Month: June 2018

Italy Proposes African Migrant Centers to Halt Immigrant Tide

Posted on by SeeEU

Italy called on Monday for migrant centers to be set up in Africa to stop a tide of asylum-seekers fleeing toward western Europe, as Rome raised pressure on its European Union partners to take a much tougher approach to immigration.

The new Italian government has closed its ports to charity ships operating in the Mediterranean, saying the EU must share the burden of disembarking the hundreds of migrants who are plucked from waters each month, mostly off the Libyan coast.

Italy, which lies close to Libya, has taken in 650,000 boat migrants since 2014. Its tough new approach has aggravated EU tensions over immigration policy and created concerns among investors.

“Reception and identification centers should be set up …,” Italy’s anti-immigration interior minister, Matteo Salvini, said on a visit to Libya, the departure point for most migrants trying to reach Europe by sea.

Meeting his counterpart in Libya’s internationally-recognized government Abdulsalam Ashour and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeg, Salvini thanked the Libyan coastguard for its “excellent work” in rescuing and intercepting migrants.

However, the Tripoli-based government, which does not control the whole of Libya, is unwilling to host reception centers itself. Maiteeg said while his government was ready to tackle migration, “we completely reject any migrant camps in Libya.”

After returning to Italy, Salvini said such centres should be set up south of Libya, in Niger, Mali, Chad and Sudan.

Earlier, he said the EU should fund efforts in Africa to stop uncontrolled migration to Europe.

As EU leaders prepare to discuss immigration policy in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, Italy’s refusal to accept charity-run rescue ships has stranded hundreds of Africans at sea, their rescuers waiting for an EU country to accept them.

Rescue ship Lifeline, with more than 230 migrants aboard, is stuck in international waters in the Mediterranean. And a private cargo ship, the Alexander Maersk, has been waiting to be assigned a port since it picked up 113 migrants off southern Italy on Friday, the ship owner said.

Earlier this month, a vessel carrying more than 600 migrants on board was stranded before it was accepted by Spain.

EU tensions erupt

Italy’s anti-immigration stance, criticized by human rights groups who say its risks lives at sea, has sharpened divisions in the EU, which took in more than a million refugees and migrants in 2015 alone.

It has irritated France, with European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau telling Rome that international law obliged it to let the Lifeline dock. Salvini responded by calling the minister “ignorant.”

The tensions have also reached Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a revolt by her Bavarian conservative allies, the Christian Social Union (CSU), who want to take a tougher line on immigration from Africa.

The risk that Merkel’s allies could desert her on migration has unnerved investors, who sold off Italian bonds on Monday and bought safe-haven German Bunds, which tend to perform strongly in times of trouble in the eurozone.

CSU General Secretary Norbert Blume told Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper that it was time to act but added: “None of us wants to call into question the conservative alliance or the government.”

However, Andrea Nahles, leader of the Social Democrats, junior partner in the German coalition, said she doubted Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the CSU could still govern together.

The coalition is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss the immigration dispute.

In Italy, Salvini’s actions and rhetoric have been popular with voters, with his right-wing League party gaining ground in municipal elections on Sunday.

Salvini’s opponents accuse him of playing on fear, noting that crossings have fallen sharply since last July, after the previous Italian government targeted people-smuggling networks and Libya’s EU-trained coastguard stepped up interceptions.

Around 11,000 migrants have arrived in Italy from Libya so far this year, down more than 80 percent from the same periods in 2016 and 2017, Italian interior ministry data shows.

Interceptions of migrant boats by Libya’s coastguard have surged over the past week, with almost 1,000 African asylum-seekers picked up in one day on Sunday.

The interceptions have been criticized by human rights activists because of the dire conditions facing migrants in widely lawless Libya, where they often face physical abuse including torture and rape.

Salvini said Italy would give 20 patrol boats to the Libyan coastguard. “We’ll do all we can to make sure it’s the Libyan authorities that patrol Libyan waters,” he said, accusing some private rescue organizations of helping human traffickers.

He also played down reports of inhuman conditions in Libyan detention centers. He did not rule out abuses at informal camps, but said the U.N. refugee agency had assured him that rules were respected at the official centers.
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Iranian Merchants Hold Rare Protest in Capital’s Grand Bazaar

Posted on by SeeEA

Iranian merchants in the capital’s Grand Bazaar held a rare protest Monday against the plummeting value of Iran’s currency, the rial, as other demonstrators also took to the streets.

Most shop owners closed their stores Monday in Tehran’s main bazaar as thousands of people gathered in the streets. Video posted to social media showed protesters heckling those shopkeepers who refused to close their stores, shouting “cowards.”

Demonstrators later gathered in front of parliament, about 2 kilometers from the Grand Bazaar, leading to a confrontation with police in which authorities fired tear gas at the protesters.

Iran’s semi-official news agencies described the protests at the Grand Bazaar as erupting due to the fall of the Iranian rial.

Iran’s currency has plunged almost 50 percent in value in the past six months, with the U.S. dollar now buying around 90,000 rials on the black market, despite government attempts to control the currency rate.

Earlier this year, Iran’s government set an exchange rate of 42,000 rials to $1, but this action only generated a vibrant black market.

Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi said Grand Bazaar merchants returned to work Monday after the government promised to help them access hard currency for their imports.

Iran’s government has been struggling with a range of economic problems, including high unemployment and growing fears about the impact of the reinstatement of U.S. sanctions after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal with Iran.

Similar economic protests roiled Iran this past December and January, spreading to around 75 cities and towns. However, those protests largely were focused in Iran’s provinces as opposed to Tehran itself.
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Migrant Detainees to Be Housed at 2 Bases in Texas

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. defense officials say the Trump administration has chosen two military bases in Texas — Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base — to house detained migrants.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about a pending announcement.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had said Sunday that two bases had been selected but he would not identify them.

One official said unaccompanied children detained after crossing the U.S. border would be sheltered at one of the bases and the other base would house families of migrant detainees. Under the arrangement, the Defense Department would provide the land but the operations would be run by other agencies.
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OSCE, EU Criticize Campaign Conditions in Turkey as Unequal

Posted on by SeeEU

An election observation mission found Monday that though voters had a genuine presidential election in Turkey, which incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan decisively won, the conditions for campaigning were not equal.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said in a preliminary statement Monday the incumbent enjoyed “undue advantage, including in excessive coverage by government-affiliated public and private media outlets.”

In a joint statement released later, EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini and enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn cited the results of the mission, refusing to congratulate Turkey’s president, not even mentioning him by name.

“The elections trigger the entry into force of the new presidential system which has far reaching implications for Turkish democracy – as raised by the Venice Commission – regarding checks and balances,” the statement read.

“In general, Turkey would benefit from urgently addressing key shortcomings regarding the rule of law and fundamental rights.”

While the U.S. State Department did not join the critical view, in a statement released Monday, it encouraged “all of Turkey’s representatives, including President Erdogan, to represent the diverse views of all of Turkey’s citizens and to strengthen Turkey’s democracy.”

The European Union has been highly critical of Turkey’s arrest of tens of thousands of people, many of them members of the media, under a state of emergency following a failed coup launched against Erdogan in 2016.

Showered with media accolades

Erdogan secured his hold on power Sunday, winning more than 52 percent of the votes and avoiding a run-off in what was seen as one of the most contested Turkish elections in recent years.

 

“Superdogan,” is the headline of pro-president Takvim newspaper Monday, “Prayer, Effort, Glory” declared the Islamic daily Akit.  Similar headlines echoed across nearly all the media, most of which are under direct or indirect control of Erdogan and his supporters.

 

“We have received the message that has been given to us in the ballot boxes,” Erdogan said to thousands of supporters at his AKP Party headquarters in Ankara in a pre-dawn appearance Monday.  “We will fight even more with the strength you provided us with this election,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan supporters celebrated in towns and cities across the country.  In Taksim Square in the heart of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, people danced and chanted slogans.

 

The opposition initially contested the outcome Sunday, claiming the result was announced before all the votes had been counted.  Opponents posted photos of sacks containing what they claimed were uncounted ballots on social media.

 

Erdogan’s main challenger, Muharrem Ince sent a message via “WhatsApp” to a Turkish television news anchor acknowledging Erdogan’s victory, but also claiming the election was unfair.

 

Ince scored nearly 31 percent of the vote in a hotly contested campaign, with his political rallies drawing millions.  Before the polls, the opposition had voiced fears of vote rigging.

Sweeping powers

Erdogan now assumes the sweeping new powers passed in last year’s constitutional referendum, which was marred by fraud allegations.

 

Under those changes, the 64-year-old leader now has the power to rule by decree, along with greater control over appointments of top judges and a parliament whose role is greatly diminished following the abolition of the position of prime minister.  Erdogan will now appoint ministers who will directly report to him.

 

Erdogan’s main challengers had warned during their campaigns the new presidential powers were tantamount to an elected dictatorship, a charge dismissed by the president.

 

The president’s grip on power was strengthened further in simultaneous parliamentary elections.  Erdogan’s AKP Party is set to continue to control parliament, although it will need the support of the nationalist MHP Party, with which it formed an electoral alliance.  The two parties have been closely cooperating in parliament since 2016.

 

The pro-Kurdish HDP Party accused by Erdogan of being terrorists, also entered parliament.  HDP supporters danced and held celebrations in main towns and cities across Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.

 

Sunday’s comprehensive victory came as most opinion polls suggested many in Turkey believe the contest was closer than reported.

But observers say Erdogan, with his new presidential powers and a new electoral mandate, appears to have emerged more powerful than ever.
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Trump Again Assails Court Hearings for Illegal Border Crossers

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday again assailed judicial review for illegal border crossers, contending that the migrants ought to immediately be sent back to their homelands.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Sunday that the U.S. leader’s call to end legal hearings for undocumented immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. was unconstitutional. But Trump rejected that view in a pair of new Twitter comments.

“Hiring many thousands (sic) of judges, and going through a long and complicated legal process, is not the way to go – will always be dysfunctional (sic),” he said. “People must simply be stopped at the Border and told they cannot come into the U.S. illegally.”

He contended that if children and their parents are sent home, “illegal immigration will be stopped in it’s (sic) tracks – and at very little, by comparison, cost. This is the only real answer – and we must continue to BUILD THE WALL!”

Trump’s latest comments echoed his thoughts Sunday when he first called for ending judicial review of asylum claims, saying “when somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.”

“We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country,” he said. “Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order.” Trump claimed that the U.S. immigration law is “laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years!”

The ACLU said what Trump is suggesting “is both illegal and unconstitutional. Any official who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws should disavow it unequivocally.”

The United States for years has granted court hearings to migrants fleeing violence in Mexico and Central American countries and from elsewhere in the world, and who are looking for better economic fortunes in the United States.

Trump’s demand to end that legal process would face stiff opposition in Congress, which for years has been stalemated on changes to U.S. immigration policies and has been unable to enact new migration laws.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is planning to vote this week on comprehensive immigration policy changes after last week defeating a tougher version of new immigration controls.

Also last week, Trump signed an executive order maintaining his “zero tolerance” policy of detaining and prosecuting everyone entering the country illegally, but ending the practice of separating immigrant parents and children.

Logistical questions about those being detained have sent multiple government agencies in search of solutions, including how to provide housing.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters traveling with him on a trip to China that the Pentagon is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security to build temporary camps on two military bases. Mattis said he could not yet name them, but promised to provide those details Monday.

He said military personnel do not play any enforcement role that is carried out by DHS, but have experience in supporting refugees and victims of natural disasters.

“This is something that we can do again — whether it be refugee boat people from Vietnam, people who have been knocked out of their homes by a hurricane — absolutely it’s appropriate the military provide logistics support however it’s needed,” Mattis said.

The U.S. says it knows the location of 2,053 children it is holding who were separated from their parents in recent weeks as they entered the country illegally along its southern border with Mexico. The U.S. said it is now working to reunite the families. The Department of Homeland Security said over the weekend it has returned 522 children to their parents, with many of them held together in detention centers while awaiting court proceedings to consider their bids for asylum.

But how quickly the remaining reunifications might occur remains an open question. A processing center in the southwestern state of Texas has been set up for the reunifications, which could lead to the deportation of some of the families.
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After Ban Ends, Saudi Women See New Job in Becoming Drivers

Posted on by SeeEA

Saudi women are driving freely through busy city streets for the first time after years of risking arrest if they dared to get behind the wheel. And with the longstanding ban now lifted, a new opportunity has emerged: Working as drivers.

It’s a job that had been reserved for men only and one that until recently even many Saudi males rejected as socially taboo. Driving was almost entirely the job of foreigners, often lower-income and from countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

 

Saudi women who want to work as drivers — for ride-hailing services like Uber, for example — are challenging an even wider array of traditional limits on women’s rights and are part of a wave of change that has drawn resistance from parts of the male community in the deeply conservative country.

 

“It’s very natural for people to resist change,” said Ammal Farahat, an affluent mother of two with a master’s degree who runs who her own consultancy. “Once they start seeing more positive images and opportunities and what it means for women to drive, they’re going to change their minds.”

 

Farahat, who had a driver’s license from the U.S. before obtaining a Saudi one, signed up to be a driver for Careem, a local competitor to Uber. She and her sister, who grew up in Saudi Arabia with a German mother who could drive freely in her home country, are trying out becoming drivers together.

 

Farahat says she decided to take on the job to defy stereotypes that working as a driver is beneath Saudi women.

 

For many women who sign up to become drivers, the job provides another source of income and greater financial independence.

 

“By opening our platform now to women, we are empowering them to be their own boss, to drive or to work whenever they want, and to work how long they want, as well. Perfect for women who are in the workforce,” said Careem co-founder Abdullah Elyas.

 

It’s not just women. In recent years, thousands of young Saudi men have started moonlighting as drivers for the two ride-hailing services.

 

The change reflects the shift in Saudi lifestyles mirrored by the kingdom’s shrinking ability to rely solely on its vast oil exports for wealth. While 70 percent of Saudis who work are employed by the public sector, those jobs alone are not enough to keep pace with the number of Saudis entering the workforce.

 

Official statistics show that the average public sector salary for Saudis is about 10,600 riyals a month ($2,800), far from enough to comfortably cover the costs of one-income households in major cities like the capital, Riyadh.

 

Unemployment is close to 12 percent. The overwhelming majority of job seekers in Saudi Arabia are women, and around 34 percent of Saudis seeking employment are between 25 and 29 years old. The lifting of the driving ban on Sunday is expected to gradually improve women’s participation in the workforce and buoy the economy.

 

There will still be many roadblocks for women. They need a male relative’s approval to obtain a passport or travel abroad. And the support of a father, husband or brother is seen as key to a woman being able to work or drive.

 

Careem says 2,000 women have registered with the company to sign up as drivers since the kingdom announced in September the driving ban on women would be lifted. Uber, meanwhile, launched a website last week with over 100 Saudi women registering their interest in driving.

 

Already, more than 150,000 Saudi male drivers are signed up with Uber, with the majority working part-time. Careem says 95 percent of its fleet of drivers are Saudi men, totaling around 170,000.

 

But 80 percent of Uber’s customers are women; 70 percent for Careem.

 

When the royal decree was announced last year that women would be allowed to drive, some Saudi women eager to drive their own cars shared pictures on Twitter deleting their Uber and Careem apps.

 

Elyas says the company’s not worried about business being hurt, and is embracing the change.

 

“There is a need [for] being driven by a woman in Saudi and we’re opening with that whole new customer segment, which we are excited to serve with our service going forward,” he said.

 

While there has been a loosening of social restrictions in recent years, the culture here still shuns the mixing of unrelated men and women. A male driver initiating conversation with a female passenger can lead to a complaint.

 

Uber conducted its own research and found that 74 percent of prospective women drivers interviewed said they’d only be interested in driving female riders.

 

To accommodate this, Uber is rolling out a new feature in Saudi Arabia that allows women drivers to select women riders. The company describes it as an effort at “being mindful of the cultural context” in Saudi Arabia.

 

Careem says its drivers too can decide to confirm or decline an order based on the rider’s gender by seeing their name.

 

As she drove around the streets of Riyadh, Farahat talked about how her daughter and niece, both under 5, will never know the challenges her generation went through in getting from one place to another and needing to rely on a man for transportation.

 

“They’re not growing up in the same Saudi Arabia I grew up in at all,” Farahat said. “It’s exciting, but also I know every generation has their own challenges, so what challenges would they go through? It will be different.”

 

 

 
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US VP to Focus on Venezuela in 3rd Trip to Latin America

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will visit Brazil this week, but the focus of his trip will be the deteriorating humanitarian situation in neighboring Venezuela.

It’s the vice president’s third trip to the region, and previous visits also emphasized efforts to isolate the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro.

 

The trip also comes at a time when U.S.-Brazil relations are in a holding pattern. The South American country is reeling from a colossal corruption scandal, struggling to recover from a deep recession and trying to look beyond the remaining months of President Michel Temer’s lame duck administration ahead of October elections.

 

 

 
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Donations, Volunteering Surge at Border Asylum-Seeker Center

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One by one, around Father’s Day, the surge of Amazon boxes containing shirts, pants, underwear and many other items began arriving at an asylum-seeker rest center in the border town of McAllen, Texas.

Included in the packages were notes of support. One read: “As someone who has a dad who would do anything for their child I hope this helps a few of the dads that come through your doors with the same ideas.”

The boxes started arriving as people across the country began to learn about President Donald Trump’s policy of separating children from their families.

“All of the sudden they started getting like a thousand boxes a day and then more and then more. And they had to come and secure space here and that filled up and they got another space and that filled up,” said Natalie Montelongo, a native of nearby Brownsville who flew in from Washington, D.C., to volunteer at the center. She set up an Amazon wish list with items needed by the shelter and posted the link on social media.

Now, the immigrant respite center run by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley has received so many boxes that it had to rent additional storage space.

“I feel like each one of these boxes represents one person that wishes they were here and is following the issue and that cares,” Montelongo said.

But donations also came the old fashioned way, too. Local residents stopping by and dropping off what they could and caravans of volunteers from around the country who made the journey to McAllen in Texas Rio Grande Valley packed with donations and cash.

Every day, busloads of migrants are transferred from federal facilities to a central station in McAllen. There, volunteers from the respite shelter help find the right buses and purchase bus tickets. As a group, they then walk to the shelter three blocks away, where they can shower, eat, and pick up new clothes, medicine and hygiene products.

Colorado librarian Wyne Cler saw a Facebook post from a friend’s friend asking for volunteers to help. Even with her limited Spanish, she jumped at the chance, raised $4,000 in one day and brought her daughter. She spent hours trying her best to help migrants at the center and trying to cheer up their day with hearty hugs and laughter. Cler and her family fled Vietnam as the war ended, she said.

“This is not my America. When we came in ’75 we were welcomed with open arms. And we were not separated. My entire family got here safely,” Cler said.

On a typical day, more than 100 asylum-seekers are released from McAllen-area holding facilities, clutching their belongings in clear plastic bags stamped with Department of Homeland Security logos, said Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.

Now, Pimental is trying to channel some of the help into cash donations so they can construct a new building by their church. The rest center currently rents its space.

The center also needs more volunteers to keep up with the flow of people and donations, and it needs additional medicine for babies. Montelongo said the center has seen several babies arriving sick.

“I’m so devoted to this respite because I think it’s the first glimpse of what we all think the U.S. stands for,” Montelongo said.
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Trump Criticizes Restaurant that Asked His Press Secretary to Leave

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U.S. President Donald Trump is criticizing a Virginia restaurant that asked his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to leave because she works for him and represents his views.

Sanders was dining with her husband and friends Friday night at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, 300 kilometers southwest of Washington, when the owner, Stephanie Wilkinson, asked Sanders to leave. Sanders and her party promptly left, even as they had started eating and ordered a main course.

Wilkinson told The Washington Post that she said to Sanders in a conversation away from her table “that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation,” traits she felt Sanders and Trump lack. Wilkinson said some members of her staff are gay and she cited the Trump administration’s stance barring transgender people from serving in the military.

Sanders, on Twitter Saturday, said she “politely left” the restaurant. “Her actions say far more about her than about me,” Sanders said of Wilkinson. “I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.”

On Monday, Trump said the restaurant “should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!”

Sanders’s experience at the Red Hen was the latest incident where critics of the administration interrupted Trump officials while dining out.

Trump’s Homeland Security chief, Kirstjen Nielsen, was yelled at by protesters last week inside a Washington restaurant after she had publicly defended the policy of separating children from parents who were apprehended for illegally entering the U.S., a policy Trump has since reversed. Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller, another immigration hardliner, was heckled at another restaurant.

Some long-time critics of the Trump administration have gone to the defense of his officials, to let them eat a meal in public in peace.

A Washington Post editorial Monday said that if officials can’t be left alone in public, “Down that road lies a world in which only the most zealous sign up for public service. That benefits no one.”
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‘Crazy’ or in Love, Russia Dances to Latin World Cup Beat

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Latin American countries have sprung a World Cup surprise by filling Russia’s 11 host cities with tens of thousands of fans from Mexico and Colombia to Peru and Argentina.

And some of the Europeans who did show up said their friends back home told them they were crazy to go.

The contrasting cast of supporters at the biggest event in sport reflects Russia’s progressive creep away from Europe in the 18 years of President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Moscow is now embracing new allies that happen to worship football and where damning — and often exaggerated — media stories about Russian hooligans and poisoning cases are rare.

This mix and the added ingredient of a more evenly spread-out global middle-class with the means to travel the world has the streets of Russia dancing to a decidedly Latin beat.

“We didn’t expect it to be this beautiful and the people are amazing,” Mauricio Miranda said as she waved a Colombian flag on the edge of Red Square in Moscow.

“We will definitely come back,” said the 30-year-old.

Belgian public relations consultant Jo De Munter does not necessarily disagree. It is his friends who do.

“I think Europeans are a bit afraid,” the 46-year-old said while staring in the direction of Lenin’s Mausoleum.

“In Belgium, everybody told me I was crazy to go to the football.”

By the numbers

World Cups come in all shapes and sizes and comparing ticket sales rarely tells the whole tale.

Europeans and Latin Americans are naturally more inclined to attend World Cups held in their regions because of the easier travel arrangements and familiarity.

South Africa in 2010 may provide a better example because it was a frontier football country with specific security and logistical risks.

Yet FIFA figures showed almost 50 percent more Britons bought tickets for the African continent’s first World Cup than this maiden one in eastern Europe.

Australians were in third place then but are just ninth in Russia.

Germany and England bought the fourth- and fifth-most number of tickets. France was ninth.

But France dropped out of the top 10 in Russia while Britain slipped down to last place. Germany remained fourth.

The United States has long led purchases among non-hosting countries because of its massive economy and large communities from football-mad Mexico and other Central American communities.

Taking the US out of the equation leaves Latin Americans accounting for two-thirds of the top 10 countries that have bought tickets for Russia.

Safety net

Fans banging Mexican drums and sporting the red-and-white bodypaint of the Peruvian flag encountered on a Moscow summer’s day were almost all big city office workers.

Colombia’s Miranda is an urban planner with a new job in Canada.

Alexandro Grado is a former financial consultant with Mexico’s Citibanamex who now owns a plastics recycling firm.

“Going to Russia is not expensive if you buy everything ahead of time,” Grado said.

Yet not all fans can afford to go bar hopping near the Kremlin and sociologists who study the sport say this is where Latin American football federations come in.

“There are national teams which have very strong organizational support behind them. Argentina in 2010 was one example,” said Ludovic Lestrelin of France’s Universite de Caen in Normandy.

Lestrelin said less well-off fans in Europe get far less travel and accommodation assistance from state agencies and are increasingly more likely to stay home and watch on TV.

This means Europeans attending World Cups tend to be richer than the average football fan. The traveling Latin Americans are more likely to come from all types of backgrounds.

“Those who travel to Russia and other places do not reflect the social makeup of French stadiums,” said Lestrelin.

“Those (in France) are more diverse, with a central core of lower and middle class workers.”

Zbigniew Iwanowski of the Institute of Latin American Studies in Moscow said Russia is further reaping the rewards of a “pink tide” that brought anti-US leaders power across the continent.

“The pendulum has swung back to the right but they still have (Russian state media) like Sputnik and RT,” Iwanowski said.

“Russia’s image is better in Latin America than it is in Europe and US.”

‘Not properly European’

Few would argue that Russia generates a lot of negative headlines in Europe in general and Britain in particular.

But the media’s role in shaping public opinion — and the reverse — is all but impossible to gauge.

What is clear is that at least some of the Europeans who ventured to Moscow and beyond did so with a degree of trepidation the voyagers from Latin America lacked.

De Munter said he often travels to watch Belgium play abroad. Rarely has he seen the national team’s support so small.

“We are expecting 4,000 Belgian people, which is not that much. Especially now because the Red Devils are doing very well.”

Gherardo Drardanelli flew in from Italy to take part in one of the fan tournaments organised alongside the World Cup.

“I think our concept of Russia — we feel that Russia is far away, that it’s not a properly European country,” the 28-year-old said. 
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Nigeria Officials: 86 Killed in Herder-Farmer Clashes

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Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has called for calm after 86 people were killed in clashes between mostly Muslim herders and Christian farmers in the central Plateau State.

Buhari vowed Sunday that “no efforts will be spared” to find the attackers and prevent future attacks.

While the statement from his office did not specify a death toll, state police commissioner Undie Adie said “86 persons altogether were killed” in the attacks that began Thursday.

Adie said six other people were injured and 50 houses were destroyed.

Plateau State Governor Simon Bako Lalong announced a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew in the communities of Jos South, Riyom and Barkin Ladi. It “is in effect until further notice,” he added.

The long-running battles for land resources between the herders and farmers in Africa’s most populous country could prove deadlier than the Boko Haram extremist insurgency, which has killed at least 20,000 people in less than a decade.

Nigeria is mostly split along religious lines with Muslims in the North and Christians in the South.

The Boko Haram insurgency and climate change are forcing the herders to move south in search of safe grazing lands, prompting clashes fueled by ethnic, religious and political allegiances.

 
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UK Euroskeptics Urge PM May to Prepare for ‘No Deal’ Brexit

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Pro-Brexit politicians and business figures have urged British Prime Minister Theresa May to be ready to walk away from the European Union without a trade agreement, despite warnings from major manufacturers that a “no deal” Brexit would be an economic disaster.

 

In an open letter, 60 lawmakers, economists and business chiefs accused the EU of being “intransigent” in divorce talks and said Britain should threaten to withhold the $52 billion divorce bill it has already agreed to pay.

 

The letter released Sunday by Economists for Free Trade was signed by prominent supporters of a “hard Brexit,” including ex-U.K. Treasury chief Nigel Lawson, Conservative lawmakers John Redwood and Peter Bone, and Tim Martin, chairman of the Wetherspoons pub chain.

 

They urged U.K. authorities “to accelerate their preparations for ‘no deal’ and a move to a World Trade Deal under WTO rules.”

 

That would mean tariffs and other trade barriers between Britain and the EU, and many businesses say it would severely harm the U.K. economy. Airbus, Siemens and BMW have all warned recently that leaving the EU without a free-trade deal would hurt British businesses and cost jobs. Airbus alone employs nearly 14,000 workers in the U.K.

 

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the warnings from businesses were “inappropriate” and undermined chances of getting a “clean Brexit.”

 

“The more that we undermine Theresa May, the more likely we are to end up with `a fudge,’ which would be an absolute disaster for everyone,” he told the BBC.

 

May’s Conservative government is divided between Brexit-backing ministers calling for a clean break so that Britain can strike new trade deals around the world, and those who want to stay closely aligned to the EU, Britain’s biggest trading partner.

 

Hunt urged people to unite behind the prime minister, saying she would mix “cautious pragmatism” with a determination to fulfil voters’ decision to leave the EU.

 

On Saturday, however, tens of thousands of anti-Brexit protesters marched in London to demand a new referendum on leaving the EU as Britain marked the second anniversary of its 2016 vote to quit the bloc.

 

“Brexit is not a done deal. Brexit is not inevitable. Brexit can be stopped,” Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable told the crowd.

 

 
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European Leaders Expect No Quick Solution on Migrants

Posted on by SeeEU

Leaders of 16 European Union countries met Sunday in Belgium, ahead of the upcoming European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday, to discuss how to best cope with huge waves of migrants landing on the continent’s shores. A key issue on the table was the so-called Dublin Regulation, which says that asylum-seekers must be processed in the EU nation where they first arrive. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Turkey Elections: Erdogan Declares Victory After Early Counts Predict Win

Posted on by SeeEU

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was declared the winner in a tightly contested ballot on Sunday. And as VOA’s Heather Murdock reports from Istanbul, this victory could continue to give the leader immense power for years to come.
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Celebration, Defiance Mix at NYC Gay Pride Parade

Posted on by SeeUS

Celebration and pride mixed with defiance in New York City on Sunday as throngs of people crowded the streets, rainbow flags waving, for the annual gay pride march.

 

Tennis legend Billie Jean King was one of the grand marshals, along with transgender advocate Tyler Ford and civil rights organization Lambda Legal. The event, and others like it around the country, commemorated the riots that erupted in response to a police raid at a New York gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in June 1969.

 

Onlookers and participants in New York noted those origins at Sunday’s event, which was both a celebration of the diversity of LGBT culture and a statement against anti-LGBT policies promoted by President Donald Trump, such as the Republican president’s attempt to ban all transgender people from serving in the military. They also spoke out against policies aimed at other communities, like immigrants and minorities.

 

“We’re making a statement that we’re here, everybody. Whether it’s immigrants, whether it’s queer people or people of color, we’re not going to put up with what this administration is doing,” said Diego Molano, of Queens, at his second pride parade. “You can’t just cage everybody up.”

 

Olivia Nadler, a Connecticut resident attending her third parade, said, “People that are oppressed are not going to go away, they’re not going to be quiet, they’re not going to be ignored.”

 

Among the signs people were carrying in the parade were phrases like, “Black and brown and trans lives matter” and “No more guns.”

 

Ohemaa Dixon, 20, from Brooklyn, teared up as she spoke about what the parade meant to her and the joy she felt in seeing everyone come out to attend.

“It’s okay to be who you are and love who you love and dress how you want to dress and do what you want to do because I think it’s so important to be who you are and who you love,” she said. “I’m getting emotional about it because I think it’s so beautiful when people are who they are. That’s why I love coming to these things. I think it’s really cool that people come and they are exactly who they want to be.”

 

 Elected officials, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, both Democrats, were among those attending the march.

 

Before it started, Cuomo officially unveiled a New York state memorial to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people that honors victims of intolerance. Placed in Hudson River Park, it has nine boulders with pieces of glass installed in them that can act as prisms and reflect rainbows in sunlight.

 

Cuomo formed the commission to come up with an LGBT memorial after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando that left 49 people dead.

 

The theme of this year’s march was “Defiantly Different.” Eighty floats and tens of thousands of marchers were expected.

 

In San Francisco, a weekend of gay pride events was finishing with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade and March through the city.

 

Organizers expected large crowds for the event, which included more than 240 contingents. This year’s theme was “Generations of Strength.

 
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Italy Refuses to Help Migrants, Leaves Task to Libya

Posted on by SeeEU

Italy continued its hardline stance against migrants stranded off its coast, telling European charities to stop rescuing the migrants and leave them to be picked up the Libyan coast guard instead.

“Let the Libyan authorities do their work of rescue, recovery and return (of migrants) to their country, as they have been doing for some time, without the ships of the voracious NGOs disturbing them or causing trouble,” Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said. “Italian ports are and will be closed to those who aid human traffickers.”

On Sunday, a Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms said the Italian coast guard had received a distress signal from six boats carrying about 1,000 people, but that Italy had told rescue groups like Proactiva that their help was not needed.

Instead, the Italian coast guard alerted Libya and handed off the rescue operation to its Libyan counterpart.

In recent weeks, Italy’s new populist government has cracked down on foreign rescue ships operating in the Mediterranean.

Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister, has repeatedly accused the charities of working alongside human smugglers in trying to get the migrants to Europe.

Besides the 1,000 migrants mentioned by Proactiva, two other ships carrying hundreds of migrants — the German NGO ship Lifeline and Danish container ship Alexander Maersk — are currently in the Mediterranean awaiting instructions on where they will be allowed to dock.  

They were denied permission by both Italy and Malta.

Human rights groups have criticized the Italian practice of leaving the migrants’ fate in the hands of Libya. They allege that migrants are abused in Libya and the North African country is not seen as a “safe” port of call, as required by international law.

 

 
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Protests Continue Over Migrant Detentions, Despite Policy Change

Posted on by SeeUS

Protests continue over the treatment of migrants detained in Texas for entering the United States illegally, although the Trump administration on Wednesday reversed its controversial practice of separating detained children and parents at the border.

On Sunday, about 30 parents who have been separated from their children by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol were released. U.S. officials had dropped criminal charges against the parents, who had been apprehended entering the country illegally.

Annunciation House, an El Paso, Texas, organization that aids immigrants, said it would be receiving the parents. It was not known how or when they might be reunited with their children.

Annunciation House Director Ruben Garcia said, “It is my understanding the charges were not dismissed by a judge, but rather they were withdrawn by the government.”

Garcia said the immigrants were given little guidance, other than an 800 number to call, to try to get information about their children. Some of the 30 parents were being held in the El Paso County facilities, he said.

Protests

Still, thousands of migrants remain in detention awaiting their court cases, and many are still apart from their children. As the dramatic story unfolds, Americans are hearing conflicting narratives.

On Sunday, about 100 people had gathered in Tornillo, Texas, where a children’s tent encampment has been built to deal with the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. Protesters chanted, “Free the children now!” according to the El Paso Times.

At an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Otay Mesa, California, near the U.S.-Mexico border, protesters on Friday chanted “immigrants are welcome” and demanded the release of the families detained in Texas.

“They’ve got a big mess right now, families that are separated that can’t even talk to each other, connect with each other, make sure that everybody in the family is still okay,” said protester Jan Denny. “We’re not even sure yet how they’re going to get all these people reunited,” she added of the confusion surrounding the shifting policy.

At the White House on Friday, President Donald Trump highlighted other families whose loved ones had been killed by illegal immigrants. “These are the families the media ignores,” he said, as he introduced people holding photos of their loved ones.

“Respect this country. Respect the laws of this country, and then you can come in, like my family did,” said Agnes Gibboney, the mother of a son killed by an illegal immigrant.

The Trump administration says 500 of the more than 2,000 separated children have been reunited with their families.

Protesters in California say Trump is following a pattern of blaming migrants for the nation’s problems.

“Whether these are Chinese immigrants, whether these are Mexicano immigrants, and now Central American immigrants,” said a protester named Myron of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, “there has always been an excuse to blame others.”

Trump critics

Among those raising their voices at the rally was Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California.

Harris, a frequent Trump critic, toured an adult detention center, where she met with mothers separated from their family members and children. “This is a fight,” she said, “born out of knowing who we are and fighting for the ideals of our country.”

Julian Castro, a former San Antonio mayor and secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration, told demonstrators in Tornillo Sunday that it’s an issue “about what is right and what is wrong.”

Trump has demanded better border security and a merit-based system of immigration. Protesters say he wants to bar immigrants from the developing world, who already face a hard path to entry and huge backlog of cases.

“We have a broken immigration system,” said Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. “This is not news to anybody.”

The immigration issue is divisive, but Andrew Pappas of Cincinnati, Ohio, told the Associated Press that he believes Trump’s goal “was not to tear families apart” but “to make Congress act on immigration reform.”

One California border protester, Ellen Montanari, said the issue is close to her heart because her adopted daughter is Latina, like most families in detention.

“We do need sane members of Congress to sit down and talk about what a reasonable immigration policy looks like,” Montanari said, although she worries that in this year of congressional elections, there will instead be more posturing.

 
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Americans Hit the Road in Their Own ‘Homes’

Posted on by SeeUS

For many Americans, the ultimate embodiment of their love for cars and freedom is renting or owning recreational vehicles, or RVs, which made their mass debut in the U.S. in 1930s, only to become more popular in ensuing decades. Today, more than nine million Americans own RVs and love traveling and spending their vacations in these miniature homes. Mariia Prus explains how it is possible to have everything needed for a comfortable trip in one vehicle or towed trailer. Steve Baragona narrates.
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Reunions of Migrant Children With Parents Underway, Say US Officials

Posted on by SeeUS

Federal officials say they have reunited more than 500 migrant children who were separated from their parents under President Donald Trump’s Zero Tolerance policy for illegal entry into the United States. More reunions are expected after Trump ordered an end to family separations, but retained prosecutions of unauthorized border crossers.
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Egypt Extends State of Emergency for Another 3 Months

Posted on by SeeEA

Egypt has extended its state of emergency for another three months.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s decision was published in the official gazette on Sunday. It should be approved by parliament within seven days and go into effect on July 14.

 

Egypt has been under a state of emergency, after an Islamic State affiliate bombed two Coptic churches in April last year killing at least 44 people.

 

Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years, but the insurgency gained strength after the 2013 overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president. The militants have mainly targeted security forces and Christians.

In February, Egypt launched a massive security operation against militants in Sinai, parts of Egypt’s Nile Delta and the Western Desert.

 
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Sikh Woman to Wear Turban as NY Auxiliary Police Officer

Posted on by SeeUS

In New York, Auxiliary Police Officers act as liaison between communities and the police department. Recently, Gursoch Kaur made headlines when she became the first female Sikh officer to serve in the Auxiliary Unit wearing a traditional Sikh turban. Usually dastars are worn by Sikh men, but some women choose to wear them to raise awareness about their religion. Aunshuman Apte reports.
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Israel Fires Missile at Drone Near Syria Frontier

Posted on by SeeEA

The Israeli military says it fired a Patriot missile at an unmanned aircraft that approached its airspace near the Syrian frontier in the Golan Heights.

 

The army said Sunday that the missile did not hit the drone, and the aircraft “retreated from the border.”

 

It was not immediately clear who launched the drone, but in February Israel shot down what it said was an Iranian drone that entered its airspace. It bombed Iranian targets in Syria in response.

 

Syrian troops have launched an offensive against rebel forces in southwestern Syria, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

 

Israel has expressed concerns about Iranian troops supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces, and says it will not allow a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

 

 
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Millions of Poor Not Benefiting from Ghana’s Booming Economy

Posted on by SeeAF

A United Nations report finds millions of people in Ghana are not benefiting from that country’s booming economy, but remain mired in poverty. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights has submitted the results of his 10-day fact-finding mission to Ghana in April to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

U.N. Investigator Philip Alston says Ghana is the fastest growing economy in Africa and one of the three fastest growing economies in the whole world. He says this success is making the rich richer, while a high proportion of the population continues to live in poverty.

He says the poor are losing out amidst the country’s growing wealth because Ghana spends 50 percent less than its peer countries in Africa on social protection.

He says most of the country’s resources are being plowed into private investment projects designed to make the wealthy better off. He says this policy comes at the expense of providing better employment opportunities and welfare benefits for the poor.

“So, the risk is that Ghana continues to be the great economic success story in the continent, but that very little of the wealth will trickle down to a fairly extensive number of Ghanaians, who continue to live in poverty,” said Alston.

Statistics show one in five Ghanaians live in poverty and one in eight live in extreme poverty. Alston says he finds it particularly troubling that 28 percent of children live in poverty.

He told VOA Ghana has a very big problem of corruption and the failure of the government to collect taxes strips the country of important revenue.

“That means that they do not have revenue for additional spending.So, they need to crack down seriously on corruption and on tax evasion and some of the resulting money, even a small part of it needs to be actually spent on these social protection programs,” said Alston.

In response, Ghana notes inequality often affects rapidly expanding economies such as its own. But, it says the government is committed to reducing poverty and to achieving the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating poverty by 2030.
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Second Person Dies After Ethiopian Blast

Posted on by SeeAF

Ethiopia’s health ministry says a second person has died following the blast Saturday at a political rally in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Officials say 150 people were injured in the explosion.

Ethiopia’s new reformist prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, had just finished a speech at the rally in the capital when a grenade exploded.

Abiy said the explosion was a “well orchestrated attack.”

Authorities say nine police, including the capital’s deputy chief of police, have been arrested in connection with the blast. The BBC reports the arrested police are being investigated for failing to secure the site.

 

“Love always wins. Killing others is a defeat,” Abiy said in a televised interview after the blast. “To those who tried to divide us, I want to tell you that you have not succeeded.”

Since Prime Minister Abiy took office in April, he has made major changes to the country, including releasing almost all jailed journalists, dropping charges against activists critical of the government and moving to liberalize the economy.

He has also pledged to work towards reconciliation with rival Eritrea, by implementing a long-ignored 2002 border demarcation. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki this week described the peace overtures from Ethiopia as “positive signals.”

Estifanos Afewerki, Eritrea’s ambassador to Japan, posted on Twitter Saturday his country “strongly condemns the attempt to incite violence.” He said the “demonstration for peace” was the first of its kind in the history of Ethiopia.

“For the past 100 years, hate has done a great deal of damage to us,” Abiy said at the rally, adding that more reforms are needed. “Ethiopia will be on top again, and the foundations will be love, unity and inclusivity.”

The White House said Thursday that it was encouraged by recent progress Ethiopia and Eritrea have made toward resolving their longstanding differences. A statement described the leadership of Abiy and Isaias as “courageous.”

Ethiopia’s government also says it has removed internet restrictions on 246 websites and TV channels.

Prime Minister Ahmed’s chief of staff, Fitsum Arega, announced the news on Twitter Friday, saying “freedom of expression is a foundational right.”

“A free flow of information is essential for engaged and responsible citizenry. Only a free market of ideas will lead to the truth,” he added.

The unblocked news sites include two prominent pro-opposition sites — the Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT), based in Amsterdam, and the Oromia Media Network (OMN), based in Minnesota.

Many of the unblocked news sites are run from overseas.

The media rights group, the Committee to Protect Journalists, welcomed the decision Friday.

“Allowing Ethiopians to access these news outlets is a positive sign that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is committed to delivering his promise to end Ethiopia’s censorship of the independent press,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal.

 
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