Month: September 2018

Islamic State Threatens Iran with More Attacks 

Posted on by SeeEA

An Islamic State spokesman released a statement Wednesday threatening more attacks against Iran, days after the group claimed responsibility for a mass shooting at a military parade that left at least 25 dead.

Iran’s security is “flimsier than a spider’s web, and with God’s help, what comes will be worse and more bitter,” Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir said in a statement released through the Telegram messaging app.

The Iranian government has blamed the attack on “jihadist separatists” within the country.

IS released a video shortly after the attack purporting to show the three gunmen who committed the massacre, but some observers said they did not match the appearances of the attackers.

VOA could not verify the authenticity of the video.
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Russian Officer Named in Britain Nerve Agent Poisoning

Posted on by SeeEU

A group of British investigative journalists have identified a highly decorated member of the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU) as one of two men accused of trying to assassinate an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Britain earlier this year.

British prosecutors have charged two Russians, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, of trying to kill Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, with the Soviet nerve agent Novichok in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. 

On Wednesday, the investigative website Bellingcat reported that Boshirov was actually Col.  Anatoliy Chepiga, who was awarded Russia’s highest honor — Hero of the Russian Federation — in 2014.

The New York Times reported that the Russian news outlet Insider has confirmed Bellingcat’s findings. 

British authorities say the suspects arrived at London’s Gatwick airport two days before the poisoning took place.  

Their journey from a London hotel to the crime scene in Salisbury was tracked by security cameras. The two men then flew out of Heathrow Airport back to Russia the same evening.

Boshirov and Petrov were charged in absentia with carrying out the attack. In an interview on the Kremlin-funded RT channel, they denied they were GRU agents and claimed to work instead in the nutrient supplements business. The suspects said they visited Salisbury to see its famous cathedral and did not know Skripal or where he lived.

Britain quickly rejected the claims. 

“The government is clear,” Britain said, that the men “used a devastating toxic, illegal chemical weapon on the streets of our country.” 

Skripal and his daughter recovered from the attack, but a British woman who touched a discarded perfume bottle that contained the nerve agent died. 

Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.
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Melania Trump to Visit 4 African Countries

Posted on by SeeAF

U.S. first lady Melania Trump will visit four countries in Africa next month, on her first major solo international trip.

Mrs. Trump, the wife of U.S. President Donald Trump, will make stops in Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt during the first week in October, according to a White House statement released Wednesday.

“October 1 will mark the first day of my solo visit to four beautiful and very different countries in Africa,” she told a reception in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Mrs. Trump said she looks forward to promoting the message of her “Be Best” child-welfare initiative during the trip.

The White House says the U.S. Agency for International Development is helping to coordinate the trip, and notes Mrs. Trump’s stops will focus on maternal and newborn care in hospitals, education for children, and the role the United States plays in helping each country to become self-sufficient.
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Migrant Killed After Morocco’s Navy Fires on Boat

Posted on by SeeEA

A migrant has been killed after Morocco’s navy opened fire on a boat carrying her and more than two dozen others, a human rights group said Wednesday.

 

The 22-year-victim, who was studying law, died before reaching a hospital, said Mohamed Benaissa, the head of Morocco’s Northern Observatory for Human Rights. Three other migrants were wounded in Tuesday’s confrontation, he said.

 

The speedboat was carrying 25 Moroccan nationals and two Spanish captains, Benaissa said by telephone.

 

The Spanish Foreign Ministry confirmed that two of its nationals had been arrested by Moroccan authorities, one of them with a criminal record. The official declined to elaborate on the criminal record, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.  Spain’s Europa Press, a private news agency, said the Spaniard had been charged twice and detained at least 16 times for violence against women and other unspecified crimes.

 

Morocco’s Interior Ministry said the boat was illegally transporting migrants.

 

It was the second time in recent days that Morocco’s Royal Navy intervened to stop a boat suspected of carrying migrants across the Mediterranean, and comes amid growing concerns about migrant trafficking in the western Mediterranean region. The central Mediterranean route, mainly between Libya and Italy, is being choked off by the Libyan coast guard chasing after smugglers’ small boats and returning migrants to Libya.

 

One of the wounded was shot in the arm as he tried to urge one of the Spanish captains to stop the boat when the navy spotted it, Benaissa said.  Doctors at the provincial hospital of the Prefecture of M’diq-Fnideq amputated his arm and he’s been transferred to Rabat for intensive care, he said.

 

Moroccan authorities didn’t immediately respond to requests for more details.

 

In a separate case, police in Tangiers have arrested two people aged 35 and 45, including a Spanish citizen residing illegally in Morocco, who are suspected of running a criminal network facilitating illegal migration.

 

 

 

 

 
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Syrian Official says S-300 Defenses Will Give Israel Pause

Posted on by SeeEU

Israel should think carefully before attacking Syria again once it obtains the sophisticated S-300 defense system from Russia, a Damascus official said.

 

The warning followed pledges from Moscow to deliver the missile system after last week’s downing of a Russian plane by Syrian forces responding to an Israeli airstrike.

 

Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said late Tuesday that the S-300 should have been given to Syria long ago.

 

Israel, “which is accustomed to launching many aggressions under different pretexts, will have to make accurate calculations if it thinks to attack Syria again,” he said.

 

The Russian Il-20 military reconnaissance aircraft was downed by Syrian air defenses that mistook it for an Israeli aircraft, killing all 15 people on board.

 

Russia laid the blame on Israel, saying Israeli fighter jets were hiding behind the Russian plane, an account denied by the Israeli military.

 

On Monday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the S-300s will be delivered to Damascus within two weeks. Earlier in the war, Russia suspended a supply of S-300s, which Israel feared Syria could use against it.

 

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said the delivery would be a “significant escalation” in already high tensions in the region and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would raise the matter this week with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov at the U.N. General Assembly.

 

Mekdad said the missiles are for defensive purposes, adding that “Syria will defend itself, as it always did” — a reference to missiles Syrian forces fired at Israeli warplanes carrying out airstrikes inside Syria over the past months.

 

Meanwhile, in northwestern Syria, preparations were underway to set up a demilitarized zone around the rebel-held province of Idlib, the last major area controlled by a mix of Turkey-backed opposition fighters and other insurgent groups, including al-Qaida-linked militants.

 

Two jihadi groups have so far rejected the plan to set up a demilitarized zone by Oct. 15. The al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee, the largest militant group in Idlib province, has not said yet whether it approves setting up the zone.

 

A Turkish security official said Wednesday that there were “indications” that some insurgents were leaving the demilitarized zone in and around Idlib but that it was unclear whether a “concrete” withdrawal of radical groups has started. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government rules.

 

Russia and Turkey agreed last week to set up a demilitarized zone around Idlib to separate government forces from rebels, averting a government offensive on the last major opposition stronghold in Syria.

 

Also Wednesday, Russian Maj. Gen. Yevgeny Ilyin said more than 3,150 Syrians returned to their homes in the past week, including 494 refugees. The rest were internally displaced people.

 

Moscow has called for international assistance for Syrian refugee returns, rejecting Western arguments that the Mideast country remains unsafe.

 

Ilyin, who spoke during a conference call on coordination of efforts to encourage the return of refugees, said the total of more than 1.2 million internally displaced people and more than 244,000 refugees have regained their homes.

 

In seven years of civil war, some 5.5 million Syrians have fled their homeland and millions more were internally displaced.
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Convicted Danish Submarine Killer Loses Appeal Against Life Sentence

Posted on by SeeEU

Danish submarine inventor Peter Madsen, convicted of torturing and murdering Swedish journalist Kim Wall aboard one of his own vessels last year, lost his appeal Wednesday against his life sentence.

The Danish version of a life sentence typically is about 16 years long, but it may be continuously extended if the court rules that circumstances call for it. Madsen had sought a time-limited term. Now the 47-year-old could potentially spend the rest of his life in prison.

His defense had argued that Wall’s death was an accident, although Madsen himself admitted to throwing her body parts into the Baltic Sea.

The prosecution had argued that Madsen’s motive was sexual and that the murder was planned.

“I’m terribly sorry to Kim’s relatives for what happened,” Madsen told the court. Wall’s parents were not present.

A Copenhagen court ruled in April that Madsen had lured Kim onto his home-made submarine UC3 Nautilus with the promise of an interview, where she then died. The exact cause of her death has never been established.

 
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Report Says Nearly 400,000 ‘Excess Deaths’ in South Sudan

Posted on by SeeAF

A new report estimates that South Sudan’s civil war has caused nearly 400,000 “excess deaths” since fighting erupted in late 2013.

The report funded by the U.S. State Department and issued by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine estimates that violence caused about half of those 382,900 deaths.

 

For years the toll in South Sudan’s civil war has been uncertain, with estimates in the tens of thousands.

 

The report, based on statistical modeling and not peer-reviewed, comes weeks after the warring sides signed a “final final” peace deal to end the conflict. The United States and others have expressed skepticism that this new deal will hold.

 

The conflict also has sent more than 2 million people fleeing in Africa’s largest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
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UN Warns Rights Violations Threaten Credibility of DRC Elections

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The United Nations warns escalating human rights violations and restrictions to civil and political rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo are calling into question the credibility of upcoming presidential elections. The U.N. Human Rights Council held a special session in Geneva on the situation in the DRC.

The United Nations report highlights alarming trends of violations and repressive measures against people’s freedom of expression and peaceful assembly since June 2017.

Just three months ahead of crucial presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights notes a 35-percent increase in human rights violations linked to restrictions of democratic space, half perpetrated by the police.

The agency’s director of Field Operations and Technical Cooperation, Georgette Gagnon, says demonstrations are being forcibly suppressed. She says opposition leaders, human rights defenders, journalists and activists are being threatened and intimidated. She notes all these violations are occurring in a persistent climate of widespread impunity.

“The essence of a democratic society resides in the ability of its citizens — irrespective of their political affiliation — to enjoy the rights and freedoms, without fearing reprisals from the state. Respect for human rights is one of the cornerstones which will determine the credibility of these forthcoming elections,” she said.

Gagnon warns the human rights situation in the DRC is likely to worsen as the elections approach. She is calling on the government to reverse these worrying trends.

DRC Minister of Human Rights Marie-Ange Mushobekwa Likulia agrees her country must make more efforts to protect human rights. But, she says much progress has been.

She says elections on December 23 will be free, credible, transparent and without outside interference, adding that restrictions on public protests were lifted for all political parties three months ago.

She notes for the first time since the Democratic Republic of Congo gained its independence 58 years ago, the government will be democratically handing over power. She calls this a historic achievement.
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Nigerian Wives, Mothers of Detainees Say Their Men Are Not Boko Haram

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More than a thousand women in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno are urging the government to free their husbands and sons who have been detained for years on suspicion of being members of the extremist group, Boko Haram. The women say they have not received any information about the whereabouts of their loved ones. Chika Oduah reports from Maiduguri in Borno State.
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UN Security Council to Discuss Iran, Weapons of Mass Destruction

Posted on by SeeEA

The United Nations General Assembly continues its annual meeting Wednesday with addresses by leaders from Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Cuba and Britain, while the U.N. Security Council meets on the sidelines to discuss, among other things, Iran’s influence in the Middle East and issues surrounding the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The meeting will be chaired by U.S. President Donald Trump, who called on world leaders during his address before the Assembly on Tuesday to “isolate Iran’s regime as long as its aggression continues.”

“They do not respect their neighbors or their borders or the sovereign rights of nations. Instead, Iran’s leaders plunder the nation’s resources to enrich themselves and to spread mayhem across the Middle East and far beyond,” President Trump said Tuesday.

Trump maintained that the 2015 nuclear deal to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which he withdrew the United States from, was a “windfall for Iran’s leaders” and boosted its military budget by nearly 40-percent to “finance terrorism and fund havoc and slaughter in Syria and Yemen.”

 

The president said his administration started last month “reimposing hard-hitting nuclear sanctions that have been lifted under the Iran deal” and that more sanctions would be imposed on November 5 and beyond.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the Assembly in his speech that no country can be brought to the negotiating table by force. Rouhani also questioned how Iran can enter into an agreement with the United States, which he said violates the policies of Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama. In addition, Rouhani accused the Trump administration of trying to render all global institutions ineffectual.

 WATCH: Trump Rejects Globalism in UN Address

In the year since he made his U.N. debut, Trump has cut funding to the world organization, withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal, and quit U.N. bodies, including the Human Rights Council. He has also had difficult outings at gatherings of G-7 leaders and NATO.

Margaret Besheer and Wayne Lee contributed to this report.

 
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US Proposes Selling Taiwan Arms – This Time without Angering China

Posted on by SeeUS

Washington’s notification of a second weapons sale to Taiwan in as many years is helping arm the client without, so far, enraging its military rival, China, or exacerbating already strained Sino-U.S. ties.

The Pentagon notified Congress Monday of a $330 million arms package, including parts for American-made aircraft such as F-16s and F-5s. The package omits new fighter jets, such as F-35s, or technology for submarines despite Taiwan’s requests over the years. But the deal has drawn just a routine protest from China rather than the outrage expected from bigger sales.

China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and insists the two sides eventually unify, by force if needed. Taiwanese prefer their autonomy of some 70 years. To resist China, Taiwan has fostered a military ranked by online database GlobalFirePower.com as the world’s 24th strongest. Sino-U.S. ties are already strained by a growing trade dispute.

“Some might see spare parts as a kind of rejection, because what Taiwan really wants from the U.S. is many other larger items,” said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy in New York. “But as I see it, this sale’s just another step in President Trump’s evolving support for Taiwan over the last 15 months or so.”

Gains for Taiwan

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense thanked Washington in a statement Tuesday, adding that the latest arms package would help it keep peace with China. “The arms sale indicates strong concern by the U.S. side toward our security,” the statement said.

Local defense ministry contractors have stepped up development of aircraft and missiles, but Taipei still relies on U.S. weaponry for its more advanced systems. China runs the world’s third strongest armed forces, including missiles that Taipei officials believed are aimed at Taiwan, and this year it announced an 8.1 percent defense budget increase.

The type and value of arms in the sale announced this week probably fall short of a laurel for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, whose party is campaigning now ahead of mid-term local elections, said Liu Yih-jiun, professor of public affairs at Fo Guang University in Taiwan.

But a longer trend of improved relations with the U.S. government – from a $1.42 billion U.S. arms package announced last year to Tsai’s two high-profile stopovers in U.S. territory last month – has raised hopes in Taiwan as China squelches the island’s diplomacy with other countries.

Chinese reaction

In China, a military spokesperson said the armed forces were “strongly dissatisfied with and resolutely opposed to planned U.S. arms sales to Taiwan,” Beijing’s official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday. The military formally protested to Washington, Xinhua said.

“Taiwan is a part of China and the one-China principle is the political foundation of China-U.S. relationship,” the spokesperson was quoted saying.

But experts call this type of reaction pro forma, short of retaliating against either the U.S. government or Taiwan. That’s partly because the sale excludes powerful weapons systems, Liu said.

“As long as they don’t sell Taiwan some kinds of F-35s and some kinds of most advanced equipment, then that could be a kind of (Sino-U.S. understanding),” he said. “They would register as some kind of goodwill on the part of the United States.”

When the U.S. government announced a $6.4 billion sale in 2010, Beijing called off scheduled Sino-U.S. military visits and threatened sanctions against American defense contractors doing business in China. After Beijing found out about last year’s sale, China said it was “outraged,” according to media reports at the time.

“If we (the United States) do end up selling Taiwan aircraft and or subs, I’d expect Beijing to pretty much lose it,” King said.

Sino-U.S. ties

Trump’s government may not want to anger China either, some scholars believe. The U.S. government has stepped up tariffs against China this year to cover some $250 billion worth of imports as Trump calls Beijing an unfair trader.

But Sino-U.S. trade talks are on hold, with Trump saying last month his government would focus first on North American trade issues. China may be eyeing November mid-term elections in the United States as a bellwether for the popularity of Trump and his trade policies, Liu said.

Taiwan should still brace for a longer-term Chinese reaction to the arms sale, said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank in Taiwan. He said the Chinese government will make it easy for Taiwanese to work, study and invest but could take action against it politically at the same time.

“China will continue to consolidate its two-handed approach,” Yang said. “On one hand, attract Taiwanese to engage in China, on the other hand holding a big stick and the stick is getting bigger and bigger.”

China has flown military aircraft near the island about a dozen times and persuaded five diplomatic allies to switch allegiance since Tsai took office in 2016. Tsai upsets Beijing because she disputes its formal dialogue condition that both sides belong to a single China.
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Trump: Venezuelan Socialist President Easily Toppled

Posted on by SeeUS

President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro could be easily toppled by a military coup and the U.S stepped up financial pressure by slapping the socialist president’s inner circle with fresh sanctions. 

Trump declined to respond to questions about whether a U.S.-led military intervention in the crisis-stricken country was possible, saying he doesn’t reveal military strategy.

“It’s a regime that, frankly, could be toppled very quickly by the military if the military decides to do that,” Trump said in comments on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. “It’s a truly bad place in the world today.”

Earlier in the day, the Trump administration slapped financial sanctions on four members of Maduro’s inner circle, including his wife and the nation’s vice president, on allegations of corruption. 

As part of the actions, the U.S. barred Americans from doing business with and will seize any financial assets in the U.S. belonging to First Lady Cilia Flores, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino. 

“We are continuing to designate loyalists who enable Maduro to solidify his hold on the military and the government while the Venezuelan people suffer,” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement.

Over the past two years the Trump administration has sanctioned dozens of individuals, including Maduro himself, on allegations of corruption, drug trafficking and human rights abuses. 

But until now it had spared key leaders like Delcy Rodriguez, as well as the U.S.-trained Padrino, believing they occupy seats of power and could play a key role in an eventual transition. 

David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has spent more than two decades living and working in Venezuela, said Tuesday’s actions would seem to suggest the U.S. has given up trying to sow division within the government in the hopes it could force a democratic transition from within.

“This clearly breaks from that strategy, said Smilde. “If everyone is sanctioned then it could end up uniting the government.”

Maduro later appeared on state television, thanking Trump for sanctions that he called a badge of honor for those around him in a battle against what he calls an imperialist power. He also blasted the sanctions targeting his wife. 

“If you want to attack me, come at me directly. But don’t touch Cilia and my family,” Maduro said, calling her an anti-imperialist warrior. “Her only crime is being my wife.”

Flores is an influential figure in her own right, and has served in congress as well as a constitutional assembly that has expansive powers.

Beyond rallying Maduro’s opponents, it’s unclear what impact the sanctions will have. 

For over a year, top U.S. officials have struggled to build support for more-sweeping oil sanctions, facing resistance from energy companies still active in the country and fearing it could tip the OPEC nation over the edge at a time of hyperinflation and widespread food and medicine shortages.

The latest sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department also seized a $20 million private jet belonging to an alleged front man for powerful socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello.

Trump publicly floated the idea of a military option in August 2017, but since then he has avoided making any direct references to a possible attack.

Maduro, however, has repeatedly accused the U.S. of backing attempts to overthrow him.

But Fernando Cutz, who until April led U.S. policy on Venezuela at the National Security Council under both Presidents Obama and Trump, said that only in unusual cases would the United States employ military action in Venezuela. 

An attack on the U.S. Embassy in Caracas harming American citizens would warrant a military response, he said, or a scenario where Venezuelan government forces slaughtered 1,000 or more of its own people. 

Cutz spoke publicly Monday at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington for the first time since leaving government. He said he did not back force as an option, but that it’s likely the only way the entrenched Maduro regime could be removed.

“For us to remove that from the table is irresponsible,” Cutz said. “We need to keep all the options on the table.”

Adding to the political pressure, a bi-partisan group of 11 senators on Monday introduced sweeping legislation that calls for expanding humanitarian relief to Venezuelans by $40 million and increasing pressure on Maduro’s government. 

“From the country’s plummeting economy to the deterioration of the rule of law, something has got to change,” said Senator David Perdue, a Georgia Republican and member of the Armed Services Committee. 

Vice President Mike Pence pledged an additional $48 million to help Venezuelans fleeing their country’s historic crisis, bringing the total U.S. aid since 2017 for Venezuelan refugees to $95 million. 

In a sign of simmering tensions, Pence also noted reports of Maduro sending troops to Venezuela’s border with Colombia, a U.S. ally, calling it an intimidation tactic.

“Let me be clear: the USA will always stand with our allies,” Pence tweeted. “The Maduro regime would do well not to test the resolve of (at)POTUS or the American people.”
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Senate Republicans Hire Arizona Prosecutor To Question Kavanaugh Accuser

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Senate Republicans have hired an Arizona prosecutor to question a woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

A press release from committee chairman Chuck Grassley’s office described woman attorney Rachel Mitchell as “a career prosecutor with decades of experience prosecuting sex crimes.” Mitchell worked in the Maricopa County Attorney’s office in Phoenix as the chief of the Special Victims Division, which covers sex crimes and family violence.

Republicans have been keen to hire a woman to question Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh sexually assaulting her when both were teenagers, to avoid the appearance of bias by the all-male group of Republicans on the Senate panel.

The U.S. Senate’s partisan brawl over President Donald Trump’s embattled Supreme Court nominee intensified Tuesday, fewer than 48 hours before Judge Kavanaugh and Ford were expected to give contradictory testimony on the alleged incident. 

Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky accused Democrats of rushing to convict Kavanaugh and “destroy his good name” with unproven allegations, abandoning any presumption of innocence — a bedrock principle of American jurisprudence.

“Justice matters. Evidence matters. Facts matter,” McConnell said. “This is America here. … Everyone deserves better than this, not just Judge Kavanaugh.”

Senate Democrats countered that, if Republicans wanted to learn the facts about the nominee’s past behavior, they would not have rejected calls for an FBI investigation of the allegations against him.

Democrats also accused Republicans of treating Ford dismissively at a time when victims of sexual crimes are speaking out across the nation. Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a high school party in the 1980s, a charge the nominee has repeatedly denied.

“Labeling this a partisan smear job demeans not only the senators in my caucus,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said. “It demeans many, many women who have come forward … to share their stories.”

Schumer added, “Leader McConnell should rethink what he said in the heat of the moment and apologize to Dr. Ford.”

The sharp exchanges on the Senate floor came one day after Kavanaugh appeared on U.S. cable television — an unprecedented move for a Supreme Court nominee — to refute all allegations of sexual misconduct.

“I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone. Not in high school. Not ever,” Kavanaugh told Fox News, adding that he has no intention of bowing out of the nomination.

In New York, President Trump accused Democrats of mounting “a con game” and heaped scorn on a second accusation leveled against Kavanaugh, that he exposed himself at a college party decades ago.

The new allegation, reported Sunday by The New Yorker magazine, prompted the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California, to call for a postponement of Thursday’s highly anticipated hearing where Kavanaugh and Ford are to testify.

Republicans have rejected any further delays in the confirmation process. Instead, they scheduled a judiciary committee vote for Friday, which will be followed by consideration by the full Senate.

Kavanaugh, a judicial conservative and Trump’s second Supreme Court pick, was nominated to fill the vacancy created by Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement.

His confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate had seemed all but assured until allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced nearly two weeks ago.
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World Leaders React to Trump’s UNGA Speech

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy speech to the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly drew mixed reaction from world leaders. VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff has this report looking at the international community’s response.
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US-China Tensions Spilling Over into Military Arena

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A deterioration in U.S.-China relations, seen most dramatically in their escalating trade dispute, is spilling over into the military arena.

The Pentagon on Tuesday confirmed that China had canceled a Washington visit by the head of its navy, and U.S. officials said China had denied a request for a U.S. Navy ship to make a port visit next month at Hong Kong.

Also on Tuesday, China demanded the Trump administration cancel a planned $330 million sale of military equipment to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing considers a renegade province. The Chinese foreign ministry warned of “severe damage” to bilateral relations if the sale announced Monday goes through. Washington has no official relations with Taiwan’s democratically elected government but is obliged by U.S. law to see that it has the means to defend itself.

The backdrop to these tensions is the U.S.-China trade dispute. Each imposed tariff increases on the other’s goods Monday, and Beijing accused the Trump administration of bullying. A Chinese official said China cannot hold talks on ending the trade dispute while the U.S. “holds a knife” to Beijing’s neck by imposing tariff hikes.

The two countries are mired in a dispute over Washington’s allegations that Beijing pilfers foreign trade secrets and forces U.S. companies to hand over technology in return for access to the Chinese market. The predatory practices, the U.S. says, are part of China’s relentless drive to challenge American technological dominance.

Also at stake, beyond economic cooperation, are U.S. hopes for gaining China’s help in persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. In his address Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Trump thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for his assistance with the North Korea problem, but he also blasted China for what he called unfair use of international trade rules to diminish U.S. jobs and deepen U.S. trade deficits.

“Those days are over. We will no longer tolerate such abuse,” Trump said.

Military ties between Washington and Beijing have been relatively stable in recent years, even as the U.S. complained of China militarizing reefs and islands in the South China Sea amid overlapping territorial claims by other Asian nations. In May, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis disinvited China from participating in a multinational naval exercise in the Pacific. Pentagon officials cited China’s military buildup on disputed South China Sea islands.

In recent days the breadth of military tensions has grown. A Pentagon spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn, said China informed the Pentagon that the chief of the Chinese navy has been recalled to Beijing, canceling a planned meeting with his American Navy counterpart at the Pentagon after visiting a naval conference at Newport, Rhode Island.

On Monday a reporter asked Mattis what he made of these developments and how he expected to address them.

“Right now, it’s too early to say. We’re still sorting this out,” he said, adding that he and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agree “we do have to have a relationship with China. … And so we’re sorting out the way ahead right now.”

Mattis visited Beijing in June, making him the first Pentagon chief to do so since 2014.

In addition to its anger over the $330 million military sale to Taiwan announced on Monday, China is strongly objecting to a U.S. decision to issue a visa ban and assets freeze on China’s Equipment Development Department and its director, Li Shangfu. The U.S. action relates to China’s purchase from Russia of Su-35 combat aircraft last year and S-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment this year. Those purchases violated a 2017 law intended to punish the Russian government for interfering in U.S. elections and other activities.

China’s Defense Ministry said the U.S. had no right to interfere in Chinese military cooperation with Russia and demanded the sanctions be revoked.

In a further act of retaliation, China turned down a request for an October port call in Hong Kong by the U.S. Navy’s amphibious assault ship USS Wasp. China last denied such a visit in 2016 amid a spike in tensions between the sides over the disputed South China Sea.

“We have a long track record of successful port visits to Hong Kong, and we expect that will continue,” said Eastburn, the Pentagon spokesman, in confirming that China had not approved the Wasp’s visit.
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Malawi: Mozambican Refugees Return Home

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In Malawi, the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, is helping thousands of Mozambican refugees return home after three years in the Luwani refugee camp. The refugees expressed a desire to go home after an easing of tensions between Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party and the opposition, Renamo. Lameck Masina talked to refugees at the camp and reports that they are hopeful for the future, but also, realistic.
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They Said It: Less-quoted Leaders at UN, in Their Own Words

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Lots of leaders saying lots of things about lots of topics — topics that matter to them, to their regions, to the world.

 

That’s what the speechmaking at the U.N. General Assembly invariably produces each year. And each year, certain enormous topics and certain louder voices dominate.

 

Here, The Associated Press takes the opposite approach and spotlights some thoughts you might not have heard — the voices of leaders speaking at the United Nations who might not have captured the headlines and the air time on Tuesday.

“Our nation was forged by the ocean. We are acutely aware of the challenges that poses with the threat of climate change. However, the ocean also presents a myriad of untapped opportunities.”

Danny Faure, president of the Seychelles, whose very existence is threatened by the rising seas that accompany climate change.

 

“Perhaps because I see from this wheelchair, I see through the eyes of the heart. When you have legs, you look ahead of you and above you. However, when you’re seated in a wheelchair, you see horizontally, and you see below you. And you discover other realities, other worlds. You see those who only encounter barriers to move forward, to continue, including even to be able to live. Barriers of different types – mistreatments, xenophobia, racism, injustice, machismo, inequality. In other words, to sum it up, exclusion. This story is not only my story. It’s the story of billions of people around the world. … There are so many brothers and sisters who are abandoned and forgotten, and there are so many people who walk right by without even noticing them.”

Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno, who uses a wheelchair after being shot in the back and paralyzed from the waist down during a 1998 robbery.

 

“My friends, there is no such thing as a unilateral agreement. It takes at least two parties to make an agreement.”

King Abdullah of Jordan, on the efforts needed to create statehood for the Palestinian people.

 

“Migration is a constant in human affairs. We in Africa are grateful to countries who treat migrants with compassion and humanity.”

Muhammadu Buhari, president of Nigeria

 

“Let us admit that there will always be economic inequality of nations. And yes, we all have something to offer to humanity. But those with more resources and power must step out to offer more. Let us remember — power is not status. Power is responsibility. Leadership is not prestige. Leadership is responsibility. We must define global leadership in terms of global responsibility.”

Peter Mutharika, president of Malawi

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UNHCR: Bosnia Must Shelter Migrants Ahead of Winter 

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Bosnia should do more to organize shelter for migrants before the arrival of winter, including for hundreds sleeping outdoors in towns near the Croatian

border, the U.N. said Tuesday.

About 15,000 refugees and migrants from Asia and North Africa have passed through Bosnia this year on their way to Europe’s wealthier countries.

“The key challenge now is how to prepare for winter,” said Stephanie Woldenberg, senior protection officer for the UNHCR refugee agency. “It is the race against time and UNHCR is particularly concerned about vulnerable families and individuals who are most at risk.”

Woldenberg, speaking at an event sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said more than 1,000 refugees and migrants were sleeping outside in Bihac and Velika Kladusa, two towns in northwestern Bosnia near the Croatian border.

Several thousand migrants remain in Bosnia after Croatia tightened its borders, and new people arrive daily, crossing illegally from Serbia.

Bosnia’s state authorities say they are trying to refurbish inadequate facilities where migrants are currently accommodated but the process has been slow because of a lack of funding and cooperation from local counterparts.

Woldenberg said a priority for the authorities was to protect families with children, single women and unaccompanied minors. “Safe, appropriate accommodation must be provided for these groups as a priority,” she said.
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Austrian Leader Rejects Far-Right Plan to Shut Out Some Media

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Austria’s chancellor said on Tuesday a proposal by a far-right coalition partner to shut out several newspapers was unacceptable, suggesting further tensions between the ruling parties, though the far right later disowned the plan.

Two of Austria’s three main national newspapers on Tuesday published details of an email sent to police spokespeople by the Interior Ministry, controlled by the far-right Freedom Party (FPO). It suggested communications with the papers and one other be reduced to “what is absolutely necessary.”

“Any restriction of press freedom is unacceptable,” Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in a statement, although he avoided referring to the reports specifically.

“The shutting out or boycotting of selected media cannot take place in Austria,” he said. “That goes for those in charge of communications at all ministries and all public institutions.”

The email accused the broadsheets Kurier and Der Standard and left-wing weekly newspaper Falter of “very one-sided and negative reporting” about the ministry or the police, without providing examples or details.

The Interior Ministry confirmed that the email was authentic and sent by its chief spokesman but said it was not binding and consisted of suggestions rather than instructions.

The FPO is critical of some media for what it says is biased coverage, but its accusations are less frequent and generally less vociferous than the “fake news” charges made by some right-wing figures, such as U.S. President Donald Trump.

In a posting on Facebook in February, FPO leader and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache accused national broadcaster ORF of lying. He defended the posting as a prank but later agreed to pay damages to the news anchor pictured in the posting and issued an apology.

The FPO, which controls the foreign, interior and defense ministries, and Kurz’s conservatives have largely managed to avoid public disputes while in government together, but anti-Semitism scandals involving FPO officials and accusations of an attempted purge at an intelligence agency have caused tension.

Media rights advocates including the Vienna-based International Press Institute and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s media freedom representative condemned the memo. President Alexander Van der Bellen issued a statement similar to Kurz’s, and the ministry later rowed back.

“The formulations regarding dealing with ‘critical media’ do not meet with my approval,” FPO Interior Minister Herbert Kickl said in a statement issued by his ministry on Tuesday, adding: “A restriction of press freedom is unthinkable.”

 

 
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Loss of Bird Species Hampers Forecasting for Zimbabwe’s Farmers

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As the summer planting season approaches in eastern Zimbabwe, small-scale farmers struggle with familiar questions: When will the rains come, and when should I sow my crops?

This year something else is keeping them awake: In late August the government issued a warning about a potential El Niño weather pattern, associated with changes in weather patterns worldwide.

Should El Niño arrive, Zimbabwe might see normal or higher-than-average rains, said Washington Zhakata, director of the country’s Climate Change Department. More likely, though, there would not be enough rain.

“Looking at the past observations … once an El Niño sets in, depending on the strength and nature of the El Niño, the chances of bad rains or below-normal rainfall in Zimbabwe are between 50 and 65 percent,” he said.

In trying to figure out what to plant and when this year, farmers are also missing an old ally: Birds, whose movements traditionally have helped predict coming weather.

Delayed rainfall

In Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands the farming season typically starts in late October or early November. But in recent years the weather has become less predictable, and that is a growing problem for farmers.

“At times the rainy season is now starting well into December. The weather is now changing,” said Leonard Madanhire, a farmer in Zimunya, a village close to the Mozambique border.

Once, he said, farmers watched changes in the environment around them – particularly activity by birds – to work out whether or not they could expect a good season.

“We used to learn a lot from the birds about the seasons.

But these birds have long vanished,” he said.

When different species of birds arrived or left told villagers in his subsistence farming community what might be coming: a storm, a change of seasons, even flooding.

Some farmers held off planting until they saw certain species of migratory birds. The appearance of one particular type of stork – known as shuramurove – foretold a good rainy season, for instance.

But most of the birds once relied on – including the stork – have now vanished, he said.

“We last saw them here more than five years ago,” said Madanhire.

Absent friends

Togarasei Fakarayi, a programme manager at BirdLife Zimbabwe, a non-profit, said changing conditions in the country were having an impact on birds – and there was a clear link between climate change and the diversity and abundance of bird species.

“Birds are sensitive to environmental changes, in particular habitat changes. Climate change causes habitat changes over time – for instance, drying up of forests, grasslands and wetlands habitats as a result of global warming,” he said.

As those changes happen, species may shift or disappear from certain areas, Fakarayi said. More regular dry weather also has led to fires, which can destroy bird habitats.

“Climate change affects routes of migratory birds – in particular food abundance which is key, especially in stopover roosting areas,” he said.

Among the birds that have become far less common in Zimbabwe, Fakarayi said, were bateleur eagles and the southern ground hornbill.

Under the country’s Parks and Wildlife Act, storks and bateleur eagles are listed as specially protected animals, while the southern ground hornbill is considered as vulnerable, Fakarayi said.

The hornbill’s absence is something the farmers of Zimunya know well. In this region, characterized by mountains, forest and montane grasslands, the bird, known as the mariti or matendera, was once much easier to see – and to hear.

“If you hear the deep singing of the southern ground hornbill then you know it’s going to rain and you can plan your day. But these birds are now very rare,” said Madanhire.

That is also the case for the bateleur eagle, or chapungu, whose presence is synonymous with reliable rains, a bountiful harvest and good luck, said farmer Nicholas Kwadzanai Mukundidza.

“Chapungu is now rarely seen in the area, but this bird was sacred. And the honey bird (tsoro) which used to direct us to beehives in the forest has vanished too,” Mukundidza said.

The lack of these birds means that farmers – who until recently combined traditional knowledge with forecasts from the meteorological department in deciding when to sow their crops – find it is harder to plan for changing conditions.

These days, Madanhire said, they do listen to the weather forecasts when they can get them. But, he added with a chuckle, “they are not reliable.”

Climate link

Linia Mashawi Gopo, the principal meteorologist at Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Services Department, said the department’s research indicated some – but not all – farmers use indigenous knowledge to forecast the weather.

“The younger generation prefers scientific forecasts while the older generation use both the (indigenous knowledge) and scientific forecasts,” she said.

But older people have found their traditional forecasting methods becoming less predictable over time, she said – in some cases because the indicators they once relied on had disappeared, while in others the behavior of animals and birds had changed.

“This is mostly attributed to climate change,” she said.

She said more work was needed to correlate indigenous knowledge of forecasting with scientific methods, and to set up a way to use both sets of information.

 
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South Sudanese Surgeon Wins Prestigious Nansen Award

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A South Sudanese surgeon has been named the winner of a prestigious U.N. award for assisting refugees.

Evan Atar Adaha received the UNHCR 2018 Nansen Refugee Award for his 20 years of providing medical services to people forced to flee conflict and persecution in Sudan and South Sudan.

 

Adaha, 52, is based in Bunj, Maban county, in north-eastern South Sudan, where he runs the only functional hospital, serving 144,000 refugees from Sudan’s Blue Nile State and 53,000 people comprising Maban county’s population.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told VOA that Adaha’s hospital is surrounded by an active conflict zone.  He said the doctor works under very difficult and dangerous conditions providing medical services to a desperate population.

“The only line of defense he has is his reputation and his humanitarian work.  Luckily, so far, his work has been respected by all sides.  His clinic is open for all sides, whoever needs his assistance,” he said.

According to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Adaha and his medical team carry out an average of 58 operations per week in what U.N. “with limited supplies and equipment.”

 

‘’There is no provision for general anesthesia, meaning doctors work with ketamine injections and spinal epidurals,” UNHCR said.

 

The only X-ray machine is broken, the only surgical theater is lit by a single light, and electricity is provided by generators that often break down.  The hospital is often crowded with patients and wards extend into the open air.

‘A shining example’

South Sudan’s civil war, now in its fifth year, has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than four million people.

 

“Yet, even in the midst of tragedy, acts of heroism and service to others have emerged. Dr. Atar’s [Adaha’s] work through decades of civil war and conflict is a shining example of profound humanity and selflessness,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in a statement.  

“Often risking his own safety, his dedication to serving victims of war and conflict has been extraordinary and deserves global attention and acknowledgement,” he said.

 

Originally from Torit, in South Sudan, Adaha earned a scholarship to study medicine in Khartoum, Sudan, and afterwards practiced in Egypt.

He returned home in 1997 to establish his first hospital from scratch in Kurmuk town in Sudan’s Blue Nile state.

 

Increased fighting between Sudan government and the rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, Northern sector (SPLM North) forced Adaha to flee Kurmuk in 2011.  He moved with his staff and equipment to Bunj in Upper Nile state where 300,000 Sudanese refugees have temporary homes.

 

UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award honors extraordinary service to the forcibly displaced. Recent winners include Sister Angelique Namaika from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zannah Mustapha, a lawyer and mediator from Borno state in northeastern Nigeria, and the Hellenic Rescue service and Efi Lafsoudi from Pikpa village on the Greek island of Lesbos.

 

The actual 2018 award ceremony will be held October 1 in Geneva, Switzerland, featuring a keynote address delivered by UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and actor Cate Blanchett.

The Nansen award is named after Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Laureate Fridtjof Nansen. It consists of medal and a $150,000 prize.

Lisa Schlein contributed to this report from Geneva.

 

 
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WHO Warns Ebola Spreading in Eastern DR Congo

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The World Health Organization warns the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading to new parts of conflict-ridden North Kivu province, including areas that border Uganda and Rwanda.

Attacks by armed opposition groups in North Kivu have increased in severity and frequency in recent weeks. The most recent attack on September 22 in the city of Beni reportedly killed at least 21 people, including 17 civilians.

WHO sees this attack as especially serious as Beni is the site for the entire anti-Ebola operation.

WHO health emergencies program chief Peter Salama said increasing insecurity and community mistrust are hurting efforts to prevent the deadly Ebola virus from spreading.

He feared the combination of these and other factors could create ideal conditions for an epidemic.

“A perfect storm of active conflict limiting our ability to access civilians, distress by segments of the community already traumatized by decades of conflict and of murder, driven by a fear of a terrifying disease, but also exploited and manipulated by local politicians prior to election,” said Salama.

North Kivu is an opposition stronghold. Salama said he is very concerned that politicians are using Ebola as a political tool before Congo’s December 23 presidential elections. He said he sees armed opposition groups trying to blame the authorities for the outbreak.

WHO reports the number of confirmed and probable cases of Ebola in this outbreak stands at 150, including 100 deaths. Salama said progress that was made in protecting people against the virus through vaccinations and several experimental drugs is in jeopardy.

The Ebola outbreak in North Kivu is the 10th in the DRC since 1976. Salama said this outbreak is the most difficult.
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Regional Election Losses Seen as Growing Rejection of Putin

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is normally sure-footed when it comes to domestic politics, is facing an increasing challenge to his rule in Russia’s Far East, where his party suffered rare electoral setbacks Sunday amid rising anger over government plans to raise the national retirement age.

Election victories by the vehemently nationalist and anti-Western Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) of Russia have sent shockwaves through the Kremlin, which hadn’t expected to get trounced in the voting in second-round run-offs for governors in the region of Khabarovsk as well as in Vladimir region, east of Moscow.

In Khabarovsk, the LDPR candidate won 70 percent of the vote with the incumbent from Putin’s ruling United Russia party attracting just 28 percent.  In the Vladimir region, the LDPR pushed out another United Russia incumbent, winning 20 percent more of the vote than Putin’s party.

Gary Kasparov, the former chess grandmaster and anti-Putin activist, says the collective election rout should be seen as a personal setback for the Russian president.  He tweeted, “Even when every true opposition figure is banned from Russian ballots, Putin’s party has now lost two elections in a row to ‘anyone but Putin’ turnout.”

The elections Sunday followed weeks of protests across the country against plans to raise the retirement age for men from 60 to 65 and for women from 55 to 60 years.  On September 9, Russia’s ruling party suffered election defeats at the hands of the Communist Party in parliamentary polls in Siberia and central Russia as well as in another eastern region.

Crumbling aura

The election drama, with mounting reverses for United Russia in three weeks of voting, is seen by some analysts as marking a crumbling of Putin’s aura of invincibility.  With mounting popular anger at the retirement-age changes, Putin’s approval ratings have been tumbling.

According to the Levada Center, a pollster, the Russian president’s public opinion ratings are at a four-year low.

The Bell, a Russian news site founded by Liza Osetinskaya, a former editor of Forbes Russia, says the elections are a “serious test for the Kremlin’s domestic political system in the context of falling approval ratings sparked by unpopular pension reform.”

Sunday’s defeats are all the more surprising, say analysts, because the LDPR hardly campaigned, while the Kremlin sent its top spin doctors to Vladimir and Khabarovsk and dispatched top celebrities to try to ensure United Russia candidates won the elections.  There were promises by the Kremlin of more federal investment.

The LDPR is the party of 72-year-old Vladimir Zhirinovsky, considered by many an eccentric figure, who has urged Putin at various times to bomb Turkey and the Baltic countries, and in his own presidential election campaigns has called for vodka to be free.  He has campaigned for the legalization of polygamy.

Pension reform at center

Some analysts put the defeats down to the Kremlin’s backing of incumbent regional governors.  In regions where United Russia fielded new candidates, the ruling party won.

In Far East regions, many time zones from Moscow, protest votes have flared before.  And in the Vladimir region, anger at the scale of poverty has been a factor in previous elections.  But United Russia’s support for the unpopular pension reform appears to have been a key factor in the upsets, say analysts.

Bloomberg columnist Leonid Bershidsky argues a “gap” is emerging between the Kremlin’s usual managed politics and “the way people lead their daily lives” and that unfair election practices aren’t enough to overcome popular frustration.

Last week, in a gubernatorial election in Primorsky Krai, in Russia’s Far East, a Communist challenger appeared to win, but the election was declared invalid after there was uproar when his United Russia opponent was announced as the victor.  There were accusations of wide-scale election fraud, forcing the hand of the country’s elections chief Ella Pamfilova to abort the poll.

Some analysts fear the Kremlin may react by cracking down even more on dissent.  On Monday, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, the anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny, was released from jail and then immediately arrested again and sentenced to another 20 days of detention for protest violations.

 

 
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Russian Pussy Riot Activist Recovering After Suspected Poisoning

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A member of the Russian protest group Pussy Riot says he’s recovering after spending two weeks in intensive care with a suspected poisoning.

 

Pyotr Verzilov has been at Berlin’s Charite hospital since arriving from Moscow, where he had been previously treated. Verzilov tweeted Tuesday that he only fully regained consciousness three days ago after being in a “black hole” for the previous 12 days. He added he was “spending days in the great company of wonderful poisons.”

 

German doctors treating Verzilov said last week that reports he was poisoned are “highly plausible,” but stressed they can’t say how this might have occurred or who was responsible.

 

Verzilov and three other Pussy Riot members spent 15 days in jail in Russia for running onto field during the World Cup final to protest Russian police actions.

    

 
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