Month: April 2019

Notre Dame Fire Highlights Plight of France’s Underfunded Patrimony

Posted on by SeeEU

France’s government met Wednesday to draft a framework for donations to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. While more than $1 billion has been raised in response to last week’s massive blaze, many other historic monuments across France crumble for lack of funds to preserve them. 

The 12th-century Senanque Abbey — also called Notre Dame — in southern France is gradually decaying. Massive cracks in the abbey’s structure have forced the Cistercian monks living there to close part of it to visitors, and there are not sufficient funds available to fully restore it.

“We do not feel forgotten, but maybe a bit underestimated,” the abbey’s prior, Father Jean Marie, told French TV.

While Paris’ Notre Dame is grabbing the headlines, many other French monuments are also suffering. The Cistercian monastery has managed to raise several hundred thousand dollars for needed repairs, but it is still short about half-a-million.

Experts estimate about 2,000 historical monuments are at risk across France, including many cathedrals and village churches.

Public financing to preserve the country’s cultural heritage has shrunk steadily over the years.Today, France’s patrimony budget amounts to a tiny fraction of state spending. Local governments and the private sector are in charge of many historic monuments, but their budgets are limited.

President Emmanuel Macron’s patrimony adviser, Stephane Berne, told French radio that revitalizing rural communities starts with restoring local historic monuments that can deliver returns on the investment with jobs and tourism.

Berne is in charge of a new lottery program to raise money for preservation, but that totals just more than $20 million annually for all of France’s cultural heritage sites, compared to the billion-plus dollars raised for Notre Dame Cathedral.

“In each village, there is a Notre Dame that sometimes burns by the flame of indifference,” one group wrote in an editorial this week. 

However, private fundraising efforts are growing. A couple of years ago, for example, a crowdfunding campaign raised nearly $2 million to save a 13th-century chateau in western France. Like Notre Dame, it had been partially destroyed by fire.

And some people have suggested reallocating a portion of the Notre Dame donations — which may exceed what is needed to restore the cathedral — to save other cultural treasures.
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EU Envoy: Trump Cuba Policy Worries European Companies

Posted on by SeeEU

The Trump administration’s crackdown on business with Cuba’s communist government is causing unprecedented concern among European companies on the island, according to the European Union’s ambassador.

“There’s enormous worry,” Ambassador Alberto Navarro told The Associated Press.

“There are businesspeople who’ve been here 20, 30 years, who’ve made bets on investing their financial resources in Cuba to stimulate commerce, tourism, international exchange, and many of them tell me that they haven’t lived through a similar situation,” Navarro said in an interview at the EU embassy Tuesday afternoon.

The Trump administration announced last week that it would allow Americans to sue foreign companies whose partnerships with the Cuban government make use of commercial and industrial properties confiscated from Americans in Cuba’s 1959 revolution. The measure also allows suits by the large number of Cubans who fled the island and later became Americans.

The first lawsuits can be filed starting May 2.

Navarro said the European Union will vigorously defend European companies doing business in Cuba in court and before the World Trade Organization.

“I think I have said with great clarity, any country can adopt whatever legislation it wants, and apply the law within its own country, we can criticize whether we like it or not. What that country cannot do is impose its legislation on others,” Navarro said.  “We are the front line of defense in Cuba, and obviously have legitimate interests in Cuba and we want to defend them and protect our citizens and our investors.”

The EU is Cuba’s largest trading partner, with some 2.6 billion euros in annual trade with the island, all but 400 million euros a year in exports from the EU to Cuba.

The Trump administration has imposed a series of recent measures meant to damage the Cuban economy, saying they are meant to prevent Cuba from aiding President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist administration in Venezuela.         

 
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Sudan Protesters Call for ‘Million March’ for Civilian Rule

Posted on by SeeAF

Sudan’s protest leaders have called for a million people to march on Thursday to demand the military give power to a civilian council.  The call came after the head of Sudan’s transitional military council said it would hand over power “within days” if civilian groups can agree on who will be in a new government.

Sudan’s main protest group, the Sudanese Professionals Association, has called for a million people to take to the streets on Thursday.

Omer Eldigair, the head of Sudan’s Congress Party, which has backed the SPA in the recent protests, says the demonstrators will not accept military rule.

He said yes they have escalatory measures, they are ready for a million-person march, and preparing for a nationwide political strike.  They will not give up the people’s demand for a civilian government.

On Tuesday, Sudan’s army chief and head of the transitional military council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan, said the military would turn over power to civilians within days if the protest groups agree on the composition of a new government.

Burhan made the comments during an interview with the BBC’s Hardtalk program, when he underscored that Sudan’s troops would not attack protesters who have been camped around military headquarters since April 6.

But protesters dispute Burhan’s characterization that a consensus has not been reached.

Waddah Salih said it could be done within one month if the opposition parties create a united government.  The list of civilian members of government has been submitted, he said, so the ball is in the military council’s court and they should accept it within a month.

The military ousted president Omar al-Bashir on April 11 after three decades in power and four months of anti-government protests.  But protesters have continued their sit-in, demanding civilian rule and not the military’s announced two-year transition.

Protester Amjad Nimir said the transition period is too long and they consider it stalling by the military council to not hand over power to a civilian government immediately.

Sudan’s military is under international pressure to move more quickly to civilian rule.

On Tuesday, the African Union gave the military a new three-month deadline to hand over power or have Sudan’s membership suspended.  The bloc had earlier given the military 15 days.

Visiting U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of African Affairs Makila James met separately Tuesday with members of the military council and protest leaders.

They discussed what the State Department has called the Sudanese people’s legitimate demands for an inclusive, civilian-led transition.

The U.S. has said there will be no talks on lifting U.S. sanctions on Sudan for sponsoring terrorism until the military hands over power to a civilian administration.

 
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Sudanese Military Invites Protesters to Talks Amid Tensions

Posted on by SeeAF

Sudan’s ruling military council has proposed a meeting with the organizers of the protests that toppled President Omar al-Bashir after they suspended talks with the generals over the weekend.

The council says it is willing to discuss proposals from the coalition of groups behind the protests for an immediate transfer of power to a transitional civilian government.

The Sudanese Professionals Association and its allies, who organized the four months of demonstrations that drove al-Bashir from power on April 11, have not yet accepted the invitation to Wednesday’s meeting.

The military has said it is meeting with all political factions to discuss the transition. The protesters fear the military intends to hold onto power or leave much of al-Bashir’s regime intact.

 

 
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Analysts: US Initiative First of Many Actions to Drain Hezbollah’s Financing

Posted on by SeeEA

A United States initiative toward three key figures within Hezbollah’s financial networks would be the first in a series of actions against the Lebanese militant group to drain it of resources, analysts predict.

The U.S. on Monday offered $10 million for information on three financiers of the Lebanese terror group.

“This looks like it will be one move of many targeting the funding streams Hezbollah uses,” Phillip Smyth, a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told VOA on Tuesday.

“While some offers for rewards have been better with some groups over others, this may show further cracks within the group regarding overseas financiers and those linked to them,” he added. 

Cash rewards program

The U.S. announcement is part of the State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program, which has largely focused on offering cash rewards for information that leads to the capture of wanted terrorists around the world. 

U.S. officials said this announcement marks the first time that the U.S. State Department has offered a reward for information on Hezbollah financial networks.

“In previous years, Hezbollah has generated about $1 billion annually through direct financial support from Iran, international businesses and investments, donor networks, and money-laundering activities,” Assistant Secretary for State for Diplomatic Security Michael T. Evanoff said during a press briefing on Monday. 

Evanoff said the Shiite group uses these funds to support its destructive activities throughout the world, including Syria and Yemen, and surveillance and intelligence gathering operations in the U.S. 

Hezbollah has been increasingly targeted by U.S. sanctions over the past few months.

In 1997, Hezbollah was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. In October 2018, the Department of Justice named Hezbollah as one of the top five transnational criminal organizations in Latin America.

Targeted figures 

The three Hezbollah figures targeted in the cash rewards program — Mohammed Bazzi, Ali Charara and Adham Tabaja — are key figures in the group’s financial network that operates on four continents, U.S. officials said Monday.

“Together, these individuals comprise key parts of Hezbollah’s financial modus operandi, and they have networks that span four continents, with links to the formal financial sector as well as the drug trade and corrupt foreign governments,” said Marshall Billingslea, assistant secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing. 

In 2015, the U.S. Treasury designated Tabaja, who has direct ties with Hezbollah’s senior leadership, and three branches of his business in Lebanon and other countries including Iraq, Ghana and Sierra Leone. 

In 2016, the Treasury designated Charara, Hezbollah’s personal wealth manager, and his Lebanese-based company, Spectrum Investment Group Holdings SAL.

And Bazzi, who funded Hezbollah from his transcontinental business holdings, was designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the Treasury in May 2018. Bazzi has closely worked with the Central Bank of Iran to expand banking access between Lebanon and Iran, U.S. officials said. 

Ties with Iran 

Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor, also has been targeted by U.S. sanctions in recent months. Since May 2018, when the U.S withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the U.S. has imposed a series of sanctions against Tehran.

“We’re talking about Hezbollah today, but any conversation about Hezbollah must begin in Tehran,” said Nathan Sales, ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism, who was also at the Monday’s briefing.

This week, the U.S. ended its sanctions waivers for five countries importing Iranian oil, with the hope to put new pressure on Tehran to curb its military aggression in the Middle East. 

“Iran remains the world’s leading state-sponsored terrorism… The regime spends nearly a billion dollars a year on its terrorist proxies around the world, and that includes up to $700 million for Hezbollah alone,” Sales said.

Sales added that Iran also actively engages in terrorism itself. 

Earlier this April, the U.S. labeled Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization for what U.S. officials call its destabilizing role in the Middle East. 

With concurrent sanctions on Iran and Hezbollah, U.S. officials hope both sides will be forced to reduce their military activities in the Middle East and beyond.

“If Hezbollah can’t count on the same levels of support from Tehran, the group increasingly will need to raise money to support terrorism itself. In this administration, we use every tool at our disposal to dismantle Hezbollah’s global financing network,” Sales said.
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Alcohol Shops in Mosul Reopen Two Years After Its Recapture From IS

Posted on by SeeEA

Almost two years after Iraqi forces recaptured the city of Mosul from Islamic State (IS), small shops selling alcohol are reopening their doors and new ones are appearing.

Customers purchase bottles or cans of liquor which are then placed in black plastic bags, or emptied out into nondescript plastic bottles.

Mosul was home to two million people before being overrun in 2014 by IS, which proclaimed a “caliphate” stretching into neighboring Syria. It held Mosul for three years.

Under the militant group’s strict rule, items such as alcohol and cigarettes were banned. Shops that sold alcohol were burned down and destroyed.

Liquor store owner Nemat Hassan said IS burned his store down in the city.

“There was more than $40,000 worth of stock. They burned it,” he said.

Since the city was recaptured, some have decided to return to what remains of their homes and rebuild their stores. Hassan reopened his shop and said he hasn’t faced any problems.

“When we came back after Daesh (Islamic State), the security forces were controlling Mosul. There are no problems, thank God.

There have been no threats by any groups, no problems in Mosul.”

Another liquor store owner, Adel Jindy, said many more stores are appearing in the neighborhood as more licenses are being granted.

“Before there were four stores in Al Dawasah (neighborhood) now there are many licensed shops,” he said.

Business is generally good – the only time customers are afraid of coming in is after an attack or a car bomb. But once the initial panic fades, it’s business as usual, said Jindy.

In Iraq members of the Yazidi and Christian religious minorities are allowed to have alcohol licenses. Alcohol is prohibited by Islam.

Mosul has been the site of several bomb blasts in recent months. In an attack this March, a car packed with explosives blew up killing two people and wounding another 24 near Mosul University.

Nearly two million Iraqis are still displaced by the fight against IS, according to a survey by REACH, a non-governmental organization. Many say they are not ready to go home because of the destruction and lack of services.
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WHO: 264 Dead in Weeks of Fighting in Libya

Posted on by SeeEA

The World Health Organization says 264 people have been killed and 1,266 wounded in three weeks of fighting by rival governments for control of Libya.

The U.N.’s health agency said large numbers of civilians are seeking shelter from the fighting in medical clinics. But it says its immediate concern is for the thousands of people trapped inside government-run detention centers close to the fighting.

Along with a call for an immediate cease-fire, U.N. humanitarian officials say they urgently need more than $10 million to keep helping beleaguered civilians in Libya.

The officials say they have received just 6% of pledges so far.

Meantime, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi held an emergency meeting of three other African Union members Tuesday to talk about the crisis in Libya. 

El-Sissi told diplomats from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and South Africa that the international community must “assume its responsibility” and bring the warring parties in Libya back to the peace table.

​”The Libyan people have been subject to an abuse of their resources over the past years. Unprecedented chaos caused by militias and terrorist organizations, human trafficking and smuggling due to political disputes between various factions supported by foreign powers. Now the time has come to end this,” he said.

Forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar and his rival government in the east have launched a military offensive against Tripoli and the internationally recognized administration of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj. 

The fighting has been primarily centered in the suburbs south of the capital.

Libya has been in chaos since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was toppled and killed in 2011.

Numerous armed factions and militias have been jockeying for power and control of Libya’s oil wealth.

The U.N. fears the fighting will not only create a new refugee crisis in North Africa, but that terrorist groups such as Islamic State will take advantage of the crisis to dig in deeper inside Libya.
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In Rambling Note to Judge, Pipe Bomb Mailer Sayoc Blames Steroids

Posted on by SeeUS

A Florida man who mailed crudely made pipe bombs to prominent critics of President Donald Trump said he abused steroids for over 40 years, an issue his lawyers say they’ll cite at sentencing. 

Cesar Sayoc made the assertion in lengthy and rambling letters to a federal judge that were posted in his court case file Tuesday. 

Sayoc, 57, pleaded guilty to explosives-related charges in March and faces a mandatory 10-year prison term and up to life in prison when he’s sentenced Aug. 5. His lawyers told the judge in a different letter that a psychiatrist with specialized knowledge of the effects steroids can have on mental health will compose a report on Sayoc’s extensive steroid use prior to that sentencing date.

He said he never intended to injure anyone when he mailed 16 rudimentary bombs to CNN offices and numerous Democrats, including former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, members of Congress and actor Robert De Niro.

No bombs exploded

The bombs were mailed to addresses in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, California, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., and began turning up over a five-day stretch weeks before the 2018 midterm elections. 

No bombs exploded, which Sayoc said was by design, describing the devices as little more than fireworks. Prosecutors plan to submit a detailed report on the explosives prior to sentencing.

In his letters, Sayoc told U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff that he had abused steroids for more than four decades and was using 274 different supplements and vitamins along with “heavy amounts of steroids” before his arrest.

He wrote that before he mailed explosives, his idea “first was how to tone down the liberal left violence platform.”

He wrote that he believed prominent Democrats were encouraging violence, saying he had been attacked personally — including as he returned to his hotel after attending Trump’s inauguration.

‘Leftist leadership’

Sayoc also asserted “leftist leadership” had encouraged followers to commit violence that caused $1,800 worth of damage to his van, including slashed tires, sliced fuel lines, broken windows and doors and damage to his battery that a mechanic told him could have caused it to explode.

Sayoc has been held without bail since his arrest in late October outside a South Florida auto parts store. He had been living in his van, which was plastered with Trump stickers and images of crosshairs superimposed over the faces of Trump opponents.

Since being imprisoned, Sayoc said, he has heard voices and suffered various psychological effects, including depression, high anxiety, vertigo and loneliness.

Newfound drug

Explaining his crimes, he said he was never political until he was looking at Facebook on his phone one day when “Donald J. Trump popped up …”

He likened attending a Trump rally to a newfound drug. 

“I was getting so wrapped up in this new found fun drug,” he said in one handwritten letter. 

Now, though, he says he has sworn off politics.

“Politics is dirty, ruthless, deadly,” he wrote. “It is a poison. It will drive you crazy like it or not.” 
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Treasury’s Mnuchin Fails to Meet Deadline to Hand Over Trump Tax Returns

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday failed to meet a final congressional deadline for turning over President Donald Trump’s tax returns to lawmakers, setting the stage for a possible court battle between Congress and the administration.

The outcome, which was widely expected, could prompt House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal to subpoena Trump’s tax records as the opening salvo to a legal fight that may ultimately have to be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Neal set a final 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) deadline for the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury to provide six years of Trump’s individual and business tax records. But the deadline passed without the panel receiving the documents.

After the deadline lapsed, Mnuchin released a letter to Neal in which he pledged to make “a final decision” on whether to provide Trump’s tax records by May 6. It was the second time the administration has missed a House deadline for the tax returns since Neal requested them on April 3.

“Secretary Mnuchin notified me that once again, the IRS will miss the deadline for my … request. I plan to consult with counsel about my next steps,” Neal said in a statement.

In his letter, Mnuchin said he was still consulting with the Justice Department about Neal’s request, which he termed “unprecedented.”

“The department cannot act upon your request unless and until it is determined to be consistent with the law,” the Treasury secretary told Neal.

‘Not Up to the President’

Earlier on Tuesday, the White House said Trump was unlikely to hand over his tax returns. “As I understand it, the president’s pretty clear: Once he’s out of audit, he’ll think about doing it, but he’s not inclined to do so at this time,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told Fox News in an interview.

“This is not up to the president. We did not ask him,” said a Democratic committee aide, who cited a law saying the Treasury secretary “shall furnish” taxpayer data upon request from an authorized lawmaker.

Neal informed IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig earlier this month that failure to comply with the deadline would be viewed as a denial.

Legal experts said House Democrats could vote to hold Mnuchin or Rettig in contempt of Congress if they ignored a subpoena, as a pretext to suing in federal court to obtain Trump’s returns. Experts say administration officials could ultimately risk financial penalties and even jail time by defying the committee.

As Ways and Means chairman, Neal is the only lawmaker in the House of Representatives authorized to request taxpayer information under federal law. Democrats say they are confident of succeeding in any legal fight over Trump’s tax returns.

“The law is on our side. The law is clearer than crystal. They have no choice: they must abide by (it),” Representative Bill Pascrell, who has been leading the Democratic push for Trump’s tax records, said in a statement to Reuters.

Democrats want Trump’s returns as part of their investigations of possible conflicts of interest posed by his continued ownership of extensive business interests, even as he serves the public as president.

Republicans have condemned the request as a political “fishing expedition” by Democrats.

Despite the law’s clarity, Democrats have long acknowledged that the effort would likely result in a legal battle that could end up with the U.S. Supreme Court.

“If the IRS does not comply with the request, it is likely that Chairman Neal will subpoena the returns,” Representative Judy Chu, a Democratic member of the Ways and Means Committee, told Reuters.

“If they do not comply with that (subpoena), a legal battle will begin to defend the right of oversight in Congress,” she said.

Trump broke with a decades-old precedent by refusing to release his tax returns as a presidential candidate in 2016 or since being elected, saying he could not do so while his taxes were being audited.

But his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, told a House panel in February that he does not believe Trump’s taxes are under audit. Cohen said the president feared that releasing his returns could lead to an audit and IRS tax penalties.
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Texas Man Awaits Execution in 1998 Dragging Death

Posted on by SeeUS

John William King was 24 years old when he and two friends committed one of the grisliest crimes in modern American history.

Barring a last-minute stay, King, 44, will on Wednesday become the second person to be executed for the murder of James Byrd Jr. of Jasper, Texas. 

In the pre-dawn hours of June 7, 1998, three white men, King, Lawrence Brewer and Shawn Berry, offered Byrd a ride. Instead, they drove him to a secluded area where they beat him and spray-painted his face before tying a logging chain around his ankles, attaching it to the back of the truck and dragging him down a secluded road in the woods for about 5 kilometers.

No motive presented

Officials said Byrd was alive for at least the first 3 kilometers before his body was torn apart. His naked body was left near a black church just outside Jasper. The rest of his body was found about 2 kilometers away, court records show.

He had been decapitated and dismembered during the drive. 

“Byrd’s death and dismemberment were caused, according to the pathologist, when he was slung into a culvert on the side of the road,” according to the records.

During an investigation, police found a lighter engraved with Ku Klux Klan initials and the world “Possum,” cigarette butts, a button from Byrd’s shirt, Byrd’s baseball cap and a wrench inscribed with the name “Berry.” They also found traces of Byrd’s blood under Berry’s truck. 

The cigarette butts held King’s DNA, and police learned King’s nickname was Possum. 

While no motive was presented during the trials, prosecutors have repeatedly pointed to racism as the reason for the crime. 

Three men convicted

All three men — King, Brewer and Berry — were convicted of capital murder.  King and Brewer were sentenced to death and Berry received a sentence of life in prison. 

Brewer was executed in 2011.

In the years since the dragging, Byrd’s family has established the Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing. His sister, Louvon Byrd Harris, 61, said her family still hopes to build a multicultural center and museum in Jasper to promote diversity and education. 

Considered one of the most gruesome crimes in U.S. history, it shocked not only local residents, but the nation. It also brought about hate crime legislation in Texas and the U.S. Congress.

Hate Crimes Prevention Act

One such law was the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009. Shepard was a gay student in Wyoming who was beaten, tortured and left for dead in October 1998. He died of his wounds six days after he was attacked.

According to the Justice Department, the law has been used to indict 88 defendants in 42 hate crimes cases, with 64 convictions, as of last summer. 
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Malawi Becomes 1st Nation to Immunize Kids Against Malaria

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The World Health Organization says Malawi has become the first country to begin immunizing children against malaria, using the only licensed vaccine to protect against the mosquito-spread disease. 

 

Although the vaccine only protects about one-third of children who are immunized, those who get the shots are likely to have less severe cases of malaria. The parasitic disease kills about 435,000 people every year, the majority of them children under 5 in Africa. 

 

“It’s an imperfect vaccine but it still has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives,” said Alister Craig, dean of biological sciences at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who is not linked to WHO or vaccine. Craig said immunizing the most vulnerable children during peak malaria seasons could spare many thousands from falling ill or even dying.

The vaccine, known as Mosquirix, was developed by GlaxoSmithKline and was approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2015. A previous trial showed the vaccine was about 30% effective in children who got four doses, but that protection waned over time. Reported side effects include pain, fever and convulsions. 

 

Pedro Alonso, director of WHO’s malaria program, said similar vaccination programs would begin in the coming weeks in Kenya and Ghana, with the aim of reaching about 360,000 children per year across the three countries. 

‘Historical moment’

 

Alonso called the vaccination rollout a “historical moment,” noting that it was significantly more difficult to design a vaccine against a parasite as opposed to a bacterium or virus. 

 

He acknowledged the vaccine was flawed, but said the world could not afford to wait for a better option. “We don’t know how long it will take to develop the next-generation vaccine,” he said. “It may be many, many years away.” 

 

In the meantime, he said, the stalled progress against malaria demanded new tools now. Resistance is growing to medicines that treat the disease, while mosquitoes are becoming more resistant to insecticides. In addition, funding for malaria efforts has plateaued in recent years.

It took GSK and partners more than 30 years to develop the vaccine, at a cost of around $1 billion. GSK is donating up to 10 million vaccine doses in the current vaccination initiatives. A company spokesman said GSK is working with partners to secure funding for potentially broader vaccination programs. 

 

Other tools against malaria

Some experts warned the vaccination programs should not divert limited public health funds from inexpensive and proven tools to curb malaria such as bed nets and insecticides. 

“This is a bold thing to do, but it’s not a silver bullet,” said Thomas Churcher, a malaria expert at Imperial College London. “As long as using the vaccine doesn’t interfere with other efforts, like the urgent need for new insecticides, it is a good thing to do.”

Craig said one of health officials’ biggest challenges could be convincing parents to bring their children for repeated doses of a vaccine that only protects about a third of children for a limited amount of time. 

 

More commonly used vaccines, like those for polio and measles, work more than 90 percent of the time. 

 

“This malaria vaccine is going to save many lives, even if it is not as good as we would like,” Craig said. “But I hope this will kick-start other research efforts so that the story doesn’t end here.” 
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Austrian Far-right Politician Resigns over ‘Rat’ Poem

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The vice mayor of the Austrian town where Adolf Hitler was born resigned from his post and the far-right Freedom Party on Tuesday after provoking strong criticism with a poem in which he compared migrants with rats.

Christian Schilcher left the Freedom Party (FPO) to avoid damaging the junior partner in a national coalition with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s conservatives, FPO chief Heinz Christian Strache told a news conference in Vienna. 

Schilcher’s poem in a party newspaper was written under his pseudonym “the city rat” and told from the perspective of a rodent.

“Just as we live down here, so must other rats, who as guests or migrants… share with us the way of life! Or (they must) hurry away quickly,” it says.

One verse adds that if two cultures were mixed it was as if they were destroyed.

“Such misconduct is incompatible with the principles of the Freedom Party,” said Strache, who is vice-chancellor in Austria’s coalition government.

Freedom Party members have repeatedly stumbled over Nazi scandals and made headlines in local media for alleged links with the far-right Identitarian movement.

Schilcher’s resignation was “the only logical consequence” after publishing that “horrible and racist poem”, Kurz told news agency APA.
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Japan’s PM Vows to Help France in Rebuilding Notre Dame

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pledging to help France rebuild the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral.

Abe stopped in France Tuesday as part of his tour of Europe and North America.

Speaking alongside French president Emmanuel Macron, Abe said through a translator he “was deeply saddened by the damage inflicted to the World Heritage” building.

He said the Japanese government “will spare no effort to bring its cooperation” in the reconstruction.

Macron and Abe will discuss the agenda for the upcoming Group of Seven and Group of 20 leaders’ summits that France and Japan will respectively host this year.

In their statement at the Elysee palace, they said they will also talk about boosting economic growth through free trade, and address issues including North Korea and plastic waste in ocean.
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Turkey’s Sole Communist Mayor Promises Small Steps to Socialism

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Capitalism is too firmly entrenched in Turkey to be uprooted overnight, according to the country’s sole communist mayor, but small steps to create local jobs and promote cooperative farming can help nudge it along “the path to socialism.”

Fatih Macoglu, from the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), took over as mayor of the central district of Tunceli this month after victory in March 31 local elections, which saw President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party lose control of the capital Ankara and Turkey’s business hub, Istanbul.

In a country where politics have often been dominated by right-wing nationalist or Islamist parties and where the TKP won just 0.16% of the vote in the March polls, Macoglu’s victory has been a cause for celebration among Turkish leftists.

But then the eastern town of Tunceli, home to minorities such as the Kurds, Zazas and Alevis, has long been known for its leftist, secularist views and for bucking national trends.

The Turkish government removed Tunceli’s last elected mayor for suspected links to the outlawed militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and appointed a trustee who built walls around the town hall for security reasons.

The first thing Macoglu did after his election was to remove the walls, but he also knows he has to adapt his ideals to the tough economic and security conditions of provincial Turkey.

“When we went to people before elections, they had two problems. First, they did not want walls, bureaucracy between the people and the municipality. Second was the issue of unemployment,” he told Reuters at an interview in his office.

“As part of this world where capitalism, imperialism, fascism rule, this country is unable to work without them,” he said, striking a pragmatic tone that has earned him respect beyond far-leftist circles and also beyond Tunceli. 

“Of course, we are not establishing communism. We want to clear the path to socialism that has been polluted by capitalism.”

‘Fairness and equality’

Macoglu came to prominence five years ago when he was elected to run Tunceli’s Ovacik district. He paid off most of the municipality’s sizeable debt, provided free public transportation and opened up government land for agriculture.

Macoglu’s work in Ovacik has changed ordinary Turks’ views of communism, said Serife Ozdemir, 64, a retired teacher from nearby Malatya, one of many admirers from around Turkey to visit Tunceli to offer their congratulations to its new mayor.

“In the past, if two people fought, instead of swearing, one would yell, ‘communist, communist,’ and the other would feel offended,” she said.

Tunceli has always been a “socialist society”, said Serkan Sariates, 44, a bookstore owner who wears a beret with a red star, “because people here believe in fairness and equality.”

Pledging greater transparency, Macoglu has put up posters outside the town hall detailing municipal expenditure and income.

He aims to curb high unemployment — which he puts as high as 35% — by promoting tourism, cooperative farms and the construction of eco-friendly homes for rent. He also wants to slash the municipality’s heavy debt load within two years, repeating his success in Ovacik.

But not everyone in Tunceli is convinced he can succeed.

“The conditions are not suitable here,” said Firaz Tekol, a 24-year-old sociology student. “He’s going to have a hard time tackling all these problems.”
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Morocco Trains Foreign Students in Its Practice of Moderate Islam

Posted on by SeeAF

Naminata Koulibaly, 30, receives training in a Moroccan Muslim teaching institute, founded by King Mohammed VI in 2015, and hopes to return to her home in Ivory Coast better equipped to advise women on religious issues.

She is one of 100 women admitted every year to study for up to three years in the institute in Rabat, run by Morocco’s ministry of religious affairs.

Morocco, which is nearly 100 percent Muslim, has marketed itself as an oasis of religious tolerance in a region torn by militancy — and has offered training to imams and male and female preachers of Islam from Africa and Europe on what it describes as moderate Islam.

It currently trains 1,300 people mostly from the sub-Sahara nations of Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Guinea, Gambia and Chad, where Al Qaeda and Islamic State are active.

“When I go back to my country, I will find some children and women who did not go to school and don’t know a lot about religion, … We will be very useful to them and we will teach them about the fundamentals of religion,” said Koulibaly.

“We will show them how to behave with others and not to be extremists. We will show them how to be moderate in religion.”

Compared to other countries in North Africa, Morocco has been largely insulated from militant attacks. The first since 2011 took place last December when two Scandinavian tourists were found murdered in a tourist spot in the Atlas Mountains. Four suspects had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

Students at the institute receive 2,000 dirhams ($208.33) a month in addition to free accommodation, plane tickets, and health insurance. Admission criteria include having a Bachelor university degree.

The curriculum covers Islamic studies along with philosophy, history of religions, sexual education, and mental health.

“We show them that the concepts of democracy and human rights serve purposes rooted in Islamic values,” said institute director Abdeslam Lazaar.

Imams also receive vocational training in electrics, agriculture or tailoring to enable them to have a source of stable revenue when they return home.

Imam training can help sub-Saharan countries facing militancy and a vacuum in the supervision of religion, Salim Hmimnat of the Rabat-based African Studies Institute said.

Pope Francis visited the imam training institute during his trip to Morocco in March.

Students also come from France, such as 25-year-old Aboubakr Hmaidouch.

“The Muslim community in France is in great need of imams and female religious preachers to ensure that the values of religion contribute to living together and to the spiritual well-being of society,” he said.

Training takes into account practical life and culture, and accepts diversity he said.

“When I return … I hope to put into practice and transmit this knowledge, especially this spirit of peace, love, fraternity and tolerance.”

The institute also helps Rabat expand its foothold in a region where major Moroccan banks and companies have been investing for years.

“The use of religion plays an important role in the kingdom’s overall soft power equation,” said Anouar Boukhars, a Maghreb expert and Carnegie Endowment fellow, noting Morocco promotes its tolerant Islam as an alternative to the extremist ideologies in the Sahel.

($1 = 9.6000 Moroccan dirham)
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Sudan Protesters Take the Train to Support Demonstrators

Posted on by SeeAF

Piled onto the roof of a train or packed inside, hundreds of protesters from the birthplace of the uprising that toppled Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir rolled into Khartoum on Tuesday to support activists demanding that the military relinquish power to civilians.

About 4,000 protesters, many of them waving Sudan’s green, red, black and while flag, greeted them at Khartoum’s main station as the train arrived from Atbara.

Demonstrators began a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry compound on April 6, five days before the military announced Bashir’s removal.

It has continued as protesters push for a swift handover to civilian rule and the number of demonstrators has swelled in recent days.

Two witnesses said authorities attempted to disperse the sit-in about midday. They used loaders to try to take down the roadblocks and barriers put up by protesters, but were chased away by demonstrators, witnesses said.

The Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA), the main protest organiser, also said security forces had attempted to disperse the sit-in. The group encouraged protesters to put up more barriers and keep protesting.

“We call on everyone to go to the sit-in in anticipation of any other attempt and to welcome the Atbara revolutionaries who are on their way to the sit-in,” the SPA said.

Dozens of journalists marched toward the sit-in on Tuesday and dozens of teachers also planned to join.

Villagers from northern Khartoum brought livestock to the sit-in to slaughter and feed the protesters.

State news agency SUNA said that Transitional Military Council head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had told the BBC that the TMC would never use violence against the protesters.

Protests in Sudan were sparked by an attempt to raise bread prices amid a deepening economic crisis, quickly turning against Bashir’s 30-year rule and spreading to cities.

Atbara, about 290 km (180 miles) northeast of the capital, is a railway hub with a large railworker population and has historically been known to be the hotbed of opposition unions and unrest.

 
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Crisis-hit Greeks Foot Steep Bills for Health and Education

Posted on by SeeEU

Every month, when his respiratory medicine runs out, Dionysis Assimakopoulos heads to the most unlikely pharmacy in Athens.

Amid derelict stadiums dating from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the volunteer-staffed social pharmacy of Hellinikon has handed out free medicine to hundreds of poverty-stricken patients, keeping some of them out of death’s reach.

“My wife and I have been unemployed for over two years. We need about 150 euros for medicine every month,” says Assimakopoulos, a former baker.

Established at the height of the crisis in 2011, the pharmacy runs on donated medicine and disposables. Some 40,000 people have brought medicine, many from abroad, says on-duty pharmacist Dimitis Palakas.

Another patient waiting in line is Achilleas Papadopoulos, a retired tenor. His pension of 700 euros is not enough to cover the antibiotics he has come for.

During nearly a decade of cuts imposed as Greece struggled to avert national bankruptcy, public education and health were among the sectors hit the hardest as the country lost a quarter of its national output.

Amid sweeping layoffs, wage cuts and tax hikes, many could not maintain their social insurance contributions and were pushed out of state-provided health support.

“Only 11 percent of Greeks can currently afford private insurance giving full health coverage,” says Grigoris Sarafianos, head of the association of private Greek health clinics.

According to the national statistics service, Greeks paid 34.3 percent of their medical expenses out of their own pocket in 2016.

The crisis exposed “huge state shortages,” says Petros Boteas, a member of the Hellinikon health team, which serves over 500 patients every month.

“There are fewer doctors and hospital staff. Money for medicine has been cut. There is a long waiting list for doctor’s appointments…we had a cancer patient given an appointment in three months,” he told AFP.

To avoid a long wait — especially in an emergency — many are forced to seek private healthcare, regardless of the cost. There are currently over 120 private clinics in the country.

‘Go to a better school’

A similar scenario casts its shadow over education.

When Aspasia Apostolou’s son was 11 years old and finishing Greek public primary school, his class teacher did something unexpected.

“He told us our son is bright and that he should be in a better school,” reminisces Apostolou, a 44-year-old lawyer.

According to the government, public funding for education fell by about 36 percent during the crisis.

Thousands of trained staff including teachers and doctors emigrated — part of an exodus of some 350,000 people — or opted to retire.

A recent study by the London School of Economics found 75 percent of Greek crisis emigrants hold university degrees.

The OECD in a 2017 study — prepared at Greece’s request — said austerity cuts had “a major impact on the demands on the Greek education system, and on those working within it.”

It said that in 2015, there were approximately 25,000 posts vacant for teachers in primary and secondary education schools.

Apostolou now pays 5,800 euros ($6,500) a year in tuition fees at a private school where her son can be assured of a well-structured curriculum.

“At our old school, the children usually come home early. So many school hours are lost because of teacher shortages during the year,” she says.

“There is no evaluation, no reward for effort in a public school. You wallow in mediocrity.”

Between 2011 and 2014, the state cut education wages and expenses by 24 percent, the OECD study said.

While school books are provided by the state free of charge, the cuts continue to impact other essential resources including computers and petrol for heating.

It’s not uncommon for schools to be shut down for lack of heating. The last instance was in February at the Athens school complex where Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras himself was a pupil.

In public schools, much now relies on private initiative and personal goodwill, what Greeks call ‘filotimo’, says Athanassia, a veteran public school teacher.

“I’ve worked in schools where the principal or teachers or parents paid out of their own pocket for essentials…or discreetly brought food to needy families,” says Athanassia, who has worked in 20 public schools as teachers are shared out to plug staffing gaps.

“Whatever works is based on filotimo,” she adds. “If funding were better, it would be totally different.”

According to the Greek statistics agency, around 12 percent of the country is near the poverty level.

In response, Tsipras’ government in 2016 began a program giving out free school meals at hundreds of schools in poorer regions.

Similarly, the government allowed access to public hospitals to long-term jobless with Greeks without health insurance.

“It’s a step forward, but inequalities persist,” says Petros at the Elliniko clinic.

“Without health insurance, securing a public hospital appointment might take six months, even for critical examinations,” he adds.
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FC Bayern Opens 1st African Soccer School in Ethiopia

Posted on by SeeAF

German champion football club Bayern Munich has signed an agreement to open its first soccer school in Africa, locating it in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

FC Bayern Munich told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that it is inspired by the young football players and fans in Ethiopia, which is ranked 150th worldwide, according to the international soccer governing body, FIFA.

“Two-thirds of the Ethiopian population is younger than 25 years. We will support the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) in terms of young development and coaches education programs,” Holger Quest, team leader of media operations at FC Bayern Munich, told VOA. 

Last week, Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder, other state officials and FC Bayern executive board members traveled to Addis Ababa to sign the agreement.

Soeder told Ethiopian media the agreement would bring Bavarian expertise in football to the sports-hungry nation of Ethiopia. 

“That is a good basis for a promising partnership,” he said.

The international FC Bayern Youth Cup tournament took place in Nigeria in 2018 and 2019. The success of the tournament led to the idea to give young athletes around the world a way to showcase their talents, and include those players from disadvantaged areas.

FC Bayern Munich has developed many world-class players in their academy, including Thomas Mueller, Mats Hummels and Toni Kroos Kolgers. 

“We want to share our knowledge to help football grow across all continents and nations,” FC Bayern media head Quest said.

Speaking to VOA Horn by telephone from Addis Ababa, EFF President Esayas Jira said Ethiopia would benefit from the coaching and training to be offered by FC Bayern.

The soccer school would accept 30-40 young athletes ages of 8-10, with their training costs covered by Bayern Munich, Jira said.

“The kids would have a chance to join Bayern Munich youth academy” once they successfully completed school training,” he added. 

In the agreement, Bayern Munich said it would also finance the school training and education. FC Bayern coaches would lead youth coaches to train local players in Addis Ababa starting May 3, Jira told VOA.

FC Bayern’s club mission states their programs help equip children with the tools to play football, and combines FC Bayern strategy of football with the lessons of “our philosophy and mentality, which typifies qualities like ambition, respect, ‘fair play’ and a strong team spirit that are beneficial both on and off the pitch.”

Bayern Munich’s football school provide young athletes three days of weekly training “to give youngsters a sense of what it is like to train like a professional football (player),” Jira said.

The FC Bayern club also hopes the new school increases exposure to the team in Africa.

When Bayern officials and Bavarian Prime Minister Soeder met with Ethiopia’s first female president, Sahle-Work Zewde, to discuss the details of the agreement, they presented her with a Bayern Munich shirt with “Sahle-Work 1” on the back.

FC Bayern has also established football schools in China, Thailand, Japan, Singapore and the United States as well. 
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US Border Militia Leader Could Face More Charges

Posted on by SeeUS

The leader of an armed civilian militia group that has been detaining illegal border crossers at the U.S. Mexico-border appeared in court Monday. He faces charges of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, was arrested in the border city of Sunland Park, New Mexico, on a federal complaint.

The charges stem from the discovery of weapons at Hopkins’ residence in 2017, after the FBI was alerted to “alleged militia extremist” activity connected to Hopkins, according to a federal court complaint that was unsealed Monday. The United States Attorney’s office in New Mexico did not reveal why there was a delay in charging Hopkins.

Hopkins is the leader of the United Constitutional Patriots, one of several civilian militias operating along the U.S. southern border. On its Facebook page, the UCP claims it is a group of “Americans that believe in the constitution and the rights of every American that will stand up for there [sic] rights in unity and help keep America safe.”  

Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the UCP, said the group is simply helping U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents and local police, and that UCP members carry weapons for self defense and at no time pointed guns at migrants, as they have been accused.

But recently uploaded videos show armed members of the group detaining hundreds of children and their parents in the New Mexico desert near El Paso, Texas, before handing the migrants over to the Border Patrol.

The American Civil Liberties Union has accused the UCP of kidnapping and detaining people seeking asylum in the U.S.

Peter Simonson, director of the ACLU in New Mexico, told The Washington Post that his group alerted officials because of fears that the armed militia members would harm the migrants.

Hopkins was convicted of a felony in 2006 for similar crimes. At the time, he was arrested and charged with impersonating a police officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

According to an incident report cited by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Hopkins was seen at a gas station in Keno, Oregon, near the California border, showing firearms to a group of children, telling them that he was a police officer.

A Klamath County sheriff’s deputy wrote in the incident report at the time that he had “observed that Larry Hopkins was wearing a black uniform style shirt and black pants. Hopkins had a badge similar in appearance to a police officer badge pinned above his left breast in the area a police officer would wear a badge. Hopkins had a gold star on each of his collars, which is often a sign of rank. Hopkins had several military or law enforcement style pins all over his shirt in a uniform appearance.”

The latest firearms charge against Hopkins is relatively minor, but it can lead to more serious charges such as kidnapping and impersonating a police officer, and allow law enforcement authorities to open an investigation into the militia and his role in the group.

The FBI said it has received information that Hopkins had “allegedly made the statement that the United Constitutional Patriots were training to assassinate (billionaire activist) George Soros, (former Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton and (former President) Barack Obama.”
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Half of Americans Back Stronger Role of Religion in Society

Posted on by SeeUS

Around half of Americans favor religion playing a greater role in U.S. society, while 18 percent oppose that idea, according to a Pew Research Center study published Monday.

Despite there being a separation of church and state, religion plays a significant part in daily U.S. life: the president traditionally is sworn in using a Bible, while “In God We Trust” is printed on bank notes.

France, Sweden and the Netherlands, meanwhile, posted almost opposite results: 47 percent, 51 percent and 45 percent respectively were opposed to religion playing a key role in society.

Among the 27 countries surveyed in 2018, France (20 percent) and Japan (15 percent) were the countries with the lowest proportion of citizens favoring strengthening religion’s role in society.

Indonesia (85 percent), Kenya (74 percent) and Tunisia (69 percent) came out as the countries most in favor of a bigger place for religion.

The study did not make a distinction between different religions.

In the U.S., the proportion rose to 61 percent among people aged 50 and over, but dropped to 39 percent among 18- to 29-year-olds.

The study was carried out with a representative sample of at least 1,000 people in each country.
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Trump Threatens Crackdown on High Visa Overstay Countries

Posted on by SeeUS

The Trump administration is considering suspending or limiting entry to the U.S. for individuals from countries with high rates of short-term visa overstays — a proposal vaguely reminiscent of the controversial travel bans President Donald Trump pursued during his first year in office.

In a memo signed Monday, Trump directs officials to examine new ways to minimize the number of people overstaying their business and tourist visas as part of a renewed focus on immigration as the 2020 campaign kicks into high gear.

And it says the administration is considering developing “admission bonds” — people entering the country would pay a fee that would be reimbursed when they leave — in an effort to improve compliance.

“We have laws that need to be followed to keep Americans safe and to protect the integrity of a system where, right now, there are millions of people who are waiting in line to come to America to seek the American Dream,” Trump said in a statement.

 

More people are in the U.S. because they overstay visas than because they cross the border illegally, according to the nonpartisan Center for Migration Studies. Some of the countries with high overstay rates include Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Liberia, the Solomon Islands, Benin and Burkina Faso. Officials say 20 countries have rates over 10 percent.

The memo gives the secretaries of state and homeland security 120 days to come up with recommendations, including potentially limiting how long visas last.

The idea of restricting travel from high overstay countries is part of a long list of proposals being tossed around by officials as they try to appease a president who has been seething over the influx of migrants at the border as he tries to make good on his 2016 campaign promises and energize his base going into 2020.

The ideas have ranged from the extreme —including Trump’s threat to completely shut down the southern border and resume the widely denounced practice of separating children from parents — to more subtle tweaks to the legal immigration system.

Plans are also in the works to have border patrol agents, instead of asylum officers, conduct initial interviews to determine whether migrants seeking asylum have a “credible fear” of returning to their homelands. And the administration has been weighing targeting the remittance payments people living in the country illegally send home to their families and moving forward with plans to punish immigrants in the country legally for using public benefits, such as food stamps.
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Spanish General Election Candidates Clash over Catalonia

Posted on by SeeEU

The main candidates in Spain’s general election on Monday clashed over how to handle Catalonia’s independence drive, accusing each other of lying in a tense television debate that left questions open on what coalition deals could be struck.

Spain’s parliamentary election on April 28, one of the country’s most divisive since its return to democracy in the late 1970s, is being fought more on emotional and identity issues, such as Catalonia’s botched independence bid than on the economy.

No clear winner

None of the four candidates emerged as a clear winner from the late-night debate during which all except the anti-austerity Pablo Iglesias appeared quite tense, trading barbs and accusing the others of lying, being out of touch with reality and not doing enough to handle corruption cases within their respective parties.

Pablo Casado, of the conservative People’s Party, and Albert Rivera, from the center-right Ciudadanos, repeatedly accused outgoing Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, the election front-runner, of working against the country’s interest.

“The unity of Spain is at risk because of the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez … those who want to break Spain apart have Sanchez as their favorite candidate,” said the right-wing Casado.

“Do we want the future of Spain to remain in the hands of those who want to liquidate Spain?,” the center-right Rivera said in the late-night televised debate.

Rivera also kept pointing to a picture of Sanchez meeting with Catalonia separatist leader Quim Torra, which he put on his podium for much of the debate.

Shockwaves

The October 2017 independence referendum in Catalonia — declared illegal by Spanish courts, but followed by a short-lived declaration of independence — has sent shockwaves through Spanish politics, which are weighing on Sunday’s vote.

Sanchez, who became prime minister in June of last year and has been more open to dialogue with Catalan separatists than his conservative predecessor Mariano Rajoy, responded by saying he was in favor of dialogue, but was opposed to independence for the region located in the country’s northeast.

He said several times throughout the debate that his two right-of-center opponents, who both accused him of lying, might need “a truth detector to see if they tell any truth.”

Sanchez’s Socialists are seen as ahead in opinion polls, but without enough seats to rule on their own. The same polls show they will likely need more than the support of the anti-austerity Podemos to rule, and may need the support of nationalist parties, including those from Catalonia.

What coalition deal?

The polls show it will be even harder for the three right-wing parties to win enough seats to rule.

But the number of undecided voters is so high that all possible outcomes are within the margin of error and could still change on Sunday, pollsters say, all the more so because of how hard it is to predict how many seats the upstart far-right Vox party will get.

Opinion polls show a possible coalition deal would be between the Socialists and Ciudadanos, but Rivera has repeatedly ruled it out and did so again on Monday.

Sanchez, however, did not respond when Podemos leader Iglesias repeatedly asked him if he was ruling out a deal with Ciudadanos, indirectly keeping the door open to such an option.

Vox isn’t invited 

Vox was not invited to the debate and was not mentioned by name by any of the candidates, with only Sanchez mentioning its leader Santiago Abascal by name, to try and rally left-wing voters against the possibility of seeing a right-wing government backed by the far right.

Vox is forecast to be the far-right party to get seats in the national parliament in nearly four decades, marking a watershed in the country’s modern democratic history.

Another TV debate among the same four candidates will follow on Tuesday, giving them another chance to differentiate themselves ahead of the election.
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US Seeks To Choke Off Iran’s Oil Exports, Iran Threatens To Close Strategic Strait

Posted on by SeeEA

The United States is ending sanctions waivers on five countries importing Iranian oil, hoping to choke off Tehran’s main source of revenue. Iran was swift to respond, threatening to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a major shipment artery in the Middle East, if it cannot export oil. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more reaction from the countries most affected by the U.S. action, including China and Turkey.
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N. Korea Confirms Kim Jong Un to Visit Russia for Summit with Putin

Posted on by SeeEU

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean state media confirmed.

With his Russia visit, North Korea’s Kim is seen working to build up foreign support for his economic development plans, since the breakdown of the second U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi in February led to stalled talks with Washington on the sanctions relief Pyongyang had sought.

State media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the visit will happen “soon,” but did not elaborate the time or the venue.

Putin and Kim are on track to meet by the end of April, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

Kim Jong Un’s chief aide, Kim Chang Son, was seen in Vladivostok on Sunday according to South Korean news agency Yonhap, leading to speculation that the Putin-Kim summit will be held in the city around April 24-25.

NK News, a group that follows North Korea, showed photos on its website on Monday of preparations underway at Vladivostok’s Far Eastern Federal University, likely to host part of the summit, with workers installing North Korean and Russian flags.

After the diplomatic failure at the Hanoi summit, Kim is likely looking to prove that he is still being sought after by world leaders, and that he has more options, said Artyom Lukin, a professor at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok.

“Kim does not want to look too dependent on Washington, Beijing and Seoul,” he said. “As for Russia, the Putin-Kim summit will reaffirm Moscow’s place as a major player on the Korean Peninsula. This meeting is important for Russian international prestige.”
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