Why India’s onions are rattling global food markets

J.D. Capelouto
Tue, December 12, 2023 

Semafor Signals

Insights from The Daily Star, East Asia Forum, and the BBC

NEWS

Indian authorities banned the exports of onions last week, and restricted exports of other agricultural goods including rice, sugar, and wheat, in an effort to control its supply and lower inflation.

The moves have rattled global markets and led to increases in food prices in countries that rely on Indian goods.

SIGNALS

Semafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories.

Neighboring countries hit hard

Sources: The Daily Star, The Wire

Onion prices in Bangladesh went up nearly twofold overnight as traders began stockpiling the vegetable in the wake of India’s export ban, according to The Daily Star, the country’s largest English daily, which noted that rising food costs and inflation “have already been making it harder for people to make ends meet.” Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives have also reported price hikes, The Wire reported, and customers are bearing the burden. “Traders are setting prices at whim. There is no remedy for us,” a Bangladeshi shopper said.

Political considerations at play

Sources: FT, East Asia Forum

Indian officials implemented the controls to curb inflation ahead of the country’s general elections early next year, analysts told The Financial Times. “Domestic politics always wins over economics or even international prices,” an agricultural economist said. The political stakes also make Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government less likely to turn to other countries to import food and increase supply, an executive at a New Delhi-based research institute argued, as “questions would arise about why a self-sufficient India is dependent on imports.”

Grammy-nominated Modi promotes millets

Sources: BBC, The Hindu, NDTV

As Indians face rising prices and food insecurity, the government has focused on increasing the production of millets, a sustainable and nutritional grain that became less common in India after the Green Revolution in the 1960s. India then led a push at the UN to declare 2023 the “year of the millet” to increase global production and combat hunger. To bring attention to the issue, a Modi speech about millets was featured in a song, earning the prime minister a Grammy nomination for Best Global Music Performance.

Trudeau says he went public with Sikh murder plot claims to ‘put a chill on India’

Shweta Sharma
Wed, December 13, 2023

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has spoken out on why he went public with his damning allegations about the Indian government’s involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh citizen.

Mr Trudeau told the Canadian Press in an interview that he took the decision to “put a chill on India” and add an extra "level of deterrence" to keep Canadians safe.

In September, Mr Trudeau told the House of Commons that there was “credible evidence” against Indian agents who were allegedly involved in the 18 June killing of Canadian Sikh citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was labelled a terrorist in India.

The Indian government denied the allegations as “absurd” and demanded sufficient evidence from Ottawa amid calls to cooperate into the investigation.

“We felt that all the quiet diplomacy and all the measures that we put in, and ensured that our security services put in to keep people safe in the community, needed a further level of deterrence, perhaps of saying publicly and loudly that we know, or we have credible reasons to believe, that the Indian government was behind this,” he said on Tuesday.

“And, therefore, put a chill on them continuing or considering doing anything like this,” he added.

Mr Trudeau said the Sikh community in Canada was worried about their safety and felt “they were vulnerable”.

A photograph of late temple president Hardeep Singh Nijjar is seen on a banner outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib in Surrey, British Columbia

Earlier this month the US Justice Department alleged the involvement of an unnamed Indian government official in a plot to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US citizen, who lives in New York.

Unlike Canada, American prosecutors have spelled out the full details of murder-for-hire charges in an unsealed indictment and charged Indian national Nikhil Gupta, 52, in the case.

India said it took the US “inputs seriously”, and formed a high-level investigative committee to look into the matter.

Mr Trudeau said they would reveal the evidence in the same “fashion” as the US did with the foiled assassination bid.

Canada intends to reveal evidence “very much in the fashion the US did when we reach those points in the investigation”, he said.

Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun 

(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

But he noted that US authorities started their investigation into the attempted murder earlier.

He also added that “there are different stakes involved” as their justice system has a different process.

Mr Truduea said that he raised the issue with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi during the G20 summit in New Delhi but that did not prove constructive. He accused India of waging an information war.

"We knew it would be difficult conversations, but we also knew that this was an important moment for India to be demonstrating its leadership on the world stage with the G20," Mr Trudeau said.

“They chose to attack us and undermine us with a scale of misinformation and disinformation in their media that was comical,” he added.

He also acknowledged for the first time that he chose to announce the allegations himself because “he expected the information would be eventually leaked through the media”.

Moments before Mr Trudeau’s speech in parliament, Canadian outlets The Globe and Mail broke the story.

FBI director Christopher Wray concluded his trip to India this week, aimed at boosting security cooperation and deepening the India-US partnership. But it comes in the wake of a major law enforcement issue between the two nations – one far more sinister and with the potential to cause cracks within that alliance.

Mr Wray held talks with the top officials of India’s federal investigative agencies, including National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Central Bureau of Investigation – the equivalent to the FBI.

India’s readout of the meeting said that Mr Wray underlined that terror attacks in the US and India “have changed the way in which nations respond to terror threats”.

He also stressed the need to take the partnership and cooperation between the two agencies “to the next level to deal with the constantly evolving challenges and threats of terrorism”.

India ask FBI to share intelligence on Sikh separatists - source

Updated Tue, December 12, 2023 

FBI Director Wray testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S

By Rupam Jain

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India has asked the United States to share intelligence on Sikh separatists living there amid investigations into an accusation that an Indian official was linked to a plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil, an Indian official said on Tuesday.

The request was made by the National Investigations Agency (NIA), India's federal anti-terrorism agency, in meetings with visiting FBI Director Christopher Wray, said the official, who works at the NIA and spoke on condition of anonymity.


The issue of what New Delhi says are Sikh separatists operating against India from U.S. soil was discussed in "greater detail by a team of internal security officials from both countries", the official said.

"India has requested the U.S. officials to share inputs on suspected individuals who have in recent years been recruited and embedded in the separatist movement," the official said.

The NIA said in a statement on Tuesday that Wray met NIA Director General Dinkar Gupta and held discussions on issues including "the acts and activities of Terrorist-Organised Criminal Networks, ongoing investigations in the US in the attack on the Indian consulate in San Francisco, investigations of cyber-terror and cyber-crimes of various kinds."

A U.S. embassy spokesperson said meetings between Wray and Indian officials were underway but was unable to share details yet.

The movement for a Sikh homeland in northern India, crushed decades ago, has burst onto the global stage in recent months as the United States and Canada accused Indian officials of involvement in assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders in North America.

New Delhi denies any connection to a June murder in a Vancouver suburb but has announced an investigation into U.S. concerns about an alleged plot in New York.

It says such plots were not government policy and it is not hunting down Sikh separatists abroad. Indian security and foreign ministry officials say Sikh separatists in North America and Europe raising money, training people and campaigning for India’s division, is a concern for New Delhi.

India has sought to distance the FBI chief's visit - the first in years - from the New York case, saying Wray's trip had been planned for some time.

(Reporting by Rupam Jain, editing by YP Rajesh and Angus MacSwan)


FBI chief in India following explosive US assassination plot indictment

CNN Staff
Tue, December 12, 2023 


FBI director Christopher Wray is in India this week for a trip aimed at strengthening security cooperation and deepening a partnership. But it comes in the wake of a major law enforcement issue between the two nations – one far more sinister and with the potential to cause cracks within that alliance.

Just two weeks ago, the United States accused an Indian government official of being involved in a conspiracy to kill an American citizen on its home soil.

The citizen in question is Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist, who was allegedly the target of a murder-for-hire plot in New York City.

Pannun is a wanted man in India – considered by the government there as a terrorist and national security threat. But to some Sikhs overseas, Pannun is an outspoken activist and a man rallying for a cause that has come to unite large swaths of the community’s international diaspora.

Late last month, US federal prosecutors charged an Indian national on suspicion of trying to kill him, according to an explosive indictment, which alleged the hitman was acting upon orders from an unnamed Indian government official.

The stunning revelation came little more than a month after Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly alleged that India may have been involved in the murder of another Sikh separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, on its soil, prompting a furious response from New Delhi and provoking a diplomatic fallout between the two countries. India has vehemently denied involvement in Nijjar’s murder.

The US plot was foiled and the details in the indictment have yet to be heard in court.

But the episode has cast “a dark shadow on New Delhi’s credibility,” wrote Suhasini Haider, the diplomatic affairs editor at The Hindu newspaper, in one of her recent editorials.

And it has many asking: How badly had this hit New Delhi’s ties with Washington?
Taking matters seriously

India’s government has denied any involvement in the alleged plot to kill Pannun. But in contrast to the vocal condemnation it made after Canada’s accusation, it has set up a high-level committee to investigate the accusations in the US indictment.

“As regards the case against an individual that has been filed in a US court, allegedly linking him to an Indian official, this is a matter of concern,” India’s foreign ministry said after the indictment was revealed.

The cause Pannun has been campaigning for is the creation of a separate Sikh homeland – one that would be known as Khalistan and include the state of Punjab in India.

Khalistan has long been outlawed in the world’s largest democracy, where painful memories of a deadly insurgency by some Sikh separatists continue to haunt many Indian citizens. But it garners a level of sympathy among some in the Sikh diaspora overseas, where protected by free speech laws, people like Pannun are able to openly advocate for secession from India.

The topic is highly charged. Four decades ago India’s former prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards after she sent army troops charging inside the religion’s holiest shrine to flush out separatists that had been harboring inside. That operation, known as Blue Star, destroyed much of the building and left hundreds dead.

The first photos of the damaged Akal Takhat after the army action named Operation Blue Star on the sikh Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, June 9, 1984.

 - Sondeep Shankar/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Riots broke out in the days after Gandhi’s murder, killing some 3,000 people – predominantly Sikhs – according to official figures, in one of the worst outbreaks of communal violence since India’s partition.

In the years since, those pursuing the Khalistan cause have formed a minority in Punjab given the government’s banning of the movement – and linked extremism doesn’t pose a significant threat to the country, analysts say.

But seeking reconciliation for what they view as human rights abuses committed against their community, several overseas Sikh organizations continue to advocate for Punjab secession and say the Khalistan movement is being falsely equated with terrorism by the Indian government.

Despite this, the government’s response to campaigners overseas remains robust, particularly under current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“India went through a very difficult phase with the Khalistan movement in 1980s. It defined their national security,” said Harsh Pant, vice-president of the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. “Therefore, the Indian state tends to take a very serious view of these things.”
No dent in relations

Pannun, the Sikh separatist wanted by the Indian government, was a close associate of Nijjar, who was also wanted by India for terrorism related offenses.

A fiery orator Pannun has repeatedly made comments that are perceived as secessionist and threatening toward India and its government.

He is wanted on more than a dozen terrorism charges in India and accused of trying to radlicalize his community in support of the creation of Khalistan – an independent Sikh homeland that would include parts of India. India has outlawed the US-based secessionist group, Sikhs for Justice, headed by Pannun, which holds referendums among diaspora groups in support of Khalistan.

In a widely circulated video last month, he warned Sikhs not to fly Air India on November 19, citing “danger” to their lives. Headlines reverberated across India in the days that followed claiming Pannun was threatening to “blow up” the aircraft.

Pannun told CNN he was “not surprised” by the indictment outlining the foiled plot to kill him.

“The government of India has officially declared a reward on (my) head for running the global Khalistan Referendum campaign,” he said, referring to votes the Sikh diaspora around the world have held on gathering support for a separate homeland.

Asked by CNN if we was a threat to India, as New Delhi claims, he replied: “While my advocacy surely challenges India’s territorial integrity… this challenge is through ballots and not bullets, hence the challenge I pose is not considered terrorism under UN and international laws.”

On his remarks about Air India, he said comments in the Indian media were often misrepresented.

“My video message is to ‘boycott’ Air India not ‘bomb’,” he said. “This is a disinformation tactic of India’s Modi government to equate a non-violent call of ‘boycott’ with terrorism.”

Analysts say Pannun’s inflammatory rhetoric – and the media hype that surrounds him in India – could provoke backlash from citizens and prompt a government response.

“When you have someone making these statements regularly and Indian media broadcasting them, it takes the conversation beyond the confines of diplomacy,” Pant said. “Many Indians might ask why the US government is tolerating such behavior. The public perception of the danger may be much higher than the danger itself.”

Pro-indepence Khalistan flags are seen at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple, site of the June 2023 killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada September 20, 2023. - Chris Helgren/Reuters

To some, the Indian government’s alleged pursuit of an American citizen on its home soil might appear risky and put a dent in relations between two countries that have recently rapidly strengthened economic, technological and defense ties.

However, analysts say the chances of a major fallout are low as both are committed to countering the rise of a neighboring superpower that they view as a joint concern – China.

“The common wisdom is that the US and India need each other for vital strategic purposes: above all, to mount an effective front in competition with China,” said Daniel S. Markey, senior adviser, South Asia, for the United States Institute of Peace.

“Therefore, they will manage this issue without being sidetracked from that mission. And, to date, the two sides have avoided acrimonious public statements, pledging to take the matter seriously.”

And there is recent past precedent for this kind of pragmatic realpolitik.

The murder in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate of Jamal Khashoggi, a US resident and Washington Post columnist critical of the Saudi government, caused global outrage and US condemnation at the time. But ultimately the vital relationship between Washington and Riyadh has been stabilized.

In a statement on Monday announcing Wray’s visit, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation – the equivalent to the FBI – said their meeting signified “a step towards deepening cooperation and shared commitment to combat crime in all its manifestations in the spirit of international police cooperation”.

The statement did not mention the US indictment.

‘Reputational cost’

The measured US-India response, to some, might suggest India’s top-most officials weren’t privy to the alleged plot.

“I find it very difficult to accept the logic that it goes all the way to the top,” said Pant. “Primarily, because I think the costs are too high… And if you assume that this is a rogue element, then I think the question is who lost control?”

The US indictment alleged that Nikhil Gupta, 52, worked with an unnamed Indian official to set up a meeting with an undercover officer he believed to be a hitman to target Pannun. The Indian official agreed to pay $100,000 to the undercover officer for the arranged murder, according to prosecutors.

But the hitman contacted by Gupta was in fact an undercover officer from the Drug Enforcement Agency, according to the DEA. Gupta was arrested in June of this year in the Czech Republic where he is pursuant to a bilateral extradition treaty.

In India at least, the incident has done little to damage the government’s reputation.

“Some hard-liners may actually take pride in this episode as a demonstration of Indian muscle and believe it is a necessary deterrent against other overseas critics of the Indian state,” said Markey from USIP.

Pant said while there might be “fringe” support for the alleged attempt on Pannun’s life, the government “understands the complexities” of the case.

“That’s why you’ve seen that very swiftly, there has been a response to America and a committee has been constituted (to investigate),” he added. “Because I think the implications are quite serious.”

However, if the alleged ties to the Indian government are proven, Markey said, the country’s professional intelligence officers will “pay a reputational cost.”

“India’s diplomats, especially in Washington and Ottawa, will be left to clean up that mess,” he said.


Joe Biden ‘drops out of high-profile India visit’ after claims of Indian murder plot on US soil

Maroosha Muzaffar
Tue, December 12, 2023 

US president Joe Biden is likely to skip India’s Republic Day celebrations, at which he was expected to be the chief guest, according to reports.

This comes after the US Justice Department accused an Indian official of hatching a plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader on American soil.

In September, US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said Indian prime minister Narendra Modi had invited Mr Biden to be the chief guest for India’s Republic Day celebrations on 26 January.

India extended the invitation to Mr Biden as part of its preparations to host the Quad Leaders Summit in January next year.

An Indian government source told The Independent: “The Quad summit in India is proposed to be held later in 2024. We are looking for revised dates as the dates currently under consideration do not work with all the Quad partners.” The Quad is a diplomatic network of US, India, Japan and Australia.

A National Security Council spokesperson who spoke to The Independent on condition of anonymity said neither he nor the administration had “any travel announcements to preview at this time”.

Speaking about India and America’s relationship just a few days ago, Mr Garcetti had said: “To make this romantic, it is like our Facebook status for a long time was ‘it’s complicated’. Now we are dating.

“In time we will realise that maybe we have moved in together and we might not like each other’s habits, like why do you leave the towel on the floor ... we are figuring out how and where this goes ... there is a strong desire in our hearts, it is personal.”

In November, the US said that it had thwarted a plot to kill Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil.

The US raised concerns with New Delhi that the Indian government may have had knowledge of the plot.

Canada pressed India last month to cooperate in an investigation of the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia after the US revealed it had foiled the assassination attempt against Pannun.

The US Justice Department said it was charging a 52-year-old man who had worked with an Indian government employee on a plot to assassinate the New York City resident, who had advocated for a Sikh sovereign state in northern India.

The US charges come about two months after Canada said there were “credible” allegations linking Indian agents to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb in June. India rejected that allegation.

The foiled plot to assassinate the prominent Sikh separatist leader was intended to precede a string of other politically motivated murders in the United States and Canada, according to US prosecutors.

In electronic communications and audio and video calls secretly recorded or obtained by US law enforcement, organisers of the plot talked last spring about plans to kill someone in California and at least three other people in Canada, in addition to the victim in New York, according to an indictment unsealed in November.

The goal was to kill at least four people in the two countries by 29 June, and then more after that, prosecutors contend.

“We have so many targets,” a man named Nikhil Gupta said in a recorded audio call, according to the indictment. “We have so many targets. But the good news is this, the good news is this: now no need to wait.”

The US attorney in Manhattan announced charges against Mr Gupta, and said in court papers that the plot to kill Pannun was directed by an official in the Indian government. That government official was not charged in the indictment or identified by name, but the court filing described him as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in security management and intelligence.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the Indian government had set up a high-level inquiry after US authorities raised concerns about the plot to kill Pannun.

Senate passes defense policy bill with 5.2% pay raise for troops, the biggest boost in decades

THE ONLY GOOD THING IN THE BILL

KEVIN FREKING
Wed, December 13, 2023 


The Pentagon is seen on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023, in Washington. 

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a defense policy bill Wednesday that authorizes the biggest pay raise for troops in more than two decades, but also leaves behind many of the policy priorities that social conservatives were clamoring for, making for an unusually divisive debate over what is traditionally a strongly bipartisan effort.

Lawmakers have been negotiating a final bill for months after each chamber passed strikingly different versions in July. Some of the priorities championed by social conservatives were a no-go for Democrats, so negotiators dropped them from the final product to get it over the finish line.

The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 87-13 It now heads to the House, where opponents have been more vocal about their concerns.

Most notably, the bill does not include language blocking the Pentagon's abortion travel policy and restricting gender-affirming health care for transgender service members and dependents. Republicans prevailed, however, in winning some concessions on diversity and inclusion training in the military. For example, the bill freezes hiring for such training until a full accounting of the programming and costs is completed and reported to Congress.

The bill sets key Pentagon policy that lawmakers will attempt to fund through a follow-up appropriations bill. Lawmakers were keen to emphasize how the bill calls for a 5.2% boost in service member pay, the biggest increase in more than 20 years. The bill authorizes $886 billion for national defense programs for the current fiscal year that began Oct. 1, about 3% more than the prior year.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill would ensure “America’s military remains state of the art at all times all around the world.”

The bill also includes a short-term extension of a surveillance program aimed at preventing terrorism and catching spies. But the program has detractors on both sides of the political aisle who view it as a threat to the privacy of ordinary Americans. Some House Republicans were incensed at the extension, which is designed to buy more time to reach a compromise.

The extension continues a program that permits the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of non-Americans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence.

U.S. officials have said the tool, first authorized in 2008 and renewed several times since then, is crucial in disrupting terror attacks, cyber intrusions and other national security threats. It has produced vital intelligence that the U.S. has relied on for specific operations, such as the killing last year of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

But the administration’s efforts to secure reauthorization of the program have encountered strong bipartisan pushback. Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden, who has long championed civil liberties, have aligned with Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump to demand better privacy protections for Americans and have proposed a slew of competing bills.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., unsuccessfully sought to keep the extension out of the defense bill. He argued that the extension would likely mean no reform to the surveillance program in the next year.

“That means that once again the intelligence agencies that ignore the constraints on their power will go unaddressed and unpunished, and the warrantless surveillance of Americans in the violation of the Bill of Rights will continue,” Paul said.

Enough opposition has developed within the GOP ranks that it has forced House Speaker Mike Johnson to tee up the defense policy bill for a vote through a process generally reserved for non-controversial legislation. Under that process, at least two-thirds of the House will have to vote in favor of the legislation for it to pass, but going that route avoids the prospect of a small number of Republicans blocking it through a procedural vote.

While such a process may ease passage of the bill, it could hurt Johnson’s standing with some of the most conservative members in the House. It only takes a few Republicans to essentially grind House proceedings to a halt or even to end a speaker’s tenure, as former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy learned when eight Republicans joined with Democrats to oust him.

The White House called for swift passage of the defense bill, saying it “provides the critical authorities we need to build the military required to deter future conflicts while supporting the servicemembers and their spouses and families who carry out that mission every day.”

Consideration of the bill comes at an especially dangerous time for the world, with wars taking place in Ukraine and the Middle East, and as China increasingly flexes its military might in the South China Sea.

On Ukraine, the bill includes the creation of a special inspector general for Ukraine to address concerns about whether taxpayer dollars are being spent in Ukraine as intended. That’s on top of oversight work already being conducted by other agency watchdogs.

“We will continue to stay on top of this, but I want to assure my colleagues that there has been no evidence of diversion of weapons provided to Ukraine or any other assistance,” the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, told lawmakers this week in advocating for the bill.

On China, the bill establishes a new training program with Taiwan, requires a plan to accelerate deliveries of Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Taiwan, and approves an agreement that enables Australia to access nuclear-powered submarines, which are stealthier and more capable than conventionally powered vessels.

Dozens of House Republicans are balking because the bill would keep in place a Pentagon rule that allows for travel reimbursement when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care. The Biden administration instituted the new rules after the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to an abortion, and some states have limited or banned the procedure.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., had for months blocked the promotion of more than 400 senior military leaders over his objections to the policy. He recently dropped most of his holds except for four-star generals and admirals, but many House Republicans were supportive of his effort and had included a repeal of the reimbursement policy in the House version of the defense bill.

___

Associated Press staff writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.


Senate passes $886 billion defense spending bill with pay raises for troops, Ukraine aid

Rachel Looker, USA TODAY
Wed, December 13, 2023 


WASHINGTON − The Senate passed an $886 billion defense spending plan Wednesday, supported by President Joe Biden, that includes funding for Ukraine and annual pay raises for troops in a last-minute rush to authorize spending before the end of the year.

The National Defense Authorization Act provides funding each year for Pentagon priorities such as training and equipment. The Senate passed the legislation by a bipartisan vote of 87-13. Congress has advanced the must-pass defense spending bill consecutively for the last 61 years.

"At a time of huge trouble for global security, doing the defense authorization bill is more important than ever," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Wednesday. "Passing the NDAA enables us to hold the line against Russia, stand firm against the Chinese Communist Party and ensure America's defense remain state of the art at all times."

The bill now heads to the House, where some ultraconservative Republicans have threatened to tank it after lawmakers dropped contentious provisions that would have modified the Pentagon's abortion policy and some gender affirming health care. They are also unhappy with a temporary extension of a domestic surveillance program included in the bill without reforms.
What is in the NDAA?

A local resident sorts out debris at the site of a private house ruined in the Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023.

The Senate's NDAA is a compromise version of the spending bill the House passed earlier this year. The House version included provisions targeting transgender health care policies in the Pentagon and an amendment that would revoke a Pentagon policy that reimburses out-of-state travel for service members who receive abortions. The abortion policy is one Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., protested for 10 months by blocking all military promotions in the Senate.

The Senate NDAA includes provisions that will:

Authorize $844.3 billion for the Department of Defense and $32.4 billion for national security programs within the Department of Energy


Support Defense department activities among Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States


Extend the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative through fiscal year 2027 and authorize the full budget request of $300 million in fiscal year 2024


Provide a 5.2 percent pay raise for military servicemembers and the Defense department civilian workforce


Support requested funding for naval vessels, combat aircraft, armored vehicles, weapon systems and munitions

A handful of Senate Republicans threatened to delay the passage of the spending bill over the last few weeks because of the missing amendments on social issues.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, forced procedural votes in an effort to delay the bill's passage in the upper chamber.

"Shame on Schumer for backing the Biden admin’s radical abortion agenda. I never back down from a fight," Ernst wrote Tuesday on X. "The Pentagon should be focused on protecting innocent life, not destroying it."

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., also looked to block the NDAA's package after the final version stripped his proposed legislation that would provide compensation for victims of nuclear contamination. He forced a procedural vote on the NDAA last week, but failed to delay its package.
Republicans debate surveillance program

Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023, in Washington.

The Senate's NDAA also includes a four-month extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a domestic surveillance program which is set to expire this month. The program allows the government to gather private messages of foreign nationals overseas who are using U.S.-based messaging platforms.

The Senate voted to block an amendment proposed by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that would remove the extension of Section 702.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has said allowing the program to lapse would jeopardize national security.

Some lawmakers agree and view Section 702 as necessary for keeping the country safe. But others say it has been misused.

"Congress has the chance to say no more unconstitutional searches on Americans authorized only by secret courts," Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., wrote on X. "We must stand our ground and protect Americans’ civil liberties."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pulled two bills from consideration on the House floor last week after facing opposition from within his caucus over how to address the program's reauthorization.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., called Section 702 the "biggest abuses and violations of the fourth amendment in our country’s history."

"Our Republican base is concerned with stopping the weaponized government and right now there is no accountability," she wrote on X.
Will it pass in the House?

The NDAA now heads to the House where it needs two-thirds of votes to pass.

But there is strong opposition among some Republicans over the missing provisions on social issues.

"The sole focus of the NDAA should be on national defense and security issues, but instead it funds transgender surgery in the military and still allows drag queen shows on military bases. Time to go back to the drawing board," Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., said in a statement.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate OKs $886 billion defense bill with pay raises, Ukraine aid


Senate passes sweeping defense policy bill

Clare Foran, Ted Barrett and Morgan Rimmer, CNN
Wed, December 13, 2023 

The Senate voted on Wednesday to pass a critical defense policy bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the policy agenda and authorizes funding for the Department of Defense annually.

The final negotiated version of the NDAA for fiscal year 2024 authorizes $886 billion in national defense funding, an increase of $28 billion over last year.

It is expected to be approved by the Senate with bipartisan support and would next go to the House, with lawmakers hoping it will pass through both chambers before the end of the week. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 87 to 13.

The sweeping legislation authorizes a 5.2% pay raise for members of the military as part of a wide range of provisions related to service member pay and benefits, housing and childcare.

In a move that sparked anger from some lawmakers, the bill will include a short-term extension of a controversial law that permits warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals. Supporters argue it is a critical tool for safeguarding national security, but it has come under criticism from some lawmakers over alleged misuse.

The law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, enables the US government to obtain intelligence by collecting communications records of foreign persons based overseas who are using US-based communications services.

The searches are governed by a set of internal rules and procedures designed to protect Americans’ privacy and civil liberties, but critics say that loopholes allow the FBI to search the data it collects for Americans’ information – as opposed to from foreign adversaries – without proper justification.

Tensions have flared on Capitol Hill over the issue with some conservative Republicans expressing significant frustration over the extension’s inclusion in the defense policy bill. The extension will run through April 19.

Congressional leaders have said that they hope to negotiate consensus legislation to make changes to FISA authorities aimed at preventing abuse that could pass both chambers in the new year.

According to a summary of the bill from the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee, the bill would also put in place a watchdog to oversee US aid to Ukraine in the form of a special inspector general as well as set up a collection at the National Archives of government records on unidentified anomalous phenomena, commonly known as UFOs, that will be accessible to the public.

The legislation does not include two controversial provisions related to abortion and transgender health care access, which were in the House defense policy bill that passed this summer.

Senate passes mammoth annual defense policy bill

Wed, December 13, 2023 

The Senate on Wednesday passed the annual defense policy bill, a compromise $886 billion package that lays out how the Pentagon will be funded through the next fiscal year.

The vote to approve the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was 87-13.

House lawmakers will next take up the legislation. The bill faces resistance in the House from far-right lawmakers who are opposed to the package, in part because it fails to include House-passed provisions to rid the Pentagon of what they say are “woke” policies.

In addition to keeping the Defense Department’s programs and policies funded, the defense bill will authorize tens of billions of dollars for aircraft and ships and give a historic 5.2 percent pay raise to troops.

The NDAA also eyes bolstering U.S. national security abroad, with $11.5 billion slated to deter China in the Indo-Pacific region and another $800 million to support Ukraine.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday urged senators to pass the NDAA as the U.S. faces challenges across the globe.

“At a time of huge trouble for global security, doing the defense authorization bill was more important than ever,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Passing the NDAA enables us to hold the line against Russia, stand firm against the Chinese Communist Party and ensure that America’s defenses remain state-of-the-art.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also championed the NDAA for bolstering national security and ridding the Defense Department of cultural politics.

“It will focus the Pentagon more squarely on tackling national security challenges instead of creating new ones with partisan social policies,” McConnell said.

The only major resistance to the NDAA in the Senate came from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who said he would vote against the bill because it failed to include compensation for victims of radiation exposure in his state and extend those protections. He put up a couple procedural hurdles in its path to a final vote.

“When the government causes injury the government should make it right,” Hawley said this week. “It is wrong to let it expire, it is an injustice, it is a scar on the conscience of this body and on this nation.”

The NDAA is one of the largest bills passed annually by lawmakers and is a yearlong process for Congress.

The defense bill was finalized by conference negotiators in the House and Senate last week, after the chambers passed vastly different versions over the summer, with House Republicans slipping in provisions on the culture wars engulfing America.

The final bill dropped many of the controversial House amendments. An amendment to block the Pentagon’s abortion policy failed to make it into the NDAA, as did another preventing the Defense Department from funding gender-affirming surgery.

Hard-line Republicans, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), are vowing to vote against the NDAA in the House because those amendments are not included.

They are also upset about a short-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless surveillance of foreigners abroad but is controversial because Americans can get swept up in the surveillance.

Some senators took to the Senate floor to protest the FISA extension, including Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).

Ahead of the NDAA vote, an effort to remove the FISA Section 702 extension from the bill was defeated in a 35-65 vote. In remarks, Paul accused senators of trying to “rubber stamp this and look the other way” to allow FISA to continue without any reforms.

Lee said the American people deserve freedom from “warrantless searches.”

“The American people aren’t going to take this anymore,” he said. “The American people expect more, and the Constitution demands it.”

Other provisions of the NDAA may draw objections from Democrats, including one restricting critical race theory at military academies and another banning unauthorized flags on military bases, which Republicans have said would prohibit LGBTQ flags.

The NDAA also directs the Pentagon to consider reinstating troops who were fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine and includes limitations on the Biden administration’s ability to build out Space Command headquarters in Colorado.

Here’s what’s in the $886 billion defense bill

Tami Luhby, CNN
Wed, December 13, 2023



The Senate and House Armed Services committees have rolled out their must-pass $886.3 billion defense bill, which would provide the largest raise for service members in more than two decades, temporarily extend a controversial surveillance program and strengthen the US posture in the Indo-Pacific region to deter Chinese actions.

The chambers are expected to vote this week on the nearly 3,100-page National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024 before sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature. The package authorizes $28 billion, or about 3%, more than the previous fiscal year.

The legislation outlines the policy agenda for the Department of Defense and the US military and authorizes spending in line with the Pentagon’s priorities. But it does not appropriate the funding itself.

Also notable, the joint package does not include two controversial provisions related to abortion and transgender health care access, which were in the House defense policy bill that passed this summer. The House version would have prohibited the secretary of defense from paying for or reimbursing expenses relating to abortion services. It also would have barred a health care program for service members from covering hormone treatments for transgender individuals and gender confirmation surgeries.

But the final version of the bill does include multiple measures aimed at “ending wokeness in the military,” according to a summary provided by the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee.

Funding for a separate $105 billion national security package that would provide more assistance to Israel and Ukraine continues to be a point of contention in Congress, with Senate Republicans insisting that more foreign aid be paired with major border security policy changes. While there have been talks to try to find consensus, no bipartisan deal has been reached.

The defense authorization bill would extend the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative through the end of 2026 and authorize $300 million for the program in the current fiscal year and the next one. The program provides funding for the federal government to pay industry to produce weapons and security assistance to send to Ukraine, rather than drawing directly from current US stockpiles of weapons.

Here are some key provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act, according to summaries provided by the House and the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services committees:

Support for service members and their families

The package contains several measures to improve service members’ wages and benefits in hopes of aiding in recruitment and retention.

It would provide a 5.2% boost in service member basic pay and authorize a monthly bonus for junior enlisted members. The bill would also adjust the Basic Allowance for Housing calculation to boost reimbursement for junior enlisted service members so they could better afford rising rents. And it would expand the Basic Needs Allowance to help low-income service members with families.

The bill would also authorize $38 million over the budget request for new family housing and $356 million over the budget request to renovate and build new barracks.

To help military spouses, it would expand their reimbursements for relicensing or business costs and help those working for the federal government keep their jobs by allowing them to telework when service members transfer locations.

And the legislation would reduce child care expenses for military families and authorize $153 million over the budget request for the construction of new child care centers.

Plus, it would authorize the Department of Defense to fund – and Armed Services members to participate in – clinical trials using psychedelic substances and cannabis to treat post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries.

Warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals

The bill includes a short-term extension of a controversial law that permits warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals, extending authority for the program through April 19.

The law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, enables the US government to obtain intelligence by collecting communications records of non-Americans overseas who are using US-based communications services.

Supporters argue Section 702 is a critical tool for safeguarding national security, but it has come under scrutiny from some lawmakers over alleged misuse.

Focus on Indo-Pacific region

To counter Chinese aggression, the package would authorize $14.7 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and extend it through fiscal year 2024. And it would establish a training, advising and institutional capacity-building program for the military forces of Taiwan.

It would enable the implementation of the AUKUS agreement between the US, United Kingdom and Australia and authorize the eventual sale of nuclear-capable submarines to Australia. The bill would also establish the Indo-Pacific Campaigning Initiative, which would facilitate an increase in the frequency and scale of exercises conducted by the US Indo-Pacific Command, among other efforts.

‘Ending wokeness in the military’

The package would prohibit funding for the teaching, training or promotion of critical race theory in the military, including at service academies and Department of Defense schools, according to the House summary. And it would prohibit the display of any unapproved flags, such as the LGBTQ pride flag, at military installations.

It would also put in place a hiring freeze on diversity, equity and inclusion positions until the US Government Accountability Office completes an investigation of the Pentagon’s DEI programs. Plus, the bill would cut and cap the base pay of DEI staffers at $70,000 a year.

The package includes a Parents Bill of Rights, which would give parents of children in Department of Defense schools the right to review curriculum, books and instructional materials, meet with teachers and provide consent before schools conduct medical exams or screenings of students.

In addition, the legislation reiterates that no funds may be spent on drag shows, Drag Queen Story Hours or similar events.

Help service members who did not get the Covid-19 vaccine

The legislation would require the defense secretary to inform the 8,000 service members who were discharged for not receiving the Covid-19 vaccine of the process they can follow to be reinstated.

It would also treat the lapse in service as a “career intermission” so future promotions are not affected, and it would require the Defense Department to grant requests to correct the personnel files of those discharged so they can receive full retirement benefits.

CNN’s Clare Foran contributed to this report.


US Senate passes mammoth defense policy bill, next up vote in House

Updated Wed, December 13, 2023

U.S. military personnel train on the waters near Coronado, California


By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate backed a defense policy bill authorizing a record $886 billion in annual military spending with strong support from both Democrats and Republicans on Wednesday, sidestepping partisan divides over social issues that had threatened what is seen as a must-pass bill.

Separate from the appropriations bills that set government spending levels, the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, authorizes everything from pay raises for the troops - this year's will be 5.2% - to purchases of ships, ammunition and aircraft as well as policies such as measures to help Ukraine and pushback against China in the Indo-Pacific.

This year's bill is nearly 3,100 pages long, authorizing a record $886 billion, up 3% from last year.

The NDAA "will ensure America can hold the line against Russia, stand firm against the Chinese Communist Party, and ensures that America's military remains state-of-the-art at all times all around the world," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote.

But the final version of the NDAA left out provisions addressing divisive social issues, such as access to abortion and treatment of transgender service members, that had been included in the version passed by the House over the objections of Democrats, threatening to derail the legislation.

The 100-member Senate backed the NDAA by 87 to 13. The House is expected to pass it as soon as later this week, sending it to the White House where President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law.

The fiscal 2024 NDAA also includes a four-month extension of a disputed domestic surveillance authority, giving lawmakers more time to either reform or keep the program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The Senate defeated an attempt to remove the FISA extension from the NDAA on Wednesday before voting to pass the bill.

The Republican-majority House passed its version of the NDAA earlier this year, followed by the Senate, where Biden's fellow Democrats have a slim majority. Negotiators from both parties and both chambers unveiled their compromise version last week.

The bill extends one measure to help Ukraine, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, through the end of 2026, authorizing $300 million for the program in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2024, and the next one.

However, that figure is a tiny compared to the $61 billion in assistance for Ukraine that Biden has asked Congress to approve to help Kyiv as it battles a Russian invasion that began in February 2022.

That emergency spending request is bogged down in Congress, as Republicans have refused to approve assistance for Ukraine without Democrats agreeing to a significant toughening of immigration law.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with lawmakers at the Capitol on Tuesday to make his case for the funding requested by Biden, but emerged from meetings with lawmakers without Republican commitments.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Leslie Adler, Sandra Maler and Grant McCool)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

Taiwan's last generation to fight China

KMT VETERANS

Wed, December 13, 2023

 

a photo essay, please click here

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Taiwan's last generation to fight China

The Wider Image: Taiwan's last generation to fight ChinaAnn Wang and Ben Blanchard

TAOYUAN, Taiwan (Reuters) - Sun Kuo-hsi vividly remembers the chaos of the final years of the Chinese civil war and the government forces he fought for collapsing in front of Mao Zedong's Communists, forcing him to flee by boat to Taiwan in 1949 in a perilous eight-day crossing.

"There was no dock; everyone was splashing around in the water," Sun, 110, told Reuters in his government-run veterans care home in the northern Taiwanese city of Taoyuan.

"Talking about it with young people now, they've not been through that time, they don't care, say it's in the past. Nobody listens," said Sun, one of the last generation in Taiwan to have fought against China and experience war.

Although the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan more than seven decades ago and remains there to this day, there was never a peace treaty to end the war with the People's Republic of China. Neither government recognises the other.

During the past four years, China has ramped up its military pressure against the island it claims as Chinese territory, including staging two rounds of major military exercises, stoking fears of a war that could drag in the United States.

Those tensions dominate campaigning in the run up to Taiwan's Jan. 13 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), whose government fled China in 1949, has cast the poll as a choice between war and peace - a line Beijing has echoed.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which champions Taiwan's separate identity from China and says only Taiwan's people can decide their future, has angrily rejected that framing as scaremongering, saying nobody wants war.

Someveterans of Taiwan's last battles with China - fighting over the Taiwan-controlled island of Kinmen in 1958 - say they remember the horrors of conflict all too clearly.

Yin Te-chun, 93, fought for China in the 1950-53 Korean war but was captured by United Nations forces.

To show his fervent desire to be sent to Taiwan when the war ended, he, like many others, tattooed himself with phrases such as "storm the bandit strongholds" - a reference to the Chinese Communists - and "kill Zhu", the Chinese army chief.

Yin also fought against China when it attacked Kinmen, just offshore of the Chinese city of Xiamen.

"I don't know whether there'll be fighting again," he said. "It's up to the DPP. If they keep going like this maybe there really will be."

China dislikes the DPP, calling them separatists, and has rebuffed repeated offers of talks. The party's presidential candidate, Vice President Lai Ching-te, is leading in the polls.

'WAR IS CRUEL'

Sun and many other veterans who cling closely to their Chinese identity do not represent mainstream Taiwan society, who overwhelmingly view themselves as Taiwanese and not Chinese, according to polls.

"There is certainly a generational shift; the older generation was a little more likely to be for unification and the younger generation a lot less likely," said Sung Wen-Ti, a political scientist at Australian National University's Taiwan Studies Programme.

"The younger people tend to have a separate, almost distinct, Taiwanese national identity as opposed to a more Chinese national identity," he added. "So, in that sense, the trendlines on support for unification is a downward one."

Taiwan's veterans department does not keep exact numbers on how many soldiers who fought against China are still alive. As of last year it lists about 56,000 male veterans aged 85 and above, who would have been old enough to fight in that war.

The veteran's home in Taoyuan is surrounded by mementoes of past conflict, including an old fighter plane and a tank flaking its entrance.

A large statue of former president Chiang Kai-shek, reviled by many Taiwanese as a despot but revered by others for fighting Mao's Communists, stands in the courtyard where the veterans exercise or are pushed about in wheelchairs.

Wang Chih-chuan, 93, also a Korean war prisoner who came to Taiwan and eventually fought in Kinmen, joined the Chinese army when he was 13.

"When I joined up I was press-ganged. In the civil war, if they couldn't get adults they'd get children," he said. "To this day I don't want to watch war on the television. War is cruel, callous."

(Reporting by Ann Wang and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Angie Teo and Fabian Hamacher. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

ABOLISH LIEGE MAJESTY
A newly elected progressive Thai lawmaker is sentenced to 6 years for defaming the monarchy

ABOLISH MONARCHY
JERRY HARMER
Updated Wed, December 13, 2023 


Parliament member Rukchanok Srinork of Thailand's opposition Move Forward party arrives at criminal court for the verdict for allegedly violating the lese majeste law in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. A court in Thailand convicted and sentenced Wednesday the recently elected lawmaker to six years in prison for defaming the monarchy under a controversial law that guards the royal institution. 

(AP Photo/Sopha Saelee)
ASSOCIATED PRESSMore


BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Thailand convicted and sentenced a recently elected lawmaker Wednesday to six years in prison for defaming the monarchy under a controversial law that guards the royal institution.

Human Rights Watch decried the ruling, saying it “violated her rights to freedom of expression protected under international human rights law.”

Rukchanok Srinork arrived for her court hearing in the capital, Bangkok, as her fellow lawmakers were convening in Parliament.

“I submitted a request to postpone (the hearing) because today the new parliament convenes for its first session, but the court refused. So I came to hear the verdict," she told reporters, standing next to her party leader who was there to lend support.

She was charged over two posts she allegedly shared two years ago on X, the social media platform then known as Twitter. One tweet reportedly defamed the monarchy over links to a coronavirus vaccine and an anti-monarchy quote by 18th-century French philosopher Denis Diderot was allegedly retweeted.

Rukchanok was sentenced to three years on each count under Article 112 of Thailand’s Criminal Code, known as lese majeste, which protects the monarchy. She was also convicted under the Computer Crime Act, whose broad provisions covering online activities have been criticized as a threat to freedom of expression.

Late Wednesday, the court granted her release on bail of 500,000 baht ($14,200). If it had been denied, she would have lost her lawmaker status immediately.

The parliamentarian denied she posted the tweets, calling the case against her “weak.” The plaintiff reportedly provided screenshots of the posts, but the police couldn't find the links.

Rukchanok, 29, won a seat in May’s general election, part of a surprise victory for the progressive Move Forward Party that shook Thai politics. The win did not translate into power due to the party being ultimately out-maneuvered by influential conservative forces. She was initially a defender of the conservative establishment before switching sides and joining the progressive movement.

“The prosecution of an opposition member of parliament for two tweets is not only an appalling violation of free expression, but sends a chilling message to other outspoken opposition party members to keep silent,” Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Thursday in an emailed statement. “The Thai authorities should quash this sentence, and cease prosecuting other cases under the lese majeste law.”

Critics say the lese majeste law is often used to suppress political dissent. The law makes insulting the monarch, his immediate family and the regent punishable by up to 15 years in jail.

The monarchy and the laws that protect it have come under pressure in recent years. In 2020, tens of thousands of predominantly young people marched in several Thai cities, demanding constitutional reform and the abolition of the law against royal defamation. The government's response was an unprecedented slew of prosecutions.

The advocacy group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights says that since early 2020, more than 200 people — many of them student activists — have been charged with violating Article 112.

___

This story corrects the date Rukchanok Srinork was granted bail. It was Wednesday, Dec. 13, not Dec. 6.

Right groups say Greece has failed to properly investigate claims it mishandled migrant tragedy

DEREK GATOPOULOS
Wed, December 13, 2023 





- In this undated handout file image provided by Greece's coast guard on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, scores of people sit on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece. The international rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch allege on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023, that Greek authorities have failed to properly investigate allegations by some survivors that the rescue mission had been mishandled. (Hellenic Coast Guard via AP, File)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Two leading international human rights groups on Thursday accused Greek authorities of failing to properly investigate the circumstances around a migrant boat sinking six months ago that killed hundreds.

In a joint report, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said “little meaningful progress” has been made in examining allegations by some survivors that the rescue mission was delayed and mishandled.

Up to 750 people were believed to have been crammed into the “Adriana,” a rusty fishing trawler that sank on June 14 southwest of the Greek mainland while traveling from Libya to Italy.

Following the sinking, 104 people were rescued — migrants mostly from Syria, Pakistan, and Egypt — and 82 bodies were recovered.

The two rights groups said they interviewed 21 survivors and five relatives of people still missing as well as representatives of the Greek coast guard and the Greek police.

“The survivors and the families of the missing and dead deserve a full accounting of what happened,” Judith Sunderland, an associate director at Human Rights Watch for Europe and central Asia, told the Associated Press.

“Our research confirms that a catalog of failures led to the fatal shipwreck,” Sunderland said, adding that the vessel was clearly “overcrowded, unseaworthy, and in danger” hours before it capsized.

Some of the survivors have disputed the official Greek account that people on the trawler refused offers of assistance.

The allegations triggered the launch of an independent investigation last month by Greece’s state ombudsman. It said the coast guard failed to conduct its own disciplinary investigation into the agency's response June 14. In September, 40 survivors initiated legal action against Greek authorities.

There was no immediate reaction from Greek authorities to Thursday’s report. But government officials have described criticism of the coast guard as unfair and maintain that blame should squarely fall on smugglers who cram migrants onto unseaworthy boats. The coast guard has denied claims made by some survivors that it made a failed attempt to tow the vessel before it sank. ___

Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Russia notes falling U.S. support for Ukraine, says Kremlin

Reuters
Wed, December 13, 2023

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov 

(Reuters) - Russia is watching as U.S. military support for Ukraine declines and Kyiv suffers setbacks on the battlefield, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in interviews made public on Wednesday.

Peskov was speaking to Russian media after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy completed talks in Washington to secure more than $60 billion in new military assistance, held up by disputes in Congress.

"The Kyiv regime promised them that if you give us $100 billion, we will have a victory on the battlefield," Peskov told the daily Izvestia.


"The Americans now understand that they were duped. There is no victory on the battlefield and, to be sure, Ukrainian forces are rapidly losing their positions. This is an inevitable process."

Americans, Peskov said, "are truly in the first instance beginning to ask themselves the question: just what are they spending this money on?"

With substantial funding up in the air, Peskov referred to Biden's announcement of a $200 million aid allocation, saying it was "quite a modest sum in their thinking".

"This of course puts the Kyiv regime in difficulty and we are going to be following this situation," he said.

Twenty-one months into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and a year after Ukraine regained large chunks of occupied territory, the front lines have changed little in recent weeks. Zelenskiy rejects any notion that the war is in a stalemate but acknowledges that a Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in June with Western support has made limited progress.

Peskov, interviewed by the Russia 24 television channel, said Ukraine had promised "phenomenal victories" in the counteroffensive launched as spring weather improved.

"But the snow went away and nothing happened. And the snow fell again and still there is nothing. And Americans are asking, should they still be doing this?" Peskov said.

Biden told Zelenskiy during talks on Tuesday that he would not walk away from Ukraine and nor would the American people.

U.S. lawmakers pursued debate on Wednesday on the question of providing aid to Ukraine and Israel, with Republicans tying both issues to a U.S. border security deal.

Zelenskiy's visit to Washington ended with no commitment for more U.S. support for Ukraine. Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, would not agree to support Biden's request to give Ukraine $61.4 billion.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski)


Biden to Republicans – ‘If you’re being celebrated by Russian propagandists, time for a rethink’

The New Voice of Ukraine
Wed, December 13, 2023 

Joe Biden

U.S. President Joe Biden criticized lawmakers from the Republican Party for blocking additional funding to Ukraine, he said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, on Dec. 13.

The U.S. will continue to supply Ukraine with critically important weapons and equipment, but this requires additional funding, Biden said.

Read also: We need to approve aid so that Putin continues to fail in Ukraine - Biden


“Putin is banking on the United States failing to deliver for Ukraine. We must, we must, we must prove him wrong,” he said.

“Russia and Russian loyalists in Moscow celebrated when when Republicans voted to block Ukraine's Aid last week,” said Biden.

“The host of a Kremlin run show literally said and I quote ‘well done Republicans. That's good for us.’ If you're being celebrated by Russian propagandists, it might be time to rethink what you're doing,” added Biden.

Read also: ‘Ukraine will become a member of NATO when all allies agree, and conditions are met’ – Biden

Zelensky arrived in the U.S. on Dec. 11., having previously attended the inauguration of Argentina's new president Javier Milei. This is the third visit of the Ukrainian president to Washington in the last year.

Zelenskyy’s first visit to Washington since the beginning of the invasion occurred in Dec. 2022. Zelenskyy visited the White House with First Lady Olena Zelenska as part of a tour of North America in Sept. 2023.

The Ukrainian President also gave a speech at the U.S. National Defense University, held talks with top U.S. military leadership and heads of American defense companies, met with senators, and Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson.

Humanitarian crises will worsen in 2024 -International Rescue Committee

Reuters
Wed, December 13, 2023 

Afghan nationals rest at a camp after returning from Pakistan at Torkham border crossing

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Climate change, worsening armed conflicts, growing debt-loads and shrinking international support will accelerate humanitarian crises worldwide in 2024, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said in a report on Thursday.

In its 2024 Emergency Watchlist, the New York-based IRC pointed to 20 nations largely in Africa at the greatest risk of a worsening humanitarian situation next year.

The report comes after the number of people in need of humanitarian aid this year rose to 300 million while those forced to flee their homes soared to 110 million.


"This is the worst of times," IRC chief David Miliband said in a statement, calling for more emphasis on climate adaption, women's empowerment, 'people-first' banking, support for displaced people and actions to stem impunity.

Sudan ranked top of the IRC's emergency watchlist followed by the occupied Palestinian territories and South Sudan.

Beneath them rank nine Sub-Saharan nations; Myanmar and Afghanistan in Asia; Syria, Lebanon and Yemen in the Middle East; Europe's Ukraine; South America's Ecuador and Haiti in the Caribbean.

These 20 territories account for some 10% of the world's population but 86% of global humanitarian need, 70% of displaced people and a growing share of those facing extreme poverty and climate risks, the IRC said.

Sudan, which was not included last year, topped the list as large-scale urban warfare meets "minimal international attention," it said, while the Palestinian territory of Gaza enters 2024 as the deadliest place for civilians worldwide.

While some African countries achieve fast improvement of living standards, conflicts, coups and poverty are rising at "alarming rates", the IRC said, while the El Nino weather phenomenon threatens extreme climate.

Ecuador - home to many Venezuelan refugees - joined the list for the first time as rise in violent crime, which the state attributes largely to drug trafficking, aggravates economic impacts from the pandemic and climate risks, it added.

Meanwhile in Haiti, the IRC pointed to nearly half the population needing humanitarian aid and said it was "unlikely" potential U.N. efforts to help police fight powerful armed gangs would significantly improve conditions next year.

(Reporting by Diego Ore; Additional reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito and Harold Isaac in Port-au-Prince; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Lincoln Feast)