Month: January 2019

France Plans to Crack Down on Anti-government Protesters

Posted on by SeeEU

France plans to crack down heavily on unauthorized protesters, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Monday, after an anti-government march over the weekend turned violent.

“We need to preserve the right to demonstrate in France, and we must sanction those who break the law,” Philippe told French television, saying they include “those who take part in undeclared protests, those who arrive at protests with balaclavas (face masks).”

Philippe said proposed laws would ban troublemakers from marches the same way hooligans and thugs are stopped from entering football stadiums.

He also said marchers would be forced to pay for damages to vandalized buildings and wrecked property.

An anti-government protest Saturday began peacefully but soon turned violent when some marchers set motorcycles and a restaurant on fire and threw debris at police.

One officer was hurt when a protester dropped a bicycle on him from a bridge.

The so-called yellow vest marches erupted across France in November to protest a new gasoline tax, but soon turned into a general anti-government protest.
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Italian Mayors, Governors Challenge Government Asylum Law

Posted on by SeeEU

The ranks of prominent citizens opposed to a new Italian law cracking down on asylum-seekers swelled on Monday, with more governors announcing court challenges to the populist government’s measure.

The law, approved first in the form of a government decree and later by Parliament late last year, tightens criteria for migrants receiving humanitarian protection, granting that status only to victims of labor exploitation, human trafficking, domestic violence, natural calamities and a few other limited situations.

Previously, many asylum-seekers who failed to qualify for full asylum were accorded humanitarian protection, with Italy allowing them to stay for a fixed term and receive social benefits. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, contends Italian authorities had been too elastic in the past in granting such protection.

The new law bans asylum-seekers from gaining residency, which is needed to apply for public housing or a place for their children in public nursery schools, as well as complete access to Italy’s national health care system. And those accorded humanitarian protection won’t be eligible for shelter in government-run facilities for asylum-seekers, sparking concern they’ll end up living on the street.

Piedmont Gov. Sergio Chiamparino told Sky TG24 TV Monday that he’ll ask Italy’s constitutional court to decide whether the law violates the Constitution. He said he’d join forces with Tuscany’s governor in the court challenge.

“A really wide movement is being created” to challenge the residency measure, Tuscany Gov. Enrico Rossi said in Florence. He explained that Tuscany’s challenge would take aim on the tightened criteria for humanitarian protection as well as the ban on achieving residency.

Umbria, another central region, also decided on a court challenge of the law.

Chiamparino said in the meanwhile his region would continue to provide full health care for asylum-seekers and insisted by doing so, he wasn’t disobeying the law.

“We are simply obeying a fundamental principle that someone with a health problem gets treatment,” Chiamparino said.

Last week, the mayors of Palermo, Naples and some smaller cities vowed not to implement the law. Others, like Milan’s mayor, sharply criticized the law, but said they would implement it unless courts ruled otherwise.

In Milan, on Monday evening, about 50 critics of the crackdown protested outside city hall. Some banged wooden spoons on pot lids to draw attention to their cause.

Among mayors criticizing the law are some from the 5-Star Movement, a government coalition partner. Livorno’s 5-Star Mayor Filippo Nogarin, while saying that laws must be respected, has slammed the measure as “anything but a good law, ethically and politically.”

Cracks have formed lately in the government coalition over migrant policy, with a prominent faction of the 5-Stars pushing for Italy to allow migrants rescued at sea from human traffickers’ unseaworthy boats to reach Italy.

Salvini insists Italy’s ports are closed to private group’s migrant rescue vessels.
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Ousted Slovak PM Fico Seeks Top Court Job

Posted on by SeeEU

Slovakia’s dominant political figure Robert Fico will run to become a Constitutional Court judge this month, seeking to quit party politics less than a year after he was pushed out of prime minister’s office in the furor over the murder of a journalist.

The murder of Jan Kuciak, who investigated political corruption and EU subsidy fraud, and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova triggered the biggest protests since the 1989 fall of communism against the sleaze in politics.

Fico resigned in March after being in power for almost a decade, but remains chairman of the ruling Smer party and is seen as driving policy behind the scenes while party ally Peter Pellegrini serves as prime minister.

Now Fico, 54, who has a law degree and represented Slovakia at the European Court of Human Rights in 1994-2000, has been nominated to become a Constitutional Court judge.

The body is the country’s top court, which rules on whether legislation passed by parliament and judgments by lower courts are in line with the constitution. Former lawmakers have been elected previously to serve on it, but never former party leaders or prime ministers.

The parliament, where the governing coalition has a narrow majority of 76 out of 150 votes, will select 18 candidates to become Constitutional Court judges in a vote later this month.

President Andrej Kiska, who is unaffiliated with any party and who sided with protesters calling for Fico’s ousting, will pick nine of them to replace judges whose term expire on February 16.

The court has 13 judges in total, elected for a term of 12 years.
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Netanyahu Rejects Corruption Allegations in Live Address

Posted on by SeeEA

In what was billed as a “dramatic announcement,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a prime-time address to again dismiss a series of corruption allegations against him.

Netanyahu said Monday that it would be “unjust” for him to be indicted ahead of early elections called for April 9. He also said he had been denied the chance to confront state witnesses in person. He offered to confront them on live television, saying: “What are they afraid of? What do they have to hide?”

 

Police have recommended that Netanyahu be indicted in three corruption cases. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, and has said he would not give up his re-election campaign or resign his office if charged.

 

 
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Greece: 10 Detained After Paint Thrown at US Embassy

Posted on by SeeEU

Greek police detained ten people and formally arrested two of them Monday after the U.S. Embassy in Athens was vandalized with paint.

Police said the 10 were detained after a group of people on motorbikes threw red paint at the embassy’s parking entrance at around 3:30 a.m. local time. An anarchist group known as Rouvikonas claimed responsibility for the attack in an internet post.

 

It cited “American imperialism” as well as Greece’s deal with neighboring Macedonia for the latter to change its name to North Macedonia in return for NATO membership, and the recent US decision to pull out of Syria, a move it said delivers Kurdish forces there “to the semi-fascist state of Turkey.”

 

Rouvikonas has carried out similar paint attacks in the past against embassies, Greek state organizations and political party offices.

 

U.S. Ambassador to Athens Geoffrey Pyatt condemned “this morning’s silly and senseless vandalism” in a Twitter post.

 

 
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Saudi Woman Fleeing Family under UN Care in Thailand

Posted on by SeeEA

Thai authorities says a young Saudi woman who was stopped in Thailand as she tried to flee to Australia to seek asylum has left the Bangkok airport and is under the care of the U.N. refugee agency.

“She is under the care of the UNHCR now but we also sent Thai security to help take care (of her),” the head of Thailand’s Immigration Police  Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn told reporters about the case of the woman, Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun.  He has said she will not be forcibly sent back to Saudi Arabia.

The 18-year-old fled from Kuwait during a family vacation and arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport Saturday night.  

She had barricaded herself inside her airport hotel room and on Monday made several Twitter posts demanding she be allowed to meet with someone from the U.N. 

In an earlier video post,  Alqunun can be seen pacing inside the hotel room and saying, “I just want to survive.”

“My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair. I am 100 percent certain they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail,” she said.

Thai authorities had refused to let her into the country, saying she had no travel documents or money.

But Alqunun says Saudi and Kuwait officials took away her passport when she arrived  — a claim backed up by Human Rights Watch.

“Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee,” Human Rights Watch deputy Middle East director Michael Page said.

He appealed to Saudi and Thai officials not to follow through with their initial plan to send Aqunun back to Kuwait on Monday.

“Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty, and other serious harm if returned against their will,” he said.

Women have few civil rights in the ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom. They need permission from a male relative to obtain a passport and travel overseas.

Women who commit so-called crimes against morality can sometimes meet the death penalty.

Another Saudi woman, Dina Lasloom, flew to the Philippines in 2017 while trying to escape Saudi Arabia.

An airline security official reported seeing her dragged out of the airport with her mouth, hands, and feet bound with duct tape.

Human rights activists have seen no trace of her since.
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Britain Testing ‘No-Deal’ Scenario as Brexit Vote Nears

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Britain is testing how its motorway and ferry system would handle a no-deal Brexit by sending a stream of trucks from a regional airport to the port of Dover — even as some legislators try to pressure the government to rule out the scenario.

The tests began Monday morning and are intended to gauge how severe the disruption would be if Britain leaves the European Union on March 29 without an agreed upon withdrawal deal.

 

It is expected that an abrupt departure without a deal would lead to the introduction of tariff and customs barriers that would slow fast-moving ferry and rail traffic that links Britain to continental Europe. There are concerns that major traffic jams leading into and out of ferry ports like Dover could greatly hamper trade and leave Britain without adequate food and medicine.

 

Parliament is expected to resume its debate over the government’s planned withdrawal deal Wednesday, with a vote tentatively scheduled for early next week.

 

There are no indications that lobbying over the holidays has garnered Prime Minister Theresa May more support for her plan, which has sparked wide opposition in Parliament. A vote that had been scheduled in November was delayed as May admitted it would face certain defeat.

 

The prospect of the bill’s possible defeat next week has renewed concern about the “no-deal” situation that Britain would face as the withdrawal date approaches without any arrangements in place.

 

Fears about economic disruption Monday sparked roughly 200 legislators including some from the prime minister’s Conservative Party to write to May asking her to rule out the no-deal scenario.

 

May has not spelled out how she will respond if the withdrawal bill is voted down next week.

 

Brexit minister Kwasi Kwarteng said Monday that the government is still focused on winning the vote.

 

“A week is a very long time in politics. We don’t know what the numbers are,” he told BBC. “We have got a week. I think the situation — as it always does — has developed, it evolves. I am very hopeful that the deal will be voted through next week.”

 

 
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Kurdish Official Asks for US Clarifications Over Withdrawal

Posted on by SeeEA

A Syrian Kurdish official says Syria’s Kurds are awaiting clarifications from the U.S. over America’s withdrawal plans following comments made by a top White House aide that appeared to contradict earlier comments by President Donald Trump.

Speaking to The Associated Press from northern Syria Monday, Badran Jia Kurd says the Kurds have not been informed of any change in the U.S. position and were in the dark about the latest comments by U.S. national security adviser John Bolton and what they indicated.

 

Bolton, on a visit to Israel Sunday, said U.S. troops will not leave northeastern Syria until IS militants are defeated and American-allied Kurdish fighters are protected. The comments appeared to put the brakes on a withdrawal abruptly announced by Trump last month and initially expected to be completed within weeks.

 
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Mobile DNA Analysis Device Helps Farmers Fight Crop Diseases

Posted on by SeeAF

A leap in technology has allowed scientists to take their DNA labs out into the fields, so farmers can identify diseases quickly and tackle the problem before their crops die, or the virus spreads to neighboring farms. Faith Lapidus reports.
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Bolton to Seek Turkey’s Reassurance on Kurds In Syria

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton says U.S. troops will not withdraw from Syria without an agreement from Turkey that it will not attack Kurds in northern Syria. U.S. President Donald Trump’s December 19 announcement of an imminent pullout raised fear among U.S.-backed Kurds in Syria. Turkey has announced plans to attack Kurdish-held areas in northern Syria claiming they are allied with a Kurdish terrorist group. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Gabon Arrests Military Officers Involved In Coup Attempt

Posted on by SeeAF

A Gabonese government spokesman says all but one of the military officers who attempted a coup early Monday have been arrested. 

“Four have been arrested and one is on the run,” said Gabon spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou. 

Military officers seized Gabonese National Radio, the state radio station, Monday in Libreville, the capital.

The soldiers announced their intent to establish a national restoration council. 

Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang said on the airwaves that President Ali Bongo’s recent radio address “reinforced doubts about the president’s ability to continue to carry out the responsibilities of his office.” 

The president is in Morocco, recovering from a stroke.

The French news agency AFP reports that shots were heard at the state television offices in the Libreville at the same time the military statement was being read on the radio. 

U.S. President Donald Trump recently deployed American military personnel to Gabon because of fears on political unrest in neighboring Congo. 
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US: No Abrupt Withdrawal of Troops from Syria

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is due to hold talks Monday in Turkey as the Trump administration seeks assurances that Turkish forces will not target Kurdish fighters allied with American forces.

The visit to Turkey comes a day after Bolton said protection for the Kurdish fighters who have helped battle Islamic State militants was one of the necessary conditions for a U.S. withdrawal of its 2,000 troops in Syria.

“We don’t think the Turks ought to undertake military action that’s not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States at a minimum so they don’t endanger our troops, but also so that they meet the president’s requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered,” Bolton told reporters Sunday.

WATCH: John Bolton on Turkey-Syria relations

Turkey considers the Kurdish fighters, known as the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units or YPG, to be linked to the PKK, a Kurdish group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

Bolton said there is no timetable for a U.S. withdrawal, but that the process would not be abrupt. His comments were the first public confirmation that the administration had backed off an initial indication that it would pull out the troops within 30 days.

Bolton said President Donald Trump “wants the ISIS caliphate destroyed,” referring to Islamic State, which once claimed Raqqa in northern Syria as the capital of its religious territory in Syria and Iraq.

Trump overruled U.S. national security officials and surprised allies with his Dec. 19 announcement he was withdrawing the U.S. troops from Syria, where they have carried out air attacks on Islamic State and Syrian positions and advised Kurdish fighters. Trump’s action, meeting a long-time pledge of his to get U.S. troops out of Syria, drew widespread protests, including from Republican lawmakers and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
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Trump Stands by Wall Money Demand as Democrats Plan New Funding Bills

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The partial U.S. government shutdown reached its 17th day Monday with President Donald Trump retaining his demand for money to build a border wall and House Democrats preparing votes on new bills aimed at opening shuttered agencies.

As a new work week began in the United States, several hundred thousand government workers remained at home while hundreds of thousands more are continuing to report for work with no idea when they will receive their next paycheck.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this week she will hold votes on individual spending bills to re-open closed agencies. She said the priority would be the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service, “an action necessary to make sure working families received their tax refunds on schedule.”

​Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected a previous House package that would have funded most of the agencies through the end of September and the Department of Homeland Security for a month to allow for further border security negotiations. McConnell called the plan a “non-starter.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called on McConnell to bring the new set of bills to a vote once they pass the House.

“They are essentially the same funding bills that the Republican Senate wrote and approved by a 92-6 margin during the last Congress,” Hoyer said in a statement Sunday.

Democrats have previously offered to approve $1.3 billion for border security methods, but not the more than $5 billion Trump desires for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, saying the wall would be an ineffective and expensive effort.

Trump insists the wall is needed to stop people from illegally crossing into the country from Mexico, as well as preventing drug trafficking and terrorism.

He praised a meeting Sunday between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic officials about border security, and said that if Democrats are willing to make a deal, one could be reached “in 20 minutes if they want to.” 

Otherwise, Trump said, the shutdown is “going to go on for a long time.”

The president says he is considering declaring a national emergency that would allow him to build a wall without congressional approval — a move some Democrats say would be challenged in the courts.

“Look, if (President) Harry Truman couldn’t nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this president doesn’t have the power to declare an emergency and build a multi-billion dollar wall on the border,” Congressman Adam Schiff said on CNN.
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Egypt’s El-Sissi Inaugurates Cathedral, Mosque

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Egypt’s president on Sunday inaugurated a new cathedral for the Coptic Orthodox Church and one of the region’s largest mosques in a highly symbolic gesture at a time when Islamic militants are increasingly targeting the country’s minority Christians.

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a general-turned-president, has made sectarian harmony a cornerstone of his rule, fighting Islamic militancy while advocating equality between the overwhelming Muslim majority and Christians, who account for 10 percent of Egypt’s 100 million people.

“This is a historic and important moment,” said el-Sissi inside the cathedral. “But we still have to protect the tree of love we planted here together today because seditions never end.”

The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, the world’s primary seat of learning for Sunni Muslims, echoed el-Sissi’s sentiments in comments also made at the cathedral. The two places of worship, he said, stand as a symbol in the face of “attempts to undermine the country’s stability and sectarian seditions.”

El-Sissi’s widely publicized policy to staunch sectarianism, however, has done little to protect Christians in rural Egypt, where Muslim extremists frequently attack their homes and businesses or force them to leave their homes after violent disputes. Critics and activists say discrimination against Christians there is often tolerated by local authorities and branches of the security agencies. Christians also complain of stringent restrictions on the construction of churches.   

But Sunday’s opening ceremony in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, el-Sissi’s brainchild that is located in the desert east of Cairo, stressed what the pro-government media like to call the “unbreakable national fabric” of Christians and Muslims. Entertainers and chorus lines took to the stage to sing about the two faiths living peacefully side by side. Short films on the same topic were also screened.

The ceremony’s presenters portrayed the construction of the cathedral and the mosque, which took 18 months to complete, as a message to humanity. “It is a message to the whole world that Egypt is a nation for all,” said one presenter.

The ceremony, attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and a host of Arab dignitaries, included recorded video messages of support from the region’s top Christian clerics as well as Pope Francis.

Speaking in Italian, Pope Francis said: “With joy I greet all of you on the joyful occasion of the dedication of the new Cathedral of the Nativity, built in the new administrative capital. May the prince of peace give to Egypt, the Middle East and the whole world the gift of peace and prosperity.”

The inauguration ceremony, which ended with a display of fireworks, took on added significance because it fell on Christmas Eve for Egypt’s predominantly Coptic Orthodox Christians, and just hours after a police bomb squad major was killed trying to defuse an explosive device near a Cairo church. El-Sissi and participants observed a minute of silence in memory of the fallen policeman.

The late Saturday blast came a little more than a week after a roadside bomb hit a tourist bus near the Giza Pyramids, killing three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian driver. It likely will compel authorities to further tighten security around churches ahead of the Coptic Orthodox Christmas. Already, armed policemen guard churches and security guards check the identity of visitors. Metal detectors have also been set up outside churches.

The heightened security followed a spate of attacks claimed by the Islamic State group which has targeted churches and buses carrying pilgrims to remote desert monasteries, killing more than 100 Christians over the past two years.

Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years, with the army and police now engaged since early last year in an all-out campaign to eradicate them, throwing into battle tens of thousands of troops backed by armor, fighter jets, helicopter gunships and warships.

 
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Saudi Woman Who Fled to Thailand Fears Death if Sent Home

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A young Saudi woman who fled to Thailand is pleading not to be forced back to Saudi Arabia.

“I just want to survive,” 18 year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun said in a social media video where she can be seen pacing inside a Bangkok airport hotel room.

“My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair. I am 100% certain they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail.”

Rahaf fled from Kuwait during a family vacation and arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport Saturday night, intending to seek asylum in Australia.

Thai authorities refused to let her into the country, saying she had no travel documents or money.

But Rahaf says Saudi and Kuwait officials took away her passport when she arrived, a claim backed up by Human Rights Watch.

“Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee,” Human Rights Watch deputy Middle East director Michael Page said.

He appealed to Saudi and Thai officials not to follow through with their plans to send Rahaf back to Kuwait Monday.

“Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty, and other serious harm if returned against their will,” he said.

Women have few civil rights in the ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom. They need permission from a male relative to obtain a passport and travel overseas.

Females who commit so-called crimes against morality can sometimes meet the death penalty.

Another Saudi woman, Dina Lasloom, flew to the Philippines in 2017 while trying to escape Saudi Arabia.

An airline security official reported seeing her dragged out of the airport with her mouth, hands, and feet bound with duct tape.

Human rights activists have seen no trace of her since.

 
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Saudi Women Given Right to Know Аbout Divorce

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In a new breakthrough in women’s rights, Saudi men will no longer be able to divorce without the knowledge of their wives.

As of Sunday, courts will be required to notify women by text message that а marriage has ended.

The rule is aimed at ending the practice of Saudi men getting a divorce without informing their wives and hence denying the women their rights, such as alimony payments.

“Women… will be notified of any changes to their marital status via text message,” the justice ministry said in a statement carried by state-run Al-Ekhbariya news channel and other local media.

“Women in the kingdom will be able to view documents related to the termination of their marriage contracts through the ministry’s website,” the statement said.

“In most Arab countries, men can just divorce their wives,” Suad Abu-Dayyeh from global rights group, Equality Now, told Reuters.

“At least women will know whether they are divorced or not. It is a tiny step, but it is a step in the right direction.”

The change is the latest in a series of moves designed to give women in the Islamic kingdom more freedoms.

Just last year, women were given the right to drive. In recent years they have been allowed to attend public sports events, vote in local elections and take a greater part in the workforce.

But rights groups say all of those changes don’t matter until the kingdom changes it male guardianship policy, under which women are not allowed to marry, divorce, travel, work or even get some medical treatment without the permission of  a man, usually a father, husband or son.

“The male guardianship system is a core issue and it must be dismantled. It controls women in each and every step of their lives. This system strangles Saudi women,” said Abu-Dayyeh.

 
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Sudan: Police Fire Tear Gas at Anti-Bashir Protesters

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Riot police fired tear gas at thousands of protesters in Sudan’s capital on Sunday, as demonstrations calling for President Omar al-Bashir to step down continued for the third week.

Crowds of protesters gathered in Khartoum Sunday, heeding a call from the Sudanese Professionals’ Association — a group of doctors, teachers, and engineers which have called for strikes and demonstrations over the past month.

Police responded by firing tear gas to disperse crowds. Videos posted online from anti-government activists show people fleeing down side streets and alleyways downtown to escape the noxious gas.

Sudan’s government said 19 people have been killed, including two security personnel, since the protests broke out the northeastern city of Atbara on December 19.

Human rights group Amnesty International said 37 people have been killed in the protests.

Authorities have closed schools and declared curfews and states of emergency in several regions since the protests began.

Protesters have repeatedly targeted and burned the offices of Bashir’s party and called for an end to his 29-year rule. Bashir came to power in a 1989 military coup.

Prices for food in Sudan have climbed sharply in recent months, with inflation topping 60 percent. This comes after the government cut subsidies earlier in 2018.

Sudan’s economy deteriorated after South Sudan became independent, depriving Khartoum of much of its oil revenue. Sudan is facing a foreign exchange crisis and soaring inflation, despite the United States lifting a trade embargo in October 2017.
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Trump Shows No Sign of Bending on Wall Funding Demand

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U.S. President Donald Trump showed no signs Sunday of backing down on his demand for taxpayer funding for a wall along the southern border with Mexico, saying there is “not going to be any bend” on his part.

“We have to build a wall, a barrier. It can be steel,” Trump told reporters at the White House before heading to his Maryland retreat at Camp David for discussions with key administration officials about border security and policies they plan to pursue this year.

In the meantime, Trump is engaged in a dispute with opposition Democratic lawmakers over his demand for more than $5 billion in funding for the barrier, a stalemate that has shut down about a quarter of U.S. government operations for 16 days, already one of the longest government closures in U.S. history.

“This shutdown could end tomorrow, or it could go on a long time,” Trump said, noting that Democrats refusing his demand for wall funding have voted for barriers at the U.S.-Mexican border in the past. “Democrats agree, you need border security.”

Trump said he does not expect anything to come out of a second day of negotiations Sunday between top White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, and key congressional aides on how to bridge differences over border security and Trump’s demand for wall funding. But he said progress could be made in talks over the next few days.

The U.S. leader said, “If we don’t have border security, we’ll be crime ridden,” with people crossing into the U.S. illegally “killing our citizens.” He said supporters, who often cheered his call for a wall during his successful 2016 run for the White House, are telling him, “Make sure you win this battle.”

He said, “People that didn’t vote for Donald Trump also want border security.”

 Democrats have offered Trump $1.3 billion in new funding for border security, but not for a wall, which they say is an immoral, ineffective way of controlling border access to thwart illegal immigration. They have called for heightened use of technology to catch immigrants trying to cross into the U.S. along the 3,200-kilometer border with Mexico.

Trump declared, as he first did on Friday, “I may declare a national emergency, depending on what happens in the next few days,” to build the wall without congressional approval by using money that had been designated for military construction projects.

The shutdown has forced the closure of museums in Washington, with trash going uncollected at understaffed national parks. If the shutdown extends to February, food assistance for poorer Americans would be curtailed, as would tax refunds at the height of the annual period when Americans file tax returns on their income from the previous year.

About 800,000 federal government workers have been furloughed or are continuing to work without pay during the shutdown. In recent days, Trump voiced little concern about any inconvenience they may have in meeting their household bills, saying that “most of the workers not getting paid are Democrats.”

On Sunday, he said, “I can relate,” but added, “I’m sure people will make adjustments.” In past shutdowns, furloughed government workers have been paid retroactively when government funding has resumed and most officials in Washington assume the same will happen this time as well.

Trump officials made the rounds of Sunday news talk shows to support his position on border wall funding and refusal to reopen the shuttered government agencies that are unrelated to the wall while continuing to debate a budget for the Department of Homeland Security, which controls border operations, for another month.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told Fox News that Democrats are “just unwilling to let this president win” on the wall dispute. She said that “at some point, we have to say ‘enough is enough,'” to extend the shutdown in order to secure wall funding.

“This president is prepared to do what is necessary to protect our borders,” she said.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he believes Democrats “think they’re winning the PR battle and they’re willing to drag this out because they think it hurts the president.”

Democrats have vowed they will not give Trump taxpayer money for the wall, especially since he said repeatedly during his 2016 campaign that Mexico would pay for it, which Mexican officials have often said they will not do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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Trump: Alleged USS Cole Attack Mastermind Killed

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President Donald Trump says the U.S. has killed one of the alleged masterminds of the USS Cole bombing which killed 17 sailors in 2000.

“Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole. We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi,” Trump tweeted Sunday, adding that U.S. efforts against al-Qaida will continue. “We will never stop in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism!,” he said.

Last week, U.S military officials said a precision U.S. airstrike in Yemen’s Marib governorate Tuesday targeted al-Badawi, one of six al-Qaida operatives convicted of the bombing and a fugitive on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list.

Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, had said U.S. forces were still assessing the results of the strike but Trump has now confirmed al-Badawi was killed.

In October 2000, 17 American sailors from the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole died in a suicide bomb attack at Aden harbor. Dozens more sailors were wounded. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility.

Al-Badawi was arrested by Yemeni authorities in 2000, escaped from a prison in 2003, was recaptured by Yemeni authorities in 2004, and escaped again in 2006.

Al-Badawi was charged with 50 counts of various terrorism offenses, including murder of U.S. nationals and murder of U.S. military personnel. In addition to his role in the bombing, he has been charged with attempting to attack a U.S. Navy vessel in January 2000.
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Russian Space Agency Bemoans Head’s Canceled US Trip

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Russia’s space agency is complaining that the invitation for its head to visit the U.S. has been cancelled without informing the organization.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told The Washington Post in a story Saturday that he has rescinded the invitation to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin after several senators raised complaints.

Rogozin is under U.S. sanctions for his role in the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, when he was a deputy prime minister.

Roscosmos spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko told state news agency Tass on Sunday that “it seems strange to us that our NASA colleagues dealt with us through the media and not directly.”

Russian lawmaker Frants Klintsevich said the decision shows that “the U.S. political establishment doesn’t intend to change its Russophobic vector.”
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UK Leader May: Brexit Critics Risk Damaging UK Democracy

Posted on by SeeEU

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Sunday that a delayed vote in Parliament on her Brexit deal will “definitely” go ahead later this month, as she promised to set out measures to win over skeptical lawmakers.

May told the BBC that in the coming days she will give more details about measures addressing Northern Ireland and concern over the Irish border. She also promised a greater role for Parliament in negotiations over future trade relations with the European Union as a sweetener, and added that “we are still working on” getting extra assurances from Brussels to secure domestic support for her deal.

May struck a withdrawal agreement with the EU in November, but that deal needs Parliament’s approval. In December, May decided to postpone a parliamentary vote intended to ratify the agreement at the last minute after it became clear that it would be overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons.

Lawmakers are resuming debate on the deal Wednesday, before a vote expected to be held around Jan. 15.

If the deal is voted down, Britain risks crashing out of the EU on March 29 with no agreement in place, a messy outcome that could plunge the country into its worst recession for decades.

May’s Brexit deal is unpopular with British lawmakers across the spectrum, and the main sticking point is the insurance policy known as the “backstop” – a measure that would keep the U.K. tied to EU customs rules in order to guarantee there is no hard border between the Republic of Ireland, an EU member, and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland, which won’t belong to the bloc after Brexit.

EU officials have insisted that the withdrawal agreement can’t be renegotiated, although they also stressed that the backstop was meant only as a temporary measure of last resort.

As part of her efforts to win support for her deal, May on Sunday reiterated that the agreement she negotiated was the only one that respects the 2016 referendum result, protects jobs and provides certainty to people and businesses.

She warned in the Mail on Sunday newspaper that critics of her Brexit deal risk damaging Britain’s democracy and its economy by opposing her plan.
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Iowans Prepare for Surge in Presidential Hopeful Visits

Posted on by SeeUS

The race to challenge U.S. President Donald Trump in November 2020 kicked off in earnest Saturday, when the first major Democratic Party hopeful to announce her candidacy visited with voters across Iowa.

Bounding onto stage in a packed building in Des Moines’s trendy East Village, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts waved to the crowd before speaking in a strained voice. The evening appearance came at the end of a four-city tour across the Midwestern state.

“Nevertheless, I persisted,” she said, referencing both her marathon day and a favorite rallying cry that brought cheers.

Field of candidates

In launching her campaign more than a year before both the primary season and the general election, the 69-year-old Warren hopes to gain an edge with Iowa’s roughly 3 million residents before the field of candidates becomes too crowded.

A larger-than-usual deluge of candidates — possibly up to two dozen — are expected to hit the state within the coming year, including an unprecedented number of women and minorities.

Top contenders include Senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris — both of whom visited last fall — Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar.

Former U.S. Representative and businessman John Delaney announced in mid-2017 and has been actively working to raise his name recognition in the state.

“It’s definitely much sooner this time,” Pat Rynard said of candidates who have already declared their intention to run. Rynard is a former Democratic campaign staffer who runs the political news site Iowa Starting Line.

During the run-up to the 2016 election, for example, the first Republican and Democrat hopefuls formally announced their bids in March and April of 2015.

“I think it’s a reflection of how big the field is, and the fact that there aren’t any front-runners,” Rynard said.

He expects recent poll results indicating voter preferences for former Vice President Joe Biden and former Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders to change as other candidates gain name recognition.

“I think an actual accurate poll would show that well over half of potential caucusgoers are completely undecided,” Rynard said.

Standing in line

That’s certainly the case for Iowans Ed Hotchkin and Ryan Barcus, who stood in line in unusually warm weather to see the senator speak.

Hotchkin, a Des Moines resident who wore a pink 2020 Feel The Bern! hat and voted for Hillary Clinton in the last election, said he was now considering Warren and Sanders. He’ll be attending rallies like this one in order to catch the “nuance” between the two candidates.

Barcus, a school teacher in the Des Moines area, hasn’t made his mind up, but the success of Democrats in the most recent midterm elections has got him energized.

“A lot of people think it’s too early for candidates to be here in Iowa, but I think they need to be here right now. The people of Iowa want to talk to these candidates,” Barcus said.

With its shrinking, but still significant rural base, Iowa and its caucuses mark the start of the multimonth nominating process. Different from a primary, in which voters simply mark a ballot, the process of caucusing gathers voters together in almost 1,700 separate simultaneous meetings across the state to discuss party platform issues.

In the 2020 caucuses, due to pressure from national party leaders, voters should also have the option to submit an absentee vote.

“[Campaigning in Iowa] really helps get the candidates focused and their messages honed down for the general election,” said Troy Price, chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party.

‘Retail politics’

While Iowa is often criticized for being a poor representation of the entire U.S., and for receiving outsized attention as just one in dozens of contests across the country, Price disagreed.

He highlighted the often-overlooked diversity within the predominantly white state, as well as its “good mix of urban and rural areas.” Price also pointed to the fact that Iowa’s smaller population lends itself to “retail politics,” meaning voters get a chance to meet candidates in church basements, coffee shops and school auditoriums.

“When it’s a state like Iowa, folks get a chance to actually get to know the candidates and be vetted in a way that may not be possible in a bigger state,” Price said.

As for whether the state will field any serious Republican challengers to Trump, analysts say it’s unlikely. The president enjoys a very high approval rating among Iowa Republicans,  with Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann saying in an emailed statement to VOA that rural Americans are “thriving under President Trump’s pro-growth economy.”

He added, “The Republican Party of Iowa welcomes Republicans from across the country to come and visit our state and talk to our grassroots voters, but we are 100 percent behind President Donald Trump and will work tirelessly to re-elect him in 2020.”

While most voters VOA interviewed said they will likely remain undecided for awhile, Rynard anticipates that moderate Democratic candidates won’t fare well. That could be good news for Senator Warren, who some accuse of being too liberal.

“I think Iowa caucusgoers will be going for a candidate who is more progressive than they’ve ever nominated,” he said.
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Independence Decree Presented to Ukrainian Orthodox Bishop

Posted on by SeeEU

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on Sunday presented a decree of independence to the head of the nascent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formally severing it from the Russian Orthodox Church.

In Istanbul, Patriarch Bartholomew I presented the Tomos, a scroll containing the decree, in a symbolic ceremony sanctifying the Ukrainian church’s independence. He signed the decree a day earlier.

 

Until the decree, the Orthodox church in Ukraine that was a branch of the Russian church was considered legitimate and two others in Ukraine were regarded as schismatic. The new church unites the two formerly schismatic bodies.

 

Many Ukrainians had resented the status of the Moscow-affiliated church. The push for a full-fledged Ukrainian church was bolstered by fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed rebels.

 

“The Tomos is one more act declaring the independence of Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Sunday. Poroshenko, who had pushed for the new church, attended the presentation ceremony in Istanbul.

 

Bartholomew I, considered first among equals in Orthodox patriarchy, announced the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has become the 15th independent Orthodox church. He argued Ukrainians “desired ecclesiastical independence” for centuries and never accepted that they were part of the Russian church.

 

The patriarch also entreated that the new church “strive for unity and peace” with clergy who remain under Moscow’s orbit and help reconciliation to “help them understand that Ukraine deserves a united church body.”

 

Still, the move forces clergy and believers in Ukraine to choose between belonging to Moscow-backed churches or the new Ukrainian Orthodox one.

 

Following Bartholomew I’s October decision for independence, the Russian church severed ties with Istanbul, the center of the Orthodox world.

 

“Instead of healing the schism, instead of uniting Orthodoxy, we got an even greater schism that exists solely for political reasons,” Archbishop Kliment, a spokesman for the Russia-affiliated church in Ukraine, said Sunday.

 

Metropolitan Epiphanius I, who was elected last month by Ukrainian Orthodox leaders to head the new church, will take the decree to Kyiv, where it will be displayed Monday at the Sophia cathedral complex in the heart of Ukraine’s capital.

 

Epiphanius I thanked the patriarch in Istanbul, saying: “the old injustice is eliminated with the thanks to His Holiness and Holy Synod of the Mother Church.”

The Orthodox clergy, wearing gold and jeweled vestments in the Patriarchal Church of St. George, led hundreds in prayer and hymns for Holy Mass.

 

 

 

 
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DRC Delays Results of December Election

Posted on by SeeAF

Democratic Republic of Congo officials say they are delaying the announcement of the results of its presidential election until some time later this week.  

The commission is holding a meeting Sunday about the delay.

Corneille Nangaa, head of the country’s electoral commission (CENI), said, “It is not possible to publish the results on Sunday. We are making progress, but we do not have everything yet.”

Nangaa said the commission had received only 47 percent of ballots from polling stations across the vast Central African country, which lacks a well-developed road network.

He also said the system of manually collecting and compiling vote totals is not helping the process. The electoral commission had planned to use the internet to collect vote totals. But it gave up those plans after the opposition alleged the system was vulnerable to fraud.

Nangaa did not say when the results would be ready or released.

Latest problem

The delay is the latest problem in the chaotic Dec. 30 election to pick a successor to President Joseph Kabila. The 40 million eligible voters in the country chose from among 21 candidates to replace Kabila, who has ruled the country of 80 million since his father was assassinated in 2001.

Pre-election polls indicated that opposition figure Martin Fayulu was the favorite to replace Kabila, who threw his support behind his former interior minister, Emmanuel Shadary.

By law, only the electoral commission can announce election results in Congo.

The Catholic Church in Congo said Thursday that it had election results showing one candidate clearly winning, but did not say who it was. A senior church body called on the government to publish accurate results. The church warned of a popular uprising if results were not “true to the verdict of the ballot box.”

On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said 80 U.S. military personnel and “appropriate combat equipment” had been deployed to the Central African country of Gabon to protect U.S. assets from possible “violent demonstrations.” In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he said more forces would deploy to Gabon, Congo or neighboring Republic of Congo if needed.

​Congo has never seen a peaceful transfer of power since winning independence from Belgium in 1960.

Last week’s election was originally scheduled for 2016 but was delayed as Kabila stayed in office past the end of his mandate, sparking protests that were crushed by security forces, leaving dozens dead.

​Election marred

Also Saturday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report that said “widespread irregularities, voter suppression and violence significantly marred” the Dec. 30 elections.

The HRW report cited several instances of voter suppression, including the “last-minute closure of more than 1,000 polling stations” in Kinshasa, the capital, as well as issues with electronic voting machines and voter lists, and polling sites opening late.

Official election results that suggest a falsified count could generate widespread protests, raising grave concerns of violent government repression, HRW said, adding that election officials should ensure results announced are accurate.

HRW also cited in its report that the DRC shut down internet and text messaging throughout the country Dec. 31. It also cut the signal for Radio France Internationale (RFI) in Kinshasa and other cities, and withdrew the accreditation for RFI’s special correspondent in Congo, who had to leave Congo on Jan. 3.

“Congolese voters showed they were determined to participate in the democratic process in the face of rampant election-day obstacles,” Ida Sawyer, deputy Africa director at HRW, said in the report. “The authorities should immediately restore all communications, allow independent media outlets to operate freely, and ensure that the vote count is carried out in a credible, transparent manner.”

Anita Powell in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
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