Month: May 2018

Gaza Mourns as Islamic Holy Month Begins

Posted on by SeeEA

As the Islamic holy month of Ramadan began in Gaza, markets opened for the first time in days. But business was sparse as locals mourned the dead and tended to the wounded from bloody demonstrations earlier in the week.

 

“Ramadan is a good month and it brings blessings with it,” said 16-year-old Sadik, a high school student helping out in his father’s fruit and spice store. “But it’s not like it was before.”

 

The crowded old market is packed with fresh vegetables, dates and live animals for sale, but consumers in Gaza are poorer than ever after more than a month of protests that often shut down businesses and schools.

 

The protests culminated early this week with rallies against the U.S. embassy opening in Jerusalem and the forced exodus of Palestinians from what is now Israel over the past 70 years.

More than 60 people were killed and 2,700 were injured in the demonstrations, which included storming the border barrier separating Gaza and Israel. But Sadik said, like other youth, he will continue to protest. “It is our right to claim that land,” he added proudly.

Deeper problems

 

A few kilometers away on a quiet side street, other Palestinian men echoed Sadik’s thoughts, but acknowledged that their main frustration was far more immediate than land lost so many years ago.

 

The men gathered under an awning for a three-day funeral for 8-month-old Laila, the baby who died after tear gas was dropped next to grandmother on Monday.

 

Isolated from other Palestinians and the world in general, Laila’s family members said residents of Gaza suffer extreme poverty, isolation and lack of basic services like consistent electricity and proper sewage disposal. More than anything, the men said, they lack job opportunities and any chance to get ahead.

The baby’s father, 27-year-old Anwar al-Ghunder, appeared in shock as he spoke of his lost child.

 

“On Sunday, we took her to the port and played on the swings,” he said. “We had a great time.”

 

A few years earlier, his first child was suffocated by smoke from candles lighting his home during one of Gaza’s frequent blackouts. The baby was under two months old.

 

Now, childless, unemployed and estranged from his wife, al-Ghunder shares a tiny apartment with five other men, who are also unable to afford a home.

 

“If I had a job and a home I would have 10 children,” he said. “But now I have only two birds in Heaven.”

No solution

 

For al-Ghunder and his family, the blame for their suffering lies mainly with Israel, whose forces surround their crowded patch of land and demand extensive permissions to get out.

 

The U.S., the U.N. and other Arab nations have also abandoned them for decades, they said.

 

When the cameras were off and microphones put away, other Gaza residents described their problems as more complex. In a two-room house attached to the family’s small grocery store, one mother of five said two of her teenage sons had been shot by Israeli bullets in the legs, and then returned to the border to protest again.

 

“Our leaders send our children back out to get killed,” she said, visibly angry. “If Israeli children get hurt, don’t they go home?”

 

Israel blames Hamas — both Gaza’s main government and a military organization that has been battling Israel for decades and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel and others — for the carnage, saying it forces Palestinian youth to protest.

 

In response to this charge, one Hamas leader said on Wednesday that 50 of those killed in the protests were Hamas members. This statement was taken by many to confirm accusations that the demonstrations were militant uprisings, not popular protests.

 

On the streets of Gaza City, the distinction is not that clear. While mourners carry the body of 51-year-old Nassar Abdullah into a mosque for prayers, a man in a pickup truck decorated with Hamas flags preaches, using a microphone.

“How many wars have happened and they could not defeat us?” he says. People on the crowded streets said they agree. Resisting Israel is part of their culture, and returning to their lost lands is a collective dream, even for those who have little hope that it will ever be realized.

 

“There may be more protests; it is our right,” said Muthaina al-Harrash, a mother of six, waiting for a prescription to be filled outside a hospital. “For me, I forbid my sons to go because it is dangerous. But they won’t listen.”
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Unhappy Feet: The Sad State of South African Soccer

Posted on by SeeAF

No one was expecting the Mamelodi Sundowns, South Africa’s best professional soccer team, to beat FC Barcelona, the world renowned Spanish team packed with legends like Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.

The two teams met up for a friendly this week in Johannesburg, where the Sundowns suffered a 3-1 defeat in a game characterized by sloppy defense and several missed chances by the home team.

But as the cold morning light dawned over the home team’s loss, many local sports fans were agonizing over a question that has long plagued the Rainbow Nation: Why can’t South Africa — a sports-mad country which regularly punches above its weight in rugby, cricket, running and swimming — compete with the best in the world’s most popular sport?

Sports science professors Yoga Coopoo and Chris Fortuin, both of the University of Johannesburg, engaged in some post-game second-guessing with VOA.

Fortuin, who teaches sports management and is a former professional player, says South African soccer has not gotten any better since the nation hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He characterized domestic football as inconsistent, a “pendulum swinging in different directions” — and said the South African Football Association (SAFA) has challenges in terms of “talent identification.”

Coopoo, who heads the university’s department of sport and movement studies, said the main deficiencies are in the areas of management, the “science” of football and a youth development program he says is almost nonexistent.

“You could see the wide chasm between South Africa and Barcelona, the methods of play and how easily Barcelona played during the game, whereas South Africa was really chasing their tails in most cases,” he said.

Cape Town-based sportswriter Antoinette Muller has spilled a lot of ink over South Africa’s Premier Soccer League. She is not happy with the level of play in the league. “This season was absolutely shocking,” she told VOA. “It was the worst, in terms of average goals per game in about a decade and a half. It really was absolutely horrific.”

Why that’s the case, she’s not sure, although she thinks the PSL’s status as “best in Africa” might have something to do with it.

“If you look at what some of the former players are saying, it’s an issue of a lot of the guys at a lot of the top teams, they’re big fish in a very small pond,” she said. “So in South Africa, they’re paid well, they’re heroes and they are amazing, but they’re not willing to put in the extra work to go beyond that.”

If South Africa is to start challenging for World Cups, says Fortuin, it will have to invest in teaching football skills to young athletes.

“If you look at Germany, after 2000, when they didn’t qualify, when they lost dismally in the European championships, the European Nations’ Cup, they went on a 10-year program,” he said. “They established 44 football-playing schools, and they made a prediction that they’ll go and win the World Cup on another continent, which they did in 2014.”

South Africa’s national team won’t be anywhere near the World Cup in Russia, which begins in mid-June. But the crowd of more than 85,000 who packed the FNB stadium on a cold Wednesday night made one thing clear: South Africans want to see the team back on the international stage.
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European Commission to Move to Block US Sanctions on Iran

Posted on by SeeEU

The European Commission will initiate plans Friday to prohibit European companies from adhering to U.S. sanctions against Iran, a move to help keep the Iran nuclear agreement intact and to defend European corporate interests.

“We have the duty to protect European companies,” Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said following a meeting of European Union leaders Thursday in Sofia, Bulgaria, “We now need to act and this is why we are launching the process.”

Juncker said the commission will begin the process of activating a so-called blocking statute, which bans EU companies from observing the sanctions and any court rulings that enforce U.S. penalties.

Juncker also said the commission would continue to cooperate with Iran and the European Investment Bank would be allowed to facilitate European corporate investment in the Persian Gulf country.

The commission’s move is in retaliation to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal and a subsequent move to revive stringent sanctions against Tehran.

The U.S. actions sparked concern among European countries over how to incentivize Iran to maintain compliance with the accord signed by world powers in July 2015, and the blocking statute is the most powerful tool at its immediate disposal.

European leaders are also confronted with the threat of U.S. tariffs on European steel and aluminum exports. The Trump administration’s temporary exemptions from the tariffs expire June 1.

 

 
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German-Russian Pipeline Project Takes Shape Amid US Protest

Posted on by SeeEU

Sparks fly and machines whir as workers busily prepare thousands of steel pipes that will become part of a vast undersea pipeline bringing gas from Russia to Germany’s northeastern Baltic coast.

The Nord Stream 2 project will double the amount of natural gas Russia can funnel directly to the heart of Europe from newly tapped reserves in Siberia, intentionally skirting Eastern European nations like Poland and Ukraine. It also promises much-needed jobs in this poor German backwater, some three hours’ drive north of Berlin.

The United States and some other German allies have bristled at the project, warning that it could give Moscow greater leverage over Western Europe.

Energy-poor Germany already relies heavily on Russian gas and so far Chancellor Angela Merkel has deftly kept the new $11 billion pipeline off the table while imposing sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine.

But as plans become closer to reality, the pressure has increased on her, and last month after meetings with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko she acknowledged that Nord Stream 2 was more than just a business project, saying that “political factors have to be taken into account.”

With Merkel heading to Sochi on Friday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a senior U.S. diplomat warned that proceeding with the project could result in sanctions for those involved.

“We would be delighted if the project did not take place,” U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Sandra Oudkirk, an energy policy expert in the State Department, told reporters in Berlin on Thursday.

She said Washington is concerned Nord Stream 2 could increase Russia’s “malign influence” in Europe.

Oudkirk said the new pipeline would divert gas flows away from Ukraine, which depends heavily on transit fees, and could become a pathway for Russia to install surveillance equipment in the Baltic Sea, a sensitive military region.

She said the U.S. is “exerting as much persuasive power” as it can to stop the project, and noted that Congress has given the U.S. administration explicit authority to impose sanctions in connection with Russian pipeline projects if necessary.

“Any pipeline project — and there are many multiple pipeline projects in the world that are potentially covered by this sanctions authority — is in an elevated position of sanctions risk,” she said.

Jens Mueller, a spokesman for Nord Stream 2, dismissed concerns from the U.S. and several European countries, saying the new pipeline would merely be one of many sources of natural gas for Europe.

“This pipeline can’t be used to blackmail or negatively affect any country,” he told The Associated Press in an interview.

Merkel’s trip to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, her first visit to Russia in a year, will be a diplomatic balancing act.

While the German leader has taken a hard line on Russian actions in recent years — from the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria to the chemical attack on a former Russian spy in Britain — Germany badly needs to secure its gas supply and Berlin has calculated that Nord Stream 2 offers the best deal.

Europe’s biggest economy is also the world’s biggest importer of natural gas. According to Kirsten Westphal, an energy policy expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said its import needs are likely to grow.

Germany’s chemical industry alone uses more gas than the country of Denmark. Chemical giant BASF is a major investor in Nord Stream 2.

Under Merkel, Germany has also set itself an ambitious goal of switching off all nuclear plants by 2022. While renewable power is on the rise, coal forms the bedrock of Germany’s energy mix, a fact that’s not compatible with the country’s pledge to sharply reduce carbon emissions.

“If you want to take climate goals seriously then gas is simply an important source of energy,” said Westphal.

From the end of 2019 when it’s to go online, the twin pipes of Nord Stream 2 will pump up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas to Western Europe each year, the same as its predecessor Nord Stream 1, which runs from the Russian city of Vyborg under the Baltic to the German city of Greifswald. The additional gas is needed to fill a projected decline in supply from Norway and the Netherlands, as their reserves wane.

The aging Ukrainian Gas Transmission System, meanwhile, is a Soviet-era relic in bad need of upgrading and unlikely to be competitive in the foreseeable future. Its loss would be a severe blow to Kiev, which earns up to 2 billion euros ($2.35 billion) a year from transit fees — some 2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

A deal that keeps Kiev in the mix could help normalize relations between Ukraine and Russia, Moscow and Berlin.

“A compromise could be that on the one hand the pipeline project isn’t blocked any further,” said Claudia Kemfert, a senior energy expert at the German Institute for Economic Research. “On the other hand Russia would commit itself to keep using the gas route through Ukraine, so that all sides have a face-saving result.”

Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert indicated that some of the gas that passed through Ukraine’s pipes last year — over 90 billion cubic meters — will keep flowing in future.

“In the end, but we’re not there yet, it will also be about the volume of gas transiting [through Ukraine],” he said.

“Of course it makes a difference how many billion cubic meters it is. But I can’t give you a target number. We believe it needs to be resolved in talks and we hope that, piece by piece, things will move forward.”
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With Little to Lose, Gaza’s Men Drawn to Border Protests

Posted on by SeeEA

Marwan Shtewi is poor, unemployed and at the age of 32 has never left the Gaza Strip.

With few prospects and little to fear, Shtewi is among the crowds of young men who put themselves on the front lines of violent protests along the border with Israel, risking their lives in a weekly showdown meant to draw attention to the dire conditions of Gaza.

While protest organizers voice slogans of defending Jerusalem and returning to the lost homes of their forefathers in Israel, it is the desperation among young men like Shtewi that has been the driving force in the demonstrations. Recovering from a gunshot wound to his arm that sent shrapnel into his abdomen, Shtewi says his protest days are now behind him and he only dreams of finally finding a job.

“I want to see peace and hope and prosperity spread in Gaza when I get out of the hospital,” he said from his hospital bed.

Bleak Gaza 

The Hamas-led organizers of what they called the Great March of Return initially billed the six-week protests as a call to break through the border fence and return to homes that were lost 70 years ago during the war surrounding Israel’s creation. Two-thirds of Gaza’s 2 million people are descendants of refugees who either fled or were forced from their homes.

But most protesters say they are simply driven by desperation caused by a decade-long blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militants seized power from the internationally backed Palestinian Authority in 2007.

Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas, which seeks Israel’s destruction, from building up its military capabilities.

The blockade has largely sealed Gaza’s borders, greatly limiting the movement of people and goods in and out of the territory. The rival Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank, has added to the pressure by cutting salaries to its former workforce and limiting electricity transmission.

The results are staggering. Gazans receive only several hours of electricity a day, unable to predict when power will come on. Tap water is undrinkable, and the Mediterranean beachfront smells from the tons of untreated sewage dumped into it each day. Unemployment is more than 40 percent, and among young men like Shtewi, joblessness is nearly two-thirds.

Bored and disaffected

The difficult conditions have created a seemingly endless pool of disaffected young people ready to square off against the Israeli snipers over the border.

Tens of thousands of people have joined the gatherings each week. Most keep a safe distance from the border fence, but small groups of young men have pushed to the front lines to snip off pieces of the structure with wire cutters, or hurl flaming tires, firebombs and stones toward the Israeli troops.

Shtewi said he sometimes throws stones or sets tires on fire, but most of the time he just stands there to kill time. 

“The protests are a new way to break the boredom,” he said.

He said it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and try to damage the fence. But, he added, “sometimes fear overwhelms me, and I hide behind people because I’m afraid of being shot.”

Hundreds dead or wounded

Israeli gunfire has killed more than 110 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more since the protests began March 30. On Monday, 59 people were killed in the deadliest day of cross-border violence since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. Shtewi was among some 1,300 others wounded by live fire.

With his left arm and abdomen covered in bandages, he struggled to remember what happened when he was shot.

“I went with the youths and was almost at the fence. There was random shooting and tear gas,” he said. “A jeep came and fired tear gas. I was hit. I don’t know how and when I ended up here.”

The high casualty count has drawn international condemnations against Israel and accusations that it is using disproportionate force. Just one soldier has been wounded.

​Role of Hamas

Israel accuses Hamas of exploiting civilians and putting them in harm’s way by encouraging them to rush the fence. It also says the militants are using the large crowds and thick black smoke as cover to plant bombs, fire at troops and try to break through the border to carry out attacks.

Shtewi said he does not belong to Hamas and has not received a cent from the militant group, though other activists say they have received food or small sums of money to gather tires.

He also said that he went to the protests without telling his parents or fiancee because they would object.

“If I knew, I would have barred him,” said his mother, Fatma. “I lost my mind and ran out of the house when I learned about his injury because I thought he was martyred.”

Solution: a job

Shtewi grew up in Zeitoun, a hardscrabble neighborhood on the southern outskirts of Gaza City. Like many Gazans, Shtewi has never set foot outside the 25-mile-long (40-kilometer-long) strip of land. He was 21 when Hamas seized power, and under the blockade, both Israel and Egypt tightly restrict travel through their borders.

Shtewi scrapes by with occasional work as a porter or day laborer. He said his dream is to immigrate to the United Arab Emirates, where his family once lived. He said he hears “there are good job opportunities there.”

But for now, he said he just wants to find a job that will provide him enough money to get married. He still lives in his childhood home with his parents and five siblings. Some of his brothers are married and also live in the home with their children, each family in its own bedroom.

Like most Gaza residents, Shtewi directs his anger at Israel. In December, he participated in protests when President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Last summer, he was wounded in the leg by Israeli gunfire during Gaza protests against Israel’s installation of metal detectors at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque, in response to the killings of two police officers.

This week’s shooting was far more serious. As he spoke, he pointed to IV tubes attached to his arm and asked his older brother, Fathi, when he would be released.

“Soon, God willing,” his brother responded. Later, the brother whispered to their mother that an X-ray showed severe chest inflammation and it is unclear when he can be discharged.

Leaning against the wall, the older Shtewi said the solution is clear. People need work.

“When there is work, people will keep themselves busy and we will not see all of this anymore,” he said.
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Bomb Blasts Slam Gaza in Early Hours

Posted on by SeeEA

At least five bomb blasts hit Gaza early Thursday morning local time. One person is believed to have been injured.

VOA heard the blasts and a few ambulances racing down the streets in the minutes following. 

Locals said they believed the targets were all Hamas facilities.

This comes after mass demonstrations this week along the Gaza border with Israel that left more than 60 people dead and more than 2,700 injured. On Wednesday, a Hamas official said in an interview that 50 of the dead were Hamas members. The other 12 dead were civilians, he said. Among the dead were women, children and an 8-month-old girl.

The protests were a culmination of the more than monthlong “March of Return” demonstrations that escalated on Monday as the U.S. opened its embassy in Jerusalem. Protesters on Monday charged fences separating Gaza from Israel, tearing down sections of the wire barrier and throwing rocks.

Israeli forces fired into the crowds, and tear gas was lobbed over the border and rained down from drones overhead. As the Islamic holy month Ramadan begins Thursday, demonstrators say they may continue to rally.

The United Nation’s top human rights body will hold a special session to discuss “the deteriorating situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The meeting came as the office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the world’s permanent war crimes court, on Wednesday expressed “grave concern” about escalating violence in Gaza and said alleged crimes could be investigated.

“Any new alleged crime committed in the context of the situation in Palestine may be subjected to the office’s legal scrutiny,” a statement said. “This applies to the events of 14 May 2018 and to any future incident
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Trump Will Seek Full Funding Soon for His Border Wall

Posted on by SeeUS

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would soon push for full funding of his promised wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, which could  spark budget battles in a Congress fractured over his immigration policy.

“Now we’re going for the full funding for the wall, and we’re going to try and get that as soon as possible,” Trump said at a roundtable with California municipal leaders who favor his goal of making the U.S. border impervious to illegal immigration.

Last month Trump threatened to shut down the federal government in September if Congress did not provide more funding for his wall. If that happens, it would mark the second time in one year the U.S. government was shuttered over immigration, with an impasse leading to a brief shutdown in January.

Center and right-wing lawmakers from Trump’s Republican party are split on legislation that would protect young illegal immigrants from deportation, torn over how far it should go to clamp down on legal and illegal immigration.

At the roundtable Trump voiced hostility for the country’s southern neighbor, Mexico, which is partnering with the United States and Canada in an unprecedented bid to host the World Cup in all three countries. It is also a part of the North American Free Trade Agreement that Trump would like to renegotiate or end.

“Mexico does nothing for us,” he said. “Mexico talks but they do nothing for us, especially at the border. They certainly don’t help us much on trade.”
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EU Leaders to Woo West Balkan States But Road to Membership Bumpy

Posted on by SeeEU

When EU leaders pose for a “family picture” with counterparts from six western Balkan nations hoping to join the bloc, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will stay away in protest – highlighting how long and hard their road to membership is likely to be.

Thursday’s summit, the first such meeting in 15 years, is meant to demonstrate the European Union’s renewed commitment to a region that remains fragile two decades after the ethnic wars that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Spain does not even recognize the independence of Kosovo, which will attend the Sofia summit along with Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, and EU governments also worry about a string of other problems afflicting the region.

But after years of neglecting the six, the EU has been spurred into action by the growing influence of other powers in the region, which in 2015-16 also became a main route for a wave of migrants from the Middle East and Africa heading to wealthier European nations to the north.

‘European perspective’

EU chairman Donald Tusk made this point before the summit.

“It will be an opportunity for both sides to reaffirm that the European perspective remains the Western Balkans’ geostrategic choice,” he said. “I hope to bring our Western Balkan friends closer to the EU.”

As Britain is on the way out, the bloc’s executive European Commission has proposed that EU leaders decide in June to open formal membership negotiations with Albania and Macedonia.

“The risks to Europe are zero,” said Prime Minister Boyko Borissov of Bulgaria, which itself joined the EU in 2007 with neighboring Romania.

“If we do not embrace… the Western Balkans and do not help them – yes, many of them are not ready and they have yet to catch up – then there is no reason to be angry that the influence of the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia will be greater than that of Europe,” Borissov added.

But many in the EU feel differently.

As the bloc is still recovering from economic and migration crises that have fuelled euro-skepticism among its own voters, doubters point to problems ranging from organized crime in Albania to Macedonia’s dispute with EU member Greece over its name, which is blocking Skopje’s aspirations.

Rajoy has decided to leave Sofia before the western Balkans meeting and EU officials say no one from the Spanish delegation will pose for the symbolic joint photograph on Thursday – a reminder that Madrid is just one of five member states that do not regard Kosovo as a sovereign nation.

Madrid, locked in a dispute with Catalan separatists at home, refuses to recognize Kosovo’s split from Serbia in 2008.

Timing in doubt

Two ex-Yugoslav republics, Slovenia and Croatia, have already joined the EU. But lawlessness and crime flourished in the Balkans during the wars of the 1990s, leaving the region awash with weapons and a transit route for drug and human traffickers.

“The direction of travel is very clear – the European perspective,” a senior EU official said. “What really matters is the determination of applicants in implementing reforms. And patience because also on the EU side you need to have the right window of opportunity to take the decision.”

The EU and Balkan six will sign a declaration on improving infrastructure including electricity and gas connections, as well as countering radicalism, improving security and controlling migration.

Brussels also sees building good neighborly relations as vital to a region where wartime hostilities still burden relations and threaten the fragile peace.

To join the EU, Serbia – the biggest market among the six – must settle its borders with Kosovo and with Bosnia, where tensions between rival communities often paralyze decision-making.

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev warned that a clear perspective was needed to prevent the region from sliding back into conflict.

“We saw that the status quo brings an erosion of democracy, a lack of economic opportunity,” he told a meeting in Sofia.

“Negative influence from third parties is increasing.”

 

 
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Senate Panel Agrees: Russia Meddled in 2016 Election

Posted on by SeeUS

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said Wednesday that his committee’s investigation had shown Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help Donald Trump, affirming findings of the U.S. intelligence community. 

“We see no reasons to dispute the conclusions,” the North Carolina Republican said. “There is no doubt that Russia undertook an unprecedented effort to interfere with our 2016 elections.”

Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, applauded the intelligence community and said, “The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated and ordered by President [Vladimir] Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton.”

Burr said the panel reached the conclusion after staff members spent 14 months “reviewing the sources, tradecraft and analytic work.” 

The announcement came hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee released more than 2,500 pages of transcripts regarding a June 2016 meeting that included representatives of Trump, including his son Donald Jr., and a group of Russians who promised damaging information about Clinton, the eventual Democratic presidential nominee.

The Republican-led committee released a collection of testimony, notes and other information that were compiled from the eight people who attended the meeting at Trump Tower in New York.

Mueller probe

The meeting is being scrutinized by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading an investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election and into whether President Trump obstructed justice.

The transcripts reveal Trump Jr. told the Judiciary Committee last year that he could not recall whether he’d discussed the Russia probe with his father. Trump Jr. also said he didn’t think there was anything inappropriate about the meeting.

In addition to Trump Jr., the meeting was attended by the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; then-campaign manager Paul Manafort; Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya; Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin; Anatoli Samochornov, an American citizen who has translated for Veselnitskaya; Ike Kaveladze, a businessman from the former Soviet republic of Georgia; and British publicist and music promoter Rob Goldstone, who helped arrange the meeting.

The transcripts, based on oral and written testimony to the Judiciary Committee, also reveal:

 Lawyers for Trump Jr. attempted to coordinate public remarks after revelations about the meeting. The transcripts show that even before reports of the meeting surfaced in the media, Trump Jr. attorney Alan Futerfas started contacting a number of meeting participants to ensure their accounts were consistent.
 Goldstone, who had promised Trump Jr. that Veselnitskaya would provide harmful information on Clinton, told the committee he made the offer after being assured Veselnitskaya was "well-connected" and had "damaging material."
 Six months after the meeting, Goldstone proposed a second meeting with Veselnitskaya and Trump's team. Goldstone said he reached out to Trump's executive assistant at the request of Russian-based billionaire Aras Agalarov, who has a personal relationship with Putin. The second gathering did not take place.

In response to the latest transcripts, Trump Jr. issued a statement saying, “The public can now see that for over five hours I answered every question asked and was candid and forthright with the committee.”

Lawyer not interviewed

The Judiciary Committee did not interview Veselnitskaya, but the panel released her written responses to a letter that committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, sent her last year.  The committee was also not able to question Kushner or Manafort, although it disclosed one page of notes that Manafort took during the session.

The White House has acknowledged the president was involved in drafting an initial statement after media outlets broke the news of the meeting. The statement said the meeting was largely focused on a Russian adoption program. Later, however, Trump Jr. released emails showing he agreed to the meeting after he was promised dirt on Clinton.  

Manafort is facing more than a dozen unrelated criminal charges related to his overseas lobbying activities, including conspiracy to launder money and evade income taxes.

The transcripts and other information released by the committee are available here.
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Erdogan’s Policies Driving Turkey to the Edge, Challenger Says

Posted on by SeeEU

President Tayyip Erdogan is driving Turkey “to the cliff” through ideological politics and a determination to control the central bank, the main opposition party’s presidential candidate said on Wednesday as the lira hit new record lows.

Muharrem Ince, who seeks to end Erdogan’s 15-year hold on power in next month’s elections, said the central bank and other economic institutions must be able to operate independently.

Erdogan said this week he plans to take greater control of the economy after the June 24 presidential and parliamentary polls, comments which drove the lira to fresh record lows. It is down 15 percent against the dollar this year.

“He’s taking the country to the cliff. The central bank needs to be independent, and the other economic bodies need to be autonomous. The rules need to operate,” Ince told Reuters in an interview.

The victor in next month’s election, held under a state of emergency imposed after a failed coup in 2016, will exercise sweeping new executive powers after Turks narrowly approved a constitutional overhaul in a referendum last year. The changes come into effect after the June vote.

Polls favor Erdogan

Polls show Erdogan is comfortably the strongest candidate, though he could face a challenge if the presidential vote goes to a second round in July and his opponents rally around the other remaining candidate.

Ince, 54, a combative parliamentarian and former physics teacher, has energised his secularist opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) since he started campaigning and may emerge as the leading opposition candidate — although he faces competition from former interior minister Meral Aksener.

Aksener’s nationalist Iyi (Good) Party and the CHP have joined with two other smaller parties in an opposition alliance for the parliamentary election. She and Ince are competing separately in the presidential vote.

 ‘Wind of change’

Ince said the president was driven by “ideological obsessions” and pushing Turkey in the wrong direction.

Erdogan, a self-described “enemy of interest rates,” wants lower borrowing costs to boost credit and new construction, and has said the central bank will not be able to ignore the president’s wishes. That has fuelled concerns about the bank’s ability to fight double-digit inflation.

Since his Islamist-rooted AK Party swept to power in 2002, Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics. His power is reinforced by a near-monopoly of broadcast media coverage. Most TV channels show nearly all his campaign rallies, but rarely offer a platform to his opponents.

“The state of the media is heartbreaking. They have surrendered, they have kneeled,” Ince said, adding he had told broadcasters that unless they started to cover his speeches, he would hold a rally directly outside their offices to shame them.

If elected, Ince pledged to reverse some of the powers granted to the new presidency, saying it handed total control of the budget, judiciary and executive to one person.

EU countries concerned

Several European Union countries have expressed alarm that those changes are pushing Turkey deeper into authoritarian rule.

Turkey is still a candidate for EU membership, though negotiations have stalled over rights concerns and other issues.

Erdogan says the increased powers are necessary to tackle security threats following the failed coup and conflict on Turkey’s southern borders with Syria and Iraq.

“No mortal should be given such authority,” Ince said. “It shouldn’t be given to me either.”

‘Everyone’s president’

Against Erdogan, a skilled campaigner, the CHP has struggled to win support beyond its core base of secular-minded voters. In the last parliamentary election in November 2015 it took 25.3 percent of the vote.

Ince has pledged to be a non-partisan leader if elected, styling himself as “everyone’s president” and promising not to live in the 1,000-room palace built by Erdogan in Ankara.

“I see that a wind of change is blowing,” he said, pointing to what he described as a new atmosphere at his political rallies compared to last year’s referendum campaign.

“The momentum I have garnered is very different — there is a strong wind and people feel excitement,” he said.
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UN: World’s Urban Growth Will Surge Most in India, China and Nigeria

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Two-thirds of people in the world will be living in cities by 2050, and the boom will be concentrated in three countries – India, China and Nigeria, according to United Nations estimates released on Wednesday.

The world’s rural population will peak in a few years then decline by 2050, according to the report on urbanization by the Population Division of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (U.N. DESA).

The findings of urbanization advancing so dramatically due to population growth and to migration can help cities design policies and practices to prepare for the influx, said John Wilmoth, director of the Population Division.

“When urban growth is rapid, insuring access to housing, water, sanitation, electricity, public transport, education and health care for all is especially challenging,” Wilmoth said at a U.N. news conference.

“Managing urban growth to insure that it is sustainable has become one of the most important development challenges of the current century,” he said.

Tokyo with 37 million people is the world’s largest city but it is due to be overtaken by Delhi around 2028, the report said.

At about the same time, India is expected to surpass China as the country with the world’s largest total population.

As of today, 55 percent of the world population lives in urban areas, increasing to 68 percent by 2050, the report said.

By 2050, India, China and Nigeria will account for more than a third of the projected growth in the world’s urban population, it said.

Overall, urbanization can be seen as positive, Wilmoth said.

“The increasing concentration of people in cities provides a way of more economically providing services,” he said. “We find that urban populations have better access to health care and education.”

The concentration of population also may help minimize humans’ environmental impact on the planet, he said.

“However, the challenge is that in many countries it’s taking place so rapidly … and large slum areas have developed that are not maybe achieving the goals of sustainable development the way that we would like.”

Among other findings, the report said in 1990 there were just ten megacities with populations of 10 million or more.

As of 2018, there are 33 megacities and by 2030, 43 megacities are projected, mostly in developing countries.

U.N. DESA’s Population Division said it has been issuing reports on urbanization since 1988.

 
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US Targets Hezbollah Leaders With Sanctions

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The United States and Gulf partners imposed additional sanctions on Lebanon’s Hezbollah leadership Wednesday, targeting its top two officials, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Naim Qassem.

The U.S. Treasury Department said four other individuals also had been sanctioned, as was the group Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. It was the third round of sanctions announced by Washington since the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal last week.

Wednesday’s sanctions targeted members of the primary decision-making body of Hezbollah, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

“By targeting Hezbollah’s Shura Council, our nations collectively rejected the false distinction between a so-called ‘Political Wing’ and Hezbollah’s global terrorist plotting,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

The measures were imposed jointly by Washington and its partners in the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center, or TFTC, which include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, it said.

A number of those targeted by the TFTC had been previously blacklisted by the United States.

On Tuesday, the United States imposed sanctions on Iran’s central bank governor and an Iraq-based bank for “moving millions of dollars” for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard.

Last week, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions against six individuals and three companies it said were funneling millions of dollars to the Revolutionary Guard’s external arm, the Quds Force.
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Moscow Formally Protests Journalist’s Arrest in Ukraine

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Moscow is protesting the arrest of a journalist in Ukraine, and the Council of Europe and other human rights groups have expressed concern.

 

Ukraine’s domestic security agency, the SBU, detained Kirill Vyshinskiy, the head of the Ukraine office of Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency, on treason charges. His arrest followed SBU raids of the Kyiv offices of RIA Novosti and RT television Tuesday.

 

The agency alleges the Russian state-funded media outlets were being “used as tools in a hybrid war against Ukraine.”

 

The Kremlin denounced Ukraine’s action as an attack on media freedom, and the Russian Foreign Ministry lodged a formal protest.

 

The Council of Europe said Wednesday it was “concerned about the implications that repeated detentions of journalists may have for the situation with media freedom in Ukraine.”

 
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Wedding of Prince, Actress Brings Outsized Media Interest

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Like most everyone else with a taste for fairy tales, Germans love the spectacle of a royal wedding. But since the country’s last emperor, Wilhelm II, was forced to abdicate in 1918, Germans haven’t had a monarchy of their own to fuss over and so have adopted Britain’s royals as surrogates.

It should come as no surprise then that German tabloids, television stations and social media have buzzed with the latest details of Prince Harry’s fast-approaching marriage to American actress Meghan Markle — from the wedding guest list and the bridal dress to the loaded family dynamics and the lemon elderflower cake.

Three German TV stations — ZDF, RTL and n-tv — plan to broadcast and livestream the event. Dozens of German correspondents are accredited to be on the ground in England for Saturday’s wedding, and networks have enlisted “royal household experts” to help explain the intricacies of the ceremony to viewers at home.

Some 79 international broadcasters, including outlets from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, are planning to report on Markle and Harry’s wedding. More than 5,000 U.K. and foreign media and support staff have credentials to cover the action in Windsor, a town 35 kilometers (22 miles) west of London that is home to St. George’s Chapel and Windsor Castle, where the ceremony and reception are taking place. 

Americans in particular — some 46 U.S. broadcast affiliates will cover the wedding — are obsessing because the bride is one of their own. The E! TV entertainment network plans to devote five hours of air time to the wedding that matches a California girl with a British prince.

But fans in Los Angeles, Markle’s hometown, will have to be up early to watch the service — which begins at noon in England and 4 a.m. in the Pacific Daylight Time zone. Plenty of other action in Windsor — including the arrival of celebrity guests, the first glimpse of the bride in her dress and other pre-ceremony hoopla — will take place hours earlier.

As for Germany, public Television ZDF did not want to speculate on how many viewers may tune in. When Harry’s brother, Prince William, married Kate Middleton in 2011, 3.1 million Germans watched the nuptials live. When Harry and William’s parents, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, tied the knot in 1981, some 9.3 million Germans were glued to their TVs.

Several restaurants and coffee shops in Berlin are offering specials along with public viewings of Saturday’s royal wedding. At the German capital’s famous Bristol Hotel, guests will be able to sip tea and munch on British biscuits as the couple makes their marriage vows. Nearby, the Berliner Kaffeeroesterei cafe plans to serve wedding cake with raspberries and tea for 24.95 euros ($29.40) while the celebration is being screened in the cafe’s library room.

Elfriede Regner, a 73-year-old retiree from Berlin, said she watched both Charles’ and William’s weddings and will spend Saturday in front of the TV as well.

“There’s no way in the world I’m going to miss this wedding,” Regner said as she walked past the city’s main train station with an umbrella in hand despite the sunny weather.

“Just like a real Brit,” she joked.
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Kenya Approves Controversial Cybercrimes Law

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Kenya has approved a controversial new cybercrimes law that threatens heavy penalties for people who abuse others via social media – and that some critics contend could be used to stifle freedom of expression.

Among other things, the computer and cybercrimes legislation – which President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law on Wednesday – makes it a crime to publish so-called false information, with hefty fines and prison terms for those found guilty. 

The law does not spell out what considers false information, saying only that it’s a criminal offense to intentionally publish false, misleading or fictitious data, or to intentionally misinform. Violators could face fines of up to almost $50,000 or two years in prison, or both.

Joe Mucheru, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for information, communication and technology, said his ministry spent more than two years getting the bill through parliament.

“There was a push to get this bill in place, especially with some of the nuisances that come in with the use this technology,” Mucheru said. He said some people “are insecure because of cyber-bullying. Some have lost money, others are writing fake news about them.”

Mucheru said the law was both necessary and constitutional.

“This technology is transforming our lives; we must have laws,” he said. “… The constitution provides very clearly the freedoms of media, so this law has not gone against any of the constitutional requirements that we have already in place.”

Last week, the Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement urging Kenyatta against signing the bill, saying it would “stifle press freedom.”

Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, said that the legislation “will criminalize free speech, with journalists and bloggers likely to be among the first victims if it is signed into law.”  

Robert Alai, a Kenyan blogger who has been arrested several times for his comments on social media, considers the law too vague.

“When you talk of fake news, this is an issue still under discussion,” Alai said. “… No state has clearly stated what is fake news. Something which is fake to me may not be fake to you. Some people brand everything they do not agree with as fake news. The law is not fair.”

Alai said aspects of the law would greatly affect Kenyans’ freedom of expression.

“The real media now is the individual who is holding a phone. That is the media which is going to be affected,” he said. “That is the media which is trying to be intimidated through this law.”

The law covers crimes such as cyber-espionage, identity theft and child pornography as well, mandating long prison terms and heavy fines for those found guilty. The new law also allows authorities to search and seize stored computer data, and to collect and intercept data in real time.
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US Senate Votes to Restore Net Neutrality

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The U.S. Senate voted 52-47 to overturn the FCC’s 2017 repeal of Obama-era net neutrality rules, with all Democrats and three Republicans voting in favor of the measure.

The Senate approved a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would undo the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to deregulate the broadband industry. If the CRA is approved by the House and signed by President Donald Trump, internet service providers would have to continue following rules that prohibit blocking, throttling and paid prioritization.

The Republican-controlled FCC voted in December to repeal the rules, which require internet service providers to give equal footing to all web traffic.

Democrats argued that scrapping the rules would give ISPs free rein to suppress certain content or promote sites that pay them.

Republicans insist they, too, believe in net neutrality, but want to safeguard it by crafting forward-looking legislation rather than reimposing an outdated regulatory structure.

​’Political points’

“Democrats have decided to take the issue of net neutrality and make it partisan,” Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota said. “Instead of working with Republicans to develop permanent net neutrality legislation, they’ve decided to try to score political points with a partisan resolution that would do nothing to permanently secure net neutrality.”

Before the vote, Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, urged fellow senators to disregard the “armies of lobbyists marching the halls of Congress on behalf of big internet service providers.”

Lobbyists tried to convince senators that net neutrality rules aren’t needed “because ISPs will self-regulate,” and that blocking, throttling and paid prioritization are just hypothetical harms, Markey said.

Lobby groups representing all the major cable companies, telecoms and mobile carriers urged senators to reject the attempt to restore net neutrality rules.

The resolution still faces tough odds in the House. It requires 218 votes to force a vote there, and only 160 House Democrats back the measure for now. The legislation would also require the signature of Trump, who has criticized the net neutrality rules.

While Democrats recognize they are unlikely to reverse the FCC’s rule, they see the issue as a key policy desire that energizes their base voters, a top priority ahead of the midterm elections.
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Amsterdam Determined to Tame Tourism

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Amsterdam unveiled far-reaching plans Wednesday to rein in tourism, reflecting the dissatisfaction of many residents who feel the city’s historic center has been overrun.

The leading Green-Left and other parties negotiating a new municipal government after March elections vowed to return “Balance to the City,” in a document of that name seen by Reuters.

“The positive sides of tourism such as employment and city revenues are being more and more overshadowed by the negative consequences,” including trash and noise pollution, the document said.

Changes the document outlines include curtailing “amusement transportation” such as multiperson “beer bikes”; cracking down on alcohol use in boats on the canals; further restricting Airbnb and other home rentals; and a large tax hike.

The plans announced Wednesday also include creating an inventory of all commercial beds in the city to try to cap various sectors, such as those on cruise ships and in hotels.

“I’m very happy that the city is now finally taking action, because residents have been asking for it for a very long time,” said Bert Nap of neighborhood organization d’Oude Binnenstad, in the historic center.

“What I’m worried about is that this package of measures is so drastic that there will be a lot of lawsuits and political resistance, which will cost a lot of time.”

He said the city was suffering from too many visitors in general, which had the effect of changing the character of the center into one big tourist attraction. He also said some unruly, drunken tourists were making the city center an unattractive place for local residents.

Edgy lure

With a population of around 800,000, the city expects 18 million tourists in 2018, an increase of 20 percent from 2016 levels, many drawn by an edgy atmosphere generated by readily available soft drugs and the “red light” sex zone.

Anti-tourist and anti-expatriate sentiment have been steadily on the rise in Amsterdam, as both are blamed in part for helping drive housing prices increasingly out of the reach of ordinary Dutch people.

The average apartment in Amsterdam cost 407,000 euros ($475,000) in 2017, an increase of around 12 percent from 2016 levels, according to national real estate association NVM.

The change of emphasis has already started from national government over the past years, to try to dissuade visitors from the more earthy pastimes the city is famous for.

Advertising campaigns have focused on the city’s canals, the Anne Frank House and the museums packed with the greatest works of Van Gogh and Rembrandt.

Legislators have helped the rebranding, shutting a third of the city’s brothels in 2008 and starting a program in 2011 to close marijuana cafes located near schools.

“Amsterdam is a city to live and work in — it’s only a tourist destination in the second place,” the municipal document said.
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‘Ballistic Blocks’ Shot from Hawaii Volcano Could Mark Onset of Explosive Eruptions

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“Ballistic blocks” the size of microwave ovens shot from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano on Wednesday in what may be the start of explosive eruptions that

could spew huge ash plumes and hurl smaller rocks for miles (km), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Such eruptions, last seen nearly a century ago, have been a looming threat since Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, erupted nearly two weeks ago.

The explosive, steam-driven eruptions could drive a 20,000-foot (6,100-meter) ash plume out of the crater, hurl boulders the size of small cars up to half a mile (800 meters) and scatter smaller rocks over 12 miles (19 km), the USGS has warned.

This type of eruption has the potential to carpet the Big Island in much thicker ashfalls than those up to now and possibly spread ash and volcanic smog across the Hawaiian islands and farther afield if it enters the stratosphere.

“This morning dense ballistic blocks up to 60 cm (2 feet) across were found in the parking lot a few hundred yards (meters) from Halemaumau (Kilauea’s crater),” the USGS said in a statement. “These reflect the most energetic explosions yet observed and could reflect the onset of steam-driven explosive activity.”

The USGS cautioned that “additional such explosions are expected and could be more powerful.”

A 4.2 magnitude earthquake at the volcano at 8.36 a.m. (2.36 p.m. ET) prompted authorities to issue an alert reassuring rattled Big Island residents that there was no risk of a tsunami from the volcanic activity.

Smog from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano drifted north up the island chain after communities south of its summit were warned of up to a quarter-inch (0.6 cm) of ashfall as the nearly two-week eruption intensified.

Explosions in Kilauea’s crater sparked an aviation red alert due to risks ash could blow into aircraft routes and damage jet engines.

There was no effect on air carrier operations to Hawaii on Wednesday, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said in an email.

“The Big Island is going to have a lot of vog today and maybe Maui,” National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Foster said.

Ash is a new hazard for Hawaii’s Big Island, already grappling with volcanic gas and lava that has destroyed 37 homes and other structures and forced the evacuation of about 2,000 residents from communities in the southeast Puna district.

Lava has burst from 21 giant ground cracks or fissures and torn through housing developments and farmland, threatening two highways that are exit routes for coastal areas.

Several fissures shot lava into the air on Wednesday but one flow had not advanced any further toward coastal Highway 137, which remains around a mile (1.6 km) distant, County of Hawaii Civil Defense said in a statement.

No serious injuries or deaths have been reported from the eruption.
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Nigeria’s Parliament Passes Record 9.12T Naira 2018 Budget

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Nigeria’s parliament passed a record 9.12 trillion naira ($29.8 billion) budget for 2018 on Wednesday aimed at boosting growth in West Africa’s biggest economy nine months before the country’s next presidential election.

Growth remains fragile after Africa’s top crude oil producer last year emerged from its first recession in 25 years. The recession was largely caused by low crude prices and militant attacks on energy facilities since oil sales make up two-thirds of government revenue.

The total sum laid out in the spending plan passed by the Senate is higher than the 8.6 trillion naira budget presented to parliament by President Muhammadu Buhari in November.

The budget was passed by the Senate, the upper chamber, and by lawmakers in the lower House of Representatives shortly afterwards. The budget still needs to be returned to Buhari to be signed into law.

“We must grow our economy away from oil. Hopefully, the current budget, when signed into law, should help us in this regard,” said Senate President Bukola Saraki.

Senate lawmakers said the increase from the plan presented by Buhari six months ago was due to the assumed oil price rising to $51 per barrel, up from $45 in Buhari’s earlier version.

The budget assumes crude oil production of 2.3 million barrels per day and an exchange rate of 305 naira per dollar. Brent crude stood at $78.43 per barrel by 1643 GMT.

“We still consider the oil price benchmark to be rather conservative given this year’s oil price outlook and would have preferred to see a steeper hike accompanied by lower borrowing,” said Olalekan Olabode, an economist at Lagos investment firm Vetiva Capital.

The budget proposes the use of 2.2 trillion naira to service debts and would operate a deficit of 1.73 percent of gross domestic product this year.

Delays in passing budgets, amid wrangling between the executive and legislature, are common in Nigeria and hindered the implementation of Buhari’s previous spending plans.

Buhari, who took office in 2015, plans to seek a second term in next February’s election. His handling the economy is likely to be a major campaign issue.

Budgets under Buhari, who took office in May 2015, have been Nigeria’s largest ever. But economists say implementation has been poor and failed to provide the type of capital expenditure needed to improve infrastructure.

“The implementation of fiscal policy is still weak and this year there is an additional risk of unproductive spending in the lead up to the election,” said Cobus de Hart, a senior economist at South Africa’s NKC African Economics.
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Congo Receives First Doses of Ebola Vaccine Amid Outbreak

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The first batch of 4,000 experimental Ebola vaccines to combat an outbreak suspected of killing 23 people arrived in Congo’s capital Kinshasa on Wednesday.

The Health Ministry said vaccinations would start at the weekend, the first time the vaccine would come into use since it was developed two years ago.

The vaccine, developed by Merck and sent from Europe by the World Health Organization, is still not licensed but proved effective during limited trials in West Africa in the biggest ever outbreak of Ebola, which killed 11,300 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from 2014-2016.

Health officials hope they can use it to contain the latest outbreak in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo.

8,000 doses needed

Peter Salama, WHO’s deputy director-general for emergency preparedness and response, said the current number of cases stood at 42, with 23 deaths attributed to the outbreak.

“Our current estimate is we need to vaccinate around 8,000 people, so we are sending 8,000 doses in two lots,” he told Reuters in Geneva.

“Over the next few days we will be reassessing the projected numbers of cases that we might have and then if we need to bring in more vaccine we will do so in a very short notice.”

Health workers have recorded confirmed, probable and suspected cases of Ebola in three health zones of Congo’s Equateur province, and have identified 432 people who may have had contact with the disease.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said the supplies sent to Congo included more than 300 body bags for safe burials in affected communities. The vaccine will be reserved for people suspected of coming into contact with the disease, as well as health workers.

“In our experience, for each confirmed case of Ebola there are about 100-150 contacts and contacts of contacts eligible for vaccination,” Jasarevic said. “So it means this first shipment would be probably enough for around 25-26 rings — each around one confirmed case.”

Storage temperature 

The vaccine is complicated to use, requiring storage at a temperature between -60 and -80 degrees Celsius.

“It is extremely difficult to do that as you can imagine in a country with very poor infrastructures,” Salama said.

“The other issue is, we are now tracing more than 4,000 contacts of patients and they have spread out all over the region of northwest Congo, so they have to be followed up and the only way to reach them is motorcycles.”

The outbreak was first spotted in the Bikoro zone, which has 31 of the cases and 274 contacts. There have also been eight cases and 115 contacts in Iboko health zone.

The WHO is worried about the disease reaching the city of Mbandaka with a population of about 1 million people, which would make the outbreak far harder to tackle. Two brothers in Mbandaka who recently stayed in Bikoro for funerals are probable cases, with samples awaiting laboratory confirmation.

The WHO report said 1,500 sets of personal protective equipment and an emergency sanitary kit sufficient for 10,000 people for three months were being put in place.
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Kenya Buries Victims of Rose Farm Dam Burst

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Kenya on Wednesday buried 41 people who were killed last week when a dam at a commercial farm broke its walls and unleashed water that swept away everything in its path.

The earthen dam on the farm, which grew roses for export to Europe, burst at night on May 9 after heavy rains, killing 47 people and displacing hundreds more.

“We are here to mourn with you and all other Kenyans who have lost loved ones due to the ongoing floods affecting Kenya,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said during a funeral mass.

After a severe drought last year, two months of heavy rain have affected nearly a million people in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Uganda. Bridges have been swept away and roads turned into rivers of mud.

More than 150 people have been killed and 300,000 displaced in Kenya, where the damage runs into millions of dollars.

Six police trucks ferried the 41 coffins of the victims who were buried in Solai, 190 km (120 miles) northwest of Nairobi, and then young men carried the caskets up the hills in the area to their graves.

Paul Mundia, who buried his wife and eight-year old son, recalled the tragic events of last week.

“The water washed them away four kilometers from where our house was,” he told Reuters.

Ten victims who owned land in the area were buried in a single grave.

Investigations into the dam disaster are continuing and Kenya’s water management agency has said the structure was built without necessary approvals.
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Florida Felon Takes Lead in Fight to Restore Voting Rights

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In 2004, Desmond Meade, while serving a 15-year prison sentence for a drug offense in Florida, got a break. An appeals court returned his conviction to the original trial bench, allowing him to plead guilty to a lesser charge and get out of prison in three years, most of which he had already served.

But his freedom came with a price, something that didn’t quite register with him at the time: as part of his plea agreement with prosecutors, Meade agreed to give up his civil rights: the right to vote, to serve on a jury and to run for office.

“At the time, when I first accepted the plea deal, I didn’t understand the consequences,” Meade says.

Fourteen years and a pair of college and law degrees later, Meade still can’t vote; his application to regain his civil rights was rejected in 2011. The reason: a new Florida law that requires felons like him to wait for seven years before they could apply for rights restoration.

Home to nearly a quarter of the nation’s disenfranchised voters, Florida has become a battleground in a debate over felony disenfranchisement laws. With lawmakers deeply divided over the issue, Meade says he wants the state’s voters to take matters into their own hands when they head to the polls on Nov. 6.

He’s promoting a ballot initiative that would amend the state’s constitution, restoring the voting rights of all felons in Florida (except those convicted of murder and sexual assault) after they’ve completed the terms of their sentence. 

The measure enjoys broad voter support. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in February showed that 67 percent of Floridians were in favor of restoring the voting rights of felons other than those convicted of murder and sexual assault. Another poll showed support at 71 percent. 

“We’re going to change the system,” Meade says confidently. “What we’re doing is taking the power out of the hands of politicians and we’re allowing the citizens of the state of Florida to decide whether or not folks should have a second chance, to be able to vote.” 

Rates of Voter ‘Disenfranchised’ Soar

Meade is one of more than 6 million American citizens who have lost their voting rights because of a felony conviction. Their number has soared in recent decades as the U.S. prison population has ballooned.

Felony disenfranchisement disproportionately affect African-Americans like Meade. One in 13 African-Americans of voting age, such as Meade, can’t vote. It is a rate more than four times higher than for other races, according to the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice research and advocacy organization. In Florida more than 1-in-5 African-Americans are disenfranchised. 

But Meade says the felony disenfranchisement crosses racial and political lines.

“This is what I can tell you: there are three times as many people who can’t vote in Florida who are not black,” Meade says. 

When it comes to letting felons vote, the United States is out of line with the rest of the democratic world, says Marc Mauer, executive director the Sentencing Project.

Some democracies such as Canada allow prisoners to vote and politicians to campaign inside prisons. Other countries such as Britain restore prisoners’ voting rights after serving their time. 

“There is no other democratic nation that takes away the right to vote for the rest of your life as is done in some states in the U.S.,” Mauer says. 

States Set Voter Qualifications

The U.S. Constitution gives the states the right to set voter qualifications and to disqualify anyone who participates in “rebellion, or other crime.” That has led to an assortment of voting rights laws for felons, ranging from the most liberal — Maine and Vermont, which impose no restrictions on felons – to the strictest in four states, such as Florida, that permanently revoke the voting rights of convicted felons. 

This panoply of statutes has led to confusion over who has the right to vote, sometimes with harsh consequences. Last month, a Texas judge sentenced a 43-year-old African-American woman to five years in prison for voting illegally in the 2016 election while she was on supervised release from prison. 

Defenders of the practice say there are compelling reasons to bar felons from voting, a practice that dates as far back as ancient Greece and came to the United States from England. 

“The short answer is: if you’re not willing to follow the law, you should not be making the law for everyone else,” says Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity.

The longer answer, Clegg says, is that voters must meet “certain minimum objective standards of responsibility and commitment to laws” before they’re empowered with voting rights. 

“When you think about it, we don’t let everybody vote,” he says. “We don’t let children vote, we don’t let non-citizens vote, we don’t let mentally incapacitated people vote, and we don’t let people who have committed crimes against fellow citizens.” 

Because of a high rate of recidivism among criminals, Clegg says felons must wait for a period of time to prove they’ve “turned over a new leaf” before they’re allowed to vote.

“Unfortunately, you can’t assume somebody is no longer a criminal just because they’re no longer in prison,” he says. 

But advocates of broader rights say that the high rate of recidivism among felons is itself an argument for restoring their voting rights. 

“When people come out of prison, if we hope to reduce recidivism, we need to have these people connected with positive institutions within the community,” Mauer says. 

Another frequent argument advocates make is that the right to vote is one of the most fundamental rights of citizenship. And just as a felon doesn’t lose the right to get married or divorced or to buy property, so, too, he or she shouldn’t lose the right to vote.

“If we say to people, you may have done your time in prison, but we’re still not going to permit you to vote, that’s essentially sending a message that they’re a second-class citizen,” Mauer says. 

‘Returning Citizens’

That’s how Meade feels. 

“I think voting is probably one of the purest expressions of citizenship,” Meade says. “As long as I’m not allowed to vote, I’m only a second-class citizen, if that at all.”

After the governor’s board informed him that his application had been rejected – five years after he’d submitted it – Mead had to wait another two years before he could reapply. 

But instead of waiting, he founded the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, a grassroots organization run by felons who call themselves “returning citizens,” while going to law school. The organization helps felons navigate Florida’s cumbersome system of restoring felons’ civil rights and apply to the board of clemency. 

 The board, made up of the governor and three elected cabinet members, meets quarterly to review about 100 cases from a backlog of more than 20,000. In some cases, applicants have to wait 10 years or more before they have a hearing before the board. 

“If I help you file an application today, you’ll not know anything about this application until May 2025,” Meade says.

 In February, a federal judge ordered Florida officials to overhaul the process, calling it “fatally flawed.” An appeals panel later blocked the order. 

Meade graduated from Florida International University College of Law in 2014 only to realize that he couldn’t take the bar exam because he’d lost his civil rights. But by then he’d found a calling.

“Me not being able to vote, me not being able to practice law is not what sits at the heart of my passion,” he says. “What sits at the heart of my passion is seeing my fellow citizens not being able to vote.”
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Senegal’s Street Children Turn Trauma into Art in Africa’s Biggest Exhibition

Posted on by SeeAF

Young boys who were forced to beg on the streets for Islamic teachers have turned their suffering into art, as they join more than 1,000 artists showing their work at Africa’s biggest and oldest biennale art exhibition in Senegal this month.

Some 50,000 child beggars known as talibe live in religious schools called daaras in the West African nation, according to rights groups, who say some were trafficked from neighboring countries and many are beaten and abused.

“Being in the daara was like being in prison,” read one caption for an image of a sorrowful eye peering through a row of fingers. “My friend’s hands represent the feeling of being locked up.”

All of the photographs in the “Look at me” exhibition – which is part of the Dakar Biennale, known as Dak’Art, founded in the 1990s – were taken by and of street children living in a nearby shelter run by Samusocial, a charity.

Most children who come through the shelter are former talibe, while others escaped forced labor or family disputes, said Samusocial, which provides medical care and shelter while attempting to reunite them with their families.

“For me, the color red is like pain,” said another caption, describing a photograph of a boy, known as D.D., wrapped in a colored cloth. “I put it in the background because it’s in the past.”

In plastic sandals and bright T-shirts, the boys walked down the street together to visit the exhibition. They gazed wide-eyed at the photos printed larger than they are.

“I am happy,” said D.D., 16, who worked in a sewing shop for several years where he was regularly beaten. “I didn’t expect to see this,” he said of his photograph.

Samusocial often uses art and music to help the children build confidence and open up, said director of operations Isabelle Diouf.

“These children need beautiful things. It takes them out of the realities of the street a little and makes them want to move forward,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Spanish photographer Javier Acebal, who worked with the children on the exhibit, said he hopes it will change viewers’ perceptions of beggars.

“When you’re walking down the street you think you know about these children, but in fact you know nothing,” he said. “They say they want to be like normal kids. I hope people start to think about that.”
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NY Times: US Investigating Cambridge Analytica

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI are investigating Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political data firm embroiled in a scandal over its handling of Facebook Inc user information, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have sought to question former Cambridge Analytica employees and banks that handled its business, the newspaper said, citing an American official and others familiar with the inquiry.

Cambridge Analytica said earlier this month it was shutting down after losing clients and facing mounting legal fees resulting from reports the company harvested personal data about millions of Facebook users beginning in 2014.

Allegations of the improper use of data for 87 million Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica, which was hired by President Donald Trump’s 2016 U.S. election campaign, have prompted multiple investigations in the United States and Europe.

The investigation by the Justice Department and FBI appears to focus on the company’s financial dealings and how it acquired and used personal data pulled from Facebook and other sources, the Times said.

Investigators have contacted Facebook, according to the newspaper.

The FBI, the Justice Department and Facebook declined to comment to Reuters. Former officials with Cambridge Analytica was not immediately available to comment.

Cambridge Analytica was created around 2013, initially with a focus on U.S. elections, with $15 million in backing from billionaire Republican donor Robert Mercer and a name chosen by future Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, the New York Times has reported. Bannon left the White House on August 2017.
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