Month: July 2018

Trump Tariffs Against China Take Effect

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. tariffs against Chinese imports took effect early Friday and President Donald Trump made clear Thursday that he is prepared to sharply escalate a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

The administration started imposing tariffs at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Friday on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports, a first step in what could become an accelerating series of tariffs. China has promised a swift retaliatory strike on an equal amount of U.S. goods. 

China responds

Shortly after the tariffs took effect, China said it is “forced to make a necessary counterattack” to a U.S. tariff hike on billions of dollars of Chinese goods but gave no immediate details of possible retaliation.

 

The Commerce Ministry on Friday criticized Washington for “trade bullying” following the tariff hike that took effect at noon Beijing time in a spiraling dispute over technology policy that companies worry could chill global economic growth.

 

A ministry statement said, “the Chinese side promised not to fire the first shot, but to defend the core interests of the country and people, it is forced to make a necessary counterattack.”

 

Beijing earlier released a list of American goods targeted for possible tariff hikes including soybeans, electric cars and whiskey.

Hostilities could grow

Trump discussed the trade war Thursday with journalists who flew with him to Montana for a campaign rally. The president said U.S. tariffs on an additional $16 billion in Chinese goods are set to take effect in two weeks. 

 

After that, the hostilities could intensify: Trump said the U.S. is ready to target an additional $200 billion in Chinese imports — and then $300 billion more — if Beijing refuses to yield to U.S. demands and continues to retaliate.

That would bring the total of targeted Chinese goods to potentially $550 billion, which is more than the $506 billion in goods that China actually shipped to the United States last year.

 

The Trump administration has argued that China has deployed predatory tactics in a push to overtake U.S. technological dominance. These tactics include cyber-theft as well as requiring American companies to hand over technology in exchange for access to China’s market.
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Condo to Chick-Fil-A, Some of the Allegations Against Pruitt

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Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was the target of numerous federal ethics investigations. Allegations included the eyebrow-raising — looking to obtain a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel — and graver ones, such as accounts that he used his office to try to drum up high-dollar business opportunities for his wife.

Some of the key allegations:

THE USED MATTRESS: Pruitt directed his then-aide, Millan Hupp, to call the Trump International Hotel in Washington about buying a used mattress, Hupp told staffers of a House oversight committee, which is investigating the EPA chief. Hupp also apartment-hunted for her then-boss. Staffers also reported being asked to pick up dry cleaning, find a particular lotion and help arrange personal travel for Pruitt and his family. Federal ethics codes bar staffers from conducting personal errands for bosses.

​CHICK-FIL-A: Pruitt directed Hupp’s sister, Sydney, who also worked for him at EPA, to reach out to a senior executive at Chick-fil-A about a “business opportunity” on Pruitt’s behalf. Pruitt was interested in acquiring a franchise for the chicken restaurant for his wife. Pruitt laughed off a reporter’s questions about the matter, saying, “We love Chick-fil-A.” Federal ethics codes prohibit officials from using their office for personal gain.

SECURITY: Pruitt and the EPA cited the risk of attacks by people opposed to his policies to explain unusual and costly security decisions, including premium-class flights for Pruitt and a bodyguard and a $43,000 soundproof booth for private phone calls. He also demanded 24-hour-a-day protection by armed officers, resulting in a swollen 20-member security detail that blew through overtime budgets and racked up expenses of more than $3 million.

DC CONDO: Pruitt’s job had appeared in jeopardy since the end of March, when ABC News first reported that he leased a Capitol Hill condo last year for just $50 a night. It was co-owned by the wife of a veteran fossil fuels lobbyist whose firm had sought regulatory rollbacks from EPA. Mocking, hand-made posters soon appeared taped to telephone poles around Washington, showing a picture of a grinning Pruitt offering housing at bargain rates.

TRAVEL: Pruitt’s tenure at EPA of less than two years included trips to Italy, France and Morocco, flying premium class and moving with an entourage of EPA staffers and guards. Repeated weekend trips home to Tulsa on taxpayer-bought flights earned Pruitt negative press coverage.
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World Cup Soccer Jerseys Score as Fashion Statements   

Posted on by SeeAF

As the 2018 FIFA World Cup continues its drama-filled march to the final game on July 15, one thing is sure: Sports merchandisers are already big winners. Untold millions of fans and fashionistas have been snapping up national team jerseys to show their support.

Adidas AG’s chief executive has predicted the German company will outscore its 2014 sales for World Cup team jerseys, when it sold 8 million units, Bloomberg reports. Suggested retail prices start at $90 for adult sizes, but lower prices can be found online as teams get knocked out of competition in Russia.  

Helping to propel sales are fans such as Alex Wong, a 29-year-old tech worker. A regular customer of the New York-based soccer retailer Upper 90, he’s at its Manhattan store on Thursday afternoon after recently buying a $90 Russian team jersey there.

“I’m here at the store to have it customized,” Wong tells VOA. For another $20, he’s having forward Artem Dzyuba’s surname added to the shirt. “He scored the equalizing goal at the game on Sunday,” adds Wong, who was in Moscow to witness the 1-1 tie with Spain.

Wong, who’s “supporting Russia as the host team,” owns over 50 soccer shirts.  

Soccer enthusiasts like him have plenty of options. Each of the 32 World Cup teams has a unique jersey, designed to be instantly recognizable for its colors and patterns, as well as for its wearer’s comfort and ease.  

‘Magical world’

“So it’s a pretty magical world,” says soccer fan bon vivant and fashion commentator Simon Doonan, sifting through some of Upper 90’s World Cup jersey selections days earlier.  

In his new book, “Soccer Style: The Magic and Madness,” Doonan says that “the worlds of fashion and soccer would have made very strange bedfellows, but times have [definitely] changed.”

In the past, fans might wear a team shirt even if it wasn’t “particularly attractive,” Doonan says. “Now guys wear their shirt, but they want it to look cool … and go out to some bar or night spot and feel like Mr. Fabulous.”

This year’s runaway hit is Nigeria’s jersey, mainly lime green with a black-and-white wing motif on the sleeves.

“The Nigerian shirts are sold out around the world,” snapped up within hours of their June 1 release, Doonan says, noting that 3 million had been pre-ordered from Nike. 

“It became the cool thing that people had to have to wear with their street-style outfits. It was very flamboyant. Really fun. Daring. A lot of pattern, a lot of color. And it tweaked something in the global consciousness. 

“I think there is global interest in all things African: African culture, African music, African style,” the author added. “… These strong patterns and the bravado and boldness of it — that’s Africa.”

Exciting styles

Doonan also praises Colombia’s jersey.  

“It has these daring kind of glam-rock David Bowie lightning bolts raging that are emerging from the armpits. And it’s great. Nothing intimidates an opponent quite like saying, ‘I have magical powers in my armpits.’ This shirt is so successful on so many levels from a design point of view, and the recognition factor is off the charts.” 

He calls Brazil’s jersey “a real classic.” Above its crest are five stars: one for each time the country has brought home the World Cup, most recently in 2002. 

The design “doesn’t tend to vary hugely year to year, because they’ve got so much heritage to play with,” Doonan says, citing the legendary Pelé as well as current forward Neymar and injured right back Dani Alves. Brazil “didn’t win last time, so the pressure is on.”  

Every team has separate jerseys for “home,” the primary look, and “away,” for playing in a rival’s stadium or, as in the World Cup, avoiding confusion with an opponent’s jersey. Belgium’s “away” jersey features an argyle pattern, while Croatia’s has an elegantly muted checkerboard.

Reflection of diversity

Upper 90 carries jerseys for most of the 32 teams that made it to the playoffs in Russia. “The city matches the diversity of the type of jerseys and apparel that we carry,” says Upper 90 founder and co-owner Douglas Gatanis.  

Its top-selling jerseys are for Mexico and Colombia. 

But Upper 90’s Manhattan store manager, Robbie Baum, says he loves “the whole France collection. … The away shirt is probably my favorite — that white with the blue-and-red heathering in it. [Its] training top is really nice: that classic French mariner, white with blue stripes. Really, really clean. Beautiful shirt.”

French jerseys are much harder to spot on the streets of Dakar, Senegal, says Abdourahmane Dia, a staff reporter with VOA’s French to Africa Service. 

“It looks like a lot of people don’t want to be seen as supporting the French because they are the former colonizers,” he says. “People identify more with the African teams.”

When the national team was doing well in the early stages of competition, its red, green and gold colors were everywhere. But since Colombia knocked Senegal out of the competition with a 1-0 win last week, European team shirts have emerged. 

“There are a lot of Real Madrids, as well, sometimes because they have a lot of fans here,” Dia says. “Barcelona, Liverpool. Liverpool, mainly because of Sadio Mané, the star striker for that club and also leader of the Senegalese national team.

‘Unifying’ competition

Soccer can be a rough sport, but for author Doonan, that’s part of its mystery.

 “You get these people together and they want to kill each other and win,” he says. “But paradoxically, it is a unifying huge numbers of people to come together to watch the World Cup. So these things are going on at the same time. It’s a sweet thing, because that’s just life.”

Carol Guensburg contributed to this report, which originated with VOA’s English to Africa Division.
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Syrian Government Forces Close In on Jordanian Border

Posted on by SeeEA

Syrian government forces appear to have consolidated control over a handful of villages in the region of Daraa, near Jordan, in an apparent bid to reopen the Nasib border crossing, an economic lifeline for Damascus. Media reports say Syrian government forces now control a border checkpoint with Jordan “for the first time in three years.”

Opposition analyst Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, claimed in an interview Thursday with the BBC Arabic service that Russian warplanes and Syrian government fighter jets had “conducted 870 air raids over southern Syrian towns and villages.” Arab media said he called the raids “hysterical.”

A rebel commander in the village of Tafas claimed in an amateur video that his men were continuing to resist five days of government attacks on the village.

Tafas is along the road leading to the Nasib border crossing between Syria and Jordan. Efforts by Russian mediators to negotiate a cease-fire there reportedly failed.

Amateur video from the town of Saida purported to show at least half a dozen dead children, who rebels claimed were killed in joint Russian-Syrian air raids on the town. VOA could not independently confirm the veracity of the video. Saida is a major crossroads town on the road leading to Jordan.

In an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV, an opposition negotiator, Khaled Mouhameed, claimed that Jordan would resume efforts to broker a cease-fire with the rebel commanders on Friday. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi was in Moscow on Wednesday, where he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss Syria and other issues.

The U.N. reports that up to 320,000 people have fled towns and villages around Daraa due to the ongoing fighting between government forces and various rebel factions. Jordan has closed its border to those who have been fleeing the violence.

Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, tells VOA he thinks both the Russians and the Syrian government are eager to “consolidate gains over the south of Syria before [U.S. President Donald] Trump and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin meet” on July 25 in Helsinki.

He says the military operation to retake southern Syria is the final chapter in the liquidation of the Syrian revolution, and he thinks it is part of a broader agreement between the U.S., Israel and Russia to chase Iran and its militia allies from the southern corner of the country. He does not, however, believe it is possible to do so, arguing that Iran is “present at every level of the Syrian military apparatus.”

Reuters news agency reported Thursday that allies of the Syrian government in Lebanon are claiming that Hezbollah is participating in the operation to recapture southern Syria for the government.

Joshua Landis, who teaches at the University of Oklahoma, tells VOA he thinks “Hezbollah will play an advisory role,” but the “Syrian government has every incentive to take control of the [border with Israel],” which is close to the Jordanian border as well, “and not to allow Iran or Hezbollah to control Syria’s foreign policy by going to war with Israel on the border.”
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Zimbabwe’s President on Campaign Trail After Surviving Blast

Posted on by SeeAF

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday addressed his first campaign rally after surviving an explosion at a rally he was addressing late last month.

Youths and students are singing along to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s favorite song — “The Hero Has Arrived” — as he walks to the podium to address them. The 75-year-old said he was the only candidate with the country’s future in mind among those 23 vying for Zimbabwe’s top job on July 30.

“The government has put in place all the necessary measures to ensure that our elections are free, fair and credible,” he said. “I am aware of some little parties that are afraid of elections. But democracy has come to stay with this new dispensation.To enhance transparency in our electoral system, we have this time invited observer missions from all over the world.”

Inviting observers, especially from Western countries, was a departure from Mnangagwa’s predecessor. Robert Mugabe — whose nearly four decades at the helm ended last November after his resignation prompted by military pressure – would say western observers were biased against his ruling ZANU-PF party.

But the opposition has argued that inviting observers will not result in a credible election. It is accusing Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF party of working with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to rig the July 30 general election by withholding the voters roll to add the name of deceased persons.

At the rally Thursday, Mnangagwa did not refer to the incident about a blast that went off at the rally he was addressing last month in Bulawayo about 450 kilometers southwest of Harare.

Political commentator Rejoice Ngwenya explains why Mnangagwa was mum about the incident, which killed two people and injured about 50 more, including one of his vice presidents.

 

“It is a simple strategy. If you pretend nothing happened; you downplay its meaning, connotation and its depth. So he is deliberately downplaying it so that he doesn’t focus attention on his threats and weaknesses. He would rather focus his attention on his strengths. He is presenting himself not as a cry baby but as a hard-core guy who has gone through these experiences and who just wanted to pretend it is not serious,” said Ngwenya.

For a man affectionately known as “The Crocodile,” that probably suits his description. In the general election due in three weeks, Mnangagwa locks horns with 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance — a coalition of opposition parties, among other 21 presidential aspirants.

 

 

 

 
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Russia Fines RFE/RL Over Alleged ‘Foreign-Agent’ Violations

Posted on by SeeEU

A court in Russia has fined Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) for allegedly failing to comply with a Russian law regulating media outlets branded by the government as “foreign agents.”
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Turkish PM Signals End to Controversial Emergency Rule

Posted on by SeeEU

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has indicated the end of emergency rule before it expires two weeks from now, on July 19.

“I suppose the government will be announced on Monday, the Cabinet will start work, and an emergency rule will have ended,” Yildirim said in an interview with the state news agency Anadolu.

As a result of the June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections, Turkey moves to a powerful executive presidency. The role of the prime minister will end, and ministers will report directly to the president. During his campaign for re-election, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would end emergency rule.

 

Parliament introduced emergency rule after a July 15, 2016, coup attempt. The measure allowed the president to rule by decree and extended sweeping powers to security forces.

The announcement has been cautiously welcomed by rights groups. “Lifting of the state of the emergency is a positive step,” U.S.-based Human Rights Watch senior Turkey researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb said.

“But it’s only beginning because there need to be bold measures taken to provide redress to the hundreds of thousands of people who’ve been deprived of their rights under the state of emergency,” added Sinclair-Webb.

Under the emergency rule, about 200,000 people have been purged from their jobs, and tens of thousands of others detained. Sinclair-Webb said only a thousand or so people had been reinstated in their positions by a body set up to review cases.

Analysts see the ending of emergency rule as a politically shrewd move. “The polls do show a majority of Turks do want emergency rule to be lifted, around 65 percent,” said Sinan Ulgen, head of the Edam research group in Istanbul. “People want to go back to normalcy, so it’s understandable there is this aspiration to lift emergency rule.”

Continued ‘rule by decree’

Ulgen suggests that ending emergency rule could prove to be more cosmetic than meaningful.

“Under the new presidential system, they (ruling AKP) may not need emergency rule, given the president can continue to rule by decree.  There will not be emergency rule decrees, but executive decrees under the new presidential system.”

The new presidential system comes into effect Monday when Erdogan takes the oath of office. He will then be allowed to issue decrees with the force of law.

Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish HDP party has reservations about the impact of lifting emergency rule.

“I don’t think there will be any change,” HDP honorary president Ertugrul Kurkcu said. “Looking at the legislation introduced, in particular the Domestic Security Act, it gives them (security forces) all the necessary powers without declaring a state of emergency.”

Emergency rule initially targeted followers of the U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for the attempted coup.  But the extraordinary powers have also been used against the HDP, Turkey’s second-largest opposition party. The government accuses the pro-Kurdish party of having links to the PKK, which has been waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey for decades.

Under emergency rule, thousands of HDP activists and officials have been jailed.

New security measures will be introduced before the emergency rule ends. “The last decree law will include necessary regulations in order to avoid weakness in the fight against terrorism in the period when the state of emergency is lifted,” Yildirim said.

Mixed views

HDP’s Kurkcu warns even if some draconian powers end, the mentality created under special powers will likely continue. “The state of emergency, which blanketed the country for two years, will leave behind a security approach for every issue; in order for us to leave this behind will take much time,” Kurkcu said.

Critics say emergency rule has been used by the government to intimidate opponents, a charge it denies.  

Some observers argue even if the ending of emergency rule offers the return of few freedoms and rights, its passing is still significant.  “It can be more important symbolically,” said a prominent newspaper columnist who requested anonymity.  “It created an atmosphere of oppression. Even if things don’t change much on the ground, its ending can psychologically be significant, especially for opponents and critics,” the columnist added.

 

The ending of emergency rule is also likely to boost Ankara’s efforts to repair its relations with the European Union. The bloc has strongly criticized the crackdown and repeatedly called for it to be ended.

 

Next week, Erdogan is due to meet with key European leaders when he attends a NATO summit in Brussels.

 
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Britain: Nerve Agent That Sickened Couple Identical to Skripal Poisoning

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Britain’s interior minister says the nerve agent that sickened a man and a woman is the same type used in an attack earlier this year on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

“This has been identified as the same nerve agent that contaminated both Yulia and Sergei Skripal,” Sajid Javid said Thursday.  He said it is not clear at this time whether the nerve agent that poisoned the British couple, identified by friends as 44-year old Dawn Sturgess and 45-year old Charlie Rowley, is from the exact same batch used in the attack on the Skripals.

The couple was was found unconscious Saturday in Amesbury, 13 kilometers from Salisbury, where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found in March.

Security Minister Ben Wallace told the BBC on Thursday investigators believe the new exposure is a result of the March incident and not a new attack directed at Sturgess and Rowley.  

The unexpected poisoning of the couple, with no known link to Russia, has raised public concerns in the Salisbury area. Health officials say the risk to the public is low.

Britain has blamed Russia for poisoning the Skripals with Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.  

Wallace called on Russia to share information about the poisoning.

 

Russia has denied any involvement and instead has claimed that Britain itself was to blame for the attack, in an attempt to stoke anti-Russian sentiments.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on British law enforcement authorities at a briefing Thursday “not to get involved in dirty political games” that “Theresa May’s government has stirred up” and demanded an apology from Britain.

Earlier Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “the British government has not presented any evidence of Russia’s involvement in this, besides unfounded accusations.”

The Kremlin also said Thursday it had offered to help Britain with the Skripal investigation, but that Britain had declined.

 

The incident prompted the biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold war as the United States and Britain’s European allies sided with London in blaming Moscow.
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Kenyan Government Suppliers Go Unpaid as Corruption Depletes State Coffers

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Kenya’s government is failing to pay many of its contractors on time, as corruption drains funds for legitimate projects from state coffers, suppliers and officials say.

The late payments are in turn hitting the financial sector, where non-performing loans have jumped this year to their highest level in more than a decade.

The alleged link between corruption and non-payment of government invoices was made explicit in May, when dozens of officials and business people were charged with involvement in the theft of nearly $100 million of public funds.

They are accused of using doctored invoices to bill fake suppliers.

Asked about the difficulties that contractors were facing, Finance Minister Henry Rotich admitted that late payments by the state were an issue.

“This is a problem which we are obviously addressing. It is important that we ensure there is prompt payment both at national government and at the county government,” he told Reuters.

The government had drawn up new regulations requiring payments be made within 60 days of goods or services being supplied, he said.

President Uhuru Kenyatta pledged to stamp out graft when he was first elected in 2013, but critics say he has been slow to pursue top officials and ministers.

Former anti-graft chief Philip Kinisu told Reuters in 2016 that Kenya was losing a third of its state budget to corruption every year. The government denied the figure.

Too much trouble?

Many Kenyan small and medium-sized businesses bid for government contracts because the state is the biggest spender in the country.

But some have decided that the financial pain that comes with years-late payments on everything from PR campaigns to supplies of construction materials is too much to bear.

Five business people who have contracts with the government say they and others have ended up blacklisted by credit reference bureaux after falling behind on loan repayments or defaulting.

“No bank wants to finance you any more especially if you have a contract from the government,” said one small business owner who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second supplier said: “You get disrupted in the middle of (the contract) …either because you are not speaking to the right people, making commitments to the right people, or your payments may just be delayed.”

George Muiruri, managing director of Leakey’s auctioneers, says repossessions among government suppliers had increased. “They are financially stuck,” he said, adding he was dealing with at least one such case every day.

Central bank governor Patrick Njoroge said in late May that delayed payments to suppliers, the bulk contracted by the government, made up 10 percent of the total volume of bad loans.

Such loans stood at 12.4 percent of the total in April, the highest level in more than a decade.

The central bank’s monetary policy committee cut its benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points in March, saying economic growth was well below its potential.

 

 
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Illegal Cigarette Trade Costing S. Africa $510 mln a Year

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South Africa has become one of the biggest markets for illegal cigarette sales and is losing out on 7 billion rand ($514 million) a year in potential tax revenue, a report funded by a tobacco industry group said on Thursday.

The study carried out by Ipsos found illegal cigarette trade spiked between 2014 and 2017 after a probe into the underground industry was dropped by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) under suspended commissioner Tom Moyane.

Moyane, an ally of former President Jacob Zuma, is the main focus of an ongoing SARS commission of inquiry over allegations of widespread corruption at the tax agency under his watch. He denies any wrongdoing.

Former head of enforcement at SARS, Gene Ravele, told the inquiry last week the decision to drop the investigation into illegal tobacco trade was intended to let it continue.

“After I left [in 2015], there was no inspections at cigarette factories. It was planned,” said Ravele.

A packet of cigarettes should incur a minimum tax of 17.85 rand ($1.31), yet packs are sold on the black market for as little as 5 rand as manufacturers dodge official sales channels to avoid paying tax, the Ipsos study found.

Three-quarters of all South Africa’s informal vendors — totaling 100,000 — sell illegal cigarettes in an industry that was worth 15 billion rand ($1.10 billion) over the last three years, the report said.

“Independent superettes, corner cafes and general dealers are the key channels for ultra-cheap brands, with hawkers providing a key entry point, mainly through the loose cigarette sales,” Ipsos head of measurement Zibusiso Ngulube said. “These manufacturers are perfectly primed to continue to grow at a fast rate.”

The study was funded by The Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa, which includes arms of global manufacturers like Philip Morris International, Alliance One and British American Tobacco.
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Fair Game? Lions Eat Poachers on S. Africa Reserve

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At least three suspected poachers who were apparently hunting for rhinos have been mauled to death and eaten by lions on a game reserve in South Africa, the owner said on Thursday.

The men entered the Sibuya Game Reserve on the southeast coast armed with a high-powered rifle and an axe in the early hours of Monday and were found dismembered the following day.

“They strayed into a pride of lions — it’s a big pride so they didn’t have too much time,” reserve owner Nick Fox, 60, told AFP.

“We’re not sure how many there were — there’s not much left of them.

“There seems to be clothing for three people. I’ve not heard of it before in our area.”

Police forensics officers were on the scene conducting tests on the remains of the victims, Fox added.

“We went in yesterday — I got our vet to dart [anaesthetise] all the lions,” he said.

“I think we had a stroke of luck here that the lions got to them before they got to the rhinos.”

“We lost three rhino in March 2016.”

Fewer than 25,000 rhinos remain in the wild in Africa due to a surge in poaching.

Rhinos are targeted to feed booming demand for rhino horn in China, Vietnam and other Asian countries, where it is believed to have medicinal qualities.

Fox said that the reserve was still open to guests despite the incident.

“It’s still business as usual, it doesn’t change anything we do,” he said.

“The comments on our Facebook are all talking about karma and warnings.”
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Israeli Minister Warns Syria Not to Move Forces Into Border Zone

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An Israeli cabinet minister warned Syria on Thursday that Israel could attack Syrian forces if they were deployed in a border zone subject to a 44-year-old U.N. demilitarization agreement, building on their rout of Syrian rebels in the region.

Backed by Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched an offensive last month to regain the southern Deraa region, driving thousands of refugees toward the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel reinforced its tanks and artillery there as a precaution.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week, called on Sunday for the preservation of a 1974 Israeli-Syrian armistice barring or limiting military build-ups by either side around the Golan.

“We must verify and do everything to clarify, vis-a-vis the Russians, the Assad government, that we will not accept any armed presence by the Assad regime in the areas which are meant to be demilitarized,” Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told the news site Ynet on Thursday.

Asked if Israel was prepared to take preventive action against the Syrian military, Erdan said: “Unequivocally, yes.”

He cited, as precedents, Israeli air strikes carried out in recent months against Syrian facilities deemed to have been used in attacks on Israel or by Assad’s Iranian reinforcements.

“Here, too, if there is a violation, and certainly in the southern Syrian region which is close to the citizens of the State of Israel, and a bringing of weaponry that should not be there, Israel will take action,” Erdan said.

A March report on the activities of the U.N. Disengagement and Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan said Syria’s military maintained positions which violated the 1974 accord, as did Israel’s deployment of 155 mm artillery, Iron Dome anti-missile systems and related equipment.

Israel captured much of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognized abroad.

Neighboring Jordan also feels threatened by the Deraa offensive, which the United Nations says has displaced more than 320,000 people and which is expected to roll on towards the rebel-held parts of Quneitra province close to the Golan frontier.

Amman brokered truce talks between Syrian rebels and Russia but they broke down this week.

 
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Merkel Would Back Cutting EU Tariffs on US Car Imports

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday she would back lowering European Union tariffs on U.S. car imports, responding to an offer from Washington to abandon threatened levies on European cars in return for concessions.

“When we want to negotiate tariffs, on cars for example, we need a common European position and we are still working on it,” Merkel said.

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened last month to impose a 20-percent import tariff on all EU-assembled vehicles, which could upend the industry’s current business model for selling cars in the United States.

According to an industry source, the U.S. ambassador to Germany told German car bosses from BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen at a meeting on Wednesday that Trump could abandon such threats if the EU scrapped duties on U.S. cars imported into the bloc.

Merkel said any move to cut tariffs on U.S. vehicles would require reductions on those imported from other countries to conform with World Trade Organization rules.

“I would be ready to support negotiations on reducing tariffs, but we would not be able to do this only with the U.S.,” she said.

German automotive trade body VDA said any suggestions about mutually removing tariffs and other trade barriers were positive signals.

“But it is clear that the negotiations are exclusively being held at a political level,” it said in a statement.

Current U.S. import tariff rates on cars are 2.5 percent and on trucks 25 percent. The EU has a 10 percent levy on car imports from the United States.

Trump hit the EU, Canada and Mexico with tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum at the start of June, ending exemptions that had been in place since March.

The EU executive responded by imposing its own import duties of 25 percent on a range of U.S. goods, including steel and aluminum products, farm produce such as sweetcorn and peanuts, bourbon, jeans and motor-bikes.

Trump’s protectionist trade policies, which also target Chinese imports, have raised fears of a full-blown and protracted trade war that threatens to damage the world economy.

 

 

 
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Theresa May Pins Hopes on New Brexit Plan as Businesses Fret

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British Prime Minister Theresa May’s office disclosed details Thursday of a plan for customs ties with the European Union that she hopes will unite warring pro-Brexit and pro-EU factions of her Conservative government.

Whether it will get the approval of the bloc is another matter.

May’s Cabinet is due to meet Friday at Chequers, the prime minister’s country retreat, in hopes of finally agreeing on a plan for future trade ties that Britain can put to the EU. With just nine months to go until the U.K. leaves the bloc in March, EU leaders have warned Britain that they must present detailed plans soon or risk crashing out without a trade deal.

That prospect alarms manufacturers and other businesses, who warn they could abandon Britain if the EU and the U.K. cannot strike a deal.

Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover warned Thursday it would reconsider 80 billion pounds ($106 billion) of investment in the U.K. if the government failed to negotiate a deal that protects free trade with the EU.

“We urgently need greater certainty to continue to invest heavily in the U.K. and safeguard our suppliers, customers, and 40,000 British-based employees,” Chief Executive Ralf Speth said.

His comments follow similar warnings from BMW and Airbus.

May’s Cabinet is split between pro-EU ministers, including Treasury chief Philip Hammond, who want to retain close economic ties with the bloc and its market of 500 million people, and pro-Brexit lawmakers such as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who want a clean break so Britain can strike new trade deals around the world.

A powerful group of pro-Brexit Conservative lawmakers have warned May she could be toppled by her own party if she opts for a compromise Brexit that keeps Britain closely aligned to EU rules.

One of the thorniest issues concerns the border between Britain’s Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – the U.K.’s only land frontier with an EU member. Britain has promised to maintain an invisible border, free of customs posts and other infrastructure. EU officials are impatient to hear detailed proposals from Britain for how that can be achieved, given May’s insistence that Britain will leave the EU’s customs union.

The proposal May will present to Cabinet on Friday – dubbed a “facilitated customs arrangement” – calls for the U.K. to use technology at its borders to determine whether goods are bound for Britain or the EU, and charge the appropriate tariffs. It would also commit Britain to keeping its regulations closely aligned to those of the EU.

That would not go down well with pro-Brexit ministers who say it would limit Britain’s ability to strike its trade deals with non-EU countries.

There is also a big question mark over whether the EU would accept any such proposals. Officials in the bloc have repeatedly warned that Britain cannot “cherry pick” benefits of membership, such as access to the customs union and single market, without accepting the responsibilities that come with being in the bloc, including allowing free movement of EU citizens to the U.K.

May was meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday as she tries to build support for her plans among EU leaders.
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Unemployment Among Saudis Hits Record 12.9 %

Posted on by SeeEA

Unemployment among Saudi citizens edged up to a record 12.9 percent in the first quarter of this year as private employers struggled under the weight of a new tax and a domestic fuel price hike, official data showed on Thursday.

The figures underlined the difficulties which the government faces as it pushes through reforms to reduce the economy’s reliance on oil exports.

The reforms aim to develop non-oil industries and create jobs, but they also involve austerity steps to close a big state budget deficit; a 5 percent value-added tax was imposed at the start of 2018. The austerity is hurting many private companies.

The first-quarter unemployment rate was the highest recorded by the official statistics agency in data going back to 1999. It exceeded the 12.8 percent level which had prevailed for the previous three quarters.

Authorities are keen to lure more Saudis, especially Saudi women, into the labor force to make the economy more efficient and reduce the government’s financial burden.

The latest data showed little progress in that area, however, with the number of Saudi job seekers falling to 1.07 million in the first quarter from 1.09 million in the previous quarter, even as the number of employed Saudis also declined.

The figures revealed a continued exodus of hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from Saudi Arabia because of the weak economy and hikes in fees which companies must pay the government to hire expatriates.

The number of foreigners employed in the kingdom shrank to 10.18 million from 10.42 million in the previous quarter and 10.85 million in the first quarter of 2017 – a drop which is slowing the economy by hurting consumer demand.

Saudi gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, grew 1.2 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter of 2018, beginning to recover after shrinking in 2017, figures released earlier this week showed.

But the rebound was largely due to stabilizing oil output, and economists expect the oil sector to lead growth later this year with non-oil businesses expanding only modestly – a trend that may keep unemployment high.

 
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1968 Exhibit Looks Back at Tumultuous Year in US

Posted on by SeeUS

The year 1968 was a time of great social and political upheaval in America. Coincidentally, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington also opened to the public that year. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the museum is presenting a time capsule of that important period and the cultural icons who shaped it. The exhibit is especially timely as the nation once again grapples with political and social turmoil. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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Iran’s OPEC Boss: Trump’s Tweets Have Added $10 to Oil Prices

Posted on by SeeEA

U.S. President Donald Trump, who recently called on OPEC producers to help reduce oil prices, has raised prices through his tweets, Iranian OPEC Governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili was quoted as saying by news agency SHANA on Thursday.

“Your tweets have increased the prices by at least $10. Please stop this method,” the oil ministry news agency quoted Kazempour Ardebili as saying.

Kazempour Ardebili said Trump was trying to intensify tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia and he called on the United States to join world powers in a meeting with Iran in Vienna on Friday.

Foreign ministers from the five remaining signatories of a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers will meet Iranian officials in Vienna to discuss how to keep the accord alive after the U.S. withdrawal from the pact.

Strait of Hormuz threat

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday their forces were ready to implement Iran’s threat to block the Strait of Hormuz and that if Iran cannot sell its oil under the U.S. pressure, no other regional country will be allowed to.

“We are hopeful that this plan expressed by our president will be implemented if needed … We will make the enemy understand that either all can use the Strait of Hormuz or no one,” Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp, was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.
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ICC Issues Second Warrant for Libyan Commander Over Killings

Posted on by SeeEA

Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday issued a second arrest warrant for Mahmoud al-Werfalli, a Libyan National Army (LNA) commander accused of executing dozens of prisoners.

The court said it had reasons to believe that Werfalli had personally “shot dead 10 persons in front of the Bi’at al-Radwan Mosque in Benghazi, Libya”, on Jan. 24, saying it would be the eighth such incident in which he is accused of committing murder as a war crime.

In August last year the court issued its first arrest warrant for Werfalli for the murders of 33 people in seven other earlier incidents. It said he was accused of either personally carrying out those killings, or ordering the commission of them.

Earlier this year, video emerged which purportedly showed Werfalli personally shooting dead 10 blindfolded prisoners at the scene of a car bombing in Benghazi in January.

In February he handed himself in to military authorities in eastern Libya because of the ICC investigation, but was released a day later, according to a military source.

A spokesman for the LNA said in March Werfalli would not be handed over to the ICC, because of the “integrity and strictness” of the Libyan justice system.

The LNA is the dominant force in eastern Libya. It rejects the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and is aligned with a separate government based in the east.

The ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes in Libya after a referral by the United Nations Security Council in 2011 and has been investigating alleged atrocities there.

 
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Ford Says No Plans for Now to Hike China Prices

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U.S. car maker Ford Motor Co said on Thursday it has no plans currently to hike retail prices of its imported Ford and Lincoln models in China, despite steep additional tariffs on imported U.S. vehicles set to come into play on Friday.

The firm, which has been facing sluggish sales in the world’s largest auto market, said in a statement “it has no current plans to increase the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) on its import line-up in China.”

Ford is the first foreign automaker to address pricing issues ahead of the new tariffs that will affect around $34 billion of U.S. imports from soybeans and cars to lobsters.

China, which just days ago cut tariffs on all imported automobiles, has said that it will slap an additional 25 percent levy on 545 American products, including U.S.-made cars, should the Trump administration go ahead with plans to implement tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports from July 6.

Ford added it encouraged Washington and Beijing to resolve their issues over trade and that it would “continue to monitor the situation as it evolves.”

 
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Call-to-Listen Radio, A Respite for African Immigrants

Posted on by SeeUS

For the millions of first-generation immigrants in the United States, whose native languages aren’t common on the streets of New York or any other U.S. community, staying connected to local news and culture can be challenging. But across Diaspora communities, call-to-listen radio programming is designed to fill this need and offer a respite from day-to-day hardships as immigrants, including the undocumented. VOA’s Ramon Taylor has this report from New York.
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Sanctioned Russian Oligarch Linked to Cohen has Vast US Ties

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Long before Viktor Vekselberg was tied to a scandal over the president and a porn star, the Russian oligarch had been positioning himself to extend his influence in the United States.

Working closely with an American cousin who heads the New York investment management firm Columbus Nova, Vekselberg backed a $1.6 million lobbying campaign to aid Russian interests in Washington. His cousin Andrew Intrater served as CEO of a Vekselberg company on that project, and the two men have collaborated on numerous other investments involving Vekselberg’s extensive holdings.

 

Now, Intrater’s investment firm is wrestling with the fallout from financial sanctions the U.S. Treasury Department lodged in April against Vekselberg, one of a group of oligarchs tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

Columbus Nova has insisted it only managed Vekselberg’s vast assets. But an Associated Press review of legal and securities filings shows that the cousins sometimes collaborated in a more deeply entwined business relationship than was previously known.

 

Spokesmen for Columbus Nova have told the AP that the firm’s business relationship with Vekselberg has been indefinitely halted by the sanctions, which targeted Russian oligarchs accused by Treasury of playing “a key role in advancing Russia’s malign activities.”

 

All Vekselberg assets in the U.S. are frozen and U.S. companies forbidden from doing business with him and his entities. The deadline to sever those relationships was June 4, but talks between Columbus Nova and the government are continuing, the firm’s spokesmen said. A Treasury Department spokesman declined to comment.

 

The Columbus Nova spokesmen said the firm is also seeking permission from Treasury to retrieve any assets entwined with Vekselberg’s Renova Group, which the U.S. firm has called “its biggest client.”

 

Extricating Columbus Nova’s holdings from Vekselberg’s is not so simple. The sanctions apply to all assets in which Vekselberg has more than a 50 percent stake — including some investment funds managed by Columbus Nova in which the firm has an ownership interest, the spokesmen said. They discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ongoing discussions.

 

A Russian citizen who has had a U.S. green card and homes in New York and Connecticut, Vekselberg once told an American diplomat he felt “half-American.” Vekselberg heads the Renova Group, a global conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets that is based in Moscow.

 

He wields an estimated $13 billion fortune that supports Silicon Valley startups, programs at a California state park, a Western-themed resort amid the Joshua trees near Scottsdale, Arizona — and a loan to a Baptist church in Savannah, Georgia.

 

“I think all along Vekselberg thought a big chunk of his life was going to be anchored here in the United States and he, like other Russia businessmen, has made strategic investments in his philanthropic work to be in better standing here,” said former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.

 

Vekselberg also has cemented tech deals using a Kremlin-funded foundation — raising national security concerns years before special counsel Robert Mueller began probing contacts between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian intermediaries. His opaque corporate structure, which includes an array of hard-to-trace shell companies, has fallen under Mueller’s scrutiny, according to several media reports.

 

Vekselberg hired Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen as a consultant in January 2017, just months after Cohen paid off the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels, who has alleged she had an affair with Trump.

 

But some experts familiar with Vekselberg’s financial holdings wonder if the government is adequately tracking his U.S. assets, let alone the companies or foundations managing his money under other names.

 

“Given how hidden these companies are in a network of shell companies, it is entirely possible that Vekselberg has a majority stake in businesses that are still functioning in the United States that the government doesn’t even know about,” said Peter Harrell, a sanctions expert and former deputy assistant secretary at the State Department.

 

Vekselberg’s spokesman, Andrey Shtorkh, did not detail how the billionaire was addressing the sanctions. Shtorkh stressed that the oligarch did not create or control Columbus Nova and gave up his green card more than a decade ago.

 

“It quickly became obvious that he had little time for more than brief visits to the United States,” Shtorkh said.

 

Making Western inroads

 

Vekselberg was born in what is the modern-day Ukraine, and built his fortune investing in aluminum and oil, taking advantage of the privatization of state companies after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.

 

The 61-year-old billionaire burnished his reputation in the West in 2010 when he was appointed president of the Skolkovo Foundation, a nonprofit initiative funded by the Russian government and private investors to build a high-technology research hub aimed at luring digital entrepreneurs to Russia.

 

While Putin and Vekselberg have not always been strongly allied, the project now appears to have the Russian president’s backing. In January, Putin highlighted a Skolkovo effort as the type of “forward-looking projects” that would receive government support. In a June 2017 meeting at the Kremlin, Putin praised Skolkovo’s work.

 

In June 2010, Vekselberg traveled to Silicon Valley with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to try to gain a foothold for the Skolkovo Foundation. He signed a deal with Cisco CEO John Chambers for Cisco to invest $1 billion over 10 years in Skolkovo projects and met with Russian expatriates who urged him to set up a Skolkovo office nearby.

 

Skolkovo appeared to be a family concern. When members of the same expatriate association gathered in Manhattan to promote U.S. venture capital investment in Russia, the featured speakers included Intrater. And in a presentation dated June 2013 on Skolkovo’s website, Columbus Nova was described as one of several corporate venture funds financing Skolkovo participants. The foundation declined to comment, deferring to Shtorkh, who said that Vekselberg did not have control over the foundation’s decisions.

 

In 2011, an office near Stanford University was established for the Skolkovo Foundation and two sister funds, amid President Barack Obama’s call for a “reset” in Russia relations.

 

Vekselberg also spawned another foundation to benefit Fort Ross, a California state park that was once a Russian settlement. The foundation and affiliates donated at least $3.2 million to the park’s programs and activities between 2010 and 2017, according to the foundation’s website.

 

As Obama’s effort to reboot diplomatic relations sputtered, federal officials began raising alarms about the Skolkovo Foundation’s ties to Putin.

 

The FBI’s Boston division gave tech startups a frank warning in an April 2014 column published in a trade journal.

 

“The foundation may be a means for the Russian government to access our nation’s sensitive or classified research, development facilities and dual-use technologies,” wrote Lucia Ziobro, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office.

 

Spotlight grows 

Media attention zeroed in on Vekselberg and Intrater in May when Michael Avenatti, the attorney for porn actress Stormy Daniels, released a memo claiming the cousins routed about $500,000 through Columbus Nova to a shell company set up by Trump attorney Cohen.

 

Avenatti claimed that just before the 2016 presidential election, Cohen used the same shell company, Essential Consultants LLC, to pay the adult film star $130,000 to keep silent about her allegation of a one-night stand with Trump a decade earlier.

 

Eleven days before Trump’s inauguration, Vekselberg and Intrater jointly met with Cohen, one of several meetings between Trump intimates and high-level Russians during the 2016 campaign and transition. During the meeting in Cohen’s office in Trump Tower, Vekselberg and Cohen discussed U.S.-Russia affairs, said a person familiar with the meeting who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the session.

 

According to financial records reviewed by the AP, the meeting occurred the same month that Intrater’s firm began making payments to Cohen’s LLC that totaled $500,000, delivered in eight installments ending in August 2017.

 

In a statement on its website, Columbus Nova denied that Vekselberg played any role in its payments to Cohen.

 

Intrater’s firm, which described itself in a company website entry as “a multi-strategy investment firm managing over $15 billion of assets,” has handled Vekselberg’s financial holdings for nearly two decades, company spokesmen say.

 

But as far back as 2000 — during Columbus Nova’s start up — Intrater also worked for Vekselberg as CEO of a subsidiary of the Russian’s Renova Group conglomerate. Between 2000 and 2004, the New York-based subsidiary, Renova Inc., commissioned a Washington lobbying firm to work for both Vekselberg and Russian interests.

 

Shtorkh acknowledged Renova Inc. is owned by the billionaire. According to a lobbying contract reviewed by AP and validated by spokesmen for Columbus Nova, Intrater served as Renova Inc.’s CEO for at least three years even as he built up his own investment firm.

 

The Columbus Nova spokesmen described Renova Inc. as a “rep firm,” a marketing company that represented Vekselberg’s conglomerate in the U.S. They added that Intrater took on his Renova Inc. role as a client service to Vekselberg as part of his asset management role for the Russian.

 

In April 2001, Intrater signed a contract with Washington lobbying firm Carmen Group Inc., representing the Vekselberg company. The lobbying firm said in congressional filings that it had been hired to “encourage trade and cultural exchanges between the United States and Russia.”

 

The contract also said the Carmen Group was hired to “organize congressional and other high-level U.S. government delegations to meet with foreign government and business leaders abroad and in the U.S.” Columbus Nova spokesmen said no U.S. delegations were brought to Russia.

 

Carmen Group was paid $1.58 million; a spokeswoman for the lobbying firm declined to detail its work.

 

While the Columbus Nova spokesmen acknowledged Intrater has served on advisory boards of several companies where Vekselberg owed majority stakes, they said Intrater took those positions because of his role managing assets for Columbus Nova.

 

Intrater joined the board of one such firm in the mid-2000s, becoming a director — and briefly, chairman — of an American cable company that transformed into a Moscow-based firm after a Vekselberg-financed takeover. Between 2004 and 2007, the cousins teamed up in the acquisition of Moscow CableCom Corp., a U.S.-based cable company once known as the Andersen Group that now serves several Russian cities.

 

Intrater joined the board after Columbus Nova routed $51 million from the New York firm’s investors to Moscow Cablecom the cable firm in 2004. That same year, Vekselberg’s Renova Group took a stake. By July 2007, Vekselberg’s company had financed the cable firm’s acquisition in an estimated $152 million deal.

 

Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission list both Vekselberg and Intrater as key figures in the cable firm acquisition. But Columbus Nova representatives said that some filings made by the now-defunct Moscow CableCom Corp contained errors, including overstating the role of a Columbus Nova corporate entity in one round of investments.

 

Winding down assets

 

Vekselberg’s unfettered access to the U.S. withered when his assets in America were frozen under sanctions April 6, causing him nearly $1 billion in losses, Forbes estimated.

 

The Treasury Department included a Russia-based corporate entity owned or controlled by Vekselberg in its sanctions, but warned that the list shouldn’t be viewed as a complete inventory of companies linked to the oligarch.

 

Two of Vekselberg’s largest companies — Renova Management AG and the engineering firm Sulzer, both based in Switzerland — swiftly and publicly corrected course to lessen his control or financial interests.

 

Some entities associated with the oligarch in the United States have been less forthcoming.

 

Shtorkh said Vekselberg is an investor in a venture fund called Maxfield Capital, which lists a San Francisco office on its website. A Maxfield Capital representative in Russia said the fund was taking steps to fully comply with sanctions requirements, but offered no specifics.

 

“Vekselberg’s money directly or indirectly represents quite a hefty chunk of all assets under management,” said Michael Minkevich, who managed deals for the fund in Silicon Valley until January. “They definitely need to find some way to cut any ties.”

 

Shtorkh said Vekselberg had a limited partnership interest in the Cayman Islands-based fund and did not have control over Maxfield Capital.

 

As for Vekselberg’s park foundation, its director did not respond to emails or voicemails.

 

Sarah Sweedler, president of another nonprofit that received funding from Vekselberg’s foundation to run programming at Fort Ross, said her group has no outstanding business with the foundation and has not communicated with its staff since the sanctions hit.

 

Vekselberg also has ties to two other foundations operating in the U.S. The Link of Times Foundation USA Inc. did not respond to voicemails or emails seeking comment, and the administrator of the Mariinsky Foundation of America Inc. said Vekselberg was removed from the board of directors last year.

 

The Skolkovo Foundation’s activities have not been disrupted by U.S. sanctions, Shtorkh added.

 

Sean Kane, a former senior official with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said it was unusual but not unprecedented for a sanctioned person to have such extensive personal and business relationships inside the United States.

 

OFAC regulations require companies to do their own checking to ensure they aren’t doing business with sanctioned entities. But Kane said that problems sometimes surface years later because it is so difficult to unravel complex corporate structures.

 

Kane, who now is in private practice in Washington, said that “nobody has the time or resources to be tracking how these people are moving their money 24/7. Any entanglements that U.S. foundations and companies have with sanctioned individuals such as Vekselberg will need to be looked at very carefully.”
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Protester’s Climb Shuts Down Statue of Liberty on July 4

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A protest against U.S. immigration policy forced the evacuation of the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July, with a group unfurling a banner from the pedestal and a woman holding police at bay for hours after she climbed the base and sat by the statue’s robes.

The woman and at least a half-dozen demonstrators who displayed the banner were arrested, while the climb forced thousands of visitors to leave the iconic American symbol on the nation’s birthday.

 

About 100 feet (30 meters) above ground, the woman engaged in a four-hour standoff with police before two officers climbed up to the base and went over to her. With the dramatic scene unfolding on live television, she and the officers edged carefully around the statue toward a ladder, and she climbed down about 25 feet (8 meters) to the monument’s observation point and was taken into custody.

 

The woman, Therese Okoumou, told police she was protesting the separation of immigrant children from parents who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, according to a federal official who was briefed on what happened but wasn’t authorized to discuss it and spoke on the condition of anonymity. A message left at a possible phone number for Okoumou wasn’t immediately returned.

 

The climber was among about 40 demonstrators who earlier unfurled a banner calling for abolishing the federal government’s chief immigration enforcement agency, said Jay W. Walker, an organizer with Rise and Resist, which arranged the demonstration.

 

Walker said the other demonstrators had no idea the woman would make the ascent, which wasn’t part of the planned protest.

 

“We don’t know whether she had this planned before she ever got to Liberty Island or whether it was a spur-of-the-moment decision,” Walker said.

 

Regardless, he said he felt the publicity would help the group’s cause.

 

A spokesman for the National Park Service, which runs the monument, saw it differently.

 

“I feel really sorry for those visitors today” who had to leave or couldn’t come, spokesman Jerry Willis said. “People have the right to speak out. I don’t think they have the right to co-opt the Statue of Liberty to do it.”

 

The climber ascended from the observation point, Willis said. Visitors were forced to leave Liberty Island hours before its normal 6:15 p.m. closing time, he said.

 

Earlier and farther below, at least six people were taken into custody after unfurling a banner that read “Abolish I.C.E.,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose officers arrest and deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, among other duties.

 

Willis said federal regulations prohibit hanging banners from the monument.

 

Rise and Resist opposes President Donald Trump’s administration and advocates ending deportations and family separations at the border.

 

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said the president’s immigration policy is a step forward for public safety.

 

Under Trump’s zero-tolerance policy, the government has begun requiring border agents to arrest and prosecute anyone caught entering the country illegally. That resulted in more than 2,000 children being separated from their parents within six weeks this spring.

 

Under public pressure, Trump later halted his policy of taking children from their detained parents. A federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration late last month to reunite the more than 2,000 children with their parents in 30 days.

 

“Abolish ICE” has become a rallying cry at protests around the country and for some Democratic officeholders seeking to boost their progressive credentials. But Trump, a Republican, said on Twitter last week that abolishing ICE will “never happen!”

 

The Statue of Liberty has long been a welcoming symbol for immigrants and refugees coming to the U.S. It also has been a setting for protests and other actions that forced evacuations.

 

Last February, someone hung a banner reading “Refugees Welcome” from the observation deck. The sign was taken down about an hour after being discovered.  

A year earlier, a West Virginia man was sentenced to time served after calling in a bomb threat that forced the evacuation of Liberty Island, sending 3,200 people on boats back to lower Manhattan and New Jersey.

 

In 2000, 12 people protesting the Navy’s use of the Puerto Rican Island of Vieques for bombing exercises were arrested after a man climbed out on the spires of the statue’s crown and attached flags and banners to it.
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Iranians Say Water Still Dirty in South Despite Quick-Fix Pledge

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Residents of southwestern Iran say their water supplies have been dangerously polluted for days despite pledges by Iranian authorities to quickly resolve the problem.

Residents of the Khuzestan provincial cities of Khorramshahr, Abadan and Ahvaz contacted by VOA Persian on Wednesday said they continued to experience shortages of clean running water.

Iranian officials have told state media that clean water supplies will be restored to cities in Khuzestan by Friday as part of the next phase of a water distribution project called Ghadir. The provincial residents who spoke to VOA Persian said they had seen no signs of the government fulfilling its pledge.

Purified-water shortages in the region drew hundreds of demonstrators to the streets of Khorramshahr last Friday in one of the biggest water-related protests that Iran has seen this year. Protests in Khorramshahr turned violent on Saturday night, with police firing tear gas at demonstrators and gunfire heard in video posted on social media. Iranian state media said 11 people were wounded, 10 of them officers. Iran’s judiciary also confirmed the arrest of 10 protesters.

Social media users also have reported protests against water shortages in Abadan and the provincial capital of Ahvaz in recent days.

A resident of Khorramshahr said Wednesday that security remained tight in the city, with police using concrete barriers to block roads leading to a central square where the protests began Friday. The resident also said he had heard from friends that police were detaining demonstrators indiscriminately. It has been difficult to verify the situation in Khorramshar, given the lack of independent media access.

Other locals who spoke to VOA Persian last week said they also blamed the water crisis on suspected government transfers of scarce water supplies to Iraq and nearby Kuwait.

Last month, some Khuzestan residents broke open and filmed a pipe carrying fresh water toward the Iraqi border, a revelation that outraged many locals as the video spread on social media. Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian responded to the allegations by denying that Iran had been selling fresh water to neighboring countries.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian service. Michael Lipin reported from Washington.
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Against Odds, African First Ladies Start Breaking the Mold

Posted on by SeeAF

On June 17, former U.S. first lady Laura Bush penned an editorial in The Washington Post about revelations that the government had separated 2,000 children from their parents.

“I live in a border state,” wrote Bush, who lives in Texas. “I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.”

In her letter, Bush called for an immediate end to the separation of parents and children.

She also recalled a simple act of humanity displayed by another first lady nearly three decades earlier. In 1989, in the midst of the AIDS epidemic, Barbara Bush, who died in April, visited a residence for families and children with AIDS.

Without prompting, she picked up and cuddled a baby dying of AIDS, a powerful act of compassion at a time of confusion and fear over how the virus spreads.

That kind of compassion, Laura Bush said, exemplifies the American spirit.

Three days after the Post published her letter, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to prevent future separations.

Laura Bush wasn’t alone in condemning the separation of children from their parents. But her voice as a former first lady carried special weight.

Leading by example

Around the world, current and former first ladies play unique roles. They often lack legal authority, but they lead by example, rallying support for social issues, and even shaping foreign and domestic policies.

Cora Neumann is the founder of the Global First Ladies Alliance, a Los Angeles-based organization focused on supporting and connecting first ladies around the world, particularly in Africa.

First ladies have untapped potential, Neumann said. Their influence tends to unfold behind the scenes, but their power is real.

“They’re in this position of power, potentially, and influence,” Neumann told VOA. “But they’re just disregarded. And there was a real double standard there that caught me that I think it applies to women specifically.”

Social issues

African first ladies gravitate toward complex social problems involving education, women’s health, maternal mortality, women’s economic empowerment and HIV/AIDS.

Monica Geingos, a lawyer and the first lady of Namibia since 2015, has focused on lifting women from poverty through collateral-free loans and training to entrepreneurs.

Kenyan first lady Margaret Kenyatta has led an initiative to bring mobile health clinics to dozens of counties around the country.

Sia Nyama Koroma, who served as first lady in Sierra Leone from 2007 until just last month, created her country’s Office of the First Lady.

A trained chemist and psychiatric nurse, Koroma founded her office to support initiatives focused on education, training and women’s empowerment.

Koroma’s efforts have gone a long way in addressing maternal mortality, Neumann said, especially through work with local populations and traditional religious leaders.

‘Leading without authority’

First ladies often enact change not because of a legal mandate, but by using their platform to inspire action — what Neumann called “leading without authority.”

“What we’ve seen in some of the countries in Africa, and you see here [in the U.S.] in ways as well, is that the first ladies are considered, and sometimes called, the mother of their country,” Neumann said.

“And the ability to shape attitudes and behaviors at [a] local level by going into the communities and meeting with local villagers and local populations can sometimes be more powerful than authority,” she added.

Neumann gave the example of the former first lady of Tanzania, Salma Kikwete, who, along with her husband, went on live national TV to get tested for HIV.

Lifting women

Empowering first ladies and those who work with them elevates the status of all women, Neumann said.

The Global First Ladies Alliance has worked with 45 first ladies. In addition to Africa, the group has convened women from the U.S., the U.K., Latin America and Asia to share experiences and learn from one another.

The alliance documents those exchanges and develops case studies and best practices. That’s led to initiatives such as a fellowship program for first ladies’ senior staff.

“You’re only as good as your best adviser,” Neumann said, and that prompted her team to develop a training curriculum for running an effective office.

Growing influence

Over time, first ladies have gained clout and formed powerful networks to better their countries.

“We’re just seeing first ladies continue to take on more and more of a visible and powerful role,” Neumann said.

First ladies work most effectively when they complement their husbands’ policies, Neumann added, rather than take a public stand against them. But behind closed doors, they’ve influenced policies.

Neumann sees first ladies gaining even more prominence in the future.

“The more powerful they become, and the more visible they become — like we just saw in the United States — this speaking out and applying direct pressure is going to continue to become more important. So we just see the role actually becoming more and more influential,” she said.
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