Myanmar junta says instability, COVID-19 hindered progress on ASEAN peace plan 

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing said on state media that Myanmar had been striving to overcome the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic while facing internal violence. (Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 01 August 2022
Follow

Myanmar junta says instability, COVID-19 hindered progress on ASEAN peace plan 

  • ASEAN and Myanmar agreed to a five-point consensus to end violence in April 2021
  • State of emergency has been extended for another six months 

YANGON: Myanmar’s military chief, Min Aung Hlaing, on Monday blamed instability and the COVID-19 pandemic for stalling efforts to implement a peace plan agreed with other Southeast Asian countries, and pledged to hold new elections next year. 

Myanmar has been in chaos since the junta seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi last February, with the death toll from the military’s brutal crackdown on dissent having passed 2,000, according to a local monitoring group. 

The junta sparked global outrage last week over its execution of four democracy activists, which the military said was carried out in the name of justice. 

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, said last week that capital punishment was “highly reprehensible” and a setback that presents a “gross lack of will to support” efforts made by the bloc to end the crisis, after an April 2021 agreement to a five-point consensus to end the violence triggered by the military coup. 

Aung Hlaing said those measures, which included holding dialogues, have not been implemented because Myanmar has struggled to overcome various nationwide challenges. 

“The country has been striving (through) a series of hardships in the last year due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the lack of stability in the nation, which made it difficult to implement the ASEAN consensus,” he said in a speech aired by state-run media.

“We value the convention of ASEAN, as Myanmar is a member state of the association,” he added. “We will try to implement the five-point consensus.”

The statement comes with Southeast Asian foreign ministers set to meet in Cambodia on Wednesday. ASEAN has barred the Myanmar junta since late last year due to its lack of progress in implementing the peace plan.  

Myanmar has extended its state of emergency, which was first introduced after the coup, for another six months to “continue working to return the country” to a “multiparty democratic system and to hold multiparty democratic general elections,” according to a report from state media.

Aung Hlaing, who is chair of the junta-backed State Administration Council that has been running Myanmar since the military takeover, said there had been voting fraud during a November 2020 general election that saw Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party winning by a landslide. The junta will hold elections in 2023, he added. 

“The entire public needs to cast their vote as they like without threats, coercion, or pressure in any form,” Aung Hlaing said.  

The ethnic Arakan National Party, which is dominant in Rakhine state, told Arab News that all political parties must be involved if the junta were to hold peace talks. 

Rakhine was the site of a brutal military crackdown that began in August 2017, which led to over 740,000 people, predominantly Rohingya, fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh. 

“As the saying goes, ‘action speaks louder than words,’” ANP Chairman U Thar Htun Hla said. 

“It’s very important for SAC to hold fair and square peace talks, and treat all the organizations indiscriminately.”


Ex-FBI informant who made up bribery story about the Bidens will stay in prison, judge rules

Updated 13 sec ago
Follow

Ex-FBI informant who made up bribery story about the Bidens will stay in prison, judge rules

  • Alexander Smirnov's phony story was used by Republican lawmakers in a move to impeach Democratic president Joe Biden
  • Smirnov later pleaded pleaded guilty in court to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme

 

LAS VEGAS: A federal judge has denied the US government’s request to release from prison a former FBI informant who made up a story about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes that later became central to Republicans’ impeachment effort.
The decision, issued Wednesday by US District Judge Otis Wright in Los Angeles, comes weeks after a new prosecutor reassigned to Alexander Smirnov’s case jointly filed a motion with his attorneys asking for his release while he appeals his conviction. In the motion, the US government had said it would review its “theory of the case.”
Wright said in his written order that Smirnov is still flight risk, even if prosecutors say they will review his case.
“The fact remains that Smirnov has been convicted and sentenced to seventy-two months in prison, providing ample incentive to flee,” he said.
Smirnov, 44, was sentenced in January after pleading guilty to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme, which was described by the previous prosecutors assigned to the case as an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
His attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, told The Associated Press in a text that they will appeal the judge’s decision and “continue to advocate for Mr. Smirnov’s release.” The US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles declined to comment.
Smirnov had been originally prosecuted by former Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who resigned in January days before President Donald Trump returned to the White House for his second term.
Smirnov has been in custody since February 2024. He was arrested at the Las Vegas airport after returning to the US from overseas.
Smirnov, a dual US and Israeli citizen, falsely claimed to his FBI handler that around 2015, executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid then-Vice President Biden and his son $5 million each.
The explosive claim in 2020 came after Smirnov expressed “bias” about Biden as a presidential candidate, according to prosecutors at the time. In reality, investigators found Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017 — after Biden’s term as vice president.
Authorities said Smirnov’s false claim “set off a firestorm in Congress” when it resurfaced years later as part of the House impeachment inquiry into Biden, who won the presidency over Trump in 2020. The Biden administration dismissed the impeachment effort as a “stunt.”
Weiss also brought gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden, who was supposed to be sentenced in December after being convicted at a trial in the gun case and pleading guilty to tax charges. But he was pardoned by his father, who said he believed “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”
 


Jordanian who attacked US businesses over Israel support sentenced

Updated 44 min 3 sec ago
Follow

Jordanian who attacked US businesses over Israel support sentenced

  • Hashem Hnaihen, 44, targeted businesses in the Orlando area beginning in June of last year

WASHINGTON: A Jordanian man who vandalized businesses in Florida for their perceived support of Israel was sentenced to six years in prison on Thursday for threatening to blow up an energy facility, the US Justice Department said.
Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen, 44, targeted businesses in the Orlando area beginning in June of last year, causing more than $450,000 in damages, according to court documents.
“Wearing a mask, under the cover of night, Hnaihen smashed the glass front doors of businesses and left behind ‘Warning Letters,’” the Justice Department said in a statement.
The letters were addressed to the president of the United States and laid out a series of political demands, it said.
They culminated in a threat to “destroy or explode everything here in whole America. Especially the companies and factories that support the racist state of Israel.”
In one of his attacks, Hnaihen broke into a solar power generation facility in Wedgefield, Florida, and spent hours destroying solar panel arrays, the Justice Department said.
He was arrested on July 11 after another “warning letter” threatening to “destroy or explode everything” was discovered at an industrial propane gas distribution depot in Orlando, it said.


Global health funding ‘faces historic challenges’

Updated 01 May 2025
Follow

Global health funding ‘faces historic challenges’

  • WHO director warns budget cuts will significantly impact the health of people around the world

GENEVA: Global health funding faces historic challenges as donor countries reduce their contributions, the director of the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

The US withdrew from the WHO in January, saying the health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises. 

The US is the UN health agency’s most prominent financial backer, contributing around 18 percent of its overall funding.

“We are living through the greatest disruption to global health financing in memory,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

The WHO revised its budget after the American withdrawal exacerbated a funding crisis due to member states reducing their development spending.

Faced with an income gap of nearly $600 million this year, the WHO has proposed slashing its budget for 2026-27 by 21 percent from $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion, and reducing staff numbers, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

“It is of course, very painful,” the director added, warning that the cuts would significantly impact the health of people around the world.

Separately, the executive director of the WHO’s emergencies programs said the minds and bodies of children in Gaza were being broken following two months of aid blockade and renewed strikes. 

“We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza. We are complicit,” Deputy Director General Michael Ryan said at the WHO’s headquarters.

“As a physician, I am angry. It is an abomination,” he said.

“The current level of malnutrition is causing a collapse in immunity,” Ryan said, warning that cases of pneumonia and meningitis in women and children could increase.

The UN warned this week that acute malnutrition among Gaza’s children was worsening.


Ukraine and the US have finally signed a minerals deal. What does it include?

Updated 01 May 2025
Follow

Ukraine and the US have finally signed a minerals deal. What does it include?

  • The agreement would establish a reconstruction fund for Ukraine that Ukrainian officials hope will be a vehicle to ensure future American military assistance
  • Ukraine sees the deal as a way to ensure that its biggest and most consequential ally stays engaged and doesn’t freeze military support

KYIV: After months of tense negotiations, the US and Ukraine signed a deal that is expected to give Washington access to the country’s critical minerals and other natural resources, an agreement Kyiv hopes will secure long-term support for its defense against Russia.
According to Ukrainian officials, the version of the deal signed Wednesday is far more beneficial to Ukraine than previous versions, which they said reduced Kyiv to a junior partner and gave Washington unprecedented rights to the country’s resources.
The agreement — which the Ukrainian parliament must ratify — would establish a reconstruction fund for Ukraine that Ukrainian officials hope will be a vehicle to ensure future American military assistance. A previous agreement was nearly signed before being derailed in a tense Oval Office meeting involving US President Donald Trump, US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We have formed a version of the agreement that provides mutually beneficial conditions for both countries. This is an agreement in which the United States notes its commitment to promoting long-term peace in Ukraine and recognizes the contribution that Ukraine has made to global security by giving up its nuclear arsenal,” Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who signed the deal for Ukraine, said in a post on Facebook.
The signing comes during what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said would be a “very critical” week for US-led efforts to end the war that appear to have stalled. Ukraine sees the deal as a way to ensure that its biggest and most consequential ally stays engaged and doesn’t freeze military support, which has been key in its 3-year-old fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who signed for the US, said in a statement.
Here is a look at the deal.
What does the deal include?
The deal covers minerals, including rare earth elements, but also other valuable resources, including oil and natural gas, according to the text released by Ukraine’s government.
It does not include resources that are already a source of revenue for the Ukrainian state. In other words, any profits under the deal are dependent on the success of new investments. Ukrainian officials have also noted that it does not refer to any debt obligations for Kyiv, meaning profits from the fund will likely not go toward the paying the US back for its previous support.
Officials have also emphasized that the agreement ensures full ownership of the resources remains with Ukraine, and the state will determine what can be extracted and where.
It does not mention any explicit security guarantees to deter future Russian aggression that Ukraine has long insisted on.
The text of the deal lists 55 minerals but says more can be agreed to.
Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in Ukraine’s rare earth elements, and some of them are included in the list, as are other critical minerals, such as titanium, lithium and uranium.
What are rare earth elements?
They are a group of 17 elements that are essential to many kinds of consumer technology, including cellphones, hard drives and electric and hybrid vehicles.
China is the world’s largest producer of rare earth elements, and both the US and Europe have sought to reduce their dependence on Beijing, Trump’s chief geopolitical adversary.
They include elements such as lanthanum, cerium and scandium, which are listed in the deal.
How will the fund work?
The agreement establishes a reconstruction investment fund, and both the US and Ukraine will have an equal say in its management, according to Svyrydenko.
The fund will be supported by the US government through the US International Development Finance Corporation agency, which Ukraine hopes will attract investment and technology from American and European countries.
Ukraine is expected to contribute 50 percent of all future profits from government-owned natural resources into the fund. The United States will also contribute in the form of direct funds and equipment, including badly needed air defense systems and other military aid.
Contributions to the fund will be reinvested in projects related to mining, oil and gas as well as infrastructure.
No profits will not be taken from the fund for the first 10 years, Svyrydenko said.
Trump administration officials initially pushed for a deal in which Washington would receive $500 billion in profits from exploited minerals as compensation for its wartime support.
But Zelensky rejected the offer, saying he would not sign off on an agreement “that will be paid off by 10 generations of Ukrainians.”
What is the state of Ukraine’s minerals industry?
Ukraine’s rare earth elements are largely untapped because of state policies regulating the industry, a lack of good information about deposits, and the war.
The industry’s potential is unclear since geological data is thin because mineral reserves are scattered across Ukraine, and existing studies are considered largely inadequate, according to businessmen and analysts.
In general, however, the outlook for Ukrainian natural resources is promising. The country’s reserves of titanium, a key component for the aerospace, medical and automotive industries, are believed to be among Europe’s largest. Ukraine also holds some of Europe’s largest known reserves of lithium, which is required to produce batteries, ceramics and glass.
In 2021, the Ukrainian mineral industry accounted for 6.1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and 30 percent of exports.
An estimated 40 percent of Ukraine’s metallic mineral resources are inaccessible because of Russian occupation, according to data from We Build Ukraine, a Kyiv-based think tank. Ukraine has argued that it’s in Trump’s interest to develop the remainder before Russian advances capture more.


Zelensky hails Ukraine-US mineral deal as ‘truly equal’

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) meets with US President Donald Trump (L) on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral.
Updated 01 May 2025
Follow

Zelensky hails Ukraine-US mineral deal as ‘truly equal’

  • The deal, which both parties signed on Wednesday, would see the US and Kyiv jointly develop Ukraine’s critical mineral resources

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday hailed a minerals deal that Kyiv had signed with Washington, saying the reworked agreement was “truly equal.”
The deal, which both parties signed on Wednesday, would see the United States and Kyiv jointly develop Ukraine’s critical mineral resources.
US President Donald Trump initially described the arrangement as “money back” for the wartime aid Ukraine received under his predecessor Joe Biden, but Kyiv says the new agreement is not linked to any past “debt.”
During the negotiations, “the agreement changed significantly,” Zelensky said in his daily address.
“Now it is a truly equal agreement that creates an opportunity for quite significant investment in Ukraine.”
“There is no debt in the deal, and a fund — a recovery fund — will be created that will invest in Ukraine and earn money here,” he added.
Kyiv and Washington planned to sign the agreement weeks ago, but a fiery clash between Trump and Zelensky in the White House temporarily derailed talks.
Ukraine had been pushing for long-term security guarantees as part of any deal.
The new agreement does not place any specific security commitments on the United States, but Washington argues boosting its business interests in Ukraine will help deter Russia, which invaded its neighbor in 2022.