Day: May 3, 2024

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

new york — The World Food Program warned Friday that time is running out to prevent starvation in Sudan’s Darfur region, as intensifying clashes in North Darfur’s capital are preventing aid deliveries to the wider Darfur region.

“The situation is dire,” WFP Sudan spokesperson Leni Kinzli told reporters in a briefing from Nairobi, Kenya. “People are resorting to consuming grass and peanut shells, and if assistance doesn’t reach them soon, we risk witnessing widespread starvation and death in Darfur and across other conflict areas in Sudan.”

The WFP estimates that more than 1.7 million people across Darfur are experiencing the highest levels of hunger and food insecurity.

The United Nations has been among the voices warning that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have encircled and are poised to attack North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have positions inside the city but are besieged by the RSF. So are about 1.5 million residents, including about 800,000 internally displaced persons.

Airstrikes and shelling are exacerbating El Fasher’s hunger emergency. The United Nations estimates 330,000 people are facing crisis levels of food insecurity in the city due to a shortage of food items and soaring prices.

Inside North Darfur’s Zamzam camp, one of the largest displacement camps in Sudan, Doctors Without Borders said this week that the situation is catastrophic, especially for children. Of more than 46,000 children screened, the charity found 30% suffering from acute malnutrition and 8% suffering from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.

The two border crossings that humanitarians used to reach Darfur from neighboring Chad have been closed. Aid convoys using the Tine crossing have been suspended because of the fighting in El Fasher, while Sudan’s government has stopped aid trucks going through the Adre crossing because it fears the RSF will use the crossing to smuggle weapons into Darfur.

Kinzli said that before the recent fighting, WFP had planned several convoys from Chad with assistance for 700,000 people across Darfur. The delivery would have lasted many of them for two to three months, through the approaching rainy season, she said.

“Beyond that, we were hoping to scale up and ramp up even more, but now with these access constraints, with the security concerns as well as these bureaucratic restrictions, it makes it difficult for us at the moment,” she said.

Fears of atrocities

El Fasher is the only city in Darfur that the RSF has not captured. An impending battle could unleash atrocities similar to those of the genocide carried out by Arab Janjaweed fighters against African Zaghawa, Masalit, Fur and other non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur in the early 2000s. Janjaweed fighters make up today’s RSF.

Analysts at the Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab are tracking the situation using satellites and other resources. They said in a report Thursday that 23 communities north and west of El Fasher have been intentionally burned to the ground in the past five weeks.

The fate of the residents is not known. The researchers say the location of the communities is consistent with satellite imagery they have analyzed showing that the RSF has advanced in those directions.

“We additionally have evidence they are also in the eastern side of El Fasher, and we are currently monitoring RSF forces moving from the south, from Nyala,” Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the lab, told VOA.

Nyala is the capital of South Darfur state.

“At present we are seeing snapshots of their force strength,” he said. “In certain cases, we have seen battalion- to regiment-size force massings. In some cases, including over a hundred vehicles.”

The fact that the RSF has not yet attacked El Fasher demonstrates that international pressure can be an effective tool, Raymond said.

“RSF could have moved earlier; they have not yet,” he said. “We have to use this moment to pull RSF forces back and to create a humanitarian envelope in which aid can be delivered — first in El Fasher and then into the interior of Darfur.”

He said time is running out, as the rainy season is about to start.

(NewsNation) — Newly public documents show whistleblower David Grusch, who said the Pentagon is operating a secret UFO-retrieval program, refused to meet with the governmental office tasked with investigating unknown aerial phenomena.

The documents were released to The Black Vault’s John Greenewald in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. They show the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office repeatedly tried to meet Grusch following his whistleblower complaint.

Grusch, a former Air Force and intelligence officer, said in a complaint to the Office of the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community that the government was operating a secret program to retrieve and reverse-engineer UFO technology and even had possession of nonhuman bodies.

Grusch said he was made aware of the program while working on the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force by those who were familiar with the alleged activity.

The newly released documents show that then-AARO leader Sean Kirkpatrick repeatedly tried to arrange a meeting with Grusch over several months. At one point, a meeting was scheduled, but Grusch failed to appear.

According to communications in the document, Grusch had concerns about providing classified information to AARO that was not authorized. The office did assure him that it was authorized to hear any information on UAPs, but supporters note Grusch was concerned about the legal ramifications of providing sensitive information and doubted AARO’s willingness to investigate his claims.

Grusch’s claims kicked off a rush of renewed interest in UFOs, including among members of Congress. A congressional hearing was held, and a bipartisan UAP Caucus was formed.

Lawmakers have received classified briefings on the subject, and the AARO released a report denying any evidence that indicates the existence of extraterrestrials or contact with nonhuman life from beyond our planet.

The agency did admit plans for the Kona Blue program, which was devised to potentially reverse-engineer UFO technology but was never put into practice because no such technology was ever recovered.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., has suggested the Pentagon is deliberately sending people with incomplete knowledge to talk to lawmakers and that the report is a coverup. He has said there are likely to be more hearings in the future.

Grusch declined to comment on the report.

Read the full details of Grusch’s interactions with the AARO at The Black Vault.

Even as Donald Trump sits through his criminal trial today, it’s just one of numerous troubles he’s having on the legal front. It’s not just that Trump has other criminal trials coming up. It’s that even his one remaining supposed cash cow is in trouble.

For all the talk about how Donald Trump is going to get bailed out financially by Truth Social and Trump Media, the whole thing keeps getting more scandalous. There have long been media reports of a federal investigation into the parent company. And now the SEC is shutting down Trump Media’s auditor, accusing it of massive fraud.

We’ll see where this goes. If the company doing Trump Media’s financial audits is a corrupt sham, then it points to Trump Media’s financials being a corrupt sham as well. It also suggests that the SEC’s investigation is targeting Trump Media as well.

Keep in mind that Donald Trump’s shares in the company aren’t worth anything to him until the timeframe in which he’s allowed to sell them. If the company and share price collapse by then, it’ll be worthless to him.

The post New legal trouble for Trump Media appeared first on Palmer Report.

‘God and Country’: Georgia Army National Guard Changes Leadership  MDJOnline.com

How and why did the Mafia “castrate” Dem Duman of ambassador Yuri Kim?!  Pamfleti.net

Georgian PM and a US State Department advisor

The prime minister of Georgia, following a conversation with Derek Chollet, a US State Department advisor, posted on X that there were two attempted revolutions in Georgia between 2020 and 2023. He alleged that these attempts were supported by former US Ambassador Kelly Degnan.

Additionally, Kobakhidze denounced the rhetoric of State Department officials as false and concluded by stating he “did not express concern to Mr. Chollet regarding the brutal dispersal of student protest actions in New York.” Furthermore, Kobakhidze again referenced a second front in his conspiratorial text.

“I spoke with the Secretary’s advisor and expressed sincere concern about the two attempted revolutions between 2020 and 2023 through NGOs supported by the former US Ambassador and funded from external sources. If successful, these efforts would have opened a second front in Georgia.

Furthermore, I explained to Mr. Chollet that false statements made by State Department officials regarding the transparency bill and street protests resemble similar false statements made by the former US Ambassador between 2020 and 2023, which advocated for violence sponsored from abroad and supported revolutionary scenarios.

Additionally, I explained to Mr. Chollet that against this background, special measures are necessary to restore relations, which is impossible without a fair and honest approach,” the prime minister tweeted.

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• “The ‘foreign agents law’ in its current form clashes with European values,” – the head of the European Commission for EU Enlargement
• Generation Z protest: Who’s leading the frontline against the ‘Russian law’ in Georgia. Video
• “The Georgian side refused to discuss a strategic partnership with America,” – the US ambassador

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Following critical statements from the US State Department regarding the discussion of the “foreign agents law” (or “Russian law”) in parliament, Irakli Kobakhidze published his statement on X.

On May 2nd, Derek Chollet stated that he “explained” to prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze his concerns about Georgia’s trajectory. On the same day, it became known that members of the Georgian government refused to meet with senior US officials to discuss any issues of strategic partnership and assistance from the US. US Ambassador to Georgia Robin Dunningan issued a statement on this matter.

According to the ambassador, the US urges the Georgian government to reaffirm its commitment to Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic future, as outlined in the Georgian constitution. Dunningan also expressed deep concern about the choice of the Georgian government, which she believes has moved the country away from its Euro-Atlantic future.

The Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs justified the government’s actions by stating that prime minister Kobakhidze was invited with the condition that before his visit, the Georgian parliament should suspend the consideration of the draft law “On the Transparency of Foreign Influence.” The ministry believes that this “does not correspond to the spirit of partnership.”

Georgian PM and a US State Department advisor