US reassures Ukraine of American support 

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washington — Some top U.S. officials have sought to publicly reassure Ukraine of continued support from Washington, arguing that backing Kyiv in its fight against Russia is in America’s best interest.

The United States has provided Ukraine with almost $54 billion in military equipment and other security assistance since Russian forces invaded in February 2022, including a $225 million package earlier this month.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General CQ Brown on Friday called such help from the U.S. and other Western countries crucial, warning of dire consequences if that aid stopped flowing.

“If collectively we stop supporting Ukraine, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wins,” Brown told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado.

“What that allows, it also emboldens others,” he said. “We have credibility that’s at stake associated with this. Not just the United States, but NATO, the West.

“If we just back away, that opens the door for [Chinese President] Xi Jinping and others that [have] wanted to do unprovoked aggression.”

Some U.S. politicians, however, argue that the current level of support for Ukraine is unsustainable. And they have been led, in part, by the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Republican Senator J.D. Vance.

“There are a lot of bad guys all over the world, and I’m much more interested in some of the problems in East Asia right now than I am in Europe,” Vance told a major security conference in Munich earlier this year.

“Can we send the level of weaponry we’ve sent for the last 18 months?” Vance asked. “We simply cannot. No matter how many checks the U.S. Congress writes, we are limited there.”

The Republicans’ presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, has also been critical at times of U.S. support for Ukraine, telling supporters during his nomination acceptance speech Thursday that the war “would never have happened if I was president.”

This past May, at a town hall event sponsored by CNN, Trump said, if elected, he would end the fighting in one day.

Brown, the most senior U.S. military official, was cautious about such predictions when pressed at the Aspen conference.

“If he can get it done in 24 hours, that’d be great,” he said, while also rejecting arguments that the U.S. is incapable of providing Ukraine with continued military support.

“We have the capability to produce,” Brown said. “We have the capacity to do it. We’ve just got to make the commitment to do it.”

Other senior U.S. officials also pushed back against arguments that Washington’s European allies are not doing enough.

“The Europeans are doing a lot more than I think Americans give them credit for,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking separately at the Aspen forum.

“When you calculate their contribution to Ukraine in terms of military assistance, economic assistance, humanitarian assistance and other forms, they [European allies] are combined doing considerably more than the United States,” he said, adding that the Ukrainian cause remains popular despite some vocal skeptics.

“Poll after poll shows the American people still care,” Sullivan said. “[They] still support funding Ukraine. Still support the notion that it is our duty-bound obligation to continue to help Ukraine fight for its freedom and its sovereignty and its territorial integrity.”

Some of those supporters, including both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, have urged the White House and President Joe Biden to be even more aggressive and loosen restrictions preventing Ukraine from using U.S.-made weapons systems to strike deep in Russian territory.

“As the war has evolved, our support has evolved, the capacities we provided have evolved, and the parameters under which we’ve provided them have evolved,” Sullivan said. “But thus far, [Biden’s] policy on long-range strikes in Russia has not changed.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, earlier Friday to help remove those types of restrictions instituted by the U.S. and other Western allies.

Addressing a meeting of the Cabinet at the official residence of the British prime minister, Zelenskyy said Ukraine has proved it can prevent Russian attempts to expand the war by hitting Russian military targets positioned not just along the border but deeper inside Russia.

In an interview with the BBC, British Defense Secretary John Healey was asked about the issue of Ukraine’s use of British-supplied weapons, and he said nothing precludes “them hitting targets in Russia, but that must be done by the Ukrainians. It must be done within the parameters and the bounds of international humanitarian law.”

Also Friday, Zelenskyy said that following a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Thursday, Ukraine received a “positive decision from the Polish government” that will allow Ukraine to receive U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets sooner.

He did not specify what the decision was in his statement, shared on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. The Reuters news service said there was no immediate word from the Polish prime minister’s office on Zelenskyy’s comment.

VOA’s Jeff Custer contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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African aviation conference ends with pledges to improve travel

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Moki Edwin Kindzeka — Participants in Africa-Indian Ocean Aviation Week this week in Libreville, Gabon, say they’ve produced a plan to make continentwide improvements to aviation development and safety.

Some 350 representatives from 180 countries attended AFI Aviation Week, which was organized by the U.N. International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, with the aim of enhancing air travel safety across Africa and the Indian Ocean in the face of climate change and regional terrorism.

Officials from Gabon, Rwanda and Equatorial Guinea said they have agreed to expand fleets and modernize their airports, while Nigeria said it will repair aging infrastructure.

Many participants said it is time for African states to embrace a plan called the Single African Air Transport Market and liberalize civil aviation across the continent by removing restrictions on traffic rights for African airlines.

ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano was among those who endorsed the idea, saying on Gabon state TV that the continent needs to accelerate the implementation of the market to enhance connectivity.

Sciacchitano expressed his wish for governments and investors to make good use of what he called huge air transport opportunities in Africa to boost trade, create jobs and develop the continent.

The ICAO says that although no attacks on planes have been reported over the past year, terrorism threats in Africa — in countries such as Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger — sometimes cause passengers to rethink their schedules and make some travelers reluctant to fly.

Participants at the conference said Africa recorded no fatalities in commercial aviation accidents during 2023.

Navy Captain Loic Ndinga Moudouma, Gabon’s transport minister, said Gabon, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea entered an agreement to search and rescue people in distress should an accident or crash occur in parts of the Atlantic Ocean the three states share.

The African Union pointed out that although Africa has a population of close to 1.5 billion people and constitutes about 18% of the world population, Africans account for about 3% of global travel.

The International Air Transport Association reported that despite various challenges, airlines across Africa are expected to earn at least $100 million in profit in 2024, compared with $90 million in 2023.

The conference was the first time Gabon had hosted a major international event since the military coup that ousted longtime leader Ali Ben Bongo last August. Unlike military takeovers in other West African states such as Mali and Niger, the coup on Gabon has been widely accepted.
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Some older working Americans bristle at calls for Biden to step aside

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NEW YORK — A swath of Americans watching U.S. President Joe Biden is seeing something beyond debate-stage stumbles and prime-time miscues: themselves.

Debate about the 81-year-old Democrat’s fitness for another term is especially resonating with other older Americans who, like him, want to stay on the job.

“People were telling me I should retire, too,” says 89-year-old D’yan Forest, a New York comedian. “But you’ve got to keep working, no matter what.”

Forest has stumbled on an occasional joke and finds it more difficult to memorize her lines. But she’s busier than ever, drawing audiences and getting big laughs with bawdy jokes and ukulele-strummed songs. She dismisses Biden’s debate performance as a “blip” and grows angry that a single night would cause people to look past all the benefits age brings.

People 75 and older are the fastest-growing age group in the U.S. workforce. All told, about 1 in 5 Americans age 65 and older are employed, according to the Census Bureau.

Many older adults are wary of seeing a peer shoved aside because of his age and, like Forest, insist it should be up to each individual when they decide to exit the workplace.

“He has the experience,” she says. “He has judgment. He’s seen it all.”

Even among that growing population of older workers, though, some want Biden to give up.

“Forget it! The party’s over!” says Betty Ann Talomie, an 81-year-old from Seneca Falls, New York, who was born just a few weeks after the president. “Some people can’t face that it’s time.”

Talomie worked her last shift as a waitress in January. She still treasured regular customers, loved her co-workers and relished having something to occupy boring winter days. But she started feeling more tired at the end of her shift and knew the time had come.

“It’s like anything at this age: It’s twice as hard to do anything,” says Talomie.

She plans to vote for Donald Trump, as she did in 2020, but says he’s ready for retirement too.

“I think they should both sit in lounge chairs,” she says.

Biden insists he’s not stepping aside. Trump, 78, has escaped similar questioning about his age. If he is elected and serves a full term, he would eventually supplant Biden as the oldest president in U.S. history.

Eli Trujillo, an 87-year-old barber in Cheyenne, Wyoming, sees age taking its toll on Biden, but he knows he doesn’t cut hair as fast as he used to or log as many hours either.

Who is he to judge when it comes to the president’s decision?

“If he feels he could still do it,” Trujillo says, “I don’t hold it against him.”

Older employees see rampant age discrimination in their workplaces, and for those who remain on the job, being asked about retirement plans is a constant aggravation.

“They look at me and say, ‘Why don’t you retire? You can take it easy,’” says Paul Durietz, a 76-year-old teacher in Gurnee, Illinois. “I just like teaching,” he tells them.

Durietz, who teaches seventh-grade social studies, may come home a little more tired than he used to, but he says working into later life is no longer a big deal.

Polls have shown older Americans are more likely than younger people to have a favorable view of Biden and are less likely to say he should withdraw to allow another candidate. But even among older people, Biden faces steep skepticism.

Six in 10 people over 70 favored Biden’s withdrawal from the race in a survey released Wednesday by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Harriet Newman Cohen is one of them. Although she will vote for Biden if he remains, she finds his appearances painful to watch and fears he has lost all sense of self awareness.

“What’s happening now,” the 91-year-old attorney says, “is giving older age such a bad rap.”

Cohen says she hasn’t slowed at all and finds old age has brought her “more acuity, more keenness, more energy.” Even as she bristles at the idea of anyone suggesting she retire from the work she loves, she believes the time has come for Biden to step aside.

“I’ve just been so lucky,” Cohen says. “But the president has not been so lucky.”

Although many younger people can’t imagine working longer than they have to, older workers often say they can’t imagine themselves not remaining on the job.

Some who work into their 70s, 80s and beyond do so because their finances force them to, but many others do so out of preference. Polls consistently show job satisfaction grows with age and for those who love their work, deciding to quit is a tough decision.

Jim Oppegard, a 94-year-old school bus driver in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, is wrestling with whether to return to work next month as a new school year begins.

He loves the children and having extra cash to donate, and he continues to pass annual exams to make sure he’s up to the job. The Guinness World Records certified him earlier this year as the world’s oldest bus driver, an honor that made him reflect on his future.

He’s considered retiring before but has always gone back. This time might be different.

“There’s something to be said,” Oppegard says, “for going out on top.”
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Понад 138 млн збитків: прокуратура звітує про викриття схем із розкрадання коштів на ЗСУ

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«Причетними до розкрадань коштів виявилися службовці квартирно-експлуатаційних підрозділів спільно з представниками комерційних структур»
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China vows to boost economic growth by balancing reform, national security

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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — China’s ruling Communist Party concluded a highly anticipated party conclave Thursday, promising to boost economic growth through comprehensive reform while reiterating the importance of maintaining national security.

The Central Committee, in a communique at the end of the four-day, closed-door Third Plenum, laid out reform objectives to be completed by 2029, the 80th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

The party’s top decision-making body also vowed to finish “building a high-standard socialist market economy in all respects” by 2035.

“All of this will lay a solid foundation for building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects by the middle of this century,” the communique said.

To achieve these goals, the communique said China must better utilize market mechanisms and double down on efforts to promote “high-quality development,” which includes prioritizing investment in advanced technologies and facilitating growth through technological and scientific innovation.

“We must deepen supply-side structural reform, improve incentive and constraint mechanisms for promoting high-quality development, and strive to create new growth drivers and strengths,” the communique said.

The key political meeting comes as China’s economic growth slowed to 4.7% in this year’s second quarter, prompting banks such as Goldman Sachs to lower their 2024 gross domestic product growth forecast for China from 5.0% to 4.9%.

Meanwhile, China’s property crisis continues as investment in the sector dropped 10.1% in the first six months of this year compared to a year earlier, and consumer confidence remains weak.

To address these challenges, Beijing promised to implement measures to defuse risks in the property sector while improving income distribution, the job market, social security, and the health care system.

“Ensuring and enhancing the people’s well-being in the course of development is one of the major tasks of Chinese modernization,” the communique said.

As local governments across China face mounting debt resulting from the real estate crisis, the communique stressed the need to roll out fiscal and tax reforms and facilitate better integration between cities and the countryside.

“The Party must promote equal exchanges and two-way flows of production factors between the cities and the countryside, so as to narrow the disparities between the two and promote their common prosperity and development,” the statement said.

As foreign investors closely monitor signals coming out of the plenum, the party said it would remain committed to the state policy of “opening to the outside world” and promised to “expand cooperation with other countries.”

“We still steadily expand institutional opening up, deepen the foreign trade structural reform, further reform the management systems for inward and outward investment,” the communique said.

Some analysts say the communique shows that Beijing is focusing on areas critical to China’s national strength, including technology and advanced manufacturing.

“This isn’t Western-style market liberalization; it’s about reinforcing China’s existing strategy,” Lizzi Lee, a fellow on the Chinese economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, said in a written response to VOA.

“The document cements Xi’s governance approach and his brand of reform, which focuses on consolidating power rather than adopting new liberal economic paradigms, endures,” she wrote.

Balancing reform and national security

In addition to laying out the long list of reform goals, the communique also highlighted the need for the party to balance development and security.

“We will strengthen the network for preventing and controlling public security risks so as to safeguard social stability [and] improve public opinion guidance and effectively deal with risks in the ideological domain,” it said.

The document also reiterated that the party’s top leadership, especially Xi Jinping, remains the “fundamental guarantee” for deepening reforms.

“We must uphold Comrade Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and uphold the Central Committee’s authority and its centralized, unified leadership,” the communique said.

Some experts say the communique’s emphasis on upholding public security and following the guidance of party leadership shows Beijing is trying to tighten control over efforts to reform China’s troubled economy.  

“Tightening control is at the heart of [Beijing’s] dilemma because in order for the reforms to work, they need to loosen control,” Dexter Roberts, a nonresident senior fellow at Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, told VOA by phone.

While other specific reforms are expected to be rolled out in other plenum documents in coming days, Lee said she expects consumer spending in China to remain sluggish and that recovery in the property sector remains slow in the short term.

“The prolonged transition period poses significant risks. It could lead to reduced investments and slower economic growth,” she told VOA, adding that the Chinese government will likely use targeted interventions to boost key sectors.

However, some analysts think that Beijing’s state-led economic growth model is unlikely to yield the results the government hopes for.  

“China’s state-led investment, which concentrates resources on areas such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence, is going to take years to pay dividends, and meanwhile, the economy will continue to fail to deliver growth and jobs,” Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research in Hong Kong, told VOA in a video interview.  

He said unless the government takes concrete steps to reduce its involvement in economic reforms, the country’s economic downturn could grow worse in coming years. 
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China’s Third Plenum does nothing to revive economy, observers say

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Taipei, Taiwan — China’s ruling party has concluded the Third Plenum of its 20th Central Committee with a communique described as vague and cliché by China watchers, who said it lacks specific measures to address China’s economic difficulties.

Shi He-ling, an associate professor of economics at Monash Business School at Monash University in Caulfield, Australia, said the communiqué was disappointing and that its writers were completely unthinking.

The 5,000-word communiqué, issued on Thursday, touted the Chinese Communist Party’s achievements in “comprehensively deepening reforms” and said the future will be critical for comprehensively advancing “Chinese-style modernization,” building a strong country and rejuvenating the nation.

Shi said that while Chinese President Xi Jinping has set out a new vision of “Chinese-style modernization” to highlight his differences from previous party leaders, the communiqué does not provide any specific definitions that are measurable.

“It does not make macroeconomic adjustments at all but is like a philosophical article, which is basically a cliché,” Shi told VOA.

In addition to “socialist market mechanisms” and “new quality productivity,” the communiqué stressed that national security is an important foundation for the steady and long-term development of Chinese-style modernization; that the modernization of national defense and the armed forces is an important part of it; and that “party leadership” in particular is the “fundamental guarantee” for promoting this policy.

Yeh Yao-yuan, chairman of the Department of Political Science at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, said that under the framework of “Xi Thoughts,” it is difficult for the economic exposition of this communiqué to be new.

Even if the “socialist market economic system” is repeatedly touted, it will not be able to reverse China’s economic decline, he said, adding that Xi’s economic reform is in fact “changing things to their old ways.”

These include forcing the private sector to retreat in order to help the state advance and tightening controls over foreign capital, which will hit the market economy hard.

Ming Chu-cheng,  professor emeritus of political science at National Taiwan University in Taipei, offered a similar assessment on Thursday at a seminar in Taiwan.

Xi “is touting the market economy, but what he really pushes is ‘the people retreat and the country advances,’ which is completely opposite to what he says,” Ming said. “I don’t have great hopes for the Third Plenum. Even if you relax the economic restrictions, you will encounter exactly the same problems in another 20 years because politics is choking the economy.”

The communiqué received more than 100 million views on Weibo and made it to the hot search list hours after its release. However, there was hardly any substantive discussion online among Chinese people in the comment areas. Most just reposted and recited some of the communiqué text to express their concerns.

The personnel changes made at the plenum attracted a lot of attention as the CCP officially approved the removal of its former foreign minister, Qin Gang, from its Central Committee.

Qin, who has not been seen in public since last summer, is no longer a member of the Communist Party leadership. He was dismissed as foreign minister in July last year and removed from the post of state councilor three months later.

His resignation from the top body had been accepted. No further details were provided, and the reasons behind Qin’s disappearance remain unclear. He was allegedly investigated for having an extramarital affair, leaking secrets and endangering national security.

The plenum also confirmed the expulsion of former Defense Minister Li Shangfu. Li Yuchao and Sun Jinming of the People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force were also removed from the Central Committee.

Many online comments focused on Qin being called “comrade” in the party’s published decision while others were calling Qin’s ousting a “soft landing.”

After the discussion on Qin’s removal became a hot topic, the Weibo accounts of various media outlets seemed to be alerted and comments were concealed.

Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, said that Beijing dislikes Chinese people arguing online about the CCP’s high-level personnel because comments might call into question the party’s decisions and judgment, especially as Qin was previously Xi’s close confidant and the foreign minister.

“What happened to Qin has not been particularly public so far,” Chong told VOA, “and too many of these discussions [about Qin] will also distract public attention from the economic reform plan the Third Plenum wants to promote.”

Adrianna Zhang, Yang An, Joyce Huang contributed to this story.
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