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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Month: May 2019
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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AG Barr to Face Senate Panel Over Mueller Report
U.S. Attorney General William Barr is facing questioning from lawmakers Wednesday after the release of Robert Mueller’s report earlier this month investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections.
Barr will meet with the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee for a session that is expected to last at least three hours.
Barr will undoubtedly face questions about a Washington Post report out late Tuesday that Mueller contacted the attorney general, both by letter and a phone call, to impress upon him to release the summaries of the report written by his team. Barr instead released his own summary, which Mueller felt failed to capture the full “context, nature, and substance” of the investigation’s conclusions.
The attorney general drew fire from the Democrats and other critics for “summarizing” a report that runs nearly 400 pages in just four pages and determining that Trump did not obstruct justice because he’d not been involved in an “underlying crime” in connection with Russian election interference.
Barr was also widely criticized for holding a press conference to discuss the findings hours before either members of Congress or the media had a chance to read the report.
Barr told reporters that it exonerated Trump of colluding with Moscow and said that later, after assuming power, Trump had “no corrupt intent” to obstruct the probe.
Barr, a Trump appointee as the country’s top law enforcement official, said the president “took no act that in fact deprived” Mueller of “documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation.”
Barr concluded, “Apart from whether [Trump’s] acts [as president] were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation.”
But Mueller cited 11 instances of possible obstruction of the investigation by Trump, saying that “while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Barr also revealed that Trump’s lawyers were shown an advance copy of the report but were not allowed to make any changes. He said the president’s lawyers made no attempt to assert executive privilege about White House conversations to delete any material from the report.
Late last month, in a summary of Mueller’s findings, Barr said the special counsel had concluded that Trump had not colluded with Russia, but reached no decision on whether he had obstructed justice. With Mueller not making a decision on the obstruction issue, Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided that no obstruction charges against Trump were warranted.
Barr told reporters it was his prerogative to make the decision to not charge Trump.
Democrats have said they want to question Barr on how he reached his no-obstruction decision.
Barr was also expected to testify before the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee on Thursday but that appearance is uncertain.
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Beyond Rations: Food Aid Struggles to Adapt to Modern Crises
Habibou Iba’s twin sons are wasting away at the age of seven months after existing on a diet of millet and water.
The family was forced out of their home in January when their village in northern Burkina Faso was attacked as jihadist and ethnic violence escalated in the West African nation.
Aid agencies have distributed the typical rations of dry cereals, oil and beans, but what the children really need is milk, said Iba who is too weak to breastfeed.
“I am forced to beg in the village to buy them powdered milk,” Iba, 27, said by phone from the town of Dori, where her sons are being treated for malnutrition by the medical charity Medecins du Monde.
Although awareness about malnutrition has increased in the last few decades, aid agencies still struggle to provide a balanced diet in poor, remote places, said several nutrition advisors for international charities.
With U.N. figures showing wars, persecution and other violence have driven a record 68.5 million people from their homes, more people than ever are dependent on food aid – and for longer periods, making it critical for rations to be nutritious.
In West Africa’s Sahel region, which includes northern Burkina Faso, climate change and conflict have kept people in displacement camps for years with no end in sight. Mali has been in crisis since 2012, while Nigeria has been battling the Boko Haram insurgency for a decade.
“Historically, the concern has been about providing enough food in the context of emergencies, and this idea that an emergency is a short-term thing,” said Corinna Hawkes, director of the Centre for Food Policy at City University of London.
“But the modern-day crises are not short-term. There’s no question that the current world of food aid is not fully caught up with that modern reality.”
U.N. figures show that the number of people in the world without enough nutritious food has been rising since 2014, reaching 821 million in 2017 compared to 784 million three years earlier. The vast majority live in Africa.
Poor diet has overtaken smoking as the world’s biggest killer, according to the latest Global Burden of Disease study, causing 20 percent of deaths in 2017.
Difficult decisions
Malnutrition, or a lack of proper nutrition, occurs when there is not enough food or not enough of the right food.
About one in 10 children in Burkina Faso has acute malnutrition, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), when insufficient food or illness causes rapid weight loss.
Acute malnutrition kills, but a bigger long-term threat is chronic malnutrition, also known as stunting, which happens when a child has food but not enough nutrients to develop properly.
It affects about 20 percent of children under five worldwide.
Children who grow up eating rice or millet with no meat, milk, or vegetables, are at risk of stunting, which hinders cognitive as well as physical growth, said Fidele Rima, a UNICEF nutrition advisor in Burkina Faso.
“We have enough food, but we lost our animals,” said Aibata Diallo, an older woman living in Barsalogho camp, a collection of tents set up in scrubland for people who fled violence.
Like other residents, she is surviving off basic rations: 400 grams of cereals, 100 grams of beans and 25 grams of oil per day, according to WFP, the U.N.’s food assistance agency.
Small children and pregnant or breastfeeding women receive fortified cereals, which partly replace the missing vitamins and minerals in their diet, but WFP said it still expects to see malnutrition spike among people who have left home.
“We’re covering the basics. If we could do more we would want to do more,” said David Bulman, WFP country representative for Burkina Faso, citing funding as the main constraint.
Aid agencies cannot distribute meat, milk or vegetables because it is too costly and even fortified cereals are not always available, aid workers said.
“In an emergency response it really depends on where we’re getting the food that’s being donated – that will matter for how much we can control the level of fortification and nutritional value,” said Allison Oman Lawi, a senior policy advisor for East and Central Africa at WFP.
Sometimes donors send food or specify it should be sourced from a country in which fortified cereals are not produced.
Cost restrictions often mean choosing between quantity and quality, since cutting rations or targeting a smaller group can be the trade-off to afford nutritious foods, said Lawi.
“I have to make really difficult decisions,” she said.
Long-term thinking
Distribution of rations was never intended to be a long-term solution but an interim until people start growing or buying food again, said Mamadou Diop, West Africa representative for global charity Action Against Hunger.
“What happens is that often we propose a minimalist approach, and the populations are obliged to turn to other mechanisms to regain their eating habits,” said Diop.
These other mechanisms were still up for debate, he said.
Should people be given cash to buy meat and vegetables? What if there is none in the market or they spend it on something else?
Other aid workers agreed the goal was to move toward self-sufficiency – helping people plant gardens or start an activity that can generate income, even in a camp.
But the rising malnutrition rates in Africa suggest few people were phasing out of food aid. One fifth of people on the continent are undernourished, about the same as in 2005.
“I don’t think we should be looking at providing assistance for years,” said Bulman, WFP’s Burkina Faso representative.
Aid experts noted malnutrition depended on more than food.
Children with diarrhea or worms from unclean water will not benefit from any amount of supercereals while aid workers know that recipients often sell rations to buy medicine or fuel.
“It’s not as easy as just giving food and then there will be no more malnutrition,” said Nathalie Avril, a nutrition advisor for medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Diversification and allowing people to choose food themselves should be priorities in long-term aid situations, she said, perhaps by using vouchers although this has challenges.
The last paved road disappears miles before it reaches Barsalogho camp, which is surrounded by sunbaked, barren land.
“I think everybody knows what to give, the point is that it’s not easy to get it,” Avril said.
your ad hereUS Urges Venezuela’s Key Figures to Sway Military to Juan Guaido’s Side
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton says Venezuela’s interim President Juan Guaido needs the support of key figures that can help sway the country’s military forces to his side. Bolton spoke to reporters Tuesday outside the White House. He said the Trump administration is monitoring developments in Venezuela. Guaido is calling for an uprising to force Nicolas Maduro to relinquish power. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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US Stops Collecting Data Showing Afghan Government Losing Ground
The U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan is no longer collecting data showing the Afghan government steadily losing ground to the Taliban, telling a U.S. government watchdog the information was “of limited decision-making value.”
The so-called district-level stability assessments, which measure the number of the country’s districts under government or insurgent control or influence, have been one of the most widely cited indicators of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.
But the U.S.-commanded Resolute Support mission told the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in March the assessments were no longer being produced.
“District stability data has not been collected since the October 22, 2018 data submitted last quarter,” Resolute Support wrote in response to SIGAR’s request for the information ahead of its latest report, released Wednesday.
“There are no products at command or other forums that communicate district stability or control information,” the letter added.
According to SIGAR, U.S. defense officials also said the assessments were “not indicative of effectiveness of the South Asia strategy or of progress toward security and stability.”
The SIGAR quarterly report also quoted defense officials as saying it was “more important to instead focus on the principal goal of the strategy of concluding the war in Afghanistan on terms favorable to Afghanistan and the United States.”
When asked for about the decision to end the assessments, a spokesman for Resolute Support referred VOA to the letter sent to the special inspector general.
In a statement accompanying the report’s release, SIGAR decried the loss of the data.
“Despite its limitations, the control data was the only unclassified metric provided by [Resolute Support] that consistently tracked changes to the security situation on the ground,” SIGAR said.
SIGAR also noted that previous commanders of the Resolute Support mission “had previously cited its importance in public statements.”
The U.S.-led mission’s decision to eliminate the stability assessments comes after successive reports showed the Afghan government’s control of the country falling to record lows.
Low levels of control, influence
In its November 2018 report, SIGAR said the Afghan government controlled or influenced only 56 percent of the country’s districts, at the time the lowest level recorded since the watchdog began tracking district control in November 2015.
In SIGAR’s subsequent report, issued this past January, that number had slipped to less than 54 percent, as the Afghan government lost seven districts to the Taliban.
According to some, the figures suggest U.S. President Donald Trump’s strategy for Afghanistan, meant to increase pressure on the Taliban and force them to negotiate an end to decades of fighting, is not having the level of success claimed by administration officials.
Other data collected for the latest SIGAR report also show reason for concern.
According to Resolute Support, the average number of attacks initiated by the Taliban jumped 19 percent for the three-month period ending in January. And according to U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, the number of casualties suffered by Afghan forces were 31 percent higher than compared to the same period last year.
“Ultimately, I don’t think we’ve met all of our strategic goals there,” U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko told reporters last week, ahead of the report’s release.
“We were going to get the terrorists out and create a government that could keep the terrorists out,” he said. “Obviously, we haven’t kicked the terrorists out if they’re still blowing things up and we’re negotiating with them. That strategic goal has now changed.”
Sopko also raised concerns that measuring U.S. progress in Afghanistan has become increasingly difficult, as U.S. and Afghan officials are collecting less data and are preventing other information from going public.
“What we are finding now is almost every indicia, metrics, however you want to phrase it, for success or failure is now classified or non-existent,” he said, adding that hiding or eliminating would appear pointless.
“The Afghan people obviously know which districts are controlled by the Taliban. The Taliban obviously know which districts they control. Our military knows it. Everybody in Afghanistan knows it,” he said. “The only people who don’t know what is going on are the people who are paying for all of this, and that’s the American taxpayer.”
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Game On for EU Vote, But Real Fight Comes After
On posters, hustings and social media, a battle for Europe is being fought, as contenders seek votes for an EU parliamentary election in late May – but the real battle for power will come only once the count is in.
More than 400 million voters will deal the hands that leaders, of parties, nations and rival EU institutions, must play; but it will be after the May 23-26 ballot that the high-stakes poker will begin that will shape the European Union for years to come.
Then comes the real suspense: how pro-Union groups may build a majority coalition to work with the EU executive and member states to make law; how a growing eurosceptic bloc may disrupt it; how lawmakers will clash with national leaders over who runs Brussels; and whether British members might end up staying.
“The campaign determines the strength of people’s bargaining positions,” a senior official in the European Parliament said. “But the real game will start after the count.”
The sheer scale of elections for the 751 lawmakers who will convene in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on July 2 limits scope for surprises of the kind voters have delivered in national ballots as they lose confidence in established elites.
Second only to India as an exercise in democracy but beset by low turnouts that hamstring the legislature’s ambitions to legitimacy, proportional representation, a plethora of parties and a tendency for 28 national campaigns to even out shocks mean that poll data tend to be a fair guide to the overall outcome.
That points to policy continuity as the European Union tries to prove its use in defending common interests in global struggles over power, trade and the environment against nationalist critics.
Brexit Party Time
A survey commissioned by the parliament, whose projections were on the money in the 2014 election, shows the center-right EPP and center-left S&D losing 37 seats each and hence the majority they enjoy in an informal “grand coalition.”
That, many lawmakers expect, will mean a broader reaching out after the vote to the likes of the ALDE liberals, who are hoping for a major boost from President Emmanuel Macron’s mold-breaking French party, and also possibly to the Greens.
With Italy’s populist ruling League and, at times, France’s far-right National Rally and Britain’s new Brexit Party topping national opinion rankings, polls show a surge for eurosceptics.
But talk of a blocking minority, with allies in more mainstream groups such as the Polish and Hungarian ruling parties, comes up against the nationalists’ persistent divisions.
The uncertainties around how the parliament will line up in July are compounded this year by a number of new parties – most obviously Macron’s En Marche – keeping options open on whom to sit with, but also by Brexit, since the delay to Britain leaving the EU has led to London holding a vote for 73 British MEPs.
That potentially brief presence means some officials suggest key decisions, notably parliamentary votes on who should succeed Jean-Claude Juncker and his team at the European Commission, be put off until the British have left.
Jobs Row
Even without Brexit, this year may be tricky, as lawmakers and national leaders face off over the legislature’s demand that a lead “Spitzenkandidat” from a winning party succeed Juncker.
Leaders would normally agree on a successor in late June so that parliament can endorse the appointment in July. But a row with parliament could also delay the handover beyond Nov. 1.
Key appointments, including that of European Central Bank president after Mario Draghi leaves in October, will see fierce bargaining, among big states and small, the north, south, east and west of Europe, left and right, men and women, and so on.
The European Council of national leaders, which must also choose its own next president in succession to Donald Tusk, is reluctant to be tied to a choice of Manfred Weber, a conservative German MEP, or Juncker’s Dutch deputy, Frans Timmermans of the Socialists.
Macron is a loud opponent of parliament’s Spitzenkandidat push and Brussels is abuzz with talk that he favors others – notably Frenchman Michel Barnier, the EU’s Brexit negotiator, or centrist Danish EU antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
Weber and his parliamentary allies will argue strongly that it is that kind of backroom carve-up which is turning Europeans off the EU. In reply, national leaders may argue that they have stronger democratic mandates to govern than a parliament for which in 2014 only 43 percent of voters cast a ballot.
Polling data suggests somewhat more people intend to vote than last time, parliamentary officials say. But there are huge variations in engagement with campaigns largely fought on domestic issues. In Belgium, where voting is compulsory and a national election is held the same day, turnout was 90 percent in 2014. But in Slovakia, it was 13 percent.
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UN Envoy ‘Optimistic’ of Syria Constitution Committee Soon
The U.N. special envoy for Syria said Tuesday that he is “optimistic” an agreement can be reached on the long-sought formation of a committee to draft a new constitution for the war-torn country so it can meet this summer.
Geir Pederson told reporters after briefing the Security Council that he based his optimism on the “intensive” and “very good” dialogue he has had with the Syrian government and opposition — as well as “tangible progress,” including on the committee’s rules of procedure and composition.
He told the council that six names on the disputed 50-member civil society list need to be removed, and he believes an agreement can be reached with “goodwill” and “just a little” compromise.
Pedersen said convening the constitutional committee “could be a first sign of real movement” and “help unlock a broader political process — toward U.N.-supervised elections” and hopefully ending the eight-year civil war.
The more than yearlong effort to form a 150-member constitutional committee has been dogged by objections from Syria’s government over the 50-member list representing experts, independents, tribal leaders and women. There is already agreement on 50-member lists from the government and the opposition.
Pedersen said another priority is the need to speed up and expand the release of detainees and abductees and to clarify the fate of thousands of missing persons. He said the government and opposition “should move away from the one-for-one exchange framework” and scale-up releases.
“Meaningful progress on this key humanitarian file would send a positive signal to Syrians,” he said. “It would be an important confidence-building measure.”
He also said that while any political settlement must be Syrian-owned and Syrian-led, the conflict is “highly internationalized” and its outcome “must enjoy international support and legitimacy.”
Pedersen said he wants to use agreement on a constitutional committee “to see revitalized broad-based international cooperation.” He said “a common forum” to support political progress must be found.
“I’m currently having a discussion with myself and with different international actors on this,” Pedersen said. “What I need is a committed group to come together and to support all the efforts of relaunching the political process in Geneva.”
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‘Incredibly Difficult’ to Reach Mozambique Cyclone Survivors
Rains were still pounding parts of northern Mozambique on Tuesday, several days after Cyclone Kenneth, while the United Nations said aid workers faced “an incredibly difficult situation” in reaching thousands of survivors. The death toll was at 38.
U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Gemma Connell said bad weather kept badly needed supplies from arriving in the main city of Pemba on Monday. This will be a challenge in the rainy days ahead, she told The Associated Press.
The government again urged Pemba residents to flee to higher ground as flooding continued. More than 570 milliliters (22 inches) has fallen in Pemba since Kenneth made landfall on Thursday, just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique.
This is the first time two cyclones have struck the southern African nation in a single season, and Kenneth was the first cyclone recorded so far north in Mozambique in the modern era of satellite imaging.
Up to 50 milliliters (3 inches) of rain were forecast over the next 24 hours, and rivers in the region were expected to reach flood peak by Thursday, the U.N. humanitarian office said, citing a UK aid analysis.
Scores of thousands of people in Macomia and Quissanga districts north of Pemba and on Ibo island need food and shelter. More than 35,000 buildings and homes were partly or fully destroyed, the government said.
“These people lost everything,” Connell said. “It is critical that we get them the food that they need to survive.” Women and children have been the hardest hit “without the basics that they need to get by,” especially shelter, she said.
A lull in the rain on Tuesday allowed a first flight to leave for Quissanga with food and health supplies, the U.N. World Food Program told reporters in Geneva.
The cyclone will affect the region for months to come after it affected key livelihoods of fishing and agriculture in the largely rural region, the WFP said. Some 31,000 hectares (76,600 acres) of crops were lost at the peak of the harvest season.
“The area is already very vulnerable to food insecurity,” spokesman Herve Verhoosel said.
Authorities were preparing for a possible cholera outbreak as some wells were contaminated and safe drinking water became a growing concern.
With the pair of deadly cyclones — Idai killed more than 600 people last month — Mozambique is “a very complex humanitarian situation,” Connell said. Only a quarter of the funding needed for Idai relief efforts has come in while funding for Kenneth has been slow.
“This is a new crisis,” she said. “We are having to stretch across the two operations. That is a basic reality we are dealing with every day.”
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