В Україні з 1 січня зросла мінімальна частка української мови в медіа

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«Такі нововведення – вагомий крок в захисті українськомовного інформаційного простору та прав громадян на отримання інформації державною мовою», – каже Тарас Кремінь
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Global Shipping Firms Continue to Pause Red Sea Shipments

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OSLO, NORWAY — Denmark’s Maersk and German rival Hapag-Lloyd said on Tuesday their container ships would continue to avoid the Red Sea route that gives access to the Suez Canal following a weekend attack on one of Maersk’s vessels.  

Both shipping giants have been rerouting some sailings via Africa’s southern Cape of Good Hope as Yemen-based Houthi militants attack cargo vessels in the Red Sea. The disruption threatens to drive up delivery costs for goods, raising fears it could trigger a fresh bout of global inflation.  

Maersk had on Sunday paused all Red Sea sailings for 48 hours following attempts by Houthi militants to board the Maersk Hangzhou. U.S. military helicopters repelled the assault and killed 10 of the attackers. 

“An investigation into the incident is ongoing, and we will continue to pause all cargo movement through the area while we further assess the constantly evolving situation,” Maersk said in a statement.  

“In cases where it makes most sense for our customers, vessels will be rerouted and continue their journey around the Cape of Good Hope.” 

Maersk had more than 30 container vessels set to sail through Suez via the Red Sea, an advisory on Monday showed, while 17 other voyages were put on hold. 

Hapag-Lloyd said its vessels would continue to divert away from the Red Sea — sailing instead via Africa’s southern tip — until at least January 9, when it will decide whether to continue rerouting its ships. 

The Suez Canal is used by roughly one-third of global container ship cargo. Redirecting ships around the southern tip of Africa is expected to cost up to $1 million extra in fuel for every round trip between Asia and northern Europe. 

The Maersk Hangzhou, which was hit by an unknown object during the weekend attack, was able to continue on its way. 

The Iran-backed Houthis, who control parts of Yemen after years of war, started attacking international shipping in November in support of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in its war with Israel in the Gaza Strip. 

That prompted major shipping groups, including Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, to stop using Red Sea routes, instead taking the longer journey around the Cape of Good Hope. 

But after the deployment of a U.S.-led military operation to protect ships, Maersk had said on December 24 that it would resume using the Red Sea. 
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The Empire State Rings in New Year With Pay Bump for Minimum-Wage Workers 

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ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s minimum-wage workers had more than just the new year to celebrate Monday, with a pay bump kicking in as the clock ticked over to 2024.   

In the first of a series of annual increases slated for the Empire State, the minimum wage increased to $16 in New York City and some of its suburbs, up from $15. In the rest of the state, the new minimum wage is $15, up from $14.20.   

The state’s minimum wage is expected to increase every year until it reaches $17 in New York City and its suburbs, and $16 in the rest of the state by 2026. Future hikes will be tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, a measurement of inflation.   

New York is one of 22 states getting minimum wage rises in the new year, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute.   

In California, the minimum wage increased to $16, up from $15.50, while in Connecticut it increased to $15.69 from the previous rate of $15.   

This most recent pay bump in New York is part of an agreement made last year between Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature. The deal came over the objections of some employers, as well as some liberal Democrats who said it didn’t go high enough.   

The federal minimum wage in the United States has stayed at $7.25 per hour since 2009, but states and some localities are free to set higher amounts. Thirty states, including New Mexico and Washington, have done so. 
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President Hopeful Zimbabwe Economy Will Turn Around in 2024

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Harare — President Emmerson Mnangagwa has predicted Zimbabwe’s moribund economy will turn around this year following the recent discovery of oil and gas near the country’s border with Mozambique and Zambia and improvement in the country’s mining and tourism sectors. Economists are not as optimistic, as Zimbabweans continue to leave the country.

In a new year message broadcast to Zimbabweans at home and in the diaspora on national television and on social media, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said all was shaping for a prosperous Zimbabwe. He said the mining sector had surpassed the target of $12 billion in 2023, while the country was now food sufficient. That’s not all, said the 81-year-old politician.

“I am encouraged by the increased number of both local and international tourists visiting our country. Equally, investments in new tourism products and facilities which bolstered the sector are a welcome development. As we drive towards energy self-sufficiency, the discovery of oil and gas in Muzarabani confirms Zimbabwe’s potential as a future producer of gas. This should translate into meeting our energy demands commensurate with the ever growing economy,” he said.

Gift Mugano, an economics professor at Durban University of Technology, responded to Mnangagwa’s speech.

“We are in agro-based economy. We sneeze when the agriculture sector catches a cold. We know that this year there is a drought. That will have a devastating impact on the economy. With drought, we will be importing food. Because of the Russia-Ukraine war, which has seen prices of food, globally, going up around 50%,” said Mugano.

“We will be forking [out] something in the region of close to $1 billion. Which is almost 20% or so of our total foreign currency receipt. So this will weigh down on the economy in terms of the economy performance. So, to be quite frank and quite honest, the economy will underperform in this year. Yes, we are talking about the discovery of gas and oil but it’s too early to talk about that development as the driver of the economy.”

Prosper Chitambara, senior economist with the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe, says the country’s agro-based economy will only improve this year if there is no drought as most farmers depend on rains.

“In terms of the discovery of oil and gas, I think it’s going to take a bit of time probably for the country to begin to benefit from this important discovery. I think they should be some gestation period, which obviously also then allows for the investor to fully set up and to start commercial activities. But overall, this year the economy is expected to grow by 3.5% which is lower than the 5.5% estimated growth there for last year,” said Chitambara.

Ranga Chivi is an electrical engineer who recently left Zimbabwe with his family for greener pastures in Australia who listened to Mnangagwa’s speech.

“It would be interesting to see how the gas and oil discoveries will turn around the economy. We did not leave Zimbabwe because we are unemployed, but we left Zimbabwe because of search of greener pastures and a much more stable economic environment you can raise a family in. So the discovery of gas and oil, it’s positive for the country and we are more than eager to help where we can, but what remains is the issue to do with stability that I am hoping that this project will bring,” said Chivi.

According to World Bank, the primary reason Zimbabweans migrate is to search for economic opportunities. It says of the approximately 908,000 emigrants counted in Zimbabwe’s 2022 census, a large majority (84%) had left the country in search of employment, while another 5% had migrated for education or training.
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Retirements Could Tip Control of US House Majority

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WASHINGTON — A chaotic year for the House is coming to a close with more Democrats than Republicans deciding to leave the chamber, a disparity that could have major ramifications in next year’s elections.

About two dozen Democrats have indicated they won’t seek reelection, with half running for another elected office. Meanwhile, only 14 Republicans have said they are not seeking another term, with three seeking elected office elsewhere.

More retirements can be expected after the holidays, when lawmakers have had a chance to spend time with families and make decisions ahead of reelection deadlines. But so far, the numbers don’t indicate the dysfunction in the House is causing a mass exodus for either party.

“Members sort of knew that this is what the institution is currently like when they chose to run for office,” said Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank that maintains a database of vital statistics on Congress, including retirements. “Some of them may well be feeling frustrated at this point in time, but anybody who has been elected to Congress in recent years, they’re not surprised at what they’re finding when they are getting to Washington.”

Republicans certainly had the most high-profile exits. Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., became only the third lawmaker to be expelled by colleagues since the Civil War. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was the first-ever speaker removed from that office by his colleagues. He opted to leave effective December 31 rather than serve among the rank-and-file.

But it’s the departure of a handful of Democrats in competitive districts that has Republicans thinking the overall retirement picture gives them an advantage in determining who will control the House after the 2024 elections.

Reps. Katie Porter of California, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia proved they could win toss-up congressional districts in good election cycles for Democrats and not-so-good cycles. They are all seeking higher office within their home states. Porter and Slotkin are running for the U.S. Senate. Spanberger is running for governor in 2025.

Democrats are also losing six-term Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan to retirement, leaving them with another competitive open seat to defend in a state that will be crucial in the presidential election. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., is not seeking reelection due to health challenges in a district that leans Democratic but is more competitive than most.

On the other side of the aisle, the Republicans leaving office generally represent districts that Democrats have little chance of flipping. They’ll be replaced by Republicans, predicted Rep. Richard Hudson, the chairman of the House Republican campaign arm.

“Retirements are a huge problem for the Democrats. They’re not a problem for us,” Hudson said.

The exception is Santos, who represented a competitive New York district. Democrats hope former Rep. Tom Suozzi can win back the seat, which he gave up when he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022.

Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said he found it “a bit of a surprise” that the number of Democrats leaving office exceeded the Republican exits given all that has transpired this year.

“Politically, I think we’re very well positioned for 2024,” Cole said. “I just think the margins are going to remain narrow no matter who wins. The number of competitive seats is so much lower than it was even a decade ago, the polarization is so much greater, that it’s hard to move big numbers. Whoever wins the presidency probably wins the House.”

Sometimes, legislators in the states tip the scales in determining the makeup of Congress. It’s one reason there are so few competitive races.

Three incumbent House Democrats from North Carolina have essentially been left with little opportunity to return after GOP lawmakers in the state drew new boundaries for their congressional districts. What were once competitive seats became near locks for whichever Republican emerges from the state’s primary elections.

Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson decided to run for attorney general rather than attempt to run again for a Charlotte-area seat that he had just won in the 2022 midterms. Rep. Wiley Nickel, a fellow freshman who flipped a toss-up district in the last election, also announced he would not be running, and would focus instead on a potential U.S. Senate bid in 2026. And Rep. Kathy Manning said she won’t file for reelection under the current maps but would run if a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the new districts is successful.

Manning said the city of Greensboro in her district was split into three pieces and combined with rural counties. She won in 2022 by a margin of 9 percentage points, but she said the new district gives a 16-point advantage to a Republican candidate.

Democrats are hoping court-ordered redistricting in Alabama and Louisiana will favor their side and effectively make the redistricting battles a wash.

Ambition is also playing a role in the retirement trends. About half of the Democrats not seeking reelection to the House are seeking office elsewhere. That includes three members running for the seat once held by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who entered the Senate in 1992 and served more than three decades before her death in September. Slotkin is running for the seat Sen. Debbie Stabenow has held for more than two decades. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is running for president against fellow Democrat Joe Biden.

“If you are interested in a higher office, you’re going to be sensitive to when those things come up. They don’t always come up,” Reynolds said.

Still, a few lawmakers do attribute their leaving, at least in part, to the dysfunction they’ve witnessed in Congress.

Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins of New York doesn’t plan to wait for the election to get out. He’s retiring sometime in February.

“We’re spending more time doing less. And the American people aren’t served,” he said when announcing his retirement last month.

Republican Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., described a similar sense of frustration in his retirement announcement. He’s been critical of Republican leaders for “lying to America” that the 2020 election was stolen and downplaying the January 6 insurrection.

“Our nation is on a collision course with reality and a steadfast commitment to the truth,” Buck said. 
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California Expanding Health Care for Low-Income Immigrants in 2024

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More than 700,000 immigrants living illegally in California will gain access to free health care starting Monday under one of the state’s most ambitious coverage expansions in a decade.

It’s an effort that will eventually cost the state about $3.1 billion per year and inches California closer to Democrats’ goal of providing universal health care to its roughly 39 million residents.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers agreed in 2022 to provide health care access to all low-income adults regardless of their immigration status through the state’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal.

California is the most populous state to guarantee such coverage, though Oregon began doing so in July.

Newsom called the expansion “a transformative step towards strengthening the health care system for all Californians” when he proposed the changes two years ago.

Newsom made the commitment when the state had the largest budget surplus in its history. But as the program kicks off next week, California faces a record $68 billion budget deficit, raising questions and concerns about the economic ramifications of the expansion.

“Regardless of what your position is on this, it doesn’t make sense for us to be adding to our deficit,” said Republican Sen. Roger Niello, the vice-chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee.

Immigration and health care advocates, who spent more than a decade fighting for the changes, have said the expanded coverage will close a gap in health care access and save the state money in the long run. Those who live in the state illegally often delay or avoid care because they aren’t eligible for most coverage, making it more expensive to treat them when they end up in emergency rooms.

“It’s a win-win, because it allows us to provide comprehensive care and we believe this will help keep our communities healthier,” said Dr. Efrain Talamantes, chief operating officer at AltaMed in Los Angeles, the largest federally qualified health center in California.

The update will be California’s largest health care expansion since the 2014 implementation of former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which allowed states to include adults who fall below 138% of the federal poverty level in their Medicaid programs. California’s uninsured rate dropped from about 17% to 7%.

But a large chunk of the population was left out: adults living in the United States without legal permission. They are not eligible for most public benefit programs, even though many have jobs and pay taxes.

Some states have used their tax dollars to cover a portion of health care expenses for some low-income immigrants. California first extended health care benefits to low-income children without legal status in 2015 and later added the benefits for young adults and people over the age of 50.

Now the last remaining group, adults ages 26-49, will be eligible for the state’s Medicaid program.

The state doesn’t know exactly how many people will enroll through the expansion, but state officials said more than 700,000 people will gain full health coverage allowing them to access preventative care and other treatment. That’s larger than the entire Medicaid population of several states.

“We’ve had this asterisk based on immigration status,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a consumer advocacy group. “Just from the numbers point of view, this is a big deal.”

Republicans and other conservative groups worry the new expansion will further strain the overloaded health care system and blasted the cost of the expansion.

State officials estimated the expansion will cost $1.2 billion the first six months and $3.1 billion annually thereafter from the budget. Spending for the Medi-Cal program, which is now about $37 billion annually, is the second-largest expense in the California budget, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Earlier this month, the state Department of Finance sent a letter urging state agencies to cut costs in light of the deficit. It has not given specific directions about the Medicaid expansion, state officials told The Associated Press in December.

California’s expansion of Medicaid will face other challenges. The state is chugging through a review of Medicaid enrollees’ eligibility for the first time in more than three years that was prompted by the end of some federal pandemic policies. Many immigrants who had their coverage protected during the COVID-19 pandemic now find themselves ineligible because they no longer financially qualify.

John Baackes, CEO of L.A. Care Health Plan, the state’s largest Medi-Cal plan with nearly 2.6 million members, said roughly 20,000 members have lost their Medicaid coverage during the review process this past year and are looking to secure new insurance plans. His organization is juggling to help people navigate through both processes.

“People are being bombarded with information,” Baackes said. “I can’t imagine if somebody were having to maneuver through all this, why they wouldn’t be terribly confused.”

“The phones are ringing off the walls,” he said.

Fear and distrust are also barriers for the expansion, said Sarah Dar, policy director for the California Immigrant Policy Center. 

Many immigrants avoid accepting any public programs or benefits out of fear it will eventually prevent them from gaining legal status under the “public charge” rule. The federal law requires those seeking to become permanent residents or gain legal status to prove they will not be a burden to the U.S., or a “public charge.” The rule no longer considers Medicaid as a factor under President Joe Biden’s administration, but the fear remains, she said.

More resources and effort are required to reach this population “because of the history of just being completely excluded and not interfacing with the health care system or with government programs at all for so long,” Dar said. 

California has more work to do to see the state’s uninsured rate hit zero, known as “universal coverage,” Dar said.

For one thing, immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission are still not eligible to purchase insurance from Covered California, the state-run exchange offering steep discounts for people who meet certain income requirements. A bill pending in the state Legislature, supported by the California Immigrant Policy Center, would change that.

“It’s going to be another really big undertaking,” Dar said. “And we know that revenues are down … but it’s our job to make the case that, in times of economic downturn and whatnot, these are the communities that need the support the most.”
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Tanzania Bans Soybean Imports from Malawi

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BLANTYRE, MALAWI — Tanzania has banned imports of soybeans from Malawi to protect its agricultural sector from the presence of the tobacco ringspot virus in that neighboring country.

The Tanzania Plant Health and Pesticide Authority said in a recent statement that its pest risk analysis on soybeans from Malawi has established the presence of the tobacco ringspot virus, which poses significant risk to soybean production in Tanzania.

The virus is highly contagious and can lead to yield reduction and economic losses ranging from 25% to 100% for farmers, the statement said.

Some analysts are calling Tanzania’s action retaliatory, as it comes a few days after Malawi banned maize imports from Tanzania and Kenya over maize lethal necrosis disease in those two countries.

Grace Mijiga-Mhango, president of the Grain Traders Association of Malawi, said Tanzania’s ban on soybeans from Malawi is not surprising.

“We call it a trade war,” she said. “They started the war, and their friends are fighting back.”

Tanzania is among the biggest importers of soybeans from Malawi.

In February, Tanzania’s high commissioner to Malawi committed to facilitate the purchase of 100,000 metric tons of soybeans from Malawi, worth about $30 million. Agriculture authorities in Malawi say the country harvested about 400,000 metric tons of soybeans in the 2022-23 season.

Mijiga-Mhango said the impact of the ban will go beyond selling soybeans within Tanzania because, she predicted, Tanzania will not allow exports to other countries, especially in the East African market, to pass through it.

Ronald Chilumpha, an expert in crop protection in Malawi, said that a better solution to the diseases could have been reached had Malawian and Tanzanian authorities held discussions before imposing their respective import bans.

“Issues to do with plant diseases or pests — most of these are migratory and they will certainly move from one area to another, even when you have all the controls in place,” he said.

“You cannot stop maize from Tanzania coming into Malawi 100%, that’s not possible,” he said. “It just requires a single grain of contaminated maize.”

Tanzania has also banned the introduction of genetically modified maize seeds from Malawi, saying it wants to maintain a non-GMO status in its agricultural practices.

Malawian Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale told VOA via a messaging app that he could not comment on Tanzania’s ban.

Malawian Principal Secretary for Ministry of Agriculture Dickxie Kampani said he was engaging experts on crop diseases for details about the presence of tobacco ringspot virus in his country.
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China’s Residential Property Sector Filled With Livid Buyers of Unfinished Units

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Taipei, Taiwan — A growing number of home buyers in China have seen their dream of moving into new homes dashed in the past year after a slew of bankrupt developers left behind millions of unfinished pre-sold properties.

Many of the buyers could do nothing but vent their anger and frustration on Chinese social media platforms such as Douyin, known internationally as TikTok, over what they called “rotting apartments” that represented their lifetime savings. Police are cracking down on protests.

The crisis of confidence in a sector that was once a reliable route to building wealth may threaten China’s growth and stability in 2024, experts say.

“Since the real-estate market has historically been a key driver of China’s economy, losing this momentum is expected to result in a long-term average economic growth rate below 5% starting in 2024,” Darson Chiu, a research fellow at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research in Taipei, told VOA Mandarin in a written reply on December 14.

Among countless victims, a Douyin user from the Henan province in north-central China with the name, “The happy life in my rotting apartment,” posted a short video clip on December 1 showing a local project where construction was halted.

“It’s been a year, but my apartment remains unfinished. … I hope the construction of the building can be restarted soon so that I can move into my future home,” he said in the video. 

A victim in the Hunan province city of Changsha, identified only as Ms. Chen in a local TV news report, said in late 2022 that her family could barely make ends meet after paying the monthly mortgage of $700 (5,000 yuan).

 “If my unfinished property keeps rotting, I personally won’t have the courage to go on living,” said Chen.

VOA Mandarin has approached a dozen owners of unfinished homes on Chinese social media platforms Douyin, Xiaohongshu, known as RED outside of China, and Weibo, China’s microblogging site similar to X. None agreed to talk.

Two lawyers in Shanghai and Beijing who specialize in property disputes also refused to be interviewed.

The Beijing lawyer said the city’s Bureau of Justice has banned lawyers from talking to foreign press, citing “the class action’s sensitivity.” None of his clients wanted to talk to foreign press.

The China Dissent Monitor, a project of U.S. rights group Freedom House, has been tracking postings across Chinese social media and tallied 1,841 demonstrations linked to the property sector between June 2022 and September 2023. Final 2023 figures won’t be available until January, said Kevin Slaten, Taipei-based research lead with the China Dissident Monitor project.

 

Two-thirds of the strikes were staged by homebuyers over issues like project delays, contract violations and alleged fraud, while the others have been triggered by construction workers demanding unpaid wages, according to Slaten.

One-fourth of the housing protests saw police repression, which Slaten said is an underestimate, as piecemeal evidence can only be captured from those video clips.

But the trend toward silencing protesters shows the gravity of threat to China’s leader, Xi Jinping.

“As the dictator of such a centralized system and a person who’s tried to centralize power, he [Xi] definitely sees this as a threat to his vision, which is keeping economic development high, making sure that he can deliver this to people as a way to co-opt them and garner enough support among the public for the authoritarian system,” Slaten told VOA Mandarin by phone.

Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, estimated in mid-November that $448 billion is needed to complete the homes pre-sold between 2015 and 2020 that remain unfinished projects, assuming an average construction progress of 50%, according to his research provided to VOA Mandarin. That represents roughly 20 million homes.

In one of his research papers dated November 27, Lu urged Beijing to “play the role of lender of last resort to save the property sector” or the crisis could endanger social stability at some point next year.

But Nan Li, a Shanghai-based finance scholar, disagreed, saying that the proceeds from the liquidation of builders’ assets after they file for bankruptcy should be prioritized to ensure the delivery of unfinished homes.

Li added that any government bailout will only indulge the developers’ appetite for over-leveraging.

The biggest firms with the worst debt woes “have made a mistake in exercising excessive leverage. There’s no reason for the government to bail them out,” Li told VOA Mandarin.  

Li noted that China’s property sector should learn from the experience of Guangdong province, where its problem of massive unfinished homes around 1997 was eventually solved in years after builders’ nonperforming assets were all restructured in a lawful manner and in line with the market mechanism.
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