Month: July 2017

Trump Attacks Republicans via Twitter After Failed Health Care Vote

Posted on by SeeUS

President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Saturday morning to criticize Republican senators following their failed vote to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

Trump said the Republican senators “look like fools.” He also suggested they alter rules that require 60 votes to break a filibuster, even though that would not have changed the results of the health care bill debate.

Senate Republicans failed to gather the 50 votes needed to pass the “skinny” repeal bill that would have ended several key parts Obamacare, including the requirement that most Americans buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

The bill was written through the budget reconciliation process, which meant, among other things, that it required only 50 votes for passage instead of a 60-vote filibuster-proof majority. A 50-50 tie would have let Vice President Mike Pence, in his role as president of the Senate, cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the legislation. But even though Republicans control the Senate by a 52-48 margin, the bill failed to reach the 50-vote mark.

Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine voted with Democrats and independents in the 51-49 defeat of the Republican-led repeal effort early Friday morning.

Republican senators had wanted for seven years to do away with Obamacare, the signature domestic legislative achievement of former President Barack Obama.

Trump’s tweetstorm also included a reference to the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia worked to help Trump’s campaign and hurt his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton. But Trump continues to question that conclusion and recently claimed that in fact the opposite was true — that Moscow favored Clinton.

Trump’s tweet included a link to a Fox News story from earlier this week detailing the congressional testimony of a witness who said the company behind an anti-Trump dossier that played a large role in the Russia investigation was working on behalf of the Russian government.

Financier Bill Browder, whose investment firm was once the largest portfolio investor in Russia, testified Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee in its probe of the apparent Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. He told the senators that Fusion GPS, the company that produced the dossier full of unsubstantiated and lurid claims about Trump, also launched a “smear campaign” against him in an effort to fight sanctions against Russia.

“What I’m familiar with is Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson’s role working on behalf of the Russian government to overturn the Magnitsky Act,” Browder told members of Congress. “The steps they took there compromised their integrity.”

Glenn Simpson is the founder of Fusion GPS. He, too, had been summoned to testify publicly before Congress about his work on the dossier and his alleged ties to the Russian government, but he reached a deal with members to conduct an interview in private.

The Magnitsky Act is a U.S. law that imposed sanctions on Russian officials whom the U.S. held responsible for the 2009 death in jail of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who had been retained by Browder to investigate corruption.
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Seven Turkish Journalists Released From Prison

Posted on by SeeEU

Seven Turkish journalists were freed Saturday after spending nine months in prison, but they expressed sorrow that four of their colleagues were still being detained on charges of having aided terror groups.

The staff members from Cumhuriyet, a Turkish opposition newspaper, were released from Silivri jail on the outskirts of Istanbul. They must still stand trial, with the next hearing scheduled for September 11. If convicted, they face terms of up to 43 years in prison.

The journalists are charged with using their news coverage to support three groups Turkey considers terrorist organizations: the Kurkistan Workers’ Party, or PKK; the leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party; and the followers of a U.S.-based spiritual leader, Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of backing last year’s coup attempt.

“To be honest, I thought I would be very happy the moment I was released,” said cartoonist Musa Kart in a statement. “But I cannot say that I am very happy today. Unfortunately, four of our friends are still incarcerated in Silivri Prison. I do not think that the image of journalists in prison is one that becomes this country.”

An Istanbul court ruled Friday that the seven journalists should be freed, but it kept the most prominent of the Cumhuriyet journalists behind bars: commentator Kadri Gursel, investigative journalist Ahmet Sik, editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu and chief executive Akin Atalay.

Sik, who was jailed in 2011-12 over a book he’d authored, was jailed again in December over the content of his Twitter feed. Prosecutors said they planned to charge him additionally for a statement in court Wednesday that was fiercely critical of Turkey’s ruling party.

Indictment called ‘trash’

In what was expected to be a defense statement, Sik lashed out with a tirade about press freedom. He called the indictment against him and his colleagues “trash” and referred to the judiciary as a “lynch mob.” He said the purpose of the charges against him and his colleagues was to scare and silence people who would speak out against the government.

Following last year’s coup attempt, Turkey instituted a crackdown on journalists that resulted in the closure of more than 100 media outlets.

The independent watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists, which tracks press freedom issues, says Turkey jails more journalists than any other country, due to broadly worded laws on supporting terrorism and “insulting Turkishness.” As of December 2016, at least 81 journalists were being held in Turkish jails, all of them facing charges that they were working against the state, CPJ said.
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Will IS Losses in Iraq, Syria Boost al-Qaida?

Posted on by SeeEA

As Islamic State militants continue to lose territory in their declared caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, officials and analysts are expressing concern that al-Qaida is making efforts to turn those losses into gains for itself.

Al-Qaida had been largely eclipsed by IS in recent years, with IS militants grabbing headlines by seizing territory in Iraq and Syria and carrying out attacks in the West. But there are signs that al-Qaida may be re-emerging as a regional power.

“Al-Qaida in Syria is using opportunities to seize additional safe havens, to integrate itself into parts of the local population, parts of other forces, and bumping into other forces as well,” said Joshua Geltzer, a former senior director for counterterrorism at the U.S National Security Council.

Tahrir al-Sham, an offshoot al-Qaida group originally known as the al-Nusra Front, has recently emerged as the most powerful Sunni insurgent faction in Syria after consolidating its control over most of the northwestern province of Idlib.

“Idlib now is a huge problem. It is an al-Qaida safe haven right on the border of Turkey,” Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the U.S.-led global coalition to counter IS, said at the Middle East Institute in Washington on Thursday.

McGurk blamed the flow of weapons and foreign fighters into Syria for al-Qaida’s gradual strengthening in Syria.

Measures under way

McGurk added that the U.S.-led coalition intended to work with Turkey to seal the northern Syrian border to prevent more recruits from joining al-Qaida affiliates in the region.

Hailing the progress of the Iraqi forces and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, McGurk said the coalition’s priority was defeating IS. But now that priority also includes ensuring that foreign fighters do not leave the region to cause trouble elsewhere.

“We do not want any foreign fighters getting out of Iraq and Syria,” he said during a panel discussion at the Middle East Institute on the Trump administration’s counterterrorism policy.

Experts warn that as IS-controlled territory shrinks, the terror group’s foreign fighters will inevitably be drawn to al-Qaida.

 

“You may see on a local level al-Qaida affiliates being opportunistic and pulling in ISIS units who kind of feel lost,” Charles Lister, a Syria analyst for the Middle East Institute said, using another acronym for IS. “They [IS militants] don’t have the same kind of grandeur, they don’t have the same powerful leadership, and they don’t have the same powerful brand that they had before.”

IS-al-Qaida alliance?

Led by Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, IS was founded as an offshoot of al-Qaida in Iraq in 2004. But as IS gained influence in Iraq and Syria in 2014, the terror group split from al-Qaida, and the two groups engaged in acrimonious and at times bloody competition over the leadership of the jihadist cause. For years, IS has been siphoning off followers of al-Qaida. That trend seems to have begun to reverse.

Iraq’s Vice President Ayad Allawi told Reuters in April that he had information from Iraqi and regional contacts that “the discussion has started now” concerning a “possible alliance” between the two terror groups.

Referring to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Allawi said, “There are discussions and dialogue between messengers representing Baghdadi and representing Zawahiri.”

While some analysts raise concerns about the possibility of IS and al-Qaida joining hands, others like Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute downplay it, arguing that an ultimate rapprochement between the two groups is unlikely, given the history of animosity and their fundamental differences on “global jihad.”

Lister, however, highlighted that al-Qaida could take an opportunistic approach to draw IS members into its ranks as the terror group faces defeats on several fronts in Iraq and Syria.

Lister said Hamza bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, who has recently appeared as a new face of al-Qaida leadership, has been trying to ease tensions with IS in an effort to encourage the merger of IS fighters into al-Qaida.

“Hamza has very purposely, I think, not spoken out against ISIS in all of his recent statements,” Lister said.

Al-Qaida in a blind spot

Experts warn that as the U.S-led coalition is cracking down on IS-controlled territory in Iraq and Syria, it should not allow al-Qaida to move to other areas and operate at ease. They say the group is trying to gain sympathy of the local Syrian population by showing itself as a moderate alternative to Islamic State.

“We continue to underestimate al-Qaida,” said Jennifer Cafarella, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank. “While al-Qaida in Syria is currently not actively attacking abroad, they have built an army. It has consolidated control in Idlib, and is preparing to do the same underneath the U.S.-Russian cease-fire deal in Daraa to expand that model of first destroying the moderate opposition and then begin instillation of al-Qaida governance to transform population over time.”

She said the strategy of the U.S.-led coalition after removing IS from Iraq and Syria needs to shift to the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed because of war, and that should be coupled with addressing the grievances of Sunni residents who feel marginalized by Iran-backed Shi’ite militias.

“This is a very long war and we haven’t won it yet. These tactical successes are important but can be temporary if we do not set adequate conditions, which is much more than a military requirement,” Cafarella said.
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As Trump Ponders Afghanistan, Minerals Loom Large

Posted on by SeeUS

What does a president who campaigned on an “America First” foreign policy do with the longest war in U.S. history? That is the dilemma for Donald Trump as the White House conducts a policy review of Afghanistan, where U.S. troops have fought for nearly 16 years.

With Trump skeptical of committing more troops to what some see as an unwinnable war, one idea has come to the forefront: using Western companies to extract Afghanistan’s vast, untapped mineral deposits.

How much is there? A 2010 U.S. study estimated more than $1 trillion worth of untapped mineral deposits, but Afghanistan’s violence, corruption and poor infrastructure would make mining extremely difficult.

That’s part of the reason why, although U.S. officials have discussed using Afghanistan’s mineral wealth to bolster the government and economy, the plan has not gone anywhere.

There are also concerns about whether such a move would feed into the Taliban narrative that the U.S. military is only in Afghanistan because it wants to plunder the country’s natural resources.

Still, Trump appears to be interested in using Afghanistan’s minerals as a selling point for continued U.S. military engagement.

A recent New York Times report said Trump had spoken about mineral deposits with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who is also open to the idea.

White House officials declined to comment on the story, citing the ongoing policy review. But Afghan officials confirmed to VOA they were expecting a U.S. envoy for talks on mines.

Means of attracting investors

“We have received information about the U.S. delegation,” Abdul Qadeer Mutfi, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, told VOA’s Afghan service. “We are working on an orderly mechanism of attracting foreign investments.”

The idea is consistent with Trump’s long-standing practice of linking U.S. military intervention to the exploitation of natural resources.

Trump has lamented for years that the U.S. did not “keep the oil” when it invaded Iraq in 2003.

After Islamic State seized oil fields in Iraq and Syria, Trump felt his views were vindicated, and his “take the oil” mantra eventually became a standard part of his presidential campaign speeches.

The rhetoric continued during his early days in office. In a speech to CIA employees a day after becoming president, Trump spoke positively of the phrase “to the victor belong the spoils.”

It’s not clear how to reconcile those comments with Trump’s at times heated criticism of costly U.S. wars overseas, or his opposition at times to the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan.

More recently, Trump has been said to be skeptical of a proposal by U.S. military generals to boost the number of troops in Afghanistan in a bid to regain Taliban territory.

Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to Trump for national security issues, declined to comment on whether the president was looking into mineral extraction in Afghanistan.

When asked more broadly whether the Trump administration intended to make foreign policy decisions based at least in part on the exploitation of natural resources, Gorka said that was a “gross oversimplification.”

“Look, geopolitics are completely intertwined with geoeconomics,” Gorka told VOA. “The idea that you can disconnect economics from national security in the age of a globalized market … that is a very dangerous assertion to make.

“The president can speak for himself, but would you prefer to have groups like ISIS profiting from things like oil wells in Iraq? We’ve seen the cost of that, which led to slave markets, mass destruction and hundreds of thousands of people killed in Syria,” he said.

Challenges

If Trump did decide to prioritize the extraction of Afghanistan’s minerals, the plan would face a dizzying number of challenges, including ongoing violence, regional competition from countries like Russia and China, and government corruption.

While Afghanistan has cleaned up its governance in recent years, it still ranks among the 10 most corrupt countries in the world, according to an annual index by Transparency International.

Without substantial governance reforms, any decision to press ahead with mining in Afghanistan “will likely backfire, possibly creating even more infighting in the Afghan government,” according to Global Witness, a human rights group that has studied the issue.

The country also lacks the infrastructure needed to manage such massive projects, said Ahmad Shuja, a former Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch who now works at the American University of Afghanistan.

“There’s very limited national grid. So you’ll have to develop your own electricity, you’ll have to create your own roads, bring your own security teams. All of those are essential barriers to entry issues,” he said.

Ghani is aware of these obstacles, which is why he has paused many of the mining development projects and is reviewing the country’s mineral law that would govern them, Shuja said.

“But in the short term, I think this is a really smart pitch to President Trump,” he said. “It plays to his business sensibilities.”

If it’s done correctly, it could help the Afghan people, said Aimal Faizi, an aide to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

“Generally, it is a good idea in the relations between the two countries,” Faizi said. But in a country like Afghanistan, “where the government does not have control of its land or air,” anything is possible, he said, “including looting.”

Other ideas

Trump himself has been fairly quiet on Afghanistan. He barely mentioned it during the campaign.

Since becoming president, one of his most substantive comments on Afghanistan came this month, during a luncheon with U.S. service members who had fought in the country.

“I want to find out why we’ve been there … how it’s going and what we should do in terms of additional ideas,” he said.

VOA’s Afghan service contributed to this report.
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Republicans Fear Political Fallout After Health Care ‘Epic Fail’

Posted on by SeeUS

Weary Republicans in Washington may be ready to move on from health care, but conservatives across the United States are warning the GOP-led Congress not to abandon its pledge to repeal the Obama-era health law – or risk a political nightmare in next year’s elections.

 

The Senate’s failure this past week to pass repeal legislation has outraged the Republican base and triggered a new wave of fear. The stunning collapse has exposed a party so paralyzed by ideological division that it could not deliver on its top campaign pledge.

 

After devoting months to the debate and seven years to promising to kill the Affordable Care Act, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican-Kentucky, simply said: “It’s time to move on.”

 

But that’s simply not an option for a conservative base energized by its opposition to the health law. Local party leaders, activists and political operatives are predicting payback for Republicans lawmakers if they don’t revive the fight.

 

“This is an epic fail for Republicans,” said Tim Phillips, president of Americans For Prosperity, the political arm of the conservative Koch Brothers’ network. “Their failure to keep their promise will hurt them. It will.”

 

To the American Conservative Union, the three Republican senators who blocked the stripped-down repeal bill that failed in the wee hours Friday are “sellouts.” A Trump-sanctioned super political action committee did not rule out running ads against uncooperative Republicans, which it did recently against Sen. Dean Heller, Republican-Nevada.

 

There are limited options for directly punishing the renegade senators – John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. None of the three is up for re-election next fall. McCain, whose dramatic “no” vote killed the bill, is serving his last term in office, has brain cancer and is hardly moved by electoral threats.

​Failing the ‘moral test’

Still, broad disillusionment among conservative voters could have an impact beyond just a few senators. Primary election challenges or a low turnout could mean trouble for all Republicans. Democrats need to flip 24 seats to take control of the House of Representatives, a shift that would dramatically re-shape the last two years of Trump’s first term.

 

“If you look at competitive districts, swing districts, or districts where Republicans could face primary challenges, this is something that will be a potent electoral issue,” Republican pollster Chris Wilson said of his party’s health care failure. “I don’t think this is something voters are going to forget.”

 

One such challenger has emerged. Conservative activist Shak Hill, a former Air Force pilot, plans to run against second-term GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock in a competitive northern Virginia district.

 

Hill told The Associated Press that Comstock, who voted against a GOP House health care repeal bill in May, “has failed the moral test of her time in Congress.”

 

The leaders of other groups, such as Women Vote Trump, have begun to court primary challengers to punish those members of Congress deemed insufficiently committed to President Donald Trump’s agenda.

 

“I expect that we will get involved in primaries,” said the group’s co-founder, Amy Kremer. “You cannot continue to elect the same people over and over again and expect different results.”

 

On Capitol Hill, some Republicans insist their health care overhaul could be saved in the short term. Yet party leaders – backed by outside groups – are signaling that they would probably move on to taxes. Republicans hoped the issue would bring some party unity, even as realists in Washington view the a tax overhaul – something that hasn’t happened in more than 30 years – as one of the most complex legislative projects possible.

‘You can’t have everything’

The Trump administration has become engulfed in internal drama over personnel and personalities. Trump on Friday ousted his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, replacing him with Home Security Secretary John Kelly. The president did not appear to share conservatives’ outrage about the Senate’s vote, but repeated his promises to remake the health system.

 

“You can’t have everything,” Trump said, adding: “We’ll get it done. We’re going to get it.”

 

Around the country, Republican voters continue to support efforts to repeal former President Barack Obama’s health law, even if there is little agreement on an alternative.

 

A CNN poll released last week found that 83 percent of Republicans favor some form of repeal, while only 11 percent of Republicans want the party to abandon the repeal effort. Among all adults, 52 percent of voters favor some sort of repeal, with 34 percent favored repeal only if replacement could be enacted at the same time.

 

“The political pressure on something like this is real,” said GOP strategist Mike Shields. “I don’t think this is over.”

 

Like others Republican operatives, Shields said the party’s ability to enact the rest of Trump’s agenda – taxes, infrastructure and the border wall – could help “mitigate how upset people will be” about health care.

“If this is part of a general trend,” he said of the GOP’s governing struggles, “I think that can be pretty disastrous for 2018.”

 

Being held to account

Republicans will be held responsible for any negative economic fallout from the current health system’s failure, said Paul Shumaker, a North Carolina Republican pollster and senior adviser to Sen. Richard Burr, Republican-North Carolina.

 

As early as October, voters are likely to see increased costs as insurance companies notify people about their new rates. By next October, it will be too late to unlink Republicans from the problem, Shumaker said.

 

For now at least, many Trump supporters blame the Republican Party’s problems on its leaders in Congress.

 

“They certainly didn’t have their house in order,” said Larry Wood of Waynesboro, Virginia, who voted for Trump only after supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the 2016 GOP primary. The 69-year-old retired homebuilder says the failure falls at the feet of Congress.

 

Trump seems content to let the current system collapse.

 

“As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!” he said in a tweet.
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Putin Pardons 2 Women Given Prison Terms for Text Messages

Posted on by SeeEU

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday pardoned two women who were sentenced to prison terms for sending text messages to Georgian acquaintances about the movement of Russian military equipment on the eve of a war in 2008.

Two orders published by the Kremlin said Annik Kesyan and Marina Dzhandzhgava would not have to complete the rest of their sentences. It cited humanitarian principles for the decision.

Kesyan and Dzhandzhgava were found guilty of treason for sending text messages about the movement of Russian military hardware near the border with Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia not long before a war broke out in 2008.

Kesyan was sentenced to eight years in prison, while Dzhandzhgava was given a prison term of 12 years, according to Team 29, an association of lawyers based in St. Petersburg.

Putin in March pardoned a third woman, Oksana Sevastidi, who was also convicted of treason for sending a text message to a Georgian acquaintance about a train carrying Russian military equipment.

Rights groups had criticized the sentences given to the women.

Team 29 said in an article on its website that in April 2008 Kesyan had sent a text message to a friend saying “Yes, they are moving”, in response to a question about whether Russian tanks were moving in Sochi.

Dzhandzhgava was accused of treason for sending a text message to a Georgian acquaintance about the movement of a train carrying Russian troops, Team 29 said.
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EU Launches Legal Action Over Poland’s Court Reforms

Posted on by SeeEU

The European Union has launched an infringement procedure against Poland over reforms the country made to its judiciary, which the EU fears will affect the impartiality of Poland’s courts.

EU commissioners decided to start the legal action Wednesday, prior to the publication of the new Polish law, with the main concern that the justice minister now can extend the mandates of judges, and dismiss and appoint court presidents.

“The new rules allow the minister of justice to exert influence on individual ordinary judges through, in particular, the vague criteria for the prolongation of their mandates thereby undermining the principle of irremovability of judges,” the European Commission said in a statement on Saturday.

Also of concern to commissioners is that female judges are required to retire five years earlier than their male counterparts.

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party wants to push forward with the court reforms because it says the courts are too slow and bogged down with communist-era thinking.

According to the EU statement, the Polish ruling party has a month to respond to the notice, which informed the country it is infringing on EU laws.

The Polish government has called the court reforms an internal matter. Poland’s deputy foreign minister for European affairs, Konrad Szymanski, told the PAP news agency that the EU decision was “unfounded,” and he said the new law met legal requirements.
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Spokesman: Palestinian Leader in Hospital for Routine Tests

Posted on by SeeEA

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman said Saturday the 82-year-old leader has been hospitalized for a routine checkup and will be discharged in a matter of hours.

 

Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Abbas is undergoing regular examinations at a Ramallah hospital.

Abbas has suffered heart problems in the past, but his doctors have said he is fine. A year ago, Abbas underwent an emergency heart procedure after suffering exhaustion and chest pains. He went through a number of tests, including a cardiac catheterization, a procedure that can detect and treat heart problems, but was given a clean bill of health.

Last month, Abbas dispelled rumors he had suffered a stroke.

 

Any health scare for Abbas heightens concerns over the uncertain leadership situation in the Palestinian territories – which are divided between two rival governments and where there is no succession plan for the aging leader.

 

Abbas, who has no plans to step down, has ignored calls to appoint a successor, setting the stage for a bitter power struggle if he is incapacitated.

 

Abbas was elected president in 2005 for what was supposed to be a four-year term. But in 2007 the rival Hamas militant group seized control of the Gaza Strip, and Abbas has remained in power. The Palestinians are now divided between two governments, Abbas’ Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas government in Gaza. Attempts at reconciliation have repeatedly failed.

 

Abbas, who is a heavy smoker and is overweight, was treated years ago with prostate cancer and has had a stent inserted to treat artery blockage.
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Silicon Valley’s Hot Café: Where Digirati Pitch Ideas Over Venezuelan Coffee

Posted on by SeeUS

Silicon Valley is the tech industry’s epicenter, but what is the epicenter of Silicon Valley?

It might just be Coupa Café in downtown Palo Alto, Calif.

For the tech community, this café is a meeting place of the who’s who of Silicon Valley, where the likes of the late Steve Jobs of Apple, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin have all been spotted. Up-and-coming startup founders are able to buy their lattes with the digital currency Bitcoin before their pitch sessions with leading industry venture capitalists.

The café is so well known among techies that a cup with the Coupa logo was featured as a prop in the 2010 film The Social Network.

“I remember seeing Mark Zuckerberg sitting here and having meetings and people coming up,” said Eric Sokol, an associate professor of medicine at Stanford University.

While Silicon Valley is famous for companies such as Facebook, Twitter and other billion-dollar empires built in cyberspace, some folks in the valley still believe real-world human connections can make a difference.

Making connections

Just from frequenting the café, Sokol says, he became an adviser to a health care related startup and a new venture capitalist fund. Both came about when other patrons at the café overheard conversations he was having, he said.

That’s the kind of “crazy nest of connections” that can occur at Coupa, he said.

The Venezuelan-born Jean Paul Coupal founded the café with his mother and sister in 2004 with the hopes of bringing a bit of his homeland to Silicon Valley — Venezuelan coffee, crepes and Venezuelan arepas. The family puts its touch on all aspects of the business — Coupal’s sister and mother personally painted each of the eight cafés.

While the beautifully decorated walls and rich cuisine may be what initially attracted the tech community, the café’s tech focus has kept it in the vanguard of this café-saturated region.

In 2013, Coupa Cafe began accepting Bitcoins, a digital payment system, allowing customers to pay for their lattes and arepas with the currency.

“We want to be part of the technology,” Coupal said.

The pre-office

And there’s another perk: The café allows patrons to stay all day, which makes it attractive for entrepreneurs who are in the pre-office-space stage.

“A lot of the startups in the area come and they like to work at Coupa, coding all day,” Coupal said. “We’ve seen a lot of products that got developed at Coupa.”

With Stanford and other colleges nearby, the possibility of a life-changing chance encounter is not lost on local students interested in tech.

“I am currently teaching myself JavaScript here at Coupa right now,” said Katie Kennedy, a local community college student. “If someone happened to look over my shoulder and saw what I was doing, I would definitely not say no to any help.”

Now, there are eight Coupa Cafe locations. This one, the original on Ramona Street, is in a building from the 1930s.

“The food’s good, the coffee’s good,” Sokol said. “I wish I had stock, but I don’t in Coupa. And I don’t know, it just has the right atmosphere, the right mix of people. It’s got an energy about it, I guess.”

Cafe Coupa shows that being at the right place at the right time can change a café’s fate as much as a techie’s life.
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Living Fossil Returns to Illinois Waters

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The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is reintroducing a living fossil into its waterways. The alligator gar is a fish so old, it’s thought to have evolved during the Early Cretaceous period, more than a 100 million years ago.

Alligator gar are the second largest freshwater fish in North America. Illinois fisheries biologist Randy Sauer says they disappeared from the state’s waterways in the 1990s, although they continued to thrive in southern U.S. rivers.

“We want to restore the ecosystem because it is important to have top predators to balance the species below them in order to keep check on some more abundant species,” he said.

Beyond that, alligator gar make for great big game fishing. The diamond-scaled animals, which breathe both air and water, can grow up to 2.7 meters and weigh more than 136 kilograms. In fact, Sauer says, their large size is what did them in originally in the state.

“It was pretty much extirpated out of its range because of misconceptions about it eating sport fish,” he said. “People would target it and put bounties on it.”

Everything is on the menu

The alligator gar is an opportunistic feeder, meaning it will eat whatever it encounters — from an occasional turtle or small duck to invasive species such as Asian and silver carp. Sauer hopes the re-introduction program will help the state’s efforts to control the carp.

Because gar can live up to 60 years, this program is going to take decades to fully expand.

“The (female) alligator gar does not sexually mature until 11 years, and the male not till 6 or 7 years,” Sauer said, “so at the outset of this project we’re probably going to stock more heavily than 10 or 20 years down the road when hopefully these fish will find each other and start doing the job on their own.”

To date, 7,000 alligator gar fingerlings have been fitted with tiny transponder tags so that they can be tracked and then released into Illinois waterways. As it rains and floods, biologists expect some of the fish to follow the rivers all the way down to join other populations in Louisiana and Texas.
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Spain Evacuates 300 as Forest Fire Spreads

Posted on by SeeEU

Regional government authorities in southeastern Spain say a wildfire has forced the evacuation of 300 people and burned 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of pine forest.

 

Francisco Martinez, the regional head of agriculture, environment and rural development for Castilla-La Mancha, says residents from 10 small towns and visitors at a campsite have been relocated.

 

More than 150 firefighters supported by air units were fighting the fire Saturday. The blaze started Friday and spread into the National Park of Los Calares del Rio Mundo.

 

Spain and neighboring Portugal are prone to forest fires during the typically dry and hot summer months.
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US, Iranian Ships Have Close Encounter in Persian Gulf

Posted on by SeeEA

The Pentagon on Saturday strongly countered Iran’s claim that a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier had fired warning shots at one of its ships in an “unprofessional” manner.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted a statement from the Revolutionary Guard as saying the incident occurred Friday when the USS Nimitz approached an offshore oil platform in the Persian Gulf and a helicopter from the ship buzzed a boat carrying Iranian soldiers.

Navy spokesman Lieutenant Ian M. McConnaughey said Saturday, “While conducting a routine patrol in the international airspace of the Arabian Gulf on July 28, a U.S. Navy helicopter observed several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval vessels approaching U.S. naval forces at a high rate of speed. U.S. naval forces attempted to establish communications, with no response from the Iranian vessels. Shortly thereafter, at a safe distance, the U.S. helicopter deployed flares, after which the Iranian vessels halted their approach.

“Following communications, the Iranian vessels were observed conducting a gun exercise.

“U.S. Naval Forces Central Command assesses the interaction as safe and professional.”

The confrontation was the second such incident this week. On Tuesday, a U.S. ship fired warning shots at an Iranian vessel in the Gulf after sailors on the ship said it had approached them in a threatening manner.

Iran denied approaching the U.S. ship Tuesday and said it was the U.S. ship that had been acting in a threatening way.

Dust-ups between U.S. and Iranian vessels have happened fairly regularly in recent months. In January, a U.S. destroyer fired warning shots at four Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz as they approached at high speed.

Rocket launch

This most recent confrontation between U.S. and Iranian militaries came just a day after Iran said it had successfully launched a rocket carrying a satellite into space.

State television in Iran claimed Thursday that the Simorgh rocket, which means “phoenix” in Farsi, was capable of carrying a 250-kilogram satellite as far as 500 kilometers above Earth, but did not elaborate on the kind of satellite.

The U.S., Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement denouncing the rocket launch, calling it “destabilizing” for the region.

Prior to the launch of the satellite, the U.S. moved earlier this month to increase economic sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program.

The launch did not violate the 2015 nuclear agreement, which was signed by Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers — the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany — although the U.S. has expressed concern that the rocket technology being developed by Iran could potentially be adapted to long-range missiles.
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Trump Says Let Obamacare "Implode" after Repeal Effort Fails

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President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans suffered a major political setback Friday when the Senate rejected a partial repeal of Obamacare, one of the president’s key campaign pledges. The key vote against the plan was delivered by Republican Senator John McCain, who has clashed with Trump before. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
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Chemical Industry and U.S. Call for Global Culture of Chemical Security

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Securing petrochemical plants and keeping chemicals out of the hands of terrorists were the topics of discussion at a recent Chemical Sector Security Summit in Houston, Texas. Security experts say the countries that are producing chemicals are shifting and that is one of many reasons developed and developing nations need to share best security practices. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from Houston, a petrochemical hub in the United States.
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China Joins Condemnation of North Korea’s Latest ICBM Launch

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China has condemned North Korea’s latest launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, joining criticism by the United States and South Korea.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday that the launch “defied” U.N. Security Council resolutions and “the common wish of the international community.”

US, South Korea missiles

U.S. and South Korean forces fired missiles into South Korean territorial waters in direct response to North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile launch Friday.

A statement from the Eighth United States Army said the joint, live-fire exercise used the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and the Republic of Korea Hyunmoo Missile II. The weapons can be quickly deployed and provide deep-strike precision capability under all weather conditions, according to the military.

A defense official told VOA the exercise began around 5:30 pm EDT.

A White House statement released shortly afterward called the North’s missile test a “reckless and dangerous action” which will further isolate the country.

The statement added that “the United States will take all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the region.”

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said North Korea’s latest launch was “in blatant violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.” The top U.S. diplomat added, “As the principal economic enablers of North Korea’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile development program, China and Russia bear unique and special responsibility for this growing threat to regional and global stability.”

​Two ICBM’s tested in July

North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile launch was the second such launch in just a few weeks. The latest launch flew higher and longer than the first ICBM Pyongyang launched July 4.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said North Korea launched the missile from Mupyong-ni arms plant in the country’s north.

Defense officials in Washington and Seoul, as well as private analysts, said the missile was in the air for 40 to 45 minutes, reaching a peak altitude of 3,000 kilometers and traveling some 1,000 kilometers laterally before splashing down about 160 kilometers west of Japan’s second-largest island of Hokkaido.

Japan said the missile fell into its exclusive economic zone.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe termed Friday’s launch a “serious and real threat” to his country’s security.

​Reassurances for South Korea

After Friday’s unusual late-night launch, Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Harry Harris, the head of U.S. Pacific Command, called the Republic of Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, General Lee Sun Jin to discuss military response options and reaffirm their “ironclad commitment” to the U.S.-Republic of Korea alliance, according to the U.S. Chairman’s office.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the launch by the North “clearly violates U.N. Security Council Resolution and it is a grave threat to international peace and security.”

Moon added that “once again we urge North Korea to awaken from a vain illusion such as developing a nuclear program and missiles and instead choose a new path for a dialogue.”

How to respond

While the type of missile tested is yet unconfirmed, the preliminary data is “fully consistent with a Hwasong-14 tested with a larger second stage that is powered by a high-thrust engine,” according to Michael Elleman, senior fellow for missile defense at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“If flown on a flatter trajectory, this missile could reach as far as 9,000 to 10,000 km,” (easily putting Seattle or San Francisco on the U.S. West Coast into range), according to Elleman, whose comments were published on the 38 North website of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

“The most worrying aspect is that the U.S. administration will not take this launch seriously due to preoccupation and in-fighting, giving North Korea more time to develop its program and more cause for US allies South Korea and Japan to lose confidence that the U.S. will come to their aid,” Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate with the James Martin Center of Nonproliferation Studies of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, told VOA.

“With no sign the Kim regime is prepared to back down, we must pursue a comprehensive approach that includes rigorous enforcement of sanctions, strengthening regional alliances, and expanded deployment of missile defense systems to confront this serious threat,” said a statement from Senator Bob Corker who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee. “Additional measures to enhance our efforts against North Korea are currently being considered.”

The French foreign ministry, in a statement, called for fellow members of the United Nations Security Council, in response to the launch, to swiftly impose “strong and additional sanctions” against North Korea.

State Department Correspondent Nike Ching and Northeast Asia Bureau Chief Brian Padden in Seoul contributed to this report.
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US Issues Sanctions After Iran Rocket Test 

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The United States imposed sanctions Friday on six subsidiaries of a company key to Iran’s ballistic missile program, citing continued “provocative actions” like Tehran’s launch of a rocket capable of putting a satellite into orbit.

Iranian state television reported Thursday that Iran had successfully tested a rocket that can deliver satellites into orbit, an action the United States and others say breaches a U.N. Security Council resolution because of its potential use in ballistic missile development.

A joint statement Friday from the United States, France, Germany and Britain said the launch was inconsistent with a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Iran not to conduct such tests.

​Six firms sanctioned

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on six Iranian firms owned or controlled by the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group. The move enables the U.S. government to block any company property under its jurisdiction and prevents U.S. citizens from doing business with the firms.

“These sanctions … underscore the United States’ deep concerns with Iran’s continued development and testing of ballistic missiles and other provocative behavior,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement.

“The U.S. government will continue to aggressively counter Iran’s ballistic missile-related activity, whether it be a provocative space launch … or likely support to Yemeni Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia such as occurred this past weekend,” Mnuchin said.

The six Shahid Hemmat units targeted by the U.S. sanctions manufacture missile components, missile airframes, liquid-propellant ballistic missile engines, liquid propellant, guidance and control systems. They also do missile-related research and maintenance.

US: Iran violates UN resolutions

The Treasury move was announced just hours after the U.S. Senate voted almost unanimously to impose new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea.

The sanctions in the bill, which the White House says President Donald Trump will sign, also target Iran’s missile development programs as well as human rights abuses.

The State Department charged Thursday that Iran’s test of the satellite launch vehicle was a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions as well as the spirit of the multinational Iran nuclear deal, under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear programs in exchange for a lifting of some economic sanctions.

Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said the Trump administration would continue to impose consequences on Iran until it complied fully with U.N. resolutions.

“The issue with Iran always comes back to mistrust. Iran’s widespread support for terrorists tells us we can’t trust them. Iran’s breaking its obligation on missile testing tells us we can’t trust them. Yesterday’s launch proves that yet again,” she said in a statement.

The Trump administration certified Iran as being in compliance with the nuclear deal last week, even though Trump has called the agreement negotiated by his Democratic predecessor “the worst deal ever.”

Trump issued a veiled threat against Iran earlier this week, warning Tehran to adhere to the terms of the nuclear accord or face “big, big problems.” He said in a speech in Ohio that the deal had “emboldened” Iran and added “that won’t take place much longer.”
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Trump to Approve Sanctions Bill; Russia Imposes Its Own

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The White House says President Donald Trump approves of Congress’ new sanctions against Russia and he intends to sign the bill.

In a statement Friday, the press secretary said the president has reviewed the final version of the bill that outlines additional sanctions against a wide range of Russia industries. The bill also gives Congress the ability to block the president from lifting the Russia sanctions.

The Trump administration had opposed the sanctions aimed at punishing Russia for interfering in last year’s U.S. presidential election. The White House argued that it needed flexibility in trying to improve relations between the two countries. But after months of investigations into contacts between Russian officials and members of President Trump’s campaign team, there was broad bipartisan support in both houses of Congress for more stringent measures.

Russia responds with sanctions

Russia responded earlier Friday to the sanctions with new measures targeting U.S. missions in the country. Moscow said Washington must reduce the number of diplomatic and technical staff working in U.S. missions in Russia to 455 by Sept. 1. That’s same number of Russian diplomats and technical staff Moscow said are working in the United States. It is unclear how many Americans that would affect, possibly hundreds.

In addition to the reduction in U.S. diplomatic personnel, Russia also said it would block the U.S. embassy in Russia from accessing its warehouses in Moscow and a vacation compound in Serebryany Bor.

“We also reserve the right to take other measures according to the principle of reciprocity, which may affect the interests of the United States,” the ministry said.

​Putin approves decision

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian leader had personally approved Friday’s Foreign Ministry decision.

“The form in which the sanctions bill emerged from the Senate had greater significance,” Peskov said.

The Russian retaliation was celebrated in Moscow as a long overdue response to actions from the previous U.S. administration.

In December 2016, former President Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats and seized Russian embassy compounds in Maryland and New York as punishment for Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential elections.

At the time, Putin chose not to respond, a move many saw as a gesture of goodwill to the incoming Trump administration, which had expressed a desire for improved relations with Moscow.

Yet Friday’s move reflected growing Russian frustration that the Trump White House, besieged by multiple investigations into its ties to Russia during the campaign, had not delivered on its campaign promises.

“We did everything in our power to save relations from disaster, but the Americans did just the opposite,” wrote Konstantin Kosachev in a post to Facebook. Kosachev, a Russia politician, went on to call the retaliation “long overdue.”

Sergey Markov, a political analyst close to the Kremlin, also cheered the Kremlin’s decision as inevitable, writing on Facebook that “hope that the President of the United States could change relations with Russia for the better are over.”

The bill U.S. senators approved Thursday also imposes new sanctions on Iran and North Korea. For Russia, the measures are designed to affect a wide range of Russian industries, hitting the country squarely in the pocketbook.

The European Union has expressed concern about the new sanctions, saying they could have an impact on the European energy sector.

Praise on Capitol Hill

Daniel Fried, an Obama-era official who coordinated the administration’s sanctions policy, told VOA he didn’t think the move by Congress to block Trump from altering sanctions would affect a bilateral settlement, but rather was meant to stop Trump from lifting the sanctions “for no good reason.”

“I think if there were a settlement and if this were generally acceptable to all the parties, including Ukraine, I think that Congress would not stand in the way of the administration lifting the Ukraine-related sanctions,” he said.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are already praising the group effort to pass the bill quickly. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said in a statement: “I am pleased the Senate has acted overwhelmingly to give the administration much-needed economic and political leverage to address threats from Iran, Russia, and North Korea. This bipartisan bill is about keeping America safe, and I urge the president to sign it into law.”

Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a member of the Senate Banking Committee said, “This bill passed with overwhelming majorities in both the Senate and the House, sending a strong message to Vladimir Putin that attacks on our democracy will not be tolerated. President Trump should sign this bill as soon as it hits his desk. Otherwise, he risks encouraging Russia’s interference in future elections.”

VOA’s Charles Maynes, Michael Bowman and Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
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Kenyans of Asian Descent Become Nation’s 44th Tribe

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Kenyans of South Asian descent, commonly referred to as “muindis” in Kenya, are now the country’s 44th tribe.

Fred Matiang, Kenya’s acting minister of interior, made the announcement July 21 on behalf of Kenya’s president.

“Now you are part and parcel of us formally,” Matiang said. “You are part and parcel of Kenya’s great family, and we expect that we will continue this integration in all spheres of life, socially, culturally, economically, and actually even in terms of participation in government and government processes.”

Indians started coming into East Africa in the 17th century. Colonial rule then expanded business and employment needs, including service in the British army in East Africa and construction of the Kenya-Uganda Railway.

Shakeel Shabbir’s father was among the thousands of Indian laborers who built the railway more than a century ago. Shabbir’s family remained in Kenya, and the Member of Parliament is now one of four elected officials of Asian descent in Kenya.

Shabbir told VOA that while Indians have enjoyed economic success in Kenya for generations, many have remained on the political sidelines. He hopes the tribal designation will change that.   

“You feel more comfortable now than you did before,” he said. “OK, maybe it’s a cultural thing. You needed to be recognized. Now what? It’s a two-way job. You have been recognized by the system, now we want you to take your role in society.”

The tribal designation recognizes Kenyans of Asian descent who already have Kenyan nationality, meaning their parents were born in Kenya.

Farah Manzoor is a fifth-generation Kenyan of Indian descent. She is also an activist who spearheaded the quest for recognition, beginning in 2010.

“How it will help us? You know, like, in the parliament even,” Manzoor said. “The ‘muindis’ have been there, but now [that] we are a minority, we are a tribe, we will be given allocations in parastatals. Not all of us, [I] am not saying it should be given to all of us, but you will see ‘muindis’ now in government institutions.”

While the tribal designation may raise the community’s profile, it does not confer specific rights and privileges.

However, not everyone backed the push for tribal designation.

“In terms of our rights and our participation, Kenyans as a whole have been marginalized,” said Zahid Rajan, a writer and a member of the Kenya Asian Forum Steering Committee. “The outcry in the body politic is that we want inclusivity in governance and in the running of our own lives. That inclusivity right now does not exist because we got dominance of one or two ethnic groups. I think to push for the rights of a minority community to seek special status is what’s wrong and divisive.”

Critics see political calculation in the timing of the government’s announcement, with hotly contested nationwide elections just weeks away. The community of Kenyans of Asian descent numbers in the tens of thousands; the latest census data from 2009 puts the total at just over 46,000.

Kenya’s decision has revived activism in the Indian community in neighboring Uganda. Activists there are reiterating the call they made to President Yoweri Museveni in 2014 to amend the constitution to make them Uganda’s 66th tribe.
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Residents Isolated, Disillusioned at Kenya’s ‘Integrated’ Refugee Settlement

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Last year, aid agencies and the Kenyan government set up a new settlement for refugees in the northwestern town of Kalobeyei. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) made a point of saying that Kalobeyei would not be a refugee camp. Instead, it would be an “integrated community,” where refugees and local residents could do business together, live in harmony and access services offered by UNHCR through local partners.

But for Galgalo Arero, an Ethiopian refugee and father of three, the real Kalobeyei is very different than the dream.

“When they brought us here, we were told that the place would be like a community village with many development projects, a school, clinic, market and almost everything close by,” he told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service.

Instead, he says, the nearest market is about 24 kilometers (15 miles) away. The nearest primary school is 16 kilometers (10 miles). The distances are far too long to cover by foot.

“We pay between 200 and 300 Kenyan shillings to go to market on a motorbike. [But] that is not possible during the rainy season,” he said.

Clean water

Water is also a serious issue, says another Kalobeyei resident, Abdul Aziz.

“We get water once a week by water truck, sometimes [every] two weeks,” he said. “Sometimes they say the truck is damaged and we don’t get water at all. For sanitation, seven families use one latrine.”

VOA learned of Kalobeyei’s isolation and supply problems from contacts in Nairobi and then spoke to seven residents at the site. The residents say the site lacks the most basic of services, making it hard for them to survive.

Funded by the European Union, Kalobeyei sits on 1,500 hectares of land donated by the host community, Turkana County. It was built to relieve crowding at the Kakuma refugee camp, about 30 kilometers to the east. According to the most recent UNHCR report, it hosts about 36,000 refugees who come from South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.

It is not clear why conditions are so dire in Kalobeyei. VOA made repeated phone calls to UNHCR and Kenyan government officials in Nairobi and Kakuma for comment, but has not received a response.

Residents note there is no UNHCR office in Kalobeyei, and say if they have an issue, they must go to the nearest UNHCR office in Kakuma or wait for a UNHCR official to visit.

Money

Residents say the promises they received in advance of moving to Kalobeyei have not been kept.

“We were told that the new settlement is a facility ready with all the basic needs,” said Jamal Mohamed, an Ethiopian refugee. “Because of that, everybody sold his property. We were only allowed to carry just 18 kilograms of load with us. But when we get there, reality on the ground is totally different.”

The residents receive $14 (about 1400 shillings) per month from UNHCR to buy food, he says.

“The money is added to your card. You can’t cash it out. When you go to Kakuma to buy food and grains, the transportation is 200 Kenyan shillings [each way]. So out of this 1,400 shillings, you end up getting 800 to 900 shillings. That is our monthly ration,” he said.

Safety

Security is another issue.

“There is not enough security to keep us safe,” said Galgalo Arero. “We are on the South Sudan border, a remote part of the country. There were times we are attacked by thieves. Thieves would come with all kinds of weapons to take our properties.”

As for medical care, the refugees say there is only a small Red Cross office at the site.

“If there is an emergency, there are times when the ambulance arrives after an hour or two,” Aziz said.
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Suspected Boko Haram Militants Issue Purported Photo of 3 Kidnapped Oil Survey Team Members

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Suspected members of Boko Haram have released a photograph that appears to show three kidnapped members of an oil exploration team in northeastern Nigeria, according to the university whose staff members were part of the team and which distributed the image Friday.

The abduction of the oil survey team and a rescue attempt that caused multiple fatalities have led to a U-turn by the government and military, who earlier this month had said Boko Haram were defeated and all but eliminated.

The defense minister told reporters on Thursday that the authorities were not in full control of the environment in the northeast at the moment, and that the military was trying to regain territory there.

The team, which included university staff and employees from Nigeria’s state oil firm, was kidnapped by suspected militants from Islamist insurgency Boko Haram while searching for oil in the conflict-ridden northeast on Tuesday.

A rescue attempt on Wednesday ended in the deaths of at least 37 members of the original prospecting team and the rescuers, including Nigerian military and armed vigilantes.

Friday’s photograph, released by the University of Maiduguri, appears to show three of its staff, seemingly unharmed, sitting cross-legged on a red floor in front of a patterned wall.

The university gave the names of the staff pictured, but declined to give any further details.

Four staff members are missing in total, a university spokesman said.

Years of violence

Also Thursday, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo dispatched the chiefs of the military to the northeast to help regain control of the situation.

Of those killed in the kidnapping and attempted rescue, five are staff from the University of Maiduguri, 22 are from the vigilante Civilian Joint Task Force and 10 are military, according to officials and military sources.

Northeastern Nigeria has been wracked for eight years by an Islamist insurgency that has killed at least 20,000 people and forced some 2.7 million to flee their homes.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which contracted university staff, has for more than a year surveyed what it says may be vast oil reserves in the Lake Chad Basin. It is aiming to reduce its reliance on the southern Niger Delta energy hub, which last year was hit by militant attacks on oil facilities.

The government and military have repeatedly said Boko Haram is on the verge of defeat. In December, President Muhammadu Buhari said the group’s last stronghold, an enclave in the Sambisa forest, had fallen.

But insurgents have launched attacks with renewed zeal in the past few months.

The latest attack brings the death toll in Maiduguri and its environs since early June to at least 99. Seventeen people were killed in the city in one week alone this month.
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South Sudan’s Flag Raised at Dallas City Hall

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Six years after independence, South Sudan’s flag has been raised in Dallas, Texas, at the municipal government’s administration building, known as City Hall.

The South Sudan flag went up this week at the culmination of South Sudan Unite, an annual diaspora event organized by the Luol Deng Foundation.

The flag was raised by two-time National Basketball Association All-Star Luol Deng, a South Sudan native.

Deng, who lives in Los Angeles, California, was also made an honorary citizen of Dallas.

South Sudanese residents of the Dallas area said the flag-raising was more than a symbolic gesture. It was a chance for them to formally add their voices and ideas to the city while contributing to its social and economic development.

Jacob Alieth Gai was just a young man when he arrived in the United States in September 2001. He was one of hundreds of Lost Boys from southern Sudan with a keen eye for a better future and hopes of creating a new home in Dallas. But even with a bright future in front of him, Alieth knew he could not forget his past. This week, he was again overwhelmed with hope and pride when he saw his country’s flag raised in his new hometown.

Sense of recognition

“For me, I can feel like the community of Dallas recognized the Sudanese community living in Dallas and for our flag to be one of them,” said Alieth. “This is an achievement for Sudanese. It takes a lot of hard work for this one to happen. Sudanese really put their hands together.”

The flag ceremony was especially meaningful to Alieth because the flag was raised in a city that is close to former U.S. President George W. Bush, whom Alieth considers a friend of South Sudan.

Laura Bush, the former first lady, graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where the 43rd U.S. commander in chief’s presidential library was built.

President Bush’s administration played an influential role in crafting the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that paved the way for southern Sudan’s independence referendum in early 2011.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dallas-area resident Michael Majok said the presence of his home country’s flag would send a message to other communities.

“It’s something that is going to showcase to Dallas that the South Sudanese community are here and we are staying and we are officially now going to be partaking in whatever it is that is taking part in the city of Dallas and the neighboring cities,” said Majok.

14th African flag

Regina Onyeibe, the Africa liaison for Dallas, said South Sudan’s flag was the 14th African flag to be raised at City Hall. She said each flag was unique, representing the history and geography of the respective country, but tha tthe pride felt among participants was universal.

“Everybody can feel more a part of this city, and that is always my intent” for all Africans who live in Dallas, Onyeibe said.

For others like Chol Amol Piok, who has lived in the Dallas metropolitan area since 2011, the flag raising offered a sense of legitimacy that could open doors for members of his community.

“At this moment, [South Sudanese] are now reaching a larger forum, which is a platform of Dallas where they can participate,” said Amol. “They can be recognized should there be any concern of mutual interest, be it business or anything cultural.”

Alieth said the flag-raising would give his community “motivation for things that we need to do as one community.”

“We need to unite and come together — one flag, one community — and then we move forward. And the new country of South Sudan needs to wake up and think about unity,” said Alieth.
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Researchers: Artificial Intelligence Can Help Fight Deforestation in Congo

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A new technique using artificial intelligence to predict where deforestation is most likely to occur could help the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) preserve its shrinking rainforest and cut carbon emissions, researchers have said.

Congo’s rainforest, the world’s second-largest after the Amazon, is under pressure from farms, mines, logging and infrastructure development, scientists say.

Protecting forests is widely seen as one of the cheapest and most effective ways to reduce the emissions driving global warming.

But conservation efforts in DRC have suffered from a lack of precise data on which areas of the country’s vast territory are most at risk of losing their pristine vegetation, said Thomas Maschler, a researcher at the World Resources Institute (WRI).

“We don’t have fine-grain information on what is actually happening on the ground,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

To address the problem Maschler and other scientists at the Washington-based WRI used a computer algorithm based on machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence.

The computer was fed inputs, including satellite derived data, detailing how the landscape in a number of regions, accounting for almost a fifth of the country, had changed between 2000 and 2014.

The program was asked to use the information to analyze links between deforestation and the factors driving it, such as proximity to roads or settlements, and to produce a detailed map forecasting future losses.

Overall the application predicted that woods covering an area roughly the size of Luxembourg would be cut down by 2025 — releasing 205 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.

The study improved on earlier predictions that could only forecast average deforestation levels in DRC over large swathes of land, said Maschler.

“Now, we can say: ‘actually the corridor along the road between these two villages is at risk’,” Maschler said by phone late on Thursday.

The analysis will allow conservation groups to better decide where to focus their efforts and help the government shape its land use and climate change policy, said scientist Elizabeth Goldman who co-authored the research.

The DRC has pledged to restore 3 million hectares (11,583 square miles) of forest to reduce carbon emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement, she said.

But Goldman said the benefits of doing that would be outweighed by more than six times by simply cutting predicted forest losses by 10 percent.
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Japan Imposes Stiff Tariffs on Imported US Frozen Beef

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Japan says tariffs on U.S. imports of frozen beef will rise to 50 percent next month, from the current 38.5 percent.

“The tariff will take effect automatically as the volume of the imported U.S. frozen beef exceeded the quota set by law,” Finance Minister Taro Aso said Friday.

Under World Trade Organization rules, Japan can impose safeguard tariffs when imports rise more than 17 percent, year-on-year in any given quarter.

Japan, known for its world-famous Kobe beef, prized by chefs around the world for its tenderness, flavor and marbled fat, uses tariffs and other measures to protect its farmers from competition.

Peter Seng, chief executive of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, said in a statement the 50 percent tariff has implications for U.S. beef exports that are “significant.”

Australia, however, which exports almost as much beef to Japan as the U.S., is not facing the emergency tariffs because it has a free trade agreement with Japan as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the TPP trade agreement shortly after taking office.
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Trump to Address MS-13 Gang Violence in New York

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Using the site of last week’s mass arrests of notorious MS-13 gang members as a backdrop, President Donald Trump’s visit to the city of Brentwood, New York, underscores the severity of transnational violence that has plagued a heavily Hispanic community. As federal authorities ramp up efforts to eradicate the gang, residents are wary and divided over its intended or unintended consequences.

Long Island, New York, has seen safer days. With 17 reported murders of gang-related violence since January 2016, one afflicted community of mostly Hispanic residents has altered the way it goes about regular activities; among them, high school students like Natalia Osorio, who heeds her parents advice whenever she sees members of the royal-blue-clad gang known as La Mara Salvatrucha — MS-13.

“I walk to school, so they just always tell me to be careful and not talk to anybody,” she says, “Or maybe if somebody comes in a car, they will ask, ‘Oh, you want a ride,’ and you’ll be like ‘No, I don’t want a ride. I’m fine.’”

Across the country, local authorities have seen an ebb and flow in gang-related violence over the past decade, based on geopolitical factors in countries like El Salvador, where MS-13 contributes to its reputation as the world’s murder capital.

Gang tactics

Paul Liquorie, director of Maryland’s Montgomery County Special Investigations Division, said areas with heavy concentrations of Central Americans are often easy targets for extortion.

“The gang has worked in those countries. It knows its reputation is going to really have an impact here in those enclaves where you have Central American or El Salvadoran communities. So they’re going to concentrate their efforts because they know that the immigrants here are going to be familiar with their tactics, that they may be more susceptible to their tactics as well,” he says.

Residents across Suffolk County, New York, are largely divided on President Trump’s intentions and motivations in targeting local gang violence. Supporters say federal intervention is overdue.

“The MS-13 gang has been wreaking havoc in Suffolk County, and it’s about time somebody on a national level came in and did something about it, since the local government can’t do anything,” says Mark Bloom a county resident.

Community concerns

But others worry that targeting gang members could be a facade for a more extensive crackdown on the undocumented community.

“I imagine he does intend to deport the bad guys, and that’s good that he targets them, but this will also affect people who have nothing to do with that, because just as there is evil, there is goodness, too,” Kevin tells VOA.

Sergio Argueta, who leads a youth empowerment program on Long Island, was involved in gangs in his youth. He says the death of two close friends and a community college education changed his life, in spite of opportunities and resources denied to him. He says Trump should consider alternative methods to ending violence.

“If he really wants to eradicate or end gang violence as he says he wants to do, what he needs to do is provide good educational opportunities, good health care, good housing, making sure young people aren’t criminalized, but they feel safe and secure in their communities, which is everything that he is not currently doing,” says Sergio Argueta, founder of S.T.R.O.N.G. Youth Inc.

Arqueta says ending the cycle of violence begins with both sides of the aisle putting partisan politics aside.
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