Thirty years ago this week, the world eyes focused on the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl, where the world’s worst nuclear accident was contaminating swaths of what was then the Soviet Union. Now, that nuclear wasteland is being transformed into a solar farm that could generate as much energy as two units of the doomed nuclear plant. VOA’s Oksana Ligostova reports from Kyiv, narrated by Steve Redisch.
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Month: April 2017
Explosion Near Airport Rocks Damascus
A massive explosion in Syria early Thursday struck near the Damascus International Airport, resulting in a fire and questions about its cause.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict in Syria, said the blast did not happen at the airport itself, but could be heard within the city of Damascus 25 kilometers away.
Lebanon’s pro-Hezbollah al-Manar television said the explosion was the result of airstrikes by Israeli warplanes. Reuters quoted an Israeli military spokeswoman saying, “We can’t comment on such reports.”
Throughout the Syrian war, which began in March 2011, Israel has made it clear it would not allow shipments of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah units fighting in Syria. Israeli forces have on multiple occasions used airstrikes or other attacks to stop such moves, with the military often declining to confirm it was responsible for the strikes. Hezbollah and Israel fought each other in the 2006 Lebanon War.
Hezbollah fighters have openly fought in Syria on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad since 2013.
your ad hereMcCain Calls for Greater US, EU Engagement in Balkans
Increased U.S. and European engagement in the Western Balkans will be critical to countering an increasingly assertive Russian in the region, Republican Arizona Senator John McCain told VOA Wednesday.
McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made the comments shortly after returning from a tour of the region, which included a stop in Montenegro, whose U.S.-backed accession to NATO has been vigorously opposed by Russia.
“Some age-old, some new tensions in the region require our attention, and my concern is that as our attention has been diverted to Ukraine, the Middle East, to China … and it’s very clear the Russians are trying to extend their malign influence in the region,” he said. “The attempt at a coup in Montenegro is a graphic example of that.”
A provocation for Russia
Russia has described Montenegro’s NATO membership as a provocation, because of the country’s geographical proximity to Russia. The Kremlin has long seen the Balkans as inside its sphere of influence.
Further evidence of Russian influence in campaigns in Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo, McCain added, are “a result of a lack of American and European leadership.”
“We fought a conflict there. There was enormous loss of life, and we seemed to have walked away in recent years,” he said.
The European Reassurance Initiative, launched by the Obama White House in 2014, represents the kind of joint military-diplomatic strategy that McCain wants the U.S. to replicate throughout southeastern Europe. Under that program, which boosted the U.S. military presence in Poland and the Baltics, the U.S. plans to quadruple military spending in Europe to $3.4 billion in 2017.
“In the Baltics we are doing some very interesting and useful things,” McCain said, referring to U.S.-NATO troop rotations, the stockpiling of military hardware and the formation of a rapid-reaction force designed to counter Russian military aggression, such as Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. “And yet, to a large degree, we seem to be ignoring arguably the most volatile place in Europe.”
Macedonia’s importance
He called the “very dynamic and explosive situation in Macedonia” just one example of where increased U.S. advocacy and mediation will be vital to de-escalating regional tensions.
“It’s not in anybody’s interest to the see the breakup of Macedonia. No one should ever, ever forget that two world wars were spawned at a bridge in Sarajevo, with the assassination of [Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria],” he said. “…I’m not predicting a world war or even conflict, but I am saying the tensions are rising and the situation is deteriorating.”
U.S. and Western allies, he said, should also stabilize the region via the soft-diplomacy of aid packages targeting increased employment, youth engagement and counterterror efforts.
A balance in Serbia
Despite increasing political power consolidation in nearby Hungary and Bulgaria, McCain said Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s ascension to power in Serbia, which has long-established ties to Russia, means the newly elected president-elect will need to strike a diplomatic balance.
“He (Vucic) knows the citizenry is much more pro-European than it is pro-Russian, and I don’t think he wants to be perceived as being too closely aligned with Russia,” McCain said. “I found my conversations with him productive.”
Trump, Russia ties
Asked about an executive branch investigation into ties between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia, McCain said, “There will be more shoes to drop before this is over.”
On May 8, a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear testimony regarding the issue from Sally Yates, former acting attorney general, and James Clapper, former director of national intelligence.
That subcommittee will be headed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, one of McCain’s closest political allies.
This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Serbian Service.
your ad hereA Grand Solar Farm Is About to Launch at Chernobyl
It’s hard to think all the way back to the events of April 26, 1986. Nonetheless, it has become a standout moment in a world of nuclear accidents: Chernobyl.
In the early days of what would become the world’s worst nuclear accident, 32 people died and dozens of others suffered painful radiation burns.
It took Swedish authorities reporting the fallout to prompt the Soviets to admit an accident had occurred.
For years, it seemed that all the people who chose to stay in Chernobyl mourned, and tried to manage.
The area was ignored for decades, first by the Soviet government and later by the Ukrainian government.
In Photos: 31 Years Later, Chernobyl Disaster Remembered
Then, suddenly, there were signs of activity, perhaps even renewal.
“Today, almost a year after we have started the work, I can announce the first private investment project working in the Chernobyl zone to build a small solar energy plant,” Ostap Semerak, Ukraine’s minister of ecology, said in an exclusive interview with VOA.
It’s projected to be completed in May.
Watch: Solar Power Farm Sprouts at Chernobyl Nuclear Site
More than 50 companies — energy giants and small companies alike — have submitted their applications, expressing interest in the solar farm in the Exclusion Zone. When this park becomes a reality, all the fields combined will be able to produce half of the power that had been produced by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the early days.
“Cumulatively, those would be enough to produce 2.5 gigawatts of power, which would be 2,500 megawatts,” said Semerak. “This is comparable to the output by two units of a nuclear power plant. This is about half the capacity which the Chernobyl power plant had before the disaster.”
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New South Sudan Fighting Displaces 25,000 People
At least 25,000 people were displaced after fighting in the town of Kodok, according to a spokesman for the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, one day after the top United Nations official in South Sudan warned of a government offensive on the town.
The fighting has caused a reduction in humanitarian services and a shortage of water for the displaced, Phillippe Carr told the Associated Press. Civilians are fleeing to the nearby South Sudanese town of Aburoc, Carr said.
On Tuesday, there were reports of shelling in the town of Kodok. On Wednesday, the town was feared deserted with military helicopters sighted nearby.
South Sudan’s government troops were on an offensive in Kodok and the Upper Nile region, head of the U.N. mission in South Sudan, David Shearer, told members of the Security Council on Tuesday. He warned that 70,000 civilians could be displaced.
“Virtually no part of the country is immune from conflict,” Shearer told the 15-member body at the U.N. He added there “has been no concerted effort by any party to adhere to a cease-fire.”
The government offensive in Kodok appears to be one of the most significant so far this year, causing disarray among rebel leader Johnson Olony and his Shilluk forces. It is also expected to create a flow of civilians fleeing into neighboring Sudan.
Shearer told a press conference at U.N. headquarters in New York on Wednesday that “there are increasing numbers of people crossing into Sudan” from Kodok, and he thanked the Sudanese government for opening corridors from the north of South Sudan.
The U.N. envoy said the number of people fleeing South Sudan reached about 60,000 per month in the first three months of the year.
If that rate continues, Shearer said, before the end of 2017 “we’ll have more than two million people who will be refugees.”
He said religious leaders in the “critical town” of Torit in Eastern Equatoria in the south told him recently that 75 percent of the town’s population had fled to Uganda.
On Wednesday, the chief monitor of the peace deal, former Botswanan President Festus Mogae, said South Sudan was experiencing “a crisis within a crisis.”
“Men, women and children are suffering and dying of starvation because the leadership at various levels is failing to prevent it,” Mogae said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross also evacuated its aid workers from Kodok, spokeswoman Alyona Synenko told AP.
A spokesman for South Sudan’s military was not available for comment.
The attack on Kodok comes after a flurry of recent government offensives across South Sudan, and questions the legitimacy of an August 2015 peace deal signed by President Salva Kiir.
Since the August peace deal was signed, the opposition has fragmented and the U.N. has noted the presence of ethnic cleansing and declared famine in two counties. Around 1 million people are at risk of starvation in South Sudan and more than 1.7 million people have fled the country.
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Pakistani Militants Kill 10 Border Guards, Iran State Media Say
Ten Iranian border guards were killed and three others were wounded Wednesday in a “terrorist attack” launched from inside Pakistan, Iranian state media said.
The border guards were patrolling in Mirjaveh in Sistan-Baluchestan province, southeastern Iran.
The militant group called Jaish-ul-Adl, or the Army of Justice, claimed responsibility for the attack, the state media said.
Sistan-Baluchestan province has long been plagued by unrest from both drug-smuggling gangs and separatist militants. The population of the province is predominantly Sunni Muslim; the majority of Iranians are Shi’ite.
Eight Iranian border guards were killed in clashes with Sunni rebels in 2015. Two years earlier, Jaish-ul-Adl killed 14 border guards in an attack
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Somali Pirate Gets Life in Prison for Attack on US Naval Ship
A Somali pirate will be spending the rest of his life in a U.S. federal prison for attacking an American Navy ship in 2010.
Mohamed Farah, 31, was sentenced Wednesday for piracy and other acts in connection with the armed attack on the USS Ashland in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Djibouti.
Three other defendants already got life sentences, while two more were given 15- and 33-year prison terms.
The pirates set out to hijack another ship, but were stopped by a British naval vessel. They then turned their sights on the Ashland, pelting the ship with small-arms fire.
The Ashland returned fire, setting the pirates’ small boat ablaze and forcing them into the sea.
The Ashland was not damaged and no one on board was hurt.
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31 Years Later, Chernobyl Disaster Remembered
Thirty-one years ago this week, the world eyes focused on the Ukrainian city of Chornobyl, where the world’s worst nuclear accident was contaminating large swaths of what was then called the Soviet Union. Three years ago, VOA’s Steve Herman visited the area, photographing monuments and artifacts near the Chernobyl reactor site.
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Turkey Arrests 1,000 in Sped-up Anti-Gulen Crackdown
Turkish authorities say they have arrested more than 1,000 people and suspended 9,100 policemen in an accelerated crackdown on alleged supporters of cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The government blames the exiled cleric for orchestrating last year’s failed military coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Officials said Wednesday 1,009 “secret imams” who infiltrated the police and other state-run agencies were arrested. More than 9,100 police personnel suspected of being Gulen backers were suspended.
“In Turkey, there was an attempted coup with a goal of toppling the government and destroying the state,” Erdogan told the Reuters News Agency. “We are trying to cleanse members of FETO inside the armed forces, inside the judiciary, and inside the police,” he said using the government’s acronym for the Gulen group.
Turkey has arrested or fired more than 160,000 alleged coup organizers and participants since last July.
Gulen, who lives in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, denies playing any part in the coup. The State Department has balked at Turkey’s demand for his extradition, citing a lack of concrete evidence.
The latest arrests come a little more than a week after Turkish voters narrowly approved a referendum to expand Erdogan’s presidential powers and weaken parliament — a move the opposition says could destroy Turkish democracy and secular traditions.
Supporters say it will bring stability to Turkey after years of political uncertainty that came with power-sharing coalition governments.
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Zambian Opposition Leader Remains in Jail
Zambia’s opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has been behind bars for two weeks.
He will remain there as a judge in Magistrate’s Court said Wednesday he did not have the power to rule on a defense motion to drop the charge of treason. Zambia does not allow bail for treason cases.
The spokesman for Hichilema’s UPND party, Charles Kakoma, told VOA Wednesday the defense has filed another application to dispute the treason charge before another magistrate court. Those proceedings were adjourned until Thursday.
Amnesty International has criticized the case as “political persecution through prosecution” and called for Hichilema’s immediate release.
“We also can see that the state is struggling to formulate the treason charge, given the continued changes in the structure of the treason charges,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for Southern Africa. “So I am not calling for the president to intervene in any kind of thing. I am just calling for charges to be dropped because there are no bases to sustain the charges.”
Interference of president’s motorcade
In the charge sheet before the court Wednesday, the prosecution said the treason charge stems from an incident on April 8 in which Hichilema’s motorcade failed to give way to the president’s. The prosecution accuses Hichilema and five members of his staff of collaborating with 60 others in obstructing President Edgar Lungu’s motorcade in a way that could cause harm or death to the president.
Hichilema’s United Party for National Development has rejected the charge.
This is the second time the opposition leader has been arrested since disputed elections in August. Hichilema refused to recognize Lungu as the winner.
His detention this month has caused political tensions to climb again. Several incidents of public buildings being set alight have been reported.
A matter for the courts
Some have called for Lungu to release Hichilema, but presidential spokesman Amos Chanda told VOA’s Daybreak Africa Wednesday that is a matter for the courts.
“The position of the president remains the same,” Chanda said. “That he respects the due process of the law and that his intervention in any court matter is only possible once the due process of the law is complete.”
If convicted on treason charges, Hichilema faces a minimum jail term of 15 years. The maximum sentence is the death penalty.
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Tensions Deepen Over Chinese Traders in Uganda
This month saw hundreds of Ugandan shop owners march in Kampala against Chinese traders. Local merchants and some city officials want foreigners barred from petty commerce. The government has promised to address the long standing tensions.
Inexpensive Chinese goods are common in the markets of downtown Kampala, where locals operate small businesses selling the imported merchandise. But it has also become increasingly common for Chinese in Uganda to set up shops selling the same items, only cheaper.
Local shop owner Everest Kayondo, the Kampala Capital City Traders Association chairman, says it is time the government barred foreigners from petty trade.
“If your manufacturer who has been selling to you establishes a shop in your home country and is doing both retail and wholesale, you will be ruled out of business. Number two, China is also having a policy of giving tax rebates to their nationals. Once they export, the Chinese will be entitled to a tax rebate, which will make their goods a lot cheaper than their Ugandan counterparts,” Kayondo said.
Uganda has seen sporadic protests on this issue since 2009. Some Chinese have since been deported for working in the country illegally.
But local traders say that is not enough. Last week, they took to Kampala streets blowing whistles and carrying placards with slogans like “Leave our markets.” Government officials were able to talk the traders out of holding a three-day strike.
There is no law in Uganda prohibiting foreigners with work permits from engaging in petty trade. But Ugandan traders complain about foreigners, especially Chinese nationals, who they say come into the country claiming to be large-scale investors, but set up small businesses without proper registration.
Within or outside the law?
VOA spoke to China’s ambassador to Uganda, Zheng Zhu Qiang, who insisted the traders are not breaking any laws.
“Chinese businessmen are within the legal bordering and no one violates the law, but there is phenomenon because someone is not happy. I think we should resolve this issue by law. And another thing is that, as far as I know, if you import tiles from China, there is tax. It is groundless to say that Chinese traders do not pay tax,” Zheng said.
Uganda State Minister for Investment and Privatization at the Ministry of Finance, Evelyn Anite, says the ministry is looking into the issue.
“It is not anywhere in our policy that we want foreigners to come and trade in the country. We want these foreigners to come and invest in our country as investors. And that is why we are working on our investment policy. And when we license an investor we do not want them to end [up] downtown. And for us to even give you an investment license, we want to see that you are having a bank guarantee from a reputable bank in your country or from Uganda of not less than $250,000.”
According to Ministry of Trade statistics, China is Uganda’s second largest source of imports, after India, and second largest source of foreign direct investment, a total of $9.8 billion since 1993 according to the Uganda Investment Authority.
Most of this money has been through loans for construction of major infrastructure projects such as the hydropower dams and the Entebbe express highway.
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Israel, White House Discussing Trump Visit: Israeli Official
Israel and the White House are in preliminary discussions about a visit to Israel by U.S. President Donald Trump as early as next month, an Israeli government official said on Wednesday.
A Trump visit would mark an early personal engagement by the new Republican president in efforts to resolve the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Trump in the White House in February, one of the first foreign leaders to do so after the wealthy businessman took office in January, and has spoken of positive change in U.S. Middle East policy after years of friction with Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.
“There are preliminary contacts between the (Israeli) Foreign Ministry and the White House and there is a 70 percent chance that a (Trump) presidential visit will happen,” the Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because a trip had not been finalized.
Trump has said he intends to pursue efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace. The last round of talks between the two adversaries collapsed in 2014. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due to see Trump in Washington on May 3.
Praising U.S. policy since Trump entered the White House, Netanyahu has cited in particular a U.S. missile strike in Syria on April 6 in retaliation for what Washington charged was a Syrian government chemical weapons attack in a rebel-held area that killed scores of civilians. Damascus denied responsibility.
Netanyahu had an often tense relationship with Obama over the 2015 U.S.-backed Iran nuclear deal and Israeli settlement building on occupied land that Palestinians want for a state.
His vision for a two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unfulfilled, Obama came to Israel twice in his eight years as president – in 2013 and last September for the funeral of Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres.
Trump, who appeared to surprise Netanyahu at their White House meeting by urging him to curb settlements, is due to make his first overseas visit as president, to Europe in May.
A senior U.S. administration official said last week a stop in Saudi Arabia might be added.
your ad hereSecurity Firm: Cyberattacks Against Saudi Arabia Continue
Researchers at U.S. antivirus firm McAfee say the cyberattacks that have hit Saudi Arabia over the past few months are continuing, revealing new details about an unusually disruptive campaign.
Speaking ahead of the blog post ‘s publication Wednesday, McAfee chief scientists Raj Samani said the latest intrusions were very similar, albeit even worse, to the malicious software that wrecked computers at Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil company in 2012.
“This campaign was a lot bigger,” Samani said. “Way larger in terms of the amount of work that needed to be done.”
It’s a striking claim. The 2012 intrusions against Saudi Aramco and Qatari natural gas company RasGas – data-wiping attacks that wrecked tens of thousands of computers – were among the most serious cyberattacks ever publicly revealed. At the time, the United States called it “the most destructive attack that the private sector has seen to date.”
Echoing research done by others, McAfee said the most recent wave of attacks drew heavily on the malicious code used in the 2012 intrusions. McAfee also said that some of the code appears to have been borrowed by a previously known hacking group, Rocket Kitten , and used digital infrastructure also employed in a cyberespionage campaign dubbed OilRig . U.S. cybersecurity firms have tied both to Iran, with greater or lesser degrees of certainty.
McAfee stopped short of linking any particular actor to the most recent attacks.
Saudi officials and news media have given little detail about the intrusions beyond saying that more than a dozen government agencies and companies were affected, and a government adviser did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
The Iranian Embassy in Paris did not immediately return messages.
your ad herePope Visits Egypt Amid Regional Turbulence and Sporadic Terrorism
Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt, due to begin Friday, comes at a time of historic troubles for Christians in both Egypt and the rest of the Middle East. It will be just the second visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to the Arab world’s most populous country, following a ground-breaking trip by Pope John Paul II to Cairo in 2000.
The papal visit follows two bloody terror attacks targeting Coptic churches in Egypt’s second largest city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta town of Tanta earlier this month, on Palm Sunday. More than 40 people were killed and dozens injured when suicide bombers blew themselves up as worshipers gathered to pray. Christian residents of the northern Sinai town of El Arish were also targeted recently by militants in gruesome killings that prompted most Christian families to leave the area.
Egyptian editor and publisher Hisham Kassem said Pope Francis’ visit, which was scheduled before the recent suicide bombings, takes place at a moment when “Christians are facing the brunt of terror attacks and their security in the country is in jeopardy.”
Given the climate of sporadic attacks by militants, both in the Middle East and elsewhere, Egyptian police and intelligence services appeared to clamp down on security in areas of Cairo where Pope Francis is expected to visit.
Parked vehicles were removed from most main streets and boulevards in Cairo’s leafy residential suburb of Zamalek, where the papal nuncio’s offices are located. Tough security measures were also implemented around Cairo International Airport and near Al Azhar University, where the pope is planning to take part in an interfaith dialogue meeting.
Pope Francis is due to pay a courtesy call on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, before meeting with the head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II, to express solidarity over the recent spate of terror attacks on the Coptic community.
Both Francis and Tawadros will then take part in an interfaith meeting hosted by Egypt’s Grand Imam, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, at the country’s venerable seat of Islamic jurisprudence, al Azhar University. The Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, is also expected to attend the gathering.
A papal spokesman told Italian media that Pope Francis would not be using an armored vehicle, due to concerns that it would prevent him from being able to meet with ordinary people. Pope John Paul II was almost killed by a would-be assassin’s bullet in Rome in 1981.
Father Rafic Greiche, spokesman for the Catholic branch of Egypt’s main Coptic Orthodox church, told local media that Egyptian Christians were “expecting a message of peace and solidarity (as well as) a message of hope” from Pope Francis’ visit. Egypt has the largest Christian minority of any Arab country. Christians are said to make up 10% of the country’s 90-million people.
Egyptian political sociologist Said Sadek said the papal visit will “benefit Christians, as well as the government,” since it “will show the world that Egypt is stable,” thus “giving a boost to the tourism sector.” He doubts the visit will have any appreciable effect on terrorism, though, since “terrorists,” he jokes, “will continue to be terrorists.”
Both Egyptian President Sissi and Prime Minister Sherif Ismail accused regional countries of being behind recent terrorist attacks in the country, although they stopped short of naming those countries. Arab media, however, reported that the so-called Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings against Coptic churches on its website.
It is not clear who actually belongs to the group, although Egyptian media reported several years ago that leaders of an Egyptian terrorist group which then called itself “Ansar Beit al Maqdis” (i.e. “partisans of the holy city (Jerusalem)”) pledged allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
“The bottom line,” argues publisher Hisham Kassem, “is that the Copts will continue to be subjected to terror attacks, if the [Egyptian] security services don’t get their act together.” But, he stresses, [Egyptian leaders] “should start naming those countries which they think are behind the terror attacks.” “Such attacks are almost an act of war,” he says, “and should be [regarded as such].”
your ad hereCongress Moves Closer to Deal to Avert US Government Shutdown
The U.S. Congress was moving closer to crafting a deal to avoid shutting down at the stroke of midnight on Friday, but the details and even broad strokes of an agreement were still murky.
Some lawmakers are optimistic they can hammer out a budget bill to take the government to the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30, while others see Congress putting a short-term spending resolution in place for a week, while talks continue.
Either way, the pressure is mounting to come up with a plan before Friday night. If lawmakers do not have one, funding for many federal agencies will abruptly stop and millions of government workers will be temporarily laid off.
Many policy makers are nervous about a repeat of 2013, when the government was shuttered for 17 days.
On Monday President Donald Trump eased up on demands to include funding for a southern border wall in any budget pact, clearing a major obstacle in the negotiations.
White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told CNN late on Tuesday that the Trump administration had also informed Democrats on Monday it would move discussions on building a border wall to September, when the government must negotiate the budget for its next fiscal year.
“And we thought that was going to get a deal done and we’ve not heard anything from them today,” he said. “So I’m not sure what’s happening.”
Even though Trump’s fellow Republicans control both chambers of Congress, they only have 52 seats in the Senate. To amass the 60 votes needed there to pass the budget, Republicans will have to bring Democratic lawmakers onto their side.
The most powerful Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said on Tuesday his party is concerned about the ratio of increase in defense and non-defense spending. Democrats prefer a one-to-one ratio, and boosting both sides of the budget equally could become a sticking point in negotiations.
Democrats also want provisions for more healthcare coverage for coal miners and appropriations for healthcare subsidies.
Health insurance would abruptly become unaffordable for 6 million Americans who rely on cost-sharing subsidies under the national health plan commonly called Obamacare.
Democrats have been seeking immediate assistance for a funding gap in Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program, federal health insurance for the poor, saying it is in such bad shape that 1 million people are set to lose healthcare.
Mulvaney also said Trump would not agree to including Obamacare subsidies in a spending bill.
He told CNN that Democrats “raised Puerto Rico for the first time a couple of days ago,” but did not give Trump’s stance on the Medicaid assistance.
Outside political pressure groups are watching for which “riders” may be added to any deal that emerges this week.
Spending resolutions primarily lay out how government money can flow, but often also include riders, smaller measures attached to the budget so they can become law.
Past riders have touched on areas such as banning the Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring corporations to disclose political donations.
Democrats said they were worried Republicans could try to attach language limiting family-planning funds, and Schumer expressed concerns about attempts to undo Wall Street reforms enacted after the 2007-09 financial crisis.
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Romania: Hundreds of Taxis, Buses Protest Uber
Some 200 taxis and buses have parked outside the government offices in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, demanding that Uber and other online taxi services be outlawed in the country.
Transport in the already crowded city was disrupted Wednesday morning as the protest, scheduled to last until the evening, got underway.
Drivers arrived early and parked their yellow taxis and blew vuvuzela horns in protest. Some met Premier Sorin Grindeanu to present their demands.
Bogdan Dinca, a transport union leader, told The Associated Press that they want the government to approve an emergency ordinance “to eradicate the piracy” they accuse Uber of. The ordinance awaits final approval by the prime minister.
The Confederation of Licensed Transport Operators says it wants “online technology platforms that provide unauthorized taxi services to be outlawed,” to protect licensed carriers.
Uber says it is a ride-sharing service with transparent costs and its drivers pay taxes. It says some 250,000 clients have used its services in the Romanian capital and other major cities in the past two years.
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Report: Media Freedom ‘Never Been So Threatened’
Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday that globally “media freedom has never been so threatened,” as it released its annual press freedom index.
The media rights group pointed in particular to democratic countries as places where press freedoms declined during the past year.
“In sickening statements, Draconian laws, conflicts of interest, and even the use of physical violence, democratic governments are trampling on a freedom that should, in principle, be one of their leading performance indicators.”
The report said the reductions in press freedoms are most pronounced in places where “the authoritarian strongman model has triumphed,” such as Poland, Hungary and Turkey.
“The rate at which democracies are approaching the tipping point is alarming for all those who understand that, if media freedom is not secure, then none of the other freedoms can be guaranteed,” RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said.
Most countries show decline
Overall, 62 percent of countries measured showed a decline in press freedom in the 2017 index.
Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands ranked as the countries with the highest degree of freedom for journalists.
North Korea ranked last, with Reporters Without Borders saying the country “continues to keep its population in ignorance and terror.Also at the bottom of the list, just ahead of North Korea, were Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Syria and China.
Those countries that most improved their scores since the 2016 index were Laos, Pakistan, Sweden, Burma and the Philippines.The biggest decliners were Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Maldives and Uzbekistan.
Trump rhetoric criticized
The report faulted U.S. President Donald Trump and the rhetoric he used since launching his campaign for office, which has frequently targeted media organizations and declaring their stories “fake.”
“The hate speech used by the new boss in the White House and his accusations of lying also helped to disinhibit attacks on the media almost everywhere in the world, including in democratic countries.”
The United States ranked 43rd on the index, down two spots from 2016.Britain, which decided in a referendum last year to leave the European Union, ranked 40th.
“Donald Trump’s rise to power in the United States and the Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom were marked by high-profile media bashing, a highly toxic anti-media discourse that drove the world into a new era of post-truth, disinformation, and fake news.”
The report said the Middle East and North Africa region continues to be the most dangerous for journalists to work, with Eastern Europe and Central Asia close behind.
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Suspect in Stockholm Truck Attack Released
Swedish authorities say they have released a second person arrested in connection with the April 7 truck attack that killed four people and injured 15 others in Stockholm.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority said Wednesday that the man, arrested April 23 and never publicly identified, was no longer considered a suspect. He was released late Tuesday.
Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old Uzbek man, has pleaded guilty to a terrorist crime for ramming the truck into a crowd on a main pedestrian shopping street in the Swedish capital. Police have not disclosed a motive for the attack and no extremist group has claimed responsibility for it.
Akilov’s Swedish residency application was rejected last year but police said there was nothing to indicate he might plan an attack.
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Arts Program in Poor Performing Schools Boosts Learning
In some of the lowest performing elementary and middle schools in the U.S., students are learning in an unconventional way.
“I like to act and I like to sing and I like to dance,” said 10-year-old Kayla Driakare, whose teachers at Florence Griffith Joyner Elementary School are incorporating much of what she loves doing into the everyday curriculum.
Her school is a part of a national program called Turnaround Arts, and is an initiative started by former first lady Michelle Obama.It aims to help improve low performing schools through the arts.
For Driakare and her classmates, their school is a safe haven from life outside its walls.The students at Florence Griffith Joyner Elementary are from Watts, a neighborhood in Los Angeles known for its gang violence.
“High crime, high poverty, very multigenerational families in public housing. There’s gun violence. We see a lot of helicopters and we have lockdowns regularly and so, the thing is, all associated with poverty – that really traumatized students, so many of our students come to school with symptoms of post-traumatic stress,” explained school principal Akida Kissane Long.
She remembers when she first started at the school five years ago, there was “willful disobedience, primarily fighting (and) destruction of school property.”
Long said the suspension rate was “267 suspensions on record and (there were) 1,167 classroom suspensions.“
The school performed in the lowest 5% of the state and qualified for the Turnaround Arts program, a public-private partnership led by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and managed by the D.C.-based John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
It is one of 68 schools in the U.S. participating in the program.Teachers receive special training, and the arts are incorporated into all the subjects.Turnaround Arts schools also partner with professional musicians and actors who work with the students. Among the names are Yo-Yo Ma, Sarah Jessica Parker, Elton John and Cameron Diaz.
“The children were so excited and have been so excited because it’s not just about – “Go to the board. Do the problem. Turn the page. Read the book.’It’s about acting and impersonating artists and historic figures, and acting out the water cycle and becoming a butterfly that goes from caterpillar through the cocoon to an expansive beautiful winged insect,” said Long.
On Thursdays, dedicated teachers in music and art give lessons.
“Art is fun. You get to draw what you draw and you get to draw something that you really like,” said an excited Driakare.
Only in the first year of a 3-year program, Long is already seeing results.
“We’ve probably suspended one kid this year. That’s amazing. Parents are getting phone calls to come to family portraiture night and come to family arts night, and it’s not just the naughty calls home. It’s for them to come and learn more about what their children are learning.So our parent engagement goes up,” Long said.
Decreased disciplinary actions, increased attendance and improved academic achievement are occurring nationwide in a 3-year program evaluation of pilot schools.From 2011 to 2014, the study found a 22.55% improvement in math proficiency and 12.62% improvement in reading proficiency in the Turnaround Arts pilot schools.The study also found Turnaround Arts schools performed better than comparable schools that received special grants for school improvement.
At a time when President Donald Trump is proposing cutting the budget for the arts, and arts education is being deemphasized as policy makers push for more focus on math and science in U.S. education, Long is making a case for a more holistic approach.
“Art speaks to everyone. Arts isn’t a set aside. It is part of what makes the curriculum rich and exciting and motivating.” Long added, “Because the arts is so universal and speaks across every culture and every language, every kid has an opportunity to access the highest levels of the curriculum because they had it delivered in a way that they could understand.”
At the end of the 3-year program, Long is asking the school district to turn this school into a visual and performing arts magnet school so it can get funding from the district to continue its focus on the arts, and allow more students to experience learning through a more creative approach.
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White House to Unveil Major Tax Reform Proposal
President Donald Trump is tackling another major campaign promise: reforming the federal tax system. An administration plan to overhaul the tax code is expected Wednesday. As VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, while nearly everyone supports the concept of simpler, fairer taxes, getting a reform package through Congress will be a challenge.
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WWII Rescue of Jews in Balkans Is Lesson for Today’s World
An Albanian family now living in the U.S. was invited to Washington by a Jewish congregation to be honored for an act of bravery by one of its ancestors, who helped rescue Jews persecuted by Nazis during World War II. As Ilir Ikonomi reports, Jewish leaders believe such courageous actions have special meaning in today’s world.
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Arts Program in Poor Performing Schools Boost Learning
President Trump’s proposed cuts to the federal budget for the arts is creating concern that it may impact a program started by former first lady Michelle Obama that is showing signs of success. Turnaround Arts gets some funding from federal tax dollars, and it helps some of the nation’s lowest performing schools improve learning in all educational subjects. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from Los Angeles.
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Trump Administration to Review Dozens of US National Monuments
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday will order a review of national monuments created over the past 20 years with an aim toward rescinding or resizing some of them — part of a broader push to reopen areas to drilling, mining and other development.
The move comes as Trump seeks to reverse a slew of environmental protections ushered in by former President Barack Obama that he said were hobbling economic growth — an agenda that is cheering industry but enraging conservationists.
Executive order leads to review of monuments
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told reporters on Tuesday Trump’s executive order would require him to conduct the review of around 30 national monuments and recommend which designations should be lifted or resized over the coming months. He said he would seek feedback from Congressional delegations, governors and local stakeholders before making his recommendations.
“I am not going to predispose what the outcome is going to be,” Zinke said. Rescinding or altering a national monument designation would be new ground for the government, he said.
“It is untested, as you know, whether the president can do that,” Zinke said.
The monuments covered by the review will range from the Grand Staircase in Utah created by President Bill Clinton in 1996 to the Bears Ears monuments created by President Barack Obama in December 2016 in the same state, covering millions of acres of land overlying minerals, oil and gas.
Bear Ears monument
Obama’s administration created the Bears Ears monument arguing that it would protect the cultural legacy of the Navajo and four other tribes and preserve “scenic and historic landscapes.” But Utah’s governor opposed the designation, saying it went against the wishes of citizens eager for development.
The area lies near where EOG Resources — a Texas-based company — had been approved to drill.
Zinke said the broader aim of the order is to give states more input in the monument designation process, and “restore trust between local communities and Washington.”
While he acknowledged that national monuments could bring tourism, he said he thinks federal land should be managed for “multiple uses.”
Court may have last say
Conservation groups and Native American tribal representatives slammed the looming order, suggesting it would be fought in court.
“With this review, the Trump Administration is walking into a legal, political and moral minefield,” said Kate Kelly, public lands director for the Center for American Progress.
A summary of the forthcoming order, seen by Reuters, said past administrations “overused” the Antiquities Act that allows presidents to create monuments.
your ad hereFewer Immigrants Without Status in US Since 2009 Report
The number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally fell to 11 million since 2009, largely because of a drop-off in the number of Mexicans without legal status, according to a study released Tuesday.
The report by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center — using survey data from 2015 — showed the number of immigrants lacking legal status was 11.3 million in 2009. The number of Mexicans in the country illegally dropped to about 5.6 million from 6.4 million during the same six-year period.
“The numbers are not going up and, in fact, the numbers for Mexicans have been going down for almost a decade now,” said Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer at Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. “And that is counter to a lot of the rhetoric you hear.”
Pew didn’t give a reason for the decline. But in earlier reports, it said the U.S. economy was slow to recover from the recession and border enforcement got stricter around that time.
The report is based on data taken by the U.S. Census Bureau during the latter years of the Obama presidency. But it comes amid the Trump administration’s efforts to deport immigrants in the country illegally and build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Pew did not provide a forecast for this population since Trump took office.
The report shows illegal immigration climbed during the 1990s and into the 2000s and peaked before the recession. Since then, the number of Mexicans in the country illegally has fallen while the number of Asian and Central American immigrants has grown.
The number of Central Americans in the country illegally was 1.8 million in 2015, up from 1.6 million six years earlier, while the number of Asian immigrants without legal status rose to 1.5 million from 1.3 million, the report showed.
In 2014, the number of immigrants in the country illegally was 11.1 million, with Mexicans accounting for about 5.9 million of that population.
Pew also released a preliminary estimate for immigrants in the country illegally in 2016 of 11.3 million. The center says the estimate is not statistically different from the 2015 figure because it stems from a separate data set with a larger margin of error.
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