Month: June 2018

Aid Officials Fear Battle Will Close Yemeni Port

Posted on by SeeEA

As forces of the Saudi-led military coalition close in on the main Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, aid agencies fear a major battle that will shut down a vital lifeline for millions of hungry civilians.

Senior aid officials urged Western powers providing arms and intelligence to the coalition to push the mostly Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab allies to reconvene U.N. talks with the Iran-allied Houthi movement to avoid a bloodbath and end the three-year war.

A coalition spokesman said Tuesday that forces backed by the coalition were 20 kms (12 miles) from the Houthi-held city of Hodeidah, but did not specify whether there were plans for an assault to seize the Red Sea port, long a key target.

“The coalition ground forces are now at the doorstep of this heavily fortified, heavily mined port city,” Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Reuters. “Thousands of civilians are fleeing from the outskirts of Hodeidah which is now a battle zone.

“We cannot have war in Hodeidah, it would be like war in Rotterdam or Antwerp, these are comparable cities in Europe,” Egeland said.

Looming battle

Troops from the United Arab Emirates and Yemeni government are believed to lead coalition forces massing south of the city of 400,000, another aid official said, declining to be named.

Last week U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock urged the Saudi-led coalition that controls Yemen’s ports to expedite food and fuel imports. He warned that a further 10 million Yemenis could face starvation by year-end in addition to 8.4 million already severely short of food in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“Hodeidah, the so-called big battle, has been looming now for 18 months with ups and downs,” Robert Mardini, Middle East regional director for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told Reuters. “It’s a densely populated area where any military scenario will risk coming at a huge human cost.”

The coalition is carrying out air strikes in Yemen in support of restoring the internationally recognized government, while Houthis have launched missiles into Saudi Arabia. Some 10,000 people have been killed and 3 million displaced.

Lifeline for Yemen

Yemen traditionally imports 90 percent of its food, mainly through Hodeidah where U.N. inspectors check ships to ensure they do not carry weapons.

“It remains a lifeline for the highlands where close to 70 percent of Yemenis live. It’s about the need to have commercial imports,” Mardini said. “Despite all the measures put in place by the Coalition to improve imports, what is reaching Hodeidah is very short of the needs.”

Egeland called for Western powers, led by Britain, the United States and France, and Iran, which is allied to the Shi’ite Houthis, to help avert disaster. 

“The situation is screaming for more robust diplomacy on both sides,” Egeland said. “We are now in a race against the clock, to really get enough supplies in through Hodeidah which is very difficult given the continued severe restrictions on fuel and other imports by the coalition.”
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Buffett Lunch: $3.3M Paid for Private Meal with Billionaire

Posted on by SeeUS

An anonymous bidder offered more than $3.3 million Friday for a private lunch with Warren Buffett, an amount just short of the record paid in 2016 and 2012 for the chance to pick the brain of the renowned investor and philanthropist.

An online auction that raises money for the Glide Foundation’s work to help the homeless in San Francisco ended Friday night on eBay with a winning bid of $3,300,100. The winner wished to remain anonymous.

Third highest price paid

The price was the third highest in the 18 years Buffett has offered the lunch. Winners paid $3,456,789 in 2012 and 2016, which remain the most expensive charity items ever sold on eBay.

Buffett has raised more than $26 million for the Glide Foundation through the annual auctions. Bidders continue to pay high prices for the chance to talk with Buffett, who leads Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway, and the event raises a significant part of Glide’s $20 million annual budget.

Buffett supports Glide because of the work the charity does to help people. His first wife, Susie, introduced him to Glide after she volunteered there.

“Glide really takes people who have hit rock bottom and helps bring them back. They’ve been doing it for decades,” Buffett said.

Glide provides meals, health care, job training, rehabilitation and housing support to the poor and homeless.

One topic off limits

Buffett has said he gets asked about a variety of topics during the lunch. The only subject that’s off limits is what Buffett might invest in next.

The winners of the lunch auction typically dine with Buffett at Smith and Wollensky steak house in New York City, which donates at least $10,000 to Glide each year to host the lunch.

Buffett’s company owns more than 90 companies including insurance, furniture, railroad, jewelry, utility and candy businesses. Berkshire Hathaway also has major investments in companies including Coca-Cola Co., Apple, American Express and Wells Fargo & Co.
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Robotic Falcon Keeps Airports Free of Birds

Posted on by SeeEU

Birds and airplanes share the sky, so inevitably collisions occur. But airport authorities try to limit those encounters because bird strikes cause costly damage to jet engines and can lead to crashes. Some airports employ trained dogs, others use loud noises to frighten birds away. A company in the Netherlands says its robotic predator Robird is much more efficient. VOA’s George Putic has more.
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People of Different Faiths Unite for Muslim Ramadan Meal

Posted on by SeeUS

For Muslims, the month of Ramadan is a time for self-reflection and prayer — and fasting from sunrise to sunset. After sunset, families and friends enjoy a meal called Iftar. At a mosque in Virginia, outside Washington, people of various faiths came to Iftar one evening and to join Muslims in prayer. VOA’s Deborah Block has the story.
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US Unemployment Hits 18-Year Low, but Potential Trouble Looms

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in May, sending the unemployment rate to an 18-year low of 3.8 percent. The Labor Department says hourly wages also grew, bumping average worker pay up 2.7 percent from this time last year. And yet, despite the improving job picture, economists say there may be dark clouds forming on the horizon. Mil Arcega reports.
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It’s Back On: Trump to Meet Kim in Singapore on June 12

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The summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will go on as originally planned on June 12 in Singapore. The U.S. president made the announcement at the White House Friday, after receiving a letter from Kim that was hand delivered by his top nuclear negotiator. VOA’s Mary Alice Salinas has more.
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Striking Iranian Truckers Win New Domestic, Global Support

Posted on by SeeEA

Iranian truck drivers who have been on strike for 11 days to protest rising business costs have received new messages of support from prominent domestic and international transport workers’ groups.

In a statement published via social media Friday, an Iranian labor union representing bus company employees in Tehran said it supported the rights of the truck drivers and other transport workers to go on strike and stage protests for better working conditions. The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company also said it condemned any assaults on workers exercising those rights.

The Iranian labor union, which posted the statement on its Telegram channel, said many of the striking truckers have been living below the poverty line because of meager wages. It also accused Iranian police of attacking some of the strikers since the labor protest began in several parts of the country on May 22.

Truckers report threats

Several striking truckers who spoke to VOA Persian in recent days said Iranian authorities had sent text messages threatening to revoke drivers’ licenses unless the strike ended. But there have been no verified reports of strikers being physically assaulted or detained.

Mobilized by social media, striking truck drivers have displayed signs complaining of stagnant wages as they face rising costs for insurance, road tolls, commissions, repairs and spare parts. The participation of gasoline tanker drivers in the strike has caused shortages at gas stations in some parts of the country.

Iranian activist reports dated Friday and verified by VOA Persian showed the truckers’ strike continuing in the port cities Bandar Abbas and Bandar Khomeini and in the provinces of Isfahan and Kermanshah.

International support

The strikers won additional support in a Thursday statement from the London-based International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which represents 19 million workers in 140 countries.

ITF, whose members include the Tehran bus workers’ union, said it stood “in full solidarity” with the Iranian truckers. It said the strike has had a significant impact on Iran because road transport is vital to the nation’s supply chains.

The statement quoted ITF head of inland transport Noel Coard as saying the truckers, together with most Iranians, have been suffering from the impact of ongoing inflation and price hikes in Iran. 

“They can’t make a decent living,” Coard said. “At the same time, many trucks are in poor condition, needing spare parts and repairs. Alongside poor weather conditions, border area security problems and a general lack of road safety, Iranian truckers endure unacceptable working conditions.”

Coard also said respect for workers’ rights, including the right of independent trade unions to represent their members, was key to resolving the truckers’ problems.

International rights groups say Iran has curtailed activities of labor unions in recent years, with some strikers being fired and union leaders being sentenced to long prison terms on national security charges.

Reza Salmasi and Behrooz Samadbeygi of VOA’s Persian Service contributed to this report.
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Staged Assassination Raises Ukrainian Credibility Concerns

Posted on by SeeEU

The faked murder of a Russian journalist in Ukraine has set off soul searching among journalists and a debate in civil society over the propriety of the gambit in an era of propaganda and “fake news.”

On Tuesday, journalists were shocked by the apparent slaying of Russian dissident, war veteran and journalist Arkady Babchenko, who Ukrainian authorities said had been gunned down outside his apartment in Kyiv. The first reports came from personal friends of Babchenko on their social media pages. This was quickly followed by official announcements from the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Within hours of the killing, Ukrainian police even released a sketch of a possible suspect.

The next day, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) caused an even bigger shock wave by revealing that Babchenko was in fact very much alive. The SBU said the killing had been staged as part of a sting operation to catch a suspected Russian agent who was targeting Kremlin enemies in Ukraine. Journalists around the world expressed their astonishment when Babchenko appeared at the press conference along with Ukrainian officials. 

Perhaps the most dramatic reaction came from his own colleagues at the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR:

“This may have been the appropriate way to go about saving someone’s life,” Michael Carpenter, a former U.S. adviser on Russia and Ukraine, told VOA News. “But it does have long-term consequences, the way it was carried out.”

Critics and supporters of the act expressed relief that Babchenko was alive, but many voiced concerns about the credibility of Ukrainian government institutions. Others suggested that this would be a gift to Russia, which could now point to the stunt anytime Russia is implicated in some scandal.

Writing for the British newspaper The Independent, Oliver Carroll called the situation a “get-out-of-jail-free card” for the Kremlin.

“Ukraine is now a storyteller; nothing that comes out of Ukraine is really how it seems; everything Ukraine says is to show Russia in a bad light,” Carroll wrote. “Russia has been accused by the U.S. of using disinformation campaigns to try and affect the 2016 presidential election and in such a climate there is no doubt Moscow will use the staged killing to undermine news out of Kyiv.”

Threats did occur

There is little doubt Babchenko faced death threats in response to his years of journalistic work. In 2017, a wave of new threats in response to one of his Facebook posts forced him to flee Russia. Officials at Wednesday’s news conference explained how they had detected a plot to assassinate not only Babchenko but other Russian dissidents living in Ukraine. In contrast to several other high-profile slayings or attempted slayings of Russian dissidents in other countries, this time a suspect was captured.

The intelligence agency that staged the fake hit, however, has its own checkered past in controlling the media inside Ukraine. In its annual report, Freedom on the Net 2017, Freedom House listed Ukraine as only “partly free.” The democracy and human rights NGO said the SBU campaign was aimed at a pro-Russian news agency — blocking websites, forcing removal of content and even staging raids of two Ukrainian news outlets.

In late 2017, the English language Kyiv Post published a story that accused the SBU of using the armed conflict against Russia as a pretext “to persecute government critics and enrich themselves.”

In this context, some suggest the SBU’s faked homicide could be a propaganda gift to Russia, which could now point to the stunt anytime Russia is implicated in scandals or its own version of fake news.

“They will cite this, they will exploit this, they will use this to throw all sorts of doubts and seed questions about the legitimacy of Western news sources,” said Carpenter, who served in the White House advising Vice President Joe Biden on Russia.

Defenders, however, pointed out that had Babchenko been killed, the Kremlin and Russian state media would spread disinformation about his death while continuing their denial of involvement in such cases as the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 or the more recent poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in London.

Among journalists, the debate rages on the ethics of one of their own participating in a fake news event. The OSCE Representative for Media Freedom condemned the “spread of false information” on Twitter. Russian journalist Andrei Soldatov also tweeted that Babchenko’s involvement in the scheme was “crossing a line” with him. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published a statement condemning the stunt for raising many questions, which they listed. First among them was how “credible and imminent” the threat to Babchenko’s life was at the time.

‘Very difficult’ matter

Frank Sesno, the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, told Voice of America that the question of ethics in this case was “very difficult terrain.”

“If in fact there was legitimate information that an assassination was pending, that his family and his children were threatened as well, which apparently they were — that’s what he’s claiming, anyway — and if the security forces felt this was the only way to flush out the perpetrators or planners of this sort of thing, then reluctantly I would say this is something that probably needed to happen,” Sesno said.

Sesno pointed out that there are regimes that target and sometimes kill journalists, and “that needs to be exposed.” Yet he called for “full transparency and honesty” from those involved.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said the press freedom implications depend on the answers to its series of questions, involving the seriousness of the threat to Babchenko, identities of the alleged plot organizer and contract killer, and who in the Ukrainian government knew of the staged killing.

“What is known is that the Ukrainian government has damaged its own credibility,” Nina Ognianova of CPJ’s European office wrote on Wednesday. “Given the SBU is an intelligence agency, which engages in deception, obfuscation and propaganda, determining the truth will be very difficult.” 

As to whether Babchenko’s fake slaying was a “gift” to Russian propagandists, there seemed to be only mixed initial evidence supporting the concern. While Babchenko was still thought to be dead, the state media and Russian officials seemed to be launching a narrative. Sputnik News on May 29 advanced a narrative portraying Ukraine as inherently dangerous for journalists. Before news of Babchenko’s “resurrection” broke, The Republic reported that Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said the U.S. bore responsibility for Babchenko’s death.

Since the revelation, domestic Russian media fastened on the Skripal poisoning, but 30 hours later neither the Russian government nor state had demonstrated it was an international propaganda game changer.

In a way, the Babchenko story provides a good example of what is, and what is not, “fake news.” The fiction was not promoted knowingly by any journalist, other than Babchenko himself. The narrative was created and supported by Ukraine security and police officials. Even Russia’s Investigative Committee claimed it was opening a criminal case on the matter, citing the fact that Babchenko was a Russian citizen.

In a post-revelation interview, Babchenko explained how he was covered in pig’s blood after donning a T-shirt with bullet holes already in it. He was actually taken to the morgue before being “resurrected.” For all intents and purposes, Babchenko’s “killing” was “real news,” until it was publicly revealed as a hoax.

In the same interview, Babchenko gave his own opinion about disinformation surrounding the story:

“By the way, this is an example of birth of fake news: I don’t understand why there’s a version with me going to buy a loaf of bread [that] came up. I didn’t go to buy bread, I went to buy water.”

This story first appeared on Polygraph.info, a fact-checking website produced by Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Original reporting contributed by VOA’s Ukrainian service and Russia service and RFE/RL.
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Was Russian Reporter’s Staged Killing Ethical?

Posted on by SeeEU

Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist, worked with Ukrainian intelligence to stage his assassination. A day later, Kyiv security officials unveiled the ruse. While officials claim the scheme was necessary to save Babchenko’s life, ethics experts worry about the consequences. Bronwyn Benito narrates this report by Iryna Matviichuk of VOA’s Ukranian service.
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Despite Progress, Ebola Danger Remains in DRC

Posted on by SeeAF

There is hope that the world’s latest Ebola virus outbreak may be contained in the coming weeks, top experts from the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders (Medicins San Frontieres) say.

However, they told VOA this week that dangers remain as hundreds of international and local workers battle the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“Yes, we are confident we can eventually contain this outbreak,” said Dr. Peter Salama, the WHO’s head of emergency response, but questions about speed and logistics remain. “Remember, we’re talking about very remote rural villages surrounded by hundreds of kilometers of forested area.”

One encouraging sign is that epidemiologists have tracked the origins of the outbreak in rural DRC, said Dr. Hilde de Clerck, who is part of the aid group’s response command center in Brussels.

“It’s definitely too early to say it’s under control, but it seems rather positive,” she said Thursday. The epidemiologists have tracked what she called the transmission tree, locating the patients and their families, which gives scientists a good overview of the origins of the outbreak and how it has spread.

“It’s a good sign that we have this vision, and it’s also a good sign that our teams seem to say these people seem linked,” and confined to a few families and a few villages.

This outbreak raised fears that it could spread like the West Africa epidemic in 2014-16, which killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. That was the worst outbreak in the known history of the disease.

Understandable pace

De Clerck said it was not a surprise that the current outbreak seemed to be moving slowly. Rural outbreaks in the DRC generally are contained fairly quickly because villages are isolated and people are not likely to travel to other areas.

In the West African outbreak, which started in Guinea, better roads and the willingness of people to travel to other towns allowed the virus to spread more quickly, she said.

Other factors also are in play, Salama said Thursday. Reforms in the WHO emergency response program over the past few years allowed a very rapid reaction to the outbreak, he said. In addition, other aid agencies mobilized quickly. MSF was able to deploy a Congolese team from Kinshasa immediately to the first village where the disease was suspected.

What’s more, this time, a vaccine program has been used from the start. “We didn’t have a possibility of using an Ebola vaccine in previous outbreaks,” Salama said.

Medical teams are using a process called ring vaccination with a new drug developed by the company Merck. “We find a confirmed case, and then vaccinate all the close contacts of that case and then the contacts of those contacts,” he said.

The immunization program may be key to halting the spread of the virus in Mbandaka, the capital of Equiteur province. Four cases were confirmed in the city of more than 1 million people, raising fears of a wider spread, as the city sits on the Congo River, which connects to Kinshasa and Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo. 

However, Salama said, teams have vaccinated about 500 contacts of the Mbandaka cases, and it appears the virus hasn’t spread in the city.

“Still we should be vigilant for the city, because indeed Mbandaka is a big city and the River Congo is not far, with indeed the boats on the river. But the good news for now is that Mbandaka reports extremely few cases and they seem all linked one to the other,” de Clerck said.

With any outbreak, de Clerck said, medical teams must build trust in communities, especially with something like Ebola, which has a high mortality rate. 

“People are very often afraid, or sometimes people think it could be witchcraft or something that is causing those deaths. So we have health promoters on the field to explain to people what is going on and encouraging people actually to come to the health structures,” she said.

Respect for residents, traditions

Health teams need to respect communities and traditions. For instance, she said, it’s not necessary to quarantine contacts of Ebola patients. People are not contagious if they don’t show symptoms, she said. MSF encourages contacts of patients to continue their daily lives, but to check in frequently with medical providers.

And when people do fall ill, the best treatment centers don’t bar visitors. “People are isolated, but we always say an isolation is not a prison. You need to have patient terraces, you need to have windows and people can talk over the windows, over the terraces to their family members, to their neighbors,” as long as visitors stay at least two meters away from patients and don’t touch them, she said.

In the burials of Ebola victims, there can be compromises to allow mourners to follow some traditions safely. It takes more time, de Clerck said, to do such things as allowing a family member to wear a protective suit to help prepare a loved one’s body for burial, or to arrange ways for mourners to gather safely, but it’s possible.

There is a need for promptness in treatment and burial, “but you cannot destroy all traditions, because people will not trust you … and they will refuse to participate or to follow your advice. It’s way better to have the community on your side,” she said.
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Trump: America Is Safe Because Coast Guard Is ‘Strong’

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President Donald Trump says America is safe because the U.S. Coast Guard is “strong.”

Trump calls the Coast Guard the “elite force” that defends borders, patrols the waters, protects U.S. cities and keeps enemies at bay.

He spoke Friday while presiding over a Coast Guard change-of-command ceremony in Washington.

Adm. Karl Schultz became the 26th Coast Guard commandant, succeeding Adm. Paul Zukunft.

Trump thanked Zukunft for a “lifetime of noble service” and expressed “complete confidence” that Schultz will carry out his new responsibilities with “character, strength and devotion.”

Trump recalled watching the Coast Guard last year after powerful hurricanes struck Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. Trump says no brand has gained more than the Coast Guard and that the public has “tremendous respect” for it.
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Puerto Rico Institute Sues Health Department to Obtain Data

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Puerto Rico’s Institute of Statistics is suing the island’s health department and demographic registry to obtain data on the number of deaths following Hurricane Maria as a growing number of critics accuse the government of lacking transparency.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday, the same day that Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello told CNN there would be “hell to pay” if officials didn’t release mortality data.

A spokeswoman for the island’s health department, which oversees the demographic registry, did not immediately respond to a message for comment.

Institute of Statistics Director Mario Marazzi-Santiago said Friday the data is urgently needed so Puerto Rico’s government can help prevent deaths in the event of another hurricane. Many believe the official death toll of 64 is an undercount.
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US Airstrike in Somalia Against Al-Shabab Kills 12 Fighters

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The U.S. military says it has carried out an airstrike outside Somalia’s capital that killed 12 al-Shabab extremists.

The U.S. Africa Command has carried out at least 15 such airstrikes this year against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, which continues to hold some rural areas of the Horn of Africa nation.

Dozens of U.S. airstrikes were carried out last year after the Trump administration approved expanded military operations against al-Shabab, which was blamed for an October truck bombing in Mogadishu that killed more than 500 people.

The new statement says the U.S. military assesses that no civilians were killed in Thursday’s strike about 30 miles southwest of Mogadishu. The U.S. has faced accusations in recent months of killing civilians in joint operations with Somali forces against al-Shabab.
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Vaccination Campaign Could Help Thwart DR Congo Ebola Outbreak

Posted on by SeeEU

The World Health Organization has expanded its Ebola vaccination campaign in the Democratic Republic of Congo to include high risk people in three areas. Latest WHO figures show 37 confirmed cases and 13 probable ones.

Since the start of the Ebola vaccination campaign in May, the World Health Organization said 682 people have been vaccinated, among them nearly 500 in Mbandaka, a city of more than one million people.

The campaign recently was expanded to include Bikoro, where Ebola was first discovered on May 8 and the Iboko health zone, which is the most remote of the three areas. Those immunized include health workers, responders and other people at high risk of falling ill from the fatal disease.

WHO officials say the vaccine, which has not been formally approved, appears to be providing protection and giving rise to hope that it can help stop the spread of the Ebola virus.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was president of Liberia during the unprecedented Ebola epidemic in West Africa, shares that hope. Ebola broke out in West Africa in late 2013. By the time it was brought under control in 2016, the disease had killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Liberia lost 4,800 people during that outbreak.

While on a visit to Geneva earlier this week, she told VOA there has been an improvement in health care delivery systems, including infection control since the experience with Ebola.

“So the capacity to be able to address any outbreak is now improved in the affected countries, as well as in other places,” she added. “I think there is an important new dimension in the fight for Ebola and that is vaccines.

Sirleaf said vaccine trials in Guinea and now in the DRC have shown good results.

“We are hoping that DRC like others will have a capacity to deal with it, to stop the spread,” she said. “… We are hoping that DRC will come out of this without the major effect, the major results that we saw in the three countries that were not prepared for this.”

The vaccine developer, Merck, has contributed 7,500 doses of the Ebola vaccine to the DRC. The company says as many as 300,000 more doses are available in case of a serious outbreak.
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French Far-Right Party Getting New Name to Boost Appeal

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Far-right leader Marine Le Pen is announcing a name-change for her National Front party, founded by her father nearly a half-century ago. It is expected to become the National Rally in a bid to more broadly embrace French voters ahead of next year’s European elections.

The profile of Le Pen, a nationalist once at the center of the political limelight, has dimmed since she was trounced by pro-globalist Emmanuel Macron in presidential elections a year ago. She announced a refounding of the National Front at its March congress.

Members were asked to vote by mail on the proposed new name with results announced Friday at a meeting of the party leadership.

Le Pen hopes Italy’s populist government, sworn in Friday, will boost her anti-immigration party’s fortunes.
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Pennsylvania to Bury Remaining Wreckage of Flight 93 at Memorial

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Officials say the remaining wreckage of United Flight 93 will be returned later this year to the Pennsylvania memorial marking where it crashed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Flight 93 National Memorial Superintendent Stephen Clark says the wreckage will be buried in a restricted area of the park Shanksville that’s accessible only to loved ones of the victims.

President of the Families of Flight 93 Gordon Felt says his group requested a final search of the debris to see if there were any human remains or personal items in the wreckage.

Clark says workers found a number of items that will be added to the memorial collection, including an orange passenger call button.

The National Park Service will release a full report of the items collected later this year.
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Trump’s Climate Accord Pullout Galvanizes Holdouts

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After President Donald Trump said the United States was getting out of the Paris climate agreement because it put the U.S. at a “big economic disadvantage,” the last two holdouts said they were getting in.

Nicaragua and Syria announced late last year that they would join the global agreement to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases.

Experts said it’s one way that Trump’s decision to pull back from tackling climate change has galvanized others to step up.

But whether others will fill the gap the U.S. has left remains an open question.

No other country has followed his lead, said former lead climate negotiator Todd Stern.

“The first, most important piece of good news, and it wasn’t a foregone conclusion, is that other countries stayed in,” he said.

Stepping up

Some countries have announced plans to step up their efforts. China, France, Britain and several other countries have said they will end sales of fossil fuel-powered vehicles, though not all have set a deadline.

More than 60 countries, states, cities and companies have promised an end to coal-powered electricity generation.

In the U.S., experts note that states, cities and businesses have been taking action to fight climate change, even when the federal government has not.

Following Trump’s announcement, an alliance representing more than half of the U.S. economy pledged to meet the nation’s Paris greenhouse gas-reduction commitment anyway.

Counted among the “We Are Still In” coalition’s 2,770 members are New York, California and seven other states; 230 cities, including nine of the 10 most populous; and Unilever, Intel, Gap Inc. and other Fortune 500 companies.

Some states announced plans to do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Virginia and New Jersey moved to require power plants to pay for their carbon pollution, joining a nine-state cap-and-trade program.

“A lot of this work would have occurred naturally,” noted Virginia deputy secretary of commerce and trade Angela Navarro, but Trump’s decision “gave us a galvanizing point.”

More than 400 companies worldwide have promised to reduce their emissions in line with global climate goals, and 26 U.S.-based companies, including McDonald’s, Walmart and PepsiCo, have already set targets.

Market forces have also helped U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fall steadily since 2007. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has created a boom in natural gas, replacing dirtier coal in power plants. And the cost of wind and solar energy has been plummeting.

Tipping the balance

But it’s unclear whether the trend will continue. The Trump administration is working to undo regulations aimed at limiting greenhouse gases from power plants, vehicles and other sources.

“The question is, how will it all pencil out?” asked Rhodium Group climate policy analyst Kate Larsen. “Are the federal rollbacks more than enough to tip the balance?”

State, city and business action is “a really good place to start,” she added, “but over time, it’s not a great replacement for federal action.”

The world pledged in Paris to keep global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It is currently falling far short of that goal.

All countries have to ramp up their efforts. But with the Trump administration stepping back, former U.S. climate negotiator Todd Stern said other countries may be less willing to step up.

“You see the United States — the biggest historic emitter, the second biggest emitter now — suddenly saying, ‘Never mind.’ What’s the impact of that? Obviously not good,” Stern said.

Negotiators will meet in Poland in December aiming to finalize the “rule book” for how to implement the Paris climate agreement. Experts said that will be one of the first indications of how serious countries are about increasing efforts to meet their climate goals, with or without the United States.
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US Gains 223K Jobs; Unemployment at 18-year Low

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U.S. employers extended a streak of solid hiring in May, adding 223,000 jobs and helping lower the unemployment rate to an 18-year low of 3.8 percent.

 

The Labor Department says average hourly pay rose 2.7 percent from a year earlier, a slightly faster annual rate than in April. But pay growth remains below levels that are typical when the unemployment rate is this low.

 

Still, the report shows that the nearly 9-year old economic expansion – the second-longest on record – remains on track. Employers appear to be shrugging off recent concerns about global trade disputes.

 

The job market is also benefiting a wider range of Americans: The unemployment rate for high school graduates reached 3.9 percent, a 17-year low. For black Americans, it hit a record low of 5.9 percent.

 

The solid hiring data coincides with other evidence that the economy is on firm footing after a brief slowdown in the first three months of the year. The economy grew at a modest 2.2 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, after three quarters that had averaged roughly 3 percent annually.

 

Some economists remain concerned that the Trump administration’s aggressive actions on trade could hamper growth. The administration on Thursday imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from key allies in Europe, Canada and Mexico. Earlier in the week, it threatened to hit China with tariffs on $50 billion of its goods.

 

Still, while Trump has made such threats since March, most employers so far haven’t suspended hiring.

 

And consumers have started to spend more freely, after having pulled back in the January-March quarter. That gain could reflect in part the effect of the Trump administration’s tax cuts, which might be encouraging more Americans to step up spending. Consumer spending rose in April at its fastest pace in five months.

 

Some of the spending reflects more money needed to pay higher gas prices, a potential trouble spot for consumers in the coming months. The average price of a gallon of gas nationwide reached $2.96 on Thursday, up 15 cents from a month ago, according to AAA. Some economists calculate that higher gas costs could offset up to one-third of the benefit of the tax cuts.

 

Companies are spending more on industrial machinery, computers and software _ signs that they’re optimistic enough about future growth to expand their capacity. A measure of business investment rose in the first quarter by the most in 3{ years. That investment growth has been spurred partly by higher oil prices, which have encouraged the construction of more drilling rigs.

 

Manufacturers have benefited from the healthier business spending and have increased hiring. In April, factories expanded production of turbines and other heavy machinery by the most in seven months.

 

Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm, says it now foresees the economy expanding at a robust 4 percent annual pace in the April-June quarter, which would be the fastest in nearly four years. That is up from its forecast last week of less than a 3 percent rate for the current quarter.

 

Yet even with unemployment at an 18-year low, wage growth has been chronically sluggish in most industries, leaving many Americans still struggling to pay bills, particularly as inflation has ticked up. Still, companies are starting to pay more to lure workers from other companies, a trend that could lead to broader pay gains in coming months.

 

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said higher pay for job-switchers tends to augur more robust raises for everyone else.

 

At the same time, Martha Gimbel, head of economic research at the job listing site Indeed, notes that wages for people who remain in their jobs have actually declined in recent months. That suggests that many employers have yet to worry about their workers being lured away.

 

 
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Netanyahu Video Tries to Revive Israeli Friendship with Iranians

Posted on by SeeEA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has posted a video of himself praising Iranians in his latest bid to revive a historic friendship with Iran’s people while challenging and criticizing their Islamist rulers. 

In the 80-second video clip posted to the social media accounts of the Israeli prime minister’s office Thursday, Netanyahu says Iranians are among the “most gifted and successful people” in the world.

He goes on to list several major U.S. companies founded and led by entrepreneurs of Iranian heritage, including Uber, eBay and Dropbox, and asks why Iran is so “poor,” given the talents of its people. 

“The answer is in two words: the regime,” Netanyahu says. “Iran’s dictators plunder the country’s wealth (and) divert tens of billions of dollars to their nuclear program, to the spread of terror around the world (and) to their aggression throughout the Middle East.”

Iran denies Israel’s accusation that it seeks to develop nuclear weapons and says it is a victim rather than perpetrator of regional terrorism. 

Netanyahu last posted a video message to the Iranian people January 1, saying he wished them “success in their noble quest for freedom.” He was referring to mass anti-government protests that erupted in cities across Iran in late December, posing the biggest domestic challenge to Iran’s Islamist leadership in years.

Tzvi Kahn, a senior Iran analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA Persian that Netanyahu is adopting a long-term strategy of trying to foster a friendly image with Iranians, in case the ongoing anti-government protests lead to the ouster of Iran’s Islamist rulers.

“Israel is trying to communicate to Iranians that the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions against Iran is not motivated by hostility toward the people but as a punishment of the regime,” Kahn said. “Israel also is sending a message to the Trump administration that it supports U.S. expressions of solidarity with the Iranian people and wants the U.S. to continue that approach.” 

In a May 8 speech announcing his decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, President Donald Trump contrasted his strong criticisms of the nation’s Islamist leaders with kinder words toward Iranians as a whole. Iranians, he said, “are the rightful heirs to a rich culture and an ancient land, and they deserve a nation that does justice to their dreams, honor to their history and glory to God.” 

Netanyahu’s latest video message drew almost 100 comments and 2,000 views on his office’s Farsi Twitter account by late Thursday. Many Iranians who commented on the post in Farsi and English welcomed the message. 

But one Farsi speaker with the handle @nasehi3 was skeptical of Netanyahu’s concluding remark that expressed a hope of seeing Iranian and Israeli entrepreneurs “working together, in Iran and in Israel, for the betterment of all humanity.” User @nasehi3 asked if he or other Iranians will live to see such a day or die at the hands of Iran’s Islamist rulers. 

Israel and Iran enjoyed a cooperative relationship before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which brought to power Islamist clerics hostile toward the Jewish state. Relations between the two regional powers have been tense since. 

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service. 
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US Calls Draft UN Resolution on Israel ‘One-Sided’

Posted on by SeeEA

The United States will “unquestionably” veto a Kuwaiti-sponsored resolution on protecting Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank when it comes up for a vote Friday in the Security Council. 

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called the draft a “grossly one-sided” and “morally bankrupt” approach to stopping the violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

“There is not one single mention of Hamas in the resolution when Hamas is chiefly responsible for the recent violence in Gaza,” Haley said in a statement late Thursday.

She said that while the draft demands Israel stop “excessive and indiscriminate” use of force, it was Hamas that fired 70 rockets into Israeli towns this week.

Haley warned that any council member voting in favor of the draft resolution “will clarify their own lack of fitness to take part in any credible negotiations between the two parties.”

As a permanent member of the Security Council, the United States has veto power and can kill a draft.

The Kuwaiti draft expresses “grave concern” at the surge in violence between Israelis and Palestinians living in Hamas-ruled Gaza — the worst violence in four years.

It calls for an “immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire,” and it asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a written report on an “international protection mechanism” for Gaza.

But, Haley stressed, the draft talks about the “Israeli occupation while making no mention of Hamas.”

About 120 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the end of March. The protesters are demanding the right to return to their former homes inside Israel. They are angry about the U.S. Embassy’s move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and their overall plight as Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary.

Israel says Hamas is using the protests as cover to try to infiltrate the border. It says it has the right to protect its territory.
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Allies in G-7 Vow to Fight US Tariffs, See Threat to Growth

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States’ allies in the G-7 vowed Thursday to push back against Washington’s decision to impose tariffs on their steel and aluminum exports, saying as they gathered for a meeting that the move threatens global growth.

The escalating trade conflict between the United States and many key allies will dominate the three-day meeting in Canada of financial leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations that began Thursday, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin the top target for their complaints and lobbying.

The United States said it was moving ahead to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum, starting at midnight (0400 GMT Friday), ending months of uncertainty about potential exemptions and sending a chill through financial markets.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire demanded a “permanent and total exemption” from the tariffs and said that European Union countries would respond with their own measures.

The U.S. tariff decision “is unjustified and unjustifiable and will have dangerous consequences for global growth,” Le Maire said in comments to media on his way to the meeting of policymakers from the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada in the mountain resort of Whistler, British Columbia.

His German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, said EU member states would show their unity and sovereignty by acting in a determined way. “Our response should be clear, strong and smart,” Scholz told Reuters.

Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the tariffs would color the G-7 meeting.

“There will be some challenging discussions I’m sure,” Morneau told a news conference as top policymakers gathered. “We are not saying there won’t be frictions,” he added. “We’re not saying we won’t have strong words. We’re not saying we won’t be able to send messages.”

Mnuchin, who was not at the introductory discussion panels focused on development and sharing the benefits of global growth, is scheduled to meet individually with many of his global counterparts during the three-day meeting.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said the U.S. decision to target trade in goods, not services, was misplaced.

“This focus on goods trade, bilateral goods, is not the right focus in a hyperconnected world where most of the economic activity, most people work, most small businesses, most women work in the service sector,” Carney told a panel.

“If we were to liberalize services to the same degree as we have liberalized [trade in] goods, these balances would be cut in half for the United States and for the U.K.,” Carney added.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said if trade was “massively disrupted,” the level of public trust in leaders would be severely damaged.

“First of all, those who will suffer most are the poorest, the less privileged people, those who actually rely on imported goods to have their living,” she said, adding that long-standing supply chains also would be disrupted.

The U.S. actions on trade policy, which also include potential tariffs and investment restrictions on China and a national security probe that could lead to tariffs on auto imports, are expected to also dominate the G-7 summit of world leaders in Quebec next week. 
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Comic Samantha Bee, TBS Apologize for Explicit Remark About Ivanka Trump

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. comedian Samantha Bee has apologized for comments directed at White House adviser Ivanka Trump that Bee now says were “inappropriate and inexcusable.”

Bee hosts a late-night talk show on the U.S. network TBS where she often comments at length on U.S. politics. On Wednesday, Bee took to task a U.S. immigration policy that separates children from their parents.

The language

On Full Frontal with Samantha Bee Wednesday night, Bee noted that Ivanka Trump — the daughter of the president who also acts as presidential adviser — had published on social media a picture of herself with her infant son, in a week when the public conversation had centered on separations between children and parents.

In exhorting the presidential daughter to speak to her father about the policy, Bee called Ivanka Trump “feckless” and then added a sexually explicit epithet that refers to the female anatomy.

“He listens to you!” Bee continued, noting that Ivanka Trump is seen as one of the presidential advisers with the most influence over her father. “Put on something tight and low-cut and tell your father to … stop it,” Bee said, using a second profanity.

The firestorm

Bee’s comments ignited a firestorm of criticism. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders called the segment “vile and vicious,” adding, “Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast, and executives at [parent companies] Time Warner and TBS must demonstrate that such explicit profanity about female members of this administration will not be condoned on its network.”

On Thursday Bee issued a statement saying “I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night. It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.”

TBS also issued an apology for Bee’s comments, which were aired in a pre-taped segment, rather than blurted out live.

“Samantha Bee has taken the right action in apologizing for the vile and inappropriate language she used about Ivanka Trump last night,” the network said. Alluding to the fact that the words were used during a pre-taped segment rather than spontaneously uttered during a live monologue, the statement continued, “Those words should not have been aired. It was our mistake, too, and we regret it.”

The expletive Bee used is not allowed on traditional broadcast television and is rarely heard on cable networks like TBS.

​Roseanne show

Bee’s comments came in the same week that broadcast network ABC canceled a comedy show starring Roseanne Barr, after Barr tweeted a racist comment about a member of Barack Obama’s presidential administration.

Barr also has apologized, and Bob Iger, who heads ABC’s parent company, has reportedly called the Obama administration official to apologize.

In response, President Trump tweeted that ABC owes him an apology for anti-Trump statements the network’s guests have made on the air.

“Where was Bob Iger’s apology to the White House staff for Jamele Hill calling the President, and anyone associated with him, a white supremacist?” Trump tweeted. He and press secretary Sarah Sanders have said the lack of an apology to him amounts to a double standard.

The apologies by the two comedians, whose political leanings differ, have touched off public debates about the correct response to jokes that different segments of the public find offensive.
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5 Suspects Charged with Smuggling Endangered Birds to Taiwan

Posted on by SeeUS

A federal court in New Orleans on Thursday indicted five men for allegedly conspiring to smuggle 90 endangered birds to Taiwan.

They included parrots, macaws, cockatoos and corellas. The birds are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

“These indictments demonstrate our commitment shared with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service to investigate and prosecute those engaged in illegal trade of protected animals,” acting Assistant General Jeffrey Wood said.

The suspects allegedly packed some of the birds in falsely labeled crates and submitted fake documents to U.S. wildlife officers in New Orleans.

Agents seized some of the birds at the airport in Houston, Texas, before they could be shipped to Taiwan.

The Justice Department calls wildlife trafficking a serious crime that harms endangered species all over the world.
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Iranian Workers Say Major Factory Being Mismanaged into Oblivion

Posted on by SeeEA

Iranian factory workers in northwestern Iran have staged a protest against mismanagement of a large industrial plant, saying the problem has brought the major local employer to the brink of closure.

In a report published Thursday, Iran’s state-run ILNA news agency said the protesting workers in the city of Tabriz urged authorities to rescue the plant that produces combine harvesters used to harvest crops. 

ILNA said one of its reporters learned that only about 40 workers remained at the factory, whose capacity of 600 workers once made it a major employer. 

The news agency quotes the protesters as saying that if Iranian authorities continued to ignore their grievances about mismanagement, it would close, and the remaining workers would be laid off.

ILNA said one of the workers’ main grievances concerns wages, which they said have dropped to $120 a month. It said the workers want the factory to be revived and employment maintained. 

Tabriz is a hub of heavy industries, including the manufacture of vehicles, machine tools, refineries, pharmaceuticals, leather goods and carpets. 

Iran has seen frequent public protests since December, with dozens to hundreds of people denouncing business leaders and local and national officials they accuse of mismanagement and oppression. 

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service. 
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