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Month: October 2018
Officials: Deputy Chief of IS-Linked Group in Somalia Killed
Somali intelligence officials say the deputy leader of an Islamic State-affiliated extremist group based in northern Somalia has been killed in the capital.
The officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters told The Associated Press that Mahad Moalim’s body was found near a Mogadishu beach last week, a few days after he reportedly was abducted while secretly visiting the city.
The officials said his relatives have accused other deputies in the extremist group. Reports have emerged that the group’s leader was ill, creating rivalry among possible successors.
The United States in February sanctioned Moalim as a “specially designated global terrorist,” saying he was responsible for facilitating shipments of weapons and fighters across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen.
Abdiqadir Mumin, an elderly British extremist, founded the IS-linked group that is said to have several dozen fighters. It has claimed attacks against Somali authorities and other targets in the northern Puntland region, where it is based, and more recently in and outside Mogadishu. The group is said to fund its activities by extorting civilians.
“It is unclear exactly how many claims made by the group are legitimate, as few are reported by local media or proven with visual evidence. Some assassination claims, however, are followed up with photo or video proof,” analyst Caleb Weiss wrote in the Long War Journal in May.
While the IS-affiliated group is far smaller than the al-Qaida-based al-Shabab group and its thousands of fighters in Somalia, analysts say it has managed to attract a number of al-Shabab fighters.
It also has attracted the attention of the U.S. military, which began targeting the extremist group with airstrikes late last year.
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French Media Calls on Macron Not to Close Palace Press Room
France’s Presidential Press Association has called on President Emmanuel Macron to reconsider his decision to close the press room inside the presidential palace, an action that comes as the French leader faces declining popularity.
In a statement Tuesday, the association that represents French and foreign media accredited with the presidency said the press room’s closure would be “a lockdown of the Elysee Palace and a decision prejudicial to journalists’ freedom to inform and to work.”
Macron’s office announced plans earlier this year to move journalists to a new site outside the palace with less access to presidential activity. He also recently revamped his communication strategy and team.
Polls last month indicated Macron’s popularity reached a record low since his election in May 2017 amid growing criticism over his policies.
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Challenges to Indian Child Welfare Act Concern Native Americans
On Mother’s Day 2015, Iva Johnson, a member of the Navajo Nation living off reservation in Flagstaff, Arizona, suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma. When she opened her eyes days later, she saw two unfamiliar women sitting at the end of her bed.
“I was trying to focus, and I was thinking to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, did I die?’” she said.
The women explained they were caseworkers from Arizona’s Department of Child Safety (DCS) and would be removing three of Johnson’s children from the home because there was no one to care for them.
Johnson wanted to tell them that the oldest child, 21 and a legal adult, lived at home and could look after her siblings, but breathing and nose tubes prevented Johnson from speaking.
“All I could do was shake my head ‘no,’” said Johnson. “That’s when one of the ladies turned around and pulled out this little ink pad. And she dabbed my thumb into that inkpad, and she smacked it on that paper. And then she said, ‘Well, we’re going to leave you now. We hope you get better soon.’”
Three years of court battles followed before Johnson was reunited with her children. They had been rotated, separately, from one non-Native foster home to another.
It was to prevent situations like this that Congress passed the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), after learning that as many as one-third of all Native American children had been taken from their families and placed in non-Native homes.
Law under threat?
ICWA outlines a set of standards for such removals.
“Before you can place an Indian child in a non-Indian home, you have to first look for another member of the immediate family, then another member of the tribe, then another Indian family before you can place that child in a non-Indian home,” said Stephen Pevar, an American Civil Liberties Union senior staff attorney who works in its Racial Justice Program.
Johnson states that Arizona’s DCS failed to follow procedure. The office did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.
Today, like many Native Americans, Johnson worries that two recent court decisions could pave the way for many more parents to lose their children.
On Oct. 4, Judge Reed O’Connor in the Northern District of Texas federal court struck down the ICWA as “unconstitutional,” saying it discriminates against non-Native couples looking to adopt Native children.
The lawsuit was filed by a group of parents and attorneys with the support of the Goldwater Institute (GI), a libertarian research group based in Arizona. In a brief filed in support of the Texas plaintiffs, Goldwater attorneys argued that ICWA imposes restrictions based on race, not the best interests of Indian children. Further, Goldwater said the ICWA is a federal government attempt to intrude on matters that should be decided by the state.
In a statement on its website, the institute said it remains committed to ensuring that Native American children are no longer denied “the same strong protections against abuse and neglect” that children of other races already enjoy.
Most tribes see the ruling as an extension of decades of U.S. assimilation policy that nearly cost tribes their cultures, and tribes look to youth to preserve future cultures.
“This case, unfortunately, is part of a well-funded multiyear effort by antitribal interests, who use Indian children as weapons in their assault on ICWA and on tribes more broadly,” said Native American Rights Fund attorney Erin C. Dougherty Lynch via email. “It is a shameful, nakedly political effort … to undo decades, even centuries, of settled law.”
The National Indian Child Welfare Association expressed a further concern that the Texas decision could lead to constitutional challenges to many other federal Indian laws.
The ruling comes in the wake of a federal appeals court’s reversal in September of a 2015 U.S. District Court ruling that South Dakota had violated the ICWA by failing to notify parents prior to removal hearings, denying parents and tribes a voice in the proceedings.
Scarred for life
The social isolation, poverty and poor health care services on many reservations have contributed to high rates of alcohol and drug abuse and related crime.
An examination of more than four dozen child removal cases in Pennington County, South Dakota, during 2014 revealed that alcohol was a factor in more than half of the removals. Domestic violence was cited in 22 percent of cases. Child abuse was given as a reason in 9 percent of all cases.
Studies also demonstrate that when children are removed from homes and placed in foster care, the trauma that results can lead to poor self-esteem, mental health problems, substance abuse and a variety of behavioral problems. Birth parents suffer loss, guilt and shame.
“And it’s even worse when you place somebody in a different culture, which is usually what happens to Indian children,” said the ACLU’s Pevar.
Jace Roe, 41, can attest to that. Born on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana, he was taken from his mother as an infant. Initially fostered by an aunt in Minnesota, he was later raised in a non-Native home.
“Everything was different there,” he said. “They didn’t understand my culture or where I was coming from. They didn’t understand the humor that goes along with my culture or the way we interact with each other.”
One of the only minority youth in school, Roe said he faced constant bullying.
“I grew up ashamed of who I was, ashamed of being Native, he said. “I wished I was white.”
Roe turned to drugs at an early age and would not overcome addiction for decades.
“It took a lot of work,” he said, “and I’m still in therapy to talk about these issues of shame, anger and disappointment.”
Roe said he believes placing Native children in non-Native homes does more harm than good.
“It doesn’t give them a sense of who they are. It doesn’t instill any pride,” he said.
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) opposes any diminishing of the ICWA, saying child advocacy groups have considered it the “gold standard of child welfare policy.”
As for Pevar, he said he isn’t too concerned about these legal setbacks.
“There have been challenges to ICWA from Day One,” he said, but said he thinks the law will prevail.
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Illinois Voters Choose Issues Over Heritage in Congressional Race
A congressional race in one Illinois district pits two Indian Americans against each other. The Democrat incumbent was born in New Delhi before moving to the United States as an infant. His Republican opponent immigrated to America more than 20 years ago. But both men see the race as a battle between two Americans rather than Indian Americans. VOA’s Esha Sarai reports from Schaumburg, Illinois.
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Erdogan: Khashoggi Killing Was Premeditated Act
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the killing of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was a premeditated act, and that all those responsible, including whoever ordered the operation, should be punished.
In an address to his country’s parliament, Erdogan gave details about what happened starting the day before Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He said multiple teams flew to Istanbul to meet Khashoggi at the diplomatic outpost and removed the hard drive from the site’s surveillance system.
Erdogan said Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, waited outside for hours before contacting Turkish authorities to say Khashoggi was being held against his will and was in danger.
From there, the investigation was slow, with Erdogan citing the diplomatic protections in place at the consulate. But he said Turkish police were certain Khashoggi had not left the building on his own, as Saudi Arabia first claimed.
The Turkish leader stressed the need for his police and intelligence services to conduct a thorough probe, both to avoid falsely accusing anyone and to fulfill a responsibility to the international community.
Saudi Arabia admitted last week that Khashoggi did in fact die inside the consulate, initially saying that happened after a fight, then later changing to say he died in a chokehold to prevent him from leaving the building to call for help.
Erdogan said Tuesday that Saudi Arabia took an important step by admitting the killing took place, but that he expects the country’s leaders to hold all those involved responsible, no matter their rank. He said blame cannot only be put on some intelligence agents, and he suggested any trials take place in Istanbul because that is where Khashoggi died.
Erdogan finished his speech with a series of outstanding questions about the case, including where Khashoggi’s body is located, who instructed the Saudi team to go to Istanbul, and why Saudi Arabia gave shifting answers about what happened.
The various explanations have been met with skepticism from the international community and allegations Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the country’s de facto ruler — ordered Khashoggi be killed.
New surveillance video released Monday from Istanbul appears to show a Saudi agent wearing Khashoggi’s clothing and leaving Riyadh’s consulate on October 2 in an apparent attempt to cover up his killing by showing he had left the diplomatic outpost alive.
The video was taken by Turkish law enforcement and shown Monday on CNN.
The 59-year-old Khashoggi had been living in the United States in self-imposed exile while he wrote columns for The Washington Post that were critical of the Saudi crown prince and Riyadh’s involvement in the conflict in Yemen.
Ahead of Erdogan’s speech, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he was “not satisfied” with what he has heard, but that he expected to find out a lot more in the next few days.
“I have a great group people in Turkey right now and a great group of people in Saudi Arabia. We will know very soon,” Trump said.
Trump has said there would be consequences if Saudi Arabia was found to be responsible for Khashoggi’s death, but also made it clear he has no intention of doing anything that would affect lucrative arms deals.
“I don’t want to lose all of that investment that’s being made in our country,” he said Monday.
U.S. media reports said CIA Director Gina Haspel left the United States on Monday to go to Turkey to meet with officials there who are investigating Khashoggi’s death. The Trump administration did not publicly say anything about her trip.
In another development Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met the Saudi crown prince in Riyadh. The Saudi foreign ministry posted a photograph of the meeting on its Twitter account. Mnuchin canceled his plans to attend a three-day investment conference hosted by Saudi Arabia beginning on Tuesday, but said he would meet the crown prince to discuss counterterrorism efforts.
your ad hereUS Warships Sail Through Taiwan Strait
Two U.S. warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait Monday.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning told reporters that the USS Curtis Wilbur and the USS Antietam conducted what he described as a “routine transit” to demonstrate the United States; commitment to “a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The U.S. Navy conducted a similar “freedom of navigation” exercise through the expansive waterway that separate China and Taiwan back in July.
Monday’s exercise took place amid China’s increasing pressure on Taiwan in recent months. It broke off relations with the self-ruled island in 2016 when President Tsai Ing-wen, the leader of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, took office in 2016 and refused to accept Beijing’s “One China” principle that Taiwan belongs under the mainland’s rule. It has carried out numerous military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, and persuaded several nations to switch diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China.
The two sides split after the 1949 civil war, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces sought refuge on Taiwan after being driven off the mainland by Mao Zedong’s Communists.
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Turkish Leader Due to Give ‘Naked Truth’ About Death of Saudi Journalist
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to go before his parliament Tuesday and reveal what he said would be the “naked truth” about the death of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Ankara.
Since he went missing after entering the consulate on October 2, Turkish officials have accused Saudi Arabia of sending a team to kill Khashoggi.
The Saudis at first said Khashoggi had left the consulate and that they did not know his whereabouts. Later, they said he died in a fistfight after an argument inside the consulate. Most recently, the Saudis said Khashoggi died in a chokehold to prevent him from leaving the consulate to call for help.
WATCH: Erdogan to speak on Khashoggi investigation
The various explanations have been met with skepticism from the international community and allegations Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the country’s de facto ruler — ordered Khashoggi be killed.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he is “not satisfied” with what he has heard, but that he expects to find out a lot more in the next few days.
“I have a great group people in Turkey right now and a great group of people in Saudi Arabia. We will know very soon,” Trump said.
Trump has said there would be consequences if Saudi Arabia was found to be responsible for Khashoggi’s death, but also made it clear he has no intention of doing anything that would affect lucrative arms deals.
“I don’t want to lose all of that investment that’s being made in our country,” he said Monday.
U.S. media reports said CIA Director Gina Haspel left the United States on Monday to go to Turkey to meet with officials there who are investigating Khashoggi’s death. The Trump administration did not publicly say anything about her trip.
In another development Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met the Saudi crown prince in Riyadh. The Saudi Foreign Ministry posted a photograph of the meeting on its Twitter account. Mnuchin canceled his plans to attend a three-day investment conference hosted by Saudi Arabia beginning on Tuesday, but said he would meet the crown prince to discuss counterterrorism efforts.
New surveillance video released Monday from Istanbul appears to show a Saudi agent wearing Khashoggi’s clothing and leaving Riyadh’s consulate on October 2 in an apparent attempt to cover up his killing by showing he had left the diplomatic outpost alive.
The video was taken by Turkish law enforcement and shown Monday on CNN.
The 59-year-old Khashoggi had been living in the United States in self-imposed exile while he wrote columns for The Washington Post that were critical of the Saudi crown prince and Riyadh’s involvement in the conflict in Yemen.
It is not known what happened to his remains, although Turkish officials say he was tortured, decapitated and then dismembered. One Saudi official told ABC News that Khashoggi’s body was given to a “local cooperator” in Istanbul for disposal, but Saudi officials have said they do not know what happened to his remains.
In Washington, White House adviser Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, told CNN the United States is still in a “fact-finding” phase in trying to determine exactly what happened to Khashoggi.
“We’re getting facts in from multiple places,” Kushner said. He said that Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will then decide how to respond to Saudi Arabia, a long-time American ally.
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To Some the Migrant Caravan is a Political Gift
To supporters of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies, news of a caravan of Central American migrants heading to the U.S., just weeks before the U.S. mid-term elections, is a political gift.
“Politically speaking it’s probably going to be an election game changer, because nothing is more powerful, more potent than the idea of uncontrolled masses of people surging into your country,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that advocates for stricter enforcement policies to curb illegal immigration.
WATCH: Trump immigration policies
By Monday, the number of the migrants in the caravan had swelled to more than 7,000. Most are Hondurans. Many are hoping to seek asylum in the United States from the violence and poverty in their country.
Over the weekend, thousands of migrants crossed Guatemala’s border into Mexico by breaking through fences, pushing by Mexican police in riot gear and refusing offers of aid and possible asylum in Mexico.
President Trump called the migrant caravan a “national emergency” in a tweet on Monday.
In other tweets he has threatened to cut off aid to the region, and to use the U.S. military to completely shut down the border with Mexico if the caravan is not stopped. And he implied that failing to prevent what he called an “assault on our country” could undermine his support for the recently renegotiated free trade agreement with Mexico.
Election issue
Much of this rhetoric is political. The president is trying to make the migrant caravan a prominent election issue to underscore his tough immigration policies and his demand for building a wall along the U.S. Mexico border.
“The Democrats want caravans. They like the caravans,” said Trump at a political campaign rally in Nevada on Friday.
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted over the weekend that the president is just trying to change the subject away from issues he sees as losing for Republicans.
Meanwhile, immigrant rights advocates are expressing concern for the safety and security of the migrant group, which includes women and children.
“I think the caravan becomes an excuse for the president to ratchet up his rhetoric that is quite hostile and demonizing of immigrants, and gets to take away their humanity,” said Royce Bernstein Murray, with the American Immigration Council.
Despite the rhetoric surrounding the migrant caravan, the American Immigration Council says illegal immigration levels into the U.S. are not increasing. It is just that now migrant groups are made up more of families fleeing violence in countries like Honduras, which has one of the world’s highest murder rate. And they tend to travel together for safety. During a caravan in April, the numbers of migrants decreased significantly as they got closer to the U.S. border.
Unfortunate timing
There has also been speculation that caravan organizers may also be trying to gather large numbers of migrants to garner media coverage of the increasingly dangerous and impoverished situation in Central America, as well as for protection.
Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke of the “apparent political motivation of some (caravan) organizers” without giving specifics.
By portraying the caravan as a looming illegal immigration onslaught, anti-immigrant activists hope to energize Republican voters who support tougher border security policies, and mitigate widespread criticism of Trump’s past policy of separating migrant families at the border.
“Trump is very successful at shifting blame, quite correctly, that the opposition to family detention to detaining minors, which created a short term public relations problem, in fact was the solution because of the deterrent value,” said Stein.
Immigrant advocates admit it is unfortunate the caravan may shift public focus away from the need to more fairly and humanely reform the immigration system and to work with Central American countries to address the root causes of poverty and violence.
“The timing is tricky no doubt, and it does play into the rhetoric of “us versus them” scenario. My hope is that it also becomes an opportunity for us to focus on this issue,” said Bernstein Murray.
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Medical Drugs Hit Zimbabwe’s Black Market
Zimbabwe’s economic crisis has resulted in an acute shortage of essential medical drugs. Officials say the shortage has pushed some people to turn to the black market for medicines — and authorities are worried those drugs do more harm than good. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare for VOA News.
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Trump: Looking Closely At Transgender Rights
Activists and supporters of the U.S. transgender community raised their voices in Washington and New York Monday to express concern that the Trump administration is working to undermine federal recognition and civil rights protections of their rights. Protesters rallied outside the White House in Washington and held a press conference in New York with a message that they will fight any attempt to infringe on those hard-won rights. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Turkey’s President Promises To Reveal Details of Khashoggi’s Killing
Turkish investigators are keeping up the pressure on Saudi Arabia with a series of leaks on the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. European leaders say there is an urgent need to find out what happened to the journalist. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is promising to reveal the details of his death in a speech on Tuesday. VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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Bolton to Meet with Putin on Possible US Pullout from Arms Treaty
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton has hinted that a key arms control pact with Russia may have run its course.
Bolton meets in Moscow Tuesday with President Vladimir Putin to explain why President Donald Trump wants to pull the U.S. out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Trump has accused Russia of violating the agreement.
“We don’t think that withdrawal from the treaty is what causes the problem. We think it’s what Russia has been doing in violation of the treaty that’s the problem,” Bolton told Russia’s Kommersant newspaper. “You can’t bring someone in compliance who does not think they are in breach.”
Bolton said he believes Cold War-era bilateral treaties are no longer relevant because of today’s global security environment, where other countries are also building missiles.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed the INF accord in 1987. It bans the United States and Russia from building, testing, and stockpiling ground-launched nuclear missiles with a range from 500 to 5,000 kilometers.
Trump said the U.S. would have to start developing new weapons if Russia and China — which is not part of the INF treaty — do.
Russia denies violating the agreement and says it is U.S. missile defense systems in Europe that are in violation.
A Putin spokesman says a U.S. pullout from the INF treaty would make the world a more dangerous place. He said Russia would have to take security countermeasures to “restore balance.”
Russian National Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev said after his talks Monday with Bolton that Russia is willing to talk with the U.S. about the mutual complaints against one another in a bid to salvage the INF pact.
A Russian statement also said Monday Bolton and Patrushev discussed a possible five-year extension of another arms control agreement, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. That deal took effect in 2011 and is set to expire in 2021.
Defense advocates in Washington say the INF treaty keeps the U.S. from developing a new generation of weapons in a world that faces new global security challenges.
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CIA Director Travels to Turkey Over Death of Saudi Journalist
U.S. media reports say CIA director Gina Haspel is traveling to Istanbul to meet with Turkish officials who are investigating the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Sources told news outlets that Haspel departed Monday for Turkey to work on the investigation into Khashoggi’s death.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he has “top intelligence people in Turkey,” but did not give further details. Trump said he is still not satisfied with the explanation he has heard about Khashoggi’s death, but said “we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
The president said he had spoken with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler — since Khashoggi’s death. He said he will know more about the death once U.S. teams investigating the killing return to Washington from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
In another development Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met Saudi Arabia’s embattled crown prince in Riyadh. The Saudi Foreign Ministry posted a photograph of the meeting on its Twitter account.
Mnuchin canceled his plans to attend a three-day investment conference hosted by Saudi Arabia beginning Tuesday, but said he would meet the Saudi crown prince to discuss counterterrorism efforts.
New surveillance video released Monday from Istanbul appears to show a Saudi agent wearing Khashoggi’s clothing and leaving Riyadh’s consulate on Oct. 2, an apparent attempt to cover up his killing by showing he had left the diplomatic outpost alive.
The video was taken by Turkish law enforcement and shown Monday on CNN, suggesting Saudi agents used a body double in an effort to conceal the killing.
The video surfaced as Saudi officials offered yet another explanation for the death of the 59-year-old Saudi journalist who had been living in the U.S. in self-imposed exile while he wrote columns for The Washington Post that were critical of the Saudi crown prince and Riyadh’s involvement in the conflict in Yemen.
The Saudis at first said Khashoggi had left the consulate and that they did not know his whereabouts. Later, they said he died in a fistfight after an argument inside the consulate. Now, the Saudis are saying Khashoggi died in a chokehold to prevent him from leaving the consulate to call for help.
It is not known what happened to Khashoggi’s remains, although Turkish officials say he was tortured, decapitated and then dismembered. One Saudi official told ABC News that Khashoggi’s body was given to a “local cooperator” in Istanbul for disposal, but Saudi officials have said they do not know what happened to his remains.
In Washington, White House adviser Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, told CNN the U.S. is still in a “fact-finding” phase in trying to determine exactly what happened to Khashoggi.
“We’re getting facts in from multiple places,” Kushner said. He said that Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will then decide how to respond to Saudi Arabia, a long-time American ally.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is vowing to reveal details about the case in a Tuesday speech to his parliament.
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Saudi State TV Says Crown Prince Meets US’s Mnuchin
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Riyadh on Monday, Saudi state TV said in a tweet.
Mnuchin said on Sunday Saudi Arabia’s explanation of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was a “good first step but not enough,” adding that it was premature to discuss sanctions against Riyadh over the incident.
The Saudi crown prince and Mnuchin “stressed the importance of strategic partnership and the future role of this partnership through Vision 2030,” the Saudi TV tweet said, referring to the kingdom’s long-term development plan.
The U.S. official said on Sunday he would not attend a major investment conference to be hosted in Riyadh this week, and that his visit was to hold talks on joint efforts toward countering terrorist financing and curbing Iran’s military and political influence.
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Zimbabwe Authorities Worried by Medical Drugs on Black Market
Authorities in Zimbabwe say the country’s economic crisis has resulted in an acute shortage of essential medical drugs. Officials say the shortage has pushed some people to turn to the black market for medicines, some of which are not certified by the drug control authority.
For nearly 10 years now, Lena Lukwani has been taking five different types of medication to ease her diabetes and hypertension.
The 77-year-old Lukwani said she used to pay about $50 for her medication, but says the situation has become dire in the past few months, with prices doubling. She says some drugs are in short supply.
“These days it is difficult,” Lukwani said. “Out of the five I only got two; it has been like that for two months. So I have been limiting my diet — especially starch. I am blessed because of the children I have, but that is not the same for my colleagues who are also diabetic and are hypertensive.”
Her seven children living around the globe managed to send her medication that was not readily available for three months. Otherwise, Lukwani said, she would have continued on her controlled diet or turned to the black market for help.
Shingai Gwatidzo is the spokesperson of the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe.
“A lot of people try and take advantage of the current situation,” Gwatidzo said. “You have a lot of unregulated markets that are coming up; those medicines are being smuggled into the country, we have not tested to see if they are safe. So one will be taking a risk in buying medicines on the streets.”
Portifa Mwendera, president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Zimbabwe, acknowledges the health sector is failing to import enough antibiotics as well as drugs for ailments such as cancer, diabetes and hypertension.
“The drug situation is pretty dire currently,” Mwendera said. “Our main worry is that if the prevailing situation continues, we get more complications in our patients. And we might actually lose some patients. What is propped up — which is more worrying — is the parallel market for medicines. We are seeing a lot of people advertising that they can sell and send medication into Zimbabwe.”
On a number of occasions, police and vendors with medicines have engaged in street battles in Harare, only to see the vendors back on the streets the next day.
The vendors argue that they have no other source of income and if the market has demand, they will remain in business by importing the drugs from neighboring countries.
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Coalition Targets Islamic State in 2nd Mosque in Less than a Week
The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group has targeted a second mosque in eastern Syria in less than a week, saying the normally protected religious building was used as an insurgent command and control center.
Pentagon spokesman Navy Cmdr. Sean Robertson told VOA the strike Monday killed Islamic State fighters who “were actively firing on coalition partner forces from the mosque” in as-Sousa, near the border with Iraq.
He said IS’s use of protected buildings to shield their fighters from coalition strikes was an “ongoing pattern” seen in recent weeks. The mosque targeted Monday was 2.5 kilometers away from a mosque struck last week.
The law of land warfare protects mosques, but the use of these buildings as a headquarters by IS caused them to lose that protected status, Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Robert Manning said Monday.
“They are nasty, they are brutal, they are unethical, and they certainly have no problem at all putting civilians at risk,” Manning said of the terror group.
A coalition press release Monday said the mosque was deliberately struck during an attack on several buildings controlled by IS. It called the use of a mosque an act of “desperation.”
The U.S. military said it had closely monitored the buildings targeted Monday and struck “when only their [IS] fighters were present.”
It is unclear whether any civilians were killed in the attack. Manning said the U.S. military would investigate any credible claims of civilian casualties.
Syrian state media and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes in as-Sousa last week killed and wounded dozens, including civilians and IS fighters.
As-Sousa is in the last IS-held area of Syria, where coalition-backed forces have been fighting extremists for weeks.
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Humble Pomegranate Seed Provides Clue to How Yemen’s War Fuels Hunger
The tiny, red pomegranate seed may not look like much but it helps explain why Yemen’s civil war has brought millions of people to the brink of famine.
Pomegranate exports were a key source of income for people in Saada in northwest Yemen, a province under the control of the Houthi movement aligned with Iran. Before the war began in 2015, farmers exported 30,000 tons of the fruit.
Those exports have fallen by around a third and farmers blame lack of fuel and water for irrigation and the impact of aerial bombing by a coalition of forces led by Saudi Arabia and armed by the United States, France, Britain and other Western countries.
Markets and roads have been targeted, making it much more dangerous and, crucially, more expensive to get pomegranates by truck to Yemen’s main port in Hodeidah, the farmers say.
The coalition is fighting to restore the internationally-recognized government that was ousted from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis. Many bombs have fallen on civilian areas. The coalition denies targeting civilians deliberately.
“The pomegranates are dying because of lack of water because of the blockade,” said farmer Rabeea al-Abdy.
He was referring to stringent measures put in place by the coalition on imports into Yemen that have slowed trade flows, including of commercial goods and vital supplies such as fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid.
The coalition says the measures are necessary to prevent the Houthis smuggling in weapons from Iran. Both the Houthis and Iran deny engaging in such smuggling.
Ali Saleh, an agricultural sales manager in Saada, said exports are down by a third from their pre-war peak.
“The war … led to a rise in the prices of fuel. Farming necessities … have seen a crazy rise in prices in comparison to the farmers’ costs which has had a huge impact on production,” he said.
Three-quarters of the Yemeni population, or 22 million people, require aid and 8.4 million people are on the brink of starvation, according to U.N. special envoy Martin Griffiths.
The United Nations is trying to broker talks to end the war but in the interim aid officials say the key to reducing the risk of famine is not charity but improving the economy: exports of the humble pomegranate could be a small part of the answer.
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Bolton Meets with Russian Officials on Trump Plan to Withdraw from Arms Treaty
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton met Monday with top Russian officials about President Donald Trump’s announced intention to pull out of a key Cold War arms deal with Moscow.
Bolton discussed the fate of the three-decade-old treaty in Moscow with Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev ahead of a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Bolton is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the U.S. decision “will make the world more dangerous.” He rebuffed the U.S. claim that Russia had violated terms of the agreement that bans the U.S. and Russia from building, testing, and stockpiling ground-launched nuclear missiles with a range from 500 to 5,000 kilometers.
“It is the United States that is eroding the foundations and main elements of this pact” with its missile defense systems and use of drones,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin spokesman said that if the United States goes on to develop new missiles, then Russia would be forced to respond in kind. He said Russian officials want to get more information about the U.S. plans regarding the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in their talks with Bolton.
Trump has accused Russia of building and testing missiles that violate the 1987 treaty.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the deal with the late U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, at the White House in 1987.
“Do they really not understand in Washington what this could lead to?” Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Gorbachev as saying. “Washington’s desire to turn back politics cannot be supported. Not only Russia, but all those who cherish the world, especially a world without nuclear weapons, must declare this.”
Without specifying how Russia violated the treaty, Trump Saturday appeared to say Moscow will not get away with it.
“Russia has violated the agreement. They have been violating it for many years. And we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we are not allowed to,” he said.
U.S. officials going back to the Obama administration have accused Russia of deliberately deploying a land-based cruise missile to pose a threat to NATO.
Russia has denied violating the INF agreement and says U.S. missile defense systems are a violation.
Defense advocates in Washington say the INF treaty keeps the U.S. from developing a new generation of weapons in a world that faces new global security challenges.
Trump said, “We’ll have to develop those weapons, unless Russia comes to us and China comes to us and they all come to us and say let’s really get smart and let’s none of us develop those weapons, but if Russia’s doing it and if China’s doing it, and we’re adhering to the agreement, that’s unacceptable.”
China is not part of the INF agreement.
Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons — the coalition that won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize — said, “By declaring he will leave the INF Treaty, President Trump has shown himself to be a demolition man who has no ability to build real security. Instead, by blowing up nuclear treaties, he is taking the U.S. down a trillion-dollar road to a new nuclear arms race.”
Dmitry Oreshkin, an independent Russian political analyst, told the Associated Press, “We are slowly slipping back to the situation of Cold War, as it was at the end of the Soviet Union, with quite similar consequences, but now it could be worse because Putin belongs to a generation that had no war under its belt. These people aren’t as much fearful of a war as people of [former Soviet leader Leonid] Brezhnev’s epoch. They think if they threaten the West properly, it gets scared.”
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Taiwan Closely Monitored Two US Warships’ Path Through Taiwan Strait
The United States sent two warships through the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. Navy and Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Monday, in a move that could anger Beijing amid heightening U.S. tensions with China.
The ministry said it was in full control of the situation during the U.S. warships’ journey through the Taiwan Strait, the self-ruled island’s defense ministry said in a statement.
“The Ministry of National Defense stressed that the army was in full control when the U.S. warships passed through the seas around Taiwan and has the ability to maintain the security of the seas and the airspace to ensure regional peace and stability,” it said.
The U.S. navy conducted a similar mission in July and any repeat would be regarded in Taiwan as a show of support by President Donald Trump’s government though it risks irking China, which views Taiwan as a wayward province Beijing has been ramping up pressure to assert its sovereignty over the island.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry declined comment.
Last week, Reuters reported that the United States was considering a new operation to send warships through, aimed at ensuring free passage through the strategic waterway.
Taiwan’s relations with China have deteriorated since the island’s President Tsai Ing-wen from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party swept to power in 2016.
This year, China increased military and diplomatic pressure, conducting air and sea military exercises around the island and persuading three of the few governments still supporting Taiwan to drop their backing.
Tsai said earlier this month she will maintain the status quo with Beijing, but also vowed to boost Taiwan’s national security and said her government would not submit to Chinese suppression.
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Turkish Investigators Turn up Heat on Riyadh Over Khashoggi’s Death
Turkish investigators are stepping up pressure on Riyadh over the killing of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prepares to reveal key details about the case.
On Monday, CNN showed footage, leaked by Turkish investigators, of a man purported to be a double of Khashoggi wearing the journalist’s clothes leaving from a backdoor in the Saudi Istanbul consulate a few hours after Khashoggi entered the building on October 2.
Sources close to the investigation claim the double was part of a 15 member Saudi hit team that arrived and left the same day as Khashoggi’s killing.
Initially, Riyadh insisted Khashoggi left the consulate. On Friday that story changed with the Saudi government admitting he was accidentally killed in the consulate following a fight. Sunday, Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said Khashoggi was murdered.
“By drip-feeding, the gory press details of Khashoggi’s murder, Turkey managed to keep interest alive and prevented a deal between Trump’s team and Mohammed bin Salman to hush the affair with little damage,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.
A Western diplomat speaking anonymously suggested Turkey’s Intelligence chief Hakan Fidan is orchestrating the leaks to the media, thereby dictating the narrative and direction of the unfolding crisis to Turkey’s advantage.
“President Erdogan will make a profit again, making points both nationally and internationally,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.
Milking the crisis
Observers say Erdogan has been uncharacteristically restrained during the crisis, making few comments and not directly attacking Riyadh. That stance is set to change Tuesday, with the Turkish president promising to reveal what he calls the “naked truth” of the investigation.
“He is a political animal; he knows when to act instinctively,” Bagci said, “so he probably senses this is the right time to act.”
Ankara is starting to face growing international pressure to reveal its findings, especially numerous reports by anonymous sources of secret recordings of the last minutes of Khashoggi’s life.
Turkey’s Yeni Safak newspaper, which has close ties to the government, reported the recording of the torture, killing and dismembering of the body. Until now Erdogan has not commented on the existence of the recordings. But last week U.S. President Donald Trump called for the tapes.
Analysts suggest what Erdogan says Tuesday is likely to be dictated by the outcome of ongoing diplomatic talks.
“I don’t expect he [Erdogan] will break up his relations with Saudi Arabia. He will at the end have the same policy as Donald Trump,” Bagci said.
“Of course Saudi Arabia will have to pay” he added, “but I don’t know what. But Erdogan will use this situation for economic and political advantages for Turkey. They [Saudi Arabia Turkey] probably haven’t still agreed; they are still talking. I don’t know how the Saudi government can satisfy Turkish expectations — the president’s expectations.”
Turkey’s economy is facing recession after its currency collapsed this year.
Analysts warn the outcome of the talks could have far-reaching consequences.
“Riyadh will owe Turkey a favor, which shall be cashed in, in terms of investments, loans or probably a more pro-Turkey stance in Syria,” analyst Yesilada said.
“If Ankara wishes to shame Riyadh by releasing the evidence it claims to have, namely the grisly details of the journalist’s murder in the hands of a Saudi hit squad in the presence of the charge d’affaires to Istanbul, this affair could still spin out of control,” he said.
In a possible move to control the volatile diplomatic situation, Trump telephoned Erdogan on Monday.
“Erdogan and Trump agreed the Khashoggi case needs to be cleared up with all aspects.” wrote Turkey’s State Anadolu news agency.
Resetting US ties
“What we do not know yet is how Trump is planning to thank Erdogan for not escalating the Khashoggi crisis further,” wrote columnist Cansu Camlibel of Hurriyet Daily News.
“Whether or not Ankara will be granted generous waivers from the upcoming U.S. sanctions on Iran, which aims to cut oil and gas imports from Tehran, is definitely a crucial part of the negotiations.”
Washington is set to impose tough financial and economic sanctions on November 4 over Tehran’s nuclear energy program. Turkey relies heavily on oil and gas from its neighbor and is lobbying for dispensation from the sanctions, which previous Washington administrations granted when targeting Iran.
U.S. Turkish relations are strained for several reasons, which resulted in Washington hitting Ankara with economic sanctions in August, triggering a collapse in the currency. However, this month’s release of American pastor Andrew Brunson by a Turkish court, a key Trump demand, has improved relations.
Analysts suggest Erdogan’s goal of resetting U.S .relations could eventually facilitate a diplomatic way out for Riyadh.
“Turkey is trying to improve relations with America,” said Bagci, “Turkey has had enough of economic and diplomatic crisis with America.”
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What is the INF Treaty?
U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to pull out of a key Cold War arms deal with Russia, accusing Moscow of violating it.Here is some key information about the treaty.
What is the INF?
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which was signed in December 1987 by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan and then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, committed the two sides to eliminate all their nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, along with missile launchers.
By the mid-1970s, the Soviet Union had deployed newly-developed SS-20 intermediate-range missiles aimed at Europe. The United States and its NATO allies responded with a “dual-track” policy of deploying intermediate-range, nuclear-armed U.S. ground-launched cruise and Pershing II missiles, while at the same time seeking an arms control agreement with the Soviet side. Negotiations began to bear fruit once Gorbachev became Soviet leader in March 1985.
The INF Treaty, which entered into force on June 1, 1988, originally applied only to U.S. and Soviet missiles. However, in 1991, following the break-up of the Soviet Union, the treaty was extended to cover former Soviet states, including Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Other European countries, including Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Czech, Slovakia and Bulgaria, eventually also eliminated their stocks of intermediate-range missiles.
Why do some US and Russian officials oppose the treaty?
Russian officials have complained the INF Treaty was unfairly preventing it from having weapons that neighbors like China possess, and raised the possibility Russia could withdraw from the agreement.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials have accused Russia of developing and deploying a new ground-launched cruise missiles that violate the treaty.
Similarly, John Bolton, who is now President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, co-authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed published in August 2011 that cited China’s “rapidly increasing” cruise and ballistic missile arsenals, as well as the potential missile threat from Iran and North Korea, as evidence the INF Treaty had “outlived its usefulness in its current form.”
“Despite the Kremlin’s growing propensity for international troublemaking, both Moscow and Washington have a common interest in not having their hands tied by a treaty that binds them alone.” the op-ed stated.
Why do proponents say the treaty is worth keeping?
IMF Treaty supporters argue, among other things, that withdrawing from it strategically benefits Russia, since its geography is better suited for using such intermediate range missiles. They say there is no chance the U.S. will be able to redeploy intermediate-range missiles in Europe, nor in South Korea and Japan, where they would be most effective against American adversaries like North Korea.
They say withdrawing from the treaty essentially carries little to no strategic U.S. benefit, while giving Moscow a propaganda victory.
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NATO Says Service Member Killed in Afghanistan
NATO says one of its service members was killed and two others wounded in in attack in Herat province.
“Initial reports indicate the attack was committed by a member of the Afghan security forces,” the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement.
The Taliban claimed the assailant was one of its infiltrators in the ranks of Afghan security forces.
Meanwhile, the U.S. army has confirmed that a brigadier general was one of two Americans wounded in an attack last week in Afghanistan that fatally wounded a powerful Afghan police chief.
U.S. Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley, in charge of NATO’s military advisory mission in Afghanistan, was shot when a gunman wearing an Afghan security forces uniform opened fire on a group of officials leaving a meeting with the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller.
Miller escaped injury, but a U.S. civilian was also shot.
General Abdul Raziq, an anti-Taliban strongman, was mortally wounded, along with the local head of the NDS intelligence service General Abdul Momim.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack inside the highly secured compound, dealing a severe blow to the Afghan government in one of its most strategically important provinces. The incident demonstrated the insurgents’ ability to strike top leaders.
Ayaz Gul contributed to this report.
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