Month: July 2018

Turkey’s Pro-Kurdish Party Seeks to Redraw Political Borders   

Posted on by SeeEU

Emboldened by its success in the June 24 elections, Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish HDP Party is looking to broaden its support beyond its traditional ethnic base — a move that could redraw the country’s entrenched political borders. 

Narrowly passing the 10 percent electoral threshold to enter parliament, the HDP’s success was tinged by some political fallout: Many of its officials were jailed, including nine parliamentary deputies, on terrorism charges alone. HDP also claims there was a media blackout on its campaign and it was a victim of voter suppression by the government. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AKP Party claim the HDP is a terrorist organization affiliated to the Kurdish insurgent group the PKK — a charge the party denies.

While the HDP’s support remained largely unchanged in its traditional electoral stronghold in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, its votes increased in large cities in the West inhabited mainly by Turks. 

The HDP’s increase in votes is attributed in part to tactical voting by Turkish voters opposed to Erdogan’s ruling AKP. If the HDP had failed to enter parliament, its more than 60 seats would have been transferred to the AKP, which is its chief electoral rival.

HDP Honorary President Ertugrul Kurkcu, speaking in an exclusive interview with VOA, suggests the party’s success in broadening its support could become permanent. 

“I believe this section of voters are going to stay with HDP if we can develop a more coherent line of opposition by bringing together both aspirations of the Kurdish people, as well as the democratic and left forces as it was in the origins of the Kurdish movement. I am very confident in saying that with the new elements coming we are going to find a new way of thinking,” Kurkcu said.  

Some analysts remain skeptical over the HDP achieving a broader support among Turkish voters, pointing out many remain deeply suspicious over its relationship to the PKK. The decades-long insurgency by the PKK for greater Kurdish rights has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

“The expectations are they [HDP] reject the relations with PKK and condemn the PKK as a terrorist organization,” International Relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University said.

“If we were to say that we were against everything the PKK is doing this would not be convincing,” countered HDP’s Kurkcu, “the brother of the former chair of our party is up in the mountains (fighting with the PKK). Everything is closely interrelated, it would not be convincing. Kurdish people don’t believe these people are terrorists. Who would believe their martyred son is a terrorist and would they appreciate a party that says he is,” added Kurkcu.

Nearly all of Turkey’s mainstream media regularly refer to the HDP as “terrorist supporters,” echoing President Erdogan’s line. Despite such a relentless campaign, Kurkcu believes the June election result suggests some people are ready to look to the future.

“New voters who voted for HDP did so knowing very well the HDP’s position, HDP’s discourse, but also knowing HDP’s potential,” he said.

Efforts to broaden the HDP’s political appeal comes at a time when some Kurds are calling for a harder line in response to ongoing government crackdown on the Kurdish movement.

“Many people in Kurdistan would love it if the HDP ran a fierce campaign for independence, but this is only 10 percent of our support, which is a reaction to the draconian policies of the government,” Kurkcu said.  “I would not say there are many contradictions in the party over our new approach, but rather among some of our Kurdish audience, we will hear such voices, and we have to address them.”

The political environment facing HDP also remains a challenge. Erdogan has indicated he will ease up on the legal crackdown of the party. 

The interior minister Suleyman Soylu this week declared there is no “HDP,” only the PKK. 

 “There is a political space for HDP’s initiative,” political scientist Cengiz Aktar said. “Whether the regime will allow this sort of opposition to itself, it needs to be seen. There are too many unknown elements.”

 
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Activists Protest Planned West Bank Demolition

Posted on by SeeEA

Israeli police scuffled with activists protesting the planned demolition of a Bedouin hamlet in the West Bank on Wednesday amid international opposition to the razing of the site.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 11 people were arrested in the “disturbance” including several for throwing stones at officers in Khan al-Ahmar. He said three officers were injured, including one evacuated to a hospital for treatment.

Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian legislator, said four protesters were injured.

“This is a vicious, barbaric attack on peaceful demonstrators and they are trying to demolish Khan Al-Ahmar,” he said.  

Israel says the structures that make up the Khan al-Ahmar encampment of corrugated shacks and tents were illegally built and pose a threat to residents because of their proximity to a highway.

Police could be seen dragging a handcuffed woman and pushing a Bedouin man. A construction vehicle flattened earth near the site.

The Bedouin village outside the Kfar Adumim settlement, is set to be demolished at an unknown date after Israel’s Supreme Court approved the move in May.

Israel agreed to resettle the residents in an area some 12 kilometers (seven miles) away.

Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war.

Critics say it is nearly impossible to get a building permit from Israel and that the village’s demolition and the removal of its 180 or so residents is a ploy to clear the way for new Israeli settlements.

The village is located in the 60 percent of the West Bank known as Area C, which remains under exclusive Israeli control and is home to dozens of Israeli settlements. Israel places severe restrictions on Palestinian development there and home demolitions are not unusual.

As part of interim peace deals in the 1990s, the West Bank was carved up into autonomous and semi-autonomous Palestinian areas, known as Areas A and B, and Area C, which is home to some 400,000 Israeli settlers.

The Palestinians say that Area C, home to an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Palestinians, is crucial to the economic development of their future state.

The U.N.’s main human rights body on Tuesday called on Israel to abandon the demolition plans.

The French Foreign Ministry condemned the looming demolition saying it undermines “the viability of a two state solution” to the conflict.

 
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US Offers German Automakers Solution to Trade Spat, Report Says

Posted on by SeeUS

United States Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell reportedly told German auto makers Wednesday the U.S. would back off threats of tariffs on European car imports in exchange for the European Union’s elimination of duties on U.S. cars.

The German newspaper Handelsblatt reported Grenell told BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen executives of the proposal during a meeting Wednesday at the embassy in Berlin.

Daimler and Volkswagen declined to comment and BMW was not immediately available for comment, the report said.

The reported proposal comes after the European Union warned U.S. President Donald Trump last Friday the potential indirect costs of imposing tariffs on cars could amount to $294 billion.

The EU report, submitted to the U.S. Commerce Department, maintained the tariffs would disrupt cross-border supply chains in the automotive industry. The report said the tariffs could possibly trigger higher U.S. industrial costs, raise consumer prices, hurt exports and cost jobs.  

The World Trade Organization said Wednesday trade barriers being set by world economic powers could jeopardize the global economic recovery.

“This continued escalation poses a serious threat to growth and recovery in all countries, and we are beginning to see this reflected in some forward-looking indicators,” WTO Director General Roberto Azevendo said.

Azevendo did not expound on his remarks, but the WTO’s quarter trade outlook indicator in May suggested trade growth in the second quarter would decelerate.

 
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Burundi School Ban on Expectant Teens ‘Skewed’ Against Girls’ Education

Posted on by SeeAF

Burundi’s ban on pregnant girls and expectant teen fathers attending school is not only a violation against children’s right to education, but also unfairly discriminates against girls, campaigners said on Wednesday.

The ministry of education in Burundi last week issued a directive to provincial authorities saying pregnant teens and young mums, as well as the boys who made them pregnant, no longer had the right to be part of the formal education system.

In a letter dated June 26 to the country’s provincial education directors, Minister of Education Janvière Ndirahisha said that these students would however be allowed to attend vocational or professional training courses.

But rights groups said preventing children from attending school would have a devastating impact on their education in a country where 11 percent of girls aged 15-19 years are sexually active, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The east African nation’s ban is geared towards curtailing the rights of girls more than boys, said campaigners, adding that it would be easy to notice pregnant girls, but more difficult to identify the boys involved.

“This ban disproportionately affects girls and it is skewed towards an abuse of the girls’ rights to education,” said Naitore Nyamu-Mathenge, a lawyer from the campaign group Equality Now.

“How does the government intend on proving that Boy A impregnated Girl B? How about cases where the perpetrators are teachers, adults in the community, will the government go after them too?”

A government official confirmed the ban, but told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on the condition of anonymity that it was unlikely to be enforced.

“I think this decision will not be implemented since it contradicts other programs which promote education for all and are endorsed by the government and its partners,” said an education ministry official.

According to the UNFPA, 40 percent of victims of physical or sexual violence are teenage girls in Burundi. Around 7 percent of girls aged 15-19 years have had at least one child, and one in five women are married below the age of 18 years old.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says tens of thousands of girls in Africa are ostracized or shamed for becoming pregnant every year, despite most having no sex education, and in many cases have not given consent and are raped.

Yet some countries such as Tanzania, Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea, they have been expelled from school in a bid to discourage adolescents from being sexually active.

Other countries such as Morocco and Sudan, for example, apply morality laws that allow them to criminally charge adolescent girls with adultery, indecency, or extra-marital sex, it added.

“Every year, thousands of girls become pregnant at the time when they should be learning history, algebra, and life skills,” said a report by HRW last month.

“All girls have a right to education regardless of their pregnancy, marital or motherhood status.”

 
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Somali Villagers Resist al-Shabab Militants Recruiting Children

Posted on by SeeAF

At least 15 people were killed in central Somalia when villagers clashed with Al-Shabab militants trying to recruit their children as fighters.

According to local sources, 10 militants and five villagers died in the fighting in Aad village, in the central Galmudug administration.  

A villager who requested anonymity told VOA’s Somali Service that the militants met with local elders two days ago and sought help with the recruitment.  “The fighting came after they demanded that we provide young children to fight alongside them,” he said.

He said the villagers organized themselves and decided to resist, but Al-Shabab moved into the village, and took control.  

“They are using power, they want to take kids, they want livestock, the fighting is not over,” he said.

Galmudug regional deputy security minister Mahad Hassan Mohamed told VOA Somali the villagers are defending themselves.

“They [Al-Shabab] want to take away their children and take them to their madrassas.  The people have rejected this,” Mohamed said.

The Shabab militants say they defended the village after an attack by regional forces and killed 15 regional troops.

VOA reported last September that Al-Shabab militants have been meeting with clan elders and Koran school teachers, ordering them to provide young recruits for Al-Shabab training camps and madrassas.  The move has forced hundreds of children to flee Shabab-controlled areas in Bay and Bakool regions of southwest Somalia.  

Earlier this year, New York-based Human Rights Watch published a report detailing Al-Shabab’s forced recruitment and efforts to take children away from their parents and religious schools. It said children as young as eight were affected.

Sanguni attack

Three Somali soldiers and two militants died in a separate attack Tuesday near the town of Sanguni in Lower Jubba region, a military officer tells VOA Somali.  A U.S. soldier was killed in an Al-Shabab mortar attack there on June 9.

Mukhtar Abdi Mohamed, a unit commander with Somali forces, said Shabab militants “sneaked along the river” and surprised the Somali troops who were having lunch in a forward outpost.  He said three government soldiers and two militants died in the fighting that ensued.  

Local sources put the death toll on Somali soldiers at seven.
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Airstrikes Resume in Southwest Syria After Talks Fail

Posted on by SeeEA

Russian airstrikes against insurgents in southwest Syria resumed on Wednesday, residents and a war monitor said, after a rebel said talks to restore government rule there peacefully had failed.

The airstrikes targeted the towns of Tafas, northwest of the provincial capital Deraa, and Saida, to its east, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is waging a campaign in the southwest with Russian air support to recapture the region from rebel groups, and has seized a large chunk of their territory.

Russian airstrikes had paused on Saturday evening, the Observatory said. The Observatory, along with residents and rebels in Saida, said barrel bombs were also dropped on Saida on Wednesday evening.

Rebels have been negotiating with Russia since Saturday, seeking a deal to end fighting by accepting the return of state sovereignty, but they have not been able to agree terms.

“The talks with the Russian enemy in Bosra al-Sham have failed because of their insistence on handing over heavy weapons,” Abu Shaima, a spokesman of the central operations room representing main Free Syrian Army factions negotiating with the Russians told Reuters.

Another rebel spokesman, Ibrahim al-Jabawi, said the talks did not reach any conclusion. Russia wanted heavy weapons handed over in one go. The opposition wanted to surrender them in stages after tens of thousands of displaced people returned home, he said.

The first round of talks on Saturday prompted rebels to walk out, saying Russian terms amounted to a humiliating surrender.

Jordan persuaded them back to the negotiating table, official sources said.

Numerous towns in the southwest had already struck their own surrender deals with the government in the teeth of the army advance and aerial bombardment, independently of the main rebel factions.

Warfare in southwest Syria is sensitive to neighboring Jordan and Israel. The area is also a “de-escalation zone”, as agreed by Jordan, the United States and Russia last year to reduce fighting.

Although Washington warned it would respond to violations of the agreement, it has done nothing so far and rebels have said the United States told them to expect no American military help.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi held talks in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov earlier on Wednesday, and said a humanitarian catastrophe risked unfolding in southern Syria if there were no ceasefire.

Lavrov said all Syria-related issues were likely to be discussed at the coming summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The fighting in southwest Syria has caused an estimated 270,000 people to flee their homes, the United Nations said on Monday.

 
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UN: Truth and Reconciliation Commission is Pathway to Peace in CAR

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A U.N. human rights official is urging the government of the Central African Republic to establish, without delay, a truth and reconciliation commission as a pathway to peace.

Marie-Therese Keita-Bocoum welcomes progress made in institutional reforms this year. But, she says authorities in the Central African Republic have to do much, much more to repair the country’s chronically troubled security and political situation.

Speaking Wednesday to the U.N. Human Rights Council, she said escalating attacks by armed groups are traumatizing the population, which is losing trust in the ability of the government to protect it. She deplores the hate speech employed by several factions, which, in many cases has a dangerous religious component.

Keita-Bocoum condemns the growing number of what she calls odious attacks against aid workers and U.N. peacekeepers. She says it is vital to bolster protection for human rights in the country, in particular, economic and social rights.

She says the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is an important element in this mix. She speaks through an interpreter.

“The government shared with me its determination to develop a transitional justice strategy, which would consist of dealing with the mass atrocities committed in the past, establishing culpability, guaranteeing non-repetition of conflict, and restoring trust and national social cohesion. It includes judicial and non-judicial mechanisms including the truth commission, institutional reform and reparation,” she said.

Keita-Bocoum says the willingness on the part of the government deserves stepped-up support from the international community.

“The situation in the C.A.R. is becoming unbearable. It reveals more than ever the urgent need to simultaneously bolster protection of civilians, humanitarian aid, combating impunity, and peace initiatives and development,” she said.

The C.A.R. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Leopold Samba, agrees with the independent expert’s assessment of the situation and is appealing for greater international support.

He calls the displacement of 600,000 people and the deaths and injuries of some 4,000 people in the C.A.R.’s long-running civil war unacceptable. Samba says additional measures are needed to restore peace throughout his country’s battered national territory.

 
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New US Citizens Gladly Take Oath, Despite Toxic Debate

Posted on by SeeUS

Argenoves Pinales, a 25-year-old medical assistant and restaurant manager working two jobs is over the moon to become a US citizen. Now, he wants to vote Donald Trump out of office.

“I feel great,” he beams, one of 200 immigrants from 47 countries who pledged the oath of allegiance at a New York citizenship ceremony, and one of more than 14,000 being welcomed nationwide at dozens of events between June 28 and July 10 designed to celebrate Independence Day.

He dreams of going back to college to study criminal justice and joining the police department. He was one of 86 migrants from the Dominican Republic at Tuesday’s ceremony, the largest single group and one of those countries experiencing a decline in US immigration visas.

“Everyone in my house is a citizen, so they were asking me ‘oh you have to become one,'” he said. “So if something happens you can stay here.”

The number of people getting visas to move permanently to the United States is expected to fall 12 percent during Trump’s first two years in office, according to a Washington Post analysis of government data.

“I became a citizen to vote,” says Pinales, looking ahead to 2020, the next time that Americans can elect a president. “He’s not going to be there!” he says of Trump.

“When he talks it’s just him, him, him, him. You know he’s rich, he’s got money so he doesn’t care about poor people.”

The Supreme Court last week upheld the US president’s travel ban, restricting arrivals from the mostly Muslim countries of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as well as North Korea.

The number of new arrivals from those Muslim-majority countries are heading toward an 81 percent drop by September 30, according to the Washington Post.

Of those countries, only Yemen was represented at the ceremony, and by only one new citizen.

The number of immigrant visas granted to people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam had also declined, the Washington Post analysis found.

At Tuesday’s ceremony, in the illustrious Beaux-Arts New York Public Library building on Fifth Avenue, a taped message of welcome from Trump was greeted with warm applause. “God Bless the USA” was played.

‘Mixed emotions’

Young, old, people of all colors and backgrounds were united in one purpose — cheering in delight and many waving tiny US flags. The more gregarious posed thumbs up or blew a kiss to excited friends and relatives in the audience while collecting their certificates.

“For all its flaws, we have many, it is a great country” said Tony Marx, president of the New York Public Library, delivering a rallying cry for civic engagement and the responsibilities of democracy.

“When you see the country going in directions you don’t agree with, from left or right I don’t care… you now are citizens and you must act as citizens in the polling booths, on the streets, in meetings.”

Immigration has always ebbed and flowed. If Barack Obama presided over an increase later in his administration, the number of visas so far granted under Trump are still higher than in earlier Obama years.

But if US politicians are paralyzed about illegal immigration, those who spoke to AFP — having jumped through all the hoops themselves — were united in believing others had to abide by the law.

Of the seven new citizens who agreed to speak, Pinales alone was directly critical of Trump. Several expressed positive thoughts, others declined to comment.

“I understand both sides. They want to secure the country. At the same time people want to be with their family. So it’s mixed emotions,” said Aziz Traore, 23, who arrived from Mali as a seven-year-old.

The Washington Post says the number of immigrant visas approved for Africans is on set to fall 15 percent. Last January, Trump allegedly branded African nations “s–thole countries” sparking scandal.

Yet Traore, who now lives in the Bronx, was unwilling to criticize.

“I know a lot of third world countries and there’s a lot of crimes over there and problems with the government,” he told AFP.

“He’s the president,” said Drvan Victorin, 19, who migrated from the tiny Caribbean island of St Lucia in search of a better life. “He knows what’s best for us. So I think he’s doing it for a good reason.”

 
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Europe Could Suffer Collateral Damage in US-China Trade War

Posted on by SeeUS

European businesses are unsettled as they watch the U.S. and China collide over trade. And for good reason: the nascent global trade war could represent the biggest single threat to the economic upswing that has helped the region get past its financial crisis.

In theory, some European companies could benefit, jumping into market niches if Chinese businesses are kept out of the U.S. market. But that would only be a few companies or sectors.

When your entire economy is heavily dependent on trade, an overall slowdown in global commerce caused by tit-for-tat import taxes provokes fear and undermines confidence.

And that’s just what’s happening in Europe. By one measure, business confidence has fallen in six of the past seven months in Germany, where exports are almost half of annual economic output.

“It’s worth all our efforts to defuse this conflict, so it doesn’t become a war,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday.

The U.S. is due to put tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods on Friday. The Chinese will respond with tariffs on an equivalent value of U.S. products such as soybeans, seafood and crude oil.

Amid all this, Europe has its own trade dispute with the U.S. After the U.S. put tariffs on steel and aluminum from many allies, including the European Union, the 28-country bloc responded with import taxes on some $3.25 billion of U.S. goods. The Trump administration is also studying the option of putting tariffs on cars, which would significantly escalate the confrontation.

The head of the EU’s executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, will head to Washington in late July to try to personally persuade Trump against further measures targeting Europe.

The disputes over trade threaten to spoil the good times for Europe’s economy.

Growth last year was the strongest in a decade, since before the global financial crisis. While that has eased in recent quarters, the economy is still strong enough to create jobs. The number of unemployed fell by 125,000 in May, leaving unemployment in the 19 countries that use the euro at 8.4 percent, the lowest since 2008 and down from a high of 12.1 percent in 2013.

“Trade tensions stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump are clouding the economic outlook in Europe,” wrote analysts at Berenberg bank in London. They rated the trade risk ahead of troubles from Italy’s heavy debt load or faster than expected interest rate increases from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Many European companies would suffer because they both produce and sell goods in the U.S. and China, the world’s biggest economies.

For example, tariffs that China is expected to impose Friday on U.S.-made autos would hit German carmakers Daimler and BMW since they both make vehicles in the United States and export them to China.

Daimler has already lowered its outlook for profits, citing higher than expected costs from the new tariffs. BMW warned in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Friday that tariffs would make it harder for it to sell in China the vehicles it builds at its factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, “potentially leading to a strongly reduced export volumes and negative effects on investment and employment in the United States.”

Last year, BMW exported 272,000 vehicles from the Spartanburg plant, more than half its total production. Of those, 81,000 — worth $2.37 billion — went to China. BMW says its exports reduced the U.S. trade deficit by around $1 billion.

By themselves, the tariffs that take effect Friday won’t immediately have a dramatic impact on global trade. The fear is that retaliation will spiral, hitting the total amount of global commerce.

Even if the overall effect is to harm growth, there could be benefits for some European companies and sectors. Economists Alicia Garcia Herrero and Jianwei Xu at the French bank Natixis say that European makers of cars, aircraft, chemicals, computer chips and factory machinery could in theory snare market share by substituting for Chinese or American products in the two markets. But that’s only if Europe’s own trade dispute with the U.S. does not escalate — a big if.

Europe is waiting to see whether the Trump administration will go ahead separately with tariffs on auto imports. European companies like BMW, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen’s Porsche and Audi divisions, and Fiat Chrysler send $46.6 billion worth of vehicles every year to the U.S. Some 13.3 million people, or 6.1 percent of the employed population of the EU, work in the automotive sector, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.

“Europe cannot win anything” on an overall basis “for one obvious reason: we are net exporters,” said Garcia Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis and a senior fellow at European research institute Bruegel. “But we should not understate the view that some sectors could get something out of a U.S.-China trade war.”

Amid the brewing conflict, China has sought to get Europe on its side, putting on a diplomatic charm offensive during visits by Merkel and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. The EU and China agreed last month to deepen commercial ties and support trade rules. But the EU remains a close, longtime ally of the U.S. on a range of issues, despite the current tensions with the Trump administration.

One negative outcome for Europe, Herrero said, would be if Trump can push the Chinese into a trade agreement aimed at reducing the U.S. trade deficit. The additional U.S. goods to China could come at the expense of European competitors.

“If China concedes to the U.S. proposed agreement, the whole situation faced by the EU would be much tougher,” she and Xu wrote in a research note. “For China to massively reduce its trade surplus with the U.S., it has to in some way substitute its imports away from the EU to the U.S., which would have a significant negative impact on the EU producers.”
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Trump: Supporters Will Be ‘Impressed’ with Supreme Court Pick

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U.S. President Donald Trump is assuring supporters that they will love the Supreme Court nominee he is set to name Monday.

“I think you’re going to be very impressed,” Trump said during a dinner for U.S. troops Tuesday night in West Virginia.

The U.S. leader praised his first nominee, Neil Gorsuch, a conservative and former appellate court judge who has now served on the Supreme Court for more than a year.

“We hit a home run there,” Trump said, employing a baseball analogy, adding, “And we’re going to hit a home run here.”

This week, Trump has interviewed seven possible nominees, six of them now serving as appellate court judges, one rung below the Supreme Court, along with Utah Senator Mike Lee. All are conservatives, in line with Trump’s pledge to voters during his 2016 presidential campaign, that given a chance to make one or more lifetime Supreme Court appointments, he would seek to cement a conservative majority for a generation to come.

Trump’s choice, if confirmed by the Senate, would replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who last week announced his retirement, effective July 31. Kennedy often cast the deciding vote on the court, most often handing the four conservative justices on the court the deciding vote they needed in key 5-4 decisions, but also occasionally siding with the court’s four liberals, notably to favor upholding abortion and gay rights.

Most U.S. analysts assume that Trump’s court choice, no matter who it is, will push the court toward more conservative rulings, possibly overturning some of the decisions Kennedy favored.

Some of Trump’s fellow Republicans say they believe Trump is focusing particularly on three appellate judges — Brett Kavanaugh, who worked in the White House under former Republican President George W. Bush, Amy Coney Barrett, a former Notre Dame Law School professor, and Thomas Hardiman, who was believed to be one of Trump’s finalists when Trump ultimately selected Gorsuch early last year shortly after taking office.
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Iran’s Rouhani In Vienna to Shore up Nuclear Deal, Dogged By Diplomat’s Arrest

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday began the second leg of his European tour seeking assurances over the 2015 nuclear deal, a trip clouded by the arrest of a Tehran diplomat over an alleged bomb plot against opposition exiles in Paris.

Hoping to boost economic cooperation to help offset the return of US sanctions following Washington’s pullout from the historic deal, Rouhani arrived late Tuesday in Vienna – the city where it was signed.

“Insofar as it is possible for Iran, we shall remain party to the accord, we shall not quit the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) on condition that we can also benefit from it,” Rouhani said.

“If the other signatories, apart from the United States, can guarantee Iran’s interests then Iran will stay in the JCPOA”, he insisted.

US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the agreement nearly two months ago, to the ire of the other signatories — China, France, Germany, Britain and Russia — which along with the European Union have continued to back the accord.

“We need a balance between our duties and the hypothesis of restrictions … We hope for decisive actions regarding trade and the economy,” added Rouhani in comments sending a  message to the other deal signatories, whose foreign ministers are due to meet in Vienna on Friday for the first time since Trump’s decision to dump the deal.

Austria just took up the European Union’s six-month rotating presidency, while Vienna is the home of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, which monitors Iran’s compliance with the accord.

New US sanctions against Tehran will encompass businesses from third countries that continue to operate in Iran.

A number of foreign firms have already announced they would cease their Iranian activities in light of the looming imposition of sanctions.

Iranians had already complained that the hoped-for uptick in foreign investment after the deal had not materialized.

Rouhani’s European trip will be of “prime importance” as it could “provide a more precise picture of cooperation between Iran and Europe,” the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said at the weekend.

The Iranian government has itself warned that it will not continue to abide by the nuclear agreement if doing so goes against its economic interests.

Rouhani, a moderate conservative re-elected in 2017, began meeting President Alexander Van der Bellen on Wednesday, and was set to meet Chancellor Sebastian Kurz later in the day.

False flag ploy

The nuclear deal has been the cornerstone of Rouhani’s policy of greater openness with the West, and the US departure has seen him severely criticized by ultra-conservatives at home.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has demanded Europe provide a number of economic guarantees in order for Tehran to continue its commitment.

Increasing the pressure on Iran’s European partners, he ordered preparations be made to quickly restart nuclear activities in case talks collapse.

Rouhani’s visit follows reports of the Iranian diplomat’s arrest along with five others over a purported foiled attack on a rally of thousands of Iranian opposition supporters in Paris.

Rouhani has not changed his program over what his foreign minister dismissed as a “false flag ploy” designed as a distraction.

“How convenient: Just as we embark on a presidential visit to Europe, an alleged Iranian operation and its ‘plotters’ arrested,” Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.

Just hours before welcoming Rouhani to Austria, Vienna summoned Iran’s ambassador and announced that the unnamed diplomat’s status would be withdrawn.

The diplomat attached to the Iranian embassy in Austria, who was detained in Germany, was believed to be a contact of a couple at the center of the alleged plot.

He may soon be extradited to Belgium, which is spearheading a probe into the alleged bomb plot, prosecutors told the German news agency DPA.

Zarif, who is accompanying Rouhani, will on Friday meet top envoys from the five powers for the first time since Washington’s withdrawal.

Kurz meanwhile said he would speak plainly with Rouhani about Iran’s role in the Middle East, as Tehran continues to deny accusations it is destabilizing the region.

Kurz will also find “clear words” to discuss the human rights situation in Iran, the chancellor told Austrian news agency APA.

 
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UN Envoy: Yemeni Rebels Express ‘Strong Desire’ for Peace

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The U.N. envoy to Yemen has expressed optimism after meeting with the top leader of the Houthi rebels in a bid to end the country’s devastating civil war.

In a statement issued before his departure from the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, Martin Griffiths said the rebels expressed a “strong desire for peace” and discussed “concrete ideas for achieving peace,” without elaborating.

 

He said he may meet with President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in the southern city of Aden.

A Saudi-led coalition allied with Hadi’s internationally recognized government has been at war with the Houthis since 2015, and previous peace efforts have failed.

The U.N. hopes to prevent a full-scale coalition assault on the port city of Hodeida, a vital lifeline for a country already teetering on the brink of famine.
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Ukraine Will Attend NATO Summit Despite Hungarian Objection

Posted on by SeeEU

A top NATO official on Tuesday said a letter from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán vowing to block any moves toward Ukraine’s accession at an upcoming summit will have no impact on Kyiv’s standing with the alliance.

On Monday, Ukrainian news outlet Europeiska Pravda reported that the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a missive to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stating, “Orban is planning to vote against any document that will be proposed for adoption by the members of the Alliance after the meeting with the Ukrainian and Georgian leaders.”

According to the Pravda report, the letter was sent just days after a Ukrainian-Hungarian ministerial where officials from both countries had largely resolved a dispute over a Ukrainian law on education that stood in violation of the Venice Commission, a legal advisory body to the Council of Europe.

If Ukraine agreed to come into compliance with the law, Hungarian officials said, they would unblock Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO. As NATO member since 1999, Hungary’s permanent delegation can veto accession efforts by aspiring NATO member countries, such as Ukraine.

Neither NATO nor Hungarian officials have commented on why Budapest suddenly reversed its decision on NATO-Ukrainian ties, nor has either party agreed to divulge the contents of the letter.

NATO officials on Tuesday confirmed possession of the letter, but directed queries about its contents to Budapest.

“The Hungarian government has written to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the topic of Ukraine,” a NATO spokesperson confirmed with VOA’s Ukrainian Service. “For any queries about the content, I refer you to the Hungarian authorities.”

“NATO provides strong political and practical support to Ukraine and there are no plans for this to change,” the alliance spokesman added. “Over the last years, Ukraine has implemented substantial reforms in the security and defense sector, but also in areas including health, education and welfare. It is important that Ukraine continues on the path of reforms.”

Although it was not clear whether Orban’s letter sought to block Ukrainian participation in the summit, the NATO official wrote: “Ukraine will take part in next week’s NATO summit. The summit formats will be announced shortly. We expect that allied leaders will recognize the Ukraine is making and strongly commit to continue to provide political and practical support.”

Representatives of Hungary’s Foreign Ministry declined to respond to VOA inquiries by phone and email prior to publication.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Ukraine’s vice prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, told VOA that she remains optimistic that NATO will seek continued cooperation with Ukraine.

“We meet with the alliance to discuss common challenges, to share the achievements in reform of our security and defense sector, to outline directions for further enhanced cooperation,” she told VOA. “We also hope that Ukraine’s constructive appeal to Hungary to sort out the national minorities’ education language issue in Ukraine [can be addressed] on a bilateral level, as opposed to dealing with it in multilateral formats. … 

“We also believe that one of the allies has decided actually to take NATO hostage in a bilateral dispute with a Ukraine [that is actively] fighting [Russian] aggression only weakens the alliance,” Klympush-Tsintsadze said.

NATO formally invited Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to the upcoming summit last month in a historic move that circumvented Hungarian efforts to block meetings of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, allowing NATO allies to hold talks with Poroshenko outside the format of the commission.

The summit is currently slated for July 11-12 in Brussels.

This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service. Bogdan Tsioupine in London contributed to this report.
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China Presses Europe for Anti-US Alliance on Trade

Posted on by SeeEU

China is putting pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint statement against President Donald Trump’s trade policies at a summit

this month, but it’s facing resistance, European officials said.

In meetings in Brussels, Berlin and Beijing, senior Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Liu He and the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, have proposed an alliance between the two economic powers and offered to open more of the Chinese market in a gesture of goodwill.

One proposal has been for China and the European Union to launch joint action against the United States at the World Trade Organization.

But the European Union, the world’s largest trading bloc, has rejected the idea of allying with Beijing against Washington, five EU officials and diplomats told Reuters, ahead of the Sino-European summit in Beijing on July 16-17.

Instead, the summit is expected to produce a modest communique that affirms the commitment of both sides to the multilateral trading system and promises to set up a working group on modernizing the WTO, EU officials said.

Liu has said privately that China is ready to set out for the first time what sectors it can open to European investment at the annual summit, expected to be attended by President Xi Jinping, China’s Premier Li Keqiang and top EU officials.

Chinese state media have promoted the message that the EU is on China’s side, officials said, putting the bloc in a delicate position. The past two summits, in 2016 and 2017, ended without a statement because of disagreements about the South China Sea and trade.

“China wants the European Union to stand with Beijing against Washington, to take sides,” said one European diplomat. “We won’t do it and we have told them that.”

China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Beijing’s summit aims.

In a commentary on Wednesday, China’s official Xinhua news agency said China and Europe “should resist trade protectionism hand in hand.”

“China and European countries are natural partners,” it said. “They firmly believe that free trade is a powerful engine for global economic growth.”

China’s moment?

Despite Trump’s tariffs on European metals exports and threats to hit the EU’s automobile industry, Brussels shares Washington’s concern about China’s closed markets and what Western governments say is Beijing’s manipulation of trade to dominate global markets.

“We agree with almost all the complaints the U.S. has against China. It’s just we don’t agree with how the United States is handling it,” another diplomat said.

Still, China’s stance is striking, given Washington’s deep economic and security ties with European nations. It shows the depth of Chinese concern about a trade war with Washington, as Trump is set to impose tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese imports on Friday.

It also underscores China’s new boldness in trying to seize leadership amid divisions between the United States and its European, Canadian and Japanese allies over issues including free trade, climate change and foreign policy.

“Trump has split the West, and China is seeking to capitalize on that. It was never comfortable with the West being one bloc,” said a European official involved in EU-China diplomacy.

“China now feels it can try to split off the European Union in so many areas — on trade, on human rights,” the official said.

Another official described the dispute between Trump and Western allies at the Group of Seven summit last month as a gift to Beijing because it showed European leaders losing a longtime ally, at least in trade policy.

European envoys say they already sensed a greater urgency from China in 2017 to find like-minded countries willing to stand up against Trump’s “America First” policies.

No ‘systemic change’

An April report by New York-based Rhodium Group, a research consultancy, showed that Chinese restrictions on foreign investment were higher in every single sector save real estate, compared with the European Union, while many of the big Chinese takeovers in the bloc would not have been possible for EU companies in China.

China has promised to open up. But EU officials expect any moves to be more symbolic than substantive.

They say China’s decision in May to lower tariffs on imported cars will make little difference because imports make up such a small part of the market.

China’s plans to move rapidly to electric vehicles mean that any new benefits it offers traditional European carmakers will be fleeting.

“Whenever the train has left the station, we are allowed to enter the platform,” a Beijing-based European executive said.

However, China’s offer at the upcoming summit to open up reflects Beijing’s concern that it is set to face tighter EU controls, and regulators are also blocking Chinese takeover attempts in the United States.

The European Union is seeking to pass legislation to allow greater scrutiny of foreign investments.

“We don’t know if this offer to open up is genuine yet,” a third EU diplomat said. “It’s unlikely to mark a systemic change.”
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Environmentalists: Ethiopia’s Dams Threaten Thousands of Kenyans

Posted on by SeeAF

Some 300,000 Kenyans who depend on Turkana, the world’s biggest desert lake, could run short of drinking water and fish if Ethiopia moves ahead with plans to construct two more dams on a river upstream, activists said.

UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, put Kenya’s Lake Turkana on its list of endangered World Heritage Sites last week because of the “disruptive effect” of an existing Ethiopian dam and irrigated sugar estates over Kenya’s northern border.

“We are concerned that these projects will have implication on the local communities who depend on the lake for fishing and for their livelihood,” said Guy Debonnet, a conservation expert with UNESCO. “Ethiopia is planning two new dams on the Omo River, which will only make the situation worse.”

Addis Ababa rejects the claims, saying its own studies show the dam will regulate the river’s flow and stabilize water levels in the flood-prone region.

Also known as the Jade Sea, Lake Turkana, in northwestern Kenya, gets 90 percent of its water from the Omo River in Ethiopia, one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, using its rivers to generate power for manufacturing and export.

Ethiopia’s Gibe III Dam, which was completed in 2016, and irrigation for the Kuraz sugar plantations have already reduced water into Turkana from the Omo River, said Rudo Sanyanga, Africa director of the lobby group International Rivers.

The lake is likely to shrink slowly, reducing breeding grounds for fish, and become too salty for fish to survive and too toxic for people and animals to drink, possibly triggering conflict and overcrowding, she said Monday.

“Ethiopia should cancel the plans that it has to construct two more dams, Gibe IV and Gibe V, on the Omo River,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in emailed comments. “These projects will only exacerbate the risk for drying up of the lake.”

Ethiopia is also at loggerheads with Egypt over another dam that Addis Ababa is building on the River Nile that Cairo fears will reduce waters running to its fields and reservoirs from Ethiopia’s highlands.

Ikal Angelei, director of Friends of Lake Turkana, which advocates for communities living around the lake — many of whom rely heavily on livestock — said underground water basins and pasture would also be reduced.

“Gibe IV and Gibe V cannot go on without the Kenyan government being a little bit more realistic of the impact,” Angelei told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “While Kenya is planning to possibly benefit from buying the power, we have to ask ourselves: What is the cost of this power on the ecosystem in the longer term?”
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Protests in Poland Against Government Judicial Overhaul

Posted on by SeeEU

Anti-government protests broke out late Tuesday in Warsaw and several other Polish cities in defense of the country’s constitution, judicial independence and the rule of law.

The protests came as a lower retirement age was taking effect for Poland’s Supreme Court justices. The law introduced by the ruling right-wing party is forcing the chief justice and as many as one-third of the court’s sitting judges to step down.

 Thousands of people gathered in front of the Supreme Court building in Warsaw, where they held candles, sang the national anthem and shouted “Free courts!” and “Down with dictatorship!”

There were also protests in Krakow, Lodz, Katowice, Wroclaw and other cities. In Gdansk, the cradle of the anti-communist Solidarity movement of the 1980s, legendary democracy leader Lech Walesa denounced Poland’s current government, saying it is even more “perfidious” than the communists he helped topple. 

The protests come as Supreme Court First President Malgorzata Gersdorf is being forced to resign under the legislation that lowers the mandatory retirement age for justices from 70 to 65, a change that could force one in the court’s every three judges out. 

Gersdorf, 65, vowed to remain on the court, in line with the constitution, and said she planned to show up for work as usual Wednesday. 

“My term as the Supreme Court head is being brutally cut, even though it is written into the constitution,” Gersdorf told law students during a lecture. “We can speak of a crisis of the rule of law in Poland, of a lack of respect for the constitution.”

Pawel Mucha, an aide to Polish President Andrzej Duda who co-authored the new law, said Gersdorf has no choice but to retire even though she says her term runs until 2020 under the country’s constitution.

In a surprise move, Mucha announced that the temporary acting head of the court will be another of its judges, Jozef Iwulski, who is 66.

The Supreme Court shake-up represents the culmination of a comprehensive overhaul of Poland’s justice system that gives the ruling party new powers over the courts. 

The changes began after the Law and Justice party came to power in 2015 and have expanded gradually. The Constitutional Tribunal, the court that determines if legislation passes legal muster, was the first put under the party’s control.

The Supreme Court is the highest court of appeal for criminal and civil cases in Poland. Its justices also rule on the validity of elections. 

European Union officials and international human rights groups have expressed alarm, alleging the moves represent an erosion of judicial independence that violates Western standards and a reversal for democracy in Poland.

At the protests, people expressed fears that Law and Justice would use its control of the Supreme Court to falsify elections.

Malgorzata Szuleka, a lawyer with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw, said forcing Gersdorf to retire before the end of her term is a “clear violation of the constitution.”

The European Commission, which polices compliance with EU laws, opened an “infringement procedure” Monday over the Supreme Court law. The action is the commission’s second against Poland over rule of law and could lead to further legal action and fines.

The government insists it is improving Poland’s justice system, saying it was inefficient and controlled by an untouchable “caste” of judges. It argues that putting judges under the control of the legislative and executive branches will makes the courts answerable to the voters, and thus more democratic. 

The lowering of the mandatory retirement age is affecting 27 of the court’s 73 judges. Some of them have asked Duda for extensions of their service. Gersdorf did not, however, arguing that the constitution guaranteed her continued tenure.
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US Allows ZTE Transactions to Maintain Networks

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday granted a temporary reprieve to ZTE that allows China’s No. 2 telecommunications equipment maker to conduct business needed to maintain existing networks and equipment in the United States as it works toward the lifting of a U.S. sales ban.

The authorization from the department’s Bureau of Industry and Services, dated July 2 and seen by Reuters, runs until August 1.

ZTE and spokespeople for the Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment.

ZTE, which makes smartphones and networking gear, was forced to cease major operations in April after the United States slapped it with a supplier ban saying it broke an agreement to discipline executives who conspired to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

The company had also agreed to pay a $1 billion penalty and put $400 million in an escrow account as part of the deal to resume business with U.S. suppliers — which provide almost a third of the components used in ZTE’s equipment.

The escrow agreement is still pending, according to a source. Until it is executed, ZTE cannot deposit the $400 million in escrow necessary to get the ban lifted.

While the denial order is still in place, the authorization grants a waiver to some companies that do business with ZTE to do so for one month, a source told Reuters.

The waivers allow for a limited type of activity but do not authorize any new business.

The uncertainty about the ban amid intensifying U.S.-China trade tensions has hammered ZTE shares, which have fallen 60 percent since trading resumed last month following a two-month hiatus, wiping out more than $11 billion of the company’s market valuation.

ZTE announced a new board last week in a radical management shakeup as part of a $1.4 billion deal with the United States.
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Pompeo to Visit Mexican President-elect; Discuss Immigration, Trade

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Mexico on July 13 to meet President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and discuss immigration, trade, security and development, the U.S. and Mexican governments said on Tuesday.

Lopez Obrador, who won a landslide victory in Sunday’s election and takes office in December, announced Pompeo’s visit first, after meeting with President Enrique Pena Nieto in the presidential palace in Mexico City’s colonial downtown.

Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, won 53 percent of the vote on Sunday, the largest margin for a presidential election since the early 1980s, giving him a strong mandate to make deep changes to policy at home and abroad.

“There’s going to be a real change, a deep change,” Lopez Obrador said after his meeting with Pena Nieto. “It will be a radical change, but nobody should be scared.”

Fond of acid putdowns of rivals and with views that lean toward nationalism and populism, the man best known as AMLO has drawn comparisons with U.S President Donald Trump.

How well the two men get on will determine whether fraught U.S.-Mexico relations improve from current tensions over migration, the North American Free Trade Agreement and Trump’s demand that Mexico pay for a border wall.

Lopez Obrador spoke with Trump on Monday in what he described as a friendly and respectful phone call. An aide said the call provided a reset in relations between the two countries.

On the call, Lopez Obrador offered to help lower immigration to the United States in return for help on economic development in Mexico. The conversations with Pompeo will touch on those subjects, as well as security and trade, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

During his meeting with Pena Nieto, the first since Sunday’s election, Lopez Obrador said they had agreed to work jointly on talks with the United States and Canada to reconstruct NAFTA, maintaining the current negotiating team while also including Lopez Obrador’s picks for handling future talks.

Their discussion in Mexico’s colonial-era National Palace also touched on energy, next year’s budget and security issues.

A longtime energy nationalist who says he will pause tenders for oil and gas fields that form a crucial part of Pena Nieto’s energy reform, Lopez Obrador said his team will begin working on how to proceed with the oil, gas and power overhaul once he is officially confirmed as president-elect.

Mexico’s election tribunal says it will ratify the election results by no later than Sept. 6.

Lopez Obrador also said he would form joint teams with Pena Nieto’s administration to analyze the $13 billion Mexico City airport project, which he has repeatedly threatened to scrap, and see what is the best course of action. Lopez Obrador said he accepted an invitation by Pena Nieto to attend a meeting of the Pacific Alliance trading bloc in the Mexican resort of Puerto Vallarta later this month

Pledge for fiscal discipline; peso firms

Lopez Obrador vows to improve Mexicans’ lives by ending corruption and years of drug violence, while also reducing the wealth gap.

His vague policy promises make it hard to judge how far he will take Mexico to the left, although during the campaign and since Sunday’s win, he and his team have repeatedly told international investors that Mexico is open for business.

On Tuesday, he reiterated commitments to respect central bank independence, maintain microeconomic stability and fiscal discipline. He said his transition team will work with the current Finance Ministry to craft the 2019 budget, which is set to include measures to increase some pensions.

He said he will meet with business leaders on Wednesday.

The peso has been volatile since Sunday’s result, but was up 2.5 percent against the dollar on Tuesday, leading gains among emerging market currencies. The Mexican S&P/IPC BMV stock index was also up.

“We are actually quite optimistic about the outcome of the election,” said Paul Greer, a portfolio manager at Fidelity International. “We are overweight local currency government bonds and the Mexican peso.”

AMLO’s plans also include holding public consultations on the future of economic policies including the energy reform, unnerving some investors.

In a TV interview late on Monday, he said he would hold a recall referendum after three years to ask the public whether it still had faith in his presidency.

“Just as they elected me, they’ll have the chance to remove me, but I’m sure I’ll win as there will be results,” he said, reiterating a campaign promise.

Lopez Obrador said he would not make any attempt to run for a second presidential term, which would require a constitutional change.

 

 
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Renovated Museum Opens as Part of St. Louis Arch Project

Posted on by SeeUS

The revitalized Gateway Arch National Park was dedicated Tuesday, the culmination of a $380 million public-private partnership that Missouri political leaders see as a template for the future of the national park system.

Several hundred people stood in steamy heat for a ceremony in the shadow of the 630-foot-tall (192-meter-tall) monument to westward expansion that sits along the Mississippi River in downtown St. Louis.

The five-year project was the first major renovation since the Arch opened in 1965. It included a $176 million remaking of the sprawling underground museum that sits beneath the Arch, a sprucing-up of the grounds around the monument, and development of a grassy park built over nearby Interstate 44 to eliminate a disconnect that made it difficult and treacherous for pedestrians to move between the area around the Arch and the rest of downtown.

About two-thirds of the funding came from private donations. St. Louis city and county voters in 2013 approved a tax increase that helped fund the project. State and federal grants paid the rest.

Both U.S. senators from Missouri said in interviews that the project was evidence of what can happen when government and the people work together.

“It means that every once in a while we can get it right, because there’s so much noise out there about how bad government is,” Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill said.

Her Republican colleague, Roy Blunt, said the Arch project sets an example that can be used in “big parks in the West and urban parks in the East.”

“I think we’ve really set a template of how we can take care of and further expand this great park system in the future,” Blunt said.

The rebuilt museum is much larger than the previous one that opened in 1976 — 46,000 square feet (4,273 square meters) of space was added. It features a curved glass entrance cut into the ground beneath the Arch. A map on the floor shows the routes followed by pioneers as they moved westward. Another part of the museum tells the history of St. Louis.

“It’s spectacular,” U.S. Representative Ann Wagner, a Republican from St. Louis County, said after a tour. “I’m blown away.”

Admission to the new museum, like the old one, is free. There is a fee for rides on a tram to the top of the Arch, which has been among the most popular attractions in St. Louis since it opened, drawing more than 130 million visitors.

More changes are in the works. A project to improve the Old Courthouse, which is part of the grounds and was the site of the first two trials in the landmark Dred Scott slavery case, is expected to be complete by 2020.
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Syrian Government Calls on Refugees to Return Home

Posted on by SeeEA

The Syrian government on Tuesday called on refugees to return, saying it had successfully cleared large areas of “terrorists.” 

The rare appeal reflected the government’s growing confidence after more than seven years of war. While officials usually appeal to Syrians abroad to return during television appearances and interviews, this was the first formal appeal broadcast on official media.

Syrian government forces, with crucial support from Russia and Iran, recently retook large areas near the capital, Damascus, and are waging a new offensive in the south that U.N. officials say has displaced more than 270,000 people.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled closed consultations for Thursday on the offensive and the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the southwest at the request of Sweden and Kuwait.

The government currently controls over 61 percent of Syria, compared with early 2017, when it held just 17 percent, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the conflict.

The government refers to all rebels as “terrorists.”

Over 5.6 million Syrians have fled the country. Many Syrians are unable to return because their homes were destroyed in the fighting, or because they fear military conscription or retribution from government forces. 

Also on Tuesday, a senior U.N. official visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus that government forces recaptured in May. The Yarmouk camp, a built-up residential area once home to tens of thousands of Palestinians and Syrians, was held by Islamic State group and other insurgents for years, and it saw heavy fighting.

“The scale of the destruction in Yarmouk compares to very little else that I have seen in many years of humanitarian work in conflict zones,” said Pierre Krahenbuhl, the commissioner-general of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. 

The camp, once home to 160,000 Palestinian refugees, now lies in ruins. Krahenbuhl, on a three-day visit, also met with displaced Palestinian refugees in areas around Damascus. They expressed “anxieties” about the prospects of their return and reconstruction, he said.

Krahenbuhl said U.S. funding cuts had created “the largest ever funding shortfall in UNRWA’s history.” The agency has a deficit of $446 million, he said, and has since mobilized to raise $200 million through other donors. He said the priority is to keep schools around Syria open for Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA provides basic services to Palestinian refugees from what is now Israel and their descendants, who now number around 5 million and are scattered across the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
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IS Announces Death of Leader al-Baghdadi’s Son

Posted on by SeeEA

The son of the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has died in a suicide attack mission in the city of Homs in western Syria, according to the IS media al-Nashir News.

Posting the photograph of a young boy, purportedly Hudhayfah al-Badri, al-Baghdadi’s son, the outlet said he lost his life in an operation against the Russian forces deployed in Homs and the Syrian government forces, referred to as Nusayriyyah by IS.

“Hudhayfah al-Badri (may Allah accept him), the son of the Caliph (may Allah safeguard him), was killed in an inghimasi [suicide] operation against the Nusayriyyah and the Russians at the thermal power station in Homs Willayah,” the news outlet reported.

Inghimasi refers to suicide operations in which a fighter, clad with explosive belt and armed with regular weapons, attacks an enemy position before detonating himself to inflict as much damage on the enemy as possible.

The U.S. military said it has seen the reports of al-Badri’s death but declined any confirmation.

“It would be inappropriate for us to comment on an attack on forces outside the Coalition. We have nothing more to provide,” U.S. Central Command told VOA.

An Iraqi national, al-Baghdadi, whose real name is Ibrahim Awad al-Badri, announced the Islamic State caliphate in the city of Mosul in June 2014 and made himself its caliph. The leader has since become the world’s most wanted man, with a $25 million bounty on his head.

Al-Baghdadi’s fate is still unknown, with various reports claiming his death and injury several times, including a claim by the Russian Defense Ministry that he might have been hit by a Russian airstrike in 2017.

Those claims have been rejected by U.S. officials and the whereabouts of the elusive leader remain unknown.

Al-Baghdadi’s infamous role in IS has put a spotlight on his family. In March 2014, al-Baghdadi’s wife, Sujidah al-Dulaimi, was released, along with her two sons and daughter, in exchange for 13 nuns taken captive by al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front militants.

It was reported that only the girl was al-Baghdadi’s daughter. The two boys belonged to a man his wife had married before meeting al-Baghdadi.
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Wildfire Destroys Over 100 Colorado Homes Ahead of Holiday

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More than 100 homes in the Colorado mountains were destroyed by a growing wildfire, while hundreds of others across the parched U.S. West remained under evacuations Tuesday and the closure of recreation areas derailed holiday plans.

Authorities announced late Monday that a fire near Fort Garland, about 205 miles (330 kilometers) southwest of Denver, had destroyed 104 homes in a mountain housing development started by multimillionaire publisher Malcolm Forbes in the 1970s. The damage toll could rise because the burn area is still being surveyed.

Ellen Booth and Larry Booth told KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs that they lost their vacation home where they planned to live in retirement and were not able to insure because of recent destructive fires in Colorado. Despite losing antiques and family paintings, they felt fortunate.

“All my neighbors, that’s their primary home. This is just a second home to us,” said Ellen Booth, who described the burned area as looking like it had been hit by a bomb.

The fire, labeled the Spring Fire, is one of six large wildfires burning in Colorado and the largest at 123 square miles (318 square kilometers), about five times the size of New York’s Manhattan. While investigators believe it was started by a spark from a fire pit, other fires, like one that began burning in wilderness near Fairplay, were started by lightning.

Nearly 60 large, active blazes are burning across the West, including nine in New Mexico and six each in Utah and California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Utah

In Utah, authorities have evacuated 200 to 300 homes because of a growing wildfire near a popular fishing reservoir southeast of Salt Lake City amid hot temperatures and high winds. Several structures have been lost since the fire started Sunday, but it’s unclear how many, said Jason Curry of the Utah Division of Forest, Fire and State Lands.

Darren Lewis and his extended family had planned to spend the Fourth of July at a cabin built nearly 50 years ago by his father and uncle in a wilderness area that is nestled between canyons and sits near a mountain river.

Instead, Lewis and his family will spend the holiday nervously waiting to hear if a half century of family memories go up in smoke because of the fire, which has grown to 47 square miles (122 square kilometers).

“There’s a lot of history and memories that go into this cabin,” said Lewis, 44, of Magna, Utah. “The cabin we could rebuild, but the trees that we love would be gone. We’re just hoping that the wind blows the other way.”

Northern California

Meanwhile, a wind-fueled wildfire in Northern California that continues to send a thick layer of smoke and ash as far as south of San Francisco was threatening more than 900 buildings.

The massive blaze was choking skies with ash and smoke, prompting some officials to cancel Fourth of July fireworks shows and urge people to stay indoors to protect themselves from the unhealthy air.

At least 2,500 people have been told to evacuate as the sprawling blaze continues to spread, said Anthony Brown, a spokesman with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Brown said the blaze that started Saturday and is surging through rugged terrain northwest of Sacramento has grown to 109 square miles (280 square kilometers) amid hot and dry weather expected throughout the day. It was 5 percent contained.

“The weather is better than what we had over the weekend. But it’s still hampering our efforts and it’s an area of concern,” he said.

So far this year, wildfires have burned 2.7 million acres in the United States, according to the fire center. That’s a bit below last year’s acreage to date — which included the beginning of California’s devastating fire season — but above the 10-year average of 2.3 million acres.

Because of the Independence Day holiday, authorities are also concerned about the possibility of campfires or fireworks starting new fires because of the dry, hot conditions. In Colorado, many communities have canceled firework displays, and a number of federal public lands and counties have some degree of fire restrictions in place, banning things like campfires or smoking outdoors.

In New Mexico, all or part of three popular national forests remain closed because of the threat of wildfire, putting a damper on holiday camping plans. The forests that are open have strict rules, especially when it comes to fireworks.

“We’re just urging people to use extreme caution,” said Wendy Mason, a spokeswoman for the New Mexico State Forestry Division. “We want people to have fun and enjoy themselves, but we prefer they leave the fireworks shows to the professionals.”
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Trump Again Targets a US Intelligence Agency   

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s frequently contentious relationship with the country’s intelligence agencies took another turn Tuesday when he questioned whether the National Security Agency is out to get him as part of a “Witch Hunt.”

The president lashed out at the NSA, which oversees much of the U.S. government’s electronic surveillance, on Twitter, calling the agency “a disgrace.”

“Wow! The NSA has deleted 685 million phone calls and text messages,” Trump tweeted. “Privacy violations? They blame technical irregularities.”

“The Witch Hunt continues!” he added.

Tuesday’s tweet refers to a move the NSA announced last Thursday, when the agency said it was deleting all of what are termed call record details — phone numbers, and dates and times of such calls — that had been collected since 2015. 

An NSA spokesman, Chris Augustine, tells VOA the agency chose to delete at least 685 million “call detail records” — used to home in on legitimate and legal intelligence targets — because a glitch allowed the agency to receive without authorization “some numbers of people the targets had not been in contact with.”

Augustine added that at “no point in time did NSA receive the content of any calls, the name, address or financial information of a subscriber or customer, nor cell site location information or global positioning system information.”

Both the NSA, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the NSA and other key intelligence agencies, are declining to comment on the president’s tweet, referring all inquiries back to the White House.

But some former U.S. intelligence community members are speaking out and criticizing the president.

“He attacks the NSA and our broader intelligence community for the same reason that criminals attack law enforcement,” said Ned Price, a former senior director of the Nation Security Council under President Barack Obama.

The NSA, which operates within the Defense Department, is responsible for cryptographic and communications intelligence and security.

“He sees them as a threat,” Price, who worked for a decade at the Central Intelligence Agency, told VOA. “What we don’t yet know is if this is born purely of paranoia or a desire to keep hidden his actions.”

A former attorney in the NSA’s Office of General Counsel says Trump’s tweet about the agency, whose activities are highly classified, has left her “near speechless.”

In a series of tweets, Lawfare Executive Editor Susan Hennessey said a presumption of bad faith has “profoundly warped” public debate and understanding of the intelligence community’s mission and tools, adding “that’s been true for a long time, but I never in my life thought I’d see it championed by the White House.”

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee also is reacting to the president’s criticism of the NSA, calling it a false claim.

“If the President wanted to know what happened, which was self-reported by the NSA, he could ask,” Congressman Adam Schiff tweeted. “Instead he watches TV and tweets nonsense as if he’s a Fox pundit, and not head of the Executive Branch.”

This is not the first time Trump has taken on U.S. intelligence agencies.

During the run-up to his January 2017 inauguration, Trump took issue with the CIA’s determination that Russia intervened in the election to help him, as the Republican nominee, defeat the Democratic Party’s candidate, Hillary Clinton.

Following the release of an unverified dossier compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, Trump, as president-elect, accused U.S. intelligence agencies of leaking “this fake news,” and he tweeted: “Are we living in Nazi Germany?”

As president, Trump also has heaped scorn on the FBI, accusing it of planting an informant in his election campaign. 

Additionally, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, accusing him of disloyalty and being a “showboat” and a “grandstander.” 

And he has publicly expressed regret for hiring Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Session heads the Justice Department, which oversees the FBI and is responsible for oversight of foreign intelligence and counter-intelligence activities of the entire U.S. intelligence community. 

Sessions, much to the chagrin of Trump, recused himself from oversight of the special counsel’s investigation of Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
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