Month: June 2019

Border Agent Saves Pair From Bee Attack in Texas

Posted on by SeeUS
A U.S. Border Patrol agent in Texas is credited with saving a migrant woman and her young son who were attacked and covered by thousands of bees. 

 

The agency said in a statement Friday that the agent was patrolling the Rio Grande in Brownsville, in southernmost Texas, when bees entered his patrol vehicle.  

  

The agent was looking for the origin of the bees Tuesday when he found what he thought was just a bundle of clothing covered in the insects. He then realized it was a woman curled into a ball. 

 

He ordered her to run into his vehicle and discovered she was covering her 8-year-old boy. 

 

The child began to vomit and the agent rushed the pair to a hospital, where they’re expected to recover. 

 

Authorities said they were traveling from Guatemala.

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US Carrier in Persian Gulf Region Seen as Clear Signal to Iran

Posted on by SeeEA
Under a starry sky, U.S. Navy fighter jets catapulted off the aircraft carrier’s deck and flew north over the darkened waters of the northern Arabian Sea, a unmistaken signal to Iran that the foremost symbol of the American military’s global reach is back in its neighborhood, perhaps to stay. 

The USS Abraham Lincoln, with its contingent of Navy destroyers and cruisers and a fighting force of about 70 aircraft, is the centerpiece of the Pentagon’s response to what it calls Iranian threats to attack U.S. forces or commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf region. In recent years, there has been no regular U.S. aircraft carrier presence in the Middle East. 

U.S. officials have said that signs of heightened Iranian preparations to strike U.S. and other targets in the waters off Iran as well as in Iraq and Yemen in late April emerged shortly after the Trump administration announced it was clamping down further on Iran’s economy by ending waivers to sanctions on buyers of Iranian crude oil. 

The administration went a step beyond that on Friday, announcing penalties that target Iran’s largest petrochemical company. 

On Saturday, the Lincoln was steaming in international waters east of Oman and about 200 miles from Iran’s southern coastline. One month after its arrival in the region, the Lincoln has not entered the Persian Gulf, and it’s not apparent that it will. The USS Gonzalez, a destroyer that is part of the Lincoln strike group, is operating in the Gulf. 

All interactions ‘safe and professional’

Rear Adm. John F. G. Wade, commander of the Lincoln strike group, said Iran’s naval forces have adhered to international standards of interaction with ships in his group. 

“Since we’ve been operating in the region, we’ve had several interactions with Iranians,” he said. “To this point all have been safe and professional — meaning, the Iranians have done nothing to impede our maneuverability or acted in a way which required us to take defensive measures.” 

The Lincoln’s contingent of 44 Navy F-18 Super Hornets are flying a carefully calibrated set of missions off the carrier night and day, mainly to establish a visible U.S. “presence.” As an apparent result, Iran seems to have tinkered with its preparation for potential attacks, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of Central Command, said Saturday.

He said on Friday that he thinks Iran had been planning some sort of attack on shipping or U.S. forces in Iraq. Two other officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details, said Iran was at a high state of readiness in early May with its ships, submarines, surface-to-air missiles and drone aircraft. 

“It is my assessment that if we had not reinforced, it is entirely likely that an attack would have taken place by now,” McKenzie said. 

In an interview on the bridge, or command station, of the Lincoln with reporters who are traveling with him throughout the Gulf region, McKenzie said the carrier has made an important difference. 

​’We are looking hard at them’

“We believe they are recalculating. They have to take this into account as they think about various actions that they might take. So we think this is having a very good, stabilizing effect,” he said. 

“They are looking hard at the carrier because they know we are looking hard at them,” McKenzie added. 

He said earlier in the week that he had not ruled out requesting additional defensive forces to bolster the deterrence of Iran, whose economy is being squeezed hard by U.S. sanctions after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. last year from the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. The U.S. already has announced plans to send 900 additional troops to the Mideast and extend the stay of 600 more as tens of thousands of others also are on the ground across the region. 

Iran’s influential Revolutionary Guard has said it doesn’t fear a possible war with the U.S. and asserted that America’s military might has not grown in power in recent years. “The enemy is not more powerful than before,” the Guard spokesman, Gen. Ramazan Sharif, said in late May. 

The U.S. has accused Iran of being behind a string of recent incidents, including what officials allege was sabotage of oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. 

McKenzie spent two days aboard the Lincoln to confer with naval commanders, observe both daytime and nighttime flight operations, and to thank crew members. Their deployment plans were disrupted when the White House approved McKenzie’s request in early May that the Lincoln cut short its time in the Mediterranean Sea and sail swiftly to the Arabian Sea. 

“I am the reason you are here,” the general said in an all-hands announcement to the nearly 6,000 personnel on the Lincoln Friday night, shortly after he flew aboard by Navy helicopter from Oman. 

Intent was to stabilize

“I requested this ship because of ongoing tensions with Iran,” he said. “And nothing says you’re interested in somebody like 90,000 tons of aircraft carrier and everything that comes with it. Our intent by bringing you here was to stabilize the situation and let Iran know that now is not the time to do something goofy.” 

McKenzie also requested, and received, four Air Force long-range B-52 bombers. They were in the region 51 hours after being summoned and were flying missions three days later. They are now operating from al-Udeid air base in Qatar. There had been no U.S. bomber presence in the Gulf region since late February. 

In an interview Friday after speaking with B-52 pilots at al-Udeid, McKenzie said it’s hard to know whether that gap in a bomber presence had emboldened the Iranians. 

‘Pretty quiet’

“Cumulatively, the fact that we had drawn down in [the Mideast] may have had an effect on Iranian behavior,” he said. “We do know that bringing stuff back in seems to have had an effect on their behavior,” noting that there have been no Iranian attacks on U.S. forces. 

On Saturday aboard the Lincoln, McKenzie was asked whether there have been any incidents between Iranian and American naval forces in recent weeks. 

“No, actually, I think things are pretty quiet right now,” he said. 

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Libyan Coast Guard Intercepts 22 Migrants 

Posted on by SeeEU
Libya’s coast guard said Saturday that it had intercepted nearly two dozen Europe-bound migrants off the country’s Mediterranean coast. 

 

Spokesman Ayoub Gassim said a wooden boat carrying at least 22 African migrants, all men, was intercepted Friday north of the Bouri offshore oil field, around 105 kilometers (65 miles) from Tripoli. 

 

He said the migrants were given humanitarian and medical aid and then were taken to a refugee camp in the Tajoura district of eastern Tripoli. 

 

Libya became a major conduit for African migrants and refugees fleeing to Europe after the 2011 uprising that ousted and killed longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi. 

 

Libyan authorities have stepped up efforts to stem the flow of migrants, with European assistance. 

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House Committees to Hold Hearings on Mueller Report on Russia Probe

Posted on by SeeUS
Congressional hearings on Robert Mueller’s report on the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election take place in coming days, amid mounting pressure to launch proceedings that could lead to the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

But Mueller, the special counsel who recently stepped down after completing the report, will not testify before the House Judiciary Committee, which is holding a hearing in Washington Monday entitled “Lessons from the Mueller Report: Presidential Obstruction and Other Crimes.”

The panel will, instead, hear testimony from former U.S. attorneys and other legal experts, including John Dean, the star witness in the early 1970s Watergate hearings and former White House counsel for then-President Richard Nixon. The committee says the witnesses will discuss the report’s evidence that Trump often tried to obstruct or limit the probe, which reinforced the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the election with the intent of helping Trump win the presidency.

On Wednesday, the House Intelligence Committee will also hold a “Lessons from the Mueller Report” hearing. It’s focus will be on the “counterintelligence implications” of Mueller’s findings, the committee said. Mueller, nor members of his team, will testify but the panel will hear from former top FBI officials Robert Anderson and Stephanie Douglas.

Both committees are chaired by Democrats, who represent a party that is divided over what to do with Mueller. He has refused to testify before Congress out of concern he may be exploited for political reasons. Most House Democrats believe Mueller is obligated to explain his findings to the public as the party considers issuing a subpoena to compel him to testify.

Efforts by the committees to get more information about Mueller’s findings have been largely obstructed by Trump’s claims of executive privilege and by ordering key witnesses to refuse to testify or submit documents.

Trump’s actions have prompted the most liberal members of the House to increase pressure on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to begin a process that could lead to impeaching the president. But Pelosi has dismissed that approach, preferring a slower, more methodical strategy that includes litigation.

 

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Sex abuse crisis tops Agenda as Southern Baptists Convene

Posted on by SeeUS
The Southern Baptist Convention gathers for its annual national meeting Tuesday with one sobering topic — sex abuse by clergy and staff — overshadowing all others.

Inside the meeting hall in Birmingham, Alabama, delegates representing the nation’s largest Protestant denomination will likely vote on establishing criteria for expelling churches that mishandle or cover up abuse allegations. They also may vote to establish a new committee which would review how member churches handle claims of abuse.

Outside the convention center, abuse survivors and other activists plan a protest rally Tuesday evening, demanding that the SBC move faster to require sex-abuse training for all pastors, staff and volunteers, and to create a database of credibly accused abusers that could be shared among its more than 47,000 churches. They will also be urging the church, which espouses all-male leadership, to be more respectful of women’s roles — a volatile topic that’s sparked online debate over whether women should preach to men.

Sex abuse already was a high-profile issue at the 2018 national meeting in Dallas, following revelations about several sexual misconduct cases. Soon after his election as SBC president at that meeting, the Rev. J.D. Greear formed an advisory group to draft recommendations on how to confront the problem.

However, pressure on the church has intensified in recent months, due in part to articles by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News asserting that hundreds of Southern Baptist clergy and staff have been accused of sexual misconduct over the past 20 years, including dozens who returned to church duties, while leaving more than 700 victims with little in the way of justice or apologies.

“For years, there were people who assumed abuse was simply a Roman Catholic problem,” said the Rev. Russell Moore, who heads the SBC’s public policy arm. “I see that mentality dissipating. There seems to be a growing sense of vulnerability and a willingness to address this crisis.”

The scandals have created a major distraction at a time when recent political events have thrilled many Southern Baptist members. The convention is happening in the state that passed the strictest abortion ban in the country, an issue near and dear to many Baptists. And President Donald Trump has advanced an agenda that has pleased many conservative Christians, including a remade U.S. Supreme Court.

With the abuse scandal spreading, Greear’s study committee issued 10 recommendations, and some action has been taken.

For example, a nine-member team has been developing a training curriculum to be used by churches and seminaries to improve responses to abuse. The team includes a psychologist, a former prosecutor, a detective, and attorney and abuse survivor Rachael Denhollander, the first women to go public with charges against sports doctor Larry Nassar ahead of the prosecution that led to a lengthy prison sentence.

The study group also is considering new requirements for background checks of church leaders. And it is assessing options for a database listing abusers, though Baptist leaders say that process has been difficult because of legal issues.

Greear, in an email to The Associated Press, said he was “thankful for the light” that the articles by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News “shined on a dark area of our Convention.”

“Only when sin is exposed to the light of truth, true repentance, healing, and change can begin,” he wrote.

Activist and writer Christa Brown, who says she was abused by a Southern Baptist minister as a child, has been advocating for a database since 2006, and is frustrated by the slow pace. She says any eventual database might be ineffective unless it is run by outsiders, not by SBC officials.

“It has to be independently administered to provide survivors with a safe place to report,” she said.

The study group’s No. 1 recommendation is for Southern Baptists to “enter a season of sorrow and repentance.”

Ahead of next week’s meeting, there’s been a surge of debate — much of it waged on social media — related to the Southern Baptist Convention’s doctrine of “complementarianism” that calls for male leadership in the home and the church.

Particularly contentious is a widely observed prohibition on women preaching in Southern Baptist churches. Those recently defying that policy include Beth Moore, a prominent author and evangelist who runs a Houston-based ministry for women.

Beth Moore hinted on Twitter in April that she was preaching a Mother’s Day sermon at a Southern Baptist church, which drew rebukes from some SBC theologians.

“For a woman to teach and preach to adult men is to defy God’s Word,” wrote Owen Strachan, a professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. “Elders must not allow such a sinful practice.”

Beth Moore responded with a series of tweets on May 11, questioning the motives of SBC leaders seeking to limit women’s roles.

“All these years I’d given the benefit of the doubt that these men were the way they were because they were trying to be obedient to Scripture,” Beth Moore tweeted.

“Then I realized it was not over Scripture at all. It was over sin…. It was over misogyny. Sexism. It was about arrogance. About protecting systems. It involved covering abuses & misuses of power.”

Several male Southern Baptist pastors have aligned themselves with activist women in decrying sex abuse and limits on women’s leadership roles.

Among them is Wade Burleson, a pastor from Enid, Oklahoma, who contends that gifted women should be encouraged to serve in the ministry on an equal basis with men.

“The sooner we learn that men can learn spiritual truths from women, the better off we are,” Burleson wrote on his blog, adding that he would welcome Beth Moore preaching at his church.

The Rev. Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says SBC leaders will not soften the prohibition on women serving as pastors.

“When it comes to questions short of that, there’s going to be a robust Southern Baptist discussion,” he said.

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NSC Deputy: Kosovo’s 100% Tariff on Serbian Goods Risks Setback

Posted on by SeeEU
A White House deputy national security advisor says Kosovo’s excessively high tax on goods from Serbia precludes direct U.S. involvement in normalization talks, which President Donald Trump has been pushing for since December.

The EU-mediated dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade, which started in 2011, broke down last fall over a proposed land swap and Kosovo’s levy of a 100-percent tax on imports from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Last month, Kosovar President Hashim Thaci said Washington must have a “leading role” in the process of normalizing relations with Serbia because the European Union is too “weak” and “not united.”

But John Erath, deputy senior director for European Affairs on the U.S. National Security Council, says that’s a non-starter unless Pristina suspends or kills the tariff to lure Belgrade back to the negotiating table.

“We’ve heard that it’s important for the U.S. to be involved in the dialogue, to play some kind of facilitating role, but we can’t do this until there’s an actual dialogue—that is, until the tariff goes away,” he told VOA’s Albanian Service.

“I sit in my office and I have plans for how I can help and what the U.S. contribution can be, and I can’t start to implement them until we get past the question of the tariff,” said Erath.

‘Territorial adjustments’

White House National Security Adviser John Bolton raised eyebrows last fall when he broke from a long-held U.S. position on the issue by stating that the United States would not be bothered if Serbia and Kosovo agreed to “territorial adjustments.”

Also known as land swaps or border corrections, territorial adjustments are politically sacrilege to EU leaders and most regional experts involved in normalization talks. They’ve described them as a form of “peaceful ethnic cleansing” that risks reigniting border quarrels in other politically fragile parts of the region and reopening wounds from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Erath, however, said Bolton’s statement doesn’t contradict Western messaging on the issue.

“Our position, very simply put, is that anything agreed between the two parties would be fine with us,” he said. “Our goal is to see an agreement and see normalized relations. The Germans emphasize that a little bit differently. But in effect, it is the same thing, because … I don’t see any practical way that you could work out a large territorial change that would be acceptable to both parties.

“The U.S. upholds the OSCE principles, including territorial integrity, and it is for the people in Kosovo to decide what is the question of their territorial integrity,” he added, largely echoing statements recently made by Matthew Palmer, deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs at the U.S. State Department.

“This is all just a rehash,” he added. “We went through this back in 2007 in the Ahtisaari process, where some of the so-called experts were proposing partitions and things like that. It was nonsense then and it’s nonsense now. There can be no partition.”

Retired U.S. Ambassador Frank Wisner, who served as the U.S. special envoy to U.N.-backed talks that led to Kosovo’s declaration of independence, agreed.

“I don’t think any of us on the outside should second guess the Serbians or the Kosovars in their trying to resolve the issues that divide them, and if they want to do it with some territorial adjustment that’s fine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen,” he told VOA, calling it logistically unrealistic.

“There’s insufficient public support inside Kosovo, insufficient political support,” he said. “And inside Serbia, without some measure of progress, [citizens] are not going to buy a territorial solution, so I don’t see a way forward.”

Twenty years on

June 10 marks 20 years since the cessation of violence in the region, when then-President Bill Clinton announced the 78-day U.S.-led NATO bombing campaign against Serbia concluded.

Reflecting on the intervening two decades, Wisner said current EU-led negotiations should proceed “in the lowest-key possible fashion,” with much greater public emphasis on financial support and foreign investment.

“While of course there will be continuing negotiations, there won’t be an easy or early answer to those negotiations,” he said. “Rather, the obligation falls principally on the European Union to invest in the region and to increase its efforts to bring the region into Europe—to increase road connections, electricity, internet connectivity, and economic activity of a wide variety.”

Political solutions alone, he explained, are too easily derailed by regional actors.

“That was the case inside Kosovo, and it’s been the case in Bosnia where local political realities overcame the best intention of external negotiators,” he said.

Majority-Albanian Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after NATO airstrikes ended Belgrade’s control of the territory following a brutal counter-insurgency there by Serbian security forces.

But Serbia, whose constitution still sees Kosovo as Serb territory and the cradle of their Orthodox Christian faith, has been blocking Kosovo from joining international institutions such as Interpol and UNESCO, and still provides financial aid to ethnic Serbs in Kosovo.

Both Kosovo and Serbia aspire to join the EU, which has made the normalization of relations a precondition for membership.

Both sides hopeful

Serbian President Aleksandr Vucic has repeatedly said revoking the 100-percent tariff is Belgrade’s only requirement for resuming talks, while Kosovar officials have demanded that Serbia first recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Although more than 110 countries recognize Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia, Russia, China and five European Union countries, remain opposed to its independence.

Tensions in the region spiked last week when Kosovar police raided Serb-populated areas in what officials called a crackdown on organized crime. Serbia’s president responded by putting its border troops on full alert. Only a day before, he’d told Serbian lawmakers the country had to accept that it had forever lost control of Kosovo.

Speaking at an event in Slovakia on Friday, Vucic told reporters that despite his pessimism about prospects for a breakthrough in negotiations, “both sides must keep seeking a compromise.”

Kosovo’s president expressed hope while speaking at the same event about reaching a normalization deal with Serbia this year, and that a planned meeting on July 1 in Paris might prove a turning point.

“I hope so,” he told reporters. “If not, we will lose a decade.”

This story originated in VOA’s Albanian Service. Some information is from Reuters

 

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Thousands Flee Devastating Floods in South-West Libya

Posted on by SeeAF
The UN refugee agency reports heavy flooding has devastated whole neighborhoods in the city of Ghat in south-west Libya forcing thousands of people to flee for their lives. 

The UN refugee agency reports heavy flooding has forced more than 2,500 people to flee their homes.  It says the torrential rains, which began nearly two weeks ago have ravaged the town of Ghat, killing four people, including three children and injuring more than 30 others.

The UNHCR reports the rising floodwaters have caused huge material damage, cutting off main roads and telecommunication networks for days.  Agency spokesman, Charlie Yaxley says Ghat’s only hospital is flooded.

“All 20,000 of Ghat’s inhabitants are now in need of humanitarian support.   Shelter, food and basic items are urgently needed…Many have been forced to move in with relatives, while others are sheltering in makeshift sites, such as schools and other community structures…In some areas, houses and crops have been destroyed and people reliant on their farmland as their sole source of income are set to face major challenges ahead,” said Yaxley. 

Yaxley says the UNHCR is rushing aid to the area including family tents, mattresses, blankets, drinkable water, plastic sheets and clothes for 400 displaced families.  The Libyan Red Crescent reportedly is carrying out search and rescue operations for people trapped by the flooding.

Ghat is located near the Algerian border and some 1,300 kilometers south-west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.  It is controlled by independent Tuareg forces.  The town reportedly has been taken over by rebel commander Khalifa Hafter, who is waging war against Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tripoli.

The Libyan National Army, led by Hafter, began a march on Tripoli two months ago to seize control of the city and the government.  In the lead up to this military operation, the LNA claimed it had taken the south western towns of Awainat and Ghat without a fight.

The legitimately recognized government in Tripoli has declared Ghat a disaster zone and provided more than seven million dollars to help the flood victims.

Libya’s rival internationally unrecognized eastern-based interim government, which broadly supports Hafter, reportedly is sending truckloads of emergency supplies to Ghat.

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About 8,000 Ethiopian Jews Waiting to Immigrate to Israel

Posted on by SeeEA

About 8,000 Ethiopian Jews want to move to Israel and join their families already living there. But they accuse the Israeli government of delaying their immigration for racist reasons, accusations the government denies. Linda Gradstein has more from Jerusalem.
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Norway Mediation Effort in Venezuela’s Crisis Slows

Posted on by SeeEU

Venezuelan leader Juan Guaido said Friday that the opposition’s demand for presidential elections is not negotiable, slowing mediation efforts by Norway aimed at resolving Venezuela’s political crisis. 

 

“A new meeting isn’t planned at the moment, we can get what we’ve proposed on the agenda,” Guaido said at an event in the central city of Valencia, dismissing earlier comments from Russia’s foreign ministry that a third round of exploratory talks with representatives of Nicolas Maduro would take place next week. 

 

“Nobody who is straight in the head would sit across from a dictator thinking he is negotiating in good faith,” he added.

Guaido’s biting comments, coming as mediators from Norway were in Caracas trying to prevent the talks from derailing, highlight the huge obstacles to negotiating a peaceful solution to the crisis in Venezuela, which has endured economic and political turmoil for years. 

 

Guaido, who heads the opposition-controlled congress, revived a flagging opposition movement in January by declaring himself Venezuela’s rightful leader, quickly drawing recognition from the United States and more than 50 nations that say Maduro’s re-election last year was illegitimate.

But Maduro, backed by the military as well as Cuba and Russia, has held on to power in the face of U.S. oil sanctions that are adding to misery in a nation hit hard by hyperinflation and widespread fuel, food and power shortages.

Norway has hosted two rounds of exploratory talks between the Venezuelan government and opposition in an attempt to break the ongoing stalemate. 

 

The opposition, mindful of the collapse of past dialogue attempts that only served to strengthen the government’s hand, has insisted the starting point for negotiations be a willingness by Maduro to hold presidential elections within a reasonable time frame. Maduro has balked at that call, blaming the opposition for boycotting last year’s presidential ballot and insisting instead on elections to revamp the opposition-controlled legislature.

“As long as both sides are hurting and don’t see a way out, there’s a possibility negotiations can succeed,” said James Dobbins, a senior fellow at the Rand Corporation who served as special U.S. envoy to several crisis hotspots including Haiti and Afghanistan. “It’s really the only hope left.”

The setback in Norway’s mediation effort comes amid a frenzy of regional diplomacy tied to the Venezuelan crisis.

Talks with Cuba

Also on Friday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez traveled to Toronto for talks with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, hours after he met Venezuelan socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello in Cuba. 

“Cuba has a different position and that’s one reason why it’s important for us to talk to Cuba” about a solution to the Venezuelan crisis, Freeland said after meeting Rodriguez. She said “free and fair elections” is the way forward for Venezuela. Canada has joined the Trump administration in pressuring Maduro to resign.

Cabello had arrived in Cuba on Thursday. One of his first meetings was with Rodriguez, who said on Twitter they “discussed themes of international interest.” 

Maduro’s alleged crimes

 

Also Friday, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, urging him to set up a unit to investigate and prosecute alleged crimes by Maduro and his associates. 

 

“The long list of Maduro’s crimes includes the illegal mining and trafficking of minerals, transnational drug trafficking, and theft of substantial sums of money from the Venezuelan government and hiding it in offshore bank accounts worldwide,” Rubio said. 

 

Maduro has denied any illegal activity and says the U.S. wants to overthrow him as a way to exploit Venezuela’s vast oil resources.

Venezuelan passports

In another development, the Trump administration said it will recognize the validity of Venezuelan passports for five years beyond their printed expiration dates. The State Department announced that the passports will be considered valid for visa applications and entry into the United States in recognition of a decision by Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly.

Getting a new passport or an extension is expensive and lengthy for many Venezuelans. Many of the more than 4 million Venezuelans who fled the country in recent years had left without a valid passport.
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Five Countries to Join UN Security Council Ranks in January 

Posted on by SeeUS

Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam were elected Friday to two-year terms on the U.N. Security Council.

The five will join the 15-nation body responsible for maintaining international peace and security on Jan. 1, 2020.

There is usually little suspense in the General Assembly for the vote, as regional groups typically pre-select a candidate from within their bloc to run uncontested. This year, Tunisia, Niger and Vietnam ran unopposed.

So did Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, until just hours before Friday morning’s vote, when El Salvador announced it would challenge the tiny island nation for the one open seat in the Latin American and Caribbean region.

Diplomats expressed surprise ahead of the vote as to why El Salvador would come in at the last minute, when the regional bloc had agreed in December to put up Saint Vincent as their candidate.

“You don’t do it like that,” one western diplomat said disapprovingly.

Most other countries appeared to agree, with El Salvador winning only six of the 193 votes cast.

Eastern Europe did run a contested race this year, endorsing two candidates, Estonia and Romania.

Estonia, which joined the U.N. in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has never served on the Security Council. It beat four-time council veteran Romania after two rounds of ballots, exceeding the necessary two-thirds majority needed.

Member states cast secret ballots and candidates must win a two-thirds majority of votes to succeed, even if they are running uncontested. Candidate countries cap off their often years-long campaigns with parties in the lead-up to the vote.

Reaction

“I want to reiterate that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines views this as an historic occasion,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told reporters after the election. “We are the smallest country ever to be elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council.”

The island nation has a population of just 110,000.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has aligned with the Maduro regime in Venezuela.

“Non-interference, non-intervention, peaceful settlement of serious difficulties pertaining to governance,” the prime minister said when asked what his government’s policy is toward Venezuela.  

Vietnam had nearly unanimous support in the General Assembly, winning 192 of 193 votes.

“As Vietnam went through decades of war, we hope that we can bring to the council the experience of Vietnam, the country that has been able to rebuild after the war and deal with many other issues,” said the president’s special envoy Le Hoai Trung.

Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui said his nation would try to be a “bridge builder” on the council and contribute to trying to solve some of the most important peace and security issues.

Council dynamics

“With the election of Saint Vincent and Vietnam, the Security Council could tilt a little towards China and Russia next year,” said Richard Gowan, U.N. Director, International Crisis Group. “Saint Vincent has stuck with Maduro in Venezuela, and Vietnam hews to a pretty robust anti-Western line in U.N. debates.” 

Tunisia and Niger will represent Africa on the council. Gowan told VOA they could figure prominently if Libya and the Sahel continue atop the agenda.

“It will be hard to ignore their views on issues like the spillover of violence from Libya and the worsening security situation in Burkina Faso,” he said.

The five new council members will replace Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait, Peru and Poland, whose terms end Dec. 31, 2019.

They will join the other non-permanent members — Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia, and South Africa — as well as the permanent five members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
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(Im)migration Weekly Recap, June 2-7

Posted on by SeeUS

Editor’s note: We want you to know what’s happening, why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

Fleeing families 

The numbing numbers of families entering the U.S. without authorization through Mexico continued its months-long sharp uptick in May. U.S. border agents detained 132,887 adults and children last month — roughly 64% were traveling in a family group, and most were from Central America. The U.S. government opened tent shelters this week to house families being apprehended along the border while they are being processed.

Meanwhile, officials in Washington and Mexico City are attempting to negotiate migration protocols after Trump threatened the country’s southern neighbor with escalating tariffs set to start next week. 

African migrants on Mexico border

While the news of increasing family arrivals has dominated headlines in recent months, another jump in border crossings quietly surfaced in the last week: Border agents detained about 500 people from Central and Southern Africa in the last week — mostly Cameroonian, Angolan, and Congolese. While there are some unauthorized border crossers every year from African states, the sharp uptick is prompting charities along the border to scramble their resources, unaccustomed to the language needs in the detained groups. 

Death in detention — and out

A hospitalized trans woman died days after her release from U.S. immigration custody. In the days following, two more people in U.S. border custody died.

The journey to get to — and through — the U.S. border can be perilous, and every year hundreds of people die in the attempt, but is the U.S. government doing enough to care for those in detention? Even an internal assessment by government inspectors released this week questions whether enough is being done. 

From the Feds:

— A Florida man is facing federal charges over alleged threats against his Iraqi-American refugee neighbor — who is also a widow and mother of four. 

— The head of a Mexican religious group was arrested at a U.S. airport this week. Naasón Joaquín García, who heads La Luz Del Mundo, a Christian fundamentalist group, is accused along with several co-defendants of dozens of counts of human trafficking, production of child pornography, and forcible rape of a minor. 
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Putin Open to Talks With Ukraine’s New President 

Posted on by SeeEU

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is open for talks with Ukraine’s newly elected president. 

 

Asked Friday why he didn’t congratulate comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy on taking office as Ukrainian president last month, Putin pointed at Zelenskiy’s statements in which he called Russia an aggressor.    

Relations between the two countries have been strained since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and Moscow’s support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. 

 

Putin said that Zelenskiy is a talented actor, but noted that “there is a difference between playing and being.”  

  

He softened the statement by adding that Zelenskiy may have the makings of a leader and said that he is open for a meeting with Ukraine’s new leader.
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US Legislators Seek Answers on Boeing 737 Max Defect 

Posted on by SeeUS

Two key U.S. legislators want answers from Boeing and federal regulators about why the company waited more than a year to disclose that a safety alert in its 737 Max plane wasn’t working properly. 

 

U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Rick Larsen of Washington sent letters to Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration seeking details on what they knew when, and when airlines were told. 

 

The feature is designed to warn pilots when a sensor provides incorrect information about the pitch of the plane’s nose. 

 

Boeing admitted in May that within months of the plane’s 2017 debut, engineers realized that the sensor warning light worked only when paired with a separate, optional feature. 

 

The sensors malfunctioned during flights in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Both planes crashed, killing 346 people in all.
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US Starts ‘Unwinding’ Turkey from F-35 Fighter Jet Program

Posted on by SeeEU

The United States on Friday raised the stakes in its standoff with Turkey over Ankara’s deal to acquire a Russian air defense system, laying out a plan to remove the NATO ally from the F-35 fighter jet program that includes halting any new training for Turkish pilots on the advanced aircraft.

Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan sent a letter to his Turkish counterpart, seen by Reuters on Friday, that laid out the steps to “unwind” Turkey from the program.

Reuters on Thursday first reported the decision to stop accepting more Turkish pilots for training in the United States, in one of the most concrete signs that the dispute between Washington and Ankara is reaching a breaking point.

The United States says Turkey’s acquisition of Russia’s S-400 air defense system poses a threat to the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 stealthy fighters, which Turkey also plans to buy. The United States says Turkey cannot have both.

Shanahan’s letter explicitly states there will be “no new F-35 training.” It says there were 34 students scheduled for F-35 training later this year.

“This training will not occur because we are suspending Turkey from the F-35 program; there are no longer requirements to gain proficiencies on the systems,” according to an attachment to the letter that is titled, “Unwinding Turkey’s Participation in the F-35 Program.”

In his letter, Shanahan warns that training for Turkish personnel on the F-35 at Luke Air Force Base and Eglin Air Force Base will be discontinued at the end of July.

“This timeline will enable many, but not all, Turkish F-35 students currently training to complete their courses prior to departing the United States by July 31, 2019,” Shanahan said in his letter, which noted: “You still have the option to change course on the S-400.”

Turkey has expressed an interest in buying 100 of the fighters, which would have a total value of $9 billion at current prices.

Strained relationship

If Turkey were removed from the F-35 program, it would be one of the most significant ruptures in recent history in the relationship between the two allies, experts said.

Strains in ties already extend beyond the F-35 to include conflicting strategy in Syria, Iran sanctions and the detention of U.S. consular staff in Turkey.

The disclosure of the decision on the pilots follows signs that Turkey is moving ahead with the S-400 purchase. 

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on May 22 that Turkish military personnel were receiving training in Russia to use the S-400, and that Russian personnel may go to Turkey. The head of Russian state conglomerate Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, said the country would start delivering S-400 missile systems to Turkey in two months, the Interfax news agency reported.

‘Devastating’ deal

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday it was “out of the question” for Turkey to back away from its deal with Moscow. Erdogan said the United States had not “given us an offer as good as the S-400s.”

The Turkish lira declined as much as 1.5% on Friday before recovering some losses. The currency has shed nearly 10% of its value against the dollar this year in part on fraying diplomatic ties and the risk of U.S. sanctions if Turkey accepts delivery of the S-400s.

Kathryn Wheelbarger, one of the Pentagon’s most senior policy officials, said last week that Turkey’s completion of the transaction with Russia would be “devastating,” dealing heavy blows to the F-35 program and to Turkish interoperability within the NATO alliance.

“The S-400 is a Russian system designed to shoot down an aircraft like the F-35,” said Wheelbarger, an acting assistant secretary of defense. “And it is inconceivable to imagine Russia not taking advantage of that [intelligence] collection opportunity.”
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US Commander Says Mideast Buildup Prompted Iran ‘Step Back’

Posted on by SeeEA

Iran has chosen to “step back and recalculate” after making preparations for an apparent attack against U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region, but it is too early to conclude the threat is gone, the top commander of American forces in the Mideast said Thursday.

In an interview with three reporters accompanying him to the Gulf, Gen. Frank McKenzie said he remains concerned by Iran’s potential for aggression, and he would not rule out requesting additional U.S. forces to bolster defenses against Iranian missiles or other weapons.

 

“I don’t actually believe the threat has diminished,” McKenzie said. “I believe the threat is very real.”

 

McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, and other military officials are trying to strike a balance between persuading Iran that the U.S. is prepared to retaliate for an Iranian attack on Americans, thus deterring conflict, and pushing so much military muscle into the Gulf that Iran thinks the U.S. plans an attack, in which case it might feel compelled to strike preemptively and thus spark war.

 

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have worsened since President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and several world powers, and reinstated sanctions on Tehran. Last month, in response to what American officials characterized as an imminent threat, the U.S. announced it would rush an aircraft carrier and other assets to the region.

 

The U.S. also blamed Iran for last month’s attacks on oil tankers in a United Arab Emirates port.

 

On Thursday, United Nations ambassadors from the Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Norway told U.N. Security Council members that investigators believe those attacks were led by a foreign state using divers on speed boats who planted mines on the vessels. They did not name Iran.

 

Earlier, the Saudi ambassador to the U.N., Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, said Saudi Arabia also blames Iran for the sabotage.

 

In Baghdad, McKenzie told reporters from The Associated Press and two other media organizations that U.S. redeployments to the Gulf have “caused the Iranians to back up a little bit, but I’m not sure they are strategically backing down.”

 

The general said the U.S. is showing enough force to “establish deterrence” without “needlessly” provoking its longtime adversary. “We’re working very hard to walk that line.”

 

He said he is confident in the moves he has made thus far.

 

“We’ve taken steps to show the Iranians that we mean business in our ability to defend ourselves,” he said, referring to the accelerated deployment to the Gulf area of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, four Air Force B-52 bombers and additional batteries of Army Patriot air-defense systems.

 

Trump, speaking beside French President Emmanuel Macron in Caen, France, said U.S. sanctions are crippling Iran’s economy, possibly yielding a diplomatic opening.

 

“And if they want to talk, that’s fine,” the U.S. president said. “We’ll talk. But the one thing that they can’t have is they can’t have nuclear weapons.”

 

Speaking at the Baghdad headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, McKenzie said he also has repositioned surveillance aircraft to more closely monitor the situation in the Gulf and in Iraq, where the U.S. has 5,200 troops on the ground, and has given Iran a “new look” by introducing more aerial patrols by land- and carrier-based fighters.

 

“Cumulatively, all of these have caused them to sort of step back and recalculate the course that they apparently were on,” he said.

 

McKenzie did not mention it, but other officials have said that in early May Iran had cruise and perhaps short-range ballistic missiles configured for potential use aboard a small number of dhows sailing off its coast. More recently, those missiles, which were deemed a potential threat, were offloaded, officials have said.

 

McKenzie stressed that the danger of conflict with a decades-old American adversary has not passed.

 

“I hesitate to say that deterrence has been established,” he said. “We continue to see possible imminent threats” of a potential Iranian attack. He said he could not be more specific due to the classification of the intelligence, which he said is as clear and compelling as any he has seen in years.

 

McKenzie, a veteran of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, took command of Central Command in late March, shortly before the onset of the latest surge in tensions with Iran. He previously directed the staff that supports the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 

The general said he – not the White House – initiated the May 5 moves to accelerate the deployment of the Abraham Lincoln carrier group and to dispatch B-52 bombers.

 

He said the intelligence on Iranian threats in the first days of May was “compelling” and that the threats were “advanced, imminent and very specific.”

 

The pattern of intelligence on Iranian preparations for potential attacks emerged as the Trump administration took a pair of highly public actions meant to penalize Iran. The first was the State Department’s designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. The second, perhaps more consequential, move was a April 22 announcement that waivers for American sanctions on buyers of Iranian oil would not be renewed when they expired May 2, meaning Iran lost vital oil export revenues.

 

U.S. intelligence was then picking up what Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week looked like a pattern of Iranian plotting against U.S. and other targets in the region. Dunford said that on May 3, the U.S. sent a message to Iranian officials “just to make it clear they understood that we would hold them accountable should something take place in the region.”

 

Two days later, Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, announced the movement of the carrier, prompting an explosion of questions about what new threats Iran had posed to prompt such a highly unusual White House declaration. McKenzie said the carrier request was his, in consultation with Dunford, and that he faced no political pressure to make the request.

 

 
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Factbox: What Will May’s Successor do About Brexit?

Posted on by SeeEU

Who are the candidates vying for British Prime Minister Theresa May’s job and what have they said about Brexit?

May has announced she is quitting, triggering a contest that will bring a new leader to power, with most of the front-runners expected to push for a cleaner break with the European Union.

Below are the 11 Conservative lawmakers who have said they are running and what they have said about Brexit. They are arranged in the order listed by oddschecker, a website that compiles bookmakers’ odds.

​BORIS JOHNSON, 54

The bookmakers’ clear favorite was the face of the official campaign to leave the European Union. The former London mayor resigned as foreign minister in July last year in protest at May’s handling of the exit negotiations.

Johnson said in a campaign video that Britain would leave the EU Oct. 31 “deal or no deal.” He has also said a second referendum on EU membership would be a “very bad idea” and divisive.

In a newspaper column, he said: “No one sensible would aim exclusively for a no-deal outcome. No one responsible would take no-deal off the table.

“If we are courageous and optimistic, we can strike a good bargain with our friends across the Channel, come out well and on time — by Oct. 31 — and start delivering on all the hopes and ambitions of the people.”

Local media reported he told a leadership hustings that the Conservatives would not be forgiven if Britain did not leave the EU by Oct. 31 and would face “political extinction.”

Johnson was educated at Eton College and Oxford University.

​MICHAEL GOVE, 51

Gove, one of the highest-profile Brexit campaigners during the 2016 referendum, scuppered Johnson’s 2016 leadership bid by withdrawing his support at the last moment to run himself.

Seen as one of the most effective members of May’s Cabinet as environment minister, Gove backed her Brexit strategy.

On Brexit: Gove said he believed he could unite the party and deliver Brexit.

He said he would set out his Brexit plans in more detail at a formal leadership launch, but told the BBC: “In government and in this job I have got to [come to] grips with preparing for a no-deal, it is a possible outcome. … We would be able to get through it, but it is ultimately better for all of us if we secure a deal and leave in an orderly way.”

“We must leave the EU before we have an election,” Gove said on Twitter, adding that otherwise Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn could end up as prime minister with support from Scottish nationalists.

Gove was educated at Oxford University.

​ANDREA LEADSOM, 56

A pro-Brexit campaigner, Leadsom made it to the last two in the 2016 contest to replace Cameron. She withdrew after a backlash to an interview in which she said being a mother gave her more of a stake in the future of the country, seen by critics as an unfair attack on May, who has no children.

Leadsom quit as Leader of the House of Commons last month, saying she did not believe the government’s approach would deliver on the Brexit referendum result.

On Brexit: She told the Sunday Times she would put significant effort into encouraging the EU to come up with a “deal that we can all live with” but also said Britain had to leave by the end of October, with or without a deal.

Leadsom was educated at the University of Warwick before spending 25 years in banking and finance.

​JEREMY HUNT, 52

Hunt replaced Johnson as foreign minister in July after serving six years as health minister. That role made him unpopular with many voters who work in or rely on the state-run, financially stretched National Health Service.

On Brexit: A remain supporter in the 2016 referendum, Hunt now says that while he would prefer to leave the EU with a deal, he believes a no-deal exit is better than no Brexit. However, in a Daily Telegraph article he became the most senior figure vying to succeed May to reject a threat to leave with no deal by the end of October, saying lawmakers would block any such move.

“Any prime minister who promised to leave the EU by a specific date — without the time to renegotiate and pass a new deal — would, in effect, be committing to a general election the moment parliament tried to stop it. And trying to deliver no deal through a general election is not a solution; it is political suicide,” he wrote.

“A different deal is, therefore, the only solution. … That means negotiations that take us out of the customs union while generously respecting legitimate concerns about the Irish border,” he continued.

He has not however entirely ruled out a no-deal exit, saying he could consider it as a last resort.

Hunt was educated at Oxford. He speaks fluent Japanese.

​DOMINIC RAAB, 45

Raab quit as May’s Brexit minister last year after five months in the job, saying her draft exit agreement did not match the promises the Conservative Party made in the 2017 election.

He had held junior ministerial roles since being elected in 2010. Raab, a black belt in karate, campaigned for Brexit.

On Brexit: Raab told the BBC that he plans to seek a “fairer deal” with Brussels, including renegotiating the customs and border plans relating to Northern Ireland. He also said he would not delay Brexit beyond October however, and was prepared to leave without a deal.

Raab said he expected that if Britain left without a deal, it would be likely get to keep around 25 billion pounds of its 39 billion pound exit payment, and the government could use that money to support businesses through Brexit.

The son of a Jewish refugee, Raab was educated at Oxford University.

​RORY STEWART, 46

A former diplomat who once walked 6,000 miles across Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal, Stewart was recently promoted to International Development Secretary.

Stewart was first elected to parliament in 2010 and backed remaining in the EU in the 2016 referendum. He opposes a “no deal” exit and has been a vocal advocate of May’s deal with Brussels.

On Brexit: He told Sky News that he favored a “pragmatic, moderate Brexit.”

He said he would not seek to change May’s withdrawal agreement, which has been rejected by parliament three times and said anyone who said they could do so by October was “deluding themselves or deluding the country.”

“We have a deal negotiated with the European Union on the Withdrawal Agreement. What I would be doing in parliament and with the British people is sorting out that political declaration and landing it so we can get out and move on.”

Stewart was educated at Eton College and Oxford University.

​SAJID JAVID, 49

Javid, a former banker and a champion of free markets, has served in a number of Cabinet roles and scores consistently well in polls of party members. A second-generation immigrant of Pakistani heritage, he has a portrait of late Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on his office wall.

On Brexit: Javid voted “remain” in the 2016 referendum but was previously considered a eurosceptic.

Javid wants to reshape the existing Brexit deal and get it through parliament, but would be prepared to leave without a deal if that proves impossible.

“We should leave on Oct. 31. And if we cannot get a deal we should, with great regret, leave without one, having done everything we can to minimize disruption,” he wrote in the Daily Mail.

He wants to ramp up no-deal preparations to show the EU that Britain is serious about walking away from talks.

Javid also said he was against a second referendum: “Never in this country’s history have we asked people to go to the polls a second time without implementing their verdict from the first.”

Javid, the son of a bus driver, was educated at Exeter University.

​MATT HANCOCK, 40

Health minister Hancock, a former economist at the Bank of England, supported “remain” in 2016. First elected to parliament in 2010, he has held several ministerial roles.

On Brexit: He told BBC Radio that leaving without a deal was not an option, as parliament would not allow it. He said he was open to renegotiating May’s deal with the EU but would focus on getting a Brexit deal through parliament.

Writing in the Daily Mail, he said the Conservatives needed to win back both pro-Brexit and pro-remain voters who had deserted it for other parties. He told Sky News he planned to renegotiate the future relationship with the EU and would explore the possibility of changing the Withdrawal Agreement.

“We need to leave the EU with a deal before 31st October. I still think that is deliverable,” he said.

Hancock was educated at Oxford University.

​ESTHER MCVEY, 51

The pro-Brexit former television presenter, who resigned as work and pensions minister in November in protest at May’s exit deal with the EU, said Sunday Britain has to leave on Oct. 31 and “if that means without a deal, then that is what it means.”

On Brexit: She wrote in the Daily Telegraph that no government she led would ever seek an extension beyond Oct. 31.

“We need to stop wasting time having artificial debates about renegotiating backstops or resurrecting botched deals. The only way to deliver the referendum result is to actively embrace leaving the EU without a deal,” she said.

McVey was educated at Queen Mary University of London.

MARK HARPER, 49

Harper, who was elected to parliament in 2005 after working as an accountant, has held junior ministerial positions and served as the government’s chief enforcer in parliament under former Prime Minister David Cameron.

In 2014 he resigned as immigration minister after it emerged his cleaner did not have permission to work in Britain.

On Brexit: Harper supported remaining in the EU at the 2016 referendum but says he would now vote to leave. He told Sky News he would extend Article 50 to give time to secure an exit deal.

“I would rather be realistic with people and say actually if you want to leave with a deal, you want a serious attempt to get a good deal then it simply can’t be done by Oct. 31,” he said.

“I want to leave with a deal but I do think if we can’t get a deal that goes through parliament we need to leave without a Withdrawal Agreement but I think we will only persuade a majority in parliament of that if they think we have made a serious real attempt.”

He was educated at Oxford University.

​SAM GYIMAH, 42

Gyimah is the only candidate to back another Brexit referendum.

A former investment banker and entrepreneur, Gyimah entered parliament after the 2010 election. He was promoted to minister for universities in January 2018, but resigned 10 months later over May’s Brexit deal.

He said he was joining the contest to “broaden the race.”

“There is a wide range of candidates but there is a very narrow set of views on Brexit being discussed,” he told Sky News.

“Parliament is deadlocked, we all know that,” he said. “We want to be able to bring the country together so that is why I think a final say on the Brexit deal is the way to achieve that.

“I’ll be the only candidate in the race offering this option which is supported by the vast majority of people in the public, in order to take us forward.”
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Seaweed Could Help Produce Biodegradable Plastic

Posted on by SeeEA

Efforts to recycle discarded plastic have not reduced piles of single-use products from landfills, and China will no longer import plastic waste for recycling. The United Nations says more than 8 million tons of plastic enters the ocean every year. Plastics are increasingly killing marine life and birds, threatening ecosystems and harming humans. Researchers are working to develop biodegradable materials to replace the durable plastic. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports on one such project in Israel.
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In Reversal, Biden Opposes Ban on Federal Money for Abortion

Posted on by SeeUS

After two days of intense criticism, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden reversed course Thursday and declared that he no longer supports a long-standing congressional ban on using federal health care money to pay for abortions.

“If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment” that makes it harder for some women to access care, Biden said at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Atlanta.

The former vice president’s reversal on the Hyde Amendment came after rivals and women’s rights groups blasted him for affirming through campaign aides that he still supported the decades-old budget provision. The dynamics had been certain to flare again at Democrats’ first primary debate in three weeks.

Centrist risks

Biden didn’t mention this week’s attacks, saying his decision was about health care, not politics. Yet the circumstances highlight the risks for a 76-year-old former vice president who’s running as more of a centrist in a party where some skeptical activists openly question whether he can be the party standard-bearer in 2020.

And Biden’s explanation tacitly repeated his critics’ arguments that the Hyde Amendment is another abortion barrier that disproportionately affects poor women and women of color.

“I’ve been struggling with the problems that Hyde now presents,” Biden said, opening a speech dedicated mostly to voting rights and issues important to the black community.

“I want to be clear: I make no apologies for my last position. I make no apologies for what I’m about to say,” he explained, arguing that “circumstances have changed” with Republican-run states, including Georgia, where Biden spoke, adopting new, severe restrictions on abortion.

‘Middle ground’ on abortion

A Roman Catholic who has wrestled publicly with abortion policy for decades, Biden said he voted as a senator to support the Hyde Amendment because he believed that women would still have access to abortion even without Medicaid insurance and other federal health care grants and that abortion opponents shouldn’t be compelled to pay for the procedure. It was part of what Biden has described as a “middle ground” on abortion.

Now, he says, there are too many barriers that threaten that constitutional right, leaving some women with no reasonable options as long as Republicans keep pushing for an outright repeal of the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

The former vice president said he arrived at the decision as part of developing an upcoming comprehensive health care proposal. He has declared his support for a Medicare-like public option as the next step toward universal coverage. He reasoned that his goal of universal coverage means women must have full and fair access to care, including abortion.

​Reversal praised

A Planned Parenthood representative applauded Biden’s reversal but noted that he has been lagging the women’s rights movement on the issue.

“Happy to see Joe Biden embrace what we have long known to be true: Hyde blocks people, particularly women of color and women with low incomes, from accessing safe, legal abortion care,” said Leana Wen of Planned Parenthood, the women’s health giant whose services include abortion and abortion referrals.

Other activists accepted credit for pushing Biden on the issue.

“We’re pleased that Joe Biden has joined the rest of the 2020 Democratic field in coalescing around the party’s core values — support for abortion rights, and the basic truth that reproductive freedom is fundamental to the pursuit of equality and economic security in this country,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL, a leading abortion-rights advocacy group.

Reaction on both sides

Repealing Hyde has become a defining standard for Democrats in recent years, making what was once a more common position among moderate Democrats more untenable, particularly given the dynamics of primary politics heading into 2020. At its 2016 convention, the party included a call for repealing Hyde in the Democratic platform, doing so at the urging of nominee Hillary Clinton.

At least one prominent Democratic woman remained unconvinced.

“I am not clear that Joe Biden believes unequivocally that every single woman has the right to make decisions about her body, regardless of her income or race,” said Democratic strategist Jess Morales Rocketto, who worked for Clinton in 2016. “It is imperative that the Democratic nominee believe that.”

Republicans pounced, framing Biden’s change in position as a gaffe.

“He’s just not very good at this. Joe Biden is an existential threat to Joe Biden,” said Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.

A senior Biden campaign official said some aides were surprised at the speed of the reversal, given Biden’s long history of explaining his abortion positions in terms of his faith. But aides realized that as the front-runner, the attacks weren’t going to let up, and his campaign reasoned that the fallout within the Democratic primary outweigh any long-term benefit of maintain his previous Hyde support.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.
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Journalists Say They Are Under Attack in Nigeria

Posted on by SeeAF

The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Nigerian authorities to “investigate and hold accountable the police officers” who allegedly beat and threatened journalist Kofi Bartels.

CPJ said Bartels told the committee that on Tuesday he was beaten and arrested for trying to film several officers who he said were beating a young boy.

Bartels, a journalist with Nigeria Info, also tweeted about the attack in the city of Port Harcourt. 

Bartels told CPJ that an officer told Bartels that he had “been giving them problems for a long time,” citing his work covering the police in Rivers state. He said the officer also threatened to put him in a prison cell with an inmate who would rape him.

Bartels was not charged with any crimes and eventually released.

“The police officers involved in this horrific alleged assault against Kofi Bartels must be swiftly brought to justice,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “The initial assault of a reporter documenting police behavior, compounded by the brazen retaliation for past reporting, is a chilling example of a gravely consistent pattern of Nigerian security services’ violence against journalists.”

Also Thursday, Nigeria’s broadcasting authority shut down a private radio and television station owned by a key opposition figure.

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) said it had suspended the license of Daar Communications, the owners of African Independent Television (AIT) and RayPower FM radio.

Officials said both media entities had failed to follow the Nigerian broadcasting code, but did not elaborate.

The owner of two broadcast stations, Raymond Dokpesi, who is also a key member of opposition Peoples Democratic Party, had predicted the move by the NBC. Hours before the licenses were suspended, Dokpesi told reporters at a news conference that his staff was being intimidated on the instruction of the Nigerian presidency.

“We are on a road previously traveled. A media and press clampdown is in the offing,” he told reporters.
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UAE, Norway, Saudi Arabia: ‘State Actor’ Likely Attacked Oil Tankers

Posted on by SeeEA

The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Norway said Thursday that a preliminary investigation into a coordinated attack on four of their oil tankers in an Emirati port last month was likely carried out by a state actor.

In a joint statement, they said limpet mines were used in the May 12 coordinated attacks, which left large holes in the hulls of the four tankers, but did not cause more extensive damage or oil spills. Limpets are a type of naval mine that attach to their target with magnets.

“It appears most likely that the mines were placed on the vessels by divers deployed from fast boats,” the statement said. “While investigations are still ongoing, these facts are strong indications that the four attacks were part of a sophisticated and coordinated operation carried out by an actor with significant operational capacity, most likely a state actor.”

​Findings to presented to Security Council

The three countries presented their initial findings to the U.N. Security Council in an informal meeting Thursday to discuss what they see as a threat to international commercial navigation and the security of global energy supplies.

While they stressed that their investigation is still in the preliminary stage and did not jointly point a finger at any country in their statement, Saudi Arabian U.N. Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi said there was a “preponderance of evidence” pointing in one direction.

“We believe that the responsibility for this action lies on the shoulders of Iran,” al-Mouallimi told a small group of reporters. “We have no hesitation in making this statement, we believe there is enough evidence to demonstrate that.”

He said the attacks follow a “pattern of regular behavior of the Iran regime in terms of spreading acts of terrorism, sabotaging and causing havoc in many parts of the world.”

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton shared a similar assessment when he was in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi last month, telling reporters that it was “clear that Iran is behind” the attack.

Iran has denied any involvement.

Quick, not random attacks

The four blasts occurred within less than an hour on the two Saudi vessels, and one each from the UAE and Norway. The ships were within UAE territorial waters off the port of Fujairah, just outside the Strait of Hormuz, a busy shipping lane through which a large portion of the world’s oil supply passes.

The tankers were targeted from among nearly 200 other vessels at anchor off of Fujairah on that day. One of the vessels was several kilometers away at the opposite end of the anchorage area, an indication that the targets were not randomly chosen.

The UAE is leading the ongoing investigation and said it will share its preliminary findings with the London-based International Maritime Organization.
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US Opens Mass Shelter in Texas for Migrant Children

Posted on by SeeUS

The federal government is opening a new mass facility to hold migrant children in Texas and considering detaining hundreds more youths on three military bases around the country, adding a total of 3,000 new beds to the overtaxed system.

The new emergency facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, will hold up to 1,600 teens in a complex that once housed oil field workers on government-leased land near the border, said Mark Weber, a spokesman for Office of Refugee Resettlement.

The agency is also weighing using Army and Air Force bases in Georgia, Montana and Oklahoma to house an additional 1,400 kids in the coming weeks, amid the influx of children traveling to the U.S. alone. Most of the children have arrived in the U.S. without their families and are held in government custody while authorities determine if they can be released to relatives or family friends.

Shelters not subject to child welfare rules

All the new facilities will be considered temporary emergency shelters and thus not be subject to state child welfare licensing requirements, Weber said. In January, the government shut down a large detention camp in the Texas desert that was unlicensed and another unlicensed facility remains in operation in the Miami suburbs.

“It is our legal requirement to take care of these children so that they are not in Border Patrol facilities,” Weber said. “They will have the services that ORR always provides, which is food, shelter and water.”

Under fire for the death of two children who went through the agency’s network of shelters and facing lawsuits over the treatment of teens in its care, the agency says it must set up new facilities or risk running out of beds.

​Flores agreement questions

The announcement of the program’s expansion follows the government’s decision to scale back or cut paying for recreation, English-language courses and legal services for the more than 13,200 migrant toddlers, school-age children and teens in its custody.

The Health and Human Services department, which oversees the refugee office, notified shelters around the country last week that it was not going to reimburse them for teachers’ pay, legal services or recreational equipment, saying budget cuts were needed as record numbers of unaccompanied children arrive at the border, largely from Central America. In May, border agents apprehended 11,507 children traveling alone.

Attorneys said the move violates a legal settlement known as the Flores agreement that requires the government to provide education and recreational activities to migrant children in its care.

Advocates have slammed the move as punitive, saying such services are typically available to adult prisoners.

“ORR’s cancelling of these services will inflict further harm on children, many of whom continue to languish for months without being placed safely and expeditiously into a sponsor’s care. That is not only unacceptable, it could be in violation of the law,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee with oversight on the agency’s budget.
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US Measles Cases Pass 1,000 Mark for 2019  

Posted on by SeeUS

The number of measles cases confirmed in the United States in 2019 has reached 1,001, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report said this week.

As of last week, the total for 2019 had already reached the highest point in any year since 1992, when there were 2,237 cases of the infectious disease reported. 

 

“The Department of Health and Human Services has been deeply engaged in promoting the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, amid concerning signs that there are pockets of undervaccination around the country,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement Thursday. 

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Azar reinforced the importance of vaccines in combating the outbreak. 

 

“We cannot say this enough: Vaccines are a safe and highly effective public health tool that can prevent this disease and end the current outbreak. I encourage all Americans to talk to your doctor about what vaccines are recommended to protect you, your family, and your community from measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases,” he said. 

 

Measles is highly contagious. The disease is usually spread through sneezing and coughing. It can linger in the air for up to two hours. 

 

Cases have been reported in more than half of U.S. states. New York has had the highest total, with nearly 700 cases reported this year.  

  

Most of those cases have been in Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Queens, where there are low vaccination rates. The New York City Department of Health said that as of Monday, 566 cases had been confirmed in those areas since September. 

 

Clark County in Washington state had the second-largest outbreak in the U.S. this year with more than 70 cases reported.  

  

According to the CDC, the outbreaks in New York City and Rockland County, N.Y., threaten to nullify the nation’s status of having officially eliminated measles.  

  

“That loss would be a huge blow for the nation and erase the hard work done by all levels of public health. The measles elimination goal, first announced in 1966 and accomplished in 2000, was a monumental task,”  the CDC said in a May press release. 

 

“Before widespread use of the measles vaccine, an estimated 3 [million] to 4 million people got measles each year in the United States, along with an estimated 400 to 500 deaths and 48,000 hospitalizations,” the release said. 
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Gay Tour Group Stirs Controversy in Ethiopia

Posted on by SeeAF

A tour company with a mainly gay clientele is facing backlash over plans to visit religious sites in Ethiopia.

Chicago-based Toto Tours organizes sightseeing vacations around the world. It was founded in 1990 primarily catering to all-male, gay clientele but has since expanded to include men and women, regardless of sexual orientation. 

Company owner Dan Ware said the controversy began in May when the group posted plans on social media for a tour of Ethiopia, including the ancient rock-hewn churches of Lalibela. The post included a light-hearted play on words, saying, “We will rock you,” in reference to the song by music group Queen.

“Just trying to be clever. Just to have a saying. It didn’t mean anything other than this experience of seeing this incredible place will change your life,” Ware told VOA. “We’re not going to do any kind of activism.” 

Blogger’s response

The post was picked up by Ethiopian blogger Seyoum Teshome, who wrote critically about the planned trip. Before long, members of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christian community were holding protests. Ware said he has been inundated with angry messages and even death threats. 

“It’s been spiraling out of control for about 10 days now, ever since May 25 and the blogger’s post, and it has gotten worldwide attention. And this has not been by design,” Ware said. 

In a protest in Addis Ababa, religious leaders said the travel would be an insult to Christianity and to Ethiopian culture. 

“All religions and their followers must stand together to save this generation. We are asking the government to stop them (travelers with Toto) from visiting our historical places, and we are warning those Ethiopians who are cooperating with this evil thing,” said Tiguhan Kesis Tagay Tadele, secretary general of the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia outlaws homosexual acts, which carry penalties of up to 15 years in prison. Critics say the American group would be openly defying this law.

“We hate homosexuality; they can’t come to Ethiopia and visit Lalibela and other historical places. Because homosexuality is a crime — so if they come here, they will be damaged,” said Dereje Negash, the vice chairman of Sileste Mihret United Association, an Orthodox Christian organization. 

Gay Ethiopians 

Ware pointed out it is not illegal to be gay in the country, only to act on it. He also said, despite the vitriol, he has been heartened to hear from many gay Ethiopians who encouraged him to come and thanked him for standing up for gay rights. 

Ware has also been in touch with officials at the U.S. embassy in Addis Ababa. He said they told him they know of no history of violence against gay foreigners traveling in the country. Ware is now weighing his options and waiting to hear from the Ethiopian government on whether they will be allowed in the country, but said he is inclined to go forward with the trip.

“It has been saddening,” Ware said. “It’s not my intent to harm anyone to cause this controversy. I want it to be resolved.” 

Here to stay

Ware added that he believes Ethiopia should come to terms with the fact that gay travelers are here to stay. In fact, he said, gay people have long been traveling together and visiting the world’s great sites; this fact just hasn’t been advertised.

“If the people of Ethiopia think that there has never been a gay group that has come and visited the holy sites or that there will never be one again in the future, they’re mistaken,” he said. “We have nothing on our foreheads that says, ‘He’s gay,’ and we blend very well.”
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China’s Panda Diplomacy Comes to Moscow

Posted on by SeeEU

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is on a three-day state visit to Russia aimed at underscoring Russian-Sino cooperation — and his close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin — in the face of strained relations with the United States. 

 

“In the past six years, we have met nearly 30 times,” said Xi of the Russian leader. 

 

“Russia is the country that I have visited the most times, and President Putin is my best friend and colleague,” added Xi. 

 

While ostensibly timed to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties, the state visit comes as both leaders bristle over their treatment by the U.S., which has levied sanctions against Russia since 2014 and currently is engaged in a trade war with China.  

 

“People generally tend to go to the places where they are liked,” said Mikhail Korostikov, Asia-Pacific observer for the Kommersant daily newspaper, in explaining the personal chemistry between Putin and Xi. “But the conflict with the U.S. that both countries are facing made them closer.” 

 

Military ties 

 

Indeed, beyond their grudges with Washington, a shared worldview on global security has helped both sides overcome distrust that once plagued the Soviet-China relationship, which fractured over differing interpretations of communist ideology and border disputes.   

Case in point: inclusion of 3,200 Chinese troops alongside 300,000 Russians in the Kremlin’s massive Vostok-2018 military training exercise in Russia’s Far East last year, according to official sources.

 

From their perch at the U.N. Security Council, Russia and China now regularly form a global counterweight to the U.S. on thorny issues such as Syria, North Korea and Iran — a point noted by Putin in a statement after meeting with Xi on Wednesday.  

 

“In discussing important international and regional problems, I can say that in most of them, the views of Russia and China are aligned or very close,” said the Russian leader. 

 

So, too, increasingly, are their economies. 

 

Russian ‘pivot’ 

 

In the wake of Western sanctions levied over the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Putin announced Russia would “pivot” its economy toward Asia. 

 

Russian officials now tout trade deals with China worth more than $100 billion annually — making China Russia’s top trading partner — as proof Russia has weathered the storm. Russia is only 10th on China’s list, with the United States first. 

 

Xi also will appear alongside Putin at the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday. While the Chinese delegation to the event is 1,000 strong, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Huntsman Jr., is boycotting the event over the detention of an American businessman in Moscow.   

Yet, in all likelihood, the lasting image of the state visit will prove to be Ru Yi and Ding Ding, two giant pandas from China’s Sichuan province that Xi gifted on loan to the Moscow Zoo for the next 15 years.  

 

With the gesture, Xi tapped into China’s famed panda diplomacy — the use of furry diplomatic gifts to help repair relationships or forge ties anew. 

 

It certainly seemed to have the desired effect on the Russian leader.  

 

“When we talk of pandas,” noted Putin, “we always end up with a smile on our faces.” 
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