VOA Africa Division’s Linord Moudou spoke to Melinda Gates about women’s empowerment, work in Africa, the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and how men can benefit from women’s empowerment.
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Month: May 2019
Italy, France Celebrate Da Vinci’s Genius on 500th Anniversary of His Death
Events have begun in Italy and France to celebrate the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vince on the 500th anniversary of his death. In his Tuscan hometown, Italian experts presented a lock of hair believed to belong to the artist, which they announced would undergo DNA testing.
For the 500th anniversary of Leonardo Da Vinci’s death on Thursday, Italian President Sergio Mattarella traveled to France where he met his counterpart Emmanuel Macron. Together the heads of state paid homage to the Italian genius by laying wreaths at his grave at the Amboise Chateau in the Loire Valley, and visiting the Clos Luce manor house where the artist lived during the last three years of his life.
Tensions arose in recent months between Italy and France over a request by France for some of Leonardo’s works to be loaned by Italy for an exhibit at the Louvre later this year.
But President Mattarella made clear during his visit that Italy and France have historical ties and a solid friendship.
In Italy, exhibits about da Vinci are being planned all over the country. In his home town of Vinci, an exhibit called “Leonardo Lives” opened Thursday. Ahead of the opening, Italian experts presented what they said is a lock of hair from the artist and announced they would carry out a DNA test on the specimen.
They said the relic known as “Les Cheveux de Leonardo da Vinci” had been hidden until now in an American collection. The experts also produced documents they said are evidence the lock of hair comes from ancient France.
Additional exhibits about the artist, scientist and inventor are being held at the Rome airport, which is called Leonardo Da Vinci, Milan, Turin, Florence and Venice. At the Vatican Museums a special exhibition is being held featuring Leonardo da Vinci’s unfinished painting “St. Jerome in the Wilderness.”
Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums, said that after two years, the restoration of the ancient tapestry that was inspired by da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” also has been completed for this anniversary and is now on display for the public to admire.
Also, to mark the 500th anniversary of da Vinci’s death, Italy has issued 300,000 cards with four new philatelic stamps, which were printed using well-known drawings and paintings by the artist, including the drawing of an eye, the “Adoration of the Magi”, the “Portrait of a Musician” and the head of a young girl known at the “Scapiliata.”
your ad herePompeo, Russian FM to Meet as Venezuela Spat Intensifies
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to meet next week with his Russian counterpart as a dispute between Washington and Moscow intensifies over Venezuela.
A senior State Department official says Pompeo and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will resume an as-yet unproductive discussion on Venezuela when they are both in Finland for an Arctic Council meeting. The two men traded warnings over the situation in Venezuela in a telephone call Wednesday, and the official says they’re expected to pick up that conversation when they meet. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.
The Trump administration accuses Moscow of propping up embattled Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro over opposition figure Juan Guaido, who Washington regards as the country’s legitimate leader.
your ad hereJewish Group Alarmed After German Police Let Neo-Nazis March
Germany’s leading Jewish organization expressed alarm Thursday over footage of flag-waving neo-Nazis in self-styled uniforms marching through an eastern German town on May Day unhindered by police. Footage of the march Wednesday prompted widespread outrage in Germany and calls for authorities in the state of Saxony, where far-right sentiment is particularly strong, to step in.
“The images of the neo-Nazi march by The Third Way party in Plauen are disturbing and frightening,” said Josef Schuster, the head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews.
Noting that the rally took place on the eve of Yom HaShoah , the day when Jews commemorate the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust, Schuster added that “right-wing extremists are marching in Saxony in a way that brings back memories of the darkest chapter in German history.”
German security agencies say The Third Way, a relatively small party, has close ties to far-right extremists. The march in Plauen took place to the beat of heavy drums made to look like those used by the Hitler Youth. Participants shouted slogans such as “Criminal foreigners out!” and “National socialism now!”
Saxony police said several hundred people took part in the march. Counter-protesters were kept away.
Police said they are investigating nine people for illegally covering their faces during the event and another for insulting an officer, but described the day as a success from a policing perspective because there was no violence.
The Central Council of Jews said authorities should have prevented the march from taking place at all.
“If the Saxony state government is serious about combating right-wing extremism, it must not allow such demonstrations,” Schuster said. “The Jewish community expects decisive action and visible consequences from the responsible authorities and the state government.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union is running neck-and-neck in recent opinion polls with the far-right Alternative for Germany party ahead of Sept. 1 state election in Saxony.
At a separate rally Wednesday, neo-Nazis marched through the western German city of Duisburg with signs calling for the destruction of Israel.
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Hamas Chief Heads to Egypt After Gaza-Israel Flare-up
Hamas’ leader in Gaza left for talks with Egyptian officials Thursday after a new outbreak of violence, as the militant group accused Israel of slowing down the implementation of Egyptian-mediated understandings aimed at easing the situation in the Palestinian enclave.
The visit by Yehiyeh Sinwar to Cairo came hours after the Israeli military struck several Hamas sites in Gaza in response to incendiary balloons with explosives launched from the strip late Wednesday. After the airstrikes, Palestinian militants fired rockets at southern Israel. No injuries were reported on either side.
The brief flare-up marked the first Israeli strike in more than a month of relative calm that followed the unofficial deal. Egyptian mediators have been trying to reach a long-term cease-fire during the lull.
In a short statement, the Islamic militant group said that Sinwar will meet the director of Egypt’s general intelligence to discuss “ways of alleviating the suffering” of Gaza’s 2 million residents.
Hamas says Israel is not abiding by the deal. Under the agreement, Israel had expanded the permitted fishing zone off Gaza’s coast to 15 nautical miles, but scaled back the area to its previous limit of 9 miles this week after a Gaza rocket was fired.
Officials from Hamas, which has controlled Gaza by force since a 2007 coup, say Israel did not honor other commitments, such as allowing the transfer of Qatari money to Gaza’s cash-strapped public institutions and taking measures to further ease the territory’s grinding power shortages.
During the lull, Hamas kept weekly protests along the Gaza-Israel perimeter fence mostly restrained and suspended the more violent forms of protest, including arson balloons and nighttime skirmishes. Witnesses say balloons were launched again Wednesday.
Hamas started the demonstrations a year ago to highlight Gaza’s hardships more than a decade since Israel and Egypt blockaded the territory.
Over 200 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed during the marches, which sometimes grew into brief cross-border exchanges of rockets and airstrikes.
Over the past decade, Hamas and Israel fought three deadly and destructive wars.
your ad hereTrump’s Favored Sanctions Meet Resistance
President Donald Trump is increasingly reliant upon economic sanctions to achieve his foreign policy goals, despite a repeated emphasis that the use of military force remains a viable option. However, these coercive measures, analysts say, have not produced their intended results, and at times have put the United States at odds with allies.
Venezuela
In the case of Venezuela, the Trump sanctions that include the seizure of Venezuela’s oil assets in the United States, along with joining more than 50 other countries in recognizing Juan Guaido, the head of the National Assembly, as the interim president, have energized the opposition. Despite the economic pain caused by the sanctions, the massive protests in the country, and reports of growing mid-level military support for the opposition, socialist leader Nicolas Maduro has continued to hold on to power through increasing political repression.
Short of using military force that could entangle the United States in a protracted civil war, there are few other measures the Trump administration can take to force democratic change in Venezuela.
“Because the costs are limited to us. It also means the benefits will likely be limited. We could accept more costs and achieve more benefits if we were for example, to invade these countries, change their governments, force them to adopt policies we want,” said Richard Weitz, a political-military analysis at Hudson Institute in Washington, DC.
Iran
Trump has more aggressively imposed unilateral sanctions than past presidents against countries like Venezuela, Iran, Cuba and North Korea, and in threatening to target more third party countries that violate U.S. restrictions.
“He’s following the thesis that, you know, began to be articulated in the Congress and in the 90s, which is you should force other countries to make a choice. They can do business with us, or they can do business with Iran, or Cuba, North Korea,” said William Reinsch, an international business analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.
After withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal, negotiated by the previous administration of President Barack Obama, Trump’s security team recently warned third party countries, including allies South Korea and Japan, of impending sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian oil.
The unilateral sanctions have worked to some degree to force reluctant allies to go along with increasing economic pressure on the Iranian Islamic Republic to end its nuclear ambitions and support of armed militant groups in the Middle East.
“They’ve reassured allies in the Middle East that we’re taking a strong stand in Iran, they have caused European countries to disengage from the Iranian economy, even as their governments, although they are clearly opposed to his policies, they haven’t taken strong measures to confront the U.S. on that,” said Weitz.
Cuba
Trump on Wednesday threatened an economic embargo of Cuba for allegedly supporting Maduro in Venezuela with 20,000 troops. The United States also recently announced it would enforce sanctions against Cuba permitting U.S. businesses that had property seized by the communist government of Fidel Castro 60 years ago, to sue international companies, some in Europe and Canada, that have since taken over these buildings.
These restrictions on Cuba and Iran not only potentially target allies that violate U.S. policy, they could also hurt American businesses by excluding them from these markets.
“The worst case for American companies is if they’re out, and the German, French, British competitors are in, because then they’re losing market share, and they’re losing market share long term, because they’re not going to get that back when the political situation changes,” said Reinsch.
North Korea
On North Korea the Trump administration led efforts for increased United Nations sanctions in 2017 that ban most of that country’s exports, along with unilateral sanctions on companies in China and Russia for supporting the North’s weapons program. These restrictions likely contributed to Pyongyang suspending ballistic missile and nuclear tests and agreeing to engage in denuclearization talks. However, the talks remain deadlocked over Washington’s demand for Pyongyang’s near complete disarmament prior to sanctions relief.
While sanctions can impose increased economic costs on an adversary country, analysts are skeptical they can force sweeping change, and say that over time these measures can become less effective as targeted countries step up evasion efforts.
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HRW: ‘Mass Surveillance App’ Used to Target Muslims in China’s Xinjiang
The Chinese authorities are using a “mass surveillance” app to profile, investigate, and detain Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.
The New York-based watchdog said on May 2 that the mobile app is being used to “collect a wide array of information from ordinary people in Xinjiang,” ranging from their blood type and height to their “religious atmosphere” and political affiliation.
The tool monitors people’s movements by tracing their phones, vehicles, and ID cards, and notes “suspicious” behavior like whether an individual fails to socialize with their neighbors or uses an “unusual” amount of electricity, according to HRW.
Police in Xinjiang “are using illegally gathered information about people’s completely lawful behavior and using it against them,” said Maya Wang, HRW’s senior researcher on China.
Wang added that the Chinese government “is monitoring every aspect of people’s lives in Xinjiang, picking out those it mistrusts, and subjecting them to extra scrutiny.”
There are 13 million Uyghurs and members of other indigenous mainly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
China has come under intense criticism for putting some 1 million of them in “reeducation centers” that rights activists say are mass internment camps — an accusation Beijing denies.
Kazakhs are the second-largest indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs, and the region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans.
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Displaced Families Languish in Tripoli as Libya Fighting Continues
The ongoing fighting in Libya pitting the western-backed government in Tripoli against a renegade Libyan general has displaced tens of thousands of people who are now flooding the Libyan capital. Local aid workers say they don’t have the capacity to take care of these families if the war expands and soldiers in Tripoli are warning there appears to be no end to the standoff. VOA’s Heather Murdock is in Tripoli with this report.
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US Ending Iranian Oil Sanctions Waivers
The United States is tightening its economic sanctions on Iran by ending a set of waivers Thursday that had allowed some of the country’s largest oil buyers to continue their purchases.
With the expiration of waivers for eight buyers, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the United States would be exerting “maximum pressure” on the Iranian government.
The U.S. State Department called the move a fulfillment of the Trump administration’s promise “to get Iran’s oil exports to zero and deny the regime the revenue it needs to fund terrorism and violent wars abroad.”
The move is the latest in a series of steps the United States has taken since President Trump took office with a pledge to withdraw from the international agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
Trump announced the withdrawal in May 2018, and new sanctions went into place in November, with oil purchase waivers in place for China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy and Greece.
Since then, Italy, Greece and Taiwan have halted their Iranian oil imports.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Wednesday that the United States will not be able to bring Iranian oil exports to zero, and that Iran’s oil-producing neighbors have exaggerated their ability to increase their production to a level that would replace the Iranian oil being blocked from the market.
Since announcing last month its intention to end the oil sanctions waivers, the Trump administration has expressed confidence that countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would offset any loss in Iranian oil.
Turkey and China have attacked the U.S. action, but it is not clear whether they will continue to buy Iranian oil.
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Violent Standoff in Tripoli; Civilians Displaced, Suffering
“We need this war to end and to go back to civilian life,” says Mohammed, a 27-year-old soldier at a base in the suburbs of Tripoli.
Less than a month ago, peace talks were planned and the reunification of Libya was back on the table. Now, fighters are in their fourth week of battle as the eastern forces of Khalifa Haftar try to take over the capital in the west.
An hour later, Mohammed is on the front line as guns fire in both directions over dirt berms in a neighborhood abandoned by civilians only weeks ago. Neither side is gaining ground.
Haftar’s army, known as the Libyan National Army, arrived almost a month ago, after he declared his intention to take over Tripoli. Western forces, known as the Government of National Accord, have mostly prevented the assault from entering the center city, but there is near-constant fighting in the suburbs, and 42,000 people have been displaced. At least 22 civilians have been killed.
WATCH: Displaced Families in Tripoli Languish as Fighting Continues
Aid workers fear their resources are thin and that a continued assault would lead to a crisis for which they are not prepared.
“We are very afraid of a large displacement of people because we have low capacities,” said Ahmed Ghedan, who is in charge of the displacement camps in Tripoli, which are mostly converted schoolhouses. “We are dependent on the people and businesspeople of Tripoli to help the families. So we fear we will not get enough support.”
Beleaguered people
In Tripoli, locals say they are tired of war, and anger for Haftar and his international supporters is public and loud. Anti-Haftar signs hang in Martyr’s Square, a main center for protests and celebration, and also are plastered on the pavement.
But in the markets, sellers say their real allegiance is to peace, not to any government.
“They just added a few traffic bumps,” says Sammy, a 39-year-old stall-owner who sells children’s clothing, pajamas and socks, referring to the current Western leadership.
“Freedom of speech is here,” he adds, but he says that in his mind, this particular freedom was not what fueled the mass uprising in 2011 that overthrew 40-year leader and strongman Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Since then, Libya has suffered through a string of wars that has left the country torn between two distinct governments in the east and the west.
They fought Gadhafi, he notes, over the economy, corruption and abuse of power. Free speech is nice, he says, but not nearly enough.
While many here like the idea of Libya finding a single, powerful leader to unite the country, Sammy does not suggest replacing one strongman for another. Haftar was expected to take part in negotiations for unified national elections this month, before the assault on Tripoli.
Some support for Haftar in this market did exist a month ago, Sammy adds, but now it is unspoken, if at all. Over the weekend, airstrikes hit a neighborhood near the city’s airport and the streets are becoming more crowded as families flee the suburbs for the city.
“If we could go back, I think we wouldn’t have had a revolution,” he says.
Ongoing standoff
Tripoli soldiers say the fighting is most intense in the evening, and airstrikes — believed to be with the help of foreign countries — are hard to combat.
Tripoli’s army, like Haftar’s, is made up of a coalition of military groups that once fought among themselves. Now, both armies fight as units against each other.
But long-term security beyond this battle is also at risk, explains Abdul Basset Marwan, commander of the Tripoli Military Area. Before Tripoli was attacked, the West was close to becoming peaceful and secure, he says, and the April negotiations had offered fresh hope the country would be unified.
Now, it is hard to know how the war could end without withdrawal, surrender or devastating battles in heavily populated neighborhoods. Neither side has indicated these are options.
“This war will bring destruction and instability, and it is very difficult to bring it to an end,” Marwan says. “We wanted to unify the military. But not like this.”
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Displaced Families in Tripoli Languish as Fighting in Libya Continues
The ongoing fighting in Libya pitting the Western-backed government in Tripoli against a renegade Libyan general has displaced tens of thousands of people who are now flooding the Libyan capital. Local aid workers say they don’t have the capacity to take care of these families if the war expands and soldiers in Tripoli are warning there appears to be no end to the standoff. VOA’s Heather Murdock is in Tripoli with this report.
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Kenya’s Deaf Rugby Team Hopes to Match National Team’s Success
Rugby is one of Kenya’s most popular sports, and the country’s national team has played in the World Cup.
Inspired by the national team’s success, members of Kenya’s deaf community launched a deaf rugby team last year. The team, which is has been training for just more than a year now, has big dreams for the future.
Every Sunday, Martin Kasuivya begins his journey to the rugby pitch with a rush of excitement in his eyes.
He had played football (soccer) as a child, but had never played rugby until a year ago, when officials of the newly formed Kenya Deaf Rugby Association came to his church.
Martin was born deaf and has largely remained within the deaf community in Kenya. For this story, he speaks to VOA through a sign language interpreter.
Sunday afternoon practice
“Before, when I was growing up, there was no deaf rugby, but people like to join new things so I decided let me go with a new thing,” he said.
At the pitch about an hour’s commute from his house, Martin joins 16 other players for practice. This has become the team’s weekly Sunday afternoon routine.
Maurice Okwatch formed the team and the Kenya Deaf Rugby Association to support it. Speaking through a sign language interpreter, Okwatch explains his motivation.
“In Kenya, the people who are hearing are the only ones who have a rugby team, so we thought let’s copy South Africa, let’s have a deaf rugby team,” he said.
Funding hard to find
Deaf rugby is also played in Australia, Canada and England, and the sport is represented at the Deaf Olympics, which comes up next in 2021.
The players in Nairobi haven’t played a game yet and don’t have a sponsor. They make do with what they have: one ball and mismatched secondhand uniforms. Okwatch says the team is currently self-supporting.
“When I formed this group,” he said, “I tried to look for funding but it was very difficult and the committee ourselves we decided let’s chip in, so we bought a ball as a committee.”
Progress and big dreams
There’s no whistle here. The team’s coach, Brennan Rashid, communicates with players through sign language. In a professional deaf rugby match, the referee waves a white flag to draw the attention of the players.
Unlike the players, Rashid is not deaf. He says that despite a lack of playing experience, the team is getting better.
“I have seen the progress, I have seen them step by step going places with it, getting a proper understanding of the game and that is the best thing I can give,” he said.
Despite the various hardships, Kasuivya and the other players have big dreams, like competing in the Deaf Olympics.
Kasuivya says his goal is to win the gold.
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Forecast Calls for Busy Wildfire Season Along West Coast
Most of the country can expect a normal wildfire season but residents along the West Coast of the United States should be ready for another busy season, the National Interagency Fire Center said Wednesday.
California experienced its deadliest and largest wildfires in the past two years, including a fire in the northern part of the state last year that destroyed the town of Paradise, killing more than 80 people. It was the nation’s worst death toll from a wildfire in a century.
The Boise, Idaho-based center said a heavy crop of grasses and fine fuels has developed across California and should elevate fire potential as it dries through the summer.
The terms “normal” or “above normal” refer to a formula that involves drought, precipitation and fuel conditions in each region, projected on a 10-year average, said Jennifer Smith of the fire center.
The Pacific Northwest has entered a period of moderate drought, which could mean an early fire season in the Cascade Range and the Okanogan region. The potential for significant wildfires is above normal west of the Cascade crest in Washington and Oregon through August, the report said.
Some high-elevation portions of the Great Basin and the central Rocky Mountains could experience below-normal wildfire potential, the agency said. It also said that below average fire activity continued in April across the nation, thanks to moist conditions from the winter.
“Precipitation received was above average across the northwestern quarter of the nation and across a majority of the east,” the agency said.
While the wildfire season might be delayed in higher, timbered elevations of the Northwest because of a slower melt of the snowpack, “an exception to this could be along the Canadian border in Washington, Idaho and western Montana,” the agency said. That’s because those areas have a below-average snowpack and are suffering from moderate drought.
“These areas can expect an average start to the season with a potential for above normal activity,” the agency said.
In the southwest, below normal fire potential was expected across northern Arizona, northern New Mexico and west Texas in May and June, the report said. Above normal fire potential was expected in southern Arizona in those months.
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US Renews Warning to Allies on Huawei
Britain’s prime minister fired her defense minister Wednesday after finding ‘compelling evidence’ that he leaked information to journalists about a secret decision to allow China’s tech giant Huawei to participate in some parts of the country’s 5G network. State Department correspondent Nike Ching reports his dismissal comes as the U.S. is renewing warnings on Huawei.
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Democrats Grill Barr Over Handling of Mueller Report
U.S. Attorney General William Barr made his first congressional appearance Wednesday since releasing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report, and he faced blistering criticism from Democrats over his handling of the document. As VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, Barr defended his portrayal of Mueller’s conclusions after a letter surfaced in which the special counsel objected to Barr’s depiction of the exhaustive report.
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Several Congressional Panels Investigating Trump
More than half a dozen committees of the U.S. Congress are investigating President Donald Trump, who is refusing to cooperate with most of them since the April 18 release of the Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, setting up a likely court battle.
The clash between Trump and the Democrats who lead the House of Representatives committees intensified after Trump framed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings as an exoneration, though Mueller neither charged nor exonerated the president.
The report, in the view of Democrats, provided plentiful leads for their further inquiries into ties between Moscow and the 2016 Trump campaign, as well as Trump’s subsequent efforts to stifle the long-running Mueller probe.
Committees are also looking into Trump’s still undisclosed taxes, potential conflicts of interest involving the sprawling business interests he has not divested since taking office, and other aspects of his turbulent presidency.
Congressional subpoenas are being issued and contempt-of-Congress citations are being considered for administration officials who are being advised by Trump to ignore the probes. Civil enforcement actions in the courts may follow.
With the 2020 election campaigns underway and casting both sides’ efforts in an increasingly partisan light, here are the key congressional committees involved.
House Judiciary Committee
The committee’s Democratic chairman, Jerrold Nadler, is an old foe of Trump, going back years to a fight between the two New Yorkers over a large Trump real estate project in Manhattan.
Nadler’s panel has subpoenaed the Justice Department seeking the full, unredacted Mueller report and underlying evidence, as well as former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify in May.
Justice Department officials informed the committee Wednesday night that Barr would not testify Thursday before the committee to discuss Mueller’s report.
Judiciary Committee investigators are also focused on contacts Trump’s campaign had with Russia during the 2016 presidential race. Any effort to impeach Trump would likely begin in the committee.
In a book he published in 2000, Trump called Nadler “one of the most egregious hacks in contemporary politics.”
Senate Judiciary Committee
The Senate Judiciary Committee was the first panel to question Barr after the release of the Mueller report.
Barr on Wednesday defended his decision to clear Trump of criminal obstruction of justice by attempting to impede Mueller’s Russia inquiry and criticized Mueller for not reaching a conclusion of his own on the issue.
Barr was asked about findings that Trump directed then-White House Counsel McGahn to ask the department’s No. 2 official, Rod Rosenstein, to fire Mueller over the special counsel’s alleged conflicts of interest. McGahn told Mueller’s investigators that he refused to carry out the president’s request.
Barr said Trump believed “he never outright directed the firing of Mueller.”
House Oversight and Reform Committee
Democratic Chairman Elijah Cummings’ panel in February held 2019’s first public hearing on Trump’s many issues, taking testimony from former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who is scheduled to report to prison next month.
On April 2, the committee voted to subpoena Carl Kline, a former White House official, over a probe into security clearances granted by the administration.
The White House said it told Kline to ignore the committee’s subpoena. Cummings said the panel will soon vote on whether to hold Kline in contempt of Congress over the matter.
Trump has filed an unprecedented lawsuit attempting to squash a committee subpoena seeking his past financial records from Mazars USA, an accounting firm long used by Trump.
The administration has rebuffed a committee request for an interview with John Gore, an official who was involved in a decision to include a citizenship question in the 2020 census.
Also, the White House has refused a request from the panel for Trump’s top immigration aide Stephen Miller to testify.
House Ways and Means Committee
The House tax committee, led by Democrat Richard Neal, has asked the Treasury Department’s Internal Revenue Service to hand over six years of Trump’s personal and business tax returns.
Unlike presidents in recent decades, Trump has refused to disclose his returns, which committee Democrats want to obtain and review. Committee Republicans argue the committee’s request oversteps its authority.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did not meet an April 23 committee deadline for handing over the returns and said that a “final decision” on the request would be made by May 6.
House Intelligence Committee
The committee’s chief, whom Trump has mocked as “sleazy” and “little pencil neck Adam Schiff,” is examining Russian influence in U.S. politics and whether any foreign countries hold leverage over Trump, his family, his business or his associates.
Like other panels, Schiff’s has expressed an interest in having Mueller testify about his findings.
Senate Intelligence Committee
Republican Richard Burr’s committee is also looking into Russia’s role in influencing U.S. elections. The committee could release its findings later this year.
In late March, Trump adviser Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, made a second appearance before the panel, according to congressional sources. Topics discussed in the closed-door sessions were not made public.
House Financial Services Committee
Democratic Chairwoman Maxine Waters, whom Trump has also frequently mocked, is leading a probe into Trump’s ties with Deutsche Bank AG, one of the world’s largest financial institutions, as well as potential Russian money laundering through the bank. The committee oversees the financial services industry including banks.
Waters has said the House should impeach Trump.
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UK Climate Panel’s Big Goals: Less Meat, Drive Electric
The U.K. should effectively eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by rapidly adopting policies that will change everything from the way people heat their homes to what they eat, an independent committee that advises the British government on climate change recommended Thursday.
A report from the Committee on Climate Change said the government must adopt ambitious goals if it wants to be a leader in the fight against global warming and limit the impact of climate change.
While Britain has laid the groundwork to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, existing plans “must be urgently strengthened” because “current policy is not enough even for existing targets,” the committee said.
The panel says the government should reduce the demand for energy overall, increase the electrification of the British economy, develop hydrogen fuel technology and set ambitious targets for carbon capture and storage.
It also calls for reduced consumption of meat and dairy products, changes in how farmers operate and a requirement for electric vehicles to be the only option by 2035.
“We can all see that the climate is changing and it needs a serious response,” committee chairman John Gummer said. “The government should accept the recommendations and set about making the changes needed to deliver them without delay.”
Environmental groups welcomed the findings, but the proposals could be seen as daunting to some businesses and the government.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is under pressure to act more boldly on climate change after a visit by teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and 10 days of protests that shut down traffic in central London and put the issue squarely on Britain’s political agenda.
The main opposition Labour Party said it is introducing a motion this week asking Parliament to declare an “environmental emergency.” Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon went a step further, declaring a “climate emergency” Sunday during a speech to the Scottish National Party’s annual conference in Edinburgh.
While some activists have called for Britain to set a 2025 target for net-zero emissions, May’s Conservative-led government has said it was waiting to see the committee’s report.
The committee said it considered earlier net-zero target dates, but 2050 was the most credible goal.
“An earlier date has been proposed by some groups and might send a stronger signal internationally to those considering increasing their own ambition, but only if it’s viewed as credible,” the panel said.
Environmentalists at the National Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the WWF and the Women’s Institute and Woodland Trust said the panel’s work shows that reaching net-zero emissions is both necessary and feasible.
While the alliance of environmental groups applauded the committee’s decision to target all greenhouse gases — not just carbon — and to include shipping and aviation emissions in its calculations, it said it believes Britain should move faster and strive to achieve the goal by 2045.
“The problem is, we’ve been acting as if we have time,” said Gareth Redmond-King, head of climate change at WWF, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund. “But if we want a world with coral reefs, safe coastal cities and enough food for everyone, we must act now.”
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Russia: US Courting ‘Drastic Consequences’ in Venezuela
The unrest in Venezuela is turning into a battleground of rhetoric between the United States and Russia.
After a telephone conversation between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday, the Russian warned of “the most drastic of consequences” if the U.S. continued what he called “aggressive steps.”
The State Department was more muted, saying only that Russian and Cuban intervention was “destabilizing for Venezuela.”
But White House national security adviser John Bolton said, “This is our hemisphere. It’s not where the Russians ought to be interfering. This is a mistake on their part. It’s not going to lead to an improvement of relations.”
Pompeo said again Wednesday that the U.S. was prepared to use military action in Venezuela: “If that is what is required, this is what the United States will do.”
But Pompeo and President Donald Trump have not specified what would prompt the U.S. to intervene militarily.
WATCH: Trump Administration Warns Military Action in Venezuela ‘Possible’
Cuba denies troops in Venezuela
Meanwhile, a top Cuban diplomat denied U.S. accusations that thousands of Cuban troops were on the ground in Venezuela.
“Cuba does not participate in military operations nor in security operations in Venezuela,” Cuban Chief of U.S. Affairs Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told the Associated Press.
He said the 20,000 Cubans in Venezuela were primarily medical workers.
But he did say, as hemispheric partners, Cuba and Venezuela have the sovereign right to military and intelligence cooperation.
Cuba and Russia are longtime allies of Venezuela and its socialist government. Russia has supplied economic support and military equipment to the Maduro government, while Venezuela has sent billions of dollars in oil to Cuba in exchange for medical aid.
Guaido: More demonstrations
Supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by the U.S. and more than 50 other nations as Venezuela’s rightful president, filled the streets again Wednesday, hurling rocks at police who responded with tear gas.
Guaido said a staggered industrial action would start Thursday, leading to a general strike.
“We’re going to remain in the streets until we achieve freedom for the Venezuelan people. The regime will try to increase the repression. It will try to persecute me,” he told demonstrators Wednesday.
As head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Guaido used the constitution to declare Nicolas Maduro’s presidency illegitimate, saying his election in December was a fraud.
Millions of Venezuelans — sick of out-of-control inflation, severe food and fuel shortages, a lack of medical care, and periodic blackouts — have fled the country.
Maduro accuses Guaido of coup
Maduro is accusing Guaido of trying to carry out a U.S.- and Colombian-supported coup and says the opposition will fail.
He said demonstrators would be prosecuted “for the serious crimes that have been committed against the constitution, the rule of law and the right to peace.”
Neither Maduro nor Guaido can succeed, however, without the support of Venezuela’s powerful military. While many of the rank-and-file soldiers have joined the opposition, Maduro still has the backing of generals and other top military chiefs.
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Algeria Army Chief Calls for ‘Dialogue’ With Protesters
Algeria’s army chief called Wednesday for dialogue between protesters and state institutions, a day after pushing back against demonstrators’ demands for top politicians to quit.
“I remain entirely convinced that adopting constructive dialogue with the institutions of the state is the only way to exit from the crisis,” Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah said in a statement published by the defense ministry.
This is “the wisest way to present constructive proposals, bring points of view closer and reach a consensus around the available solutions,” he added.
Salah was for years an ardent supporter of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, until demanding on April 2 that impeachment proceedings be launched against the ailing leader, who stepped down the same day.
An interim president has been put in place and elections set for July 4, but protests that pushed Bouteflika from power have not abated.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people rallied outside the General Workers’ Union in Algiers, marking May Day, where they clutched Algerian flags and shouted slogans against the “system.”
Police prevented them from joining other protesters gathered outside the city’s iconic post office, the focal point of demonstrations that began in February and have regularly drawn vast crowds.
Salah on Tuesday rebuffed calls by demonstrators for interim leader Abdelkader Bensalah, the former upper house speaker, and Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui to step down.
In a speech, the army chief said the upcoming polls — which fall within the time frame allowed by the constitution — amount to “the ideal solution to end the crisis.”
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May Day Around the Globe: Workers Demand Rights, Respect
Higher salaries, better working conditions, maternity leave, minimum wage and an end to discrimination against temporary or foreign workers: These were among the concerns as hundreds of thousands of union members and labor activists rallied around the world to mark May Day.
The tradition of May Day marches for workers’ rights began in the United States in the 1880s. It quickly spread to other countries at a time when industrialization pitted poorly paid employees who had few protections and little power against increasingly dominant factory employers and landowners.
Over the decades, the May Day protests have also become an opportunity to air general economic grievances or political demands. Here’s a look at Wednesday’s protests :
VIOLENT RADICALS DISRUPT MAY DAY IN FRANCE
French police clashed with stone-throwing protesters who set fires and smashed up vehicles as thousands of people gathered for May Day rallies under tight security. About 165 arrests were made.
Police repeatedly used tear gas to try to control the crowd gathering near Paris’ Montparnasse train station for the main protest. Some protesters were injured. Associated Press reporters saw groups of hooded, black-clad people shouting anti-police slogans, mixing with other protesters wearing yellow vests or waving union flags.
France’s interior minister warned earlier there was a risk that “radical activists” could join the protests in Paris and elsewhere, and deployed 7,400 police to counter them.
RUSSIAN WORKERS MARCH AT RED SQUARE
Authorities in Russia said about 100,000 people took part in a May Day rally in central Moscow organized by Kremlin-friendly trade unions on Red Square. Opposition activists said more than 100 people were detained in several cities, including for participating in unsanctioned political protests. In St. Petersburg, police arrested over 60 supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Some of them carried signs saying “Putin is not immortal,” in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been at the helm of the country since 2000.
DETENTIONS AT TURKEY’S MAY DAY RALLIES
Turkish police detained May Day demonstrators trying to march toward Istanbul’s main square, which has been declared off-limits by authorities, who cited security concerns. Still, small groups chanting “May Day is Taksim and it cannot be banned,” attempted to break the blockade, with dozens reportedly detained. Taksim Square has held symbolic value for Turkey’s labor movement since 34 people were killed there during a May Day rally in 1977 when shots were fired into the crowd from a nearby building.
SRI LANKA CALLS OFF MAY DAY RALLIES
In Sri Lanka, major political parties called off the traditional May Day rallies due to security concerns following the Easter bombings, which killed 253 people and were claimed by militants linked to the Islamic State group.
GERMAN UNIONS DENOUNCE NATIONALISM
Ahead of rallies across Germany, the country’s biggest trade union group urged voters to participate in this month’s European Parliament elections and reject nationalism and right-wing populism. The DGB, a confederation of unions with almost 6 million members, warned that the political and economic turmoil in Britain following its vote to leave the European Union nationalism “shows what happens if those who stoke fear but have no plan for the future gain the upper hand.”
KOREANS DEMAND BETTER WORKING CONDITIONS
Wearing headbands and swinging their fists, protesters in South Korea’s capital of Seoul rallied near City Hall, marching under banners denouncing deteriorating working conditions and demanding equal treatment and pay for temporary workers. A major South Korean umbrella trade union also issued a joint statement with a North Korean workers’ organization calling for the Koreas to push ahead with joint economic projects, despite lack of progress in nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.
MAY DAY PARALYZES TRANSPORT IN GREECE
Union rallies in Greece paralyzed national rail, island ferry and other transport services. Hundreds of people gathered in central Athens on Wednesday for three separate marches to parliament organized by rival unions and left-wing groups.
SPANISH WORKERS PRESS NEW GOVERNMENT
Spain’s workers marched in its major cities to make their voices heard days before acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez starts negotiating with other parties to form a new government. Leading labor unions are pressing Sánchez to roll back business-friendly labor and fiscal reforms that have remained in place since the conservatives were in charge.
GARMENT WORKERS SEEK MATERNITY LEAVE
In Bangladesh, hundreds of garment workers and members of labor organizations rallied in Dhaka, the capital, to demand better working conditions and higher wages. Nazma Akter, president of one of Bangladesh’s largest unions, said female garment workers were also demanding six months of maternity leave and protection against sexual abuse and violence in the workplace.
SOUTH AFRICA’S MAY DAY TURNS POLITICAL
An opposition party in South Africa used May Day to rally voters a week before the country’s national election. Economic Freedom Fighters members, wearing their signature red shirts and berets, gathered at a stadium in Johannesburg to cheer populist stances that have put pressure on the ruling African National Congress to address topics like economic inequality and land reform.
FILIPINO WORKERS DEMAND MINIMUM WAGE RISE
In the Philippines, thousands of workers and labor activists marched near the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila to demand that President Rodrigo Duterte’s government address labor issues including a minimum wage increase and the lack of contracts for many workers. One labor group said its members would not vote for any candidate endorsed by Duterte in upcoming senate elections and burned an effigy of the president.
FOREIGN WORKERS PROTEST IN HONG KONG
Construction workers, bus drivers, freelancers and domestic workers from outside the country joined a Labor Day march through central Hong Kong. The protesters marched from Victoria Park to the main government offices, some carrying banners reading “Maxed Out!” The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions is demanding a maximum standard work week of 44 hours and an hourly minimum wage of at least 54.7 Hong Kong dollars ($7).
LOW-PAID WORKERS PROTEST IN JAKARTA
Thousands of low-paid workers took to the streets in Indonesia in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Laborers in Jakarta, the capital, gathered at national monuments and elsewhere, shouting demands for higher wages, better benefits and improved working conditions.
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French Police Clash With May Day Protesters on Paris Streets
French police clashed with stone-throwing protesters who set fires and smashed up vehicles as thousands of people gathered for May Day rallies Wednesday under tight security. About 165 arrests were made.
Police repeatedly used tear gas to try to control the crowd gathering near Paris’ Montparnasse train station for the main protest. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were injured. One bandaged-up man with a head wound was helped away from the scene by paramedics.
Associated Press reporters saw groups of hooded, black-clad people shouting anti-police slogans, mixing with other protesters wearing yellow vests or waving union flags.
Some threw rocks and other objects at police officers, attacked a parked van in a nearby street, kicking the vehicle and breaking its windows.
Paris police said officers carried out more than 9,000 “preventive searches” of bags and arrested 165 people before the march.
Meanwhile, some peaceful protesters were waiting for the march to start. They were planning to head toward Place d’Italie in southern Paris.
French authorities have warned “radical activists” may join the Paris demonstration and renew scenes of violence that marked previous yellow vest protests and May Day demonstrations in the past two years.
More than 7,400 police are deployed in the French capital.
French police ordered the closure of more than 580 shops, restaurants and cafes on the Paris protest route and numerous subway stations were shut.
Yellow vests have joined the traditional May Day union march to show their common rejection of President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies.
Authorities are particularly wary of the black-clad, masked and hooded extremists who have joined recent protests with the express goal of attacking police and damaging property. They often target symbols of capitalism or globalization, and turned out in the hundreds at last year’s May Day protest.
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Iran Wants ‘Good’ Relations With Saudi Arabia, UAE
Iran said Wednesday it hopes to have good relations with arch-rival Saudi Arabia and its allies, and called for an end to their bitter dispute with Gulf neighbour Qatar.
Riyadh broke off relations with Tehran in 2016 after protesters angry at its execution of a top Shiite cleric torched its diplomatic missions in Iran.
The following year the kingdom and its allies Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates imposed a trade and travel boycott on Qatar, demanding that it mirror their hardline policies towards Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.
“We have extremely good relations with Qatar, Kuwait, Oman,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, referring to the two Gulf Arab countries which remained neutral in the dispute.
“We hope to have the same type of relations with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates,” Zarif told reporters on the sidelines of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue in Doha.
“We also hope that countries within the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) could resolve their differences peacefully.
“We were against pressure on Qatar, we still believe that pressure on Qatar is against international law.”
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have repeatedly accused Qatar of posing a threat to Gulf security through its support for “extremism”.
Doha has consistently denied the allegation accusing its former allies of seeking a pretext for regime change.
In April, Qatar said it filed three lawsuits in London and New York against Saudi and UAE banks for allegedly plotting to undermine its currency and bonds.
Qatar has already taken legal action against Saudi Arabia and its allies before the International Court of Justice, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the World Trade Organization.
your ad hereUN Panel: South Sudan Killed Activists
A new U.N. report said six months after the signing of the revitalized peace agreement in September 12, 2018 no political detainees have been released from detention.
Forced disappearance
Two prominent critics of the government, Aggrey Idri, a member of SPLM-IO; Dong Samuel Luak, a human rights lawyer disappeared on 23 and 24 January 2017, respectively from Nairobi.
The U.N. Panel of Experts on South Sudan report states the government of South Sudan denied having knowledge of the whereabouts Idri and Luak.
Activists in South Sudan concluded the disappearance of the two critics was the workings of authorities in South Sudan and Kenya.
Government denial
South Sudanese authorities stated that they did not know what had happened to the two men, but that anything that did happen appeared to have taken place outside of South Sudan.
South Sudan’s minister for Information told VOA last year that the government is not in charge of the two critics who disappeared in Kenya. South Sudan’s Presidential spokesman Aten Wek Ateny told VOA’s “South Sudan In Focus” on several occasions that South Sudan government is not to blame for the disappearance of Luak and Idri.
Executions
The U.N.’s Panel report states it verified evidence strongly suggesting that both Idri and Luak were kidnapped in Kenya by the Internal Security Bureau of South Sudan, which is part of the National Security Service who acted on orders from the Director General of the Internal Security Bureau, Lieutenant General Akol Koor Kuc.
The report alleged the Internal Security Bureau team transported the two men from Kenya to Juba in a commercial plane on 27 January 2017, chartered with the help of the Embassy of South Sudan in Nairobi.
‘’On the night of the day they arrived, however, both Aggrey and Dong were, according to the same corroborated evidence, moved from the Blue House facility to another National Security Service detention and training facility in Luri that is part of a sprawling presidential and security service complex about 20 kilometers west of Juba,’’ the report said.
The panel states it received and reviewed a number of independent reports from what it called highly credible and well-placed sources.
‘’These accounts corroborate each other across a number of key details, leading the Panel to conclude that it is highly probable that Aggrey Idri and Dong Samuel Luak were executed by Internal Security Bureau agents at the Luri facility on 30 January 2017, on orders from the commander of the National Security Service training and detention facilities in Luri, the Commander of the National Security Service Central Division and, ultimately, Lieutenant General Akol Koor Kuc,’’ the panel concluded.
Rights groups
Human Rights Watch released a statement Tuesday calling on the government of South Sudan to investigate the killings of Luak and Idri. Jehanne Henry, the watchdog’s associate director for Africa told VOA’s South Sudan In Focus, the government of South Sudan should allow independent bodies to investigate the killings of the two South Sudanese.
‘’It is clearly incumbent on the government of South Sudan now to act and to look into this allegation and evidence that have been brought forward and to give access to the National Security [facility] location where they were held, talk to witnesses who saw them, access Luri and find the place of burial,’’ Henry said.
Family concerns
The families of Dong Samuel Luak and Aggrey Idri told VOA in December last year that senior government officials in South Sudan are behind the disappearance of their loved ones.
Idri’s wife Aya Warille, in an interview with VOA’s “South Sudan In Focus” in Nairobi last year said she holds South Sudan’s First Vice President Taban Deng Gai responsible for the disappearance of her husband. Warille said Gai had been a close friend of her husband, but said since Idri disappeared, Gai ignored her phone calls and attempts for a meeting.
“South Sudan In Focus” requested to speak with Gai on the U.N. report but he declined saying the government of South Sudan will issue a statement, but did not specify when.
The U.N. panel said the tragic deaths of Luak and Idri offered what it called ‘’sobering reflection’’ of the challenges facing the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement by the violent legacy of South Sudan’s conflicts, while highlighting the increasingly unrestricted power of the National Security Service.
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Assange Sentenced to 50 Weeks Prison in Britain
A London court has sentenced WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail seven years ago when he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy.
Assange entered the embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault.
Sweden eventually dropped the assault investigation, but Assange remained at the embassy, fearing that if he walked out Britain, would detain and then extradite him to the U.S in connection with WikiLeaks publication of classified U.S. government documents.
Last month, after Ecuadaor revoked his political asylum, he was arrested by British police.
The U.S., which is seeking Assange’s extradition, has charged him in a computer hacking conspiracy linked to the release of hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. documents.
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