World Tour: U.S. lends aid to Nigeria

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It:

World Tour, with our reporter in Africa, Onize Oduah.

Nigeria

We start today in Nigeria, where U.S. officials are sending equipment and intelligence support to back the battle against an ongoing Islamist insurgency.

Lieutenant General John Brennan is the deputy commander of the United States Africa Command.

JOHN BRENNAN: It's the whole gamut of intel sharing, sharing TTPs -- tactics, techniques, and procedures -- as well as enabling them to procure more equipment, the right equipment that will be the most effective against ISIS and other VEOs.

Brennan’s comments come after U.S. and Nigerian officials last week held the first meeting of their Joint Working Group in the capital city of Abuja.

He said U.S. cooperation with Nigeria is part of a larger effort to squash operations of insurgents affiliated with the Islamic State.

BRENNAN: So from Somalia to Nigeria, the problem sets connected. And so we're trying to take it apart and then provide partners with the information they need to go do counterterrorism operations. And so it’s been about more enabling partners and then providing them equipment and capabilities with less restrictions so that they can be more successful.

The U.S. launched airstrikes in northwest Nigeria on Christmas Day. Brennan said the strikes targeted operations of the Islamic State in the region.

Iran unrest

Next, to Iran, where a government crackdown on protests is still playing out.

On Sunday, Iranian authorities unveiled a mural in a Tehran square as a direct warning against any U.S. intervention. The image of a bloodied deck of an aircraft carrier comes as U.S. warships head to the region.

U.S. President Donald Trump has warned Iran that he will resort to military force if Iran continues to kill protesters or execute those arrested.

Esmail Baghaei is Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman.

ESMAIL BAGHAEI: [FARSI] The arrival of a certain warship (USS Abraham Lincoln) is not going to shake Iran’s will or determination to defend the country with full force. We have both the will and the full capability to defend Iran, backed by our people and by the experience we have built up over the past decades.

He says here that the warship’s arrival will not shake Iran’s will and capability to defend itself.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah insurgent group has said it is preparing for a possible U.S. attack on Iran, but shied away from saying if it planned to intervene.

Iranian authorities have said more than 3,000 people have died since anti-government protests began in December. But a rights group has said the actual toll is more than double that number. More than 41,000 others have been arrested.

Israel protests

SOUND: Protesters

Over in Israel, protesters crowded the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday for a weekly rally against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration.

Demonstrators voiced concern over the protracted Gaza war that began more than two years ago.

Eran Kamin is a former head of the police investigation division.

ERAN KAMIN: [HEBREW] When you deceive so many people for so long, you are no longer able to speak the truth, you are unable to take responsibility, you cannot bow your head.

He accuses Netanyahu of failing to take responsibility for the country’s situation.

The protests came after Netanyahu met with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner earlier on Saturday.

On Monday, Israel received the remains of an Israeli police sergeant. He was the last of the Israeli hostages still in Gaza. Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel will reopen Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt after nearly two years of closure.

Panda diplomacy

SOUND: Parkgoers in Ueno Zoo

We wrap up in Japan, where families paid their final visits to twin pandas at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo before they returned to China yesterday.

China sent pandas to Japan for the first time in 1972 as a sign of warming diplomatic relations. The end of the latest lease comes as current relations between the two countries have grown increasingly tense.

China has limited tourism to Japan since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in November said the military could intervene if China acts against Taiwan.

Tokyo resident Sachiko Ishizaki visited the pandas on Sunday.

SACHIKO ISHIZAKI: [JAPANESE] I hope they come back again soon. Ueno Zoo without pandas is too sad, if anything, it feels strange to be without them.

She says the zoo will feel strange without the pandas present.

China has continued to lease out pandas to other countries, but retains ownership over them and any of their cubs. This marks the first time in half a century that Japan has no panda.

That’s this week’s World Tour. I’m Onize Oduah in Abuja, Nigeria.

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