In less than three months, U.S. voters will cast ballots in midterm congressional elections that could alter the course of Donald Trump’s presidency. The results from recent primary and special elections reveal a political landscape that features energized Democrats, dedicated Trump supporters and a sense that a polarized country is headed for a major political showdown in November. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
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Month: August 2018
Trump Revokes Ex-CIA Director’s Security Clearance
The security clearance of a former Central Intelligence Agency director was revoked Wednesday by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said in a statement that John Brennan has been sowing “division and chaos” about his administration.
The clearances of other former officials also are under review, including those of former U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice, former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
“Security clearances for those who still have them may be revoked, and those who have already lost their security clearance may not be able to have it reinstated,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said to reporters Wednesday, reading out a statement in the president’s name.
Sanders, responding to reporters’ questions, denied that Brennan and others are being singled out because they are critics of Trump.
Critical of the president
The president’s statement accuses Brennan of “erratic conduct and behavior” that “has tested and far exceeded the limits of any professional courtesy that may have been due to him.” It also accuses Brennan of “a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility.”
Brennan has been extremely critical and outspoken about the president’s conduct, for example, calling Trump’s performance at a joint news conference last month with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland “nothing short of treasonous.”
Brennan, on Twitter, described Trump’s action Wednesday as part of a broader effort “to suppress freedom of speech and punish critics,” adding that it “should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out.”
Brennan, who spent 25 years with the CIA, concluded: “My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent.”
“Two things, in my view, are true at the same time,” former CIA deputy director of intelligence Carmen Medina told VOA. “It was unwise for Brennan to be so vitriolic in his comments, unwise but not illegal. And it is an abuse of power for Trump to revoke clearances, unless he can prove misuse of classified information, which I don’t think he can.”
Matter of courtesy
Such former top officials, as a matter of courtesy, retain their government clearances so that they may be able to consult with current government officials or take outside positions for contracted entities that are involved with sensitive intelligence matters.
An official with knowledge of the process told VOA that senior intelligence officials “had no hand in this, no role in this.”
Both the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency referred all of VOA’s questions about the matter to the White House.
Two senators applaud
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky applauded the president’s action, saying he had urged the president to do so because Brennan’s “behavior in government and out of it demonstrate why he should not be allowed near classified information.”
“He participated in a shredding of constitutional rights, lied to Congress, and has been monetizing and making partisan political use of his clearance since his departure,” Paul said in a statement.
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana also defended Trump’s action, telling CNN that he does not see why Brennan should continue to have a security clearance.
“I think most Americans look at our national intelligence experts as being above politics. Mr. Brennan has demonstrated that that’s not the case,” Kennedy said.
Danger to free speech, security
But critics of the move to strip Brennan’s clearance called it a threat to free speech and even national security.
“It’s unprecedented. I don’t know of a case where this has ever been done in the past,” Clapper said on CNN.
Clapper, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who had been appointed to top intelligence posts by both Republican and Democratic party presidents, called Trump’s action “an infringement of our right to speak and apparently the appropriateness of being critical of this president in which one degree or another all of us have been.”
Clapper noted he has had no access to intelligence information since he left government on the day Trump was inaugurated.
The threat to pull his security clearance, Clapper added, will not silence him.
“I don’t plan to stop speaking when I’m asked my views on this administration,” said Clapper on CNN.
Hayden, who headed both the CIA and NSA during his career, said losing his clearance would “have a marginal impact” on the work he’s doing now. He also said fear of losing that clearance wouldn’t stop him from speaking his mind.
“With regard to the implied threat today that I could lose my clearance, that will have no impact on what I think, say or write,” he said in an emailed statement.
Most of the names on the list read out by Sanders “have been open or outspoken about the administration or have directly run afoul of it,” noted Clapper.
The current administration has questioned the loyalties of such officials, viewing their comments as attacks against the president, especially those focusing on the intelligence findings that Russia intervened in the 2016 election won by Trump.
Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer now with Georgetown University, told VOA arguments could be made for and against former senior officials retaining security clearances after they’ve left those positions. But he added that the decision should not be made because of an opinion they express.
“Deciding on such a basis represents a corruption and politicization of an important national security process,” Pillar said. “The harm to U.S. national security comes from that corruption, much more so than from not being able to get advice in classified channels from John Brennan or any other former official. What’s to stop Trump from politicization of the clearance process for currently serving officials?”
A former CIA deputy director, John McLaughlin, speaking on MSNBC after Sanders read out the names, said, “the message that goes out is be careful what you say” about Trump.
McLaughlin said it is critical for intelligence professional, especially those still in their jobs, to be able to deliver unpleasant news to a president, and he expressed hope that Trump’s action does not have a chilling effect on those who brief the president.
“This has zero to do with national security. This is an Official Enemies List. The offense: exercising 1st Amendment rights,” tweeted Michael Bromwich, a former inspector general of the Justice Department, which oversees federal law enforcement.
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Manafort Jury Begins Deliberations
A jury begins deliberations Thursday on whether former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is guilty of tax and bank fraud. Manafort faces decades in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers presented their closing arguments Wednesday, the prosecution arguing Manafort’s life was “littered with lies” as he pursued a lavish lifestyle.
“Mr. Manafort lied to keep more money when he had it, and he lied to get more money when he didn’t,” prosecutor Greg Andres said.
No reasonable doubt, defense says
But defense attorney Richard Westling told the jury Manafort should be acquitted. He said the government had not met its burden to prove that Manafort was “guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” the standard for a conviction in the U.S. legal system.
Westling said that is the reason the defense decided to rest Its case without calling any witnesses to testify, including Manafort himself.
Westling attacked the government’s contention that Manafort hid millions of dollars in offshore accounts to avoid U.S. taxes so he could fund luxurious purchases. He said Manafort had an adjusted net worth of $21.3 million at the end of 2016.
“Given this evidence, how can we say he didn’t have money?” Westling said.
Star witness
Westling also attacked the prosecution’s star witness, Manafort’s former deputy chairman in the Trump campaign Rick Gates, as a liar and a thief.
Gates had pleaded guilty before Manafort’s trial to helping him hide millions in income from U.S. tax authorities and is awaiting sentencing.
Along with hours of testimony about Manafort’s finances, Gates acknowledged he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort in part to finance an extramarital affair in London and lied about his own role in hiding money in offshore accounts.
Prosecutor Andres alleges that overall, Manafort “failed to pay taxes on more than $15 million” in income. It is money the government claims he used to buy palatial mansions, elaborate landscaping, fancy suits and jackets, electronics and other high-priced items.
Much of the money, the government alleges, came from Manafort’s lobbying for deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was toppled in a popular 2014 uprising in Kyiv before fleeing to exile in Russia.
But Andres alleged that when the stream of money from Yanukovych dried up four years ago, Manafort financed his luxurious lifestyle by securing about $20 million in bank loans in the U.S. by lying about his assets and debts on loan applications.
“He lied and lied again,” Andres said.
Prosecutors for special counsel Robert Mueller presented two weeks of testimony against Manafort, accusing him of hiding millions of dollars in offshore accounts he earned while lobbying for Yanukovych in the years before Manafort joined Trump’s campaign.
The case has drawn particular interest in the U.S. because it is the first trial conducted by Mueller’s prosecutors in their wide-ranging investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
They are probing whether Trump associates conspired with Russia to help Trump win the White House and whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice by trying to thwart the investigation.
However, the case against Manafort, a long-time Washington lobbyist, only peripherally touched on the campaign. Instead, it dealt almost totally on accusations about his financial transactions and what he did with the money from Yanukovych and the bank loans.
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White House: ‘We Won’t Forget’ How Turkey is Treating US Pastor
The U.S. continued to press Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to release detained American Pastor Andrew Brunson, after a Turkish court Wednesday rejected a second legal appeal to release him from house arrest. And Turkey is pushing back hard, sharply raising tariffs on a range of American goods in retaliation to the tariffs imposed last week by President Trump. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department on deteriorating relations with a U.S. NATO ally.
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US F-22 Stealth Jets Take on Norway’s F-35 in Simulated Dogfights
Two U.S. F-22 stealth fighter jets squared off in simulated dogfights with two of Norway’s expanding fleet of F-35 aircraft Wednesday as part of an exercise aimed at strengthening the NATO alliance and increasing its deterrent power.
The two U.S. F-22s are among 13 in Europe for a series of short-term deployments in places such as Greece and Poland, with further training missions planned in undisclosed locations in coming days.
The Norwegian deployment lasted one day but will lay the groundwork for NATO allies as they work to integrate their stealth warfare capabilities, Colonel Leslie Hauck, chief of the fifth generation integration division at the U.S. Air Force’s headquarters in Europe, told reporters in Norway.
The deployment is part of U.S. efforts to reassure European allies after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
F-35s arriving in Europe
Growing numbers of Lockheed Martin Corp F-35s are arriving in Europe as the world’s most advanced warplane and most expensive weapons program matures following a raft of cost increases and technical challenges in its early years.
“Every training opportunity that we have betters our readiness for any potential adversary of the future,” Hauck said at the Orland air base, home to six of Norway’s expected 52 F-35s.
Hauck leads a new office at Ramstein Air Base in southwestern Germany, that is working to ensure a smooth transition for about 40 F-35s scheduled to be in Europe by year’s end. The first of which are set to arrive in 2021.
Next month, a group of senior officials from the United States and seven other F-35 operator countries — Norway, Denmark, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Britain and the Netherlands — will meet to compare notes on the new warplane, which was first used in combat by Israel in May.
Better battlefield overview
The United States has more than 150 of the aircraft, whose sensors pilots say give them the most extensive overview of a battlefield of any combat jet available.
Norwegian Air Force Major Morten Hanche, who piloted one of the Norwegian F-35s, said the mock fight with the F-22s was great practice, especially since the F-35s generally surprise and overpower other nonstealth aircraft.
He declined to name the winning aircraft, saying only: “The F-22 is a very formidable opponent.”
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Libya Court Sentences 45 to Death over 2011 Killings
A Libyan appeals court on Wednesday sentenced 45 people to death by firing squad for killings committed in the capital, Tripoli, during a 2011 uprising, according to a statement from the justice ministry.
The statement did not give details of the case, but a justice ministry official said it related to killings perpetrated by forces loyal to former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi shortly before he was driven from Tripoli and toppled.
A further 54 people were sentenced to five years in prison over the killings of at least 20 people, while 22 were acquitted.
Defense lawyers and relatives of the accused were present for the verdict, but the defendants were not in court. A picture posted by the ministry showed two guards with large guns standing close to black-robed judges inside the courtroom.
Other death sentences handed down in Libya since 2011, when Libya split into rival camps leading to years of turmoil and armed conflict, are not known to have been carried out.
In its latest annual report, human rights group Amnesty International described Libya’s court system as “dysfunctional” and said many had been held since 2011 with no judicial oversight or means to challenge the legality of their detention.
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US: Serb Vote on Srebrenica Massacre Report ‘Wrong Direction’
The United States said Wednesday that Bosnia’s autonomous Serb-dominated region was attempting to deny history by revoking a report that concluded that Bosnian Serb forces killed about 8,000 Muslims in and around Srebrenica during the country’s 1992-95 war.
The U.S. State Department said adoption by the Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) government of the 2004 report on the Srebrenica genocide had been an important reconciliation step.
Reconciliation step reversed
“The August 14 session of the Republika Srpska National Assembly is a step in the wrong direction,” a State Department statement said.
“Attempts to reject or amend the report on Srebrenica are part of wider efforts to revise the facts of the past war, to deny history, and to politicize tragedy. It is in the interest of the citizens of Republika Srpska to reverse the trend of revering convicted war criminals as heroes, and to ensure their crimes continue to be publicly rejected.”
A vote Tuesday by lawmakers in Bosnia’s Serb Republic to revoke the 2004 report was initiated by the region’s nationalist President Milorad Dodik, and some analysts say it is the latest issue used by Serb ruling parties to mobilize voters around the nationalist agenda ahead of elections in October.
Dodik, an advocate of the Serb region’s secession from Bosnia, has always rejected rulings by two war crimes courts, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and The International Court of Justice, that the Srebrenica atrocity qualified as genocide.
Official says scope overblown
Though acknowledging a crime occurred, Dodik says the numbers of those killed had been exaggerated in the 2004 report and it should have included Serb victims.
The parliament concluded that a new independent international commission should be formed to determine the damages suffered by all peoples in the Srebrenica region.
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Zimbabwe President Urges Court to Toss Opposition Challenge
Lawyers representing Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa have filed papers urging the country’s Constitutional Court to throw out an opposition challenge to his election.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party won the July 30 election in this politically and economically troubled southern African country’s first election without former longtime ruler Robert Mugabe on the ballot. The electoral commission said Mnangagwa received 50.8 percent of the vote and main challenger Nelson Chamisa received 44.3 percent.
The main opposition MDC party filed a legal challenge to the results on Friday alleging “gross mathematical errors” and calling for a fresh vote or a declaration that Chamisa was the winner.
On Wednesday, Mnangagwa’s lawyers dismissed the challenge as “political.”
“We are more than confident, there is no evidence of direct manipulation. This is a political gamesmanship. Let’s see if that evidence is admissible in court,” said Lewis Uriri, who is leading Mnangagwa’s team of lawyers, including some hired from neighboring South Africa.
Chamisa’s challenge “has no legal merit,” said Paul Mangwana, a lawyer and the ZANU-PF spokesman.
Mnangagwa was forced to cancel an inauguration ceremony planned for last Sunday because of the court challenge. Zimbabwe’s law states that the court must rule within 14 days of the filing.
The case brings more uncertainty to a country that had hoped the peaceful vote would begin a new era but has been rocked since then by scenes of military shooting in the streets, in which six people were killed, and reports that opposition supporters have been harassed and beaten.
Some in the country have expressed doubt that the court will be able to remain neutral.
“I think the courts will have to prove to the people of Zimbabwe that they are weighing the facts of the case and considering them carefully and rendering an impartial judgment,” the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, Brian Nichols, said Wednesday afternoon after meeting with Mnangagwa.
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Israel Lets Food, Commercial Goods Back into Gaza as Egypt Seeks Truce
Israel allowed commercial goods back into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, in a sign of easing tensions as neighboring Egypt pursued a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian enclave’s dominant armed faction.
But the prospect of an agreement between Israel and the Islamist group prompted concern within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government that Hamas would take advantage of any respite from fighting to build up its rocket arsenal.
Israel’s security cabinet, a forum of senior ministers headed by Netanyahu, discussed the situation. In a statement issued by Netanyahu’s office, an Israeli “diplomatic official” said Hamas would have to prove its commitment to the truce.
As well as wanting calm along the border, Israel has said Hamas must return the remains of two soldiers killed in the 2014 Gaza war and release two civilians whose fate is unknown, whom it says are being held by Hamas in the Strip.
“There will be no proper agreement with Hamas without the repatriation of our sons and citizens, and without (it) ensuring calm for an extended period,” part of the statement from the prime minister’s office said.
At Israel’s Kerem Shalom commercial crossing with Gaza, consignments of fruits and vegetables, fuel and construction material moved into the territory of 2 million people.
Israel announced on Tuesday it would lift the commercial goods ban it imposed on July 9 in response to the launching by Palestinians of incendiary balloons across the frontier. There have been fewer reports in recent days of such incidents, which have burned large tracts of agricultural land and forests in southern Israel.
Israel also expanded Gaza’s fishing zone, in waters under Israeli naval blockade, from 3 to 9 nautical miles off the southern coast and to six nautical miles in the north, the head of Gaza’s fishermen’s union said.
The Oslo interim peace accords in the early 1990s set a 20 nautical mile limit, which was never implemented. Since then the zone has ranged in size between 3 and 6 nautical miles.
“We are hoping for a big catch at nine miles now,” said Khader Baker, 25, who owns two fishing boats. “There had been almost no fish within three miles. We nearly starved.”
Prior restrictions on the import of commercial goods that Israel says could also be used for military purposes remained in effect, a Palestinian border official said. He said they included balloons and tyres.
Comprehensive truce
Egypt and the United Nations have been trying to broker a comprehensive truce to prevent more fighting and to ease the deep economic hardship in Gaza.
Hamas officials said Palestinian factions were in Cairo to discuss terms for a ceasefire with Israel.
Welcoming the reopening of the crossing, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement he was “encouraged to see that those concerned have responded to calls to avoid the devastating impact of yet another conflict on the civilian population in and around Gaza.”
Guterres urged all parties “to support the efforts of U.N. Special Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov and Egypt to avoid an escalation and address all humanitarian issues in Gaza and the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza.”
Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party in the governing coalition, put Netanyahu on notice that his faction would vote against an agreement with Hamas.
“This ‘quiet’ will give Hamas total immunity so that it can rearm itself with tens of thousands of rockets,” Bennett said in a statement.
For more than a decade Gaza has been controlled by Hamas and subject to an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has wrecked its economy, creating what the World Bank has described as a humanitarian crisis with shortages of water, electricity and medicine.
Israel says it has no choice but to enforce its blockade to defend itself against Hamas, a group that has called for its destruction.
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Egypt Levels Historic Cairo District, Angering Residents
Egyptian authorities are demolishing a historic 19th-century neighborhood in Cairo to make way for high-end housing and business development a stone’s throw from the Nile, angering residents who say they have not been properly compensated.
The Maspero neighborhood is named for French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero, who helped found the Egyptian Museum. Developers have long eyed the central district, which is already home to the Foreign Ministry and the state television and radio building.
The neighborhood is part of the modern city built by Khedive Ismail in the 19th century, which was envisioned as a Paris on the Nile, with wide boulevards, traffic circles and stately European-style architecture.
In recent decades the neighborhood, like much of the Egyptian capital, has fallen into decay. While some of the old architecture remains, including apartments inhabited by middle-class families, parts of Maspero had come to resemble a shanty town.
Authorities spent years persuading residents and shopkeepers to leave the area in exchange for compensation or temporary accommodation elsewhere, with the promise of moving back to the neighborhood once modern housing had been built.
Of the 4,500 families displaced by the demolition, about 900 will return to live in Maspero in apartments that will stand alongside glitzy residential towers and high-rise office buildings.
The redevelopment is part of a larger effort to transform Cairo, which is home to 20 million people, even as a new administrative capital is under construction in the desert 45 kilometers (30 miles) to the east.
Authorities say the projects are needed to reduce the overcrowding, traffic and pollution that have long plagued the city. But critics say poor and middle-class Egyptians are being pushed out by well-connected businessmen.
The government has set its sights on two Nile islands that are home to poor neighborhoods and farming communities, hoping to transform them into luxury housing and business districts. Police serving eviction notices have repeatedly clashed with residents.
Last week, Cairo’s governor said Maspero was completely evacuated, paving the way for the final phase of demolition. “Building houses for those [900] families will be the first phase of the project,” Governor Atef Abdel-Hameed said.
The entire process will cost an estimated $225 million, according to the Housing Ministry.
Among the casualties of the new development is the Hinhayat watch shop, which was established in 1907 by a Bulgarian craftsman.
Essam Ahmed, the owner, says his grandfather worked in the shop and then purchased it in 1956, when Egypt’s foreign communities fled in the face of growing nationalism and expropriation of property by the socialist government. He boasts that his grandfather once fixed watches belonging to King Farouk, Egypt’s last monarch, as well as politicians and celebrities.
“Here is the legacy of this shop,” he said, as he packed away the last of his watches and clocks earlier this month. “I wanted to save this heritage for the country … but it seems that they [the government] are not interested. There are some things which are more important than money.”
Ahmed has sued the government, saying the shop should have been spared demolition because of its historic value. He said authorities told him he would be compensated only if he dropped his cases.
He and other nearby shop owners say the compensation offered by the government for their businesses — 7,000 pounds ($391) per square meter — falls well short of market value in the area.
“Their compensation, which we have not received yet, is worthless,” said Ahmed. “Our livelihood is gone.”
The government insists the compensation offered is fair and denies it is forcibly relocating anyone.
Ahmed el-Sayed, a retired 63-year-old, moved from Maspero months ago. He says the now-demolished apartment building where he lived most of his life was a unique architectural landmark registered with the Ministry of Culture.
“It should not have been demolished. It should have been renovated,” he said.
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US Condemns Turkey’s New ‘Regrettable’ Tariffs
The White House on Wednesday condemned Turkey for boosting tariffs on U.S. imports, the latest confrontation between the two NATO allies.
Ankara imposed stiffer levies on U.S. cars, alcohol, coal and other products — $533 million in new tariffs — in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of doubled tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum exported to the United States.
The tit-for-tat tariffs came amid Turkey’s rejection of a U.S. demand that it release American pastor Andrew Brunson, detained on espionage and terrorism-related charges.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said “the tariffs from Turkey are certainly regrettable and a step in the wrong direction. The tariffs that the United States placed on Turkey were out of national security interest. Theirs are out of retaliation.”
Sanders said even if Brunson is released, U.S. tariffs on steel would remain.
She said Turkey had treated Brunson “who we know to be a very good person and a strong Christian who has done nothing wrong, very unfairly, very badly, and it’s something that we won’t forget.”
With the dispute between the U.S. and Turkey seeming to escalate by the day, the value of Turkey’s lira currency against the dollar has plummeted, but Sanders rejected any blame on the U.S.’s part.
She said the U.S. was “monitoring the situation.” But she added that Turkey’s economic problems “are a part of a long-term trend, something of its own making and not the result of any actions the United States has taken.”
The new Turkish tariffs came a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would boycott U.S. electronic goods, singling out Apple’s iPhones. Erdogan has blamed the U.S. for the fall of the lira, but refused to budge on Trump’s demand for Brunson’s release.
Meanwhile, Qatar said it would make a $15 billion investment in Turkey to help the country’s ailing economy.
The investment, which will be directed to Turkey’s banks and financial markets, was announced after Qatar’s Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani held talks in Ankara with Erdogan.
Erdogan’s economic role
Turkey’s lira has plummeted nearly 40 percent this year due to concerns over Erdogan’s growing influence on the economy. The lira has recovered somewhat from recent lows as the government cut the daily limit in the exchange of currencies with foreign countries.
Turkey and Qatar historically have been good diplomatic partners. Turkey supported Qatar after Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries cut diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Qatar last year. The Arab states accused Qatar of financing terrorism, a charge Qatar denies.
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White House Condemns Turkey’s Tariffs on US Products
The White House on Wednesday condemned Turkey’s doubling of tariffs on products imported from the U.S. in response to Washington’s moves on imports of Turkish goods.
Tensions between the two NATO allies have been strained amid Turkey’s detention of an American pastor and other diplomatic actions. The United States doubled tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum last week, which contributed to a tumble in the Turkish lira.
“The tariffs from Turkey are certainly regrettable and a step in the wrong direction. The tariffs that the United States placed on Turkey were out of national security interest. Theirs are out of retaliation,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.
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Media Outlets Push Back Against Trump’s Criticism
While the media and the American presidency have long had a symbiotic but frequently antagonistic relationship, since Donald Trump took office it has largely turned toxic.
Trump has repeatedly termed the media the “enemy of the people.” He has called the press “dangerous and sick” and even alleges journalists can “cause war.”
Some American media outlets are declaring they have had enough of the president’s rhetoric — which they decry as dangerous — and are pushing back Thursday with an unprecedented and coordinated editorial campaign, led by The Boston Globe, which declares that “the dirty war on the free press must end.”
The New York Times’ editorial page editor, James Bennet, told his newspaper that “our publisher has put a stake in the ground on this issue, and at a time when newspapers around the country are under real commercial and political pressure, we think it’s important to show solidarity.”
WATCH: Media Outlets Respond to Trump’s Attacks
According to Trump, who made public an off-the-record meeting last month with Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger, the two discussed “the vast amounts of fake news being put out by the media.”
Sulzberger subsequently issued a statement, saying he found the president’s language “not just divisive but increasingly dangerous.”
Every participating newspaper in Thursday’s campaign — which includes large and small newspapers across the political spectrum — will write its own editorial, not necessarily using the same rhetoric as the politically left-of-center Globe.
“What I like about the coordinated effort is not so much that we’re going to have a message that aligns with them, because they may have a much more aggressive message,” said David Plazas, the opinion and engagement editor of The Tennessean in Nashville. “Our message is one that’s consistent with our value, which is to defend the First Amendment, to stand for civility and to give voice to the voiceless people.”
At The Tennessean, one of the largest newspapers in a state that voted 2-to-1 for Trump in 2016, Plazas emphasized that Thursday’s editorial would not target the president.
‘Beyond one person’
“I may not even mention President Trump in my particular editorial,” he told VOA. “This is beyond one person. This is about defending our values and institutions.”
Not only newspapers are participating in the campaign. The Radio Television Digital News Association is asking its 1,200 members to dedicate air time, post online editorials and share information on their social media platforms about the role they play in preserving the public’s right and need to know about government.
“I have covered White Houses myself. I’ve watched this for a very long time. I have never seen — and I cannot imagine — a situation where there is more tension, hostility between the press corps and the president, mostly coming from the president,” said professor Frank Sesno, a former CNN White House correspondent who is now director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Some conservative media critics, however, contend the media are overreacting.
The Globe’s campaign “shows how thin-skinned the media is in this case,” according to Don Irvine, chairman of Accuracy in Media, a nonprofit media watchdog organization.
“While Trump’s attacks on the media have been more pronounced than any president since [Richard] Nixon, he is well within his rights to express his opinion,” Irvine told VOA. “The press seems to be under the impression that there is some unwritten rule that the president can’t attack the media, even if they are wrong. Trump knows that public trust in the media is at an all-time low, and he is taking advantage of it.”
The president “took advantage of a pre-existing negative attitude towards the media,” concurred Gallup Poll editor in chief Frank Newport.
However, “I have to reinforce that we’ve seen very negative attitudes towards the news media for a number of years, long before Donald Trump thought about running for president,” he told VOA. “There is no doubt about it: A lot of Americans, when we interview them and other pollsters interview them, say the media are biased.”
Difference by party
A Quinnipiac poll, conducted by telephone August 9-13, found 51 percent of Republican voters expressing an opinion that the media are the enemy of the people rather than an important part of democracy. Just 26 percent of voters overall felt that way, according to the poll.
The survey also revealed that 44 percent of American voters were concerned that Trump’s criticism of the news media would lead to violence against people who work in media. Breaking it down by party affiliation, 76 percent of Democrats felt that way, while 80 percent of Republicans did not. Fifty-five percent of those with no party affiliation expressed such concern.
Such attacks could occur at one of Trump’s frequent rallies where the crowd is stoked by the president’s anti-media rhetoric, according to Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization.
“So far, there’s been intimidation but no violence. But that line can easily be crossed, and anyone who’s seen the videos of some of these rallies knows we’re very close up against that line,” Weissman told VOA.
The Trump administration contends many American mainstream media outlets treat it unfairly. While journalists note that being the target of presidential criticism is often part of the job, for some, being labeled enemies of the people — a phrase equated with the brutality of Stalinism — goes far beyond the pale.
The frustration was palpable at a briefing on August 2 when CNN’s Jim Acosta pressed White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to declare on the spot that the media are “not the enemy of people. I think we deserve that.”
Sanders demurred, instead noting that she is the first in her position to require Secret Service protection, partly blaming reporters for that.
“The media has attacked me personally on a number of occasions, including your own network, said I should be harassed as a life sentence, that I should be choked,” Sanders replied to the CNN White House correspondent.
For some critics, the blame for the lack of civility falls squarely on the president’s shoulders.
“If you’re a true conservative, you’re supposed to respect American institutions like the free press, the judiciary and law enforcement that have stood us so well over the centuries. And he’s just tried to tear them down,” Allan Lichtman, a professor of history at American University in Washington, told VOA. “And that really is, hopefully, not a new normal, but certainly something we haven’t seen for some time in America.”
Elizabeth Cherneff, Jim Malone and Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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Kansas Science Teacher Gets Deportation Hearing
A Kansas science teacher has been given the opportunity to argue his deportation case after months of legal battles and support from his community, his attorney said Tuesday.
“In its decision, dated Aug. 9, 2018 and received late yesterday, the Board found that reopening is warranted,” a statement from Syed Ahmed Jamal’s lawyer, Rekha Sharma-Crawford, read Tuesday. “The decision will now allow Mr. Jamal to have an Immigration Judge in Kansas City review his deportation case and any relief he may have.”
Sharma-Crawford added that though his case is “far from over,” Jamal no longer faced an imminent threat of deportation, and that she and the family are confident that especially given the support of the community, Jamal will be able to plead his case and ask an immigration judge to review numerous opportunities for him to gain legal status in the United States.
Jamal, an adjunct instructor at Park University at the time of his arrest, was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention on March 20, as VOA reported at the time. He had been held since his arrest Jan. 24 for overstaying his visa.
Since a district court judge allowed his release, Jamal has been awaiting a decision on his appeal to a deportation order at his home with his family.
Jamal first came to the United States on a student visa in 1986, and later obtained an undergraduate degree, as well as master’s degrees in molecular biology and pharmacology. In recent years, he has taught numerous local universities as an adjunct instructor — most recently at Park University in Missouri.
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Oklahoma School Reopens after Transgender Student Threatened
Officials have reopened a rural Oklahoma school system after an investigation into comments authorities deemed threatening to a transgender student.
Achille Public Schools, near the Texas border, reopened Wednesday after being closed for two days while the Bryan County Sheriff’s Office investigated.
Sheriff Johnny Christian says the investigation started over the weekend after adults made threatening comments on Facebook about a 12-year-old transgender girl using a girls’ bathroom at school.
Christian says school officials arranged for the student to use a staff bathroom when she was in elementary school, but she was in an unfamiliar building because it was her first week of middle school.
Christian says no arrests have been made but the child’s mother sought a protective order against a man who confronted the woman in person.
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Media Outlets Respond to Trump’s Attacks
The U.S. president has repeatedly termed the media the “enemy of the people.” He has called the press “dangerous and sick,” and even alleges the media can “cause war.” Some American journalistic outlets are declaring they have had enough of the president’s rhetoric, which they decry as dangerous. Some are pushing back in an unprecedented and coordinated editorial campaign. VOA White House bureau chief Steve Herman reports.
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Paris Installs Controversial ‘Solution’ to Public Urination
In Paris, there is an experiment under way to find an environmental solution to the unsightly urban problem of men urinating in the street. However, the project has prompted strong reactions from some residents and visitors.
The city has turned to open-air street urinals, called “uritrottoirs” and “pavement urinals,” which are similar to planters with an opening in the front and a floral display on top. The receptacles contain straw, which transforms into compost for later use in parks and gardens.
Some see the pavement urinals as an innovation that might help rid the French capital of unpleasant sights and smells, while others complain that the bright red boxes are a blight on the city’s picturesque streets.
“It is definitely a desirable and historic neighborhood, but seeing people urinating right in front of your door is not the nicest thing,” said a 28-year-old resident.
However, at least one visitor sees advantages.
“It’s a little bit open … in the open space,” said Jonathan, who is from the U.S. “So some people might feel uncomfortable. But, again, if you need to go, it’s better than going on the street.”
The Reuters news agency reports that reaction to the urinals has been mixed, prompting the local government to reconsider the project in September.
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US Ambassador to Zimbabwe: Sanctions Removal Linked to Genuine Reforms
U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe Brian Nichols has said the southern African country must embark on genuine reforms if it wants Washington to remove sanctions against some of the country’s top officials. The ambassador spoke Wednesday after meeting with Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the State House in Harare.
The approximately hour-long meeting took place a week after U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Amendment Act of 2018, also known as ZIDERA.
The act renewed sanctions the U.S. imposed on Zimbabwean individuals and companies starting in 2002, following accusations of human rights abuses and election rigging against then-president Robert Mugabe.
Current President Mnangagwa is among those targeted by the travel bans and financial restrictions.
When Mnangagwa came into power last November, he promised to normalize relations with the U.S. and with European countries that also imposed sanctions.
Nichols said Wednesday that the U.S. likes the reforms introduced since Mugabe’s ouster last November, but is troubled by the post-election violence seen August 1, when troops opened fire on demonstrators protesting a delay in presidential election results.
“President Mnangagwa’s commitment to a transparent investigation of those events is very, very important for my government,” Nichols said. “The violence of August 1st, the death of six people in the streets here, intimidation of the opposition polling agents, violence in the areas around Harare, have all been issues of concern.”
Mnangagwa eventually was declared the winner of the July 30 poll, but the opposition has filed a legal challenge in the Constitutional Court, saying the results are false and that opposition leader Nelson Chamisa was the actual victor.
Nichols said Wednesday he hopes the court will be impartial in its handling of the case.
Mnangagwa described the Wednesday meeting with Nichols as “very, very positive.”
“[Nichols] must have a correct appreciation of the environment in the country,” Mnangagwa said. “We were able to share his views and my views on the current situation in the country. And we are moving forward as a country and we want our people to be peaceful. Only when the country is peaceful and stable can development thrive, not when you are throwing stones at each other.”
When asked to comment on ZIDERA, the 75-year-old president laughed off the question before departing in a waiting car.
The Constitutional Court has about two weeks to rule on the opposition’s electoral petition.
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Kenyatta’s War on Corruption: Lasting Legacy or Political Theater?
Two top-ranking officials in Kenya were charged with corruption this week in a $3 billion Chinese-built railway project, as part of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s efforts to show no official is out of reach in the war on graft. However, some analysts question if the charges will lead to convictions or if they are simply political theater.
Kenya Railways’ managing director Atanas Maina and Lands Commission chairman Muhammad Swazuri are accused of overseeing $2 million in fraudulent compensation payments. More than a dozen other Kenyan officials and business people are also facing charges related to the illegal buying and selling of the state corporation’s land.
While the accused deny the charges, the arrests were hailed in Kenya as a rare crackdown on top-level corruption.
However, political analyst Linda Oloo says the prosecutions are less about systemic change and more about Kenyatta.
“Uhuru [Kenyatta] is more concerned about his legacy [and] how will history judge him after his presidency, so that is why he is trying to play the good-man syndrome right now, by doing things that will appeal to the general public. What he is doing is mostly for his image after office,” Oloo said.
In June, Kenyatta announced that all public servants would undergo a compulsory “lifestyle audit” to account for the sources of their income and assets.
Some argue it’s not all political theater.
Kenyatta and Swiss President Alain Berset signed an agreement aimed at helping Kenya recover corrupt assets stashed by Kenyan officials in Swiss banks.
In addition, Kenyatta’s director of public prosecutions has arrested top officials at Kenya’s National Youth Service, electric power provider, and more than a dozen firms accused of benefiting from illegal tenders and misappropriated funds.
And Kenyatta on Sunday declared his determination to win the war on graft, even if he has to go after his close associates.
“Over the last few weeks, I have lost many friends,” Kenyatta said. “Many have called me asking, ‘How can you be watching when all the destruction is going on?’ I say a time has come to fight impunity.”
Opposition leader Raila Odinga last year accused the president of diverting the railway to benefit the Kenyatta family. Odinga ceased his criticism in April after making a deal with Kenyatta to work together.
In June, a Kenyan lawmaker linked Kenyatta’s younger brother, Muhoho, to the importation of contraband sugar. In response, President Kenyatta said that if there is evidence, then his brother should be investigated and prosecuted.
But going after a sitting president’s family is unlikely in Kenya, and the National Land Accord Movement’s David Kimanzi doubts top officials will be among those punished.
“There has not been a single conviction of a person who has looted the public coffers. Every person now is looking for how it is going to be their turn to eat,” Kimanzi said.
Despite this week’s high-level arrests, there are still officials who are untouchable, according to Kimanzi. If you touch them, he says, you touch the very core of the government.
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Putin says China’s Xi to Visit Russia in September
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Chinese President Xi Jinping would visit Russia in September, Russian news agencies RIA and Tass reported on Wednesday.
Xi will visit eastern Russian city of Vladivostok where he will take part in an economic forum, Putin was quoted as saying.
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Killing of School Children Sparks New Outrage Over Airstrikes on Yemen
A deadly airstrike by a Saudi-led coalition killed at least 40 children in northern Yemen last week, prompting international outrage. The U.S. State Department has called on the coalition of Gulf Arab states to investigate the incident, one of the deadliest in the three-year-old war. The United Nations Security Council is also calling for a credible, transparent investigation. VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department.
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Turkey Boosts Tariffs Amid US Feud
Turkey on Wednesday announced tariff hikes on a range of U.S. goods in the latest back-and-forth move amid a deteriorating relationship between the two countries.
The extra tariffs apply to imports of vehicles, alcohol, coal, rice and cosmetics.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Twitter the increases were being done “within the framework of the principle of reciprocity in retaliation for the conscious economic attacks by the United States.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is accusing the United States of waging a targeted economic war on his country, and on Tuesday he proposed a boycott of U.S. electronic goods.
“If they have the iPhone, there is Samsung elsewhere. In our own country we have Vestel,” said Erdogan.
Asked how U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration would react to any such Turkish boycott, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders replied during Tuesday afternoon’s briefing, “I certainly don’t have a policy announcement on that at this point.”
Trump administration sources say further sanctions against Turkey are under active consideration. But Sanders declined to say how the U.S. government plans to apply more pressure on Ankara, which repeatedly has ignored calls from Trump and others to free Christian pastor Andrew Brunson.
Turkey accuses Brunson of espionage and is holding him under house arrest pending his trial.
The chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Turkey, Jeffrey Hovenier, visited Brunson on Tuesday and called for his case — and those of others detained in Turkey — to be resolved “without delay” and in a “fair and transparent manner.”
National Security Adviser John Bolton met at the White House on Monday with Turkish ambassador Serdar Kilic, but the discussion reportedly did not result in any substantive progress.
Trump, who has called Brunson’s detention a “total disgrace,” last Friday doubled tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum exports in order to increase pressure on Erdogan.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Turkey’s ministers of Justice and Interior in response to the continued detention of the pastor, who has lived in the country for 20 years and heads an evangelical congregation of about two dozen people in the port city of Izmir.
The escalating dispute between the two countries has exacerbated Turkey’s economic crisis, pushing the lira to record lows. The Turkish currency has lost about 40 percent of its value this year against the U.S. dollar.
Erdogan has called on Turks to exchange their dollars for lira in order to shore up the domestic currency.
In a joint statement Tuesday, Turkish business groups called on the government to institute tighter monetary policy in order to combat the currency crisis. They also said Turkey should work to resolve the situation with the United States diplomatically while also improving relations with another major trading partner, the European Union.
The Turkish central bank has pledged to take “all necessary measures” to stabilize the country’s economy to make sure the banks have all the money they need. But world stock traders were dismayed the bank did not raise interest rates, which is what many economists believe is necessary to ease the crisis.
The United States and Turkey also have diverging interests over Syria, which is enmeshed in a protracted civil war.
The differences are drawing Turkey closer to Russia, they key adversary of NATO but a country supplying more than half of Turkey’s gas.
Turkey has agreed to buy S-400 surface-to-air missiles from Russia, an unprecedented move by a NATO member, which has raised objections from members of both parties of the U.S. Congress and the Trump administration.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, voiced support for Turkey during a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara on Tuesday, stating both countries plan to switch from dollars to national currencies for their mutual trade.
“We view the policy of sanctions as unlawful and illegitimate, driven mostly by a desire to dominate everywhere and in everything, dictate policies and call shots in international affairs,” said Lavrov, predicting “such a policy can’t be a basis for normal dialogue and can’t last long.
Lavrov, alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, also declared, “We are at a turning point, without exaggeration, in world history” from dominance by a single power toward a multipolar environment.
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In Iran, Kurdish Journalist Faces 3rd Summons by Officials This Year
An Iranian Kurdish journalist who has been summoned for questioning by Iran’s security and judicial authorities twice this year says he has been ordered to face a third round of questioning in the coming days.
In a message posted on Twitter, journalist and civil rights activist Ejlal Ghavami said he received a summons from a judiciary office in the northwestern city of Sanandaj on Tuesday morning local time. Ghavami said the document, a photograph of which he attached to his tweet, called for him to appear before prosecutors of Iran’s Kurdistan province within five days. It was not clear why he was being summoned.
In his tweet, Ghavami said the summons represented a new case against him. He said he still faces a November court appearance in relation to an earlier case involving his journalistic and civil rights activities.
In a report published Tuesday, the Iran-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) said Ghavami had been summoned for questioning by Iranian authorities twice before in recent months.
HRANA said Ghavami and two other activists in Kurdistan province were called to an intelligence office of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in June for unknown reasons. It said that a few months earlier, Ghavami also appeared at a provincial judiciary office where cyber police questioned him about ties to anti-government protests that swept Iran in January, and to anti-government channels on the messaging app Telegram.
HRANA said Kurdistan provincial prosecutors charged Ghavami on March 25 with publishing false information and cooperating with anti-government Telegram channels. It said Ghavami later was acquitted of spreading anti-government propaganda, but prosecutors appealed and an appeals court agreed to re-examine the case in November.
This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service.
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Jurors: 300-plus Priests Abused Scores of Kids in Pennsylvania
More than 300 Catholic priests sexually abused at least 1,000 children over the last 70 years and church leaders did all they could to cover it up, a Pennsylvania grand jury report released Tuesday said.
The report said the number of victims might actually be in the thousands because church records have been lost and some victims were too scared to report the crimes.
“Church officials routinely and purposefully described the abuse as horseplay and wrestling and inappropriate conduct,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “It was none of those things. It was child sex abuse, including rape.”
The grand jury report said both boys and girls in six dioceses in Pennsylvania were victims. One priest was accused of raping a girl in her hospital bed just after she had her tonsils taken out.
One boy said he was given juice, only to wake up the next day, bleeding from his behind, without any recollection of what had happened to him. Some priests were accused of sharing child pornography and photographs of naked boys.
The report said various bishops and other church leaders knew about the crimes but did not report them to police because they were afraid of bad publicity and lawsuits.
Abusive priests instead were sent to what the church calls treatment centers, and many returned to their ministries, where they continued to serve for decades.
Of the more than 300 priests named in the report, only two have been criminally charged. The rest are either dead or cannot be charged because the statute of limitations has run out.
“We are sick over all the crimes that will go unpunished and uncompensated,” the report said.
The Vatican has not yet commented on the report, but the Diocese of Pittsburgh asked Tuesday for forgiveness.
Former Pittsburgh Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who is now archbishop of Washington, D.C., denied the grand jury allegations that he protected abusive priests. He said he acted with “diligence, with concern for the victims and to prevent future acts of abuse.”
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