White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Sunday acknowledged that U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods will be paid by U.S. importers, contrary to President Donald Trump’s claims that China will pay for the U.S.-imposed levies. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Month: May 2019
Murder Charge Dropped Against Jewish Suspect in Arson Attack on Palestinians
Israeli prosecutors have dropped murder charges against a Jewish suspect in a 2015 arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents.
Under a plea bargain, the unnamed suspect pleaded guilty to a racially motivated conspiracy and staking out the Palestinian village with a codefendant.
Prosecutors will seek a five-year prison sentence. They agreed not to pursue the more serious charge of murder, noting the suspect was a minor at the time of the attack.
The other suspect, identified as Amiram Ben Oliel, is in jail while the investigation continues.
The two allegedly firebombed the home belonging to the Dawabshe family in the West Bank village of Duma near Nablus.
The flames killed 18-month-old Ali and his parents. An older brother survived with serious burns.
The attack angered many Israelis, including conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who condemned it as “terrorism.”
Ali’s grandfather criticized the plea bargain, saying prosecutors are giving “a green light to a Jewish suspect, who will leave prison and continue the murder spree he and his friend started.”
your ad hereUAE: Sabotage on 4 Commercial Ships in Gulf of Oman
The United Arab Emirates says four commercial ships were subjected to “sabotage operations” Sunday near its territorial waters in the Gulf of Oman.
Authorities gave no details, however, on what kind of sabotage they suspect or to whom the ships belong, other than saying they were of different nationalities.
They say no one was hurt and no chemicals or fuel were spilled from the ships.
The UAE did deny Iranian and Lebanese news reports of explosions at the port of Fujairah and added “media outlets must be responsible and rely on official sources.”
The UAE says international bodies are helping with the investigation.
“Carrying out acts of sabotage on commercial and civilian vessels and threatening the safety and lives of those aboard is a serious development,” the foreign affairs ministry said Sunday, urging all nations to take their responsibilities to prevent actions by anyone looking to undermine maritime safety.
UAE officials declined to say who they thought was behind whatever happened on the ships.
The U.S. Maritime Administration warned last week of what it calls the “increased possibility that Iran and/or its regional proxies could take action against U.S. and partner interests… by targeting commercial vessels, including oil tankers or U.S. military vessels.”
There has been no response from Iran. But the head of parliament’s national security committee tweeted “security of the south of the Persian Gulf is like glass.”
your ad hereTanzania’s Top Male Model Embraces Loss of Skin Pigmentation
A long-term condition began robbing his skin of its color a decade-and-a-half ago. Since then the man recently named Tanzania’s top male model publicly embraced his condition. He says it makes him unique. Arash Arabasadi has more.
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Albania Anti-Government Protesters Keep Up Heat
Albania’s center-right opposition has called for further protests as it continues a months-long effort to bring about the resignation of the left-wing government and force early parliamentary elections.
The Democratic Party said after a meeting of its leaders on May 12 that it will hold another protest on May 13.
The move comes after thousands of demonstrators gathered early on May 11 in front of the main government building at Tirana’s Martyrs of the Nation Boulevard before moving on to other sites.
Protesters threw flares, firecrackers, Molotov cocktails, and other items as security personnel used tear gas when some in the crowd broke through a police cordon and attempted to storm the government building.
Protesters did not enter the site, and clashes were later reported near the parliament building.
“Barbarous violence against hundreds of protesters…will get [on May 13] the proportional response from the united and determined people,” Lulzim Basha, leader of the Democratic Party, told hundreds of supporters at the Tirana police department on May 12.
The opposition has alleged fraud in the 2017 parliamentary elections, organized protests, and cut its ties to parliament to force early polls. The Socialist government of Prime Minister Edi Rama has dismissed the allegations.
The opposition also accuses Rama’s cabinet of having links to organized crime, which the government denies.
The protests are taking place weeks ahead of an expected decision by European Union members whether to approve opening accession talks with Albania and neighboring North Macedonia.
The EU and the United States have expressed support for the government and have urged the opposition to return to parliament and take part in local elections on June 30.
Both Rama and Basha have backed the moves to join the EU, but the opposition leader has said the Socialists’ alleged corruption could prevent the small Western Balkan country from reaching its membership goal.
Protesters are “determined to keep waging a bigger and more resolute battle as long as the government was keeping Albania apart from Europe,” he said.
“We are here with a mission, to liberate Albania from crime and corruption, to make Albania like the rest of Europe,” Basha told supporters at a May 11 rally in central Tirana. “I call on our European and international friends not to punish Albania.”
Ambulances were seen taking injured people away from the protests, but there was no immediate information on numbers of casualties.
Interior Minister Sander Lleshaj said 13 policemen were injured.
President Ilir Meta called on protesters “to avoid acts of violence and confrontation,” while Rama denounced the violence and expressed support for police forces.
The U.S. Embassy in Tirana condemned protesters’ violence and called for restraint by all sides.
“Protest leaders have a responsibility to encourage calm. We call on all parties to show restraint,” a statement said.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that “violence is not the answer. Also, heavy response to violence will not help.”
your ad hereSouth Africa Chief Vows to Purge ANC of ‘Deviant Tendencies’
South Africa’s president is vowing to purge his party of “bad and deviant tendencies” as he prepares to appoint a new Cabinet following a victory in national elections.
The 57 percent share of the vote was the worst-ever election showing for the African National Congress, which has ruled since the apartheid system of racial discrimination ended 25 years ago.
Low voter turnout also reflected the frustration of many South Africans after corruption scandals around the ANC that led former president Jacob Zuma to resign last year under party pressure.
Current President Cyril Ramaphosa in his first speech to supporters since the election win said Sunday he will not appoint leaders who work “to fill their own pockets.”
Ramaphosa is believed to be facing a revolt within the party by Zuma allies.
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Afghan Official: US Diversion of Funds Not to Undermine Security Cooperation
Afghan officials are downplaying the significance of the United States diverting funds from its military mission in Afghanistan, as a senior American diplomat has arrived in Kabul for high-level discussions.
Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Friday approved the transfer of $1.5 billion to build barriers on the border with Mexico, including taking more than $600 million designated for beleaguered Afghan security forces, which are struggling to contain Taliban battlefield advances.
“We do not see any change in security-related programs and coordination ongoing with U.S. forces,” Afghan Interior Minister Massoud Andarabi told reporters in Kabul. He noted Washington remains committed to supporting Afghan security forces and emphasized it is an internal U.S. policy matter as to how and where they want to spend their money.
The private Afghan TOLO News television station quoted a U.S. military spokesman as saying the diversion of funds is part of the plan to reduce expenditures of foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan. Colonel David Butler noted the cost savings move will not impact “the effectiveness or the readiness” of Afghan security forces to fight terrorism.
“U.S. forces in Afghanistan will return $600 million to the Department of Defense. We did this through very close work with the Afghan security forces and with very close work with the Afghan government to make things more efficient and make things better, and we were spending our money on the right things,” Butler said. The military spokesman reiterated Washington’s complete commitment to Afghan security forces in their fight against terrorism.
The United States is also holding direct talks with Taliban insurgents to try to promote a political settlement to the Afghan conflict. The latest round of discussions concluded last Thursday, but neither side has reported any breakthrough.
President Donald Trump announced in January progress in the talks with the Taliban could lead to withdrawal of half of some 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.
Recent reports the Trump administration has decided to accelerate plans to reduce the staff by half at the embassy in Kabul coupled with diverting funds designated for Afghan forces raise questions about a “strong future U.S. commitment to Afghanistan,” tweeted Washington-based analyst, Michael Kugelman.
Meanwhile, visiting senior State Department diplomat for the region, Alice Wells, held talks with President Ashraf Ghani and discussed matters related to U.S. civilian assistance aimed at strengthening Afghan institutions and promoting Afghan self-reliance.
A presidential spokesman said Ghani and Wells also reviewed efforts the government is making to advance the Afghan peace process, and preparations underway for the presidential elections scheduled for September 28.
your ad hereBurkina Faso: 6 Killed in Catholic Church Attack
VOA Africa’s Bagassi Koura contributed to this report.
Gunmen killed six people attending mass at the Catholic Church of Dablo in northern Burkina Faso Sunday morning, officials and witnesses said.
The priest and five churchgoers were among the victims, a witness told VOA Africa.
“They were about forty on motorcycles,” the witness said of the attackers. “They made everyone lie down, executed 5 before torching the church.”
The attackers set parts of the church and nearby shops on fire before fleeing the scene roughly an hour and a half after they arrived. Multiple injuries have been reported.
Last week, gunman killed five people in a Protestant church in the small northern town of Silgadji.
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US Expects China Tariff Retaliation
The U.S. said Sunday it expects that China will retaliate with increased tariffs on U.S. exports after President Donald Trump sharply boosted levies on Chinese products headed to the United States.
Chief White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told “Fox News Sunday” that “both sides will suffer” from the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest economies.
In the U.S., he said that “maybe the toughest burdens” are on farmers who sell soybeans, corn and wheat to China. But he said the Trump administration has “helped them before on lost exports” with $12 billion in subsidies and that “we’ll do it again if we have to and if the numbers show that out.”
Trump on Friday more than doubled tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, boosting the rate from 10 percent to 25 percent, while also moving to impose tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese products, although Kudlow said it could take months for the full effect of the tariffs to be felt. China had previously imposed taxes on $110 billion of American products, but has not said how it might retaliate against Trump’s latest increase in tariffs.
Trade talks between the two economic super powers have been going on in Beijing and Washington for months, but they recessed again in the U.S. capital on Friday without a deal being reached.
“We were moving well, constructive talks and I still think that’s the case,” Kudlow said. “We’re going to continue the talks as the president suggested.”
Kudlow said Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are likely to discuss trade issues at the G-20 summit in Japan at the end of June.
The economic adviser renewed U.S. claims that China had backtracked from earlier agreements reached in the talks, forcing negotiators to cover “the same ground this past week.”
“You can’t forget this: This is a huge deal, the broadest scope and scale…. two countries have ever had before,” Kudlow said. “But we have to get through a lot of issues. For many years, China trade was unfair, non-reciprocal, unbalanced in many cases, unlawful.”
The U.S. has claimed that China steals technology and forces U.S. companies to divulge trade secrets it uses in its own production of advanced technology products.
On Saturday, Trump suggested that China could be waiting to see if he wins reelection next year, but said Beijing would be “much worse” off during a second term of his in the White House.
“I think that China felt they were being beaten so badly in the recent negotiation that they may as well wait around for the next election, 2020, to see if they could get lucky & have a Democrat win,” he said, “in which case they would continue to rip-off the USA for $500 Billion a year.”
“Such an easy way to avoid Tariffs?” the U.S. leader said, “Make or produce your goods and products in the good old USA. It’s very simple!”
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Al-Shabab Claims Responsibility for Targeted Blast
The Turkish Embassy in Mogadishu says a Turkish citizen was killed Sunday following an explosion near the city’s busy K-4 junction.
The embassy told VOA Somali the victim was an engineer working for a Turkish company.
Witnesses told VOA Somali there was an explosion in the vehicle the victim was riding in. The explosion is believed to have been from improvised explosive device planted in the car.
The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming the engineer was working at the Turkish military training facility in Mogadishu.
Al-Shabab also claimed a killing in the central Somali town of Galkayo. Major Khalif Nur Shil, commander of joint security forces in the town died from wounds suffered in an attack by gunmen armed with pistols as he left a mosque late Saturday.
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Merkel’s Preferred Successor Says Won’t Seek Post Before 2021
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s preferred successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, said Sunday that she would not seek the top job before Merkel’s term ends in 2021.
The woman usually dubbed “AKK” took over from Merkel as head of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) last December, while the chancellor said she wants to serve out her 2017-2021 term.
“The chancellor and the government were elected for an entire legislative term and the citizens rightly expect them to take seriously the commitment that came with the election,” said Kramp-Karrenbauer.
“So I can rule out the possibility that I will work deliberately to seek a change earlier,” she told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
Rather, the CDU should work on a new policy platform and nominate its chancellor-candidate in the late autumn of 2020, she said.
German media have been speculating for months over whether Germany’s veteran leader Merkel may leave earlier as head of her left-right coalition government.
Under one scenario, her junior partners the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) could quit the “grand coalition” if they receive further election setbacks.
Upcoming electoral tests are the European parliament elections this month and three state polls in Germany’s ex-communist east later in the year.
In all those elections, the far-right and anti-immigration AfD could make further gains at the expense of the mainstream CDU and SPD parties.
Kramp-Karrenbauer acknowledged that the coalition with the SPD “did not emerge smoothly and doesn’t always have an easy time cooperating”.
On her relationship with Merkel, she said that “on some days I speak more with her than with my husband”.
She stressed however that Merkel to her was neither a “personal friend” nor a “benefactor”, and that instead they are “fellow travelers”.
“Our relationship is very good, just as it was before,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told the newspaper.
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Spain Says 52 Migrants Climb Fence into Its African Enclave
Spanish authorities say 52 migrants have climbed a guarded fence to gain entry into Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco.
An official with the Spanish Interior Ministry in Melilla says four police officer and one migrant sustained light injuries as the group scaled the high fence around dawn Sunday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with government rules.
Spain’s proximity to North Africa has made it a target for migrants trying to reach the European Union. The migrants try to get in either by land via Spain’s two North African enclaves or by crossing the Mediterranean Sea in small boats.
Spain became the leading entry point to Europe last year, with some 60,000 migrants arriving irregularly, almost all of them by sea.
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Berlin Airlift Remembered, Key Moment in Cold War
Berliners on Sunday celebrated the 70th anniversary of the day the Soviets lifted their blockade strangling West Berlin in the post-World War II years with a big party at the former Tempelhof airport in the German capital.
Among the invited guests of honor was 98-year-old U.S. pilot Gail Halvorsen, who dropped hundreds of boxes of candy on tiny parachutes into West Berlin during the blockade.
Halvorsen came to Berlin from Utah with his two daughters on Friday, the German news agency dpa reported.
On Saturday, a baseball field at Tempelhof airport was named after him — the “Gail S. Halvorsen Park — Home of the Berlin Braves” in honor of his help for Berliners during the Cold War.
Dressed in a military uniform, Halvorsen told Berlin’s mayor Michael Mueller that “it’s good to be home.”
The airlift began on June 26, 1948, in an ambitious plan to feed and supply West Berlin after the Soviets — one of the four occupying powers of a divided Berlin after World War II — blockaded the city in an attempt to squeeze the U.S., Britain and France out of the enclave within Soviet-occupied eastern Germany.
Allied pilots flew a total of 278,000 flights to Berlin, carrying about 2.3 million tons of food, coal, medicine and other supplies.
On the operation’s busiest day, April 16, 1949, about 1,400 planes carried in nearly 13,000 tons over 24 hours — an average of one plane touching down almost every minute.
On the ground in Berlin, ex-Luftwaffe mechanics were enlisted to help maintain aircraft, and some 19,000 Berliners, almost half of them women, worked around the clock for three months to build Tegel Airport, providing a crucial relief for the British Gatow and American Tempelhof airfields.
Finally, on May 12, 1949, the Soviets realized the blockade was futile and lifted their barricades. The airlift continued for several more months, however, as a precaution in case the Soviets changed their minds.
Halvorsen is probably the best known of the airlift pilots, thanks to an inadvertent propaganda coup born out of good will. Early in the airlift, he shared two sticks of gum with starving Berlin children and saw others sniffing the wrappers just for a hint of the flavor.
Touched, he told the children to come back the next day, when he would drop them candy, using handkerchiefs as parachutes.
He started doing it regularly, using his own candy ration. Soon other pilots and crews joined in what would be dubbed “Operation Little Vittles.”
After an Associated Press story appeared under the headline “Lollipop Bomber Flies Over Berlin,” a wave of candy and handkerchief donations followed.
To this day, the airlift still shapes many Germans’ views of the Western allies, especially in Berlin. After the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. in 2001, some 200,000 Berliners took to the streets of the German capital to show their support for the country that had helped prevent their city falling completely to the Soviets.
On Sunday, up to 50,000 people were expected to participate in the festivities, which include musical performances, talks with witnesses, exhibitions of historical vehicles and lots of activities for children, dpa reported.
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Lebanon’s Former Maronite Patriarch Sfeir Dies
Lebanon’s former Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, who wielded considerable political influence during the country’s civil war and was an ardent advocate of a Syrian troop withdrawal, died Sunday, the church said.
Sfeir, who would have turned 99 on May 15, died about 3 a.m. (0100 GMT) “after days of intensive medical care,” said a statement by the Maronite church.
He became the leader of the church in 1986 until he resigned in 2011, because of his declining health, and held the title “76th Patriarch of Antioch and the Whole Levant.”
He was a respected power broker during the 1975-1990 civil war, which saw bitter infighting between rival militias including opposing Christian factions.
Sfeir, who spoke fluent Arabic and French, was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1994.
Helped end civil war
Born in 1920 in Rayfoun, a village in Lebanon’s Kesrwan mountains, Sfeir studied theology and philosophy but was never shy about delving into Lebanon’s tumultuous politics.
His backing of the 1989 Taif agreement that brought the 15-year civil war to an end bolstered Christian support for the accord, but reduced the powers of the presidency, a seat reserved for Lebanon’s Maronite Christians under the country’s confessional power-sharing.
Maronite Christians made up the most powerful single community before Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, but their influence has since waned as they have been outnumbered by Shiite Muslims in the multisectarian country.
Syria out of Lebanon
Sfeir also spearheaded the opposition to Syria’s three decades of military and political domination over Lebanon.
“His biggest struggle was to end the Syrian presence in Lebanon, which we all thought was impossible because of the divisions in Lebanon,” his biographer Antoine Saad told AFP.
“But he worked on it steadily, objectively, meticulously and quietly,” he said.
Sfeir refused to visit Syria during his time as patriarch, even when John Paul II made a trip to the country in 2001.
His outspokenness helped swell the anti-Syria movement in 2000.
It eventually led to the withdrawal of thousands of Syrian troops from the country five years later, following the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, whose murder the opposition blamed on Damascus.
Sfeir’s opinion and advice continued to be sought by politicians of all stripes, not only Christians, after he stepped down.
“He was completely against war,” Saad said of the cleric who enjoyed hiking in nature until his late years. “His loss can’t be compensated for.”
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Generic Drug Companies Accused of Price Gouging
Forty U.S. states have filed a lawsuit against 20 pharmaceutical companies that make generic drugs, accusing the companies of participating in a scheme to inflate drug prices, sometimes by as much as 1,000%.
“We have hard evidence that shows the generic drug industry perpetrated a multibillion dollar fraud on the American people,” said Connecticut Attorney General William Tong. “We all wonder why our health care and specifically the prices for generic prescription drugs, are so expensive in this country — this is a big reason why.”
Generic drugs are lower price alternatives to brand name drugs.
The 500-page lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut, is seeking damages, civil penalties and actions by the court to restore competition to the generic drug market. The suit accuses Teva Pharmaceuticals of being the mastermind behind the scheme.
“Teva and its co-conspirators embarked on one of the most egregious and damaging price-fixing conspiracies in the history of the United States,” the suit said.
Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israeli company, has denied the allegations and says it will fight the lawsuit.
Other drug companies named in the suit include Sandoz and Pfizer.
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Heir Apparent: Germany’s Merkel Should Serve Full Term
The leader of Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) and heir presumptive to Angela Merkel said she had no ambition to succeed her as chancellor until 2021 ahead of a major test of popularity at this month’s European election.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who last December won a party leadership contest as Merkel, Europe’s longest-serving leader, sets the stage for her gradual exit from politics, said she had no desire to accelerate the process.
“The chancellor and the government are elected for a full term and citizens are right to expect that they take this mandate seriously,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper in an interview. “Speaking for myself, I can rule out that I am working in my own interest for a change.”
AKK struggles to impress
Merkel, 64, has run Germany since 2005 but agreed to step down as CDU leader after losing votes in the 2017 general election to the far-right Alternative for Germany, which ran on an anti-immigration platform.
Kramp-Karrenbauer, known as AKK for short, has since struggled to make an impression. Support for the CDU is running around 30 percent ahead of the May 23 election to the European Parliament, less than Merkel’s general election tally.
“Fundamentally, the mood towards Europe is good. But European elections are always a reaction to the national situation, and this contributes to us not being seen very positively at the moment,” said Kramp-Karrenbauer.
The division of leadership roles had created room for speculation that there was a lack of harmony, she added: “That doesn’t leave the party unaffected.”
Kramp-Karrenbauer said, however, that her relationship with Merkel is “very good, as ever.”
“Now that we’re in an election campaign, on many days I speak with her more often than with my husband,” she said.
Coalition friction
While Merkel has yet to join campaigning for the European vote, Kramp-Karrenbauer also blamed the CDU’s weak showing on the poor impression created by its fractious coalition government with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).
We have a coalition that simply hasn’t come together and doesn’t find it easy to cooperate,” she said.
Weighing in on one issue where the two disagree, Kramp-Karrenbauer said it was high time to abolish an income tax surcharge imposed after unification three decades ago to fund financial support to ex-communist eastern Germany.
Gridlock in Berlin, against the backdrop of a slowing economy, has fueled speculation that the coalition could fall apart well before the next general election.
That would create a potential opening for Kramp-Karrenbauer, a former regional premier in the small western state of Saarland, to make an earlier bid to unite the roles of party leader and chancellor.
She said, however, that she was working toward launching a new platform at the CDU’s party conference in late 2020. Only then would the party choose its candidate to run for chancellor in the 2021 general election.
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Labour: Brexit Talks Threatened by Fight to Replace May
The battle among leading Conservatives to replace Theresa May as prime minister threatens to derail talks with the opposition Labour Party and the bid to find a Brexit compromise, Labour’s John McDonnell said.
May, who has offered to quit if lawmakers accept her Brexit deal, opened cross-party talks with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party more than a month ago after parliament rejected her European Union withdrawal deal three times.
The talks with Labour are a last resort for May, whose party’s deep divisions over Brexit have so far kept her from winning approval for an exit agreement and left the world’s fifth largest economy in prolonged political limbo.
McDonnell, Labour’s financial spokesman and a member of the party’s negotiating team, said the situation was precarious.
“The problem they have is that literally in front of us they will fall out,” he told the Sunday Mirror. “So the exercise here is holding themselves together. And that is proving impossible. The administration is falling apart.”
In terms of progress, the second most powerful man in the Labour Party said nothing new had been put on the table, and in some cases the talks had gone backwards.
“It’s so precarious. We’re dealing with an institution that might not be there in three weeks.” He said the talks had been made more difficult by May’s offer to resign, because a new leader could rip up anything agreed to by the current administration.
“We’re in a position now where we’re asking, ‘How can we trust them to deliver — not just in the short-term, in the medium term as well?’”
May’s Conservatives have said the talks are difficult, as both parties gear up to contest European elections later this month, but that they will continue to try and find a deal that can get parliamentary support.
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Hostages Rescued From Burkina Faso Laud Fallen Commandos
Three hostages freed by French commandos from militants in Burkina Faso arrived in Paris on Saturday, expressing sorrow at the deaths of two French
soldiers in the rescue operation.
President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the hostages as they stepped off the French government jet less than 48 hours after French special forces stormed their captors’ hideout in a daring nighttime raid.
Two Frenchmen kidnapped while on safari in Benin more than a week earlier, as well as an American woman and a South Korean woman who were being held with them, were liberated in the high-risk mission authorized by Macron.
The American, who has not been identified, was being repatriated separately.
“All our thoughts go to the families of the soldiers and to the soldiers who lost their lives to free us from this hell,” Laurent Lassimouillas earlier told reporters as he met Burkinabe President Roch Kabore in Ouagadougou.
The French government identified the two soldiers killed as Cédric de Pierrepont and Alain Bertoncello. Macron will lead a national tribute to the men, both officers in the naval special forces, at the Les Invalides military hospital and mausoleum in Paris on Tuesday.
Lassimouillas also expressed regret over the death of a Beninese park guide, who was shot dead when the two tourists were kidnapped.
Islamist insurgency
French officials said Friday that it wasn’t clear who had kidnapped them in Benin but that their captors planned to hand them over to an al-Qaida affiliate in neighboring Mali.
Jihadist groups with links to al-Qaida and Islamic State have expanded their presence across West Africa’s Sahel region, a strip of scrubland beneath the Sahara desert, in recent years and taken a number of Western hostages.
France, the former colonial power in the region, intervened in Mali in 2013 to halt an advance by Islamist militants and has kept about 4,500 troops in the Sahel since then.
“France’s message to terrorists is clear: Those who want to attack France, the French, should know that we will hunt them, we will find them and we will kill them,” Defense Minister Florence Parly said after joining Macron at the Villacoublay military airport outside Paris.
France was doing all it could to secure the release of another French hostage, Sophie Petronin, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. Gunmen kidnapped Petronin in December 2016 in the northern Malian city of Gao.
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Saudi Forces Kill 8 in Shiite Area, Agency Says
Saudi security forces have killed eight people during an operation in the predominantly Shiite eastern Al-Qatif region, state news agency SPA said
Saturday.
The oil-producing province is a regular flash point between the Sunni-dominated government and minority Shiites, who complain of discrimination and marginalization. Saudi authorities deny mistreatment.
The operation occurred on Tarout island, just off the city of Qatif, and targeted a newly formed “terrorist cell,” SPA said in a statement, adding there were no casualties among civilians or policemen.
Security forces were still at the site, it said.
Saudi security services regularly carry out operations in the area, with fatalities reported during operations in January and September, according to Saudi media.
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Texas Waterway Remains Partially Closed After Collision
A busy commercial waterway near Houston remains partly closed following a collision involving four vessels that caused a toxic gasoline product to leak into the water.
Authorities said at a news conference Saturday that the hull of a 755-foot (230-meter) tanker punctured storage tanks on a tugboat that was pushing two barges along the Houston Ship Channel.
One barge capsized Friday. The other was damaged.
The Coast Guard hasn’t revealed the cause of the collision. It’s trying to determine how much reformate leaked into the channel. The gas product is colorless, flammable and toxic to touch, inhale or ingest.
The National Weather Service warned that people living nearby might be able to smell gasoline fumes.
The Houston Chronicle reported the closure had halted 29 inbound ships and 17 outbound.
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Acting Pentagon Chief Wants Secure Border Without Continuous Military Aid
On a trip to a border city in Texas, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said Saturday he intends to accelerate planning to secure the border and bolster the government’s ability to accomplish that without the Pentagon’s continuous help.
He also offered assurances to perhaps two dozen Border Patrol agents and other officials at the McAllen Border Patrol Station that the Pentagon would not withdraw its military support prematurely.
“We’re not going to leave until the border is secure,” he said, adding, “This isn’t about identifying a problem. It’s about fixing a problem more quickly.”
Shanahan told Congress this past week that there are 4,364 military troops on the border, including active-duty and National Guard. They are erecting barriers, providing logistics and transportation service and other activities in support of Customs and Border Protection. The troops are prohibited from performing law enforcement duties. Troops have been deployed on the border since last October and are committed to being there through September.
While flying to Texas, he dismissed any suggestion that active-duty forces will extend their mission for the long haul. “It will not be indefinite,” he told reporters traveling with him.
Shanahan also said he has instructed a two-star Army general, Ricky Waddell, to develop a plan soon that will answer this question: “How do we get more badges back to the border?” — a reference to ensuring Homeland Security Department is fully capable of securing the border, its core mission.
Shortfalls in personnel and other resources have prompted DHS to periodically ask for the military’s help on the U.S.-Mexico border, without a plan for how to fix the underlying resource problems.
“What we want is for DHS to be effective and stand alone,” Shanahan said, with the Pentagon always available to help in an emergency, as it has in the past.
DHS on Friday submitted another request for Pentagon assistance, defense officials said Saturday. That request, which has not previously been disclosed, is for shelter for detained migrants, and would include tents to be set up but not secured by an undetermined number of military troops, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
Shanahan announced on Friday that he was transferring $1.5 billion from numerous defense projects, including $604 million originally intended for use in support of Afghan security forces, to a Pentagon counterdrug fund that will help finance construction of barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border. That is in addition to $1 billion the Pentagon transferred for wall construction in March.
Shanahan has supported the use of active-duty troops, in addition to the National Guard, to bolster CPB efforts to handle surging numbers of Central American migrants seeking to cross the border. But recently he has hinted at impatience with the lack of a long-term strategy for ensuring border security.
In congressional testimony May 1, Shanahan said he and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been considering the question of how long the military will be needed at the border and how best it can support that need.
“The question he and I are trying to answer,” Shanahan said, “is, how long will we be at the border.” He added, “We really need to get back to our primary missions and continue to generate readiness” to undertake conventional military operations.
On May 3, Shanahan told reporters that the border crisis had developed more quickly than anyone had anticipated, putting extra pressure on DHS.
“I don’t think anybody thought it would be this bad, the situation would deteriorate like it has, and that distress would be as high on those front-line (DHS) employees,” he said.
Many Democrats have questioned the use of active-duty troops on the border.
“The longer the Southwest border mission continues, the line of demarcation starts to blur in terms of where we’re drawing a line saying this is not a military responsibility, this is law enforcement, immigration, internal security responsibility,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said at a recent hearing.
As a prelude to the trip, the White House on Thursday announced that Trump intends to nominate Shanahan as defense secretary, ending months of speculation about Pentagon leadership. He has served in an interim capacity since Jan. 1, an unprecedented period of uncertainty at the helm of the Pentagon.
Trump elevated him from deputy secretary to replace Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who resigned in December.
The White House has never explained why it took Trump so long to decide to nominate Shanahan, a former Boeing Co. executive. Trump himself has said he likes to keep Cabinet members in an acting status because gives him more flexibility, although it also frustrates the Senate’s efforts to exercise its constitutional role of providing advice and consent.
In March, the Defense Department’s inspector general investigated accusations that Shanahan had shown favoritism toward Boeing during his time as deputy defense secretary, while disparaging Boeing competitors. The investigation appeared to stall his nomination, but the internal watchdog wrapped up the inquiry in April and cleared Shanahan of any wrongdoing.
your ad herePolish Nationalists Protest US Over Holocaust Claims
Thousands of Polish nationalists have marched to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, protesting that the U.S. is putting pressure on Poland to compensate Jews whose families lost property during the Holocaust.
The protesters included far-right groups and their supporters. They said the United States has no right to interfere in Polish affairs and that the U.S. government is putting “Jewish interests” over the interests of Poland.
The nationalists say that Poland was a major victim of Nazi Germany during World War II and that it is not fair to ask Poland to compensate Jewish victims when Poland has never received adequate compensation from Germany.
“Why should we have to pay money today when nobody gives us anything?” said 22-year-old Kamil Wencwel. “Americans only think about Jewish and not Polish interests.”
your ad hereYemen’s Houthis Begin Withdrawal Under UN Peace Deal
Yemen’s Houthis started withdrawing Saturday from the ports of Hodeida, Salif, and Ras-Issa, under a United Nations peace deal.
Michael Lollesgaard, the chair of the U.N.’s Redeployment Coordination Committee, announced Friday that the redeployment would start Saturday and conclude by Tuesday. He said the RCC welcomed the offer by the Houthis to begin redeployment.
Lollesgaard said this move amounts to a “first practical step” since the conclusion of the Hodeida Agreement, which provides for a cease-fire between the warring parties in Yemen and withdrawal of fighters from the three ports. He said the redeployment must be followed by committed, transparent and sustained actions of the parties involved to fully deliver on their obligations.
Lollesgaard added that the full implementation of the April 15 Hodeida Agreement will help ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to millions of people in Yemen who need life-saving assistance. The U.N. said it would continue to support that goal and work to return peace and stability to Yemen.
your ad hereIraqi Foreign Fighters Lurk in Syrian Shadows
This is part four of a four-part series.
By late February and early March, it had become a common scene on the far outskirts of the northeastern Syrian town of Baghuz: evacuees from the Islamic State terror group’s final scrap of territory huddled on the desert floor, empty water bottles littering the ground as they waited to be vetted and taken to a displaced persons camp.
Only something had changed. These huddled masses were no longer civilians trapped by the terror group’s steady retreat or those who had been held as slaves or prisoners.
These women and children were the families of the IS fighters, many of them from outside Syria and Iraq. And they were unabashed in making one thing clear.
“I don’t want to go back,” Dorothée Maquere, the wife of French foreign fighter Jean-Michel Clain, told television cameras for the French news agency AFP.
“Let France leave me alone,” she added. “They killed my husband, my children, my family. That’s it. It’s finished.”
Maquere had plenty of company. By the time Baghuz finally fell, U.S.-backed forces had captured more than 2,000 foreign fighters and nearly 8,000 of their wives, children and relatives, many of whom had chosen to stay.
More may still be at large. A U.N. report issued in February estimated that of the 14,000 to 18,000 IS fighters active in Iraq and Syria at the time, up to 3,000 were foreign fighters.
And those estimates may be low.
U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces officials admit they vastly underestimated both the size of the IS force and the fighters’ civilian family members hunkered down for a last stand in Baghuz.
Many may have also joined Iraqi and Syrian IS fighters who chose to shift away from the pressure as the SDF closed in on their shrinking territorial holdings.
“ISIS fighters in Syria responded to the loss of a territorial ‘caliphate’ by crossing the border into Iraq and taking refuge in that country’s northern and western desert regions,” U.S. Principal Deputy Inspector General Glenn Fine, using an acronym for the group, wrote in the latest report on Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led effort to destroy the caliphate.
So, too, there are indications foreign fighters have found a way to hide, at times, in plain sight.
According to coalition officials, IS maintains a series of “well-supplied” clandestine cells throughout Syria and Iraq, many just on the outskirts of major urban centers.
Unknown factors
And many current estimates often cannot account for IS numbers in parts of Syria where the U.S. and U.S.-backed forces are not able to operate.
“We have much less insight into what’s going on in [Syrian] regime- and Russian-controlled areas,” according to a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity given the sensitive subject matter. “We’re concerned and we have regular conversations with the Russians about the idea of this ISIS fight moving out of areas that the coalition controls.”
Officials with the U.S.-backed coalition also worry that across Syria and Iraq, IS still benefits from pockets of support among Sunni Arabs and some tribal leaders, which may give foreign fighters additional options.
“A lot fewer moved back to their countries of origin than had been suspected,” Seth Jones, director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA. “I think they’ve done a reasonable job of blending in and waiting to fight for another day.”
Still more foreign fighters may have left without going very far.
“There are also reports that foreign fighters are lying low in countries outside of Iraq and Syria, essentially biding their time until conditions are suitable for their return,” said Jade Parker, a former counterterrorism analyst in support of U.S. military activities.
Not everyone is convinced, and there is disagreement about the extent to which IS foreign fighters have been able to entrench themselves in areas once controlled by the group’s caliphate.
“When they lose territory, it is very difficult for them to integrate those folks [the foreign fighters] into what the rest of the locals are doing,” Craig Whiteside, a senior associate with the Center on Irregular Warfare at the Naval War College, said regarding the terror group’s clandestine activities.
“Their transition to insurgency does not include foreign fighters,” he said.
Yet even if foreign fighters are not aiding in the insurgency now, it may just be a matter of time.
Continued entry
Even as the IS caliphate crumbled and countries like Turkey worked to shut down transit routes to Syria, coalition officials said handfuls of foreign fighters were still finding ways in.
And spirits among the remaining IS fighters are improving.
“The morale of ISIS fighters in Iraq increased since last quarter, because of the weather improving and the influx of fighters returning from Syria,” the most recent U.S. inspector general report on counter-IS operations in the Middle East concluded.
“Core ISIS is the main game still in terms of the threat,” said Linda Robinson, a senior researcher with the RAND Corporation, a global policy research group.
“We have about six to 12 months before a kind of full-blown insurgency could come back to life and a level of violence that goes beyond what the state [Iraq] is capable of managing,” she said.
U.S. Central Command officials have given similar assessments for Syria, “absent U.S. counterterrorism pressure.”
Even the IS foreign fighters and their families in SDF custody are a growing cause for concern.
The U.S. has been pushing for Western countries to take them back and prosecute them, though officials admit some countries are still struggling to develop the necessary legal framework. But these officials say dealing with those issues can be put off for only so long.
“It’s an immediate problem,” Alina Romanowski, the State Department’s principal deputy coordinator for counterterrorism, said at a recent forum in Washington.
“You can’t just let them wander around the globe for however long they’re going to be around, but they’re also in these detention camps,” she said. “They’re recruiting like crazy. And what are we doing about that?”
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