Results of France’s first round presidential elections confirm that centrist Emmanuel Macron and nationalist, anti-immigration crusader Marine Le Pen are heading into a runoff in two weeks, marking what analysts describe as a political earthquake in France. Final results Monday show Macron with 23.8 percent and Le Pen 21.5 percent of the vote, qualifying them for a presidential runoff on May 7. VOA Europe correspondent Luis Ramirez reports.
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Month: April 2017
Fearing Worker Shortage, Farmers Push Back on Immigration
The head of Bethel Heights Vineyard looked out over the 100 acres of vines her crew of 20 Mexicans had just finished pruning, worried about what will happen if the Trump administration presses ahead with its crackdown on immigrants.
From tending the plants to harvesting the grapes, it takes skill and a strong work ethic to produce the winery’s pinot noir and chardonnay, and native-born Americans just aren’t willing to work that hard, Patricia Dudley said as a cold rain drenched the vineyard in the hills of Oregon.
“Who’s going to come out here and do this work when they deport them all?” she asked.
President Donald Trump’s hard line against immigrants in the U.S. illegally has sent a chill through the nation’s agricultural industry, which fears a crackdown will deprive it of the labor it needs to plant, grow and pick the crops that feed the country.
Fruit and vegetable growers, dairy and cattle farmers and owners of plant nurseries and vineyards have begun lobbying politicians at home and in Washington to get them to deal with immigration in a way that minimizes the harm to their livelihoods.
Some of the farm leaders are Republicans who voted for Trump and are torn, wanting border security but also mercy toward laborers who are not dangerous criminals.
Farming uses a higher percentage of illegal labor than any other U.S. industry, according to a Pew Research Center study.
‘Significant economic implications’
Immigrants working illegally in this country accounted for about 46 percent of America’s roughly 800,000 crop farmworkers in recent years, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the U.S. Departments of Labor and Agriculture.
Stepped-up deportations could carry “significant economic implications,” a 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture study said. If America’s unauthorized labor force shrank 40 percent, for example, vegetable production could drop by more than 4 percent, the study said.
The American Farm Bureau Federation says strict immigration enforcement would raise food prices 5 to 6 percent because of a drop in supply and because of the higher labor costs farmers could face.
In addition to proposing a wall at the Mexican border, Trump wants to hire 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and has served notice that he intends to be more aggressive than the Obama administration in deporting immigrants.
ICE agents have arrested hundreds of immigrants since Trump took office, though how much of a change from the Obama administration that represents is a matter of debate.
Field hands have been among those targeted, with apple pickers detained in upstate New York and Guatemalans pulled over in Oregon on their way to a forest to pick a plant used in floral arrangements.
Fear of arrest
It doesn’t appear the arrests themselves have put a sizable dent in the agricultural workforce yet, but the fear is taking its toll.
Some workers in Oregon are leaving for job sites as early as 1 a.m. and staying away from check-cashing shops on payday to avoid dragnets. Farm employers are worried about losing their workforces.
“They say, `Don’t go out, don’t get drunk, don’t do nothing illegal’ because they need us too. They worry too,” said Moses Maldonado, who is in the U.S. illegally and has worked for nearly four decades tending wine grapes and picking fruit in Oregon.
In Los Banos, California, asparagus farmer Joe Del Bosque said workers are so afraid of being arrested in the field that he struggled to find enough hands in March to pick his crop.
When immigration attorney Sarah Loftin held a recent seminar in the Oregon wine-region town of Newberg to talk about immigrants’ legal rights, she was surprised to see about half of those present were winery owners or farmers.
By law, job seekers must provide documents establishing their eligibility to work in the U.S. But the papers are often fake. Many agricultural employers say that it’s not their responsibility – and that they lack the expertise – to determine if they’re genuine.
US workers not interested
At the same time, they say that U.S.-born workers have little interest at laboring in the dirt and the cold at the crack of dawn.
As 18 Guatemalans in hoodies and rubber boots toiled in such conditions recently in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, their boss expressed admiration for their willingness to do the back-breaking work he said native-born Americans won’t do.
“Homeless people are camped in the fir forest over there,” the farmer said, pointing to a stand of trees. “And they’re not looking for work.”
He lamented that crackdowns may force him to retire because he won’t be able to find workers. Fearing reprisals from federal agents, he spoke on condition of anonymity and didn’t want even his crop identified.
Some immigration hardliners say people who are in the U.S. illegally steal jobs from Americans. But a 2013 study by an economist at the Center for Global Development looked at farms in North Carolina and found that immigrant manual laborers had “almost zero” effect on the job prospects of native-born U.S. workers.
“It appears that almost all U.S. workers prefer almost any labor-market outcome – including long periods of unemployment – to carrying out manual harvest and planting labor,” Michael Clemens wrote.
While lobbying for visa and immigration reforms, agricultural employers are also looking into contingency plans such as mechanization or a switch to less labor-intensive crops. In Vermont, officials are considering a vocational program to train inmates in dairy farming.
Dudley, the vineyard owner, isn’t optimistic about some of the alternatives.
“I don’t trust that temps off the street, or jailhouse labor, or whatever alternative they come up with would work,” she said.
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US: Famine Could Be Cause of Uptick in Piracy off Somalia
U.S. officials are reluctant to label a recent spike in piracy off the waters of Somalia as a trend.
“We’re not ready to say there is a trend there yet, but we’ll continue to watch,” Marine General Thomas Waldhauser said Sunday at a news conference at a military base in the tiny African nation of Djibouti where U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was visiting.
Waldhauser suggested that drought and famine in the region had led pirates to carry out the six recent attacks on commercial ships carrying food and oil.
More than 20 million people from Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen are in danger of dying from starvation within the next six months, according to the U.N. World Food Program.
The rash of pirate attacks comes after a five-year downturn in the assaults which had grown to crisis proportions from 2010 to 2012.
Piracy “certainly has increased” said U.S. Navy Captain Richard Rodriguez.He said, however, that dealing with piracy was not a mission for his troops, who are instead focused on counterterrorism in the Horn of Africa and developing the capacities of national armies in Somalia and elsewhere in the region.
VOA’s Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.
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Burt Reynolds Makes Rare Public Appearance at Film Festival
Robert De Niro helped Burt Reynolds onto the red carpet for the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of his new movie “Dog Years” Saturday night in New York. It was a rare appearance for the 81-year old actor, who at times struggled to walk.
Reynolds was given a chair on the red carpet, so that he could speak to a limited number of press outlets about the film.
He was overjoyed at the turnout.
“Great to see Mr. De Niro, who I love, and … you know, all the people that I know,” Reynolds said. “It’s very sweet.”
In the film, which is still shopping for distribution, Reynolds portrays an aging movie star who realizes his best days are behind him. The actor sees similarities in the character with his own life.
Reynolds laughed at the obvious parallel with his own life, though he said, “I guess I’m doing all right. I think because it’s a hell of a turnout.”
Written and directed by Adam Rifkin, the film also stars “Modern Family’s” Ariel Winter, Chevy Chase and Nikki Blonsky.
Reynolds joked about working with younger co-stars.
“You don’t learn from young actors,” Reynolds said. “You just tell them how to behave.”
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Convicted Jihadist With California Ties Loses US Citizenship
A federal judge revoked the U.S. citizenship of a man who prosecutors say ran a communications hub for an Egyptian terrorist group out of his northern California apartment, authorities said.
Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last week ordered the “denaturalization” of Khaled Abu al-Dahab, 57, for lying to immigration officials during the process to gain U.S. citizenship, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
The Justice Department said the Egypt native was a member of the terrorist organization Egyptian Islamic Jihad for 10 years starting in 1989, three years after moving to the United States.
The former Silicon Valley car salesman admitted he spent two months at a camp near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where he received military-style training and taught foreign fighters to fly hang gliders in preparation for terrorist attacks. He also admitted to the FBI that he operated a communications hub for the group out of his Santa Clara, California, apartment, the department said.
Al-Dahab also admitted to U.S. investigators that he worked to recruit Americans of Middle Eastern descent into the terrorist network during his 12 years in California. Al-Dahab told the investigators that Osama bin Laden was eager to recruit American citizens of Middle Eastern descent because their U.S. passports could be used to facilitate international travel by al-Qaida terrorists, and that bin Laden personally congratulated him for this work, the department said.
Al-Dahab became a U.S. citizen on February 7, 1997. The next year he traveled to Egypt, where he was arrested, convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison for being a member of a terrorist organization and trying to overthrow the Egyptian government. He has lived in Alexandria, Egypt, since his 2011 release.
“We will protect our national security and our borders, and when we identify individuals tied to foreign terrorist organizations who procured their U.S. citizenship by fraud, we will initiate denaturalization proceedings – whether you reside here or abroad – and ensure you are denied entry into the United States,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said.
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Trump to Sign Executive Orders on Environment, Energy This Week
U.S. President Donald Trump will sign several executive orders on energy and the environment this week, which would make it easier for the United States to develop energy on and offshore, a White House official said on Sunday.
“This builds on previous executive actions that have cleared the way for job-creating pipelines, innovations in energy production, and reduced unnecessary burden on energy producers,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, Trump is expected to sign an executive order related to the 1906 Antiquities Act, which enables the president to designate federal areas of land and water as national monuments to protect them from drilling, mining and development, the source said.
On Friday, Trump is expected to sign an order that would fit into his administration’s “America First” energy policy, the source said, but did not provide details.
The new measures would build on a number of energy- and environment-related executive orders signed by Trump that seek to gut most of the climate change regulations put in place by predecessor president Barack Obama.
It was unclear how Trump planned to address use of the Antiquities Act in his order, or if he will try to undo actions taken by Obama to put certain areas off limits to drilling and mining. No president has ever removed a monument designation created by former presidents.
Obama had used the Antiquities Act more than any other president, his White House said in December, when he designated over 1.6 million acres of land in Utah and Nevada as national monuments, protecting two areas rich in Native American artifacts from mining, oil and gas drilling.
He had also banned new drilling in federal waters in parts of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans using a 1950s-era law that environmental groups say would require a drawn out court challenge to reverse.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said during his confirmation hearing in January that he believed Trump could “amend Obama’s” monument designations but that any move Trump made to rescind a designation would immediately be challenged.
There is strong pressure from some Republicans in Congress to reform how future presidents use the act to give more input to states and Congress.
Last month, Trump signed an order calling for a review of Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which required states to slash carbon emissions from power plants. Trump also reversed a ban on coal leasing on federal lands.
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Trump Makes New Pitch for Wall Along Mexican Border
President Donald Trump is facing Democratic opposition as he makes a new push for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to thwart illegal immigration, and says he believes estimates of the cost are vastly overblown.
Funding for the controversial barrier is at the forefront of White House discussions with lawmakers to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.
Trump wants initial funding for the wall, a key campaign promise in his run to the White House, included in the budget to finance government spending to the end of September, but opposition Democrats remain adamantly against its construction.
The U.S. government runs out of operating funds at midnight Friday, giving the Republican-controlled Congress and minority Democrats just days to reach a compromise with the White House.
“The Democrats don’t want money from budget going to border wall despite the fact that it will stop drugs and very bad MS 13 gang members,” Trump said in a Twitter comment.
In a second remark, he said, “Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall,” a claim numerous Mexican leaders have said will not happen.
Cost unclear
With the exact design and scale of the wall yet to be determined, cost estimates have varied. An internal Department of Homeland Security report forecast the cost as high as $21.6 billion.
But in an interview with the Associated Press released Sunday, Trump said the price tag will not be nearly that high.
“I’m seeing numbers — $24 billion.I think I’ll do it for $10 billion or less.That’s not a lot of money relative to what we’re talking about,” Trump said, according to an AP transcript.
He further justified the cost as a “tremendously good investment” if it prevents even 1 percent of the current flow of drugs from crossing the border into the United States.
Trump also expressed confidence that whether the money or the wall is included in a budget deal or comes later, “One hundred percent it’s getting built.”
Reince Priebus, Trump’s White House chief of staff, predicted in an interview with NBC News that enough money will be approved “in the negotiation for us to either move forward with either the construction or the planning or enough to get going with the border wall.”
But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, “Democrats do not support the wall. Republicans in the border states do not support the wall.”
“The Republicans have the votes in the House and the Senate and the White House to keep government open. The burden to keep it open is on the Republicans,” she said.
She added, “The wall is, in my view, immoral, expensive, unwise, and when the president says, ‘Well, I promised a wall during my campaign.’ I don’t think he said he was going to pass billions of dollars of cost of the wall on to the taxpayer.”
Government funding
Priebus said the Trump administration expects “the priorities of the president to be reflected” in the funding for government operations.
“We expect a massive increase in military spending, we expect money for border security in this bill, and it ought to be because the president won overwhelmingly and everyone understood that the border wall was part of it,” he said.
Even with contentious negotiations ahead in the coming days, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said, “I don’t think anybody foresees or expects or wants a shutdown at the end of next week.”
Republican leaders in Congress have also downplayed the possibility of shutdown, which would be the government’s first since 2013, but a budget accord with Democratic lawmakers has yet to be reached.
Trump is heading into one of his administration’s most challenging weeks, with his 100th day in office on Saturday, the same day a shutdown could occur if a budget deal is not reached or temporary funding approved for a week or two while negotiations with lawmakers continue.
Trump is also attempting to revive a measure to repeal the national health care reforms that former President Barack Obama considered as his signature legislative achievement, a measure Republicans withdrew a month ago when they did not have enough votes in the House of Representatives to pass it. The legislation has since been altered somewhat but it is unclear if there is increased support for it.
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Landmine in East Ukraine Kills American OSCE Monitor
An American member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was killed and at last two others were injured Sunday when their car hit a mine near rebel-held Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
Austria’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the incident near the small village of Pryshyb. Austria currently holds the OSCE’s rotating presidency.
Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz demanded a thorough investigation, adding that those responsible would be held accountable.
Alexander Hug, deputy chief of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM), told journalists that a German and a Czech national were injured but have been treated at a local hospital in Ukraine’s eastern republic of Lugansk.
According to reports, the vehicle drove over a mine in territory controlled by the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.
A rebel statement said the OSCE team was traveling along an unsafe road. “We know that the mentioned crew deviated from the main route and moved along side roads, which is prohibited by the mandate of the OSCE SMM,” local media reported.
The incident marks the first loss of life for the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.
The OSCE has 600 members in eastern Ukraine, the only independent monitoring mission in the destroyed industrial war zone. It provides daily reports on the war and has angered insurgents for accusing them of being responsible for most truce agreement violations.
For the past three years tensions between Ukraine and separatists in the Russian-held eastern part of the country continue to increase, despite a 2015 ceasefire agreement that is repeatedly violated.
At least 9,750 people have been killed in the war in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. More than 40 died during the first two months of this year, when hostilities in the conflict suddenly surged.
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Somali Forces Targeted in Roadside Bomb Blast
Nine Somali sliders were killed and five others were injured after a massive roadside explosion targeted their vehicle in Galgala, officials said.
The explosion occurred mid-morning Sunday during a routine operation by the Puntland security forces in the Galgala Mountains.
Spokesman for Puntland police in Galgala, Major Abdirahman Farah Gurhan, told VOA Somali that the vehicle was transporting 17 soldiers when it was hit by the improvised explosive device. The site of the blast is about 57 kilometers southwest of Bosaso port town.
“Nine soldiers died, five others are injured, they were riding a military vehicle when it exploded,” Gurhan said.
He said the victims include members of the security forces from police, military and maritime forces. He said only driver and two officers survived.
The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Galgala is a chain of mountains in Puntland where al-Shabab has been battling regional forces for nearly 10 years.
The area the group controls is strategic and close to the Red Sea. Experts believe al-Shabab’s grip on this area is key to maintaining their connections to Yemen militants.
The United States has offered $3 million bounty for the leader of the al-Shabab branch in Puntland, Yasin Osman Khalid Kilwe.
your ad hereReport: Anti-Semitism Rises, But Violence Against Jews Falls
Violent attacks on Jews dropped for a second straight year in 2016, but other forms of anti-Semitism are on the rise worldwide, particularly on U.S. university campuses, according to a report released Sunday.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University said assaults specifically targeting Jews, vandalism and other violent incidents fell 12 percent last year. They recorded 361 cases compared to 410 in 2015, which had already been the lowest number in a decade. The figure reported Sunday is the lowest since 2003, when 360 incidents were recorded.
The report attributed much of the drop to increased security measures in European countries including France, where there were 15 attacks compared to 72 in the previous year, and the United Kingdom, where the number of incidents fell from 62 to 43.
Another reason for the decreased violence may be that far-right groups in Europe appear to be focusing their attacks on migrants who have reached the continent in large numbers over the last years, said Dina Porat, a historian who leads the team of researchers behind the report.
“Fears that the influx of Muslim refugees from the Middle East would lead to an increase in anti-Semitism appear so far to have been unjustified,” Porat said.While Islamic extremists are often involved in attacks on Jews, the perpetrators are usually second or third generation immigrants who have been radicalized at home in Europe or during trips to territories held by the Islamic State group, she said.
Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry releases the report every year on the eve of Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, which begins Sunday at sundown.
According to the report, the reduced violence was not mirrored by a drop in cases of general anti-Semitism, which increased in countries including the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.
“There is a dramatic rise in all forms of verbal and visual anti-Semitism, harassment and insults, mainly on the internet, but also offline,” Porat said.
On U.S. university campuses there was a 45 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents, mostly insults and harassment of Jewish students, the report said. Porat said these were usually connected to increased anti-Israel activities by pro-Palestinian groups on campus.
The number of violent anti-Semitic incidents in the United States was largely stable compared to 2015, rising slightly from 88 to 91. While the report dealt only with cases until the end of 2016, Porat said there were no indications so far of a major increase connected to the tense U.S. election or Donald Trump’s new presidency.
Jewish leaders who commented on the report praised the increased security measures credited with reducing violence, but said this may be masking a trend of anti-Semitism becoming more mainstream and acceptable, especially on the far left and right of European politics.
“We see a dramatic growth in the number of parliamentarians who allow themselves to express anti-Semitic views,” said Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across the continent.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Kantor cited the controversy over anti-Jewish remarks made by some members of Britain’s Labour Party, the close defeat of the far-right candidate in last year’s Austrian presidential election and the strong polling of National Front leader Marine Le Pen ahead of Sunday’s vote in France.
“We are very, very close today to a situation in which anti-Semites will come to executive power,” he said.
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3 Iraqi Policemen Killed in Suicide Attack South of Mosul
Three policemen were killed on Sunday in a suicide attack south of Mosul, the northern Iraqi city where Islamic State is fighting off a U.S.-backed offensive, security sources said.
A group of about 10 assailants, including four suicide bombers, had tried to infiltrate a Federal Police helicopter base in Al-Areej, a police captain told Reuters.
Three policemen and three of the assailants were killed in the attack, he said. Police gave chase but the assailants managed to escape, he said.
Al-Areej is located just south of Mosul where some districts remain under control of the hardline Sunni group.
Islamic State is now besieged in the northwestern part of Mosul, an area that includes the Old City. Its Grand al-Nuri Mosque is where the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared a “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria in mid-2014.
your ad herePope Likens Migrant Holding Centers to ‘Concentration Camps’
Pope Francis urged governments on Saturday to get migrants and refugees out of holding centers, saying many had become “concentration camps.”
During a visit to a Rome basilica, where he met migrants, Francis told of his trip to a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last year.
He met a Muslim refugee from the Middle East there who told him how “terrorists came to our country.” Islamists had slit the throat of the man’s Christian wife because she refused to throw her crucifix on the ground.
“I don’t know if he managed to leave that concentration camp, because refugee camps, many of them, are of concentration [type] because of the great number of people left there inside them,” the pope said.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) later urged the pope “to reconsider his regrettable choice of words” for using the term concentration camp.
“The conditions in which migrants are currently living in some European countries may well be difficult, and deserve still greater international attention, but concentration camps they certainly are not,” the AJC’s head, David Harris, said in a statement.
“The Nazis and their allies erected and used concentration camps for slave labor and the extermination of millions of people during World War II. There is no comparison to the magnitude of that tragedy,” he said.
Francis praised countries helping refugees and thanked them for “bearing this extra burden, because it seems that international accords are more important than human rights.”
He did not elaborate but appeared to be referring to agreements that keep migrants from crossing borders, such as deals between the European Union (EU) and Libya and the EU and Turkey. Humanitarian groups have criticized both deals.
The pope urged people in northern Italy, home to an anti-immigrant party, to take more migrants, hoping that the generosity of southern Italy could “infect the north a bit.”
Noting that Italy had one of the world’s lowest birth rates, he said: “If we also close the door to migrants, this is called suicide.”
The basilica of St Bartholomew is a shine to Christians killed for their faith in the 20th and 21st centuries.
It contains a prayer book used by Father Jacques Hamel, the 85-year-old French priest killed by Islamist militants who stormed into a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray last year, forced Hamel to his knees, and slit his throat while they chanted in Arabic. His sister Roselyne attended the service.
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Saudi King Names Son As US Envoy As Ties Boosted with Trump
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued a decree late Saturday naming one of his sons, an air force pilot who has taken part in coalition strikes against the Islamic State group, as the kingdom’s new ambassador to the U.S.
The appointment of Prince Khaled bin Salman to Washington signals the kingdom’s eagerness to strengthen bilateral ties under President Donald Trump. As the king’s son, the prince has a direct line to the Saudi monarch.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s third largest defense spender. Prince Khaled’s appointment positions him as an influential broker in deals with U.S. manufacturers.
Saudi-U.S. relations had cooled under the Obama administration after Washington pursued a nuclear accord with Shiite-ruled Iran that the Sunni-ruled kingdom strongly opposed. Saudi Arabia and Iran are regional rivals, and back opposing sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen.
Relations with the Riyadh have improved since Trump took office. King Salman dispatched his most powerful son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also defense minister, to meet Trump at the White House last month. Saudi Arabia was quick to praise Trump’s missile strike on a Syrian military base in response to an apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians.
Prince Khaled is a former F-15 pilot who graduated military-aviation training from Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi in 2009 and took part in anti-IS strikes in 2014 as part of the U.S.-led coalition. He also participated in flight missions over Yemen, where the kingdom has been bombing a Yemeni faction aligned with Iran for more than two years.
The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news website says the prince studied briefly at Harvard University and Georgetown University. The news website says he trained at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, but that a back injury forced him to stop flying.
He has been an adviser at the Saudi Embassy in Washington since late last year.
U.S. officials say the Trump administration is considering ways to boost military support for the Saudi-led fight against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen. The U.S. already is helping the Saudis with intelligence and logistical support for the bombing campaign in Yemen, and could assist with greater intelligence support to counter Iranian influence there.
Prince Khaled will be replacing Prince Abdullah Al Saud, who served in the post for just 18 months. Though a member of the royal family, Prince Abdullah was not seen as part of the inner Al Saud circle and is not a direct grandson of Saudi Arabia’s founder, King Abdulaziz.
Days before being relieved of his post in Washington, Prince Abdullah published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for continued U.S. resolve to end the conflict in Syria.
He said Saudi Royal Air Force jets operating out of a base in southern Turkey have conducted more than 340 strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria since February.
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Militia, Monitor: Israeli Fire Kills 3 in Syria at Pro-Government Military Base
An Israeli attack against a military base for the Syrian pro-government National Defense Forces in southern Syria killed three NDF members on Sunday, the NDF militia and a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group, said it remained unclear if the source of the bombardment in Quneitra province was an airstrike or shelling. Israel has carried out airstrikes or fired mortar rounds during the six-year war in Syria, often in response to the occasional spillover, including stray shells from fighting among Syrian factions.
The Israeli military declined to comment on the reports. The Syrian army could not immediately be reached for comment.
The NDF said the attack struck its military camp in the countryside of Quneitra, which sits near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, territory that Israel captured from Syria in a 1967 war.
Rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s government in the Syrian conflict hold swathes of Quneitra, while the army and pro-government forces control another part of the province.
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Morocco Summons Algeria Envoy over Syrian Refugees
Morocco has summoned Algeria’s ambassador to express concern after 54 Syrians attempted to “illegally enter” the country from Algeria, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Sunday.
It said 54 Syrians attempted to enter Morocco through the border town of Figuig, an area surrounded by mountains, between April 17 and 19. It accused Algeria of forcing them to cross into Morocco.
“Algeria must assume political responsibility and morality concerning this situation,” the ministry statement on MAP state news agency said.
“It is immoral and unethical to manipulate the moral and physical distress of these people, [and] to sow trouble in the Morocco-Algerian border.”
There was no immediate response from Algeria on state news agency APS.
Some 5,000 Syrians have gone through a migration regulatory process in Morocco, with several hundred receiving refugee status, according to Morocco’s ministry of foreign affairs.
Morocco and Algeria share a 1,500 km (970 mile) land border that runs from the Mediterranean Sea to the Sahara Desert which has been shut since 1994.
The North African neighbors have had a contentious relationship since independence from France. Border disputes triggered an armed conflict in the 1960s known as the “Sand War.”
One of their biggest disputes has been over Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, most of which Morocco annexed in 1975.
Algeria supports and hosts the Western Saharan independence movement Polisario, a stance which angers Morocco.
your ad hereParchment Copy of Declaration of Independence Found in Small British Town
Two Harvard researchers say they have found a rare parchment copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence — in England.
The only other known parchment copy is housed in the National Archives in Washington.
Researchers Emily Sneff and Danielle Allen found the document in the archives of the small town of Chichester in Sussex, in southern England.
The Boston Globe reports the Duke of Richmond is believed to have been the original owner of the parchment which the researchers dated to the 1780s. The duke was also known as Radical Duke because of his support of Americans during the Revolutionary War.
Allen says the document “scrambles the names of the signers” and “they are no longer grouped by state.” She said “It is the only version of the declaration that does that, with the exception of an engraving from 1836 that derives from it. This is really a symbolic way of saying we are all one people…”
Allen and Sneff are working with British officials and the Library of Congress to run non-invasive tests on the document.
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Defense Secretary Mattis Arrives at Only US Base in Africa
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is in Djibouti, the tiny east African nation that’s home to the United States’ only military base on the continent.
Mattis arrived Sunday at Camp Lemonnier before visiting the Djiboutian president and minister of defense.
Officials say Camp Lemonnier is one of the most strategically important areas for the United States military due to its geographic location.
The base is critical for U.S. exercises and operations on the continent, and U.S. special forces use the facility to conduct counter-terror operations against al-Shabab in neighboring Somalia, according to officials.
Mattis’ visit to Djibouti comes less than a month after the White House approved a Pentagon proposal to allow the head of Africa Command to launch offensive attacks against al-Shabab militants in Somalia in support of partner forces.
The new directive clears the way for more U.S. presence on the ground and more leeway for U.S. strikes against the militant group. Before, the U.S. was targeting al-Shabab in what they called “self-defense” operations, which the military said protected U.S. advisers operating on the ground with Somali and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces.
Officials say the new mandate “hasn’t changed much” on the ground so far and is mainly representative of the president’s and the defense secretary’s desire to “empower” combatant commanders with “more flexibility.”
“It’s just that now Washington doesn’t have to approve every strike there,” one official said.
Camp Lemonnier is important for military operations in the Middle East as well, with the narrow Bab al-Mandeb strait the only separation between Djibouti and Yemen. Dozens of commercial and military ships travel through the strategic strip of water every day, and the deep Djiboutian port on the strait is used by the US Navy, the French navy and about 10 other navies, according to a U.S. official.
Chinese presence
The U.S. will soon see another military neighbor in Djibouti when China completes construction of its first overseas military base.
General Thomas Waldhauser, the head of U.S. Africa Command, recently said it will be the closest facility that a “peer competitor” has ever had to a U.S. base, which he said raises some “security concerns.”
Another U.S. official told reporters the U.S. concerns include the “standard counter-intelligence kind” that come anytime you have forces operating within close proximity.
The official said that, at this point, the U.S. sees no reason why its forces cannot “comfortably coexist” with the Chinese in the area, adding that many of the concerns about the Chinese are similar to French feelings when the U.S. arrived in Djibouti.
“Any time it gets a little more crowded, you start to have concerns about ‘how will this affect me,’ ‘how will it affect my operations (and) “how will this affect my relationship with the partner nation,” the official said.
Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy DeLeon told VOA the Chinese base is a bid to increase Beijing’s “heavy presence” in the Horn of Africa.
“It’s not traditional Western soft power, where it is a humanitarian mission, because China’s got a clear interest in the resources that are there,” DeLeon said.
While many of the people in the region are poor, the lands and coastal sea floors are rich with minerals, petroleum, gold and natural gas.
DeLeon said Chinese interest in developing some of the poorest areas in the region could be “constructive,” especially as the areas are battling a destructive drought.
Mattis is the first U.S. secretary of defense to visit to the base in Djibouti since Leon Panetta in 2005.
your ad hereMacron, Le Pen Head to Runoff in French Presidential Race
Preliminary results from France’s first round of presidential elections confirmed that centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and nationalist, anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen are heading into a runoff in two weeks, marking what analysts describe as a political earthquake in France.
It is the first time in the history of the modern French Republic that the presidency will be held by a member of a non-traditional party, highlighting a deep anti-establishment sentiment that ultimately could determine whether France remains a part of the EU or follows an independent path like that of post-Brexit Britain and the United States under Donald Trump.
According to projected results, Macron garnered 23.8 percent, and Le Pen won 21.7 percent. The winner needs an absolute majority and that will be determined in a runoff on May 7th.
“In one year, we have entirely changed French politics,” Macron said at a victory rally Sunday night.
Macron, a 39-year-old center-left former economy minister who is pro-EU, pro-business, led pre-election polls despite his previous association with unpopular Socialist President Francois Hollande. The appeal of his year-old En Marche! (Onward!) movement lies mainly in France’s prosperous urban areas, where globalism has benefited many.
His challenge is to galvanize support of centrists and the left, including members of France’s fractured Socialist party, and convince voters he does not represent an extension of Hollande’s policies.
Macron will face Le Pen and her National Front party, whose strongholds are largely in formerly industrial areas of France where unemployment is high and so is disillusionment with the modern economic and social order. Le Pen, who wants France out of the European Union, has succeeded in winning over large numbers of former leftists and centrists. Over the next two weeks, she hopes to draw from the right and the center, especially those who are most disillusioned with the status quo.
“It is time to liberate the French people,” she told supporters at a rally Sunday.
Among the top contenders from 11 candidates was former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, a center-right social conservative whose bid was damaged by allegations of creating fake jobs for close relatives. Conceding defeat on Sunday, he endorsed Macron.
The vote happened amid tight security following a terrorist attack in Paris just days before the poll that observers thought would benefit Le Pen.
On Sunday, 50,000 police officers backed by 7,000 soldiers, including special forces, were deployed to the streets amid tensions following the attack claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group. The shooting along the iconic Champs-Elysees in the heart of Paris left one police officer dead and several other people injured.
In a tweet one day after the Champs Elysees shooting, U.S. President Trump said, “The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!”
Analysts and voters interviewed saw this as the most unpredictable election since World War II. One third of voters were undecided just days before the balloting.
In the last few weeks before the vote, far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon surged in the polls and so did discussion of the previously obscure candidate in social media.
Among the ways his campaign lured young voters was through the release of a video game in which a player pretending to be Melenchon walks the streets and takes money from men in suits. The player is shown in a battle against the rich and powerful.
Anger at the establishment is the sentiment driving voters in an election in which security, France’s lagging economy, its 10 percent unemployment rate, and Islamist extremism are issues on the minds of those on the left and on the right.
That, say analysts, is what influenced large numbers of people, including some of the middle and upper class residents of Paris, to vote for candidates of the extreme.
“Some of them for the thrill of it. It’s the principle, you know. Like playing Russian roulette, but politically. Some others it would be because they despise the elite of this country,” said Thomas Guénolé, a political analyst in Paris, told VOA.
Socialist President Francois Hollande announced he would not to run for reelection after his approval ratings sank to 4 percent, something analysts widely attribute to a string of terrorist attacks in France and a stagnation of economic growth during his tenure. Hollande is the first incumbent president not to seek reelection in the history of modern France.
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French Vote in Pivotal Presidential Election
Polls are open across France in an election that is one of the closest watched in decades, with 11 candidates, ranging from the extreme right to the extreme left, vying for the French presidency.
Tight security is in place after a terrorist attack in Paris on Thursday, just days before the voting.
About 50,000 police officers backed by 7,000 soldiers, including special forces, were deployed to the streets for security amid tensions following the attack claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group. The shooting along the iconic Champs-Elysees in the heart of Paris left one police officer dead and several other people injured.
State of emergency, tight security
This is the first election to be held under a state of emergency called after the 2015 Paris attacks, and observers say last week’s shooting could bring out many voters who had otherwise planned to abstain.
In a tweet a day after the Champs Elysees shooting, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!”
Despite predictions of low voter turnout, witnesses said lines formed at voting stations in Paris’ 15th arrondissement before opening hours and turnout was reported to be heavy at various polling stations across the country.
Pre-election polls show tight race
Leading in pre-election polls has been Emmanuel Macron, a center-left former economy minister who is pro-Europe and pro-business with close ties to unpopular Socialist President Francois Hollande. His appeal lies mainly in France’s prosperous urban areas where globalism has benefited many.
A close second has been Marine Le Pen, who wants to end most immigration to France, especially from Muslim countries. She also wants France to leave the European Union. Her strongholds are largely in formerly industrial areas of France where unemployment is high and so is disillusionment with the modern economic and social order.
Another top contender is Francois Fillon, who favors cuts in public spending and pushing for deep reforms in the EU.
Last-minute decisions
Analysts and voters interviewed see this as the most unpredictable election since World War II. One-third of voters were undecided days before the balloting.
In the last few weeks before the vote, far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon surged in the polls and so did discussion of the previously obscure candidate in social media.
Among the ways his campaign lured young voters was through the release of a video game in which a player pretending to be Melenchon walks the streets and takes money from men in suits. The player is shown in a battle against the rich and powerful.
Anger at the establishment is the sentiment driving voters in an election in which security, France’s lagging economy, its 10-percent unemployment rate, and Islamist extremism are issues on the minds of those on the left and on the right.
That, analysts say, is what is driving large numbers of people, including some of the middle and upper class residents of Paris, to vote for candidates of the extreme, like Le Pen and Melenchon.
“Some of them for the thrill of it. It’s the principle, you know. Like playing Russian roulette, but politically.Some others it would be because they despise the elite of this country,” said Thomas Guénolé, a political analyst in Paris, told VOA.
The top two winners of Sunday’s poll will face off in a runoff election May 7th.
Polls close at 1800 UTC.
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Beyond Yellowstone: Lawmakers Want Tourists to See Native America
The Blackfeet Indian Reservation rolls across the plains just east of Glacier National Park. There’s a hotel and casino. There are gas stations, a few eateries and a museum about the culture and history of the people that have occupied the territory long before the arrival of the U.S. Cavalry and the hordes of modern-day visitors who roll into the nearby mountains.
But despite its proximity to the national park, little of the money spent by tourists ends up in the business tills of reservation’s communities.
While Montana might be known internationally for recreational jewels such as Glacier and Yellowstone national parks, Native Americans say the state needs to do more to develop and promote its vast tribal lands as tourist destinations.
Some lawmakers want the state to invest more in drawing visitors to places of historical and cultural importance to the state’s Indian tribes, not only to spark entrepreneurship but also help outsiders better understand Native Americans.
“Folks want to come, and they want to see Native American people, and see our culture, and learn about our history. I think that’s going to create income when they come flying in,” said Democratic state Sen. Lea Whitford, who represents Browning and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. “It’s just going to increase the flow of dollars into the state.”
Tourism big business
Tourism is one of the Montana’s most important and lucrative industries, generating more than $4 billion annually from 12.3 million visitors and supporting nearly 55,000 jobs. Little of that money or jobs go to the state’s tribal members.
Whitford and other members of the Legislature’s Native American caucus want improved representation on the state’s tourism advisory council, which she said might not be aware of the potential for cultural tourism. They also want a sliver of money generated by lodging facility taxes to go toward tribal economic development.
To be sure, many of Montana’s Native American communities lack the infrastructure, like hotels, restaurants and well-developed attractions and amenities, to begin marketing themselves as tourist attractions. But tribes haven’t received much help to identify and develop opportunities, said Rep. Sharon Stewart-Peregoy, a Democrat from the Crow Indian Reservation.
They say it would be a modest step toward incubating entrepreneurship on tribal and help combat the rampant joblessness on the state’s seven Indian reservations.
Native Americans need boost
“Everything seems to be about Yellowstone and Glacier. But there’s other places, Little Bighorn Battlefield and other historical places, which have stories to tell — and should be told — but can’t be fully appreciated because the spotlight isn’t there,” Stewart-Peregoy said. The battlefield marks the site of one the last clashes between the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians.
“It’s Main Street Native America that will bring forth the economic vitality to each of the tribes,” she said. “It’s not going to be the tribal government. It’s going to be the citizens of those tribes that, when they are empowered to become entrepreneurs and businesspeople, then Main Street Crow Agency, Main Street Browning and Main Street Rocky Boy will begin to flourish.”
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North Korea Detains Third US Citizen
North Korea has detained another U.S. citizen.
The Korean-American man was arrested Friday at Pyongyang International Airport as he was preparing to leave the country, the South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reports.
The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang said it was aware of a Korean-American citizen being detained recently, but could not comment further. The embassy looks after consular affairs for the United States in North Korea because the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.
The man, identified only by his surname Kim, was reported to have been discussing relief activities in North Korea for about a month. The news agency, citing unnamed sources, said he is in his late 50s and has been involved in aid and relief programs to North Korea and was a former professor at the Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China.
The reason for his arrest was not immediately clear.
His arrest brings the number of Americans detained by North Korea to three.
North Korea has in the past detained U.S. citizens to use as bargaining chips in its negotiations with Washington.
The two other Americans are currently detained in North Korea. Last year, Otto Warmbier, then a 21-year-old University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in prison after he confessed to trying to steal a propaganda banner. Kim Dong Chul, who was born in South Korea but is also believed to have U.S. citizenship, is serving a sentence of 10 years for espionage.
At least one other foreigner, a Canadian pastor, is also being detained in North Korea. Hyeon Soo Lim, a South Korean-born Canadian citizen in his 60s, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2015 on charges of trying to use religion to destroy the North Korean system and helping U.S. and South Korean authorities lure and abduct North Korean citizens.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Polls Show May’s Conservatives With Once-in-Generation Popularity
Britain’s Theresa May appeared on course to win a crushing election victory in June after opinion polls put support for her ruling Conservative party around 50 percent, twice that of the opposition Labor party.
May’s decision to call a June 8 election stunned her political rivals this week and a string of polls released late Saturday suggested the gamble had paid off, with one from ComRes showing the party of Margaret Thatcher enjoying levels of support not seen since 1991.
May, appointed prime minister in the turmoil that followed Britain’s vote to leave the European Union last June, said she needed the election to secure her own mandate and strengthen her hand for the Brexit negotiations ahead.
She is also looking to capitalize on the disarray swirling around the Labor party, which has been riven with internal division over its leader Jeremy Corbyn. Voters also appear to be switching from the anti-EU UKIP party, which helped campaign for Brexit, to May’s Conservatives, which will likely deliver it.
Gaining in Scotland
In two other polls, May’s Conservatives also gained ground in Scotland at the expense of the Scottish National Party, potentially weakening the nationalists’ demand for another independence referendum.
May has warned her party not to take victory for granted, a message that was echoed by pollsters Saturday.
“While no political party could ever object to breaching the 50 percent barrier for the first time this century, this spectacular headline result masks a real danger for the Tories,” said ComRes Chairman Andrew Hawkins.
“The fact that 6 in 10 voters believe Labor cannot win under Corbyn’s leadership bring with it the threat of complacency among Tory (Conservative) voters who may be tempted to sit at home on June 8th and let others deliver the result they expect.”
According to polls by Opinium, ComRes and YouGov, May’s Conservatives held a lead of 19 to 25 percentage points, with the party’s support ranging from 45 percent to 50 percent.
Labor-like policies
Having repeatedly denied that she would call an election, May is now also poised to announce a raft of policy proposals more commonly associated with the left-leaning Labor party, according to the Sunday Times.
The newspaper said the Conservatives would pledge to protect workers’ rights and cap more household energy prices in a bid to help those hit by rising inflation and muted wage growth.
If the polls are correct, the Conservatives could secure a once-in-a-generation victory that will realign the British political landscape. According to the polls, Labor has lost its reputation as the party that would best protect the National Health Service — once its strongest claim.
The improved Conservative fortunes across the country have also spread to Scotland, where First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party, or SNP, has stepped up calls for a second independence referendum.
According to an analysis for the Times, the Conservatives are on course to win 12 seats in Scotland while Labor will be wiped from its former political stronghold. Currently, the Conservatives hold one of Scotland’s 59 seats in the British parliament. The SNP holds 54.
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Japanese Ships Join US Carrier En Route to Korean Peninsula
Two Japanese destroyers have joined an American aircraft carrier headed toward the Korean peninsula.
The Japanese warships, the Samidare and Ashigara, left western Japan Friday to join the Carl Vinson. The vessels of the two countries began joint exercises Sunday in the Western Pacific.
The USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group, which includes a guided-missile cruiser and a guided missile destroyer, was diverted from its trip to Australia by U.S. President Donald Trump, as tensions rise in the Korean peninsula over North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear tests.
It was not immediately clear how long the Japanese destroyers would sail alongside the U.S. carrier group.
The U.S. Navy says the joint exercises are routine, designed to improve combined maritime response and defense capabilities, as well as joint maneuvering proficiency.
Japan’s show of naval force reflects growing concern that North Korea could strike Japan with nuclear or chemical warheads.
Meanwhile on Sunday, North Korea said it was ready to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might, as two Japanese navy ships joined a U.S. carrier group for exercises in the western Pacific.
“Our revolutionary forces are combat-ready to sink a U.S. nuclear powered aircraft carrier with a single strike,” the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said in a commentary.
North Korea will mark the 85th anniversary of the foundation of its Korean People’s Army on Tuesday. In the past, it has marked important anniversaries with tests of its weapons.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear weapons tests, two of them last year, and has carried out a stream of ballistic missile tests, in defiance of U.N. sanctions.
North Korea’s tests have been carried out despite United Nations sanctions against them.
Trump has vowed to prevent North Korea from being able to hit the U.S. with a nuclear missile and has said all options are on the table, including a military strike.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Expatriates Cast Votes as France Prepares for Election Day
French expatriates in South America, Canada and the United States kicked off the voting Saturday in France’s presidential election, on the heels of several terror attacks that could affect the outcome.
Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and a former economy minister, independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, are the top contenders, followed by conservative former Prime Minister Francois Fillon and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.
The candidates are vying to replace incumbent Francois Hollande, who announced earlier this year that he would not run for another term.
Campaigning ended earlier than expected Thursday when a French policeman was killed by a gunman on the Champs-Elysee, one of Paris’ most popular streets for shopping and tourism. Analysts have long said a last-minute event could swing the election outcome.
In November 2015, Paris terror attacks, in which 130 people were killed, happened just weeks before France held regional elections. The attacks are thought to have given a boost to Le Pen’s National Front party, which lost in the second round of voting and failed to win control of any region.
Some French critics of LePen told reporters they feared this week’s attack and others like it could push her campaign to a win, perhaps endangering France’s future in the European Union.
But national security is not the only issue that matters in this year’s election. France’s unemployment rate is about 10 percent, more than twice as high as that of its neighbor Germany, and the state of the economy is a constant worry.
The bulk of the first-round voting in France itself will come Sunday. Early results are expected around 9 p.m. Paris time.
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