the right Congress, we have the right president, and it’s very hopeful,” Navajo President Buu Nygren told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “Because next year might be a whole different ballgame. It’s going to be very uncertain.”

The proposal comes as Native American tribes, states in the Colorado River basin and Mexico are working on a long-term plan to share a diminishing water source that has served 40 million people. Tribes, including the Navajo Nation, were left out of a landmark 1922 treaty that divided the water in the basin among seven states.

The Navajo Nation has long argued that states treat the tribe as an afterthought. Any settlement reached would be separate from that long-term plan and stand on its own.

About one-third of the homes on the Navajo Nation do not have running water. Infrastructure projects outlined by the Navajo Nation include a $1.7 billion pipeline to deliver water from Lake Powell to tribal communities. The caveat being that there is no guarantee that Congress will provide the funding.

Both the Navajo and Hopi tribes are seeking the ability to lease water and to store it in existing or new reservoirs and impoundments.

“Some of our families that still live within those communities still have to haul water to cook their food, to make lemonade in the summer for their kids, to make ice, all little simple things to make your daily life easy and convenient,” Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley said.

On Wednesday, the Navajo Nation cited climate change, cost, competition for water and the coronavirus pandemic as reasons to move toward a settlement. Arizona, in turn, would benefit by having certainty over the amount of water that is available to non-tribal users. The state has had to cut its use of Colorado River water in recent years because of drought and demand.

Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said Wednesday that while progress is being made on a settlement with the Navajo Nation, the agreement isn’t complete.

Sarah Langley, a spokeswoman for Flagstaff, the largest city that is a party to the settlement, said it is hopeful the negotiations are productive.

Arizona — situated in the Colorado River’s Lower Basin with California, Nevada and Mexico — is unique in that it also has an allocation in the Upper Basin. Under the settlement terms, Navajo and Hopi would get about 47,000 acre-feet in the Upper Basin — nearly the entire amount that was set aside for use at the Navajo Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant on the Navajo reservation that shut down in late 2019.

The proposal also includes about 9,500 acre-feet per year of lower-priority water from the Lower Basin for both tribes. An acre-foot of water is roughly enough to serve two to three U.S. households annually.  

While the specific terms for the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe remain under discussion, Congress could be asked to establish a small reservation for the tribe whose ancestral land lies in Utah and Arizona. The tribe’s president, Robbin Preston Jr., didn’t immediately respond to emailed questions from the AP.

The Hopi Tribe’s general counsel, Fred Lomayesva, declined to comment.  

The Navajo Nation, whose 27,000 square-mile (70,000 square-kilometer) reservation also stretches into New Mexico and Utah, already has settled its claims to the Colorado River basin there.

The Navajo and Hopi tribes came close to reaching a pact with Arizona to settle water rights in 2012. Both tribes rejected federal legislation that accompanied it, and the tentative deal fell through. It also wasn’t broadly supported by Navajos and Hopis who saw negotiations as secretive, leading to a loose effort to recall then-Navajo President Ben Shelly and then-Hopi Chairman LeRoy Shingoitewa.  

Recently, the Navajo Nation Water Rights Commission has been holding public hearings across the reservation to ensure tribal members are aware of what is involved in a settlement and why the tribe pursued it, tribal officials said.

“We have a united front to our chapters, our schools and even our small businesses, families,” Curley said. “It’s inclusive of everyone. Everybody should be able to know what the terms are.” 

The federal government in recent years has poured money into tribal water rights settlements. The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled the government does not have a treaty duty to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajo Nation, complicating the tribe’s fight for water. 
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WARSAW, Poland — German authorities said Saturday they were conducting an investigation after an audio recording in which German military officers purportedly discussed support for Ukraine, including the potential use of Taurus missiles, was published in Russia. 

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was in Rome on Saturday, called it a “very serious matter” and said that German authorities were working to clarify the matter “very carefully, very intensively and very quickly.” His comments were carried by Germany’s dpa news agency. 

In the 38-minute recording, military officers discuss the question of how the Taurus long-range cruise missiles could be used by Ukraine. A debate has been taking place in Germany over whether to supply the missiles as Ukraine faced setbacks on the battlefield after two years of war, and with military aid from the United States being held up in Congress. 

Earlier this week, Scholz said he remains reluctant to send the Taurus missiles to Ukraine, pointing to a risk of Germany becoming directly involved in the war. His hesitancy is a source of friction in his three-party coalition and annoyed Germany’s conservative opposition. 

But in the purported audio recording, German officers discuss the theoretical possibility of the missiles being used in Ukraine. 

Germany’s Ministry of Defense said it was investigating whether communications within the air force were intercepted by Russia. In a statement carried by dpa, it said: “According to our assessment, a conversation within the air force was intercepted. We cannot currently say with certainty whether changes have been made to the recorded or written version that is circulating on social media.” 

Margarita Simonyan, chief editor of Russian state-funded TV channel RT, posted the audio on social media. 

“In this (…) recording, high-ranking Bundeswehr officers discuss how they will bomb (attention!) the Crimean bridge,” she wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding that the conversation took place on February 19. Within the conversation, she said, one of the officers mentioned a planned trip to Ukraine on February 21 to coordinate strikes on Russian targets. 

Germany is now the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States and is further stepping up its support this year. But Scholz has stalled for months on Ukraine’s desire for Taurus missiles, which have a range of up to 500 kilometers (311 miles) and could in theory be used against targets far into Russian territory. 

The chancellor has long emphasized his determination to help Ukraine without escalating the war and drawing in Germany and NATO, stressing that no German soldiers will go to Ukraine. 

“We will not send European soldiers to Ukraine. We don’t want a war between Russia and NATO. And we will do all we can to prevent it,” Scholz told a meeting of the Party of European Socialists in Rome on Saturday. 

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said the future deployment of Western troops on the ground in Ukraine was not “ruled out,” a suggestion quickly dismissed by Germany, Poland and other allied countries. 
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helsinki — King Harald V of Norway was implanted with a temporary pacemaker Saturday at a hospital in Malaysia’s resort island of Langkawi, where Europe’s oldest monarch was being treated for an infection during a vacation this week, the Norwegian royal house said. 

“The pacemaker was implanted due to a low heart rate,” the Royal House of Norway said in a brief statement, adding that the procedure conducted at Hospital Sultanah Maliha was successful. 

Following the operation, Harald, 87, would likely be transported back to Norway “within the next couple of days,” the statement said. 

“His Majesty is doing well under the circumstances but still requires rest. The procedure will make the return back home safer,” Bjorn Bendz, the king’s personal physician, said as quoted by the royal palace in Oslo. 

The royal house said Tuesday that Harald, Europe’s oldest reigning monarch, was hospitalized after he fell ill during a vacation in Langkawi. Norwegian media outlets said Harald traveled to the Malaysian resort island to celebrate his 87th birthday. 

Two days before his birthday last week, Norwegian news agency NTB reported that the king was undertaking a private trip abroad with his wife Queen Sonja, without specifying the destination or dates. 

A Scandinavian Airlines medical evacuation plane, which took off from Oslo Thursday arrived in Langkawi on Friday. Norwegian authorities haven’t confirmed yet whether the Boeing 737-700 aircraft, which has previously been used as a flying ambulance, will pick up King Harald. 

The Norwegian government arranges the transport, and the Norwegian Armed Forces are responsible for the practical arrangements for the king’s return trip, according to the royal house. 

The aging Norwegian monarch has suffered from frail health over the past few years and has been admitted to a hospital for treatment on numerous occasions. Harald, who has been seen using crutches, had an operation to replace a heart valve in October 2020 after being hospitalized with breathing difficulties. 

Harald has repeatedly said he has no plans to abdicate, unlike his second cousin, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, who stepped down earlier this year. The heir to the Norwegian throne, Crown Prince Haakon, has — as a rule — stepped in and taken over his father’s duties while he’s been hospitalized. 

Harald’s duties as Norway’s head of state are ceremonial and he holds no political power. He ascended to the throne following the death of his father, King Olav, in 1991. 

The country’s first native-born king since the 14th century, he married a commoner as a prince and won hearts in his egalitarian country by leading the mourning in 2011 for the victims of mass killer Anders Behring Breivik. 
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WASHINGTON — The United States on Saturday began airdrops of emergency humanitarian assistance into Gaza. President Joe Biden, who announced the operation Friday, said the U.S. was looking into additional ways to help Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled territory as the Israel-Hamas war goes on. Here is a look at what to know:

When did the airdrops start?

Three C-130 cargo planes from Air Forces Central dropped 66 bundles containing about 35,000 meals into Gaza at 8:30 a.m. EST Saturday. The bundles were dropped in southwest Gaza, on the beach along the territory’s Mediterranean coast, one U.S. official said.

The airdrop was coordinated with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, which has been airdropping food and took part in Saturday’s mission.

More airdrops are expected to follow.

Why now?

Biden’s decision comes after at least 115 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 others were injured Thursday trying to access aid in northern Gaza under disputed circumstances, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry. Witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire as huge crowds raced to pull goods off an aid convoy, while Israel has said that it fired only when its troops felt threatened and that most of the civilian casualties were from trampling.

The U.S. has been pushing Israel to speed the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza and to open a third crossing into the territory, but the violence Thursday showed the challenges no matter the circumstances.

“The loss of life is heartbreaking,” Biden said as he announced his decision to order airdrops. “People are so desperate.”

How will the U.S. ensure aid gets to where it’s needed?

Asked how the U.S. would keep the supplies from falling into Hamas’ hands, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the U.S. would learn over the course of the aerial operation.

“There’s few military operations that are more complicated than humanitarian assistance airdrops,” he said. Kirby said Pentagon planners will identify drop locations aiming to balance getting the aid closest to where it’s needed without putting those on the ground in harm’s way from the drops themselves.

“The biggest risk is making sure nobody gets hurt on the ground,” Kirby said. He said the U.S. is also working through how the airdropped aid will be collected and distributed once it’s on the ground.

Will it make a difference?

The U.S. believes the airdrops will help address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, but they are no replacement for trucks, which can transport far more aid more effectively — although Thursday’s events also showed the risks with ground transport.

Kirby said the airdrops have an advantage over trucks in that planes can move aid to a particular location very quickly. But in terms of volume, the airdrops will be “a supplement to, not a replacement for, moving things in by ground.”

What else can be done?

The U.S. and allies have tried to broker a new temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel that would see the release of more hostages held by the militant group in Gaza, the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and an up-to-six-week pause in the fighting.

If a cease-fire were secured, the U.S. hopes it would allow large quantities of aid to flow into Gaza over a sustained period. Biden said Friday the U.S. was working with allies on establishing a “maritime corridor” to provide assistance to Palestinians from the sea.
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ANTALYA, TURKEY — Armenia is ready to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan if Baku shows the same political will and is keen to make progress on normalizing relations with Turkey, a senior Armenian official said on Saturday. 

Yerevan and Baku said in December they wanted to reach a peace deal after decades of being at odds, but no agreement has been signed yet. 

The most divisive issue has long been the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan. Baku’s forces recaptured the mountainous area in September after years of ethnic Armenian control, prompting most of its ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. 

Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan said Armenia had the political will for a normalization of relations with Azerbaijan based on principles previously agreed upon by the two sides. 

“This is an issue of political will and leadership,” he told Reuters in an interview during the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey. 

He said Yerevan had shown the political will needed, including at talks on Friday between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey, Baku’s main backer. 

“Now, if the Azerbaijani side is really interested in having peace, we just need to agree to put the agreed principles by the leaders [on paper] and sign it,” he said. 

Among outstanding issues is the lack of agreement over their shared border, with each side holding small areas surrounded by the other’s territory. 

Kostanyan said the two sides needed to recognize each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and drew attention to Yerevan’s “Crossroads for Peace” plan for an opening in communication lines in the region to help regional stability. 

There was no immediate comment from Baku in his remarks. 

Turkey-Armenia ties 

NATO member Turkey has deepened political and military ties with Azerbaijan in recent years but has also been working to revive ties with Armenia after decades of animosity after severing diplomatic and commercial ties in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan during a war Baku was fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Kostanyan said Armenia wanted a full normalization of ties with Turkey, including the opening of their shared border and establishment of diplomatic relations. 

“The establishment of diplomatic relations is basically communications between two states,” he said. “Of course, reconciliation between two nations can take longer, but we need to have diplomatic relations, which will help us and help our people.” 

He said Yerevan had done the work needed to open borders with Turkey, including infrastructure repairs, and was awaiting on Ankara’s response. 

Turkey and Armenia are at odds primarily over the 1.5 million people Yerevan says were killed in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor to modern Turkey. 

Armenia says this constitutes genocide. Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but it contests the figures and denies it was systematic. 
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Washington — Thirty-one members of the U.S. Congress recently signed a letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging them to not recognize a new government in Pakistan until an investigation into allegations of election interference has been conducted. Voters in Pakistan went to polls on February 8.

On election day, mobile services were blocked by Pakistani authorities and there were cases of violence. Many political leaders and activists were arrested in the weeks before the elections. There was an unusual delay in issuing the election results. All these things led to accusations that the vote was rigged.

VOA Urdu Service reporter Iram Abbasi interviewed U.S. Representative Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat, who wrote the letter to Biden.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: What are the three demands put forward to the White House and State Department in your letter?

U.S. Representative Greg Casar: I’ve led a group of over 30 members of Congress asking the United States and the White House to, one, withhold recognition of the folks that say they won the Pakistani election until an independent investigation is completed, showing that the election was not rigged.

Second, we are urging the release of any of those wrongfully detained for engaging in political free speech or just political activity, because people should be able to be journalists, to be able to be candidates, to be able to be political activists without fear of detention or violence against them.

And lastly, we want to make it very clear that the United States security assistance to the military in Pakistan and, frankly, to the military anywhere in the world, is contingent on following strong human rights standards.

VOA: What motivated you to lead a group of 31 lawmakers to write this letter to the president and Secretary Blinken?

Casar: If we believe in democracy [in] the United States, then we should believe in democracy everywhere, especially when it comes to our allies.

I, myself, have long studied how the United States suppressed democracy in Latin America. Far too often in Latin America, the United States supposedly was leading on democracy but instead let oligarchs, let large corporations, and let military interests override the will of the people.

And so, the United States supported coups, supported military governments and suppressed democracy in Latin America. And that ultimately hurt, not just Latin Americans, but also hurt people in the United States. It did not work. It did not work economically. It did not work for our safety. The same should apply with [the] United States and Pakistan. We should not simply let geopolitics or corporations or our military alliance override our core value of democracy.

VOA: You’ve just said that the U.S. has supported coups around the world. Some would argue that with this letter, you might be asking the U.S. to meddle in the internal politics of Pakistan.

Casar: We are not meddling in those internal politics. In fact, the question is whether or not there was a free and fair election. So, our interest is not whether one group or another group wins an election. The people of Pakistan should be able to decide their own election. … We have very clear laws that aid is contingent on human rights being respected, free speech being respected. We do not want the United States taxpayer dollars to go to militaries that then use that money to incarcerate journalists or suppress free speech or suppress political parties.

VOA: I’ve spoken to the State Department about this previously because these efforts have been made in the past as well. And their stance is that they want the people of Pakistan to decide who their leader should be. What would you say to that?

Casar: I agree that they should have that … we should not meddle in domestic politics and that whoever the people of Pakistan want to be elected by majority vote, that’s who should be elected. So, the question is, did that happen? And there is extensive video evidence, extensive testimony. And in fact, the State Department knows that there are very credible allegations that are on video, of things happening before the election and allegations after the election that are very concerning to the United States, but are also very concerning, even more concerning, to the people of Pakistan. So, I am not saying that we should withhold recognition of a government for no reason. We should only make sure that the will of the people of Pakistan is heard.

VOA: What do you think you would be able to achieve with this letter if the State Department has received such requests in the past? As you said, there are examples of how journalists are being put in jail and how there are several voices in Pakistan who are saying that elections are allegedly rigged. The government denies that. But what do you think you’ll be able to achieve out of it?

Casar: I think if there is an independent and credible investigation into these allegations and it is determined that the elections either were significantly rigged or were not, but the United States and a coalition of nations stands behind whatever the investigation finds — that will be very powerful and very important on the world stage and hopefully will help us get to a more stable and secure and democratic Pakistan, which is good for the entire world, because, as you know, this is a country of over 200 million people. This isn’t a small thing for the world.

VOA: In your letter, there is this notion that there was pre-poll rigging, along with the allegations of election rigging. Your letter seems to include that sentiment toward former Prime Minister Imran Khan, as though he was put in jail for the wrong reasons, or he had not been given a fair trial?

Casar: I believe that everyone deserves a fair trial, and it is so important for him [to receive a fair trial]. … The people of Pakistan want to be able to recognize this and know that their elections are fair and that their leadership was chosen fairly. And so, I think a fair trial for him is important. It’s important for everyone, but it is important, of course, for those political leaders. Again, I have no interest in whether he or anyone else leads Pakistan. That is not our interest in the United States. Pakistan should be able to determine its own domestic politics. 
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WASHINGTON — French journalist Antoine Galindo, who was detained for a week in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, was released Thursday ahead of his scheduled second appearance in court Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said.

Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, told VOA that Galindo, a reporter for Paris-based news site Africa Intelligence, left for France immediately after his release.

“Unfortunately, the local politician whom he was interviewing when he was arrested remained in jail and appeared in court today,” Quintal said.

Galindo was arrested February 22 while interviewing Bate Urgessa, a political officer for the opposition party, the Oromo Liberation Front, and they were both charged with “conspiracy to create chaos.”

Two days later, Galindo was brought before a judge who granted a one-week investigation period for police “to search the journalist’s mobile phone and apprehend other ‘suspects’ who were ‘complicit.’ ”

Sources who attended Friday’s hearing and asked to remain anonymous because of fear for their safety told VOA that police told the court that Galindo was released on bail and asked for an additional five days of investigation.

However, Quintal said, “If he was released on bail, he would not have been allowed out of the country,” adding that French diplomatic efforts may have helped gain Galindo’s early release.

CPJ Africa program coordinator Muthoki Mumo said in a statement, “His unjust detention was a stark reminder of the danger of practicing journalism in today’s Ethiopia.”

“Ethiopian authorities must now release all journalists — eight others, at least — who have suffered months of imprisonment under very difficult conditions,” Mumo said, adding that the government should also allow international journalists to report without fear of retaliation.

Stressing that Galindo’s arrest showed there was no press freedom in Ethiopia under the current government, Quintal sought to use the momentum of his release to draw international attention and advocate for the release of all Ethiopian journalists in prison.

Quintal said, “You can’t have one standard for a foreign journalist and another for a local. The vast majority of journalists in jail in Africa are actually local journalists.”

According to CPJ, Ethiopia is the second-worst jailer of journalists in sub-Saharan Africa with at least eight journalists behind bars. Four of them were arrested since the declaration of a state of emergency in August 2023, Quintal said, and they were never formally charged.

Galindo, 36, traveled to Addis Ababa to cover an African Union summit and other political news, according to his employer. The publication added he had a journalist visa and the proper accreditation from the government’s Media Authority.
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