WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The State of the World: Peace, Rebels, and War

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

The State of the World returns for the New Year to discuss an Israeli ceasefire, Congolese rebels, and the Ukraine War.

Hello, my name is Aaron Osborne, and this is the state of the world where we discuss the most recent international news in five minutes. Starting off with Europe today, in the wake of a failed British peace treaty condemned by the Kremlin for its bias, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine requires a minimum of 200,000 peacekeepers to even consider a peace deal with Russia. Now President Donald Trump of the United States made a... ending the war a priority for his first hundred days as president. In addition, the Russian ally of Belarus is set to hold elections on January 26th. Incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko has been criticized for the lack of free speech and the abundance of political crackdowns in Belarus, especially over the past 10 years.

And the European Parliament has condemned the lack of transparency and already called the election a sham. He's been the president of Belarus for 30 years beginning in 1994. Moving on to Asia, Chinese censorship is on the rise as Americans have moved to the Chinese social media app Xiaohong Shu, also known as the Little Red Book or Red Note. This happened after a mass moving of the American social media digital market over to the app following the removal of the popular social media app TikTok from the app store following legal ramifications

and the decision that the parent company of ByteDance would have to sell the app away from Chinese ownership in order to keep it on the American markets. Red Note is a Shanghai-based company that is significantly involved with the Chinese Communist Party as well, and the Wall Street Journal writes that Americans are already facing heavy censorship on the new platform, including restrictions on certain content for immorality. Moving on to the Middle East, a landmark deal happened for a temporary ceasefire and prisoner exchange in the 15-month war. The first of 33 Israeli hostages, some of them British or American dual citizens, have been

released in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners as this hostage swap begins. over the next few months. Israeli and Palestinian representatives have agreed to exchange 33 hostages for a total of 1,904 Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons. For the hostages that are released, some have been held in captivity for over 400 days by Hamas and other terrorist organisms. Hamas has stated that only women, children, and elderly men, including a baby, will be released at this time,

although men of fighting age are not going to be released this early on in the deal. In Africa, M23 rebels have seized the town of Minova in eastern Congo, according to authorities, increasing instability in the country around the provincial capital of Goma. M23, also known as the March 23 movement, is a militant group of ethnic chutesis who left the Congolese army about a decade ago, according to Reuters. They recently began this increase in aggression just a couple years ago. Congo and the United Nations accused the neighboring country of Rwanda for backing the group, allegations which Rwanda has denied vehemently.

In addition, the Central African Republic continues to develop ties with Moscow as the president returned on January 20th from the city where his political party, the United Hearts Movement, signed a cooperation agreement with Vladimir Putin's political party, United Russia. It is not formally a security deal, but rather a political one, that many experts say is troubling in light of additional Russian presences within the region. In South America, more than 80 people have been killed and 20,000 displaced following clashes between rival guerrilla groups and Catatumbo, Colombia, near the Venezuelan border. The deaths mark one of the most violent periods in the country's history since the 2016 Peace Accords. According to the Washington Post, more than one million people have died throughout the decades of conflict, and almost nine million people have been displaced.

Katahumbo itself on the eastern region of Colombia is a strategic region which enables smuggling across the border into Venezuela, where the militant groups and rebels have found more political support and been able to operate more freely. The region has been a flashpoint for different guerrilla groups fighting for control over the region. that region over the past few years. My name is Aaron Osborne and you've been listening to the state of the world on WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.