Venezuela pressure, China-Africa pledges and active-war developments

Off Leash update 6 Sept

Venezuela •Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gave an online press conference in which she told international journalists what they already knew: "Everyone knows that [opposition candidate] Edmundo González is the president-elect." •Machado also called on the U.S. to "do much more" to punish Pres. Maduro for his false claim to the presidency. •A State Department spokesman responded blandly: "We are considering a range of options to demonstrate to Maduro and his representatives that their misgovernance in Venezuela has consequences." China •During this week's Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, Pres. Xi promised African countries 360 billion yuan ($51 billion) in financing over the three years until the next triennial Forum. •He also committed one billion yuan ($141 million) to training African armies, which is a small sliver of the $2 billion the Pentagon spends on its African operations - including AFRICOM as well as assistance and training programs. •Xi hopes to present Chinese funding as an alternative to Western support. He told the African leaders gathered at the Beijing Forum: "the Western approach to [modernization] has inflicted immense sufferings on developing countries." •Separately, China said it would stop allowing foreigners to adopt Chinese babies unless they're blood relatives or step relatives of the adoptee. With a declining birth rate, Beijing probably hopes to keep enough young'uns working in China to support an aging population. Ukraine •Speaking at an international audience in Vladivostock, Pres. Putin brushed off concerns about Ukraine's invasion of Kursk, saying Russia's offensive in eastern Ukraine is its "first-priority goal." •He chided Ukraine for sending "fairly large and well-trained units" into Kursk: "The enemy’s goal was to make us nervous and worry and to transfer troops from one sector to another and stop our offensive in key areas, primarily in the Donbas. Did it work or no? No." (The U.S. and Ukraine both said small numbers of Russian troops were transferred to Kursk - but it wasn't the large redeployment Ukraine hoped for). •Separately, Ukraine accused Russia of executing three Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) as they sought to surrender in Donetsk. Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office says it's investigating 54 such cases of Russian troops executing Ukrainian POWs over the course of the war. Israel •Israel ended its operation targeting Islamic Jihad militants in Jenin after nine days. It was one of the most significant recent Israeli operations in the West Bank. •Israel said it targeted militants preparing attacks on Israeli civilians, and indeed, most (but not all) of the 21 Palestinians killed during the operation were claimed by Hamas, Fatah, or Islamic Jihad as fighters. Sudan •A UN-backed team in Sudan concluded that both sides - the Rapid Support Forces and the military - may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, and recommended an arms embargo and a UN peacekeeping force. The UAE has been supporting the Rapid Support Forces, and will object to UN peacekeeper scrutiny. Electric Vehicles •Volvo ditched its plans to produce only electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030 amidst a slowdown in demand for EVs. Instead, it said only 10% or less of its cars would be "mild hybrids" by 2030 - but reiterated that "our future is electric." •Volvo isn't the only EV maker scaling back its ambitions as the market for EV cools. Toyota also reduced its EV production target for 2030 by one third.