Latest news with #Isaias
AFP
18-06-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Ethiopian minister's interview distorted to claim she issued stern warning to Eritrean leader
Relations between neighbours Ethiopia and Eritrea have deteriorated in recent months over access to the Red Sea. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki recently accused Ethiopia of preparing for war. Amid the rising tensions, posts published on Facebook with a photo of Isaias purport to show a video of Ethiopian Defence Minister Aisha Mohammed issuing an official warning to the Eritrean leader. Although Aisha discussed unnamed external rivals, neither the original interview nor the misleading video contains an explicit warning aimed at the Eritrean head of state. The Amharic text accompanying the Facebook post reads: 'Breaking news: Ethiopian Defence Minister Aisha Mohammed has issued an official stern warning to the leader of Shabia.' Shabia refers to the Eritrean government. Image Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on June 17, 2025 Published on May 31, 2025, the post has been shared more than 220 times. In the video, which is more than a minute long, Aisha is seen speaking in what looks like an interview. As she talks, a photo of Isaias is displayed, along with clips of Ethiopian troops. 'The Ethiopian army was not built in a way that external rival forces would consider. It is not built to respond to forces operating in Ethiopia and supported by foreign forces,' Aisha says at the beginning of the video in Amharic. 'The army was built to protect Ethiopia from all external forces that intend to violate the country's sovereignty based on any miscalculation,' she adds. She also outlines the role of the army. 'Local militias can respond appropriately to local clashes that occur here and there. We train the local militias, we equip them, and most importantly, we have people who can defend themselves.' She continues: 'Ethiopia's army knows that there is no place other than Ethiopia that suits its destiny; it has no ethnicity and believes that Ethiopia is its destiny.' Aisha then asserts that Ethiopia has a military that is 'committed to protecting Ethiopia 24/7 with a highly reliable capability'. She concludes by saying that 'Ethiopia's army has developed new military capabilities based on the current international requirements' and that 'the navy force, special brigade and cyber security brigade and others have been installed'. A similar post was also shared here on Facebook. Ethio-Eritrean relations Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, but a border conflict between 1998 and 2000 killed around 80,000 people (archived here). Later, after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office, Ethiopia and Eritrea reached a peace agreement, with Ethiopia accepting a UN-backed border commission decision. The Eritrean army even allied with Abiy's federal government during the 2020-2022 Tigray war. However, relations between the two countries have deteriorated recently after landlocked Ethiopia sought access to the Red Sea, with Eritrea accusing it of eyeing its port of Assab. Speaking during Eritrea's 34th independence anniversary in May 2025, Isaias accused Ethiopia of preparing for another war in the name of accessing the sea (archived here). However, the claim that Aisha issued a stern warning against Isaias is misleading. Edited video AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video. The results revealed that a longer version of the video was published on the official YouTube channel of the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) on June 2, 2025 (archived here). Aisha discusses a range of issues, including the army's organisation, duties, military capabilities, and its commitment to upholding the rule of law. She also responds to allegations of human rights violations. However, in neither the original interview nor the misleading video does Aisha expressly mention or warn the Eritrean leader. AFP Fact Check established that the Facebook clip contains different sections from Aisha's original interview edited together to give the impression that she was addressing Isaias. Image Screenshots of the original video published by EBC (left) and the misleading version, taken on June 11, 2025 The clip was specifically drawn from three segments of the original interview: minutes 4'27' to 4'44', 5'29' to 6'10', and 26'42' to 27'23'. The first 55 seconds of the misleading clip came from minutes 26'42' to 27'23' of the original video. In this segment, Aisha was responding to the journalist's question about Ethiopia's alleged portrayal as a country engulfed in a national crisis. She claimed that unnamed external rivals wrongly viewed the country's rise in the Horn of Africa region as a threat to their national security, explaining that the army is built to protect the country against all forms of external aggression. The subsequent segment of the misleading clip running from 56 to 62 seconds was lifted from the original video's 4'27' to 4'44' mark. Here, Aisha was discussing the army's mission and professional discipline. Finally, the concluding part of the misleading clip comes from 5'29' to 6'10' of the original video, during which Aisha spoke about the modern military capabilities of the Ethiopian army and the installation of the special and cyber security brigades.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
PSE&G gets $80M deal to run Long Island power grid after official, wife's secret stocks sink bidding process
A years-long search to replace PSE&G as the manager of Long Island's power grid ended in shock fashion Thursday as officials gifted the company an $80 million-a-year extension. The Long Island Power Authority OK'd the new deal and scrapped a competitive bidding process after authority member John Rhodes and his wife were found to have financial ties to Quanta Services, the company lined up to replace PSE&G. LIPA CEO John Rhodes and his wife owned up to $120,000 in company stocks with his wife through December 2024 — months after he helped form the selection committee and Texas-based Quanta was recommended as the new manager. Rhodes pushed Quanta, one of only two finalists alongside PSE&G, saying the company offered better safety metrics and slightly higher customer satisfaction scores. But LIPA's board members were skeptical. Critics pointed to Quanta's management of Puerto Rico's electric grid, which has faced rolling blackouts and a government audit. The LIPA board found out about the undisclosed stocks during an April review of the recommendation and rejected the bid in a 6-1 vote. Rhodes had dumped the stocks four months prior. 'John Rhodes does not own stock in Quanta Services, Inc. Previously, he did own stock in Quanta Services, Inc., having purchased shares in 2021, and sold immediately upon becoming aware of those holdings in December of 2024, prior to LIPA staff's recommendation of Quanta Services, Inc., for selection by the LIPA board,' LIPA spokesperson Jen Hayen told Long Island Business News. On Thursday, the board voted to scrap the selection process altogether and just extend PSEG's $80 million-a-year contract, which was set to expire at the end of 2025. The length of the extension hasn't been finalized, although the current deal includes an option for up to five more years. PSE&G has run Long Island's power grid since 2014, though its performance has faced scrutiny — especially after Tropical Storm Isaias in 2020 left hundreds of thousands of residents in the dark for days. That led to a restructured agreement in 2021 that tied $40 million of PSE&G's compensation to performance benchmarks, including reliability, storm response, and customer satisfaction. 'We are extremely disappointed by the LIPA Board's decision and the fact that Quanta was never given the opportunity to address any questions or concerns that any of the LIPA Trustees had raised,' a Quanta spokesperson told The Post. 'We hope the reported investigation into this decision sheds light on the procurement process as we can agree that LIPA's 1.2 million customers deserve the best service provider.'
New York Post
22-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
PSE&G gets $80M deal to run Long Island power grid after official, wife's secret stocks sink bidding process
A years-long search to replace PSE&G as the manager of Long Island's power grid ended in shock fashion Thursday as officials gifted the company an $80 million-a-year extension. The Long Island Power Authority OK'd the new deal and scrapped a competitive bidding process after authority member John Rhodes and his wife were found to have financial ties to Quanta Services, the company lined up to replace PSE&G. LIPA CEO John Rhodes and his wife owned up to $120,000 in company stocks with his wife through December 2024 — months after he helped form the selection committee and Texas-based Quanta was recommended as the new manager. 3 A general view of a PSE&G sign in Paterson, NJ as seen on June 4, 2020. Christopher Sadowski Rhodes pushed Quanta, one of only two finalists alongside PSE&G, saying the company offered better safety metrics and slightly higher customer satisfaction scores. But LIPA's board members were skeptical. Critics pointed to Quanta's management of Puerto Rico's electric grid, which has faced rolling blackouts and a government audit. The LIPA board found out about the undisclosed stocks during an April review of the recommendation and rejected the bid in a 6-1 vote. Rhodes had dumped the stocks four months prior. 3 An electrical crew member contracted by LIPA works on overhead lines on Old Country Road on November 19, 2012 in Melville, New York. Getty Images 'John Rhodes does not own stock in Quanta Services, Inc. Previously, he did own stock in Quanta Services, Inc., having purchased shares in 2021, and sold immediately upon becoming aware of those holdings in December of 2024, prior to LIPA staff's recommendation of Quanta Services, Inc., for selection by the LIPA board,' LIPA spokesperson Jen Hayen told Long Island Business News. On Thursday, the board voted to scrap the selection process altogether and just extend PSEG's $80 million-a-year contract, which was set to expire at the end of 2025. The length of the extension hasn't been finalized, although the current deal includes an option for up to five more years. 3 PSEG workers at the scene where a Cessna 172 airplane crashed into a church and power lines, but all three passengers survived on April 15, 2019. Stephen Yang PSE&G has run Long Island's power grid since 2014, though its performance has faced scrutiny — especially after Tropical Storm Isaias in 2020 left hundreds of thousands of residents in the dark for days. That led to a restructured agreement in 2021 that tied $40 million of PSE&G's compensation to performance benchmarks, including reliability, storm response, and customer satisfaction.
Al Jazeera
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Away from the global spotlight, Eritreans are trapped in a garrison state
American writer and security analyst Paul B Henze, who served in the Carter administration as a deputy to National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, once made a very astute observation about Eritrea's current president, Isaias Afwerki. In his 2007 book, Ethiopia in Mengistu's Final Years: Until the Last Bullet, he noted 'Isaias impressed me as remarkably similar in temperament and attitudes to Mengistu [Haile Mariam, Eritrea's former dictator who has overseen the killings of tens of thousands of opposition figures and civilians]. He has many of the same mannerisms, a rather bulldoggish seriousness, a defensiveness behind a facade of feigned reasonableness that is not really convincing. One senses a stubborn, fundamentally authoritarian personality.' The similarities Henze saw between Mengistu and Isaias have proven correct and highly consequential over the last three decades. After declaring victory against the Mengsitu regime in 1991, Isaias was able to oversee the emergence of an independent, sovereign Eritrea. For a brief moment, Eritreans were full of hope. They assumed independence would bring more freedom and better economic prospects. There was talk of turning Eritrea into Africa's Singapore. However, the euphoria of independence was short-lived. The dream of transforming Eritrea into a prosperous liberal democracy did not appeal to Isaias. He wanted his country to resemble not Singapore, but Sparta. He rejected the democratic constitution drafted by the pre-eminent Eritrean jurist Bereket Habte Selassie and ruled Eritrea with an iron fist. In no time, he turned Eritrea into a garrison state. He transformed Eritrean institutions and society at large into tools to fulfil his geo-political fantasies. Eritreans became unwilling pawns in the president's many military schemes, with no space left for their personal dreams and aspirations. Isaias ruthlessly dealt with even his closest colleagues and allies who dared to suggest that Eritreans enjoy some basic liberties that people elsewhere in the world often take for granted. In May 2001, 15 senior Eritrean officials, many of whom had been on the president's side throughout the independence war, issued an open letter urging him to reconsider his autocratic mode of governance and hold free and fair elections. At the time, three of the 15 officials were living abroad, and one eventually changed his position and rejoined the Isaias government. The remaining 11, however, were swiftly arrested on unspecified charges. More than 20 years later, the fates of these 11 men are still unknown. No one knows for sure if they are alive or dead. No legal or religious counsel or family member has been granted access to them. There have been no charges, no trials, no conviction and no sentence. Though these senior officials are among the most prominent in Eritrea to be meted such treatment, their fate is hardly unique. Anyone in Eritrea who dares to question the great wisdom of the infallible President Isaias meets the same fate. In the nightmarish gulag state that President Isaias created, no one is free to study, work, worship, run a business or engage in any other normal activities. There is a mandatory and indefinite military service which keeps every Eritrean citizen in servitude to the supreme leader for their entire lives. While everyone in Eritrea suffers from Isaias's institutionalised tyranny, religious and ethnic minorities suffer the most. Religious persecution in the country is so extreme that in 2004 the US Department of State designated Eritrea as a 'country of particular concern' under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. There is also significant ethnic persecution in Isaias's Eritrea. In a May 2023 report, for example, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, underlined the harsh conditions faced by the Afar community who inhabit the Dankalia area of the country. Babiker wrote: 'The Afar are one of the most disenfranchised communities in Eritrea. For several decades, they have been subjected to discrimination, harassment, arbitrary arrests, disappearance, violence, and widespread persecution.' In the end, Paul Henze's insight about the fundamentally autocratic personality of Isaias proved not only right, but also an understatement. The oppression and violence of Isaias's rule in the past three decades matched and at times surpassed that of Mengitsu. Regrettably, the world rarely acknowledges the plight of Eritreans, who are forced to live their lives as unwilling servants and soldiers of their authoritarian president. The toll of Isais's endless war schemes on Eritreans is still rarely mentioned in discussions about the region. Eritrea under Isaias is a country always on a war footing. Right now, it is not only agitating against Ethiopia, but also actively involved in the civil war in Sudan. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find a period in Eritrea's post-independence history that it was not at war with one of its neighbours, or involved in some regional conflict or civil war. War is the modus vivendi of President Isaias. The world is now paying some attention to Eritrea, because of the looming risk of conflict with Ethiopia. But even if conflict between the two neighbours is somehow prevented, the misery of Eritreans stuck in Isaias's garrison state will continue. Forgotten and left to their own devices, Eritreans will continue to suffer in a brutal dictatorship where the individual is seen just as fodder for the mighty Eritrean Defence Forces. This must not be allowed to continue. The world must not avert its gaze and forget about the plight of Eritreans once their country is no longer mentioned in the news. The world needs to act before more Eritreans lose their lives and dreams fighting in Isaias's forever wars. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Map of hurricane landfalls shows how storms tend to avoid Delaware. Why is that?
There have been 307 hurricanes that made landfall in the mainland United States since records began in 1851, but none have had a direct first landfall on Delaware. University of Oklahoma student Michael Ferragamo's project to map out all of the landfalls shows most of them predictably along the Gulf Coast and southeastern U.S.. However, there is a gap around Delmarva and the surrounding region. The map marks first landfalls, and just because direct landfall isn't made by a hurricane, or even a tropical storm, doesn't mean there can't be damage. Tropical Storm Isaias produced the longest-tracking tornado in Delaware history, a 29-mile trail for an EF1 twister, as it flew up the Atlantic coast. Delaware and the rest of the Delmarva Peninsula face directly east. The south-facing shores and barrier islands of the southeastern U.S. jut out into the ocean, creating more of a target for storms tracking the standard northern direction. "There are always exceptions. Most of the time we're having storms generally starting to move more north-northwestward, and so by having that the Outer Banks kind of jut out that little bit further from where Delaware is, that means that as we have storms go up that way, they're more likely to make initial landfall in the Outer Banks," National Weather Service meteorologist Sarah Johnson said. Were you displaced by Hurricane Katrina? The USA TODAY Network is chronicling the lingering impact of the catastrophic storm and the resilience of the people involved. If you are an evacuee who rebuilt your life here, we want to hear from you. Please see the form here: Hurricane Sandy is the most notable exception to this rule. But it is not on this map because it came ashore as a post-tropical cyclone near Atlantic City. It was driven toward a northwestern track by a high-pressure air mass in the Atlantic. If that air mass set up more south, it could have made landfall in Sussex County, Johnson said. WEATHER FORECAST: Will Delaware be hit with a hurricane this year? The 1933 Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane (Six 1933 on the U.S. landfall map) is very similar to Hurricane Isabel in 2003, making landfall on the Outer Banks in North Carolina first before racing inland. "The main difference with the 1933 hurricane, however, is that it made landfall on the northern part of the Outer Banks, pretty rare for a hurricane coming from the east." During landfall, it started to speed up and turn northward, allowing it to carry its hurricane-force winds further inland across Virginia. The storm was extremely rare in nature, and one of the most intense to ever affect the Washington, D.C., area. These fast-moving, Mid-Atlantic hurricanes seem to occur every 40 years or so, with 2003, 1933, 1896, 1893, and 1878 all being examples. "Every time I plot hurricane landfalls, I always discover little cool things and oddities that I never knew," Ferragamo said. "When doing the US landfall map, it occurred to me just how active the 1880s were. In our database, the 1880s hold the record for the most landfalling US hurricanes in a single decade, at 20. "In fact, the late 1800s featured some very active seasons like 1886, 1887 and 1893. Taking into consideration our lack of technology and populated coastlines, there's a pretty solid chance that activity was even higher than recorded." "I've done a lot of work with the hurricane database over the years," he said, "so while plotting these hurricanes, I had a general idea of what to expect. However, the one thing that always surprises me comes from New England." This region, known for its harsh winters and mild summers, has actually taken brutal hits from major hurricanes in the past. The 1938 New England Hurricane produced the strongest hurricane-related surface wind gust ever recorded in the United States, 186 mph at Blue Hill Observatory in Massachusetts, just a few miles south of Boston. Ferragamo wasn't done with his hurricane plots with the U.S. map, and he next turned his sights to the entire Atlantic basin, which he completed earlier in April: "It's finally done, I can't believe it. After months, I have finally plotted every single Atlantic hurricane landfall on record. There are approximately 1,167 hurricane landfalls listed. This is so unreal to look at," he posted on X this month. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Delaware is not a common target for hurricanes
