Month: April 2017

Bomber Hits Bus Convoy of Syrian Evacuees; Scores Dead

Posted on by SeeEA

Scores of people set for evacuation from two besieged towns in northern Syria were killed and many others were wounded Saturday in an apparent car bombing that targeted a bus convoy carrying them to safety.

Details were sketchy late in the day, as rescue workers combed through the wreckage near the northern city of Aleppo.  The opposition website Enab Baladi, citing preliminary information, said at least 80 people were killed, while the rescue organization known as the White Helmets reported at least 100 dead.

Most of the victims were believed to be residents of two Shi’ite villages that had been surrounded by Islamists for months.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.  But Sunni jihadist groups, including the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida, operate in the area and routinely attack Shi’ites, whom they consider apostates.

A deal between the Damascus government and opposition fighters guaranteeing the safety of the villagers stalled Friday, stranding thousands of evacuees for hours before the attack unfolded on the outskirts of Aleppo.

Video on state television later showed charred bodies and mangled buses, which had been carrying pro-government Shi’ite fighters and civilians from the besieged villages toward the government-controlled city. Other footage showed ambulances ferrying the wounded to area hospitals.  

Far to the south, the deal — brokered by Iran and Qatar — simultaneously granted hundreds of Sunni insurgents and their families near Damascus safe passage to Idlib province near the Turkish border.

By late Saturday, monitors from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the convoy near Aleppo was again under way, while official Syrian media said the first buses carrying Shi’ite evacuees had reached government safety in Aleppo.
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Polls Show Tight Vote Expected in Turkey’s Controversial Referendum

Posted on by SeeEU

On Sunday, Turks will vote in a referendum on turning Turkey into an ‘executive presidency’ from the current parliamentary system. If approved, the 18 article constitutional reform package will greatly enhance presidential powers, creating one of the most powerful elected presidencies in the world. Supporters argue it is essential to meet what they call unprecedented threats facing the country. Detractors warn the measures will turn Turkey into an autocracy.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been at the forefront of the yes campaign, argues the reforms will ensure political stability and efficiency following July’s failed coup and continuing threats by both the so-called Islamic State and the Kurdish insurgent group, the PKK.  The wide ranging reforms propose giving the president the powers to appoint ministers, set the budget, issue laws by decrees on a wide range of issues, dissolve parliament and declare a state of emergency. The prime minister and cabinet will also be abolished.

Although Erdogan’s voting coalition of his ruling AK Party and nationalist MHP has accounted for well over 60% of the vote in past elections, most opinion polls indicate only a small lead for yes which is within the polls’ margin of error.

The no campaign

“AKP has massive monetary and propaganda advantage,” notes political consultant Atilla Yesilada,”But my gut feelings is AKP does not have the same confidence it has had in past polls that it will win.” A broad coalition has emerged, drawing normally antagonistic groups under the same banner. Both Kurdish and Turkish nationalists, secular and pious voters are supporting the no campaign, united by worries they believe the reforms would usher in an autocratic regime.

On the last day of campaign, Erdogan is making four speeches in Istanbul. All of the speaking venues are in traditional stronghold’s of his AKP party, leading observers to suggest that the president is trying to shore up his own support.

While opinion polls indicate that AKP supporters strongly backs the constitutional changes, a number of prominent political figures including the former president Abdullah Gul, have not campaigned in support of the reforms.

The proposals also have drawn strong international condemnation,  “A dangerous step backwards in the constitutional democratic tradition of Turkey,” wrote the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, adding, “The Venice Commission wishes to stress the dangers of degeneration of the proposed system toward an authoritarian and personal regime.”

Erdogan has dismissed such criticism, claiming it’s part of the international conspiracy against Turkey. In the last few campaign rallies, the Turkish president claims the conspiracy is led by the Pope.

“Turkey is increasingly like the La La land. The entire country lives in fiction,” warns consultant Yesilada, “but unfortunately this is what a lot of people believe. That we are under siege, by the Christian crusaders and Erdogan is the only man who is standing between captivity or colonialism.”

Much of the campaign was dominated by diplomatic spats with Germany and the Netherlands over restrictions on Turkish ministers being allowed to campaign among the large diaspora voters. A controversy that is widely believed to have helped the yes campaign.

Concern over the fairness of the campaign is increasingly being voiced. The OSCE which is monitoring the referendum in an interim report ahead of the vote, claimed that “No” campaigners faced bans, police interventions, and violent attacks at their events. The OSCE received a swift rebuke from Erdogan, who bellowed, “Know your place,” at a rally in the provincial city of Konya, he declared the report “null and void”

90% of TV coverage has been devoted to the yes campaign. That followed Erdogan issuing a legal decree under emergency powers that have been in force since July’s coup, abolishing the legal requirement for fair coverage by media companies.

There is growing scrutiny over the vote itself. According to the OSCE, at least 140 representatives nominated by opposition parties to monitor voting have been rejected by Turkish authorities. While several civic organizations that usually monitor polls are among the over 1500 shut down under emergency powers.

With the referendum considered too close to call, scrutiny over the vote is expected to be intense both nationally and internationally. “I’d just say we’re obviously following this issue very closely.,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner. “We hope the referendum is carried out in such a way that guarantees and strengthens democracy in Turkey.”
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Analysis: Turkey Faces Lose-Lose Choice in Referendum

Posted on by SeeEU

Regardless of whether Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan succeeds in bolstering his increasingly authoritarian clout in Sunday’s constitutional referendum, one thing is clear: despite a crackdown on his critics and the media, the country is deeply divided, with signs that the gap is growing.

That is bad, not only for Turkey, but for just about everyone with interests in the region, given the country’s economic power and historically strategic location as a bridge between East and West – particularly with Syria’s civil war and the fight against so-called Islamic State raging on its border.

Despite the government’s efforts to severely limit campaigning against the changes that could extend Erdogan’s rule for a decade or more, polls show the election too close to call. That raises the possibility of violence no matter what the final results are, particularly with last July’s military coup attempt fresh in the public’s memory.

Only a few years ago, Turkey seemed well-entrenched as a flourishing democracy and well on the way to joining the European Union. It has huge potential with Europe’s youngest population: 19 million of the 75 million people are ages 15 to 29.

Today, it stands accused of human rights abuses that have included imprisoning more than 45,000 people, among them the leaders and nine other legislators from the second-largest opposition party in parliament, for alleged links to Kurdish terrorists.

Rallies for the “No” camp are banned due to possible terrorism; coverage of its arguments is severely limited. In fact, almost any opposition to the changes proposed in the referendum carries the risk of being labeled as terrorism.

The once-vibrant media have seen their freedoms severely curtailed, with many of journalists jailed. The judiciary’s power has been eroded. Unemployment is at 10.7 percent and up to 25 percent among the young who embody the future.

A shift from America’s sphere of influence to Russia’s seems possible, and the prospects of joining the EU are stalled, if not dead.

Still, Erdogan stands poised to further enforce his will with the proposed reforms, which would change the government from a parliamentary system to what opponents describe as a dictator-like executive presidency, extend presidential power over the judiciary, allow rule by decree and create a loophole in the limit of two five-year terms for the president.

The checks-and-balances system would essentially be gone.

“Erdogan has pursued this greater responsibility despite an increasingly disastrous record of governance,” Freedom House wrote in an analysis of the election.

“For nearly four years, Turkey has been trapped in a cascade of crises – protests, terrorist attacks, crackdowns, a coup attempt, purges and war. The only blow the country hasn’t suffered is an economic crash, but that too seems imminent, as tourism and foreign investment have cratered and Erdogan has subordinated fiscal and macroeconomic management to his short-term political agenda.”

Analyst Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy was equally harsh.

“The country’s deep social chasm gives even the most ardent optimist grave cause for concern,” he said.

Others say they have never seen the country more unstable despite the president’s growing authoritarianism.

After serving as prime minister for 11 years, Erdogan was elected president in August 2014. Despite having no clear mandate – opponents received 48 percent of the vote – he began changing the political landscape quickly, leading to the coup attempt. Since quashing it, he has further consolidated power with those who would choose a near-dictatorship over uncertainty and the rise of terrorism, which has hit Turkey hard.

Crises, including an estimated 3 million refugees from Syria’s civil war, have not undercut his position as Turkey’s most popular politician, based on the early successes of his party and bolstered by his argument that only a strong leader can deal with the country’s problems.

“I have been voting for Tayyip Erdogan for 17-18 years, and he never failed me,” says retiree Ibrahim Yazka, explaining why he will vote “yes.”

“If he wants, he can just sit in the presidential mansion and sign papers; but, this man loves this country so much that he can’t stop. He believes he should do more. That’s why I believe in him.”

The European Union and Council of Europe have voiced concern over the fairness of the campaign, highlighting the fact that it is being carried out under emergency rule introduced after July’s failed coup. Armed troops are prominent in opposition strongholds, creating an air of intimidation.

“Legitimate dissent and criticism of government policy are vilified and repressed,” Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, warned about the impact of emergency rule ahead of the campaign.

The friction with Europe has led to open animosity from Erdogan, who said German and Dutch leaders were using “Nazi practices” by resisting his efforts to have his deputies campaign for “yes” votes among the sizable expatriate communities living in neighboring countries.

 
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On Good Friday, Pope Francis Seeks Forgiveness

Posted on by SeeEU

Pope Francis, presiding at a Good Friday service, asked God for forgiveness for scandals in the Catholic Church and for the “shame” of humanity becoming inured to daily scenes of bombed cities and drowning migrants.

Francis presided at a traditional candlelight Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) service at Rome’s Colosseum attended by some 20,000 people and protected by heavy security following recent attacks in European cities.

Francis sat while a large wooden cross was carried in procession, stopping 14 times to mark events in the last hours of Jesus’ life from his sentencing to his death and his burial.

Similar services, known as the Stations of the Cross, were taking place in cities around the world as Christians gathered to commemorate Jesus’ death by crucifixion.

Pope speaks of shame, hope

At the end of the two-hour service, Francis read a prayer he wrote that was woven around the theme of shame and hope.

In what appeared to be a reference to the Church’s sexual abuse scandal, he spoke of “shame for all the times that we bishops, priests, brothers and nuns scandalized and wounded your body, the Church.”

The Catholic Church has been struggling for nearly two decades to put the scandal of sexual abuse of children by clergy behind it. Critics say more must be done to punish bishops who covered up abuse or were negligent in preventing it.

Violence ‘ordinary in our lives’

Francis also spoke of the shame he said should be felt over “the daily spilling of the innocent blood of women, of children, of immigrants” and for the fate of those who are persecuted because of their race, social status or religious beliefs.

At the end of this month Francis travels to Egypt, which has seen recent attacks by Islamists on minority Coptic Christians. Dozens were killed in two attacks last Sunday.

He spoke of “shame for all the scenes of devastation, destruction and drownings that have become ordinary in our lives.”

On the day he spoke, more than 2,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were plucked from the Mediterranean in a series of dramatic rescues and one person was found dead. More than 650 have died or are unaccounted for while trying to cross the sea in rubber dinghies this year.

Francis expressed the hope “that good will triumph despite its apparent defeat.”

Security increased

Security was stepped up in the area around the Colosseum after recent truck attacks against pedestrians in London and Stockholm. Some 3,000 police guarded the area and checked people as they approached. The Colosseum subway stop was closed.

Francis on Saturday is to say an Easter vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and on Easter, the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar, he reads his twice-annual “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and the World”) message in St. Peter’s Square. 
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US: First Test of Upgraded Nuclear Bomb a Success

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Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are claiming success with the first in a new series of test flights that are part of an effort to upgrade one of the nuclear weapons that has been in the U.S. arsenal for decades.

 

An F-16 airplane from Nellis Air Force Base dropped an inert B61-12 bomb over the Nevada desert last month to test the weapon’s non-nuclear functions as well as the plane’s ability to carry the weapon.

 

With a puff of dust, the mock bomb landed in a dry lake bed at the Tonopah Test Range.

 

Scientists are planning to spend months analyzing the data gathered from the test.

 

Officials say the first production unit of the B61-12, developed under what is called the Life Extension Program, is scheduled to be completed in 2020. 

The B61 nuclear gravity bomb first entered service in 1968, and four variants remain in the U.S. nuclear stockpile, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. The B61-12 will add at least 10 years to the service life of the B61, the NNSA said, allowing the retirement of the B83.
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North Korea Displays New ICBM, Other Missiles

Posted on by SeeUS

North Korea rolled out its military hardware Saturday at its annual Day of the Sun celebration commemorating the 105th birth anniversary of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader, Kim Jong Un.

Goose-stepping soldiers and marching bands filled the square Saturday where North Korea’s young leader reviewed tanks, multiple-launch rocket systems and other weapons that rolled by.

New missiles

Weapons analysts said they believe some of the missiles on display were new types of intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, including a solid-fuel missile designed to be fired from a submarine, which would make it hard to detect.

Also on display, analysts said, were a midrange missile powerful enough to reach U.S. air bases in Guam, and a new solid-fuel midrange missile that could be fired from land mobile launchers, which would also make it hard to detect before it’s launched.

Military airplanes flew in formation above Kim Il Sung Square where the day’s festivities were held.

Verbal sparing

Pyongyang has been engaged recently in a game of back-and-forth threats with Washington.

The North has said it has developed a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland, but officials say that ability may take more time for development. That, however, did not stop a North Korean army official from warning the United States that any provocation would be met with retaliation. 

“Our toughest counteraction against the U.S. and its vassal forces will be taken in such a merciless manner as not to allow the aggressors to survive,” the official said, according to North Korea’s state news agency.
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US State’s Plan for Several Executions Again Delayed

Posted on by SeeUS

Arkansas’ plan to execute eight men by the end of the month appeared to unravel Friday, with a judge blocking the use of a lethal injection drug and the state’s highest court granting a stay to one of the first inmates who had been scheduled to die.

 

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen issued a temporary restraining order blocking the state from using its supply of vecuronium bromide after a company said it had sold the drug to the state for medical purposes, not capital punishment. Griffen scheduled a hearing Tuesday, the day after the first execution was scheduled.

Halted for now

 

Griffen’s order effectively halts the executions, which had dropped to six after Friday’s state Supreme Court order blocking one execution and a federal judge halting another last week, unless it’s reversed or the state finds a new supply of the drug.

 

Arkansas, which has not executed an inmate since 2005 because of drug shortages and legal challenges, had initially planned to execute eight before the end of April, when its supply of midazolam expires. That plan, if carried out, would have marked the most inmates executed by a state in such a short period since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

 

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office said she planned to file an emergency request with the state Supreme Court to vacate Griffen’s order, saying Griffen shouldn’t handle the case. Local media outlets had tweeted photos and video of Griffen appearing to mimic an inmate strapped to a gurney at an anti-death penalty demonstration outside the Governor’s Mansion Friday afternoon.

One stay issued

 

The order came the same day justices issued a stay for Bruce Ward, who was scheduled to be put to death Monday night for the 1989 death of a woman found strangled in the men’s room of the Little Rock convenience store where she worked. Attorneys asked for the stay after a Jefferson County judge said she didn’t have the authority to halt Ward’s execution. Ward’s attorneys have argued he is a diagnosed schizophrenic with no rational understanding of his impending execution.

 

U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker is also considering the inmates’ arguments that such a compressed schedule could lead to undue pain and suffering. Baker had not ruled by Friday evening. Arkansas scheduled the executions to take place before its supply of midazolam expires at the end of the month.

 

McKesson said it had requested Arkansas return its supply of vecuronium bromide after the San Francisco-based company learned it would be used in executions. The firm said Thursday night the state had assured it would return the drug and the company had even issued a refund, but it never was given back. 

Under Arkansas’ protocol, midazolam is used to sedate the inmate, vecuronium bromide then stops the inmate’s breathing and potassium chloride stops the heart.

Companies don’t want their drugs used

 

Baker is also considering a request from two pharmaceutical companies that their products not be used for capital punishment. Fresenius Kabi USA and West-Ward Pharmaceuticals Corp. filed a court brief Thursday asking the court to prohibit Arkansas from using their drugs.

 

Arkansas’ execution timeline drew condemnation from hundreds of death penalty opponents who rallied at the Capitol waving signs including a large banner that read, “We remember the victims … But not with more killing.” 

The rally was headlined by actor Johnny Depp and Damien Echols, who spent nearly 18 years on Arkansas’ death row before he and two other men, known as the West Memphis Three, were freed in 2011 in a plea deal in which they maintained their innocence.

 

“I didn’t want to come back, but when I heard about the conveyor belt of death that the politicians were trying to set in motion, I guess I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t come back and try to do something,” said Echols, who now lives in New York. 

 
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Death Toll in US Bombing Rises to 94 in Afghanistan

Posted on by SeeUS

An Afghan official says the number of militants killed in an attack by the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military has risen to 94. 

 

Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor in Nangarhar, said Saturday the number of Islamic State group dead was up from the 36 reported a day earlier. 

 

A Ministry of Defense official had said Friday that the number of dead could rise as officials assessed the bomb site in Achin district.

 

The U.S. attack on a tunnel complex in remote eastern Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border killed at least four IS group leaders, Khogyani said. He said a clearance operation was continuing.

 

There had been heavy fighting in the area in recent weeks between Afghan forces and IS militants. 
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Will Robots Replace Human Drivers, Doctors and Other Workers?

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The impact of automation on U.S. jobs is open to debate. Robots have displaced millions of manufacturing workers, and automation is getting cheaper and more common, raising concerns it will eventually supplant far more workers in the services sector of the economy, which includes everything from truck driving to banking. 

University of Virginia Darden School of Business Professor Ed Hess says we are just starting to see automation’s impact. “It is going to be broad and it is going to be deep,” he said, adding that “tens of millions” of jobs could be at risk.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show 5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared already.

While some politicians blame trade for the job losses, most economists say automation is mainly to blame as robots do routine factory tasks previously done by humans. 

Hess calls self-driving cars and trucks a threat to millions of human jobs, and says fast-food workers are also vulnerable, as companies install electronic kiosks to take restaurant orders. McDonalds says displaced workers will be reassigned to other tasks.

The professor says research shows nearly half of U.S. jobs could be automated, including retail store clerks, doctors who scan X-rays for disease, administrative workers, legal staffers, and middle managers.

Future of jobs

Starting more than a century ago, advancing technology changed the United States from an agrarian to a manufacturing economy. Displaced farm hands eventually found factory work, but the transition took years. This new transition may also take a time because, Hess says, “We’re not going to anywhere produce the number of jobs that we automate.”

But 50 years of experience in banking shows that while automation may change the industry, it does not necessarily end jobs for humans. 

The first Automatic Teller Machines, or ATMs, were installed 50 years ago, and there are now 420,000 in the United States. International Monetary Fund analysis shows the number of human tellers did not drop, but rose slightly.

“Humans were doing mostly service and routine types of tasks that could be converted into more automated tasks,” Tremont Capital Group’s Sam Ditzion said. But “the humans then became far more valuable in customer service and in sales in these branches.”

In a Skype interview, Ditzion said that while automation can be “scary,” the oversight of ATMs created new kinds of work for “tens of thousands of people.”

Automation grows

A report by Redwood Software and the Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) says surging investment and falling prices will help robotics grow.

Redwood’s software handles business processes that are repetitive, rule-bound and tedious.

CEBR Economist David Whitaker says as growing fleets of robots take over mundane tasks, higher productivity could bring higher wages for some human workers. He says people who want to stay employed must hone skills that robots can’t handle, such as unpredictable work or the need for an emotional human connection.

One example, according to Alex Bentley of Blue Prism software, is a program that helps law firms examine visa applications. The robot enters data but gets help from a human partner with problems such as missing information. Bentley says some human jobs have been lost, but in other cases displaced workers move within the firm to new work, particularly jobs that are “customer-centric.”

U.S. Senator Chris Coons says Germany and other nations use training programs to help their citizens get and keep jobs in a changing economy. The Democrat says America’s competitors invest six times what the U.S. does in skills development and workforce training, while Washington has slashed funding for such programs. Coons and a Republican colleague, Senator Thom Tillis, are seeking more help for schools, companies, workers and government agencies operating programs to upgrade the workforce.

New opportunities

While workers need to make some changes, philosopher and professor Ed Freeman of UVA’s Darden School of Business says companies also need to rethink their basic purpose. He says businesses must do more than just maximize value for shareholders.

“I need red blood cells to live,” he said. “It doesn’t follow that the purpose of my life is to make red blood cells. Companies need profits to live, it doesn’t follow that the purpose of a company is to make profits. We have to think through this idea about what purpose is in business.”

Freeman says he is “optimistic” because many jobs, such as creating applications for smartphones that would have been unimaginable a few years ago, are creating thousands of opportunities. He is also encouraged by his many students who, he says, bring new ideas, passion and energy to the task of starting businesses that will create new kinds of jobs.

Freeman is convinced that the problem isn’t the tsunami of lost jobs, it is the lack of “really good ideas” for creating a safety net for people who will lose jobs to automation.

Many experts worry about growing levels of automation — particularly advanced forms known as artificial intelligence — hurting employment for U.S. workers.

But U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says it will be “50 or 100 years” before artificial intelligence takes American jobs. In an interview with Mike Allen of AXIOS, Mnuchin said, “I think we are so far away from that, [it is] not even on my radar screen.”
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After Attacks, Egypt’s Pope Curbs Easter Celebrations

Posted on by SeeEA

The Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II on Friday canceled most Easter celebrations, limiting them to a simple Mass, following the recent twin attacks on churches by Islamic State militants that killed dozens of Christian worshippers.

 

During his sermon on Good Friday, Pope Tawadros said, “Easter celebrations shouldn’t come at a time of offering condolences to our martyrs.” He said that the Easter morning reception, in which worshippers exchange greetings, would also be cancelled. In a rare show of discontent and anger, several dioceses and monasteries across the country issued similar statements. After the deadly attacks, Christians blamed the government for failing to protect churches.

 

During Palm Sunday prayers, suicide bombers targeted two separate churches packed with worshippers in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta, killing 45. The Alexandria attack took place as Pope Tawadros was presiding over the service, but managed to escape unharmed.

 

The Islamic State claimed responsibility and vowed to wage more attacks against Christians, who make up 10 percent of the population.

 

The attacks prompted the army chief-turned-president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to declare a three-month-state of emergency. He also ordered deployment of the armed forces to help police secure vital installations including churches.

 

The past days witnessed a sharp increase in security measures across the country, with checkpoints set up along the roads that lead to the main churches in Cairo and its adjoining governorate of Giza.

 

Egypt’s Copts, the Middle East’s largest Christian community, have repeatedly complained of suffering discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at hands of the country’s majority Muslim population.

 

Over the past decades, they have been the immediate targets of Islamic extremists as Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Christians strongly supported longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak before his ouster in 2011. They rallied behind el-Sissi in 2013 as he ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood group. Attacks on Christian homes, businesses and churches subsequently surged, especially in the country’s south.

 

As the community still reels from the shocking bombings, disgruntled Muslims have attacked Christians’ houses and set three on fire in a southern village named Kom al-Lufi, a flashpoint of sectarian tension. The recurrent attacks came after Christians held prayers inside a house, stirring suspicions among the village’s Muslims that Christians were planning to turn the house into a church, a common trigger of sectarian violence.

 

Security forces were deployed on Friday to the village to protect the Christians who were reportedly locked inside their homes for fear of attacks by Muslims.
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US Senator Pushes Back Against Trump’s Proposed Foreign Aid Cuts

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Face-to-face with victims of South Sudan’s famine and civil war, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee strongly defended U.S. foreign aid on Friday despite President Donald Trump’s proposed deep cuts in humanitarian assistance.

Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee visited the world’s fastest-growing refugee crisis in northern Uganda, just across the border from South Sudan, in a pointed response to Trump’s “America First” platform that would slash funds for diplomacy and foreign aid.

Without “U.S. leadership, these people would have no hope,” Corker told The Associated Press in an interview. “I think Americans, if they saw what I see here, and I see in other places, would be glad that our country does what it does.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee holds significant sway over the foreign budget, and the proposed cuts almost certainly would need Corker’s approval.

More for military

The United States is the world’s largest provider of humanitarian assistance and in 2016 gave roughly $2.8 billion in food aid, but the Trump administration has thrown such funding into doubt. At the same time, Trump wants to boost military spending.

At the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, Corker served food to South Sudanese who recently fled fighting in the East African nation, where the United Nations has warned of ethnic cleansing.

A grandmother in a flowing green dress huddled with five of her grandchildren, clutching metal cups of food. The family had walked two weeks to arrive at the refugee camp. Nearby sat a woman with a gaping bullet wound in her ankle.

“The 1 percent that we spend on diplomacy and assistance, if we spend it wisely, then the expectations are that the men and women that we love so much in uniform are less likely to get into a hot war or in harm’s way,” Corker said.

 

Trump’s proposed budget, announced in March, would cut 28 percent of the budget for foreign aid and diplomacy. The budget plan, which still needs approval by Congress, would put pressure on all nearly all foreign aid, according to U.S. officials.

More spending at home

The budget would “spend less money on people overseas and more money on people back home,” Mick Mulvaney, the president’s budget director, said last month after the plan was announced.

Few countries are likely to suffer as much as South Sudan if Trump’s budget is approved. The country is one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid, receiving more than $2 billion from 2014 to 2017.

The world’s youngest nation was plunged into civil war in December 2013, and the fighting contributed to desperate conditions that led the U.N. to declare a famine in February. Roughly 1 million people are said to be on the brink of starvation.

On Friday, South Sudanese refugees told Corker stories of misery. One man described how his hometown of Yei has been ripped apart by ethnic fighting. A woman told Corker how she was raped during her trek to Uganda. And throughout the day, Corker heard the same message again and again.

 

“They are giving us little food,” the woman said. “Food. Food. Food.”

“I don’t know what the answer is when you have brutal leaders who care nothing about the people that they are to govern and are willing to allow their soldiers, their men, to rape, kill, to terrorize people,” Corker told the AP.

Starvation for 20 million

The United Nations says South Sudan is part of the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, along with Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen. The U.N. estimates that 20 million people could starve.

Surrounded by refugees, Corker did not outright criticize Trump’s proposed budget, but he outlined an alternative vision of foreign assistance.

Corker said there is no doubt Trump’s proposed humanitarian and diplomacy cuts are drastic, but added that “I’ve never seen a president’s budget ever come along” without changes.

The senator did not say what the foreign aid budget would be, but he proposed reforms to a law that requires foreign food aid to be grown in the United States and shipped under an American flag.

He blamed a “cartel in Washington” of maritime companies and “a small group of people in Washington” that cause fewer people to be fed. Instead, he said that allowing food aid to be grown closer to the site of a crisis and shipped under any flag would be cheaper and more efficient.

“It’s taken in some cases six months for those products to actually get here,” Corker said.
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Kremlin: No ‘Reliable Information’ on Chechen Gay Killings

Posted on by SeeEU

In the face of growing international concern about reported detentions and killings of gay men in Chechnya, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman says the Kremlin does not have confirmed information on the targeted violence.

The respected Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported this month that police in the predominantly Muslim republic rounded up more than 100 men suspected of homosexuality and that at least three of them have been killed.

Chechen authorities have denied the reports. But the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights and prominent international organizations have urged the Russian government to investigate the reported abuse.

But Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday: “We do not have any reliable information about any problems in this area.”

Novaya Gazeta said in a statement on Friday that it fears for the safety of its journalists after exposing the persecution of gay men in Chechnya, a Muslim-majority republic of Russia.

Novaya Gazeta referred to a large gathering in Chechnya’s main mosque earlier this week which threatened those reporting the story with “reprisals.” The paper’s editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, called on authorities to investigate the threats.

The Russian office of Amnesty International on Friday echoed the concern about the gathering of Chechen elders and clergymen. It reportedly took place several days after the newspaper article and threatened retaliation against those who “insulted the centuries-old foundations of Chechen society and the dignity of Chechen men.”

Amnesty International says it “considers this resolution as a threat of violence against journalists.”

In Washington, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden issued a statement Friday, condemning the persecution and abuse of gay men in Chechnya.

“The human rights abuses perpetrated by Chechen authorities and the culture of impunity that surrounds them means that these hate crimes are unlikely to ever be properly investigated or that the perpetrators will see justice,” Biden said.

The former vice president also called on the current U.S. administration to live up to its promises “to advance human rights for everyone by raising this issue directly with Russia’s leaders.”
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Russia Boycotts Kyiv-hosted Eurovision Event Over Contestant Kerfuffle

Posted on by SeeEU

Russia’s leading state broadcaster has announced plans to boycott the Eurovision 2017 song contest after the host country, Ukraine, barred Russia’s contestant, wheelchair-bound singer Yulia Samoylova, from entering the country.

Kyiv’s decision in late March to ban the 28-year-old Russian paraplegic vocalist stemmed from her June 2015 performance in Crimea, where she appeared without the approval of Ukrainian authorities after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula.

Announcing the boycott Friday, Channel One, the state broadcaster that transmits the competition to large Russian audiences, said event organizers had offered the option of sending a different contestant or having Samoylova perform via video link from Moscow.

“In our view this represents discrimination against the Russian entry, and of course our team will not under any circumstances agree to such terms,” said Yuri Aksyuta, the station’s chief producer for musical and entertainment programs.

The contest organizers also condemned the Ukrainian decision but said the event will go ahead.

In March, a Ukrainian security services official told VOA that the ban on Samoylova was “based solely on the norms of Ukrainian law and national security interests.”

The Kremlin called it political pettiness.

“Practically everyone has been to Crimea; there are hardly any people who haven’t been to Crimea,” said Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Peskov also challenged criticism that Samoylova’s nomination was a deliberately provocative act by Kremlin officials — an attempt to make Kyiv appear cruel for restricting participation of a disabled artist.

“We don’t see anything provocative in this,” Peskov said, explaining that Channel One producers had nominated Samoylova independently.

Despite the high-blown kerfuffle, Ukrainian political analyst Mikhail Bassarab told VOA that Ukraine’s law can’t allow for exceptions.

“On the basis of Ukraine and international law, the Russian contestant violated the law,” he told VOA’s Russian service. “Naturally, anybody, including this particular Russian citizen, should be barred entry into Ukraine. There is nothing personal in this position. We can’t make exceptions … [just because] they were nominated for an international contest or have a disability.”

Politics or entertainment?

Ukrainian political analyst Yaroslav Makitra says Kyiv’s ban touches on a broader range of questions.

“It’s critical to decide what matters to us more, politics or entertainment,” he said. “If it’s politics, then we should have said ‘no’ to hosting Eurovision. … But if we want to promote the Ukraine across the globe, then we need to seek legislative and legal opportunities that would allow the Russian contestants to come to Ukraine.”

Otherwise, he said, Kyiv risks turning Eurovision into a competition of political finger-pointing.

Samoylova, a 2013 runner-up in the Russian version of The X Factor, who also performed at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Paralympics, says that if she were permitted to perform, political tensions would be far from her mind.

“I’m simply not thinking about that. It is all out of the mix and it’s not very important,” she said. “I sing and my goal is to sing well, to represent Russia and not to embarrass myself.”

Frank Dieter Freiling, chairman of Eurovision’s steering committee, issued a statement Friday condemning Kyiv’s decision to ban Samoylova on the ground that it violates Eurovision’s ethos as a nonpolitical event.

“However, preparations continue apace for the Eurovision Song Contest in the host city, Kyiv. Our top priority remains to produce a spectacular Eurovision Song Contest.”

Dima Bilan was the last Russian to win Eurovision in 2008. The 62nd international song contest will be held in May in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

Svetlana Cunningham translated from Russian. This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Russian service. Some information is from Reuters.
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US Sending F-35 Fighters to Europe for Training, Pentagon Says

Posted on by SeeEU

The U.S. Air Force will this weekend deploy a small number of F-35A fighter jets to Europe for several weeks of training with other U.S. and NATO military aircraft, the Pentagon said Friday.

In a statement, the Pentagon said that the deployment would allow the U.S. Air Force to “further demonstrate the operational capabilities” of the stealth jet. It did not say where the aircraft would be sent.

The F-35, which is the Pentagon’s costliest arms program, has been dogged by problems. The Pentagon’s chief arms buyer once described as “acquisition malpractice” the decision to produce jets before completing development.

During last year’s presidential election campaign, Donald Trump criticized Lockheed Martin Corp. for the F-35’s cost overruns. Days after taking office in January, Trump announced his administration had been able to cut $600 million from the latest U.S. deal to buy about 90 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

The United States is expected to spend $391 billion over 15 years to buy about 2,443 of the F-35 aircraft.

F-35s are in use by the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, and by Australia, Britain, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands and Israel. Japan took delivery of its first jet in December.
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Russia, Iran, Syria Issue Warning Against Another Syria Strike

Posted on by SeeEU

Russia, Syria and Iran have warned the United States against launching new strikes on Syria and called for an international investigation into the chemical weapons attack in Syria.

The foreign ministers from Russia, Syria and Iran, meeting Friday in Moscow, said any further unilateral action by the U.S. in Syria would be met with “grave consequences” and pose a danger to the entire world.

The U.S. fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at Syria’s al-Shayrat air base last week in response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria days earlier.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the circumstances surrounding the chemical attack in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed more than 80 people were still not clear.

He criticized the world’s chemical weapons watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, for not sending experts to the site of the attack to investigate.

“We consider it unacceptable to analyze events from a distance,” he said. Lavrov said the investigation should also be widened to include experts from many nations.

Russia has rejected accusations from Western countries that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was behind the attack. Russia has alleged that the victims were killed when Syrian warplanes hit a rebel chemical arsenal. The U.S. accuses Assad of deliberately launching the attack.

“The use of chemical weapons as a pretext for violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of an independent state — a member of the United Nations — is a very dangerous activity,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said. “It is essential to prevent such acts as the events in Khan Sheikhoun in [the] future.”

Lavrov said the U.S. missile strike on Syria was Washington seeking “excuses for regime change.” He added, “These attempts will not succeed, this will not happen.”

Lavrov met Friday with his counterparts from Syria and Iran after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Moscow earlier this week. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said Friday’s meeting sent a “strong message” to Washington.

Russia and Iran are strong allies of Assad’s government and have backed the president during Syria’s six-year civil war.
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South Sudan Rebels Allied With Machar Take Control of Raja

Posted on by SeeAF

Rebels with the South Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), allied with rebel leader Riek Machar, on Friday attacked Raja town, the capital of Lol state.

SPLM-IO Secretary-General Tingo Peter confirmed his forces now controlled Raja after clashing with government troops.

“Since 12 o’clock, we captured Raja, and it is now totally under our control. Even now, our forces are looking for the governor. They are trying to see where he is,” Peter said.

Lol Governor Rizik Zachariah Gassan and his entire cabinet fled the area, according to Peter.

Peter said the SPLM-IO was asking civilians in Raja to remain calm as their forces combed the town for government soldiers who might be hiding in residential areas.

“Now they are with us and they are safe,” Peter said. “We give them protection, but the problem is we can’t manage to offer them food or water.”

He urged the international community to intervene and help civilians in Raja town. He said the SPLM-IO would also protect all aid workers in the area.

Raja resident Issa Ramadan confirmed to South Sudan in Focus that Raja was under the control of SPLM-IO rebels. Ramadan said he could see from inside his home that rebel forces were moving around the town with tanks they captured from government forces a few hours earlier.

“At around 2 p.m., the rebels attacked the town and now they took over,” Ramadan said. “Many citizens have run out into the bush and some have sought refuge in the Catholic church compound.”

The coordinator of Lol state in Juba, Ibrahim Surur, confirmed that there was fighting in his state but declined to provide details. He said he tried to call officials in Raja, but most were not answering their calls.

WFP deaths

Meanwhile, the World Food Program (WFP) said Friday that three of its contract workers were killed in Wau this week.

Daniel James, Ecsa Tearp and Ali Elario, all citizens of South Sudan, reportedly died Monday as they tried to make their way to a WFP warehouse, where they worked as porters.

A WFP statement released Friday said two died of machete wounds and the third was shot to death.

“We are outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of our colleagues, who worked every day to help provide lifesaving food to millions of their fellow countrymen,” said WFP Country Director Joyce Luma. “Their dedication will not be forgotten, and we call on the South Sudanese authorities to hold those responsible for this unspeakable violence accountable for their actions.”

WFP learned of the workers’ deaths Thursday from the subcontractor that employed them.
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More Than 2,000 Migrants Rescued in Dramatic Day in Mediterranean

Posted on by SeeEU

More than 2,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were plucked from the Mediterranean on Friday in a series of dramatic rescues and one person was found dead, officials and witnesses said.

An Italian coast guard spokesman said 19 rescue operations by the coast guard or ships operated by non-governmental organizations had saved a total of 2,074 migrants on 16 rubber dinghies and three small wooden boats.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a tweet that one teenager was found dead in a rubber boat whose passengers were rescued by its ship Aquarius.

“The sea continues to be a graveyard,” MSF said in a Tweet.

The coast guard spokesman confirmed that one person had died but gave no details.

MSF said two of their ships, Aquarius and Prudence, had rescued about 1,000 people in nine boats.

Desperate refugees struggled to stay afloat after they slid off their rubber boat during a rescue operation by the Phoenix, a ship of the rescue group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

Video footage showed rescuers jumping into the water off the coast of Libya to help them.

“In 19 years of covering the migration story, I have never experienced anything like today,” said Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi, who was aboard the Phoenix.

In one operation, the Phoenix rescued 134 people, all from sub-Saharan counties, he said.

Those rescued by the MOAS and MSF ships were transferred to Italian coast guard ships, which had rescued other migrants, to be taken to Italian ports.

According to the International Organization for Migration, nearly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year. More than 650 have died or are missing.
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Two Suspects Arrested in Congo Murder of UN Workers; One Escapes

Posted on by SeeAF

Congolese authorities have arrested two people suspected of involvement in the murder of two U.N. workers in central Democratic Republic of Congo, but one of the prisoners has escaped, a senior prosecutor said Friday.

The announcement was the first reported sign of progress in an inquiry into the deaths of American Michael Sharp and Swede Zaida Catalan, investigators monitoring U.N. Security Council sanctions against individuals and armed groups in Congo.

Their bodies were discovered in a shallow grave on March 27, two weeks after they disappeared in the remote and sparsely populated Kasai-Central province.

Their Congolese interpreter and three Congolese motorbike drivers who accompanied them have not been found, according to the United Nations.

General Joseph Ponde, the army’s top prosecutor, did not say when the two suspects were arrested, but said the remaining one had been transferred between facilities on April 4 — meaning the operation must have happened more than a week ago.

He referred to the one suspect in custody, Daniel Mbayi Kabasele, as an “insurgent,” without offering further detail or suggesting a motive.

Four police officers responsible for guarding the suspects had been arrested following the escape, he told journalists.

The U.N. mission in Congo had no immediate comment.

Millions died in regional conflicts in eastern Congo between 1996-2003, most from hunger and disease, and dozens of armed groups continue to fight over natural resources and prey on the civilian population.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed and more than one million displaced since last August in central Congo’s Kasai region due to fighting between a local militia and security forces. The United Nations has identified at least 23 mass graves.

Meanwhile, Congo has suspended its military cooperation with former colonial power Belgium in protest against criticism last week by Belgium’s foreign minister of President Joseph Kabila’s selection of a new prime minister, defense minister Crispin Atama Tabe told Reuters on Friday.

The move underlines growing tensions between Congo and international powers, who are pushing for an election by the end of the year to replace Kabila after he refused to step down when his constitutional mandate expired in December.

Belgian foreign minister Didier Reynders said the nomination of Bruno Tshibala violated the spirit of a December deal with the opposition to form an interim power-sharing government.

Belgian defense ministry spokeswoman Laurence Mortier confirmed that Congo had informed Belgium of its intention to end the cooperation, which included around 30 Belgian military trainers in Congo who may be withdrawn as a result.
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Ugandan Inventors Invent Better Way to Diagnose Pneumonia

Posted on by SeeAF

Three university engineering graduates in Uganda are taking on one of the leading killers of young children in Africa – pneumonia. They say the prototype of their invention, a “smart jacket”  they have named Mama’s Hope, can diagnose the illness faster and more accurately than the current medical protocol.

Four-month-old Nakato Christine writhes on a hospital bed, breathing fast. On the other end of the bed is her twin sister, in the same condition.

Nakato coughs as Senior Nurse Kyebatala Loy adjusts the nasal gastric tube.

“They have been put on oxygen because they have difficulty in breathing and the feeding is also difficult because of their fast breathing,” Kyebatala said.

Since January, 352 babies have been admitted with pneumonia to pediatric ward 16 at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala.

Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of death for children under five years of age in Africa and south Asia, according to the World Health Organization. In 2015, pneumonia killed nearly a million children worldwide.

A key problem is the challenge involved in diagnosing the disease. The sooner the sick children start receiving antibiotics, the better their chance of survival. But health workers armed with stethoscopes and thermometers can miss the infection in its early stage. Dr. Flavia Mpanga of the U.N. Children’s Fund in Kampala says other methods, like the respiratory timer, can lead to misdiagnosis.

“If you see the respiratory timer, it’s got a ticking mechanism that confuses the community health workers. When they are taking the breathe rates, they confuse the ticking sound of the respiratory timer with the breathe rates and every child is almost diagnosed with pneumonia,” said Dr. Mpanga.

She says over-diagnosis means some children are taking antibiotics they don’t need, which is also a public health problem.

A trio of recent university engineering graduates in Uganda think they have an answer. They have been working with the Mulago School of Public Health to test a prototype of their invention, the smart jacket, called Mama’s Hope.

Two of the inventors, 26-year-old Beseufekad Shifferaw and 25-year-old Brian Turyabagye, gave VOA a demonstration.

“Ahh so…[zipper sound]… the jacket…is placed on the child…first, this goes around the child and then the falcon fastening is placed, and then the flaps are placed…[fade out]”

“This jacket will simply measure the vital signs of pneumonia. That is the breathing rate, the state of the lungs and the temperature,” said Turyabagye. “Now those signs are transmitted to our unit here, through which a health worker can read off the readings, which include cough, chest pains, nausea or difficulty in breathing. With those additional signs and symptoms, they are coupled with the result that has been measured by the jacket and it gives a more accurate diagnosis result.”

For now, it is just a prototype. But the inventors say their tests have shown that the smart jacket can diagnose pneumonia three times faster than traditional exams.

UNICEF has put the team in touch with its office in Copenhagen in charge of innovations to help them advance in the pre-trial stage. Dr. Mpanga sees potential.

“My only hope is that this jacket can reach a commercial value and be regulatory-body approved so that it can help the whole world,” said Dr. Mpanga.

Dr. Mpanga says taking the guess work out of pneumonia diagnosis could save countless lives in the developing world.
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Turkey Ponders Re-evaluating, Suspending All Migrant Deals with EU

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Turkey says it may re-evaluate or suspend all migrant agreements with the European Union if it does not receive a positive response from the bloc on visa-free travel for Turks.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during an interview with broadcaster A Haber Friday the migrant deal and visa liberalization were a package, and therefore it was Turkey’s right to re-evaluate or suspend those if one element was not fulfilled.

Cavusoglu also said Turkey had no issues with Russia at present and would strengthen cooperation on a cease-fire and political solution in Syria, after a chemical attack blamed on Syrian government forces killed about 100 civilians in rebel-held Idlib province.

The attack prompted the United States to launch dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles from U.S. Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean on a Syrian air base.

The strike, the first direct U.S. action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and President Donald Trump’s biggest military decision since taking office, marked a dramatic escalation in U.S. involvement in Syria’s six-year war.

 
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Seasonal Businesses Scramble to Stay Afloat Without Foreign Workers

Posted on by SeeUS

Along northeastern Cape Cod off the coast of Massachusetts, April doesn’t usually equate with sunshine and sandcastles. The month is mostly a time of waiting for the fog and chill to lift off the Atlantic Ocean and the tourists to arrive.

But this year is a problem for seasonal businesses, whose model is built around five-to-six-month, low-skilled jobs in areas like hospitality. Few Americans are willing to fill them and now, thousands of foreign seasonal workers may not be allowed into the U.S. to take them.

Changes to the U.S. temporary work visa program, called H2B, are keeping out the workers that businesses count on.

For affected businesses, the financial loss could be plenty.

“It could be 20 percent,” said Allen Sylvester, president of American Tent & Table, Inc., a family-owned tent rental and party accessory business in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Sylvester, who has been with the company since 1996, says it earns roughly 85 to 90 percent of its profits in five months — the region’s outdoor wedding season. Fully staffed, the company employs seven to eight Americans and 13 H2B visa workers.

Normally it’s the former group Sylvester has a hard time hiring. But last September, Congress failed to renew a provision that effectively quadrupled the number of H2B visas available in 2016 by not counting returnees against the annual cap. This year, instead of potentially 264,000 visas, there are 66,000 — half allocated in the spring, the other half in the fall.

Businesses in colder areas like Cape Cod, which typically have later start dates, find themselves at a loss. By the time many could complete their visa applications, the cap had been reached.

“Instead of bringing 3,000 workers here, we right now are bringing 300 workers,” said Jane Nichols Bishop, president of Peak Season Workforce, a family-owned business that helps local companies secure annual H2B visas.

Bishop, who calls herself “Mama Visa,” says the 90-day application process that businesses must follow to gain seasonal employment is stringent, including evidence of advertising to recruit American workers.

Of the 171 applications she personally filed for clients, Bishop says 24 made their way through the Department of Homeland Security before all the visas were gone.

Why not hire more Americans?

At 3.4 percent, the February unemployment rate in Massachusetts is lower than the current national average, 4.5 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But as Falmouth, Massachusetts, resident Paul Skudder said, the numbers don’t paint the whole picture on Cape Cod, a community with a growing number of retirees and decreasing number of youth.

“There is a limited number of job opportunities on the Cape for college-educated professional or near professional people, which overall leads to a little bit of an exodus of bright, educated young people,” Skudder said.

Eligible job seekers who are willing to accept low-skilled employment, generally need a permanent source of income. And students can offer just three months of labor during their summer breaks, not five or six.

The well-being of the younger population is also a factor. In 2015, Cape Cod suffered the highest per capita death rate by opioid overdose in Massachusetts and remains one of the most affected areas in the country.

“A lot of the kids I used to know have now passed away,” said Prince Wright, who attended high school in Falmouth. “That’s the big problem right now … most of our locals are not coming in no more. Either they’re locked up or they moved away because of the changes on the Cape.”

More effort needed?

But along Main Street in the Cape’s largest town, not all are convinced that businesses are trying their best to hire local.

“It’s good for the [foreigners] that are coming over here on work visas, but it also takes away from the people that are living on the streets that can work,” said Mary Richard. “I just think it’s hard on the people here too.”

Politicians are divided on the H2B visa program, seeing it as either economically exploitative or a job-killer for Americans.

Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, send mixed messages. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the country’s top law enforcement official, has called the H2B program “detrimental to wages and job opportunities of American workers.” But Donald Trump, before he was president, employed H2B workers during peak resort season at his Florida golf club, Mar-a-Lago.

H2B-reliant businesses worry that the visa is unfairly lumped into Trump’s hard-line stance on immigration. And in Bishop’s mind, some legislators simply don’t understand seasonal economies.

“When people come to Cape Cod and the islands, they come to see and visit us. It’s full employment, we are busy, there’s traffic, so they don’t even realize there is a labor shortage,” Bishop said. “But when you come here in January, you may be the only car on the road for quite a while.”

Hiring strategy

Jim Underdah, general manager at the Coonamessett Inn, considers himself one of the lucky few to secure his share of foreign seasonal workers from Jamaica. Still, a backlog in the system has delayed their arrival and forced him to repurpose the limited workforce he retains year-round.

In anticipation of this, Underdah says many businesses like his choose to employ workers full-time even during the offseason, when he doesn’t need them.

“I have people in the kitchen that we work 40 hours for the winter, so they’re not going to leave me,” Underdah said. “They’re gonna say, ‘Hey, they’re treating us good.’ They’re going to be here this spring. They’re going to get me through till hopefully the workers get in.”

Paul Dean, who runs a seafood retail and catering business, was not as lucky. Lacking the workforce he needs to keep his multiple operations running, he says he may be forced to close one of his locations a couple days a week.

Like Sylvester, Dean predicts this would amount to a loss of 20 percent of annual income.

“That means I’m buying 20 percent less product from local vendors,” Dean said. “We’re obviously collecting 20 percent less in meals tax toward the state. We’re not paying payroll taxes … there’s a huge trickle-down effect.”

Dean and Sylvester are crossing their fingers for a last-ditch effort by lawmakers to reinstate an H2B returning worker exemption before April 28, as part of its fiscal year 2017 federal spending bill. But in case that doesn’t happen, Sylvester offers last-resort advice for summer tourists.

“If you’re going to stay over, bring your sheets and some towels,” he joked, “because there’s going to be no one to clean your room.”
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In France, 4 Presidential Candidates in Tight Race

Posted on by SeeEU

France’s presidential election race looked tighter than it has all year Friday. With nine days to go until voting begins, a new opinion poll put the four leading candidates 3 percentage points apart.

The two highest scorers in the first round April 23 will go through to contest a run-off May 7.

According to a poll by Ipsos-Sopra Steria, centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen were tied on 22 percent each, with the far-left’s Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative Francois Fillon at 20 and 19 percent respectively.

That made the most likely second-round scenario one that pits Le Pen against Macron — a scenario that is consistent with most other surveys. The poll showed Macron winning that face-off with 63 percent of votes.

Other polls have also been showing the race tightening during April, with the two leaders losing ground and the chasing pair, especially Melenchon, picking up support. 
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Judges Ask EU to Lift Le Pen’s Parliament Immunity

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French judges investigating far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s alleged misuse of European Union funds to pay for party assistants have asked for her European parliamentary immunity to be lifted, a judicial source said Friday.

The latest twist in Le Pen’s legal woes was revealed nine days before the first round of the French presidential election, in which opinion polls see her finishing first or second and qualifying for a crucial second round in May.

The French judges’ request, signed March 29 and filed with the prosecutor’s office and the justice ministry, is unlikely to be approved by European lawmakers before the election.

Asked on franceinfo TV station whether she was calling on EU lawmakers to reject the request, Le Pen said: “It’s a debate that we will have at the European parliament’s legal committee” and declined to comment further.

Last month, European lawmakers lifted her immunity in a separate case, which concerns her tweeting pictures of Islamic State violence.

Although Le Pen is consistently seen by pollsters as making the second-round runoff on May 7, she has lost some support in the last few weeks, falling from a high of 27 percent in February to 23.5 percent most recently in a daily Ifop poll of voting intentions for the first round.

Her refusal to go to a police summons over the EU funds allegations, which she based on having immunity as an EU lawmaker, may have played a role in this, some analysts say.

A fringe candidate in the presidential election, far-left car factory worker Philippe Poutou, used this to challenge her during a TV debate earlier this month.

His line — “When we workers are summoned by the police, we do go there, we don’t have workers immunity” — left Le Pen silent and was widely picked up on social media. 
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Uzbekistan: Sweden Warned About Suspect in Truck Attack

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Uzbekistan’s security services passed information on Rakhmat Akilov, the man accused of ramming a truck into a crowd of people in Stockholm last week, to the West before the deadly attack, Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said Friday.

Kamilov told reporters Akilov had been recruited by the Islamic State militant group after he left the Central Asian nation in 2014 and settled in Sweden.

“According to the information that we have, he actively urged his compatriots to travel to Syria in order to fight on Islamic State’s side,” Kamilov said, adding that Akilov had used online messaging services.

“Earlier (before the attack), information on Akilov’s criminal actions had been passed by security services to one of our Western partners so that the Swedish side could be informed,” he said without identifying the intermediary country or organization.

An Uzbek security source said this week that Akilov had tried to travel to Syria himself in 2015 to join Islamic State but was detained at the Turkish-Syrian border and deported back to Sweden.

The source added that in February Uzbekistan’s authorities put him on a wanted list for people suspected of religious extremism. 
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