STOP  SABRE RATTLING
Russia says even idea of war with Ukraine is 'unacceptable'

MOSCOW, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday that even the thought of a war breaking out between Russia and Ukraine was "unacceptable", the latest in a series of official statements aimed at quashing fears of a looming Russian invasion.

"We have already repeatedly stated that our country does not intend to attack anyone. We consider even the thought of a war between our people to be unacceptable," said Alexei Zaitsev, a spokesman for the ministry.

Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has backed an insurgency in eastern Ukraine, has built up forces on its territory near Ukraine as well as in neighbouring Belarus.

Kyiv rejects Russia's version that the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine is a civil war that has nothing to do with Moscow, saying Russia is supporting the separatists with covert forces on the ground.

 (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Report: US, Ukraine at Odds over Threat of Russian Invasion

TEHRAN (FNA)- Washington and Kiev are at odds over how to interpret reports about Russia’s alleged preparations to invade Ukraine, CNN reported, citing sources.

According to the TV channel, US President Joe Biden and his advisors "have been annoyed by [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky's public downplaying of the threat".

"The questions we have are, why are you picking fights with the US?" CNN quoted an official as saying.

"Why are you leaking and distorting when the US is one of the only real friends you have? And why ask for more weapons if you say the threat hasn't changed?" the official added.

Meanwhile, according to the TV channel’s sources, the Kiev authorities believe that Washington "is inciting panic and economic turmoil inside Ukraine, while at the same time the US refuses to take preemptive deterrence measures such as imposing new sanctions on Russia".

"Kiev would find more value in taking active deterrent measures such as immediate sanctions against Nord Stream than the persistent verbal warnings predicting imminent war for the last couple months that provide no deterrent, and are actually unintentionally negatively impacting the Ukrainian economy," CNN reported, citing an adviser to Zelensky.

The TV channel reported earlier, citing a senior Ukrainian official that Thursday’s phone call between Biden and Zelensky "did not go well".

Meantime, the head of Ukraine’s parliament sent a letter to several US senators outlining specific demands for sanctioning Russia.

Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, thanked the senators for supporting Ukraine, and “stressed the importance of already adopted laws to support Ukraine in combating Russian aggression”, according to a statement from the parliament.

Lawmakers are scrambling to put together a bipartisan sanctions package to deter Russia from invading Ukraine — which the Joe Biden administration has warned could happen any day. While deterring Russia from invading Ukraine is a bipartisan point on Capitol Hill, how best to deter an invasion has been a sticking point among senators.

Senators are using legislation introduced by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as a starting point.

That legislation largely imposes sanctions if the Biden administration determines that Russia invaded or intentionally escalated hostilities against Ukraine.

According to Axios, which first obtained the letter, the request was sent to Menendez and Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations panel. The letter was also sent to Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.).

The senators on Monday took part in a meeting over Zoom to try to figure out the details for legislation on sanctioning Russia.

Stefanchuk asked for “expedited and higher-impact security assistance, including air defenses, anti-ship and anti-armor capabilities, and flexible loans and financing mechanisms”, according to Axios, citing the letter.

The chairman also demanded immediate, mandatory sanctions against the operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which Ukraine has announced threatened its security. He also called for mandatory pre-trigger and post-trigger sanctions against all of Russia’s “most significant financial institutions".

Further, Stefanchuk asked for a “clear trigger for the instant and unqualified imposition of any sanctions that are not imposed immediately upon enactment of the legislation".

Speculation about an invasion was initiated by Ukrainian and US officials several months ago, and has been actively fueled by both government officials and Western media outlets. The Russian authorities made it clear that it has no plans of this kind.

The Biden administration has also spoken with the country's largest banks about sanctions against Russia amid Washington’s claims that Moscow is preparing to invade Ukraine, according to reports.

Senior Biden administration officials and members of the National Security Council (NSC) talked to Citigroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The officials also reportedly spoke with executives from the major companies.

The NSC told The Hill the Biden administration has been clear that it is assessing a range of options “to deliver severe costs to the Russian economy” if Russia invades Ukraine.

“Assessing potential spillovers and exploring ways to reduce those spillovers is good governance and standard practice. Any details in this regard that make their way to the public only demonstrate the extensive detail and seriousness with which we are discussing and are prepared to impose significant measures with our allies and partners – including actions we did not pursue in 2014,” noted an NSC spokesperson, referring to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

A new poll has found the majority of Americans support diplomacy, not war, with Russia as tensions continue to escalate over Ukraine.

According to the Data for Progress survey of 1,214 likely US voters, 71 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of Republicans said they want the United States to pursue a diplomatic solution with Russia and avoid the path toward military conflict.

Overall, 58 percent of all respondents "somewhat" or "strongly" support the Biden administration "striking a deal with Russia to avoid war over Ukraine".

They said the United States should be prepared to make concessions in the effort to de-escalate tensions and avoid war.

Anti-war activists rallied outside the White House on Thursday, urging Washington to tone down its belligerent war rhetoric with Russia and give peace and diplomacy a chance. The protesters called on the Biden administration to stop antagonizing Moscow, which they warned could trigger a devastating war with global ramifications.

With tensions rapidly escalating in Eastern Europe, Moscow's top diplomat has accused Washington of politicizing the growing standoff over Ukraine's borders to an extent that has taken Kiev itself by surprise.

Speaking to news outlets as part of a broadcast interview on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov weighed in on the Western nations’ decisions to evacuate staff from embassies and consulates in the former Soviet Republic due to the purported threat of a Russian invasion.

“Now the Americans have begun to use Ukraine so blatantly and cynically against Russia that the Kiev regime itself is already scared,” he claimed, adding, “They are already saying – don't escalate this discussion, let's tone down the rhetoric, why are you evacuating diplomats?”

Lavrov pointed out that it is not only Americans fleeing from Kiev, but “other Anglo-Saxons – the Canadians and the Brits”. According to Lavrov, “they know something the rest of us don't know".

“We are now being told, by both [EU diplomatic chief Josep] Borrell and [US Secretary of State Antony] Blinken … as an incantation: ‘we really hope that Russia will choose the path of diplomacy,’ hysterically hyping the escalation in Ukraine and demanding de-escalation,” he said.

Ukraine tells West not to 'panic' over Russia tensions

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the way the West and the media were playing up its conflict with Russia would "cost Ukrainians dearly." He said President Biden was making a "mistake" with his strong rhetoric.



Ukraine's president questioned the volume and frequency of recent Western warnings about a possible Russian incursion when speaking to international media

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a press conference with international media on Friday and called on the West not to create "panic" over tensions with Russia, saying it had further damaged Ukraine's long-fragile economy by prompting capital outflows.

"We don't need this panic," Zelenskyy said. "It cost Ukrainians dearly."

While he did not dismiss the possibility of military conflict with Russia, the Ukrainian president said the White House was making a "mistake" in highlighting excessively the risk of a large-scale war, saying he had told President Joe Biden as much in a telephone call the previous evening.

"There are no tanks in the streets. But media give the impression, if one is not here, that we have a war, that we have army in the streets... That's not the case. We don't need this panic," Zelenskyy said, adding that "I don't consider the situation now more tense than before," though, "I am not saying an escalation is not possible."

Russia: US offers better proposals than NATO

Earlier on Friday Russia signaled some approval of US proposals received in writing, in response to a series of ultimatums it had issued.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the counterproposals sent by the United States were better than those sent by NATO. The responses were to the ultimatums Russia had issued earlier this week over NATO expansion since 1997.

Russia has over 100,000 troops amassed near its border to Ukraine. The US and Europe have threatened "massive consequences" should Russia invade Ukraine.

It is unclear exactly what the US offered or said that NATO did not, but the US has held to its obligation to NATO allies and said NATO expansion and force posture were nonnegotiable.

John Sullivan, the US ambassador to Russia, said Washington's counterproposals included curbs on military exercises and missiles in Europe. Sullivan said the US was now awaiting written responses from Moscow, adding that he considered the troops stationed near Ukraine to be an unacceptable part of a negotiating strategy.

"If I put a gun on the table and say that I come in peace, that's threatening," he said.

Lavrov said the US proposal had "grains of rationality" on what he termed "secondary issues." He called it "almost an example of diplomatic propriety," while describing the NATO response as "idealized."

"I was a little ashamed for the people who wrote these texts," Lavrov said, referring to the NATO response.
What else has Russia said?

Lavrov has cautioned against sanctions targeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin or plans to sever the country from the international banking transactions system known as SWIFT, saying it would be the equivalent of cutting diplomatic ties.

Additionally, Lavrov said he would be speaking with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock later on Friday.

He also expects to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the next few weeks.
What else have European leaders said?

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with President Putin on Friday in an attempt to urge him toward a diplomatic path, Paris said. The Kremlin repeated Russia's grievance that NATO had not taken Russia's demands seriously whereas the Elysee Palace emphasized consequences or diplomacy, leaving a path for the latter open.

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace is in Brussels to shore up support for Ukraine. Wallace previously penned an article in support of Ukraine, and the UK has also sent weapons.

Germany's foreign intelligence chief Bruno Kahl said in an interview with Reuters that he did not believe Russia had yet decided whether to invade.

"The crisis can develop in thousands of ways," Kahl said.

Speaking on Friday, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said war was only possible if Belarus or Russia were attacked. Belarus is currently hosting Russian troops and conducting war games with Russia.

In central Europe, Hungary's Viktor Orban said his country would seek more Russian gas as the country faces a supply crunch. Hungary's foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said on Friday in a news briefing broadcast on his Facebook page that the US had offered to temporarily deploy more troops in the country. He said Hungary's Defense Ministry was discussing the issue.

Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok confirmed in an op-ed for the liberal daily Sme media reports that Slovakia, which borders Ukraine, was in talks to receive NATO troops "in order to strengthen its defense."

Russian warships were also conducting exercises in the Black Sea.

ar,es/msh (AFP, Reuters)

'Why should I leave?' — expats in Ukraine not rushing to depart

As the United States and other Western countries pull diplomatic staff out of Ukraine over fears of Russian intervention, foreigners working in the Ukrainian capital tell DW life is going on largely as normal — for now.


Daily life continues, with Kyiv's typical frigid winters

Jens Daessler is not in a hurry. "I have a phone full of messages," says the German business coach with a weary smile, most of them from friends and relatives asking if he plans to leave his home in Kyiv. It's a familiar story to many foreigners living and working in Ukraine's capital.

While tensions between Russia and Ukraine are nothing new, it was the recent decision by the United States and other Western countries to withdraw embassy staff that really cut through internationally, signaling that war is now a very real possibility.

"Usually I would speak to my parents every month or so; at the moment, I'm speaking to them every two days," says Ken Herbert, who moved to Ukraine from Sydney two years ago.

With Australia also flying out its diplomats and encouraging citizens to steer clear of Ukraine, Herbert received a call from his embassy asking if he was planning to leave. It was a question, he tells us, that caught him off guard.

But like most people DW has spoken to, Herbert is staying.

Invisible threat

Taking the decision to pack up and leave is made all the harder by the fact that in normal times, Kyiv is a very safe city in terms of crime. "I generally feel safer here than I do in Australia, in Sydney I wouldn't walk down an alleyway in the night," says Herbert, something he would have no worries doing in Kyiv.

The threat posed by Vladimir Putin's troops is, for now, still hundreds of kilometers away.

"You don't see soldiers, you don't see aircraft flying, you don't see anything that feels like war or danger," agrees Daessler.

Instead, everyday life continues, and news of new restaurant openings is just as likely to appear in people's social media feeds as updates from the border.

Jens Daessler says he struggles to recognize the picture of his adopted home painted by international media. For him "the sun is still shining, there's pizza and there's sushi, there's everything."

As Russian troops build up on the border, life in Kyiv goes on largely as normal

Worldwide attention

"The situation has changed for people outside Ukraine — they're suddenly more aware of what's going on here," says American communications specialist Kari Hiepko-Odermann, who moved to Kyiv with her husband and children in 2018.

For locals, Hiepko-Oldermann points out, Ukrainians have long been living with the threat of conflict with Russia, as this began nearly a decade ago in 2014 when Moscow annexed Crimea and supported pro-Russian separatists in the east.

"Ukrainians have been sitting in this hot water for more than eight years," as she phrases it. This is part of the reason, she adds, as to why outsiders are more likely than locals to be alarmed by the current situation.

Hiepko-Odermann admits that while she and her family are staying in Kyiv for now, she has already noticed the impact of the tensions, with her children's classmates disappearing as expat families ditch her Kyiv neighborhood.

Some expats, especially those able to work remotely, are taking extended trips away in the hope they can sit out the tensions in safety and return once they subside.

Mixed messages

Mixed messages coming from the very top of Ukraine's government in recent weeks have added to the confusion.

In a recent video message, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy downplayed the threat of escalation and called upon Ukrainians to stay calm and avoid panic-buying.

But the very next day, he told a reporter from The Washington Post that Ukraine's second-biggest city, Kharkiv, just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Russian border, was a likely target for Russian occupation.

This was seen as a gaffe in Ukraine, given Zelenskyy's attempts to play the situation down.

A top Ukrainian general recently singled out February 20 as a likely date for a Russian incursion, coinciding as it does with the end of the Winter Olympics in China.

The Kremlin, the argument goes, would not want to anger its allies in Beijing by launching a military campaign that overshadows coverage of the games — as was the case during the 2008 Beijing Games, which coincided with Russia's intervention in Georgia.

At the same time, in briefings of journalists, top Zelenskyy allies have been dismissing Russia's troop buildup as little more than political bluff.

Little wonder, then, that pundits and ordinary Ukrainians alike have been left scratching their heads, trying to understand exactly what is happening in their country.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues in the background, also in Ukraine, as political tensions simmer

Ukraine hopes for Western support

In this moment of confusion, many expats are seeing their Ukrainian friends look to the West for reassurance that their country will not be left alone to face Russia.

Berlin's reluctance to send Kyiv defensive weapons is a sore point, and something many German expats say has negatively impacted ordinary Ukrainians' view of Germany. Daessler wishes that "German politicians would step up and give a clear message [of support] for Ukraine."

Recent deliveries of ammunition and anti-tank missiles from the United States have gone down very well with the Ukrainian public, not surprisingly. US President Joe Biden's advanced age, often cited as a weakness, could now be playing out to his advantage, says Hiepko-Odermann.

"He's familiar with how to do Cold War politics."

Nearly 3 million people make their home in Kyiv, a combination of old and new

To go or to stay

While international diplomacy continues — often enough without Ukrainian representatives at the table — Ukrainians and expats are being encouraged to prepare to make a hasty exit, should the situation escalate.

Keeping an "emergency case" packed and ready with documents, cash and a first-aid kit could just make the difference between leaving in time and getting stuck. From vodka to disinfect wounds to emergency flares to attract attention, Ukrainian media and forums are full of conflicting advice on what exactly people should try to take with them.

All that is assuming that people would actually be able to leave their hometowns in time if an escalation were to take place. Analysts warn that gridlock on the roads, communication outages and military checkpoints may mean that even the most carefully laid plans end up proving unworkable.

People in Ukraine are reminded that border crossings, like here with Belarus and Poland, may not be easily accessible if Russia invades

But not everyone in Kyiv is packing emergency bags and practicing their first aid skills; some members of Kyiv's expat community have chosen a very different route.

"The more you follow the German news or even the American news, the more scared you are," says Daessler.

The answer for him and many others right now is simple: to try to take a break from the news.

Edited by: Sonya Diehn

Tennessee family's pet pig might be world's oldest

Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A Tennessee family said their pet pig might be the oldest in the world after reaching 24 years of age.

Trey Hunt, 28, of Knoxville, said he was only 4 years old when his parents got him a pet pig named Snort for his birthday.

"When he was younger, he acted a lot like a dog. He'd be out roaming around the yard and he was never in a pen or nothing," Hunt told WBIR-TV. "He just lived underneath the porch, and I'd come outside and lay with him and act just like a dog."

The Hunt family said Snort is now 24 years old -- older than Baby Jane, a pig that died at age 23 and is listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest-ever pig in captivity.

Hunt and his mother, Karla Hunt, applied to have Snort recognized by Guinness World Records, but they said the application might be in jeopardy due to their lack of evidence.

"It's not like we have a birth certificate," Trey Hunt said. "So all we have is pictures of when we when I got him and pictures of, you know, me and him, you know, different ages."

The family is in communication with Guinness about verifying Snort's age.

"If we could prove it, I know we could get in," Karla Hunt said. "But you know, there again, I don't know how we're gonna prove it."

The Hunts said Snort is now blind and deaf, and his front legs sometimes give him trouble, but he is otherwise still in good health.

"I never expected him to live as long as he's lived, but he's always been a healthy pig," Karla Hunt said. "He's been to the vet one time in his life, and that was when he was neutered as a young pup."

How species manage to thrive in polluted ecosystems

The devastating damaged caused by environmental pollution is well-known. Yet some creatures have managed to adapt to live with, and even thrive in, imperfect environments.

Industrial pollution of a lagoon in Argentina: A small number of animals can thrive 

under unlikely conditions like this

In a world where human-made pollution in the form of smog, industrial sewage, fertilizer runoff, dense blankets of ocean plastic and much more pervades the planet, many animal and plant species are up against it.

But there are some species that have found ways to live with, and indeed adapt to the pollution that has come to characterize their once clean surroundings.

Plastic-eating microbes adapt to pollution

A team of researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, made a surprising discovery last year, when they found that microbes living in oceans and soils worldwide can evolve to eat plastic — especially if they live in ecosystems with a high level of plastic pollution.

In analyzing microbial DNA samples collected from hundreds of locations across the globe, the researchers found over 30,000 different enzymes that could degrade 10 kinds of plastic.

A lot of our plastic ends up in the oceans and washed up on beaches

While some of these enzymes had already been identified in bacteria living in rubbish dumps, the vast majority were unknown. Even more impressive was the finding that the amount and type of enzymes discovered in the samples matched the volume and type of plastic pollution in the locations they were taken from.

The microbial DNA collected in oceans, for example, showed more plastic-degrading enzymes at deeper sea levels where the degree of plastic pollution is generally higher. According to the study, this suggests "that the Earth's microbiome might already be adapting to current global plastic pollution trends."

With millions of tons of the stuff being dumped in the environment every year, the microorganisms apparently face "sufficiently strong selective pressures" to develop those plastic-digesting enzymes.

Adapting to early industrial pollution: A moth turns black

Last year's findings are not the first to show species adapting to environmental pollution.

In the mid-1800s, a decade before Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory was published, residents in increasingly industrial English cities like London and Manchester observed an unexpected color change in the peppered moth.

The insect had been characterized by its mottled white body and wings — a pattern used to camouflage the nocturnal animal during daylight hours when it would rest on tree trunks and walls. But as industrialization and resulting air pollution intensified, a genetic mutation that produced an entirely black version of the peppered moth began to spread within the species.

The distinctive pattern of a peppered moth — one which did not evolve to be black

Known as "carbonaria," these moths were able to hide from hungry birds more easily in the blackened industrial landscapes.

While the white peppered moth remained the common form in the countryside, the carbonaria moth had become the dominant variant in the Manchester region by 1900.

Fish in toxic waters

Genetically adapting to highly polluted habitats can clearly be an evolutionary advantage. But evolving the ability to exist in a polluted environment often comes at a cost. While certain changes in the genome may help a species withstand a specific pollutant, they can make the species more vulnerable to other environmental stressors.

This is the case for the killifish — a small, silvery fish found thriving in toxic waters along the northern Gulf of Mexico and North America's Atlantic coast.

High concentrations of heavy metals, dangerous chemicals released from industrial waste and residuals from the production of herbicides like the infamous Agent Orange have turned these waters deadly for vertebrates. The polluting substances can disrupt embryo development, causing deformations and heart defects, or prevent them from hatching at all.

Although killifish are generally sensitive to brackish water, a study on the Atlantic killifish led by Andrew Whitehead from the University of California Davis suggests that "even at the most contaminated of these sites, where killifish are not expected to persist, they appear to thrive."

Some killifish species are now used to living in highly polluted waters

The populations living in the contaminated areas along the Atlantic and the Gulf coasts carry a genetic variation that makes them resistant to the disastrous effects of the toxic chemicals. Thanks to their genome, the fish can withstand a chemical pollutant concentration that is thousands of times higher than the normally deadly dose.

While this genetic change has made the killifish more resistant to toxins, it has also reduced the species' tolerance to low oxygen levels. That's a problem as oxygen levels in the sea vary, and as global temperatures rise, ocean oxygen is expected to decline drastically. Once water has been cleaned of pollutants, the adapted fish may have greater difficult surviving than those without the variation.

Few species able to adapt

Most animal and plant populations will not be able to adapt genetically to their polluted surroundings at all. It has only worked for a few out of millions of species.

What allowed the microbes, moths and killifish to adapt to high pollution levels is a rapid reproduction rate as well as incredibly large population sizes — the killifish, for example, is the most populous animal species with a backbone in many urban estuaries.

A species with a large population is much more likely to develop genetic mutations that happen to increase resistance to environmental stressors. But most species under threat from toxins don't have the population size to develop adequate mutations. Cleaning up polluted sites and avoiding pollution in the first place is the only way to save them.

Peru bans Repsol director from leaving country after oil spill

New estimates show that the oil spill was almost twice as big as previously thought. Repsol is facing a potential $34.5 million fine.


Peru declared an environmental emergency and said 21 of its beaches had been contaminated

A Peruvian judge on Friday banned Repsol's Peru director and three other executives from leaving the country for 18 months while the government investigates an oil spill that occurred on January 15.

Peru authorities are investigating the Spanish firm Repsol following the oil spill, which was reported after surging waves caused by the eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga.
Oil spill twice as big as previously thought

Environment Minister Ruben Ramirez told reporters that Peru had a "figure so far of 11,900" barrels, almost twice the 6,000 reported earlier.

Repsol's estimate puts the spill at 10,396.

Last week, Peru declared an environmental emergency and announced that 21 of its beaches had been contaminated by the spill.

The spill occurred when an Italian-flagged tanker was unloading oil at the La Pamilla refinery, 30 kilometers north of the Peruvian capital Lima.

Repsol said the tanker was hit by freak waves caused by a tsunami after an underwater volcano erupted in Tonga.

Prosecutors said the oil slick has been dragged by ocean currents about 140 kilometers north of the refinery, adding that this has caused the death of an undetermined number of fish and seabirds.

What are the charges against the Repsol execs?

Judge Romualdo Aguedo imposed the ban after considering there's a "potential risk" that Repsol's Peru director and three executives would leave the country.

Repsol has said that it's cooperating with the authorities in the investigation and working on cleaning affected beaches.

Peru has demanded compensation from Repsol, which faces a potential $34.5 million (€31 million) fine, Peru's Environment Ministry said.

Repsol's Peru director is accused of the crime of "environmental pollution to the detriment of the state," and the three executives are accused of being "accomplices."

On Friday, Peru's judicial authority authorized the seizure of the Italian-flagged tanker involved in the spill after a request was filed by the environmental branch of the Peruvian fiscal authority.

Repsol has said that the exact number of barrels spilled can only be confirmed after ascertaining the volume of oil still remaining in the tanks of the ship.

sdi/ (AP, AFP, Efe, Lusa)

Ethiopia: The daunting task of reporting the Tigray conflict

Ethiopia's Tigray conflict erupted in November 2020 and later spread to neighboring regions. Yet covering the war is a huge challenge, with press freedom severely constrained and journalists facing intense pressure.


A media blackout in Tigray has made it difficult to verify news coming out of the country

Since the beginning of this year, Ethiopia's National Defense Forces allegedly carried out airstrikes that killed at least 108 civilians in Tigray.

As medical and food supplies run dangerously low, the World Food Program (WFP) has warned of a "humanitarian disaster." About 50,000 children are believed to be severely malnourished, though the figure is likely much higher.

Despite the scale of the crisis, comprehensive reporting on the conflict has been made nearly impossible. No foreign journalist has set foot in Tigray for more than six months.

Verifying facts and collecting testimonies from residents on the ground is further prevented by an all-out communications blackout.

Instead, information trickles out of Tigray through aid agencies and the scarce satellite communication points in the regional capital Mekelle.

DW regional reporters remain active

DW correspondents in the region have dealt with these challenges firsthand since the beginning of the conflict, with security being another major issue preventing reporting on the front lines.

DW maintains a network of eight correspondents across Ethiopia, who regularly cross-check claims and counter-claims by the parties involved in the conflict. A resident correspondent remains in Tigray to verify claims by the federal government.

Witnesses to the violence living in and around the conflict zone have intermittently provided anonymous accounts to DW on the rare occasions that messages were able to get out.

Since the declaration of a countrywide state of emergency on November 2, 2021, a climate of media repression has further deepened the information vacuum.

"We have a situation where there is no due process, no fair trial," said Angela Quintal, head of the Africa Program at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

"Journalists are detained arbitrarily and aren't appearing in court, so this has a chilling effect on the broader media community," Quintal told DW, adding that two journalists had been killed in the past year. "That is the ultimate form of censorship."

Reporters killed

Unidentified gunmen murdered Dawit Kebede in Mekelle on January 19, 2021. He was a reporter for Tigray TV, the state-owned broadcaster.

According to the AFP news agency and the Addis Standard news website, security officers were responsible for the murder. Kebede's case is still under investigation. He was only 41 years old when he was gunned down.

Another journalist, Sisay Fida, who worked for the Oromia Broadcasting Network, was killed in Dembi Dollo on May 9, 2021. The CPJ believes he was targeted because of his journalism.

The climate of repression, especially against Ethiopian journalists, has led to widespread fear and sometimes self-censorship.

"I've had meetings with media authority officials. They were saying, 'It's your country. You have to defend the national interest,'" a journalist based in Addis Ababa who wished to remain anonymous told DW.

He complained about harassment on social media, saying it is the worst form of pressure: "I receive threats almost daily. They DM you on Twitter or send you a message on Facebook, sending death threats."

Jailed journalists

In early 2022, the CPJ recorded at least 14 journalists behind bars. The government recently released six of them, but the country remains "the second-worst jailer of journalists in sub–Saharan Africa," according to Angela Quintal.

Ethiopia has a long history of media repression, notably under the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). But some journalists say the current situation is even worse.

"Back in the day, we feared the government might arrest you. But now the whole atmosphere has changed. You fear not only the government. You fear the mobs, the youth. It affects your personal life," explained the journalist in Addis Ababa.

Foreign reporters, too, have faced intimidation and even deportation. Some have had their license suspended temporarily or even permanently.

The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed forced Simon Marks, a freelance reporter working for The New York Times, to leave the country.

"There was a strongly held but misplaced belief that there was an agenda against the government," Marks told DW.

He was brought directly to the airport after being summoned to the immigration office in early May 2021. "I asked if I could stay an extra night to pack and pick up my belongings, my passport. That was denied," he recalled.

Ethiopia's National Defense Forces have stepped up airstrikes in Tigray

Fleeing into exile

Scared for their safety, dozens of Ethiopian journalists have decided to go into exile. Some face the double jeopardy of being targeted as media practitioners and ethnic Tigrayans.

Recent months have seen a massive crackdown on Tigrayan residents, especially in the capital Addis Ababa. Thousands have reportedly been forcefully detained without a trial — a procedure rendered possible by the state of emergency stipulations.

"For me, [the situation] becomes more acute because of the persecution my ethnicity is facing," a journalist who fled to a neighboring country told DW.

"[Currently], the government is not even using the law. It's like a mafia state. It can just take your freedom, your property, your everything," he added.


The information war has gone beyond Ethiopia's borders to places like London
Propaganda from all sides

The trend of journalists leaving the country has widened the information gap.

"Domestically, what we have now is either state media propaganda or sycophants from the private media," lamented the journalist who had fled. "It has made it impossible not only to cover the Tigray conflict but also the expanding conflict in Oromia."

Independent reporting is a daily struggle of risk-taking, bureaucracy, and accusations for those journalists who stayed. Many are labeled biased, even though obtaining official government reactions to news events is a daily challenge.

As post-conflict territories become more accessible, especially in Amhara, some feel they can cover only those areas when and where the government is willing to allow them.

Others vow to continue working to their best.

"You know what you are doing and that what you are reporting on is more important," said the anonymous journalist in Addis Ababa. "So you face the risk, and you do your job."

Nearly 40 percent of Tigrayans face 'extreme lack of food', UN warns

Women wait at a food distribution operated by the Relief Society of Tigray in the town of Agula, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, on May 8, 2021. © Ben Curtis, AP/ File picture

Nearly 40 percent of people in Ethiopia's Tigray are suffering "an extreme lack of food" in the face of an extended de-facto blockade of the war-hit region, a UN agency said Friday.

The dire assessment published by the World Food Programme (WFP) comes as humanitarian groups are forced to increasingly curtail activities because of fuel and supply shortages, with aid having to be delivered by foot.

Fresh fighting in northern Ethiopia, which has been gripped by deadly conflict for almost 15 months, is also limiting avenues for getting in aid.

The data was included in what the WFP described as the first reliable food security assessment conducted since a UN report more than six months ago, which estimated that hundreds of thousands of people in Tigray faced "famine-like conditions."

The new assessment found 4.6 million people in Tigray -- or 83 percent of the population -- were food-insecure, two million of them "severely" so.

"Families are exhausting all means to feed themselves, with three quarters of the population using extreme coping strategies to survive," WFP said in a statement.

"Diets are increasingly impoverished as food items become unavailable and families rely almost exclusively on cereals while limiting portion sizes and the number of meals they eat each day to make whatever food is available stretch further," it added.

WFP also sounded the alarm about rising hunger in neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions, which have been hit hard by fighting in recent months.

"WFP is doing all it can to ensure our convoys with food and medicines make it through the frontlines," said WFP's East Africa director, Michael Dunford.

"But if hostilities persist, we need all the parties to the conflict to agree to a humanitarian pause and formally agreed transport corridors, so that supplies can reach the millions besieged by hunger," Dunford said.
Renewed fighting

Fighting broke out in Tigray in November 2020 after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to topple the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the region's former ruling party, saying the move came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps.

After initially losing control of Tigray's cities and towns, the TPLF regrouped and retook the region in June, then launched offensives into Afar and Amhara.

In November 2021 the rebels claimed to be within roughly 200 kilometres (125 miles) of the capital Addis Ababa, prompting hasty evacuations as countries including the US and France urged their citizens to leave.

The government launched a counter-offensive, however, retaking lost territory in Amhara and Afar.

This week the TPLF said it had begun "robust" military operations in Afar, describing the move as a response to attacks by pro-government forces on its positions.
Delivering aid on foot

Tigray itself has for months been subject to what the UN says is a de-facto blockade.

Washington accuses Abiy's government of blocking aid, while Addis Ababa blames rebel incursions.

The UN's humanitarian coordination office OCHA on Friday said all international aid groups in the region were completely out of fuel and had been reduced to delivering assistance to malnourished civilians on foot.

Local groups were also struggling to reach people in need because of fuel and cash shortages, it said.

OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said without aid delivery picking up, "we will be unable to provide anything by the end of February."

"That is the very stark warning we are getting now," he told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

Malnutrition continues to soar, OCHA said, with 4.2 percent of screened children diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition during the latest week for which data is available -- "a seriously alarming level".

Last week, the UN said food distribution in Tigray had reached an all-time low.

Tigray's pre-war government said this week it had recorded 369 deaths of children under five that it attributed to the blockade, up from nearly 200 in November.

The figure could not be independently verified.

(AFP)

U.K. Insolvencies Rose as Government Withdrew Support

Lizzy Burden
Fri, January 28, 2022, 


More U.K. companies went bust in 2021 as the government tapered back its pandemic-support measures for businesses.

Company insolvencies for England and Wales jumped 11.2% to 14,048 from the previous year, though that was still below levels recorded before Covid-19 hit, according to data released by the Insolvency Service on Friday.

Some 90% of insolvencies were creditors’ voluntary liquidations, or CVLs, the process by which directors of a company choose to place the business into liquidation to pay off debts. Those climbed by a third from 2020 to the highest annual number since the financial crisis in 2009.

The Insolvency Service said the increase “coincided with the phasing out of measures put in place to support businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.” Those included the furlough program to bolster wages, which ended in September. The number of CVLs in the fourth quarter reached the highest since records began in 1960.

It follows warning signs last year that companies were saddled with debt burdens that they were unlikely ever to repay.

Sectors that saw disproportionately bigger gains in insolvencies last year included companies dealing in construction, and accommodation and food services activities, as well as vehicle repairs.

Vietnamese bid farewell to father of mindfulness


Thich Nhat Hanh, who was credited with bringing mindfulness to the West, died aged 95 

(AFP/Nhac NGUYEN)

Fri, January 28, 2022, 9:00 PM·3 min read

Tens of thousands of Vietnamese on Saturday bade farewell to the late monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh -- one of the world's most influential religious leaders -- ahead of his cremation ceremony in the country's Buddhist heartland.

The Zen master, who was credited with bringing mindfulness to the West and whose reach in Buddhism was seen as second only to the Dalai Lama, died aged 95 a week ago at the Tu Hieu Pagoda in the central city of Hue.

His remains were brought to an open cremation site on Saturday morning, followed by a crowd of tens of thousands including Buddhist monks in yellow and brown robes and followers dressed in grey.

The procession chanted Buddhist prayers.

"We must bid farewell to our master. He plays an important role in my family's life, helping us through our most difficult moments," said Do Quan, a follower who travelled from Hanoi with his wife and son.

Nam Anh, 22, said the monk was a national treasure.

"I am really very proud that Vietnam has such an outstanding figure who had great influence across the world."

Widely known as the father of mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote more than 100 books on the practice and hosted retreats worldwide.

Born in 1926, Thich Nhat Hanh was ordained aged 16 and went on to found a youth school which trained volunteers to build clinics and infrastructure in villages blighted by war.

- Man of peace -

In the early 1960s he travelled to the United States, where he taught at Columbia and Princeton universities, but after one trip in 1966 to meet US civil rights icon Martin Luther King -- who joined his calls to end the Vietnam War -- he was barred from returning home.

A year later King nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize, telling the committee in a letter: "this gentle Buddhist monk from Vietnam is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity".

Vietnamese authorities permitted him to return to the communist country in 2018, but plainclothes police kept watch outside his pagoda compound, closely monitoring his activities.

"I don't understand why even now, the Vietnamese state did not send top leaders to pay tribute to this great man," said a follower who identified himself only as Nam from Ho Chi Minh.

"He deserved so much more. But I think he did not need authorities' support. He was among the people, that was the greatest thing of all."

Followers outside of Vietnam watched live online broadcasts of Saturday's funeral, as a convoy of hundreds of cars and motorbikes -- many decked out with flowers -- escorted Thich Nhat Hanh's coffin from the Tu Hieu pagoda to the cremation site.

The revered monk's body is expected to be cremated in two days.

As the coffin was placed in the cremation chamber a Buddhist monk told the ceremony Thich Nhat Hanh was a dearly loved and respected teacher and read out a final message from the Zen master.

"You are my continuation and in one way or another you are carrying me into the future," the monk said.

"We teacher and student will continue to climb the hill of the century, offering our love and understanding, freedom and solidity to the world today and forever after."

Thich Nhat Hanh requested his relics be divided up and partly housed at the Tu Hieu Pagoda, as well as sent to his Zen teaching organisation Plum Village's locations worldwide, including to France.

Tributes to the monk have flowed in from around the globe, including from the Dalai Lama, world leaders and Hollywood.

But along the ancient Hue streets, residents prayed for their local hero.

"The number one man among Hue people," said local resident Vu Van Hiep.

"I have never in my life witnessed such a huge funeral with so many people... I don't think there will be any other person in the short term future who will warrant so much attention like this."

bur-tmh/lpm/mtp

US Student borrowers in shock over 'zero balance' as federal program fulfills elusive promise


Erik Ortiz
Thu, January 27, 2022, 9:00 PM·6 min read

The notice from the federal government took Lee Dossett, a doctor in Lexington, Kentucky, by surprise. "Congratulations!" it began.

After a couple of years of denials for a student loan forgiveness program designed for public servants, Dossett, who has worked in the nonprofit sector for 10 years, was told last week that not only was his application re-evaluated, but that the Department of Education had determined he should have his outstanding medical school loans erased altogether — about $75,000 worth.

"I was completely shocked because I had honestly given up on getting it," Dossett said.

Image: Lee Dossett. (Courtesy of Lee Dossett)

But a record number of student borrowers are reaping the same benefit after the Biden administration in October began relaxing stringent rules around Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which launched in 2007 to help teachers, health care workers, military members and other public servants earn debt relief on their federal loans. As of last week, more than 70,000 borrowers qualified for debt forgiveness, amounting to about $5 billion in relief, the Department of Education said.

Before the overhaul, just 16,000 borrowers of about 1.3 million enrolled applicants had their loans' remaining balances expunged through the program, according to federal data.

Cody Hounanian, the executive director of the Student Debt Crisis Center, a nonprofit organization that advocates for student borrowers, said the sudden notices of discharged debts are a blessing for many applicants who dutifully made the required 120 monthly payments or were on course to and yet were denied because they were inadvertently enrolled in the wrong payment plan or had the wrong type of loan or due to another technicality.

"It's very emotional," Hounanian said of the wave of financial assistance. "It's changing their lives for the better."

Student borrowers who have benefited in recent days are sharing their shock on social media.

But the latest reversal is also a "double-edged sword" for many borrowers, Hounanian said.

Those hoping to qualify will have until Oct. 31 to submit an application form under a limited-time waiver. Potentially 550,000 borrowers stand to benefit, the federal government said. In addition, student borrowers who may previously have been disqualified because they had a loan through Federal Family Education Loans, a program that ended in 2010, are now eligible. The catch is they will have to make sure such loans are consolidated into a new, federal direct loan.

Complicating the process as well is that last year, two major student loan companies — Navient and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, often referred to as FedLoan — announced they were ending their contracts to service loans with the federal government. Some 16 million student borrowers were being transferred to new servicers, a monumental undertaking that student advocates worry could present a raft of bureaucratic problems — and only make applying for the already-troubled Public Service Loan Forgiveness that much more arduous.

"Unfortunately, there are some folks who with this news that debt relief is attainable may find the process confusing," Hounanian said.

But the federal government said it is trying to simplify the steps, with about 22,000 borrowers initially having their debts automatically canceled.

In December, President Joe Biden also announced the federal government would extend its moratorium on all federal student loan payments through May amid the pandemic and rising consumer costs.

The White House still faces pressure to cancel student debt and help a broader swath of borrowers — more than 44 million Americans who owe about $1.7 trillion in student loans. A town hall was scheduled Thursday among advocacy groups like the Student Debt Crisis Center and Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, to call for the elimination of student debt.

At the very least, those advocates say, the loosening of rules around a program like Public Service Loan Forgiveness should be permanent. A 2019 Government Accountability Office report found that the Education Department under the previous secretary, Betsy DeVos, had rejected a staggering 99 percent of applications as part of a temporary expansion of the program in 2018.

Jane Saunders, who received her doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 and taught English for a decade, didn't know about federal student loan forgiveness until a friend recommended she consolidate her loans in 2011.

But a few years passed before she realized her mistake: Her loans were being handled by a servicer that didn't qualify her for the program. She then switched servicers, but at one point, after years of making payments, she was told some of them didn't count, and the ever-tightening rules of the program were frustrating.

"It seemed like they were building the plane while we were on it," Saunders said.

But her fortunes reversed in December, she said, after she reapplied for relief after the Biden administration altered some of the program's requirements. She learned her outstanding debt — $106,000 — was wiped clear, and she also received credit for a few months in which she paid more than she needed to.

"I couldn't breathe when I saw the zero balance," Saunders said. "You know how your life is supposed to flash by you as you're dying? It was kind of like that only now I could see a potentially different life in front of me. One where I could buy a car or maybe take a summer off for once."

The stress of her student loan obligation while working as a teacher, getting her doctoral degree and also making house payments and meeting other financial burdens felt crushing as she tried to sock away for retirement. She said she remains cautious.

"Even trying to put more in now that the loans are gone is going to mean I work until 70 likely," said Saunders, 56. "And it's not gonna be a luxurious retirement even at that age."

But despite all of the agitation, Saunders said she doesn’t regret getting her degree. Neither does Dossett, who after seeing his medical school loans forgiven, shared his amazement in a tweet that went viral.

During the pandemic, Dossett has been helping to care for Covid-infected hospitalized patients, and the burnout coupled with anxieties over his student debt have been taxing.

But now, he said, he sees a way forward for not only himself but others who may want to pursue medicine, particularly people who are uncertain about medical school because of the initial debt they can incur.

"With forgiveness in sight, doctors would be more willing to go into lower-paying specialties, such as primary care and pediatrics," he said. "The more of these doctors there are, the better for society and the health of the nation."

INDIA FEMICIDE IS CASTE VIOLENCE

Woman gang raped, tortured and paraded through streets


Workers of Mahila Congress (Women's wing of the Indian National Congress) light candles during a protest after the rape and murder of a 21-year-old woman in New Delhi, India, in a September 6, 2021 file photo. / Credit: Pankaj Nangia/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Arshad R. Zargar

Fri, January 28, 2022

New Delhi — Police in the Indian capital have arrested 11 people, including nine women, after the alleged brutal gang rape and torture of a young woman that included her being paraded through the streets and humiliated. The incident took place on Wednesday in East Delhi's Kasturba Nagar area as the nation celebrated Republic Day — marked by a grand military parade through Central Delhi.

The woman, 20, was allegedly abducted and raped by a group of men in a revenge attack. The victim's head was shaved, face blackened, and a garland of shoes put around her neck as she was hit and paraded through the streets in East Delhi. Video of that part of the abuse went viral, causing widespread outrage.

It shows a group of women forcing the victim to walk and hitting her while onlookers cheer. The victim's family has said her attackers are connected to a family in which a teenage boy died by suicide last November. They say the boy was stalking and pursuing the victim for a long time but when his advances were rejected, he took his life.

The woman is married and has a 3-year-old son.

"He fell in love with her… He used to keep calling and asking her to leave her husband and be with him. She would always refuse," the victim's sister told an Indian news outlet. After the boy's suicide, his family had reportedly threatened the woman several times, prompting her to move recently.

The Delhi police said they were investigating the case and more arrests were expected soon.

The victim's family has been given police protection.

Delhi's Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, called the attack "shameful" and urged strict action against the perpetrators.

The alleged attack in the Indian capital is the latest in a string of rapes, and part of wider plague of sexual violence against Indian women.

Last year, a 34-year-old woman in Mumbai died after being raped and brutally tortured — bringing back memories of the 2012 Delhi rape and murder of a young medical student, which sparked massive protests and made international headlines.

Despite recently tightened laws against rape, India has struggled to address its severe crisis of sexual violence against women.

More than 32,000 rapes were reported in 2019, the most recent year for which government data is available. That's nearly four rapes every hour over the course of the year, on average, and those numbers represent only the cases that are reported to authorities, and only rapes, not other sexual violence.