Month: December 2018

Trump: Democrats Should Take Initiative to End Shutdown

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday Democratic lawmakers should take the initiative to act on ending a partial government shutdown that was triggered by a stalemate over funding for his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I am in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security,” Trump wrote. “From what I hear, they are spending so much time on Presidential Harassment that they have little time left for things like stopping crime and our military!”

Although it is unclear, Trump’s harassment reference may relate to information in a second tweet. He appeared to accuse Special Counsel Robert Mueller of deleting “approximately 19,000 text messages shared between former F.B.I. investigators Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. The two exchanged text messages that were critical of Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

A recent investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General said the text messages have been recovered and concluded the texts were missing due to a technical failure by an F.B.I. automated collection tool.  

Trump’s latest tweets came as the U.S. government was in the eighth day of a partial shutdown. A budget standoff remains between Trump, who wants $5 billion in wall funding, and Democratic lawmakers, who back a modest increase in overall border security funding but resolutely oppose a wall.

On Friday, Trump once again threatened to close the entire U.S.-Mexico border and cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador if Congress fails to give him money to fund the wall.

In an earlier series of tweets, Trump also asked to change the “ridiculous immigration laws that our country is saddled with.”

Closing the U.S.-Mexican border would mean disrupting a $1.68 billion-a-day trade relationship between the two countries, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Immigrant advocates have called the move to seal the border “disgraceful.”

  

Trump has declined to comment on whether he might accept less than $5 billion for wall funding. When asked Wednesday how long he thinks the shutdown will last, Trump told reporters, “Whatever it takes.”

Democrats have blamed Trump for “plunging the country into chaos” adding that, weeks ago, Trump said he would be “proud” to “own” a shutdown over border wall funding.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and presumed incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said in a joint statement, “The president wanted the shutdown, but seems not to know how to get himself out of it.”

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told Fox News Channel on Friday, “We’re here, and they know where to find us.”

Mulvaney blamed Democrats for the continuing shutdown, saying they have refused to negotiate since the White House made an offer last weekend.

Lorella Praeli, deputy political director at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that Congress has an obligation to serve as a check on the executive branch.

  

“This government shutdown is due solely to Trump’s border wall obsession and his refusal to abandon his anti-immigrant agenda, even at the cost of denying hundreds of thousands of federal workers their holiday paychecks and impacting operations at several federal agencies,” Praeli said.

  

Trump also tweeted Friday, “Word is that a new Caravan is forming in Honduras and they are doing nothing about it. We will be cutting off all aid to these 3 countries – taking advantage of U.S. for years!”

VOA has not verified the president’s claim that a new caravan is on its way.

 

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters on Friday that Trump’s border-shutting threat was an internal U.S. government matter.

“We take great care of the relationship with the government of the United States,” Lopez Obrador said. “Of course we will always defend our sovereignty … We will always protect migrants, defend their human rights.”

Cutting funds to Central American countries would mean a cutback on humanitarian programs, according to State Department data. The aid includes assistance on civilian security, legal development and basic nutrition.

  

The largest grant was spent to help with agriculture in Guatemala, where the U.S. Agency for International Development says food security is a “grave concern.”
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Former Nigerian President Shehu Shagari Dies at 93

Posted on by SeeAF

Shehu Shagari, Nigeria’s second president, whose civilian tenure was sandwiched between two military rulers in an era rocked by coups, has died. He was 93.

Nigeria’s current President Muhammadu Buhari, who unseated Shagari 35 years ago, said on Saturday he mourns “the departure of a patriot, who served Nigeria with humility, integrity and diligence.” Shagari’s grandson Bello in a Twitter post said he died on Friday in the capital, Abuja, after a brief illness.

Shagari had an ambivalent relationship with the military, which initially favored his ascension to power but held him in solitary confinement for three years after toppling his government.

After military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo lifted the ban on political activity in Africa’s most populous nation in 1978, Shagari beat regional political veterans in a hotly contested election the next year. The polls followed 13 years of military rule by four different men.

At his swearing-in ceremony, Shagari said the military had “succeeded in large measure in unifying us.”

It had been less than 20 years since the West African powerhouse had earned its independence from British rule, and it struggled to forge national unity within the colonial borders which tied some 250 ethnic groups together.

Those years saw a civil war, a toppled civilian government and a series of military administrations including that of Gen. Yakubu “Jack” Gowon, in which Shagari served as a civilian finance minister.

Shagari is said to have been the first boy to go to school in his northern village of Shagari in the northeastern state of Sokoto. He started out as a science teacher before entering politics. From 1954-1966 he was a member of the House of Representatives and later held a variety of ministerial posts under both civilian and military governments.

Even though the military had voluntarily paved the way for democratic rule, the threat of its interference loomed over Shagari’s time in office.

The oil-rich nation’s economy suffered from a sharp drop in global crude oil prices, fueling discontent. On Dec. 29, 1983, Shagari announced austerity measures in a country already suffering from high unemployment rates and general disillusionment after the oil boom of the ’70s.

Shagari’s administration also was marred by corruption scandals. Even though the public considered him to be honest, his inability to rein in his government’s avarice was sharply criticized.

On New Year’s Eve in 1983, a group of military plotters toppled his government, describing Shagari’s administration as “inept and corrupt.” Buhari, then a military ruler, took over the nation.

Shagari, who had been re-elected a few months earlier, seemed to have seen it coming.

“My greatest concern is that democracy survives in Nigeria,” he told a biographer just before the coup.

It was not until Buhari returned to the presidency in 2015 that Nigeria saw the first peaceful transfer of power from one party to another. The next election is in February.
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Congo on Sunday Faces a Troubled, Long-delayed Election

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Congo’s presidential election takes place on Sunday after more than two years of delays. Protests , an opposition outcry and the surprise barring of 1 million voters from the polls over an Ebola outbreak marked the final days of preparations.

The country faces what could be its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power as President Joseph Kabila, who took office in 2001, steps aside. Some observers, however, fear further unrest. The election commission chief has worried openly about rebels shooting voters waiting at the polls.

With political activities banned in the capital, Kinshasa, in the final days, residents instead gathered at newsstands to fiercely debate the fate of a country wealthy in minerals crucial for the world’s smartphones and electric cars and yet desperately underdeveloped.

With the top candidates largely unknown until months ago, there is much to discuss.

Kinshasa’s governor banned political activities in the vibrant opposition stronghold as the leading candidate, Martin Fayulu, arrived to campaign. Fayulu, a businessman and Kinshasa lawmaker who emerged to lead an opposition coalition, has blamed Kabila’s supporters for attempts to impede his campaign, including blocked flights and deadly assaults on supporters. Kabila has dismissed such accusations.

“The international community has to ask why only one candidate was disturbed,” Fayulu told The Associated Press this week.

The opposition is fractured after Felix Tshisekedi, son of late opposition icon Etienne Tshisekedi, dropped out of the coalition to run on his own. Two other opposition heavyweights, former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba and former governor Moise Katumbi, were blocked from running.

Even if the opposition were unified, some Congolese said it would have no chance against Kabila’s preferred successor , ruling party loyalist Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary. His campaign billboards far outnumber those of other candidates in Kinshasa, but he is largely unpopular there.

Shadary is under European Union sanctions for obstructing Congo’s electoral process as interior minister and for a crackdown on people protesting the election delay. The international pressure has annoyed Congo’s government, and EU and other Western election observers have not been invited to watch Sunday’s vote.

“No one loves the ruling party candidate but we already know what is going to happen. Sunday’s vote is not credible and we will contest the results,” said Ange Mvouessa, a civil servant who said he has not been paid in 18 months. He is backing Fayulu.

More than anything, he and others said they want peace in a country that has seen little of it.

Millions of people have died over two decades of fighting that began with the ouster of longtime leader Mobutu Sese Seko by a rebel coalition led by Kabila’s father. Dozens of rebel groups remain active in the mineral-rich east and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, corruption is widespread. “Congo is a blessed country, we have everything but we are starving because of bad management,” another Kinshasa resident, Thomas Basele, said. “We don’t want corruption anymore, we are suffocating but Kabila doesn’t want the population to speak,” added Sylvie Imela.

The frustration flared into sometimes deadly protests as the election, once set for late 2016, was repeatedly delayed. Now the electoral commission’s last-minute decision to bar some 1 million people from voting on Sunday because of an Ebola outbreak has brought more unrest.

Voters in the Ebola-hit cities of Beni and Butembo, where Fayulu campaigned to enthusiastic crowds, have protested. Health officials have said precautions were in place to allow the vote. The World Health Organization on Friday warned that “prolonged insecurity” could hurt what has become the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.

The electoral commission is “manipulating the population to spark an uprising,” Mvouessa, the civil servant, said. “But we know better than those manipulations. Congolese people don’t want violence anymore.”

Fayulu’s opposition coalition has called for calm. Beni’s civil society has urged residents to turn out again on Sunday and demand to vote with the rest of the country.

Congo’s 40 million voters now face an unprecedented test. Voting machines are being used for the first time, bringing opposition concerns that they could be used to manipulate election results.

Critics say many in rural Congo have little or no computer experience, while officials project that each person should take under a minute to vote. Lack of electricity in large parts of the country could turn a malfunction into a mess. Some machines have to be carried on the heads of porters through the bush to reach remote polling stations.

Some Congolese election observers in the past week alleged that voting materials were not yet in place. In Kinshasa, a fire several days ago destroyed thousands of the machines and officials replaced most of them. Now people are expected to use a limited number of polling stations.

The electoral commission says everything is ready, to shouts of disbelief.

“One thing is for sure, (the commission) is not playing transparency at all,” said Luc Lutala, spokesman for one observer group, SYMOCEL. “We see trucks coming in and out from voting centers, but there is no way to know what is in it, or not.”

Less than 48 hours before the vote, police in Kinshasa guarded newly delivered equipment at polling stations. But several people trained to be electoral agents told the AP they had yet to see a voting machine.
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Egypt Kills 40 Suspected Militants After Giza Bombing

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Egyptian security forces have killed 40 suspected militants in three separate raids in North Sinai and Giza, the ministry of interior said Saturday, a day after a deadly bombing on a Vietnamese tourist bus in Giza killed four people.

The ministry did not say whether the suspected militants were connected to Friday’s attack, but said its forces killed 30 people during raids on their hideouts in Giza where it said “terrorist elements” were planning a series of attacks targeting state institutions and the tourism industry.

Security forces also killed 10 suspected militants in North Sinai, where the country is fighting an insurgency led by Islamic State.

State news agency MENA said that the suspects were killed in a gun battle.

The ministry did not give any details about the suspects’ identity or whether there had been any casualties or injuries among the security forces. The statement said the three raids took place simultaneously.

The ministry published photos of bloodied bodies with their faces concealed and assault rifles and shotguns lying on the floor beside them.

Three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian guide were killed and at least 10 others injured when a roadside bomb blast hit their tour bus Friday less than 4 km (2.5 miles) from Egypt’s world-famous Giza pyramids.

Egypt’s military and police launched a major campaign against militant groups in February, targeting the Sinai Peninsula as well as southern areas and the border with Libya.

The government says fighting Islamist militants is a priority as it works to restore stability after the years of turmoil that followed the “Arab Spring” protests of 2011.
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Your Next Pair of Shoes Could Be Made From a Fruit

Posted on by SeeUS

Pineapples aren’t just a delicious fruit, they could be part of your next pair of shoes or piece of clothing. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports.
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Shutdown to Shutter Museums, Some Parks

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Museums and galleries popular with visitors and locals in the nation’s capital will close starting midweek if the partial shutdown of the federal government drags on.

So will the National Zoo and a lively ice rink near the National Mall.

The attractions have stayed open by using unspent funds, but they are about to run out of that money.

​Museums, galleries, some parks

Museums and galleries under the Smithsonian Institution umbrella will close starting Jan. 2, the Smithsonian said on its website.

That includes the zoo, as well as the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of Natural History, and several galleries, including the National Portrait Gallery, with its paintings of former presidents.

Smithsonian facilities are open Jan. 1.

The National Gallery of Art will close starting Jan. 3, a spokeswoman said. That includes the iconic West and East buildings as well as an ice rink in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden that is a favorite with families.

National Gallery of Art facilities are usually closed New Year’s Day.

The shutdown also is affecting national parks, although unevenly. Some remain accessible with bare-bones staffing levels, some are operating with money from states or charitable groups and others are locked off.

No deal in sight

With no resolution in sight, the shutdown is forcing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and contractors to stay home or work without pay. Agencies scrambled to provide essential services.

The Environmental Protection Agency will keep disaster-response teams and other essential workers on the job as it becomes the latest agency to start furloughing employees in the government shutdown. Spokeswoman Molly Block says the EPA will implement its shutdown plan at midnight Friday. That will mean furloughing many of its roughly 14,000 workers.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., applauded a decision by the administration to reverse new guidance issued by the Department of Homeland Security that prevented the Federal Emergency Management Agency from writing or renewing National Flood Insurance Program policies during the current government shutdown. He said it was important that people could continue to get and maintain their flood insurance.
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Homeland Secretary Visits Border After 2nd Child’s Death

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Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Friday visited the Texas border city where an 8-year-old Guatemalan boy was detained with his father before dying in government custody.

DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman said earlier in the week that Nielsen was scheduled to tour multiple stations and substations, and was also scheduled to meet with emergency medical technicians and medical professionals, as well as local officials. 

Nielsen then was scheduled to go to Yuma, Arizona, Saturday.

DHS did not immediately release more details on the trip or whom Nielsen met, saying it was closed to the press. Late Friday, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo confirmed he was among those who met with Nielsen, saying they discussed “our immigration needs on the border.” The statement from Margo, a Republican, did not mention the boy’s death or whether it was discussed.

The trip came four days after the death of 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo. Felipe was the second Guatemalan child to die in government custody in three weeks.

Senators want answers

Nielsen has called the death “deeply concerning and heartbreaking” and requested medical help from other government agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard. As Nielsen made the trip to Texas, New Mexico’s Democratic senators, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, sent her a letter Friday seeking answers about the boy’s death.

“The timeline, action and factors that led to Felipe’s death are still developing, but the information that has become public so far is alarming and demands immediate attention and investigation,” the letter says.

Felipe and his father, Agustin Gomez, were apprehended by border agents Dec. 18 near the Paso del Norte bridge connecting El Paso to Juarez, Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The two were detained at the bridge’s processing center and then the Border Patrol station in El Paso, until being taken about 1 a.m. Sunday to a facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) away.

Cause of death under investigation

After an agent noticed Felipe coughing, father and son were taken to an Alamogordo hospital, where Felipe was diagnosed with a common cold and found to have a fever of 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius), CBP has said.

Felipe was held for observation for 90 minutes, according to CBP, before being released with prescriptions for amoxicillin and ibuprofen.

But the boy fell sick hours later on Monday and was re-admitted to the hospital. He died just before midnight.

New Mexico authorities said late Thursday that an autopsy shows Felipe had the flu, but more tests need to be done before a cause of death can be determined.
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German Regulators Approve Tunnel Linking Germany and Denmark

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Regulators in Germany have approved a plan for an $8 billion underwater tunnel connecting Denmark and Germany.

Officials in Germany’s northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein approved the plan Friday, which calls for 19 kilometers of rail and road tunnel, linking the Danish island of Lolland to the German island of Fehmarn.

The project, to be built by Denmark’s state-owned Femern A/S, includes a four-lane motorway and a two-track railway. It was partly funded by the European Union.

Femern A/S now has 14 days to review the approval from the Schleswig-Holstein state transport ministry before it is signed.

The company’s project director, Claus Dynesen, said in a statement that environmental conditions, which have delayed the process since the project’s launch five years ago, have been met.

The application to build the tunnel was first submitted in 2013 and has been through two rounds of public consultation in Germany.

Most of the construction work will take place at a factory in the Danish city of Rodbyhavn. The project is expected to be completed by 2024.

The train and road link will provide a fast corridor between Copenhagen and Hamburg. It is expected to cut the train journey between the two cities from the current time of just less than five hours to a little more than two hours.
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Eritrea Shuts Border Crossing to Ethiopians, Official, Residents Say 

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Eritrea has blocked entry for Ethiopians at one of the border crossings that opened this year after the neighbors ended a long military standoff and restored relations, an Ethiopian official and people who live near the crossing said on Friday. 

Liya Kassa, spokeswoman for the regional administration in the Tigray region that borders Eritrea, said Ethiopian citizens and Ethiopia-licensed vehicles traveling to Eritrea from the Ethiopian town of Rama were asked for “permits” on Wednesday. 

Those using a crossing in Zalambessa were asked the same on Thursday, she said. 

“The restrictions have only been imposed on the Eritrean side,” she said. “We did not receive any prior notice.” 

It was not clear why Ethiopians were being prevented from entering at the Zalambessa crossing, which was shut on Thursday morning and remained closed on Friday, said Solomon Desta, a minibus driver on the Ethiopian side, speaking by phone. 

The crossing opened in September, after the countries agreed to remove their troops as part of a reconciliation process. 

Thousands of people have crossed since. Trade has flourished and families separated since war broke out between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 1998 have reunited. 

A spokesman for Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry told reporters on Thursday that he had no information about any border restrictions. Eritrea’s information minister, Yemane Ghebremeskel, did not respond to phone calls on Friday. 

Tsegaye Kassaye, a tire fixer on the Ethiopian side of the frontier, said by phone that Eritreans were being permitted to enter Eritrea, and Ethiopians were being allowed to leave. 
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Nigeria Ruling Party Launches President Buhari’s Re-election Campaign

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Nigeria’s ruling party held a rally to mark the launch of President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid on Friday in the southern city of Uyo, hours after naming a campaign team which includes Africa’s richest man.

A presidential election is scheduled to take place on Feb. 16 to determine who will lead Africa’s biggest crude oil producer and the continent’s most populous country.

At the launch of the campaign, Buhari told an audience in the southern city — capital of Akwa Ibom state — that his government was winning the fight against Islamists who have stepped up attacks in the northeast aimed at creating a state adhering to a strict interpretation of Sharia law.

Security an issue

Buhari addressed his audience in the wake of an attack by militants in the town of Baga, in eastern Borno state — the latest in a string of strikes in the last few months by militants allied with Islamic State that has turned security into a campaign issue in the run-up to the poll.

“Many local governments were held by the Boko Haram insurgents when we assumed office but none, presently, is physically controlled by the group,” said Buhari.

“We are going to secure this country, we are going to manage it properly. We will continue to improve the situation, security, economy and fighting corruption,” said Buhari, a 76-year-old former military ruler who took office in 2015.

Southern states

Buhari, a Muslim from the predominantly Muslim north, typically has not had support from voters in the largely Christian southern states.

Earlier, Buhari’s ruling party — the All Progressives Congress (APC) — named members of the “presidential campaign council,” members of Buhari’s core re-election team.

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man who primarily made his money through a cement business, was named as a member of Buhari’s special advisory committee. Billionaire oil magnate Femi Otedola was also named as a member of the committee.
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UK Honors Cave Rescue Divers, Twiggy, Monty Python’s Palin

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British divers who rescued young soccer players trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand are among those being recognized in Britain’s New Year’s Honors List, along with 1960s model Twiggy and Monty Python star Michael Palin.

Twiggy, a model who shot to stardom during the Beatles era, will become a Dame — the female equivalent of a knight — while Palin, whose second career has seen him become an acclaimed travel documentary maker, receives a knighthood.

Jim Carter, who played the acerbic Mr. Carson in “Downton Abbey,” was also recognized, as was filmmaker Christopher Nolan, director of “Inception” and “Dunkirk,” and best-selling author Philip Pullman, creator of the Dark Materials trilogy.

The list released Friday also named 43 people who responded quickly to the extremist attacks in Manchester and London in 2017.

The honors process starts with nominations from the public, which are winnowed down by committees and sent to the prime minister before the various honors are bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II or senior royals next year.

The 92-year-old monarch has increasingly called on her children and grandchildren to hand out the coveted awards.

Divers

Divers Joshua Bratchley, Lance Corporal Connor Roe and Vernon Unsworth will be made Members of the Order of the British Empire for their roles in the risky Thai cave rescue last summer.

Four other British cave divers will receive civilian gallantry awards for their roles in the thrilling rescue of 12 boys and their coach, who were trapped in the cave for more than two weeks.

Richard Stanton and John Volanthen, the first to reach the stranded children and their coach, have been awarded the George Medal, while Christopher Jewell and Jason Mallinson received the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.

Twiggy​

Twiggy, whose modeling career lasted for decades, burst on the London Mod scene as one of the original “It” girls. She earned worldwide fame by 17 and went on to a career in theater and films.

“It’s wonderful, but it makes me giggle,” said Twiggy, 69, whose real name is Lesley Lawson. “The hardest thing has been keeping it a secret.”

Michael Palin

Palin’s knighthood recognizes his contribution to travel, culture and geography. He said the news had not sunk in yet but noted “I have been a knight before, in Python films. I have been several knights, including Sir Galahad.”

“I don’t think it will (sink in) until I see the envelopes addressing me as Sir Michael Palin,” said the 75-year-old. 

 
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Italy’s Foreign Minister to Visit Washington

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Italy’s foreign minister, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, will be visiting Washington from Jan. 3-4, meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department and with national security adviser John Bolton at the White House

Italy’s foreign minister, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, will be visiting Washington in early January, meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department and with national security adviser John Bolton at the White House. 

Italy’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that topics for the Jan. 3-4 meetings include global security, the migrant situation in the Mediterranean Sea, efforts to stabilize Libya, peace efforts in the Middle East, economic and social growth in Africa and trans-Atlantic political, economic and commercial ties. 

The ministry said “Italy intends to further intensity its relations with the United States,” which have been enhanced by nearly two centuries of an Italian-American community “that enlivens American life with its cultural, entrepreneurial and political dynamism.”
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Transformer Explosion Bathes New York Skyline in Blaze of Blue

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A transformer explosion at an electrical facility illuminated the New York City skyline in a blaze of blue light Thursday night. 

The explosion caused scattered power outages, delayed flights and impacted city subways.

“There was a boom and a bang and a flash of light,” Jim Long, a spokesman for the Fire Department of New York, said in his appraisal of the event. 

Some New York City residents wondered on social media if their town had been invaded by aliens or whether it was the end of time. 

It did not take long for Con Edison, the local electric utility company, to clarify. 

Con Edison tweeted:”There was a brief electrical fire at our substation in Astoria, (in the borough of Queens) which involved some electrical transformers and caused a transmission (power) dip in the area.”

La Guardia Airport experienced a brief blackout, causing flight cancellations and delays, but it was back to full capacity by midnight. 

The cause of the explosion is under investigation. 
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Migrant Ship Docks In Spain, After Other Countries Refused Entry

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A ship carrying mainly African migrants docked in Spain Friday morning, after being refused entry by several European countries, including Malta and Italy. 

The Open Arms vessel rescued the migrants off the coast of Libya on December 21. 

The ship is operated by Proactiva Open Arms, a Spanish charity, 

The 310 migrants walked off the ship Friday draped in red blankets on their way to medical examinations from the Red Cross. 

Other NGOs set up their bases in white tents along the dock. 

Earlier in the migrants’ sojourn, one sick child was accepted at the Italian island of Lampedusa. 

On Saturday, a mother and her new-born child were taken by helicopter to Malta for medical care. 
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Social Worker Left Surprise $11M to Children’s Charities

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Alan Naiman was known for an unabashed thriftiness that veered into comical, but even those closest to him had no inkling of the fortune that he quietly amassed and the last act that he had long planned.

The Washington state social worker died of cancer this year at age 63, leaving most of a surprising $11 million estate to children’s charities that help the poor, sick, disabled and abandoned. The amount baffled the beneficiaries and his best friends, who are lauding Naiman as the anniversary of his death approaches in January.

That’s because the Seattle man patched up his shoes with duct tape, sought deals at the grocery store deli at closing time and took his best friends out to lunch at fast-food joints.

Naiman, who died unmarried and childless, loved kids but also was intensely private, scrimping, investing and working extra jobs to stockpile money that he rarely spent on himself after seeing how unfair life could be for the most vulnerable children, his friends say.

They believe a lifelong devotion to his older brother who had a developmental disability influenced Naiman, though he rarely spoke of it. The brother died in 2013, the same year Naiman splurged on a sports car – a modestly priced Scion FR-S.

“Growing up as a kid with an older, disabled brother kind of colored the way he looked at things,” close friend Susan Madsen said.

A former banker, Naiman worked the past two decades at the state Department of Social and Health Services, handling after-hours calls. He earned $67,234 and also took on side gigs, sometimes working as many as three jobs. He saved and invested enough to make several millions of dollars and also inherited millions more from his parents, said Shashi Karan, a friend from his banking days.

Thrilled when he finally qualified for senior discounts, Naiman bought his clothes from the grocery store. He loved cars, but for the most of his life, drove beat-up vehicles and seemed to enjoy the solitude and savings of solo road trips, friends say.

After Naiman’s death, Karan realized how little he knew of the other aspects of his longtime friend’s life.

“I don’t know if he was lonely. I think he was a loner,” Karan said.

Many of the organizations benefiting from Naiman’s gifts said they didn’t know him, though they had crossed paths.

He left $2.5 million to the Pediatric Interim Care Center, a private organization in Washington state that cares for babies born to mothers who abused drugs and helps the children wean off their dependence. The group used some of what was its largest donation ever to pay off a mortgage and buy a new vehicle to transport the 200 babies it accepts from hospitals each year.

Naiman had called the center about a newborn while working for the state more than a decade ago, and its founder, Barbara Drennen, showed up in the middle of the night to get the baby.

“We would never dream that something like this would happen to us. I wish very much that I could have met him. I would have loved to have had him see the babies he’s protecting,” Drennen said.

Naiman gave $900,000 to the Treehouse foster care organization, telling them that he was a foster parent years ago and had brought kids in his care to the group’s popular warehouse, where wards of the state can chose toys and necessities for free.

Treehouse is using Naiman’s money to expand its college and career counseling statewide.

“The frugality that he lived through, that he committed to in his life, was for this,” said Jessica Ross, Treehouse’s chief development officer. “It’s really a gift to all of us to see that pure demonstration of philanthropy and love.”
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Syrian Government Forces Move Into Manbij

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Syrian authorities said in a statement Friday that government forces have entered key areas of the northeastern city of Manbij in Aleppo Governorate.

Syrian army said it “guarantees full security for all Syrian citizens and others present” in the city.

The Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the main Syrian Kurdish militia called on the government of President Bashar al-Assad Friday to take control of Manbij to protect it against the threat of Turkish attacks.

“So we invite the Syrian government which we belong to … to send its armed forces to take over these positions and protect Manbij in the face of Turkish threats,” the YPG said in a statement.

 

WATCH: US Withdrawal From Syria Prompts Calls for Arabs to Embrace Damascus

Russia immediately welcomed the return of Manbij to Syrian government control, calling it “a positive trend.”

The YPG appeal came after a surprise announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump of a full troop withdrawal from Syria.

The YPG has been supported by U.S., but Turkey regards it as a terrorist group and has vowed to crush it.
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US Withdrawal From Syria Prompts Calls for Arabs to Embrace Damascus

Posted on by SeeEA

The United Arab Emirates has reopened an embassy in Damascus after seven years of absence from Syria’s capital. But the prospects for peace remain elusive in the country ravaged by almost eight years of civil war and terrorism, and increasingly affected by interference from abroad. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports on the latest developments in the Syrian conflict.
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Trump Puts His Stamp on ‘America First’ Foreign Policy in 2018

Posted on by SeeUS

President Donald Trump fleshed out his “America First” political doctrine in 2018 with policies aimed at shaking up institutions of the post-World War II world order. VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine takes a look on how U.S. foreign policy is shifting under Trump.
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Ugandan Slum Children Find Hope in Chess

Posted on by SeeAF

In the Ugandan capital, one man is using the game of kings to help children of the slums. Robert Katende founded the Som Chess Academy in an effort to keep kids off the streets and teach them the thinking skills to help them get ahead in life. The academy has produced several international competitors and taught hundreds of kids how to play chess. Halima Athumani reports from Kampala.
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UNICEF: Children in Conflict Face Grave Rights Violations

Posted on by SeeEU

Violence and insecurity have forced more than 28 million children from their homes in 2018, UNICEF said in a news release Thursday.

The U.N. children’s fund said it had responded to more than 300 emergencies to help children caught in many of the 40 armed conflicts raging around the world. 

UNICEF said children had been tortured, raped, used as human shields or suicide bombers, recruited as child soldiers and subjected to a myriad of other atrocities by armed groups. 

While fighting has killed and maimed tens of thousands of children, UNICEF said many more had died from the indirect consequences of conflict, rather than the war itself. For instance, it noted, a child dies of preventable diseases every 10 minutes in Yemen, site of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. 

 

Caryl Stern, president and chief executive officer of UNICEF USA, told VOA that food insecurity had caused the rate of severe acute malnutrition to rise, with one in four children around the world being malnourished.

“For example, the Central African Republic, there has been such a dramatic resurgence in the fighting there … so two out of three kids are in need of humanitarian assistance in CAR right now,” Stern said. “And 43,000 children below age 5, they are projected to face an extremely elevated risk of death due to severe acute malnutrition.”

UNICEF said escalating fighting and attacks on schools and teachers in Cameroon and in the border regions of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger had deprived millions of children of an education. Similarly, it said, conflict in the Lake Chad Basin is putting the education of 3.5 million children at risk.

Sexual violence

Stern said sexual violence against women and girls was being used as a weapon of war in many conflicts.

“In northeast Nigeria, where you have armed groups, including the Boko Haram, they continue to target girls,” Stern said. “This is including rape. They are forced to become wives of fighters. They are used as human bombs. I mean, what is really going on there is just horrific.”

Stern said children had been abused in all countries and regions of conflict — in Afghanistan, in Myanmar, in Iraq, in Syria, eastern Ukraine and Central America. She said children were being victimized by political leaders who use them as pawns to push a political agenda.

“The border of our own country, the various different things that are happening around the world — Bangladesh and Myanmar. We have to separate the issue of politics from the issues that surround children,” she said.

Stern said children are not migrants. They are not refugees. They are not Somalia’s children or Yemen’s children or Syria’s children or Rohingya children. She said they are children first and foremost, and that there’s nothing political about saving the life of a child.
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US to Boost Weapons Research in Response to Russia

Posted on by SeeEU

The United States will step up research in hypersonic offense and defense weapons, in response to a Russian test of a nuclear-capable hypersonic glider. 

“While the United States has been the world leader in hypersonic system research for many decades, we did not choose to weaponize it,” Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza told VOA. “Those who have decided to weaponize hypersonics are creating a war-fighting asymmetry that we must address.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who oversaw the test Wednesday, said the weapon is impossible to intercept and will ensure Russia’s security for decades to come.

He called it an “excellent New Year’s gift to the nation.”

The weapon, dubbed Avangard, detaches itself from a rocket after being launched and glides back to earth at speeds faster than the speed of sound. 

“The Avangard is invulnerable to intercept by any existing and prospective missile defense means of the potential adversary,” Putin said after the test. 

He said the weapon will become part of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces next year.

The Pentagon has been aware of Russian weapons advances for some time. In March, Putin bragged about having an array of new strategic nuclear weapons that can hit a target anywhere in the world. At the time, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Putin had only “confirmed what the United States government has known all along.” 

Baldanza said the U.S. will now increase focus on hypersonic weapons. “We are pursuing options for weapons delivered from land, sea and air to hold at risk high value, heavily defended and time critical targets at relevant ranges so that we can ensure our ability to dominate the battlefield by 2028.”

The test comes at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington over the allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, conflict in Ukraine, and the war in Syria.

National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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10 Burkina Faso Police Officers Killed in Ambush

Posted on by SeeAF

Ten police officers were killed and three wounded in an ambush Thursday in northwestern Burkina Faso, the west African country’s security ministry said.

“The toll is 10 officers who have lost their lives and three wounded,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that a police convoy from the Toeni region and reinforcements from the Dedougou area had been ambushed.

The officers were attacked while heading to the village of Loroni, near the border with Mali, after a school there had been attacked and textbooks torched by armed assailants, a security source told AFP.

The wounded, including two in serious condition, were taken to a hospital in Dedougou, the source added.

Burkina Faso has been increasingly hit by deadly attacks over the last three years.

They began in the north of the country but have since spread to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.

On Wednesday, a police officer died during an attack on his station in the northern town of Solan.

Most attacks are attributed to the jihadist group Ansarul Islam, which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016, and to the JNIM (the Group to Support Islam and Muslims), which has sworn allegiance to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

Those groups are believed to be responsible for more than 255 deaths since 2015.

The capital Ouagadougou has been hit three times and almost 60 people have died there.
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Iraqi Lawmakers Demand US Withdrawal After Trump Visit

Posted on by SeeEA

Iraqi lawmakers Thursday demanded U.S. forces leave the country following a surprise visit by President Donald Trump that politicians denounced as arrogant and a violation of national sovereignty.

Trump’s trip to U.S. servicemen and women at al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq on Wednesday was unannounced and the subject of extreme security, which is routine for presidential visits to conflict regions. But it came at a time when containing foreign influence has become a hot-button issue in Iraqi politics, and it provoked vociferous backlash. 

Iraqi lawmakers were smarting after the U.S. president left three hours after he arrived without meeting any officials, drawing unfavorable comparisons to the occupation of Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

“Trump needs to know his limits. The American occupation of Iraq is over,” said Sabah al-Saidi, the head of one of two main blocs in Iraq’s parliament.

Trump, al-Saidi added, had slipped into Iraq, “as though Iraq is a state of the United States.”

While Trump didn’t meet with any officials, he spoke with Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi by phone after a “difference in points of view” over arrangements led to a face-to-face meeting between the two leaders to be scrapped, according to the prime minister’s office.

The visit could have unintended consequences for American policy, with officials from both sides of Iraq’s political divide calling for a vote in Parliament to expel U.S. forces from the country.

The president, who kept to the U.S. air base approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Baghdad, said he had no plans to withdraw the 5,200 troops in the country. He said Ain al-Asad could be used for U.S. air strikes inside Syria following his announcement last week to withdraw U.S. troops from there.

Avoiding regional conflicts

The suggestion ran counter to the current sentiment of Iraqi politics, which favors claiming sovereignty over foreign and domestic policy and staying above the fray in regional conflicts.

“Iraq should not be a platform for the Americans to settle their accounts with either the Russians or the Iranians in the region,” said Hakim al-Zamili, a senior lawmaker in al-Saidi’s Islah bloc in Parliament.

U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq as part of the coalition against the Islamic State group. American forces withdrew in 2011 after invading in 2003 but returned in 2014 at the invitation of the Iraqi government to help fight the jihadist group. Trump’s visit was the first by a U.S. president since Barack Obama met with then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at a U.S. base outside Baghdad in 2009.

Still, after defeating IS militants in their last urban bastions last year, Iraqi politicians and militia leaders are speaking out against the continued presence of U.S. forces on Iraqi soil.

U.S. an important election issue

Supporters of the populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr won big in national elections in May, campaigning on a platform of curbing both U.S. and rival Iranian involvement in Iraqi affairs. Al-Sadr’s lawmakers now form the core of the Islah bloc, which is headed by al-Saidi in Parliament.

The rival Binaa bloc, commanded by politicians and militia leaders close to Iran, also does not favor the U.S.

Qais Khazali, the head of the Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia that fought key battles against IS in north Iraq, promised on Twitter that Parliament would vote to expel U.S. forces from Iraq, or the militias would force them out by “other means.”

Khazali was jailed by British and U.S. forces from 2007 to 2010 for managing sections of the Shia insurgency against the occupation during those years.

Trump’s visit would be a “great moral boost to the political parties, armed factions, and others who oppose the American presence in Iraq,” Iraqi political analyst Ziad al-Arar said. 

Still, the U.S. and Iraq developed considerable military and intelligence ties in the war against IS, and they continue to pay dividends in operations against militants gone into hiding.

Earlier in the month, Iraqi forces called in an airstrike by U.S.-coalition forces to destroy a tunnel used by IS militants in the Atshanah mountains in north Iraq. Four militants were killed, according to the coalition. 

Hasty departure a mistake?

 A hasty departure of U.S. forces would jeopardize such arrangements, said Iraqi analyst Hamza Mustafa.

And relations between the U.S. and Iraq extend beyond military ties. U.S. companies have considerable interests in Iraq’s petrochemical industry, and American diplomats are often brokers between Iraq’s fractious political elite.

Iraq’s Sunni politicians have been largely quiet about the presidential visit, reflecting the ties they have cultivated with the U.S. to counterbalance the might of the country’s Iran-backed and predominantly-Shiite militias.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Abdul-Mahdi accepted Trump’s invitation to the White House during their call, though the Prime Minister’s office has so far refused to confirm that.
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Defying Pundits, GOP Share of Latino Vote Steady Under Trump

Posted on by SeeUS

Pedro Gonzalez has faith in Donald Trump and his party.

The 55-year-old Colombian immigrant is a pastor at an evangelical church in suburban Denver. Initially repelled by Trump in 2016, he’s been heartened by the president’s steps to protect religious groups and appoint judges who oppose abortion rights. More important, Gonzalez sees Trump’s presidency as part of a divine plan.

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Gonzalez said of the president. “He was put there.”

Though Latino voters are a key part of the Democratic coalition, there is a larger bloc of reliable Republican Latinos than many think. And the GOP’s position among Latinos has not weakened during the Trump administration, despite the president’s rhetoric against immigrants and the party’s shift to the right on immigration.

In November’s elections, 32 percent of Latinos voted for Republicans, according to AP VoteCast data. The survey of more than 115,000 midterm voters — including 7,738 Latino voters — was conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.

Other surveys also found roughly one-third of Latinos supporting the GOP. Data from the Pew Research Center and from exit polls suggests that a comparable share of about 3 in 10 Latino voters supported Trump in 2016. That tracks the share of Latinos supporting Republicans for the last decade.

The stability of Republicans’ share of the Latino vote frustrates Democrats, who say actions like Trump’s family separation policy and his demonization of an immigrant caravan should drive Latinos out of the GOP.

“The question is not are Democrats winning the Hispanic vote — it’s why aren’t Democrats winning the Hispanic vote 80-20 or 90-10 the way black voters are?” said Fernand Amandi, a Miami-based Democratic pollster. He argues Democrats must invest more in winning Latino voters.

The VoteCast data shows that, like white voters, Latinos are split by gender — 61 percent of men voted Democratic in November, while 69 percent of women did. And while Republican-leaning Latinos can be found everywhere in the country, two groups stand out as especially likely to back the GOP — evangelicals and veterans.

Evangelicals comprised about one-quarter of Latino voters, and veterans were 13 percent. Both groups were about evenly split between the two parties. Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist in California, said those groups have reliably provided the GOP with many Latino votes for years.

“They stick and they do not go away,” Madrid said. Much as with Trump’s own core white voters, attacks on the president and other Republicans for being anti-immigrant “just make them dig in even more,” he added.

Sacramento-based Rev. Sam Rodriguez, one of Trump’s spiritual advisers, said evangelical Latinos have a clear reason to vote Republican. “Why do 30 percent of Latinos still support Trump? Because of the Democratic Party’s obsession with abortion,” Rodriguez said. “It’s life and religious liberty and everything else follows.”

Some conservative Latinos say their political leanings make them feel more like a minority than their ethnicity does. Irina Vilariño, 43, a Miami restauranteur and Cuban immigrant, said she had presidential bumper stickers for Sen. John McCain, Mitt Romney and Trump scratched off her car. She said she never suffered from discrimination growing up in a predominantly white south Florida community, “but I remember during the McCain campaign being discriminated against because I supported him.”

The 2018 election was good to Democrats, but Florida disappointed them. They couldn’t convince enough of the state’s often right-leaning Cuban-American voters to support Sen. Bill Nelson, who was ousted by the GOP’s Spanish-speaking Gov. Rick Scott, or rally them behind Democrats’ gubernatorial candidate, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who lost to Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis.

Still, in the rest of the country, there were signs that pleased Democrats. Latinos voted at high rates in an election that saw record-setting turnout among all demographic groups. Latinos normally have among the worst midterm turnout rates, and while official data won’t be available for months, a number of formerly-Republican congressional districts in California and New Mexico flipped Democratic.

That’s why Republicans shouldn’t take solace from being able to consistently win about one-third of Latinos, said Madrid. They’re still losing two-thirds of an electorate that’s being goaded into the voting booth by Trump.

“That is contributing to the death spiral of the Republican Party — even if it holds at 30 percent,” Madrid said. “That’s a route to death, it’s just a slower one.”

Gonzalez, the pastor, sees the trend in Colorado. He distributed literature across Spanish-speaking congregations supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton, who was crushed by Democratic Rep. Jared Polis as the GOP lost every race for statewide office.

Gonzalez understands the anger among some Latinos at the GOP and Trump for what he says is a false impression of a solely hardline immigration stance. “In the community that is not informed, that is following the rhetoric of the media, there’s a view that Donald Trump is a bad guy,” Gonzalez said. Evangelicals “understand that he’s there to defend values.”

Gonzalez’s church is Iglesia Embajada del Reino, or Church of the Kingdom’s Embassy. On a recent Saturday night, an eight-piece band played Spanish-language Christian rock before Gonzalez walked to the podium. Wearing a blue corduroy blazer, blue shirt and grey slacks, Gonzalez, a onetime member of a Marxist group in Colombia, told his congregants that they were ambassadors of a higher power — the kingdom of God.

“It’s important that your political opinions, your social opinions,” not enter into it, Gonzalez said. “We need to represent the position of The Kingdom.”

Gonzalez did not mention Trump in his sermon, though he spoke about the Bible as a book of governance.

Afterward the congregation gathered for bowls of posole, a traditional Mexican soup. When politics came up, church-goers struggled to balance their enthusiasm for some of Trump’s judicial appointments with their distaste at his rhetoric and actions.

“I think the president has good, Christian principles,” said Jose Larios, a parks worker. “But we feel as Latinos that he doesn’t embrace our community, and our community is good and hard-working.”

Oscar Murillo, a 37-year-old horse trainer, is not a fan of Trump’s. But he tries to stay open-minded about Republicans. He voted for the GOP candidate for state attorney general, who visited the congregation before the election. “He’s in the same party as Trump, but he seems different,” Murillo said.
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