Month: January 2018

Migration Policy Threatens to Collapse Germany’s Coalition Talks

Posted on by SeeEU

Resistance is growing in the ranks of Germany’s Social Democrats against forming another “grand coalition” with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, and migration policy is a major sticking point.

Migration remains the most divisive issue in the country following the slaying late last month of a teenage German girl by her former boyfriend, an Afghan migrant.

The killing has refocused public anxiety about a rising level of violent crime associated with migrants, as well as the government’s handling of thousands of unaccompanied male asylum-seekers who claim to be under 18 years of age, but who may be adults.

The December 27 killing of the 15-year-old girl prompted a tabloid press furor. It followed a series of brutal crimes by young male migrants, including the slaying in September of a 19-year-old medical student by a 22-year-old Afghan migrant, who told a court he posed as a minor to improve his immigration chances.

In his case, public anger deepened when it emerged he had been jailed for attempted murder in Greece, but released under an amnesty before making his way to Germany.

In July of last year, another adult male migrant claiming to be a teenager went on an axe rampage on a train, injuring several people before being shot dead by police.

The reports of migrant-related crime are adding to Merkel’s difficulties in pulling off a coalition deal with the Social Democrats (SPD) that would allow her to remain Germany’s leader.

 

Immigrant cap

Social Democrat rebels object to a cap on the number of migrants allowed to resettle in the country that was included Friday in a preliminary agreement among the parties. Chancellor Merkel’s junior partner, Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), is demanding a 220,000-person a year cap on the resettlement of asylum-seekers.

Migration differences contributed to the collapse of weeks-long coalition talks last year among her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party, the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), and the Green party, following federal elections at the end of September.

Those elections left Merkel’s ruling CDU the largest party, but with a reduced share of the vote and fewer seats thanks partly to a surge by Germany’s far-right populists. The SPD recorded its worst electoral performance since 1933.

In last week’s negotiations with the SPD, the Bavarian CSU conservatives insisted on the resettlement cap and have been demanding medical tests for unaccompanied male migrants suspected of lying about their age. SPD activists accuse the CSU of exploiting the migration issue, arguing that young German males also commit crimes.

Since the migration influx started in 2015, when Merkel offered an open-door policy to asylum-seekers from war-torn countries, crime rates have risen. Violent crime rose 10 percent between 2014 and 2017 in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The migration cap has enraged some SPD rebels, who say it is unconstitutional. They also want a new social security plan and stronger protections for employees.

Changes to coalition deal

Speaking to Berlin’s Der Tagesspiegel newspaper, the city’s mayor, Michael Muller, said the preliminary coalition talks “fell short of party expectations.” He refused to rule out the possibility of SPD delegates withholding their approval, the coalition talks collapsing, and the need for new elections.

SPD leaders fear party members will reject the outline coalition agreement when they vote on January 21 and are scrambling to seek changes in the deal. Rank-and-file skeptics remain bruised by the SPD’s poor performance in last year’s elections and doubtful it should agree to a renewed version of their 2013-2017 “grand coalition” with Merkel’s conservatives.

Talk of seeking changes in the provisional deal struck Friday is angering conservatives. Julia Kloeckner, a deputy CDU leader, questioned the trustworthiness of the SPD. “You negotiated, raised your hand for the complete exploratory package,” she said 

“Being able to trust means being able to rely on the word of the other,” she tweeted. “Everything was negotiated in the package, no cherry picking please!.”

CDU lawmaker Thomas Strob told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, “What we have agreed upon with each other is valid.”

On Saturday, delegates at a regional SPD conference in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt voted 52-51 against agreeing to a “grand coalition” with Merkel, despite a plea by former party leader Sigmar Gabriel to back the deal for the sake of German stability.

The teenage girl’s slaying will “inevitably have repercussions for ongoing coalition talks in Berlin,” said Marcel Fürstenau, a commentator for Deutsche Welle, Germany’s public international broadcaster. “One thing seems impossible: that people, despite being understandably horrified and outraged, might deal with it calmly.”
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Rapid Fire Trials Condemn Suspected IS Militants to Hang

Posted on by SeeEA

In a small courthouse north of Mosul, Mohammad Dawd, 27, sits on the floor in the hall facing a wall, like other prisoners.

The hands of some of the prisoners are bound, but Dawd’s are not. One man prays. Mosul was once the Islamic State militants’ most prized stronghold in Iraq, and now more than 4,000 suspects are being tried for terrorism here.

Human rights groups have criticized Iraqi courts for hastily trying masses of detainees under broad laws that often carry the death penalty. But officials here say with thousands of people in custody and limited resources they are doing their best to swiftly punish the guilty and release the innocent.

IS lost nearly all of its self-described “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, but attacks continue and tens of thousands of suspected militants remain at large in an area that was very recently a war zone, says Chief Judge Ra’ad Hamid Hussein at the court.

“We face too many challenges to name,” Hussein says. “Sometimes the suspects even give fake names.”

A typical case

Dawd’s trial, one of four that day, takes less than 30 minutes and judges say the quick proceedings follow months of investigations. Dawd, like many other prisoners, claims he was tortured during the investigation and forced to confess to crimes he did not commit.

“The investigator threatened to kill me,” he tells a panel of three judges in black robes.

Neither Dawd nor his lawyer offers any other defense. He is accused of fighting in Ramadi and Mosul for IS, with a salary equivalent to $225 (266,000 Iraqi dinar) per month. Dawd’s head drops to his chest as the judge reads the confession and asks Dawd to respond.

“Why would the investigative judge make up so many details if he didn’t know you?” asks Judge Jamal Dawd Sinjari.

The confession is again entered into the record and Dawd’s lawyer asks for his client to be released for lack of evidence. The courtroom is cleared.

The sentence

Compared to most of the gaunt-looking prisoners sitting and facing the walls, Dawd appears strong and fit. His sweatshirt bulges out of his dirty yellow prison jumper.

After a 10-minute wait, a guard ushers Dawd, his lawyer and a few spectators back into the room where a judge reads the sentence. “I sentence you to be hanged until you are dead,” he says.

If Dawd is shocked or scared, the emotion does not register on his face. He is the second that day to be sentenced to die. The other condemned man also appeared calm on hearing his sentence earlier in the day.

“Many of them have seen a lot of fighting,” Judge Sinjari later says. “Their hearts are dead and they know what they are going to hear.”

The judge explains that an automatic appeal of Dawd’s case will be sent to Baghdad for review by 30 judges and the sentence may be upheld, cancelled, or reduced to 10 or 15 years in prison under Iraqi counterterrorism laws. A guard quickly escorts Dawd out of the courtroom.

Condemned for membership

The United Nations has condemned the application of the death penalty in Iraq in general. Following mass executions of convicted militants this fall it said, “The Iraqi justice system as a whole is too flawed to allow for any executions.”

Human Rights Watch says because Iraqi terrorism laws can condemn suspects for IS membership alone, the trials threaten to overly punish non-violent offenders.

At the courthouse, Judge Sinjari defends the law, saying, “Their leader told all members to fight when Iraqi forces closed in on them. So if they had sworn loyalty, they fought.”

This distinction is made clearer as more suspects are brought in.Mohammad Hani, 29, a tall and lanky former medical student, is accused of fixing computers for IS militants. He doesn’t claim his confession was forced.

“The militants brought their computers to my shop; I fixed three of them,” Hani says. “I couldn’t say no to them. A month later, I closed the shop. They broke in, took most of the things and blew it up.”

At the sentencing, the judge agrees. “Since you had a computer shop before IS, we have no evidence you were a member. It is your right to go free,” Judge Sinjari says.

Two days later, another man receives a 15-year prison sentence for being a traffic cop under IS. Because the man was not in that job beforehand, judges say his new position and his confession show he was an IS member.

“You can appeal the case in 30 days,” adds Sinjari, as the defendant, appearing stunned, tries to interrupt with protests.A guard steps in and quietly escorts him out of the room.

“Most sworn IS members fought with IS, even if that wasn’t their man job,” Sinjari says.
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Ethiopia to Free Opposition Leader, Others Jailed for Involvement in Unrest

Posted on by SeeAF

Ethiopian authorities have dropped charges against a senior opposition leader and hundreds of others who had been jailed for involvement in unrest that gripped the country in 2015 and 2016, the country’s attorney general said on Monday.

Hundreds have been killed in violence in the Horn of Africa country since protests first erupted in its central Oromiya province over allegations of land grabs.

Several dissident politicians have since been jailed having been charged with involvement in terrorism and collusion with the secessionist Oromo Liberation Front, which the government has branded a terrorist group.

Facing mounting unrest, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced earlier this month that jailed politicians would be released and those facing trial would have their cases dismissed in a bid to foster reconciliation.

On Monday, Attorney General Getachew Ambaye told journalists that 528 people had so far been selected for clemency, including Merera Gudina – leader of the opposition group Oromo Federalist Congress who was arrested in late 2015.

Getachew said criteria for their selection involved taking into account proof that the suspects did not take part in actions that led to killings and severe injury, damaging infrastructure, and “conspiracy to dismantle the constitutional order by force.”

“All 528 will be released within two months,” he said.

Merera was arrested after a trip to Brussels to meet members of the European Parliament, and formally charged with attempting to “dismantle or disrupt social, economic and political activity”.

He was also accused of backing a secessionist group Addis Ababa labels a terrorist movement, as well as flouting guidelines on a state of emergency that was imposed for nine months during his trip to Belgium.

Nearly 700 people died in one bout of unrest during months of protests in 2015 and 2016, according to a parliament-mandated investigation.

Rallies over land rights broadened into demonstrations over political restrictions and perceived rights abuses, before spreading into the northern Amhara region and – to a smaller extent – in its SNNP province in the south.

In recent months, a spate of ethnic clashes have also taken place. Dozens of people were killed in several bouts of violence between ethnic Oromos and Somalis in the Oromiya region last year.

Hailemariam made his announcement after the ruling EPRDF coalition concluded a weeks-long meeting meant to thrash out policies to address grievances.

The unrest had triggered growing friction within the party. Some high-ranking members had subsequently submitted their resignation, while officials have openly squabbled with each other over the cause of clashes.

Getachew said more pardons and releases are set to follow. Ethiopia, sandwiched between volatile Somalia and Sudan, is often accused by rights groups of using security concerns as an excuse to stifle dissent and media freedoms. It denies the charge.
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South Africa Political Parties Make Corruption Top 2019 Election Issue

Posted on by SeeAF

South Africa’s two top political parties began the year by pledging to restore credibility, amid corruption allegations against key leaders. And with next year’s elections drawing closer, they are driving home the message that corruption is their main target.

The ruling African National Congress and embattled President Jacob Zuma, have long been accused of corruption. Critics of the government say this has left the state unable to carry out basic duties.

But deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, who succeeded Zuma as the ANC’s top leader last month, said that will change. While at the coastal city of East London over the weekend, he took several not-so-subtle jabs at Zuma, who is accused of siphoning off tens millions of dollars and letting a wealthy Indian family have undue influence over the government.

“These challenges have been exacerbated by state capture through which through billions of rands have been illegally diverted to individuals,” he said. “Corruption in state owned enterprises and other public institutions have undermined our government’s programs to address poverty and unemployment and they have weakened those institutions.”

The ANC has dominated national politics for a quarter-century, but has lost ground in recent years to the opposition Democratic Alliance, which captured three major cities in 2016’s municipal polls.

Meanwhile, the DA is having its own reckoning, charging Cape Town mayor Patricia De Lille with corruption under the party’s own disciplinary process. De Lille reported to work Monday, but her party relegated many key functions — like the city’s dire water crisis — to other officials.

In Johannesburg, the city’s mayor said Monday he was firing a top city finance official amid allegations of nepotism and undue influence.

Party leader Mmusi Maimane spoke to reporters Sunday in Cape Town.

​”The true test of any political party is what it does when confronted with serious allegation of political dysfunction, maladministration and governance failures,” said Maimane. “The DA, unlike many of our political competitors, stands largely alone in acting with resolve in confronting such issues, even when those decisions, in fact, come at a very serious political cost.”

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said these events may indicate that the two parties, which often try to cast themselves as each other’s antithesis, may not be so different after all. He said he believes both leaders’ words are sincere, but notes that they both face challenges in bringing their own parties into line.

He said the challenge the DA is facing is “not so different from that of the ANC.”

“If you look at the allegations of corruption within the DA in the city of Johannesburg, you have the MMC [member of the mayoral committee] of finance being suspended, and you have De Lille as well, allegations coming out against her regarding impropriety — what that shows is that the DA is also battling with corruption within its ranks,” he said. “And also, the problem seems to be emerging regarding the integrity of internal processes in dealing with this.”

But he said one thing is clear: South Africa’s parties need to scrub themselves thoroughly within before they can show their shiny new faces to voters next year.
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Paper: IMF Concerned by Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Draft Law

Posted on by SeeEU

The International Monetary Fund has told the Ukrainian authorities that it does not support a draft law to create an anti-corruption court because the bill does not guarantee its independence, the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reported on Monday.

Slow progress in establishing a court to handle corruption cases while demonstrating independence and transparency has been one of the main obstacles to the disbursement of a long-delayed loan tranche under the aid-for-reforms program.

In response to international pressure to speed up the process, President Petro Poroshenko submitted a new draft law to parliament in December.

But the IMF mission chief for Ukraine, Ron van Rooden, has since written to the presidential administration to express the Fund’s concerns about parts of the bill, Ukrainska Pravda said, publishing what it said was the text of the letter in full.

“We have serious concerns about the draft law,” van Rooden said in the letter dated Jan. 11. “Several provisions are not consistent with the authorities’ commitments under Ukraine’s IMF-supported program.”

He said parts of the legislation could undermine the independence of the court and the transparent appointment of competent and trustworthy judges.

The law could also lead to further delays as an additional bill would need to be submitted by the president for the court to established, he said.

“In its current form… we would not be able to support the draft law,” he said.

Responding to a request for comment, Poroshenko’s office denied an allegation in the letter that the law is not in line with recommendations of a leading European rights watchdog.

“President Petro Poroshenko has repeatedly emphasized that the country’s leadership has the political will to create an independent anti-corruption court,” it said in an emailed statement.

The IMF did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The IMF and Ukraine’s other foreign backers have repeatedly called for Ukraine to improve efforts to root out graft. They see an anti-corruption court as an essential tool for eliminating the power of vested interests.

Reform progress stalled last year, raising concerns the authorities are backtracking on commitments and unpopular policy changes in anticipation of presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019.

Establishing the court, sticking to gas price adjustments and implementing sustainable pension reform are the key conditions Ukraine must meet to qualify for the next loan tranche of around $2 billion from the IMF.
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UAE Says Qatar Fighter Jets Intercept Flights, Doha Denies

Posted on by SeeEA

The United Arab Emirates on Monday claimed that Qatari fighter jets intercepted two of its commercial airliners in international airspace on the way to Bahrain, allegations denied by Qatar.

The UAE’s two major airlines declined to comment.

The claim could further escalate tensions between Qatar and the four Arab nations that have been boycotting it for months, among them the UAE, home to the world’s busiest international airport. It follows two complaints by Qatar to the United Nations about Emirati military aircraft allegedly violating its international airspace amid the diplomatic crisis.

The UAE’s state-run WAM news agency made the claim on Monday, citing the country’s General Civil Aviation Authority.

“The GCAA received a message from one of the UAE’s national carriers on Monday morning that one of its aircraft on a flight to Manama on a normal route had been intercepted by Qatari fighters,” the report said. “The flight was a regular, scheduled service on a known flight-path that met all the required and internationally recognized approvals and permits.”

WAM said later Monday a second flight to Bahrain was similarly “intercepted.”

WAM did not identify the aircraft involved, nor did it elaborate on details of the purported encounters. The GCAA did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.

Saif Al Thani, a Qatari government spokesman, denied the UAE’s claim on Twitter, calling it “completely untrue.” He promised a detailed statement would come later Monday.

The UAE is home to two major national carriers, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad and Dubai-based Emirates. Both airlines declined to comment when reached by the AP, though Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry identified one of the affected aircraft as Emirates flight No. EK837.

That flight left Dubai at 8:20 a.m. Monday and landed 46 minutes later, flying out over international waters near the northern tip of Qatar, a peninsular nation that juts out like a thumb into the Persian Gulf, before arriving in the island nation of Bahrain. That’s been the standard route of all Emirati commercial airliners since the crisis began.

FlightRadar24, a popular airplane tracking website, did not show any unusual routes between the UAE and Bahrain. “There appears to be no deviation from standard routing and approach patterns in today’s flights,” FlightRadar24 spokesman Ian Petchenik told the AP.

Two budget UAE carriers, FlyDubai and Sharjah-based Air Arabia, also operate several direct flights a day to Bahrain International Airport in Manama. Neither immediately responded to requests for comment.

U.S. Air Force Central Command, which is based at the sprawling al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, did not have any reports of incidents involving commercial aircraft in the region, said Lt. Col. Damien Pickart, an Air Force spokesman. However, Pickart cautioned that U.S. forces don’t routinely monitor the flights and operations of the Qatari air force.

Qatar’s stock exchange dropped some 2.5 percent in trading Monday, one of its biggest jolts since the crisis began.

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE cut off Qatar’s land, sea and air routes on June 5 over its alleged support of extremists and close ties with Iran.

Qatar has long denied funding extremists. It recently restored full diplomatic relations with Iran, with which it shares a massive offshore natural gas field that makes the country and its 250,000 citizens extremely wealthy.

The crisis has hurt Qatar Airways, Doha’s long-haul carrier that competes with Emirates and Etihad.

Qatar had complained to the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization about the boycotting nations cutting off its air routes, forcing the carrier to take longer flights through Iran and Turkey. Its regional feeder flights in Saudi Arabia and the UAE also have been cut off.

Qatar accused Emirati military jets of violating its air space in December and January in two incidents, filing a complaint to the United Nations.

On Sunday night, an exiled Qatari ruling family member once promoted by Saudi Arabia appeared in an online video, claiming he’s being held against his will in the United Arab Emirates, an allegation denied by Abu Dhabi.

The video of Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Thani, a little-known ruling family member until the Qatar crisis, also offered new fuel to the stalemated dispute. It recalled the bizarre, now-reversed resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri while on a trip Riyadh, a November 4 decision that was widely seen as orchestrated by the kingdom.

Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, traveled Monday to Ankara to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish officials said Erdogan and Al Thani would discuss bilateral ties and regional issues. It was not clear if the talks would touch upon the ongoing crisis.

Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
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Russia, Turkey Condemn US Plans for Syria Border Force

Posted on by SeeUS

Turkey’s president on Monday denounced U.S. plans to form a 30,000-strong Kurdish-led border security force in Syria, vowing to “drown this terror force before it is born,” as Russia and Syria also rejected the idea.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also warned U.S. troops against coming between Turkish troops and Kurdish forces, which Ankara views as an extension of Turkey’s own Kurdish insurgency.

Turkey has been threatening to launch a new military operation against the main Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People’s Defense Units, or YPG, in the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave in northern Syria. The YPG is the backbone of a Syrian force that drove the Islamic State group from much of northern and eastern Syria with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes.

Russia has also warned that the nascent U.S. force threatens to fuel tensions around Afrin.

“The United States has admitted that it has created a terrorist force along our country’s border. Our duty is to drown this terror force before it is born,” Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.

The U.S.-led coalition says the new force, expected to reach 30,000 in the next several years, is a key element of its strategy in Syria to prevent the resurgence of the IS group in Syria.

“A strong border security force will prohibit (IS) freedom of movement and deny the transportation of illicit materials,” the coalition said in a statement to The Associated Press. “This will enable the Syrian people to establish effective local, representative governance and reclaim their land.” The SDF currently controls nearly 25 percent of Syrian territory in the north and east.

The core of the force is to be made up of fighters from the existing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the coalition’s ally in the fight against IS. Some 230 cadets have already been recruited to the new border force, according to the coalition. The force is expected to be deployed along the borders of the SDF-held areas and Iraq and Turkey.

Turkey sent troops into Syria in 2016 to prevent Syrian Kurdish fighters from forming a contiguous entity along its border. It has also supported rival Syrian rebels and independently fought to drive IS from parts of Syria.

Tensions with Washington have repeatedly erupted over its support of the SDF, prompting U.S. troops to deploy in northeast Syria to prevent clashes between the Kurdish forces and Turkey-backed fighters.

In recent days, Turkey said it would soon launch a new operation in Afrin and sent reinforcements to the border. Russia deployed military observers to Afrin last year in an effort to prevent Turkish-Kurdish clashes.

On Monday, Erdogan said preparations for the military assault on Afrin “are complete,” adding that an operation could start any moment. He said Turkish troops are already firing artillery at Afrin from the border.

“Don’t stand between us and these herd of murderers. Otherwise, we won’t be responsible for the unwanted incidents that may arise,” he said. “Tear off the insignia you have placed on the uniforms of the terrorists so that we don’t have to bury them (U.S. soldiers) together with the terrorists.

Russia said Monday that the new force is a sign Washington “doesn’t want to preserve the territorial integrity of Syria.” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the nascent border force is “not helping calm the situation.”

Moscow is a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Turkey supports the Syrian opposition. But they came together last year along with Iran, another Assad ally, to set up “de-escalation” zones that have reduced much of the fighting. Since then, Turkey’s ties with Russia have warmed as relations with the U.S. have deteriorated.

Assad’s government also condemned the U.S. plans for the border force, calling it “a blatant encroachment upon the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Syria,” and a violation of international law.
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S. Africa Summons US Diplomat Over Trump’s Reported Vulgar Remarks

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South Africa is the latest country to call in an American diplomat to explain U.S. President Donald Trump’s reported vulgar remarks about African and Haitian immigrants to the U.S.

Trump stunned lawmakers in a recent White House meeting on immigration when, according to multiple reports, he asked, “Why are we having all these people from s—hole countries come here?”

Trump reportedly said the U.S. should allow in more people from places such as Norway. Norway’s population is predominantly white. The populations of the African countries and Haiti are mostly black.

Statements from international and domestic organizations are expressing concern that the U.S. and its president are going down a racist path. Trump has denied he is a racist and insists he didn’t make the reported vulgar remarks.

South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) was scheduled to talk Monday with the second in command at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria about Trump’s remarks.

DIRCO said is a statement “Relations between South Africa and the United States, and between the rest of Africa and the United States, must be based on mutual respect and understanding.”

The State Department says American diplomats in Haiti and Botswana have also been summoned to discuss Trump’s remarks.

The African ambassadors to the United Nations said its group “is extremely appalled at and strongly condemns the outrageous, racist and xenophobic remarks attributed to the President of the United States.”

The group said in the statement that it “demands a retraction and an apology.”

The African ambassadors said they are “concerned at the continuing and growing trend from the U.S. administration towards Africa and people of African descent to denigrate the continent and people of colour.”

The U.S. Congressional Black Caucus said, “President Trump’s comments are yet another confirmation of his racially insensitive and ignorant views. It also reinforces the concerns that we hear every day, that the President’s slogan Make America Great Again is really code for Make America White Again.”
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Russia Does Not Support Trump Push to Alter Iran Nuclear Deal

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that Russia does not support U.S. President Donald Trump’s calls to renegotiate the international agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump said Friday he was waiving for the last time sanctions the U.S. agreed to lift under the 2015 deal, and that Congress and European partners had 120 days to come up with ways to fix what he called “disastrous flaws” in the agreement.

Lavrov said Monday if Trump does go through with his threat to withdraw from the deal if no changes are made there would be unthinkable consequences with Iran sure to consider itself no longer bound by the agreement’s requirements.

The United States, Russia, Britain, China, France and Germany partnered in long, difficult negotiations with Iran in order to make sure the Iranian nuclear program is not being used to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has insisted its nuclear work was solely peaceful, and in exchange for limiting its uranium enrichment, among other concessions, it won relief from economic sanctions that badly hurt its economy.

Lavrov also cautioned against altering the agreement in light of the current international focus on North Korea and its tests of nuclear material and ballistic missiles, questioning what incentive North Korean leaders would have to agree to a similar deal if promised sanctions relief ends up not being reality.

Trump has criticized the Iran deal as giving up too much, while leaving too much of Iran’s nuclear program in place. The United States has also said Iran’s ballistic missile tests go against the spirit of the agreement.

Under the text of the nuclear deal, ballistic missile tests are not expressly prohibited. But the document was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council in a resolution that further says Iran is “called upon” not to undertake any ballistic missile related activity.

Trump wants a new version of the nuclear deal to cover the ballistic missile tests.

Iran insists it has the right to conduct its missile program and has accused the United States of working to undermine the nuclear deal.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in August the U.S. is not a “good partner.”
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Trump’s Reported Slur Complicates Immigration Push in Congress

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Fallout from U.S. President Donald Trump’s reported slur against impoverished, predominantly black nations further complicates a push for bipartisan immigration legislation that has eluded U.S. lawmakers for more than a decade. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports from Washington, a failure to reach a deal on thorny immigration topics could make a partial U.S. government shutdown more likely by the end of this week, when federal funding expires.
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Americans Celebrate Slain Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr.

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Americans on Monday celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, honoring a man who embodied the U.S. civil rights movement and who understood that the success of the movement depended on its nonviolent principles.

Every year on the third Monday in January, Americans honor the slain civil rights leader who in the 1950s and 1960s organized nonviolent protests against Southern segregation, the struggle for black equality and voting rights.

Many around the country spend the holiday commemorating King’s tireless work to end racism by participating in community service projects. The U.S. Congress honored that community spirit in 1994 by designating the King holiday as a national day of service.

President Donald Trump paid tribute to King during a ceremony in Washington Friday, praising his “peaceful crusade for justice and equality.”

Push for change

King rose to prominence in the mid-1950s when as a young preacher he led the successful drive to desegregate public buses in Montgomery, Alabama, forcing the city to end its practice of segregating black passengers.

By August 1963, the push for equality had grown significantly across the country and 250,000 people, both black and white, traveled to the nation’s capital to participate on the March on Washington. The protest was peaceful with no arrests.

King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech launched what had been a mostly black Southern movement into a nationwide civil rights campaign.

In one memorable line, King said he hoped “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

Nonviolent movement

King understood that a key to success for the civil rights movement was a strategy of nonviolent protests, which he championed as an alternative to armed uprising. King has said he was inspired by the teachings of Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi.

The movement was tested in places like Birmingham, Alabama, where police used attack dogs and fire hoses to disperse protesting school children and in Selma, Alabama, where a 1965 march is remembered as “Bloody Sunday” because police attacked protesters.

Televised footage of violence against civil rights demonstrators sparked a wave of sympathetic public opinion.

Struggle to maintain non-violence

Just weeks after the large and peaceful March on Washington, tragedy hit Birmingham when a bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church during Sunday school classes. Four young girls were killed and 23 others injured.

Some blacks wanted to retaliate, including members of the revolutionary group known as the Black Panthers.

However, the steady and peaceful nonviolent movement held its course and came to a crescendo in 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act outlawing racial segregation in public places and King won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The following year, the Voting Rights Act banned practices that were used to keep blacks from participating in elections.

King’s own life ended in violence when he was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was supporting striking sanitation workers.

King, who was 39 years old when he died, gave a speech the night before his death that foreshadowed his assassination.

“And I have seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get there,” he said.

Campaign for recognition

Four days after King’s assassination, a congressman proposed a federal holiday honoring King. However, it took more than 15 years for that to happen.

In 1979, after 10 years of petitions from millions of citizens, lawmakers held an official hearing to discuss the idea of a King holiday. That first initiative failed, with many opponents questioning whether King deserved the same respect as George Washington, the nation’s first president who is honored with a federal holiday.

In 1983, Congress officially discussed the King holiday again, this time passing the measure by the end of the year. Republican President Ronald Reagan signed the measure into law, saying that although he and King did not share political philosophies, they shared “a deep belief in freedom and justice under God.”
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Palestinian President Abbas to Trump: Shame on You

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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday President Donald Trump ought to be ashamed of himself for saying the Palestinians rejected peace talks.

In a two-hour rebuke of Trump’s Palestinian policy, Abbas told the Palestinian Central Council — the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s decision-making body — he will no longer accept the U.S. as a peace mediator.

“We can say no to anyone if things are related to our fate and our people, and now we have said no to Trump,” Abbas raged. “We told him the ‘deal of the century’ was the slap of the century. But we will slap back.”

Abbas has called for an internationally negotiated  peace process instead of one led by the United States.

Trump has frequently called a Middle East peace treaty “the deal of the century.” But his administration’s efforts to revive the long moribund peace talks have so far gone nowhere.

Trump has threatened to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians, saying they have walked away from the negotiations.

Abbas challenged Trump for proof of the Palestinians’ refusal to discuss peace. He also accused Israel of tearing up the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords by continued Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank.

The Oslo Accords led to partial self-determination for the Palestinian people, along with the PLO’s recognition of Israel.  

But a final two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians has always been elusive.

The Palestinians want the West Bank and east Jerusalem as part of a future independent state. Israel regards Jerusalem as its eternal and united capital.

Trump’s recent recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and plans to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv has infuriated the Palestinians.

 
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French Dairy Recalls Infant Milk from 83 Countries

Posted on by SeeUS

More than 12 million boxes of French baby milk products are being recalled from 83 countries for suspected salmonella contamination.

The recall includes Lactalis’ Picot, Milumel and Taranis brands.

The head of the French dairy Lactalis on Sunday confirmed that its products are being recalled from countries across Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia after salmonella was discovered at one of its plants last month. The United States, Britain and Australia were not affected.

Emmanuel Besnier told weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that his family company, one of the world’s biggest dairies, would pay damages to “every family which has suffered a prejudice.”

The paper said 35 babies were diagnosed with salmonella in France, one in Spain and a possible case in Greece.

Salmonella can cause severe diarrhea, stomach cramps, vomiting and severe dehydration. It can be life-threatening, especially in young children.

Lactalis officials have said they believe the contamination was caused by renovation work at their Celia factory in Craon, in northwest France.

France’s agriculture minister said products from the factory will be banned indefinitely during the investigation.

 
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US Homeland Security Chief Vows to Correct Hawaii’s Missile Alert System

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U.S. Homeland Security Chief Kirstjen Nielsen said Sunday it was “unfortunate” there was a false emergency alarm about an incoming missile in Hawaii, but said authorities are “all working to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Officials continued to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Saturday incident in which residents of the western-most U.S. state, in the Central Pacific, were erroneously sent emergency alerts on television, radio, email and mobile devices that warned: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

Just a few weeks ago, Hawaii reinstated its Cold War-era alarm sirens amid growing fears of nuclear aggression by North Korea.

Authorities blamed Saturday’s incident on human error.

Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard told CNN, “The fact that these processes failed so epically that caused this trauma, caused this terror all across the state of Hawaii, must be fixed immediately, and those responsible for this happening need to be held accountable.”

Gabbard said it “was unacceptable that this happened, but it really highlights the stark reality the people of Hawaii are facing” in being the U.S. state closest to North Korea at a time when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump have traded months of insults over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons development program and its frequent test missile launches.

WATCH: Hawaii Governor: Redundancy System in Place to Prevent False Alarms

Hawaii Gov. David Ige said the false missile alert that panicked islanders Saturday morning was “totally unacceptable” and told reporters he is “angry and disappointed” by the situation. “Today is a day that most of us will never forget — a day when many in our community thought that our worst nightmares might actually be happening,” he said.

Questioned repeatedly by reporters about how such a mistake could happen, the governor said his administration is doing everything possible to make sure it does not happen again.

Vern Miyagi, administrator of Hawaii’s Emergency Management Administration, told reporters that the person responsible for the erroneous message “feels terrible” about it. Told by reporters that emergency sirens had actually gone off in some communities, Miyagi said he would have to look into the matter.

Panic

Hotel guests were herded into basements, while residents tried to find the safest places inside their homes. Some people were seen on video opening manhole covers to shelter underground.

Donna McGarrity of Oahu was at home with her 30-year-old son when they got the alert. She said they took shelter in the center of the house, where she called her daughter who lived out of state “just to actually tell her I love her, just in case we got bombed,” she told VOA.

The mistake was discovered within 20 minutes, but it took 38 minutes for state officials to issue a correction on mobile devices, which brought criticism from islanders, government officials and the media.

Hours later, McGarrity said she and her son were still shaken.

“We just kept looking it up just to make sure that it was a false alarm,” she said after the event. If the alert had been real, she said, they had been told a missile could have hit as soon as 12 minutes after the alert.

“I’ve never had anything like this happen, where it could be imminent, where in just a couple of minutes we could all be dead,” she said.

Earlier, Ige told CNN that the mistake happened when an employee simply erred.

“It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the changeover of a shift,” he said, “and an employee pushed the wrong button.”

The White House sent out a statement by deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters: “The president has been briefed on the state of Hawaii’s emergency management exercise. This was purely a state exercise.”

Ajit Pai, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), tweeted Saturday that his agency was launching a “full investigation” into the false wireless emergency alert. The FCC has jurisdiction over the nation’s emergency alert system.

Hawaiian lawmakers react

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii tweeted, “What happened today is totally inexcusable. The whole state was terrified. There needs to be tough and quick accountability and a fixed process. … There is nothing more important to Hawaii than professionalizing and foolproofing this process.”

Scott Saiki, speaker of the state House of Representatives, released a statement saying, “This system we have been told to rely upon failed, and failed miserably today. I am deeply troubled by this misstep that could have had dire consequences. Measures must be taken to avoid further incidents that caused wholesale alarm and chaos today.”

Saiki’s statement continued, “Apparently, the wrong button was pushed, and it took over 30 minutes for a correction to be announced. Parents and children panicked during those 30 minutes. The Hawaii House of Representatives will immediately investigate what happened, and there will be consequences. This cannot happen again.”

Hawaii State Sen. Mazie Hirono tweeted a reassurance that the alarm had been false, adding, “At a time of heightened tensions, we need to make sure all information released to the public is accurate. We need to get to the bottom of what happened and make sure it never happens again.”
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US-Led Coalition Helps Build New Syrian Force, Angering Turkey

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The U.S.-led coalition is working with its Syrian militia allies to set up a new border force of 30,000 personnel, the coalition said on Sunday, a move that has added to Turkish anger over U.S. support for Kurdish-dominated forces in Syria.

A senior Turkish official told Reuters the U.S. training of the new “Border Security Force” is the reason that the U.S. charge d’affaires was summoned in Ankara on Wednesday. The official did not elaborate.

The force, whose inaugural class is currently being trained, will be deployed at the borders of the area controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — an alliance of militias in northern and eastern Syria dominated by the Kurdish YPG.

In an email to Reuters, the coalition’s Public Affairs Office confirmed details of the new force reported by The Defense Post. About half the force will be SDF veterans, and recruiting for the other half is underway, the coalition’s Public Affairs Office said.

The force will deploy along the border with Turkey to the north, the Iraqi border to the southeast, and along the Euphrates River Valley, which broadly acts as the dividing line separating the U.S.-backed SDF and Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia.

U.S. support for the SDF has put enormous strain on ties with NATO ally Turkey, which views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — a group that has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.

Syria’s main Kurdish groups have emerged as one of the few winners of the Syrian war, and are working to entrench their autonomy over swathes of northern Syria.

Washington opposes those autonomy plans, even as it has backed the SDF, the main partner for the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria.

The coalition said the BSF would operate under SDF command and around 230 individuals were currently undergoing training in its inaugural class.

“Efforts are taken to ensure individuals serve in areas close to their homes. Therefore, the ethnic composition of the force will be relative to the areas in which they serve.

“More Kurds will serve in the areas in northern Syria. More Arabs will serve in areas along the Euphrates River Valley and along the border with Iraq to the south,” the coalition’s Public Affairs Office said.

‘A new mission’

“The base of the new force is essentially a realignment of approximately 15,000 members of the SDF to a new mission in the Border Security Force as their actions against ISIS draw to a close,” it said.

“They will be providing border security through professionally securing checkpoints and conducting counter-IED operations,” it said, adding that coalition and SDF forces were still engaging Islamic State pockets in Deir al-Zor province. IED stands for improvised explosive device.

The United States has about 2,000 troops in Syria fighting Islamic State, and has said it is prepared to stay in the country until it is certain Islamic State is defeated, that stabilization efforts can be sustained, and there is meaningful progress in U.N.-led peace talks on ending the conflict.

The Syrian government in Damascus has declared the United States an illegal occupation force, and its SDF allies as “traitors”. A top Syrian Kurdish politician told Reuters last week the United States appeared in no hurry to leave Syria.
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Trump: Deportation Protection Program ‘Probably Dead’

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U.S. President Donald Trump contended Sunday that a U.S. program to protect young immigrants from deportation is “probably dead,” saying that opposition Democrats “don’t really want it,” but just want to be able to talk about the issue.

The fate of the program protecting nearly 800,000 immigrants from deportation who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents years ago when they were children is at the forefront of the Washington political debate this week. It is part of discussions between the White House and Congress over new funding for the government to avert a partial government shutdown when U.S. agencies run out of money at midnight Friday.

Trump last week rejected a bipartisan proposal offered him by three Republican and three Democratic senators to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to protect the young immigrants from deportation. The lawmakers also called for other immigration policy changes, including increased funding for security along the southern U.S. border with Mexico, where Trump is demanding that a wall be built to thwart more illegal immigration.

But in the course of the White House meeting, Trump sparked an international uproar by reportedly describing Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “s—hole countries,” questioning why more immigrants from those countries should be allowed into the United States.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois who was at the Oval Office meeting claimed the president made the derogatory term. Trump admtted to using “tough” language but has denied making the statement.

Trump’s denial was supported in separate appearances on Sunday news programs by Republican senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia.

In an appearance on the CBS news program “Face the Nation” Cotton said,  “I didn’t hear it, and I was sitting no further away from Donald Trump than Dick Durbin was.” Cotton added that people shouldn’t be surprised by Durbin’s comments because the Illinois senator “has a history of “misrepresenting what happens in White House meetings.”  On ABC’s “This Week” Republican Senator Perdue flatly denied Trump made the comment.

In a pair of Twitter comments Sunday, Trump accused Democrats of trying to “take desperately needed money away from our Military” as part of the immigration and funding discussions.

He said that as president he wants “people coming into our Country who are going to help us become strong and great again, people coming in through a system based on MERIT. No more Lotteries! #AMERICA FIRST.”

Trump is calling for the end of of an immigration lottery program under which some foreigners have through a yearly drawing been able to legally emigrate to the U.S. Trump claims that other countries have sent potential terrorists and their most poorly educated citizens to America.

Trump last year ended the DACA program that was created by his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, but delayed deportations to give Congress until March 5 to weigh in on the issue. Trump, at an unusual televised meeting with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers last week, told them he would sign whatever immigration legislation they could agree on, but then rebuffed the first compromise offered him by the six senators, with more conservative Republican lawmakers calling for tougher immigration restrictions.

Meantime, a U.S. district court judge in California last week, over protests from Trump, ruled that for the moment at least he cannot end the DACA program.

On Saturday, the government said it has resumed accepting requests to renew grants from the young immigrants to protect them from deportation. Many of the immigrants, called Dreamers by their advocates, have only known the U.S. as their home.  

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a statement on its website, “Until further notice . . . the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded” by Trump last September 5.

The statement said that people who were previously granted deferred action under DACA may request renewal, but added that the agency is not accepting requests from individuals who were never granted deferred action under DACA.

A DACA deferment gives prosecutors discretion on enforcing immigration laws, effectively allowing the undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. 

 
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Chelsea Manning to Run for US Senate

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Transgender whistleblower Chelsea Manning is seeking to become a U.S. senator representing the state of Maryland, according to federal election filings.

She would run as a Democrat, challenging two-term Senator Ben Cardin in Maryland’s June primary. Manning would have to file with the state election board by February 27 to get her name on the ballot.

Cardin is the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was first elected to the Senate in 2006.

Cardin spokeswoman Sue Walitsky, without speaking about Manning directly, said Cardin “is looking forward to a vigorous debate of the issues and a robust conversation with Maryland voters.”

Manning, a former army intelligence analyst, originally known as Bradley Manning, is the U.S. soldier who released more than 700,000 secret military documents and battlefield videos to WikiLeaks. She said she released the information to raise public awareness about the impact of war on civilians. Prosecutors said Manning was a traitor who put the U.S. and its armed forces at risk.

In 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for releasing the classified documents. U.S. President Barack Obama granted Manning clemency before leaving office last year.

After her conviction, Manning said she identified as a woman. During her imprisonment, she battled for and won the right to start hormone treatment.

U.S. President Donald Trump says Manning is a traitor.

Trump has attempted to bar transgender people from the military, but federal courts have ruled against that ban.
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Wahlberg Donates $1.5 Million After Pay Gap Outcry

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Following an outcry over a significant disparity in pay between co-stars, Mark Wahlberg agreed Saturday to donate the $1.5 million he earned for reshoots for All the Money in the World to the sexual misconduct defense initiative Time’s Up.

Wahlberg said he’ll donate the money in the name of his co-star, Michelle Williams, who reportedly made less than $1,000 on the reshoots.

“I 100% support the fight for fair pay,” Wahlberg said in a statement.

Williams issued a statement Saturday, saying: “Today isn’t about me. My fellow actresses stood by me and stood up for me, my activist friends taught me to use my voice, and the most powerful men in charge, they listened and they acted.”

She noted that “it takes equal effort and sacrifice” to make a film.

“Today is one of the most indelible days of my life because of Mark Wahlberg, WME (William Morris Endeavor) and a community of women and men who share in this accomplishment.”

The announcement Saturday came after directors and stars, including Jessica Chastain and Judd Apatow, shared their shock at reports of the huge pay disparity for the Ridley Scott film. The 10 days of reshoots were necessary after Kevin Spacey was replaced by Christopher Plummer when accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced against Spacey. USA Today reported Williams was paid less than $1,000 for the 10 days.

Both Williams and Plummer were nominated for Golden Globes for their performances.

Talent agency William Morris Endeavor, which represents both Williams and Wahlberg, said it will donate an additional $500,000 to Time’s Up. The agency said in a statement that wage disparity conversations should continue and “we are committed to being part of the solution.”
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Iraq’s Current, Former Prime Ministers Running in May Elections

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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Sunday his candidacy for the May 12 parliamentary elections to choose a prime minister.

Abadi, a Shiite Muslim who led the country in the four-year war against Islamic State, said he will seek to form a cross-sectarian block called ‘‘the victory alliance’’ to contest the parliamentary elections, with candidates from other communities.

Abadi took over the premiership in 2014 from Nuri al-Maliki, a close ally of Iran widely criticized by Iraqi politicians for the army’s collapse as Islamic State militants swept through a third of Iraq.

Maliki, who heads the Shiite Dawa party, announced Saturday he will be running in the elections.

Abadi is a Dawa member but he didn’t secure Maliki’s endorsement for his candidacy. Maliki said on Saturday Dawa supporters will be free to choose between his alliance, called “state of law,” and Abadi’s “victory alliance.”

Abadi is credited for quickly rebuilding the army and defeating Islamic State in its main Iraqi stronghold, Mosul, last July, with strong assistance from a U.S.-led coalition.

Maliki holds the ceremonial title of vice-president. He remains a powerful political figure as head of the Dawa and the largest political bloc in the current parliament.

The prime minister’s office is reserved for Iraq’s majority Shiite Arab community under a power-sharing system set up after the 2003 U.S-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab.

The largely ceremonial office of president is reserved for a Kurdish member of parliament. The speaker of parliament is drawn from Sunni Arab MPs.

The parliament is yet to approve the May 12 date for the elections.
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Journalist Killed in Mexican Border State 

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A journalist was killed Saturday in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas, and authorities said they were investigating to see if his death is related to his work.

Carlos Dominguez Rodriguez was slain in the city of Nuevo Laredo across the border from Texas while driving in a car with relatives who were unhurt in the attack, state security spokesman Luis Alberto Rodriguez told The Associated Press. Rodriguez said the body had stab wounds and there may have been gunshots.

The 77-year-old Dominguez had worked for different print media outlets, including the Diario de Nuevo Laredo newspaper, but he was currently an independent journalist who wrote opinion columns for news websites, Rodriguez and other journalists said.

If it is confirmed that Dominguez was murdered for his work, he would be the first journalist slain for his profession in the new year after a deadly 2017 that saw at least 10 killed in what international press groups called a crisis for freedom of expression in Mexico. Earlier in January, a news editor was killed in Mexico City in a robbery apparently unrelated to his profession.

Rodriguez said preliminary investigations indicated that Dominguez had not reported receiving any threats or requested security.

Tamaulipas’ government released a statement saying it “will act firmly against any attack on freedom of expression and the labor of communicators.”

Tamaulipas has been wracked by drug cartel violence, and the state is one where organized crime has often been able to intimidate media outlets into silence through violence and threats.

Both the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have expressed concern about the impunity surrounding the killings of journalists in Mexico.

On Jan. 7, in Guerrero state in southern Mexico, several journalists reported being roughed up. Bernandino Hernandez, who has worked with the AP, said state police beat, kicked and dragged the journalists.
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Immigration Agency Again Accepting DACA Renewal Requests

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Citizenship and Immigration Services says it has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under the Obama-era program that shields from deportation young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children and who remain in the country illegally.

The decision comes four days after a federal judge, in a nod to pending lawsuits, temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s decision to end the program. 

 

In a statement posted Saturday on its website, the USCIS says the policy under the Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, will be operated under the terms in place before it was rescinded in September.

 

Congressional lawmakers are trying to write legislation to give the so-called Dreamers legal status. 

 

DACA has protected about 800,000 people, many of them college-age students.
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Iran Lifts Restrictions on Messaging App Telegram

Posted on by SeeEA

Iran has lifted restrictions on the messaging app Telegram, the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

The popular service had been blocked during recent public protests, the most serious nationwide unrest in the Islamic republic since 2009.

“An informed source announced that the filtering of the Telegram messenger has been ended and it is being used by users,” IRNA reported. 

The AP news agency said it had spoken with residents in several cities, including Shiraz, Isfahan, Bandar Abbas, Rasht, and Oromieh, all of whom confirmed that they had access to the app. 

Earlier this month, Iran shut down Telegram and the picture-sharing app Instagram, claiming protesters were using them to spread unrest.

At least 22 people were killed and 1,000 others arrested in the anti-government protests that began in late December, sparked at first over rising consumer prices. 

As the protests subsided, Tehran last week lifted restrictions on Instagram. 

Many Iranians access Telegram using virtual private networks and other tools to bypass government filtering of the Internet, residents said.

But officials said hundreds of companies using the app for their marketing and sales had been hard-hit by the social-media restrictions, and President Hassan Rohani was quoted as saying about 100,000 people had lost their jobs.

Iran continues to impose restrictions on the Internet and social media, with Facebook and Twitter still blocked.

Some material for this report came from AP and Reuters.
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DRC Launches Offensive Against Ugandan Rebels in Its East

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Congolese troops began a military offensive in the eastern city of Beni on Saturday against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel armed group blamed for an attack that killed 15 U.N. peacekeepers last month.

The operation is part of a joint effort by the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda against the group after the suspected ADF attack on a base manned by Tanzanian peacekeeping troops.

That attack, which also killed five Congolese soldiers and wounded another 53 peacekeepers, came amid a rising wave of violence in the mineral-rich, ethnically volatile area.

“Since this morning, we have launched a general offensive against the ADF phenomena,” General Marcel Mbangu, commander in charge of Congo’s North Kivu province, said at a news conference.

“This is, for us, the final offensive. We will fight them until the end, until we have secured our territory,” he added.

Residents reported the sounds of gunfire and explosions in Beni on Saturday.

Rival militia groups control parts of eastern Congo long after the official end of a 1998-2003 war in which millions of people died, mostly from hunger and disease.

A surge in militia violence across the country, which followed President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down when his mandate expired just over a year ago, has raised fears Congo could slide into all-out war again.

The Islamist ADF has long been active along the Congo-Uganda border and has been blamed for a spate of massacres. Last month, Uganda launched airstrikes and artillery attacks on ADF positions on its side.
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It’s Back to the Future in Run-up to Russian Elections

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Ukraine proudly announced this year that the country was free of all monuments to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in towns controlled by the Kyiv-based government. But while Ukraine has been busy completing the tearing down of statues to Lenin and monuments to other Communist figures, Soviet heroes have never been more in vogue in neighboring Russia.

Monuments to Lenin have been springing up across the country. Other Communist luminaries have received tributes, too, including Communist spymaster Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the KGB, who was dubbed Lenin’s “willing executioner.”

Dzerzhinsky once wrote: “We stand for organized terror — this should be frankly admitted. Terror is an absolute necessity during times of revolution. Our aim is to fight against the enemies of the Soviet government and of the new order of life.”

Soviet nostalgia used to be the preserve of quirky fringe groups composed mainly of resentful old Communist retainers, destitute state pensioners and right-wing nationalists lamenting Russia’s military weakness. But it has become more widespread, with even youngsters embracing a glorified past — and Russian leader Vladimir Putin doesn’t appear to mind.

Remaining nostalgic

Since 2014, regret about the collapse of the Soviet Union has been high, with about half of the population remaining nostalgic about the past and lamenting the end of the USSR, according to pollsters at the Leveda Center.

A 2017 survey by the polling agency found that 47 percent of Russians approved of Josef Stalin, both for his personality as well as his “managerial skills,” despite his bloodthirsty legacy. Historians estimate that Stalin was responsible for more deaths than Adolf Hitler.

And nostalgia has fueled the rehabilitation of a host of characters in the Soviet story that few thought would ever again be eulogized — including biologist Trofim Lysenko, who has been dubbed “the Soviet era’s deadliest scientist” for his role overseeing Stain’s agricultural polices that led to famines fatal to millions.

Lysenko believed that modern genetics was a Western imperialist plot designed to undermine Russia.

There have been an increasing number of books and articles praising Lysenko, “part of a disturbing pro-Lysenko movement, which is accompanied by a growing sympathy for Stalin,” a group of Russian and German scientists noted in a recent article for the journal Current Biology. Despite the triumphs of modern genetics and the discrediting of Lysenkoism, “recent years have seen a rethinking of [his] doctrine in Russia,” they said.

Last November, the Kremlin played down the centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution, although it didn’t move to deter Communist devotees from holding celebration rallies. Uneasiness about memories of revolution and uprisings is one thing; celebrating Soviet heroes and strong national leadership is another, say analysts.

In the run-up to March presidential elections, Soviet nostalgia and celebrations of Russian nationalism serve a useful purpose for the Kremlin.

Upcoming election

Putin is assured of winning in March, but there are Kremlin worries about voter apathy and low turnout. Patriotic appeals and eulogies to forceful leadership and national discipline could help in getting more voters to the polling stations.

Putin has not been shy to co-opt the Soviet regime’s greatest victories and Russian nationalism to burnish himself and his own credentials.

Flying into Crimea after annexing the Ukrainian province in 2014, Putin’s itinerary was tightly choreographed to invoke the past. He laid a wreath at a World War II memorial, visited an ancient Russian Orthodox cathedral, and recalled czarist and Soviet-era glory with an inspection of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol.

Not only have Kremlin officials increasingly been encouraging Soviet nostalgia and the memory of Stalin, they also have been promoting autocratic figures from Russia’s pre-Communist past — including Ivan the Terrible.

Last October, the government endorsed the country’s first-ever monument to Ivan the Terrible, with the unveiling in the city of Orel of a statue to the 16th-century czar who expanded Russia but at great human cost. Ivan the Terrible is reputed to have killed one of his sons during a rage.

The official lionization of historical despots feeds into an embrace of anti-democratic values, according to academic Dina Khapaeva, professor of Russian at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She noted in an article for Project Syndicate, a nonprofit that distributes commentary, that Russian officials have even spoken approvingly of Russian serfdom, which “complements the desire for a return to autocracy.”

“No wonder, then, that monuments to Stalin, too, are multiplying in Russian cities,” she said.
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