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Після інтенсивних обстрілів Херсонщини почалося затишшя через дощі – Херсонська ОВА
«Є тенденція – коли дуже хмарно, то не літають дрони. Вони не можуть коригувати артилерію. І вони також не хочуть виїжджати і в бруді, під дощем»
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China’s Trade Grows in SE Asia Under BRI, as Do Concerns
Since China’s launch of the Belt and Road Initiative 10 years ago, trade with Southeast Asian nations has more than doubled. Beijing has poured billions into helping build rails, airports, ports, and other infrastructure, but the push for more connectivity comes with unintended consequences observers said.
Some key concerns include rising debt, the environmental impact of projects, and an increase in crime said analysts in the region who spoke to VOA’s Mandarin Service.
According to the U.K.-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, between 2013 and 2021, Southeast Asia was the site of 131 Belt and Road projects, the most in the Asia-Pacific region.
Chen Shangmao, a professor at the Department of Public Affairs at Fo Guang University in Taiwan, said with such a wide scope, the BRI has had some positive benefits.
“For example, with respect to the entire economy, trade and investment, we can also see that, in recent years, the trade volume between China and Southeast Asian countries has continued to increase” Chen tells VOA.
China’s State Council Information Office reported that in 2022 the volume of trade between China and the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN reached $975.3 billion, up from $443.6 billion in 2013.
What China wants
One of the signature Belt and Road projects Beijing has completed in Southeast Asia is the China-Laos railway. The $6 billion-dollar 1,000 kilometer semi-high-speed rail line was finished in December of 2021. The project has cut the time of travel between Laos’ capital of Vientiane and China’s southern border.
Eventually, the rail is expected to connect Beijing with Bangkok and even Singapore.
Pollasak Ruongpanyaroj, Executive Director of Panyapiwat Institute of Management in Bangkok, said the China-Laos Railway has brought only limited potential benefits for one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries.
“The high-speed rail between Laos and China has brought very little economic contribution to Laos. Do you see anything in Laos that can be sold to China? The repayment of loans is so high,” said Ruongpanyaroj.
Fo Guang University’s Chen said this railway is what China, not Laos, needs because before other transportation networks are in place, the railway is currently not of much help to Laos, but the huge debt it has assumed has made the outside world extremely worried.
“The debt that Laos owes to China accounts for about 60% of its GDP, that is scary” Chen said, adding that it raises other questions, such as: “How are you going to pay it back? What will you do when you can’t pay it back? And then, you may have to allow them to make whatever political demands as they please.”
Drugs, telecom fraud
With massive investments, an increase in the number of Chinese nationals in the region and connectivity that has come with the BRI, organized crime groups have also followed and grown their footprint in Southeast Asia, analysts said.
The port town of Sihanoukville in Cambodia, which became a special economic zone under China’s BRI is one place that has been linked to a range of problems from drug and human trafficking to telecom fraud, prostitution and gambling.
“In recent years, the Chinese people have engaged in telecom fraud and online gambling and (have) been cracked down by Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines,” said Ruongpanyaroj who described these criminal activities as gray industries.
“So, those people involved in the gray industries have come to Thailand to open casinos and bars, and they also deal drugs,” he said.
“Trafficking in persons for the purpose of forced criminality to commit online scams and financial fraud, particularly occurring in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and other areas of Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), and Myanmar, as well as other destination countries (including Malaysia, and the Philippines), has emerged as a new and growing trend.,” stated a report released last month by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Beijing has been stepping up its efforts to crack down on the problem both in China and with authorities in the region. In 2022, China’s party-backed Global Times reported that authorities resolved 464,000 cases related to online gambling and telecom fraud.
“In recent years, online gambling and telecom fraud have caused social problems in China as well as in Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka, with some Chinese nationals falling victims to murder, kidnapping and human trafficking,” the report said
Environmental concerns
Environmental concerns also weigh heavily on the residents in the Southeast Asia because of the various industries involved in projects across the region, including mining,
In July, the Indonesian government suspended PT Dairi Prima Mineral’s (DPM) mining license in July to investigate the potential environmental damages the company may have caused, barring it from mining Zinc in Dairi Regency in North Sumatra. China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. owns a 51% stake in DPM.
Tongam Panggabean, executive director of Bakumsu, a legal advocacy group in North Sumatra representing local communities in Indonesia, told VOA, the company hasn’t released any public statements regarding the concerns.
“As a company that always said that they are system sustainable, they respect the community or something like that, there should be a positive response to the verdict,” Panggabean said. “I assume by not responding openly to the case or to the demand of the community, it indicates that the government of China doesn’t really care about the impact of their company in other countries.”
US-China competition
BRI has not only had an impact on the infrastructure of Southeast Asian countries, but also politics in the region, including the gradual challenge of Western values, analysts said.
Felix K. Chang, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, wrote about the connection between the BRI, politics and economics in an article last month.
“Whatever the path China chooses for the BRI, the more tortuous its economic logic becomes, the more pronounced its political dimension will be. While the BRI’s economic aims may be continuously shifting, its political goals remain focused,” Chang wrote.
China’s soft power efforts in the region are having mixed results, observers found.
According to surveys about the state of Southeast Asia released in 2022 and 2023, China was considered to be the most influential country politically and strategically in the region in both years. In 2023, 68.5 % of ASEAN respondents said they were worried about China’s growing regional political and strategic influence, according to a report of the survey by Singapore-based ASEAN Studies Centre at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. That was down slightly from 76.4 % in 2022.
Siwage Dharma Negara, a senior fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, does not believe China is using the BRI to forcibly promote communism or authoritarianism in Southeast Asia. People in the region are aware of the political influence that comes with the BRI but that doesn’t mean that they see it as bad.
“As long as it can continue to provide the necessary resources for countries or partner to develop their own economy, their infrastructure, then I think there will be room for collaboration,” he said.
Considering the intensifying competition between the U.S. and China, Negara said in the future, Beijing may change its approach to the BRI in Southeast Asia.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Republican Jeff Landry Wins Louisiana Governor’s Race, Reclaims Office for GOP
Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican backed by former President Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor’s race, holding off a crowded field of candidates.
The win is a major victory for the GOP as they reclaim the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry will replace current Gov. John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek reelection due to consecutive term limits. Edwards is the only Democratic governor in the Deep South.
“Today’s election says that our state is united,” Landry said during his victory speech Saturday night. “It’s a wake up call and it’s a message that everyone should hear loud and clear, that we the people in this state are going to expect more out of our government from here on out.”
By garnering more than half of the votes, Landry avoided an expected runoff under the state’s “jungle primary” system. The last time there wasn’t a gubernatorial runoff in Louisiana was in 2011 and 2007, when Bobby Jindal, a Republican, won the state’s top position.
The governor-elect, who celebrated with supporters during a watch party in Broussard, Louisiana, described the election as “historic.”
Landry, 52, has raised the profile of attorney general since taking office in 2016. He has used his office to champion conservative policy positions. More recently, Landry has been in the spotlight over his involvement and staunch support of Louisiana laws that have drawn much debate, including banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths, the state’s near-total abortion ban that doesn’t have exceptions for cases of rape and incest, and a law restricting youths’ access to “sexually explicit material” in libraries, which opponents fear will target LGBTQ+ books.
Landry has repeatedly clashed with Edwards over matters in the state, including LGBTQ rights, state finances and the death penalty. However the Republican has also repeatedly put Louisiana in national fights, including over President Joe Biden’s policies that limit oil and gas production and COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Landry spent two years on Capitol Hill, beginning in 2011, where he represented Louisiana’s 3rd U.S. Congressional District. Prior to his political career, Landry served 11 years in the Louisiana Army National Guard, was a local police officer, sheriff’s deputy and attorney.
During the gubernatorial election season, Landry had long been considered the early frontrunner, winning the endorsement of high profile Republicans — Trump and U.S. Rep Steve Scalise — and a controversial early endorsement from the state GOP. In addition, Landry has enjoyed a sizable fundraising advantage over the rest of the field throughout the race.
Landry has made clear that one of his top priorities as governor would be addressing crime in urban areas. The Republican has pushed a tough-on-crime rhetoric, calling for more “transparency” in the justice system and continuing to support capital punishment. Louisiana has the nation’s second-highest murder rate per capita.
Along the campaign trail, Landry faced political attacks from opponents on social media and in interviews, calling him a bully and making accusations of backroom deals to gain support. He also faced scrutiny for skipping all but one of the major-televised debates.
Among other gubernatorial candidates on the ballot were GOP state Sen. Sharon Hewitt; Hunter Lundy, a Lake Charles-based attorney running as an independent; Republican state Treasurer John Schroder; Stephen Waguespack, the Republican former head of a powerful business group and former senior aide to then-Gov. Jindal; and Shawn Wilson, the former head of Louisiana’s Transportation and Development Department and sole major Democratic candidate.
Wilson, who was the runner-up, said during his concession speech that he had called Landry to congratulate him on his victory. The Democrat said during their phone call, he asked the governor-elect to keep Medicaid expansion, increase teacher pay and “educate our children the way they need to be educated.”
“The citizens of Louisiana spoke, or didn’t speak, and made a decision,” Wilson said.
Also on Saturday’s ballot were five other statewide contests and four ballot measures.
Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser won reelection Saturday night, but other races won’t be decided until November.
One closely watched race is for attorney general, which holds the highest legal authority in the state’s executive branch. Liz Baker Murrill, a Republican who currently works at the Attorney General’s Office and Lindsey Cheek, a Democrat and trial attorney, have advanced to a November runoff.
Also advancing to a runoff in the state treasurer race is John Fleming, Republican, and Dustin Granger, Democrat.
In the secretary of state race, First Assistant Secretary of State Nancy Landry, a Republican, and Gwen Collins-Greenup, a Democrat and attorney, will advance to a runoff. The winner in November will have the task of replacing Louisiana’s outdated voting machines, which do not produce the paper ballots critical to ensuring accurate election results.
There are hundreds of additional localized races, including all 39 Senate seats and 105 House seats, however a significant number of incumbents are running unopposed.
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Внаслідок чергового удару РФ по Бериславу загинула жінка – місцева влада
Артилерійський обстріл міста відбувся близько 16:30 і поцілив у житлові будинки
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Тренер збірної України з футболу: «90% – це українська мова у роздягальні»
«Я думаю, що для кожного достатньо складно переходити. Але я й раніше розмовляв українською», розповів Сергій Ребров
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МВС: російський удар зруйнував будинок у Авдіївці, під завалами може бути людина
«Дістати тіло наразі неможливо»
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Black Queer Leaders Rise to Prominence in US Congress, Activism
On the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington this summer, a few Black queer advocates spoke passionately before the main program about the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ rights. As some of them got up to speak, the crowd was still noticeably small.
Hope Giselle, a speaker who is Black and trans, said she felt the event’s programming echoed the historical marginalization and erasure of Black queer activists in the Civil Rights Movement. However, she was buoyed by the fact that prominent speakers drew attention to recent efforts to turn back the clock on LGBTQ+ rights, like the attacks on gender-affirming care for minors.
And despite valid concerns around the visibility of Black queer advocates in activist movements, progress is being made in elected office. This month, Sen. Laphonza Butler made history as the first Black and openly lesbian senator in Congress, when California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed her to fill the seat held by the late Dianne Feinstein.
Rectifying the erasure of Black queer civil rights giants requires a full-throated acknowledgment of their legacies, and an increase of Black LGBTQ+ representation in advocacy and politics, several activists and lawmakers told The Associated Press.
“One of the things that I need for people to understand is that the Black queer community is still Black,” and face anti-Black racism as well as homophobia and transphobia, said Giselle, communications director for the GSA Network, a nonprofit that helps students form gay-straight alliance clubs in schools.
“On top of being Black and queer, we have to also then distinguish what it means to be queer in a world that thinks that queerness is adjacent to whiteness — and that queerness saves you from racism. It does not,” she said.
In an interview with the AP, Butler said she hopes that her appointment points toward progress in the larger cause of representation.
“It’s too early to tell. But what I know is that history will be recorded in our National Archives, the representation that I bring to the United States Senate,” she said last week. “I am not shy or bashful about who I am and who my family is. So, my hope is that I have lived out loud enough to overcome the tactics of today.”
“But we don’t know yet what the tactics of erasure are for tomorrow,” Butler said.
Butler is a bellwether of increased visibility of queer communities in politics in recent years. In fact Black LGBTQ+ political representation has grown by 186% since 2019, according to a 2023 report by the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute. That included the election of former Rep. Mondaire Jones and Rep. Ritchie Torres, both of New York, who were the first openly gay Black and Afro-Latino congressmen after the 2020 election, as well as former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
These leaders stand on the shoulders of civil rights heroes such as Bayard Rustin, Pauli Murray, and Audre Lorde. In accounts of their contributions to the Civil Rights and feminist movements, their Blackness is typically amplified while their queer identities are often minimized or even erased, said David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a LGBTQ+ civil rights group.
Rustin, who was an adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a pivotal architect of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, is a glaring example. The march he helped lead tilled the ground for the passage of federal civil rights and voting rights legislation in the next few years.
But the fact that he was gay is often reduced to a footnote rather than treated as a key part of his involvement, Johns said.
“We need to teach our public school students history, herstory, our beautifully diverse ways of being, without censorship,” he said.
An upcoming biopic of Rustin’s life will undoubtedly help thrust the topic of Black LGBTQ+ political representation into the public conversation, said Shay Franco-Clausen, a city planning commissioner in Hayward, California.
“I didn’t even learn about those same leaders, Black leaders, Black queer leaders until I got to college,” she said.
The film, titled Rustin, debuts in select theaters Nov. 3 and on Netflix on Nov. 17.
Some believe the erasure of Black LGBTQ+ leaders stems from respectability politics, a strategy in some marginalized communities of ostracizing or punishing members who don’t assimilate into the dominant culture.
White supremacist ideology in Christianity, which has been used more broadly to justify racism and systemic oppression, has also promoted the erasure of Black queer history. The Black Christian church was integral to the success of the Civil Rights Movement, but it is also “theologically hostile” to LGBTQ+ communities, said Don Abram, executive director of Pride in the Pews.
“I think it’s the co-optation of religious practices by white supremacists to actually subjugate Black, queer, and trans folk,” Abram said. “They are largely using moralistic language, theological language, religious language to justify them oppressing queer and trans folk.”
Not all queer advocacy communities have been welcoming to Black LGBTQ+ voices. Minneapolis City Council President Andrea Jenkins said she is just as intentional in amplifying queer visibility in Black spaces as she is amplifying Blackness in majority white, queer spaces.
“We need to have more Black, queer, transgender, nonconforming identified people in these political spaces to aid and bridge those gaps,” Jenkins said. “It’s important to be able to create the kinds of awareness on both sides of the issue that can bring people together and that can ensure that we do have full participation from our community.”
Black LGBTQ+ leaders are also using their platforms to create awareness about groundbreaking historical figures, especially Rustin. Maryland Delegate Gabriel Acevero and several LGBTQ+ advocates fought to get the only elementary school in his district named after Rustin in 2018. He has also urged Congress to pass legislation to create a U.S. Postal Service stamp depicting Rustin.
“Black queer folks have contributed to so many movements that we do not get acknowledgment for,” Acevero said. “And this is why we should not only ensure that our elders get their flowers, but we should push to have their names and statues built … so that they are not forgotten.”
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US House Deadlocked Over Speaker Vote
Republicans nominated conservative Representative Jim Jordan by a vote of 124-81 Friday in a chaotic third day of attempting to elect a speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. As VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, Jordan needs substantially more support to win a full floor vote next week to become the person who will be second in the presidential line of succession.
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МВС: колишнього офіцера-розвідника підозрюють у держзраді через «підривну діяльність»
«Фігурант видавав себе за незалежного блогера та аналітика, використовував вигадане ім’я та розповсюджував російські наративи»
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Republicans Pick Jim Jordan as Nominee for House Speaker
Republicans chose Representative Jim Jordan as their new nominee for House speaker on Friday during internal voting, putting the gavel within reach of the staunch ally of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
Jordan will now try to unite colleagues from the deeply divided House GOP majority around his bid ahead of a floor vote, which could push to next week.
Frustrated House Republicans have been fighting bitterly over whom they should elect to replace the speaker they ousted, Representative Kevin McCarthy, and the future direction of their party. The stalemate, now in its second week, has thrown the House into chaos, grinding all other business to a halt.
Attention swiftly turned to Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman and founder of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, as the next potential candidate after Majority Leader Steve Scalise abruptly ended his bid when it became clear holdouts would refuse to back him.
But not all Republicans want to see Jordan as speaker, second in line to the presidency. Overwhelmed and exhausted, anxious GOP lawmakers worry their House majority is being frittered away to countless rounds of infighting, and some don’t want to reward Jordan’s wing, which sparked the turmoil.
“If we’re going to be the majority party, we have to act like the majority party,” said Representative Austin Scott, who posed a last-ditch challenge to Jordan.
While the firebrand Jordan has a long list of detractors who started making their opposition known, Jordan’s supporters said voting against the Trump ally during a public vote on the House floor would be tougher because he is so popular and well known among more conservative Republican voters.
Heading into a morning meeting, Jordan said, “I feel real good.”
Other potential speaker choices were also being floated. Some Republicans proposed simply giving Representative Patrick McHenry, who was appointed interim speaker pro tempore, greater authority to lead the House for some time.
The House, without a speaker, is essentially unable to function during a time of turmoil in the United States and wars overseas. The political pressure increasingly is on Republicans to reverse course, reassert majority control, and govern in Congress.
With the House narrowly split 221-212, with two vacancies, any nominee can lose just a few Republicans before they fail to reach the 217 majority needed in the face of opposition from Democrats, who will most certainly back their own leader, New York Representative Hakeem Jeffries.
Absences heading into the weekend could lower the majority threshold needed, and Republicans said they were down about a dozen lawmakers as of midday Friday. No floor votes were scheduled as attendance thinned before the weekend.
In announcing his decision to withdraw from the nomination, Scalise said late Thursday the Republican majority still has to come together and “open up the House again. But clearly not everybody is there.”
Jordan received an important nod Friday from the Republican party’s campaign chairman, Representative Richard Hudson, who made an attempt to unify the fighting factions.
“Removing Speaker Kevin McCarthy was a mistake,” Hudson wrote on social media, saying the party found itself at a crossroads also blocking Scalise. “We must unite around one leader.”
Earlier in the week, Jordan had nominally dropped out of the race he initially lost to Scalise, 113-99, during internal balloting.
Scalise had been laboring to peel off more than 100 votes, mostly from those who backed Jordan. But many hard-liners taking their cues from Trump have dug in for a prolonged fight to replace McCarthy after his historic ouster from the job.
The situation is not fully different from the start of the year, when McCarthy faced a similar backlash from a different group of far-right holdouts who ultimately gave their votes to elect him speaker, then engineered his historic downfall.
But the math this time is even more daunting, and the problematic political dynamic is only worsening.
Exasperated Democrats, who have been waiting for the Republican majority to recover from McCarthy’s ouster, urged them to figure it out.
“The House Democrats have continued to make clear that we are ready, willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward,” Jeffries said, including doing away with the rule that allows a single lawmaker to force a vote against the speaker. “But we need traditional Republicans to break from the extremists and partner with us.”
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Kenyan Court Dismisses GMO Lawsuit, Raises East Africa Trade Concerns
A Kenyan court has dismissed a case challenging the importation of genetically modified foods, letting stand an earlier court ruling allowing the entry of so-called GMOs.
The Law Society of Kenya, the nation’s premier bar association that petitioned the court, argued that genetically modified food was unsafe for humans and that lifting a ban on its importation was unconstitutional.
But in a decision handed down Thursday, High Court Justice Oscar Angote ruled that the petitioners failed to prove that such food was harmful for human consumption.
Last October, the Kenyan government lifted a ban on the importation of genetically modified foods because of growing food insecurity and the inability of farmers to produce enough food to feed the population.
Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are produced using scientific methods, including recombinant DNA technology, which involves using enzymes and various laboratory techniques to manipulate and isolate DNA segments of interest. In animals, it requires reproductive cloning — making a genetic duplicate through somatic cell nuclear transfer.
Angote ruled there was no evidence to show that the modified food can harm human beings.
He also said there is a need for the population to trust the institutions set up to check the quality of food.
There is skepticism on that point. Cidy Otieno, the national coordinator of Kenya Peasants League, a lobby group acting on behalf of peasant farmers, said the country’s regulatory bodies cannot be trusted.
“In Kenya, for over one year, there was a product that was found on the shelves, Aromat,” he said. “It was being sold in Kenya from South Africa, yet it had GMOs, yet the country has not allowed for GMOs.
“So,” he said, “we realize that we have very weak regulations in Kenya.”
Agriculture accounts for one-third of Kenya’s gross domestic product, and farming lobby groups have expressed concerns about the future of agriculture in the country. They argue that U.S. farmers who use sophisticated technology and have government financial support could kill Kenya’s agriculture sector.
Kenya’s acceptance of GMO products also worries its neighbors Tanzania and Uganda, which do not allow them.
Tanzania said it would be vigilant against importing genetically modified food to its country.
The East African region has an agreement through the regional bloc, the East African Community, which allows the free flow of people and goods.
Nason’go Muliro, a Kenyan international relations and diplomacy lecturer, said the importation of GMOs into the region threatens trade relations between Kenya and its neighbors.
“There will be a return to the nontariff barriers because now it will not be about customs, but it will be about standardization,” Muliro predicted. For instance, he said, Tanzania might say, “We may not even accept the cereals from Kenya because of fear of GMO. … And that will bring friction.”
Otieno, of the Peasants League, said the planting of GMO seeds could also bring legal battles among farmers in Kenya and its neighbors.
“Those are some of the issues that we are raising, because a farmer in Busia, Kenya, and a farmer on the Busia border, how will they ensure that there’s no cross-pollination?” he asked. “[What] if I’m on the border and I’m growing GMOs and somebody’s in Uganda and is not growing GMOs and there’s pollination? We are exposing our people to companies so that they can be charged hefty penalties.”
The lobby group said it also has challenged the lifting of bans of GMO products and cultivation in the country, but that case is to be determined later this year.
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Генштаб звітує про відбиття атак на чотирьох напрямках і збиття російського Су-25
Російські війська «безуспішно» намагалися відновити втрачені позиції біля Роботиного на Запоріжжі
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China’s Exports, Imports Fell 6.2% in September as Global Demand Faltered
China’s exports and imports both fell in September from a year earlier, though they contracted at a slower pace even as global demand remained muted.
Customs data released Friday showed exports for September slid 6.2% to $299.13 billion in the fifth straight month of decline. Imports also slid 6.2% to $221.43 billion.
China posted a trade surplus of $77.71 billion, up from $68.36 billion in August.
Lu Daliang, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs, said in a press conference Friday in Beijing that the unstable momentum of the global economy’s recovery from the pandemic was the biggest challenge facing China’s exports.
China’s economy has declined at a slower pace after leaders enacted a slew of policy support measures in recent months. China’s property sector, however, remains a drag on the economy, with sales slumping and developers struggling to repay massive amounts of debt.
The central bank has eased borrowing rules and cut mortgage rates for first-time home buyers while providing some tax relief measures for small businesses.
Demand for Chinese exports weakened after the Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia began raising interest rates last year to cool inflation that was at multi-decade highs.
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Scalise Ends Bid to Become House Speaker After Failing to Secure Enough Votes
U.S. Representative Steve Scalise has ended his bid to become House speaker after failing to secure enough votes to win the gavel.
Scalise told Republican colleagues of his decision during a closed-door meeting late Thursday.
The next steps are uncertain as the House is essentially closed while Republicans try to elect a speaker after ousting Kevin McCarthy from the job.
“I just shared with my colleagues that I’m withdrawing my name as a candidate for speaker-designee,” Scalise said as he emerged from the closed-door meeting at the Capitol.
Scalise said the Republican majority “still has to come together and is not there.”
He had been working furiously to secure the votes after being nominated by a majority of his colleagues, but after hours of private meetings over two days and late into the evening at the Capitol,it was clear lawmakers were not budging from their refusal to support him.
“There are still some people that have their own agendas,” Scalise said. “And I was very clear, we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs.”
Frustrations mounted as the crisis deepened and Republicans lost another day without a House speaker. Scalise was trying to peel off more than 100 votes, mostly from those who backed his chief rival, Representative Jim Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman favored by hard-liners, who announced he was no longer in the running and tossed his vote to Scalise.
But many hard-liners taking their cues from Donald Trump have dug in for a prolonged fight to replace McCarthy after his historic ouster from the job. They argue that Majority Leader Scalise is no better choice, that he should be focusing on his health as he battles cancer and that he is not the leader they will support. No House votes were scheduled.
“We’re going to get this done,” Scalise had said after an earlier closed-door meeting at the Capitol.
Scalise said he took every question thrown his way and pledged during the two-hour session to work through the issues raised. But there is no easy endgame in sight.
“Time is of the essence,” McCarthy said Thursday when he arrived at the Capitol.
Asked if it was still possible for Scalise to find enough support, McCarthy said, “It’s possible — it’s a big hill, though.”
The House is entering its second week without a speaker and is essentially unable to function, and the political pressure increasingly is on Republicans to reverse course, reassert majority control and govern in Congress.
Action is needed to fund the government or face the threat of a federal shutdown in a month. Lawmakers also want Congress to deliver a strong statement of support for Israel in the war with Hamas, but a bipartisan resolution has been sidelined by the stalemate in the House. The White House is expected to soon ask for money for Israel, Ukraine and the backfill of the U.S. weapons stockpile.
The situation is not fully different from the start of the year, when McCarthy faced a similar backlash from a different group of far-right holdouts who ultimately gave their votes to elect him speaker, then engineered his historic downfall.
But the math this time is even more daunting. Scalise, who is seen by some colleagues as a hero for surviving a 2017 shooting on lawmakers at a congressional baseball game practice, won the closed-door Republican vote 113-99. But McCarthy noted that Scalise, a longtime rival, had indicated he would have 150 votes behind closed doors but missed that mark.
Scalise would have needed 217 votes to reach a majority that likely would be needed in a floor battle with Democrats. The chamber is narrowly split 221-212, with two vacancies, meaning Scalise could lose just a few Republicans in the face of opposition from Democrats who will most certainly back their own leader, New York Representative Hakeem Jeffries. Absences heading into the weekend could lower the majority threshold needed.
Exasperated Democrats, who have been watching and waiting for the Republican majority to recover from McCarthy’s ouster, urged them to figure it out, warning the world is watching.
“The House Republicans need to end the GOP Civil War, now,” Jeffries said, using the abbreviation for the Republican party’s nickname, Grand Old Party.
“The House Democrats have continued to make clear that we are ready, willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward,” he said, urging that the House reopen and change Republican-led rules that allowed a single lawmaker to put in motion the process to remove the speaker.
As Congress sat idle, the Republicans spent a second day behind closed doors, arguing and airing grievances but failing to follow their own party rules and unite behind the nominee.
Representative Dan Crenshaw said the meetings had been marked by “emotional” objections to voting for Scalise.
“It’s not for your personal grievances, but that’s unfortunately what I keep seeing,” he said.
Some Republicans simply took their Chick-fil-A lunches to go.
Jordan, a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus who was backed by Trump in the speaker’s race, announced he did not plan to continue running for the leadership position.
“We need to come together and support Steve,” Jordan told reporters before the closed session.
It was the most vocal endorsement yet from Jordan, who had earlier offered to give his rival a nominating speech on the floor, and privately was telling lawmakers he would vote for Scalise and was encouraging his colleagues to do the same.
But it was not enough to sway the holdouts.
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US House Deadlocked Over Leadership Debate
Republican Representative Steve Scalise dropped his bid to become speaker of the US House of Representatives late Thursday, after failing to secure enough votes to win election. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more on how the US Congress is unable to act on Ukraine and Israel until a new leader is chosen.
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Central Asians Balance Benefits, Risks of China’s BRI
Although weary of Beijing’s political ambitions and concerned about over-reliance on China, some Central Asians tell VOA they also see the benefits of the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, launched in 2013 as China’s global infrastructure endeavor.
Since its launch, China has funded at least 112 projects in Central Asia. Many of the projects were aimed at boosting transportation and connectivity such as the Qamchiq mountain highway.
“This mountain pass is where I make my living,” said Uzbek taxi driver Majid. The highway connects Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital, with the Ferghana Valley and reaches southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan. Like others that VOA spoke with Majid was unwilling to give his full name, citing concerns that authorities might retaliate.
Majid drives an Uzbek-U.S. made Chevrolet Lacetti sedan that seats four passengers. He says he usually charges about $14 per person to drive to Kokand, which is about 130 kilometers (81 miles) southeast of Tashkent.
“I aim to make two roundtrips a day, which takes eight to nine hours in lighter traffic. It’s better than working for the government,” he told VOA. “Since this is my own car, I keep most of what I earn in my own pocket to take care of my large family.”
Driving commerce
In Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city, on the other side of the Ferghana Valley, China’s economic influence is so widely felt it is common for residents to label any new infrastructure projects “Chinese.”
For Muzaffar, a frequent migrant worker, Beijing is the undisputed “superpower” in this part of the world.
“No other power has as much presence as China, which it pulls off without much publicity. Perhaps China wants us to get used to seeing its influence everywhere,” he wondered, adding that he wants his four children to learn Chinese alongside English and Russian.
In Tajikistan’s second-largest city of Khujand, known for its Panjshanbe bazaar, traders told VOA that they buy and sell mostly Chinese goods.
“They are our lifeline. No commerce is conducted without Chinese merchandise,” which is the easiest to obtain and sell and is the most affordable, according to Mohira, who commutes to Khujand from Ferghana, Uzbekistan, via the Andarkhon-Patar border crossing. “Our Chinese cargo always arrives within a day or two. Very reliable service.”
Yet merchants such as Mohira are unsure about the impact on the local economy of a planned railway project that will connect China with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Officials said a feasibility study will soon be completed.
China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railroad
The proposed 523-kilometer (325-mile) line will carry passengers and freight between Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang region and Andijan in Uzbekistan by way of Karasu, Kyrgyzstan.
Four months ago, Chinese media reported that construction would start sometime this year, citing a statement by Umidulla Ibragimov, an Uzbekistan Railways official.
Yicai Global, a Chinese state-backed English financial news site, said the railway will give countries in Central Asia the shortest and most accessible passage to global markets, describing it as a bridge between Europe and Asia.
Beijing believes that the new connection will “accelerate the West China Development Project” and “promote the development and use of oil in the Central Asia and Caspian Sea areas, open up new sources of oil imports to China, and change the country’s energy development strategy”—something highlighted at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit in Samarkand last year, according to China’s state news agency, Xinhua.
Frank Maracchione, a Ph.D. candidate at England’s University of Sheffield who is researching China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Central Asia, said many experts he has interviewed in Uzbekistan saw Beijing’s efforts as an attempt to rebuild the Great Silk Road.
Minerals, trade and beyond
Extraction, processing and transportation of natural resources, including minerals, represent a large chunk of Chinese investment in Uzbekistan, which amounted to $3.8 billion in 2022, just behind Russia’s $4.8 billion.
“A second large area of investment is transport infrastructure mostly for trade purposes to improve regional connectivity,” said Maracchione. He added that China is also focusing on agriculture and technology. That will lead to investments in education and expertise, a boost to long-term development welcomed by Central Asians, said Maracchione.
China no longer regards Central Asia as just the source of raw materials. It is quickly becoming a manufacturing base, Maracchione said. Examples in Uzbekistan, where mainly locals are employed, include the Pengsheng industrial park, the SCO Center for Agriculture in Sirdarya, the Nukus Herbal Technology pharmaceutical producer, the import-export Lanextract Sino-Uzbek joint venture in Karakalpakstan, and the Uzbek-Chinese electric vehicle production cluster in Jizzakh.
Angst growing
In recent years, there has been growing public anger toward Chinese businesses and influence in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. But Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, similarly known for their poor human rights records and tight control of expression and the media, have not seen such clear expressions of anti-Chinese sentiment.
“Why curse those who invest in us? I wish more Chinese companies would come in, so that we could sell off all the stale state assets we’ve been struggling to privatize,” said one retired government official, requesting to be identified only as Qodir.
In an expanding area emerging as New Tashkent, he pointed to a gigantic sports development, the Olympic village. Its construction site bears the logos of Sinomach and CAMCE—the China National Machinery Industry Corporation — and its subsidiary, CAMC Engineering.
Financed by Beijing’s Export-Import Bank, the $289 million project is among several recent deals, including a $440 million chemical plant in Navoi, in central Uzbekistan.
Rights activists have decried poor working conditions at Chinese-owned enterprises in the Uzbek cities of Bukhara and Margilan.
“The pay was low, the working hours were long and there were chemicals everywhere,” Maracchione’s field research found.
In September, Sinomash reached an agreement with the local government in the eastern Uzbek city of Ferghana to produce drinking water from the Kampirobod dam on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border. The Uzbek side announced that it had signed 32 trade and investment deals with Beijing worth $1.37 billion.
Marrachione said a “controversial aspect of China’s investment in Central Asia is the potential development of patterns of dependency on Chinese investment and unsustainable lending practices leading to excessive debt and a volatile financial situation.”
“This is true particularly in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan,” he said. “Starting from the latter, loans from the Export-Import Bank of China accounted for a bit less than half of Kyrgyzstan’s external debt and exactly 42.89% in May 2021, and around 40% of Tajikistan’s external debt.”
China is now the largest bilateral creditor in Uzbekistan, even though last year what Tashkent owes to China accounted for only 17.6% of the external debt.
Talking to VOA at a business forum in Washington, Uzbekistan’s Digital Technology Minister Sherzod Shermatov described China as a convenient investor and partner.
“I’m eager to work with any side that Uzbekistan benefits from. What matters most for us is what we stand to gain, not what America, Russia or China get. We focus on our own interests, Uzbekistan’s interests,” said Shermatov.
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Адвокат: засудженого у «справі кримських мусульман» Аділова перевели на суворі умови ув’язнення
Через суворі умови утримання Білялу Аділову скоротили тривалі побачення до одного разу на рік та короткострокові – до двох разів на рік
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