A New York Times report says President Donald Trump told aides on several occasions last year that he wanted to withdraw the United States from NATO, which has been in place since 1949. While President Trump has gone back and forth on in the issue in public, foreign policy experts say the move would weaken the alliance and embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long criticized NATO. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from Washington.
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Month: January 2019
Foreign Policy Experts Fear Trump Might Pull the US Out of NATO
A New York Times report says President Donald Trump told aides on several occasions last year that he wanted to withdraw the United States from NATO, which has been in place since 1949. While President Trump has gone back and forth on in the issue in public, foreign policy experts say the move would weaken the alliance and embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long criticized NATO. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from Washington.
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Nominee for US Attorney General Vows to Protect Russia Probe
William Barr, who was nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump to be the next attorney general says Russia is a “potent rival of our country,” but not as dangerous as China. Barr was questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday at the first of his confirmation hearings. He said Russia is less powerful than it was during the Cold War, but its president, Vladimir Putin, is working to increase Moscow’s influence in the world. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.
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Nominee for US Attorney General Vows to Protect Russia Probe
William Barr, who was nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump to be the next attorney general says Russia is a “potent rival of our country,” but not as dangerous as China. Barr was questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday at the first of his confirmation hearings. He said Russia is less powerful than it was during the Cold War, but its president, Vladimir Putin, is working to increase Moscow’s influence in the world. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.
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British PM Suffers Historic Defeat As Brexit Crisis Deepens
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May faces a confidence vote Wednesday after suffering a historic defeat in parliament Tuesday when British lawmakers resoundingly rejected the deal she struck with Brussels for leaving the European Union later this year. Many in her own party voted against the deal but Prime Minister May is vowing to carry on. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Europe has warned the risks of Britain crashing out with no deal have increased.
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British PM Suffers Historic Defeat As Brexit Crisis Deepens
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May faces a confidence vote Wednesday after suffering a historic defeat in parliament Tuesday when British lawmakers resoundingly rejected the deal she struck with Brussels for leaving the European Union later this year. Many in her own party voted against the deal but Prime Minister May is vowing to carry on. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Europe has warned the risks of Britain crashing out with no deal have increased.
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UN to Approve Yemen Truce Monitors on Wednesday, Diplomats Say
The United Nations Security Council is due to vote Wednesday to approve the deployment of up to 75 observers to Yemen’s port city of Hodeida for six months to monitor a cease-fire and redeployment of forces by the warring parties, diplomats said.
After a week of U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Sweden last month, the Iranian-aligned Houthi group and Saudi-backed Yemen government foes reached the deal on Hodeida, the entry point for most of Yemen’s commercial goods and aid supplies, and a lifeline for millions of Yemenis on the verge of starvation.
The 15-member Security Council last month authorized an advance monitoring team led by retired Dutch General Patrick Cammaert and asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to recommend a larger operation.
The council will vote Wednesday on a British-drafted resolution that asks Guterres to “expeditiously” deploy his recommended larger operation, which will be known as the United Nations Mission to support the Hodeida Agreement (UNMHA).
The draft resolution also “requests Member States, particularly neighboring States, to support the United Nations as required for the implementation of UNMHA’s mandate.”
A military coalition led by neighboring Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in 2015 to back government forces. The U.N. and Western countries have criticized the coalition for killing a large number of civilians, including children.
The Gulf states accuse Iran of supplying arms to the Houthis, a charge Tehran and the group deny.
A Security Council resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Britain, the United States, Russia, France or China to pass. Diplomats said the Yemen draft is expected to be adopted.
In his Dec. 31 proposal to the council, seen by Reuters, Guterres described the proposed 75-strong team as “a nimble presence” to monitor compliance of the deal and establish and assess facts and conditions on the ground.
“Appropriate resources and assets will also be required to ensure the safety and security of U.N. personnel, including armored vehicles, communications infrastructure, aircraft and appropriate medical support,” Guterres wrote.
“Such resources will be a prerequisite for the effective launch and sustainment of the proposed mission,” he said.
Guterres said the larger monitoring mission would contribute to sustaining a “fragile political process” relaunched by U.N. Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths. Griffiths is aiming to convene another round of talks between the warring parties this month.
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Palestinians Take Over as Chair of UN Developing Countries
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took over as head of the key group of developing countries at the United Nations Tuesday with a promise to confront “assaults” on multilateralism and a pledge to seek a peaceful two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Abbas accepted the chairmanship of the Group of 77, a coalition of 134 mainly developing nations and China, on behalf of Palestine, which is a non-member observer state of the United Nations. He was handed the gavel by Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the outgoing chairman, with a handshake and kisses on both cheeks.
Before the ceremony, Abbas reiterated to reporters in Arabic that the Palestinians will seek full U.N. membership but gave no timetable.
The 193-member General Assembly had to approve a resolution enabling the Palestinians to chair the G77 because Palestine is a non-member state. It did so in October over objections from Israel and its closest ally, the United States.
During the annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly in September, ministers of the G77 formalized their decision to give Palestinians the chair, in a boost to Abbas’ push for statehood and full U.N. membership.
In his acceptance speech, Abbas said the G77 will strive to ensure the rights and development of all people living under foreign and colonial occupation.
“Palestine cannot be an exception,” he said. “We also suffer under the yoke of foreign occupation.”
Abbas said “Israel’s continued colonization and occupation of the state of Palestine undermines our development … and obstructs cohesive future development for all peoples of the region.”
When the G77 was established in 1964, Abbas said its founding principles were connected with the principles and goals of the United Nations “and constitute the strongest pillar for upholding the multilateral system and its institutions as well as the rule of international law and mutual cooperation.”
He warned “of the assaults under way against this system” and said the Palestinians will strive during their chairmanship of the G77 “to confront such challenges through the preservation of the multilateral international order.”
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UN Appeals for Nearly $300M for Burundi Refugees
The U.N. refugee agency and 35 partners report $296 million is needed this year to provide life-saving assistance to 345,000 Burundian refugees living in desperate conditions in neighboring Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.
UNHCR reports thousands of Burundians are going hungry because food rations have been cut for lack of money. It says the health of many people is on a knife’s edge because medicine is in short supply. It says schools are overcrowded, with many children missing out on an education. It says shelter is inadequate.
The UNHCR says Burundian refugees are in dire straits because the world pays scant attention to their plight and responds poorly to appeals for aid. Agency spokesman, Charlie Yaxley, said children, who make up more than half of the refugee population, bear the brunt of this serious under-funding.
He said many children have become separated from their families while fleeing from Burundi. He said many are traumatized from the violence they have witnessed. He said there is little money to provide them with the psychological and social care they need.
“Women and girls are suffering high levels of sexual and gender-based violence and exploitation … Last year, food cuts were implemented in Tanzania, DRC and Rwanda. Families have been regularly left without enough food to last until the end of the month. And this has seen women and girls resorting to negative coping mechanisms, including survival sex, and forced and early marriage,” Yaxley said.
Conditions in the camps are so bad, Yaxley said, a number of refugees are opting to go home. He told VOA about 57,000 Burundians have returned since the middle of 2017. He said some report the security situation overall has improved. Nevertheless, he said an average of 300 Burundians a month continue to flee the country.
“They cite persecution, harassment and fear of attack as their reasons for fleeing. There also are reports from those fleeing of food insecurity as well. So, we do urge States to first of all continue providing asylum and open borders to those seeking international protection,” Yaxley said.
The UNHCR said it does not believe conditions in Burundi are currently conducive to promote returns. It added that nobody now should be returned to Burundi without his or her “full and informed consent.”
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For Uber, Lyft, Others, Government Shutdown Slows IPOs
The partial government shutdown is slowing plans by some companies to issue stock to the public and potentially cutting off a key source of capital for the financial markets.
The shutdown, now in its fourth week, has all but darkened the Securities and Exchange Commission, the government agency that oversees the markets. Most of the SEC’s 4,400-person staff is furloughed, including lawyers and other staffers who must approve corporate paperwork for initial public offerings. This process typically takes two to three months.
Companies that have been moving toward issuing initial public offerings of stock in the coming months include such high-profile names as the ride hailing firms Uber and Lyft and the image-sharing platform Pinterest. Among the others are biotech and health sciences companies that depend on funding from the public markets that finance IPOs.
Billions of dollars are at stake for the companies as well as millions in fees for the Wall Street firms that facilitate the deals.
Brian Lane, a securities lawyer at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher who led the SEC’s corporation finance division in the late 1990s, said some IPOs planned for spring could be delayed until fall if the shutdown persists. For larger companies with ample cash reserves, the problem is manageable, Lane said. But smaller companies that lack deep sources of funding from the private credit markets or from venture capitalists could be hurt.
James Cox, a professor of securities law at Duke University, suggested that some IPOs eyed for the spring could end up being delayed as long as into 2020.
More than 800,000 federal employees, over half of them still on the job, missed their first paycheck Friday as the closure became the longest government shutdown of any kind in U.S. history. President Donald Trump has rejected suggestions that he agree to temporarily reopen the government while negotiating with Democrats on the wall along the Mexican border that he has demanded.
Here’s a closer look at how the shutdown is hampering the SEC’s work:
Agency staffing
Only a small SEC staff deemed essential is in place to monitor the markets and, in the agency’s words, “respond to emergency situations” involving market integrity and investor protection, including law enforcement. The SEC’s online financial reporting service for companies, known as Edgar and widely used by investors, continues to operate normally.
About 285 agency employees are still working, including around 110 in law enforcement, according to the SEC’s shutdown plan.
“Our staff continues to monitor the asset management space, track market activity, and watch for systems issues or other events that could disrupt the fair and orderly operation of the securities markets,” the SEC said in a statement.
Before the shutdown took effect late last month, the SEC had urged companies to request that paperwork for public stock offerings already in the pipeline be expedited. The agency said it approved roughly a dozen such registration statements.
Smaller companies hurt?
For the largest companies that were planning public stock offerings, “it’s not the end of the world,” said Alan Denenberg, a corporate lawyer who heads David Polk’s office in tech-centric Northern California. Companies with deep pockets, like Uber, Lyft and Pinterest, can ride out the delay, he said. That’s in contrast to perhaps dozens of smaller biotech and health sciences companies that hoped to launch IPOs within a few months. Their viability depends on access to the public capital markets.
“You’re suddenly thrown into a tailspin,” Denenberg said.
The consequences of these companies’ delayed access to capital can affect ordinary households, he noted. There may be clinical trials for drugs or devices that the companies won’t be able to help finance, a delay that would slow the public’s access to potential breakthroughs.
Open season for fraud?
With many SEC enforcement attorneys and staffers idled, some see warning lights flashing involving white-collar crime.
The shutdown is “essentially providing fraudsters and schemers with a free pass to swindle investors and small businesses,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, the California Democrat who now chairs the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the securities industry.
With its depleted staff, the SEC can’t monitor the activities of the 26,000 investment firms, brokerages and stock exchanges that are registered with the agency, Waters said on the House floor recently. “Worse, the SEC is unable to hold bad actors accountable through most enforcement actions, preventing harmed investors from obtaining relief.”
Cox, the Duke University professor, doesn’t regard the problem as urgent — at least not yet.
“It’s smoldering, but it’s not flaming,” he said. A notable exception could be enforcement cases for which the statute of limitations will soon run out, thereby preventing the SEC staff from pursuing those cases, Cox noted.
In a case Tuesday, the SEC announced civil charges against a Ukrainian man and eight other individuals and companies in a scheme to profit by hacking into the Edgar computer system to steal companies’ earnings reports before their public release. They are accused of reaping $4.1 million from the scheme.
Shareholder proposals
The shutdown is preventing the SEC staff from processing or ruling on the hundreds of shareholder proposals that are challenged by companies each year. With the spring annual-meeting season a few months away, this means the agency can’t determine whether such proposals can be placed on the proxy ballots that companies issue to shareholders.
Investors typically try to place proposals on proxy ballots, for consideration in a vote at annual shareholder meetings, on issues ranging from executive pay to political spending to gender discrimination.
This year, for example, an activist shareholder wants to pre-emptively block the nation’s two largest private detention companies from housing immigrant children who have been separated from their parents. The companies, CoreCivic and GEO Group, want to bar the proposal from a vote. They say they have no intention of housing separated immigrant children or their parents, but they are fighting the activist’s attempt to require them to adopt explicit policies to that effect.
The companies have asked the SEC for permission to exclude the resolution by Alex Friedmann, associate director of the Human Rights Defense Center, from the ballots.
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Saudi Teen Wants to Work for Freedom for Women
A Saudi teen whose flight from her allegedly abusive family captured global attention says she wants to work in support of freedom for women around the world for years to come.
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun was granted asylum in Canada at the request of U.N. officials.
She made a public statement Tuesday, saying through an interpreter that her first goal is to learn English.
Al-Qunun fled her family while visiting Kuwait before flying to Bangkok. Once there, she barricaded herself in an airport hotel to avoid deportation and tweeted about her situation.
Her situation has highlighted the issue of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, where several women fleeing abuse by their families have been caught trying to seek asylum abroad in recent years and returned home.
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Colorado Woman, Among 1st WWII Female Pilots, Dies At 96
A Colorado Springs woman who was among the first women to fly for the U.S. military during World War II has died at age 96.
Bill Young told The Gazette that his mother Millicent Young died Saturday of complications related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
She was a member of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, known as WASPs.
They flew bombers and other warplanes in the U.S. to free up male pilots for combat service overseas.
In 2010, they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, among the nation’s highest civilian honors.
Young was born near Lodgepole, Nebraska, and took flying lessons with money she earned growing wheat.
Her family says she mainly flew an AT-6 Texan single-engine plane, towing a target so male pilots could train for in-air combat.
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Two Charged With Hacking SEC Computers in Trading Scheme
Two Ukrainian men have been charged with hacking into computers of the Securities and Exchange Commission to steal quarterly and annual reports of publicly traded companies before their public release.
An indictment released Tuesday alleges Artem Radchenko and Oleksandr Ieremenko allegedly operated the scheme in 2016 and 2017, selling the information and using it to make stock trades.
They allegedly sent bogus emails to SEC employees purporting to be from other employees to get inside the federal agency’s network.
The technique allegedly enabled them to steal thousands of filings.
The two men face multiple computer fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy counts. The court docket didn’t list an attorney for either suspect Tuesday.
Ieremenko is also a defendant in a similar 2015 case in which hackers allegedly infiltrated newswire services.
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Shaka: Extra Time
We are live. In Extra Time Shaka answers your questions about politics in Africa.
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Spain Arrests 17 in Ongoing Catalonia Anti-Terror Operation
Authorities in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia said 17 people, including five alleged members of an extremist Islamist cell, were arrested Tuesday as part of an ongoing anti-terror operation.
As well as having terror links, the suspects also allegedly participated in theft, drug trafficking and other crimes, according to the Mossos d’Esquadra regional police.
More than 100 agents took part in the operation, which was ongoing as of mid-afternoon, a spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman said six venues had been searched in and near Barcelona. She declined to be identified by name in line with the police force’s standard practices.
Catalan regional minister of security, Miquel Buch, told reporters most of the arrests took place in a central neighborhood of the regional capital, but some were made in the nearby town of Igualada.
The five suspected of being part of an extremist cell were originally from Algeria, Buch told reporters.
“They were determined about carrying out an attack, but they didn’t have the capacity for it,” he said.
Investigating magistrate Manuel Garcia-Castellon of the National Court, which normally handles terror-related probes in Spain, ordered the arrests and will be interrogating those who remain in custody later this week, a court spokesman told The Associated Press, following customary rules of anonymity.
Also Tuesday, authorities in southern Spain’s Malaga arrested a 27-year-old Moroccan national who police said they suspect could be linked to the Islamic State group. The man allegedly used several social network profiles to express violent views and allegiance to the extremist group.
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Congo Constitutional Court Begins Election Appeal Hearing
Congo’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday began hearing an appeal against the presidential election results lodged by opposition candidate Martin Fayulu.
Lawyers represented both Fayulu and the declared winner Felix Tshisekedi at the court in Kinshasa, the capital. Election commission representatives also attended.
The court must rule on the appeal by Saturday.
Fayulu filed a court challenge over the weekend demanding a recount, claiming that he won the presidential race with 61 percent of the vote, according to results compiled by the influential Catholic Church’s 40,000 election observers.
Fayulu charges that the results were falsified to declare Tshisekedi the winner, although he came in a distant second place according to the Catholic Church’s results.
Congo’s electoral commission has said Tshisekedi won 38 percent of the vote and Fayulu 34 percent.
“The CENI (electoral commission) has published results other than those posted in front of polling stations, so we are asking for a recount,” said Fayulu’s lawyer Ekombe Mpetshi.
Electoral Commission executive secretary Rossard Malonga, however, said results could not be cancelled.
Regional groups representing neighboring countries are suggesting the formation of a government of national unity and a possible recount of votes to avoid instability, putting new pressure on the government of outgoing President Joseph Kabila to find a peaceful and transparent solution to a growing electoral crisis in one of Africa’s largest and most mineral-rich nations.
Congo’s 80 million people have been largely peaceful since the Dec. 30 vote but at least a dozen people have been killed in protests.
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Moscow Court Extends Arrest for Ukrainian Seamen
A Moscow court has extended the detention of eight Ukrainian seamen who were among 24 captured by Russian coast guards in the Black Sea.
Three Ukrainian vessels and their crews were fired at and seized by the Russians in November. Russia insists the men should be put on trial for violating its border. Ukraine calls them prisoners of war who were illegally captured.
A Moscow district court on Tuesday ruled that eight of the 24 Ukrainian sailors, including the captain of one of the vessels, should be kept in custody until late April.
The confrontation on the Black Sea triggered a showdown between Russia and Ukraine in the simmering conflict over Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Russia seized Crimea in a move that Ukraine and most of the world views as illegal.
In the Ukrainian city of Odessa, about 50 demonstrators protesting the sailors’ detention gathered outside the Russian Consulate. Some tried to throw paint at the building. Police detained two demonstrators.
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France’s Macron Launches ‘Grand Debate’ Following Protests
French President Emmanuel Macron is formally launching a “grand debate” to try to appease the yellow vest movement following weeks of anti-government protests.
Macron heads Tuesday to Grand Bourgtheroulde, a small town in Normandy, where he is to meet about 600 mayors and local officials.
Despite a high security presence, a ban on traffic and restricted access to the town, dozens of yellow vests protesters gathered outside the town to express their discontent.
“We are being prevented from accessing the village,” said protester Florence Clement. “I was crossing the road with my yellow vest but I was asked to remove it because it’s forbidden.”
Macron started his journey with a stop in the small town of Gasny to attend a local officials’ meeting, where some expressed their concerns over the loss of purchasing power of retirees and civil servants.
Macron addressed this week a “letter to the French” to encourage people to express their views on a series of economic and political matters during a three-month “grand debate.”
The consultation will take place through local meetings and on the internet. The debate will focus on taxes, public services, climate change and democracy.
The French leader, whose popularity ratings hit record lows at the end of last year, hopes the process will help quell anger over his economic policies.
About 84,000 people turned out last weekend for the ninth round of anti-government demonstrations across France, according to the French Interior Ministry.
The yellow vest movement, prompted in November by a tax hike on diesel fuel, has expanded to encompass demands for wider changes to France’s economy to help struggling workers. Protesters have denounced Macron’s pro-business policies as favoring the rich.
The movement is named for the fluorescent garments French motorists are required to keep in vehicles.
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Attorney General Nominee to Face Tough Questioning
President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, William Barr, on Tuesday begins two days of confirmation hearings that are expected to delve into Barr’s criticism of the special counsel investigation and his expansive views of executive power.
Barr, who served as attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush, has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks for a memo he wrote last year criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller for examining whether Trump tried to obstruct the investigation.
In the 19-page memo to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation, Barr opined that Mueller’s probe of Trump for asking then-FBI director James Comey to “let … go” of a separate investigation and then firing him was “fatally misconceived” and “grossly irresponsible.”
The memo, written on June 8, came to light last month after Trump nominated Barr, 68, to succeed then-attorney general Jeff Sessions, whom he ousted over his recusal from oversight of the Russia investigation. Alarmed that Barr, a conservative Republican lawyer, might put limits on the investigation, Democrats have vowed to make the memo a key element of Barr’s nomination hearing.
Seeking to mollify those concerns, Barr released his written testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, arguing that the memo was “narrow in scope” and did not address the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and other “potential obstruction-of-justice theories.”
In his testimony, Barr will say that he’ll allow the special counsel to complete his investigation without any interference.
“I believe it is in the best interest of everyone — the President, Congress, and, most importantly, the American people — that this matter be resolved by allowing the Special Counsel to complete his work,” Barr will say. “The country needs a credible resolution of these issues.”
Despite the seemingly reassuring tone of the statement, Democrats signaled they plan to grill Barr on the Mueller investigation as well as a range of other issues.
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, a prominent member of the Senate judiciary panel, tweeted after the release of Barr’s statement that despite the attorney general nominee’s avowed support for the Mueller investigation, “serious questions remain.”
Question of authority
One question Barr left unanswered in his statement but will likely feature prominently during the confirmation hearing: Does Barr think the president has the legal authority to ask the attorney general to shut down the investigation? It is an old legal question that has taken on real-world significance in the midst of the Russia investigation.
William Yeomans, a senior fellow at the Alliance for Justice and a lecturer in law at Columbia University, said that Barr — a strong proponent of the “unitary executive” — takes the view that the president has the authority to shut down any criminal investigation.
“What he says in his statement is, to the extent that the decisions are his, he’ll support the completion of the Mueller investigation but he doesn’t rebut the notion that the president could tell him to shut down the investigation,” Yeomans said. “The Senate needs to ask him in some detail about how he’d react to various instructions from the president: to shut down the investigation, or curtail certain investigative steps.”
Oversight of Russia investigation
If confirmed, Barr will take over oversight of the Russia investigation from Rosenstein, who has indicated to associates in recent weeks that he’ll leave the Justice Department after a new attorney general is confirmed.
Yeomans said that Rosenstein has protected the Mueller investigation from “political interference” and he added that there is “an inherent problem in having this president select the person who’s going to oversee the investigation into this president.”
Friends and supporters of Barr described him as a straight-shooting lawyer who will not bend to Trump’s wishes.
“Mr. Barr is a very independent fellow who has his own view of what’s right and wrong, and I’m sure he’ll execute that,” said Andrew McBride, a longtime Barr friend and a partner at the law firm of Perkins Coie in Washington.
McBride dismissed the notion that Barr is an “anti-Mueller zealot” out to upend the Russia investigation.
“The memo he wrote is about one part of the Mueller investigation and it’s a constitutional analysis,” he said. “It just says Mr. Barr believes in this one area the president had the authority to fire Mr. Comey and that it was not obstruction of justice. But it doesn’t comment on the Russian collusion aspect of Mr. Mueller’s investigation.”
McBride said Barr respects the uniquely American role of the attorney general.
“Bill has always thought there were two roles for the attorney general: one is as a cabinet officer who is loyal to the president, but one is as an independent law enforcement officer,” McBride said.
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Texas Couple, Convicted of Enslaving Guinean Girl, Await Sentencing
A U.S. federal court has convicted the son of a former Guinean president, along with his wife, for enslaving a young, undocumented girl from the West African country and forcing her to work unpaid in their north Texas home for 16 years.
Mohamed Toure and Denise Cros-Toure, both 57, were convicted of forced labor, harboring an alien and conspiring to harbor an alien. The couple, who live in the Dallas suburb of Southlake, were acquitted of another charge, conspiracy to commit forced labor.
“The defendants preyed on a young and extremely vulnerable girl. Their despicable actions included cruelly abusing her, forcing her to work in their home, hidden in plain sight, for years without pay, and robbing her of her childhood,” Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney in the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement Friday announcing the verdict.
Sentencing has not yet been scheduled for Toure and Cros-Toure. They face up to 20 years in prison, according to the statement, which also said restitution was mandatory.
Toure and Cros-Toure were taken into custody by U.S. Marshals after the verdict was announced Thursday evening, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper. The couple had been on home arrest since shortly after their arrest last April.
Attorneys for Toure and Cros-Toure said they would appeal the convictions.
“A family has been destroyed,” said Toure’s lawyer, Brady T. Wyatt III of Dallas, according to the Star-Telegram. “The government told a story and we contradicted it.”
Djena Diallo, the young woman at the center of the case, was present during the four-day trial but did not testify.
Federal court documents indicate the victim came from a village in Guinea and was brought to the United States as a child, perhaps as young as 5. Her age is unclear. Toure and Cros-Tore “required her to cook, clean and take care of their [five] biological children,” the court statement said, “… without pay for the next 16 years.”
Diallo also was seen painting the house, mowing the lawn and tending gardens, neighbors said. She was not permitted to attend school, and she was beaten with belts and electrical cords and choked, she told authorities.
Call for help
The girl escaped in August 2016 with the aid of a former neighbor she’d telephoned for help.
Bridget Abujo, the ex-neighbor and prosecution witness, testified that she had sent her daughter to pick up Diallo and bring her to safety, first at the Abujos’ home and then a YWCA, The Dallas Morning News reported.
According to The News account, Abujo said in court that she had arranged for tutoring for Diallo. She also said Diallo’s immigration status was in “limbo.” VOA could not reach federal officials to confirm.
Toure is the son of the late Ahmed Sekou Toure, the first president of Guinea after the country gained independence from France in 1958. He held office until suffering a fatal heart attack in 1984.
Consequences
Toure and Cros-Toure have been permanent U.S. residents since 2005, the Star-Telegram reported, citing court documents. It said that, according to Texas Workforce Commission records, Toure has never been employed in the United States but worked for a government party in Guinea. His wife worked for Delta Air Lines from 2005 to 2006 and as a substitute teacher starting in 2016.
Jurors decided the Toures’ property should be forfeited. The Dallas Morning News reported that would include the family’s house, appraised last year at $584,000.
Scott H. Palmer, a defense attorney for Cros-Toure, told The News that a juror called him the day after the verdict to say that jurors were reluctant to convict the couple because Diallo had been free to leave the house and was active on social media. They probably would have acquitted the couple had they enrolled the girl in school, Palmer said the juror explained.
But Ann Johnson, a former Texas state prosecutor and expert in human trafficking, told The News that just because there were no signs of physical confinement didn’t mean there wasn’t mental or emotional bondage.
“And that’s why a lot of people may not even see themselves as a trafficking victim,” Johnson was quoted as saying. “A big part of it is the manipulation. … These are very tough cases to make.”
VOA’s French to Africa Service contributed to this report.
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2nd Judge Blocks Trump Rules for Birth Control Insurance Coverage
A second federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from letting businesses and others opt out of birth control coverage required by the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
Judge Wendy Beetlestone handed down her ruling Monday in Philadelphia, blocking the Trump rules nationwide — a day after a federal judge in California issued an injunction affecting 13 states and Washington, D.C.
Both judges ruled that allowing employers to opt out of birth control coverage would force women to turn to the states for help, leading to such consequences as unwanted pregnancies.
There has been no reaction from the White House or Justice Department.
The Trump administration rules were to have taken effect this week. They would have let businesses and nonprofit groups opt out of the birth control requirement on moral grounds or if it violated religious beliefs.
Lawyers for those suing to block the rules argued that they violate women’s economic and reproductive rights.
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Britain Heads for Constitutional Fight Between Parliament, Government
Britain appears set for a full-blown constitutional crisis, with a cross-party group of senior lawmakers conspiring to sideline embattled Prime Minister Theresa May by seizing control of Brexit negotiations.
They want to reduce the power of the government to control legislative business in parliament, boosting the chances of lawmakers being able to table a series of motions to stop Britain from leaving the European Union without a deal, or even offering legislation for a second referendum on British membership in the EU that could lead to the country not leaving at all.
Ahead of Tuesday’s crucial vote in the House of Commons on her highly contentious Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, the result of two years of ill-tempered haggling with Brussels, May warned that if her draft deal with the EU is voted down, the most likely outcome would be Britain remaining an EU member.
Speaking to factory workers in Wales on Monday, May said if she loses the vote, “it is now my judgment that the more likely outcome is a paralysis in parliament that risks there being no Brexit.” She added, “There are some in Westminster who would wish to delay or even stop Brexit and who will use every device available to them to do so.”
Most observers — even ministers in her own divided cabinet — expect her to lose the vote on the withdrawal agreement, despite EU officials offering assurances Monday designed to diminish parliament’s opposition to the 585-page deal.
The big question is over the scale of the defeat, with some commentators predicting it could be the biggest rebuff a government has endured since 1924, when then-Labor Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald lost a vote by 166, triggering the collapse of his government and a general election he lost.
Transition deal
With the deal, May has tried to square the circle between Britons who want to remain in the EU, or closely tied to it, and Brexiters.
The withdrawal agreement would see Britain locked in a customs union with the EU for several years while it negotiates a more permanent, but vaguely defined, free-trade settlement with its largest trading partner. In the temporary customs union, Britain would be unable to influence EU laws, regulations and product standards it would have to observe. It would not be able to implement free-trade deals with non-EU countries.
The transition was agreed to avoid customs checks on the border separating Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, but British lawmakers fear Britain could be shackled indefinitely to the bloc, even if a final free-trade deal isn’t negotiated. Brexiters claim the Brexit agreement May negotiated turns Britain into a “vassal state, a rule-taker and not a rule-maker.”
On Monday, EU leaders sought to assuage lawmakers’ fears by saying it wouldn’t lock Britain in an indefinite transition. But opponents — both Brexiters and Remainers— appear unconvinced, calling assurances “meaningless,” as they don’t have the force of law, while the agreement, if passed by the British parliament, would.
Government vs. parliament
In readiness for May losing a key vote on the highly contentious Brexit Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons Tuesday, veteran lawmakers, including former ministers from her cabinet, are laying the groundwork to upend the centuries-old relationship between Britain’s government and parliament.
That relationship is built on No. 10 Downing Street being able to control the legislative agenda, with government business taking precedence over that of individual lawmakers or the opposition parties. The shift would set the stage for a constitutional showdown that could have significant consequences for how Britain is governed, as Brexit itself would, said analysts.
“We may now be witnessing one of the most fundamental shifts in (the) relationship between the government and parliament since William Lenthall, the speaker, defied King Charles I in 1642,” according to Philip Cowley, a political scientist at London’s Queen Mary University.
That defiance came on the eve of the English Civil War, when the king entered the Commons to arrest five rebellious lawmakers. Charles demanded to know where the lawmakers were, and Lenthall replied, “May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here.”
Role of John Bercow
While the current behind-the-scenes parliamentary maneuvering is unlikely to trigger a clash of arms, it has thrust the spotlight on current Speaker John Bercow, who when he was elected to the post in 2009, made no secret of his determination to strengthen the powers of parliament and lessen the dominance of the government.
Last week Bercow, a moderate Conservative but ardent Remainer, outraged No. 10 Downing Street and Brexiters by allowing an amendment to the government’s business motion for the vote on May’s Brexit deal.
The amendment was in breach of standard practice. Under standard parliamentary rules, government motions can’t be amended. But Bercow accepted it, announcing that if precedence was always followed, nothing would ever change.
Two groups of Brexit opponents are planning to use Bercow’s ruling last week to try to pull away from government control of the parliamentary timetable. One group wants to suspend the Brexit schedule, allowing them to postpone Britain’s earmarked EU departure date of March 29, and for more efforts to be made to shape a national consensus.
Other lawmakers are looking at ways to force a second referendum. On Sunday, one of May’s predecessors, former Conservative Prime Minister John Major, called for Britain’s exit from the EU to be delayed and control of future negotiations with the EU be controlled by parliament. He also called for another referendum.
“In the midst of chaos, it is always sensible to pause and think,” he said.
According to recent polls, a majority of Britons now want a second plebiscite. May has adamantly ruled out that option to break the parliamentary deadlock.
With this week shaping up to be one of the most tumultuous in the modern history of the House of Commons, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s opposition Labor Party, has said that if May loses the vote on Tuesday, he will table a motion of no-confidence in the government.
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Britain Heads for Constitutional Fight Between Parliament, Government
Britain appears set for a full-blown constitutional crisis, with a cross-party group of senior lawmakers conspiring to sideline embattled Prime Minister Theresa May by seizing control of Brexit negotiations.
They want to reduce the power of the government to control legislative business in parliament, boosting the chances of lawmakers being able to table a series of motions to stop Britain from leaving the European Union without a deal, or even offering legislation for a second referendum on British membership in the EU that could lead to the country not leaving at all.
Ahead of Tuesday’s crucial vote in the House of Commons on her highly contentious Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, the result of two years of ill-tempered haggling with Brussels, May warned that if her draft deal with the EU is voted down, the most likely outcome would be Britain remaining an EU member.
Speaking to factory workers in Wales on Monday, May said if she loses the vote, “it is now my judgment that the more likely outcome is a paralysis in parliament that risks there being no Brexit.” She added, “There are some in Westminster who would wish to delay or even stop Brexit and who will use every device available to them to do so.”
Most observers — even ministers in her own divided cabinet — expect her to lose the vote on the withdrawal agreement, despite EU officials offering assurances Monday designed to diminish parliament’s opposition to the 585-page deal.
The big question is over the scale of the defeat, with some commentators predicting it could be the biggest rebuff a government has endured since 1924, when then-Labor Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald lost a vote by 166, triggering the collapse of his government and a general election he lost.
Transition deal
With the deal, May has tried to square the circle between Britons who want to remain in the EU, or closely tied to it, and Brexiters.
The withdrawal agreement would see Britain locked in a customs union with the EU for several years while it negotiates a more permanent, but vaguely defined, free-trade settlement with its largest trading partner. In the temporary customs union, Britain would be unable to influence EU laws, regulations and product standards it would have to observe. It would not be able to implement free-trade deals with non-EU countries.
The transition was agreed to avoid customs checks on the border separating Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, but British lawmakers fear Britain could be shackled indefinitely to the bloc, even if a final free-trade deal isn’t negotiated. Brexiters claim the Brexit agreement May negotiated turns Britain into a “vassal state, a rule-taker and not a rule-maker.”
On Monday, EU leaders sought to assuage lawmakers’ fears by saying it wouldn’t lock Britain in an indefinite transition. But opponents — both Brexiters and Remainers— appear unconvinced, calling assurances “meaningless,” as they don’t have the force of law, while the agreement, if passed by the British parliament, would.
Government vs. parliament
In readiness for May losing a key vote on the highly contentious Brexit Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons Tuesday, veteran lawmakers, including former ministers from her cabinet, are laying the groundwork to upend the centuries-old relationship between Britain’s government and parliament.
That relationship is built on No. 10 Downing Street being able to control the legislative agenda, with government business taking precedence over that of individual lawmakers or the opposition parties. The shift would set the stage for a constitutional showdown that could have significant consequences for how Britain is governed, as Brexit itself would, said analysts.
“We may now be witnessing one of the most fundamental shifts in (the) relationship between the government and parliament since William Lenthall, the speaker, defied King Charles I in 1642,” according to Philip Cowley, a political scientist at London’s Queen Mary University.
That defiance came on the eve of the English Civil War, when the king entered the Commons to arrest five rebellious lawmakers. Charles demanded to know where the lawmakers were, and Lenthall replied, “May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here.”
Role of John Bercow
While the current behind-the-scenes parliamentary maneuvering is unlikely to trigger a clash of arms, it has thrust the spotlight on current Speaker John Bercow, who when he was elected to the post in 2009, made no secret of his determination to strengthen the powers of parliament and lessen the dominance of the government.
Last week Bercow, a moderate Conservative but ardent Remainer, outraged No. 10 Downing Street and Brexiters by allowing an amendment to the government’s business motion for the vote on May’s Brexit deal.
The amendment was in breach of standard practice. Under standard parliamentary rules, government motions can’t be amended. But Bercow accepted it, announcing that if precedence was always followed, nothing would ever change.
Two groups of Brexit opponents are planning to use Bercow’s ruling last week to try to pull away from government control of the parliamentary timetable. One group wants to suspend the Brexit schedule, allowing them to postpone Britain’s earmarked EU departure date of March 29, and for more efforts to be made to shape a national consensus.
Other lawmakers are looking at ways to force a second referendum. On Sunday, one of May’s predecessors, former Conservative Prime Minister John Major, called for Britain’s exit from the EU to be delayed and control of future negotiations with the EU be controlled by parliament. He also called for another referendum.
“In the midst of chaos, it is always sensible to pause and think,” he said.
According to recent polls, a majority of Britons now want a second plebiscite. May has adamantly ruled out that option to break the parliamentary deadlock.
With this week shaping up to be one of the most tumultuous in the modern history of the House of Commons, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s opposition Labor Party, has said that if May loses the vote on Tuesday, he will table a motion of no-confidence in the government.
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Report: 2 Killed, 40 Detained in New Gay Purge in Chechnya
The Russian republic of Chechnya has launched a new crackdown on gays in which at least two people have died and about 40 people have been detained, LGBT activists in Russia charged Monday.
The new allegations come after reports in 2017 of more than 100 gay men arrested and subjected to torture, and some of them killed, in the predominantly Muslim region in southern Russia.
The Associated Press and other media outlets have interviewed some of the victims, who spoke about torture at the hands of Chechen law enforcement officers. Chechen authorities have denied those accusations, and federal authorities conducted a probe into the earlier reports but said they found nothing to support the charges.
Alvi Karimov, a spokesman for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, told the Interfax news agency on Monday that the latest reports are “complete lies and don’t have an ounce of truth in them.” Karimov insisted that no one has been detained in Chechnya on suspicion of being gay.
But the Russian LGBT Network, which has been monitoring the situation in Chechnya and helping victims, said in a statement Monday that about 40 men and women have been detained on suspicion of being gay since December and that at least two of them have died of torture in detention. The detainees are believed held at the same facility that was named in the 2017 reports.
“Widespread detentions, torture and killings of gay people have resumed in Chechnya,” Igor Kochetkov, program director at the Russian LGBT Network said. “Persecution of men and women suspected of being gay never stopped. It’s only that its scale has been changing.”
Kochetkov said the new wave of anti-gay persecution started at the end of the year, when Chechen authorities detained the administrator of a social media group popular with LGBT people in the North Caucasus. Kochetkov said the mass detentions began after the authorities got hold of the contacts on his phone.
Russia denies accusations
LGBT activists in 2017 helped to evacuate around 150 gay men from Chechnya to help them restart their lives elsewhere in Russia. Many of them have sought asylum and resettled abroad.
“News that the authorities have resumed the crackdown is spine-chilling,” said Marie Struthers, director of Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe section. “With lives in jeopardy, there is an urgent need for an international response to protect gay and lesbian people in Chechnya.”
Russian authorities have strenuously denied that killings and torture took place in the predominantly Muslim region where homosexuality is taboo, even after one man came forward to talk about the time he spent in detention in Chechnya.
One man’s account
Maxim Lapunov said he was detained by unidentified people on a street in the Chechen capital, Grozny, in 2017 and kept in custody for two weeks, where he was repeatedly beaten. He was let go after he signed a statement acknowledging that he was gay and was told he would be killed if he talked about his time in detention.
Lapunov, who is from Siberia, was the first to file a complaint with Russian authorities over the wave of arrests of gay people.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe last month called on Russia to investigate the reports and cited Lapunov’s case specifically.
Kadyrov and his government in Chechnya have been accused of widespread human rights abuses against many dissidents, not just gay men.
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