June 2017 - Page 10 of 25

US Democrats Protest Senate Republican Healthcare Secrecy

Posted on 06/20/2017 by SeeUS

U.S. Democrats took to the Senate floor on Monday to throw a spotlight on behind-the-scenes efforts by the Republican majority to repeal former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, known as Obamacare.

In a series of floor motions, inquiries and lengthy speeches, Democrats criticized the closed-door meetings that Republicans have been holding to craft a replacement for Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act. They called for open committee hearings and more time to consider the bill before a Senate vote, which Republicans say could come in the next two weeks, although a draft bill has yet to emerge publicly.

Lacking the votes to derail or change the Republican process, the maneuvers by the Democratic minority seemed more aimed at highlighting Republican efforts on a controversial issue. Polls have said that a majority of Americans disapprove of the Obamacare replacement that has passed the House of Representatives and that Senate Republicans are now considering.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that the closed-door Republican meetings on healthcare amounted to “the most glaring departure from normal legislative procedure that I have ever seen.”

“Republicans are writing their healthcare bill under the cover of darkness because they are ashamed of it,” Schumer charged. The resulting legislation would likely throw millions out of health insurance, he said, while granting “a big fat tax break for the wealthiest among us.”

Senators are not obligated to hold meetings in the open, but Democrats pointed out that there were lengthy committee meetings and many days of floor debate on Obamacare before it passed in 2010.

Several Democrats moved for the healthcare legislation to be referred to Senate committees for hearings, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused.

McConnell said all Republican senators have been involved to some degree in healthcare meetings and that Democrats would have a chance to amend the legislation they produce, once it is brought to the Senate floor.

“We’re going to have a meeting on the Senate floor, all hundred of us, with an unlimited amendment process,” McConnell said. “So there will be no failure of opportunity.”

Senate Republican leaders would like a vote on healthcare legislation in July, before the July 4 recess if possible. But Republicans have struggled to coalesce around a bill, with moderates and conservatives pushing in different directions.

Senate Republicans also face pressure from the right. In the House, conservatives have written to McConnell to express concern about reports that say the Senate may water down the House bill.
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Families & Friends Share Stories of Sailors Killed in USS Fitzgerald Crash

Posted on 06/20/2017 by SeeUS

Among the seven U.S. Navy sailors who died in the Saturday collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a Philippine-flagged container ship off Japan were an Ohio man expecting to retire soon, a Maryland man who was his father’s best friend and a former volunteer firefighter in his Virginia hometown.

Here are snapshots of them taken from interviews of family and friends:

SHINGO ALEXANDER DOUGLASS, California

Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass followed in his father’s footsteps in joining a maritime branch of the military, enlisting in the Navy in 2014.

He started working aboard the destroyer in 2015 and last October joined his shipmates on a visit to an orphanage in South Korea as part of a community service project. Douglass was seen pushing a disabled orphan in a wheelchair, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.

His father, Ret. Marine Corps Master Sgt. Stephen Douglass, told the newspaper his 25-year-old son was an avid videogame player “and a really good kid.”

He had just gotten promoted in May. A 2010 Fallbrook High School graduate in Fallbrook, north of San Diego, he was unmarried.

His family described him as “adventurous” and said his hobbies included scuba diving and tennis.

“Shingo served his Nation proudly, and we are also very proud of him and his service,” his family wrote in a statement.

NOE HERNANDEZ, Texas

Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez was a tremendous source of pride for his family, a relative told Dallas television station KTVT.

“We all came from poverty in Guatemala. He was the one who made it,” said cousin Aly Hernandez-Singer. “We lived through his experiences. His travels.”

The 26-year-old Hernandez, of Weslaco, Texas, had been stationed in Illinois, Italy, California and Japan since joining the Navy in 2009.

He died in the collision from a head injury as he slept, Hernandez-Singer told the TV station.

She said Hernandez met his wife in high school and also is survived by a 2-year-old son.

NGOC T TRUONG HUYNH, Connecticut

Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoc T. Truong Huynh, 25, always “had the brightest smile,” his sister said.

He was selfless, Lan Huynh told WVIT-TV, of Hartford, Connecticut, and the family is coping as best it can.

Huynh graduated from Watertown High School and attended Naugatuck Valley Community College before enlisting in the Navy in 2014. The family moved to Oklahoma soon after.

Connecticut’s governor has ordered flags to fly at half-staff in Huynh’s honor.

XAVIER ALEC MARTIN, Maryland

Personnel Specialist 1st Class Xavier Alec Martin was trying to call his father after the vessels collided but didn’t get through, his father told WJZ-TV in Baltimore.

All Darrold Martin can think of are his son’s final moments.

The 24-year-old sailor, of Halethorpe, Maryland, followed in his father’s footsteps and was quickly rising in the ranks, said Darrold Martin, who referred to his son as his best friend.

“It’s very hard,” the elder Martin said. “He’s my only child, he’s all I have.”

Martin graduated in 2010 from Landsdowne High School, where he ran track and had many friends, said Daneace Jeffrey, Martin’s aunt.

He loved being in the military and was considering turning it into a career.

“He always put others before his own safety,” she said. “I’m sure in his last moments he was probably more concerned with the other servicemen than himself, that’s the kind of person he was.”

GARY LEO REHM JR., Ohio

Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37, was three months shy of retiring when he was killed, his cousin tells The Chronicle-Telegram in Elyria, Ohio.

Friends and relatives described the sailor from Elyria as generous and easygoing. They say the Navy told his mother he died trying to rescue fellow sailors trapped in flooding compartments.

“When we heard that he ran in and helped save other sailors from drowning, we said that was Gary. That was Gary to a T,” said Rehm’s friend Christopher Garguilo. “He never thought about himself.”

Rehm was inspired to join the Navy by his grandfather, a World War II sailor who took Rehm on tours of military planes and ships when he was a youngster. Rehm enlisted in 1998, right after graduating from Oberlin High School, said his aunt.

“He loved what he did,” said Rehm’s aunt, Virginia Rehm. “He was a very kind-hearted, happy person who worked hard. It’s a big loss, it really is.”

Gary Rehm is survived by his wife, his parents and a sister.

KYLE RIGSBY, Virginia

Nineteen-year-old Gunner’s Mate Seaman Dakota Kyle Rigsby was a volunteer firefighter in his Virginia hometown before he joined the Navy.

The Palmyra resident and Fluvanna County High School graduate was a teenager when he signed up with the Lake Monticello Volunteer Fire Department in 2014, following in his mother’s footsteps, news outlets reported.

Rigsby would “give his shirt off of his back for you,” said volunteer firefighter Farrah Brody.

Assistant Fire Chief Jean Campbell described Rigsby as a dependable firefighter and called his death “a tragic loss.”

Chase Karaca said he met Rigsby in fourth grade and they bonded over playing Pokemon.

The game sparked an interest for Rigsby in Japanese culture, so “it was a dream come true for him” to get to visit and “to be doing something for his country,” Karaca said.

Rigsby enlisted in February 2016. He reported to duty aboard the Fitzgerald in November.

CARLOS VICTOR GANZON SIBAYAN, California

Fire Controlman 2nd Class Carlos Victor Ganzon Sibayan felt that serving in the Navy was “his calling” and he joined in 2013 after graduating from high school, a friend said.

Sibayan, of Chula Vista, south of San Diego, always made people laugh, Chase Cornils, a fellow cadet in Chaparral High School’s Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, told the San Diego Union Tribune.

“He always had a cheerful attitude and a smile on his face,” Cornils said.

An enlisted surface warfare specialist, the 23-year-old started working on board the USS Fitzgerald in July 2014.
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Russia to Treat US Planes in Syria as ‘Targets’

Posted on 06/19/2017 by SeeUS

Russia says it will now treat all U.S. led coalition planes in the air over Syria, west of the Euphrates, as targets after an American fighter jet shot down a Syrian military plane.

In a statement Monday, the Russian military also said it is suspending use of a hotline that that was set up to prevent any accidental military engagement.

“The command of the coalition forces did not use the established communication channel for preventing incidents in Syrian airspace,” the Russian military alleged, a day after a U.S. fighter jet shot down a Syrian plane for bombing U.S.-backed fighters battling Islamic State.

The Pentagon said Sunday a Syrian SU-22 dropped bombs on Coalition-partnered fighters near the town of Tabqah.

A U.S. Super Hornet immediately responded and shot down the Syrian plane. There is no word on the pilot or any other casualties.

Earlier, Syrian forces attacked Coalition fighters in Ja’Din, wounding a number of fighters and driving them from the town. Coalition aircraft stopped the pro-regime forces from advancing on Ja’Din.

The Coalition said it contacted Russian commanders to set up a “de-confliction line” to prevent the fighting from worsening.

The Pentagon says says its actions Sunday were within the rules of engagement and collective self-defense of Coalition forces.

“The Coalition does not seek to fight the Syrian regime, Russian, or pro-regime forces, but will not hesitate to defend Coalition or partner forces from any threat,” it said.
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Global Forcible Displacement at Unprecedented High

Posted on 06/19/2017 by SeeAF

A new report has found that more people than ever before have become refugees or are internally displaced worldwide because of war, violence, and persecution.

The U.N. refugee agency’s “Global Trends Report,” released on the eve of World Refugee Day, June 20, shows an unprecedented 65.6 million people were determined forcibly displaced at the end of 2016, an increase of 300,000 over the previous year.

Nearly two-thirds of this total are people who have been forcibly displaced within their own country. Refugee numbers worldwide have reached 22.5 million, which the report notes “is the highest ever seen.”

The UNHCR reports that one in every 113 people worldwide is either a refugee or is forcibly displaced within his or her own country. Of the 65.6 million people that were found displaced last year, the report notes that 10.3 million were newly displaced, which equates to one person becoming uprooted every three seconds.

While people continued to flee in record numbers, the report found that last year around one half million refugees returned home and about 6.5 million internally displaced people went back to their places of origin although “many did so in less than ideal circumstances and facing uncertain prospects.”

Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees said, “It is an extremely moveable situation, an extremely dynamic situation, which reflects in turn conflicts that continue to affect mostly and primarily and very violently civilians.”

Syria tops list

Data show that the Syrian conflict has generated the largest numbers of displaced people worldwide, with 12 million people, or nearly two-thirds of the population, either internally displaced or living as refugees, mainly in five neighboring countries — Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt.

“Turkey continues to be for the third consecutive year, the largest hosting country,” said Grandi. “But, Lebanon, another one of the neighboring countries, is the country that has the highest per capita ratio compared to the local population in terms of the number of refugees.”

The report notes Afghanistan and Iraq have the second and third largest numbers of forcibly displaced people and that South Sudan has the world’s fastest growing refugee and displacement crisis.

“The report, which records statistics at the end of 2016 indicates [that] 1.4 million refugees from South Sudan [are] in neighboring countries and almost two million internally displaced people,” said Grandi. “Those figures are probably higher. We certainly have counted at least half a million more in the first semester of this year in terms of refugees.”

He added that most of the South Sudanese have sought refuge in neighboring Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.

The report notes that most refugees — 84 percent — are in developing countries, half of them children. While the world’s poorest nations shoulder the greatest burden of the global refugee crisis, the report found that most of the 2.8 million asylum claims made in 2016 were lodged in rich countries.

The UNHCR said the largest recipient of new asylum applications was Germany with more than 722,400 registered last year. The United States came in second with 262,000 newly filed applications.

The report called the large number of unaccompanied children asking for asylum a growing and unsettling development.

“Tragically, 75,000 asylum claims were received from children travelling alone or separated from their parent.” The UNHCR report added that even this number probably “underestimated the true figure.”

Declining aid contributions

High Commissioner Grandi said that one of his greatest concerns was the declining contributions of the international community to meet the needs of this burgeoning refugee and displacement crisis.

For example, he said only 23 percent of the U.N.’s $8 billion appeal for the Syrian crisis has been received. “This is very low for mid-year.”

He told VOA “I only hope this is a matter of pledges delayed by different factors and not because the Syrians are forgotten.”

He noted that the United States was the largest donor to refugee programs and that Washington had contributed $1.5 billion to UNHCR last year.

“I think this year the budget will be fundamentally stable. There is uncertainty regarding the budget of next year,” he said. “It is not just in respect to refugee aid, but it is in general regarding foreign aid.”

He said that the UNHCR had added its voice to many others, including the U.S. establishment “to say that foreign aid is an important tool of international stability, of positive influence, and it is a humanitarian tool that saves lives.”

“So, for all these reasons,” he added, “we hope that the levels of U.S. aid globally, including refugee aid, will be considered at the appropriate levels.”

The Trump administration has proposed cutting the $30 billion foreign-aid budget by 31 percent next year. Although this amount is less than one percent of the U.S. $3.8 trillion Federal Budget, polls show Americans believe foreign aid takes up a much larger share.
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2 Guests, at Least 4 Terrorists Dead after Attack on Malian Resort

Posted on 06/19/2017 by SeeAF

Malian security forces have killed at least four militants involved in an attack on a resort outside Mali’s capital, Bamako, the country’s Security Minister Salif Traore said Monday.

Two people were killed when gunmen stormed Le Campement Kangaba in Dougourakoro, Sunday, a resort on the edge of Bamako popular among Westerners.

Security forces rescued more than 36 residents, including 13 French citizens.

Those at the resort included people affiliated with the French military mission and the U.N. and European Union missions in the country.

There are no French troops based in Bamako, but about 2,000 French troops are based in northern Mali, fighting Islamic extremists. A 10,000 U.N. peacekeeping force in Mali is tasked to stabilize the country, a former French colony, France intervened in 2013 to push back jihadists and allied Tuareg rebels who has taken over the country’s desert in the north a year earlier.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to the leader of Mali after the attack and pledged France’s full support for the country, Macron’s office stated on Monday.

State Department warning

The U.S. State Department warned about a week ago of possible attacks on Western diplomatic missions and other locations in Bamako frequented by Westerners.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assault in the final week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Religious extremism in Mali once was limited to northern areas, although in recent years the jihadists have spread violence farther south. In November 2015, 22 people were killed in an assault on Bamako’s upscale Radisson Blu hotel.

Two regional groups, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and al-Mourabitoun, claimed responsibility for the 2015 attack.
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Uganda Struggling to Host 1.2 Million Refugees

Posted on 06/19/2017 by SeeAF

This week, Uganda welcomes U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and other high-level international guests and donors for the Refugee Solidarity Conference. Conflict and hunger in South Sudan continue to send civilians across the border, and Uganda now hosts more refugees than any other country besides Turkey. With this week’s conference in Kampala, Uganda hopes to raise $8 billion. Halima Athumani reports.
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Launch of Nevada’s Recreational Pot Sales may Hinge on Court

Posted on 06/19/2017 by SeeUS

Nevada’s marijuana regulators are working furiously to launch recreational sales on July 1, a fast-approaching deadline that could hinge on a court deciding whether the powerful liquor industry should be guaranteed a piece of the pot pie before tourists and residents can light up.

Lawyers for the liquor industry, marijuana retailers and the state are facing a judge Monday to argue whether Nevada has the authority to issue marijuana distribution licenses to anyone besides alcohol distributors.

The state says it has the power to temporarily license some existing medical marijuana cultivators and retailers to serve as their own middlemen. It wants to get a head-start on collecting millions of dollars in tax revenue devoted to education before permanent rules are required by Jan. 1, 2018.

The liquor lobby sued, saying the state didn’t give it the first shot at distribution licenses as called for in the ballot measure approved by voters in November, the only legal pot state with that arrangement.

Carson City District Judge James Wilson blocked all licensing until the matter is resolved. He refused the state’s request last week to dismiss the lawsuit.

It’s not clear if Wilson will rule immediately after Monday’s hearing. But he told lawyers last week that it’s “an important issue that needs to be resolved quickly.”

In the meantime, state tax officials are doing everything they can to have the licenses ready to go as soon as they get the green light.

“We expect to issue licenses by July 1,” Department of Taxation spokeswoman Stephanie Klapstein told The Associated Press.

“We have a ‘war room’ in Vegas where our staff are working long hours to move the applications through the review process,” she said. “We, of course, won’t be issuing any distributor licenses to applicants that aren’t liquor wholesalers while the restraining order is in place.”

The law says alcohol distributors have exclusive rights to pot distribution licenses, unless the state determines there isn’t enough interest to meet anticipated demand.

The tax department said there was “insufficient interest” among the liquor lobby when it published the proposed regulations. It later said that determination would be made after all applications were processed.

Of the 93 applications for distribution licenses, five are from liquor wholesalers and 88 are from existing medical marijuana establishments, Klapstein said.

Kevin Benson, a lawyer representing the alcohol distributors, said the tax officials may be under the false impression that they need dozens of distributors for the maximum 132 recreational retail stores allowed in Nevada.

“The five (alcohol distributors) who applied could probably serve the whole state,” he said, estimating each serves an average of 200 alcohol retailers. “We don’t want this delayed. We just want it to be fair. Our feeling is we’d like to see this get started as soon as possible.”
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US Muslim Teen Found Dead After Assault Near Mosque

Posted on 06/19/2017 by SeeUS

Police in the U.S. state of Virginia have charged a man with murdering a 17-year-old girl after assaulting her as she walked with friends from a nearby mosque in the suburbs of Washington, DC.

Authorities said there was a “dispute” between the two sides, and the girl’s friends fled as he got out of the car to attack her.

The friends then went to the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) and police were called, setting off hours of searching that ended with officers finding a body believed to be the girl’s in a pond about five kilometers away.

During the search, police also said an officer saw a car driving erratically in the same area and stopped it, leading to the arrest of 22-year-old Martinez Torres as a suspect.

The Washington Post, citing police and a mosque official, said the group of four or five teenagers had gone to an IHOP restaurant early Sunday morning between prayers at the mosque and the start of that day’s fasting for Ramadan.

According to police, the initial attack happened about halfway along the two-kilometer route between the mosque and the restaurant, which goes past a neighborhood, bowling alley and shopping center on one side of the street and a tree-lined stream on the other side.

Authorities said they have not yet ruled out hate as a motivation for the attack.

ADAMS called on law enforcement to determine the motive and to “prosecute to the full extent of the law.”

“We are devastated and heartbroken as our community undergoes and processes this traumatic event,” ADAMS said in a statement. “It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth.”

The ADAMS website says it was established in 1983, and its main campus in Sterling, Virginia, about 50 kilometers west of Washington, has a mosque that can accommodate more than 700 people.

Virginia’s lieutenant governor and attorney general were among those condemning the attack Sunday.

“The ADAMS Center has always welcomed me and so many in Northern Virginia like family,” said Attorney General Mark Herring. “This unspeakable attack feels like an assault on our entire community.”

“There is absolutely no place for this kind of violence in our Commonwealth,” said Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam. “Every Virginian should feel safe and welcome in our communities, and no parent should ever have to experience such a heartbreaking tragedy.”
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BRICS Meeting Highlights Climate Change, Trade, Terrorism

Posted on 06/19/2017 by SeeAF

Climate change, trade and terrorism were highlighted Monday at a Beijing meeting of foreign affairs officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, known collectively as the BRICS nations.

The five nations are seeking to further align their views on key issues at a time when President Donald Trump is withdrawing the U.S. from multilateral arrangements such as the Paris climate accords and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China in the coming year would look to “expand with more broad and wide-ranging cooperation in areas such as trade and commerce and investment.”

Together the BRICS countries account for roughly 40 percent of the world population and 20 percent of the global economy. All five countries are members of the G20, although their economic prospects have declined somewhat amid crises in Brazil and South Africa and the effect of sanctions lodged against Russia by the West.

South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane pointed to climate change as a major concern.

“There is one climate and for future generations we must employ every effort at our disposal to reverse the effects of climate change,” she said.

Nkoana-Mashabane also pointed to the need to form joint efforts to fight terrorism, sentiments reflected by Vijay Kumar Singh, an Indian External Affairs official.

“It is important to enhance BRICS security in counterterrorism matters,” Singh said.

Leaders of the five nations are due to meet for a summit in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen in September.
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Investigators Question Delay in Reporting US Destroyer Collision

Posted on 06/19/2017 by SeeUS

U.S. and Japanese authorities say they are investigating why personnel on a U.S. destroyer and a massive Japanese merchant vessel took nearly a hour to report the deadly collision that killed seven sailors on the destroyer off the coast of Japan.

Officials from both countries say the accident was reported by both ships at approximately 2:30 a.m. Saturday, but tracking data shows the accident happening at 1:30 a.m.

The tracking data has the ACX Crystal, the container ship, making a u-turn shortly after 1:30 and returning to where it had been at 1:30.

A U.S. Seventh Fleet spokesman said the accident appears to have happened at 1:30 a.m. Saturday, not at 2:30 a.m. as the USS Fitzgerald reported.

Nanami Meguro, a spokeswoman for Nippon Yusen, the container ship’s operator, said the ship’s tracking information showed that it was “operating as usual” until the collision at 1:30 a.m. She did not have any information about the delay in reporting the accident.

“Because it was an emergency, the crewmembers may not have been able to place a call,” she said.

The collision is being investigated by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and Japan’s Coast Guard and its Transport Safety Board.

Earlier Monday, the U.S. Navy identified the seven sailors who were found dead in the flooded sleeping compartments of the Fitzgerald.

Acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley said, “We are all deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our fellow shipmates.”

Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin said Sunday “a significant portion of the crew was sleeping” when the destroyer and the Philippine-flagged container ship collided. He said that sea water gushed into sleeping compartments and that part of the ship’s right side was caved in.

Aucoin said, “The ship suffered severe damage rapidly flooding three large compartments that included one machinery room and two berthing areas for 116 crew.”

Three of the crew were injured in the accident, including the vessel’s commanding officer Bryce Benson, whose cabin, Aucoin said was “directly hit, trapping the CO inside.”

Aucoin said Benson, who is in stable condition with a head injury, “is lucky to be alive.” The two other sailors suffered cuts and bruises.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the details regarding the conditions during the final moments, but hope that the investigation may shed some light on that matter,” Aucoin said.

The victims were Gunner’s Mate Seaman Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19 from Palmyra, Virginia; Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, from San Diego, California; Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoe T Truong Huynh, 25, from Oakville, Connecticut; Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez, 26, from Weslaco, Texas; Fire Controlman 2nd Class Carlos Victor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, from Chula Vista, California; Personnel Specialist 1st Class Xavier Alec Martin, 24, from Halethorpe, Maryland; and Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm, Jr., 37, from Elyria, Ohio.

The Crystal is nearly four times the size of the destroyer. The 29,000-ton Philippine ship is 222 meters long, while the 8,315-ton Navy destroyer is 154 meters long.

None of the Crystal crew was hurt.

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DC United’s Star Goalie is a Muslim who Balances Faith with Football

Posted on 06/19/2017 by SeeUS

Ramadan is Islam’s holy month. It is a time of reflection honoring the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad. It is also a month of fasting during which able-bodied Muslims abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset, which poses unique challenges for professional athletes. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports from Washington.
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At Least 2 Dead in Attack on Malian Resort

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeAF

Two people have been killed in an attack by suspected jihadists on a resort outside Mali’s capital, a security ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

“The first victim was a French-Gabonese citizen. We are in the process of confirming the other’s nationality,” said security ministry spokesman Baba Cisse.

Gunmen stormed Le Campement Kangaba in Dougourakoro, a resort popular among Westerners on the edge of Bamako, taking some hostages.

U.N. and Malian forces have secured the area.

Two regional groups, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and al-Mourabitoun, claimed responsibility for the 2015 attack.

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Gunmen Attack Resort in Mali’s Bamako

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeAF

Suspected jihadists have attacked a resort popular among Westerners on the edge of the Malian capital, the country’s Interior Ministry confirmed Sunday.

Gunmen stormed Le Campement Kangaba in Dougourakoro on the edge of Bamako. There were no details on casualties, but hostages were reported, according to a United Nations mission official.

U.N. and Malian forces have secured the area.

Last November 22 people were killed in an assault on Bamako’s upscale Radisson Blu hotel.

Two regional groups, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and al-Mourabitoun, claimed responsibility for the November attack.

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London Mayor Admits Fire Caused by ‘Mistakes and Neglect’

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeEU

London mayor Sadiq Khan acknowledged growing public anger surrounding the Grenfell Tower fire in which 58 people are presumed dead, saying the blaze was a result of “mistakes and neglect”.

“There is a feeling from the community that they’ve been treated badly because some of them are poor,” Khan said after a visit to a church near the burnt-out social housing block to attend a service which remembered victims of Wednesday’s tragedy.

He called the fire a “preventable accident”, acknowledging the anger and frustration of displaced residents of the working-class enclave in one of Britain’s wealthiest districts.

The 1974 concrete building had recently been fitted with new insulation cladding. Survivors of the building claim that cheap materials for the cladding and a lack of maintenance on the building were to blame for the fatal fire.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced a public inquiry into the disaster as police investigate whether any criminal offenses were committed.

London police said Saturday at least 58 people were probably killed in the inferno, a figure that includes the 30 who have already been confirmed dead.

Sixteen bodies have been removed from the blackened 24-story public housing unit and the first victim has been formally identified as Mohammed Alhajali, a 23-year-old Syrian refugee.

If at least 58 deaths are confirmed, the blaze would be London’s deadliest since World War II.
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IS Victim Wants to Show Terrorism’s Consequences Through Film

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeEA

Lisa Calan’s legs are buried next to her father’s grave, the result of an Islamic State bombing at a political rally two years ago, one of the extremist group’s early attacks in Turkey.

“So I guess I can say I am already partly in the grave,” the 29-year-old film professional told VOA.

During the past four years, IS has killed almost 400 people and wounded more than 1,000 in Turkey, starting with 51 dead in two car bombs on May 11, 2013, according to a VOA tally from news reports of IS-related terror.

IS either claimed responsibility or was named by authorities as being behind the attacks.

A film script writer, Calan has managed to stay upbeat and doesn’t suffer from the financial problems of other victims of IS attacks, thanks to a fund-raising campaign on her behalf in Turkey and Germany. But she continues to deal with the aftermath of the bombing of a pro-Kurdish HDP party rally in Diyarbakir that killed four people and wounded many others.

“I very often have horrible nightmares,” she said. “I hear sounds of explosions. I smell gunpowder all over my body. I hear people screaming. I see body parts. I see blood. It is so terrifying.

Hope alive

“But I am still able to hope and smile,” she added. “Most of all I want to see peace realized in Turkey. My hope for peace keeps me alive. I will never give up asking and working for peace.”

Peace has become hard to find in Turkey, which has been pummeled by attacks from Kurdish separatists long before IS emergence took the country by surprise in 2013.

Since a cease-fire broke down in July 2015 between the government and the outlawed PKK — the Kurdistan Workers Party — at least 2,844 people have been killed in PKK-related violence, including 395 civilians, according to figures compiled by the International Crisis Group.

Turks are also dealing with the effects of a massive government crackdown on dissidents following a coup attempt last year and the impact of the long-running civil war in neighboring Syria which spawned an escalating IS movement inside Turkey.

Turkey’s government has come under blistering internal criticism for allowing IS militants from other countries to gain passage into neighboring Syria and Iraq and letting IS sympathizers establish havens in the country’s southeast region.

As IS escalated terror in Turkey, each attack has left lives shattered.

“I’ve had seven operations so far,” said Calan. “I have to have one more pretty soon. This one is a little risky. I am still thinking about it.”

Her family also has been devastated. Her mother and younger brother have had trouble coping. And an older brother earlier lost both legs to an illness.

Moving on

“So I am the second child of in the family with no legs now,” Calan said. “Not easy at all … My close friends keep treating me as they did before. I know how they feel. Because of my condition we have to be more careful where we go and meet. I used to love walking in Diyarbakir. I walked almost everywhere. That somehow changes their lives too.”

Calan credits the challenges of growing up in a Kurdish family with helping her overcome tragedy.

“All Kurdish children are born into a political world,” Calan said. “This keeps people able to go on with their daily lives. This gives us strength. That is how I am, too. I don’t feel like a person with no legs.”

Calan hopes to return to her budding career in film, where she served as an art director, script writer and actress. She already has picked out her next project, a documentary about three IS bombings in Turkey, including Diyarbakir.

“I want to talk to a lot of people who were at these places like I was, those who got wounded and those who lost loved ones, their personal problems that came after these bombings,” Calan said. “Many people now have serious financial problems. They can’t afford their treatments.”

Government officials say Turkey has intensified its crackdown on IS-associated militants since a New Year’s Eve attack on Istanbul’s Reina nightclub claimed by IS.

But for Calan, who is pursuing compensation for her injuries, the government shares some responsibility for the IS-bombing that took away her legs.

“Government authorities turned a blind eye to this whole thing,” she said. “Everybody was already talking about a probable IS bombing attack during the HDP rally in Diyarbakir. I blame some politicians, too. Some of the statements they have made were encouraging to IS militants.”

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With Whole Foods, Amazon on Collision Course With Wal-Mart

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeUS

When Wal-Mart Stores Inc. bought online retailer Jet.com for $3 billion last year, it marked a crucial moment — the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer, after years of ceding e-commerce leadership to arch rival Amazon, intended to compete.

On Friday, Amazon.com Inc. countered. With its $14 billion purchase of grocery chain Whole Foods Market Inc., the largest e-commerce company announced its intention to take on Wal-Mart in the brick-and-mortar world.

The two deals make it clear that the lines that divided traditional retail from e-commerce are disappearing and sector dominance will no longer be bound by e-commerce or brick-and-mortar, but by who is better at both.

Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods also brings disruption to the $700 billion U.S. grocery sector, a traditional area of retailing that stands on the precipice of a ferocious price war.

German discounters Aldi and Lidl are battling Wal-Mart, which controls 22 percent of the U.S. grocery market, with each vowing to undercut whatever price the others offer.

The stakes are highest for Wal-Mart. Amazon’s move aims at the heart of the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant’s business — groceries, which account for 56 percent of Wal-Mart’s $486 billion in revenue for the year ending Jan. 31. With the deal, Whole Foods’ more than 460 stores become a test bed with which Amazon can learn how to compete with Wal-Mart’s 4,700 stores with a large grocery offering that are also within 10 miles (16 km) of 90 percent of the U.S. population.

Amazon is expected to lower Whole Foods’ notoriously high prices, enabling it to pursue Wal-Mart’s customers. The push comes as Wal-Mart is headed in the opposite direction — going

after Amazon’s higher-income shoppers with a recent string of acquisitions of online brands such as Moosejaw and Modcloth and on Friday, menswear e-tailer Bonobos.

Wal-Mart may be ready. In preparation for the grocery price war, Wal-Mart in recent months has cut grocery prices, improved fresh food and meat offerings, modernized shelving and lighting

in its grocery aisles, and expanded its online grocery pickup service.

Marc Lore, the Jet.com founder who now runs Wal-Mart’s e-commerce business after selling a startup to Amazon, told Reuters in an interview that Amazon’s move does not change Wal-Mart’s game plan. “We’re playing offense,” he said.

Wal-Mart is offering curbside pickup of online grocery purchases at 700 locations, with 300 more planned by year end.

It also is testing same-day fresh and frozen home delivery from 10 of its stores. “We see an opportunity to do a lot more of that,” Lore said.

Roger Davidson, who oversaw Wal-Mart’s global food procurement and now is president of Oakton Advisory Group, said the deal will reduce Wal-Mart’s brick-and-mortar advantage.

“I think this acquisition is a concern,” he said.

Some industry observers say Amazon will find it difficult to use Whole Foods to pull away Wal-Mart shoppers because the two stores appeal to different customers. But Michelle Grant, head of retailing at market research firm Euromonitor, said Amazon could use an obscure part of the Whole Foods portfolio — Whole Foods 365 — to lure Wal-Mart shoppers.

Whole Foods 365 offers private-label goods and lower prices than typical Whole Foods stores, and is targeted at younger, value-conscious shoppers. Amazon could provide the financial

capital and tactical ability to build that into something big.

“That [Whole Foods 365] may become a big problem for Wal-Mart,” Grant said.

Amazon, which reported $12.5 billion in cash and equivalents and a free cash flow of $10.2 billion in the year ended March 31, has plenty to spend. Wal-Mart reported $6.9 billion in cash

and equivalents and $20.9 billion in free cash flow at its year ended Jan. 31.

Brittain Ladd, a former senior manager at Amazon who worked on its brick-and-mortar strategy, said Amazon will use Whole Foods to test concepts for the grocery store of the future.

Ladd, who left Amazon in March, said Amazon will seek to eliminate checkout lines by using technology that automatically scans goods as customers add them to their shopping carts. It

will select merchandise based on Amazon’s vaunted customer data, and potentially expects the use of technology to change prices during the course of a day.

Amazon declined comment on competition with Walmart but spokesman Drew Herdener said in a statement the company has no plans to cut jobs or use technology in development at its

Seattle Amazon Go store to automate jobs of cashiers.

Ladd, who helped with AmazonFresh’s global expansion and now is a supply chain consultant, said an Amazon-owned Whole Foods also likely will offer in-car pickup of online purchases, and

home delivery from Whole Foods stores, add pharmacies and showcase Amazon devices inside the stores.

“Amazon will reduce prices and change the assortment of products carried in Whole Foods stores to attract a larger customer base,” said Ladd. “Kroger and Wal-Mart will be impacted as their customers will defect to Amazon.”
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Trump Lawyer: President Not Under Investigation

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump is not under investigation by the prosecutor probing Russian meddling in last year’s election and his possible obstruction of justice, one of his lawyers said Sunday, contradicting Trump’s own tweet acknowledging the probe.

Attorney Jay Sekulow told NBC and CNN in interviews that Trump “is not under investigation by the special counsel,” Robert Mueller, although Trump said Friday that Mueller is investigating him.

Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was named last month to conduct a wide ranging criminal probe whether Trump campaign aides illegally colluded with Russian officials to help Trump win and also whether Trump obstructed justice in firing another FBI director, James Comey, at a time he was leading the Russia investigation before Mueller’s appointment.

Firing Comey

Comey told lawmakers earlier this month that Trump in recent months had asked for his personal loyalty, urged him to drop the investigation of the contacts the president’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had with Russia’s ambassador to Washington, and to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation, none of which he acceded to.

Trump at first attributed Comey’s firing to a recommendation by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for his handling of an investigation last year into the use of a private email server by Trump’s defeated challenger, Democrat Hillary Clinton. But Trump later acknowledged that he had already made up his mind to fire Comey before receiving the Rosenstein recommendation and that he dismissed Comey because of “this Russia thing,” believing that the probe of Russian interference in the election was an excuse being used by Democrats to explain Clinton’s stunning upset loss.

In a comment Friday on his Twitter account, Trump said, “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt.” Rosenstein appointed Mueller to be the special counsel in the investigation, although Mueller is actually conducting it.

Sekulow said that Trump’s comment was specifically in response to a Washington Post story, quoting unnamed sources familiar with the Mueller investigation, as saying that Mueller was probing whether Trump obstructed justice in firing Comey.

Trump had earlier fired Flynn in February after just 24 days on the job after learning he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

“The tweet from the president was in response to the five anonymous sources that were purportedly leaking information to The Washington Post about a potential investigation of the president,” Sekulow said. “But the president, as James Comey said in his testimony and as we know as of today, the president has not been and is not under investigation.”

Comey’s testimony

Comey had testified that as of the time he was fired by Trump on May 9, the FBI was not investigating Trump, but the Post story said that changed days later with Comey’s firing.

“He’s not afraid of the investigation. There is no investigation,” Sekulow added. The lawyer told CNN the Twitter comment was made in the confines of a 140-character post and suggested that the Post report should be discounted because of its use of anonymous sources.

In Twitter comments Sunday, Trump said, “The MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN agenda is doing very well despite the distraction of the Witch Hunt. Many new jobs, high business enthusiasm, massive regulation cuts, 36 new legislative bills signed, great new S.C. Justice, and Infrastructure, Healthcare and Tax Cuts in works!”

Rasmussen poll

He noted in another tweet, that the “new Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in the 2016 Election, just out with a Trump 50% Approval Rating. That’s higher than O’s #’s!” The last reference appeared to be a comparison to Trump’s predecessor, former President Barack Obama, whose own favorability ratings were often below 50 percent, although he left office in January with a 59 to 37 percent favorable-to-unfavorable standing.

The Rasmussen poll listing Trump at 50 percent approval is sharply at odds with other recent surveys showing that Americans broadly have an unfavorable view of Trump’s performance during the first five months of his presidency. In its three-day tracking poll, Gallup said Friday that by a 55-to-39 percent margin, voters give Trump a negative performance rating, while Qunnipiac University earlier this month said its polling showed Trump with a 57-to-34 percent disapproval rating.

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Saudi-Turkish Ties Strained over Differing Views on Qatar

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeEA

Ties between Saudi Arabia and Turkey have begun to fray due to sharply different policies toward Qatar.

Saudi Arabia has led other Arab nations in cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar over allegations the small Gulf nation backs terror groups and that its policies, including its support for Islamist groups, threatens the region. Qatar denies it backs terror groups and says the decision to isolate it is politically motivated.

Turkey, which is a strong backer of Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, has criticized the measures against Qatar and authorized the deployment of additional troops to Qatar in a show of support. Turkey also sent additional supplies of dairy products to Qatar’s capital, Doha, after Saudi Arabia sealed shut Qatar’s only land border, impacting a significant source of food imports.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held talks late Friday with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman about the crisis engulfing Qatar. No statement was issued after their meeting.

Saudi tour guides Khalid Abdullah and Edris Ismail told The Associated Press on Sunday that some Saudis are cancelling planned visits to Turkey for the upcoming Muslim Eid holiday, which starts next week. Saudi Arabia says around 250,000 Saudis visited Turkey last year.

An Arabic hashtag on Twitter has also appeared calling for Saudis to cut ties with Turkey.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised eyebrows over the weekend when he said King Salman agreed to consider an offer to establish a Turkish military base in the kingdom alongside a Turkish base in Qatar.

In an interview aired Thursday with Portuguese broadcaster RTP, Erdogan said work on the Turkish base in Qatar began in 2014 with the aim of supporting regional security. Erdogan added that he had previously raised the possibility of a Turkish base in Saudi Arabia and said the Saudi king agreed to consider the offer.

The official Saudi Press Agency released a statement Saturday strongly rejecting any such offer.

“Saudi Arabia cannot allow Turkey to establish military bases on its territories,” the statement, adding that the country “has no need for this.”

Ties between Saudi Arabia and Turkey had become strained under King Salman’s predecessor over Turkey’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood during the height of Arab Spring protests. Those ties, however, had begun to improve under Salman after he aligned Saudi Arabia closer with Turkey and other Sunni Muslim countries in a bid to counter Shi’ite-ruled Iran.
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Thousands Attend Gay Pride March in Ukraine’s Capital

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeEU

Thousands of people attended a gay pride parade in Ukraine’s capital amid tight security Sunday.

A counterdemonstration by a few hundred ultranationalists resulted in scuffles with police in which two officers were injured and six people arrested, Kyiv police chief Andrei Krishchenko said.

Much of downtown Kiev was cordoned off and about 5,000 police officers were on duty for the gay pride march, which has traditionally been a focal point for attacks by ultranationalists.

Kiev police spokeswoman Oksana Blishchik wrote on Facebook that about 2,500 people attended. The route of the parade was changed at the last minute in an attempt to head off clashes.

People marched in colorful costumes and with rainbow flags and placards, including one that read “Love and let love.”

The ultranationalist group Right Sector had warned the day before that their supporters would ensure the parade ended in a “bloodbath.”

Kyiv held its first major pride march last year after a pro-Western government that came to power after the 2014 revolution sanctioned such events.

Previous gay pride rallies in Ukraine have ended in violence. In 2015, a gay pride march was called off when right-wing activists pelted participants with smoke grenades.

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With Bodies Recovered, US Navy Calls Off Search for Missing Sailors Aboard USS Fitzgerald

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeUS

The U.S. has called off its search for seven missing sailors after finding bodies in the sleeping compartments of the USS Fitzgerald, the Navy destroyer that collided with a massive merchant vessel off the coast of Japan early Saturday.

“The search and rescue is over,” US 7th Fleet commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin told reporters Sunday. U.S. authorities tacitly acknowledged there were no survivors, although Aucoin declined to say how many bodies had been recovered until relatives of the dead sailors are notified.

Aucoin said that sea water gushed into sleeping compartments and that part of the ship’s right side was caved in.

“The damage was significant. There was a big gash under the water,” Aucoin said at the Yokosuka naval base, home of the U.S. 7th Fleet. He spoke with the docked Fitzgerald behind him, after tugboats towed it ashore in the hours after the collision 104 kilometers southwest of Yokosuka, in a busy shipping channel.

He said “a significant portion of the crew was sleeping” when the destroyer collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship, the ACX Crystal. Aucoin said the Fitzgerald is salvageable but that repairs will likely take months.

“Hopefully less than a year,” Aucoin said. “You will see the USS Fitzgerald back.”

There was no immediate explanation for the collision.

Aucoin said, “I’m not going to speculate on what happened…. Hopefully we’ll get those answers, but I don’t have them right now.”

Injured sailors

Three other U.S. crew members were injured in the accident, including the vessel’s commanding officer, Bryce Benson, with all of them undergoing treatment. Aucoin said, without elaborating, that Benson “is lucky to be alive.”

Benson was in stable condition with a head injury. The two other sailors suffered cuts and bruises.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a sympathy message to U.S. President Donald Trump, saying, “We are struck by deep sorrow. I express my heartfelt solidarity to America at this difficult time.”

On Saturday, Trump said in a Twitter message, “Thoughts and prayers with the sailors of USS Fitzgerald and their families. Thank you to our Japanese allies for their assistance.”

The ACX Crystal sailed into Tokyo Saturday afternoon with minor damage to its bow. None of the 20-member crew on the Philippine-flagged container ship was reported injured.

Investigation

Aucoin said the Navy will launch an investigation into the collision because “we owe it to our families and the Navy to understand what happened.”

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the details regarding the conditions during the final moments, but hope that the investigation may shed some light on that matter,” Aucoin said.

The Fitzgerald and the ACX Crystal — a ship nearly four times the size of the destroyer — collided early Saturday. The 29,000-ton Philippine ship is 222 meters long, while the 8,315-ton Navy destroyer is 154 meters long.

The U.S. Navy said the collision occurred about midship on the starboard side, damaging two sailor berthing stations, a machinery room and a radio room.

“This was a severe emergency, but the ship’s crew was swift and responsive and I can’t tell you how proud I am of the crew for what they did to save the ship,” Aucoin said.

According to Jiji Press news agency, the ACX Crystal captain said his ship was “sailing in the same direction as the U.S. destroyer and then collided.”

Such collisions between two ships are rare.

Yukata Saito of the Japanese coast guard said conditions were clear at the time of the collision.

“The volume of ships is heavy in this area and there have been accidents before,” Saito told Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.
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Pies and Freedom: A Father’s Day Look at a Dad Who Roamed

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeUS

A year ago this Sunday, I was making berry pies in the kitchen when I glanced outside: Dad had taken another face-plant in the grass.

Time to get a plastic chair, twist his limbs to a kneeling position and use his still-strong arms to get upright.

At 84, the former athlete-turned-dentist and father of four had been struggling with Parkinson’s, the dementia that it often brings and the general indignities of old age. So the few choices he had left he cherished deeply, including being able to roam or nap or eat sweets whenever he wanted.

And roaming often involved, as care workers would say with a gasp, “A fall!”

Falls are the No. 1 cause of injury and deaths from injury for elderly people in the U.S, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Older Americans fell 29 million times in 2014, causing 7 million injuries and costing an estimated $31 billion in annual Medicare costs, the agency says, citing the latest statistics. Falls evict people from their homes, shorten their lives and destroy their quality of life.

But not to fall means not to roam, which was a no-go for us.

So when nursing home officials or physical therapists asked “Has he fallen at any time in the last six months?” we were savvy enough to sidestep possible elder abuse lawsuits.

“Why yes, he has,” was a fine reply. “About three times a day” was not.

Sometimes Dad was so black-and-blue from his falls that he looked like a boxer’s punching bag. He had contusions on his head, his arms, his legs. Despite being wrapped like a mummy in Band-Aids, he bled across the house like a hemophiliac.

But after drinking milk every day of his life, Dad never did dent a single bone, while mom, his 80-year-old caretaker, cracked a toe, a finger or a rib every other month.

This is the first Father’s Day since he passed away, so of course it’s a kick in the gut.

Dad, however, would not have cared one whit. He was old school, honor thy father every day of the year, don’t get sucked into this commercial hoopla – unless, perhaps, it’s a gift of sturdy overalls that will be worn for years in the garden.

Richard Joseph Norman, born May 18, 1932, in the hard-luck upstate New York town of Ogdensburg, was an only child and a scholarship boy. So for the rest of his life, he concentrated on two things: family and charity. And he created those families wherever he went.

Drafted into the army as a dentist, Dad was Alan Alda 15 years before “MASH” went on the air, a maverick who brought wit and kindness to an institution not known for either quality. His bosses did never understand why so many enlisted men with girlfriends in distant cities had frequent dental problems on Friday afternoons.

Charity to Dad was not writing a check or attending a banquet. Every Thursday on his day off, Dad would drive around Rochester to round up supplies for the local homeless shelter – sacks of potatoes, onions and carrots, industrial-sized cans of beans or tomato sauce. On Monday nights in the fall, he would hold a free dental clinic for migrant workers.

At his office, those who came to work for him stayed for life. And Dad knew everything about his patients, not just how their cracked molars were doing, for long before Rochester folk embraced psychologists, everyone talked to their dentist.

In hindsight, we had plenty of signals of the end. Dad — whose license and keys had long been taken away — snuck out and crashed a car while mom was taking a nap. He blithely walked into a frigid river in his underwear for a swim. Plagued by insomnia, he ventured out in the snow to visit neighbors’ porches or parked cars at 4 a.m. — thank God no one shot him.

Once as I was trying to get Dad back into bed at 3 a.m., he became stressed and stepped back with his right foot. I felt sick, knowing that was just what a former black belt would do before delivering a kick that could shatter my tibia. I let him eat the cookies.

Still, Dad became lucid as a fox the day we had to put him in a nursing home.

“I did not sign up for this, Sheila,” he said, eyeing the meager twin bed and the room’s barren industrial patina. The snores of his new roommate reverberated through a flimsy curtain.

Dad lasted just over a month in that restricted setting.

The first few days he walked around its circular hallway compulsively, carrying his walker like a knapsack, seeking the one unlocked door that would lead to freedom. Within a few days, the facility’s rigid fears about falls meant he was effectively locked into a wheelchair. Soon afterward, he struggled to swallow and gave up on eating.

So this year my berry pies have no ardent admirer and Dad’s 12 grandchildren have no one to tease them. Two family weddings have brought us together but we still crumble at the sound of “Taps,” remembering the yellow birch leaves that fluttered down on his grave.

Dad’s lessons on family and charity will live on, however. So on this Father’s Day, I want to celebrate a full life well-lived, a spirit that roamed and gave laughter and kindness to friends and strangers alike. There is no better legacy.
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No Retirement Talk from Dianne Feinstein, Oldest US Senator

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeUS

The nation’s oldest U.S. senator looks like she’s sticking around.

California’s Dianne Feinstein turns 84 on Thursday and is displaying signs that she’s headed for a re-election campaign, not a retirement party.

While the Democrat has been coy when asked about seeking a fifth full term next year, her political committee, unambiguously titled Feinstein for Senate 2018, raised more than $650,000 in the first three months of this year in a cue she is looking ahead.

Feinstein plays a marquee role for Democrats on Capitol Hill, where she has queried Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former FBI Director James Comey about their interactions with President Donald Trump, amid probes tied to Russian influence and the 2016 presidential campaign.

On Friday, she warned that Trump might attempt to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating possible obstruction of justice. “The message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn’t apply to him,” she said.

She’s the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the circumstances behind Trump’s dismissal of Comey. She also sits on the Intelligence Committee, which is conducting an inquiry into Russia’s election meddling and whether there was any collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign.

With another term in Washington, Feinstein could be in the Senate into her 90s.

Questions about her age circulated in 2012, when at 78 she was easily re-elected over token Republican opposition. She had a pacemaker installed in January, and a voter survey earlier this year suggested her support could be dinged by her advancing years.

But even in youth-obsessed California, where about four in 10 people are under 30, Feinstein’s age didn’t concern Los Angeles screenwriter Marie Stone, providing the senator remains in good health. Stone said she likes the balance between Feinstein’s long experience and the baby-boom pedigree of Sen. Kamala Harris, the state’s junior senator who is a comparatively youthful 52.

“As long as she’s standing up and defending California’s rights, that’s what’s important,” said Stone, a Democrat.

Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s political committee recently wrote a $1,000 check to Feinstein’s campaign. “I’ve encouraged her” to run, he said in an email.

A former San Francisco mayor, Feinstein has long been among California’s most popular political figures, and she would be a strong favorite to keep the seat in a state where Democrats hold every statewide office and control both chambers of the Legislature by hefty margins.

But her centrist credentials and lack of enthusiasm for universal health care have made the grande dame of state Democrats a target within the party’s restless liberal wing.

She’s had protesters outside her home, and has been criticized by some for appearing too temperate in remarks about Trump’s White House.

After Trump fired Comey, her initial statement said, “The next FBI director must be strong and independent and will receive a fair hearing in the Judiciary Committee.” Within a day, she changed course and was questioning if Comey was fired to stifle the FBI’s Russia investigation.

The break between the party’s establishment and liberal branches played out during last year’s Democratic presidential primary. And at a state Democratic convention this year, liberals inspired by Bernie Sanders nearly captured the party’s top job.

“The split is obviously between the new breed and the old guard. It’s not likely to heal if Dianne Feinstein runs for re-election,” said Michael Thaller, who heads the state party’s Progressive Caucus.

For many liberals, “it’s time to get some new blood in there – some new, more progressive blood,” he added.

Feinstein is quick to defend her record, and she has deep credentials on issues that drive the left-leaning state electorate, including environmental protection and reproductive rights.

Her role on Senate committees has given her an important perch in a state that is at the center of the so-called Trump resistance – Hillary Clinton carried California by over 4 million votes in the general election.

She’s a regular on the Sunday TV political circuit and has made frequent use of Twitter. “Release the tapes, Mr. President! What are you afraid of?” she tweeted on June 11, referring to the possibility that the president’s conversations with Comey were recorded at the White House. She has called Trump’s decision to withdraw from a global climate agreement “shameful, disastrous.”

Veteran Democratic consultant Roger Salazar noted Feinstein was back on the job shortly after the pacemaker procedure. “That’s the signal of somebody who isn’t going off into the sunset,” he said.

Feinstein’s political roots go back to the Vietnam era, long before millions of younger voters were born. Over half of new voter registrations through October were millennials – younger people who tend to be more liberal than older Californians.

Computer consultant Manuel Moreno said her age shouldn’t be a concern. The 67-year-old Los Angeles Democrat doesn’t always agree with Feinstein – he said she drifts “to the right of my political views.”

But Moreno credited her with sharp questioning of Sessions and Comey in Senate hearings.

“I wasn’t disappointed,” he said.
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Heath Official: 25 Killed in Saudi Airstrikes on Yemen Market

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeEA

At least 25 Yemenis were killed when Saudi-led coalition aircraft struck a market in the northern Saada province, a local health official said on Sunday, the latest in a string of deadly incidents in the 27-month-old conflict.

Officials from the Saudi-led coalition could not immediately be reached for a comment on the report.

Yemen has been torn by a civil war in which the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, is trying to roll back gains made by the Iran-aligned Houthi group which controls most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sana’a.

The director of the Houthi-run Health Department office in Saada said the aircraft conducted two raids on al-Mashnaq market in Shada district, which is close to the Saudi border, on Saturday, killing 25 people and wounding at least one.

“Rescue teams were unable to reach the area for some time for fear of being hit by artillery shelling of the area,” the official, Dr Abdelilah al-Azzi, told Reuters by telephone.

Reuters could not independently confirm the report because the area is located very close to the frontline, but several Yemeni online news outlets carried a similar report.

A Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed 22 people and wounded dozens when it struck a market in western Yemen near the Red Sea fishing town of Khoukha in March.

Khoukha and the nearby city of Hodeidah are controlled by the Houthis who overran Sanaa in 2014 and moved south to Aden in 2015 forcing Hadi and his administration to flee into exile.

The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than three million and ruined much of the impoverished country’s infrastructure.

The Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 to fight the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh who have fired missiles into neighboring Saudi Arabia.

In December, the coalition acknowledged it had made “limited use” of British-made cluster bombs, but said it had stopped using them.

Nearly half of Yemen’s 22 provinces are on the verge of famine, according to the U.N. World Food Programme.
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Russia Says Trump Using ‘Cold War Rhetoric’ on Cuba

Posted on 06/18/2017 by SeeEU

The Russian Foreign Ministry has criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze a detente with Cuba and his verbal attack on the Caribbean island’s leaders.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday that Trump is “returning us to the forgotten rhetoric of the Cold War.”

The statement says that “It’s clear the anti-Cuba discourse is still widely needed. This can only induce regret.”

Despite Trump’s campaign pledge to improve relations with Moscow, there has been no significant improvement in foreign policy cooperation between the two countries. Last week, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to back new sanctions on Russia.

Moscow maintains close ties with Havana, and in March signed a deal to ship oil to Cuba for the first time in over a decade.

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