2017 was described as the year that right-wing populists would take charge in Europe, echoing the election of Donald Trump in the United States. But centrist Emmanuel Macron scored a crushing victory in France and the far right UK Independence Party is all but wiped out in Britain as the ruling Conservatives lost their majority. As Henry Ridgwell reports, analysts believe Donald Trump may in fact be hindering Europe’s populist right.
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Month: June 2017
Senate’s Iran Sanctions Bill Faces Differing Views in House
A newly passed Senate bill that would impose additional U.S. sanctions on Iran faces uncertain prospects for passage in the House, whose members are expressing differing views about its efficacy.
Hours after the Senate approved the Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act in a near-unanimous 98-2 vote Thursday, the House’s majority Republican leaders had not said when they will act on it. The bill also would sanction Russia for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election, a charge Moscow denies.
The Senate bill would impose financial restrictions on people involved with Iran’s ballistic missile development and with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Strong bipartisan support
The legislation won strong bipartisan support from majority Republicans and minority Democrats who see Iran’s ballistic missile activity as destabilizing to the region, and who accuse the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of involvement in international terrorism.
Iranian leaders say their ballistic missile program is defensive in nature. They also say Iran is the victim of international terrorism rather than the perpetrator.
The Senate’s proposed Iran sanctions got a mixed response from House members who spoke to VOA’s Persian Service at a Washington event Wednesday night, before the bill won final Senate approval.
The lawmakers were attending a dinner held by the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), a U.S. research group that educates American policymakers who want to strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance.
Republican Congressman Scott Perry said he wants to ensure the Senate’s bill is strong.
“We have to look at it,” Perry said. “My concern would be that (the sanctions) would be too weak, especially regarding Iran. That’s really the focus; Russia is an afterthought. Somebody at some point is going to have to take some action if (the Iranians) keep heading in the direction that we suspect they will head.”
Another Republican Congressman, Mark Meadows, said some House members have doubts about the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions in dealing with Iran.
“As you look at the sanctions, typically they are not as impactful as (those of) the European Union,” Meadows said. “Typically, having the EU involved has a greater impact in the (Mideast) region. We’re cognizant of that, but we’re looking at all the options.”
Democratic Congressman Juan Vargas had a more upbeat view of the House’s prospects for adopting the Senate’s measures against Iran’s ballistic missile program and the IRGC.
“I certainly support those measures, and I think a lot of Democrats will too,” he said. “The bill will have bipartisan support.”
No administration position yet
The Trump administration has not expressed a position on the Iran sanctions proposed in the legislation, which President Donald Trump would have to sign before they become law. But his administration has imposed several sanctions on Iran in recent months to punish it for carrying out a January ballistic missile test and for committing alleged human rights abuses.
The White House also is reviewing whether to re-impose Iran sanctions that Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, lifted under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.
Israel’s criticism
In a speech at Wednesday’s EMET event, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer sharpened his criticism of the 2015 deal, saying it has “paved Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb” because it automatically lifts restrictions on Iranian nuclear activities after a number of years.
“So the clock is ticking, the sands are coming out of that glass, and time is literally on their side,” Dermer said. “Iran won’t need to sneak in or break in to the nuclear club, in a few years, they can just walk in.”
The Obama administration said the 2015 deal blocks Iran’s path to a bomb by forcing it to freeze activities or damage infrastructure needed to develop nuclear weapons.
Israel, which is widely believed to be nuclear-armed, sees an Iranian nuclear weapon as a threat to its existence because of repeated calls from Iranian leaders for the destruction of the Jewish state.
“Israel and the Trump administration must deal with the fallout (from the 2015 agreement), and we will deal with the fallout,” Dermer said. “We will deal with it because we must. Deal or no deal, America and Israel must stop Iran’s clear path to the bomb.” The Israeli diplomat did not elaborate.
Iran says its nuclear program is designed for peaceful medical research and electricity generation.
This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service.
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UN Security Council Urges Peaceful Settlement in Yemen
The U.N. Security Council Thursday urged the parties to the conflict in Yemen to work towards a peace settlement to prevent the country from slipping further into a humanitarian catastrophe.
In a lengthy statement agreed to by all 15 council members, it expressed deep concern about the recent outbreak of cholera and the growing possibility of famine.
“The Security Council emphasizes that the conflict in Yemen will only be resolved through the resumption of an inclusive political process, and calls upon all parties to the conflict to engage constructively and in good faith to overcome obstacles and find a peaceful solution,” council president Ambassador Sacha Llorentty of Bolivia said in reading the statement.
Peace efforts stalled
A Saudi-led coalition supporting President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi began its war in Yemen in March 2015, battling Iranian backed Shiite Houthi rebels who hold the capital, Sana’a.
U.N. efforts to find a peace agreement have stalled, with the secretary-general’s special envoy reporting to the council two weeks ago that the key parties are still not ready to embrace the concessions necessary to reaching a comprehensive settlement.
Hunger and disease
Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis grows.
U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said Thursday that the number of suspected cholera cases has risen to more than 140,000 half of them children and nearly 1,000 deaths.
Less than half of the country’s medical facilities are functioning, making even basic treatment scarce.
The country also has become the world’s largest food insecurity crisis, with more than 20 million people struggling daily to get enough to eat. Nearly 7 million are on the brink of famine, as food prices surge due to the coalition imposed blockade of the country’s main ports. Add to that the nearly 1 million civil servants who have not been paid in months, and the purchasing power of scores of families has been severely reduced.
U.N. officials have repeatedly made the point that Yemen’s looming famine is entirely manmade.
“Yemen is not facing a drought, like other countries do,” Auke Lootsma, the country director for the U.N. Development Program in Yemen told VOA. “Yemen is facing the direct consequences of a war that has also led to the situation of the current food insecurity.”
Shortage of funds
In its statement, the Security Council stressed the importance of keeping all of Yemen’s ports functioning as a critical lifeline for humanitarian support and other essential supplies.
The U.N. has appealed for $2.1 billion to assist Yemenis this year, but has received less than one-third of that amount, threatening its ability to continue feeding some 4 million people each month beyond September. After that, humanitarian coordinator McGoldrick says, the prospect of famine will be a reality.
“The situation is very dramatic,” Lootsma added. “This war has to stop, because there is a direct link between the suffering that the Yemeni people are going through and the fact that this war continues to rage across the country.”
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New HIV Infections Climb Among Young Women in South Africa
Among the people socializing in a tavern in Alexandra township in Johannesburg is Karabo Sathekge, who asked that VOA not give her real name. She is a slight, attractive 19-year-old in a veil of an orange dress, defying the winter chill.
Sathekge often meets one of her partners here. He is more than twice her age.
Sathekge explains that sex with older men is sometimes “rough,” and always without a condom.
South Africa has almost 7 million people living with HIV and manages the globe’s largest antiretroviral program, keeping about 4 million people alive with the drugs. At the South African National AIDS Conference in Johannesburg this week, specialists voiced their concern about the spiking rates of infections among young women, a trend reflected throughout the continent.
“What does it tell you about the lack of knowledge about HIV, 20, 30 years into the HIV epidemic?” said Mark Heywood, the director of the Section 27 social justice movement. “We have seen, shockingly, a decline in knowledge of HIV amongst young people. It is like we have taken our foot off the accelerator, in certain respects.”
Heywood says more than 200 young women, ages 15 to 24, are infected with HIV each day in South Africa.
In 2015, that demographic accounted for the largest segment of new HIV infections in South Africa and a disproportionate number of new cases in the region. Adolescent and young women made up a quarter of the new cases in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNAIDS most recent global report.
UNAIDS says adolescent and young women in Africa are at “particularly high risk” for a variety of reasons, such as poverty, lack of education and violence.
Like Sathekge, many poor young women in South Africa have “transactional” sexual relationships with older men who have jobs and money. The men buy them food, clothes and gifts.
Health care workers in South Africa say transactional sex is a key driver of the new infections among young women in the country.
Heywood is at the forefront of protests to demand the government make a new weapon against HIV infection available to young women. That weapon is a combination of antiretroviral drugs called “pre-exposure prophylaxis,” or Prep. Taken correctly, the pill can prevent people from getting HIV.
Heywood says the state could afford to give the drugs to young women for free.
“If you have literally tens of billions of rand being stolen every year out of different government departments, that is money that could be generating programs that reduce the vulnerability of young women,” he said. “But there has to be a [political] will.”
South Africa’s health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, says he plans to provide Prep to young women in about two to three years, after educating them about the pill. It must be taken at about the same time every day, and ideally is used with condoms.
However, Heywood says Motsoaledi’s “innovative” policies to prevent new HIV infections are likely to stall, as Motsoaledi has been politically isolated after publicly opposing President Jacob Zuma over Zuma’s alleged corruption.
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Amnesty International Rebukes Nigerian Military for Dropping War Crimes Inquiry
Amnesty International criticized Nigeria’s military Thursday for dropping an investigation into senior officers accused of war crimes in the northeast during the conflict with Islamist Boko Haram insurgents.
The eight-year battle with the militant group, which seeks to carve out a “caliphate” in the northeast, has been rife with human rights violations by the parties involved, including the military, Boko Haram and vigilante organizations, aid groups say.
Those include extrajudicial killings, rape, the use of child soldiers and detentions of people without charge.
Late Wednesday, a Nigerian military panel issued a report on the findings of its investigation that said there was insufficient evidence to charge the officers, some of whom are now retired, for any abuses.
The military killed, starved, suffocated and tortured 8,000 people under the watch of certain senior officers, Amnesty International said in its 2015 report alleging the war crimes.
“We stand by the findings of our research and our call for an investigation that is independent, impartial and thorough,” Osai Ojigho, director of Amnesty International Nigeria, said Thursday.
The military panel did find that delays of trials of suspected Boko Haram members that resulted in death or denial of legal representation were unacceptable.
Both the panel and Amnesty International recommended that Nigeria set up a presidential commission to investigate any accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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Europol: European Jihadists Getting Younger, Increasingly Female
Jihadists attempting to launch terror attacks in Europe are trending younger and more of them are women than ever before, Europe’s top law enforcement agency said in a new report released Thursday.
Last year in Europe, police arrested 718 alleged jihadist terrorists representing a near two-fold increase over the 395 jihadists arrested in 2014. Of those arrested, almost one third were under the age of 25, and about one in four were women, according to the report.
Those jihadists returning from battlefields in Syria and Iraq are another leading threat to the European Union, as authorities fear they will replicate the use of drone explosives seen in those countries in Europe.
Sharing information
In order to combat the rising threat of jihadist violence in Europe, EU leaders say cross-border information sharing will become increasingly important in the years to come.
“Fighting terrorism will remain at the top of our common political priorities for the time to come, not just in Europe but globally,” said EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos. “For the safety of our citizens, and for the cohesion of our societies, we need to step up our information exchange and our cross-border cooperation at all levels.”
The Europol report says jihadist groups have become more sophisticated in their use of social networks to spread their messages and recruit followers. The Islamic State has lowered the frequency of its video production as it struggles to maintain control over its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
Jihadists on the move
According to the report, fewer jihadists are traveling to fight in Syria as IS loses control of land it once held, which may sound like a positive development, but also represents an increased threat from those jihadists returning to Europe and those who weren’t allowed to Syria.
“The number of returnees is expected to rise, if IS, as seems likely, is defeated militarily or collapses. An increasing number of returnees will likely strengthen domestic jihadist movements and consequently magnify the threat they pose to the EU,” the report reads.
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Egypt Panel Defies Parliament on Red Sea Islands Transfer
A senior constitutional panel in Egypt has concluded that two courts, which ruled to annul an agreement to transfer control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, acted within their jurisdiction.
The panel’s report, published Thursday in Egyptian media, defies Egypt’s parliament, which the previous day overwhelmingly backed the 2016 deal on the islands transfer. It also signals the start of what is potentially a destabilizing legal battle between the judiciary and the legislative branch of government.
The outcome of the vote was a foregone conclusion since the legislature is packed by supporters of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi whose government insists the islands belong to Saudi Arabia.
The panel’s report is meant as a guideline for the Supreme Constitutional Court, which is due to start hearings July 30 on whether the courts had acted within their jurisdiction when they ruled in June 2016 and in January this year to annul the deal. The panel’s findings are not binding, but are rarely ignored.
Sissi must sign off on parliament’s ratification of the agreement before the transfer of the islands can take place. It was not immediately clear whether the president would do that before the constitutional court meets next month.
Government supporters in parliament have insisted that the 596-seat chamber alone had the right to ratify or reject the agreement, signed during an April 2016 visit to Cairo by Saudi King Salman.
The government insists the islands of Tiran and Sanafir at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba were always Saudi but placed under Egypt’s protection in the early 1950s amid Arab-Israeli tensions. Critics have linked the islands transfer to the billions of dollars in Saudi aid given to Sissi’s government, saying it amounts to a sell-off of sovereign territory.
The government, loyal media and lawmakers have gone to great lengths to support Saudi ownership of the islands, a stand that many Egyptians have found to be unusual and vexing given the strategic value of the islands.
Tiran, a popular destination for Red Sea divers, controls a narrow shipping lane that leads to and from the ports of Eilat and Aqaba, in Israel and Jordan respectively. Egypt’s unilateral closure of that lane was among the main reasons behind the outbreak of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, in which Egypt lost the entire Sinai Peninsula. Control over Sinai was restored to Egypt under its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
“It is the first time in history … that a state volunteers to prove the right of another state to territory that is under its complete sovereignty and is linked to its national interest,” prominent columnist Abdullah el-Sennawy wrote Thursday. “So much so, that some officials and lawmakers seemed more enthusiastic than the Saudis themselves” about the transfer of the islands.
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Ankara Pushes Back on Iraqi Kurd Independence Bid
A bid by Iraqi Kurds to achieve independence could threaten a partnership with neighboring Turkey.
“The [referendum] decision by the northern Iraqi authority deeply saddened us,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his ruling AKP lawmakers this past Tuesday.
“A step toward the independence of northern Iraq is a threat to the territorial integrity of Iraq, and it is wrong,” he added.
Erdogan has built a close, if not unlikely, relationship with Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional government, or KRG. In past years, Erdogan dismissed Barzani as nothing more than a bandit, but the two men have developed an increasingly powerful alliance based on shared economic and regional interests.
Erdogan’s criticism of Barzani is not necessarily what it seems.
“Compared with his [Erdogan’s] usual style, his reaction to Iraqi Kurdistan declaration to hold a referendum for independence cannot be qualified as harsh,” said former Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who founded Turkey’s consul in the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Irbil. “And the frequency of the comments suggests this is not one of the main concerns of Ankara at this moment. Rhetoric is something and action is something else.”
Ankara has the means to quickly bring the KRG under its influence, as it depends on Turkey to pipe its oil to international markets through the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
“The significance of oil and potentially gas exports in terms of budget revenues and the dependence of the KRG on Turkey for export of its oil, Turkey does have leverage on the KRG,” said Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels.
Ankara has so far not hinted at threatening to turn off the spigot.
“It will depend on what the next steps will be. Just holding the referendum, which is not binding, will in itself not change the nature of this relationship,” said Ulgen. “But if the KRG decides to take more formal steps to achieve this aim, then certainly this will have a much more durable effect on this relationship.”
Ankara has also expressed concerns on the scope of the planned referendum scheduled for September 25. The inclusion of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in the vote has provoked alarm.
“What really concerned us was that Kurdish leaders want to include Kirkuk in this process while, according to the Iraqi constitution, Kirkuk is an Iraqi city and is not within Kurdish boundaries,” Ibrahim Kalin, spokesperson for the Turkish presidency, said at a press conference Wednesday. “If any attempts will be made to forcefully include Kirkuk in the referendum question, problems will be made for Kirkuk and its surrounding areas.”
Kirkuk is claimed by the Iraqi Kurds as their capital, but Turkmen also have claims over the city. Ankara’s concerns over Kirkuk may be more about domestic considerations.
“This is for internal political reasons Mr. Erdogan is continuing to stick to the consolidating of nationalist support inside Turkey,” said former Turkish diplomat Selcen. “So this is the reason we are going through the motions in this case.”
Kirkuk, and the fate of regional ethnic Turks, are symbolically important for Turkish nationalists. Ankara, however, appears to be turning more than a blind eye to Iraqi Kurds’ ongoing control of the city after its forces captured it from Islamic State.
“The oil continues to flow not only from Iraqi Kurdistan previously produced oil fields, but also from recently acquired Kirkuk oil fields which flow through the Turkish pipeline market through to Ceyhan,” said Selcen.
Oil exports from the Iraqi Kurdish region, through Turkey, have become part of an extremely lucrative partnership.
“It’s a relationship that has blossomed since 2008, that has now taken the form that the KRG has almost become Turkey’s economic hinterland and a number of potentially important oil and gas deals are in the pipeline,” noted analyst Ulgen. “And Barzani is the person who has delivered this.”
Barzani’s public support of Erdogan is also seen as important for the Turkish president in his bid to maintain legitimacy among Turkey’s Kurdish minority, with an ongoing crackdown on the Kurdish rights movement.
Barzani, however, has been facing growing internal pressure as the referendum call is seen as an attempt to help consolidate his position.
“KDP [Barzani’s party] needed this referendum call to strengthen its position to be able to keep its base,” said Selcen, adding that Ankara’s restrained reaction to the planned vote underlines the importance it attaches to its key ally. “The relation with the KDP is one of the most important assets for Ankara in the region.”
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Nairobi’s Sidewalk Political Debaters Discuss Elections
Campaigning is under way in Kenya for the much anticipated August elections.
On the sidewalk near Nairobi City Hall, you can find the Bunge la Wazalendo, or People’s Parliament, meeting morning, noon and night. This group is one of a few that meet in Nairobi’s city center.
They discuss a variety of important issues and, of course, the upcoming elections.
“Actually, we talk about the high cost of living, and we also talk about our top leadership,” said Margaret Anyango Wayona, a social justice activist. “Yeah, we discuss about almost everything around this area.”
And the high cost of living is a big concern among Kenyan voters, says Gabriel Mayeye, chairman of the People’s Parliament.
“You cannot get water, even if you want to get water,” he said, “you cannot get the ambulance for you to be in hospital, you cannot get free health care, you cannot get food.”
At the People’s Parliament, the regulars take turns speaking. People walking by often stop and take the floor themselves. While it is mostly men, there are a few women.
Margaret Nganyi says she is fed up with corruption, and that will guide her vote for president in August.
“We are going to vote this man out because he is a thief, he has stolen from us, he is just taking us for a ride,” she said of President Uhuru Kenyatta. “He is not taking care of us and we are taxpayers. We are paying taxes. Even if we are going without food, we are paying taxes.”
But others support Kenyatta, often citing his infrastructure projects as proof of success.
“He has done a good job,” said one voter, “and he still has a very long journey to do to take Kenyans to the final part of the journey.”
Other Kenyans remain skeptical that either the ruling party or the opposition will bring positive change to the country.
Stephen Owoko attempted to run as an independent candidate in the presidential elections, before the electoral commission denied his application.
“For now, it is just a question, a matter of saying, ‘Which one is a better devil?'” Owoko said. “Which one is a better devil? When the time comes, I will decide.”
But there is one thing most Kenyans agree on: The overarching role of politics.
“By the way, politics is everything because when you look at what is going on in this country, the [biggest] contributor to what is going on in this country is politics,” Wayona said.
Kenya’s elections are slated for August 8, and members of the People’s Parliament will be watching closely.
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US Senate Approves Russia Sanctions
The U.S. Senate voted 98-2 Thursday to approve sweeping sanctions against Russia and make it harder for President Donald Trump to ease punitive measures against Moscow.
“We have no time to waste,” said Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. “The United States of America needs to send a strong message to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and any other aggressor that we will not tolerate attacks on our democracy.”
“We must not allow this kind of interference in our elections become a normal process,” said Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
Adopted overwhelmingly as an amendment to an Iran sanctions bill, the measure targets Russia’s cyber espionage entities, energy sector, financial interests, and the flow of Russian weaponry to war zones like Syria.
“It expands the list of where sanctions can apply to the energy projects and foreign financial institutions,” said Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “It provides for actors undermining cyber security being subject to sanctions. It provides sanctions against suppliers of Russian arms to Syria. It’s comprehensive.”
The measure also asserts a role for Congress if the White House opts to ease any sanctions against Moscow.
“The president can’t remove a sanction until he’s given Congress notice and an opportunity to review,” Cardin said. “We can have congressional hearings, we can put a spotlight on it. And then we have an expedited process where we could reject the president’s decision to give relief. And all during that process, the sanctions remain in place.”
The Trump administration reportedly is weighing the return of Russian compounds on U.S. soil seized by the Obama administration, and the president has repeatedly expressed a desire for better relations with Moscow while downplaying the impact of Russia’s cyber activities.
“It’s particularly significant that a bipartisan coalition is seeking to reestablish Congress, not the president, as the final arbiter of sanctions relief,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.
McCain described existing punitive measures against Russia as “modest” and “reversible at the discretion of the president.”
“We must take our own side in this fight, not as Republicans, not as Democrats, but as Americans,” McCain said.
The White House has not said if Trump would sign or veto the legislation, which would have to be passed by the House of Representatives before it could go to the president‘s desk. Testifying this week on Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged the need to take action against Russia but warned against measures that would cut off dialogue with Moscow.
“We would ask for the flexibility to turn the heat up when we need to, but also to ensure that we have the ability to maintain a constructive dialogue,” Tillerson said.
The underlying bill imposed new sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile program and support for international terrorism. Lawmakers of both parties stressed the measures in no way target Iran’s nuclear program or the landmark international nuclear accord with Tehran.
“We see destabilizing act after destabilizing act [by Iran], from missile launches to arms transfers to terrorist training to illicit financial activities to targeting Navy ships and detaining American citizens,” said the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee.
“It’s past time for us to take steps to protect the interests of the United States and our allies. This bill is the first time Congress has come together since the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, to do just that,” Corker added.
“This bill will impose sanctions on Iran for its non-nuclear violations,“ Cardin said. “The debate we have here is on the non-nuclear activities of Iran that violate international norms and international agreements.”
your ad herePolice Seek Arrest of 14 in DC Turkey Embassy Brawl
Police in Washington have issued arrest warrants for 14 people, including Turkish security agents, for their alleged role in assaulting protesters outside the Turkish Embassy following a visit to the White House by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month.
“Using video of the incident, law enforcement has been able to identify the majority of the suspects who were involved in the assault,” Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham told a news conference Thursday.
WATCH: DC Mayor on arrests, charges
Thirteen men and one woman are still wanted. Two of these suspects have been identified as U.S. citizens, Newsham said, adding that they would release screen grabs from video footage of the incident to ask the public for help in identifying other suspects.
Two suspects were arrested Wednesday for their alleged role in assaulting protesters.
The Metropolitan Police Department said in a brief statement Wednesday that Sinan Narin was arrested in Virginia on an aggravated assault charge and Eyup Yildirim was arrested in New Jersey on charges of assault with significant bodily injury and aggravated assault. The department released no further details about the men.
It was not clear if the men were supporters of Erdogan or the protesters.
The fracas strained relations between the United States and Turkey, with Washington calling the conduct of Turkish guards “deeply disturbing.” Eleven people were hurt in what Washington’s police chief called a “brutal attack” on peaceful protesters.
The brawl took place outside the residence of Turkey’s ambassador to Washington shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump met with Erdogan at the White House.
Video of the protest shot by VOA’s Turkish service shows security guards and some Erdogan supporters attacking a small group of protesters. Men in dark suits and others were recorded repeatedly kicking one woman as she lay curled up on a sidewalk. Another wrenched a woman’s neck and threw her to the ground. A man with a bullhorn was repeatedly kicked in the face.
WATCH: VOA Turkish service video of the incident
After police officers struggled to protect the protesters and ordered the men in suits to retreat, several of the men dodged the officers and ran into the park to continue the attacks. In all, nine people were hurt.
The Turkish Embassy claimed without evidence that Erdogan’s bodyguards were acting in “self-defense” during the incident, and that the protesters were affiliated with the PKK.
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Ministers of ‘People’s Parliament’ Convene to Discuss Kenyan Elections
Campaigning is under way in Kenya for the much-anticipated August elections. For a preview of the top issues, VOA’s Jill Crag visited the “People’s Parliament” in Nairobi, and has this report.
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Trump Orders More Cash, Industry Input, for Apprenticeships
President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered more money and a bigger role for private companies in designing apprenticeship programs meant to fill some of the 6 million open jobs in the U.S.
Trump signed an executive order to roughly double to $200 million the taxpayer money spent on learn-to-earn programs. The money would come from existing job training programs. The executive order would leave it to industry to design apprenticeships under broad standards to be set by the Labor Department.
“We’re training people to have great jobs and high paying jobs,” Trump said at a White House ceremony. “We’re here today to celebrate the dignity of work and the greatness of the American worker.”
Trump is directing the government to review and streamline some 43 workforce programs across 13 agencies. Senior administration officials have said Trump was reluctant to spend more federal funds on apprenticeships, so the boost would come from existing money, perhaps from the streamlining process. The officials spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity to preview Trump’s order.
Companies have long complained that they can’t find trained people to fill highly technical jobs, and apprenticeship programs have sprung up around the country. Companies now have to register with the Labor Department and adhere to government guidelines.
There are about 500,000 apprenticeship positions in the U.S.
Trump had campaigned on creating jobs. The executive order addresses the nation’s “skills gap” that have left millions of open jobs unfilled. Apprenticeships would give students a way to learn skills without the crippling debt of four-year colleges, and expand those opportunities to women, minorities and other populations underrepresented among the nation’s roughly 505,000 apprentices.
Trump accepted a challenge earlier this year from a CEO to create 5 million new apprenticeships.
The Trump administration has said there’s a need that can be met with a change in the American attitude toward vocational education and apprenticeships. A November 2016 report by former president Barack Obama’s Commerce Department found that “apprenticeships are not fully understood in the United States, especially” by employers, who tend to use apprentices for a few, hard-to-fill positions but not as widely as they could.
The shortages for specifically trained workers cut across multiple job sectors, from construction trades to agriculture, manufacturing, information technology and health care.
Critics say Trump can’t be promoting apprenticeships while he proposes cutting federal job training funding by as much as 40 percent – from $2.7 billion to $1.6 billion. There also are questions about oversight of apprenticeship programs that begin and operate almost completely under the control of the company.
Apprenticeships are few and far between. Of the 146 million jobs in the United States, about 0.35 percent – or slightly more than a half-million – were filled by active apprentices in 2016. Filling millions more jobs through apprenticeships would require the government to massively ramp up its efforts.
“Scaling is the big issue,” said Robert Lerman, a fellow at the Urban Institute.
Another complication: only about half of apprentices finish their multi-year programs. Fewer than 50,000 people – including 11,104 in the military – completed their apprenticeships in 2016, according to Labor Department.
Trump’s resume includes the hit television show, “The Apprentice.”
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Poverty, Witchcraft Make Mozambique Risky for Bald Men
Last week, police in Mozambique warned bald men in the country to be vigilant, after at least two such men were killed for the use of their body parts in witchcraft rituals.
According to local experts, widespread poverty is as much to blame for the killings as mystical belief.
Sociologist Book Sambo, who lectures at Mozambique’s Eduardo Mondlane University, said the attacks must be seen in a context where people are desperate to improve their lives, and willing to use “magic” in hopes of changing their luck.
“This should not be seen as isolated from our social problems — the low level of education, people with socio-economic difficulties … the difficulty of getting a job,” he said in an interview with VOA’s Portuguese to Africa Service.
Police issued their warning after arresting two suspects in connection with the deaths of two bald men in Zambezia province. One of the victims was decapitated and both were mutilated.
According to police, the suspects said they killed the men so traditional healers — critics call them witch doctors — could use their organs for rituals that supposedly bring prosperity to the healers’ clients.
“Their motivations come from superstition and culture as the local community thinks bald men are rich and that their parts can be used to enrich others,” said police spokesman Inacio Dina.
Three other bald men were reportedly killed this month in the Morrumbala district of Zambezia, although police have yet to directly link those deaths to witchcraft.
Healers association denies involvement
The leader of an association of traditional healers, Fernando Mate, told VOA Portuguese that members of his organization do not kill bald men in order to perform rituals.
But Mate said he could not guarantee others might take such action. “People take chances to gain some money,” he said.
Until recently, albinos were the primary group targeted by hunters hoping to profit from witchcraft — or, more accurately, the widespread belief in it.
A United Nations expert said last year that local activists had recorded more than 100 attacks on albinos in Mozambique since 2014, and that the real number was likely higher. People lacking pigment in their skin, eyes and hair are often attacked in Tanzania, Malawi and other African countries for the same reason.
Groups such as Human Rights Watch have pressured governments in the region to crack down on crime rings and witch doctors believed to be behind the killings.
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Native Americans Call For Rethink of Bering Strait Theory
It’s one of the most contentious debates in anthropology today: Where did America’s first peoples come from — and when? The general scientific consensus is that a single wave of people crossed a long-vanished land bridge from Siberia into Alaska around 13,000 years ago. But some Native Americans are irked by the theory, which they say is simplistic and culturally biased.
The first European explorers to reach the Americas looked to the Bible to explain the origins of the people they encountered and misnamed “Indians.” Biblical tradition holds that humans were created some 4,000 years ago and that all men descend from Adam — including indigenous peoples whom Europeans regarded as primitive.
“Dominant science believed in a concept of superiority,” said Alexander Ewen, a member of the Purepecha Nation and author of the “Encyclopedia of the American Indian in the Twentieth Century.”
“And that created an idea that either people were genetically inferior or that there were stages of civilization, and Indians were at a lower stage,” he said.
Since “primitives” weren’t sophisticated enough to have sailed the oceans, early scientists concluded Indians had reached North America by some unknown land route. They found their answer in the Bering Strait.
Ewen says that theory cemented into dogma and persists to this day, even in the face of new discoveries and technology that suggests Indians arrived much earlier and by different routes.
“In the first place, it’s simplistic,” said Ewen. “The people in this hemisphere were — and are — extremely diverse, more than any other place in the world.”
Chipping away at a theory
In the 1930s, scientists examined a pile of mammoth bones in Clovis, N.M., where they found distinctive spear points. Since then, tens of thousands of “Clovis points” have been found across North America and as far south as Venezuela. Scientists decided the Clovis people must have been America’s first peoples, arriving 13,000 years ago.
Excavations in the 1970s pushed the date even further back, to as much as 16,000 years ago. Archaeologist James Adovasio dated artifacts found at Pennsylvania’s Meadowcroft Rockshelter to be up to 16,000 years old, to harsh criticism.
Other branches of science have weighed in: In 1998, University of California-Berkeley linguist Johanna Nichols argued that it would have taken up to 50,000 years for a single language to diversify into the many languages spoken by modern Native American groups. That meant ancient Indians would have to have arrived 19,000 years ago.
Geologists have complicated matters by suggesting that the Bering Strait wasn’t passable until 10 or 12,000 years ago. This gave way to theories that early humans might have sailed down the Pacific coast into the New World.
Meanwhile, in 2015, Harvard University geneticist Pontus Skoglund discovered DNA links between Amazon Indians and the indigenous peoples in Australia and New Guinea.
In the past decade, Smithsonian Institution anthropologist Dennis Stanford met scathing criticism for suggesting Stone Age Europeans paddled across the Atlantic thousands of years before Columbus. In April of this year, researchers in California analyzed crushed mastodon bones they said were butchered by humans 130,000 years ago, a theory the bulk of scientists, including Adavasio, rejects – not because it’s not possible, he stipulates, but because the data isn’t conclusive.
Native American accounts
Should science consider the origin beliefs of tribes themselves?
Montana’s Blackfoot tradition holds that the first Indians lived on the other side of the ocean, but their creator decided to take them to a better place. “So he brought them over the ice to the far north,” the account reads.
The Hopi people of Arizona say their ancestors had to travel through three worlds, finally crossing the ocean eastward to a new and final new world. And Oklahoma’s Tuskagee people believe the “Great Spirit” chose them to be the first people to live on the earth.
Stories like these aren’t given much weight by science, said Joe Watkins, supervisory anthropologist at the National Park Service and a member of the Choctaw Nation.
“They are generally believed to be anecdotal,” he said. “The deep time depth and the possibility of multiple interpretations seem to make scientists uncomfortable.”
That isn’t to say Watkins believes every tribal tradition is “true.”
“But I do believe most of them carry within them kernels of truth of use to researchers. It seems imprudent to dismiss any possible line of evidence,” he said.
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Trump Expected to Tighten US Cuba Policy
As a candidate, Donald Trump promised to undo parts of a historic U.S.-Cuba agreement to re-engage after more than 50 years. He said the 2014 deal forged by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro was “one-sided,” favoring the communist government.
Now that he occupies the White House, Trump is expected to set new demands for Havana – likely on a visit to Miami planned for Friday.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson indicated Tuesday that the Trump administration plans to restore “pressure on the regime” by tightening some of the trade and travel loosened under Obama.
Speaking at a Senate hearing on his department’s proposed budget, Tillerson said “the general approach … is to allow as much of this continued commercial and engagement activity to go on as possible.”
Tillerson noted benefits to Cuba’s 11 million residents, with some capitalizing on U.S. business investments and a tripling of U.S. visitors to the island last year. That came after the United States in 2015 removed Cuba from the list of terrorist sponsors, reopened its embassy in Havana, and eased restrictions on trade and travel.
Nonetheless, Tillerson said, “We think we have achieved very little in terms of changing the behavior of the regime in Cuba and its treatment of people, and it has little incentive today to change that.”
Likely revisions could include prohibiting American companies from doing business with Cuban enterprises linked to the military – which controls much of the communist-run island’s economy – and restricting Americans’ travel to Cuba, sources familiar with the policy review said.
The administration’s demands for Havana also could include broader internet access and the release of prisoners, the Associated Press reported.
Obama relaxed the Cuban economic embargo through executive orders, which Trump can easily reverse. Only Congress can formally rescind the embargo enacted in 1962.
Pushing tougher conditions
Two Cuban-American Republican lawmakers from Florida – home to a large Cuban-American exile community – are pressing for harsher terms with Havana: Senator Marco Rubio serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 election; Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart serves on the House Appropriations Committee. Both are expected to join the president in Miami for his announcement.
“We’ve been walking through all these issues with the president and his team,” Rubio told El Nuevo Herald in April. “… I am confident that President Trump will treat Cuba like the dictatorship it is and that our policy going forward will reflect the fact that it is not in the national interest of the United States for us to be doing business with the Cuban military.”
Diaz-Balart told VOA earlier this month that he has had “several conversations” with the president, who “wants to enforce respect for human rights, the security of the country and certainly also the rule of law.”
The congressman purportedly backed House Republicans’ legislation on health care in March in exchange for Trump’s tougher stance on Cuba, The New York Times and other news media have reported. The congressman’s office did not respond to VOA’s phone and email requests for comment.
Bipartisan support
U.S. Senator Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he understood arguments for and against stronger ties with Cuba. Interviewed last week by VOA, he described himself as “someone who would like to see progress there.”
Corker mentioned a visit last year to the island, where “about 25 percent of the country now is engaged in some kind of private-sector activity, which is certainly growth.”
He also acknowledged frustration with Cuban officials he’d met: “If they would just be willing to show some evolution, you know, a momentum could be gained. But it’s almost as if because America wants them to go in that direction, they’re going to defy.”
Most Republicans endorse Cuba trade and travel, which has strong bipartisan support in Congress and with the public overall. Last week, seven GOP lawmakers wrote a letter to the president, warning that restrictions would “further incentivize Cuba to depend on countries like Russia and China,” Reuters news service reported.
A new poll conducted on behalf of Engage Cuba, a nonpartisan coalition favoring broader commercial and diplomatic relations with the island, showed almost 64 percent of Republicans want to continue the rapprochement with Cuba. Earlier this month, Engage Cuba released a study estimating that rolling back trade and travel measures could cost the United States more than $6 billion and would eliminate 12,000 jobs in Trump’s first term.
U.S. airlines, Airbnb and other travel-related interests also have urged the Trump administration government not to reverse the new openness. Tech giant Google joined the chorus on Monday, with Google Cuba official Brett Perlmutter publicly appealing to maintain a U.S. policy “that allows telecommunications firms [to] work in Cuba,” the Associated Press reported.
Google servers went online in Cuba in April, enabling quicker and potentially cheaper communication.
International Telecommunication Union data show that just 37 percent of Cubans routinely used the internet as of 2015 – but that the user base was growing rapidly.
Dissidents discuss human rights
The biggest sticking point is Cuba’s poor record on human rights.
The international watchdog group Human Rights Watch, in its most recent annual update, said, “The Cuban government continues to repress dissent and punish public criticism,” using beatings and job termination to try to silence its critics.
Dissidents in Cuba have differing views on the renewed ties’ impact.
Rapprochement has brought the island “an increase of repression, of death threats to the opposition and to the Cuban people,” psychologist and journalist Guillermo Fariñas said he told Obama in the second of their two meetings. Fariñas, who has conducted more than 20 hunger strikes to protest the regime’s actions, told VOA that “negotiating with the Cuban government and asking them nothing in return was a mistake.”
“Alleged improvements, like the implementation of Wi-Fi zones on the island, have only served to enrich the monopoly the military has over the country’s economy,” Fariñas added. He said the state-owned telecommunications company ETECSA controls “all communications inside and outside the country” and is run by the military.
Reinaldo Escobar, editor of the independent digital news outlet 14ymedio, told VOA more openness is “very positive for Cuba,” because it improves contact between Cubans and their relatives and friends in the U.S., and because it reduces diplomatic “threats, retaliation and misunderstandings.”
But he said economic benefits “haven’t really reached” most Cubans.
VOA Spanish Branch reporter Gioconda Tapia Reynolds,Gesell Tobias, Jesenia DeMoya-C., Capitol Hill corresondent Michael Bowman, and reporter Carol Guensburg contributed to this report.
your ad herePen Pal Program Connects US Students with Refugee Camp in Kenya
Fifth grade students at High Peaks Elementary School in Boulder, Colorado began exchanging letters several months ago with students at a primary school in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp. They are participating in a pen pal program facilitated by the U.S.-based humanitarian group CARE.
The students have also exchanged drawings and even challenged each other to a dance-off, sending each other recorded videos.
“You know, honestly, I tend to think that of all the math and science and language arts and everything we have done, this is probably the project that will stick with them longer than any other, and hopefully for life,” said Zachary Fink, fifth grade teacher at High Peaks.
Dadaab Primary School teacher Victor Ochien’g Odera says that the letter writing project is providing a valuable cross-cultural exchange.
“Most of the letters are telling that, we want to see you in the future, what do you want us to do for you, how can you help us in learning English, and can you help us in learning about different cultures? And others are saying that they want to learn Swahili and ours are saying, yes, come, we will teach you how to do it,” said Odera.
CARE started Letters of Hope last year. It has also helped middle school students in New York correspond with Afghan refugees in Greece and displaced families in Yemen, and elementary school students in Atlanta to exchange letters with South Sudanese refugees in Uganda.
“Now too with the numbers of refugees and displaced people just continuing to go up every year, there also seems to be a sense of fear around the world and what we wanted to do with this project, this Letters of Hope project, is really connect people around the world, and show the common humanity that exists, and we think, what better way to do that than to connect children,” said CARE emergency communications manager Holly Frew.
A sentiment with which Fink agrees.
“I hope the kids learned that regardless of what the situation is, that you can do something, that you can have a voice,” he said.
According to U.N. data as of May 2017, the total number of registered refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya is almost half-a-million people, with more than 246,000 of them living in Dadaab.
your ad hereHuman Rights Groups Dispute Russian Claims Aleppo, Syria ‘Liberated’ From Terrorists
Human rights groups have disputed Russian claims that Aleppo has been “liberated” from Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Qaida) terrorists and affiliated extremists, accusing Russian and Syrian forces of having bombed Syria’s second largest city into submission.
In commemoration of six months after what they called the “liberation of Aleppo,” the Russian mission hosted a side event Wednesday at the United Nations Human Rights Council called “Aleppo: A City Free from Terror, New Life, New Hopes” to give its version about “what took place in the city before, during and after that event.”
Moscow has come under international criticism for its support of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its alliance with the Syrian air force in the relentless bombing of eastern Aleppo, which drove the rebels out of the city. Countless numbers of civilians were killed and wounded during this military action.
Russian ambassador says life changing in Aleppo
In kicking off the conference, Russian Ambassador Alexey Borodavkin said it is important that the world “know the truth about these events” and was made aware of how life is changing in Aleppo.
“We all understand and we all recall that when eastern Aleppo was being set free from al-Nusra and other radical groups, some of the world mass media, with the help of terrorist supporters, disseminated fake news online on the situation. A whole number of states and international organizations echoed and disseminated this fake news,” Borodavkin said.
To highlight the alleged duplicity of the Western media, the conference projected a live video from Aleppo of Omran Daqneesh, the young Syrian boy who became a worldwide symbol of the conflict in Syria when a photograph of his face covered in ash was flashed around the world.
On the video, a happy, healthy-looking Omran is seen sitting on the lap of his father, who criticized the media and said, “I want my son to become a symbol of peace.”
Among those participating in this event were several Russian military officials, who spoke at great length about the humanitarian work the Russian military was engaged in, such as setting up food kitchens, setting up field hospitals and providing medical services to the people of Aleppo.
They spoke about the work they were doing in revitalizing and rehabilitating the city and making it safe for displaced people to return to the homes they had fled during the conflict.
These military men never spoke about their role in the conflict. They portrayed themselves as peacemakers, as humanitarians and as liberators of Aleppo.
HRW official isn’t persuaded
The Human Rights Watch communications director for the Middle East, Ahmed Benchemsi, was not persuaded by this argument.
He told VOA that the word liberation was politically loaded and that he was not sure he knew what it meant.
“That word does not sound right when thousands of civilians are bombed or starved to death by their so-called liberators,” said Benchemsi. “I mean, east Aleppo was controlled by opposition armed groups for four years and in retaliation, the Syrian government has bombed civilian neighbors, including schools and hospitals using indiscriminate weapons, and then the Russian air force joined as well. The Russians targeted civilians in indiscriminate strikes. So, these things are called violations of the laws of war, if not war crimes — not liberation.”
Terrorists blamed
The participants at the conference blamed the destruction, deaths and injuries in Aleppo on the terrorists.
No one even mentioned the airstrikes conducted by Syria and its Russian ally except for Marinella Corregia, a peace activist and researcher at No-War Network in Rome, who condemned local non-governmental organizations for feeding lies about Russia and Syria to the Western media and international non-governmental organizations.
“The allegations, which went on for years, not only months, about Syria and Russia bombing hospitals deliberately. There were also lots of allegations about bombing bakeries. Why? Why someone should bomb a bakery — to get the population against the government?”
Corregia said it was time to break this “vicious circle of lies.”
Proof of targeting medical facilities
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the High Commissioner for human rights, told VOA that there was credible proof that hospitals and other medical facilities have been deliberately targeted.
“We have seen an unprecedented number of attacks on medical facilities — even ad hoc medical facilities and even the targeting of medical professionals who are seen to be treating people from the other side; whether they are treating people presumed to be of the opposition or people presumed to be cooperating with the Syrian forces.
“We have seen a lot of attacks,” she said. “And, yes, there is an obligation under international humanitarian law that hospitals and medical facilities have a special protected status.
“And attacking these hospitals or using them as military facilities, does constitute a war crime,” she said.
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Trump Shuns Politics Following Gun Attack on Congressmen
President Donald Trump’s first test of leadership at a time when a brazen act of political violence shocked the nation was bound to come.
From both sides of America’s partisan divide, the president’s handling of the shooting of a Republican congressman and several others has earned him respect, some of it grudging.
Trump delivered a call for unity just a few hours after a heavily armed gunman fired on members of Congress at a sports field where they were practicing for a charity baseball game.
WATCH: President Trump’s Statement to Nation
Measured tones
The attack sent shockwaves of outrage across the political spectrum, but the president spoke in measured tones and made no mention of America’s highly charged political atmosphere:
“We may have our differences, but we do well, in times like these, to remember that everyone who serves in our nation’s capital is here because, above all, they love our country,” Trump said in a four-minute address, televised across the nation.
Speaking from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room, he said: “We can all agree that we are blessed to be Americans, that our children deserve to grow up in a nation of safety and peace, and that we are strongest when we are unified and when we work together for the common good.”
Trump praised the heroism of U.S. Capitol Police officers at the scene of the shooting, two of whom were injured. Many lives could have been lost, he said, had they not brought down the gunman, “despite sustaining gunshot wounds during a very, very brutal assault.”
The gunman was seriously wounded on the baseball field and died at a hospital.
In an earlier statement and a Twitter post, Trump said he was deeply saddened by the tragic incident, and noted his “thoughts and prayers” went out to “members of Congress, their staffs, Capitol police, first responders and all others affected.”
Republicans praised Trump’s steady response, and so did some Democrats. The Politico website quoted veteran Democratic operative Jim Manley as saying: “It looks like Trump and his team took this shooting seriously and acted accordingly. His statement was measured and respectful and hit all the right notes when he issued a call for unity.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a vocal Trump critic, had kind words on this occasion. “I pray for Donald Trump, that his presidency will be successful and that his family will be safe,” Pelosi said. “Because it is about family.”
WATCH: Pelosi Sends Prayers to Scalise
Picking a moment
Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and the Congress, observed there are moments when a president must use the “bully pulpit” of his office to provide solace to a shocked or grieving nation.
“We expect the president to serve as a national voice and consoler-in-chief when there is a moment of national tragedy,” Mahaffee said.
Mahaffee called Wednesday’s gun attack an important moment for presidential leadership, at a time when American political partisanship seems to be at a fever pitch.
“By all accounts, this is violence provoked by political disagreement, and reflecting our concerns about what the tenor of politics has become in our country with the tribal divides between Republicans and Democrats,” Mahaffee said. “We are seeing an inability to reach common ground, not only among our representatives, but increasingly as a society. We’ve begun to see people from the other party as opponents rather than Americans.”
The leaders of the Republican and Democratic baseball teams held an unusually warm bipartisan news conference Wednesday to announce that the shooting incident would not disrupt Thursday night’s baseball game, which annually raises tens of thousands of dollars for charity.
WATCH: Game On, Team Leaders Say
A few members of Congress have suggested that Trump ought to attend the game as a gesture of support.
However, a White House official told VOA that Trump’s attendance is unlikely, since “for logistical security reasons it would be impossible to organize.”
The game will be televised on a public network (C-SPAN).
VOA’s Steve Herman contributed to this report.
In Photos: Shooting at the Baseball Field
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UN Report: Migrants Sending Billions More Home Than in 2007
Migrants are sending home billions of dollars more than they did a decade ago – and the rate of growth in remittances is almost double the increase in migration, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday.
The report commissioned by the International Fund for Agricultural Development says that remittances increased by 51 percent during the decade from 2007 to 2016 while migration rose by 28 percent and population in the home countries of migrants grew by 13 percent.
The Rome-based U.N. agency which fights poverty in rural areas said the report is the first to examine a 10-year trend in migration and remittance flows. It said the findings are based on a series of studies and surveys commissioned by the fund, known as IFAD, and on its analyses of World Bank data.
According to the report, remittances increased in almost all regions of the world, but the sharp rise between 2007 and 2016 was mainly due to Asia which saw an 87 percent increase in money sent home from migrants.
IFAD President Gilbert Houngbo said what’s most important is the impact on the lives of family members and others who receive the money.
“The small amounts of $200 or $300 that each migrant sends home make up about 60 percent of the family’s household income, and this makes an enormous difference in their lives and the communities in which they live,” he said in a statement.
According to the report, more than 200 million migrant workers are now supporting an estimated 800 million family members around the world.
And it projects that this year one billion people – one-in-seven people in the world – will be involved in either sending or receiving more than $450 million in remittances.
“About 40 percent of remittances – $200 billion – are sent to rural areas where the majority of poor people live,” said Pedro de Vasconcelos, manager of IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances and the report’s lead author. “This money is spent on food, health care, better educational opportunities and improved housing and sanitation.”
The study estimates that between 2015 and 2030 an estimated $6.5 trillion will be sent to low- and middle- income countries.
Over 100 countries receive more than $100 million in remittances every year, the report said, led by China, India, the Philippines, Mexico and Pakistan.
It said the top 10 sending countries account for almost half the annual remittances: United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Kuwait, France, Qatar, United Kingdom and Italy.
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Macedonia Seeks Greek Support to Join EU, NATO
Macedonia asked Greece on Wednesday to help its bid to join NATO and the European Union, efforts frozen by a decades-long dispute over the ex-Yugoslav republic’s name.
Greece, a member of both groups, says Macedonia’s use of the name could imply territorial claims on Greece’s most northerly province of the same name.
It is withholding support for Macedonia’s further integration until it agrees to change it and has managed to get many international bodies, including the United Nations, to formally refer to it as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM.
“I’m here to ask for your support,” Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov, at one point Skopje’s negotiator with Greece over the name, said in Athens.
“I’m convinced that you have the leverage in your hands and this leverage can help towards closing the way for the one open issue,” Dimitrov said through an interpreter.
Athens would support Macedonia’s integration “in every way, once the name issue has been resolved,” Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said during a joint news conference.
“That is a the prerequisite and I believe we must, and can, work towards a good compromise benefiting both sides,” Kotzias said.
Compound name
The Macedonia name dispute has dragged on for almost 26 years with no clear progress. Athens has previously insisted that Skopje use a compound name such as “New” or “Upper” Macedonia.
It also blockaded Macedonia’s southern border in the early 1990s, at least in part leading to a change in Macedonia’s first flag, which depicted the Vergina Sun, a symbol from the gravesite of the ancient kings of Macedon, which is in Greece.
Macedonia’s former prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, built his nine-year rule on nationalism and a rejection of Greek demands.
But the new administration of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, in coalition with parties representing the country’s ethnic Albanians, has pledged to speed up the country’s bid to join the EU and NATO.
Dimitrov will oversee the U.N.-sponsored negotiations with Greece that have been stalled for several years because of the political and debt crises affecting the two countries.
“In this region … we rise or fall together,” he said, switching to English.
“As we are on our way up, we need help and I am sure at some point there will be an overwhelming realization that that’s a good thing for your country … that’s a good thing for the region and that’s a good thing for Europe.”
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DC Roundup: Congressman Critically Injured, Investigation Into Trump, State Dept. Cuts
Developments in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday include Republican members at an early morning baseball practice are attacked by a gunman, Congressman Steve Scalise is critically injured, a newspaper reported that special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating President Donald Trump for possible obstruction of justice, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says cut in department funding doesn’t equate to overall goal achievement.
Report: Trump Being Investigated for Possible Obstruction of Justice — U.S. President Donald Trump is being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller for possible obstruction of justice, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified officials.
WATCH: Trump on congressional shooting
US Congressman Scalise in Critical Condition After Shooting — Republican U.S. Congressman Stephen Scalise, who was among five people shot by a gunman Wednesday outside Washington, is in critical condition, according to Medstar Washington Hospital Center in the nation’s capital, where Scalise is undergoing treatment. Trump announced that the gunman suspected of shooting Scalise and the others has died from injuries sustained in a shootout with law enforcement officers.
WATCH: Senator Sanders denounces violence
Shooter at Lawmakers’ Baseball Practice Was Trump Critic, Sanders Fan — The gunman who opened fire at a congressional Republican baseball practice Wednesday was a harsh critic of Trump, according to social media postings, and also was a former campaign volunteer for Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders. James Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois, wounded four people, including Representative Scalise of Louisiana and four others, in the early-morning shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, before being fatally shot by U.S. Capitol Police who were guarding the lawmakers.
WATCH: House Speaker Ryan, House Minority Leader Pelosi speak about shooting
US House Leaders Unite in Call for Humanity in Wake of Shooting Rampage — The top Republican and Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives, often at sharp odds over contentious government policies, joined Wednesday in a common plea for humanity in the immediate aftermath of a gunman’s attack on a congressman and four others at a baseball field.
Shooting Victim Steve Scalise Is Third-Ranking US House Republican — Scalise, the U.S. congressman who was shot while at a practice for an annual baseball game against rival lawmakers, is the third-highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives.
Tillerson: Funding Level Doesn’t Equate to Goal Achievement — U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he believes the Trump administration can continue to carry out American foreign policy goals despite massive proposed funding cuts to diplomacy programs and foreign aid. Trump’s proposed budget for 2018 would slash State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spending by 32 percent, but Tillerson said the amount of funding doesn’t necessarily correlate with the results achieved.
US Aims for Stronger Partnership With Central America — Senior American officials say the United States will signal strong commitment to Central America when top leaders from the region gather in Miami this week, despite a 2018 budget that proposes a significant cut in aid to those countries. The Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America, opening Thursday, will focus on economic, governance and security challenges in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Trump Gives Defense Chief Authority to Set US Troop Levels in Afghanistan — Trump has given Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan. Speaking to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Mattis testified that the president had authorized his ability to set troop numbers in Afghanistan on Tuesday, noting that any change to the current troop level of 8,400 would not come immediately.
Pakistan Army Chief Slams US Drone Operation — Pakistan’s military chief is sharply criticizing a suspected U.S. drone strike that killed two key Haqqani network commanders in northwestern Pakistan earlier this week. Pakistani security sources said Tuesday’s pre-dawn missile attack destroyed a suspected militant hideout in the remote district of Hangu.
Marshall Islands Leader Appeals for Help on Climate Change — Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine is appealing for help to convince Trump of the need to fight global warming following his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Heine told European Union lawmakers Wednesday that “we all have a duty to work together to convince President Trump of the importance of climate action.”
Emirati Ambassador: US Should Rethink Qatar Air Base — The United States should consider moving its air base out of Qatar, the Emirati ambassador to the U.S. said Tuesday, encouraging the Trump administration to use its leverage to further pressure Qatar over alleged support for extremism.
White House Denies Trump Wants Mueller Out, But Heat Is On — The White House has finally ended a day of speculation about whether Donald Trump is considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, saying the president has “no intention” of doing so. Still, that statement is unlikely to quell criticism of Mueller from some of Trump’s closest allies — including one of his sons. They have begun questioning whether Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election is becoming too political.
Fact Check: Ethics Checks Move Along Despite Trump Beefs — There’s no sign of foot-dragging at the Office of Government Ethics despite President Trump’s complaint that it has “become very difficult to deal with” as he tries to fill vacancies on his team. It’s actually moving faster on Trump’s nominations than it did under President Barack Obama, data from the office show.
Democratic US Lawmakers Sue Trump Over Foreign State Payments to Businesses — More than 190 Democratic lawmakers sued Trump in federal court on Wednesday, saying he had accepted funds from foreign governments through his businesses without congressional consent in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment but has said Trump’s business interests do not violate the Constitution.
Cuba Kicks Off Electoral Process Leading to Castro Handover — Communist-run Cuba said on Wednesday it was calling for municipal elections on Oct. 22, kicking off the electoral procedure that should lead to the handover of power from Raul Castro to the next president. The electoral notice coincides with a period of uncertainty for Cuba as Trump is expected to announce his Cuba policy on Friday, rolling back parts of former President Obama’s opening to the island, which included restoration of relations and reopening of embassies in a diplomatic breakthrough between Cold War foes.
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Father of Freed Student Says Son ‘Brutalized’ by North Korea Captors
The father of an American college student released by North Korea and now hospitalized in a coma says his son was “brutalized” by his captors.
Fred Warmbier told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Wednesday from his Ohio home that his son, Otto, “is not in great shape right now.”
“Otto has been terrorized and brutalized for 18 months by a pariah regime in North Korea,” the father said in an interview scheduled to air Thursday night.
The 22-year-old University of Virginia student was medically evacuated from North Korea and flown to Cincinnati late Tuesday. He was then taken by ambulance to a hospital.
Fred Warmbier said he does not know exactly what happened to his son during his detention. He and his wife, Cindy, planned a Thursday news conference.
The public appearance will be at Wyoming High School, one of Ohio’s top-rated schools. Warmbier graduated from there in 2013 as class salutatorian and had played soccer.
Residents of the northern Cincinnati suburb tied blue-and-white ribbons, the school colors, to trees near the family home. Joy at his release was mixed with concern after his parents said they were told he had been in the coma for over a year.
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said there should be an investigation into what happened to Warmbier leading to this “tragic situation.”
Richardson, a Democrat, credited the Department of State with securing Warmbier’s return from North Korea without any preconditions but said a forceful response from the U.S. government would be required “if its determined that there was a cover-up and Otto’s condition was not disclosed and he didn’t get proper treatment.”
City councilwoman Jenni McCauley said the tight-knit community was “thrilled” to have Warmbier back.
“Even though they’re saddened by his condition, they’re just glad for the family that he is home,” McCauley said. “For any parent, this is their worst nightmare. … We’re hoping that he will be OK.”
She called him “a fabulous young man” who was known as intelligent, personable and well-liked in school and in the community.
Ellie Boettcher, a 14-year-old rising freshman at Wyoming High, where Warmbier’s sister will be a sophomore, said students were elated.
“We’re just really glad that he’s able to come back,” Boettcher said. “Nothing really bad ever happens in Wyoming. It’s kind of like a bubble. So it’s really tragic. But luckily he is back, and I believe he will make a full recovery.”
Warmbier was serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor in North Korea. He had tearfully confessed to trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting. He was released Tuesday, more than 17 months after being detained.
Such detentions in the totalitarian nation have added to tensions between Washington and Pyongyang. Three Americans remain in custody.
The U.S. government accuses North Korea of using such detainees as political pawns. North Korea accuses Washington and South Korea of sending spies to overthrow its government.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday that his department was continuing “to have discussions” with North Korea about the release of the other three imprisoned American citizens.
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False Alert Placed California Air Base on Lockdown
A congressman says a mistaken report of a shooter prompted a lockdown at an Air Force base in Northern California.
U.S. Rep. John Garamendi told The Associated Press that the lockdown went into effect at Travis Air Force Base on Wednesday afternoon after someone reported a possible gunshot.
Garamendi, who was briefed on the situation, said there was a training exercise underway at the base at the time and “someone took that to be an active shooter.”
The Solano County Office of Emergency Services posted on Facebook that there is no active shooter and the response has been canceled.
The base is off Interstate 80, approximately 45 miles northeast of San Francisco.
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