Month: July 2018

Peace, for Now, Over Germany’s Migrant Deal

Posted on by SeeEU

Peace in Berlin — but for how long? 

A last-minute migrant deal secured Monday by beleaguered German Chancellor Angela Merkel with the junior partners in her shaky coalition has averted the collapse of her government for now, say analysts.

But the deal, which will see transit zones established along Germany’s southern border to allow for accelerated deportations of migrants not entitled to seek asylum, also has finally brought to a close Merkel’s open-door refugee policy and revealed the brittleness of her coalition government.

The more restrictive border policy agreed between Merkel and Horst Seehofer, her rebellious interior minister and leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union, still has to be approved by her other partners, the Social Democrats, in her three-way coalition government. 

They have rejected the proposal before, dubbing the zones as “prison camps,” but appear ready now to accept the broad-outlines of a deal, according to party insiders, if for no other reason than that early elections would likely see the Social Democrats lose even more ground than they did in last year’s polls.  So, there’s peace for now. But few political observers believe the deal has done much more than place a lid on divergent views within the coalition government over migrants. Nor has it done anything to ease the mutual dislike Seehofer and Merkel hold for each other, and they don’t bother to disguise.  

The deal struck Monday after weeks of wrangling followed a dramatic escalation with Seehofer telling a party gathering in Munich that he planned to resign as interior minister, if Merkel blocked him from turning back any migrants at the border who’d been processed already in other European Countries and use Europe’s open borders to head to Germany.

While allowing Merkel to claim the deal has not breached any EU rules nor undermined the search for an EU-wide solution to the migrant crisis roiling the continent and fueling the rise of euro-skeptic nationalist populist parties, it has clearly altered Germany’s migrant policy. It also has shifted the country to adopt  much harsher border policies than Merkel would have liked. 

It means a country that in the past championed more open migrant policies is now shifting to a far more hostile position toward asylum-seekers, say rights groups, adding to a harsher environment for migrants across the continent.

Merkel has put a brave face on Monday’s deal, highlighting the fact it means Germany will not be adopting the complete go-it-alone approach Seehofer favors.

The deal, she says, “preserves the spirit of partnership in the EU while marking a decisive step towards ordering and controlling secondary migration.”

Merkel’s fear was that by slamming the door firmly shut on migrants, other EU countries would do the same, triggering domino-effect border closures and effectively dismantling the bloc’s Schengen system of open borders.

But analysts say it isn’t clear as yet whether the deal will work on a practical level or that it will help to advance a more collective sand unified EU approach. 

Under the plan, migrants who already have been processed elsewhere in Europe in the first EU country they arrived in or were registered in can be swiftly sent back to that country without a prolonged administrative procedure. But they can only be returned to a country Germany has an agreed bilateral return arrangement with. And Merkel’s efforts to draw up such return agreements with more than a dozen EU countries has met with several rebuffs.

Both Italy, the first arrival country in the EU for many of the migrants turning up in Germany, and Austria, a main transit country, have declined entering into return agreements. 

Austrian politicians have greeted the Merkel-Seehofer deal with skepticism and anger.

“We can’t accept this,” said former Austrian defense minister Hans Peter Doskozil.

Austria’s government warned Tuesday it may introduce “measures to protect.” In a statement, the Austrian government said if the Merkel-Seehofer agreement is approved by the German government as a whole, “we will be obliged to take measures to avoid disadvantages for Austria and its people.”

Among the measures, Austrian officials said, would be closing the country’s borders with Italy and Slovenia, blocking migrants from entering Austria with the goal of reaching Germany. Austrian officials say they fear the Merkel-Seehofer deal will end up with Austria being forced to house the migrants that Germany has rejected.

“We are now waiting for a rapid clarification of the German position at a federal level,” said the statement, signed by Austria’s conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his allies of the far-right Freedom party, Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and Interior Minister Herbert Kickl.

Disputes over the deal now threaten to upend the highly fragile migrant deal European leaders claimed they struck last week after a marathon session in Brussels. 

Under that deal migrants rescued at sea would be sent to “control centers” across the bloc — at locations still to be decided — to be rapidly processed with economic migrants being deported speedily.  

The leaders also agreed to tighten the EU’s external border; to give more money to countries such as Turkey and Morocco to help prevent migrants setting off for Europe; and to set up processing centers in countries across North Africa to deter migrants, and to sort out war refugees from economic migrants. But no African country has so agreed to house EU-run processing centers.
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US Senator Says It Is Crucial for US to Remain in Syria

Posted on by SeeEA

It is important for the U.S. to remain involved in Syria and continue its support of local allied groups, Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham stated during a visit this week to northern Syria.

Graham, of South Carolina, accompanied by a fellow member of the Armed Services Committee, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and U.S. Army Major General Jamie Jarrard, toured the town of Manbij on Monday and met with local officials to discuss stability in the region. 

While speaking to local residents in downtown Manbij, Graham said the U.S. needed to keep its troops in northern Syria and help the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as they continue stabilizing liberated areas and seizing more territory from the Islamic State terror group. 

WATCH: US Officials, Military Convoy Tour Manbij 

“You are friends with the United States, and if we leave, it would be terrible,” Graham told the residents. 

U.S. President Donald Trump in the past has publicly announced his desire to pull U.S. troops out of Syria. They are stationed in the Kurdish-controlled northeastern region of the country in support of a campaign against IS, also known as ISIS.

“We’re knocking the hell out of ISIS. We will be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now,” Trump told supporters in March at an Ohio event on infrastructure.

Fear of withdrawal

SDF leaders, who fear a U.S. withdrawal could leave them undefended against attacks, especially from Turkey and the Syrian government forces, say the presence of U.S. troops is key to keeping the gains made against IS.

“The visit by U.S. officials to Manbij gives a powerful message to everyone that our region is under the U.S. protection,” Faruq al-Mashi, a member of Manbij Civil Council, told VOA. 

The SDF group, supported by the U.S.-led coalition, seized Manbij from IS militants in August 2016. The town has since remained a major point of contention between the U.S. and its NATO ally, Turkey, over the presence of Kurdish militants who are a key element of the SDF.

Officials in Ankara say they view the presence of the Kurdish armed force, known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG), as an unacceptable threat to their national security.

Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization, alleging the group is linked to Kurdish separatists inside Turkey known as the PKK, which has been designated a terror organization by the U.S. and the EU. 

US-Turkey differences

But the U.S. denies the connections between the PKK and the YPG and considers the YPG to be a major ally in the campaign against IS in the region.

The two countries last month announced in a statement endorsing a “road map” agreement to ease tensions over the town and enhance cooperation in Syria.

U.S. officials have refrained from publicly discussing its details, but Turkish officials have said that under the deal, all YPG fighters will be removed and replaced by a joint U.S.-Turkish force.
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Rights Groups: Iran Sentences 4 Dervish Women to 5-Year Terms

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Iranian rights groups say a court has sentenced four women of Iran’s Gonadabi Dervish minority to five years in prison each for participating in an anti-government protest that turned violent in Tehran.

The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said a husband of one of the four women told the organization that a revolutionary court in Tehran handed down their sentences Tuesday. CHRI named the women as Nazila Nouri, Avisha Jalaleddin, and sisters Shima Entesari and Sima Entesari.

It said the four were convicted of “conspiracy against national security.”

The main news outlet covering the human rights situation of the Gonadabi Dervish community in Iran, Majzooban Noor, confirmed the five-year sentences against the four women in posts on its social media channels.

CHRI quoted Mahyar Shalchi, husband of Shima Entesari, as saying the women objected to the lengthy prison terms as unfair and hoped to rescind them in an appeals court. It was not clear when such appeals might be made. There was no immediate word on the sentences in Iranian state media.

The four are among 11 Dervish women whom Iranian authorities detained during anti-government protests in Tehran on February 19 and 20. The protests escalated into clashes between police and the Dervishes, with five security personnel being killed and authorities arresting more than 300 people. Two of the detained Dervish women have since been released, while five others await sentencing.

The Dervish protesters had been demanding the release of arrested members of their community and the removal of security checkpoints around the house of their 90-year-old leader, Noor Ali Tabandeh.

Speaking to VOA Persian’s NewsHour program on Tuesday, U.S.-based Iranian Dervish rights activist Hamid Gharagozloo said Tabandeh has been under house arrest for more than five months and has been cut off from contact with Iran’s Dervish community.

“Before his house arrest, lawyers and doctors would meet Tabandeh once a week to seek his advice, while Dervishes would meet him five days a week to be enriched by his wisdom,” said Gharagozloo, a member of the London-based International Organization to Preserve Human Rights.

“Our minimum request to Iranian authorities is for Tabandeh to be allowed to speak to his followers at least once or twice a week — even through the web,” he said. “We also ask for an international organization to be permitted to visit him to check on his well-being and ensure that he is in good health.”

In a phone interview with VOA Persian last month, the mother of Sepideh Moradi, one of the detained Dervish women currently awaiting sentencing, accused Iranian security agents of severely beating her daughter and the other jailed women at Qarchak prison on Tehran’s southern outskirts. The mother, Sedigheh Khalili, said she learned of the alleged beatings from security guards who spoke to her when she visited the prison that day. She said she had tried to see her daughter but was refused permission.

Also last month, Iran executed a Dervish man on charges of driving a bus that killed three of the Iranian security personnel during the protests. The bus driver, Mohammad Salas, confessed to the killings in a trial that ended in March, but rights activists said he was tortured into making that confession.

Dervishes, also known as Sufis, have long complained of harassment by Iran’s Shiite Islamist rulers, who view them as heretics.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service.
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Migrant Centers Aren’t Solution for EU, UN Agency Says

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A U.N. agency tapped to run new migrant centers around the Mediterranean says the plan won’t solve the European Union’s immigration challenge.

Irregular migration across the sea has been dramatically reduced; only about 45,000 people have made it to Europe that way this year. But the hot-button issue is driving the EU’s political agenda.

Last week, EU states agreed to tighten their external borders and spend more in the Middle East and North Africa to bring down the number of arrivals.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, trying to save her coalition, on Monday agreed to set up migrant camps on the German border, highlighting how the EU is unable to agree on joint migration policies and how governments increasingly go it alone.

One thing EU leaders have agreed is to look at setting up “disembarkation platforms” to handle those rescued from the dangerous crossing. Most are brought ashore in Italy, but more than 1,300 people perished this year.

‘Responsibility to govern’

“The Mediterranean is a shared space, north-south. We have a joint responsibility to govern what happens in that space, including avoiding that people drown,” Eugenio Ambrosi, the head of the International Organization for Migration’s EU mission, told Reuters.

The IOM and its sister U.N. agency for refugees, the UNHCR, would run the new sites.

Ambrosi said 10 existing migrant centers in Greece and Italy could first be beefed up and new ones could then be added in Malta. But opening others on the southern rim of the Mediterranean, as some EU states want, would take time.

“Before going outside of Europe, asking other countries to help, we have to make sure that enough European countries help each other,” Ambrosi said in an interview.

Eventually, depending on where in the Mediterranean they were rescued, people would be taken to EU or African centers. 

The much-publicized idea of Mediterranean camps would work only if more legal ways to get to Europe from non-EU countries are opened up, Ambrosi said.

Some deny admission

EU states would have to share legitimate asylum-seekers from the centers, an idea that has divided them bitterly since 2015. As more than a million people entered the EU in 2015, overwhelming Italy, Greece and Germany, eastern nations led by Poland and Hungary refused to help by taking in a share.

With this internal dispute still festering, the EU will turn to Tunisia and Morocco to host new sites. The African countries have a good opportunity to bargain hard.

Ambrosi said he opposed locating migrant centers in strife-torn Libya and said populists in the EU had failed to recognize how far the number of arrivals had dropped since 2015.

“It’s not a migration issue, it’s a political and functioning-of-the-EU issue,” he said. “There is no quick fix — there has never been.”
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Eco-Jihadism: Somali Terrorist Group Bans Plastic Bags

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The Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabab has banned single-use plastic bags because of the threat they pose to the environment.

Radio Andalus, the radio station run by the extremist group, broadcast news of the ban, saying discarded plastic bags “pose a serious threat to the well-being of humans and animals alike.”

The group also banned the logging of native trees.

Mohamed Abu Abdalla, the group’s governor for southern Somalia, said details of how the plan would be implemented would be announced later.

Plastic bags join a long list of outlawed items in al-Shabab-controlled areas, including western music, movies, satellite dishes and humanitarian agencies.

The al-Qaida-linked group has been pushing to impose the Saudi-inspired Wahhabi version of Islam in Somalia. It has imposed a strict version of Sharia in areas under its control.
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Heroin Use Rising in Kenya’s Coast Communities

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Heroin use is increasing in Kenya’s coastal communities as international traffickers use them as a transit point for drugs bound from Afghanistan to the West, creating health and social problems, a European Union-funded report said Tuesday.

The port cities of Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu have been particularly hard hit in recent years, it said.

Health risks include contracting HIV and Hepatitis C, according to a senior analyst on the research team, Simone Haysom.

Drug users were also becoming marginalized in their communities. In Mombasa, some people accused of drug use had been stoned, burned or murdered in mob attacks, he said.

The growing drug problem was also denting the image of a region better known as a tourist destination for its sun and beaches.

The research was based on hundreds of interviews conducted in East and Southern Africa but it did not include figures showing the scale of the increase in drug use.

Researcher Ciara Aucoin said the region’s high youth unemployment made it particularly susceptible to drug abuse and its attendant crime.

“That combination of poverty, youth bulge, and unemployment leads to this powder keg … in terms of drugs and violence,” Aucoin said.
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Turkey Warns Syria About Action Against Idlib

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Turkey is warning Damascus not to take action against the opposition-held region of Idlib in response to Syria’s efforts against rebels in Daraa, where the Syrian government is attempting to control the last remaining opposition-controlled enclaves.

A senior adviser to Turkey’s president, speaking to VOA on condition of anonymity, declared Ankara would not stand by if Damascus moved on Idlib. “Idlib is a red line for us. As you know, we have our forces deployed there,” said the adviser.

Turkish forces have set up 12 military observation posts across Idlib province, which borders Turkey, as part of an agreement with Tehran and Moscow reached under the Astana peace negotiations.

‘De-escalation” area

Idlib, like Daraa, is designated under the Astana process as a “de-escalation zone,” where government forces and rebels observe a cease-fire. However, Damascus forces, supported by Russian airpower, have steadily overrun the rebel-controlled zones. “Yes, there are problems recognizing the de-escalation zones, We are seeing the de-escalation zones not being respected,” said the Turkish presidential adviser.

Analysts warn any threat to Idlib by Syrian regime forces could pose a nightmare scenario for Ankara. “Turkey administers half of Idlib. That part of Idlib includes Idlib city, and there are 2 million people. The 12 [Turkish] observatory posts protect those jihadis and their families and those Sunni elements who will not make a deal with Damascus,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served widely across the region.

“Of course, Turkey will be determined to avoid this enclave being overrun, as those people have nowhere to go but to Turkey. Moreover, Turkey will not want this to happen, as it would cause major security and humanitarian problems,” Selcen added.

Experts warn any mass exodus from Idlib into Turkey would most likely include extreme radical groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaida. Turkish security forces are already struggling to crack down on IS militants across the country.

Turkey currently hosts more than 3½ million Syrian refugees at a cost so far, according to Ankara, of more than $30 billion. Social tensions in Turkey are reportedly on the rise over the presence of large numbers of refugees, many of whom have been living in the country for years.

​Opposition control

However, it’s not only security and humanitarian factors that are behind Ankara’s resolute stance over Idlib.

“It is not only because Idlib has over 2 million people and we cannot take any more [refugees],” said the Turkish presidential adviser. “It is important that the opposition has a region under its control so that the opposition is represented in Syria.”

With the fall of Daraa, Idlib is one the last remaining regions under opposition control. Ankara has been a strong backer of the opposition since the start of the Syrian civil war and has invested heavily in its support.

Analysts point out the more extensive the region controlled by the opposition, the more leverage it has in final deliberations on the future of Syria. Equally, Ankara thinks a greater opposition presence strengthens its hand as well in its dealings with Moscow and Tehran. The three countries are continuing to cooperate over Syria, in what is an uneasy balancing act of competing agendas.

Complicating matters for Ankara in its efforts to protect Idlib is that it has no diplomatic relations with Damascus. Ties were severed at the onset of the Syrian civil war.

​Direct talks

“The Syrian regime is also talking to Turkey indirectly, and probably it would be better to talk directly in the long run,” international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University said. “We shall see if the [Turkish] president changes his mind and starts his negotiations and talks directly with the regime, which is possible.”

Damascus will most likely be aware of the leverage that the threat of an offensive on Idlib gives it over Ankara, given the danger posed to Turkey by a significant exodus of people that would be precipitated by an assault on Idlib.

While Ankara is insisting it will not stand by if Damascus forces action on Idlib, its room to act could be limited. “There will definitely be some problems [in Idlib], but without Russian support, Turkey can do nothing,” Bagci said.

Moscow’s support is vital because Russian missiles and warplanes control Syrian airspace. A Turkish military operation against Kurdish rebels in Syria’s Afrin province in January was only possible, analysts say, because Moscow supported Turkish air power during the offensive. 
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Mali Election Organizers Extend Strike Indefinitely Weeks Before Vote

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Election workers in Mali extended a strike on Tuesday, a union representative said, casting further doubt on an election this month meant to chart a way out of six years of political unrest and jihadist violence.

The government’s ability to secure the July 29 vote has been thrown into question by repeated attacks by Islamist militant groups and tit-for-tat violence between rival ethnic groups in the center and north of the vast West African nation.

Last week, Islamist militants raided the headquarters of a regional military base in central Mali, leaving at least six people dead. Four civilians were also killed Sunday by a car bomb that targeted French troops in the north.

Two unions representing local administrators — whose tasks include distributing voter cards — extended their seven-day strike on Monday, Olivier Traore, secretary-general of the National Syndicate of Civil Administrators, told Reuters.

He said the Bamako government had missed a July 1 deadline to meet the workers’ demands. They launched the strike on June 25 to protest against their working and living conditions.

“The strike will impact the organization of the elections. There was a whole work program scheduled this week that will now be called into question,” Traore said.

Aboubacar Djire, a technical adviser at the Ministry of Territorial Administration, denied that the strike would affect the elections.

“There are commissions in charge of distributing voting cards, and these commissions continue to work,” Djire told Reuters. The government has repeatedly insisted that elections will take place as scheduled.

The distribution of voter cards started on June 20 and is expected to run until July 27.

The U.N. independent expert on the human rights situation in Mali, Alioune Tine, sounded the alarm on Tuesday about deteriorating humanitarian and security situations.

“These attacks have become more and more deadly and recurrent … with the implication of armed groups causing a grave and worrying evolution that must be urgently addressed,” he said in a statement.

Mali has been in turmoil since Tuareg rebels and loosely allied jihadists seized its desert north in 2012, prompting French forces to intervene to push them back the following year.

Those groups have since regained a foothold in the north and center, using the sparsely-populated Sahel as a launchpad for attacks across the region.
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Trials in Senegal Expose Possible Terror Sleeper Cells

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As Senegal awaits rulings in the cases of 29 people recently tried on terrorism-related charges, evidence that came out during the trials is making many people in the country uneasy.

“This trial opened the eyes of many Senegalese who have been living in denial, and who kept saying that this country never hosted terrorists,” said Abdou Khader Cisse, a journalist with a popular Senegalese news outlet, Dakaractu, who has been covering this issue for the past several years.

“‘They are among us’ — this is the most shared expression [about the terrorists] among our fellow citizens,” said Cisse.

The defendants are Senegalese jihadists accused of working with and fighting for terrorist groups in other African countries, as well as an influential Salafist imam accused of radicalizing and providing material support to terror organizations.

The 29 suspects — all but one of them men — were tried between April 9 and May 31 by a special criminal chamber in Dakar. Rulings are expected July 19.

Boko Haram recruiting

The overwhelming majority of Senegal’s Muslim population belongs to one of four main Sufi sects that dominate the country.

“[They are] generally open-minded, tolerant,” said Jacob Zenn of the Jamestown Foundation. According to Zenn, Senegal has seen the appearance of a stricter and more orthodox form of Islam in the form of Wahhabism.

Most of the suspects are believed to have traveled to Nigeria and fought for Boko Haram, while others went to fight for jihadists in Libya and Mali.

“Those who went to Nigeria were part of a similar network as those in Libya, and those in Nigeria saw major events and battles, including Boko Haram at its peak, when Abubakar Shekau declared an ‘Islamic State’ near Gwoza in 2014,” Zenn said.

“I think Senegal faces more of a regional as opposed to a domestic-specific threat as a state,” said Ryan Cummings, the director of a security risk consultancy firm, Signal Risk, based in South Africa. 

He says that in 2012, the grand imam of Bignona, a town in southern Senegal, said that Nigerians came to a local mosque and actively recruited for Senegalese nationals to join the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. At the time, Senegalese authorities didn’t pay much attention to the claim. As it turned out, about a dozen Senegalese joined Boko Haram, led by Makhtar Diokhane.

Key suspects on trial

Diokhane was tried this year, not only for fighting for Boko Haram in Nigeria, but also for receiving 6 million Nigerian naira (about $30,000 at the time) from Shekau to set up a terror cell for the group in Senegal. He is also alleged to have recruited Senegalese for terror groups across Africa.

“He [Diokhane] was one of the ringleaders who moved between Senegal and Nigeria and arranged [for] the Senegalese foreign fighters to join Boko Haram,” said Zenn.

One of Diokhane’s wives, Coumba Niang, is being tried on charges of financing terrorism. She is accused of funneling money from her husband to prospective jihadists.

Meanwhile, Imam Alioune Ndao, a Salafist preacher from Kaolack, is facing a 30-year jail term for money laundering, providing material support to terrorist and possessing illegal arms.

Another suspect, Moustapha Diatta, came to the attention of Senegalese anti-terror authorities through his Facebook postings. Authorities were able to connect him to several accused jihadists and to Imam Ndao.

Inspiring or demoralizing

Many analysts warn that jihadists may target Senegal either because the ideology has been sown or because of its cooperation with international anti-terrorism operations.

“I think that Senegal, in its ongoing assistance to counterterrorism operations in Mali and the wider region, is certainly at a much higher risk of been potentially targeted,” Cummings told VOA.

Counterterror efforts in the country have been led by France and, to a lesser extent, the United States.

According to a spokeswoman for the U.S. military’s Africa Command, Samantha Reho, support for Senegal has been focused primarily on maritime security and peacekeeping activities.

“The U.S. has provided some advanced peacekeeping operations training that will be used as Senegal supports the MINUSMA mission in Mali,” Reho told VOA, referring to the acronym for the United Nations mission in Mali.

“The region has seen many formerly stable countries with high potential succumb to jihadism, such as Mali and even Burkina Faso. If it happened to Senegal, it would be completely demoralizing not just to Senegal but the entire continent,” Zenn said. “Yet, if Senegal tames the jihadist wave and succeeds politically and economically, it will be an inspiration and model for the region.”
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French Divers Help US Honor Promise to Bring WWII Pilot Home

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Just off the coast of Corsica, French divers carefully extract evidence from an American P-47 Thunderbolt which plunged into the sea during the final months of World War II, its pilot joining the grim list of thousands of U.S. soldiers whose bodies were never found.

After a week of sifting through the wreckage, investigators may be close to helping to fulfill the U.S. military’s promise to recover all prisoners of war and combat casualties, no matter how long it takes.

“It’s a question of honor for the American armed forces: you never leave someone on the battlefield. It’s a promise we keep, even today, 75 years later,” said Simon Hankinson, the U.S. consul general in Marseille.

He was aboard the French Navy’s Pluton anti-mine and diving ship on Monday as the team wrapped up its mission to identify the pilot.

Ten French divers have been assisting the American team since June 25, bringing up pieces of wreckage and vacuuming up sediment some 18 meters (60 feet) below the surface on Corsica’s eastern coast, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the capital Bastia.

Discovered in the 1980s, the plane’s wreckage and number were photographed by a diver in 2012, eventually coming to the attention of the U.S. agency in charge of seeking out prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action.

“Recovery projects take many years to develop,” said Lieutenant Dan Friedman, who led the project for the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). He said archaeologists first searched the site in 2014.

Another P-47 lies about 30 meters away, but its pilot was able to eject in time.

‘We found a lot’

The recovery agency estimates 83,000 prisoners or missing have not been found since World War II, of whom 27,500 are thought to be in Mediterranean waters.

Of those, about 8,000 bodies are thought to be recoverable, and the agency has an annual budget of roughly $150 million (130 million euros) to pursue those cases.

On the seabed off Corsica, a metal grid has been installed to mark off research zones, with divers using enormous tubes to suck up the seafloor and deposit their findings in a huge metal recipient floating on the surface.

Researchers then use dozens of black buckets to spread the sediment across a sieve, their hands picking through tiny piles of metal with the focus of miners searching for gold.

“After we screen all the sediment that comes from the bottom, we separate the potential evidence and then we do a more thorough deep cleaning, to see if there might be a serial number,” said Ezra Swanson, a 30-year-old U.S. Army engineer.

The findings, including bones, a watch and part of the pilot’s identifying “dog tags”, will later be sent to a DPAA lab in Hawaii or Nebraska for potential DNA analysis.

“It’s like a police investigation, it’s evidence, so we have to keep it until we solve the case,” said Peter Bojakowski, a marine archaeologist with the agency.

“We found a lot, enough evidence to most likely identify the pilot, but everything has to go to the lab for DNA tests,” he said.

If the results are conclusive, the pilot’s remains will be buried according to the family’s wishes, either at the Arlington National Cemetery near Washington or at one of the several American military cemeteries in France.

“When we discover the body of someone who’s been dead for 75 years, it’s upsetting for the family… but it allows them to find closure to the story,” Hankinson said.
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Merkel Last-Ditch Migrant Deal Faces EU Headwinds

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An 11th-hour deal clinched by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to rescue her fragile government by limiting migrant arrivals immediately ran into European resistance Tuesday, with neighboring Austria vowing to “protect” its borders.

In high-stakes crisis talks overnight, Merkel put to rest for now a dangerous row with a longtime rival, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, that had threatened the survival of her shaky 100-day-old coalition.

Looking relieved, Merkel — who has been in power since 2005 — hailed a “very good compromise” that would “control” new arrivals of migrants and asylum seekers while upholding EU cooperation and values.

However, criticism from Vienna and her junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), threatened to throw a spanner in the works.

If the agreement reached is approved by the German government as a whole, “we will be obliged to take measures to avoid disadvantages for Austria and its people,” Vienna’s rightwing government warned.  

And it would be “ready to take measures to protect our southern borders in particular,” it said referring to the frontiers with Italy and Slovenia.

Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl expressed anger Vienna “was not consulted”, in remarks quoted by Austrian media.

The Austrian reaction raised the specter of a domino effect in Europe, with member states taking increasingly restrictive measures to shut out refugees.

“If Austria wants to introduce controls at the border, then that is its right,” Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said.

“We will do the same thing and we’ll come out ahead because there are more people arriving here.”

‘Internment camps’

Under the pact both sides hailed as a victory, Merkel and Seehofer agreed to tighten border controls and set up closed “transit centers” on the Austrian frontier to allow the speedy processing of asylum seekers and the repatriation of those rejected.

They would either be sent back to EU countries that previously registered them or, in case arrival countries reject this, be sent back to Austria, pending a now questionable agreement with Vienna.

CSU general secretary Markus Blume called the hardening policy proposal the last building block “in a turn-around on asylum policy” after a mass influx brought over one million migrants and refugees.

The number of new arrivals has fallen dramatically over the last several months. The accord covers about one-quarter of them, with 18,000 already-registered people crossing the Germany border between January and May this year.

But doubts were voiced quickly by other parties and groups, accusing Merkel of turning her back on the welcoming stance she showed toward asylum seekers at the height of the influx in 2015.

Refugee support group Pro Asyl slammed what it labelled “detention centers in no-man’s land” and charged that German power politics were being played out “on the backs of those in need of protection”.

Annalena Baerbock of the opposition Greens party spoke of “internment camps”, accusing the conservatives of “bidding goodbye to our country’s moral compass”.

She urged Merkel’s other coalition ally, the Social Democrats (SPD), to reject the plan.

SPD leader Andrea Nahles said the party still had “significant questions” on the deal. The Social Democrats are to hold joint party meeting with the CDU/CSU bloc at 1600 GMT Tuesday.

One of the SPD’s migration experts, Aziz Bozkurt, was withering, charging that the proposed holding centers would be “impractical and fully on track with the AfD” — the far-right party that has been most outspoken against immigrants.

‘Toxic mood’

The deal drew a line under Merkel’s worst crisis as she faced down an unprecedented mutiny by Seehofer, head of her party’s traditional Bavarian allies the CSU.

She expressed hope to CDU-CSU deputies Tuesday that “we can return to a calm way of working in other aspects of politics”, news agency DPA reported.

But top-circulation Bild daily predicted further turbulence ahead.

“It’s possible that this solution will work,” it said. “But it’s certain that the mood in a coalition has never been as toxic as in this one.”

Judy Dempsey of think-tank Carnegie Europe said Merkel, Europe’s longest-serving leader, and the EU were left weakened by the pact in Berlin at a time of bigger global crises.

This “couldn’t come at a worse time for a European Union that on the one hand is saddled with several populist/nationalist governments and on the other is having its very existence being questioned by US President Donald Trump,” she said.

 
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Greenpeace Crashes Superman-Shaped Drone Into French Nuclear Plant

Posted on by SeeEU

Greenpeace crashed a Superman-shaped drone into a French nuclear plant on Tuesday to demonstrate its vulnerability to outside attacks, the environmental group said.

Greenpeace said it had flown the drone – piloted by one of its activists – into the no-fly zone around utility EDF’s Bugey nuclear plant, near Lyon, and then crashed it against the wall of the plant’s spent-fuel pool building.

“This action again highlights the extreme vulnerability of this type of buildings, which contain the highest amount of radioactivity in nuclear plants,” Greenpeace said.

France generates 75 percent of its electricity from nuclear power in 19 nuclear plants operated by state-controlled EDF.

EDF said that two drones had flown over the Bugey site, of which one had been intercepted by French police.

“The presence of these drones had no impact on the security of the installations,” EDF said, adding that it will file a police complaint.

The drone stunt follows a series of staged break-ins by Greenpeace activists into French nuclear plants, which Greenpeace says are vulnerable to outside attack, especially the spent-fuel pools. These pools can hold the equivalent of several reactor cores, stored in concrete pools outside the highly reinforced reactor building.

Greenpeace says the spent-fuel buildings have not been designed to withstand outside attacks and are the most vulnerable part of French nuclear plants.

“Spent-fuel pools must be turned into bunkers in order to make nuclear plants safer,” said Greenpeace France’s chief nuclear campaigner Yannick Rousselet.

EDF said the spent-fuel pool buildings are robust and designed to withstand natural disasters and accidents.

Greenpeace’s security breaches have sparked a parliament investigation into nuclear security, which is due to present its report on Thursday.

In October, Greenpeace activists broke through two security barriers and launched fireworks over EDF’s Cattenom nuclear plant.

In February, a French court gave several Greenpeace activists suspended jail sentences while ordering the group to pay a fine and 50,000 euros ($58,300) in damages to EDF.

 
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In Moscow, US Senator Hopes for ‘New Day’ in US-Russia Ties

Posted on by SeeEU

The head of a U.S. congressional delegation visiting Russia said Tuesday he hopes for “a new day” in repairing relations between Russia and the U.S.

 

Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, was meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow two weeks before the countries’ presidents are to meet in Helsinki.

 

“We come here realizing that we have a strained relationship, but we could have a better relationship between the U.S. and Russia, because we have some common interests around the world that we could hopefully work together on,” Shelby told Lavrov at the start of their meeting. “We could be competitors, we are competitors, but we don’t necessarily need to be adversaries.”

 

Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump could meet tete-a-tete without their aides before the start of the official summit on July 16.

 

Shelby expressed hope the summit “will be the beginning, maybe, of a new day.”

 

“We will have to wait and see, and go from there, but we recognize that the world is better off, I believe, if Russia and the U.S. have fewer tensions,” Shelby added.

 

Lavrov congratulated the congressmen on the upcoming Independence Day in the U.S. He expressed “my real hope that your visit would symbolize the resumption of relations between our two parliaments.”

 

Relations between Russia and the U.S. have sunk to their lowest point in decades amid U.S. sanctions over Russian meddling in the U.S. election and Russia’s action in Ukraine.

 

Later in the day the congressmen were to meet their counterparts in the Russian parliament. Russian state news agencies had reported that the U.S congressmen were hoping for a meeting with Putin, but Peskov said such a meeting was not on his schedule.

 

 

 
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Iran, World Powers Plan Nuclear Deal Meeting as US Readies Sanctions

Posted on by SeeEU

Foreign ministers from Iran and the four world powers that still want to be a part of the nuclear agreement they signed in 2015 are set to hold talks Friday on how to maintain the deal following the withdrawal of the United States.

Iranian state media reported Tuesday that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif would meet in Vienna with his counterparts from Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is also traveling to Switzerland and Austria this week on his own diplomatic tour to try to preserve the agreement that limits Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief. He said he expects European countries to unveil a package of measures in the coming days designed to keep the deal alive.

U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States of out the agreement in May. All the other parties to the nuclear deal say they remain committed to the agreement and have expressed strong disappointment at Washington’s withdrawal.

The United States on Monday announced its plans to reimpose tough sanctions on Iran’s energy and banking sectors, saying the Iranian government needs to change its behavior and act like a “normal country.”

“Our goal is to increase pressure on the Iranian regime by reducing to zero its revenue on crude oil sales,” said Director of Policy Planning Brian Hook. “We are working to minimize disruptions to the global market but we are confident there is sufficient global spare oil capacity.”

During a press briefing at the State Department, Hook called on the Iran to meet demands in order to deem it what he called a “normal country.”

“Normal countries don’t terrorize other nations, proliferate missiles, and impoverish their own people,” Hook said. “As Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo has said, this new strategy is not about changing the regime, it is about changing the behavior of the leadership in Iran to comport with what the Iranian people really want them to do.”

The State Department’s director of policy planning noted the first part of U.S. sanctions will snap back in early August (August 6). These sanctions will include targeting Iran’s automotive sector, trade and gold, and other key metals. He said the remaining U.S. sanctions will snap back in early November (November 4). These sanctions will include targeting Iran’s energy sector and petroleum related transactions and transactions with the central bank of Iran.

In addition to the sanctions on Iran, the United States has warned other countries that they will also face sanctions if they continue to trade with sanctioned sectors of the Iranian economy.

Hook said State Department and Treasury officials are traveling around the world meeting with U.S. allies to try to convince them to cooperate with the sanctions.
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Africa’s Sahel Armed Groups Not Just Islamist Militants

Posted on by SeeAF

Islamist militants have been a major problem in Mali since at least 2012, when armed jihadists briefly took over the northern half of the country. But not all the young men who join armed groups in the region — including Islamist ones — are motivated simply by religion. According to researchers, many join armed groups for reasons that are practical, which if addressed could provide some solutions to conflict.

The threat from armed Islamist groups in the vast Sahel region seems to be worsening on some fronts.

 

On Friday, an explosion and gunfire severely damaged the regional G5 Sahel Force headquarters in Central Mali, killing at least three soldiers. On Sunday in Gao, Mali’s largest northern town, Islamist militants killed two Malian citizens and wounded four French military personnel.

 

The Support Group for Islam and Muslims has now claimed both attacks. But names can be misleading. Some experts on the Sahel argue that those who join armed groups in the region are not primarily motivated by religious fanaticism.

 

Ibrahima Maïga, a Malian researcher at the Institute for Strategic Studies, says the main driver for many of the young men who join armed groups is economic.

 

“People joining armed groups are not necessarily poor, he argues, but they have economic interests to protect, such as lucrative smuggling operations of petrol, cigarettes, food, medicines, cocaine, and even people. Or they simply want to protect their cattle against thieves,” he said.

 

Human Rights Watch researcher Corinne Dufka says that in parts of Mali, there is insecurity on all sides.

“I spent a lot of time talking to villagers who live in Ségou and Mopti regions, in Central Mali. And they mention a number of things. One of them is abuses committed by the security forces. They also talk about the lack of protection and how they feel vulnerable at the hands of armed bandits. And lastly they talk about endemic corruption that has been going on for decades,” she said. “Interestingly, the armed Islamic groups very strategically exploited these grievances with the state, to recruit quite effectively large numbers of people from those villages and towns in Central Mali.”

Maïga and his colleagues do not say that religion plays no role at all — but argue that the overriding motives are practical.

 

Abdelhak Bassou is based at the OCP Policy Center in Rabat, Morocco, which recently organized a conference on peace and security in the region. He suggests a straightforward solution: be as practical as the people you are fighting.

 

Like everybody else, the populations of the Sahel want to see their needs met, Bassou says. And if this does not happen, people tend to rebel and this can take many forms. In the towns and cities you take to the streets, he says. But, in the vast rural areas of the Sahel this is clearly not going to work. So here the options are: Mafia style racketeering networks, illicit trade or armed groups — jihadist or otherwise. And very often these activities are carried out by the same people, says Bassou.

 

Fighting corruption and establishing accountable authorities is no easy task for governments that struggle to provide even basic services of security, education, and health care.

 

But, fail to provide some hope for the future, argues Bassou, and you’ll have an eternal rebellion on your hands — call it Islamist or otherwise.

 
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US Aims to Slash Iran’s Oil Revenues Down to Zero

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States has announced plans to re-impose tough sanctions on Iran’s energy and banking sectors, saying Iran needs to change its behavior and act like a “normal country.” VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from Washington.
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With Refrigerated ATMs, Camel Milk Business Thrives in Kenya

Posted on by SeeAF

Halima Sheikh Ali is the proud owner of one of the few ATMs in Wajir town in northeast Kenya. But rather than doling out shilling notes, it dispenses something tastier: a fresh pint of camel milk.

“For 100 Kenyan shillings ($1), you get one liter of the freshest milk in Wajir County,” she says, opening a vending machine advertising “fresh, hygienic and affordable camel milk” in order to check the liquid’s temperature.

One of the world’s biggest camel producers, East Africa also produces much of the world’s camel milk, almost all of it consumed domestically.

In the northeast Kenyan county of Wajir, demand is booming among local people, who say it is healthier and more nutritious than cow’s milk.

“Camel milk is everything,” said Noor Abdullahi, a project officer for U.S.-based aid agency Mercy Corps. “It is good for diabetes, blood pressure and indigestion.”

But temperatures averaging 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the dry season, combined with the risk of dirty collection containers, mean the liquid can go sour in a matter of hours, he added, making it much harder to sell.

To remedy this, an initiative is equipping about 50 women in Hadado, a village 80km from Wajir, with refrigerators to cool the milk that remote camel herders send them via tuk-tuk taxi, plus a van to transport it daily to Wajir.

There a dozen women milk traders, including Sheikh Ali, sell it through four ATM-like vending machines, after receiving training on business skills such as accounting.

“The (milk) supply and demand are there. We just have to make it easier for the milk to get from one point to another,” said Abdullahi.

The project, which is part of the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) program, is funded by the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) and led by Mercy Corps.

Fresh and Lucrative

Asha Abdi, a milk trader in Hadado who operates one of the refrigerators with 11 other women, said she used to have to boil camel’s milk — using costly and smoky firewood — to prevent it turning sour.

“I spent 100 shillings ($1) a day on firewood, and the milk would often go bad by the time it got to Wajir as the (public) transport took over three hours,” she said.

Now Abdi and the other women in her group send about 500 liters of fresh milk to Wajir every day — a trip that takes just over an hour by van. They then reinvest the profits in other ventures.

“With the milk money I bought 20 goats,” said Abdi as she rearranged bags of sugar in her crowded kiosk. “But my dream would be to export the camel milk to the United States,” she added. “I hear it’s like gold over there.”

Drought-safe Investment

Amid hundreds of camels roaming stretches of orange dirt outside of Hadado, Gedi Mohammed sits under the shade of a small acacia tree.

“The (tuk-tuk) drivers should be here soon to buy my camel milk,” he said, sipping the precious liquid from a large wooden bowl.

In Kenya’s largely pastoralist Wajir County, prolonged drought is pushing growing numbers of the region’s nomadic herders to see camels — and their milk — as a drought-safe investment.

Mohammed, who used to own over 100 cows, said he exchanged them a decade ago for camels, “which drink a lot of water but can then survive eight days without another drop, when a cow will die after two days.”

But even camels suffer when the weather is really dry, he added.

“Drought is bad for business because with less food and water the camels produce less milk,” he said, impatiently waving at a teenage boy to fetch a straying camel.

“Business would be better if I had a vehicle to transport the milk to buyers myself,” said Mohammed, who said he has to travel ever-longer distances to find pastures for his animals. “Right now I rely on the (tuk-tuk) drivers to find me, and you never know how long they will be.”

Technical Issues

Back in Wajir, Sheikh Ali said her group’s cooled milk ATM allows her to save about 5,000 shillings ($50) per month, as she no longer has to buy firewood to boil milk and can sell the fresh liquid at a higher price.

But although the vending machines are proving popular, they also have been plagued by technical issues, said Amina Abikar, who also works for Mercy Corps in Wajir.

“Sometimes the machines break down, or indicate that there is no milk left when there are still 100 liters” inside, she explained.

“So we have to wait for the machine supplier’s technician to travel all the way from Nairobi. It would be better to train someone locally,” she said.

Also slowing down business growth is the high rate of illiteracy among women involved in the project, Abikar said.

Sheikh Ali, who cannot read or write, relies on her son to operate the machine and check its various indicators.

“I would love to do it myself but I don’t know my ABCs,” she said, adding that she still feels “proud that I am one of the only fresh milk traders in Wajir.”
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Trump Quietly Reshapes US Judiciary

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President Donald Trump’s opportunity to name a new Supreme Court justice to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy caps a reshaping of the U.S. federal judiciary that has already been long under way.

Well before Kennedy announced his retirement last week, Trump began quietly and methodically naming conservatives to federal courts, including a record number of jurists to the powerful courts of appeals that are just one rung below the Supreme Court.

The lifetime appointments of relatively young judges with solidly conservative records will all but ensure Trump’s mark on the federal judiciary — and on American society — for a generation to come. 

“The judge story is an untold story. Nobody wants to talk about it,” Trump said at the White House in May.

“But when you think about it,” he added, standing next to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, “Mitch and I were saying, this has consequences 40 years out, depending on the age of the judge — but 40 years out.”

Trump campaigned for the White House on the promise to name conservatives to the Supreme Court and other federal benches.

Federal judiciary

When he took office, Trump inherited more than 100 vacancies in the federal judiciary, thanks to Republican efforts to block virtually all judicial nominations during the final two years of former President Barack Obama’s term.

Federal judges require Senate confirmation. Until recently, the minority party in the Senate — now the Democrats — could block judicial nominations through a parliamentary procedure known as the filibuster.  

But with the procedure abolished in recent years, first for federal judges and then for Supreme Court justices, the Republicans have been able to push through Trump’s judicial nominees even with their razor-thin majority in the Senate.

According to the Alliance for Justice, a judicial advocacy organization, Trump has had 21 federal appeals judges confirmed by the Senate during his 17 months in office, far outpacing former Presidents Obama and George W. Bush at this point in their first terms.  

But the president has had less success with appointments at the district level. Out of his 96 nominees for district courts, just 20 have been confirmed, fewer than Obama’s and Bush’s records. 

The power of federal judges has been on full display over the past year and a half. Federal judges temporarily blocked Trump’s so-called “travel ban” and his decision to end the program that protects from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

Trump has denounced the court rulings by district judges, but in his judicial appointments he has prioritized nominating federal appeals judges. 

That is because federal appeals courts are the final arbiter in the overwhelming majority of federal cases, said John Malcolm, director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative think tank that advises the White House on judicial selections. (The Federalist Society is another conservative group that helps the White House select judicial candidates.) 

The Supreme Court takes up between 70 and 75 cases a year, compared with more than 50,000 cases filed in federal appeals courts.

“On a number of important constitutional and statutory cases, they’re often the last word,” Malcolm said. “So, the people who sit on those courts can have a very large impact on the direction of the law.”

Some controversial nominees

Trump’s judicial candidates have not been without controversy. One was forced to withdraw his candidacy after it was disclosed that he’d called transgender children part of “Satan’s plan.”

Liberals have been sounding the alarm about a “right-wing takeover” of the federal courts, pointing to the decisive votes Trump-nominated judges have cast in a string of court cases. 

“He has picked people who have been ideologically far to the right,” said Caroline Fredrickson, president of left-leaning American Constitution Society (ACS).

Trump allies defend the president’s selections as sound choices that will restore the judiciary’s role as the interpreter of laws.

White House Counsel Don McGahn, who spearheads judicial selections for Trump, said earlier this year that the president wants judges who have a “commitment to the notion of a rule of law” and who “read the law as written.”

“He ran on the idea of the judicial branch needing some help. He’s delivered on those promises,” McGahn said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.

Currently, about 17 percent of federal judgeships are vacant. With more likely to open up over the next two years, Trump could end up appointing 15 percent to 20 percent of the judiciary by the end of his current term, said Fredrickson, of the ACS.

Republicans hope to keep control of the Senate after the November congressional elections, which would allow them to swell the ranks of the judiciary with Trump’ nominees.

McConnell, a key Trump ally on judicial selections, said in May that if Republicans keep their majority in the Senate, “we can do this for two more years, so that through the full four years of President Trump’s term, he will make a lasting generational contribution to the country, having strict constructionists on the court.”

On the other hand, a Democratic takeover of the Senate could effectively put an end to Trump’s judicial appointments, Fredrickson said.

“There will be no more judges confirmed unless they happen to be people recommended by Democratic senators,” she said.
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A Woman’s Desperate Quest for Her Children

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Yeni Gonzalez of Guatemala crossed the border into the United States illegally and was separated from her children. VOA is following her quest to overcome legal barriers and get her kids back from distant detention centers. As VOA’s Celia Mendoza reports from Arizona, this is one case among the 2,000 children of illegal migrants separated from their families.
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African Leaders Talk Security With French President

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African heads of state have pledged to coordinate efforts to improve the continent’s security and defeat jihadist organizations, particularly in Nigeria and the Sahel region, during talks Monday at the 31st African Union summit held in Mauritania’s capital.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Nouakchott Monday to discuss the battle against Islamic extremism and ways to finance counterterrorism and peacekeeping operations.

 

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz met Macron at the airport, and praised the French president for his “work for the development of the region and the fight against terrorism and insecurity.”

 

Aziz said that relations between Mauritania and France have made “significant progress in several vital areas such as defense and security, energy and health in particular.”

 

He said Macron has supported the newly formed G5 Sahel regional force that has become an important framework for coordinating efforts to promote development and to fight against extremism, organized crime and illicit trafficking.

 

Macron was to meet with the presidents of the G5 Sahel group, which includes Mauritania, Niger, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso.

“This exchange will be an opportunity for me to mark my commitment to renew the link between France and the African continent, between Africa and Europe but also to rethink this link in a concrete way, as we are doing between others on issues of security, counter-terrorism and education,” said Macron.

 

He said that concrete decisions would be made during Monday’s meetings about the redeployment of forces and their positioning for the comings months.

 

The meeting comes as al-Qaida’s Mali branch claimed responsibility for three attacks in three days in Mali. The first was on Friday at the G5 Sahel military headquarters, then on Saturday there was a land mine attack on Malian soldiers and on Sunday a suicide bomb aimed at French soldiers, but which killed four civilians. Both presidents condemned the attacks.

 

Aziz on Sunday said that Africa urgently needs a comprehensive approach to deal with extremist attacks that takes into account the cultural and economic issues that are the root causes of the violence.

At the close of the summit, African leaders adopted a series of decisions with at least 49 countries signing a treaty for the African Continental Free Trade Area. Other decisions were made to work toward the eradication of corruption and the reform of AU institutions along with recommendations to help areas of tension including South Sudan.

 

“Africans have shown that they can meet the challenges and drive their progress,” said African Union and Rwandan President Paul Kagame. He said that countries must stay on track “to achieve better results against corruption, and toward our economic integration.”

 

The African Union summit, on Sunday and Monday, was set up to address the issue of corruption and to discuss a mechanism to return stolen money, which is largely placed in tax havens abroad. The AU says approximately 70 percent of income from Africa’s resources are squandered or diverted.

 

Speaking Monday of France’s relations with Mauritania, Macron stressed that “bilateral relationship between our two countries is not limited to security, even though it is extremely important,” adding that he hopes the “we can continue to intensify relations in terms of development projects and economic links.” More than 40 million euros ($46 million) will go to development projects through the French Development Agency in Mauritania, he said.
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Top US Business Group Assails Trump’s Handling of Trade Dispute

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday denounced President Donald Trump’s handling of global trade disputes, issuing a report that argued tariffs imposed by Washington and retaliation by its partners would boomerang badly on the American economy.

The Chamber, the nation’s largest business lobbying group and a traditional ally of Trump’s Republican Party, said the White House is risking a global trade war with its push to protect U.S. industry and workers with tariffs.

The group’s analysis of the harm each U.S. state could suffer from retaliation by U.S. trading partners painted a gloomy picture that could bring pressure on the White House from Republicans ahead of congressional elections in November.

For example, nearly $4 billion worth of exports from Texas could be targeted by retaliatory tariffs, the Chamber said, including $321 million in meat the state sends to Mexico each year and $494 million in grain sorghum it exports to China.

Trump has slapped tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of steel and aluminum imports from China, the European Union, Canada and others, prompting retaliation against U.S. products.

He is considering extending the levies to the auto sector.

The Chamber, which says it represents the interests of three million companies, had praised Trump for slashing business taxes in December, but mounting trade tensions have opened a rift with the White House.

“The administration is threatening to undermine the economic progress it worked so hard to achieve,” Chamber President Tom Donohue said in a statement. “We should seek free and fair trade, but this is just not the way to do it.”

Asked at a briefing about the Chamber’s report, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters: “The president is focused on helping protect American workers and American industries and create a fair playing field.”

The Chamber is expected to spend millions of dollars ahead of the November elections to help candidates who back free trade, immigration and lower taxes. It has already backed candidates who share those goals in Republican primaries.

Retaliation

Perhaps most unsettling to businesses and investors, Washington and Beijing have engaged in tit-for-tat tariffs and threatened retaliation that has raised the prospect of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The United States is set to impose tariffs on $34 billion worth of additional goods from China on July 6. China has threatened to retaliate in kind with its own tariffs on U.S. agricultural products and other goods.

Although Trump has previously been persuaded to back off trade threats based on the fact that they would hurt states that supported him in the 2016 presidential election, he has taken a more aggressive tack in recent months.

On Monday, he threatened to take action against the World Trade Organization after media reports said he wanted to withdraw from the global trade regulator. Trump says the WTO has allowed the United States to be taken advantage of in global trade.

Trump initially granted Canada, EU members and other nations exemptions on the metal tariffs — 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum. But he lifted the exemptions the same week he met with Group of Seven leaders in Quebec last month.

Trump railed against his trading partners during the meeting, according to sources, and withdrew his support for a joint communique after leaving the summit, angering and bewildering some of Washington’s closest allies.

Retaliation for his tariffs came swiftly.

Early last month, Mexico imposed tariffs on U.S. products ranging from steel to pork and bourbon, while the EU levied duties of 25 percent on 2.8 billion euros of U.S. imports, including jeans and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Harley-Davidson, which dominates the heavyweight U.S. motorcycle market, subsequently announced it would shift some U.S. production overseas to avoid higher costs for EU customers.

Trump slammed the company’s move, saying it was tantamount to surrender, and threatened punitive taxes.

Canada, a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Mexico, on July 1 imposed retaliatory measures on C$16.6 billion ($12.63 billion) of American goods, including coffee, ketchup and whiskey.

Global equities fell Monday as investors worried about an escalation of the trade disputes.

The Chamber based its state-by-state analysis on data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and government agencies in China, the EU, Mexico and Canada.
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Ivory Coast Eyes Biomass Power Generation From Cocoa Waste

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The world’s top cocoa producer Ivory Coast plans to build a 60 to 70 megawatt (MW) capacity biomass power generation plant running on waste from cocoa pods, part of its aim of developing 424 MW of biomass power generation capacity by 2030.

The plant, which will enable Ivory Coast to diversify its electricity generation sources, was among five projects to receive grants from the U.S. agency for trade and development (USTDA), the U.S. embassy in Abidjan said in statement on Monday.

Others included a hydropower project in Kokumbo and two smart grid power projects.

The biomass power station, the first in Ivory Coast, would be based in the southern cocoa region of Divo. The USTDA has earmarked $996,238 for feasibility studies, the statement said.

Although Ivory Coast produces around 2 million tons of cocoa annually, thousands of tons of pods are discarded after the beans are removed. They are left to rot or burned after the harvest.

Unlike many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ivory Coast has a reliable power supply. It exports electricity to neighbors Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo and Mali, and plans to extend its grid to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone this year.

But with domestic consumption rising by about 10 percent a year, the government is under pressure to boost supply at home and aims to increase installed capacity to 4,000 MW by 2020, from the current 2,275 MW.
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Malian ‘Spider-Man’ Joins Paris Fire Department

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The immigrant from Mali, dubbed “Spider-Man” after he scaled a Paris apartment building to save a young boy dangling from a balcony, has begun working for the city’s fire department.

Mamoudou Gassama, 22, captured international attention when he scaled four stories of a building’s exterior to save a 4-year-old boy who had managed to climb over a balcony and was dangling above a street.

At the time, VOA’s Bambara service interviewed Gassama, who described what happened. He said he and his girlfriend had just ordered food when he saw a crowd gathering outside.

​”Before we start eating, I saw the crowd outside. Some people were screaming, drivers were honking. I went outside and I saw the kid hanging on the fourth floor,” he told VOA. “Thank God I was able to run up there to save him. … When I started going up, I got more courage to go save him.”

After he reached the child, and police pulled them both into a room, “I [started] shaking and couldn’t stand on my feet. I was so shaken for what I did,” Gassama said.

Soon after a video of Gassama’s heroic deed went viral on social media, he was invited to meet with President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace.

Macron offered the undocumented immigrant French citizenship, awarded him a gold medal for courage and suggested he become a firefighter.

Gassama told VOA that he asked the French leader for help.

“I told him I left Mali through Burkina Faso, Niger and went through Sahara. Then I arrived in Libya, where I spent some time trying to find my way to Italy,” he said. “The first time I tried to take a boat, I was caught by authorities and was put in jail and then deported back to Niger. I tried a second time. Thank God, I made it to Italy.”

“I pray [to] God to help other migrants the same way He helped me. Whoever is migrant, I pray for him to be successful. Those who are in the Sahara desert, may God help them go through. Those who are at sea, may God help them arrive safely,” Gassama told VOA.

Macron, who has supported a bill to tighten France’s immigration law, has said there is no disparity between rewarding Gassama for his act of bravery and holding firm on immigration.
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Infant Refugee Girl, Stabbed at US Birthday Party, Dies

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A man accused of stabbing nine refugees, including six children, at a Boise, Idaho, birthday party was charged with murder Monday after the 3-year-old birthday girl died.

Timmy Kinner is jailed without bail. He also faces nine charges of aggravated assault.

The toddler died in a Utah hospital, where she was flown for treatment. Seven other victims are still being treated, some for life-threatening wounds.

Police say Kinner was evicted Friday from the apartment complex that housed refugees because of what police say was his disturbing behavior. He returned the next day and allegedly stabbed children and guests at the birthday party, which was being held outdoors.

The victims are from Ethiopia, Iraq and Syria. Boise police chief Bill Bones said Kinner is from Los Angeles and is not a refugee. Bones said the attack does not appear to be a hate crime, but that does not make it any less horrible.

“This is an attack against those who are most vulnerable, our children. It’s untenable, unconscionable and is pure evil in my mind,” Bones said.

About 200 people turned out for a prayer service at an Islamic community center Sunday night, followed by a rally near the attack site where speakers demanded greater safety for refugees.
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