Month: January 2018

Native Americans Applaud Removal of ‘Racist’ Sports Mascot

Posted on by SeeUS

Native Americans took to social media Monday to celebrate the pending “death” of Chief Wahoo, the longtime logo of the Cleveland Indians baseball team which features a garish “Indian” caricature that is offensive to America’s first peoples.

But the victory is only a small one for Twitter users, using the hashtag #NotYourMascot: The Cleveland Indians won’t be changing the team’s name; the team will still be able to sell Chief Wahoo merchandise; and fans won’t be blocked from wearing clothing bearing the logo.

In a statement released Monday, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said he told team owner Paul Dolan that the time had come to remove the caricature that has appeared on players’ caps and uniforms since 1948.

“Over the past year, we encouraged dialogue with the Indians organization about the club’s use of the Chief Wahoo logo,” Manfred said. “During our constructive conversations, Paul Dolan made clear that there are fans who have a longstanding attachment to the logo and its place in the history of the team.

“Nonetheless, the club ultimately agreed with my position that the logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use in Major League Baseball, and I appreciate Mr. Dolan’s acknowledgement that removing it from the on-field uniform by the start of the 2019 season is the right course.”

For decades, Native American activists and their supporters have protested the logo, a cartoon of a grinning red-skinned man in a feathered headband.  They have complained that the image is offensive and perpetuates racist stereotypes about America’s first peoples.

In 2014, a group called People Not Mascots filed a federal lawsuit seeking $9 billion in damages.  Two years later, a Canadian man sued the team in an attempt to prevent it from wearing the Chief Wahoo logo during games in Toronto.

In recent years, many schools and universities across the country have stopped using Native Americans in their team names or as mascots.  But according to MascotDB, a database of sports team names and mascots, many hundreds of American teams retain Indian imagery, ranging from local high schools to major teams like the Washington Redskins.

“Today’s announcement marks an important turning point for Indian Country and the harmful legacy of Indian mascots,” said Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians. “These mascots reduce all Native people into a single outdated stereotype that harms the way Native people, especially youth, view themselves.”
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Southern Separatists, Forces Loyal to Yemeni President Clash in Aden

Posted on by SeeEA

Arab media is reporting scattered clashes around Yemen’s southern interim capital of Aden between forces loyal to exiled President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and southern separatists. At least 16 people are reported killed and about 140 wounded in two days of fighting.

In a second day of clashes Monday, forces loyal to Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi exchanged gunfire with southern separatist fighters around key government buildings in Aden. Arab media report several official government buildings are in the hands of the separatists but that a standoff prevails between the two sides in most places.

Supporters of the separatists chanted slogans against Hadi’s government in several major squares of Aden. Clashes also took place in other parts of the city.

Southern Yemeni separatist leader Aiderous Zubeidi, whom Arab media claim is supported by the United Arab Emirates, insisted the situation in Aden could not remain as is. He vowed to continue to back the Saudi-led coalition in its battle against the Houthi militia group in the north of the country.

Last week, Zubeidi called on the government of Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher to step down, accusing it of corruption and malfeasance. Parts of the government administration under Dagher are based in Aden, while other departments are located in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Dagher called the fighting “a coup” by separatist forces. Hadi, who is currently in Riyadh, urged the separatists and his own forces Sunday to observe a cease-fire. Some Arab media reported the separatists were bringing reinforcements from Abyan and Ma’arib provinces to Aden.

Saudi coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki insisted Monday the goals of the parties in the coalition, including the United Arab Emirates, have not changed. He urged everyone to resolve their differences amicably.

Calling for wisdom and self-restraint, Maliki urged all parties in Aden to come to the negotiating table with Hadi’s legitimate government to resolve their differences.

Yemeni analyst Yehya Abou Hatem in Cairo told Arab media the separatists have “been part of the ongoing national dialogue in Yemen” and “have no clear reason” to withdraw their support from the government now.
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Mozambique Takes Legal Action Over $2 Billion Loans

Posted on by SeeAF

Mozambique’s Attorney General has filed a legal complaint against officials and state-owned companies involved in securing $2 billion in loans that were not approved by parliament or disclosed publicly, her office said on Monday.

Investigations into the debt found that the deals violated Mozambique’s constitution, the AG’s office said in a statement.

The alleged infringements included failure to comply with the procedures and limits established by law in the issuance of guarantees by the state, it said.

“Thus, on January 26, the [office] submitted a complaint to the Administrative Court on the financial accountability of public managers and state-owned companies involved in the management of financing, supply and service contracts,” the statement read.

It did not name any of the managers or the companies.

The Administrative Court is responsible for ruling on the legality of public expenditure.

An independent audit of the debt showed in June last year that questions remained on how the $2 billion was used and roughly a quarter of the money remained unaccounted for.

The Attorney General also recommended among other issues a review of legislation related to state businesses and scrutiny and monitoring of projects benefiting from state guarantees.
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UN Blames Uganda, Kenya for Fueling Conflict in South Sudan

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A U.N. official has intensified the call for an end to violence in South Sudan, following sustained diplomatic pressure from the African Union on South Sudanese leaders.

Adama Dieng is the U.N. secretary-general’s special adviser for the prevention of genocide. He told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus program Monday that Uganda and Kenya are contributing to the conflict.

“Although the responsibility is to protect the population in South Sudan, the timely responsibility lies with the South Sudan government; the responsibility to prevent atrocities is regional and international,” Dieng said.

He said large quantities of weapons and ammunition are flowing into South Sudan through Kenya and Uganda.

“International partners have to start targeting the accomplices, intermediaries of the South Sudanese parties.”

Representatives of the Kenyan and Ugandan embassies in Washington were not available for comment.

African Union, or AU, chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said Sunday that “the time has come” to impose sanctions on individuals blocking peace in South Sudan.

The U.N. diplomat said that ending the civil war in South Sudan will only be successful “if we have concerted regional and international efforts to leave no further options to the South Sudanese leaders to stop and start negotiating.”

A high-level revitalization forum led by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, is scheduled to meet Feb. 5-16 in Addis Ababa to discuss security and governance structures in South Sudan.

“Now is the time to close any possibilities of alternatives,” Dieng said. “The continuation of fighting should not be left out [as a] possible option. And we need IGAD, AU Peace and Security, and the U.N. Security Council to come together and take concerted action now.”

Threat of sanctions

The U.N. special adviser said both the government and rebels have done very little to discipline individuals committing atrocities in the four-year conflict in South Sudan, adding that the country is suffering from what he called “total impunity of armed men who have embraced sexual violence as a systematic weapon of war.”

Dieng visited South Sudan’s state of Yei River last year and was told about an 84-year-old woman who was raped by men suspected to be government soldiers.

He said the armed South Sudanese parties who signed the December 2017 cease-fire deal have not honored their commitment to end violence. “This time we will have to treat the situation in a different manner. In other words, unless the parties commit sincerely to implement the agreement, sanctions should be imposed.”

South Sudan’s civil war has displaced some 4 million people and created a humanitarian crisis in the world’s youngest country.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned countries of the IGAD regional bloc against taking sides in South Sudan’s internal affairs.

“Those who are in the leadership positions in South Sudan, be [it] within the government or in the opposition, they will have to understand that this time on Earth on this year 2018, they will have to stop this fighting, otherwise they [the leaders] will have to pay for it,” Dieng said.
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Aid Agencies on Alert in Somalia Amid Low Rainfall

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In Somalia, low rainfall for a fifth consecutive growing season has aid agencies sounding the alert. More than a third of the population is in need of food assistance, and that number could grow in coming months.

Below average rainfall in Somalia has aid agencies concerned about this year’s harvest, expected to begin in April.

But aid officials say the situation has not reached the level it did at the same time last year, when the United Nations warned of a potential famine.

U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia Peter de Clercq updated reporters Monday in Mogadishu.

“I am very pleased to report and to announce that the risk of famine has declined through collective action. We can be very proud of that achievement, but we cannot be complacent. This is not ‘mission accomplished’ moment. The humanitarian situation remains critical, and these gains are fragile and could easily be reversed without sustained assistance. The impact of drought and conflict continues to cause suffering and drive people from their homes,” he said.

Food production is expected to be below normal again this year in most of Somalia, according to a recent survey by Somalia’s Food Security and Analysis Unit, a project managed by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Without continued large-scale assistance, the agency says food security is expected to deteriorate in the next five months.

Sergio Innocente works with the Food and Agriculture Organization.

“Close to half of the population of Somalia that is in anywhere between stress and emergency conditions. So we have 4.4 million people in need of support, out of which close to three million people are close to a humanitarian disaster,” said Innocente.

The survey shows 300,000 children are in need of food aid, including 48,000 who are severely malnourished.

Innocente said the report is a call to action.

“We have seen the response of last year has been timely and has been up to scale, so which proves that reality. Even though we are not calling this [an] early warning, we are absolutely convinced a continuous update helps people in making informed decisions, and this is what we want for Somalia,” he said.

On Tuesday, the Somali government is expected to launch its humanitarian response and action plan for 2018.
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EU Ready to Hit Back if Trump Imposes Anti-EU Trade Measures

Posted on by SeeEU

The European Union said Monday that it stands ready to hit back “swiftly and appropriately” if U.S. President Donald Trump takes unfair trade measures against the 28-nation bloc.

The EU’s warning comes less than 24 hours after Trump expressed his annoyance with EU trade policy, saying it “may morph into something very big.”

The standoff contrasted sharply with relations during the administration of Barack Obama, when both sides sought to create a massive free trade zone between the EU and United States that was argued could yield over $100 billion a year for both sides.

When Trump won the presidential election in November 2016, those hopes evaporated as the new president talked about protecting American jobs and going against multilateral trade deals that he portrayed as detrimental to his “America First” policies.

On Sunday, Trump said in a British television interview that “the European Union has been very, very unfair to the United States, and I think it’ll turn out to be very much to their detriment.”

He insisted that his trade issues with the EU “may morph into something very big from that standpoint, from a trade standpoint.”

In the past, he has hinted at punitive measures against trading partners he thought were abusing the U.S. market.

Trump last week approved tariffs on imported solar-energy components and large washing machines in a bid to help U.S. manufacturers, particularly against competition from China and South Korea. His administration has also pulled out of a Pacific trade deal and is looking to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

EU chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas retorted Monday that “the EU stands ready to react swiftly and appropriately in case our exports are affected by any restrictive trade measure from the United States.”

Schinas said that “while trade has to be open and fair it also has to be rules-based.”

The issues also came to the fore during last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In 2016, official figures show, the EU imported 246 billion euros ($304 billion) in goods from the U.S. while exporting some 362 billion euros ($448 billion) to the country. Trump has taken aim at that U.S. deficit of 116 billion euros ($143 billion). In services, the U.S. deficit is much smaller, of only about 13 billion euros ($16 billion).

The EU and Germany both called for cooperation Monday.

German government spokesman, Steffen Seibert, noted that Chancellor Angela Merkel set out in Davos last week why her government wants “an even stronger, more competitive, more self-confident EU that takes over even more international responsibility.”

“But that is not directed against anyone, including the United States of America,” Seibert told reporters in Berlin. “We try for solutions, strive for cooperation that is advantageous for both partners.”
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Map of GPS Fitness Activity Sparks Military Security Concerns

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. military says it is evaluating its policies after a global map of fitness activity drew attention to possible security concerns regarding locations of overseas bases and soldier movements.

Strava published its so-called heat map of user activity in November showing the routes millions of users walked, ran and biked, with the most frequent routes showing up in brighter colors. The company says it excluded activities that users marked as private or ones that took place in areas people did not want to make public.

The activities were tracked using GPS-enabled devices from manufacturers like Fitbit, Garmin and Polar, and even with the exclusions, Strava said its map included 1 billion activities between 2015 and September 2017.

The Washington Post reported on the heat map and its implications, highlighting a Twitter post by Australian student Nathan Ruser who shared the link to the Strava site Saturday.

“It looks very pretty, but not amazing for Op-Sec [operational security]. US Bases are clearly identifiable and mappable,” Ruser wrote.

The map shows the most activity in places like the United States, Western Europe, Japan and Brazil. In Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, activities show up bright against otherwise dark terrain, including in multiple places where the U.S. military is known to have bases or be active.

The devices that transmit the data can be used in several ways, including for example a short run or keeping track of the steps a person takes throughout the day. The result can be lines on the heat map showing loops around the perimeter of a military installation where people exercise or showing where they move from place to place throughout the facility, or elsewhere.

“DoD takes matter like these very seriously and is reviewing the situation to determine if any additional training or guidance is required, and if any additional policy must be developed to ensure the continued safety of DoD personnel at home and abroad,” Department of Defense spokeswoman Maj. Audricia Harris said.
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Poland Proposes Holocaust Law, Israel Objects

Posted on by SeeEU

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday Israel will not tolerate “distortion of the truth, rewriting history, and denial of the Holocaust.”

Netanyahu was speaking out against a proposed law in Poland imposing fines and jail time on anyone who refers to the Nazi genocide of Jews as being a Polish crime, or the Nazi death camps as Polish death camps.

Israel’s foreign ministry summoned the Polish ambassador Sunday to express its objections.

Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial also warned against trying to change history.

“Restrictions on statements by scholars and others regarding the Polish people’s direct or indirect complicity with the crimes committed on their land during the Holocaust are a serious distortion,” it said in a statement.

Some experts fear the new Polish law could also mean jail for Holocaust survivors when talking about their ordeals.

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, recognizing the extreme sensitivity of the law, promised Sunday to give it a “careful analysis” before signing it if it passes the Polish senate.

Poland was home to one of the world’s most thriving Jewish populations before Nazi Germany invaded in 1939. It murdered about 3 million Jews in death camps set up in Poland, including such chilling places as Auschwitz and Treblinka.

Holocaust survivors who returned to Poland after the war found themselves victims of further anti-Semitism. Some historians say many Poles collaborated with the Nazis in persecuting Jews.

Poland regards itself as having itself been a victim of Nazi terror and resents being blamed for crimes carried out by Hitler and his gang of murderers.

On Sunday, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki tweeted a metaphor comparing Jews and Poles in pre-war Poland.

“A gang of professional thugs enters a two-family house,” he wrote. “They kill the first family almost entirely. They kill the parents of the second, torturing the kids. They loot and raze the house. Could one in good conscience say that the second family is guilty for the murder of the first?”
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Russia’s Winter of Election Discontent

Posted on by SeeEU

Several thousand people braved sub-zero temperatures in cities across Russia to protest what they say is a lack of competition ahead of March presidential elections all but guaranteed to extend Vladimir Putin’s grip on power through 2024.

The rallies were part of a nationwide “Voters Strike” called by opposition leader and erstwhile presidential candidate Alexey Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who has been blocked from participating in the elections over legal problems widely seen as manufactured to keep him out of the race.

“We demand a real contest. Even many supporters of Putin say ‘why wouldn’t he participate in a competitive election?’” said Vladimir Milov, a Navalny campaign adviser, in an interview with VOA at the Moscow rally.  

“They believe Putin can beat Navalny, and we believe Navalny can beat Putin,” he added.  

“That’s what elections are all about.”

Yet Sunday’s protests reflected a realization among Navalny’s camp that such a direct contest will not take place. 

Barred from participating by Russia’s courts and state election commission, Navalny’s campaign has shifted to calls to boycott the election — arguing low voter turnout nationwide will take the shine off a Putin victory and high voter approval ratings that, they argue, are inflated by state manipulation. 

“We are not going to take part in this election,” said Vladislav Sovostin, a small business owner, as the crowd shouted “Strike! Strike!” “Boycott!” and “These Aren’t Elections!” 

“We are going to monitor the vote and not allow them to falsify the election for Putin,” he added.

Arrests

Organizers argued that protests took place in over 100 cities across the country — with several approved in advance by authorities.  Notable exceptions were Russia’s two main cities — Moscow and St. Petersburg — where police and interior ministry troop presence were heavy and authorities threatened arrests. 

OVD-Info, a civic police monitoring group, reported 340 people had been detained nationwide.

Many of those included Navalny surrogates and campaign volunteers in cities such as Tomsk, a Siberian university town where the local independent TV-2 channel reported 10 arrests. 

In Moscow, police also stormed Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, where an online video feed of the day’s events was shut down after police broke through office doors with a chainsaw. 

 

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Navalny, too, had little opportunity to take part in the event he organized.

Video published online (LINK https://twitter.com/navalny/status/957581631921033216)  showed police roughly dragging him into a police van almost as soon as he arrived on Moscow’s central Tverskaya Street.  

“I’ve been detained. That doesn’t matter,” he posted minutes later on Twitter.  “Come to Tverskaya. You’re not coming out for me, but for yourself and your future.”

Generational shifts

Once again, the faces of younger Russians — many in their teens and early 20s who have grown up under Putin’s rule — were prominent at rallies across the country. 

“The authorities are used to thinking that Russians will just sit quietly and wait for change. Well, our generation won’t wait. We want a better life,” says Ivan Savin, a high school student who attended the rally.

He also admitted to telling his parents he was “out with friends” for the day rather than out protesting the Russian president. 

“Only because they’ll worry and think I’ll get arrested.” 

His classmate, Valerie Koltsov, added that other friends felt the same.

“I know a lot of people who don’t come because it really does scare them. They think they’ll get fined for not doing what the government tells them.”

Turnout tactics

Indeed, turnout was smaller than previous Navalny-led protests from the past year, when tens of thousands of Russians came out to protest alleged corruption at the highest levels of government.

Few doubt that Navalny’s message — fueled by an effective social media campaign — has connected well beyond Moscow and into the regions. 

But Sunday’s smaller numbers, despite temperatures as low as -40C in Siberia, were all but certain to fuel debate in opposition circles over the wisdom of Navalny’s call for a nationwide boycott of the vote.

The tactic, critics point out, demands widespread participation or risks simply increasing Putin’s margin of victory. 

Ksenia Sobchak, a television star-turned-opposition figure whose own presidential bid has been tacitly endorsed by the Kremlin, is among those calling on anti-Putin forces to register their dissatisfaction by supporting her “Against All” candidacy at the ballot box rather than on the streets. 

Navalny’s supporters have largely derided Sobchak’s campaign as a Kremlin ploy to legitimize the vote. 

Yet Ludmilla Sidodova, a pensioner at the Moscow rally who was a veteran of the massive pro-democratic movement of the late-Soviet period, argued it would simply take a wider movement if Russians hoped to evoke real change.

She was among hundreds of thousands who once had demanded change, and suggested a new generation could learn from that history.  

“I wish they’d understand that we did what we could. Maybe it wasn’t always enough. But now it depends on them,” Sidodova said.  “Whatever life they decide they want is the life they’ll have.”
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Serial Stowaway Arrested at Airport Days After Release From Jail

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A “serial stowaway” has been arrested again at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport just three days after she was released from jail after flying from the Midwest U.S. city to London without a ticket.

Marilyn Hartman, 66, was arrested early Sunday after police were called about a woman refusing to leave the airport.  They initially could not find her, but after search they found and identified Hartman in Terminal 3.  She was charged with criminal trespassing on state land and a violation of a bail bond.

The latest arrest is one of a string of similar crimes that spans years. Hartman was released Thursday after being arrested last week for bypassing security and boarding a flight to London without a ticket or boarding pass.

She was arrested in London and returned to Chicago. She was ordered by the judge to stay away from airports, which is what led to her being charged with violation of a bail bond Sunday.

Hartman has been arrested several times across the country for trying to evade airport security. The Chicago Tribune reports that in December 2015 she told NBC-Ch. 5 that she “may have” boarded planes without a ticket eight times.

 

 
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IKEA Furniture Magnate Ingvar Kamprad Dies at 91

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Ingvar Kamprad, who founded Sweden’s IKEA furniture brand and transformed it into a worldwide business empire, has died at the age of 91.

Kamprad died Saturday of pneumonia in the southern Swedish region of Smaland where he grew up on a farm, and with some modest financial help from his father, starting selling pens, picture frames, typewriters and other goods. It was the start of what became IKEA, now with 403 stores across the globe, 190,000 employees and $47 billion in annual sales.

His brand became synonymous with the simplicity of Scandinavian design, modest pricing, flat-pack boxing and do-it-yourself assembly for consumers. It turned Kamprad into an entrepreneur with a reported net worth of $46 billion. The company name was an acronym of his initials, the name of his farm, Elmtaryd, and his town of origin, Agunnaryd.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said Kamprad “was a unique entrepreneur who had a big impact on Swedish business and who made home design a possibility for the many, not just the few.” King Carl XVI Gustaf called Kamprad a “true entrepreneur” who “brought Sweden out to the world.”

Kamprad’s life was not without controversy, however.

He faced sharp criticism for his ties to the Nazi youth movement in the 1940s. While Sweden was neutral during the war, its Nazi party remained active after the war. Kamprad said he stopped attending its meetings in 1948, later attributing his involvement to the “folly of youth,” and calling it “the greatest mistake of my life.”

While he eventually returned to Sweden, Kamprad fled his homeland’s high-tax structure for Denmark in 1973 and later moved to Switzerland in search of even lower taxes.

The European Commission last year launched an investigation into ways IKEA allegedly used a Dutch subsidiary to avoid taxes, with the Green Party contending the company avoided $1.2 billion in European Union taxes between 2009 and 2014. The Consortium of Investigative Journalists identified IKEA in 2014 as one of the giant multinationals that moved money to tax havens to avoid taxes.

Kamprad was known for his frugality, buying his clothes at thrift shops, driving an aging Volvo and bringing his lunch to work.
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Russia Probe, Immigration Reform Overshadow Trump’s State of the Union Address

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President Donald Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address Tuesday against the backdrop of the Russia investigation and intensive negotiations on immigration reform. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports from Washington.
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Key Republicans Support Mueller Handling of Trump Probe

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Key Republicans voiced strong support Sunday for special counsel Robert Mueller’s handling of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, but split on whether Congress needs to approve legislation to block President Donald Trump from firing Mueller.

Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine, breaking with some of their Republican colleagues in Congress, stated in separate Sunday news shows that they support legislation, mostly favored by Democratic lawmakers, to require a judicial review if Trump were to attempt to dismiss Mueller.

Two prominent Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives — Kevin McCarthy of California and Trey Gowdy of South Carolina — both said they approve of Mueller’s performance in the ongoing criminal investigation. But McCarthy said he sees no need to enact a law to prevent Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mueller’s fate is at the forefront of the Russia investigation after news accounts surfaced in recent days that Trump ordered White House lawyer Don McGahn to fire Mueller last June. but backed off after McGahn threatened to quit over the would-be ouster.

Trump has denied on several occasions in recent months that he had even thought about firing Mueller and branded last week’s story, first reported by The New York Times, as “fake news,” his favorite censure for stories he does not like.

Graham said he would be glad to pass legislation to prevent Trump from trying to oust Mueller, who is in the midst of negotiations with Trump’s lawyers over terms of Trump’s possible testimony under oath about the Russian election interference and whether Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI director James Comey, who at the time was heading the law enforcement agency’s Russia probe before Mueller took it over.

But Graham said regardless of whether legislation is approved or not, “I see no evidence that President Trump wants to fire Mr. Mueller now. It’s pretty clear to me that everybody at the White House knows that it would be the end of President Trump’s presidency if he fired Mr. Mueller.”

Gowdy said he supports Mueller’s handling of the probe “100 percent, particularly if he’s given the time, the resources and the independence to do his job.”

Trump last week reiterated his long-standing contention that there was “no collusion” between him and Russian interests to help him defeat his Democratic challenger, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and also said there was “no obstruction” of the investigation. He attributed his actions in trying to limit the investigation to “fighting back.”

He said he is looking forward to testifying before Mueller’s lawyers and would do it under oath. But his lawyers subsequently said discussions with Mueller’s team are still ongoing about the terms of any interview of Trump and what topics would be discussed.

Comey, in notes he compiled from several meetings with Trump, says that the president urged him to drop his investigation of former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired by Trump after less than a month on the job for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russia’s then-ambassador to Washington in the weeks before Trump assumed power. Trump has denied Comey’s account of their talks.

Trump, who unsuccessfully asked Comey for a loyalty pledge, dismissed him in May. A day later, Trump told Russian officials in a White House meeting he had relieved himself of “great pressure,” describing Comey as “crazy, a real nut job.” A few days later, Trump told Lester Holt of NBC News that he ousted Comey because of “this Russia thing,” saying the investigation was “a hoax” perpetrated by Democrats to explain his upset election victory.

White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told Fox News he knows that Trump is “frustrated” by the investigation, that “millions of dollars have been spent with no evidence of collusion.”

 
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South Sudan Rebels Show Peace Gesture

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The rebels of the Sudan People’s Army in Opposition (SPLA IO), loyal to Riek Machar, said they handed over 15 South Sudan government soldiers to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at the KoloPach airstrip in the Jonglei state.

SPLA IO deputy military spokesperson Col. Lam Paul Gabriel said Sunday that 11 other government soldiers refused to go to Juba for fear of persecution from their commanders.

‘’The SPLA IO welcomes their decision and gave them the freedom to live among the displaced people in the state. This is the third time the SPLA IO is showing compliance with the Cessation of Hostilities agreement signed in December last year, while other partners have not yet complied,’’ Gabriel said.

The ICRC did not confirm or deny the handover but said it is not in a position to comment on its confidential dialogue with the parties or on any other related development.

Francois Stamm, ICRC’s head of the delegation for South Sudan, said the ICRC has a long-standing record as a neutral intermediary in facilitating releases of persons deprived of their freedom in relation to an international or noninternational armed conflict.

“The overriding aim is to alleviate the suffering of people whose lives have been disrupted by conflict,” Stamm said in a statement released Sunday. “As a neutral and independent humanitarian actor, the ICRC ensures that each detainee is handed over voluntarily by giving them the opportunity to express individually and in confidentiality any concerns they might have.”

South Sudan minister of information and government spokesman Michael Makuei denied the government is holding rebels captured during fighting. But South Sudan army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang, told VOA’s South Sudan In Focus that six rebels of the SPLA IO are in government custody at Koch village in Bentiu. Koang said the rebels were allegedly receiving medical care from gunshot wounds.

The SPLA IO said the regional bloc of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the three countries of the United States, Norway and the United Kingdom should give directives to South African authorities to release Machar, who has been under house arrest since October 2016.

‘’This will prove commitment and seriousness from the side of the IGAD and the troika in trying to bring lasting peace in South Sudan. The resistance continues,” Gabriel said.

The cease-fire agreement signed by various South Sudanese armed and unarmed parties mentions ICRC as a facilitator for the release of people persecuted in relation to the conflict in South Sudan.

“We have approached the various parties concerned in what will remain a bilateral and confidential dialogue and have already facilitated a number of releases. Our role is to make any potential related release possible and ensure that those released are transported voluntarily and safely, not to play a part in negotiating or comment on the implementation of the Cessation of Hostilities by the parties,’’ Stamm said.
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UN, African Union Leaders Praise International Cooperation

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The leaders of the United Nations and the African Union urged stronger international cooperation at the opening Sunday of the African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

“I strongly believe Africa is one of the greatest forces for good in our world,” said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He said he wants to mobilize greater support for U.N. peacekeeping forces in Africa, including those battling extremist violence in Somalia, Nigeria and in West Africa.

African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat warned against the “rise of national egoism,” which some took as a veiled reference to U.S. President Donald Trump. He urged South Sudan’s warring factions to reach a peace agreement or risk African Union sanctions. Mahamat also urged Congo to hold elections later this year, according to schedule.

The summit is expected to issue a response to Trump’s recent comment in which he likened African countries to a filthy toilet.

Among the leaders gathered for the annual summit of the African Union’s 55 countries are the new leaders of Zimbabwe, Liberia and Angola.

Palestinian leader Mamhoud Abbas is attending the summit and asking African leaders not to open diplomatic representations in Jerusalem.

 

 

 

 

 
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Trump Lauds US Economic Performance

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U.S. President Donald Trump touted the continued growth of the U.S. economy on Sunday, saying it is “better than it has been in many decades.”

“Businesses are coming back to America like never before,” Trump said in a Twitter remark, a likely theme of his State of the Union address on Tuesday. “Unemployment is nearing record lows. We are on the right track!”

He said, “Chrysler, as an example, is leaving Mexico and coming back to the USA,” an exaggeration of Chrysler’s expansion plans. Fiat Chrysler, the world’s eighth biggest auto manufacturer, says it is investing $1 billion to manufacture its profitable Ram pickup trucks in the midwestern state of Michigan, shifting the production from Mexico, but at the same time is not cutting any of its vehicle manufacturing jobs in Mexico.

The U.S. jobless rate has held steady at 4.1 percent for the last three months, the lowest figure in 17 years. The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, advanced at a 2.3 percent pace last year, Trump’s first year in office, up from 1.5 percent in 2016.

The U.S. economy, however, slowed in the last three months of 2017, expanding at a 2.6 percent annual rate, down from the 3.2 percent figure in the July-to-September period.

Attack on Jay-Z

In praising the U.S. economic performance, Trump also attacked Jay-Z, after the rap musician had assailed Trump in a Saturday news talk show over the president’s recent reported vulgar descriptions of people from Haiti and Africa as he seeks to block their immigration to the United States.

“Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!” Trump said. The black unemployment rate in the U.S. has fallen to 6.8 percent, which is still higher than the 3.7 percent figure for whites.

Jay-Z told CNN interviewer Van Jones that economic advances for blacks do not outweigh Trump’s attacks on predominantly black countries.

“Everyone feels anger, but after the anger, it’s really hurtful because he’s looking down on a whole population of people. And he’s so misinformed because these places have beautiful people,” Jay-Z said, adding, “It’s not about money at the end of the day. Money doesn’t equate to happiness. It doesn’t. That’s missing the whole point.

“You treat people like human beings,” he said.

 

 

 

 
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Trump: I Would Be ‘Tougher’ in Brexit Talks Than UK’s May

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump is claiming he would take a “tougher” attitude toward Brexit negotiations with the European Union than the approach now being used by British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Without providing specifics, Trump says in an ITV interview to be broadcast Sunday night that he would have used different tactics.

“Would it be the way I negotiate? No, I wouldn’t negotiate it the way it’s [being] negotiated… I would have had a different attitude,” he said. “I would have said that the European Union is not cracked up to what it’s supposed to be.”

Britain is preparing to leave 28-nation bloc in March 2019. The complex negotiations have moved slowly and May’s Cabinet seems deeply divided over how best to separate.

In the interview with Piers Morgan, Trump says he looks forward to visiting Britain – where he has been invited sometime for a state visit to be hosted by Queen Elizabeth II – and apologizes for retweeting videos by a far-right group in Britain, which exacerbated tensions with May and drew complaints in Parliament.He also said Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle look like a “lovely couple” but he doesn’t know if he’s been invited to their May 19 nuptials at Windsor Castle. Trump was unperturbed when told that Markle backed his rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 U.S. election and has described him as “divisive.”

 

“Well, I still hope they’re happy,” he says.

Trump also says his administration might not withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord if terms more favorable to the United States are reached, in part because he likes French President Emmanuel Macron, a driving force behind implementing the accord.

The interview was conducted Thursday during Trump’s visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

 

The guest list for Harry and Markle’s wedding has not been made public and the prince’s press team said invitations have not been sent out yet.

 

The British press has been filled with speculation that Harry and Markle might snub Trump and invite former U.S. President Barack Obama instead. Obama gave Harry a rare interview last year that was broadcast on the BBC.

Trump, in contrast, has angered many in Britain with his crackdown on immigration and his climate change policies.

Yet during the ITV interview, he seemed open to revisiting his pledge to withdraw from Paris climate accord, in which nations set their own goals to reduce the emissions of heat-trapping gases. Because of legal technicalities, America can’t get out of the pact until November 2020.

“If somebody said, `Go back into the Paris accord,’ it would have to be a completely different deal, because we had a horrible deal,” Trump said.

 

“Would I go back in? Yeah, I’d go back in. I like, as you know, I like Emmanuel [Macron]. I would love to, but it’s got to be a good deal for the United States,” he added.

Trump also said the Earth’s climate has been cooling as well as warming and asserted that ice caps have not been shrinking as predicted.

Scientists, however, report that the world hasn’t been cooling except for normal day-to-day weather variations; it has been warming instead. And there have been far more records for shrinking polar ice than growing ice, despite what the president claimed.
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Burkina Faso Music Honored at Grammys, but Artists Cry Foul

Posted on by SeeAF

For musicians from the West African nation of Burkina Faso, a nomination for a Grammy Award should have been the crowning achievement of a musical career.

Instead, musicians based in Bobo-Dioulasso, whose work is featured on the three-disk compilation “Bobo Yeye,” didn’t even know they had been nominated or that the album even existed.

“As a musician, I am totally disappointed to learn that we have spent time moaning, suffering and that someone else can just make a compilation of our music and that it is going for an award,” musician Stanislas Soré told VOA French to Africa Service on Friday.

Soré is a member of the Volta Jazz group, whose songs are part of the album titled “Bobo Yeye, Belle époque in Upper Volta,” which is nominated for two Grammy Awards.

It is a compilation of recordings in the 1970s in Bobo, second-largest city of Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta.

The news of the Grammy nomination surprised the musicians, who wondered how their music was put on CDs and distributed worldwide without their knowledge or consent. It turns out French music producer Florent Mazzoleni made the compilation produced by The Numero Group, a Chicago-based production company.

“These are artists that I have always admired and I wrote about 20 books on African music, including a book in 2015 called ‘Burkina Faso Modern Music Voltaic,’” Mazzoleni said in a phone interview.

Mazzoleni said he wanted “to pay tribute to all those people in the shadows, who made the culture of Bobo-Dioulasso.”

At the time, he said, Upper Volta was a poor country with limited ability for people to communicate with the outside world or record music. “People recorded with what they could get and yet they managed to create one of the most fascinating modern music of the continent,” Mazzoleni said.

Disagreement over book, compilation

But the artists themselves are not happy, saying he has been unfair to them. They pointed out that when they met him, he talked only about a book project.

“All I know, there was this white guy who came here; he tried to get information on what life was like in the orchestras of the old days. We understood he was going to make a book of the history of our music. But when it comes to producing a compilation or stuff like that, we’ve never talked about that, never, never, ever,” Soré, of Volta Jazz, said.

His account was backed up by Nouhoun Traoré Banakourou, saxophonist and guitarist of the group Echo Del Africa, who acknowledged that he worked with Mazzoleni on a book project, but not a compilation.

“What he is doing now is not what he offered me. When he came for the book, my son asked him for a gift for me. He gave me 200,000 CFA francs (around $380) that day,” Nouhoun Traoré recalls.

“He took a recording of our boss, Tanou Bassoumalo, an old recording, and told me he would see if he can recover the tracks and fix them. He left and never came back. Nor did he call me, or say anything else,” Traoré said.

The French producer denies these allegations. He claims to have followed all the necessary steps. “I have all the permissions, all the contracts,” he told VOA.

“I met the founders of the group, the people who had the contracts at the time, what more do you want me to tell you? Obviously, I cannot meet everyone. Obviously, when you have a project like this that comes to fruition, people talk about it and the fact that it is nominated for the Grammy Awards, it attracts the interest of some people,” Mazzoleni said.

Whatever the outcome at the award ceremony on Sunday in Madison Square Garden, Burkinabe musicians and citizens see it as an honor for their music and culture, which is getting world exposure, despite the controversy.
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Kurds Accuse Turks of Dropping Napalm

Posted on by SeeEA

Kurdish officials say Turkish forces have been dropping napalm shells in what they describe as indiscriminate bombing of the countryside around Afrin, a Kurdish enclave that’s taking the brunt of a Turkish offensive launched a week ago and called, inexplicably, Operation Olive Branch.

“The Turkish army uses the forbidden weapon napalm in Afrin against civilians,” Syrian-Kurdish politician Îlham Ehmed tweeted overnight Saturday. The accusation was dismissed by the Turkish military, who say Kurdish propagandists hope to excite international opposition to Turkey.

International law does not prohibit the firing of napalm, a highly flammable sticky jelly used in incendiary bombs, against military targets, but it does ban it from being unleashed on civilians.

There has been no independent verification of napalm being used during the Turkish offensive — and establishing the accuracy of claims by either sides is challenging with both the Turks and Kurds waging a war of narratives.

Fighting continued in northern Syria Sunday between Turkish forces and the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG).

Both sides are claiming successes in the fierce battles underway.

On Saturday President Recep Tayyip Erdogan startled Western officials by threatening to expand the incursion along the whole of the border with Syria in his bid to crush the YPG, which he describes as a terrorist organization.’ The Turkish leader’s threat prompted French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to urge Turkey to act with restraint in Syria in a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Claim and counter-claim

Determining the accuracy of the casualty toll is also proving difficult amid claim and counter-claim. Syrian political activists on the ground in northern Syria say both sides are exaggerating losses inflicted on the other.

Military officials in Ankara Sunday claimed that Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies, remnants of the Free Syrian Army that led the fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, have killed or captured more than 484 Kurdish militiamen since launching Operation Olive Branch.

And they say that in the week since the beginning of an incursion that threatens to unravel U.S. policy in Syria only three Turkish soldiers have been killed and 30 injured, while 13 Syrian rebels have been killed and 24 wounded.

The Turkish military is blocking journalists from entering Syria to cover first-hand the fighting, but they did organize a tour for reporters, who last week were taken to see a hospital and school in the Syrian border town of Azaz, both rebuilt by the Turks after their 2016 offensive in northern Syria. Prompted by their teachers, Syrian refugee children told reporters they were grateful to Turkey for the school.

The Kurds are offering a starkly different version of what is underway in northern Syria in the countryside around Afrin, posting videos of Turkish shelling and of civilians, including children, injured in Turkish bombardments. They have posted videos also of foreign volunteers, including several Americans, who joined the YPG to battle the Islamic State terror group, but who say they now will go to Afrin to defend it from the Turks.

“The Turks are terrorists,” said one American volunteer in a video posted last week by the YPG press office. Another said: “We are ready to go to Afrin to fight the Turkish invasion force. We have been training for a significant amount of time in tactics that work against any force.”

Slow progress

Analysts say Operation Olive Branch appears to be making only slow progress. That may be due partly to inclement weather — the region has seen days of rain and low temperatures, and muddy conditions are making it hard going for armored vehicles.

Turkish officials concede their forces are moving slowly but say they are doing so in order to safeguard civilians. “The only things being targeted are terrorists, and any shelters, pits, weapons, vehicles, and equipment that belong to them,” the Turkish army said Saturday in a statement, adding the incursion is “successfully continuing as planned.”

Turkey says the main objective of Operation Olive Branch is to “cleanse” its border with Syria of the YPG, which it describes as an affiliate of Turkey’s own outlawed Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade-long insurgency against Ankara.

Turkey shares a 911-kilometer-long border with Syria, around two-thirds of which is currently under YPG control. Turkish officials say they fear that the YPG will use their hold on a swathe of northern Syria to launch attacks against Turkey, much as the PKK has done for years from territory it occupies in northwest Iraq.

While Turkey has a clear advantage in the skies — the YPG has no air force — the Kurdish militiais a formidable foe on the ground. Many of its top military leaders are PKK veterans, who have had years of experience battling Turkey — which has NATO’s second-largest army. And its militiamen, seen by the U.S. as their best ground allies against the Islamic State terror group, are battle-hardened from months of confronting the jihadists and have benefited from arms supplies and training by the U.S. military.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based network that gathers information from political activists on the ground in Syria, there have been fierce skirmishes the past 24 hours west of Afrin with continuous Turkish shelling of the villages of al-Anquz, Baflun and Qatma as well as the towns ofRaju and Jendires.

The Observatory says the death toll it has been able to verify includes 59 YPG fighters, 69 Syrian rebels and seven Turkish soldiers.

Calls for restraint

Several countries, including the U.S., Britain and France, have expressed alarm over the incursion, but no Western country has insisted Turkey halt the military operation.They have called for restraint and for the incursion to be limited.

On Saturday, Turkish officials said Ankara and Washington have agreed to “de-escalate tensions” between them over the YPG. “We may have difference of opinions on some issues but we are allied countries,” H.R. McMaster, U.S. national security adviser, told President Erdogan’s chief foreign policy advisor, during a phone conversation on January 27.

A January 24 call between President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart led to a dispute between U.S. and Turkish officials over what was agreed. Turkish officials say Washington and Ankara have now agreed to issue formal presidential statements following any future phone conversations between Trump and Erdogan.

According to Turkish officials, McMaster emphasized that no more weapons will be supplied to the YPG,a commitment the U.S. had already made in recent weeks. The Turks are also demanding that the U.S. should retrieve any stored weapons from Northern Syria earmarked for the YPG and that all military training or logistical support should cease.

Analysts say U.S. officials, who have been accused of sending conflicting signals about the Turkish incursion, are caught in the middle between Turkey, a fellow NATO member, and the U.S.’s Kurdish ground allies, who have been crucial in the fight against IS in Syria.
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At Juilliard Festival, a Challenge to Western Preconceptions of Chinese Composition

Posted on by SeeUS

Without the use of traditional instruments and in an interconnected world, what makes a Chinese composition distinctively Chinese? The Juilliard School’s Focus! Festival 2018 seeks to challenge our preconceptions of the 1.4 billion-population nation, led by a cast of contemporary Chinese composers and acclaimed Juilliard orchestral students. VOA’s Ramon Taylor sat down with one of China’s most prominent young conductors and the festival’s founding director on the evolving commonalities and differences of orchestral music, East and West.
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Koch Network to Spend $20 Million Touting Tax Overhaul

Posted on by SeeUS

The political network backed by conservative industrialists Charles and David Koch plans to spend $20 million to promote the tax overhaul recently signed into law by President Donald Trump.

The investment marks an early focus of the Koch brothers’ 2018 political strategy. It comes as the conservative billionaires work to expand their sweeping efforts to promote a “free society” in America.

Charles Koch and his chief lieutenants previewed their strategy on Saturday, the first day of a three-day private donor retreat at a luxury resort in the California desert. They previously announced plans to spend between $300 million and $400 million on politics and policy heading into the midterms when the GOP’s House and Senate majorities are at stake.

‘Increase the scale … 10 fold’

At an evening welcome reception, Koch called on his biggest donors to “increase the scale and effectiveness of this network by an order of magnitude — by another 10 fold.”

“If we can do that,” he said, “I’m convinced we can change the directory of this country.”

In addition to roughly 550 donors in attendance, each pledged an annual donation to the network of at least $100,000, the guest list featured a slate of Republican elected officials: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Todd Young of Indiana, and House Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C.

Despite Koch’s optimism, there was concern about the midterm elections. Historical trends suggest that GOP majorities in the House and Senate could be in jeopardy, said Tim Phillips, who leads the network’s political arm, Americans For Prosperity.

‘Energized’ left

“The left is energized,” Phillips said, noting that the party that holds the White House typically loses congressional seats in its first midterm election. “You’re going against the tide. You’re going against history.”

For now, at least, the conservative powerhouse will focus on the tax overhaul to help protect the Republican majorities. Phillips said the Koch network would host rallies and phone banks and run television and internet ads in the coming months.

“Our job is to make sure we shine a spotlight on those benefits that are occurring because of this law,” Phillips said. “Over time, that should overwhelm what has been a lot of demagoguery and rhetorical nonsense.”

Several reporters, including one from The Associated Press, were invited to attend some of the forums in the private weekend retreat. As a condition of attending, reporters were not permitted to identify any donors without their permission. No photographs were allowed.
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Florida Senator Marco Rubio Fires Chief of Staff, Cites Improper Conduct

Posted on by SeeUS

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Saturday that he has fired his chief of staff after receiving reports of “improper conduct” with subordinate staffers.

 

“By early this afternoon, I had sufficient evidence to conclude that while employed by this office, my Chief of Staff had violated office policies regarding proper relations between a supervisor and their subordinates. I further concluded that this led to actions which in my judgment amounted to threats to withhold employment benefits,” Rubio said in a statement.

 

Rubio’s office said it “will not be disclosing any further details about the incidents which occurred” at the wishes of those victimized. And Rubio’s office plans to notify appropriate congressional and Senate administrative offices of this situation.

Rubio’s office did not immediately respond to requests early Sunday for details.
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UN Peacekeeper Killed in Democratic Republic of the Congo

Posted on by SeeAF

A United Nations peacekeeper from Pakistan was killed in an ambush Saturday in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was deployed with the U.N. Stabilization Mission in the DRC, also know by its French acronym, MONUSCO.

Members of an armed group ambushed the peacekeepers near Lulimba, 96 kilometers southwest of Baraka in South Kivu province. At least one other peacekeeper was wounded in the assault.

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world body chief “condemns the killing.” 

According to the secretary-general’s spokesman, Guterres has called on all armed groups in the DRC “to lay down their arms and seek to resolve their grievances peacefully.”

The French News Agency (AFP) reported that DRC President Joseph Kabila claimed MONUSCO has not “eradicated” any armed group in nearly 20 years.

AFP said Kabila has warned MONUSCO not to consider the DRC “under the care of the United Nations” and added that he would “clarify in the coming days our relations” with the U.N.
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Iran Leader Said to Be Eyeing Ways To Muzzle Internet

Posted on by SeeEA

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met recently with “cyberspace experts” to discuss challenges that the internet poses to Iran’s leadership, the head of the powerful Guardians Council said.

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati did not specify when Khamenei’s meeting took place, but many Iranian officials have blamed social media for fomenting unrest that erupted in December and January before curbs on mobile networks and apps and thousands of arrests helped authorities put down street protests in dozens of cities.

In remarks published Friday by the hard-line Tasnim news agency, which has links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Jannati went on to describe the internet as a “pain in the neck” for Iran, whose authorities routinely block news and information websites and social media in addition to foreign television and radio broadcasts.

The Guardians Council that the 91-year-old Jannati chairs has broad powers to interpret the constitution and vet legislation and candidates for office.

Jannati warned vaguely that measures “should be taken” in connection with the threat from cyberspace.

“I’m not saying it has to be fully blocked,” Jannati added. “That’s impossible. But we have to reduce it.” 

He cited Chinese and Japanese efforts to rein in access to the internet, although it was not immediately clear what steps in Japan he was referring to. 

Iranian officials in the past have explored options ranging from a system to steer local IP addresses to a domestic Internet — dubbed a “National Data Network” — to routine blocks on messaging apps and other digital tools.

But such tactics have left Iranians relatively savvy in the ways of avoiding web filters.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, provisional Friday prayers leader in Tehran, said on January 26 that the recent protests were led by “cyberspace seditionists.”

“Cyberspace as a platform for foreigners is a mad dog,” he said, adding, “If left alone, it will bite again.”

Iran temporarily blocked Telegram and the photo sharing app Instagram in the early days of the protests, which Khamenei blamed on “foreign enemies.” 

Hundreds of Iranians are still believed to be in detention over the protests, which were the country’s biggest since millions of people took to the streets after a disputed presidential election in 2009. 

The United States on January 12 announced new, targeted sanctions on 14 Iranian individuals and organizations for “serious human rights abuses,” censorship, and nonnuclear weapons issues, a Treasury Department spokesperson said.

Some material for this report came from RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, irinews, and ISNA.
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